welcome everyone I call the January 16th
regular City Council meeting to order
this evening a special council meeting
was held to hear presentations by
applicants to fill the current council
vacancy we started at 5:00 and we just
completed that meeting due to this an
earlier meeting our regular meeting is
starting an hour later than usual this
evening on the agenda the transportation
benefit district bill has been moved to
the first order of business to allow the
public hearing to be conducted before
the hour is too late
public comments on other topics can be
made after the public hearing and
deliberation on agenda bill 72 5-0
because of the lateness and number of
those in attendance I will be limiting
cop limiting all public comments this
evening to 3 minutes during audience
comments we recognize that we have a
really large crowd tonight and it seems
like many of you have come to talk about
a single issue a single topic what I
would ask when we get to audience
comments is that if there are those that
want to present on behalf of the group
to come up and also after that if you
have additional new information that
supports your reason the groups reason
for coming tonight
please also come up to the microphone
and add that additional information for
us while you are in the audience this
evening and hearing different audience
comments if you hear at the end of a
speaker if you are compelled to show
your support for the the message that
they're presenting the information
they're presenting it's very helpful for
council for you to raise your hand at
the end of the speakers so that they can
get an idea of how many people came for
that particular topic so if you could
help us out with that tonight that would
be great I'd like to ask so I'd like I'd
ask those who'd like to join the council
myself in the Pledge of Allegiance -
please stand
I pledge allegiance
first item on the agenda this evening is
a b725 zero transportation benefit
district at the December 18th council
meeting council directed the scheduling
of the public hearing and the
preparation of an ordinance to establish
the TBD before I open the public hearing
I'd like to invite attorney
I've got Palace here is that correct
I was Austin ethic from our bond council
to provide a presentation go good
evening members of the City Council my
name is Alice Austin I'm with straddling
I've been the city's bond council for
about 15 years give or take a few
I was asked here tonight to come back
and sort of revisit I was with you back
in July and gave a kind of a more
general presentation about
transportation benefit districts I
understand that many of you have been
studying this quite in-depth since then
and have had a number back-and-forth
with staff and with the city attorney
about this topic so I will give you kind
of the overview and review and provide
some context for what the transportation
benefit district is and what it can do
and then I'll answer any questions that
you have
yeah all right so the formation of a
transportation benefit district allows
this it allows the city to form a quasi
Municipal Corporation that is a separate
independent taxing district which has
certain specific authorities and it is
funded specifically or it is created
specifically to provide additional
funding for transportation improvements
within its boundaries the transportation
improvements that can be funded must be
in the city transportation plan they can
include state highways and local and
regional streets as well
and it may include the operation
preservation and maintenance of these
facilities and that's the basic kind of
legal overview I did mention that it is
a separate independent quasi Municipal
Corporation however the City Council's
acts as the board of directors of that
entity the formation steps which we are
in the midst of tonight involve
providing notice to the public which was
published in December having a public
hearing which is teed up for this
evening at the public hearing hearing
all of the feedback that is available
from folks who do want to participate
following that if the City Council finds
it to be in the public interest you may
adopt the ordinance that's before you
which establishes the boundaries which
in this case would be coterminous with
those of the city and so you're not
proposing anything that's larger or
small or it would simply be the city and
specifying the transportation
improvements to be funded in this case
in the notice and the ordinance are
consistent on this again the boundaries
would be coterminous coterminous with
the boundaries of the city governance
would be the members of the City Council
sitting as the board the improvements to
be funded there's a missing bullet point
here which is that it's the
transportation improvement plan that the
city has previously approved but
including what's up there preservation
maintenance and operations which is sort
of a specific highlight in there and
then funding sources in the ordinance
that allows the vehicle license fee it
also allows for the other taxes fees and
tolls that are permitted by statute
which could be imposed at a later date
the vehicle license fee is the only one
by statute that allowed that the board
is allowed to simply go ahead and impose
should it choose to do so once it's
constituted that's a maximum of twenty
dollars and then after two years you do
have the opportunity to increase that
under the state law in terms of other
funding sources the sales tax is
available it requires a simple majority
public vote or approval and then there
are other possibilities of city road
tolls again requiring majority voter
approval or property taxes which would
require a supermajority voter approval
in terms of voter approval you would
have to come back to the voters with a
proposition that would describe the
transportation improvements specifically
to be funded by those resources and they
describe what those taxes fees or tolls
would be and then finally I don't know
how much this has been discussed in your
deliberations but recently the
legislature authorized cities to simply
assume the operations of their
transportation benefit districts once
they have been formed and we've seen
since this statute was enacted many
cities doing that taking over for those
transportation benefit districts so that
you avoid having that duplicative sort
of level of governance and so you kind
of do away with the district inform and
take on the powers within the city and
so that requires a separate ordinance
that would be that would happen
somewhere down the road but that is also
available to the city should you choose
to go down that road that's the very
brief summary but I'm happy to answer
questions folks have or provide any
other context that's necessary Thank You
Alice mmm Oh Paul kind of councilmember
Wonderstone
Alice could you top a slide for of your
presentation your third bullet says
improvements funded you just did mention
something about this right it does in
quote it says preservation maintenance
and operations and in the proposed code
language that is repeated a number of
times preserve maintain and operate it's
when unite when I look closely at that
proposed language it's in 1207 Oh 40 and
1207 Oh three
he never says it never really says
construct built it always talks about
preserve maintained operates right the
if you look at the notice and also
throughout the ordinance it also does
talk about the projects that are
included in the transportation
improvement plan which also include many
construction project just by the nature
of those projects being ones that might
be creating something new that that is
even though we use these words only in
our in the code that would by
implication that's allowed
I believe the reference there is to the
entire transportation improvement plan
okay the second question I had was
simply does you know it does talk about
streets city streets and can that does
that extend to non motorized corridors
as well is it just motorized streets and
does it go as far as the other related
improvements such as sidewalk and other
improvements so the transportation
benefit district itself really can
include really can include those kinds
of improvements that are within your
transportation improvement plan it's not
research into motorized types of
Transportation okay because the ordinate
of the proposed code does say city
streets so I think if we would maybe
want to clean something up if we want to
consider that and if that's possible but
I think the TIR RTI P does include both
motorized and non-motorized components
so city street seems to be a little bit
in conflict with that potentially thank
you you can't some everyone just thing
that's Myra Goodman
I'll up to Paul hello to Paul's question
and I'm not sure I heard something
correctly but well that's good a little
broader in a little different way so
this is there refers several references
to our CW's up there so was our code or
we since we're following the statutes
mhm
would it be expected is our code
expected to track those statutes or
there would be anything different so
whatever the statutes allow
our code would allow we're not doing
anything different or do we have we
changed a little bit well the statute is
drafted more broadly and and I'll turn
to the city attorney as well if he has
any thoughts on this question but the
statute is drafted broadly to permit
transportation benefits districts to you
know fund any number of kinds of
transportation improvements and sort of
adopts by reference regional plans and
so any transportation improvement that
is within a regional plan approved by
the city is technically eligible under
the statute now if your code has
something narrower or whenever your code
references so what's in this would
control as long as it's within that
broader context Jim I think what I'm
getting at is Paul reference Street so
Wood Street if you're building a street
could you also include building
sidewalks but then that conceals yeah
our trails and I would think that if
you're building a one of these projects
that Street would encompass what we
typically call as a complete Street but
oh the actual proposed ordinance states
that the board has all of the powers
which are granted by the statute so it
broadly gives the board those powers it
provides that the funds generated by
that transportation benefit district
shall be used for transportation
improvements that meet the requirements
of the statute so yes I believe they
would have the transportation with
benefit district would have the
authority to include sidewalks and other
improvements assuming that those are
authorized by the statute which they are
they'd have to be in the city's plan and
transportation plan but yes thanks any
other questions
what's my beret so just just a
clarification so we can establish the
transportation benefit district and not
impose any new vehicle taxes that at the
time of creation that's correct that's a
decision that would be made it's a
two-step process formation first and
then coming back once you constitute
yourselves as the governing board of
this new entity then you get to make
that decision later
about what if any taxes fees charges are
told you may want to impose any more
questions at this time I'll open the
public hearing the public hearing for
the transportation benefit agenda bill
the comments were accepting now are two
just to that particular bill digits and
comments are important part of our
process and when I'd like to make sure
everybody who wants to comment on this
agenda bill knows to come up to the
lectern state your name and address if
we put the public comment instructions
up on the overhead for those who haven't
participated before and do we have a
sign-up list sorry
opening the hearing at 8:14 and has
anyone signed up to speak this evening
yes Lindsey Walsh I made it through the
crowds Lindsey Walsh 1769 28 Avenue
Northeast up in the highlands I'm really
pleased to see that we're looking at
DVDs this is an option
I think I said hey we're not ready for
that I was thinking the decision related
to the car tabs I think it's fine to
create the transportation benefit
district we're gonna have to have a
robust community conversation about
funding I think looking at the
information in some of the packet that
you guys had received I noticed that
there was a lot of references to the CIP
there's several options on there that
are related to parks I would assume
that's not included but we were talking
about the transportation plan and the
CIP was listed in there so I was a
little bit confused on that and then
beyond that there was something I have
to get to page 36 of course it's not
going to show up in there I think it's
just really important to think about the
larger scope of this
we're looking at the $20 car tabs that's
only going to give us an estimated
450,000 compared to the sales tax and so
it's really it's a small portion
it's a portion that we need in order to
four to spend on our transportation
stuff but I don't want to put make the
suggestion that that's going to make all
of the issues go away so thank you
Thank You Lindsay is anyone else signed
up is your okay hi Vicki come on up if
you have comments that you'd like to
present if you could queue up over here
because I think we have a lot of people
who are here to talk about some other
subjects as well thanks Vicki hello my
name is Vicki hunt I live at 95 Highwood
Drive south west on squawk Mountain and
I'm also a member of the Planning Policy
Commission but speaking as an individual
I was really glad to hear the
