EVERETT — City planners are considering a move that will encourage more multifamily development along North Broadway, and they are reaching out to residents of the nearby Northwest and Delta neighborhoods for feedback.
A neighborhood meeting is scheduled Thursday to solicit opinion on a proposed exemption from property taxes for multifamily housing development in the corridor.
The exemption is allowed under state law to encourage the development of more housing. It would last for 12 years if a development contains at least 20 percent affordable housing units, or eight years if it doesn’t.
The city council would ultimately have to approve the change, but the city staff wanted to approach the neighborhoods first before creating a new policy, said Allan Giffen, Everett’s director of planning and community development.
The area in question includes the blocks on either side of North Broadway stretching from 13th Street up to approximately Seventh Street.
It includes the somewhat derelict College Plaza shopping center, which only has a few small businesses remaining, and which is owned by Everett Community College, plus a small building on the corner of 10th Street and Little Broadway used for student housing.
“Part of what’s driving this is that the college has an interest in increasing the amount of student housing,” said Pat Sisneros, the college’s vice president of college services.
That lone student dorm, the Lona Vista Apartments, has 20 units housing 36 students, plus a full-time residence director.
“We think we need somewhere between 150 and 250 units over the next 10 years,” Sisneros said.
About half of those residents would be expected to be international students, he added.
The old shopping center is also a prime target for redevelopment. Washington State University has a plan to build a 95,000-square-foot academic building for its North Puget Sound campus on the parking lot of College Plaza.
WSU’s plan is currently included in Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget proposal awaiting action by the Legislature, Sisneros said.
Giffen said the area around the shopping center hasn’t had the density or disposable income to support a viable retail center.
“The fact that WSU is planning for a presence on the east side there makes Broadway logical for putting in multifamily housing,” Giffen said.
The impetus for seeking the property tax exemption came from Teutsch Partners Real Estate Services, a Seattle firm that owns the Lona Vista Apartments, Giffen said.
Whether that developer would seek to expand the 1960s-era Lona Vista or build elsewhere is not known, Giffen said. No plans or applications have been filed with the city, he added.
Teutsch partner John Walker did not return a call Friday.
But seeking the property tax exemption is commonplace for developers.
“Every housing project that has been built in the downtown in the last 10 years, they’ve said they could not have done it without the tax exemption,” Giffen said.
Giffen added that rather than confine the change to the single property, the city saw the advantage of using the tax exemption to spur the redevelopment of a larger section of Broadway.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
Neighborhood meeting
A meeting for residents of the Northwest and Delta neighborhoods will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15 to gather feedback on a proposed property tax exemption for multifamily housing for a part of North Broadway. The meeting will be held in room 105 of Whitehorse Hall on the Everett Community College campus. For more information, contact Allan Giffen, director of planning for the City of Everett, at 425-257-8731 or agiffen@everettwa.gov.
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