By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Tukwila city administrator John McFarland says he expects to see high-technology office and manufacturing activities increase in the Southcenter area in coming years.

And Mayor Wally Rants expects major changes. The area, now dominated by one- and two-story buildings, will see more high-rises and have a residential population, he says.

"I think what you will see in 25 years will be so totally different that you won't believe it," the mayor says.

"I think there will be high-rise living. It's already zoned for that down along the river and around the pond. It's zoned so you can go up 110 feet."

That will be in addition to the existing commercial development -- not instead of it, Rants says.

How fast that development will come depends in part on a decision Puget Sound Transit will make early next year on location of its commuter light rail stations.

Tukwila officials are pressing the regional transit authority to put a stop in the Southcenter area. They are fighting an alternative route that would put the Tukwila station in the Highway 99 area, which would be less costly and could be built more quickly.

"Cheaper and quicker is not necessarily better, particularly when your objective is to move people and serve areas of high employment or high destination," says McFarland.

"We need the mass transit system to service Southcenter," Rants says. "This area is totally oriented to the automobile and that is going to have to change."

Police and city officials, meanwhile, say crime hasn't been a major problem in the area, despite the large number of people in the area every day. Police mostly deal with shoplifters, car prowlers and people who pass bad checks.

"In my opinion, it is a safe place to shop and visit," says Assistant Police Chief Keith Haines.

"We have worked hard in a partnership with the business management and ownership and security in the Southcenter area and that has shown its effectiveness," says Haines. Violent crimes were down 28 percent and robberies were down 40 percent in Tukwila last year.

"It is a clean, safe environment, given the fact that we are located so close to a major urban area and that we are at the crossroads of two major freeways," adds McFarland.

That was the case when the area was mostly farmland, too. But the one thing that is certain is that there won't be a return to the days when agriculture was king.

"There are people here who would like to say 'no more growth,' " Rants says.

"But how can you have no more growth? People have kids, for crying out loud."