refer to, but I'm hoping to summarize
pretty briefly. Um, and I'm going to try
to do that with three words. Um, and
there'll be a little bit of verbiage
around each of those words. Okay, never
fear.
Um, the first word is urgency.
Uh, we are living with uncertainty. It's
very stressful. Um, but it's real and
it's accelerating climate change is what
I'm talking about. Um and city city
dwellers are responsible for 70% of
greenhouse gas emissions that are
causing this and particularly in
countries like the United States um not
all countries um in communitywide
with the governments leading the way is
a key uh and it is possible according to
many experts that if we do the right
things we can turn it around.
So there are many reasons behind this
urgency um about people's lives and
safety and I'm sure you know a lot of
them uh health, weather, food and energy
costs, natural systems, future
generations and you can go on. Um, there
are also many benefits to acting early
and there's short-term benefits, there's
long-term benefits
and so the sense of urgency kind of
comes and goes because we all have lots
on our minds and there are many other
important things too. I want to just put
that word in your mind urgency and uh
that is what uh the the the feeling tone
that we need uh to go with this uh the
second word is priorities.
uh PCA has already put out some very
critical actions that you've gotten
several times probably. Um and it really
boils down to building our the energy
that's coming from our buildings and our
transportation uh that's uh creating a
lot of this problem. In fact, in the in
our city in particular, and it's
different for different cities, but 90%
of our emissions, I think it's 91%
according to our last greenhouse gas
inventory are coming from those two
sources. So, are they a priority? They
are a priority. Yay.
Um, so those two things um are things to
keep in mind. It's so easy to get
distracted by the many many uh details
and things that will help those things.
You don't want to get distracted by
them. You want what are the things that
will cause and help those two areas. Um
there are many other really important
and wonderful things too. Um but it is
easy to lose focus. Um in terms of
buildings then and transportation the
third word is targeted action. And so
using those priorities and targeting the
action, we can't do everything. Um and
uh our resources are limited. And so in
in the buildings, uh something that we
perhaps can do is work with getting this
uh quicker and more widespread
communitywide transition to clean energy
in h in our heating and cooling systems
in our um we have a wonderful program
that needs to be expanded uh with the uh
energy smart east side and um we also
need to uh not only work with um with
that but we uh there could be some
permitting kinds of things that the
council could do to when people are
going to upgrade their heating system
and there's it's time and over the next
20 years probably everybody's going to
upgrade uh then what can we do to ensure
that they uh have an uh energyefficient
and clean system and then the second
area of course transportation you know
there's a lot of regional things that
that we don't have control over. But um
I like what's happening with our light
rail in our community. I've been a part
of that and really enjoyed the meeting
last uh uh I guess it was last week uh
that that we had over at the train
station. Um and then another idea uh is
is um getting from uh the being able to
get around Isiqua. I mean I live in
downtown Isiqua in Oldtown. I was not
able to get over to Costco. I wanted to
take the bus. There's no bus that takes
you over there. There isn't any. Um uh
and I ended up because I am able to walk
some uh to going to um Oh, I'm just
about on my time. Okay. I'm going to go
through the urgency,
priorities,
and targeted action
partnering with our community in our
community and regionally.
I'm sure you can remember that. Thank
you.
>> Thank you so much, Ann. Clerk, has
anyone else signed up to speak?
>> No one else has signed up. There are a
few folks with us virtually, but I'm not
seeing any of them indicated desire to
speak at this point.
Is there anyone else in the room who
would like to speak? Okay, David Kapler
coming up.
Good evening. David Kappler, local
resident just a block away, which uh
says something about um why I live here.
And um all we I used to live out in in
May Valley and um during that time um
the uh King County went through a
process of community planning and that
included an area that's now much of the
city of Newcastle. Some additions to
Belleview and parts of that planning
area are now a significant part of that
area is now in the city of Isiqua.
Um there was a lot of concerns at that
time. Um city administrator
for one uh was quite concerned about
climate issues and some of those kinds
of things and growth myself and and
others. And um the Newcastle community
plan came up with this concept that had
been tried in other parts of the country
of um an urban urban urban village. The
idea was we would have less roads,
shorter roads to serve people. We would
have
shorter sewer lines, water lines, all of
those kinds of things. We could then
concentrate on the dirt on the ground
that was most appropriate for
development and saved the ground, the
water, the wetlands. Um, if we avoid
getting to that, the s the city of
Isiziqua adopted that concept that was
basically outlined in the community
plan, the county plan, and um the the
developers that had Cougar Mountain
said, "Okay, we can we can do it. We can
make it work." And then when
the Seahawks type people and all on
Isiqua Highlands found out that the city
could be pretty flexible and would go
for some of urban village or whatever
you want to call it. Um they they jumped
in as as as a second one. But um this
and this was you know nobody was doing
this. Isov was way ahead of everybody
else on this. and um let's continue to
be way ahead. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Is there anyone else in the
room who would like to speak?
>> Seeing none, clerk, is there anyone
online who has indicated an interest to
speak? Okay. Well, then with that, we
will close this section session of
public comment and we will move on to
our first agenda item, which is COM
0225, the economic development 2026 work
plan. And I would like to invite Alexis
Fitz Simmons, economic development and
housing manager to give the
presentation.
There we go. Sorry.
Good evening. Um I'm excited uh to talk
to you about our 2026 um action um and
work plan uh for uh the economic
development activities. Our economic
development action plan has three
objectives and that was established um a
few years ago u in coordination with the
uh economic vitality commission. Um
access to opportunity to convene and
catalyze and leverage isqua's assets.
Those are the plan's objectives and
everything that we do in our economic
development activity really is
surrounding uh those objectives.
Our focus and our work plan areas are um
business and economic vitality, housing
development, communications and
engagement, and workforce development.
Those four topics kind of underneath
those three activities um encompass the
work that we're doing. Um we focus on
business retention and expansion,
attraction and development, downtown and
commercial dis and commercial district
support and outdoor recreation under our
economic vitality and business uh
development. Our housing development is
one of also my main focuses um with
builder builder and developer and
property owner outreach as well as
affordable housing strategy and
implementation
for communications and engagement. This
one is particularly I find particularly
important um because no one knows your
story unless you share it. Um and I've
worked with several communities that
have a a case of poor mouth um where a
lot of a lot of residents and a lot of
um you know city uh staff speak
negatively about uh about the community.
Um and that may be because they don't
necessarily know what's going on in the
community. Um however, Isiqua is
different. there's a very positive
attitude in Isiqua generally in the
citizenry um as well as with public
officials and it's really important that
we continue to engage with that and
continue to share the isiqua story in a
positive way so that our community has
positive things to talk about um and so
when we have things like um new business
openings and uh we we want to share
those things one of the things that we
do um is have the isqua buzz uh podcast
that Autumn and I uh co-host we have a
monthly eating newsletter. Uh we have
quarterly city council reports to share
with you guys what's going on. Um in
addition to that, we have additional
community engagement with our community
partners uh so that we can understand
better what's happening on their end and
how we might collaborate and share the
story further. Um that particular item I
um I find very important even though
sometimes it may be um less on the
priority um because it's not necessarily
so strategic it seems. Um workforce
development is something that I also
believe that we should be focusing on.
Um this year we have um been uh
collaborating with the chamber on their
great careers uh day that they held.
Also I sit on the isqua school district
CTE committee, the career technical
education committee. Um and I also
participated in um senior exit
interviews at the high schools uh this
year. Um it's really important uh to
continue to engage with our young people
um as well as our workforce to make sure
that the businesses that we have in
Isiqua have a ready workforce not just
in Isiqua but in the region to pull from
um as as we move forward.
So let's go a little deeper um into what
we're doing on the business and economic
vitality. One of the things I mentioned
was business retention and expansion. Um
our goal this year is 30 visits. Um as
of uh the beginning of May, uh we had 19
complete. This does include um ribbon
cutings, but um in that 19 number, there
was only five ribbon cutings at the
time. Um but the purpose of these visits
is to keep your finger on the pulse of
how your business community is doing.
What we want to do is to make sure that
we have good established relationships
uh with businesses in the community. So
that way if there is an issue uh that
comes up, they know who to call and how
to get hold of us. Uh we want to make
sure that they know that the city is
supportive of their operations and that
we're here to provide resources and just
generally understand what their
operations are so that we can advocate
for them on different levels um you know
of government uh for you know our
business community in Seattle in the in
our isqua um community.
Um we have had um leveraging our
community organizations and partnerships
like the chamber uh to gain access to
businesses and introductions to
businesses that we might not necessarily
have um easy interactions with. And then
also we held a spring openhouse uh in
April. Um it wasn't super well attended
um but I believe it was the third open
house uh that we that we've had um
historically. Um I was hoping for a
larger audience. Uh we had 30 RSVPs. We
had about 10 businesses show up, but we
had several um community uh partners as
well as um city departments uh come to
provide information to those that did
attend.
Another thing that we do um under the
business and economic vitality umbrella
um is support startup 425 which is a
collaborative initiative uh from Bel
that includes Belleview, Kirkland,
Redmond, Retland, and Isiqua. Uh we do
monthly networking walks. You might see
us uh once a month walking through the
downtown and utilizing the Rainineer
trail with entrepreneurs. Um it's kind
of a walk and talk uh event and we have
an opportunity to casually interact with
our entrepreneur base uh here in in
Isiqua and um you can see we always stop
by um we always stop by Jacob Two Trees
and take a picture. Um our our uh crowd
varies between three to seven people at
any given month. Um, but we've met a lot
of great businesses that we would would
not have otherwise realized were home
operating in our community um out of
their homes with software um um and um
businesses that they're kind of just
kind of getting off the ground. And
through that, we've been able to connect
um several businesses to the for startup
425 accelerator where they've been able
to learn and grow learn about uh
resources and tools and grow their
businesses through that educational
program.
Um we also hosted an entrepreneur
networking panel at REI um earlier this
year. Um
and
the accelerator is currently in cohort 4
and another cohort will be starting in
the fall. Um homegrown retail is another
program under this business and economic
vitality umbrella. Uh we have eight um
eight businesses participating this
year. We had 12 applications. Uh we
worked with um Kelly Diane at Pickering
Barn to establish who was going to
participate and choose those. Um
they uh participate in one um each
business has a spot in the May um in the
May time frame and each and they also
have a spot in the September time frame.
And the way that it works is, you know,
they they come, we provide the
materials, kind of removing the risk uh
from the business to try and reach their
customer. So they don't have to invest
in a tent or tables or signage. Uh we
provide the spot and they show up and
they learn from their customer about
what their customer wants, who their
customer is, work out some kinks, um
maybe get some sales, um and then come
and take that back, modify their their
approach possibly, uh from what they've
learned uh from those interactions and
then come back in September, um and try
it again. Uh we've heard really great uh
feedback from those businesses that have
been able to take advantage of this. Um
and so we hope to continue this program
into the future.
Another thing that we have under the
business and economic vitality umbrella
is our downtown and commercial district
support. Um I want to pay special
attention uh to the downtown and
commercial district support uh tonight
because we also have uh the downtown
isqua association uh presenting uh after
me. Um,
one of the things that um I've I've um
put extra effort into um as I've joined
uh the city uh in September is to really
work on creating a collaborative
partnership uh with our community
partners, especially the downtown uh
Isiqua Association. Um
together we have handinhand
collaborative collaboratively moved
forward in establishing a good
relationship, a good working
relationship. Um and I feel that this
has been very productive has been a very
productive year for us so far. Um one of
the things that we have been
collaborating closely on is the Front
Street closures uh that are going to be
happening in August. Um every weekend in
August um from 8:00 a.m. on Saturday to
10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Front Street will
be closed between Dogwood and Sunset. um
in partnership uh with DIA, we've been
able to collaborate with the businesses
um to get their um so to help them get
their um things together to be able to
apply for the LCB permit uh to also uh
schedule programming uh to get make sure
that this these events are um you know
pedestrian friendly, familyfriendly, and
really provide some vitality, increased
vitality for the old town.
Um, another thing uh that's been
happening uh in the in the area which
I'm know that you're aware of uh since
the trolley was here for extra funding
uh last month um is the work that we're
doing to increase the trolley operation.
Kind of an update on that is um the
track and the trestle uh has been
inspected and has been found uh the the
track needed some repairs um but those
are underway and the trestle was found
to be sound for operation. So, the
trolley will be able to run from Stark
to to to the the entirety of the track
that we have available. Um, and so
that's good news. Um, uh, the downtown
or the, um, Isqua Historical Museum is
continuing to work towards, um, the
programming for that. They did hire a
program manager and they're working on
volunteers and training and all those
sorts of things. Um, everything that's
required to to make that be um, an
executable plan. Um the creative
district um also is in week seven or has
completed week seven of art up which is
a creator workshop for um for art uh
creators and it's basically a um
a workshop where creative uh creative
businesses learn how to do business
things. Creative businesses are
typically really good at being creative
and making their art but maybe not
necessarily at the business side of
things. Uh so this art up um
uh done by the the creative district um
is an opportunity for them to better
understand what needs to happen in order
to support their business side um of the
business side of their art. Um and that
has been very successful. Uh the upper
left picture is um that has Alli uh
Marcus in it. Um is the uh group of um
is the group of uh creators uh that are
participating.
As far as outdoor recreation and tourism
goes, um economic development um
oversees uh or works with the ELTAC
board. Uh we've already gone through one
funding cycle uh for ELTAC uh this year,
which you guys have reviewed and
approved. Um, however, we went back to
ELTAC on Monday last week and asked for
them to open the funding round a second
time. Um, and so the application for
ELTAC fund, another application for
ELTAC funding will be opened um, I
believe June 12th um, and will stay open
for 30 days and then we'll have a
special meeting in July to review the
applications and make awards. Um, and
that will come back to council for
approval a second time.
Um in addition to that we work closely
with visit Isiqua um on their activities
and uh the tourism activities. Uh we're
working closely with them on the
aircraft festival um where the with the
hang gliding uh and art festival which
um you can see in the upper right hand
corner. Um I recently took parttook in
some hang gliding which was uh a
wonderful experience. Um and I really
enjoyed it. I will probably do that
again. Um, so we're super excited about
the partnership uh with Visit Isiqua and
the work that's being done to make this
a marquee event uh for the city. Uh we
really believe that it will has the
opportunity to have have a lot of growth
uh year-over-year.
Um, in addition to that, uh, we're
hoping, um, I know that, uh, uh, the
city as a whole is reviewing its
artificial intelligence policies and the
use of, um, those types of tools for
monitoring um
u people that come in and out for the
purposes of tracking uh, tourism and
that type of thing. We're hoping that
maybe we'll be able to get a uh a tool
that will be able be able to better
illustrate uh the activity, tourist
activity, um that comes in and out and
being able to tie it to the different
events that gives a little bit more uh
concrete um evidence of how those events
perform and how we might be able to
tweak um our schedules and events to be
able to better take advantage of uh
regional opportunities.
Moving on to housing and development.
