Fairwood Municipal Initiative

The Fairwood Municipal Initiative is a membership based, not for profit organization that is taking the steps necessary to bring the matter of incorporation of the City of Fairwood before the voters in late 2008 or early 2009.  Residents of the area are invited to join the organization as members.

History
A previous attempt to incorporate the City of Fairwood was narrowly defeated at the election held on 9/19/2006.  In that election, 48.22% of the votes were for incorporation.  A swing of only 136 votes in the election would have changed the result.

What is new?
A recent change in state law, enacted during the 2007 legislative session, concerning how sales tax is collected, has enhanced the economic feasibility of the proposed City of Fairwood.  Substitute Senate Bill 5089 (streamlined sales tax) was enacted on March 20th and signed by the Governor on March 22^nd, 2007.  In simple terms, the change benefits residential cities by collecting sales tax on behalf of the jurisdictions where goods or services are delivered, rather than where they are sold.  In the case of Fairwood, this change may enhance sales tax revenue by $350,000 to $500,000, per year.

Red Mill Annexation threatens proposed City of Fairwood.
This annexation, which takes the commercial core of the proposed city, is aimed at foreclosing the possiblity of a City of Fairwood.  As few as eight (8) owners of high value property could sabotage our efforts to bring incorporation of the proposed city to an election.  Read more ...

What is the current status of the incorporation process?

(See process outlined at the BRB site: How to become a city) 

• A notice of proposed incorporation was filed with the County on 4/16/2007 (Step 4a).
• The Boundary Review Board (BRB) hosted a public information meeting on May 7th (Step 5).
• A petition drive (Step 6) commenced on May 8th and was completed in early October.
• A Notice of Intention to Incorporate (Step 7) was filed on October 22nd, along with the completed petitions.
• King County Elections Office verified the petitions and issued a Certificate of Sufficiency on November 21st (Step 8a)
• Boundary Review Board will commission an independent consultant to perform an economic fiscal analysis study for the proposed City of Fairwood.  (Step 9)

• Map of incorporation area
• 4/21/2007 Renton Reporter article
• BRB notice for Information Meeting
• Previous Fairwood Feasibility Study (Published 1/17/2006) 2.8MB;
  Also known as the Berk Study

• How to become a city
  (Published by BRB)
• Municipal Incorporation Guide (Published July 2006 by MRSC)

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