As the Board plans the future of this site, we must acknowledge the history of the surrounding area. The International District has long struggled with blight and high crime. Around 2000, city leadership identified a root cause of this instability: the housing stock was skewed to 70% rentals and only 30% homeownership. At that time, the city recognized this imbalance contributed to transiency and crime, and a commitment was made, and reaffirmed in 2010, to flip that ratio towards the city average of nearly 70% homeownership.
Current proposals for Fairgrounds Reimagined double down on the formula that created the original problem. A plan calling for 70% rentals anchors the neighborhood to the unstable ratios of the past, rather than fulfilling the promise of a stabilized, owner-occupied community.
Furthermore, the proposed 30% homeownership tranche, which relies on a 99-year land lease modeled after the Sawmill Community Land Trust, is fundamentally flawed as a tool for community empowerment. While the model is "affordable," it is not equitable. Under this structure, the resident bears maintenance costs while their ability to build equity is legally capped. When these residents eventually sell, they find that the open market has vastly outpaced their capped returns (often at 25%), leaving them without the wealth necessary to purchase a standard, fee-simple home. They remain trapped in the subsidized system. The equity lost by these "renters with a mortgage" does not disappear; instead, it is captured by the Trust to use for other ventures. From a valuation perspective, these non-market value properties create lending obstacles for the very demographic they are intended to help.
We should not subsidize housing by extracting the wealth of our lowest-income residents to benefit an expanding Trust. Instead, the Board should utilize methods that achieve both affordability and true economic mobility.
For single-family homes and townhomes, the Affordable Housing Act allows the state to bypass the Anti-Donation Clause to legally discount land, granting true, fee-simple ownership. This can be paired with HB 200, which provides zero-percent interest loans for starter homes, allowing low-income buyers to safely enter the market and capture full appreciation.
For mid-rise structures, the Board could implement a Cooperative model with an internal cross-subsidy. Residents would collectively own the building fee-simple through a corporate structure, buying in via a low-barrier ladder system. Crucially, the cooperative should retain ownership of ground-floor commercial spaces. Revenue generated from those market-rate commercial leases would be used to cover the building’s capital expenses, insulating low-income homeowners from crippling HOA fees.
This project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform managed dependency into an engine for generational wealth creation. I urge those involved to reconsider the 70% rental ratio and the 99-year lease, and instead build a development that offers a genuine path to economic independence.
Mark T. Raney, SRA
Current proposals for Fairgrounds Reimagined double down on the formula that created the original problem. A plan calling for 70% rentals anchors the neighborhood to the unstable ratios of the past, rather than fulfilling the promise of a stabilized, owner-occupied community.
Furthermore, the proposed 30% homeownership tranche, which relies on a 99-year land lease modeled after the Sawmill Community Land Trust, is fundamentally flawed as a tool for community empowerment. While the model is "affordable," it is not equitable. Under this structure, the resident bears maintenance costs while their ability to build equity is legally capped. When these residents eventually sell, they find that the open market has vastly outpaced their capped returns (often at 25%), leaving them without the wealth necessary to purchase a standard, fee-simple home. They remain trapped in the subsidized system. The equity lost by these "renters with a mortgage" does not disappear; instead, it is captured by the Trust to use for other ventures. From a valuation perspective, these non-market value properties create lending obstacles for the very demographic they are intended to help.
We should not subsidize housing by extracting the wealth of our lowest-income residents to benefit an expanding Trust. Instead, the Board should utilize methods that achieve both affordability and true economic mobility.
For single-family homes and townhomes, the Affordable Housing Act allows the state to bypass the Anti-Donation Clause to legally discount land, granting true, fee-simple ownership. This can be paired with HB 200, which provides zero-percent interest loans for starter homes, allowing low-income buyers to safely enter the market and capture full appreciation.
For mid-rise structures, the Board could implement a Cooperative model with an internal cross-subsidy. Residents would collectively own the building fee-simple through a corporate structure, buying in via a low-barrier ladder system. Crucially, the cooperative should retain ownership of ground-floor commercial spaces. Revenue generated from those market-rate commercial leases would be used to cover the building’s capital expenses, insulating low-income homeowners from crippling HOA fees.
This project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform managed dependency into an engine for generational wealth creation. I urge those involved to reconsider the 70% rental ratio and the 99-year lease, and instead build a development that offers a genuine path to economic independence.
Mark T. Raney, SRA
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