Welcome everyone. Uh, I call the July
8th, 2026 Landmark Preservation Board
regular meeting to order.
Before we move on to the agenda items,
I'd like to acknowledge our hybrid
meeting format. The city of PAL is
providing the option to attend this
meeting either in person or remotely
with via Zoom. For those participating
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time is for comments on issues not on
tonight's agenda. Please limit these
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staff will make every effort to specify
which materials they are referring to so
everyone can follow along. At this
point, I will take a moment to take the
roll call of the board members by
position number. Please unmute your
microphone and say here when I call your
name.
Member Thomas here.
Member Nelson,
member Arajalof,
uh, member Moser
» Here.
» Member Si
» Here.
» In addition, the following city staff
are in attendance. Ray Sosa, senior
planner, city of both. Christian Gats,
community development deputy director.
In addition, the following city
consultants are attending virtually.
Adam also work [snorts]
cultural resource associates. Penelopey
Kotrell Crawford will cultural resource
associates.
Before we begin, I'd like to reiterate
some meeting guidelines for all media
attendees. Please
speak clearly and pause frequently. Mute
your microphone when not speaking.
Please start your state your name before
speaking. For those making
presentations, please pause periodically
to ask if there are any questions. For
board members, at the appropriate times,
I will call on each member by position
number order, asking if they wish to
speak or ask question. I will also be
doing this when it is time to vote. If
you want to speak, please indicate this
by raising your hand. I will call on you
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same time. Identify yourself before you
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Please mute your microphone when not
speaking. If there are any objections,
please raise your hand. First item on
the agenda. Non-aggenda public comments.
If there are any members of the public
here, they may speak now about items
that are not on the agenda for tonight.
Seeing no one in the audience there,
anyone online?
No one online. Moving on to approval of
the minutes.
The minutes for the June 22nd, 2026
special meeting or included in your
packets for review. Would a board member
like to make a motion?
» A point of clarification for the for the
chair. Uh without a quorum we'll we
would like to you need to postpone
» Voting on accepting minutes.
» Yes. Until the next meeting.
» Thank you.
» Old business. There is no old business.
Uh the first item of new business this
evening is a city of both staff briefing
on the downtown sub area plan update. I
would like to introduce Cameron Kovven,
senior planner, city of both community
development who will give a briefing on
the downtown sub area plan update.
Cameron,
thank you very much. Um I will get the
presentation pulled up here.
All right. Um, so as mentioned, my name
is Cameron Culvin. I'm a senior long
range planner in the community
development department. Um, I know it's
been a little while since you all have
received an update on this particular
project. Um, which has some significant
overlaps with the work of this board.
Um, there was a fair amount of
information included in your packet. So,
I will try to summarize most of the key
takeaways from the existing conditions
inventory that we did as well as provide
a couple of updates on our community
engagement work and what we've been
hearing from the community.
um and then talk with you all about the
specific elements of the plan that have
a lot of overlap with your work and then
uh go through next steps.
Um so just as a quick general uh project
status update, we are planning uh
preparing to release the initial draft
of the plan which will include the
existing conditions inventory that was
included in your packet as well as an
initial draft uh of recommendations
uh and strategies and actions for each
of the topic the seven topic areas. uh
included in the plan.
And
so in terms of community engagement for
this project, um one of our initial
steps was recruiting community members
to serve on the downtown ambassador
group. And so essentially this is the
project steering committee which is made
up of 24 community members. We did a
broad um casting for applications for
this group um and ensured that we had a
broad representation of perspectives
based on um people's backgrounds and and
lived experiences.
And so we'll be meeting with this group
four times over the course of the
project. Thus far we've had three
meetings with them and we'll be holding
the fourth in August. Um and their main
role has been to provide a bit more
detailed ongoing input on plan elements
as well as to help um city staff engage
the broader community and inform our
engagement approach.
In addition to that, um we hosted a
couple of in-person um public walking
tours of downtown where we um went to
different areas of downtown that have
either had recent improvements or have
planned improvements uh on the near
horizon. Um the one we hosted in
February had about 15 participants and
the one in March had about 35
participants in total. Um and then the
past two weeks we also hosted walking
tours with um members of city council as
well to run through the same route um
and share kind of what we've been
hearing from the community thus far.
And then just in addition to that, we
have also been attending various
community events um throughout the year
uh to also raise awareness about the
plan and have had engagement materials
at those events to solicit additional
input. Um and so we'll be summarizing uh
everything that we has been heard um
which will be included as a attachment
to the final uh downtown sub area plan
with more details.
So, moving on, I will run through some
of the major takeaways uh and provide a
little bit more background information
about um downtown.
So, looking at just population growth um
within downtown itself, um as of 2023,
there are about 4,800 people living
downtown. And as part of our comp plan
projections and growth targets, we're
anticipating that number to nearly
double over the next 20 years. Um,
related to that, we have specific
housing and job growth targets. So, in
order to support that population and
economic growth, we're anticipating um
just short of 2,000 new housing units
within downtown and about 2,000 new
jobs.
And one thing I'll mention um for the
board's awareness is that the city has
um submitted downtown to be considered
as a King Countywide growth center. Um
and so the main benefit of that is it
does um make us more competitive for
various uh funding that's available for
infrastructure improvements. Um and the
update we've received thus far is that
uh King County staff are recommending
approval of that. Um and their board
will take action on that decision in
September.
