Snoqualmie is on the first step of a four-step process for annexing the old Snoqualmie mill site, home of the Old Mill Adventure Park and Dirtfish Rally Driving School, but likely to move to the second step soon. Following public hearings tonight and next Monday, July 11, the Snoqualmie City Council will have met its legal obligations for gathering community input on proposed zoning changes for the annexation.

“I do not know when the council will consider adoption of the ordinance,” City Attorney Pat Anderson told the city’s Economic Development Commission at its June 22 meeting. “I would be surprised if it happened on July 11, but it could.”

Anderson briefed the commission on each step of the annexation process, and said, “If any one of these steps doesn’t pass, we’re all done.”

Following the zoning changes, the city and current property owners must agree on terms in a pre-annexation agreement, which is posted on the city website, “but we have not started the process for consideration of it.” Next is an interlocal agreement between the city of Snoqualmie and King County agreeing to the annexation, and finally, the city council must approve the annexation ordinance after the required hearings.

Zoning changes proposed would limit the property to no more than two large-scale events (such as the Global RallyCross race in April) of two days or less each year. Terms in the pre-annexation agreement specify that there can be no race track on the property, and Anderson said the representatives of the Weyerhauser and mill properties included in the annexation will have to agree to the terms, as well as Ultimate Ralley Adventures, which operates the driving school on the property.