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Planning Policy Commission Auto captions

Thursday, March 10, 2016

6:30 PM · 28m 54s · Council Chambers, 135 East Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topic tracked across meetings:
Amending Internal References to Title 18, Land Use Code AB 8613 3/18
Section
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
Commission Membership
packet pp.3
Staff report:
Planning Policy Commission About Contacts Created in 1983, this commission serves as a policy advisory body to the Mayor and provides guidance and direction for Issaquah’s Staff Liaison future growth through continued review and improvement to the Trish Heinonen, Planning City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and related land use Manager documents. Email
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
2a
Meeting Minutes from January 28, 2016
packet pp.5–6
Staff report:
CITY OF ISSAQUAH PLANNING POLICY COMMISSION MINUTES
3. AGENDA ITEMS
3a
Proposed Issaquah Land Use Code Amendments National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit
Dana Zlateff, Environmental Science Associate Kerry Ritland, Surface Water Manager · packet pp.7–33
Topics: Land UseWater
Staff report:
What is NPDES? The NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) is a federal permit program that addresses water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants to waters of the United States. Created in 1972 by the Clean Water Act, the NPDES permit program is authorized to state governments by EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) to perform many permitting, administrative, and enforcement aspects of the program.
0:28 uh right no I can I can start us out
0:30 we're going to go ahead and call to
0:31 order the March 10th 2016 meeting of the
0:34 city of isqua planning policy commission
0:37 um my name is Justin Walsh I am a member
0:39 of the commission and acting chair for
0:41 today's meeting um we do not have a
0:45 quorum today um for those people that
0:48 are watching us on television uh we are
0:51 always looking for new members and
0:53 you're encouraged to check out the
0:55 planning policy commission website for
0:57 information on that uh we'll just move
1:00 right into our main agenda item uh this
1:03 is on proposed isqua landus code
1:05 amendments uh for National pollutant
1:07 discharge elimination systems commonly
1:08 known as The
1:09 npdes Phase 2 Municipal storm water
1:12 permit uh presentation By Dana zat
1:15 environmental science associate and
1:17 Carrie ritland our surface water
1:19 manager thank
1:23 you so thank you for the introduction
1:25 and having us here today to um really
1:29 we're just here to share some background
1:31 about what storm waterer mpds permit is
1:35 and um what we'll be asking of you all
1:38 um throughout this year so this
1:41 presentation will hopefully um provide
1:43 some input on the permit itself and then
1:46 how the city and staff are going through
1:49 um updating um the storm water code as
1:52 well as reviewing our land use code and
1:55 the updates that those may include um
1:57 this is a public process and so um as
2:00 Trish mentioned we were at rivers of
2:01 stream board last Tuesday um and they'll
2:05 be further looking at our storm water
2:07 code and then the IR group The planning
2:10 policy commission um the land use code
2:13 um review and updates as well as um it
2:17 will be in the infrastructure and land
2:19 and Shore committees and um an
2:22 introductory topic of Council of the
2:24 whole in two
2:25 weeks so what is the storm water mpds
2:29 permit
2:30 um well really this is a permit the city
2:33 of isqua is under and it allows by the
2:35 department of ecology and allows our
2:37 city to discharge our Municipal storm
2:39 water into Waters of the state so
2:42 issaqua Creek tibits Creek Lake
2:44 samamish um and basically there are many
2:48 jurisdictions in the state of Washington
2:51 that are part of this permit so it's not
2:53 just isqua that um is under this review
2:57 that we're going to be talking about
2:59 today and and the code updates
3:01 associated with
3:04 it and just a little bit of background
3:06 the storm water mpds permit um it has
3:10 all of these five categories of which
3:14 the city has storm water management
3:16 program and objectives as part of it and
