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City Council Planning, Development & Environment Committee Auto captions

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

6:30 PM · 2h 26m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topic tracked across meetings:
Code Enforcement Changes AB 8366 1/2
2. AGENDA ITEMS
2a
Public Comment 5 - 146 ID 1043 Title 18: Landscape and Open b) Space Review Minnie Dhaliwal, Director of Community Planning & Development
90 min · packet pp.147–203
Topics: Land Use
Staff report:
Provide feedback to staff and a
2c
Code Enforcement Changes Lauri Dunning, Code Enforcement Officer ID 1128
60 min
Topics: Public Safety
0:06 hello welcome everyone i council member
0:08 hunt call the may 3rd 2022 city council
0:12 planning development and environment
0:13 committee to order this meeting will be
0:16 conducted in person and virtually in
0:18 compliance with the governor's
0:19 proclamation related to the kobit 19
0:21 emergency and open public meetings there
0:23 are multiple public comment
0:24 opportunities at tonight's meeting there
0:27 is a general public comment opportunity
0:29 at the beginning of the meeting or you
0:30 can make comments after the presentation
0:32 and counsel question and answer periods
0:33 on tonight's agenda items
0:36 members of the public may address
0:38 council at this time as the first item
0:41 on our agenda
0:44 is public comment
0:46 those who are signed up in advance to
0:48 make comments will be called on first if
0:49 you are joining us virtually and would
0:51 like to make comments please raise your
0:52 virtual hand if you are on the phone
0:54 press star 3 and if you have joined by
0:57 computer or smartphone look for the hand
0:59 icon this varies by device one option
1:02 may be to go to the participant panel
1:03 and choose the raise hand icon in the
1:05 lower right hand corner
1:08 and i do not see anyone in the room so i
1:10 will skip past any in-person
1:13 opportunities unless somebody comes into
1:16 the room
1:18 and at this time i'll we'll check in
1:19 with city clerk has anyone indicated a
1:22 desire to give public comment at this
1:24 time
1:26 yes council member hunts susan neville
1:28 is attending virtually and would like to
1:30 speak
1:32 ms neville i'm making you a panelist you
1:34 should now see the option to unmute and
1:36 you may also turn on your video
1:40 hello
1:41 hello
1:43 good
1:45 uh hello everybody thank you
1:48 council members
1:49 for
1:50 volunteering to lead this important
1:52 project
1:53 is i know it's going to be a long one
1:56 but with lots of good things
2:00 based on recent confusion concerning
2:02 when a meeting is closed to the public
2:04 comments
2:06 will someone be speaking to the
2:07 parameters concerning this new type of
2:09 workshop meeting we're having this
2:11 evening and going forward
2:14 and then my other question was will
2:15 public comments
2:16 today that was turned in be included in
2:19 the total packet
2:21 as we move forward
2:23 i had another issue i wanted to discuss
2:26 too was
2:28 i'm just reiterating what i had sent in
2:30 regarding tree canopy
2:33 the important tree canopy changes that
2:35 were put in place as you review this
2:37 this uh draft
2:39 this evening but please keep in mind
2:42 we do not have a specific person or area
2:45 who are going to monitor these changes
2:48 such as protecting our current canopy
2:51 was a big one
2:54 and also the target goal of 55 in eight
2:56 years
2:58 and keeping tabs on the number of trees
3:00 being removed and replaced
3:02 and most importantly where they are
3:04 being removed and replaced to
3:07 guarantee we have the right tree in the
3:08 right place which is um
3:11 a big initiative that you will see as we
3:13 speak more to this
3:17 i just want to reiterate it was brought
3:19 up many times but not included
3:21 in the packet today and i don't even
3:24 know if a position
3:26 or a system that we're speaking of
3:29 would be placed in the code changes but
3:32 even a
3:34 uh ppc mini member suggested
3:37 including something of this type into
3:39 the actual code and i just wanted to
3:41 share that with you and look forward to
3:44 this meeting thank you
3:46 thank you susan
3:48 has anyone else indicated a desire to
3:51 speak at this time
3:55 council member hunt i see no further
3:57 hands raised at this time okay
4:01 thank you um
4:03 then
4:04 with that i will
4:06 move on to id 1043
4:10 title 18 landscape and open space review
4:12 this will be led by council member
4:15 at sorry this will be led by director of
4:17 community planning and development mini
4:19 dollywall so i'll hand it over to minnie
4:22 good evening council members and members
4:24 of the public
4:25 i am going to bring up uh this
4:29 presentation real quick on my screen
4:37 okay can everyone hear me okay
4:41 great
4:42 so can you make me a presenter
4:49 let's see share
4:51 application
4:54 thank you
5:01 can everyone see my screen
5:03 with the presentation perfect
5:05 um so today we're seeking input from
5:09 the newly formed planning development
5:12 and environment committee the first
5:14 meeting of the committee
5:15 on the draft title 18 landscape open
5:18 space
5:19 and tree regulations
5:22 specifically we're asking if there are
5:23 any additional considerations that ppc
5:25 should study
5:27 prior to finalizing their
5:28 recommendations to city council
5:32 and really we're looking for direction
5:34 whether the proposed changes meet the
5:35 goals and outcomes intended for these
5:37 topics or if there are any additional
5:40 topics for us to consider
5:42 when we're making the final edits to the
5:44 draft code
5:46 there are three sub topics under this
5:49 bigger
5:51 topic of landscape and open space and
5:53 they are
5:54 community spaces and green necklace
5:56 tree preservation in landscaping
6:00 the goals and outcomes for these topics
6:03 were
6:05 retaining 55 of the canopy coverage
6:08 that was established by the icap that
6:11 the council adopted in december of 2021
6:14 retaining neighborhood charm
6:17 ensuring sustainable development and
6:19 climate goals
6:21 and also implementing park strategic
6:23 plan and green necklace
6:27 and where we are in the process
6:29 we had our first phase which was the
6:31 gaps analysis which was jointly planning
6:34 policy commission park board
6:35 environmental board discussed that that
6:38 discussion and public comments informed
6:41 the first draft then we had the draft
6:44 released an open house in the draft
6:46 public hearings and then planning and
6:49 policy commission deliberation
6:51 and today we're here
6:53 to bring forth ppc's recommended first
6:56 draft and changes that we are going to
6:58 incorporate
6:59 moving forward
7:01 you know after
7:03 all of this we intend to have a combined
7:05 hearing on the combined draft at ppc and
7:09 then the formal city council review and
7:11 adoption process will start later this
7:14 year
7:15 the information that we included in the
7:17 packet was the summary of the proposed
7:19 changes how they align with the golden
7:21 outcome
7:23 we included links to the planning policy
7:25 commission including
7:27 those packets included detailed common
7:30 tracking
7:31 matrix matrix that
7:34 included the comments we received the
7:36 responses and so on
7:38 we also included a summary of the
7:40 environmental board recommendation and
7:42 the planning policy commission and joint
7:45 boards and commission meetings meeting
7:47 minutes
7:49 also in your packet is a public feedback
7:52 loop matrix that includes um
7:55 how
7:56 we you know went from getting the
7:58 initial feedback how we incorporated in
8:00 the draft what the highlights of the
8:03 comments were on the public draft and
8:06 what the next steps are going to be
8:09 also included was the draft code we did
8:12 annotate in the draft code
8:14 and the blue boxes the items that we
8:17 intend to
8:18 incorporate and fix with the second
8:20 draft
8:22 so the first topic community space and
8:24 green necklace
8:26 as you can see
8:28 the first box over here shows where how
8:31 it's split in different sections of the
8:33 code in different documents so it's in
8:35 the municipal code 1807 it's in the
8:39 replacement regulations for highlands
8:41 and talus
8:42 uh then we have the central issaquah
8:44 design development standards we have a
8:46 park strategic plan we have the central
8:48 essequal plan and the urban design
8:51 manual so all of this stuff
8:53 is going to be incorporated into this
8:55 one chapter
8:57 that intends to implement the park
8:59 strategic plan
9:01 and consolidate all of these sections
9:03 into one chapter
9:06 some of the key changes um you know
9:08 there's some new terms
9:10 that we've formed in here obviously
9:12 we're going to take a look at it and get
9:13 your feedback on whether these make
9:14 sense
9:16 but open space
9:18 was
9:19 a different uh term under the park's
9:21 plan and and so on and so forth so
9:24 what we've come up with is an amenity
9:27 area and a community space i'll get into
9:29 those in a little bit
9:32 and looking at the park strategic plan
9:35 and seeing where the requirements are
9:37 for
9:38 green necklace and and what those mean
9:40 in terms of regulations and how those
9:41 can be implemented with uh when we get
9:44 development over a longer period of time
9:48 so uh community space is really public
9:52 outdoor area that's developed
9:54 as that we get as part of the
9:55 development but it's open to general
9:58 public so an example is a plaza
10:01 outdoor space for private use is called
10:04 natural amenity space this could be an
10:07 example of a patio courtyard for an
10:09 apartment building
10:11 indoor amenity obviously could be
10:13 recreation room in a multi-family
10:15 complex
10:17 the other thing that's included in this
10:19 chapter is building orientation or
10:22 connection
10:23 so looking at the green necklace vision
10:28 this chapter will include a new map that
10:30 shows city-owned parks not just in the
10:33 central issaquah but throughout the city
10:35 open space space and connections between
10:37 the parks
10:39 and it requires when we get development
10:42 for property adjacent to these amenities
10:44 to take certain actions so
10:46 if you are
10:47 a property next to a map that shows a
10:50 shared public use route so mountains to
10:52 sound greenway
10:54 route then you have to develop that as
10:56 part of your frontage improvements or if
10:59 there is a development next to a trail
11:01 connection you have to provide that
11:03 trail connection um
11:05 or if you are a development right next
11:07 to a park
11:08 or uh then you have to orient and design
11:11 your building so that you can you don't
11:13 have blank walls along the in the parks
11:15 you actually have uh more of a context
11:18 um of development around it
11:23 here's a map um that shows um what we've
11:26 taken from the green park strategic map
11:29 looking at the other maps the parks that
11:31 the city has
11:32 um obviously some more refinement and um
11:36 you know
11:37 description of what type 1 type 2 type 3
11:39 means and bringing that forward from the
11:41 park strategic
11:42 plan so we'll fine-tune this map but
11:45 this is
11:46 the map in this draft
11:50 so based on all the feedback that we
11:51 received
11:52 here's some things that we're going to
11:54 incorporate and moving forward
11:57 the map like i said we're going to
11:59 ensure it captures the entire city
12:01 includes a legend that actually explains
12:04 the different types of connections
12:06 and then looking at the building
12:08 orientation section one of the feedback
12:10 from the park board was
12:12 there different types of parks so an
12:14 active passive or just a
12:17 conservation area
12:18 we're going to take a stab at having a
12:21 more nuanced approach to what
12:23 building orientation means based on the
12:26 type of park
12:28 there were public comments on balconies
12:31 should not count towards common
12:33 amenities based requirements so
12:35 right now
12:37 under the existing code
12:39 there's a requirement for residential to
12:41 have 48 square feet per unit and you can
12:44 choose whether you can have it all as a
12:46 private open space or
12:48 all as common open space
12:52 so based on the feedback um
12:54 the the direction from planning and
12:56 policy commission is that the balconies
12:58 is in addition to
13:00 your common open space that you
13:02 shouldn't get to count your balconies
13:03 towards your required common open space
13:06 so obviously this means you know looking
13:08 at really what that number is how does
13:11 it play out
13:12 between
13:13 private and
13:15 common open space so we'll we'll come up
13:17 with
13:18 standards that don't allow balconies to
13:21 be counted towards common open space
13:24 um um director dollywood you have a
13:25 question if you just
13:27 very briefly um so when we talk about
13:30 balconies and i
13:32 kind of
13:33 kind of get up to speed really fast on
13:34 this but um
13:35 what about a patio something at ground
13:37 level does that um same things apply or
13:39 is it treated differently yeah i think
13:41 the idea here was if it's just private
13:43 open space or common open space so there
13:45 was a desire to not let the private open
13:48 space be counted towards meeting your
13:50 common open space requirements so patio
13:52 would be the same as the balcony perfect
13:55 thank you
13:58 the next one is
14:00 really amenity spaces for
14:01 non-residential or mixed-use
14:04 development
14:05 and in here um i think one of the the
14:08 commissioners had asked
14:10 perhaps this should be expanded to
14:12 city-wide so i went back and looked at
14:15 exactly what
14:16 it says in the draft code so
14:19 the existing code and the draft code
14:21 only has these
14:23 natural amenities spaces for
14:24 non-residential uh mixed use in central
14:27 issaquad talos or esqua island so
14:31 but there isn't that much land outside
14:33 of these areas that really allows
14:35 non-residential
14:37 so the discussion of the planning and
14:38 policy commission was do we really want
14:40 to change the policy and go beyond these
14:42 three areas to allow
14:45 to require non-uh you know amenity
14:47 spaces for non-residential uh
14:49 developments at the time i think we were
14:52 my my response uh and you've heard some
14:54 public comments on that was we're you
14:56 know we're not doing in more of a policy
14:59 change with this code update so perhaps
15:02 that's something we can look at in the
15:03 future but really you know it's it's not
15:05 that big a deal if you want to make it
15:07 city-wide because there isn't that much
15:09 area outside of central issaquah talus
15:11 or highlands that you can do
15:13 non-residential
15:15 um but you know one example would be
15:17 intensive commercial
15:20 which
15:21 isn't a walkable pedestrian kind of a
15:23 you know so having a plaza in those
15:25 spaces didn't really make a whole lot of
15:27 uh sense and so we we had left it not
15:30 changing the basic code requirements
15:32 with this consolidation exercise so
15:34 that's one item that you've heard uh
15:36 public comments on in you know that were
15:39 emailed to you tonight
15:40 um the other things were i think one of
15:43 the commissioners wanted us to look at
15:45 roof amenity to see if sports fields
15:47 could be added uh to be allowed as a
15:50 rooftop amenity so we'll look at that
15:54 the other things were more
15:56 for senior assisted living that perhaps
15:59 there was some fine-tuning of the
16:01 requirements needed for those
16:03 some desire to have maintenance of plaza
16:06 things like snow removal as
16:08 a required code
16:12 you know some something related to
16:14 maintenance related to weather issues
16:17 and then of course uh some confusion
16:19 with the terms definitions and how these
16:21 required spaces are reviewed so
16:23 obviously we'll look at all of that
16:25 so that pretty much is um
16:28 the community spaces i have an example
16:29 here to share with you what this really
16:31 means on the ground
16:33 so here's a site that abuts a city park
16:36 it's shown on that map
16:39 along holly street is the mountains to
16:41 sound greenway uh connection so
16:43 when with this new code we would require
16:46 the frontage along holly
16:48 uh street to meet um
16:50 for them to provide that frontage that
16:52 meets that minimum width design for that
16:55 uh overall connection
16:57 um it also butts um a park
17:00 the existing code and the new code will
17:02 have a requirement for a
17:05 you know a cross block connection which
17:07 you see on the south side here and then
17:09 orientation of this building uh towards
17:12 this park would not be a blank space
17:16 so those are the red arrows uh you know
17:18 one's a through block connection the
17:19 other one is the orientation uh along
17:22 the holley street on along your left
17:24 side would be the the connection
17:27 required from the
17:29 from the map
17:31 and then 48 square feet per unit is the
17:34 amenity space so they could do it um
17:37 as a combination under the this current
17:39 draft uh as in you know balconies for
17:42 each one of these units
17:44 or they could have a rooftop common
17:46 amenity area or they could have an
