Permit development and things related to that, that's the white one. We also ask that
you keep your comments in respect to the number of people we've got here tonight
to five minutes if you can. Okay? Can I just add one thing? So I
just, for any audience members who may be kind of confused, Amy is going to
do a presentation that kind of explains what the administrative adjustment of standards is. So
you can sign up at the time that you're, hearing what's contained in that if
you, so that you have a sense of which one you may want to speak
to and you're able to speak to both if you're interested in doing so. Absolutely,
you can talk to both subjects if you want, but just indicate which ones you
want by the signing one or both. We have,
we're on, okay. Oh yeah. Alright,
today is the The agenda for the Development Commission is to as I said
look at the request for Two separate items We're
going to begin the meeting with the presentation by city staff And after
which there will be an opportunity for public comment then we will we will
yeah after which We will go into the second element of
tonight's meeting which I mentioned earlier and So we'll begin today with, now that we've
called it to order, with a request for changes or additions to the minutes of
the last meeting, if there are any. Having none, can we get a motion to
approve the minutes? Move approval of meeting minutes from our November 18, 2015
meeting. Second. All those in favor? We have a motion to approve and a second.
All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. The minutes are
approved.
Good evening, I'm Lucy Sloman, Land Development Manager, and I'm going to be doing two
quick pieces. One is, you may remember
last year we had a training with the hearing examiner, and we're trying to have
some consistency between all the various commissions and boards that we serve. So I'm just
gonna do a brief presentation on quasi-judicial, This is a quasi-judicial matter,
so we're going to go through a little process around that. And then I'm going
to give you a brief update on some of the key amendments that were passed
in December to the Central Issaquah Standards, just so you're familiar with them. Some of
them are relevant to tonight, and some are ones that I think you were interested
in. So tonight you're reviewing a site development
permit in Central Issaquah. Any Buildings over a
certain size, depending on the zone, and sites more than three acres come to
the Development Commission. Also, sites over three acres outside of Central Issaquah also come to
the Development Commission. Buildings or sites under that size are reviewed administratively.
The commission will be the decision maker, not tonight. The decision will occur at the
next meeting, but you will be the decision maker, and this is a quasi-judicial type
of decision. You're conducting a review of
planning level type items for conformance with the Central Issaquah Standards, the
comprehensive plan, and where applicable city code.
Specifically speaking to the quasi-judicial nature of this, as the name indicates that
you're acting kind of like a court, and to meet the requirements you
have to not only be fair but appear fair. And there are two aspects of
that that we are tasked with. One is procedural due process and the other is
substantive due process. Procedural due process means that we follow a certain process. We
give notice, we have a public hearing. The part that's probably most important to you
and that we'll focus on tonight is you as the decision maker, your
relationship to opponents or proponents of the decision.
Substantive due process means that the basis on which you make your decision are adopted
regulations and codes. So I'd like to take a minute and ask you to read
through these six questions. I won't read them out loud, you'll read them to yourselves
faster than I will, and Essie gets off free because she got to do this
last night.
How many commissioners would answer no to all the questions? Okay,
great. And then the other piece of quasi-judicial process is ex parte
communication. Ex parte means that these communications have taken place outside of these
public settings. So one question is, has there been any ex parte
communication associated with this permit? No? and since there
haven't, we're done with that piece. Okay.
So the second piece we want to just talk about is what we called round
two amendments to the Central Issaquah Standards. There were eight amendments that
went through and were approved in December. I'm gonna speak to four of them. They're
the ones with the stars, having to do with building heights, through block passages, views
and vistas, and minimum density. In
terms of building height, what you see here, the text here at the top, oh
wow, that's hard to read, I'm sorry. The text here at the top, is essentially
the same language that is currently in the Issaquah Municipal Code. The one change
is up here, and what it says is it results, so I'm
gonna start here. Building or structure height shall be measured from the average grade of
the existing or finished grade, whichever results in the stronger relationship to the
designated circulation facility. And then stronger
relationship is defined down here. and it has to do with the
public realm, citing specific standards in Chapter 11,
standards in Chapter 14 relating to street walls, avoids extreme
character altering filling, provides a great relationship to the
street between buildings and the designated circulation facilities, and complies with the vision.
So there are two examples that we wanted to show you tonight. One was one
that we certainly spent a lot of time talking about with the Gateway Apartments. The
existing grade is the sort of orange line down here,
and the street grade is the green one up here.
Previously, we had a prescriptive standard which said whichever is lower, existing or finished grade,
is the grade that the building's measured from. The height didn't change. It was just
a question of what we were measuring from. Now we look at the
site and see is it the existing grade that will result in the best relationship
between the building and the street, or is it the finished grade? So in this
case, it was the finished grade. And then for tonight's building,
again, the orange line represents the existing grade, the green represents the
average grade, which also used the circulation facility.
So what the diagram below represents is that the height was measured from the average
grade and up to the maximum allowed, which is here. Now that's an average
because sloped roofs you're allowed to count to the average of the roof. That's a
lot of information. I wanna see if you have any questions.
You're welcome to think about it and come back to it too, but I just
wanna answer any questions if you have them now. Okay.
Go ahead, Mike. I'll try. I got it. So I'm just looking at the top
of the diagram. And so the orange line was, you said was the
existing grade except that moves from an existing grade to what is now the new
finished grade at the entrance. So it's kind of blending the two,
so I got lost between. Right. Could you try that again? Yes, absolutely.
And listening to you describe it made me realize I skipped a couple of steps,
so thank you. So the orange grade is the existing grade.
When we determine whether we're going to measure from the existing or the finished
grade as established by the new circulation facility, okay,
so this street out in front of the building is the new circulation facility.
So that set the grade on this side, and then the grade going down the
side of the building and the finished grade in the back. So the method for
measuring is the same, you calculate points around the building, and once they calculated
those, that resulted in an average grade. So I think that was
the step that I skipped, was that there was the circulation
facility and the average finished grade to arrive at that green
line. Does that make more sense? Thank you. Okay.
Another one that had come up with gateway apartments, there are through block
passages which are kind of like a trail. There's a primary through block passage and
a secondary through block passage. it was not very clear when you used which one
of them, and this project helped clear that up for us, and it was the
way we worked with the Wolf Group, which is that if you're going to have
an entrance that isn't facing a street, it has to be to a through block
passage. So just as we've shown here, these with the sort of dots are the
through block passages and the entrances to these three buildings, the front door essentially,
comes off of that three block passage.
Views and vistas, I'm not asking you to read through all of this, but this
came up when we went through the Costco development agreement. We had a hard time
taking the language that was there, the work that had been done
working through the central Issaquah standards and the curvilinear nature of the streets and how
did we bring all of that together to know which views were being preserved. In
the update of the comprehensive plan, the city had, the staff and the council had
written a new policy. So what we needed to do was take that language and
put it into code. And what we've really focused on is circulation facilities such
as streets and significant community spaces. Those are the two that are prioritized
and those are the ones in which we're really looking at what are the existing
views and how are we going to work with the circulation facilities and the buildings
to preserve those from these circulation facilities and community spaces.
And I can send you the final language so that you have an opportunity to
read through it. Lucy, I have a question. Sure. The first sentence under G,
is that, am I correct in observing that the difference there
is the word shall instead of should? Yes. That is one of the
differences. And that was an important piece. And the reason that we were comfortable doing
that is because it shall preserve within the context of these four elements.
as opposed to before, it was should and it was very broad and so should
doesn't mean you have to and then when are you doing it. We also wrote
one that specifically relates to curvilinear streets that where we have curvilinear streets because there
are some for instance in Pickering Place that are not part of the Costco development
agreement so at some point those properties may develop, redevelop. that
before we start we will do an AAS and agree on which views are important,
administrative adjustment of standards, that we will use that process to
identify and document which views are being preserved so that by the time we get
here we're all clear how we're proceeding and what views have been identified. Thank you.
And then the last one I want to mention, this one you may not be
as aware of. This was more a staff and council one that had come up.
You may be aware that there is a minimum FAR, floor area ratio, for properties
over a certain size. One of the challenges we found with that is
if a project does not meet the minimum FAR, One way they can meet it
is just to make the units larger. And we had seen that in a project.
But the goal of that was the minimum FAR wasn't just to get more square
footage, it was actually to get more dwelling units. And so we had quite a
bit of discussion with council. We decided to limit it to the urban core, which
is the area that we have committed to the Puget Sound Regional Council that
we will add a certain number of units. So to achieve that, we have
identified that we will have 36 dwelling units per acre. For instance,
Gateway Apartments was 31 dwelling units in acres. So it's not a significant increase, but
it is somewhat denser, but only in the urban core. proposed potentially
doing it throughout central Issaquah, and they felt it was more appropriate and achievable within
the urban core. And that's the last one I
was going to tell you about. Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Amy Tars and I'm senior planner with the Development Services
Department. And I am here to do two presentations both related to
the Gateway Senior Housing Project. The first one will be on the two administrative
adjustments of standards. And I will bring up the slide very shortly. I'm just going
to walk everyone through what's going to happen with my presentation and afterwards. So after
that I'm going to do the presentation for the site development permit review.
And after that we have Greg Van Patten from the Wolf
Company who is the applicant and would like to address the development
commission. And then after that we will have his consultants come up and do their
own presentation of the project.
So this will be a very brief presentation, basically just to introduce this
project. So we're doing this a little differently than the way we did the Gateway
Apartments. For this project, the applicant has opted
to basically apply for the Administrative Adjustment of Standards
independent of the SDP. And in the process of doing that, since we are reviewing
this concurrently with the SDP, We thought that we would like to provide this
forum as an opportunity to collect public comments for these two
administrative adjustment of standards. And just to clarify, as an AAS, this is a
level two review, and the review approved, I'm sorry, the
decision maker is the DSD director. And on the right is
basically a table copied from the Central Usoquad Development Standards. This is just meant to
show that the difference between a Level 2 and a Level 3 review. And when
you look at the dots, the only difference is the community conference, which is shown
as optional for a Level 3. and a black dot for a level three
review for a public hearing. So the purpose of
me showing this is to basically show that the public comment opportunities
and notice requirements are the same for both level 2 and level 3 review. So
it doesn't deprive the public of the opportunity to provide the same level
of engagement and comments for this review. Having said that,
I just wanted to briefly highlight what these two AASs are for. The first
one is for basically a request to
provide flexibility on their neighborhood street requirements and
particularly show, as this red area shows, they're not
providing a sidewalk on this side of the street. So normally as a neighborhood street,
you would have what is typically and what is shown on the other side of
the street, which is a planter strip for street trees and a six-foot sidewalk.
So on this other side of the street, the sidewalk is actually extended
close away from the roadway and closer to where the
entrances of the individual residential units are, where most of the people will be walking.
However, because of the steep slopes at this part of their project, it was hard
to accommodate the sidewalk on this end of their
neighborhood street. As you go further down, the other half of the neighborhood street
basically meets the standard. So having said that,
we have not made any decision on this AAS, and we thought that this
would be a good opportunity for us to to listen and
collect additional comments from the public. The other AAS has to do with
a requirement in the Central Issaquah Standards in the building design section that required that
buildings should be set back after the third floor. It was very specific,
and so this is the same AAS that we applied to the Gateway
Apartments for their five-story structures. And again,
in that particular project, and similar to that project, this project
also has a four-story building over a garage. And
if we were to apply that standard, it will create this awkward break in the
building. So again, even though we have made a determination from the previous SDP
and AAS for a similar structure that this is an
AAS that we would grant. We are here to listen to the public for any
comments. And tonight is not the only time that we will be receiving
comments. We have basically the two-week window for
receiving additional comments, and the public is welcome to write me and send us emails
or a letter. for additional comments after
tonight. So having said that, if the Commission
members have any comments, we would welcome that too. Are there
any questions or comments at this point on the AAS by any members of the
Commission? The AAS as it stands at this moment. Commissioner Brennan?
So, clarification on the process. So, the AAS is, the decision maker is the
Development Services Department Director. So, tonight is just a forum to solicit feedback prior
to the director's decision? Yes. Okay. Can you go back to the slide on the
driveway? So, did they look at the
option of moving everything, putting, I'm looking at that and you come in on the
sidewalk on the This side? Yeah, and then you've got to come
into the entry and cross the drive lane to get over to the sidewalk or
to get into the building. So everybody that's walking in has to cross the drive
lane. And if they're coming from the west along the port way, they've got to
cross the driveway in. If you move everything over and put the sidewalk on the
building side, but slide the whole driveway over, would that geometrically work? Because you said
one of their challenges is the slope, you have a steep drop that happens there.
I don't know if that was explored as an option to say, could you still
make the radius work for turning trucks, et cetera, that have to come down through
there and move the sidewalk to the other side? So basically shift the driveway
entrance a little bit and then have the sidewalk? The sidewalk, and from a pedestrian
standpoint, then you're reducing at least one drive lane crossing to get into the
building if you're coming from. And are you saying basically removing,
in other words, if we were to choose between which sidewalk to give up, it
would be the sidewalk on this side? You have that option. I don't know if
that physically could still work from an
engineering standpoint and meeting the turn radius standards, because it's going to modify that radius
a bit. That's definitely a good idea and we'll definitely explore
that. Actually, I think we can probably
address that question. Oh, okay. Is that all right? Yeah. So, everybody that wants to
make a public comment, applicant, and members of the public, please identify yourself by your
name and your address. My name is Jim Bedoya. I'm with VIA Architects and
we're in the tower building on 7th Avenue in Seattle, 98101.
The location of our driveway entrance was strategically chosen because of
offering the maximum site distance down Newport in both directions. And it's also
in one of the steeper portions of the site. The topography on the
north side of that drive drops off pretty severely.
So that was the reason we chose to put the walk on the south end
of that drive. There is intended to be a crosswalk that happens as part
of the arrival court that will offer a safe crossing
both at this location and coming down with the ADA ramp coming off of Newport
and crossing at the, I'm sorry, at this portion of the drive.
You've got a sidewalk on, I guess it's the east side of the entranceway.
The ADA ramp is all the way on the other side of the building. So
is this sidewalk as steep as the other side of the driveway? Or is it
potentially stepped? And if it's stepped on this side, couldn't it be stepped on the
other side to provide a full sidewalk? Well, we have a fire department turning
radius coming in there, so we can't really adjust where the driveway location comes in.
I'm not talking about adjusting the driveway, I'm talking about the sidewalk. Is that sidewalk
on the east side, not that one, that one right there, is that sloped? Is
it a very steep sidewalk, or is it stepped? Well, no, it comes in at
the same grade as the driveway, which is at 12%, I believe, in that location.
So it's about as steep as you'd want. So it's pretty steep, 12%.
Yeah. How much of a difference is it on the other side?
Is it about the same? It's more the physical limitation of having to build
that on ground that doesn't exist, because the grade does fall
off pretty severely on this side of the entryway, and we just felt that it
was a safer sidewalk coming in where you're up
against the bank and not on the edge of a grade difference. We have retaining
wall structures along this edge that are allowing that grade to transition. And just felt
that this was a better, safer solution to have it on that side.
You could put a retaining wall in. You could put in a step sidewalk. I
mean, a series of steps going down on both sides.