And then uh when we looked at
demographic information for those living
in downtown versus citywide, the major
differences that we saw were
particularly related to age distribution
and household incomes. Um so a lot of
the households uh living within downtown
are young professionals between the age
of 20 and 40. you'll see um both of
those are quite a bit higher than
city-wide averages.
Um and then similarly, we see that
overall house downtown households tend
to earn less um than those citywide. So
if you look at the chart on the right,
um in particular, one of the biggest
gaps is households earning over 200k.
Um, but there's also a higher percentage
of people living downtown uh of
households that earn less than 75K as
well. Uh, so this may reflect people
that are uh earlier in their careers as
well as the um smaller household size
within downtown since it is a majority
one and twobedroom um units within
downtown.
So overall in terms of land use and
development um you know we're seeing a
lot of growth that's expanding beyond
the core um past both way as well as
along 104.
Um
the main feedback that we've heard from
residents is there is some concern about
the scale of recent growth and the stark
contrast that exists between some of the
newer mixeduse developments and our
historic main street. And so really
looking at ways we can better blend
those two experiences downtown.
And then um we'll talk a little bit on
some following slides that there are a
select number of key re redevelopment
sites that are remaining. That was a
large impetus for a lot of the
redevelopment that occurred over the
past 15 years. And so looking forward um
we've made an effort to identify those
remaining uh redevelopment opportunities
as well.
um in relation to
uh what I mentioned about the
differences in uh scale of some of the
newer mixeduse buildings and what we
typically see along uh the historic main
street. Um, we've also identified uh
some discrepancies between our existing
height limits within the downtown
transition area and lower Maidwood
Maywood um as part of the comp plan
updates last year. The height limit for
that zoning district um was increased to
55 ft whereas our existing downtown
transition zones are limited to 35 ft.
So um as part of the code updates look
next year we'll be looking at how we can
better um rectify that.
Um so on your screen I have a map of the
uh residential and mixeduse developments
that have occurred since 2009 that are
highlighted in brown.
And then as I mentioned the uh kind of
identified potential remaining
opportunity sites are highlighted in
pink. The two largest ones uh or most
prominent ones being the remaining
parcels outside of city hall and the
parcels at Triangle Junction which are
both undergoing environmental cleanup.
And so once that remediation is
complete, um there'll be opportunities
on those sites um
for redevelopment.
And so as part of this project, um we
have hired a urban design consultant to
help us look at a couple of those key
opportunity sites in a little more
detail and start exploring um what
future redevelopment could look like. um
particularly based on the elements that
um community members have expressed um
that they would like to see more of
downtown.
In terms of housing affordability, um
we've seen a lot of housing growth in
downtown over the past um 15 years. And
as I mentioned, that growth is projected
to keep growing over the next 20 years.
Um,
a large part of this new development has
been uh apartment complexes, uh,
particularly one to two-bedroom units.
Um, and one interesting fact that we
found is that 45% of the existing
housing stock now was built between 2010
and 2019. So, a lot of new development
that's occurred recently.
And then on the right there, I just have
a chart uh breaking down the existing
housing types within downtown. And
you'll see about 2/3 uh are apartments,
18% single family, and so forth.
And then one of the things we looked at
was um the rough affordability of
renting downtown versus ownership
downtown over that same time period from
2013 to 2024. Um, so what we did was
compared the median household incomes
for each year and compared that with
median rents and median mortgage rates.
Um, and so that's what that graph on the
left hand side is showing. And you'll
see that renting in general has been uh
much more affordable than ownership
options downtown over that period with
just a brief portion um around COVID
time crossing that 30% threshold. Um and
then you'll notice in the figures on the
right that they're uh due to the lower
household incomes downtown, we also see
a higher percentage of renters and
homeowners that are cost burdened. So
those spending over 30% of their incomes
on housing and then uh a high percentage
as well are also severely burdened which
means that they're spending over 50% of
income on housing.
And then for downtown specifically, we
do have a number of overlays that have
um required affordable um that require
affordable housing units um within those
areas.
Um the chart on the right there is our
we have specific housing targets based
on income bands. So, out of that um
2,000 roughly new housing units that I
mentioned over the next 20 years, we're
aiming uh to make sure that serves the
various um income brackets accordingly.
Um so, one of the our main challenges is
that our existing affordable uh housing
overlays have resulted in some new
affordable units. Um, but it's a
relatively small percentage that will
increase as we see lot P South come
online. Um, and the SAM senior
apartments are also affordable units
that just recently came online. Um, and
then in addition to that, uh, we're
currently looking at potential revisions
to our MFT program and some of the other
voluntary incentives um to because those
have not been as utilized as we would
like.
» [snorts]
» Um
and so meeting our housing targets
particularly for those low and very low
income bands are really going to take um
a lot of effort uh across the board to
make happen.
looking at uh e economic development as
I mentioned um we've seen similar growth
in jobs uh and we're projecting about
2,000 more over the next 20 years when
we looked at the top sectors based on
the number of businesses amount of
employees and total sales revenue. um we
see that uh downtown has a high
concentration of health care services
and so that came out on top in all three
of those categories. In terms of number
of businesses, um the other top
categories were professional services,
retail and restaurants. The highest
number of employees were restaurants,
education and government reflecting the
high number of uh campus and city uh and
other government employees.
