In a reversal from previous discussions, the Bellevue City Council reached a compromise to charge property owners a smaller percentage of total costs of projects to improve Northeast Fourth Street and 120th Avenue Northeast.

The council voted 5-1 to support a local improvement district (LID) for slightly more than $8 million of the approximately $47 million projects, a decrease from the $10 million originally discussed.

After last Monday’s meeting, in which the concept of an LID appeared on track for defeat, several council members met with City Manager Steve Sarkozy, where they decided on a smaller benefit amount. In last week’s meeting, three council members demonstrated resistance against charging property owners for projects they thought would benefit the public as a whole rather than nearby tenants. With the knowledge that the council could go back and re-evaluate the benefits received by property owners as a result of the projects after construction was completed, a shift occurred with Jennifer Robertson and Kevin Wallace voting in favor.

“We’re not imposing a tax today or tomorrow,” said Council Member John Chelminiak. “We’re looking at an assessment that would be placed on properties in the 2014-2015 time frame.”

Conrad Lee was the lone holdout. He decried the concept of creating greater fees for businesses in a time when money is tough to come by. In a better time period, when the economy isn’t so rough, Lee said, he would be more likely to vote in favor of such a funding mechanism.

“I would rather err on the side of no new taxes,” he said. “This is a new tax.”

Others countered that the LID represented not a tax targeted at businesses, but a way to spread the cost among several different sources. Most of the money will come from general fund because the project will indeed benefit everyone, several council members said.

The next hurdle for the project to face is a 30-day protest period in which property owners have the ability to object. Should owners representing 60 percent of the assessed value come forward, the LID would be dissolved. At Hearing Examiner meetings last October 13 of 49 property owners and six tenants came forward to speak out against the financing plan, without a single property owner or tenant in favor. Few property owners attended the Monday meeting. Three property owners did come forward to speak out against the LID.