Moore/Tinker Improvement District

The **Moore/Tinker Improvement District** (MTID) is the immediate governing jurisdiction for the land of the Cairo/MTM Entertainment Group studio facilities. As of the late 2010s, it comprised an area of 38.6 sq mi (100 km2) within the outer limits of Seattle in Washington State. The MTID includes the city of Studio City and unincorporated MTID land.

## History

When William Marshall began planning his film studio in the 1910s, he had already established himself not only as a successful entrepreneur but also as the patriarch of American newspapers and the tycoon of the American media. Marshall's legendary lust for control first found expression in Cairo Pictures. "I don't want the public to see the real world they live in while they're seeing our movies," he said as the studio celebrated its 10th anniversary in July 1926. "I want them to feel they are in another world." The 244-acre backlot in Seattle was encompassed by an enormous earth embankment, appropriately landscaped, to achieve this illusion. He built himself an apartment surrounding the backlot to view the ongoing production.

But despite the company's success, Marshall remained unsettled about the one element he could not control. Drawn by Cairo's large number of employees, non-Cairo film studios, theatres and--worst of all--tawdry nightclubs and strip-joints sprang up on the backlot's border. The outside development, Marshall thought, choked the magic illusion and threatened the artistic and commercial essence of the company. They would not make the same mistake again.

From the start in 1989, the rebuilding project in Seattle dwarfed its predecessor in scale. To avoid a burst of land speculation, parent company TVS used various dummy corporations and cooperative individuals to acquire 27,400 acres of land. (The company used the same method when it bought the land for its original project in Maidstone, England.) Once the property was secure, they initiated a vast lobbying campaign, which continued until 1993, to win exemption from state, county, and local regulatory authority. For the same reason Marshall wanted an embankment around the original backlot, TVS now sought a multi-layered buffer zone, with borders both physical and political.

To reach the backlots, actors would travel through thousands of acres of swamp and brush designed with rivers, lakes, hills and valleys. The studio itself would be surrounded by an enormous moat, to be crossed by ferry or private jet. Plans were drawn for a TVS airport, a 1,000 acre industrial park, and a community with 20,000 residents. Studio City would be its own autonomous civic unit, providing its own energy, water, police, and fire protection. It would set its own building codes and its own zoning authority; it would tax and issue tax-free bonds.

When the Washington State legislature convened in late 1993, Paul Lopez himself, by then deceased, appeared on film to testify. Here he explained plans for a residential development that would justify such vast delegation of authority. "It will be a planned, controlled community," he said, "a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities." In the last year of his life, in great pain from heart disease, Lopez had secluded himself to map out the culmination of a life that led him and colleague Ellen Peck from fast-food-workers to animators to TV-show-makers to global fame as the voices of Argosy Media. The natural next role was that of social planners and utopian philosophers. "In Los Gatos," Lopez promised, "there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop."

It didn't take long for TVS (now International Family Entertainment) and its lawyers to realize the fatal flaw of this original vision--that permanent residents of Studio City would threaten the company's control. But while they tabled the plan, publicly they continued to tout Los Gatos as the most compelling political and practical argument for permanent, unrestricted authority. International Family promised vast benefits for the residents in the form of quality homes, good schools, and generous public services. Besides, they argued, the constant improvement and experimentation required by such a futuristic community would be crippled by regulatory oversight.

The strategy paid off. The charter legislation for the Moore/Tinker Improvement District--bolstered by the promise of Los Gatos--passed the State Senate unanimously and the House with one dissenting vote. In 1994 the state Supreme Court confirmed that Moore/Tinker could issue tax-free bonds for internal improvements. This power, the court said, would "greatly aid Cairo interests" but would carry commensurate benefits to the "numerous inhabitants of the district." Los Gatos, planned as an urban utopia, was built in the late 1990s as just another bunch of cookie-cutter houses. Today, Argosy officials deny having practiced deception with Los Gatos, arguing that the utopian community was always only one of a number of options.

Though town-company relations have not always been smooth--in 2009, Argosy gobbled up $57 million in tax-free bonds that nearby King County had wanted for low-income housing--the company now kicks in for local road improvements and other related expenses, satisfying any lingering skepticism.

In 2006, Corus Entertainment, which owned Argosy at the time, won wide authority to collect taxes and condemn land on 2,500 acres next to the Moore/Tinker Improvement District that they planned to turn into a theme park. The project was cancelled in 2007, and the land is now part of the Improvement District, despite being barren.