And then in terms of sale, revenue,
retail, uh construction, restaurants and
finance followed healthcare.
And so downtown is a growing employment
and business center. Um typically in
terms of foot traffic and activity, we
see that it's highest during the day and
on weekends. Um so looking at
opportunities uh for additional there's
a lot of public interest in additional
retail entertainment options and dining
uh to kind of expand that into the
evenings as well.
And then um there are some prominent
vacancies particularly at the end of
Main Street um near Triangle Junction
that remain and so working on um once
redevelopment of Triangle Junction comes
through hoping to fill those as well.
And then some of the feedback we heard
from local businesses is that they do
face challenges related to rising costs,
permitting, um, parking availability as
well as variable foot traffic.
Transportation wise, um, some of the
previous investments that the city made
had major impacts on downtown and really
helped support the redevelopment that
occurred over the past 15 years. There
are a number of major corridor
improvements that are on the horizon,
including uh improvements to both way
north of uh Reader. [snorts]
There's also planned improvements to
102nd, including replacement of the
102nd Avenue Bridge, as well as um
widening of that road to accommodate an
extension of a shared use path. and then
as well along Beardsley Boulevard to
help accommodate uh planned BRT routes
as well as to create some protected bike
facilities along that route.
And related to that, the uh upcoming BRT
routes are going to have a major impact.
Both the um sound transit and community
transit lines will be serving um
downtown both east to west as well as
north south connections
um which will help improve some of those
connections uh to surrounding regions
and destinations.
And then one of the most common concerns
we heard from residents was uh primarily
focused around parking availability
downtown. Um, an interesting stat from
our economic vitality plan was that uh
10% of visitors downtown live within one
mile. So, it's a relatively small
percentage while uh roughly half travel
for more than 5 miles. So, there is a
need to accommodate those visitors. Um,
but there we've also heard from
residents that they really want to
retain the walkability of downtown. So
looking at how we balance those two
things and and make it accessible to
all.
And then the other thing we've heard is
there's a need for better uh just
clearer information and wayfinding about
um both parking availability but also um
directions to different major facilities
um the trails uh and other networks
downtown.
Um, in terms of parks and open space,
uh, downtown has a large concentration
of parks and open space. Uh, there's
about 74 acres in total. Um, which
exceeds the citywide level of service,
which is about 3.5 acres per thousand
residents, whereas downtown is about 14.
Um
the one thing to note there is that
obviously the downtown uh parks and open
spaces serve a much broader audience
than just those living within the
downtown um sub area itself.
And [snorts]
uh as part of the pros plan updates,
they also conducted an updated walkshed
analysis. And we found as part of that
that a majority of downtown highlighted
in that blue color on the map on your
screen is within a 10-minute walking
distance of uh some sort of park or open
space downtown.
And uh one other thing I'll highlight
here is that our existing downtown code
um does require public open space uh as
part of private developments. So,
they're privately owned public spaces.
An example of which being um the patio
on the screen at the Pops apartments.
There's a couple of other examples
throughout downtown. Um and while this
has led to new open space kind of
distributed throughout the downtown,
there's not a large awareness that these
areas are open to the public. And so,
um, as part of our efforts moving
forward, looking at how we can better
encourage, uh, people to utilize these
and maybe support, uh, different types
of programming as well throughout
downtown.
And then we do have a section of the
plan specifically focused on arts,
culture, and historic places. Um, which
is primarily where we would, uh, like
some feedback from this board. Um some
of the major themes that we've heard
from community members is that they
really value um the existing arts
culture and uh historic places that
contribute to downtown's identity and
sense of place um
that and there's interest in expanding
those um as we move forward to to
increase that. Um, some of the
additional things we've heard is that
some of the existing regulations for
downtown do create challenges for
expanding art and cultural programming.
Um, one of the examples being uh the
expansion of murals like the example on
the screen. Um, right now there's not a
super clear process for design review uh
or allowances for those types of
installations. And so really looking at
how we potentially streamline that and
encourage more business owners
particularly on u empty uh building
spaces or um vacant frontages to to
activate those spaces.
And then finally, uh, natural resources
and sustainability.
Um,
in relation to the, uh, large
concentration of natural assets
downtown,
um, we know that projected growth will
increase pressure on those systems. And
so really looking forward as part of the
plan, how we expand existing restoration
efforts and integrate green building and
design techniques. uh as redevelopment
moves forward.
So, a couple of items I wanted to just
call out for this board specifically
um of relevance is that downtown has the
highest concentration of historic
resources in both. Um, we have the
special review area that's highlighted
in that green outline that has uh
specific uh historic resource uh
regulations and architectural
requirements.
Um, we had an inventory of properties
within that area in 2019 that was
completed. um and we'll be building upon
that as part of the citywide inventory
um that you'll get a presentation on
tonight. And then also an opportunity um
to really highlight that history as part
of future arts, cultural and historic
programming.
