Canyon Park Doom Or Destiny? -- The Annexation Of The Canyon Park Area Doubles Bothell's Size And Presents Officials With Twice The Opportunity And Twice The Challenge

When her son is researching a school report, Wendy Brady takes him to the Bothell Public Library. When she writes a letter, Brady puts Bothell at the end of her mailing address. When they want to visit a park, the Brady familygoes to a park in Bothell.

You'd think they lived there. But they don't - yet.

Later this year - most likely in May - the Bradys' relationship with Bothell is expected to be permanently cemented when the Bothell City Council takes the final, formal step of approving the annexation of the Canyon Park area of Snohomish County.

Then the Bradys and about 12,000 of their neighbors will become taxpayers, voters and citizens of Bothell.

The annexation, one of the largest in the region at a time when annexations and incorporations have become routine, will more than double the city's size and nearly double its population overnight.

And it will create a highly unusual city. If Bothell were solely in Snohomish County, it would be the fourth-largest city there. If it were solely in King County, it would be the ninth-largest city there. Instead, the new Bothell will occupy a unique position, straddling both counties, about half its population in each.

It is a city at a crossroads - the crossroads of two counties and the crossroads of three major highways: Interstate 405, State Highway 527 and state Highway 522.

Some would also say it is at a crossroads for the future - perfectly positioned to be a laboratory for the challenges of the exploding Puget Sound area. Challenges like growth management. Intergovernmental cooperation. Transportation, particularly high-speed rail. And planning for a changing business climate with a strong emphasis on high tech.

Within its expanded borders are three of the five industrial parks that make up the Puget Sound Technology Corridor. One of the two new suburban branch campuses of the University of Washington is here; so is one of Microsoft's biggest national distribution centers.

If Bothell can turn its new size and its strategic location into political muscle, it might become a more powerful voice in the region, guiding transit services its way and striking a unique accord between two counties for the planning that must be done under the Growth Management Act.

Already, says Mayor Paul Cowles, the city has moved in two years from a "non-player" to a community with some clout in regional political circles. "Quite frankly," he said, "I hope that continues."

WHAT ANNEXATION WILL DO

Regional impact aside, what the annexation means to Canyon Park residents is better basic services, which residents complained they weren't getting from Snohomish County.

They have been promised, for example, that Bothell will buy them parkland - despite its name, there are no parks in Canyon Park. They'll get stepped-up police patrols. They'll get sidewalks through their neighborhoods, better maintenance of streets and repairs to a storm-drain system that Bothell considers rudimentary at best. And any new development in Canyon Park will have to follow more stringent city standards.

Residents expect it to become easier to call upon their elected officials in City Hall rather than the far-away county courthouse in Everett. And developers expect the issuance and administration of building permits to move more quickly than it does in Snohomish County.

The plus side of annexation won residents of the area over almost immediately. In a petition drive last fall, more than 50 percent of homeowners said they wanted to annex to Bothell.

The Boundary Review Board for Snohomish County not only approved the annexation, but by a 3-2 vote took the unusual step of expanding it, adding 520 more acres and 1,700 more people to the annexed area.

That didn't sit well with everybody. Peter Hurley, a Snohomish County Councilman and slow-growth advocate, for example, thought the Boundary Review Board should not have added the rural area to the city, and some residents of that area may ask the Bothell City Council not to annex them when it comes up for a vote next month.

But most of the annexation was seconded with little controversy. "In the long run, we're going to be part of a city one way or another," said Canyon Park resident Debbie Abrahamsen. "We were doomed - or destined - to be in Bothell."

In exchange for taking on Canyon Park, Bothell will get a strengthened tax base. To its $810 million current tax base will be added Canyon Park's $727 million.

And in November, that strengthened base will be vital as Bothell plans to propose a bond issue to build a new police department, buy park land and acquire land where an expanded city hall can be built several years from now.

Bothell can also expect to see the makeup of its City Council change, for Canyon Park residents are reliable voters who have a great deal of interest in politics, says Park Board member Jack Brooks. Canyon Park will get its first opportunity to elect residents of its area to the city council in November 1993.

A number of things won't change when annexation occurs. For one, Bothell won't really have a city center like Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond have. Its major shopping districts will be divided among three places: downtown, Country Village and the Canyon Park shopping center.

"We're a town of hills and valleys," says City Manager Anne Pflug, "and each of the valleys has its own personality. We've tried to define the new city limits respecting the valleys."

TOWN'S HISTORY

The pattern is more than geographic - it's also derived from the town's history.

The first white settlers came to the tip of Lake Washington in the late 1800s, after a railroad line was built.

Settlers earned their bread and butter logging the hills and valleys, then turning the fertile lowlands into farmland. In 1884, the flat-bottomed steam scow Squak shuttled between Madison Park and Bothell, stopping at Bothell Landing, now a city park on the Sammamish River.

In 1912 the Pacific Highway between Everett and Seattle was completed through the city, "and the modern era of transportation and commerce had begun," wrote James R. Warren in his book, "King County and its Queen City: Seattle."

Because of its distinct history, Bothell today resembles several different cities rolled into one: handsome, campus-style office park of the future; quaint downtown of the past; orderly grid-style neighborhood development of yesterday; apartments and condominiums of tomorrow.

Almost 75 percent - an unusually high percentage - of Bothell residents are families. There is also a large population of senior citizens and an unusually high concentration of mobile-home parks.

And Canyon Park is very similar, with a strong emphasis on the family.

"It's a very family-oriented area," Abrahamsen says. "We're outdoorsy people. We're kind of a yuppie area - but not like Bellevue; it's a cross between Lynnwood and Bellevue."

FUTURE LOOKS ACTIVE

City Manager Pflug notes that the area in and around Bothell contains a population of 125,000. Despite the size, "These folks really don't have representation on regional issues," she says. "This is the reason why we have so little transit here."

BETTER TRANSPORTATION

Annexation could change that.

Pflug hopes the city's increased size can persuade the transportation powers-that-be to extend high-occupancy-vehicle lanes on Interstate 405 through and past Bothell; current plans have them stop in King County at the city's southern border. She also hopes that both Metro and Community Transit will move Bothell up on their lists of priorities for expanded bus service.

Cowles hopes Metro will give the city a direct representative on the Metro council. He hopes the city is listed as the regional employment center it is becoming. And he's looking ahead to light rail, hoping that Bothell gets added as a stop on a rail line of the future.

"It's a natural hub," he says. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bothell stats

If, as expected, Bothell's City Council adds the full annexation area to its borders next month, it will make for a radically different city. Here are some of the changes Bothell residents can look forward to:

-- 104% increase in size, from 5.6 square miles to 11.4.

-- 92% increase in population, from 13,000 to 24,900.

-- 90% increase in tax base, from $810 million to $1.54 billion.

-- 19% increase in city employees, from 130 to 155.

-- The City Council will remain the same size, seven people, and annexation-area residents will vote on council members for the first time in November 1993.