District 1 City Council member Lisa Herbold shared news about the potential annexation of North Highline and the Duwamish area near South Park in her recent newsletter on Jan. 20:

"On Wednesday I attended the Education, Equity, and Governance Committee briefing on the potential annexation of both the North Highline area and the Duwamish area (or Sliver by the River). You can see a map of both proposed annexation areas here, a memo describing the process and timeline here, and a document outlining the impacts to service providers such as school districts, utilities, fire, police and other emergency services here.

The proposed timeline for the Duwamish area annexation includes May Council deliberations on a resolution approving an election date, proposed at this time to be August 2017, though this might change. If approved by the voters then, the effective date would be January 1, 2018. Because annexation would result in the transfer of King County-owned assets to the City and an assumption of the costs of services, the Executive is currently negotiating an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) with King County as a prerequisite to moving forward.

The proposed timeline for the North Highline annexation includes an election in August or November of 2018 and, if approved by the voters, an effective date of January 1, 2020. You may recall I previously wrote about the public hearings for the North Highline annexation held by the County Boundary Review Board where they voted 8-1 to approve the annexation and directed staff to prepare the written findings and decision. Negotiations of an ILA for the North Highline Annexation Area are required but have not started. Similar to the Sliver by the River Annexation, the City Council will first need to approve placing the question on the ballot and establish an election date.

We learned in the briefing that the financial analysis to determine City costs to provide services to the proposed annexation area, and determine revenues generated within the area to support those costs, is out of date. I requested that the Executive prepare a new analysis prior to the Council deliberations on each of the two annexations."