3:19 it's anything from public education and
3:21 Outreach um requirements to public
3:24 involvement activities um how we manage
3:28 and and um report our um if there's
3:32 pollution um that's part of the solicit
3:34 dischar discharge detection and
3:36 elimination system um and then the
3:39 controlling runoff from development
3:41 that's how we do our site plan review
3:43 and the requirements in our existing
3:45 storm water um code and then we also in
3:50 how our Municipal operations um cleans
3:53 our storm water our catch basins our
3:55 facilities in the city but today we're
3:58 really just going to focus on two two
4:00 things and then that is adopting our a
4:03 new storm water manual and what those
4:05 requirements are and reviewing and
4:09 revising to make low impact development
4:12 principles and
4:13 bmps um a common and preferred
4:18 option so again there's two parts of
4:20 this permit that the city is required to
4:24 um implement this year in
4:26 2016 that is adopting a new storm water
4:30 design Manual of which there are new
4:33 requirements within that manual that the
4:35 city is required to implement um one of
4:39 those new requirements that we'll talk a
4:41 bit about today is low impact
4:42 development or liid and what that is and
4:46 then that's looking at um reviewing and
4:49 revising our land use codes rules and
4:52 standards to make liid the preferred and
4:54 commonly used approach in site
4:57 development and this is a big definition
5:00 but really what low impact development
5:02 is is it's integrating storm water and
5:05 land use
5:06 management it's a strategy to look and
5:09 provide a more natural process um and so
5:14 it's integrating site plans and um the
5:19 treatment of uh Flo for flow control and
5:21 water
5:23 quality so today what we see a lot
5:26 around the city are more large
5:30 uh facilities that are like your wet
5:33 ponds or um vaults and they are in one
5:37 common space um but they have a job to
5:40 do and that's to treat the runoff from
5:42 our roadway system and detain flow
5:45 before it enters a creek or stream um or
5:49 a lake the liid approach breaks that up
5:52 into much smaller kind of like pocket
5:55 vegetative facilities or pervious
5:58 pavement we have a few here in in the
5:59 city and it integrates the storm water
6:02 treatment and flow control component
6:04 within the landscape and within um our
6:08 built
6:11 Community now the feasibility of low
6:13 impact
6:15 development is based on numerous
6:18 different site conditions so um it takes
6:22 into account the infiltration ability
6:25 how quickly the soil um basically traps
6:29 water water um what our seasonal ground
6:32 water levels are um and
6:35 how the site plan is what the Topography
6:39 of the site is and where liid can fit in
6:42 um so all projects have to do um field
6:45 test and feasibility to verify the
6:48 appropriateness of liid on a
6:50 site and Carrie ritland is going to talk
6:53 in more detail about the storm water
6:55 design manual and then I'll come back
6:56 and talk about some of the liid process
7:01 uh thank you Dana uh I'll give a little
7:04 background of uh these are the design
7:07 standards that go through development
7:09 review uh specifically on how to
7:12 size the flow control detention and L ID
7:16 and water quality
7:17 treatment so this uh we're doing this
7:20 year purpose is to replace the manual
7:22 that we have currently adopted which is
7:23 a King County
7:25 manual uh we're going to go with the
7:27 Department of ecology manual this time
7:29 time
7:30 around uh and what it does is covers the
7:33 three elements of stor water mitigation
7:35 that's
7:36 liid low impact development which is a
7:39 new element that
7:41 we're mostly talking about today and
7:43 also flow control and water quality
7:45 treatment and the reason I'm talking
7:47 about all three tonight because they all
7:48 work together just so that uh you see
7:52 how currently there's already quite a
7:53 few standards uh for storm water
7:56 mitigation and lad is the third
8:00 component so the most significant
8:03 changes coming up in 2016 at the end of
8:06 this year is uh in past years we had
8:09 this one acre threshold exemption that
8:11 allowed smaller sites to to follow
8:14 previous
8:15 standards older standards that's going
8:17 away and also the liid requirement is is
