good evening ladies gentlemen I'd like
to welcome you to the Costco campus
expansion for tonight we're going to be
having a community conference and public
hearing and so if you wish to speak if
you're members of the public I'd like
you to sign in on the table up here and
we'll when you get ready to speak we'll
ask you to go up in and state your name
and address and then we'll listen to
what you have to say we have a few we
have an administrative process that we
have to go through we have some some
minutes from June 6th which was our last
meeting which was quite a while ago but
that we have to prove so I'll ask the
members of the Commission if they've had
a chance to review those and would look
for a motion motion to approve the June
6 2018 development Commission meeting
minutes mr. chair second any discussion
Corrections all those in favor of
proving the new CI I posed looks like we
approved the minutes I think
good evening I'm Lucie sloman Land
Development Manager for DSD and tonight
we start the first of two nights
two-part public hearing for the Costco
development agreement jean lin will be
making the presentation i'm taking you
through the quasi-judicial piece of the
agenda i am going to just do a little
bit abbreviated since most of you are
overly familiar with this deck of slides
so as a quasi-judicial matter things
need to be handled like a court which
means the proceedings are both fair and
appear fair we do this through two
different processes one is procedural
due process the other is substantive due
process procedural due process as the
name indicates it's that the procedures
that we use we provide notice all the
discussion is on the record available
for everyone and we also explore the
relationships between the applicant and
the decision-makers substantive due
process essentially means that the basis
for which we make a decision is adopted
codes so what I would like to ask the
commissioners to do first is to read
through the questions that are up here
and then I'll ask you a series of
questions
how many of you would answer no to all
the questions no yes is okay that's
great and then the second piece as I
mentioned has to do with that all the
communications have to be on the record
ex parte communications are discussions
that you might have had outside of these
chambers not on the microphone not part
of the record and so my question to you
is has anyone had any ex parte
communications regarding this permit no
okay great
and if the applicant chooses to
challenge any of the commissioners
please to do so during your presentation
and that's it
good evening commissioners I'm gene Linn
I'm a Senior Planner with the city of
Issaquah Development Services Department
and I'm also the project planner for the
proposed development we've received
three pieces of Correspondence on the
project after the publication of the
staff report the comments have been
distributed to the development
commissioners and extra copies are
available up front the colors materials
board is also available for viewing
tonight as well if you wish the proposal
before you tonight is the Costco campus
expansion project which consists of two
discrete land use applications an
administrative site development permit
or a SDP and a site development permit
or SDP with two distinct review
processes well they are listed as two
separate items on tonight's agenda
I'll be making one comprehensive
presentation for both the following
meeting sequence is proposed to help
organize the presentations and
discussions we start off with a staff
presentation on the ASDP or
administrative site develop permit
excuse me and site development permit
followed by the applicants presentation
we then proceed with receiving public
comments on both applications after
public comments
we'll proceed with the community
conference for the administrative site
development permit with discussion by
the development Commission and finally
will hold the public hearing for the
site development permit with discussion
by the development commission members of
the public who are interested in
speaking should sign in at the clipboard
at the front of the room
as you listen to the presentation
consider presenting your comments around
each building separately since the
development Commission's will have to
have two separate conversations one on
each building so this is just a quick
overview of the themes of this
presentation I'm gonna start by
providing some background on the
existing development agreement and
highlighting the elements from the
agreement that are relevant to this
project given that we're looking at two
discreet land use permits I'll explain
the different review criteria and what
the development Commission's roles are
with respect to each permit in our
analysis of the project I'll be focusing
on connectivity of the circulation
system as well as the visual
connectivity through views and quality
and the quality of open spaces provided
as part of the development and the
building in site design elements that
emphasize the urban streetscape and the
pedestrian experience the Costco
corporate campus is located in central
Issaquah and it's bounded by interstate
90 to the south
Pickering pond and Pickering place
shopping center to the west northwest
Sammamish Road to the north and the
Issaquah Creek corridor to the east
within the campus the retail warehouse
is at the north end office buildings 1 2
& 3 are along Pickering pond and the
western portion of the campus and the
existing parking garage and trading
building are at the eastern portion of
the campus the proposed buildings 4 & 5
would be at the southern end of the
campus the site for building 4 is
highlighted in orange and building 5 is
highlighted in green
the proposed development is planned
across to existing Lots bisected by the
future extension of Lake Drive the
project site is currently developed with
two surface parking lots that serve
Costco's existing corporate campus
buildings so a little bit of background
on the project in 1987 the city approved
this master site plan for the
coordinated development of Pickering
place which was consistent with the
city's vision at the time in the
intervening 25 years or so the city's
vision for this area has evolved and the
city adopted the central is a call plan
and development and design standards the
development agreement which was approved
in 2015 would implement the central is a
call plan and associated standards with
the development agreement Costco may
build up to 1.5 million square feet of
new development on their properties over
30 years these include the property
Costco owned at the time the development
agreement was approved as well as
properties they may acquire with the
expansion areas the development
agreement relies on the central Issaquah
standards as the primary land use
regulations with the development
agreement coupled with the
interpretations and adjustments to
address unique and specific
characteristics of Pickering place
so one of the major purposes of the
development agreement was to establish a
partnering agreement between the city
and Costco for finding road improvements
that are necessary in the Pickering
place area to accommodate the planned
growth the master transportation funding
agreement included identified three
transportation projects that would
create transportation capacity for
Costco and the larger community and
provide substantial public benefits for
circulation and for enabling growth of
businesses and jobs the first of these
projects is the East Lake Sammamish
Parkway which included Road widening
between South East 56th Street and
southeast is a cloth wall city road and
that was completed in 2016 that's
denoted by the number one on the map the
12th Avenue Northeast and 17th Avenue
Northwest SR 900 project includes adding
turn lanes bicycle lanes and sidewalks
improvements timing for this project has
been delayed to allow for coordination
with Lake Sammamish State Park and this
is denoted by the number two on the map
finally the South East 62nd Street
extension project includes the widening
and extension of South East 62nd Street
to the west to meet the southerly
extension of Lake Drive within the
Costco campus it's currently under
construction and scheduled for
completion later this year and this is
all this is noted as number 3 on the map
I'll describe this in a bit more detail
in the next slide so once completed the
southeast 62nd Street extension project
would provide an integral east-west
connection from Lake Drive to East Lake
Sammamish Parkway the project includes
extension of the southern lake a
southern leg excuse me of Lake Drive
within the Costco corporate campus with
a roundabout at that intersection
additional improvements include upgrades
to the existing Pickering trail for
reference the site's four buildings four
and five are outlined in red in the map
the land plan is contained in Exhibit D
of the development agreement and it's a
high-level site development permit
establishing one scenario for how the
development agreement could be
implemented the land plan shows office
buildings with under building parking at
the sites of both buildings four and
five you should note also that there's a
small parking lot on the north end of
building five between building five and
existing building three per the
development agreement proposals that are
consistent with the land plan are
reviewed administrative ly following a
community conference proposals over a
hundred and fifty thousand square feet
that represent a major alteration to the
land plan shall follow centralized
across standard processes this will be
discussed in more detail later on with
the review criteria discussion the
development agreement establishes a
sustainability component that has
sustainability goals and implementing
tools as a requirement new developments
are required to implement a leadership
innovation that targets energy-efficient
performance and a technology innovation
that focuses on techniques and
technologies that could benefit the
community by demonstration some of the
notable elements from Costco's proposed
sustainability approach include
establishing an energy use intensity
design targets establishing water
reduction targets installation of solar
panels achieving LEED Silver equivalent
energy performance targets and providing
an energy feedback display that will be
viewable by Costco staff and the public
the proposed development includes the
construction of two new buildings as
part of Costco's corporate campus this
includes a ninth story office building
and a 10 story parking garage the
buildings are needed to bring
approximately two
thousand current employees on to the
main campus as well as to accommodate
future growth the proposed office
building is anticipated to accommodate
up to forty three hundred employees both
building sites would include structured
parking and outdoor community spaces
building four which is the office
building would be located on the on the
northeast corner of Lake Drive in South
East 62nd Street with Costco's existing
two-story trading building to the north
and the Issaquah creek corridor to the
east the building is approximately
600,000 square feet and its footprint on
the street level is separated into two
discrete wings with a through block
passage between the west and east wings
and a sky bridge connecting these wings
on the upper floors ground floor active
uses include the main entry lobby
meeting rooms and cafeteria there's also
an auditorium and service uses on the
ground floor this building frames
several outdoor spaces including the
central court plaza 62nd East Plaza and
Creekside Terrace building five the
parking structure would be located on
the northeast corner of Lake Drive in
South East 62nd Street with Costco's
existing three-story building three
office building to the north and
Pickering pond to the west at the street
level this building is also separated
into two wings with a through block
passage between the north and south
wings these wings are fully connected on
the upper levels
the building is l-shaped where the
narrower north wing is designed around
the existing loading area and garage
ramp serving building 3 and that would
largely screen these vehicular and
service uses from views along Lake Drive
on the ground floor there would be
approximately 30,000 square feet of
exhibition and fitness space wrapping
much of the parking utility and service
uses at the interior at the site and
finally a sky bridge across
Lake Drive is proposed to provide an
internal connection between the two
buildings on the upper floors
the zoning for the property's urban core
which is shaded in pink and the intent
of the zone is to provide a dense
vibrant pedestrian friendly urban
environment with active first floors
that provide pedestrian interests the
proposed development includes
high-density office and office support
uses which are permitted in the urban
core zone surrounding properties within
Pickering place
Costco's corporate campus and properties
south of interstate 90 are also within
the urban core as mentioned earlier the
Costco campus expansion project consists
of two discrete permits an
administrative site development permit
for building four and a site development
permit for building five even though
it's presented in the same staff report
our intent is to promote a comprehensive
analysis of the overall development to
reduce redundancy and still provide the
site-specific analysis that would have
been provided had this been separated
into two staff reports our intent is
also to retain the distinct levels of
development Commission review roles and
purview as established by the Costco
development agreement the proposed
building for substantially consistent
with the land plan and that and which
shows an office building with under
building parking the proposed the
proposal does not meet any of the major
alteration thresholds defined in the
development agreement and only minor
alterations are proposed according to
the development agreement the proposals
that are consistent with the land plan
are reviewed administrative Lee except
that during the review process an
informal community conference will be
held with the Development Commission the
community conference is an opportunity
to invite conversation and receive input
from the Commission and the public
following the community conference staff
will use this input and the preparation
of an administrative decision
and tonight serves as the community
conference for the ASDP for building for
proposed building five is a parking
garage whereas it's shown as an office
building with underground parking in the
land plan as originally contemplated in
the land plan the existing Costco
parking garage adjacent to Pickering
barn was intended to serve both existing
and new buildings but Costco chose to
build another garage next to building
for another change that results from the
major alteration of land plan is the
elimination of the small parking lot
between buildings 3 & 5 where a new
Plaza is now proposed this is a
beneficial change and it's in greater
compliance with the Central Isaac law
standards for these reasons building 5
is not substantially consistent with the
land plan and is a major alteration
requiring more traditional development
Commission review the site development
permit review process would follow the
two meeting format where the first
meeting will feature presentations by
both staff and the applicant followed by
the development commission and public
comments questions and concerns the
second meeting will be responses to
these comments questions and concerns in
addition to the standard briefing
response memo the applicants also
requesting to administrative adjustment
of standards that would apply to both
buildings 4 & 5 these requests include
modifying the loading space and tree
retention requirements both of these
will be discussed in more detail later
and the discussion this is the decision
excuse me for these administrative
adjustments of standards will be part of
the development Commission's
consideration on the administrative site
development permits and the development
Commission's decision on the site
development permits a third
administrative adjustment of standards
will be requested as part of the 3 block
passage design at building 5 and that
will be discussed in more detail later
in the presentation
with respect to environmental review a
planned action environmental impact
statement was adopted for the central is
across sub area plan in 2012 the purpose
of the planned action environmental
impact statement was to address
environmental impacts up front in order
to facilitate an expedite environmental
review for future individual development
projects and to streamline the permit
review process when the development
projects are proposed that are
consistent with the environmental impact
statement analysis no additional
environmental review or separate SEPA
determination is required a planned
action determination was adopted in 2014
as part of the Costco development
agreement the planned action
determination evaluated impacts as part
of the development agreement for future
build-out of Costco's corporate
headquarters for up to 1.5 million
square feet of additional office
development no additional SEPA review is
required if future proposals are
consistent with the Costco development
agreement and the planned action
determination the proposed development
for buildings 4 & 5 were evaluated and
found to be consistent with the planned
action determination and no significant
adverse environmental impacts were
identified with respect to pedestrian
circulation / the central Issaquah
