there you go
good evening and welcome to the march
4th meeting of the issaquah development
commission
tonight is uh we'll be conducting a
community conference and the project is
the fieldstone memory care
the request is an application for
community conference by submitted by
cascadia development
to develop an alzheimer's and temporary
care community
60 units of those 60 units 52 will be
private units
the
format for this evening's meeting will
be that we'll start off with a review
and approval of the minutes from the
last one
and then we will have a presentation by
this the staff
and then you the applicant will have an
opportunity to make your presentation
we'd appreciate it if when anybody that
wants to speak
uh
would when you start would you identify
yourself with your name and your
business address the name of your
company and business address if there
are any members of the public that would
like to speak about tonight or to ask
questions we'd ask that you sign in
there and do the same thing if you get
up to speak in the public section of it
if you'd identify yourself
with your name and your address
after the applicant has
spoken we will have an opportunity for
individual members of the development
commission to seek clarification of
either the applicants or the the staff
and after that there will be an
opportunity for each commissioner to
make uh observations and or
recommendations based on the
presentations to that point okay so with
that we will go to the minutes uh does
anybody have any changes they would like
to see in the minutes as they were
presented to us
mr chair one change
on the second to last page of the
minutes
under revised condition c-5
and the paragraph that starts at move by
morgan seconded by swedberg
um
the it should stay the building design
shall incorporate architectural
treatments
reviewed by and acceptable to the city
council to mitigate the blank walls
you got that
okay are there any other
changes requested in the minutes
if so all right do we have a
chair i move we approve the minutes so
the meeting from the
february
18th 18th 18th yes that couldn't be the
development there's a
motion to approve in a second is there
any further discussion
and all in favor of approving the
minutes as amended signify by saying aye
aye opposed
right motion carries unanimously
we'll now have a presentation by the
city staff
sorry i'm not going to go through the
holding all right good evening my name
is jennifer woods and i'm a planner in
dsd good evening to all of you i don't
know if i've met you all
i'll be introducing the application
com15001
fieldstone memory care community
conference
so i wanted to
given that you've been dealing with a
lot of stps here lately i wanted to just
bring up the purpose of a community
conference which is to generate
discussion raise issues and propose
creative options relative to the
proposed project
in addition there are some
expectations excuse me for the applicant
that come out of the community
conference the applicant can expect that
the more information provided allows for
more input from the commission
input provided comes before a decision
is made which is very helpful
inconsistencies with comprehensive plan
can be discussed creative approaches to
constraints
on the site can be discussed recommended
modifications can be discussed and
additional modifications to the proposal
will need to be made before the sdv
public hearing which is a good way for
the applicant to know what you want to
see modifications as it regards the code
before you're making a decision about it
here is a map of the site and its
context to the rest of the city i
labeled i-90 just because it's a pretty
good
identifier as well as lake sumac state
park it is the property shaded in black
with the white star on it
way up in the north part of the city
here's an aerial photograph of that site
closer to the site i've labeled this
highlands east lake samamish are
the roots to get to issaquah highlands
east lake sammamish parkway and then
kind of where it is in context to
king county and the city of samamish
which is up the road a little bit
here's a closer
aerial photo of the site you can see it
a little better
here are some
photographs of the actual site as i
walked it you can see that the
the numbers listed correspond to the
pictures beside the aerial photograph in
the center
and these are just some perspectives
from
from pedestrian places the sidewalks
adjacent to the property
and i'll leave those up for a second if
you want to look at them
and i can always go back to this slide
if you need me to as well
so about the proposal the circulation
and parking there is one driveway to the
development from southeast asia city
road
there won't be any connection to
highlands drive
there is
the well the exact driveway location is
and any channelization requirements as
part of this proposal are evaluated
during cpa review and traffic mitigation
the driveway then connects to the
parking lot which then connects to the
front of the building so that's how you
get into the site and actually get into
the building
there will be a sidewalk planner
revision on issaquah fall city road as
of right now the sidewalks right next to
the street but the city standard
requires that there be a planner in
between the sidewalk and the curb
and the internal circulation
vehicularly is through the parking lot
in the center there
and that's what you see
let's see here
the front entrance is starved to the
building right here and i've circled the
driveway right here i also wanted to
mention that there is a regional trail
this is the yellow dash line right here
on the east side of the property
buildings and site design most develop
or the development standards can be met
setbacks building height impervious
surface
we're at a conceptual phase
now but there will be more detail
provided as we go through the
development process
but i wanted to clarify that one of the
standards that i had pointed out thank
you commissioner morgan was wrong
and i wanted to go ahead and clarify
exactly what the applicant has proposed
thus far
the there's no i want to clarify too
there's no tree removal in the critical
area or it's buffer so we're only
talking about tree retention outside
those areas um the retention required is
25 it is 639 inches they're proposing to
retain 17 or
1738 inches which is a lot they're
meeting that requirement so
they won't need an aas if they continue
to retain this many caliper inches of
trees
there is a critical area the very south
of the property here it's this big round
circular thing here it is a wetland
and there's a buffer to it as well
and the building design and the
landscaping we're reviewing against the
green sheets so they will need to meet
the provisions of the green sheets as
well
and i
am here for any questions about process
the applicant also has a presentation
that i'll get ready to go so if you want
to come up and
present
there you go
hi there justin yonker with cascadia
development
address 4120 englewood avenue in yakima
washington 98908.
