From today’s P-I:

Responding to a nearly $70 million estimated budget shortfall in King County, local criminal-justice leaders said Thursday they plan to move thousands of property-crime, forgery and drug cases to lower-level courts…

“After these cuts we won’t be responding to the smaller crimes … [and it] will not discourage criminals; it will only encourage them,” [KC Prosecutor Dan] Satterberg said.

“We will now have two levels of public safety,” [KC Sheriff Sue] Rahr said.

While deputies will be able to investigate property crimes inside the cities it contracts services for, people in unincorporated areas will not get those services, she said.

I’m looking at you, East Federal Way (aka Lakeland North and South, according to some maps). The county can’t help you anymore. The county can’t afford you anymore. The county is going to start rolling up the sidewalks. The longer you hold out, the more you’ll regret it. The days of old semi-rural Federal Way are long since over.
You have two choices. Incorporate or annex.

Luckily, you have some friendly neighbors to the west that would be more than willing to invite you under their umbrella.

Quit looking a gift horse in the mouth, and get on board the Federal Way train.

The last time the family was driving through Peasley Canyon, I made a point to introduce them to the newfound Nowhere Road.

As we drove north under the SR18 overpass, I announced: “On the left edge of this road is the City of Federal Way. On the right edge is or will soon be the City of Auburn. And the road itself, right here, is nowhere.”

The failure of the East Federal Way annexation vote in August, and the success of the Auburn West Hill annexation vote, resulted in this peculiarity of political geography, the child of the maddening state of King County politics. As those familiar with the EFW proposal know, the proposed annexation area consisted of a north and south portion of USKC, connected by an umbilical cord of Peasley Canyon stretching from S 321st St to Highway 18, roughly 8/10ths of a mile. This allowed for one contiguous territory which could be annexed with a single proposal instead of two. (There were good financial-feasibility reasons for doing it this way.)

Federal Way’s North Lake area is to the west of Peasley Canyon. Auburn’s West Hill, which will be officially annexed within a year or so, is to the east of it. But since the EFW proposal failed, this stretch of road is a ribbon of USKC winding between two incorporated cities. And as a result, Federal Way still does not actually border its neighbor to the east.

Nicknames spotted for East Federal Way (the area that failed annexation in August):

• Unincorporated (South) King County (UKC)
• No Way
• UnKing (these two from Chris Carrel)
• East Hicksville (from FWBlog)

Feel free to add your own spotted or suggested nicknames for EFW in the comments.

I’m really quite floored that the East Federal Way annexation vote is looking this badly. Meanwhile the Auburn Lea Hill vote, which a Times story seemed to suggest was going to be a tough fight, is flying through.

I can’t imagine why EFWans would not want to become part of the city. When will they wake up and realize that this region’s semi-rural timberland days are over? All the talk of higher taxes and lower services under a city, which is what they are actually certain to get under the county, was what we in the tech industry like to call FUD — Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt — and it’s always unfounded nonsense. Was it simply misguided foolery, or the endemic knee-jerk anti-growth sentiment (as FWBlog suggests), or is there someone with a vested interest against incorporation? FUD of this sort often stems from the latter. Do developers get more zoning flexibility under the county than under cities, or something? Is this interest behind the Vote No Annexation blog, which spreads it? (Though I have to say I agree with VNA’s attitude towards the FW News.)

So much for FW breaking 100K, becoming the state’s 6th largest city, and becoming a clear-cut SKC leader. At least not this year. Maybe Feb 08? Maybe waking up to the sudden prospect of Auburn being literally right next door will make EFWans rethink the whole cut-off-from-government thing.

Federal Way isn’t the only city with an annexation vote coming up. Auburn and Renton both have expansion areas in the 10-20K population range slated for an August vote. Beyond that, Bellevue, Kent, Kirkland, Issaquah, and Burien all have Potential Annexation Areas (PAAs) that the county wants to see become municipal within the next few years.

Federal Way
Everyone should know about Federal Way’s “East Federal Way” proposal, which combines 5 different areas which have been in the city’s PAA since 2002 and have strong association with the city. With Federal Way’s 87,400 people, the 22,000 will propel FedWay to almost 110K, blowing it past Everett (102K) and within a stone’s throw of mighty Bellevue (118K).