17:49 amenity area right next to the park
17:54 and if this was more than
17:56 22 plus units they would need an
17:58 additional 400 square feet
18:00 of open space
18:02 and for assist and if it was an assisted
18:04 living senior housing it would have an
18:07 additional 48 square feet of indoor
18:09 amenity space per unit um
18:14 and that pretty much concludes
18:16 that topic i don't know if you want to
18:18 pause for discussion
18:21 i will check in i think that would be
18:23 maybe not for discussion but maybe for
18:25 questions since there's a number of
18:26 sections and then we'll take public
18:28 comments and then
18:29 do discussion on the different sections
18:32 so i did have some questions um
18:34 okay and i'll keep an eye on the chat in
18:37 case um council president walsh has any
18:39 questions on this section so my my first
18:42 question you showed the
18:45 map and
18:48 the green necklace
18:49 and
18:52 wondered you said it's from a number of
18:54 different
18:56 plans and
18:58 how
18:59 ultimately to apply it i imagine you
19:01 would need the street level where do
19:03 these connections actually happen
19:05 because the map although it is
19:07 clarified from what i've seen as earlier
19:09 versions where there's fuzzier lines
19:11 it's still
19:12 i it's still not it seems at this
19:15 street level where you would need to put
19:17 these connections so how would a
19:18 developer actually use that to know if
19:20 they
19:21 if they're along this corridor and would
19:23 need to
19:24 adhere to the green necklace
19:26 specifications
19:27 sure no good question so the earlier map
19:30 that you're referring to is in the park
19:32 strategic map which is these bubbles and
19:34 so we've taken that and worked with the
19:37 parks department
19:39 and our gis folks to kind of create this
19:41 so this is at a parcel level um it'll be
19:44 a gis layer so you could search your
19:47 property and see if it shows up anything
19:50 on it that's our intent that that would
19:52 be how it would be implemented
19:55 and so it is at a parcel level you
19:57 should be able to you know zoom in for
19:59 the code it shows up at a zoomed out
20:01 scale so you can't really see the
20:03 parcels but
20:04 yeah
20:06 okay great um so that's that's a
20:08 refinement that
20:10 that staff would do
20:11 from those existing plans that have the
20:14 more fuzzy guidelines yeah so this is
20:17 more um
20:18 parcel-based uh that was more uh you
20:21 know general um
20:24 but um
20:26 in terms of implementation it'll be a
20:28 gis layer
20:30 okay
20:32 great thank you for that so on the on
20:35 the natural amenities and the question
20:37 or the the comments that you made about
20:40 central and
20:42 the highland central issaquah the
20:43 highlands and talis
20:46 it seems that
20:50 it seems that we have at least green
20:52 necklace
20:53 components in other
20:55 areas in some of these maps is that
20:57 correct
21:00 i'm sure i'm not sure i fully understand
21:02 i think the green necklace concept
21:05 extends beyond central issaquah
21:08 um and
21:10 the highlands and talus is that correct
21:12 well i think the park strategic plan
21:14 talks about green necklace sort of more
21:17 focused on central so perhaps maybe we
21:19 don't need to use it you know some of
21:21 the discussion we're having with parks
21:22 department is perhaps we don't use the
21:24 word green necklace because it's adding
21:26 to the confusion of whether it's just
21:28 central or it's city-wide so it's it's
21:31 connections between the parks city-wide
21:34 my understanding is that the park
21:35 strategic plan was more of a focus on
21:38 the central issaquah where green
21:40 necklace term was used
21:44 but i could be wrong
21:45 okay um
21:47 that isn't my understanding but i think
21:48 that would be good to to look into um
21:51 and it is fuzzy on that map but um i
21:55 i think that would be that would be good
21:56 and since we have this open question
21:58 about application of this beyond
22:00 central highlands and
22:02 um telus i think that would be good to
22:04 check i
22:05 i would like it to comply with the
22:07 existing plans um
22:09 then
22:10 oh i wondered how
22:12 i surely other cities have um terms for
22:15 public areas and so i wondered about
22:17 this natural amenity if it's something
22:19 that's used in other cities codes and if
22:21 it would be
22:22 something that people would recognize
22:23 and understand sort of intuitively or if
22:25 it's something unique to us
22:28 well you know i think everyone calls it
22:30 a slightly different but you know
22:31 recreation spaces some people call it
22:33 that open spaces is a pretty common term
22:36 i think there was some confusion between
22:37 open spaces how they are
22:39 determined under the park's plan and so
22:41 this was an attempt to not confuse the
22:44 two
22:45 but we're open to feedback did it you
22:47 know once we have the definitions did
22:49 were the were the terms confusing
22:55 when you guys were reading it was it
22:58 obvious or
23:00 well i i'm more
23:02 more a question about how common the
23:03 term is for from the perspective of a
23:07 developer or a person who's looking to
23:09 take a look interpret the code yeah
23:11 we'll take a look if you can
23:13 it wasn't new to me yeah offer that
23:17 okay
23:18 uh one other question so there's a lot
23:20 of um in the
23:22 you you mentioned this private versus
23:24 public differentiation is there anything
23:26 in the code currently that requires the
23:29 signage or indication that it's public
23:33 you know it does uh we i mean but in
23:36 practice some of these public um spaces
23:39 don't quite work that way and and that
23:41 has not you know sometimes the signage
23:43 is there but it's so small
23:45 it's not obvious but but more so than
23:47 signage it's the design and the location
23:50 so if it's not really
23:51 a budding a public realm nobody gets
23:54 into a complex to figure out that this
23:56 is a public space um
24:00 so that that's sort of an issue i think
24:02 that came to light when we did the tour
24:04 that some of these spaces aren't um
24:07 obvious to general public that they're
24:08 open to them okay and that wasn't
24:11 something that's
24:14 changed specifically it's addressed by
24:16 design but not by the signage component
24:18 in this update but we can strengthen it
24:20 we can look at you know strengthening
24:22 the design aspects of
24:27 public spaces
24:29 okay
24:29 well i will save my comments on that but
24:32 thank you for those
24:33 answers and i see council president
24:35 walsh also has a question
24:38 thank you yeah i just want to follow up
24:40 on some of the questions that
24:43 council member hunt was saying because
24:45 those those were kind of my core
24:47 questions around this idea which is
24:51 first of all does our current code
24:53 have a requirement for
24:57 a certain amount of either indoor or
24:59 outdoor private amenity space in
25:03 multi-family units or is that something
25:06 that we're introducing as a new concept
25:08 here
25:09 so the current code the existing code
25:12 has a 48 square feet per unit
25:14 requirement but you can choose to make
25:17 it all public
25:18 or all private but there's no
25:20 combination you can't say some of it is
25:23 public and some of it is private so
25:25 that's just the way it's written and
25:27 implemented you can just put balconies
25:29 on each one six feet by eight feet and
25:32 you've met your requirement
25:35 you get all of it together as a common
25:37 space and you don't have the balconies
25:39 so that's just the way it's it's written
25:42 right now
25:44 this okay yeah
25:47 and in practice how um
25:50 what have we seen development do then is
25:53 it typically do we see you know 80
25:56 percent or more are using private spaces
25:59 what
26:00 what has been the situation so some of
26:02 the comments we received from um i think
26:05 uh christie from rowley had made a
26:07 comment about the balconies that based
26:09 on the new energy code for the buildings
26:13 these are very hard to meet the
26:14 balconies add another layer of
26:16 complexity for energy code requirements
26:20 and then penetration the weather issues
26:22 you know it's just they're harder
26:26 in terms of uh what the market demands
26:29 you know a lot of these apartment
26:30 buildings that we've seen have rooftop
26:32 amenities i mean the residents are
26:34 really it and it changes and varies over
26:36 time to
26:37 what what may be more kind of desirable
26:40 a lot of apartment complexes now
26:42 in order to attract do have these
26:44 amenities you know whether it's a
26:46 rooftop
26:49 common areas or
26:50 our indoor recreation type of facilities
26:54 so it can vary
26:55 uh based on
26:57 but from a code perspective
27:00 i think the decision or more research
27:02 what we're going to do is whether
27:05 private and and common if we want to
27:07 separate those two what's the right
27:09 standard for each one
27:12 in terms of square foot per unit
27:16 okay but my question was what are we
27:18 seeing in development not just i
27:20 appreciate including the comments from
27:23 the rally perspective of it's difficult
27:27 to develop
27:29 balconies given
27:31 the building requirements and such but
27:34 with our current code what have we seen
27:36 developers do
27:39 i think in general um
27:41 for the ones that i'm familiar with
27:44 that are currently under process
27:47 they're going to do more of a common
27:49 space than the balcony approach
27:53 so we have 200 review that i'm familiar
27:55 with
27:58 okay and then the second question going
28:01 back to some of the things
28:03 councilmember hunt was saying
28:04 what
28:05 what is the standard in
28:08 our other neighborhood
28:10 neighboring communities about
28:12 requirements in multi-family residential
28:15 units for
28:16 private
28:18 communal space versus
28:21 community
28:22 open space that's available to the
28:24 larger community yeah that's the
28:26 research we will have to do with the
28:28 second draft because i think in the
28:29 first draft the focus was to consolidate
28:31 and not change the standards
28:34 and so
28:35 given this desire to to have a separate
28:38 requirement for balconies uh we will
28:40 have to kind of look at that they
28:42 they're really
28:43 vary all over the spectrum
28:46 but we'll have to kind of take a look at
28:49 some some studies haven't updated the
28:51 code so they're based on a little bit uh
28:54 percent you know older standards where
28:56 it was more of a garden style apartments
28:58 now you have
29:00 more of an urban
29:01 escape
29:02 you know bigger buildings
29:04 the standards different some have a
29:06 percentage
29:07 of this gross floor area some have per
29:10 unit requirement so they're all over the
29:12 the spectrum but we will research that
29:15 uh with a second draft and and make a
29:17 recommendation
29:19 okay then that brings me into this
29:21 question of
29:22 what what is this process then like
29:26 when
29:28 when we're providing feedback when the
29:31 community is providing feedback at
29:34 you know ppc and joint board and
29:36 commission meetings
29:38 and we're kind of developing this set of
29:40 ideas of these are the types of things
29:43 that are going to need to be
29:46 in a second draft
29:48 what is the community's ability to
29:51 then
29:52 like if we're making comments here can
29:55 the community then continue to provide
29:58 comments
29:59 based on our comments because there was
30:01 some
30:02 question at the previous meetings about
30:04 the limitations uh regarding a public
30:07 hearing so can you talk me through what
30:09 that what that process looks like um
30:11 well i think the process is you
30:14 at this stage we're asking you know the
30:17 scope of the the the update was not to
30:20 go and
30:21 redo the the amount of open space
30:24 required for spaces right so
30:26 uh it was more in terms of um
30:29 how do we create how do we implement the
30:31 park strategic plan
30:33 i think in the first draft we took the
30:35 different scattered
30:37 requirements in all different places and
30:38 put them in one place based on the
30:40 feedback that we heard at this time
30:43 that we need to look at
30:46 private versus public space and have
30:48 separate standards when we do that
30:50 research we're obviously going to
30:52 include that as part of the the second
30:56 consolidated draft and make a
30:58 recommendation so there will be an
31:00 opportunity for public comment um at
31:02 that time and then the council will then
31:06 review the final recommendation from ppc
31:09 so there will be additional
31:10 opportunities um
31:13 as part of that consolidated draft
31:19 okay and i think those are my questions
31:23 thank you council president walsh and i
31:24 i will add too that we also receive
31:27 email comments at any time and those are
31:30 also included in our decision making
31:33 process so that's another way that
31:34 there's opportunity for getting comments
31:37 to us
31:39 okay i think i think
31:41 we are good to proceed
31:47 for the next
31:51 topic
31:58 okay so the next one is uh the tree
32:01 chapter so previously the tree and the
32:03 landscaping chapter were intermingled so
32:06 this is a separate section now
32:08 uh some of the key changes really are
32:11 tree canopy coverage goals replace the
32:14 minimum tree density and what does this
32:15 really mean
32:17 um so under the under the existing code
32:19 minimum tree density was if you have a
32:22 your single family home and your you
32:25 need to save five trees
32:27 they could all be the
32:29 two inch caliper you know or significant
32:31 trees it didn't matter whether they were
32:33 a 30
32:34 inch caliper dug further versus a small
32:38 tree
32:39 so the coverage goals really replace
32:41 that
32:43 so that there is more weight given to
32:45 you have a percentage of the canopy uh
32:48 coverage that you have to maintain so it
32:51 encourages larger bigger trees
32:54 that have larger canopy to be preserved
32:58 and then um tree retention requirements
33:01 for single family are increased we've
33:03 clarified the tree replacement
33:05 requirements uh we have on our existing
33:07 code a tree removal form um that you
33:10 know and that created so much more
33:12 confusion than what it solved uh because
33:15 is it a permit is it a form uh so it's
33:18 all you do you just apply for a tree
33:20 permit um and then we had an adjustment
33:24 uh administrative adjustment of
33:26 standards which with a pretty vague
33:28 criteria and what we heard loud and
33:30 clear
33:30 was most people applied for that and god
33:33 uh we got money in lieu of trees so
33:36 we've eliminated the administrative
33:38 adjustment of standards
33:40 however in order to give due process
33:42 there is a variance criteria
33:45 but it is a public process
33:48 and
33:49 some of the comments we heard was
33:51 tracking of tree removal you heard
33:54 earlier some comments related to that
33:56 that that's important
33:59 some sort of reporting for replacement
34:01 trees
34:03 important
34:04 then i think there were some concerns
34:06 about exemptions for city right-of-way
34:09 and then concerns for that single-family
34:11 property owners would now be able to pay
34:14 fee in lieu of as opposed to replacing
34:16 uh planting trees back on their property
34:20 and then also that the fee in lieu
34:22 should account for maintenance and loss
34:23 of benefits there was some concern that
34:26 you know the 30-year target
34:29 there is not an accountability for
34:30 short-term loss so which unfortunately
34:33 with tree removal there is a short-term
34:35 loss and that's hard to
34:38 account for
34:39 um heritage tree program that has been
34:43 there was a discussion at planning a
34:45 policy commission whether that should be
34:46 codified and there was unanimous
34:49 agreement that that should be in the
34:51 code
34:52 um a little bit description of how this
34:54 canopy coverage goals are applied per
34:56 lot
34:58 so um you know the city uh park
35:00 department led this uh tree canopy study
35:03 which
35:04 became a baseline for some of this
35:06 discussion so
35:08 for instance
35:09 in central issaquah the tree canopy
35:11 coverage is 27
35:14 it also identified the study um that
35:17 there's a possible planting area of 15
35:19 percent
35:21 and so
35:22 we looked at that
35:24 and said what should be on a parcel by
35:27 parcel basis a requirement for canopy
35:30 coverage goals so we came up with a 35
35:34 so this is where we're going to do some
35:36 more testing of the code to see if it's
35:38 achievable
35:39 it is the right percentage or not um but
35:44 and then we take another example say
35:46 isoqua highlands
35:47 existing tree canopy is 27 possible
35:50 planting area 20 percent
35:52 um and the
35:55 uh per parcel basis would be 45 so we
35:58 understand that this could be
35:59 problematic for a 5 000 square foot lot
36:02 they're not going to meet 45 canopy
36:04 coverage so
36:06 the the unintended consequence of this
36:08 would be if there is a problem tree
36:10 that's growing into the foundations and
36:11 it needs to come out
36:13 we would grant them a permit we would
36:16 capture what the 45
36:19 canopy coverage goal needs to be and