clarifications regarding that the
transportation benefit districts could
cover non-motorized walkways and roads
because I think as we become more dense
as a city we want to make sure that
people are able to get around using
transportation other than single
occupancy cars and there's a lot in our
visions for the city that will involve
Boehner or a pedestrian walkways tree
tree-lined streets and I think that that
is a great clarification to make that
this can also be used for non-motorized
improvements thank you Thank You Vicki
marina a marina Subbaiah one three four
one eight two hundred ninth Avenue south
east just south of the city limits
regarding a transportation district I
just say that I'd hope that this city if
it is established I'd hope that the city
would work collaboratively with
surrounding jurisdictions I believe
Puget Sound regional councils designate
it as a quite a city center or some I
don't have the exact language but a
recent regional transportation hub
you're a large gateway to i-90
so with potential for just recognizing
that your transportation decisions have
regional effects and potentials for
tolling your city streets and like
previous decisions with your truck
routes have have significant effects on
neighboring jurisdictions so I would
hope that that is a part of the actions
and consideration considerations and all
of the the establishment and actions
that they might take Thank You marina
would anybody up - oh you're agreeing
Thank You Linda anyone else wishing to
address the council tonight on this
topic a second time anyone wishing to
address the council on this subject and
a final call seeing no other people were
wanting to comment tonight we close the
public hearing at 818 and come back to
Council for questions councilmember
Goodman if there are no more questions I
was gonna make a motion I would move to
adopt ordinance number 2 8 to 3 mending
the Issaquah municipal code to enact a
new chapter 12 0.70 Issaquah
transportation benefit district
establishing a transportation benefit
district specifying the boundaries for
the transportation benefit district and
specifying the maintenance and
preservation of existing transportation
improvements second it's been moved and
seconded to adopt ordinance number 2 8 2
3 amending the MU knispel code to act
enact a new chapter 12 point 7 o is
saccade transportation benefit district
that's been moved in oh the motion so it
has been moved and seconded is there any
council discussion on this it comes more
months so I would actually like to
consider I would like to move an
amendment so let me explain to you this
amendment so as we have talked about I
had have some concerns around whether
we're getting into specific remedies
before we've had a holistic conversation
about the entire package so I would like
to propose the foie
amendment so I would like to add in
addition direct the city administration
and the council ad hoc long term Finance
Committee to propose a comprehensive
funding strategy for transportation
capital projects for the for the full
City Council's consideration by June
2018 is there a second second chicken
scratch here so amendment has been
proposed it's moved and seconded to add
the language in addition direct the city
administration in the council ad hoc
long term financial committee to propose
a comprehensive funding strategy or
transportation transportation capital
projects for the full City Council's
City Council consideration by June 2018
is there any discussion
council president Mertz so this if if
this amendment is approved I would be
able to support the bill as written this
is a conversation that I've had with the
administration about how to on how to
address my fundamental concern which is
around us getting to this the broad what
the broad package would look like an in
timely fashion
I'd be more comfortable enabling this
mechanisms I recognize that tonight
we're not deciding on any particular
funding dollar amount or anything but I
want to have I want to make sure that we
have a date certain to a conversation
about the the broader funding strategy
this would enable that to do so so I'm
hoping you will support this amendment
council member Goodman so my question is
about what what this amendment in the
direction would do how is this different
from what the administration's plan is
already does do we have any maybe that's
a question for Emily and then and and I
think what if the work if the if the
workload that we
have can accommodate that we as in terms
of the administration city staff so I
want comprehensive packages as well but
since we're not doing any packaging or
funding tonight I don't think there is
any proposal to do so I just want to
know what the ramification of the memo
would be sure I think you're correct and
assuming that we were going to have this
conversation at the ad hoc committee
along with examining all of our
long-term financial sustainability
issues I think in part the motion gives
a deadline for us to have that
conversation and then return with some
recommendations to the council okay so
it's it places a deadline on the
intention that was already there yes
does it change the timeline dramatically
no that's my red booties so I I would be
in support of the amendment when we were
have been talking about the
transportation benefit district really I
to go back to what I've talked about
before I think that this is putting
another tool in our tool belt for lack
of a better way to describe that and a
lot of conversation needs to be had
around what what we would do going
forward but I think that putting a
timeline on this and having that
strategy come forward together along
with that conversation makes really good
sense thank you
anybody else wanting to comment on this
councilmember we understand question
about the amendment timing how do you
see that inter playing with potential
tasks or activities for the TVD we were
you know should we form this then we
would we could we could identify one to
three specific projects and say let's
let's go forward with a plan on how to
fund those there may be their unfunded
portion right now in our capital
improvement plan how do you see this
this date certain for this more
comprehensive
question-how it may are you intending it
to affect the actual course of action
and the options and the timing of the
options for the DVD yes it is motion
maker so one make sure is for making out
for administration well yeah I mean my
my fundamental concern is that as I've
stated before we have the most
regressive tax structure west of the
Rocky Mountains we have more regressive
tax structure than Idaho and sales taxes
aren't as bad as head taxes or tabs but
they're there at that end of the
spectrum and so I'm hoping that we will
develop a comprehensive funding strategy
that has both progressive and less
progressive elements to it rather than
relying just on the expedient but ultra
progressive form of sales tax so I'm
hoping that that I don't have to make a
big decision on a big funding mechanism
that's super regressive before we've had
that comprehensive plan in place
I'm gonna go to councilmember Rea next
now come back I am just really a point
of clarification on the amendment and it
seems to we have more than one purpose
then in this this motion and so my
question is so if the administration
doesn't deliver the comprehensive
funding material by the end of June does
that unravel this adoption of this
amendment or of this ordinance the ideas
I just don't like them together great so
I'm gonna call a friend likely a lawyer
friend to address this one it's Jim if
they are made as the same motion then
yeah motion is amended then you're
voting on both issues at once and if you
disagree with one then that would be a
problem for voting on both of them in
the same way you could separate them
into two motions if you wish to do that
the two are related but not necessarily
dependent upon one another at least
perhaps from mr. Marta's standpoint they
are dependent on one another so well I'm
fine with separating them into into two
motions as long as we can address the
the the topic of my interest first
because I'm trying to get to YES on the
other piece I'm not a guess right now
but if we if I know that by June we're
going to have a comprehensive plan then
I could be yes on the other piece so I
would like to change I don't know the
specific language that I would use to
make it into two separate so you're
causing me a little pain here
no we have a motion on the table that
deals with the formation the TBD and
then the amendment if we split it into
two motions we cannot vote on your
motion first we have to finish the
business at hand if I'm so you will not
know the answer about the second motion
the one that seems to be more important
until we finish our business on forming
the transportation industry
that's one member Goodman I don't know
Robert's Rules of Order is very well but
is it possible for the maker of the
amendment to withdraw and then the maker
of the original motion to withdraw the
original motion and then go back to
making motion you made first and make
that decision and then make a motion on
the dole that's I don't know the public
you go ahead Jim well yes if you would
through the amendment and then if the
initial motion was withdrawn as well so
that there is nothing on the table then
you could make them in the order that
you wish under Robert's Rules of Order
so we'll start with the amendment first
Council are white with drama and the
second degrees and who do you withdraw
the motion I will withdraw the main
motion to give an opportunity for the
discussion second degrees yes thank you
and now councilmember Mertz would like
to put a motion on the table thank you
madam mayor I move to direct the city
administrator and the council ad hoc
long term Finance Committee to propose a
comprehensive funding strategy for
transportation capital projects for the
full city council consideration by June
2018 there a second second it's been
moved and seconded you direct the city
administration and direct yes direct the
city administration and the council ad
hoc long-term financial committee to
propose a comprehensive funding strategy
for transportation capital projects for
the full city council consideration by
June 2008 is there any discussion let's
remember almost yeah so total you and I
agreed on this last time we were the
dissenting votes and and I I know what
you're trying to do it's not quite
getting there for me first of all we
talked about regressive taxes and a
total agreement with with that part of
it but I do think also that we're just
not there yet I don't think there's been
in
public involvement before we go to
setting up a taxing district and that's
my big hang-up is we're setting up a
taxing district before you've done that
so a little bit of the cart before the
horse I think there needs to be a lot
more of public involvement before we
take this step and the timing of
something still says we've taken this
step and that says we're still going to
do that but it doesn't get to anywhere
I'm saying the public really wants us to
set up this transportation district so I
I understand what you're trying to do
but but it doesn't quite get me there
because I'm we're back to progressive
taxes and not enough debate discussion
before we start have the authority to
impose taxes because once you set up
that district the authority is there to
impose taxes and do that so I can't get
there yet any other councilmen
councilmember Goodman I have a question
about a question before was does it
doesn't speed up anything does it does
it delay any plans the administration
had if we were to establish the TBD to
come forward with earlier projects or
was the plan to hopefully get a tool in
place so that we could use it in the
future if there was a decision by the
council sort of a different question
sure that we have not yet discussed
timing on bringing forward you've acted
on the capital improvement plan for the
year so that's our short-term focus is
implementing those projects that long
term discussion about how to fund the
overall transportation plan is one
that's been ongoing
I think we'd love to try to bring
recommendations to you as quickly as
possible we have some projects in in
short-term that still lack some funding
or partially funded projects in our CIP
so that would be the next area focus for
us would be to fill provide some
opportunities to fund those near-term
projects okay so it doesn't change
anything and so respectful of told us
concern I at this point I would support
the amendment
that's my beret I think it
councilmember President Marx's idea our
motion to direct the city staff is is
solid I think it is good business
practice I think is something we should
have before making just decisions about
revenue so I am fully supportive of this
motion councilmember a anymore
councilmember comments discussion if
there is no further discussion all those
in favor of the motion to direct city
administration and the council's ad hoc
long-term financial committee to propose
a comprehensive funding strategy for
transportation capital projects for the
full City Council's consideration by
June 2018 please signify by saying aye
as opposed that passes Sixto with
someone care to make a motion on the on
the ordinance make any cast member
Goodman I'd moved to adopt ordinance
number 2 8 to 3 amending the Issaquah
Municipal Code to enact a new chapter 12
point 7 o Issaquah transportation
benefit district establishing a
transportation benefit district
