Fairwood, King County, Washington

Fairwood is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in King County, Washington, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 19,102.

Geography

Fairwood is located at (47.447062, -122.143586), southeast of downtown Seattle. The Fairwood CDP is bordered to the north and west by the city of Renton and to the east by the Maple Heights-Lake Desire CDP, which shares a ZIP Code (Renton's 98058) with Fairwood. Population and demographic statistics in this article are only for the Fairwood CDP, not the larger mailing area.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of .

The Fairwood area occupies a plateau which extends from the bluffs of the Cedar River valley on the north down toward State Route 167 and the Kent Valley on the west.

Climate

Fairwood's climate features cool/mild wet winters and dry summers. The warmest month of the year is July, and the coldest is December.

Autumn, winter, and spring are frequently characterized by rain in the Seattle area, while the summers are fairly dry and warm by comparison. Fairwood's location closer to downslope winds from the Cascade Range means it can get fairly hot in the summers. An exception to the damp weather occurs in El Niño years when the Seattle area stays fairly dry.
Fairwood typically receives some snowfall on an annual basis, but heavy snow is rare.

Geographic location

Parks and recreation

The following parks and recreation areas are within the Fairwood CDP:
* Fairwood Golf & Country Club – A large 18 hole golf course located in the Fairwood Greens neighborhood. It features 6,316 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 71. The country club includes a heated 8-lane junior Olympic sized pool, and fitness gym.
* Petrovitsky Park – Located just north of Petrovitsky Rd, an 88-acre park with 4 baseball fields and soccer fields, a playground, and picnic areas.

Other areas outside the CDP but still considered within the Fairwood area are:
* Spring Lake / Lake Desire Park – Located in eastern Fairwood between Lake Desire and Spring Lake. It features an 11-mile backcountry trail for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking.
* Soos Creek Trail and Park – In western Fairwood, home to a large riparian habitat great for birdwatching of ducks, song birds, and raptors. The 12 mile long Soos Creek trail was extended up to Fairwood in the late 2000s.
* McGarvey Park – Features a 1.2 mile hiking trail up Cedar Mountain (Echo Mountain) through evergreen forest, passing over Peterson Creek. It has views of Mount Rainier on the summit of Cedar Mountain.
* Cedar River Trail – North of the Fairwood plateau the trail hugs the winding Cedar River from Renton to Maple Valley.

Education

The Fairwood CDP is served by two school districts, Renton and Kent. The Tahoma School District covers parts of the Fairwood ZIP code area that are within the neighboring Maple Heights-Lake Desire CDP.

Schools serving the Fairwood area are:

High schools

* Lindbergh High School
*Kentridge High School

Middle schools

* Nelsen Middle School
*Meeker Middle School
*Northwood Middle School

Elementary schools

*Renton Park ES
*Carriage Crest ES
*Cascade Elementary
*Fairwood ES
*Glenridge ES
*Lake Youngs ES
*Ridgewood ES
*Springbrook ES
*Shadow Lake Elementary
*Benson Hill ES

Major roads

There are three major arterials that run through Fairwood. Petrovitsky Road runs east/west through Fairwood's commercial core and many of its neighborhoods. It stretches from downtown Renton, near the Boeing Renton Factory, and Boeing Commercial Aviation; where many Fairwood residents work, to Maple Valley, winding through the rural timberland, ranches, and farms of eastern Fairwood. 140th Avenue runs north/south adjacent to the Fairwood shopping centers and Soos Creek. It stretches from Maple Valley highway on the north and leads 9 miles to Green River Community College by way of Kent's east hill. State Route 169 (Maple Valley highway) on the northern end of Fairwood provides short access to Interstate 405.

Public safety

Fairwood fire protection and emergency medical services are provided by Fire Districts 40 and 37. The Fire District 40 station is located on Petrovitsky Road in the center of Fairwood. The King County Sheriff provides policing services to the area.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 19,102 people, 7,101 households, and 5,235 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 3,927 people per square mile (1,516.4/km²). There were 7,367 housing units, of which 266, or 3.6%, were vacant. The racial makeup of the CDP was 65.3% White, 7.4% African American, 0.5% Native American, 17.6% Asian, 0.6% Pacific Islander, 2.4% some other race, and 6.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.5% of the population.

Of the 7,101 households, 37.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.5% were headed by married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.3% were non-families. 19.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.7% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68, and the average family size was 3.10.

In the CDP, 24.6% of the population were under the age of 18, 7.6% were from 18 to 24, 28.0% were from 25 to 44, 29.6% were from 45 to 64, and 10.3% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.3 years. For every 100 females there were 97.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.1 males.

For the period 2013-17, the estimated median annual income for a household in the CDP was $93,810, and the median income for a family was $102,333. Male full-time workers had a median income of $67,019 versus $49,907 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $41,134. About 3.5% of families and 4.8% of the total population were below the poverty line, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Residents are employed at a slightly higher rate than the rest of the County and the median income is $85,000 (versus $69,000 for King County). More than half of the workers in the Fairwood area work in south King County with less than a 30-minute commute. A significant number of Fairwood workers are in professional, management and sales jobs (70%).

Politics

On the national level, Cascade-Fairwood leans towards candidates of the Democratic Party. Democrat John Kerry received about 56 percent of the vote in 2004 to Republican George W. Bush's 43 percent. Despite this, there are a number of pockets where the Republican Party often wins marginal majorities.

The Cascade area (approximately a population of 17,000), which included much of unincorporated Benson Hill north of SE 200 Street and west of 128th Avenue SE, voted to be annexed by the city of Renton in 2007, effective March 1, 2008. The remaining unincorporated area of King County, which is primarily the Fairwood community, has the option of annexing to the city of Renton or incorporating as a city.

In February 2005, the Fairwood Task Force filed a Notice of Intent to Incorporation with King County, to establish a new City of Fairwood. This attempt to incorporate was narrowly defeated in the election held on September 19, 2006. In that election, 48.22% of the votes were for incorporation; a swing of only 136 votes in the election would have changed the result.

The process to form a City of Fairwood was restarted by the Fairwood Municipal Initiative when it filed another Notice of Proposed Incorporation with King County, Washington on April 16, 2007. As of October 2008, the incorporation effort is now under the jurisdiction of the King County Boundary Review Board (BRB) and a consulting firm hired by the BRB is conducting an economic feasibility study for the proposed city of Fairwood.

On November 3, 2009 Proposition 1 to incorporate a city of Fairwood failed again, as it did in 2006.

Efforts are also ongoing to annex the Fairwood area into the city of Renton. Additionally, the Red Mill area of the Fairwood PAA is presently undertaking a separate petition-method annexation.

On November 2, 2010, 57.6% of voters voted against a proposition to annex Fairwood to Renton.

References

{{Washington

Census-designated places in King County, Washington