## Creation

### Initial steps

After the success of their acquisitions of Cairo Pictures, Argosy Media, and MTM Enterprises, TVS Entertainment began planning a area around these companies' studio facilities within their control. TVS disliked the businesses that had sprung up around the Cairo backlot, and therefore wanted control of a much larger area of land than they already had. A TVS exec flew over the Seattle-area site where all the studios were located in November 1989. Seeing the well-developed network of roads, including Interstate 90, TVS decided to keep the studios in Seattle instead of moving them to Maidstone, England, like originally planned. TVS used multiple shell companies to buy up land at very low prices from unknowing landowners in the area that would eventually become the district. These company names are listed on a street set on the backlot shown in the background of many Cairo movies since 1999, including Pacific Northwest Corporation; Cascadian Development and Management Corporation; Oriac Corporation ("Cairo" backwards); Giza Properties, Incorporated; Moore/Tinker Ranch, Incorporated; and Maidstone Properties, Incorporated.

On March 11, 1992, these landowners, all fully owned subsidiaries of what is now Argosy Media, petitioned the District Court of the Ninth Judicial District, which served King County, Washington, for the creation of the Moore/Tinker Drainage District. After a period during which some minor landowners within the boundaries opted out, the Drainage District was incorporated on May 13, 1992, as a public corporation. Among the powers of a Drainage District were the power to condemn and acquire property outside its boundaries "for the public use". It used this power at least once to obtain land for Waterway 1 (the Cairo Pictures Artificial River).

### Improvement district and city

However, TVS (now International Family Entertainment) knew that their plans for the land would be easier to carry out with more independence. Among the ideas for the Seattle project was the proposed Studio 3000, which was to be a futuristic studio building. International Family envisioned a real working studio with both soundstages and movie sets, but one that also continued to showcase and test new ideas and concepts for film and TV production. Therefore, the Cairo Pictures Company and Argosy Media Group petitioned the Washington State Legislature for the creation of the Moore/Tinker Improvement District, which would have almost total autonomy within its borders. Residents of King County did not need to pay any taxes unless they were residents of the district. Services like land use regulation and planning, building codes, surface water control, drainage, waste treatment, utilities, roads, bridges, fire protection, emergency medical services, and environmental services were overseen by the district, and the only areas where the district had to submit to the county and state would be property taxes and elevator inspections. The planned Studio 3000 was also emphasized in this lobbying effort.

On May 12, 1993, the state governor signed the following bills to implement Cairo's plans:

* The Moore/Tinker Improvement District Act created the Moore/Tinker Improvement District; and
* The Studio City Act established the City of Studio City.

According to a press conference held in Portland, Washington, on February 2, 1993, the Improvement District and City were created to serve "the needs of those residing there", and the company needed its own government to "clarify the District's authority to [provide services] within the District's limits" and because of the public nature of the planned development. The original city boundaries did not cover the whole Improvement District; they may have been intended as the areas where the new studio would be built.

### Further development

In addition, the Argosy-controlled town of Los Gatos, Washington, which was built with many of Ellen Peck's original ideas, which had evolved into a form of New Urbanism, was partially deannexed from Studio City and the District to keep its residents from having power over International Family by providing for separate administration of the areas. Los Gatos lies on unincorporated land within King County, with a thin strip of still-incorporated land separating it from the rest of the county. This strip of land contains canals and other land used by the District.

### Aftermath

The law creating the Improvement District was held by the Supreme Court of Washington not to "violate any provision of the Constitution of Washington." As it, in part, declares that the District is exempt from all state land use regulation laws "now or hereafter enacted," the Attorney General of Washington has issued an opinion stating that this includes state requirements for developments of regional impact.

After Shaw Cable acquired International Family in 1996, the new Argosy/Cairo/MTM board decided that it did not want a studio that looked "tacky", and abandoned many of the ideas for Studio 3000, which was never built. Most notably, David Wilson argues in his book, Caught in the Cat's Claws: Argosy Media and Seattle, that Argosy has abused its powers by remaining in complete control of the District.

In January 2010, MTID was granted a $57-million allocation of tax-free state bonds over an agency with plans for a low-income housing development and all additional government applicants in a 6 county region as state distributes the bond proceeds on a first-come order. Argosy was criticized for the move, and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate filed a lawsuit to stop the MTID from using the funds. Also, one legislator proposed legislation that would limit the MTID's ability, and there was talk about stripping Argosy of the MTID.