specifying the boundaries for the
transportation of benefit district and
specifying the maintenance and
preservation of existing transportation
improvements second it's been moved and
seconded to the motion to I'm not going
to repeat the motion right now it's been
moved and seconded council discussion
sounds member Goodman I support this you
know we've had you three at least
meetings on this and I've said several
times that I support this because it is
it's it provides flexibility for the
city there's no funding that would take
place now that those are for future
decisions but I fully support providing
flexibility for our transportation
projects or which we do need funding and
we may choose to use this tool later on
but that's a decision to be made in the
future thank you any other council
members let's remember we're interesting
I agree with councilmember Goodman and
I'll add that
with establishing this special-purpose
district does add to the options that we
can consider and potentially propose in
that June time frame without it we would
be more limited thank you any other
councilmembers if there's no further
discussion all those in favor of
adopting ordinance number to 8 to 3
amending the Issaquah Municipal Code to
enact a new chapter 12 point 7 Oh is the
quad transportation benefit district
signified by saying aye aye those
opposed okay
five in favor and council member Ramos
opposed thank you
the next item on the agenda this evening
is audience comments and in case folks
at home can't see we have a huge
audience tonight so the rules and
guidelines that apply to public hearing
also applied to audience comments
because of the late start this evening
we're asking each person coming to the
microphone to spend no more than three
minutes addressing the council and if
you are here speaking on behalf of a
group and there are members in the
audience who support what you're saying
please raise your hand at the end of the
speakers time so that the rest of
council can understand how many of you
are here to support that particular
speaker and the topic they're talking
about has anyone signed up to speak this
evening yes
Bruce simple followed by Ed Hanson and
Dave Wagner if you can please queue up
behind the podium thank you
thank you
my name is Bruce temple and I live at
102 Burr Ridge Way Northwest within the
talus development
I'm a resident Lovisa PO my comments are
primarily about health which is
understandable given that I'm a retired
physician and who's passionate about our
Issaquah Alps in which I regularly hike
there's a substantial amount of ongoing
parcel development here and I have no
doubt that the council spends
considerable time evaluating as it must
the many associated engineering aspects
for roadways retaining walls house sites
and related services my concern relates
to the health aspects of any associated
loss of green spaces and forests and I'm
not alone in this the regional open
space strategy for the central Puget
Sound region states we cannot afford to
underestimate the importance of open
space in supporting human health and
goes on to say that would despite 40
years of evidence the benefits of health
are often not part of the planning
efforts I ask Ken konigsmark about this
and the substantial and growing
literature on the health benefits that
open green spaces and forests provide he
responded that in addition there are
also other studies that show the
enormous value of ecosystem services
provided by forests and open spaces such
as clean and accessible drinking water
flood control and air quality etc to
which I would add landslide avoidance
and mitigation of stormwater runoff
which is so necessary for our iconic
salmon after having replaced the open
spaces with homes and streets these
ecosystem services functions have to be
replaced with human measures such as
water filtration dikes and other
engineered means the costs of these are
immensely greater and require ongoing
operations and maintenance expenditures
that never end
I provided a sampling of studies for
your reference that describes the
substantial benefits of health of open
spaces and wood land forests
one of these from the Department of
Environmental Conservation of New York
State lists eight benefits of forests
with the relevant references from the
scientific literature ranging from the
boosting of the immune system to
lowering blood pressure reducing stress
etc I would commend the council's
perusal of this representative sample
from the science literature and hope
that you will be encountered to always
incorporate the potential health
benefits of green spaces and woodland
forests into your future evaluation of
proposed developments I thank you thank
you mr. Hampel forty to fifty people in
the audience have raised their hand to
show support for the speaker's comments
if you have written copies of your
comments please drop them off with the
clerk at the end of your turn at the
podium and the next speaker ed hansen
counsel I'm ed Hansen I reside at Timber
Ridge 110 Ridgeway and Issaquah I'm
president of the resident Council there
of about 425 residents and most recently
you might expect what might be occurring
there with people who have acknowledged
the fact that the moratorium has gone
away and that settled the agreements of
surrounding Timber Ridge are no longer
in existence so there's some degree of
concern and I might say anxiety about
what happens now and I think my comment
so basically oriented toward maybe what
what happens now and and maybe hope that
maybe you think about some of these
things that I mentioned the population
they are as very versatile and as a wide
range of professional backgrounds that
we have there and people there have
lived all over the country and in
various places so they have a pretty
broad spectrum of what what's happened
and some of the discussions I've had and
had
do with their experience with city
councils and cities and towns that they
lived in and I'll just share with you a
little bit of what what some of the
feedback I got on that these experiences
basically had basically to regard to
land entitlements zoning building
heights floor area ratios and road
access
they've been remarkably similar I think
and the people I've talked to residents
come in an appeal for fair balance and
considering proposals to develop land
parcels which are seen as open space
green belts unbuildable locations due to
terrain contours the presence of family
trails through wooded areas and I would
think roads that are already crowded as
well so people who've come here to live
from all over the country see this and
over and over and these cases as well as
what they see here they've found out
that a council can be persuaded that a
good chain saw a bulldozer and
outstanding retaining wall contractor
can make almost any parcel of land
buildable and for that reason it becomes
very as we know very attractive to a
developer likewise the addition of a
stop light what would be another way
well I remember your former mayor Fred
the butler who came to Denver Ridge
several times and he would listen to
some of our concerns and he would always
not his head in agreement and and would
give a very favorable approach but he
always said and I thought this was very
important and I was glad I'm persuaded
to agree but I have to tell you he would
say that when I take these issues back
to the City Council
they often changed my mind
and I think that just wrap it up mr.
Hanson sir again if you could wrap it up
with a concluding statement I'm finished
at the present time anyway I think
that's sort of the foundation of our
concerns and we really understand your
challenge during this year and we're
grateful very thankful for your service
thank you
Thank You mr. Hanson mr. Wagner I
counsel good evening mayor
I'm here as a 3-minute reminder standing
back there buried in the voice of
freedom it's quite warm it's nice up
here you guys the voice of freedom is
extremely important as we well know in
this city but that voice is paid for by
duty service and sacrifice and reminder
that I want to tell you is that tomorrow
Daniel McCartney our Paris County
Sheriff will be buried and his funeral
is at my alma mater PLU tomorrow at 1:00
p.m.
and we don't want to forget those voices
of democracy those voices of freedom but
we surely don't want to forget those
people who provide that safety sacrifice
and service so that we can do this
tomorrow is a sad day for his family for
his children but it's one more reminder
that we live in a free country because
of the brave men and women who serve
Daniel was a six-year Navy veteran who
was involved in electronics and
supported the army the best service
there is and we just don't want to
forget that service as well not only did
he serve his community but he served his
country next Wednesday the 24th I'm
inviting this city flintoff funeral home
has
asked us if we would in fact bury a
veteran at the Holman National Cemetery
that has no family one remaining family
member is dying of cancer in a hospital
and will not be able to attend
so our VFW post will be there to bury
Daniel sorry Charles Danielson on the
24th at 2:00 p.m. if you're would like
to come down City it would be wonderful
to have you any of you that can make it
to be there to to say farewell to
another Air Force veteran who paid that
price for freedom thank you thank you
mr. Wagner a show of hands in the
audience
I'm tisha do we have anyone else signed
up for comment we do we have Tina
Conforti followed by Janet wall followed
by Jim Lippincott absolutely when we get
to the end of the list I'll I'll let
other people indicate that they'd like
to come speak good evening everyone
my name is Tina Conforti and I live at
12:20 awkward place northwest Issaquah
well I'm here tonight for the same
reason of everyone is here I believe
he's a guar is a unique historical
culture and natural heritage located in
the he's a co helps cougar Munter park
service in part why the life habit while
offering ample opportunities for
recreation we needed to preserve and
stay behind other more dense soil
vegetated area of the park away from the
side and the sons of a nearby urban area
regularly see a the cooker cooker monden
along with a wider life such as black
bear bobcats and many birds and other
species
we needed to save the importance of the
culture and be more responsible to the
natural heritage located in the hyssop
ahab's I am a proud resident of hosaka I
came from the bigger huts and I find the
little hearts I I invite all of you to
to save Kruger mountains we need we need
a fresh air we needed to restore the
land the way the way it is for long for
a long time so please save a coger
mountains thank you miss conforte a
large raise of hands everybody that's
here raised their hands miss wall I'm
Janet wall and I live in the over Dale
Park neighborhood at 2-2 seven-four-zero
South East 56th Street after having read
the geotech report by Reilly I feel that
the proposed development of the Bergsma
property would be a grave mistake I have
learned a lot about landslides and
retaining walls since moving to Issaquah
23 years ago at the end of my driveway
there is a 40 foot retaining wall put in
by the Sammamish Water District to help
protect the water tower that was not the
original wall an earlier wall had
collapsed because there was inadequate
drainage from behind the wall and it
caused a major landslide which went half
way down the hillside fortunately there
weren't any homes directly below when
that happened years later a housing
development did come in below the water
tower
but the drainage they put in was not
adequate residents complained that their
marshy lawns so dish they complained
about their marshy lawns so additional
drainage was put in which deposited
stormwater on the steep slope itself I
investigated and found out that the
additional drainage was put in without a
permit yet I couldn't get anyone from
the city to be concerned about it
until the near collapse of a retaining
wall further down the hillside the
residents of Park Hill apartments were
given 15 minutes in the middle of the
night to evacuate their apartment
building because the be the retaining
wall above was giving signs of
collapsing the wall had to be replaced
and was giving sigh the wall had to be
replaced in the drainage from the
development above was tight lined at
their expense the geotech report for the
Bert's Mott property indicated that
there are layers of sand and gravel
above impervious impervious soil
probably clay creating perched
groundwater in places when that occurs
on a hillside it can be a recipe for
disaster
especially when trees are removed and
the ground disturbed clearing the Heat
trees which soak up water and stabilize
the hillside with their roots
exasperates
the issue we've all heard recently what
happened in the Santa Barbara area when
the tree canopy was destroyed by fire
and lives were lost when the hillsides
turned to mud and destroyed the homes
below it was a clear example of how
important trees can be in stabilizing a
hillside I don't believe it's a quiet
present has the staff expertise to
properly evaluate and inspect
construction activities on steep slopes
to prevent landslides from happening on
this site look what happened recently at
Allis the geotech report had numerous
cautions about construction activities
one of the things that mentioned that
advised proof rolling and you Janet if I
could get you to conclude that would be
great okay so I I really feel that we
should learn something about the history
of landslides that we've had in the area