standards additional pedestrian
circulation facilities need to be
provided where the block lengths exceed
300 feet pedestrian connectivity / the
land plan requires an incremental
build-out of the pedestrian system
between Lake Drive and the existing
shared use routes a traditional grid
block street system couldn't be applied
to Costco's corporate campus due to the
site configuration and adjacency to
Ezequiel Creek and Pickering pond the
existing shared use roots of the
Pickering trail to the east and the
Pickering pond trail to the west
are approximately 300 feet from Lake
Drive and they would provide north-south
connections however it's necessary to
provide regular connections between Lake
Drive and the shared use routes to meet
the requirements for east-west
connectivity as envisioned in the land
plan the east-west through blocked
passages would be provided at buildings
4 & 5 I circled in yellow and the
graphic on top the proposed east-west
through block passages are circled in
blue and the graphic on the bottom and
provides pedestrian connections to the
existing shared use routes at building
floor this pedestrian route is located
at the northern edge of the site and is
adjacent to the trading building it
extends from Lake Drive to the Pickering
trail at building 5 the pedestrian route
is located approximately midpoint along
Lake Drive frontage in the area
separating the buildings north and south
wings and extends to the pond overlooked
and Pickering Pond Trail additionally a
north-south through blocked passage at
building 4 is provided between the east
and west wings of this building at the
street level and it provides a
connection between the central court
plaza and the 62nd east plaza on the
site
the eastern segment of the through
blocked passage pedestrian route would
be adjacent to the trading building with
building floor just to the south at the
east end the path would cross the
trading buildings loading in service
area building floors loading in service
areas also just to the south and while
it's functionally logical to have these
uses at this location it could be a
pedestrian unfriendly area where the
route doesn't give pedestrians equal
priority to vehicles the blue oval on
the drawing shows a location where this
conflict occurs and the photo on the
right shows the existing loading area at
the Trading Building we've included
condition 3 which would require that the
pedestrian path be designed to
prioritize pedestrians and to minimize
conflicts with the truck loading area
Costco anticipates redeveloping the
trading building in the future however
this condition will ensure that this
path works now since the timing of the
trading building redevelopment is
unknown
at building five the proposed alignment
and design of the through block passage
presents some challenges as a Haseeno
gate negotiate through an area that is
predominantly designed for vehicles so
building five is the parking garage and
the diagram on top shows the proposed
alignment in blue which does not provide
a direct route and requires pedestrians
to cross to vehicular areas which are
circled in orange the diagram on the
bottom shows a straighter alignment
although there's still two points where
the pedestrians would need to cross
vehicular pass the secondary thru block
passage standard requires 13 feet
overall width with five feet of tread
and four feet of landscaping on either
side while the western end of this route
can likely comply given the landscaped
area the eastern end the go sheets
through the building where it'll be
difficult for plants to grow and where
the width is limited condition four is
proposed as a preliminary condition to
require an administrative adjustment of
standards to remove the landscape border
where the route passes through the
building and replace it with a slightly
wider trail it also requires building
design and hem enhancements to
compensate for the removal of the
landscape border the applicant intends
to pursue the administrative adjustment
of standards to provide greater clarity
to the design of this route and that'll
be reviewed as part of the briefing this
briefing response memo during the
development Commission's second meeting
should this preliminary condition be
adequately addressed at that time it
will not warrant inclusion in the final
conditions of approval
the primary streets providing access to
the proposed development include Lake
Drive in South East 62nd Street both of
which are core streets and are shown in
the dark blue course streets create a
livable Street character with pedestrian
and bicycle priority where active ground
floor uses are encouraged and it
promotes walkability
as mentioned before both of these
streets are current
under construction in this diagram
vehicular driveway access points are
noted with red arrows truck loading
areas are called out with the letter L
in the pink circle and parking access is
noted with the letter P in the blue
circle for building for one driveway
along Lake Drive would provide access to
the auto court circular passenger
loading area the at-grade loading area
at the north end of the building and the
ramp for the underground garage the same
driveway would also provide access to
the existing loading docks and surface
area on the south side of the trading
building for building five two driveways
would be serving this site one along
Lake Drive at the thru block passage and
the second would be along South East
62nd Street at the southwest corner of
the building
both driveways would provide access to
the existing service area and garage
ramp at building three which minimizes
the number of driveways serving both
buildings central is across standards
requires developments to make actual
views and this is to be the focal points
additionally the land plan requires that
building designs explore opportunities
to highlight territorial views and
vistas the build out of Lake Drive has
resulted in a straighter straighter
alignment than was contemplated in the
development agreement and this isn't
abled a strong review corridor of the
Issaquah Alps to the south
the design of the sky bridge over Lake
Drive intentionally incorporates a high
level of transparency as required by the
development agreement which improves
access and frames views of the Issaquah
Alps the sky bridge which connects level
4 and building 4 and level 5 in building
5 these renderings show the mountain
views as they're seen along Lake Drive
the two renderings on the Left show
anticipated views from the through block
passages the rendering on top shows
views looking east towards as a clock
creek and the rendering on the bottom
shows views looking west towards
Pickering Pond the Eastern through
blocked passage which is north of
building four and adjacent to the
trading building provides a mostly
direct route that ends at the Issaquah
Creek corridor with the natural habitat
as the focal point the Western through
blocked passage is approximately 15 feet
in height where it goes through building
five which will likely allow for views a
Pickering pond as the focal point an
existing example on the Costco campus is
at the building 1 sky bridge as shown in
the photo on the bottom right also note
that the sky bridge is narrower than the
through blocked passage through building
five the central Issaquah standards
requires new projects to retain 25% of
the total diameter of significant and
landmark trees on the exists in the
existing tree stock there are a total of
140 significant and landmark trees on
the property with a total of 1535
caliper inches and 25% of that would be
384 Cal / inches the applicant is
proposing to modify this requirement
through an administrative adjustment of
standards to allow all the trees to be
removed proposed tree removals are noted
by red circles on this plan many of
these trees are in the parking lots and
along the edges were planted when the
parking lot and Pickering place were
developed in the 1990s
there's clusters of significant trees
along the eastern and western edges of
the site adjacent to is a quote adjacent
to the Issaquah Creek corridor and
Pickering pond
over the years these trees have thrived
due to their adjacency to open spaces
staff and the applicant have explored
ways to preserve these trees at the
edges but it wasn't possible because
they would be significantly impacted by
the proposed grading activities and
utility installations as part of the
development as a result these trees are
proposed for a removal new landscaping
including trees and green screens are
proposed to be planted along these edges
to help mitigate the impact the project
proposes approximately 1,800 vehicular
parking spaces which meets the minimum
required all of the parking serving the
proposed development would either be
under the building or in structured
parking existing parking facilities
throughout Costco's corporate campus
would include existing surface Lots
under building garages and the eight
story parking garage currently all of
the bicycle parkings proposed in
building five and no part bicycle
parking at building four which is
inconsistent with the central is across
standards condition 12 would ensure that
at least 25% of the required bicycle
parking would be provided at building
four and that bicycle parking would be
placed in close proximity to primary
building entrances without blocking
pedestrian circulation facilities at
this point of the presentation I'm going
to switch from elements that apply
equally to both buildings to information
relevant only to the community
conference for the office building while
building four is large is a large and
dense building it does comply with the
development standards of the urban core
zone
proposed community spaces at the site
include the central court plaza 62nd
East Plaza and Creekside Terrace these
spaces range from the formal and urban
plazas to the informal and nature
focused Terrace the central court Plaza
is centrally located along Lake Drive
and extends to the interior of the site
where it's framed by building fours east
and west wings a through block passage
between the two wings connects this
plaza to the 62nd East Plaza primary
entries to the building front on this
plaza including the main entry Lobby
cafeteria and dining areas some of the
proposed amenities include a variety of
seating options formal landscaping and
tree wells and raised planter beds and
decorative paving the tree wells in the
plaza is relocated above the underground
garage in order to ensure that there
will be sufficient soil for trees to
thrive conditions 6 is included to
require minimum dimensions and depths
for the tree wells the Creek site
Terrace outdoor amenity space is located
at the rear of the building and it
overlooks as a quad creek corridor in
contrast to the more urban environment
of the plazas the terrace highlights the
adjacent natural environment some of the
amenities in the space include a wood
deck area informal plantings and a
curvilinear path with pockets of seating
the southwestern corner of the building
is located at the street intersection
this building corner is required to have
a minimum of 60 feet of building
frontage at the build to line to
maintain a continuous street wall
building floors approximately has
approximately 150 feet extending from
the corner along both streets and that's
noted by the blue line above other areas
where the building is located within the
build two line are also noted with the
blue line in areas where the plazas and
landscape elements would help define the
street edge are noted in green building
at building entries are noted with the
red asterisks and open onto the
community spaces and the streets the
building's ground floor is designed to
incorporate active uses including the
main entry lobby meeting rooms and staff
cafeteria elevations at the ground floor
incorporate a brick base with Bay's of
glazed storefront windows and canopies
and rendering suggest a high level of
transparency between the interior and
exterior spaces breaking up the glazed
storefront with bays coupled with the
canopies helps make the building more
pedestrian scaled primary entrances to
these active uses face both the plaza
and the street and the canopies are at
our six feet in depth are proposed at
the building entries and across at least
75% of the building facade and they
provide weather protection where the
building is set back from the property
line the sidewalk would be extended up
to the building the land plan requires
that the presence of buildings be
maximized at the corners many building
corners incorporate special treatment to
highlight the importance of these
locations Corner lanterns are located at
prominent building corners and consists
of clear glass curtain walls with opaque
glass spandrels extending from the
ground floor all the way to the top
floor when it's lit the vertical volume
lights up like a lantern the northern
elevation the corner Lantern is located
at the building corner above the main
entry and which would be a prominent
feature along Lake Drive and that's
outlined in red on the south elevations
the corners of both buildings at the
street intersection feature similar
corner Lantern elements and accent panel
cladding at the ends of both buildings
help bookend the buildings on Costco's
corporate campus and they're outlined in
orange the sky bridge across Lake Drive
coupled with the central court plaza and
auto Court at building four would convey
an impressible impressionable sense of
arrival along Lake Drive
additionally corner building treatment
design elements on buildings four and
five such as the corner lanterns
an accent panel cladding bookends would
help frame this entry portal well the
building is designed with detail none of
the facade is treated as the back side
there are locations where the brick base
creates blank walls that need further
articulation or modulation the southeast
corner of the building where the
proposed auditorium is located is
designed with a continuous stretch of
blank masonry wall that wraps around the
corner and that's outlined in red and
the diagram above these walls would be
prominent along 62nd Street as well as
from the Pickering trail and they don't
represent a pedestrian friendly design
the applicant proposes to treat this
corner with landscaping which includes
raised landscape planters with evergreen
shrubs and trees but given the length of
this corner and its prominence
landscaping alone isn't sufficient an
additional surface relief would be
needed to help break up its massing
there's a section of blank wall on the
west elevation at the northwest corner
of the building that fronts on the ramp
to the underground
Raaj it's outlined in red in the bottom
drawing this section of blank wall is
visible but set back from Lake Drive and
conceptual landscape plans show
landscaping between the wall and the
edge of the garage ramp as well as on
the other side of the ramp given the
conceptual nature of the landscape plans
it's difficult to determine whether at
this stage if the proposed landscape
treatment is sufficient or of additional
treatment would be needed condition 10
has been included to require treatment
of the blank walls on the south what
southeast corner and West elevations
treatment would include articulation or
other techniques with landscaping
applied as a secondary feature
development on on the building for site
includes removal of a 561 square foot
wetland at the southeast corner of the
parcel this is the only wetland on the
project site and it's not part of a
wetland complex the wetland is a cat has
a category 4 rating which is indicative
of wetlands that are heavily disturbed
and have low habitat function according
to the Issaquah Municipal Code wetlands
that are less than 2,500 square feet in
size and that are not part of a wetland
complex may be altered if mitigation is
provided to demonstrate no less no net
loss of functions or values and no
buffer is required for these wetlands
the applicant is proposing off-site
mitigation through the king county
mitigation reserves program which is an
N Luffy program that allows primitives
to mitigate impacts through the purchase
of credits applicants will pay a fee to
King County and this would be used to
restore establish enhance and are
preserved wetland River stream and
buffer within the same watershed as the
impact condition 14 would prohibit any
removal of the wetland until off-site
mitigation has been provided
at this point of the presentation I'm
going to switch to information relevant
only to the public hearing for the
parking garage so building five is a
large dense building that is close to
reaching the maximum allowable building
envelope its floor area ratio is low due
to the fact that areas used for parking
don't count towards the floor area ratio
this building complies with the
development standards of the urban core
zone proposed community spaces at the
site include North Plaza and 62nd West
Plaza while not proposed as a community
space the pond overlook adds the variety
of open space options for future users
similar to the Creekside Terrace at
building for the pond overlook takes
advantage of its proximity to and
highlights natural habitats around
Pickering pond and it provides direct
connection to the Pickering pond trail
North Plaza is located on the west side
of Lake Drive between building five and
existing building three these adjacent
buildings help frame this new triangular
plaza as well as provide a transitional
open space between these two buildings
the adjacent exhibit space on the ground
floor of building five have entries onto
this Plaza and its storefront windows
provide transparency between the indoor
and outdoor spaces these amenities the
