you
all right ok so it's so I only know so I
you
i'll call this special meeting of the
issaquah City Council to order on
October the 13th 2014 and ask those who
would like to join myself and the
council in the pledge allegiance to
please stand I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
moving now to audience comments citizens
comments are an important part of the
public process we take them seriously
and factor them into our into the
decisions that we make anyone from the
public who wishes to comment will have
the opportunity to do so who can
recognize when recognized please
approach the electron and speak into the
microphone state your name address and
relationship to the city please limit
your comments to five minutes and if you
have written comments please submit
those to the city clerk with that I
would ask if anyone has signed up to
speak yes Cynthia less bird
Cynthia less for 2408 Northwest harmony
way and is a qualm my question to the
board is why do we have these public
comments I'm sure that it's because we
are mandated by the state or we wouldn't
be holding them or maybe it's to give
the public a false sense that the public
officials are listening to them whatever
the reason it appears to me that the
council members of this board do not
listen to the public comment and I would
venture to feel to say that the public
feels the same way why else are the same
people come to different meetings and
say the same thing obviously they feel
that there is no acknowledgement of
their words being heard I've been living
in issaquah for about a year and a half
and have attended quite a number of
council committee members meetings the
conclusion is that the residents of is
applause concerns are either not being
heard or not important enough to be
acknowledged after public comment I've
also concluded that the council gives
the appearance that their mind has
already been made up before the public
gets the voice on gets to voice their
opinion something that's very irritating
to me and I am sure to others in your
audience is the timekeeper now I realize
that you do not want to speaker who
talks all night but it seems that just
when a lawyer or a traffic expert is
getting into the substance of their
presentation the time paper chimes in
with 45 seconds to me this is saying
shut up and sit down it is rude and
distracting the Train of the thought of
the presenter many people who come in
front of this council need to explain in
layman's terms very detailed information
so that the board members and the
audience understand giving these experts
in extra minute would be kind
consideration at a past council meeting
the council claimed that they had a goal
to involve the public more mayor Butler
felt that the council had met that goal
but a council members stated that there
had not been any criteria to make a
basis against I agree that if a council
is going to create goals they need to
keep metrics and I believe a metric for
the goal to involve the public
be how many times a person comes in
front of the council with the same
information if they have to repeat
themselves then you have not met that
goal I would like to propose to changes
to your public comment process number
one instead of the timekeeper yelling
out the rest of the time the council
will it would invest in three light
bulbs or three large colored cards green
for go ahead and talk yellow for you
have one minute left and read it's time
to sit down after the five minutes the
timekeeper can interrupt the speaker by
thanking them kindly for their comment
number two after the mayor has closed
the public comment have him read a list
of the public concerns maybe a lion or
two description then put the concerns
out for council discussion the council
may not agree with the residents
concerns but the resident will go home
knowing that he or she had been listened
to oh thank you
I neglected to to say that other than
normal comments like we just heard
audience comments will be restricted to
the development agreement and not the
other item since the public hearing has
been closed so on any other subject that
you desire to speak on that is all right
unless it is directed to the development
agreement itself and for the previous
speaker thank you very very much for
those suggestions many places where I've
been they use the the red yellow and
green light as an indicator and we will
be considering your to suggestions
typically I don't respond to public
comments but in in this case there seem
to be quite a bit of emotion behind that
so thank you for bringing that to our
attention with that has anyone else
signed up to speak
I mr. Kapler thank you David coupler to
55 south east andrews street now I was a
little confused at what you just look we
can speak to the development agree you
can speak a little bit about it that's
what I thought that's what I was hoping
I was hearing thank you and thank you
for the council for the extra time put
in on this it's well worth it and I
think the agreement has been
significantly improved now admittedly
i've been a broken record and been
saying the same thing for a number of
meetings so i can understand some of you
know citizen concerns would be that he's
been saying the same thing for a long
time but we have got some great
resolutions on several of those topics
so thank you one of the topics is trails
now one is consent not develop we should
not need any of the hundred fifty
thousand dollars except for a couple of
signs and the trail corridor around on
city property around the vet hospital to
get from under the stinky bridge to the
state park trail that would be a very
simple matter would be great because we
get to stop the homeless in encampments
in there with all the garbage and the
fire issues that are concerned to the
