Residents of what could become the largest annexation in Mill Creek’s history made their case before Snohomish County’s Boundary Review Board on Tuesday night.
About a dozen residents spoke before the body during a 98-minute public hearing on the 387-acre annexation. The hearing took place because Snohomish County and Fire District 1 opted to contest the annexation, with both agencies seeking to have the city of Mill Creek annex more land. Neither agency opposed Mill Creek expanding its boundaries.
Of the dozen residents who testified, nine favored the annexation. Of those nine, eight favored keeping the boundaries of the annexation the same as to what Mill Creek proposed when it filed its intent to annex with the county in March.
After that, however, Fire District 1’s Board of Commissioners decided to contest the annexation, saying it created an irregular service area and expressing concerns about having to drive through Mill Creek to serve an area east of 35th Avenue SE that is sparsely populated. Snohomish County also decided to contest it on similar grounds.
“We as citizens are caught in the politics of annexation,” Lisa Hopp, the Heatherwood West resident who coordinated the annexation petition drive, told the Boundary Review Board. “We want better representation.”
As an example, Hopp cited ongoing problems with speeding cars in her neighborhood, a problem that led to the current drive for annexation. “We need a localized law enforcement presence, not an overburdened sheriff’s office.”
Dave Opstad also took on a public safety angle in his remarks, but took a different approach. He said that since fireworks are legal in the county, Mill Creek residents will come into his neighborhood to light them, because fireworks are illegal in Mill Creek.
Atilla Kovacs-Szabo of the Sunset Lane neighborhood accused Snohomish County of trying to transfer responsibility for repairing 35th Avenue SE to Mill Creek, saying that was the county’s primary motivation for wanting Mill Creek to annex an additional 149 acres along 35th. That area includes a section of road that has been sinking at a culvert over Penny Creek.
“I strongly believe the annexation will die if the boundary is moved south,” Kovacs-Szabo said.
Sandy Forman of 35th Street LLC, which owns Pacific Topsoils, was the only speaker in favor of adding the additional 149 acres along 35th. She said doing so could help bring the property owners in the area come together to work toward cohesive development.
A neighborhood on the eastern edge of the proposed annexation, Irish Woodlands, touched off some confusion among Boundary Review Board members. Board chair Mark Wolken asked repeatedly why that neighborhood, which is bordered by 132nd Street SE and Seattle Hill Road, was left off the proposed annexation. Bill Trimm, Mill Creek’s community development director, explained that it was because the City Council received a petition from a majority of residents in that neighborhood opposing the move, and the Council removed that neighborhood from the proposed annexation. Snohomish County is seeking to have the neighborhood added to the annexation.
Four Irish Woodlands residents spoke at the hearing, with them evenly split on the issue of joining Mill Creek.
The hearing began with the city of Mill Creek and Fire District 1 both being given a half hour to make their cases, with Trimm using all of the allotted time and Fire District 1 chief Ed Widdis using just five minutes.
Trimm’s case emphasized that the city has tried to make the annexation conform to all the rules and regulations of state law as it applies to annexation, citing that the city tried to use property lines, the current city limits, wetlands and 132nd Street SE as the boundaries of the annexation.
Widdis, meanwhile, used his time to state that the district believed the boundary should be moved south to coincide with Fire District 7’s service area. District 7, under an agreement with Mill Creek to provide fire service, will serve the proposed annexation should it go through.
“We’re not in opposition, we just want logical boundaries,” Widdis said.
Widdis, however, didn’t mention several issues the District 1 Board of Commissioners raised in its initial concerns about the annexation, such as the prospect of accidents as fire engines race to a call.
Overall, the annexation proposed by Mill Creek would be the largest in the city’s history, both in terms of land area and population. The area as proposed by the city has 1,750 residents, equal to 14 percent of the city’s population, and the land area is equal to approximately 16 percent of the city’s current land area.
No action was taken by the four-member Boundary Review Board on Tuesday. It will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 28 in the first floor hearing room at the county’s administration east building and make a decision on boundaries at that time.
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