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Planning Policy Commission Auto captions

Thursday, August 22, 2019

6:30 PM · 1h 49m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topic tracked across meetings:
Mobility Master Plan (MMP) Update ID 1507 8/22
Section
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
Commission Membership
packet pp.3
Staff report:
Planning Policy Commission About Staff Liaison Created in 1983, this commission serves as a Trish Heinonen, Planning Manager policy advisory body to the Mayor and provides Email guidance and direction for Issaquah’s future growth through continued review and improvement to the Regular Members City’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan and related 2020 – Ron Faul land use documents. 2020 – Joan Probala 2022 – Joy Lewis Membership 2022 – Janice Carle The Planning Policy Commission is comprised of 2022 – Bill Rinehart seven regular members, with four-year terms; and 2022 – Jason Voiss several alternates, with two-year terms. All 2023 – Randy Harrison members are appointed by the Mayor and subject to confirmation by the City Council. Terms expire Alternate Members April 30 of the year listed. For more information, 2020 – Tom Haskins see IMC 18.03. 2020 – Robin Beukers 2020 – Vacant 2020 – Vacant
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
2a
Minutes of August 8, 2019
packet pp.5–9
Staff report:
APPROVAL OF MINUTES a) 08-08-19 Planning Policy Commission Minutes Page [0000]
3. REGULAR BUSINESS
3a
Mobility Master Plan
Information · 55 min · Christen Leeson, Senior Planner Christopher Wright, Economic Development Manager · packet pp.11–13
Topics: Transportation
Staff report:
Transportation staff is in the second stage to develop the Mobility Master Plan (MMP) that will guide City efforts on transportation policies and investments in transportation infrastructure. In the first step of this process, the project team worked with the community to develop the guiding principles for transportation, which will direct the development of the plan. In the current step of the process, the project team is developing policies to support our transportation system. The final draft of the guiding principles are listed in
4. OTHER BUSINESS / ANNOUNCEMENTS
4a
Upcoming Schedule
packet pp.45
Staff report:
OTHER BUSINESS / ANNOUNCEMENTS a) 2019 PPC Schedule (tentative) (updated 8/14/19) All meetings located in Council Chambers unless noted January 2019 September 2019 1/10/19 Cancelled 9/5/19 Public Hearing: Olde Town Code Amendments 1/24/19 Public Hearings: a) Comp Plan 2019 Docket 9/12/19 Open House: Olde Town Architectural Standards/Design Guidelines b) Code amendment: Wireless Communication Facilities Also: Comments from the Mayor 9/26/19 Introduction: Sign Code Update • Comp Plan Amendments: Capital Facilities Element & Utilities Element • Land Use Element re: Tree Canopy/policies (may be postponed until 2020) February 2019 • Public meeting (not a hearing): Comp Plan Amendments: Community 2/14/19 Facilities rezones Continued Public Hearing: Code amendment: Wireless Facilities Introduction: Comp Plan Amendments: Treasures
0:11 all right so we're gonna go ahead and
0:13 call all right so we're gonna go ahead
0:22 call the order of the meeting tonight
0:25 for the Thursday August 22nd meeting
0:30 first item on the agenda tonight is
0:33 going to be the approval of the minutes
0:34 than regular business we're going to
0:35 talk about the mobility master plan and
0:37 then the proposed old town code
0:40 amendments both are informational so no
0:43 recommendations tonight first thing on
0:47 the list is the approval of the minutes
0:48 do I hear a motion for the approval of
0:50 the minutes I like to make a motion for
0:53 approval of meeting minutes from August
0:56 8th hey do I ever hear a second second
0:59 excellent all in favor any abstentions
1:04 or nays
1:06 okay motion passed motion passes minutes
1:09 passed all good and now we're going to
1:13 go ahead and have our guest speakers
1:15 from the city the Christopher and
1:20 Kristin even person Stephen is first
1:25 first special guest okay excellent
1:28 Kristin Stephen go ahead
1:30 sure that'd be great that's fabulous
1:56 everyone my name is Seema do I'm a
1:59 senior transportation planner with
2:00 Public Works engineering and it's a
2:03 handout I just gave to all of you is a
2:05 handout of sunset way there was a
2:07 question post meet that you all had I
2:10 think at your previous meeting on the
2:12 design for sunset way and about parking
2:14 what you see in front of you the for
2:17 concept designs is where we last left
2:19 off with the traffic taskforce on sunset
2:22 way so there was no actual conceptual
2:23 design selected and move forward for
2:26 further design so that's actually where
2:28 we're at now is the next step on some
2:31 weight sunset way is to actually decide
2:32 on which conceptual design we want to
2:35 select right now and that on the back
2:39 side of your sheet I put where it is in
2:41 the TI p it's in the unfunded years
2:43 further pass beyond the six year
2:46 planning timeframe so really it could
2:48 come at any time but it is unfunded and
2:52 it's a fifteen million dollar project is
2:54 there any additional questions on there
2:55 how do you do how do you decide on the
2:58 final concept that's gonna be part of
3:02 the next process is deciding one how to
3:05 decide and who decides it yeah
3:08 and you say that Sun five didn't hear
3:10 what you had said you said it's on right
3:11 now it's recognized as a project in our
3:13 t IP but it's in the unfunded years so
3:16 it's not really in our planning horizon
3:18 we're looking six years ten years out
3:20 it's not within the next six years
3:22 that's that's as much as I can say
3:24 really because it after that it can come
3:26 really much pretty much any time all
3:28 right
3:32 hey thanks thank you
3:35 no questions I'll move on to my
3:36 presentation so for this presentation
3:38 we're gonna try out something new we got
3:40 five a new tool with our communications
3:42 department so I'm gonna need you to
3:44 bring out your smartphone's because
3:46 there is actually interact with
3:47 questions as part of this presentation
3:49 we can't actually help me collect
3:50 feedback bring a smartphone if you have
3:57 one and go to the website that's at the
4:00 top of the screen it's meant to calm is
4:02 it staying well no that would come from
4:03 you know stay F to Steven or just the
4:06 Commissioner just the Commission okay I
4:08 mean you can actu'ly if you want and
4:12 then once you get to that website from
4:14 the browser on your smartphone enter the
4:16 six digits also at the top of the screen
4:18 and then I'll bring you straight to the
4:19 presentation and it'll follow along as I
4:22 go through the presentation for those of
4:26 you who don't have your smartphone I'm
4:28 taking notes as we kind of talked about
4:29 everything I just went up as you've
4:34 noticed there are little hearts if
4:35 either particular screens that you like
4:37 it actually helps me with these
4:39 presentations because I'm going to
4:40 multiple boards and commissions to talk
4:41 about this actually helps me with
4:43 editing a lot of these pages so to test
4:48 this out let's go with a really quick
4:50 question what year did this community
4:54 become a town
5:09 1592 the town of Gilman was formed in
5:13 1892 meant to hit that one more question
5:19 what year did the did Issaquah become a
5:23 code City
5:37 1972 so in the year 1959 the city
5:43 Issaquah actually became a smaller sized
5:44 city it basically just upgraded when its
5:46 population reached up for certain size
5:49 1972 it became a code city became the
5:51 former government that it is today I
5:53 promise this is this is relevance my
5:55 presentation one more questions how did
5:59 you get here today there is no right
6:03 answer bring this up later on as we kind
6:13 of talk but today I am gonna talked
6:20 about the mobility master plan and give
6:21 you a quick update as I'm giving my
6:22 presentation but I'm also give you a
6:24 quick history on transportation and as
6:26 it relates to how is quad developed to
6:28 what it is today I'm also going to talk
6:30 about multiple multimodal transportation
6:32 which is the direction that the city is
6:34 actually heading similar to a lot of
6:35 other cities in our region then I'm also
6:38 as we go to the presentation I'm I'll go
6:41 through my policy questions which
6:43 relates to how we're developing the
6:44 mobility map
6:50 so on transportation and development
6:52 equality it really goes back to the
6:54 expansion of the highway system back in
6:56 the 1950s a lot of how the cities were
7:00 connected were smaller rural roads or
7:03 that after that the US government pushed
7:08 for a huge highway system better connect
7:10 all of our state's cities and counties
7:12 so we could better connect it more of a
7:14 Emergency Management System but it
7:16 became more than it became more of a
7:17 connection between a lot of our
7:19 communities the families connected with
7:21 families and friends connect with
7:22 friends and you pair that with mass
7:26 development of suburban neighborhoods
7:27 you get what a lot of our cities look
7:30 like today and a lot of that and I bring
7:32 up a lot of that because it led to what
7:34 we call Auto centric design to a lot of
7:37 our cities all of our cities have
7:39 developed very similar ways different
7:41 topographies and geographies can kind of
7:43 help define each communities in its
7:45 culture but it's all very similar and in
7:47 the terms that we have to go everywhere
7:50 designed by going through a vehicle you
7:57 look at today what's changed between the
7:59 1950s and today population growth it is
8:04 increasingly increasing every year
8:07 technology is advancing beyond what most
8:10 of us can keep up with there's
8:12 increasing concerns with environmental
8:15 health and regional congestion zhan
8:18 everybody's mind particularly in
8:19 Issaquah
8:23 and I bring all this up because this is
8:25 we're actually changing our mindset of
8:27 how we handle transportation alzheimer
8:29 low transportation some of you might
8:31 have heard is the offering of multiple
8:34 options but what they typically forget
8:38 when they talk about multimodal
8:39 transportation is the foundational
8:42 concepts behind it which is focusing on
8:44 moving people and the goods is how do we
8:49 use the space we have more efficiently
8:52 because we are reached the peak of the
8:56 design of the car and how much we can
8:58 move in our roadways in our right-of-way
9:00 and the capacity of our network and what
9:03 I mean by a reach where peak we when we
9:05 all travel between places particularly
9:09 the peak hours and the early in the
9:10 afternoon we've reached capacity which
9:13 is what is traffic congestion and is
9:15 broadening every year so what mobile
9:20 multimodal transportation really means
9:21 is focusing a lot much more investment
9:23 on transit walking and riding your bike
9:27 one common misconception with multimodal
9:30 transportation is people often think
9:31 that it excludes auto investments and
9:34 that's not true it's just not the main
9:36 purpose of multimodal transportation
9:43 now this type of Transportation isn't
9:45 new
9:46 we actually have policies in the comp
9:48 plan pushing for multimodal
9:50 transportation all the cities around us
9:52 have policies related to pushing
9:54 multimodal it's either very very
9:57 transparent or it's kind of hidden in
9:59 throughout the policies in each of the
10:01 chapters of their comprehensive plans
10:03 and the reason for this push in our
10:05 region to go multimodal transportation
10:07 because they've all recognized about
10:09 that peak and being able to maximize the
10:13 use of our right away and how we can
10:15 move people and goods so that brings me
10:20 to the mobility master plan the reason
10:24 why that we were working on this is
10:25 because a lot of the policies haven't
10:29 really been fully implemented or done
10:31 effectively and so we want to look at
10:34 how we how we evaluate a lot of those
10:38 policies so that is better coordinating
10:39 with other planning documents and then
10:42 how we look a little bit deeper what
10:44 multimodal transportation actually means
10:46 in this city it'll contain all the same
10:50 elements as our transportation out as
10:52 the translation element in the comp plan
10:54 it'll have the vision the goals policy
10:56 is even action items to look at how do
10:58 we move this form of transportation
11:00 forward in the city
11:05 so the reason the first question what
11:08 are your concerns with multimodal
11:09 transportation system and you can either
11:13 tell me or you can go on the phone and
11:15 kind of enter it in and we can talk
11:16 about the answers as they go in the
11:17 spring one of the first questions is
11:20 there isn't enough fixed transit and
11:22 that's that's typically the transit you
11:24 see the big buses that kind of travel in
11:26 and out the second question there isn't
11:27 enough transit options that's around
11:29 more of the carpool options vanpool
11:32 different types of options that connect
11:33 you to transit walking biking doesn't
11:37 feel safe this is a common issue that I
11:39 hear from residents whenever we go to
11:41 talk to community members about
11:44 multimodal transportation it's not
11:46 financially feasible people kind of
11:48 compare multimodal transportation is how
11:50 we've been handling the system currently
11:52 it's it seems bundling clear that all
11:56 these major infrastructure projects cost
11:58 a lot of money when you go towards
12:01 multimodal transportation you actually
12:03 look at more feasible and more efficient
12:05 means of using the funds you have and
12:08 then people only want to drive their car
12:10 and we can talk about that a little bit
12:11 are there any additional answers