Theoretically. DAVID
BURRAGEERSON,
Well, what we have for available space is limited. I don't want to get into
this limit. It's something I think that could be done. DAVID BURRAGEERSON, We certainly looked
at doing it a bunch of ways, and that was part of the reason that
we asked for the adjustment, just because we felt that the circulation in that area
was better served by doing it the way we are proposing it.
I'd like to go on record by saying that I think that the way it's
designed here seems like the safest option.
Okay, is there anything
else? Amy? I guess I'd just input, I guess, if you want some input. I
would agree with both AASs that they seem like reasonable changes to be made,
adjustments to be made. Thank you. Members of the public.
Good evening, I'm Hart Sugarman. I live at 2550 Northwest Oak Crest Drive. I'm
resident of Issaquah for 20 years. Just regarding this diagram, most
people are gonna be walking on the sidewalk east to go to the transit center
or into town. I think when they're gonna return to the residence, they're gonna take
the ADA ramp as the shortest way rather than walking further down the road west
and then returning to the property. So I think more people will be traveling or
walking in that ADA portion.
Anyone else that wishes to address the AAS?
My name is Mary Lynch and I reside at 2690 Northwest Oak Crest Drive in
Issaquah. Also, just a comment on this view. I concur with heart,
but when you get down to the other side, if there is a sidewalk, one
of the things about this area is it is on the shadow side of Cougar
Mountain. And this area along the stretch of road is one of the areas that
has a lot of black ice and the sidewalks are slippery. So one of the
things that concerns me is even having a sidewalk, so I think a stair-stepped or
something approach might be good. My other concern is the turning radius, and I understand
why they don't want the sidewalks on the other side, because this is a minimum
turning radius for basically a small fire truck. From what I can
see, it does not allow for your larger ladder trucks to enter here, and if
you look further in the diagrams that they have, it actually has to get it
has to swing over the sidewalk. The vehicle, I mean the tires don't, but the
actual, to get in here. So you're gonna need to have a fairly low area
and you're really not gonna be swinging over a sidewalk when you're coming into an
area, especially the speeds that your fire trucks are gonna come in. But I do
have concern with the sidewalks being on the uphill side because
they're gonna get the least sun. that's a comment on that. On the other one,
the only thing I see is I was part of the central area plan and
one of the reasons we put the stair steps approach in there was also for
shadowing. And you're gonna have some of your main
outdoor community areas on the north side of the building. a little
bit of stair step will help get you a little bit more sunlight to those
community spaces. It also was to create a stair step view up to the
mountains. And I guess my concern, it seems like everything we've put in so far
with the Central Area Plan has deviated from the standard. And that was an
idea that came out of the citizens and also the staff. So it's just, I
think, very ironic that so far everything that we've seen passed has ask for that
not to happen. So I would go back and say why was it there?
And I think the shadowing and some of those considerations might be taking effect. And
I think it would also make the buildings seem less tall.
Thank you. Anyone else that wishes to speak on the subject of the adjustment of
standards? Okay, thank you everyone.
So now I'm going to make my presentation for the actual site development
permit. This is a level three review. And for tonight's
presentation, I would like to just for the public record
note that there were four additional comments that we received from the public. And
you have copies of them on your seats. and I will go ahead and start
my presentation. And for tonight's presentation, because this is the first part of two presentations,
we're going to provide, just like with the Gateway Apartments, a very broad overview of
how the project meets the central Issaquah standards and all the related development
standards. And so we, I'm sorry.
So we have, In our staff report, documented how
we looked at every chapter of the Central Sequest Standards, and I will not go
over every one of those chapters. What I'm gonna do tonight is highlight the broad
strokes, the most important elements of not only the standards, but how this
project meets those standards. So quick overview, this is a five
story building with 146 units. It will be a senior housing
project with 78 parking spaces. It meets basically the required parking
space requirement. And the developable area is 4.29 acres
out of six, a little bit of over six acres. The balance of
the site is actually the critical areas. Oh, so one of the things,
I'm sorry, let me go back. Just to clarify, this is phase two of
what we call the Gateway Project, and phase one was a project that you
recently reviewed in the fall. Oops. I keep clicking on the
wrong button. So for tonight's presentation, again, I will
organize my discussion and analysis on two broad themes.
One is the connectivity and the other one is placemaking. Under connectivity, I'm going to
start with the discussion and presentation of the circulation facilities. and then the
green necklace, which encompasses a lot of the open spaces, and then the views. And
then for place making, we'll talk a little bit about the Western Gateway concept, because
that was something that the Commission was very interested in and the public was also
interested in last time, and the pedestrian-friendly public realm.
So location, again, this is in central Issaquah in what is called
the Western Gateway District. And the vision for this area is to have an attractive
gateway that maintains significant open space views from I-90 and to
enhance Tibbets Creek and buffers as key link of the Green Necklace. So for this
particular project, Tibbets Creek is not part of the review. It's actually
aways from the project. So land use and zoning, again, very quickly,
the site is zoned VR, Village Residential, and the
land use designation is multifamily residential. And as you can see,
across Newport Way, And the properties are already developed, primarily with
either single family or multi-family residential developments. And
immediately east of the project is the Gateway Apartments, which will also be a multi-family
development. And south of it is what is now a former vet
clinic, and it's vacant. So some, just
walking you through some of the existing conditions through some of the views and site
photos. This is a view from I-90. So the top view is looking
from, you know, almost like the Gateway apartment site. So what you see here
is where Tibbetts Creek kind of lines up. And so the site is actually further
back there. And this is the Gateway apartment site. Excuse me, Amy. I think that's
That's not Tibbets Creek there. Oh, I'm sorry, Snyder Creek. Thank you for the
correction. So, and then the bottom photo shows again from I-90,
you get a sliver view of the site between these two trees,
or a grove of trees here on one side and a clump of trees on
the other side. So views from Newport Way, this is easier to
identify. So where the site is currently undeveloped, so you see
mostly trees. On the left is actually the city stormwater pond.
And this is kind of the improved sidewalk and streetscape.
on the opposite side of Newport Way from this project. So along Newport Way,
what you see is this almost nebulous area that's currently used as a
shared use route. It's 10 foot wide with extruded curbs, which separates the
travel lanes from the pedestrian and the bikes. The bottom photo shows
Again, Newport Way looking south. On the right is a multi-family housing development.
And again, on the left you see mostly trees and the terminus of your
view is Cougar Mountain. Another set of photos.
Looking from here where it says C, it's almost at the northern end of the
property. You see some new residential developments, three stories
along Newport Way across the street from the property. And
again, on the southern end of Newport Way street frontage, you also
see basically four, I'm sorry, a multifamily development about
four or five stories high and raised above Newport Way.
So existing conditions on the site, and the reason why I'm introducing this is so
you kind of get an understanding of later on how the building was cited and
what are the site constraints. And I'm just going to highlight some of them. So
the gray triangular areas that you see that's close to Newport Way, those are the
steepest slopes You do see existing trees again. You saw them in the photos,
but they are mostly along Newport Way and some trees here. Not a lot of
trees in the interior of the property. This orange line, orange dash
double line is an existing drainage easement that will eventually be vacated.
This dashed black line here, as it says 100 feet, is the required 100-foot
buffer for Schneider Creek. So in the future, you kind of see this
dark dashed line here. This is the future property line for this project.
So this is the proposed site plan with the landscape
conceptually illustrated. And the purpose of why I'm showing this
is just to kind of highlight again you know, the main entries. One entry is
for pedestrian and bikes, and this is the main entry, primarily, we
believe, is the ideal access to the site for pedestrians and bikes, because it has
a gentler slope, and it's also closer to the intersection with the crosswalk
on the south end of the property. And this is primarily for vehicles and
as an option for pedestrians. The building, it's basically a
one structure, again oriented north to south, and
with community spaces and a green area both
on the north end and on the east end. And I'm going to talk a
little bit more about those open spaces in a minute. So just very quickly,
we also reviewed this project's compliance to the zoning standards and it
complies. There are three types of circulation facilities
required for this project, and they're color coded, basically Newport Way is a parkway.
And in the interior of the property, a neighborhood street was required, as shown here
on this diagram. And then In addition to that,
to meet the block standards and pedestrian friendly standards of the Central Issaquah Plan,
through block passages were also required. So one is shown as a dashed line because
it's a through block passage through the building, and then the other one is at
the exterior of the building and connects further to the adjacent property.
So how does the circulation facilities connect to the regional network. In this
particular case, this is from the central Issaquah plan. It shows
this green line along Newport Way and a dashed purple line. So the green line
actually represents the existing mountain to sound greenway bike lane, which I showed
earlier as almost like a shoulder And then it also
requires an additional shared use route along Newport Way, which this project will be
providing. And now we're going to go closer to the site
and look at its connectivity to adjacent properties. So again, using this
diagram from the Central Issaquah Development Standards, Figure 6A, it shows that
There's supposed to be an internal street that eventually connects back out to Newport Way
through the adjacent property. So somehow that connection is shown
currently. Obviously, they don't have any control over the adjacent property, but it's
meant to connect to the adjacent property. And then the other connection is
from this property to the Gateway Apartments. Currently, they are proposing
to provide a 10-foot wide pedestrian and bike access,
a small 10-foot bridge over Snyder Creek. So in our staff
analysis, we actually have two conditions
for both circulation connectivity requirements. Condition three currently We
just put a placeholder. We are still working out the condition with the applicant,
basically, but it's meant to indicate how we are
going to implement the connection to the adjacent VET property.
And then there's condition 11, and again, I'm not gonna read this, but basically it
requires a 10 foot wide bridge to also be able to carry some
very low traffic, vehicular traffic,
for, excuse me, for vehicular connectivity to the adjacent gateway apartments.
So in addition to physical connectivity, we also look at visual connections. And in this
particular project, as this diagram shows, there are
incredible views of the mountains and lakes of Mamish. And they are
capitalizing on those views with balconies for the building and also with their open
spaces. So now I like to talk about how this project
contributes to the whole concept of the green necklace. This diagram shows
seven elements of the site plan that all contributes to that green
necklace. The first one is the shared use route, and I'm going to
talk through most of this in the next slides. Second one is the existing
Mountains of Sound Greenway bike lane. The third one, shown down here, is
the buffer, the Schneider Creek critical area buffer. Four is
the I-90 Green Edge. Five are the community
spaces that are provided for the residents but also relate to the
natural areas. Six is the neighborhood streets and its streetscape.
Seven is the Newport Way streetscape. So the Schneider Creek
and buffer area, again, I'm not going to talk through the details. This is just
to show that they will be enhancing the whole buffer area because they are
reducing the buffer width from 100 feet to 75 feet. And there's also
some areas here that are mitigation for the
impacts to the wetlands in the Gateway Apartment project.
So below is just a sectional diagram that shows, since we're speaking about
the green necklace, how this buffer area will be vegetated.
So for the I-90 green edge, basically what you see on top is the existing
views from I-90. So this side is a little setback from I-90.
And the bottom photo shows how the new structure will look from I-90 with vegetation
on, you know, in front of it. The community spaces were
basically shown and provided according to not
only the requirements, but they actually exceed the required open spaces
requirements. And they come in the form of either the terraces and balconies for the
individual units. This green area here, which is basically a pea
patch and an outdoor seating area. And what's not highlighted here are the dog run
and trail system that connects back to the Gateway Apartments,
as well as interior community spaces that are highlighted in these beige areas.
So the neighborhood street, again, this is just to give you a flavor of the
green how this contributes to the green necklace. It shows the type of vegetation,
starting with the street trees that are required for both the neighborhood street and the
Newport Way green streetscape. So in addition to that,
there are additional ornamental vegetation
for both these streets. So one of the things
that now I'm going to transition into the Western Gateway concept as we talk about
the Newport Way streetscape. So there's two ways that they express their sense of
arrival. One is with the streetscape treatment along Newport Way and the other is
with the architectural character of the building. So in our staff analysis, we have
provided or recommended conditions for how the vegetation on Newport
Way should be treated so that it allows for this building to engage better
with Newport Way, plus also to create something that
provides a sense of arrival and a sense that this is part of something special,
that it has a gateway character to it and not just
something that blends with everything else on Newport Way. So the other
condition that we provided had to do with the treatment of the building.
Again, we acknowledged and applaud the applicant for
actually proposing stone and timber type
elements on the bottom of the building. level of the building. However, the part of
the building that is most visible from Newport Way are the top two to three
floors. And so we, again, I'm not going to read the condition, but the purpose
of this slide is just to show what we mean when we say that we
want the buildings to consider having
more expressions of this western gateway. you know, architectural treatment, the
same type of discussion that we had last time with the Gateway Apartments.
So to conclude, and this just shows kind of a flavor
again of the modulation and articulation of the building. The
staff has also established that it does meet the standards. Basically, with the
modulation, we see how the shadows, you see how the buildings actually
recess in some bays and then protrude out in some areas and
how the roof forms have more of this modulation and
of a combination of shed roofs and gables. So,
Having said that, we think that
generally they do comply with the SDP, or I'm sorry, with the Central Issaquah Standards
with the conditions that we have recommended to the Development Commission. And for the next
steps, we are currently reviewing
this project for SEPA compliance and we are collecting public comments
for that and in fact one of the public comments that we submitted tonight, which
is attachment 15, was a SEPA comment, public comment. And
so we are scheduled to conclude the comment and appeal period on February 4th and
also have a
determination and a decision on the administrative adjustment of standards.
And then for the Development Commission decision, we have scheduled it tentatively
for March 16. So that concludes, oops, I still have the old,
sorry, still have the old gateway slide here, but that
concludes my presentation. And I'm here to answer any questions.
Any questions until later? I think, Amy, what we'll do is give the applicant an
opportunity and then the public to comment, and
we'll combine our questions and observations at the end, if that's all right. With
you? Yeah, that's great. Good. OK, does the applicant wish to make a
presentation? And if so, please recall that we'd ask you to identify yourself and your
business and your address.
My name is Greg Van Patten. I'm with the Wolf Company. Our address is 911
East Pike Street in Seattle. So I didn't get a chance to address the commission
when we went through the process with the multifamily site. Just thought I would introduce
myself. The Wolf Company, first a little bit about our company.
We're a third generation family company formed in Spokane in 1949. So we've been around
for a little while. We, as I mentioned, a third-generation
company, we have several development projects throughout the Puget Sound region that we've been working
on for the last few years. Been pleased to work with city staff on this
site for almost, it's coming up on two years now. and we're excited about our
proposal for senior housing on this portion. And I thought it might be helpful also
to clarify a little bit about the population we intend to serve. I think there's
perhaps a little bit of confusion and some ambiguity about senior housing because there's lots
of levels of care and what population they serve. So this will be independent
living senior apartments. So these will be for lease. This will not be skilled
nursing, it will not be assisted living, it will not be memory care. This is
for independent living. We say that it's for 55 plus, but the practical reality is
the average age of the residents in this type of property are
Upper 70s, so somewhere between 75 and 80 is really the average age of the
residents here. So all units will have full kitchens. It's a combination of one and
two bedroom units. All units will have full kitchens, but there is a dining
facility within there and the monthly rent includes a set number of meals per
month. There will be a large amount of community spaces and amenity spaces so that
the residents can stay active. There will be a full-time activities director that works seven
days a week, and their job is purely to have activities for the residents so
that they stay active and engaged. And there's a lot of really good relationships that
are formed within these communities. It's really a very rewarding thing to see.
