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Planning Policy Commission Auto captions

Thursday, May 11, 2017

6:00 PM · 2h 9m · Council Chambers, 135 East Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topic tracked across meetings:
Housing Strategy, including Strategies addressing Affordable Housing AB 7340 1/2
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
Commission Membership
packet pp.3–7
Staff report:
Economic Vitality Commission About Staff Liaison Created in 2012, this commission provides Jen Davis Hayes, additional expertise – both to the Mayor and City Economic Development Director Council – necessary to enhance and facilitate Email economic development within the City. Regular Members The commission also acts as a catalyst between the 2018 – Amit Bhardwaj City Council, developers, residents and the 2018 – Laura Milikan business community to expand and improve the 2019 – Therese Garcia economic climate of Issaquah within the context of 2019 – Jeff Howlett the City’s commitment to social and environmental 2019 – Ethan Stiles objectives. 2020 – Derek Doke 2020 – Karl Leigh Membership 2020 – Kristi Tripple The Economic Vitality Commission is comprised of 2021 – Saikat Sen ten regular members with four-year terms. 2021 – Lincoln Vander Veen
2. AGENDA ITEMS
2a
Housing Strategy: Problem Statements Refresher from 3/13/17 Council Work Session
Trish Heinonen, Policy Planning Manager · packet pp.9–40
Topics: Housing
Staff report:
A. Housing Strategy - Update: Background
2b
Affordable Housing Strategies and Potential Actions for Issaquah Refresher from 3/13/17 Council Work Session
Topics: Housing
2c
Other Housing Strategies and Potential Actions for Issaquah
Commission Discussion
Topics: Housing
0:02 I'm just going to once I see the life
0:07 welcome welcome to all our members the
0:12 new members of where this is the fourth
0:14 meeting of the Joint Commission's as we
0:17 call you economic vitality human
0:19 services and planning policy Commission
0:21 where we're all working on the housing
0:23 strategy and tonight since there are
0:26 some new members your packet had a lot
0:29 of background information to try to get
0:31 you a little bit up to speed but I'm
0:33 going to run through a refresher course
0:34 very quickly although you feel free to
0:38 ask questions and have comments on it
0:40 because we the other members haven't
0:42 seen it since January so they may be a
0:44 little rusty on on these ideas as well
0:46 so we're going to do a little background
0:48 we're going to remind the group of the
0:50 three problem statements that you all
0:52 came up with we're going to talk about
0:54 the survey results that no one has seen
0:56 yet pretty exciting the housing survey
0:58 that we just did and then we're going to
1:00 talk about some of the actions and
1:02 strategies that Issaquah might try to
1:04 help us with our housing our future
1:06 housing and then we're going to talk
1:08 about next steps okay this is one of
1:12 those great graphics that we throw in
1:14 every time just so you know that how
1:16 clever we really are at scheduling this
1:18 is the whole housing strategy that we're
1:20 working on the first part of the work we
1:24 did was looking at the inventory that we
1:26 have now and what the future might look
1:27 like if we don't do anything we just let
1:30 the market continue how it's going what
1:33 would it look like and we had that
1:34 presentation in September to the council
1:37 and we found that we really didn't have
1:39 the the types of housing and the sizes
1:42 and cost ranges of housing that we
1:44 really needed if we kept going the way
1:47 that we're going so the second part is
1:50 where you will come in and we're working
1:52 at trying to figure out what do we want
1:54 in the future what kinds of homes what
1:57 is what are the problems that we might
2:00 face if we don't do some course
2:02 corrections at this point and so that's
2:05 where we are right now we're in the very
2:07 end of the needs analysis and then once
2:11 we are finished with that then we have
2:13 start talking about the policy pieces
2:16 and start talking to even some of the
2:18 developers on Ron you there's lots of
2:21 seats Ron on what kinds of what the
2:26 applet the folks that build affordable
2:28 housing and housing what do we need to
2:30 do we need to have a better discussion
2:32 with them on how can we help them
2:34 provide the kind of housing in our
2:36 community that we would like and then
2:38 the last part is actually wrapping up
2:40 with the housing strategy that would go
2:42 to council for their blessing and we're
2:44 sort of using you three the three groups
2:47 as sort of part of our public outreach
2:49 because housing is trickier than a lot
2:53 of the other pieces and parts that we
2:55 work on but you really kind of have to
2:57 get into the guts of it so we've been
2:59 using youth regroup the three groups
3:01 because you all come from different
3:02 areas of expertise and just to get you
3:06 guys to help us because you're sort of
3:07 the mini community here so we rely on
3:10 you to help us move forward with this
3:14 the first thing you all did the ones
3:17 that were that we're here but the ones
3:19 the new ones is you figured out a
3:20 mission statement to help you with this
3:22 huge task of creating a housing strategy
3:25 and this is what you came up with and it
3:28 seems to cover sort of the whole body of
3:30 work that you're working towards because
3:33 it is so big we wanted to be sure we
3:34 weren't going down the rabbit holes as
3:36 we as we were working through things
3:39 once we were done with the mission
3:41 statement we started narrowing it down
3:43 to what are the what are the problems
3:45 we're trying to solve for the future and
3:47 these were the reasons that you all came
3:50 up with problem statements to sort of
3:51 help guide you guide us as we put some
3:54 packages of strategies together and now
3:58 drum roll this was the first problem
4:00 statement and it might not be a surprise
4:03 to you all overall housing affordability
4:05 in Issaquah has decreased for households
4:08 at all level missed isn't just our issue
4:10 it's the region the regional issue and
4:12 in your packet there are tons tons of
4:17 charts and graphs and data all that good
4:20 stuff but I thought for the public that
4:23 we would just make it very general on
4:26 the fact
4:26 that we found to support this problem
4:29 statement the second one the second
4:33 problem statement you all came up with
4:34 as individuals and families cannot
4:36 afford to choose to work and live in
4:38 Issaquah and again there was a lot of
4:41 data and charts in your packet that
4:43 supports this problem statement or
4:45 supports that that this is a finding and
4:49 this is one that we're working on as
4:51 well for the future the third one is the
4:54 housing types are not meeting the
4:56 diversity of demand and the data
4:59 supported that by showing that the sizes
5:01 of homes that it seems that we're
5:03 building are not really the sizes that
5:05 seem to be what folks are looking for
5:08 and so that's another issue that we're
5:10 working on another I should have
5:12 mentioned in addition to working with
5:15 you all we've also had seven different
5:17 focus groups that we've met with from
5:21 large businesses in town smaller
5:22 businesses in town school district
5:26 supportive services senior services the
5:31 realtor's I'm probably missing some very
5:34 important group but they've been great
5:37 helping us from their niche of the
5:40 housing that they see that's needed the
5:43 groups that they're servicing and the
5:45 different issues that are presented by
5:48 the smaller group so that's that
5:50 information has been funneled in as well
5:53 the survey the survey says the survey
5:57 was open for almost four weeks ten
6:01 questions hopefully you all were able to
6:03 perhaps answer the survey I know that
6:06 the members that were already on it I
6:08 sent a few emails hey check out the
6:11 housing survey
6:11 there were 171 responses and I'm just
6:15 going to go through real fast
6:16 I wish we would had the results before
6:18 the packet went out so you could kind of
6:20 ponder it but but we'll get that to you
6:22 as well the first one was when you're
6:24 looking for a place to live what are
6:26 your top five factors daily being near
6:31 daily services was a high one thing cost
6:35 is a high one price rent
6:39 quality schools which we're very lucky
6:41 to have so that was I think the answers
6:45 weren't too surprising and if you want
6:48 to stop me and ask follow-up questions
6:50 feel free the second question which of
6:54 these statements reflect is the quad
6:56 today so we were trying to figure out
6:58 how do people feel about what they think
7:00 is out there now and these weren't too
7:03 surprising there's a lack of very small
7:06 houses people seem to agree with that
7:09 there seems to be demolition of existing
7:11 housing a lot of people were neutral on
7:14 that that they weren't really sure if we
7:15 were getting rid of of housing we talked
7:20 about seniors do folks think that
7:21 seniors are able to live in their homes
7:24 most people agreed with that although
7:26 still a lot we're neutral this is the
7:30 same list are there opportunities for
7:32 families a lot of people agreed that
7:35 there aren't that as many housing
7:37 opportunities for families and
7:38 especially younger families that was
7:41 interesting
7:41 lack of affordable housing scored very
7:44 high that folks agree with that and then
7:47 lack of housing with access to good
7:50 transit that seemed to be most folks
7:52 agreed with that lack of homes that
7:56 accommodate extended families a lot of
8:00 neutral kind of on either side and
8:03 overall housing stock
8:04 most folks agreed with that question
8:07 three have you or anyone you know had
8:09 trouble finding a place to live yes the
8:12 majority said yes they knew somebody in
8:14 the last five years and what kept you
8:18 from finding or someone you know it was
8:20 mostly cost so that was we're telling as
8:24 well this then we were having people
8:29 looking to the future what would be
8:31 successful in their idea in their mind
8:33 for the future of housing and the first
8:37 one you know as a good mom and apple pie
8:39 one that it's all stages of life that
8:42 you should be able to live here all your
8:44 life whether you're you know right out
8:45 of school college first-time family
8:48 empty nester the whole gamut
8:51 most people agree that that's that would
8:53 be a really good thing aging-in-place
8:55 scored really well that people would
8:57 like that in the future local employees
9:00 we were trying to get the live work
9:02 bound so more people can work and live
9:04 here cuts down on the traffic as well
9:08 would they like that to happen and most
9:11 of the folks are in the agree part still
9:15 in question five would people think the
9:17 future should have housing affordable to
9:21 a range of incomes including lower it
9:23 was more spread out there the next one
9:27 the city helps stabilize neighborhoods
9:29 by preserving existing housing that one
9:32 was pretty spread out as well the city
9:35 helps increase home ownership
9:37 opportunities with a wider range of
9:39 household types mostly agree but still
9:42 pretty pretty balanced this still is the
9:49 same future question do you this should
9:52 the city include higher density housing
9:53 opportunities I was pretty balanced
9:57 throughout the housing should fit and
9:59 preserve the character of the existing
10:02 community and protect critical
10:04 environmental features that one would
10:06 strongly agree that one all of a sudden
10:09 we we went out of balance and that was a
10:10 strongly agree young households students
10:14 entry-level workers that seemed to be
10:17 pretty balanced and there is more
10:19 single-family housing for families that
10:23 was agree and neutral do you work in his
10:27 cloth most had no but some said yes for
10:33 how many years ten five to ten seem to
10:37 be the biggest category and then your
10:39 annual income pretty balanced foot to
10:44 the higher and then how much do you pay
10:49 in mortgage and rent and then which of
10:52 the following best describes your
10:54 current residents and most of the folks
10:56 are owning a single-family home or condo
10:59 and those were the survey any questions
11:02 on there we'll make sure you get a copy
11:05 the same kind of ponder but I was it was
11:10 kind of fun to see that the results we
11:12 were we were pretty happy that we got so
11:15 many folks yes was it
11:17 in terms of the balance of homeowners to
11:23 renters does the survey reflect the
11:28 distribution in the community or is it
11:31 out of it can tell us that by who
11:35 registered but we didn't have the time
11:37 to to try to correlate different things
11:40 because we just received so you don't
11:42 know what percentage of the people in
11:44 Issaquah rent as opposed to own oh not
11:48 of the survey I mean just about how does
11:50 the I'm sure that I'm sure we know that
11:52 I don't know I don't know that right off
11:54 the top of my head does that might tell
11:56 us something about the answers right I
12:03 just don't know what off the top of my
12:05 head you might get slightly different
12:08 answers from people who own than you
12:11 might get from renters right absolutely
12:14 and that's why we were trying to send a
12:15 survey out to not only folks that lived
12:18 here but to folks that worked here
12:19 thinking that they met they would have a
12:21 really some really good ideas on perhaps
12:23 how to make their chances better of
12:25 being able to live here if they wanted
12:27 to thank you thank you any other
12:30 questions
12:31 yeah I wanted to ask something really
12:34 quick how did you decide to how did the
12:37 people here find the survey it was
12:41 online and we did email things off the
12:45 website and we mailed the boards and
12:49 commissions that I had addresses to we
12:52 tried to hit everybody that that we knew
12:54 of that was already either affiliated
12:56 with the city or was affiliated with any
12:58 of the focus groups that we had the
13:00 small business large businesses school
13:02 district service providers and realtor's
13:04 we tried to sort of go out with as many
13:06 directions as possible knowing that it's
13:09 just one type of outreach and we're
13:11 trying to do multiple types of outreach
13:14 but yeah I'm sure we could have figured
13:18 out a
13:19 in other different ways but it's a new
13:21 survey tool that the city has so I think
13:23 this is one of the second or third
13:24 surveys that the city's done any other
13:28 questions okay
13:33 strategies and actions the first group
13:38 of strategies and actions are good
13:40 perfect timing
13:41 are because I'll back up a little bit is
13:45 that council approved a temporary
13:49 moratorium last September because they
13:52 felt that the in the work that we've
13:55 done on the central Issaquah plan in the
13:56 last three years they felt that it
13:58 wasn't the developments that we were
14:02 getting weren't completely in line with
14:04 the vision that the council had going
14:06 into the central Issaquah plan and one
14:08 of the issues that they saw was that in
14:11 all the housing that was being built in
14:13 central Issaquah there weren't any
14:14 affordable units yet that were being
14:16 built so they added affordable housing
14:18 to the list of items that were supposed
14:21 to be studying during the moratorium
14:23 which was why when we first came to the
14:26 Joint Commission on what strategy should
14:28 we look at the first group of strategies
14:31 we looked at was affordable housing to
14:33 sort of get those in the think tank
14:35 before we started looking at other
14:37 strategies and there are only a small
14:40 part of the housing strategy the housing
14:42 strategy will be all types of housing
14:44 but it's just the part that council was
14:46 most interested in getting the results
14:49 sooner rather than later which is why we
14:51 started that and then as I say in that
14:53 little footnote you get to look at the
14:55 other strategies as well but we just
14:58 started with the affordable housing ones
