all right good evening everyone welcome
to the city council Planning Development
and environment committee meeting of
March 28th I am councilmember hunt and I
am joined with council president Walsh
and Council Deputy president Hall
there will be multiple public comment
opportunities at tonight's meeting there
is a general public comment opportunity
at the beginning of the meeting or you
can make comments after the presentation
and committee question answer periods on
tonight's agenda items and as a reminder
there will also be a remote aspect to
our meetings both staff and members of
the public maybe may be participating in
tonight's meeting remotely via WebEx
so we will start this meeting off with
public comment again there will also be
public comment after the two discussion
items this evening members of the public
May address council at this time in
person or virtually those who have
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do have members of the public who are
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um or or step up to the lectern and
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of fable
um city clerk can you please identify
the first person who has signed up to
speak
yes chair hunt the first uh person who
is signed up to speak this evening is
Eric olner
good evening and uh thank you for
permitting me to speak before the
committee uh my name is as you said is
Eric holliner uh my address is 1779
Harrison Court Northeast in the
highlands I'm a board member of the
Issaquah food and clothing bank which
partners with the city and other
community benefit organizations and
whose mission is to unite our community
in nourishing and nurturing individuals
by removing barriers to healthy food
vital resources and connections to
essential services
we've been in discussions with City
staff about how we can continue to serve
our community and support the city's
Human Services Department's strategic
plan as our community needs have grown
the Issaquah food and clothing bank has
continued operating in a facility that
is too small to accommodate the services
it currently offers and is constrained
by space from becoming the kind of
multi-resource Center that supports that
strategic plan
due to those physical constraints we've
been forced to use multiple off-site
facilities for inventory thereby
introducing operational inefficiencies
logistic issues and multiple vehicle
trips through the city all of which we
hope to significantly reduce with the
facility expansion
our space constraints limit the number
of neighbors we can serve in our Market
at any given time and often result in
long wait times currently we have no
space on site to meet privately with
individuals seeking essential and
sometimes highly personal resource
Referral Services
in addition our current facility limits
the number of programs we can run
concurrently and is not especially
welcoming to our neighbors in need our
staff or our volunteers
while it is ideally and centrally
located in the heart of downtown
Issaquah
the food bank is unable to expand to
meet these burgeoning Community needs
without some modifications to the city's
land use code
specifically its parking requirements
our facility team and its Architects
have explored numerous expansion options
and the preferred option to meet our
community's needs would require
additional parking by code
however due to its limited property size
and its essential programmatic needs
providing on-site on-site parking is is
simply not feasible
we have drafted language that would
include a parking waiver that the city
would approve only as long as we meet
very specific criteria and provide a
transportation demand management plan
that the city could approve
our request this evening is that the
city work with us to finalize that
language and hopefully incorporate the
proposed language as soon as possible
preferably as a modification to the
city's current parking regulations
rather than as part of the comprehensive
planned update and Associated parking
analysis that may not be completed until
the end of 24 2024 or later
my thanks again for the committee for
considering our request
thank you very much
city clerk is there anyone else who has
signed up to speak
yes chair hunt Aaron longchari
hi thank you committee for hearing our
public comments today I am the director
of operations and programs with the
Issaquah food and clothing bank
my personal home address is now in North
Bend but you will most often find me at
179 First Avenue Southeast
I am here to support my colleague and
board members submission of public
comment for consideration for the
essential Human Service need we provide
the City of Issaquah and our surrounding
Community we are in unprecedented times
and we are seeing increased need across
all of our services and programs a 23
percent growth in service last year
throughout 2022 first quarter of 2023
we've already expanded Services by 38
percent we are incredibly constrained by
space we have a solid plan for how we
will go forward and meet the increasing
Social Services needs in the city and we
do hope that you'll consider our request
for a parking exemption in the code
thank you
thank you
city clerk is there anyone else who has
signed up to speak
no one else has signed up to speak okay
and anyone uh virtually we have no
virtual attendees chair hunt all right
great thank you then we will
um move into our agenda items for this
evening the first item on our agenda is
approval of the minutes these are the
minutes of the February 28th meeting
um does the committee have any comments
or Corrections
then I will move to approve the minutes
of the February 28th Meeting those in
favor say aye aye
all right that is approved and then we
have our two agenda items the first one
is id1340 public contractor code of
conduct and this will be presented by
director Moon and director Welling
we're good we know how to tag team we do
that's great well good evening Jeff
Watling parks and Community Services
director
see Emily Moon Public Works director I'm
happy to be here tonight we will be tag
teaming
um and having a little bit of fun in
this very important topic earlier this
year
um you and the rest of your council
members approved a contract contractor
code of conduct for private projects at
that time you directed Administration to
prepare
um a separate contractor code of conduct
for Pub for public projects Emily and I
have been working with
um
our staff within public works as well as
as Park department and really beginning
to look at this one of our primary goals
for that work was to be consistent in
scope and be consistent in intent and be
really consistent in format quite
frankly with the the private code of
conduct but while at the same time
recognizing the differences and
primarily really in many ways the the
different relationship we have with
contractors when it comes to public
projects they're working on our behalf
and they're working with a contract that
we already have already have in place so
we look forward to presenting this draft
to you tonight
our purpose tonight is to review that
proposed code of conduct and again as we
as we review do it outlining a number of
the differences
that we see but primarily really quite
similar to the the other code of conduct
another important point to note and our
purpose is to really outline and
reinforce the scope of this proposed
draft and that's really to describe how
contractors should carry out
construction projects while mitigating
public concerns and issues
something that I think you're going to
hear from both director Moon and I
tonight on a couple of fronts is some
really really important context to
remember and that's that the contractor
when it comes to public projects is
really playing a very focused role in
that Capital project
they're working on our behalf as I said
earlier they're doing work on behalf of
the City Public Communication for that
project really is primarily the
responsibility of the city and not
necessarily the the contractor that that
relationship for communication is is
really borne out by the city and and
something that as we've drafted this
document and worked with staff realize
we're not
um that that commitment that
responsibility to Public Communication
is not something necessarily
passed on to the contractor I bring that
up because Emily and I have both been
working fairly closely with our project
managers and our teams and in both parks
and in public works department really
fine seeking ways to better standardize
our communication plans and
communication plans when it comes to the
the full breadth of city capital
projects and recognizing all aspects of
the the capital project from planning
and concept through design and
permitting and then finally construction
and so as we're hearing tonight this
contractor code of conduct that's really
just one segment that's the construction
phase of work and so that commitment
that responsibility of Public
Communication that's again born by the
city and not necessarily the contractor
is something that
again we want to reinforce you'll hear a
time and again tonight and I think is a
really important distinction as we as we
move forward
so the direction we're seeking and
asking tonight is does the proposed code
of conduct help clarify the city's
expectation of contractors as they're
engaged in construction projects and
secondly does the committee recommend
the proposed conduct code of conduct be
placed on an upcoming city council
meeting
with that I'm going to tag team to Emily
to talk background
right this is just a quick refresher on
where we've come from and where we are
tonight
in October as director Watling said you
had a initial conversation
an overview of current practices
particularly in the community Planning
Development Department about how they go
about construction contractor oversight
and at that meeting you gave direction
to staff to pursue the drafting of a
code of conduct and also directed staff
to seek additional input on that code
then in January you held that meeting in
part to gather that public input and to
review a draft code
we have used that same input all of the
conversations that you have received via
email or doing during meetings to inform
this draft
in January you also directed staff to
return in April with a public projects
contractors code of conduct
and then that code of conduct for
private contractors was adopted in March
in between all of those actions as
director Watling and I have mentioned we
were working with our staff to talk
about what was moving forward with the
private code of conduct and the public
contractors potential code of conduct
and we had various meetings with staff
the City attorney City Administration to
try to talk about
what was bringing what was inherent in
those codes what was being covered
elsewhere what are the changes that we
might need to make to be responsive to
the differences that we'll discuss
tonight with public projects
foreign
so the proposal for the public code of
conduct as I said grew out of that
January committee meeting and the code
that is in your packet this evening
recognizes the differences between
public and private projects and the
different role as director wildling
mentioned that the city plays on public
projects
and these are just some examples of how
we see
that role being a little bit different
but also the the reasons for why a
separate code was desired
a developer private developer private
property owner has the ability to choose
their favorite contractor
we don't we don't so that's one
important difference that we Face
also the city is the property owner and
we are a direct agent of the Public's
interest the developer doesn't
necessarily have to
um
pay attention to all the same public
interests as we do and they aren't
necessarily the property owner
City also as director Watling said has a
start to finish role with this with a
public project and becomes the owner of
that asset in the end so our
relationship continues with the project
and then lastly the variety the location
all of our projects are extremely
diverse and and that really led to how
we are shaping this public contractors
code of conduct our work is not confined
typically to a single uh public or
private parcel and often is taking place
in the public right-of-way which is is
messy it's odd shaped at times for
example
this is a really long laundry list but
sort of speaks to the role that we play
from beginning to the end on a project
and how that role is different on public
versus private projects
this exemplifies the way in which we
direct and facilitate the execution of
those public projects and the roles and
responsibilities that we have
those roles and responsibilities also
give us great opportunities to shape
projects and to express the expectations
of the contract for the contractor and
the requirements of the contractor
it also gives us the ability to help
shape public engagement on a project the
interaction of the public with the
project and Public's knowledge of
aspects of the project
these are just a few examples of the
formal ways in which we communicate
expectations of contractors there are
bits and pieces in all of these various
codes and contracts and standards that
we apply when we bid jobs and when we
enter into agreements with the
contractor so just wanted to mention we
have a lot of formalized tools that
govern the behavior and the way in which
contractors carry out our projects
uh Community Planning and Development
reviewed some of their practices for
sitting down with contractors ahead of
construction and walking through these
sorts of elements we on the public side
public project side do very much the
same sort of thing we sit down with
contractors and really make sure they
have Clarity on the rules that are
governed governing how they work on the
project
our pre-construction meetings are very
thorough there's a lot of documents that
change hands but that's only one of the
ways that we communicate those
expectations
those documents and meetings typically
go over topics like approved
construction hours Environmental
Protection measures utility impacts
public relations and communication
traffic control and pedestrian safety
and a whole lot more
as the project owner and the regulator
on the project we also have the ability
to take significant steps and to ensure
accountability to City standards and
expectations
the proposed code of conduct in your
packet tonight is another tool
and it's another one that we can use to
reinforce the primary objective that we
all have that contractors be good
neighbors
Additionally the code of conduct
highlights succinctly in one place
some of these expectations for the
public Zone consumption so that the
public has a way to see those
expectations that's a little bit more
visible and a little bit more
accessible perhaps than all those other
tools that I showed you on previous
slides
foreign
so I spoke about how our public projects
are really varied and there was a big
list to help describe how varied those
projects are and some examples of
projects in your packet but they do vary
in terms of the size and the location
the visibility and their impact
and
one very important variable of
difference I think is where those
projects are taking place by Nature they
are on public property they're in the
public right-of-way and as such
we have an impact every time we do a
public project
in addition there are different rules
just one by way of example is our hours
of operation hours of construction can
vary more for public projects
particularly if those are emergency or
maintenance activities so that's an
important difference and again that
relates to where projects are typically
taking place when they're public
projects
so as we drafted the public projects
contractors code of conduct we wanted to
ensure that it would work for all
contractors engaged on our construction
projects no matter how varied and
diverse those projects are
thank you
so these are the main ways that the
public contractors code of conduct
differs from the private code
and I'm just going to quickly review
those codes are very very similar we use
the private code as the basis for
drafting the public code
so one difference is we have very
specific language about work hours just
to be clear about those requirements
we've also adjusted the language
regarding idling as some equipment
that's used in construction such as a
paver
requires idling in order to function in
addition others like our jet trucks idle
as they are running
we also clarified that protecting the
size the site and signing the site to
discourage dumping and trespassing we
modified the language in that provision
we also wanted to make sure that
communication plans and Outreach plans
would be tailored to fit every public
