I am outraged that the city of Covington is proposing to reduce by 80 percent the school impact fees for two colossal apartment complexes (Affinity and Polaris) in Covington. The two apartment complexes include an age-restricted apartment and an affordable-family apartment. According to Richard Hart, the Growth Management Act requires the city to provide a variety of types of housing and “Covington has no affordable housing.” The apartment developers (Inland Group) initially petitioned the Kent School District to ask for a fee waiver. The KSD said no as there are ongoing costs associated with integrating students into the classroom. So Inland Group contacted Hart. Mr. Hart decided to grant an 80 percent reduction in school impact fees. Furthermore, only half of the 20 percent in fees will be paid by the developer (according to the Covington Reporter) the other half will be paid by the city of Covington.

The Covington Reporter also stated, thus far, $1.5 million in impact fees were waived. Those fees included: traffic fees, some building permit fees and the future local property tax revenue from the apartments for the next 12 years.

Let’s compare Covington to the cities of Medina and Mercer Island.

•Where is Medina and Mercer Island’s affordable housing? Does the Growth Management Act pertain to them?

•How much of Medina and Mercer Island’s school funding goes to educational assistants, free and reduced lunch programs, special needs programs as compared to the Kent School District’s?

•What percentage of property value does Medina and Mercer Island pay in property taxes as compared to Covington?

It is time to say enough. Hart took this inequity one step further by shifting the tax burden onto homeowners so developers can have a larger profit.

Mary Guballa
Covington