Planning Policy Commission - 28 Oct 2021 · Thursday, October 28, 2021 · City Council Digest

1. CALL TO ORDER

Commission Membership

packet pp.3

Open packet at p.3 ↗

Staff report:

PLANNING POLICY COMMISSION Staff Liaison Christen Leeson, Senior About Planner Created in 1983, this commission serves as a Email policy advisory body to the Mayor and provides guidance and direction for Issaquah's future Regular Members growth through continued review and 2022 – Joy Lewis improvement to the City's Comprehensive Land 2022 – Matt Monahan Use Plan and related land use documents. 2022 – Jason Voiss 2022 – Vacant Membership 2023 – Nina Milligan The Planning Policy Commission is comprised of 2024 – Ron Faul seven regular members, with four-year terms; 2024 – Sara Bader and several alternates, with two-year terms. All members are appointed by the Mayor and Alternate Members subject to confirmation by the City Council. 2022 - Richard Zaragoza Terms expire April 30 of the year listed. For 2023 - Vacant more information, see IMC 18.03 and Rules & Regulations. Meetings Unless…

4. REPORTS

Council Update

Christen Leeson · packet pp.23–24

Open packet at p.23 ↗

Staff report:

Primary Response No. Source Date Commentor Comment Topic Notes Questions how this differential regulation will ensure the current quality of a strong tree canopy.

Title 18 Code Update: Public Comments

Received · Minnie Dhaliwal, Director, Community Planning & Development

Topics: Land Use

5. OTHER BUSINESS / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Upcoming Schedule

packet pp.25

▶ Watch from 1:57:47 Open packet at p.25 ↗

Staff report:

OTHER BUSINESS / ANNOUNCEMENTS a) 2021 Development Commission Schedule (tentative) (updated 10/14/2021)

3142 segments .txt ↗

0:12 ↗ all right well good evening everybody

0:14 ↗ fellow commissioners city staff

0:16 ↗ i'd like to call tonight's meeting

0:18 ↗ this october 28th the planning policy as

0:21 ↗ well as the development commission

0:24 ↗ to order it is currently 6 30.