12:14 anything that's actually not on the
12:16 screen that's a current concern about
12:17 multimodal transportation
12:26 now with thinking about the concerns
12:28 what are good strategies for adopting a
12:30 multimodal transportation system I've
12:33 gone over a little bit today but I want
12:35 to get your feedback or your thoughts on
12:36 what you think would help with adapting
12:40 to a multi-modal transportation system
12:44 the first option is more transit options
12:47 going to that another complaint that we
12:49 heard or at least what we saw in the
12:51 previous slide we're more intentional or
12:56 intentional land-use the idea behind
12:58 that is that transportation is better
13:01 paired with the land use that's intended
13:02 particularly with the zoning of the city
13:04 more walkable areas but this
13:08 yes it's an embedded in a lot of the
13:10 policies that we want walkable areas in
13:12 the city what's not really talked about
13:14 is what does that actually mean and when
13:17 you talk to community members that means
13:19 a whole different set of things but then
13:21 when you talk to an engineer or even at
13:22 a planner or bicycle infrastructure a
13:26 lot of the community advocates or a lot
13:30 of our residents who ride a bike
13:32 complain that there's just not enough
13:33 facilities or diversity of facilities
13:36 supporting that the type of use for the
13:38 bike that they they want to choose is
13:43 anything in addition additional that's
13:44 not on the screen when you say more
13:47 transit options well what do you mean by
13:50 transit options and I understand the
13:52 words but what are you thinking about
13:54 when you pose that as a
13:59 it's either adding more routes
14:02 throughout the city or its how to find
14:05 ways to connect to transit without
14:06 actually having to drive your car King
14:09 County Metro and sound trends are
14:10 exploring different programs on how to
14:14 more efficiently and more effectively
14:16 get people to use transit without having
14:20 to get them to go to the park and rides
14:22 bicycles is that a transit option it is
14:26 broad breath yeah yes it's a very broad
14:29 stroke of how can we better better
14:32 connect people with transit out kind of
14:34 the fixed transit routes I think when I
14:36 see more transit options I tend to think
14:39 how am I getting out of Issaquah and
14:41 going to another location so in relation
14:44 to your unlisted issue I would really
14:46 say how are we getting around in
14:48 Issaquah is it possible to actually be
14:51 able to go up to the highlands can we be
14:52 an old town go to Gilman without needing
14:54 to use a car continuously in our city so
14:57 I think that's kind of a sub area that
14:59 maybe necessarily it's like to think
15:00 about because you don't think about
15:01 hopping on a bus to get up and down with
15:03 just with in Issaquah right so I think
15:05 of something like Denver and the free
15:07 tram that runs till like 2:00 a.m. and
15:09 it makes it really easy to be able to go
15:11 throughout the city and something like
15:14 that like you know wouldn't can't weeks
15:15 let's expand our trolley kind of a kind
15:17 of a thing so when I think of an
15:19 unlisted issue that's kind of where I
15:20 come from that's perfect is there
15:23 anything else that's kind of missing off
15:24 the screen that I'm waiting to see what
15:26 the let's discuss next slide is I was
15:28 actually on the phone you can actually
15:31 enter a lot of that but when you're
15:33 talking I am taking the notes so it will
15:35 be something that's incorporated as part
15:36 of this so on the idea of the trolley so
15:40 transit is a very complicated term
15:44 because most people related to a lot of
15:47 the fixed transit the bus that's outside
15:48 now what people don't realize is there's
15:51 transit within a lot of our communities
15:54 there's I don't know if you've heard of
15:56 the community connections program that's
15:57 currently been deployed in Issaquah that
16:01 is how do we connect and even though
16:04 it's primarily focused on connecting
16:06 people to our transit centers a lot of
16:08 those services and other areas have been
16:10 used to connect to
16:12 downtown commercial areas or connects
16:14 hard to get neighborhoods to any other
16:18 types of services or goods that
16:20 typically they would have to drive for
16:21 and it provides affordable option with
16:24 basically an orca an orca pass and a bus
16:27 fare to be able to use those type of
16:28 services so it's those type of expansion
16:31 and ideas that we are looking for in
16:34 Metro is piloting a lot of these
16:36 projects in different areas because they
16:38 realized every area is a little
16:40 different you know Highlands how do you
16:42 connect with Highlands is going to be a
16:43 lot different than how you connect with
16:45 Sycamore or even Sammamish so we even go
16:49 into other cities you're going to be
16:50 connecting a little bit differently yes
16:53 even I'm not I'm not sure I apologize
16:56 ahead of time the the single biggest
17:00 transportation related issue that I used
17:04 to be on the development Commission and
17:05 this came up a couple of times is where
17:09 the terminus is going to be for the
17:12 light rail system and my understanding
17:15 is that other cities that have the same
17:20 basically schedule for getting mass
17:23 transit light rail to their cities have
17:25 already designated where that terminal
17:29 is going to be and tried to figure out
17:32 some of the parking for this terminus
17:34 and that discussion came up because and
17:40 I hadn't realized it until the
17:41 discussion happened that it makes sense
17:44 that when that happens when that
17:47 terminus is there people are going to
17:50 come from all over Eastern King County
17:53 to park so they can use at terminus and
17:56 it's it's a huge issue and I asked we
17:59 asked a couple of times and that's been
18:02 a while so I guess I would say that is
18:05 that is to me that's the biggest single
18:07 transportation issue that's facing the
18:09 city now I think that's a really
18:11 important point because it's going to be
18:14 such a huge infrastructure feat for us
18:16 but also for a washed-out Sound Transit
18:18 to bring the light rail service out to
18:20 Issaquah and
18:22 all these other cities in the
18:24 communities are right to be figuring out
18:25 where light rails and we are on that
18:26 track to go to that the plan for us
18:28 right now is to get through this
18:30 mobility master plan and kind of
18:31 discover that vision and then eventually
18:34 we're gonna be start working on a
18:36 transit plan after the adoption of this
18:37 plan and that'll happen throughout the
18:39 development of that plan we're gonna
18:41 have discussions on light rail and what
18:44 it means to have not just talk about the
18:48 terminus for light rail but also the
18:50 full network of how do we get buses to
18:52 reroute or design the bus routes to
18:55 fully support and maximize the
18:57 efficiency of light rail coming to us
18:59 applause so that we're not fully
19:00 dependent on building parking structures
19:02 to support light rail is it is it just
19:06 part of the equation is one factor in
19:08 this theoretical equation use of eminent
19:11 domain I'm sorry the use of eminent
19:14 domain to secure the actual land that is
19:18 going to be needed for this is that I
19:20 assume that's that's one tool in the
19:22 toolkit yes I mean that's a tool in the
19:25 tool kit for a lot of things not just
19:27 light rail oh yeah I realize that but I
19:29 assume it's something this massive is
19:31 going to have to utilize it it doesn't
19:34 necessarily need to come to that with
19:37 having community discussions we have a
19:38 lot of time to talk about it and what I
19:40 mean by a lot of time we have a few
19:41 years until Sound Transit's actually
19:43 ready to talk to us about light rail but
19:45 that's plenty of time for us to have
19:47 community discussions on what do we want
19:49 from light rail and how do we get that
19:51 without having to spend the most money
19:54 from the community on parking that's
19:57 going to benefit people who don't live
19:59 in the city and how we will fill a lot
20:03 of the other roles and visions that we
20:05 have in and the other parts of the
20:07 comprehensive plan we have art of
20:09 environmental health we have Human
20:12 Services there's equity component to the
20:14 people in our community and how they
20:17 access a lot of our transit services so
20:19 we have a bit of time to talk about all
20:21 that which is which is great because
20:23 it's going to take a little bit of time
20:25 I will say we've talked about it on
20:27 several occasions and different mediums
20:29 whether it was when we were touring
20:30 around name
20:31 or with staff or here in meetings and
20:33 eminent domain has never actually been
20:36 normally priorities or necessities for
20:40 all the different options so I do want
20:41 to say that that's a pretty low I think
20:44 on the list of things at this point in a
20:46 discussion yeah
20:48 are there any other points yes you're
20:54 thinking but when these views are being
20:57 thought about
20:57 are you building in financial integrity
21:00 is that part of the considerations right
21:02 now is it greenfield discussion and then
21:05 we'll figure out money Iran and because
21:08 it's an issue in the town like this or
21:09 an area like this but she's not really
21:11 very high density even though we think
21:12 it is when talking light rail or just
21:15 transportation and I'm talking you're
21:17 posing everything you know get questions
21:19 so I'm coming back with that general yes
21:21 typically when we're looking at
21:23 transportation projects we are tailoring
21:24 it to the funding that's available one
21:26 of the funding that that we could
21:28 acquire as part of the project so maybe
21:29 we planted a few years out with the
21:31 intention of going for grant money to
21:33 support the project with some local
21:36 money to support it so usually those are
21:41 intent pretty intense conversations to
21:44 make sure that we're getting every
21:45 detail and we're making sure that it we
21:47 can't support it anything else before I
21:51 move on
22:00 you want me to talk about that or we
22:01 move on to the next night
22:07 so land use and transportation I'm
22:10 coming to you today because you have
22:12 talked about Andrews policy and you have
22:15 more experience than I do on its
22:17 coastline do you policy but now I want
22:20 to post the questions of how do we now
22:22 support the policies that we have for
22:24 land use or transportation to now
22:26 compliment each other because a lot of
22:29 what I do for transportation is
22:32 completely affected by land use and vice
22:34 versa
22:34 a lot of how people choose to move
22:36 around impacts the type of land use that
22:38 kind of go anyways so common type of
22:42 policies that usually come up when
22:44 you're talking land use it's really
22:46 theis based on context what I mean by
22:48 this is you don't just put a bike lane
22:50 everywhere you look at the context of
22:53 the land use of the area you're putting
22:54 it in and look at the density look at
22:56 the type of users that are gonna be in
22:58 those areas and you design the
22:59 facilities to support that that's kind
23:02 of the direction with multimodal
23:03 transportation that we're going get the
23:05 mobility master plan we're gonna be
23:06 looking at not just a bike lane anywhere
23:08 but where we put a cycle track or a
23:09 multi-purpose trail or maybe it's just a
23:13 shoulder it just depends on the area
23:15 that we're looking at comfortable
23:19 walking an environment a lot of times
23:21 when I talk to cities at least at my
23:24 previous jobs about what a walkable
23:26 environment is you'll get 100 different
23:27 answers oh really what it came down to
23:30 in the end was how comfortable are
23:32 people feeling to actually make it feel
23:34 walkable and it's different in every
23:37 community and what that means it could
23:38 be the lighting it could be art it could
23:41 be something interesting that actually
23:43 people want to make it walk it could be
23:45 just the exposure to the natural
23:48 environment so trees plantings
23:50 any type of landscaping to help support
23:56 and make them feel like they're
23:57 connected with their community
24:00 and then a parking minimums this is a
24:02 fairly controversial one but in every
24:04 community that's looked at implementing
24:06 this policy they haven't regretted it
24:10 because what you look at when you're
24:12 eliminating parking minimums you're like
24:14 letting the market actually Drive a lot
24:16 of those demands and you'll find in a
24:18 lot of cities who haven't adopted
24:20 parking minimums or partnership
24:22 eliminated parking minimums in our
24:25 region and but they've moved towards
24:28 multimodal transportation higher density
24:29 in their downtown's you actually see a
24:32 lot of empty parking lots because you
24:34 see increases in transit use if you talk
24:37 to the city at Redmond and City at
24:38 Kirkland you'll find a lot of the
24:40 developers are complaining that they
24:41 were required to build too much parking
24:43 in the areas of high-density in their
24:44 downtown's because well don't need to
24:47 get use the parking anymore there's
24:49 families that are moving into a lot of
24:50 these areas that are fully supported by
24:52 transit that don't own a car and so
24:55 that's kind of an environment that we're
24:56 starting to plan for and so that's not
24:59 gonna happen today but it's one thing to
25:01 consideration as we're kind of planning
25:02 20 to 30 years into the future extensity
25:07 a lot of translation choices are based
25:10 on the land use previous comment that I
