124th Street SE Annexation

CURRENT:

Effective March 20, 2001:
The Boundary Review Board convened to deliberate and decide unanimously in favor of upholding the City's annexation of the York property. The entire discussion and decision period took 14 1/2 minutes, from convening to adjournment. Board Member John Garner indicated that residents needed to "work with" the city to plan for impending development to come. He said we live on a "major highway" and are in the same situation as Marysville and Arlington were a few years back.

Effective March 13, 2001:
The hearing was held before the three-member Boundary Review Board. Present for Garth York was Chris Knapp, an attorney. Present and speaking for the City of Sultan were Carolyn Eslick (councilmember), Connie Dunn, Public Works Director, and Christi Amrine, City Planner. Karen Watkins from Snohomish County spoke on behalf of the County Planning & Development Services. Read our Article.

Tom Green, City of Sultan Planning Commissioner, spoke as a resident. He said that "everyone I talk to supports the annexation." Tim Albers, who owns property north of and adjoining York's property and attempted to annex a portion of this property into the Sultan UGA in 1999, also spoke in favor of it and stated that "everyone on 124th is in favor of the annexation."

The City stated that the City's comprehensive plan is in place to deal with this annexation. Christi Amrine stated that "our population is right on track" at around 3200 people. The County's position was that this annexation met each of the 9 objectives of the Boundary Review Board (RCW 36.93.180)

Loretta Storm was presenting for Sultan residents opposed to this annexation, who invoked jurisdiction in order to be allowed enough time to make a formal presentation. A three-ring binder with 9 attachments was given to each board member the day before the hearing. (Click to read supporting text and arguments in the binder as webpage, OR in Word OR as Adobe Acrobat file. The 9 attachments are not included, although one attachment was our population analysis of last year, and one was our traffic impact analysis.) A 2 1/2-minute videotape was shown during the hearing which depicted the drive from the city limits at 132nd Street (the point at which city services terminate) to the York property at the end of a dead-end street 1.2 miles distant. Jean Roberts, who was instrumental in obtaining signatures of many residents on 124th Street SE, as well as on Gohr Road south and west of the York annexation. She and Karen Klein spent many days collecting these signatures. Sue Shawger spoke against the annexation as well.

Effective 2/20/01:
Garth York invoked jurisdiction to present an appeal with legal assistace to the County Boundary Review Board to ensure his property stays on track. Jean Roberts, Karen Klein and other property owners, are protesting the annexation. Click here to read the complete story.

Effective 1/3/01:
Despite heavy opposition by citizens and inability of the city to provide services for this parcel, this annexation was approved by the Council during the January 3, 2001 meeting. The vote was as follows: Eslick, Ostrom, Porter, Criswell and Broughton, ayes; McPherson and Raney, nay.

Recap of the City of Sultan Hearing on Annexing 40 Acres south of 124th into the City (Garth York's Property), held December 20th:
After receiving verbal testimony from a packed house, as well as several last-minute written comments, Councilman Perry McPherson made a motion to table this subject until the next council meeting (in January). Councilman McPherson felt the council needed more time to review and consider their decision.

The only notice given for this hearing to the public at large was a posting at city hall and post office, and in the back of the Legals section in a local paper. Most working people had no idea it was coming up. A flyer (click to view) was sent out to approximately 200 residents living within a mile or two of the annexation area by us.

After a brief presentation by city planner Christi Amrine, Garth York (owner of the property), gave a brief position statement, followed by a few words from his real estate agent. The gist of these statements were that they wished to develop a small, "estate"-like community that would not negatively effect the area.

Then followed statements by many Sultan residents opposed to the annexation, primarily because the city infrastructure does not exist to support the area, and will not be there for many years. Among those speaking were Cathy Lee Haight, Jean Roberts, Sue Sawger, Grace Wilkins, Steve Schilling, LeRoy Porter, Mary Lowry and others. Ron Kraut, a City Planning Commissioner, stressed that, while it might be benefiicial to annex this area at some future point, now is not the time to do so. He spoke eloquently on one of the primary goals of the GMA, which is to concentrate a city's development by "in-filling" land already existing within a city's borders, where the infrastructure and support is located. This is designed to prevent urban sprawl, and maximizes cost-effiency of taxpayers' dollars by centralizing support of required government-provided services. He also gave a brief cost-benefit analysis of annexing this area, explaining why the tax base doesn't exist, and why it would not be present until the infrastructure becomes available. Mr. Kraut also mentioned there were environmentally-sensitive issues on the land, such as steep slopes.

There were also written submissions from Loretta Storm (Click to read), City of Sultan Planning Commissioner Chris Wakefield, Roger Bark and others, that were not included in the written hand-outs, all of which requested that the Council reject this annexation.

There was also a letter submitted by another Sultan planning Commissioner, Tom Green, who is a past real estate agent and a long-time area developer. We have initiated a public information request for this letter, which, judging from Mr. Green's normal pro-dvelopment position, most probably supports the annexation.

Other individuals speaking at the meeting were Margaret Skogland and Ed Boucher, both pro-development individuals, who urged the council to approve the annexation. (Back to top of page)

Posted December 7, 2000 - results of County's Hearing on Proposed UGA expansion:
The Snohomish County Council held a hearing for several land use changes at 1:30 December 6, 2000 at their chambers in Everett, and this annexation issue was one of the issues accepting testimony.

