145th Station Committee: report on panel discussion on property values and taxes in station rezone areas

By Robin Lombard, Co-chair 145th Street Citizens Committee

More than 80 people (including two council members and a member of the planning commission) showed up for this panel discussion – quite a big turnout for the holiday season. I think that shows just how important this issue is to many Shoreline homeowners.

Each of the three volunteer panelist groups gave a short presentation. We had more than an hour of Q/A before closing the meeting at 8:45.

My top takeaways:

From the King County Assessor’s Office representative Philip Sit, I learned that rezoning alone will not necessarily increase my property taxes. Taxes do not grow directly in proportion to the value of your property. There are a lot of variables involved, and assessment for tax purposes is a complex process. Also, almost 50% of our taxes in Shoreline are due to local assessments (schools, bond levies, etc.). We can all learn more about assessments here. His presentation will be posted on the city website soon (I’ll send out a link when they post it).

From Norm Strickland, who is an appraiser and principal at North Coast Realty Advisors, LLC, I learned that larger parcels of land will be worth more per square foot than smaller parcels. That is, a property is worth more if it is assembled with adjacent properties. That’s because a developer needs a relatively large parcel to build housing of the sort proposed in our neighborhoods (10,000 sq ft minimum for an apartment building). Norm did not have a formal presentation, but he spoke from a lifetime of living and working in the area.

From Henry Goss and Shelley Thompson of Windermere Shoreline, I learned that developers and investors are already buying up homes in the area. Their advice was to think about how things might come together in the future. A developer has to make a profit. It’s important to start understanding the process of how the neighborhood will change over time. 

Lots of people expressed their thoughts in the Q/A portion. The main themes I heard discussed:

• How to prevent blight/ensure positive change? Hard to compare with other station areas
• What happens to taxes when the city re-zones/ implements minimum density? Tax values are based on past sales prices
• Is this an aggressive re-zone? Lots of discussion on this point – it was kind of a hot potato
• What if neighbors don’t want to bundle property/sell with neighbors? No one knows the full implications
• Why isn’t re-zone subject to a plebiscite (a direct vote by citizens)? Another hot potato

Volunteer Yoshiko Saheki did a great job recruiting the volunteer panelists and putting this together. She tried but was unable to convince a developer to be part of the panel.

The King County Assessor’s site has a lot of information and videos and will have a page in January that will allow us to see if/ when developers are applying for permits in the station areas.

Next up:

The 145th Station Subarea Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is set to be released in mid-January. There will be a 30-day comment period. There are several meetings where we can learn more (The 145thSCC will have two meetings to learn more about this and provide feedback to the city):

• December 18: Planning Commission meeting (agenda item) - Outstanding Issues for 185th Subarea Plan and Planned Action. Updated developer codes will be discussed.
• January 21: Community Forum (hosted by the Shoreline Preservation Society) at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Church at 14724 1st Ave, NE. This promises to be another lively panel session.
• January 22: 145th SCC Jan meeting (7-9 pm at Bethel Lutheran Church, 17418 8th Ave, NE). Details to come.
• February 5: Open house (hosted by 145th SCC) and Planning Commission meeting (6-9pm City Council Chambers). Details to come.

145thSCC Facebook page

145th Street Station Page (City of Shoreline)