Um, as I said previously, this is a
major focus uh for myself uh in the
economic development office. Um, I'm
working in concert uh with our community
planning and development staff uh to
ensure ensure that the city is providing
predictable a predictable and in a
predict I'm sorry stumbling over my
words tonight. A predictable and
efficient process. Um, this has been a
labor of love uh for me. It's been a
learning curve. Um, uh, this is not
housing is not something I did
previously before coming here. So, I've
really enjoyed learning how all the
housing mechanism and affordable housing
is done here in in uh in Washington and
in Isqua. Uh we've had two um events uh
where we've hosted uh builders and
developers uh one on February 26th and
one on April 1st. Uh, and we also had um
a we participated in the master uh
builders association uh breakfast uh
where Mayor Mullet provided a
presentation on all of our um desires to
engage uh and make changes um and move
forward in ways that are uh friendly uh
to the builder community and but that
still creates a sense of stewardship uh
within the community. Um in addition to
that, I've been attending NAOP
networking events. Uh NAP is a
commercial real estate industrial uh
commercial space uh association
professional association. A lot of
builders, developers attend those events
and pro get education uh through that
association. And so it's a great way to
have a good concentration of people to
meet with and talk with and share the
Isiqua story. Right? Like I said before,
a lot of uh this housing uh development
um um one of the things that really
needs to be addressed is the perception
of what it's like to do business in
Isiqua. Um and the perception isn't
always great when it comes to building
because there's so many challenges. And
so, uh, when I go to these events and I
talk with these developers, I talk to
them about how, um, how active we are in
listening, uh, to what's needed to what
needs to happen and how active we are in
making the changes. And that has been
really wellreceived. Um, I've had a lot
of great conversations, um, at these
events and had a few one-on-one
conversations uh, uh, with developers
individually um, after that as
follow-ups.
We also work uh closely with ARCH of
course with the Arch affordable housing
trust fund um and as well as the
inclusive housing investment pool. Um
both of which I know you guys are aware
of. Um this is something that we we have
touch bases multiple times a month. Uh
especially now that we're moving into
the RFP for um for projects. uh this uh
June is when we see um ARCH um advertise
their request for proposals for
affordable housing projects and our IHIP
program is also advertised at that same
time. Um so I believe that uh we'll be
that will be starting on the 17th of
June. Um so we're hoping um we're
working closely with them to uh refine
the RFP uh for the purposes of for IHIP
um as well as you know trying to uncover
um opportunities um in the affordable
housing space.
Community engagement again a really
important part um of what economic
development is about. Uh again, we do
this through the isiqua buzz, uh the
economic development newsletter,
economic vitality commission, our our
advocates and ambassadors um to for the
city. Um we have a whole um
a whole menu of people um that sit on
commissions that are our ambassadors. Um
and the e the econ the economic vitality
commission is special. Um and that's
because um they are they have a very in
tune skill set. They come to the table
um uh with knowledge of economic
development and business and they can
take that and speak positively not just
to the general community but to the
business community that they're very in
tune with. And so um they are a very
important commission um within our city.
As a result um we also interact uh with
the Highlands Council. Uh we put um we
put a article in the Highlands
newsletter. Um also uh again we had the
spring openhouse, business openhouse,
workforce development as I mentioned. Uh
this is also a very important thing for
the community as we move forward to
retain our businesses. Making sure that
they have a pipeline of workforce uh
coming out of our school districts and
out of our community colleges. uh
retaining um our young people and young
um entrepreneurs and um young workforce.
Um those are all really important. Um we
work closely with the Port of Seattle um
who also has a new focus on workforce
development. Um they hired a workforce
uh person um new to their office uh in
the fall. Um and then also again with
the with working with the school
district
And this is my last slide. I just kind
of wanted to overview how um some of our
economic development activities were
funded uh in 2025. And for 2025 and
2026, uh we received an $83,000 grant uh
from the Port of Seattle, uh which we
had to match locally, $41,500.
Um I did receive uh questions uh from
council regarding kind of the breakdown
of what that uh goes towards and I did
respond um by email. So you have those
uh in your uh inboxes. Um but it's
broken out um basically how our work is
broken out and when the grant was
applied for uh which was before Jack and
I's time um but um
the there's three project type uh three
sets of projects um that we have it
broken into uh small business technical
assistance, retention and expansion and
tourism. uh with the small business and
technical assistance. That's where the
money from startup 425 uh comes from,
which is about $45,000 a year. Um the
business retention and expansion uh
program. Uh there's there is significant
funds left um I would say about $40ish
thousand uh for the the remaining uh
part of 2026 uh to spend. um tourism we
h supported um two outdoor recreation
events. Uh so in 2025 uh the tigerclaw
run was supported uh for their
marketing. Um they did some marketing
that was uh tied with the city and gave
us marketing material that we could
utilize on our uh channels and sites.
Um, and then this year, uh, we are
working, uh, with, uh, the aircraft
festival to do the same type of thing,
uh, to provide marketing support that's
co-branded that we can utilize as a
city, um, to advertise as well as they
can use, um, for their materials as
well. So, with that, that is my last
slide. I'm happy to answer any questions
you might have.
>> Great. Looking to see if there's any
questions from council. Council member
Dear.
Uh yeah, my questions, some of them are
kind of follow-ups to the email, which I
really appreciate your email back as
well as this great, you know,
presentation breaking this all down is
kind of the thoughts, you know, of kind
of next steps cuz uh you brought up um
kind of two areas, you know, where you
guys have been having these
conversations with different um groups
both, you know, in terms of uh different
businesses in town as well as for
housing and development. and then what
um plans are or what's kind of the
thoughts on the next steps to kind of
accommodate you know some of that impa
input you've received. So for the two
kind of primaries I had was uh you know
my question like on our you know our
business sectors and things like that
and how we kind of keep our you know
economy diverse and some of the areas
where you pointed out that we might have
further growth. Um what sort of actions
we think we might be able to take place
to help encourage those other types of
business to you know set up here and
grow. And then similarly on the housing
and development side, you brought up,
you know, kind of what they talked about
as like the most impactful policy
changes and kind of, you know, I think I
believe we already are having
discussions there, but I just kind of
wanted to, you know, bring up what work
we're doing kind of for the next steps
to bring in that input and help our city
grow.
>> Sure. So, let me start with the housing.
Um, we're going to continue to have the
business uh or the builder roundt uh
conversations throughout this year. Uh,
we our next one is scheduled going to be
scheduled in July. um continuing to work
with the master builders association to
coordinate those as well as uh the
developers that we've already worked
with. Um however, this next um this next
focus for the next uh builder round
table will be on the nonprofit sector.
That's not something that we really
delved into um in the first two
sessions. It was more of a what are some
what is some lowhanging fruit? how what
changes can we make and how how and when
can we make them to our permitting and
our our zoning and that type of thing.
Um this next one I really want to focus
on um you know what challenges does our
nonprofit sector of builders have and
how can we um adjust or remove some of
those barriers uh to get more activity
from them not just the market rate um
developers uh in our in our community.
So um we'll provide a update on um
action and what we've done uh to the the
builders at that time but as as well as
continue the conversation um throughout
the year about those topics. Um so it
will be continuous engagement with the
builders and also continuous engagement
uh with that community through NAOP and
and that type of thing. Um next step on
that front is just to continue to make
those changes. is, you know, CPD has a
very detailed work plan that they're
working on and um you know, that's um
you know, I'm kind of out of my depth
when it comes to talking about zoning
and permitting process, but um I support
them throughout that uh throughout the
process as needed. And um you know,
they're continuing to to trudge forward
on on those very important changes that
will make a big difference um in the way
that we're perceived as a community and
the way that it feels to do business
here um as a developer. Um, as far as um
attraction uh and retention, um about
80% of a a community's growth comes from
the retention and expansion of their
existing businesses. And so that should
be a very big focus for our department
and it continues to be. Um that being
said, there are uh significant
challenges uh within the community uh
just like there are with housing. Um we
have the same types of challenges when
it comes to attracting businesses. Um we
land is a finite resource and we don't
have green field properties to market to
extremely large projects that are going
to build really large buildings to house
hundreds and hundreds of employees.
Right? So um we need to leverage um
infill redevelopment. We need to
leverage our organic growth businesses,
our small business um um sector where we
can kind of grow them organically and
keep them here. Um there's opportunity
there are opportunities uh for the city
to grow and attract. Um but they're
they're not going to be the big sexy
projects that you know uh all the time
like the the Costco expansion. Those
aren't going to happen every year,
right? That's just not that's not a
thing. Um there are um
when we talk about a attraction
pipeline, so just to kind of pull from
previous experience um in 2024
um in Licking County, we had about a
hundred project projects that we could
compete for. Um, we had the opportunity,
we had the properties and the acreage,
the utilities, the capacity with our
water and sewer to respond to about 60
of them. We got site visits, actual
companies coming to Licking County um on
about five. We landed two. Um so of all
the projects you know it's it's about
filling the funnel and how do you fill
that funnel of opportunity you do that
be by becoming a prepared community and
addressing I don't want to say warts but
addressing the issues that you have as a
community whether it's workforce whether
it's transportation or infrastructure um
or land scarcity removing those barriers
if we are a prepared community when the
opport the right opportunity comes along
that fits isqua we will be ready. Um, so
it's important for us to continually
address those issues that we have as a
community to be ready for the
opportunities when they come along.
That's not saying that we won't continue
to seek out those opportunities to
engage with greater Seattle partners or,
you know, to some extent the port
authority when those opportunities come
along. Um, but we need to be a prepared
community and and that comes with
addressing the challenges that we have.
Um first.
>> Any other questions? Council
member Joe,
>> thank you. Um, I had a question about
the summer Front Street closures that'll
be going on weekends in August.
>> Um, June 21st, of course, we have our
offenders on Front Street on Father's
Day. Um, my question is, what can the
citizens look for during those street
closures? Will those streets just be
closed? Will there be programming for
the city? Will there be other
organizations doing programming? Can you
give us a little flavor for what's going
to going to be happening on those
weekends?
>> Sure. So, like I said um uh previously
uh we are working closely with DIA on
programming. Um there will be uh
opportunities uh for programming from uh
partner organizations like the Boy
Scouts as well as um some other
businesses that aren't necessarily uh
food providers that are coming and
bringing their business out into the
street. There's opportunities there. Um,
DIA also has uh some programmed events
um that are happening during those
closure times um um that will be uh
producing, you know, more feet on the
ground, more pedestrians uh in the area.
Um we've not we don't have a specific
calendar of events currently or or
vendors or um you know lists of buskers
and prov you you know art um people just
yet but that's something that we're that
we're we're working closely with D on.
>> Thank you. Um, when David Kappler and I
were on council together, we developed
some rules for salmon days talking about
uh first amendment restrictions or
restrictions on um organizations going
through there with big billboards
advertising either campaigns or um uh
religious uh items. Will there be a free
uh speech area that will be cordoned off
like we have at salmon days or will it
be a situation where those organizations
might have an opportunity to go up and
down Front Street without restriction
and has there been any thought to that?
If not, that's okay. I'll just plant a
seed with uh uh the administration to
think about how that might be handled as
sometimes these events if they're known
do attract some elements that want to
have their message out there.
>> I I appreciate you bringing that up. Um
I am going to heir on the guidance of
DIA's expertise on that. um they host a
lot of events as well and I think that
they can probably guide us uh well on
where where and how uh we might uh put
that um into into you know into
implementation if it's it's if it's
needed if there's a space there.
>> Council member Boyd I have two questions
if that's okay. Um so my first one is if
you could uh can you tell me a little
more about the intersection of the
homegrown retail program and then um is
there any kind of pathway for if
something is really successful and takes
off they're then connected to um you
know if there's if we keep a list of the
vacant retail and commercial spaces that
are here I guess can you go into detail
about that at all?
>> Sure. I didn't I didn't quite catch the
first part of your of the first about
the what you said about the homegrown
retail that you said can you tell tell
me about the what between the homegrown
retail
>> uh just if there's any connection
between uh if someone's really
successful within the homegrown retail
program they're ready to take that next
step um you know launching their
business uh are they provided
connections to vacant space in town or
>> Yeah. Okay. Um yes. So we have a uh
platform called CoStar uh that we
utilize um some of um what the port uh
funding goes to is the CoStar program or
the CoStar platform that we uh utilize
to uh look at the market, what's
available and do kind of research. Um
one of the biggest challenges that we
have uh right now is the availability of
C commercial space uh in Isiqua
specifically 5,000 ft and less. a lot of
um a lot of um inquiries about space
that has a plug-in ready uh kitchen um
you know and things like that. Um a lot
of the um vendors that are utilizing the
homegrown retail are food based. Um and
so a lot of times uh those uh those
types of businesses will graduate if
they're a catering or a sauce or some
type of snack like that. they'll
graduate to um a kitchen that can be
shared like a like a um
commissary kitchen type of situation
where they can rent space. Um and there
are some of those uh in the region um
but they're pretty booked um and um you
know there's not a lot of available
restaurant space um available um and so
that's one of the biggest challenges
that we have and when that stuff does
come on the market right now Blazing
Bagels we're waiting with baited breath
for it to be available so that we can
tell people that you need to go and run
to get that lease because it's going to
go fast. Um, you know, we we we keep an
eye on what's available uh through that
co-star um and also conversations um
with with DIA because DIA has a really
great uh pulse on uh what's becoming
available downtown and what might be um
you know coming up for like leases are
expiring or businesses are you know
moving or that type of thing. So, um
it's a combination of community
partnership as well as the technology
that we utilize through CoStar.
>> Thank you. Can I ask one more question?
Uh um how is equity factored into who is
uh in uh when you're reviewing the
applicants for the homegrown retail
program?
Um I would say that we look at the
preparedness of a business um as well as
um you know the mix of applicants um and
is it designed uh to be in a farmers
market type of situation. So uh some
businesses um don't necessarily have the
type of product that sells well at a
farmers market. And also where are they
where is their business located? Are
they residents of Isiqua? Are they in
our region? Or are they coming from
Seattle? Right. We want to first allow
opportunities for u the people that live
in Isiqua that are growing their
business or that have businesses. Um and
this this past round um the exclusions
that we made were for those that um
mostly were not is businesses.
>> Okay. There's no specific equity
framework that you're uh following for
that though. Okay.
>> Great. Any other questions?
Not. Um I would like to ask a question
piggybacking off the answer to Council
Member Boyd's question. Um so it seems
like you know commissary kitchens and
smaller commercial spaces are a big
need. Um is there anything we can do to
you know attract a commissary kitchen
developer to uh Isiqua?
Um typically
typically those are found in like
incubator spaces um mostly um or andor
faith-based um uh areas. So a lot of um
a lot of churches have uh facilities
that they can uh lease out or rent out
uh to people because they only use it
during certain events. Um they're very
expensive to build. Um, and typically,
uh, when, um, kitchens are built,
they're built for a a specific purpose,
um, with an end user in mind. Um,
so I'm my I guess my answer is, and I'm
not I'm not sure um because it might not
pencil um, out for a developer to
specifically build a commissary kitchen,
but it's something that we can
investigate.