doug ellison with cascadia development
same address
let me repeat it
so
um
just a little background on on our
companies here
two years ago doug and i started
cascadia development and senior living
obviously development is the the
development arm
going out entitling land putting a
building together
for our senior living operating company
cascadia senior living so
we're the principals of the development
company um the senior living company
we're growing
currently we have a
president wayne purdum who's here uh
controller
vice president of healthcare vice
president of communications in hr and um
and a part-time bookkeeper so
at this point we've developed one
community in yakima
we worked for a national
real estate investment company for a
number of years doing senior housing
multi-family
student housing
spread out across the country we wanted
to do something local we both grew up in
yakima
wanted to do something local
do something
that wasn't so spread out you know our
goal here is to do eight to ten
communities have a
a core
corporate team that can be nimble make
decisions uh we can drive to a community
within two or three hours and be home at
night so that's kind of our our overall
goal here
so right now we've got the yakima
community that opened in july and we're
about 70 occupied
we projected a two-year lease up so
we're doing very well
and that's a stand-alone memory care
exactly the the same type of
service and care that we're uh proposing
here
we've got two properties in kennewick
a standalone memory care and then
independent assisted living that are in
construction
the memory care is projected to open in
july and
the independent assisted living
november or december
we've also got some other projects in
the pipeline two and puyallup and second
one in yakima next to our memory care
and
what am i missing that's it
so um
yeah the history of this project we put
this land under contract in august of
2013 so we've been at this site for a
long time
our initial meeting with the city
triggered this archaeological survey and
um
and so you know
we've been at that since the beginning
got the survey done because there's
another site nearby
that came up when i think they cut that
road in
so qualified as a national site uh we we
ended up working with the state to get a
permit and and do
you know just kind of follow the process
there's this this dap permit that went
in and did further investigation to try
and identify
who was there when they were there what
they were doing there
because mainly because of that wetlands
area and a trail from
uh the sea to the eastern washington it
was kind of a main route for for a lot
of tribes so
we've been you know
basically
last week we got the final final report
and um where we ended up is we did data
recovery where we were going
where we're projecting our deepest
excavation at the site to be
swca was the consultant they went in
mined a lot of material
it was a lot of fire modified rock
we had one arrowhead
and
and that's really about it so it wasn't
anything too exciting i know they were
expecting more
but the landowner has actually requested
that that goes back to the snoqualmie
tribe and so
uh part of the mitigation that we're
working with the tribe is to do uh some
sort of a
presentation probably in our lobby area
of what the land was used for how it was
used and
basically an educational piece within
our community um and we'll we'll have
some of those artifacts there
as well so
um the only outstanding issues on that
it's it's basically a done
um a done
i don't even know what you call it it's
a
the final report is complete
the only piece that's outstanding is
construction monitoring so they'll
evaluate and be on site when we're
excavating to make sure we're just
digging in the areas we said we were
going to dig in
the wetlands obviously it's a huge
wetlands area you know the usable
acreage of the site is about you know
two and a half to three acres where the
site's uh significantly more so
one of the areas that we know we're
probably going to need to get an
administrative adjustment is the buffer
um it's 75 feet is the standard and
a reduction in that area
up to 75
percent i believe is the this the the
max would be 56 feet
our current site plan is around 60 feet
so
we're not we're not pushing it as far
as the 75 percent would allow but that's
one area that that
we know will need an adjustment for
the trees like jennifer said um
originally we thought we were going to
need an adjustment on that as well
i don't think that's going to be the
case we are still tweaking the footprint
slightly but it's not going to make
a huge difference on that retention
requirement
you know we've we've worked with the
sammamish plateau we've got our
certificates and we've actually got the
the development extension agreement
drafted it just needs to be executed so
we've got that work complete
and
and yeah we've had multiple meetings
with the staff
in the planning department and
you know
well over a year at this so
we've got a lot of good feedback from
them and have been through
multiple iterations of the site plan um
just to get here so
um
overview of the project you want to talk
about this one sure so it's a
can i can sure
each person when you speak for the
record keeping could you just say i'm
you've already got your name but just so
she the records will show who is
speaking yeah doug ellison speaking now
uh it's a 60 unit 68 bed alzheimer
dementia community that specializes
in in alzheimer's dementia and
parkinson's
it's a private pay community we
wanted to have the majority of the units
as
private studio units so there's no not
two people in a room
it's a one story forty two thousand
square foot we're licensed by dshs
and we
work with the department of health
um
with our drawings our architectural
design etc to make sure we meet all the
standards
with that um
the building is a unique building it um
let me
see where the photo where are you
there's photos at the end here yeah yeah
go the next slide
okay
let's go here so we we've created this
environment that um with alzheimer's and
dementia there's a lot of anxiety
um there's you know
all kinds of issues associated with the
disease and when you take people out of
the community to the doctor's office or
to town
it's
there's a lot of anxiety with them so we
want to create an environment where
we had town the town actually built
inside the building and so this is the
center of the building we have a theater
we've got a 50s diner we've got an art
studio that they can come and do
paintings and crafts we've got a hair
salon spa
we have a serenity room the serenity
room is for hand massages with
alzheimer's and dementia sometimes
there's some agitation so we do some
hand massages and and calms them down a
bit
that's the center of the building and
then the wings that go off of the center
of the building
i and you probably have that in front of
you but
we have 20 foot corridors so instead of
a hallway
that's six foot which is required
minimum requirement by the state
we have 20 20-foot hallways where they
come out
and there's activities and and different
living spaces in that big corridor
that too is is because of the anxiety
you come out to this narrow hallway you
get claustrophobic