0:26 ↗ due to the virtual format of today's

0:28 ↗ meeting i'd like to start by providing

0:31 ↗ some guidelines

0:32 ↗ we have participants attending my

0:34 ↗ computer and others who have been will

0:37 ↗ be attending by phone

0:39 ↗ for all meeting attendees please

0:42 ↗ speak clearly and pause frequently

0:44 ↗ state your name each time before

0:46 ↗ speaking

0:48 ↗ mute your microphone when you're not

0:49 ↗ speaking

0:50 ↗ and if you're having any technical

0:52 ↗ issues try joining the meeting using a

0:54 ↗ different device such as a smartphone or

0:57 ↗ tablet

0:58 ↗ use the call in information in the

1:00 ↗ meeting invite to call into the meeting

1:02 ↗ if necessary

1:04 ↗ kristin

1:05 ↗ would you please call the role for the

1:07 ↗ planning policy

1:11 ↗ i certainly will commissioner vader

1:15 ↗ commissioner zaragoza

1:17 ↗ here

1:18 ↗ mr monahan

1:20 ↗ here

1:22 ↗ commissioner lewis

1:24 ↗ here commissioner milligan

1:29 ↗ uh seeing commissioner milligan

1:32 ↗ uh commissioner voice

1:34 ↗ here

1:36 ↗ and commissioner phil has an excuse to

1:38 ↗ absence tonight

1:40 ↗ great thank you kristen

1:42 ↗ and lucy would you please call the role

1:44 ↗ for the development commission

2:03 ↗ i i

2:04 ↗ thank you i assumed you were having

2:06 ↗ problems not me so that shows you i'm

2:08 ↗ not up for this

2:10 ↗ um

2:11 ↗ mike brennan

2:12 ↗ here

2:14 ↗ richard sanford eric

2:17 ↗ richard sowa

2:19 ↗ patty dillon

2:22 ↗ here

2:24 ↗ brook shore

2:26 ↗ here

2:29 ↗ kevin price

2:31 ↗ here

2:33 ↗ arthur schulte

2:35 ↗ here

2:36 ↗ johnny cada

2:38 ↗ here

2:40 ↗ mel morgan

2:43 ↗ thank you

2:46 ↗ great thank you lucy and thank you

2:47 ↗ development commission i'd like to know

2:50 ↗ sorry excuse me that at 6 33

2:52 ↗ commissioner milligan is present

2:54 ↗ great thank you kristen and hello nina

2:57 ↗ so

2:58 ↗ uh as we move forward we're going to be

2:59 ↗ taking public comment and as all of you

3:01 ↗ guys know public comments are an

3:03 ↗ important part of the public process

3:06 ↗ we take them seriously

3:07 ↗ and factor them into the decisions that

3:09 ↗ we make

3:10 ↗ for the members of the public who are

3:12 ↗ joining us right now

3:14 ↗ if there is anyone who would like to

3:16 ↗ speak in general uh

3:18 ↗ please raise your hand virtually

3:21 ↗ and i believe kristen will allow you to

3:22 ↗ do this i don't know who's actually

3:24 ↗ clocking

3:25 ↗ maybe it's kristen but somebody

3:28 ↗ and if you're on the phone

3:29 ↗ when she gets to you you can press three

3:34 ↗ right if you'd like to if you'd like to

3:35 ↗ speak press

3:37 ↗ star 3

3:39 ↗ or razor if you're on the phone or raise

3:41 ↗ your hand

3:46 ↗ give it another minute

3:52 ↗ no there's no one who'd like to speak at

3:54 ↗ this time

3:57 ↗ all right moving along

3:59 ↗ so tonight the next thing on our public

4:01 ↗ agenda is a regular business

4:03 ↗ and at tonight's meeting we will be

4:04 ↗ discussing the zoning land use and form

4:07 ↗ and intensity

4:09 ↗ uh the information that you guys have

4:11 ↗ received and i believe many will go over

4:13 ↗ this very quickly in her presentation

4:15 ↗ but questions three and four will

4:16 ↗ basically be reserved for a later date

4:19 ↗ she can explain why

4:21 ↗ but in the interest of tonight i also

4:23 ↗ want to be very respectful of

4:24 ↗ everybody's time so my goal as chair

4:27 ↗ will be to make sure that we adjourn on

4:30 ↗ time

4:31 ↗ um as

4:32 ↗ we're moving along i'd like to reserve

4:34 ↗ about 10 minutes for public comment for

4:36 ↗ each question one and two

4:39 ↗ but i believe that good management is

4:41 ↗ good time management and just as

4:43 ↗ everybody here is expected to come here

4:45 ↗ at 6 30 all of you guys should have a

4:47 ↗ clear expectation of when this meeting

4:48 ↗ adjourns

4:49 ↗ so as the chair if the meeting or the

4:52 ↗ questions

4:54 ↗ provide a lively discussion we might

4:56 ↗ have a 10-minute extension where we can

4:59 ↗ do a round-robin uh ultimately i think

5:01 ↗ the discussion for each question will be

5:04 ↗ roughly around 40 to 45 minutes kristen

5:07 ↗ yes i apologize somehow i still don't

5:09 ↗ see it but i um got a text i got a

5:11 ↗ message that we do have someone who

5:13 ↗ would like to speak uh connie marsh

5:16 ↗ is that okay if we do that now before we

5:17 ↗ start the topic sure

5:19 ↗ okay we'll do that now

5:26 ↗ bonnie you are now a panelist

5:29 ↗ okay um i'm connie marsh i live on

5:32 ↗ squawk so i need to tell you just a

5:34 ↗ smidge uh we can't see the participants

5:38 ↗ and for some reason you don't seem to be

5:41 ↗ able to see my

5:42 ↗ uh chats nor could anybody see my hand

5:46 ↗ raised

5:47 ↗ and some people are having a hard time

5:50 ↗ uh getting on

5:53 ↗ at all so i don't i don't know how

5:56 ↗ that's all gonna work out hopefully we

5:57 ↗ can fix it

5:59 ↗ so

6:00 ↗ um you've gotten a couple of emails from

6:03 ↗ me because i find this

6:06 ↗ particular topic puzzling because it

6:09 ↗ does not match

6:12 ↗ what my expectations

6:14 ↗ were for

6:16 ↗ uh

6:17 ↗ making the code easier to use which

6:21 ↗ seems to be the problem statement

6:23 ↗ if that is the problem statement i would

6:26 ↗ have expected some conversation about

6:29 ↗ how

6:30 ↗ um

6:31 ↗ the different ways

6:33 ↗ that

6:34 ↗ what you are planning are going to solve

6:36 ↗ the problems

6:38 ↗ instead it seems to go into an a

6:42 ↗ zoning and use conversation

6:45 ↗ that is leading to a larger conversation

6:49 ↗ about

6:51 ↗ uh

6:52 ↗ upzoning for more mixed use in areas

6:56 ↗ which is is actually a zoning

6:58 ↗ conversation that is covered by the

7:00 ↗ comprehensive plan

7:02 ↗ not something that you would address

7:05 ↗ inside of the code

7:07 ↗ and so i am perplexed

7:10 ↗ as to how

7:12 ↗ this presentation

7:14 ↗ is leading us to solving the problem of

7:18 ↗ a code that is easier for the community

7:21 ↗ and the developers and the city people

7:25 ↗ to use and i i

7:28 ↗ also don't understand

7:31 ↗ how somebody could

7:33 ↗ decide the mechanism of what to do with

7:37 ↗ the intricacies of a table without

7:40 ↗ understanding the implications

7:43 ↗ of say combining

7:46 ↗ two columns

7:47 ↗ in a table of a super complicated

7:51 ↗ uh form

7:53 ↗ so

7:54 ↗ maybe you all could

7:57 ↗ could ask some of these questions to try

7:59 ↗ to clarify what the actual intent

8:02 ↗ is

8:03 ↗ and uh i will say

8:06 ↗ i think it's

8:07 ↗ scope creep to start having a

8:10 ↗ zoning conversation and what do we think

8:14 ↗ about all of our zones when the zones

8:17 ↗ are outside of title

8:19 ↗ 18 and we may need to have that

8:21 ↗ conversation but this is not

8:24 ↗ the place to have that conversation we

8:26 ↗ have way more things to talk about so uh

8:30 ↗ thank you very much

8:38 ↗ thank you and kristen do we have any

8:39 ↗ additional

8:40 ↗ people that like to speak

8:46 ↗ well

8:47 ↗ this is kristin

8:49 ↗ not that i can tell

8:51 ↗ i'm double checking the chat

8:55 ↗ and no and i don't see anything

8:57 ↗ on the screen

8:58 ↗ it was it was difficult for me to join

9:01 ↗ more difficult than usual i had to try a

9:03 ↗ few times

9:04 ↗ okay thank you yeah i've i've gotten

9:06 ↗ quite a few um emails and notices while

9:09 ↗ we've been going on so i'm not sure

9:11 ↗ what's going on but i right now i don't

9:13 ↗ see any other comments

9:14 ↗ okay and just for anyone who is out

9:16 ↗ there we will have two more public

9:18 ↗ comments one after each discussion

9:20 ↗ question as i was saying before

9:22 ↗ i'd like to keep us on time

9:25 ↗ but also as far as the commission the

9:26 ↗ commission does reserve the right

9:28 ↗ to continue to flesh this out at a later

9:30 ↗ date if it so chooses or we can also

9:33 ↗ utilize staff by continually sending

9:35 ↗ emails

9:37 ↗ as far as comments and questions so

9:40 ↗ there is always that

9:41 ↗ as far as when you guys have a question

9:44 ↗ or comment please put it in the chat box

9:46 ↗ so all can see and please try and

9:48 ↗ refrain from any meaningful dialogue in

9:50 ↗ the chat it'd be really just looking for

9:52 ↗ question comment or clarification

9:55 ↗ having said all that

9:57 ↗ i'd like to begin with

10:00 ↗ minnie's presentation so minnie please

10:02 ↗ take it away

10:04 ↗ good evening everyone it's great to see

10:07 ↗ uh two boards together where you all

10:09 ↗ bring your own expertise one from

10:11 ↗ reviewing the development uh

10:13 ↗ projects and planning policy commission

10:16 ↗ really debating the policy so we're

10:18 ↗ looking forward to

10:19 ↗ uh you know jointly um having a nice

10:22 ↗ discussion i just wanted to take a

10:24 ↗ couple minutes just to set the framework

10:26 ↗ for the discussion tonight

10:28 ↗ and

10:30 ↗ one i want to address the question three

10:32 ↗ and four that are included in your

10:34 ↗ packet um but we're working on a more

10:36 ↗ robust uh process for that item um to

10:40 ↗ give it more attention that it deserves

10:42 ↗ then packaging it with the title 18

10:44 ↗ update so it is a gap that's identified

10:48 ↗ in the zoning and uses category but we

10:50 ↗ are going to have a more um

10:53 ↗ well laid out process for that topic and

10:55 ↗ it will come back to planning and policy

10:56 ↗ commission at a later date

10:58 ↗ but it is in your packet

11:01 ↗ so that's one item uh the second i think

11:04 ↗ there is some confusion about the scope

11:06 ↗ of combining the different zones and

11:08 ↗ what that means so i want to address it

11:10 ↗ so for the benefit

11:12 ↗ of everyone including the community

11:14 ↗ members that have made the comment uh

11:16 ↗ that it's absolutely not uh within the

11:19 ↗ scope of title 18 update to re-change

11:23 ↗ the policies that are adopted in the

11:24 ↗ comprehensive planning policies so we've

11:27 ↗ kind of done all those trainings with

11:28 ↗ you in terms of the framework that we

11:30 ↗ have to operate under a title 18 update

11:33 ↗ is an implementation of those policies

11:36 ↗ um so by no means uh can we change the

11:38 ↗ zoning that is inconsistent with a

11:40 ↗ comprehensive plan

11:42 ↗ or

11:43 ↗ make changes to adopted policies that

11:46 ↗ require preserving neighborhood

11:48 ↗ character we cannot change through a

11:50 ↗ zoning that is inconsistent with those

11:52 ↗ policies so nowhere in this discussion

11:56 ↗ that scope of having duplexes in single

12:00 ↗ family zones if that's not the adopted

12:02 ↗ policy

12:03 ↗ if that's a discussion outside of the

12:05 ↗ title 18 update that can be um you know

12:08 ↗ added to the work plan in the future by

12:10 ↗ city council but at this point uh the

12:13 ↗ focus really is you have multiple

12:16 ↗ codes um you know central square plan

12:18 ↗ and old town and you know uh the uses

12:21 ↗ and as the memo talks about there are

12:23 ↗ 250 uses that are listed so there's that

12:26 ↗ consolidation and streamlining of those

12:28 ↗ uses but the question one and two really

12:31 ↗ are getting at

12:32 ↗ how do you think from your lived

12:34 ↗ experience um

12:37 ↗ are there uses for instance i think what

12:39 ↗ we've heard from from some conversations

12:41 ↗ about are there entertainment uses that

12:44 ↗ are um you know is code a problem for

12:47 ↗ having some of those uses grocery stores

12:50 ↗ other pla other things like that that

12:52 ↗ from your lived experience in the

12:54 ↗ community that you think are missing or

12:56 ↗ a problem to locate in issaquah are

12:58 ↗ there other uses um that are more car

13:01 ↗ oriented but where should those go in

13:04 ↗ terms of the pedestrian

13:05 ↗ spaces and things of that nature so a

13:07 ↗ focus on on those and your experience

13:10 ↗ from

13:11 ↗ knowing your community would be helpful

13:13 ↗ as we uh do this exercise of

13:15 ↗ consolidating and streamlining them so

13:17 ↗ with that i'm going to turn it over to a

13:20 ↗ chair to kind of proceed

13:23 ↗ with the discussion tonight

13:27 ↗ okay well thank you minnie

13:29 ↗ is that the only presentation we have as

13:31 ↗ far as okay

13:33 ↗ so thank you so basically

13:36 ↗ uh ladies and gentlemen we have about 55

13:38 ↗ minutes per discussion question and then

13:40 ↗ with an additional 10 for public comment

13:43 ↗ so please feel free to enter your name

13:46 ↗ in the chat if you wish to speak

13:52 ↗ kristin has a few slides to show

13:54 ↗ um

13:56 ↗ i thought so

13:58 ↗ i do i apologize i'm getting email after

14:00 ↗ email after email saying that people

14:02 ↗ can't get in and they want to comment so

14:03 ↗ i'm trying to respond to them and see

14:06 ↗ what i can to help and then uh not

14:08 ↗ having any luck um

14:11 ↗ i apologize let me pull out the

14:12 ↗ presentation really quickly

14:20 ↗ and i promise this won't take long and

14:22 ↗ as soon as i am done i will try and get

14:23 ↗ to all of those people who are emailing

14:25 ↗ um again right after this

14:29 ↗ one minute let me share my screen

14:47 ↗ all right can you all see it okay

14:54 ↗ yes

14:56 ↗ yes yes okay thank you

14:59 ↗ okay

15:00 ↗ so yes we are talking zoning land uses

15:03 ↗ and form and intensity and

15:06 ↗ as many mentioned we're

15:08 ↗ keeping this at a high level this can

15:10 ↗ these two topics

15:13 ↗ can and do

15:14 ↗ touch everything in the code

15:16 ↗ so tonight we're trying to stay at a

15:19 ↗ higher level and get broader direction

15:22 ↗ from you all

15:23 ↗ so zoning

15:25 ↗ i don't think this was in the packet out

15:27 ↗ of our existing land use code

15:30 ↗ the purpose says plural of zoning are to

15:33 ↗ one achieve a balanced community

15:35 ↗ promote quality of life and a people

15:38 ↗ place

15:39 ↗ and require environmental excellence

15:42 ↗ okay so what does zoning do zoning

15:45 ↗ touches and it regulates

15:47 ↗ uses inside each zone so you'll see on

15:49 ↗ the screen

15:50 ↗ we have you know

15:53 ↗ cultural and business district and

15:55 ↗ single family small lot zoning and

15:57 ↗ community facilities

15:59 ↗ recreation and um mixed use we have all

16:03 ↗ these different zones each one of these

16:06 ↗ has different different uses that are

16:09 ↗ allowed to go in there and with those

16:10 ↗ uses

16:12 ↗ are in those zones are also what are the

16:14 ↗ setbacks how high can the buildings go

16:15 ↗ what does the impervious have to be or

16:17 ↗ say central issaquah

16:19 ↗ what is the floor area ratio what is the

16:21 ↗ maximum what is the base so it regulates

16:24 ↗ all those things or so many things

16:27 ↗ involved in development

16:31 ↗ so with it and we did talk about this in

16:33 ↗ our packet a little bit are intense

16:35 ↗ statements each zone has an intense

16:37 ↗ statement attached to it

16:39 ↗ and this is also pulled out of our

16:41 ↗ current title 18 imc

16:44 ↗ uh whoops not 180

16:46 ↗ 1806.020

16:48 ↗ um

16:49 ↗ are the what's the point why do we have

16:50 ↗ these so it's to determine the

16:51 ↗ appropriate locations of uses which

16:53 ↗ zones do they go in

16:55 ↗ determine appropriate conditions of

16:57 ↗ develop for a development

16:58 ↗ and provide the basis for reviewing

17:01 ↗ for the reviewing official to interpret

17:03 ↗ the standards so

17:05 ↗ i've said it before and it came from

17:06 ↗ lucy i'll give her credit but the intent

17:09 ↗ or the vision for the zone stays the

17:11 ↗ same but how you achieve those things

17:14 ↗ can change

17:15 ↗ so with the intent statements for each

17:17 ↗ zone you're setting that vision for the

17:18 ↗ zone

17:19 ↗ and the regulations are how you get

17:22 ↗ there

17:25 ↗ so

17:27 ↗ i'm sure you all are familiar with this

17:28 ↗ but i'm going to go over it again this

17:30 ↗ is a snippet from our permitted uses

17:33 ↗ table

17:36 ↗ excuse me

17:37 ↗ on the left hand side

17:39 ↗ right here

17:40 ↗ our list of uses now we have 250 uses

17:44 ↗ right now that are listed in here

17:46 ↗ and it doesn't even include some uses

17:48 ↗ that are out there new things pop up all

17:50 ↗ the time

17:51 ↗ so one of the things we would like to do

17:52 ↗ is try and find a way

17:54 ↗ to have a smaller list of uses

17:57 ↗ but still be able to know clearly what

18:00 ↗ goes in each zone and if we don't know

18:01 ↗ clearly then what's the criteria to

18:02 ↗ determine that

18:04 ↗ that's something that we'd like to do

18:06 ↗ up here

18:07 ↗ you have the zones

18:09 ↗ this is another problem because we are

18:11 ↗ about to throw in

18:13 ↗ all of the zones from palace and all of

18:16 ↗ the zones from

18:18 ↗ central issaquah all of the zones from

18:20 ↗ mexico highlands

18:21 ↗ so that's a lot of zones so something

18:24 ↗ that we have talked about is grouping

18:26 ↗ these and that's part of what came up in

18:27 ↗ the memo and was a little confusing but

18:30 ↗ what some cities do many cities do is

18:32 ↗ they will take all of the residential

18:34 ↗ zones and they will just have a

18:36 ↗ permitted uses table for those would

18:38 ↗ look something like this it would just

18:40 ↗ have residential uses

18:42 ↗ zones with all the uses that are allowed

18:44 ↗ in there on the left hand side and then

18:46 ↗ we would do commercial and then maybe

18:48 ↗ facilities so

18:49 ↗ that's

18:50 ↗ something that we've been talking about

18:52 ↗ doing would help staff

18:54 ↗ and then in here

18:57 ↗ right now

18:59 ↗ we're not going to talk about what the

19:01 ↗ numbers mean it's it's level of review

19:02 ↗ but we're going to get into that later

19:04 ↗ but if there's a number in that box that

19:06 ↗ means that that use is allowed in that

19:08 ↗ zone

19:09 ↗ so a billiards and pool hall is allowed

19:13 ↗ in these zones professional office

19:15 ↗ cultural business mixed use

19:17 ↗ retail

19:19 ↗ intensive commercial and community

19:21 ↗ facilities facilities that's that's how

19:23 ↗ that works and

19:24 ↗ right now in our code it's a crazy mess

19:27 ↗ and we need to find out a way to

19:29 ↗ streamline and clean it up

19:33 ↗ i'm not ready to questions um

19:36 ↗ are you all ready or do you have any

19:37 ↗ questions for me and any clarifications

19:39 ↗ that you need made first before we move

19:41 ↗ on

19:48 ↗ i talk about enough information because

19:50 ↗ that was really fast but there's also a

19:51 ↗ lot in her packets so

19:53 ↗ uh kristen yes we have a question from

19:56 ↗ commissioner milligan

19:58 ↗ yes

20:00 ↗ thank you chair voice this is

20:01 ↗ commissioner nina milligan uh kristen

20:04 ↗ the question i had was

20:06 ↗ were you also talking about

20:09 ↗ reducing the number

20:11 ↗ of the different types of zones

20:14 ↗ and combining

20:17 ↗ several zones into one zone

20:19 ↗ and then if that

20:21 ↗ if that was the case i i didn't see a

