Questions About the LID

The St. Helens LID has been an interesting study in neighborhood improvement. Its scope of worked changed through its life, as did the boundaries of the neighborhood it would improve. And there are still questions as to how well it will help once it’s complete.

Dan Voelpel discused a lot of these questions in his column yesterday. He calls out some significant problems with the LID implementation including cost-overruns, playing politics with traffic direction on St. Helens, and the fact that the property owners did not pass the LID but the Council put it into effect anyway.

There’s a lot to unpack. The neighborhood is a vital part of Tacoma’s redevelopment, so the issues involve not just the owners in the LID but also the users of the neighborhood too.