see whether there is other methods of
preserving this land using possibly the
tdq transfer of development rights or
other methods
raising funds to compensate the owners
Thank You Janet
all hands up in the air
[Laughter]
hi I'm Jim Whipple cotton two two five
eight Newport we're northwest part of
the Sammamish Point community thank you
for taking the consideration of our
neighborhood to not develop the bergna
Hill so much Issaquah for me as a fairly
recent resident is tied to the the
visual beauty of the hills around and
the hidden development tucked here and
tuck there that starts stripping away
the hillside so close to the visual
corridor that you've taken so much time
to preserve I think this is just you
know the first straw to ruining is a
quarte to what it could be and continue
to be and thank you for considering that
keep the keep the trees thank you thank
you very much all hands up
I appreciate the speakers who have come
so far we've heard about health concerns
drainage concerns and protection of
trees is Tina our to show there are
others on the list there are next we
have Janie Swift following followed by
Francesca Aguilera and Lisette Aguilera
yeah sure
case you wanna
ambi Malkowski part of the Tallis
development eight nine zero lingering
pine lane northwest and speaking as a
residence I heard earlier during
petitions for applying for the council
position how awesome your
responsibilities are because the
decisions you make affect the community
not this year but 20 30 40 maybe even 50
years from now and what I found is that
there's a outspoken community here
willing to work to preserve some of this
and some of the most recent ideas were
like participating in land conservation
advisory groups where King County is
working with cities to preserve over
sixty thousand acres of high
conservation value lands including farm
lands nature's trails the Bergsma
property is arguably considered some of
that high-value land the King County
effort also includes potential funding
sources which may allow for an equitable
distribution the only negative is of
course it requires action from the
council and it won't happen
automatically and unlike a developer
they don't come calling on a regular
basis to do something the negatives of
building the 57 homes have been talked
about a number of times but just quickly
you know it's misaligned with the plan
vision of everything from the growth
management act Mountains to sound
greenways the King County lands
conservation initiatives you know just
the whole large clearing large sections
of visible growth and arguably it's not
even in line with the a comprehensive
plan for reducing sprawls and protecting
the environment or creating pedestrian
friendly communities again arguably it's
not even within its supposed own design
standards in the green edge of acquiring
it's already been talked about at least
once the risky development 50 percent of
the land is high-risk slide potential we
have very adjacent land immediately
adjacent that has slid before and within
eyesight of that Heslin there's been a
home damage on land very similar to that
additionally the amount of development
here is just unbelievable in some ways
you're talking about eighty eight
hundred truckloads you know ten minutes
twelve hours a day is a hundred twenty
days just think about how much the land
is getting displaced and the argument
that there may not be any slides is
almost laughable critical areas are
being affected it's a twenty seven acres
of wetland stream slopes two of three
streams are being crossed two of six
wetlands are being filled in all that's
been talked about as of yesterday the
variances are not listed on the State
Environmental Protection Act site
obviously it decreased the safety of
continually interrupting any potential
trails or pads or anything with more
cars and development and and not really
aligned with the sequester survey again
of loving of the environment and
complaining about traffic so that's what
the fifty seven homes buys you the
alternative is a little action on the
council side thank you thank you very
much Andy all hands in the air
tisha would Francesco or Lisette like to
make comments okay qu so then next we
have Kay Haines followed by Susan de
Ville and Julie Clark
Kanes 2830 Northwest pine cone drive
Issaquah I want to address the Bergsma
windward property and why we think it
should be given emergency acquisition
funding status the city has many funding
requirements and priorities we
understand that and we respect that but
looking ahead five twenty fifty years
from now how many of those funding items
will seem as important as the loss of
our forested hillsides and the prominent
scar that's going to be left on Cougar
Mountain and the Gateway to the Issaquah
elves we ask you to consider the Bergsma
windward plat as an emergency
acquisition is it late in the
development process yes is it going to
be costly yes but maybe this is the
price we have to pay for having no teeth
in our vision and here's the higher
price that we'll pay a much higher price
in addition to the permanent loss of the
current view shed there will also be a
complete clear-cutting of 22 acres of
tree canopy in a critical area a 12%
access road that gains 350 feet in
elevation through the property over a
thousand feet of retaining wall is up to
20 feet in height and for water
retention vaults 14 acres of site
grading through 40% slopes the removal
of 88,000 cubic yards of the mountain
2:06 wetlands filled in and stream
buffers reduced a major removal of
existing forests along Newport Way homes
perched right on the edge of previously
heavily wooded slopes the addition of a
hundred cars and 543 daily vehicular
trips along newport a slight to this
neighborhood already deluged with the
coming five hundred and seventy two
units of new housing with over a
thousand additional cars and over 3500
added daily vehicular trips this would
also be the loss of a truly rare
opportunity to connect mass transit to
an urban trail that had
cougar Mountain leave your cars in the
highlands or anywhere in the region and
take a bus to the trailhead we are all
stewards of the land and environment in
Issaquah but the City Council and staff
are the leaders of the stewardship
please consider the Bergsma windward
plat and emergency as well as a great
opportunity for the city put together
the staff citizens elected officials
regional groups form a reader group seek
out partnerships partnerships explore
all the pieces of the financial puzzle
together quickly so that this
opportunity is not lost thank you thank
you Kay oh hello Susan deville I'm from
the Newport corridor 2825 Northwest pine
cone Drive hello just City Council and
mayor Polly I've been I'm going to refer
to the Bergsma windward development as
Bergsma and I've spent the last year
trying to figure out how the Bergsma
property application for development was
even approved it has been an interesting
yet frustrating journey in my research I
became acquainted with the comprehensive
and central Issaquah plans the city put
a huge amount of time and resources into
creating these plans which established
the city's future vision and policy
direction but how does the Bergsma
proposal line up with these plans it is
my belief they do not this development
is in direct opposition to concentrating
density on the valley floor which is one
of the primary issues stated in the
comprehensive plan so how did this
happen during a recent meeting I had
with city staff concerning his property
I asked a city planner
how will they insure cougar Mountains
tree canopy and tree retention will be
in compliance with the comprehensive
plan and I was told by this staff person
he explained that they are bound by the
zoning laws
in land-use codes associated with the
property the zoning laws bind them the
comprehensive plan is only a guide so
going forward what is the city doing to
protect our forested hillsides
developers will never build to meet a
vision they build to meet meet required
codes and standards and they build to
maximize their profit when will City
Council update our land use codes to
meet our vision until then it is up to
you to protect our forests to do sides
and preserve our Issaquah gateway and
view shed thank you Thank You Susan
all hands raised Julie
good evening and I'm also speaking about
the Bergsma windward property and we've
heard about many of the problems with
the Bergsma property and some of the
frustrations and limitations in trying
to work with the city and its codes I
would like to talk about some solutions
my belief is the best use of the 45
acres is for public open space because
the Bergsma property is special this is
one of the last parcels of forested
cougar mountain hillside in Issaquah
acquiring the property would be
consistent with the vision of the
Comprehensive Plan by the city taking
the lead to protect this land we will
keep the northeast corner of Cougar
Mountain forested and open to the public
this parcel is just steps away from the
Issaquah Transit Center and accessible
to many residents the Bergsma property
connects to existing city and county
open space and by acquiring the property
and providing the link to the existing
open space it allows for safer
activities to those utilizing our trails
so in addition
so the solution is in purchasing the
property and I am bringing forth a few
funding options in addition to applying
for numerous grants that are available
through King County the city has
excellent credit and could consider
selling bonds or using bank credits
acquiring Bergsma could be excuse me
acquiring Bergsma should provide the
city with TDRs that could help fund the
acquisition but when the city gives out
free up zones the TDRs lose their value
it is our understanding that the city
excuse me that King County is interested
in partnering with the city please step
up show initiative creativity and a
willingness to work with others Issaquah
is not an isolated island members of
Issaquah and surrounding cities such as
Seattle Bellevue Sammamish Snoqualmie
Ridge have expressed support let's
accept their help it feels like the
residents of Issaquah are not being
heard and there is not a serious effort
by the city to acquire and protect this
area as open space we want to know are
you doing anything and if so what thank
you thank you Julie
all hands are raised anyone else on the
sign-up list tisha yes next we have
Rachel a thought followed by Hart
Sugarman and Joe Verner
good evening Rachel a font my address is
1 7 7 0 7 South East 60th bellevue i
live adjacent to the city of Issaquah
and myself and my family spend about 90%
of our time in Issaquah so I often
forget that I'm not a resident here I am
a resident of Cougar Mountain and so I'm
speaking as a resident my first time do
not have polished notes my 9 year old
actually asked me to come tonight he
looks around almost every day and asks
why are they tearing down more trees why
are we not stopping all the destruction
of our forests and of our mountain and
so I'm really here on his behalf
supporting him completely to ask you to
consider the future generations that
will be in Issaquah and our communities
and to please do everything within your
power to maintain as many green spaces
as possible thank you Thank You art and
all hands were raised just in case there
was a doe good evening mayor and
councilmembers my name is Hart Sugarman
I live at 255 0 Northwest Oak Crest
Drive I've been here for living here for
21 years I'd like to talk about the
development and construction along
Newport Way which is west of State Road
900 current construction projects are
underway and others are in the pipeline
we don't know yet the impact it will
have on the traffic and the neighboring
community therefore please put a hold on
any new projects that are in the area
including the Bergsma when we're
property thank you Joe
all hands raised and Joe's hand is
raised - Thank You mayor City Council
I'm just going to take a brief moment
Newport Way Northwest is a main
east-west thoroughfare into Issaquah and
out of this aqua that is not the i-90
freeway but parallel is a freeway should
there ever be a slide
on Cougar Mountain that comes down
across Newports way that would be a
major impact on the city not just for
the residents we have to figure out how
to get out of the Newport Way area but
to our past through traffic and then
we'd end up being listened to watched on
world television and news and that
wouldn't be good for us so I don't
begrudge the birds my family and the
Windward Development Corporation they
took their risk they were betting on to
come but I'd sure like to see the city
in the county step up the pace to
acquire the property for the use of the
public thank you thank you Joe all hands
in the air
yes the last two commenters who've
signed up are Teresa marks and Steve
Pereira
hello my name is Teresa Marx I live at
to 500 third Avenue Northeast I'm
actually an aqua city resident but I'm
speaking on behalf of the Eastside
Audubon Society you may not know that we
connected we conducted a survey in the
area around the Harvey Manning Park from
November of 2015 to September of 2016 we
followed 1.5 miles of trail and we were
asked at that time to conduct the survey
because of development that was
happening on the nearby parcels of land
during this survey we had experienced
team members that noted all birds seen
or heard as they walked along those
trails they did a total of 10 walks over
the eleventh month period over this
period of time they found 43 species of