state park as well as to the city and
there would be good good for the creek
actually to have a more involvement in
that area watching the creek then then
it is now one i know we want to pass
this tonight in its 187 pages or
something it seems like it would be a
reasonable thing to do is I get an
agreement between costco in the city to
kind of get this in a more workable
package the the people are gonna have to
deal with this potentially in your 29 or
your 30 deserve better then then the
package as it's been put together and
this kind of goes back to my
long-standing concern about everything
significant happen on development
agreements and how hard it is for staff
and the rest and citizens and the
council to have different code different
language and everything for
every four different developments so I
think getting together and cleaning up
this thing in a new document would be
great for the long term thank you is
there anyone else this evening desiring
to speak as Marsh
my name is Connie March I have a store
at 1175 Northwest Gilman boulevard suite
b 11 and it's Halloween I also live in
town so as usual the costco development
agreement was difficult as all the
development agreements are difficult and
we've had a lot of conversations in my
house about the concept of balance of
power and you have a small town and you
have very large corporation so one of
the things that happens and we Corrine
I've both seen happen in town so that
we've lived she at very large
corporations and they have tremendous
influence on towns and so that can be
great and if something happens it can be
awful and so when we read these
agreements and we think about it it's
like it's our community how do we ensure
that this very large corporation with
tremendous amounts of power can have
beneficial influence to our community
because we live our small lives talking
to each other and saying hi to our
neighbors and and having these minimal
interactions which actually end up being
some of the most powerful things you can
do in life how do you change a person's
day and I know I feel that that is just
as valuable as being an enormous
corporation now finances override
politics towns need money so when this
city decides it wants to make costco
such a large part of it it seems oh so
important to ensure that you don't lose
the community while you're negotiating
that agreement and it's very difficult
and I am very proud of the staff and
council members who've worked hard to
ensure that the community can get as
much as they can out of this agreement I
feel like Costco is getting like this
amazing bonus agreement
and the community is getting as much as
the city could do wanting costco very
hard negotiation so i want to say that
as painful as i am too many most of the
time i appreciate all the efforts they
go in to these complex negotiations and
the endless writing and trying to get
seven of you on a page I don't like the
feeling that we're going to do this to
anyone who comes to the table with large
amounts of money and that concerns me so
the next step is to try to figure out
how we're going to make the central
issaquah plan actually be which all said
you wanted it to be only a year ago or
adjust it to be something else that's
equally good but don't forget that you
committed to benefits for our community
in that plan because we said we would
agree to adopt this tremendous increase
in density that is being allowed and so
as usual I'm torn Costco's an awesome
company that can bring many things to
issaquah and my fear that issaquah can
lose its soul to this same awesomeness
so next step in my mind is to yet again
gather together and figure out how we're
going to combine the threads of all of
these things together to make an even
better community which is probably even
more complicated than this costco
development agreement so thank you is
there anyone else in the audience
designed to speak this evening anyone
else desiring to speak third and final
call anyone else designed to speak this
evening seeing no one and audience
comments are closed and we will move to
agenda items there is one one item on
our agenda agenda bill 6780 costco
corporate headquarters development
agreement and sunset of a portion of the
Pickering place
Master site plan will begin with a staff
presentation and I see mr. Nevin
approaching the microphone
good evening mr. mayor City Council
Keith Niven with economic development
this evening we have our third meeting
to talk about the costco development
agreement in the major amendment to the
Pickering place master site plan just to
go through a slide that you guys have
seen a few times I'm going to try and
not duplicate all of the slides so
costco international headquarters 47
acres approx 700,000 square feet
developed under the Pickering place
master site plan what you have in front
of you this evening is an agenda bill
with two new documents the development
agreement itself has not changed but
there are two documents that were
included as attachments to the agenda
bill the first one the one on the left
is an updated memo of adjustments and
you can see the red lines that were part
of the previous discussion and the
update for october nine included some
additional green line edits that were
part of my presentation last last
council meeting the document on the
right which says exhibit b which is
actually exhibit H to the agenda bill
sorry about that what that has is three
columns it's a table it's multiple pages
and that represents the questions that
you guys asked following the last
council meeting the first column is your
question the second column is a
discussion of that question and the
third column is how it impacted the
draft development agreement and so what
you guys kind of came back to me with
following the last meeting is basically