>> Yeah, definitely. Could you talk a bit
more about some of what these incubator
spaces are because that seems like
something you know that could be of use
to entrepreneurs more broadly?
>> Yeah. Um so there's lots of different
types of incubators um that exist
whether it's a technology type business
incubator or uh like a food hall type
incubator. Um you know you one could
consider Pike Place Market maybe an
incubator, right? They have small spaces
for small food vendors that could
graduate uh to larger spaces once their
you know once their um once their brand
uh grows or food trucks are a type of
incubator. Lots of lots of restaurants
start in food trucks and then grow uh
grow out of that into uh permanent
permanent locations. Um there um one of
the things that um that was in the Port
of Seattle grant kind of um framework uh
that was uh submitted as a part of the
application um last in uh 2020 2025 uh
was a food incubator or a a kitchen
incubator type of place. Uh because of
this exact need. um
because of the extreme costs and the
lack of space, there wasn't really a way
for us for Jen Davis Hayes when she was
here or us to really execute on that. Um
you know, it's it's sometimes up in the
six figures um to build that type of
space out because the of the equipment
needed, the fire suppression, um you
know, the health um health department
needs and things like that. um and
finding the space to do it. The cost per
square foot uh to purchase or lease that
type of space and then also put that
type of equipment in there is a very big
barrier uh to entry into that. Um the
where where I have seen it be successful
um is a nonprofit type of situation
um where there is some type of
foodall/market
um that operates as a nonprofit without
a um without a profit you know um format
uh so that you know they they don't need
to worry about that. they just need to
worry about breaking even, right? Um and
then give space opportunity to small
businesses to lease out um and have a a
food market type um of hall um that's
been very successful in several places
in Ohio um that I've seen do that.
>> Great. Thank you. I mean I personally I
love you know sometimes when you go to
other countries or other places where
they have all these food courts, they
have so much good variety of food. So
I'd love to see that in his corn.
>> Yeah. I mean, places like the French
Market in New Orleans, uh, North Market
in Columbus. I mean, there's lots of
places that have these, you know, places
where businesses can start, get their
feet wet, and then be successful and
maybe move out to a larger space. Yeah,
definitely. Any other questions?
Seeing none, we will move on to public
comment. Um, is there anyone who would
like to make public comment about the
economic development 2026 work plan?
Going once, going twice. Uh there's no
one online either. Um with that, we will
move on to council direction. Um Council
Member Walsh.
Thank you. Um you know, as I was looking
through the uh everything in this
presentation, I feel like there are a
lot of things that we are doing.
I would really like to get into being
very clear about what is and what isn't
working and be willing to
cut out the things that aren't
effective. Um, and when I look back, you
know, I kind of contrast what we're
doing on housing with the business and
economic vitality. The housing work
seems to be very outward focused where
we're utilizing places where our target
audience is already gathering so that we
can amplify our message and learn um in
something that is kind of mutually
beneficial to both sides of the
equation. I'm not really seeing that
type of work with the business and
economic vitality. It feels more like
onesie twoosie activities. Um joining
with Startup 425 and having some smaller
things, doing some of the um business
retention visits that I just don't know
how effective those are compared to just
being available and maybe having office
hours when people could come in and
visit us. Um I'm also not sure if we've
hit the mark on the right type of event
that meets the needs of our business
community. the spring open house, the ED
monthly newsletters. I So I would like
us to be able to look into some of that
stuff and I know a lot of this comes
from before you. So this is a great
opportunity for us to really take a look
at what's effective and what we should
be doing moving forward. Um I think
we've heard a lot here. there's an
interest in the homegrown retail and I
think I would add in to what I've heard.
I'd like to understand how we can help
those businesses grow to that next step.
Um I think there's opportunities we've
seen around the area. Um both has these
popup retail stands. Um I would
certainly love to see something like
that say somewhere around the Reineer
Trail or something like that. Um but it
it feels like that is a potential area
where we could explore um some of those
things. Um workforce development is
listed here. I'm not sure that should
even belong to the city. Um I I I'm a
mentor myself. I do a lot with the
school district. Um, but I'm not sure I
see the ROI of this investment of time
versus others as far as what's going to
move the needle for workforce, business,
the city, etc. Um, and so I I think I
would say I would love to not only see a
sense of what we are doing, but what our
next steps are and what we're not going
to continue doing because it isn't
working. So I think this is a great
starting point for that. But as we look
at our next engagement and kind of what
we are doing over the next six months, I
think that would be a great place to see
us um make some movement on. Thanks.
>> Thank you.
Any other council comments?
Um oh, council member board.
Um I think my feedback is if there's a
way to more explicitly um tease out
how equity is uh used in the approach in
building the work plan um and even at
the smaller like micro levels of within
each program. Um but just you know
overall this is um how it approached or
not every business in Isiqua um
they all have like unique diverse needs
and so um I think uh I'd be curious to
get their that feedback and um
yeah how we can adapt to the individual
needs of some of our businesses
>> and I think what specific communities
are facing. ing. Um, I'm thinking of a
business that recently closed and I know
some of uh the ICE activity that we're
seeing, it might not have been the
biggest factor in the closure, but it
was a factor um and some of their foot
traffic and so or um the population that
was utilizing their services. Um, and so
that's my yeah, my two cents. Great.
Thank you.
Any other comments?
If not, I have some comments. Um, well,
first of all, Alexis, I'm very envious
that it seems like you got to go
paragliding as part of your job. So, it
sounds like
>> I did not.
>> Oh, okay. I thought I did. It did seem
like it was part of your job as doing a
business visit, which I was like, maybe
I Okay. No, no, but
>> um I wish.
>> Okay. Well, I'm I'm still I've never
done paragliding, so maybe I should. Um
I do I think this is a great start and I
also really appreciate, you know, all
the muscle and work that you've put into
the housing aspect of things. I think
we've really seen, you know, a pretty
big step change in even in the last like
6 months. Um, so I think that's been
really great to see. I I agree with
Council Member Walsh that I think on
economic development. I think for a long
time we've kind of struggled to even put
our finger on like, you know, what are
our goals, right? I think there's
there's like these tensions between we
have a regional growth center where we
have an extremely aggressive target for
job growth, but we also don't want
companies that don't really fit with the
vibe of Isqua. So I think you know
that's kind of a tension that we have to
navigate. Um and then on the piece on
like leveraging Isiqua's assets I will
say I think one of the big assets that
we have is that we are the we have
Costco's global HQ and some of the big
employers we've seen move into the area
are you know Costco's major suppliers.
So, I'm curious if there's anything, you
know, in regards to like attracting
higher earning jobs. If there's anything
related to like, oh yeah, let's call up
all of Costco suppliers and see if they
want to have a branch in Isiqua. I think
that could, you know, kind of that could
potentially be a thing. Um, one of my
neighbors actually works for a Costco
supplier, but because they have they
have to have so many warehouses, they
have to be somewhere that's less
expensive to, you know, buy space. But I
do think it is worth, you know,
exploring that as an option to attract
more jobs because it, you know, makes
sense for what we already have here.
>> It is. I absolutely agree with that.
>> Um,
yeah. And I guess I think overall, you
know, in general, I think we need to
figure out what we're actually trying to
do with economic development. I know
we're kind of unique in calling it
economic vitality versus economic
development. And I think the you know
the economic vitality plan currently and
I know this wasn't developed under you
but the it currently reads a bit like we
want to cultivate the vibes of Isiqua
and attract nonprofits and artsy
businesses and it's like okay well is
that you know the job of the city or is
the job of the city to you know have a
good mix of you know jobs including you
know some white collar jobs and things
like that. Um, so, you know, a lot to
think about and I look forward to, uh,
continuing to work with you on this.
Thank you.
>> And if I can just amplify a couple of
points, um, the the slide we happen to
have up on the screen regarding the Port
of Seattle grant, we anticipate that
money going away u next bianium or
certainly that there's been a question
of that.
>> There's been a question of that. I did
receive some additional uh guidance uh
from the port and they seem to think
that that uh might still go for a round
of funding in um in the beginning of
next year. So
>> because this money has been the only
money that we've had to do anything
other than staff. And so as we look at
incentives to uh for businesses to
either relocate here or develop here um
you know the council would I think have
to consider how much general fund
dollars are you willing to invest uh in
that. Um the interesting part about the
Costco suppliers, uh our new city hall
displaced three of them because there
were three signed leases uh for the
building on Maple uh for Costco
suppliers. So the the the issue of space
is real here and we can do everything in
our power to make this attractive for
businesses, but if there is no place for
them to locate, um that's a problem. And
so uh we're going to continue uh to do
the the good work that we're doing. Um,
I think one of again one of the
challenges is financial resources and
property. And so with that, I think we
have to show love. And I think that's a
lot of what you've heard tonight is that
the businesses that are here, we want to
retain. We want to make sure that they
do not leave. Uh, we also cannot lose
sight that we have the 13th largest
company in the Fortune 500 here. And I
think often times when we talk about
economic development, uh, we kind of put
aside 6,000 jobs. 6,000 jobs that are
based here. Uh we don't think about them
a lot uh because they kind of keep to
themselves and do their own good work.
Uh but they keep three hotels filled on
almost a weekly basis. Uh they have
multiple businesses uh that are only
here because they want to be close to
Costco. Um and uh you know working with
Costco and making sure that they feel uh
as a company that could be located
anywhere in the world uh that they
continue to be valuable. So, I think as
we talk about our challenges with
economic development, we're always going
to want to do more. Uh, but I think we
cannot ever forget about the tremendous
economic impact that Costco brings to
this community that, you know, again,
this region with Google and Amazon, uh,
certainly Redmond, what it's experienced
with Microsoft, but those 6,000 jobs uh,
quietly here in our community are a
major economic engine, and we want to
make sure that the hotels uh, are
satisfied. uh that there are restaurants
here that there are places for those
vendors all those things happen and we
don't talk a lot about but because they
are thriving and they are working well
that economic engine continues to hum so
I I again thank you Alexis for all your
your good work but you know there's
there's so many pieces we sometimes take
for granted uh here that I wanted to
just take a moment madame uh council
president prom to uh refocus on how
truly lucky we are uh compared to many
of our neighbors.
>> Absolutely agree. I love Costco. We all
love Costco. Best Fortune 500 company.
>> Um, great. Well, seeing no other
comments, I think we will move on to our
next agenda item. COM 0277, Downtown
Isqua Association Operations and
Potential 2026 funding. I would like to
invite Corby Castler, executive director
of the Downtown Isqua Association
to the lectern for the presentation.
Can you hear me? Awesome.
Thank you so much for having us here
today. We're very excited to talk about
DIA, put some perspective behind what
we've been talking about in the previous
comments. Um, we also want to talk about
Main Street and how that ties in with
what downtown is association's all
about. I did want to recommend that we
talk about our board members today. I've
got several in the audiences. I have
President Christina Bruning, Vice
President and Treasurer Marv Nielsen,
Secretary Barb Mayfield, and board
member Judy Ecklan.
We can go to the next slide.
Strong communities are built on
connections
and DIA serves as a springboard from
bringing people, businesses, and local
government together. By creating
opportunities for collaboration,
networking, and shared purpose, DIA
strengthens relationships that might
otherwise never form. For small
businesses, the impact is especially
significant. Entrepreneurs often face
challenges competing for attention,
resources, customers, and DIA provides a
platform for amplifying their
visibility, encourages collaboration,
and connects them with tools and
equities that support their success. DIA
is a smart investment. This image is an
infographic of our Main Street tax
credit incentive program.
There you can see it. So, I'll talk
about that in more detail later because
there's a lot of that that fits in with
our conversation today.
Finally, the partnership between D and
the city has high potential as a model
for shared success. By staying mission
focused, continuing to be the voice of
our businesses, and an equal economic
development partner with the city, we
can create a foundation for sustainable
growth, proving that collaboration is
one of the most powerful tools for
combined success.
Next slide, please.
I did want to talk about a couple of
things that I just want to make sure
that we're all working from the same
handbook and some of the misconceptions
could affect this conversation that we
have today. First, to be clear, Main
Street does not conduct audits
um of its communities. Nor did the city
pay for an audit. The report that you've
read is from what is built as a
celebration of DIA successes. It's a
site visit that Main Street does with
all its communities like every other
year. And the summary is basically for
the DA leadership to make decisions
upon. What they'll see, what you're
reading is a recitation of what they
heard. So that's what that is all about.
It just puts a little slant a little bit
differently. It's not a mandate to make
changes, but to consider and ensure any
change works for the organization's many
constituents.
Next slide, please.
This also happens to be Main Street
Week, a time to pause and share the
successes of DIA. Being part of both
Washington Main Street and Main Street
America, that gives us a lot of tools
and best practices upon which to to
pull. The Main Street movement in
Washington state is very strong and it
offers limitless potential for our
communities to continue to innovate,
adapt, and thrive. DIA is strong among
main street communities and is often
benchmarked for its work.
The bottom line is that Main Street is a
great framework from which to build
custom local traditions and best
practices.
Next slide, please.
These are the people who have made DIA
the success it is today. They are also
the eyes and ears and they gather
community input upon which to build our
our strategies and our work plan. This
is DIA's phenomenal board and some of
its adviserss. These are the folks who
care about downtown as much as I do and
they put countless hours into the
governance and and really you won't find
people more committed to downtown than
this group of people.
Let's dive a little deeper into how DIA
creates connections.
Next slide, please.
Our
environment has significant impact on
our well-being. When we don't feel
connected to our place and our
neighbors, we experience ne negative
impacts and our physical health, our
quality of life, and our shared
resiliency is affected. Historic
downtown is rife with possib
possibilities and comm and creating
these community connections and DIA is
very intentional about how we activate
downtown spaces so that everybody feels
included. But perhaps one of the
greatest ways that Dia fosters belonging
is through volunteerism. And you'll see
from um we there were a couple of
studies, one throughout Washington state
and one in Isqua about belongingness and
volunteers significantly higher scores
on um feeling a sense of belongingness.
That's one example of connected. Our
economic development programming also
brings tens of thousands of people
downtown. Now that's a lot of
connections. Fenders alone brings 10,000
people.
DIA volunteers, of which we have
hundreds that are actively engaged, log
more than 8,000 hours a year, a
community investment that's valued at
$300,000.
Not only does our programming help them
connect through volunteering, but by
becoming strong bis business advocates
themselves, they bring foot traffic to
our downtown.
Next slide, please.
DIA bolsters small business. That brings
us to Dia and what we do and mean to
small businesses. I don't know how many
of you know Glenn Quadros, but he's very
very much a a cheerleader for Dia. This
is his quote. Dia boosts our business
with every event and they are always
here for us. And if you believe our
qualitative and quantitative surveys,
then you'll know that he's in the
majority.
Next slide, please.
There's a reason that every stump speech
these days includes a reference to mom
and pop. And the reason is small
businesses are both the backbone of our
communities and they're also up against
disadvantages that we talked about a
little bit earlier. They're fighting for
customers and their pricing and and
tariffs affect them much more deeply
than um larger corporations. While Main
Street's recent small business survey
published just last month give us
reasons to hope, Washington small
businesses are lagging behind national
averages when it comes to confidence in
the future. According to this data, and
again, it was just last month,
Washington's businesses continue to
experience lower revenue and higher
expenses for doing business,
demonstrating that support now is more
critical than ever.