8:20 basically
8:23 new so
8:26 uh again on the L requirements uh
8:30 it's a feasibility assessment uh it's
8:32 not a kind of a blanket requirement you
8:35 got it you shall do it you have to look
8:37 at your site as far as your ability of
8:39 soils and groundwater to accept
8:42 infiltration for the most part and three
8:45 areas of the site three elements of the
8:47 site design are evaluated one's the
8:49 landscaped areas uh roof
8:52 runoff and the parking lot sidewalks and
8:56 Roads and that's the way the stand the
8:59 the the new manual is set up to evaluate
9:01 each one
9:02 independently and one important
9:04 consideration is that
9:06 uh the way that uh legally the way this
9:11 that storm water regul regulations are
9:12 set up as far as lad goes that it phas
9:15 two permit allows zoning codes to
9:18 supersede or reduce the LI
9:20 requirement and what that means that
9:22 let's say you have a zoning density
9:24 impervious surface
9:26 limit uh lad can't force you to reduce
9:30 that to make liid fit on your site but
9:33 that's not a there's plenty of other
9:36 elements that liid that comes into play
9:38 so that's maybe a factor in certain
9:41 developments so again quickly for
9:43 landscape it's all pretty much about
9:45 protecting soils from compaction and
9:47 soil amending so any soil Landscaping
9:50 you do have has full ability to
9:52 infiltrate storm water that falls upon
9:54 it or storm water that runs onto it from
9:56 uh roadways or from parking lots for
10:00 roof runoff these are the four things
10:02 you look at in sequence uh ideally you
10:05 disperse a runoff into your vegetated
10:07 areas on your side but you need quite a
10:09 bit of vegetated area to make that
10:11 work uh bio retention rain Gardens uh
10:14 you probably seen those uh city has
10:18 built several of those on city streets
10:20 in previous years downspout dispersion
10:22 and perforated stub out which is another
10:24 way of infiltrating your your down
10:27 spouts
10:29 uh then third element of the parking
10:31 lots all your hard surfaces on on the on
10:35 your site a dispersion you got basically
10:37 the same things as uh R ront
10:42 off again these are all evaluated in
10:45 this order this preference and as soon
10:46 as you hit one that works you do it and
10:48 you're kind of clear for that
10:51 category uh quick review so that's led
10:54 the other two are flow control and water
10:55 quality flow control pretty much
10:57 addresses store storm water Peak flows
11:02 all the way up to 50-year storm event
11:04 which is uh 4.5 in in 24 hours so it's
11:07 standards pretty high for controlling uh
11:09 the big runoff runoff
11:12 events uh applies new and and replaced
11:14 impervious surface so if redev
11:16 development occurs uh if they take out
11:19 existing pavement it's like you're
11:20 assuming it's forested as far as
11:23 mitigation and it uses things like
11:25 detention ponds vaults or infiltration
11:30 in the water quality treatment uh the
11:31 third one is uh the goal is to treat 91%
11:35 of the rainfall volume leaving the
11:38 site uh applies to pollution generating
11:41 impervious
11:42 surfaces uses various uh methods to
11:44 treat the storm water including emerging
11:47 Technologies this is a something that's
11:50 been changing uh there's been a demand
11:53 to create these new treatment devices
11:54 for storm water runoff and and uh
11:57 ecologies responsible for approving
11:59 those and uh each year there's a new
12:03 device they're basically filter vaults
12:04 different ways of filtering out
12:06 contaminant from storm
12:10 water so that's a quick overview of how
12:12 storm water development review
12:15 goes uh so take it back to Dana talk
12:19 about the development review um land use
12:23 code review that we're doing
12:30 so as Carrie said it's kind of important
12:32 to give a background of um what the
12:35 permit's requiring for the storm water
12:37 code update because it relates so much
12:40 to um what we're looking at and as a
12:43 background for the land use code
12:46 revisions that we're looking at um so
12:51 the objectives that we have is when
12:54 looking at our land use codes is to
12:56 consider if there's gaps or barriers in
13:00 our existing land use codes that limit
13:03 liid
13:04 implementation and then how we are going
