Okay, good evening and welcome to the meeting of the Issaquah Development Commission.
And tonight we're going to have a flexible schedule as I understand. It's been changed
three or four times, but we will have a description of what we're going to
do tonight from Christopher. The first thing that I'd like to do, first order of
business, is to welcome Kevin Price, who is our newest Development Commissioner. He'll be joining
us and these terms are for four years so Kevin will be with us for
the next four years and we're really looking forward to his counsel as things go
on and the issues that come up. The second thing that we'd like to do
before we get to the minutes, the approval of the minutes is give Christopher Wright
an opportunity to talk about the agenda because for those of you who don't have
it on speed dial, it has changed a couple of times. And yeah, so
Christopher, do you want to get up there and tell us what we're doing here?
That's different from what we were originally scheduled to do. This is different from what
was sent to you and it's actually been a little different from what's up here
right now. I like it. It's changing up to the last minute. So basically what
the agenda tonight will be is the approval of the minutes. Then we will have
our deputy city administrator Emily Moon give a presentation about how we're addressing traffic.
And then we will have a discussion about the Gateway Apartments and some changes they've
made to their plans. And then the Commission training, we were going to show a
video tonight and watch it all together, but instead what we're going to do is
email that to you. So you'll be getting that, and we may give you a
form to fill out signing that you've watched it and there may be some other
attachments with it but we're going to do that rather than all sit here and
watch it together. And there's also a piece of training too that Lucy
we had thought might do tonight but she's going to wait and do that next
week. So you do have a commission meeting next week as well and Lucy's going
to do her piece of the training then. And then at the last item on
the agenda I understand you want to have a discussion about the election of officers.
And that'll be it. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Christopher. So the next item on
the agenda is the review and approval of the minutes. Has everybody had an opportunity
to read them? And if so, are there any proposed changes in the minutes?
If not, is there? Move approval of the minutes. Second.
Mark second. From the mark second meeting. Second. Do we have a second? It
was a dual meaning word that I said there. A motion to approve the minutes
as they are recorded for the March 2nd meeting. Is there any discussion before we
vote? If not, all those in favor of approval, signify by saying aye. Aye. All
right, carries unanimously. All right,
we'll get to that later. So without any further ado, let's go ahead and go
to Goeysquois.
Good evening, I am Emily Moon, the Deputy City Administrator, and I'm happy to be
here tonight to talk to you about some of the ways that we are trying
to address the number one issue in our community, which is traffic and things related
to that.
So from our recent citizen survey to our business retention surveys,
this has been the loud and clear number one issue for
our residents and our business owners. And so at this moment in
time, we're taking a step back from the daily work and trying to communicate about
the comprehensive effort that we've put forward to try to address congestion,
mobility concerns, transit issues, and all things related to traffic.
And so we're going out into the community to provide that information. We're holding a
series of open houses that are more focused on their traffic task force recommendations, and
I'll talk about those in a minute. And we have a great deal of information
on our website as well. As all of you know, traffic's an
issue today, and we're anticipating that it will continue to be an issue into the
future. Part of the reason for that is because of
how our community is situated. We have many neighboring communities that need to travel
through Issaquah to gain access to I-90 and other regional destinations.
And so we have that sort of congestion that's apparent on a day like today
on Issaquah-Hobart Road when there's a problem on Highway 18 and at other times when
there's congestion in the region. Our location and topography
also creates some unique conditions for our community, our beautiful mountains, our lake,
make it challenging to build transportation infrastructure and have some efficiency in our network.
And we have manmade challenges as well, like the freeway that's dividing our town.
We also have made some past community decisions for a variety of reasons that have
situated us where we are today. Lots of people have asked us as we've been
working with the traffic task force about why the city won't consider building a bypass,
for example, on our south and southeast side. And two other
alternatives have been proposed recently and recently. in the past to
create another north-south route through Issaquah, a route that would go across Tiger Mountain, another
through Old Town via Third Avenue has been discussed. And both proposals created some division
in our community and it was ultimately decided by council or the task force or
both in some cases not to proceed with either. Lastly,
our region is very popular. People are continuing to move here and we don't anticipate
that that's going to slow down very significantly in the near future that would give
us a little bit of breathing room. And so we are trying to plan for
that increased demand of the future as well. So
here are a few things that we have done recently to try to tackle traffic
or mitigate some of the impacts. We've doubled traffic fees. We're working with
our regional partners on ways to collaborate on regional improvements. We're
enhancing pedestrian safety. We completed a pedestrian crossing study
last fall, and we're making it easier to get around on foot and bike. As
we know as a community, we value being able to use non-motorized transportation as well
and we're trying to build out that network. Lastly, our city is
contemplating a package of local transportation projects that might be referred to voters this fall.