25:12 made there's an affordable housing I
25:16 bring this up because a lot of where
25:20 people live is based on the
25:22 affordability at housing and that
25:23 impacts a lot of people's commutes are
25:26 the reason why 86% of the people who
25:29 either live in Issaquah work elsewhere
25:31 or 82 percent 84 percent of the people
25:35 who work in as well live elsewhere or
25:37 vice versa
25:41 station band management part of making
25:44 this shift to multimodal translation is
25:45 about our behavior those who don't know
25:48 translation band magic it's it's where
25:51 it's the concept behind fan pools and
25:54 carpooling
25:55 it's the commute trip reduction programs
25:57 it's how do you have people think about
26:00 when they make a trip they're not
26:02 automatically thinking about driving
26:03 their car but they're also thinking
26:05 about three other options so how do you
26:07 get to point B people trip based
26:12 concurrency think you've had experience
26:16 talking with about concurrency and and
26:18 how we are level how are you measuring
26:21 in level of service and holding private
26:24 development or developers to pay for
26:26 their fair share of what goes in people
26:29 drape people trip based concurrency is
26:31 actually looking at estimating people
26:34 trips not just vehicle trips which is
26:36 currently what our current concurrency
26:38 model is based off of
26:44 that brings me to my main question but
26:47 you have policy recommendations related
26:51 to transportation that would support our
26:53 mission you have a big question so
26:57 please take your time
27:05 and just thinking back at this slide is
27:09 there anything specific that kind of
27:10 pump comes to mind yeah I mean when you
27:13 want to talk about eliminating parking
27:15 minimums in your example you gave it
27:17 from one side what we've seen from
27:19 developers as as somebody who has been
27:24 in both of the Kirkland and Redman
27:26 communities in your example I haven't
27:27 heard a dearth of people complaining
27:29 about a you know política mount of
27:31 parking so I think it's something to to
27:34 think about well we like to sit here and
27:37 talk about a long-term future reservoir
27:40 we also like to talk about a lot of
27:42 different players and actors and tools
27:44 that we have to get there and so the
27:46 idea that developers don't like
27:48 something doesn't necessarily define how
27:50 we set our agendas so I would caution
27:52 kind of how we framed that discussion a
27:55 little bit one thing I would add with
27:58 that is recent studies have looked at
28:00 parking requirements and that it is
28:02 directly tied to the cost of housing and
28:04 so the cost of developments and when
28:07 you're adding a lot of those parking
28:08 requirements parking stall can cost you
28:11 know ten thousand to fifty thousand
28:12 dollars and that has actually had direct
28:16 relationships to the cost of rent or the
28:18 costs of mortgages it for a lot of those
28:20 housing units it does but like you
28:23 mentioned in our community the majority
28:24 people are not able to live work play
28:26 here so it's a little bit confining to
28:29 try to say let's offset it here without
28:32 another option for instance but and so I
28:35 think what then what we have to start
28:37 thinking about similar to the to our
28:39 situation when thinking about how we
28:40 want to plan transit is really where do
28:43 we want people to put their cars we know
28:44 that people are using cars so how do we
28:47 get them out of their cars how do we
28:48 provide an area where it's easy similar
28:51 to a transit area for people to park and
28:53 get out and interact in our community
28:55 rather than necessary necessarily
28:57 shutting down the availability of spaces
29:00 it's how do we use that space so that
29:02 they're getting out at and interacting
29:03 our community right
29:06 that's your question just as we spent
29:09 last week's ago
29:11 most of the night or a good part of the
29:14 old town you zoning requirements new
29:17 parking requirements and various
29:18 questions came up about parking rather
29:20 I'm wondering as you develop your
29:22 thought process here and reach out to
29:24 community for ideas do you at the same
29:27 are you at the same time talking to the
29:31 planners who are developing the new
29:35 planning the minimum requirements for
29:38 Old Town to make sure the thinking is in
29:43 sync so for example eliminating minimum
29:47 parking requirements how does that tie
29:49 in with we learned last week was
29:52 proposed changes some substance or not
29:56 depending on your view in parking
29:59 requirements per square foot or the Old
30:01 Town area so I'm trying to figure out
30:03 how it all works within the city
30:06 administration as you each apartment
30:08 goes forward thinking about their own if
30:11 you will your own specialization I don't
30:15 know enough about what's being proposed
30:17 for Old Town so feeling answer that
30:19 question because it a lot of how the
30:22 planners are handling a lot of the
30:24 fireman changes are based on the
30:26 existing policy and a lot of this
30:28 discussion is more on what our future
30:30 policy should be and so a lot of these
30:32 are our examples anything being proposed
30:37 right now they're just common policies
30:40 that we've seen in other cities when
30:42 they've talked about multimodal
30:43 transportation so I'm not familiar with
30:45 enough with the old town proposed
30:47 changes to fully answer the question I
30:49 don't know if yeah I wasn't asked for
30:53 the detailed answer just trying to
30:54 understand how what level of
30:56 synchronizing or thought process there
30:58 is and right now it seems you're in one
31:02 process Malden
31:05 we're talking Old Town other area other
31:09 people are thinking about more specifics
31:11 and there's not necessarily you're
31:13 sitting down over lunch to say here
31:21 Christopher right with the city's
31:23 Economic Development Department and I
31:24 just wanted to say you know from
31:26 economic development standpoint I serve
31:28 on the city's master mobility team where
31:32 we review these policies and studies and
31:36 we're always looking at it from the
31:38 standpoint of code amendments that are
31:40 coming up that we know or I mean and so
31:42 there there is cross-pollination
31:44 happening on those kind of internal task
31:47 forces and teams that we have in the
31:49 city thank you Stephen I know this is a
31:55 knot and Issaquah issue it's a it's a
31:58 king county and entity that handles the
32:03 buses but again we discussed a couple of
32:07 times that some of the if bus service is
32:11 expanded it would be I think a good idea
32:16 to make all of the bus stops have
32:21 shelter we had some data and I don't
32:25 remember what it was about people who
32:27 use buses this time of year and then
32:29 don't use them in the winter because
32:30 they don't have a bus stop near their
32:32 house this got shelter so I mean that's
32:35 just an interim thing and I understand
32:37 again that that's not a city of Issaquah
32:39 issue but it's I think it's one thing
32:42 that should should be addressed when
32:45 when bus services is discussed
32:54 I think my fear with those shelters is
32:56 sometimes you see them downtown Seattle
32:58 and you see they just the graffiti the
33:00 trash that is an insecure issue and
33:03 that's that's where the police
33:04 department comes in even for me I'm
33:10 wondering because - is it QWOP for me is
33:13 a very young city we have a lot of young
33:15 families moving in if you look what's
33:17 going on a Newport way with all the
33:19 housing there what is the idea behind
33:22 multi-modal walkability I mean so much
33:26 of our city is connected through
33:27 highways I think 35 is probably the mean
33:31 or average so walkability are we talking
33:35 about expanding sidewalks maybe we
33:37 really don't have room if you look at
33:38 Front Street and East Sunset and there's
33:41 really no more room to grow so when you
33:44 talk about walkability I grew up in a
33:46 town where the children the teenagers
33:48 are constantly on the move walking and I
33:51 know you know today's youth is a little
33:53 bit different with the segways and
33:55 electric bikes but I just don't see how
33:58 how was that implemented and the vision
34:02 that you guys are planning for so
34:04 there's a lot of variables that kind of
34:05 go into the comfortability for a
34:07 walkable area there's what are the
34:11 destinations for the area what existed
34:13 felis facilities are there what's
34:15 available space kind of when you're
34:17 speaking to prefer end street there's
34:19 also the use of the right-of-way are
34:21 their buses that go how what's the speed
34:23 limit on that roadway what's facilities
34:26 for that what are the lane Wiss what are
34:28 their bikes is there Lansing so there's
34:30 a lot of different things that kind of
34:31 go into it as you put more of those
34:33 variables and considered utility based
34:35 on kind of the context of the area you
34:39 actually enhance a lot of the
34:40 walkability further and there's there's
34:42 actually guidelines in stat or
34:43 guidelines behind how to make a place
34:46 more walkable based on the type of area
34:48 it is and that's that's what I'm talking
34:50 about when it when I'm looking at more
34:52 walkable areas and it's it's not going
34:55 to be one size fits all every place is
34:56 gonna be a little bit different
35:00 yes speaker not when you say there are
35:04 guidelines available for doing that type
35:06 of design work where do those guidelines
35:08 come from is that an academic research
35:10 background yes Congress for New Urbanism
35:13 has a lot of guidelines around walkable
35:15 areas the Uli I'm forgetting the full
35:20 spelling out what you own is density the
35:23 urban land thank you
35:25 they have a lot of academic research
35:27 around walkable areas as well and then
35:29 there's the National Association of city
35:32 traffic officials they also provide
35:35 really good guidance around walkability
35:37 and bikeability thank you anything else
35:48 [Music]
35:52 where we are in the project we're kind
35:55 of in the middle we went through the
35:57 first phase developing the guiding
36:00 principles which is essentially the
36:01 vision for this document and we're
36:04 moving on to the development of policies
36:06 programs and projects and that's where
36:07 we are right now with this discussion is
36:09 talking about different types of
36:11 policies that we need BD considering the
36:12 mobility of master plan and that was I
36:13 would support a lot of your vision
36:18 you'll after this phase of the project
36:21 will go into plan drafting and then
36:23 early next year we'll get into plan
36:25 review and so that's when you'll be able
36:26 to see the full document or at least in
36:28 draft form and let us know if we missed
36:31 anything from your perspective do you
36:36 have the resources you need for for it
36:40 to completing the mobility master plan
36:41 we talked a lot about staff needs to be
36:44 doing a lot of things a lot of times we
36:46 have to prioritize those resources as we
36:49 kind of set agendas as we make policy as
36:52 we then have that trickle down of code
36:53 from your perspective do you guys have
36:55 the resources you need yes there was a
36:59 very firm budget set for developing this
37:01 master plan but as Christopher mentioned
37:04 we actually have a mobility team that is
37:06 supporting me and a lot of this effort
37:07 and so I am always talking to them about
37:10 how to approach different groups how to
37:13 talk to different Commission's and how
37:15 to bring certain questions so that I can
37:20 answer a lot of a lot of what I need for
37:22 the mobility master plan development
37:23 it's a good year are you still planning
37:28 on a Joint Commission meeting in
37:29 November with the mobility team and PPC
37:33 we put it on the schedule way back when
37:35 when you asked us to it's on 25th maybe
37:42 maybe
37:43 okay it was dependent because I'm still
37:45 waiting to hear back from the tab
37:48 members okay and if they're gonna be
37:50 around that week because it's so close
37:52 to Thanksgiving okay so I'm hoping to
37:55 yes okay but it's gonna be dependent on
37:58 everyone's availability okay super and
38:00 your availability is as well
38:02 okay well if there's no other questions
38:04 thank you if you need to have any
38:07 further comments or questions please
38:09 feel free to email me on what's on the
38:11 screen or get my contact information
38:14 will christen thanks to them thank you
38:30 the Trish should be already jumping to
38:33 the next topic right did you add the
38:35 audience talents first
38:36 yeah let's press they're gone yeah
38:39 okay so we're gonna go ahead we're
38:41 wrapping up the mobility master plan
38:44 topic and I was going to open it up for
38:47 all the comments yes go ahead
39:00 describe the state your name please my
39:05 name is Jay jaylen I think miss Turner
39:10 asked the question whether or not this
39:12 on set plan is working with the current
39:15 parking for Nader's I'm sorry I don't
39:20 know the exact names but I don't think
39:21 we got a real straight answer the answer
39:24 that Christopher gave I'm not trying to
39:26 put you on the spot but you said you
39:28 were on the committee's that potentially
39:30 discussed this but you guys are looking
39:34 you know in the future to change parking
39:36 in the code and so maybe there could be
39:41 a definite yes or no I mean I don't know
39:43 if it doesn't sound like Stephen who
39:46 gave the presentation initially was
39:49 talking to parking people who are
39:52 changing the code there thank you
39:56 Thank You other is there any other
39:59 public comment please you know I see no
