evening welcome to the Monday August 6th
city of Vista quoi City Council meeting
and I call the meeting to order we'll
start with the Pledge of Allegiance I'd
like to ask those who'd like to join the
council myself in the pledge of
allegiance to stand thank you the first
item on our agenda this evening is
special business ID 0 3 1 3 this is a
geotechnical evaluation an arborist
report for a city owned property west of
Swedish hospital this is an
informational item and there will be no
council action no council action is
being sought at tonight's meeting I'd
like to invite Keith Niven economic and
development services director to
introduce this item thank you madam
mayor
good evening City Council so I'm gonna
go through a quick presentation and then
I have representatives from both Golder
associates and tree solutions here to
give kind of a short I don't say
presentation cuz I think that's over
overstating what they're gonna do just a
description of what they did as far as
part of this process and then open it up
for council questions if there are any
so in second way back in 2017 we
purchased a piece of property from King
County it was a surplus parcel and it's
located west of Swedish hospital it
actually goes from the top up at the
highlands level of elevation and then
this is all slope coming down and then
this is down on the valley floor and
aside from this which King County used
as a maintenance yard the balance of the
property is forested
soon after we purchased the property we
were contacted by the is across school
district who identified that they had
some interest in potentially buying a
portion of the upper part of the
property from the city for future
elementary school and so we had some
conversations with the City Council and
the City Council said well before we
would be willing to consider selling the
property we would like to know some more
about the property and and also what a
school might potentially do on the
property so you identified four things
that you wanted to know more about
traffic so what would be the traffic
impacts if an elementary school is
located on that property
geology could that property hold an
elementary school trees what really was
we know the the site is forested but
having a better understanding of what
the composition of the trees were would
be helpful for the council and then
views if there was an elementary school
placed at the top of that property what
would be the view impacts from that on
the rest of the community so where we
are today is the school district
commissioned geotech analysis by
associated or science and they also
hired Arbor info LLC to study what they
found on the site was that a certain
portion of the trees appeared like they
were diseased and so they really hired
this group to look at the area where
some of the trees look like they're
having some trouble and actually
identified that they liked that they had
laminated root rot and I'm not gonna
spend much time talking about that cuz I
don't know much about it
we hired Golder associates to take a
look at the ASI G
Tech study and then we hired tree
solutions to really provide an arborist
report as well as look at the laminated
root rot issue and I've got
representatives from both of those firms
here this evening so I'm gonna stop here
on this aerial photograph and I'm gonna
start by introducing Tyler button from
tree solutions and he can describe kind
of what quickly what they went through
in walking through the property and some
of the recommendations that they're
making as part of the study that's
attached to the memo this evening so I
just wanted to know if you'd like to
hear both presentations or would you
like to have questions after arborist
and after geotechnical separately I'm
gonna suggest that we have the one
report and ask questions and then the
second are pretty asked questions that
okay with everybody
go that way Thanks come on Lou so my
name is Tyler Bunton
I work through solutions we over the
course of about a week or so we did a
study in sort of this area and what we
did was we assessed each tree
individually for health and structure
and also went through and tried to
identify disease pockets in the area we
identified we identified two areas of
the disease pockets within the area that
we were looking at and in the previous
study that had samples had been sent to
WSU extension and they had positively
identified laminated root rot so we
weren't questioning any of that because
it's out there so from there we sort of
put together a full table with all the
trees listed in it
we also tagged the tree so that every
tree can be found and we have management
or one management practices practices
are implemented each tree can be found
that needs to have management performed
the typical management options for
laminated rap if you go by Forest
Service guidelines they are more
directed towards preserving timber in
timber stands so their suggestion is
typically remove trees in the affected
areas and remove trees within a buffer
zone of the tallest tree on the edge of
the area as well as well as pulling
stumps and with this happening you're
supposed to have pulled out a majority
of the diseased tissue at that point
however the fungus can live in the soil
for a very long period of time my boss
today said upwards of 50 years so if it
would be replanted which is always the
suggestion that we give suggested
species can be or we can suggest species
that are resistant to eliminate a root
rot the other option is to monitor the
trees there is a new development over
there to the east and one of the pockets
was somewhat close to that area sort of
in this area here and another option is
to monitor for trees that are in decline
and dying and remove or snag those trees
and then replace as you'd remove trees
with the disease resistant species I
think that's about all I have let's see
if they have questions counsel any
questions on the arborist report that's
member a so interesting so how extensive
is the lemonade root rot in the parcel
you look down so let's see here
I don't remember if I have an exact
counts of the number of trees the area
is kind of a rough outline in the report
that we have submitted because we did a
GPS walk of the area and it didn't
capture the exact edges but we could so
and it's also one of those things where
it can spread and the disease won't show
any symptoms so the areas that we found
were this area in here you might
actually even be able to see there's
some browning in that area and then sort
of this area in this location as well so
it's it's really difficult to determine
the exact extent of what is affected how
contagious is it it will spread that's
about all I can say once it's in the
area it's basically going to be in that
area and it spreads through the root
system so it will spread it from one
tree to another council member Ramos yes
and you just looked at the upper part of
the bench on top correct you didn't go
down slope at all yes we just looked at
the upper portion because that was where
the school district was looking the
other questions
that's president Mertz so if we do
nothing what does the forest do over
time so over an extended period of time
the trees would die off that are there
right now because it is primarily
Douglas fir which is very susceptible to
this and naturally resistant species
could come in with the region that we're
in and the amount of invasives that
there are I might expect some invasive
to come in such as invasive blackberry
ivy that type of thing as well Holly
there's that stuff there those species
intermixed within the site at low levels
currently
as the canopy would die back it's very
possible that those species would start
to take over so we'd wind up with just a
big field of blackberries hopefully not
I mean the absence of doing anything
else it is it is possible yes okay and
the follow-on question do we have given
that this is a disease that spreads what
if any responsibility do we have given
that there's forested land adjacent to
property owners have a responsibility to
address root rot when it's identified I
would have to get back to you on that
that's something that I would have to
talk to you somebody else that I work
with about I'm not as familiar with the
legal aspects so that because people
normally deal with it when it shows up
I'm trying to understand if there's any
problem with not dealing with it for yes
and again that's something that I would
have to discuss with other arborists
that I work with that are more involved
with the legal side of things setting
aside the legal for a second what do
people typically do in this situation
I'm not exactly sure this is the first
time I personally have dealt with
laminated root rot in my career so far
so again I could go and discuss with my
coworkers and thank you your teeth thank
you for your presentation I wanted to
clarify you had said that this can
spread to another tree but the that tree
could not show signs for a period of
time yes is there a sort of a an
estimate on the period of time so it
could look like a healthy tree but
actually it had spread and it wasn't
showing any sign so it can look like a
healthy tree as it's in decline it will
it can show signs or symptoms including
a sparseness in the canopy of the
needles a yellowing of the canopy tipped
eye back on the branches
so those are the typical symptoms that
we will see so it is like once it's
getting into a more advanced stage it is
a little bit easier to see that it is
infected which is one of the reasons why
the Forest Service suggests removing
trees in an area outside of like the
area that you can actually see it is
because about a hundred feet away from
the visible tree it's possible that
another tree is infected okay thank you
additional questions
it's my Ramos and then councilman Brad
okay so um you you really have two
choices here a Forest Service method of
cutting and replanting and/or a
longer-term monitoring of you know as
you get some die back areas you can then
cut those areas out let some Sun in so
you can start replanting something from
below the canopy of more resistant
species in the long term keep basically
build your own successional forest
canopy coming up correct yes yep that's
mine I was very slim right to my
question was just about the potential
phasing of rather than the Forest
Service removing and removing stumps and
you had mentioned also snags which would
be like sort of like a very large tree
stump and those are important for
wildlife so I just wondered about the
pros and cons of a more phased approach
versus but it was very similar to a
council member Ramos his question so in
my opinion the pros and cons so the pros
for a phased approach is you'll have
less of that clear cutting in on the
site and when we were out there we even
spoke to people who are looking at homes
and that new development and they're
appreciating that there were trees right
there
so pros are there will be more of a
continuous forest cover and then
I mean the con with that is you will I
still have the laminated root rot
without a full treatment and basically
the opposite I guess for the other one
so any more questions that's more Ramos
just I'm sorry have to give me just to
say something so the laminate root rot
is it is a normal occurring thing it's
it's everywhere in the forest generally
its it it spreads when trees a weak
enough to to get hit just like any other
disease and so it may hit pockets here
there may spread if the stand strong
doesn't spread very far that's just part
of the the normal forest process hits