project and so we wanted to make sure
this Clause was responsive to the
diverse needs of the community for each
project and the diversity of the
projects themselves
and I wanted to say just a little word
about that one of the things we talk
about a lot is being context sensitive
and our communication team works very
closely with our project managers and
they have found that having those sorts
of tailored plans are more more
effective for residents to understand
what's happening and to access
information about projects and that the
communication plans also have to be
nimble enough to be dynamic over time as
things change with the project or as we
realize there are additional interests
that we need to attend to on the project
so our communication team and project
managers think very deeply about who is
going to be affected by the project when
and how and how to best reach them with
the right amount of information
we believe that poorly designed tools
and plans don't meet the public needs
and so we worked hard we work hard and
are continuing to work hard putting a
lot of effort into improving our
communication plans standardizing our
approach in that we are requiring every
project have a communication and
Outreach plan
that is responsive to the nature of that
particular project
we also modified the language regarding
access as the nature of the work in the
public right-of-way often means we may
affect the public we may affect driveway
access as we are repaving a cul-de-sac
for example and we sometimes affect
emergency vehicle routes we work very
closely with Public Safety to make sure
they know what's happening when and to
work with them on any detours or Mutual
aid needs they may have
lastly we also clarified the requirement
for temporary pedestrian facilities
again to be in sync with
federal state and local codes
so lastly we've made a different
recommendation on implementation the as
you know in March the private
contractors code of conduct was
inserted into our Issa municipal code
and we've had conversations with City
attorney about the way in which we could
minimize any chance of confusion over
which code applies and also have the
right level of control over contractors
and the right way of communicating
expectations to contractors and so we
have recommended that we include this
code of conduct as an appendix to the
contract they have to enter into the
contract they have to acknowledge that
they will abide by all conditions in the
contract this would be another condition
then we would review the code with them
at the pre-construction meeting
what's not on the slide is a bunch of
other work we would certainly train our
staff on the code of conduct in
particular we have a public project
inspectors that one of their primary
duties is to follow up on the conditions
of the contract
and we'd also take steps to develop
those project communication plans as
I've spoken about and to ensure that the
code gets placed into our future bid
documents and our bid Awards we're at a
spot now where we also need to go back
after the code is adopted and have
conversations with contractors that we
have already entered into agreements
with and who may have projects underway
and make them aware of it and we intend
to do that
oh this is me sorry
all right we gave you we gave you three
options the first option is
to of course review this give us your
input if you are satisfied with it or
with some minor changes direct us to
bring it back on consent second option
is to have it under regular business if
you'd like to discuss it with your
colleagues and then the third is of
course to ask us to go and make more
significant changes and come back to you
in a future meeting of this committee
Okay so
sorry
Administration would like to recommend
that you do provide us with that
feedback and that we place this on
consent agenda we're eager to get it
underway as soon as possible we do have
a busy construction season coming up and
we'd like to focus on getting the
contractors well informed and those
projects off to a good start
of the tag team uh so we look forward to
discussion and and your feedback tonight
uh timing next steps depending on your
input uh we'll be prepared to uh bring
this code of conduct for a future uh
council meeting
and Direction needed
um
as I said earlier in the introduction
does the proposed code of conduct
help to clarify the city's expectation
of contractors engaged in City
Construction activity and do you
recommend the proposed code of conduct
to be placed on an upcoming council
meeting with that welcome discussion
thank you okay so we will go into
questions and then we will have public
comment on this item so questions
council president Walsh thank you
um so there are many different agencies
obviously that are involved in projects
that may be within City Limits an
example might be washed out who is
looking to do Culvert projects
um
their projects obviously wouldn't go
through our contract process which is
how you're proposing that this
contractor could have conduct
becomes involved and part of the
requirement so what is how how would
that work for other agencies or other
groups projects that are essentially
public projects but
not directly through the city
so as you stated I believe this code of
conduct wouldn't apply that doesn't
necessarily mean that we aren't of
course having the same kinds of
conversations with those agencies as
they engage in our community
it depends on the project
as you heard about the fish Culvert
project they are not going through local
permitting by and large and so there are
perhaps fewer opportunities to have
conversations that would result in
conditions on those permits but other
projects go through our local permitting
that becomes an Avenue for us we
typically have planning meetings with
those agencies to talk about their
projects and we cover a lot of this same
ground
expectation on truck routes and hours of
operation and things like that but
for many aspects it's not necessarily
our code particularly when we're talking
about the state that applies it's it's
their own rules for their contractors
that typically apply
okay let me follow up on that because I
think that answers most of my question
but then you said that a project could
be from an outside agency that has to
get a permit in the city which is where
you're kind of covering those Concepts
But ultimately this
um ordinance was kind of talking about
how the the contract would be the method
of dispersal so in those cases there
isn't a contract but there is a permit
are you proposing that the contractor
code of conduct would be added as a part
of that permit no I'm not I I think that
would be counter to
run the risk of being counter to the
expectations that that particular agency
has of its own contractor we haven't
engaged in those conversations with
those other entities but I I think
that's a difficult path we were very
much focused on what we have the ability
to control and that's our contractors
City administrator yeah
um thank you madam chair members of the
committee uh probably makes sense for us
to refer to this fear24 as the city
public contact or code of conduct
because I think we do not as director
Moon said we don't want to set any false
expectations that we have control over
other entities uh we're so fortunate to
have director dollywall also here and
maybe I can phone a friend and ask a
quick question of director daliwal
those public entities that are not
exempt from our land use would still get
a building permit correct
so the state is exempt from our
good evening council members and um
City administrator to answer your
question it really depends on the
project okay so a building permit
usually is very explicit whether you're
you need one or you don't
um typically work in the right-of-way is
generally exemptions there's broad
exemptions for doing work within the
right-of-way the Culvert project you
know those specially created exemption
under the state law for those kind of
projects
other public agencies that might do work
in the city it seems to be the missing
Gap here if they don't need a permit or
they're not this code isn't subject to
them is I think what you're asking
councilman members so I I think the
challenge is for those public agencies
who are doing projects in the city that
do not require a local permit we would
have no mechanism and nothing that we
would do here tonight would be a
mechanism we can share it with them
encourage it as a best practice but we
wouldn't have that because I would
imagine the Lion's Share a public the
projects that are not cities projects
are in the right of way and so those
would have exemptions
um you know we could think of other
issues there are school projects for
example those are usually would require
a land use permit and ability so we
would catch them because that would be
on their property if there was a state
or federal agency building a building
and I can't even I guess the fish
hatchery for example is a state facility
so they would need a building permit if
they were doing a renovation
off the top of my head that's probably
the biggest structural non-city
non-school District property so we could
commit certainly to sharing this city
public project contractor code of
conduct with those agencies and
encourage them
um and do our best in that regard okay
yeah I was just wondering what the
relationship was so I appreciate the
clarification
city council president huh unless you
wanted to go first happy president Hall
go ahead okay thanks
um thank you very much so is this
anticipated to be adopted as an
ordinance before Council no so this is
more Council just providing feedback
to the administration for them to have
language in the Contracting process
correct and
we're going to suggest that it be
adopted blessed by way of emotion and
that motion will direct us to start to
apply the code of conduct
implement it as an attachment of a
contract
what I'm trying what I'm one of the
things that I'll talk about in comments
too is I'm trying to kind of think of
the rationale in terms of how
and why this is the role of counsel so
um
will this live like somewhere that we're
adopting like will this be in code or is
this just something you'd like kind of
blessing from Council that then staff
has
something they can hang their hat on you
yes the the latter okay
okay thank you and then my other
question is
um
if we have kind of a list of kind of
common problems that have arose that
we've documented from the community
Through c-cliff C click fix it whatever
it's called
um or any other mechanism that kind of
brought about us thinking about this so
I joined the committee I think the
meeting right after this was directed so
I'm still playing a little bit of
ketchup so trying to identify specific
like what specifically are the problems
that we're trying to solve so that way
then we can hold up this and with the
problems and say okay well this this
fits that need so do we have like some
sort of document or do you have a good
summary of kind of some of the problems
that are common that would be fixed with
this
I think we we have a good sense
there's a there's a pattern uh that's
what
director Watling and I are focused on it
often in my department has to do with
issues of traffic control
I think we
that information is getting to us
you know what are the issues and
concerns it comes to us from our own
conversations with community members it
comes via emails sent to you with copies
to us it it comes to us through C click
fix as you suggested
so I think we're getting that
information and furthermore we are
having conversations with our staff
about it we're making sure that
um
I as a new Department director have sat
down several times with my team over the
last few months to say
here here's where I hear we're not doing
well
let's talk about how we can get better
and then we are in the process right now
of shaping up all those tools and
practices in order to
execute better in the future so I do
think I do think we know
yeah if I if I could add to that you
know what we see as as sort of typical
c-click fix issues within Park and trail
projects
obviously those are happening off right
away
um our you know contractors either
especially if a contractor is working in
a specific area in a park they're not
securing that specific area of the park
or we're seeing maybe construction
litter falling on into other areas of
the park
I think to also emphasize what Emily
said you know the nice thing about
um
the contractual relations we already
have with these contractors we're
meeting with them weekly so as we're as
we're hearing those issues we're the
next weekly
um construction meeting that's being
addressed and being talked about if not
that's that same day so there's that
instant ability to follow up
um and then also to emphasize Emily's
point when it comes to as I was saying
in the introduction the the public
Outreach and communication side of
things that again is more our
responsibility unless the contractors we
too in parks are continuing to learn and
continuing to look at how we improve
that process and look forward to having
as I said in the intro a communication
plan that not just not only Bridges
construction phase of a project but
construction
addresses How We Do public Outreach on
the planning and visioning side of a
park project all the way through design
and permitting until once we're finally
constructing it
and just to put a finer point on it um
when I was hired a city administrator in
2019 council member Chris Ray said my
number one complaint is how contractors
behave and many of you know that
councilmember Ray lives in Dallas so
there was a lot of issues going around
near there so that is how that got on
our work plan and then we had a pandemic
and time has passed and so that is why
now it's before the Council on the
committee but that was the it's not
because we've gotten this large
Avalanche of complaints that have caused
us to do this I think councilmember
Ray's point was there was a particular
project in a residential neighborhood
that was causing a lot of grief and the
he felt the city needed more tools so
that was what brought us here when it
was first presented to the council the
administration's recommendation was to
bifurcate public projects versus private
projects the committee agreed the
private project code went first and then
we've had a addition some additional
time to look at as you've heard this
evening some of the the changes but this
is not because there was a huge public
outcry that things were broken but
council member Ray and I think council
member hunt who also lives in that
General vicinity I think it heard from
Neighbors as well that we just needed
better tools and so that's why we're
here this evening
me
okay
um I have a couple of questions the
first one is the changes to the idling
Clause are were explained earlier it
seems I mean couldn't those same
machines be used by a private contractor
yes
um so second question would be
um uh sort of similar so there's this
change to Temporary walkways will be
clearly marked and clear of obstacles
um then in the that's in the private
version in the public contractor version
it says temporary pedestrian facilities
within the work Zone must meet the
accessibility criteria of the wash dot
design manual chapter 1510 to the
maximum extents feasible
I guess I'm just one it seems much
clearer and so I'm wondering why why
make it why that change in wording
um and why it wouldn't apply that we
should have the
walkways be clearly marked and clear of
obstacles
so we've provided this same sort of
input when the private code went forward
we believe that the language that's in
the city public contractors code of
conduct actually is more specific even
though maybe on face value it doesn't
appear to be there are many more
requirements in terms of temporary
pedestrian facilities and we hold our
contractors accountable to all of those
requirements they also vary depending on
aspects of the project
but that's the code that applies and
it's more than just keeping things
bringing clear
okay
um but it does it's more but it also
includes free and clear current signed
okay
um
uh you mentioned that this was run by
the City attorney and is it an option to
is it a um recommended against putting
it into the city code or was
what were the thoughts and maybe this is
a question for the City attorney but
that was my
question would it be legal to do that
legal yes it was
not recommended
because it was concerned that it would
create confusion there are enough
differences in the code aspects that
relate in the Issaquah Municipal Code
that relate only to private construction
we also have the difference of what's a
maintenance and emergency activity and
so it was her recommendation that we not