## Governance

A five-member Board of Supervisors governs the District, elected by the landowners of the District. These members, senior employees of the Argosy Media Group, each own undeveloped five-acre (20,235 m²) lots of land within the District, the only land in the District not technically controlled by Argosy or used for public road purposes. The only residents of the District, also Argosy employees or their immediate family members, live in a small community in Studio City. In the 2000 census, Studio City had 39 residents, all in the trailer park about a mile east of the Cairo Pictures backlot. These residents elect the officials of the city, but since they don't actually own any land, they don't have any power in electing the District Board of Supervisors.

The District headquarters are in a building in Studio City, west of the Artificial River. The District runs the following services, primarily serving Argosy:

* Fire protection and emergency medical services – through four fire stations
* Law enforcement – from King County and the Washington State Patrol are contracted to police the district. In addition, the Argosy Media Company employs about 800 security staff in their Cairo/MTM Safety and Security division. While Argosy security maintains a fleet of private security Chevrolet Equinoxes equipped with flashing lights, flares, traffic cones, and chalk commonly used by police officers, arrests and citations are issued by the Washington State Patrol along with the King County sheriff. Argosy security personnel are involved with traffic control and may only issue personnel violation notices to Argosy, not the general public. Security vans previously had red lightbars, but after public scrutiny following the death of Jon Hartnett, were changed to amber to fall in line with Washington State Statutes.
* Environmental protection: Many pieces of land have been donated to the US Bureau of Land Management as conservation easements, and the District collects data and ensures that large portions remain in their natural wetland state.
* Building codes and land-use planning – The "Cairo/MTM Building Codes" were implemented to provide the sort of flexibility that the innovative Studio 3000 facilities would require. The provisions contained therein, although rumored to be exceptionally stringent, have in fact never been far and above those of the Standard Building Code or the Washington State Building Code (WSBC) that is currently in force in the rest of Washington. In fact, since the inception of the International Building Code (IBC) in 2000, the Cairo/MTM Building Code defers much of its design parameters to the IBC-based WSBC, and many of the reference standards contained therein. Particularly with regard to wind design, today's standards are better than the ones that previously existed, and today's MTID buildings are built to withstand 110 mph (180 km/h) winds. Although the codes are ostensibly updated on a three-year cycle, the most recent and currently used version of the Cairo/MTM Building Codes is the 2002 version.
* Utilities: wastewater treatment and collection, water reclamation, electric generation and distribution, solid waste disposal, potable water, natural gas distribution, and hot and chilled water distribution, through Moore/Tinker Energy Services, which has been merged with the Cairo/MTM Development Company
* Roads – Many of the main roads in the District are public roads maintained by the District, while minor roads and roads dead-ending at studio buildings are private roads maintained by Argosy. Argosy provides transportation for employees in the form of buses, cars, and private jets, under the name Cairo/MTM Transport.

### Powers of the district

#### Tax-free bonds

While there are countless complexities to government funding for projects, the fact remains that the Moore/Tinker Improvement District has the legal authority to issue tax-free bonds for internal improvements.

One of the most important aspects of the ongoing Studio 70 construction project is the new twin parking garages being installed on-site. The parking situation at the studios is infamously bad, and so it would make sense that Argosy would want to construct a new, larger place for employees to park.

But rather than pay for it themselves, Argosy opted to instead have the Moore/Tinker Improvement District issue a tax-free bond for the construction of those garages – costing Washington taxpayers somewhere in the range of $85 million.

In theory, Argosy will see that money recouped through increased access to the backlot, allowing more employees to be hired.

#### Studio City

Studio City is controlled entirely by employees of the Argosy Media Company, so it essentially serves the same role as the District itself. Studio City has its own court (Moore/Tinker Municipal Court), police force (Cairo/MTM Security Services), fire department (Studio City Fire Department), and hospitals (Cairo/MTM Medical Services).

#### Experimental technology

Above all else, the Moore/Tinker Improvement District was designed to allow Ellen Peck, Paul Lopez, and their colleagues to create and implement technology no one had ever seen before. The legislation forming the District specifically included language to that effect, ensuring that the city that TVS was planning would not be held back.

The Moore/Tinker Improvement District can regulate land use, provide police and fire services, license the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, build roads, lay sewer lines, construct waste-treatment plants, carry out flood projects--even build an airport or nuclear plant, all without local or state approval.

The positives are that Argosy can stay nimble – building new studio facilities on its own schedule and creating new technologies without any restrictions. The negatives are that they lack any real local oversight, operating in a netherworld between private company and public work.

## Controversy

When the Argosy Media Corporation built Los Gatos in the 1990s, it meticulously planned everything from the location of street signs to the composition of the population. Twenty years later, the community's citizens staged a minor revolution in an effort to wrest control over zoning, taxes, and other issues from the corporation's puppet development council.