40:04 other public comment we'll go ahead and
40:05 close the public comments and we will go
40:11 ahead and go on to Kristen with proposed
40:16 Old Town Code amendments
40:30 actually going to do let Christopher do
40:33 much of this because we brought him here
40:35 to answer some questions that came up
40:37 last time but as a reminder these came
40:41 up because we discussed these proposed
40:43 amendments and the amendment the numbers
40:46 I realize it starts with two and ends
40:47 with fifteen and they're only six up
40:49 here but I'm trying to stay consistent
40:50 with the action items that are in the
40:52 plan so that we don't get confused as
40:53 we're going through so that's why so we
40:55 worked on these action items which were
40:58 code revisions to reduce produce Heights
41:01 in the cultural and business district
41:03 multi-family high zoning district and a
41:06 single-family duplex district revisions
41:09 to increase impervious surface in the
41:11 cultural business cultural and business
41:13 district to 95 percent and multi-family
41:15 high from sixty five district from fifty
41:18 to seventy five percent to require
41:21 ground-floor commercial on Front Street
41:23 when you face Front Street revisions to
41:27 allow small-scale standalone retail and
41:30 multi-family high just on etes East
41:32 sunset way remove Old Town parcels as
41:35 transfer of development rights receiving
41:37 sites which are in multifamily high CBD
41:40 and multifamily medium and then develop
41:42 incentives that reduce parking
41:44 requirements for neighborhood oriented
41:46 businesses by 10% so we had that
41:49 discussion last time those amendments
41:50 are in your packet and if we need to we
41:52 can pull those up as well but when we
41:54 were having that conversation several
41:56 questions were raised we sent these
41:59 questions out the Tuesday after the
42:01 meeting to make sure that we had hit the
42:03 right ones and asked if you all had any
42:05 more questions and we didn't hear
42:06 anything so this is what we're going to
42:08 cover tonight other things may come up
42:10 but this is our planned discussion for
42:12 now I think that's it and now I'm gonna
42:15 have Christopher Wright talk he can
42:16 address all of these
42:21 hello planning policy Commission thank
42:24 you for having me Randy it's especially
42:26 great to see you I think both are
42:29 probably having some wicked flashbacks
42:31 Development Commission years but we'll
42:33 try to get past that so I'll answer the
42:37 kind of business-related questions first
42:39 and then I'll jump into kind of the
42:41 parking study overview the first
42:43 question you had had to do with do
42:46 businesses or the downtown it's across
42:48 Association know how much of their
42:50 business is local from Old Town versus
42:53 how much is regional from outside of Old
42:55 Town it's kind of a oddly specific
42:59 question that I'm gonna give a very
43:01 general broad answer to there are ways
43:05 to track of course through credit card
43:07 purchases where the zip codes are from
43:10 but it won't get you as close as
43:12 neighbourhoods so but as close as I can
43:16 get to answering that question I know I
43:18 talked to Beth Javon who is that
43:20 executive director of visit Issaquah and
43:24 she has been recently surveying the city
43:28 and the community asking a similar
43:31 question but from the completely
43:32 opposite standpoint from the from the
43:34 point of she's interested in finding out
43:36 what kind of businesses and activities
43:38 and events draw people regionally to
43:41 Issaquah right because she's interested
43:43 in in in the visitors a qua destination
43:47 marketing standpoint but from some of
43:50 those surveys again this is not
43:51 scientific and not even published yet
43:55 but and talking about this question what
43:58 she said what she has been finding is
44:00 about in the responders to the business
44:04 respondents to the surveys have said
44:06 about half of their customers are from
44:09 Issaquah and half are from outside of
44:11 the salon yeah and very general but you
44:15 know just to give you an idea and I do
44:17 think that as unscientific at us that is
44:20 just knowing
44:23 what I know and haven't seen what I see
44:26 I that sounds about right to me
44:28 actually obviously an Old Town
44:30 specifically you'll get a different
44:33 answer if you asked art by fire you know
44:36 the percentage of their people are low
44:38 of customers or local versus a hair
44:40 salon would be different versus Jax
44:43 would be different but like I said to
44:45 give you an idea on an average maybe
44:48 half does the Economic Development
44:50 Department do exit interviews when
44:52 business leaves that was a great
44:55 question when I was watching the median
44:57 I thought there was a great question
44:58 a great idea I would say not exactly I
45:03 will tell you what we do do I mean
45:05 eventually we do here you know either
45:08 indirectly or directly why businesses
45:10 have left but we don't sit down and do a
45:13 formal interview with them but again I
45:14 think it's a great idea what we do do is
45:17 every year we do what we call BRE visits
45:20 which are business retention and
45:22 expansion visits and the Economic
45:25 Development Department has a goal of
45:26 doing about 60 of those a year as
45:30 economic developer you know that that it
45:33 is easier and more efficient and
45:37 cost-effective to work with existing
45:41 businesses that are in your city that to
45:44 help them grow and thrive and expand
45:46 it's easier to put your energy at that
45:49 than trying to attract new businesses
45:52 into your city and so that's one of the
45:55 things that we do again through these
45:57 BRE visits when we're sitting down with
45:59 the businesses we're going through a
46:00 questionnaire you know touching base
46:03 with them on how is their business doing
46:06 its business increasing is it getting
46:08 worse what's great about doing business
46:09 in this you qua what's not so great
46:11 about doing business in Issaquah what
46:13 are your challenges you know how however
46:16 your interactions with the city been so
46:18 we use those visits to really kind of
46:20 take the temperature of the business
46:22 community so the goal there is to try
46:24 and catch them before they get to the
46:26 point that they're exiting but
46:28 again that's one of the ways that we
46:30 kind of keep tabs on how things are
46:33 going out there how do business owners
46:36 feel about neighborhood oriented
46:38 businesses coming into the area so the
46:43 businesses in Old Town downtown they
46:46 they want exactly the same thing that we
46:49 want that you all want which is to have
46:53 active thriving engaging business fronts
46:58 with a lot of people going in and out
47:01 basically and you know we want those
47:04 businesses to just have a lot of
47:05 activity and be successful and so a
47:08 business that meets the the definition
47:10 of a neighbourhood oriented business
47:12 again if you look at it talks about
47:14 meeting the daily needs we talked about
47:17 whether that's the right term or not but
47:18 basically if you meet that definition of
47:20 a neighbourhood oriented business it is
47:22 going to be a very active business with
47:24 a lot of people going in and out of it
47:26 and so yes if you're a business owner
47:29 that's what you want around you and then
47:32 if it's a neighborhood business which
47:33 also implies that more people are able
47:35 to walk or bike there than and so then
47:39 they're not taking up more parking then
47:41 that's even bigger bonus to have next to
47:43 you so yes the businesses are supportive
47:46 of neighbourhood oriented businesses
47:48 downtown what our businesses thought Sun
47:53 required ground for commercial on Front
47:55 Street I wanted to point out here that a
48:02 distinction often needs to be made
48:05 between what the businesses would prefer
48:09 and what the property owners would
48:10 prefer I know it's really easy you know
48:12 in your discussions especially where the
48:13 businesses think about that where the
48:15 businesses think about this but it is
48:17 also important to keep in mind what did
48:19 the property owners think because
48:21 they're not the same you know downtown
48:22 and and sometimes in some issues they
48:26 don't think the same and for the
48:29 property owners if you're requiring
48:32 ground-floor commercial you know when
48:34 you start to reduce the pool of people
48:37 that can
48:39 either rent or buy your place you know
48:42 usually you may not be supportive of
48:45 that whereas the businesses would
48:48 absolutely you know that they would
48:51 rather have next to them an active
48:54 commercial business than a resident
48:56 residential use that is you know dead
48:58 and quiet all day but having said that
49:03 front street you know requiring
49:05 ground-floor commercial even the
49:07 property owners of course it just makes
49:09 sense and you know that because the
49:12 property owners also want to have
49:14 highest and best use as well and
49:16 certainly on Front Street when you're up
49:19 against the sidewalk commercial use is
49:23 going to be the highest and best use
49:24 there as opposed to residential those
49:29 are some answers to the business
49:31 questions and then I can talk a little
49:33 bit about the parking study - I can't go
49:36 on so again I watched the median I saw a
49:41 lot of your questions that came up and
49:43 I'll try to answer those and then if you
49:45 have more certainly I'm here to answer
49:46 them
49:47 so the parking study was done like the
49:51 inventory that I'm gonna talk about was
49:53 done about exactly a year ago there was
49:55 two days in August of last year and then
49:57 two days in September of last year you
50:00 know did weekdays weekends or school
50:04 started after school was in session
50:07 whether there's village theatre shows or
50:10 not you know we did a variety of times
50:13 that try to capture a typical days and I
50:16 know one of the things that you were
50:18 asking about was how many parking stalls
50:20 are we talking about when we talk about
50:22 in the CBD how many parking stalls are
50:24 there this map shows the area that we
50:27 used for the parking study in Old Town
50:29 which goes from basically a Northwest
50:32 Holly Street to the north down to around
50:34 the community center to the south it's
50:38 roughly the CBD zone but also includes a
50:42 lot of the community facilities around
50:43 City Hall and everything yeah we looked
50:46 at public parking and not the private
50:49 parking lots and of all of that area
50:52 there are about 750 public parking
50:55 stalls and the inventory was done like I
50:59 said there was four four different days
51:00 from like 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I may be
51:03 later every hour they would hit each
51:06 parking spot to see whether it's
51:08 utilized or not and what they found is
51:11 the absolute peak of those four days of
51:15 those 50 hours or so that they were
51:17 tracking parking downtown the very peak
51:21 was on Saturday September 22nd from 1 to
51:24 2 p.m. and that's what's shown here and
51:27 the I think you can read in red is where
51:30 the parking utilization is 85% or above
51:36 in yellow is where the parking occupancy
51:39 was between 60 and 85 percent and then
51:42 in green is where the parking occupancy
51:45 was less than 60 percent and so at that
51:50 peak time the in that whole area in that
51:53 whole beige area 62 percent of the
51:56 parking stalls were occupied and more
51:59 typically during the peak times we found
52:01 in the city there's around 60 percent of
52:03 all the parking stalls in that area
52:05 being occupied which leaves which means
52:09 about 285 available stalls again at any
52:12 given time during the peak now clearly
52:15 it's important and to look at the area
52:19 because if you just looked at the the
52:22 core around the depot you would say wow
52:25 obviously we're at 85 percent or above
52:27 there's a problem because that 85
52:30 percent number is kind of the magic
52:32 number when talking about parking
52:34 management if it's more than 80 85
52:39 percent implies that if you're driving
52:42 around that on a particular block there
52:45 may be one or two spaces available it
52:47 takes them looking but they're there if
52:48 it's much more than 85 percent then
52:51 there's a lot of trouble you're having
52:52 trouble finding it and so at 85 percent
52:57 is when you start to implement manage
52:59 practices typically it'll talk more
53:01 about that in a minute
53:04 but you have to look again you have to
53:07 look at the area that that's surveyed
53:08 and then the other significant piece of
53:11 that is how how far people are willing
53:15 to walk when they do park to their
53:16 destination and we did an online survey
53:19 and the respondents more than 70 percent
53:23 said that it was reasonable to walk
53:26 three to five minutes to your
53:27 destination and and about ten percent
53:30 were neutral on that so you know it's a
53:33 pretty significant number that thought
53:35 that was acceptable to walk that far
53:37 and so certainly you know we found in
53:42 this area that at any given time there
53:45 is plenty of available parking within a
53:47 three to five minute walk so that was
53:52 the finding to them then the next
53:53 question is what are were the next steps
53:57 and when approaching parking management
54:02 there's kind of four different steps or
54:04 options you go through the first one is
54:06 continue to monitor which is the
54:09 direction we're going so I'll get back
54:11 to that in just a minute
54:12 the second thing that you do again when
54:14 you're at 85% for either either a bigger
54:17 area of what I showed or for longer
