Name: City Council Meeting
Uploaded: 2026-08-17T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 h 30 min 15 s
Description: So, well, I guess that kind of drives that decision, then, is for development that doesn't want to qualify for affordable housing credits, then you're stuck with the old parking requirements.

[0:01] A good evening and welcome to the August 17th regular city council meeting for the city of Ellensburg. We will again with pledge of allegiance, which I will lead.

[0:12] Pledge of allegiance to the fire of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Call the roll. Motion, here, good, low, here, lowquist, here, Elliot, Miller, here.

[0:31] Thompson here Josh okay yeah we'll start off on page seven we have an

[0:40] International Overdose Awareness Day and I'll remember a good low agreed.

[0:44] Proclamation not fall on International Overdose Awareness Day 2026.

[0:50] Whereas the City of Ellensburg does affirm and acknowledge the harm and

[0:54] hardship caused by drug overdose and whereas we recognize the purpose of

[1:00] international overdose awareness day as remembering loved ones lost to overdose and ending

[1:06] the stigma of drug related deaths. And whereas we resolved to play our part in reducing the

[1:11] toll of overdose in our community, which claimed the lives of 368 Washington State residents

[1:18] in the year 2025 with countless more affected forever. And whereas we recognized that in 2025,

[1:27] Kittitas County lost nine individuals to overdose, and whereas we recognize that first responders in Kittitas County have responded to an increased number of substance use related calls this past year.

[1:41] And whereas we affirm that the people affected by overdose are our family, friends, and community members who are deserving of our love, compassion, and support.

[1:51] And whereas death from overdose is preventable, whereas there continue to be deaths from stimulant

[2:00] use, and whereas overdose continues to increase both medical and other economic cost greatly

[2:06] impacting our society, and whereas substance abuse disorder, substance use disorder is a

[2:13] treatable disease, and the stigma and shame often are a barrier to seeking help.

[2:18] And now therefore be it resolved that the mayor of Ellensburg does hereby proclaim August 31st,

[2:25] 2026 as international overdose awareness day and invites everyone to join in the August 31st

[2:33] event at Mountain View Park from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thank you. Item 3 is a special deal that's an

[2:46] award for the Elmsburg Natural Gas Division and the city manager and everybody can talk first.

[2:52] I would just say we're going to spend just a couple of few minutes this evening celebrating

[2:56] an amazing achievement by our natural gas division. And the progress toward this award began more

[3:05] than six years ago. We have decades of amazing operational history and safety. And there was a

[3:13] commitment to actually become recognized for that.

[3:16] And so, buddy's going to talk, buddy is our energy services director.

[3:19] He's going to talk a little bit about how we got here today.

[3:21] And we're going to start off with a video.

[3:26] Yeah, a good evening, Mayor's Council, buddy,

[3:29] Senator Chennergy, services director.

[3:31] Before I start, yes, so the gas team was awarded the gold level.

[3:36] One of the highest awards handed out by the American Public Gas Association.

[3:42] One of only 16 public gas systems in the country who have achieved this immense honor.

[3:50] But it has taken, like Heidi said, over seven years of deliberate work to get here, and

[3:57] it recognizes system integrity, system improvement, workforce development, safety, and much more.

[4:06] And it's a continuous improvement award.

[4:07] So it's going above and beyond the regulations that very strict regulations that are placed on us

[4:14] So with that here's a quick video.

[4:19] The City of Elmsberg's natural gas utility takes great pride in our 70 year history of

[4:25] Delivering safe reliable natural gas to over 5,000 customers in our service area

[4:32] Our award-winning utility would not be possible without the unwavering dedication of our remarkable

[4:39] employees. We bring care and expertise to the utility every single day.

[4:45] National awards for environmental stewardship, safety and operational excellence demonstrate

[4:51] the continued commitment to all aspects of the utility. Ensuring our infrastructure stays

[4:58] reliable for decades to come.

[5:06] So the majority of the gas team is with us tonight. Thank you everyone for being here and for

[5:12] We're all that you've done, we really appreciate it.

[5:17] Council, I have a statement to make, but do you guys have anything to ask or say?

[5:22] Just congratulations.

[5:23] Thank you for your work and

[5:29] where's Darren, you see?

[5:31] Yeah, he could have made it tonight, but yes, big shout out to him, he put a lot of work into this.

[5:40] And I just like to say on behalf of the city, and no offense to the public, but the reason I even got involved in city council,

[5:46] was I worked for the city up until 2005, and I recognize that I worked in multiple cities,

[5:55] Bellevue, ZTAC, other governmental entities, and the level of service and commitment for

[6:01] our employees is significantly higher than in other communities that I've been around.

[6:07] And then subsequently, I work with the utilities in my other capacity, and

[6:13] And I just like to say that it's always professional,

[6:16] it's always efficient, it's timely.

[6:19] And I just, I really appreciate you guys.

[6:21] And I think that goes a long way towards minimizing

[6:23] the problems that we have.

[6:25] But when there's a problem that pops up, we deal with it.

[6:28] And people get back online and they're safe.

[6:30] So I appreciate that.

[6:32] So thank you.

