LID

[susandennis]

They are tearing down my favorite road in Seattle. It's a raised highway between downtown and the waterfront. It's a joy to ride on for the views alone of both the city and the water. On the ground, it's a great umbrella from the rain and from the hot sun. The circle of people who hate how it looks overlaps fairly smartly with the circle of people who are afraid it's going to fall down and those circles constitute pretty much everyone but me. So they built a tunnel and will be tearing my favorite down.

In conjunction, they are going to revamp the waterfront. Fine. Whatever. It's pretty much for tourists only and I don't care. Except. They want those of us who live near here to pay for it. The city wants to make a LID - Local Improvement District of the properties and charge us for the privilege of inviting still more tourists to our neighborhood.

My piece of this stupid rock is projected to be $3,603 every fucking year. In addition to my real estate taxes of $5K. Thankgod I don't have a mortgage.

There is a movement afoot to tell the city to go fuck itself. I sure hope it works.

Here's the breakdown for my individual condo from the city's website:

2585000670

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPECIAL BENEFIT AND PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT

Special benefit?: $7,464

Preliminary assessment percentage*?:48.27%

*Percentage is uniform for all properties

Preliminary assessment (special benefit x assessment percentage)?: $3,603

ADDITIONAL DETAIL

Market value without Waterfront improvements?: $497,600

Market value with Waterfront improvements?: $505,064

The difference in market value equals your special benefit number above.

Special benefit as a percentage of market value?: 1.5%

Preliminary assessment as a percentage of market value?: 0.72%

PROPERTY DATA FROM KING COUNTY ASSESSOR

Property name: FLORENTINE CONDOMINIUM

Physical address: 526 1ST AVE S #413 SEATTLE WA 98104

Mailing address: 526 1ST AVE S#413 SEATTLE WA 98104

Taxpayer name: DENNIS SUSAN

Present use: Condominium(Residential)

Zoning: PSM-85-120

Building gross square footage: 154,628

Building net square footage: 1,244

Special benefit and preliminary assessment as of: 4/5/2018

King County Assessor data as of: 1/30/2018

Comments

[gracegiver]

You sound just like my sister-in-law who is up on Admiral Hill in WS. She mocks that project time and time again. That is unbelievable - so your market value jumps $7K and taxes will be $3K per year!? Ouch.

Last time I was up north I checked out what Big Bertha managed to accomplish. I can't imagine what it's going to be like traffic-wise once they begin dismantling the viaduct. I had thought I heard that removing the viaduct was in part to create a better view for all the development along 1st st and north.

My brother is up there too and can only cuss that project.

[susandennis]

Yeah the whole thing is a pile of poop and, for those of us who have suffered already for lots of years with construction and construction delays and still have several more years of fucked up everything around here, we get the bill.

I think they should only charge people who voted for that stupid tunnel. I'd be totally off the hook.

[coffeeguy777.livejournal.com]

Wooohoo property value goes up 7000 but you pay 3,600 more every year in taxes,who do they think they’re kidding?? 🤔🤔🤬😡🤬

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Egads, your property taxes are high. How do young families afford such prices?

[susandennis]

Well, to be fair, there aren't any/many young families in the district covered by this special tax. It's condos and apartments and office/retail. No schools even. There are apartments for couples and singles but it's not a family friendly area.

[grocible.livejournal.com]

They can't. Seattle is extremely difficult to afford to live in, and the outlying areas aren't any better.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Wow, that taxes are massive

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I can't believe they expect you to pay that much for something you'll never use!

[grocible.livejournal.com]

It's like the monorail tax we all had to pay - except the monorail never happened and we still paid taxes . . . and now ST3 makes our car registration fees astronomical! I get it, we need transit, but they're taxing our cars at a rate that over inflates their values - that's the worst part.