Ron Kraut, Chris Wakefield, Perry McPherson, Jean Roberts, Suzanne (last name not discernable), Grace Wilkins and Loretta Storm, as well as Roy Bysegger (Sultan City Administrator) gave testimony. All were representing themselves as individuals with the exception of Roy Bysegger, who was there in his official capacity* as City Administrator, and Loretta Storm, who was representing G.R.I.T. (All seven residents who testified gave up a substantial portion of their day in order to testify, and were not paid. Mr. Bysegger is on salary with the City of Sultan, and was therefore paid for his time.)

*Since the City has not legally voted on annexing this parcel into the City, Mr. Bysegger's presence was inappropriate.

Ron Kraut and Chris Wakefield gave a good overview of their concerns, chief of which was the fact that not only would the infrastructure not be able to support this annexation, there were many ongoing problems which need to be resolved from current and recently-approved development, such as the Sultan Basin Rd./Route 2 intersection and water supply, before considering further expansion. They also discussed the fact that this request was not passed through either the Sultan Planning Commission or the Sultan City Council. In their view, there should be no rush to expand and they urged resolution of current countless problems before growing any larger.

Jean Roberts, Suzanne Sawger and Grace Wilkins all touched briefly on the inappropriateness of annexing this remote area. Loreetta Storm clarified the confusing on the part of the council regarding the current and future population of Sultan, and, because of lack of time, was given permission to submit testimony in writing. (Click here to read her letter to the County Council.)

All residents testified to the City's inability to service the area.

The County Council seemed confused about what level of services were available to this parcel of land, and when asked for a clarification from its planning department person, Steve Skorney, he replied that there was indeed water at the site and that there was no water moratorium in effect in the City at this time. He ignored the council's request for clarification on whether or not sewer service was available.

The County Council, as well as some of those testifying, also seemed confused as to the current population estimates. Loretta Storm testified that, once development in the "pipeline" has been actualized, Sultan's city-wide population figure will be hundreds of people above its 2012 Target, and only 70 people below the city-wide CAPACITY figure for the Year 2017. She also clarified the Level of Service currnently existing for the SBR/Rt. 2 intersection.

It was the contention of the Shockey-Brent representative (name not discerned) that this land use action is simply a "correction" of an error made in 1994 when the original comprehensive plan was decided upon. (This is not correct: Sultan residents fought tooth-and-nail to keep this parcel OUT of the UGA back then.) This is tantamount to saying, "Ignore the elephant coming into your home. It won't bother anyone."

The Council will be accepted written comments through Monday, December 11th. They voted on December 13th against this annexation, and the vote was 3 to 2.

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To view more pictures of the area, click here...

Background and Chronology:This sign was posted in April, 2000, "announcing" a public hearing for the 124th Street SE annexation. This sign was located at the dead end of 124th Street SE, which is an extremely remote and utterly rural area. Someone removed the sign, but it was of little use in any event. There was no posting on the "major" thoroughfare of Sultan Basin Road, and no one saw it or was aware of this proposed land use action.

Before the sign was removed, the wording on it had said it was an "annexation of approximately 79 acres off the west end of 124th Street," the assumption being it was to be annexed into the city. However, 50% of the land in this proposed annexation was actually land that procedurally had to be annexed into the Sultan UGA first. (See our "terms and definitions" page.) This meant it must be submitted to Snohomish County for approval beforehand, to request that it be included as part of our UGA area. Enlarging a UGA boundary requires a concurrent revision to our Comprehensive Plan, which was not done prior to voting by our City Council.

The following comments are posted chronologically, from oldest to most recent, and gives a "history" of this land use dispute:

May, 2000: Owner of 40 acres south of 124th St. SE requested council to annex his land into city immediately, rather than waiting to be officially annexed with all 79 acres, which would not take place until the Snohomish County coucil voted its approval to enlarge the UGA boundary.

A June 7th hearing was held to annex only the southern 40 acres. Met with sufficient opposition to be continued until June 28th. There were approx. 40 people at the hearing. A total of 11 made "formal" testimony; 7 were opposed to annexation, 2 urged caution and 2 were in favor of annexation (one of those is a known developer).

The turnout and testimony at the June 28th continuation hearing was almost the same as on June 7th. The Council tabled the vote until a joint Council/Planning Commission session could review annexation procedures on July 12th at 7 p.m.

39 acre-parcel is currently pending Snohomish County Boundary Review action in September 2000, with final approval in December.

( Posted on July 22, 2000): We are very heartened that the Council voted down the proposed annexation of 40 acres south of 124th St. SE into the city limits. The vote was as follows:
Ostrom, Eslick, McPherson and Criswell voted against; Porter voted for and Mark Raney abstained.

An April 10, 2000 "hearing" was held, and a vote taken by the City Council to Annex 79 acres into the city limits.

(Posted October 6, 2000):
Here we go again....
At the City Council October 4th's meeting, they voted to accept a new intent to annex Garth York's property south of 124th Street SE. This annexation was voted down in mid-July. And here it is again. The Council's position October 4th was that things have changed in the infrastructure since they initially declined it. They're right. Things have gotten WORSE. We will have to fight this battle again, here in Sultan.

But another "battle" was fought in Shonomish County relative to land north of York's property. Despite what the City or City Council may say, they are both TIED AT THE UMBILICAL CORD for purposes of long-term development. How does the Garth York annexation tie into the parcel north of 124th which is requesting to be annexed into Sultan's UGA that is currently in Snohomish County's approval pipeline? (This annexation is called the Shockey-Brent annexation and was heard by the Snohomish Co. Council in December, 2000. This request, made on behalf of property owners by the planning and development firm of Shockey-Brent of Everett will automatically change the zoning from its current RR-5 (rural) zone to an LMD (low to moderate density, 9,600). The City of Sultan's view is that this is not the first step to development.

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