15:00 yes so what's the the percentage of
15:07 affordable housing that they decided on
15:10 and how did they so how do we define
15:13 affordable housing affordable housing is
15:16 defined through the region through 80%
15:21 of King County median income which i
15:24 think is one of the slides that's in
15:27 this slide deck of all the data that
15:29 we've received and it starts at like
15:33 see the 80% median income and then
15:35 there's the mid is goes up to the 60 and
15:40 then low income so there's three sort of
15:43 levels if you will that are all
15:45 affordable but they're different levels
15:47 of affordable and then a hundred percent
15:50 is like market rate okay and and so okay
15:54 thank you
15:54 and will that match what is in the kind
16:00 of vision for a Sukhois yeah we talked
16:03 about it in the vision on trying to
16:05 provide housing for 80 percent or below
16:08 median which would be the the top range
16:11 of what's considered affordable I mean
16:15 how much percentages so if when you look
16:17 at the percentages will it match what we
16:20 need in Issaquah in low ink in low-end
16:23 affordable housing the percentages of
16:26 how much we need that can be part of our
16:30 vision I'm not sure that anyone in the
16:32 region thinks that we can actually
16:34 provide as much as we need but if it's
16:37 an aspirational goal for all of us for
16:41 the other region knowing how difficult
16:42 it is to provide and so I think all the
16:45 jurisdictions that I've heard of lately
16:48 everyone's got the same issue that
16:50 they're trying to figure out another way
16:52 to figure it out that Keith was just
16:55 saying it made the cover of governing
16:57 magazine because they're they're
16:59 figuring it out too so sort of all in
17:01 this together
17:02 but good questions it's a there's a lot
17:05 of data involved in in housing so good
17:08 question this I'm not sure if you're
17:11 able to read the fine print so I'd print
17:17 it out
17:20 this was from not the other two this was
17:26 from the January packet and what we did
17:29 here is the blue line up at the top are
17:33 what you all said and the focus group
17:37 said of the issues that that you felt
17:40 it's a claw faced and then the data is
17:44 in the orange or peach or whatever color
17:46 it shows on the screen to show that
17:48 there's there were two pieces of
17:50 criteria we were basing what the
17:53 affordable strategies on the right left
17:56 side the actions and the checkmarks show
17:59 which actions meet all of the criteria
18:02 that you mentioned and that the focus
18:04 groups mentioned and because it's got so
18:07 busy and since some of you weren't here
18:10 we thought we'd show it in a different
18:11 way just to have everyone's brains
18:13 explode and I printed this out so we
18:16 wouldn't all get eye strain you want to
18:18 go annoying I will keep it happy for my
18:22 eye we did here is we took the
18:30 strategies the first one I'll use as an
18:32 example accessory dwelling units and
18:34 those are sometimes called mother-in-law
18:36 apartments sometimes carriage houses
18:39 sometimes granny flats they have many
18:41 names but they're when you have a
18:43 single-family home and you put another
18:45 unit in it you either put it in the
18:47 house in the garage in the loft somehow
18:51 but it has a bathroom it has a kitchen
18:53 and it has a separate entrance those are
18:56 very affordable they're considered at
18:57 the 80% level and so one way of getting
19:02 more affordable housing is if you get if
19:05 you have more ad use accessory dwelling
19:08 units in your community we have at least
19:10 40 now in the city and they seem to be
19:14 working really well so what I put what I
19:18 did here is so you all could see the
19:20 discussion that went around the January
19:23 meeting when the folks that were on the
19:25 Commission at that time talked about him
19:27 and most all of the comments that we had
19:29 on ad use was positive that night
19:33 there was one set of issues about delay
19:38 to use add more vehicles to the
19:40 neighborhood and can the infrastructure
19:42 handle that between the the roads and
19:45 the parking our are there any questions
19:50 on assessory dwelling units or how does
19:54 this make any sense to try to remind us
19:57 all of what you all talked about in
19:59 January and the strategies yes so
20:06 looking at a to use the idea that it is
20:10 a lower about an 80% adjusted median
20:14 income as far as rents I was looking
20:18 into the information on Portland which
20:20 is known for its a to use and their
20:23 rents are actually the same market rate
20:25 for a to use as other units mm-hmm and
20:29 no I would just put in a little question
20:32 there as to whether or not this is an
20:35 effective strategy for affordable
20:38 housing particularly low-income housing
20:42 all right and I think it serves other
20:44 needs
20:45 but right and it's the quantum rules is
20:48 that they can't be they have to be
20:49 smaller than the existing unit so often
20:52 just the fact that they're smaller makes
20:54 the price point lower than you would get
20:57 in a regular run I'm not sure what
20:59 Portland's if they have that same kind
21:01 of regulation or if they can be as big
21:03 yes do you have an expert you have to
21:06 come up to the microphone though this is
21:11 Arthur Sullivan our housing expert from
21:14 arch a regional and coalition for
21:16 housing for those of you that don't know
21:17 Arthur yet everybody had a bad accident
21:22 in town so that's why I'm late so I'm
21:23 sorry to be late
21:25 fortune I was not in it so on the ATU
21:30 question it is under the quote more
21:32 affordable housing strategies but you're
21:34 correct in that they don't explicitly
21:36 create affordable units however a couple
21:40 we've been looking at this issue for
21:43 several decades working for cities and
21:46 are two elements that have tended to
21:48 make accessory dwelling units affordable
21:50 at 80 percent of median or less now when
21:55 we started doing this average rents were
21:57 more like 80 to 90 percent of meeting
21:58 and now they're closer to 100 percent of
22:00 median so the overall market has changed
22:03 but just sort of a couple things from
22:06 research that have been done on
22:07 accessory dwelling units and I don't
22:09 know I'd have to look at Portland more
22:11 carefully in more recent years but
22:15 cities in Easton County including iskele
22:17 require owner occupancy of one of the
22:19 two homes also there is a size
22:21 limitation on the size of the accessory
22:23 dwelling units the general research is
22:26 shown over the years that for the same
22:28 square footage and accessory dwelling
22:30 unit will typically rent for about 20
22:33 percent less 15 to 20 percent less than
22:35 that same square footage in a commercial
22:37 commercially operated multifamily unit
22:40 and it's partially because of kind of
22:43 just how they operate they're more
22:44 mom-and-pop operated I can Anatoli say I
22:47 used to own one and my wife would not
22:50 allow us to raise the rent on our tenant
22:53 because she liked the tenant and we
22:54 shared dog-sitting with each other but I
22:57 also knew many people in the Berkeley
22:59 area where I used to own mine that there
23:02 are stories like that all over the place
23:04 that accessory dwelling units are a
23:05 little bit different in how they behave
23:07 and they have a tendency for what they
23:10 are to be an electic less expensive than
23:12 what you see in commercial properties
23:19 any other questions on on that is it
23:23 helpful yes
23:24 since you're up there can I ask you
23:28 about about rent control and I know
23:31 Seattle is looking into that and New
23:34 York City has it in some in some
23:36 sections and so if we're trying to do
23:39 the you know it's a we're trying to
23:41 incentivize people to live and work in
23:44 Issaquah is there anything on the can on
23:49 the table to do some kind of rent
23:51 control for people who actually work in
23:54 the city or is that not a viable
23:56 strategy
23:57 I don't think the word is viable the
23:59 word is legal illegal it's not legal
24:02 this state has a law against rent
24:06 control with the one exception being
24:08 that if you provide public funding or if
24:12 you have a land use program like you
24:14 have in which a developer is required to
24:16 have units at a certain affordability
24:17 level those are exempt from the state
24:21 rent control laws but other than that in
24:23 the general market you're not allowed in
24:25 this state to do rent control to
24:27 statewide law and that was adopted I
24:30 don't know after whatever city maybe
24:32 tried to consider doing it okay is it
24:43 helpful to go through as a reminder of
24:45 parts of the discussion should I just
24:47 keep on number two is to support
24:50 preservation of existing affordable
24:52 housing and most of our affordable
24:55 housing has covenants as Arthur
24:57 mentioned where it's either a 30-year
24:58 covenant or a 50-year covenant but
25:01 there's some let's say excuse me like an
25:04 old town there's just some darling
25:06 little bungalows that are affordable but
25:10 they don't have a covenant on them
25:11 because they've just they're older
25:13 they're smaller and so those would be
25:16 things those would be units that we
25:17 would want to preserve somehow but we
25:20 don't have that control that a covenant
25:23 gives us that you you have 30 years of
25:25 the affordability of the of the rent or
25:28 the mortgage not to change so that's
25:30 something that came up as all positive
25:35 except we just don't always know which
25:38 units might be lost because they're just
25:40 either single family units that are
25:42 owned privately that all of a sudden
25:44 could someone could buy them and decide
25:46 to tear them down and put up something
25:47 else so that the problem with that is we
25:50 don't always know when there's a chance
25:52 that we could jump in to try and buy it
25:54 save it do something like that
25:57 number three was the housing levy to
25:59 propose a housing levy and this is to
26:02 sort of share the cost of affordable
26:05 housing not only with the developers
26:07 that build housing but also with the
26:09 community at large
26:11 it would be sort of an extra tax that
26:13 the council and everyone would have to
26:16 vote on but that would provide funding
26:18 that we could buy land for housing we
26:21 could get into a partnership with
26:24 developers to build affordable housing
26:26 we would have an extra bit of funding to
26:29 help in whichever way we thought helped
26:32 us the bus as a city so that was on the
26:35 table and most folks thought that was a
26:37 good idea other than we would have to
26:39 really look at you know what we would
26:41 use the money for that kind of thing
26:44 number four was transit oriented
26:46 development including multifamily tax
26:48 exemption that's something that we're in
26:52 the midst of trying right now through
26:55 our economic development department so
26:58 this is this is pretty exciting that
27:00 we're we're starting to to sort of dive
27:02 into this one this would be putting
27:05 housing near the Transit Center and
27:07 trying to provide for incentives so that
27:10 there would be more affordable units in
27:14 that project number five is to
27:19 inclusionary zoning is that in a certain
27:22 areas of town in the centralist qua area
27:24 specifically if a developer comes in to
27:27 build housing they have to build a
27:29 certain percentage of them as affordable
27:31 no one has built in centralist equai yet
27:34 since that regulation was adopted but
27:37 we're thinking of either raising that to
27:39 to require more housing or two to make
27:42 that requirement in the rest of central
27:44 Issaquah or even in the rest of the city
27:46 we haven't figured that out but it
27:48 seemed like a good idea to just have it
27:49 right on the books that it's required if
27:52 you build housing and it's a Qui you
27:53 have to build some affordable housing
27:55 with that project so I don't think there
27:58 were any oh there was a one potential
28:02 concern is you have to make sure that
28:04 you don't make it so that you discourage
28:06 anybody from building was the one
28:08 comment and we're there any more on that
28:11 one just at the bottom of the page I
28:13 can't read what's on the bottom of the
28:15 page
28:16 okay and the next one so those were all
28:18 the comments that you all had in January
28:20 and here's we've got a new chart I can
28:24 tell you're loving research I also
28:25 printed this one out this one actually
28:29 has the problem statement at the top to
28:32 try to focus us on that are affordable
28:45 are in the black printing those are the
28:48 ones you all talked about in January and
28:50 tonight we're going to talk about the
28:53 three new ones and these refer to other
28:57 housing not just affordable they could
29:00 be affordable but they're sort of going
29:02 beyond the affordable options that we
29:05 talked about in January and those are
29:08 some of them you actually did talk about
29:10 in January that changing the zoning and
29:14 building code to provide opportunities
29:16 for single room occupancy or many units
29:20 or different kinds of housing types
29:24 which we don't have right now also to
29:27 allow I like cottages and different
29:30 infill kinds of projects in
29:34 single-family areas perhaps and also
29:38 different housing options and services
29:40 to allow seniors to stay in their homes
29:43 yes you know me I always have a question
29:47 no it's good so I know that the council
29:51 so we've the council's we've we've
29:54 provided approval on a number of
29:59 high-density housing there's this
30:02 empowerment's out there that have not
30:04 been used yet it retroactively Lee could
30:07 we go back and ask for give providing so
30:11 this is just so I don't know much about
30:12 this but I'm just asking we go back and
30:16 and and provide incentives for them to
30:19 actually build affordable housing
30:21 because the concern for us is and it
30:24 took me 20 minutes to drive three miles
30:25 today is that we are all the
30:27 infrastructure is already so strange
30:30 and so we've already approved all the
30:32 tight-end city housing and we're adding
30:34 more to this into a strained
30:36 infrastructure and so can we go back and
30:39 say rather than building new units this
30:42 is talk to the developers that are
30:45 already going to build new units and
30:47 provide incentives to change kind of
30:49 that conversation so that we accomplish
30:52 this as well as you know reuse their
30:54 permits right if we've already approved
30:57 a permit with an applicant the only way
31:00 because it's sort of a contract between
31:01 them and with us the only way we would
31:05 be able to modify something like that is
31:07 if it was a mutual either they came to
31:10 us and said we would like to amend
31:12 whatever it is we'd like a new unit we'd
31:15 like commercial we'd like and then we
31:17 could say well if you would like that
31:19 then we would like this but but it once
31:21 they have their permit they're pretty
31:22 much good to go and unless we were to
31:25 contact them and say hey we have this
31:27 great idea I mean they don't have to
31:29 entertain it at all we can in fact win
31:33 resented to write to fight I was going
31:36 to say I mean that is a possibility I
31:38 think one of the things to think about
31:39 especially with newly built is that the
31:41 financing they received is based on the
31:43 projections of rents and such and so
31:45 maybe a little more challenging so I
31:47 don't think the subsidy the city can
31:49 provide may be able to make up but what
31:50 is necessary there so I think it's more
31:52 effective thinking about going forward
31:54 and looking at because typically when
31:57 you're looking at affordable housing
31:58 there's many sources of money coming in
32:01 and supposed to just what the city could
32:03 provide so it's an interesting idea but
32:05 I think but it may also be something to
32:08 think about for preservation of this if
32:10 there are units that are have been on
32:12 the market for have been built for a