and so we've created this this
environment to really
benefit the disease and
so we're excited about it
and on the on the living areas there's a
great room dining living room with a
fireplace a solarium kind of a sun room
area
and this is all
with a courtyard in the middle for
outdoor activities it's all secured with
walking paths and we're going to have
some flower beds and raised beds where
they can
plant flowers and vegetables etc so
that's what that is and i think that
other slide was
that's our courtyard in yakima
water feature in the middle kind of a
potting shed on the outside area here
this is the bottom picture is the
corridor
that wide corridor where they come out
of their rooms they're able to play
games and you know puzzles and different
things and we have different colors
there's a blue color green
there's three different colors and it
helps them remember what you know color
their room is it kind of draws them to
that
they also have memory boxes
that are outside each of the rooms that
have their name and pictures of their
family etc
some of the artwork you see in the
middle there
we've gone to the local museum in yakima
and um
they gave us the rights to print reprint
a bunch of pictures from the ark you
know agriculture days you know back in
the
old time yakima days so that there's
memories and that sort of thing we're
going to do the same thing here
you know the izakawa area get some
history and that sort of thing in there
you see the dining room on the left and
fireplace there on the right
so let's go back here that's an aerial
shot of the building
on the front of the building we have the
stacked stone
um you know we have
the cedar
siding as well as the
board and bat as well as the um
what's the other setting we got on that
shape shake and so it just
kind of breaks it up a little bit makes
it more unique we have several different
colors some greens and taupes
just to make it a rich looking building
so
yeah and this is justin yonker again
you know
we've put a lot of thought into this
building and and trying to do things a
little differently we've also been the
first community in the state to be
approved for uh it's called the the ge
intel quiet care system it's technology
it's it's motion uh based technology
that that grabs on to um
what's the you know the routines of the
residents and when things outside of
those routines
come up it sends a page to caregivers so
if it's uh
abnormal trips to the bathroom or
somebody's in the bathroom for an
extended period of time it's kind of a
proactive tool using technology you know
that's actually
we've had multiple times in our yakima
community where it's really you know
saved a resident you know they're
getting help in
five minutes whereas you know the rounds
every hour so it might have been 45
minutes that they would have been
sitting there so
pretty cool stuff um
that's an overview here and then you
know kind of just our typical staff
you know we'll have an executive
director that oversees everything
director of community relations which is
the sales and marketing piece an office
manager
the director of nursing obviously the
healthcare component is the biggest
component most of our staff are
caregivers so that's a that's a key role
the resident care coordinator kind of
helps with the d.o.n on
assessments paperwork there's lots of
paperwork you know with each new
resident and care plans and revised care
plans
life enrichment coordinator that's a key
position
keeping our residents engaged
we've got a lot of
great space in our buildings and
utilizing it
one other thing about the building
you know our
we have so many visitors coming in
because it's it's kind of a unique thing
it's fun kids like it you know that town
square i mean people just really enjoy
it we've had
chamber of commerce events
board member meetings i mean it's
getting utilized by more than just you
know
resident family members so
that's pretty nice
the head chef
obviously you know
you know room and board covers all the
meals housekeeping
you know and then just a maintenance
person so that's kind of our general
staffing schedule
you know the this building in yakima is
laid out in a u-shape but all of those
components the town square the great
room and the the resident wings all of
that is incorporated into the issaquah
building it's just laid out a little
differently so
i think that's all we have so if you
guys have questions or want us to
elaborate
uh actually i'll
start because i do have a question do
you have uh jennifer do you have an uh
identification
of uh
the
it just says from dean i i guess these
are all all three of these questions are
from the same person
yes that was the only public comment
that i received it was i received it via
email and it was anonymous
with the exception of the email address
okay
um
so it'd be hard to get just hit reply
right but i do uh i wanted the
first issue that he brings up or she
brings up the ponds feed into issaquah
creek
and i know there's extensive uh
material in here about the wetlands and
the where the water goes and the plans
to retain stormwater runoff but could
you go over those a little bit please
for us and then also specifically
the concern that was expressed by this
member of the public that that wetland
area drains into issaquah creek and
eventually and that there is a concern
about any pollutants that might get into
the wetland area sure
don would you mind addressing these sure
my name is dawn dawes i'm with barghouse
and engineers our address is 18215 72nd
avenue south in kent washington
uh
so regarding
that
let me grab that real quick
regarding that question
about the water quality
our proposal is to
provide
detention and water quality for the
development per the city's requirements
which based on
our review so far as level 2 flow
control
for the detention and sensitive lake
water quality standards so
that water from the develop site is
going to be
treated
and detained before it
leaves the site
which
the water will be discharged to that
wetland
because that's where the water goes
currently
so it's percolation
treat we say treated what what what does
that mean we have um
for the sensitive lake water quality
standards we're proposing to use a
combined detention and wet vault
the wet bulk part
is dead storage and that is like the
first
water quality system the second water
quality system in that
system is a
sand filter vault
and and and then the water is released
from there
and
uh jennifer would you look at tell us on
the record about the second concern that
was raised about the zoning
let's get that on the record
i'm christopher wright with the
development services department
i can't speak to the frequent power
outages comment but i can speak to the
the zoning
question
and basically when um the north issaquah
area was annexed into the city
around 2000
we adopted at the time
what we call comparable zoning so the
most similar zoning to what the king
county
zoning designations were and i don't
think we've changed them since so
um it it is true that there's a you know
three or four different zoning
designations just in a pretty small area
compared to the rest of the city but
that's really
mostly we just inherited that from king
county
all right thank you
