The Seattle Monorail Project is selling its property to pay off debt and end the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax but several neighborhood groups in Ballard are asking state legislators to change that process.

The Ballard District Council, Loyal Heights Community Council and Crown Hill Business Association have all either drafted a formal letter or are asking their members to lobby state and city legislators to compel the Seattle Monorail Project to consider selling property on the basis of factors besides highest bid. The monorail agency has stated that its legal obligation to city tax payers is to sell properties - a number of the parcels are located along 15th Avenue NW- for the highest price, in order to retire approximately $80 million in debt as quickly as possible.

"They still have a responsibility of acting in the public interest, even as they turn out the lights," said Marianne Scholl, president of the 15th Avenue Northwest Association. Scholl has sent letters to a number of state legislators, urging them to "empower" the Seattle Monorail Project to consider other options besides highest bid for the properties. Scholl's principle concern is that buyers willing to pay the most money for the property might develop businesses that would clash with the neighborhood aesthetic. She used gas stations and strip malls as two examples of development projects she would not want to see.

"Yes, it [the excise tax] might cost more a little longer, but that is the heart of the Crown Hill Community," she said, referring to the corner of NW 85th Street and 15th Avenue NW, where roughly 17,000 square feet of land is owned by the monorail agency. With the exception of Dealers Millwork, the properties are vacant, another concern of community leaders.

"Empty buildings get tagged, and no one is there to clean them up. Who do you call about that? It's a rabbit chase," said Shane Dir, outgoing president of the Crown Hill Business Association. Dir said his association also supports enacting legislation allowing flexibility in deciding who buys the property. Like Scholl, his biggest concern is incongruous development that would damage the neighborhood's intimacy.

"You want pedestrian friendly development. But if you put in a gas station or a Home Depot, it's not ... friendly. If it's [pedestrian friendly development] in our neighborhood plan, why shouldn't the monorail respect that?

Jonathan Buchter, the chief operating officer and general counsel of the monorail agency, says deciding whether potential buyers of property are suitable to those neighborhoods is beyond the scope of his agency, which, as of now, has four employees and is located in the basement of an office building.

"We're a transportation agency. We don't have that expertise," Buchter said.

But some legislators want to at least provide an opportunity for former land owners to buy their property back. State Senator Ken Jacobsen (D-Seattle) has sponsored legislation that would allow former owners of property the monorail agency took under eminent domain clauses to buy their old property back. The Senator said Mayor Greg Nickel's office urged him to sponsor the legislation, which, he pointed out, would not give the monorail flexibility to sell properties for specific development criteria. The bill would provide options only for former land owners.

The monorail agency's Buchter is skeptical: "The concept is they would like to provide an opportunity to buy back the property for previous owners but the language [of the bill] is so bizarrely written ... it doesn't make it clear that the MVET may have to be extended if we have to sell to prior property owners because we might not get the most money for those properties."

City Council member Richard Conlin supports the legislation and did not think the difference between purchases by previous owners would extend the MVET significantly.

"We're talking about basic fairness for somebody who has had that property taken against their will who now gets an opportunity to buy it back," Conlin said.