The good news is that small businesses
that are part of a main street community
are more resilient and they also report
having more confidence in its future.
DIA downtown businesses have reported a
doubling of of their customers and
during some of our events during Fenders
on Front Glenn in fact and doubled it
and was just blown away by the line
outside his door. Bad DIA is also a
champion of employer of local artists
and crafts people providing an average
of 2,000 selling hours otherwise might
not have had. We also hire more than 500
performers every year.
Next slide.
Main Street and DIA represent both
longevity and adaptability. From the
potential to reuse and reimagine
historic spaces to the impressive track
record of reinvention through decades of
economic and social change, D is a sound
investment. I hope you had a chance to
read the recent article about Northwest
Playground Equipment and HH um which is
our regular monthly newsletter. But
here's a quote from Chris. He's the
president of Northwest Playground. It's
a no-brainer talking about Main Street
Tax Credit Incentive Program. It's good
for businesses and it's good for the
community. It's a partnership that's
good for both DIA and for us.
If you happen to want to see the story,
you can go to that link that's on that
slide if you got it in your inbox.
Next slide, please.
This slide depicts the diversity of our
revenue stream projected for 2026. The
majority of funding comes from the Main
Street Tax Credit Incentive Program, but
grants are not far behind. We put a lot
of work behind getting more grants for
our programming. In fact, we're trending
17% up higher than we were um in our
forecast based on what we see in in Main
Street tax credit incentive program and
in the um grants that we're receiving. A
couple of DIA programs bring in revenue
such as the wine and artwalk and ISQUA
on tap. But thanks to our community, we
also have strong sponsorships and
donations from our businesses. We see
opportunities in models used by other
Main Street programs. In some
communities, business improvement areas
or similar service contracts fund
streetscape care. For example, Mount
Vernon and Bellingham have agreements
with their main street organizations to
maintain down downtown streetscapes. DIA
provides similar services with our
flower baskets and a lot of our design
work, but we are not funded in this way.
It's an opportunity to think about.
Next slide.
We would be remiss if we didn't mention
all of our business partners. DIA has a
robust infrastructure of businesses,
volunteers, professionals, and community
members. And these are just some of the
businesses that contribute to DIA,
either through the Main Street program
or through sponsorships or donations. We
couldn't even fit them all on the slide.
Every one of them is part of DIA. While
we don't have a membership, we are
composed of the businesses and
volunteers that advocate for their
mission because they believe in it and
they believe in what DIA can accomplish.
Similarly, DIA enjoys strong advocacy
among residents and visitors. We
conducted a survey to capture the voices
of our advocates. What we wanted to do
is look at who's advocating for us and
who are the detractors, the people who
really move the needle. When you say,
"Do you want to do something in downtown
Isqua?" It's either yay or nay depending
on what these these detractors or these
um promoters say. In the middle, it
doesn't matter as much because it
doesn't affect people. But what we have
is 92% of the people saying that DIA
programming they would absolutely
recommend to other people that you come
and go to downtown Isqua and attend
these events. That is strong word of
mouth marketing.
Listening is the most important phase in
our planning cycle. And this is part of
what we do when we start our planning is
we do a survey. But we also include
feedback from businesses from throughout
the year and from the community from
throughout the year. It's an ongoing
process. We have program specific
surveys and an annual survey. And all of
this feeds into the work in our planning
that begins in September and then is
approved by December and adjusted for
continuous improvement by midyear.
You've already seen this slide, but
mine's bigger.
A Dia City partnership could bring
similar results. I really believe in
bring coming together collaboratively so
that we can have people say, "You need
to go to downtown Isqua. There's nothing
like it. That's the place to go." We
want that kind of word of mouth
advocacy. We're delighted to work with
Alexis. I don't know that I' I'd follow
her to the top of Tiger Mountain, but
we're we're looking forward to working
very closely with her and with Jack.
Next slide, please.
Downtowns are economic engines that
generate value for entire community. A
thriving business district creates jobs,
attracts visitors, and stimulates
spending. All of which contribute to the
city's financial health. As local
businesses succeed, tax revenues
increase, providing the city with
additional resources. This impact
extends beyond the local level. At the
state level, what they have found is
that a Main Street community, for every
dollar allocated for these initiatives,
participating communities generate a
$1.58 in state tax revenue through
increased economic activity these
programs help create. DIA plays a
critical role in this cycle of growth.
By fostering a vibrant commercial
environment, supporting entrepreneurs
and creating opportunities for economic
activity, DIA helped strengthen the both
municipal and state revenues.
Building a foundation of trust.
This page lays out Dia's intent to focus
on our joint mission with the city while
considering the request to one add
Alexis to the board and just so you know
that is included in our bylaws. We do
have a city position in our bylaws since
um 2015
implement a rotating governance model
and three to have input in our work plan
and how it gets funded. The city
administration is working on policy
around rotating governance and we have
yet to see it. Generally DIA's board
agrees we need to have rotation. and we
like to see new blood, but when it's the
best time for our community, not an
arbitrary date that's assigned to us. We
won't make a decision until we've seen a
new policy. We want to make sure that we
know exactly how it affects us when we
do finally see it. Finally, work plan
and funding allocation from the city.
That will be a natural progression to
our partnership and an outgrowth of
trust. I believe we can get to a place
through trust through DIA being an equal
economic development partner who is at
the table before decisions are made. Dia
and the city by staying mission focused
can accomplish remarkable things. DIA is
always aware that we are the trusted boy
voice for the businesses and we really
take that to heart. This by staying
mission focused we will accomplish
remarkable results for them as well. We
are committed to doing our part to
making the city partnership work within
the construct of the mission and the
values DIA has worked hard to ingrain
into our culture.
And one more slide.
With that, we have I'm open for
questions.
>> Great. Council questions.
Are there any questions?
>> Council member Dair.
>> Uh I wanted to follow up on well the
last slide in terms of like the city's
request. It um seem to be saying you're
waiting on the city to get back to you
on stuff. So like in terms of the
rotating
uh governance and the work plan like you
don't have you know exact plans for that
and you're waiting on city information
to provide that. Is that
>> Yeah. So for the the one request about
um having somebody on the board that's
already in our bylaws. The request about
having a rotating governance we haven't
seen what that looks like. We don't
really even know what that entails. So I
know they're working on it. So as soon
as we see that, the board will review it
and that that ties in with the work plan
and the decision-m and the work plan. So
all of that is related.
>> Got it. Okay.
>> Council member Nichols.
>> Yeah. Follow questioning on the rotating
board seat. Isn't that one of the
recommendations from from some of the
prior reports or the the prior uh Main
Street accreditation?
>> It was part of the summary from Main
Street and it was based on the
conversation they had with the city. So
their recommendation was based on what
they heard from the city.
>> So does Main Street recommend this as
part of their government's plan?
>> They have a recommendation but not a
mandate. So they will say, "Yeah, you
should rotate your your your folks, but
it's up to you within your community to
make your decision."
>> Okay. Um and then second question on the
uh the board seat, is that a voting
board seat that's currently in your
>> It is not. It's exopicio.
>> Okay. Is he open to a voting board seat?
>> We would have to take that to the board.
It would mean a bylaw change. Okay.
>> Great. Any other questions,
Council Member Boyd?
>> Uh there was a number there uh about the
what's put back into um the local or the
economy with Main Street programs, but I
think that was a number for it was state
data and not like our local. Are we
tracking the local dollars. We track
local dollars with individual businesses
who sometimes will will say, "I've had
an increase in revenue," but they don't
want to say the number. So, what we do
is we we rely a lot on the state data to
to to give us and the state data has
been fed into from all the local
communities.
>> Does that answer your question?
>> Council member Dair.
>> Oh, yeah. Another question I remembered.
Uh you brought you brought up a couple
of your survey responses. How are your
surveys run? Is it just within the DIA
members? Is it a public online form?
Like how are you how does you you run
your surveys to get that data?
>> The surveys for the programs we send to
the people who are participants in the
programs. The annual survey we send to
um we have a a database of 8,000 people
in the Isqua area and we also put it on
our social media. So it was wide open.
>> Got it. Thank you.
Are there any other questions?
Seeing none, um the next uh part of this
is public comment. Is there anyone who
would like to make public comment about
the downtown isqua assoc downtown Isiqua
Association operations and potential
2026 funding.
Going once, going twice. Okay. Well,
seeing none, uh the next item is council
direction and comments. I see council
member Walsh first again. Go for it.
Thank you.
Um, surprisingly some of my feedback is
kind of the same areas. So, first of
all, I will start out in saying I am
very supportive of DIA, what you've
done, you know, some of the areas um
that you've worked on. I very much
appreciate and support the idea of um
reinstating the funding and those
portions.
But what I really want to challenge Dia
on the same way I did with the economic
development area is just can we figure
out what's not working and not do that.
you know, um, this again is a great
overview and I understand I'm a more
senior city council member and so I've
known some of this stuff about you and
that isn't the case across the board,
but I I would really like to see
which of your programs are generating
the most sales from downtown businesses.
Um, what are you deciding to no longer
do because the ROI isn't there? um what
are the goals and metrics you're aiming
for? You know, I understand not every um
program that you do is going to be a
Fenders on Front Street, but are there
goals for a certain number of
engagements? Um a certain number of
businesses that were happy um with uh
what was going on? How do you measure
your success on individual
um events and experiences?
Um, you've also focused on, you have
many focuses that were listed there. You
had advocacy at the state and national
level, connections, and bolstering small
business. Um, it would be really great
to see what percentage of your time and
budget you feel like are going toward
those goals. You know, do you treat them
evenly? Um, I think the other piece
there is, you know, as I see DIA is some
of it is about building up events that
support our um, small businesses in our
downtown. The other is the kind of those
business engagement visits and having a
sense of the pulse on the ground. It
would be great if you could talk about
those two areas of work, what percentage
of time and effort they are, and what do
you think they bring back both to the
organization, the community, and the
businesses. Um, because I think that
better exemplifies
what DIA is able to do as boots on the
ground. Um, but it also allows for you
to take a look back at the work that
you're doing, what impact it's creating.
Um, and I I think a good healthy
organization is always able to take a
look back at what you've done and not do
the same things over and over again
because they are something that's been
done in the past, but rather have
metrics for events and experience and
programs. measure your success on those
and call out the areas that aren't
working as well so that you can make
sure that you are always growing,
innovating and such. So I think on the
next area um I want to see a little bit
more details on the programs and better
understand how you are able to innovate
and move forward on things rather than
doing the same things over and over
again. um so that we can see that the um
we're being modern and adjusting to the
needs of our businesses. Thanks.
>> Thank you, Council Member Dare.
>> Um yeah, I want to also just, you know,
uh congratulate and thank you for all
the work you've done on that. Uh
downtown is one of the reasons I moved
here. You know, it was I wanted a place
that had a real sense of a town and a
real center. And it was one of the
things that when I got there, I was
like, "Oh, this is the place I want to
be." And I know that that is thanks to
you, Dia's work, and you know, the
city's work for so long. And so I do
think, you know, it that whole area is
very important to us. Um, you know, but
I do want to echo uh Council Member
Walsh's comments in terms of the, you
know, how to how to keep moving forward,
how to learn, and how to expand and
bring in new ideas. And I do want to,
you know, push back on this the rotating
leadership. And know you said you're
waiting on you know the city's request
for it you know and that also for Main
Street it was just a recommendation but
you know I've worked with nonprofits and
stuff before and I think that that idea
is really critical to a healthy
organization because you can get even
though you're doing good work can get
entrenched or stuck in certain ideas and
there is never a right time to just like
step down and hand off and you kind of
have to sometimes force the issue in
order to have you know fresh you know
fresh blood coming in and have a very
healthy organization and new ideas
because you'll you you won't see them
until you're kind of in there. And I
think um and an organization, you know,
based on what I've read and stuff like
that that is so centered on you, like
there's also the idea of just like what
happens to you if something you're in a
car accident one day, you know, that the
organization needs a very robust and
widespread leadership and a leadership
that's constantly changing in order to
live on and be something that lasts a
hundred years. And so I do want to um
encourage that with or without a city
mandate that I do think that's important
for any nonprofit or any organization
like this um and and um urge you guys to
you know set up that kind of system
because I do think that is very
important um and then that ties to those
other comments of it it forces you also
to continually look at what you're doing
and how to do it better um and just
bring fresh eyes to it. So those were
that's what I would encourage on my end.
>> Thank you.
Any other council comments?
Seeing none, I have a few comments. So,
uh, while I was listening to this
presentation, I did download the Main
Street America board guidelines from
their website. Um, so on page 20 out of
66 on this, there's a section on board
structure. I'll read a couple um parts
of this. So, diversity and inclusion.
Um, it says, "A healthy boards mirrors
community consider board members of
different races, ages, genders, and
economic backgrounds. when voices from
across the district are represented, the
board makes better, more inclusive
decisions. So, you know, something to
consider. Um, and then I think size and
composition, it talks about recruiting
members with different skills and
representation from business owners,
residents, nonprofit leaders, and local
officials. So, glad to hear that local
officials will now be represented. Um,
and then I guess probably this is the
most important one, terms and rotation.
So, Main Street America's recommendation
is board member terms usually last two
or three years and are staggered so that
the board is a mix of new and
experienced members. Many Main Streets
limit board members to serving only two
or three terms in a row. So, I think,
you know, I'm part of a nonprofit
organization that had to go through some
governance changes in, you know, the
last few years, Isiqua Alps Trails Club.
We also for a long time were very
dependent on the contributions of one
individual who I'm looking at right now.
Hi, David. Um, and I think we, you know,
we also had this situation was like,
okay, if you know, if David Kappler were
to, uh, win the lottery and move to
Hawaii, what would we do? And that's
not, you know, now for me as a board
president, a huge part of my role is to,
you know, recruit new board members,
figure out a succession plan, etc. And,
you know, as as a president, it's
basically, you know, we have three-year
terms. We're allowed to serve two
three-year terms, and then you have to
be off for at least one year. So now uh
former council member Kappler is now off
of our board um but still you know
getting involved in all sorts of
different things. So I do think you know
the having rotating governance among the
board officers is one key piece but then
also you know bringing in new board
members and having that cadence where
board members have to step off even if
they've contributed a lot just to get
you know new um individuals into the
organization is really important. The
other thing that you that can sometimes
happen is that you know if you have a
really large board, another organization
I'm part of has a 60 member board that
becomes very unwieldy.
Um and so you know you obviously want to
avoid that too. And so you know if
there's new people that you want to
bring in then it's important to have
some kind of cycling to make sure that
your board doesn't get to a point where
it's just completely unwieldy. And so
you know to that end I do think it's
important for you know downtown Isqua
association which is such a critical
part of our community. I mean, you know,
earlier I made a comment kind of poo
pooing like the economic development
department's job as like cultivating the
vibes of Isiqua, but that literally is
the job of the downtown isqua
association, right? You know, all the
events, vendors on front, um, you know,
all all fresco on front this summer. I
know everyone's very much looking
forward to that. It is so important to
and a key part of what makes this
community special. And so I want to make
sure that you know there's anyone who
wants to get involved can get involved
and we have opportunities whether it's
through board service volunteering etc.