20:23 ↗ recommendation or is it just

20:25 ↗ reorganizing the document into different

20:28 ↗ categoried charts

20:31 ↗ so right now it's

20:33 ↗ it's the category charts and i'm not

20:36 ↗ going to say it hasn't been talked about

20:37 ↗ but it's just a matter of us going

20:39 ↗ through it and saying i don't know what

20:41 ↗ are we going to do maybe we need to look

20:42 ↗ at that

20:43 ↗ um

20:44 ↗ maybe there are some some zones that

20:46 ↗ have the exact same uses and what's the

20:48 ↗ difference between them all or

20:50 ↗ one zone only has this many it's i don't

20:52 ↗ know it's something to talk about

20:55 ↗ um but that's not on the table right now

20:57 ↗ it's not it's not part of title 18 i

20:59 ↗ don't think

21:00 ↗ no

21:02 ↗ well i and just to build on um what

21:05 ↗ kristen said

21:07 ↗ lucy sloman um

21:09 ↗ i i think that we haven't done that

21:12 ↗ level of evaluation yet

21:14 ↗ and

21:15 ↗ so um

21:16 ↗ that's part of the value that we see in

21:19 ↗ combining all the residential zones into

21:23 ↗ one table

21:24 ↗ and all the commercial zones into

21:26 ↗ another table

21:28 ↗ because it'll make it much easier to see

21:31 ↗ where there are

21:32 ↗ highly similar

21:34 ↗ zones

21:35 ↗ and to consider uh

21:38 ↗ is you know what are those differences

21:40 ↗ are they meaningful

21:42 ↗ um what would the potential impacts be

21:45 ↗ and then to have that conversation

21:48 ↗ where

21:49 ↗ there's

21:50 ↗ more

21:51 ↗ differences or for some reason that you

21:53 ↗ know maybe there's very few properties

21:55 ↗ that have

21:57 ↗ a zone which is the case with

21:59 ↗ professional office for instance i think

22:01 ↗ there's three properties they're all

22:03 ↗ developed

22:04 ↗ um

22:05 ↗ what we want to do is see is it similar

22:08 ↗ enough to another zone where there might

22:11 ↗ be an opportunity to combine

22:14 ↗ but that's the kind of evaluation that

22:16 ↗ we would do following this conversation

22:25 ↗ the other thing this is mini dolly well

22:27 ↗ i want to make sure um you know it's

22:30 ↗ we can't change the comprehensive plan

22:32 ↗ without changing the comprehensive plan

22:34 ↗ so

22:34 ↗ if

22:35 ↗ there are there's in your packet there's

22:38 ↗ a table that shows the grouping of uh

22:41 ↗ zones by comprehensive plan designation

22:44 ↗ so no work you know even if we do this

22:47 ↗ exercise we're not going to be able to

22:48 ↗ change the the zoning or collapse them

22:51 ↗ if they belong to different

22:53 ↗ for instance mineral and conservancy

22:55 ↗ you know are two different comprehensive

22:57 ↗ plan designations so we we're not going

23:00 ↗ to be able to combine those for instance

23:04 ↗ and and that wasn't our intent either

23:06 ↗ but

23:06 ↗ we wouldn't be able to

23:10 ↗ great thank you and i think what i'll do

23:12 ↗ is i'll wait till after questions until

23:13 ↗ we start discussion to kind of figure

23:15 ↗ out the timeline

23:16 ↗ and that way everybody can be clear and

23:18 ↗ then we can have a wonderful and lively

23:20 ↗ debate and discussion

23:21 ↗ right now commissioner brennan has a

23:23 ↗ question

23:24 ↗ please

23:26 ↗ thank you so i'm uh just a question

23:28 ↗ about um

23:29 ↗ so in the presentation it was about code

23:32 ↗ structure

23:33 ↗ usability

23:35 ↗ understandable etc the question

23:38 ↗ one is more about substance and so i'm

23:40 ↗ i'm not clear yet about the breadth of

23:43 ↗ what it is we're doing

23:45 ↗ with regard to this particular

23:48 ↗ effort so when we're talking about

23:50 ↗ locations where

23:51 ↗ you know allowed uses are form and

23:53 ↗ intensity standards that control the

23:55 ↗ size in bulk yeah um

23:58 ↗ that's that's a substantive question

24:00 ↗ about does it does the development fit

24:02 ↗ within what you think the community

24:03 ↗ should be

24:04 ↗ but the setup that um

24:07 ↗ that preston did was about the structure

24:10 ↗ of the code and trying to make it more

24:13 ↗ uh understandable maybe more efficient

24:15 ↗ to use so i'm still not clear about how

24:18 ↗ far into substance we're going to get

24:20 ↗ about the content of the coding is it

24:22 ↗ accomplishing

24:23 ↗ the outcomes versus

24:25 ↗ usability understandability

24:28 ↗ is it understandable is it efficient to

24:30 ↗ operate with

24:35 ↗ this is kristin lisan it it does make

24:38 ↗ sense and um

24:40 ↗ maybe maybe it came off that way but the

24:42 ↗ beginning of it had to do with

24:44 ↗ intensive zoning

24:46 ↗ and

24:47 ↗ which goes to the uses in each zone and

24:50 ↗ looking at the permitted uses or things

24:52 ↗ that you've seen out there

24:54 ↗ are the uses that you see in say single

24:57 ↗ family or any mixed-use residential or

25:00 ↗ different zones are they what you expect

25:02 ↗ to see

25:03 ↗ and i'm going to go ahead and touch on

25:05 ↗ question number two

25:06 ↗ which is are there things that you see

25:08 ↗ that you don't want to see

25:10 ↗ is one

25:11 ↗ are there things that you'd like to see

25:13 ↗ which would make an area more livable

25:15 ↗ than it is say you want

25:17 ↗ you know ten thousand square foot

25:19 ↗ commercials you know retail stores or

25:21 ↗ little grocery stores in your

25:22 ↗ neighborhood that aren't allowed and

25:23 ↗ maybe you want to allow those

25:25 ↗ so that goes toward the intent of the

25:27 ↗ zone and what which so it's it's a mix

25:29 ↗ of the two are there uses that you'd

25:31 ↗ like to see in these zones with the

25:32 ↗ visions for these zones that you're not

25:34 ↗ seeing now or that you'd like to see go

25:35 ↗ away

25:38 ↗ okay great that that helps thank you

25:42 ↗ great thank you commissioner brennan we

25:44 ↗ have a process question from

25:46 ↗ commissioner milligan

25:51 ↗ hi commissioner milligan here are we

25:54 ↗ trying to cover both those questions or

25:56 ↗ are we just trying to talk about zoning

25:58 ↗ and then uses or what is the order of

26:00 ↗ the night because i think i heard chair

26:02 ↗ voice say that there be multiple

26:03 ↗ opportunities for the public to speak so

26:05 ↗ are we trying to

26:08 ↗ divide the topics into

26:11 ↗ sections so i guess i will take that

26:13 ↗ question thank you commissioner milligan

26:15 ↗ so what i'd like to do is flesh out all

26:16 ↗ the questions right now that anybody has

26:18 ↗ as far as the presentation and then

26:20 ↗ allow basically we can start with

26:22 ↗ question one and question two after the

26:25 ↗ end of question one debate we as a group

26:27 ↗ can figure out if we need a little bit

26:29 ↗ more time we can do a round robin but

26:30 ↗ i'd like to give ten minutes for public

26:32 ↗ comment after question one ten minutes

26:34 ↗ for public comment after question two

26:38 ↗ so it might take us from nine to nine

26:39 ↗ twenty but like i said i'd like to set

26:41 ↗ the expectation that you guys know you

26:44 ↗ know i don't want this to be a meeting

26:46 ↗ in perpetuity

26:48 ↗ again we all have the opportunity to

26:50 ↗ vote if we want to

26:51 ↗ meet and continue this conversation at a

26:54 ↗ later date or continue to utilize our

26:56 ↗ staff by emailing

26:58 ↗ so that was my intention so again just

27:01 ↗ looking for more questions as far as the

27:02 ↗ presentation and then we'll move on and

27:04 ↗ dissect question one and two

27:16 ↗ and i guess i'll give it a few more

27:17 ↗ seconds

27:19 ↗ and then we'll probably move into

27:20 ↗ question one debate and discussion

27:33 ↗ i'm not seeing anything

27:35 ↗ so let's open it up to the first

27:37 ↗ question asked of us tonight

27:39 ↗ i don't know if we want to bring it back

27:40 ↗ on the presentation screen

27:43 ↗ but if we could that would be good at

27:45 ↗ least to start the discussion

27:48 ↗ please

27:52 ↗ and if anybody wants to jump the gun and

27:54 ↗ just uh put in commentary or

27:56 ↗ anything there we go

27:58 ↗ commissioner monahan

28:00 ↗ please the floor is yours

28:02 ↗ yeah uh good evening i'm matt monaghan

28:04 ↗ here um i guess i'll take him at one

28:06 ↗ particular use uh that i'm not a fan of

28:08 ↗ so i i live in the issaquah island and i

28:10 ↗ love walking around it um but the one

28:12 ↗ area that's kind of dead is the area in

28:15 ↗ front of the um the storage facility

28:17 ↗ kind of towards the the north end and so

28:19 ↗ i i know that there was a a request to

28:22 ↗ put another storage facility on another

28:23 ↗ parcel in the highlands and i just don't

28:26 ↗ think that that would really drive the

28:27 ↗ kind of neighborhood that we want here

28:29 ↗ um the west ridge north houses are

28:31 ↗ selling like hot cakes right now those

28:33 ↗ town homes are going to go too so we're

28:34 ↗ getting a lot of families here

28:37 ↗ and i don't think we'll be well served

28:38 ↗ by having two storage facilities uh in a

28:42 ↗ within half a mile of each other so i'd

28:43 ↗ like to see that use um

28:47 ↗ if not cut out made very very very high

28:49 ↗ bar to put in one into a walkable

28:52 ↗ mixed use neighborhood

29:01 ↗ thank you commissioner

29:08 ↗ we have a comment from commissioner

29:09 ↗ milligan

29:15 ↗ commissioner milligan here thanks i'm

29:16 ↗ waiting for other people to sign up but

29:18 ↗ i didn't want to eat away your precious

29:20 ↗ time thank you commissioner monahan

29:22 ↗ that's on my list tonight too and though

29:24 ↗ we may be too late to

29:26 ↗ change the zoning that's going to impact

29:28 ↗ the isoqua highlands

29:30 ↗ uh self storage uh self storage has been

29:32 ↗ a sore spot for quite a while and it was

29:34 ↗ a very heated debate uh the folks in the

29:37 ↗ room here i wasn't in the debate i was

29:39 ↗ just watching it but the folks in this

29:41 ↗ room a lot of them will remember it and

29:43 ↗ i i remember it being unsatisfying in an

29:46 ↗ effort to reduce the number of zones

29:48 ↗ where

29:50 ↗ self storage was

29:51 ↗ allowed

29:52 ↗ and i would like to revisit that

29:55 ↗ in reducing the number of zones where

29:58 ↗ cell storage is allowed because i know

30:00 ↗ that it was a frustration something

30:01 ↗ about the process

30:03 ↗ as i said i don't

30:04 ↗ know the details as well as those other

30:06 ↗ people in the room but

30:08 ↗ one of the

30:10 ↗ issues that i had with this topic is not

30:13 ↗ only that it doesn't create the vibrant

30:15 ↗ streetscape that we are all hoping for

30:18 ↗ and nor does it

30:19 ↗ add to the beauty of our city but it

30:22 ↗ appeared that

30:24 ↗ um homebuilders whether they were

30:26 ↗ apartments or townhomes or whatever were

30:29 ↗ teaming up with these self storage and

30:32 ↗ saying hey i don't you don't have to

30:34 ↗ build as big a home because i'm going to

30:36 ↗ plunk down a self storage within a

30:38 ↗ couple blocks from there and then

30:40 ↗ everybody can store their stuff over

30:41 ↗ here in this

30:42 ↗ in this vacuous block of storage so i i

30:47 ↗ do hope that we have a

30:49 ↗ lively discussion about that and i'll

30:50 ↗ just throw it out there i wish we could

30:52 ↗ just reduce the zone that that wasn't

30:55 ↗ allowed use to intensive commercial

30:58 ↗ dare you to put it on the intensive

31:00 ↗ commercial

31:01 ↗ thank you chairfall careful no share

31:04 ↗ voice

31:05 ↗ boy old habits

31:09 ↗ thank you commissioner mill again

31:13 ↗ he's a little slow at their keyboards

31:15 ↗ tonight especially from these groups

31:22 ↗ basically i have it down at 7 45 to

31:24 ↗ begin public comment on question one so

31:26 ↗ we've got some time to fill and again i

31:28 ↗ won't force anybody's arm but

31:42 ↗ commissioner milligan

31:44 ↗ please um

31:46 ↗ we've got so many smart people in the

31:48 ↗ room tonight this is commissioner

31:49 ↗ milligan and i really hope these people

31:51 ↗ from dc speak up like mike brennan thank

31:53 ↗ you for signing up mel morgan all these

31:56 ↗ veterans of this issue please speak up

31:58 ↗ for us tonight i also wanted to talk

32:00 ↗ about something like either the vending

32:02 ↗ stand or the

32:04 ↗ smaller classification of

32:06 ↗ grocery store

32:08 ↗ and the reason i'm bringing this up is

32:09 ↗ that there's been a great deal of

32:11 ↗ concern about the car dependent

32:13 ↗ neighborhoods that we have

32:15 ↗ and i'm going to just use a couple

32:16 ↗ examples like squawk mountain and south

32:18 ↗ cove

32:19 ↗ and these folks to get anything done

32:21 ↗ have to get to get a cup of coffee to

32:23 ↗ get a quart of milk have to get in the

32:25 ↗ car and go somewhere and i as i was

32:28 ↗ looking at the allowed

32:29 ↗ uses and where they are

32:32 ↗ how close could we get

32:34 ↗ um to going into a denser residential

32:37 ↗ neighborhood

32:38 ↗ and allow more of those commercial uses

32:41 ↗ the very small scale daily need

32:44 ↗ i got i have to have a coffee and a

32:46 ↗ cookie kind of store or i need some

32:48 ↗ flowers for my mom

32:49 ↗ i've seen a great

32:51 ↗ use of this in some of the older cities

32:54 ↗ like victoria i just love it

32:56 ↗ so i'm wondering if there's a way that

32:57 ↗ we can do that

32:59 ↗ without imposing upon our single family

33:02 ↗ neighborhoods with any any large-scale

33:04 ↗ commercial

33:06 ↗ the purpose would be to reduce vehicle

33:08 ↗ miles traveled thank you

33:14 ↗ thank you commissioner milligan and now

33:16 ↗ we go to commissioner brennan with a

33:18 ↗ comment well commissioner milligan was

33:20 ↗ thinking along the same lines i was

33:22 ↗ thinking it is those neighborhood

33:24 ↗ neighborhood serving businesses so

33:26 ↗ smaller scale

33:28 ↗ convenience um and then i would add on

33:31 ↗ one thing like the third place it's a

33:32 ↗ place where people go to gather

33:34 ↗ community gathering locations

33:36 ↗ whether it's a library a local pub a

33:40 ↗ small restaurant with a patio places

33:43 ↗ where people can go and gather

33:46 ↗ have community space

33:47 ↗ that could be public or private

33:49 ↗ near the neighborhoods or in the

33:51 ↗ neighborhoods and i know that gets a

33:53 ↗ little bit

33:54 ↗ tricky in development in

33:55 ↗ already developed neighborhoods but

33:58 ↗ there's clearly a a benefit not only to

34:00 ↗ reducing hard trips but even creating

34:02 ↗ community in a place where people can

34:04 ↗ connect so i think there's some benefits

34:06 ↗ to that as well

34:11 ↗ great thank you commissioner brennan and

34:13 ↗ uh obviously people have questions as

34:15 ↗ far as question one please feel free and

34:18 ↗ now we go to commissioner sanford

34:21 ↗ thank you mr chairman

34:22 ↗ uh this is richard sanford i have a

34:24 ↗ comment about a permit that came before

34:27 ↗ the development commission and i think

34:29 ↗ some of our other commissioners will

34:30 ↗ probably remember this one

34:33 ↗ we were tasked with looking at a permit

34:36 ↗ that was in intensive

34:39 ↗ commercial

34:41 ↗ zoning district

34:43 ↗ and also within that

34:45 ↗ district

34:46 ↗ were critical areas king county critical

34:49 ↗ areas

34:50 ↗ it had a

34:52 ↗ stream of salmon salmonid

34:54 ↗ it was in a flood hazard area

34:57 ↗ and a critical aquifer recharge area

35:01 ↗ and this was an intensive commercial

35:04 ↗ zone

35:05 ↗ use a permitted use within that zone as

35:08 ↗ i said it was very challenging for us to

35:10 ↗ try to balance

35:12 ↗ environmental protection with the

35:14 ↗ requests that

35:16 ↗ were in that

35:17 ↗ that permit request and to be able to

35:21 ↗ uh come up with satisfactory conditions

35:24 ↗ that would protect the environment as

35:26 ↗ well as um allow the permitted use

35:30 ↗ so i guess it raised the question to me

35:33 ↗ should we be

35:35 ↗ permitting

35:37 ↗ intensive commercial use

35:39 ↗ that

35:40 ↗ underlays essentially

35:43 ↗ critical area overlay districting

35:47 ↗ and raise the question to me are those

35:49 ↗ overlays sufficient to protect

35:52 ↗ critical areas

35:53 ↗ basically

35:55 ↗ if one of the purposes of the code is to

35:57 ↗ require environmental excellence

36:00 ↗ and a description in our code and ims

36:04 ↗ 1806

36:06 ↗ of intensive commercial is provide areas

36:09 ↗ for intensive commercial services

36:11 ↗ which may have negative impacts

36:14 ↗ it's hard for me to see

36:17 ↗ whether we should allow those too

36:19 ↗ to try to co-exist

36:22 ↗ they seem anaphytical

36:24 ↗ thanks

36:31 ↗ great thank you

36:32 ↗ moving along we have a comment from

36:34 ↗ commissioner morgan

36:36 ↗ uh thank you chair boys mel morgan from

36:39 ↗ the development commission

36:40 ↗ and i would just like to second

36:42 ↗ the comments from

36:44 ↗ commissioner monahan and commissioner

36:46 ↗ milligan about

36:48 ↗ limitations on self storage i agree with

36:50 ↗ their comments about

36:53 ↗ the limitations they place on the

36:55 ↗ pedestrian activity

36:59 ↗ within city commercial zones and so i

37:01 ↗ would agree i think commissioner

37:03 ↗ milligan was

37:04 ↗ recommending only allowing those

37:06 ↗ intensive commercial areas and i would

37:08 ↗ agree with that

37:10 ↗ thank you

37:14 ↗ great thank you

37:16 ↗ commissioner lewis has a comment

37:22 ↗ you chair voice commissioner joy lewis

37:23 ↗ here um i wanna i think that uh

37:25 ↗ commissioner stanford said far better

37:27 ↗ than i so i want to piggyback on to his

37:29 ↗ comments about uh

37:31 ↗ heavy uh industrial commercial uses um i

37:35 ↗ echo those sentiments and concerns uh

37:38 ↗ and i think that nina commissioner

37:39 ↗ milligan brings up an excellent point

37:41 ↗ when we talk about um how unacceptable

37:43 ↗ it is in isaiah we have food deserts and

37:46 ↗ we see the way that we were

37:48 ↗ directed in old town to be unable to

37:51 ↗ really protect that community and by

37:53 ↗ losing the front street market we became

37:55 ↗ very vulnerable and that by looking at

37:57 ↗ how we're allowing our uses differently

38:00 ↗ we can start to address some actual

38:01 ↗ needs of the community

38:03 ↗ that have been kind of fallen to the

38:04 ↗ wayside so i think it's important for us

38:06 ↗ to again start looking at how we're

38:07 ↗ allowing um a constricted

38:10 ↗ use right to allow a way whether we've

38:13 ↗ talked before in this commission whether

38:14 ↗ it be about a large national chains

38:18 ↗ whether it be about the size and scope

38:20 ↗ that we're dealing with as far as square

38:22 ↗ footage

38:23 ↗ but allowing a way for communities to be

38:26 ↗ able to address the needs that they have

38:27 ↗ specifically around food

38:29 ↗ thank you

38:32 ↗ great thank you commissioner lewis and

38:33 ↗ as somebody who lives on front street i

38:35 ↗ can tell you i miss front street from

38:38 ↗ apple street so much

38:39 ↗ it's just a short walk for me