We will have dedicated transportation as well. We will have a van or a small
bus that will be provided, complementing to the residents for going to doctor's
appointments, cultural events, shopping trips. things of that
nature as well. So that's a little bit about the product type. And again, this
is independent living, it's for seniors. There's actually an opportunity where you can
license a few units for assisted living, which, depending on the residents, it allows them
to stay in place a little bit longer. It's not like we would provide these
services, but in some of our properties, we can license individual units, take a few
of those, and then just contract with the third party that comes in and provides
some of those services. So it's not skilled nursing or memory care, but there is
that opportunity there. So I hope that kind of clears up any questions. Any questions
a little bit on the kind of population served or anything before I turn it
over? I think we'll probably hold the questions until the final period. But then if
we do, I have one for you. Great. Thank you.
Good evening. My name is Jim Bedoya. I'm with VIA Architects. And just would
like to thank the Commission and Amy for doing such a wonderful job of presenting
this project. Amy's done a wonderful job of going over the technical
details and compliance. And what I'd like to do is kind of keep this brief,
but really help you to understand the factors that helped us shape this project and
why we feel it's a good fit for this site and also a good fit
for the community and the people that will eventually call this their home. So
I'd like to just start by talking a little bit about the site and the
challenges and opportunities that the physical nature of the site presented for the project.
As you are aware, there's quite a bit of grade difference from Newport down to
the elevation of the creek. There's approximately 30 feet of grade change that happens. And
it happens rather abruptly once you leave Newport Way. So
as we recognize the concern for safety entering and leaving
this project, and that was evidence when we went through this process
on the apartment side of this project, Optimum location
for having the best visibility entering and leaving the site is where we're showing our
driveway entrance Along with that it gives us you know the longest
distance to negotiate that great change for vehicles for people coming in on foot
and Sort of perfectly sets up the the project to cite the the
project that the lowest part of the site, therefore having the least amount of impact
on the neighboring communities to the west and impacts on Newport Way.
We have a simple little diagram that I think illustrates the principles and
goals of what we are trying to achieve with this site planning. And with
our main vehicle entry, the way the the road system
gently winds its way down to the lowest part of the site and therefore giving
us access to a minimum amount of surface parking, access to the parking that we
have within our garage structure, and really highlighting the two main
arrival points for the project, the main front door for the project and then the
connection at the lower level back out to the community spaces that we created along.
side of Schneider Creek. Looking more
closely at our arrival point, by the time you get down
to the arrival, you're approximately 14 or 15 feet below Newport Way.
So it was important for us to make that feel natural in terms of its
connection back to Newport and what it felt like when you were at that arrival
point. And so we've terraced, we're doing quite a few
landscape terraces back up to the street. As Amy said, we're enhancing
the trail system along Newport. We've added the planting strip and the new
trees that are part of that streetscape, as well as the neighborhood
street landscape concept. We
have created a level arrival plaza that allows for
vehicle turnarounds so people can come in, circulate underneath the port co-chair, and either
pick up or drop off someone safely. For vans, they would go down to the
end and turn around and come back and pick up people on the passenger side
of their vehicle.
a view of some of the elements that we wanted to incorporate into the project.
We're using traditional materials with lap siding and steel handrails
and then introducing timber elements as part of the port cocher, as part of the
dining facility that we have on the Schneider Creek side. And traditional gable forms with
dormers using very traditional window details white trim,
so that it's a muted, more familiar palette of materials that I think would
feel comfortable in this neighborhood. As you move
down the community street that goes in front of the facility, there are a number
of units that are pretty close to being at that street grade. It gets progressively
further separated the further down that street as you go to the south. But we've
created front stoops, the same kind of street standard where we'd have parallel
parking, parking strip with trees, the sidewalk, and then a generous planning buffer
to the building. Also, as Amy had
pointed out, we've created a ADA accessible route coming off of Newport, again coming from
the most active direction
back to the town center. And that arrives at this arrival plaza,
and there'll be a clear, safe passage across that entry drive to get to the
front door. This is looking at the project from Newport. So as
you can see, the building is set down from the street elevation, but
it's a very nice landscape buffer between the project and
Newport Way. And then this is the top end of that ADA
path. So we'll have a small shelter, a place for people to pause, kind of
a rest area that's associated with the access down to our building entry.
Then on the east side of the project, we drop down a full
story. So essentially we're a four story building with a daylight basement.
I mean, technically it could be considered a five story building, but it's really four
stories from Newport and five stories out of the ground on the on the east
side of the project. So we wanted to really play down the vehicle
importance along that area and pave across that exit coming out of the main community
spaces that are in the center of the building that gives access to the community
spaces. So we'll have a covered shelter and some open picnic area and then
a series of raised planters for personal pea patch gardening or just
sitting out there and enjoying the connection to the open space that's
created as part of the creek buffer. And the creek buffer in itself,
I think, because we've reduced it, we've enhanced it, so it'll end up
eventually having about the same density and coverage that the WSDOT
conservation easement currently enjoys. So it'll be a continuation of that green space
all along the creek buffer on both sides.
This is just a section showing the relationship with Newport being the red line
and then the elevation at our building entry and then step down
and elevation at as we exit out on the east side. So you can see
that the building is siting itself to the lowest elevation of the site and coming
up from there and letting the roadway and the terraces define the open spaces on
either side of it. As Greg had mentioned, if
you think of this building as almost a lodge or a resort, it acts that
way in the sense that there's a really strong emphasis on the main entry
All the public community spaces are centered around that space. So there's
a large dining facility that's a double height space, as well as the entry and
main waiting area. We also have a private dining area that faces back out to
our arrival plaza and a series of other
rooms that are community-based rooms, both craft and wellness clinic and
and those sorts of activities. Again,
this is showing our front entry. Then, facilities that are on
the lower level would include a fitness area, yoga, a main arrival
point at that point, and then we have a small theater that's cut into the
hillside, so it's on the buried side of the building, and then our mail delivery.
shows the emphasis of connecting those spaces back to the community spaces. So it's really
important that the vehicle traffic is coming through at a very slow rate,
and then it provides access into our parking structure that's buried underneath the
north half of the building. This is a view looking
from that open space area that's on the east side adjacent to the Schneider Creek
buffer, looking back at the main dining facility and the main
living room that's behind these trees. And then on top of that dining facility, there's
a breakout space and a lounge that's on the third level that will also afford
views to the south and back up to the foothills.
Again, this is a view looking as you would be headed west on I-90
with the building set pretty well into the hillside. And eventually, there'll
be quite a grove of trees, both deciduous and evergreen, that'll be a foreground to
this building as a part of the creek buffer.
And as Amy had mentioned, We paid a lot of attention to the modulation of
the facade, both vertically and horizontally, and really wanted to put emphasis on the
center element of the building, as well as identifying the two elements that
formed the bookends on either end of the project. And the building itself has
two distinct wings that follow the contours of the
existing grade and take advantage of the views of that. So
from the Newport Way side, it really is four stories out of the ground,
and at some point close to where that main entry is, we're actually
just two stories out of the earth, I'm sorry, three stories, because we were holding
the grade up against the building in that location.
And then on the east elevation, On the south end, we have residential units down
at that lowest level. And on the north wing, that's
where we have our parking underneath the building. And at the end of that wing
is where we have an indoor pool with breakout facilities that face out to the
creek as well. Color palette is
sort of northwest generated with deeper tones and
more muted colors. We're not trying to call a lot of attention to the building.
We'd like it to feel like it belongs there. Again, we incorporated the use of
steeply pitched roofs with darker charcoal shingles on it to give a
better roof scape looking down from the neighborhoods that are above us to the west.
And then the use of stone as part of the base element of the dining
facility is a base element for some of the elements that are on the arrival
side as well. So
that concludes my presentation on the building, but we would like to take this opportunity
to talk briefly about the two conditions that Amy mentioned
relative to connectivity.
And primarily, the suggestion of
connecting through to the adjacent property to the south. And for a number of reasons,
we feel that this is probably not the best for this project
and the people that eventually call us their home. mainly because
we would not have any control over how that access gets used. We're
catering to a group of people who are in their later years and enjoy the
privacy and security and safety that this design affords them, and I
think opening up that connection takes away a lot of
that and I think would be looked upon as a negative, just because we have
no control over who or what type of development would happen on that
south property. Even if it were six town homes, depending on who chose to
rent there, their lifestyle might have them coming home late at night, making
noise, and it could be disruptive. We've gone to a lot of trouble to make
this a very walkable site with the trails and the way the streets are graded
and the connectivity to the open space. We just feel that a
lot of that would be compromised if we lost control over how the
site is used after hours. There's very little traffic generated by this project because
most of the people don't drive or drive very infrequently and certainly don't
go out after hours. And so we'd like the
commission to take that into consideration when they decide on that as whether it wants
to be a condition of approval for this project. The other is
the bridge crossing that we talked about earlier across Schneider Creek. And I
I'm totally supportive of that as a pedestrian connection.
I think there's an opportunity for both properties to share within that
common open space that we've created. I think if it's opened up to
vehicular traffic, it creates a whole other set of issues, especially with
Fish and Wildlife. I think their desire is to see that whole corridor be as
wildlife and fish friendly as possible. In fact, their suggestion was if we do a
bridge to have it as an open grate so that more light can come to
the surface of the water and allow vegetation to grow there and allow more sunlight
to come as that bridge crosses the creek. If it went to a
vehicle bridge, it would become much wider, you would have to close it off because
of the need to contain any oil spills that might come from any vehicle that
crosses it. It becomes a fairly large structure for
crossing a creek that's basically less than four feet wide on a good day.
So again, we totally support the connectivity from a
pedestrian level because I think both projects would benefit from the kinds of
open spaces that we're creating for the people that are living there and even the
public. I mean, the trail system is open to the public and I think it'd
be a nice experience to be able to easily and safely traverse both
projects. So, given that, again, we,
our concern about
developing that beyond what's logically reasonable. So
in conclusion, you know, we really appreciate working with the city staff and
how diligent everyone's been about making sure that we are doing a project that
complies with the Central Issaquah Plan goals, design goals, and planning
goals. And we look forward to being able to
create a project that will attract people in the community to want to continue
to live in this community and age on site instead of having
to leave their neighborhood. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your
input. So
at this point, we will open the meeting to public comments.
Again, if you have not already and you wish to speak publicly, please sign the
white sheets there. And we have a number of people, and we're glad to see
this many members of the public here. We always are. But because we have the
number of people here that we do that may want to seek the opportunity to
make a public comment, we would ask you to try the best you can to
hold your comments to five minutes. OK? Thank you.
Good evening everyone. My name is Tina Conforti and I live on 1220 Oakwood Place,
northwest, Issaquan. I heard a lot about the
Sinner House and I like to say clarify a little bit
more what are the amenities. Could you speak into the mic please? Sure. I'd like
to clarify more what they are the amenities for the CNR 55 and plus. I
know that you have this swimming pool and garden and you said it's going to
be had a little bit extra more the daily routine
and I heard about it's going to be a health club. Is there going to
be a available for them. Also, what I didn't hear
about tonight, it is the public and the common use area for
people adjustable for person with a disability. What are the accessibility?
Because I didn't hear anything in your presentation about it. I did
send in to my comments to the city of Issaquah. Are all
units most of the have all of the accessible use for people with a disability?
So they do. So another comments that I
have is in regard to the noise of the I-90. The apartments
are having central hair or there is no central hair condition?
Ma'am, excuse me, this is more of an opportunity for you to make comments
and or ask questions, but they will be answered if you have specific questions. My
question is, is there provide central air condition for CNR 55 and plus?
And if it is not central air condition provide in the CNR
housing, it is my observation as a resident
from the area, I believe the high 90, it caused a lot of
noise, especially in the summertime, when we have our window open
and we can't sleep in the night because the noise from the freeway, the high
90. So my concern is, if you think for 55 and plus,
the enjoyable time, it's sleeping at night in quiet and peace. So that's
why I'm asking how is going to be central here or do you have a
special restoration window there protecting from the noise? And
where the bedroom from the 55 and plus is going to fit to? Is going
to fit to the high 90? That they can't sleep in the night? So
those are my concern. I think people after they leave, 55
and plus, they should live in enjoyable place. They should have enough amenity for them
to keep them busy. It's the pleasure time. Also,
I believe they should provide the transportation and not only like a
van be accommodated to them. It should be a transportation also available on Newport Way.
they can move around. That's not just where that's a restraint thing to go. So
those are my concern. I appreciate it. Thank you. And
ma'am, I don't believe you signed. Oh, you did? There's another sheet there? All right,
all right, thank you. Tina Crawford? Is that you? Oh, I'm
sorry. All right, that's the only name that I have here. So if there's somebody
else that wishes to speak. Yes, ma'am.
My name is Geraldine Carey and my address is 955 17th Avenue, Northwest
Issaquah. My address is on SR 900, but I access my
home off of Newport Way, very close to the intersection of SR 900 and Newport
Way. My concern with this development and all the developments is
what are you going to do to provide for issues of traffic
jams as this road gets built out with all the developments. My understanding is there's
going to be something like 2,000 more vehicle traffic
uses of this road a day and I don't see any types of traffic
roundabouts or traffic signals that will help people access or control the flow
of the traffic on Newport Way. I'm wondering if when all these projects are built
out, you're going to have gridlock from Eastgate all the way to SR 900 on
Newport Way because people, traffic will not move. I mean, I don't, I've lived here
37 years and traffic is building up more and more and
not require these developments to help mitigate all the flow of traffic
is going to be unbelievable. I can't believe that you wouldn't require more than just
making a boulevard look nice. And I would like to see, I can't quite
comprehend how this development fits in on Newport Way because everything they have presented, I
came a little bit late And I didn't see I see the buildings, but I
don't see how it impacts all the other developments that are on Newport Way Where
does this driveway that you access Newport Way meet the ones that are already built?
And I think that's very important for people to know where this accent I this
is a senior development and I can see people getting up to the
Access to Newport Way and kind of looking to the right looking to the left
trying to figure out when to enter the traffic getting halfway into Newport Way and
getting broadsided. I mean, to me, you're not providing any kind of
buffer for people entering and exiting off of Newport Way. And I think it's important
that you think about how traffic is going to flow to these developments on Newport
Way. Thank you. Thank you,
ma'am. Ma'am, if you haven't signed, would you please sign in? we can have a
record to connect with you. Thank you. My name is
Elizabeth Sanders and I live at 2700 Northwest Pinecone Drive, also referred to
as existing multi-family dwelling. And it's located right behind
there. And we were initially told that this was going to be a single story
structure. And obviously that is not the case. It appears to be a
three slash five story structure, depending on how you cut it.
And in addition to all the concerns that the other residents have voiced, I've already
noticed an increase in traffic. There are street sweepers out there seven days a week,
constantly going 10 miles an hour up and down Newport Way. We've been backed up
10, 15 cars in a row. Even though they're only supposed to be doing
construction on weekdays, I've heard construction on weekends as well.
