See below to compare what you will be paying against what Paul Allen and other big property owners will be paying for the Paul Allen Streetcar LID (charts follow narrative below):
Here's a breakdown of how much each of the big property owners will be
realizing in increased value and how much they will pay in the way of a total
LID assessment. It also totals up what portion of the LID assessment each
will pay and in total how much of the assessment all 17 large property owners
will pay. In total these 17 property owners own over 43.3% of the property
in the LID area and receive 52.5% of the increased Value. This of course
means that if all 17 of these owners support the trolley, it would be impossible
for the remaining property owners to assemble 60% opposition and collectively
overturn the LID. However, if any individual property owner or group of
owners believe they are being charged unfairly - and our look at how much
smaller owners far from the line are paying suggests that this is going to be
true for many - there still is a real opportunity to challenge your assessment
first before the City Council and then before the Court if necessary.
Factors to look for in determining whether you were overcharged include 1) Any
amount over and above any increased value you receive, 2) If you don't believe
you receive any value or minimal value then that's the first thing to dispute,
3) If you are being charged an amount in excess of what you believe you should
be paying in relation to comparable properties. For more information,
contact us at 632-0668.
In the chart of the 17 large property owners, you'll see that the city is
charging itself about $973,000 in an assessment for the $25 million Trolley LID.
So much for the City Council's claim that the local taxpayers weren't going to
see the City's general fund drained to help pay for the streetcar. We ran some
numbers just to see what would happen to Vulcan's required LID payment if the
City exempted itself from the LID payment. If the City paid '0' dollars
towards the LID assessment, Vulcan would about another $630,000 in LID payments.
Also, it is questionable whether many of the properties and property owners
being charged $2 a sq. ft. or less are receiving any benefit at all from the
streetcar. Most of these properties are located far from the line or they are
properties with longterm businesses located on them that have few employees
and/or they are located in close proximity to bus lines. Other factors
raise questions about whether they should be paying anything or at least a lot
less in the way of an assessment. If all these property owners were exempted
from payment of the LID since they receive little or no benefit, another
$450,000 of the LID assessment would have to be paid by Paul Allen.
In addition, our examination of documents (obtained through disclosure request)
raise several other questions about how the City's consultant's put together
their formula for calculating how much each property owner in the LID area will
play. For starters, the City's consultants offer no clear explanation of
why they chose the particular boundaries that they did for the LID area.
Some properties just inside the LID boundaries are charged of course even when
there appears to be no discernable benefit for them while some properties just
outside the LID area are not charged at all even though at least in some cases
properties just outside the LID area appear to be in closer proximity and are
ideally zoned or have on-site uses that suggest they will clearly benefit.
Also, the consultant hired by the City has set up five tiers or areas of
analysis based on distance from the trolley line. In our review of city
documents including those summarizing the criteria used in determining each LID
assessment, we cannot find any basis for setting up five tiers. Why not 3
tiers as the consultant's originally proposed? Why not two tiers? This is
obviously important because if your property happens to fall into a tier
identified as closer to the trolley line you're payment would be adjusted upward
but in many cases there are properties that could have just as easily been
placed in a lower tier further from the line where you'd hence pay less.
Finally, we found city documents that raise questions of possible conflict of
interest when reviewing who played a role in the development of the final
formula for use in calculating assessment rolls and how much each property owner
in the LID area would pay. The City hired consultants with a track record
in putting together LID assessment rolls. There is no indication they have
done prior business with Vulcan or other affected owners - none at least that we
could find. But there is evidence suggesting they consulted directly with
Vulcan and the "Build the Streetcar Campaign" during their process of setting
the formula and ultimately how much each owner would pay. We don't know
the nature of these consultations but we do know they communicated with each
other and this alone raises questions of appearance of fairness if not downright
conflict of interest. Since a minor adjustment to any one of the variables used
in determining assessments (such as how the boundaries and tier areas are drawn
and how zoning and current use are factored into the forumula) it is easily
possible to greatly skew who pays what and especially how much the big property
owners ultimately will pay.
