A Mountlake Terrace resident told the city council on Sept. 18 she has faced months of code‑enforcement action and legal costs after the city questioned whether she needed a home‑business occupation license for work she said she does from her laptop.

Kim Guadalupe said she has been a local business owner for more than a decade and that a recent change in where she kept personal items and worked prompted repeated enforcement contacts beginning about eight months ago. Guadalupe said her attorney sent a letter to the city and all council members on Sept. 9 documenting the interactions and that she spent thousands of dollars on legal bills to secure license approval. “My home business occupation license was approved after I hired an attorney, after months of back and forth, after thousands of dollars to the city,” she told the council.

Guadalupe described the home‑business start fee as $1,000 with a separate $1,000 deposit; she said the city refunded half of the deposit and that she has incurred nearly $10,000 in attorney fees while trying to resolve the matter. She also said she filed a public records request and used the city’s records to confirm what staff had done in response to a complaint about a nearby property operating a home business.

The council did not respond from the dais but Mayor Pro Tem said staff had received Guadalupe’s email and the city manager would follow up directly. City Manager Jeff Knighton told the council he and staff had reviewed the letter and would contact her in the next day or two.

During Guadalupe’s remarks she named a code enforcement staff member, Laura Stevenson, and said she believed staff had closed a neighbor’s enforcement file without adequate investigation. Guadalupe also said she called the Washington Department of Revenue and was told in one conversation she might not need a second business license for the activity she described.

The council did not take formal action on the matter at the Sept. 18 meeting; the city manager acknowledged receipt of the written correspondence and committed to having staff respond to Guadalupe directly to explain the city’s actions and next steps.