birds 15 of which were year-round
residents 14 were migrants and 14 either
visited or flew over the site while they
were there a total of 22 species were
seen in the area on just one day in May
during the breeding season breeding
birds were confirmed by presence of
breeding pairs male singing on territory
adults feeding young active nest and
nesting behavior breeding birds
consisted of both resident and migratory
species nesting birds used the entire
forest area from the ground to the
understory to the canopy 13 species were
thought to be breeding in the area and
these included the hairy woodpecker the
Pacific slope fly catcher the backed
capped chickadee the Pacific wren the
chestnut backed chickadee the brown
creeper the brown crowned kinglet the
American Robin the back floated grey
Warbler Wilson's Warbler dark-eyed junco
z-- and spotted toe he's my grits found
at the site who may have used the area
as a stopover include the olive sighted
flycatcher
the Western wood peewee the violet green
swallow the warbling very very oh the
orange crowned Warbler and the Western
Tanager black-headed grosbeak and the
purple finch
most of these were seen in the spring
because migration patterns in the fall
require a little bit different route for
them in order to find foraging they also
noted that a
King County regulated wildlife species
the bald eagle was seen flying near the
park in both April and July due to the
difficulty in seeing and hearing birds
in the forest the team that did this
survey considered the results of this
survey to be an undercount of the
numbers of birds in the area the flora
in the area consisted of big leaf maple
western red cedar Western hemlock and
dumb list Douglas fir with native shrubs
planted near the landscaping of the park
these surveys were all reported online
to eBird and online database and we did
this survey to hope that this
information can assist in future
land-use decisions including what will
happen to the Bergsma property as an
organization whose mission is to protect
preserve and enhance natural ecosystems
on our communities for the benefits of
birds other wildlife and people
we support open space green space and
limited development in natural areas
thank you very much Teresa all hands
raised
Steve steeper down old town for about
ten years now so first of all thanks to
the 13 people put their had a name and
consideration for this new council in
addition that though there's all kinds
of opportunities to volunteer for the
city and I just done City Council
Commission's boards committees coming to
and speaking your mind before the City
Council to say you know what you think
so this is more of a plug for everybody
in the audience please get involved with
your city
second topic on January 10th I had the
opportunity to attend a presentation at
the Issaquah Senior Center on group
called hero house which is a
organization that does community meeting
places and there's one here in Kirkland
factorio in Bellevue and one in Seattle
but a sudden international organization
where people with diagnosed mental
illnesses can come and work on daily
maintenance activities not just have
meals but plan the meals make the meals
hospitality I think was a great chance
for the city to have an opportunity
where people could come and meet and
learn about this opportunities I want to
say thanks to zoo quest Senior Center
and for the
for making that opportunity available
lastly on saving Cougar Mountain I
support the idea but I think if there
ever a poster child that says there's a
piece of property that we don't want to
develop it would be Bergsma property so
I think we need a firm look at city code
enforcement and changes that say and
prevent this from happening not just
having to use the city funds which are
limited for the broader scope I support
the preservation I just think we need to
be thinking 5 10 30 years down the road
and making that happen thank you thank
you very much Steve all hands and
support to show anyone else must sign up
this No
before I ask if there's anyone else that
would like to talk I wanted to thank all
those who came tonight and spoke about
Save Cougar Mountain we have heard about
health concerns drainage preservation of
trees working with land conservation
groups cooperatively that Bergsma
proposal is not in line with the
Comprehensive Plan vision and goals it
has impacts to critical areas a request
for emergency city funding the desire to
protect forested hillsides open space
designation being the best and highest
use for this property the enjoyment of
future generations the concern of
development pacts on existing
neighborhoods the concern of slides on
existing neighborhoods and safety and
road closures and the effects on
wildlife if there is anyone else who has
not signed up and would like to add to
this list of items that you've presented
to Council tonight I see two hands I'm
actually gonna start with Linda and then
I'll get to marina I'm Melinda Shepherd
at 1 4 9 8 5 to 56 Avenue southeast
Issaquah I'm in miramont so I'm not a
resident of Issaquah but I identify
myself with Issaquah and I spend a lot
of my time in Issaquah both hiking and
shopping so supporting business in
Issaquah the riley geotech report has
numerous cautions about construction
activities after removing trees it
advised proof rolling and calm
acting the soil only during specific
soil moisture periods when the soil had
a specific plus or minus 2% moisture
content
I doubt that the city staff would be
able to ensure these conditions were
always met under our changeable weather
I'd like to point out that I've lived in
Miramon for the past thirty years and
the past several years three to five
years our weather patterns have changed
dramatically and we've been had we used
to have mist constantly all through the
winter and we had the rainy season and
then there's August now we have day
losses and we have much more flooding
than we used to so assumptions that we
made before about weather patterns are
not valid in these times do the city
staff know how many tests borings are
needed and where on this property to
locate perched water tables and other
locations of concern an original SEPA
determination for this property
recommended mount maintaining the
forested character of the hillsides
protecting and preserving the existing
tree canopy it is recommended the use of
off-site transfer of development rights
as a means to achieve that end we should
look into ways of protecting the
hillside to reject proposed development
is too risky oppose the impact of
endless eighty eight hundred truckloads
of dirt that would have to be carried
off adding to our traffic and congestion
x' you may have seen the signs along the
valley road that say Issaquah keep your
dirt so it's not making friends in the
community we must finally learn
something from the history of landslides
in the area the fall of the water
district retaining wall in and the other
the other cases that janet wall
mentioned in her talk let's not
underestimate the power of water
the difficulty in evaluating soil
structure and where soil conditions
warrant some hillsides are better left
forested and undisturbed thank you give
in to all hands and many many signs
raised Marina marina Subbaiah
one three four one eight two hundred
nine thousand new cell theast i'm
representing dozens of residents along
may Valley Road with Issaquah addresses
technically south of the city limits
concerned specifically about trucking
effects from the potential bergman
development in addition to adding
support to all the other previous
speakers the decisions by this council
to ban trucks from Issaquah city streets
last November has had a devastating
effect on May Valley Road we are not in
your jurisdiction and County site state
law firm making it difficult for us to
restrict traffic on our Road but the
proposed Bergsma development has eighty
eight thousand cubic yards of dirt to be
removed we would like to ask that a
condition be placed on the permit for
the permit I guess when it's presented
to the Hearing Examiner that specifies
that may Valley Road is not a haul route
for the development should it go through
grey get from when word committed
verbally on October 30th that he was
plant or they were planning on using
i-90 for some dump site east but that
obviously is meaningless if not in
writing or not specified in conditions
so asking that a SEPA condition Council
resolution condition to the permit be
placed that me Valley Road is not on the
Hal route that the whole route uses SR
900 to interstate 90 the interstates and
highways are used as efficiently as
possible for removal and bringing in all
material to the site the and
the I don't understand how SEPA I don't
super resolutions can claim that
eighty-eight thousand cubic yards of
dirt can all be mitigated or that
trucking has no environmental impact but
somehow they do someone could explain
that to me later but second point being
that your current truck ordinance closes
most of your city streets to local truck
traffic but I would just consider that a
local construction project in your city
limits is local traffic and I would like
the city to take responsibility for
developments that you approve that if
you are collecting the money and
approving developments that technically
all of your roads are on the table for
any haul routes needed for those
developments and consider that in your
decisions and in summary I presented the
safety concerns along may Valley Road to
the increased truck traffic thousands of
gateway trucks that we saw over the past
year than me would middle school bus was
literally inches away from being
rear-ended by a fully loaded tandem dump
truck on May 5th and on July 11th the
semi truck rolled over on the road I'm
just a few hundred feet from the Liberty
High School bus stop and not on my belly
Road but I'm sure we're all aware
December 28th the truck rolled over on
State Road 900 and that was a driver
admittedly was supposed to see on the
interstate and took SR 900 as a shortcut
and was driving too fast and the road
was closed for I believe almost eight
hours so thank you for the consideration
lots of hands lots of signs is there
anyone else who would like to provide
some comments or additional information
on topics we've heard tonight sir
thank you I'm Bruce Bailey I live at two
to four seven Northwest Boulder Way
Drive in Issaquah I'm in talus and thank
you mayor councilmembers I think you
have a rare opportunity ahead of you
right now and that's to make a
difference what it's going to requires
you to step up and make a difference
right now you have a vision for Issaquah
and a zoning code that the don't align
they don't intersect and that's why
these projects keep coming up right now
your your vision is really written on
paper and it's not really your culture
in order to have a culture it's got to
be a belief it's got to be followed by
behavior then that produces an effect
that becomes your culture and that gets
the results we're looking for it's a
quad developed the way it's written on
paper so I I passed by a landslide
anywhere from two to six times a day
that has a nickname to it it's called
shower curtain Hill because it's covered
in a shower curtain so if you want to
know how long a landslide takes to
resolve that happened I was in the
council meeting when that was with that
when that was approved and the City
Council said that this is something
that's going to be a sound decision
it's got sound engineering twenty six
months later it's still covered by
shower curtain
I urge anybody to go up to that hill and
see what it takes to stabilize a hill
the engineering is unbelievable so
please look at this partner with King
County and make this an acquisition
thank you thank you
lots of hands I'll do another call is
there anyone else who would like to add
information this evening Elizabeth
Elizabeth mapa I live at 100 Big Bear
place on squawk Mountain and I'd like to
speak for the residents who don't have
mailing addresses or street addresses on
Cougar Mountain there are people who are
living up on that property who will be
forced closer down to the road they
don't have any place else to go
they're not wildlife but they still need
a place to live I'd also like to address
the piece of property called Providence
Heights campus that's a place that has
currently a whole lot of buildings that
were designed to provide affordable
housing that aren't being used but could
be used if the city had the willingness
to save them we are now back where we
were
after the Hearing Examiner made his
decision and the property owner will
still fight you but you have a chance to
rethink the city's position that's a
beautiful piece of property it has woods
on it that are holding back water which
when they're removed will run down into
the residential areas across the road
some of what they've just said about
Cougar Mountain applies thank you very
much thank you Elizabeth
lots of hands lots of signs I see Dave
Kapler hanging around in the background
thank you David Kepler 255 southeast
andrás I know nothing to quote sergeant
Schultz about all these people out here
so Senior Center is on the agenda
tonight you do have something else to do
tonight and I think you're going in the
right direction the idea of having a
nonprofit organization take over the
long term operation of the Senior Center
is fine I know the contract and the
visibility of the operation will be
completely different than it was in the
past and I think that's a fine course
and carry on thank you Thank You mr.
