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City Council Committee of the Whole Auto captions

Monday, March 13, 2023

6:30 PM · 2h 53m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topics tracked across meetings:
Good of the Order 4/15
Amending Internal References to Title 18, Land Use Code AB 8613 17/18
City Hall Planning: Space Needs Assessment Results ID 1315 2/2
2. AGENDA ITEMS
2a
Public Comment Public comment on individual agenda items will also be accepted following Council Q&A
packet pp.5–141
Staff report:
Receive the Space Needs Assessment Report. Provide Administration input on project goals, approach to hybrid planning and next steps.
2b
City Hall Planning: Space Needs Assessment Results ID 1315
Director · 60 min · Autumn Monahan, Administrative Services · packet pp.143–1157
Staff report:
Title 18, the City’s land use code, was adopted in 1996 and has been modified annually to become a patchwork of ordinances. A major Title 18 code update was previously started in 2019, when the City entered into a contract with Makers Architecture & Urban Design of Seattle (Makers) to begin this work. In early 2020, consultant work was stopped in order to further develop the project scope with City Council.
2c
Title 18 Land Use Code: Consolidated Draft ID 1193
90 min · Minnie Dhaliwal, Community Planning & Development Director
Topics: Land Use
2d
Good of the Order
0:00 foreign
0:05 I council president Walsh called the
0:07 March 13 2023 Committee of the whole
0:10 meeting to order at 6 31 PM note that
0:14 after this meeting we will be holding a
0:16 special meeting to allow the city
0:17 council to recess into executive session
0:19 to discuss pending potential litigation
0:22 per RCW
0:24 42.30.110 parent1 paren I but for now on
0:28 to our current agenda tonight council
0:30 member D Michelle will be participating
0:32 in the meeting virtually as will several
0:34 staff and Consulting members
0:37 public comment there are multiple public
0:39 comment opportunities at tonight's
0:41 meeting there's a general public comment
0:43 opportunity at the beginning of the
0:45 meeting or you can make comments after
0:47 the presentation and counsel a question
0:49 and answer period for each of tonight's
0:52 agenda items
0:53 public comment members of the public May
0:56 address council at this time in person
0:58 or virtually those who are signed up in
1:01 advance to make comments will be called
1:02 on first if you're joining us virtually
1:04 and would like to make comments please
1:07 raise your virtual hand if you're on a
1:09 phone you're going to press star 3 if
1:11 you've joined by computer smartphone
1:13 look for that hand icon where that is
1:16 varies by advice and one option may be
1:18 to go to the participant panel and
1:21 choose the raise hand icon on the lower
1:23 right hand corner
1:25 um if you're in the room actually we do
1:27 not have any members of the public of
1:29 the room so I'll skip that part
1:34 so clerk has anyone signed up to speak
1:36 or indicated a desire to speak this
1:38 evening
1:40 no one has signed up to speak we have
1:41 one member of the public attending
1:44 virtually but I don't see that person
1:46 indicating a desire to speak at this
1:48 time okay well we will always have
1:50 opportunities after the other items on
1:54 the agenda so we'll just continue to
1:56 check through that but as a reminder
1:58 written comments can be submitted at any
2:00 time to city council issaquah.gov
2:05 and getting back over to our document we
2:09 have two very Hefty items for tonight's
2:12 agenda the first item is id1315 City
2:17 Hall planning space needs assessment
2:19 results presented by Autumn Monahan our
2:21 administrative Services director along
2:23 with some Consultants who I'll let you
2:26 introduce thanks
2:41 Autumn if you could turn on your mind
2:44 that would help it would thank you uh hi
2:47 again um thank you City Council Members
2:49 my name is Adam Monahan I'm the
2:50 administrative Services director I'm
2:52 excited to be here tonight to talk about
2:53 this topic finally before I begin I also
2:57 quickly wanted to introduce Genie
2:59 Justice who uh is joining us virtually
3:02 Genie if you could turn your camera on
3:04 she is our new administrative services
3:05 manager and comes by way of Redmond
3:09 she's worked at Redmond for more than 20
3:11 years before joining Issaquah she'll be
3:14 um heading up facilities for us and I'm
3:16 just thrilled that she's joining our
3:17 team so I wanted to quickly introduce
3:19 her tonight thanks Genie
3:24 all right the purpose of tonight this
3:26 presentation is to review the city's
3:29 existing use of facilities it's been a
3:31 while since we have come to council to
3:32 talk about how we're currently using our
3:34 facilities present a space needs
3:36 assessment receive city council feedback
3:39 on Project goals approach to growth and
3:41 the hybrid model and then review some
3:43 next steps for the project
3:46 the direction that we're looking for
3:48 this evening are are the goals for this
3:50 project on the right track
3:52 are there other goals that we should be
3:53 considering which hybrid scenario is
3:55 best in planning for space needs for
3:58 City Hall and the city Administration is
4:00 recommending scenario two and what other
4:02 information will be useful to the city
4:04 council to make future decisions about
4:06 City facilities
4:09 so a quick overview of how we're using
4:10 our existing facilities today so to
4:13 start out with our police station it was
4:15 built in 1999 for a growing Department
4:18 it has a 72-bed jail a gun range a
4:22 records department a 911 dispatch Center
4:26 offices and a front counter
4:29 historically since the building opened
4:31 we've used it for other things besides
4:33 police so that now includes using the
4:35 eagle room which is on the main level as
4:38 our permit Center and then upstairs for
4:40 city offices and those are being used
4:43 both as day-to-day offices as well as
4:45 some hoteling offices for staff who are
4:47 working in a hybrid environment who can
4:49 book a space and come to work in person
4:53 next up is the Municipal Court which we
4:56 are in tonight it's a shared space that
4:59 one city council is not in session we
5:01 use this area for our Municipal Court
5:04 upstairs we also have RIT offices and
5:08 our ictv TV studio
5:11 this is also a very old building it was
5:13 first built as a fire station
5:16 and is is well known as the concrete box
5:18 is what we call it uh in that it's very
5:21 very hard to remodel or to do anything
5:22 to expand or to donating with so this
5:25 has also been a very aging facility
5:28 we also have Tibbetts Manor that right
5:30 now we're using to house our community
5:32 Planning and Development inspectors as
5:34 well as their vehicles and then we're
5:36 also using that as a meeting space both
5:38 for our boards and commissions as well
5:40 as any department meetings so anything
5:42 that we need a large space for internal
5:44 meetings we use that space
5:46 works now includes both engineering and
5:48 operations over at that facility and
5:51 then parks and Community Services is
5:52 sprinkled throughout a lot of our
5:54 Recreation facilities
5:56 Parks Ops in the facility shop is still
5:58 in Old Town and then City Hall Northwest
6:01 was vacated during the pandemic thanks
6:04 to the amazing work of our clerks team
6:06 in digitizing
6:08 an insane amount of Records which that
6:10 project's now almost ready to come to a
6:13 close so that facility is is very much
6:16 vacated
6:18 back in 2018 the city did A needs
6:21 assessment for facilities and studied
6:23 two primary options with some cost
6:25 estimates
6:26 the two options were staying in place or
6:27 consolidating City Hall
6:29 administration at that point recommended
6:31 pursuing a Consolidated City Hall
6:33 so what changed since 2018 a lot
6:37 more employees are now working a hybrid
6:39 schedule which we tested out during the
6:42 pandemic and is working well for those
6:43 who can work from home
6:46 City Hall Northwest is now vacated and
6:48 City Hall is consolidated
6:50 our in-house storage needs are now
6:52 significantly reduced again thanks to
6:54 the hard work of our clerks team and
6:57 most of it's now being digitized
6:59 there is a desire to create more
7:01 efficient and shared spaces among our
7:03 team
7:04 and the need for space to meet Current
7:07 public safety standards is becoming much
7:09 more urgent over time so it's been many
7:11 years now and the News only grown
7:13 especially for police and Municipal
7:15 Court
7:18 so here we are at 2023 so it was time
7:21 for a new assessment a lot had changed
7:23 so we hired a Stow development and
7:25 strategies who I'll introduce here in a
7:27 moment who has some expertise in this
7:29 field to guide us through this process
7:30 for and this assessment that's in your
7:33 packet tonight includes needs for Police
7:36 Court and City Hall which includes the
7:39 executive office city clerk Finance HR
7:43 portions of parks and community services
7:45 so the admin arts and human services
7:48 staff
7:49 Community planning and development and
7:50 that administrative Services both I.T
7:52 and Communications
7:56 before I hand it over to the team to
7:57 talk through our assessment it was
8:00 really really important that we make
8:01 sure we conduct some engagement early on
8:04 in this process both with our community
8:06 and with our staff because again A lot
8:08 has changed during the pandemic about
8:09 how people would like to do business
8:12 with the city how to work with the city
8:15 and so you'll hear we've done a
8:17 significant amount of Engagement and
8:18 that really helps inform these main
8:20 goals that we're looking for your
8:21 feedback on tonight ensuring safety
8:23 responsibly stewarding public dollars
8:26 providing Community accessibility and
8:28 convenience
8:29 supporting Economic Development
8:31 delivering enhanced Community amenities
8:33 and embodying environmental stewardship
8:36 and with that I will introduce Bob Stowe
8:39 who's joining us virtually who's heading
8:40 up our consultant team on this project
8:45 good thanks Adam again my name is Bob
8:47 Stone development and strategies and I'm
8:50 serving as the prime consultant or the
8:52 project manager for for this very
8:54 important project I've been serving
8:56 local governments for over 37 years in
8:59 the capacity of a city administrator
9:01 city manager and for the last seven as
9:03 an economic and Community Development
9:05 consultant I have first-hand experience
9:08 in designing as well as building several
9:11 Municipal facilities and I know how
9:13 important and difficult these facilities
9:16 are to build because of the many great
9:19 demands that you have on funds and So
9:22 based on this experience I always
9:25 attempt to develop plans that are
9:26 achievable rather than a plan that will
9:28 sit on the shelf and collect some dust
9:30 and many times this requires some
9:33 creativity requires some public-private
9:35 Partnerships and the desire for the
9:37 municipality to be as sufficient as
9:40 possible with this building use while
9:42 also focusing on the community's needs
9:44 and we have a really talented team that
9:47 you're going to hear from directly
9:48 tonight in just a moment and I that I've
9:51 worked with for many years on several
9:54 projects these team members include Mike
9:56 jobs of the Miller Hall partnership
9:58 Marissa Magnum from Studio May times
10:01 three twos are great architectural firms
10:04 and then Brian Hampton Kim fost and
10:07 Kelly Price
10:08 um who are not here this evening but
10:10 there are ever been a part of the team
10:12 from the Main Street Property Group I'm
10:15 a mixed use developer that has really
10:17 created many transformational projects
10:19 throughout the state and particularly on
10:21 on the east side so I look forward to
10:24 your comments Council and I'll be
10:26 available for any questions that you
10:27 might have but I'm going to turn the
10:29 presentation over to Mike Jones who will
10:32 lead us through the rest of the evening
10:36 thanks Bob
10:38 yeah um Bob and I had a chance to work
10:41 together many years ago when he was a
10:43 city manager for the city of Bothell and
10:45 we planned and designed their their City
10:48 Hall there so we learned a lot from that
10:51 process and this is such an important
10:54 moment for the city to consider
10:57 the space needs that it has in front of
11:01 every time this is a really important
11:03 process that we go through and we
11:06 appreciate the way staff is kind of
11:08 guiding us through a very robust process
11:12 here to really understand that so
11:14 you're benefiting from the fact that you
11:16 did a study in 2018
11:19 that we've learned a lot from we've
11:22 built our study from that study but now
11:24 we have a chance to reconsider
11:27 and be more efficient with the lessons
11:30 that the city has learned and the the
11:32 the greater you know commercial office
11:35 building spaces have learned through the
11:37 pandemic
11:38 how we can work more efficiently and
11:40 more effectively in the cases where we
11:44 can be hybrid the parts of staff that
11:45 can re-hybrid how they can be more
11:48 collaborative when they're in the office
11:49 more efficient when they're at home and
11:51 how we can facilitate all things in
11:54 between that and so being able to look
11:57 at the 2018 study and apply these
11:58 lessons now is a very important moment
12:02 um we first studied the
12:06 uh well one of the things we do as a
12:08 community survey and that was in order
12:10 to get a sense of what kind of spaces
12:12 the community would need in a new city
12:14 hall facility
12:16 um despite the fact that many people
12:19 really still want to have website
12:21 interaction with the city for some
12:24 Services over 50 percent of the people
12:26 ask for more physical
12:28 interior space in City Hall to for their
12:31 Community groups to meet and we're
12:34 finding that post-pandemic in a lot of
12:36 these Municipal spaces that people
12:37 really want to get together
12:39 and whether they want to get together
12:40 they want to get together in the the
12:42 public buildings and have the ability to
12:45 meet in many different ways so that
12:47 makes sense
12:49 88 percent of those respondents wanted
12:52 indoor space to meet so it's not just a
12:55 park they need to have all seasons
12:58 meeting spaces of various sizes
13:01 and uh 55 of them do want it to be near
13:04 a park so that helps because we can
13:07 sometimes design these spaces to open up
13:08 onto a park and in the summer have
13:11 events that go inside and outside
13:15 there were lots of responses and um
13:20 many different questions but one of the
13:22 key takeaways was that need for in
13:24 indoor space to meet
13:28 and then we surveyed the staff
13:31 and asked them how they were working now
13:35 so the staff was surveyed back in 2018
13:37 as well does pre-pandemic so we want to
13:40 know more about how staff is responding
13:43 post-pandemic with City Hall Northwest
13:45 closing and everyone moving in to a more
13:47 dense and hybrid condition and how
13:50 that's going for them and we learned a
13:53 lot from from this survey as well
13:56 one thing we're hearing a lot is that
13:59 hybrid meetings are complicated in terms
14:02 of audio visual equipment if we don't
14:05 get that right it's it's disruptive to
14:09 the workflow in the Daily Office
14:12 environment so we need to understand how
14:16 design spaces that can accommodate
14:19 hybrid meetings where some people are
14:20 remote and some people are in person as
14:22 well as provide acoustical separation
14:25 for people that are trying to get
14:26 focused work done
14:28 those are some of the lessons we're
14:29 learning really globally in the work
14:33 environment and but it's being
14:34 reinforced by the survey we do with the
14:36 staff
14:38 um when people are in the office they
14:40 are wanting to collaborate with their
14:42 co-workers we can get a lot of focused
14:45 work done
14:46 working remotely at home but when we're
14:49 here we want to have spaces to meet and
14:51 collaborate but that also means when
14:53 we're not collaborating and we're in the
14:55 office we need to have a nice quiet
14:56 space to work
14:58 so there's a concept that's emerging
15:01 called privacy on demand where
15:04 essentially instead of a large Executive
15:07 Suite offices that have conference rooms
15:09 inside of them that are only used by the
15:12 people who have that office we're kind
15:14 of moving the conferencing out of the
15:17 office giving everyone a nice either
15:19 private or or workstation open Office
15:21 workstation to work from but then moving
15:25 that conferencing out so that everybody
15:26 has access to it and so privacy on
15:29 demand means if you come into the office
15:31 for part of the day
15:32 you may be sitting with your team and
15:35 working with them
15:36 in an open area or meeting in a
15:39 conference room because you don't want
15:41 to disrupt people around you
15:44 or you could sign out smaller spaces
15:46 just for yourself if you're the only
15:48 person on a zoom call or a team's call
15:51 where everybody else is remote and you
15:53 don't want everyone to be disrupted
15:55 around you see there's there's office
15:57 space that has all that flexibility
15:59 built in so that all those eventualities
16:03 can happen when you're at work and
16:04 you're together I I think it's it's
16:07 really exciting the way the lessons from
16:09 the pandemic are starting to manifest in
16:11 office space and create more efficient
16:14 use of space so it's a perfect time to
16:17 be doing this study being able to apply
16:20 those lessons
16:24 this is showing the green bars show the
16:27 new survey and the gray bars we're
16:29 showing the 2018 survey so things
16:30 tracked along pretty well although we
16:33 see that people were more comfortable
16:35 working remotely in the second study the
16:39 current study so that's
16:42 um lining up with what all research is
16:45 showing in in all the commercial office
16:49 planning space that really in a lot of
16:53 cases and in some cases hybrid doesn't
16:55 work but in a lot of cases hybrid is
16:57 here to stay
16:58 there will be some
17:00 portion of the week that people will be
17:03 working remotely
17:04 into the long-term future
17:06 and so understanding that and planning
17:10 for it we think is essential to be
17:12 flexible and move moving ahead in the
17:13 future
17:15 in this survey I think shows that people
17:18 are getting more comfortable with
17:19 working remotely but also that they
17:21 still want to be in the office to
17:23 collaborate face to face with their with
17:25 their teams now that we're able to do
17:27 that
17:30 this is just supporting that um
17:33 people uh I think on the upper left
17:35 there access to co-workers has increased
17:38 in the second survey so people really
17:40 are hungry to get back together
17:42 maybe not five days a week but several
17:46 days a week and plan that so they can be
17:48 in in the office together
17:50 also like I said earlier access to
17:53 conference spaces for the different
17:57 types of meetings we have now is
17:59 essential
18:01 and I'm going to ask Marissa to describe
18:05 the focus group she led us through the
18:06 focus groups with all the different
18:08 departments where we ask really specific
18:10 questions she'll explain that to you a
18:12 little bit more
18:15 so they're really the key takeaways from
18:17 these focus groups I'm meeting with
18:19 police
18:20 um they they really get the most
18:23 creative award as doing the most with
18:25 their space over the last couple of
18:27 years and making it meet all of their
18:29 needs and staffing needs so
18:32 um given that they are really needing to
18:36 have more meeting space they are lacking
18:40 space for their training
18:42 in addition to that the spaces are
18:45 having to double up for many of their
18:48 uses right now and their needs and there
18:51 are many spaces right now and we walked
18:53 through that were simply undersized so
18:56 these include evidence processing
18:59 evidence storage
19:01 there are the server room locker rooms
19:04 the fitness room the bunk room as well
19:09 as storage areas
19:11 in addition the department is expected
19:14 to grow to meet the community
19:15 expectations over the next 20 years
19:18 that's part of what we were looking at
19:20 in our space needs
19:23 currently dispatch capacity has four
19:26 workstations and they are currently in
19:30 need of eight they're dispatched
19:33 supervisor is also not currently located
19:36 near them with on-site directly into
19:39 their space
19:40 so um we're hoping for improved
19:43 facilities to help with Recruitment and
19:45 Retention for them as well
19:50 here's just a few photos that can sort
19:53 of display what I was talking about you
19:55 can see in the upper left hand where
19:58 they're storing here in a hallway
20:00 the upper right is showing a very small
20:03 Fitness room
20:05 the bottom left is really showing where
20:08 they've been able to just shoe horn in
20:11 an office and again the bottom right is
20:15 showing really just how storage is kind
20:19 of dispersed all over the office one of
20:22 the things is that their layouts have
20:25 had to be so creative that they're the
20:27 people are at one end of the building
20:28 and storage supplies and files sort of
20:32 get dispersed throughout the building
20:37 and then here we are in the courts
20:40 building and the needs that came from
20:43 Court were attorney meeting rooms a
20:46 holding cell
20:47 a larger and upgraded Jury Room
20:51 secured and protected restrooms for the
