Planning Policy Commission · Thursday, March 9, 2017 · City Council Digest

1. CALL TO ORDER

Commission Membership

packet pp.3

Previously discussed: Planning Policy Commission · Oct 13, 2016

Open packet at p.3 ↗

Staff report:

Planning Policy Commission About Staff Liaison Created in 1983, this commission serves as a Trish Heinonen, Planning Manager policy advisory body to the Mayor and provides Email guidance and direction for Issaquah’s future growth through continued review and improvement to the Regular Members City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and related 2018 - Joy Lewis land use documents. 2018 - Jon Stob 2018 - Carl Swedberg Membership 2018 - Vacant The Planning Policy Commission is comprised of 2019 - Joan Probala seven regular members, with four-year terms; and 2020 - Ron Faul several alternates, with two-year terms. All 2020 - Troy Rahmig members are appointed by the Mayor and subject to confirmation by the City Council. Terms expire Alternate Members April 30 of the year listed. For more information, 2018 - Salim Juma see IMC 18.03. 2018 - Vacant 2018 - Vacant 2018 - Vacant

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Minutes of February 9, 2017

packet pp.5–8

Previously discussed: Planning Policy Commission · Oct 13, 2016

▶ Watch from 1:16 Open packet at p.5 ↗

Staff report:

CITY OF ISSAQUAH PLANNING POLICY COMMISSION MINUTES

3. AGENDA ITEMS

Development Moratorium Item: Central Issaquah District Visions

Trish Heinonen, Long Range Planning Manager · packet pp.9–24

Topics: Land Use

Open packet at p.9 ↗

Staff report:

A. Development Moratorium: Central Issaquah Plan District Visions: During the July 2016 3- year check-up on the Central Issaquah Plan, the City assessed whether projects that have been built, approved or are currently under review met the community's vision for Central Issaquah. One of the six items listed as part of the City Council’s City-wide Development Moratorium is the review of the Central Issaquah Plan’s District Visions. PPC will be starting this review at tonight’s meeting.

744 segments .txt ↗

0:19 ↗ Trish, are you ready? Trish, we're on the air. I'm

0:25 ↗ ready. Are you ready? Did you open it? I'm pointing

0:30 ↗ at Joan. Joan, kick us off. Good evening, everybody. It's

0:36 ↗ nice to see so many people here. Welcome to the

0:42 ↗ March 9th, I think, meeting of the Planning Policy Commission.

0:48 ↗ Tonight we're going to obviously talk about The central area plan,

0:54 ↗ I assume where we are, where we'd like to go in it. I do want

0:59 ↗ to say that the city went all out and spent almost all of their budget

1:05 ↗ in providing candy for all of you on the counter. So please, I have to

1:10 ↗ put it back into the bags if you don't eat it. So please indulge yourself.

1:16 ↗ So first thing on the agenda normally is the approval of the minutes. Do I

1:21 ↗ have a- Motion to approve the minutes. Make a motion

1:27 ↗ to approve the minutes. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say

1:33 ↗ aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes. So with that, I'm not sure exactly how

1:39 ↗ Trish wants to handle this. Are we going to discuss it first

1:45 ↗ and then look at the... Yes. Okay. Yes. So our fearless leader

1:51 ↗ is here to... kind of tell us what our tonight's goals are and where we're

1:56 ↗ going to go on the central area plan so trish please take it away okay

2:01 ↗ i wish i could see you over there but i will later um welcome this

2:05 ↗ is so exciting um this is the first of many many, let me stress, many

2:10 ↗ times for you all to tell us how you feel about the district visions in

2:15 ↗ Central Issaquah. We're just starting out. And what we're gonna do tonight, as you see,

2:20 ↗ we have all sorts of information and candy and experts so that you can share

2:25 ↗ your comments, you can ask questions, and we're really gonna have some fun tonight and

2:30 ↗ we're gonna learn a lot, and we're gonna learn a lot from all your comments

2:35 ↗ for us. First, I'm going to give you just a short background of why we're

2:39 ↗ even here tonight. We're going to talk a tiny bit about all the districts, which

2:44 ↗ we're actually trying to call neighborhoods. So if we slip back and forth into the

2:49 ↗ neighborhood versus district, neighborhood just sounds more community and friendly and not quite so hunger

2:53 ↗ games so we're going to try and go into neighborhoods so we're going to talk

2:58 ↗ a little bit about that and then we have our parks planning expert here that's

3:02 ↗ going to tell you about this fabulous outreach that's going to start any minute now

3:06 ↗ for the parks plan update so that's really exciting and then we have our public

3:11 ↗ works engineering expert here to talk about road improvements and infrastructure improvements there's chairs over

3:15 ↗ here guys this is really exciting And he'll be here to share some information and

3:19 ↗ some exciting projects that are going on right now and things that are in the

3:24 ↗ pipeline. And then PPC, you'll get to ask staff questions and like, you know, things

3:28 ↗ that you might want for the next meeting that we talk about district visions. And

3:32 ↗ then we're all going to get up and we're going to put the boards up

3:36 ↗ on the easels because now we're not, we don't want to blind everyone back there.

3:41 ↗ And we're going to, we have sticky notes for you all to make comments on

3:45 ↗ things. And one of the comments that we're hoping to get from you all, I'm

3:50 ↗ going to jump to here, is we've met, part of our outreach has been, wait,

3:54 ↗ I'm getting ahead of myself. I have to tell you why we're here. I'm just

3:59 ↗ too excited. Last September, council decided that we needed a moratorium to sort of pause

4:03 ↗ because it seemed that the development they were getting in the central Issaquah plan wasn't

4:07 ↗ exactly how they thought it would come online. And so one of the projects they

4:12 ↗ asked us to work on was were the district visions neighborhood visions for the 10

4:16 ↗ areas and so that's what we're doing and ppc is leading the charge on that

4:21 ↗ and the first thing we did in our public outreach is we talked to the

4:26 ↗ property owners and business owners in all the districts because we thought well at least

4:30 ↗ we invited the most of them to to come and talk to us because we

4:35 ↗ thought they have a different idea of what the actual citizens and public so we

4:40 ↗ wanted to get their feedback and then we're going to get the public feedback and

4:44 ↗ the community feedback and sort of put it all together and one of the things

4:49 ↗ we found out from them which we thought was really fabulous is most of them

4:54 ↗ wish that they had a there there they you know except for the ones that

4:59 ↗ have the state park there you know no one talks about you know let's go

5:04 ↗ to west gilman and have some coffee Where is West Gilman? So they talked about

5:09 ↗ asking us, the city and the community, they said, ask people, what would be a

5:14 ↗ really cool thing in our district? So that's why one of the questions tonight is,

5:19 ↗ if you could comment or say something about the area in 10 words or less,

5:25 ↗ like you were going to brand it or market it or invite your best friend

5:30 ↗ to meet you at the... you know, under the clock tower, you know, do we

5:35 ↗ need a clock tower? So we have some ideas for placemaking kinds of things to

5:39 ↗ kind of get you thinking about things. But that was something that they asked for.

5:43 ↗ So we thought we'd throw it out to you all and start getting your ideas.

5:46 ↗ The other thing they asked for was, how do we get more people involved in

5:50 ↗ the process and I see this is a good start we're gonna do a survey

5:55 ↗ we're gonna try some other clever things to get more folks to to talk about

5:59 ↗ it we're getting the Rockstar Task Force back together again to talk about the districts

6:03 ↗ and how they saw them and how things are turning out so I'm really looking

6:08 ↗ forward to that as well that will be televised and you can also watch it

6:12 ↗ later on our YouTube channel for those of you that can't can't watch it live

6:17 ↗ With that, this is what the district visions look like in the plan. And you'll

6:22 ↗ see all the boards have that as the starting point for all 10. Underneath that,

6:28 ↗ there's sort of a line, and it says the projects that are proposed there, like

6:34 ↗ the non-motorized projects, the infrastructure projects, are the bottom part of all of the 10.