So that's only going to get worse as this goes on. Another concern I have
is I don't think they're meeting the view requirements that they say they are.
If you're looking at it from a very egocentric perspective from a resident living in
this community, sure, they have a great view. They've probably got a great view of
Lake Sammamish, the same view that residents in Bentley House used to have. The reason
why we moved there is gone. There is no need to have a five-story structure
there. Fours would be just fine and we could still maintain our view. The only
person this entire has even mentioned existing residents and the people around it and how
it's gonna impact us is that woman who just spoke a few minutes ago. I
would love to personally invite any one of these people to come to my home
and look out my living room window, have dinner with me and my family, and
see what we're going to have to put up with. I love the idea of
having senior housing near us. I absolutely love it, but I only question the need
to have a five slash three-story structure right across the street. I just don't think
it's necessary and I feel like we've been misled.
Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else?
Oh no, the ma'am, if you, I'll tell you what, if I'm gonna give you
this, if you'd sign this one here please. And there's another white one out there
somewhere, we wanna try to keep them separate. DAVID BURRAGE, Yeah, if you
would sign up on the white one too. That way we can keep track of
who is expressing concerns about which topic. Right, so go ahead.
That's for the administrative adjustment standards. And I believe you did speak on that. This
one is. DAVID BURRAGE, Well,
the comment period for the adjustment of standards has ended. This is for the.
site development permit. And you can speak now, sir, if you'd like to on that.
So just for clarification, if you still want to provide comments for the administrative adjustment
of standards, you can just email me. I should have
my contact information and the notice of application, and I believe you received one of
I've already submitted the comments to you, Amy. I just wanted to bring it forward
to the Commission here. And it was, my name is Hart Sugarman. I introduced myself
previously. 20 years living in the area. Administrative adjustment
AAS16-00002
is regarding vehicular traffic lane adjustment on Newport Way.
from 11 feet to 10 feet. That was not brought up earlier in the discussion
today, but it's one of the items associated with this senior living project.
And Newport Way is a very busy street. It's only getting busier now as more
construction takes place with the development of the Gateway Project, Reva Town Homes, the
Bergsma Project, and now this. The street is maxing out.
Narrowing the lane does not make sense. when you're dealing with a street that has
elevation, has curves, has limited sight lines, and now you're talking about
elderly people trying to get out of a driveway, negotiating right or left as this
lady previously mentioned. There's been accidents on the road, there's been deaths on
the road. We need to look at improving the road first before we build
all these developments. Because if you build all the developments and then go back redesign
the road, you're just gonna impact more residents, and I'm not sure how they're gonna
even travel east or west on the road while it's under construction. And the city
has not even decided if it's gonna be a parkway or a three-lane road with
a center turn lane. That's still to be determined. One other comment on the project
is this pedestrian bridge that'll be over Schneider Creek at 10 feet.
This definitely has to be limited to pedestrians and bicycles and not for vehicular traffic.
Here we have in downtown Issaquanel the Confluence Park where they designed a 12-foot bridge
that's strictly for pedestrians. I thank you for your consideration.
Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak on the site development
permit?
Good evening, David Kepler, 255 Southeast Andrew Street, pretty much speaking as
Vice President for Advocacy for Issaquay Alps Trails Club. I've got, there's other
issues, but I'll stick to those that are more tied to the Trails Club issues.
First of all, we need a correction on the map. It showed Cougar Mountain State
Park and it's Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park. Poor Harvey Manning would have I had
a heart attack if he was alive. Okay, the entrance road is real
steep. The sidewalk seems to want to parallel that and also
match it steep. To me, that sidewalk does not have to be parallel to the
entrance road. If it could be blended out so the grade could be less, that
would be better. It's not gonna meet ADA standards, but having it less steep would
sure be an advantage. And then
the other trail coming in has been called the ADA, American Disability Act
Trail, but I've heard it's for bikes as well. I don't know how wide it's
proposed to be and it's a Zorro kind of thing. It's got all these zigzags
on it. It's certainly not appropriate for bikes and I don't think you want to
have that as a good straight forward
A-D-A accessible trail with minimal grade and you don't want bikes on it.
The Mountain Sound Greenway Trail is on the north side of I-90 as it
crosses Mercer Island on the floating bridge, of course, and the north side on the
East Channel Bridge, and it's in the Mercer Slough, it's on the north side of
I-90, but somewhere between Mercer Slough and Factoria, it switches over to the south side.
of I-90 and Bellevue is spending millions of dollars trying to figure out how to
get that trail continuing on the south side of I-90 up past Victoria and Eastgate.
And they have people working on it and say it's real pricey.
Bikes that are coming on that trail And these road bike people, I mean,
coming across from Seattle doing this, then going around Lake Sammamish, coming back around the
north end of Lake Washington, back to Seattle is not out of range for the
serious road bikers at all. How are they coming on Newport Way, and how are
they gonna get over to Gilman? The crossing there is not
as clear. I think that needs to be worked out better, because we're talking people
that are gonna be riding bikes fast. We're not talking about just kids on bikes
or something, just kind of going slow. We're talking about a major bike corridor. They're
not going to want to go all the way up to 900 and then double
back. If they want to get back over to the state park side, they want
to get to Gilman or whatever, they need to be crossing through this greater area
beyond this project. But you've got to make sure if you're going to want bikes
through that project on this 10-foot bridge, is probably gonna need a 10-foot bridge,
and I don't believe there should be motor vehicles on that bridge for sure.
So I think that whole business needs to be clarified. The
trees, there's gonna be a battle, I mean, the trees along Snyder Creek
Are we going to see big cottonwood trees that start blocking the views of Lake
Sammamish and those kinds of things? Or are we going to see how that's managed
and what kinds of trees are there is going to be important? And I think
over time maybe looking at the trees and not I-90 would be an improvement anyway.
Parking. If the parking is maxed out, OK, let's go to the worst case. It's
Mother's Day. All these people are coming to visit their mother there. Where are those
people gonna park? There is absolutely, they're gonna be parking, going to have to go
to the existing single family neighborhoods or somewhere else to even park. I think the
parking, allowed parking, or the parking is just not sure
it's there. I don't, I just have real doubts about whether it's adequate parking.
And that, you start having people being mad about where they park and they park
on, places they shouldn't be parking, including blocking
sidewalks and things like that. The old vet property,
I'm not sure, I don't know who's gonna own that property, but if I were
the owner of that property, I'd be kind of concerned about forcing me to give
a road to this project. I'm not sure how they want, where their logical
site distance and interface with Newport is and that kind of thing, but mandating that
connection there could be a problem for that adjoining property owner.
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else that wishes to
speak regarding the site development permit?
My name is Peggy Foster. I live at 2254 Newport Way Northwest in Sammamish Point,
and I've been there about nine years. I've got a couple of concerns and a
couple of questions. So it looks like there's 146 units, and how many parking
spaces? 78. No. Yes, 110.
So it's 110 and how many of those are for employees? 32. Okay.
So that's less than one parking space per unit and that's not even including for
the employees. I personally have a number of friends that are over 80 that drive
every single day. So if your logic is that people over 70 don't drive, then
I can shoot holes in that theory. So parking is a big concern especially for
people in the communities surrounding that don't have gated entrance
So I agree with his comment about that It appears there's only one vehicle access
into the project. Is that right? Yes, okay, so that's a concern too
It just doesn't even make sense for this size of the project living
on Newport Way, I constantly, every single day, see what happens when we
have a lot of rain. And water saturation, runoff,
I can't see how building all of these projects along Newport Way, how that's gonna
help that situation at all. I can only see it getting worse. And at Sammamish
Point, we're concerned about the foundation that we currently have.
So I just want to mention that. And also would like to ask the commission
to consider the existing residents that live along Newport Way, putting all these
new projects out with these really high building heights, and consider how it affects the
people that live in the surrounding area, how it's changing their lives and their lifestyles.
So that's basically what I wanted to say. Thank you.
Is there anyone else?
Hi, I'm Martine Delmuele. I live at 2654 Northwest Pine Cone Place.
What I would say, no pine nor cone is to be found, and Amy found
that very funny, but I kind of found that a little bit tragic. Could I
ask you to speak a little louder, please? Yes, I'm trying. Like I said, I'm
new to this. I've never done this before, so please be generous when you're judging
my performance here. Maybe next time I'll be better. So I live
in the development above this one ptarmigan, which I
bought a house there two years ago. I guess you have approved that development also.
I feel the same like the people from Bentley House, that indeed we are kind
of like being because we bought the houses with views, we bought the houses and
paid for them and expecting a certain way of reasonability with the development of the
land underneath it, which actually struck me when I opened this application and I
thought five-story building, nobody can be serious about anything like that here. But I guess
we are very serious about it and it scares me. I put concerns to Amy,
and she said, I shouldn't be really that concerned because I will only have to
look at rooftops. Well, OK, now I look at an open valley. I don't look
at rooftops, and neither do people who are actually living lower than I do on
that. These are going to have to look at walls, I suppose, not even rooftops.
So I'm just wondering, You could say it's my problem when I
bought a house, I should have looked around and see what Issaquah was going to
do or what the height standards are going to be escalating all the time. I
guess lately you have to be able to afford a $1.5 million home in order
to be a little bit safe from development in Issaquah. I said I came from
Bellevue, I thought this was going to be really nice and a beautiful area, I'd
love to come here. Like I said, I'm in shock. That's
pretty much it for what's going to be done. There are
other areas also of concern, like the parking spaces that are not going to be
available for the people. I feel mostly like I know the Wolf Company
decided to get into the senior housing building business, and this was
When I looked at the video of the 5th of August, they said they only
made that decision about five months ago, before that time. So it was really a
quick decision. They probably wanted to find out, OK, we want to get into that
business. Where do we have land? So OK, we have land there in Issaquah. Let's
just use that for our purpose. I can understand it from their point of view,
but I feel like this unit is crammed all the way in between I-90 and
Newport Way. I also feel like the way
it's kind of like interacting with that first part of phase one, that I don't
understand why you would put a five-story tall building in front of a three-story development.
Why would these people have to look at that wall like we do have to
do? Why can't we just make it either a three-story with a pitched roof,
or we can make it then a four-story with a flat roof with plants on
it, but so at least of the people, it's like a win-win for everybody. It's
not just I come in here in the neighborhood, I just put my little big
block here and actually excuse my language, but to hell with all of you who've
already been here before. I feel like it's a little bit of a selfish point
of view to just whatever there regardless of anybody who was there before bentley house
also has many people who lived there and who had views before and who kind
of like like it just being put a wall in front of you when you
just got that development there and you're part of it i think it's a unfair,
and I'm sure there are other ways to deal with it. Like I said, we
could do a three-story with a sloped roof if you want that. We could also
break up the structure, which is a very long, tall structure in that area, which
could be cut up with different parts of buildings, three stories high. And you could
do a connection between the different parts of the building with glass corridors, where you
could see trees and flowers. And so it would give more open space, rather than
a tall, long, big wall for all of us to look over. So I think
there are some ways to work with it. I know it will make less money
that way if there's only a three story for the applicant. But I don't know
if this is really only thing we have to look for if that is the
case or would say yes okay then let's just go for it and obliterate everything
and everybody around in the way of what you want to do if that is
what it is then so be it i just wanted to tell you how we
feel about it over there i have also a petition here from the bentley
people there's 13 signatures on it in which we bring
like explain what we would like to see instead of what's being proposed. And that
is my talk. Like I said, next time I'll do better. I'm sorry. Thank you.
There aren't very many of you. Hi, my name's Connie Marsh. I have a store
at 1175 Northwest Gilman Boulevard, Suite B11. And I sent you
written comments that actually have recommendations for conditions. So I'm not going to get that
detailed, but I hope you read them, because the only way to get change is
by to have conditions, right? And so I'm going to do a quick review.
I think the entrance is un- for seniors and potentially even
non-seniors. I have an 86-year-old mother. I would never put her in a
place with a turn off of a road like Newport like that. It makes
much more sense to me to access this parcel through the Gateway apartment
parcel. My understanding is they're contemplating a roundabout there. And then making the bridge
over the creek an actual motorized bridge with room for
peds on either side. Even me, and you know how green I am, would prefer
to impact Schneider Creek than have one elderly person harmed going into
the entrance where it is. So I realize the standards may say it's okay, but
sometimes you just have to say to yourself, wow, do I want my mother to
have to do that every day?
I don't know that you all know and applicants know that with the Central
Issaquah plan, it became very clear that the
street side owners would be responsible for maintaining the landscaping. So I'm not sure how
clear that is with the shared use trail and its landscaping and who is responsible
for the care and feeding of the shared use and lighting and all of those
things. But I think it needs to be very clear because people have to program
that into what they're going to be doing with their properties.
So I don't know if you remember from Gateway Apartments, there is in theory a
pedestrian crossing over I-90 planned for Gateway Apartments.
And so when you're walking down Newport Way or coming up Over I-90,
you end up by Schneider Creek. And this does not feel like an intuitive
pedestrian conduit going through Gateway Senior to a
potential crossing. It doesn't feel welcoming to a pedestrian, especially if you
are coming east from the west. Do you want to go down
through their parcel to get to Schneider Creek? How do you do that? I look
at the corridor and I'm sort of guessing, well, you might go here and you
might go there. And it's unclear as to whether this property even wants
general public going through their parcel. I have no problem with the vet clinic land
having access because if these have their entrance on Newport and you have a, in
theory, roundabout at Gateway apartment, I don't know how you could create another
access that is safe from this little parcel wedge between the two on Newport Way.
So I think that is actually a reasonably brilliant mechanism for solving that problem
because it was going to be an issue. I sort of think the Woonerf Bridge
is ridiculously amusing and almost appealing because it is funky as all get out.
I don't think I'll get my way of getting you to expand the bridge, but
if you want an interesting focal point, that would be something that people would go
play on, I think. I don't know when the feedback is going to happen on
the SEPA comments, as SEPA is due tomorrow, and I haven't heard anything back from
those. And I believe the
rest is already written down, and hopefully you read it. Thank you very much.
I'm Mary Lynch and I recited 2690 Northwest Oak Crest Drive, Issaquah, Washington. I just
want to concur with what the other people said and especially I submitted comments
related to what Connie was just mentioning that has to do with the circulation and
With existing as proposed entrance, I feel it is unsafe. I also would remind
you of Providence Point. And every time I've gone to a meeting over the last,
I don't know how many years, Providence Point seniors are saying their approach should have
been built with a stoplight. They're on their road and they're still asking it during
the pedestrian crosswalk study this summer. We had a lot of people from there that
also said we need a stoplight. And so for us to put something in like
this on Newport Way, which is highly congested and is only going to get worse
without a stoplight, I think is very wrong. If we were to take it
across the bridge, and my comments, written comments, did build on what Connie said, is
use a across the creek to be the gateway statement that
would then also be able to handle the vet property, whatever that may be, and
minimize the entrances onto the parkway, whatever that shall be, which we have no idea
what it's going to be or where it's going to be really because there's no
study done for it yet. but a bridge would do that. We might be then
also to make it multimodal. The current proposed one I see in the project is
not a multimodal path that I can see. They're talking about gravel pathways up to
it. They also, I see nothing in this plan about wildlife. and
there was mention that this parcel is going to enhance the creek. I'd just like
to remind the commission that this parcel has been pretty much empty for 30 years,
so if you'll read the SEPA, which I did put those comments, we have a
lot of animals that are using this as grazing lands. We have birds, migratory birds,
that are using it to feed and land through it, so they will no longer
have access to that. So by reducing the buffer along the stream, that also reduces
the use for that, and any bridge should also provide for wildlife corridors through there.