20:54 jury judge and the probation officers
20:58 as well as more space for the safety
21:00 screenings at the opening of the
21:02 building here
21:04 growth will continue for Issaquah so we
21:07 need this court to expand to meet that
21:10 as well as there are possibilities
21:12 possibilities with other municipalities
21:16 for the court to serve as potential
21:19 growth there was well
21:21 and the biggest takeaway probably is
21:23 that police in court should be in close
21:25 proximity to each other
21:30 and then City Hall
21:33 the space needs here for the staff there
21:36 were really about needing more
21:38 centralized meeting rooms of varying
21:41 sizes in conjunction of that it was
21:44 really to have some of the spaces that
21:46 Mike was just mentioning it's like more
21:48 flexible more spaces where the different
21:53 departments could be in neighborhoods
21:55 with each other than they would have
21:57 teaming spaces they could have a privacy
22:00 on demand so really creative spaces for
22:03 them when they do come into the office
22:05 to work
22:07 um they also need to be supported with
22:08 technology and good acoustical design
22:11 given where we are now with the
22:13 technology
22:16 there are many city and Community
22:18 meetings that are currently taking place
22:20 off-site
22:23 the shared city council chambers and
22:26 courtroom requires set up and take down
22:28 each time that we're coming in and so we
22:31 think it would be better served if these
22:33 are separated into two different spaces
22:36 and the consolidation of Staff will
22:39 improve efficiencies and that's really
22:41 everyday work whether it's
22:44 collaboration meetings and planning
22:56 thanks Marissa so um
22:59 Merced both will sort of take you
23:01 through this but um
23:04 this is a summary or synopsis of a
23:07 aggregate an aggregation of many studies
23:10 that we've conducted and we've
23:13 researched in terms of Trends in the
23:16 hybrid workplace that we're applying to
23:18 this
23:20 um space needs analysis right now so
23:23 there's a lot going on in the commercial
23:25 office space environment and a lot of
23:29 research being done there by some of the
23:32 um some of the big entities to do this
23:34 research are in commercial office real
23:37 estate and Commercial office uh
23:40 Furniture companies and then we've been
23:43 conducting our own research we just
23:45 remodeled our own office and applied
23:47 some of these techniques within our own
23:50 architectural firm so we started out
23:52 early with staff and kind of gave them a
23:56 summary of the research we've done in
23:58 the hybrid workspace to kind of set the
24:01 tone for this study and understand
24:04 kind of uh in a way reinforced what
24:07 they're experiencing
24:09 after the closing of City Hall Northwest
24:11 and moving into a more hybrid condition
24:14 during the pandemic and giving them a
24:16 little bit more of a larger frame of
24:18 reference for what we're seeing
24:21 elsewhere
24:24 we started out
24:26 Autumn facilitated a tour with the REI
24:31 uh offices right down the street
24:34 they are going really hard into this
24:37 hybrid workspace and
24:39 um I think they're really out sort of on
24:41 The Cutting Edge of it
24:43 um maybe at a level that's maybe even
24:45 more hybrid and more efficient than a
24:48 municipal organization could could
24:51 handle but they're going big and they've
24:55 even turned their
24:57 um their whole
24:59 approach into more of a series of
25:01 satellite offices one of which is here I
25:04 think you already all know this probably
25:06 more than I do but
25:08 they're decentralizing so they're closer
25:10 to where their their Workforce is and
25:14 then once in the office maybe you've all
25:16 toured it as well but
25:18 they're starting to manifest
25:22 sort of earlier than a lot of other
25:24 places some of the lessons we've learned
25:26 during the hybrid
25:30 period of time here so this is a series
25:34 of spaces like the one you see on the
25:36 screen here where they have much more
25:38 domestic layouts people want to come
25:40 into the office but still feel those
25:42 Comforts of home that they've gotten
25:43 used to working in the hybrid
25:45 environment and people are here to
25:47 collaborate so while they need a nice
25:49 quiet conference room or a great desk to
25:51 work at as well they also are yearning
25:53 for places to sit and spend time with
25:56 their colleagues and and be able to talk
25:58 in a variety of different environments
26:01 and this is one of them over there
26:03 um they have really high density low
26:08 square foot per person shared
26:10 workstations over there
26:12 when you come into the office everyone's
26:15 on tablets or laptops they plug right
26:17 into a monitor you can move around
26:19 throughout the day
26:21 you can move into the different
26:22 environments and um this open work space
26:27 environment allows for a lot of daylight
26:29 but maybe isn't so good for being on the
26:33 phone all day on a zoom call so they
26:34 have really well appointed conference
26:37 rooms this is something we think is
26:38 essential to go hand in hand with the
26:40 higher density open Office work
26:42 environments in these small
26:43 neighborhoods of being able to work out
26:45 in the open but being able to then leave
26:48 and get into a room that has all the
26:50 technology required for a hybrid and
26:53 remote meeting to happen and for it to
26:55 be acoustically separated from the
26:57 people trying to get focused work done
26:59 so they've they've been a pretty good
27:01 example of how that works yeah and one
27:04 thing I wanted to add is this is really
27:06 sort of the next level of hybrid that
27:08 Mike was alluding to so that in at REI
27:12 from the executive level which is where
27:15 they began this idea down everybody is
27:18 in a workstation there's no private
27:21 offices and so they really do have that
27:23 privacy on demand office or meeting
27:26 rooms so they have a really a different
27:29 need than that we see the um
27:33 the city hall space where they are
27:36 really coming in to be creative every
27:38 day with their teams
27:43 so we also aggregated some research
27:46 we've been doing and some and and
27:47 summarized for staff what we've been
27:49 learning out there that I think really
27:52 was supported by our tour of REI but um
27:55 one big idea right now is maximizing
27:58 flexibility in the workspace everyone
28:01 doesn't have the same exact
28:03 desk they plug into every day in a lot
28:06 of the commercial office works
28:08 workplaces but have an efficient desk or
28:12 an efficient office and then a variety
28:14 of spaces To Go collaborated in
28:16 different ways throughout the day and
28:19 this is what people are heading towards
28:20 and we think is a really good way
28:22 of the future and how work will be done
28:28 um we can arrange OpenOffice workspaces
28:30 in ways that aren't just you know
28:32 cubicles Acres of cubicles where it
28:36 feels um
28:39 too open and and acoustically uh
28:43 um mixed we can arrange these open
28:46 Office workstations into neighborhoods
28:48 we called them so they within the
28:50 neighborhood you can have a separation
28:51 from the next neighborhood that's a
28:54 solid wall or an elevator bank or
28:56 something that kind of separates you
28:57 from the next neighborhood so they're in
28:59 smaller pieces where there's not that
29:02 much acoustical
29:03 bounce or Echo
29:05 but these groups can be working together
29:08 at their desk or at kind of open
29:11 collaborative spaces within the
29:13 neighborhood and nearby to the
29:15 neighborhoods are privacy on demand
29:17 conference rooms and workspaces that are
29:20 accessible to anybody so it's a much
29:24 more Equitable workplace where everybody
29:26 has access to
29:28 privacy on demand and not just the you
29:30 know the higher ups get all that and
29:32 everybody else works out in the cubicles
29:34 it's sort of a it's a much more
29:36 Equitable and more efficient workspace
29:38 because of these neighborhoods and
29:40 privacy on demand spaces
29:43 and like we said earlier technology and
29:46 making sure we have the right technology
29:48 budget As you move ahead in planning for
29:50 your new spaces is essential the IT
29:53 department here is
29:55 extremely plugged into this and
29:57 understand it we've talked to them
29:58 you've got great people in the I.T
30:01 Department that are going to really be
30:02 able to handle this but they're going to
30:03 need to have an adequate budget for it
30:06 to happen and for these spaces to work
30:09 effectively because moving ahead we know
30:12 that almost every meeting now like we
30:14 have tonight several of us are in person
30:16 and many of us are calling in it's just
30:19 going to be that way from now on and we
30:21 need that to go smoothly so these spaces
30:23 can be used optimally
30:27 and then this oh yeah of course one one
30:30 thing I was going to say so important
30:32 right right now that we're really
30:33 discovering too is the need for
30:36 acoustical design so that's one thing
30:39 that is really coming right now and the
30:41 Forefront of design and Leadership here
30:44 of of Acoustics that are going to really
30:46 provide that nice quiet spaces and help
30:51 mitigate the noise in the open Office
30:55 foreign
30:56 on the screen here is a privacy
30:59 on-demand product that's been out since
31:02 the pandemic started our office just
31:04 added three of these in the last month
31:07 they come out of a Furniture budget
31:09 instead of a built budget so they're a
31:11 little more flexible but essentially
31:12 it's breaking up the conference room
31:14 into even smaller pieces some of these
31:17 get as small as one individual person
31:19 being able to break out real quickly
31:21 take a zoom call not disrupt their
31:23 co-workers not take up a six top
31:26 conference room for one person and so
31:30 we're breaking things down into smaller
31:32 pieces so that you can get exactly what
31:34 you need when you need it and not
31:35 overuse a space
31:37 that is or not under utilize a space
31:39 that could be used for a larger group
31:43 so this is an important moment here um
31:46 to understand the the standard kind of
31:49 commercial office space best practices
31:53 these are standards that are not
31:55 necessarily specifically for
31:57 municipality but for General commercial
31:59 office space in the United States right
32:01 now these are some best practices that
32:05 we apply often to understand how much
32:07 space we'll need for a certain number of
32:09 employees
32:10 and as you can imagine
32:13 all different organizations work
32:15 differently and so can be at any point
32:19 on this spectrum
32:20 there's high density see this a lot in
32:23 the tech World
32:24 actually in our office we're in this
32:27 range at high density we're bench so
32:30 we're all kind of near each other we
32:31 have many different collaboration spaces
32:33 because as Architects were always
32:34 sitting there face to face around tables
32:36 with paper and talking but then we go
32:39 back to our desks we have a little a
32:41 little bit less room so we're in the
32:43 kind of high density situation that's
32:44 how I work every day
32:47 um average density between 150 to 250
32:50 square feet per employee that's not just
32:53 your workstation but the all the all the
32:55 um common areas as well are included in
32:58 these numbers and um and then a model
33:01 that's becoming less and less prevalent
33:04 with the cost of commercial office space
33:06 these days and the hybrid environment
33:09 where we're working more efficiently in
33:11 smaller spaces the spacious 250 to 500
33:15 square feet per employee was sort of a
33:17 you know an older kind of dying model
33:18 you see that a lot in in Old law firms
33:21 and where everyone needs a really quiet
33:24 office where they're going to bring
33:25 their clients in that kind of thing it
33:27 doesn't seem to be what
33:28 is happening on in most office spaces so
33:32 right now this space needs analysis
33:35 ranges between 157 and 190 square feet
33:38 per employee so we're squarely in the
33:41 the lower to middle end of the average
33:44 density
33:45 but what you'll see in the following
33:47 slides were we're bringing that together
33:51 with a robust series of conference room
33:56 spaces and privacy on demand spaces that
33:59 um are necessary to have that kind of
34:01 density so it's very efficient and it
34:04 matches quite closely to what the city
34:08 staff is experiencing right now
34:11 up on the Upper Floor of City Hall and
34:15 some of the lessons they've learned
34:16 there in terms of spatial needs
34:19 this is let's say you're about 30
34:21 minutes into an hour okay so when you
34:24 have a conversation yeah yeah okay
34:27 thank you
34:29 this is a look at some standard
34:33 conference room recommendations and
34:37 where we sit so in the green here is
34:38 what our space needs study has has
34:41 provided for I think a little bit higher
34:45 than the average
34:47 recommendations of for a hundred
34:49 employees roughly 13 meeting or
34:52 collaboration or conference room spaces
34:54 we're up at around 16 because we're at
34:56 the lower end of that average density so
34:58 we think we're well appointed there
35:02 um we looked at pretty carefully at how
35:04 to project growth this is one of the
35:07 ways we looked at it in terms of
35:10 population to ftes
35:14 so the chart we're given up to today
35:18 shows how ftes have tracked against
35:21 population and we've projected those out
35:23 to 2040 and what you'll see is our
35:27 growth projection
35:28 is matching the population projection so
35:32 we're talking about one percent
35:34 employee FTE growth per year for a
35:38 20-year cycle so a 20 overall growth is
35:41 what we're planning for
35:45 and
35:47 then the courts and and need right now
35:52 exceeds the size of
35:55 this space here that they're in and if
35:58 you factor in growth it exceeds it even
36:00 more so that's you know we've we've
36:02 understood what is needed and it's
36:04 larger than this space
36:06 and then police their need is
36:09 this the full size of City Hall and just
36:12 a little bit more is is what we're
36:14 finding so they could really fill out
36:16 that that whole building if needed
36:19 and then here's the um I'm going to go
36:22 to this one first the the three
36:24 different hybrid scenarios
36:27 um I think the thing to understand here
36:30 is the yellow bar represents
36:33 how much space you need today based on
36:36 our space needs study where everybody
36:38 would have a dedicated office
36:40 so in option two
36:44 we would just build that much today the
36:46 building would be just big enough so
36:48 that everyone could have
36:49 an office on day one and not share
36:52 anything but if you applied hybrid
36:55 workplace in a hybrid workplace approach
36:58 to that you could free up space that you
37:00 could lease to a compatible organization
37:03 if you wanted to
37:06 option one takes what we need today
37:10 and then adds on the 20 growth and
37:13 builds that much so on day one everybody
37:15 could have their own workstation plus
37:18 there would be some empty spaces for the
37:21 future growth that you could lease out
37:23 or um
37:25 used for storage until the growth
37:27 happens so that's the the the full size
37:31 and then finally option three looks at a
37:34 much more aggressive hybrid approach
37:36 from day one that only builds enough to
37:40 accommodate
37:43 uh some staff having a dedicated space
37:46 on day one but applying a hybrid
37:49 approach from day one for the people
37:52 that we need to have an office space
37:55 today
37:56 and also increasing that hybrid approach
37:58 to factor in growth so that's a really
38:01 aggressive hybrid scenario that really
38:04 matches pretty closely to what is
38:06 happening right now staff recommends
38:09 alternative to that we think gives you
38:12 the most flexibility and the most
38:15 room for growth as well by applying
38:18 hybrid but building enough day one for
38:22 uh what the current need is
38:28 and through
38:30 applying those hybrid
38:34 space Concepts
38:36 a more efficient workspace per employee
38:40 that we've learned through the pandemic
38:42 and and what we're seeing is Trends
38:44 digitizing a lot of the storage needs
38:47 all the things combined have shown that
38:50 from the 2018 to the
38:52 current study we've been able to be more
38:55 efficient with the workspace that the
38:57 city would need to build
39:00 and then parking's been studied based on
39:03 the draft of the the 2018 chapter or the
39:07 chapter 18 parking requirements chart
39:09 that you're going to be talking about
39:10 along with everything else tonight
39:12 applying the government
39:15 um facilities standards in tier one in
39:18 the more dense parts of town in tier two
39:19 so that's how we got the range we've
39:22 also on top of that added fixed City
39:25 vehicles that we know are going to need
39:27 to be parked on top of the the standards
39:36 great just to briefly cover next steps
39:38 on this project we'll be back to Council
39:40 on April 24th with some programmatic
39:43 considerations and some estimates on
39:44 cost for City Hall police and municipal
39:47 court for your feedback to inform some
39:50 possible facility scenarios this team
39:52 can put together for your consideration
39:54 than in May along with some more robust
39:56 cost estimates we'll talk about how they
39:59 align to our project goals our analysis
40:01 will also include some exploration of
40:03 shared space opportunities surplusing of
40:06 public properties and some funding
40:07 options and then by June 5th uh possible
40:11 city council Direction on a select
40:13 scenario we could then include in our
40:14 CIP
40:15 and with that we're here to answer any
40:17 questions
40:19 thank you could you put up the slide
40:22 that asked for the specific feedback
40:25 there we go thanks yeah appreciate it
40:27 okay uh councilmember March we'll start
40:30 with you
40:32 where where do we run out of room first
40:36 and when
40:39 of the three spaces that you talked
40:42 about here this evening
40:43 where do you project we run out of space
40:45 first and when police is what I was
40:48 thinking too police would be first so
40:50 that is the most urgent need and when
40:53 uh now now in the sense that we are
40:57 using the space upstairs for City Hall
40:59 needs we've moved detectives upstairs
41:02 and they have a part of that space now
41:04 too but uh the the need is immediate
41:08 thank you yeah
41:14 anyone else want to go with questions
41:19 we're not going to do our feedback yet
41:21 we'll take public comment but go ahead
41:23 councilmember Joe thank you
41:26 um are we receiving any
41:28 pressure's the wrong word but inquiries
41:31 from any of our unions or bargaining
41:35 groups about the need for more space or
41:38 is this
41:40 um action this this project been more of
41:44 a just an internal recognition by our
41:47 leadership that there's a need out there
41:48 I'm just curious about that
41:52 shared sentiment among staff and
41:55 Leadership and we definitely saw that in
41:57 the survey specifically around court and
42:00 and police needs along with that great
42:03 feedback around hybrid work environments
42:05 for City Hall but among staff in the
42:07 police and Court we saw that definitely
42:08 in the survey
42:10 thank you very much
42:12 I'm going to go with councilmember d
42:13 Michelle then council member Ray
42:17 um thank you
42:19 how confident are we
42:22 that um the results of the pandemic are
42:27 going to last and the reason I'm asking
42:30 this question is back in the mid 1990s
42:33 the Issaquah school district built a
42:36 high school Skyline High School with a
42:39 very small library because we had lots
42:42 of data to show that it would that
42:45 people were going to be reading books
42:47 anymore and that turned out to be a
42:50 really expensive uh prediction it was
42:54 somewhat correct certainly but way way
42:57 way ahead of its time and in the end the
43:01 school district had to add footage to
43:04 that library
43:06 and kind of connect with what was
43:09 actually going on on the ground so I'm a
43:11 little bit leery about
43:13 predictions based on one year
43:17 um after the pandemic is quote unquote
43:20 over and it's not really over yet and we
43:22 all know that so
43:24 um Autumn can you kind of just walk
43:26 through the way that the studies were
43:28 done and and just our confidence level
43:32 that things are not going to change
43:35 again
43:37 in the near or even the distant future
43:40 thanks council member D Michelle so this
43:42 has been a very interesting project to
43:44 assess need like you said right after or
43:47 still in a pandemic and how much has
43:49 changed as far as our work styles
43:51 and our team has talked about it a lot
43:54 um and and that's how we really settled
43:56 on scenario two as far as our
43:58 recommendation for the space needs that
44:00 provides us the most flexibility and so
44:03 like Mike had mentioned in that option
44:06 we would be building a workstation or an
44:08 office for every employee now knowing
44:10 that there will always be some level of
44:12 hybrid work and that provides us
44:15 flexibility where we are we are building
44:17 or planning or designing for growth and
44:21 then we have that flexibility of how
44:23 much the hybrid can accommodate any
44:25 additional growth so that was the middle
44:27 ground that we're recommending in um in
44:31 our assessment is is knowing that hybrid
44:35 is here to stay but providing some
44:37 flexibility on how much hybrid is going
44:39 to be around in the next 5 10 20 years