are there any other
questions clarifications observations by
members
absolutely yeah
thank you mr chairman um you mentioned
about a sun room
um
doug or justin
yeah
is that what's being proposed here
um while you're thinking the sun room
and i i want to ask you is there a
kitchen
and then how's your
supply going to route into the facility
traffic wise
so the sun room is is really
larger glass windows there's no sun roof
area at all no glass on the roof but
it's just kind of a little sitting area
with wicker furniture
off the courtyard we just call it the
solarium kind of sunroom it's not
necessarily all glass with sun coming
through
do you have that in the
plan right now
yes
yeah it's um
okay
i don't know if it'll help but i think
it will
is that a little better
can you kind of show where it is in this
light plane there
yeah so can you where how do i oh the
arrow here
can you see the arrow here
so um
this is the great room here
where the dining room is and it's just
this little l-shaped room right here
that's just
kind of tucked away here that's glass in
front it overlooks the courtyard
wicker furniture just kind of different
style
that's what we call our sunroom it's not
a glass enclosed sunroom so much but it
lets more light in and it's right off
the courtyard
okay does that answer your question
uh yeah i couldn't
uh
i was having the same problems you have
trying to locate the sunroom so this is
an interior sunroom looks correct it's
just inside the building oh just a room
with a lot of glass
correct
window
correct um and then your second question
i'm sorry the kitchen
how do you function
as far as the residents are
who are living there do they
come down and have a dining room set
meals they do so we have a commercial
kitchen
that is
i need to
i need uh better glasses here
blow this up here a little bit
yeah do you mind zooming in sorry
we have a commercial kitchen that that
cooks all the meals every day
we have two little kitchenettes
that are in the great rooms
and i'll point them out here
um
so if you can see
this is a dining area for this
area right here
there's it looks like a little island
right here there's a little kitchenette
right there where
the caregivers life enrichment
coordinators etc
have the residents come in and bake
cookies and
that sort of thing there's an oven
and a
not a stove top and an oven and a
microwave there which is on an emergency
shutoff switch so it actually has a
timer a key
so that the residents can't just come up
and start messing with microwave and
oven so
that's what that's for the commercial
kitchen
which is on the i believe the
let me look closer here
yeah this is a commercial kitchen here
you got your hood
food prep area and dish room here
this that kitchen is
state of the art has everything doesn't
have a walk-in
cooler but it has the
true three-door fridges and freezers and
everything a kitchen would need so all
the meals are prepared there
three meals a day we also
have sandwiches and
snacks and treats and yogurts etc that
is available to residents 24 7 because
with alzheimer's and dementia
you don't always get up at seven o'clock
and have breakfast at a normal time so
we provide meals 24 7 essentially
so
so
and
i guess the reason why i'm going through
this is that you know i i want to make
sure i want to understand how you
operate sure you have 60 uh residents
correct okay uh you provide meals
uh the earlier
area that you were pointing i take it
it's a snack area
24-hour snack it's a great sit-down meal
correct whereas the kitchen
the kitchen will provide hot meals
breakfast lunch and dinner
so do you have a dining room for the 60
residents we have two dining rooms okay
so what we have
this wing here
has its own dining room and graves this
this would be the sun room i was talking
about
so both both wings are
have their own
dining room kitchenette
great room living room with a fireplace
and solarium
and so
30 of the the residents would be on one
side 30 on the other so they're two
separate dining rooms that we hot cart
food from the main kitchen area to those
and the caregivers serve
all the residents three meals a day okay
and so if a resident gets up at 10
o'clock in the morning and wants
breakfast we have breakfast available
for them
you know and we have snacks at midnight
if they get up at midnight because a lot
of times they don't sleep at night too
so
we want to provide them food and
nourishment
24 7. okay that kind of shows you the
dining room there yeah
yeah
this is justin yonker that it's you know
really uh trying to create a residential
home-like feel with the great room you
know an open concept home where you've
got your dining your living room
and your kitchen all in one spot yeah
yeah so then my next question is how do
you
how do you come in with your supply
route and how do you process the food
and how do you dispose of your garbage
so uh where's your garbage dumpster
located and how's the garbage truck
coming in to
take care of your garbage
yeah this is justin again right now here
the kitchen's located here we've got a
service truck
stall here
and
dumpster i believe is proposed over here
so it's all in this area
right here
nearest to that that kitchen entrance
door
yeah like u.s foods will deliver
food daily or whenever we order it
they'll go right through the service
door and and then our garbage you know
we
recycle cardboard and do as much
recycling as we can and then there'll be
a garbage dumpster there
so that would be your your uh service
entrance exit
access uh courtyard sounds like uh
like like that area would be your
serious area
20 bucks i'll let you use it
don't you have one in over there
yeah so yeah that's something i i guess
uh would be nice to know where it's
located how how how the truck comes in
process all the food
in and out
and then the view that's going to affect
the neighbors
yeah and so it's on it's obviously on
this side of the building
uh which this whole side no neighbors
can see it
so
again this is doug
so
the site closest to the road of course
will just be entry into the building and
um
obviously landscaping will be beautiful
and this is justin so along this you
know we've got our kitchen here we've
relocated a few common area rooms we
actually have an exam room our laundry
facility
the med storage so it's it's rooms that
aren't resident rooms and you know so
you don't have a resident room that's
looking right out at the service that
actually is how how it's done in yakima
and it's not ideal so we changed that
with this
with this floor plan
thank you mr chairman any other
questions
well the
west west of issaquah falls city road on
that intersection is a
fairly large condominium complex or
townhouse complex and i was just
wondering about the architectural
concern of of looking at some kind of
uniformity or consistency with that or
it sounds like it it was being designed
as a fairly independent standalone kind
of thing are you thinking of it have you
looked at across the street i guess is
my question we have we have
so
um in terms of our design you know we
have little bump outs
different roof lines on that side and
this is doug again i'm sorry
um
that really break up that side of the
building so it's not just one long
nursing home looking feel if you will