amenities that are suggested for this
Plaza include an art feature a variety
of seating options formal landscaping
and tree wells and planter beds and
decorative paving
buildings are required to be located at
the build to line of ten of zero to ten
feet in the urban core zone in order to
help define the street edge with some
allowance for architectural and
landscape elements to help define this
edge due to the curvilinear nature of
the adjacent streets the development
agreement allows buildings to meet the
purpose and intent of the central
Issaquah standards rather than the
strict letter of this standard at the
street corners buildings are also
required to have a minimum street
presence of 60 feet of building frontage
at the build to line in the diagram on
the Left area is where the building is
located within the build two line are
noted in the blue line and areas where
the plazas and landscape elements would
help define the street edge are noted in
green active ground floor uses
consisting of exhibit space and fitness
center wrap around the majority of the
building Street frontages the extensive
use of storefront windows provide a high
level of transparency and primary
entrances to these active uses face both
the plaza and the street canopies that
are six feet in depth are proposed at
the building entries and deep eve
overhangs over the southwest corner of
the building where the fitness center is
located would help give the building a
more pedestrian scale where the building
is set back from the property line the
sidewalk would be extended up to the
building
building corner treatments at building
five these would mirror those at
building four so a corner Lantern which
is outlined in red would be at the
street intersection an accent paneling
outline in orange would book in the
Costco campus buildings over all the
building corporates color texture and
material variation that provides visual
interest and helps break up the
perception of building massing but
there's two locations where blank walls
are present and where they need to be
treated on the West elevation facing the
Pickering pond trail there's a section
of brick clad wall to the south of the
green screen that screens the driveway
at that location it's it's outlined in
red on the elevation on top on the North
elevation a section of blank wall
extends from the generator room to the
stair tower that's also outlined in red
and the elevation on the bottom this
excuse me this section of wall would be
adjacent to the through block passage
pedestrian paths between Pickering Pond
Trail and Lake Drive and due to its
visibility on along these pedestrian
paths this wall would also need to be
treated condition 11 requires treatment
of the blank walls on the west and north
elevations treatment could include
articulation or other techniques and
landscaping can be applied as a
secondary feature
to screen the rooftop parking from views
from building four from both above and
from views from across and above
trellises and lo perimeter walls are
proposed trellises are proposed along
most of the perimeter of the rooftop as
well as the interior of the rooftop to
provide screening from above and these
trellises are shown in orange in the
floor plan on the left the trellises
would also be designed to accommodate
the installation of solar panels the
perimeter wall around the roof is only
three feet tall where five feet is
required due to the visibility from
building four and compliance with the
standard of be insured through condition
13 so in conclusion staff finds that the
administrative site development permit
for building for the office building
largely complies with the land plan and
centralism call plan and standards staff
is seeking input from the development
Commission and the public as part of the
community conference before proceeding
with the administrative decision for
this application and this includes the
associated administrative adjustment of
standards staff all staff finds that the
site development permit for building
five the parking garage is consistent
with the Comprehensive Plan the central
is a call plan and meets all applicable
codes rules regulations and policies and
complies with the applicable development
agreement and land plan elements and
recommends approval for this application
and associated administrative
adjustments of standards
so once again this is the proposed
meeting sequence members of the public
who are interested in speaking should
sign in at the front and as you listen
to the presentation consider presenting
your comments around each building
separately since the development
commissioners will happen to have two
separate conversations on each building
one on each building so at this time I'd
like to turn this over to the applicants
for their presentation thank you
good
good evening everyone
mr. chair members of the Development
Commission my name is Jackie Frank I'm
the vice president of real-estate
development for Costco Wholesale I first
presented before the development
Commission I think it was an early of
1993 which was over 25 years ago it's
been a long time and it's been a long
relationship and we appreciate that
first of all let me thank Jean Lucy
Keith the rest of staff throughout this
entire process you should know staff has
has shown Costco as well as the design
team a tremendous courtesy tremendous
professionalism and we really appreciate
the collaborative partnership that we've
developed it's been a great working
relationship and I and I think you can
see that as a result of or see that
reflected in the in the design a couple
things tonight I want to try and put
this in context for you all and then
we've got two two presentations I want
to talk a little bit about the company
and and why we're doing this in the
first place
I'd like Steve Bullock to talk a little
bit about planning constraints and
design determinants and then Sharon
Shannon soos will discuss the specifics
as to design solutions as to how we
arrived at solutions relative to the
SIDS the CIP and and the coordination
with staff we do have representatives
here from from Weitzman our landscape
architect from rushing our MEP and
sustainability consultant from Dowell
our civil engineer who helped us with
with utilities grading drainage etc so
we're not planning a formal presentation
but they are here to answer any
questions you might have
Patrick Mulaney has here a Foster pepper
who was instrumental in working with
ritual and
the adoption of the development
agreement so if there are any questions
regarding the implementation or the
intent of the development agreement
Patrick can help us with that as well so
we've had a long history here you have
an aerial photograph above before you
retail warehouse in the north the north
edge of the campus buildings one two and
three that have evolved since the early
90s all the way through the mid 2000s we
built the parking structure north of the
trading building 2013 2014 as well right
now we currently have about four hundred
and eighty thousand square feet of
office space
of course the retail of warehouse is one
hundred and sixty thousand square feet
the trading building which really serves
as kind of a packaging manufacturing and
some distribution that's about 50,000
square feet they're currently 4,000
stalls on-site which is about 7.45
stalls per thousand square feet we
currently have around 3,000 employees on
the campus but the campus has has been a
little constraining for us so in the
[Music]
mid-2000s 2006 2007 we leased and
purchased Lake place one in Lake place
to those primarily how's our Costco
travel business which has been a growing
and successful successful business that
space wasn't enough for us so
subsequently we've entered into leases
on the Sammamish Park place as well as
the space labs property to the to the
north and to the east those leases were
done in late 2014 early 2015 so as we as
we started thinking about our needs we
have approximately 4,000 employees that
are off-site in about 40
about four hundred and forty five
thousand square feet of office as we
look to implementing the development
agreement and taking advantage of the of
the the 1.5 million square feet of
development entitlements we started
looking at a couple of options
number one costco is successful
primarily because of its collaboration
and tremendous efficiencies and we think
that having people in a in a caste wide
around the sukhoi area is probably not
as efficient as we could be so the first
thought we had was we would like to
travel will stay at blake place one and
lake place two but we'd like to return
about twenty five hundred employees who
are currently off-site and leased
facilities to come back to the campus
and help us realize those synergies and
efficiencies but we'd also like to
provide a reasonable reasonable amount
of space to allow for growth of the
company the central headquarters is is
really intended to be a support for the
remainder of the company and and we do
find that there's a certain number
certain amount of population per
warehouse of support for all the various
support services and we are seeing a
probably three and a half to four
percent of employment growth per year as
we continue to grow our our business in
really internationally so if we take
advantage of the the development
agreement with the intention of bringing
offsite folks back to the campus
realizing those efficiencies and then
providing room for growth it really
helped us think about how we kind of
marry our our intentions with the city
of Issaquah z' intentions and what this
would give us would be about a million
won of square feet on campus of office
space about fifty seven hundred total
parking stalls which nets out to about
four point four per thousand square feet
of square footage which would take us up
to about seven thousand on-site
employees and
we would still remain with about 1500
off-site employees primarily for Cosmo
travel so just a just a kind of a brief
highlight of our of our partnership in
our relationship you've all worked with
ritual and over over the years and I've
been involved since the since the days
of the of the warehouse but we've been
we've actually had a couple of other
folks who've been involved with the the
central Issaquah plan as a matter of
fact both Peter Kahn and and kim katz
represented and participated in the
citizens advisory committee for central
Issaquah this is at their very early
days of the CIP it also participated on
the Transportation Committee for
consideration of the local
transportation improvements the city
would take on and both of them have been
over time involved with both the chamber
and the government affairs committee
with the city of Issaquah all of us have
been involved in the early stages of the
negotiations of the development
agreement as well as various projects in
Issaquah the wetlands fill the expansion
projects the gas design construction
various approvals construction of the as
well as construction of the lake and 60
second improvements project it's
interesting because no sooner was the
development agreement completed that is
when we started thinking about growth
and the objective to bring our remote
employees back to campus and and to and
to grow in place on campus
so when we look at our goals number one
we want to grow our business we want to
take care of our employees which is a
key component of our of our mission
statement we wanted to have an
integrated campus that realized the
efficiencies of enhanced collaboration
and proximity and we wanted the proper
square footage and adequate parking that
would allow for for us to stay in
Issaquah frankly and to grow in place we
look at the city's goals just taking a
look at the adoption of the CIP clearly
the city was anticipating growth and
development so thoughtful thoughtful
densification of the of the urban area
was was really wise and prudent hence
the the implementation of the the CIP
and with that the development design
standards to implement the CIP and in an
urban way we applaud the city's goals to
enhance the public realm and to really
develop public pedestrian connections
all through the use of kind of well
coordinated and well thought-out design
standards that would help guide the
implementation of the city's objectives
so in that I think our we found a happy
medium and a and an overlap of of
intention so just to reiterate our goals
once again coming out of both Costco's
goals in the city's goals we've
identified our space needs we're trying
to create a dense high-performing
facility that that is inherently
efficient with mobility and connectivity
with the community and its vision with
all the synergies that that come from
that and if we do all of this right I
think we can measure our success by
having a project that really illustrates
quality and value to very very core
attributes of certainly Costco's
intention a project that's
forward-looking for both ourselves and
for the city of Issaquah a respect for
the design that really respects the
campus Conte
it's interesting because we have a we
have a kind of a traditional suburban
campus low-rise buildings with curved
linear streets and some beautiful
riparian natural environments yet we
also on the other hand have the intent
to create more of a urban vision of a
rectilinear streets close set backs so
this really represented an opportunity
to balance not competing constraints but
complementary constraints in a very
creative way as far as expanding the
campus
Costco's one one objective would be to
attract and retain quality talent and we
can do that by having a physical plant
the physical presence that really
respects its environment both urban and
rural all at the same time and we're
really trying to create both a
productive and an enjoyable work
environment if we do all these things
right I think we will have accomplished
our objectives so a little bit about the
development agreement we really
appreciated the all of the work that
went into it it it did in effect
streamline the entitlement process it
created a flexible framework for the
implementation of the SIDS
it allowed us to grow in place it
densifies in an urban way very
thoughtfully it provided for
infrastructure funding that supported
this planned growth and intentional
densification and it also had at its
core a commitment to sustainability it
was a tremendous mutual benefit for both
the city of Issaquah and the and the and
Costco Wholesale that would yield us a
million and a half square feet of new
commercial area and it would provide an
infrastructure funding mechanism to
support this planned growth and that is
the true essence of a partnership Costco
I sometimes joke that that Costco was
into sustainability before it was
fashionable and the reason why we do
that is because it makes sense it's not
an altruistic approach it makes sense it
makes economic sense it makes people
sense
I don't know if you know this but from a
corporate point of view Costco is one of
the largest private generators of power
we have well over a hundred photovoltaic
installations throughout the western
United States I think we generate nearly
10 million kilowatt hours of renewable
power a month or a year
everything from passive day lighting to
low water use tremendous commitment to
recycling greenhouse gas reductions
everything that we do in our supply
chain from from packaging to recycling
is all geared toward extraordinary
efficiencies and economy how that
translates into this project is all
right and we committed to it as a part
of exhibit K and the development
agreement we're gonna use less energy
we're going to have a compact
development and as you may know Costco
is probably the number one participant
in the county for its rideshare program
which reduces single occupancy trips as
it was as Jean mentioned earlier we're
targeting a equivalency to LEED Silver
elements will be included in the design
such as high efficiency heat recovery
public feedback displays photovoltaics
high r-value and even a target energy
use intensity of about 35 to up to 40
just to put that into perspective the
when you look at BU is for for Building
Code excuse me
I think we're looking at ranges that are
in the 50 to 60 range and you know
normal buildings built say throughout
Seattle over the last 10 years occur
into the 50 to 100 range
so our target on this project is to in
the 35 to 40 range I mentioned the less
water use and water monitoring we've
adopted throughout the chain and upon a
system that has individual sub metering
and we've saved literally millions of
gallons of water across the across the
world with the use of this with this use
of this system and of course commitments
to modern multi stream waste system as
well as low VOCs in all of our building
products so sustainability is in as an
important objective to us and it's
definitely going to be a huge aspect to
this particular project so what I'd like
to do now is kick it over to Steve have
them talk a little bit about planning
site constraints and design determinants
commissioners get to be in front of you
again I'm Steve Bullock of mg2 and just
want to spend a little bit of time
talking about the site you're somewhat
familiar with it but I want to reiterate
some things probably and maybe even show
you some things that you didn't realize
about it don't you use arrows there we
go
the as you can see by looking at it both
Lots are rather irregular in shape which
is never the easiest condition to start
with right each lot is is bounded by
buildings to the north existing
buildings that for now are going to be
staying each slot has roads on the south
side and then in between them so they're
bounded on two sides by roads and then
