Issaquah mayor eyes property tax hike
October 9, 2012
Issaquah homeowners can expect to pay about $5 more in property taxes next year, if City Council members adopt a 1 percent rate hike to fund long-term projects.
The property tax increase, proposed Oct. 1 by Mayor Ava Frisinger, is not expected to generate much next year. If enacted, city officials expect to raise only $69,707 — a drop in a proposed $35 million general fund budget.
The decision to raise the property tax rate by the maximum amount allowed under state law, 1 percent, is projected to cost the average homeowner $4.75 per year.
City Council approves dollars for affordable housing
February 28, 2012
Officials used $55,249 in city funds to build affordable housing in other King County cities, including a planned Kirkland shelter for homeless youths and a Bellevue shelter for homeless women.
City Council members approved the expenditure to A Regional Coalition for Housing — a joint group including King County and 15 Eastside cities — in a unanimous decision Feb. 6. Issaquah officials used leftover funds from Eastside Fire & Rescue Station 72 construction to fund affordable housing projects.
“This was one of those last-minute budget decisions that came out of our budget discussion at the end of last year,” Councilman Mark Mullet said. “We decided ARCH was important.”
Eastside residents needed for affordable housing board
October 25, 2011
Issaquah residents can help shape regional policy on affordable housing on the Citizen Advisory Board for A Regional Coalition for Housing.
The board consists of 12 to 15 residents and housing professionals to assist ARCH staffers in evaluating local housing funding proposals and increasing awareness of housing issues on the Eastside.
In addition to offering information about housing and community issues, board members also offer perspectives on architecture, development, finance, planning, real estate and more.
The board typically meets one Wednesday evening per month. Learn more about ARCH and the Citizen Advisory Board at www.archhousing.org. Call ARCH Program Manager Arthur Sullivan at 861-3677 or email him at asullivan@bellevuewa.gov to apply for the board.
New Habitat project to break ground in Renton Highlands
June 1, 2010
Renton Highlands will be the new home of a Habitat for Humanity community called La Fortuna.
Habitat coordinators break ground on the project, at 172 127th Ave. S.E., June 11.
The first phase of the $12 million project will include two buildings totaling 11 townhomes.
When completed, the project will have eight buildings and up to 41 units available for families making 60 percent or below the area’s median income, said Tom Granger, executive director for Habitat For Humanity of East King County. Median income for a family of four living in King County in 2009 was about $84,000, according to the nonprofit housing organization A Regional Coalition for Housing. Sixty percent of that would be about $50,000.
The project is made possible through Habitat for Humanity partnerships with Bank of America, Habitat for Humanity of Seattle/South King County Impact Capital, JP Morgan Chase Bank, King County Housing Finance Program and the state Housing Trust Fund.
Issaquah donates money to affordable housing
May 18, 2010
City Council members contributed $150,000 on May 3 to build affordable-housing units for low-income King County residents, homeless people and people with disabilities.
The contribution formed part of the annual contribution to A Regional Coalition for Housing. Formed in 1993, the group includes Issaquah, 14 other Eastside cities and King County.
Issaquah will provide $100,000 in long-term loans for the Totem Lake units and a $50,000 grant to the Foundation for the Challenged to build group housing for people with disabilities in northeastern King County. St. Andrew’s Housing Group — a partner of ARCH — proposed the 60 affordable rental units for the Totem Lake area in Kirkland.
“You’ll notice that there are no Issaquah projects in this allocation, but I do know that other jurisdictions have been very, very supportive of a number of projects in Issaquah,” Councilman Fred Butler said.
The council also OK’d a list of ongoing and upcoming ARCH projects, and a measure to streamline the administration of the Housing Trust Fund — a regional account to create and preserve housing for low- and moderate-income residents.
Under the work program approved by council members, the housing organization will work with the city on the YWCA Family Village at Issaquah development and the Habitat for Humanity of East King County construction in the Issaquah Highlands.
Council Services & Operations Committee members discussed the proposal in January, and recommended the legislation to the full council.
City Council members will discuss affordable-housing dollars tonight
January 25, 2010
NEW — 6 a.m. Jan. 25, 2010
City Council members will consider $150,000 in loans and a grant for A Regional Coalition for Housing, a group of Eastside cities and King County formed to increase low- and moderate-income housing.
The organization requested the money from Issaquah — $100,000 in long-term loans for a Kirkland affordable-housing project — and a $50,000 grant toward housing for people with disabilities.
Members of the Council Services & Safety Committee — called the Services & Operations Committee last year — will discuss the legislation today. The committee meets 5 p.m. in the Eagle Room at City Hall, 130 E. Sunset Way.
City Council members already approved $150,000 for ARCH low-income housing projects. The measure will steer the money to ARCH projects.
Council candidates look toward future at forum
October 13, 2009
City Council candidates envisioned redevelopment of the commercial district, promised to protect crucial city services and looked beyond the defunct Southeast Bypass — the defining issue of the 2007 municipal election — at a campaign forum last week.
Organized by The Issaquah Press and moderated by Publisher Debbie Berto, the Oct. 8 forum drew Position 5 candidates Maureen McCarry and Joan Probala, and Position 7 hopefuls Tola Marts and Nathan Perea. The candidates, bedecked in campaign buttons, spent the hourlong forum fielding questions from Berto about issues including the economy, growth and transportation. Read more
Issaquah, agencies and developers share award
July 14, 2009
Issaquah officials and several partner organizations received a Governor’s Smart Communities Award. Officials were honored for efforts to encourage transit-oriented development near the Issaquah Highlands Park & Ride. Read more
Habitat, city break ground for new highlands development
June 16, 2009
Alissa Talton and daughter Hayleigh (center), 3, whose husband and father is deployed in the United Arab Emirates, are surrounded by officials from Port Blakely, Habitat for Humanity and city and state officials June 11 as they turn over the first shovels of dirt at the Issaquah Highlands home site. By Greg Farrar
Meet the Taltons, a family of five that will soon be residents of the Issaquah Highlands.
Alissa Talton had no idea she would be moving to the hillside community until three weeks ago, when Habitat for Humanity officials surprised her at her parents’ Carnation home. Habitat officials presented Talton with a balloon and said her family had been chosen to live in a planned Issaquah Highlands development — the first Habitat houses to be built in Issaquah in 15 years. Talton was speechless. Her husband, a deployed Navy reservist, watched the event unfold over the messaging service Skype.
“I started crying and shaking,” Alissa Talton recalled. “I was so excited.”
She joined city officials and Habitat for Humanity of East King County representatives June 11 to break ground for the new development, five duplexes that will house 10 families. The late afternoon groundbreaking was ceremonial; volunteers will start construction at the site next month.
Tom Granger, executive director of the local Habitat branch, lauded city officials and highlands developer Port Blakely Communities for supporting the project. Habitat purchased the land with help from the city, Port Blakely and A Regional Coalition for Housing, an organization of Eastside cities and King County that works to increase the supply of affordable housing. Read more
Issaquah, agencies and developers share award
June 6, 2009
NEW — 6 a.m. June 6, 2009
Issaquah officials and several partner organizations received a Governor’s Smart Communities Award, officials announced Thursday.
Officials were honored for efforts to encourage transit-oriented development near the Issaquah Highlands Park & Ride.
The Smart Partnerships Award recognizes the development and assignment agreements for the YWCA’s 146-unit affordable housing project, as well as the proposed zHome development of 10 zero net-energy townhouses.
