07:31 PM PDT on Thursday, June 22, 2006

KING5.com

SEATTLE – Property owners who would benefit most from a $4 billion tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct would also have to pay a bigger chunk of the price under a plan being proposed by Mayor Greg Nickels.

The plan calls for some new taxes and fees, a new toll on the roadway, but also a levy on those whose properties would benefit most by increased views or proximity to the park that would be built atop the buried roadway.

The city has already mapped the properties – now behind the viaduct – whose property values city officials say could rise by about $600 million.

To tap into that, the city would create a "local improvement district" which would impose a levy over a 20-year period and raise $250 million.

City of Seattle

This view shows what Mayor Greg Nickels' office believes a sidestreet instersecting with Alaskan Way would look like if the viaduct is torn down and replaced with a tunnel.

"If we want the tunnel, it's been our obligation to find the financing and that's what we're dealing with," Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said. 

The decision on how to replace the crumbling roadway will likely be made by voters in Seattle by the end of the year and the cash generated by increasing property values hardly pays for it all.

The state estimates that simply replacing the viaduct with something similar will cost about what the state already has available for the project, $2.4 billion, much of it already being generated by a higher gas tax.

In addition to the local improvement district revenue, Nickels' plan to come up with the difference between the cost of tunnel and what's now available from the state would pull money from several different sources, none of them guaranteed.

• From the federal government, Nickels hopes for another $340 million, plus $200 million from the Army Corps of Engineers to help rebuild the seawall.
• From the King, Pierce and Snohomish county region he's hoping that voters next year will approve a new package of sales and vehicle taxes, and he's now talking about a $2 toll each way.
• From the Port of Seattle, $200 million.
• A not yet determined amount from city utilities, which would ultimately affect water, sewage and drainage rates.
• Another chunk would come from a new impact fee on developers KING 5 reporters

Robert Mak and Glenn Farley contributed to this report.