If the city of Issaquah isn’t interested, the city of Sammamish made it official they are.
During a special meeting June 11, the council unanimously voted 6-0, with council member John Curley absent, to pursue the annexation of the Klahanie and other incorporated neighborhoods in Issaquah’s Potential Annexation Area.
“If the annexation of Klahanie fails, then Sammamish is prepared to move forward — with the citizen’s acquiesce — to annex Klahanie and to welcome [them] into the fold,” said Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama, during his motion.
Issaquah has until Aug. 6 to submit language to the county auditor to get the annexation issue on the November ballot.
Issaquah has determined it would gain about $6.47 million annually from additional property tax, some sales tax, state-shared revenues, utility taxes and real estate excise tax. Cost to the city to service the new areas would be about $5.85 million.
Issaquah’s annexation issue first came up in 2005, when it was presented to voters in two parts. First was to annex or not, and the second question was whether Klahanie agreed to assume Issaquah’s debt. The first part passed, the second did not.
Since then, Klahanie and 12 other neighborhoods have remained in limbo.
“In the interim, I’ve been sitting on the edge of Southeast 32nd Street, watching the beautiful city of Sammamish grow and flourish and I would very much like to be a part of that city,” said Klahanie resident Myrl Venter.
Councilmember Don Gerend, who has been on the Sammamish Council since the city’s inception in 1999, has long supported annexing Klahanie.
“Because Klahanie is not in our Planned Annexation Area, we cannot take formal motions to try and annex [it],” Gerend said. “We would welcome the citizens of those neighborhoods to join Sammamish if they were allowed to.”
Sammamish would have to go to King County to ask for a change in the Potential Annexation Area before it could attempt to annex Klahanie.
Issaquah is scheduled to discuss annexation during its upcoming July 1 and 15 council meetings. The Citizens for Sammamish will discuss the topic at its next meeting at 7 p.m., July 1 at Fire Station No. 82.
