Let us “rise” above the insanity and start building up. Why do you think Bellevue is awash in money? What did I see, they’re spending 40 more million on parks. Not in behind-the-times Kirkland.

BTW only in Kirkland would a cottonwood tree not be standing. It would have drowned in the standing stormwater left on private land by the Public Works Dept.,Planning Dept and City Council.

http://www.metrokc.gov/gis/mapportal/Pviewer_main.htm

Tracy Dunlap’s letter to Dave Ramsay, regarding the tax burden study shows that a large gap has opened between contributions from the business sector and the residential sector. While these were at parity in 1997 - around 50% each - residents now pay 59% of the burden, while business/commercial pays 41%. That is an 18% gap that occurred over 10 years.

Tracy states that residential values have risen faster than commercial as one of the reasons. However, I think it is more like residential assessments have risen faster than commercial assessments. Play around on Parcel Viewer and see for yourself.

With major portion of the City’s tax revenue tied to auto sales, the City gets a double whammy as the overall economy slows down, disposable income and general spending slow, but this even more so of new auto sales.

Increase retail square footage downtown, and quit letting non-retail business open in retail spaces, as I believe current code states. (Hallmark would be an exception, since they have been in that space longer than the code has existed). This would make it more interesting to shop downtown, and generate additional, needed, sales tax revenue. (Banks and real estate company’s don’t).

This city depends on various forms of tax revenue. Property tax is one, sales tax is another. One benefit of building taller buildings is the greater property tax valuations. But there are more benefits. If it is a store or restaurant, it draws more sales tax revenue. If it is an office, those workers spend money in town as well, and ditto for residents if it is a condo.

Don’t forget that there is sales tax paid on contruction costs, and that is a large dollar amount for each new building. Yes, each contruction project is a one time event, but multiple projects over the years keep rolling the dollars in, and they can be used to pay for one time expenditures.

I wish that someone on the City Council would point out the cash flows that these projects create, especially when they are argueing the merits of a project. While many people fear more traffic or gigantic, ugly buildings, we must realize that stopping redevelopment stifles economic growth and helps push the budget into the red.

I’m racking my brain trying to come up with a way we could INCREASE the amount of leasable square footage in a finite number of city blocks that have been zoned as commercial. We can’t increase the footprint or size of downtown since we are hemmed in by water, freeway and housing… we can’t go down because we need natural light for shoppers and commercial workers. We need to figure out some direction to go.

Any help would be appreciated.