[6:33] By the way, this is 16 out of 730.

[6:36] So yeah, that would be number.

[6:37] So thank you.

[6:38] Very incredible.

[6:39] So I'm wondering if we can take just a little break

[6:41] and do a photo.

[6:42] We have the award here. It's pretty impressive with our gassing.

[6:47] And I would recognize there are folks here who are current and past employees who joined us for tonight.

[6:53] Do you want us to?

[6:56] Yeah.

[6:57] Do you want me to count the little council kids?

[6:59] No, everybody.

[7:00] I don't want to share with my boss while I'm staying still.

[7:02] Got a little power to go in.

[7:09] Don't drop it.

[7:10] Are you going to drop it?

[7:11] No, drop.

[7:13] That's all I got.

[7:15] Yeah.

[7:18] All right.

[7:21] Everybody in together.

[7:23] Thank you.

[7:23] No worries.

[7:25] Okay.

[7:26] Is this not all right?

[7:28] It's

[7:31] wonderful.

[7:31] Thank you all.

[7:32] Thank you.

[7:45] Josh, we'll superimpose you on the green screen.

[7:50] Let's pay back, right?

[7:51] Okay, approval of the agenda before which does anybody on council or in the audience wish to move anything on consent agenda?

[8:01] To approve the agenda.

[8:04] Second.

[8:05] We have a motion second to approve the agenda as presented in the discussion.

[8:09] Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

[8:11] 5.

[8:12] 2-Avodai.

[8:12] Opposed?

[8:14] That motion passes.

[8:15] Consent agenda.

[8:16] Move to approve the consent agenda.

[8:19] Second.

[8:20] We have a motion second to approve the consent agenda as presented in any discussion.

[8:25] Harry Nguyen, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

[8:28] Aye.

[8:29] 2-Avodai opposed.

[8:31] That motion passes.

[8:32] We've made our way all the way to page 104.

[8:35] This is Petitions, Protests and Communications.

[8:39] Item 6A is the Ellen's Burghs Ash Yakima Humane Society and we are going to get an Ellen's Burgh Animal Shelter update.

[8:46] There will be an opportunity for public comment.

[8:55] Hi, everyone.

[8:56] Thank you for having me tonight.

[8:58] My name is Jeff Boyd.

[8:59] I am the executive director of the Yakima Humane Society and the Ellen's Burgh Humane Society.

[9:04] I want to give you all an update here because as you know, we signed a new contract with you all at the beginning of the year.

[9:10] And one of the things we're most excited about and that agreement was to re-brand the old Ellensburg animal shelter to the Ellensburg Humane Society.

[9:20] And give it its own identity, its own website, just basically not have it be a part of Yakima Humane Society anymore.

[9:29] We really wanted to this community to feel like this is their own because it is their own and the funds that they donate to us go back to the animals in their community.

[9:37] So I don't have slides today, I have these passouts here, hopefully each have a brochure.

[9:41] But what we're going to start with is some numbers.

[9:45] Okay, so this graph, as you can see here, just kind of shows the impact we've had since taking over the Ellensburg Animal Shelter, which was in August of 2022.

[9:54] So you can see that number is a little unfair because that's only based on five months of data.

[9:59] I didn't have your data for the prior seven months, but if you extrapolate that out,

[10:03] you still see a big improvement as we've been kind of able to increase the capacity of intakes,

[10:09] which is animals that come in as strays or owner surrenders and come in through animal

[10:13] control and Heidi who does great work and we've become great partners with Heidi, animal control

[10:18] officer Heidi and city manager Heidi of course as well. But yeah this team's been super supportive

[10:24] of our work and I've really enjoyed our partnership and as you can see, adoptions have also gone up

[10:30] significantly, which shows that the community continues to get more involved on the outcome side.

[10:36] What we've noticed is when we take a new marketing campaign like this, which obviously has a few goals and objectives.

[10:43] In addition to the fundraising aspect, there's the community that realizes, wow, these services are out there for us to take advantage of.

[10:50] Which is what we want to do other than sometimes the demand greatly and significantly outweighs our capacity to help folks.

[10:56] So we just can't take an unlimited number of animals as strays and surrenders.

[11:01] So we have a system, especially on owner's surrender side, where they'll call us and if we can't take the animal and immediately we put you on a waiting list and then we call you back when space becomes available.

[11:12] And as we're getting ready to actually send this out to about 5,000 folks who live, not just in Ellensburg, but the other cities here in Kittitas, Kleeellown, Roslin, the city of Kittitas, excuse me.

[11:25] And so that's obviously a big branding fundraising push, but I also think it's going to let a lot of folks know that we have this service available to them in terms of folks who don't need to re-home their animals, or especially our spay and neuter services which run through Yakima humane.

[11:42] And literally this morning, I'm very happy to announce that we actually just received a $100,000 grant for our spay and neuter services.

[11:48] Now, that's not specific to Kittitas, but it's for our clinic, which offers an innovative $99 surgery to cats and dogs,

[11:56] which is a pretty much unheard of price to only folks who live in Yakima and Kittitas counties.

[12:02] So that's a really cool thing that we're really excited.