create that confusion and potential for
conflict
okay
um
so the main reason that is confusion
with with having two codes in the code
sure because there are differences with
those different types of construction
like activities okay
um one other thing that we discussed
with the private code of conduct was
enforcement would enforcement be
different with this because the
mechanism is different it's now a
contract or an attachment to a contract
versus a code
all right
likely different in that again you know
our first our first course of action for
for
um enforcement is the Construction
contract we have with with them they're
working on our behalf and so
um whereas a private contractor we don't
have that Direct
Construction contract so that gives us a
little bit more of enforcement ability
uh than
um than private but at the same time you
know code enforcement code actions a
number of those things are just as
applicable to to public projects as
private projects
so it but it would be enforced in a
different way because it wouldn't it
would probably
you would first go to the contract and
work it out maybe perhaps right it
depends I mean there are certainly been
instances where there's been code a code
enforcement done on on a on us on a
public project so I wouldn't say it's
always different
we just have there's some additional
mechanisms for enforcement
we paid the bills yeah so if there's a
problem in a construction site usually
when whoever the owner's representative
is says cut it out they generally do
because they know we pay the bills yeah
um
so if if there were a part of this that
was not in the code though that because
some of this is also already in the code
I believe as a requirement so it just
sort of puts it in one place but if
there were something that weren't in the
code that was in this attachment to the
contract then it would not be
enforceable by code enforcement because
it's not in the code so that's I guess
what I'm getting at there seems to be
there is a difference because of that
it's better
because again we have the checkbook
so we have more likelihood to have the
project manager enforce this because we
can simply say we will not approve your
progress payment
that's lots more than saying code
enforcement is going to come and write
you a ticket and give you 30 days to
cure it most of the things in both of
these codes are not so significant that
we would have a stop work order on this
so I think as you've heard from both
director Watling and director of moon
tonight there's a lot more force in a
city public project code simply by
attaching this to the contract one other
comment I wanted to make we've talked
about having this adopted by minute
order you could also have it adopted by
resolution and so if it's adoptable
resolution then it is
depending on how geeky you want to get
about city council actions
resolutions are kept in order I think
Chris appear on the website can easily
be found by a resolution if it's
something's adopted by a minute order it
lives in a city council agenda packet
and so if you're concerned about making
sure it doesn't get forgotten you could
do that we could talk about non-codified
ordinances but the city clerk would
probably come from home and and be very
upset with me but I think if you're
looking for something more substantial
than amended order I think a resolution
might be something you might want to
consider thank you okay thank you
do we have any oh yes go ahead
um just following up on that cool
question because I think my concern is
actually the opposite that way we might
be structuring it too much because I
guess when I think about the roles and
responsibilities of the administrative
body and Council we approve the contract
but the writing and the signing and the
management of contract comes from the
administration in the mayor so what are
you deal or do we have any concerns that
you know this if we were to adopt it in
a way that is more structured like a
resolution that we'd be tying the hands
of future administrations in a way
that's not really in accordance with the
role of our two bodies well the
council's adoption of any
any policy item
is equal they carry larger force uh with
a resolution in that you know generally
speaking it's something that's
separately written it's separately
numbered but by force I think again to
show would correct me if I'm wrong here
has the same weight you get to an
ordinance that's the next level uh
beyond that and unless there's some
penalty included in there than the
weight would be equal on the ordinance
side as well so um I don't think it's
tying hands I mean we're coming here I
think the administration agrees that
these are important issues that we want
to be part of you approve contracts so
you're already approving what would be
included anyway so if there were changes
over time I think we would just come to
you as we would with the private
contractor code because I think we're
going to have to live with both of these
and likely we would have to come back
with changes over time
no more questions all right so then we
will take public comment on this item at
this time I'll check in with the city
clerk if there's anybody who has
indicated a desire to speak on this item
chair hunt no one has uh indicated a
desire to speak to this in the room and
we have no virtual attendees at this
time okay
and the members of the public that are
here are not looking to speak on this
item either so thank you okay then we
will go to uh discussion who wants to
start us off on discussion on this item
Council Deputy president Hall
um sure thank you so much
um for the presentation and for the work
um
I don't know I feel like my comments
will will be a little bit different I I
mean if if you're asking me these two
questions under Direction needed
I would say yes it does clarify the
city's expectations
um and those of the contractors engaged
in our work
um
I don't know and then you know yes we'd
want to approve it at a council meeting
but I don't necessarily know myself if
this solves the problem or not and like
what exact problem that we're trying to
solve with this so I trust that the
problems that are developing the
community are making their way to the
right staff members are showing up in
those weekly meetings that you're having
with those contractors and that's great
but I don't necessarily know myself if
those documented public impacts are
being addressed by this but again I also
don't necessarily know if
um it's necessary for me as a council
member to know that as well because I
see this really more as an
administrative
um
function to add this to a contract
whereas the council and the mayor and
the administration are pretty much all
in alignment on what constitutes
constructing in the public good but I
just don't necessarily know if this
particular set
um of priorities that and actions or I
should just say you know language in the
code of conduct addresses any particular
underlying problems that we seek out to
address in the first place
um
so I'm kind of having a hard problem
with that and interested in what the
other committee members think of that
and I'll just leave it at that point for
now and maybe come back for round two
comments after
okay well one thing that this committee
can do is we can request additional
information or we can request that this
come back to the committee with changes
or with additional context so that's
something that we could um that we could
request it does have less
I think
um I believe it has less context as far
as the the community concerns that we
were trying to address in the original
um Bill and so or in the private Coda
contract bill
um so at that at that time I think we
had more discussion about you know how
is it going to be enforced and how is it
going to actually fix these problems and
then also that first part about what are
the problems that we're trying to solve
so I think because we on the committee
had that discussion this is very similar
it's it it does on its own it feels like
it doesn't have as much of that context
so we could definitely ask for that
context to come back on this yes
um when this was first discussed by the
committee the administration's
recommendation was to separate it
because I think as you've heard tonight
we feel we already have a lot of tools
as the the property owner and as the the
organization Contracting uh but at the
same time uh I think we've heard and I
think mayor Paulie agrees that we want
to hold ourselves to a higher standard
as we looked around the country for
these types of code of conduct we didn't
find a lot there were some communities
that did certainly but many communities
as we did our investigation simply said
here's all the things we already have
within our code we already have staff
working with the
um with contractors either for you know
through a building permit process
instructed inspectors or through the
ownership process for public projects
um so we came back with what we thought
made sense but we knew uh clearly there
was still two separate things so really
part of this is holding ourselves to a
higher standard I think we have seen
projects again like the talus one where
you have
established neighborhoods people living
there and right next to those homes was
been an ongoing construction site so
that's an unusual occurrence that many
communities probably don't find
themselves in so certainly I think the
administration is happy
to not move forward with this and keep
the private contractor on but the reason
we're here tonight is I think we felt it
was appropriate to hold ourselves to a
higher standard we wanted to explain
sort of how the pieces all fit together
but it's not again because we're hearing
wild complaints it's because we're
sensitive to our neighbors I think we as
a community hold ourselves up to a
higher standard on a lot of different
issues that many of our neighbors don't
so that's where we're coming from but
this is not because c-click fix found a
a spike in complaints that's not why
we're here tonight
yeah and I I think from my perspective
too when we had that conversation we
just recognized that it that the code of
the code of conduct was specifically for
the private sector and so we you know
realized well we should probably also
consider as a separate item what we do
with the public contractors and so then
this came back as well it you know if
you're addressing part of the building
part of the developers and part of the
building Community we felt we should
also consider something on this so
that's the other context piece
um
so I had a couple comments uh unrelated
to
it's fairly unrelated to the context of
it but I think that
we should try to align these as much as
possible so I don't see why we would
have
a different language about idling
vehicles in the private code and the
public code when they're going to be the
same kind of vehicle
um
it seems to me that in some cases that
there's the plain language version in
the private code of
contractors
um
version but if it's if it's actually
more specific and more informative to
have the language from the public
version then I think that's fine I just
if there's no like also with the
temporary walkways one so the
you know the language is is different
but it's meant to address the same exact
intent so I don't I don't think we
should I think we should con consider
aligning them
um
that would also address the confusion
although I know we're not recommended to
put this in the code but if they were
very very similar and then there were
just a few exceptions for public code of
conduct then
um I think that would address that
confusion issue that was mentioned
earlier as a reason to not put this in
the code although I'm I'm okay with not
putting in the code because of the
contract
um
because the contract
could be a stronger way to enforce it
and then my other comment is that uh
there are a number of places where this
says as feasible or as required by the
city and it seems to me that that leaves
room for interpretation or for
exceptions or for confusion you know
will it be required by the city or not
we don't have those the same number of
places where it says as required or to
the extent possible in the private code
of conduct the private contractors code
of conduct so I would like to if those
are if those remain in this
I would like those to be explained more
so if it says as required then say what
are the
you know what are the sort of criteria
that are going to be used for
determining whether it's required or not
um
to clarify
so those were my two sort of overarching
comments
go ahead
okay I kept my stuff up so uh
when I think back to what I've heard
from the community about what some of
the problems they've experienced are
some of it comes down to you know the
impacts on Newport Way and how that area
has been under public construction for a
long long time and
um
not having
as much of
the ability to know who to contact to
know how long you know a lot of that
comes down to communication there's
other things like not blocking driveways
noise work hours traffic management
trash those types of things which I can
see addressed in this and so I think
ultimately this is good whether it ends
up as a specific contractor code of
conduct or we just say hey let's make
sure those things are in the contracts
I'm really agnostic on that but I think
being able to communicate to the public
that
hey we're doing these things that's
really important
but I don't think the contractor could
have conduct addresses some of those
other things which you guys related
about the city's communication and so I
think
having understanding that that's a city
job and not a contractor job it doesn't
belong in the contractor code of conduct
but it does bring up this concept of
should we have standards around signage
and contact information on our private
projects or on our public projects
um it's ours it's our private stuff yeah
um on our city projects as a way to
ensure that people have emergency
contacts or contacts that they can talk
about so they know when the project is
intended to stop and I personally was
just in Bellevue the other day dropping
my son off at a activity and I was
driving past an area where ramp was a
pedestrian ramp was torn up and there
was a nice little Bellevue A-frame that
said this is the utilities department
here's why we're doing it here's who to
contact and I have to say there's a lot
to that it adds Pride to see that your
city is doing something to improve
itself it make sure you know that that's
a official that's not just you know
somebody went down there with a hammer
and knocked it down
um it gives you
an understanding of why the public
right-of-way is impacted and all of that
so I guess
what I would want to see is what you
know you've talked a lot about that
communication plan and how you're
working on that I don't think it belongs
here but how do we maybe solidify or
take that forward so that we have a set
of standards that doesn't
impact our ability to get things done
and keeps us flexible and Nimble but
also communicates to the public this is
what
are our expectations of ourselves
because I think that's the other
important part of this that isn't really
standardized
okay
final comment
um okay well then good so I'm glad that
this kind of has arisen not necessarily
because there are tons of problems out
there that we're collecting or feedback
that we're collecting from individuals
about public projects or about City
projects in particular
um and more that we want to hold
ourselves to a higher standard which I
think is great
um I just wanted to make sure that we
were addressing concerns if they existed
and it sounds like you know staff are
dwell on top of concerns as they come up
and we have these great tools weekly
which is crazy to me um to address them
in real time with our contractors so
that sounds good to me I guess then my
ask would be that we could consider this
almost a living document too whereas if
concerns
um if we're finding that particular
concerns over time things evolve things
change maybe there's a particular
concern that's really hard to work out
with a contractor and we don't want to
withhold money we don't want to go all
the way there we come back and revisit
revisit this document and update it and
I guess doesn't necessarily need to be
that the council
updates the document too but you know
the administration with their own role
can also just update contracts as that
goes on and as we identify new problems
but otherwise then I don't have any
problems moving forward with
although I do agree
um with the comments that were made by
both
the chair and the council president
thank you
okay thank you
um chair hunt yeah might I uh good
I have made an error
there was a last revision on the idling
provision on the private code and they