Developer fees have been increased at a minimum. They've been doubled for different
types of development. But even if development stopped tomorrow, we would still face transportation
challenges that I've spoken about. So like our neighboring cities, we're growing into more of
an urban environment, and we also live within state regulations that require us to plan
for growth. In Issaquah, we've made a very deliberate decision to prepare
for our future and this growth by protecting the things that we value most, our
existing neighborhoods like Front Street, and our forested mountain sides. That's
why in the next 15 years we've determined that our growth should be concentrated in
central Issaquah, as all of you know. And we're getting ready for that new development
as well to ensure that that new growth pays its way. And so we have
made changes in some of our impact fees.
Given our topography or geography, we know we need to have partners in tackling
traffic. And so we've been strongly advocating for more bus service, alternative
transportation, park and rides, and someday we hope light rail to Issaquah.
And we're working with our neighbors like the city of Sammamish and King County on
congestion that starts beyond our borders. I hope we're gonna have
some very tangible piece of news soon on that front. We've been working very hard
with King County to try to set the parameters for
intergovernmental agreement that will allow us to collaborate on a corridor study for Issaquah-Hobart Road
and prioritize that in a better fashion for their capital improvement program.
On pedestrian safety, with the goal in mind of providing a safe and convenient way
for our pedestrians and drivers to get around our community, we completed a review of
several priority crossings several months ago. We used community feedback along
with other criteria such as accident history to evaluate those top priority
crossings in town. Two corridors, East Sunset Way and Newport Way Northwest were also
evaluated for possible enhancements in addition with park
in Iskawa Highlands. Following that outreach and the input that we
received from the community, we released the findings of that study last October and we
have developed a list of capital improvement projects to implement them and address
the findings of that study. Those efforts were begun in 2015
and will carry, the majority of those projects will be completed this calendar year and
a few are in future years. In addition, we have education and enforcement efforts that
we have refined and stepped up and a significant public education campaign will be underway
this fall. We also spent quite a
bit of energy in the past working on our walk and roll program and we
developed that plan from input from bicyclists, pedestrians and community members. and we
created this plan as a way to identify missing links in that infrastructure and
an action plan for developing it on our existing corridors.
We do a good job in this community of leveraging grants and outside funds. One
example is we have secured $50 million in
transportation improvement funding for projects that are currently underway in North Issaquah,
the vicinity of East Lake Sam Parkway and the extension of
62nd. But because grants and fees won't grow fast enough in the future to fund
the projects that we need now, we're also considering a package of local transportation projects
that could go to voters this fall. The traffic task force was a team of
volunteers that were appointed by the mayor in late 2015, and they recently made
recommendations to the mayor and to council on a potential package of transportation
projects. The council's now considering that package and engaging the community to get feedback
on those projects and on the potential of bringing a package forward.
Here's a map, it's probably a little difficult to see from where you are. It
lists all of the projects, I'll just list those verbally very quickly, but you can
see from the map that the proposed projects are located throughout Issaquah.
This is the criteria that the Traffic Task Force used to evaluate the projects that
they wanted to consider. So they had a very good conversation about what was important
and what were the objectives they wanted to keep in mind. And this is the
list that they created. So from the top, I'll read these
just so audience can hear them. They wanted to consider projects where citizens were
having difficulties getting around. They wanted to work on projects that we could do with
local funding that we weren't going to be dependent, for example, on the state or
federal government to assist us with. They wanted to pick projects that would have a
visible impact, recognizing we need some action today, not just build it for
what the transportation needs might be in the future, but also attend to that. And
they wanted to pick projects that would have strong community support. They also wanted to
be mindful of our commitment to that non-motorized mobility and so they wanted to help
pedestrians and cyclists get around town. And they knew that council had an
obligation to find a way to fund our concurrency or level of service goals.