6:39 ↗ And then there's a couple of boards that are just ideas for placemaking, different kinds

6:44 ↗ of statues and water features and fun places that just to get you thinking about

6:48 ↗ what might be a cool thing in each of the districts. The scope of what

6:54 ↗ council says we're allowed to fiddle with are the listing of the that are existing

6:58 ↗ there and also they wanted a new category the green necklace and parks they wanted

7:03 ↗ those to be pulled out of the vision and given its own special spot in

7:07 ↗ the vision so it calls it out for more because it's it's really a very

7:12 ↗ important part of each of the neighborhoods. This is the public

7:18 ↗ outreach that we know of so far. There'll probably be additional meetings and

7:23 ↗ gatherings and groupings that we'll figure out as we go. And with that,

7:29 ↗ I'm going to invite Jen to come up and tell us all the

7:35 ↗ fabulous things that are going on with parks. Thank you, Jen. Good evening

7:41 ↗ and welcome everybody. My name is Jennifer Fink and I'm the park planner

7:47 ↗ for the city. And as Trish just mentioned the green necklace and parks are an

7:52 ↗ integral part of not only the central Issaquah plan but of Issaquah. We're surrounded by

7:57 ↗ beautiful mountains that we tie to. We have the state park here. And last year,

8:02 ↗ council had asked that we go back out and we start a new park strategic

8:08 ↗ planning effort. And we are getting ready to launch this effort. any minute, any day,

8:13 ↗ through a series and we're going to start with a listen and learn process. And

8:18 ↗ we want to hear from you, the public, as to what you want in your

8:23 ↗ park system. We're going to be asking a series of aspirational questions that will be

8:29 ↗ posted both online and we'll be holding the same meetings and conversation groups through for

8:34 ↗ six public meetings. The meetings have not been advertised yet, but they are going to

8:38 ↗ start the week. The first meeting does take place the 21st. So, and we'll be

8:43 ↗ holding them in six areas throughout the city in hopes that people can come, voice

8:48 ↗ their thoughts and their hopes and their dreams. And we want you to think outside

8:53 ↗ the box, reinvent the the wheel. Tell us what's working, what's not, your hopes and

8:58 ↗ dreams, so we can start filtering down and starting to plan a new strategic vision

9:03 ↗ for the park system, which will also help supplement all these other planning efforts like

9:09 ↗ the Central Issaquah Plan. Like I said, if you're unable to make one of

9:15 ↗ the meetings, no worries. You can answer the questionnaire online. And if you forget something,

9:20 ↗ you can go back to the questionnaire and fill it out again. And then once

9:25 ↗ we go through the three-week period of public meetings and then for another couple weeks,

9:31 ↗ we'll have open the online resources. for the questionnaires. We'll gather up that information, repackage

9:36 ↗ it, do our work, and then we'll come back out to you later, probably closer

9:41 ↗ to the fall, and tell us this is what we heard and tell us where

9:46 ↗ we're going to help kind of frame our future as to where the park system

9:51 ↗ is going to be in our strategic planning efforts. Any day now, go to the

9:57 ↗ parks homepage. You can, we'll have information on there. You can always email me, send

10:03 ↗ me any questions as well. But the same questions will be asked both in the

10:08 ↗ public meetings or online. Please tell your friends. Please share with your neighbors. Even if

10:14 ↗ you work here and live elsewhere, we still want to hear from you. So with

10:20 ↗ that, there's... CHRISTIE WOOD: Yes. No, I can stick around. So if you have

10:26 ↗ any further questions, please ask. CHRISTIE WOOD: And as you're walking around leaving notes, feel

10:31 ↗ free to ask Joe about anything going on in any of the areas. Just thought

10:37 ↗ I'd better make sure you're going to be here. And now our public works expert,

10:42 ↗ Kurt, is going to share all that he knows about this area. KURT LANDEN: Thanks.

10:48 ↗ Thanks, Trisha. Yeah, I was asked to come and talk about-- what's going on in

10:53 ↗ transportation in this in this part of town and share with you everything i know

10:58 ↗ or five minutes worth whichever comes first so we'll we'll see uh see about that

11:03 ↗ but i i'm uh very happy to be here my name is kurt seaman i'm

11:08 ↗ the transportation manager here at the city and i would like to just touch on

11:12 ↗ in the brief time i have on a couple of areas of focus that we

11:17 ↗ that are really important to us and and we think to the community in this

11:23 ↗ area so first of all is the Gilman corridor which is sort of the heart

11:28 ↗ of this of this area and it's one of the few one of our few

11:33 ↗ main east-west connectors in town it's a major east-west connector just south of I-90

11:39 ↗ for sure and it serves a large number of businesses and more and

11:44 ↗ more residents as well. We know that the future of Gilman is going

11:50 ↗ to be very different from the current Gilman and we know that as

11:56 ↗ this area grows and redevelops, it's going to become even a more important

12:01 ↗ corridor. So I've been attending a lot of these meetings that we've been talking to

12:06 ↗ the community and getting some initial input. And I guess one of the themes I've

12:11 ↗ heard is how do we keep all that's good about Gilman and maintain that and

12:16 ↗ the cool things that are happening along Gilman while planning for a future that is

12:21 ↗ likely to be different. So, and I think the other sort of key theme is,

12:27 ↗ so vehicles are an important part of Gilman and traffic and all of that, we

12:32 ↗ know that, but looking forward, you know, start thinking about what other transportation choices we

12:38 ↗ should focus in on. So perhaps more of an emphasis on a multimodal approach with

12:43 ↗ more emphasis on making safe and comfortable places for pets and bikes as well as

12:49 ↗ um transit. I just met with Metro the other day and they're very focused and

12:55 ↗ very committed to working with communities to increase transit in in all cities. And so

13:01 ↗ here's a potentially an opportunity on Gilman for that. So that's just in a nutshell.

13:07 ↗ That is Gilman. The exciting thing is Council just this week, was it? It

13:12 ↗ was this week. Can't keep track here. Just approved a $175,000 work effort for

13:18 ↗ us to start looking at Gilman, and that's going to be a two-year process,

13:24 ↗ and we're going to start We're going to do a lot of listening first and

13:29 ↗ to hear from what you all think is really important for Gilman. We're not going

13:33 ↗ to come in with ideas and cross sections and plans before we get a really

13:38 ↗ good idea of what the, you know, what a, a, the right character for Gilman

13:44 ↗ should be moving forward. So that's just briefly about Gilman. And then just one other

13:50 ↗ project I wanted to highlight that is not a city-led project. It's actually led by

13:56 ↗ the state. It's called an Interchange Justification Report, IJR for short. And what that is,

14:01 ↗ the state is going to start beginning the middle of this year looking at the

14:07 ↗ Front Street I-90 interchange and seeing looking at ways to improve that. So that's sort

14:12 ↗ of the the basis for the work that it's an interchange justification report focused on

14:17 ↗ Front Street and I-90. But as part of that they're also required and we're encouraging

14:23 ↗ them to look at potential other crossings of I-90. So the city's had on its

14:28 ↗ plans for a long time and a second crossing of I-90 in the vicinity of

14:33 ↗ 10th or 12th somewhere in that area. So we don't know exactly where that is

