The northwestern portion boundaries of the proposed Maltby Urban Growth Area (UGA) expansion is marked with striped hash marks. The current UGA is in purple on the map.
Snohomish County graphic
MALTBY — The County Council couldn’t muster enough votes to override a veto from Executive Dave Somers that halted a council-created expansion of the Maltby Urban Growth Area (UGA). They also discussed the veto of another UGA in southwest county.
On Maltby, the council last week voted 3-2 to override and mark these areas for growth, which wasn’t enough votes to override the veto. The rule is the council must give a 4-1 or 5-0 to override a veto.
Council members Strom Peterson and Megan Dunn gave "no" votes. Council members Sam Low, Jared Mead and Nate Nehring voted yes.
The Maltby expansion proposed to add 255 acres by two noncontiguous growths. It grows the UGA to include Turner’s Corner at state Route 9 and Maltby Road, and also grows it southeastward to include more of 240th Street SE.
Somers had vetoed the Maltby expansion because he wrote the expansion is not necessary to meet the county’s growth targets and because the UGA could interrupt another zoning plan for the Turner’s Corner area up and down Highway 9.
Consultant Clay White, a former county planning director, testified in favor of the Maltby expansion. He said not expanding the UGA will hurt the Northshore School District, which could force putting future schools on septic systems. That’s because the school district south of Snohomish had a settlement with the City of Woodinville to not connect to sewer unless the school location was inside an urban growth area, according to White. The settlement was tied to the opposition from the Wellington development, which for one argued to halt the development because no school is in the pipeline.
The Northshore School District did not get back to the Tribune by press time to answer which future schools may be impacted.
The Maltby UGA was established in 1995, primarily along the 522 corridor.
Meanwhile, overriding Somers’ veto of the southwest county expansion for the Sunset Road area of Bothell also appeared to fail with a vote of 3-2, below the needed supermajority.