36:21 then they would pay fee in luau
36:23 where we would have a triage of this
36:25 tree needs to be planted within the
36:27 sub-area
36:28 and if it can't be planted within that
36:30 sub-area it can be planted off-site so
36:32 plant-on-site if possible within the
36:34 sub-area and then outside of the
36:36 sub-area
36:39 and then there are some other um you
36:41 know neighborhoods like squawk mountain
36:42 has 63 tree canopy coverage uh there's
36:46 planting areas of 17 percent uh but
36:49 because of some of the fringe areas and
36:52 the desire to
36:54 be forward thinking that there could be
36:56 potential loss of trees uh for wildfire
36:59 protection when you're right at the edge
37:01 of the wild you know uh urban
37:03 uh fringe
37:05 um so we've picked a 45 percent but
37:07 there's no
37:08 you know hard setting rule for these
37:10 percentages so our we are going to
37:12 continue to work um
37:14 and test these percentages we intend to
37:17 talk back with um
37:19 the folks that helped the the firm that
37:21 helped us do the tree canopy and see
37:23 what that means
37:25 understanding that
37:27 replacement off-site is tricky um
37:30 especially for privately held
37:32 land so your possible planting areas
37:35 could include
37:36 some privately held land so it's hard to
37:39 say that all of that can be replanted
37:42 because it may not so uh but
37:45 but the grinding principle in all of
37:47 this has been how do we achieve the 55
37:49 percent aspirational goal that was set
37:51 up with the climate action plan
37:54 so that's this
37:58 again tree canopy coverage
38:01 we'll continue to refine it to see if we
38:03 want to have the sub
38:05 area approach and then have a more
38:07 fine-grained approach for you know
38:09 residential and commercial distinction
38:13 um so we intend to do these edits in the
38:16 next round um
38:18 we are going to implement the tree
38:20 removal and replacement and how do we
38:22 track it so
38:24 obviously we can you know track it
38:26 through permit requirements but there
38:28 are going to be some
38:29 trees that get removed and you know that
38:32 a hazardous or
38:34 snow event or something you know it
38:35 won't be a full
38:37 um accounting but at least for the ones
38:39 that get a tree permit we could have a
38:41 system
38:43 and um the reporting for replacement
38:46 trees so we're
38:48 thinking about what that could mean it
38:49 could mean you know you have if you
38:51 replanted a tree you have to take a
38:52 picture and for the next two growing
38:55 seasons you
38:56 you know upload it to make sure it's
38:58 still healthy and staying
39:00 without making it undue hardship for
39:02 someone to you know go through the
39:04 process but
39:05 we'll continue to fine-tune that
39:09 fee and luff some more clarification
39:12 needed there
39:13 more work and analysis and the three
39:15 canopy coverage targets that i just went
39:17 over
39:18 and then of course codifying the
39:20 heritage tree program
39:23 that's the tree chapter
39:29 councilmember ray um a couple of things
39:34 i know that you said that you were that
39:36 determined the fee for in lieu of um
39:40 is something you're looking at um and
39:42 then use the very um ambiguous word
39:44 appropriate how do you determine what's
39:46 an appropriate fee for a for a tree
39:50 yeah you know we're going to be working
39:51 with a consultant to kind of figure out
39:53 because it's it's the the cost of the
39:55 tree it's the planting
39:57 labor and materials and then the the
40:00 maintenance of it so it should account
40:02 for all of those
40:05 so that is something we intend to come
40:07 up with a number so that we can adopt it
40:09 in a fee resolution so we don't have to
40:11 figure out what that fee amount is going
40:13 to be
40:15 and um so kind of on the same
40:18 vein
40:19 one of the things that you talked about
40:21 was
40:22 if i take a tree down over here i may
40:25 replant a tree someplace else you know
40:27 starting with the in you know same pro
40:29 parcel same sub area you know somewhere
40:32 else in the city um
40:34 how do we
40:35 how do we determine where best to put
40:38 the replacement tree
40:40 and how do our canopy targets play into
40:43 the determination of where
40:45 that tree should go
40:48 because it's it
40:50 you know my thinking is
40:53 not all not all trees are created equal
40:56 and not all places um need the tree as
40:58 badly as the place you just cut it down
41:00 so how do we how do we
41:02 strike that balance
41:05 good question you know um
41:07 obviously with the climate action plan
41:10 uh the the idea is the
41:13 urban island effect you know heat effect
41:16 so that's that's why putting it where it
41:18 can go grow but if it was a wrong tree
41:21 planted in the wrong place then no point
41:23 in kind of repeating that mistake again
41:27 but perhaps a smaller tree could go in
41:29 that same spot but if that doesn't work
41:33 then then you know the the
41:35 having a more uh robust a tree
41:38 um fee and luau program that is managed
41:41 well i mean right now i think um parks
41:44 department does a great job with the
41:46 green essequa program and and the
41:48 planting and that all that that occurs
41:51 on city-owned lands i mean that's all
41:53 what the city would be able to regulate
41:57 in terms of the replacement trees but
41:59 uh there's no perfect answer for where
42:02 the replacement trees are going to go uh
42:04 and
42:05 if they if we can identify
42:07 you know in the sub-area some
42:09 replacement
42:12 sites um that are publicly held
42:15 perhaps that's one way to handle it
42:18 privately held in the same sub-area are
42:20 going to be difficult to to manage um
42:24 and and make sure that they the trees
42:26 get planted but they stay for you know
42:28 for the long haul for the next 30 years
42:31 that that tree is a replacement tree and
42:33 it it stays
42:36 do you envision that the fee in lieu of
42:38 um would be based on the size of the
42:40 canopy
42:41 or the size of the tree or
42:44 is it a sliding scale is it a fixed
42:45 scale how do you envision that yeah so
42:48 so the the the
42:51 the fee in lieu of would be per tree but
42:54 the canopy will determine your canopy
42:57 coverage will determine how many
42:58 replacement trees you need so if you cut
43:01 down a really large canopy tree that
43:03 will mean more trees need to be planted
43:05 therefore the fee in lieu of will be
43:07 that many trees times the the feed per
43:10 tree
43:11 okay great thank you
43:15 all right
43:19 sorry
43:20 thank you
43:21 um so a few
43:24 questions um
43:28 do we have a sense of how other
43:30 communities handle their tree canopy
43:33 requirements and code
43:37 it seems like this concept of creating
43:40 neighborhood level or sub-area level
43:43 goals is
43:45 something new so i'm trying to
43:47 understand if that's
43:49 completely
43:50 something that developers aren't going
43:52 to be used to and other cities haven't
43:54 done or if that's
43:56 kind of a standard idea how far
43:59 out ahead of the idea are we on this
44:02 yeah when we were researching mount lake
44:04 terrace is the other city that has this
44:06 canopy coverage
44:08 methodology
44:10 so there are fewer cities but i think a
44:12 lot more cities are are realizing um the
44:15 more robust tree regulations so
44:18 i i think most folks are used to just
44:21 counting the number of trees and you
44:23 know they're it's easy they can count
44:25 uh but it doesn't get it doesn't
44:27 distinguish
44:29 uh a better quality tree from a um
44:32 crappy tree so
44:36 i i think in terms of
44:38 figuring out the canopy coverage for the
44:40 next 30 years we'll have to kind of come
44:43 up with some
44:45 uh during the implementation of you know
44:48 this type of a tree means this
44:50 percentage canopy coverage in the next
44:52 30 years so there'll be some tools that
44:54 we can develop during implementation
44:56 that that should help but it is more
44:58 complex than just counting the number of
45:00 trees
45:02 toward that idea um one of the concepts
45:06 was you know you you have to
45:09 either
45:09 measure the
45:12 radius of the tree and then go out a
45:14 certain number of feet or you measure
45:16 what the canopy of the tree is or
45:19 another alternative is to actually
45:22 do a radar lidar
45:26 from the air so i'm trying to understand
45:28 how
45:29 feasible that is whether we understand
45:32 what the costs are to developers for
45:35 that how feasible is it going to be for
45:38 with our staff
45:40 be able to say definitively
45:43 this is what your tree canopy coverage
45:46 was
45:47 and this is what you're moving to
45:52 what are going to be the difficulties in
45:54 the scenario
45:57 yeah um you know i think daniel is here
46:00 on the line and so we um
46:02 do you want to um
46:04 speak to the difficulties that we may
46:07 encounter daniel
46:10 sure
46:12 hi um
46:14 [Music]
46:15 yeah so we are for development projects
46:20 are
46:21 we would be requiring
46:24 arborist recommendations which is
46:26 something that we already do now
46:30 part of the arbor's recommendations
46:32 moving forward will include for them to
46:35 do that assessment
46:38 when it comes to smaller scale projects
46:43 or just a standard tree removal permit
46:47 staff will be able to do that part of
46:50 that is going to be
46:56 looking for programs
46:58 uh to assist staff there's one the
47:01 the company that performed the tree
47:05 canopy analysis
47:07 uh planet geo they have a program
47:11 that we currently have access to
47:15 it's called tree plotter
47:17 and that would that will allow staff to
47:22 make those those measurements
47:29 okay and then my kind of final question
47:32 around the fee in lieu
47:35 um so
47:36 i know many cities have problems with
47:40 this concept of
47:43 paying a fee in lieu and then
47:46 all we end up is with is
47:48 fewer trees and lower tree canopy so
47:52 do we have a best practice example of an
47:56 area that has done this well or
47:59 or a goal that we're trying to go after
48:02 as far as a best practice for
48:05 finding a way to make this work
48:11 i'm sorry is that question for me or for
48:13 minnie
48:14 either probably for director dollywood
48:18 yeah you know i mean um
48:21 obviously i think the goal is is to
48:24 preserve the canopy
48:26 is it easy to to do this abs you know
48:30 not
48:31 sure it can be easy but it does it's in
48:34 practice it never is
48:36 uh there are going to be
48:38 uh loss in canopy for a variety of
48:41 reasons you know weather related
48:43 wildfire is a big concern there may be
48:46 some thinning needed related to that
48:50 or just general um you know disease and
48:52 and decay of of some of those trees that
48:55 happens
48:56 what the codes can do is prevent a clear
48:59 cutting
49:00 so what the codes can really help is you
49:03 can't just go in and
49:05 clear cut the whole site and and do your
49:08 development so
49:09 that those things the codes are really
49:11 good at
49:12 now every individual homeowner that has
49:14 a problem tree obviously it's going to
49:16 get removed the replacement is going to
49:19 depend on educational aspects i think in
49:22 general community members desire and
49:24 like essoqua for its greenery so i think
49:27 there's that desire to
49:29 to have that so it will have to be
49:30 coupled by not just the codes but also
49:33 the great green
49:35 it's a you know the green square program
49:37 that the parks runs and other things
49:39 that will
49:40 keep up the canopy so it'll it's going
49:42 to take more than the codes if that
49:45 helps
49:50 okay those are my questions thank you
49:54 okay i think we're ready to proceed
49:58 so the next um the last chapter is
50:02 landscape um so this is more of a
50:04 technical pieces you know what type of
50:07 trees what size of trees what type of
50:09 soil amendments are needed
50:11 what square footage of landscaping do
50:13 you need when you're doing your
50:14 development
50:16 that's what this is this chapter deals
50:18 with
50:19 as you can see
50:20 you know right now we have scattered
50:23 standards in four different locations so
50:25 it will consolidate it into one place
50:28 the goal
50:29 is also to retain neighborhood charm
50:32 and ensure sustainability through
50:33 landscape standards
50:36 some of the key changes
50:38 you know we've tried to have
50:40 sustainability integrated with the
50:42 irrigation plant diversity native
50:44 drought tolerant plant selection
50:47 um we've updated the standards for
50:49 irrigation
50:51 we have required a minimum planting with
50:53 the five feet
50:55 or minimum soil quantities because one
50:57 of the things that happens is the wrong
50:59 tree at the wrong place and you get the
51:01 sidewalks buckling up and high edges
51:05 and
51:07 then there was some discussion about
51:09 fences i think we'll look at that um to
51:13 see the relationship of where we put the
51:15 fence to where the landscaping is
51:17 the parking lot landscaping was
51:19 consolidated
51:21 i think we heard some questions about
51:24 we have some screening requirements um
51:26 that probably aren't um are a little
51:29 outdated
51:30 so we'll take a look at that
51:33 so here's the list of things we intend
51:35 to incorporate with the next draft
51:38 perimeter landscaping and parking lot
51:40 landscaping this is pretty standard for
51:42 a lot of cities to have these
51:44 you know required landscaping areas
51:47 developers have know what they need to
51:49 do they can meet these requirements
51:51 there's not
51:52 back and forth on it so you if if you
51:55 care to get some green space it's good
51:57 to say x amount and you can get that
52:00 the drawback of this is um sometimes um
52:05 you know flexibility is good it's better
52:07 to have a row of trees that it's that's
52:09 existing be be preserved um rather than
52:13 put a small six by six uh island in a
52:15 parking lot but we'll look at that uh so
52:18 that we can you know ensure uh
52:20 predictability but yet provide some
52:22 flexibility
52:24 um there's a chapter um natural context
52:27 um requirements this came from public
52:30 comments uh that's currently in the
52:32 central issaquah urban design section so
52:34 we'll we'll bring that forward into this
52:36 chapter
52:37 um and uh one of the environmental board
52:40 members um you know had good comments on
52:43 the
52:44 tree list that there are some
52:46 inaccuracies there so we will uh update
52:49 that we'll reach out to uh people within
52:53 the your boards and commissions that
52:54 have that expertise and hopefully uh can
52:57 fine tune that list
53:00 and then also some connection between
53:02 landscaping and
53:04 and storm water
53:06 there was some desire to have rain
53:08 gardens and grey water usage so it's a
53:11 little
53:12 weak in that area so we'll look into
53:14 that
53:16 then there were some comments about
53:17 re-landscaping you know how can we make
53:19 it less onerous so even if you're not
53:22 doing redevelopment but if you want to
53:24 upgrade your landscaping and you have to
53:26 go through this a lot of hoops in the
53:28 permitting process then perhaps there
53:29 isn't an incentive for folks to upgrade
53:32 so we'll look at that in the procedures
53:34 section
53:36 um again some more flexibility with the
53:38 idea that to meet the goals and outcomes
53:41 for this update
53:42 and then of course consistency and
53:44 organization we'll look at that
53:47 so that pretty much
53:49 concludes that chapter the next steps
53:52 are going to be
53:53 ppc hearing on a consolidated draft
53:56 with council review
53:58 later and and we intend to come back to
54:01 you all in june with zoning and uses
54:03 section
54:06 that concludes
54:08 the presentation
54:12 thank you thank you
54:13 oh thank you director dollywood sorry
54:15 about that
54:19 uh do we have any questions on this last
54:20 section
54:23 and i don't see any questions from
54:24 council president walsh on the section i
54:26 had
54:28 now she does okay um go ahead council
54:30 president walsh
54:32 thank you um i just had some questions
54:34 about
54:36 irrigation
54:37 there were some comments in
54:40 the
54:41 environmental board and
54:43 some of the meetings can you
54:44 explain what the approach is for
54:48 irrigation and what some of those
54:50 questions are that we're we might be
54:51 looking to resolve in a second draft
54:54 yeah so um i think um because of um hot
54:58 summer um and uh climate change you know
55:02 there was a
55:03 the we put some language in the code to
55:05 say
55:06 you know browning of
55:08 your your lawns is okay and so
55:11 if you have an existing landscaping uh
55:14 you're not gonna get code enforcement
55:16 concerns during the summer months to let
55:18 your
55:19 you know grass go brown
55:21 um however i think where we ended up
55:24 with the conversation with the boards
55:26 and commissions was if you're building
55:28 in a new development and you're putting
55:31 in landscaping that we do require uh
55:33 landscape irrigation uh to be put in
55:36 place so there is not enough you know
55:38 you you have more drought tolerant
55:40 species and you have more plant
55:42 diversity in all of those things but you
55:44 still have to irrigate it because
55:46 otherwise um