there were 13 different kind of areas of
questions and clarifications that you
saw it and they're represented here in
this table a lot of conversation about
lease space and if the development
agreement should extend to leased
property some clarifications in exhibit
e which is defined terms and whether or
not those are in addition to the central
issaquah plan design and development
standards or do they replace things and
so we
clarified that there was a question
about precedence and whether or not the
interpretations and modifications that
would be that were proposed with this
development agreement could be used on
other central issaquah plan properties
we needed to add number for a section on
since sustainability was added number 12
we thought that one of the things that
would need to come back to the city
council would be if there were some
material changes to the sustainability
section since that was such an important
piece for the City Council number five
there was a question on one of the
interpretations and it really was not an
interpretation so we restructured a
section to be clear that that basically
buildings under 150 thousand square feet
would not go to the development
commission and that was not an
interpretation under this development
agreement that was actually what's in
the central issaquah plan there were
some questions about the tenth Avenue
sidewalk or pedestrian way trigger what
would actually get that to happen and
you know where we landed was because
there's some safety issues about putting
a sidewalk next to the gas station and
how that slip ramp works on tenth Avenue
we added some clear language about when
we would initiate a conversation with
costco about that issue and actually
look at some designs there was some
question about air rights and that's
relating to the sky bridge that goes
over lake drive there were some
questions about concurrency questions
about the density bonus floor area ratio
trail and as we heard from the public
earlier the trail has been brought up
basically at every council committee
development commission and city council
meeting sustainability was a big
conversation point at the last council
hearing and there was some conversation
about a revision to the land plan
looking a little bit closer at the
Development Commission recommendation
for views so so that's that's what you
guys brought up there's a couple small
changes that I wanted to go through with
you guys this evening one
was the sustainability exhibit which is
exhibit k and it was actually in the
back of that document on the on the
right-hand side which is exhibit sorry
for all the confusion on the exhibit
labels which was exhibit H it's a
sustainability basically exhibit to the
development agreement and what happened
late Friday was there were some edits
that were proposed by costco that we
tried to get in the agenda bill packet
and they didn't quite make it and really
there's there's three areas of substance
this is why you know I didn't feel
comfortable that this was just
grammatical changes or typographical
changes one was applicability where the
the language in the redline version of
the new exhibit k made it clear that
this would be applicable to new office
buildings the innovations would be
applicable to new office building so the
leadership and the technical innovation
would be new office buildings but then
it basically made a commitment that if
they did do a new retail space that it
would be lead equivalency you know and
that's that was new language that was
proposed and then the third piece was
that there was some additional language
added to the transportation management
plan and commute trip reduction program
that made a commitment for costco to
continue to work on those to improve
those over the lifespan of the
development agreement so those were
really the changes in the redline
version of the sustainability exhibit
and my hope is that you guys would
approve that redline version as part of
the development agreement this evening
the other changes there's one I listed
air rights and there was some
conversation this morning between the
city attorney and the attorney for
costco and the issue here is as you as
you remember from the land plan
that shows the new buildings and
Development Commission allowed for one
sky bridge to cross Lake Drive and the
issue with this is that because Lake
Drive will be a public right away the
tool that we have to allow for a private
structure to cross or to be within the
right away is a special use permit and
the issue with that is that's a
renewable permit for the city and you
know if you can think about the risk for
any developer to build a permanent
structure across right away and have to
count on the city renewing that permit
every year it poses an issue and so what
we started to work through today I think
was an alternative way to get that to
happen so I don't think there's any real
changes of substance it's just the tool
by which we permit it was kind of what
was a piece of conversation today and I
wanted to make you aware of that and
then I'm going to go ahead and jump into
this one now since I'm on other changes
so councilmember poly has asked hoops
not that one
let me let me reorganize here and focus
there we go sorry about that I'm
technologically challenged sometimes so
so I'm going to scooch it back down a
little bit sorry for that so this
diagram which shows the land plan and as
you can see I can't do that as you can
see those those dashed lines in in
between the buildings we're really
intended to be connections so these are
basically walkways in between the
buildings which would connect this is
the creek trail on the east this is Lake
Drive in the middle and then this is the
pond trail on the west side and because