32:13 while thinking about it have is there an
32:16 opportunity to make sure that they don't
32:17 rise as fast as some other ones but I
32:19 think for newer one's a little more
32:21 challenging so doesn't mean it can't
32:23 ever happen but you know part of this is
32:25 we there you want to product find the
32:28 things that are going to be the most
32:29 bang for your buck be the most ability
32:31 to do things so thank you
32:39 okay it didn't seem like there were any
32:41 comments any more questions on on that
32:47 one okay
32:51 were there any I want you guys to be shy
32:54 were there any comments on the
32:56 affordable housing ones for those of you
32:58 that weren't here or even those of you
33:00 that were here on that first list yes
33:06 what do you mean comments or questions
33:09 like basically do we approve what do we
33:12 think of a to use versus em FTEs etc
33:16 right or do you say or do you see
33:18 something that just doesn't sound right
33:20 at all to you that you think there's an
33:21 issue with one of them or that something
33:24 just doesn't make any sense or something
33:27 is we should put all our eggs in one
33:28 basket kind of thing I have some
33:31 concerns about the cost-benefit ratio
33:33 for the multifamily tax exemptions as
33:36 far as the number of units that it would
33:39 provide compared to the cost because
33:43 when you're looking at that you're
33:44 looking at giving the developer a 12
33:47 year tax exemption for the entire
33:51 building even though they're only
33:54 putting in 20 to 25 percent affordable
33:57 first of all I would really really want
34:00 that to be low income rather than
34:02 affordable because I think what we've
34:06 seen in the data is that we have a huge
34:09 deficit in the 50% ami range and not as
34:13 much in the 80% range and so I think we
34:15 need to focus our push on that area but
34:19 as far as that I'd like to know a little
34:22 bit more information I looked a little
34:25 bit into Seattle's kind of the tax that
34:30 they wouldn't be collecting compared to
34:32 the number of units that they've been
34:35 able to grow and it was fairly expensive
34:38 per unit to make that difference and I'd
34:42 like to compare that to the potential
34:45 for you know even without the housing
34:48 levy for the city
34:50 to acquire land and what the cost per
34:53 unit would be there if we did something
34:55 like we did with the YWCA where we're
34:59 gifting or providing low-cost land to a
35:05 group that's going to provide much more
35:07 housing part of the description of this
35:20 is you know that there really isn't one
35:23 tool that's going to solve this problem
35:24 it's really kind of populating a tool
35:28 box with a lot of different strategies
35:30 that you know potentially all of them
35:34 are going to provide different types of
35:36 housing opportunities and you know I
35:39 agree there's needed every income level
35:42 doing part of what we've talked about is
35:45 that creating a city with a diverse
35:48 housing stock is one of our kind of top
35:50 goals and that's that's anything from
35:52 market rate housing down to housing for
35:55 homeless right and so these different
35:58 tools give us different opportunities
36:00 and I think what we talked about was if
36:04 we feel as a group comfortable with
36:06 everything on the list not as one anyone
36:09 as a silver bullet but as a group of
36:12 strategies then we would forward that to
36:14 the City Council and let them then chew
36:16 on the rationale because you're right I
36:19 mean the different tools are going to
36:21 have you know you don't want to use a
36:22 screwdriver to try and pound something
36:24 into a wall but there might be a hammer
36:26 in there that would work better and
36:28 similarly some of these depending on
36:30 what we're really trying to achieve
36:31 might work better for certain things
36:33 like like very low income you know the
36:36 city purchasing land or MFT ii could be
36:40 a better tool than maybe trying to get a
36:43 to use because i agree with you that ad
36:45 you might or might not be affordable at
36:48 the end of the day and it'll change over
36:50 time is kind of the rationale you know
36:52 maybe at one point it's market but then
36:54 it's a place for your kids to hang out
36:58 and you don't charge them anything I
36:59 don't know so and carthoris something to
37:02 say - yeah
37:02 you were sort of getting at what I
37:04 wanted to sort of put out there to the
37:06 group is that what we're looking to do
37:08 right now and is what we did began at
37:09 the last meeting we you sort of want to
37:11 just redo it again because several of
37:13 you weren't here is we're sharing you
37:15 the kind of comments we heard these are
37:18 strategies that as chief said we're not
37:20 looking for one strategy here we're
37:22 looking for these range of strategies
37:24 what are your perspectives when you hear
37:26 about them and those can be perspectives
37:29 of do they you know reinforce some of
37:31 the areas yet this could really see that
37:33 this could help address this need we're
37:35 trying to hear from you representing a
37:36 different cross-section of the community
37:38 your response is when you hear those oh
37:40 that sounds like a good a because it
37:42 might address this need and then the
37:43 other is we're not writing the ad
37:46 ordinance here with this group we're not
37:48 writing the MFT ordinance but your
37:50 comments would say if the council wants
37:52 to proceed with those what are things
37:54 that should be done as part of the
37:56 evaluation so yours is a perfect example
37:58 and yes every city we've helped with MFE
38:01 we've done this elaborate chart that
38:04 shows how much you're giving how much
38:05 you're getting and stuff like that so
38:07 we're looking for those both of those
38:09 kind of comments that's why you see
38:10 there's pros that's sort of the why is
38:12 it a fit in the community and then the
38:15 others are the issues or potential
38:17 things to deal with and we just thought
38:18 we should revisit those for each of
38:20 these topics Before we jump into the new
38:22 ones because as I said there's some new
38:24 people and you maybe had a time chance
38:26 to think about it since the last meeting
38:28 so that's all we're trying to do right
38:29 now we're not trying to get to a bottom
38:31 line conclusion per se we're trying to
38:34 just get your thoughts so that we have
38:36 so that the council can hear other
38:37 perspectives as they're deliberating as
38:39 we advance this report to them okay I
38:43 had one comment I've been talking with
38:47 people about affordable housing and
38:53 development and one of the things that
38:55 I'm hearing from people is the
38:57 development is happening very rapidly
38:59 and that it seems that even if you
39:05 required affordable units from the
39:10 developers it would not discourage them
39:13 from building in this area because it's
39:16 like everybody wants to develop
39:20 something on the east side so if we
39:23 discourage them even a little it might
39:26 help us to catch up with the
39:28 infrastructure so just one overall
39:34 thought about that as the economic
39:36 development director for the city is so
39:39 part of the problem about affordable
39:41 housing is supply and demand right so
39:44 the more housing you have it has to
39:47 compete with less buyers and therefore
39:50 the housing typically is not as high
39:52 priced the less available housing units
39:55 we have the higher the price will be
39:57 because there will be less dock for
40:00 people to actually purchase so it
40:02 actually took slow growth actually
40:04 pushes up housing costs so that's
40:07 economics okay but you might at least
40:12 get some balance so a couple a couple
40:16 things here when talking about
40:18 affordable housing there is I call a
40:21 Lockhart affordable housing and then you
40:23 have full services affordable housing
40:27 what's your preference on full services
40:32 versus ala cart and should we include
40:36 policy verbage to require full services
40:42 can you explain a little more what you
40:46 mean by a Lockhart versus full service
40:48 oh all a cart would be a development of
40:53 affordable housing where the people
40:55 simply pay the rent
40:59 then you have full services that we also
41:02 include things like childcare services
41:07 social services they may have counselors
41:11 on hand to help people with life needs
41:15 what a force training workforce training
41:17 things like that okay when you get into
41:19 affordable housing sometimes you also
41:21 have other issues that are or other
41:27 stresses on that that segment of the
41:31 population so not everybody who is in a
41:33 in affordable housing care because they
41:37 just can't get a job maybe it's because
41:39 there's other issues as well so what do
41:41 other people have reaction to that
41:43 question before I make any comments I
41:50 mean I think we need both if we're
41:52 looking at the highlands which I know
41:55 well we have the full services down with
41:58 the YWCA we also have various individual
42:04 arche subsidized houses throughout that
42:08 provide just the ala carte so I think I
42:10 I would be in support of both within the
42:14 city other thoughts and reactions
42:19 generally I'll put a sort of qualifying
42:21 statement out that so if you recall we
42:24 use the term moderate income which is
42:28 median income now is 96,000 for a family
42:32 of four so we're getting close to a nice
42:33 round number to be able to start
42:35 thinking about the math a household that
42:39 we consider moderate is going to be
42:41 eighty percent of that figure and and
42:42 for smaller family it won't be the full
42:44 ninety six will be more like eighty
42:46 thousand it's like eighty could have
42:48 almost a hundred thousand is sort of the
42:51 median income for small versus a large
42:54 household so at eighty percent of median
42:55 you're looking at about eighty thousand
42:57 down to about sixty sixty-five thousand
42:59 if it's a single person okay and for
43:03 lower income that's fifty percent of
43:05 median so you're looking at thirty to
43:08 forty five thousand dollars a year
43:09 another way to translate that in your
43:11 head pretty easily is the magical $15 an
43:14 hour number you see thrown around a lot
43:16 if somebody had a $15 an hour job
43:18 full-time it would be thirty thousand
43:20 dollars a year just simple little
43:22 figures to have in your head about hat
43:26 about forty percent of all households
43:29 are going to be under 80 percent of
43:31 median income as we grow in other words
43:34 there's a community grows from all the
43:35 jobs they have
43:37 they will generate new households that
43:39 doesn't mean that might be who's living
43:40 in the town because you only have big
43:42 homes you're not going to see that but
43:43 as your workforce grows you're going to
43:46 typically see about 40% of your
43:48 households will be in that moderate or
43:50 low income range so often when we're
43:55 dealing with housing affordability we
43:58 are dealing people who are working or
43:59 might be dealing with students we might
44:01 be dealing with seniors on fixed income
44:02 and they're all falling under one of
44:04 those income categories when you start
44:07 getting into the services you're
44:08 generally dealing with households who
44:10 were probably well below 50% of median
44:12 income they may be unemployed they may
44:14 have gone through a health crisis they
44:16 may have gone through a number of things
44:17 they may be homeless or they may be very
44:19 close to being homeless and we just had
44:23 an interview with a number of service
44:24 agencies and one of the comments they
44:26 have made is that the general increase
44:29 in housing costs in the region have put
44:32 more and more households in a housing
44:34 tenuous situation long-term not
44:37 short-term like it used to be they used
44:39 to experience but long-term and as they
44:42 experienced that the kind of issues that
44:44 Ron talked about start to emerge and
44:46 grow because of the pressure that
44:49 they're under to survive day to day and
44:52 so what we have been doing in the last
44:53 ten years
44:54 is for people who are lower-income there
44:57 have been more interest in getting
44:59 programs associated with housing so that
45:02 people can maybe help being a more
45:04 stable environment for a period of time
45:06 so they can get back on their feet and
45:08 get back and be more independent going
45:11 into the future so that's to give a
45:13 little context so usually the ala carte
45:16 is for the more at 50 and 60 80 percent
45:19 of median or even higher like first-time
45:21 homeowners you all are seeing what the
45:23 home prices are you mentioned the rh
45:26 units which are really sort of basic
45:27 wide units created through the iskele
45:29 highlands of development some of those
45:31 are targeted to households at median
45:33 income because the markets new units all
45:36 right 120 150 percent of median so this
45:40 goes back to Keith's comment earlier
45:43 that there's such a wide range of needs
45:45 which I think the data that you solved
45:48 was showing you and so the city has
45:50 looked at
45:51 different types of strategies because of
45:53 different needs but generally when the
45:55 services are there you're targeting
45:56 towards households who are under 50% and
45:59 often well below 50% and the more
46:01 Alucard are in the 40 and up percent of
46:05 median income and sometimes they're
46:07 targeted to seniors and sometimes not
46:08 but that's just sort of distinguish you
46:11 from the comment you made you wanted to
46:12 follow up it was like so the question
46:14 comes for and looking at the median
46:17 income that's at 50% if we cater to that
46:20 audience we decide to do that if we do
46:24 not offer full services for that segment
46:29 and maybe that's the only segment we we
46:30 target for full services then we would
46:33 be putting possibly undue burden on
46:36 other city resources to support that
46:39 target audience and not in not enabling
46:46 that specific community to be successful
46:50 because we're depriving them of those
46:52 resources so we're providing a place for
46:55 them to live but not a way or means to
46:58 be successful so Kay okay and again I
47:02 think what my comment would be is at 50
47:06 percent of median income what you're
47:09 describing might be true for the 20
47:12 percent of households maybe a little bit
47:14 more and they some of them might benefit
47:17 from light touches of services support
47:20 if you're at 30 percent of median that
47:23 percentage is likely to be higher okay
47:25 50 percent of median right now is 45042
47:29 96 divided by two so $48,000 for a
47:32 family of four so there's a probably a
47:35 lot of people who are earning that who
47:37 are doing you know fairly stable
47:40 lifestyle but I think the point you're
47:42 making is our we conscious of that need
47:45 in the housing that is being created and
47:47 supported when it's explicitly targeted
47:49 to a certain income level if that may be
47:51 a fair way to represent what you're
47:53 saying yeah I don't want to abandon
47:55 those people if we say okay we're going
47:58 to allow this community to exist I want
48:03 to give them
48:04 their means and resources to be
48:06 successful because when you're out of a
48:09 50 range or 45,000 we may think wow
48:12 45,000 seems like a lot but sorry living
48:15 on that and if you just sneeze you're
48:17 backwards right sometimes having those
48:19 resources keeps that person moving
48:22 forward as opposed to having a potential
48:26 catastrophe right okay so how do you
48:37 restrict to people that live and work in
48:41 there to work in this city so we've got
48:43 cities that are a number of cities that
48:46 are within 20 miles of us right and so
48:48 potentially we could take ourselves into
48:51 a place where we're solving this problem
48:53 for a bunch of cities right and so I
48:55 know that there is some collaboration so
48:58 I mean in your experience how do you
49:00 restrict that to two Issaquah on people
49:05 who work in Issaquah without getting
49:08 into any you know legal right kind of