dying trees more easily full healthy
trees can sit right in the middle of it
not get affected there's that that whole
process with wood and I'm a root rot so
I just want to bring the head out and
say that so it's it's pretty much there
it's part of the natural forest decaying
process yes thank you any more questions
Thank You Tyler this is an information
item tonight but it does sound like
council has some additional questions
about the future of the forest so I
think yes so so we're moving from trees
to dirt and rocks so one of the things
about this is that when the when the
school district did their geotech report
their study on the property their
consultants identified some concerns
with the property that ultimately led to
the school district withdrawing their
interest in looking for other locations
so as the property owner we felt it was
important to have one of our geo tech
engineers take a look at the study and
give us their opinions on what they read
so I have clay Johnson and Josh Hansen
with Golder associates here and I think
they're gonna give you guys a brief
overview of kind of what they saw in the
report that a yes I did
good afternoon my name is clay Johnson
geologist with Golder associates and
myself and another colleague did a
reconnaissance of the site in 2017 we
were conducting geological
reconnaissance just walking through the
site and so we had some preliminary
information before reviewing the a ESI
report generally we were in agreement
with the methods that ASI took for
addressing assessing slope stability
concerns however we had some
disagreement on a couple of points to
principally we had reviewed different
geologic mapping the ASI report looked
at a geologic map of the area from the
90s which has been updated in 2012 and
the 2012 mapping is in general agreement
with what we observed on the site which
is glacial sediments that are there's
more of a layered sequence as you move
up the slope as opposed to a s i--'s
report which had a draping of a single
glacial advance outwash unit so they
stated in their report that they're in
agreement with the previous geologic
mapping from the 90s
the other difference that we had was a
historic landslide that ASI identified
in the northern portion of the property
and we didn't see evidence for that when
we were on the site or in any of the
documents that we reviewed for a history
of the site there's a arcuate land form
on the kind of northern end of the site
that butts up against the read detention
pond but we walked through that and
interpreted that land form is more of an
original land form as opposed to a
landslide so those were really the major
differences and happy to answer
questions on anything you'd like Thank
You clay
Shinzon the geotechnical review no
questions
thanks very much Keith thank you for the
presentation Thank You gentleman next
item on our agenda this evening is
audience comments and we have a pretty
significant audience here this evening
I'm gonna go through some general
guidelines audience members can address
the council at this time the guidelines
for public participation are being shown
up on the overhead this evening those
who have signed up on the signup sheet
will be called forward first and if you
did not sign up I will make sure to ask
for other speakers before closing this
portion of the meeting if you're here as
part of a group and I see signs so I
know we have at least one group here
this evening it would be great if you
can identify a spokesperson or two from
your group and have them address the
council all those audience members that
support the points that are being spoken
please raise your hands after so the
council can understand which item you're
coming to support in which information
you're supporting and if you would like
to address the council and add
additional new information to what the
spokesperson has said then please come
up and address at the Dyess as well
we've allowed five minutes for public
comments this evening I just wanted to
add in a couple of changes I've decided
that it with the council president that
it would be good for us to put the
guidelines for public participation up
on the overhead we have had them on the
agenda before I just want to make sure
that everyone is coming up to speak has
read through those bullets and is
comfortable with our guidelines for
engagement and when you come up to the
lectern if you can speak into the
microphone state your name address
relationship to the city and limit your
comments to 5-minutes if you've come
with written comments please feel free
to hand them in to the clerk and I want
to thank you all for coming this evening
because the council recognizes how
difficult it is to get up on camera
and on TV and address your counsel so
thank you very much for coming tonight
to show who do we have on our sign up
with Christy triple good evening Council
members and mayor Polly thank you for
the opportunity to speak tonight it's
pleasure to be here I come tonight to
share a story quick story and a thank
you so our office is at one five nine
five Northwest Gilman Boulevard suite
one here in Issaquah were close to SR
900 and next to the Shell station and
across the street from the meadow
shopping center so just about every two
weeks there's two weeks or so give or
take there's a car accident from those
trying to exit or enter the meadow
shopping center and so given my office
is directly across from that I often see
what happens and a late Friday afternoon
I heard another accident and I looked
over to my right and thought gosh I
wonder if I need to call 911 or okay if
it was just a simple rear end and thank
goodness I took the time to look because
there was a SUV flying over the sidewalk
the landscape area in between two trees
and a large rhododendron so it
completely cleared that typically this
is where my boss parks her car and so
gratefully no cars were in the way no
one was walking through the parking lot
but we have thank goodness again the old
school curb stops that people complain
about that they might be a trip hazard
that stopped the SUV from hitting our
building and it bounced back several
feet so meanwhile while this was
happening I made a run for the center of
the building thinking for sure it was
going to be crashed so glad no one was
hurt and the people involved in the
accident we were able to help them call
nine
and no one was hurt in the process but
the point being really grateful to see
that the city is focusing some attention
on Gillman Boulevard and its safety and
kind of the long-term use because as it
evolves those kinds of accidents when we
know typically are happening over and
over again it's an opportunity to
address the safety aspect but also
commerce and all the things that happen
along Gilman Boulevard and I think also
with Jackson Shell station being in for
permit for redevelopment it's a good
time to look take a look at that end of
gammon Boulevard as well so thank you
for all that you do and the opportunity
to speak and appreciate it next sigrid
Llewelyn good evening a mayor and city
council members my name is Sigrid
Llewellyn and I'm a resident of Issaquah
and live at 100 timber Ridgeway
Northwest in the Dallas community I
would like to support that the city of
Issaquah and its partners explore the
acquisition of the Bergsma property we
love our Green Mountains in Issaquah it
was a deciding factor for my husband we
need to move here our hikes in the cool
woods regular contribute to our health
and well-being we are the beneficiaries
of decades of environmental advocacy
that has preserved our mountains while
also forging constructive agreements
with developers that still allow for the
explosive growth of housing in this area
our neighboring cities have not managed
to do the same in protecting their green
spaces the steep learn the steepness of
the Bergsma property and its geology do
not easily lend themselves to housing
development as a result the green space
destruction and environmental damage
that would ensue in the development of
the property for the roads and housing
is out of proportion
with the benefit gained I imagine we
would lose most of the green face along
Newports way and up the mountain pushing
the green gateway feeling further out of
town once cut these trees and vistas are
lost forever
the Bergsma property location is unique
because of its connection to Cougar
Mountain and its proximity to the
Issaquah Transit Center the property
acquisition may allow for future trail
access through the Bergsma property to
Cougar Mountain then hikers like my sons
who come now by car could come but thus
from Issaquah without having to wait for
connecting bus and start hiking into the
green space and Cougar Mountain that
would be awesome
please explore the XE acquisition of the
books Moe property Thank You Sigrid sure
and of the about 35 or so people in
attendance tonight 2/3 3/4 almost all
have got their hands in the air
next is Joe Berger
good evening mayor and city council my
name is Jill Verner
we live at one two three zero oak wood
place Northwest on the Newport Way
Northwest corridor I want to address two
abies tonight 76 41 Newport way Tibbits
Creek Bridge reinforcement project and
7660 to support for the city role in
open space acquisition ie the Bergsma
property acquisition and with regards to
7660 - thank you City Council for voting
on this resolution this evening and
proposing it because it's a good cause
to keep Cougar Mountain forested
secondly on 76 41 the Newport Way
Tibbets Creek Bridge reinforcement
project there seems to be some confusion
in the city or around the city or both
as to what it really means on the one
hand in May the city announced through I
believe it was it's a quite insider that
there was a report by the state and/or
the federal government that the bridge
needed to be strengthened and that
further traffic from westbound from SR
900 on the Newport Way would be limited
to lighter vehicles not construction
laden equipment however over the course
of June and July I reported on several
occasions and I'm not the only citizen
that reported heavy-laden construction
equipment going westbound on Newport Way
Northwest from SR 900 then there was
conflicting reports or conclusions
Public Works Department submitted the
proposal 70
662 and part of the commentary was that
the bridge needed to be reinforced
otherwise our city's emergency equipment
couldn't use SR 900 to get up Newports
way on a westbound motion within city
administrations that all the bridge is
just fine we only have to strengthen it
because the government said we had to
strengthen it
so I recommend there be a consolidation
of city's opinion as to what really is
going on and if the federal or the state
government is requiring it what's the
time limit because down the road there's
going to be some improvements to SR 900
and down the road could mean anything
from three years from now to 30 years
from now so when does that bridge need
to be reinforced and is there a danger
for our emergency vehicles to use it so
that's all I have to say thank you Joe
John Macbeth
you know I'm John McDowell I lived here
in the city of 620 southeast Bush Street
and I am in favor of this resolution on
the Bruckner property and hope you are
too I had one other just quick comment
and that has to do with this laminated
rock think to him the thing that
impressed me when I looked into it was
that the as the name implies is the
roots that are rotting away which you
end up with a dead tree that has no root
system there to hold it in place so it's
very susceptible to being blown over