of the way this was graphically
represented their leaves some ambiguity
on whether or not those east-west
connections actually connected to the
north-south non-motorized facilities and
so because there was that ambiguity and
we talked this through with costco and
they're okay with this edit we're
suggesting an edit tool and plan
condition number one and what it would
say is and i can read a little bit of it
to you is it's a concept so it says
however the three east-west connections
at building ends will provide pedestrian
connections to the north-south public
facilities and that's the sidewalks and
bike lanes and the PPO a which is
pickering place owners association
facilities and that's the trail pond and
Creek Trail so it's really just adding a
clarification that that that those non
vehicular access ways are actually
connected so the east west and the
north-south they all connect each other
so if you're walking through the campus
that there's a way for you to get kind
of around without running into a fence
or a hedge or some other kind of
impairment
okay um so that's it that's that's all
I've got for tonight I'm how do i
remember martes Thank You mr. mayor
where I'm sorry in which exhibit was
that language clarified the language you
just discussed I'm a little murky so I'm
going to look to my partner in crime
here just in case I described this
incorrectly so the development
commission's recommendations so that's
Development Commission recommendation
number one condition number one from the
development Commission's recommendation
since it's not any of the edited
language it was not part of any of the
exhibits this evening so it goes back to
the it's part of the land plan so it's
part of the actual development agreement
without edits so so the original
development agreement appendix D Exhibit
D is the land plan the land plan has a
staff report associated with it the
staff report has those conditions
included with so so it is part of the
exhibit a from the october sixth council
meeting agenda bill packet but it is not
in Exhibit A in the packet that we have
in front of us that so I'm going to look
to the city clerk because I don't know
the answer that so was there an exhibit
a development agreement I assume there
was since there was 187 pages in the
packet tonight yes it was the same
document that was provided at the
october six mo k so it exhibit a okay so
sorry for that round about John's but
we've been doing what I was confused
about is my understanding is that the
sustainability language would
potentially if the council chose BIA be
an amendment to the bill that's in front
of us but what you just described does
not require any sort of amendment on the
part of counsel I would ask that the
council so this is a change to the
so exhibit a to change to exhibit a to
incorporate a modified condition one
from the development commission so it
witting it would it would need the
council to include that if the council
so chose to include that this evening as
another amend as an additional amendment
beyond the sustainability amendment did
that make sense yes so what you the city
will be requesting to amendments to the
bill that is in front of us yes sir do
you have a hard copy of that second
proposed amendment I do would you like
it yes I would I can take it i guess you
of course you have a hard copy because
you showed it up on the screen thank you
very much
so now is time for council discussion
councilmember Milligan at this time I
just like to ask a process question
responding to dim Kepler's comment
earlier keith could you help me
understand what the in this follows up
on tolas comments too and what condition
is the document now and how does it get
to its final condition before when it
gets recorded so what we do is we keep
track of all of these revisions that you
guys are boating on so that's why it was
important to try and get it down to one
document but we ended up with a couple
so what staff will do after council
takes action on this assuming you
approve it if you don't approve I'm not
gonna do anything but if you do approve
it what we will do is feed all those in
and then we will review that with costco
because both parties will need to agree
that that these edits all get put in and
then once that happens then the
development agreement gets signed so at
the end of the day the sign development
agreement the Gwen gets recorded on the
property has all of these edits
incorporated into it did I answer your
question thank you and I was just
looking and I just not getting there
fast enough about which party on the
city whose science who reviews it and
signs it at that stage here so you guys
direct the mayor to sign the development
agreement on behalf of the city other
discussion or questions
sir mayor our would be the right time to
entertain a motion it certainly would
all right well then I would like to move
to approve resolution number 2014 dash
1818 approving the master site plan
amendment for the Pickering place master
site plan second and moved and seconded
and I am assuming that it Oh questions
or discussion on the on the resolution I
have a following question for mr. Niven
am I correct that the two proposed
amendments that the city would like us
to entertain is actually for the second
motion should we should we pass the
first motion yes you are Thank You
counsel is there anyone desiring to
speak at this time or are you ready to
act all those in favor of guess no just
the message that I got a site plan okay
we'll get to the development agreement
I'm assuming just a little bit later all
those in favor of approving resolution
number twenty fourteen to eighteen
approving the master site plan amendment
for the Pickering place master site plan
signify by saying aye aye those opposed
that motion carries unanimously mr.