are identical now
okay great thank you that fixes that one
um so when you said you made an error
there's a different version that's we
were working off of a lot of different
versions and many staff members with
their hands in the pot trying to provide
comments on drafts and I just missed
that that uh
had been corrected that the private code
had been changed to reflect input from
the public projects team
okay so I'm just asking is the code in
our packet oh sorry is that yeah the
code in our packet is correct the word
in in the packet is correct and that
provision is identical to the one that
you adopted for the private code of
conduct
okay
um great
so uh thank you for that clarification
um so I think uh the comments about the
signage are interesting
um
we do have wording about the signage and
it says City staff will shape and direct
the communications and Outreach plan for
City public projects it is perhaps
um
unusual to have you know wording about
what the city is doing in in the because
it's not the contractor something that
the contractor is going to do but I do
think
um I think maybe it's worth
rewriting this so that it's about how
the contractor is going to like make
sure that the sign is standing and
visible and you know that they
facilitate that whatever the role of the
contractor is and making sure that the
that the signage is um maintains it
seems like that might be what we need to
put here and then as council president
was saying we need to have
separately there needs to be um
standardization or a plan for that
communication but
um I think that would make more sense to
me anyway for this document since it is
intended to be for the contractors
that makes sense
okay
um
okay so we have some feedback I think it
requires
re writing some things or adjusting some
things do we have any any additional
feedback I'm wondering if this should
come back to committee or if this or
what we want to
what's our can I ask a few questions go
ahead so I'm hearing different things
about this being a public contractor's
code of conduct versus making sure that
there are certain things that are
implemented that are important
so would you feel more comfortable with
us coming back with a you know more
fleshed out Communications plan that
talks about
signage and where we would use it and
how it would be used and how a website
would have all of that and less so about
some of the other details
I'm a little unclear from the
conversation where we stand
I mean gosh if you're volunteering to
put together information on what the
communication plan is I think that
satisfies some ideas I personally don't
think that for me is a stopping point to
approving this with some of the
modifications that we talked about
um
but I would certainly be interested to
understand how we are kind of
standardizing some of those things so we
could come back to what the committee at
a future meeting and just talk about
policies I think clearly that's an
Administration function versus a council
function so if we came back in a few
months and said here here's a more
specific plan
you're both okay with that okay
and so with that then
there's been I guess some questions
about other modifications that you'd
like to see so are you prepared to
perhaps just make sure we've got all of
those and then pass it out and then have
it go to the full Council
um are we or do we want to the other
option would probably be to have this
come back to the committee if we feel it
needs another
I think what I heard was
um just making sure that some of the
things are standardized across both and
that there is a modification to that
second bullet point under number three
related to
Communications and the contractor making
sure that any signage
is visible and maintained
other than that I don't remember any
other
modifications that were needed to this
so if those changes can be made I would
be comfortable with it going to consent
with the regular Council rather than
coming back necessarily
okay I have I have one question if we if
we were to go that route so
are there cases where the contractor
would actually maintain the um like the
schedule and the website and the signage
does that happen sometimes
that they would do do all that for a
public project
not that I not that comes to mind for me
when we build our new city hall Maybe
I mean it would take it would take
something of that magnitude
Community Center City Hall yeah
some pretty large project otherwise it
would be almost always the city
I was just wanting to make sure that we
weren't
that we I think um I think probably you
having worked on these much more would
know how to phrase the wording around
the responsibilities of the contractor
as far as the signage um but I think the
my
point which is based on the comments of
council president Walsh would be just to
separate out the
the responsibilities of the contractors
so that those are what's in this
in this code but what we would likely do
is that we would let the contractor know
this is what the sign needs to look like
these are the approximate dimensions and
more most projects they would provide it
based on our request
I mean there'd be some if we're doing if
a contractor is doing a Ada curb cut we
may at some point do what you saw in
Bellevue which has here's a standard uh
sign that you just put out
um
but I think we would have absolute
control over what it looks like all
always
okay yeah so then I think it just needs
to reflect that I guess as you know if
the cities are executed make the sign
and put it out then you that's that's
the role then of the
contractor but right now the way it is
the way it's written is it's about City
staff in the city saps world so
and then yeah my other my other comment
is about the as required and um
to the extent possible I think where we
have that and it's different from the
private code of conduct I would like if
we're gonna I feel like if we're gonna
put this in a contract we should explain
um explain those as required and those
sorts of things and not have to have it
be on a case you know have more
information about
about that and about how that criteria
is going to be applied
that's my that would I would also ask
for that in the when this comes back
so those are
those okay
um
so I I would like to say I understand I
think there was intent uh behind having
those Clauses and the intent was again
to make sure that the conditions on the
contract are responsive to the
site issues to the particular project
and uh and the the activity that's at
hand you know whenever possible for
example if we have an emergency
we will take action before giving 48
hours notice
so there are reasons for why we added
that language and but that doesn't mean
we're not specific with the contractor
when they're engaged in the work or
before they're engaged as a condition on
the contract
I think one of the challenges we have
with all contracts is that you you have
sort of this fixed set of criteria and
then you actually do the work and so I I
think we can work on that language make
it as definitive as possible with the
recognition uh that this will be an
attachment to the contract and like any
other attachment to any other contract
there's some latitude among the city
staff to work with the contractor to a
mixture conditions are applied so this
is not a hard and fast we're going to
pull their contract if a sign blows down
and people can't see it
if you allow the staff to use our
discretion and when you see the final
version if there's still an issue well
will talk but I think your your intent
is clear
I think just to clarify what what we're
hearing as well as as within the agenda
bills that moves forward in those cases
of the as may be required or wherever
possible provide a description as to
examples of why that's why that's in
there why that language is in there
um yeah I just I don't you know for
example there is this one that is and
I'm sure there's a reason I I understand
that but there's this one about
temporary pedestrian facilities and to
the maximum extent possible needing to
meet the accessibility criteria we don't
have that to the maximum extent possible
under build in a safe manner on the
private code of conduct so contract
so I would just ask that we you know we
explain I think if you have a pedestrian
temporary pedestrian facility I assume
it will need to be clearly marked and
clear of obstacles and so you know
having that whole thing say as
as possible just seems um strange to me
so I would just ask for more clarity on
those especially where we have a change
from the private code of conduct and the
intent is the same which is safety in
both cases and it seems a little
ambiguous in the public code of conduct
thank you
um is there any any other discussion do
we have any other asks did you did you
want it to come back with some um
context about
the
the bill like the history of because
that could be on the agenda bill when it
comes back about that it started off
with private code of conduct and well no
because that context I understood in the
context around what the problem is and
why we have a private code of context I
understood but the public context I
didn't or the context for public
projects I just didn't understand but
now I understand it much much more so I
think that's fine my question so did we
decide on this coming to regular meeting
or
here
what do you think
I'm fine with it going regular meeting
on consent but I'm willing to hear
others
so then just if we had an issue with any
of the changes we just pulled down off
consent no presentation we might just
give a summary to the rest of the
council is that the idea
I'm fine with that okay
okay I'm also okay with it all right so
we will put it on consent
um with the requested changes and if if
we or our fellow council members want to
pull it down we can
thank you
all right thank you
um okay great so that was our first item
uh we're moving on now to our second
item which is id1394
comprehensive plan periodic update scope
and this will be presented by long-range
planning manager Stephen Padua
thank you councilman Brown good evening
committee members can you hear me okay
look quiet
a little quiet all right I'll try to
speak up a little bit more uh today I'm
here to speak about the scope of the
comp plan periodic update and two
projects that are impacted by the comp
plan schedule
there's three items we need feedback on
tonight first is the draft engagement
plan the second is the scope of the
periodic update and then the last is the
parking analysis scope
first I'm going to dive into a little
background
on the comprehensive plan
the back in 1999 the growth management
Act was adopted which required cities to
develop comprehensive plans with the
intent of addressing concerns for growth
sprawl and quality of health of our
communities
the dma provided a framework of
requirements around Regional
coordination
countywide policies and establishing the
urban growth areas that we have to
manage our growth Within
the conference of plan has two types of
updates the first is an annual which is
an optional update that typically
includes minor updates throughout the
comprehensive plan and a base to
specific elements depending on any work
that might be happening within any other
planning documents the other update is
the periodic update which is done every
eight years and that's the type of
update we're about to embark on this
requirement for eight years actually is
after this periodic update is going to
be changing to every 10 years due to
recent legislation that passed and
typically this includes review of the
entire account plan
for meeting a lot of the requirements
from the state
but as you may requires seven of our
current elements uh to be required
within our comprehensive plan the city
of Isla has chosen to also include the
cultural and Human Services elements but
have been identified as significant
items for the community
for the scope of the update
we have three primary project goals the
first clients second is coordination and
the last is design and access for
compliance it's primarily looking at
what's required from the regional Vision
2050
long-range planning document looking at
the King County county-wide policies and
what's been updated looking to any
reason changes within the checklist
that's provided by the Puget Sound
Regional Council
and also looking at multiple regulations
from the state and the county will be
incorporated as part of this update
for coordination one thing that is
fairly unique for the city of this
Clause is that we've made several
significant updates to our planning
documents which will update the goals
and policies within the comp plan due to
the timing of those updates and this
periodic update was decided to wait to
update the comp plan until this periodic
update had started
so as part of this update we'll be
reviewing the the planning documents
that have been more recently updated and
checking the coordination across all the
elements
Alaska for this periodic update is to
improve the design and access of the
comp plan and the intention of this is
to actually enhance the comp plan of the
city tool Beyond state requirements the
compound can actually be a very useful
tool for the city which can help guide
and track progress towards achieving the
city's goals as well as better
incorporating how the city is
implementing the city's vision
ultimately what we're trying to achieve
is this planning framework that's on
your screen and
we want to we want the comp plan to be a
guiding document for just about
everything we do in and it should be an
easy process to identify the
relationships between what our vision is
and what we're actually doing on the
ground
the comp plan will contain the vision
goals and policies
the city's functional plans which is
what I'm referring to for all the
planning documents that establishes
strategy for any particular topic with
actions and priorities that takes into
account specific resources
these should get filtered by the
Citywide strategic plan as kind of a
budgetary planning tool to balance
Investments uh for the city within this
the city budget as well as
implementation of city regulations
I see there's the performance metrics
that guide us for any of the changes
that we do over time
staff see the proposed scope tonight as
essential pieces to better implement
this entire planning framework
so earlier I spoke to several function
plans that have been updated in recent
years and are about about to be updated
all of these will be reviewed for
coordination updates as part of the
periodic update as part of a state
requirements to match their
comprehensive plan with our functional
plans lead into implementation
the timing of the functional plans were
developed to all required different
levels of effort in order to comply with
the state requirement only a handful of
elements will actually receive a full
review which will be managed by other
departments and the rest will be
reviewed for the sake of consistency
across all the elements
the housing element which we had managed
by CPD will primarily be updated with
State regulated changes that I'll
discuss in a bit
we're hoping to get feedback tonight on
this
um item tonight and to see if there's
anything else that we should be
considering
one of the changes that we're also
proposing with the periodic update is to
introduce a new uh natural environment
element and the purpose of uh creating
this new element is to actually simplify
the comprehensive plan and how people
access a lot of our goals and policies
related to The Climate action plan as
well as sustainability
um
preservation of the natural environment
and everything else that we're going to
be working with an environmental board
to identify with this new level
for public engagement we have two major
phases
for the first phase
we'll be focusing on discussion on the
visions and identification of any gaps
within the planning documents with the
comp plan
and the second phase we'll be going a
little deeper on the discussion on the
goals and policies within the
comprehensive plan as it relates to how
the function functional plans are
implemented
as indicated with the types of changes
we're looking at we think it makes the
most sense to focus the engagement to
the specific board to commissions and
interest groups of discussions to reduce
a lot of the confusion about the amount
of Engagement that will be taking place
this year
this is also another item we're hoping
to get a feedback on tonight
the other major component with the
comprehensive plan is looking at the
consultant scope
so we are planning to hire two
Consultants the first one will focus
primarily on conducting a full Eis for
the conference plan
the reason for this task is that our
original Eis for the conference plan was
originally put together back in 1994.
