If Mill Creek is going to expand its boundaries, it will do so by an even larger margin than initially proposed.

That’s because Snohomish County’s Boundary Review Board unanimously agreed Tuesday night with arguments made by county planners and Fire District 1 and opted to add an additional 166 acres to a proposed 387-acre annexation.

The decision means the new boundary includes the Irish Woodlands neighborhood at Seattle Hill Road and 132nd Street SE and goes south to 144th Street SE, essentially where the boundary between Fire District 1 and Fire District 7 is.

Reaction to the decision was mixed.

Irish Woodlands resident Matt Grosaint, who circulated a petition among his neighbors urging to be left out of the annexation, left quickly after the board announced its decision, saying “you guys didn’t listen to us.” Grosaint also testified at a review board public hearing on the annexation June 21, urging them to leave his neighborhood out.

Atilla Kovacs-Szabo of the Sunset Lane neighborhood was also disappointed by the decision.

“I think it will kill the annexation,” he said. “I hope I’m wrong, but based on what the (Mill Creek) City Council has said in the past, I think it will die.”

City Council members have publicly stated that they had little interest in expanding the city’s boundaries to include areas east of 35th Avenue SE, and only decided to add a sliver of land along 132nd Street SE because a Wal-Mart store is proposed for the area. In addition, Council members have expressed concern over having to take over maintenance of 35th Avenue SE, part of which has had problems sinking in the vicinity of a culvert at Penny Creek. The additional land in the review board’s decision includes the culvert.

The decision, however, didn’t surprise Mill Creek community development director Bill Trimm.

“They looked at the (annexation) criteria, and they wanted to make a larger area,” he said.

One of those criteria was using streets as boundaries, and the board decided not to add any part of Seattle Hill Road east of 35th Avenue SE into the proposed annexation, a move Trimm said he appreciated.

Gary Meek, deputy chief for Fire District 7, attended the hearing and afterward commented that the decision “is pretty insignificant for us” at the time because much of the added land is undeveloped and cannot be developed. His district would, under an agreement with the city of Mill Creek, take over fire protection service in the annexation area from Fire District 1. No one from District 1 attended the hearing.

Boundary Review Board member Mark Beales of Mill Creek said the city’s proposed boundary east of 35th Avenue SE followed property lines west of 138th Street SE, and that changing the boundary to that recommended by the county and Fire District 1 would be “valid” and create “a straight east-west line to Seattle Hill Road.

“In my mind it makes sense,” Beales said.

The three review board members also based their decision on aerial photos chairman Mike Wolken received from the county of the proposed area, and he said that based in part on those photos, that was how he reached the “same conclusion” as Beales and Beth Salaguinto.

“The area is one big neighborhood,” Wolken said about areas east of 35th, making reference to a state requirement that annexations keep neighborhoods together.

Beales also argued that “the city would be able to provide better services than the county, and I think we heard that from the residents north of the city by the high school.”

The city of Mill Creek has already stated that it will need to add one more police officer if their proposed annexation becomes reality. Whether or not the city would need to add another officer with the additional land is not immediately known.

The board will meet again July 25 to adopt its conclusions, which also triggers a 30-day appeal period of its decision. Appeals can be made by citizens as well as by governments to Snohomish County Superior Court, Trimm said.