Residents of unincorporated King County who live in the southern portion of the North Highline community will have a chance to decide if they want to join the city of Burien, after the King County Council today placed an annexation proposal on the August 18 primary ballot.

“This is a historic day for North Highline," said Council Chair Dow Constantine, sponsor of the legislation and representative of Council District Eight, which includes all of North Highline.

"We have discussed and debated governance issues for this area since I joined this council in 2002 and we will finally have the opportunity for the voters to weigh in," he said. "This proposal is the product of a lot of hard work by the city of Burien, the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, King County, and many citizens in the annexation area.”

The Burien annexation proposal has been approved by the Washington State Boundary Review Board of King County, and negotiations have been completed regarding the continued provision of fire protection services in the area.

The proposed annexation area is bordered by the City of Seattle on the west, South and Southwest 128th streets on the south, the city of Tukwila on the east, and on the north by a boundary variously formed by South and Southwest 107th to 116th streets. It contains 1,679 acres of land with an assessed valuation of $1.16 billion and an estimated population of 14,100.

This ordinance instructs the King County Director of Elections to prepare and distribute a local voters’ pamphlet with information about the annexation proposal to registered voters in the affected portion of North Highline.