City Council seeks public input on tax exemption

Seattle City Council members want to hear what city residents think about a proposal to expand a property-tax exemption for new apartments and condos.

In June, Mayor Greg Nickels sent the council a plan to expand eligibility for the exemption from low-income housing in disadvantaged areas to low- and moderately priced apartments and condos in most of the city.

The exemption aims to get cheaper homes in pricier neighborhoods and to encourage development where market prices would not otherwise make new projects pay off.

But city officials say the exemption saves developers less than the lost rent in pricey neighborhoods and doesn't bridge the gap between construction costs and rents in other areas.

The city now gives exemptions to developers of new apartment buildings where about a third of the units are affordable to people making up to 70 percent of the median income and condos designated for people earning up to 80 percent of the median.

The new plan would raise the affordability threshold to 90 percent of the median income for studios, 100 percent for other apartments and 120 percent for condos, and it allow the exemption in most of the city.

Some housing advocates have welcomed the changes, while others have said they would take away from development that serves the most needy people and locations.

Tom Rasmussen, Sally Clark and Richard McIver -- the City Council members who make up the council's Housing, Human Services and Health Committee -- plan to get public comment by visiting neighborhood district councils, starting Wednesday with the North District Council.

"This program is currently targeted very carefully to impact the areas where development is most needed," McIver said in a news release. "We need to consider the impact of the geographical changes that the mayor is proposing."

Wednesday's meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Lake City branch of the Seattle Public Library, 12501 28th Ave N.E.

The members also plan to meet with the Ballard District Council at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Ballard library branch, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.; and with the City Neighborhood Council's Neighborhood Planning Committee at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 18 in the Seattle Police Department's West Precinct, 810 Virginia St.