This is a map that's currently on our website and I'm gonna see if this
works and then if it doesn't, we'll go with plan B. The map is meant
to be interactive and so when you click on one of these icons, you should
be able to go on our website to project information. So this is the GO
ISSAQA website. This is the drill down page on local projects. And
if you select a particular project, some project specific information will
pop up for you, including the cost and a very short description. Might say a
word about that for a second. The projects that are on this
map by and large with a few exceptions are projects that
originated in a pre-existing document. So either they were on the walk and roll
program or they were on our transportation improvement program list or
TIP or they came up during the crossing study.
And they range in terms of how
designed the they are, so we have projects that are a simple line in the
TIP and are at the conceptual or study level. They have not been even
preliminarily designed, and then we have projects that are at the 90% design level. They
may even have grants attached to them, and so that's important to keep in mind.
We have a really broad spectrum of projects, but the task force started with existing
projects that they understood were already as community
desired or needed projects. So the council as they discuss
these will determine if they wanna pursue some or all or none of these
projects and so that dialogue is underway at this time. You can also see
that we have information on the website about developer fees, some more
specific information on what we did to raise those impact fees, our regional
collaboration efforts, the pedestrian safety, and the walk and roll. And the pedestrian safety is
where you can find some of the information on that crossing study that I've mentioned.
All right, if I was smart, I'd know how to toggle back a little bit
more easily, but.
And then lastly, I thought I'd share with you this video that we've, made and
it just sums up our traffic mitigation efforts thus far. A lot more to come.
I'm eager to tell the community all the different ways that we're trying to improve
this situation and even more so looking forward to collaborating with others on how
we can make a better future for our transportation network in Issaquah. So let's see
if this works.
learn and play. And we're not alone. In the next 15 years, Central Issaquah's population
and workforce are expected to more than double. Traffic is already a problem, and it's
not going away. That's why Issaquah isn't waiting for development to decide our fate. Instead,
we're tackling traffic now. Recently, we more than doubled traffic fees to ensure developers are
paying their fair share. We understand we can't tackle this issue alone, so we're advocating
for more bus service, park and rides, and someday light rail to Issaquah. And we're
working with our neighbors, like Sammamish and King County, on congestion that starts beyond our
borders. To get more people out of their cars, Issaquah is making it easier to
get around by foot or bike. Making our streets safer for pedestrians is also a
top priority. And since grants and fees won't grow fast enough to fund projects we
need now, Issaquah is considering a package of local transportation projects that could go to
voters this fall. Together we can tackle traffic. It's time to stop swimming upstream.
We have two upcoming events. We have a council work
session happening on the 13th, and we also have a traffic open house hosted
by the council that's happening on the 15th. And there's more information on the website
about those two events, but we encourage Everyone that has an interest to come and
attend on the 13th. It will be more of a dialogue between the council members
a more robust presentation about projects about the funding method
and then on the 15th it will be more an opportunity to dialogue resident resident
resident to council member. Also, we will have information present on the various
projects and the regional efforts, etc. So with that be happy to answer any questions
you might have. Emily, what is the,
the video talks about things that are going to happen now, as have you, and
I understand that's going to be one of the objectives is to communicate to citizens
and businesses in Issaquah that we are doing things now. But what, I didn't see
anything in there that tells potential ballot voters, what guarantees,
Guarantee is too strong a word, but what will they get? What is the city
saying, this is what our objective is in terms of how long it takes to
get across town or the hardcore things that you're looking at? Sure. So I can
answer that in a few different ways. First, it's important to note that the council
hasn't selected Projects are or even determined to refer something to voters so once
they have decided that that's what they want to do and we know which projects
and we'll be able to communicate it I believe a little bit more concisely and
effectively about the intended benefits of those projects and and of them together
So that so that's me kicking the can down the road just a little bit
for those reasons, but the task force picked their
a complement of projects to try to enhance
mobility in town. And what they meant by that was just make it easier for
people to get around to live their daily lives in this community, whether that's in
a car, on a bus, on foot, or by a bike. And so that's the
simple goal. The way in which we do that differs by project, and
the outcome of each of those projects is a little bit different. So some are
very much about increasing capacity or reducing travel time.
And then others are more about making it, parking structures was one I clicked on,
making it easier for people to drive to one spot, park, get out, and walk,
and therefore reduce the number of those small distance trips. So there are a variety
of projects, each with different outcomes, but in a nutshell, it was to improve our
mobility. But when this comes to fruition, or when whatever it
is actually comes to fruition, there will be explicit measurements or explicit
The goals will be explicit for each of these so that people will understand exactly
what they get for this work. Yes, that would be our intent, to make the
goals explicit. The actual measurement of outcomes will, in some cases for those projects that
haven't even been designed, will be determined in part by the design.
