Drafter
Clerk 09/23/2004
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A MOTION setting forth the vision and goals for an initiative to help sustain vital government services to the citizens of King County by promoting the annexation or incorporation of remaining urban unincorporated areas of King County.
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WHEREAS, the state Growth Management Act requires cities and counties to plan collaboratively for orderly growth and development, and
WHEREAS, the state Growth Management Act recognizes that counties are regional governments within their boundaries and cities are primary providers of urban governmental services within urban growth areas, and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the state Growth Management Act, the cities and the county jointly developed and adopted the countywide planning policies, which identify cities as the appropriate providers of local urban services to urban areas and identify the long-term role of the county to serve as provider of regional services and rural local services, and
WHEREAS, the county is currently the local urban service provider for over two hundred eighteen thousand residents living outside city boundaries in urban areas, as well as the regional service provider for over one million seven hundred thousand residents, and is also the local service provider for over one hundred thirty-four thousand residents of rural King County, and
WHEREAS, the countywide planning policies set forth a goal for all urban areas to be annexed to cities or incorporated by the year 2012, but there is no penalty for failing to achieve this vision in said policies or in state law, and
WHEREAS, over time, most of the commercial urban areas in King County have been annexed to cities and the remaining urban unincorporated areas are primarily residential in nature, and
WHEREAS, cities have resisted proposals by the county to increase the density of permitted development in potential annexation areas in order to facilitate economic activity and revenue generation, and
WHEREAS, ci...
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