So look forward to continuing to work
with Corby Christina and the rest of the
DIA team on how we can work together to
make uh Oldtown Isiquan Front Street as
amazing as possible and council member
Boyd.
>> Um I think I'll echo some of the other
comments here of uh I would love to just
see um more specifics. Uh I I can tell
you the impact uh you know council
member Rodair mentioned that he moved
here for the downtown for me. I could
tell share like a specific stories of uh
events or uh the um mini markets that
happen at the Shell station uh when
Isqua Farmers Market is not operating
but there will still be a flower farmer
there or some organic farmers. I can go
there pick up my flowers for uh my
church studio that I have once a month.
Um that's reliable. I'm sharing my
specific story. So, I would love to see
uh specific data on um you know, you've
got that state data, but just yeah, the
return on investment that you guys the
programs you're doing and what you're
putting into the downtown and then um
what I understand it that's data
collection is a lot. It's work. Um you
might not have, you know, the staff or
capacity to do that, but just best you
can. Um I think anything's useful and
even if business owners don't want to
share their specifics, I understand
that. but you know um respecting their
you know whatever proprietary or privacy
needs that they might have while still
getting useful information. Um I think
that would be really helpful.
>> Thank you.
Any other comments?
Seeing none, uh thank you so much Corby
for the presentation.
>> Thank you.
>> And we will move on to our last item
which is COM 0273 is climate action plan
review. And I would like to invite Stacy
Vin McKinstry, sustainability manager,
and David Rei, sustainability
coordinator, to the lectern for the
presentation.
Right.
Thank you, Deputy Council Jen and
members of the council. Um, again, my
name is Stacy Vin McKinstry. I'm the
sustainability manager with the city and
joined by David Rei, our sustainability
coordinator. Um, I also wanted to
acknowledge online we have Sam Tarvin,
our solid waste analyst in case there
are questions on that part of the plan.
Um, as well as Emma who was one of our
interns from Gibson High School. She
supported a lot of the tracking of
comments um, changes that we are making
to the plan and development of the
implementation work plan.
Tonight is a follow-up presentation to
what we shared with you all in May. Um
during that meeting we provided a lot of
background information on the
development of the 2026 IAP. This
evening we're really going to dig into
the content of the plan, present on
targets for each of the focus areas to
receive your feedback as well as present
on a a number of actions that may
benefit from further council discussion.
uh your packet did contain the draft IAP
and we look forward to your uh comments
on the content as well as next steps for
the plan approval.
Um so again tonight we are seeking your
input on that path forward for plan
approval as well as any specific
feedback to targets and actions.
Um again, as mentioned in May, we
provided a detailed summary of the
process that we've undertaken to uh over
the last 14 months to update the plan.
Uh as a reminder, we worked with a
number of small committees uh focused on
very specific topics as well as met with
uh PPC, the parks board, TAB um and the
environmental board uh discussed the
plan at just about every meeting over
the last year.
We've also worked really closely with
staff from across multiple departments
and held a few community events for
input. This winter and spring, we met
with the PTE committee uh for initial
input. Uh and all of these interactions
and the feedback we received through the
meetings as well as our experience uh
through implementing the the current
plan um have helped shape this plan
update.
So with that very brief overview and
background, uh we really wanted to dig
right into the targets uh that we are
working and planning to work over uh the
next 4 to 24 years um to shape a more
healthier and resilient community. Uh so
with that, I'm going to hand it over to
David Rei to talk through each of the
targets.
>> All right. Thank you all so much for
having us here tonight. So, uh, tonight,
as Stacy mentioned, we're going to be
talking about the proposed targets in
the 2026 IAP update. These targets are
ambitious, um, but we also believe that
they are achievable at the same time.
Uh, you'll hear me mention that a couple
times tonight. Um, your input and on
these targets is necessary as we shape
our actions and budget requests to
support our progress towards these
targets moving forward.
So, as we have shared before, one of the
major changes that we're looking at for
this uh IAP update was the elevation of
our greenhouse gas reduction target to a
plan level target. The reason for this
change is to anchor this target related
to greenhouse gas reduction as the
connecting point for other measurements
throughout the plan. As you'll see in
the next couple slides, most of the
other targets are indicators of our
efforts to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions while also supporting co-
benefits. The target itself has not
changed and this remains in line with
our regional goals.
As the overarching focus area has
updated to overarching and municipal
focus area, we have new targets related
specifically related related and
centered around uh the efforts the city
can take to lead by example and address
our greenhouse gas emissions in our
operations. These targets were based
were set based off of staff research,
evaluation of peer jurisdictions and
discussions with implementing staff.
These targets are difficult but
achievable and staff have been
conducting studies um and projects that
will continue to set the city up to
achieve these targets moving forward.
One note here is that these targets were
established to set the city up uh as a
leader in climate action achieving net
zero emissions ahead of the
communitywide goal. Additionally, I'll
note that there are uh the second two
targets on this slide um have a target
date of 2035 and are in line with our
overarching greenhouse gas reduction uh
target at the city level. And so if we
are able to achieve those uh targets in
fossil fuel use reduction for city
vehicle fleet and in uh natural gas use
at our municipal buildings, we'll be set
up well to achieve our uh overarching
greenhouse gas reduction target.
The final target on the slide uh had
previously existed in the building and
energy section and was updated and moved
to this section to reflect a more
ambitious use of Puget Sound Energy's
renewable energy programs
in the building and energy uh focus
area. The this target these targets
address one of the largest sources of
our greenhouse gas emissions at the
community scale. Generally, these
targets only had minor adjustments to
try and clarify language. Uh, but the
targets remain uh roughly the same and
uh to align with regional commitments
that the city has made.
Additionally, uh our transportation
targets uh address the second largest uh
source of emissions at the city level.
uh two of the targets were unchanged
while one additional target which
includes a measurement of vehicle miles
traveled uh based on population has been
added. These targets again are in
alignment with regional goals like uh
our K4C commitments
in the material and consumption focus
area. No change has been made to the uh
to the target as established in the 2021
IAP. And one note here I do want to
mention is that um we have been trending
in the right direction over the last
couple years. Um and that's been a lot
of the based on a lot of the great work
that our solid waste team has uh has
been working on
in the natural systems and water
resource focus area. Uh the targets went
through a much more uh intense change uh
process. The tree canopy target was
ultimately adjusted to reflect analysis
by staff on potential planting areas in
the city. The new target is both
ambitious uh pushing the city to
prioritize tree canopy canopy while
remaining achievable based on this
potential planting area that we feel
like we have here in the city. This
target in particular went through many
discussions with the environmental board
ultimately landing at the target you see
here today and which the environmental
board has uh expressed support for.
As discussed before as well, we have
added a target based on tree equity
scores which will help us consider the
distribution of tree canopy uh across
the city. And these tree equity scores
are based on a number of different
factors related to tree canopy,
socioeconomic factors, um, as well as
density as well. And we have three
current census blocks that are below
the, uh, 90% tree equity score goal, uh,
as listed here. Finally, we added a
target to align with the water use
reduction targets in the water systems
plan. This was included as a 2021 IAP uh
did not have any targets related to
water use within the focus area. Um but
there were multiple actions related to
our water resource. And so this way
we're actually connecting the actions uh
to targets uh within this focus area.
And then finally, as we've presented on
before, staff have proposed two
additional new uh community resilience
and well-being targets that are
measurable through our bianial
communitywide survey. This minimizes
staff time to develop new measurement
tools while providing insight into the
resilience that the city and our
community is building in the face of
climate change.
As mentioned, um, our previous IAP
target in this area was something that
we did not feel like, uh, we could
accurately measure. And so, I think this
is a really exciting opportunity for us
to actually begin measuring um, uh,
begin measuring our community resilience
and well-being. And, uh, personally, I'm
very excited to finally change our IAP
dashboard from measurement coming soon
to actually start showing data.
So uh throughout the IAAP update
process, one of the focuses was to take
another look at our targets. What we've
landed on are targets that are ambitious
and achievable. Many of these targets
keep Isiqua in line with our regional
efforts and our neighbor cities while
continuing to position the city as a
climate leader. Succeeding on these
targets will require consistent city
leadership, creative solutions to known
and likely some unknown challenges and
continued and expanded efforts at the
utility, regional, state, and federal
level. We have developed updated pages
in the IAP to specifically discuss our
updated targets and highlight highlight
how we'll be measuring uh the
implementation of the IAP.
Based on our targets as well as other
measures identified, we hope to be able
to see our progress while understanding
where we might be falling short and
therefore where we might want to be
rethinking some of our implementation
over the course of the IAP
implementation.
Updates to targets and measures were
made intentionally to report on
meaningful progress and indicators while
keeping staff effort to conduct these
analyses to a minimum minimum so that we
can continue to focus on programs and
projects uh that are going to help us
achieve these targets.
We intend to report out on our targets
and measures as frequently as data
allows on our IAP dashboard and I
anticipate staff will continue to report
on our progress regularly to city
council via reports.
So finally, to support progress towards
these targets, we're proposing a set of
61 actions that we will implement over
the next 10 years. I'm going to hand it
back to Stacy now to talk more about the
development of these actions and
highlight a few actions specifically for
council review.
Um so as we had previously mentioned
originally we approached the IAP update
anticipating making a few revisions to a
few actions and maybe revisiting a
target. Uh however based on our
conversations with the community boards,
commissions, committees, we have ended
up uh touching almost every action in
this updated plan and making revisions
that we feel will really strengthen the
plan.
our implementation plan uh that's
included at the end of the IAP uh does
note how we um uh plan to implement
those actions as well as any changes uh
made from the previous plan. The
majority of actions have we've applied a
climate lens to them to make sure
they're either helping us reducing our
emissions or building our capacity uh to
withstand climate impacts. We have also
built in a lot of flexibility into the
actions so that over the next 10 years
we can adjust our programs and projects
uh to really ensure that they're
informed by best practices.
Um as David talked a bit about uh we are
changing how we measure the impacts and
how we report. Um we our measures will
reflect multiple actions that will
really help streamline our process so
that we can focus more on implementation
and cut down on the overhead needed for
reporting.
Um so next with that brief overview of
the actions we are going to move into
reviewing a subset of actions. Uh we
have six actions that we wanted to touch
on tonight. uh those fall under the land
use and transportation, buildings and
energy, uh natural systems and
overarching focus areas.
The reason we are highlighting these six
actions is because they may involve a
new policy. These might be a policy uh
that could uh have more impacts on our
residents, our businesses or other
members of our community.
uh the some of the actions may uh have
we have a bit of a question about the
city's role in our ability to advance
that action if it's appropriate uh to be
included in our plan. Um so we will walk
through each of these but one thing I
did want to note with any policy that's
proposed in the climate action plan we
would not advance those policies without
extensive analysis uh before they even
come to council. So you will see some
repeating language uh within uh each of
the uh language of those actions.
Um so the first two we'll talk about are
under transportation and land use. Uh
the first one uh to review the full
language of this action is evaluate the
feasibility and impact of removing
parking minimums or creating additional
parking maximums to encourage
multimmodal transportation for
multifamily buildings within a defined
distance of major transit stops and in
regional growth centers. Um there's some
additional details on what a study
should uh consider based on feedback
from environmental board and PTE.
Uh this action uh received some positive
or some mixed feedback I'd say from TAB.
Uh some members of TAB were supportive.
Others were concerned about some of the
impacts that could come from reducing
parking minimums. Um PPC also had some
concerns about spillover parking. Uh but
we did have support from the
environmental board to move this action
forward.
The next action uh was around assessing
the implementation feasibility for
increasing requirements for EV charging
capable um or or ready in a new
multifamily building that exceeds state
requirements and could be up to 100% of
parking stalls. Um we would also want to
attend uh assess any unintended
consequences from moving forward a
policy such as this. In general, we had
uh support from TAB and the
environmental board. This is based on
recent passage of a similar policy in
Redmond. Um PPC did have some concerns
around grid capacity for EV charging as
well as added costs uh for developers.
The next policy moves into the building
and energy focus area. Uh exploring the
feasibility impacts and implementation
pathway for an ordinance that would
require energy efficiency standards at
the time of replacement or new purchase
for heating or cooling equipment.
Uh this policy did receive some concerns
from PPC because of potential increases
in costs for this type of equipment. Um
the environmental board did support this
action as one of our major um
opportunities to work with existing
residential properties on reducing
emissions.
Uh the next policy also within the
buildings and energy focus area is
exploring feasibility and potential
impacts of expanding the title 18 code
to include an expansion of dark sky
ordinances for reducing energy use and
help build resilience for wildlife. Um
there was particular interest in
ensuring that we looked at any impacts
to safety and recreation through any
change in uh lighting code. Uh this
recommendation came from the
environmental board. Uh they wanted to
see in the city take additional efforts
to reduce light pollution. They want to
ensure that um light is not having
impacts on any migrating species and
also the benefits from energy savings.
There were some concerns expressed by
PPC um specifically if we were focusing
on commercial properties and any
potential impacts to safety.
The next proposed action uh is looking
at exploring the feasibility and an
implementation pathway for programs that
reduce localized air and stream
pollutants. There are a number of
potential examples provided uh by the
environmental board. Uh one uh being a
no idling policy uh traffic reduction or
looking at um regulations around uh
electric landscaping equipment. Uh
again, this one came from the
environmental board. Uh there are no
specific policies proposed here and and
uh it's more of a number of concepts
that the city could explore over the
next 10 years. Um the environmental
board supported moving this one forward
uh to address those local air and stream
pollutants.
And then our final policy uh we wanted
to or the final action uh with a
potential policy that we wanted to bring
forward this evening is one around
identifying opportunities and
partnerships for acquiring potential
timber sales or entering into agreements
to protect trees and reduce the amount
of timber harvested on public and
private lands. This was an action that
was proposed by the environmental board
to look at new opportunities where the
um city could increase tree canopy.
There are some concerns uh expressed
from staff on whether or not the city
would have jurisdiction to take on an
action or policy like this, which is the
reason we wanted to raise it tonight.
That was a lot of information we
presented on targets and actions. Um, we
wanted to pause here before we move into
our current status of the plan. Um, as
well as next steps we have for the plan
and take uh feedback, questions,
concerns around any of the proposed
targets or actions we've shared tonight.
>> I'm looking for questions. Council
member Deair,
>> uh, can you tell me a little bit more
about Redmond's EV parking stalls policy
because I just don't know what theirs is
and how that since that seems to be what
we're thinking about modeling.
