A few years ago, the Renton City Council held a hearing regarding the West Hill/Skyway area, and the possibility of adding the area to Renton’s Potential Annexation Area (PAA).

Residents in the West Hill area seemed evenly split on the idea, with some wanting annexation to Renton, but many others being very adamantly against it. Some were very clear that they did not want to be part of a city, as the sign below indicates.

Mayor Keolker was pushing to add West Hill to the PAA, and the council somewhat reluctantly went along with it. I voted with the majority, who voted to expand our potential annexation area, but Council Member Denis Law voted against the proposal. He was understandably very concerned about the costs to the city in taking on an area with so many infrastructure needs, and the impact such an annexation could have on our ability to serve existing residents.

As we have gathered more data on the costs of annexation in recent years, it has become increasingly clear to me that Denis Law’s position was the right one for West Hill. We have found that there is no way that the city can annex this area without a major subsidy from all the rest of us in the city of Renton, on the order of many millions or even tens-of-millions of dollars.

With Denis in the Mayor’s office, he will likely get council support if he choses to revisit this issue. While state growth management law does not make it easy for us to remove West Hill from our PAA, it’s possible we could find a way to do it. Even if the area stays in our PAA, Denis has promised voters that he will be slow to annex the area if it costs existing residents too much….and I will support him in this view.

Renton and the West Hill is starting to look like a marriage which will never make it to the alter. I would encourage the residents of this area to put thought into where they really want to end up, and let the governments of King County, Seattle, Tukwila, and Renton know their preferences.

This area has some pretty dramatic public infrastructure needs, as well as a clear need to bring in private investment dollars. Here are a few more pictures, along with the shot of the dilapidated building with the No On Annexation Sign…that pretty much says it all.

The “No Annexation” sign says it all. While it was put up by West Hill residents, it could have just as easily been installed by Renton officials