55:48 those plants the new plants that are
55:50 going to be planted aren't going to make
55:52 we'll look at i think we we had heard
55:54 previously about drip irrigation versus
55:57 the the standard irrigation requirements
56:01 i i'm not a big fan of putting too much
56:03 technology into code because things can
56:05 change
56:06 and you know there may be a more
56:08 innovative
56:09 way of irrigation that comes along and
56:11 and we have a hardwired thing in the
56:13 code um but it just leaves that you have
56:16 to be a licensed landscape architect to
56:19 produce your plans and then you produce
56:20 your land irrigation
56:24 drawings with it if you have irrigation
56:26 in a required public frontage so along
56:29 the street trees and things there we
56:31 have a requirement for what you need to
56:33 meet obviously some of those
56:35 focus of those things are you know in
56:38 backflow devices so you're not
56:39 contaminating drinking water supplies
56:41 and those kind of things but
56:44 so irrigation under this draft is
56:46 required for new landscaped areas
56:51 but the gray water usage discussion
56:53 occurred i think a lot of area is in the
56:55 critical area aquifer recharge so there
56:58 are
56:59 concerns about again
57:01 having development over your
57:04 drinking water supply and using
57:07 gray water is is a concern but
57:10 to the extent you can you know
57:12 store rain water and use it for
57:15 irrigation those kind of mechanisms we
57:17 can look into with the next draft
57:22 thank you
57:26 thank you i had one question on this
57:28 last section um there is some wording in
57:31 here about for example
57:33 just not disturbing the native soil um
57:37 to the extent practical practicable and
57:40 i wondered
57:42 how
57:43 we um
57:44 how we determine if it is to the extent
57:47 of practicable
57:49 we know i mean that that's the we will
57:51 have to fix that i think
57:54 the developers will say well it's not
57:56 possible and then we will have a debate
57:58 and and nobody wins in that debate and
58:01 we really want to have more
58:03 predictability for what that means some
58:05 of the comments that came in were i
58:07 think the code says if you disturb it
58:09 you store it on site and reuse it
58:13 uh i think the comments we heard from
58:15 some were it's really not practical to
58:18 kind of store it on site because you
58:20 have you know construction active
58:22 construction site going on you can't
58:24 really do that so
58:26 i i think it's a
58:29 nice thing to require uh i think the
58:32 intent is because of storm water and
58:34 other reasons there should be an attempt
58:36 but we'll have to
58:38 you know we either require it or we say
58:42 we don't require it
58:44 yeah
58:45 yeah okay thank you you saw where i was
58:46 going with that
58:48 um do we have any other questions at
58:50 this time okay uh no other questions
58:53 so at this time let me just check
58:58 i think i think we're good um at this
59:00 time we will then have public comments
59:03 on this item and so um there is no one
59:06 in the audience um presently so i will
59:09 ask
59:10 city clerk if there is anyone
59:12 on the call
59:13 that would
59:15 is indicating a desire to speak on this
59:17 item
59:20 yes council member hunt
59:22 connie marsh has her virtual hand raised
59:26 ms marsh i'm making you a panelist
59:29 you should now see the option to unmute
59:31 and you may also turn on your video
59:39 there we go
59:42 i'm sending my video okay
59:46 yes i am sunburned because i'm down in
59:48 san francisco setting fence posts
59:52 anyway i'm connie marsh and i typically
59:55 am on squawk mountain
1:00:02 many comments many addressed so i'm
1:00:05 gonna go
1:00:08 uh we'll start with trees first
1:00:12 which
1:00:12 is the tree canopy is a very simplistic
1:00:17 mechanism for the functions of trees
1:00:23 right tree in the right place
1:00:28 does it
1:00:30 do and how do you actually get people to
1:00:33 do that right
1:00:35 and so then that moves you over to the
1:00:37 landscape code
1:00:39 which
1:00:40 it's unclear to me so far
1:00:45 uh who the authority is
1:00:48 that you will be the city will be using
1:00:52 to make sure that you get the right
1:00:54 tree in the right place
1:00:57 and whether they are going to have to
1:00:59 replace the other functions besides pure
1:01:02 canopy that trees
1:01:05 provide
1:01:07 [Music]
1:01:08 in the ppc meeting that had new
1:01:11 information where the community was not
1:01:13 allowed to speak
1:01:14 the one of the new bits of information
1:01:17 was well these commercial areas like
1:01:19 central issaquah and the highlands it's
1:01:21 going to be hard to get the trees in but
1:01:23 if you look at the maps that show where
1:01:26 the heat sinks are those are exactly
1:01:28 where the heat sinks are that we're
1:01:30 trying to mend
1:01:32 so i think we need to remember
1:01:35 what actually are we trying
1:01:38 to do what problem are we trying to
1:01:40 solve with these codes and i think one
1:01:43 of my frustrations is
1:01:45 we're we're deep in the code
1:01:49 we don't seem to go
1:01:54 we don't seem to go back to what
1:01:56 problems we'll be trying to solve and is
1:01:59 this going to do that and for example
1:02:03 if we reduce the tree canopy in
1:02:06 iskwa highlands that will not solve that
1:02:09 heat sink problem
1:02:11 we have plenty of area up in the ischool
1:02:14 islands it's actually public area that
1:02:16 we've tried to replant for many many
1:02:18 years
1:02:19 but the people come down and they cut
1:02:21 down all of the new plantings or they
1:02:23 take them out because they don't want
1:02:25 their views changed i don't know but
1:02:28 those tree plantings have never
1:02:30 succeeded
1:02:33 and that is the reality of life so then
1:02:36 you go to code enforcement which is a
1:02:38 little later on
1:02:39 so after you weave all of these things
1:02:42 together are you going to solve
1:02:45 your problem so i guess i'm asking you
1:02:48 to think about it
1:02:50 not as much in the gears as it's being
1:02:53 presented
1:02:55 lift up to 30 000 feet and say wow
1:02:59 what is our problem with trees that we
1:03:01 want to solve we need shade right which
1:03:04 is sort of canopy we need storm water
1:03:06 yes we also need habitat
1:03:09 and we need wildlife corridors and we
1:03:12 never talk except for in a very small
1:03:14 area in the introduction of the tree
1:03:16 code it talks about these functions but
1:03:19 then it never loops back to say how what
1:03:21 we're doing is is getting us those
1:03:23 things okay
1:03:24 so that is a little bit
1:03:27 on trees is it sort of bounces back and
1:03:30 forth
1:03:31 if you talk about
1:03:33 landscaping what i do is i drive around
1:03:36 issaquah and i say
1:03:38 what's good and what's terrible
1:03:39 landscaping and does this landscape code
1:03:42 actually get us something better and
1:03:46 what i see in central issaquah
1:03:50 many other parts of town is a bunch of
1:03:52 scraggly lines of trees that actually
1:03:56 prevent um
1:03:58 people from being able to walk
1:04:02 through
1:04:02 and so i don't know why we have these
1:04:04 little scraggly lines of trees and we
1:04:06 aren't getting rid of them in this code
1:04:11 what actually is our landscaping
1:04:14 or in our varying areas how much
1:04:17 screening do
1:04:19 need and i think if you guys could
1:04:22 provide some of what your point of view
1:04:24 is on this topic it would be helpful to
1:04:26 get something better for
1:04:29 our town
1:04:32 and then when we go back to what was our
1:04:34 first
1:04:36 our for oh oh
1:04:38 okay so the parks department situation
1:04:41 that i sent you i actually spent a lot
1:04:43 of my vacation time here looking up the
1:04:46 park strategic plan so that you could
1:04:48 get more of the comprehensive plan
1:04:50 language
1:04:51 of what we are aiming for in our
1:04:54 parks
1:04:56 and so when you look at what is provided
1:04:59 to you there's a lot of confusion about
1:05:01 what is the green necklace as compared
1:05:03 to what is sort of the city-wide parks
1:05:06 system and i think that needs to be
1:05:10 clarified
1:05:11 entirely so that then we can understand
1:05:16 whether we want to only focus on the
1:05:19 green necklace and my answer would be no
1:05:22 we need all of this to be city wide
1:05:24 because we actually want
1:05:26 our park linkages and
1:05:28 connectivity
1:05:30 city-wide and the map that you are
1:05:32 seeing is a city
1:05:35 wide map it's not a green necklace
1:05:41 i know that minnie made some comments
1:05:44 about this ms marsh i'm sorry to
1:05:45 interrupt your you're
1:05:47 running over time can you please uh yeah
1:05:50 i'm almost
1:05:51 did did you tell me i only had five
1:05:54 minutes
1:05:55 uh that's
1:05:56 typical for public comment five minutes
1:05:59 and you're a little older i didn't know
1:06:00 this is the new this is a new committee
1:06:02 so i wasn't sure what my limits are with
1:06:05 with all of this so
1:06:07 good to know
1:06:09 my and that was my consideration is for
1:06:13 looking at the
1:06:15 uh the definitions of the parks and
1:06:18 getting them concrete so people actually
1:06:20 can look at this and know what you're
1:06:22 talking about because at this point in
1:06:24 time they don't
1:06:26 thanks
1:06:27 thank you connie
1:06:29 does anybody else indicating is anybody
1:06:32 else indicating a desire to give
1:06:34 comments at this time
1:06:37 council member hunt i do not see any
1:06:39 other raised virtual hands
1:06:42 okay great thank you
1:06:46 then um at this time and seeing as
1:06:49 there's no one in the audience to give
1:06:50 comments
1:06:51 we will move into
1:06:53 committee discussion and committee
1:06:55 recommendation
1:06:59 who would like to start us off i'll be
1:07:01 happy council member ray um do you want
1:07:03 to take them one at a time or you want
1:07:04 to take them all
1:07:06 how would you like them
1:07:09 i think these are
1:07:13 i think these are separate and
1:07:14 enough that uh we could do them one at a
1:07:17 time and then um make a recommendation
1:07:19 at the end um but let's see i see
1:07:22 council president walsh also nodding so
1:07:24 let's let's do it that way one at a time
1:07:30 so on community spaces i i really don't
1:07:33 have much to say about that i think it
1:07:35 is um i liked us implementing our
1:07:37 current policies in a more consistent
1:07:38 way i think that's important
1:07:40 i would like to see as we go forward
1:07:43 some of the questions around what are
1:07:44 our neighboring communities doing around
1:07:46 public spaces or community spaces and
1:07:49 um how are how are they addressing it
1:07:51 and then
1:07:52 going forward beyond that even
1:07:54 maybe coming up with some um
1:07:57 common parlance some common language
1:07:59 about what we call things so that um you
1:08:01 know we align with other communities so
1:08:03 um but um all in all i thought that that
1:08:05 was a good very nice job
1:08:10 thank you councilmember ray um council
1:08:12 president walsh go ahead
1:08:15 thank you
1:08:16 i agree that we should come up with a
1:08:18 common parlance and and see what other
1:08:22 communities are doing
1:08:23 i would propose at the very least
1:08:25 calling it outdoor and indoor amenity
1:08:29 areas
1:08:31 generally though my feel is that
1:08:34 private space should
1:08:36 be decided by the market as a
1:08:40 individual unit differentiator
1:08:43 and shouldn't be a requirement in code
1:08:46 the exception being retirement
1:08:48 communities and
1:08:50 other communal living situations um i
1:08:54 also don't know if we want to
1:08:56 essentially encourage rooftop decks um
1:09:00 personally i have one and it's been a
1:09:02 nightmare and i wouldn't wish it on many
1:09:06 people um but that's just my personal
1:09:08 situation uh generally i
1:09:11 i think
1:09:12 we want to be
1:09:14 looking for more community space
1:09:19 especially if the market in its current
1:09:21 situation with the requirements
1:09:23 is giving us community space
1:09:27 and also kind of balconies and other
1:09:30 private spaces
1:09:32 um i don't want to move
1:09:36 toward a situation where people can kind
1:09:38 of split the difference i i don't think
1:09:40 that would give us what we're looking at
1:09:43 um in general and then
1:09:45 i really like the way the information
1:09:47 was provided about the connection and
1:09:49 orientation to open space and the use of
1:09:51 the map i just want to make sure that
1:09:53 that is
1:09:54 really solid and a really usable
1:09:57 situation when we're looking down at the
1:10:00 parcel
1:10:01 specific area so those are my thoughts
1:10:07 all right thank you
1:10:09 so firstly i wanted to say
1:10:11 thank you for laying out all of the
1:10:12 comments that we've received in the
1:10:14 matrix i think that continues to be a
1:10:15 helpful way to show the changes that are
1:10:18 being made in response to all of the
1:10:19 public comments that we continue to
1:10:21 receive and all of the commission's
1:10:23 input and all of the public meetings and
1:10:27 i personally wanted to recognize you and
1:10:30 your staff for putting that all together
1:10:32 on the community spaces piece
1:10:35 one of the
1:10:36 things that i think this code
1:10:39 should do is make sure to make and it
1:10:42 says in there somewhere make people feel
1:10:45 welcome you should feel like you
1:10:48 are you are correct to be there and that
1:10:50 you're you're welcome in these um
1:10:52 communal spaces
1:10:54 and so i think when the intent for those
1:10:57 spaces is to be a public space a plaza
1:11:00 for example one of the things that i've
1:11:03 noticed in for example seattle is they
1:11:05 have a consistent signing that's
1:11:08 prominent and it says that this is a
1:11:10 public place and you you can be here i
1:11:12 think that is important because yes
1:11:14 there are design elements that you can
1:11:16 you can use to make it be more or less
1:11:18 inviting and definitely that
1:11:22 the requirements of having the more
1:11:24 oriented towards the public spaces etc
1:11:26 should help but i think signage is also
1:11:29 important and is a very clear and
1:11:31 especially if it's done in a clear
1:11:32 consistent way that can be a really
1:11:34 useful tool
1:11:36 so i would encourage us to look at that
1:11:38 and i do think some neighboring cities
1:11:40 i've definitely seen it in seattle uh
1:11:43 have have this sort of signage that i
1:11:45 think we could
1:11:46 we could require
1:11:50 on the green necklace
1:11:53 it is great to see more definition of
1:11:57 definition on this and i think having
1:12:00 the gis layer so people actually know
1:12:02 where these connections need to be will
1:12:03 help it come to life which will be great
1:12:10 wonder about um just
1:12:13 making sure that it it again is um
1:12:17 signed and is that information becomes
1:12:20 available to people because part of it
1:12:21 is you know the connections
1:12:23 that we want to make between our parks
1:12:25 and our community spaces and have those
1:12:28 connections be used so i would encourage
1:12:30 us also to to
1:12:32 make sure that it's
1:12:34 clear to the user that you can walk you
1:12:37 know by this building to get to another
1:12:38 connection etc because i think that will
1:12:40 be a a challenge but um if it can be
1:12:44 done well and people feel welcome along
1:12:46 this green necklace that would be
1:12:48 wonderful
1:12:54 and then my last comment is on the
1:12:58 the amenities um citywide versus the
1:13:02 the central issaquah highlands and talus
1:13:06 i think unless we have a
1:13:09 unless we have a reason for
1:13:12 sticking to the um to those restrictions
1:13:15 that isn't that the other that our
1:13:17 previous code did it that way um i think
1:13:20 one of our goals with this
1:13:22 over over um overhaul one of the skills
1:13:25 of this improvement to our code is to
1:13:27 standardize and i think having a b
1:13:29 city-wide is more standard you don't
1:13:31 have to wonder if you're on one side of
1:13:33 a boundary or the other and so um i
1:13:36 think
1:13:38 that that it wasn't done city-wide in
1:13:41 the past isn't for me a good reason to
1:13:43 do it that way so i would revisit that
1:13:46 if there are exceptions like you said
1:13:47 intensive commercial maybe it doesn't
1:13:49 make a ton of sense for intensive
1:13:50 commercial um
1:13:52 i'm not sure i think actually maybe it
1:13:54 does in some cases but in any event if
1:13:56 there are exceptions because of a you
1:13:57 know a reason then i think that could be
1:13:59 laid out but i don't i i think citywide
1:14:02 when it can be done when the code can be
1:14:04 applied citywide i think that's more
1:14:06 standard so we should go with that
1:14:08 those are my
1:14:10 comments on the community spaces
1:14:12 so unless we have any other comments on
1:14:16 this one
1:14:17 i will go next to the trees
1:14:20 and anybody like to start us off on the
1:14:22 trees part of the
1:14:26 update i'm happy to start trees but i
1:14:30 would also give
1:14:32 council president the opportunity to
1:14:33 start this one if she was so inclined
1:14:36 councilmember ray i think you have the
1:14:37 four all right
1:14:41 this is a hard topic this is probably
1:14:43 one of the most emotionally charged
