Mountlake Terrace presses on after RAISE denial; earmark for community center cut to $850,000

Mountlake Terrace’s federal lobbyist told the City Council on Nov. 6 that the city will continue pressing for changes to federal grant criteria after a recent RAISE application was denied and a congressional earmark for the community center was reduced.

Jake Johnston of the Johnson Group said Mountlake Terrace helped secure a post‑2021 change that steered more U.S. Department of Transportation discretionary awards toward communities with populations under 200,000 and that the city aims to extend that threshold across other federal discretionary programs. He said a transportation reauthorization bill next year is a key opportunity to write that change into more programs.

Johnston said the city applied for a RAISE (formerly BUILD) grant this year and advanced through score panels until USDOT’s economics team evaluated the applications’ benefit‑cost analyses (BCA). The team, he said, judged the city’s projected downtown growth “not plausible,” and that assessment was the chief reason the application was not selected for funding.

“The debrief from USDOT’s economics team was clear: we must present ironclad data and multiple corroborating datasets showing project impacts under both build and no‑build scenarios,” Johnston said. He recommended collecting letters from the state of Washington, Snohomish County, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) and Sound Transit that explicitly address the growth and economic assumptions used in the BCA.

Johnston also updated the council on a congressional earmark request: Rep. Suzan DelBene submitted Mountlake Terrace’s $2,500,000 request for roof and community space improvements to the library building, but the initial appropriations draft now includes $850,000 for the project. Johnston said he and staff will need to decide whether to pursue additional funding next year to complete the project.

Council members asked how the city could make its projections more credible. Johnston and Deputy City Manager Carolyn Hope said staff will pursue the USDOT guidance (two datasets for build/no‑build, common assumptions across project components) and seek targeted letters that address the economic analysis. Johnston urged coordination with other Washington cities and noted the city had already coordinated a 38‑city letter earlier in the year to the state’s congressional delegation.

Johnston cautioned that federal appropriations and agency review processes are politically and technically complex; he said the transportation reauthorization process has historically been bipartisan but that outcomes can change with different congressional and executive branch dynamics.

What happened next: staff said they will evaluate whether to resubmit the RAISE application next year, refine the BCA with additional corroborating data and consider pursuing remaining funding for the community center in future appropriations cycles.

Why it matters: federal discretionary grants and congressional earmarks are primary sources for large local capital projects. The council’s choice to resubmit or pause pursuit of federal funding will affect project schedules and the city’s capital budget planning.