>> Yes, absolutely. And we can um provide
I'm going to go off memory so we can
provide more details over email. Uh but
I believe it was last summer uh went
into effect 100% EV ready um charging in
all new multifamily development. Uh what
we had and part of the justification for
that it is much less expensive to put in
EV charging infrastructure while a
building is under development versus
coming back and retrofitting that. Um
the discussions that we had with the PTE
committee was um looking at a policy
that would be probably less than EV
ready that might do some of the initial
work for preparing for additional EV
charging um stalls and also evaluating
uh whether or not we'd want to go up to
100%. Maybe it's just a slight increase
over the state uh the current state
requirement. So we'd want to look at all
those different options. Um, but I think
the feedback we heard from Redmond was
they did not hear concerns from the
development community and in general
there was support for moving this
forward. Um, we can follow up with them
and kind of see how implementations
happened over the last year.
>> Any other questions?
>> Uh, Council Member Joe.
>> Uh, thank you. I probably should have
asked this earlier when uh David was
making a presentation, but updates to
targets, natural systems, and water
resources focus area targets. We had a
55% tree canopy by 2035, and it looks
like we're taking it down to 53% tree
canopy if someone were to just look at
this by 2050. But can you comment on how
um changing this um enhances our tree
canopy or at least makes it a better
measure for us in the future. Right.
We're not really reducing it by 2% in
fact, are we? We're kind of enhancing
what we're doing or
>> take a stab at that. Um yeah, so this
this target took almost a year to
negotiate with the environmental board,
input from our urban forest manager,
discussions with the park board. Um I
think there was some hesitancy to uh
drop back from 55% but through really
great data provided by Dan um showed
that we don't have the land available to
uh get to a 55% tree canopy. Um hence
one of the actions around looking at
some innovative partnerships um uh was
added in. Um what Dan and I think part
of David's analysis did show is that
with a lot of innovation
um really uh uh planting every plantable
space we could get to 53%. However, it
takes 10 to 15 years for that canopy to
grow. So if we can do the 150 acre
planting over the next 9 years, we
believe we could then reach that 53%.
So, it was supported by um some of our
community advocates and the
environmental board and our park staff
as a very still ambitious. It's going to
push us, but we think we can achieve
that with what's available.
>> Yeah. I think the other two pieces that
I'd add is um achieving a 53% tree
canopy cover means expanding where we
are planting. Um, but it also uh really
relies on us maintaining our existing
tree canopy as well. Um, and so I think
part of this adjustment is recognizing
the amount of work that that is going to
take to maintain existing tree canopy,
especially when we're also talking about
um, you know, the growth of Isiqua and
additional development. I think the
other piece kind of influencing this a
little bit is, you know, when the 2021
IAP was passed, um, there had been a a
jump in our tree canopy cover over the
previous 10 years. Um, and since then,
as we've been continuing to measure our
tree canopy cover, uh, we've been kind
of staying pretty stubborn at 51%. And
so I think uh part of this adjustment
was an intention to uh see again what we
can ambitiously do but also get a little
realistic around kind of what is um
actually possible within uh within our
area and then also given the other um uh
demands on our space in the city.
>> Thank you. To follow up on the 150 acres
that you're going to be planting under
this goal, is it fair to say that most
of the acres that we'd be planting would
be in public spaces and street trees and
um other trees that wouldn't necessarily
be um placing an extra burden on private
property owners would be putting the
right tree in the right place in public
spaces.
>> Yes, I think from from the city projects
would be planting trees in public
spaces. uh right ofways, things like
that. And then would be also leaning on
programs like our tree giveaway and uh
some other programs to support um the
correct planting of trees on private
property as well um and using kind of
those tools uh to support that
expansion.
>> Okay. Thank you. My next question
concerns tree equity. Now, that doesn't
mean we're doing Japanese maples or um
specific Chinese trees, right?
No, it is okay. All right.
>> Can you talk about um uh tree equity in
terms of uh in the context of the tree
deserts that we see in some communities
or in South Seattle and how we're trying
to make sure that uh we have the right
shade and the right amount of trees in
each area so that people um have uh an
equal environment or an equal
opportunity for the environment.
>> Yeah, absolutely. It's a it's a great
comment and question. And so, um, I
think one of the things that we've seen
in in the environmental movement for a
long time, right, is that, um, often
times, uh, where trees are placed in a
city, where tree cover exists is not,
uh, is not equal across a geographic
distribution. Um, and that can come from
a whole host of different reasons. And
um in many areas uh that can be
attributed to things like redlinining,
that can be attributed to um a
disinvestment from public entities in
certain parts of a city or a region. Um,
and so in South Seattle, for instance,
um, you can look at tree density maps
and see huge swasts of the city that are
hotter and much less covered in trees,
uh, than other parts of the city that,
uh, oftentimes are are much wealthier or
um, have uh, different demographics.
Um, here in Isiqua, we are very lucky in
that we have pretty good tree equity,
quite good tree equity really across all
of our census blocks. Um, our lowest
census block has, it's called 85% or 85
out of 100 tree equity. Um, and there's
uh three census blocks that are below
that 90 threshold that we're looking to
push ourselves to achieve. Um and so the
goal is again to think about um not just
getting more trees anywhere we can in
the city but also thinking critically
about where are those trees placed so
that we can make sure that the benefits
that people are seeing from trees again
lower temperatures in the summer um
better storm water um management um
aesthetic beauty rest relaxation beauty
things like that um making sure that
that's available and accessible for
residents across the city.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Any other questions?
>> Council member Boyd.
>> Um, at one point you mentioned like the
two like some focus goals of emission
reductions and then preparing for
climate change. Can you speak to how the
dark sky ordinance
addresses those?
>> Yeah, great question. That was one we
discussed quite a bit as it came up
through a recommendation from our
committees and environmental board. Um
there is an energy savings uh from a
increased dark sky ordinance as well as
the aesthetic benefits. And then some of
the arguments that have been made uh in
terms of
uh uh resilience or preparing for
climate impacts is that the dark skies
have a greater uh benefit for migrating
species and for um our bugs and insects
and that they will thrive when they
don't have um uh the light ambience
throughout the evening.
Great. Any other questions?
Seeing none, we will move into public
comment. Is there anyone who would like
to make public comment on the Isqua
climate action plan?
Seems like all the folks that would like
to make public comment already made
public comment. Um, okay. Then we will
move on to the last item, which is
council direction. Um, which is
basically comments. So, uh, looking to
my fellow council members to see who
would like to make comments.
And if no one wants to go, I can go
first because I have like this much of
notes. Um, so first of all, I want to
thank both uh Stacy and David for all
the hard work that they've done on this
plan. I know it's been like a process
that's taken over a year. And also I
want to commend you on, you know, really
taking into account the comments from
the community, like 44 pages of comments
from from different commissions. And
you've actually integrated a huge amount
of them. So, I really um want to thank
you for that. Um I liked David's comment
on, you know, the city should aim to
lead by example in terms of, you know,
cleaning up our own house, decarbonizing
our own operations. I think there's also
a lot to be said about how our city can
lead by example in terms of how we
contribute to regional decarbonization.
So, one thing I've been thinking about
is the importance of regional grid
infrastructure. Uh, I was just reading
the other day, Puget Sound Energy, in
order to comply with the state law
around having 80% carbon-f free energy
by 2030 needs to acquire over 1,500
megawws of winter peak capacity. That is
a lot. And if we don't do that, either
they're going to have to burn more coal
and gas or they're going to have rolling
blackouts. And neither of those are
particularly appealing prospects. So we,
you know, we need to do our part to help
enable that clean grid. Otherwise, we
are going to see more coal, more gas,
more carbon emissions, rolling blackouts
potentially. Um, and so, you know, as
we've been seeing what's been happening
in neighboring jurisdictions, I do think
it is important for us to say actually,
you know, having grids scale batteries
is a very important part of what we are
going to do to tackle climate change at
the regional, state, and national level.
Um and I also think this you know
dubtubales well with uh an award that
mayor mullet recently received from the
US conference of mayors for the work
that isqua is doing on resilience hubs.
I do think it is the engineering is
possible if there's you know a grid
scale best we can use it to you know
supply more uh resilience centers within
isqua and I think this would be a huge
huge benefit like the size of those
things is so much bigger than what we
have at the senior center we could be
powering like multiple schools and you
could have like really great resilience
center so I would love to see us explore
that as a you know climate action and
resilience strategy um on EV charging
I've said this in the PTE committee
meeting I will say this again I I think
just based on my experience talking with
builders and also PSSE, it seems like
the biggest issue with uh doing 100% EV
ready is that then basically you have to
have a transformer or electrical
capacity at the property that is able to
supply like 100 cars. And so that given
where we're at with electrical capacity
in Isiqua, I I think that can actually
be a real barrier. So, what I would
personally propose is something that's
even an even lower level of EV readiness
than EV capable, which you EV capable
requires that you have all the wires and
you have to have a really big
transformer. I'm I'm calling this EV
pre-wired, which is basically you have
all the wires. So, because a huge part
of the cost is like if you have to put
it in later, you have to dig up all the
concrete and then lay conduit and then
put the wires. That is totally
unnecessary. It is not expensive to put
wires in the wall when you're building
the building. So, do that. you do not
need to get an oversized transformer,
but then you know if you're going to put
in more EV chargers, you can upgrade
your transformer at that point. And I
think that I think strikes the right
balance of what are the investments that
are, you know, crucial to make up front
that avoids thousands of dollars of
costs later without necessarily, you
know, incurring costs or delays that are
potentially even going to delay the
delivery or the opening of an of a
building. like this is what I've heard
from the building official in isquas
that they can't get electrical capacity
for the apartment buildings and so I
really do not want to see that happen.
So EV pre-wired. Um I also uh I really
like the uh tree equity score metric. I
think focusing on you know I think to
your average person in the community
they will not feel a difference of 53%
versus 55% tree canopy. You know you'll
see and feel like what you're seeing in
your community. of having that tree
equity score across all census blocks.
You know, are there trees? Is there
shade? I think that's something that's
going to be a lot more meaningful to
people. You know, putting more trees on
Tiger Mountain isn't necessarily going
to like make that big of a difference
for people. Um, I also really love
David's comments on the importance of
maintaining our tree canopy, and I'd
love to see, you know, some more
maintenance. There's a lot of our street
trees that have ivy on them that we
should, you know, organize some work
parties to rip those out. Um, okay.
Okay, sorry. I still have like five more
things, so hang with hang in there with
me. Um, I really like this idea of the
time of replacement energy efficiency
requirement. Um, I think it basically at
this point if you're putting in a new
gas furnace, you're locking that in for
the next 20 years and that's probably
the opposite of what we should be doing.
I do think it is important to make sure
that we're not putting an undue
financial burden on anyone. So, you
know, with the Energized East Side, we
have incentives available for, you know,
lower income folks making like $200,000
or below. So, I think that's um that's a
really good program to you and we want
to make sure that that's well
calibrated. I also think we should
potentially explore whether that should
be expanded to like small businesses cuz
I know that that you know some small
businesses might you know not have the
resources to do an expensive heat pump
upgrade. So, want to see if we can
expand that program there. Um I also
really like the goals which have been
included since the previous climate
action plan around reducing vehicle
miles traveled. I do think this is one
of the biggest actions we can take
because I mean you know transportation
is a huge component of our uh carbon
emissions but it has to really you know
get out of just the climate plan and
really make it into you know all of our
public works and transportation plans as
well. Right now, the primary metric
we're using for transportation plans is
called concurrency or level of service,
which is basically how quickly can cars
get through intersections. While this is
well-intentioned, something like 80% of
Isqua's traffic during rush hour is pass
through traffic. So, what we're saying
is we are prioritizing
things that make it easier for people
who live in Reton and Maple Valley to
get through Isiqua quickly versus making
it easier for people in Isiqua to get
around town. And so I think we need to
really take a hard look at, you know,
what metrics we're using to score our
transportation projects. Um, and I know
that is a little bit outside of, you
know, your scope as sustainability, but
just saying this is a thing that we'll
want to look at. Um, I think also, um,
one of the actions that was mentioned in
here is the importance of advocacy. So,
you know, there's a lot of things where
it's like, okay, it doesn't necessarily
make sense for do like benchmarking at
the city level or a building performance
standard at the city level, but a lot of
things will have to be at the state
level. And so I think you know adding
sustainability things to our climate act
to our state legislative agenda is
really important. Um and you know on the
acquiring timber sales honestly that's
something where we should be advocating
to the state because they have
department of natural resources. They
have a giant capital budget. Um okay
finally last thing. Um, Stacy, I've
mentioned this to you a bit, but
basically in Ann Arbor, they have this
thing called the sustainable energy
utility, which is like
essentially if you're a local person
within the city, you can subscribe to
the local utility and they build solar
panels and batteries on local homes and
you can basically buy, you know, those
locally generated electrons on your
electric bill. And so that gives that
makes it so that it's really easy for
residents to invest in local solar. Um,
so I think this is a cool idea. I also
think it's probably not really a city
thing, probably more of a county thing,
but something to flag as something, you
know, we could also advocate for. So,
uh, that concludes my remarks. Uh, I
think Council Member Nichols and then
Council Member Boyd.
>> Okay. Uh, thank you both for this
excellent presentation. Um, I really
really appreciate all the thought, the
care, and the analysis that was been put
in by both my fellow council members as
this has come over multiple touches, all
the staff and all the community. Um I
think most of our feedback from PD has
been incorporated. Um as well as as was
referenced the many many many pages of
community feedback. Um I forgot the
number. It was quite high but uh I know
that's a ton of work. Um and I only have
one additional suggestion that hasn't
come up yet. Um, and that's to very
enthusiastically second Deputy Council
President Jang's comments on figuring
out how Isiakiqua can do its part to
lean in on more green energy
infrastructure uh specifically
gridscale battery storage. Um, I also
want to reference former council member
Kappler's uh, comments on how Isqua has
historically uh, and should continue to
lead. Um, I think it's a great tradition
that we have in our city. Um, and it's
something that we see all over the place
and that we should really lean into when
we can. Um, our current climate action
plan does touch on battery storage at a
small scale and we do it well. I want to
I want to appreciate that. Uh, we
promote storage financing for homes and
businesses. Uh, we put it on our own
city properties. Uh, we also back it up
at critical facilities like cooling
centers, resilience hubs. This is all
great. Um, and I want to make sure that
we keep that focus on those small scale
things and continue that. What we don't
yet explicitly do though is seek storage
at the scale that the grid really needs.
And those those massive numbers that
deputy council president mentioned,
those are real. Our region needs to
support those at some point. And I think
Isqua can lean in and help. Um, and
that's a gap that I think we should
consider figuring out how we can utilize
our climate action plan to help close.
There are a lot of advantages that we
can get from grids scale battery storage
if we lead. Um, like local
prioritization for blackout prevention.
Um the bomb cyclone outages are still
fresh in many of our minds. Um uh uh
engineer correctly, we can get some good
local benefits from these systems and we
can also um show an openness to
solutions that have to happen somewhere.
These things do have to come someplace.