49:11 situation it is kind of a trickier -
49:14 that's a great question and it's when I
49:16 come up against a lot or deal that gets
49:19 brought up a lot and part of it is I
49:22 volunteered to come to this organization
49:24 when it was formed and it was formed by
49:27 Bellevue who said wouldn't we all
49:29 benefit if everybody on the east side
49:32 was working on housing and had the
49:34 resources within the government to help
49:36 them work on housing issues because a
49:38 task force just very similar years
49:40 concluded that just because a building
49:42 is over the city boundary in Bellevue
49:44 doesn't mean Bellevue isn't benefiting
49:46 or if Bellevue is the only city doing
49:48 something and the other cities aren't
49:50 then is that benefiting them and so the
49:52 whole idea behind arch is the YWCA had
49:56 funding from ten cities in East Kent
49:58 County now it's a clause helped fund a
50:01 project in Bellevue so we have moved our
50:03 money around with the goal of making
50:05 housing happen in every city okay so we
50:08 want to make sure the philosophy of the
50:09 city this is formed by the cities is we
50:12 all need to try to do stuff okay both
50:14 and all these different types of tools
50:17 do we go as far as saying let's
50:19 fine-tune it and say we want to you know
50:21 do we get people from our community
50:23 that's a trickier question what we have
50:26 done is try to work with the agencies to
50:28 market locally when they have
50:30 opportunities the YWCA we actually and
50:33 we're and we're going back and we're
50:34 asking the developments that we funded
50:37 are the people coming from this area
50:39 when you create the affordable housing
50:41 what we have tried to do in the past is
50:43 have them market to local businesses
50:45 when they are opening and stuff like
50:47 that that's getting tougher to do under
50:49 the Fair Housing Act and so there is
50:52 some issues that are rising there but
50:54 we've been very conscious that the
50:55 reason we're at this table is a local
50:57 need so what are we doing to try to have
51:00 the solutions we do address local needs
51:03 a certain amount is just naturally you
51:06 know who wants to drive into this
51:07 traffic if they don't have to right so
51:10 what we are finding is generally people
51:13 we think people are coming from the
51:15 communities in which the housing is
51:17 create or maybe they didn't live here
51:19 but they work here a lot of times but it
51:21 is something we're always conscious of
51:23 but because we're getting funding
51:24 assistance from the county and the state
51:26 they're also like they don't love you to
51:29 sort of be explicitly restrictive to one
51:32 community where people can come from but
51:34 we have tried to find ways and we are
51:36 actually going out this year and
51:38 surveying because this kind of question
51:40 does come up but the main way we do it
51:42 is doing outreach to local businesses
51:44 when buildings are being filled up and
51:47 try to reach out locally and to make
51:49 that be the case because we do
51:51 understand that's what's motivating this
51:52 conversation okay
51:57 so I want to reinforce one point and I
52:00 want to make any point the point I wanna
52:02 reinforce is the point she made earlier
52:05 about rent so I've heard
52:07 the nightmare stories of friend
52:10 literally getting doubled as soon as
52:13 Uli's ends they understand rent control
52:16 is legal in Washington but this is
52:19 something I would be happy to deliver I
52:22 think we should deliver it more on okay
52:26 the other point I wanted to make I don't
52:29 see it here is one of the price drivers
52:31 or house prices and this basically
52:35 affects everybody not just middle-income
52:36 families is or iners from especially
52:43 right now Vancouver that don't live here
52:46 that don't have a work visa coming here
52:49 and buying property all cash and this is
52:54 very pronounced it's become very
52:58 pronounced in recent times and some
53:00 localities like you know the Highlands
53:02 where I live
53:04 buy the property the sign a lease right
53:08 there to leave the country and as you
53:14 know Vancouver they included a 15% tax
53:18 which is basically driving them for the
53:21 south
53:22 it used to come to the Bay Area now
53:25 they're here and this is something I
53:28 think we should talk about okay I'm
53:32 working in four cities right now and
53:34 this point has come up by groups like
53:36 yours in every city on the east side so
53:39 I don't know maybe we'll maybe they'll
53:41 be enough for this being raised as a
53:42 question so we'll that's what we're
53:44 trying to do tonight is we've given you
53:46 the four or five three or four four or
53:50 five our many for affordable housing and
53:53 what we were going you're sort of
53:54 jumping ahead on the agenda but that's
53:56 fine which is did we miss anything so
53:58 it's good that you're bringing these
53:59 general issues up but please also feel
54:02 free to comment on any of the ones on
54:05 this matrix as well okay be specific
54:09 about that but the general comments are
54:10 helpful
54:11 well so does Lord yes right one very
54:15 quick one here for affordable housing
54:17 before we move on and do we as a group
54:20 want to discuss affordable housing for
54:26 first responders and for teachers now I
54:31 understand the laws and so on for first
54:33 responders is going to be different from
54:35 teachers and that teachers could be
54:37 funded different ways
54:38 oh maybe having a formal housing plan
54:41 for these audiences might go through a
54:44 non-profit or some other means but maybe
54:47 we should include that into our
54:48 discussion because it'd be great if our
54:50 teachers could live here I think they
54:53 would like it and I think our students
54:55 would like it and I think that might be
54:56 absent from our current discussions okay
55:02 how do others feel about that comment
55:05 I'm seeing that there's a lot of
55:08 turnover in teachers because teachers
55:10 have to commute so far in order to find
55:14 a place that they can live and traffic
55:18 is not good and the stress causes them
55:21 to leave very quickly so I'm going to
55:25 ask Trish is going to show you the
55:29 matrix with the three and I'm going to
55:32 ask for that comment it's noted but to
55:36 be held and when we have the full list
55:38 up there I'm going to then ask you the
55:40 question or any of these strategies when
55:43 you add the affordable plus to general
55:45 ones ones that might in particular help
55:48 address that point that need okay I
55:51 don't want to limit it to just this part
55:53 of the list as I think there might be
55:54 some stuff on the other part of the list
55:56 that would also help address that so I
55:58 want at least in other words say I want
56:02 to take your statement one step further
56:03 and say and of the strategies that we've
56:05 been talking about here are some that
56:07 might be ways to direct that I know
56:08 about your questions in the past about
56:10 that I'm taking all those answers that
56:12 you've given me into that framework that
56:14 I just mentioned so I still remember all
56:16 those things right okay appreciate it
56:18 okay all right other comments on the
56:22 Affordable before we ship
56:24 / and add the over the other strategies
56:27 to the conversation so if the what I
56:31 understand that what we're trying to do
56:32 right now is you want us to comment on
56:34 these six and say whether we like these
56:36 tools or whether any of these six have
56:38 things that we might be concerned about
56:40 right where you go if you are going to
56:43 look at these more here are things we
56:44 want you to think harder about it so I
56:46 think the one I just look at is number
56:48 two if you take Keith's point on supply
56:51 and demand that would supporting the
56:54 preservation as is of affordable housing
56:56 would restrict supply so I would modify
56:59 that to maybe say if there is an
57:01 affordable unit put a covenant that says
57:03 what what comes into that next could
57:06 have more units but those need to be
57:08 affordable units otherwise you're just
57:09 kind of going to be stuck in place with
57:11 bungalows and not enough so what you're
57:13 saying is a sub-element of number two
57:16 could be saying preservation might be
57:20 allowing redevelopment but you're
57:22 replacing you know I just have to keep
57:25 the thing as is yes because otherwise
57:27 you're just going to end up with a
57:29 really old bungalow and people are they
57:31 I couldn't work that right there may be
57:33 times we're keeping some below because
57:35 another example of preservation would be
57:39 we haven't had cities do that around
57:41 here too much is here's a neighborhood
57:44 that we're going to allow mooring but
57:47 how you're going to did this I went back
57:50 our loan it was our length not Arlington
57:53 but Alexandria Virginia no I know it was
57:56 Arlington Virginia and they what they
57:59 did is they had an area right around
58:00 there new rail stations for metro and
58:02 there's a base zoning and then they said
58:06 if you won and it had a lot of housing
58:08 they're already like garden-style
58:10 apartments and stuff and they said
58:12 there's a couple different ways you can
58:13 go higher than that babe zoning and one
58:15 of those is you can buy air rights from
58:18 another building and then that building
58:20 will get preserved and we've toured a
58:22 couple so there's the point I'm hearing
58:24 from you is think about the idea of
58:27 still having growth occur but preserving
58:29 opportunities that are there okay all
58:32 right
58:36 others died bid a arrow Hadron I had
58:40 recruited sorry quick question on for
58:41 number one by a to use as an ad you have
58:44 to be a separate dwelling or can it be
58:46 part of the primary building actually
58:49 almost the vast majority of the time
58:52 they're part of the primary building
58:53 most a to use are not separate cost too
58:59 much most people find it's very easy to
59:01 carve out space and a house to work for
59:03 an 8000 Eddie you could also be a room
59:06 for rent an ad you must be a legally
59:10 separate you to be a native you can rent
59:13 out rooms people can rent out rooms and
59:15 that's just people can do that but an
59:18 Adu is when you go through the effort of
59:20 creating a separate legal unit from a
59:24 point it may not be it might not be
59:26 legally separate in terms of being able
59:28 to sellable
59:29 but it's firewalls separated and it has
59:32 cooking and it has bathing facility it
59:35 has all living needs independent of the
59:39 rest of the house but would a I'm
59:43 thinking I'm squawk mountains we have a
59:44 lot of single-story units that have
59:48 daylight basements provide basements
59:50 have seven foot ceilings guess which
59:52 sheetrock on it that becomes a cigarette
59:54 and half foot ceilings is that literally
59:57 would that be legally considered as a
59:58 edu or the ceiling if you go and get the
1:00:01 permit and do enough firewall separation
1:00:03 you could potentially make daylight
1:00:06 basements are a prime opportunity for
1:00:08 the town where I own mine was a hillside
1:00:11 community and most of the ad use were in
1:00:14 daylight basements in the basement in
1:00:15 the basement area that had been it took
1:00:17 the base back right I mean everybody
1:00:20 knows the layout you take that bathroom
1:00:22 on the lower level and those two rooms
1:00:24 that are each side of it and boy it's
1:00:26 real easy with not a whole lot of cost
1:00:28 to create a separate unit from that so
1:00:31 it is very common split-level you can
1:00:34 probably vision how you can do that one
1:00:36 I mean so yes most of them are just
1:00:39 carved out of existing living space and
1:00:41 existing units using primarily existing
1:00:44 plumbing with minor you know some
1:00:46 plumbing modifications but the main
1:00:48 you have to have the cooking you must
1:00:50 have the bath the bathing and you must
1:00:54 have fire separation there's probably
1:00:56 some other technical but those are the
1:00:57 main ones and then you must have at
1:01:00 least at most cities say you must have
1:01:03 at least one more parking space than is
1:01:05 required under the code for that house
1:01:07 now most homes already have that you
1:01:10 have more than you know so if the code
1:01:12 requires two and you have somehow four
1:01:14 parking spaces in your driveway you meet
1:01:16 the requirement so those are generally
1:01:18 what the basic rules are to create an
1:01:21 there's some other subtleties like
1:01:23 design features if you do an addition or
1:01:25 something kind of things and stuff so
1:01:28 you wanted to make a comment earlier um
1:01:30 yes thanks I also had a follow-up
1:01:33 question on the ad use so is the
1:01:36 strategy to somehow support addition of
1:01:40 abs into existing structures or would it
1:01:44 be encouraging developers to develop
1:01:48 when they develop new homes to also
1:01:50 include ad use I'm just wondering what
1:01:53 the mechanism is for encouraging me to
1:01:55 use in the strategy what do people think
1:01:57 good question so I think because ad use
1:02:05 serve multiple purposes in addition to
1:02:08 affordable housing they allow
1:02:10 flexibility for the owner as they age
1:02:14 and perhaps their kids move out they can
1:02:18 move into the smaller unit and rent out
1:02:20 the larger unit it provides that
1:02:24 flexibility of additional income and
1:02:28 things like that so I think it's very
1:02:30 important to think about it in existing
1:02:33 homes it also helps with the
1:02:35 preservation when we're looking at the
1:02:37 valley floor yeah I think most of the
1:02:44 housing addition that we're going to get
1:02:47 is going to be you know part mint sand
1:02:50 things like that that are higher density
1:02:52 so we wouldn't be able to include a to
1:02:55 use and that so I think that's often the
1:02:58 story behind a to use but let me make
1:03:02 tell the story about the new and see
1:03:05 what you think of that and new if the
1:03:07 Builder knows the community allows a to
1:03:11 use it's pretty inexpensive while you're
1:03:13 building a unit to think about how could
1:03:16 I lay this house out so that in the
1:03:18 future it could very easily accommodate
1:03:20 an ad you so I had a friend in Mercer
1:03:23 Island who essentially rebuilt their
1:03:25 house and as they rebuilt it they were
1:03:27 thinking about the parents and they're
1:03:29 going I want an ad I want her to have a
1:03:31 space so as they design the house they
1:03:34 designed it to be incorporated in fact
1:03:36 another city a commissioner said maybe
1:03:38 we should require new bill homes to be
1:03:42 plumbed so that they could have an Adu
1:03:44 that was an idea from one commission so
1:03:48 yes well so all the friends I have that
1:03:52 that have it that something that could
1:03:55 be an Adu they use Airbnb and so in in
1:04:00 high in high-cost areas the amount of
1:04:04 money you can make off of Airbnb is much
1:04:06 higher than na tu so that would be a
1:04:11 consideration here so we'll make a note
1:04:13 if you do a to use is there a side issue
1:04:15 of the air be short-term use and what
1:04:18 does so you think about we don't to
1:04:19 solve that tonight we can make that an
1:04:21 issue out there okay any others up here
1:04:24 is I want to take all night on this I
1:04:25 want to get us to some new ones to the
1:04:29 number six is blank on the handout that
1:04:33 I have evaluate slash consider efforts
1:04:36 to remove barriers to call elements
1:04:39 right that part of this discussion or
1:04:41 upcoming discussion that should I think
1:04:45 I don't know how that is on the
1:04:46 affordable one but but it really I think
1:04:51 is as much appropriate for the new ones
1:04:54 but the reason it's blank I'm not sure
1:04:57 why it's blank but I know what it means
1:04:59 and and maybe that's that could be the
1:05:03 great transition to the new ones if you
1:05:06 live or if someone died because we can
1:05:08 still come back to the first six and
1:05:10 stuff but if you don't have a dying need
1:05:14 you say something right this moment on
1:05:16 the Affordable one we could use his