[12:04] We've been doing that actually for the last five, six months, but I've been unable to sustain it without this grant.

[12:11] So I applied for this grant last month and literally found out this morning that we received that so

[12:15] we can have that going through the end of the year, which would be super helpful.

[12:21] So, in sitting numbers, I can give you a hand out if you'd like.

[12:25] If you're interested in this data, I brought some copies here, because, again, I'm sorry, I don't have slides.

[12:29] But the council members should have this.

[12:31] So that's kind of the data there in terms of things just to continue to increase on the intakes and outcomes fronts.

[12:37] Beyond adoptions, because you might wonder why there's a difference between intakes and adoptions.

[12:42] Twofold, there's a lot of return to owners.

[12:43] So if an animal comes in, we still code it as an intake even though it's then returned to the owner who comes and finds it

[12:50] That's part of the purpose of a shelter and then we also transfer animals out to West Side rescue organizations

[12:55] In fact, we then Yakima too. It's about a 25% rate and we're lucky to have those partners or we'd be we wouldn't be able to take in as many animals

[13:04] So that's kind of the numbers on that front and then I just want to touch base again on the rebrand

[13:09] And I don't know if anyone has been able to come down to the shelter recently and see

[13:12] the new red paint job and the new Ellen'sburg Humane Society logo.

[13:16] We're really excited about that.

[13:17] We just had a photographer out about six weeks ago as we were finalizing a very new website

[13:22] which is the Ellen'sburghumane.org, so a completely separate site.

[13:27] We've got that up now.

[13:29] And again, we've got our logo and we've got marketing materials that we're about to send

[13:34] out for a direct mail campaign.

[13:35] And most importantly, it's leading up to a big event on October 3rd at the fairgrounds, which is going to be our first annual fundraiser for the Ellensburg Humane Society, hope to see you all there, by the way, you can give you more information.

[13:48] But we're really excited about that to, again, help increase our revenues on the fundraising side.

[13:54] So yeah, the two big campaigns we have going on from the fundraising perspective are this direct mail.

[13:59] it's going to go out to 5,000 residences, and then this big event that we're having on October 3rd, which is hard to be about six weeks away.

[14:07] Now I know I have a time limit here and you got lots to get to, so I better save it for Q&A, so I'm happy to answer any questions that the council members have or the community.

[14:15] Please, please ask.

[14:16] I'll start with council questions,

[14:20] other than thank you, and when you close out, you let the community know if there's still opportunities to volunteer, the shelter, walking dogs, things like that.

[14:29] Yeah, and we are actually very lucky there has so one of the things that the paint job has done is I feel like I've seen half of the central Washington campus out to watch walk dogs for us.

[14:40] So we have a great, I've never seen like a turnout of volunteers like I have here, it's not nearly like this in Yakima, so that's amazing.

[14:47] And to your point that's without even promoting it, but absolutely there's an opportunity to come in and volunteer

[14:52] There's lots of ways, but there's nothing better than walking a dog that needs some time out of its kennel

[14:57] Anybody in the audience wish to speak

[15:00] And nobody online?

[15:04] Okay.

[15:07] Thank you, and thank you for the work that you're doing. This is cool. Thank you all. Appreciate you.

[15:14] Item 6B is recommendation appointment to the lodging tax advisory committee. There will be an opportunity for public comment. This is page 106.

[15:24] Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city council, Kelly Bandenberg, arts and economic development manager with the city of Ellensburg. When I was preparing for this evening's council meeting, I was thinking about the first time I met the

[15:37] the gentleman recommended for the lodging tax advisory committee.

[15:42] And I don't remember the actual event, but I remember he was volunteering.

[15:48] And that has been the running thread through everything that he and I have done together.

[15:58] Tonight, Steve Reed has been recommended by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee for our open position.

[16:07] He is the owner of the Ames House bed and breakfast, but more than that, he and his family spent two, three years now, Steve, restoring the Ames House.

[16:20] And if you have not seen the inside, it's wonderful.

[16:24] He has served with a downtown association, he's currently on the Board of Directors with a downtown association and is known for historic preservation throughout the community in our downtown buildings and in our historic district.

[16:38] So it gives me great pleasure to introduce Steve Reed to you this evening.

[16:49] Mayor, council, city employees, as Kelly said, my name is Steve Reed, owner, operator of the Ames House.

[16:56] I've applied for a seat on the LTAC committee and so what I bring to the committee, and I hope you'll know yes, is so for my chosen career, I traveled every single week.

[17:08] So my record hotel night stays was 286 nights and one year, so I would travel throughout the US, Mexico, Canada, northern Europe, Asia.

[17:17] So, I bring to the LTAC committee the experiences of eating in these different cities, staying in hotels, meeting people, finding out what works, what doesn't work, things of that nature.

[17:30] So, I hope you guys have questions or not.

[17:33] Council, any questions of Mr. Reed?

[17:35] I don't.

[17:36] I'm reading the audience.

[17:40] Okay.

[17:40] No, we don't have any questions.

[17:42] Thank you for your interest.

[17:42] Thank you.

[17:43] So Council, I think we need to, are we affirming or are we actually making the appointment?

[17:48] We make the appointment.