38:44 ↗ all right we have a comment from

38:46 ↗ uh commissioner schulte am i saying that

38:48 ↗ right uh yes thank you chair voice

38:51 ↗ um thank you great to see everybody and

38:53 ↗ you know great presentation glad we're

38:55 ↗ getting involved in this conversation i

38:57 ↗ um i you know i just wanted to support

38:59 ↗ my you know voice my support for um an

39:01 ↗ encouragement to you know continue

39:03 ↗ exploring and

39:05 ↗ um growing uh the zones where we do

39:08 ↗ offer you know multi-family and

39:10 ↗ mixed-use developments um

39:12 ↗ and one of the big reasons is just the

39:14 ↗ affordability factor um as we might have

39:17 ↗ noticed yes as we notice already

39:20 ↗ um housing is expensive and uh

39:23 ↗ multi-family and mixed use is you know

39:26 ↗ one of the best ways to to offer a

39:28 ↗ somewhat affordable housing and there's

39:30 ↗ different levels of affordability that

39:32 ↗ can come with that so

39:34 ↗ you know issaquah and actually in some

39:36 ↗ amish too in the surrounding area i just

39:38 ↗ saw in the news i think some amish was

39:40 ↗ rated number one uh small towns small

39:43 ↗ city in the nation to live and

39:45 ↗ um and obviously that impacts us right

39:47 ↗ because we're the neighbors um so we you

39:50 ↗ know to promote that and um to encourage

39:54 ↗ um

39:56 ↗ you know community development i think

39:59 ↗ multi-family and mixed use is important

40:01 ↗ to to be mindful of and continue you

40:03 ↗ know pursuing the zones where we can see

40:05 ↗ a little bit more of that growth so

40:07 ↗ thank you

40:13 ↗ great comment thank you

40:21 ↗ may i make a quick response

40:23 ↗ absolutely

40:24 ↗ i just wanted to say tune in next week

40:26 ↗ on november 4th because we're going to

40:28 ↗ be talking about affordable housing

40:30 ↗ so

40:31 ↗ truly

40:32 ↗ yeah

40:33 ↗ we'd love to hear from you

40:45 ↗ commissioner morgan please

40:48 ↗ um thank you chair i um one other

40:50 ↗ questions i have is is the necessity to

40:53 ↗ still have a suburban estates

40:56 ↗ single-family designation within the

40:58 ↗ city i think it's 1.24

41:02 ↗ units per acre and

41:04 ↗ given urban growth boundaries and

41:06 ↗ how little

41:07 ↗ land there is left

41:09 ↗ seems to me that we

41:10 ↗ should have more intensive zoning

41:12 ↗ throughout the city than that so

41:15 ↗ thank you

41:35 ↗ my ticker stopped ticking

41:40 ↗ there we go just have to wait a minute

41:42 ↗ commissioner brandon please that's a

41:44 ↗ cave under pressure i guess thank you

41:47 ↗ chair boss um

41:49 ↗ so

41:50 ↗ we did a walking tour of some of the

41:52 ↗ projects um with staff and

41:56 ↗ looked at projects that have been

41:58 ↗ constructed and looking at in multiple

42:01 ↗ locations we did visit some that were in

42:03 ↗ the central izakawa plan area

42:06 ↗ and one of the things that's really

42:07 ↗ striking as that plan continues to get

42:10 ↗ um to evolve with construction is what's

42:14 ↗ happening at the street level at grade

42:18 ↗ one of the projects the atlas project

42:19 ↗ that fronts onto seventh

42:21 ↗ street

42:22 ↗ or avenue

42:24 ↗ it doesn't engage at all with the

42:26 ↗ pedestrian environment

42:28 ↗ there's

42:28 ↗ no uh

42:29 ↗ front porches there's no ground floor

42:32 ↗ retail it's essentially you're walking

42:35 ↗ along um

42:36 ↗ you know what is an impenetrable wall of

42:38 ↗ the building so to speak i mean there's

42:40 ↗ nice landscaping so i don't want to

42:42 ↗ you know

42:43 ↗ bash it too hard but we've got to make

42:46 ↗ sure that what what's going on with the

42:48 ↗ in the intense areas these mixed use or

42:50 ↗ high intensity development areas is that

42:53 ↗ as it evolves it's in an

42:56 ↗ enjoyable place to be there are things

42:58 ↗ to see there are people

43:00 ↗ there are um

43:02 ↗ places to go

43:03 ↗ um there are

43:05 ↗ you know breakout places where you can

43:07 ↗ go relax

43:08 ↗ plazas etc so and i know that's in the

43:11 ↗ plan but i think we need to make sure

43:13 ↗ that what's happening

43:15 ↗ is a in on the ground with the

43:17 ↗ development is actually

43:18 ↗ realizing that for the long term because

43:20 ↗ the projects that are being built now

43:22 ↗ are going to be there for a very long

43:24 ↗ time and so we want to make sure that

43:26 ↗ that that attention to what's happening

43:28 ↗ um at the pedestrian level

43:30 ↗ uh is engaging it's interesting uh an

43:33 ↗ attractive thing uh attractive place for

43:35 ↗ people to be so that that's one when

43:37 ↗ we're talking about the form of

43:39 ↗ development and what's in the

43:41 ↗ in the lane use code

43:44 ↗ particularly these high density areas

43:45 ↗ that we're

43:46 ↗ paying close attention to for long-term

43:49 ↗ success

43:52 ↗ great thank you commissioner brennan and

43:54 ↗ and again to kind of piggyback off them

43:56 ↗ and not to pick on atlas but it's my

43:58 ↗ understanding that their park is

44:00 ↗ actually a public park

44:02 ↗ is that correct

44:05 ↗ that recreational space that's kind of

44:07 ↗ fenced off my understanding is that is

44:10 ↗ open to everyone that is not

44:12 ↗ their property

44:14 ↗ so there's both public and private open

44:17 ↗ space on the site um near the uh isquad

44:22 ↗ creek the bridge in gilman

44:25 ↗ is a public park

44:27 ↗ which is center park and i don't think

44:29 ↗ any of that is fenced

44:31 ↗ there are three um

44:34 ↗ required well their community spaces

44:37 ↗ that was how they met their um

44:40 ↗ project open space and there are some uh

44:45 ↗ sort of open fences uh that define

44:48 ↗ public from private space

44:50 ↗ um so

44:52 ↗ when you say fence that's what i think

44:54 ↗ of

44:55 ↗ right i appreciate that lucy i think

44:57 ↗ that the problem is is there's an

44:58 ↗ allusion to people passerby that thinks

45:00 ↗ that is completely private property

45:03 ↗ i'd be i'm imagine you'd be hard-pressed

45:05 ↗ to actually find anyone outside of atlas

45:07 ↗ that probably uses that utilizes that

45:09 ↗ space

45:10 ↗ so this is santa park

45:13 ↗ right yeah

45:15 ↗ all right thank you commissioner lewis

45:20 ↗ thank you chair boyce commissioner joy

45:21 ↗ lewis here it's kind of actually that's

45:23 ↗ a good segue for me because

45:25 ↗ while this has less to do with question

45:27 ↗ one it kind of more addresses steph's

45:29 ↗ comments and question about how we want

45:32 ↗ to be restructuring and reorgan

45:34 ↗ reordering the uses

45:35 ↗ i think that a good example would be if

45:37 ↗ you guys were hesitant to do a deep dive

45:39 ↗ and do

45:40 ↗ all of the uses under these categories a

45:42 ↗ good one would be the conservancy

45:44 ↗ designation right now we have a lot of

45:47 ↗ layers when we look at the purposes and

45:49 ↗ the intents of whether it's

45:51 ↗ open space facilities whether it's parks

45:53 ↗ whether it's designated to future be

45:55 ↗ something whether it is supposed to be

45:58 ↗ complete green open space in perpetuity

46:00 ↗ and

46:01 ↗ i think that this would be an

46:02 ↗ interesting one to see i give an example

46:04 ↗ of how are we aligning our values to

46:07 ↗ what we actually have in the code and

46:09 ↗ being able to use that to say we both

46:11 ↗ want to be able to clean this up and we

46:12 ↗ want to be able to be protective

46:14 ↗ so for me that would be kind of a

46:17 ↗ direction to go from if you guys were

46:18 ↗ looking to pick one particular type of

46:21 ↗ uh use and then be able to break that

46:24 ↗ down

46:25 ↗ by category i would recommend starting

46:26 ↗ there and having us look at it and see

46:28 ↗ hey does this represent

46:30 ↗ our guiding documents does this actually

46:32 ↗ reflect what we want in the community

46:34 ↗ rather than having

46:35 ↗ you know we often have discussions of

46:36 ↗ saying well what is allowed there and we

46:39 ↗ can start to see oh well you know could

46:40 ↗ it be something one day and what where

46:42 ↗ is that wiggle room and being able to

46:44 ↗ kind of really comb that in and narrow

46:45 ↗ it in i think would be a good place to

46:47 ↗ be able to start

46:48 ↗ thanks

46:50 ↗ this is kristen lisa may i ask a

46:52 ↗ clarifying question

46:53 ↗ you said conservancy do you mean

46:55 ↗ conservancy or community facilities

46:58 ↗ um well i think that when you talk about

47:01 ↗ being able to have categories and break

47:03 ↗ them all down they're probably going to

47:04 ↗ all roll into what they're all of a like

47:06 ↗ mind and so i would i would be surprised

47:09 ↗ in a simplification of title 18 that

47:12 ↗ you're going to end up having both a

47:13 ↗ conservancy and an open spaces right now

47:16 ↗ we have open spaces that have several

47:18 ↗ tiers right and then we have our

47:19 ↗ conservancy right so i'm guessing that

47:21 ↗ those are going to all be rolled up into

47:23 ↗ one category that are going to have

47:25 ↗ allowed uses and so my suggestion would

47:26 ↗ be to start there and have us look at it

47:29 ↗ and say hey is this reflective of the

47:31 ↗ community's desires this is reflective

47:33 ↗ of

47:34 ↗ of all the policies and plans we've put

47:36 ↗ in place

47:37 ↗ rather than starting with for instance

47:38 ↗ ones where we have hundreds of uses

47:41 ↗ for instance like in commercial zoning

47:45 ↗ does that help

47:48 ↗ yes thank you

47:50 ↗ thank you

47:54 ↗ commissioner milligan

47:57 ↗ hello about question one commissioner

48:00 ↗ milligan here i wanted to piggyback on

48:03 ↗ commissioner brennan's comments and

48:06 ↗ somebody else

48:08 ↗ maybe it was commissioner morgan about

48:11 ↗ and to follow up this is similar to the

48:14 ↗ issue that we have with self storage and

48:16 ↗ so we're talking about mass and use and

48:19 ↗ these large buildings when we reduce the

48:22 ↗ setbacks and we have these buildings

48:23 ↗ right up to the street front if they

48:25 ↗ don't have an active use on the ground

48:26 ↗ floor

48:28 ↗ then uh we're not getting the result

48:30 ↗ that we were hoping for you know if we

48:32 ↗ have uh as say

48:34 ↗ even if it's

48:36 ↗ entirely a residential building if it

48:38 ↗ doesn't have access and activity on the

48:42 ↗ ground floor at the street level

48:44 ↗ then we're not getting the engagement

48:47 ↗ quality that we're hoping our community

48:49 ↗ would enjoy

48:50 ↗ so i'm not quite sure what to do with

48:52 ↗ that or where that goes but i thought

48:54 ↗ this seemed like the number one seemed

48:56 ↗ like the place to talk about that so and

48:58 ↗ and commissioner brennan was bringing up

49:01 ↗ the missed opportunity and i think that

49:03 ↗ some of that has been solved in the

49:05 ↗ central isoqua plan about what happened

49:06 ↗ at atlas without um or not getting

49:10 ↗ access on the ground floor to units or

49:13 ↗ retail oh and i'm sorry i want to bring

49:15 ↗ up one more piece of

49:16 ↗ um

49:18 ↗ inspiration

49:19 ↗ it's more of a question or a problem

49:22 ↗ quiz for us all to lay awake at night

49:24 ↗ thinking about we have these wonderful

49:28 ↗ ground floor spaces in issaquah

49:30 ↗ highlands where i live in star point but

49:33 ↗ how do we encourage those spaces to be

49:36 ↗ used

49:37 ↗ you know in a dynamic lively community

49:40 ↗ valuable way there's one that's sitting

49:42 ↗ empty for god knows how long of course

49:44 ↗ we're in a pandemic so i'm not gonna

49:46 ↗ um call that out as a as a real problem

49:49 ↗ it might be related that way but

49:51 ↗ even um front street uh talks about

49:55 ↗ the uses that would make it the most

49:57 ↗ vibrant

49:59 ↗ part of town

50:00 ↗ without being too

50:02 ↗ prescriptive how can we encourage the

50:04 ↗ kinds of uses that give us the lively

50:06 ↗ streetscape that we're looking for

50:09 ↗ so a question not a comment sorry back

50:12 ↗ to you

50:14 ↗ we're taking them all tonight questions

50:16 ↗ comments clarification so don't feel bad

50:20 ↗ yeah no i think i kind of look towards

50:21 ↗ like bellevue i look like towards

50:23 ↗ certain streets in nyc

50:25 ↗ where they've done a real good job of

50:27 ↗ not only creating the density that they

50:29 ↗ they have to have

50:31 ↗ but also that engagement

50:33 ↗ i think all of us who walked any of

50:34 ↗ those streets can realize

50:36 ↗ there is a way to do it and to your

50:37 ↗ point as far as more of a vibrant front

50:39 ↗ street um i think i saw a plan not too

50:41 ↗ long ago about like alder street where

50:43 ↗ they wanted to turn you know put lights

50:45 ↗ on it and kind of make it uh

50:47 ↗ can't think of an example but more of

50:49 ↗ one of those lively streets you see i

50:51 ↗ think that's a great idea and again it

50:53 ↗ kind of promotes not only the area

50:55 ↗ itself helps promote the business and

50:56 ↗ again makes it a lively part of town

50:58 ↗ that people want to be at so

51:02 ↗ commissioner lewis

51:06 ↗ thank you chair voice commissioner joy

51:07 ↗ lewis i do have a question for staff

51:10 ↗ generally when we look at our packets we

51:12 ↗ are getting an overview um of how staff

51:17 ↗ has engaged with the public right not

51:19 ↗ just the public comments that are being

51:20 ↗ submitted but different town halls

51:23 ↗ different avenues for interested parties

51:26 ↗ to be able to have spaces to connect

51:28 ↗ even whether that's questionnaires right

51:30 ↗ there's a variety of things we can do i

51:32 ↗ didn't see anything in this packet and

51:34 ↗ was surprised especially when we talk

51:35 ↗ about question one being where have you

51:37 ↗ seen places in your community i expected

51:40 ↗ a little bit more from staff to tell me

51:42 ↗ where what is the community telling you

51:44 ↗ where is the community found that we're

51:45 ↗ falling short where staff found hey

51:47 ↗ we're getting questions we're getting

51:49 ↗ requests for things that aren't allowed

51:51 ↗ and kind of having that overview so i

51:52 ↗ would love to hear a little bit more

51:54 ↗ about how

51:55 ↗ staff has reached out to the public

51:57 ↗ in prior to this meeting to have this

52:00 ↗ very question answered by the people

52:02 ↗ that it connects with

52:11 ↗ someone from the city like to pick that

52:13 ↗ up

52:13 ↗ you know i i can start off with in in my

52:16 ↗ little time here um you know it's um six

52:19 ↗ months now

52:21 ↗ staff always gets calls where you know

52:23 ↗ this is a business can we go in here

52:25 ↗ which is the use you're allowed in we

52:27 ↗ get business licenses

52:29 ↗ one of the things that i think um people

52:32 ↗ have talked to me about

52:34 ↗ was places like towing companies you

52:36 ↗ know nobody wants everyone wants a very

52:38 ↗ livable

52:39 ↗ walkable community but there's still a

52:41 ↗ need for those kind of spaces and and

52:44 ↗ should isaqah

52:45 ↗ you know uh

52:47 ↗ designate spaces where those can go

52:49 ↗ um people still are driving cars and

52:51 ↗ they still need to have a call in a

52:54 ↗ towing company and where do they go or

52:56 ↗ other businesses like a boat repair shop

52:59 ↗ you know i've talked to those people

53:01 ↗ where where in israel can we locate

53:03 ↗ which zones allow these kind of uses

53:05 ↗ um

53:07 ↗ other types of uses that are you know

53:10 ↗ you get concerns from community members

53:11 ↗ are the where can this marijuana retail

53:14 ↗ store go in and what the

53:17 ↗ the separation between these uses needs

53:19 ↗ to be is there going to be an impact for

53:22 ↗ parking for instance i mean how do we

53:25 ↗ manage the parking for a very successful

53:27 ↗ business if and and what that parking

53:29 ↗ spaces need to be so those are

53:32 ↗ my interactions and my little time here

53:34 ↗ of of the problem things that i've heard

53:37 ↗ um yes of course the other

53:39 ↗ the the desire for

53:41 ↗ you know a grocery store um

53:44 ↗ the um

53:46 ↗ you know places for entertainment a

53:48 ↗ trampoline place you know that was

53:50 ↗ brought up as a place where people go to

53:52 ↗ and and do we have enough of those in

53:55 ↗ our community

53:56 ↗ um uh surfing you know places so so

54:00 ↗ there's a desire for the live work play

54:02 ↗ kind of vision for the community that

54:04 ↗ that you know are we missing some of

54:06 ↗ those uh spaces and there may be more

54:08 ↗ than just the code that plays into it

54:10 ↗ the economics the the market factors you

54:12 ↗ know where people choose to locate those

54:14 ↗ kind of places so it may not be just a

54:16 ↗ code issue

54:17 ↗ uh but but to answer your question

54:20 ↗ commissioner lewis what are we hearing

54:22 ↗ that's what i've heard in my little time

54:23 ↗ here but lucy and kristen feel free to

54:26 ↗ pitch in what you guys hear

54:28 ↗ from community members that reach out

54:31 ↗ well and i think that's a i think minnie

54:34 ↗ you summarize the kinds of comments that

54:36 ↗ we are getting

54:38 ↗ on a kind of individual basis

54:41 ↗ i i would add sort of

54:43 ↗ two other avenues

54:46 ↗ one which i haven't really participated

54:48 ↗ in as much

54:50 ↗ are the affinity groups and there are

54:54 ↗ four title 18 there are these groups i

54:57 ↗ sat in on the

55:00 ↗ development group

55:02 ↗ there have been

55:04 ↗ other

55:05 ↗ uh ones that have taken place but they

55:07 ↗ have not been as targeted as you're

55:09 ↗ describing commissioner lewis they're a

55:12 ↗ broader brush with the intent of really

55:15 ↗ providing an avenue to hear what instead

55:19 ↗ of responding to these more targeted

55:21 ↗ kinds of questions

55:23 ↗ uh really

55:24 ↗ what are your concerns what's working

55:27 ↗ what's not working

55:29 ↗ now that doesn't mean that some of it

55:30 ↗ isn't um

55:32 ↗ feeding those answers but um

55:35 ↗ it's uh less specific

55:37 ↗ uh i think the other part of this um

55:40 ↗ which

55:42 ↗ uh i'm gonna take a little step to the

55:44 ↗ side and just say

55:46 ↗ that if you haven't already uh suspected

55:48 ↗ this there's likely to be a um

55:52 ↗ what we're calling a bike barn instead

55:53 ↗ of a parking lot of topics that are

55:57 ↗ gonna

55:58 ↗ come out of title 18

56:01 ↗ but are too expansive to really be

56:04 ↗ undertaken within title 18. they have

56:08 ↗ too much policy

56:09 ↗ there's a bigger community conversation

56:12 ↗ that's needed

56:13 ↗ and one of those that

56:15 ↗ we anticipate from the

56:18 ↗ city strategic plan

56:20 ↗ are these neighborhood conversations

56:23 ↗ about

56:24 ↗ amenities and services and

56:28 ↗ maybe facilities that neighborhoods

56:30 ↗ either want to preserve or feel need to

56:33 ↗ be added to um

56:37 ↗ support and create the unique

56:40 ↗ neighborhoods that we know that we have

56:42 ↗ in the city um so

56:45 ↗ you know i think

