It sounds more like a dime-store Western, but “The Battle over Whiskey Ridge” was a real-life, high-stakes standoff over land that threatened to drive a wedge between two good neighbors – the cities of Marysville and Lake Stevens.
In the end, Marysville emerged the winner, after trying to coax a reluctant Lake Stevens into a bounty-sharing compromise. Lake Stevens refused to give up what it considered a rightful claim to roughly half of the land in dispute.
Marysville Mayor Dennis Kendall and Lake Stevens Mayor Lynn Walty vow not to let this clash keep them from working cooperatively in the future, which is good news for area residents. As both cities grow, they have too much in common – politically and geographically – to miss opportunities to work together.
This 21st century showdown was over Marysville’s bid to add Whiskey Ridge – 411 acres stretching west of Highway 9 to 83rd Avenue NE and from 64th Street NE south to Soper Hill Road – to its urban growth area. Marysville wants to master plan the area, with a combination of single- and multi-family homes and some commercial development.
Lake Stevens, which earlier this month got county approval to annex residential areas that will push the city limits west to Highway 9, protested what some saw as a commercial-land grab. Lake Stevens officials said the area should be divided between the cities, with the boundary being Sunnyside School Road.
No way, said Marysville, arguing that it had invested some $7 million in infrastructure to serve Whiskey Ridge and neighborhoods to the west. Instead, Marysville offered to bring Lake Stevens into the planning process for the area, to give Lake Stevens staff help as it moved forward with its own growth plans, and – remarkably – even to share tax revenue generated on Whiskey Ridge.
In hindsight, Lake Stevens would have been smart to take that offer. John Koster, who represents the area on the Snohomish County Council, provided the key vote as the council approved Marysville’s bid last week, 3-2. It was the right move. Marysville has a high-quality master plan in mind, something that probably wouldn’t have been realized had the land remained under county control.
Revenue sharing is now off the table, understandably, but Marysville still has a hand extended to its neighbor, and Walty, the Lake Stevens mayor, has grasped it. Marysville’s offer of staff help is there if Lake Stevens needs it, and Lake Stevens will have input in the Whiskey Ridge master plan, enabling it to keep an eye on issues like water runoff.
Those are neighborly gestures that bode well for future cooperation that will serve the interest of both cities. After some tense chapters, this story appears to have a happy ending.
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