The traffic study also in the circulation does refer to potentially
having the access from the vets. So from what I can tell, the traffic study
that was done for this does not meet concurrency because it really doesn't take into
that number of cars that are in there. And it also identifies that it meets
concurrency because it has a center turn lane. And I would remind that although the
project is listed in the tip, there is no funding provided or identified out for
30 years. The only funding that's potential in the next six years is funding to
do a conceptual location study for Newport Way. The other
projects that are going to have been identified there are only providing for half streets,
not the full parkway. And as of yet, we don't know what that parkway is
really going to be or where it's going to be because the study hasn't been
done yet. So I would debate the fact that this project meets traffic concurrency.
I also am concerned if this goes forward with this entrance, as I stated earlier,
this is a small fire truck. As we grow in this city, we're gonna need
to purchase the larger ladder trucks for our taller buildings. We will get busy enough,
we may have to have Bellevue and other station services and we
shouldn't have to worry what truck goes into a facility, let alone if we can
get more than one. Most of the pictures, if you'll see, that have been shown
tonight do not show the parking, the parallel parking. What they do show is vehicles,
bus, which we've not heard anything about the applicant providing any sort of bus transportation
out here or encouraging any sort of working with Sound Metro or to have the
freebie out to this area to get but they show a bus parking in front
there that would be blocking a fire truck access. Also, if we have people moving
out, in and out, how are they gonna get in and out? Where are the
moving vehicles? And I know they have a delivery, but I don't really see, there's
no way a large vehicle can get in here. And that being the case, the
other thing that is part of the SEPA, and I really have not heard addressed
at all, is what happens during construction. I will remind you that there are no
trucks that have been allowed on Newport Way for the 30 years I've lived here.
All of a sudden now we have large vehicles that are going along Newport Way.
They have no place to stage before they turn into these, so they're blocking the
roadway with their engines running. So we do have emissions of the surrounding
citizens have to put up with a lot of diesel, a lot of heavy vibrations,
a lot of not knowing when the vehicle's gonna be there, if they're gonna be
late for work or not, and if you have a schedule, you can be delayed
15 or 20 minutes. We also have already encountered working on holidays
without a permit. The other thing that it worried that was brought up is landscaping.
Unfortunately the new pinecone development was supposed to have landscaping. As Connie mentioned, who
is responsible for that? I have been battling the city for the past five years
to get that developer to finish out the parcel like they were supposed to. They
over clear cut that parcel and they have not replanted. Even the city of Issaquah
has just now replanted and are starting to maintain the trees around the
storm water vault, that if they had done that job properly, we might have that
somewhat hidden, but if you notice the view at the beginning, you've got right above
this development a big concrete barrier that is not protected from trees.
There is no treescapes on the uphill side of that because the city did not
follow through and hold the developer to what they were supposed to. So my concern
is even if we show these trees, who's going to be held accountable to make
sure that that really happens? Because I as a citizen have not been able to
hold the city to hold the developer to redo that area. And I'm very disappointed
at the treescapes on that one. So I hope that I can expect something different.
The other pet peeve that I have on this is this is zoned not just
for multifamily, but also mixed use. And I'd just like to remind the Commission of
that. I know the developer doesn't have to do that, but it is also was
mixed use, was an option that they had to go. That's all I have to
say right now. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. If there's no one else that
wishes to speak at this time,
Go ahead. I would ask you to keep your comments to five minutes or less,
please. And this time
I will talk in the microphone. Do you state your name again, please? My name
is Tina Conforti and I am on 1220 Oakwood Place, northwest Issaquah. I
appreciate your extra time. I forgot to imagine, when I move in Issaquah,
I lived in Bellevue before and I moved in Issaquah because the
territorial view, the beauty of the month, the beauty alone to
look out from my back deck and look at the mountains. In a shorter
time, we're going to put more than four or five projects on a new part
away. Consider the traffic that everybody is talking about
tonight. And ahead, 400 apartments of a gateway, 140
some of the senior apartment housing, plus the
Riva Tana House. Would you imagine Newport Way S-Colid? the way it
is, how it's gonna handle the traffic? You study traffic that you do, it's what
you have now, not multiply four or five times. Would you please
take that in consideration? We all wanna be safe. We don't wanna have no
more accidents on Newport Way. My next daughter, little boy, five years old, he lost
his life because he was crossing, crossing the crosswalk. If
we had the crosswalk with the lights that we have today, the accident, they probably
could be avoided. So think about it, multiply about four or five times about the
traffic we get now and see if at Newport Way can handle that many cars.
Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else?
If not, we will close the public comment. period of this public hearing.
And we will go to the commissioner's questions. And let's do it this
way. Let's see if we can identify a topic. Essie, why don't you
do that. And then if there are other questions on the same topic, we'll stick
with that going around. And then we'll go to the next
commissioner and the next question. MS. OK, so you want me to identify a topic.
Well, no, just whatever you were going to talk about, then we'll follow from there.
Oh, boy. Well, can we do, I'm saying let's do one topic at a time
and see if we can address it comprehensively. Okay. With each commissioner's view or not,
if they feel like they, if we want to say something, and then we'll go
to the next topic. Okay. Trying to
prioritize my topics here, because I have many. I think I'll start with parking.
And if I could, Mr. Chair, is it all right for me to ask the
applicant questions at this point? MR. No. MS. OK. Could I ask a question of
the applicant, please? There have been several comments
in our written comments to the commission and
public comment here today on the the reasonability
of the parking. You have
listed 0.5 parking spaces per
unit. And I was wondering if you could speak to that reasoning and address some
of the concerns that have been voiced here today about the parking that is accommodating
the development here. Senior housing is recognized as being a much
different parking need than a typical market rate apartment.
And Issaquah's prescribed parking ratio within their
code is not dissimilar to a lot of other jurisdictions, and
it's been proven to be effective and adequate for the use. We've also
provided beyond that additional 32 stalls for
employee parking, most of which will be only used part time.
And we've also provided, I think, over the requirement for both of those needs an
additional five stalls on site. So I
think our traffic consultant, I think, could reinforce
point of view that it's been proven to be adequate for their use because
the typical resident is in their late 70s and
the way that this facility will be set up, there will be regularly arranged tours
and bus access for people to go to various facilities for
So you have arranged for bus access and you have? Private bus.
So there will be a private bus that serves the facility and serves the members
who live there? And that will be all scheduled and arranged as part of the
scheduling for the activities within the community of residents that live there. Thank you.
That addresses another question. Could your traffic consultant speak to the parking? Is that okay?
Sure.
Good evening, my name is Jeff Schramm, traffic engineer with 10W, 11400
Southeast 8th Street, Suite 200, Bellevue 98004.
The city of Izzaqua is common to many jurisdictions to have parking
requirements that are consistent with industry standards for various uses,
retail, residential. The city's requirement for parking five stalls per unit
for senior housing is really, as Jim mentioned, excuse me, I'm battling a cold here,
is based on industry standards that are collected at other senior housing projects. So
the code requirement is met in this case and is appropriate for
senior housing, especially in this category. So it's based on an industry standard. And
I would also reiterate that having a shuttle and a van transportation is going to
be also very helpful to encourage residents that possibly even
attract residents that don't have vehicles knowing that they have the ability to get to
their services, pharmacy, community events, things like that. So it would meet the
standard is the bottom line. Okay, thank you.
Anybody else want to park it? Yeah, just a question, I guess, maybe for Mr.
Van Patten. Do you have other facilities, other independent living facilities that you operate?
Should I state my name again? Greg Van Patten with the Wolf Company. This is
a new product type for our company specifically, but we have a senior housing team
of three gentlemen that each have in excess of 20 years of experience in this
housing type. So that's in addition to what Jeff mentioned in terms of industry standards,
there's a lot of data out there, even kind of over and above
the experience of our senior housing team. I also wanted to clarify a little bit.
The employee count here will be somewhere between 15 and 20 people, none of which
will be working simultaneously. and many of them being part-time
positions. So it's not like we're going to have 15 to 20 stalls that are
all used by employees simultaneously. So in addition to the bus transportation
that we'll have for our residents, we have accounted for that overflow for employees as
well as visitors. Okay, and then a question. How do you operationally plan to, I
guess, with a resident? If I was gonna move in there, I said, gee, I
want to bring two cars, three cars, a car, no car. Do you charge for
parking? If you had too many people that wanted to come with cars, do you
charge more to discourage it? What's the plan? Yeah, so there will be no charge
for surface parking. So we do have some structured covered stalls at the
base of the building basically at half of the building. I'm not sure if that
was really clear in the presentation, but we do have basically a full tray of
covered parking at the base of the building at one end. So there will be
a charge for those stalls, but there will be no charge for the surface stalls
on the outside. And it's really, you know, to answer your question about, you know,
do you up the parking rate to perhaps discourage cars? That's a good question. I
mean, we've certainly done that on our multifamily projects, particularly in dense urban
neighborhoods in Seattle. Because certainly what you don't want is for
all of the parking to fill up during lease up, and you still have half
of the units to lease, for example. So it's really something that you kind of
control as you go along, because it's certainly not in our best interest as the
operator of the building to have all the covered stalls taken up in the first,
you know, or whatnot, just to use an example. Thank you.
Please don't leave.
I understand that it's in compliance with ISSAQA standards, so we're kind of limited to
that. But the practical aspect of parking, which Mr. Kapler
mentioned, is people come to visit this. at least
seniors, and I'm not sure it's always gonna be 75 to 80 and above, maybe
you're gonna get some 60-year-old, who are gonna have their grandkids come to visit.
And the grandkids' parents, where are they gonna
park? And that's what I had mentioned, where there is, we have accounted for
visitor parking as well as employee parking. Not visitors for 140
units. Maybe you've got visitor parking for those
five extra people over here. And again, this is based... I'm talking about the
neighborhood. There isn't any convenient place in that particular property
for them to be off-site. They can't park on Newport.
I guess you want them to go down to the park and ride and walk
the mile back? No, I don't think so. You know, and it's somewhat
facetious, but I mean, it's a concern for the people in the area. And I
understand that. And I echo that concern as well. Frankly, it's not in our best
interest as an operator of the building to be severely under-parked and to inconvenience visitors
of our residents and to inconvenience the neighborhood. And I will defer back to a
lot of industry standards. This product type has been around for a long time, and
there is a lot of data that supports this type of parking ratio. So
to think that all 140 residents on Mother's Day are all going to have a
visitor in their own car is simply unrealistic. And we
think that the parking count is appropriate relative to the typical car usage this
population, the typical employee count at any given time, as well as the typical
visitor count, coupled with the bus transportation that we'll be providing.
Okay. Lucy, I actually have a question for you on this. What is the parking
ratio at Timber Ridge? So, great question. I don't know that off
the top of my head. One thing, some of the parking
ratios that are used for Central Issaquah are lower than the rest of the city,
but for senior housing, this is the same standard that's been used for Egeus, for
University House. My guess is it would be the same thing that's used for Talus.
So I think that this has been a very effective parking ratio. I think
one thing to keep in mind is that those ratios, while they're calculated on a
per unit basis, they take visitors into account. It's just bundled
into a per unit calculator. I think the important thing to say is we
hear your concern and I think we need to put some materials together to include
in the briefing response memo to help you understand that better. And I would just
suggest too that the main thing that I was asking is whether or not there
has been a change in this ratio from Aegis or Timber Ridge.
If this one, the parking ratio that is used is different from what
has been used in the past for other senior housing. My understanding is it is
the same. And, you know, Timber Ridge is currently constructing their final
phase. And what they have found is consistent with this, that
people don't bring cars, they don't, if they do bring cars, they often aren't as
used. That one of the things that we heard when Silverado was coming was
Not all employees choose to drive because of the cost. So,
you know, we've been talking about ways to make it easier for employees together. So
I think there's a whole package of things we can talk about when we respond.
All right. Are there any other questions on parking issues,
concerns? Okay. Let's see, did you have something else you want to start it off
with? Another topic? Do you wanna pick the next one? I can. Why
don't you do it then, Mike? I can do it. Commissioner Brennan? I have several
questions around site circulation related to the trail, the mixed use trail or the shared
use trail. Maybe Amy, you can help me to start with and then some applicants
ask questions toward the applicant. So the shared use trail is something that would generally
be provided for use by residents here, what is the expectation
for use by the general public in the code? So the shared use trail for
this particular project is along Newport Way. And as I showed earlier,
a regional map, it basically is meant not just for the residents of this project,
but for the public. Right. About the trails that are on the property and interconnecting
between the Gateway Senior Housing and the Gateway Project. Is
that for the property owners and residents or is that also accessible by the public?
So that's a little different. Basically the standards, the central sequestral standards
doesn't require a shared use or basically a multi-use trail to go through their
property. So it is basically an amenity for the
residents of this project and to the extent that it,
improves the connectivity between adjacent properties. And that part
of the project is related to the connectivity standards. Okay. And then
related to the bridge across Snyder Creek, I've heard several people
suggest that nobody said we shouldn't put a bridge across Snyder Creek, but most of
the commenters have suggested that it should be for pedestrians and bikes only. not for
vehicles, and in the staff report, you're talking about providing essentially a mixed-use
bridge for vehicles, pedestrians, and bikes. I'm trying to understand what we're trying to accomplish
with that level of connectivity versus just the bikes and pedestrians. What's the benefit of
the vehicle connectivity here? So in that particular situation,
We looked at the standards and in the standards it basically requires connectivity in all
modes of transportation. So as staff, again, we try to find
or determine whether a project complies or doesn't comply to the standards. So we start
from that. And then listening to what the public had
commented regarding that bridge and also with the
environmental issues. We certainly could revisit that to see if whether or
not a bridge for vehicles is required. And we have received comments
that, you know, with the conviction that that should be a
vehicular connection. And you probably haven't read it because I just submitted
that comment from a resident actually who said that
he thinks that this should be something even bigger, that it should have a separate
walkway for pedestrians versus the travel lane. I saw that and I think part of
the argument was to try to pull in access to this site from that direction
instead of coming down off of Newport Way. But I guess just my thoughts on
the configuration that they're providing here. It seems, I think I understand what the intent
is in the Issaquah, Central Issaquah Plan about connectivity across properties with depending upon
what the mode of transportation is. But, and that makes a lot of sense in
kind of the central part of, in the more dense part of the Central Issaquah
Plan in the downtown area. Out here, I'm struggling a little bit with, you know,
connecting properties with this type of vehicular access where, I don't see
where it provides a significant benefit other than just the ability to cut through. So
my bent is pedestrian and bike is probably going to serve this adequately.