56:46 ↗ in some ways this is kind of the

56:48 ↗ beginning of some of that work that

56:50 ↗ we're we're seeing is going to come as

56:53 ↗ we kind of work uh incrementally through

56:56 ↗ neighborhoods

56:58 ↗ trying to understand what that is and

57:01 ↗ and so i see this as a beginning rather

57:04 ↗ than necessarily a conclusion as part of

57:06 ↗ this process

57:09 ↗ thanks minnie and thank you lucy

57:12 ↗ fantastic answer what i'm hoping is that

57:15 ↗ when we actually are getting our draft

57:17 ↗ code that maybe it's even a symbol of

57:20 ↗ that bike barn saying hey

57:23 ↗ focus on this shiny object and let's

57:25 ↗ start making a bucket let's start saying

57:27 ↗ these are the need this is what we want

57:29 ↗ to be directing because certainly there

57:32 ↗ are many

57:33 ↗ questions

57:34 ↗ regarding policy how we fine tune and

57:37 ↗ get what we want to get that have come

57:39 ↗ up in this discussion of title 18 so

57:41 ↗ being able to even have that um

57:43 ↗ visualization for us and being able to

57:45 ↗ have that we hear you let's put that on

57:47 ↗ the list let's get these buckets going

57:49 ↗ and let's start to organize this now it

57:50 ↗ helps us to be able to say okay this has

57:53 ↗ been heard this is something we're going

57:54 ↗ to be really fortunate to deal with in

57:56 ↗ 2023 let's focus right now uh when we're

58:00 ↗ obviously next year going through and

58:01 ↗ finishing up our draft code on on title

58:04 ↗ 18 so i appreciate that

58:20 ↗ thank you commissioner lewis and thank

58:22 ↗ you staff

58:24 ↗ according my clock we still have some

58:25 ↗ discussion time

58:30 ↗ please feel free

58:38 ↗ commissioner schulte

58:41 ↗ uh thank you chair voice i uh

58:43 ↗ uh back to the earlier discussion

58:45 ↗ by commissioner milligan and

58:47 ↗ commissioner brennan um you know both of

58:50 ↗ which i support i

58:51 ↗ i also want to voice my support for you

58:54 ↗ know creating a more uh

58:57 ↗ you know community-based uh interaction

59:00 ↗ amongst the you know the at the ground

59:02 ↗ level

59:03 ↗ of developments i

59:04 ↗ for me

59:05 ↗ it seems like a lot of parts of issaquah

59:08 ↗ i've seen as be more kind of a

59:10 ↗ pass-through instead of a destination

59:13 ↗ you know in terms of the heavy traffic

59:16 ↗ for example that we see going down

59:17 ↗ towards maple valley or towards the

59:19 ↗ south

59:20 ↗ and the congestion that's formed as a

59:22 ↗ result of that so i think if if we can

59:24 ↗ work on you know developing and building

59:26 ↗ communities that you know do promote

59:28 ↗ that ground level activity

59:30 ↗ i think that's critical and and with

59:32 ↗ that um

59:34 ↗ you know comes the the need to to bring

59:36 ↗ people right and to house people um and

59:39 ↗ and that's why we we should be taking a

59:41 ↗ look at bulk and scale um because it's

59:44 ↗ very difficult to

59:46 ↗ to have one level of retail uh one story

59:49 ↗ of multiple retail but

59:51 ↗ not so much residential around it

59:54 ↗ to support that

59:56 ↗ so

59:57 ↗ anyways i just wanted to provide my

59:59 ↗ support for you know ground level

1:00:01 ↗ community and

1:00:02 ↗ interaction i think is very important

1:00:24 ↗ mr brown

1:00:28 ↗ thanks jay boyce um

1:00:30 ↗ so lucy's response made me think about

1:00:34 ↗ um when we're talking about the single

1:00:35 ↗ family or the low density residential

1:00:37 ↗ zones

1:00:38 ↗ and

1:00:39 ↗ was a couple years ago i guess somewhere

1:00:42 ↗ and then we went through

1:00:44 ↗ um

1:00:46 ↗ an update of the

1:00:48 ↗ old town

1:00:49 ↗ residential design standards

1:00:51 ↗ so there was a

1:00:53 ↗ concentrated effort to really preserve

1:00:55 ↗ the character of that neighborhood

1:00:57 ↗ because of its you know location

1:01:00 ↗ so when you're thinking about

1:01:03 ↗ the future growth we you know we've been

1:01:05 ↗ talking about primarily around the

1:01:06 ↗ higher density uses the commercial the

1:01:09 ↗ commercial or mixed use zones but i also

1:01:12 ↗ need to think about the residential

1:01:14 ↗ neighborhoods or zones some of them

1:01:16 ↗ older in the

1:01:18 ↗ in down in the valley on the floor

1:01:20 ↗ of issaquah and then the newer

1:01:23 ↗ residential neighborhoods up in

1:01:24 ↗ highlands and palace and other

1:01:27 ↗ developing areas

1:01:29 ↗ so it's being really thoughtful about

1:01:31 ↗ where does the density go when you're

1:01:34 ↗ talking about

1:01:35 ↗ housing and that gets really um

1:01:38 ↗ controversial i think

1:01:40 ↗ but it is it is thinking about when

1:01:43 ↗ you're thinking about the character of

1:01:44 ↗ the neighborhoods uh lucy that you were

1:01:46 ↗ describing it's it's looking at the

1:01:49 ↗ location of the low density or lower

1:01:51 ↗ density residential abuses and thinking

1:01:54 ↗ about

1:01:55 ↗ i know this could be complain stuff too

1:01:58 ↗ so i don't want to cross the line here

1:01:59 ↗ but thinking ahead about what is the

1:02:02 ↗ character the future character of those

1:02:05 ↗ neighborhoods

1:02:06 ↗ including

1:02:07 ↗ whether or not you're going to allow for

1:02:09 ↗ additional density to occur

1:02:12 ↗ with town homes or or other things

1:02:14 ↗ depending on the location so i think

1:02:16 ↗ that is a phone and function issue that

1:02:20 ↗ needs to be

1:02:21 ↗ maybe it's a bucketed item but it's

1:02:23 ↗ something that the city needs to think

1:02:25 ↗ of that we collectively the city needs

1:02:27 ↗ to think about

1:02:28 ↗ um i think the work done in

1:02:31 ↗ the old town

1:02:33 ↗ neighborhood made a lot of sense

1:02:36 ↗ and we probably aren't going to undo

1:02:37 ↗ that i mean that was

1:02:38 ↗ you know that was a purposeful effort

1:02:41 ↗ but thinking about that sort of an

1:02:43 ↗ effort in other parts of the city and

1:02:44 ↗ it's not just about preserving the

1:02:46 ↗ character sometimes it's about what's

1:02:47 ↗ the future character we want to have and

1:02:49 ↗ that means changing it

1:02:52 ↗ so just another another quite another

1:02:55 ↗ issue to think about on the on the form

1:02:57 ↗ particularly out in the residential

1:02:59 ↗ neighborhoods

1:03:06 ↗ thank you commissioner brennan and now

1:03:08 ↗ we have commissioner zaragoza

1:03:13 ↗ thank you chair

1:03:14 ↗ uh commissioner zaragoza

1:03:17 ↗ i wanted to comment on having

1:03:19 ↗ residential above

1:03:21 ↗ uh retail but also talking about these

1:03:23 ↗ big box supermarkets safeway

1:03:26 ↗ and qfc

1:03:28 ↗ they're massive they're huge they take

1:03:30 ↗ up you know very large spaces inside

1:03:33 ↗ where we want to really pack those those

1:03:35 ↗ uh communities in you know building up

1:03:37 ↗ above those i think would be great and

1:03:40 ↗ there's awesome examples of uh the

1:03:42 ↗ wajamaya and the id in seattle

1:03:44 ↗ um

1:03:45 ↗ also i think in capitol hill there's

1:03:47 ↗ another

1:03:48 ↗ market very similar to that

1:03:50 ↗ they're bustling

1:03:51 ↗ all around those markets there's just

1:03:54 ↗ always people it's always kind of alive

1:03:56 ↗ and and fun places even though you're

1:03:58 ↗ standing in front of a supermarket

1:04:00 ↗ so i think that would be

1:04:01 ↗ a great target as we get new stuff in or

1:04:04 ↗ we're replacing or or retrofitting or

1:04:07 ↗ upgrading

1:04:09 ↗ thanks

1:04:14 ↗ great comment yeah i'm thinking myself

1:04:16 ↗ of of that qfc or the pcc

1:04:19 ↗ uh down there that have you know all of

1:04:21 ↗ that living space above it and then we

1:04:23 ↗ look kind of at some of our big box

1:04:24 ↗ stores and there is nothing above it and

1:04:26 ↗ it is just impervious surface and big

1:04:28 ↗ box

1:04:38 ↗ commissioner schulte

1:04:40 ↗ uh thank you chair boyce um

1:04:43 ↗ great point uh commissioner zarga

1:04:45 ↗ zaragoza am i pronouncing that correctly

1:04:47 ↗ okay great um

1:04:49 ↗ yeah great point you know as we look at

1:04:50 ↗ the future um and especially is kind of

1:04:53 ↗ what we're discovering you know through

1:04:55 ↗ the pandemic i think what we'll start

1:04:56 ↗ seeing

1:04:57 ↗ is um you know a lot of

1:05:00 ↗ retailers really looking at a way to

1:05:02 ↗ reduce their footprint um

1:05:04 ↗ both from a you know sustainability

1:05:06 ↗ perspective

1:05:07 ↗ but as well as you know rentable and

1:05:09 ↗ usable square footage

1:05:11 ↗ um you know with e-commerce and uh you

1:05:14 ↗ know with examples of what's happened to

1:05:16 ↗ sears in the past years that they as

1:05:18 ↗ they've started downsizing and

1:05:21 ↗ those big box buildings have either been

1:05:23 ↗ demolished or converted um to other uses

1:05:26 ↗ um

1:05:27 ↗ so you know i think we'll see a lot more

1:05:29 ↗ of that um and with that comes

1:05:31 ↗ additional space right as as these

1:05:34 ↗ retailers look to downsize reduce their

1:05:36 ↗ footprint

1:05:39 ↗ and

1:05:39 ↗ more opportunities for you know

1:05:42 ↗ residential living

1:05:44 ↗ as well so great comment

1:05:49 ↗ thank you commissioner schulte and and

1:05:51 ↗ to piggyback off of him um you think

1:05:54 ↗ about all the things that we're doing as

1:05:55 ↗ far as amazon home deliveries i mean

1:05:57 ↗ home depot delivers and you think about

1:05:59 ↗ you know again we're talking about 20 to

1:06:01 ↗ 30 years out which is kind of a mission

1:06:03 ↗ statement at least for our commission

1:06:05 ↗ and you think of drone deliveries that

1:06:07 ↗ will probably be quicker here than

1:06:10 ↗ any of us would have selected things so

1:06:12 ↗ all of these things um

1:06:15 ↗ will probably reduce the footprints of

1:06:16 ↗ some of these bigger retailers

1:06:27 ↗ so i'm not seeing any more comments i'll

1:06:29 ↗ give it a i'll give it a minute

1:06:31 ↗ and then

1:06:33 ↗ and then from there we're going to go to

1:06:35 ↗ public comment but i want to give i want

1:06:37 ↗ to give the commissions at least an

1:06:39 ↗ opportunity

1:06:41 ↗ if anything pops up last minute

1:06:43 ↗ and again everybody has the opportunity

1:06:45 ↗ you know at the end we'll decide if we

1:06:46 ↗ need to continue to flesh this out in

1:06:48 ↗ another joint meeting or if uh emails

1:06:51 ↗ will suffice so

1:06:53 ↗ i'll give it a minute

1:07:08 ↗ all right

1:07:10 ↗ so what i'd like to do now is open it up

1:07:12 ↗ to public comment for this discussion

1:07:14 ↗ question i know there were some people

1:07:17 ↗ that were having connectivity issues so

1:07:19 ↗ i'm sure we'll we'll probably have some

1:07:21 ↗ additional comments

1:07:23 ↗ the idea was to try to keep it around 10

1:07:24 ↗ minutes but i know some people who

1:07:26 ↗ couldn't get into the general at the

1:07:27 ↗ very beginning

1:07:28 ↗ so this might go a little bit longer

1:07:30 ↗ so um kristen do we have anyone signed

1:07:32 ↗ up to speak

1:07:35 ↗ no one is signed up but let's see if

1:07:36 ↗ anyone would like to speak either

1:07:38 ↗ raise your hand

1:07:40 ↗ or hit star 3 or let me know in comment

1:07:44 ↗ we have one right here

1:07:46 ↗ with connie marsh i'm going to

1:07:48 ↗ make you a panelist

1:07:53 ↗ connie you are a panelist you can turn

1:07:55 ↗ your screen on if you'd like

1:07:57 ↗ yep

1:07:59 ↗ okay some

1:08:01 ↗ other people have finally been able to

1:08:02 ↗ get on get on it took them almost 45

1:08:05 ↗ minutes to get on

1:08:07 ↗ so

1:08:08 ↗ um well

1:08:12 ↗ this is the same conversation we had

1:08:14 ↗ with the issaquah highlands

1:08:16 ↗ how many 20 almost 20 years ago

1:08:19 ↗ and then we have the same conversation

1:08:21 ↗ again

1:08:22 ↗ with the central issaquah plan

1:08:24 ↗ and so

1:08:26 ↗ not so much with talus because that

1:08:28 ↗ turned into this

1:08:30 ↗ sort of housing area as compared to

1:08:33 ↗ a a uh mixed use area issaquah highlands

1:08:38 ↗ was provided the opportunity to have

1:08:40 ↗ much more open land and be much more

1:08:43 ↗ dense instead it chose to sprawl out

1:08:46 ↗ over the land which is interesting

1:08:48 ↗ our central issaquah plan

1:08:50 ↗ allows many parts of our entire valley

1:08:54 ↗ floor to be

1:08:55 ↗ 12 stories tall

1:08:57 ↗ and we have all these rules in place in

1:09:00 ↗ order to make it

1:09:02 ↗ walkable

1:09:04 ↗ and active with parks and getting people

1:09:07 ↗ out of their cars

1:09:09 ↗ and you'll notice in the central

1:09:11 ↗ issaquah plan what we have achieved

1:09:13 ↗ is housing development way out on

1:09:16 ↗ newport way

1:09:18 ↗ we have not gotten much further than

1:09:21 ↗ that we have the zoning in place and the

1:09:24 ↗ rules in place to achieve

1:09:27 ↗ what you all want

1:09:30 ↗ and it's not here yet

1:09:32 ↗ right the esco highlands have the

1:09:34 ↗ capacity to do that they chose not to do

1:09:38 ↗ that we have old town

1:09:40 ↗ which has the rules in place to be able

1:09:46 ↗ to

1:09:47 ↗ do what you want and it is not

1:09:50 ↗ achieving

1:09:51 ↗ that

1:09:52 ↗ so rather than changing

1:09:55 ↗ or spreading the uses around hoping that

1:10:00 ↗ if we actually add uses in more

1:10:02 ↗ neighborhoods that that will

1:10:05 ↗ occur

1:10:06 ↗ i think we need to ask ourselves why

1:10:09 ↗ it's not occurring in the places we

1:10:12 ↗ where we already have the rules and

1:10:14 ↗ regulations and want it to happen

1:10:17 ↗ because those are the places where we

1:10:19 ↗ are actually going to be able to get a

1:10:21 ↗ bus

1:10:22 ↗ people are actually going to be able to

1:10:23 ↗ walk around and use the existing retail

1:10:27 ↗ we can get some of those owners of these

1:10:29 ↗ stores who say they aren't going to

1:10:31 ↗ redevelop for 50 years because they're

1:10:32 ↗ making mega bucks off their box store

1:10:35 ↗ to want to redevelop

1:10:38 ↗ those are the nuts and bolts of our

1:10:40 ↗ issues so i don't want to have the same

1:10:45 ↗ conversation for the third time

1:10:48 ↗ and end up with the same result that we

1:10:50 ↗ don't get the dense vibrant areas that

1:10:53 ↗ we like

1:10:54 ↗ our problems are more in our inability

1:10:57 ↗ to

1:10:58 ↗ implement

1:11:00 ↗ the rules and regulations than we have

1:11:02 ↗ that we have

1:11:03 ↗ then it is to create more uses

1:11:08 ↗ and places

1:11:09 ↗ so

1:11:10 ↗ um

1:11:11 ↗ i i i agree

1:11:14 ↗ with y'all's vision i don't agree with

1:11:17 ↗ what the solution

1:11:20 ↗ might be

1:11:21 ↗ and one quick thing

1:11:23 ↗ on uh

1:11:25 ↗ combining columns in the use table

1:11:28 ↗ i use the use table all the time

1:11:32 ↗ and

1:11:34 ↗ if

1:11:35 ↗ anything we don't have enough discrete

1:11:38 ↗ columns for parks

1:11:40 ↗ we've had many issues for not being able

1:11:44 ↗ to define what kind of a park should go

1:11:46 ↗ in what place and what kind of storm

1:11:48 ↗ water should go in what place maybe

1:11:50 ↗ there's a different way to do that

1:11:54 ↗ i'm not sure

1:11:55 ↗ um with all the varying types of housing

1:11:59 ↗ i'm not sure that consolidating the

1:12:01 ↗ columns

1:12:03 ↗ and then creating overlays

1:12:05 ↗ is a simplification it sounds

1:12:08 ↗ suspiciously like what we already have

1:12:11 ↗ we just don't call it an overlay we just

1:12:14 ↗ go to a separate set of codes

1:12:17 ↗ so what i would like to hear in this is

1:12:19 ↗ how

1:12:20 ↗ combining the tables

1:12:23 ↗ and

1:12:25 ↗ and squishing them

1:12:27 ↗ is going to solve the ease of using the

1:12:31 ↗ code as i use it every day as staff uses

1:12:34 ↗ it every day and has developers use it

1:12:36 ↗ every day and and so that part is

1:12:39 ↗ totally missing from this conversation

1:12:41 ↗ uh

1:12:43 ↗ for me it's an interesting conversation

1:12:46 ↗ but it it isn't a title 18 conversation

1:12:49 ↗ to me thank you

1:12:56 ↗ thank you

1:12:58 ↗ um kristen do we have any additional

1:12:59 ↗ speakers yes we do um susan neville

1:13:03 ↗ would like to speak

1:13:05 ↗ susan i'm making you a panelist

1:13:08 ↗ you are a panelist you're muted and you

1:13:11 ↗ can turn on your camera if you'd like

1:13:12 ↗ okay thank you i'm just can you hear me

1:13:16 ↗ yes oh good i'm glad to be here it took

1:13:18 ↗ me a little while to get here um

1:13:20 ↗ thank you everyone it's really been

1:13:22 ↗ stimulating conversation it's

1:13:25 ↗ and um

1:13:26 ↗ i wanted

1:13:27 ↗ to really speak to

1:13:29 ↗ number one which is what you're doing um

1:13:34 ↗ i was i'm not sure where this fits but

1:13:36 ↗ i'm gonna tell you my thoughts and then

1:13:38 ↗ we'll configure it

1:13:40 ↗ i was traveling north

1:13:42 ↗ towards gilman on a side street right

1:13:45 ↗ heading towards wells fargo

1:13:47 ↗ and it was the evening and i looked up

1:13:50 ↗ and there was this huge

1:13:52 ↗ light

1:13:53 ↗ massive structure and i thought a

1:13:56 ↗ spaceship had landed and i realized it

1:13:59 ↗ was the new costco building and all the

1:14:01 ↗ lights were on and i had not seen it in

1:14:03 ↗ the evening

1:14:05 ↗ so it kind of took my breath away

1:14:08 ↗ and i thought wow

1:14:12 ↗ being part of the title 18 process and

1:14:14 ↗ following it all the way along we have a

1:14:16 ↗ huge amount of challenges and i don't

1:14:18 ↗ know where this fits but

1:14:20 ↗ what i thought to myself is

1:14:22 ↗ we as a community we have a vision

1:14:25 ↗ and

1:14:26 ↗ when i looked at that structure and the

1:14:28 ↗ lights in the building it didn't quite

1:14:30 ↗ fit that vision and i was wondering

1:14:33 ↗ how we're going to encourage our

1:14:35 ↗ corporate partnerships that are

1:14:37 ↗ important going forward but yet still

1:14:40 ↗ keep

1:14:41 ↗ the

1:14:42 ↗ height and the density uh in line of

1:14:45 ↗ what we want so i don't know if this is

1:14:47 ↗ the place that you speak about it but i

1:14:49 ↗ just wanted to share that

1:14:51 ↗ that

1:14:52 ↗ episode that happened

1:14:54 ↗ and

1:14:55 ↗ had one other comment regarding

1:14:57 ↗ transparency and

1:14:59 ↗ i think when you are saying going

1:15:01 ↗ forward we can handle some of our

1:15:03 ↗ discussion email that kind of leaves the

1:15:05 ↗ uh some of that transparency out and i

1:15:08 ↗ think i don't want to be lost along the

1:15:10 ↗ way so i just wanted to share that too

1:15:12 ↗ thank you

1:15:19 ↗ thank you

1:15:23 ↗ kristen any additional

1:15:25 ↗ public comment

1:15:26 ↗ um

1:15:28 ↗ yes and

1:15:32 ↗ thank you um sorry i was reading the

1:15:33 ↗ comments i will i do want to let

1:15:34 ↗ everyone know but for some reason the

1:15:36 ↗ hand raising is not working tonight i

1:15:38 ↗ cannot see it um so if

1:15:41 ↗ i'm going to let

1:15:44 ↗ let's see let me just here's what i'm

1:15:45 ↗ going to do

1:15:47 ↗ i can see it kristen you can

1:15:50 ↗ okay i can't see it tonight but i'm

1:15:51 ↗ going to ask um someone real quick we

1:15:53 ↗ have a calling user with uh the first

1:15:56 ↗ few numbers are 206 300.

