The Mountlake Terrae City Council at its Thursday, Sept. 1 work/study session is scheduled to discuss a resolution to designate the Mountlake Terrace Town Center subarea for a multifamily property tax exemption program (MFTE).
The council has talked during previous meetings about the idea of offering such a tax exemption program for developers and decided at its Aug. 11 work/study session to move forward. The council also must hold a public hearing on the resolution prior to final approval.
The city plans to offer two MFTE programs: An eight-year program with no affordability requirement and a 12-year program offering 20% of units at 80% or greater of area median income (AMI).
Under the state-approved MFTE program, developers of multifamily projects can apply for a property tax exemption for an eight-year or 12-year period. The goal is to incentivize development, but cities can also require as part of the program that developments offer housing units that are below market rates.
In other business Thursday night, the council is scheduled to:
– review surplus public works vehicles
– discuss draft city code changes that would move all quasi-judicial decision making to a hearing examiner — typically a land use attorney with a background in land use law and legislation. A hearing examiner process is employed by most jurisdictions in the state for the review of quasi-judicial matters and is based on defined criteria, findings of fact, and conclusions of law, the council agenda notes.
The hybrid meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace City Hall, 23204 58th Ave. W., and can also be viewed virtually via Zoom at this meeting link.
To listen via telephone, call 1-253-215-8782 and enter the following meeting ID and passcode: Meeting ID 890 6332 0567 and Passcode 090122.
You can see the complete agenda here.
When I was a kid the population here was 25k. It’s now under 20k. The amount of city employees has probably grown 500%, You keep giving away free stuff that I have to pay for . The Edmonds school district is twice as bad, we have fewer schools because we have less students yet the admin group is humongous. You’re all progressive leaches that need to find productive jobs that produce more than taxes.
Mountlake Terrace has become a city that is only doing what the developers wishes! Where is the incentive for low-income housing? What is below market rate? $600K instead of $1 million? That is not affordable.
The city council has ‘talked’ about how important affordable housing is for years and have done nothing. Meanwhile, the current residents have increased costs in property taxes and utility costs. Our water bills have gone up by 200% and still rising as the city says that out water pipes need to be repaired or replaced. When and where is that happening? I see nothing being done except new infrastructure for new building and for the developers, yet again. I used to support the city council but now it has come to light that they are all about developers and NOT about the people that live here. MLT is becoming too expensive to live in for regular folks, like me, who are retired and have a limited income.
And what is the AMI? Most people that live here do not work here. Would be interesting to know.