1:05:19 question as a transition and do that one
1:05:22 is the first one under the land use sort
1:05:25 of or the broader housing needs issue
1:05:30 people okay with that okay so this one
1:05:34 is and do we do have a slide than you
1:05:37 have within the one so we didn't jump to
1:05:40 that you're asking go through those
1:05:42 right this is what six right so okay so
1:05:49 for this one remove barriers to condo
1:05:53 development does anyone knows a story
1:05:54 behind what the story here okay
1:05:59 so the story here is least this is the
1:06:02 story we hear is that the kind of
1:06:06 condominiums that were being built up
1:06:08 until the recession are not getting
1:06:11 built and what I mean by that is like in
1:06:14 Issaquah highlands there's a number of
1:06:16 condo developments that were built up
1:06:18 there and that is the same kind of
1:06:20 buildings as the new rental housing that
1:06:22 you're seeing built now and we're not
1:06:24 seeing that we're still seeing high-end
1:06:27 condos being built like in downtown
1:06:29 Seattle and downtown Bellevue you're
1:06:30 still seeing those kind of condos built
1:06:32 and what we've heard is the reason is
1:06:34 they're so high up on the market that
1:06:38 the builders can in for afford the
1:06:40 really expensive insurance costs to deal
1:06:43 with condo association liability okay
1:06:46 but for the kind of condos that were
1:06:48 built the issue that we're hearing is
1:06:50 out there is that NIF state the condo
1:06:53 liability laws to the builders are
1:06:56 written in a way that puts them at
1:06:58 jeopardy that within a ten year period
1:07:01 they will be sued and therefore and be
1:07:04 liable for the material workmanship of
1:07:07 the buildings and therefore they can't
1:07:11 get the insurance or it's so hard to do
1:07:13 that they're just not building it and
1:07:15 given where interest rates are being so
1:07:18 low rental housing is doing well before
1:07:22 the recession when rates were a little
1:07:24 bit higher the kind of builders were all
1:07:26 building there was no rental house
1:07:28 being built because the economics often
1:07:30 works better so the whole issue appears
1:07:32 to be around this state's condo
1:07:34 liability legisla and builders therefore
1:07:38 making it difficult for them to consider
1:07:40 building something which from my
1:07:43 background and looking at everything
1:07:45 going on in the market I can't
1:07:48 understand why condos aren't being built
1:07:49 it doesn't seem to be a market demand
1:07:50 issue ok it seems to be that and so it
1:07:54 seems believable what they're saying
1:07:56 during the recession when they say that
1:07:57 yeah well maybe they're just saying that
1:07:59 because they're trying to make your life
1:08:00 easier but right now you go they're
1:08:03 still not building them but you are
1:08:05 seeing townhomes being built because
1:08:07 those are built as fee-simple so they're
1:08:11 not that sorry condominium association
1:08:13 so here is a form of housing that has
1:08:15 become in East Kane County since I've
1:08:17 been here that's the first form of
1:08:20 ownership for people is condominiums and
1:08:22 we're not seeing it built right now and
1:08:23 so the idea here is two cities get
1:08:28 behind and tell legislators we have this
1:08:31 big gap in our market that is not being
1:08:34 met and it seems that maybe legislation
1:08:37 is part of the reason why and should we
1:08:39 do something or maybe either like you
1:08:41 know it's been a tough one for the
1:08:42 legislators because the attorneys come
1:08:44 in and say no we're protecting consumers
1:08:46 okay so as with many issues there's two
1:08:50 sides to it but that's what the story is
1:08:52 behind this one and so there's nothing
1:08:54 explicitly for the city to do at this
1:08:56 moment other than to maybe get behind
1:08:59 the legs the issues that the builders
1:09:01 are saying they're having with that
1:09:03 issue okay are you very high level
1:09:07 what's the difference between a condo
1:09:10 and a townhouse a townhome can be a
1:09:13 condo a condo is when you don't own the
1:09:15 ground condo is when you own this you
1:09:18 own you don't even know in the building
1:09:20 you own the air within the the paint and
1:09:23 end of your unit and the Association
1:09:26 owns the building and you and that's why
1:09:30 you pay dues to take care of the
1:09:32 building and stuff so you own your unit
1:09:35 but you don't own the grounds and you
1:09:36 don't own the infrastructure of the
1:09:39 property whereas in a townhouse
1:09:41 the way they're building them is they
1:09:43 are subdividing them into individual
1:09:45 units or if I think it might also be to
1:09:48 keep the number of units under a certain
1:09:50 size and I'm not sure I haven't filed
1:09:52 the legislation closely enough but with
1:09:53 a townhome you often own the dirt
1:09:55 underneath your unit and you own your
1:09:57 your the whole building and the shell
1:09:59 okay but daily they may look the same so
1:10:06 the thing is is if it's a paper
1:10:08 difference it's you know you may walk
1:10:11 down the street and there may be no
1:10:13 visible difference between a condominium
1:10:15 and a townhouse project it's whether the
1:10:17 townhouses as Arthur said are typically
1:10:20 on platted Lots so every individual unit
1:10:23 has a piece of dirt that you own
1:10:25 underneath it wears on a condominium you
1:10:27 own that dirt in common with all your
1:10:30 neighbors and also obviously then when
1:10:34 you go to stat flat you know flat one
1:10:37 above the other obviously that can't be
1:10:40 a townhouse that's got to be a
1:10:42 condominium so they've been able to in
1:10:44 some cities been able to get around it
1:10:46 when you use a townhouse you know up and
1:10:48 down configuration but the kinds that
1:10:51 you saw Peninsula Highlands that were
1:10:53 being built and that we saw you know
1:10:55 downtown Redmond several of those
1:10:57 buildings are condoms that we're
1:10:58 building it but none of them are now the
1:11:00 new ones are all rental wear ISM and the
1:11:03 pre-2010 several of those were built
1:11:05 even as flat as condominiums okay and
1:11:09 that's probably where the biggest gap is
1:11:11 is where in all this new development
1:11:12 that's now at sort of the four storey
1:11:15 type stuff none of that in the last
1:11:17 three years or four years has been
1:11:19 ownership so there is there is a way to
1:11:21 build a stacked flat project as an
1:11:25 apartment as a rental unit and actually
1:11:30 turn it into a condominium later so
1:11:32 after that liability time lapses you can
1:11:36 do that but you have to build it a
1:11:38 certain way to start so that you can
1:11:40 then segregate it out individually later
1:11:42 so it takes a game plan and right now I
1:11:46 think as Arthur mention because rents
1:11:49 are so high right now most builders
1:11:51 aren't looking long lens and they
1:11:53 about that as they build right now it's
1:11:55 builded as cheap as you can charge as
1:11:57 much as you can when I was a developer
1:11:59 in the 80s in California we built rental
1:12:01 housing to condo standards so that we
1:12:04 could do what Keith was just describing
1:12:06 so you have to build it I decided to
1:12:08 build it differently but I doesn't feel
1:12:09 like the builders are doing that right
1:12:10 now they're not okay is it Arthur is it
1:12:15 safe to say that Honda's are part of a
1:12:19 more comprehensive housing mix and
1:12:23 should be a part of any successful
1:12:28 affordable housing that entertaitment or
1:12:30 a question it's I guess it's a question
1:12:33 I kind of heard you stating it okay so
1:12:37 you think I need a statement what do
1:12:40 other people think I mean how do you
1:12:42 react to it if you think I made a
1:12:44 statement how do you react to the
1:12:46 statement okay I'll play this I think
1:12:48 you made that statement I agree with
1:12:49 that statement I would say just and from
1:12:52 personal experience I think pointing to
1:12:54 like Los Angeles big city expensive city
1:12:57 very spread out but I think one thing
1:12:59 that keeps it relatively affordable as
1:13:01 we look to move my mother-in-law back
1:13:03 there as there are condos and you can
1:13:04 purchase those so she won't be saddled
1:13:07 with rent increases right she will get a
1:13:09 mortgage we will get a mortgage for her
1:13:11 she'll have a place and that will be the
1:13:14 thing and at the end of it you actually
1:13:15 own something versus 30 years of just
1:13:17 paying rent so I think it's the other
1:13:19 benefits obviously I tend to be smaller
1:13:21 units so if we have a difference in mix
1:13:24 and we're lacking in the one in
1:13:25 two-bedroom things for home ownership
1:13:27 this allows you to get in and actually
1:13:29 own something and build equity so I
1:13:30 think it's a central so Arthur one one
1:13:33 suggestion here is we're talking this
1:13:34 through because it seems like most of
1:13:36 the group is is liking condos as a part
1:13:39 of a diverse housing stock so besides
1:13:41 the the lobbying efforts that we can do
1:13:44 in Olympia maybe one other thing that we
1:13:46 can do is look to see if there is a
1:13:49 permitting disincentive for building it
1:13:52 to condo standards from the get-go
1:13:54 because if there is maybe the city can
1:13:57 look at ways of lowering those barriers
1:13:59 so that if I'm a builder and I could
1:14:03 basically if it's just the cost of the
1:14:05 materials and there's no additional
1:14:07 like permitting fees or impact fees or
1:14:11 anything else maybe that's a way to
1:14:12 potentially help facilitate okay so I
1:14:16 want to take I want to put Keith's
1:14:18 comment but I want to make sure that
1:14:22 what he's what his statement was is true
1:14:24 in your mind I don't want to put words
1:14:25 in your mouth yeah
1:14:26 I sorta did so you asked kind of two
1:14:28 questions you let in by making a
1:14:31 statement about it could be part of a
1:14:34 continuum of needs so the first question
1:14:37 to you is and I think you know we showed
1:14:39 you data showing a wide range of needs a
1:14:41 basic question is should the strategy
1:14:45 overall try to achieve a continuum of
1:14:49 housing types in the community or should
1:14:51 we focus on certain types and the
1:14:53 continuum can be at two levels one is
1:14:56 cost and the other is type of housing
1:15:00 choices so let me put that question out
1:15:02 and see if we get affirmation on that
1:15:05 general point and then I want to come
1:15:07 back to the in those ownership condos
1:15:10 fit in that series but first let's talk
1:15:12 about the big picture so we see if
1:15:14 there's consensus on that point or not
1:15:16 or if there's a different perspective on
1:15:17 that you look at the urban core and we
1:15:20 would be looking at condos right because
1:15:23 you can't do townhouses and do
1:15:25 high-density and we're almost out of
1:15:27 real estate in terms of doing
1:15:29 single-family homes or duplex type lot
1:15:33 so it looks like about the only way we
1:15:36 could move forward would be condos
1:15:38 unless their apartments and we my condo
1:15:42 at least gets people owning and gets
1:15:44 moving in the right financial direction
1:15:46 so we have a choice okay so that's
1:15:51 you're answering the second question
1:15:53 first first I want again I want to make
1:15:55 sure and and if we're good with the
1:15:56 first one I don't need to belabor it but
1:15:58 I just want I've got the group here I
1:16:00 want to first talk on the continuum and
1:16:02 you've made a really compelling argument
1:16:04 for the condo one and would look come
1:16:06 back to that but when I first take care
1:16:08 of the continuum question because our
1:16:10 job here is the document for the council
1:16:13 your thoughts and so you've raised a
1:16:15 really good question that I want to make
1:16:17 sure I see what perspectives and range
1:16:20 with regard to the continuum I mean just
1:16:23 from personal experience I lived in
1:16:25 Southern California where you know real
1:16:28 estate is very high or not high on but
1:16:31 just expensive so you get pushed out and
1:16:33 you know our first you know property was
1:16:37 a condo it got us into the market got
1:16:39 collateral to the point where we moved
1:16:42 up here when we sold it we had enough
1:16:44 for a down payment to now go on to a
1:16:46 townhouse with that said we just had a
1:16:49 baby now we're starting out grow and
1:16:52 we're going to have to now move towards
1:16:54 to a single-family home so I mean I can
1:16:57 see this have you know a condo being a
1:17:01 part of this whole continuum work you
1:17:04 know what kind of cycles and then by the
1:17:06 time you have your single-family home
1:17:08 and you're now an empty nester you want
1:17:10 to downsize and you have what do you do
1:17:12 then a lot of people go back to having
1:17:15 condos because then they don't want to
1:17:16 have to deal with blowing their own lawn
1:17:18 or dealing with roofing or whatever so
1:17:21 you go back to a condo where all you
1:17:23 have to do is you know downsize in terms
1:17:26 of your mortgage and then you just pay
1:17:27 an association and gets taken care of
1:17:29 okay so I think in terms of that there's
1:17:32 there's a cycle that maybe if there's
1:17:34 not a lot of stock or market for condos
1:17:37 it's something that you know explore
1:17:40 looking to any other comments about the
1:17:42 Kinze yes I'm fine with building condos
1:17:48 as long as you don't build it in the
1:17:49 highlands and you're okay now so the
1:17:54 obvious points one is you're always
1:17:56 trained on infrastructure like we
1:17:57 already pointed out you don't have
1:17:59 enough roads you don't have enough
1:18:00 schools and condos means packing more
1:18:02 people in the same area that's what one
1:18:07 the second thing is the obvious thing
1:18:11 you want a sense of there's enough
1:18:13 demand there's enough condos that are in
1:18:15 Bellevue and Seattle that are sitting
1:18:17 vacant do you have a I might have to get
1:18:23 data alright and but that statement
1:18:25 definitely wants to I know two or three
1:18:27 years oh okay two or three years ago is
1:18:30 not today the world has changed
1:18:32 significant
1:18:34 yes well actually that I had that on my
1:18:36 list of what is the occupancy rate right
1:18:38 now for four apartments and four for
1:18:44 smaller condos okay idea what who did so
1:18:50 I'm not going to do that off the top of
1:18:52 my head we but we have that kind of
1:18:55 information and in general vacancy rates
1:18:59 have been going way down in the last
1:19:01 couple years to a point where that's why
1:19:05 we're seeing a longer rental
1:19:06 construction period than we probably
1:19:08 seen in a really long time and part of
1:19:10 that because vacancies aren't having
1:19:12 been moving and part of the reasons they
1:19:14 think vacancies haven't been moving is
1:19:16 because they're in condos being built so
1:19:18 people don't have the ability you
1:19:21 mentioned you got into the market with a
1:19:24 condo but you still have to save up a
1:19:26 downpayment and you still need that
1:19:28 first rental unit I mean the ladder
1:19:30 starts before ownership for most people
1:19:32 they don't jump right into ownership yes
1:19:34 this is anecdotal I work at a apartment
1:19:38 community here in Issaquah we have 125
1:19:40 units and we're currently working
1:19:43 through a waiting list of 50 people that
1:19:45 we have had for a year this does
1:19:49 anecdotal for rental capacity yeah
1:19:53 arthritis on your question about the
1:19:56 continuum or the suite of solute I'm
1:19:59 going at the at the mission statement
1:20:02 for the housing strategy that we work
1:20:04 through and I think it's still good even
1:20:06 after all this discussion I think it's
1:20:07 still valid then it includes you know
1:20:09 the the words writing a diversity of
1:20:12 choices to meet the needs of people who
1:20:13 choose to live work and play at school
1:20:15 and I think in order to do that you have
1:20:16 to have that continuum so okay great all
1:20:21 right so I've heard
1:20:25 sorry yet look at the mission say when