[17:50] The emotions are to make the appointment.

[17:53] And to a point, Steve Reed to the lodging tax advisory committee.

[17:58] Second.

[17:59] We have a motion second to a point, Steve Reed to the lodging tax advisory committee discussion.

[18:05] Very none.

[18:06] All is in favor, signify by saying aye.

[18:07] Aye.

[18:08] Aye.

[18:09] Aye.

[18:09] Two will vote. I oppose that motion passes. Thank you.

[18:12] Thank you.

[18:14] Item 6c is a presentation of historic resource map.

[18:18] This will be an opportunity for public comment. This is page 110.

[18:24] Good evening, Council.

[18:26] Stacy Henderson, Planning Manager.

[18:28] In 2024, the City of Allen's Berg was rewarded a certified local government grant funding to build a historic resource map on our city website.

[18:39] The goal for this was to be able to be accessible to the public as a helpful tool for people to learn about local history and buildings.

[18:50] This is an important and needed project as the information of our local historic districts was largely not digitized till now and could really only be found in our community development office.

[19:01] Story maps can be a great way to share large amounts of information and something we liked

[19:05] about it is that it can be built upon into the future.

[19:09] So the scope of this grant project and important first step was to develop the base information

[19:16] that includes our historic registry and makes this information searchable to the public.

[19:23] Looking to the future, this map can be built upon with various layers of information that

[19:27] I can continue to help build this map

[19:29] into an important tool for our community.

[19:33] City staff partnered with Spencer Howard

[19:35] of Northwest Vernacular Historic Preservation Consulting

[19:38] to create this map.

[19:40] He worked with our staff to help build this tool

[19:43] as we were able to take photographs

[19:44] and scan materials in-house and he did the rest.

[19:51] As the map is nearing completion,

[19:53] we wanted to share what we've created

[19:55] to help bring attention to this new available resource for the city. I will hand things off

[20:01] to Spencer now so he can give you a little more information about how it works.

[20:07] Stacy, thank you, Mayor Council. I'm delighted to be able to do a quick walk through through

[20:13] this story map. It scrolls down vertically, and as Stacy said, so we have a summary which gives for

[20:21] public a little bit of the background for the city's historic register,

[20:25] difference with the national register, but the purpose of this was, and how to use this

[20:30] for smartphone navigation. This says we template works both for desktop use, and if you're

[20:36] walking around the city with your smartphone, and you can turn on location services, and we'll

[20:41] talk about that a little bit more, and we get to one of the other maps. So this bar across

[20:46] here, across the top, is an navigation bar. So we have landmarks, we have landmark districts,

[20:51] and then we have the sandborne fire insurance maps and then credits.

[20:56] So we'll jump through this fairly quickly, but for the landmarks,

[20:59] so these are the six individually designated city of Ellensburg landmarks.

[21:05] So each of these are shown on the map.

[21:08] You can zoom in on them.

[21:10] You can click on the individual property.

[21:13] It has space for photographs.

[21:17] and then we have a hyperlink for the PDF of the nomination that staff scanned as critical information address when it was built, when it was landmarked.

[21:27] Then a quick summary on the back down below the landmark districts. We have two, the downtown Ellensburg historic district and the first railroad addition historic district.

[21:37] So it gives a little brief background about those.

[21:41] Again, we've got the National Register nominations linked for those as well as the designating

[21:47] ordnance for them and similar structures with the landmarks.

[21:51] So you have a grid of the individual properties.

[21:55] You can click into each one and be able to get photographs, additional background on here.

[22:01] You can see we're still working through on some of the draft elements on this.

[22:05] But it'll take you through each one for the downtown and then for the first railroad.

[22:12] So again, nomination, designating ordinance because of limitations on the site, we had

[22:19] this split the district into two portions.

[22:23] So we've got the west third and then we've got the east two thirds and it's the same structure.

[22:30] One of the critical things is if you're using your smartphone, when you're on this

[22:34] map, and if you're walking through the neighborhood or downtown, it will show a little blue dot

[22:39] on the map where you are. So if you want to click on the house, it's there, or your

[22:44] or at your house, you can see that information, and you could effectively do a quick walking tour.

[22:50] So one of the parts we're really excited about, and this came from the work from one of the

[22:54] commissioners from the historic landmarks and design commission,

[23:01] is he, both from the Library of Congress and your reference, the Historic Sanborn Fire Insurance

[23:08] Maps from 1888 all the way through 1909. So then we, you can click on those CDGIS staff, pull those in

[23:17] and create this face map. And what it allows you to do is to be able to zoom in. And this, you can expand

[23:28] it for a larger map, but for kind of demonstration purposes. You can see what was there at the time

[23:35] that that map was made. So in 1889, this is the building that was there at this location.

[23:41] Again, if you're using it on the smartphone, your blue dot will show where you are relative to this.

[23:46] So it makes a really fun way to explore the historic layers of the city. Look at what's there.

[23:55] What

[23:56] with the Library of Congress maps,

[23:57] is they have a ton of detail.

[23:59] There's color coding.

[24:00] That's all it's blamed up a little bit further

[24:04] in the key for that.