14:38 ↗ or what it would look like. Would it connect to the freeway or would just

14:42 ↗ be a connection connecting the north and south house of Issaquah in that area. So

14:47 ↗ that's pretty exciting. We think that there's a lot of opportunity there to get another

14:52 ↗ north south connection that's really lacking here in the city and getting that right and

14:56 ↗ tying that into the into this whole central Issaquah community is going to be really

15:01 ↗ important. And again, it's it's back to this multimodal approach so it's not that's not

15:06 ↗ a connection only for cars i think there's a real opportunity um for to have

15:09 ↗ better transit if you have another connection there across the freeway and of course we

15:13 ↗ know that sound transit's coming to issaquah it's a little ways off but it's it's

15:17 ↗ not really too soon to start planning for that and where that station might be

15:21 ↗ and how that might tie into this whole community as well so that's i don't

15:25 ↗ know if that was more than About five minutes. So that's-- I'm here this evening

15:31 ↗ to answer any questions you have. But that's the brief overview. That's

15:37 ↗ sort of the highlights. CHRISTIE WOOD: I'm going to turn it over

15:43 ↗ to PPC first to see if you all have any questions before

15:48 ↗ we turn everybody loose writing comments. Any questions for me, for Kurt,

15:54 ↗ for Jen? Seeing none. KURT PIEKARSKI: Well, I've got a question. Transportation

16:00 ↗ talked about just two areas. What's the status on all

16:06 ↗ those that didn't make it in the last bond? Are we

16:11 ↗ doing anything with those things? Good question. Sunset, the Providence Point

16:17 ↗ interchange. That's it. i'd be happy to talk about that i thought i was

16:23 ↗ running out of time here but i'd be happy to talk about those projects as

16:28 ↗ well so there were four projects on the on the uh ballot um last fall

16:32 ↗ and so those were two newport projects province point and east sunset and so um

16:37 ↗ the only project that we're not currently moving forward with right at the moment is

16:42 ↗ east sunset But the other three, the good news is on all three of those

16:48 ↗ other projects we're making progress. So we're planning to come back to council soon in

16:53 ↗ the next several months with an agenda bill to move forward to finalize the design

16:58 ↗ and construct Providence Point intersection signal there. So that's on the agenda, that's in the

17:04 ↗ works. on Newport on the Newport portion from that's our 900 to 54th we

17:10 ↗ just started a scoping meeting with it we've sucked a consultant to help with

17:16 ↗ a preliminary design work for that corridor so we're getting that consultant under contract

17:21 ↗ very soon here we just selected them and so we're going to plan start design

17:27 ↗ work and public outreach on that on that project here again the just to just

17:32 ↗ for everyone's information that project is a it's a design project it's a road project

17:38 ↗ it's an engineering project but we know how important that road is to to the

17:43 ↗ community especially folks that live along there and are going to be living along there

17:48 ↗ and so we know it's important to get that right and we're have a and

17:53 ↗ I would say an equal amount of public outreach effort in that project as we

17:59 ↗ do engineering effort in that project. So that's that one. And then the other Newport

18:04 ↗ project from Maple to Sunset is we have grant money to begin design on that.

18:10 ↗ That money got shifted around a little bit by PSRC. So we unfortunately don't have

18:15 ↗ that money to begin the design on that project this year, but we're hopeful that

18:20 ↗ They had more projects awarded than they had money to, they have enough money

18:26 ↗ for the projects but not all in this year. So we're hopeful that we'll

18:32 ↗ start, or to be able to start design work on that Newport project next

18:38 ↗ year in 2018. - Thank you. - So just for clarification for me, you

18:44 ↗ talked about three that are gonna go. and going into the design field,

18:49 ↗ design stage, do we have money to actually finish them or is this just the

18:55 ↗ beginning process? - So it's the beginning of the process to get us started. So

19:00 ↗ we're continually looking for opportunities for grant opportunities and other funding sources for all those

19:05 ↗ projects. We don't have, so that was the sort of one of the main reasons

19:10 ↗ for the bond was to ensure that we would have money for design and construction

19:15 ↗ for all of those projects get that money set aside through bonding. So we don't,

19:21 ↗ that was our mechanism to make sure that we would be able to design and

19:26 ↗ construct all four of those projects. So we have money to get started on them

19:32 ↗ and to do what I just mentioned and so the next phases of that We're

19:37 ↗ hoping there's some opportunities for additional grant money and especially if the city can provide

19:42 ↗ matching funds, but we don't have those all figured out just at this time. So

19:48 ↗ on the list of transportation things that needs to be done, there's probably a list

19:53 ↗ of 30 things, and every year they kind of go do this. So how did

19:58 ↗ those three get to the top? Because I know that the Providence Point was not

20:03 ↗ on the top. So... Yeah, so I don't know. I've been here about a

20:09 ↗ year, so I'm not sure if I know exactly how all those things got prioritized.

20:15 ↗ A lot of them have been moved forward. I know that the four projects, the

20:21 ↗ four ballot measure projects, went through a very extensive community process to get them to

20:26 ↗ where they are. So those are, I think, the main reason why we continue to

20:32 ↗ move forward with those. Is there any... talk in the city about going forward

20:38 ↗ with another bond initiative? Well, I not that I haven't been, I haven't heard of

20:43 ↗ those conversations, but I know we're always, we're always interested in looking. I mean, we've

20:49 ↗ got a lot of transportation needs here in Issaquah and we're always looking, we're always

20:54 ↗ talking about ways on how to do more, how to do more, how to get

20:59 ↗ more of our projects completed sooner. So a couple years ago when I was more

21:04 ↗ involved with the Chamber, we had in our transportation meetings,

21:10 ↗ what we called was the bucket of paint list, which

21:16 ↗ meant what can we do to just restripe things that

21:21 ↗ are not major construction. Are there anything in the pipeline

21:27 ↗ to leave transportation clog anywhere by just adding taking away so so we have

21:33 ↗ i don't know if this is exactly what you're referring to but we in addition

21:38 ↗ to the projects i mentioned we also have a complete streets program and so those

21:43 ↗ typically and there's about i don't i think there's about six or eight projects on

21:48 ↗ that list that we have committed to designing and building this this year so uh

21:53 ↗ and those are smaller projects they're they're um i don't know I don't know if

21:58 ↗ I'd characterize them as congestion relief projects as much as safety improvements and filling gaps

22:04 ↗ where there's pieces of, there's not a good crossing, there's not a safe crossing, there's

22:10 ↗ sidewalk links that are missing. Those types of projects are what are on the list.

22:15 ↗ We're looking, we're still continuing under that program to look at a solution for the

22:21 ↗ Trader Joe's Target project. intersection there that was also talked about, has been talked about

22:27 ↗ quite a bit. So that's another project we're moving forward. So there's a series of

22:33 ↗ smaller projects that I think will make some important differences in the transportation system that

22:38 ↗ are much smaller scale that we can do. And so we have a Complete Streets

22:44 ↗ program that's funded by council every year. And so it's our goal to continue to

22:50 ↗ make sure continue to implement that program and in fact we're working on ways to

22:55 ↗ better prioritize that list so that we're sure that the projects that are on that

23:00 ↗ list are the projects that really give us the biggest bang for the buck and

23:05 ↗ are the most important ones for the community thank you anybody else have a question

23:11 ↗ I see millions of people out there in the audience and I know you all

23:16 ↗ came because you want to know what's going on in the city, especially in the

23:22 ↗ central area and you want to have your input into that city which you should

23:27 ↗ because you're citizens of Issaquah. So what we're going to do is give you opportunity

23:33 ↗ right now to check out the various districts. There's papers over here and pens if

23:38 ↗ you have any comments to make that, yeah, hey, this is really good. Hey, do

23:43 ↗ you think that maybe you could put this here and that? Whatever you want to

23:47 ↗ put on those comments would really appreciate it. So we're going to spend probably 20

23:52 ↗ minutes or so, half an hour in getting your comments on where you want the

23:57 ↗ city to go. So with that, I know it's gonna take a lot of energy

24:03 ↗ to do that. So remember that all the candy is over here for your enjoyment.