44:43 I I know it's not easy so thank you and
44:47 I have a second question if that's all
44:49 right go for it thanks
44:52 um you know I focused in on
44:55 um this uh goal let's see if I can find
44:58 it real quickly so I can so under
45:00 responsibly Steward public dollars the
45:03 fourth bullet under that is examine
45:05 surplus of city-owned properties that
45:07 could be used as potential Revenue
45:09 sources to fund facility needs
45:12 um what kind of what kind of detail and
45:14 level of detail are we going to receive
45:16 and I think he just said that that would
45:18 be coming
45:20 a a more in-depth plan would be coming
45:22 back to us on May the 8th but can you
45:25 describe the level of detail we're going
45:28 to get and at that point are we going to
45:31 be making decisions about or are we just
45:34 going to be approving a plan
45:37 sure and so I'm thrilled that Jeannie
45:39 has joined us in facilities and a big
45:42 portion of work this year for us is
45:44 assessing all of our facilities so this
45:46 has been very focused on a few core
45:48 buildings we need to do assessment of
45:51 all of our facilities we have some
45:52 funding in the budget to do that work
45:53 this year that will really tee up some
45:56 longer discussion around the care and
45:58 feeding of our buildings which ones the
46:01 city you know still very much needs and
46:03 which ones may not be aligned to what
46:06 our goals are in the future and so
46:07 that's a separate project that we're
46:09 working on there are a few key buildings
46:11 that we know could generate Revenue in
46:15 the in the near term that we will bring
46:16 back for discussion later in this
46:19 project but it won't be all of them
46:21 it'll be just a couple key ones that
46:23 that we can discuss
46:28 thank you
46:30 council member Ray
46:32 thank you under the goals for the
46:35 project one of them is to support
46:36 Economic Development can you speak a
46:39 little bit about that the rest of my I
46:40 get it but this one is a little bit
46:42 fuzzy to me on on how we how these two
46:45 tie together
46:46 sure and you know actually I I'd love to
46:49 hear Bob's thoughts on this too and all
46:50 of the work that he has done around it
46:52 but
46:53 um if we're making investments in our
46:55 community we want to make sure that
46:56 those also benefit those around us and
46:58 that we're using our property the
47:00 highest and best use but Bob may have
47:02 some further feedback of that too on
47:04 economic development
47:06 sure thanks Adam so sometimes if you're
47:08 making a big investment for new
47:10 Municipal facility that can although it
47:12 doesn't generate uh property tax or
47:15 sales taxes is it does stimulate and
47:17 show that there's something happening it
47:20 so it showcases to private investment
47:23 that the city's committed to making the
47:25 place better and so sometimes you can
47:28 jump start and you can make Economic
47:30 Development effort with a municipal
47:31 facility that then leads to more private
47:34 development around that musical facility
47:38 and so to the extent that we can take
47:40 advantage of those opportunities really
47:41 sort of marry the public facility needs
47:43 within Economic Development needs that
47:45 would be a good example of a win-win
47:47 situation that we'd like to pursue or at
47:50 least investigate
47:52 yeah I think that makes uh I I
47:54 understand the logic I'm not I what I'm
47:57 less clear on is is it a goal to
47:59 stimulate it or is it a uh a byproduct
48:02 of doing this that we would stimulate it
48:04 so it's kind of a different thing right
48:06 if it's a byproduct grade all for it is
48:08 a goal then we drive to achieve that
48:11 part of the of it as we
48:14 um do the the planning so just trying to
48:16 understand kind of where what it is
48:19 and if I may just add a little bit to
48:21 that
48:22 um as you look at the properties that we
48:24 own specifically those here in the
48:26 downtown
48:27 um it's not only the investment but the
48:30 consequences of not investing if we were
48:33 for example to vacate these buildings
48:36 and they would sit empty uh what is the
48:38 economic impacts to that so perhaps if
48:40 the council as you look at goals
48:43 um we if we like we could perhaps change
48:45 those those words but as we've talked
48:48 internally we've been concerned that
48:51 um what are the consequences if all
48:53 these buildings become vacant and
48:55 there's not a higher better use for them
48:58 what impact will that have certainly in
48:59 the downtown area
49:01 that's great thanks and then my second
49:04 question which is
49:06 um I really appreciated the the data
49:08 Gathering process but I was kind of
49:10 curious why you didn't talk to council
49:12 leadership about what council wanted for
49:14 space because we don't necessarily have
49:17 the most optimal space in the world
49:19 either so I'm just curious why why and
49:21 what your thoughts are sure
49:25 and offered for council members to join
49:28 that but I know probably scheduling was
49:30 difficult
49:31 um so these
49:33 this is just the start of our assessment
49:35 if you do have some feedback this would
49:38 be wonderful to hear as we continue
49:39 Along on this process of what council
49:41 needs are so we would love to hear it
49:45 great thanks
49:46 and I'm sure that's influenced in part
49:49 by the meeting with overflow crowds the
49:52 other day and such it might be I don't
49:54 know maybe maybe uh councilmember hunt
49:58 thank you there's a fairly large range
50:01 of parking that's given us the estimates
50:05 for future needs is there
50:07 a Associated estimate for each of the
50:10 different scenarios so if we went with
50:12 hybrid then that would be a certain
50:14 value of parking or is it really a
50:16 separate conversation that would need to
50:18 be had about parking needs I believe
50:20 that the parking assessments based on
50:22 square footage not on fde
50:25 range comes from tier one versus three
50:27 and so and you can see it's quite a
50:29 range and that will just depend on
50:31 location in the city
50:33 um based on the title 18 draft chart
50:37 okay thank you
50:40 any other questions before I go through
50:43 my list councilmember marks yeah I'm
50:45 sorry can you can you put up the chart
50:47 on parking again and explain that answer
50:49 to me
50:56 yeah Autumn's right uh we're going off
51:00 of your
51:04 Title 18 parking requirements and in
51:07 Title 18 there are two tiers of of
51:10 parking ratio based on square footage so
51:13 it's not based on the number of
51:14 employees it's square footage so
51:15 whichever hybrid option you selected
51:17 that would affect the number and then if
51:20 the building is located in what's called
51:22 tier one which is
51:25 primarily the you know the the central
51:27 downtown
51:28 where greater density is envisioned you
51:32 can have less parking stalls per square
51:35 foot than in tier two which uh this
51:39 space here is within tier two where it's
51:42 a little bit less dense and so there
51:44 need to be more parking stalls per
51:46 square foot so that's where the range
51:48 comes from it's straight from the
51:50 the title 18 that you'll be looking at
51:53 later tonight actually
51:55 does that make sense
51:57 yeah but I I don't love the answer I
52:00 mean how many how many people do you
52:01 expect to be in City Hall on a on a
52:04 daily work day
52:05 Ollie well that's a different question
52:07 well but it seems like it's an important
52:10 question it is uh but we are also
52:12 subject to our land use laws and so the
52:15 answer you're getting is the land use
52:16 question the answer to the land use
52:19 question as far as what we've had I
52:22 think it depends ultimately on what
52:24 those configurations are at each of
52:25 those different facilities there's time
52:27 of day issues certainly with police I
52:31 don't know that we have specifics to
52:32 share tonight but certainly we can as we
52:34 move forward but uh I think we have
52:38 focused on the piece that we ultimately
52:40 have to uh apply to us which is the land
52:43 use issues so if we know when we adopt
52:47 Title 18 if we know that a business has
52:49 200 employees we can't provide 200
52:52 parking spots
52:54 again I I'm very good at many things
52:57 councilmember marks the fine refiner
52:59 points of our parking requirements is
53:00 not one of them so
53:02 um because I understand estimating based
53:04 on square footage but I also know that
53:05 if you have a business
53:06 and you have a certain number of
53:08 employees
53:09 some of you know some may come in and
53:13 mass transit that's a function of the
53:15 kind of mass transit that you have and
53:16 whatnot but
53:18 um if you know that your business is
53:19 going to have n number of people that I
53:22 want to drive and you don't provide that
53:26 much and you're not we're not allowed to
53:28 provide that
53:29 when we know
53:32 how many employees I think there are I
53:34 have an entire planning staff here good
53:36 morning
53:37 um there are there are minimums that we
53:40 would be required to do not necessarily
53:42 maximum so if we felt that there are
53:45 additional there are no dedicated public
53:47 parking spaces here for example so if
53:49 you're coming to do business with us and
53:51 you were to come this afternoon you
53:53 would have found no parking because we
53:55 had a fair number of people working so
53:58 we could over time say if we're going to
54:00 stay here either we have some sort of
54:02 public parking lot and if we decide that
54:04 those numbers then uh exceed that then I
54:08 think the question is the city is land
54:10 owner versus the city's regulator right
54:12 so it was a landowner if we choose to
54:15 I'm looking at you many just uh
54:18 um as I'm making I'm stretching my
54:20 knowledge of land parking land use that
54:23 the the city is regulated would only
54:25 require us to have a certain amount if
54:27 the council felt that wasn't enough then
54:29 the council as the property owner could
54:32 say okay we need to develop additional
54:34 parking spaces that's not enough for 200
54:36 employees I'll just tell you right now
54:38 right 54 to 90 stalls for 200 to 250
54:42 employees is just not enough and I don't
54:45 know where our res where our employees
54:47 Park but they don't all take the bus so
54:49 so that's so and again the workforce
54:53 varies by location
54:55 um so there are not 250 folks working
54:58 right at City Hall but at the same
55:01 period of time would
55:04 I mean it would be again this evening is
55:06 meant to kind of give a broad overview
55:08 of where we're at you know we're
55:10 certainly prepared to talk uh the finer
55:12 points of this especially once we decide
55:14 what kind of configuration we're looking
55:16 at uh parking is a problem today
55:19 um yes if we stay in these locations it
55:22 will continue to be a problem that is my
55:23 point and uh city as land owner will
55:27 evaluate that these are the requirements
55:30 of the city uh as regulator will put on
55:34 these are tied to the title 18 chart we
55:37 did have additional Vehicles
55:39 specifically in police for patrol cars
55:40 too so there's some additional City
55:42 Vehicles as mentioned that are in there
55:44 I just worry because parking is
55:45 incredibly expensive and I worry that if
55:49 we go in on an assumption if we tell
55:52 ourselves for whatever reasons we're
55:53 going to put down a number that we don't
55:55 believe is sufficient but it helps keep
55:57 our costs down that's not a great
55:58 outcome right I see other I see other
56:02 municipalities in this area and they
56:04 have a lot more parking around their
56:05 City Halls a lot more
56:11 we will continue to talk I mean at some
56:14 point we will talk about the foot
56:16 traffic that we have here that has
56:18 vastly changed uh We've I think take
56:21 taken a census every single day since we
56:24 reopened what two years ago we know how
56:28 many people have visited us and why
56:29 they've been here every day for two
56:31 years so we can talk about that as well
56:34 um so council president I hope that's
56:38 so we definitely have some questions
56:41 about parking and what the needs are and
56:46 we'll look for that in a future one any
56:50 other questions
56:52 I'm going to get into mine
56:54 what is the building lifespan
56:57 expectation and I'm thinking about this
56:59 because as you mentioned the current
57:02 city hall was first occupied in 1999 so
57:06 right now we're sitting at about a 25
57:08 years and you guys are projecting
57:10 another 20 years for that which would
57:13 give it a 45-year lifespan but we're
57:16 only planning for 20 years worth of
57:19 growth in employees for City Hall and
57:23 municipal court so I don't understand
57:26 that are we expecting the city hall of
57:28 Municipal Court to only be around for 20
57:32 years while ipd will be in a building
57:35 for 45. so that's where we're going to
57:37 bring some scenarios back to you to to
57:40 kind of weigh these options because yes
57:42 we have a 25 year old building it will
57:44 need some investment
57:45 um to live on another 20 years
57:48 um so that's one option right is to have
57:51 police stay in that building reinvest in
57:53 that building we're looking at options
57:55 around okay what would that look like to
57:58 build a new police building just to
58:00 better understand the differences in
58:01 cost right
58:02 um just to kind of set up what those
58:04 scenarios look like so yes there would
58:06 have to be some money and investment
58:07 into our current facilities the ones
58:09 that we decide to continue using versus
58:12 anything that we would decide to lease
58:15 or purchase or build
58:18 I guess what I'm getting at more than
58:20 that is why are we only planning for 20
58:23 years of growth in a building that we
58:25 would build for City Hall and Municipal
58:27 Court if my understanding is buildings
58:31 last for 50 years and especially if
58:34 we're building lead certified we're
58:37 looking to keep a building in use for a
58:40 long long period
58:42 yeah there are quite a few factors going
58:44 to that you're right we usually in terms
58:46 of the structure and the materials that
58:48 go into a building 50 years minimum and
58:51 we know with municipal buildings
58:52 oftentimes it takes a lot of impetus to
58:55 move ahead with a new building so they
58:57 often exceed their originally planned
59:00 lifespan and go way past 50. so we we
59:05 set them up structurally so they're
59:07 flexible
59:08 this building is problematic now because
59:11 it's a completely concrete buildings for
59:13 her to modify those are the kind of
59:15 things we've learned over time to build
59:17 with systems that are more modifiable
59:20 and easier added on to would for
59:23 instance if the building's small enough
59:24 wood is a very flexible construction
59:26 type or steel
59:28 but then also projecting past 20 years
59:33 one thing we're looking at is a you know
59:36 the limits of the city boundaries are
59:39 set and growth
59:42 you know can only go for so long before
59:44 you kind of max out what your city could
59:46 do so that's that's um uh one aspect of
59:50 it the city boundaries will always
59:52 remain the same and then it's hard to
59:55 predict how people will work past 20
59:57 years the the cycle of how we've worked
59:59 has changed so many times that trying to
1:00:01 anticipate that is is difficult and so
1:00:06 20 years is a good Sunset that's how a
1:00:08 lot of State planning is done and
1:00:11 oftentimes we've been able to get more
1:00:13 dense over time rather than larger
1:00:15 office spaces so those are some of the
1:00:17 considerations that have gone into that
1:00:21 okay I'll just put the question out
1:00:23 there then when you come back can we
1:00:26 look at
1:00:27 50 years and what that space need might
1:00:31 be or you know something that would
1:00:33 understand the lifespan of the building
1:00:39 have we considered shared parking space
1:00:43 that could be utilized by community
1:00:45 members in the evening
1:00:47 especially if we're looking at a place
1:00:49 near our downtown core
1:00:52 is that something that we've looked into
1:00:55 or considered
1:00:57 not yet so the numbers on screen are
1:00:59 just for City facilities versus
1:01:01 Community use
1:01:03 um I think we would all agree that the
1:01:05 community would be um
1:01:08 excited to see some more parking in
1:01:09 certain areas of town but that's not
1:01:11 something that's been a part of this
1:01:12 assessment
1:01:14 okay and the report the data shows that
1:01:18 people are working in person most often
1:01:21 on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday the
1:01:23 report says we can use creative
1:01:25 scheduling to try and get people to
1:01:29 spread their work out
1:01:33 how do we take that into account when
1:01:35 planning for space if we're looking at a
1:01:38 hybrid option do we assume that we can
1:01:40 do that or do we assume more heavy use
1:01:43 on that Tuesday Wednesday
1:01:47 because and thus it the capacity needed
1:01:51 grows more than the
1:01:55 30 percent
1:01:56 that would be there
1:01:58 I mean we've talked a lot internally
1:01:59 about
1:02:01 um doing a better job of scheduling each
1:02:03 other among departments or we're groups
1:02:05 together at certain times so that we see
1:02:07 each other when we are in office so I
1:02:09 think a lot of that just comes down to
1:02:10 actual scheduling
1:02:12 um versus maybe preference when people
1:02:13 are coming into the office so I think
1:02:16 that's one area where we can change and
1:02:17 find some more flexibility on having
1:02:19 people come in on Mondays and Fridays as
1:02:21 well but also having some stability
1:02:23 around their schedule too is something
1:02:25 that we heard from staff so they know
1:02:27 about it right we can work on when some
1:02:29 of those workers might be getting
1:02:30 together outside of those Peak Tuesday
1:02:33 through Thursday and do we have data on
1:02:36 our current employees for the last year
1:02:38 how many came in on each weekday so that
1:02:41 we can use that no but anecdotally I can
1:02:44 we can we can we definitely align with
1:02:47 the Tuesday through Thursday is when
1:02:49 most are coming in the office a lot of
1:02:52 that too is based on when some meetings
1:02:53 take place is when they're scheduled so
1:02:55 yeah can we measure for that for a
1:03:00 period of time so that we have that type
1:03:01 of data to make our decisions
1:03:07 um I think I'm good with questions
1:03:11 looking around looking online
1:03:14 okay so I think at this point we will
1:03:17 take any public comment that might be
1:03:19 available before we go back into
1:03:21 feedback and direction
1:03:23 so again if you are on the phone you can
1:03:26 press star three if you are on a
1:03:29 smartphone or desktop device look for
1:03:32 the hand icon and I will wait a moment
1:03:34 to see if anyone is interested to speak
1:03:39 clerk do we have anybody indicating well
1:03:42 we have two members of the public
1:03:43 joining us virtually but I'm not seeing
1:03:46 that either of them wish to speak at
1:03:48 this time okay
1:03:50 fantastic well then again you can always
1:03:55 email us if you have any questions or
1:03:57 comments
1:03:58 um but at this point I will look around
1:04:01 at Council for any general feedback and
1:04:05 then we also have the three Direction
1:04:07 needed questions that are up on the
1:04:11 screen for all of that does anyone want
1:04:14 to go first
1:04:15 council member Ray followed by
1:04:17 councilmember hunt oh I'll get us going
1:04:19 um I think I think the goals are good I
1:04:21 would like to see some clarity around
1:04:23 obviously The Economic Development Goal
1:04:25 if that's or if that's something we're
1:04:27 driving for because then we would want
1:04:28 to factor in how we're going to drive
1:04:30 Economic Development out of this and not
1:04:32 just as a byproduct
1:04:35 the second one I've kind of changed my
1:04:37 comments based on a little bit on the
1:04:38 council president's questions which is
1:04:40 we need to drive
1:04:42 how we do the hybrid work scenario where
1:04:45 we're in charge and so
1:04:48 um we we need to be very crystal clear
1:04:50 on why we want people to come into the
1:04:51 office why we're trying to do
1:04:52 collaborative work how we're trying to
1:04:54 make that a good thing a good thing so
1:04:57 we need to own that one in terms of a
1:04:59 recommended Direction scenario too seems
1:05:00 as good as any to me
1:05:03 and then the reality of is we don't as
1:05:06 much as we like to think we know what's
1:05:08 going to happen in 20 years let alone 50
1:05:09 years we don't have a clue so I think we
1:05:12 need to build a
1:05:14 a plan that gets us moving in the right
1:05:17 direction and then one that's extensible
1:05:19 or contractable in such a way that when
1:05:22 we get to 20 years from now we can say
1:05:23 wow we're we don't have as big a
1:05:26 Workforce or wow we're a lot bigger so
1:05:28 um I think that's just another goal is
1:05:30 we've got to be thinking not just about
1:05:35 you know here's a Target but also how do
1:05:37 we Flex around that Target so anyway
1:05:39 nice job thank you very much
1:05:41 okay council member hunt and then
1:05:43 council member D Michelle
1:05:45 thank you on the first question which is
1:05:48 about the goals I think that
1:05:51 um one goal that is represented
1:05:53 extensively in this analysis but isn't
1:05:56 on the list is
1:05:58 um something along the lines of
1:05:59 providing spaces that meet the needs of
1:06:03 the staff that are working there so you