Um so some of the things that have come
up related to the existing special
review area is opportunities to clarify
um the guidelines versus requirements
within there and making it a bit um
leaning more on the requirement side to
make it more of a uh uh
more predictable uh
process for developers. Um and then
process to improve the consistency
between that particular section and our
wider historic preservation standards in
title 22. Um as well as to clarify some
of the distinctions between different
types of development within this area
between new development versus whether
it's infill or restoration or small
remodels.
And then, as I mentioned, there was the
2019 inventory study, um, feasibility
study that was done to look at the
potential for a historic district within
downtown rather than individually
designated properties. And so, um, just
a quick synop synopsis of the findings
from that were that, uh, a historic
district could potentially, uh, be
established between both way and 104th
Avenue. when they looked at the
eligibility of the properties within
that um special review area, there's 24
individually eligible properties and
about 34
um that could be considered contributing
properties for a historic district. Um
I'm not sure how much of this has been
talked through with this board
previously. Um, but the potential
benefits from my understanding are that
it does relax some of that eligibility
criteria when you do pursue a historic
district rather than individually
designated sites. Um, and does open up
available funding to help support upkeep
and re rehabilitation of some of those
more historic structures.
And then finally, as mentioned, um we
have several existing um art
installations that really highlight
both's history. And so looking at
opportunities moving forward um to
expand that um throughout throughout
downtown.
And so I know that was a lot of content.
So I'll stop there just if there are any
particular questions or comments on some
of the material I just covered. Um
before talking about kind of next steps.
Uh Ray Thomas, uh my question would be
uh you in referring to affordability,
you um mentioned the
» It won't let me raise my hand.
Well,
» Um
the you mentioned the efforts that that
be might be required to meet some of
those targets and I was wondering what
kind of efforts
you know might be conceived of or
considered there. Um
Ray, do you want to jump in at all?
Yeah.
Yes, I can speak a little more to that
as the project manager for the housing
action plan. Um, and so several efforts
are being taken to work on affordable
housing. As Cameron mentioned, we have a
LAP project which we worked with ARCH
who is our um main affordable housing
provider for East King County. We lined
up several state and nonprofit grants to
make that project feasible. um seeing
that um that those units are
significantly below market rate. Also,
our multif family tax exemption program
is a tax exempt program that helps
developers um build multif family units
um in exchange for providing deeply
affordable units. And lastly is our
zoning code. So, we have a few mandatory
overlays in that um in the map as you
can see there. But we also expanded our
code to allow for voluntary affordable
um housing creation. So developers can
voluntarily choose to opt in and in
exchange receive um increased density or
increased height depending on where they
choose. So it's a multi-pronged approach
to addressing the um affordable housing
shortage that we're hoping will provide
will help us create the units that we
need for the next 20 years.
And uh just for reference, the voluntary
um incentives and height increases, uh
the diagram on the left shows uh those
for each of the respective zoning
districts downtown there.
» Uh Vicki, do you have a question or
» Can you hear me? Yes, [clears throat] we
can.
» Oh, good. I'm sorry. I'm I have a very
strange uh internet and it's very slow.
So, a lot of the meeting froze on me and
then it dropped me. So, I'm back in for
the moment. Um
two two items. [clears throat] One is
you're you're looking at the the
heights.
Um there I hope it's still in the record
because it's almost 20 years ago we
reviewed Heights downtown.
And
the other item is when you were
discussing the historic district that
has actually been in the landmark
board's agenda and discussions
since 1994.
And
while we would love to see that and
would love to have our
um title 22
amanable to that
we have had push back on a number of
fronts
uh related to property owners related to
well that's been in particular um
related to the city council and related
to um local developers. Um it it's been
on three fronts. So if we can move past
some of those that would be amazing and
I would really love to be in on the
discussions for that because we have had
this
uh as something that the landmark board
has wanted to be behind for a very long
time. That puts it at about 32 years. Um
I mean otherwise I I really appreciate
the work that's been done on this and
bringing it forward in this way with
community input. I've been part of the
groups who have done this community
input too and
it's
I I would really like to see how we can
involve this in our title 22 and making
our title 22 a little more flexible to
facilitate it and but at the same time
I'm not talking about facilitating
multiple increased heights that just
essentially dissolve our downtown. We
have four blocks here
that are some of the re main reasons
people want to live in both. They like
having a historic downtown.
That's it for the moment. Ray, thanks.
» Thank you, Vicki. Um, I just wanted to
follow up in terms of uh has has there
been outreach to property owners um
in the area to facilitate
low-income housing and um and even
parking uh facilities. Um I'm I'm
thinking specifically of my church which
is Both First Lutheran. We don't have a
huge parking lot compared to some
churches, but it's substantial. And I
don't know, you know, we would need a
lot of help. We couldn't probably raise
funds like the uh the Methodist church
did to uh initiate their project uh
ideas, but um we do have the space
there. And I think the property uh um
committee um has talked about um a
parking garage. Um I've talked with some
of them about a parking garage with
housing, affordable housing or human
services. I think we downtown human
services will be online pretty well when
um uh when the urban project gets
completed. But um that is a resource I I
think the city should consider that um
churches are are you know facing a lot
of change but they're also open to a lot
of change. So I think there's again
sometimes it's timing. Uh you speak to
the right people at the right time so
that it's heard. But um I I just put
that in your tickler file at least.
