LFP Council holding Town Center and multifamily tax-exemption program Public Hearings February 25

LFP City Council to hold two public hearing at its Thursday council meeting

At its regular meeting on Thursday, February 25, 2021, the Lake Forest Park City Council is holding two public hearings as part of the Town Center Code and Design Guidelines update.

The meeting begins at 7:00pm and will be held virtually, via Zoom. Click here for the agenda and Zoom participation information. Public hearings are held at the beginning of the meeting, very close to the 7:00pm meeting start time.

The first public hearing is to consider proposed amendments to the Lake Forest Park Municipal Code (LFPMC) and Design Guidelines Pertaining to the Town Center Zone (Ord. 1217) and Related Regulations in the LFPMC for Development Agreements (Ord. 1218), Off-street Parking (Ord. 1219), Screening and Landscaping (Ord. 1220), and Multifamily Tax Exemption (Ord. 1221).

The second public hearing concerns a proposed designation of Residential Targeted Areas for a Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program (see Ord. 1221) within the City limits.

The Council has been working on the Town Center code and design guidelines update in response to the Sound Transit 3 project, and is approaching the end of the process, with a plan to approve the update before the current moratorium on Town Center development expires on March 31, 2021.

Under state law, cities are allowed to provide for exemptions from value-based property taxes, on the qualified multifamily housing developments in order to stimulate the construction of new, rehabilitated, or converted multifamily housing within “Residential Targeted Areas.” 

These are known as Multi-family Tax Exemption (MFTE) programs. 

As part of the Town Center code and design guidelines process, the Council is considering the adoption of such a program within the City, designating four areas as “Residential Targeted Areas”: Town Center, Southern Gateway—Corridor, RM-900 Residential Multifamily, and RM-1800 zones. 

Owners of property within areas designated as Residential Targeted Areas would be able to apply for the MFTE.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend the public hearings and provide comments to the Council.

If you would like to sign up to speak at the meeting ahead of time or find out how to submit written comments for the public hearings, click here. There will also be an opportunity during the hearings for attendees to use the “raise a hand” feature in Zoom and get in the speakers’ queues for these hearings.