1:16:00 ↗ oops

1:16:01 ↗ i can't unmute you

1:16:02 ↗ i don't know

1:16:03 ↗ okay i'll figure that out but in the

1:16:05 ↗ meantime yes ann fletcher would like to

1:16:07 ↗ speak

1:16:08 ↗ so and i am making you a panelist

1:16:12 ↗ and you are unmuted you may turn on your

1:16:14 ↗ camera if you'd like

1:16:24 ↗ thank you uh

1:16:26 ↗ i just um this is my first time doing it

1:16:28 ↗ on the phone uh since the other way

1:16:30 ↗ didn't work so thank you um i am a

1:16:33 ↗ little bit um

1:16:35 ↗ discombuberated here

1:16:37 ↗ so thanks for your patience

1:16:40 ↗ um

1:16:41 ↗ uh

1:16:41 ↗ i just uh wanted to make some general

1:16:43 ↗ comments because i'm feeling like i'm

1:16:45 ↗ just starting to get into this but my

1:16:47 ↗ name is ann fletcher i'm a

1:16:48 ↗ long time resident and i'm in with

1:16:51 ↗ people for climate action

1:16:52 ↗ um the zoning

1:16:54 ↗ uh is something that the

1:16:57 ↗ climate action

1:16:59 ↗ people have been interested in as a way

1:17:01 ↗ of reducing

1:17:04 ↗ our carbon emissions

1:17:05 ↗ with the mixed use

1:17:07 ↗ i believe it's one of the items in the

1:17:10 ↗ draft climate action plan

1:17:13 ↗ but there aren't any specifics about how

1:17:16 ↗ we would go about doing that

1:17:18 ↗ and

1:17:19 ↗ so the comment that i wanted to make is

1:17:21 ↗ that

1:17:22 ↗ i i i'm learning a lot tonight i think

1:17:26 ↗ there's a lot more discussion to be done

1:17:29 ↗ i think that we have um as one person

1:17:32 ↗ mentioned we have

1:17:34 ↗ places where we have mixed use we need

1:17:36 ↗ to study and make those work

1:17:39 ↗ better i think we have to be careful

1:17:41 ↗ about um

1:17:43 ↗ you know our steps

1:17:45 ↗ in

1:17:47 ↗ selecting studying selecting and

1:17:50 ↗ prioritizing those areas for mixed use

1:17:53 ↗ so that we

1:17:54 ↗ are the most effective and efficient

1:17:57 ↗ that we can be i don't see um

1:18:00 ↗ getting

1:18:01 ↗ at this point

1:18:03 ↗ getting rid of

1:18:07 ↗ single-family zoning completely i think

1:18:10 ↗ it needs to be much more thought out and

1:18:13 ↗ and um

1:18:15 ↗ uh

1:18:16 ↗ a step-by-step process

1:18:18 ↗ and i i do believe that we i heard one

1:18:21 ↗ commissioner say that

1:18:23 ↗ this really is hard not to get into the

1:18:25 ↗ comp plan

1:18:26 ↗ uh business because the the comp plan

1:18:29 ↗ needs to support whatever um steps that

1:18:33 ↗ we take and i so i i will

1:18:37 ↗ like to see

1:18:39 ↗ overall planning discussions methodical

1:18:43 ↗ thorough way of going about doing this

1:18:45 ↗ transition that i do believe we need to

1:18:47 ↗ make for the future

1:18:49 ↗ so thank you very much

1:18:58 ↗ thank you and mary lynch would like to

1:19:00 ↗ speak next so mary i am making you a

1:19:02 ↗ panelist

1:19:05 ↗ whoops

1:19:14 ↗ there you go mary you are a panelist and

1:19:15 ↗ you're unmuted

1:19:17 ↗ okay

1:19:18 ↗ um

1:19:19 ↗ yeah i don't know if my video's working

1:19:21 ↗ it doesn't matter

1:19:23 ↗ um some of the comments that came up

1:19:25 ↗ about

1:19:26 ↗ you know a lot of questions going on

1:19:28 ↗ from some of the potential um

1:19:32 ↗ companies moving into isa quad where

1:19:34 ↗ they should go i was part of the central

1:19:37 ↗ area task force and then i was very

1:19:39 ↗ active when we went back and redid the

1:19:41 ↗ central area task force and all those

1:19:44 ↗ times we talked about specifically the

1:19:47 ↗ central area plan and

1:19:49 ↗ what areas you know could be used for

1:19:53 ↗ um storage you know and identified the

1:19:56 ↗ areas over along east lake samamish that

1:19:59 ↗ already have the storage you know those

1:20:01 ↗ places could be there and made sure as

1:20:04 ↗ part of the central area plan we

1:20:06 ↗ identified the different areas

1:20:08 ↗ to house those things that were needed

1:20:11 ↗ or also the auto repair and that we

1:20:14 ↗ didn't want some of these places to go

1:20:16 ↗ into the other parts of the central area

1:20:18 ↗ plan just like i don't think we want it

1:20:21 ↗ into the single family

1:20:23 ↗ and i think connie kind of alluded to it

1:20:25 ↗ and so susan my disappointment has been

1:20:28 ↗ is i think we as a city have not gone

1:20:30 ↗ out and talked to those people wanting

1:20:33 ↗ to come and develop in his applause what

1:20:35 ↗ our vision is

1:20:37 ↗ because it was very disappointing where

1:20:38 ↗ we saw all the build out

1:20:41 ↗ with anthology with ravel with riva and

1:20:45 ↗ now with the other one that is now

1:20:47 ↗ before the city

1:20:48 ↗ all we're getting are housing units with

1:20:51 ↗ no mixed use at all

1:20:54 ↗ and

1:20:55 ↗ when we're at the development uh

1:20:57 ↗ planning meeting when we first heard

1:20:59 ↗ about these developments going in that

1:21:01 ↗ was the first time

1:21:02 ↗ and it already was a done deal and city

1:21:05 ↗ staff said sorry you know they didn't

1:21:08 ↗ have that in their plan and we're going

1:21:10 ↗ ahead with it as it is and so i don't

1:21:12 ↗ think as a city we're selling

1:21:15 ↗ what our vision is and i would hate to

1:21:18 ↗ see that we expand it and change you

1:21:20 ↗ know the zoning and make it more

1:21:22 ↗ complicated or look at moving it into

1:21:24 ↗ the single family areas

1:21:28 ↗ as part of what we're doing now with

1:21:30 ↗ title 18

1:21:32 ↗ and so i think we need to concentrate on

1:21:35 ↗ working with people and

1:21:37 ↗ those that are coming and getting them

1:21:39 ↗ to see our vision

1:21:40 ↗ and making sure that we live up to our

1:21:43 ↗ vision

1:21:44 ↗ that being said

1:21:46 ↗ that's it

1:21:56 ↗ let's see

1:21:58 ↗ anyone who else wants to speak

1:22:06 ↗ i'm not seeing anyone else

1:22:09 ↗ and i think everyone who's out there has

1:22:11 ↗ spoken so

1:22:12 ↗ okay well thank you kristen

1:22:14 ↗ so now what i'd like to do everyone is

1:22:16 ↗ to move on to question two and if we

1:22:18 ↗ could have staff

1:22:19 ↗ uh maybe for the next ten minutes or so

1:22:21 ↗ put that question up on the screen maybe

1:22:23 ↗ take it down after 10 minutes but just

1:22:25 ↗ to get the conversation going

1:22:28 ↗ yeah we'll start with question number

1:22:30 ↗ two

1:22:47 ↗ and we have a comment from commissioner

1:22:49 ↗ milligan

1:22:51 ↗ oh i'd love to start it off commissioner

1:22:53 ↗ milligan here and because i cheated and

1:22:56 ↗ talked about something during question

1:22:58 ↗ one

1:22:59 ↗ i i wanted to follow up on it here

1:23:01 ↗ especially to clarify since we heard

1:23:02 ↗ such good comments from the public

1:23:04 ↗ and i think what what i was saying and

1:23:07 ↗ and commissioner brennan can clarify

1:23:09 ↗ what what he was saying but i think

1:23:13 ↗ and and even uh commissioner voice um

1:23:15 ↗ lewis had comments about this about how

1:23:17 ↗ do we have these um

1:23:19 ↗ residential areas

1:23:21 ↗ that do not have their daily needs such

1:23:24 ↗ as in food or gathering spaces

1:23:27 ↗ and i had suggested how do we solve that

1:23:31 ↗ or i had asked how do we solve that and

1:23:32 ↗ wondered if it had to do with uses very

1:23:35 ↗ light uses that could be allowed in

1:23:36 ↗ residential areas is that the solution

1:23:39 ↗ i don't know that that's the solution

1:23:41 ↗ perhaps a better

1:23:44 ↗ application could be looking at those

1:23:47 ↗ large areas

1:23:49 ↗ uh single family residential say

1:23:52 ↗ or even

1:23:53 ↗ mixed use i'm not issues but multifamily

1:23:57 ↗ where

1:23:58 ↗ pockets that are served by possibly by

1:24:01 ↗ transit or at the nexus of those

1:24:03 ↗ communities that could be zoned to allow

1:24:06 ↗ light

1:24:07 ↗ community

1:24:09 ↗ retail

1:24:10 ↗ uses

1:24:12 ↗ i am i don't i mean to

1:24:15 ↗ suggest

1:24:16 ↗ the behavior that i'd like to see and

1:24:18 ↗ not necessarily how we get there

1:24:20 ↗ so i mostly wanted to clarify that for

1:24:22 ↗ the public because i i don't think that

1:24:25 ↗ it would be appropriate to add those

1:24:26 ↗ uses just anywhere

1:24:28 ↗ in our single family neighborhoods but

1:24:29 ↗ the single-family neighborhoods

1:24:30 ↗ definitely need something to reduce um

1:24:33 ↗ their dependency on

1:24:34 ↗ cars and transit which isn't serving

1:24:37 ↗ them

1:24:38 ↗ uh and to find a way to serve those

1:24:40 ↗ communities needs to to get together and

1:24:42 ↗ be a cohesive and whole neighborhood

1:24:45 ↗ that's my that was my intention

1:24:47 ↗ thank you

1:24:55 ↗ thank you commissioner million

1:24:56 ↗ and as i wait for a few more

1:24:59 ↗ comments or questions into the chat

1:25:02 ↗ um just so i'm

1:25:03 ↗ completely clear and i know i had the

1:25:04 ↗ opportunity to talk to staff a little

1:25:06 ↗ early today

1:25:07 ↗ is basically we're still kind of looking

1:25:09 ↗ at this high level view

1:25:10 ↗ and i think some of the concern is is

1:25:13 ↗ the idea that you know this is all going

1:25:15 ↗ on to a chalkboard somewhere and we're

1:25:16 ↗ never going to see it again i don't

1:25:18 ↗ think that's what's going to happen so i

1:25:20 ↗ hope that would put some people's mind

1:25:22 ↗ at ease this is to give the city some

1:25:24 ↗ direction as far as what we're thinking

1:25:26 ↗ about

1:25:27 ↗ and again this is just the first part

1:25:31 ↗ i think a three-step process so there is

1:25:33 ↗ more to come

1:25:35 ↗ in fact i was looking at the calendar

1:25:36 ↗ and it looks like we have a couple of

1:25:39 ↗ joint meetings with the development

1:25:40 ↗ commission

1:25:41 ↗ so

1:25:44 ↗ yeah so we still have a ways to go

1:25:47 ↗ commissioner lewis

1:25:49 ↗ please

1:25:51 ↗ thank you chair boys commissioner joy

1:25:53 ↗ lewis here um i think that this question

1:25:56 ↗ is a very interesting one that i think

1:25:57 ↗ is very

1:25:59 ↗ fun to think outside of the box and

1:26:01 ↗ something that i find that our community

1:26:03 ↗ is missing is the chance for

1:26:06 ↗ true community investment and being able

1:26:09 ↗ to have the city control more of its

1:26:11 ↗ land use right now we have a policy of

1:26:14 ↗ buying up spaces along our creek beds to

1:26:17 ↗ be able to better manage for ecological

1:26:19 ↗ reasons and i would like to see this

1:26:21 ↗ actually spill over more towards our

1:26:24 ↗ large disparity of jobs numbers when

1:26:27 ↗ looking at our housing numbers and one

1:26:29 ↗ way that that could be done is through

1:26:30 ↗ incubators there's been a lot of

1:26:32 ↗ successful arts incubators

1:26:35 ↗ in georgetown

1:26:36 ↗ is a good example of a not too far away

1:26:39 ↗ neighbor where this has been successful

1:26:41 ↗ and being able to create spaces in our

1:26:43 ↗ community for people to start businesses

1:26:45 ↗ and to be able to have a buy-in to be

1:26:48 ↗ able to say you are able to lease space

1:26:52 ↗ at an affordable price when we talk

1:26:54 ↗ about uh affordable housing

1:26:56 ↗ it's important also to look at

1:26:57 ↗ commercial retail and we all i think

1:27:00 ↗ expected there to be some type the

1:27:02 ↗ market to bear some type of that weight

1:27:05 ↗ in pandemic and we haven't seen that

1:27:07 ↗ right commercial banking has decided to

1:27:09 ↗ prop up commercial real estate to a

1:27:11 ↗ degree that has really boxed out small

1:27:13 ↗ local businesses from being able to get

1:27:16 ↗ the square footage they need just to

1:27:17 ↗ start something off in the community

1:27:19 ↗ when we look at how

1:27:21 ↗ the intent of what issaquah highlands

1:27:23 ↗ was supposed to be uh 20 years ago this

1:27:26 ↗ is not what was envisioned this was not

1:27:28 ↗ the plan instead we let the market

1:27:31 ↗ decide what could go in and so we ended

1:27:32 ↗ up getting big box chains in the

1:27:35 ↗ highlands and it was not conducive to

1:27:36 ↗ the community

1:27:38 ↗ uh i'm excited to see

1:27:40 ↗ uh small inroads that we've had recently

1:27:43 ↗ to be able to create market spaces for

1:27:46 ↗ small local businesses and i think that

1:27:48 ↗ needs to be increased and i think a good

1:27:50 ↗ way to do that is to think about how we

1:27:52 ↗ promote entrepreneurship in our city and

1:27:55 ↗ being able to have

1:27:56 ↗ more spaces for artists to be able to

1:28:00 ↗ see if their ideas can grow into a

1:28:02 ↗ business so that would be my

1:28:05 ↗ comment on this thanks very much

1:28:10 ↗ great comment great comment commissioner

1:28:12 ↗ lewis that was fantastic um commissioner

1:28:14 ↗ dillon

1:28:17 ↗ thanks sure um that that is a hard act

1:28:19 ↗ to follow um going back to to

1:28:22 ↗ commissioner milligan's comment and and

1:28:24 ↗ this discussion kind of of mixed use and

1:28:27 ↗ and how we

1:28:29 ↗ promote that and haven't been seeing it

1:28:31 ↗ even in areas potentially where it's

1:28:33 ↗ allowed are there avenues

1:28:36 ↗ that we actually restrict uses in some

1:28:38 ↗ particular areas and that

1:28:41 ↗ that purely residential is is not an

1:28:43 ↗ allowable use but mixed use is in order

1:28:46 ↗ to

1:28:47 ↗ um

1:28:49 ↗ to discourage the the type of

1:28:51 ↗ development that we've seen out along

1:28:52 ↗ newport uh without those

1:28:55 ↗ neighborhood commercial type

1:28:57 ↗ uses to complement the residential

1:29:03 ↗ may i comment

1:29:05 ↗ this is kristin leeson

1:29:08 ↗ hi

1:29:08 ↗ so

1:29:09 ↗ there are avenues to do that we have a

1:29:12 ↗ zone called the that was created in the

1:29:14 ↗ 2016 moratorium

1:29:17 ↗ uh called the vertical mixed-use zone

1:29:19 ↗ and it requires that you have mixed use

1:29:21 ↗ so you have to have either an office or

1:29:25 ↗ commercial use on the bottom floor

1:29:27 ↗ and then residential uses on top so we

1:29:29 ↗ do there are avenues to do it that was

1:29:31 ↗ one that we used at that time and there

1:29:34 ↗ there are other things to look at as

1:29:35 ↗ well

1:29:43 ↗ thank you kristen and thank you

1:29:44 ↗ commissioner dylan i apologize for that

1:29:46 ↗ frantic running my my mac just gave me a

1:29:49 ↗ message it's about to die

1:29:51 ↗ um

1:29:53 ↗ all right still waiting for additional

1:29:56 ↗ comments questions clarifications

1:29:59 ↗ commissioner sanford please

1:30:02 ↗ thank you chairman voice

1:30:04 ↗ our former beloved front street market

1:30:06 ↗ has been mentioned a couple of times so

1:30:08 ↗ i think this is a somewhat related point

1:30:10 ↗ uh when front street market disappeared

1:30:12 ↗ i communicated with the city council and

1:30:14 ↗ mayor

1:30:15 ↗ to try to see if there were any kind of

1:30:17 ↗ incentives that we could offer the owner

1:30:19 ↗ to keep a neighborhood grocery there as

1:30:22 ↗ kind of the anchor of that neighborhood

1:30:24 ↗ i think

1:30:25 ↗ often for neighborhoods when we think of

1:30:27 ↗ them it's one of the most

1:30:29 ↗ central and important uses we can

1:30:31 ↗ provide the neighborhood market

1:30:33 ↗ and

1:30:34 ↗ essentially

1:30:36 ↗ the answer was that

1:30:38 ↗ there was no

1:30:39 ↗ incentive that they could

1:30:42 ↗ come up with to incentivize the owner

1:30:45 ↗ to have another

1:30:47 ↗ small food store in there and i maybe

1:30:49 ↗ this is a mike barton issue i don't know

1:30:51 ↗ but it kind of echoes some of the other

1:30:53 ↗ points that have been raised so

1:30:56 ↗ the idea of incentivizing owners either

1:30:58 ↗ through reduced fees or taxes i think

1:31:00 ↗ could be something that could be

1:31:01 ↗ explored

1:31:03 ↗ thanks

1:31:12 ↗ thank you

1:31:20 ↗ yeah it's interesting how throughout

1:31:22 ↗ human history it's always kind of been

1:31:24 ↗ centered around the market right

1:31:29 ↗ in costa rica they still have

1:31:30 ↗ neighborhood markets called potpourrias

1:31:32 ↗ uh where everybody goes and buys their

1:31:34 ↗ eggs their milk their chicklets all of

1:31:36 ↗ these things and they are still there

1:31:38 ↗ and they still have the big box stores

1:31:40 ↗ that came and moved in

1:31:41 ↗ 20 years ago but

1:31:43 ↗ they haven't been able to put the

1:31:44 ↗ potpourri out of business

1:31:51 ↗ i see a hand and i believe that's um

1:31:53 ↗ commissioner solo correct that's right

1:31:55 ↗ not you know i'd be curious from staff

1:31:57 ↗ perspective

1:31:59 ↗ you know look it seems to me that we

1:32:00 ↗ have a whole bunch of opportunities in

1:32:03 ↗ the code to

1:32:05 ↗ do just about

1:32:06 ↗ whatever you want in a lot of different

1:32:08 ↗ places and i'd be curious if there are

1:32:10 ↗ applications that people have asked for

1:32:12 ↗ that

1:32:13 ↗ were told they couldn't do it because

1:32:14 ↗ the code wouldn't allow because the

1:32:16 ↗ zoning wasn't allowed it seems like

1:32:18 ↗ we've got this notion that there are

1:32:23 ↗ community uses that the community

1:32:24 ↗ desires but i don't know that there have

1:32:27 ↗ been any that haven't been able to be

1:32:29 ↗ fulfilled so i'd be curious on on what

1:32:31 ↗ the perspective of the staff was

1:32:34 ↗ that made sense

1:32:36 ↗ um

1:32:37 ↗ uh one i would point out um that may be

1:32:40 ↗ a um

1:32:43 ↗ one of those interim uses while we're

1:32:46 ↗ waiting to empty our bike barn

1:32:48 ↗ uh is

1:32:50 ↗ food trucks

1:32:51 ↗ um our code um this speaks to something

1:32:54 ↗ kristin mentioned at the beginning uh

1:32:57 ↗ during the pandemic

1:32:59 ↗ excuse me we got a lot of requests to

1:33:02 ↗ put food drugs out there and our code is

1:33:04 ↗ confusing

1:33:06 ↗ um and it's not really clear where they

1:33:09 ↗ can go uh in especially in right-of-way

1:33:12 ↗ and um

1:33:15 ↗ that's probably a use that's more

1:33:17 ↗ palatable because it doesn't exist all

1:33:20 ↗ the time

1:33:21 ↗ and and so that's one that i know that

1:33:23 ↗ we want to clear up through this process

1:33:36 ↗ and i guess the other thing i would add

1:33:38 ↗ is we do also get a um

1:33:40 ↗ [Music]

