Proposed changes would gentrify city of Snohomish

Published 1:30 am Monday, February 15, 2021

In early 2020, Snohomish Mayor John Kartak appointed a 15 member midtown planning task force to recommend to the council a rezone of the 9-acre former county public works yard on Bonneville Avenue and the adjacent mobile home park.

The task force conducted several virtual meetings with little public attendance or comment.

Now city staff has written a draft memorandum for the task force asking them for approval of several critical changes that will only increase gentrification, uproot all the residents of the mobile home park, and increase the burden on all existing real estate property taxpayers in the city.

Specifically, the memorandum recommended a “multi-family” property tax exemption for developers, with no strings attached, just like the city allows in the so-called “blighted” Pichuck District.

Real estate property taxes are “budget-based,” meaning every taxing district gets the same amount of revenue every year. For every dollar given up in the form of an exemption means every remaining non-exempt property owner must aggregately make up the difference so each taxing district still gets the same amount of revenue. More exemptions causes more burden on the non-exempt property owners.

Additionally, the memorandum recommends a high-density upzone from current medium density plus it wants building heights to increase from three stories to five stories. This will ruin the character of small town Snohomish. Snohomish is not Mill Creek. ( The city hired retired Mill Creek planning director, Bill Trimm, to facilitate and steer the task force meetings and provide his opinion).

Morgan Davis

Snohomish