Thank you for the in-depth coverage of Bellevue issues. I appreciate reporter Nat Levy’s front page article “Property owners bristled at LID cost.”

The city of Bellevue is proposing to fund new transportation projects to accommodate growth on the backs of existing commercial property owners. The $10 million-plus Local Improvement District proposal is only the beginning of a scheme to tax existing properties for $56 million.

If the projects truly benefitted the property owners, this would be reasonable. However, the city’s own reports show the properties, and the businesses in them, would be adversely affected in many ways.

Increased congestion, blocked access and reduced parking are economically harmful to existing commercial properties. Part of one store would be demolished.

As businesses lose sales, the properties’ income is reduced. This lowers property values.

The city’s consultant claims the properties would receive a “special benefit.” This would only be true if the property was sold for redevelopment, an unlikely prospect for the vast majority of them, even at the highest point of the development cycle.

While this valuation methodology is allowed under state statute, it is not the one the city of Bellevue should use. It is much more honest and fair to determine the city projects’ impact on properties as they exist and operate (and will for the foreseeable future).

As it stands, the proposed LID is effectively an Impact Fee in Advance, regardless of whether or not a property redevelops.

The city’s proposed $56 million impact fee amount was pre-determined without proper analysis of “special benefits” to those that would have to pay it. Now is possibly the worst time ever to place this tax on Bellevue’s business community.

Todd R. Woosley, Hal Woosley Properties, Inc.