It doesn't make logical sense that a lot owner that is building to meet zoning requirement set by the City should be responsible for offsite improvements.
Remember, Olympia has very high impact fees that are intended to cover expenses related to growth. Typical new home construction in Olympia pays average impact fees of roughly $50k per unit before permits are issued. For a project like this, with 16 town home units, are we really talking about $600,000 to $800,000 in fees?
Beyond impact fees, the City has also passed additional tax levy's just for the purpose of sidewalks. Isn't the City responsible for road and sidewalk maintenance and improvements as part of its primary responsibilities with existing tax revenue paid by taxpayers?
Why can entire neighborhoods be built without the City requiring or providing appropriate streets, sidewalks and infrastructure, then when the last available lots are built on, the expectation is that owner is suddenly responsible to pay for all the offsite neighborhood upgrades that haven't been required, or built, over decades of development activity.
Since I don't seen an overwhelming effort to build, improve or replace aging streets and sidewalks in the City, the obvious question is where exactly is all this tax and dedicated levy money being spent.
The City of Olympia is very vocal that it wants more housing to be built. However, The City's high impact fees along with an arduous and time consuming process to obtain building permits work against this objective. With this Middle Street project, I think the owner is 3 years into the process and has likely spent a small fortune on site requirements, engineering, building design and environmental studies. Impact fees must be paid before the City will issue permits.
The City has spent countless hours and numerous community meetings in an effort to encourage low income/affordable housing to be developed. The City even went through the process of creating opportunity zones so that Multi Family Tax Exemptions could be given as an incentive to build in areas of historically low or no housing investment.
Recently, an excellent opportunity for an affordable low income housing project has been brought to the City for review and permitting. A well known and respected non profit, Humanity for Humanity, wants to build 12 low income affordable homes on 8th Avenue - land the City has given them.
Unfortunately, the City creates a big problem for the project to proceed. The City staff blindsides Habitat for Humanity in a public forum with a permit requirement involving numerous and costly offsite improvements. The offsite improvement are estimated by Habitat for Humanity to be in excess of the amount budgeted for their onsite development expenses. The suggestion by the City to Habitat for Humanity is to search out additional government funding sources.
This link is a must read for those in favor of more affordable housing in Olympia but wonder why it is so difficult to come by.
https://www.thejoltnews.com/stories/affordable-housing-project-would-face-costly-infrastructure-costs,13770
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