with the stacked stone and
different
sidings with different colors to really
dress it up so
it'll look a lot nicer than a
across the street
so
and this is justin i believe they've got
a fence
all the way along that area which
i mean i don't know
you know we're going to be right up
against there and have it landscaped up
into the sidewalk so it's going to be
very presentable more than a than a
white fence anyway so
were you were you wanting something that
was compatible with a neighboring
property or
just wondering just concerned that you
were looking you know yeah it wasn't
obvious it sounds like you are i
appreciate it and we've talked with the
planning department also that you know
doing something with that corner because
that's a
heavily trafficked corner a lot of
you know traffic coming into the
highlands and into issaquah and so um
doing something a little bit special
there
just because of that
if i follow up on that question on the
uh because jennifer you had made a
mention i think in the report about one
of the elevations needing some more
fenestration is that that
i'm thinking right is that that north
west side along is fall city road you're
thinking about yes it was and it's it
you know it comes down to the final
product when we get to sdp what what is
the product that they're showing us and
if there is more modulation required if
it requires some landscape texturing
something like that we'll look at it at
that time but yeah it may need some more
okay i wondered yeah i wondered if you
could actually pull up the elevation
on the screen just so we can let's see
our
pictures
make sure that's the one
that's yours yeah
yeah sorry i can't
uh come close so
this is stackstone here this is the
shake that's a different color you know
we got these different roof lines here
if you go to the staff report i think
it's got an elevation you can show yeah
there we go perfect
yeah so there's our our rendering and
then
um
is this is this one better is that what
you want to look at is
is that so with the lower
an elevation left side on the lower
elevation shot not there but the just to
the right of it in the the drawing right
there there you go is that the one you
were talking about jennifer
oh facing the
this is facing the parking lot
right right here
it's television that has the windows and
but you think it's
not enough breaking it out
thank you i'm sorry
we we may require more we didn't have um
the actual modulation counts and didn't
know how much it was right so it was
more of an fyi if we need to we can
condition this um for more articulation
later but
it just depends on what they come out
with in their final product okay thank
you if i can follow up on commissioner
morgan's question i on the uh on the the
architectural drawings that we got
the uh
drawings that are
titled courtyard elevation details
and i think it's the next one down or
one or two there okay yep right there
okay the bottom one the bottom right uh
jennifer that
that wall
on the left of that structure
is kind of striking because there's a
lot of wall there yeah now i it
that's because that's a courtyard
elevation so that's an internal wall is
that what i understand from
looking at this or is that that would be
the end of the resident wing but i can i
know that we've tweaked this floor plan
and we actually have some
modulation and it is staggered
it isn't a one flat service on the end
but that's the
end of the resident wings okay so you
that drawing has been modulated since we
got this or since this was sent to the
city right what's it look like now just
just um
one of the units um goes out more
yeah and there's another roof line on it
and the other end of these this is doug
the end of these actually don't aren't
shown or won't even be noticed from the
road
it goes into the forest side
so you know where the highlands drive
goes down and there's that
big embankment you won't even see the
building from the road yeah and that was
my that was my question if it's an
internal uh exposure on this then the
concern is not
as great as it is for external facades
that that public and passers-by and
neighbors would see so that was my
question about whether or not the
courtyard is basically
uh
in an internal
area where the public can't see that
wall with the two windows in it
so the wall they're discussing
is i'm going to run over to the screen
because i don't have a pointer
right here okay
and it's not it's not visible from from
the road
right and this
this wing this end here and this end
here
and
yeah there's there's enough topography
here that from highlands drive you can't
you can't see in here okay all right
and i also want to just point out the
elevation that staff was worried about
is this one
i'm gonna run back over to the screen
you're jennifer right there
gotcha
there is less tree cover in that area
on the east side of the property there's
a large berm and a lot of
a lot of trees a lot of new trees and a
lot of old older trees
so it's and it's also elevated quite
high there's a very large berm there and
i can go back to the site photos if you
want to see i'm actually standing on the
trail if you need to
thank you
um
i've got a question about parking
escape uh
unless you want to stay with site
designer
come
did you have a question about site
design
yes
i think
um
the fire access have you guys
there's an awful lot of it's talked
about here about
model a
computer model will have to be done
turn radius we're required to meet fire
code perimeter walkway
all that stuff meet already have you
done this so that that fire that fire
trucks will be able to get in there and
get around and
it already meet the requirements
yeah so
mark
lawrence was in two of our meetings um
so he's provided a lot of feedback
this is a 90 degree
i believe it's called the 90 degree
radius here which is one of the app fire
apparatus
standards you know you got your hammer
heads and all that so that that is the
90 degree
turn around and then we've got
what what he's proposed is
walkways around the entire community if
it's not within 150 feet of the truck
with knock boxes and a tie-in so they
can just you know carry their hoses
around and tie
right into the fire line okay
and
i'll ask jennifer i i got very confused
over the tree preservation paragraph
and i'm still confused
um page seven of nine you talk about the
30 of the total caliber significant
trees is retained
according to the tree and preservation
code 30
and then the next page it says
25
required to retain 25 and then the
numbers none of those numbers added up
to me so
i just ignore all that and everything's
fine with the trees
yes
yes sir um i i did make in my
presentation i tried to clarify a little
bit but the short of the long is that
they very much meet the tree retention
requirements okay thank you
um so the parking question first for uh
jennifer a question on
um
it says that there's 44 stalls required
and they're providing 44 but then
there's a comment that says
additionally more parking stalls may be
required than shown in order to meet the
code
provisions for minimum parking they
didn't understand because it sounded
like we said they're meeting code but
more may be needed to meet code
so parking provisions are based on
employees at the max shift and on the
