The city of Bothell will hold an open house concerning the proposed annexation of nine designated north King County areas to Bothell.

The meeting will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Oct. 17 at Northshore Junior High School Library at 12101 NE 160th St. The nine annexation areas include North Westhill, Maywood Island, Westhill Island North, South and East, Magnolia Dairy/South Westhill, South Norway Hill/160th, Hillside Estates and North Bloomberg Hill and will pertain to about 6,000 residents.

The purpose of this open house is to update interested citizens on the status of the proposed annexation. The Bothell City Council initiated exploration of annexation in 2010. Based on citizen input during that year, the council affirmed its direction in 2011 to pursue annexation via interlocal agreement method (ILA), as provided in state law. Since then, the city has been negotiating the agreement with King County, the Northshore Fire Department and Woodinville Fire & Rescue.

The Bothell City Council, the King County Council, the Northshore Fire Department Board of Commissioners and the Woodinville Fire & Rescue Board of Commissioners have now all approved an annexation ILA that provides for the comprehensive transition of services from the county and the fire districts to the city.

King County Council was the final partner to adopt the agreement, unanimously approving the ILA on Sept. 3.

Some of the main points to the agreement for residents are:

• Property taxes would be lower in Bothell than in unincorporated King County, because the Bothell municipal tax rate of $1.54 per $1,000 of assessed valuation replaces the combined county road tax and fire district tax rates of $3.25 per $1,000 assessed valuation. Even after factoring in the city’s utility taxes, the owner of a typical house assessed at $300,000 would save between $245 and $262 per year if annexed to Bothell.

• Addresses would stay the same. The vast majority of properties in the annexation areas have Bothell addresses, but a small number have Kirkland or Woodinville addresses. These would not change with annexation. If, following annexation, citizens in those areas were to ask to change to a Bothell address, the city would conduct public outreach to determine support for the idea, but it is not automatic.

Details of the agreement may be found on the city’s annexation website at www.ci.bothell.wa.us/annexation.