So if we lead, we can find partners that
will also meet the high safety standards
that we're always going to have to
insist on as well. I want to think a bit
about the analog to light rail here. um
in that light rail. This is an area
where I've seen our community really
proudly stand up and say yes, we we want
this in our backyard. Uh we want to see
these benefits ourselves and we want to
do our part locally and regionally to
make those benefits happen with climate
friendly infrastructure like battery
storage. I really believe in our
community uh and I think we can take a
different direction from some of our
neighboring cities and task ourselves to
have the courage of our convictions and
say yes in my backyard to sustainability
broadly and here as well. Uh so once
again thank you for this excellent work.
Um and I hope we can be bold in
supporting the big things our region
needs and look at how to integrate
things like gridscale battery storage
into our climate action plans as well.
>> Great. Council member Boyd and then
Walsh and then Adair. Um, I'll echo my
fellow council members. Uh, just amazing
work. I'm so impressed by this and, uh,
particularly the a ability to adapt to
what you were hearing. I think you
mentioned that you went in, um, thinking
it would be a little bit smaller of a
revision and then just based off of um,
you know, the feedback you were getting,
launching it into a um, something much
larger and collaborative and multiple
touch points and all of the pages of the
comments. And so, uh, I just I think
that's really a model for this kind of
work that I'd like to see repeated in
other areas of city work. And, um, my,
uh, I mentioned this to you, I think
earlier in an email, just, um, some
questions that I had about, uh, going
from a 5-year plan to a 10-year plan.
And, you answer those questions. I'm
seeing in there's within the plan,
there's going to be an annual report,
um, in-depth reviews or opportunities to
adjust the targets. And so, um, I'll
just, you know,
put a pin in that of like my, you know,
not wanting my my worry is, um,
how do we keep, you know, our bite-size
measurements of, you know, um, not
wanting to get to the end of 10 years
and uh, towards that end feel like we're
feeling like we're rushing maybe. And
so, um, I don't think that's going to
happen, but just keeping an eye on that.
Council member Walsh. Thank you. Um I
will also echo the appreciation of
listening to the community. Um the
appreciation of going to the PD
committee and saying, "Hey, let's focus
a little bit more on greenhouse gases
and what we can do there." And so I'm
seeing the results of that in this. I
think this is great. Um I think I will
plus one to everything that Deputy
Council President Jiang said. I didn't
think that I was going to be talking
about uh grid level batteries tonight,
but I think it could be an interesting
um conversation for us to have. And I
really think that we have the uh
community here that is interested in
leaning into
um big things and innovation. And so I
see a lot of that already in this
report. I see our staff taking that
energy and still, you know, pushing back
on the, hey, yeah, 55% of tree canopy
was what we had before, but let's talk
about what we can achieve, what that
actually looks like, what our um land
availability is and um make the
necessary adjump adjustments to still
be, you know, proactive and challenging
ourselves, but being realistic on what
we can accomplish. Appreciate the focus
on the equity score um and kind of how
um how we implement it as much as having
a goal um is really important. So really
appreciate um everything that we're
seeing here. Thanks,
Council Member Dear.
>> Yeah, I think this is just going to be a
love fest for the amount of work you did
and put into this. Uh so echoing all
those same comments and so they and I
actually spent a while looking through
your implementation grid of just page
after page of all the notes you took and
just being like wow this is like amazing
that you did all this amazing that and
also taking the point to list it all and
go through it and so amazing work there.
Um and I um want to also just you know
in particular just point out you know
you're as mentioned by council member
Walsh of that making a plan that makes
us a leader but is achievable because as
we've all seen there's always the danger
of you make a big plan you make a big
promise and if you don't actually get
there then everything just starts to
feel very hollow. So I appreciate the
thought that has gone into trying to do
things that push us but actually we
could get there. Um and um I I so I
appreciate that focus and what you've
done into here. Um and so yeah, I will,
you know, again also support the ideas
uh stated by my other former council
members. Um in particular, the ones you
brought up. Um I also agree uh with uh
Deputy President Chang about the wire
ready EV, which I think is a much better
thing for our community at where we are
and the cost associated with that. I
think you know uh with like the PSSE
substation there was talk that Highlands
was already like the conduit's already
laid so they can just plop the
substation in and so that idea on homes
I think is a smart way to tackle that.
Um and then you know each of these
policies will obviously be vetted as we
go. you know, I have, you know, concerns
about the replacement at time of loss
for like certain, you know, I've been in
situations where we've lost heat and you
got to get something fast. And so the
idea of the you're forced into something
that you might not be able to afford is
something that I would want addressed in
any kind of plan there. Um because I do
obviously want the change, but I don't
want to put people in some sort of we
can't get heat because we're forced to
get this type we can't afford. So those
types of things. And so making sure when
we do get to the policy stage, we push
ourselves. we are a leader but we you
know remember what it's going to cost
the individuals that you know might have
thing and we make sure we keep them in
mind as we go. Um and then um my last
point which I'm blanking on uh what oh
yeah in terms of being a leader is also
just making sure that as we go and as we
have success making sure we're loud
about it and you know working with
communications and and in order to be a
leader people need to know we're doing
it. So, making sure that we find ways to
be very loud and proud of that as we
achieve our various goals. So, thank
you,
>> Council Member Joe.
>> Thank you. Um, appreciate all the hard
work. I I remember reading this uh
before I came on council. I can't
believe it's been 5 years now that have
have passed, but it's great to see the
uh guideposts and goals that we've made
and the other ones that we've now taken
a look at and figured out how we can
achieve in a better way and things that
we need to kind of tweak to still reach
our goals. So, appreciate all the hard
work, great work there. Um, action 1.7,
reduce localized air and stream
pollutants. Uh the feedback I would have
on this particular one is um take a look
at our what we're doing with storm water
already and see if whether or not um
doing more in that category the expenses
outweigh the potential benefits that we
already have uh from the storm water
system before the water gets to the
streams. Um so just keep that in mind as
a as a idea. Um the building on electric
policies action 3 1.3 um implement a
time of replacement energy. I I do have
some concerns about low-income people um
earning less than $200,000. I must be
low income then anyway. uh the uh the
requirement for uh replacement. Um I
think you did a really good job with the
heat pump initiative over the last two
or three years where we really trying to
encourage people to switch to heat
pumps. Um, and if if we if we're able to
do that kind of program with this
requirement such that people are
replacing their their systems before
they break down, then I think the
requirement can work. But I don't want
citizens to get into a situation that
council member Dair was talking about
where they're forced to buy something
way beyond their means because um it's
broken down, we don't have an
alternative. If we can provide an
incentive or a program for people along
the way, then I I think that can work.
Um, with the um
action 3.2, the multif family
requirement for installing electric
vehicle raised stalls. I'm going to um
kind of go a little counter to my uh my
colleagues here. Um, I would be more in
favor of installing the tubes, the
conduits for it, but not requiring the
wiring. If the owner of the facility
wants to put in the wiring later because
their tenants want it put in there, then
they can wire it, put in the equipment,
and then talk to PSC about generating
the additional load that's going to be
necessary. Um, I'd like to keep it so
that it's possible for people to do it
if the land owner or owner of the place
wants to do it, but not necessarily
require all the wiring up front because
that's a pretty big cost for a person
trying to put a multifamily unit in the
city. The other thing to consider uh is
the cost of parking. in the past and
you'll have to check it just to be sure
and maybe the the stats are a little bit
different, but when you put in an EV
spot, it has to be a little bit bigger
than the normal spot. So, if it's 1.25
for an EV spot versus one for a normal
spot or even smaller for a compact spot,
we're going to be taking parking away
from that unit as well, which is an
added cost that potentially could be in
there. So, um, having the the the tubing
there ready to be wired, you don't have
to cut the spot out initially. You can
keep the same number of spots in there
and then when the owner wants to put in
the electric system for it, he can
rejigger the lines and figure out how to
rejigger his parking uh, within that
unit and not necessarily take away those
units uh, those parking stalls right at
the beginning. And so those are just
some things to think about if if the if
the spots are still normal size and you
know there isn't a need to have uh
additional space for the electric
generator or the charging device there
and it doesn't take away space and
that's great but just another thing to
think about as we're looking looking at
this. Um appreciate all the work again
and um I think that our citizens really
want to make a difference in climate. uh
they want to know how they can help and
they want to have choices in terms of
what they can do to help. Um and this
policy I think has a potential to really
empower people to um prepare for
emergencies themselves and prepare for
the climate change and help see uh the
changes they want to see in the world.
Thank you very much.
>> Um okay, before we wrap up, council
member Joe, I actually have a quick
question for you. So, is it easy for
someone to, you know, if the conduit the
tubes are in there, is it easy to put
the wire through the tube?
>> I've never done that u myself, but I
think we need to talk to the people that
do that to figure it out. Um, we set up
um, okay, so when you take down overhead
wires and you put in wires under the
under the street, they put in the tube
and it's wide enough so that other
utilities can go through there in the
future. Right? So, that's one experience
that I've had that I think relates to
what I'm trying to talk about, but we
would need to talk to the professionals
about that to know for sure.
>> Great. Yeah. If it's easy to put the
wires in through the tube, then I'm
totally open to not having the wires.
But do think probably, you know, uh
Alexis can talk to her uh friends over
at NaOP about that.
Great. Any other comments
with that? Um Oh, do you have what you
need?
>> Next steps and then approval process.
That's okay.
>> Okay. Okay.
>> Go for it.
>> Great. Um so our next step, you've seen
the draft plan. We've gotten some really
great feedback this evening. We're going
to take a another look at some of the
actions. We may make some slight
adjustments. Received a few typo
corrections we'll look at. Um and then
we've received verbal com uh approval
from the environmental board. Wednesday
evening we'll share with them the
feedback we received tonight and they'll
be providing a written um
recommendation. Um and then the other
item I'll add here is we'll be reaching
out to PSSE about their large battery
incentive program. It sounds like
there's potential interest in that. Um
so what we are looking for in terms of
our next step coming back to you all
with the final plan for approval and
adoption we proposed a couple of options
here um coming before one of the next
council meetings um if you don't
anticipate any major revisions um if we
need further discussion we can come back
to PTE or future uh committee of the
whole so looking for direction on how
you would like to proceed uh with IAP
approval and adoption.
Great. Any council thoughts on this
piece? Council member Joe,
>> I'd be in favor of bringing it back July
20th
um for approval and adoption, which
still gives you the option of taking it
to PTE on July 7th if something comes up
in your research. Um and then we can
stay on schedule to to then adopt it
before budget. Um would be my
preference.
Any
other thoughts,
General? Oh, council member Nichols.
>> Yeah, seconding that both uh for the
council on July 20th with uh I think
maybe likely
single touch point backup PD on the 7th
with other things you've heard either
tonight or that continue to come up. I
think it can probably be quick, but it
might be good to plan on that.
>> I'm seeing nods. Great. Stacey, do you
have what you need?
>> Do. Yes.
>> Great.
>> Thank you.
>> Well, thank you so much.
>> Um, okay. That concludes this action
item. The next item is good of the
order. Does anyone have anything to talk
about for the good of the order?
Okay. No one else does. I have one item.
Only one. Um, this is about the state
legislative agenda. Um, so we are having
a breakfast with our state legislative
delegation. Um, I believe it's next
Thursday, uh, June 18th. Um, so I just
wanted to provide a quick update on kind
of how we're planning on scheduling
that. So you might have seen an email
from city staff about, you know, kind of
the agenda for that. I think there's
some concern about, you know, the
specific projects that were on that
list. And I think given where we're at
right now, we don't have an adopted
state legislative agenda for 2027 yet.
And so instead of, you know, going
through a list of specific projects, um,
currently we're proposing just talking
more about some of the broader themes
that are important to the city, such as,
you know, transportation, which could be
funding for specific transportation
improvements that we think are
priorities, um, or just like broader
transportation policy type things. um
housing um you know things like the
housing trust fund or other changes at
the state level like um condo liability
reform or streamlining for things like
smaller elevators or single stair that
can make uh it easier to build more
affordable housing. Um as we just spoke
about sustainability and climate action,
you know, there's some areas of our
climate action plan where we really are
going to need more action from the
state. Um local revenue tools. Um, you
know, we are very constrained in what
types of local revenue tools we have and
so advocating for some of those. Um, and
then public safety costs for things like
public defense, um, jail, you know,
some, uh, additional needs for state
funding there. So, curious if there's
anything else that we would like to add
or any concerns. Council member Walsh,
>> how does this relate to the seven topics
that were sent out previously as um,
topic items? because your list there
sounds much broader and doesn't include
things like ECD gov update capital
requests for e house SR18 which are very
specific.
Yeah. So I think at this point um we're
proposing not getting into super
specifics um since we haven't yet put
you know as a council we haven't had the
discussion about what our specific
priority should be. Um, so at this point
we're kind of looking for feedback on do
we think those, you know, five general
areas are aligned with uh what we want
to do. Uh, council member Boyo,
>> I guess cuz I don't think I've seen it
anywhere official is the idea then that
uh I think in the past traditionally
there's been a dinner more towards fall
winter prior to session. So if you
wanted to get into the specifics that
would be towards that latter quarter of
the year. I also am pretty new so I have
not attended such a dinner but I think
that's that sounds right and I think
we'll have more time you know to hash
that council member Walsh
>> uh we have always done a breakfast uh at
least in recent times um but it's always
been right before session and so I think
the adjustment here is to have something
a little bit earlier um that there's
engagement but I think I would ask back
to city administrator
do we plan to do um another event when
we have our legislative agenda or is it
more the action later would be adopt a
legislative agenda and chop that out
through our lobbyist?
I
>> I I think uh council member Walsh the
idea is that this is in essence kind of
replacing what we didn't do in the in
the late 2025 time frame. So we would
still recommendation would be to do a
breakfast, you know, Novemberish
um with the legislative agenda. I mean
it's clear that um when we enter the the
bianium process um it's a more extensive
review of the agenda and so that we
haven't done yet. We've not talked about
it. Uh we're tenatively looking to at
least have this on the July 27th uh
council retreat to talk about process
for this. Uh but we really are concerned
that it's going to be a very difficult
session next year for cities and the
more we can do now to get in front of
our legislators to talk about what our
concerns are and put them on notice the
better. And I think one of the
challenges we have is we don't have
there's been a transition to the
council. U there the specifics may
change but we also don't want to lose
this opportunity to reinforce some of
the the basic tenants revenue
flexibility public safety housing
sustainability. So that the goal and
this was discussed at council leadership
uh over a couple of meetings but most
recently last week and that's where the
list came from was a discussion with
council leadership with the mayor.
>> Uh I think was it council member Darren
then Nichols.
Um, I mean, so like I agree with the
general topics and even the list that
was saying like those all things made
sense, but I think what I'm hearing now
and what I'm feeling now is that is that
we might need to get a very clear goal
of what we intend to get out of this
breakfast. If like we haven't formalized
what we want out of legislative session,
if if you know a lot of these top the
general topics are kind of I think they
know to some extent that those are
things that are big for us. So, I feel
like we might need to get a specific
goal and what we want to get out of this
meeting. And if it's just to talk about
these general broad ideas, fine, but
that doesn't seem like enough or or
meaty enough that to do that. So, I
think that might be helpful to clarify
of just kind of, you know, when we leave
it, what do we hope we've achieved out
of that that breakfast?