1:14:45 topics um that we get to deal with and
1:14:49 you know trees fall down trees need to
1:14:51 be removed um trees become a danger and
1:14:54 and we and you know and develop land we
1:14:57 have to take down trees sometimes
1:15:00 um and so with all of these
1:15:01 circumstances it's really a huge
1:15:03 balancing act of how do you balance the
1:15:06 need to take down trees with maintaining
1:15:08 our tree canopy and um i really
1:15:10 appreciate the
1:15:12 you know maintaining the the tree canopy
1:15:14 um as defined by the squad climate
1:15:17 action plan and driving tree retention
1:15:19 and as connie marsh was talking about no
1:15:22 you know
1:15:23 saving hot spots in various parts of the
1:15:25 city i think that's really important
1:15:27 but trees are
1:15:29 are more than that to an awful lot of
1:15:31 people who live here i mean trees are
1:15:32 part of the aesthetic of neighborhoods
1:15:34 and so
1:15:37 some of my my kind of bissell reaction
1:15:40 um a ten inch tree is not equal to five
1:15:43 two inch trees you know they're just not
1:15:45 the same and so we have to we have to
1:15:47 balance that and um replacing a tree in
1:15:51 an open space that's owned by the city
1:15:53 when i take it down in the neighborhood
1:15:55 isn't the same because the people who
1:15:57 are missing that tree they're from their
1:15:59 neighborhood
1:16:00 are never going to see it that's in the
1:16:01 in the open space so
1:16:03 how do we how do we balance that and
1:16:06 you know the other problem is if i take
1:16:08 a tree down over here because of
1:16:10 whatever reason
1:16:11 um how do i plant the right tree
1:16:14 wherever that might be so it will thrive
1:16:17 and fill the void so
1:16:19 i don't know that i have a lot of
1:16:20 answers but i have a lot of questions
1:16:21 for for this one because i think like i
1:16:24 said this is probably one of the most
1:16:25 emotionally charged
1:16:27 uh issues for this community is um
1:16:30 why did you cut down my tree and i got
1:16:32 to tell you when uh
1:16:33 in oh i don't know how long i've been on
1:16:35 council but i'm going to sound like
1:16:37 toilet marts here in a second talking
1:16:38 about way back when but we had a thing
1:16:41 in telus call and it was lovingly called
1:16:42 trimageddon because people started
1:16:45 coming out and started cutting down
1:16:46 trees and the neighborhood just lost
1:16:48 their mind and
1:16:50 i mean they really did there it's almost
1:16:52 like someone you know like
1:16:54 hung on to a true tree hugger so that
1:16:56 they wouldn't cut down any more trees so
1:16:59 it's super important and i'm excited
1:17:01 that we're taking it on um and i'm
1:17:03 really anxious to see how you solve all
1:17:05 of my problems thanks minnie
1:17:09 thank you councilmember ray um one thing
1:17:11 i think towards the end we're going to
1:17:15 trying to create a recommendation which
1:17:17 will be things for ppc um and our
1:17:20 commissions to revisit that we feel need
1:17:22 to be revisited so if you can formulate
1:17:25 that into something to be revisited um
1:17:27 then that would be great and for and
1:17:29 we'll try to wrap it up at the end with
1:17:31 all of our recommendations so uh council
1:17:34 president walsh did you have any
1:17:35 comments on the trees okay
1:17:37 go ahead
1:17:39 thanks
1:17:40 yeah um
1:17:42 i just find this really confusing to
1:17:45 have neighborhood level
1:17:48 sub-area level goals apply at the parcel
1:17:53 level as a requirement you know as
1:17:57 somebody who lives in the highland on a
1:17:59 5 000 square foot lot um
1:18:02 i'm just trying to imagine
1:18:05 what would happen if i'm sitting here
1:18:07 going okay i've got maybe a nuisance
1:18:09 tree that has to get
1:18:11 cut down
1:18:12 and i've got a hole of three trees on my
1:18:16 lot that's not going to get anywhere
1:18:19 close to the percentage requirement and
1:18:21 kind of what that means for me as a
1:18:25 community member so
1:18:28 i'm just having a really hard time
1:18:30 understanding
1:18:32 how this would apply and i think what i
1:18:34 would like to see is
1:18:38 examples from different areas picking
1:18:42 some parcels
1:18:43 and trying to understand both from a
1:18:46 single-family residence and a
1:18:48 multi-family residence
1:18:50 particularly when we're looking at
1:18:53 redevelopment or
1:18:55 [Music]
1:18:56 just the loss of
1:18:58 a single tree and what that's going to
1:19:01 mean for
1:19:02 those homeowners
1:19:05 developers if they're doing
1:19:06 redevelopment because
1:19:08 with the code as it is written i'm just
1:19:10 having a really hard under time
1:19:12 understanding
1:19:14 what this is actually going to look at
1:19:16 like um what it's going to look like
1:19:20 not only a requirement of either you
1:19:22 know if i can't
1:19:24 put the trees on
1:19:26 my lot how am i going to find someplace
1:19:28 else what is the fee in lieu how am i
1:19:31 going to navigate that what kind of
1:19:33 expertise am i going to
1:19:35 get at and then
1:19:36 the other piece for me is how does that
1:19:38 differ from
1:19:40 other
1:19:40 um local communities if
1:19:44 if this is
1:19:45 so much more
1:19:46 stringent and it gets us what i what we
1:19:48 want i can understand but i'm not
1:19:52 i'm not entirely clear whether the
1:19:56 sub-area
1:19:58 requirements
1:20:00 and kind of based on the goals that
1:20:03 that chart whether that
1:20:05 has a sense of achieving what we want or
1:20:08 or whether the numbers were
1:20:10 kind of just pulled out i
1:20:13 yeah so i have a
1:20:16 time understanding how this will be
1:20:19 applicable and whether it's going to get
1:20:20 us what we want thanks
1:20:24 okay thank you council president walsh
1:20:26 and um as i mentioned earlier i think at
1:20:28 the end we'll try to
1:20:29 create some a list of topics so it
1:20:32 sounds like that could also be one of
1:20:34 them and then
1:20:37 i will give my comments on the trees so
1:20:39 i think there's a lot of improvements
1:20:41 here the removal of the tree form which
1:20:43 caused confusion
1:20:45 and replacing that with the permit
1:20:46 process that
1:20:48 involving an arborist and involving the
1:20:51 need for expert opinion is also i think
1:20:53 a positive development
1:20:56 i am mostly concerned about two things
1:21:00 one the potential for
1:21:04 the removal of trees over time and the
1:21:07 the gradual removal of trees going from
1:21:10 35 percent to you know then you remove a
1:21:13 bunch of trees and get to that and that
1:21:14 now you have a smaller percentage and
1:21:16 continuing to remove trees
1:21:19 i i know that that can be an issue on
1:21:23 certain properties as they they remove a
1:21:25 couple trees at a time and then they
1:21:27 want to remove more so just
1:21:30 i think that the issue there is is
1:21:32 monitoring because i don't think the
1:21:35 really allows that but then you get into
1:21:37 how are we tracking and how are we
1:21:39 actually monitoring over time
1:21:41 so that would be something that i think
1:21:43 we could make sure that we are equipped
1:21:47 enforce what we have on the books and to
1:21:50 monitor to enforce it i think we need to
1:21:52 have some monitoring there
1:21:55 so that would be good to know it does
1:21:56 occur to me that this may be a
1:21:58 conversation also
1:22:00 about resourcing which isn't in code but
1:22:02 you know staffing resources which would
1:22:04 then be part of our conversation when we
1:22:06 get to budget um so if that if if that's
1:22:10 the way that we need to address
1:22:11 monitoring then it may not be in code
1:22:13 but i would still like to know what the
1:22:15 plan is for that
1:22:18 and then um
1:22:20 on the tree canopy per parcel there is
1:22:25 a pretty
1:22:26 significant decrease in what's currently
1:22:28 the canopy cover of squawk versus what
1:22:30 would be allowed on the parcel
1:22:33 um and i think that was true of some
1:22:35 other areas as well i um
1:22:40 i think if we are
1:22:41 talking about fire breaks i think it
1:22:43 would be good to get an expert opinion
1:22:45 about whether that particular percentage
1:22:48 can be justified on
1:22:50 justified by fire breaks my
1:22:51 understanding is there's a certain area
1:22:53 around the house but um potentially
1:22:56 if you have a much larger area a lot of
1:22:58 that area could already be farther away
1:23:00 from your house if you have a smaller
1:23:01 lot then maybe it is requiring a larger
1:23:04 percentage of the lot to be a fire break
1:23:07 and in either case i think maybe if
1:23:09 that's the goal we should have code
1:23:11 about that um not about not justifying a
1:23:15 certain percentage of the canopy
1:23:17 due to the fact that you need a fire
1:23:18 break around the house um
1:23:20 and i i sort of similarly to council
1:23:24 president walsh just wondered
1:23:28 it seems there was a lot of judgment
1:23:30 that went into getting those percentages
1:23:31 based on what was there and what was
1:23:33 plantable and
1:23:35 if we go that route with all these
1:23:37 differentiators really making sure that
1:23:39 we do achieve our
1:23:41 end goal which is in our climate action
1:23:43 plan which is 55
1:23:45 i think with all of those combinations
1:23:48 i'm not
1:23:49 i'm not sure that that gets us there but
1:23:51 i would want to make sure that we
1:23:54 are accounting for um for our existing
1:23:56 goal which is overall 55 and then making
1:23:59 sure that within each neighborhood they
1:24:01 are also retaining their
1:24:03 tree forested character
1:24:10 i think that those are my comments on
1:24:13 the trees um there there was also a
1:24:16 conversation about screening and you had
1:24:18 mentioned
1:24:19 director dollywall that
1:24:22 were were you planning on revisiting the
1:24:24 screening the parking lots trees or that
1:24:26 was something that
1:24:27 yeah i think that was in the landscape
1:24:29 chapter uh we have some you can screen
1:24:32 by wall you know it was more of a
1:24:34 parking lot screening um so yeah we will
1:24:37 look at that okay great thank you um so
1:24:40 those are my comments on trees i think
1:24:41 there's a lot a lot to like here um
1:24:45 then the last section is landscape and
1:24:49 who would like to start us off on
1:24:50 landscape comments i really don't have
1:24:52 any comments on landscape so i'll i'll
1:24:54 let uh
1:24:55 president walsh go first on this one all
1:24:57 right council president walsh
1:25:00 okay i've got a few um
1:25:03 i really don't understand why there's a
1:25:06 difference in the landscape requirements
1:25:08 especially around the parking and stuff
1:25:10 like that where we have one standard for
1:25:13 central issaquah isaac highland and
1:25:15 telus versus the remainder of the city i
1:25:18 really
1:25:19 really tried to understand
1:25:21 what the differences proposed were for
1:25:24 each of them and they looked awfully
1:25:26 similar for me so i'd love to get a
1:25:29 sense of
1:25:30 why we decided we needed two
1:25:33 standards there
1:25:37 really would like to consolidate if
1:25:40 possible
1:25:42 and then going beyond that i really want
1:25:44 to stress
1:25:45 i want to find some way to
1:25:49 handle the idea of irrigation and gray
1:25:54 water and native plants that don't
1:25:57 require as much
1:25:59 watering or irrigation just some sense
1:26:03 of a better way to do that
1:26:06 and i was looking at redmond's new code
1:26:09 that they adopted in february and i
1:26:12 really like the ecological score
1:26:14 requirements section that they have
1:26:16 which provides a table of options it
1:26:18 says like you know if you use this
1:26:21 amount of native plants or you keep this
1:26:23 amount of
1:26:25 native soil on site you use
1:26:28 gray water or green roofs or any things
1:26:31 like that i think that
1:26:33 ultimately gets us toward our goal
1:26:39 a better way it also addresses things
1:26:41 like having confirmed trees and you know
1:26:44 all of the things that we want but which
1:26:47 may not be
1:26:48 applicable or
1:26:50 best achievable on any individual lot so
1:26:54 it allows for
1:26:56 customization in a table that's really
1:26:58 clear and easy to understand
1:27:01 similarly they also have a really nice
1:27:02 section on irrigation where they say
1:27:05 it's required for greater than 500
1:27:07 square feet with an automatic system
1:27:10 designed to conserve water and a rain
1:27:12 sensor device i think while
1:27:15 not having certain
1:27:17 sets of technology required in code we
1:27:20 can still think about
1:27:23 what are the goals well i only want
1:27:25 irrigation required if it's large enough
1:27:28 that it's going to
1:27:30 need it if it's non-native plantings
1:27:33 that are going to need it
1:27:35 and if we're going to do irrigation i
1:27:38 want it somehow to conserve water and
1:27:41 have a rain sensor
1:27:42 so that it's not
1:27:44 adding water usage at times that aren't
1:27:47 needed so um i'd just like to kind of
1:27:50 take a step back and really make sure
1:27:52 that with the landscaping we're
1:27:54 achieving what we want to there that
1:27:57 being said i do really appreciate um
1:28:01 looking at
1:28:04 allowed and preferred or whatever the
1:28:06 list of trees was and um
1:28:09 letting one of the commission members
1:28:11 help with that i think that will help us
1:28:14 get where we want um
1:28:17 i had something else i was thinking
1:28:18 about that i didn't write down and i
1:28:21 cannot remember
1:28:25 okay well it's gone now but thank you
1:28:30 all right thank you
1:28:32 um so i had a few comments uh one is and
1:28:36 i i made this comment earlier about the
1:28:38 wording extents practicable just to make
1:28:41 sure that we have
1:28:42 um if we're requiring it it's required
1:28:45 and um make sure that that wording is
1:28:47 not there
1:28:50 the other
1:28:51 thing uh
1:28:52 i believe that
1:28:54 so there's references to turf throughout
1:28:56 this section and i believe that
1:28:58 artificial turf would also be governed
1:29:01 by this section is that correct
1:29:06 it isn't there's nothing specific to it
1:29:09 but since it's
1:29:10 turf and i believe it's in it would be
1:29:12 here if it yeah we probably should look
1:29:14 at that um and you know the more uh the
1:29:17 issue with the school
1:29:19 uh district that came up so we'll look
1:29:21 at that yep yes um so that that would be
1:29:24 my uh request is to look into um
1:29:27 specifically there's some tire material
1:29:30 that is used in artificial turf
1:29:33 and to make sure that we are using our
1:29:35 best available science about that and
1:29:37 its implications for um
1:29:40 because there's some potential
1:29:41 implications
1:29:43 for that for ecological functioning and
1:29:46 specifically um salmon and fish and so
1:29:48 just to make sure that we
1:29:50 have used this opportunity to update
1:29:53 this section regarding
1:29:55 turf artificial turf materials and the
1:29:57 city on our own fields uses
1:30:00 a different material already to address
1:30:03 this so that would be an opportunity to
1:30:04 make sure that future
1:30:06 any future application of that would be
1:30:08 using that same standard
1:30:11 and then
1:30:12 other than that i the
1:30:15 the comments about um
1:30:18 there's a lot of
1:30:19 there is a lot of uh landscaping
1:30:22 requirements for parking lots
1:30:25 and um you know screening and where it's
1:30:28 tree i think the the diagrams help but
1:30:31 i'm still it's still not totally clear
1:30:33 to me
1:30:37 those
1:30:38 are trying to achieve so maybe more
1:30:41 visuals about what we want to use the
1:30:46 landscaping for would be helpful
1:30:50 i guess i just
1:30:51 that that section
1:30:52 it was clear how to comply with the code
1:30:55 but i think it wasn't completely clear
1:30:56 what the
1:30:58 goal was
1:30:59 um to me
1:31:01 so those are those are my comments on
1:31:02 the landscaping section again thank you
1:31:04 for all of the work that went into
1:31:07 addressing the comments from the
1:31:08 commissions i think that was very
1:31:09 helpful
1:31:12 all right so now at this point let's um
1:31:15 we are tasked with
1:31:18 clarifying if there are any things that
1:31:19 we would like the commissions to revisit
1:31:22 before
1:31:24 in the next steps of this process
1:31:28 other than that make a recommendation
1:31:29 for this to go to continue in the
1:31:31 process is that
1:31:33 fair okay
1:31:35 um so i will
1:31:38 i've taken some
1:31:39 notes um
1:31:42 and i will try to formulate some
1:31:44 recommendations here although if there's
1:31:46 other
1:31:48 if if i miss anything or if we want
1:31:51 something restated let me know
1:31:53 um so
1:31:55 the first one was community spaces um we
1:31:58 had we had comments on a number of
1:32:00 things but i think the only thing that
1:32:03 we wanted
1:32:05 revisiting were the city-wide
1:32:07 application of the code and then
1:32:09 signage
1:32:11 um is that
1:32:13 councilmember walsh did you have
1:32:14 anything that you would like revisited i
1:32:16 know i have down focus on the public
1:32:19 spaces but i'm not sure if that's
1:32:20 something you would like them to revisit
1:32:25 um i'm not sure whether it's a ppc
1:32:28 revisit or staff revisit and bring back
1:32:31 to us but the the sense of