1:06:05 know we have multiple about providing
1:06:07 Community accessibility and convenience
1:06:09 and also delivering enhanced Community
1:06:11 amenities but a lot of what we're
1:06:13 talking about with the hybrid and the
1:06:15 the special spaces for privacy and for
1:06:19 conversations a lot of that has to do
1:06:22 more with the day-to-day
1:06:24 experience of the people working in
1:06:25 those spaces so I thought there should
1:06:27 be a goal around Meeting those needs
1:06:29 also embody environmental stewardship on
1:06:32 the last goal I think some of what we
1:06:35 talked about like lead certification
1:06:36 that's probably
1:06:38 more commonly discussed as
1:06:40 sustainability of the building so I
1:06:43 think we could add that into embody
1:06:45 environmental stewardship and
1:06:46 Sustainable Building
1:06:50 otherwise I thought the goal the goals
1:06:53 list very comprehensive the second
1:06:56 question which is about the which hybrid
1:06:57 scenario I think unfortunately this is
1:07:01 not something I can answer without
1:07:03 having money the estimates of how much
1:07:06 money the different options cost because
1:07:09 our second goal is responsibly Steward
1:07:12 public dollars and these are all
1:07:15 scenarios that will impact
1:07:17 um how much this costs
1:07:20 I think it's a big decision
1:07:23 I had asked earlier about how big how
1:07:27 much square footage currently these
1:07:29 spaces have the answer if I total it up
1:07:33 correctly is about 34 000 square feet
1:07:37 and hybrid scenario two is sixty
1:07:40 thousand square feet so it's doubling of
1:07:43 the space that we have currently it is
1:07:45 less than the 2018 study but it's also a
1:07:49 big a big change and a big increase over
1:07:52 the space that we currently have so I
1:07:55 think well there's a lot of information
1:07:57 about how it meets these other goals the
1:08:00 responsibly stewarding public dollars is
1:08:02 really the next piece of this puzzle
1:08:05 that we need to
1:08:06 to go forward so that leads directly
1:08:09 into question three which is what
1:08:10 information we need I think we need to
1:08:11 have the cost estimates and that can
1:08:14 factor in
1:08:16 um you know the potential I think
1:08:18 there's a risk if we don't
1:08:22 build for that future growth that we
1:08:24 would need to you know lease another
1:08:25 building or something like that so it
1:08:27 could include that discussion about
1:08:29 projections on the cost implications of
1:08:31 doing things in the future but I think
1:08:33 having some ballpark estimates of cost
1:08:36 would be super helpful for the next age
1:08:37 and I know that that's in the plan
1:08:39 thanks
1:08:42 thank you councilmember D Michelle
1:08:46 uh thank you
1:08:48 first of all a really fascinating study
1:08:51 and a lot of really good work and also
1:08:54 very well written uh very easy to
1:08:56 understand so much appreciation for the
1:09:00 the study
1:09:01 um I will go back to the goal that I
1:09:05 highlighted earlier
1:09:07 um let me find it here sorry
1:09:09 examine surplus of city-owned properties
1:09:12 that could be used as potential Revenue
1:09:14 sources to fund facility needs I would
1:09:16 like to add a goal and I've written it
1:09:22 going back and forth with my screens
1:09:24 here sorry
1:09:29 prioritize historic preservation of
1:09:31 appropriate Surplus City properties and
1:09:34 recognize historic relationships with
1:09:37 non-profit community members when
1:09:39 determining funding of City facility
1:09:41 needs
1:09:43 I think that we have a a wide mix of
1:09:47 surplus property but in that mix are a
1:09:50 number of buildings that are definitely
1:09:53 they may not be Landmark buildings and
1:09:57 they may not be
1:09:58 you know designated as historic
1:10:01 buildings but they certainly have a
1:10:04 historic place in our community and I
1:10:08 think that we should deal with those
1:10:09 properties a little bit different
1:10:11 differently here are some that I think
1:10:14 I've thought of and this may not
1:10:17 incompass everything but the Hailstone
1:10:19 Feed Store Alexander house the food bank
1:10:22 Gibson Hall the depot the history museum
1:10:25 the garage those are all owned by the
1:10:28 city and and all managed by non-profit
1:10:32 groups and all of them have at least
1:10:35 some claim to being a historic building
1:10:37 in in the City of Issaquah so I would
1:10:41 like to see us have a goal that
1:10:44 acknowledges the historic nature of some
1:10:47 of our Surplus properties
1:10:50 I'd also like us to have an equity goal
1:10:53 and I didn't formulate the wording for
1:10:57 that as much as just saying that I think
1:11:01 the study when we get to the end should
1:11:03 be reviewed by the equity board just for
1:11:08 the impacts that it might have in our
1:11:10 community on various
1:11:12 marginalized groups so those are the two
1:11:15 goals that I would like to see added
1:11:19 um for the second question which hybrid
1:11:21 scenario is best in planning for space
1:11:23 needs as I said I lived through the
1:11:27 experience of uh having to fix Skyline
1:11:30 High School very expensively
1:11:33 um the data was not incorrect we had
1:11:35 good data it said that people were going
1:11:38 to go online and not be using
1:11:41 um you know hardback books anymore the
1:11:44 first part of that was correct people
1:11:45 were going to go online but didn't mean
1:11:48 that they were giving up books and so in
1:11:50 the end we had to add to that
1:11:53 add to that building so
1:11:57 um scenario number two and I I want to
1:11:59 appreciate councilmember Hunt's comments
1:12:02 that we need some some financial data
1:12:05 behind this as well but certainly the
1:12:08 more flexible we can be it's really
1:12:12 difficult to anticipate future
1:12:15 facility needs you know the pan
1:12:18 certainly Illustrated that for us and so
1:12:22 whatever we can do to make this the most
1:12:24 flexible
1:12:25 approach I would think would be the best
1:12:28 and then what other information will be
1:12:30 useful to the city council to make
1:12:32 future decisions about City facilities
1:12:35 um this is sort of tangential but I want
1:12:38 to bring it up here now because it's
1:12:40 under discussion I I am on the of the
1:12:44 opinion that many of our historic
1:12:45 buildings like the depot like
1:12:49 um you know like the hailstorm feed
1:12:50 store and so forth are not utilized as
1:12:54 much as they could be for meeting space
1:12:57 for uh Community forums and for those
1:13:00 kinds of things and so
1:13:02 I'd like to know how we could better
1:13:04 utilize some of those spaces to meet the
1:13:07 meeting needs of both staff and the
1:13:11 community
1:13:12 um and so that's maybe a separate
1:13:16 discussion but I'd like to at least put
1:13:18 it on the table here tonight
1:13:20 so that's the end of my comments thank
1:13:24 thank you looking around saying we've
1:13:27 got okay council member marks then Joe
1:13:30 all right thank you
1:13:33 uh I'm I'm gonna
1:13:35 I'm gonna continue to poke at this
1:13:37 parking issue I took a look you know
1:13:40 City Hall Northwest had 65 parking spots
1:13:42 just at City Hall Northwest right which
1:13:44 is a small Annex to our primary facility
1:13:48 so I I just think that when we go to
1:13:51 Envision the kind of parking that we're
1:13:54 going to need to support having our city
1:13:56 functions all in one place I think we
1:13:59 should be honest
1:14:00 um and and realize how expensive parking
1:14:03 is going to be as part of this
1:14:05 um uh in terms of which hybrid scenario
1:14:09 I am hard over for scenario one I think
1:14:12 that uh we are I
1:14:15 I'm this is just prognostication on my
1:14:18 part but 10 years from now we will look
1:14:20 back on this whole hybrid work from home
1:14:23 thing as just a very temporary covid
1:14:26 related phenomena in my experience
1:14:28 running a large engineering organization
1:14:31 it doesn't work and results in lower
1:14:35 productivity and I think that the only
1:14:37 reason businesses haven't moved back to
1:14:38 full-time on-site is because there's not
1:14:40 enough room so as they do we're going to
1:14:43 move away from uh the uh this whole work
1:14:46 from home hybrid thing
1:14:49 um and uh one you know thing I don't
1:14:52 know if it needs to be added as a goal
1:14:54 or anything like that but
1:14:57 um you know one of the things we talked
1:14:58 about in 2018
1:15:00 more was sort of transforming the
1:15:03 customer experience with City Hall and
1:15:06 you know I I hope we would think
1:15:08 specifically about some scenarios right
1:15:10 permitting uh licensing jail right the
1:15:15 folks who are coming to the jail as well
1:15:16 so these three areas and what other
1:15:18 scenarios I haven't even thought of but
1:15:20 you know there's an opportunity to
1:15:22 really transform the experience for
1:15:24 people and we've been a city that has
1:15:25 you know put our offices in every corner
1:15:28 that we could fit them in because we had
1:15:30 to and if if we're going to have a clean
1:15:32 sheet of paper and we're going to talk
1:15:33 about this I would love to know more
1:15:35 about what the nominal customer
1:15:37 experience is going to look like if we
1:15:39 move forward because I I think there's a
1:15:41 real opportunity to transform it for
1:15:43 people not just you know sort of an
1:15:45 incremental yes better customer service
1:15:47 and not having to climb a weird
1:15:50 staircase into Evanston knows where to
1:15:52 get a to get some licensing stuff taken
1:15:54 care of like we had to in the old days
1:15:56 but really just a fundamentally
1:15:57 different experience for uh for our
1:15:59 residents and our businesses so
1:16:01 thanks
1:16:03 council member Joe council president
1:16:05 thank you
1:16:07 I'd like to uh thank you for this
1:16:09 presentation this evening it was very
1:16:11 informative I think in terms of
1:16:14 the goals I think we're on the the right
1:16:16 track and I've heard some additional
1:16:18 comments from my fellow council members
1:16:20 that I think are important I I would
1:16:22 Echo the EDI question that councilmember
1:16:25 D Michelle brought up
1:16:27 um just in terms of
1:16:29 keeping it as one of the items that we
1:16:32 put into the the consideration for how
1:16:35 we're going to be moving forward we put
1:16:38 ourselves out there as a city that is uh
1:16:40 at the Forefront of some of these ideas
1:16:43 and we need to back that up with our
1:16:45 actions as well I think the hybrid
1:16:48 scenario is going to change over time
1:16:49 and I know the administration is doing
1:16:51 their best to
1:16:52 look into crystal ball so to speak and
1:16:55 and I I don't have any
1:16:58 you know hard information to say
1:17:00 scenario Two Is Better Than One or three
1:17:02 I would just ask we continue to to
1:17:04 carefully look at it and put the factors
1:17:06 in the black box and see what what comes
1:17:09 out so to speak
1:17:11 um I I as I was listening to the
1:17:13 conversation one of the things that
1:17:14 struck me was if we do this hybrid model
1:17:17 in this experiment a little bit more you
1:17:20 know seriously we
1:17:22 kind of are a petri dish for all three
1:17:26 scenarios if you will we have our public
1:17:28 works department which is in one
1:17:30 building all the people are operating
1:17:32 out of one building and they're
1:17:34 centralized we have our parks department
1:17:36 which is uh set up in a way that all the
1:17:41 um the the crucial staff are at the
1:17:43 different facilities or near the
1:17:45 programs that they're operating and then
1:17:47 we have this hybrid model so I think
1:17:49 it's great that we're looking at all
1:17:51 three of them and over time we're going
1:17:53 to become
1:17:54 experts or really good at doing all
1:17:57 three of them such that should
1:17:58 conditions change we're going to at
1:18:00 least have a template we're going to
1:18:02 have the ability to to make that change
1:18:04 as if if hybrid work goes away we have
1:18:07 these other two models that we're
1:18:08 working with to fall back on so I
1:18:11 appreciate that the city is is looking
1:18:14 at this with an open mind and if we have
1:18:17 all three of them to choose from and
1:18:19 hybrid numbers Narrow 2 works out you
1:18:22 know future then we can look and see if
1:18:24 that will work for the other departments
1:18:25 or if we want to keep it the same but
1:18:27 we're keeping our options open I think
1:18:30 that's one of the most important things
1:18:31 for us to do going forward thank you
1:18:35 Deputy council president Hull
1:18:38 thank you I'll just um a few things that
1:18:41 haven't been stated then first and
1:18:42 foremost outstanding work I think
1:18:44 seriously all all three of you and
1:18:46 anyone else who's contributed this I
1:18:48 think just thank you very much for all
1:18:49 your hard work
1:18:51 um I love that we're thinking about
1:18:53 collaborative workspaces and just um and
1:18:56 was it privacy on demand and just being
1:18:59 on the Forefront of all this it's very
1:19:01 exciting and Innovative so I just
1:19:03 appreciate that and you know how much I
1:19:04 like us always being Innovative and
1:19:07 challenging
1:19:08 um the norm and all that so a couple
1:19:11 things
1:19:13 I'm thinking of
1:19:16 um first and foremost I do think
1:19:19 um you know we have to be thinking
1:19:21 option two is what I'm thinking too I
1:19:22 think that strikes that balance
1:19:25 um hybrid work I do think is here to
1:19:28 stay because I I think I disagree with
1:19:30 some of the assumptions up here I think
1:19:32 the workforce determines how this works
1:19:35 and the people want it so if the people
1:19:36 want it it's gonna stick around in my
1:19:38 opinion also it's a great recruiting
1:19:40 tool to get the best and the brightest
1:19:43 city employees and public service
1:19:45 sectors to come to Issaquah so I think
1:19:47 those two of themselves are very
1:19:49 compelling to me
1:19:51 um also I think we need to be mindful of
1:19:54 our parking goals that live within our
1:19:56 Mobility master plan and our climate
1:19:59 climate action plan that calling us to
1:20:01 reduce parking minimums and be more
1:20:03 mindful of sustainable footprint use of
1:20:06 concrete all that good stuff anyways
1:20:09 um the other thing I wanted to oh
1:20:10 building off a council member raise
1:20:12 point about Council feedback this up
1:20:16 here is not very I mean this is getting
1:20:18 two in the weeds for this high level
1:20:19 discussion but this is not very
1:20:21 conducive to public
1:20:23 um you know discussion it feels like
1:20:25 we're up here Almighty when we're really
1:20:27 not you know we should just be down on
1:20:28 some tables up there
1:20:30 um the other thing the only other thing
1:20:32 is you know back on the note of
1:20:34 innovation like how else are cities or
1:20:39 kind of our peer organizations that are
1:20:41 similar jurisdictions thinking
1:20:44 creatively and challenging the norm in
1:20:45 terms of what this kind of public space
1:20:47 can be in the first place so putting
1:20:50 community space at the center of the
1:20:51 discussion I love that I mean that's
1:20:53 definitely doing that thinking about
1:20:56 privacy on demand that's definitely
1:20:58 doing that collaborative space is that's
1:21:00 definitely doing that but what else you
1:21:02 know what else is out there that could
1:21:04 potentially bring about better outcomes
1:21:07 that we're seeing bring about better
1:21:08 outcomes in other communities
1:21:11 um so you know I think thinking of this
1:21:13 in that one goal deliver enhanced
1:21:15 Community amenities just thinking of
1:21:17 enhanced as
1:21:18 bettering but also in terms of
1:21:21 innovation there too is is what I think
1:21:24 there and then also with community space
1:21:27 in particular I've seen well at least
1:21:29 one other city in the region that's
1:21:31 wanted to do this in a Consolidated City
1:21:33 Hall but it has costs you know have gone
1:21:36 up this is the first thing to go and I
1:21:38 think that we should try to hold steady
1:21:40 on that one and say this will not be the
1:21:42 first space uh thing to go but then we
1:21:44 also need to think about well what will
1:21:45 so that's a question for staff to ponder
1:21:49 I think but for the main part the goals
1:21:51 are definitely on track I agree with
1:21:53 scenario two although I do think same
1:21:55 cost estimates would be helpful or at
1:21:57 least having kind of a more nuanced
1:21:59 conversation about that and then in
1:22:01 terms of other information just you know
1:22:02 what else is out there and that may take
1:22:04 some time
1:22:06 okay I will close this out
1:22:09 um really appreciate the uh presentation
1:22:13 and the information I am so excited
1:22:15 about looking at our facilities it's
1:22:17 been so very long and I feel for all of
1:22:21 our employees especially the ones that
1:22:22 have to work on site
1:22:24 um with just the lack of adequate space
1:22:27 that we provide
1:22:28 um so I'm really ready for this so goals
1:22:32 um under sustainability I think we
1:22:34 should be looking to achieve carbon
1:22:37 neutral not just general sustainability
1:22:40 it's in our icap we really need to be
1:22:44 ahead of the curve with a building
1:22:45 that's going to be 50 years
1:22:48 I agree with councilmember hunt that
1:22:50 employee needs should be a high
1:22:53 importance of consideration for a goal
1:22:56 not just Community needs and then for
1:23:00 Community spaces I'd like us to really
1:23:04 think about how we might utilize that
1:23:08 not just as a way that a
1:23:12 group like Kiwanis or rotary could rent
1:23:16 or utilize a space for a meeting but
1:23:19 also what other community needs do we
1:23:21 have could we consider especially if
1:23:24 we're looking at a scenario of
1:23:27 potential long-term growth could we
1:23:30 consider having a space that would be
1:23:33 like a non-profit shared campus where we
1:23:38 are able to
1:23:40 use that space or use that space for
1:23:43 Community benefit for the first few
1:23:45 years and then if we need to grow into
1:23:47 it we can but it kind of gives us some
1:23:50 co-location benefits some Community
1:23:52 benefits and it really anchors that so I
1:23:55 would consider
1:23:57 thinking about what it means to have
1:23:59 Community spaces not just meeting places
1:24:04 um with the hybrid scenario I definitely
1:24:05 agree with scenario two
1:24:07 um but I really want to better
1:24:08 understand what our growth is over time
1:24:11 including to the building lifespan so
1:24:13 with the information I'd like to see
1:24:16 kind of a 50-year projection of costs
1:24:19 and if we have if we build to a 20-year
1:24:22 growth and we anticipate needing space
1:24:25 for you know the next 30 years of
1:24:28 employee growth are we considering
1:24:31 building in a space that would have
1:24:34 adjacency that could be built on and if
1:24:37 not are we looking at renting or leasing
1:24:41 other space what are those costs and
1:24:43 which one provides us with the best
1:24:45 financial scenario
1:24:49 um related to the hybrid scenario I just
1:24:51 want to say I really strongly I support
1:24:53 the idea of hybrid not only because our
1:24:57 employees have bought into it and are
1:24:59 doing it and are doing it well but it's
1:25:02 great for employee retention and hiring
1:25:03 it's also great for our climate change
1:25:06 goals traffic
1:25:08 and I just think we have the historical
1:25:11 data to show that it's worked for us so
1:25:14 I'm comfortable leaning in on that
1:25:17 um for other information I said the
1:25:19 50-year projection costs
1:25:21 um more information about parking one
1:25:24 option could be utilizing shared space
1:25:26 Also we have a bunch of parking around
1:25:30 here if we end up looking at a space
1:25:32 nearby you know are we continuing to
1:25:35 utilize those spaces as part of our
1:25:39 projections or are we anticipating
1:25:41 building all of that new or laying out
1:25:44 space for that
1:25:47 and then
1:25:49 I would like to see other City
1:25:51 comparison of their spaces I know that
1:25:54 may be difficult maybe we can do it for
1:25:59 some but not others
1:26:01 um but it would be really great to get
1:26:03 something that we could see even if it
1:26:06 was just a sense of they have 150 square
1:26:09 feet per employee
1:26:12 and I understand our hybrid scenario is
1:26:15 probably different from theirs so
1:26:16 there's those caveats too and then the
1:26:19 other thing I would be open to thinking
1:26:22 about is like a vertical mixed-use
1:26:25 building
1:26:26 both as a way to provide ground floor
1:26:30 experiences to employees to activate a
1:26:33 space to potentially create a pilot
1:26:35 project that could Inspire I'm also open
1:26:38 to the idea of depending on what our
1:26:40 height limitations are looking at
1:26:42 affordable housing on top I really think
1:26:45 we have an opportunity here to really
1:26:48 truly think about what our community
1:26:50 needs are again not just our needs for
1:26:53 meeting space so I would look to uh kind
1:26:56 of open our minds to some of those
1:26:59 things as well
1:27:01 I'm not seeing any other hands up
1:27:04 chicken Barb not seeing anything there
1:27:06 do you have what you need autumn
1:27:09 I do thank you okay fantastic well we
1:27:14 are at an hour and a half I'm wondering
1:27:16 whether we want to take a five minute
1:27:19 break while everybody swaps over to our
1:27:22 next project so I will take a five
1:27:25 minute break thank you
1:27:33 thank you
1:34:10 [Music]
1:34:13 okay and we are back at 805 p.m uh the
1:34:17 next item on our agenda is id1193 the