So it's a challenge. Any other questions from the
commission? So Emily, you noted that light rail is potentially in the future for the
city and sound transit board obviously is putting forward a package he's got a light
rail coming to Issaquah in 25 or so years which might be a while
but that being said what's the conversation been around the
implications of bringing light rail to the city MOST OF THE TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS THAT I
SAW ON THAT LIST ARE RESPONDING TO THE CURRENT PLAN FOR THE CITY AND
THE DIFFICULTY SOUTH. THE LIGHT RAIL NOW IS A WHOLE
DIFFERENT SORT OF A TRANSPORTATION ELEMENT THAT YOU PLAN AROUND. SO HAS THERE
BEEN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE LIGHT RAIL POTENTIAL CORRIDOR, WHAT THE POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS ARE TO THE
CITY'S CURRENT PLAN AND HOW THAT MIGHT NEED TO CHANGE? some of the investments that
might be contemplated now may get in the way of that in the future and
try to be aware of that. Yeah, excellent points. Definitely at
the forefront of our mind, but we have little information to work on right now.
The alignment of light rail has not been determined where
additional parking rides for our facilities have not been determined. So
it's difficult to speak to that. But having said that, we're talking about it. We've
expressed opinions and data to Sound Transit so that they have that in mind as
they start to contemplate those alignments. And we,
We have preferences, I think, things that I hope make sense. We want to make
sure that there's good connectivity to I-90 and our major
arterials for all of these transportation systems to work. I'm and
certainly we want to make sure that people have access so that gets back to
being able to find a place to park next to a light rail and so
we're trying to keep that in mind this question about not
not setting forth on a project that might need to be undone in the future
is definitely one that the task force talked about. It's one that we've discussed with
council and amongst staff. I don't believe that we have a project here
that would be hurt in any fashion by any alignment by sound
transit. So we definitely are keeping that in mind. It's also important to know that
we're not gonna be able, if council were to decide to pursue all nine of
these projects. We're not gonna start all nine of them on day one. We will
have to sequence them and therefore we'll have some additional planning time and be able
to be, continue to be thoughtful about our approach and we will begin to learn
more and more about sound transit as time goes on. Thank you.
Any other questions? Great, thank you very much. I would say that I'm glad to
see the city doing this because just as an individual, members of the staff know
this. I am frequently, unpleasantly surprised by how a little,
some of the, a lot of the residents of Issaquah actually know about what is
being planned, when the meetings are to discuss the issues and so on. So I'm
glad to see that the city is making what seems to be an accelerated to
communicate awareness of the problems and what we're doing about it. Great, thank
you. All right,
Lucy. Good evening.
So tonight we are bringing to you a minor
revision to the gateway SDP. You approved it last
September 2015. There are two people here to assist
if there are questions I can't answer. Jim Bedoya from VIA Architects is here
representing the applicant and Amy Tars who you know well who brought the permit through.
With some of the questions that came up today, I asked Amy to be here
because she knows this project at a level of detail that is beyond me.
So just to start with, I'm putting the site plan back up here. I knew
we would have some new members, and just in case it wasn't as fresh in
your minds as it is in ours. Just some of the things to point out.
This is Newport, I-90. The area that we're going to be talking
about is this area towards I-90. I just want to note that north is
up in this slide and all the rest of them, it's going to be rotated
to the right. For some reason, that's just the way we tend to draw up
this project. We staff
looked at the proposal to make this change Determined that this was a minor
revision that could be approved administratively however We
it is important to us to have transparency with Commission in the public we wanted
to We don't want surprises later on. So
this seemed like though it could be approved administratively, it seemed important to have a
discussion with the commission to hear your thoughts and
gather that before we moved on. So that's what we're here to do this evening.
So I have four slides just to try and illustrate the
changes that are involved in this revision. So now I've just rotated.
In all of these slides, on the left is the approved SDP and on the
right is the proposed revision. So in this case, you can see that the two
five-story buildings, number 17 and 18, had tandem
parking in this area and in this area. And what they have proposed to do
is move half, split the tandem basically into two
rows of head-end single stalls