Clyde Hill News: Property tax increase; budget deficit; $3.4B of property values; domestic violence
Clyde Hill News: Property tax increase; budget deficit; $3.4B of property values; domestic violence
Mayor: “a lot of disgruntled residents… are going to be forced to have to make significant changes”
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the City will move ahead with a property tax increase and a budget that runs a deficit (expenditures exceeding revenue), again. Even more important for residents: Title 17 (zoning and land use code) enforcement. Also: CHPD’s Lt Dawn Hanson featured in Points Living magazine.
Election results
Both incumbents — Steve Friedman and Kim Muromoto — were re-elected, which is a very good thing.
I’m honored to write that you elected me to the Clyde Hill City Council — thank you. I don’t know yet what that means for writing a newsletter. I will write about that as soon as I figure it out.
Title 17
Tuesday’s meeting will include a public hearing about which parts of the land use code (“Title 17”) the City Staff should review and revise first. The City’s proposal is to look at the chapters with what it calls “significant deficiencies” first. This is a good thing.
The question is what the City does about enforcement while that review, which will last at least a year, proceeds.
In the meantime, the City has demanded that several residents make significant changes — like removing large hedges — in order to comply with City zoning code despite some glaring problems:
The City acknowledges that it has not enforced, or enforced inconsistently, much of the code.
The City acknowledges many “significant deficiencies” with the current code, and already has plans to revisit and revise much of it over the next year.
Residents and Homeowners Associations have clearly communicated their dissatisfaction and frustration with both the code and City’s approach to enforcement.
The City is demanding compliance on issues that real estate professionals say will hurt property values and residents say will negatively affect the City’s character and beauty.
Enforcement comes at the expense of addressing active problems for residents, like the stormwater drain problems that have caused flooding and damage to residents’ homes.
The Mayor Speaks
In this excerpt from the September City Council meeting, several councilmembers raise these problems before the Mayor responds at the 3m30s mark:
The Mayor says that Clyde Hill has “a lot of non-conformity… against our codes in our community” and “we would better need to hire a boatload of people and you’re going to have a lot of disgruntled residents that are going to be forced to have to make significant changes in order to bring it up under the current code.”
The Mayor notes that the City has “a lot of work to do to clean up those ordinances — a lot of work.” It’s not clear how the City will balance enforcing code more aggressively while it is modifying that same code.
Community: risk to property values & beauty
Residents have provided the City clear feedback at recent City Council meetings. The City has not yet indicated its response to the feedback.
One letter from a resident to the City noted many of the problems listed above:
Given this acknowledgement by the city of both the defects in this section of the city code and the lack of compliance in enforcement, as well as the existence of numerous other properties on which the city has allowed such non-compliant vegetation amenities to stay in place – thereby preserving property values and neighborhood appearances – we ask that the city withdraw its demand that this beautiful and functional hedge be removed.
Unclear path forward
Right now, it’s not clear what principles, approach, or prioritization the City is using to choose which parts of the code and which houses receive additional enforcement attention.
Domestic Violence
This month’s Activity Report from Clyde Hill Police shows that, year to date, they’ve logged 21 reports of domestic violence, almost two per month:
I’ve held off reporting this because I just don’t know what say or do with this. It’s awful. Any number other than zero is not OK. This report is the last one of 2021 and it felt wrong to not report on it at all.
If you have ideas or suggestions, I’ve turned comments on for the newsletter.
Budget & property tax
From the meeting packet for this month, you can see the Final Budget for 2022 showing planned revenue of about $4.49m against planned expenditures of $4.65m. The City offsets its budget deficit (the “(~$195K)” in red) using reserves from previous years.
The $2.6m Projects Fund deficit isn’t as bad as it seems because the City isn’t planning on spending the $4.2m shown in the plan. It’s not clear what the plan is. This conversation happened at two different Budget Advisory Committee meetings. I’ll write more about budget in a future issue.
$3.4 Billion dollars
The Total Assessed Valuation of Clyde Hill real estate in 2022 is over $3.4 billion dollars, a new high. Property values are going up faster than the City is raising property tax, so when you get the 2022 bill, think of the market, not City Hall:
Better news
This month’s Points Living magazine has a great feature and interview with Clyde Hill Police Lieutenant Dawn Hanson. I met her for the first time last week at Queen Bee and can corroborate that she’s awesome. The article is a delight to read:
And in other news, the City has extended its deadline to hear from legal firms interested in representing the City. The current firm has decided it will not bid for Clyde Hill’s business.
Thank you, subscribers!
I want to thank everyone who has read, forwarded, and written back with feedback and ideas. I didn’t know what I was doing when I started this newsletter — and I’m learning from all your feedback.
My gentle request: please forward to your neighbors and friends who aren’t subscribers.