[24:06] So a lot for the public to explore.

[24:08] And then credits as well.

[24:11] So again, city staff did an immense amount of scanning

[24:15] and all the current photographs.

[24:16] And then city GIS staff were amazing

[24:20] for being able to get all of the state

[24:22] up hold into here for us, which helped a ton.

[24:24] Are there any questions?

[24:27] Council questions.

[24:31] Any questions from the audience or comments from the audience?

[24:36] Just thank you. This is really cool.

[24:38] Yeah, I think this is over here. This is cool.

[24:40] Looks fun.

[24:41] Awesome. Nice job you guys.

[24:44] Item 7 is public comment on non-agenda items.

[24:48] This is an opportunity for your people in the audience to discuss issues over which the

[24:54] council has control, over which affect the city.

[24:57] We have political statements for against a ballot measure announcing yourself as a candidate or against a candidate.

[25:06] We'll take people in the audience first and then we'll move on to anybody online.

[25:13] Comments limited to three minutes and nothing that's going to disrupt the orderly conduct of the meeting.

[25:18] We'll start with the list and Mr. Keller, when you introduce yourself, name, whether you represent your group individual or group or both, city, county, or other resident and the topic you wish to speak to.

[25:39] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[25:40] That's Keller, her city of Williamsburg, two topics.

[25:45] First, I had my hand up on your agenda modification.

[25:49] I don't know if that's a rule, but I'll speak to that.

[25:53] I was going to comment on the minutes of last meeting, and I hate being first every

[26:01] time, but under public comment, it has Pat Kelliger, okay, great.

[26:10] Well historically, it's always had the name of the person in, I mean, just a subject line

[26:18] or something other than just the name.

[26:22] The second part is this is a venue to be able to speak to all seven of you.

[26:30] The public can also submit a letter or email for public comment for non-agenda items.

[26:39] And I feel that at least those letters should be acknowledged or emails should be acknowledged

[26:45] in the subject line.

[26:46] You know, you don't have to respond to them, but at least, you know, if a public was looking at your minutes,

[26:53] you know, they could see that the public is, you know, it might run at a couple more pages to your agenda,

[27:02] but at least acknowledge that you are getting that information.

[27:08] The reason I am making public comment tonight is concerning Tier 1 power,

[27:15] which will be a big issue coming up.

[27:19] In federal hydropower was developed under a postage stamp system.

[27:23] Public power preference in express congressional purpose of

[27:28] benefiting domestic and rural consumers.

[27:33] Ellensburg should therefore apply its limited tier one allocation first to residential requirements.

[27:42] Thank you.

[27:44] Thank you Mr. Gilherr and apologize for missing your hand there.

[27:48] Anybody else in the audience on agenda items?

[28:02] We go to item 9a, which would be second reading and potential adoption of ordinance 4994, which would vacate a city easement located between Catherine Cottages and Radio Road.

[28:13] There will be an opportunity for public comment and this is page 112.

[28:16] Well, it evening, Council, Chris Horner, city attorney, as the mayor stated, this is ordinance 4994, second reading, which would vacate the city easement located on the east side of lot one of the Margaret's edition of the flat council conducted a public hearing and approved first reading of this ordinance on August 3, 2026, if council approves the ordinance tonight, a copy of the ordinance would be recorded with the Kittitas County Auditor's Office, and that would formally vacate the easement.

[28:46] With that, I will turn it back to Council.

[28:50] Council, questions of staff.

[28:54] Everybody in the audience who wishes to speak to this issue?

[28:59] The online council.

[29:04] Mr. Mayor, I move for a second reading and adoption of ordinance 4994,

[29:08] vacating a city easement located between Catherine Cottages and

[29:13] Radio Road and authorize the city manager to sign and record any necessary documents to complete this action.

[29:20] Second.

[29:22] second two. Conduct second reading ordinance 494 which would vacate the city's easement between

[29:26] cathering cottages and radio road discussion.

[29:32] We now will court call the roll.

[29:34] Oshan, yes. Good lo. Yes lowquast. Yes. Miller. Aye. Thompson. Yes. Elliott. Yes.

[29:43] In ordinance of the city council of the city of Elm's Park, Washington relating to vacating

[29:48] a city easement located between cathering cottages and radio road.

[29:53] Item 9B, page 121, public comment opportunity, this could be first reading

[29:58] in accordance for 993.

[30:00] Which would amend change funds.

[30:12] Good evening, Mayor and Council, Sarah Thorson, accountant three for financials. Before you tonight is ordinance 4993 amending change funds, first reading. This ordinance will update city code to align with the current utilization of petty cash revolving change funds for the city. This ordinance will repeal authorization for the Ellensburg Animal Shelter Change Fund and the Ellensburg Racket and Recreation.

[30:39] creation center change fund that are no longer being utilized.

[30:43] It will also reduce the authorization for the library change fund from $300 to $238.

[30:50] The reduction for the library is related to $62 that was previously utilized for

[30:56] a change drawer at the Hall home center that is no longer being utilized.

[31:01] That $62 was surrendered by the library in 2024 and

[31:06] deposited into the Treasurer's Cash Bank account.