that's all thank you sure no one further
has signed up to speak I'm seeing Joe
Dean in the back would you like to come
up Gerald and spank
my name is Geraldine Carey and I live at
955 17th Avenue Northwest Issaquah my
res the location is right on the corner
of Newports way and sr 900 so all the
things that are happening in that corner
the birds my property and the Tibbets
bridge are impacting me I I was at one
of the meetings a couple weeks ago when
I requested the city to look carefully
about fixing the inside of the culvert
underneath Tibbits bridge and I
contacted Sheldon Linn and I looked on
the internet to see what they do with
old culverts under roads they don't tear
them out if they take and reinforce it
like it's recommended they can do
extensions on to the roads so in the
future when they do Newport way and they
widen at 10 or 20 feet or 10 feet on
each side they can just do a cement
extension as my understanding I didn't
have Sheldon but that's what the website
indicated so I support I support the
repair on the Tibbets culvert I
especially I read the messages on the
internet from the is a cloth fire
department and they said they would not
use the bridge and I think that's really
important for the residents so I support
the taking the money and repairing it as
long as you can say we're not going to
tear it down in 10 or 15 years and I
also am again in support of acquiring
Bergsma for the city to enjoy his open
space Thank you Thank You Geraldine and
again about 3/4 of the hands gathered
tonight went up is there anyone else who
would like to address the council this
evening gentleman right there
broke it you bought it
hi my name is George Potter I live on
old black nugget road which is outside
of the city city limits in
unincorporated King County but I am a
board member of the board of his Sequoia
helps trails Club and I wish to state
that the club is strongly in favor of
the city looking at the acquisition of
the Bergsma property for its valiant
trails and forests and an expansion of
the Cougar Mountain Preserve thank you
thank you George all the hands and signs
are up again anyone else wishing to
address council this evening
Kayne's 2830
Northwest pine cone drive so thank you
for the opportunity to speak with you
I'm going to keep it very short I know
you have a long agenda I don't need to
go over all of the reasons that we're
here tonight you know those reasons well
and thank you secret for that beautiful
explanation that we can't read that
rehash of our purpose for being I just
want to say I'm here on behalf of the
safe Cougar Mountain Association and our
2250 active members who wholeheartedly
support the resolution going forward and
wishing to express our gratitude to the
council we know this is a long and
difficult subject we know this is only
the first step we're very aware of that
but I did want to convey to you the
incredible response we got from people
I've never even heard of before heard
from before when they saw the
possibility of something happening on
Cougar Mountain you have a lot of people
very avidly following this subject and
we do thank you for your work we're very
grateful and we appreciate the
opportunity to share this with you thank
you Kay signs and hands is there anyone
else who would like to address their
council this evening that can call
anyone wishing to address council and a
third and final call
thank you very much for your comments
this evening we heard from several of
you about the resolution this evening on
the open space potential open space
acquisition Bergsma property also about
some traffic concerns on Gilman
Boulevard a bit about the Newport Bridge
and a little bit about Swedish forests
and lemonade root rot so thank you for
bringing all of your comments and
concerns to us this evening audience
comments is now closed and we will move
to committee and regional reports
council member hunt thank you madam
mayor I have four meetings to report on
tonight and there
related to water so the first one is on
July 18th I attended the Cascade Water
Alliance finance and management meeting
we talked about a number of issues the
first one was a affordability study
looking at the affordability of
utilities in the cascade water service
region and this is a study that would be
a dem extended be performed by Texas A&M
and it would inform the members of
cascade water Alliance about rate
structure and affordability options
going forward as well we also discussed
the RCF C which is the regional capital
facilities charge this is a charge
that's assessed in new members as they
connect to the water system and the fee
has been constant for a long time and we
talked about the probable need that that
will go up so we did not make any
decisions these are committee meetings
but we did talk about that and we also
talked about the budget which will be
discussed further later on in the summer
and then there will be no August
meetings for cascade water Alliance
including the committee's so the next
meeting of the cascade water Alliance
finance and management will be in on
September 19th at the cascade water
Alliance office and Bellevue and the
next meeting is the cascade water
Alliance resource management meeting so
we discussed some amendments to the Lake
Tapps
property management policy they've
learned over time some some things about
the property management and so that
basically just updates to their policy
of how they interact with people that
own properties on Lake Tapps
and then we also talked about the need
for a GIS software new GIS software and
a way of managing GIS as
there's software they they have a lot of
GIS s assets and they need newer
software and that software is improving
all the time the next meeting of the
Cascade Water Alliance resource
management will be on September 13th at
the cascade water Alliance office in
Bellevue and then I also attended the
Cascade Water Alliance board meeting
which was on July 25th and we talked
about the issues that I just mentioned
so we authorized that GIS software
expenditure the affordability study as
well as the changes to the policy
management and we talked about budget
but that will be that will be discussed
further later in the summer and we did
not make a decision or take action on
that
next meeting of the cascade water
Alliance board will meet on September
26th my last meeting is the salmon
recovery Council for Huayra 8 which met
on July 19th we recommended some
investments in technical and
programmatic priorities so different
studies to understand the health of our
salmon population and then we also saw
some presentations we saw a presentation
from King Conservation District on
programs that align with salmon recovery
and they talked a lot about how urban
forestry is actually really important
for salmon populations and I think
that's something that's really important
in the specific case of Issaquah as well
they also do so this is king
conservation districts they do a lot of
work with private landowners and they
talked about some of those programs and
we saw a presentation from Puget Sound
Regional Council on vision 2050 and
salmon recovery how that how that
intersects and then we heard a success
story about the Cedar River salmon
journey naturalist program which is a
educational program and part of the
Seattle Aquarium and they do education
about the life cycle of salmon and the
next meeting of why rate salmon recovery
council will be September 20th at the
Mercer Island Community Center and this
concludes my report
Thank You councilmember hunt that's my
beret Thank You mayor poly the
services and Safety Committee will meet
on August 14th at 6:30 here in Council
Chambers the agenda will have a single
item on it we have agenda bill 76 40
which is amending the school impact fees
the Eastside Fire and Rescue Board will
not be meeting in August and the next
Eastside Fire Rescue Board meeting will
be September 13th at 4 p.m. on the
Eastside Fire Rescue headquarters and
that concludes my report
Thank You councilmember Wray council
member Ramos Thank You mayor the council
Infrastructure Committee met last month
and their item of business will be on
regular business tonight so we'll talk
about that then the next meeting is next
Thursday the 16th next week
6:30 here in Council Chambers the
agendas just being put together as we
speak
Thank You councilmember we're
interesting thank you the Puget Sound
regional councils growth management
policy board did not meet in August so
they stuck to their yearly practice of
taking August off good for them but so
our next meeting will be September 6th
in Seattle and I don't know the agenda
yet thank you
councilmember Goodman Thank You mayor
parley the council's land in short
committee will not meet in August so our
next meeting will be the first Thursday
in September that's my report thank you
if you council president batise thank
you madam mayor no report this evening
Thank You council president Mertz thank
you madam mayor some cities Association
is also taking the month of August
amazing there are organizations that do
those sorts of things and so their next
meeting will be when's our next meeting
will be Wednesday September 12th in
addition there is a JMTC meeting later
in September that I will report on as we
get closer thank you that's great I have
a fairly light report this evening for
the mayor's report I have no regional
meetings to report out thank you to
councilmember hunt for doing double-duty
water representation this month and
attending a bunch of cascade water
Alliance meetings while I was out of
town much appreciated
I do have a couple of updates though I
think it's pretty well known by the
crowd here but I'm going to say it
anyway
couger mountain Berg's my update City
Council will be discussing a council
resolution at this evenings meeting
sponsored by council members goodman ray
and hunt East Lake Sammamish Parkway I'd
like to provide some information on an
upcoming road closure for two weeks from
August 6 through August 20th East Lake
Sammamish Parkway is scheduled to be
fully closed to vehicular and bicycle
traffic for construction on Zaku's Creek
fish passage and stream restoration
project it's a city of Sammamish project
and it includes replacing the existing
culvert under the parkway and restoring
approximately 400 lineal feet of Zaku's
creek upstream of the culvert preserved
Providence Heights appeal of the city's
SEPA decision and demolition permit for
the providence Heights campus on July
20th the city's Hearing Examiner denied
the preserved Providence Heights appeal
the demolition permit will be amended to
an additional condition related to
management and materials potentially
containing PCBs National Night Out
tomorrow night Tuesday August 7th cities
all over with their police departments
will be celebrating National Night Out
I'd like to personally invite you to
join me and the council down at the
Sequoia Police Department from 5 to 7
p.m. it's next to memorial field after
that I'm going to be heading over to the
concerts on the green at 7 p.m. concert
on the green series with several council
members hoping to enjoy the great summer
weather and serve a treat for our
residents the last project update I have
is east sunset way road improvements
east sunset Way is scheduled for
maintenance August 13th and 14th it
includes repaving of the road and
performing shoulder restoration it's
going to be starting at 7 a.m. on August
13th these sunset way will be closed
from second.you at 2nd Avenue South East
by the fire station to the i-90 exit 18
off ramps 436 continuous hours including