54:20 periods of time you know when you need
54:22 to really do need to start doing
54:23 something usually the first thing you
54:25 would do is put time limits on it but
54:28 time limits that this is not just
54:30 putting up signs because there's
54:33 enforcement involved you can't just put
54:35 the signs up you also have to enforce so
54:37 there's some cost associated with that
54:40 after putting time limits the next step
54:43 would usually be arcing meters or having
54:48 paid parking that's kind of the next
54:50 level up of parking management again
54:53 there's a lot of enforcement involved in
54:54 that there's the equipment there's work
54:57 costs you looked at all of the
54:59 implications of doing these and then
55:01 finally the fourth thing is to basically
55:05 build a parking garage or create more
55:08 parking those are kind of the steps you
55:10 go through to address parking again I
55:12 get said having seen that at any given
55:14 time there's you know we're at about
55:16 sixty percent utilization within that
55:18 area what we recommended and what the
55:21 City Council agreed was basically a the
55:24 continuing to monitor and a low-cost
55:27 alternative which basically involves
55:30 education outreach and signage and so
55:34 what we're doing is we've committed to
55:37 every couple of years doing that survey
55:39 again because downtown obviously is
55:42 dynamic I mean ironically that the the
55:44 what we found this past year was pretty
55:47 similar to a parking study that was done
55:50 in 2012 you know as far as the you know
55:54 where the highest utilization is and
55:56 that about you know parking has
55:58 increased a little bit downtown but
56:00 there hasn't been significant changes
56:02 since 2012 but having said that knowing
56:04 that we're continuing to to tweak our
56:06 regulations and you know developments
56:08 new businesses come in and hopefully
56:10 even our booming even more than they are
56:13 today we need to continue to monitor
56:17 that so not in 2020 but in 2021
56:20 we'll go back and do that inventory
56:23 again real important to do the same you
56:26 know maybe even the same days but for
56:28 sure the same block fronts same time
56:30 periods just so we can compare apples to
56:33 apples to see how much is changing so
56:35 continuing to monitor is one thing we'll
56:37 do update then share new parking maps
56:40 this is kind of the education and
56:42 outreach piece this is a parking map
56:45 that we've been working on updating that
56:48 we can post on the downtown district
56:52 West Association website the city
56:53 website give out to businesses to hand
56:57 out again to inform the public and show
56:59 them where all the available public
57:01 parking is and that's that's an example
57:03 of kind of education piece wayfinding
57:09 signage so the
57:10 the city is going through the process
57:13 right now of hiring a consultant to
57:15 focus on wayfinding we know that parking
57:18 downtown is gonna be a piece of that
57:21 better signage to direct people to where
57:25 the available parking is and just kind
57:27 of a consistent plan so that it doesn't
57:30 get lost and all the other signs so
57:32 improving signage to direct people to
57:37 and from parking is one of the things
57:38 that should be part of that wayfinding
57:41 plan that the city is just starting
57:44 explore additional shared parking
57:46 opportunities mostly that is focused on
57:50 more efficiently using the parking that
57:54 already exists today and probably the
57:57 best example of that would be you know
57:59 their businesses downtown that are only
58:01 open during the day and closed at night
58:03 but they still have signs up that say
58:05 customer parking only you know not open
58:08 to the public so we're talking to
58:10 businesses some of them are more
58:11 receptive than others as far as opening
58:14 it up to the public at night and so we
58:16 may have to follow that up with some
58:17 additional signage or having them take
58:19 down signs or put new ones up and so
58:21 that's that's what that piece means is
58:22 again better utilizing what's down
58:25 downtown already and then focusing on
58:29 the pedestrian experience I add to that
58:31 because it's it's kind of an important
58:33 piece if we are asking if we're asking
58:37 customers to to walk in a park more
58:41 around the periphery of town and walk to
58:44 their destination we obviously want to
58:45 make sure that that walk is as safe and
58:51 clear and well-lit and pleasant as it
58:57 possibly can be and so where that plays
59:01 out is in a lot of other things that the
59:04 city is always working on you know if
59:06 they're replacing the streetlights
59:08 downtown or I know the one thing that
59:10 comes to mind is the parks department is
59:11 going to be looking at the Veterans
59:13 Memorial field master plan this next
59:15 year and I know you know for going to
59:19 ask people to park around because
59:21 there's a lot of parking around Memorial
59:22 field but if we're going to ask people
59:24 to start utilizing that parking more we
59:27 want to make sure that there's just you
59:28 know a clear easy way to get from front
59:32 street to where that parking is and it's
59:34 not real easy on those parking truck
59:36 there's train tracks and everything
59:37 there but kind of one of the quicker
59:40 quicker and easier solutions is making
59:43 sure that those walkways are pleasant to
59:48 be on so that people don't mind that
59:50 walk I think that's everything that I
59:55 had prepared to say but I'm certainly
59:58 open to any questions you may have
1:00:04 we're gonna go with the public first or
1:00:07 let's go ahead and actually I like that
1:00:09 idea let's go ahead and open that up to
1:00:10 public comments any public comments
1:00:25 Thank You JJ Lin I'm a property owner on
1:00:28 Front Street here so one of the things
1:00:32 that I brought up at the last meeting
1:00:34 was no in my opinion and the reason I
1:00:39 say this is because I'm looking to
1:00:41 develop my property the code changes
1:00:44 that are gonna occur are essentially a
1:00:46 Down zone and I understand from a public
1:00:49 policy standpoint maybe that's the
1:00:52 direction that you want to take Oldtown
1:00:54 well my question and what I would like
1:00:57 to challenge the Commission to do is ask
1:01:00 the question on what do they think it's
1:01:02 going to do to property values in the
1:01:04 old town area and I don't think that's
1:01:08 been answered at least I haven't heard
1:01:11 it from a couple of the Planning
1:01:14 Commission meetings that I've been to
1:01:16 and you know maybe I missed them and
1:01:18 maybe it was already done but I think in
1:01:20 the packets that we've gotten and that
1:01:23 Yukon that hasn't been addressed and if
1:01:27 you want to move ahead with these
1:01:30 proposed changes I think it's fine but
1:01:33 we're gonna be going into public
1:01:34 commenting soon and I think the
1:01:36 Commission should be prepared for
1:01:37 questions about property values and how
1:01:40 it's going to affect it because the way
1:01:43 I see it a lot of Front Street is built
1:01:45 out already and so you can say well you
1:01:48 know these changes aren't going to
1:01:49 affect you know lowering the building
1:01:51 heights aren't going to affect you know
1:01:54 the existing buildings and you know
1:01:57 maybe on the surface that might be true
1:02:01 but in my mind and this is my opinion
1:02:04 your property value is composed of two
1:02:07 things land value and building value so
1:02:10 if you are on Front Street and you're in
1:02:12 the Old Town area in the center and
1:02:14 you've already been built well the only
1:02:17 thing that can really go up in value is
1:02:19 your land because you have an existing
1:02:21 building and maybe that'll go up because
1:02:23 you maintain it for inflation but you
1:02:26 know if you look at your little property
1:02:28 values
1:02:29 that you have the things that they mail
1:02:31 its land and building and so in my mind
1:02:34 if you essentially down zone you sure
1:02:39 you've given more you know it's usable
1:02:42 area for your land in exchange for
1:02:44 reducing building height but in my mind
1:02:45 it's still a Down zone and so I feel
1:02:49 like that's going to reduce the land
1:02:51 value of the existing buildings existing
1:02:54 property and I'm not asking you to take
1:02:57 my word for it what I'm challenging you
1:03:00 as a commission is find the answer has
1:03:05 anyone asked the question and if it has
1:03:08 I haven't seen it presented and you know
1:03:11 these packets are pretty large and so
1:03:12 I'm not saying I read every single line
1:03:14 on it but I think that's a reasonable
1:03:17 question from the public to ask and you
1:03:20 know it's true I'm a property owner on
1:03:22 Front Street but that's what I'm asking
1:03:25 and I'm not trying to ask you to take my
1:03:29 word for it I'm saying well who's asked
1:03:32 the question and in my mind
1:03:34 we haven't heard that and the last thing
1:03:37 I wanted to address was requiring retail
1:03:41 on Front Street
1:03:42 as Christopher mentioned already well if
1:03:45 you're a property developer you're going
1:03:46 to try to maximize the highest value you
1:03:50 could use for your property and I have a
1:03:51 piece of property at the very end of
1:03:53 Front Street and sure if I look at the
1:03:56 economics I'd probably want to do retail
1:03:58 but what I take exception to is that why
1:04:02 are we writing it into the code to
1:04:04 require property owners to do that I
1:04:06 mean what is the rationale if it's going
1:04:09 to be the best use for my property well
1:04:13 I think that the Planning Commission and
1:04:15 the city should let property owners
1:04:17 decide what's the best use for the
1:04:19 property I think you know if you want to
1:04:22 change the building heights and you know
1:04:24 the pervious surface I mean I think
1:04:26 those are all reasonable things we as
1:04:29 property owners can take but I don't
1:04:32 think we need to dictate how property
1:04:35 owners do things and you know you should
1:04:38 just let the economics take care of the
1:04:40 sells and I wouldn't presume to you know
1:04:44 tell you you know you have to build a
1:04:46 parking garage on you know your single
1:04:48 residence house or whatever I mean I
1:04:50 don't so this is why you know just from
1:04:51 a principle perspective I have a lot of
1:04:53 problem and I would want the Commission
1:04:56 to you know asked the city to reconsider
1:04:59 that portion of the code amendments
1:05:02 thank you thank you
1:05:05 any other public no more public comment
1:05:10 okay beam I see no more public comment
1:05:12 I'll go ahead and close public comments
1:05:14 oh one of the great opportunities that
1:05:24 we have in this forum is for the public
1:05:25 to ask questions and so what does he
1:05:28 like to address the questions that were
1:05:29 just asked specifically regarding
1:05:32 Christopher if you want to address how
1:05:33 you feel property values are going to be
1:05:35 affected by the changes that we want to
1:05:37 put forward sure I mean know that with
1:05:44 every code amendment in every policy
1:05:46 that that you look at there there's
1:05:52 implications that it's going to affect
1:05:55 property values right whether they're
1:05:57 critical areas regulations or you know
1:06:00 setback impervious calculations whether
1:06:02 it's signage you know everything
1:06:05 potentially can impact property values I
1:06:08 do know that it's when we've received
1:06:11 appeals or when you hear about cases
1:06:15 that are challenging that it is hard to
1:06:18 prove that it's negatively affecting
1:06:20 your property values again this is a
1:06:22 little out of my area of expertise I
1:06:24 might say they can't be done but I know
1:06:27 when the Hearing Examiner has heard
1:06:29 similar arguments it you know having to
1:06:33 prove that it's negatively affecting
1:06:34 your property values can be difficult
1:06:38 having said that I know the take the
1:06:43 height for example the limitations
1:06:46 businesses downtown of enable properties
1:06:49 downtown have been able to build up to
1:06:51 65 feet for really long
1:06:52 time you know since the 90s at least and
1:06:56 nobody's really taking advantage of that
1:06:58 there's a lot of reasons for that most
1:07:00 of it has to do with as you were saw and
1:07:04 some of the other code amendments if
1:07:05 you're expanding that you're you're
1:07:07 building more than 10% you need to start
1:07:09 to meet parking requirements all of the
1:07:13 properties nouns are really small and so
1:07:16 when you start to need to add parking
1:07:18 because you're building a bigger
1:07:19 building it just doesn't work and so I
1:07:22 think that's why even though it's been
1:07:24 allowed for a long time we haven't seen
1:07:25 a bunch of people coming in with with
1:07:27 tall skinny buildings because you need
1:07:28 to provide the parking mass step in for
1:07:33 a second Christopher day so on the on
1:07:35 the non-economic or technical side of
1:07:38 things in the for open houses four
1:07:41 hundred and seventy plus responses that
1:07:43 we got twelve public meetings between
1:07:46 PPC and City Council what we kept
1:07:48 hearing to is that the value for these
1:07:50 for the people who live in Old Town and
1:07:52 for a lot of Issaquah residents is the
1:07:54 character of Old Town so it's not
1:07:56 necessarily you know that they look at
1:07:59 something new that may go in next to
1:08:00 them and go oh my gosh it's three feet
1:08:02 you know it's three stories higher four
1:08:03 storeys high and I've got seventeen
1:08:05 windows looking into my backyard that
1:08:06 reduces my property value simply and
1:08:09 that nobody wants to have seventeen
1:08:11 windows looking into their backyard so