[31:10] In working with Josephine at the library, they will no longer need that account and so we're reducing it to match that.

[31:16] Thank you.

[31:18] Council questions of staff?

[31:21] I don't feel like you should tell me if my CTR and shift ticket done, right?

[31:27] Different world.

[31:30] Anybody in the audience?

[31:34] Council.

[31:36] I'll move to conduct first reading of ordinance 4993 amending

[31:40] Ellensburg City Code regarding change funds.

[31:43] Second.

[31:44] Motion second to conduct first reading of ordinance 4993 which would amend our change fund

[31:49] ordinance.

[31:51] Discussion?

[31:53] Hearing none.

[31:54] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[31:56] Aye.

[31:57] Aye.

[31:57] My tool vote aye opposed.

[32:00] That motion passes.

[32:01] And ordinance of the City Council of the City of Ellensburg, Washington, relating to

[32:04] Chapter 2.16, funds, and amending section 2.16.2360, and repealing sections 2.16.2280 and 2.16.2610 of the Ellensburg City Code.

[32:19] Okay, item 9c is proposed ordinance, which is the first reading, ordinance 4995, which would deal with traffic provisions.

[32:27] Page 126, there will be an opportunity for public comment.

[32:30] Good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of City Council, Josh Matheson, Assistant City Engineer in the City of Ellensburg Public Works Department.

[32:38] Before you tonight is the first reading of Ordinance 4995 with proposed revisions to Title 8, the traffic section of the Ellensburg City Code.

[32:49] The proposed ordinance reflects traffic code revision requests from staff at three different intersections.

[32:55] The first is to correct the two-way stop traffic code by removing the intersection of Chestnut Street with third avenue since this location is already correctly identified in the all-way stop code.

[33:09] The second revision is to convert fifth avenue and Chestnut Street from a two-way stop to an all-way stop intersection.

[33:17] A recently completed traffic level of service analysis with the city's comprehensive plan update identified this intersection as nearly failing and needing to be converted to an all way stop to maintain adopted service levels.

[33:35] This request will remove this intersection from the two way stop traffic code section and add it to the all way stop section.

[33:45] Finally, request to install a stop sign for southbound traffic on Chestnut Street at Umptanum Road.

[33:54] The location will be added to the stopping required at certain cross streets traffic code.

[34:00] This intersection is currently uncontrolled and would benefit from adding southbound stop control

[34:07] due to increased traffic in the vicinity to access residential developments further south.

[34:15] With that, staff recommends that Council consider first reading of the proposed ordinance revising these portions of the traffic code.

[34:24] Council, questions of staff?

[34:26] I just thank you and as noted in the report, I've been hearing as others have about the fifth avenue.

[34:33] I'm just not intersection for quite a while,

[34:35] so people say just do it like you do it for your time.

[34:38] It's perfect, so I'm getting there.

[34:41] So thank you.

[34:42] Any questions of staff?

[34:44] Is anybody in the audience who wishes to speak to this matter?

[34:48] Council.

[34:50] I move, Council, consider first reading

[34:53] of traffic code ordinance 4995.

[34:56] Second.

[34:57] We have a motion second to conduct first reading

[34:59] of ordinance 4995, which deals with the listed traffic code

[35:03] revisions. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[35:08] Aye. Aye. Aye.

[35:10] Two will vote aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion passes.

[35:13] An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Ellensburg, Washington relating to title 8 traffic

[35:18] and amending sections 8.36.40, 8.36.80, and 8.36.120 of the Ellensburg City Code.

[35:27] Okay item 9-D is resolution 2026-19, which would accept a donation from the Queen of Spades Garden Club.

[35:34] There will be an opportunity for public comment, this is page 149.

[36:11] All that for three slides.

[36:13] Brad Kays Park's Recreation Director from the City of Williamsburg, Gideven Council, Mr. Mayor.

[36:17] Before this evening is a resolution to accept a donation in the amount of $2,000 from the Queen of Spades Garden Club.

[36:24] for a beautification project at the entrance to the Rotary Park, and to approve the necessary budget adjustments associated with that donation.

[36:32] The Queens of Spades has a long history of supporting our department, whether it be downtown beautification projects or projects within city park facilities.

[36:40] This particular project is to enhance the entry into Rotary Park.

[36:45] We've actually already started some work with the Queens of Spades Club with some past donations that they've provided us to start the beautification

[36:54] of this area of the park.

[36:56] And so this gives you an idea of what the park entrance looked like back in 2023.

[37:01] And if you're familiar with the park, which I'm sure all of you are,

[37:05] when you first initially drive into the park, a lot of that is parking lot and kind of undeveloped area.

[37:09] What you see kind of often the distance developed is our small off leash dog park area that has some trees around it and some grass.

[37:16] And so we decided that as you enter into that park, we wanted to provide and

[37:20] give more of a true park feel as you're entering the park.

[37:24] And so we started the process of doing some development there.

[37:30] This photo illustrates the work that's been done already.

[37:34] So there's some trees that have been planted already, as well as some grass and some irrigation.

[37:39] So we want to expand and improve in this area with this generous donation from the Queens of Spades Garden Club.

