Federal Way celebrates cityhood
Federal Way and Sea-Tac celebrate cityhood today

By GEORGE FOSTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The new cities of Federal Way and Sea-Tac head out on their own today.

The respective city councils already have felt the political heat while preparing for this date, when both south King County communities are incorporated legally.

Federal Way City Council members have bucked opposition from the business and development sector on the adoption of a tougher set of zoning regulations.Sea-Tac's leadership has become embroiled in bickering over several issues, including whether to have a municipal fire department.

Voters in both communities decided by mail-in ballot last March 14 to incorporate as separate communities, preferring local government to county rule.

Tonight, citizens and elected officials of Federal Way and Sea-Tac will sipchampagne and celebrate cityhood.

"I never thought I would see the day," said Federal Way City Councilman Robert Stead, a local attorney who has supported incorporation since the 1960s.

Also celebrating will be Sea-Tac Councilwoman Kathy Gehring. She voted against incorporation a year ago, but decided that once it passed, she could use her experience as a county government employee and former court administrator "to get on with it and help to make this a very progressive city."

Both cities are byproducts of urban-growth patterns. Sea-Tac, with a population of 22,000, was influenced by the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport boom; Federal Way, with more than 58,000 people, is a collection of sprouting subdivisions and neighborhoods within a school district that bears the same name. It becomes the state's sixth-largest city.

The decisions by these new city governments likely will influence the course of other unincorporated communities looking at cityhood as a preferablealternative to county rule. In the Burien area, as an example, cityhood advocates are planning to collect signatures in a fifth incorporation attempt.

"Basically, their successes (at cityhood) were probably the impetus for our attempt to organize," says Jo Loughran, vice chairwoman of Burien's incorporation committee.

Federal Way and Sea-Tac are treading on some new ground for cities their size. Both are contracting with King County for police, public works, animal control and library services - at least for the foreseeable future - and Federal Way has opted to continue using county Fire District 39.

Acting City Manager Allen Locke of Federal Way said "we have an opportunity to a be a pilot" in the sharing of services.

"Actually, we have no choice," he said. "We are going about it with an attitude that we have to make it work."

King County Executive Tim Hill said, "The fact that these two cities now exist, and that there probably will be more annexations and incorporations, should cause us to reassess our (King County government's) function and our role."

He points to contracting as an example of why "the county should be a regional government."

"There are small bits and pieces of incorporated King County," he said, "and by having contracts with these cities, we can provide better service overall."

Said Sea-Tac Mayor Frank Hansen: "People are going to watch us and see howsuccessful we are and how the county is successful in providing regional services."

Most candidates for the two-year interim Federal Way City Council seats last year rallied around the contracting concept. They also favored controlling, if not halting, the surge of multifamily developments that are crowding the plateau above Puget Sound. It was this issue that largely was responsible for the vote for incorporation.

Public sentiment over controlling the community's growth was reflected in the zoning and land-use documents prepared by the City Council's Land Use Committee and placed on the agenda for last night's council meeting. The code,zoning map and comprehensive land-use plan have been changed substantially from the King County regulations and have been attacked by developers and local business interests as being too restrictive.

Among the more controversial changes in zoning and other land-use regulations are:

Prohibiting billboards throughout the city; limiting pole signs and stricter controls on portable signs.

Setbacks and buffer zones for commercial, office park and manufacturing zones, including a 50-foot buffer between industrial and residential development; a 200-foot setback from wetlands, including Hylebos Creek.

Regulating clearing and grading, requiring that existing vegetation and natural landscaping be maintained; restrictions covering building on previous soils.

Eliminating the county's RM1800 high-density residential zoning category - one unit per 1,800 square feet -- outside the center of Federal Way.

Requiring residential subdivisions to include 15 percent open space area.

The new zoning code is based on the one used by Kirkland, although "we didnot convert straight across," said Kay Shoudy, land use consultant under contract with Federal Way.

Federal Way City Councilman Jim Handmacher, who helped lead an unsuccessfulincorporation attempt five years ago, said this week: "I would say the goals we started with in 1985 are being addressed now. But if we had been successfulin 1985, we would not have the problems we have now."

Joel Marks is the lone critic of the zoning changes on the seven-member City Council.

He said the changes do not "meet needs for the short term and long term asfar as (city) revenue base is concerned." He adds that the poor and disadvantaged - including seniors on fixed incomes - will pay for the changes in increased taxes.

One of the larger projects affected by the changes is Fred Meyer's planned 186,000-square-foot store near the intersection of 21st Avenue Southwest and Southwest 336th Street. Although the store still would be allowed to be built,it would fall into a non-conforming use category, which would prohibit alterations or re-building in case of fire.

"We don't have the complex growth problem that Federal Way is experiencing," said Sea-Tac councilwomanGehring

The largest issue to loom during Sea-Tac's incorporation campaign was localcontrol over police protection. At recent Sea-Tac City Council meetings, the bigger issues have been whether to form a city fire department and create a local municipal court. The council voted for a fire department and city court by split decisions.

Gehring said she voted for a municipal fire department, to take over in January 1991, because county Fire District 24 "has definitely got some problems."

Sea-Tac Councilwoman Julia Patterson opposed a municipal fire department after she noticed that "most of the people in the audience" at one council meeting wanted it put to a vote of the people.

The two councilwomen also were on opposite sides when the issue of a municipal court -- vs. using the county's Southwest District Court -- came up, and during discussion over whether to give Sea-Tac voters the right to petition for a local initiative or referendum.