24:08 ↗ So please get up, walk around and help us design the city. Right, and if

24:14 ↗ you can do the future, the neighborhood in ten words or less. and the placemaking

24:19 ↗ options, that would really be great. And tonight's not the end. If you drive home

24:23 ↗ and you think of these great ideas, email them to us. We're here all the

24:28 ↗ time. I'm going to pass around an email sheet. If you want to keep getting

24:32 ↗ invited to these kind of exciting events, just write your email really clear so it

24:36 ↗ won't bounce back. And whoever is the last, we'll just put it up by the

24:40 ↗ candy so that we'll make sure everybody can sign up. Should I start with you?

24:44 ↗ You can have a smile so that's a good thing. Okay, so

24:50 ↗ you figured half hour, Joan?

24:55 ↗ And then you guys can

25:01 ↗ do public comment if you

25:07 ↗ want at the end of

25:12 ↗ that. Thank you. Go. I

25:18 ↗ didn't like the ads. Are you going to add

25:24 ↗ comments? I've got nothing. I know nothing. You said

25:29 ↗ everything. I just heard it. All right. Oh, there

25:35 ↗ were two of them. Yeah, we actually had two.

25:41 ↗ All right. You know what? This is great. Thank

25:47 ↗ you.

25:49 ↗ That's

25:57 ↗ a

26:05 ↗ good

26:13 ↗ choice.

54:14 ↗ Take our seats, have some candy and take our seats and we'll open it up

54:19 ↗ for public comment. Going twice. If you happen to see everything, you can stay after

54:24 ↗ the meeting and continue. I didn't want to be rude and take them down. I

54:30 ↗ thought I'd be behind the veil here. Oh, see, Troy is just saying it. We're

54:35 ↗ just putting them down. There you go. Thank you, sir. I'll take them away. Right,

54:40 ↗ perfect. Reminder, too, if you want us to email you, there's a sign-up sheet going

54:46 ↗ around. Please sign that and we'll make sure that you get invited to all these

54:51 ↗ exciting gatherings. And since we don't have a sign-up sheet for public comment, if you

54:56 ↗ could come to the podium and give your name so our recording secretary can make

55:01 ↗ it official that you were here. Do you want to just... Before we actually

55:07 ↗ go into the public comments, I see a few people that were on

55:13 ↗ the original plan, original committee to, and they spent three years putting this

55:19 ↗ plan together. Do any of them have any comments specifically about history, anything

55:25 ↗ that you think would be beneficial for other people in the community to

55:31 ↗ know about? Joe, do you have anything that you'd like

55:36 ↗ to bring forward? You don't have to. Not to stick you out,

55:42 ↗ Joe. Well, I just know him. I would like to. OK. So

55:48 ↗ it's kind of public comment, but it's kind of not. My name

55:54 ↗ is Joe Forkner, and I was the chair of the original Central

55:59 ↗ Issaquah Plan Task Force. And these comments are probably biased pretty badly. And

56:05 ↗ I want you to remember that they're biased by me. They're not a reflection

56:11 ↗ on the task force itself necessarily. One of the biggest problems that I think

56:17 ↗ have brought us to this point was the public participation through the original task

56:23 ↗ force or the original CIP presentation. Excuse me. When when we took

56:29 ↗ those three years and brought it to the council the council looked

56:34 ↗ at it for like four months and and I can still remember

56:40 ↗ in November of what was it 2009 the council would review it.

56:46 ↗ They would change each of the districts some way they reprinted out

56:51 ↗ and in two weeks they were hearing testimony on the new changes.

56:57 ↗ And there were only a few of us that were willing to sit down and

57:03 ↗ go through 150 pages of the whole thing to find what had changed and then

57:09 ↗ be able to comment at a public meeting. So the one thing that I think

57:15 ↗ is most important through this is what has happened in Issaquah is not contrary to

57:21 ↗ the Central Issaquah Plan. It just surprised a lot of people, I think. So

57:26 ↗ as public as you can make this process, as much as we can get out

57:31 ↗ to the public that this is a process we're going through, come and be part

57:36 ↗ of it. In my opinion, that is the strongest message that needs to be put

57:41 ↗ out to the public. Because we spent an awful lot of time as a community

57:46 ↗ putting this original plan together. And to have the community come back a year later

57:51 ↗ and say, whoa, you guys missed the mark. It's kind of it's kind of depressing

57:57 ↗ to those of us that put so much time into it So if you're interested

58:02 ↗ if you know neighbors who are interested if you know people that have complained to

58:07 ↗ you About the things that have been going on have them come and be part

58:12 ↗ of this because that's the only thing that's going to make this process better is

58:16 ↗ to get input from all the people that have opinions about it and that's I

58:21 ↗ think that's the most important thing of this. Thank you for the opportunity. I think

58:26 ↗ One comment I would like to make is to thank the original task

58:32 ↗ force. I mean, they did spend a lot of time working on this,

58:38 ↗ and I think they got the overall plan and the concept right. I

58:44 ↗ think it's now the putting it together and actually making it so that everybody

58:49 ↗ in the community understands it. Because I remember the three years that we worked on

58:55 ↗ it in planning policy, I mean, it sounds great, but you don't know the details.

59:00 ↗ And so now I think what this is all put together is to get the

59:06 ↗ details and make sure that this is exactly what we want. I don't think it's

59:11 ↗ going to be too much different than what Joe and the task force put

59:17 ↗ together, but I think we just need some of the intricacies to make sure that

59:23 ↗ everybody's happy. Because I've heard a lot of comments, "Well, I don't like this. I

59:29 ↗ don't understand that." Well, unless you read it, you're not going to get the full

59:35 ↗ concept. You know, it's nice to say, "Oh, there's going to be a four-story building

59:41 ↗ there," but when it's built, it's like, I didn't want a four-story building there.

59:47 ↗ You know, you can't perceive what it's going to be. So with that and

59:53 ↗ my droning on here. Well, actually what I was going to do is say

59:58 ↗ I'm going to open up to public comment. So my name is Mel Morgan

1:00:04 ↗ and I served on the task force with our boss, Joe, who was a

1:00:10 ↗ great boss for us all. And I serve on the Development Commission, so I've gotten

1:00:15 ↗ a chance to see the projects that have been approved or up for approval through

1:00:20 ↗ the central area plan come through to see what we've gotten. And I think there

1:00:25 ↗ are some things that we've seen in the Development Commission that we wished would have

1:00:30 ↗ come in differently but I think one of the things that I think about is

1:00:36 ↗ like outdoor decks and the importance of having decks and residential units to get some

1:00:42 ↗ connection between the residents and the units and the street side. But it hasn't been

1:00:48 ↗ perfect but things never are and as to quote somebody who knew how complicated this

1:00:54 ↗ could all be. But what I would say is the best part is we're getting

1:00:59 ↗ some residential development downtown. We're getting a lot more people that are living in downtown

1:01:04 ↗ Issaquah now, which is really what we wanted to do, and that momentum is continuing.