1:08:13 it's it's a different way of looking at
1:08:14 it but that's what we heard in the one
1:08:17 and a half years that we did the plan
1:08:18 and that's one of the ways that we're
1:08:20 looking at trying to preserve the
1:08:21 character of Old Town another that we as
1:08:29 a community Aragon are deciding that
1:08:31 maintaining the character of Old Town is
1:08:33 the thing that we want to do and that
1:08:35 that in turn will help businesses
1:08:37 continue to grow and thrive because of
1:08:41 its unique special character it's right
1:08:45 this may be just a semantic issue but I
1:08:48 believe the documents that we've been
1:08:50 looking at up to now on the point
1:08:54 of code revisions to require
1:08:56 ground-floor commercial on Front Street
1:08:57 I believe that the word that was used
1:09:02 prior to this was retail on Front Street
1:09:05 not commercial on Front Street so I but
1:09:11 when I was reading us again and again
1:09:13 after the last meeting and I sent a
1:09:16 question in to Trish about verification
1:09:19 of can the city show my specific
1:09:22 question was considered the city show
1:09:24 we're requiring retail has worked but if
1:09:31 it's not retail if it's commercial which
1:09:34 I assume would be in that big list of
1:09:36 businesses it could be a law office or
1:09:39 an insurance office as there is when
1:09:42 there now then it's a little bit less of
1:09:46 a concern to me but still requiring the
1:09:50 kind of business is I don't know it's
1:09:54 like Kristen talked in just a minute
1:09:58 because we have done a little bit of
1:09:59 talking to other cities of that have
1:10:01 similar requirements but I I know
1:10:05 exactly what you're saying I thought the
1:10:06 same thing when I read it you know do we
1:10:09 do we want to continue to allow offices
1:10:13 you know as a storefront or do we really
1:10:16 want it to be retail I think that's a
1:10:20 question for you to talk about I think
1:10:24 in one of the other cities they use the
1:10:26 term active commercial which I like that
1:10:29 as a kind of a general guideline that
1:10:33 wouldn't necessarily exclude all offices
1:10:34 but you know just not ones that maybe a
1:10:38 corporate offices that just deal with
1:10:40 business elsewhere not locally so there
1:10:44 is a difference between same commercial
1:10:46 and retail and we have been talking
1:10:49 about that but I think it's worth
1:10:52 exploring like that but I think the the
1:10:54 best compromise between what it will be
1:10:58 acceptable to not to limiting to the
1:11:00 property owners
1:11:02 a good compromise is that active
1:11:04 commercial definition can you define and
1:11:08 enact I'm not trying to sharpshooter
1:11:10 yeah inactive commercial again inactive
1:11:15 commercial would be businesses that
1:11:20 serve more regional customers that don't
1:11:23 have people coming in and out
1:11:26 development firm for example what about
1:11:29 an example like an insurance agent we
1:11:31 have an insurance agent on Front Street
1:11:33 ourself right and there there are some
1:11:34 examples in town there's two pieces I
1:11:37 think one question is can you classify
1:11:39 is that an active commercial space and
1:11:40 certainly not retail kirkland looks at
1:11:45 it when they look at it they say cut
1:11:47 they say there's high customer turnover
1:11:48 so you know I and I think yes we would
1:11:51 have to reduce some research into what
1:11:52 exactly that means but not that somebody
1:11:54 comes in once a day or twice a day but
1:11:57 more people are kind of on a regular
1:11:59 basis going in and out things like the
1:12:01 t-mobile corporate office where the only
1:12:04 people that are going into those
1:12:05 buildings are he mobile employees right
1:12:10 people from around the country coming in
1:12:12 I mean no but again that's a broader
1:12:18 definition of who's coming and going and
1:12:20 the business that they're bringing in
1:12:21 from around the country how do we
1:12:23 quantify so this were coming in and
1:12:25 using hotel space I mean there's a
1:12:27 broader implication than just
1:12:29 necessarily who is coming in and out of
1:12:32 the front door how about the the
1:12:35 construction builder that bought that
1:12:36 little house on Front Street that has
1:12:41 the solar panels on there I mean I'm not
1:12:44 familiar with it but I would consider
1:12:45 that to not be a high turnover I would
1:12:48 think if you continue down this road to
1:12:51 allow commercial then that would be an
1:12:53 acceptable use if you wanted to go push
1:12:56 it a little bit further and only allow
1:12:57 retail then that would not be an allowed
1:12:59 use do we have a fixed list right now we
1:13:03 do be allowed for retail we do because
1:13:05 well not for retail because right now
1:13:07 we're allowing commercial and retail so
1:13:09 we have so do we like the terminology
1:13:11 we can we lose that term we can I think
1:13:14 we just heard it today for the first
1:13:15 time like it and and we'd need to do it
1:13:18 would need some boundaries so we need to
1:13:21 figure a definition we asked for that
1:13:23 from absolutely we see this sure to
1:13:25 actually be able to see where this lies
1:13:27 what is our you know permitted and not
1:13:29 permitted use it's kind of a thing check
1:13:31 and share I it might be helpful here to
1:13:37 get a consensus of the PPC as as to
1:13:41 whether or not very clearly there should
1:13:44 be a restriction or I'm sorry a
1:13:47 requirement I think that's that's the
1:13:50 issue that we're talking about here
1:13:51 should the city as a matter of policy
1:13:54 require retail or a specific type of
1:13:59 activity on in a whole town on Front
1:14:03 Street and we are not deciding anything
1:14:07 as a commission to no I'm just no I'm
1:14:08 just trying to I think I'm just trying
1:14:10 to see if there is a consensus and if
1:14:12 there isn't then you know there then
1:14:14 will save staff time from this
1:14:17 eventually gets the City Council right
1:14:18 changes our job is to engage the public
1:14:21 public figure out how people are
1:14:23 thinking about it we don't have to we're
1:14:25 not going to come up with a decision on
1:14:26 whether the same goes for it or not what
1:14:28 we're here to do is kind of help the
1:14:30 city come up with a great case that
1:14:32 makes sense right and right now we don't
1:14:34 it's not clear to us so it's not that's
1:14:37 what I'm saying is that no no I think we
1:14:39 have some more work to do on it we've
1:14:41 done a little just a second so we just
1:14:45 got your email on Tuesday so it's not a
1:14:47 whole lot of time to do research but I
1:14:50 did talk to mr SC who sent me which is
1:14:53 the municipal resource service and
1:14:55 something like that it's a regional
1:14:57 association that helps planners do
1:14:59 research they didn't say there were
1:15:02 there were some articles that they sent
1:15:03 and I will say in some of it's kind of
1:15:06 hard to see some of its bigger cities
1:15:08 some of its smaller cities and that's
1:15:09 kind of depends that's a factor in it I
1:15:12 did talk to Redmond and Kirkland Redmond
1:15:18 it's Redmond Redmond does not allow it's
1:15:22 kind of funny Redmond in certain areas
1:15:24 does not allow parking or residential to
1:15:29 face their frontage on certain streets
1:15:32 what's mean to simply essentially that
1:15:34 that leaves it open that you can only
1:15:35 put commercial uses there and it did
1:15:38 take a long time for that to kick in but
1:15:41 they've seen it be very effective and
1:15:44 over the past ten years or so what it
1:15:48 took for them was for the residential
1:15:49 community to come in because you can't
1:15:51 have commercial succeed unless you have
1:15:53 the residential there which they didn't
1:15:54 have an old town does have it I also
1:15:58 talked to Kirkland Kirkland also has a
1:16:00 very similar thing we say you know you
1:16:02 have to have 20 feet of space they say
1:16:05 you have to have 30 feet of space of
1:16:07 active commercial and there's has been
1:16:10 very successful and again it's only in
1:16:12 small areas you can't apply it over a
1:16:15 large area and Redmond did do that they
1:16:16 applied it over there hold downtown for
1:16:18 a while and it didn't work so they
1:16:20 reduced it and applied it to
1:16:21 intersections and certain streets which
1:16:23 is kind of what we're trying here
1:16:25 and again Kirkland relies on that they
1:16:27 already have a lot of residential around
1:16:29 it but the apartments that have gone in
1:16:30 have have helped as well but they've
1:16:32 seen successes and the Kirkland Director
1:16:34 came from the Bay Area and he said he
1:16:36 would need some time but he knows that
1:16:38 several Bay Area smaller cities require
1:16:40 this kind of thing on the ground levels
1:16:42 and they've been successful but he said
1:16:43 it's not enough timing to have to Reese
1:16:45 help me research okay there seems to be
1:16:50 a lot of passion behind us maybe
1:16:52 presenting or asking the city staff
1:16:57 bring us some aspirations or some ideas
1:17:01 before the next time we have a
1:17:04 discussion on the old town code
1:17:05 amendments about what might be some
1:17:10 benefits having retail only on maybe
1:17:14 certain segments what it might look like
1:17:16 with having active commercial
1:17:19 [Music]
1:17:21 organizations maybe how they have their
1:17:27 downtown set up there now would be an
1:17:30 appropriate fix for us I that's that I
1:17:36 think that personally I think that's
1:17:37 great I just the biggest question for me
1:17:40 is the change in the wording I mean is
1:17:42 that there's the city is it retail or is
1:17:44 it active commercial that I would have
1:17:48 all right and that's going back and
1:17:51 forth they will say that task force when
1:17:52 they first made their recommendations
1:17:54 they referred to retail when it made it
1:17:57 into the old town plan it became
1:18:01 commercial and then when we had longer
1:18:03 discussions about it when we were doing
1:18:04 the code amendments we said well let's
1:18:06 look at both and do commercial and
1:18:08 retail so if you all have a preference
1:18:10 and I think Christopher pointed out one
1:18:12 time that the more open you leave it
1:18:14 property owners may be a little happier
1:18:16 with that it gives them more options as
1:18:18 to who they can lease to but you also
1:18:20 want to make sure that it does have a
1:18:21 lot of customers coming in and out or
1:18:24 interaction with the street I think
1:18:27 around that there is definitely some
1:18:29 discussion that probably needs to happen
1:18:30 because there we all need to be educated
1:18:32 on what those options look like and
1:18:34 we're not prepared to have those
1:18:35 discussions today because we don't know
1:18:38 what those options may be so maybe
1:18:39 having staff come up with here's some
1:18:42 proposed solutions here are some
1:18:43 aspirations here's what people think it
1:18:46 allows ticket to the next stop and you
1:18:49 remind me the decisions that we made on
1:18:52 the future of mall street
1:18:55 awful Gilman when we talked about
1:18:57 creating
1:18:58 retail ground floor space if the
1:19:01 language was again retail or if we think
1:19:04 that this concept is evolving citywide
1:19:07 to include even CBD
1:19:10 of being an active commercial I don't
1:19:13 you mean the vertical mixed juice yeah
1:19:16 we talked about requiring a retail
1:19:18 component over wasn't called Wall Street
1:19:21 basically we were great you know a
1:19:23 little bit over but yeah but that was
1:19:26 part of the moratorium the vertical
1:19:29 mixed-use requirements these are
1:19:31 different in that central is gonna be in
1:19:35 the future hopefully very different than
1:19:37 all town is and so with all time the way
1:19:40 it's written now in your packet the code
1:19:42 amendment says commercial / retail so
1:19:45 it's sort of open-ended we don't say
1:19:47 active commercial it's just commercial /
1:19:50 retail so that's the whole list of uses
1:19:52 that we had on the screen two weeks ago
1:19:55 of all of the I all of the ones that are
1:19:58 proposed that they can do now on Front
1:20:00 Street that they would be able to do as
1:20:02 that first floor so as a whole it was a
1:20:05 whole screen full of uses that they
1:20:06 could use to fill that requirement so my
1:20:09 question is is when we talk a lot about
1:20:11 terminology setting a definition of
1:20:13 terms as we move forward to help people
1:20:15 navigate code in the city are we
1:20:18 adopting a citywide concept that is
1:20:21 active commercial versus retail and a
1:20:24 definition of what we of what these
1:20:26 categories are right tonight's the first
1:20:28 night we've ever said active commercial
1:20:31 the way it's written is commercial like
1:20:33 the zoning code thinks of commercial
1:20:35 which would be the list of uses that
1:20:37 we're on the screen two weeks ago but if
1:20:39 you would like us to to ponder an active
1:20:43 commercial definition we could go back
1:20:46 to our desks and do some research on how
1:20:49 do other communities define that and use
1:20:52 that if that's something that all of you
1:20:54 would want us to do if it's only you
1:20:56 know two of you then but you know I
1:20:59 agree with Randy it would be good to see
1:21:00 sort of what the flavor is of the
1:21:02 Commission so that you know Kristen and
1:21:05 I aren't doing work that that's only
1:21:08 narrowly focused but we're happy to do
1:21:11 that if the Commission is curious and
1:21:13 interested in pursuing an active
1:21:15 commercial definition what my question
1:21:18 was was
1:21:19 in regards to the work we've previously
1:21:20 done regarding on the future of mall
1:21:22 Street was that specifically a retail
1:21:25 component below or was it a commercial
