Normandy Park is in the very early stages of coming up with design guidelines for a subarea in Normandy Park designated the Manhattan Village Redevelopment Area (MVRA).
Council Member John Rankin said this is probably the single most important thing any of them will do as council members.
The MVRA goes from 178 street to 186 Street along the west side of 1st Ave. South back to 2nd Ave. South and a small portion goes back to 4th Avenue South.
There are vacant and underutilized lots in the MVRA, and the city wants to prepare guidelines on how they would like to see it redeveloped.
“Change is coming, change is coming our way,” said Councilmember Shawn McEvoy. He said they want to drive that change.
The MVRA plan will include some rezoning of land. The city says it would only be residential to commercial, which is considered an upzoning. Property that is zoned commercial is worth more than residential.
The city has also said it will not use eminent domain to take property for redevelopment. They describe it as getting the area ready for a developer to redevelop, but it is up to the future developer and the homeowner to negotiate any sale of property.
“What my view is we are trying to create a framework and a private developer will come and fill up that framework,” Rankin said.
The city is estimating after redevelopment they will receive twice as much in property and sales tax. Currently in the MVRA the city receives $19,589 in property tax from land in the MVRA; the city is estimating after redevelopment they would receive $39,765 in property taxes. The city currently makes $104,600 in sales tax from the MVRA and is estimating they will make $216,000 after redevelopment.
The Council is currently working on deciding who the consultant will be for the MVRA.
At a special meeting on Monday November 1 the Council narrowed the list of consultants from six to three. The City Council held interviews with each of the interested consultants last week in open meetings.
This process is normally done by City Staff, and Rankin said there was resistance from Normandy Park City Manager Doug Shulze to let the Council go through the process.
Normandy Park has received $100,000 grant from the Washington Department of Commerce to fund an Environmental Impact Statement of the MVRA. This makes the land that much closer to being able to be developed.
Resident Susan Watkins told the council that in light of the complete failure of Normandy Town Center and the Burien Town Square she found it absolutely appalling the council was moving forward in this environment.
Councilmember Doug Osterman said “let’s avoid seeing what happened happen again.” Adding, “that’s what happens when you don’t have a plan.”
Mayor Pro-tem Clarke Brant said, “nobody is planning on going over there with a bulldozer and starting over.”
The MVRA plan is a long term one. The city is saying they anticipate seeing the area redeveloped sometime in 10 to 15 years.
Resident Jerry Guite said Normandy Park does not need any more apartments or townhouses. He said he does not believe there is a need for this process.
Mondays special meeting was scheduled last Thursday, and did not make it onto the calendar on the city website. The meeting was also held two and a half hours earlier and on a different day than normal council meetings, causing some anger among residents. The council apologized for the over site and said with the City Manager out of town it must have fallen through the cracks.
The council at their next council meeting will choose the consultant, Tuesday November 9 at 7:30 p.m.