OK, those are my questions on the circulation for trail. Can I jump in on
that then? The question I have on that is on the gateway apartments, and this
is, I think, shown on the SEPA checklist, Exhibit 5. The gateway
apartments connection to there is shown as a pedestrian trail and was
approved as a pedestrian trail. So if this is supposed to become a vehicular
access from senior housing, where does it go to? Do you have to go back
to the apartments and then say we need to revise your site permit to create
a vehicular access in your parking lot? Because that wasn't something we approved when we
approved the apartment. Yes, basically it will be something that we would handle
at the construction review. But
pragmatically, yes, we would then have to go back to the applicant and request or
require them to provide the connection. You require them to do that at this point
after they've been issued a permit? So one thing I would add
is that this is within the footprint. what's already shown so it the
material it was shown as hardscape on the apartment side.
It was shown as a paved trail not as a road. Right, but
we're it's a curb cut at one end. I mean it's
it's not a it's not like we're asking them to switch it to a
20 foot way wide. And so then as I
understand it, it would be a 10 foot wide from the parking lot of the
apartments, a distance of maybe 150
feet or something to the parking lot of the senior housing? I don't think it's
that far. Is it 100 feet? We did a measure.
I'm just guessing like from here, if I enter this street here and I start
driving down it, it's a one lane road. Not just on the bridge, but the
whole way. If I get halfway down and somebody enters the other halfway down, do
we? You got a backup? So there are a lot of queuing
streets that exist in Talos and Isquah Highlands.
The important thing is that it isn't too long and that you can see both
ends so that people entering it can make decisions before they enter.
And we haven't had big problems with those kinds of conflicts.
So I understand that it's designed to be a queuing operation.
And the reason for designating it as that at this stage in the game, recognizing
where we are, is to accomplish exactly what? So we either have, as I
understand it, we either have a pedestrian bridge and a bicycle bridge, or we have
a bridge that can accommodate internal combustion engines in a car or vehicle,
right? Is that correct?
I guess what I don't quite understand is the design objective of if you're going
to have a car bridge that or a bridge that will accommodate
cars and bikes and pedestrians, some of whom will be
senior by design, why you would not have, if you're going to do that, why
you would not have a two-lane bridge? I don't quite understand the
benefit of a queue. Q approach? So it's partly to maintain
a minimal footprint between, in terms of the impacts to the creek.
It's considered a very secondary connection.
In working through the Central Issaquah Standards, as Amy described,
connectivity and up for all modes is identified.
And so rather than have more impacts to the creek
for a sort of,
and in Talis they call them secret roads. They're just sort of secondary connections that
provide convenience between communities or neighborhoods.
And they're not meant to serve like a full road. And so The idea
was to minimize the footprint while providing the connectivity.
Is there any possibility? Do you rec... I understand we're talking about theoreticals
here, but with traffic being what it is at this point in the game and
what it's projected to be at build out of both of these projects, it
seems to me, because as we've noted, almost every development
commission meeting where anything is being discussed, whether it's single family or whatever, that traffic
is like water. It seeks the path of least resistance. And if you're backing up
five or six cars to get onto Newport from either one of these projects, probably
the apartment complex more than the senior complex, people are going to say, oh, you
know what? I bet I can beat it by going here and over the one,
the queuing bridge, because it's it's a secret road. But it's not
a secret for people that are looking for alternatives to long waits get on the
arterial. So I understand the concept. But I just question whether or not
people are going to use it the way designers intend it to be used.
All right. Commissioner Morgan, Commissioner
Brennan, Commissioner Hicks? COMMISSIONER MORGAN HICKS, Well, I agree with you completely.
I believe I remember the applicant making the same type of point, that
since we have limited parking, we are not
expecting, because of the studies that have been done, we're not expecting the people who
live in this development to do a whole lot of driving, that you're actually just
making a thoroughfare or you are creating access to the property that they
may not desire. So I support, and based on public comment as well,
a wide pedestrian friendly bridge for pedestrians and bikes only.
And I support VUNERFs, I think they are, and the queuing bridges, I think they're
good in other developments, but for this particular project, don't think that that
bridge is a great idea here. CHRIS JERRAMS. The bridge, a bridge or
a vehicle? A vehicle. CHRIS JERRAMS. Now, as I understand it also, the applicant,
your preferred position would be no bridge at all. Is that correct? CHRIS JERRAMS. That's
incorrect. Pedestrian and bicycle bridge. CHRIS JERRAMS. OK. So that was the
concern that you were talking about, the safety and security of the senior residents, was
if it is a vehicle. It goes the other road. Or the other
road. Right. Could we hear from? Thank you. So just would you clarify for me
the two routes that we're talking about here, the over Schneider Creek and the other
one, and restate your position on that? Yeah, so again, Greg Van Patten, the Wolf
Company. And
Specific to these two conditions, yes, it was our desire to not
have vehicular connection over the Schneider Creek Bridge. Our strong
preference is to echo Commissioner Hicks, and that is to have it restricted only to
pedestrians and bicycles. For a lot of the reasons, I won't rehash a lot of
what's already been talked about. The other concern was really, and Can we get up
the graphic that shows the site plan, if we could? Yeah.
Okay. So our concern was with the
other condition where it calls for at the upper left-hand corner, leaving
that open as a vehicular connection to the adjacent parcel, which is where the vet
clinic formerly was. Personally, I have major concerns about
that, and it really has to do with the unpredictability of the use that could
go into that parcel. And for senior residents, safety
and security is paramount. It really is. And you can think of about any use
you can think of for that former vet clinic parcel. Think of the least intensive
use you can think of, you know, four townhouses, six townhouses. can all argue about
what least intensive uses are all the way up to most intensive uses. But from
our perspective, no matter what ends up there, there would be traffic
generated that would go right past what our seniors would view as their private drive.
And we've gone to pretty strong lengths to make this as pedestrian friendly as we
possibly can. We're encouraging active lifestyles for our seniors. And for cars to be
zooming through there at What speeds, we don't know. We can certainly control
speeds through the usual measures, right? It's narrow streets, we have changes in pavement, there's
different things that you can do to kind of subtly encourage slower rates of travel.
But the fact is, is there residents, or I'm sorry, the users of that site
would be coming through here at speeds that might be unsafe for the residents, as
well as noise issues. To take a worst case scenario,
picture a guy in a Camaro where he's got a bad muffler and he gets
a real kick out of just, hey, I'm just gonna zoom this gas here and
I'm gonna enjoy messing with these people. And not even a nighttime thing, even a
daytime thing. There's noise issues and things like that. So that's really at the heart
of our concern is the unpredictability of that use by an adjacent user and really
the safety and security of the residents. Could the staff add something?
So we're frankly very shocked by the comments that we're receiving from the applicant.
These two conditions that Amy presented were shown to them, discussed with them, agreed to
by them. We had anticipated that the connection to the vet clinic needed
additional discussion. That's why we put a placeholder in. We agreed that we would finalize
that language and present it to you in the briefing response memo. The diagrams in
central Issaquah are extremely clear that these properties would be connected. They've shown them as
being connected in the drawings. The concerns that they have
about connectivity and bad driving are the same kinds of concerns that
you get in any kind of interconnected community. We are not designing communities with
cul-de-sacs. A road was shown connecting these properties. So while
I think staff is a little blindsided right now, we had understood that we had
reached a good position and that the kinds of things that we had put forward
were jointly agreed to. So we clearly have a conversation to have around these
two. We're not asking for you to resolve them tonight. You're of course welcome to
ask as many questions as you'd like to to get further clarity for yourselves, for
the public, and for the community. We're just had not prepared a response at the
level to which we are being asked to respond by the applicant. CHRIS JERRAMS. Lucy,
let me ask you a question. What is the zoning of the vet property as
it stands now? CHRIS JERRAMS. Village residential. CHRIS JERRAMS. Yes, they're all village residential.
CHRIS
JERRAMS. One of the questions I had with regards to your
with a little red circle on page 11 of 41, which was this
street which was the basis of the placeholder. And it says it's required
to connect from Newport Way. And when I was looking at this whole
project, one of the first questions that came to my mind was, and the applicant
maybe can address this, is I don't understand why the There's not an entrance right
opposite Pine Cone Way. Why isn't there
just a loop through?
You've got a fire truck turnaround on, I guess it's
the southwest corner, right opposite Pine Cone Way.
And it seems to me that would be a perfect spot to have another entrance.
And I'm not sure why there isn't one there. And then I don't really understand
the logic by saying if you're going to put this new street in, you're going
to have people racing through there. They're not going to drive through this development
to bypass Newport. They're just going to be coming and going from their own development.
So I'm not really sure I understand what the issue is. bigger question is why
isn't there an access right opposite Pinecone Drive?
Well, Pinecone Drive is actually coming out to Newport south of our property.
So it's really opposite the VET property. It's a little bit of an angle. Looking
at the drawing, it's just a little bit of an angle. Even if it's not
right opposite, why isn't there an access to your parking right there instead of having
that fire truck why don't you just make another entrance to Newport Way? Well, as
I was trying to explain earlier about the unique challenges that this site has to
offer is the amount of grade change that we have from Newport down to
the lower level of the site where the creek is. So the only way we
can negotiate that distance safely is to let our frontage road and access drive
negotiate down the slope. So by the time we get to that location
on our property, we're probably 15 feet below Newport. OK. Well, that answers that question.
OK. Thank you. Mr. Morgan, is there any other
discussion, question, clarification sought on that issue? All right. Commissioner Morgan, do you want to
bring up one? I guess maybe a question for the Simple one,
maybe a question for the applicant. The question brought up by David about the
pedestrian bike ADA ramp that jogs around.
And why isn't that just a straight ramp through instead of having those jogs? And
partly, I would know from riding bicycles, going around those kind of turns is not
easy. And then if somebody's coming up in a wheelchair, you can't see as if
it were a queuing. It's even more difficult. I understand
your comment. The intent was not for riding bikes down that trail, but
walking them down. And 88 requires a landing
every 30 inches of ramp, then you have to have a landing that's five feet
by five feet. And it was purely an architectural and a landscape decision to
that path jog so that it doesn't look like a straight run. Sometimes when you
have a straight run that's negotiating that much grade, it's a little daunting, you know,
because you think, well, what if I fall or, you know. So the idea was
to just make it a more interesting meander down there, which also allowed us to
do something interesting with the landscape and the variety of experience going down there.
It's purely functional and it's kind of an architectural
desire to do it this way. But the intent was not to have people riding
their bikes. You could sign it to dismount from your bike. Yeah, and just walk
it down. Walk it down. Okay, thank you. Amy, I have a question for you
on this. On the trail thing too, would you use the cursor there to show
us where the 90 pedestrian bridge is proposed
to be proposed. Oh, using this? It will be along here. That's it right there?
Yes. So let me see here. And again, this is
conceptual, right? Right, yeah. This is the Newport improvements.
OK, all right. Any other questions
on that issue? CHRIS JERRAMS. COMMISSIONER HICKS. COMMISSIONER HICKS. Do you want me to come
up with another topic? CHRIS JERRAMS. Well, I think it's only fair that we spread
these around. So Commissioner Sweetberg, do you have a? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A?
COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO
YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A?
COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A?
COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEETBERG, DO
YOU HAVE A? COMMISSIONER SWEET So we were given some,
oh gosh, I just placed it and then I lost it. Some viewscapes.
I'm looking at page 33 of 41, existing
view from Pinecone Drive and existing view from Pinecone
Place and then the proposed building views. And
I would like to talk about also their
driveways and the impacts, the traffic impacts for that. Maybe we could have
the traffic, or it looks like Amy might be interested in talking about that as
well, about the proposed building
views and maybe address some of the concerns that the public has about
this, about the view impacts. Okay, so I'm gonna use this backup
slide. This was provided in your packet,
actually page two of the plan set. So there's really two aspects
that I'd like to talk about. First is what is allowed by the zoning for
this property And it kind of covers also the comment that
they were lied to, that there was that somebody had told them that
only a one-story building is planned or projected for this property. So
in fact, I did look back and did the research on what the previous zoning
for this property is. It was in the old land use code, it is the
professional office zoning. Amy, you need to talk into the mic. Oh, sorry.
So in the professional office zoning, which was
basically adopted in the early 1990s, it allowed
for building heights of 40 feet to 65 feet. this property.
So this current standards allows for a height of 48 to 65
feet. So the maximum height has not changed and the minimum height
has basically increased by 8 feet. So this
property has always been zoned for a taller building. So given that
background. We also looked at what they are proposing. So these are two
before and after views. On the left, it shows you a view
kind of behind the Bentley House, the rooftop of the Bentley House. And then
the right view, top right view, shows how this building will look from one of
the streets above, in one of the neighborhoods above. So the lower two
photo shows the existing view, again, on one of the
public streets in the neighborhood. And on the right would be a view of the
buildings. And again, the view on the right, the simulated view, doesn't show you
the future street trees on Newport Way. So eventually the trees will grow,
and currently what the way it's depicted, the existing
trees will be removed and there's gonna be a better view access of the
mountains in the background. What about the views from Bentley House? Is this
building impeding their views from Bentley House? Is this a concern that the
public's brought up? So one of the, so I don't know if this helps, it's
not, I mean, unless Obviously we have a photo of
someone inside Bentley House, but one of the photos that I showed is, this is
Bentley House. They are above, the ground
floor units are further up above Newport Way.
So earlier the applicant has described how their
property is actually 15 feet. below Newport Way. So
maybe the first two floors of Bentley House, the units may, the
first two floor units of the Bentley House may have obstructed views, but,
and so I'm just guessing, right? Just based on the existing conditions out there. And
if you're driving out there, the Bentley House is further back and it's kind of
sitting up above the slope of the hill.
I have a question on that, you mentioned 40 to 65 or 45 to 66,
but on page nine of 41 in the package on the standards, it says 48
feet up to 54 feet, and there are a couple asterisks there, but I didn't
find what those reference to, and I don't remember 54 as being a number in
our code. Okay, so the 54 feet is an incentive for
projects to actually provide in a garage or what we
call under the building. So in this particular case, they are doing that, so that's
why they were allowed to go up to 54 feet. Okay, and I thought you
just mentioned your comments 65 feet. You said in the current zone. So in
fact, you could go up to 65 feet with bonus density. The
applicant opted not to do that. Gotcha, thank you. opted not to go up to
65 feet. Right. OK.
Anyone else on views? OK. I'm going to
ask on the subject of traffic. Let's go to that.
And just for the record, Amy, again, for clarification, would you
identify the plan in terms of Whether or not it's conceptual,
whether it is what is intended for Newport Drive that is fronting this property
to, I suppose, 900 is the distance. Whether or not, what the stages
of the planning for improvements to Newport are at this point. So we'll talk
about capacity, whether it's a turn lane, what is planned.
And then the question was brought up by a member of the public that there
isn't any funding for it and it's conceptual and the study isn't even done. So
if you could clarify that from the city's point of view. So I can provide
the policy background that's similar to basically our response to the same
concerns for the gate. Because it is a system, it is the same road. And
these are the same issues that came up with Gatley. Exactly, yes. And then I
will invite the applicant's engineer to address more of the specific issues.
So first we start off with the system-wide analysis that the city have
done two years ago, concurrency study, which then identified the level of service for the
road. And they did account for the future
zoning capacity for Newport Way based on the village residential zoning.
