EDMONDS
Some homeowners in the Meadowdale Beach area have Edmonds addresses but aren’t within city limits.
They’re part of unincorporated Snohomish County.
By early next year, they may become part of this city of 40,100.
The City Council Tuesday, Oct. 6, agreed to take a first step toward welcoming its first annexation in 10 years by accepting petitions submitted by 41 residents of an 18.5-acre area just east of 68th Avenue West.
“I don’t think anybody else is going to give us any better service,” said Robert Shoemaker, one of the petitioners. “It’s the logical thing to do.”
By state law, annexations can occur either by petition of property owners or by election.
The city estimates an assessed value of $19 million for the proposed area, with the average house on the 48 plots of land valued at about $400,000, said Edmonds associate planner Gina Coccia
Those 41 petition signers represent more than the minimum 10 percent needed to get the annexation moving forward. She estimated about 110 people live in the proposed annexation area.
Before an annexation can be approved by the Washington State Boundary Review Board for Snohomish County, homeowners representing at least 60 percent of the assessed property value have to turn in petitions.
That’s the next step in the process, Coccia said.
If approved, the proposed annexation would be the first since the city annexed 2.37 acres near 223rd Street Southwest in 1999.
Not every homeowner in the area signed the petition.
Johann Muller, who owns a house on 68th Avenue West, said he didn’t know his neighbors had signed the petition. Annexation probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, he said, especially considering houses across the street are all within city limits.
“You don’t want one set of rules for that side of the street and another set of rules for the other side of the street,” he said.
Amy Christensen, another resident of 68th Avenue West and who has signed the petition, said she’d rather be connected to Edmonds than stay unincorporated.
“The city itself is a little more established, and I think it helps our property values,” she said.
If the council approves the next round of petitions, it will schedule a public hearing. The city would then submit a notice of intention to annex to the review board, which has 45 days to consider the proposed annexation, said Marsha Carlsen, clerk of the board.
Oscar Halpert writes for the Herald of Everett.
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