» Yeah. Thank you very much both of you.
Um that was really helpful context. um
Vicki and then yeah, to my knowledge, um
there hasn't been that level of outreach
to surrounding property owners, but I'm
sure council would be interested if
there are additional opportunities
downtown for um either similar projects
to lot P or um you know, other types. Uh
so that's definitely something we can
look into.
I'm not seeing any other hands raised.
Um,
I would just say thank you very much. I
was very pleased. Uh some of you may
know I wasn't very happy at the meeting
last night at city council with the um
uh lack of mention either by the arts um
commission um or in uh some of the
planning as where uh
historic preservation, historic cultural
recognition
uh fits in. I think um you documented
the desire for that at least here. I I
don't know how deep that runs and what
the council's commitment to it will be,
but um I appreciate seeing it noted
here. Thank you.
» Um if there's no other questions, I did
just want to briefly mention um kind of
next steps on this project. Um so as
mentioned we will be releasing uh the
full draft including existing conditions
and recommendations within the next
couple of weeks. Um, and then I'd like
to invite everyone. Um, we'll be hosting
a public open house on Wednesday, July
22nd here in council chambers. Um, where
people will have an opportunity to learn
more about um, what we've heard from the
community, the draft recommendations,
and be able to provide more input um, if
we've missed anything. Um
and then uh the goal being after that
would be to take all feedback uh that we
hear over the summer, work that into
revising the plan, and then that will
come back um to the board's plan
commission and city council for final
review and approval later this year.
» Thank you. I've had that public meeting
on uh my calendar for some weeks. So,
thank you again for mentioning it. I
think it's important people be there and
go over those things, ask questions, and
uh be prepared to bring comments to the
planning commission or planning
department and the planning commission
and the council.
Are there any other questions or
concerns?
Well, thank you again for the
presentation. Um,
I would like to introduce um Chris Anne
Beckner and Lauren Waldrup with
historical research associates
incorporated who will give a briefing on
the both survey update.
Hello.
» Hi, thank you so much. Thank you for
having us this evening. Um, I'm really
glad we got to hear that presentation.
Thank you so much for having us here for
that.
Um, I am Chris Anne. I'm an
architectural historian with Historical
Research Associates. And as you
mentioned, my colleague Lauren Waldrup
is here as well. And we just wanted to
take the opportunity to introduce you to
historical research associates and to
ourselves and to the both city survey.
Um, we have a quick slide presentation,
but please let us know if you have
questions as we run through these.
Make sure that I can share this.
Can everybody see the presentation?
» Yes.
» Very good. Thank you.
All right. So, we are from Historical
Research Associates. We are a cultural
resources management firm. We are your
new cultural resources management firm
and we're going to be joining
the city of both in some survey and
inventory. Um we just heard a lot about
your downtown and the survey that was
done there. It'll be interesting to look
at other parts of both and add to the
data that you already have.
So a little bit about HR. Um, we like to
think we make the past accessible
through the collaborative,
equitable,
and principled practice of cultural
resources management. We also in do a
lot of history projects and provide a
lot of effective solutions for our
clients in our communities. Um, HR has
been around since 1974 and you can see
all those little icons. We are primarily
in the Northwest, but we do have
satellite offices throughout the
country. Uh we are currently a
woman-owned small business and we
provide consulting services in CRM,
litigation support, historical research,
interpretive services and we have a new
program we call AIRS the aerial imagery
and remote sensing services program.
We are really proud we have a a
reputation for excellence and we have
expertise in our fields and we really
love when we get to provide historical
architectural and archaeological studies
to clients. Um, a lot of our clients are
in the private, local, state, and
federal uh, regulatory nexuses,
contexts, but we also work with leaders
in transportation, education, energy,
and public and private development.
Uh, just a quick rundown of the services
we provide. The cultural resources
management division, that's me and
Lauren and a lot of other people. Uh we
do architectural studies, archaeological
studies and that usually is in the
support of um projects that are being
reviewed under federal regulations,
sometimes state and local regulations as
well. The aerial imagery and remote
sensing services. They are our cutting
edge technology team and they're using
everything from magnetic radiometry, um
LAR, photoggramometry in the air through
the use of drones to get a better
understanding of what's above ground,
below ground from all viewpoints.
We also do litigation support. We work a
lot with um cases and we do a lot of the
research that supports litigation. So
our histories delve into detailed
historical investigations and we supply
clients with accurate and contextrich
information for a variety of needs from
academic research to public history
projects. We also do public history that
is sort of our interpretive specialist
arm. Um, so we provide inform
informative histories outside the
traditional classroom setting and we
like to help our clients really tell
their stories creatively. So that's sort
of what our public history arm does.
And then for the both city survey, I
just wanted to share with you our team a
little bit about who we are and who
supports us. Um, your primary contracts
will be myself, Chrisanne Beckner, and
my colleague Lauren, who's also on this
call. Um, we both have master's degrees
in architectural history. mine from the
University of Oregon in 2009 and
Laurens's from the University of Georgia
in 2017. We're both SOI qualified. Um I
manage H's architectural history program
across all of our offices and Lauren has
been working in our Seattle office with
us since 2020.