13:07 to address those are we going to remove
13:09 those obstacles in our land use codes or
13:13 modify and update our codes and this is
13:15 all based on our
13:19 review and I think it's important to
13:21 note that land use code changes need to
13:24 remain consistent with um other needs
13:28 here within this City and the growth
13:30 management act the comprehensive plan
13:32 goals and the city's already adopted
13:34 zoning and development
13:39 Vision so the ecology permit requires
13:43 the city staff to review three topics
13:47 and that's minimizing impervious surface
13:50 minimizing the loss of Native vegetation
13:53 and looking at other measures to
13:55 minimize storm water
13:57 runoff so far staff have identified the
14:00 following um code sections that have
14:05 like a component of liid within
14:11 it and some preliminary items that we've
14:14 kind of pulled out from that review are
14:17 listed on this screen and it's anything
14:20 from looking at um maximum versus
14:25 minimum parking
14:26 requirements um can storm water liid be
14:30 in critical areas in the buffer are
14:32 there ways to um are there obstacles
14:35 already in these land use codes that we
14:38 need to look at and
14:41 eliminate so we have some clearing and
14:43 Grading um we're looking at our clearing
14:46 and Grading code and seasonal
14:51 restrictions so where we are now is kind
14:55 of where that screen was is are there
14:57 barriers and are there gaps to storm
15:00 water liid and existing
15:03 codes so what we will be doing in the
15:07 coming months basically by late spring
15:11 probably May um we'll be finalizing the
15:14 code review and releasing that to
15:16 stakeholders in the public and then
15:19 we'll be drafting existing codes for
15:22 review in public comment um so that will
15:25 be back to you um later this summer
15:29 probably in July and then adopting and
15:33 implementing new regulations and
15:35 standards so this is a timeline
15:38 projected for
15:40 2016
15:42 um as our public Outreach process and
15:46 the goal is to have an ordinance adopted
15:49 by October um and the permit requires it
15:52 by December 31st of 2016
16:00 questions of which we all could
16:04 answer so I want to go back to like the
16:07 very early slide and we don't even need
16:09 to go to the slide but okay explain to
16:11 me like the different levels of permits
16:13 so the city of isqua falls into what
16:15 permit two or is it phase two and then
16:18 the higher and that's population based
16:20 right is that so anything above what
16:23 population goes into what like King
16:25 County Seattle those are in yep and
16:27 those are the phase one permits and they
16:30 were under a first round of permits by
16:32 the department of ecology and it is
16:35 populationbased do you remember the
16:37 population 100,000 it it's it's much
16:41 larger so basically it's city of Seattle
16:44 King County sish County and Tacoma are
16:46 all under a phase one and a smaller
16:49 jurisdictions are under a phase two um
16:53 and that permit was issued basically
16:55 five years after the first uh phase one
16:58 permit and it's slightly different than
17:00 the phase one so is there a a time frame
17:03 to compliance or to what what is that
17:07 again so the phase two compliance with
17:10 this land use both both the storm water
17:13 code update process and the land use
17:16 revision um and revising our codes um is
17:20 by December 31st of 2016 okay yeah
17:29 all
17:30 right uh I had a I had a quick
17:34 question uh I you specifically mentioned
17:36 that uh where there were issues uh with
17:39 the low impact development uh the
17:42 current code growth management plan all
17:44 these things would supered it I'm
17:45 curious what has staff meble to identify
17:48 where we won't be
17:49 compliant I understand that uh the one
17:52 supersedes the other and that it's not a
17:54 legal issue but I am curious where we
17:56 won't be able to meet those needs at
17:59 this point we're just under at this
18:01 point in our review process we've um
18:04 kind of focused on areas that we need to
18:07 look further into and kind of
18:10 highlighted those areas um and we kind
18:13 of separated out into options and
18:15 recommendations to address going forward
18:18 so it's too early yet in this review
18:21 process to say where
