To be eligible for the new tax exemption, housing projects must be within the shaded area of downtown Albany.
Albany is about to move ahead — but not quite yet — with a plan to encourage apartment construction in the downtown area by exempting eligible projects from property taxes for up to 10 years.
The city council majority on Wednesday voted for a second reading of an ordinance to create what’s known as MUPTE , or “multiple-unit property tax exemption.” But Carolyn McLeod voted against the second reading by title only, which means the ordinance will have to wait for adoption at the next meeting,
Under the proposed program, projects will have to meet several conditions to be eligible. Offering so-called “affordable” rents is not a requirement, but the program encourages it as a public benefit that applicants can provide.
The exemption will be available only in a designated area of downtown, roughly from Calapooia to Main Street, and from the riverfront south for a few blocks.
The program takes effect only with the consent of the majority of overlapping tax districts.
Linn-Benton Community College and Benton County have approved, according to Sophie Adams, Albany economic development manager. She said Linn County and the Greater Albany Public Schools will act on the program in November.
Once MUPTE is in effect, Obie Companies of Eugene has 18 months to exercise an option to buy any of three city-owned parking lots on Water Avenue with the idea of building mixed-use projects, possibly including a parking structure.
State law authorizing MUPTE justifies it with the goal of stimulating construction or conversion of multiple-unit housing projects in cities’ core areas served by public transit. Projects of five units or more are eligible.
The city program has many details on how and when to apply, how to qualify, what public benefits to provide, and how often to make required reports during construction and once projects are completed.
All those requirements make you wonder: How do apartment complexes elsewhere ever get built without all this government encouragement and red tape? (hh)
Just another version of CARA without consent of the people.
This city council/mayor doesn’t have the guts to put measures like this up for a vote.
Oh, hogwash Bill…
“We” elect people to make decisions on our behalf. Don’t like the result(s)? Try running for office…
Then explain how the city council/mayor does have the guts to to put measures like this up for a vote.
Again, you don’t address the question, but try to obfuscate the issue.
Sorry Bill… The Council DID vote. (Rather overwhelmingly I might add.) You simply disagree with their decision. Feel free to badger them individually as to why they didn’t follow your wishes…especially your 2 councilors.
Ray, don’t play dumb. You know that Bill means a vote by the citizens not the council. And that doesn’t mean “you elected the council and entrusted them with the vote”.
NtM –
Yes, I know exactly what Bill means here. Council already voted & will (I hope) finalize it next meeting. Why would they want to overturn their vote?
You are so right, between the state ,county ,and the city how much more taxes can they get from us. As taxpayers we are tapped out
“Requires public transit be available.” Does a bus that comes by in the general area once a day or maybe twice count as public transit being available? “Offering ‘so-called’ affordable rents is not a requirement.” So, this is just CARA (which is the Albany council) ginning up more gentrification of downtown Albany…since the Carousel and rotating “restaurants” with high prices and poor service didn’t bring about a copycat version of Corvallis’ 1st and 2nd Avenues or Portland’s Pearl District.
Bus routes B and C both run through the downtown area on a one-hour looping schedule from 6:27 am to 6:27 pm.
https://albanyoregon.gov/images/stories/publicworks/transit/2025-ats-schedule-and-map-en.pdf
Oh. Didn’t know that. Thanks. So, those are the “empty” buses I see now and then. I thought they were off duty and headed to a “bus barn.” People who don’t have cars cannot afford to live in uppity downtown Albany, so the buses are getting very few riders, I would hazard to guess. And do the B and C routes take you to a grocery store and back again within a reasonable time period?
Feel free to follow that link I provided earlier to get all the route info you’re asking for. The Heritage Mall area, where there are several grocery stores, is the main hub. That means just about EVERY BUS goes to a grocery store, at minimum once an hour. You would know that if you had just looked it up.
No, I am not pouring over your bus schedule. But, the street that borders Fred Meyer Parking Lot and Bi-Mart is where the bus is caught near grocery stores and the mall.
In downtown Albany, the bus stop is on Washington Street in front of the Post Office.
It is not doable to lug groceries from stores to that bus stop near Fred Meyer,and it is not convenient if one lived downtown to take a hike to the Post Office to catch the bus.
Doesn’t matter. No one not driving a car can afford to live in downtown Albany anyway.
The big cities have buses you can board at various streets in their downtown area and elsewhere. The only big city I have done this in is Washington D.C., and it was very convenient. But, with Trump dismantling the country, I wouldn’t want to be riding a bus in D.C. now. Statistics say that before this century is done that most people will live in big cities, and transportation and its problems are one of the big reasons. That subject probably never comes up at the city council meetings. So, it is not realistic to try to make Albany’s downtown a place to live except for elite, well-to-do people.
$65.00 on amazon, weighs 8.1 lbs foldable. 260 LB Stair Climbing Cart, Aluminum Trolley Dolly for Stairs, Folding Hand Truck Dolly, Grocery Shopping Cart with Mute Wheels, Telescoping Handle and Rubber Wheels for Moving, Shopping
Perhaps other Councilors will join Ms. McLeod to defeat this five-away. The URD was created under the banner of increasing value of taxable properties. Now they offer benefits of no prop tax for 10yrs. Sounds like Democrats flipping their values
If and when this proposal passes, will the community benefit in the long term? I’ll suggest it will – in spades! It’s a no-brainer decision IMO.
Then, as Bill suggested, a vote of all citizens should be a no brainer for the council to seek.
Why would council waste their time re-hashing the issue?
The issue shouldn’t be decided by the council. It should be going out for a vote to the citizens of the city at large.
As they have aptly demonstrated a lack of brains.
I think Ray K may have met his match this go-around. He won’t even acknowledge that his adversaries are talking about a vote of the people–not a vote of the Council. Ray considers that he and the Council are the ultimate spokespeople for the hoi polloi and therefore there is no need for a vote of the actual citizens.
I agree that’s what you and others wish for. However, as much as you want it to happen,.our system does not work that way. So, some options…which one has the best chance for success for you?
1. Get actively involved with your councilors
2 Get 4 votes on council
3. Get different councilors elected
4. Start up an IP drive
5. Comment in a blog
What is an IP drive?
Initiative Petition
I’ll answer my own comment. I looked up IP. It is Internet Protocol….geek talk and the talk of today’s several younger generations who know “nothing” but computers and tech. Ray, you are not a member of any of the younger generations of today, so please spare us your acronyms.
No, he meant “initiative petition.”
P.S. (Means Post Script or an add-on to something a person has already written.) Look up mapping a network drive. Gawd! You have to be a techie to understand it. I have spent too much precious time trying to figure out what Ray K. says. I’m going back to my old self which ignored Ray K.
If everything should be up to a vote of the people, then why have a council. Let’s just have a vote by the people every week on how we want to run the city.
I wonder if the dozen curmudgeons that populate this blog’s comment section know how much a special election every week would cost? (Hint: no, they don’t. “Wait, it’s not free? What’s a representative democracy? IP stands for Internet Protocol!”)