Mayor Florea discusses his vision for Leavenworth

Leavenworth’s new Mayor, Carl Florea, is passionate about affordable housing. Although when asked to define what that means he agreed that term is not properly defined. Florea then went on to say he is interested in affordable workforce housing.

“People who work here cannot afford to live here because home prices are too high,” said Floria. “Even people who have good jobs cannot afford the home prices in town.”

According to Florea home prices are being driven by wealthy investors and retirees from the west side driving up real estate values. Limited inventory and a desirable location make the problem worse.

“We just can’t give into this idea that we are going to be a retirement community,” he said.

Florea is concerned that school enrollments will continue to decline and employees of locally owned businesses will continue to be forced to live elsewhere.

When asked about what he thought the impact of the Wiedner apartments would be he said, “That’s the wild card in this whole thing”.

Weidner has said they plan to charge market rate for their apartments but nobody knows what that really means. Phone calls to Weidner have not been returned.

What is known is the Weidner apartments will add 150 new units to the available housing in Leavenworth. That is approximately a 15 percent increase in available housing units in the city.

Weidner currently operates the 312 unit Riverside Apartment homes in Wenatchee. Those apartments start at $1,155 for a studio, $1,255 for a 1 bedroom and $1,435 for a two bedroom.

No one knows what will happen to rental rates when you add that much capacity to the currently scarce supply. Florea is concerned they will be snatched up as second homes by the wealthy west siders.

For his part, Florea is concerned about the issue of importing our workforce. He believes a diverse mix of people is important to our sense of community.

To insure that is possible he believes the city must develop an income stream that can be used to subsidize housing costs for local workers. He is not alone in that possible solution. The new school district Superintendent, Dr. Tracey Beckenendorf-Edou, has expressed concerns about the inability of new school teachers to find affordable housing in the school district. Beckendorf-Edou has suggested the city or school district may have to find ways to subsidize housing costs for new teachers.

Florea suggests that one way to develop an income stream is to add another percent to the hotel-motel tax that has been so successful in building our tourism economy.

Currently the Hotel-Motel tax is 5 percent and that must be spent on advertising or tourism related facilities under current state law. In 2019 the total Hotel-Motel tax collected by the city was $2.4 million. So, theoretically a 1% additional tax would bring in $480 thousand. It will require new legislation to set up a new tax.

“It is the beauty of our town and the amenities it provides that draws these people here to buy their second homes that is creating this problem, so why not charge a tax on hotels and motels to help us ameliorate this problem,” said Floria.

Floria recognizes that his idea is not universally accepted and believes it will not be easy to implement. But he points out it is a position he ran on and one that he believes in.

The Mayor is also concerned about addressing the issue of sustainability. He wonders what a sustainable economic model looks like.

“We have a wonderful economy that is the envy of many small towns. But we are a small town with virtually one way in and one way out. How much can you bear? How do we take the wonderful tourist economy we have and make it sustainable. What does that look like,” asked Florea.

Floria said originally the town came together to form project L.I.F.E. – Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone. That worked marvelously. He plans to call for a new project -  LIFE II. The original one worked great. We have this wonderful economy that was developed as a result.

“It will only work if we get businesses and residents working together,” said Floria. “Eventually, its going to collapse of its own weight.”

The city did receive a grant of $45, 800 from the Department of Commerce in November to complete a housing needs assessment. That study will attempt to quantify existing and projected housing needs for all income levels.

Florea said this is money for a study to determine what we needed. There is talk about possibly limiting the square footage of single family homes. It will help us decide if we need more smaller homes instead of the McMansions we see being built today.

“But those are tools in the tool box but without a funding stream to help us support it is just going to create more homes that the wealthy from the other side can come and buy,” said Florea.

Florea also weighed in on Christmas Lighting. It’s a wonderful festival but too many of our visitors can’t get here in time for the ceremony.

“We need to have a conversation about that event so it’s not so focused on one moment,” said Floria. Make it so it’s a lighting season. Have things going on outside of that so people are not trapped in the gridlock of trying to get here when the switch is flipped on. 

We went on to talk about his decision to replace the City Manager, Joel Walinski.

“Florea said Joel has done a great job managing the city finances,” said Florea. “And he has been professional in the way we handled all of this. I just need someone that is of the same mindset with me as Mayor.”

We’ve already had our first meeting with the hiring consultant. So, we are moving ahead. Joel will be with us until the end of the month.

 Florea first ventured into Leavenworth in 1985 as the pastor of Faith Lutheran Church and settled in with his wife and three sons. He has yo-yoed out of the community since then, but has returned. He's looking at retirement, but weary about full time retirement since he admittedly is not fond of being dormant or sitting still. He still serves as an occasional pastor.
    "I always look for needs that aren't being met," said Florea. "Now I'm getting ready to retire, and that's one of the reasons I'm willing to take on being mayor. I'm going to have a little more free time, a little more flexibility."
    Florea has rotated through many positions of importance in the community. He has served on the Cascade School Board, a council member on the Leavenworth City council. Beyond that he was one of the founding directors for Upper Valley MEND.