Charts Follow Here Showing Top 17 Properties and then additional chart showing how much each property owner will pay:
| acreage owned | value increase | LID payment | amount paid per sq. foot | percent of total acreage in LID area | percent of value gain received from trolley | percent of total LID payment by all properties | |
| Vulcan | 2555503 | 21396401 | 7888250 | 3.09 | 17.63% | 30.69% | 30.69% |
| Clise | 737339 | 4723100 | 1741270 | 2.36 | 5.09% | 6.77% | 6.77% |
| Fred Hutch | 570181 | 4217300 | 1554799 | 2.73 | 3.93% | 6.05% | 6.05% |
| Touchstone | 48281 | 185900 | 68536 | 1.42 | 0.33% | 0.27% | 0.27% |
| City of Seattle | 1019102 | 2640100 | 973329 | 0.96 | 7.03% | 3.79% | 3.79% |
| UNITED STATES GEN SVCS ADM 721 Virginia St | 42120 | 391600 | 144372 | 3.43 | 0.29% | 0.56% | 0.56% |
| TRENDWEST RESORTS INC 1619 8th Ave | 27595 | 75001 | 27651 | 1.00 | 0.19% | 0.11% | 0.11% |
| THE ROUSE COMPANY | 66132 | 581109 | 214238 | 3.24 | 0.46% | 0.83% | 0.83% |
| PB INVESTMENTS LIMITED PARTNE 1924 4th Ave | 25920 | 241000 | 88850 | 3.43 | 0.18% | 0.35% | 0.35% |
| Cornish College | 69900 | 343700 | 126712 | $1.81 | 0.48% | 0.49% | 0.49% |
| Zymogenetics | 36235 | 182000 | 67099 | $1.85 | 0.25% | 0.26% | 0.26% |
| PEMCO | 261360 | 41500 | 15300 | $0.06 | 1.80% | 0.06% | 0.06% |
| Seattle Times | 412708 | 858400 | 316468 | 0.77 | 2.85% | 1.23% | 1.23% |
| WA DNR | 257612 | 397500 | 146547 | 0.57 | 1.78% | 0.57% | 0.57% |
| Westlake Holdings | 33840 | 179500 | 66176 | 1.96 | 0.23% | 0.26% | 0.26% |
| Wright, C. Bagley | 11977 | 16300 | 6009 | 0.50 | 0.08% | 0.02% | 0.02% |
| Diamond Parking | 93720 | 154900 | 57108 | 0.61 | 0.65% | 0.22% | 0.22% |
| acreage owned | value increase | LID payment | amount paid per sq. foot | percent of total acreage in LID area | percent of value gain received from trolley | percent of total LID assessment on all properties | |
| totals for 17 larger owners | 6269525 | 36625311 | 13502714 | $ 2.15 | 43.3% | 52.5% | 52.5% |
| totals for entire LID area | 14494877 | 69726212 | 25706075 | $1.77 |
The following provides a full list of affected properties within the LID area including yours no doubt if you are an owner within the LID area. We've chosen to organize the list according to how much each property owner will be paying per sq. ft for their LID payment rather than by address or lot number so you can more easily access your property and compare it to others. However, you probably can copy and download the file below into an excel file and then sort it to your hearts content for comparison purposes of your own. You also can take the lot number below and find that lot on a map of the LID area which you can access by clicking here:
| Lot Number | PIN Number | Property Owner | Square Footage | Increased Value | Assessment | Amount you'll pay per square foot of property |
| 1-22 | 019550 0220 | Bernard Kirk B 1000 Aurora Ave N #COML | 1541 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 2 | 020900 0005 | MJRY INVESTMENTS LLC 526 Yale Ave N | 18400 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 3 | 020900 0025 | Kleinart Jack L & Layne H 516 Yale Ave N | 4600 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 4 | 020900 0030 | WEISS-JENKINS VII LLC 504 Yale Ave N | 18400 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 5 | 020900 0050 | WEISS JENKINGS VI LLC 501 Eastlake Ave E | 22000 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 6 | 020900 0075 | Carocourt L L C 527 Eastlake Ave E | 17600 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 26 | 065900 0265 | EIGHT & STEWART LIMITED PARTN 1831 8th Ave | 13447 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 27 | 065900 0305 | WXIII SCV REAL ESTATE LP 720 Olive Way | 27072 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 44 | 065900 0445 | Gallagher John P 1913 5th Ave | 9720 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 58 | 065900 0715 | Archdiocesan Housing Authority 2008 Westlake Ave | 8511 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 60 | 065900 0740 | SLT REALTY LIMITED PARTNERSHI 2030 7th Ave | 5866 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 74 | 065900 0970 | WARWICK CORP 401 Lenora St | 19440 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 137 | 066000 0708 | VANCE-HOWELL STREET LLC 812 Howell St | 7680 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 149 | 066000 1025 | KING COUNTY 906 Pine St | 106320 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 150 | 066000 1095 | SoundTransit (KOLLIAS FAMILY LLC) 900 Olive Vac Way | 9456 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 151 | 066000 1113 | KOLLIAS FAMILY LLC 915 Howell St | 3840 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 152 | 066000 1114 | CASSIEFORD CO 920 Olive Way | 10363 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 153 | 066000 1135 | NINTH & HOWELL ASSOCIATES 1800 9th Ave | 28320 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 159 | 066000 1215 | LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING LLC 1900 9th Ave | 13560 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 160 | 066000 1225 | LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING LLC 1906 9th Ave | 7200 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 161 | 066000 1230 | LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING LLC 1916 9th Ave | 7200 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 162 | 066000 1235 | JULIE APARTMENTS LTD 1922 9th Ave | 7200 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 164 | 066000 1255 | QWEST COMMUNICATIONS 1915 Terry Ave | 42360 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 175 | 066000 1455 | SLT REALTY LIMITED PARTNERSHI 2014 Terry Ave | 2619 | 0 | 0 | $0.00 |
| 176 | 066000 1460 |