[37:49] We will be purchasing a variety of trees and bushes and shrubs as well as the necessary irrigation to support that.

[37:58] All of the work will be done by our parks and recreation department and maintenance division staff.

[38:03] And so that gives you kind of the visual of the trees and the vegetation that will be purchasing with this money.

[38:11] So per Ellensburg City Code, Chapter 2.04, any donation in excess of $1,000 must be approved by Council.

[38:22] This donation will provide, as stated, the additional funding for the Parks and Recreation Department to do this work.

[38:27] The resolution also authorizes the necessary budget adjustments to these funds.

[38:32] And so with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that the Council may have.

[38:36] questions of staff.

[38:41] Is there

[38:41] anything going to be in that circle?

[38:44] Not planned right now, no.

[38:46] Because it's hard to get irrigation.

[38:48] Yeah, it is hard to get it.

[38:49] We do have a planter in that area that has flowers in it.

[38:53] So we do water that.

[38:54] It was you could kind of see it.

[38:57] On the.

[39:02] Oh, I guess you can't see it.

[39:04] It's just kind of off screen,

[39:05] But we do have one of the old actually one of the old round planners from downtown that we surplus

[39:09] We we had some extra down to city shop and so we put one in that location

[39:13] And our new transit stop is

[39:16] It's to the it's to the left of this photo the correct as a function of the L or the entrance

[39:20] I think

[39:22] The landscaping in the transit stop. I think are nice enhancements

[39:26] Is there not part of this but is there a plan for the post? They look like mallards, but they're just like

[39:32] Whatever their post is that for the rustic look are we going to do something with that the the purpose behind that is to keep people from jumping the curb

[39:40] Yeah, I get the idea of the purpose, but I mean visually is that what we want. I mean yes, okay

[39:46] Rustic will just say

[39:48] Well, and long-term there's actually

[39:50] A parking area that's that's to the north side of the of the off-leash area as well

[39:57] So you can leash up the dogs there too when you go in the park or your horse whatever you want to do it's good perfect

[40:05] Anybody in the audience wish to speak to this issue?

[40:10] Council

[40:14] I'll move to adopt resolution 2026 19 accepting the donation of

[40:19] $2,000 from the Queen of Spades

[40:21] Garden Club for a beautification project at the entrance of Rotary Park and approve the necessary budget adjustments

[40:28] Second.

[40:29] Motion second to adopt resolution 2026-19, which accepts the $2,000 donation for the entrance

[40:35] to a road report from the Queen of Spades and authorizes budget adjustments discussion.

[40:40] I would just say thank you to the Queen of Spades.

[40:42] Yes.

[40:43] The next one.

[40:43] Thank you very much.

[40:45] Appreciate your donation.

[40:46] When will that project start?

[40:48] We'll start on the fall.

[40:50] Okay.

[40:52] Any further discussion?

[40:54] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[40:56] Aye.

[40:57] Aye.

[40:57] I too will, when I opposed, that motion passes.

[41:01] Thank you.

[41:02] Item 11A, page 151, this is a lodging tax advisory committee funding recommendation for the Ellensburg Recreation Center.

[41:10] Also known as the field house, there will be an opportunity for public comment.

[41:19] Good evening, Council.

[41:20] Kelly Vandenberg, arts and economic development manager, speaking with you again this evening regarding the Ellensburg lodging tax recommendation to support the Ellensburg Recreational Center.

[41:31] otherwise known as the Field House.

[41:34] The Ellen's Book Lodging Tax Committee believes strongly in this project, the Ellen's Book Recreational Center project.

[41:40] It is a direct investment into lodging tax future funding opportunities with the growth of recreational tourism throughout the state and the nation.

[41:49] This investment in the facility aligns with the intended use of lodging tax funds by supporting tourism related activities and facilities that have potential to generate overnight stay.

[42:01] and increased visitor spending in local economy.

[42:05] Approval of this motion would authorize the use of lodging tax funds consistent with LTAC recommendation and would support the city's broader goals related to tourism promotion, economic development, recreation and community vitality.

[42:19] Recreational tourism, we will get to later on this evening as part of the economic development chapter in the comp plan is recognized as

[42:28] a emerging market in tourism and a fast-growing one. So it would be wonderful if Council would

[42:39] recommend this as the staff has written in the staff report.

[42:44] Council, questions of staff.

[42:48] Anybody in the audience wish to comment or question?

[42:52] Council.

[42:53] Council.

[42:56] Mr. Mayor, I move to approve lodging tax advisory committee funding recommendation to

[43:02] award $1 million of lodging tax funds in 2028 for capital cost and dedicate $100,000 per

[43:11] year for three years from 2029 to 2031 to support operational cost of the Ellensburg Recreation

[43:19] Center.

[43:19] Second.

[43:21] Second.

[43:22] Second to approve the LTEx funding recommendation for $1 million in lodging tax funds in 2028 for capital costs.

[43:31] And it's subsequently $100,000 per year for 2029 to 31, to support operational costs at the Ellensburg Recreation Center discussion.

[43:40] Just appreciate the lodging tax committees consideration of this.