1:33:43 ↗ this is not so much that we're turning

1:33:44 ↗ them down because um it's not allowed

1:33:48 ↗ use

1:33:49 ↗ we get a lot of requests that we hear

1:33:51 ↗ about from economic development for

1:33:56 ↗ research development

1:33:59 ↗ small businesses small business

1:34:01 ↗ manufacturing processing of

1:34:04 ↗ coffee beer wine things like that and

1:34:07 ↗ those are tricky

1:34:09 ↗ because we don't have a lot of

1:34:12 ↗ intensive commercial land use a land and

1:34:15 ↗ therefore there's just not a lot of

1:34:17 ↗ places where those businesses could go

1:34:27 ↗ thank you lucy yeah i'm i'm reminded of

1:34:29 ↗ commissioner lewis's comment and it's

1:34:32 ↗ really what type of city do you envision

1:34:33 ↗ in 20 years are we going to have local

1:34:35 ↗ brewers

1:34:36 ↗ are we going to have places for arts

1:34:39 ↗ um you know more of the small retail

1:34:42 ↗ small business owners are we going to

1:34:44 ↗ have big box stores

1:34:46 ↗ and i won't mean i won't mention any

1:34:48 ↗ names because that wouldn't be fair but

1:34:50 ↗ i think you all know what i mean

1:34:52 ↗ uh

1:34:53 ↗ commissioner schulte

1:34:55 ↗ uh thank you chair boys uh it was great

1:34:57 ↗ to hear from minnie and lucy earlier

1:34:59 ↗ about you know some of the concrete

1:35:01 ↗ examples in terms of kind of what the

1:35:02 ↗ community members are looking for

1:35:05 ↗ um i think i've come to the realization

1:35:07 ↗ that

1:35:07 ↗ in acceptance really

1:35:09 ↗ that

1:35:10 ↗ it will be very difficult

1:35:12 ↗ to um

1:35:15 ↗ to satisfy all the wants and needs if if

1:35:18 ↗ not impossible to really bring

1:35:22 ↗ all the uses that that we've discussed

1:35:25 ↗ in the community is asking for um you

1:35:27 ↗ know to our city um just due to you know

1:35:30 ↗ land you know availability of land um

1:35:34 ↗ the the geographical challenges

1:35:37 ↗ you know the wetlands and i think that's

1:35:39 ↗ okay um i think one of the

1:35:44 ↗ one of the

1:35:45 ↗ big things about being a strong

1:35:46 ↗ community is also being a good neighbor

1:35:49 ↗ um

1:35:50 ↗ a neighbor to

1:35:51 ↗ to the the cities near us whether it's a

1:35:54 ↗ mammoth bellevue snoqualmie north bend

1:35:58 ↗ you know i think it's okay that if

1:36:01 ↗ there's only

1:36:02 ↗ if there's not a specific use within the

1:36:04 ↗ city

1:36:06 ↗ yet is nearby right

1:36:09 ↗ near bellevue right off 590 i think

1:36:10 ↗ that's okay to do a drive and

1:36:13 ↗ um

1:36:14 ↗ you know it's

1:36:15 ↗ i guess what i'm saying is we shouldn't

1:36:17 ↗ spend too much effort um

1:36:20 ↗ taking on a task where we're trying to

1:36:22 ↗ fit everything

1:36:24 ↗ into the city of issaquah

1:36:26 ↗ i think it'll be a challenge if not

1:36:28 ↗ impossible

1:36:30 ↗ and it's okay

1:36:31 ↗ because we do have great neighbors

1:36:33 ↗ around us

1:36:34 ↗ and

1:36:35 ↗ you know that's just something that kind

1:36:37 ↗ of i've come to accept

1:36:40 ↗ thank you

1:36:43 ↗ thank you commissioner schulte that's

1:36:45 ↗ that's definitely profound i mean i

1:36:46 ↗ think all of us would agree quality over

1:36:48 ↗ quantity

1:36:49 ↗ um

1:36:50 ↗ what that looks like i don't know that's

1:36:52 ↗ why we're talking

1:36:53 ↗ so commissioner milligan

1:36:56 ↗ uh thanks this is commissioner milligan

1:36:58 ↗ and thank you for the inspiration uh

1:37:00 ↗ chair voice and um

1:37:02 ↗ and uh lucy sloman

1:37:04 ↗ i have two two

1:37:06 ↗ questions

1:37:08 ↗ because it's hard to make a comment

1:37:09 ↗ because i really don't know what the

1:37:11 ↗ answer is but i think what we're trying

1:37:12 ↗ to do is point attention to trouble

1:37:14 ↗ areas where we could

1:37:16 ↗ improve and and this is micro but i'm

1:37:18 ↗ just using it as an example i don't mean

1:37:20 ↗ to be so micro about uses but clothing

1:37:23 ↗ fabrication is only allowed in intensive

1:37:26 ↗ commercial

1:37:27 ↗ why is that you know i mean to

1:37:30 ↗ share voices point there are businesses

1:37:33 ↗ of the future that aren't the sweatshops

1:37:35 ↗ of the past

1:37:37 ↗ that perhaps don't need to be

1:37:40 ↗ cordoned off to a very small zone in our

1:37:43 ↗ city and i don't know what you know

1:37:45 ↗ that's just one maybe it is there was a

1:37:47 ↗ beautiful um clothing

1:37:49 ↗ designer

1:37:51 ↗ in bellevue downtown bellevue wasn't a

1:37:54 ↗ problem to have them there

1:37:56 ↗ so i wondered is that kind of legacy

1:37:58 ↗ thing and are there others like that

1:38:01 ↗ and then the other um inspiration that

1:38:03 ↗ i've had from these previous comments is

1:38:06 ↗ we do make use of square footage

1:38:08 ↗ limitations um in

1:38:10 ↗ some of our uses and zones and it sounds

1:38:15 ↗ to me like i'm hearing that we might

1:38:17 ↗ like to do a little more of that

1:38:19 ↗ would that encourage small businesses

1:38:23 ↗ uh or would it just make our place a

1:38:25 ↗ really expensive place to do business i

1:38:26 ↗ don't know

1:38:27 ↗ but i thought it would be worth

1:38:29 ↗ amplifying that and finding a nexus in

1:38:32 ↗ in the words in our title 18 about

1:38:35 ↗ square footage limitations maybe that's

1:38:37 ↗ something that could help us in this

1:38:39 ↗ thank you

1:38:42 ↗ can i uh add to that i i think um

1:38:45 ↗ commissioner milligan's bringing up

1:38:48 ↗ a point that um may be kind of buried in

1:38:51 ↗ our memo

1:38:52 ↗ um because uh

1:38:55 ↗ you know and and uh kristin touched on

1:38:58 ↗ this in our presentation that there's

1:38:59 ↗ some things that are extremely specific

1:39:02 ↗ in our land use code

1:39:04 ↗ um but sometimes what we need is more

1:39:06 ↗ performance standards that allow us to

1:39:09 ↗ evaluate

1:39:10 ↗ what what we wanted a zone

1:39:13 ↗ um

1:39:14 ↗ so for instance if you have an art i'm

1:39:17 ↗ just going to take your micro example um

1:39:21 ↗ and say if you have an artist who's

1:39:23 ↗ making one-off clothing pieces that

1:39:26 ↗ really aren't different than a painting

1:39:28 ↗ or a sculpture then that is one thing if

1:39:32 ↗ you have

1:39:34 ↗ someone who's manufacturing clothing but

1:39:37 ↗ still on a modest scale

1:39:40 ↗ you know that's one thing and then i'm

1:39:42 ↗ not sure i'll go as far as sweatshops

1:39:44 ↗ but you know a more robust

1:39:47 ↗ uh significant uh manufacturing process

1:39:51 ↗ is another thing

1:39:52 ↗ and so you know

1:39:55 ↗ how do we

1:39:56 ↗ capture

1:39:58 ↗ the intensity

1:40:00 ↗ and the size and the

1:40:04 ↗ support functions you know for instance

1:40:06 ↗ loading and services and

1:40:09 ↗ um you know is it does it need to have

1:40:12 ↗ blank walls all the way around you know

1:40:15 ↗ so those are the

1:40:16 ↗ some of the things that i think we're

1:40:18 ↗ struggling with in trying to have a land

1:40:20 ↗ use code that's more

1:40:22 ↗ that that gets us what we want gives us

1:40:25 ↗ the tools we need to create good edges

1:40:28 ↗ and yet be agile when someone comes in

1:40:31 ↗ with something

1:40:32 ↗ that meets the intent

1:40:38 ↗ thank you lucy i think that is the

1:40:39 ↗ million dollar question right is how do

1:40:41 ↗ we have a

1:40:44 ↗ a vision of specificity

1:40:46 ↗ that is clear and concise but giving us

1:40:49 ↗ the flexibility to do it and to get

1:40:51 ↗ there

1:40:52 ↗ and that really

1:40:53 ↗ that really is the question

1:40:55 ↗ yeah you know if i made sure i had to

1:40:57 ↗ add to that

1:40:59 ↗ so through this exercise we're

1:41:01 ↗ definitely going to be looking at these

1:41:03 ↗ very specific and unique uses and does

1:41:05 ↗ it make a difference to call you know

1:41:08 ↗ call out a barber shop from a retail

1:41:10 ↗ service to a bank you know if they all

1:41:12 ↗ sort of are a service type of a use

1:41:15 ↗ perhaps there's not

1:41:17 ↗ any advantage to splitting the hair and

1:41:19 ↗ calling them out separately so so in

1:41:22 ↗ this exercise of collapsing those uses

1:41:24 ↗ for retail services you know and and i

1:41:27 ↗ think the memo talks about their 250

1:41:30 ↗ specifically listed uses clearly that

1:41:32 ↗ doesn't serve any purpose of meeting the

1:41:35 ↗ vision

1:41:36 ↗ but to answer

1:41:37 ↗ commissioner milligan's question if we

1:41:39 ↗ have a square footage limitation will

1:41:42 ↗ that get us smaller

1:41:43 ↗ stores or smaller businesses you know

1:41:46 ↗ there's a lot that goes into why why

1:41:48 ↗ some businesses are successful and

1:41:50 ↗ others are not

1:41:51 ↗ all right so

1:41:52 ↗ the square footage limitation can do one

1:41:54 ↗ thing for you it'll if you want smaller

1:41:57 ↗ size and you want to keep out larger big

1:41:59 ↗ box retail and you have a square footage

1:42:01 ↗ limitation it will keep those large

1:42:03 ↗ boxes out because you have a maximum

1:42:05 ↗ size that they can go in will it get you

1:42:08 ↗ the smaller businesses it's a question

1:42:10 ↗ mark

1:42:11 ↗ and and and the reason why people will

1:42:13 ↗ locate that is because of economics you

1:42:15 ↗ know will i mean smaller i heard a lot

1:42:18 ↗ of uh comments about the desire for the

1:42:20 ↗ community to have these smaller places

1:42:22 ↗ to gather which you know is is something

1:42:25 ↗ that needs to occur

1:42:26 ↗ but a small food place

1:42:29 ↗ cannot survive

1:42:31 ↗ because the same small neighborhood that

1:42:33 ↗ it's going to capture aren't going to

1:42:35 ↗ come to that same place on a regular

1:42:37 ↗ basis but it might if they serve a

1:42:39 ↗ certain thing so so really the success

1:42:42 ↗ of a small business is going to depend

1:42:44 ↗ on a lot more

1:42:45 ↗ uh

1:42:46 ↗ reasons than just code but if code is a

1:42:48 ↗ barrier for locating those then we can

1:42:51 ↗ eliminate that barrier through the code

1:42:53 ↗ update so it you know i don't know if

1:42:56 ↗ that answers your question but

1:42:58 ↗ okay

1:43:04 ↗ thank you minnie

1:43:05 ↗ uh commissioner zaragoza

1:43:09 ↗ thank you chair commissioner zaragoza um

1:43:13 ↗ i was thinking about uh temporary spaces

1:43:16 ↗ right there was a pop-up shop in the

1:43:19 ↗ rogue brewery this was months and months

1:43:22 ↗ ago but it's a bunch of local artists

1:43:24 ↗ came in there that was fantastic

1:43:26 ↗ um i really enjoyed it we showed up

1:43:28 ↗ bought a few little things um felt very

1:43:31 ↗ much like we were part of the

1:43:33 ↗ neighborhood that day

1:43:35 ↗ in addition to that

1:43:36 ↗ during the pandemic we had outdoor

1:43:39 ↗ um restaurants

1:43:42 ↗ all that all the streets were shut down

1:43:44 ↗ that was a lot of fun

1:43:45 ↗ and it made me think why don't why isn't

1:43:47 ↗ this a normal thing obviously it could

1:43:49 ↗ become a normal thing but

1:43:51 ↗ that we don't have street vendors right

1:43:55 ↗ um

1:43:56 ↗ usually you know

1:43:58 ↗ active weekend places you have your

1:44:00 ↗ restaurants you have your retail but you

1:44:02 ↗ also have street vendors places where

1:44:04 ↗ you go to get

1:44:05 ↗ you know a little treat

1:44:07 ↗ some food

1:44:08 ↗ um

1:44:09 ↗ and there isn't much of that

1:44:11 ↗ around that i've seen and i don't know

1:44:12 ↗ if that's

1:44:14 ↗ you know something that

1:44:16 ↗ is related to

1:44:17 ↗ food trucks and things like that but you

1:44:19 ↗ know do we have

1:44:21 ↗ room for temporary spaces pop-up shops

1:44:25 ↗ street vendors things like that i grew

1:44:27 ↗ up in los angeles as a child we never

1:44:30 ↗ bought our tamales from internet or but

1:44:31 ↗ someone with a

1:44:33 ↗ with a cooler on a corner somewhere and

1:44:36 ↗ they're always fantastic so

1:44:37 ↗ um that's a nice thing it comes with all

1:44:40 ↗ of its

1:44:41 ↗ complexities but it's a nice thing and

1:44:43 ↗ it gets people out on the streets and

1:44:45 ↗ talking with each other and enjoying

1:44:48 ↗ each other's company so that would be

1:44:50 ↗ nice

1:44:54 ↗ get a seattle hot dog in isaiah i love

1:44:57 ↗ it

1:45:06 ↗ commissioner schulte

1:45:08 ↗ uh thank you chair boyce um

1:45:10 ↗ back to what uh minnie was mentioning a

1:45:12 ↗ little bit earlier

1:45:14 ↗ which was a great point um i think one

1:45:16 ↗ of the things we have to be mindful of

1:45:18 ↗ when we are

1:45:19 ↗ looking at the the various uses and

1:45:21 ↗ spaces is really how they interact with

1:45:24 ↗ each other uh the symbiosis

1:45:26 ↗ amongst the spaces and and can they

1:45:28 ↗ survive um

1:45:30 ↗ depending on the uses that are adjacent

1:45:32 ↗ to them

1:45:33 ↗ um i've had the privilege to work with a

1:45:35 ↗ lot of great developers um and uh i've

1:45:38 ↗ gotten to hear things from their

1:45:40 ↗ perspective in terms of why

1:45:42 ↗ they don't build um in areas uh in

1:45:45 ↗ certain areas and a lot of it is due

1:45:47 ↗ just to the challenge of you know

1:45:49 ↗ getting people to those areas um

1:45:52 ↗ what are what is nearby

1:45:54 ↗ um the tenants they're targeting um and

1:45:57 ↗ sometimes those tenants themselves

1:46:00 ↗ retailers

1:46:01 ↗ companies

1:46:03 ↗ you know they have you know non-compete

1:46:05 ↗ disclosures where actually they

1:46:07 ↗ don't want to be close

1:46:10 ↗ to any uh competition themselves um

1:46:14 ↗ within a certain radius um you know a

1:46:17 ↗ distance you know mile or whatever it

1:46:19 ↗ may be so

1:46:20 ↗ um

1:46:21 ↗ you know it's great that we're talking

1:46:23 ↗ we're starting the discussion of you

1:46:25 ↗ know what does the community want what

1:46:26 ↗ kind of uses

1:46:28 ↗ um but then we also do have to think

1:46:30 ↗ about you know how do they play um with

1:46:32 ↗ each other and and the food trucks is a

1:46:34 ↗ great example you know a food truck you

1:46:36 ↗ can't go wrong with right you bring in a

1:46:38 ↗ food truck it brings people it gets

1:46:40 ↗ people eating excited and you know all

1:46:43 ↗ of a sudden they have the ability to

1:46:44 ↗ start seeing the surrounding areas the

1:46:47 ↗ the stores and the markets whatever it

1:46:48 ↗ may be right so

1:46:50 ↗ um things like that so thank you

1:46:58 ↗ thank you commissioner

1:47:00 ↗ commissioner morgan

1:47:03 ↗ um

1:47:04 ↗ if you don't mind i'll throw in a

1:47:05 ↗ counterpoint i guess

1:47:07 ↗ with regard to food trucks is

1:47:09 ↗ if we do want ground floor retail in our

1:47:12 ↗ buildings um

1:47:14 ↗ with people going into them

1:47:17 ↗ one way to to kill the restaurants in

1:47:19 ↗ those buildings is bring in food trucks

1:47:21 ↗ during prime time and

1:47:23 ↗ and take away the traffic that would

1:47:25 ↗ actually go into those retail sites so

1:47:27 ↗ it's kind of

1:47:29 ↗ we might be able to get one or the other

1:47:30 ↗ but but maybe not both

1:47:33 ↗ thank you fair point thank you

1:47:37 ↗ definitely appreciate the counterpoint

1:47:39 ↗ because it's it's important

1:47:53 ↗ anyone else like to speak

1:48:05 ↗ we'll give it a minute and let anybody

1:48:07 ↗ uh

1:48:08 ↗ finalize any thoughts

1:48:25 ↗ all right

1:48:26 ↗ fantastic discussion

1:48:28 ↗ hopefully staff has some wonderful

1:48:31 ↗ notes to go back and work with

1:48:33 ↗ um as we continue to get deeper and

1:48:35 ↗ deeper into this process

1:48:37 ↗ so now we'd like to open it up to public