1:01:08 ↗ I think it's great that the city is, the council is stepping back to make

1:01:13 ↗ some tweaks to it, but we do have more people moving in downtown, and I

1:01:17 ↗ think that's a great trend for us. So thank you. Okay, now I'm going to

1:01:22 ↗ open it up to public comment. Is there anybody that would like to... input,

1:01:28 ↗ give us some information. Please, if you haven't, it's okay if you haven't signed

1:01:34 ↗ up, if you just go and tell us your name and where you're from.

1:01:39 ↗ Yeah, my name is Lindsay Walsh. I live in the Highlands. Sorry. I think

1:01:45 ↗ the community comment period is really great and rather than commenting on each of

1:01:51 ↗ these, I want to focus on the the development of comment and I would

1:01:57 ↗ really like to see I think you had mentioned was that just related to parks

1:02:02 ↗ as far as going to different areas of the city to bring in comment I'd

1:02:07 ↗ like to see that for this I mean I think you could easily go up

1:02:13 ↗ to Blakely Hall have a meeting at Pickering Place invite people to Gilman Village and

1:02:18 ↗ have those types of meetings there that develop each of these and kind of

1:02:24 ↗ bring in the community aspect and I think that would get you a

1:02:30 ↗ broader range of opinions than just the people who are willing to come

1:02:36 ↗ out on a weeknight down to City Hall. So those are my thoughts.

1:02:41 ↗ Would anybody else like to make a comment? My name is Barry Lynch

1:02:47 ↗ and I also was one of the ones on the task force and

1:02:53 ↗ what I'd like to say is I think As a member of the task

1:02:59 ↗ force I tried to carry forward the vision of what I heard the community saying.

1:03:04 ↗ What I saw one of the things that happened is after we turned it over

1:03:08 ↗ then code was developed and one of the things where Joe said you need to

1:03:13 ↗ stay involved in the process is don't make just make sure the words right we

1:03:19 ↗ have to really make sure the code that the Development Commission is ruling towards meets

1:03:24 ↗ what the vision says and that's what happened in the process as far as I'm

1:03:30 ↗ concerned especially for gateway we had a vision there but the code was written so

1:03:35 ↗ that it matched all of the whole central area plan and in some of these

1:03:41 ↗ areas we need to have codes that are specific towards those areas in order

1:03:46 ↗ to get the vision to work. We're going to have to have incentives in those

1:03:52 ↗ areas in order to get some of these visions to work. And we don't and

1:03:58 ↗ shouldn't give away everything. One of the things is to slow down development is not

1:04:04 ↗ to make it all that easy to do something, but work together and embrace it

1:04:09 ↗ and that's what I would hope that the citizens stay involved in this all the

1:04:14 ↗ way through the process and if you don't understand the code ask or attend a

1:04:19 ↗ development commission meeting so you better understand how code is implemented and how you get

1:04:25 ↗ the final product from what the vision statement is because that's where I think our

1:04:30 ↗ process broke down was the vision was not carried over in the code to then

1:04:34 ↗ allow us to do what we needed to do to get where we are. And

1:04:39 ↗ the other thing is I don't think we need to grow as fast as we're

1:04:44 ↗ growing because the infrastructure isn't here. Thank you. Anybody else?

1:04:53 ↗ I haven't seen some of these people for a long time. This is cool.

1:04:59 ↗ You're lucky. The council sees me almost every meeting. David Kappler, 255 Southeast Andrews

1:05:04 ↗ Street. Big picture, I guess, is where I'm concerned in the long term. What

1:05:10 ↗ are we going to do about sound transit in order to whatever, sell

1:05:16 ↗ our soul or get the honor or whatever how you want to getting Sound Transit

1:05:21 ↗ coming here and being at the end of the line of a major line. We

1:05:26 ↗ have to have a lot more units here. I'm not so worried about development. I

1:05:31 ↗ don't like the looks of some of what's happened and that kind of thing. But

1:05:35 ↗ you know we get a lot of quite a bit of money from the development

1:05:40 ↗ that happens within the city. And they, in a sense, mitigate quite a bit of

1:05:46 ↗ their impact. What the impact on transportation is killing us is all the people around

1:05:51 ↗ us, many of which are not in the Regional Transit Authority, are not paying for

1:05:56 ↗ Sound Transit. And if we decide we're going to be, we're at the end of

1:06:01 ↗ the line, and are we going to just be a city of parking structures for

1:06:06 ↗ all these people driving into our city from all those 300 degrees practically, to

1:06:12 ↗ come here, that would be a disaster. We need to be working on

1:06:18 ↗ having Sound Transit being very much focused right on I-90 and many of

1:06:23 ↗ those trains being serviced by buses coming in from the region. And if

1:06:29 ↗ we start just plugging up the whole city with cars that park to be gone

1:06:35 ↗ for 10 hours into Seattle or Bellevue, Redmond or whatever, it's going to be a

1:06:41 ↗ disaster for us. So think that way about the long term and what we want

1:06:47 ↗ to be and how we can handle being at the end of a major light

1:06:53 ↗ rail station. Thank you. A lot of questions. Anybody else?

1:07:00 ↗ Hi, my name is Steve Pereira, 170 Northeast Dogwood Street, about nine years. So first

1:07:04 ↗ of all, thanks to the first few speakers. One of the things that Simpsons-Isaquah has

1:07:08 ↗ is institutional knowledge, and I don't often hear that and a way to feed that

1:07:13 ↗ back into the community as a whole. So I think there needs to be more

1:07:17 ↗ of a process to pick their brain to see how we're doing and let those

1:07:21 ↗ of us who haven't been here or don't have as much history, it would be

1:07:25 ↗ great for the city to see how we're growing and a benchmark for how we're

1:07:29 ↗ doing that. Next thought is as we look at these ten different neighborhoods one of

1:07:35 ↗ the things I don't what I hear and see is we have to grow and

1:07:39 ↗ develop and Maybe one thing we should consider is that maybe we don't want to

1:07:44 ↗ grow and develop and an option should be Not necessarily to do something but to

1:07:49 ↗ do nothing We don't need an enhance it. We don't need to grow it. We

1:07:53 ↗ didn't need to become something different that needs to be part of the conversation the

1:07:58 ↗ second was that And I think Mary Lynch talked about this, where there needs to

1:08:03 ↗ be a connection between the vision and city code. I know I've gone to a

1:08:08 ↗ lot of the development commission meetings. And the sense I've gotten from those who are

1:08:12 ↗ voting members is that we have to approve this because the code says we have

1:08:17 ↗ to do this. It's not really a decision-making process. There's no way to say, this

1:08:21 ↗ building looks ugly. Can you change it? So there needs to be more teeth into

1:08:26 ↗ making that happen. So thank you. Thank you. I think

1:08:32 ↗ everybody up here and anybody who was on this commission during this

1:08:37 ↗ process would agree with you because that was one of the big

1:08:43 ↗ things that we all asked for was that the codes be written

1:08:49 ↗ to make sure the things that were supposed to be done were

1:08:55 ↗ done. Anybody else? Connie? So, Connie Marsh. We knew the codes weren't

1:09:00 ↗ written to get what we wanted then, but we were in a

1:09:06 ↗ hurry. But we were told that it would be easy to change things if

1:09:12 ↗ it didn't work. So this is the easy to change part. Aha, I know. So...