1:34:21 title 18 land use code Consolidated
1:34:23 draft presented by Minnie daliwal
1:34:26 director of community planning and
1:34:28 development director
1:34:29 along with great set of staff and this
1:34:32 item is anticipated to take no more than
1:34:34 90 minutes
1:34:40 good evening council members and members
1:34:42 of the community now here we are online
1:34:45 uh and or will be watching this later
1:34:49 um so we're really glad to bring a
1:34:54 planning and policy commission
1:34:55 recommended draft and then your planning
1:34:58 and development environment committee
1:34:59 approved draft for all of you to
1:35:03 consider it's been an effort
1:35:06 it's been that has been going on if you
1:35:10 all haven't heard about it for all your
1:35:12 boards and commissions have been doing
1:35:13 the heavy lifting for the last year and
1:35:16 a half so I'm going to start with a
1:35:18 short presentation I will share my
1:35:21 content
1:35:24 here let's see if I can get it too
1:35:30 chill
1:35:37 so the purpose of tonight's meeting is
1:35:40 to really present this draft Title 18
1:35:43 there's also a shoreline master program
1:35:46 update like I said it's be it's
1:35:48 recommended by your planning a policy
1:35:51 commission and your Planning Development
1:35:53 and environment committee and we're here
1:35:56 to uh check with the full Council if
1:35:59 there are any additional edits needed
1:36:01 prior to final adoption
1:36:04 and a little bit of background
1:36:07 um the land use it's Guided by the
1:36:10 golden outcomes chart and that chart was
1:36:13 divided into umbrella goals which were
1:36:16 to realign with the community's
1:36:17 aspiration aspirations public engagement
1:36:21 is followed through in the process it it
1:36:24 makes the code more efficient consistent
1:36:27 predictable
1:36:28 IT addresses current laws best practices
1:36:31 and it's easier to understand and better
1:36:34 organized so those were some of the
1:36:35 larger umbrella goals and then of course
1:36:38 there were these 13 very specific goals
1:36:41 informed by either the land use element
1:36:44 or you know the comprehensive plan you
1:36:48 know strategic plan or Mobility master
1:36:50 plan or parks and Open Spaces plan so
1:36:54 all of that worked in in you know with
1:36:57 the ad hoc committee his work identified
1:36:59 these 13 very specific goals I'll go
1:37:02 through each one of them in a short bit
1:37:05 of time here
1:37:08 so since May of last 2021 there have
1:37:11 been many many joint planning and policy
1:37:13 commission meetings development
1:37:14 commission Parks Board
1:37:17 and environmental board we've been
1:37:20 taking the feedback from various
1:37:22 Community forums and then now we're here
1:37:25 with the PPC recommended draft
1:37:27 the way the process was organized
1:37:31 um you know planning and development
1:37:33 environment committee said to share this
1:37:35 with all of you because they were keyed
1:37:38 in in all of the the specifics of the
1:37:42 different phases but for the benefit of
1:37:44 everyone we started with we called a
1:37:47 policy guidance so we asked some very
1:37:49 bigger you know higher questions of the
1:37:52 boards and commissions that helped
1:37:54 informed phase two where we released the
1:37:57 draft code for each of those six
1:37:59 individual topic areas and then we
1:38:02 received the feedback from PPC after the
1:38:05 public hearings on each one of those six
1:38:07 buckets and then planning and
1:38:10 development environment committee was
1:38:12 briefed they were they provided feedback
1:38:14 but then we circled back with PPC on
1:38:17 and then we started the phase three
1:38:20 which was the Consolidated draft and PPC
1:38:23 held three public hearings on that and
1:38:26 we circled back with all the boards and
1:38:28 commissions that had participated in the
1:38:30 first two phases to to close the
1:38:33 feedback loop with them many many
1:38:35 meetings later planning and policy
1:38:38 commission recommended the draft
1:38:40 to Planning Development and environment
1:38:43 committee and they had a couple of
1:38:46 meetings where they debated and
1:38:48 discussed further the planning and
1:38:50 policy commission's recommendation and
1:38:52 tonight the committee will you know
1:38:55 provide their their assessment of where
1:38:58 things are and where they wanted the
1:38:59 council to to focus on and then it'll be
1:39:03 in front it's in front of you for final
1:39:06 review and adoption
1:39:08 um I've included a slide in your
1:39:10 presentation but it really gives you a
1:39:12 glimpse of the number of meetings that
1:39:14 were held with different boarding
1:39:16 Commissions in addition to these we had
1:39:18 open houses before the public hearing so
1:39:20 people could come in and ask questions
1:39:22 so they could inform and make the
1:39:25 comments at the public hearing based on
1:39:28 and throughout the process we maintain
1:39:31 the public comment Matrix so those were
1:39:34 in those three categories we provided a
1:39:36 link in your memo to those where we
1:39:38 tracked each public comment that came in
1:39:41 and then what was the response from
1:39:44 staff did we make any changes if not why
1:39:46 not so those are all been tracked from
1:39:49 the beginning
1:39:51 um in addition when we went to Planning
1:39:53 Development environment committee they
1:39:55 asked us for a feedback loop matrices so
1:39:57 for each of the six buckets we you know
1:40:00 we analyzed the golden outcomes for that
1:40:03 topic area what were the comments
1:40:04 received and what did we do so in
1:40:06 addition to the public comment Matrix
1:40:08 the we also had additional materials for
1:40:12 the council committee
1:40:15 um in your packet are a lot of
1:40:16 attachments
1:40:18 um and the first two are really the
1:40:20 executive summary so that captures the
1:40:22 essence of the changes I also emailed
1:40:25 those to you prior to that but you know
1:40:28 if you really want to stay understand
1:40:30 the scale and nature of those topics
1:40:32 those are the two documents the golden
1:40:34 outcomes document is in there I'll walk
1:40:36 you through tonight uh on some of those
1:40:38 we also had a code testing program where
1:40:42 we provided you a summary of that also
1:40:45 included are the planning and policy
1:40:47 commissions letter to you and
1:40:48 environmental boards letter we did
1:40:51 environmental board had very specific
1:40:53 things that they asked for we did
1:40:54 provide a response back and and went
1:40:57 back to them we provided a link in the
1:40:59 letter itself on what the responses are
1:41:02 and then there's this future list of
1:41:05 future updates so a little bit about how
1:41:08 that came about you know as we started
1:41:10 this journey of having conversations on
1:41:12 these six topics um there were things
1:41:15 that were coming in up during those
1:41:16 conversations either with the community
1:41:18 members or with boards and commissions
1:41:19 that were really
1:41:21 um important things uh that were outside
1:41:24 the scope of this current update so we
1:41:26 created this uh you know it's had
1:41:29 different names uh you know Bike Barn
1:41:32 parking lot to whiteboard list but we've
1:41:36 landed on list of future updates
1:41:38 um so it was sort of this capture all so
1:41:41 it was analyzed it was organized by
1:41:43 those six buckets but in your packet we
1:41:45 have on and you know organized it by the
1:41:47 eight parts that are part of this
1:41:49 Consolidated draft
1:41:51 PPC also had some feedback on future
1:41:55 updates that I think the committee will
1:41:58 talk about and we include in a rata
1:42:00 sheet that kind of captures some of
1:42:02 those things
1:42:04 but if there's feedback on this list
1:42:07 that we can bring in a final updated
1:42:10 list at your next meeting and then of
1:42:13 course there's a sheet that we have with
1:42:15 all the meeting agendas videos and
1:42:17 minutes that captures the essence of the
1:42:19 Journey of this code update and of
1:42:23 course your all the list of craft
1:42:25 ordinances
1:42:27 um the code itself is there are eight
1:42:30 parts
1:42:31 that are in your list but it's organized
1:42:33 by topic uh so and this is a
1:42:36 consolidation of multiple documents so
1:42:39 real quickly how does this code up meet
1:42:42 the objectives that were set up for this
1:42:44 update for umbrella goals the land use
1:42:47 permit process
1:42:49 um you know it's been updated uh
1:42:52 significantly this is where some of the
1:42:54 meteor you know updates happen we've
1:42:57 Consolidated different types of
1:42:59 pre-application meetings to avoid any
1:43:01 confusion site development thresholds
1:43:03 were discussed with the development
1:43:05 commission as well as PPC and those have
1:43:07 been clarified
1:43:09 technical review can happen ahead of the
1:43:11 development commission and so on you
1:43:14 know in the executive summary kind of
1:43:16 captures everything subdivision we did
1:43:18 not have unit lot subdivision which we
1:43:21 heard from Master Builders Association
1:43:22 is a way to get home ownership for Town
1:43:25 Homes rather than a condo style so
1:43:27 that's in there zero lot lines where you
1:43:29 have some flexibility in smaller Lots
1:43:31 was discussed uh streamlining some of
1:43:34 the processes of going to the hearing
1:43:36 examiner for the final plaid adding time
1:43:40 limits and expirations to align with
1:43:43 state law
1:43:44 and then of course the consolidation of
1:43:47 different documents we cannot
1:43:48 underestimate what an effort that was
1:43:51 but the you know in order to keep it
1:43:54 transparent we did not make any changes
1:43:56 so the five different documents for
1:43:58 zoning uses called slightly different
1:44:01 they're in one table now while we could
1:44:04 we could have scrubbed it even more we
1:44:06 kept it at a place where you know the
1:44:08 entitlement weren't changing so the
1:44:10 building hide zoning uses those things
1:44:13 stayed and the types of zoning stayed
1:44:15 the same I see someone yep
1:44:17 um councilmember Mertz thank you madam
1:44:20 council president I have a question
1:44:21 about the process this evening so um
1:44:24 there's lots there's lots just on this
1:44:26 slide right
1:44:28 um are we going to as I organize my
1:44:31 questions I organize them around the
1:44:33 staff report and where I saw things in
1:44:36 the staff report are what is the format
1:44:39 for taking questions tonight because I I
1:44:42 mean I could ask you five questions off
1:44:44 the slide by itself but I I assume
1:44:46 you're going to come back to some of
1:44:47 these things I can absolutely I mean I
1:44:50 can Breeze through this or I can pause
1:44:51 here and take questions it's really
1:44:53 tonight for us to hear from you also our
1:44:57 recommendation is let's get through the
1:44:58 presentation so we have maximum time for
1:45:01 all of your questions does that make
1:45:02 sense some time all right so so are we
1:45:06 going to go through the staff report
1:45:08 I think what we would we're prepared to
1:45:10 do is whatever list of questions you
1:45:11 have we'll have we're going to go
1:45:13 through each of the goals uh that's
1:45:15 that's the remainder of this
1:45:16 presentation and so at the conclusion of
1:45:18 that we were just going to open it up
1:45:19 for questions uh councilmember hunts
1:45:21 here on behalf of the committee there
1:45:23 are six areas she wishes to go through
1:45:25 and at that point we're just going to
1:45:27 open up for whatever general questions
1:45:28 you have all right thank you
1:45:31 so council member Mertz um when you're
1:45:33 talking about the report are you talking
1:45:34 about the staff memo or the executive
1:45:36 summary
1:45:38 I'm talking about the memo that was uh
1:45:41 in our packet for this evening that
1:45:43 starts at page 143 city council
1:45:46 Committee of the whole staff report
1:45:50 just wondering what you were referencing
1:45:52 So yeah thank you go ahead
1:45:55 um so development standards you know
1:45:57 there's a list of Urban Design building
1:46:00 design parking Landscaping Community
1:46:02 spaces so it's organized all under that
1:46:04 neighborhood overlays for for Central
1:46:07 Old Town Talus and Highlands we
1:46:11 maintained the unique aspects and and
1:46:14 carried that forward but instead of
1:46:15 having five different documents there in
1:46:18 one chapter here sipa we increase some
1:46:20 thresholds affordable housing we tweaked
1:46:23 some few things based on Arch input and
1:46:25 standardization Landmark we referenced
1:46:28 King counties and wireless we updated
1:46:30 based on FCC regulations
1:46:33 so now these are these 13 goals uh so
1:46:36 I'll be real quick with this because we
1:46:38 want to make sure we have time um but
1:46:40 these were all in your packet I included
1:46:42 more words here so if you were just
1:46:44 reading the presentation it still made
1:46:45 sense
1:46:47 um so protecting forested hillsides
1:46:49 there's a brand new chapter in the in
1:46:52 the code we also have a transfer of
1:46:55 development rights you can if you have a
1:46:57 forested hillside you're an eligible
1:46:59 site 40 or larger slope has buffers
1:47:02 which was in the existing code but this
1:47:04 new chapter applies to 15 to 40 percent
1:47:07 slope and some additional standards
1:47:10 there
1:47:11 um adequate parking while utilizing land
1:47:14 efficiently this was goal two uh we did
1:47:17 update some parking standards we
1:47:19 maintained the structured parking
1:47:21 requirements that were previously
1:47:23 discussed with Council we created this
1:47:26 tier one and tier two so Highlands and
1:47:29 Central and along Front Street is tier
1:47:32 one so so lower parking standards in
1:47:35 tier one and slightly higher and tier
1:47:37 two because approximity to Transit
1:47:40 outdated off-street loading space
1:47:42 standards are gone
1:47:44 townhome EV standards are now that
1:47:49 single family because 30 percent of town
1:47:51 homes it didn't that didn't make sense
1:47:53 some flexible parking tools have been
1:47:56 added
1:47:57 and so that's the shared parking and all
1:48:00 that discussion that we were talking
1:48:01 about
1:48:02 goal three
1:48:04 conserve you know critical areas and
1:48:07 protect them a lot of work happened a
1:48:09 lot of discussions with multiple boards
1:48:12 and commissions we have efficient
1:48:13 habitat Conservation Area added SMP
1:48:16 Shoreline master program updates include
1:48:19 dark lighting getting rid of some of
1:48:21 those things
1:48:22 cities drinking water supply Cara
1:48:24 classification based on new studies been
1:48:26 updated Wetlands stream buffers have
1:48:29 been updated
1:48:31 um gold four kind of along the same
1:48:32 lines of enhancing Wetland and improving
1:48:36 fish and wildlife habitat tree retention
1:48:39 standards are updated
1:48:41 stormwater facilities are not allowed in
1:48:43 the uh buffer except for if it's a
1:48:47 dispersion trench and things like that
1:48:49 stream classifications are based on
1:48:51 Fisher Wildlife outdoor lighting
1:48:54 standards there's a whole new chapter on
1:48:58 and then goal 5 was increased public
1:49:01 awareness you know you all adopted the
1:49:04 contractor code of conduct which also
1:49:05 does some of that
1:49:07 um during the construction phase but uh
1:49:10 We've added new procedures for notifying
1:49:13 not only the property owners but tenants
1:49:16 um because 40 of the community is
1:49:19 renting
1:49:20 and signed posting happens early in the
1:49:23 project not right 14 days before the
1:49:26 public hearing so that Community is
1:49:28 informed earlier
1:49:32 you know a consolidation of the
1:49:34 pre-means we used to call diff them
1:49:37 different things they were hosted by
1:49:38 different so those have all been
1:49:41 a development commission as a decision
1:49:44 maker is maintained for site development
1:49:46 permits that was discussed however they
1:49:48 didn't want to be the the tech you know
1:49:51 for technical reviews they felt it was
1:49:53 the technical team that was better
1:49:55 suited to make that decision they
1:49:56 brought more value to the building
1:49:59 design and the site design so we've made
1:50:01 some adjustments there
1:50:03 gold sex was increasing housing
1:50:05 diversity and so some of the changes
1:50:08 here for housing affordability are
1:50:10 occurring outside of Title 18 so you
1:50:13 know as you know and we'll be briefing
1:50:15 you in April on that we did get Grant
1:50:18 from Department of Commerce that we're
1:50:19 using to study three um housing
1:50:22 strategies inclusionary zoning is one of
1:50:25 them and removing barriers for condos is
1:50:29 one of them and then also
1:50:31 um you know so those things are being
1:50:34 studied and will brief you uh we made
1:50:36 some adjustments in the housing
1:50:38 affordability chapter but those code
1:50:40 updates will happen as part of that work
1:50:44 um green necklace there is the community
1:50:47 outdoor spaces chapter that brings in
1:50:51 some of those things the work that was
1:50:53 done with the park strategic plan
1:50:56 um and then goal seven is the tree
1:50:59 chapter during while we were doing this
1:51:02 the icap was amended to increase the
1:51:05 tree canopy from 50 to 55 percent so now
1:51:09 we have a minimum and you know instead
1:51:11 of minimum tree density there's a tree
1:51:13 canopy approach so the basic idea there
1:51:15 is you don't just get to count the
1:51:17 number of trees because the smaller
1:51:19 trees count that instead it's the canopy
1:51:22 that counts and with the idea that you
1:51:25 would plant the right tree in the right
1:51:26 place you will need a permit for a tree
1:51:30 replacement if there's no tree
1:51:33 notification after the fact which added
1:51:36 so much more confusion and it helps with
1:51:38 tracking among other updates to the tree
1:51:41 chapter
1:51:42 neighborhoods retain their charm this
1:51:45 was also
1:51:47 all these four different neighborhoods
1:51:49 uh consolidated into one section
1:51:51 we maintained most of these items from
1:51:55 the existing code
1:51:58 and then goal nine was implementation of
1:52:01 the sustainable development and climate
1:52:02 goals so the three slides on this but
1:52:05 basically sustainability is in you know
1:52:08 part integral to the Landscaping chapter
1:52:10 more diversity of species more soil
1:52:14 requirements water reducing irrigation
1:52:16 systems and such
1:52:18 and then you know the the amount of
1:52:22 space for trees was an issue how wide
1:52:25 the planting strips need to be how much
1:52:27 cubic yards of minimum soil needs to be
1:52:29 so things of that nature have been done
1:52:31 through retention requirements have
1:52:34 increased and replacement is required
1:52:38 then came the building sustainability so
1:52:42 we'll be coming to this to the committee
1:52:45 and then to full Council for the
1:52:46 building code adoption coming up
1:52:49 starting in May and that has a lot of
1:52:52 um requirements for energy code update
1:52:54 that that were happening at the same
1:52:56 time so
1:52:58 with this Title 18 we do require
1:53:00 anything over 10 000 square feet to be
1:53:03 uh to get a third party certification
1:53:05 for lead Platinum standard and any
1:53:08 development over 10 units has to be
1:53:10 built green for Star
1:53:13 um and then goal 10 was managing
1:53:16 effective management of travel
1:53:18 non-motorized Transit so the bicycle
1:53:21 parking standards have been updated
1:53:24 um long term short term through block
1:53:27 passage in central Issaquah some of
1:53:29 those standards were too big so those
1:53:31 have been aligned with the trail
1:53:32 standards so they don't hinder
1:53:34 development flexible parking stool
1:53:37 stools shared parking you talked about
1:53:40 you can actually ask for a reduction up
1:53:42 to 40 percent for those shared instead
1:53:45 of 10 under the proposed draft so that's
1:53:47 a significant change
1:53:49 goal 11
1:53:51 successfully implement the green
1:53:54 necklace plan
1:53:56 uh so you'll see
1:53:59 um the common open outdoor amenity space
1:54:01 used to be only 48 square feet in
1:54:04 Central and so that has increased to a
1:54:06 hundred square feet
1:54:08 and modernize the code of course you
1:54:11 know make it clear concise uh streamline
1:54:15 the processes the definitions you know
1:54:18 so much work happened uh in scrubbing
1:54:21 those taking out the standards from the
1:54:23 definitions the repetition and those
1:54:25 kind of changes
1:54:26 subdivision design we didn't have an
1:54:29 approval criteria design standards the
1:54:32 other big thing was we had a you can ask
1:54:35 for an deviation administrative
1:54:37 adjustment of standards for anything
1:54:38 except for these four or five things so
1:54:41 that's been flipped to have say you can
1:54:43 only ask for these nine things
1:54:44 everything else you either meet or you
1:54:47 go through a variance process which is a
1:54:49 public hearing process
1:54:51 so that sort of you know a quick summary
1:54:55 of how the goals and outcomes have been
1:54:58 achieved future updates uh you know we
1:55:01 discussed this with the full Council
1:55:02 there were three items that were
1:55:05 prioritized for this budget stream
1:55:07 buffers part two diversity of Housing
1:55:09 and parking
1:55:11 um and we'll talk a little bit about
1:55:12 those uh planning the director
1:55:14 volleyball before you move on we've got
1:55:16 a question from councilmember Ray yes
1:55:18 this is
1:55:20 this is just me
1:55:21 mean it picky what happened to go 12.