and so it is status recommendation as
well as the recommendation from the city
attorney's office to conduct this full
update of the IES with this periodic
update
the second consultant that would be
hiring will will provide support for
three main tasks
the first is neighborhood planning
discussions in the creation of the
template this was called for initiating
a task that came from the Citywide
strategic plan
the second task for this consultant is
to provide General call Plan update and
additional analysis that might come up
during our review
and the last task for the consultant is
to help with a new design of
comprehensive plan to make it more
accessible
as well as it make it much more of a
usable Tool uh as an internally for
staff
um the neighborhood sorry can I
interrupt for one second
um yes could you go back could you
explain a little bit more about what the
neighborhood planning template
is or what what that does
yes so for the neighborhood planning
topic
um we want to establish our
neighborhoods and get started on
creating neighborhood plans for each of
the neighborhoods that actually don't
have a neighborhood plan yet
the way our comp plan currently is
written is we have adopted sub-areas and
separately we use a different map for
the neighborhoods which have slightly
different boundaries and we want to
consolidate all the work that would win
to the development of the sub areas in
the neighborhood map and establish City
neighborhoods and initiate the
conversation on what should be going
into these neighborhood plans and
establish those policies within the
comprehensive plan
did that help answer your question
councilman
yes it did and and does this go above
and beyond the requirements for the
um
the comprehensive planning process
it does but it came up in last year's
City budgeting process that we wanted to
initiate the neighborhood planning
process and so we discussed it as
actually bringing it up as part of the
periodic update to initiate those
conversations so whatever we establish
in the neighborhood plans we can
actually establish his policies within
the comprehensive plan okay thank you
any other questions on this slide before
I move on
uh nope and I don't see any from my
colleagues so you can go ahead thanks
thank you
so next I'll talk about the two projects
which are Title 18 future updates that
are impacted by the comp plan schedule
the First with housing I need to explain
our approach overall for housing as it
it kind of relates to how we want to
address or scope the title 18 future
update for the housing analysis
apparently we have the happy Grant
project that is wrapping up and we're
going to have some recommendations that
we think will influence some of the work
going forward as well as the part of the
scope as part of that housing analysis
and for the comprehensive plan we're
going to be
we're planning to make three major
updates for housing
um that are State mandates the first is
from House Bill 1220 which is adopted in
2021 and it requires language around
Emergency Shelters as well as display
displacement policies
the second is a pending legislation item
House Bill 1110 which would require all
jurisdictions to allow additional units
in single-family results
the discussion we've had with our
lobbyists is that this is one of the
hospitals that is more than likely to
get past in this legislative session so
we're preparing the comprehensive plan
for this update
last we'll be looking at to incorporate
the County countywide requirements to
designate all jurisdiction specific
allocations for affordable housing
what this will look like is that for the
3 500 additional housing units we're
expecting with our growth there will be
a certain percentage designated towards
30 percent Ami and lower and a certain
percentage of that total growth going
towards 60 Ami and lower and so forth
so this has been talked about for a
while at the county-wide and Regional
level and we're expecting final
allocations to be released during the
periodic update so we're preparing the
conference plan and some of the
discussions we'll be having with the
planning policy commission around what
will be proposed
and then all this will be followed by an
update to the central as well plan as
well as the housing strategy work plan
um so that we have a consistent flow of
discussion around how we want to
approach housing following the
development of the policies going into
the comprehensive plan
the pocket parking analysis
um it will follow parallel track to the
housing analysis scope and scheduled
after the comp plan update but the scope
and schedule is what we need direction
on tonight and there's two options of
that were in your materials for tonight
and the first is to look at a city-wide
analysis of parking and the other is to
focus the analysis just on Central
Issaquah
time your next steps after today we're
going to be diving into each of the
elements to start our review for
compliance and coordination of all the
elements
after some discussions with the board's
commissions we'll return to the
committee with proposed Direction with
on potential amendments for the
comprehensive plan and then we'll follow
up in September with board commission
recommendations
and to get further Direction prior to
Drafting and consolidation for the
comprehensive plan an early 2024 24
we'll start the docketing process and
we're aiming for Council adoption of the
comprehensive plan by June 2024.
so again the direction we need for this
topic tonight is on the draft engagement
plan the scope of the periodic update as
well as the parking analysis scope
that concludes my presentation would you
like me to leave up the questions
um yeah I think that'd be great thanks
do we have questions
no questions
you have questions
I'll ask a question so in our material
there was some information about how
Equity would be applied as a lens and
there was also some information about
how Equity would be
considered in the in the draft
engagement plan in the in the way we
engage the community on this and so I
wondered if you could speak to that and
also speak to it um if we're going to
use the so the city is also drafting
equity and Equity framework and in that
process and so if you could kind of
connect to the dots are we using that
Equity framework are we considering a
different
um a different set of principles thanks
thank you for the question so the we'll
be approaching Equity kind of in in two
different ways the first is there's a
lot of actually great guidance out there
on comprehensive plans and incorporating
Equity as best practices for specific
topics and different elements
we're going to be having discussions
with the equity board on how to approach
some of those as potential policy
changes and then ultimately we once a
framework is adopted we'll be taking a
look to see if depending on the timing
if we can establish
um the framework as a lens for the
comprehensive plan as a whole so that'll
be later on in the process
okay thank you
okay I have one more question which is
there was a bill that did not pass that
was HB 1099 State bill
um and that was to would have updated
Washington State's Credit Management act
to
um have climate change incorporated into
these comprehensive plans into the
comprehensive planning process and that
did not pass but after that a number of
cities were interested in pursuing that
anyway and Issaquah had been interested
in the
the principles and supportive of the
bill and so I wondered if
if you can speak to is the plan to
incorporate climate and climate change
and climate action from our Issaquah
climate action plan into this
comprehensive plan that would that be
compatible with what would have been HB
1099
my understanding and discussion with the
sustainability group that it much of
what was going to be required from that
bill is already addressed as part of the
icap and Incorporated in the land use
element of the comprehensive plan so if
that's the direction you would like us
to kind of take a look at of maybe
finding where the gaps are of what was
proposing the bill and what might be
missing from the icap or or this new
environment chapter or element we can
work with a sustainability group and
then environmental board to to do that
okay so do I understand correctly then
that
um probably because we have the climate
action plan which is already already
been adopted in in the comprehensive
plan we probably mostly have addressed
this but you you could basically double
check is that right
yes okay okay great um those were my
questions I'm still not seeing questions
from my colleagues so we will oh go
ahead super quick one
um since one of the
directions needed tonight is on the
draft engagement plan so I mean is our
sense that we feel like
um
like there are best practices for
communicating and engaging with the
community about the comprehensive plan
because it's very
it would be it'd be very challenging to
understand for just the typical resident
of a particular City so do we feel like
we've kind of Incorporated what best
practices might be out there for
engaging with residents about comp plan
update
yes so we've we've had some discussions
with Consultants as well as a lot of
discussions with their Communications
Group on how best to approach it and and
based on the scope of the this periodic
update what's proposed is is the best
practices that we'd like to incorporate
with the periodic update that's what I
like to hear thank you
okay at this time we will take public
comment on this item
um so I will check in with the city
clerk if there are any members of the
public that are interested in making
public comment on this item
chair hunt I see no virtual hands raised
among our virtual attendees and uh I
don't see a desire from anyone in the
room to address this topic oh
um so we this isn't question answer but
you are welcome to make a comment and
and ask your question and then
um we can follow up with you and also we
can consider it in our in our comments
so go yes
step up to the microphone thank you
so I understand it's not question and
answer but I would like to understand at
some point if you could restate when the
decisions about the Ami percentages will
be made for the 3500
units and what your uh what
decision-making criteria will decide
what those percentages are thank you so
much
okay great thank you for that uh
additional comment
and I think since we have um since
since uh a comment was made earlier we
have the name and everything so I think
we're good yes okay great all right
thank you again and so now we will um go
into discussion deliberation on this
item and if we could pull up the
questions again uh that would be awesome
thanks
council president Walsh thank you
um I'm gonna just take one moment to
answer the question that was posed by
the public just because I'm on the
affordable housing committee for
um all of that so uh it's a numbers
coming down from the Department of
Commerce at the state level that were
then debated through King County and we
ultimately came up with a concept of
trying to get everybody up to the same
level rather than everybody build just a
similar amount but ultimately it will go
through King County for adoption and
then enough of the Cities also have to
adopt it so they're not expecting that
number to come through very soon but the
proposed numbers are out there
so we've got
progress but not quick on that
so um back to kind of some of these
areas I really appreciate that we're
thinking about all of this this is a
really tough concept for the public to
understand you know why are we creating
something that's a 10-year update you
know how does that change from the you
know land use code that we're making
adjustments to now
um so I appreciate that we are
going to do our darndest with the
engagement plan
and use that feedback I will be
interested to see how much engagement we
get on that since this is such a kind of
lofty out there idea
but
um as far as the scope of this
comprehensive plan
I am most interested in getting the
things done that we need to get done
and focusing as much as possible on
the problem areas that we as a community
are experiencing whether that relates to
housing or
climate you know and adopting the the
functional plans that we have already
put so much work into and bringing those
into the comprehensive plan I'm not as
interested in Reinventing the wheel in
areas that we don't need to
um I'm also not sure how
comfortable or how interested I am in
looking at some of the areas that aren't
State requirements such as the cultural
updates I I just don't know from my
perspective how important it is to have
those in the comprehensive plan versus
just having an understanding as a city
of how we approach those so I think that
would be my feedback on those particular
areas we have limited time we have
limited resources there are a limited
number of Consultants out there that are
willing to work since everybody's doing
the update at the same time and so I
want to make sure we get the most on the
things that we need to do I appreciate
one of those things is the Eis I think
that's super important I'm glad that we
are putting our money there and
understanding that that's an essential
part of understanding where we need to
go
um
as far as the parking analysis
I have to say I'm I'm kind of
just sitting here as much as I
understand the resource constraints I'm
pretty darn disappointed that we're
looking at that and saying that can't
necessarily happen and um in 2023 and
we're looking into 2024 or even 2025
depending on the scope of that so I'm a
little bit
frustrated in that area
given that that's on our future updates
plan and also just how important that is
in understanding what type of housing we
can build
um
I guess a question for either Stephen or
director dollywall when when we're
pulling together this the land use
element of the comprehensive plan and
one part of that has to be you know how
much growth can you accommodate given
your current zoning and everything if
if an apartment is going to be built in
and in one case it requires you know
structured parking which is going to
take up three floors versus another
where there's no parking requirement
wouldn't that have an adjustment on the
number of units that our zoning could
accommodate which is
essential as a part of the comp plan