18:24 um where we would be going would be
18:27 would be adoped and it's really a it's a
18:30 review process it's there's not a right
18:33 or wrong um it's how we're going to look
18:36 at our codes and and try to alleviate
18:39 and remove some of those barriers that
18:42 exist um do you want to give an example
18:45 of of kind of a barrier that we would
18:48 well I just want to clarify that really
18:50 the only real requirement all this is
18:51 adopting the new manual the uh the
18:55 process ecology requires us to do is go
18:57 through the land use code review to to
19:00 help implementation of what's in the
19:02 manual so
19:04 U C's in full compliance with the permit
19:07 we have been since uh day one uh this is
19:11 process of uh evolution of the permit
19:13 and that it it's basically reissued
19:15 every five years as phase two permit so
19:17 every five years there's potential for
19:19 new codes to be adopted because of
19:22 changes in the manual because it's
19:24 always uh it's like most regulations
19:28 there's the job job is never done so
19:29 there's always new information that
19:31 comes up and uh they kind of trickle
19:33 down to uh requirements into this permit
19:37 uh as we adapt and uh and make these
19:40 changes is the city addressing areas for
19:43 current development that's already
19:44 existing for citizens to be able to kind
19:46 of make those changes in their
19:48 neighborhood are there any kind of
19:50 recommendations from the city on how to
19:51 change to make be more compliant with
19:54 low impact development or already
19:57 existing development is there
19:59 well there's an education component that
20:01 mainly addresses that uh as far as
20:05 development
20:06 goes the per only
20:09 requires you to go through if there's
20:12 Redevelopment uh if you trigger
20:15 permitting that requires you to do storm
20:17 one it's it's basically like if you have
20:20 more than 2,000 square feet of new
20:21 impervious replaced or added it
20:25 triggers our codes and that's sure I
20:28 guess my question questions less about
20:29 requirements and more about uh what the
20:31 city is uh if there's an option that the
20:34 city is doing of providing information
20:35 for people who want to address this in
20:38 their community and kind of make those
20:41 CH make those changes sure um yeah
20:42 that's that'll be part of the education
20:44 program uh there's quite a bit of
20:47 efforts going on regionally to educate
20:50 the public programs and we try to tap
20:52 into that the best we can that would be
20:54 great
20:55 yeah and and the city has voluntarily
21:04 yeah
21:06 excellent right yeah we've done several
21:09 projects on on our own uh to uh
21:12 demonstrate that and you know it's a big
21:14 job you know this town city's been
21:17 around for 100 years so we're trying to
21:18 do undo a lot of development impacts to
21:20 go way back and so I'll probably take
21:23 100 years to unwind it and get back to
21:25 uh kind of the uh point where ecology
21:30 thinks that you know we're everybody's
21:32 managing storm water way it should and
21:35 the impacts pug sound are alleviated and
21:40 and and things like that all the all the
21:42 major water uh environmental goals kind
21:44 of fall down in here are quite a few of
21:46 those fall upon the permit is uh does
21:50 our soil INF
21:54 infiltrate uh in certain areas it's a
21:57 pretty complex geology in the isqua
21:59 valley and the Hills uh so I would
22:02 assume like an old town it it would be
22:04 fairly consistent or is there pockets of
22:06 different that they still have to go
22:08 through it's really variable it's uh if
22:10 you uh if you imagine the Lakes mamish
22:13 Basin and how in geologic times we're
22:17 under a lot of ice and and water so
22:19 there's a lot of really
22:21 poor uh Pete and and uh uh Muk soils
22:26 Seattle Muk it's actually a term in the
22:29 Lower Valley as you get up towards East
22:32 Fork isqua Creek it's actually really
22:34 good grably soil it's outwash so it's
22:35 really variable because of the geologic
22:37 environment that this whole area went
22:39 through so it's it's really site
22:43 specific excuse me so is there I mean
22:46 basically if someone an applicant came
22:48 in and wanted to do something so he has
22:50 to go through the liid process and his
22:53 steps and the feasibility study you kind