Just briefly, we have a lot of people
who are supporting us in many
administrative ways. A few of them
that'll be working with us on this
project are listed here below. We have
Jen Getart who's our logistics
coordinator. She helps get us get get us
into the field. Uh we have Jen Gilpin
who who is our health and safety manager
and she makes sure that we are always
safe in the field. We have a health and
safety plan for every one of our
projects. We have Gabe Frasier who is
our GIS coordinator and he also works
really closely with Lauren, one of our
GIS experts, our mapping experts. So
she's really a fantastic asset on this
project. And then Don Vogel is our
editor and publications coordinator.
Everything that we do at H goes through
an intensive tech review process,
editing, production support, etc. to
make sure you get deliverables that are
accurate and complete and perfect.
A little more about us. Um, again, I'm
Chris. I joined H in 2013. Um, I
specialize in program and project
management, architectural and survey and
inventory, which I've been doing for a
long time, and then cultural resources
reporting generally under local, state,
and federal regulations. I prepare
survey and inventory reports, historic
property inventory forms and wizard,
nominations to local, state, and
national registers of historic places,
multiple property documents, HABs hair
documentation, historic contexts,
historic landscape reports, mitigation
documentation. Basically, any of the
ways that we interact with the built
environment, we do the reporting for.
Um, as I mentioned, Lauren joined us in
2020, and I'd like to give her a minute
to introduce herself. If we can unmute
her.
» Yeah, I was I can do that. Um, my name
is Lauren Waldrup and I moved up to the
Pacific Northwest in 2020 and I started
working with HA and um, since then I've
been able to do work in several states
in the Pacific Northwest. Um, but I
generally specialize in architectural
survey and inventory field and archival
research. um mapping requests usually
actually I was taking pictures of the
his potential historic districts maps
earlier um and cultural resources
reporting um and I think that yeah that
kind of covers it.
» Thank you Lauren. So uh Lauren and I
work really closely together. We've been
a team on multiple projects. I have
literally evaluated thousands of
resources in Washington. Um I think
Lauren's closing in on that as well.
We're going to be your two contacts.
We're going to be the people working
most closely on this project. Um because
Lauren is so great at GIS, we're going
to have excellent maps along with really
well done um reporting on all of our
survey results.
Okay. Are you seeing the presentation,
may I ask, or are you seeing Lauren?
» We're seeing the presentation.
» Okay. Very good. Thank you very much.
Okay. Um, so we have had a chance to
kick this project off, but we are still
just getting started and I did sort of
want to give you an idea of what our
discussions have been like. Um, so far
we've refined the goals for this project
in conversation with the city of both
and um, the list of them is here. I'll
just run through them quickly. We want
to identify any inaccurate or outdated
wizard data for our survey population.
We want to conduct survey and inventory
of 100 previously undocumented
resources. These will be resources that
don't have inventory forms and haven't
been part of previous studies.
We want to conduct a windshield survey
or an integrity check of an additional
100 resources that have already been
surveyed. Perhaps they were surveyed in
an initial um survey report, but nobody
has necessarily taken a look at them in
the last little while. We want to make
sure that you have up-to-date data
regarding those resources. primarily um
as it relates to integrity.
And then we want to keep you informed.
We want to stay in communication with
you and with city staff and make sure
that we're answering your questions and
learning from you while we go on.
So the approach that we put together and
this was done in conversation. We had a
really wonderful kickoff meeting and we
sort of discussed what the goals of the
survey were and how we could get there.
So the these are sort of the approaches
that Lauren and I are going to go
through. We really want to understand
the context for this study. So, we're
reviewing past architectural inventories
and wizard records and King and Snomish
County tax assessor data. We're looking
his at historic maps and aerials, local
histories, other city of both records.
As Lauren mentioned, the material that
was being discussed earlier, um the
downtown plan, that's going to be
something we're going to take a close
look at because one of our goals is to
understand not just historic resources
that haven't received documentation, but
how that intersects with sort of the
planning pressures that we hear you're
facing. We know that development is
happening in both. We want to get you
good data for areas that maybe haven't
been studied as well. So we'll be doing
some land use mapping to identify areas
of increased development pressure
especially those that have minimal
documentation for that reconnaissance
level survey and inventory we want to do
of 100 resources. So just to talk about
those two phases that reconnaissance
level survey will target 100 previously
undocumented resources within those
areas facing increased development
pressure.
within that 100. We also really wanted
to give some attention to a number of
resources that were identified
previously that have really important
cultural
um associations. Uh there was a study
done fairly recently and the data has
just been shared with us. So that's
going to be at least four of our
hundred. We want to take a close look at
those and see if they would be eligible
for listing at the local, state or
national level.
For that 100 resource survey, we thought
we should focus our attention on those
resources that are likely to be eligible
for their architectural character. So
under National Register criterion C or
both landmark designation criteria C, D
or E for their architectural
significance.