1:55:24 you skipped over 12. you went from 11.
1:55:26 to 13.
1:55:29 so those gold toes around signing oh
1:55:31 sign code yes uh good good catch
1:55:35 um so sign code you know we you all did
1:55:37 a lot of work on sign code I thought it
1:55:40 was like a hotel where we wouldn't have
1:55:41 a 13th floor or something
1:55:48 it was update we didn't Focus too much
1:55:49 on the sign code that was work what was
1:55:52 done earlier Council adopted them but as
1:55:55 we move the sign code into this
1:55:57 framework so the numbering changed the
1:55:59 you know so there was just some cleanup
1:56:01 kind of things but no policy discussion
1:56:02 on the sign code occurred great thank
1:56:06 that was a test
1:56:08 [Laughter]
1:56:12 so those three and then I think these
1:56:15 are the six topics that the committee
1:56:17 would like to speak on and I will turn
1:56:19 over to the committee chair and really
1:56:21 the only slides the other remaining
1:56:23 slides I have are the next meeting is
1:56:25 April 17th which is a public hearing and
1:56:28 that's it so I can leave this up uh for
1:56:31 your discussion
1:56:35 um if you could leave this one up that
1:56:36 would be helpful uh so I wanted to give
1:56:40 a report out from the Planning
1:56:41 Development environment committee and
1:56:43 mostly focusing on our most recent
1:56:46 meeting which was the February 28th
1:56:48 meeting where we reviewed the
1:56:50 Consolidated City draft and also
1:56:51 reviewed the sorts of information that
1:56:53 would be presented here this evening to
1:56:56 full Council so we wanted as the
1:56:59 committee to call council's attention to
1:57:02 a number of things that fell into two
1:57:04 sorts of buckets one were things that
1:57:07 impact how Council works and things that
1:57:09 represent big changes in the code to
1:57:11 meet our objectives as examples and then
1:57:15 the second bucket were three specific
1:57:17 things that the committee recommended
1:57:18 changing from ppc's recommendation
1:57:22 the first bucket was really a judgment
1:57:25 call by the committee and there were
1:57:27 frankly many many items that were
1:57:28 deliberated along the way that were very
1:57:30 important and those are in our materials
1:57:34 this evening but we wanted to provide
1:57:36 examples that we felt were
1:57:38 representative of the kind of work that
1:57:40 has gone through this entire process and
1:57:43 also not focus on the most recent items
1:57:47 that we worked on but rather looking
1:57:48 back at the whole process what are some
1:57:50 examples of things that had a lot of
1:57:53 community involvement a lot of community
1:57:55 comments that were addressed and that
1:57:57 represented big changes to get us to our
1:58:00 goals for this update
1:58:03 the second list which are the the
1:58:06 changes from the PPC recommendation is a
1:58:09 very short list three changes out of I
1:58:12 don't know how many things that we we
1:58:15 agreed with the PPC so the PPC and
1:58:18 environmental board and our volunteer
1:58:20 commissions all did an excellent job as
1:58:23 was stated earlier many many meetings
1:58:25 many many hours of very thoughtful
1:58:27 deliberation and we wanted to flag those
1:58:30 few items for Council consideration
1:58:32 because they did vary from the a
1:58:35 recommendation and planning policy
1:58:37 planning policy commission so the first
1:58:40 item is the site-specific rezone process
1:58:42 we are calling council's attention to
1:58:45 this one because
1:58:47 we are recommending removal of criteria
1:58:51 two which is the criteria that
1:58:53 references the county-wide housing
1:58:55 Target and whether or not we've met the
1:58:58 county-wide housing Target
1:59:00 we discussed this in committee and it
1:59:04 was not something that other cities use
1:59:06 as a rezone criteria it also is out of
1:59:09 our control it's a county goal it's not
1:59:11 specific to Issaquah or a county Target
1:59:14 rather and it's also in in our
1:59:16 discussion we felt it really wasn't
1:59:18 meant to be used as a rezone criteria
1:59:21 it's meant as a Target and it didn't
1:59:24 seem appropriate to include this with a
1:59:27 list so that was a change from the PPC
1:59:31 recommended drops and that we wanted to
1:59:34 flag that also because the changes to
1:59:38 that process are changes that will
1:59:40 impact the way that Council works
1:59:45 so the other change there is that it
1:59:48 changes the process for specific reasons
1:59:51 to have the hearing examiner review and
1:59:53 provide recommendations to the city
1:59:55 council I think that was stated earlier
1:59:56 but just wanted to flag that because
1:59:58 that impacts the way we will do our
2:00:00 business in the future if we continue
2:00:01 with this
2:00:03 okay the second item are parking
2:00:05 regulations even this evening we've had
2:00:07 a lot of interest in parking this is one
2:00:10 of the things that we set out to
2:00:12 modernize in our code with this land use
2:00:15 code update and there have been changes
2:00:19 to the section that our committee wanted
2:00:21 to highlight for Council so one of the
2:00:24 goals that we have for this update is to
2:00:26 provide adequate parking while utilizing
2:00:28 land efficiently and then efficiently
2:00:31 yes and then also
2:00:34 um we single out an issue which is that
2:00:37 parking is not land's highest and best
2:00:39 use and generates negative impacts just
2:00:41 as dirty stormwater aesthetic dead zones
2:00:44 and over 75 percent of central
2:00:46 issaquah's surface parking lots it also
2:00:48 discusses in our goals and outcomes
2:00:52 documents that we should strive to have
2:00:56 parking that meets our needs currently
2:00:59 but also could be transformed in the
2:01:02 future
2:01:03 so there's a lot to be done here and we
2:01:07 did as a council also single out this
2:01:09 item for additional study in the near
2:01:12 term and actually budgeted for that
2:01:14 additional study so the changes that are
2:01:16 in this draft would be this tiered
2:01:20 approach as was described earlier so the
2:01:22 tiers are meant to reflect that some of
2:01:25 our some of our city has more public
2:01:28 transit is more walkable is also
2:01:31 expected to have more growth and more
2:01:34 ability in the future and so would have
2:01:37 lower parking requirements
2:01:39 so there's there's two tiers it
2:01:41 simplifies into those two tiers and then
2:01:45 we will be doing additional study on
2:01:47 the parking needs and how to best
2:01:50 address them with that additional
2:01:52 funding that Council has already
2:01:54 allocated
2:01:59 um the third one is streak canopy
2:02:02 so tree canopy is something that our
2:02:05 community feels really strongly about we
2:02:08 are a community that loves our trees and
2:02:10 our beautiful forested hillsides and
2:02:11 really values that the tree preservation
2:02:14 regulations were changed to meet the
2:02:17 icap goal Which is higher than our
2:02:19 previous goal it's now 55 percent and it
2:02:23 also supports that with code that is
2:02:25 more conducive to meeting our canopy
2:02:28 it regulates canopy coverage which
2:02:31 directly
2:02:33 influences our ability to meet our tree
2:02:35 canopy goals and for this one we did go
2:02:39 with the PPC recommended changes but
2:02:41 wanted to flag this because it
2:02:43 represents a big change that will impact
2:02:45 our community for the better better
2:02:48 allow us to meet our tree canopy goals
2:02:50 and be Tree City USA so this is a
2:02:54 exciting one that directly meets our
2:02:56 goals but also represents a change that
2:02:58 we had a lot of community involvement a
2:03:00 lot of environmental board involvement
2:03:02 and will impact our community
2:03:06 the third one oh site-specific criteria
2:03:10 I discussed
2:03:12 um already and then critical areas code
2:03:15 for non-conforming structures
2:03:17 this one is one of the things that are
2:03:19 singled out because it is a change from
2:03:21 planning policy Commission
2:03:24 so planning policy commission
2:03:26 recommended
2:03:29 make sure I have this right
2:03:35 planning policy commission recommended
2:03:37 that there be an allowance for two
2:03:41 things in Wetland buffers one was for
2:03:43 building on already impervious surface
2:03:46 which was a change that was made very
2:03:51 much towards the ends of the this
2:03:53 process because it came after code
2:03:55 testing and so the committee recommended
2:03:59 that that seems reasonable so we
2:04:01 recommended keeping that part in the
2:04:03 second part was a change that again came
2:04:07 towards the end of the process that
2:04:08 would allow
2:04:09 a non-conforming structure to become
2:04:11 more non-conforming if it became
2:04:15 non-conforming in a very specific way
2:04:17 and so there is wording about that in
2:04:20 our packet the committee discussed this
2:04:25 I'm trying to find okay I found it um so
2:04:29 the committee discussed this one and the
2:04:31 recommendation we ultimately felt didn't
2:04:34 align with our goals for stream
2:04:36 protection for wetland protection we
2:04:39 have a lot of goals about making sure we
2:04:41 don't degrade the environment that we
2:04:43 set out to do with this update so we
2:04:45 didn't feel it helped us achieve those
2:04:48 goals and it also
2:04:49 goes against a general principle of our
2:04:52 code which is that we typically don't
2:04:53 allow a non-conforming building to
2:04:57 become more non-conforming
2:04:59 so we recommend it against that one
2:05:02 the last change
2:05:05 that we recommended that was different
2:05:06 than what the planning policy commission
2:05:08 recommended
2:05:09 was the zero lot line type of
2:05:13 development so zero lotlines exist in
2:05:17 Issaquah the type of development exists
2:05:19 in Issaquah Talus Highlands have a lot
2:05:21 of this kind of development
2:05:23 the PPC went back and forth on this one
2:05:27 and this is actually a conversation
2:05:29 where I was I watched I was in the room
2:05:33 with PPC the first time they discussed
2:05:35 and there were multiple opinions on this
2:05:38 um ultimately the PPC recommended to
2:05:41 allow
2:05:43 the um
2:05:45 to allow this in Highlands and Talus
2:05:48 where it already is in Central and then
2:05:52 originally they recommended to also
2:05:54 allow it in places with a minimum of
2:05:57 7.26 dwelling units per acre which means
2:06:01 I correct me if I'm wrong but means
2:06:04 there's smaller Lots so it makes sense
2:06:07 it made sense to the committee that we
2:06:09 would allow this more flexibility
2:06:11 to build in different configurations on
2:06:15 those smaller lots and originally PPC
2:06:17 also supported that they ultimately
2:06:21 recommended against that the committee
2:06:23 felt it still made sense and so we
2:06:26 recommended allowing for that kind of
2:06:29 development
2:06:30 in that specific type of Zone
2:06:34 so those were the changes that we those
2:06:37 were the things that we wanted to bring
2:06:38 forward this evening for council's
2:06:41 special consideration again these
2:06:43 weren't this is not an exhaustive list
2:06:45 of the many important things that were
2:06:47 decided along the way but they were
2:06:49 examples and things that we felt could
2:06:53 be brought forward this evening and then
2:06:56 also the PPC changes
2:06:59 so the last thing I wanted to discuss is
2:07:02 that at our February 28th meeting we
2:07:05 also recognize that the planning policy
2:07:08 commission had a list of
2:07:15 about nine items and so these items were
2:07:19 things that the planning policy
2:07:20 commission recommended would need
2:07:23 additional review
2:07:24 there's an overlap with this whiteboard
2:07:27 list or a future updates list but it is
2:07:29 its own list actually and I think that I
2:07:33 think recognizing these as needing
2:07:36 additional review is different than them
2:07:38 potentially needing additional code work
2:07:40 the example work on the code so the
2:07:43 examples that are good examples of that
2:07:45 are one of them was to review the
2:07:48 usability and accessibility of this
2:07:49 document so that means we have to live
2:07:52 with the document for a while and see
2:07:55 how it's how it's going see how people
2:07:58 are using it is it user friendly is it
2:08:00 meeting our umbrella goals of being
2:08:02 Equitable and
2:08:04 and easy to use and easier to read so we
2:08:09 as a committee wanted to recognize that
2:08:12 list and be sure that that list
2:08:14 continued to live on through our Council
2:08:17 process so what we would suggest is that
2:08:21 that list
2:08:24 through our committee process go back to
2:08:26 Planning Development and environment
2:08:28 committee for additional review within
2:08:30 the next year sort of in its own tier
2:08:33 and still recognizing that we do have a
2:08:37 bigger list of things that have been
2:08:40 identified by the community throughout
2:08:41 this process that's on the future
2:08:43 updates list
2:08:44 so this is sort of another way that we
2:08:48 can maintain
2:08:50 the council can continue to keep its
2:08:52 pulse on how this is going and also
2:08:54 respect this recommendation of PPC and
2:08:58 continue to hold ourselves accountable
2:09:00 for meeting the goals and outcomes that
2:09:02 we set out to meet with this update
2:09:06 so that summarizes our
2:09:10 discussion on February 28th and I wanted
2:09:12 to make sure to give my fellow committee
2:09:15 members an opportunity to add or correct
2:09:18 anything that I said
2:09:23 no I think you summarized
2:09:26 the things where we ended up having
2:09:30 questions or things that we wanted to
2:09:32 highlight
2:09:33 that being said also just the
2:09:36 huge review of the concept the
2:09:41 really hearkening back to that goals and
2:09:43 outcomes chart that was so important in
2:09:46 guiding us through the process and being
2:09:49 able to assure that
2:09:52 the changes that we wanted to see
2:09:55 even as we were combining three
2:09:57 different sets of code
2:10:00 being seen in this even though we can't
2:10:03 Redline the original document and say
2:10:06 okay this is the change that we made
2:10:09 by combining everything and then
2:10:11 highlighting within that goals and
2:10:12 outcomes chart I think that using that
2:10:15 as a guiding document to be able to say
2:10:17 yes we established these goals and so
2:10:20 that's another area that we can kind of
2:10:23 discuss as a council because that's
2:10:25 certainly been through
2:10:26 the pde but that larger reflection would
2:10:31 be useful
2:10:37 we're at this point
2:10:40 um we're obviously going to have a lot
2:10:42 of feedback but I'd like to start with
2:10:44 just any questions that we have and then
2:10:47 we'll go for public comment and then we
2:10:50 can talk about kind of feedback and next
2:10:53 steps and things like that council
2:10:55 member marks thank you council president
2:10:57 I have several questions the first step
2:11:01 quasi-judicial
2:11:04 um that word makes me cringe
2:11:06 um weren't we talking about getting rid
2:11:08 of quasi-judicial
2:11:10 and getting out of the business of
2:11:12 acting as judges to see quasi judicial
2:11:14 even still around
2:11:16 yes so
2:11:19 um that's correct we did get rid of
2:11:21 Masters site plan so where the council
2:11:24 acted like a judge uh in a closed record
2:11:26 hearing you all got a recommendation for
2:11:28 development commission but couldn't talk
2:11:30 to the community members so that's no
2:11:32 longer in in this draft it all is goes
2:11:36 to site develop it becomes a site
2:11:38 development permit we have a process if
2:11:40 you have a previously approved a master
2:11:41 site plan what's major and minor so
2:11:44 we've kind of put that in within the
2:11:46 mold of a site development permit rather
2:11:48 than that so that's been fixed the other
2:11:51 thing I think that this legislative the
2:11:55 quasi-judicial the site specific reasons
2:11:57 were you know are now considered
2:11:59 quasi-judicial because it's specific to
2:12:01 one property which is still maintained
2:12:04 as a council decision
2:12:06 but you get a recommendation from the
2:12:08 hearing examiner so
2:12:10 um it's slightly different because
2:12:12 you're going to get it in a more you
2:12:14 know legal framework of what what this
2:12:16 is rather than just
2:12:18 um so that is maintained you still play
2:12:20 the role for legislative amendments you
2:12:23 know and things like that in the chart
2:12:25 there is a level five process for you
2:12:28 know legislative kind of things but for
2:12:30 the most part the the site-specific
2:12:32 rezones are the only things that will
2:12:34 come to the council as a quasi-judicial
2:12:36 matter
2:12:37 and Rachel you want to add something
2:12:39 there
2:12:41 I think that the question was sort of
2:12:42 whether we could get rid of handling
2:12:45 them all together and the answer to that
2:12:47 is no just because
2:12:50 by virtue of the law anything that
2:12:52 involves a particular person and
2:12:55 property is a quasi-judicial matter we
2:12:59 did attempt to take the council out of
2:13:01 it as much as possible the reason that
2:13:03 you still are the final body on the
2:13:04 rezones is that rezones have to be
2:13:07 accomplished Veil ordinance
2:13:09 Okay so
2:13:12 is there any way to you know
2:13:15 anticipating these things in the future
2:13:17 that we can do something that will give
2:13:19 us tools that will allow us to better do
2:13:22 that the next time because I will tell
2:13:24 you as council president the last time
2:13:26 that occurred we were not prepared for
2:13:28 it and we did the best that we could but
2:13:30 it is not a position I would ever want
2:13:32 to be in again
2:13:33 it will be much better next time because
2:13:36 you will you will you will not have to
2:13:38 hold that hearing and do all of that
2:13:40 that will all be before the hearing
2:13:42 examiner and you'll simply get a
2:13:43 recommendation from the hearing examiner
2:13:45 uh to act on
2:13:47 all right thank you you're welcome that
2:13:49 was one question uh
2:13:51 um do all tree removal requests now
2:13:53 require a permit
2:13:55 where would they after after these
2:13:57 changes that's correct all trees for
2:14:00 most part yes all trees like like two
2:14:02 inch trees no significant trees
2:14:04 significant thank you okay six inches
2:14:07 I'm good with significant uh
2:14:10 this lighting standard
2:14:13 um I I just I have an interest in this
2:14:15 because I have seen examples in town of
2:14:19 what I think of as light pollution
2:14:22 um are does this is this going to move
2:14:24 the needle on light pollution
2:14:27 it's intended to so you know part of the
2:14:30 changes here were the Technologies
2:14:32 change the lumens are no longer the
2:14:34 standard it's the bug lighting and and
2:14:36 it's the color and the temperature of
2:14:38 the the light that makes a difference so
2:14:40 so some of those are techy kind of um
2:14:43 adjustments but
2:14:45 um and then of course with critical
2:14:47 areas you know the lights that shine
2:14:49 into the the Predator you know you so
2:14:52 there's an impact from those so I think
2:14:54 those are things that have been fixed
2:14:56 yeah we heard some good feedback from
2:14:58 the community that was trying to find
2:14:59 that balance of you know it does our our
2:15:01 ad architectural interest how do we do
2:15:04 it so I think it maintains ways to kind
2:15:07 of outline your building but as long as
2:15:08 you have Eaves and things like that you
2:15:10 do it below it so you can still meet
2:15:12 some of those objectives
2:15:14 um safety was brought up you know what
2:15:17 dark spaces and how does the safety work
2:15:19 I think we've kind of tried to main meet
2:15:22 that balance okay
2:15:24 um I see tdrs mentioned in the report
2:15:26 what was the last time we did a TDR
2:15:30 uh I couldn't tell you specifically when
2:15:33 but it's been used in Issaquah
2:15:35 um you know for Highlands all of that
2:15:37 Mitchell Hill tdrs the talus development
2:15:41 so it's been used successfully in in the
2:15:44 city uh it's not used that often uh the
2:15:47 demand has to exist for it to be used we
2:15:50 currently have a development agreement
2:15:52 with Lakeside that anticipates the TDR
2:15:55 to be used so I think there's that's a
2:15:57 fine answer I just wanted to know if we
2:16:00 anticipated seeing those again I had
2:16:01 forgotten that Lakeside that there were
2:16:03 tbrs as well
2:16:05 the cepa exemption uh
2:16:09 uh that is listed on page 159.