1:21:27 mister commercial / retail it's called
1:21:30 vertical mix juice and I believe it was
1:21:31 commercial on the bottom floor herschel
1:21:33 on the bottom floor I think that's but
1:21:35 then again that's central so they're
1:21:37 they're terminology is different than
1:21:39 all the time because it's still a
1:21:40 different code I know yeah Christopher
1:21:43 the again not old town but some of the
1:21:49 apartment I believe actually all of the
1:21:51 apartment complexes that have gone in in
1:21:53 the Central District when the applicant
1:21:56 came I believe this we told them that we
1:22:01 wanted retail on the bottom floor and as
1:22:05 I recall at least one for sure one of
1:22:09 the newer apartment buildings the
1:22:12 agreement was that they would make the
1:22:15 ground floor apart or ground floor
1:22:18 compatible with so there somebody wanted
1:22:23 to come in but one of the questions that
1:22:26 I had is to the best of my knowledge
1:22:29 there have been no commercial / retail
1:22:33 businesses that have approached the
1:22:38 apartments the newer newer apartments
1:22:40 that have the ability to accommodate
1:22:41 them but there's been no demand is that
1:22:44 correct as far as you know that's
1:22:46 correct I haven't heard of those
1:22:49 complexes being approached by businesses
1:22:51 wanting to move in there and that that
1:22:53 was my concern about requiring this on
1:22:56 my street but but the other side of that
1:22:58 story though Randy is when they first
1:23:00 came in to talk to us about their site
1:23:03 we asked them if they would provide
1:23:05 retail or commercial services on the
1:23:07 bottom floor and they said we would but
1:23:10 it's not required and we said but it's
1:23:14 the right thing to do well I said we
1:23:17 could but we're not going to because
1:23:18 it's not required what I think is is if
1:23:21 they can they can't
1:23:25 I think that's why we said we'd really
1:23:26 like to see a retail there when we
1:23:28 approved the projects right and so I
1:23:32 think when this came up for Old Town we
1:23:33 thought you know maybe we should try
1:23:36 requiring it just to be sure that we get
1:23:39 what we think we want in the future and
1:23:42 not all of a sudden have a storefront
1:23:43 that's really something that's not
1:23:46 active and not helping the street and
1:23:48 not helping the area and we'll be have
1:23:51 that for how many years until it turns
1:23:53 over so we want to take a tally on
1:23:59 questions we want to pose to the F for
1:24:04 the next time we have a discussion on
1:24:06 the whole town amendments I mean
1:24:10 questions people would like to hear and
1:24:13 if you have a question we can take a
1:24:15 quick tally and see if it's done we want
1:24:18 to follow up with I would certain I was
1:24:20 quite vociferous about this last meeting
1:24:22 I think we've opened up a can of worms
1:24:24 here that introducing the worth required
1:24:27 and here is rather than incentivize or
1:24:29 some other ameliorating word it's just a
1:24:32 severe problems and they introduce a
1:24:34 concept like active commercial that then
1:24:37 depends on the operator by bringing an
1:24:39 active commercial and that make
1:24:43 important with the new regulation view
1:24:45 adopted it but I'm allows the operator
1:24:47 and I generate no traffic and I go belly
1:24:49 up so so to me I certainly would like to
1:24:53 have this tally and see were wanting to
1:24:56 ask more questions because I think we're
1:24:58 just asking for trouble and just to
1:25:00 comment to you by the way on HP
1:25:02 developer for most of my life and then
1:25:05 hearing the count and when you if I come
1:25:08 to you is city official and you ask me
1:25:11 would you provide retail and I've had
1:25:14 this happen if I can say Q something
1:25:17 that induces you to smile sweetly at me
1:25:20 and think well of me I will say it
1:25:23 particular if I know it's not required
1:25:26 the offers are salesmen so if you
1:25:29 extrapolate from that comment
1:25:31 something is now actionable it's led you
1:25:34 to think something I'm just suggesting
1:25:35 to you that there's maybe some other
1:25:38 undercurrent there that you know most
1:25:41 developers will smoke say yes we will
1:25:43 especially they know they don't have to
1:25:45 so and most of the ones I know have
1:25:49 talked to over the years clear myself
1:25:52 fix it
1:25:52 it just doesn't pencil so we can look at
1:25:57 it and ask for it all what I'm just
1:25:58 telling you it's a practitioner for most
1:26:00 of my life in this business
1:26:01 it just doesn't pencil when you start
1:26:04 making requirements dynamic environment
1:26:06 so I would be like to have a tally and I
1:26:10 think this we're barking up the wrong
1:26:12 tree here with the word requirement
1:26:13 point of clarification we're not talking
1:26:16 about policy though we're talking about
1:26:17 clarification right I'm talking about
1:26:19 questions that questions we're posing to
1:26:23 city staff to discuss and the next time
1:26:29 we have a discussion about proposed Old
1:26:32 Town amendments so we're not actually
1:26:33 making any decisions tonight about
1:26:35 anything we're just saying these are
1:26:37 questions that we want to have
1:26:38 clarification to during our next
1:26:41 conversation it sounds like there might
1:26:42 be one around
1:26:45 what would active commercial what would
1:26:48 be the definition of active commercial
1:26:50 what would that look like
1:26:52 yeah what is the list how does that
1:26:53 compare to retail and then one thing I
1:26:55 remember we did with I believe you guys
1:26:59 showed us pictures of some fire houses
1:27:01 and things like that is describe you
1:27:03 know what does Kirkland do by the
1:27:04 waterfront they have a very successful
1:27:06 retail area down there at the very end
1:27:09 of 85th Street that goes down by their
1:27:11 Cabana when they have basically their
1:27:14 Kirkland days and that's been very
1:27:16 successful and that's mixed with a lot
1:27:18 of residential and multi-family used
1:27:21 homes and things like that apartments
1:27:22 and condos and then again look -
1:27:25 Christine's point you know why did
1:27:27 Redman fail what is it about Redman that
1:27:29 did not work well they adjusted it
1:27:31 didn't fail sure justice cope and now
1:27:33 it's succeeding no they've been able to
1:27:36 build out the residential component okay
1:27:38 let's go so what does that look like and
1:27:40 what is redmond doing
1:27:42 differently than say Kirkland and cities
1:27:45 that are somewhat similar to who
1:27:47 Issaquah and into my mind like I said I
1:27:49 think Kirkland in that particular area
1:27:51 is kind of like the twin sister city so
1:27:55 to speak of old town Oh maybe something
1:27:58 like that so is it more than just two
1:28:01 that are interested in that or take
1:28:06 Italian those are in favor of that kind
1:28:10 of question raise your hand super I also
1:28:19 had in my notes to sort of do a pros and
1:28:21 cons for requiring it so one is active
1:28:25 commercial what does that look like how
1:28:26 would you define it where are the
1:28:27 boundaries and then the other one is
1:28:29 pros and cons and then what do other
1:28:31 cities can do one why did they succeed
1:28:33 and fail does that cover it okay like to
1:28:41 make a comment Chris to you about this
1:28:42 old town parking study find it a little
1:28:45 funny that there's the concept that we
1:28:48 have a plethora of spaces and what that
1:28:53 really means is when I loved this map
1:28:55 because this is really the question of
1:28:57 what we what the what the Commission was
1:29:00 asking last week and I think was kind of
1:29:02 missing when I was reading the packet
1:29:04 was that in order to say that we have a
1:29:06 dearth of spaces is to say that you need
1:29:09 to what you need to park by Gillman to
1:29:11 be able to go to sunset and well theory
1:29:14 I think we would all say that the
1:29:15 five-minute walk is not that big a deal
1:29:17 I know I personally have plenty you go
1:29:21 into Old Town been in my car can't find
1:29:25 a space and I go to another city because
1:29:27 it's raining and to me I'm just not
1:29:30 going to go and park past the dairy to
1:29:32 then come and walk back in the dark back
1:29:35 in my car so I think while it's all well
1:29:38 and good to think about it in terms of
1:29:40 this big space the map that you provided
1:29:42 for that was actually the educational
1:29:44 map doesn't include parking way up by
1:29:46 Gilman and Front Street so it's kind of
1:29:48 funny because you have this mismatch of
1:29:49 being like we have all this parking but
1:29:51 we're
1:29:52 not even providing the parking options
1:29:53 of saying you need to you need to walk
1:29:55 your ass all the way down past the dairy
1:29:57 especially when we don't have this
1:29:59 contiguous retail presence where there
1:30:02 is things for people to be doing
1:30:04 constantly you know I personally don't
1:30:06 frequent the reading room and so it's
1:30:08 not a stuff that I make on the way as
1:30:09 I'm walking past the dairy to come all
1:30:11 the way down to where we have our kind
1:30:13 of congested area of restaurants I think
1:30:16 it's a little silly to compare it to
1:30:19 Seattle because when saying well I'm
1:30:22 gonna park and I'm going to walk my
1:30:24 options are different in Seattle I have
1:30:26 a much wider variety and diversity the
1:30:29 scale of what I'm getting is also not
1:30:31 the same so as someone who really enjoys
1:30:34 going to Seattle and is a City centric
1:30:36 person I'm willing to do that because
1:30:38 I'm getting something for it if I'm
1:30:41 coming into Issaquah then I'm also
1:30:42 wanting to get a different experience
1:30:44 so you're have these trade-offs of
1:30:47 saying I don't mind dealing with the
1:30:48 pros and cons of a city because I'm
1:30:50 getting something for it just like when
1:30:52 I come to Issaquah I want to have a
1:30:53 certain experience so I would encourage
1:30:55 you to look at and see we do have a lot
1:30:57 of red spaces and they are exactly where
1:30:59 we have a lot of our peak businesses and
1:31:02 so how do we want to encourage people to
1:31:04 be able to come and get out of their
1:31:06 cars and really engage with our
1:31:08 community rather than this kind of
1:31:10 arbitrary number of saying well we do
1:31:12 have a lot of spaces but if those spaces
1:31:14 aren't getting used that doesn't
1:31:16 necessarily mean that we have them is
1:31:18 all I wouldn't like them why not
1:31:22 and actually to the joy point if a lot
1:31:26 of these businesses have no parking
1:31:29 because it is their private and you have
1:31:32 another business that is impacted by
1:31:36 that because they don't have enough
1:31:38 parking for them is the study
1:31:41 calculating the empty spaces for the the
1:31:46 store the stores that have empty parking
1:31:50 spaces which is only for them because no
1:31:52 one's in their store versus that makes
1:31:55 sense your public right hi
1:31:58 to reiterate we were only looking at
1:32:01 public marking in other words parking
1:32:03 that's on the street and then the public
1:32:05 parking that's kind of around the depot
1:32:07 and around the community center we
1:32:08 weren't looking at the private parking
1:32:10 lots we were looking at all the parking
1:32:12 on first place behind los margaritas and
1:32:15 in word jumble yeah we weren't looking
1:32:16 at the private lots we were only looking
1:32:18 at the public parking thank you for the
1:32:21 clarification Christopher could we could
1:32:24 we get a copy of the questionnaire use
1:32:27 for the BRE did we just see it oh sure
1:32:29 we do that yeah and this is kind of
1:32:33 tangential that's my last question is
1:32:34 the city still working to move City Hall
1:32:39 south mimic north to consolidate in an
1:32:45 old town is that still a dream I sure
1:32:49 hope so I hope they're working on it the
1:32:54 answer is yes and I know that it's an
1:32:57 issue that when our new city
1:32:58 administrator comes on board is going to
1:33:00 be one of his big issues roughly how
1:33:04 many employees are still down by Loes
1:33:09 it's Studio Northwest where our offices
1:33:12 yeah 75 no more than that more than that
1:33:21 city all Northwest the Parks Department
1:33:23 spread out all over public Ward's to
1:33:25 spread out all over so that would be a
1:33:27 the point is when that gets done that
1:33:30 would be a significant increase in the
1:33:32 people who are doing business downtown
1:33:34 exactly parking
1:33:40 mister could you terminology you there's
1:33:44 a direct parking implication to having a
1:33:47 I can't remove the word it's a locally
1:33:49 oriented businesses right can you you
1:33:53 you describe coming at it from the
1:33:55 economic development perspective saying
1:33:57 looking from the out in as a process of
1:34:01 enforcement or a question reinforcement
1:34:03 how are you how is how is it going to be
1:34:06 determined whether a business is a
1:34:09 locally oriented business which in turn
1:34:12 drives the parking requirements amongst
1:34:13 other things for that business can you
1:34:16 describe how you're going to make a
1:34:17 determination on an ongoing basis not
1:34:20 just initially with a list maybe but
1:34:23 ongoing and monitoring how is that
1:34:25 working well so this concept of a
1:34:29 neighborhood business is not one that's
1:34:31 in the code right now it's it's part of
1:34:34 the code amendments and there's a
1:34:35 definition then of what a neighborhood
1:34:38 oriented business is and that's one of
1:34:41 the things is that you'll be you'll be
1:34:43 voting on and so really and I'll read
1:34:47 the wording to you because it is
1:34:48 important it's it's a business that has
1:34:51 10 or fewer locations around the United