For the windshield survey, we want to
take a look at additional that that 100
previously surveyed resources that
require updated surveyed data. And for
those we're going to focus on updating
inaccurate or outdated data and updating
eligibility recommendations based on
existing conditions. So giving that
integrity check. And part of our goal
also is to share this information with
the state so that Wizard is updated. We
understand that the city of both has an
important relationship with Wizard. You
need that data be to be accurate. So we
want to support you in getting the best
data into the state's database. Um the
deliverable will be a survey report as
well as 200 HPIs. 100 of them will be
new. 100 of them will be updates to
previously recorded resources.
We have roughed in a schedule. Um our
period of performance goes until the end
of December 2027. So we have about a
year and a half for this work. As I
mentioned, we had our kickoff meeting at
the end of June, and that's where we
discuss these goals and the approach
with the city of both. Uh we want to
keep you updated, as I said. So, we'll
be sending monthly uh project reports to
the city, and we will be checking in
with the Landmark Preservation Board and
sharing our results with you pro
probably about this time next year.
I'm just kind of roughing in our work
plan for July and August of this summer.
We'll be reviewing all that archival
data that we talked about and we want to
get to a list of resources for survey.
Um it is hard to narrow down to a 100
resources of both types. So that's where
we're going to be using mass uh mapping
and previously prepared reports. For
instance, we know we're not going to
work in the downtown area because that's
already been so well documented. So
we're going to look for other areas that
have not received the same attention in
the past.
We think our fieldwork effort will
likely take about a week sometime in the
August September area depending on how
quickly we can get a survey population
finalized.
And then we'll also be doing some
research at the Washington State
Archives during that time because as you
guys know they have the most amazing
photographic collection, historic
photographic collection of some some of
the buildings in our area.
The draft survey report we think will
probably be drafted around April 2027
and that'll go through city review
before it comes to you guys and then
hopefully we will have a final survey
report and those inventory forms for
your review about this time next year.
We will probably we probably will do the
reporting first and save the inventory
forms until they've gone through review
since as you guys may know working in
Wizard can be challenging. So we want to
get them right the first time. Want to
get them reviewed perfect and then
they'll be moved. migrated into DPS
wizard database.
And that's just a quick review, a quick
introduction. I'd love to answer
questions or tell you more if I can.
Ray, I have a comment.
Of course,
» Go ahead, Vicki.
» Um, okay. this. First off, yes, this is
so great that we're getting the
inventory updated. It's been several
years and a
Oh, goodness. Without the inventory
updated, we're behind on a number of
things because that's one of our premier
mandates for what we do. That said, this
is the first time that I recall since 92
that the inventory has gone um outside
the um the landmark board. We were the
ones who literally used our budgets to
pay for the inventory and the upgrades.
Uh I have participated in doing parts of
the inventory as have a number of our
staff people. Um, I see some really good
things on that, particularly related to
using Wizard and and being able to um
well, frankly, doing an inventory has
been updated and upgraded since
uh in leaps and bounds since we were
doing literally our paper
fill-in-theblank inventories
in 92
to 94.
That said, when you mention that you're
not going to come before the landmark
board and update us for till next year,
um I would really like to to see a
review of that because we have been a
part of the inventories
and it's part of our our uh
whole
it's it's the basis for a lot of what we
do and a lot of the projects that we do
over time um
waiting till next year for an inventory
update is
just I I just don't find it tenable for
what we do frankly. Now that said, um we
know and have had it
uh under study on the landmark board for
at least 15 years to get a really good
survey of our mid-century modern
properties.
And I didn't hear any word about that at
all. We have reviewed and
gone through those properties that have
been eligible up to about 15 years ago.
Um the be Yeah. Because it's about 2015
to 2018.
Um
and then we started realizing that we
need to look at those mid-century
moderns and we have some uh we've lost a
couple. We've lost a couple of public
buildings that were um
would have been eligible for not just
both
um
landmark list and then there was some
that truly would have been eligible for
the state and national.
We were able to get one on the national.
That was that's been incredible.
But again, you need to work with us.
This is part of what we do. I'm really
glad we're getting
um
getting the list updated by people who
really know what they're doing, but at
the same time, we're pretty
knowledgeable, too. And
yeah, that's that's my comment for now
on this. This is also
the first time that I've heard a
complete uh
set of what your goals and what your
intents are and generally I would have
heard that a fair while ago and we would
previously
been involved in those people that we
hired to do it if we went outside.
Thank you.
If I can just respond, Vicki, I'd very
much like to learn from you and and talk
with you and pick your brains and
understand better what work you've done
and what your priorities are. I didn't
mean to suggest that would be our only
opportunity to work with you, just that
we wanted to target that time frame. Um,
but we can we can hopefully stay in
conversation throughout the process.
Great. We're available.
I'm going to ask a a
question. Uh, and I'm not sure whether
Ry or Adam may be in a better position
to answer this. Um, but I would like it
in the record. Um, why are we doing this
survey?
» I I can answer. Uh, for staff, uh, the
the survey update has been on on the
list of of items to be completed for for
a while. This was part of a budget
request that staff put into council as
part of the current bienium. Um, council
approved that. That was the that was the
only additional that was the only budget
item for community development that was
approved for the 20 2526 bienium budget.
Um, and it's it has been on the work
plan since I started a couple years ago
to make sure that it is completed. Um,
so that is that is the um the short
answer for why are we doing this now?
it's been on the list and the funding
was allocated from council to
go forward.
» Uh I understand why we're doing it now.