2:16:13 um I had a question about whether given
2:16:16 that we are in I think it was what
2:16:18 greater than 4 000 Square moving to
2:16:21 greater than four thousand square feet
2:16:23 yeah I can't find it
2:16:25 do we have any concerns if we see a
2:16:27 legislative environment where we get rid
2:16:29 of single-family housing that the
2:16:31 combination of uh changing that cepa
2:16:34 exemption would uh combine with sort of
2:16:37 busting open development on the hillside
2:16:40 so could come back to bite us
2:16:43 um no because I think cepas used as a
2:16:46 tool to get mitigation for things that
2:16:48 aren't covered in your code so you know
2:16:51 it started in the 70s and it people
2:16:53 didn't have good codes and things like
2:16:56 that currently it's used more for like
2:16:58 cumulative impacts and things like that
2:17:00 that might come in but there could be
2:17:01 some larger storm water you know there
2:17:03 may be a few times you can use cipa as a
2:17:06 mitigation
2:17:07 um but Department of ecology did a lot
2:17:09 of studying of this issue and and we
2:17:12 shared all the peer cities research with
2:17:13 all of our boards and commissions we you
2:17:17 know the the state law is you can go up
2:17:20 to 60 units and go up to you know so we
2:17:23 didn't make that big jump because we
2:17:24 were at four a lot of cities had made
2:17:27 these in incremental changes so I think
2:17:30 we found this uh 10 and 10 000 which is
2:17:33 then carried forward in the
2:17:35 sustainability threshold so it's kind of
2:17:36 consistent threshold
2:17:38 um but it you know the the idea here is
2:17:41 not to not get the mid mitigation but
2:17:44 have the code to get the address the
2:17:46 concerns but use CPA for really
2:17:49 addressing impacts that aren't covered
2:17:51 by code and you would just process these
2:17:54 for these smaller projects but not
2:17:55 really get anything anyway so it's more
2:17:58 in the streamlining the permit process
2:18:00 area all right
2:18:02 um the this is a potential large
2:18:04 question but um stream buffer is going
2:18:06 to 150 feet is is is that occurring
2:18:10 elsewhere what's the science behind
2:18:12 moving from 100 to 150 feet yeah so um
2:18:16 you know this was something that we in
2:18:18 the first round we maintained our stream
2:18:20 buffers but I think we got a lot of
2:18:22 public comments that what is the best
2:18:24 available science you're using so we did
2:18:26 hire a consultant Watershed company did
2:18:28 an analysis
2:18:30 of what it's fish and wildlife saying
2:18:33 you know there's 300 foot buffer even
2:18:35 makes sense in an urbanized environment
2:18:37 like Issaquah what does 100 mean what is
2:18:40 you know so their recommendation to meet
2:18:43 the and it's a state law requirement
2:18:45 that we have to consider best available
2:18:47 science and it was to make the fish
2:18:49 bearing streams be 150 feet and our our
2:18:52 other municipalities in King County
2:18:54 going to 150 feet
2:18:56 or larger or larger okay good
2:18:59 um what what what would be the I see
2:19:02 this expansion of critical Aquifer
2:19:04 recharge areas so it seems like a pretty
2:19:06 substantial increase what's the impact
2:19:09 in the community and in the development
2:19:12 environment to greatly enlarging Keras
2:19:15 yeah so uh you know the city undertook a
2:19:18 study hydrogen geogic
2:19:20 um you know where they're traced a drop
2:19:23 of water that goes from here to here and
2:19:24 what's the potential for contaminating a
2:19:27 drinking water supply since we get 40
2:19:29 percent of our water from from these
2:19:31 Wells so this is just codifying that
2:19:34 study so they looked at five-year
2:19:36 increment 10-year increment in six
2:19:38 months and and came up with a map it
2:19:41 does expand make it four classifications
2:19:43 but it's really class one and class two
2:19:46 are the more stringent in terms of the
2:19:49 prohibited uses list uh sort of thing so
2:19:53 um we had Department of Health give us
2:19:56 comments on that we had samplat look at
2:19:58 it and give us comments and the issue
2:20:03 with the prohibited uses list was
2:20:05 heavily debated and we got a lot of
2:20:07 public comments on that I think our
2:20:09 intent was never to be punitive to
2:20:11 existing businesses but to really not
2:20:13 before we're thinking and not allow more
2:20:16 of these uses that could degrade the
2:20:18 city's drinking water apply so we
2:20:20 tweaked the language to allow the
2:20:22 existing businesses not to be considered
2:20:24 non-conforming they could continue to
2:20:26 you know run their business maintain
2:20:27 expand whatever they they're doing but
2:20:30 at not at the cost of
2:20:33 you know increasing potential for
2:20:34 contamination got it and I'm through
2:20:36 more than half of my questions and these
2:20:38 answers are really helpful for me so
2:20:39 thank you
2:20:40 um does adoption of the King County
2:20:43 landmarks preservation code potentially
2:20:45 impact Confluence Park and the historic
2:20:46 structures that are on Confluence
2:20:48 you know nothing changed and we used to
2:20:51 copy the King County code and put embed
2:20:53 it and hardwire it so if there was minor
2:20:56 tweaks that King County did we were out
2:20:58 of sync with that so it maintained
2:21:00 whatever was in the previous code I
2:21:02 can't speak for whether it's impacting
2:21:04 the conference Park but we can look into
2:21:06 that if it actually does impact but
2:21:10 basically it establishes a commission
2:21:11 there's one Community member that you
2:21:13 know participates in this commission and
2:21:15 any property owner can petition for
2:21:17 their property to be designated as a
2:21:19 landmark so it's property owner driven
2:21:22 got it yeah
2:21:25 um so this this uh moving the
2:21:27 development uh threshold from 40 degrees
2:21:30 to 15 degrees uh or 15 degrees slope
2:21:34 right oh yeah yeah does that what is
2:21:37 does that have net effect of of
2:21:40 basically closing a lot of the hillsides
2:21:42 to potential Redevelopment no so
2:21:47 no it's a 40 percent were greater slope
2:21:49 that's not man-made so if you you know
2:21:52 naturally yeah naturally occurring then
2:21:55 uh you you can't develop it under an
2:21:58 existing code and you have these buffers
2:22:00 of 50 feet that can be reduced to 10
2:22:01 feet if they're safe going through a Geo
2:22:04 study
2:22:06 um but what this does the new chapter
2:22:08 forested hillsides chapter is it
2:22:10 establishes design standards for slopes
2:22:13 from 15 to 39.9 so anything that's slow
2:22:17 you know slope but not 40 you have to do
2:22:21 this assessment of how can you plan and
2:22:23 design your development to minimize cut
2:22:26 and fills to kind of design with the
2:22:28 topography and and preserve green spaces
2:22:32 okay there's a section on grass on page
2:22:37 168 and I'm trying to find
2:22:42 um but the question that I had uh sorry
2:22:51 basically the question that I had gets
2:22:54 at the heart of it is
2:22:57 um do we now and will we allow natural
2:23:00 glass grasses will we allow I don't even
2:23:04 know how to say this right there are
2:23:07 nationally there are homeowners
2:23:10 associations that prevent the use of
2:23:13 natural grasses and require
2:23:15 Beauty grasses I don't even know what
2:23:18 the white right term is right
2:23:21 does this change or help preserve the
2:23:25 efforts to use natural grasses rather
2:23:27 than these Beauty grasses that aren't
2:23:29 good for the environment
2:23:31 um yeah I think the the Landscaping
2:23:33 chapter talks about your you know
2:23:36 um because they're they're more
2:23:38 intensive you know pesticide use or
2:23:40 fertilizer or more you know you water
2:23:43 usage so from an environmental
2:23:45 perspective too
2:23:47 um so
2:23:48 we don't say you you can't plant grass
2:23:51 at all you know this goat doesn't do
2:23:53 that but it encourages
2:23:56 um the more
2:23:59 um ground cover approach uh the less
2:24:01 water usage and and such and then it
2:24:04 allows Browning of the grass so to
2:24:06 conserve the water usage so you it's not
2:24:09 a Code Enforcement issue if you have
2:24:11 grass is brown kind of thing so it
2:24:13 allows some flexibility in that respect
2:24:15 but it doesn't say you cannot plant
2:24:18 grass at all
2:24:20 two questions and uh the draft code
2:24:24 there's language the draft code provides
2:24:26 for recommended increases to match
2:24:28 current demand and recent changes in
2:24:30 federal requirements for electric
2:24:31 vehicles what does that mean I asked
2:24:34 this same question because I wasn't
2:24:35 really sure and I was told by Stephen we
2:24:40 can look into that but the only thing I
2:24:43 understood we changed in the EV thing
2:24:45 was the town homes which is what the
2:24:46 council had asked but I think that came
2:24:48 from the federal rules is what I think
2:24:50 we understand that's talking about the
2:24:52 same thing but there's some federal
2:24:54 regulations that kind of require that
2:24:56 but we can look into that further yeah
2:24:59 and my very last question is
2:25:01 um what mechanism do we have to ensure
2:25:04 Community comments have been addressed I
2:25:06 saw there was lots on community comments
2:25:08 but I didn't necessarily see circling
2:25:10 back to say and this is how these
2:25:13 comments were addressed yeah so that's
2:25:16 uh the public common Matrix that we uh
2:25:18 you know maintained throughout this
2:25:20 permit process so in your memo there's
2:25:23 links to three different documents the
2:25:26 first one was in the first phase so gaps
2:25:28 analysis we got comments at a very high
2:25:30 level when we were asking those policy
2:25:32 questions then we got very special big
2:25:34 things in the second round about this
2:25:36 language doesn't make sense and and so
2:25:38 when we made a change we we kind of
2:25:41 include our
2:25:43 comment in the last column saying this
2:25:45 was made or if it wasn't made why
2:25:50 and there's and those links are in the
2:25:52 are in the report I just didn't some
2:25:54 yeah it's in your yeah I mean there's
2:25:57 lots of
2:25:59 pages of those documents but they're
2:26:01 linked they're on the web page and
2:26:02 they're linked to your I will go take a
2:26:04 look thank you for answering all my
2:26:06 questions long ago I was the chair of
2:26:07 Landon Shore so clearly I've had some
2:26:09 pent-up enthusiasm for this topic thanks
2:26:12 great and and thank you for allowing me
2:26:14 to ask 14 questions I love it I love
2:26:17 this interplay I mean Richard Dolly
2:26:20 while you're just
2:26:21 taken every question uh did I see
2:26:24 somebody else with the makeup anybody
2:26:26 else next
2:26:28 looking over at Barb so we're looking
2:26:31 for any other questions that we want to
2:26:34 highlight here before we go to community
2:26:36 comment and I'm not seeing anything else
2:26:40 you just you took them all in hand we
2:26:44 appreciate that okay so
2:26:47 I think we're going to take a breath and
2:26:49 see if we've got any community members
2:26:52 online nobody in person that would like
2:26:54 to make comments um if you're on the
2:26:56 phone star three if you're on a smart
2:26:59 device or computer you can look for the
2:27:01 raised hand icon clerk do we have
2:27:04 anybody indicating a desire to speak we
2:27:07 still have one member of the public with
2:27:09 us but they are not indicating a desire
2:27:11 to speak okay well we appreciate them uh
2:27:14 hanging out with us and if they want to
2:27:16 email they know they always can
2:27:21 welcome back to the council now we've
2:27:23 got I mean this is obviously a huge big
2:27:28 Project Director Deli well I wonder if
2:27:30 you can put up on the screen first of
2:27:32 all what the next step schedule is
2:27:36 and then potentially that
2:27:40 um I was thinking there was something
2:27:42 about a
2:27:43 not just additional edits but
2:27:47 yeah the PD committee highlighted topics
2:27:51 slide but let's start with the next
2:27:54 steps
2:28:03 um to have April uh 17th as a public
2:28:05 hearing so even though our code doesn't
2:28:08 require a public hearing for the council
2:28:10 but we we planned it that way because if
2:28:14 there's some changes that the Council
2:28:15 made then that's the last opportunity to
2:28:18 hear directly from from the public in
2:28:20 the in the very transparent and open
2:28:22 process that we've had maintained so
2:28:25 that would be the public hearing to take
2:28:27 uh you know final round of comments on
2:28:31 all of those ordinances and then on May
2:28:34 1st you would be adopting the
2:28:38 um the update if you choose to do so and
2:28:42 then the code will take effect 30 days
2:28:44 from adoption
2:28:46 okay so I think given that schedule I
2:28:50 think what we're looking for are with
2:28:53 the kind of 10 ordinances that all come
2:28:56 together with PPC and pde's
2:28:59 recommendations are there any problem
2:29:01 points are there any things that you
2:29:04 need more information on before you're
2:29:06 ready to vote on those and then this
2:29:09 other piece is hey let's look over the
2:29:12 things that PD highlighted
2:29:15 and said hey maybe there's some that we
2:29:17 either want to feature for you as bigger
2:29:21 changes or something where we disagreed
2:29:23 with PPC that we really want to get into
2:29:25 and talk through so I will start with
2:29:28 council member Mertz
2:29:31 uh so I an issue that I I didn't think
2:29:34 was a problem before I got here tonight
2:29:35 but now I sort of wonder if it is uh the
2:29:38 subject to parking
2:29:40 um I uh I have wanted more parking
2:29:43 downtown for at least a decade
2:29:47 I want a more Transit uh I want a
2:29:51 community that has more Transit and it's
2:29:52 more walkable we're not there today we
2:29:54 have less Transit that when I started
2:29:56 Council 14 years ago because we have
2:29:58 less buses in town serving points away
2:30:00 from the transit and as far as I can
2:30:03 tell Metro Transit and uh soundtrack
2:30:06 don't have any money and so uh we're
2:30:09 we're not we're not we don't generate
2:30:11 the kind of volumes that make us a high
2:30:13 priority for them so in the intervening
2:30:15 people are going to continue to drive
2:30:17 cars and I'm all for lowering minimums
2:30:21 so that if developers want to offer a
2:30:24 smaller amount of parking that should be
2:30:26 an option for them but when I see things
2:30:27 like our earlier conversation about
2:30:30 future development of a city hall and
2:30:32 and what I consider to be just
2:30:34 extremely small potential parking I
2:30:38 worry that there must be stuff buried in
2:30:39 here that's that's got uh you know
2:30:43 telling us to have an insufficient
2:30:44 amount of parking and I'm concerned
2:30:46 about that so I want to understand more
2:30:48 about what this says about parking our
2:30:50 our residents drive and you know I want
2:30:53 jobs co-located with housing so they
2:30:55 don't have to drive as far but they
2:30:56 can't get around town by bus currently
2:30:58 and so we need sufficient parking and I
2:31:01 want to make sure that these changes
2:31:02 don't handicap people's ability to have
2:31:06 that and you know I I recognize that
2:31:10 improv impermeable services are bad but
2:31:13 there's permeable parking it's just more
2:31:15 expensive so there's things that can be
2:31:17 done to mitigate
2:31:19 um you know but
2:31:20 around the county I see lots of
2:31:22 structured parking going up it's
2:31:24 expensive I mean surface parking has
2:31:26 become incredibly expensive but
2:31:29 structured parking is even more
2:31:30 expensive but when I go to Bellevue I
2:31:31 park and structured parking when I go to
2:31:33 Redmond I park construction parking when
2:31:35 I go to Kirkland at Park construction
2:31:36 parking so
2:31:38 um you know I want to make sure that at
2:31:41 the end of this that we're not
2:31:43 penalizing our residents that have cars
2:31:45 which can be an equity issue right
2:31:47 people people need to get places and
2:31:49 they and they currently get them by car
2:31:51 so until Metro Transit and Sound Transit
2:31:54 can do the things that they've long
2:31:56 promised us we have to continue to have
2:31:57 parking so that's my I want to know
2:32:00 what's in here about parking and that
2:32:02 we're not going to handicap our ability
2:32:04 for people to provide parking in
2:32:06 situations where it's warranted like a
2:32:08 new city hall thank you great so let me
2:32:11 see if I can put that into an Ask do you
2:32:15 think that if we got a memo that
2:32:19 compared the the existing parking
2:32:23 minimums and maximums with the new
2:32:27 proposed tier one and tier two that that
2:32:30 would allow you to understand the
2:32:32 situation a little bit better that is a
2:32:34 wonderful suggestion the only thing I
2:32:35 would add to that is what are our fellow
2:32:37 cities on the east side some I sense of
2:32:39 what are
2:32:40 the current environment for our fellow
2:32:42 cities on the east side so what what's
2:32:45 going on in Turkey yeah we can easily
2:32:46 put that together we actually did that
2:32:48 peer City research for the council
2:32:50 committee they asked the same thing so
2:32:52 that would be hugely helpful and then
2:32:54 the other thing that I will say is I
2:32:57 think what our goal was wasn't to make a
2:33:01 huge change with the parking scenario
2:33:04 right now because there was already
2:33:07 different parking requirements for like
2:33:11 the highlands and Telus and everything
2:33:13 this was bringing everything together
2:33:15 and kind of naturally creating two tiers
2:33:18 whereas any future idea of hey what is
2:33:23 the right size of parking
2:33:26 um is on that future updates so that's
2:33:29 the other thing to reference is really
2:33:33 where are there areas where this really
2:33:35 is any change versus it's just packaged
2:33:39 differently because we're combining
2:33:41 codes yeah so uh council member hunt
2:33:45 councilmember D Michelle was also away
2:33:47 Michelle's waving
2:33:50 we'll go with councilmember d Michelle
2:33:53 oh thank you
2:33:55 um if we do a study of that
2:33:57 um we do have some improved um Transit
2:34:01 coming whenever and uh council member
2:34:04 Marx is correct it's not going to happen
2:34:06 tomorrow but whenever the East link is
2:34:09 put in we will have uh improved Transit
2:34:13 coming through downtown Issaquah
2:34:15 um and hitting from the highlands down
2:34:18 through Front Street then down Gilman