they're both bounded on therefore sides
by environmental features is a clock
creek to the east and in Pickering pond
to the west and and there's there's
views leaving the site in all directions
even even when we get high enough up
there will be use to the north out Lake
Sammamish which we're excited about
potentially being able to achieve you
know and another thing to look at here
is is adjacent to two Issaquah Creek and
you're all very familiar with it but it
floods from time to time the the red
dash line is identifying the floodplain
line and and you'll see the black dashed
line to the east of that is actually
where our property line is so so here's
our actual property line we're not
actually prohibited from building within
the within the floodplain but there's a
whole nother level of reviews and codes
that we have to comply with before we
can go into that part of our site we're
going to be encroaching slightly but for
the most part trying to stay out of it
there's there's a corner of our building
of the East Wing of our building that
that encroaches into it at the south end
and a little bit at the north end and
and we've had we're going to have to
demonstrate a number of different things
for city staff to get them to buy up on
that to make
sure that it's okay but we are for the
most part staying out of that floodplain
area but we absolutely do want to take
advantage of these views looking towards
Issaquah Creek looking towards the the
pond area and what could be a really
nice park like sitting there and then
obviously there's quiet the mountains to
the south and maybe the lake to the
north when we were kind of doing some
just programmatic diagramming of the
site you know just trying to identify
things and talk about them you know one
of the things that popped out to us as
Jean even mentioned is is that we've got
the service area here at the southeast
corner of building of the trading
building we've also got a service area
here at the South corner of building
three both of those service areas are
off of Lake Drive and and it would be
great if we could make them do double
duty have them perform as service areas
for each of these new buildings because
they would be back out of the way and
and that's also enforced by the fact
that the city city code the this CIP and
hence is really encourages an urban
development which is characterized by
buildings being located out close to the
street edge right and so having the
buildings which were symbolizing with
with the blue circles being shoved out
towards Lake Drive in 62nd gives us an
opportunity to to have the the building
area that we need get it out close to
the road and then we started looking at
some places that we might be able to
pick up some some community spaces and
some entry courts and and and we kind of
carried that on and started doing some
conceptual design work and and this plan
is a plan that we kind of came up with
and it's one of the early plans that we
brought and had a conversation with city
staff about and in this plan we were you
know trying to start to apply some of
the the codes that are are included in
the central Issaquah design
development standards for being close to
the street for providing active edges
but we're we were for the first time
kind of bringing up the idea that we're
weren't going to have an office building
on the the east side of lake there's
gonna be the west side of Lake Drive
after talking things over with Costco
they really felt like we were gonna need
to add to our parking count for it for
the campus and the way it runs for them
the the guests that they have the
employees that they're gonna have and so
that that was gonna this is the first
time that we shared with the city the
idea about having a just a fully parking
structure on that corner and and the
result of that conversation you know
they gave us a number of different
things to be thinking about that we
could continue to take back and design
on first being that you know they felt
like the building for which is here and
then on the east side was you know can
conceivably gonna be consistent with the
land plan that was approved with the
development agreement but we're gonna
need to focus on getting that building
close to the street making sure we're
complying with the the build to line
that we're complying with emphasizing
the building corners that we're creating
obvious entry areas and that there's
active spaces on that ground floor and
and and if that was the case and we
would potentially be able to get go
through an administrative process there
but for the garage because that wasn't
envisioned in the land plan we're gonna
that's going to require a full site
development permit review with the
development Commission and then the
biggest thing is is at least for us when
we were first talking about them is that
we needed to to kind of scrap the idea
of having parking on the first floor and
and figure out some different ways to to
be compliant with the this is standards
and you know and we talked quite a bit
about the through block connections
about having community spaces entry
plazas things like that and ultimately
we get to the the plan that's part of
our site development permit in front of
you now
and and you know now we have a set of
buildings that are pulled out to the to
the street in places where we couldn't
quite get to the the 10-foot we brought
the sidewalk to the face of buildings in
most cases to to make it feel like the
buildings right out you know it's a zero
lot line building or you know it's right
up to the street is because the
sidewalks there and in places where we
have landscape being incorporated in
that area was used to landscape and hard
scape is is used to direct and and move
people towards main entrances of the
buildings is to shape spaces and create
places and and not just you know throw
down someone and just call it a 15-foot
setback it's really designed to be
something that's purposeful that's
intentional and is is helping direct
people around and into and through
spaces and into buildings on the parking
garage you know we're doing things that
that whole first floor has been
completely reimagined from what we first
submitted to this city and and there's
an exhibition on the space in the north
wing that is really meant to give Costco
the ability for their buyers and their
vendors to get together to to look at
potential products that they may be
sewing it's it's a big enough space that
they can almost even outfit it like a
mini warehouse if they want to do that
and and just demonstrate products look
at them set it all up we think that it's
going to be a space that's in real high
demand for them and then on the south
end to provide an amenity space that
currently is envisioned as a as a
fitness center that the employees can
use and will be visible right out to the
public and and we'll show some activity
and and just energy
so there's there's a number of comments
that were that were just submitted today
and I think maybe we'll wait until after
we've heard any other comments that
might get raised tonight and then try to
address those all at one point in time
and and now I'll turn this over to
Shannon soos who has a really fun part
of talking about the design of the
buildings yeah I love my job
hi everybody I'm Shannon soos I'm a
senior designer at mg2 I've come on this
project fairly recently I'm only about
two years into it compared and flee to
the rest of the group here but taking
into accounts Jean presented really
fantastic backbone to where we're at and
what we've come up with and where we've
come I think what we're trying to do is
enhance and utilize all the things that
we've found in the city of this akua's
design guidelines we've had meetings
with them multiple times about how to
break the building down and keep the
scale the right size so what I've done
is kind of giving you a little bit of
background I kind of wanted to give you
a little bit about Costco's needs as
well because these are just some aspects
of what they are looking for in their
building as well things that also direct
us when we're shaping them massing a
building Costco they want to truly in
value what they are which is they're
efficient and they have great culture
and values for their people they're
smart and intentional they want spaces
that work for them so some of the new
things that were proposing that Steve
brought up which was this new flex space
is turned into a thing where they had a
spot in their campus that they would set
up large projects but by the city asking
for some public realm areas on the first
floor we found this great spot in the
parking garage to incorporate some of
their flexible and intentional needs
they want to be flexible for a changing
workforce so we're in creating areas
that are definitely public room spaces
and then spaces that they can flex and
change for their own needs
sustainability is always part of our
package we constantly in everything that
we do at MG to infuse these aspects to
it Costco is also a great workplace and
they have a lot of teaching programs
they have a sustainability group they
have a couple of other groups that they
have some conferences so you'll see on
our first floor we incorporated a
auditorium space which is mainly meant
to be a teaching facility where they can
break down and have classes and large
meeting groups where they can bring back
all their managers of course it's always
about the human and the partnership with
the people evolutionary in the building
facades the way we treated it and
healthy employees we adopted a work plan
of creating the building and the shape
that you saw it part of that was because
we wanted to day light the building
inside it was about the how the people
so you see the two buildings turning the
into those shapes in those two L's
shapes and it's also about how we tried
to keep the building narrow and keep the
light and keep people's relationships to
the trees and the outside as close as
possible so from a design narrative we
just kind of threw this in is you know
we are rooted in the northwest
Costco's read it here in Issaquah that's
very important to them keeping a
presence of their corporate campus but I
think the main line and this is it's a
design that infuses the natural
surroundings into the workplace building
designing and creating a warm inviting
and healthy environment it's about the
people and the health and creating
spaces that people flow out of the
building function
there's a thing efficiency is part of
Costco's goals so we're trying to be
purposeful in what we do we're not
putting things on the first floor or
places that don't make any sense or we
don't need them just to be saying but
we're putting retail down there well
we're not putting retail down there just
to put something on the floor store and
say it's not activated we're making them
activated spaces we want to be part of
the Northwest and the nature of the
space we sit up against a beautiful
river with great trees and there's this
kind of economy of having an urban edge
as well as a natural edge we're gonna
use that to our advantage in the facade
of the building as well sensible we want
lasting materials we want it to look
like it's been there for a while we want
it to relate to its sites we want it to
relate to the areas it's in and people
it's always about the humans I think
gene and them all kind of went through
this stuff makes my job a little easier
the main things that we really wanted to
point out is our first floor is bright
open and natural we have active street
frontage in terms of what we've placed
in those areas we've put the green parts
those are what we're considering cafes
and restaurants this will activate in
the morning and the afternoon in the
evening for the employees the blue zones
are meeting and an auditorium space an
interesting fact that there's a new
bridge they can't hear you so you need
to stay a microphone I like to move the
60 second bridge comes across and it's
actually quite high so we have a sloped
grade which is the reason why we kind of
put the auditorium to that side the side
on the river side is all the open glazed
system which you'll see in the
elevations we also have the through
block connection through the middle of
the building and this is why I said the
building is intentionally narrow in
it's width but lengthwise what we did is
kind of staggered it in order with this
site being curved you can't just place
the building without kinking it all the
way around so we did an intentional
slide and created the 67 West Plaza like
we said before level four we created a
sky bridge across the building and it's
called a sky bridge it through the
middle piece so we're trying to keep the
building as one building but because
it's longer at six hundred and
thirtysomething feet we can't have one
continuous long line so we broke the
building in the two parts
it also affects the elevation as well
the high level bridge is actually 30
feet off the ground at its highest point
so it feels very grand you're not going
to feel like you're being squished when
you're walking through it and the
skybridge connector to the other side is
mainly for the employees to come across
from the parking garage with minimal
impact of them crossing streets and
involving them with pedestrians we put
it in at level 4 which actually puts
that bridge at about 40 feet above the
road line so it's way high and the whole
purpose for that is to keep the views of
the mountains that was very intentional
as well as it comes in at the middle of
the building the building's nine stories
we come in at the middle we're doing
active cores as part of the keeping the
employees active in the ploys currently
we'll run the stairs of the parking
garage next door
they go out there as part of their
exercise program so we intentionally did
to feature Grand stairs in the building
to emphasize that but we put the
entrance at four so that they go up and
down it kind of encourages them to do
that over elevators level nine we're
just showing that we part of the
building tripartite system is to step
the building in so level nine actually
squishes on all sides and then we broke
it at the open rooftop terrace in the
middle
to intentionally come across as that we
have two different buildings not one
large building and then for level five
this is this is where we have the most
fun with you know normally we were
saying we just wanted to put a parking
garage in but because we want to have an
active front we found functions in
Costco's program that made us have the
ability to create spaces that activated
the front street lines gave reason why
we had plazas so the front piece is the
fitness center and there's an active
plaza to the front that spills out to it
and then the active street frontage on
the top where we've connected that North
Plaza in between building 3 we
intentionally we're trying not to a
block to many of these from building 3
create a plaza area that they would
spill out to but give Costco a reason
why they could use that whole entire
first floor not for parking but as a
public space and then at the top of the
building we as Jean showed you we're
providing PV panels part of the
interesting design part is that we're
using a speed ramp to get up at the
first floor so we are able to do a high
level 17 18 foot floor line and then we
go flat deck from there with
intermediate ramps so it kind of creates
more of an office building or a flat
plane across the frontage we didn't want
to have a lot of sloping ramp beam
systems going around so the building at
the top of the north is all flat so it
will it'll intentionally look from the
elevation as a building part of the
materials as we wanted to point out that
we're we're trying to be contextual with
what's existing on the campus so you're
looking at mainly our newest building
and the campus which is building 3 it's
the one that sits closest to building 5
and the parking lot you can see that it
has brick facade metal metal awnings
punched windows
so these are a lot of the features that
we are trying to incorporate when we got
to the new building the new building
though is nine stories this is three
stories so in order to do these feats
and not have it look a little awkward we
changed the scale or the materials in
certain areas but we kept the intention
of what this building looks and what one
and two look like next to it and then
these are just some materials just to
give you an idea that brick it was very
important so we used brick at the
baseline for people
we're using some vertical slat kind of
elements on the parking garage we have
some patterned glass awnings so
everywhere around the building there's
an awning system to keep people
protected when they're walking we're
using a curtain wall system for our main
body
we've worked intensively with rushing in
terms of how to do the energy for this
it is actually going to be a triple
plate paned building which is not rare
new it's actually been done in Europe
for many many years but not as frequent
in the Pacific Northwest yet it's on its
way within your building codes and then
we're doing some wood soffit to warm it
up and some pattern features so this is
kind of our first I guess you call it or
well-shot mainly what we're trying to
show here is we are gonna have this
tripartite building we are stepping it
back we're trying to articulate the
urban side with multiple three different
types of languages as Jean proposed we
have the bookends we have the lanterns
we have glass we have the step-back at
the top and this great opportunity where
we will be able to have views from the
rooftop out to Lake Sammamish to the
mountains to the lake into the ponds I
