The proposed MICA building presents citizens with some puzzling arithmetic problems. Where did the $2 million donation from the city listed on the 4Culture application come from? Where is the line item in the budget for money to service any construction loans taken to finance the building, as permitted in the proposed lease? Where is the endowment to protect the city should there be annual operating shortfalls? How much income, over how many years, is promised from each of the “resident users,” and is this income validated with public documents such as 990’s filed?
Why hasn’t the city hired an independent accounting firm to evaluate MICA’s business plan? Why was the section that protected the city financially removed from the current lease (former section 2.1.v, page 3, now deleted)? Why does the current lease include a blank check for the city to issue to MICA for unlimited and undefined expenses — “… nothing in this agreement shall prevent the city from voluntarily contributing additional funds to the project …” (section 3, page 5).
And now, with the new design MICA announced recently, geometry problems emerge. In response to requests for exterior measurements of the newly designed building, MICA emailed me on Jan. 21: “We would prefer to release this type of information to the public all at once, rather than to individuals, so that everyone in the community has access to the information at the same time. As soon as we have that information in a format where we can make it available to everyone, we will post it on our site.”
Since MICA hasn’t posted the measurements yet, I printed out the map from the MICA website and used my ruler. The total floor area is 38,000 square feet. Based on the 25-foot dimension on the map, and on the staking and the aerial photographs of the footprint on the site, the facade of the MICA building along the path is approximately 270 feet, almost 100 feet longer than the façade of the Farmers Insurance Building along 77th Avenue, which is 182 feet. MICA’s north side is 150 feet from front to back. The architect previously stated that MICA will be 35 feet high. That’s 3.23 (rounded off) normal stories. The footprint (24,000 square feet) will be over 10 times the size of the current Recycling Center (2,040 square feet).
Think about it — MICA will be huge. It will destroy the beauty of the wooded area west of the path. Traffic congestion from cars dropping off and picking up students will affect the treasured peace and quiet of the park itself. The park Islanders designed and built — Bicentennial Park — will disappear under pavement for emergency vehicle access.
It is not too late to save our parks. MICA should buy land and build on private land — or build on city land beside the Community Center — NOT in our park. To help us protect our parkland before it is destroyed forever, please join us. Email: protectMIparks@gmail.com.
Meg Lippert
Mercer Island
