Yellow Pages
MOUNT VERNON — Next year’s property tax levy will be the subject of a public hearing before the City Council tonight.
City Finance Director Alicia Huschka said she will ask the council to pass a pair of ordinances tonight that would hold the city property tax levy even, except for an $132,585 increase to capture property tax revenue from new construction. That would put the levy at $6,527,841 in 2010.
The 2009 levy was about $6.4 million.
The council is also scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed annexation of 26 acres located west of Freeway Drive and at the western end of College Way. The council could also make a final decision on whether to annex the property, which is located in the city’s Urban Growth Area.
Some of Riverbend-area property has been used for farming, but the annexation proposal did not spur protests from Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, when it came before the council for a preliminary vote earlier this year.
Skagitonians’ Executive Director Allen Rozema said at the time that the land is already in the city’s urban growth area so future commercial development is inevitable.
Public hearings are also scheduled tonight on the city’s ongoing planned unit development moratorium and the Mount Vernon’s 2010 Community Development Block Grant Action Plan.
The city anticipates getting $330,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The action plan spells out how that money will be used to benefit the community.
The council work session is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at the Police and Court Campus, 1805 Continental Place.
• Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at .