1:09:20 ↗ I read, I've read this so many times and I always come back to the

1:09:25 ↗ overarching idea that we're trying to make a great town, right? We want a town

1:09:30 ↗ where you love to live here, you love to work here, when you stand up

1:09:35 ↗ and look around there's component parts to this town where you say, you know, I

1:09:40 ↗ love that. I love looking at that line of trees. I love looking at the

1:09:45 ↗ mountainous views and And it feels like what has happened with the

1:09:51 ↗ Central Iskwa plan so far is we are just sort of loading buildings onto the

1:09:57 ↗ land and we are sort of losing that soul in this special component parts. And

1:10:03 ↗ I think that is part of why we're stopping and Trish is asking for a

1:10:09 ↗ vision for each neighborhood because the Central Iskwa plan is enormous. and 10 neighborhoods is

1:10:15 ↗ a lot to even think about and you go brain dead even thinking about it.

1:10:19 ↗ And I think that it needs to go neighborhood by neighborhood and you need to

1:10:24 ↗ talk to those neighborhoods because they know how they work. and they will be able

1:10:30 ↗ to tell you those valuable pieces of where they live and what they do to

1:10:35 ↗ preserve and to create the attitude for that neighborhood. To have people who don't live

1:10:41 ↗ or use those areas try to tell you what the vision should be, maybe in

1:10:47 ↗ a general way would work. but I don't think is a successful pathway. I said

1:10:52 ↗ this many times before they started this process so they've heard it before it's

1:10:58 ↗ nothing not a surprise to them. So the concept of the central Issaquah plan

1:11:04 ↗ and traffic right the idea is that we are supposed to be able to

1:11:09 ↗ live within our neighborhoods and not have to get in the car. In the end,

1:11:15 ↗ we're supposed to be able to do everything we need to do by walking around

1:11:20 ↗ or maybe doing a little bike ride. And that is playing, that is going to

1:11:24 ↗ the grocery store, to the pharmacy, whatever. And one of the big things that was

1:11:28 ↗ missing in what happened with our initial development is Gateway area. We built a bunch

1:11:33 ↗ of houses and the only way to get to any services is to get in

1:11:37 ↗ your car. And that is a thing that oddly seems to me should have

1:11:43 ↗ been in code and and is not and it won't be satisfied

1:11:48 ↗ by looking at the visions so how do we get the proper

1:11:54 ↗ overarching vision with implementation language because we have learned that you cannot implement a vision

1:12:00 ↗ and we were told when the central is quite plan went in we are going

1:12:04 ↗ to be able to implement division and that is a failure that is probably the

1:12:09 ↗ biggest failure so I'm well I think this is great and I think we'll learn

1:12:14 ↗ a lot more about what will bring the community along in a process of reaching

1:12:18 ↗ out to them I still think we're missing the mark on how to solve

1:12:24 ↗ the Issaquah plan's largest problem. Anybody else? I need to

1:12:30 ↗ talk to you because your head keeps going like this

1:12:36 ↗ and I don't even know what you're thinking. My name

1:12:41 ↗ is Joanna Buehler and I live at 4129 185th Place,

1:12:47 ↗ Southeast Issaquah, which is the South Cove area.

1:12:53 ↗ um i have a long perspective on this area because back in 1989

1:12:59 ↗ i was a co-founder of save lake sammamish and i've been working on

1:13:05 ↗ these issues particularly vis-a-vis protecting the lake and i'm very disappointed that the

1:13:11 ↗ central isco plan does not seem to take into account all of

1:13:17 ↗ the runoffs that's going to go into that lake and how it's going to be

1:13:23 ↗ transported there because it will certainly overwhelm a lot of the streams and the creeks.

1:13:28 ↗ Another bit of perspective is that back when Rowan Hines was still mayor, which is

1:13:34 ↗ a long, long time ago, I think in the 90s, Issaquah formed, we were still

1:13:40 ↗ just a few thousand people, had a community get together in meeting where

1:13:46 ↗ they asked what were the treasures of Issaquah and in fact I

1:13:52 ↗ think Milenko Matanovich over at Pomegranate facilitated these and it came up

1:13:57 ↗ that the treasures of Issaquah were the small town feel, the wooded

1:14:03 ↗ hillsides, the lake, the creeks and the sense that it was different,

1:14:09 ↗ it wasn't Bellevue East. and it wasn't trying to be Bellevue and

1:14:15 ↗ it wasn't trying to be something else and it was to maintain that

1:14:20 ↗ infrastructure those beautiful views and I'm very concerned that what I'm seeing have

1:14:26 ↗ seen of late is the development of some buildings as Connie said just

1:14:32 ↗ dumped on a particular plot without actually a view to view

1:14:38 ↗ corridors or I also worked on the talus development for

1:14:44 ↗ about six years and we had very strict agreements written

1:14:50 ↗ into that development agreement to protect the water quality and

1:14:55 ↗ that included no view clearing, no big retaining walls, you

1:15:01 ↗ know, we encouraged the greater density and we supported the greater density

1:15:07 ↗ but the price of that was to keep the developer from going across West Tibbets

1:15:12 ↗ Creek and some of those other smaller creeks it worked out very well for at

1:15:17 ↗ that time I think it was oh gosh I'm forgetting which was the developer but

1:15:22 ↗ it worked well for them because they didn't have to pay nearly as much for

1:15:26 ↗ infrastructure and we supported the high-rise building for the seniors and the townhouses with underground

1:15:31 ↗ parking and everything. So they got a lot more density, and they actually made a

1:15:36 ↗ much greater profit than they would have done had they gone all across the hillside.

1:15:41 ↗ But it seems to me that despite that development agreement, we're seeing an awful lot

1:15:46 ↗ of nibbling away. Now, I know that's peripheral, but it still comes back to the

1:15:51 ↗ issue of there's a vision, there's an agreement, and then somehow things get nibbled away.

1:15:57 ↗ The trees go, there's view clearing, there's landslides. Those are the things. And then

1:16:03 ↗ we, the taxpayers, inevitably, almost inevitably, get left to pick up the pieces and

1:16:09 ↗ pay for it. As with, we still don't know who's going to pay for

1:16:15 ↗ that talus slide, and yet we're considering the Bergsma-Winward project, which would probably cause

1:16:21 ↗ more slides and be more of a problem. So the first thing I wanted

1:16:27 ↗ to emphasize was to save the treasures of Issaquah. I've seen a

1:16:32 ↗ lot of other places such as Vancouver, BC, their central

1:16:38 ↗ areas, Coal Creek and English Town. Those areas have view

1:16:43 ↗ corridors. They have stepped buildings. They have great density, but

1:16:49 ↗ they don't have these ugly blocked buildings that really, they

1:16:54 ↗ take away any character, any human scale because they're just

1:17:00 ↗ big clunks. And that then leads to architectural standards. And this city

1:17:05 ↗ is desperately in need of architectural standards. What we're seeing going in at

1:17:11 ↗ Gateway Apartments is, looks like a gulag. They're ugly, rectangular buildings, and the

1:17:17 ↗ only thing I could say is that they go very nicely with that

1:17:23 ↗ Marriott Hotel in Rowley's property, because that is also incredibly ugly. And that

1:17:29 ↗ is what we see when we come from Seattle. So I think we

1:17:35 ↗ definitely need those architectural standards. I mean, even up at Lake Hills, you look

1:17:40 ↗ at that little King County Library, that little square, the smaller houses around, that's

1:17:46 ↗ pedestrian friendly. What we're getting here is not pedestrian friendly. I mean, we can't

1:17:51 ↗ in South Cove do anything without getting into our car. We can't, you know,

1:17:57 ↗ you go from Gateway or anywhere on Newport Way, again, it's got to be a

1:18:02 ↗ car ride. And I look at this whole 900 acres of the valley and I

1:18:08 ↗ don't see how we are going to be pedestrian friendly and we're going to have

1:18:13 ↗ all these vibrant mixed-use areas. But, you know, the economics are that people are putting

1:18:18 ↗ in big box stores, not little, you know, mom and pop places and little restaurants.