22:55 of have a good idea if they can
22:56 infiltrate or not I mean just based on
22:59 location right right yeah we have a just
23:03 from General mapping we have a pretty
23:05 good idea where to steer them but they
23:08 it's still even though our large scale
23:12 Maps may say one thing they still have
23:13 to look at their site right they still
23:16 have to do a Geotech report or some sort
23:18 to figure out if it really will yeah
23:21 still those those Maps would be useful
23:23 and something like what you know you're
23:25 talking about for a community based well
23:28 most most likely you're going to
23:30 infiltrate over here so you know yeah
23:33 let's think of ways
23:35 liid things that we can do over in this
23:37 area that will allow for
23:40 infiltration just I'm just thinking
23:43 here yeah it'll be a long process uh
23:47 permits here to stay so it'll be kind of
23:50 a you know this a lot of this is fairly
23:53 new you know it's going to take some
23:55 education on everybody's part to get up
23:57 to speed on it it uh it
24:00 is quite a paradigm change for a
24:03 development review to look at it this
24:14 way right well yeah Rainer Boulevard is
24:16 the best example
24:19 uh all the work we've done there last
24:21 five years
24:24 uh on Holly Street by Isa Valley
24:27 Elementary
24:30 um Central Park oh yeah Central Park up
24:33 in the highlands pavement rain
24:38 yeah and then the new
24:41 uh Parks maintenance facility so yeah we
24:45 have quite a few projects
24:47 uh it's l it works uh it does help
24:52 reduce your the sizes of other
24:55 facilities conventional facilities
24:57 whether it's detention or treatment
25:00 because you're basically you're taking
25:00 the volume of water away before it gets
25:03 has a chance to get off sight and where
25:06 you have to treat it you know before
25:07 discharge
25:09 so uh there is a an economic incentive
25:13 to do it if if if uh feasible on the
25:17 site have you um heard of salmon safe
25:20 for the it's a I think it's called
25:22 salmon safe or you know what I'm talking
25:25 about yes I went to a meeting about two
25:29 months ago and uh this
25:32 presenter I mean it the basically said
25:36 storm water that goes directly
25:39 into and into and affects the fish or
25:43 the storm water that goes through the
25:45 amended soils in liid and how it affects
25:48 the fish it was really really eye
25:51 openening so it made me really a big
25:54 proponent of uh of liid facilities
25:59 yeah it is
26:02 uh you know I I truly believe it's the
26:04 most effective way to deal with stor
26:06 storm water because you're basically
26:07 keeping on site and
26:09 infiltrating and or at least allowing it
26:13 to percolate through soils which have a
26:15 a great capacity to take those
26:18 contaminants
26:19 out
26:21 U it's it's a
26:26 yeah all right want to add anything else
26:37 um no I I appreciate the uh the initial
26:41 look at it but I think we're going to
26:42 need a little finer detail before I
26:45 can kind of questions I have one of the
26:48 things that I I I would stress that I
26:50 would really love to see is the
26:53 incentivization um be very strong for
26:56 the developers to to take it not just to
26:59 the minimum lid requirements but to the
27:01 next level as they're going through and
27:03 doing this so we can stay a little bit
27:04 ahead of the curve as we
27:07 develop exactly Yeah we actually been
27:09 looking at that there's a couple things
27:10 you could do whether it's you know
27:13 utility rates or some sort of you know
27:15 density credits or or something to
27:18 create that carrot for developers to do
27:21 a little bit
27:23 more here it definitely works better
27:25 than this sck yeah um well thank you so
27:27 much for the presentation very
27:29 informative uh especially for someone
27:31 like me who has never been through this
27:33 revision process before so yeah um thank
27:43 you yeah we look forward to seeing those
27:45 changes thank you for your time tonight
27:47 um as with uh every other meeting uh we
27:50 will ask if there's anyone that would
27:52 love to make a public comment uh seeing
27:55 only City staff and no one raising their
27:58 hand outside of that I believe we will
28:00 adjourn the meeting at
28:27 6:58 e
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