As part of the implementation of the Growth Management Act (GMA), Renton and King County established the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in 1995. Land inside that boundary is defined as urban, and must have urban densities, and land outside the UGB is to remain rural. All land within incorporated cities is “urban”. However, be-tween city limit lines and the UGB there are unincorporated urban areas that are designated as “Potential Annexation Areas” (PAA’s) and each area has been assigned to a city that agreed to consider annexing it at some point in the future. King County’s Countywide planning policies call for urban areas to be part of a city by 2012.
The City of Renton has three PAA’s, click
here to view a map of them. The East Renton Plateau and Fairwood/Petrovitsky were designated as Renton PAA’s in 1995. The West Hill area was added as a Renton PAA in 2005. If all three areas annexed to the City, Renton would be a city of 130,000 people – as many or more residents as the City of Bellevue. That could be the future if the residents of these three large unincorporated areas on Renton’s borders choose to annex into the City. In 2008, a portion (4.2 square miles with 16,272 residents) of the Fairwood/Petrovitsky PAA came into the City as the Benson Hill Communities annexation.
The Fairwood/Petrovitsky area voted to not annex to the City of Renton in 2010 and West Hill voted not to annex in 2012.
Until January 1, 2015, state law supported the annexation of unincorporated urban areas by offering a “credit” against the state portion of the sales tax to offset transition costs and deficits to serve these areas over ten years. The sales tax credit was available to annexing areas with populations over 10,000. This additional funding helped cities close the gap between expected service costs and potential revenues. Without this supportive funding from the state, the financial challenges of annexing the city’s PAA’s are compounded.
For additional information about annexations to the City, please call (425) 430-6575.