1:48:39 ↗ comment again

1:48:41 ↗ uh hopefully pertaining more to question

1:48:42 ↗ two but again

1:48:44 ↗ as far as

1:48:45 ↗ in general all topics but uh maybe an

1:48:48 ↗ emphasis on

1:48:49 ↗ number two if they so choose

1:48:52 ↗ so kristen do we have anyone signed up

1:48:54 ↗ to speak

1:48:57 ↗ anyone i can sort of see now it turns

1:49:00 ↗ out it's a black hand being raised on a

1:49:01 ↗ black background so i can sort of see

1:49:04 ↗ um i

1:49:05 ↗ i do see that connie marsh has our hand

1:49:08 ↗ raised

1:49:09 ↗ and as does susan deville if you all

1:49:11 ↗ would like

1:49:12 ↗ to speak maybe turn your hand on and off

1:49:16 ↗ or if anyone else would like to speak

1:49:18 ↗ please raise your hand

1:49:20 ↗ or put a note in the chat

1:49:22 ↗ if connie marsh would like to speak

1:49:24 ↗ again

1:49:28 ↗ connie you're a panelist go ahead

1:49:38 ↗ so

1:49:40 ↗ things that are difficult or missing

1:49:42 ↗ um

1:49:44 ↗ special event permits aren't

1:49:46 ↗ really in title 18

1:49:49 ↗ and i think they would be more effective

1:49:51 ↗ in title 18 right now they go through

1:49:54 ↗ the

1:49:54 ↗ administration and then they sort of

1:49:57 ↗ weirdly weave their way around public

1:49:59 ↗ works engineering and sort of ricochet

1:50:02 ↗ off of planning and it makes it

1:50:04 ↗ difficult for

1:50:06 ↗ anyone to do a special event like let's

1:50:09 ↗ see a whole circle of food trucks with

1:50:12 ↗ dancing and

1:50:14 ↗ music over in the pickering parking lot

1:50:17 ↗ in the evening to turn that desert of a

1:50:20 ↗ parking lot into an active thing and

1:50:22 ↗ send people into michael's uh and and

1:50:26 ↗ let those people who hate food trucks go

1:50:28 ↗ eat at jennifer

1:50:29 ↗ um and that would be a way to enliven

1:50:33 ↗ some of our dead spots and be able to

1:50:35 ↗ have neighborhood parties easily if you

1:50:37 ↗ guys want to bond and you and you

1:50:41 ↗ want some action it needs to be

1:50:44 ↗ easily permittable instead of formidable

1:50:49 ↗ we have almost no direction

1:50:52 ↗ for parks in our title 18 code we have

1:50:57 ↗ exemptions

1:50:59 ↗ where they don't have to follow the code

1:51:03 ↗ and we also have exemptions

1:51:05 ↗ for our roads because they are

1:51:07 ↗ considered to be outside of title 18

1:51:11 ↗ because they are in the right of way and

1:51:13 ↗ this leads to a tremendous amount of

1:51:15 ↗ confusion because it's sort of different

1:51:17 ↗ rules for different people

1:51:19 ↗ and it perplexes the public and it does

1:51:21 ↗ not give our public works engineering

1:51:24 ↗ nor does it give

1:51:25 ↗ our parks department sort of definitive

1:51:28 ↗ guidelines

1:51:29 ↗ for what they need to do and it leaves

1:51:32 ↗ the public out there with i don't know

1:51:35 ↗ it's a road what process does a road

1:51:37 ↗ have i don't know it's a park what

1:51:39 ↗ process does a park have

1:51:42 ↗ um

1:51:43 ↗ so i think that these things need to be

1:51:46 ↗ brought together so that the public

1:51:48 ↗ knows a consistent pathway and all of

1:51:52 ↗ the city has the same set of rules to

1:51:55 ↗ follow and this will help alleviate a

1:51:58 ↗ lot of the confusion that we have had

1:52:01 ↗ with the centralist plan out at newport

1:52:04 ↗ where we have different sections of the

1:52:06 ↗ city who have to be totally aligned to

1:52:08 ↗ be successful and they have not been in

1:52:12 ↗ the past now

1:52:14 ↗ you all are thinking well that's not

1:52:16 ↗ wandering around in neighborhood and

1:52:18 ↗ that's not something that's missing well

1:52:20 ↗ welcome to my boring life this is what i

1:52:22 ↗ do i read code and then i follow these

1:52:25 ↗ things through in the evening so this is

1:52:28 ↗ part of my my city so it might seem

1:52:30 ↗ oblique and really dull to you all but i

1:52:33 ↗ think it will have

1:52:35 ↗ huge

1:52:37 ↗ positive impact if we can do such things

1:52:39 ↗ thank you

1:52:50 ↗ is there anyone else who would like to

1:52:51 ↗ speak

1:52:54 ↗ so a hand come down if anyone would like

1:52:56 ↗ to speak raise your hand please

1:52:58 ↗ mary lynch would like to speak

1:53:01 ↗ mary you are a panelist

1:53:05 ↗ i found my hand

1:53:06 ↗ um i just want to build on what connie

1:53:08 ↗ was saying because in talking with parks

1:53:12 ↗ on the use of the new park there on the

1:53:14 ↗ south end of front street

1:53:16 ↗ kind of what i was saying that would be

1:53:18 ↗ a great place to have pop-ups to work

1:53:21 ↗ with the library to have you know

1:53:23 ↗ readings to have artists but

1:53:26 ↗ basically what parks was saying well we

1:53:28 ↗ don't know how we can use that park that

1:53:30 ↗ way

1:53:31 ↗ we also have a park we didn't get any

1:53:34 ↗ buildings or local

1:53:36 ↗ shops with the newport weight build out

1:53:39 ↗ but we have a little piece of land that

1:53:42 ↗ was dedicated to the park which there's

1:53:44 ↗ no funding for and no plan for and right

1:53:47 ↗ now

1:53:48 ↗ the developer has to keep it in grass

1:53:52 ↗ and is being used as a dog park by those

1:53:55 ↗ apartment people

1:53:56 ↗ that would be a great place to have

1:53:58 ↗ pop-up art fairs

1:54:00 ↗ um to have pop-up

1:54:03 ↗ theater

1:54:04 ↗ music that type of stuff

1:54:06 ↗ but how do you go about activating some

1:54:09 ↗ of that and that would you know help us

1:54:11 ↗ out here so with what connie was saying

1:54:13 ↗ is we need to make sure that in the

1:54:16 ↗ codes we can do that on some of the

1:54:19 ↗ parks and city land as well as some of

1:54:22 ↗ the private ones and i really think you

1:54:24 ↗ know a lot of our restaurants around

1:54:26 ↗ here they have their own food trucks so

1:54:28 ↗ they could by bringing it out to some of

1:54:30 ↗ these remote areas

1:54:32 ↗ they could advertise themselves by doing

1:54:35 ↗ it plus we could be then

1:54:37 ↗ with the incubator

1:54:40 ↗ we've got areas that the city could help

1:54:42 ↗ work with companies to incubate whatever

1:54:45 ↗ they want whether it be food or others

1:54:47 ↗ and let's use some of our houses that

1:54:50 ↗ are city-owned properties to do that

1:54:51 ↗ incubation and get going and then

1:54:54 ↗ hopefully they'll go and be part of the

1:54:56 ↗ new community or work with raleigh with

1:54:59 ↗ his build-out why can't he also the city

1:55:02 ↗ work with raleigh to have a building

1:55:03 ↗ over there that's an incubation facility

1:55:07 ↗ that's partnering with raleigh and um

1:55:10 ↗ with the city to to do those things that

1:55:14 ↗ has been brought up already

1:55:15 ↗ that's

1:55:16 ↗ my conclusion

1:55:28 ↗ great thank you

1:55:30 ↗ kristen do we have any more public

1:55:32 ↗ comments

1:55:38 ↗ there are no other hands raised but i'll

1:55:40 ↗ ask one more time is there anyone else

1:55:41 ↗ who would like to speak please raise

1:55:42 ↗ your hand

1:55:54 ↗ no there's no one else who would like to

1:55:56 ↗ speak

1:55:57 ↗ great thank you

1:55:59 ↗ all right moving on to the next item

1:56:02 ↗ thank you all for the great discussion

1:56:05 ↗ now i'd like to turn it over to kristen

1:56:06 ↗ to provide any city council updates

1:56:10 ↗ please

1:56:13 ↗ i do not have any city council updates i

1:56:15 ↗ will wait um until the next

1:56:18 ↗ topic

1:56:19 ↗ two topics to talk um i don't know if

1:56:21 ↗ minnie has any council updates many

1:56:24 ↗ no

1:56:24 ↗ nothing to report um the um

1:56:28 ↗ they're they're deep in the budget uh

1:56:31 ↗ systems

1:56:32 ↗ and discussions so um

1:56:35 ↗ in terms of development you know we've

1:56:37 ↗ looked at our fees

1:56:39 ↗ um and we're just making a nominal

1:56:41 ↗ increase

1:56:42 ↗ to reflect the consumer price index

1:56:45 ↗ so there was a more robust

1:56:48 ↗ analysis of the fees done in 2020 so at

1:56:51 ↗ this time it's a nominal fee increase as

1:56:53 ↗ far as development

1:56:55 ↗ fees go so that's all you know that's on

1:56:57 ↗ their agenda on november 1st and then

1:57:00 ↗ budget adoption on november 15th but

1:57:02 ↗ other than that um

1:57:04 ↗ there isn't any discussion there's

1:57:06 ↗ potential under uh on november 1st we'll

1:57:08 ↗ discuss the ad hoc committees process

1:57:11 ↗ under the good of the order we have that

1:57:13 ↗ discussion with the title 18 ad hoc

1:57:15 ↗ committee what their role is and how

1:57:17 ↗ um you know they participate in this

1:57:19 ↗ title 18 update but that's upcoming

1:57:22 ↗ meeting so that's all i have to say

1:57:25 ↗ i was wrong i do have one uh the

1:57:27 ↗ 2021 comprehensive plan and zoning map

1:57:30 ↗ amendments are going to council on

1:57:31 ↗ november 9th for discussion

1:57:34 ↗ and potentially on december 6th for

1:57:37 ↗ action so if you all are interested

1:57:39 ↗ you can tune into that

1:57:42 ↗ great thank you minnie and thank you

1:57:44 ↗ kristen and finally kristen do you have

1:57:47 ↗ any business or announcements

1:57:49 ↗ it has nothing to do with the city

1:57:50 ↗ council

1:57:51 ↗ i had two things that i wanted to let

1:57:54 ↗ you know one is just a note for ppc

1:57:56 ↗ really quickly dc might want to hear the

1:57:57 ↗ rest but

1:57:58 ↗ um ppc i want you to take note that the

1:58:01 ↗ next three meetings are not on our

1:58:02 ↗ typical schedule

1:58:04 ↗ because november 11th the regular

1:58:06 ↗ meeting is a holiday november 25th is

1:58:09 ↗ thanksgiving and december 25th is

1:58:12 ↗ um

1:58:13 ↗ christmas so those three meetings would

1:58:15 ↗ have been canceled so we are having it

1:58:17 ↗ next week november 4th and then november

1:58:19 ↗ 8th and then december 2nd i mean excuse

1:58:22 ↗ me november 4th november 18th and then

1:58:25 ↗ december 2nd so

1:58:27 ↗ mark it on your calendars that those are

1:58:28 ↗ not usual dates please

1:58:30 ↗ the other thing that i wanted to let you

1:58:32 ↗ know is that we applied for and received

1:58:33 ↗ a grant

1:58:35 ↗ um today

1:58:36 ↗ the grant is for

1:58:38 ↗ implementing some of our housing

1:58:40 ↗ strategy work plan

1:58:41 ↗ one one of those is potentially

1:58:44 ↗ expanding inclusionary zoning outside of

1:58:46 ↗ central issaquah

1:58:47 ↗ another is

1:58:49 ↗ looking at missing middle which would be

1:58:51 ↗ things like condominiums townhomes

1:58:53 ↗ cottage housing um

1:58:55 ↗ micro units and that kind of thing and

1:58:57 ↗ looking at where that's sort of a

1:58:59 ↗ directive from the state to start

1:59:00 ↗ including more of that so it's to look

1:59:02 ↗ and see where that might

1:59:03 ↗ fit in our city and the other one is to

1:59:05 ↗ try and get

1:59:07 ↗ more condominium development here which

1:59:09 ↗ also falls into missing middle

1:59:12 ↗ so

1:59:12 ↗ we don't know yet exactly which path

1:59:14 ↗ those are going to take but they will be

1:59:17 ↗ coming to you at some point

1:59:19 ↗ in the relatively near future

1:59:24 ↗ yeah yeah that's kudos to kristen for

1:59:27 ↗ putting in a lot of work on the

1:59:29 ↗ grant application and being successful

1:59:31 ↗ with that um so we'll be going to

1:59:33 ↗ council for the we went to council for

1:59:36 ↗ approval to apply and then

1:59:38 ↗ in order to accept it has to be accepted

1:59:40 ↗ by city council and the only thing i

1:59:43 ↗ would add to this is this is the housing

1:59:45 ↗ strategies program that the community

1:59:47 ↗ and the council have adopted so this

1:59:49 ↗ will be implementing existing strategies

1:59:52 ↗ that that have gone through that public

1:59:53 ↗ vetting out process but now it's time to

1:59:56 ↗ to to implement them

2:00:00 ↗ right

2:00:05 ↗ all right well i'm going to open it up

2:00:06 ↗ one last time for any of our

2:00:08 ↗ commissioners staff for the good of the

2:00:10 ↗ order does anyone like to comment

2:00:16 ↗ commissioner milligan

2:00:19 ↗ slow on the keyboard i'm sorry i just

2:00:21 ↗ wanted to revisit the questions three

2:00:23 ↗ and four

2:00:25 ↗ as i didn't quite get where where we

2:00:27 ↗ were going with those when they were

2:00:28 ↗ going to come back

2:00:30 ↗ and and to say for our audience what it

2:00:32 ↗ is you're talking about questions three

2:00:33 ↗ and four people aren't always looking at

2:00:35 ↗ the piece of paper

2:00:36 ↗ can you sure

2:00:38 ↗ i think

2:00:39 ↗ i we touched him in the beginning um i

2:00:42 ↗ think we're figuring out a different

2:00:43 ↗ process for it um and to give it the the

2:00:47 ↗ attention it deserves so

2:00:49 ↗ um we'll be back we don't know at this

2:00:51 ↗ point what that process looks like but

2:00:53 ↗ we will be shaping it up uh to make it

2:00:56 ↗ more robust uh then just fold it in

2:00:59 ↗ uh

2:01:00 ↗ currently the way it's set up so we'll

2:01:02 ↗ we'll have more information for you and

2:01:04 ↗ and to be clear so

2:01:06 ↗ questions three and four had to do with

2:01:08 ↗ something called house build 1220

2:01:10 ↗ and the state this past summer enacted a

2:01:13 ↗ bill that requires all cities to allow

2:01:18 ↗ for emergency for permanent for

2:01:20 ↗ permanent um

2:01:22 ↗ affordable sort of housing which we do

2:01:25 ↗ um transitional housing which we do we

2:01:27 ↗ need those need to be a little clear in

2:01:29 ↗ the code but we do both of those but

2:01:30 ↗ also emergency housing and emergency

2:01:32 ↗ shelters which currently our code is

2:01:34 ↗ silent on so that's something that needs

2:01:36 ↗ to be addressed and like as many said

2:01:38 ↗ that will

2:01:39 ↗ a different path

2:01:40 ↗ and

2:01:42 ↗ find it maybe too big to be involved to

2:01:43 ↗ be part of this discussion

2:01:48 ↗ i think that was a wise choice

2:01:52 ↗ so i wanna

2:01:54 ↗ um is there any further comment for the

2:01:56 ↗ good of the order

2:02:00 ↗ okay well i just wanna say on my behalf

2:02:03 ↗ i want to thank all the people that made

2:02:05 ↗ public comments i want to thank my

2:02:07 ↗ colleagues on the planning policy

2:02:08 ↗ commission

2:02:10 ↗ and i'd also like to thank our wonderful

2:02:11 ↗ city staff

2:02:12 ↗ lucy minnie and kristen

2:02:15 ↗ and finally i want to say thank you to

2:02:18 ↗ our friends development commission

2:02:20 ↗ i know tonight is your guys's night off

2:02:23 ↗ so you guys coming into our house and uh

2:02:26 ↗ providing just

2:02:28 ↗ a great discussion

2:02:29 ↗ it's always

2:02:30 ↗ enjoyable when we get to

2:02:32 ↗ hang out with one another

2:02:34 ↗ and i know all of us really appreciate

2:02:36 ↗ it

2:02:38 ↗ there being no further business

2:02:41 ↗ i adjourn this meeting of the planning

2:02:43 ↗ policy commission on the october 28th at

2:02:46 ↗ 8 31.

2:02:47 ↗ thank you

2:02:50 ↗ thank you

2:02:51 ↗ thank you jason

Approved minutes

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

Open PDF

Attendance

Council / Members (11)

Development Commissioners Present: Jason Voiss

Michael Brennan

Joy Lewis Kevin Price

Matt Monahan Richard Sanford Nina Milligan Richard Sowa Sara Bader Patty Dillon Richard Zaragoza

Alternate Brooke Shore PPC Commissioners Not Present: Arthur Schulte Ron Faul (Excused) Jon Ikeda

Alternate Mel Morgan

Alternate Administration/Staff: Christen Leeson

Senior Planner Lucy Sloman

Land Dev. Manager Minnie Dhaliwal

Director

CP&D