North Highline annexation in limbo after growth board ruling

For the cities of Burien and Seattle-and residents of North Highline-it's d/jˆ vu all over again.

A pair of rulings by the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board last week rejected complaints filed by each city against the other over potential annexation of this unincorporated area.

"This decision leaves us in limbo," Burien Community Development Director Scott Greenberg said Friday.

After months of financial studies and community meetings, the Burien City Council adopted in November an ordinance designating North Highline as a planned annexation area (PAA).

The lawmakers took that action after Burien, Seattle and King County failed to reach an agreement for annexation of the unincorporated area.

In December, Seattle responded by adopting its own PAA for North Highline.

Each city challenged the action of the other, and their dueling PAA designations were submitted for resolution to the Growth Management Hearings Board.

King County and Tukwila intervened on behalf of Seattle in both cases.

But joint rulings issued by the Growth Management Hearings Board last week resolved nothing.

Finding that each city had complied with state law in designating North Highline as a PAA, the hearings board dismissed both complaints.

Burien council members were expected to discuss at their July 16 meeting what the city's next move should be.

The panel "has turned the clock back to the end of December," Greenberg declared. "Seattle has its PAA, we have ours."

City Manager Mike Martin concurred, noting that "nothing is imminent" on the annexation front.

"Here we are back to square one," Mayor Joan McGilton said.

McGilton didn't think the council would resolve the issue from the city's perspective at Monday's meeting.

"I believe the best we can come out of it with is a range of options that are doable," she continued. "What we as a council need to evaluate is the impact [of annexation] on our city.

"There are no clear answers on fire and police services. We need some alternatives ... this is where the rubber meets the road."

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Cies was out of his office and could not be reached for comment about Seattle's next move.

McGilton noted that options for annexation now facing Burien include an appeal of the hearings board ruling, new discussions about North Highline with Seattle, and "just throwing up our hands and saying to Seattle, 'It's yours.' This I don't think will happen....

"But as a council, we have our work cut out for us."

In rejecting Seattle's complaint, the hearings board noted that Burien designated North Highline as a PAA "after numerous efforts, many initiated by Burien, failed to yield a mutual agreement on how the North Highline area should be addressed by the competing interests."

While the panel found that Burien's PAA ordinance complied with state law, it also encouraged a continuing effort "to find the 'best fit' and 'best timing' for all concerned, so that the question of annexation can be placed before the voters of the North Highline area-for it is they who will ultimately decide the annexation question."

Instead of being becoming part of Burien or Seattle, North Highline could reconsider incorporating as a separate city, McGilton observed.

Burien lawmakers still need more information before making a final decision on whether the city should annex the unincorporated area. And, she suggested, that information may be found in a new study by Berk and Associates.

McGilton described it as "quite detailed ... a complex, multi-layered report that will be a good tool."

It focuses on the impacts of Burien annexing North Highline, Seattle annexing the area, and North Highline remaining unincorporated.