Mehra I would like to move that we
approve resolution number 2014 dash
19 improving the costco development
agreement and site development permit
land plan and authorizing the mayor to
execute the agreement subject to one
provisions proposed revisions identified
in the council staff response memo dated
october 9 2014 which is exhibit F of
agenda bill 6780 and number two
additional changes identified in the
clarifications and changes report dated
October 9 2014 exhibit H of agenda Bill
6780 and number three minor
typographical and non-substantive edits
identified ansari intended to improve
clarity of the agreement second been
moved and seconded discussion before we
move may I move an amendment I would
move to replace the exhibit k
sustainability language with the with a
number of edits that are outlined in an
email that was sent by staff to the
council on Sunday October twelfth with
it with an amendment second and moved
and seconded a discussion on the
amendment all those in favor for proving
the amendment as outlined by
councilmember marks signify by saying
aye aye I was opposed that carries
unanimously and mr. mayor I have one
more amendment pursuant to the
conversation that we've just been having
and forgive me I was attempting to my
I'm having internet problems so the the
revised language that was discussed and
was shown on the screen and was entered
or was presented by staff is to modify
wit section its development commission
recommendation number one on the land
plan which is Exhibit A to the
development Exhibit D to the development
agreement all right see if I can do this
I move that we amend the development
condition Development Commission
recommendation number one which is an
exhibit d of the land plan to include
the language as specified earlier
however the three east-west connections
building ends will provide pedestrian
connections to the north-south public
facilities sidewalks and bike lanes and
pickering place or PPO a facilities pond
trail and Creek Trail second moved and
seconded discussion on the second
amendment seeing none all those in favor
of approving the amendment as stated by
councilmember marks signify by saying
aye aye those opposed that carries
unanimously now back to the original
motion as amended discussion or
questions so no so normally the maker
the motion would speak first but I've
been speaking a bunch so I'll let
somebody else start off everyone
desiring to speak councilmember Milligan
followed by a council member pauly Thank
You mayor and Thank You tola I wanted to
take an opportunity to reflect on this
experience we've been so embroiled in
let's use a juicy juicy verb it's been
an honor to work on this and I've truly
felt I know everybody else has to to
work on it on behalf of the city of
issaquah but of course it's on behalf of
a greater body is for the state of
Washington it's it's such a big project
that it's it I have often had to pinch
myself and think is this really what
we're working on so in that way I've
really enjoyed it but it's been a lot of
hard work and I want to thank the staff
especially in the administration your
leadership mayor and all of everybody
here extra time you said we had these
three meetings for the City Council but
indeed that's just a small piece of the
efforts that everybody is put in and I
felt that my concerns were well attended
to and I want to say that very clearly
every time I had a question it was
responded to with sincere
and thoroughly I also wanted to make a
point that I had two big things going
into this that I wanted to do and I
think that both things were accomplished
i'm very happy to say one was to limit
the development agreement so that our
central issaquah plan and the code of
city of issaquah could could carry the
day and only put things in the
development agreement that needed to be
there and i think the staff showed a lot
of restraint in that and another thing
was to assure that the development
agreement would stand alone another
thing about pinching yourself when
you're working with somebody like Costco
who's such a great partner and a great
employer for our neighbors and in a
great place to shop is that this
development agreement goes with the land
and it has to be good with that agreed
arrangement whoever may be implementing
it 20 years from now so I felt that the
staff worked very hard to fulfill that
and and after accomplishing those big
things there are three main things that
I enjoyed that we accomplished one was
providing our best employer an
opportunity to grow in Central issaquah
it's great it establishes a team to
improve and expand our transportation
capacity in the north issaquah and
finally finally tonight it creates the
ped connections that we need in North is
aquatic connection to the park the there
are other issues that we didn't get to
address such as in the transportation
plan to address the needs of a party in
the room especially I'm Randy bass but
I'm confident this isn't something we're
dealing with today but I'm confident in
our city that we will attend to that
with honor and and fairly deal with
those other issues that are just around
the edge of this development agreement
so I'm confident in that tube and I
wanted to just close with expressing my
support for the development agreement to
paint costco where is up there the
smiley face is sitting there to work
with us it was great to work with you
and thank the staff Lucy Keith everybody
who spent those countless hours tell
your family or
almost on your way home and I look
forward to working with costco and
implementing this and bringing this to
our city Thank You councilmember poly
nicely said Oh kinda hard to follow um I
just wanted to quickly apologize for
missing last week's meeting but was glad
to get back early last week in a game
pick up on the conversations that have
been going on for months and months with
staff and other people on the council