Kapler anyone else one hand up Thank You
Linda so I can ask for a second time do
we have anyone else desiring to speak
this evening and we do I counsel I'm
Christopher Fisher I'm a resident of
shoreline I'm out here to speak on
behalf of anybody who may not have
transportation like myself and those
that couldn't be out here tonight to
speak in favor of keeping the Berg's my
property wild I come from a rural area
before this and it's very difficult
sometimes to deal with the noise and
confusion that the city can bring and I
think that it's very important for
people to have a space like cougar
Mountain to remain wild and for there to
be a place for people to go for a sense
of health and well-being like was talked
about earlier so I'd like you to
consider that thank you thank you very
much
lots of hands up in the air anyone else
wishing to speak this evening this is a
second call for anyone are you wishing
to speak this evening seeing none a
third call I'm going to close audience
comments for this evening but before I
do I would like to thank all of the
people who came tonight I tracked about
six different items that were discussed
but by far and away the save Cougar
Mountain group of speakers had almost 20
people providing comments to council
today I appreciate that you covered a
long and extensive list of issues and
concerns and thank you for bringing that
to the council this evening thanks to
everybody who came in we are going to
move on to their regular busy
portion of our meetings so if you're not
staying for that exciting and riveting
part I would ask if you could hold your
conversations until you get outside so
that we can continue with the business
meeting thank you very much the next
item on the agenda this evening is
committee and regional reports and we'll
start with councilmember Rea nothing to
report this evening Thank You
councilmember Ramos
thank you I'll try to make this quick on
the 10th of January we had my emergency
management advisory council meeting and
we're setting up next week or next month
I say on the 14th of February
Valentine's Day to have a full-day
workshop for the council to work on
resiliency and preparedness and that
coordination across the county last
Friday the 12th I was a did Eastside
transportation I think the other council
members are having hard time sold off
take a couple minute break and let
everybody so we'll just recess for a
couple minutes so everybody's gone
you
we're back in session and council member
Ramos if you want to begin over with
your regional and community reports that
would be great
thank you just quickly again the
emergency management advisory committee
is working on setting up a retreat next
month be a full day on February 14th
trying to coordinating in across the
county to better yet set things up for
our preparedness and resiliency so we're
gonna really get together spend the day
versus you know an hour and a half
meeting a month that was last Wednesday
was a regular meeting set up for next
month on last Friday was at Eastside
Transportation Partnership we had
updates on the 405 they had some
interesting data on how those carpool
lanes are working the double carpool
lanes and all that through mouthful and
so forth and interestingly enough they
seem to be improving that the flow that
they had predicted and so it's getting
better than it was and there's been some
changes of course it was helped out too
as well as the other item there was PSR
C funding coming up this next year in
some of the criteria so if they're
looking at their tomorrow I will be at
the regional transit committee meeting
continued work on development of work
and that'll make King County Council
tomorrow at 3 o'clock and that concludes
my report
Thank You councilmember we're
interesting thank you my first report is
about the lodging tax Advisory Committee
there is an open house or a public
engagement opportunity to discuss
tomorrow at the at 7:00 p.m. at the
train depot to talk about the possible
formation of a destination marketing
organization funded by the LTAC funds
the the committee has is making that
recommendation this is an opportunity to
hear more for members of the public or
anybody who's interested businesses or
residents to learn more about the
proposal and to provide feedback and
comments members of the LTAC will be
there will be a short presentation to do
kind of an introduction
and cue a question-and-answer
opportunity and the committee will be
collecting the comment and the feedback
making adjustments to the plan meeting
again to make adjustments to the plan
and then forwarding that a revised plan
in lieu of those changes back to
services and safety for consideration in
in the February meeting so that's
tomorrow that meeting is at 7 p.m. at
the train depot
that's LTAC and then back on January 4th
there was a meeting of the growth
management policy board and new major
issues or items on the agenda some of
you may be aware of something that PSR C
calls vision 2040 and that is a guiding
document about growth and transportation
evolution here in the Puget four-county
Puget Sound region that's so homage King
Pierce in Kitsap counties we're kicking
off a two plus year process to update
that vision we're calling it it's going
to be called vision 2050 and I've
formally kind of kicked off back in the
meeting on the 4th and the very first
item to complete is to actually define
the scope of the of the work to redefine
the vision so there will be am a draft
by february 1st will open up a 45-day
comment period and there will be members
of PSR C will be traveling around the
region and a number of public engagement
opportunities I don't have the schedule
or locations for that now but they will
be publishing that so that is actually
just to set the scope for this two-year
exercise and then the other major item
for discussion we continue conversations
about the regional centers framework
update and there are a number of
probably half a dozen outstanding issues
that the GMTV has not come together on
yet and our SCA caucus did did come
together on three that were actually
then
brought up during the regular meeting
and one of them had to do with some area
planning we here in Issaquah do have a
sub area plan that covers our regional
growth center but not all do and so for
us there isn't as much of a deal here
but all other existing regional centers
the discussion point is whether or not
they must complete a sub area plan by
2020 and so that has not been voted on
but that is something that we and the
SCA caucus supports and it's consistent
with what we've already done the other
thing has to do if is the potential of
completing a market study if by the year
2025 there are certain kind of
performance metrics for growth centers
both manufacturing and industrial
centers and for regional growth centers
that if yours or any one of them don't
meet these performance metrics we're
debating whether or not to require a
market study that can actually
demonstrate that the growth targets
whether that being jobs
or whether it be in population and/or
jobs is actually viable given the market
so that is a very contentious issue for
GMP B and what exactly is a market study
I can they're hoping to finish this up
in the may meet excuse me in the
February meeting the next meeting but I
have my doubts about that and then the
last issue we discussed with the mix of
uses currently there is no prescription
or even target mix of jobs to housing
ratio and there's a incredible
misbalance
in a number of them especially Seattle
where they're the jobs there are so
outweigh the housing that's there
they'll never even get to a 2080 mix for
Issaquah within our regional center we
have according to PSR C in our regional
center where the we're the one that has
zero residents in our regional center
and we're 100% jobs so I think the
direction that this is going to go is
it'll be kind of a target mix of 2080
population to jobs and
but it will probably not be an enforce
it'll just be used as a planning tool
not anything part of the performance
measures so those are the major issues
there that we discussed at that last
meeting and our next one is on February
this coming February first I don't have
I have not seen the full agenda for that
yet
thank you that's more of a Goodman I
thank you madam mayor the council an
inch or committee typically meets the
first Thursday of the month and as I am
maybe probably likely the chair for the
2018 and in short committee I'm helping
to organize the meeting and we are
looking at the second Thursday of the
month and because there is a conflict
with one of the potential members and so
all I don't have it confirmed watch the
calendar landed chores next meeting will
likely be February 8th thank you thank
you
council member at ease thank you just a
couple of quick announcements the
Eastside Human Services forum board
meeting will be Thursday January 18th in
Seattle I'm sorry in Bellevue and the
King County 2018 homeless point and time
count is happening On January 26 2018
from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. and they are
looking for volunteers who can get more
information on the King County website
that concludes my report
Thank You council president marts thank
you madam mayor the council services and
Safety Committee met on Tuesday January
9th we looked at agenda bill 75 22 the
creating visit Issaquah organization as
councilmember winter Stein mentioned
there's going to be community outreach
tomorrow night then it's coming back to
services in February and then with an
intention to come back to full Council
on February 19th
agenda bill 72 95 was a conversation
about amendments to IMC 1604
construction codes a spellbinding
conversation necessitated by some state
requirements and the long and the short
is it's on tonight's consent agenda but
there is nothing remotely controversial
about it and then
was a walk-on regarding and influenced
the choice grant application and
basically the long and the short of it
was that the committee after some
discussion recommended to come back to
the February 5th regular business so we
didn't take a formal recommendation in
committee but levy but believe it can be
addressed
generally in in regular business on the
fifth and then Sound city's association
public issues committee met on Wednesday
January 10th at Renton city hall there
were no substantive action items
discussed my report next item on our
agenda this evening is the mayor's
report a special meeting was held
earlier this evening at 5 o'clock p.m.
