Snoqualmie residents angry about improvement costs
April 16, 2009
By Michael Rowe
The Snoqualmie City Council heard from a group of people April 13 who don’t want their property included in the assessment area for a road improvement project.
The developers of Snoqualmie Ridge Phase II paid to have Snoqualmie Parkway widened near the I-90 interchange, and state law allows the developers to collect money from properties that are benefited by the improved road capacity. The state law allows for developers to establish what are called latecomers agreements, meaning that properties which get developed after an infrastructure improvement have to pay the developers for the benefits that are received.
At a public hearing April 13, the City Council heard concerns from the public about the area that would be assessed for the latecomers agreement. Several residents of the affected area claimed that the improvement to the parkway did not benefit their homes.
Julia Benson, who lives in the affected area, complained that the notice sent out by the city was inadequate. She said that 10 days elapsed between when the notice was signed and when the notice was mailed out, effectively reducing the period to request a hearing to only 10 days. She said that she had neighbors who did not receive notices.
“I think this is just absurd,” said Robert Gordon, another resident of the proposed assessment area.
Gordon said that there was virtually no traffic in the area before the Ridge development. He said that the only reason the road needed to be improved was because of the traffic created by the Ridge.
Snoqualmie Valley School District Business Manager Ron Ellis spoke on behalf of the school district, which owns two tracts of land in the affected area. Ellis said that the district’s position is that it doesn’t have to pay the developer for the improved road capacity, because their land in the assessment area came from a mitigation agreement with the developer. He also said that the school district doesn’t think that the assessment area is accurate, noting that their land is not adjacent to the infrastructure agreement.
One of the developers, Quadrant Homes General Manager Dave Dorothy, said that studies done before the development showed that the road needed to be improved, whether or not the development occurred. He asked that the council approve the assessment area.
An attorney for the developers responded to comments made at the public hearing. She said that properties in the assessment area did not have to be physically next to the improvement to meet the definition of “adjacent” under state law. She said that adjacent was defined in the context of the improvement.
According to the developer’s attorney, the boundaries of the assessment area were determined based upon the size of the Ridge II development. The attorney also noted that many of the homeowners’ concerns about the assessment were not valid. She said that properties would not be charged if the homes were remodeled or if other changes, such as adding garages, were made to the properties.
She also said a number of steps would have to occur for a property in the assessment area to be charged. She said that no one could predict how the area might be developed in the future, and that it was proper to allow the developer to recover some of their expenses for the road improvement that benefited other properties near the Snoqualmie Parkway and I-90 interchange.
The council took no action on the assessment area after the public hearing. The issue will likely come back to the council at a later date.
Reach reporter Michael Bayless Rowe at mrowe@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434, ext. 248.
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