EDMONDS – It’s far from being an official proposal, but the Esperance annexation is being reconsidered.
The notion was raised at the Edmonds City Council retreat last month as a possible way to increase revenue coming into the city cash register.
“Right now it’s just an idea to look at,” said city finance director Dan Clements.
The City Council at the retreat asked the staff, in conjunction with the Council’s Finance and Community Services committees, to study the issue and put together options for discussion later in the year, said City Council president Michael Plunkett.
The area bordered by 220th Street SW to the north, 92nd Avenue W. and Edmonds Way to the west, roughly by 236th, 234th and 233rd to the south, and Highway 99 and 76th Avenue W. to the east is an unincorporated “island” surrounded by incorporated Edmonds. The area, bisected north-south by 84th Avenue W., is the heart of what has traditionally been called Esperance.
Areas adjoining Esperance to the west and south annexed into Edmonds in the 1990s, but Esperance has held fast to its island. The area split in two for separate annexation elections in 1997, with one failing 615 to 285 and the other failing 325 to 198. A larger unincorporated area that included Esperance rejected annexation in an earlier attempt.
An election is one of four ways to annex. The others are by petition brought by owners of 60 percent of the assessed property value of the area; a petition brought by owners of 51 percent of the property and 51 percent of the registered voters; and by resolution of the City Council, according to Marsha Carlsen, chief clerk of the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board (BRB).
In the latter method, the City Council approves the annexation after a review process by the BRB, which includes a 45-day period in which objections may be raised. This method is usually used to annex only very small islands of a few parcels, Carlsen said. Esperance, by contrast, is roughly a mile wide and a mile deep.
Edmonds’ preferred method recently has been to let the residents decide by election. At this year’s retreat, Council members agreed that annexations should be approached only if they benefit both the residents and the city, and that public outreach is an important part of the process, according to the meeting minutes.
“We really wanted to do it in conjunction with the people who live there,” Plunkett said of the retreat discussion. “We want them to consent to it.”
Ultimately, it would have to pencil out financially for the city, with the sales-tax revenue it brings in equaling or exceeding the cost of providing service to the area. The city fire department already serves the area by agreement with county Fire District 1, under which the city bought the Esperance fire station and the district makes an annual payment to the city.
The county Sheriff’s Office patrols Esperance from its precinct in Mill Creek. The Edmonds police department responds to requests for help from the county Sheriff’s Office on in-progress calls and serious felonies “until they can get there if they don’t have a unit in the vicinity,” said Edmonds police Chief David Stern. It’s not a formal written agreement, he said. “It’s primarily what we would do for any other agency that we’re bordering with if they needed our help.”
The area on the west side of Highway 99 between 228th and 234th streets is part of Esperance, and much of it is undeveloped. The city is currently studying ways to boost business along the highway.
Regarding how the residents feel, “I haven’t heard anything from my neighbors in quite some time,” said Joan Miller, a Fire District 1 commissioner who lives in Esperance. “Otherwise, a lot of people think we’re already in Edmonds,” she said with a laugh.
Miller said she thought the area would have annexed in one of the previous elections, but acknowledged that there remains an “independent” streak among residents who consider the area “more suburban than urban.”
Miller said she doesn’t have a strong preference one way or the other.
“In the scheme of things, (Edmonds) is probably where we’re going to go,” she said.
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