More than a decade ago when Covington’s city limits were drawn a large chunk of property on the northern edge was left out — now a pair of property owners are working with the city to figure out how to bring it back in.

Known for years as the Northern Notch, the 272 acre chunk of land bounded by state Route 18 and Southeast Wax Road to the south and north then 180th Avenue Southeast on the west, has been on the city of Covington’s potential annexation area list known as PAA No. 4.

Covington’s Community Development Director Richard Hart explained one of the property owners, BranBar, has tried unsuccessfully to get King County to bring the area into the urban growth boundary.

This is the first thing that would need to happen before Covington could annex the land into the city limits.

“We can’t even consider annexing it into the city until it’s in the urban growth area,” said Covington Senior Planner Ann Mueller. “And let’s say the county approves the change to expanding the urban growth boundary, it’s still King County zoning. So, we would have to annex it.”

BranBar is a family business, owned and operated by Covington resident Barry Anderson and his sons, and Anderson has requested support from the Covington City Council.

“All these times Barry has gone to the city seeking letters of support to the county of bringing this into the urban growth area,” Hart said. “The last time he came to the city was last May. We gave the county four options.”

What the county suggested the city do, Hart said, was to do a land use study and future zoning analysis for the property which Covington staff is now calling the Northern Gateway.

Because the county’s Department of Design and Environmental Services will be reviewing whatever proposal the city comes up with — with the help of the property owners, a consultant as well as public input — county staff told Covington staff it would be best for DDES not to participate in this phase.

Hart said once the city and county’s roles were defined the community development staff came up with a to do list. There was a need for an economic study, to evaluate infrastructure, and to determine whether the city needed more land for development of additional retail, office and other commercial uses.

This plan was presented to the Covington City Council at its retreat in January. The council gave staff the nod to move forward.

“We then went and talked to Barry about the costs, how do we fund this analysis,” Hart said. “At the same time we went and had discussions with the property owners across the way.”

That chunk of land, 200 acres, is leased out to Lakeside Industries and is owned by the Hawks, Hart said. Of the 200, 120 acres are in the city, so that leaves 80 acres the Hawks want to annex.

Unlike the 272 acres, of which BranBar owns 60, it is within the urban growth boundary. Like the other chunk of property it is on Covington’s potential annexation area list. Because the smaller chunk is already within the urban growth area so all that is required is a petition of annexation from the property owners. That would be followed by an eight month process by the City Council which would include public hearings and a determination of zoning classification for the land, Hart explained.

And like Anderson the owners of that property want to be annexed into the city.

“So, we decided to do both at the same time,” Hart said. “It’s not an inexpensive study. We don’t have the staff or the expertise to do it on our own. Normally when this sort of thing is brought into the city… the cost is generally borne by the developers who are interested in potentially annexing.”

Both property owners, Hart said, would be willing to participate by financially supporting the analysis of the Northern Gateway suggested by the city and county. The city will manage the project.

Then the city put together a request for proposals which was issued Feb. 29 and will be open for three weeks.

If the city receives a proposal that the developers are willing to pay for, Hart said, then staff will proceed with the first phase which will be an economic analysis and should take about four months.

“One of the components of the first phase is to have a public meeting,” Mueller said. “Also the first phase is finding out the baseline for the property and then the second and third phases will look at the vision of what the property will look like. Our whole goal is to have someone unbiased come in and do the study… with prior experience in urban growth boundary expansion and economic analysis.”

That phase should be complete by the time the county begins deliberating on comprehensive plan amendments, a process it undertakes every four years, in the fall.

“Hopefully we can give the information to King County and take that as part of their discussions and give us their decision, favorably or unfavorably, about whether to put this in the urban growth boundary,” Hart said. “Not everybody who is within the 272 acres wants to be in the city limits of Covington. We have discovered that some do and some don’t over the years.”

That being said, if Covington is able to annex it at some point Hart said, “it would be in the best interest of the city to bring it all in at one time.”

BranBar lobbied the County Council in September 2008 to bring the area into the urban growth boundary but the effort was voted down.

In December 2007, the Andersons were looking at putting big box businesses on the site, maybe a home improvement store or other large commercial ventures. Over the course of the next year BranBar tweaked its proposal but the amount of opposition among other property owners in the Northern Gateway area was enough to persuade the County Council to not bring it into the urban growth boundary area in 2008.

BranBar initially purchased its 60 acres in two chunks, one in 2002, the second in 2003.

Hart said city staff has heard concerns about what will happen to Jenkins Creek, which runs through the property, among other issues.

“The city has excellent critical areas protection (codes) that will protect Jenkins Creek,” Hart said. “There are lot of parties to this that are interested and want to see the best thing for the land.”

The matter immediately at hand, however, will be the proposals for the study of the Northern Gateway.

Hart explained the city will evaluate the proposals it gets, interview the finalists and then select one, that is if the property owners agree to the costs.

“As part of that study we will have our first public meeting to explain what we’re going through, to hear their concerns about changing the urban growth boundary and eventual annexation,” Hart said. “Then we will put together a package and send it to King County that will, depending on the outcome of the study, state whether it supports bringing the land into the urban growth area.”

If the Northern Gateway is brought into the urban growth area, Hart said, there could be some potential development there which may not fit elsewhere in the city.

“We’ve had discussions with developers who say ‘We’ve had big box retailers who want to come to Covington,’ but our downtown plan doesn’t allow for that now,” he said. “We have no room for any future large like commercial development… things like Lowe’s and Target. To place those uses downtown would only exacerbate existing traffic issues. We have a demand for future big box development but we have no place to put it.”

Ultimately, though, the decision is up to King County on whether the property should be part of the urban growth boundary and ultimately part of the city of Covington.