2:34:21 and connecting the whole
2:34:23 um Central floor so so we do have some
2:34:27 improvements coming and I'm I think the
2:34:29 talks about the shuttles have been
2:34:31 positive so I would like to just see
2:34:35 that we make sure that if we do the the
2:34:39 report or the study that you were
2:34:41 talking about that we make sure that
2:34:43 we've got all of those proposed Transit
2:34:46 changes
2:34:47 um uh considered as part of that report
2:34:51 thanks
2:34:53 and just to clarify I don't think we're
2:34:55 looking to study this so much as do a
2:34:59 report or a memo that shows the
2:35:01 comparison of existing versus proposed
2:35:05 so that we can better understand what
2:35:07 the proposed is saying
2:35:11 uh now on to council member hunt uh on
2:35:15 this topic so one of the things about
2:35:17 the parking standards is they are from
2:35:20 um from existing standards they're from
2:35:23 the FTE I believe
2:35:25 um ite yeah okay ite so they're from a
2:35:29 standard setting group
2:35:31 um and uh one of our goals being to
2:35:34 align with best available uh practice
2:35:38 and also our neighboring cities we did
2:35:40 look at that as our committee and it
2:35:43 would be great to provide that
2:35:44 information to the whole committee but I
2:35:46 think we we did align to neighboring
2:35:49 cities and to the the science on this
2:35:52 topic about you know what the best
2:35:53 practice is anyway
2:35:55 um I also wanted to
2:35:58 say from my perspective it is a light
2:36:01 touch it's not a big change I think the
2:36:04 committee wanted to highlight this but
2:36:07 also highlight that there is already
2:36:10 budgeted work to look at this especially
2:36:12 for Central Issaquah to make sure that
2:36:13 we we do get it right
2:36:15 um and anticipate future transformation
2:36:18 and future change and future walkability
2:36:21 um so this code change represents a very
2:36:24 light touch and then we will consider
2:36:26 with more data and more studies more
2:36:28 forward-looking projections we'll
2:36:30 consider bigger changes with that future
2:36:39 um now if we can go back to the pde
2:36:42 committee highlighted topics kind of
2:36:44 bringing that up a little bit more
2:36:47 um I'm wondering how we want to talk
2:36:51 about this do people have any specific
2:36:54 ideas I know councilmember hunt did a
2:36:56 really good job of kind of highlighting
2:36:58 what some of the areas where PD had some
2:37:03 recommended changes that were either
2:37:05 slightly different from PPC or areas
2:37:08 where PBC had kind of dithered back and
2:37:11 forth and our ultimate recommendation
2:37:14 was different from their final are there
2:37:17 any of these that you guys needed more
2:37:19 information on that you have concerns
2:37:21 with that there are questions
2:37:25 I think we tried to highlight them as
2:37:27 hey these might be potential things to
2:37:31 think about but ultimately our areas of
2:37:35 recommendation were
2:37:37 either to align with other cities or to
2:37:41 recognize that you know like with the
2:37:43 zero lot line that type of development
2:37:45 does exist already in those areas so
2:37:48 um is there anything there that you guys
2:37:50 need more information about
2:37:54 councilmember hunt
2:37:56 uh I I also think when well the way I
2:38:00 was seeing this is this is this is a
2:38:02 list of examples and things that we
2:38:04 wanted to to bring forward out of
2:38:06 committee but we also had that list of
2:38:09 things that we we do believe needs more
2:38:11 work and you know those include things
2:38:13 like affordable housing we have a happy
2:38:15 Grant we are going to be working on it
2:38:17 but we also want to recognize that that
2:38:18 is not adequately in my opinion
2:38:22 addressed in this code change so we need
2:38:23 to keep working on it
2:38:26 view shed preservation is another one on
2:38:28 that list it is addressed in this code
2:38:30 more than it was but it still needs more
2:38:33 study to make sure that it is protecting
2:38:36 those views and that that code is
2:38:37 working the way we expect it to so that
2:38:39 could be the other topic for discussion
2:38:42 is is that list uh comprehensive to what
2:38:45 council feels needs that additional
2:38:47 review and regulation or are there
2:38:50 things that we miss that
2:38:52 um that Council should and the Planning
2:38:54 Development environment committee should
2:38:56 continue to
2:38:57 monitor to make sure that we are
2:39:00 actually achieving our goals and if
2:39:02 there are course Corrections necessary
2:39:04 that we would flag those for Council and
2:39:07 Council would continue in this process
2:39:08 of improving our code
2:39:11 yeah toward that idea I am very
2:39:14 interested in continuing to monitor how
2:39:17 the code gets used and what kind of
2:39:20 either problems developers present us
2:39:23 with or what kinds of things that staff
2:39:26 sees and goes oh maybe this wasn't as
2:39:29 easy to interpret or to different people
2:39:32 on staff interpreted it a little bit
2:39:34 differently before having conversations
2:39:36 those are the things that I want to make
2:39:38 sure that we note down and highlight and
2:39:41 are able to review as Council
2:39:44 so that we don't go another 20 years
2:39:47 without rewriting any part of our code
2:39:50 but so does anybody have any
2:39:54 suggestions of other things that maybe
2:39:57 they're looking through on this and
2:40:00 saying hmm feel like that didn't quite
2:40:04 hit and that might particularly be if
2:40:07 you looked over like the goals and
2:40:08 outcomes chart or the executive summary
2:40:10 and you're like well I appreciate that
2:40:12 you tried to make an improvement on X
2:40:15 but didn't quite get there
2:40:18 okay not seeing much I'm going to circle
2:40:21 back around and say oh my goodness
2:40:23 gracious
2:40:25 it for people who haven't been on pde I
2:40:30 can just say that the committee
2:40:33 and myself included were very nervous as
2:40:36 we kind of went through the latter
2:40:39 two-thirds you know up to about a month
2:40:43 and a half ago or two months ago where
2:40:45 we were looking at all of this and going
2:40:47 how are we going to pull all of this
2:40:49 together and explain it all to council
2:40:51 and director dollywall and the team just
2:40:54 did a fantastic job of pulling together
2:40:57 the executive summary the goals in the
2:40:59 outcomes chart and providing answers
2:41:01 tonight I mean
2:41:03 super I are our commissions our
2:41:07 volunteer commissions 35 Plus meetings
2:41:11 looking over it I'm just super impressed
2:41:15 and super thankful that we had everybody
2:41:17 pulling together on this and that it
2:41:21 sounds like council is kind of
2:41:25 has some questions has some you know
2:41:27 areas but
2:41:29 things are not blowing up at the end of
2:41:31 this and
2:41:33 that's a good thing
2:41:35 City administrator
2:41:36 yes thank you council president so just
2:41:40 so we're Crystal Clear uh we will come
2:41:43 you put next step slide back up
2:41:47 so today is March 13th so my
2:41:51 understanding is that we will come back
2:41:52 and provide answers in writing to the
2:41:55 issues the councilmember marks has
2:41:56 raised so that will be part of the
2:41:58 packet for April 17th
2:42:01 for the public hearing so you'll have
2:42:03 and I pretty much an identical packet to
2:42:06 what you have this evening for April
2:42:08 17th the uh the ordinances as
2:42:11 councilmember hunt has described uh the
2:42:14 uh the priority project list we're going
2:42:17 to do a little bit more uh uh refining
2:42:20 to addressing the the points that the
2:42:22 council member made regarding ppc's
2:42:24 recommendations so you will see a
2:42:27 slightly different version of that for
2:42:30 the meeting on April 17th as well so
2:42:32 what will be on the agenda again the
2:42:35 ordinances that revise lists all this
2:42:37 backup material will be conducted as a
2:42:40 regular public hearing there'll be no
2:42:43 action taken uh whatever discussion the
2:42:45 council would like to have final
2:42:46 discussion otherwise then we'll have all
2:42:49 this on
2:42:50 um dare I say even consent I I can't
2:42:54 even think about this being a consent so
2:42:56 we'll talk more about that on April 17th
2:42:58 but uh
2:42:59 um so I believe Council the president
2:43:01 that is the direction we're leaving this
2:43:03 with this evening is that correct
2:43:05 I just want to check in I know there was
2:43:07 also this conversation about
2:43:11 ppc's kind of
2:43:13 future things that still need a
2:43:15 consideration are you um councilmember
2:43:17 considering that as part of the future
2:43:20 updates list that would be updated okay
2:43:23 and then do you see that also including
2:43:26 the need to come back to pde or Council
2:43:30 to kind of check in on usability and
2:43:33 those types of things
2:43:35 yes so that that's what I wanted to
2:43:39 bring forward for my colleagues
2:43:40 consideration but that's what we started
2:43:42 discussing as a potential way forward to
2:43:45 give us that extra layer of
2:43:46 accountability on specific items
2:43:49 um that we as a committee felt needed
2:43:51 that additional review as well as PPC
2:43:53 singling the map for additional review
2:43:54 and I'll just read them so we all know
2:43:57 what they are Sustainable Building
2:43:59 design missing middle housing affordable
2:44:01 housing definitions which is really
2:44:04 about
2:44:05 reducing the amount of definitions
2:44:07 because it is a lot parking regulations
2:44:10 if you shed preservation continued
2:44:12 Environmental Protections and then
2:44:15 increased transparency through Greater
2:44:16 Community involvement and review of the
2:44:18 usability and accessibility of the
2:44:19 document so those would be in our
2:44:22 recommendation those would be a list of
2:44:25 of items that would be singled out for
2:44:28 additional review within the next six
2:44:30 months to a year by Planning Development
2:44:32 environment committee who would then
2:44:33 report back to Council on how those are
2:44:36 going and any additional course
2:44:37 correction that we believe two would be
2:44:39 necessary and that's not that's not a
2:44:41 replacement for the Whiteboard or the
2:44:43 future updates list but it is a sort of
2:44:46 additional layer of process associated
2:44:48 with these higher priority review items
2:44:51 and we just asked this is one document
2:44:54 so I earlier today asked councilmember
2:44:56 Honda she would work with director Dolly
2:44:57 wall uh so that they're both on the same
2:45:00 page yes so as that document comes back
2:45:02 to the council uh in April but there's
2:45:05 one we don't want to track two documents
2:45:07 we want to just track one that is the
2:45:09 combination of both those things so
2:45:11 we'll talk briefly about that in April
2:45:13 when it comes back to you but that's the
2:45:15 plan okay so let me just check in with
2:45:18 my fellow council members uh does that
2:45:21 idea of basically the same information
2:45:24 in the packet coming back through the
2:45:27 public hearing plus a
2:45:30 um staff memo on the parking regulations
2:45:33 plus a combined document that includes
2:45:37 the future updates and this kind of next
2:45:42 steps with pde does that make sense to
2:45:45 everyone I'm seeing nods thumbs up
2:45:49 no disagreement I'm checking council
2:45:52 member D Michelle I'm also seeing a nod
2:45:54 there wonderful
2:45:55 great I think we're looking good and so
2:45:58 before we leave tonight
2:46:01 um you see that fine looking group of
2:46:04 folks that are there
2:46:06 um most of them you've seen regularly
2:46:08 one individual sitting amongst that team
2:46:11 you don't normally see and I want to
2:46:13 make special mention of amarisoto
2:46:17 um Ann Marie is one of the the partners
2:46:19 in the Madrona law groups I think
2:46:22 assistant City attorney somewhere in
2:46:24 some document the appropriate title but
2:46:28 Anne-Marie has been sort of the chief
2:46:30 lawyer behind the scenes with this you
2:46:34 have heard about all of the wonderful
2:46:35 committee meetings you've heard about
2:46:36 all the wonderful commission meetings
2:46:38 But ultimately there was law to write
2:46:40 and there was law to write that was
2:46:43 consistent law to write that didn't
2:46:45 conflict with one section and one
2:46:47 ordinance conflicting with a different
2:46:48 section in other ordinance and
2:46:50 Anne-Marie led the the charge on that
2:46:52 there was a huge huge undertaking it was
2:46:56 the month of October the month of
2:46:58 November and almost until Christmas in
2:47:01 December
2:47:02 um and Anne-Marie was steadfast saying
2:47:05 we are not letting this document out
2:47:07 until we are satisfied that it all makes
2:47:10 sense together that there's not a
2:47:11 portion contradicting another portion
2:47:14 and I think as we have learned as a
2:47:16 community over the last 20 plus years
2:47:18 one of the greatest challenges we've had
2:47:20 with our code is there have been
2:47:21 portions that have contradicted other
2:47:23 portions and Anne-Marie steadfastly made
2:47:26 sure that what you have before you
2:47:28 rest of our knowledge doesn't have any
2:47:31 of that so Anne-Marie thank you for
2:47:33 coming tonight in person thank you for
2:47:36 all your work you know clearly Rachel
2:47:38 and Christian and and Stephen and Minnie
2:47:43 Dolly wall the planning Savant who has
2:47:46 who has gone through all of these
2:47:48 meetings I actually saw her pull up a
2:47:50 web page or something tonight which may
2:47:52 have been the very first time uh through
2:47:55 all these discussions where I saw her
2:47:57 consult a note but we've had
2:47:59 extraordinary work done certainly by
2:48:02 planning policy certainly by the
2:48:04 environment board certainly by all of
2:48:05 you but Anne-Marie you know she pulled
2:48:10 this all together in the late fall to
2:48:12 give you the quality document that you
2:48:14 have so Emery thank you for coming
2:48:16 tonight and thank you for the work that
2:48:18 you've done and I know it's unusual but
2:48:21 we do have mayor um Paulie on the line
2:48:24 and I see a hand up that maybe wants to
2:48:26 add on to this uh so go ahead
2:48:29 well thank you council president I was
2:48:31 thinking maybe of adding a few words at
2:48:33 some point But realize that our next
2:48:34 session is an executive session and
2:48:36 nobody will hear what I say except you
2:48:38 all I just also wanted to add a couple
2:48:41 of Kudos here
2:48:43 um really really amazingly impressed
2:48:46 with the the structure and the
2:48:48 discipline that the committee has shown
2:48:51 in getting this over the end line and
2:48:53 getting it to such a great place that it
2:48:55 is right now no other city I know of
2:48:58 does this kind of project and in the
2:49:01 time frame that you've done but in our
2:49:03 case it was sorely needed a long long
2:49:07 time ago and so the product that has
2:49:09 come out the process that you use the
2:49:12 engagement I wanted to also shout out to
2:49:14 all of our business partners and our
2:49:16 community members who have tracked this
2:49:18 really difficult process as well and
2:49:20 continue to provide input Minnie's
2:49:22 fabulous job with her team and tracking
2:49:25 that input incorporating where it could
2:49:27 be incorporated and providing some
2:49:29 explanation if it could not be
2:49:30 incorporated so I really think you've
2:49:32 set a great template for a process that
2:49:34 was truly very engaging and very very
2:49:37 thorough and I had this on my list of
2:49:40 things to do and I ran for mayor and I
2:49:41 wasn't actually sure we could get it
2:49:43 done so congratulations well done
2:49:47 I'll look for the congratulations after
2:49:49 uh something is finally adopted but at
2:49:52 this point I think we can
2:49:54 maybe hold our breath we'll see we'll
2:49:58 um anything else from Council Members
2:50:00 you guys have what you need it sounds
2:50:03 like yes we do the ordinances will have
2:50:07 you know will accurately reflect bde's
2:50:09 recommendation there was one I think we
2:50:11 showed in the Errata sheet today that
2:50:13 didn't was still showing up in the
2:50:15 ordinance so that we'll make sure the
2:50:18 ordinances are accurately reflecting
2:50:20 PD's recommendation
2:50:22 with that you know tisha's group has
2:50:25 done an amazing job with all of this too
2:50:27 and now the the fun part of the code
2:50:31 publishing who's actually adding another
2:50:34 layer of review to this to make sure we
2:50:37 don't find out about these conflicts
2:50:39 after it's adopted I think that's coming
2:50:41 up due so if anything comes up which is
2:50:44 just going to be these Tech you know no
2:50:46 policy changes of course but technical
2:50:48 fixes will try and get that in the
2:50:51 ordinances before April
2:50:54 so that's it
2:50:57 that's it just just a few things yeah
2:51:01 and you know we brought our whole staff
2:51:02 to the planning policy uh to the pde
2:51:05 meeting uh everyone played a role you
2:51:08 know it started with the Consulting team
2:51:09 that got us uh started and then it kind
2:51:13 of was a big effort and so each planning
2:51:16 you know staff member had a role to play
2:51:20 um and at the boards and commissions I
2:51:22 mean everyone and the pde meeting and it
2:51:25 started with the leadership I mean you
2:51:26 heard mayor Paulie say we needed to do
2:51:28 this and you know for Wally making sure
2:51:30 we're on on it and giving us the
2:51:33 resources so thank you all
2:51:35 we're getting there not there quite yet
2:51:37 but we're getting there
2:51:39 okay at this point we are done with our
2:51:41 agenda items just checking in on good of
2:51:44 the order if anybody has any items for
2:51:47 tonight not anticipating so
2:51:51 I'm gonna adjourn this meeting and then
2:51:53 we're gonna go into a special meeting so
2:51:55 that we can go into an executive session
2:51:58 so nobody leave
2:51:59 but I am going to adjourn this meeting
2:52:02 at 9 23 pm
2:52:05 thank you thank you council president
2:52:08 I'm going to call the March 13th special
2:52:10 city council meeting to order at 9 23 pm
2:52:13 and the purpose of this special meeting
2:52:15 one moment
2:52:17 two executive session to discuss pending
2:52:20 or potential litigation for RCW
2:52:23 42.30.110 paren one print I David

Attendance

Council / Members (7)
Barbara de Michele (Attended Virtually)
Zach Hall
Victoria Hunt
Russell Joe
Tola Marts
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh