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Council authorizes $63,000 feasibility study into annexation options around Mill Creek
Summary
Mill Creek City Council authorized a resolution to hire a consultant to analyze annexation scenarios and financial impacts across several municipal urban growth area segments, authorizing $63,000 from RPB funds for the study.
The Mill Creek City Council voted unanimously to authorize a consultant-led annexation feasibility study using $63,000 in RPB funds to analyze potential annexation scenarios within the city’s municipal urban growth area.
City staff told the council the consultant selected has roughly 20 years of experience in local finance and fiscal policy and has performed similar analyses for other Washington cities, including Milton and Olympia. The scope includes baseline fiscal modeling and two to three density scenarios for up to four study areas, with the goal of identifying when an annexation scenario would be revenue neutral or net positive.
Staff said the consultant was the lowest-cost bidder among interviewed firms and that some other proposals were roughly double the price. Council members asked for clarity on deliverables and requested that staff and the consultant bring the specific analytical structure back to council for agreement before the final report is completed. Staff also told council the contract includes an additional $3,000 for graphic design to produce public-facing materials.
Council discussion emphasized limits of the consultant’s role: the consultant will provide financial and density scenarios but will not draw legal annexation boundaries, which the council noted is partly a legal question involving the Boundary Review Board and the county’s municipal urban growth area (MUGA) designations. Council members discussed the geographic scope (generally three directions — south, east and west — within the MUGA) and said northward annexation was not feasible because that area is within another jurisdiction’s municipal urban growth area.
A council motion authorizing the resolution and use of RPB funds passed unanimously. The city’s packet includes the consultant’s proposal and references to prior council direction about study areas and the strategic retreat where annexation was identified as one lever for fiscal viability.