think another intentional thing we
hasn't been discussed yet is the parking
garage not only are we adding curtain
wall glazing to the corners to mimic the
lantern effect
that's occurring on the office building
we intentionally brought the scale down
by lowering the floor to floor Heights
because it is a parking garage we don't
need as much height in it so you can
definitely see how the parking garage
has dropped as it goes across the site
the building is intentional to look like
it's connected or part of the same
family but of course it's two different
functions this is looking from the view
coming down on 62nd and I'm just kind of
using the 3d views to kind of give you a
sense of what we were looking for we
have the bookends which will be done in
a metal the baseline is or the first
level of the tripartite is the brick
which you saw in the one view that gene
showed it's bringing the scale down in
that portion of the building because
it's set on the property line as part of
the street frontage a nine-story
building right up against the street
line tends to be fairly opposing so we
used the brick to the second or third
level we also did kind of this white
pattern textured panels and what we're
showing there is that we're actually
spanning the two levels per floor so
it's kind of a trick of breaking the
building down and give you the sense of
it's only a three storey but it's not
but you know and then setting the back
line and having roof overhangs so that
was the urban edge you saw it was a
little more solid on that side this side
is our Creekside Terrace view it's on
the nature side this side were
intentionally open up and using mostly
glass and other than a little bit of the
white textured panels where we want to
reflect the nature and we want to have
the most open views to nature on this
side and this is the kind of opposite of
the urban edge because of where it sits
through the three black piece you can
see that it's a 30-foot high open to the
floor so we're actually coming in at
level three on that and then it goes
only a few floors up from there the
brick facade the we have the metal
panels for the expression of punched
openings that kind of brings back that
punched opening from building three and
other buildings in the area but we're
using a different material type instead
of brick at the high level trying to
lighten the building as it goes up as as
opposed to doing a nine story brick
building which we felt had this heavy
quality instead of a lighter more modern
efficient building as we come around
we're coming across the front of the 90
and at the apex of where like drive and
62nd you're looking at the far right
side the lantern to the parking garage
and the high level of the sky bridge so
sky bridge is 40 feet from Road deck to
underside quite high which turns into a
structural challenge in itself but the
intention was so that we would see
through it and not have it as a blocking
mechanism as you come across the front
of the building now you're seeing a
little bit more of the parking garage
this is the fitness center in the lower
portion two story volume glass we're
doing a mezzanine or kind of taking
advantage of the front of the parking to
have a plaza we're using the bookend
metal panels with open punching and then
you can see the slats is a probably a
metal slat that's going to levels up
with screening we've added a concrete
line to mimic that to level part tide
aspect and then that's the drive through
on the one side
this is coming down like place you're
looking at the corner of the parking
garage
this lower pieces like we said is trying
to lower the scale for the people it
gives this two-story volume effect to
the function flex space this is where
they're going to use it for everything
from product displays to gathering
events it spills out into the plaza so
we're encouraging walking from the two
buildings down the side we did
intentionally use the brick all the way
up it sits right next to the building
three it will be very complementary to
the building as well as you see the back
panels the slats ride through so that's
kind of a one element and then there's a
back panel inside there's these lines
that are behind the screen those are
intentionally used to block the light of
cars at night so we will have a
consistent light glow from the building
without having these light bleed outs
from cars driving through and then off
to the far side you can kind of see how
that one Lantern starts to connect the
office building and then we come to the
the end and really what the building is
about when we talk about connection to
the existing campus this is kind of the
view of the training building is the
kind of ghosted one on the side you're
coming down Lake Place you kind of have
this warm glow at night of the Flex base
and the parking garage but intentionally
what we really want people to kind of
see is they come around the corner and
the way this built this road turns is
the lantern to the entry which is the
main entrance to the building the warm
glow of the plaza how the building kind
of tucks and steps around and creates
this kind of capturing moment and you
can kind of see through and you see the
mountains at beyond so the focal points
the lantern edges
and the vistas to the mountains
emphasizing the curves with that I just
wanted to thank you all for your time we
have everyone here available for
questions I hopefully give you enough
insight into some of the design aspects
as we move forward thank you very much
it's been really a couple of great
presentations and so I think at this
point the best thing to do would be to
open the opportunity for any members the
public that wish to speak to speak and
then I'd recommend we probably take a
five minute break just to stand up and
get blood circulating again and no I
could use it so how about are there
members of the public who wish to speak
then if you would wish to speak I'd
appreciate you signing in and then when
you go to stock if you would tell us
your name
David Kapler the speaking is my an
individual tonight and then as Issaquah
helps trails club a vice president for
advocacy I'll start with that
I sent late this afternoon a letter did
the commissioners get that great okay so
that just stressing the retention of
trees especially on parcel for the trail
there is really it is part of the
transportation system but the people
that are really traveling north-south is
a transportation trail we'll be using
these Lake Sammamish trail which has
been closed for a long time especially
when Sammamish eventually let's the
county finish the trail to the north and
get to paved the serious bicyclists that
are going over i-90 up to Kenmore and
further and then back around making the
big loop and and others that are even
just going to Redmond are going to be on
that so there's still be bikes on that
trail but it's definitely and you see it
now already there's a lot of badges
people with badges walk in that trail
they're not trying to get somewhere else
on the campus necessarily of Costco they
are just enjoying walking in on that
trail which has got quite a few nice
trees growing I do make a pitch about
the concerns about cottonwood trees or
other trees that end up wrecking the
pavement causing tripping hazards and
costs and cottonwood trees not herve
agrees with me but having seen a very
large branch come off of and cottonwood
tree for no apparent reason is and I
know it's an issue out there they are
not a tree that we need to encourage
there but we do want to have native
trees we also have to recognize the
watering needs and the rest of trees and
climate change I know the mountain sound
Greenway is looking at reforestation
restoration projects and they're
thinking more about trees that are more
friendly to exist
climate in Oregon Western Oregon then
Western Washington and that's just any
way we want to have trees that do not
require high maintenance cause problems
will require lots of water once they're
established the back over on the parking
garage area like that trail there which
is on the south end of the ponds on the
east side of the pond has been with
covered with water drainage forever I
thought when Costco bought the site from
the original owners there they might fix
that but it's still at least the last
time I was there it's a terrible
situation with like wet water coming
over the trail of course if when the
winter or even more with that so
hopefully there's going to be some
drainage improvements that are tied in
with the the parking garage but we also
going to lose potential vegetation when
they do the solving the problem
hopefully of the water across the trail
so there's hopefully that's going to be
thought out and make that trail a much
more usable and safer part of our
recreational trail system as well as
part of into enteric AMPAS
transportation system the lantern on
building for one of them looked like it
was at the northeast corner of that
building or the very eastern very
eastern part of the building at the
north that seems like it's closer to the
trail in the woods and the open space
over there I didn't maybe I didn't
understand the drawing the sky bridge is
I hope they're going to figure out a way
so they ventilate them and not because
they're gonna be so there's gonna be a
huge heat just the poor little crummy
greenhouse I have with the door open
this summer was unbearably hot and just
been those kind of those sky bridges are
just which is cool that they're all
but they are a greenhouse and I hope
they figure out to have a lot of natural
venting of those some just to make them
more comfortable and not be energy
requiring lots of energy to to cool them
down or deal with that hot air coming
into the buildings back from my earlier
days on the council I was working we
deal with Costco on the recycling issue
and Corp and what happens at the back
end of the store the warehouse store I
think is very good but the general
public that interfaces with Costco at
the food court would have no idea that
they're actually quite good at recycling
overall but I would hope they could get
that as part of this whole thing and
making sure that the recycling is really
obvious to visitors to the building and
to employees putting on just a citizen
hat not as coops Trails Club and that is
perhaps you've already received some
information about the concern we all
have especially residents south of town
have about the 55
I mean 55,000 yards of material that
could be exported from this side that's
5,000 you know regular truck dump truck
loads there's also going to be material
brought in apparently to some degree
because some of the site has will need
the only better better material
personally living a block of Amarna
block that way and my brother having a
building on east sunset I've benefited
tremendously by the city banning the
trucks from Newport front street in the
sunset but when we've done that we are
really putting a huge burden on the
rural residents south of town especially
in May Valley Road
it's a crazy road as it is connecting
Hobart is aqua Road in 900 and it's we
do not need to be sending more trucks
full of dirt speeding on that road there
has been an agreement on the Bergsma so
far that they will use i-90 and have
some other way of dealing with their
80,000 potential cubic yards of material
excess material from their site thank
you for the opportunity
good evening I'm Hart Sugarman I'm a
resident of Issaquah for 23 years and
I've jotted down some notes as I watched
the presentation this evening
Yasuko has experienced unprecedented
growth over the past several years due
to all the development that has taken
place
traffic has a big impact on the
community one intersection that needs to
be addressed sooner than later is the
intersection of 17th Avenue and 12th
Avenue with the Holiday Inn located at
the southeast corner my specific request
is to add a right turn only lane from
northbound 17th Avenue to enter 12th
Avenue to facilitate the ingress many of
you might know that intersection as you
approach the City Hall Northwest as
shown in tonight's slide the ratio of
parking stalls per 1000 is decreasing
this is a concern the city and the state
should also look at constructing a
bridge across i-90 connecting Lake Drive
on the North to Maple Avenue on the
south side this will significantly
assist with the current traffic
congestion experienced on East Lake
Sammamish Northwest Sammamish Road and
17th Avenue my license my last item is
related to community in this slide
presentation tonight we see a community
pass through area whereby residents can
walk through the new Costco development
from the east to the west or vice versa
however today if I'm walking or biking
along the trail of the Creek I cannot
get over to Lake Drive there are signs
posts that say no trespassing and I
think Costco should allow someone to be
able to pass through the property today
as a community goodwill one suggestion
for the architects and Costco for the
new construction maybe it's already
being considered I might have missed
this point but to put in a rooftop
terrace on top of this buildings to
allow the employees of
go to have their lunch coffee breaks or
just relaxation time the views from that
area the vistas are stunning it's a
spectacular view from that height so I
think that'd be a really nice advantage
for the employees thank you very much
hi I'm Connie Marsh I live on squawk so
Costco Costco is sustainable except for
in the environment in which they're
building they are using potentially
reasonable building techniques but
they're filling the floodplain and they
don't even want to replant the trees
that they're taking it out so it is hard
for me to fathom that you can say you're
trying to emulate the nature of the
Pacific Northwest when you're beating
the bejesus out of this parcel when
you're looking at the impacts to
Pickering Creek I fail to understand why
they need to fill the floodplain and
then we have a secondary note flood
hazard special flood hazard areas are a
part of our critical areas chapter and
they're part of SEPA and I do not
believe that they are in the planned
action ordinance and this means you
would see but does not suffice and you
would need to have a SEPA decision on
the flood hazard now it might just be a
condition saying that they must apply
with chapter 16 that deals with flood
hazard areas but you can't make a
decision until your sefa is completed
and I don't know how that we can
understand how that building is going to
be put in place without knowing what
they're going to have to do to provide
the compensatory detention that you need
when you fill in a flood hazard area and
it's just missing that flood hazard area
fill is a large part of the reason that
they want to take all the trees out
adjacent to the Pickering trail leaving
Pickering trail reasonably denuded the
Overlook that they're talking about from
their building is raised up so it
doesn't interface with the trails
so and I'm going to repeat this for both
buildings well the people who are
working at Costco are gonna be happiest
clamps because who wouldn't they get all
the benefits the people who live in the
town and walk Pickering trail are losing
and that is not a part of the central
Issaquah plan it is supposed to be
augmenting the community features - and
we all know that Costco is not open for
the public it's a condition in their
development agreement so these areas
that they're talking about for to be
community open spaces are not for you
and I that is for their workers so I
think we need a little balance there I
think we need the trees to put that be
either taking win then put back against
Pickering or just leave them how they
are certainly the conditions should not
be to give the ability to put money into
a tree fund so that those trees could be
planted elsewhere I asked about the tree
fund they do not seem to track the tree
fund by location and even though the
central Issaquah plan says that those
trees when you be planted in the central
is quite area we don't have a mechanism
to do so so now I'm going to skip over
to the other side and it's basically the
same conversation you have the community
trail that goes around the Pickering
pond and right now it's sort of a gentle
slant with trees and you walk around
that corner and yes you may slip but you
are in nature then you go up a little
bit and there's a bit of a retaining
wall if you look at their plans they are
putting a retaining wall up and more
fill they're basically putting the trail
into an armpit of more shadow and yes it
is delightful from up on top of that
retaining wall if you work for Costco
you get to look at the people down there
in the armpit and you get to look at the
ponds but the central is a quat area is
for all of us and you cannot allow a
development to impact a community
benefit like the Pickering pond trail
and so if a condition was added saying
that the Pickering pond trail needed to
be improved and made better for the
community even as they fill or do what
they need to do I don't have too much of
a problem with them doing whatever they
want to do I'm not a fan of the
buildings got a say but you can see the
environmental side I'm coming from here
you don't need to clear it that much I
don't understand the filling and why
they need to move that much dirt and
don't impact the two trails on either
end for goodness sakes your Costco you
can do it you can make the town better
and your kin and your your company
better you just have to take that next
step
thank you
any other members the public wish to
speak so we'll close the public portion
of this public open will close the
public hearing part of this puppet is
the public public comment period and I