about what's going on with the agreement
what do we want to see what I ended up
with last week was there were several
things that were still on on the on the
table that we're concerning to me and
I'm happy to say that that they're
resolved and I like the way it worked
out I was very concerned about the
agreement following the land and worried
that if we were to exceed the amount of
land that costco currently owns and
wants to have under the development
greement and costco wants to lease we
could unintentionally it build out find
ourselves with an entirely commercial
area on the north side of the city and
that was not ever the intent or vision
of the plan and that language has been
tightened up in this version and I
thought that that's that's a great
outcome the other issue was I was
concerned that we wanted to make sure
that now that we've committed to this
vision of density that we get the
density that we're asking for on the
floor and another thing that was added
in this version of the agreement is that
all the new structures will meet the
minimum far that is required in this
area so again I was very pleased that
that language was changed my last two
things are probably the most important
to me and and nine and did a good job of
thanking everybody but I just want to
come back to the public that has showed
up at our committee meetings and our
council meetings and hammered it into
our heads including my neighbor who's
not here tonight that we need to make
this trail system work we really do are
your neighbors yes you're actually we
need to make this trail system work we
need to connect this area it needs to be
walkable it needs to be multimodal and
I'm happy with the changes that were
proposed in the ax men
tonight so Keith thank you very much
you're actually was working on that
today at about four-thirty I think so
that's great and the last one is the
development commission expressed some
concerns about views and I took the
heart some of the comments i got from
lucy this week when we met for two and a
half hours one morning about view
preservation and view corridors and
consideration of some of the development
commission comments and I then drove
through that area game with some of
Lucy's thoughts in mind and there's it's
amazing to me how beautiful that
campuses costco has done a wonderful job
with beautiful architecture and
wonderfully place buildings nice
amenities all around and the backdrop to
that is the beautiful hills we are so
lucky to have costco in our town and
costco is lucky to have such a beautiful
campus surrounded by green health I'm
hoping that condition to as recommended
by staff which is a justement to what
Development Commission said honors that
that peekaboo views are important I've
vistas are important I've been here for
20 years and I still kind of guessed
sometimes when I'm driving around town
so you have a chance with the design of
building number four to really play off
of that and I really encourage you to do
it so very excited about where we've
ended up Thank You councilmember martes
Thank You mr. mayor Mary Lou stole my
thunder I really wanted to get that
community pieces well obviously staff
and costco have had worked hard to
address the concerns that have come up
in this council but also a lengthy
process and landon shore if you're not
familiar with this whole process the
reason that i made this motion is that
this bill came through landon shore and
you know but the public sometimes sees a
council that oftentimes doesn't have a
lot of debate if we don't have debate in
this chamber it's hopefully because the
tough issues have been hammered out in
in committee and I I always want to take
a chance to or take the opportunity to
encourage
to come to those committee meetings and
and I don't want to say that I would let
someone talk indefinitely but in landing
shore it's a different kind of
environment and so we don't we don't
have any sort of a buzzer or timer and
usually people people do a good job of
not yeah they do a good job of that so
the community had a large engagement in
this and let me pick a particular issue
that that really was heavily addressed
and land in Shore one of the there were
a couple issues that were really
important to me one of them was
precedents and making sure that this is
not automatically the new the new de
facto standard for future developments
development agreements in the community
and because of that concern some of the
language was was changed in a way that I
believe will make it more clear and will
provide future councils with an
understanding of what we agreed to here
today if we should choose to to pass
this development agreement the second
though was sustainability and anybody
who has heard me get worked up about
sustainability I won't i won't do that
right now but suffice to say the
language that we have in front of us
today is very different than the
language that we had when last we were
at Landon shore and it's because the
process brought forward how critical
this was for the city costco has has
always had has had a long-standing
commitment to sustainability and
everybody understood that but we also
understood that it is such a key part of
our city that we needed to reflect that
strongly in this bill and is the
language as strong as some people would
like probably not but it is i assure you
very different and you can go back and
look at old council packets if you if
you don't believe me so i am very
excited about this i am very excited
about our re committing our enthusiasm
for costco and costco ria it reinforces
as immunity everybody knows that my two
big things our workforce housing and
living wage jobs workforce housing is
already coming to the valley living wage
jobs we will have more of those as a
result of this agreement so i'm very
excited this evening Thank You
councilmember share Thank You mayor just
go down the line I guess uh so I I