So we start with that. And then we look at the site itself and we
look at the type of project and we also looked at the number of trips
that have been projected for this project. And so based on that, basically we
identify mitigation measures. And in addition to that, so part of the
mitigation measures has to do with how do you mitigate for the
additional trips. And again, like the other side of Newport Way where the
Gateway Apartments is, currently there's only one way, two lane road
for Newport Way, which is the reason why it causes a lot of congestion because
you do have all these driveways funneling into the streets and there's not
enough, there's no relief valve. So the relief valve for both the Gateway
Apartments and this is that they are required to provide a center turn lane. So
a lot of the cars that currently are slowing down traffic because they're trying to
turn in or out of their properties or the driveways into Newport Way
has that relief valve, which allows for more through traffic.
The other mitigation, which is related more to the Gateway Apartments, is the construction
of a roundabout. So that roundabout will eventually allow for more free flow traffic.
And so, and again, the water analogy is very good because It's not only gonna
benefit the intersection of Newport Way
and, what is that street again? I can't remember. Elm?
Pacific Elm. Yes, thank you. Pacific Elm, but it will obviously benefit the
traffic along Newport Way. So having said that, they are also going to
be required pay their, I'm sorry, their traffic
impact fees, which then benefits more of the system-wide improvements.
So I'm gonna let their traffic engineer talk a little bit more about the specifics.
Okay. Thanks, Amy. Jeff Schramm again.
I would say that a lot of the The staff did a really good job
in the traffic summary in the MD&S. So I would just, for the record, point
to that. It's a summary of the traffic analysis that was done for the project.
What I'd like to do is just highlight a couple additional items that were from
that summary. And as Amy mentioned, this project meets the zoning.
And it does meet the city's concurrency requirements. The city did plan for growth at
this level of density and development.
The project is building out, as Amy mentioned, the parkway improvements for Newport. So
those include not only a center turn lane, but maintaining bike lanes on both sides.
I know there's conversation about bikes through the area. The shared use path is separate
from that. They will still maintain bike lanes on both sides of Newport Way when
this is built out. The left turn lane, not only provides access for
trips into and out of the project site, but it also will build
out that section along the entire frontage. And those improvements will also tie in
as far as the property line goes to the old vet site.
There will be a transitional section in there that will maintain traffic
with the center turn lane as well. So that between the gateway apartments and the
senior site, there will be a continuous three lane section throughout that
corridor. And that is consistent with the city's plan for a parkway. I know that
there is some conversation about a future plan for Newport. The plan is for development
to build out the road to the standard. And that's what both of these projects
are doing. The site location, I would note,
is located near a curve, a horizontal curve along Newport Way. The site
location really, when we started looking at this, was located at a place where it
would meet site distance standards. If you move that access point further to the south
or to the west toward the old Vette property, it wouldn't meet site distance for
cars coming around that corner. So it's important to note that safety was considered
as a high priority to make sure that that access point was located so that
it would meet site-design standards. The traffic
analysis also considered build-out of the other Riva Apartments,
TALIS, Gateway Apartments project. Newport Wake is
anticipated to handle traffic from all four of these developments plus more. It is still
an arterial corridor identified as a parkway and it does have adequate capacity to
handle these projects. One of the administrative standards that
we are pursuing to be consistent with the parkway plan is to have the lanes
of traffic, the travel lanes to be 10 feet wide. Today the lanes out there,
vary between about 10 and 10 and a half feet. So what we're gonna see
in the ultimate parkway section is what you would experience today. In
addition to the center turn lane that will be added in the sidewalk improvements. And
then finally, as Amy mentioned, mitigation for this project is not only the frontage improvements,
but impact fees are intended to help the city pay for their
transportation system. Improvements that are planned that are necessary to accommodate growth.
And that's why we can identify the concurrency as met for the project. So that
would be a summary of some of the high points of the traffic analysis. DAVID
BURRAGE, Thank you. Does anybody else have a question for the traffic analyst? All right.
Thank you, sir. Are there any other questions? Is there any issues,
concerns? Yeah, I do. I'd like to
actually have a few more. So I've got some concerns about this
on page five of 22 SEPA review.
Building on silt and peat.
I have some concerns about that and I'd like to know
from the developer or the applicant if there has been
any thoughts on or discussion on what you're going to be using to
fill and build on and what kinds of
accommodations you've made or safety conditions for earthquake.
can talk about that a little bit.
Actually, the soils on this site are much better than they are on
the apartment site. But we fully anticipate
doing an adequate foundation that will be either the Spread Footing
Foundation. We're still in the analysis phase of deciding what's going to be the best
system for this building. Any field that's brought in will be
structural field. It'll be ground rock, basically,
and will be compacted so that it
has the same bearing capacity as native soil. And we do have a series of
engineered walls that'll be the retaining walls that hold back the site up to
Newport. And we actually have a structural shoring wall in one location where
we're close enough to Newport that it requires a structural solution. The other walls
will be engineered block walls that'll
allow the soil to be retained in six-foot lifts as we come down. So
we're just in the early stages of final analysis on the foundation for the actual
building, but the soils here are much better than they are on the apartment site.
Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone want to follow up with that? Okay.
I was reading on page six of 22, that there will be a greater amount
of fill than excavation. So considering that we're going to be having
a greater amount of fill, I was wondering how long you anticipate trucks
hauling that fill. I don't know if that would be a question for staff, Mr.
Chair, or the applicant. I'm going to go with the applicant, if you have any
idea. I understand that at this point we're talking
the plans are not complete. So if you don't have a number to answer
the commissioner's question, it's OK. But I think, well,
I believe the reason you're asking that question is that there has been concern voiced
by the public about construction vehicles and potential additional traffic issues on
Newport because of the construction vehicles, heavy construction vehicles. CHRISTIE WOODWARD- That is the reason
for my question, Mr. Chair. I don't have an accurate answer to that question at
this point, but we'd be happy to talk with our contractor and get a more
accurate estimate and submit it back to the council. That would be wonderful. That'd be
great. Thank you. Okay.
Commissioner Bryant? Just a couple quick
questions. We haven't talked about the building kind of architecture and their on-page
43 of 202 or 31 of 41, depending on which one you're looking at. Amy,
you've added a condition here talking about,
in the staff report you're talking about, they've done some nice, provided some nice touches
to the kind of lower pedestrian level or at grade level, but you're asking for
something a little more interesting at the upper levels of the building. And we had,
I remember, a fairly with you back and forth on this topic on the gateway
apartments, particularly on this building that's facing I-90. And I just want to call that
out and say I agree with the comment and condition that you're making here that
I think something a little bit more interesting at the upper level of the building,
at least, at the roof line or in the upper story deck, would be
beneficial, I think, overall to the project. I think they made some changes to the
first project that I think helped, and hopefully they can do something here that
maybe adds a little bit more interest up at least up at the roof line.
And then I have a question for you, Amy, related to the through block connection
and how that is the underlying intent of
that in the code and how we're trying to apply that here. The through
block connection is, I'm guessing primarily for breaking down blocks for pedestrian access so people
don't have to walk so far to get to where they're going. Have to walk
around to get where they're going. But is there also partly the intent
to create some separation so you have long, big, long, massive buildings too, which
is kind of what we're getting here. They've done a lot to provide some variations
to make it less massive and more
interesting, and I think they've done well on that. We've had a lot of conversations,
we had some conversations about through block connections on the Costco
project. So I'm still confused about what we're trying to accomplish with that outside of
just shortening the pedestrian travel distance. So Commissioner Brennan,
your observations are all correct, and we did think about all of those. In this
particular building type, we also had to think about how it would function
internally for the residents. And as the architect showed earlier
in their floor plan, the common spaces are all in the center, which is also
kind of where the dashed line C is. So we took into consideration
could you possibly break this building into two and then create that external through block
passage? And so we
concluded that yes, but what does that really accomplish? And could it be accomplished
through an internal passage? And we arrived to the conclusion that you could accomplish
that with the internal passage because the type of people who will be using
this through block passage are primarily their residents and their visitors and their employees. So
having, in fact, that internal connection is kind of a nice thing, so you do
have like a covered through block passage. So with all of that into
consideration, we accepted and in fact did an interpretation that this is an
acceptable through block passage. Thank you. I have a question on that, Amy.
It says on page 15, it says it's accessible to almost everyone. And I'm just
curious about the, and I don't remember on the standards for through block
passages, and I think again the same question with Costco, is it required to be
accessible to the public or is it just a pedestrian access that doesn't have to
be accessible to the public? It can be private only. I can't remember.
Lucy may have a lot more history with the Costco and she may want to
chime in. So when I read the code, I don't think that it's meant
to be public, as in publicly accessible. It definitely is meant for,
you know, to break up super blocks. And so when you think about super blocks,
and even think about the gateway apartments, even though they were all outdoors and sure
anybody can walk, through them, but in all reality, if you don't live there, if
you don't have anything to do with that development, you're not gonna be walking through
those, you know, through block passages. So we don't restrict,
you know, the code was not very prescriptive about them being publicly accessible,
meaning the real public versus public as in different types of users.
The thing I would add to that is similar to Costco with a
creek there, just the level of connect, you know, if it was a street on
the other side, then having those connections and fully public
connections makes a lot more sense. But with a creek, there's just a limited number
of crossing points that can happen. And
We're seeing less demand because other than people who are living in that building and
using the building, normally we would, I think, want that to be
public, but because of the creek, it's a somewhat different situation. And the lack of
other public using this site other than the people going to this facility.
Well, speaking of that, I guess one thing, in looking through the plans they provided,
it's interesting that a lot of them are shown the south wing and the north
wing because they're so big it's hard to fit on one page, which to me
is kind of indication that it is a really big building. And I guess I
wonder, when you do see the overall west
elevation in their plans, there's something
more that can be done to that center portion architecturally to create a better
breakup, at least visually. I know there's something there. Maybe just in black and white
it's hard to tell. But it
doesn't seem like much of a breakup, I guess.
That's, I guess, more of a suggestion than a question.
So one of the, regarding the condition 17 that talks
about adding more details on the top
floor, I think that that will also address your concern because if you look at
the, they're already going in that direction with the gabled roof, you know, that's
facing Newport Way versus all the other roofs that's more like a shed roof.
So by expressing that even in a stronger way, maybe with those additional
architectural elements, that may provide a clear break. Great. Thank you. We'll
just keep pushing a little harder. Yeah, and speaking of pushing, I'd like to, and
on this subject, frankly, when I looked through this, I was
favorably impressed by the, color palettes and the materials that you are
suggesting you're going to use. And I would, because I
would ask you when this goes, when you are making these decisions,
to stick as closely as possible with the final product to what
you're showing us here when it comes to color and palette and things like that.
and I don't presume to speak for the other commissioners, but
I've been
surprised by some finished products that I didn't remember. The
palette that we saw and looked at and said, good to go, ended up that
way. And this, as far as I'm concerned, the
Northwest identity you've put into these initial drawings is, to me,
is desirable. And I'd like to see you continue with that, including the conditions
that the city has put forth with the upper parts of the building. So
I hope that when all is said and done that I don't drive by and
go, whoa, I don't remember that color. So Mr.
Chair, can I jump in on that too, if you don't mind? Just as a
question slash suggestion. When I look at some of the plans, and
I agree that the palette colors we have seen, I thought were fairly attractive. But
seeing the white stone or whatever the material is on the base and the dark
roofs, it seemed to me that the light colored stone at the base tended to
separate the building make it even stand out more and look even taller
from the views primarily would be from the east. I wondered about switching it
around and doing a darker base to help blend it into the building with a
lighter colored roof. JIM BEDOIA, JR.: Well, this is Jim
Bedoya again. And we did bring an actual color palette that we will
give to Amy at the end of this. us to the colors
we've suggested on this project. The stone that we're proposing is a
fairly dark stone. That's the base, like at the...
It's at the base of the Port Couchier and it's at the base of the
dining facility. Okay, I was thinking the base of the... Oops, sorry
about that. I was thinking the base of the... side of the building, like the
parking garage walls. Right. And it's from there that you get the tallest view of
the building. Well, where we have the parking structure, that's actually a
concrete structure. And so we were going to use an architectural concrete with scoring on
that portion of the elevation. And we have a pretty extensive
planting strip in front of that, where our landscape designers created a wonderful
foreground of landscape there. So, you know, the intent was to
just kind of keep an honest expression of base in that location and then foreground
it with the various ornamental shrubs and trees that we'll have in front of it.
Just my question then, can you do it in a dark concrete? I know you
can add color. Well, yeah, we could certainly look at adding color or a stain
if we agree that a better solution, we'll present it as an option
perhaps the next time we come in front of you. MR. Yeah. Again, that's just
my opinion of thought. MR. Would Commissioner Morgan's
suggestion of the darker color being used, would that ultimately, and this is not a
concern of the Development Commission, but with the kind of precipitation that we get here
and long term, would that be easier to maintain in pristine condition
with regard to the appearance of it if it were a darker color? I'm talking
about moss and mold and green. I think normal maintenance would
pressure wash those and we'll put a sealer on it. So I wouldn't worry about
the finish of architectural concrete degrading over time. It'll pretty much, with proper
maintenance, stay exactly the way it looked as new. Thank you for your comments. Thank
you, sir. Anybody have any other topics?
I just had one teeny tiny little thing and that was on page 26 of
41 the conditions for the pea patch which I think is just
wonderful. I love that whole design. I just think it's beautiful and my tiny little
suggestion is to add a greenhouse and the only reason why I say that is
because I'm a gardener and in springtime you get very excited
and you wanna start some plants and I think it would be wonderful for the
seniors to have a little, just a small little greenhouse, nothing ostentatious or horribly
expensive to have them have a place to start their seeds and that's just a
suggestion. On the same page, Amy,
and the conditions 13 and 14, what would the, do you know what the city
codes are with regard to dogs being on lead or off lead in this property?
I'm not sure. I don't know on private property that there are any
restrictions. I think if they are on public property, it would be different.
I have a couple questions for Amy. Amy, on the conditions, I have a couple
questions on language. Instead of suggesting these, I thought I'd ask you your thoughts on
them before that. Condition number
seven, I think the
second sentence is, at the same time, this area should be well lit with natural
and artificial light. I wonder if you want that to say shall? and getting to
that question of should versus, you know, you should do it versus you have to
do it. So it's meant to be guidance, but
we also have lighting standards that will definitely address and make sure that this will
be well lit. So I'm not sure, so I think if
we didn't have any lighting standards, I probably would have used the word shall, but
it's almost like trying to say that Sure, you take into consideration the lighting standards,
but we want to, you know, this is meant to be more of kind of
a, to provide some additional information of what our expectation is. Okay,
great. And then on the, yeah. Can I follow up on that? Because I have
a question, just a line right before that. And it said that the
sidewalk or the pedestrian circulation be designed so it said visitors and
non-visitors know the sidewalk is not a primary connection to other community spaces?
I'm not sure, but how do you design something so that people know that it's
not something? It has big letters. Head in street. So we did have some
conversation about that and the applicants, designers are on board. So basically,
part of it is it's almost like, you know, and sign? Well, hopefully not, but
we talked about having some, the way that the terminus, the visual terminus of that
sidewalk, the way they plant and design the walkway
edges, that it would signify that it's really more like a private walkway for the
residents and that there's really nothing to walk to around the corner. You can't get
around, it's close to the end and then you have to turn around. Yeah, yeah.