would suggest we take a break until 9
o'clock so get back
you
okay I think we're back on air and I
would encourage everybody it's welcome
you back and we'll start the session I'd
like to have the commissioners address
their comments on building four or their
their questions first and then comments
on building four then we'll do questions
and comments on building five so
starting with building four questions
first
commissioners chairman have a question
great
this may apply to both buildings we have
a geotechnical study for the site and it
noted the soils on the site or subject
to liquefaction during seismic events in
the CEPA checklist I think it stated the
building's will be supported by a pile
foundation system but I'm wondering
about the skybridge do we have any
special concerns for safety regarding
that skybridge and are we confident that
any of the standards and requirements
that we reference in our document air
sufficiently apply to sky bridges in
that case are you looking for us to
answer that we'd be happy to you know
we're gonna be clean we use yourself
first I'm sorry Steve Bullock with mg2
Thanks
we have a structural engineer as part of
our team and they've already been
looking at this and and they will have
to submit substantial justification with
the building department as we as we go
through the permitting process at this
point in time the the skybridge is not
going to have any column supports going
down to the ground it's going to be
fully supported by one of the buildings
it's going to have a sliding connection
I'm sorry which building is just like on
the office side so it's going to be
fixed on the garage side which is a
concrete building and the end that
projects into the office building will
slide to accommodate the difference of
movement between them but everything
we're hearing from our structural
engineer so far is that it's going to be
acceptable and that's including the
concerns with liquefaction another one
like to say it's really encouraging to
see a number of sustainability features
that are built into the plan a couple of
comments or questions minor ones related
to that the trellis is on top well will
any of that be planted vegetated I'm
going for a little green roof there or
is that for solar cell only right now
it's just for solar cell and aesthetic
purposes only no plans to introduce any
greenery on the roof port for the
parking garage hi Jackie Frank I was
just going to qualify that that's
correct
the the trellis and pretend and
photovoltaic will be for the garage but
we do have and we can pull up the roof
plan again for the office building
there's quite a quite a bit of a
potential landscape area at the at the
top okay Barry okay another related
question are any of the windows I guess
this is the right building right in
building four I'm going to be operable
or is that all sealed window a thing
about a little healthy building aspect
there right they're all sealed windows
we had we've had a number of
conversations related to that with our
MEP sustainability expert and and we're
considering having some operable windows
some of the difficulties that we have
with it is I 90 to the South is a huge
noise generator and and just the the
climate that we're in we and and the
mechanical system that we're proposing
will have better modulation of the whole
building by having them be completely
fixed
just one final wine if I may the Google
Earth renditions on sheets 40 and 41 in
some of those the buildings appear
pretty stark black unlike some of the
other renditions the architecture
architectural renditions was that just
kind of a convention of the Google Earth
illustrations and do you expect the
colors of those triple pane windows to
be lighter so you're referring to these
images right here right right and and a
lot of that is is because we don't have
a lot of control in the Google Earth
model we're able to create a model and
drop it in but then they start rendering
what some of the materials look like and
we don't have control at that point so
it is much darker than we expected that
was the case yeah okay Thank You
commissioners well this is when he asked
about
so a question about the through block
passage that moves between the trading
building and building or and there's a
condition that is included in the staffs
recommendations here condition three
that talks about prioritization of the
pedestrians and putting in place some
kind of traffic calming or things that
provide a kind of a safer environment
for pedestrians have you given thought
to how you're going to accomplish that
that's a fairly large space that you're
going to cross that's active with large
vehicles I'm you talking about this side
trading that right passage and and so
one of the things that I guess I'd like
to give you a little bit of background
with is the the photo that you saw
earlier of the trading building loading
dock you saw that those were garage
doors right and normally what happens
there is the garage door is open and the
trucks actually drive inside the
building in the garage doors close they
don't sit out there in that loading dock
the voting actually happens inside the
building and so we are we're considering
the number of different things for
signing striping using different
material whatever it is to emphasize the
pedestrian crossing in that zone
we haven't you know gotten to a final
solution on that is that that's a trail
connection yes from back across that's
correct yeah so the trucks that are
accessing that building are they full
tractor trailer no any smaller those are
steps step vans okay full tractor
trailer there's a separate loading dock
over here on this side of the building
but the ones that are here are smaller
step bands not trailers okay and that
helps to I think everything I've heard
is one to two trips a day at this out
the end
so it's not a high-traffic your eye exam
thank you
that's a follow-up question if you don't
mind this would go into building five
but since we're talking about that
excuse me the east-west yeah cross
through your thoughts on the staff
suggestion about moving that from the
north to the south side of the under
building and because they think staffer
was recognizing there's problems either
what either way
yeah and you know I don't know that we
want to get in a big fight about it we
had a discussion we thought it was
better on the north side because it got
you past most of the traffic before you
crossed over at the same time if you're
on the south side you you might have to
cross more traffic being the cars that
are entering into the the parking garage
ramp but then you are avoiding the
driveway where the trucks are driving it
can go either way
and we're okay with the condition as
they have it written right now yeah yeah
Jackie Frank but Lizzie and Jane and I
met about this recently and the way the
condition is written we're actually
going we intend to have a sidewalk on
both sides on the north and the south
side but the intention is to make the
southerly one slightly wider
other questions on building for mom I'll
jump in the horse under one of my big
concerns is that blank wall the
southeast corner building for you
mentioned that the elevation difference
with the roadway in the sidewalk but I
haven't seen anything where I can
identify exactly what that elevation
difference is do you have anything that
would show that or do we know what that
that number is I do I mean
this is a grading plan
resumed weigh-in so the finished floor
this building is set at 64 and here you
see on this sidewalk and catch basin at
69 so at this point let's see here I
don't know he's is that is that the rim
of the catch basin
that's the sidewalk elevation so we're
you know five feet above it the sidewalk
is five feet above the finished floor of
the building right here and then and
then how far is that sidewalk from that
corner that as close as you're showing
right there it is you know that's that's
five feet that built to line says we're
supposed to be within ten feet
a question I guess for staff speaking in
that same corner the section eleven
point two point II talks about a sense
of arrival and in the staff report
there's a discussion about a sense of
arrival with the lanterns between
buildings four and five it seems like
that there's a huge number of people
coming from the east and from the south
that are going to their arrival into
this district which is the way it's
worded is once you come across 62nd and
you this is the first point you would
come into the urban core district that
will be the sense of arrival right there
and I don't really see anything that
talks about or indicates sense of
arrival at this location and wondered
about your thoughts on that both the
blank wall issue these address but also
the the I'll start the blank wall will
be buried five feet down so I think that
does help and we have talked that with
Costco that the the way that is shown in
the plans is kind of a preliminary I
mean they recognize that those walls
needed further attention and agree that
that was a planned refinement I think
that the question of arrival is you're
right that corner needs at every corner
that sort of exposed present needs to be
detailed and visually strong but I'm not
sure that necessarily the roundabout
isn't the arrival point it's the you
know the edge of something can be the
arrival point or it
be the intersections so I think they
have chosen a different arrival point
the pre arrival point is I don't know if
you have something you want either if
you would like to add I think Shannon I
wanted to address it a little bit too
first of all on on the blank wall you
know we're still at a point where we
felt like we needed to get some kind of
feedback from you guys that we're going
the right direction so we haven't gotten
to our endgame as far as the design and
especially with the brickwork you know
we plan to have soldier core seen reveal
lines plan to build things into to make
it interesting not have it just be a
sink a solid blank field of brick all
running bond no change to that so I
think that there there are going to be
things in that wall that give it a
ditional detail that give it a little
interest that that help address some of
the concerns Shannon wanted to talk
about the sense of arrival I believe
Shannon second yeah we did talk about
the the wall also adding a planter that
kind of raises it so we're already
coming up five feet and then adding
another level of landscape so we're
minimizing that just dead wall back
there and I think I did I wanted to
point out that coming across the bridge
we've done fly throughs which we plan to
show at the next meeting because there's
a lot of entourage that goes into making
it look right on all sides but when you
come across the bridge here
you have to be near the microphone you
come around the corner with that that
metal wall piece the the bookend is
actually helping kind of direct you
around the corner as you come across
this bridge okay can you talk more about
when you say that's going to be a
lantern Corner well I understood with
the others where they're sort of a calm
like a staircase or something and I'm
not sure I understand on that corner
well we're treating kind of the corners
that are focal points from certain
vantage points so we see as you come
across this bridge that the first thing
you see across that bridge is kind of
this end piece and red lantern we call
it a Lantern effect you main link is
what we put inside the space we're
planning on it being like a meeting room
or something that we can actually
control the light and keep a constant
level now we can dim the lights we've
talked to our lighting designers about
which type of light how do we light it
it can be a consistent light source you
know most office buildings at five
o'clock are going to go fairly dark and
dim so we were kind of planning lighting
on the building from the outside to kind
of up light it in certain areas and then
have these kind of focal points at the
corners as corner emphasis here at the
main entry and then the corner at the
roundabout there's the four main
locations where we kind of will maintain
a consistent lighting system at night
thank you in looking at the language
which always helps I think that one of
the things to consider is that the
building may not be the the point of
arrival as much as crossing the bridge
because the the bridges has some nice
details and sort of syncopation as you
go across it and then you're coming
across the bridge and arriving in in the
district so well I'm not saying that the
building isn't a part of that I think
the question may be about the elements
between
that are happening along with building
between the building and the bridge that
give that sense of arrival and I would
say that I don't know exactly what those
are right now so I need to spend some
time I think we need to go back and look
at that relative to that piece of code
you identified right thank you it sounds
like you're looking at it too is it
and for a lot of people it's gonna be
it's a gonna be a big building and
you're gonna drive on and people are
saying wow that's the Costco
headquarters that'll be their view of it
right there see that if you don't mind
me keep going going the question on the
build to line for building for so is
when we were doing the osco master site
plan the build two line when the road
was curvilinear was quite the issue and
trying to maintain the view of the
mountains and I'm glad it got
straightened out and does have a great
view
and I know that it's written such that
the buildings don't have to be curved to
meet a curvilinear Street but everything
I read and the code says it's supposed
to be a bill to line if it can be and I
look out the east half of building for
that set back quite a ways that a at an
angle it could very easily be moved up
to be closer to the bill to line and I
think the requirements I think you need
to be c11 built in the that's 11.0 not
sure if it's 11 zero but the minimum
building frontage the sufficient length
of building shall be present the bill to
line minimum building frontage shall be
at least 75% in the urban core so when I
look at building for if I do just Lake
Drive or if I do just sixty second I get
thirty eight percent in the bill to
I include Lake Drive and Du Bois streets
I get fifty three percent bill two so I
think well it seems like we're we're
saying the built in line is important we
have a minimum of 75 percent bill two
but then we've designed a building
that's not meeting that requirement and
I can see the idea of creating the plaza
as a nice feature and trying to wrap my
head around we have a requirement in
Cid's that states you're supposed to do
this and it doesn't look to me like
we're prevented from doing that when I
look at the bottom picture they're
building for it seems like it could be
moved down and I don't know if it's
question for the architect or for staff
I guess it's how do we how do we accept
that and say it's okay well I think that
we can't one thing we can do is go
through and provide a more detailed
fine-grained evaluation against the
interpretation and the elements that are
identified because I do think that even
though the streets are straighter they
are not exactly straight however I think
the other piece to identify from chapter
11 relative to the seventy-five percent
is that community spaces give or reduce
the percentage and using alternative
frontage elements reduces the percentage
and seventy-five percent or just from
the seventy-five percent and I think
those I'm doing this from memory but I
believe it gets it down to around 45
percent and so I they did indicate if
you look on page 11 of the packet they
did indicate that where the building is
set back they are doing community space
and alternative building elements so I
think it is meeting the intent but I
think it's worthwhile as you've
identified that to
more fine-grained evaluation relative to
what's in exhibit J okay right and in my
attendance I think it looks attractive I
think that'd be a nice Plaza to have out
there and have that space that's what
make sure that we're we're not doing
something that just because we think it
looks nice and I appreciate you bringing
that up and and I was just looking in
the code just to confirm things and and
on page eleven as Lucy recommended but
item item I says that the the required
build you know seventy five percent can
be reduced by ten percent for community
spaces and I the item J alternative
building frontage lets you reduce it
another twenty percent down DUP forty
five percent like like Lucy said and on
page eleven we've documented up in the
top right-hand corner how we believe
we're complying with that requirement by
by doing the math on that
I'm sorry page 11 of it looks it looks
like this in your packet it's a black
and white site plan with some red no I'm
not a staff report of the package that
we said sorry
yes you know that the development
agreement also addresses the setback the
build two line specifically we're due to
existing curvilinear streets property
lines block length and secure nature of
the Costco buildings is not possible to
meet the strict letter of the standards
site plans will locate buildings to
create street wall to the extent
practical or reasonable without forcing
the buildings to be curved you know we
when we face this dilemma we came in
with our tracing paper at with Keith and
with Lucia we sat and so you got to help
us address this because before we freeze
a site plan we're gonna have to this is
a he's a huge issue and what we have is
a is a kind of a diminishing return if
you were to slide the more you slide
this building forward and try and keep
the planes parallel this building gets
