Letters to the Editor

Development

Clarifying the City Revitalization Plan

Dear Citizens,

We are writing you to inform you that the recent petition in support of “the reasonable guidelines instituted by the City of Mountlake Terrace” (emphasis added) has seriously flawed information. We would like to share the following to clarify the record:

A) Development limited to three stories. Our current ordinance restricts building height to three stories; there is no development taking place. Under the current proposal, the majority of the downtown, or 85.5 percent of the area, would be between one and four stories, while the remaining 14.5 percent would be between five and 10 stories.

B) Adequate parking for each unit. Two parking spaces per unit is standard in our present city codes. It would not be feasible nor reasonable to include more, especially since the focus is to reduce vehicular traffic, not increase it.

C) Open debate and vote before a new city hall is built. A city hall is not included as part of the City Revitalization Plan. The council has requested options for a new city hall; however, we are still evaluating financing options. We expect to have options for a new City Hall in 2007 once the vision of our downtown is approved. Options may include rebuilding a new City Hall on the Civic Center site or perhaps someplace in the downtown area. This is a separate issue, and should not be confused with the City Revitalization Plan.

Furthermore, the revitalization of the Town Center as proposed will allow commercial redevelopment that will reduce the tax burden of the Mountlake Terrace residents.

The City is NOT undertaking the Town Center development; it is only providing the plan and codes to allow that development. Remember, whatever development is done is not going to happen in 30 days; it will take years.

We want to thank you for your views, and continued involvement in the discussions as we move forward in our City Revitalization Plan process.

Sincerely,

Jerry Smith, Mayor

John Zambrano, council member

Mountlake Terrace

Election

Initiative will

protect taxpayers

We announced in December that our taxpayer-protection effort for 2007 will be the Taxpayer Protection Initiative. It will protect taxpayers by creating a series of accountability procedures to ensure greater legislative transparency, broader public participation, and wider agreement before state government takes more of the people’s money.

The campaign for it starts today (Jan. 3). We’ll be filing it as an initiative to the people this coming Monday, Jan. 8. The petitions will be sent out to everyone by mid-February.

We have until early July to raise the funds and gather the signatures necessary to qualify the Taxpayer Protection Initiative for the November ballot.

Governor Gregoire has already come out against the Taxpayer Protection Initiative. If she doesn’t like it, it’s gotta be good.

Tim Eyman

Mukilteo