1:34:54 States and serves the daily needs of the
1:34:57 community this can be in in this case
1:35:02 all downtown
1:35:03 yeah so I have nine businesses around
1:35:07 the United States and I serve red
1:35:10 Redmond and I serve Kirkland then I
1:35:12 certainly serve this well I'm just
1:35:13 making up a story here it's not called
1:35:19 local it's called neighborhood or
1:35:20 business so the intent to know if you
1:35:24 have under if you have ten or fewer then
1:35:27 that would be considered a neighborhood
1:35:28 oriented business and those Starbucks
1:35:30 would not be considered a neighborhood
1:35:32 oriented business because they have
1:35:33 thousands right and the point is not to
1:35:35 say we only want that kind the point is
1:35:39 is there a way that we can bring in
1:35:41 those sorts of businesses for the
1:35:43 residents of Old Town and the business
1:35:46 people of Old Town to allow them to have
1:35:49 a small parking reduction in order to
1:35:51 get that
1:35:52 business to be here it's not it doesn't
1:35:54 affect anybody that's already here it's
1:35:57 only if you're a property owner and you
1:35:58 have a choice of I could have a
1:36:00 Starbucks or I could have a really cool
1:36:03 little niche kind of a business that
1:36:05 would serve daily needs it might be a
1:36:07 restaurant it might be a hardware store
1:36:09 it might be a what but then you would
1:36:11 get a parking brake if you brought in
1:36:13 the niche hardware store let's say
1:36:15 versus if you chose to bring in a
1:36:18 Starbucks or Tully's or they're not
1:36:20 around anymore but something that's not
1:36:22 a locally a neighborhood business so
1:36:25 it's not that we're saying that's all we
1:36:27 want it's a way to bring in those
1:36:29 businesses with a small parking
1:36:32 reduction because a lot of the people
1:36:34 here that either work here or live here
1:36:36 would be able to walk and so it wouldn't
1:36:38 need quite so many parking spaces that's
1:36:40 the only reason that we're doing that
1:36:42 it's not at all to say or to send a
1:36:44 message that that's all we want here
1:36:46 it's just another option for another
1:36:48 sort of business that we're hoping to
1:36:50 have here it's a tool to incentivize yes
1:36:52 perfect it's not a good example like
1:36:54 maybe wanting to have a local brewery
1:36:56 versus a national chain of couch
1:36:59 manufacturer and as and it's not just to
1:37:05 bring those people here but it's not
1:37:06 just to help those businesses because as
1:37:08 Steven said a parking space would cost
1:37:10 anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 dollars
1:37:12 so if these businesses are trying to get
1:37:14 started and they can't because they have
1:37:16 to add three parking spaces or it cost
1:37:18 them $60,000 total then maybe this is a
1:37:21 way to help them out and help them build
1:37:23 their business so can you describe to
1:37:24 that III guess I hear you but I'm a
1:37:26 property owner and I bring in a coffee
1:37:29 shop that's locally single coffee shops
1:37:32 extremely expensive and now I want to
1:37:33 franchise it and I franchised across
1:37:36 Washington State let's see Jimmy argued
1:37:38 and not at 11 what happens to my parking
1:37:41 requirements if you're already here
1:37:44 Thank You joy we're gonna hire you
1:37:47 grandfathered in that means that you're
1:37:48 grandfathered in yeah officially might
1:37:51 be considered a non-conforming use yes
1:37:57 the community and what would the benefit
1:38:00 be the community of having a successful
1:38:01 local flea owned coffee shop as opposed
1:38:04 to Starbucks I'm still not clear on that
1:38:06 from an economic from a people turnover
1:38:08 point of view what is it to try and
1:38:10 drive local or entrepreneurship and give
1:38:12 them a from a citizen of the city it
1:38:16 will prevent old town from turning into
1:38:19 a strip of corporate stores and these in
1:38:23 this hard work will also keep Old Town
1:38:26 front Street from turning into a bunch
1:38:28 of condos you can remain tain to look
1:38:31 and feel the city you can come into
1:38:32 Issaquah and do business in a lot of
1:38:34 places what we want to do is protect Old
1:38:36 Town and it's the it's the shop local
1:38:40 concept right the the money that we
1:38:43 spend in this acquire if it's a local
1:38:45 business will stay in Issaquah as
1:38:48 opposed to going to you know Tucson or
1:38:51 will corporate headquarters somewhere I
1:38:52 think based on what I'm hearing from my
1:38:54 commissioners and the city staff what I
1:38:57 value about Old Town is a vibrancy and
1:39:02 you get that when you have people and
1:39:04 people like retail and diners and coffee
1:39:08 shops and I think if we lose that to a
1:39:12 commercial office and our old town isn't
1:39:17 going to be as vibrant as we need it to
1:39:20 be because that vibrancy is going to
1:39:22 support all the other businesses that
1:39:24 are on that floor so if we have the
1:39:28 ground-floor retail requirement I think
1:39:31 that might that would be probably a good
1:39:33 thing and then have you know your
1:39:36 commercial above or if you want
1:39:38 condominiums above or apartments above
1:39:40 my what I'm hearing back and forth is my
1:39:45 only concern is that I don't want to
1:39:47 lose the vibrancy of Front Street by
1:39:52 allowing too many different options and
1:39:56 that's just a common can i I'm hearing a
1:40:00 lot of different terminology going
1:40:03 around and the way that we're talking
1:40:05 about this particular provision it's a
1:40:07 small piece of the full town plan that
1:40:10 was written up and it's already been
1:40:11 decided that we wanted to pursue this
1:40:13 particular change and so we want to
1:40:16 decide we want in terms of commercial or
1:40:20 retail and but the definition or the
1:40:25 meaning of a neighbourhood oriented
1:40:27 business doesn't have anything about
1:40:29 local ownership in it Mike around
1:40:31 nothing whatsoever no not local it's a
1:40:35 business that is intended to cater to
1:40:38 the surrounding environment and
1:40:40 neighborhoods which then facilitates
1:40:43 greater density of residency and
1:40:48 supports the type of helps us transit to
1:40:56 thrive so it trickles across the lot
1:40:58 area transportation and the parking and
1:41:00 the accommodating new residences the
1:41:04 resident residents to the city that is
1:41:06 all facilitated by this small provision
1:41:09 am I on the right way yes yes well
1:41:16 suddenly I wanted to clarify are you
1:41:17 outside okay that was actually a really
1:41:23 good discussion a lot any other
1:41:26 questions
1:41:29 and next time you see this will be the
1:41:33 exciting public hearing on it so which
1:41:37 would we do hope that you'll make a
1:41:39 recommendation to the City Council and
1:41:41 so having said that going once going
1:41:44 twice are there any other questions or
1:41:47 comments or thoughts that you would want
1:41:49 us to research for next time because
1:41:51 knowing that in the public hearing if
1:41:53 you have an aha moment sometimes too as
1:41:58 smart as we are we won't perhaps know
1:42:00 exactly the breadth of the answer if you
1:42:03 have been to come up with it at the
1:42:05 meeting at the public hearing so
1:42:07 any last thoughts or even if you know
1:42:11 you wake up in the middle of the night
1:42:13 and say oh I got to tell Kristen that I
1:42:15 have another question you know the
1:42:16 sooner you get them to us the more
1:42:18 successful I think the public hearing
1:42:20 will be for you all that you'll have all
1:42:21 your questions answered before you have
1:42:23 to think about a recommendation I think
1:42:25 presenting us with a storyline of what
1:42:28 some of the ideas might be that we want
1:42:32 to model towards would help us and
1:42:34 understand the differences between
1:42:36 commercial acts of reactive commercial
1:42:39 retail things that bring in economic
1:42:42 vitality and the vibrancy I think would
1:42:45 help us really I'm just making sure that
1:42:48 there's not one more thing that
1:42:51 someone's thinking of that their thing
1:42:53 well you know please ask it now so that
1:42:55 we can be prepared versus the night of
1:42:57 the public hearing it's always so
1:42:58 helpful to us okay
1:43:06 I'm for it one of the safety and
1:43:10 security was mentioned a couple of times
1:43:11 is there is there any factor in this
1:43:16 when the city is looking at get
1:43:18 encouraging people to walk around can we
1:43:21 can the city of this across state flatly
1:43:23 that that this is an absolutely safe
1:43:26 place we there you know I hear people
1:43:29 that are not going into Seattle period
1:43:33 because they've they're afraid to
1:43:34 whether that's justified or not that
1:43:37 that's an issue I people ask me about
1:43:40 what is this thing on next-door about
1:43:43 and if you look at if you look at the
1:43:46 police right map that shows it's updated
1:43:48 every 24 hours it'll scare the heck out
1:43:51 of ya because there's a lot of stuff and
1:43:53 it's misdemeanors stuff for its whatever
1:43:55 but if you look at the locations they're
1:43:57 down here they're there in Old Town so
1:44:00 my question is and we can weed what do
1:44:05 we do to ensure that people understand
1:44:07 that it is
1:44:10 a safe place I don't I don't think that
1:44:13 that I think people are more afraid than
1:44:17 they need to be to go places so if we
1:44:19 could get something into this that also
1:44:21 points out that it's it's a great place
1:44:24 to walk as a matter of you know when the
1:44:26 city does this it's not a major issue
1:44:29 but it's coming and it's in the plan and
1:44:33 it was part of the task force
1:44:35 recommendation but it is in the plan and
1:44:36 part of it is to do an inventory of the
1:44:38 sidewalks and bicycles in Old Town
1:44:41 bicycle bicycle lanes in Old Town
1:44:45 partners lighting yeah I know I'm
1:44:47 getting there okay so and then to
1:44:49 actually build built fill in those gaps
1:44:51 for bike lanes and sidewalks or make
1:44:55 greenways whatever it may be to indicate
1:44:57 that you know cyclists are there another
1:44:59 part was that people need to feel safer
1:45:01 when they walk so the recommendation
1:45:03 from the task force was to provide more
1:45:05 lighting to make it safer so that is
1:45:07 also in the plan but these are we can we
1:45:10 can only do so many things at a time so
1:45:12 we're working on it it's great okay it's
1:45:15 there I like what granny was just saying
1:45:19 and I just had an aha moment like an
1:45:24 intersection has a level of safety or a
1:45:26 level of service maybe we have a level
1:45:29 of safety rating in Old Town and say you
1:45:34 know these are the safety ratings that
1:45:36 are given for pedestrians and cyclists
1:45:39 and crime and then that way we can use
1:45:41 that as a benchmark to present to our
1:45:44 law enforcement and say that these are
1:45:46 the things that we need to keep that
1:45:48 feeling I actually I think the City PD
1:45:53 already has the numbers to prepare
1:45:56 safety in Issaquah and specific
1:46:00 neighborhoods to other other towns I
1:46:03 mean I think there are standards for you
1:46:05 know felonies 400,000 whatever and
1:46:09 that's why I'm saying that I don't from
1:46:11 my personal experience I don't think
1:46:12 people understand how safe is the qua is
1:46:14 but if you just look at the map and
1:46:16 things like that so the data is there I
1:46:18 believe wrong right right now it it's
1:46:22 easily making use of well maybe sharing
1:46:27 that data will help sure I'll wait to
1:46:30 communicate that you'll tell encoded
1:46:38 amendments the crime down well that
1:46:43 wouldn't really be part of our as
1:46:44 land-use it's certainly something that
1:46:46 you can find on Randy's map but it's not
1:46:49 really fundamentally correct it's not
1:46:53 Randy's map the map that Randy something
1:46:56 that should be routed through the
1:46:57 economic development folk and to the
1:47:00 downtown Issaquah Association and see it
1:47:03 more the Health and Human Services thing
1:47:04 but it's not but it's fascinating it's a
1:47:11 fascinating okay any other questions
1:47:15 back on topic now no all right so I'm
1:47:20 going to close out let's see we have
1:47:24 other business upcoming schedule the
1:47:26 next plan Planning Commission is going
1:47:29 to be on September 5th and that's your
1:47:32 public hearing on the old time code
1:47:34 amendments and just to let you know
1:47:37 while we're talking about scheduled and
1:47:39 new meeting got scheduled was scheduled
1:47:42 if that's the proper grammar and
1:47:44 December this is very exciting
1:47:46 December 5th it will be a special
1:47:50 meeting because we're giving you
1:47:51 December 26th off so we're replacing it
1:47:56 with December 5th and it will be on the
1:47:58 sign code and you guys are laughing did
1:48:00 you guys want to be here on December
1:48:06 I'll show movies it'll be movie night
1:48:10 but in your next packet it will be
1:48:13 corrected that there's a sign code
1:48:15 meeting on December 5th that will be
1:48:17 advertised as a special meeting because
1:48:19 it's not a regular second and fourth PPC
1:48:23 meeting but those are the only two
1:48:25 changes to the schedule that I know of
1:48:29 at this point and as I always do at this
1:48:33 time of night how many just offhand how
1:48:36 many do we think will be here on
1:48:38 September 5th not December but September
1:48:41 5th Oh looks like I have a quorum thank
1:48:43 you so much and even though you've said
1:48:45 that I'm still gonna send out a meeting
1:48:47 notice for you to RSVP because just
1:48:49 that's who I am
1:48:50 thank you for for putting up with that
1:48:52 Thanks it's Christopher and Kristin
1:48:58 Stephen all right include the meeting
1:49:04 tonight at 8:00