number of units provided
and so if any of those numbers change by
the time we get to sdp the parking
numbers may also change so i you know
while i say it meets the requirements we
don't necessarily know that until we get
to the decision-making period okay great
thank you then the question for the
applicant i guess your experience for
what it sounds like you've provided
exactly enough for the minimum
was your experience with parking
um at your yakima facility well i guess
you're not a hundred percent yet but
because what's your what's your feeling
about the 44 being required is that more
than enough
sort of right out enough or yeah this is
justin so we've got 48 on our current
site plan with with small tweaks but
obviously none of our residents drive so
we're talking about staff visitors and
then the occasional service so um
of any
multi-family type
building
memory care
has the least amount of traffic
you know the good thing that we have
lots of visitors
i think we'll use the parking spaces but
um
you know we we went through our staffing
model in in detail at stabilization
um with the the standard of of
one parking space for every two units
um and that's where we got the 44. um
it just so happened that it
ended up because we're we're utilizing
this this space uh to the max um
do you think it'll be an adequate number
then
yeah um you know another thing that that
um we've talked about um
the transit center down the road you
know
our largest
staff uh population is caregivers
they don't make a ton of money
this is a you know anywhere from 10 to
15 job
they probably don't live in the
highlands and so having that just down
the road is going to be a huge benefit
from a staffing perspective because it's
convenient
you know we've got a community bus we
will have a community bus which
even on staff changes could provide
transportation from the transit station
if they don't want to walk so
we've talked about that aspect of it as
well you've got a bus stop at the other
side of the street the intersection too
so yeah so so the transit to this
location is um is really good right okay
thank you then the other question i had
had to do with um
access to isquad falls city road as you
mentioned it's a very busy road
especially at rush hour
fairly high traffic volumes it um it
couldn't tell from the site plans but it
just from the location it didn't seem
like those driveways would line up
between the condo complex and this
project
and i wondered uh if you've looked at
any traffic models would you have to do
a write-in write-out only or
um just your sort of thoughts on that
yeah i think we are doing a write-in
right out only oh okay
yeah
yeah otherwise it could take a half hour
to get across yeah yeah just to follow
on commissioner morgan's question are
the are your shifts going to be
um
rush hour time types of shifts uh so
are they going to be different so
theoretically they wouldn't be
coinciding with russia yeah first shift
is six a.m to two
and uh the the two o'clock when that
shift ends
the staff actually don't leave until 2
30 because it's a switch over your the
the new shift comes in at two
the that shift leaves at 2 30 and
there's that handoff
patient handoff if you will
the next shift starts at i believe eight
o'clock
um
no 10 o'clock
it's
it's slightly off those peak hours
really to answer your question and and
when we were using that
because the parking had a the max
resident count which actually our
highest staffing is in the morning
um you know getting people up and ready
to go so
um but those peak hours if you're
talking you know
four to six in the evening we'd be at
the end of it and we're out you know six
a.m hopefully they'll be arriving at 5
45-ish so
so uh
the write-in right out i just want to
make sure i understand
you're the right in the traffic would be
coming to the north east from the
southwest on fall city road right turn
into the facility any traffic exiting
the facility on the ischool city road
which is the only way in and out right
that's there's one one egress
ingress
and they would turn right
correct okay this is doug yes
and it you know um with the loop around
a black nugget back out to fall city
road it's a you know i mean just getting
around that whole area you've got to do
that not just for this site
on the parking i notice that you talk
about
barrier barrier-free parking is that an
addition to the 44 i thought i counted
44 plus two handicapped parts
and is two the
right number for that number of parking
because it's a medical facility i don't
know what the
jennifer i'm not sure what the code says
in regards to how many they need
um
when we calculate the number of required
stalls the uh the handicap stalls are
counted in that so if we if the code
requires 44 stalls that includes however
many are required for
accessibility
i'm not sure offhand whether that's
meeting the the we we rely on the the
uniform building code to tell us how
many handicap stalls there need to be so
that's something we absolutely check at
the site development permit stage to
make sure they have enough okay
other questions
i have one one more the is there going
to be some
security
consideration for the wetlands there to
prevent deter residents from
wondering
what you know getting in there and not
being able to get out
this is doug yeah they won't have any
access to it this is a lockdown building
the only access to the out of doors they
have
is to the courtyard which is all fenced
and secured with mag locks and and the
whole nine yards and every time a door
opens in this building for a resident to
go into the courtyard
all the pagers go off so all the all the
caregivers will be notified and we have
a radio system that clears
when someone goes out so
they'll be supervised going out the
front door to go to a doctor's
appointment or go on a bus ride they'll
all be supervised so
in the courtyard then when they're in
the courtyard that's also supervised it
is also supervised
okay
in your
just to follow on to one of the
questions the frequent power outages
do you have
alternate power
at this location if you're relying a lot
on this electronics modern technology
doors opening and closing and if power
goes out what happens
you have a standby generator that kicks
in do you have that available or do you
just rely on
huge power eventually getting it fixed
yeah this is justin we've done it both
ways in yakima we don't have a generator
but we've got
obviously the state needs to know what
your emergency plan is we've got
alternate methods of heat through
natural gas
battery-powered lighting that sort of
thing
in
our kenwick assisted living building
which is adjacent to the memory care we
do have a generator so
taking that into context
will probably lean in that direction
towards the
thank generator
um thank you mr chairman uh question i i
know that this is a privately funded
facility
um
but yet you still need to go through the
department of health washington
department of department of health um
and is do they have a ratio of how many
units single units and how many that's
double units i
you provided eight i think that's
double
um
eight units that come
uh
companion rooms and then the rest 52 are
single ones so do they have a ratio that
says
