State cities among the nation’s fastest-growing

OLYMPIA – Several places in Washington state made the Census list of fastest-growing cities in the nation. In most cases, annexation – not population explosion – is fueling the growth.

The Census on Wednesday released its 2003 population estimates for cities and towns.

Overall, Washington state grew about 1.1 percent between 2002 and 2003, the state’s slowest population growth rate since 1986.

The tiny town of Roy, near Fort Lewis in Pierce County, seemed to buck the trend by growing 152 percent during that year.

That makes Roy, population 692, the fourth-fastest-growing city in the nation.

Roy annexed two housing developments, Oakview Heights and McKenna Meadows, to more than double its population. Roy Clerk-Treasurer Betty Garrison said she believes the Census Bureau undercounted Roy to begin with in 1999.

She went door to door to make her own count, which was about a third higher.

Garrison said the annexation has been good for Roy, and several new Roy citizens have already joined the city council.

The next-fastest-growing city in the state is Snoqualmie, where the population swelled by 70 percent in 2003, to 4,742.

The city, about 30 miles east of Seattle, annexed 1,300 acres of former Weyerhaeuser land in 1995.

The old logging land is now home to Snoqualmie Ridge, a planned community that will eventually contain more than 2,200 houses.

Snoqualmie was 15th on the national list.

On the other hand, some towns and cities are shrinking.

The population of Cathlamet, in southwest Washington, shrank 2 percent in 2003.

Roslyn and North Bend, both small towns along Interstate 90, each lost 1 percent of their populations.

The largest cities in the state saw almost no change in population in 2003.

Seattle, the state’s largest city with a population of about 569,000, shrank by .03 percent. In the horse race to claim the title of Washington’s second-largest city, Tacoma was ahead by a nose with a population of 196,800, a decrease of .29 percent. No. 3 Spokane’s population grew by .23 percent, to 196,600.

Vancouver’s population grew 1.33 percent, to nearly 151,700.

Yakima grew .31 percent, to 80,200.