I'm just wondering whether
changing our her doing a parking
analysis after the comp plan and thus
that being potentially a big change on
what we could build or or could
accommodate whether that is a problem
or I think from RT's perspective we
didn't see it as a problem primarily
because the policies will help us kind
of shape how some of that work is done
for the parking analysis that come out
of the comprehensive plan
yeah I think if I'm understand your
question correctly council president
Walsh
if the parking standards are different
is there a net difference to how many
units you can build
I think where we've designated our
growth density standards are pretty high
so but yes those two are connected in
terms of your total potential for
development what probably we need to
understand a little bit more is isn't
just how much can fit in that on that
lot but also the economics of where
parking makes it in you know structured
parking makes it infeasible for instance
and it doesn't pencil out nor economics
of of the parking and the housing so
that it is they are interconnected for
sure
um in terms of the current Title 18
update I think there was an email that
was sent out that kind of reflects what
we where we stretched it where we could
the the problem with really having no
parking standards or no minimums for
Issaquah is we still don't have Transit
and so people are relying on cars so
it's that transition until Light Rail is
here and until we get transit to take
people from place to place parking will
be that sort of in in the mix
um and and I think the focus on shared
parking as an interim plan we stretched
it Title 18 to the maximum we could
having those shared you know
opportunities we raised it from 10 to 40
already how much more we could push that
I think is kind of questionable without
Transit at least that's the feedback we
heard from the business Community when
we were having those conversations yeah
and I I wasn't at all proposing no no
parking standards or anything like that
I'm just trying to understand how the
relationship between any changes that we
make to parking how that affects
what we have to put in the comprehensive
plan and also you know like when it
comes to the housing allocations I know
a lot of cities are really concerned
that they're going to have to up Zone a
lot of areas in order to
accommodate the growth that they were
expected I don't think we're probably in
as dire of a situation because we
already have that planned growth but
I would be interested to know if
if we were in a situation like that
whether parking would be a hindering
Factor
um so that was yeah yeah and and it
varies on the neighborhood too I mean we
have streets where you won't be able to
add on street parking because of the
topography and because of the challenges
with you know additional stormwater
infrastructure so we have some
limitations in some neighborhoods for
things like that that then tie in with
additional density in those
neighborhoods so yeah I think they're
connected the density and parking are
intertwined that's why the
transportation and land use are
connected and that's why we're you know
especially for this community I think
those two do go hand in hand
um
um okay so I had
um first of all I agreed with council
president Walsh on when I was reading
this I I think we have a lot of existing
plans on things that are either required
or required in part by the comprehensive
planning process that we've already done
that are specific to
Issaquah that staff have done a great
job on and so I am less I I want to
focus
are valuable time on implementing those
plans rather than sort of reworking them
to fit into the comprehensive plan if
that's not required because we already
the the process of the plan
that was already done that the community
engagement was already there so
um and we you know now we need to
implement the plan so I would rather
focus on that so I agree on that point
especially for those pieces that we are
not required to do
I on the neighborhood plans I felt
similar because I those aren't we aren't
required to do those so if we did that
process
separate from the comprehensive planning
process I wonder if we might have more
flexibility and you know we could have
different Community engagement around
that and not kind of
mash it into this much bigger update I
wonder if that might be the way to go
because again it's not required to be
part of this process and we could
potentially use our own process for that
so that was a consideration I had um
then
a question let's remember honey if I
could offer a quick clarification so the
okay let's let's
um
proposed for the conference plan
periodic update isn't to go and try to
fix the functional plans that have
already been adopted or in development
it's more of fixing the comp plan to
match what's in those functional plans
yep I I understand
um I think
uh I'll just be from myself but I think
that you know especially when it's not
required that's where I'm saying I would
like to
um not spend as much of our effort on
that versus implementation so it's a
kind of an overarching
feeling that I got reading this
um and so I wanted to convey that and it
sounds like Council yeah council
president Walsh is also nodding so I
think I think we both got that sense
that we we understand
um the comprehensive plan can be more
than
then what is required but we
or I think we need to
potentially make sure that we have
resources to implement plans rather
actually Implement them rather than work
on fitting them into the comprehensive
plan
um so that was my first sort of
overarching comment
I had a question on the Eis
Eis is the environmental impact
statement and it will be done
um it seemed in parallel with the
comprehensive planning or
um okay so uh the Eis is meant to also
help with decision making and I wondered
if you could explain a little bit how
that will work like will there be a
checkpoint
um where we would get information by the
consultant listing the Eis about the
different options that we're considering
in the comprehensive plan and how they
would impact the environment and then
Council would
make a decision or how would that
interaction between those two processes
work
could you repeat your question one more
time my audio cut out okay so the Eis is
happening at the same time as the
comprehensive plan correct
correct okay so my question is the Eis
is the environmental impact statement
it's meant to as far as I understand
meant to help with decision making and
so I'm wondering what is the process by
which we use the environmental impact
statement in decision making for the
comprehensive plan
so when we're connecting the Eis with
consultant there's gonna they're gonna
be conducting several analysis around
What's
um part of the comprehensive plan what's
part of the regulations what's been
identified previously
um in in our growth uh expectations uh
what's been done with the Eis is with
several of the DA's and uh much of that
analysis is going to feed into
into the decision making for potential
amendments that go into the
comprehensive plan
does that help answer your question
um maybe so okay so the it's sort of the
AIS will be done on the existing
um provisions and then that will come
back to council as information that will
help us make amendments to the
comprehensive plan for changes and then
presumably the Eis has to reflect
those changes it has to go back into the
Eis process right
yes okay so I think um that's that's
great I think for when it is complicated
and I think I I would definitely benefit
from having like a
chart of how this is gonna work with the
you know when when does the Eis feed
into the
um comp plan and when does it go back
yeah and again tonight is really just
the beginnings of a road map uh this is
going to be a long process and we'll uh
at the very beginning what we'll also
tap the Consultants
to do this all the time and I'll have
that for you so I appreciate the
feedback we want to make sure that the
council
is going to be a big project you're
coming off a huge project and you're
going right into another huge project
um
I think when it does come back at
whatever feature point I think that
would be helpful to know because they're
they're both important and they're both
big projects like the Eis and you're
going to dive right back you get the
month of April off I think May 2nd your
meeting next meeting after this and
you're diving right in okay
um
all right and then I will try to address
the the specific questions that have
been asked so does the committee have
changes for the draft engagement plan I
I think
um I would be really interested in
hearing what the equity board has to say
um I think this is a big project that we
really would like to make sure we do a
good job engaging our entire Community
including having materials in multiple
languages and making sure that we're
reaching folks that aren't
uh that that aren't participating in
city and other City processes to make
sure we have that feedback so I
appreciated that I think especially once
we hear from the equity board I'd be
interested in their their thoughts and
how they think we might adjust that
whether that be making sure we have
child care for meetings or you know
whatever whatever is identified as the
barriers to make sure that we
that we address those
um
and does the committee have changes for
the scope of the periodic update
I think I spoke that I think addresses
or that's my earlier comments about I
would I would
um reduce the amount of non-required
updates especially when we have existing
City plans
and manager members of the committee I
think we're going to need you to go more
specific than that this evening so
Stephen can you go back to the slide
where I think you had listed those uh uh
planning options which are required and
those that are
so with this it's Human Services and
cultural are the two that are not
required is that correct Stephen
and the Human Services element we've
already done quite a bit with the Human
Services uh strategic plan correct would
there be much additional work beyond
that
uh no it's it's just we we never
Incorporated the Human Services
strategic plan into the comp plan
element so we're not looking at
additional community outreach any other
significant work hopefully be a pretty
ministerial process to take the approved
Community document and uh convert it to
whatever language needs to be part of
the comp plan
correct it's primarily just looking
through to see what needs to get changed
to get put into the conference plan and
just checking with the Human Services
Commission to make sure that we we are
understanding it correctly and then the
cultural element would be something new
there is not an existing is there a
recent existing document
there is an existing uh element on
cultural and
um the parks and human services
department will be working with the arts
and culture or Arts commission to update
their work plan and this element my
understanding is the biggest change is
that they're primarily going to be
making is just including additional
language on Landmark Landmark
preservation
so there's a little bit more work on the
cultural side compared to the Human
Services
correct
so I think what we're looking for of
manager members of the committee is a
recommendation to the full Council so
um I think from my perspective the Human
Services element has already been a lot
of recent work that's been done there we
would recommend moving forward with that
the cultural element I think is your
call there is some additional work that
needs to be done I don't sense in
director Donald correct me if I'm wrong
but that's going to take a lot away from
CPD staff's work on this it'll probably
be a little bit
so I think that's really your your call
and so Stephen those would be the two
pieces that are not required so if the
committee was looking to recommend to
the full Council
not pursuing these would be the two on
the table correct
correct uh the the other discretionary
items is going to be the the Eis which
is highly recommended by staff in uh the
city service office and the design and
access that will be done by the second
consultant and then there's the
neighborhood planning piece which we can
perhaps talk about in a moment that's
also discretionary correct
correct
so Madam chair members of the committee
what are your thoughts then on the human
services and cultural plans
what is the
so to be clear we have a human services
strategic plan which is great and very
accessible you can easily find it on the
website
um I think it's very well done so what
is the benefit of sort of reformatting
it and putting it into our comprehensive
plan
um so there's a there is an existing
Human Services element the conference
responsibility we would just be updated
to match what's was updated into the
Strategic plan the benefit of having in
the comprehensive plan is
occasionally there will be state or
federal grants that will require
policies to be adopted within the
comprehensive plan in order to be
eligible there's there's not a lot of
them but that is one of the benefits
okay well that's an interesting yeah I
mean if the council decides I mean we
don't know the the basis of why this you
know the city chose to have these
elements some of them were optional in
the past I don't think I'm familiar with
some of the history of why that was
chosen since then the thinking may have
evolved and now we have these functional
plans which generally are five-year time
frame comprehensive plan has a 20-year
comp plan if Council fee committee feels
we don't need to duplicate we'll just
have a good functional plan we can
eliminate this element from the
complaint is them am I understanding
your thought process there I think that
would be the outcome yeah we don't want
to update the Human Services element
then we would eliminate it and we would
just rely on the existing documents as
policy guidance yeah I'm satisfied with
the the grant opportunities answer I
just you know if there if it were for
planning we already have a plan and so
um if it were more for
having all the plans in one place I
would be less interested but if it's if
it provides grant opportunities that
seems smart
um okay and on the cultural if the main
change is landmarks we just did the
title 18