>> Um, I mean, I I definitely think that's
a good question. And I think even you
know like the relationship building
aspect of things I think is important.
Um and also you know our legislators are
also all accessible. So I you know I've
met with most of them individually in
the past and so you know want to also
emphasize that that's something that you
can do as an individual or as a council
member. Um, but I do think especially at
this point when we don't yet have our
legislative agenda finalized, it is more
of just like, you know, a relationship
type thing where we're saying, "Hey,
these are the areas that are important
to us." And, you know, if you have bills
who are that are in these areas, we're
also happy to support.
And if I can add, um, you know, the the
the one item that there's on the on the
capital list, I know Mayor Mullet, uh,
sees as there's a great opportunity
with, uh, uh, Representative Kalen's new
role in taking the lead on the capital
budget for the House. Um, and so I I I
think maybe it may be worth a few
moments to this evening. Um, you know,
the mayor feels strongly that we need to
be aggressive in that area especially,
and that there are some, uh, capital
needs, but parks capital needs that we
should at least try to put on the table.
Now, we've not talked about it as a full
council, uh, but I think the mayor sees
this as a good opportunity to do that.
So, unless there's wild objection to
that, I think that perhaps, you know,
that might be something that that that's
more specific. other things on the list
uh regarding public records, regarding
the jail. Um I mean those are all
consistent with things that the the
council has previously talked about, but
I think some of the feedback that uh uh
deputy council president Jen received
from some of you over the course of the
last several days was that there was a
little bit of discomfort getting into
too terrible detail with some of that.
So maybe splitting the difference is not
a bad thing. Um clearly public safety
costs are significant for us that are uh
maybe not the same for some of the other
communities our representatives uh
represent. Um you know the the focus on
affordable housing again some of our
neighbor communities don't have that
that that same focus. So I I don't think
it's a bad thing to talk about some of
these larger larger topics but I do know
that Mayor Mullet is not going to want
to miss the opportunity to talk about
capital. uh as I think most of you know
he was responsible on the senate side uh
for the state capital budget. So seeing
an opportunity to work closely with
representative Kalan I think he sees as
a major issue for us in 27 uh moving
forward. So deputy council president I I
think maybe that piece we would
recommend we continue to be specific but
maybe again talk a little bit more in
general terms about some of these other
topics.
>> Yeah. I mean does anyone have objections
to talking about the e house at this
meeting?
Council member Walsh. Oh, and Oh, I
think it was Oh, okay. Walsh and then
Boyd
and then Nichols. I don't know.
>> Yeah, I think
I don't love the idea of making a
capital ask before we have considered
what our potential capital asks should
be. So, I I appreciate that the mayor
and that relationship and that there are
opportunities there. The decision on
what to fund or what to ask for um I
think should come to the council. Um I
think we can have some great
conversations about the pros and cons of
different things both in what are
important to us as a city and what are
viable for a capital ask. what are most
likely to be successful, but I would
like to have that conversation about
more than just a single project.
>> Council member Nichols, I think you're
next. Oh,
>> um I'll speak to both points, both the
broader point about the um uh what
what level of specificity should we be
getting into now and then the specific
question on the on this specific capital
ask regarding the e house. Um, as far as
the the broader points, um, I I agree
with the concept of keeping this at
least initial meeting pretty high level
and um, uh, not lean in too much on the
details of any particular um, policy or
any particular ask or certainly any
particular talking points. Um, with the
reason being that we have a many new
folks on council, I suspect that there
will both be things that are the same,
but there will almost certainly be
things that are different. Um, another
topic that another reason to delay
somewhat on the details is that we've
gotten a good number of public comment
lately, um, multiple emails even today,
um requesting
some process for the community to,
uh, be able to impact our legislative
agenda in ways that have not always been
as accessible in the past. Um, I think
that's a good idea. I think there's a
lot of things that um the community
wants that we as a city cannot
necessarily do on our own but that we
can utilize our our lobbying efforts if
we and that will be more powerfully
stated if we say both this is a
community um driven effort we have
feedback from a community this is
something we want um and we're also
supporting it from the the city
perspective jointly um I think that is a
multiplicative that will have a
multiplicative effect that could be very
powerful and useful for us um on this on
any particular ask whether it's a
capital ask or otherwise. I don't know
that that we should put I I I would
caution us against um putting too much
weight on any particular meeting
especially a kind of informal breakfast.
I think we will have plenty of
additional touch points with all of our
legislators in both the 5th and the
41st. Um if the if if this is a capital
ask that becomes a a consensus ask, I
think we will have more than enough
opportunity to communicate that to um
all of our our representatives and that
this there's no particular urgency for
this partic this individual meeting on
that topic. Um and we can we we're not
going to lose anything in reality. we
can still have those if anyone can still
as an individual have those
conversations with there including the
mayor. Um so we we we will have time to
have those conversations and I think
both to allow us as a council to come to
a consensus with the with the
administration as well. Um and to allow
for better community input on these um I
think keeping to our the same high level
things we always talk about housing,
transportation, etc. that's fine. Those
are those are almost certainly going to
stay the same. Um, but the specific
policies I suspect will there will be
there's room for debate. Um, and I I
think we should allow that debate to
happen.
>> Great. Thank you. Uh, Council Member
Boyd.
>> I'm just saying for the record that I'm
intentionally staying out of this
conversation, um, just for
considerations with my, uh, day job and
so, uh, Council Member Nichols
mentioned, you know, debating different
projects and I will let you all do that.
and I plan on test um attending the
breakfast in my council member role, but
um won't necessarily be um I think I
I'll be in listening mode.
>> Great. Thank you. Any other comments,
questions? Council member Joe,
>> I'll just bring a different perspective
that uh when you lobby
um a body, whether it's a city council
or a planning commission or house rep or
senator,
the city needs to be in front of that
representative
constantly with
an ask that we want to see done. Now,
maybe we don't accept the funding later,
but we need to have those conversations
from even a preliminary point of view
right now if we think that it's
something that we might want to ask for
by November, December. Um, they need to
have it on their mind. They need to have
it as something on their list that, oh,
Isiqua is talking about this. Maybe they
don't want it right now, but they're
talking about it. So, I need to pay
attention to it and monitor and watch
it. And you've got to build that
lobbying effort
starting in the summer,
carrying it through the fall so that
it's ready to go in November. That's all
to say I don't know what we're asking
for, but I think that we've talked about
the e house a little bit and it's part
of the potential park bond that we've
been talking about. So, I don't think
it's out of the realm of things that we
would talk about to to discuss the
potential ideas that we have on the e
house right now. You've got to break
that ground. You've got to start having
that as a piece of conversation for your
legislators all the way through that
process so that by by the time you get
to November, it's a natural thing for
them to say, "Yes, you've told me about
it. I know everything about it. Now I
want to go and try to do it." So my take
is that yeah, if we decide not to do a
conversation about a capital piece or
the e house even as it might be, I think
we should still give
our mayor uh the freedom to go ahead and
have those conversations and start
breaking that ground. And if other
council members feel it's an important
project,
I'm just going to let you guys know
that, you know, I think it's an
important project that I want to start
talking to legislators about. Not say
that I can commit the council to
anything, but my experience as a person
who lobbies
uh bodies is that you need to start it
right now and build that base beyond
just building the relationship with
them, but building that base to start
talking about capital projects. So, at
the very least, I think we should um
give the mayor permission, direction, or
the uh sign off to go ahead and start
talking about the capital projects that
uh we've been talking about as a body
over this time period. Not committed to
any one particular one, but uh let him
start talking about those because he's a
professional. He knows what he's doing.
and if we want to get that funding for
whatever project, he's got to start
breaking that ground right now. So,
that's my thought on it.
>> Thank you. Uh, council member deer.
Uh well I think now I'm going to end up
extending the conversation because
especially after those comments by
council Joe I'm kind of leaning more
towards these specific topics that were
in the original email and not
necessarily as that we all are on
consensus in this but it does seem true
that like
any true policy for the legislative
agenda is going to take a lot of time to
develop. And the more we're these are
things we're thinking about and we may
not necessarily have we voted on them,
but to start these conversations and
start getting our legislators thinking
about how to tackle them and starting
other conversations does seem important
and does seem good for us to have some
specific things we're going to be
talking about with them to see what is
the viability of these. Are these even
achievable or what do they need from us
until then to be ready for it? And so I
am now leaning a little bit towards more
at least some of these specific projects
being our topic points because I think
that that's useful for the long-term
discussion.
>> Yeah, I mean I definitely agree on the
importance of specific projects, but I
mean if we're getting into specific
projects, I have some specific projects
that are not on the list that I would
like to see added. In particular, uh
roundabouts on SR900 living in Talis.
That's probably, you know, like last
year we'd looked into, oh, if we like
added another lane slightly past uh, you
know, Talis Drive, would that do
anything? It's like you can have 25 more
cars parked there, but it doesn't do
anything because the, you know, the
point of issue is, you know, the traffic
light at May Valley Road and at JB's
Cafe. So, I mean, if we're talking about
things that will improve traffic flow in
Isiqua, that could be a major one. I
mean, if especially like highway 18, the
the nexus is very very indirect and you
know, SR900 is a state road and there's
various, you know, it's a blessing and a
curse. So, I think, you know, if we're
going to go into specific projects, I
think we should also open the floor to
what what are some of the other specific
projects that we might want to consider,
but that might also I don't know. It's
like does that make it too messy or
should we just try to do on an expedited
timeline say okay everyone come up with
a list and then we'll all hash it out at
the next council meeting.
Council member Walsh.
So this is a different time period than
we've usually done this. Um, and so I
think as much as
this is a good time to do engagement, we
are unfortunately coming at this with a
new council and a new mayor who haven't
had that conversation about what the
priorities are. So, I think as much as I
would like to have the specific
conversations with our legislators at
this early time, and I think that should
be our goal, I don't think we're ready
to do that at this point. Um, so I think
we need to default to utilizing this for
networking and general topics. And if we
want to make it a priority that we talk
about our legislative agenda, you know,
in July or in September so that we have
it earlier rather than later. I think
that's great, but
I I just don't see how we can have a
specific conversation.
>> Council member Nichols.
>> Yeah. And on that that same point, I I
think the the difficulties of having a
specific conversation and then having a
process where we go through and are very
deliberative and open up, especially to
the public um for additional ideas both
to be added or removed. Um it's hard to
reel things back once we put them out
there and we only get so many priorities
that we can really talk about. I mean,
this seven is frankly probably a lot
already. Um so
historically my understanding is we have
not started
breakfast lobbying. I guess that's what
the determine I'm not sure what to call
this exactly um at this stage of the
year. I think this is a nice addition
since this was not feasible um last year
um for a variety of reasons. Uh this is
a nice addition to the schedule to help
build some connections. I don't think
that I would I would I mean anyone
should be of course able to talk to
anyone in our our legislative delegation
at any point. Um whether that's the
mayor who I'm I'm I would I'm certain
does um or any of us. Um I don't think
anyone would hold that against anyone.
That's there's you know
plenty of opportunity to do so. Uh the
difference is whether once we if we
communicate something as a consensus um
that implies a consensus um and it will
I think it will be n impossible for us
to get there tonight starting at 9:15.
Um, I suspect it would be hard for us to
get there as a single body even in the
next couple weeks and I think it will be
impossible for us to get good public
feedback and we have heard from the
public that they would like to have an
opportunity to to help you utilize us to
better be their voice in some of their
the the lobbying efforts that are out
there. So, I would I would again with
all of that um recommend that we we keep
it as a as a good networking
opportunity. We should all strive to
have good relationships with all of our
legislators um and uh
pause briefly on a statement of
consensus while still driving towards
getting that consensus relatively
quickly towards Council Member Joe's
point that sooner is going to be better
and uh we can start communicating that
better sooner if we have it sooner.
>> Great.
Um, yeah, I think I'm in agreement with
that point. I think, you know, I I think
the sooner we can get to a good place
with our full legislative agenda, the
better, but I think we're not yet ready
at this point to say here's, you know,
the city's priorities. Um, so I think
you know keeping it relatively high
level and saying you know oh like we're
very excited that uh Representative Ken
now has this capital budget role and we
will have some specific asks for you in
the next in our next breakfast lobbying
meeting or whatever the case may be. Um,
city administrator anything to add
so I'm clear so we can take this back to
Mayor Mullet. Uh hopefully council
leadership can talk about this on
Wednesday morning uh and get this
finalized. Uh there seems to be
consensus to talk about the broader
topics off the top of my head. Housing
uh sustainability
uh public safety at large um the need
for alternate revenue sources for cities
I think that's transportation
>> and transportation that's five. So I
think one of the reasons we were trying
to give a speaking role for every member
of the council um we've done this in the
past where one or two have said
something the rest have not and then the
others have been have felt they didn't
have a proper opportunity to
participate. So we're trying to give
everyone that opportunity to say
something. So the the magic number is
the number of people around the table
versus what the the council's priorities
would be. So does that sound reasonable
with those? Was it five deputy council
president that I rattled off? Council
member Walsh,
>> I volunteer as tribute to not speak so
that we don't have to talk about seven
things and we can keep a good
relationship with our legislators.
>> Well, and I think and I think we've um
you know built that in as well. Um we
often have not allowed them time um to
talk and so that has also been a
criticism that we've heard. So we're
trying to we're trying to do a lot of
things in a relatively short period of
time but at the end of the day it's
going to be a very very difficult
session uh next year. The governor
already announced today that he's asked
all of the state departments to begin
making cuts. Um they will come and look
for additional revenue uh sources from
uh things that we uh we benefit from. Uh
they will likely start the legislature
will likely start taking away some of
the prerogatives that we have because
it's happening in state after state all
over America. Um, and so I think really
we just need to communicate uh how
important the services we provide are
and how important it is that we have the
revenue in order to provide those
services. So hopefully that's something
everybody can agree on on the council
and if it is we can craft this in such a
way that uh working with Deputy Council
President Jen uh so that we have a good
breakfast next week.
>> Yep. Uh, council member Boyd, I
>> think I'm actually uh happy to volunteer
to not speak uh or if there's things
that you would like to share or that uh
city programs things to highlight. I
think that I'll double check, but that
might be within my bounds. But uh
>> I'm sorry I didn't hear the first part
what you said.
>> Oh, uh we're talking about folks
volunteering to not speak up or share um
the various even just high level uh
potential agenda items. I can take
myself off the speaking list. Okay. I
was I'm sorry. I'm still having a little
trouble hearing you, but I'm getting a
little clogged up in my ears tonight.
>> Sorry. Uh I'm happy to volunteer to not
speak.
>> Oh, right. No. Yeah. Thank you. And you
you were already not on the list.
>> Okay.
>> So, we need we need something for the
mayor. So, I think that was the the
idea.
>> Great. Any other thoughts or comment on
this? You think you have what we have
what we need?
>> Thank you.
>> Okay. Great. Well, if there's nothing
else for the good of the order, we are
adjourned at Oh god, I need to log in to
see what time it is.
9:19 p.m.