wasn't exact
sure what I was going to say coming in
tonight but the general impression that
I got from the amendments between where
we were before and where we are to our
tonight is very positive and that that
trend in the right direction for me is a
very good thing so I put together a few
thoughts on this particular occasion
given the the scope of this agreement
and the fact that it's it's really a
very very big deal for issaquah and for
costco first it ensures that a major
employer remains an integral part of our
community it ensures that for years to
come when people around the country and
around the world speak of costco it will
be in connection with the words quote in
issaquah washington-based corporation
now I want to turn specifically to the
two issues I raised last week
transportation and sustainability I'm
satisfied and I now understand to the
extent a non engineer can the
methodology in the traffic analysis and
I greatly appreciate the help of Sheldon
Lynn our public works engineering
director and torsten Lee now our
consultant who walked me through a lot
of that during a conference call and
what's clear to me apart from the
methodology is that we're going to face
more congestion some of that congestion
is going to be offset by improvements to
lake sammamish parkway and the Pickering
development but perhaps a continued rise
in delays and headaches and frustration
will finally push us towards the front
street interchange improvements and the
over crossing that we desperately need
one lesson I've taken away from this
discussion is that the type of mega road
projects like the North s Sukhois
roadway network cannot be done without
significant private participation either
voluntarily like costco's contribution
or involuntarily like the Li d we had
originally planned to build the extra
capacity I firmly believe the city needs
to refocus how our transportation is
managed and take a page from the former
NASA playbook of smaller faster and
cheaper to that mantra I would add the
word innovative now this is something
the city can do
this leads to my other topic which is a
paramount concern for environmental
stewardship i'm glad that costco has
heated our call for new appendix to this
agreement that we see tonight a tangible
demonstrable energy efficient and
forward-thinking development plan fits
within the character of our city my
enthusiasm is somewhat tempered however
because i personally believe the
provisions of exhibit k could go further
i remember it was last year that the
president singled out costco as a leader
on the two other legs of the
sustainability stool which are economic
and social sustainability he said quote
will need our businesses the best in the
world to set an example by providing
decent wages and salaries to their own
employees and i'll highlight the ones
that do just that companies like costco
which pay good wages and offer good
benefits end quote yes costco is
agreeing to a technology and a
leadership innovation as they're called
in the agreement but when it comes to
the third leg of the stool environmental
sustainability wouldn't it be great if
costco said you know we only agreed to
one of each of these things in writing
but we're going to step ahead we're
going to go above and beyond and we're
going to perhaps do two or more options
on this list i would point out that
nothing in this Agreement prevents
costco from doing better or more than
what we have discussed costco can show
not just our city but other top
businesses how to create a campus that
is not just another 20th century office
park this is something that you costco
can do now some may ask where is the
housing in all of this where is the 21st
century vision the central area plan
well i would say on one hand you could
look at it is perhaps these things are
left for future development i think that
viewpoint is ultimately self-defeating
because it just passes responsibility
for fulfilling the central area plan and
reaching our urban growth targets to
others who in turn might pass that
responsibility down the line and pretty
soon we have nothing like the dreams we
work so hard to conceive but on the
other hand there is a vision in this
development agreement and the vision is
for a vibrant or
urban corporate campus that will enhance
the value of our community and what
citizens can look at and say this is
something for us as it's a cual
residents and for the region and for our
state to be proud of so let's look at it
as glass half full going into this with
open arms and open eyes in some as I as
I view this proposal overall today is a
great day for issaquah and today is a
great day for costco this agreement has
my vote but my sincere hope is that the
days to come for both of us as we serve
our respective citizens and customers
are not just great but legendary this is
something that we together as partners
can do thank you I also remember barber
Thank You mayor as we work our way down
the Dyess here I was the one that spoke
last week in regards to the fact that I
was ready to move forward with the
decision on this last month or excuse me
last week I think there's been some some
wonderful changes to this particular
piece in and to me a couple of them the
first one is is the the bike and ped
trail connections that we see that was
wonderful to see that it was defined
more clearly than it had been and it's
not sort of just sell ambiguity out
there but there is some definition to it
and along with that definition comes a
time line attached to it so that
timeline i believe the fact that there
is a recommendation in there that
they're within 12 months there will be a
meeting to discuss the alternates and
how this is going to be working forward
the other piece that i thought was a
nice addition a very important addition
to this final document was conversation
in regards to the sustainability
additions and they're all represented
