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Redmond waives developers' fees for affordable housing project
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
By CANDACE HECKMAN
REDMOND -- Council members last night approved a $1.6 million waiver of development fees for an affordable housing project in the Overlake section of town.
City planners recommended the fee breaks after King County and a private developer, Langly Associates, struck a final deal earlier this year to build 300 rental apartments for lower-income households near the Microsoft campus and Bellevue border.
The apartment complex is a test project for the county's Transit Oriented Development program, which is promoting new home and business construction to coincide with mass-transit routes.
According to the project description, apartment homes would be built atop an existing 5-acre park-and-ride lot, creating underground and covered parking spaces on 152nd Avenue Northeast.
The Overlake site is within walking and biking distance of hundreds of jobs in Redmond and Bellevue.
Officials hope that the project will provide affordable housing in the city and cut down on traffic woes, said Tim Trohimovich, Redmond's comprehensive planning division manager.
The complex will have a child day care center, and residents may get Metro bus passes.
The Redmond Council approved the waiver 5-2 last night.
The fees would normally be paid to offset the effect a project would have on city parks, transportation, fire and sewer systems. The $1.6 million represents less than 1 percent of the city's budget, planners said.
In the city's 20-year housing plan of 1993, Redmond could have built about 530 affordable units by now.
Instead, to fulfill its affordable housing requirements, Redmond, along with its wealthy neighbors, has been paying a group that finances projects in other areas.
So far, Redmond has kicked in $1.6 million to the Regional Coalition for Housing fund -- the same amount it was expected to waive in fees yesterday, Trohimovich said.
He added that the Redmond community, although willing to pay for projects elsewhere, wants low-cost housing within its borders to keep income diversity.
As prices stand now, that goal is hard to reach.
"It's been a problem, and it's getting much worse," Scott Noble, King County tax assessor, said about the lack of affordable housing on the Eastside.
Average rent in Redmond is about $1,000 per month, ranging from studios in the high-$700 range to three-bedroom apartment homes going for a little more than $1,300.
The average home assessment in Redmond this year is $246,200. In Bellevue, it is $304,400.
But because property is assessed two years in advance, those values are below market, Noble said.
And with county revaluations beginning this year, officials say the figures are expected to go even higher.
P-I reporter Candace Heckman can be reached at 206-448-8346 or candaceheckman@seattle-pi.com
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