Let Maple Valley annex its future

Maple Valley is curiously sitting on the outside looking in as King County orchestrates a land-use deal that directly affects the future and finances of this fast-growing community.

One of two things should happen before King County gives a developer exclusive rights to buy and develop 156 acres smack in the middle of Maple Valley. Preferably, the spirit of the state's Growth Management Act will be respected and the city will be allowed to annex the site and take a direct role in planning before development begins. Otherwise, the city must be an active partner in joint planning with the county — not as an adviser or commentator, but a full partner with the county in which mutual agreements are negotiated and settled.

The city might, frankly, be looking at less density than the county would allow, but that hardly means the community is hostile to growth. Maple Valley's population jumped 30 percent in 10 years because it was the affordable-housing alternative for thousands of families.

County Executive Ron Sims drafted an artful proposal, with key, early enabling legislation by the County Council, to create an exception for a no-bid contract to link the sale and development of county property as part of a larger deal to secure desirable green space.

This politically complex arrangement was laid out by Seattle Times reporters Jim Brunner and Lauren Vane, who used open-records laws to secure explanatory details.

The county is moving toward a change of zoning from rural to urban that would allow more than 1,200 homes to be built. In that process, the county would also collect the usual and customary fees and taxes. Eventually, this vast residential area would be Maple Valley's to provide urban services and incorporate into city life, without a nickel of mitigation money.

This same county is laboring mightily to offload other urban centers — unincorporated islands in the county that are expensive to provide with municipal levels of service.

Last September, Sims wrote on these pages, "The city of Maple Valley has a rare opportunity to shape its future — one that comes along only once in a lifetime." Sims should work to make that claim sound less ironic.