if you provide this facility you should
have a
correct ratio or something like that
this is doug no there is no requirement
most
alzheimer dementia communities are
double
units and it's for
profitability and and cost reduction
we're taking it a step further and
wanting the the residents to have their
own private rooms with alzheimer's and
dementia sometimes
they want to have a roommate it calms
them so we want to have that option as
well and it is a price point too
if it is a shared unit it is less
expensive for the family members or
whoever's paying their their way this is
a private pay building medicaid is not
part of this building at this point
we'll have
probably 10 percent
medicaid
that will be grandfathered in after
we're open for a year
and they'll be you know when as people
spin down their income
we're never going to put someone on the
street if they run out of money so we
will have some medicaid units but
that'll be a year after we open
so
so if you run out of patience that's a
alzheimer
i don't know if you will or not
but just say if you would and so you
have some vacant rooms do you take in
elderly with other disease then
no this is focused just on alzheimer's
dimension parkinson's which parkinson's
is a related you know a lot of people
with parkinson's end up with the lewy
body or the alzheimer dementia
part of it so
yeah no we
this is a focused care
okay yeah it's hard to to mix
populations
so
yeah and do you have medical staff that
would take care of any emergency then
absolutely 24 7
yep all the caregivers med techs rn
yep
so this is a 24 7
care
yep thank you
any other questions
observations
nothing nothing
we're going to do a round of comments
yes
yes that's we're into the comment phase
now i think we've got everything
clarified
right so we'll go into uh comments and
observations
as far as i'm concerned it looks like
you've done a good job of me of
considering the aspects i like the
sighting of it i think
i think the traffic control is going to
be an issue i drive that intersection
every day several times and and
but with black diamond being an
opportunity to be able to go back around
that right in right out makes pretty
good sense to me i think you're that's
going to work well that looks good to me
thank you
thank you mr chairman um
i i like the design uh i think i would
do the same thing with the parking next
to the pond
uh you provide a real nice view as you
come in you have this on rather than
putting somewhere else
i like the
uh to degree the modulation i i think
you can do more i like the idea of
having the
two
person unit as they
set out
so that that breaks the the long wall
that you have i do have concern about
your service area
because i think where you have it where
you're thinking about having it that's
where you have a few of those units
that's
uh that's right there and i
i suspect there's probably you know the
truck coming in
unloading and loading a supplies and
picking up garbage that's where it's
going to happen and that's where you
have your three
residence
unit that's there so you might want to
kind of look at that
um i like that 20 20-foot corridors that
you mentioned
that's a wide corridor and i take it
there's a lot of things that's happening
in that corridor where you create this
facade that's a ceiling
i
i see on the plan that you have a clear
story
so i'm trying to think how are you going
to incorporate the clear story with the
uh the ceiling that you're
enhancing to to create this uh
interior uh street assad
so i'm not sure how
how you would
approach that although i'd like the idea
so either clear story or this
this interior facade
that's a good idea and then i think it
would be very pleasant for the residents
again you know i think you've done a
good job
there's still some things that you need
to kind of look at it and that's the
service area
then the sun room
um
i'm kind of surprised that you call
interior room every
sunroom
to me a sunroom is something that's
exposed to the outside
where it sounded like it's an interior
room which with a lot of windows
interior windows and you call that a sun
room
i would call it a
library a reading room or something
instead of a sunroom but the thought of
a sun room is probably good for patients
to
the well-being of the patients being
outside looking out in the courtyard and
if you can create something nice in that
courtyard that would be very
ideal for the residents
for the well-being and you probably have
some activities there that
help the
residents
in that courtyard that would be good and
something directly
that leads them out into the courtyard
but overall i think it's a good design
thank you
morgan
well first of all thank you very much
for coming in and for your presentation
greatly appreciated and
appreciated all the process you've been
going through with in the explanation of
the archaeological digs i didn't realize
you'd have to do that much
i think you've got a very nice looking
project it seems like an excellent fit
for this site which is a fairly
difficult island of a piece of property
to work with
and so i think it's a great fit and i
very much like your building design the
materials you've used the modulations
i
i drive this road every day i don't
think you need to be concerned about
trying to match the design of the condos
across the street it's a good distance
there is a wall there as you've
mentioned and i don't think this
building has to perfectly match that
anyway so
i think you've come up with an
attractive building and i agree with
staff's comments about what sounds like
we'll just find more detail in some of
that modulation but i think it's all
looking very good the
my main concern would be the access
actually probably off of iskwa falls
city road i think people coming onto
this guelph all city road taking a right
um can time things well enough my
concern would be people
that are turning on esqua falls city
road and somebody two cars back that
doesn't see a signal that's going 40
miles an hour and didn't realize the car
two cars ahead was going to
stop and take a 90 degree turn in
so anything you can do in engineering
that whether it's a
more of a curved entry
into the site or if there's a way to get
a deceleration lane or something like
that
just hopefully to prevent some of those
rear end accidents that might happen
um
and uh the
i i guess finally i very much appreciate
the fact that it's a northwest company
doing it not a large national firm so
thank you very much
she said yes i i echo commissioner
morgan's comments thank you
i particularly appreciated the pictures
of what your existing facility looked
like because
unfortunately
the the staff report and what we got is
a little
in
what we normally see
i would like to have seen a bigger a
better presentation of what the
room layout was like
i still don't have a clue as to where
the dining room is
from what you guys said i i
i mean it's it's an initial phase an
awful lot of the things we saw
in the staff report
lighting have to be determined the
parking has to be
finished up uh the loading space has to
be determined where that is a lot of
this is
to be determined
and so we're we're sort of playing in a
vine on a sort of a macro scale what the
project looks like i think it's a
wonderful design