1:32:34 these amenities spaces versus community
1:32:38 spaces
1:32:41 what the standard is for other
1:32:45 neighboring communities
1:32:47 and then also
1:32:51 any naming
1:32:53 norms that we might look at
1:32:56 okay so so maybe we can categorize
1:32:58 things into
1:33:00 requests for things that we believe need
1:33:02 to be revisited and then
1:33:05 information requests that we we just
1:33:07 want more information on um so
1:33:11 okay so would those be information
1:33:13 requests then under that
1:33:15 framing
1:33:16 i think so yeah
1:33:18 okay um
1:33:20 great
1:33:21 anything else for cuny spaces all right
1:33:24 under trees
1:33:28 a lot of
1:33:29 concern so my
1:33:32 thought on trees would be
1:33:35 revisiting this maybe an information
1:33:37 request
1:33:39 but looking at some examples of what
1:33:42 would be allowed under the
1:33:45 code from a practical standpoint in the
1:33:47 different neighborhoods and that that
1:33:50 could help us because a lot of our
1:33:51 concern were
1:33:53 about does this
1:33:54 keep the forested character that we we
1:33:57 want and you know how would this be
1:33:59 applied on a parcel that's
1:34:01 x you know size of x
1:34:04 and how would it work in one
1:34:06 neighborhood versus another
1:34:08 so i'm wondering if we have some
1:34:09 examples if that would
1:34:12 help and then it wouldn't be it wouldn't
1:34:14 need to go back to ppc just we need some
1:34:15 examples to understand
1:34:29 do we have any anything within the tree
1:34:32 category that we want
1:34:34 that we believe needs to be revisited by
1:34:36 ppc so i i don't know if this this is
1:34:39 something needs to be revisited but um
1:34:43 when the council president was talking
1:34:44 about you know her personal example of
1:34:47 of replacing a tree i think there's a
1:34:49 difference between
1:34:52 how to apply this to
1:34:55 existing developed areas and new
1:34:57 developed areas
1:34:59 because i think the standards are
1:35:01 different and one of the things that i'm
1:35:02 struck with is
1:35:04 particularly a new development the fee
1:35:07 in lieu of trees creates an incentive to
1:35:10 cut down trees because
1:35:12 the fee is lower than the cost of
1:35:14 maintaining the trees and so if there's
1:35:16 a way that we can drive the incentive
1:35:19 out of this
1:35:20 um to cut down trees particularly in new
1:35:22 development i would be all for that so i
1:35:25 don't know if that's a
1:35:27 ppc question or if that's a staff
1:35:29 question but it's a question that
1:35:32 i think we need to address and this is
1:35:34 how do we how do we incentivize the
1:35:36 right behavior
1:35:37 and write right is always an ambiguous
1:35:40 word but you know the behavior that i
1:35:42 think that our citizens want to see so
1:35:44 that's the only other thing i would have
1:35:47 what you had there council member hunt
1:35:54 okay okay so so we do then want to look
1:35:58 maybe we would request that ppc look if
1:36:03 code the variance because that's a
1:36:05 variance i believe that you would need
1:36:07 to go to the
1:36:08 fee in lieu of
1:36:11 is that correct
1:36:13 no the variance would be that
1:36:16 you're not meeting your percentage
1:36:18 but um but you can't meet it you know so
1:36:22 the fee and luau would you would comply
1:36:24 with the code uh if it's a healthy tree
1:36:27 that um
1:36:29 you need to take out because that's the
1:36:31 only way you can add your utility line
1:36:33 or something like that that would be a
1:36:35 variance criteria for that
1:36:38 but if you can meet you know
1:36:41 if if the code doesn't allow you to take
1:36:43 out a healthy tree and you want to take
1:36:45 one out then you apply for a variance
1:36:47 if the code allows you you can meet your
1:36:50 square footage or percentage
1:36:52 but as shy short of meeting it on site
1:36:55 and you want to pay fee in lieu of then
1:36:57 you would go down that path there's also
1:36:59 tree retention requirements i think what
1:37:02 casper ray was talking about so for new
1:37:05 development you have to have 35 you know
1:37:08 so so many percentage of your uh
1:37:10 significant trees have to be preserved
1:37:12 and that's just a number
1:37:14 um or a percentage number it is it's not
1:37:17 necessarily a canopy thing daniel do you
1:37:20 want to explain um
1:37:22 the tree retention requirements
1:37:28 which are separate from the tree removal
1:37:30 and replacement
1:37:32 yeah so
1:37:34 uh the retention requirements
1:37:37 apply largely to development or
1:37:39 redevelopment it's not something
1:37:42 that you would do as a single family
1:37:45 homeowner
1:37:46 so if you have
1:37:49 um a hypothetical
1:37:51 one acre site that's completely forested
1:37:55 and you want to develop it into
1:37:58 a single family track
1:38:00 development
1:38:01 uh you would be
1:38:03 required to
1:38:06 retain
1:38:09 of the existing caliber inches
1:38:12 for the site
1:38:14 so it's not
1:38:15 based on
1:38:17 number of trees you're not we're not
1:38:19 saying that you have to
1:38:20 keep 35
1:38:23 the trees it's based on caliper inches
1:38:27 so you're
1:38:28 there's an incentive there to keep the
1:38:31 largest trees
1:38:34 uh because they're going to help you
1:38:35 meet that 35 percent
1:38:41 and if i if i can't or i don't what do i
1:38:44 do or do i have to
1:38:47 you as part of development or
1:38:49 redevelopment you have to that's a
1:38:52 requirement
1:38:54 i suppose that you could
1:38:56 request a variance to
1:39:00 go lower than that
1:39:02 i based on the way that the
1:39:06 variance approval criteria is written i
1:39:09 don't know
1:39:10 that you're going to get
1:39:11 a yes
1:39:14 so we've strengthened the code where you
1:39:16 are required to save 35 it used to be
1:39:19 administrative adjustment of standards
1:39:21 and you could just apply for it and it
1:39:23 was granted and you just paid fee in
1:39:25 lieu of okay so that's gone away okay
1:39:27 great thank you i think that's maybe
1:39:29 what i'm what i'm looking for
1:39:30 thank you minnie
1:39:33 okay um
1:39:34 so do we
1:39:36 i wonder though if we could still look
1:39:39 at if there are other places where
1:39:41 there's the application of in
1:39:43 fee in lieu if we can strengthen that
1:39:45 and and reduce the usage of that because
1:39:48 that is a
1:39:49 concern
1:39:51 if there are other opportunities to you
1:39:53 know kind of perform that same activity
1:39:55 um that makes sense i mean what i really
1:39:58 want is for us to incent the right
1:40:00 behavior and to disincent
1:40:03 the wrong behavior so um what what i
1:40:06 just heard was really was really
1:40:07 encouraging because that's um that's
1:40:09 great um so if there are other prairies
1:40:11 where that
1:40:13 kind of
1:40:14 thought process can occur then i say
1:40:16 let's let's explore those
1:40:24 okay great
1:40:27 so i think that's it for
1:40:29 trees the last one is the landscaping
1:40:32 part of this
1:40:33 landscaping chapter and um
1:40:37 let's see
1:40:38 uh council president walsh do you think
1:40:41 that did you have a specific
1:40:45 question that you would like revisited
1:40:47 by ppc from your comments
1:40:50 yes i'd like to know
1:40:52 why there's a difference in the
1:40:53 landscape requirements and whether
1:40:57 the parking lot requirements
1:41:00 and whether
1:41:02 there's a reason we should
1:41:04 continue that maybe that's a question
1:41:07 for director dollywell first
1:41:09 um before i say
1:41:11 it's something that i want to see go
1:41:13 back to pbc
1:41:17 all right director dollywood could you
1:41:19 please um
1:41:20 help us understand why there are
1:41:22 differences in the
1:41:23 uh parking lot landscaping requirements
1:41:25 for the different neighborhoods yeah you
1:41:27 know i'm i'm not exactly sure how much
1:41:30 of a difference it's going to make
1:41:31 between those two so we'll look for ways
1:41:34 to standardize it but but the basic but
1:41:36 the the basic premise of it was you're
1:41:39 going to have more urban development in
1:41:42 these urban villages and in central
1:41:44 issaquad that
1:41:45 that um you don't have
1:41:48 a more of a suburban um
1:41:51 environment where you have larger you
1:41:53 know parking lots um i mean with
1:41:55 redevelopment you're gonna get
1:41:56 structured parking and so on and so
1:41:59 forth so therefore the the delta
1:42:01 difference between
1:42:03 uh what a parking lot landscaping in
1:42:05 these areas looks like versus the
1:42:07 outside of these areas but we can look
1:42:09 for you know if it's only
1:42:11 not much of a difference then we can
1:42:13 standardize it i mean i i think with
1:42:15 this consolidation exercise some of
1:42:17 those nuances are coming out you know we
1:42:19 we've had these different differences
1:42:21 but are they that different to remain
1:42:23 different
1:42:27 okay um council president walsh does
1:42:29 that address your
1:42:32 thoughts on that yeah it sounds like
1:42:33 that's something that can potentially
1:42:35 happen at an administration level um and
1:42:38 then my other big question was on
1:42:40 irrigation i feel like there's still a
1:42:43 question whether
1:42:45 irrigation should be
1:42:48 required um to be installed and so i
1:42:51 know the administration has said that
1:42:53 they're going to take a look on
1:42:56 the second draft about
1:42:58 gray water and storm water and
1:43:01 rain gardens and all of that does that
1:43:04 include irrigation or is that a larger
1:43:08 question that would have to go back to
1:43:10 ppc for consideration
1:43:14 um i i think what our thought process on
1:43:17 that was um was that we would encourage
1:43:20 uh you know rain you know installation
1:43:23 of rain gardens or
1:43:25 if you have a stormwater biosoil that
1:43:28 can count towards your some landscaping
1:43:30 requirements so encouraging some of
1:43:32 those
1:43:33 um areas that um
1:43:36 encourage stormwater on-site
1:43:38 infiltration but again we would need to
1:43:40 coordinate with the storm water
1:43:42 um you know the work that's occurring
1:43:44 with the storm water plan to see if
1:43:46 that's even feasible in the
1:43:48 redevelopment areas and if so but at
1:43:50 least in the landscaping chapter we
1:43:52 don't want to prevent
1:43:54 folks from
1:43:55 being able to
1:43:57 have dual purpose so if you have a space
1:44:00 where you can treat your storm water and
1:44:01 you can plant those grasses that
1:44:03 actually eliminate some of those
1:44:05 contaminants
1:44:06 those kind of things so we would make it
1:44:08 more more of a incentive for someone to
1:44:12 double count you you can clean your
1:44:14 storm water and you can count towards
1:44:16 your landscaping so if there's
1:44:17 opportunities like that
1:44:19 through rain garden or other
1:44:20 opportunities we want to encourage that
1:44:25 that's not in the code right now
1:44:28 so we would make it more of an
1:44:32 incentive okay but what about irrigation
1:44:37 yeah the draft right now requires
1:44:39 irrigation and i think our
1:44:40 recommendation is we shouldn't say
1:44:42 you're not required to
1:44:44 provide irrigation
1:44:47 at this stage without really
1:44:49 understanding
1:44:50 um that you're not gonna have dead
1:44:52 plants i mean summers are getting warmer
1:44:54 the first two planting seasons are gonna
1:44:57 be tough uh so
1:44:59 you do need to
1:45:00 have some irrigation for newly planted
1:45:02 areas but i think some of the other
1:45:04 ideas you you talked about having water
1:45:07 conservation water sensors and those
1:45:09 kind of things we can certainly uh look
1:45:11 at that
1:45:12 ecological score you know option that
1:45:15 you gave you were talking about we can
1:45:16 certainly explore that
1:45:21 okay thank you
1:45:23 thank you
1:45:24 um i i know that also some of the hoas
1:45:27 earlier in this process we had heard
1:45:29 comments about
1:45:30 the need for maintaining irrigation and
1:45:33 that that falls then upon the homeowners
1:45:35 association once it's been installed and
1:45:37 that that can be an ongoing issue so
1:45:40 i think just looking at if there are
1:45:43 practical ways to keep the plants alive
1:45:45 using drought tolerant plants etc
1:45:48 then that would be great it also takes
1:45:50 the burden off of the people that have
1:45:51 to maintain those plants so
1:45:54 um okay
1:45:56 so i from from my standpoint because
1:45:58 it's a new topic and ultimately uh
1:46:01 planning policy commission will approve
1:46:03 the uh make a recommendation on the
1:46:05 whole chapter and i think that probably
1:46:07 the artificial turf would probably need
1:46:10 to go by
1:46:11 planning policy commission further
1:46:13 consideration but it also needs to be
1:46:15 researched by staff and
1:46:17 so that would be my request on the
1:46:19 landscaping
1:46:25 all right well i think
1:46:28 do you have what you need from us or
1:46:30 okay sure just one quick clarification
1:46:33 so when you when we talked about
1:46:35 information and going back to planning
1:46:37 and policy commission so we're going to
1:46:38 take all of this
1:46:41 and we intend to check in with the
1:46:44 planning policy commission with the
1:46:45 consolidated draft but we'll pull out
1:46:47 these things that have changed and give
1:46:49 them the analysis so they can weigh in
1:46:52 is that sort of your understanding
1:46:55 um i think so and then there were some
1:46:57 specific things that i think we flagged
1:46:59 that we would that weren't really
1:47:02 addressed like
1:47:06 the ones
1:47:07 that i raised which come to mind because
1:47:09 i raised them but like signage not
1:47:12 really addressed and then this
1:47:13 artificial turf one so to call those out
1:47:15 since they're new and we would like to
1:47:17 make sure that they have go through the
1:47:19 same process as everything else we'll do
1:47:23 okay so are we
1:47:25 good all right
1:47:27 so we this is our first meeting in this
1:47:29 format and we can choose to make a
1:47:32 formal recommendation but on this item
1:47:33 since this continuing work in progress
1:47:35 we can also
1:47:37 i think continue
1:47:38 and move along to the next item
1:47:41 all right
1:47:45 so then i think we're all in agreement
1:47:47 that we can move on to our next and
1:47:51 final item
1:47:53 so the
1:47:54 last item on our agenda then is id1128
1:47:57 code enforcement changes and
1:48:00 this will be presented by lori dunning
1:48:02 code enforcement officer so welcome
1:48:05 laurie and you have the floor
1:48:12 thank you can you all hear me
1:48:16 hello can you hear me yes we can hear
1:48:19 thank you
1:48:23 my name is lori dunning i'm the code
1:48:25 enforcement officer for the city of
1:48:27 issaquah and i thank
1:48:28 the committee
1:48:30 committee chair hunt nice to meet you
1:48:32 meet you
1:48:34 council member ray
1:48:36 and council president walsh um thank you
1:48:38 for your time tonight um
1:48:41 oh that's a different slide i guess we
1:48:43 started with
1:48:44 um mini's presenting but i'm actually
1:48:46 presenting this tonight
1:48:48 um so i'm going to run through our
1:48:50 powerpoint and then um
1:48:53 deputy city attorney anne marie soto is
1:48:56 here to answer any legal questions that
1:48:58 we have because i think there's going to
1:48:59 be a few
1:49:03 city clerk if you'd like to go to the
1:49:05 next slide
1:49:06 thank you
1:49:07 so our purpose tonight
1:49:09 is we would are proposing
1:49:12 some code enforcement changes to um fill
1:49:15 up our toolbox um
1:49:18 current code enforcement provisions are
1:49:20 outdated contain conflicts across the
1:49:22 municipal code
1:49:24 changes are required to provide legally
1:49:26 defensible enforcement procedures
1:49:30 and are necessary for protecting
1:49:31 neighborhoods community assets and the
1:49:33 environment in general
1:49:36 next slide
1:49:38 so we're seeking direction
1:49:40 feedback and recommendation on adopting
1:49:42 procedural amendments for several
1:49:44 existing codes including title 18 to
1:49:47 eliminate conflicts
1:49:49 and feedback and recommendation on
1:49:51 adopting
1:49:52 a separate code enforcement chapter
1:49:54 under title 8
1:49:57 entitled health and safety which should
1:49:58 be a very appropriate
1:50:00 that establishes code enforcement
1:50:02 process and procedures and related
1:50:04 amendments throughout the imc
1:50:07 next slide
1:50:09 so our background
1:50:11 is our current processes are confusing
1:50:13 unclear they are undefined
1:50:17 and they're unclear for staff citizens
1:50:18 and property owners alike
1:50:20 the current citation system ticket
1:50:22 system does not require actual abatement
1:50:26 achieving compliance of code violations
1:50:29 only payments of fines
1:50:31 and then code violations and thus
1:50:34 citizen requests
1:50:36 go unresolved
1:50:39 the the pictures i've included are
1:50:42 actual cases that i've been involved in
1:50:44 in another jurisdiction
1:50:46 so better codes give us better legal
1:50:48 tools to
1:50:50 [Music]
1:50:51 achieve compliance
1:50:53 next slide
1:50:55 so our proposal
1:50:58 code amendments across the imc several
1:51:00 titles to eliminate the conflicts update
1:51:03 outdated codes some as old as 1984 i
1:51:06 think i've seen
1:51:08 proposed separate code enforcement
