By Jack Mayne
The Burien City Council on Monday night (April 6, 2020) unanimously approved Deputy Mayor Krystal Marx’s recommendation for a renewed consideration of annexing White Center, the remaining northern portion of the North Highline unincorporated area.
It will be on the Council’s consent agenda at its next meeting, set for Monday, April 20, 2020.
Not a surprise
“Hopefully it will not come as too much of a surprise to fellow Councilmemers, but I am sorry if it does,” said Marx. “I would like to see us place on the docket a discussion of the potential annexation area of North Highline or White Center.”
She reiterated that the move is for discussion of the potential, not actually a move in that direction at this time.
It has been about six years since North Highline was discussed by the Burien Council after it annexed the southern portion of the White Center area.
“I think it is time to bring (North Highline) back so they have a seat at the table,” Marx said.
On prompting from Mayor Jimmy Matta, she made her comments into a motion that was seconded by Councilmember Kevin Schilling.
Will ‘look, explore’
City Manager Brian Wilson said “this is very preliminary and it would be something that we would look, explore. I am not quite sure that this could fit into a work plan … to do that, but we could certainly do some preliminary work if that is what Council is looking at.”
Senior Planner Thara Johnson said adding it back into the comprehensive plan is not a problem, but actually pursuing annexation of the remainder of the White Center area would be a problem for staff.
Councilmember Nancy Tosta said that “five or six years ago the Council did remove … the option for considering any further annexations” by taking it out of Burien’s comprehensive plan. Tosta said Marx’s motion would put White Center back into the city’s comprehensive plan “which means, at some future date, an annexation could be considered.”
Tosta said annexation is a “tremendous cost” but she would support Marx’s motion. She said there is “some logic considering White Center as part of Burien,” but if annexation is undertaken, costs would have to be considered and examined.
White Center is fine the way it is. Burien should concentrate on the issues they’re facing, and fix that first.
No one is trying to fix White Center. This is about giving options back… unless you want to have no choice about becoming Seattle’s newest neighborhood.
I would like to see us annexed to Burien, I feel we would have a stronger voice for issues ignored by King County (we are overwhelmed social programs with the stigma that we are a “low income” ; our area has the highest concentration of public housing (11 percent)
Burien would be a way better partner for White Center Than Seattle In my opinion. we live in W C but do a lot in Burien including dealing with their City Hall and they are great to work with.
We are a small family catering and Nut biz and would welcome this indeed.
John C
This is a issue that the rich or upper class people in burien and the upper class rich people of white center . Don’t want annexation some think taxes will increase crime will increase family and friends will talk trash . That not your a part of white center ewww you know that area called rat city . Your part of burien they have gang problems ewww oh my god it’s been on the 24 h bs worthless “news” channels . Nether side wants that or wants to look at actual facts . Then comes back and forth name calling and bickering/trolling from each side .
Increase in crime? Just how much more crime can White Center tolerate? I live a mile north on Delridge, and am alerted to every single thing that goes wrong in White Center, daily.
WC flat out needs to be annexed by a city – whether Burien or Seattle – that can support it’s crime levels with increased police presence. Don’t think Seattle can do this, so I hope it goes to Burien.
If burien where to annex it would raise crime levels in burien . Is what some would complain about . But it also is a fixable situation just takes some time and hard work from the local police and some help from other departments (DEA,ATF,FBI) . It was one of the things people bickered about back when annexing white center was on the table and when north burien was annex .
Then the trolls on the b-town blog ran with it in their list of issues .
In north burien the tax increase was a big button issue ended up being about $7 more for most if not all . People where trying to say it was going in the hundreds to thousands of dollars . Crime went up for a year or two and the police with some help got the numbers back down .
The white center area does need some help but no one can come with a plan to agree on get the votes needed in the pass .
I would like to see them get the help they need . I would also like to see the local lakes get some trout in them but the rarely happens accept for angel lake . But I would like to see hicks (not sure on water quality) and arbor lake(parks department says fish should be fine to eat) get some trout in them maybe even open up tub lake on the burien sea-tac border . I would also like the parks department look at putting some type of small camp ground on a pilot program to possibly generate some funds (a small amount most likely) . But some neighbors to those lake’s don’t like people fishing at those lake because of messes,crime and over crowding of limit parking . Have been issues around arbor lake and probably some same issues around hicks . A camp ground would be a big no because of cost most likely and trout would take some funding to . I can understand the issues the neighbors of those lakes have it is a problem that could easily get out of hand . if we had those option for camping more fishingeven with laws and rules people still don’t listen . Would or could make a problem out of it .