[43:45] Yeah, as the lodging text, based on it was unanimous, I mean it wasn't even a question on, so it's a very good presentation.

[43:55] I wanted to thank the committee for that, and I think it's very, if you look at it, it's a very thoughtful way to allocate the funds, and I also,

[44:02] please to see the fund balance both before and after, so I think it's a very responsible use of our resources, our community's resources, so thank you for their discussion.

[44:13] Here we none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

[44:16] Aye.

[44:17] The tool vote I opposed.

[44:19] That motion passes.

[44:20] Thank you.

[44:22] Item 11B, page 154.

[44:24] This is a potential amendment, professional services agreement, between the City of Ellensburg and the Ellensburg Downtown Association.

[44:31] This is your night.

[44:33] We need to see warmer.

[44:34] Do I need to introduce myself again?

[44:37] Kelly Vandenberg, arts and economic development manager with the City of Ellensburg, Good evening, Council.

[44:42] We are here, again this evening, to make a suggested motion to approve amendment 82758-01 to the professional services agreement between the City of Ellensburg and the Ellensburg Downtown Association as presented.

[44:58] or...

[45:00] Substantially similar form and authorize the city's manager to assign the amendment. The EDA has been a city partner in downtown beautification for many years. We continue that partnership with the latest beautification project with historic photo wraps and the photos will highlight historic downtown buildings, businesses, events, central Washington University historic photos and our rodeo and ranching farming heritage throughout our community.

[45:29] the photos will be done in CPF, fast lane signs will be doing the wraps and we think this is

[45:35] an incredible way to bring our historic culture and preserve our historic nature within the

[45:42] downtown as well as utilize our larger capacity wind resistant trash cans.

[45:51] And with that, I would happily suggest and recommend for council improvement of amendment 827501.

[46:02] Oh, do I want to talk? Yes, Heidi. On the dias you will find a draft sales sheet that

[46:10] the EDA plans on using also in this format or in a very similar format so that you get

[46:19] a look at what the intent is behind this project. This project does have quite a bit of community

[46:26] support.

[46:30] So I have a question. We

[46:34] need to make a motion first. Go ahead. Will the

[46:38] reps cover the whole all four sides or just one side? All four sides.

[46:44] And so on the

[46:47] inside pages of this you have other verbiage options. Where would those go? So you'll

[46:54] see also in there they'll be on the bottom of the can. So the template of the can

[47:00] itself will always be photograph and then the bottom space for either verbiage and or the name

[47:08] of a family or an organization and or the businesses logo. So it'd be at the bottom but you could

[47:15] also, it's not, it doesn't replace the family name or whatever it just adds, it's additional. Okay.

[47:25] It's going to ask, so EDA is managing the recruitment and the sponsorship.

[47:32] Correct.

[47:33] Two questions, do we know if it's, is it first come for a service sort of thing?

[47:39] No, no, it is, the program is designed for fundraisers for the EDA as well as the sponsorship opportunity for downtown businesses and or families throughout the community.

[47:51] It's 250 per side or 750 for a whole trash can.

[47:56] So, and the way the selection happens is the business or the organization or the individual will be able to select from a topic whether it's historic downtown buildings,

[48:09] rodeo or historic CW. And then the EDA subcommittee will actually select the photos.

[48:17] So, there's some checks and balances in there.

[48:19] to do the sponsors get to choose their can, or is it up to the selection committee, okay?

[48:24] So a business may want a can right by their business, but may or may not happen.

[48:29] What's the timeline for getting these wrapped?

[48:31] They would like to start and have at least some done for the places conference in October.

[48:38] Oh, nice.

[48:40] I think these are great, so yeah, it's a great idea.

[48:43] I told my big goal for your can, if you'd talk to one.

[48:45] Do we call these the big dumper cans now?

[48:48] Is that okay?

[48:50] They've been called many things.

[48:52] I think the foot pedal takes some getting used to.

[48:55] People look at it and can't quite figure it out.

[48:57] They do. When we've selected, when we finalized on this style of can,

[49:02] the idea was always to be able to wrap the cans.

[49:05] Yeah.

[49:07] And I can't think of a better way to do that than with the history of our community.

[49:13] Well, you could put pictures of City Council members on.

[49:15] I mean, well, there is that, David. I do stand corrected.

[49:17] I stand corrected, you're right.

[49:20] There are other options. There are other options.

[49:24] That might be a little more than 750.

[49:26] Yeah, I think that will be a little harder, I think, yeah.

[49:29] Thank you.

[49:30] Any further questions? Anybody in the audience?

[49:33] Just to speak.

[49:35] Okay, Council.

[49:38] Well, Mr. Mayor, I move the approval of Amendment A2758-01

[49:43] one, to the professional service agreement between the City of Ellensberg and the Ellensberg

[49:47] Downtown Association, EDA, as presented or in substantially similar form, and authorize

[49:54] the city manager to sign the amendment.

[49:57] Second.

[49:58] Motion second to approve the amendment 275801, to the professional services agreement between

[50:03] the city and the EDA, as presented, and authorize the city manager to sign the amendment.

[50:10] I have a statement, discussion.

[50:12] Perry Nen, all of the favorites.

[50:13] