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City of Lynnwood Annexation Meetings Date & Time Location Wednesday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m. Hazelwood Elementary School, Gymnasium 3300 204th St. SW, Lynnwood Friday, Oct. 17, 3 p.m. Alderwood Water District Administrative Office, Board Room 3626 156th St. SW, Lynnwood Saturday, Oct. 18, 10 a.m. Hazelwood Elementary School, Gymnasium 3300 204th St. SW, Lynnwood Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. Hazelwood Elementary School, Gymnasium 3300 204th St. SW, Lynnwood Wednesday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m. St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church, Parish Hall 5224 52nd Ave. W, Edmonds, NOT CONFIRMED Saturday, Oct. 25, 10 a.m. Meadowdale High School, Library 6002 168th St. SW, Lynnwood, NOT CONFIRMED Tuesday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. To be determined Wednesday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m. Meadowdale High School, Great Hall 6002 168th St. SW, Lynnwood Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m. Martha Lake Community Club 16300 Motor Place, Lynnwood Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m. Oak Heights Elementary School, Library 15500 18th Ave. W, Lynnwood Saturday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church, Parish Hall 15224 52nd Ave. W, Edmonds Tuesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m. Oak Heights Elementary School, Library 15500 18th Ave. W, Lynnwood Note: Meeting dates, times, and locations are subject to change. Please visit www.ci.lynnwood.wa.us or call 425-670-5022 to confirm meeting information.

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Consultant: Annexation financially feasible

• Future annexations could bring in more than 15,000 new residents

By Oscar Halpert
Enterprise editor

LYNNWOOD

The city of Lynnwood could annex a large swath of unincorporated Snohomish County and make it work financially, a consultant told the City Council Monday, Sept. 15.

"There's room here to have a pretty big annexation," said Michael Hodgins of Berk & Associates.

Such a large annexation, however, raises larger questions about future city staffing and facility capacity that have yet to be fully addressed.

His firm presented preliminary findings of its annexation fiscal study, which takes a close-up look at the costs and benefits of annexation.

Lynnwood is gearing up to annex a substantial portion of its urban growth area, land that's not inside city limits today but could be in the future.

The legislature in 2006 gave cities a way to ease the financial burden of annexation by allowing cities that take in at least 10,000 residents to capture a penny of every $10 in sales tax that would have gone to the state for 10 years. The catch: Cities must complete those annexations by 2010 to claim the sales tax.

A small, unincorporated "island" known as the Maple Precinct is likely to be the first area the city will annex this year.

Larger annexations loom. The city is considering the pros and cons of annexations that could add 15,000 to 25,000 or more new residents in an area stretching from Meadowdale east close to the border with Mill Creek and south into Alderwood Manor.

Hodgins and his associate Natasha Fedo told the council they drew up eight scenarios, looking closely at population, land area, housing and assessed value.

Based on their analysis, scenario 3 gives the city the biggest bang for its buck. It is the largest and includes Gateway, Swamp Creek, Parkway, Larch Way and Alderwood Manor.

"I would say this picture looks pretty balanced," Fedo said.

If the city goes that route, its population would nearly double by 2010, increasing by 27,764 and bringing $3.1 million in taxable property into the city.

Whether the city takes in all or a portion of that area has not been decided. Council members and city staff in October and November will begin a series of 12 meetings in the unincorporated areas to gather public input and answer questions. And Berk and Associates will present more detailed analyses in the coming months, including information about facilities and how to make the transition.

The consultant's analysis shows that under scenario 3, the annexation would show a positive cash return the first 10 years, as Lynnwood receives the state tax credit, but the city would see some red ink by 2020 that would diminish over time.

Police Chief Steve Jensen said Snohomish County Sheriff's Office deputies handle 21,000 calls for service within the urban growth area and his department fields 30,000 calls for service. Annexation means his department would have to add staff and buy police cars.

"So it's two-thirds of what we're doing," he said. "It's going to be a challenge for us. We're challenged to hire officers as it is."

Jensen said it would be less expensive to "max out our staff" by having them work overtime than to pay the county for additional police protection at the rate of $104 an hour.

"The downside is you burn out your staff rather quickly," he said.