1:51:11 chapter in title 8 as we've said to
1:51:13 provide a civil notice of violation
1:51:15 process rather than civil infraction or
1:51:18 tickets the new process uses a hearing
1:51:21 examiner appeals process which will
1:51:24 require actual abatement and not just
1:51:27 paying penalties
1:51:29 that don't actually resolve the problem
1:51:32 the new process also includes the
1:51:34 potential for financial penalties and
1:51:36 liens against property titles as
1:51:38 necessary to ensure ongoing compliance
1:51:42 next slide
1:51:45 so title 18 amendments um resolution
1:51:49 2021-06 included factors to consider
1:51:52 when placing any title 18 changes on a
1:51:54 separate track and
1:51:55 [Music]
1:51:57 so there is there any urgency or time
1:51:58 sensitivity
1:52:00 what is the budgetary and or resource
1:52:02 staff
1:52:03 impact
1:52:05 other other planned work is there other
1:52:07 planned work that would be delayed
1:52:09 what benefit public or otherwise would
1:52:11 be gained or conversely what is lost by
1:52:14 not pulling to top it out topic out
1:52:16 separately
1:52:17 are there trade-offs or potential
1:52:19 conflicts with other parts of title 18
1:52:22 and then any other considerations
1:52:24 appearing relevant
1:52:26 next slide
1:52:30 options by having and continuing our
1:52:33 same process um we don't have a very
1:52:36 full toolbox we have a very empty
1:52:37 toolbox right now with city staff
1:52:40 so this is the same property again a
1:52:42 property i am very familiar with and i
1:52:45 did inspire and compel compliance with
1:52:48 this property owner
1:52:49 um that two-story edition of the house
1:52:53 actually that was built without permits
1:52:55 at all
1:52:56 and obviously they have junk vehicles
1:52:58 they have trash they have other stuff
1:53:00 going in the backyard
1:53:03 the um property or the photo on the
1:53:06 right is actually the final result um
1:53:08 after two years of using our process
1:53:12 compelling compliance um
1:53:14 i don't
1:53:15 i don't think we had to take it to
1:53:16 superior court but we did take it to
1:53:20 different levels and tickets would not
1:53:22 have compelled this
1:53:25 change tickets would have taken away the
1:53:27 money that they put into permitting to
1:53:29 come up with the final result
1:53:31 next slide
1:53:34 so we're seeking recommendation and
1:53:35 committee feedback to present code
1:53:38 enforcement code amendments to the
1:53:40 council for adoption and to provide
1:53:42 staff with the tools to actually compel
1:53:45 compliance and again it's an actual
1:53:47 house that i worked with
1:53:49 um with permits
1:53:51 um to see the final result in a very
1:53:53 public street and jurisdiction i worked
1:53:55 at previously
1:53:57 [Music]
1:53:58 and this is what our this is our goal is
1:54:01 to comply or compel compliance
1:54:04 um and not actually just collect fees
1:54:08 i think that's the last slide is that
1:54:09 the next slide
1:54:10 chris
1:54:12 the timing in the next steps so we're
1:54:13 seeking regular counsel
1:54:16 secret separate track title 18
1:54:19 amendments on may 16th
1:54:22 june 21st for the code enforcement
1:54:25 ordinances opt-in adoption
1:54:29 and that's the last slide
1:54:33 all right
1:54:34 thank you very much um for that
1:54:36 presentation and we will now take um any
1:54:40 questions for
1:54:42 um lori and i
1:54:44 believe also we have anne marie um if
1:54:46 there are legal questions as well
1:54:52 hello uh councilmember ray
1:54:55 great
1:54:56 thank you lori and uh love love the
1:54:58 photos that was uh that made it very
1:55:00 real can you talk a little bit of
1:55:01 difference about what's the difference
1:55:03 between fines versus forcing compliance
1:55:06 and what that looks like in practical
1:55:08 terms and um
1:55:11 just to give me a little more
1:55:12 understanding of kind of what what
1:55:14 what you're hoping to accomplish
1:55:17 sure um that's a great question um
1:55:22 where i've worked in the past and even
1:55:24 and even here in issaquah um
1:55:27 i've seen where we've collected
1:55:28 assessments or fines or tickets or
1:55:30 penalties whatever
1:55:32 and to be honest um
1:55:36 collecting money from a property owner
1:55:39 um takes away the resources that they
1:55:42 would have to let's say get a permit if
1:55:45 they you know did they did some illegal
1:55:46 construction or or did something that
1:55:49 they're gonna need some money to fix
1:55:53 and i think uh uh deputy uh city
1:55:56 attorney soto and i are in the same
1:55:57 agreement we're in the same frame of
1:55:58 mind that yeah we would rather have
1:56:00 compliance and ongoing
1:56:03 you know permanent compliance you know
1:56:05 get a permit for your for your land
1:56:07 altering project for your construction
1:56:09 to make sure
1:56:10 life safety and environmental
1:56:13 assets are protected
1:56:16 just get sending out a ticket
1:56:18 um or you know an invoice takes the
1:56:21 money it takes away the money that they
1:56:22 could put you know towards compliance
1:56:25 i think that's great can you talk a
1:56:27 little bit about what i want to make
1:56:28 sure that we recognize because i see um
1:56:30 anne-marie is raising her physical hand
1:56:32 so anne-marie
1:56:34 yeah sorry i'm i'm not always used to
1:56:36 the the webex version so i was like i
1:56:38 don't know where the hand raises uh so i
1:56:41 just wanted to provide a little bit more
1:56:43 um information about the fines versus
1:56:46 the notice of civil violation process
1:56:49 that staff is recommending so what the
1:56:52 city currently has for violations of the
1:56:55 municipal code they're either deemed
1:56:57 civil infractions that are enforced by
1:57:00 issuing a ticket that can then be
1:57:03 appealed to the municipal court the
1:57:05 municipal court has the ability to
1:57:09 require the person to pay the ticket or
1:57:11 they can reduce the amount of money that
1:57:14 the person has to pay but they don't
1:57:16 have the the authority to actually
1:57:18 compel compliance you could issue a
1:57:21 ticket every single day and that might
1:57:24 compel compliance because a person gets
1:57:26 tired of getting you know a ticket every
1:57:28 single day but ultimately that's not a
1:57:31 process that
1:57:32 leads to someone who can actually say
1:57:34 you must do xyz by this date
1:57:38 you also have in your current code the
1:57:41 um that some violations of the code are
1:57:43 crimes they're designated as either
1:57:46 misdemeanors or gross misdemeanors and
1:57:49 as i'm sure you all know that is a
1:57:51 criminal process that goes through a
1:57:53 completely different
1:57:55 set of procedures than civil violations
1:57:57 what we don't have are just normal civil
1:58:01 violations that are not handled through
1:58:03 the issuance of a ticket that is the
1:58:06 process that we're recommending this is
1:58:08 a process that's pretty common in a lot
1:58:10 of jurisdictions
1:58:12 lori and i actually worked together in
1:58:15 another jurisdiction where we adopted a
1:58:18 very similar process and it was
1:58:19 something that actually worked for that
1:58:21 jurisdiction and so this gives you the
1:58:24 ability to issue a notice of violation
1:58:27 that outlines the corrective action that
1:58:29 is required
1:58:30 and it states that if you don't complete
1:58:32 it by x date then and you might be
1:58:35 assessed a fine
1:58:37 you get the an opportunity to appeal
1:58:40 that appeal then would go to a hearing
1:58:42 examiner the hearing examiner has the
1:58:44 ability to order compliance and to order
1:58:48 payment of fines
1:58:50 most of the time as laurie mentioned
1:58:52 we're not actually seeking we're not
1:58:54 seeking the payment of fines we're
1:58:56 seeking compliance so there are
1:58:58 provisions in this draft that would
1:59:00 allow for reduction of fines or waiver
1:59:03 of fines in certain circumstances
1:59:05 because really we're just trying to get
1:59:06 compliance and then ultimately if you go
1:59:09 through that whole process
1:59:11 and there's still no compliance you
1:59:13 still have the ability to go to superior
1:59:16 court to get a warrant of abatement
1:59:18 where a judge actually is telling the
1:59:21 person you must do
1:59:23 this corrective action by x-state and if
1:59:25 you don't then the city has the ability
1:59:28 to go upon the property correct the
1:59:30 violation and then assess the cost of
1:59:34 that abatement against the property
1:59:40 this this is great and you just you just
1:59:42 answered my follow-up question which is
1:59:44 what is the inducement then to
1:59:46 compel compliance
1:59:48 so great so i'm thank you for that
1:59:54 all right great
1:59:56 um council president walsh did you have
1:59:57 any questions on this
1:59:59 not seeing any okay then um i do not
2:00:01 have any questions so we will call for
2:00:04 public comments on this item um send you
2:00:07 i will check on city clerk because
2:00:08 anybody
2:00:09 on the line um wishing to make comments
2:00:12 on this item
2:00:14 council member hunt i see connie
2:00:16 marsha's hand raised but i'm not clear
2:00:18 if it was from the previous agenda item
2:00:21 or not ms marsh can you illuminate us
2:00:39 ms marsh
2:00:43 council member hunt i believe that's a
2:00:45 hand raised from the previous topic and
2:00:46 i see no other virtual hands raised at
2:00:48 the moment
2:00:49 all right thank you very much um there
2:00:52 being no public comments on this then we
2:00:54 will move to our
2:00:56 committee recommendations
2:00:58 and i see we have some comments for
2:01:00 council president
2:01:02 comments from council president walsh i
2:01:04 also will remind the committee that on
2:01:06 this one we do have a recommendation
2:01:08 that we can make so i can
2:01:10 go ahead and make that motion once we're
2:01:11 ready and we can make a formal
2:01:13 recommendation on this one
2:01:17 council president
2:01:19 thanks
2:01:23 i guess my
2:01:24 my comments on this are more on
2:01:27 on the presentation um if this
2:01:32 then moves forward to general counsel
2:01:34 because i i love i love the concept of
2:01:39 we're taking something that through our
2:01:41 hands-on experience we find doesn't work
2:01:45 we have experience in making a change to
2:01:48 another method that does work
2:01:53 i think i mean
2:01:55 that is ultimately the perfect scenario
2:01:58 it's what exactly what we want to see
2:02:01 in a municipal government is
2:02:04 taking proactive action on something
2:02:06 that isn't working
2:02:08 to fix it so
2:02:11 i like the concept i think
2:02:13 what i would need to see in looking at
2:02:16 this going forward is
2:02:18 a better understanding what each of
2:02:20 those titles section changes because
2:02:24 what we got was kind of floating
2:02:26 sections with
2:02:28 basically redlining
2:02:31 but i had a really hard time
2:02:33 understanding what
2:02:35 each of those sections referred to and
2:02:37 kind of whether the proposed financial
2:02:40 or legal penalties were appropriate i
2:02:43 didn't have anything to compare it
2:02:44 against and in some cases
2:02:46 you're proposing
2:02:48 changing the financial penalty
2:02:51 downward in other cases you were
2:02:53 eliminating it
2:02:55 and so i just think
2:02:57 working us through that concept would be
2:03:00 really helpful
2:03:04 those are kind of my comments council
2:03:07 member hunt you said
2:03:09 you're
2:03:10 that we have a potential motion which
2:03:12 would be kind of an official
2:03:15 recommendation
2:03:17 of moving this forward so
2:03:21 trying to think how i place my comments
2:03:25 in relationship to my
2:03:27 my thoughts on the recommendation
2:03:30 should i wait
2:03:32 well um
2:03:33 council president walsh do you is is
2:03:36 your request
2:03:38 for when this comes back a request that
2:03:40 there be a version that is the clean
2:03:43 without the red line changes a clean
2:03:45 code version that you could
2:03:47 read no that doesn't address you no i
2:03:50 think it just needs more explanation
2:03:55 context
2:03:56 um unders
2:03:58 providing like
2:04:00 i'm trying to pull up the right pieces
2:04:03 but there were a lot of different title
2:04:04 sections and i understand that code
2:04:06 enforcement applies to a lot of
2:04:08 different
2:04:09 areas of our code so
2:04:11 i just feel like as somebody who's not
2:04:15 familiar
2:04:18 some of those concepts i just want to be
2:04:20 i want to be handheld a little bit more
2:04:22 laurie just just hold my hand take me
2:04:25 through it
2:04:26 and i think that would be really useful
2:04:28 the rest of council because while while
2:04:31 i can see in concept that this is great
2:04:34 i'm ultimately
2:04:36 as a voting member responsible for
2:04:40 the specifics of it and so i need to
2:04:42 understand
2:04:45 what the proposed changes are why there
2:04:47 was a change
2:04:49 more or less and whether that's similar
2:04:53 to other communities or
2:04:56 you know
2:04:57 i guess i'm just saying at some point
2:04:59 we're gonna have to look into the
2:05:00 details but i don't know if that's what
2:05:03 this is because
2:05:04 what we're really looking at
2:05:06 here is kind of a
2:05:08 is it just the question of is this
2:05:11 appropriate
2:05:13 a separate title
2:05:15 track from title 18
2:05:18 anne-marie would you like to discuss
2:05:22 yeah so
2:05:24 hopefully this can provide a little bit
2:05:26 more context so
2:05:29 the title 18
2:05:30 piece is because we are recommending
2:05:33 some changes that impact title 18 purely
2:05:37 to fix the conflicts that are found
2:05:39 within um title 1
2:05:43 and title 18 right now and title 16. um
2:05:48 but if we wait to address those
2:05:51 particular issues until the complete
2:05:55 title 18 update is done at the end of
2:05:57 the year we're going to be creating more
2:05:59 conflicts if we adopt this new code
2:06:01 enforcement
2:06:02 chapter
2:06:03 uh with respect to your comments about
2:06:06 the uh the different uh changes to the
2:06:10 violations and you know why are some
2:06:12 things that the amount has gone up and
2:06:14 some have gone down
2:06:16 you know we can provide a little bit
2:06:18 more information about that to the
2:06:20 council at the next meeting i think
2:06:22 that's a really good comment
2:06:24 frankly
2:06:25 we did not get into
2:06:27 every single one of those
2:06:29 details because there are so many so
2:06:32 just for example in the city's current
2:06:34 code in chapter 1.36
2:06:37 there's a section of civil infractions
2:06:40 and it's a table that lists all of these
2:06:43 different violations with a fine
2:06:46 most of that is outdated
2:06:49 so there are
2:06:51 things that are listed there as being
2:06:53 civil infractions that state law
2:06:54 provides are crimes there are things in
2:06:57 there that are listed as infractions
2:06:59 with a penalty of you know x number of
2:07:01 dollars that is greater than the penalty
2:07:03 that's allowed by state law
2:07:06 for a civil infraction there are
2:07:08 penalties that are listed in their there
2:07:12 that are listed in this chapter 1.36 and
2:07:15 then listed somewhere else in the code
2:07:17 as having a different type of violation
2:07:20 or a different penalty and so what we're
2:07:23 trying to do here
2:07:24 is for getting rid of that table in
2:07:27 particular
2:07:28 and having consistent penalties for
2:07:31 anything that's a misdemeanor will have
2:07:33 the same penalty provision anything
2:07:35 that's a gross misdemeanor same penalty
2:07:37 provision anything that's an infraction
2:07:39 same penalty anything that's a civil
2:07:41 violation same penalty and then we're um
2:07:45 going to
2:07:46 we're recommending that basically every
2:07:48 violation every civil violation of the
2:07:52 issaquah municipal code
2:07:54 would be treated as a civil
2:07:57 violation through uh that would be um
2:08:00 addressed through a notice of civil
2:08:02 violation rather than an infraction
2:08:05 unless it specifically pointed out that
2:08:07 it's an infraction
2:08:09 so it's only those things that are
2:08:12 remaining in the code that say that
2:08:14 they're an infraction that would be
2:08:16 issued a ticket and those are things
2:08:18 where you might need for example a more
2:08:21 immediate um
2:08:23 resolution so you know something like
2:08:26 someone's uh having an event without a
2:08:29 permit
2:08:30 you don't want to issue them a notice of
2:08:32 violation and then you give them a time
2:08:34 you have to complete it by the state you
2:08:36 just want to give them a ticket or
2:08:38 something like littering
2:08:40 where you know those are things that are
2:08:41 typically enforced by police you don't
2:08:44 want to
2:08:45 have someone litter
2:08:47 someone you actually see them littering
2:08:49 and then you have to go through a
2:08:50 process of code enforcement going and
2:08:52 writing a notice of violation and
2:08:55 sending them a notice in the mail
2:08:56 because they had littered no you want
2:08:58 the police to be able to immediately
2:09:00 write someone a ticket because they saw
2:09:03 them littering
2:09:04 so we really were thoughtful as to the
2:09:08 types of violations that should be
2:09:10 addressed through you know crimes versus
2:09:13 infractions versus civil violations we