um update which is actually the code
portion around Landmark preservation so
I think I would
um
I would defer to my fellow
many members but um
I'm not similarly I'm not sure so is
that similarly that if we put that in
about landmarks then we could
potentially get have grant opportunities
that we wouldn't otherwise be able to
have
uh potentially yes and that is that's
the same benefit as having that as part
of the comprehensive plan is eligibility
for potential Federal
or state grants that might require it
okay
and just on that
um right now the cultural element
um in our comp plan is just five pages
so I can't see this as being a huge
update required
um I think going to a border commission
and having that conversation would
probably satisfy the need from my
perspective
um
because it's just a an optional element
so
so are you you're in favor of leaving it
or you would like to see it go away
I'm I think I'm fine with keeping the
cultural and the Human Services given
that they are small components and
if we limit our scope that they don't
become a sure big
big piece and that's not and that's
certainly not the intent I hopefully of
anything you've heard tonight
um you know we as a community have
decided that these are important all of
these are important and we've done other
additional planning above and beyond
what many other communities do in this
interim period so I think that's that's
one of our challenges looking at all
this is that we it says not a once in
every five year once every 10-year kind
of process for us we're always talking
about some element of this so this is
now catching up with the standards of
the state of Washington
so Madam chair it looks like we're fine
leaving these as is so Stephen can you
go back to the slide that talks about
the neighborhood
planning piece
one so so that's 125 000 this is covered
by a grant so this is money we already
have in hand to do the work
that's correct we acquired a
comprehensive plan periodic update Grant
from Department of Commerce and that
that's where the 125 000 is coming from
uh does that also cover the design piece
correct yes it does
okay
so my question on that and looking over
other comprehensive plans some of them
have a whole
section of you know 15 20 pages that
describes what a neighborhood is and all
of that
are we looking to create an element
in the comprehensive plan that describes
how neighborhoods are important or is it
just basically deciding on what the map
is and maybe a description of each
neighborhood so what's the scope there
and the second so it's primarily just
incorporating policies into the land use
element not creating a new element for
this that talks about what's expected
from neighborhood plans
um and and updating that map a
neighborhood plan uh boundaries
so is that separate from the old town
plan that we have
um it would just incorporate probably
elements of that but also do
descriptions and maps and understanding
of what each of the different
neighborhoods is
within that land use element
I'm actually going to ask Kristen Leeson
senior planner to jump in she she knows
more about the old town plans than I do
can better answer your question
hey there Kristen Leeson senior planner
um all sub-area plans stay
so first we need to fix the boundaries
to to Define exactly what our
neighborhoods are because right now we
have some gaps from when we adopted or
when we annexed King County into the
City and when we took parts of central
Issaquah out so that's part of it is
redefining the neighborhood boundaries
then when we do neighborhood plans they
all are
sort of sub plans to the comprehensive
plan just like the old town plan just
like the central Issaquah plan their
sort of subclans that address they have
policies that are very specific to those
neighborhoods
as as opposed to the overall
comprehensive plan climate change kind
of thing yes we want climate change
policies for the entire city but but the
sub-area plans will have separate small
separate uh area specific policies for
them
okay and so since this is ultimately a
part of the land use element which is a
required element
our options are either
use the 125 000 Grant
as a way to update that section or
remove the neighborhood element or the
neighborhood portion of the land use and
give the money back
is are those the two options
well if we don't use it we would give
the money back I think what you're
hearing from Kristen is that the
neighborhoods we have aren't do not
accurately accurately reflect other
planning that we have done so it's
prudent for us to conform all of us and
so I think it's one of the reasons we
went after the grant because we knew
this would be a good time to do that
no you're not wrong at all I'm sorry I
thought you were done
you know being virtual
um a little different um but uh the
neighborhood plans are a huge tool for
our current planners
and for us just to you know our
strategic plan talks about preserving
existing characteristics of existing
neighborhoods and that helps us to
Define what our existing neighborhoods
are
um so so that's a big tool for the
current planners as well as us
um
and then I forgot the other part that I
was going to say to fill in for Wally
but well the
what I've come to learn is still a
relatively newcomer here is not all of
our neighborhoods are equal that some of
our neighborhoods are well organized
have long traditions of being
neighborhoods have long traditions of
working together as neighbors within a
neighborhood and some of our
neighborhoods wouldn't even know they're
in a neighborhood together and so I
think some of this again Christian
correct me if I'm wrong comes from some
work that the communications staff did
in what 2017-2018 to work with these
communities what these neighbors and
saying what is your neighborhood and so
this is to take that map in essence put
it in uh the comprehensive plan and then
use it further we have been using it
informally absent uh two plus year
pandemic since it was adopted
um but we think it's important and so I
I for the administration's standpoint we
have a grant we think we can make the
best use of the money with the Grant and
it will ultimately give us a tool that
we can use not only in land use but
another
okay uh one question on the slide is
will the design apply only to the design
from this grant only applied to the
neighborhood piece or can the design
apply to the whole
they'll uh what we've discussed with
Department of Commerce is that the
consultant can help us put together
the language that'll update the
neighborhood planning policies but also
develop a template that we can use that
we can use to develop each individual
neighborhood plan
so outside of the copyright Supply
but I think um Stephen the you have
neighborhood planning template on the
slide additional analysis and design is
that design referring to the design for
the whole comprehensive plan
yes it's uh yes thank you Manny the
design is referring to the entire
comprehensive plan not the specific
neighborhood plants okay and that's also
covered by this 125 000 Grant though
yes
great
um that yeah my question was really to
make sure that it would be one design
across the whole thing instead of having
one part that was designed differently
so that's great
um
okay the last question uh that I didn't
yet answer on your list of questions was
about the parking and I would say that I
think it's a comprehensive plan it looks
across the whole city of Issaquah we
also just recently did our land use code
which looks across the whole
city as well and we didn't we did it I
consider a light touch to the parking
code in that so I would be in favor of
looking across the whole city we aren't
only growing in central Issaquah and in
fact
recently we've been growing much more
outside of central Issaquah than within
Central as well so I think looking
across the whole city would be my
preference but looking forward to
hearing from my fellow
members of the committee have
um so that's my answers to questions and
I think those were all the questions
yep go ahead okay thank you
um all right yeah question one uh the
engagement plan is looking good to me
I'm glad that we've explored kind of
best practices and how to communicate
and engage with residents about this
complicated topic
um and I'm sure that there are staff
coming up with really imaginative uh
ways to use social media to engage with
residents and all that good stuff
another Point too is that our most
up-to-date Community survey is going to
be finished this summer actually in a
month May 6th or a couple yeah
imminently so I imagine that that data
will be very helpful
um not just to our boards and
commissions but also to staff as as
we're thinking about what community
priorities are through the context of
the comp plan so just making sure that's
on the record
um with regard to parking analysis I
agree
um with our chair
um the council Direction was for it to
be City city-wide and I feel like this
was a settled issue when we had kind of
the scoping conversation
um earlier and I think that we if I
remember right at least I looked back at
my notes and I found this we knew that
it would likely cost more than we had
budgeted for this partic particular
biennium and that it would likely go
past this particular biennium too but
this was just money to get started on
the work and so I think we already had
that conversation on Council so I don't
think it's necessarily at a left field
that this is going to be a little
delayed we all understand that there's
so much going on right now with regard
to planning so as long as that work is
getting started and we're having those
conversations is what um
we had talked about during budget and
some of the scoping conversations last
year
um another thing I want to talk about
was the key project deliverables part
for the parking study
um
because I I feel like we had or at least
I had brought this up a couple times and
I just want to make sure that it's on
the record again for how I'm envisioning
this process going
um but there's been a lot of City
Planning research done in the space of
urbanism lately I feel like it's kind of
like a renewed area of research that's
gaining Traction in news and just in
daily life
um and so you know asking the question
what creates successful Community
outcomes just generally so one thing I
think that's missing here is an
assessment of what's out there what's
possible you know what does the emerging
research say what does the data say in
City Planning literature so we've got
number one assess existing policies in
The observed outcomes the one that I
think might be missing right after that
before Community engagement plan is also
assess the emerging policies and what
those predicted outcomes might be in
Issaquah and then we can take all that
together and go to the community which
gives us an opportunity to talk with the
community about problems get ideas about
problems that we had thought about
before also new ideas but also an
opportunity for us to go to the
community and say hey
this is what we learned in terms of
what's being employed elsewhere what
kind of outcomes are coming about in
those communities
we do or we don't think it would work in
Issaquah or we do or we don't think it
would be aligned with our strategic
planning documents
um and then the community we can involve
them in that process they may say no way
they may say let's do it they may say
something else in between but I just
feel like all that information has to be
there in order for us to make a good
decision and I think that's why last
year when I talked about this
um you know I ended with this is going
to take a long time because that's going
to take a long time and that was the
understanding that Council came to was
that you know in the very least we're
doing the work that needs to be done
though
um
because we got to do it right so I just
think in key project deliverables also
just making sure that we're highlighting
um
analyzing and assessing what those new
policies are and what that might look
like here in Issaquah and would it
create good outcomes here is important I
also don't understand necessarily how um
there was a public comment request from
the food bank earlier today so I'm not
sure if that intertwines with the
questions that are being asked of
tonight or if that's
purely an administrative decision or if
that's something that we'll need to come
back to council I don't have a good
understanding of that so just putting
that out there too but anyways that is
um my feedback for the direction needed
tonight
did you want to ask a question about the
well yeah I mean if
if we know what
if that is something that we need to
provide feedback on tonight as part of
the comp plan update or is that some
sort of evolving
um
sure um so the specific question that
you heard today or a situation is the
Redevelopment of the isuka food bank at
their current location which is built
out to the property line so there is not
an opportunity to have any parking on
site the proposed Title 18 has
requirements for have providing some
on-site parking you can have shared
parking opportunities and others but it
is not zero parking on site so the
request is partly to you know include
some exemptions for community service
facilities to allow only shared parking
on street parking where you you have
these kind of situations so that's the
ask the other thing I think we've
discussed with them is as part of this
comp plan of you know re-looking at the
parking in the Long Haul what it what
what
sort of uh you know should tier one be
expanded to include some of these areas
or not you know so we can kind of
consider with this larger parking update
um and then also if Council wants to
accommodate this request with the
current Title 18 update then there's
going to be addressed at the public
hearing on April 17th
okay so if we have if we have comments
that relate to it in the context of this
parking analysis for the comprehensive
plan then we could talk about that today
and then if it's more on the code Title
18 then that's probably April 17th
because we aren't
that's not the topic of tonight's
feeding so
okay great
um so I was just looking thank you for
raising this parking standards
deliverables
um
it has here proposed two new alternative
sets of parking standards for title 18.