I have a question on lighting. Okay. Amy, the light, I'm sorry. No, no.
If the pedestrian, if the bridge over Schneider Creek, if that's ultimately turns
out to be a vehicular capable bridge, does that have to be illuminated?
And if so, how would that address an environmentally sensitive area,
which I think is... So similar to Tibbetts Creek, you know
how we are, we have required them to provide the shared use route, which is
a 10-foot bridge over Tibbetts. They're going to basically
this is from conversation with our environmental planner, that you could have just low
lighting and primarily just to make sure that it's safe enough for people to walk
on at night. But it doesn't have that same light impact or
spillover. Okay, so the point is that one way or another, it won't necessitate a
conflict that has to be resolved, a conflict with existing code. Exactly, yes. Condition number
10, It says,
consider using the city street standard T37. That's something where they
have to use it or they don't have to use it, we're just suggesting, or
should it say shall? So again, this
is reflecting what we did for the Gateway Apartments.
The commission had some reaction when we made a general condition that
all the crosswalks have to be these paved T37. And so we came to
the conclusion that there are specific crosswalks
like the one earlier that the architect mentioned that they're gonna provide at the entry.
That will be the typical stripe crosswalk, just to make sure that people understand and
drivers understand. But where you get down to the more natural areas
by the trail and the open spaces where a more decorative
crosswalk will be more appealing, we are basically saying those are the
opportunities to use something more than just your typical stripe crosswalks. But they don't have
to. saying? Yeah. Okay. I guess I always think of
conditions of things you have to do, and I'm so used to that, I guess.
It's hard to... Well, yeah, so we have, and maybe because
we're not reviewing the construction drawings for the other project, and in so
doing, I mean, they pretty much work with us on which crosswalks will be the
special paving and which ones are the striped ones and we haven't had any issues
with getting both in the appropriate locations. Okay, and then
one more, number 17, which says the top floor of the building, which is the
part most visible for Newport Way should be further refined. That's when I guess it
seems to me like we would say shall be. So I'll be happy to change
that. Yeah, okay, thank you.
Another question, the signage. So this is a major thoroughfare. They're going to have
presumably some kind of monument signage, but it sounds like we don't get to look
at it. It just comes at a permitting stage. Do we ever get to look
at signs again? Will it not reach the
level that it would come in front of the commission? I'll simplify that.
There are some new signs for new developments or things that have come before that
seem to be unsafe to me because they block vision.
They're too close to intersections and access roads. And I don't, again,
I don't believe in the particular case that I'm thinking of, which is very high
traffic, that we got a chance to, I mean, that we looked at it and
said, yeah, that's good. So I second Commissioner Morgan's concern about signs.
And I can't remember what the level is that it gets to us right now.
So are you concerned more about the safety because of where they're located or the
aesthetics? In the case that I'm citing both, because it's a reader sign.
And I don't understand, at that place,
reader signs anywhere, because they distract you and people are talking on cell phones and
texting and eating and also reading reader signs.
And I just don't remember us going, oh yeah, good, reader sign there that size
there would be a good idea. I think that's kind of what you're talking about.
Yeah, to me it's probably, I guess, maybe more aesthetics, but... So,
I'm now going to show the lack of depth of history. But I will say
that every kind of monument sign or reader sign should be reviewed by city
staff in a technical engineering site distance review. So
we wouldn't look to the commission for that. Not that you don't sometimes bring something
to our attention because that is that kind of technical review.
I have heard, I of course told Christopher Wright he didn't need to come tonight.
And this is where his depth would be useful. I
understand that signs used to come to DC, that they hadn't been coming
to DC, that they hadn't really expected them to come back to DC. I
don't know what the code says about purview. It's a great
question, and I'll take it up with him, and we'll come back to you. Okay,
great, thank you. I think I'm done. Are there any other
issues, concerns, questions that the commission wishes to address?
In that case. Any time for comments? Comments and suggestions?
Absolutely. That's what we're going to go to now. I
would just like to compliment the applicant on the attention that they've given to wildlife.
and the flyway and addressing the big-eared bats and
the landscaping I think is great and the setbacks from the streams and the consideration
that you've given to salmon which is very important to all Issaquah residents and so
I just wanted to compliment you on that and of course the pea patch and
the garden spaces. I also want to
I think the submittal package was well done and as always, Amy, your
work was very thorough. Appreciate the good read over the weekend. Thank you very much.
No football game either. Fortunately, there was no football. Just a couple of comments.
We heard a lot from the public this evening, a lot of concerns. Some of
them were out of the purview of the development commission related to the design of
Newport Way and and obviously staff is very attentive to that. And I know you
understand that the city council is also being very attentive to what's happening along Newport
Way and doing work to improve its safety and effectiveness as far
as its ability to move traffic. That driveway access coming off Newport Way, I understand
the challenge that the site topography offers. That is a difficult driveway access point coming
into and out of, particularly in inclement weather, I think. So lighting and ensuring
sight lines are maintained and not planting things that are going to grow and get
in the way and all of that are things that are going to be really
necessary. I did sense, maybe I'm wrong, but maybe there's a little
tension between the applicant and the city on the road connection to the vet clinic
that seems to need some attention. I'll just chalk that up to maybe there was
a miscommunication in there somewhere, but I expect that that will be resolved before it
comes back here. Architecturally, the building, the design is
interesting. There's lots of variation. There are some things that I like about it. I
like what you did on the back side in that central piece with the, over
the dining area and the deck above, the roof deck above, and the kind of
interesting kind of architecture you added to that with some heavy timbers. but that was
interesting. I agree with Commissioner Morgan's point about in the center of the building where
that through block connection is if you can do something more to break up the
length of the building, because this is a very long building because it's on a
very large piece of property. And I think that is one of the underlying intents
of the code is to have both vertical and kind of horizontal relief going
on. The landscaping and the terraces that you described, particularly coming into the entry, I
think will be really interesting, nice gateway into the building. What happens up on the
street is kind of a gateway feature as you're coming down Newport Way and heading
into downtown Issaquah. It's hard to get from the plans exactly how that's going
to look, but being attentive to the visual as you're coming in and then seeing
this building in your purview, in your peripheral, I guess, as you're coming down the
street, I think will be something to pay attention to as well. And then, I
think just overall the trail system and the connectivity between the
properties I think is going to be nice, particularly for the residents of both the
apartments and the seniors. And who knows, you might have the kids living in the
apartments and the parents living in the senior apartments and that would be great.
I do think a pedestrian and bike bridge is really going to adequately serve the
need here. I don't really see a benefit for that out or providing
vehicle traffic back through that portion of the site. I just don't see that there's
a benefit to either project to having vehicular connectivity between the two other than people
that might want to just cut through, as you heard the chair talk about a
what if that could very much be a reality, I think. So I would just
encourage seeing what we can do to make that a pedestrian access. I don't know
where the standards are going to take us on that, but that would seem to
be adequate in my mind. Again, thanks again for the public and staying with us
until 1030 tonight. This has been a long one, but your input has been very
much appreciated. MIKE
PATTERSON, Yeah, again, thank you very much to the public for coming in and all
the comments that were sent in to staff that we were able to review and
look at. Thank you to the applicant for all the detailed work you've done and
information you've provided. It's been very helpful. And to Amy, as always, again, this is
Mr. Brennan. very thorough package to read through. A few
things, number one, parking, the question about the adequacy, and I feel the parking is
adequate, our goal should be to have less parking in the city, not
more parking. Less parking means less traffic, it means less impervious
surface. Those are all good things, and a big intent of the Central Area Plan
was to reduce usage in the city and we don't encourage that by providing more
parking stalls. I don't think we need to design the parking stalls for
a few days a year, like Mother's Day or something, which you can shuttle people
to the park and ride with a shuttle bus or something like that. I think
it's in the developer owner's interest to have enough parking as it is. I think
we're fine on parking. The bridge over Schneider Creek, I strongly feel that should be
just a pedestrian bike only bridge. I don't see a big benefit to the community
of making that into a vehicular bridge. And as it was pointed out, it could
just become a cut through to Newport Way westbound that puts a lot of
traffic through this property's driveway that really shouldn't be there. I'd strongly urge that we,
eliminate that condition about making that addition. The building colors we talked about, about
the darker bays would be nice. The administrative adjustment of standards that Mr. Sugarman brought
up about reducing the lane width from 11 feet to 10 feet, which sounds like
closer to what we have already, I would agree with. We weren't asked about that
earlier, but I would agree with that because I think that will help calm traffic.
I'd rather have narrower lanes if we want to keep people under 30 miles an
hour. with your standard adjustment there.
I would like in the package you come to us at the next meeting, if
you can show some interior views along what would be the neighborhood
street, the driveway in front of the building, showing the retaining walls with pedestrians there.
It's hard for me to understand how big those walls look like for somebody within
that frontage area. And I think it's going to be attractive, but I'm just concerned
about to see gigantic walls that we didn't expect.
Let's see, and I would consider one thought would be for the
Vet Road connection or the connection through the Vet Clinic property,
is there a possibility to make that from the southeast corner of this property?
Because if that goes through, I imagine the benefit is for people from
the east on Newport Way to go through that road and they're typically going to
want to go into your parking and parking garage down below and having that come
in down there. So south, so this is
north, this is south. So right there, so at that southeast corner having, you've identified
that the connection should be up above at the southwest corner there.
it be, could it come in down there a little further away from Newport Way
and so forth. So just to be clear, you are
supportive of the connection, but to look at a southern
or more eastern connection instead of where they showed their stub.
Yes, I think long term it would be helpful because I think I originally thought
it would be nice to have a ride in only from Newport Way to the
south west corner, but when you mentioned that grade difference of 15 feet, that kind
of makes that impossible to do. I do get concerned about so many cars making
that right turn hairpin around. And then coming down. Coming from the east. If they
could come through the VET property from Newport Way through the VET property and then
access your parking lot and garage, I think that would be very helpful. keep
people away from your main entrance, port co-chair and so forth.
Let's see. And then finally, I definitely think that we should
bring the signage to the Development Commission. You talked about changing the landscaping in front
because this is an important gateway property to the city. It's a main arterial and
it's a gateway. city its gateway signage if anything should come to the
commission i would think that would be one that we would like to see so
and again thank you very much for your hard work mr swedberg
i am getting near the end so we start echoing what everybody has already said
i'll thank the applicant for their package and for putting up with us sometimes ask
from your perspective, crazy questions, but from ours, ones that we just don't understand, so
thank you for your patience. Amy, as always, thank you. I'm particularly impressed with the
pictures where you have superimposed
what it will potentially look like from what it looks like now. One of the
hardest things with these projects is to visualize what it's gonna look like.
I think that potentially the neighbors would have a better understanding if they could see
these things even bigger so they would have a better feel for this is what
it's gonna look like. I know when they did that project that's just up the
hill from that, we had some more pictures years ago in regards to what it's
gonna look like and that's what it turned out like. It wasn't quite as imposing
as it appeared.
to my fellow Commissioner Morgan. I think parking
is an issue. I don't particularly think that
the desire to have everybody in Issaquah walking everywhere and riding
bikes is gonna happen. So I think that's something that needs
to be looked at, particularly in an area like this which is removed from everything
else. There's just no other alternative. I don't know what the answer might be, but
it's something to, I mean, you're in compliance with the rules, so I guess we're
gonna have to see what happens. I have a good friend that lives at
a retirement community in Seattle, and when I visit him, I usually spend about 15
minutes driving around because there are no parking spots. And this is a
residential neighborhood, so there's streets. I'm going up and down side streets trying to find
something within a block or two so I can visit. And I would think the
same thing might be happening here. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's
a concern I have and I'm sure that the neighbors have as well that live
in the area. Again, thank you for your presentation. Thank you.
Everything they said. But the additional one, seriously, it's a
very good package. Very well done, staff. I appreciate it. And I also appreciate the
members of the public that have taken the time to show up and comment. A
couple of things that I want to, I do agree strongly that it should be
a pedestrian and bike bridge.
We make the decision. as we did at the beginning
of this meeting, as we did at the beginning of this meeting, we do make
routine adjustments. I mean, the observation was made, wait a minute, you guys are, everything
that comes up gets adjusted, the standards get adjusted. So it's something that we do,
that the city does, that the city asks, tells us, here's the case for an
adjustment of the standard. So connectivity is great. It's absolutely great. But in
this case, I don't think that connectivity is negatively impacted by having that be
a pedestrian and bike bridge. I believe that the
impact of having vehicles using that, whether it's queued or two lanes, are negative.
So I would really strongly agree with my fellow commissioners urge that the
city and the applicant come together on a suitable design for it
that is accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists.
The one thing that hasn't come up, and this came up, I was not able
to attend the final meeting on the gateway project, but in the community conference on
that, there was significant discussion of the interface with I-90
for the parcels. And at this stage, we have the landscaping plan that's still in
development. And it seems to me that
an audible and visual screen from 90
for new plantings of permanent trees, a mix of deciduous and conifer,
would be beneficial. I don't know, I couldn't tell from the landscaping plans that I
looked at here what additional work, if any, is gonna be done down there, but
I really think that it wouldn't impact the
desirability of the project from the residents' point of view. If anything, it might increase
it if they don't have to look at 90, especially the
lower floors. I don't know what you can do about the upper floors for the
next if you put in trees that are gonna grow. But I believe that there
would be a significant benefit to the property to have a
good screen of trees on the 90.
When it comes to the view, I also thought that the inclusion, Amy, of the
pictures that Carl referred to, Commissioner Swedberg referred to, were very beneficial because that is
an enormous, if this may be second to traffic when it comes to projects like
this. People are very concerned that they're not going to be able to see the
mountains. And I would just say that I shared that concern as an individual, not
as a Development Commission member, as a long-time resident of Issaquah. And what I've discovered
is that, in fact, the new projects that have come in lately, when you're on
the street looking at them, you can see, you can still see the mountains.
and so the views have been preserved in accordance with the plan.
So there are going to be some areas where the views are blocked, obviously by
a building like that. But overall, in terms of the intention of the Central Area
Plan, I believe there's evidence that it's working. And lastly,
I would just like to observe that the The question that comes before us
frequently is one of the suitability in terms of the impact on neighbors.
And obviously there is an impact on neighbors, but this is an issue that's obviously
very important to residents whose homes are already
in that area. But it's one that I believe the city has done a considerably
long complicated
positive process that has involved countless hours of public meetings and public input
and discussions and recommendations that has resulted in what we call today the central area,
the central Issaquah plan. And the deal is
people want to come here and live and work and we've got to accommodate them
to the best of our abilities. So we're doing this through this process. And the
opportunity for people to make comments For those comments to be taken into consideration and
in many cases acted upon, I think is a critical part of this whole thing.
So, are there any other comments?
Again, thank you on behalf of the members of the commission. Thank you very much
for coming here. This has been a good meeting, a good exchange of ideas and
I hope it will lead to an outcome that everybody finds if not indeed
happy. With that, we will declare the meeting over. CHRISTIE WOODWARD- Thank you.
CHRISTIE WOODWARD- Thank you.