overnight until the project is complete
cyclists and pedestrians will be able to
utilize 6th Avenue southeast to get
around the project accessing the east
sunset trailhead and also the Highlands
the main detour route will be i-90 and
exit 17 to Front Street to access home
and businesses in the work zone please
use second Avenue Southeast and adjacent
side streets all side streets accessing
East sunset way will be closed at he
sunset way for construction activities
and will not allow for cut through
traffic there are maps and detailed
information online at WWE Sequoia gov /
PMP and that is it for the mayor's
report this evening proceeding to the
consent calendar the consent calendar
was distributed to council in advance
and if authorized the consent calendar
will be considered together and approved
in one motion have the payables and
payroll been reviewed yes thank you
does any councilmember desire to remove
any item from the consent calendar and
consider it under regular business thing
none is there a motion madam mayor I
move we approve the consent agenda
agenda as listed in tonight's agenda
so you think sent calendar the calendar
tonight's agenda
Thank You second it's been moved and
seconded all those in favor signify by
saying aye as opposed that passes
unanimously
moving on to regular business the first
item under regular business is a b7 641
Newport Wade Tibbets Creek Bridge
reinforcement project this is to
authorize additional funding and it's
coming out of the council Infrastructure
Committee I'd like to invite Sheldon
Linn Public Works engineering director
to make a presentation thank you madam
mayor council my name is Sheldon Linn
I'm the director for Public Works
engineering as the mayor mentioned this
is an agenda bill 7 641 coming back from
the council Infrastructure Committee
essentially the policy question in front
of the City Council is that shall funds
be expended to reinforce the Newport Way
bridge over Tibbets Creek with a
recommendation from the administration
to do so the request essentially not
essentially but the request is to fund
175 thousand dollars for the designing
construction to reinforce the Newport
Way bridge over Tibbets Creek
I and along with that to authorize
execution of designing construction
contracts as as needed to accomplish the
work a little bit of background the
bridge is located just west of SR 900 at
the intersection of Newport and SR 900
so it's located right here where Timmons
Creek crosses the Newport Way
the bridge was constructed in 2001 it's
been inspected every two years in
accordance with federal rules and last
inspection was in September of 2017
since its construction
none of the inspections have identified
any damage associated with the structure
or degradation of the structure the
bridge is considered safe however FHWA
has changed the rules in which the
calculations are done for calculating
the load ratings and load ratings are
meant to calculate the loads that the
bridge can carry for the heavier types
of vehicles trucks buses fire engines
things of that sort when they do that
those mandates are handed down through
the state to the agencies that manage
their bridges washed out notified the
bridges the bridge engineer for the city
of Issaquah in 2014 of the need to
perform the load rating calculations on
its bridges the time frame for when
those calculations were to be done
depended upon the type of structure it
was and the like and this bridge was
expected or needed to have the
calculations done by the end of 2017 as
well as a number of other bridges in
town the rest of the bridges will have
to be calculated out by the end of 2022
unfortunately in 2014 the city's bridge
engineer passed away as well there was
some lost information
the city learned of the requirement to
do these little calculations again in a
latter part of 2017
additionally we were also informed by
wash Dodd that the bridge is within one
mile of the interstate in this case i-90
must also have these calculations done
as they pertain to emergency service
vehicles I and that was a requirement of
what's known as the fast act of 2015
which was signed into law by the
President of the United States in
December of 2015 the state has given the
city some time to make reinforcements to
the bridge so as not to require the
posting of the bridges the new
calculations that were done for the new
portway bridge based upon the FHWA
guidance and ash no manuals identified
that the bridge would not take the loads
of the heavier trucks which were newly
designed and built as they distribute
the loads differently on the structure
itself again the bridge is safe it's not
damaged in its current state the options
that the administration considered were
twofold
one reinforced the bridge now the
reinforcing of the bridge would be with
an epoxy type resin that is highly
reinforced with a very strong fiber mesh
this application is permanent the
structure will not have to be replaced
when the road gets reconstructed through
the area or as Miss Kerry mentioned
earlier if the structure has to be
widened it can be widened without
removing or replacing it to do this work
the work has to be done in a period of
time which we commonly call the fish
window but that's the time period which
the Department of Fish and Wildlife will
allow work to happen
over and within a stream should that
have to occur and be extended fisheries
will make a decision upon the request of
the city whether or not you know based
on fish migration and other conditions
of what's going on whether they're going
to allow the extension of the fish
window currently we don't anticipate
needing in an extension of the fish
window the other option that the city
has in front of it is the post load
limits load limits being posted on the
bridge will have a whole host of
impacted users city snow plows vector
trucks trucks that haul material and
heavy equipment for the operations
department as well as as well as parks
it affects other heavy vehicles used for
local deliveries including construction
deliveries the resultant of that is that
there's a significant impact of the
quality and cost of level of service
that the city provides with its services
for instance if this snow event occurs
the Public Works operations department
will have to go all the way around-i 90
like mine and come back to be able to
plow Newport Way as well as pile the
hills of South East 54th Village Park
Drive and the other steep hills that are
located off of Newport Way that's just
one example
East Side Fire and Rescue has been
consulted and in your packet there's a
memo with a letter that Eastside Fire
and Rescue wrote to the city that
supports the reinforcement of the bridge
now
in the committee there was some
discussion and questions about being
able to post the bridge with the weight
limits but exempt emergency vehicles I
mentioned the fast Act of 2015
earlier in my presentation that Act that
was passed by the president precludes
the option of posting an exemption for
emergency vehicles and the reason for
that is because the fast Act contains
some language in there that says with
basically within a mile of Interstate if
a bridge load calculation shows that
emergency vehicles loads need to be
posted then we will have to post the
load limits for emergency vehicles as
well not just other types of trucks and
vehicles with that the recommendation
from the administration is to direct the
finance director to include one hundred
and seventy five thousand dollars in a
subsequent 2018 budget amendment for the
Tibbets Creek Bridge reinforcement
project utilizing street operating fund
the authorization and authorizing the
administration to enter into design and
construction contracts for the Tibbets
Creek Bridge reinforcements Thank You
Sheldon if there's any questions what's
the timeline that we have from the state
to make the repairs or make the
reinforcements or post the weight limits
what's the timeline there the normal
timeline is once the low-cal load
calculations are done typically there's
a 90-day period which washed out and
FHWA would prefer to see the loads
posted we've been working with wash dot
and essentially we have probably late
fall towards the end of this year to be
able to do that and then otherwise we
have to post and given the conditions
that we would have with the Fisheries
Department if we waited till then
then we would have to wait until next
year when the fish window opens up again
so we would have to load post pretty
much immediately if we didn't take the
section time there's a couple a couple
more follow once this one goes to the
financial aspect of this did the
administration look at other funding
sources within the existing budget for
the one hundred and seventy five
thousand dollars as opposed to a new
budget ass that's the world don't have
real good visibility into your budget
just wondering if there was existing
funds from salary savings or project
savings or anything that could be
repurposed in whole or in part to this
you see interim City Administrator
getting closer to a microphone so I
think bringing in great thank you very
much so a few a few different pieces of
information to relay on that question
were other funding options considered
was part of that question and I can say
that the first consideration was the
fact that this was of the magnitude that
required council approval to even
initiate so we knew we would be bringing
this matter back before City Council as
it's a Capitol sized improvement it's
over the threshold that requires council
action and also entering into a contract
commitment of this amount requires that
approval having said that the fund that
we have considered for this is the
appropriate fund the street operating
fund that fund is also used for roadway
maintenance snow control traffic control
and some of those activities have taken
place so far this year and some are yet
to come
perhaps and so we do reserve funds
within the street operating fund in
order
to accommodate that having said that
that fund does fluctuate from year to
year depending on how much it is needed
how much snow we get for example and so
it is common for us to balance out that
fund toward the end of the year that
give you the easiest example is if it
snows a lot then we go over the snow
budget within that fund then we come
back and we ask for an additional
transfer to make the fund whole
conversely though if we spend less that
money stays within the street operating
fund and then the subsequent year we
don't have to perhaps budget quite as
much from the general fund which is the
primary funding source for the street
fund so because of the flexibility the
nature of the fund and the need to come
back but for council to just get the
authorization for the expenditure and
the work we did not consider other
sources of funds it would not have been
appropriate to take from the public
works operating budget as they don't
routinely have that kind of capacity
within their budget did I answer I think
so no I don't mind I'm satisfied with
that so another question you know hands
on buzzers seniors rings in for this one
this one really deals with we had a
change in Fayed order regulations in
2014 and I recognize we had some
unforeseen circumstances but but it does
raise it a little an interesting
question in my mind about how do we
early approve the system I mean this is
something we should have been discussing
in my way I hear it some time ago so is
there anything that the
you know Public Works engineering or the
administration has done to kind of
backstop this kind of problems so we we