I'm I'm asking the broader question in
the scope of
landmarks preservation, historic
preservation. Why are we doing this? Is
the city required to do this? Are there
legal requirements in terms of our
relationship with the state, with the
federal government?
Is it just a matter of interest that we
do this? Um
I' I've actually had people when asked
the question of, well, what properties
are eligible for a register? I say,
well, anything that's 50 years or more
older. Uh people are amazed at that
because for a lot of people, especially
in my age group, that's not too long ago
and those homes aren't very old uh in
our minds at least. They're also not
very significant. So I guess what I'm
looking at is the sort of historical
context of why we do this.
» Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think you know
within the the comprehensive plan and
the the cultural and historic element
the the goals and policies within there
guide and and the work through the comp
plan the multi-year comp plan work
guided us to recognize we should look to
see what is out there. Um, as you said,
just because a building is old doesn't
doesn't mean it has any um it may have
value to certain individuals, but it may
be one of
a thousand of the same house, right? Um,
but utilizing this opportunity to to
confirm what is out there, what truly
should rise to, you know, up on the
list. um to kind of
get rid of some of the the the white
noise, the background noise of I think
the the 9,300 structures that are out
there that technically meet that
50-year, but what how should we focus
this where we know we have some
information on several structures
already.
um wanting to make sure that we're we're
fulfilling that commitment within those
policies of the comp plan to
uh attempt to at least create a a a
process or at least a an an inventory
and a list to work from. Without that,
we don't know what's out there. It's
just oh, we might we might find
something. Um but being proactive is
really the the best way to look at this.
And
do we benefit in our relationships with
the state
um historical, archaeological, and uh um
office uh or the federal uh landmarks
preservation historic preservation
offices.
There's nothing within the the code that
I'm aware of that identifies there's a
requirement to do this inventory. Um
but again it it is intended to be uh a
helpful step in continuing to understand
what is out there um what was out there
and how does that help inform
how we
evaluate and and proceed forward with
historic preservation of of buildings?
Um is it all connected with the um
certification of the city um to
participate as a certified local
government program?
I understand we have that uh contract or
at least um
recognition from the state um historical
preservation officer.
To the best of my knowledge, um, COG
communities are not required to do
historic inventories, but are highly
encouraged and the majority end up doing
historic inventories as COG grants can
be used to pay for that. Um, and also,
um, it just adds to the repertoire of
knowledge that a community has.
Thank you both. I think you have covered
it well there and I appreciate having in
the record um because the public is not
well informed about why we do these
things and why it's important. So I
appreciate that
and uh thank you both
oops excuse me. Thank you both for your
presentation. Um are there any other
questions?
I also would reiterate I would love to
see some communication opportunities uh
before uh spring of 27. Thank you.
» We will make sure that we stay in
contact with you and and get in touch
before 2027, late 2027. Um I don't have
any questions at this time though I
think we are really still in the data
gathering stage. If you guys have
information that you think would help us
with this process of of identifying a
survey population, we would love to
receive, review,
have any of that information to help us
make some decisions. Um,
that's the only thing that I would
request is that if you have information
you think we could use, please share.
» Very good. Thank you again.
Thank you. We appreciate the time.
» Does the city staff have any reports or
announcements?
» Only announcement from staff. Uh the two
new members for the Landmark
Preservation Board will be um
sworn in or or approved by council uh
scheduled to be done on the 14th. So,
next Tuesday, um it is on on the agenda
for for them to be um brought into the
board. And so, they would they would
join us uh in September for the next
regularly scheduled meeting. We don't
have any items currently on the agenda
for the September meeting. Um if the
board has any items that you would like
to include, you can let staff know. Um
it's a it's a a ways out, but uh um
yeah, we just don't we don't have
anything on on the list at this point.
Thank you.
Does any board member have anything to
report or directly related to official
business of the board? uh directly
related to historic preservation efforts
in the city of both or our future
agenda.
Um not seeing any hands here. Um I do
have a couple of things um
in terms of um just my taking over as
the chair. Um, I I will be assuming uh
the responsibilities uh to coordinate
the creation of the agenda um as
stipulated in our bylaws uh for the
meeting. Um and uh adding any items that
um other board members uh may suggest.
Um, I uh may take the prerogative uh
under the bylaws uh to call special
meetings um as we work toward looking at
the code and provisions of the Landmarks
Preservation Board. Um
uh
at this point um I will simply just say
that I hope to create uh working with
staff u a number of uh subcommittees or
task force that would reach out to uh
the planning commission, the arts
commission, um the um
both historic
uh museum board um and possibly others
as suggested. Um so that we have a
working group to communicate more
effectively with these uh organizations
whose efforts uh uh directly uh affect
um historic preservation in the city of
both.
Uh would any board member like to make a
motion to adjurnn?
Uh I would accept a motion to adjurnn.
Vicki
see your hand up.
» Hand works and I've been trying to get
it to work all evening. Oh,
» Sorry. Um I move that witcher
Is there a second?
» I will second.
Uh we'll uh we'll take a vote on that
then. Uh member Thomas I.
Uh
member Musker
» I
» And member SPI
» I
» Despite a quorum we are adjourned
for lack of a quorum. Thank you all.