from from
care from taking care of somebody with a
problem
looks very livable
your entrance lobby looks similar to
what i saw at paris
in las vegas with the
clouds in the sky and a movie theater
over here and
how much does it cost because maybe
anyway anyway i thought it was a great
job and i think it's a good project for
that site particularly when you consider
what you're going to have to do to
adjust for the wetland area i think
you're maximizing the particular piece
of property about the best you can
thank you
thank you um i also agree with all the
comments have been made i think this is
a very appropriate sighting our use of
the site uh particularly with the
wetland there
and i i do have one question and just a
clarification i should have brought up
earlier but for traffic that is heading
northeast to southeast on fall city road
in other words toward towards town
uh what's to preclude them from trying
to make a left-hand turn into the
facility
across in other words go cut across a
oncoming traffic
let's look at the road
so you'll notice there's a turn lane
here
and this is just the existing conditions
this is not what's going to be required
in in terms of improvement so this is
just existing conditions
there is a i think it's a double yellow
line through the center and a turn lane
up as you get closer towards the
intersection here
jennifer can you show approximately
where the entrance is going to be
or can somebody please
so so there's a there's they what you're
saying is they can't make a legal left
turn
uh i think i think they're going to be
constrained by the left the double left
turn lane to go on on the
fine lake road okay which starts it
really goes back pretty far right and
around the south the se the southeast
right there is about where it starts
okay
all right well that that was that was my
concern that that it might be called a
right in and right out but that
you know people might still try to make
a left-hand turn in there and that's a
real issue this has been noted it's a
very busy road
um the
issue i want to make real sure this has
come up in the past and this is just an
observation um the the issue of
notification in the packet it said that
the staff sent out notification to 70
i don't remember the exact number but a
specific number of
people there
that are neighbors
and uh i don't know if there was also
i've i don't travel that road very much
but i was up there the other day and i
happened to remember that the site was
there and i drove around it and i didn't
see a street sign saying that there's
going to be development can you remind
me of what the requirement is there
yeah there's different public notice
requirements depending on where the
project is in the application process
and uh for community conference it only
requires the mailing within adjacent
property owners within 300 feet
when they apply for their site
development permit that's when it kicks
in a whole nother level of newspaper ad
proposed land use action signs
well as you know that's that's a ongoing
concern of mine because frequently we
we've in the past we've heard uh people
whose primary complaint was that they
didn't their neighbors and their
five feet off the line and they didn't
know anything about it so just as long
as we've got that covered uh when it
comes to the actual application and what
we've seen here tonight i agree with my
fellow commissioners i was
quite impressed with the fact that the
building does not seem to be
imposing itself on any of the neighbors
there this structure particularly being
a one-story facility
automatically as far as i'm concerned
mitigates a lot of what we tend to pay
attention to which is sight line and uh
vista obstruction and that that kind of
thing so right off the bat when i saw it
was a one-story facility i thought well
that's that's going to be and then my
understanding of the site is it's going
to be uh there will be enough tree
retention in there to further mitigate
the view uh from it it's also impressed
by the fact that you said you're not
going to have a sign or at least at this
point there's not going to be a major
signage that obviously that will be
required if you do
but uh the fact that you've taken
what appears to be a low-key approach to
fitting into the neighborhood would
would go along with that
it's not against the sign obviously
people are going to have to know where
the facility is when they're coming in
there
the material itself
uh
frankly reflects the pacific northwest
and this may be a
factor of the that you're a northwest
company
but uh a lot of times we end up
suggesting that the that the applicant
consider more
use of stone and and uh things like that
so the fact that you've come in with
that is
is nice it uh it fits
it's in
kind of our vision of what we'd like to
see up there
so all in all
i think the
concerns that the commission has had
have been answered by both the staff and
the applicant i very much appreciate
your coming in and giving us the
presentation and the level of detail and
willingness to answer the questions that
you have
and
that if there are no more observations
or questions
uh
and there were no members of the public
here tonight um
so jennifer just on the
what is the process for you for staff to
you hit reply to that automatically and
and
report to this person what was said i
mean normally they're here and they you
know hear what their concerns how their
concerns were addressed so
when he when the person emailed me i
responded via email letting that person
know that i would be passing this
information on to the commission making
sure that it became an attachment to the
staff report so that person knows that
my intention was to to bring it forward
i'm happy to respond to him
that's not necessary
the primary thing as far as i know is
that
we want the any any member of the public
that goes to the trouble of expressing a
concern or an issue or an observation
that they understand that it was brought
to the commissioner's attention okay
all right
mr chair i wonder if the applicant would
have any questions of us or any
clarification good point
anything that you need from the
development commission in terms of
clarification for
maybe the why we ask certain questions
uh i don't think so thanks for your time
as well all right
what did you guys
well
i'd like to take credit for that but it
wasn't us
there is in issaquah there is an urban
village development commission
that uh was chartered several years ago
specifically to look at that type of uh
of development that was uh it's
obviously clearly defined and there are
two it's talus in the highlands there
are two
uh of urban villages in in issaquah now
and uh the highlands is the larger the
two the other one is on state road 900
between us and renton
but that's a separate commission and
that
their work has been nationally
recognized too on a number of occasions
all right
all right well with that if there being
uh no more comment uh again we thank you
very much for uh your concern and for
your presentation and we understand that
you're going to be working with the city
uh with the staff a lot more and we'll
look forward to seeing what comes out of
this with that we'll declare the meeting
adjourned
yeah i think this is
you