don't find ourselves scrambling here we
hold regular meetings at staff and have
for a number of years I wear
communications happen about what's
happening in the industry also when we
get notifications like this typically
those come up in this instance they
didn't come up at a time but we're
constantly going to conferences
networking with washed-out and FHWA
doing our best to keep abreast of
changing regulatory environments and
watch that's really good about notifying
us of these things and so we're always
in communication with their local
programs folks and others to make sure
that we are aware of these sorts of
things final question this this deals
with you mentioned I think was remaining
bridges by 2022 yes the inspection so
would we look to be putting some some
placeholders in recognizing that there's
a potential for some of those bridges to
need remediation and going forward how
do you deal with that we over the years
over the past 15 20 years we've pretty
much replaced all of our bridges this
was the only one they came up we've done
the low calculations for about half of
our bridges the other half are due by
the end of 2022
we'll put in a budget request for
probably the Year 2022 7 2021 when we
develop it we'll have some money in
there to have those calculations done
for 2022 and then pending the results
we'll probably come back and request
council for authorization for either
reinforcing or the administration will
load post the bridges depending upon
what the results are thank you Thank You
councilmember Rea other questions not
seeing any so I'm going to look for a
motion um remember almost yeah and I'm
going to precede this motion with a
little explanation okay so as chair
instruction committee this was that are
in
committee last month and we talked about
this and to give a little background
basically is as it was discussed in
committee a number of questions came up
that that we want more information was
desired and the normal process would
have been to keep that in committee
another month staff would find those
answers bring them back they next month
this month we would then go through that
and then bring it back to Council we
didn't do that because if we did that it
would have delayed the project beyond
its ability to be done this year
so those things that were trying to
avoid here of posting load limits and
causing those problems because it would
be too late in the year with temperature
or the how the repaired need or changes
need to be done and fish windows and all
those kinds of things would have stopped
it it would have been done next year so
with that in mind it's coming to Council
without a direct recommendation from the
committee so the recommendation from
Craig let's bring it here and bring your
answers which Sheldon's been presenting
now to sue those questions so the whole
council would hear those and we could
take action tonight rather than delaying
in a month so that's kind of the story
on the timing wise otherwise it would
have come with a recommendation okay one
more thing to add to that and I think
and I'm noting that the reason for this
is quite been clear yeah and that is
that what's happened in correct
Miranshah
is that vehicles have been redesigned
over recent years that the way they
spread the load on the road has changed
okay so this is not something where
federal highways administration just
said oh we're gonna change the
calculations bridges have to be
different now it was done because
vehicles carry the weight differently
because they've been changed so with
that when they go across a bridge then
that weight that the bridge has support
has to be supported differently and so
that's why we have new calculations to
understand that okay a vehicle that used
to be rated on that bridge the way it's
spread out with axle weight and all this
stuff which I'm not an expert at is
different in that
on the bridge is different so with that
design federal highway said we need to
recalculate how those things are done
and that's what's that's what the
changes come about regularly this bridge
would have passed its previous
inspections but it's within a mile of
i-90 so that's interstate highway so all
these other requirements are in place so
I just want to say that's kind of the
history how we got there we did the
calculations it turned out because of
that it just doesn't meet that anymore
so it's not an arbitrary thing it's a
design thing and it's definitely needed
from the engineering side so I want to
clear that up as well so with that I'm
gonna make a motion and I think you
actually have it up there and move to
direct the finance director to include
$175,000 in a subsequent 2018 budget
amendment for the Tibbets Creek Bridge
reinforcement project utilizing the
street operating fund and authorized the
administration to enter into design and
construction contracts for the tivitz
Creek Bridge reinforcement project
second that was a question
sounded like a second Thank You
councilmember hunt okay it's been moved
and seconded is there any council
discussion that's a member we
interesting thank you along the funding
question it does say in the bill that a
future transfer from the general fund
may be required so yes we often move
money from the general fund that is the
source for the street operating fund and
then we do things like this treat your
Paris Street maintenance plow the roads
out of that money so a good way of
tracking what we're spending for these
type things so it does say maybe got an
update I mean do we we are we doing it
is it likely then require something out
of the general fund it's too early for
us to tell because we haven't gotten in
a snow season for example or finish the
construction season so the street
operating funds overall need is not yet
known we asked for the ability to add
that to the budget amendment and the
authorization and now go and spend but
as we bring that budget amendment
forward or the final budget amendment of
the year we will look at overall fund
read and make a decision about the size
in particular of the budget amendment
and the transfer that's needed okay
thank you so this is this is allowing
you to spend the money out of that fund
for this particular reason and in the
future
the budget men will actually identify
with whether and how much we need to get
from the general fund to to pay the
balance out of the street operating fund
correct questions no more questions
we ready for the votes if there's no
further discussion all those in favor of
directing the finance director to
include one hundred and seventy five
thousand dollars in the subsequent 2018
budget amendment for the Tibbets Creek
Bridge reinforcement project utilizing
the street operating fund and
authorizing the administration to enter
into design and construction contracts
for the Tibbets Creek Bridge
reinforcement project signify by saying
aye opposed that carries unanimously
Thank You Sheldon next item under
regular business this evening is EB
seven six five three in her local
agreement with Eastside Fire and Rescue
per and poly Fleur alkyl substances you
fast for short field study this is for
an authorization and this is the first
time this agenda bill has been before
council we're gonna keep Sheldon Lynn up
at the die ass Public Works engineering
director to make presentation thank you
Mary Polly so the policy question with
this agenda bill is shall the council
enter into an interlocal agreement with
the site Fire and Rescue for the purpose
of sharing the cost and performing field
studies related to P fest in the valley
aquifer the administration is
recommending yes the city should enter
into that interlocal agreement I I'm
gonna go through a little bit of
background about you know what brought
us here I'm going to talk about the
scope of work that's associated with the
field studies and then I'm going to talk
about the elements within the inner
local agreement
in 2015 the city discovered PFS within
its well number 4 by 2016 the City
Council had taken action to fund
treatment and the treatment had been
assigned and installed resulting in the
complete removal of PFS from the well
number 4 water supply
since that time the city has continued
to test the water to make sure that the
water supply is free of PFS in addition
to that further hydrogeological
were authorized and funded by the City
Council as shown on the graphic here
from a geosyntec report and presentation
earlier provided the City Council it
shows that there was a plume identified
of PFS that extended northward from
approximately the Eastside Fire and
Rescue headquarters north to the well
number 4 area subsequent to this
Eastside Fire and Rescue has also
identified other areas in the valley
where firefighting foam has historically
been used for training at other
locations other than the headquarters
firefighting foam is one of the
suspected ways in which the pee fast has
gotten into the aquifers been the use of
a firefighting phone since that time in
2017 and 18 a partnership developed the
partnership was between Eastside Fire &
Rescue
the city of Issaquah and the Department
of Ecology within that partnership the
partners developed a scope of work to
further investigate the known potential
source and investigate other potential
sources for the plume also we provided
funding for the scope of work as well
and we've negotiated interlocal
agreements and agency agreements on how
the funds will be used
the scope of work the scope of work
includes three areas in general sense
there's one area owned by the school
district appear between Holley or just
south of Holly Street there's the east
side fire and rescue property down here
and then there's an area over here by
city hall the old fire station sites in
general vicinity of them that were also
identified as areas that had previous
use of the firefighting foam for
practice purposes as part of the scope
of work there's going to be shallow soil
sampling and testing there's going to be
some groundwater sampling and testing
which also includes the installation of
monitoring wells and each of those
activities are going to be on all three
in all three areas the interlocal
agreement which is what this agenda bill
is about is about a partnership it
identified the consultants scope of work
which I just spoke about in brief
summary it provides for project
management where each site Fire and
Rescue is responsible for the direct
contract management with the consulting
firm that's going to be doing the field
work there's also an executive committee
that's formed the executive committee is
comprised of the chief it's comprised of
an ecology person the mayor as well as
the interim city administrator it also
provides for cost sharing the cost
sharing identifies that there are two
there there's one grant from the
Department of Commerce which the City
Council already accepted back on June 18
through agenda bill seven six three O
the other funds that are outside and not
part of city of Issaquah or ecipher and
rescue our ecology funds those are the
two pots of money that will be used
first once that those funds are used up
the city of Issaquah and you set fire
and rest
you will split the costs evenly between
the two parties those are essentially
the basic tenets of the in our local
agreement the recommendation is to
authorize the mayor to enter into and
execute the interlocal agreement with
you so fire and rescue for the PFS field
study project Thank You Sheldon
are there any questions a motion it's
madam air I moved to authorize the mayor
to enter into an execute the interlocal
agreement with East Side Fire and Rescue
