Bothell council votes to donate downtown lot for affordable housing
Friday, July 19, 2024
By Oliver Moffat
At the July 16 meeting, the Bothell City Council voted 5 to 2 in favor of donating a downtown lot to Bothell United Methodist Church for affordable housing.
Bothell spent roughly $20.6 million starting in 2009 to buy 18 acres in downtown from the Northshore School District. Since then, the city has sold eight properties for more than $28.8 million. The city still owns a number of lots downtown including the 1.67 acre lot known as P-South a block from Pop Keeney Stadium.
As previously reported, instead of selling P-South for a profit, the city intends to donate the land to Bothell United Methodist Church (BUMC) to be developed into affordable housing.
According to the plan, BUMC will lease the land to BRIDGE Housing (the developers building affordable housing at the Northgate Transit Station). The building will have 200 units of affordable housing, human services, job training, and community space.
Mayor Mason Thompson spoke in support of the project.
“Over 99 years, 200 units: this will help thousands of people with one of the biggest needs we have in our community… And it will make Bothell a more welcoming city, a more vibrant city,” he said.
“I’m really excited to see this project in the ground because I think this is the kind of impact that's worth us investing in. Especially when it's with a local partner that has been around since before Bothell was Bothell,” said Thompson.
Council member Jeanne Zornes opposed the donation. “We've been told that there is interest in buying this property for $10 million. This is a generous give from the city and I have heard no gratitude, no ‘thank yous,’” she said.
Council member Benjamin Mahnkey also voted against the proposal over concerns the project would take too long or fail. “A five year timeline for shovels to hit the ground does concern me a lot. It's going to be an empty vacant property in its current state during this time. There's no guarantee that funding will be obtained.”
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5 comments:
By affordable they mean studio apartments for $2800/month. Not affordable. It's just more tax dollars going to rich land developers. Nothing "affordable" is going to be built.
This is a misinformation tactic to claim that affordable housing would be studio apartments for $2800. As a resident of Bothell I welcome any effort to build affordable housing as I have experienced the housing prices in the downtown apartments myself and they are astronomical considering the lack of restaurants and things to do in the area. I think the bigger issue that people should be concerned about is the lack of parking that the Bothell City Council has allowed to happen here.
BOO! How about building apartments, that are truly affordable, what ever partnership is needed to make it work. 200 units, 2BD 2 BT around $1000 to $1500 a month, that is close to the term affordable as you can get! Also here is a thought, give some of the land on and around the Slew, to the indigenous people such as the stick people and other independent tribes that lived there at onetime until they were all rounded up and removed from there land. I would love to see a long house built, there and maybe a small fish hatchery. Talk about tourism, Wow. Can you imagine Salmon cooked over an open fire like the people of that day did it. And maybe the city gets say 10%. Come on City of Bothell, start doing the rite things. And if you plan to continue build these 4 to 6 story boxes, at least take the greed out and make them truly affordable. Thank You
I think this speculation of $2,800 a month is pretty ridiculous. In WA, for something to be termed “affordable”, it is supposed to be less that 30% of a household’s income and Bothell has its own zoning requirements. Do you have a source for that figure or are you just saying things because it is the internet and you don’t feel responsible for being fact-based?
Gifting? why are they gifting citizen’s money while our kids study in portables in schools? This isn’t right.
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