As 2012 comes to a close, the Courier-Herald staff is taking a look back over the previous year at the 10 stories that most affected our coverage area. From a new police chief to a state champsionship, several local council issues to an international incident that included a Lake Tapps resident and the deadliest summer on record on Lake Tapps, 2012 certainly kept all of us on our toes.
Here are numbers 4 and 3 on our list of the top stories of the year:
4. The Metropolitan Parks District
One of the potentially longest-reaching policy decisions made this year by the Bonney Lake City Council came in the final weeks of the year: the decision to place a metropolitan parks district on the April ballot.
But while the final move came in the year’s final council meeting, the topic of a parks district has simmered just beneath the surface all year long.
A Metropolitan Parks District is a voter-created special taxing district that would authorize its board to levy an additional property tax, up to $0.75 per $1,000 assessed home value, to create a revenue stream that could only be used for park projects. The administration and city council view the district as the best way to continue funding parks at a time when general fund monies are needed elsewhere.
In every meeting this year, the city’s Parks Board, an appointed advisory board to the city council, discussed the pros and cons of a potential district. Much of the debate at the commission level revolved around who would lead the district, should voters choose to create one.
Several members of the board felt that the district should be governed by a separately elected board instead of the city council, which was favored by the council and administration.
Other discussions revolved about whether it should be done or if there was enough time to run a successful campaign before the April election.
In the end, the parks board recommended the creation of the district with the council serving as its first board. After the recommendation, several residents spoke during a public hearing asking the council to postpone or cancel the vote due to the additional tax and burden it could place on residents.
The city council in December voted 5-2 to place the metropolitan parks district on the ballot. ‘Pro’ and ‘con’ committees are presently forming.
3. The saga of Eastown Sewers
It’s been a whiplash kind of year for the landowners in Eastown as they watched the City Council debate then reject a utility latecomers agreement that would put pipes in the ground in their section of the city, only to see the issue revived and approved in an edited form during the last council meeting of the year.
The council began the year with plans to create Utility Latecomers Agreement with a group of landowners in Eastown who formed a corporation, allowing them to speak with a single voice. The initial plans called for a $4 million system, with landowners contributing 5 percent, or about $201,000. The ULA would allow both sides to recoup the money over the next 20 years as developers built in the region and connected to the system.
But in somewhat of a surprise, the council rejected the ULA July 24 by a vote of 4-3, with those opposed saying the amount was too big and the risk was too great for the city to get involved, at which point the issue seemed to be dead, with even the LLC’s spokesperson saying he thought the group would now break up.
But Councilman Randy McKibbin, who opposed the ULA, and Deputy Mayor Dan Swatman kept the issue alive behind the scenes and negotiated a compromise that would install a $2 million “backbone” system, complete with a 5 percent – $97,000 – buy-in from the landowners. The compromise also included a change in city code to allow Eastown businesses to use their septic tanks, as well as create a $2 million fund to help the city negotiate with potential developers through developer agreements.
During the last meeting of the year, the council unanimously passed the compromise package and construction is expected to begin in the spring with a pipes in the ground and ready to go by fall of 2013.