shorter and shorter and shorter which
certainly and here you the building gets
shorter and shorter as you slide the
building forward the critical the
critical setback if you will is is that
point we didn't want to rotate it around
that building and get everything out of
square because then you wouldn't meet
the bill to line on the other side so we
picked a side we picked the parallel the
road is still curvilinear although it's
straighter than it used to be well
actually the road didn't exist but what
we what we found was this is as this is
as regular as we can get without being
curvilinear and still kind of maximizing
the or minimizing the build to if you
will and so I you know basically we were
frozen in so I asked Keith asked Lucy
are we are we all agreement with this
strategy because this is the zip we we
don't have a project if we can't obtain
the square footage we're looking for and
try and you know really minimize the
amount of setback which is everybody's
intent so that that's what we were that
was the dilemma we were faced by and I
apologize I hadn't read the notes up on
the upper right hand corner of your page
11 so I get you should have read through
that before it there's a lot of detail
and the stuff together
so just a quick bottle absolutely Morgan
so it what because I was thinking about
the same thing and and about that East
Plaza and so if we're not pulling the
building forward creating that kind of
that urban edge how do you accomplish
that with the plaza how it's what's that
urban experience going to be like and I
know you're still early but I think
that's going to be part of the know kind
of important part of how you accommodate
you know what the city is trying to
accomplish with the design standards
right and and as Shannon mentioned a bit
ago we're going to be working with raise
planting beds probably vary in heights
as we were working to that area there's
there's a possibility that we would be
using street trees
you may when you look at that there's a
pullout that got introduced here for a
drop-off for pedestrians which is
eliminating the street trees that are
out on the curb line well you know we're
going to be introducing those back into
our site plan and maybe they run along
where that needs to be to create the
street wall you know there's a number of
different things that we're still kind
of thinking about related to that I
think that'll be kind of an important
kind of interface yep for the
pedestrians particularly you might also
just the code that they you know the
alternative building frontage there are
elements listed like pergolas arcades
arbors trellises so it's it's more than
just street trees its actual vertical
architectural elements that would be
appropriate but help kind of stand in
from the street wall
like I said another question on SIDS
11:3 a pedestrian connection says
pedestrian facility connection shall be
convenient with generally no further
than 250 feet of separations when a
block length exceeds 300 feet so there's
a lot of discussion about the 300 foot
maximum I'm just curious on this reading
where it says - no further than 250 feet
separation of pedestrian connections so
looking I guess at the south end of the
East half of building 4 but I'm not sure
what that distance is can that does that
have to be less than 250 feet then
so if I may chime in jinhwan physical so
on sheet 11 of the project plans there
are some dimensions that are provided
along that stretch of the building I'm
gonna call it the East Wing and so
there's there's a couple of dimensions
here that are worth noting one is if you
start from the very eastern corner of
the building working West you've got a
31-foot bill to line then you have a 288
foot community and alternative building
frontage and that that 288 feet
incorporates pretty much the bulk of
that building facade as well as the
through block passage area if you're
looking proportionately at the through
block passage area it's roughly maybe 2
times the width of that 31 foot build 2
line area that makes sense
so it would be approximately 250 feet I
don't know the exact dimensions but it
would be approximately 250 feet before
you come across a pedestrian path to get
you through the block yeah well I guess
that maybe the architect could chime in
too because maybe you've got that
dimension somewhere from the south east
corner building 4 to the pedestrian
connection well in the way I I need to
look at the code I mean I think Jean
nailed it we're showing on there 288
feet and I betcha it's it's less than
then 250 the yeah that's I got the 31
the 288 and I was trying to but I didn't
have the dimension of the pedestrian
opening try to get to that number so the
other piece I would add is that on the
Costco campus it is the because a lot of
the traffic will be the employees
the ability to go through the building
counts as well as kind of an alternating
pattern of a trail that's outside then a
path through the building and so if you
look down the page ten of the drawing
packet it's that pastor would count yeah
but becomes a moot point yeah okay sorry
I slowed to clicking thank you there's
another section of the Syd's that also
says that buildings can be up to 300
feet long before they're required to
have that break and in the in the
development agreement is specifically
calls it out which which septum is this
yeah and so I said incrementally build a
connected pedestrian system between Lake
Drive and the shared use routes behind
the buildings Pickering trail and
Pickering pond trail consistent with the
intent of SIDS section six point two a
if buildings are longer than 300 feet
open-air arcades and closed through
building atriums or other elements that
serve a similar purpose will be provided
and I believe it that language is comes
from SIDS as well six point two
hopefully if again if we're if that
through block through the building
counts then we don't have to worry about
it so I think showing you some of the
diagrams that were in the original SDP
along with the layout will sort of help
so we'll show you some pictures yeah and
SIDS 6.0 point two block length says
we're block length exceeds 300 feet
additional circulation facilities are to
be provided we know we're within 300
feet yeah I was just like that what
jumped out to me was 11 3a where it
talks about every 250
the another question on so 14 from the
building standards in 14.3 14 3 a one
for all uses setback buildings with
heights over three stories through
changes in building materials
articulation and modulation the
difference between the first 3 floors so
it's it's a question it says setback it
says to modulation things like that but
these buildings aren't setback obviously
the intent here - I guess I'm reading
that and I'm trying to figure out ok was
this written to say ok you go up three
floors and when you see the example they
show in it just a building that steps
back after three floors in the
building's be compliant with this one
there there's no setback at all I would
say yes based on the material chain add
that in buildings can use material
changes to accomplish that not just
physical setbacks ok and and we have
step back the top floor
okay
more questions on building 4 I have one
more broader question and I was thinking
about it and then we had one of the
public speakers kind of speak to the
question about kind of the employee
experience and also the public
experience with respect to these develop
this development I think it's going to
be a wonderful environment for the
employees of thinking and looking at the
design work and the thought and the
detail and spaces that you're creating I
think is the challenge of everybody
these days to make sure that you are
tracking and retaining the highest
quality staff you can find but it is
about the and I don't know I don't
recall how the development agreement
deals with the public access or not to
any of these public spaces particularly
those that are adjacent to the streets
and or the through passage to get to
public trails from the street
and is that open and accessible to the
general public or is this a closed
campus
hi Jackie Frank every time I go walking
out I ran into Keith I mean like every
time so how do you supposed to work for
him
it's always out there you know the
public trails along the pond and along
the creek side the public you use it
quite quite well and quite frequently
accesses is there we're not proposing
anything that would preclude access as
currently exists if anything we're
trying to design a complementary
solution that would allow coexistence of
both the public and the private and the
private property
I do direct you to the to the
development agreement as it relates to
community space and I quote through this
development agreement Costco in the city
of work to balance Costco's need to
provide safe and inviting workplace with
implementing the SID the CIP and SIDS
and making a positive contribution to
the public realm as clarification to
both the definitions of public realm and
community spaces in the SIDS quote
required community spaces on Costco's
property are privately owned and the use
of Costco's property is intended for
employees vendors invited guests and
visitors no quote significant community
spaces are located within the Costco
property though they are located on some
of the parcels within the expansion area
so you know our intention is to not do
anything that would preclude the public
trail systems that surround the property
but but let's point out this is this is
private property as well so both can
coexist
um so I guess is four and five the bike
parking question that there were there
were 63 required 60 provided and zoom we
can figure out three more but the staff
was staff reports said 25% would have to
be in building four and I think that was
due to section 15 or whatever that
talked about arcing should be near I
guess two questions one is that bike
parking for people throughout the campus
so it's not just building four but also
could be close to added buildings and
then that was curious where the staff
got the 25% number I didn't see a source
for by 25% not 50 not 75 and so forth
any other thoughts on the bike party if
we could explain maybe some of our
thought process for why we were
proposing it all in the garage - and and
we're okay with the condition we're
gonna comply with the condition - but
our original thought was employees of
Costco are coming to work here all day
if they're avid bicyclists and they're
riding their bike they're probably gonna
want to hop into the shower and take a
shower before they go to work and so we
have a bunch of indoor bike parking
provided in the garage and that's where
we provided all our parking to start
with because they could go park in the
garage hop into the fitness center get
cleaned up and go to work say all they
reverse that and leave staffs concern is
short-term you know people coming on
bikes and just want to come up and say
hi to somebody visit somebody can't come
directly to building 4 we have places in
the basement of the garage to put some
saws and we'll put some racks up in the
plaza by the front entryway as well so
we fully intend to comply with that so
from a staff perspective if I'm
understanding your question questions
yes one piece of it is there does need
to be visitor parking as Steve was
suggesting with rats
in some of the plazas for the very
reasons he identified 25% there isn't a
code basis in the sense of a specific
number there is an expectation that
bicycle parking is located where it will
be close to direct convenient and
accessible and I think our concern was
there's kind of you know and I'm I don't
know the percentages but let's say 75
percent of the vehicular parking is in
the garage and 25 percent is under the
building I that is I'm doing that in my
head right now so it's not true but I
think that there was an expectation that
there should be an equal opportunity for
distributing bike parking between the
two buildings and that while everything
that Steve says is true that some people
may just want their bike parking in the
same building where they are they may
feel more comfortable if we want to make
it a koala attractive equally convenient
in some of the same ways that we're
doing with vehicular parking okay I
guess I guess my suggestion is you know
things like bike parking usually if you
ask the bicyclist they'll tell you how
much they want in both and instead of
necessarily maybe a hard 25% maybe your
condition could be you know an
appropriate number of stalls would be
located in building four or something
like that to let them work it out I my
only hesitation is I think we're all
trying to have predictability because
they're moving pretty fast so I I'd
certainly would support at least but I
don't think we're saying it can be it
shall be no more nor no less
than 25% and I think that your point is
well-taken that there may be members of
the bike their bike community that can
help guide them on that and hopefully
maybe they could have that conversation
before we come back so that if we need
to adjust the percentage we can do it
it's part of the Brazil and I am sharing
them with ya Thank You Jackie Frank I
actually had a conversation with our
facilities guys you know architects drew
one plan and and then there's the
reality and the reading and the reality
is is that there's a portion of
subterranean parking under four and
obviously there's parking in in five so
that we will have lockable lockable bike
area just like we do in building
buildings too and and currently
buildings one and two we will have
subterranean lockable parking and
building four we will have lockable
parking in building five adjacent to the
gym and we'll have parking in the in the
breezeway through block connection we
would do it regardless of a condition
and will provide ample parking for our
for our folks let's get is a move it's a
moot point yeah because we're gonna do
it anyway
yeah there you have a lot of questions
so the loading loose yeah I'm gene I'm
curious about the I agree with the idea
of not having 18 loading docks and I was
trying to figure out where does one per
30 thousand come from I know it's in
there but I don't know where that I
guess number one I want to say I totally
agree with allowing that administrative
adjustment but just also curious maybe
it's some in the future we could change
well I don't know that it's a I guess
what I would say Mel is that what we've
seen is that for some for smaller uses
it's probably accurate for some of these
really big uses we had the same problem
of Swedish hospital I think it was gonna
have to have 30 or some crazy number
and and we also I think even the rally
hotel was it was way out of whack and so
some of these big and/or specialized
uses I mean that's where the AAS is I
think the administrative adjustment of
standards is vital because they usually
have very good you know objective data
that is the basis and then we can tailor
the use to really tailor the loading
docks to the use as to the origins of
that I believe that those numbers have
been here as long as I have since before
I was here and the thing I would
probably say that we discovered with car
parking you know we used to try and peel
a part visitor in guest parking from
either resident or employee parking
because we allowed that on street and we
tried to figure out what that percentage
was because you know understandably at
some point someone did some calculations
and said employees you need this much
for employees in this much for your
retail customers or for your guests of
the reson but it's been bundled together
so long its back in the mists of time
you know with the dinosaurs and we don't
really know what that where that came
from and so as I said I think it serves
as well with smaller uses but with
larger uses we really we pretty much
expect that we're going to gather data
to help us adjust it to the appropriate
number great thank you more questions
any more questions on building for about
comments on building for people have
specific comments they would like to
make this is for our input to their
decision yes
yeah no no comments oh you're right I'll
jump in because I think our job is to
provide them our opinions about the
decision they'll be making or input I
would take a little more than one if my
concerns about building for where the
the blank wall but given that it's
dropped down and I think you're working
on that anyway but since it's below
grade not as much of an issue that sense
of arrival that end of the building but
it sounds like you're well aware of that
too and the importance of that the
through block passages in the
calculation of the bill to line
satisfied what I thought about it the
there attractive looking buildings I
think they've done a lot to make it a
you know an excellent place with both
employees and firm appearances for or
the public and then the outside spaces
for the employees rooftop decks all of
that in the very nice looking building
inside it to work great I think shining
too so I echo the comment of that I
think they're very attractive it's a
very attractive building I liked
variations in materials I think you've
done a real nice job integrating the
kind of open space the plaza is the the
East Plaza and the central plaza through
the mid-block connection I think that's
gonna be because you've got upper floor
the skybridge is above up higher so it's
gonna be open and invisible and
attractive and inviting to pull people
in and so I think that I think that is
really well done still concerned about
how you're going to deal with connection
across the vehicular Drive but
after your explanation not as great a
concern has this little traffic area