2:09:16 did discuss it with all of the other
2:09:18 departments that are involved with code
2:09:20 enforcement including police public
2:09:23 works parks planning fire they all had
2:09:27 an opportunity to weigh in on this to
2:09:29 make sure that they were comfortable
2:09:31 with the changes that were made we did
2:09:33 receive some comments but for the most
2:09:35 part we didn't see receive any
2:09:38 feedback aside from a couple of minor
2:09:41 details so you know i hope that provides
2:09:43 a little bit more context it is
2:09:45 something where
2:09:46 you know for the next stage we can
2:09:48 include some more of that information
2:09:51 that will help the the council as a
2:09:53 whole
2:09:54 but because there's so many changes that
2:09:56 are being made we didn't go line by line
2:10:00 you know in a powerpoint explaining this
2:10:02 change you know is to this penalty
2:10:05 because x and then go through you know
2:10:07 every single violation in the code
2:10:09 because we would we would be covering
2:10:11 pretty much every single title of the
2:10:12 code then
2:10:17 yeah no i really appreciate
2:10:20 the explanations that you've given in
2:10:22 this that
2:10:23 that gives a lot more context and sense
2:10:27 hey this is the reason why
2:10:30 and here's what
2:10:32 what consolidation looks like and here's
2:10:34 kind of the before picture and the after
2:10:36 picture and here's the lines that draw
2:10:39 us between the two so that's really
2:10:42 useful um
2:10:43 councilmember hunt i guess the question
2:10:47 i would have for you is
2:10:50 are we
2:10:51 focusing more on
2:10:55 the the proposed changes and
2:10:58 adjustments that we would want to see to
2:11:00 those changes or
2:11:03 as we would usually do for policy or are
2:11:06 focusing more on should this be a
2:11:08 separate track from title 18 and our
2:11:11 feedback on what that process is
2:11:14 right so my thought is that we can use
2:11:17 this opportunity to do both
2:11:19 we can review the content and
2:11:22 have that discussion but we can also
2:11:24 make the recommendation on the separate
2:11:25 track the recommended timing that's in
2:11:29 in the slide deck that was presented is
2:11:32 may 16th regular council meeting
2:11:34 um and then june 21st also regular
2:11:37 council meetings so um
2:11:40 administrator bob woods yes uh council
2:11:43 member members of the committee uh we're
2:11:45 really looking for two separate actions
2:11:47 here the first is to deal with the title
2:11:50 requirements that the council has which
2:11:52 is procedural
2:11:54 not substantive to the matter
2:11:57 the second is the substance of the
2:11:58 matter and so that we're here this
2:12:00 evening asking the committee
2:12:02 for its recommendation to move forward
2:12:04 to the full council so i think based on
2:12:06 council president walsh's
2:12:09 comments this evening i think you have a
2:12:10 couple of choices
2:12:12 you can
2:12:13 have additional questions this evening
2:12:16 be satisfied with what you're seeing but
2:12:17 ask that the presentation to the council
2:12:20 be done in a little bit different way
2:12:21 because one of the things we're going to
2:12:22 be asking all the committees moving
2:12:24 forward is how would you like this
2:12:26 presented to the council will this be a
2:12:27 consent calendar item will this be a
2:12:29 regular business item and i think from
2:12:30 council member walsh's comments if we
2:12:33 can get through at least the the
2:12:35 substance with the committee this
2:12:36 evening but the desire to have it more
2:12:39 carefully described at council then
2:12:41 perhaps the recommendation is it comes
2:12:43 back to council as requested but on the
2:12:46 regular business and so that there's a
2:12:47 presentation uh at that so that i think
2:12:50 those are the two separate tracks one
2:12:53 being just the title 18 and the second
2:12:55 the disposition of the actual matter
2:12:57 um right i think that aligns with what i
2:12:59 was thinking so the
2:13:01 may 16th regular may 16th regular
2:13:04 council meeting separate track that
2:13:05 would also need to be on an agenda so
2:13:07 that could be consent but then the item
2:13:09 would for a council would come back with
2:13:11 additional information um june 21st and
2:13:14 we could we could put it on regular
2:13:16 business if that's a if that's um the
2:13:18 desire of the council but or or ask that
2:13:21 to be formatted in a different way and
2:13:22 leave it on consent but make sure that
2:13:24 the written document is a little clearer
2:13:27 that's the flexibility i think now that
2:13:29 we have returning to committees it's
2:13:31 really the committee's decision okay
2:13:33 great
2:13:34 um thank you for for that so um
2:13:39 i will go ahead and make my comments um
2:13:41 i think
2:13:43 it's to me it seems straightforward we
2:13:46 have our city code enforcement officer
2:13:49 saying we don't have the tools
2:13:52 needed to enforce the code
2:13:55 here we are making all these updates to
2:13:57 title 18 and improving our code and we
2:13:59 don't have the tools to enforce it so we
2:14:02 need to make a change and then we also
2:14:04 have our um
2:14:05 our city attorney saying
2:14:07 the same thing so from my perspective i
2:14:10 i think this is something that
2:14:12 we should put on a separate track it
2:14:13 seems to meet the criteria of having a
2:14:15 public benefit because we need to be
2:14:17 able to enforce
2:14:19 code and and give the city staff the
2:14:22 tools they need to to do that
2:14:25 so i think it meets those criteria and i
2:14:26 think it's also
2:14:28 there's there's a one of the criteria
2:14:30 about
2:14:31 being able to be done separately and in
2:14:33 this case i think if there's an
2:14:35 extra benefit for it being done
2:14:36 separately because if we can get this
2:14:38 right and then we update all of title 18
2:14:40 then we can then
2:14:42 enforce those
2:14:44 changes uh so i i think it's makes a lot
2:14:47 of sense to put on a separate track
2:14:51 so i'll i'll start there i think maybe
2:14:53 we can take these items one at a time if
2:14:55 we all agree on it being on a separate
2:14:57 track we can make a recommendation to um
2:15:00 to do
2:15:01 that first so i'll go ahead and make a
2:15:04 motion to recommend that
2:15:09 that this item be put on a separate
2:15:11 track of title 18 amendments and that
2:15:12 this return on the consent calendar
2:15:16 on may 16th
2:15:18 can i ask a question just i think i've
2:15:21 got this but i really do want to make
2:15:22 sure before we do this so the the first
2:15:24 question really is to bring to the
2:15:27 council and seek the full council's
2:15:29 approval to move forward with a separate
2:15:31 track and title 18.
2:15:33 that's correct under council policy we
2:15:36 would the council would refuse to
2:15:38 consider it without that exception okay
2:15:40 so that this is this is really the
2:15:41 procedural step that's correct to to get
2:15:43 the councils okay to move forward with a
2:15:46 separate title 18 amendment great thank
2:15:48 you that's what i thought i just wanted
2:15:49 to make sure
2:15:53 okay um
2:15:55 do that again
2:15:56 no so i i think i've made the motion we
2:15:58 don't actually need a second because
2:15:59 we're only three people so um is there
2:16:03 discussion uh thoughts on this um
2:16:06 where we we can go ahead and
2:16:09 vote on this particular part and then we
2:16:11 can move to the second part which is the
2:16:13 regular
2:16:15 the content that we would
2:16:17 have recommendations on
2:16:19 all right so all in favor of making that
2:16:21 recommendation to put this on a separate
2:16:22 track and have that be on consent
2:16:25 signify by saying aye aye
2:16:28 great okay um so the second part of this
2:16:31 would be the what actually we want to
2:16:34 recommend on the substance that would go
2:16:36 back to the council um
2:16:39 and this could be an opportunity for
2:16:42 um council president walsh or
2:16:45 my fellow council member accounts member
2:16:47 ray to make any
2:16:49 suggestions and i will say from my
2:16:51 perspective i thought the pictures were
2:16:53 were great it makes the point and i
2:16:55 think the other thing that was very
2:16:57 compelling is that the money that you
2:16:59 could just be spending on fines could be
2:17:01 used to actually do what we need the
2:17:03 code to do and make the changes
2:17:05 necessary to the
2:17:07 property to bring it into compliance so
2:17:09 i think i think the narrative to me
2:17:12 made a lot of sense um if we
2:17:15 if we want to have more information
2:17:17 about the specific changes i think it'd
2:17:19 be good to
2:17:20 to clarify that and we can make sure
2:17:24 staff have the information they need to
2:17:25 make those changes
2:17:27 so i'll hand it back to council
2:17:29 president walsh um
2:17:33 or yeah if you have specific changes
2:17:36 that he recommends a presentation
2:17:42 i guess i would just say maybe somebody
2:17:44 go back into the meeting and listen to
2:17:48 the description of process that anne
2:17:50 marie
2:17:52 um had kind of listed out of
2:17:55 this is how it
2:17:56 happens currently this is the proposed
2:17:59 because i agree the
2:18:02 images and
2:18:04 assurance of have done this before
2:18:07 and this worked is great
2:18:10 but what's missing is the
2:18:13 how do we induce
2:18:16 somebody to actually fix
2:18:19 is the why do the fines
2:18:22 not work and get us what we want and
2:18:27 what what are the
2:18:29 what's the ultimate
2:18:31 if somebody doesn't do what we want
2:18:33 what's what's the potential ultimate
2:18:37 inducement so i think if we include
2:18:40 those pieces
2:18:42 that's good i think the other thing from
2:18:45 my perspective again is
2:18:47 anytime you're
2:18:49 changing
2:18:51 penalties i just
2:18:53 want to make sure that we are
2:18:55 not way out of line
2:18:57 with our
2:18:59 neighboring cities and anything that's
2:19:02 kind of a norm and in particular in
2:19:04 marie as you said in a time where
2:19:09 we're
2:19:10 we're in agreement with the state
2:19:13 limitations um kind of delineating all
2:19:16 of those pieces so that we know we're
2:19:19 making a good decision in some cases
2:19:21 we're eliminating a thousand dollar fine
2:19:24 in other cases we've got
2:19:27 something of potential imprisonment in
2:19:30 jail for up to 364 days um so
2:19:34 i think with that information
2:19:37 our fellow council members can make an
2:19:40 effective decision
2:19:45 all right um
2:19:46 councilmember ray yeah i'm gonna concur
2:19:49 with uh council president walsh that the
2:19:51 descriptions we heard tonight were um
2:19:54 from uh both lorien from uh emery were
2:19:57 were were great and added a lot to the
2:19:59 conversation and i think if we um
2:20:02 updated the presentation to include some
2:20:03 of that information i think that'd be
2:20:05 great uh what struck me is uh kind of an
2:20:07 interesting thing about the committee
2:20:08 structure is it's an opportunity for us
2:20:11 to ask questions which that actually
2:20:13 helps improve the quality of the
2:20:14 presentation going forward to the to the
2:20:16 full council so that was my
2:20:18 my just personal takeaway from this
2:20:20 evening's conversation and
2:20:22 um and i think it's great that we are
2:20:24 getting this in compliance are
2:20:26 aligned with um
2:20:29 with the reality i guess so i think
2:20:31 there's a very compelling argument to to
2:20:34 move forward with this so i'm pretty
2:20:35 excited and i think the 21st is great
2:20:38 all right great so the last question
2:20:40 would be if we think this
2:20:43 should be on regular
2:20:44 business
2:20:45 or if this should if we believe that
2:20:47 this could be on consent and
2:20:50 a reminder that any council member can
2:20:51 pull any item off of consent so that's
2:20:53 always an option if if somebody did want
2:20:56 to pull the item off of consent um but
2:20:59 i'll open it up to my fellow committee
2:21:02 members if you have
2:21:04 thoughts
2:21:08 councilman i have several thoughts and
2:21:11 then they conflict with each other but i
2:21:13 i'm struck with that um in many many
2:21:16 ways this is fairly straightforward and
2:21:18 can go on consent that being said um i
2:21:21 think the explanation um
2:21:25 of why we're doing what we're doing is
2:21:26 too complex is would be better served in
2:21:29 person in a presentation and so my guess
2:21:32 my feeling is it should be on regular
2:21:34 business so that we can actually get the
2:21:36 presentation from lori and from
2:21:38 um anne-marie
2:21:40 um as we got it tonight because i think
2:21:42 that was super helpful
2:21:46 all right uh councilmember
2:21:48 walsh
2:21:50 thoughts i'm also back and forth on that
2:21:53 this concept as as we're moving
2:21:57 from this committee structure
2:22:01 how much duplication we want to have at
2:22:06 at the council meeting versus
2:22:10 putting something on consent part of it
2:22:13 how much do we
2:22:15 need something to be surfaced
2:22:18 and kind of presented
2:22:21 i don't think we're
2:22:23 necessarily requesting changes to the
2:22:26 content here
2:22:28 just clarification of how it is
2:22:30 presented
2:22:35 i'm not sure i have a strong feeling i
2:22:37 think it's more about
2:22:39 what we want to do
2:22:41 from a practice going forward do you
2:22:44 have any thoughts on that council member
2:22:48 city administrator bob quits has
2:22:49 indicated he has thoughts
2:22:52 yes councilman members of the committee
2:22:54 uh this is all kind of new and i think
2:22:57 one of the challenges we have
2:23:00 why things go on a regular agenda um i
2:23:03 think there was a time things went on a
2:23:05 regular agenda because you wanted to air
2:23:06 it you wanted to have the press write
2:23:07 about it you wanted to have people watch
2:23:09 it at a meeting those things don't
2:23:11 largely happen anymore so perhaps
2:23:13 another thought a committee
2:23:15 recommendation would be to the
2:23:16 administration to say yes we'll place us
2:23:18 on consent but we would like the mayor
2:23:20 to highlight this in the mayor's report
2:23:22 we'd like to have our communications
2:23:24 group perhaps you know do a little video
2:23:27 that we could put on social media
2:23:29 because that i think is one of the
2:23:31 reasons you put things on a regular or
2:23:32 at least it has been in the past um but
2:23:35 again if this is felt that there's not
2:23:37 a council discussion on the the content
2:23:40 but really just how do you air this
2:23:42 there are other options so that may be
2:23:44 another recommendation the committee
2:23:46 could make
2:23:47 yeah thank you for that um i agree i
2:23:49 think um
2:23:50 this this is new but at the same time
2:23:53 if we as a committee don't have changes
2:23:56 that we want to see big changes that we
2:23:58 we feel need to be made which i don't
2:24:00 believe we do and we also don't
2:24:02 have different uh
2:24:05 opinions that we want to make sure get
2:24:06 across the council in the recommendation
2:24:08 in case there's multiple
2:24:10 perspectives on this committee which i
2:24:12 also am not hearing i think it can be on
2:24:14 consent and um i i also agree that i
2:24:18 think one of the pieces of this is the
2:24:20 public awareness and there are ways we
2:24:22 could make sure that the community is
2:24:24 aware of these changes that will better
2:24:26 reach the community than putting it on
2:24:28 regular business and for our fellow
2:24:30 council members they can watch these
2:24:31 meetings which is one of the other
2:24:32 benefits of this process and so they can
2:24:35 hear the presentation so if we if we're
2:24:37 looking to duplicate um information
2:24:39 there's there's ways that council can
2:24:41 get the same conversation already so i
2:24:43 think that's also
2:24:44 a good reason that it can just go on
2:24:46 consent so that would be my
2:24:48 my process at this point if it doesn't
2:24:51 doesn't have big changes doesn't have
2:24:54 controversy or or differing
2:24:56 perspectives that we would want to share
2:24:57 like a minority and majority opinion
2:24:59 from our our committee which we we don't
2:25:02 um so let's go forward with that so i'll
2:25:04 go ahead and make a motion to put um the
2:25:08 code enforcement ordinances adoption on
2:25:10 the regular
2:25:12 uh council meeting agenda for june 24th
2:25:15 first on the consent agenda
2:25:18 all those in favor please signify by
2:25:20 saying aye aye
2:25:24 all right
2:25:25 great um and do we have any additional
2:25:27 uh feedback for
2:25:30 for staff on this item
2:25:32 and do you have what you need on this
2:25:38 all right
2:25:39 great i'm seeing
2:25:41 not seeing any further questions so that
2:25:44 was great and thank you thank you both
2:25:46 for um being here and presenting to
2:25:48 laurie and anne marie
2:25:50 um so uh with that we are at the end of
2:25:54 our agenda this evening i will give an
2:25:57 opportunity if there are council members
2:25:58 who would like to make any announcements
2:26:01 that um are timely that you would need
2:26:03 to make
2:26:04 i'm not seeing any so then with that um
2:26:07 we can adjourn this
2:26:10 this committee meeting at 8 58 p.m and
2:26:13 have a good evening everyone thank you
2:26:16 good night