for the PFA S field study project second
I'm going to take ok that's a member ray
so it's it's interesting sitting on the
SyFy rescue board and having dealt with
the same in her local agreement from the
other side of the equation this is a
really good deal for the city of
Issaquah this is an opportunity hats off
to Chief Clark and Mayer poly from for
brokering a deal that brings in the
money from ecology and the money from
commerce and gets us ahead of this
project so this could have been much
much more expensive and much more
damaging to the city than then it's
going to be because of people working
together across government subdivisions
and really taking this one on so I think
this is this is one of the from where I
said and where I sat when when the four
board approved this this is an easy one
Thank You councilmember ray
councilmember Goodman thank you I have
nearly the same comments I just want to
say thank you to Mayor paulien Chief
Clark and focusing administration both
of those organizations who have worked
very hard on this it's been very very
collaborative and I've been very very
impressed so thank you thank you very
much
councilmember winter Stein I may have a
couple of questions depends on the
answer to the first one has this been
through committee
No so why are we doing this one touch
now I know they've been other meetings
to authorize acceptance of the money the
grant money but this one actually has a
contract in it so this is the first time
the council is seeing contract language
hmm so why is it why are we doing it
this way good question
you're right to point out that it's a
one touch that's not our preferred
method but occasionally that's the only
way that we can get business done the
time constraints on this are that we it
took some while to work out all of these
agreements and the complexity of the
funding arrangements and there were
precursor steps like taking action on
the acceptance of the grant etc and
working out the scope of work it took
quite a bit of effort as well
and so that brings us to August and we
want to get some of the field study work
done while school is out since it's in
it's on school district property in part
so to have it to go to committee and
then back would prevent us from getting
the work done well school is out it's
more interesting more questions well
just general comment process so none of
that's in here there is no explanation
for the expedient manner of this and at
least if it's here I didn't see that and
I would think generally for a contract
that I would much prefer that and I was
I would expect that contract language
does does have the chance for a full
committee review I just this is
essentially when we get a bill like this
where nobody on council has scrutinized
in a meeting and had any presentation or
conversation about contract language
we're essentially running a committee
meeting here not regular business we
really should be going through this and
and have a conversation about the
details unfortunately you know I'm not
prepared to do that
honestly before this evening I did
assume that that we were going
here from the committee that reviewed
that because I know I wasn't on a
committee that reviewed that so I think
this process it's it is not a comment at
all about what we're trying to do I
understand about timing understand
trying to take advantage of Windows when
things are most properly you know done
best but I think as a matter of practice
as a city if we're gonna ask the council
to approve contract language even with
an existing partner and trusted partner
as yfir we are member of efer I would
still think it's appropriate process
rather than a one touch that Wade goes
through the committee route Thank You
councilmember interesting are there any
other questions or discussion it will
confirm that comes from understanding is
correct that the wine now should be in
the agenda bill so that was a good catch
thank you for pointing that out I've
been told by a friend that it is in
their summer but agreed it is not a
normal process not a typical process for
us is there any other discussion or
comments because the other unusual thing
about this that did get my attention
about this is that the language in front
of us is but we actually have a
photocopy of the contract and it's
already signed by the chief from the
Eastside Fire & Rescue and generally
that's an unusual process this is we're
way out in front of the normal process
in this one I just I just want to you
know add that piece of information to
the public record thank you I got a
little heads-up there from the city
administrator can you talk about the
contract piece of it whether or not it's
typical to have the other party sign in
advance
sure it just so happened that they've
had their business meetings ahead of
ours and so it's the most most recent we
could have given you one without a
signature but the fact of the matter is
it has Chief Clark has been authorized
to sign it and has signed it it won't be
executed until of course you've given
your authorization and and the mayor has
signed it and I just just one more point
of clarification I hear your point and
we will strive to bring contracts in
front of you so that they have
opportunities to go to committee
although that's not technically spelled
out in our policy as a requirement but
it is good practice and I will say we
alluded to the fact that this would be
coming before you when we brought the
commerce grant forward in June and have
had some conversation with council
leadership about the fact that there was
a quick turnaround and this would be one
touch so we've made it we've made
efforts to try to explain why this DB is
somewhat from what has been our past
practice thank you clarification any
other comments or questions are we ready
for the vote looks like we are ready for
the vote there's no further discussion
all those in favor of authorizing the
mayor to enter into and execute the
interlocal agreement with East Side Fire
and Rescue for the pee fast field study
project signified by saying I was
opposed that passes unanimously
the next and last item on our regular
business agenda this evening is a b7 six
six two the port for city rule in open
space acquisition this is requesting
approval this is the first time this
agenda bill has been before council and
I would like to invite Geoff Watling our
director our Parks and Recreation to
introduce this item mayor thank you good
evening Council I'll be quick
council members Goodman hunt and race
ought to bring forward a resolution just
to state support of the open space
acquisition efforts on the Bergsma
properties those council members
approach staff to assist in drafting the
route the resolution forgiveme
to ensure that it's consistent with the
exploratory work that's currently
underway this collective work between
staff and council produce the draft that
is before you now I will turn it over to
those council members to to further
introduce this resolution for your
consideration Thanks thank you Jeff
so we have a couple of options here we
can have somebody make a motion and then
go to questions discussion deliberation
or we can have the three council members
who propose this resolution speak
beforehand is there any preference for
process if not I would just make a
motion then this is just to make a
motion thank you sure I'll make the
motion I would move to approve
resolution number twenty 18-13 in
support of open space acquisition
efforts on the Bergsma properties second
it's been moved and seconded who would
like to begin also member Goodman thank
you so for me the inspiration for this
resolution came directly from the save
Cougar Mountain organization and I'll
speak to that in just a minute but first
of all I want to clarify that there are
three sponsors
I think our software allows one name at
the top of the agenda bill and but I do
want to I do want to clarify and make it
clear that there are three sponsors and
I want to thank council members rain
hunt for all of your work on this and I
also want to thank Jeff Welling and
Emily moon for all of your efforts in
preparing that resolution so the same
Cougar Mountain folks have been coming
to this council that are council
meetings since early 2017 to tell us
their concerns about the proposed
Bergsma development I might count that's
more than 16 months about almost a year
and a half I believe that most of us
council members have been talking with
folks from that group and the last time
I met with them just a few weeks ago I
was struck by some of their comments
first was how long they have been coming
to speak before us and like I said it's
almost a year and a half but we never
speak in return because the the
practices you know you public members
can come talk to the council during
audience comments and it's your
opportunity to tell us how you feel
about something and your opinion about
something so
what happens is they don't that save
Kruger Mountain folks have not heard
from us in return as a council the mayor
does provide periodic reports out about
the Bergsma activities at the council
which is a completely different branch
of municipal government has not
responded and that feels very wrong to
me
the reason this feels wrong to me is
because we the policy makers do know
that the administration is working with
trust for public lands which has already
been talked about publicly and as the
resolution states quote whereas a
current partnership with a trust for
public lands provides the opportunity to
explore acquisition options for all or a
portion of the Bergsma properties mayor
has provided several updates but the
council has said nothing about whether
it even supports the administration's
efforts second as the resolution states
it is anticipated that any funding
package would include city regional and
other funding sources but this property
is in our city so this council needs to
take a leadership role and send a strong
message that we support these efforts
the administration has a role but so do
we and so far we have been completely
silent third transparency with this
resolution we become transparent about
what our intentions are we intend to
consider acquiring the property with
that transparency the public now knows
that this council expects to consider a
property acquisition and the public can
weigh in accordingly
we should have as much engagement on
this as possible not the least amount
possible
David Kapler actually summed up how I
feel pretty well about the significance
of this resolution in an email and since
I don't think I can say it any better I
will just read his very short email
he said we have been really pleased to
see the cooperation going on between the
city county and Trust for Public Land
many of the strong supporters of this
acquisition are new to the process of
Park and open space acquisition this
resolution should give them some
assurance that the process is working
and progress is being made for those of
us involved in this kind of
in the past we know specific details of
the know gait of the negotiations are
not public and are best not being public
and tell the resolutions between parties
is agreed on for those people new to the
process this can be quite frustrating
but you and your partners are on the
right path in quote I completely agree
that we are on the right path and I
think it's time that we say that that
publicly so that's why that's where the
inspiration came from and that's the
reason that I co-sponsored this
resolution but I also want to say thank
you very much to the same Cougar