smaller products not talking about
people maneuvering around semis backing
up etc so I think that that helps but
still you need to figure out how to
define that in a way that's safe for
people and recognizable to people that
are providing deliveries
I like the lantern effect that you're
creating this arrival to the building I
think that that will be interesting how
you work the lighting at night on that
could be a trick but I think that will
be I mean we think about the buildings
during the day but they're also a real
high impact at night if you treat them
you know with some effective lighting
you can create a whole different image
and I think you can do some real are you
doing some really interesting stuff with
that nighttime effect on the building so
I think that's that's really exciting
and then just as far as an inviting
place for people to work I think it will
be great and people who are traveling
through here that don't work here
unfortunately
Ty's invited in but understand the deal
but it will be still attractive for
people passing by I think that that was
final comment yeah I also say that I
think it's gonna be a great looking
building I think it's gonna be really
great for Costco as well to be able to
bring more employees to his aquatic
that's that's great
as far as for the community I think and
I think you guys are gonna be doing
something like this but adding to our
complementing the trail system around
there I think would go a really long way
best chance about questions on building
five they have one mr. Sharma yep
absolutely
on page 180 of 272 in the SIDS checklist
section 14 - there's it does not meet
the standard check there was wondering
what that means is it foreseen can you
get the page number again yeah sorry
that was maybe page 180 of 272 thank you
and there's a check mark there and a
does not meet and I was wondering what
that means is that foreseen that the use
of the parking space may evolve over
time if so is this related to a
condition anywhere
[Applause]
so there's quite a few standards in 14.2
and it could be there's actually perhaps
maybe a few of those standards where it
does not comply one of them is the avoid
blank walls and so we did include a
condition for the blank walls at
building five it's that the note
involved evolution use evolving over
time and I almost imagined a parking
garage in a loft area for example that
might go from a parking lot to loft
space and requires flat flooring for
that or something like that
I couldn't imagine I was trying to
envision how the use of this might
evolve over time I wonder if it says 14
- a but building shall be designed to
accommodate many uses so they may evolve
over time and and are you saying the
parking worsens if I could interject the
end the last part of the note says C
sheet 31 and item ten point nine when
you go to ten point nine it's talking
about blank walls and I think that's
what Jean was referring to it's both yes
yes I mean part of it is with the
flexibility of space it's a little more
challenging to convert a parking garage
use to a different use over time and so
I think the blank wall is definitely
addressed by condition we have that
wondering if there was something about a
different use anticipated for that
garage right and I think the only the
one thing that we identified is that yes
the exhibition space in the fitness
center that could be repurposed over
time you know but not so much the
parking areas
other questions I'm building client I
have a question to getting back back on
the walkway idea if I understand the
parking garage correctly it at five
o'clock people flowing out of here and
there's gonna be a lot of cars coming
out of Costco and see they they be
coming out that Northeast exit coming
out looking to their left to get out
make sure there's no trucks coming or
cars coming from the ramp from the other
garage they're making that quick right
turn I guess your disk you're mentioning
keeping the pedestrians on the north
side of that walkway it seems to me that
that's a better idea I'd be afraid of at
nighttime a lot of people not being seen
by a carbine pulling out of there I'd I
would trust them to have a better vision
of pedestrians if they went across the
north side of that driveway and then
came down like your proposal is so their
walkways on both sides in both proposals
yeah I think he said they were gonna
make the southern walkway right wider
right and I thought I think one thing to
think about you know it's always hard to
anticipate how buildings will actually
be used right I think part of our
recommendation to maybe emphasize the
south side over the north side in spite
of that is that as with our walkers of
Jackie and Keith they're often out there
at lunch they're out there at morning
breaks they're out there at different
times I think the people who are going
to the garage to get their car at five
o'clock or coming out first thing in the
morning which is when you're gonna have
most of the traffic in and out of the
garage is not going to be the time when
most people are walking people who are
using the garage you're probably going
to be using the skybridge because it
gets them into the building system
and so I think that was why we were
comfortable moving it to that side is in
sort of thinking it through it didn't
seem like the timelines were likely to
have the overlap that would cause the
concern that you're identifying about
you good point okay since we're talking
about that through block connection
there and then excess so the what's the
I think it was in the staff report I
forgot the dimensions but what's the
width from wall to wall in the through
block of the bill between the building
37 feet 37 feet and then what a four
foot sidewalk on we had a 24 foot wide
drive aisle and then we were doing a
five foot sidewalk on the north and a
seven and a half foot sidewalk on this
out because I'm just trying to kind of
visualize what the experience will be
like in that space when the garages are
active it's not going to be a very
comfortable space to be in I don't think
so I'm just wondering what can you do to
make that feel safer and a bit more I
mean it's not going to be an inviting
place to travel through when you've got
a lot of cars coming in and out of there
it's pretty constrained you got a fairly
low ceiling this is challenge a design
challenge the reason why we made that a
preliminary condition is that we wanted
to this came up towards the end of
preparing the staff report and we
recognized that doing more detailed
studies that through block passage
looking at the dimensions the wall
treatments it does have a 15-foot height
so it is a little taller than it appears
a much more than a garage deck - exactly
but we want I gene mentioned that in our
presentation we want to come back with
more materials and more visuals and
potentially refining the condition
and to give a better sense of what
that's gonna be
III would appreciate that because that's
the one one of the elements that cannot
of a scratch on my head over a little
bit as we're looking at the staff report
and the plans and they won't okay well
you you want these through block
connections to be no attractive and
inviting and pull people through and
that will be challenging for this space
and so whatever you can do to kind of
show how is this going to work to its
highest potential for to meet those
objectives I think would be you spend
then obviously the stuff that you know
we were just talking about as far as
safety of people that are you know
traveling with the car through that same
space they do have a question or maybe a
comment but more of course I'm about the
last slide you showed view from the
northbound Lake Drive showing the garage
to the ride if you can pull that one up
again
Hey I guess uh my one concern about this
building is is that view of the garage
right there when you're coming south on
Lake Drive and Costco's built beautiful
buildings and a beautiful campus and I
have the feeling that driving along
there even with the the vendor event
center display Center on the first floor
lit up I think that would be great
but seeing those it looks to me like you
know four floors even though it's got
the trim stuff it's a pretty utilitarian
structure on that corner it appears to
me and I wondered if there is you
thought about there's something you can
do maybe even to the corner of that and
make it look less monolithic or
something on those upper levels looks
like a parking garage or I had a similar
reaction and I was wondering you know
you talked about the lantern effect that
you'd created at the corners at the
South corner and I don't know if there's
something else or how that could work at
that corner as you're creating another
kind of a gateway element as it is I
think the utilitarian description is
probably a good one as you look at that
that it's there's an opportunity to do
something that's a little more striking
that kind of frames both sides of the
street as you're traveling in that
direction that I think might be worth
exploring thank you
[Applause]
one more question Steve the skybridge
that travels from the garage to the
building and I really appreciate that
raising it up trying to create as much
transparency as possible because I know
when we were dealing with the original
land plan discussion here it was like
okay this is a view of the south you've
got the mountains and it's not it's not
ruin it let's try to enhance it so I
appreciate what you're doing with this
just a simple question though as far as
is it a conditioned space or is this
gonna be kind of open air since you're
coming up from an unconditioned Rodge
into a conditioned building you could
probably keep it unconditioned and kind
of fresh until you get to the building I
suppose but I don't know your thinking
on that is that's our intent we're going
to have a vestibule inside the building
for where we make the transition but the
bridge itself will be an unconditioned
okay so and we had a speaker early right
raising concerns about the greenhouse
effect in that thing so yeah so we still
have to work that out to ventilate it
all but that will be the intent
other questions
no more questions how about comments on
building five
I I have to say I like I liked for a
parking structure I thought it looked
pretty decent you know so not I guess I
support the notion of maybe some kind of
Lander an effect on the corners but but
in general for a for an urban parking
structure I especially with the glass on
the bottom I think that really helped a
lot and thought it looked really good
and I do like those the uses you've put
on the ground floor to have the exercise
facility and the activity that goes with
that and vendor space and all that that
I mean all that at the base of a parking
garage instead of just vacant retail you
see so many places that I think you did
a very nice job thank you so I
appreciate that too
knowing how challenging it is to put to
meet that requirement of active uses on
ground floors and as a single user in an
office campus that makes it particularly
challenging since you don't add a bunch
of separate retail uses etc the I like
the the work that you're doing on
sustainability I think that's something
that is a high value in this community
and as you know a major corporate
resident here are citizens that
reflecting that back is I think really a
positive thing to do not only for the
Costco but for the community so I think
that's setting the example I think
that's excellent
the I agree that for a parking garage
again challenging to keep it interesting
got maybe a little bit more work to do
but I think the Alta shoot it's an
interesting or above grade parking
garage I think your architectural
treatments looked good that north corner
would be the exception
the the interface with the trail part so
a little bit more on that would be
useful when we see this come back is
what will the public experience be as
we're walking by this because we've got
retaining walls and things and you're
kind of down in a hole that's not good
so I think that will be useful for us to
see a little bit more about that because
we want to really protect the public the
public's experience not only Costco
employees that matter but also the
public will be walking through the
campus and and using the public trails
that are adjacent to it so I think that
would be good to see that and then again
similar to the kind of discussion about
the interface of the plaza the East
Plaza on Second Street our 62nd but the
North Plaza here what's the what's this
interface look like if the street kind
of the urban edge Plaza that will be
interesting to see what you're doing
with that and I know you've provided
some example you know treatments in the
packet but that I think was another
piece I think that will be what we
general public they don't wear a costco
badge experience and so i think we would
like to see a little bit more about that
we start with
in their comments
looks like we're their other business to
conduct if you're concluded with this
permit I think we can close the public
hearing for this evening while leaving
it open for our next meeting which we
anticipate to be October 3rd I'll do
that okay and then I'll and then I do
have a couple of other matters that I
want to bring up I know there's other
business to do but it at this point the
public hearing for this portion for
building five is oh there's we have some
additional business like to thank
negative members of the public they can
sit here and listen to that additional
business if you want and I guess I have
to say I think the Costco Group did an
excellent job and it's obvious that you
did a you worked real hard to to meet
the requirements and the conditions that
were necessary and it's greatly
appreciated I think I won't speak for
the whole group but I sure think it'll
be a real asset you know I thank you
I agree thank you so other business one
is that we haven't met much this year we
need to elect your officers we wouldn't
do that tonight but I would like to do
that at the next regular meeting which
would be October 3rd and so I just want
you all to think about who would like to
run for chairperson and vice chair of
the Commission and we will have a fierce
political battle yes
I'm looking for my button so the other
thing we do have a special meeting on
September 26 do 626 it's not a regular
meeting night which is why I want to
hold the election at the regular meeting
the special meeting will be unusual
really unusual you guys are gonna get
your own legal counsel to or to advise
you and so the permits for that will go
out later the packet will go out
this is Patrick's hanging around because
so the Highlands development
agreement ended there are some permits
that were in and there are questions
around vesting which rules apply and so
the city will probably be represented by
the city attorney the applicant will
probably be represented by their
attorney which is not Patrick but
someone else from his firm and so
because staff are normally neutral but
because we are defending ourselves
against potential litigation we may not
be seen as neutral so you'll get your
own advisor we have identified a legal
adviser he's not a lawyer he's a Hearing
Examiner and he will be here to help you
guide you through this process it will
be do more like a trial probably there
will be witnesses and exhibits and
various things we are still working this
out it will probably go for several
nights not consecutive nights
it will probably not be concluded in one
night so I'm just giving you a heads up
that September 26 will be special can I
ask a quick question about it so we're
in the role of deciding the standing of
permits based on no well maybe it's too
early to ask that question yeah so step
you know they have permits that they had
that the applicant has submitted permits
they have taken a certain position about
how they should be moved forward staff
have taken a different position about
how they should be moved forward and you
will get a recommendation from the city
right and you will be asked either to
uphold that recommend any that that part
of it is no different than what you
normally do but it'll be more on a
technical issue of process all right
it will no it will be also content okay
okay so we're deciding on the permit
it's a permit decision
it is a permit decision okay now I got
it okay is the uvd seen oh no no but and
this this is one of the matters is that
under the development agreement it would
have gone to the you VDC but the city's
position is that because the development
agreement has been terminated that and
now all the permits in the urban
villages that are not vested according
to the city would come to the
Development Commission so I think you're
beginning to see some of the issues that
will be presented to you VDC only
existed because of the development
agreement not just to have different
workloads other words I mean the
development agreement goes away well
there's still our development agreements
who's you know there are probably eight
development agreements in the city
and four of them were terminated this
year or modified this year there remains
lakeside Swedish wash dot TDR which is
where Bellevue college is Costco
although that that comes to Development
Commission so it it's not that there is
not a purpose remaining for the you VDC
there just may not be very frequent
activity and I think that is a question
the council will have to make a decision
on in probably over the next six or
eight months is is this the best way to
use our volunteers or is it important to
have that standalone Commission to serve
the development agreements and I can't
wait for sure so let's
you