MUKILTEO – This city could boast the second largest population in Snohomish County if it annexes all of the areas targeted in a recent study.

But Mukilteo officials aren’t ready to start adding to the city just yet.

Picnic Point, Lake Serene, Meadowdale, Lake Stickney and areas north, south and west of Paine Field are included in the exhaustive, $127,500 study of possible annexations. The report was prepared for the city by Berk and Associates, a Seattle consulting firm.

Those areas have a combined population of 21,645, compared to Mukilteo’s current estimated population of 19,797.

Edmonds is currently the second largest city in the county, with 40,360 people, according to an estimate by the state Office of Financial Management. The annexations would bring Mukilteo’s population to 41,442.

Geographically, the areas reach to Puget Sound, Edmonds, Lynnwood, I-5, Ash Way and Airport Road.

City Council members had more questions than opinions at a meeting Monday. They voted to ask the staff to bring back a plan for deciding which areas, if any, to annex.

Mukilteo officials have been talking for a couple of years about annexing areas to bring in more tax dollars, City Council president Jennifer Gregerson said.

Also, “there’s been so much growth in our area, if we’re going to annex, the sooner we do that the more control we have over how those neighborhoods fit into Mukilteo,” she said.

City Councilman Tony Tinsley cautioned against annexation for growth’s sake.

“We’re talking about a city that could actually lose any kind of identity and become a conglomeration of different units,” he said.

Councilman Marko Liias said many residents south and east of Mukilteo already consider themselves Mukilteans.

Areas such as the Albertson’s shopping mall on the Mukilteo Speedway at Beverly Park Road, and the strip mall across the Speedway from the Harbour Pointe QFC, are commonly assumed to be in Mukilteo, Liias said. But they’re not.

Still, “once new residents come in, Mukilteo will change,” Liias said.

Mukilteo has not added territory since its 1991 annexation of Harbour Pointe doubled both the city’s geographical size and its population.

Annexations can be initiated either by property owners or cities, and in either case must be approved by the county.

The study looks at costs and revenues; economic factors; buildable land; income, age and education of residents in the different areas; police and fire service, and more.

The city is the first in the county to take such a thorough look at annexation, according to city staff members.

Annexing Picnic Point, Lake Serene and the area south of Paine Field together, or any other combination of the three would create a net loss to city coffers for the city, Michael Hodgins of Berk and Associates told city officials Monday.

For the city to break even or come out ahead, it would have to add Meadowdale, Lake Stickney or both to the mix, Hodgins said.

Even then, the most the city would gain is $345,000, in 2005 dollars, for all four areas, he said.

The areas west and north of Paine Field weren’t considered in the financial analysis. The northern area, the undeveloped part of Japanese Gulch, is currently part of the city of Everett.

Mukilteo could conceivably ask Everett to de-annex the area if Mukilteo builds a road through the gulch to the ferry dock, Gregerson said. Mukilteo has no immediate plans for such a road.

The study assumed the city would provide services to the new areas at the same level it does within the city currently. For example, it presumed the city would cover the areas with its own fire department and did not consider the option of contracting for service.

Property taxes for residents in each of the areas would decrease with the subtraction of county road and fire taxes, consultants said. The fire taxes would be eliminated only if the city were to provide fire service.

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.