The Silent Annexation of Lakeridge

The Silent Auction Annexation of Lakeridge

We have learned more about the Annexation of Lakeridge by Renton NOW than BEFORE the Boundary Review Board approved it last week.

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around, aren't the citizens suppose to be informed of such action before it occurs so that they can go to hearings and speak their mind? What happened? It seems that all the neighbors we have talked to, except the one that told us about the Boundary Review Board's meeting last week, had not heard that this activity was happening let alone that a community meeting was held June 7, 2010.

Suffice it to say, that after calling our

State Senator and Representative, King County Councilman and the Boundary Review Board

, we learned that the main issue parroted back to us is that they followed the rules and the best that we can do, to have a say, is to appeal the BRB decision in Superior Court and/or to vote against it in 2012 or 2013. When asked we were told that 85 to 100 of our neighbors in the West Hill area were at the June 7, 2010 with maybe 6 from the Lakeridge Community. That does not seem that we were well represented at all.

It feels that Lakeridge is being added to the West Hill community for convenience not because it makes sense. In fact Lakeridge is bounded on three sides by Seattle, most people we know have an affinity to Seattle and not Renton. We were also told that the June 7 meeting was advertised in the Renton Reporter and the Seattle Times, few of us subscribe to either pulp newspaper, rather preferring to read the news on-line. We were was also told there were 55 posters in the 'community' about the meeting, well many of did not see them or even one of them . We walk around Lakeridge but we do not walk around in other areas in the West Hill, it is doubtful that we were the only ones that did not get the message about the June 7 meeting via ads and posters in time to go to the meeting and after asking around we think that is the case.

We are concerned that the citizens in the Lakeridge community were not given adequate heads-up, that the facts and figures used for taxes, services and the like are old and not relevant for 2010 and beyond, the land-use / zoning issues seem to be soft pedaled by the analysts and it is starting to feel like our little community is being disenfranchised by our own elected representatives and their staff.