to interview possible candidates for
vacant council position three and some
of them are still here an executive
session was held afterwards to discuss
appointments there will be an executive
session held this evening to discuss
acquisition of real estate and pending
and potential litigation per RCW forty
two point three zero point one one zero
bracket one bracket B and forty two
point three zero point one one Oh
bracket one bracket I these items are
expected to take approximately 45
minutes action is anticipated to follow
an open session on January 5th we hosted
the 2018 legislative breakfast and we
council and Mayor and staff were met
with district legislators about the 2018
legislative priorities on January 9th I
attended a ribbon-cutting for bridge
data solutions January 11th I attended
the cascade water Alliance resource
committee meeting sorry it was not able
to attend the cascade water resource
Alliance resource committee meeting they
did hold an executive session their next
meeting is February 8th at 2 p.m. at
cascades office in Bellevue and no
agenda has been set yet the next board
meeting for cascade water Alliance is
the annual meeting on February 7th at
3:30 p.m. in Bellevue they have not set
the agenda yet on January 11th I
attended the Puget Sound Regional
Council transportation policy board as a
sound city's association alter alternate
there were a couple of items on their
event
justise aqua the board recommended the
approval of the Transportation
Alternatives program to the Executive
Board if this is approved by the
Executive Board Issaquah would receive
1.5 million dollars for engineering and
design of the bike facilities and
sidewalk on the south side of Newport
and the multi-purpose trail on the north
side of Newport for that section from
State Route 900 to southeast 54th Street
the next meeting of the transportation
policy board is February 8th at 9:30
a.m. the major topics for that day will
be the review of the regional
transportation plan and the summary of
public comments as well as discussing as
similar as councilmember winter Stein
said the vision 250 there'll be a
briefing on the scope a January 11th
they attended the greater is Sequoia
Chamber of Commerce luncheon and
provided some comments on the State of
the City January 11th I attended the
East Side Fire and Rescue Board meeting
the fire chief provided a briefing on
the following topics work of the joint
ecology Sammamish plateau water district
city of Issaquah and East Side Fire and
Rescue P Faust study and investigation
discussions with Maple Valley Fire for
contracted services and discussions with
fire district 27 for a potential future
partnership the next meeting of Eastside
Fire and Rescue Board is the coil will
be the rotating board member and will be
required to attend one of the directors
will be required to attend the January
24th p board meeting at 1:30 p.m. at
headquarters the next full board meeting
is February 8th at 4 p.m. at
headquarters and no agenda has been set
yet On January 12th I hosted an all-city
staff meeting at Pickering barn and
provided some comments on the year ahead
and took some questions and that
concludes the mayor's report
next item of business is the consent
calendar have the payables and payroll
for January 16th been reviewed
thank you I now ask the clerk to read
the consent calendar into the record the
consent calendar was distributed to
council in advance for study if
authorized counsel action will occur by
single motion regarding the following
items item a seeks approval of the
accounts payables in payroll of January
16th items B through D seeks approval of
the minutes of the City Council regular
meetings of December 18th in January 2nd
and the City Council's special meeting
of January 5th item e a be 70 to 95
amendments to I MC 16 0.04 construction
codes seeks to adopt ordinance if
adopted it will be assigned number 282
for item F a b7 381 anti-aircraft Creek
culvert replacement seeks to approve
change order and accept project item G a
b7 507 amendments to I MC in central
Issaquah standards regarding
inclusionary zoning requirements for
central Issaquah seeks referral to
council an inch or committee item H a b7
five-30 Newport way SR 902 southeast
54th Street design contract supplement
number 2 seeks to authorize this
concludes the reading thank you madam
mayor I moved to to approve the consent
agenda as listed or it's described
second it's been moved and seconded all
those in favor actually
didn't give me a chance to ask if
anybody wanted to move anything down or
as moved in second day it's no great
it's been moved and seconded all those
in favor signify by saying aye those
opposed that passes next item on the
agenda is regular business and our first
item under regular business is a b7 4:01
Senior Center long term operations and
this was last in services and safety I'd
like to invite our Parks and Recreation
Director Jeff Watling to provide a brief
presentation all right I will emphasize
brief good evening Jeff Watling Parks
and Recreation Director yeah this is an
item that was before
services and safety in December as I
stated at that meeting when I introduced
this this agenda bill and the proposed
action tonight does not reflect a final
decision on long-term operation of the
the senior center but rather it allows
us to get some direction as staff to
pursue seeking a long-term operating
partner as you know interim operation of
the facility began January of last year
since that time it has been the
intention as we move this facility
forward into its desired future that
interim operation allows us this time to
discuss explore determine policy on what
we want long term operation to look like
in March of last year we began work with
an advisory group at the senior center a
tremendous amount of work it was done by
that group over five months time their
advisory report is in your packet I've
had the chance to go over that a number
of times at services and safety the
group did a fantastic job of researching
exploring evaluating discussing various
long-term operating models and which one
we felt make them up made the most sense
as a community for the Issaquah senior
center in that time and discussion I
think it also a very important element
was created and that was the creation of
six guiding principles that this group
felt strongly and staff felt strongly
really became the anchors became the
tenants for what we want successful
operation of that Senior Center to be
the group was unanimous in consensus on
those guiding principles where they
weren't and and where I think we'll
always understand there's going to be
differences of opinion as is what
operating model made the most sense
whether it be direct City operation or
seeking operating partner what was
understood by that group
and what the report really points out
though is either those models that group
felt very strongly would be very very
successful in the senior center as long
as those guiding principles were met I
emphasize those guiding principles
because as we move forward into this
request and into this action in terms of
seeking an operating partner those
guiding principles really become anchors
for what request for qualifications and
a request for proposal would look like
they become really anchors for how we
measure what a successful partner might
look like so following that work of the
advisory group staff in administration
and the Parks Department and that
explore discussed recommended action
moving forward that action that's here
tonight now like I stated before is
pursuing seeking an operating partner
what that would mean is putting out a
request for qualifications request for
proposal really a sort of a hybrid of
both and that we will seek to find any
interested partners that would like to
come alongside and operate with us going
through that work this this first
quarter and second quarter will allow us
to determine ideally in the timeline by
June or July if we have a successful
operating partner and we would certainly
update you at that time and then go into
negotiations it's the recommendation as
you see in the staff report that we
would be pursuing should we find it a
successful operating partner to cement
this through a management agreement as
opposed to a lease agreement which was
the the prior template we feel a
management agreement really gives us the
tools and the ability to understand as
owners of that public building we want
to partner with a successful operator
and moving this forward should we as we
go through this process not find an
operating partner that we
I'm more interested in alternatives we
see with certainly at that time
exploring other alternatives one of
those being City operation but we felt
it was imperative in this recommendation
given the history that this facility has
been operated by a non-profit partner
given the professional agencies that we
see in this area that operate senior
centers that pursuit of this seemed to
be a first priority before considering
adding this to our spectrum of services
that we provide directly one last item
before I open it up for questions
something we discussed it services and
safety should we approve this tonight
and proceed with this action we would
very much want to stay in communication
with our customers as we've enjoyed
establishing some strong relationships
with our senior customers every Monday
morning we have coffee talks this would
be certainly an opportunity to present
what this path forward what this pursuit
ournament of an operating partner would
look like we would also plan on in
probably early February hosting a QA
session either right after lunch but
something that would be a little bit
bigger and would certainly make sure
you're aware of that and if you're
interested in attending to come to that
as well
so with that any questions thank you
does counsel have any questions until
president Mertz madam mayor I'd like to
move to direct the administration to
initiate a request for qualifications
proposal process for an operating
partner for the long-term operation of
the Issaquah senior center and direct
the finance director to include $25,000
in a subsequent 2018 budget amendment
utilizing general funds for professional
services support in completing this work
second point of order we're gonna do
questions yeah we were
so if there's no seconds there's no
second so we have a couple of options
here councilmember Rey we can either ask
the questions once it's been moved and
seconded or I can actually we can have
questions beforehand whatever your
preference is I second the motion
there you go okay it's been moved and
seconded to direct the administration to
initiate a request for qualifications
proposal council discussion
councilmember Rea just a quick question
when do you expect to have the
management agreement in place should you
reach an agreement where they qualified
partner through the RFP RFQ process we
would anticipate negotiating that this
summer
probably having it in place bring it
before you sometime in the fall the
transition time would be one that would
to be dependent upon the Managing
Partner but we would anticipate towards
the latter part of 2018 probably having
some type of handoff between us and a
new operator and to follow up on that do
you anticipate that you would have any
cost savings associated with
transitioning from a city operated model
to a partner operated model still to be
determined given that we are not in a
full city operation right now council
member array we're really in a and
council members have also heard me say
this sort of a two-cylinder low budget
interim operation I hard to say but I
wouldn't anticipate it being a
significant savings or a significant
increase either way right thank you
additional questions that's a member we
understand thank you that's member
Goodman previous nonprofit did some of
their own fundraising do you are you
going to be seeking any type of
qualification to our past history with
for doing development in this hour
absolutely those fun developments yep
and seeking partnerships both financial
and programmatic
would be a requirement thank you thank
you so I have a question about the
$25,000 typically that city
administration manages its own process
so
this is the 25,000 to have an outside
organization manage this process or
what's tell me how this would be spent
No thank you for that question I'm sorry
I didn't mention in the staff report
this would be consultant services to
assist us so this wouldn't be an outside
group solely managing it we would still
be managing it this would certainly be
under my task but just given our work
plan and given everything on our plate
and given the timeline we want to
accomplish this work this would be a
consultant that could help us with
framing the RFQ someone with experience
in non-profit senior services we find
that very important okay thank you
yeah other questions any discussion
that's member Goodman well I support the
taking this step which is the next step
which will have us making decisions
based on when we find out and I'm I'm
excited to be at this point and looking
forward to the results of this process
all right Thank You councilmember Wray I
too like this direction that we're going
and I particularly like the idea of
bringing in some outside expertise to
help frame this because I don't think we
get a lot of shots at this Apple if you
will or bites of this Apple and I just
want to make sure that we do take
advantage of this situation and that we
are thorough and that when we put
together our procurement or our
qualifications and proposal that we are
considering all of the things that are
possible in a partner Batista's yes so I
I just I know all of the hard work that
has gone into putting all of this
together both from staff and the senior
center advisory group and just a lot of
time and effort put into the guiding
principles that would guide any kind of
an agreement that would go forward so I
just think it's exciting that we're at
this point
and I would be in support of this Thank
You councilmember Ramos yes I thank you
and Parks Department for all the work
that's been done all the seniors that
have gathered up and advisory work it's
great I'm really happy to get to this
point also so I want to move right ahead
along with this I do have one concern I
just want to mention and it's not
anything on you at all it's on the
budgeting process that I had some
concerns with previously and here were
January 16th and we're asking for
amendments to our budget and I find that
strange that 16 days into our our budget
we're asking to make amendments so I
just like a little reflection on our
budgeting process we spent three months
working really hard on that
and two weeks into it we need to ask for
amendments so that's that's a concern
for me on how that that went but I am
totally supportive of this process and
the money you need is as you said to do
it right is very important and so go
forth and do it right council president