1:20:27 we've been sort of saying it I just want
1:20:29 I'd like to revisit some of those things
1:20:30 once in a while to make sure as you get
1:20:32 into this more you still feel the same
1:20:34 way so that's why I ask the question
1:20:36 I wasn't assuming you know but this is
1:20:38 we want to keep reiterating from the
1:20:40 beginning what's the core where we're
1:20:41 coming from so now the condo I've heard
1:20:43 a number of arguments for condominiums
1:20:45 and I've heard
1:20:46 but a careful part of condominiums which
1:20:48 is related to a comment we heard earlier
1:20:50 is infrastructure so if you're going to
1:20:53 do density do or densities right but its
1:20:55 density is okay condos can be part of an
1:20:57 answer more to add about condos or
1:21:00 should we jump to the next one and again
1:21:02 we can keep coming back as we go but
1:21:04 anything right at the moment yes so I
1:21:08 think we recognize that the central
1:21:10 Issaquah plan has a goal of density in
1:21:14 the valley floor and so if we're going
1:21:17 to do that it would be more supportive
1:21:21 of the workers and the people who are
1:21:24 choosing to live here to be able to have
1:21:27 ownership availability with condos
1:21:30 rather than fill it completely with
1:21:33 apartments so I think that's saying what
1:21:35 would you say two minutes ago right
1:21:37 right you're saying the same thing so
1:21:38 that's I'm hearing that in particular
1:21:40 for Central Issaquah it would be good to
1:21:43 have both never read that comment from
1:21:46 two people they like the idea of there's
1:21:49 obviously a lot of development on the
1:21:51 table for apartments that's why there's
1:21:54 a moratorium I'd believe and maybe one
1:21:58 of the things that could happen during
1:21:59 this moratorium is looking into exactly
1:22:03 what was discussed by key Thanks
1:22:06 improving the standards of what we're
1:22:08 building so that it could potentially
1:22:09 become condos in the future okay so so
1:22:13 I'm hearing an amendment or in addition
1:22:16 to that one also look internally to see
1:22:18 if you know probe with builders maybe
1:22:21 and say hey are we part of the issue if
1:22:23 we take care of issue a are we right
1:22:25 behind with another issue and that's
1:22:27 something we should acknowledge in our
1:22:29 work I'm seeing a lot of head nodding on
1:22:31 that okay great
1:22:34 let's see what's the next one
1:22:37 accommodate single room occupancy or
1:22:40 many Suites in multifamily zones so
1:22:44 there what we're talking about is a
1:22:51 phenomenon that started in Seattle about
1:22:54 ten years ago where builders came up
1:22:58 with this concept
1:22:59 of within when it actually goes back a
1:23:03 long long long time but this is when it
1:23:05 started getting some traction and some
1:23:07 new traction and new development most of
1:23:09 the time in the past old hotels might be
1:23:11 converted to residents and it became a
1:23:15 very affordable form of housing I in
1:23:19 Bellevue in 1995 if any of you are
1:23:23 familiar with downtown Bellevue there's
1:23:25 a building called Pacific in and it
1:23:28 looks blue and yellowing kind of aqua
1:23:31 green and if you look closely enough
1:23:33 it's all maritime themed architecture if
1:23:36 you look closely enough that's what they
1:23:38 were kind of doing that builder was from
1:23:41 California and the city actually
1:23:42 provided him some funding assistance
1:23:44 it's generally a market rate project but
1:23:47 it's all at the time they were
1:23:50 considered very small units they're like
1:23:52 three hundred square feet and smaller
1:23:54 and this builder got this notion from
1:23:59 doing development around the west coast
1:24:01 that places like Seattle have old hotels
1:24:05 that can be converted and have been over
1:24:07 the years and former very affordable
1:24:09 form of housing for retail workers and
1:24:12 people like that who work in the
1:24:14 center's but in suburbs you don't have
1:24:17 that stock and so he figured out a way
1:24:20 to build it from scratch
1:24:21 ok Brill did news don't because there's
1:24:24 no load hotels to convert in downtown
1:24:26 Bellevue and so he builds them and it's
1:24:29 specific in Marvin gardens he names them
1:24:34 all actors of Monopoly pieces and the
1:24:36 light blue and the first two sections of
1:24:40 the track ok and he and and he was doing
1:24:45 that like 25 years ago then in Seattle
1:24:47 the next evolution was builders figured
1:24:49 out a way around the land use rules in
1:24:51 Capitol Hill and they could build these
1:24:53 small buildings that were big
1:24:56 comparatively speaking to all the other
1:24:58 homes in the neighborhood and those
1:25:00 homes would be sliced and diced up to be
1:25:04 and even though they were licensed
1:25:07 there's only three units they slice and
1:25:10 dice each of those six bedroom units up
1:25:13 and have 18 people living independently
1:25:15 in them and that got a little
1:25:17 controversial because it felt like kind
1:25:19 of a mismatch so you'll notice here
1:25:20 we've made the statement in multifamily
1:25:22 zones so we're not talking about the
1:25:25 Seattle experience we're talking more
1:25:27 like what the first example I gave you
1:25:29 is a builder coming in and just building
1:25:32 really small units there's a builder now
1:25:35 who's been building in Redmond and
1:25:36 Kirkland and he builds even his units
1:25:41 are like two hundred square feet and
1:25:44 maybe a little smaller sometimes and a
1:25:49 little bigger so 150 to 300 square feet
1:25:52 and build it borrowing a little bit from
1:25:56 some of the approaches they do have like
1:25:59 a shared kitchen but all the units do
1:26:01 also have microwaves and stuff so the
1:26:03 kitchens aren't used very often they're
1:26:04 more disordered common areas that people
1:26:06 share and he's been building those as a
1:26:09 market rate builder and so that's kind
1:26:14 of what we're describing is units that
1:26:16 you historically would not have seen but
1:26:18 he finishes one and he starts another
1:26:21 one so what is that telling you well
1:26:26 he's a rental right there's a demand and
1:26:28 you know why there's a demand does
1:26:30 anyone know why there's a demand he's
1:26:36 getting more rent per square foot than
1:26:38 any market rate builder because people
1:26:41 need a place to live absolutely is the
1:26:44 lowest absolute rent in town and so
1:26:47 people are sacrificing space for a price
1:26:51 point and he has found a way to get to a
1:26:54 price point of under $1000 in
1:26:57 residential unit he's renting them for
1:26:59 like eight hundred dollars still not
1:27:01 inexpensive but compared to everything
1:27:03 else out there and downtown Redmond you
1:27:07 have things with the Japan and you have
1:27:11 others campuses and downtown Kirkland
1:27:14 you know so he has found a niche in the
1:27:17 market but he's also needed a little
1:27:20 help from the cities to get there he
1:27:23 tried to get a little less parking in
1:27:25 his buildings but he's all
1:27:27 demonstrated that the parking demand is
1:27:29 very low I mean he's done lots of
1:27:31 studies with cities and stuff like that
1:27:33 so the question is should the city look
1:27:35 at if they you know the market wants to
1:27:38 build that is there any it's sort of
1:27:39 like the same comic keep made about
1:27:40 condos is there anything about our
1:27:42 regulations that if a builder came in
1:27:43 and wanted to build that kind of housing
1:27:45 that the regulations would get in the
1:27:47 way of it is there any is there at the
1:27:49 potential need for something like that
1:27:51 here that we should be sure that if the
1:27:53 market wants to build it they could I
1:27:55 thought on that the first thing that
1:27:58 talked to my mind was a pod meant that
1:28:01 kind of name okay yes so I think this
1:28:06 could be a good small part of this
1:28:09 bigger puzzle but I'd be concerned about
1:28:13 kind of opening the floodgates on these
1:28:15 and letting them just be scattered
1:28:18 everywhere I think this could really
1:28:20 work in a very select zone I'm mostly
1:28:24 thinking about like I think transitory
1:28:26 and development is kind of a separate
1:28:28 thing maybe but it seems to kind of fit
1:28:31 into that type of zone where this could
1:28:34 work right next to a transit station
1:28:36 where people that use transit I want to
1:28:39 live in this setting or maybe right next
1:28:43 to a big retail zone or something like
1:28:44 that and where it becomes walkable to
1:28:47 places that people work so that's my
1:28:49 thought okay other reaction so one thing
1:28:53 I think we need to look at Arthur is so
1:28:55 if you're creating 150 square foot to
1:28:58 200 square foot units the thing we'd
1:29:01 have to look at is does our zoning
1:29:03 allows that level of density even if
1:29:05 it's a small building my number of units
1:29:07 per acre could be huge right yeah so I
1:29:10 think we need to look and see if if
1:29:12 there's a barrier there right and if so
1:29:15 to John's point you know how would you
1:29:18 potentially undo that in a limited way
1:29:20 mm-hmm if that's the concern right right
1:29:23 so that's right so that's the example if
1:29:26 you have an area that uses a density per
1:29:28 acre overlay you're not going to see
1:29:31 this it's only in areas where you use a
1:29:33 floor area ratio where you're allowed to
1:29:35 build to the box
1:29:36 kind of thing so that's pretty much
1:29:38 unless there was a small site
1:29:41 just couldn't make other stuff work he
1:29:43 built one right next to our office in
1:29:44 downtown Redmond that was it it was to
1:29:47 single family lots you know just sort of
1:29:49 like and it's now 120 units but it's
1:29:53 it's fine it does it's you know it seems
1:29:55 to be working just fine anyway other
1:29:57 comments on this idea so I've heard the
1:29:59 don't open the floodgates there's one
1:30:02 comment I've heard other perspectives on
1:30:04 it a new one have a counter perspective
1:30:06 or concur with that or some other
1:30:07 thought again remember this is as much
1:30:10 keep this in mind with an idea as well
1:30:13 as you like an idea though so two
1:30:16 comments about that one in addition to
1:30:18 it would be thought of coop housing
1:30:22 I am heard that discussed yet which
1:30:25 would work with 100 or 200 square foot
1:30:29 units because you would have shared okay
1:30:31 shared spaces like kitchen and bathroom
1:30:34 facilities but also in can you describe
1:30:37 co-op housing a little bit more in case
1:30:38 other installment well so co-op housing
1:30:41 would be a ownership stake in a large
1:30:48 flat I guess you usually call it a large
1:30:50 flat where you might be 20 units per
1:30:53 floor and someone would actually own be
1:30:57 incorporated and your shareholders which
1:31:00 would be your third tenants go to piece
1:31:05 of the corporation and then you live
1:31:08 either you could have shared facilities
1:31:12 like bathrooms and kitchens and in some
1:31:15 cases co-op would also supply maybe a
1:31:18 kitchenette or something like that in
1:31:20 each unit second question is if we do go
1:31:24 with a hundred or tutor square foot unit
1:31:27 and that means our pasty for higher
1:31:32 density would then increase based on our
1:31:36 limitations in terms of our amount of
1:31:40 land that we would be able to use so
1:31:42 you'd have more people per square foot
1:31:45 part of our policy or part of our plan
1:31:49 do we want to actually limit and put
1:31:52 restrictions on what
1:31:54 minimum requirement would be free space
1:31:57 per person so if we're going to have
1:31:59 these really high density units it may
1:32:02 be on the surrounding sides of the
1:32:04 building we would want more space right
1:32:06 because if all said we have all these
1:32:09 extra people living in dezik wha does
1:32:13 the city have the resources to be able
1:32:16 to handle all these extra people not
1:32:19 just where we're going to put them
1:32:21 because we figured that out if we can do
1:32:23 hundred square foot or tuner square foot
1:32:25 units we have lot more density do we
1:32:28 want that much density okay that feels
1:32:31 like the infrastructure question raising
1:32:33 its head against them and and if you
1:32:36 have that much entity in a small area
1:32:41 will you be able to preserve more of the
1:32:45 trees and surrounding environment that's
1:32:51 disappearing so rapidly the other
1:32:57 question I had was what would be the
1:33:02 difference between single room occupancy
1:33:05 and boarding houses probably not a whole
1:33:13 lot I mean a boarding house you usually
1:33:16 if you think of the old term of it
1:33:18 you've got your food - when you live
1:33:20 there and SRO you typically don't single
1:33:25 room would be the difference would be
1:33:27 the shared kitchen and dining facility
1:33:30 I'm not sure from a code point of view
1:33:32 I'm just saying from a impression of
1:33:35 when you think of a boarding house you
1:33:37 often think of people also getting their
1:33:39 meals and in an SRO people don't get
1:33:42 meals now from a building officials
1:33:44 point of view I'm not sure to what
1:33:46 extent they see differences maybe yours
1:33:50 a little more firepit units are more
1:33:52 independent and then SRO so there might
1:33:54 be building code issues we'd have to do
1:33:57 a lot more exploring to see the
1:33:59 difference between a boarding house per
1:34:00 se in an SRO I mean I was particularly
1:34:04 thinking for aging populations many
1:34:07 people
1:34:08 do not want to have the burden of doing
1:34:11 all their own cooking and so single room
1:34:15 occupancy with services might be very
1:34:19 appealing so okay now from time to time
1:34:23 read between lines or try to put things
1:34:25 together that I'm hearing so I heard
1:34:28 co-op we came out and we started with a
1:34:31 pod minutes or srl and now I'm hearing
1:34:35 co-op I'm hearing boarding home I'm
1:34:40 hearing a few more ideas on small spaces
1:34:44 little more communal type living but in
1:34:47 different shapes and forms is that any
1:34:50 kind of a theme here or that should be
1:34:53 expanded on because the next one is more
1:34:56 about in neighborhoods these that you're
1:34:59 describing feel more multi-family in
1:35:02 nature number eight is going to be sort
1:35:05 of the same question of diversity
1:35:06 related to cottages and duplex multiplex
1:35:11 but this first one is sort of about
1:35:14 diversity small forms of housing that
1:35:18 are maybe a little higher density and
1:35:21 more rental and nature is I'm kind of
1:35:25 just winging it here so reactions so
1:35:28 problem statement number three shows
1:35:31 that 30% of the escolar residents live
1:35:33 alone yet under 10% of the units are
1:35:36 one-bedroom or less I think that would
1:35:40 probably be part of answering this type
1:35:43 of question because those will either be
1:35:47 individuals or maybe couples
1:35:52 what are they currently choosing as
1:35:55 their housing and would that type of
1:36:00 individual choose something like that or
1:36:04 is there not a demand in a sack off for
1:36:12 so a question you asses their demand
1:36:15 well I'm going to let you you had your
1:36:17 hand so I don't want to get off-track
1:36:18 and not let you make your comment to
1:36:20 before Oh actually I was going to talk
1:36:22 about something that that Therese said
1:36:24 about the ownership piece mm-hmm the
1:36:29 what was my concern with having the
1:36:32 smaller unit and if we if we have them
1:36:37 in condo form is that they'll just get
1:36:40 sold and then they all turn into into
1:36:43 rentals
1:36:44 there's just some people will just show
1:36:46 up and but buy a whole bunch and then
1:36:48 turn them into rental so that if we do
1:36:51 that and want to restrict to cut to
1:36:54 owners then we have to have some kind of
1:36:56 owner-occupied rules along with it or
1:36:59 else it'll just be you know it's the
1:37:01 same problem all right so that's a
1:37:03 concern area for us to note okay yes so
1:37:06 re on a condo right now and one of the
1:37:09 restrictions is you have to be there for
1:37:11 two years as the owner you cannot rent