Auburn
Auburn’s Lea Hill and West Hill comprise most of the remaining space in the I-5/SR-167 corridor and are up for an annexation vote this month. Unlike Federal Way’s clever one-fell-swoop proposal, the Auburn neighborhoods are in two separate proposals, though Auburn may be stuck if only one passes (a situation Federal Way is avoiding with its proposal), as the viability of the annexations depend on each other’s passage.

Between the two, Lea Hill and West Hill would add 15K to Auburn’s 50K. If they pass, Auburn will shoot up from 17th to 12th largest by pop. in the state, just under Kennewick. However, there’s visible opposition brewing in the Lea Hill area which could jeopardize the whole thing.

Renton
Renton has 4 distinct open annexation areas, though only one is on the ballot this year. Benson Hill, a subset of a larger original Fairwood-Benson area, would add 16K to Renton’s current 60K, pushing it from 13th to 11th just ahead of Bellingham. As a smaller subset of the previous larger area, Benson Hill looks fairly solid.

Overall, Renton’s four PAAs — Benson Hill, Fairwood, East Renton, West Hill (aka Skyway/Bryn Mawr) — could add 64K to Renton’s 76K population, which would notably push the city’s size past crane-happy Bellevue, to over 120K. However, Fairwood-Benson previously failed an annexation vote, with the 26K Fairwood neighborhood seeking self-incorporation instead of Rentonization. So the best Renton can hope for through annexations is a measly 98K.

Kent
While not currently up for vote this year, Kent has a potential annexation area in the Kent Northeast neighborhood. The area would add 23K to Kent’s current 86K. There are no plans in the works to make this happen — but would East Federal Way’s passage change Kent’s mind?

Elsewhere in King County:

• Bellevue has a wholly-contained enclave of unincorporated land in the South Eastgate area, a hilly, sparsely populated area of 4600 people. The city has opted to pick up the land in bits and pieces as landowners specifically request it.
• Kirkland has an unnamed PAA of 32K people, which would launch the city’s population by nearly 70%. The city is actively researching the feasibility of such an annexation. The resulting combined area would hold 80K, pushing it up to 11th (or 12th if Renton’s Benson Hill annexes).
• Issaquah has its eyes on the Klahanie neighborhood, a 45% boost to its 24K population. But a previous annexation vote failed, and the area is split on whether to annex to Issaquah or Sammamish.
• Both Burien and Seattle have identified the North Highline area (aka White Center) as a PAA, but neither have made any moves to absorb it.

All city population numbers are 2007 estimates. PAA population numbers are from various places including the King County Annexation page.

This week’s issue of the venerated Federal Way News included a letter from an upset East Fed resident who just recently, apparently, found out about the city’s long-standing intention to annex the majority of the land to the east of town. Since as far back as 2002, the areas of Camelot, Star Lake, Jovita, Lakeland, and Parkway have been in the city’s Potential Annexation Area (PAA). North Lake and the south part of Parkway was added in 2004, along with a sliver of vacant commercial land that Des Moines didn’t want.

Sure, like the other South King megaburbs, Federal Way has ambitions (though what they are is not entirely clear), and would love to grow. But it isn’t exactly mere manifest destiny that propels the city to grab the land. King County itself has asked cities to take over unincorporated developed land. And what Federal Way doesn’t take, Auburn likely will.
The valley of aloof quasi-independence between Fed Way and Auburn is no doubt one of the county’s eyesores. Certainly they would prefer not to have to trek down into that isolated corridor to police crime, plan zoning, and maintain roads. They want the cities to do it instead. Of course, the cities can’t just take over the cost of maintaining new territory if the financial math doesn’t work.

The writer makes at least one good point, sort of: the way the current East Federal Way proposal was designed was a little creative, but it was done that way for the math. In order to incorporate the whole committed annexation area, the city managed to include a snippet of Peasley Canyon road that tethers the two otherwise noncontiguous segments together, making it one single swath of territory which can be annexed in one whole swoop. This is basically because the city couldn’t afford to annex (and start paying for) one section without the tax revenue of the other, so if they put out two proposals, one passed and one didn’t, the city’d be in a bind.

But nothing in the current proposal is a surprise. The areas have been on the annexation table for years, and if a resident didn’t know that, they weren’t paying much attention to their local news.

The telegram for the East Fed residents is this: You’re going to become incorporated, if not via annexation with FW, then with Auburn, or maybe Kent or Milton. The county just doesn’t want you anymore.