Mountain members who have just really
blown me away with your dedication
effort and countless hours I am very
impressed and very grateful that you all
care so much about our community you are
making a difference and I want to thank
you Thank You councilmember Goodman I'm
looking over at the other two sponsors
and councilmember hunt got her hand up
first
thank you so I believe in the intrinsic
spiritual value of open space and I've
open space in its natural state I think
that based on the approximately 100
emails that we received in the last few
days a lot of our community feels the
same way that said I don't think that
this is the time to make that speech
hopefully there will be a time to make
that speech but I do think I do think
that this is a companion statement to
what the mayor has already made public
which is that the city is exploring the
possibility of an acquisition and we
have not yet made our counter statement
and so this to me this resolution serves
as a counter statement saying that the
city is exploring the acquisition and
the council is in support of that
exploration as well and of that process
so specific to the resolution itself
there's a number of where as statements
that set the current context
and then there's the sections at the end
which are the part about now therefore
the council resolves which would be what
we resolved to do should this pass and I
think that the the whereas statements
they they say that it's a quad is
defined by its our forested hillsides
and that we have this history of open
space acquisition we have this history
of conservation
I think this path that we are
acknowledging we are on right now with
with exploring an open space acquisition
is a path that we as a city have been on
for a long time it's also pointed out
that this is by Harvey Manning Park so I
think that there's a history of support
for open space acquisition there's a
history of understanding the importance
of our forested landscape and of
preserving that and of hiking and of
staying the trail site that trailhead
City I I think in the sections that come
after the now therefore we resolve it is
clear that we are on a path and we are
exploring partnerships we if we are
exploring partnerships I think we need
to make it clear that we are in support
of this potential potential being the
capacity to turn into something and I
think that this does have the capacity
to turn into something I think that we
should be very clear that we are in
support of the city's efforts and that
this is an important process and that we
as council are engaged I I also want to
say that I think this is a path and we
with this resolution as I see it we are
acknowledging that we're on a path and
we're also taking a small step on that
path or that hike to an unknown
destination and I believe that it's a
step in the right direction I will be
supporting this Thank You councilmember
hunt with our third co-sponsor like to
absolutely I was very excited to be able
to work with councilmembers Goodman and
and to put together this resolution and
my primary objective was to say to all
the people that for sixteen months have
been coming to council meetings that
we've heard you and we understand you
and that we see the value in what you're
talking about the is quite as defined by
its wooded hill sides and this parcel of
land happens to be at the gateway into
Issaquah and it's one of the first
things you see and it sets the tone for
the future of how the city is going to
evolve and one of the things that I'm
struck with is I read all hundred and
some-odd
emails that came in was the breadth of
where people are coming from so there
are a number of people who who emailed
us about this resolution who live here
in Issaquah and who eight of us up here
work for but there's also a lot of
regional support I there were people in
Seattle there was someone from British
Columbia so there's a lot of regional
support here and this is also really
important for us to go on the record and
say look we we're not saying we're gonna
do this but we're saying we are open to
exploring it and that there's are there
are steps being taken and I think this
is really important for us to
demonstrate to our partners such as King
County in the state of Washington and
other funders other potential funders
that we are committed to making
something happen that's if we can make
something happen and the level of
regional support really lends lend some
credence to discussions that have
happened with the King County Council
and with people the state of Washington
so I think this is an important first
step I'm just stealing your hiking
analogy this is this is a first step on
a very long journey but it's necessary
and important first step Thank You
councilmember ray other council members
it's a member who interesting thank you
I appreciate Stacy mentioning mr. Kapler
Z male because they could actually put
voice to something that makes this topic
a little bit awkward for at least myself
sitting up here in the diocese as David
Kapler said is that he
his comment I'm gonna reread it for
those who of us involved with this kind
of process in the past we know specific
details of the negotiations are not
public and our best not being public
until the resolution between the parties
is agreed upon so it's really odd for
for me at least is is what you've we've
heard mayor Poli talked about in terms
of updates with the Trust for Public
Land well what we're saying tonight is
you know this is material we've covered
in executive session and we don't talk
about executive session so we're silent
that's kind of that's protocol and so
that's the odd we're in the 16 months
lots of emails phone calls meetings as
well and so yeah that communications
been going on it but it's been kind of
odd from this side as well because under
just the rules of executive session so
this is this is a very unique step in my
seven years on the council we're a topic
that previously had only ever been
executive session material is now kind
of is being brought forward this way now
there's other important information that
I can't disclose that an executive
session that we discussed and that's
where it shall remain but that's part of
the awkwardness of this as well we've
only talked about it in executive
session so yeah I hope I'm just going to
add a little bit more to mr. Kaplan's
emails that that kind of dynamic is
going on as well so and then back that I
do have one little NIT about the
language in the resolution and the
whereas clause on the top the first
whereas clause on the second page it
currently says whereas the Bergsma
properties compromise approximately 46
acres of forested hillsides with slope
ranging from 10 percent to 80 percent
containing six wetlands three streams
and associated buffers just for this is
a net it does that combat phrase in
there with slope ranging from 10 to 80
percent I think you read that and you
think that the entire land is sloped
there is some there's a bench especially
up high and I think
I would I'm gonna propose what we amend
this language just to be more accurate
and I'm going to propose that we make a
proposal to amend this whereas clause to
replace the phrase with slope ranging
from 10% to 80% replace it with the
phrase much of much of it steeply sloped
with some inclines up to 80% actually
just writing it down but yes that's
amusing formal amendment some up to 80%
so can we were just saying I think that
is great to propose to change and have
everybody vote on it are you okay with
the others going through their thought
process first or do you want to put the
amendment on the table right now as we
still haven't heard from three council
members I've made a motion it's been
moved and seconded to amend the language
to replace the description of the slope
with much of its deeply sorry
actually probably gonna have to read it
because I didn't write it down crasher
so it currently says with slope ranging
from 10% to 80% and I proposed the
motion is to replace that language with
much of it steeply sloped with some
inclines up to 80% small change
discussion I can't remember Goodman I
would ask director Watling if he has I
mean this is still is it accurate yes
thinks they saw I'm sorry what is what
accurate that that proposed the proposal
is written proposed change okay any
discussion questions and I'll call for a
vote it's changing the language in the
paragraph on the top of page 2 Paul the
first where I was on papers whereas and
using replacement language much of it
steeply sloped with some claims I'm
gonna have to get tissue to read it
Thanks sure replacing the phrase with
slope ranging from 10% to 80% with much
of it steeply sloped with some inclines
up to 80% all those in favor say aye
opposed carries unanimously and there
are still a couple of council members we
have not heard from customer Ramos
[Applause]
I just like to thank a number of folks
here first three council members that
brought this resolution forward thank
you for the work on that and thank the
safe Cougar Mountain folks I remember
our first meeting a long time ago um
probably 16 months ago the first
discussions on this and and where we're
going with it and how that process works
and so forth and I I really do believe
this is the right way to go it is a
little different but we are publicly
going to say that what we've been doing
and what we're desiring to get to we're
not we haven't made a commitment because
you can
but it says publicly that this is what
we'd like to do because I think it is
important as discussed
16 months ago to you is that that is our
view shed coming in it is a critical
piece that is very important and so it's
worth saying that it is important and
that's that is our desire so the
leadership of safe Cougar Mountain folks
thank you and our three council members
that said let's put this back to on the
stated clearly so no one know wonders
where the council is on this and it just
won't be private discussions so thank
everybody for all that and I'll be
supporting this Thank You More council
members it's the president
Mertz thank you madam mayor I have I
have four points to me the first is that
one I want to put this in the historical
context because you know for folks for
whom this is their their first time with
an issue like this in front of the city
I want to assure people that this city
has a strong commitment to preserving
open space and to give an example in
1998 10% of the city was open space in
2008 19.7% and today it's a 21% and so
we continue this is within the context
of a large commitment to preserving open
space as has been mentioned is that
identified as one of the key features of
this city so I'm gonna be a yes tonight
but I want to be super honest the price
tag matters and we're in a weird
situation as councilmember winter Stein
mentioned we can't discuss anything
that's been held in an executive session
but let me mention two numbers that I'm
confident we're not discussed in an
executive session
if this if somebody were to come to us
and say this is gonna cost the city
$4.95 we would all say yes and if
someone came to the city and said this
is gonna cost us two billion dollars we
would say no so so the number is
somewhere between there how do you how
do you talk about comparable values we
were lucky enough in some of our earlier
open space acquisitions part point we
managed
somehow to get 100 acres for no dollars
out-of-pocket although it represented
development in the Highland additional
development in the highlands hilltop
which we heard a little bit about
earlier this evening was $800,000 for 16