Mertz I just wanted to make a comment
for council member Ramos because it's
probably something that most of the
council is not aware of by the
scheduling of how we approved the
process the actual formation of the 2018
work plan for the year begins after the
approval of the budget and because it
happened late in December this year I
believe what's going on is that there
are some items that still need to
proceed and so as the work plan gets
prioritized about which work in which
section and we review which staff levels
we have that is why it seems like it's
coming out of nowhere rather quickly but
that was why the request is coming now
kind of a workload balancing thing but
thank you for bringing that up that's
what President Mertz I just want to say
that I'm really excited that the citizen
group had unanimous agreement on the
principles on the six principles and I'm
confident that it's going to help guide
our review of proposals that come in and
help us make a really smart decision
that the community is going to wind up
having a lot of support for you know
it's possible that we won't get
unanimity of support when that when that
time comes but we'll certainly have
we'll certainly have been guided by
principle
everybody agreed on so I'm eager to see
the responses that we get going for it
thank you
any other discussion if there's no
further discussion all those in favor of
directing the administration to initiate
a request for qualifications proposal
process for an operating partner for the
long term operation of the Itzik West
Senior Center and directing the finance
director to include $25,000 in a
subsequent 2018 budget amendment
utilizing general funds for professional
services support in completing this work
signify by saying aye opposed that
passes unanimously
next item on the agenda this evening is
a b7 495 franchise agreement with
Seattle limited partnership DBA Verizon
Wireless and this is coming from
infrastructure yes thank you and I've
got a little bit of stuff here to
describe to those of you who weren't on
infrastructure right to give you the
background because we took quite a while
to discuss through this this so
basically this franchise tax aren't for
Verizon question I was just wondering if
we have a presentation no this is it
actually we do have a presentation as
well have our public works engineering
director for a presentation but he's
present as Manny chair rama proceeds
okay so again it infrastructure we took
a couple meetings to get through this
and and so just give you a little bit of
the background as we got through it if
you remember a while back there was some
attempted legislation at the state level
to try to remove local control over
franchise agreements on small cells so
that's a piece of history that happened
didn't get passed and so now
individually these franchise agreement
requests are going to be coming to us
this is the first one with Verizon and
so we had some concern with that the
original request was for citywide
franchise tax agreement and
the infrastructure community was very
concerned with the broad scope of it and
not well enough defined controls so we
actually went back a second time we
looked at this very closely and the the
proposal now before you is specifically
for one area is a call fall city wrote
and one site on Pine Lake Road it's for
seven sites along there it's
specifically for those seven sites only
it is there are photo simulations for
all those seven sites of what it will
look like because we don't have code
written that defines all this yet so we
went with photo simulations to describe
what we wanted and it includes things
such as like no ground equipment being
there and so forth so it's very specific
for that area it's kind of our pilot if
you will now the plan in the future is
that they'll be working with Sheldon and
Keith on getting code written so that we
will have code in place so when we do
these that that will be there and it can
be well defined it won't have to have
all these photo simulations and things
of that nature so we'll simplify that a
little bit and we expect there will be
more requests of these coming from other
companies as well as additional requests
possibly from this company because they
want more areas of the city to have put
put these small cell sites up on so
there's probably more coming we don't
know what but the way things aren't we
these are so also time limited when
someone does a request the city really
has about 120 days to react to those
were already past that a little bit
because it stayed in committee for a
while so we're actually just past that a
little bit and so anyway hopefully these
will come a little bit better with a
little more definition as they go and
actually we can expect more and also
just another background piece I've also
heard there's further attempts at the
state level to get some laws passed
again to limit local control on these
things so we don't know where that will
be in the future - I just want to
mention that another thing mentioned
that the community was concerned about
was net neutrality
there wasn't anything done about that
and Paul if you went to a farm done if
you want to add more of that you can but
request that if they're doing these
things then you try to was a concern to
us and many folks but there's nothing
right this level that we thought we
could do with that and so sum it up you
look at this it's for seven sites very
controlled very limited and very
specific and with photo simulations of
what it will look like those are in your
package I hope you saw them so if you
have any questions ask me or Sheldon's
or two and if I was gonna add anything
to that I may have missed there was a
lot talked about in those two meetings
you want to add go right ahead
yeah any council member actually with
questions for council member Ramos as
chair or for Sheldon Paul did you have
something you might dad two weeks ago I
had the opportunity to give the
committee report and I touched upon that
but just as a reminder yes we did we did
learn we we had representative from
Ogden Murphy Wallace there who was
assisting us with this plan and did
answer the question about whether or not
we could in our own local control in
call for enforcement of net neutrality
as through this agreement and we were
told that no the way that the FCC issued
their ruling local not even states have
control and then we do know that we were
advised that a number of Western states
Washington State and as well perhaps are
considering court action to challenge
that FCC ruling so we were advised to
just follow what that process rather
than go out on our own so that's what we
did we did not ask for any inclusion
into the contract thank you
are there any council member questions
okay shall I make a move in here to
adapt ordinance number 2 8 2 5 8 to 5
granting to CMS a limited partnership
doing business as Verizon Wireless a
non-exclusive franchise to construct
operate and maintain a telecommunication
system because
you know small cell facilities in the
public rights-of-way of the city and
prescribing certain rights duties terms
and conditions with respect there too
there a second second
it's been moved and seconded is there
any council discussion
councilmember winters thing the language
of that motion
I noticed doesn't refer to the agreement
or attachments I'm just wondering about
how tight this really is mr. Haney the
motion adopts the ordinance and the
ordinance adopts by reference the
exhibit that has all all of the
attachment so I think it includes
everything that you're looking at
is there any additional discussion yeah
until president Mertz
I just want to thank you for all the
working committees sounds like you guys
spent a lot of time getting it very
specific and so that it wouldn't allow
asked fields of these things all over
the city so thank you any additional
discussion if there's no further
discussion all those in favor of
adopting ordinance number two eight two
five granting to Seattle SMS a limited
partnership DBA Verizon Wireless a
non-exclusive franchise to construct
operate and maintain a telecommunication
system consisting of small cell
facilities in the public rights-of-way
of the city signify by saying aye it was
opposed it passed unanimously
next item on the agenda is for good of
the order does anyone have anything for
good of the order oh I do if council
members don't I've had discussions
recently with council president Mart's
about some updates that we may provide
on a regular basis during for good of
the order just sort of to set the stage
for what's coming in the next few weeks
our next council meeting is February 5th
and we have a draft agenda that includes
the following items under regular
business proposed off the rate
authorization of a grant extension for
the influence of choice program an
update on our solid waste contracts
proposed adoption of an ordinance
amending the collection of delinquent L
ID assessments and there will be likely
be an executive session this is just a
proposed agenda and it's subject to
change over the next few weeks I also
wanted to provide a quick update on the
moratorium work items since we don't
necessarily touch on those these council
meeting but I know there are many
members of the public and many
businesses that are tracking that one of
the work items which was reviewing the
central istrico plan district visions
the next touch in public for this will
be at the Planning Policy commission
slash task force meeting
they met last Thursday to discuss the
updated visions and their next meeting
is scheduled for January 25th at 7 p.m.
and council chambers second work item
that is still outstanding for the
moratorium is inclusionary zoning this
is covered in agenda bills 7 505 which
was on the consent calendar this evening
is that correct issue and it is looking
to refer it to the February landed Shore
committee meeting the agenda bill looks
to set the next steps for this
continuing discussion on this item
and I did talk earlier about the council
vacancy process at 5:00 p.m. this
evening we did have interviews with 13
candidates seeking to fill the vacant
council seat there is an opportunity for
the public to meet the candidates on
January 23rd at 5:30 in the Eagle room
across the street as they meet and
mingle with our current six council
members and that was all I had for good
of the order last night I'm on business
this evening is executive session there
will be an executive session held this
evening to discuss acquisition of real
estate and pending potential litigation
per RCW forty two point three zero point
one one zero rocket wine bracket B and
forty two point three zero point one one
zero bracket one bracket I these items
are expected to take approximately 45
minutes action is anticipated to follow
an open session we will now recess
recess into executive session at 10:10
p.m.
you
we are back in open session at 11:13
continuing under regular business is
there motion
yeah madam mayor I move to authorize the
mayor to enter into a purchase and sale
agreement for the property located at
275 Front Street in the amount of four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus
closing costs
I would like to amend that as I as I
move it to include forty five thousand
dollars in demolition costs for a grand
total of four hundred ninety five
thousand dollars is there a second
second
been moved and seconded to authorize the
mayor to enter into a purchase and sale
agreement for the property located at
275 Front Street in the amount of four
hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus
closing cost plus forty five thousand
dollars in demolition costs that's forty
five thousand dollars in demolition
costs did you do for a total a grand
total of four hundred ninety five
thousand dollars plus a total of four
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars
that's the closing cost is there a
second second okay it's been moved in
seconded discussion they see
councilmember Goodman has a look on her
face I it just does not just don't
remember us doing the so sale and then
it seemed to me that the demolition what
we're gonna do with property would be
sign would be separate right
conversation about that
I don't just feels odd to me we done it
this way before
yeah I don't know that it has to be done
this way is would the if the forty five
thousand dollars is demolition cost
would that even have to come to the City
Council since you've got a $45,000
public bidding limit not sure under your
purchasing policies but you know the two
are really separate issues but
I guess okay okay I understand
councilmember Mart's intention which is
transparency and to be able to let the
public know what a total project cost
this council member who interesting you
to comment yeah we are with the
demolition we are presupposing what
we're gonna do with the land we hadn't
had any conversational all right we're
presupposing demolition am I alone I'm
questioning that no cuz I questioned it
first thank you sorry what Stacy so I I
would know it's not something that I'm
gonna and I suppose kick and screen and
allow isn't of anything I've ever kicked
in the dream but screamed about it just
seems it would be a separate
conversation about specifically what
when you say to encompass the whole
project I don't think that encompasses
the whole project because at some point
will do something else with that land
and so I don't I think that that's a
misstatement the president mark I
withdraw my motion the second degree yes
I moved to authorize the mayor to enter
into a purchase and sale agreement for
the property located at 275 Front Street
in the amount of $450,000 plus the
closing costs for a second second I
moved in second did to authorize the
mayor to enter into a purchase and sale
agreement for the property located 275
front street in the amount of $450,000
plus closing closing costs is there
discussion or fifty plus closing costs
is there a discussion Nicki Toa
councilmember Ray I just thinking it's
really important given the public
comments we heard tonight that we
recognize that entering into this
agreement doesn't have any bearing on
subsequent land purchases we may or may
not make so I just want to you know be
real clear that we're not doing this at
the exclusion of something else
mmm-hmm any other comments that's member
Ramos and then I'd like maybe to state
for the record that where the funds are
coming from so my understanding is it's
50% from Parkman and 50% from King
County conservation futures so it's only
half of that is coming out of a park
bond that's connected to the city the
other half is coming from King County
thank you any other comments any other
discussion all those in favor of
authorizing the mayor to enter into a
purchase and sale agreement for the
property located at 275 Front Street in
the amount of four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars plus closing costs a I
suppose passes unanimously
there being no further business the
meeting is adjourned at 11:18
you