1:18:23 ↗ And so I'm not sure how you're going to do this. And you do need

1:18:29 ↗ more connectivity. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a more of a

1:18:34 ↗ there there, you know, one more central area. But then again, everybody's got to get

1:18:40 ↗ into their cars. So it's a conundrum. I do echo what David said about light

1:18:45 ↗ rail coming out here. I think it's going to just fuel more people driving to

1:18:50 ↗ Iskwam parking. And I also don't think that we should be going helter-skelter

1:18:56 ↗ into this development process and approving anymore. And I appreciate the moratorium.

1:19:02 ↗ without getting the infrastructure in place. The infrastructure is a mess. And if you really

1:19:07 ↗ want to solve the problem of Front Street, I would advocate putting a toll on

1:19:12 ↗ Front Street for anybody who doesn't live in Issaquah. And that would be like good

1:19:18 ↗ to go. If you're just passing through from I-90 to the Issaquah Hobart Road for

1:19:23 ↗ a shortcut to get to 18, well, then you're going to have to pay a

1:19:28 ↗ toll. and you can just have a little thing on your car

1:19:33 ↗ like we do with good to go so those are my comments thank you

1:19:39 ↗ very much thank you always nice to think out of the box hello my

1:19:45 ↗ name is john fisher uh 2122 newport way i i live in the gateway

1:19:51 ↗ district uh half for about nine and a half years so uh

1:19:57 ↗ Those on the Development Commission will know me from the comments that

1:20:02 ↗ I've given. I'd like to thank the Development Commission for their time

1:20:08 ↗ and attention and also to the PPC. Thank you. So having looked

1:20:13 ↗ at the Central Esquire Plan and having watched the developments come up

1:20:19 ↗ around Sammamish Point Complex where I live, I do feel there

1:20:25 ↗ are some troubling contradictions in how the Central Issaquah plan has unfolded

1:20:31 ↗ so far. There's no mixed use, new mixed use in what is

1:20:37 ↗ being built, so anyone who wants, who lives in the Gateway District

1:20:43 ↗ and wants to do anything that doesn't involve getting into a car

1:20:48 ↗ has quite a walk on their hands. And that'll change somewhat with

1:20:54 ↗ the connection up here, which is quite far north. But the real contradiction

1:21:00 ↗ there is that you have Tibbets Creek running up through here in a

1:21:06 ↗ ditch. How do you preserve it, restore it, but also provide that east-west

1:21:12 ↗ connectivity that without it, You have built a lot of

1:21:17 ↗ new housing. It may be parking deficient. It's definitely transit

1:21:23 ↗ deficient. It's not a functional walking community, unfortunately. Aside from

1:21:29 ↗ that, I would also echo the comment that the plan

1:21:35 ↗ is currently implemented. I believe the development commission did

1:21:40 ↗ the best they could and still follow that code. So I'm looking forward

1:21:46 ↗ to any opportunity that I would have as a citizen to participate in

1:21:52 ↗ the process of reexamining or revising that code. And I do agree that

1:21:58 ↗ the different districts or neighborhoods do have differing and specific needs. Thank you.

1:22:04 ↗ Thank you.

1:22:10 ↗ Hi, I'm Rich Johnson. I live up on Squawk Mountain. I've been here for about

1:22:15 ↗ 20 years. We moved out here from Chicago and immediately fell in love with the

1:22:20 ↗ mountains and the hills, and we looked around for places to live. And as soon

1:22:24 ↗ as we drove east on I-90, it became apparent that this is where we wanted

1:22:29 ↗ to be. I mean, the view was, you know, the view of Tiger Mountain was

1:22:34 ↗ beautiful. It was a beautiful blue sky day when we came out here, and it

1:22:38 ↗ was just obvious to us that And I feel like we're losing a little bit

1:22:44 ↗ of that with some of the structures that are going up. Just to talk about

1:22:49 ↗ these boards a little bit and the vision matching the reality of what's on some

1:22:54 ↗ of these boards, for example, at D'Arce Park or the Hyla neighborhood, some of the

1:23:00 ↗ things that have already been built there. are kind of at odds with what

1:23:05 ↗ they want to do with these areas. Like the Hyla area, you've got car

1:23:11 ↗ dealerships that are already fronting that, and there's a Burger King, and there's, like

1:23:17 ↗ you said, some ugly hotels. Really disappointing quality of architecture. And the vision for

1:23:22 ↗ that, for the Hyla area, is really, it talks about some residential areas, and

1:23:28 ↗ it's really what would you want to live back there actually if there was residential

1:23:33 ↗ behind some car dealerships and i'm not sure if that's a good you the highest

1:23:38 ↗ and best use for that area and i wonder uh like in terms of tibbets

1:23:42 ↗ valley how much of that area there that land already has been agreed is there

1:23:47 ↗ some agreement already with that with those parcels with a developer that we're locked into

1:23:51 ↗ already and i don't know the history of that or what what is actually in

1:23:56 ↗ the works but um And the other thing I'd like to say is

1:24:02 ↗ the Atlas Apartments, I think just reading the Issaquah Press, which is unfortunately no

1:24:08 ↗ longer with us, but just some of the reaction from people around the town

1:24:14 ↗ to that development, I think it's really a reaction to scale of that building.

1:24:20 ↗ They were just absolutely shocked at having the number of stories fronting right on

1:24:25 ↗ Gilman Boulevard and just weren't expecting it. And I don't know if the better

1:24:31 ↗ way, I don't know what's been done in the past at public meetings. Unfortunately didn't

1:24:36 ↗ attend many of those in the past, but I think models really help people to

1:24:41 ↗ understand that kind of thing. If you have a model of the central core and

1:24:46 ↗ you show people the scale of these buildings, what they might look like compared to

1:24:51 ↗ what's already existing there, I think they get a really good idea of what's coming.

1:24:56 ↗ And if those can just be, you know, just an example of what's in the

1:25:02 ↗ zoning code, what is this zoned for, would really help people. And the quality of

1:25:07 ↗ architecture in Issaquah, I would have to agree. In my view, the last good building

1:25:13 ↗ that was built in Issaquah was the library, and that was well done. And when

1:25:19 ↗ we first moved here, the Issaquah Commons was going in, and there was a bad

1:25:24 ↗ reaction to that project. And things really haven't changed a whole lot since then. There's

1:25:29 ↗ been a lot of stuff that's been built that's disappointing. And really, for me, it's

1:25:34 ↗ all about the views around Issaquah and view corridors, like you said. I think it

1:25:38 ↗ makes a huge difference to be able to look around and see the mountains. And

1:25:43 ↗ unfortunately, you can see the mountains from the Issaquah Commons because there's a huge parking

1:25:47 ↗ lot, and you can stand out in the middle of the parking lot and see

1:25:51 ↗ the mountains easy enough. But if there's enough development like Atlas in the Tibbets Valley

1:25:56 ↗ area development I think that's it's going to become like more like a downtown

1:26:02 ↗ Kirkland than Issaquah and I also agree with comments that that said that we don't

1:26:07 ↗ necessarily have to develop this place to the max and we can pull back a

1:26:13 ↗ little bit I think we're gonna have some development and it's a good thing but