acres probably who knows but perhaps a
dollar value that's closer to
conversations the pool renovation cost
is five million dollars and the pool
renovation we got that out of a bond
right so we brought that before the
public and we said we'd like to do this
and the public voted on that the other
half of that bond went to confluence
park which we all know and love so so
those are some those are some numbers
that are out there on existing things
for the city benefit that we have done
in the past there's going to need to be
a really robust discussion before we
vote on something like this and I mean
not not the vote that we're taking
tonight and I understand why we're doing
that and I'm glad that we're providing
some clarity as to our thought process
but before we make a final decision on
whether to do this as much as it's been
identified as a as a super important
community value and I don't I'm not sure
I've seen an issue that has driven this
much of a response from the community
and in eight and a half years on council
we're gonna need to know a couple of
really critical things the first and
foremost is going to be partner
commitments we're gonna need to know
some of the partners that are out there
that would also benefit from this and
and have a vested interest in making
sure this happens and and want to see
trail networks expanded on Cougar
Mountain and some of the other areas we
want them to step forward we want to
make sure that we understand what our
financial commitment is I'll use a I'll
use since everyone is quoting David
Kapler I will quote a David Kapler the
last vote David took and I recognize it
was I was taking over his seat as he was
leaving council was for the pedestrian
over crossing at exit 15 and as it
happens we committed a million dollars
to that project and actually it wound up
being almost two
because of risks that we didn't realize
we associated with the project so we
have to we have to understand the risks
financial associated with this
additionally before we get to a final
vote I'll want to understand potential
public features of this land and how we
might integrate this in I know we've
this is part of our parks plan and but I
want to understand that because that
also is a factor in what the benefit is
for the community and finally the
financing options and how whatever
amount it is how we would potentially
pay for that and what the financial
impacts would be both for the community
and for our ongoing efforts to address
infrastructure and transportation
challenges that we have as a city so
that's all ahead of us and so you know
you're hearing a lot of great support
tonight and it's wonderful to be able to
talk about it but I want to be really
honest that there is a again I will use
the term robust conversation to occur
before we can get to where everybody is
that they want to get to so I'm a yes I
want to be clear Thanks Thank You deputy
council president batiste
thank you madam mayor and I'll be
supporting this this evening I myself am
very committed to preserving open space
and I and I think that the city really
has a history in in looking to preserve
open space and I want to say that I very
much appreciate all of the comments all
of the emails that we've received and
just over time all of the work that has
been done by the save Cougar Mountain
group I have had an opportunity to meet
with the save Cougar Mountain group and
it is difficult when we're in a
situation where we we can't really talk
about what what is happening and and and
being able to have this a be come
forward and have some transparency with
that and looking at some of the
partnerships and being able to talk
about this
I think it's great so for that reason I
very much support the SEBI I think that
this is a pathway this is a first step
this is looking at a potential
acquisition to echo some of council
president Mart's comments we're not
looking at all of the information in
terms of how much this potentially would
cost we also still have need to be
looking at the that we're taking all the
appropriate measures as the ad talks
about to separate this from the city's
regulatory role in terms of the
development application and I think
that's an important point I want to
thank the three council members that
have brought this forward I think that
that's really important and I'll be
supporting this bill thank you that's my
room weren't you saying yes I want to
express my support for this as well and
thank you to Stacy and and Chris and
Vicki it's a very novel idea but when
you when you think about it it's the
right thing to do we work for the public
and we're doing work and you want to
know what we think and where we stand on
something so let's tell you so that
sounds pretty simple but it's it does at
the same time it's kind of novel that
we're doing this what does that tell you
but I'm good with what we're doing but I
also haven't asked because as is already
some of my colleagues here on the counts
on this Dyess have said what's going to
happen in the future is uncertain and
part of the decision framework that
we're going to be using is is going to
be about funding and and so we have
something out there called our our CIP
our capital improvement plan and we have
a we just adopted it last year we've
made some we're gonna it's going to be
revised in a regular basis but that is
that is the framework in which at least
the lens that I'm going to look at this
because it calls it talks about what we
want to do with acquisition of land of
open space it talks about
we want to do with transportation
dollars it talks about what we want to
do with just the equipment to maintain
the streets and the roads around here
all those things that require capital or
money to get our hands on to and we have
to balance there our wish list is
actually quite large so if we add
something more like an acquisition like
this whatever that dollar amount is we
put that into that you know we're gonna
have to either take away from something
else or find a new funding source and
that's that's the process what we're
going to have to go through so I would I
would challenge everybody who supports
this and the message on support for open
space got it and I think it's unanimous
here as well no doubt about that
the next challenge for the council is
going to be how should this come forward
and what form it comes forward should
this come forward is how would we pay
for that because it's not it's not
obvious it's not currently in our plan
so understanding that and and
contributing as members of the public as
our constituents to that decision
process that we're making and I'll
gladly talk with anybody more about that
so you can help you better understand
that part of how we do budgeting and how
we come up with funding because I very
much would I would love it if there is a
future meeting or two or ten where where
people come to the Dyess and said you
know I've studied this part of your
capital plan and I see you having an
emphasis over here my recommendation
might be something like this that would
be great input because a lot of those
decisions do reflect our values but some
of them are you know it's going to be a
push we value everything that's on the
docket there but we're gonna have to
trade something off maybe that would be
great input to get as because that's
gonna be the next really difficult
should we get to that point that's gonna
be a difficult type decision we have to
be making so thank you for last thing
I'll say also about the safe Cougar
Mountain group I was I had to smile this
evening because after the first public
comment somebody made and in favor of
this motion mayor Polly said okay I see
about three-quarters of the hands are up
and I realized I wasn't looking up yet
and I didn't hear a single sound out of
the audience but then I looked and 3/4
as the hands repec oh my gosh you guys
are so quiet that's just amazing you
follow these instructions perfectly
you're letting us know that more people
support this and you didn't make a noise
I mean I mean that was it was kind of
amazing so I mean and that's what
happens you've been part of the process
you've been participating with this and
and in coming along and pushing us as
well and I'm I'm making an ass to to
come further in those next stages with
us as well with the funding question
Thank You councilmember hunt I have a
question and this is getting at the sort
of robust conversations I think that
Council of President marts alluded to so
the question is for Jeff will there be
community engagement opportunities
opportunities for the community to learn
about a potential acquisition prior to
any final decision that would be taken
by a council yes yes should this
sensitive exploratory work that that is
that it's happening right now should it
lead to a specific acquisition
opportunity I definitely would see
public outreach that there's an
opportunity for public outreach to occur
before you make a final decision in fact
I would reference the last sentence of
section 1 that last sentence speaks to
and outlines kind of this foreshadows
I'm speaking optimistically a moment
when this exploratory work produces some
specifics the specific opportunity
what's the specific size and scale
what's the specific funding strategy but
in that in that moment it's outlining I
think there's opportunity for that
robust conversation to be happening to
get some public outreach both to inform
the community but also get some feedback
thank you any other discussion okay if
there is no further discussion all those
in favor of approving resolution number
2018 - 13 in support of open space
acquisition efforts on the Bergsma
property see
by saying aye as opposed ares
unanimously thank you very much next
item on our agenda this evening is good
of the order does anybody have anything
for good of the order that's a member
right a my bi-weekly shout out so a
mayor Polly mentioned that National
Night Out is tomorrow and I live in the
the Tallis neighborhood and we are
having a a full-blown National Night Out
complete with bouncy house but that's
not what I wanted to talk about I just
wanted to give a shout out to the parks
department for working with the Tallis
neighborhood and getting the permitting
done I wanted to do a shout out so that
the police department is not here for
being there and representing an
engagement community and even though
East Side Fire and Rescue is not part of
the city per se definitely shout out to
our fire department for being there they
are always a huge draw so it's if you're
not doing anything it starts at 5
o'clock it's in Harvey Manning Park I I
will be cooking hot dogs thank you
anything else for good of the order I
just have a little bit of a look ahead
on some upcoming council meetings August
13th there will be a special council
meeting at 5:30 p.m. we'll be having our
financial retreat and on August 20th
there'll be a council special committee
work session at 6:30 p.m. the items the
potential items for their work session
include a facility space study which is
for city municipal facilities an update
and informational item on solid waste
services and recycling markets this is a
information request to provide more
information to Council on the regional
issue that is facing our part of the
country right now an update on the
Senior Center long-term operations and
an update on the transportation
concurrency model update that is
occurring right now and that's all I had
for it if you order there is no
executive session this evening so there
being no further business the meeting is
adjourned at 8:50 for
you
you
you