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The Mountlake Terrace City Council during its Aug. 8 meeting approved a proposed reallocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for police station improvements.
The city received federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to help the city respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: $2,978,230 in 2021 and $2,981,139 in 2022. A total of $219,314.03 remains and must be allocated before the end of 2024. and entirely spent by the end of 2026.
Due to the cost of replacing the Mountlake Terrace Police Department roof and HVAC system, city staff recommended transferring $800,000 committed initially to replacing the Mountlake Terrace Library roof to the police department projects. The City of Mountlake Terrace owns and maintains the library building, while Sno-Isle Libraries maintain the equipment, books, media and database and pays for the staff.
The distribution of the funds is now as follows:
– Everyone Deserves to be Safe (Domestic Violence Services): $10,000
– Evergreen Playfield 3 turf and tennis court surface: $209,314.03
– Reallocation of library roof and HVAC to police department roof and HVAC: $800,000
City Manager Jeff Niten and Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz answered council questions, including one about the quality of the library’s roof, as it serves as the city’s cooling center during heat emergencies.
Betz said that the reports he received show that the library roof is functioning. However, like the police station, there are leaks in the winter that require repairs.
“We did hire a contractor that did a bunch of phase improvements,” Betz said. “They replaced a bunch of the concrete tile roof.”
Betz said that the city will “always have that work” just because the roof has multiple levels. Also, like the police department roof, the library roof “takes a beating” from tree branches.
However, the library has advantages over the police department. Betz said when the police station roof was built, there wasn’t a requirement for it to be insulated. The city is anticipating higher costs to meet the current building code requirements.
“Anything that you do, if you tear out any of the roof, and you have to lay down new insulation to that roof,” Betz said.
Another thing that the police department lacks is air conditioning. While the library is a dedicated public cooling and heating center, the police station uses a temporary AC unit. As a result, City Manager Jeff Niten said it iss “difficult to spend much time in that building” during warm-weather months.
The bid for work on the police station roof with HVAC installed was $1.5 million.
While Niten said “the bid was shocking to everyone,” he added that the police department building is still the best place to reallocate the funds. In addition to an updated HVAC system, the department will have an insulated roof that will help with heating and cooling efficiency and is built to current city codes.
In other business, the Mountlake Terrace City Council received an update on the middle housing codes from Senior Planner Jonathan Morales and Berk Consulting Senior Manager Ben Han.
Although the city has made significant progress in meeting Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) requirements by rezoning key areas, Mountlake Terrace is still 1,815 units shy of making its goal if the city takes no action.
The state requires cities and counties to thoroughly plan to increase middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing. This change in zoning would allow for middle or “missing” housing, such as stacked flats, townhouses, cottage homes, duplexes up to sixplexes, courtyard apartments and accessory dwelling units (ADU).
With a population below 25,000, Mountlake Terrace is ranked as a tier three city by the Washington State Department of Commerce. Under that designation, Mountlake Terrace must allow two dwelling units per lot or duplexes by June 30, 2025.
Under the GMA requirements, tier two cities must also have a minimum of four dwelling units per lot within a 0.25-mile walking distance near a major transit stop in a predominately residential zone. Further, a minimum of four dwelling units per lot if at least one unit is designated as affordable housing.
Han said that there is no minimum a city must adopt; however, once a city reaches a tier two population of over 25,000 people, it must adopt six of the nine housing topologies:
– Duplex, triplex, fourplex, fiveplex, sixplex
– Courtyard apartments
– Townhomes
– Cottage housing
– Stacked flats
Morales explained that the deficit projection comes from the city taking no action, which is one of three possible alternatives. The other two options – Alternative 2: supporting anticipated growth and housing demands and Alternative 3: exceeding growth and housing demands – would result in the city meeting its GMA target.
For housing, the current (baseline) number of units is 9,202, with a target of 16,816 by 2044. Taking no action would result in 15,070 housing units within the next 20 years. Meanwhile, Alternatives 2, with 19,141 units and 3, with 26,760, exceed the target number of units.
Similar results were seen for the city’s population. Mountlake Terrace’s population is 21,286, with a GMA target of 34,710 by 2044. With no action taken, the population would fall almost 4,000 short of the target population of 30,882. Alternatives 2 and 3 would result in a population exceeding the target number: Alternative 2 with 39,223 people and Alternative 3 with 54,837.
Currently, there is a baseline of 8,431 jobs in Mountlake Terrace, with a GMA target of 11,148. Even without taking action, it’s projected the city will have 12,870 jobs by 2044. Using Alternative 2, the city will have 13,796 jobs and there would be 15,274 jobs with Alternative 3.
Han said that without taking action on housing targets, the city would have a surplus of 1,587 homes to meet its low-income housing targets. However, there will be a deficit of 924 moderate-density, high-income housing units. There will be a deficit of 2,477 low-density single-family homes.
State statute does not require cities to plan for high-income capacity, Han noted, but they are required to show capacity for moderate income, and the city still needs to meet the target total.
One question that has been raised by city staff, the Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission and BERK is whether Mountlake Terrace wants to plan as if it already has tier two status, since the population will be over the 25,000-person threshold in the future.
The planning commission recommends the city do the following to reach GMA goals by 2044:
– Proceed with tier two guidance.
– Allow all nine listed middle housing typologies.
– Move forward with the three proposed changes to unit density.
– Remove lot size requirements for cottage housing in RS4800 and RS7200 zones.
– Move forward with all five proposed changes to infrastructure standards.
– Spend more time reviewing cottage housing regulations
The commission had mixed opinions about changing the city’s off-street parking requirements.
Project staff will continue working with the Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission on the draft for the middle housing ordinance and then return to the city council before June 30, 2025.
The next council meeting will start at 7 p.m., Aug. 15, at Mountlake Terrace City Hall, 23204 58th Ave. W., Mountlake Terrace.
To attend the meeting online, visit zoom.us/join and enter meeting ID 810 1113 9518; no passcode is needed.
To make a public comment remotely, complete the registration form within 24 hours of the meeting’s start at cityofmlt.com/FormCenter/City-Council-17/Remote-Public-Comment-Request-Form-12.
To listen via telephone, call 1-253-215-8782 and enter the same meeting ID.
You also can view live-streamed meetings and past video recordings at www.youtube.com/cityofmlt.
The agenda can be viewed here.
This article was corrected to reflect that the police station HVAC system bid was for $1.5 million.
— By Rick Sinnett
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