Washington Court of Appeals Reverses Superior Court Ruling
Seattle (April 23, 2024) – Today, Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison announced that a small group of downtown property owners must pay the City some $16 million in assessments after the Washington Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling from 2023.
The assessments were part of the 2019 Seattle City Council-approved Local Improvement District (LID) tax of $160 million ($175 million with financing costs) to help fund the revitalization of the downtown waterfront. The special tax was assessed to several thousand property owners whose properties would receive a special benefit from the waterfront project.
Last March, a King County Superior Court judge ruled that the City must refund $16 million in assessments to the small group of property owners who protested. City Attorney Davison appealed the lower court ruling and, yesterday, the Court of Appeals announced its reversal.
“The Local Improvement District includes 6,238 benefiting properties, all of which should pay their corresponding share for the benefits received,” said City Attorney Davison. “Of those properties, 21 went to court to argue their share should be lowered. The Court of Appeals’ decision rejected all their arguments. This will allow the City to collect the needed funds for the project.”
In a step-by-step review of the lower court decision, the Appeals Court concluded that “the superior court erred in determining that the assessments were founded on a fundamentally wrong basis and that they were arbitrary and capricious. We hold that the City’s LID assessments were not calculated on a fundamentally wrong basis and that the City Council did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in adopting the LID assessments.”
The property owners have 20 days to file a motion for reconsideration or 30 days to file a petition for review by the Washington Supreme Court.
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