within this document and we've heard
some of them so i don't need to step
further into detail on those costco's
have have been for as long as they've
been with us a fabulous community
partner they've supported so many
different activities and elements within
our community and I all know they will
continue to do that that's just the way
they do business and it's fabulous to
have a corporate a very large world Norn
corporate entity coming to our
community that we know will continue
with those corporate responsibilities
and their involvement in our community
so I am now really ready to move forward
with this Thank You councilmember
Goodman thank you so I don't know how I
cannot repeat some of the wonderful
things that my fellow council members
have said um I just have to say wow this
really is a big deal and I am thrilled
to support this it really is quite a
statement that not only costco is making
but also that this council is making we
look at this as a 30-year development
agreement but really what we have in my
view is essentially a permanent
relationship and that's very exciting
because as we've already heard costco is
a provides good jobs at good wages a
very very well respected employer also
very well respected for their
involvement and commitment to our
community like my fellow council members
have mentioned all of my questions and
concerns have been addressed and
answered satisfactorily my top three
were these are my only ones but my top
three were a stormwater I was not happy
with the initial storm water provision
in the agreement pedestrian access on
temp was another big one for me and then
the trails issues that we've heard a lot
about and those have all been adjust
very nicely in the DA and I really
appreciate all the hard work on those I
want to follow many of the comments and
thank everybody who was involved it's
been quite an interesting process I want
to thank the staff I know you've just
really really worked hard particularly
the last couple of three weeks it seems
to me like round the clock and costco
for all your attention to all of the
questions that everybody had i thought
you're very thoughtful and all of your
responses in the way that you tried to
deal with our issues thoughtfully but in
a way that also of course made sense for
you and my fellow council members who
worked very hard and also i want to also
like council member Polly mention the
public those
a few folks who came to all the meetings
and really helped us understand what the
community really thought was important
in this agreement and that was very I
think very important to help to helping
the whole process the process was not
ideal and I think the reason that it
wasn't ideal was because of the timeline
and which didn't I think allow initially
everybody to do their best work not
staff not counsel not costco which
really is what in my opinion
necessitated the extra week which Wow
gave us a lot that extra time what a
difference that made so I appreciate
that at the end of the day I'm really
really proud of this agreement and I'm
really even more proud that costco has
chosen to be in issaquah for the long
long term so thank you costco council
president winter signs thank you I
assure you all the talented speech
makers have already spoken because
there's really nothing of substance that
I can add regarding this agreement that
hasn't already been said about there's
nothing I can add about the effort that
staff and the community and costco and
others have put into it I can't add I
echo and I read then I repeat all of
that I do want to add one thing is I'm
extremely proud of this council it is
tough to be looking at a deadline with a
document of 180 pages and really believe
that you are fulfilling your prime duty
as an elected representative the people
of issaquah and are doing the right
thing you know for the citizens and we
came here last week and it wasn't easy
but we wrangled another week out of this
and everybody the people sitting here
with me responded fabulously they were
very pointed response questions issues
of of substance that needed they were
identified issues of clarity where
identified and I hope that that gave
Keith in your staff and I'll something
very concrete to work with
I do appreciate those efforts especially
which started probably the last
Wednesday and with costco themselves and
responding to that as an elected
representative of people I think through
your efforts you can I believe that the
voices of the citizens of issaquah have
participated in the shaping of this
agreement and and so that response the
quality of that response and the
timeliness of that response and every is
really something I'm very proud of so
again I echo there's a lot of good work
that's been been put into this I had top
concerns people have already mentioned
them and I do look forward to you know
just the the cleanup of the final
document and the timing of that's all
very very important so I do and we'll be
supporting this agenda bill this evening
everyone has had an opportunity to speak
are you ready to act on the motion all
those in favor of approving resolution
number 2014 dash 19 approving the costco
development agreement and site
development permit or land plan and
authorizing the mayor to execute the
agreement subject to proposed revisions
identified in the council staff response
memo dated october 9 2014 exhibit F of
agenda bill 6780 and additional changes
identified in the clarifications and
changes report dated October 9 2014
exhibit H of agenda bill 6780 and minor
topography topographical and nine
non-substantive edits intended to
improve the clarity of the agreement and
the two amendments to the main motion
signify by saying aye aye those opposed
that motion carries unanimously there
being no further business to come before
the this special council meeting this
evening we are adjourned
good job
you
you
you