1:26:18 ↗ I think we can pull back from maybe a little bit from what we're what

1:26:24 ↗ we're seeing thank you thank you anybody else anybody else

1:26:30 ↗ With that, I'm going to close the public comment and open

1:26:36 ↗ it up for discussion and comments from the Commission. Would anybody

1:26:41 ↗ like to, while you're thinking, I want to thank the people

1:26:47 ↗ that made comments. They were all good. I really appreciate the

1:26:53 ↗ fact of whoever suggested going into the neighborhood and getting a

1:26:59 ↗ core group of people in that neighborhood to to discuss

1:27:04 ↗ things with the city. Obviously they're not going to get everything they want, but

1:27:10 ↗ that input would make planning a lot easier. So I hope that the city

1:27:16 ↗ does that. I like the fact that going out and having the meetings in

1:27:22 ↗ various areas, and I think that they were planning to do that anyway, so

1:27:27 ↗ that's really cool. I know that some of you have been involved in

1:27:33 ↗ the city for a long time and if you've gone to the any of the

1:27:39 ↗ PPC meetings that we had during this process the one thing that we asked for

1:27:44 ↗ every meeting was a scale model of what it would look like. I hope the

1:27:50 ↗ city realizes that they really need to do something like that. I can't imagine that

1:27:57 ↗ I know it would be expensive, but developers put things together and show you where

1:28:03 ↗ things are gonna be so that people can get an idea of how big, how,

1:28:09 ↗ you know, you can look at a picture, but it's not the same as seeing

1:28:14 ↗ what it's actually gonna look like. And I hope that the city takes the time

1:28:20 ↗ and finds the money to do that. I think that would be really cool. My

1:28:25 ↗ only other comment is, We've been talking about codes and getting it all

1:28:31 ↗ up to date to where developers know what they can and cannot do. And I

1:28:37 ↗ think it helps them to know what they can and can't do, so they can

1:28:43 ↗ plan for where it is. But I know that parks are an extremely important part

1:28:49 ↗ of our city. And all of you love the parks and the trees.

1:28:56 ↗ I would like to see planning that incorporates some distance between the end of

1:29:01 ↗ the park and the development so that it can incorporate the park. You know,

1:29:07 ↗ okay, there's a street here and then the park starts. Well, you want to

1:29:13 ↗ be back a little bit so that you can really enjoy the park and

1:29:18 ↗ it becomes part of the community. So I hope that things like that

1:29:24 ↗ are put into the plan. I think the city has a lot of stuff they

1:29:29 ↗ have to do. Is there any other comments since I've talked so much? I would

1:29:34 ↗ just, nothing original, you stole all my thunder, so thanks, John. No, I just, I

1:29:38 ↗ like the idea of the neighborhood specific meetings. A good way to get people who

1:29:43 ↗ live there out and gain some knowledge from them. And other ways to visualize sort

1:29:48 ↗ of worst case scenario, what the code would allow in that situation. lots of ways

1:29:53 ↗ to do that now i don't know how to do any of it i'm sure

1:29:59 ↗ somebody does um and and the final thing i one or two people maybe mention

1:30:04 ↗ this but i do think that as part of this process now you know even

1:30:10 ↗ going back um to the middle of last year we we were operating under some

1:30:16 ↗ um uncertainty around whether or not st3 would pass And now we know it did,

1:30:21 ↗ right? And so the comments about planning for, I mean it's a ways in the

1:30:26 ↗ future but it takes a long time to do this stuff, right? So it'll be,

1:30:30 ↗ there'll be a station down around here somewhere before we know it. So it's probably

1:30:35 ↗ our opportunity now to think about that and how this plan will influence that or

1:30:39 ↗ be influenced by that in the future. And I wish we could figure out a

1:30:44 ↗ way to do the regional bus idea and really force that issue. I know it's

1:30:50 ↗ beyond the scope of this process probably, but I would love to set it up

1:30:56 ↗ in a way that we somehow force that conversation. As somebody who comes from south

1:31:02 ↗ of town every day. So yeah, that's all. So I really like hearing people's comments.

1:31:07 ↗ I know there's a lot of negative comments towards what is happening. I'd like to

1:31:13 ↗ hear what people like about what's happening.

1:31:19 ↗ I want to understand the full story. So there's always two sides of an argument.

1:31:25 ↗ There's a side that people don't like and there's a side that people do like.

1:31:30 ↗ The problem is you have multiple opinions within our community. So I want to understand

1:31:36 ↗ both sides of the argument fully so that I can make the best judgment and

1:31:42 ↗ help my commissioners come to the same come to the best conclusion i want to

1:31:48 ↗ know all the facts so if you have comments that you haven't brought to meetings

1:31:53 ↗ in the past that are both negative or supporting i would like to hear them

1:31:59 ↗ and in fact this message tell your neighbors because i don't see enough people making

1:32:04 ↗ comments this is our community not just the people sitting in this room And I

1:32:10 ↗ feel that there's a lot of people who are on the sidelines, who are passive,

1:32:16 ↗ who have great ideas to share. And we need to capture those opinions somehow. So

1:32:21 ↗ I would like to recruit all of you to help get people in these meetings

1:32:27 ↗ so that we can understand what their perspectives are, what their values are, what's important

1:32:33 ↗ to our communities that we are a community, we're a family.

1:32:39 ↗ I want to represent the community, not just the people that show up to these

1:32:45 ↗ meetings. So if we pass something and all of a sudden people don't like what

1:32:50 ↗ they see, they can't blame us because they weren't here. They can. Yeah, they will.

1:32:56 ↗ But I thank you for coming tonight, and I hope that I see you continually

1:33:01 ↗ coming and supporting what your viewpoints are so that we can continue hearing them.

1:33:08 ↗ So following up on that, since you are now designated as part

1:33:14 ↗ of the city group that is going to go out to your

1:33:20 ↗ neighborhoods, I hereby appoint you. I second that motion. With all her

1:33:25 ↗ power. Anybody else? I think I'm the only one left. i

1:33:31 ↗ want to say pretty much i think we all hit the same points that we

1:33:37 ↗ really like the community outreach we have a lot to think about with sound transit

1:33:43 ↗ 3 coming here i really appreciated joanna's highlighting of our treasures of issaquah and those

1:33:49 ↗ are the exact same points that we've been hearing talked about in just our recent

1:33:55 ↗ housing strategy discussions so So those continue to be points of this quad

1:34:01 ↗ that we really need to hold on to the greatest extent that

1:34:07 ↗ we can. And I think everyone on this commission is dedicated to

1:34:12 ↗ do that. And we sure appreciate you continuing to bring those up.

1:34:18 ↗ So that'd be my comment. - So thank you for all being

1:34:24 ↗ here. Keep your eyes open for future comments, meetings. So hopefully you

1:34:30 ↗ join the, future meetings if you have any other ideas or comments and I

1:34:36 ↗ know that the city is going to take those little colored pieces of paper and

1:34:41 ↗ take them very seriously so keep up the good work and keep plugging. So thanks

1:34:46 ↗ for being here I'm going to close the meeting at 8:10. Thank you.

Approved minutes

Extracted from the next meeting's packet, where this meeting's minutes were approved as a consent-calendar attachment.

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Recommendations & actions (3)

Sentences extracted from the narrative containing words like recommended, requested, directed, moved, or approved. Best-effort — verify against the full minutes for context.

She also gave some background on the moratorium the Council enacted in late 2016, and the progress made thus far on getting the information requested by the Council as part of the moratorium process.
He noted that the Council just approved a $175,000, two-year study of Gilman, which will begin soon with a listening effort to determine what residents think about the right character for Gilman in the future.
PPC Questions: SWEDBERG asked what is the status of other transportation improvements that were not approved in the last bond issue, such as at Sunset Way and the Providence Point interchange.