1:37:13 the unit so you know there could be
1:37:16 restrictions such as those placed that
1:37:19 you have to be there and actually the
1:37:23 loans right I'm sorry is that three year
1:37:25 loan or the Association yeah that's a
1:37:28 rule the association of the Association
1:37:30 okay all right so we can bet thing to
1:37:33 note and so now back to the response of
1:37:38 here's how many households and this is
1:37:41 how many units we have which is
1:37:43 something we point out in an earlier
1:37:45 meeting again number six number seven
1:37:49 these of all others in the coop so the
1:37:52 coop is different ideas ownership form
1:37:54 the other ones SRO boarding house
1:37:57 those are rental so they're both sides
1:38:01 of this story of small units are they
1:38:04 both part of this continuum we talked
1:38:06 about 30 minutes ago or 20 minutes ago
1:38:09 is this part of it or is it just doesn't
1:38:11 feel like the fit in this town you you
1:38:14 know to some extent we don't do any of
1:38:16 the building the city doesn't build they
1:38:17 just enable okay and so the so I think
1:38:20 the question to you is should our rules
1:38:24 enabling if the market wants to do it
1:38:26 and if we do want the market to be able
1:38:29 to do it what kind of things do we want
1:38:32 as a community so that it feels okay
1:38:35 that we've allowed it to happen
1:38:37 so your point about gee we'd like if
1:38:40 it's an ownership form of housing for it
1:38:41 to be ownership if we can okay if that's
1:38:44 the intent of that one but we've got
1:38:46 some examples that their intent would be
1:38:48 rental and the boardinghouse might be
1:38:50 for seniors who don't want to have to do
1:38:51 all you know it's sort of a lightweight
1:38:53 group home right but group homes you got
1:38:56 to have medical stuff maybe somebody
1:38:57 wants that but they don't need the
1:38:59 medical they just want the meals right
1:39:01 it's sort of what you're saying if you
1:39:03 think about it if you go to senior
1:39:04 facility I mean it's interesting you say
1:39:06 it that way because if you go to senior
1:39:08 properties now the big commercial ones
1:39:10 what do they do live on your own you can
1:39:14 take the meals or you can go for
1:39:15 full-blown health and meals and they
1:39:18 give you the ability to go back and
1:39:19 forth between that so one question would
1:39:23 be well so those same kind of choices
1:39:26 potentially be there for seniors but not
1:39:28 in large commercial developments and
1:39:30 that's if I think you know the boarding
1:39:33 house versus the adult family homes
1:39:35 versus just living in your home the way
1:39:37 you are would be sort of a comparable to
1:39:40 what's going on in the commercial
1:39:42 industry to help seniors stay in their
1:39:44 community in a boarding house wouldn't
1:39:47 have to be restricted to seniors you
1:39:49 know no but right exactly people who are
1:39:51 starting out and before retiring all in
1:39:54 the same place I see a light next to
1:39:56 yours yeah so we have a local nonprofit
1:39:59 that supports people with disabilities
1:40:02 that has three adult family homes where
1:40:06 caregiver lives with five individuals
1:40:09 and it's so it's very flexible it works
1:40:11 great it's in neighborhoods so I think
1:40:13 that that's really important that we
1:40:16 keep that in mind too okay so we have
1:40:20 quite the population here okay so little
1:40:24 stuff let's I also noticed that this
1:40:26 conversation seems to be absent from our
1:40:28 debate right now is what about senior
1:40:31 living what is the city's current plans
1:40:33 for senior housing
1:40:36 I believe it's up I'm gonna you know
1:40:41 you're always a step ahead of us
1:40:42 you just ready to go cuz that's number
1:40:45 nine so I'm not quite ready for that one
1:40:50 we don't want to skip over number eight
1:40:51 I just think it's a couple more comments
1:40:53 you guys make maybe a general comment I
1:40:55 mean I think we're everything we're
1:40:58 saying is right it's just I think every
1:41:00 everything has to be on the table
1:41:03 the I would say the city should you know
1:41:06 work hard to lower burdens on developers
1:41:09 wherever possible and then let the
1:41:12 market drive it to some degree because
1:41:15 everybody says oh yeah we want people to
1:41:16 you know be able to live in this wall
1:41:18 that also work here and we want all
1:41:19 kinds of people to be here out stuff but
1:41:21 and then we got at the same time say oh
1:41:23 but we don't apartment and so I think we
1:41:25 just sort have to put our money where
1:41:26 our mouth is and and we and it can be
1:41:28 done in a smart way I think that
1:41:29 decision probably should be made at the
1:41:31 project level it should be part of the
1:41:34 strategy I think and then we can make
1:41:36 those decisions at the project level
1:41:37 that's okay and so what I'm going to
1:41:39 maybe sorted to your point that I'm
1:41:41 trying to put out we've been asking for
1:41:42 all evening but just to sort of give you
1:41:44 another way another example of it is we
1:41:47 helped a lot of cities write rules to
1:41:49 allow access regulators mother-in-law
1:41:51 apartments but they're not just outright
1:41:53 allowed there's some condition like
1:41:57 owner occupancy or if you do it in
1:41:59 addition to your house it has to match
1:42:01 you the door can't be right next to the
1:42:03 front door the door needs to be on the
1:42:05 side or hidden landscape that we did
1:42:07 there needs to be one more parking so
1:42:09 it's not a new parking space but it
1:42:10 leaves enough parking for one extra car
1:42:12 the things to make it so that if it does
1:42:14 happen it feels like a good fit so on
1:42:17 all of these you're giving us comments
1:42:19 that sort of help us what are the things
1:42:21 that yeah if we're going to open it up
1:42:23 because right now you have a moratorium
1:42:24 going on because maybe it didn't feel
1:42:27 like it was quite the right fit and so
1:42:29 that's what this conversation is
1:42:31 important for is what are some of the
1:42:33 things for us to think about that might
1:42:34 make it a better fit okay so and or no
1:42:39 take that one oh that's just not a fit
1:42:41 in this town you're going to get a
1:42:43 matrix at the end of the meeting where
1:42:44 we took out manufactured housing
1:42:45 communities because one town I work for
1:42:48 does have them but you
1:42:49 so we just took it off the list I'm not
1:42:52 hearing anything so far that says these
1:42:54 ideas are missing the mark which is good
1:42:56 because all of us have staff looked at
1:42:58 them and we try to come up with ideas
1:43:00 that we thought could be good fit but
1:43:02 we're going to give you a chance at the
1:43:03 next meeting to also add other ideas too
1:43:06 okay so this is not the list you've
1:43:09 already given us a few ideas tonight
1:43:11 okay so let's talk a little bit about
1:43:14 number eight which is the diverse forms
1:43:18 and this is more like in single-family
1:43:21 areas so this is cottages or even
1:43:24 duplexes or a multiplex usually means
1:43:28 like a triplex so what's your thoughts
1:43:31 about that idea that was fast
1:43:36 so what I've heard and I saw the housing
1:43:40 Le'Veon rent all fixed income that is
1:43:45 that is a big concern for seniors
1:43:48 staying in their homes if we continue to
1:43:51 increase the costs on them particularly
1:43:55 a fixed income you're going to have to
1:43:57 leave and so out of that how are you
1:44:01 correlating that to this item so I'm so
1:44:04 it's options and services I made it
1:44:07 it's so I saw it more as enabling
1:44:09 seniors to to stay in their homes may be
1:44:13 having some exemptions for certain
1:44:16 people I don't know whether that's
1:44:17 possible that's just my side oh I
1:44:20 thought we went oh I thought we jumped
1:44:22 at nine already no I'm sorry
1:44:24 I was I was out oh that's not number
1:44:26 nine I thought that might have been any
1:44:28 okay oh oh that's odd I was got other
1:44:32 comments about eight today is one that
1:44:35 has two sides of a coin potentially for
1:44:37 sure so Chris has already mentioned the
1:44:40 adult family homes in single-family
1:44:42 areas mm-hmm they don't seem to be
1:44:45 causing any problems
1:44:50 we're already doing it on a limited
1:44:53 basis okay now those are houses that are
1:44:59 physically the same as the rest of the
1:45:00 other homes in neighborhoods but that's
1:45:02 a good point
1:45:02 you have adult family homes in your
1:45:04 neighborhoods now kind of thing if you
1:45:07 feel I don't know some people in some
1:45:09 communities that's that's been in some
1:45:11 questions so I thought I saw something
1:45:13 over here because I think I'm missing
1:45:16 number eight isn't this already loud
1:45:17 just like you're saying allow people to
1:45:21 build all sorts of sources wait I'm
1:45:23 missing the point sorry so this is to
1:45:28 say looking at like in a single-family a
1:45:31 typical single family area would you
1:45:34 allow and usually with your allowed
1:45:36 cottages you're allowing more cottages
1:45:39 than could have been built otherwise so
1:45:41 if somebody has enough land for three
1:45:44 single-family homes they might build
1:45:45 five cottages so this is and this is one
1:45:49 that so so this is when you're right
1:45:51 this is allowed now and I think that's
1:45:53 the question really more for the city
1:45:55 right now is do we allow that to be
1:45:58 something that can happen so for example
1:46:01 what's happening in Bellevue right now
1:46:02 is in a lot of neighborhoods a
1:46:05 single-family house is being torn down
1:46:07 and in its place is basically three or
1:46:11 four larger houses because it used to be
1:46:14 a very different housing to land ratio
1:46:16 right and so for us the issue is coming
1:46:19 up in Old Town and and the issue on a
1:46:22 scale perspective is about tearing down
1:46:25 one 1950s Rambler and putting back a
1:46:29 duplex or maybe subdividing into
1:46:32 duplexes and so so as an issue and for a
1:46:36 group that's talking about housing and
1:46:38 housing issues is that something do we
1:46:41 see enough benefit for the added
1:46:43 capacity but at some point do we lose
1:46:47 potentially the character that makes the
1:46:50 city a little bit different than maybe
1:46:51 some others that's the dilemma with I
1:46:54 think eight more than anything and so
1:46:56 you're right that what's allowed now is
1:46:59 it can happen
1:47:01 if that's fine if everybody says you
1:47:03 know what we need the additional housing
1:47:05 stock then we just leave that one on the
1:47:08 table if there's some issues there maybe
1:47:10 we need to unpack it a little bit in one
1:47:14 of the positive examples is just a few
1:47:17 blocks from your compassion house which
1:47:19 is a duplex which looks no different
1:47:21 than the other houses around it other
1:47:28 comments on this topic so I think one of
1:47:31 the things that would be a concern and
1:47:33 I'm putting aside I'm assuming just
1:47:37 market housing not anything for for
1:47:40 adult homes but I think considering that
1:47:43 then is I do think there's a character
1:47:47 point to be made so there certainly I
1:47:49 think we all probably enjoy front street
1:47:51 not the traffic but being there and
1:47:53 walking around the traffic will get
1:47:56 worse and it wouldn't feel like French
1:47:58 Street anymore or that area would feel
1:48:00 different and so I don't know that it's
1:48:02 a no not anywhere ever but I think
1:48:05 there's probably certain areas of the
1:48:06 town that we would all say like hey
1:48:08 probably not here where that balance is
1:48:11 a little different
1:48:13 my other question I guess would be are
1:48:17 we assuming this is I think the other
1:48:21 concern maybe this is longer term
1:48:23 because I you know the high winds being
1:48:26 a relatively new development but that
1:48:28 was already built to a certain density
1:48:29 so you know there's no extra parking
1:48:32 spaces that was already all thought of
1:48:33 so you know ten years down the line if
1:48:36 we start you know where there are single
1:48:38 family homes putting triplex is there
1:48:40 that area is going to be a disaster and
1:48:42 I live there
1:48:43 so I'll just caveat that with with you
1:48:46 know sort of thinking about the longer
1:48:47 term effects of that in areas that were
1:48:49 maybe built with a certain amount of
1:48:51 density already built in so those would
1:48:55 be a couple considerations that I would
1:48:56 say not know but sink sink deeply about
1:49:01 where and when their current code for
1:49:06 zoning restrictions as to where it's
1:49:09 allowed currently or is it just overall
1:49:13 if it's
1:49:13 residential you can do this so that so
1:49:17 the zoning code will state whether like
1:49:20 a duplex is allowed
1:49:22 right now the city doesn't have a
1:49:24 cottage ordinance other cities do and so
1:49:28 part of what we're talking about now is
1:49:31 should we enable a cutting a cottage
1:49:34 ordinance with the idea again that
1:49:37 creating other types of housing stock
1:49:39 might maybe at a smaller scale could be
1:49:42 more affordable than than what's
1:49:44 available otherwise and so most I'm
1:49:49 going to say this Trish without knowing
1:49:51 what I'm talking about so if I'm wrong
1:49:53 just speak up I believe that most
1:49:55 single-family zones allow duplexes most
1:50:00 but not all so but zones are can be
1:50:03 anywhere in the city right so in other
1:50:05 words you have a certain kind of zone
1:50:07 and where you think it's appropriate so
1:50:09 I'm going to put my foot in my mouth and
1:50:10 maybe get in trouble given the comments
1:50:12 here which is the question would be
1:50:17 potentially in looking at these you need
1:50:21 to be more refined geographically than
1:50:24 just your traditional single-family you
1:50:28 know for however you do your
1:50:29 classifications and and when I'm almost
1:50:32 hearing here is it needs it maybe needs
1:50:34 to be more refined geographically
1:50:36 somehow and I'm not sure some cities
1:50:39 just aren't geared to do that others are
1:50:41 here to do that where they could say in
1:50:44 this neighborhood it's okay and in that
1:50:46 neighborhood it's you know you could
1:50:47 have excess one in two different
1:50:50 neighborhoods but in one you allow the
1:50:51 cottages and the others you don't some
1:50:54 cities will do that I don't know if
1:50:55 that's something that for this idea to
1:50:57 go forward that the qualification that
1:50:59 it should have and if so that might be
1:51:01 the killer for the city or not I'm not
1:51:02 sure maybe that's that's why I'm sort of
1:51:06 hearing from the comments is it's not a
1:51:08 carte blanche idea wouldn't want to
1:51:10 change zoning in south is a part because
1:51:12 now you're going to be putting a lot
1:51:13 more traffic through main Issaquah to
1:51:16 get to arterioles like 90
1:51:20 but it would be appropriate for areas
1:51:23 like the urban core or communities
1:51:26 around 90 or have easy access to 90 it's
1:51:33 more than the the traffic the
1:51:36 infrastructure because it's waters who
1:51:38 are all the the other infrastructure
1:51:41 that is going to get strained if you put
1:51:42 too much density so I've heard
1:51:44 infrastructure including traffic I've
1:51:47 heard character is another consideration
1:51:51 cuz I did I hear that I thought I heard
1:51:53 that I think right like I wrote that
1:51:59 down obviously yeah all and every one of
1:52:03 these only applies to certain areas I
1:52:05 think we've kind of established that I
1:52:07 think when I think about cottage housing
1:52:10 I think it could be really successful in
1:52:12 an area like Old Town where it's been a
1:52:14 lot of time talking about preserving
1:52:16 character and I think the critical part
1:52:18 of this whole cottage discussion would
1:52:20 be like I guess I picture like a
1:52:24 community being kind of created like a
1:52:26 it has to be at a certain size a certain
1:52:30 number of units call it four or five but
1:52:34 that requires more than just a single
1:52:36 family plot of land to do with the
