As Kirkland City Council members have not made any decisions, their Bothell counterparts essentially had their minds made up for them, according to Bothell City Manager Bob Stowe.

“They have effectively required us to back off,” Stowe said, regarding Kirkland leadership.

At a recent Bothell council meeting, the city administration recommended legislators drop the notion of possibly annexing the so-called SOBA (South of Bothell Annexation) area that sits between Bothell and Kirkland.

Kirkland has first dibs on the land and would have to release its hold in order for Bothell officials to have any chance at claiming the area for the themselves.

Nevertheless, Bothell City Hall began considering whether it might be interested in the area last year after being approached by King County Executive Ron Sims. At this point, however, according to Stowe, Kirkland officials have given no indication they are ready to walk away from the SOBA.

Stowe has long said if Bothell were to act in regard to the SOBA, local officials would need to begin moving in that direction by the end of March. Outlined by Assistant City Manager Steven Anderson, needed steps would include a public outreach campaign; submittal to the King County Boundary Review Board of a formal Notice of Intention to annex the area; and, set a date for an election in the SOBA.

In order to make the annexation attractive, all those actions would need to be completed in time for the city to take advantage of annexation sales-tax incentives currently being dangled by the state, incentives which have a rapidly approaching expiration date.

With the southern annexation largely dead, Stowe said officials will take a harder look at annexing the so-called NEWBA (North East West Bothell Annexation) area. Stowe said he expects the city to have a potential and required interlocal agreement with Snohomish County in hand by mid-May, at which time local legislators will be in a good position to again take up the annexation issue.

Just as with the SOBA annexation, the city would need to mount a public election in the targeted spot, which sits north of the city adjacent to the Canyon Park area. If the city decides to pursue the annexation, Stowe said he’d like to see any vote take place late this year or early next year. If voters gave the annexation a thumbs up, he then wants a one-year delay between the election and Bothell’s taking formal control of the NEWBA.

Stowe said that year would allow the city time to “ramp up” city services in order to meet the needs of the NEWBA.

NEWBA resident Gene Grieve has been a highly vocal advocate for adding the NEWBA to Bothell, largely because of what he sees as a strong need for increased services. But Grieve also argues the NEWBA is a natural extension of Bothell and, more specifically, the annexation of Canyon Park in 1992.

“We are historically, socially and economically tied to Bothell,” Grieve said.

Grieve said he understands why Bothell officials decided they had to look south when approached by Sims. While he clearly favors Bothell moving north, he said City Council actually was under an obligation to consider all its potential options. But now that the SOBA essentially is off the table, he also hopes steps to annex the NEWBA will move forward more quickly.

Stowe has said that annexation of the either the NEWBA or the SOBA makes financial sense, but advised City Council not try to take on both areas. There are some unincorporated spots to the south of the city over which Kirkland does not have the first say. Stowe said council will continue to study those locations for possible annexation to the city.