The Eugene City Council Wednesday approved a 10-year property tax exemption for a developer to build apartments downtown. This is the first time the city has granted a Multi-Use Property Tax Exemption since it changed the controversial practice.
The new MUPTE is for projects that include what the city calls workforce housing downtown. Granite Properties wants to put a 5 story apartment building on the site of the now-shuttered Rogue Brewery on Olive Street. The building would block KLCC’s signal from its nearby studios. The City Council agreed the station should be held harmless operationally and financially. Councilor Claire Syrett said the city shouldn’t foot the bill.
Syrett: “My feeling that I would be more inclined to support this MUPTE application if we added a requirement that the developer pay for the relocation of the KLCC tower and they can take advantage of the low-interest loan if they wanted to pay for it that way but I don’t feel that the city should be responsible for paying for relocating that tower.”
It would cost an estimated 40-thousand dollars to relocate KLCC’s studio to transmitter equipment to the downtown LCC campus and keep the station on the air. Granite Properties says construction of the new apartment building could begin as soon as February 2017.
