The West Hill is a 1,950-acre area bordering Lake Washington, Seattle, Tukwila, and Renton. Eight neighborhoods make up the area, including Bryn Mawr, Lakeridge, Skyway, Earlington, Campbell Hill, Panorama, Skycrest, and Hill Top. Residents of the West Hill area spent two years working to determine the best path of governance for their community. The citizen-driven West Hill Governance Task Force determined that annexation to Renton is in the best interest of the community, and in 2005 asked the Renton City Council to include the area in its PAA. In late 2005, the City Council took action to designate the West Hill as part of Renton's Potential Annexation Area. Listed below are documents regarding the inclusion of the West Hill into the City of Renton's Potential Annexation Area.
In late 2008, proponents of annexation submitted a petition to the City. This annexation is being processed as an election annexation.
A citizen group pursuing annexation of the West Hill collected voter signatures and submitted a 10% Notice of Intent to commence annexation proceedings petition to the City Council on November 3, 2008. Per state law, the City forwarded the petition to King County elections to determine the validity of signatures, and the petition was deemed sufficient in December 2008. The Renton City Council then had 60 days to approve or reject the petition. The Renton City Council approved the petition on February 2, 2009, and will transmit the petition to the Boundary Review Board in mid-2009, once several factors are known.
The Renton City Council's consideration of the West Hill annexation petition acknowledges that the City faces significant fiscal challenges to provide services to Renton’s remaining large PAAs if annexed. The City is actively analyzing the potential fiscal impact of extending city services to its PAAs, including operating and capital costs. While the City Council approved the petition to keep open the option of annexation, Renton is awaiting action by the State Legislature that could assist in funding part of the projected gap between costs and revenues to serve the area. In addition, the City is starting now to develop a multi-agency partnership that could include the state, county, federal governments, community members, and other partners in a phased, comprehensive approach to revitalize West Hill. Annexation is ultimately a choice of area residents. The City’s role will continue to be to provide information, work to identify the resources needed to consider annexation, and secure those resources to help make large annexations financially viable.
In 2008 the City and County agreed to work together to jointly fund and conduct resident surveys in its remaining large PAAs. The purpose was to better understand the governance preferences of residents and to understand the satisfaction with and importance of a range of public services. The hope is that the survey results will provide information beneficial for everyone involved in the process: residents, proponents of incorporation and proponents of annexation, as well as the Renton City Council as they consider the response to residents’ requests for annexation to Renton.
The Annexation Brochure answers many questions about annexing to the City of Renton. For additional information about annexation, please call 425.430.6575.
I went to the West Hill Community Meeting on July 20, 2010 to learn about it and I was glad I went.
For the most part, I was impressed with the information that was presented and I felt this was a great way to understand the issue of annexation. Before the meeting, I thought that those of us in Lakeridge seem to be the last ones to hear about these things, though I am now under the impression that a lot people in the area have not been informed.
The City of Renton representatives spoke about a lot of the procedural steps that have been taken and about 'scenarios' that they have been 'studying' but then explained the bottom line issues of annexation. What I heard was that the City of Renton is responding to a petition that was created by 10% of the 'West Hill' population requesting annexation because that is what the laws mandate the City to do. I also heard that the City can not afford to provide necessary services to West Hill with current tax structure. So what they will do is close down one fire station and reduce the two engines and an aid car at the Skyway Firestation to one engine and three fireman. And they will not commit to keeping the law enforcement storefront open, in fact , it was stated that the whole of Renton would be redistricted and they do not know what that will look like.
The Title of the event was Annexation Forum. There were speakers for and against the issue and it was all very civil except for one individual that embarrassed the Proponent side with his loud voice and ill-tempered approach to sharing information. He was not a scheduled speaker and it showed. He was negatively provocative and was not available for questions.
I went to this meeting to learn about the Annexation issues and what I left with was a feeling that this proposal will fail.
There is no net benefit to the citizens of the area that could be explained. In fact, it appeared that, in fact, emergency services will be reduced and their is a gap in funding for necessary services and that a tax increase will be forthcoming. There was a lot of talk about economic development but no real differences between what the King County approach will be versus what the City of Renton approach will be.
It is apparent that there is no VISION in annexing the West Hill by Renton just city employees going through legal steps because a petition was signed by at least 10% of the population.
As far as I can tell there is no benefit for West Hill to be annexed .
As Gertrude Stein once said, "There is no there there".
