As we see box apartments going up around Lakewood, and 800 more people potentially moving onto the Barnes and Noble property, I thought The Suburban Times readers would be interested to know that Lakewood has been laser-focused on giving developers the highest possible profits.
This came up at a recent City Council hearing. The council is going to consider maybe someday charging developers a fee so that they’re helping to pay for traffic improvements, parks and other amenities for new residents. I would encourage anyone interested to watch the discussion at this link: https://www.youtube.com/live/sKmsHrqrhX0?si=dvC-7RFCxYM-70AX&t=3602 which should automatically open at one hour into the meeting.
Most cities and counties have been charging impact fees for decades. It’s basically a way for developers to set up their future tenants with improvements in their new community.
Meanwhile, developers must call our town Housingwood. Take a look at the bar chart that I have attached. This shows what cities charge for a developer to invest in a town so it can provide traffic improvement to the new residents.
See what Lakewood charges.
Wait.
I don’t see Lakewood’s name anywhere on that list.
You would see Lakewood’s name missing on similar charts for park improvements or anything else except sewer and water charges, which are imposed by the county and the water district.
Ah. So it’s the current residents who are paying for the traffic improvements, parks and amenities of the new residents.
That’s very nice of us, isn’t it? And sincerely, it is one way to welcome someone to town.
As my regular readers, both of you, already know, the city is well underway in trying to give developers a tax break for lining Gravelly Lake Drive and other locations with apartments and condos.
It turns out this is a heap of icing on the free cake we’re giving to developers already. If you’re a developer, I can’t understand why you’re not already taking a hammer to the Clover Park Shops. Though of course you will once the city talks about imposing an impact fee for those who weren’t politically well-connected enough to see this coming.
If you’re one of those people who think Garry Oaks are there to be torn down and used to frame homes — this is great. Surely if Housingwood opens wide for developers, they will build apartments and housing and prices will go down. I’m sure someone must be writing about how housing prices and rental prices are falling in Lakewood. Though I’m not sure I’ve seen any of those stories.
If you are a citizen in Lakewood already — you’re here to subsidize housing developers. And provide amenities to new folks, though of course now they’re here to add to the community.
If you’re a state legislator, you’re puzzled why the city is saying it’s a state mandate to pack Lakewood with more housing when there’s nothing in state law that says existing residents have to help developers make a lot of money.
If you are a developer — the message is clear: If you want to build the most basic of housing, the City of Lakewood will gift you more than anyone else.
Places to go and things to do. Was that why you chose to live in Lakewood?
Impact fees build neighborhoods. Parks and playgrounds, access and places for charm and encounter star cast the affections one seeks defining home. With choice, why would a young family with secure prospect choose Lakewood? More specifically, a particular neighborhood, assuming moderate means?
Apartments are good to the extent that design and dwelling density are matched with amenities that bring life to community and welcome across their collective threshold. They typically bring people, impacts, need and cost; and someone ultimately pays.
How a current proposal for the Alliance apartment project behind Target achieves this concept is hard to see. And what will be its impacts? They’re measurable. Data, unique to every statistical area, show. Practical cost determinations are possible that could anticipate and off-set if municipal standards required. Similarly, consider traffic along a confined arterial street where development would lack depth to allow departure for purpose (school bus, delivery).
The chart Walter Neary provides shows attention to impact by 79 other Washington jurisdictions. What is North Bend doing with their fees that Oak Harbor is not? And where is Lakewood in this? It’s missing, “AWOL.” And “Alliance,” displacing Barnes & Noble, looks more like an airport motel than a place of established residence. On some level, at some point, perceived incentives need to “pencil.”
Established residence makes for neighborhoods weaving the fabric of vital community, prosperous and secure that Lakewood seeks to be and to further become. As a maturing city with places to go and things to do, with safe and sensible transportation solutions, impacts of growth and development need increased recognition across the planning horizon ahead.
One of the hidden costs of increased population density, especially more low income transient population density, is the impact it has on schools. Where’s Clover Park School District (CPSD) on all of this? I haven’t heard a peep from them. On the one hand an increased student population may fill empty desks and bring education dollars along with it but on the other hand CPSD often bemoans its academic failure due to the low income transient student population. You can’t have it both ways. CPSD needs to get in front of the Lakewood City Council and let them know that such decisions can’t be made in a vacuum. There are unintended consequences to these decisions that have to be thought out far beyond just the city’s insular desire to “expand the tax base”.
My husband and I have enjoyed reading Walter Neary’s letters, and appreciate the time he has taken to discuss topics that should be important to all of us who live in Lakewood. A few observations from today’s post and the comments that followed: In the chart, I do not see the city of Seattle listed, and am wondering how they address this issue. The Barnes & Noble development does not, if I remember, include any three-bedroom apartments, nor any playground facilities for children. If I were a parent looking for apartment living, I would choose the new development on Orchard, in the UP school district that includes three-bedroom apartments, a play area for kids and lots of gree trees throughout the development.
Thank you, Walter!