um but then it also has one of them
being minor adjustments and one being
removing parking minimums and developing
and proposing a new set of parking
regulations
um I I understand wanting to you know
be very clear about that we want
Alternatives and I completely want
Alternatives but it seems in the way
it's written that it's a little bit
um
it's like leading to a certain
conclusion because one is a very extreme
and one is is actually defined as a
minor adjustment I would be interested
in you know what are the what are the
cons what are the uh two best possible
scenarios that we think
um are different than the code one might
be they might both be
different changes but not necessarily A
minor and a and an already specified
major change so that's I think maybe
um one one change to that because I I
agree with um
council member Hall I think there's a
lot of literature there's a lot of work
on this I would like to you know have a
review of our city review of the
neighboring cities review of what's
working for other communities and then
put forward the best possible sets of
parking standards and choose from those
so that would be my
that's my thoughts on that one
I appreciate this concept
um so
I also agree we shouldn't pre-decide
um but we should present scenarios I
also agree the concept that there's a
lot of data already out there and that
is an important utilization so that
we're not Reinventing the wheel
um what I'm hoping to get out of the
parking analysis scope is really
two areas of economic feasibility
related to Commercial and housing you
know our parking standards keeping us
from getting mixed use our parking
standards keeping us from getting
affordable housing or are they
increasing the cost of housing to a
certain extent so that those are the
decision points I'm looking for
I think it's also really really
important for us to understand that land
use is our tax base
for the city
a lot of our taxes come from sales tax
and property tax and if that property is
being used as a surface parking lot that
is less financially viable for us as a
city so understanding that
areas such as you know downtown Front
Street are a more financially viable
product for us as a city because they
don't require as much parking
where they enable parking via on Street
um
really it would be useful to be able to
make decisions about land use not only
based on you know can a private
developer develop something or can a
non-profit developer develop something
but also what's what's in the best
interest of the city's financials
because we have a lot of obligations and
so understanding whether
putting a you know Big Box store out
there and surrounding it by a sea of
parking whether
that is
you know less cost effective than
something that
um has less parking would be useful for
us making good decisions
that are taxpayer friendly
okay great
um any other comments
pretty last question
um is any of this kind of scoping a
concern of planning
no yeah candidly I mean is this a
concern at all because I think that
would be good for Council to know
no concern I think it's good for us to
kind of think about you know what what
do we really want to understand about
parking what are the options before we
come to the conclusions of one way or
the other so I think that this is good
discussion
um I mean it can go different ways we
could understand how many parking stalls
there are currently you know we could go
down different Paths of understanding
parking I mean we heard at the community
listening session on Highlands about
parking and enforcement if there's on
street parking people aren't moving
their streets you know it's a really
understanding what parking issues are
that we want to try and solve and
understanding the goal being sustainable
walkable community and then bridging
that Gap by coming up with standards
that get us to our goal I think that's
all sort of what what I heard and and
really understanding the best practices
and research that has gone on on parking
and then applying that in issaquah's
context of where we are in the scheme of
things where we are with Transit and all
that
Stephen do you have other thoughts or do
you need more Direction on the parking
sounds like we want to there's unanimous
decision about Citywide and not just
Central Issaquah but do we need more
Direction in terms of framing city-wide
discussion
uh horoscope no I I think we we got the
feedback we needed for kind of
determining the test scope
and Minnie will come back
with before we retain a firm uh we can
yes I I think we need to talk about
money and time and I think we need to
have a better sense before we would uh
award a contract
um how much additional money and time
this deeper dive is going to cost so
because I think there are there are many
unintended consequences which are fine
but we want to make sure that we have
the proper resources and time frame to
deal with them
so I think let's let's just plan on
coming back so Madam chair what we'd
like to do is have the committee this
evening make a motion on these three
things we'd like to bring that back to
the full Council uh uh hopefully on
consent just to confirm uh this is these
are a lot of important issues as we move
forward and so we'd like to have the
full Council concur
what would that look like would it be an
informational item that we just
after yeah beyond the consent calendar
to concur the recommendations of the
committee which would be uh the draft
engagement plan as presented
um that there would be no changes to the
periodic update so we would show what
the component parts would be and that
the parking analysis would be Citywide
it might be better to actually bring it
to the council as a report out and you
know give an opportunity for comment or
if we feel that they need to weigh in
then we could do it
um
I think prior was the parking
um okay I think maybe if you were just
going to do central Issa I just think
that this is a big deal and I would hate
for your colleagues eight months from
now asking the question how how did that
happen
so if you're comfortable with the report
out again if your colleagues aren't
um I just I think it's unusual you know
we make recommendations all the time
like on Title 18 where we had so many
different steps and we didn't have
things on consent that kind of like were
formal concurrence on that intermediate
step so that's why I'm
hesitating but um yeah and I would just
say on the parking analysis I think the
decision Point comes down to
understanding what the cost is
um and cost timeline and scope and so
we've provided feedback on what we think
is most useful in looking at that
parking regulations
um
I think that holds to what the council
had previously approved as far as what
the future updates list would be this is
just providing a little bit tighter
feedback on that but I think the the
next point where it really needs to come
to council is understanding
what you know basically the cost benefit
analysis okay I again you've had a
pretty vigorous conversation talking
about taking things away we're convinced
that it was okay to leave them in
just these just seem like bigger
decisions uh if you feel your colleagues
are would be comfortable then I just
want don't want to have an issue
if there's a question on process later
on I think we ultimately ended up
agreeing to keep those areas in that we
had initially
disagreed with you have I again whatever
whatever your point is these are just
big decisions
um the council spent months coming up to
similar decisions on timely teen and so
this this is
this is analogous to that and so I'm
just concerned that it took so many
months to come up with framework for
Title 18 and just not going back to the
council this is the framework for what a
year and a plus of work and once every
eight years so if Council wants to weigh
in on what they'd like to see the update
you know this would be the opportunity
to do it early then then for someone to
say well we wanted we had a different
expectation of something so if the
committee you know whatever process you
all want to do we're happy to
accommodate that I I agree with this
sentiment I just don't think that having
something on consent that
I don't think that that is the what I
would think of as the most meaningful
way to have that additional counsel
conversation it sounds like he would
want to have regular business it's not
even conversation it's just
if you give again six eight months from
now someone says
why did we sign off on this major body
of work
and so maybe a report reporting out
is fine I'm just again we're still
rather new in the community process I
just know what it took to get to the
stage of Title 18 was a very long time
yeah and and also to be clear I think a
lot of what so a lot of the title 18
scoping work did start from that Council
had a lot of things that we issues
things that we wanted to address in that
update that we wanted to clarify and
have those metrics and then this process
is is different mandated by the state
and it's taking a lot of existing plans
and kind of putting them into this
format so I think it's
I think it's a different
um and maybe it's contextual just in my
experience and working with other
communities this is the single greatest
land use discussion a community has
in whatever interval it is so this is
every eight years it's the biggest land
use discussion they have in eight years
you've just concluded the biggest land
news discussion in 40 years so maybe
it's contextual I'm just concerned that
there would be no I would encourage the
chair to at least report out
so that there's no question
at some later point when this because I
don't know this would come back to the
council again until there's adoption
right
that's correct
um Stephen so after this we start our
boards and commissions
um I mean if we go to full Council and
then we start a boarding commissions or
we we've already had one meeting with
them kind of very giving them an overall
kind of understanding and then the
housing element so we're you know
prepping them for this more robust
discussion the boards and commissions
um
so it's really up to the committee if
you want to do a report out if you want
us to put a memo together for the
council that has the final scopes
we're happy to do whatever you think
would be useful
I think uh I would say I've really
appreciated your report outs if the
administration feels strongly about it
and wants to put out an informational
update that is just information on what
the changes and then I can bring it up
at go to the order and just say hey
everybody this is your chance if you
have any uh concerns about the scope
otherwise this is going to go through
the process and come back to us later
that satisfy everybody's
they're your colleagues I just
Yep this just this is just a very
yeah this just seems very
straightforward to me we do a lot of
planning we've already done a lot of
this work this is really incorporating
it
um
but I can see how from many other
communities perspective that isn't
necessarily the case
um and so
okay so why don't I at the next meeting
do my report out and I will
recap our whole conversation to the full
Council and then I will raise it go to
the order if there are additional
thoughts and I can also flag it before
the meeting and then at a subsequent
meeting because I imagine that won't be
ready for this next meeting which is
coming right up the written next regular
meeting then the next meeting it would
be some informational uh
update but I guess it would be on con it
would be on consent so it would be
adopting it in some way
um would be on the receiving it on the
agenda does that sound good sure okay
um great I think that addresses both the
formalization and the actually getting
Council giving Council an opportunity to
express their thoughts or concerns I
wanted to also just
flag that I think we had a very similar
conversation about what we want to do
with parking when we looked at this in
the context of Title 18 so you know we
went through the problems about it not
being land's highest and best use which
was mentioned again this evening also
dirty storm water and then aesthetic
dead zones and then we talk about
walkability and um and all of those
different issues so I think that those
are those are the issues that those
remain my concerns we we did do a light
revision of the parking code but I still
have all those same concerns and would
want them evaluated in this parking
study and I'm interested to hear what
the cost of doing this analysis are but
those are those are my concerns
so what would this follow-up
informational update
memo on consent look like would it just
be kind of
like some of the material that we've
seen tonight updated or
you know I think we were just
dude I think we would just summarize
what was concluded here just for the
record again this is an enormous process
I think it's a good point though I just
want to make sure
a lot about parking and there's at least
one council member who recently has
brought up a new Viewpoint about parking
too so we need to make sure that we're
all in the same Loop about this issue so
no I think that's a good point so then
what we've settled on an informational
update slash bring up any questions or
concerns that go to the order
and then an inform and then a consent
item at the following meeting sorry yeah
right so it would it would because I
think that's just how the timing would
be anyway so I will bring it at our
bring it up at our next meeting and flag
it for discussion then
we can have that discussion and any
concerns and then we can have on consent
and if it's if it was contentious then
we can pull it down off consent and and
revise it as needed but
we can cross that bridge it gives the
opportunity yeah okay
okay great
um one thing that I just wanted to
clarify is with my questions on HB uh
1099 I just wanted to clarify that I am
interested in adhering to the principles
of that so that was the climate um
climate change in comprehensive planning
so if you could double check that and
make sure that we're on track to meet
that intent that would be great
and that was my last my last point on
this topic we have any final thoughts or
things no okay do you have what you need
from us on this topic okay
great
um
that concludes this topic which is our
second of two topics are there any
announcements
all right
I guess I can announce that the full
council is doing a uh listening session
on Thursday is it 6 or 6 30.
I believe it's 6 30. 6 30 fantastic I'll
be there early but um at the atlas
Apartment A Lobby and it's just an
opportunity for us to hear from the
um kind of central Issaquah community
and be able to talk to them about what's
going on in the area and understand any
concerns so we welcome the community to
that
great thank you then there being no
further business this meeting is
adjourned at 905 pm