1:52:39 character that we're talking about so I
1:52:41 don't know how many places cottages
1:52:44 could really successfully work but I
1:52:46 think it's something that the city could
1:52:48 potentially look at saying okay
1:52:51 developers we're going to create
1:52:52 opportunities for these collection of
1:52:55 properties to be combined if they are
1:52:58 turned into caught a certain number of
1:53:01 cottage units so you just described
1:53:04 something that might be something like
1:53:06 what Redmond did in one neighborhood
1:53:08 Redmond has a neighborhood that's an
1:53:11 older neighborhood but more spread out
1:53:13 so there's a lot of infill going on and
1:53:16 they create an ordinance that says when
1:53:19 you and sometimes people put two plots
1:53:21 together and that's enough to do ten
1:53:23 homes or teen homes is the Roseville
1:53:25 area and they made a rule it says when
1:53:28 you do that X percent of the units plus
1:53:31 Bender certain
1:53:33 because they didn't want all the homes
1:53:35 to be to stay wanted so it's like one
1:53:37 out of ten or one out of five has to be
1:53:39 under 1,500 or 2,000 square feet so they
1:53:42 actually put that in their code that
1:53:43 says we want units of different sizes if
1:53:46 your development over a certain size and
1:53:48 I've never seen any other so you do that
1:53:51 but it was totally a response to a
1:53:53 neighborhood concern of we're very very
1:53:57 we got such a diverse form of housing
1:53:59 now and we don't we want the new stuff
1:54:01 that at least some diversity in it so
1:54:03 that was something they did in one
1:54:05 neighborhood so we just had the survey
1:54:09 on old town and part of that was talking
1:54:13 about housing and the character of
1:54:15 housing and there was a very strong
1:54:19 disagreement if I remember correctly
1:54:21 with the idea of consolidating lots and
1:54:25 ending up in that area with multifamily
1:54:29 units and things like that
1:54:31 I feel like cottages could be an
1:54:35 exception to that that would fit that
1:54:38 feeling it wasn't presented on the
1:54:40 housing survey because I guess we had a
1:54:43 lot of it at that point but it could be
1:54:46 a way that the neighborhood would be
1:54:50 comfortable with consolidation of lots
1:54:52 if you're keeping that character okay I
1:54:55 want to make sure we save some time for
1:54:57 senior because with that one got some
1:54:59 quick attention because we're not going
1:55:01 to I want to make sure we cover all
1:55:03 these tonight and then we want to give
1:55:04 you your homework assignment so I could
1:55:07 you know 40 okay okay I'm sorry I
1:55:13 thought wind is happening that is very
1:55:14 fun once my wife
1:55:17 so we're at eight and I thought we had
1:55:20 till 8:30 so sorry but seeing your just
1:55:24 if anyone else has some comments about
1:55:25 quick comments about senior housing and
1:55:27 then we want to give you a homework
1:55:29 assignment but you've been sort of doing
1:55:32 part of the homework assignment but we
1:55:33 want to give you a more explicit one
1:55:35 that's related to that so kind of thing
1:55:38 but any other quick comments about
1:55:39 senior and we'll continue that at the
1:55:41 next meeting we can do that but any
1:55:44 quick comments on this comment that I
1:55:47 hear two different things from seniors
1:55:50 some seniors like living with other
1:55:53 seniors and others want to stay in their
1:55:57 home or neighborhood partially because
1:55:59 they want to be with people who are not
1:56:03 all seniors right I would love to see a
1:56:08 community in which it's possible for
1:56:10 seniors to survive on their fixed income
1:56:15 and still live around people that they
1:56:18 know so kind of related to that but also
1:56:26 to get back to what Ron said earlier
1:56:28 about supportive services that would fit
1:56:31 with seniors as well as well as the low
1:56:33 income is the nearest place for
1:56:37 supportive services that would allow
1:56:38 people to stay in their homes or to have
1:56:40 like mostly independent that gets some
1:56:43 services is hopefully again they're all
1:56:45 the way up in Redmond we could encourage
1:56:48 hoping to build an office here in
1:56:50 Jessica LA and that would be amazing
1:56:52 because there's really nothing here and
1:56:55 is a clog that allows that for seniors
1:56:57 or low-income either one this one that's
1:57:01 come and I actually just want to refer
1:57:04 back to Teresa's comment on sort of
1:57:06 condos being a step in 2000 or cutand
1:57:08 also step out again I think that just
1:57:10 fixed understanding of what you're going
1:57:12 to be paying as I understand if your
1:57:14 senior fixed income fixed cost is
1:57:16 helpful so to me it just underscores the
1:57:18 importance of making progress on that
1:57:21 condo issue okay we presently have a
1:57:26 senior strategy
1:57:28 what do you mean by a senior strategy
1:57:30 the city presently have a plan to
1:57:33 address senior housing so our current
1:57:36 plan is to let the market determine so
1:57:40 this is why we're talking about it right
1:57:41 if you want a different plan when you
1:57:44 talk about it right I mean you do have
1:57:46 senior assisted housing in your
1:57:48 community but it's been through the
1:57:50 market right with it but you do have
1:57:54 some and there's a new senior rental
1:57:57 project going in with gateway so on
1:58:00 Newport so I mean senior housing is here
1:58:03 and it's being built but there's no
1:58:07 strategy at the moment so it's just and
1:58:09 which is how most housing is the market
1:58:11 builds to asking in our community but
1:58:13 cities have done things to encourage
1:58:15 more diversity fossil has an overlay for
1:58:17 seniors housing and if you ever go to
1:58:20 the fossil Northshore Senior Center the
1:58:22 North right and Bothell right across 522
1:58:25 from downtown and you look around it and
1:58:28 it's all senior housing that's a
1:58:30 single-family zone that had senior
1:58:32 overlay and the senior overlay made
1:58:35 that's a more desirable use and now you
1:58:37 have five different developments that
1:58:39 are geared toward seams right around
1:58:41 there Senior Center because of what city
1:58:42 did with their zoning so you can be more
1:58:45 proactive about it or not so in the
1:58:47 interest of time is we had this whole
1:58:52 measure to hand out okay so explain
1:58:56 there's a practice slide if you want to
1:58:58 oh great the practice light thank you
1:59:00 so what we're going to hand out is this
1:59:05 list that you've seen is from a much
1:59:08 longer list that we've developed and
1:59:11 you're now going to get to see the whole
1:59:14 list okay and but you've seen a listing
1:59:18 of things we tried to show you how you
1:59:21 started with data and you identified
1:59:24 needs in a mission statement and all
1:59:25 that and we gave you what we thought
1:59:28 were strategies that helped best to
1:59:30 address those needs that you identified
1:59:32 but we might not got it all right you've
1:59:35 given us some other ideas tonight so
1:59:38 what we think would be probably good is
1:59:41 we will attempt to get written up the
1:59:43 notes from tonight and Adam to that
1:59:45 matrix we just had on the wall that will
1:59:48 fill in the ones that weren't filled in
1:59:49 we'll also go back to the focus groups
1:59:53 and add in notes from their comments to
1:59:56 see where they match up if any of them
1:59:57 make comments about any of the specific
1:59:59 strategies and then we will have that
2:00:04 for you and then you can start reading
2:00:06 through this on your own and the idea
2:00:08 the next meeting is now you see our
2:00:12 collective list of strategies how does
2:00:16 that feel to you okay and how does it
2:00:19 feel to you both in terms of the
2:00:21 comments and the reservoir of Al and
2:00:25 also have does this feel like a good fit
2:00:29 as again the idea being these are the
2:00:32 most important ideas what you see there
2:00:35 are the full range some of those things
2:00:36 the city has already worked on that
2:00:37 might be some of the reasons they're not
2:00:39 on the list here but we want to give you
2:00:41 an opportunity at the next meeting to
2:00:44 challenge the list a little bit and see
2:00:46 if there's one or two things you would
2:00:48 like to add to the list from looking at
2:00:51 this or any other ideas that pop in your
2:00:53 head from reading that list okay and
2:00:56 again this is about all kinds of housing
2:00:59 not just affordability it's about
2:01:01 housing in general in the city of
2:01:03 Issaquah so at the next meeting it's a
2:01:07 combination of how does the collective
2:01:09 list look how do the comments look that
2:01:11 we've been developing over the last
2:01:12 couple meetings and do you want to
2:01:15 supplement it in any way okay or after
2:01:18 you've thought about it more take off or
2:01:21 really challenge any of the ones that
2:01:24 are on the list okay so that's what we
2:01:27 have is there more
2:01:33 tres bien mic is May 25th so it's two
2:01:39 weeks we weren't sure if we would need
2:01:42 it but we put it on your calendars
2:01:44 anyway does that still work for I guess
2:01:47 we'd have to send it to the new folks
2:01:49 because they might not have gotten the
2:01:50 first invite but it would be in two
2:01:53 weeks and we'll try and get all our
2:01:54 homework done and sent to you all a week
2:01:57 before the meeting so you would have it
2:01:59 and as soon as as soon as we can get it
2:02:01 to you are they're quick yes sure
2:02:05 yes we're still on as um so if so I
2:02:10 won't be happy out of the country
2:02:12 okay so can we send you notes sure that
2:02:15 you can add them absolutely
2:02:17 also if you all have questions between
2:02:20 now and then of things that just didn't
2:02:22 make sense tonight feel free to email
2:02:25 any of the staff members as well with
2:02:27 your questions - we're happy to help you
2:02:29 through any of this in all of this other
2:02:32 thoughts before we oh where does anyone
2:02:36 want to make public comments that have
2:02:38 sat through this into a cloth seat shirt
2:02:49 hi my name is steeper 117 Northeast
2:02:52 dogwood Street about ten nine years now
2:02:54 so first of all thank you all for being
2:02:56 here and contribute your time and effort
2:02:58 to make this issue something that works
2:03:00 for Issaquah so a couple thoughts
2:03:04 the first was goes to mr. Falls comment
2:03:07 our group can require certain people we
2:03:09 offered the affordable housing like
2:03:10 first responders or teachers I'm glad
2:03:13 that issues being looked at so I won't
2:03:15 talk about it further the second issue
2:03:17 was talked about public funds for
2:03:22 keeping seniors in the existing housing
2:03:23 my concern is not to be mean but just if
2:03:28 you build a house you have the asset it
2:03:30 goes with the community if you have
2:03:32 affordable housing that gets used to
2:03:34 subsidize them that public trust or
2:03:39 public funds goes to the senior when
2:03:42 they sell the house or to the heirs when
2:03:44 they sell the house it doesn't go back
2:03:45 into the public fund for a continued use
2:03:47 in public housing so I just want to see
2:03:48 if there's a way of talking about that
2:03:49 issue to recovery part of that funds
2:03:53 third issue was there I'm not hearing
2:03:57 enough of the talking about the when we
2:04:00 talk about affordable housing mean
2:04:01 though we talked about a 70 10-10-10
2:04:03 split and what the market rates are on I
2:04:05 just wanna make sure that we keep that
2:04:08 as a focus next issue we've heard talk
2:04:13 about cottage houses I've also heard
2:04:15 about tiny homes as an issue and I
2:04:17 haven't heard that talk about as much
2:04:19 I'm one make sure that gets part of the
2:04:21 discussion the last issue was we talked
2:04:28 about maintain the stock of affordable
2:04:29 housing it seems like there's an
2:04:31 opportunity with the providence Heights
2:04:33 community person SRO or the idea of a
2:04:37 place that already has drum tories and
2:04:39 living spaces for staff could be used
2:04:42 either transitional housing or permanent
2:04:45 housing before we lose that as a stock
2:04:47 within these quartz community I'd like
2:04:49 to see that be part of that discussion
2:04:51 of can that be included or in fold it in
2:04:53 I think there's just a real potential
2:04:59 for a loss of affordable housing if we
2:05:01 lose that existing stock that
2:05:03 be used thank you
2:05:11 anything else for many of you so a lot
2:05:17 of this discussion I find it very
2:05:18 difficult to have without learning or
2:05:20 the city's answer on infrastructure
2:05:23 development I know I keep going back to
2:05:25 this but I feel a pain every day with
2:05:27 the traffic what's the best way to
2:05:30 figure out what's what's the city's plan
2:05:32 for infrastructure development let so
2:05:34 this next six months for just
2:05:36 transportation or for water no and not
2:05:39 just transportation but schools
2:05:40 everything and everything comes with a
2:05:42 you have to provide the whole it's not
2:05:44 yet right and there's there's plans
2:05:47 actually on the website are you know we
2:05:50 have a five-year water plan five-year
2:05:51 sewer plan those kinds of things the
2:05:53 school districts have their own plans
2:05:54 for growth that are every six years that
2:05:57 get updated every year and those we can
2:06:00 get you a link to those but we do the
2:06:01 impact fees for schools so we have to
2:06:04 have their annual plan but we can walk
2:06:07 you through and the transportation plan
2:06:09 we have an EVC meeting next week we can
2:06:11 talk about that Oh excellent they can
2:06:14 they can mentor you right through there
2:06:16 but that's a great question because
2:06:18 there's so many pieces to the puzzle of
2:06:20 any city great any other thoughts ideas
2:06:27 economic vitality Commission meets next
2:06:29 week so they're going to sounds like
2:06:31 they're going to get a nice primer on on
2:06:35 and learn you can see it on TV because
2:06:38 it's so it's not oh you guys aren't
2:06:40 oh lucky
2:06:44 so it's Wednesday at 5:30 City Hall
2:06:46 Northwest Pickering room okay one good
2:06:52 to know this compact fixture for for a
2:06:54 cape it would be nice if you had a nice
2:06:56 model and you plug stuff in and and
2:07:00 could tell how it infrastructure changes
2:07:02 so the city the city just purchased a
2:07:05 software called city and Joanie engines
2:07:08 and we have to build the base but what
2:07:12 it would allow you to do is to as we get
2:07:14 these development projects that
2:07:16 come in you could then see what they
2:07:18 look like in the neighborhood in a 3d
2:07:20 image and it gives you the ability to
2:07:23 change your perspective along the street
2:07:25 to see how it will impact before it's
2:07:28 even getting permitted so we're getting
2:07:30 there
2:07:31 but we're in the process now of building
2:07:33 the base thank you yeah cool before I
2:07:38 close just for planning policy
2:07:40 commission members if there's any way
2:07:43 that you all can meet at 5 o'clock
2:07:45 remember we were going to do today at 5
2:07:47 o'clock to do the transportation
2:07:49 improvement program our engineer can't
2:07:51 be here when he was supposed to be here
2:07:53 so he asked if we could meet on the 25th
2:07:56 before this next joint meeting but at
2:07:59 5:00 and it sounds like that you won't
2:08:01 be here but if I can get you all to
2:08:04 think of your schedules and let me know
2:08:06 to see if that could be a viable and it
2:08:07 would only be an hour so we'd really
2:08:09 have to focus but I'd rather ask you to
2:08:12 look at it and not good to look at it so
2:08:15 I'll be emailing you tomorrow morning
2:08:17 for RSVPs ok just to have that in your
2:08:20 head as you drive home but thanks if you
2:08:22 all did really well tonight considering
2:08:24 how many new members and the barrage of
2:08:26 data that we gave you thank you very
2:08:27 much first I just want to thank Arthur
2:08:30 for thinking of the barrage of questions
2:08:32 absolutely absolutely
2:08:36 it's good to have an expert in the house
2:08:37 thank you all we're off camera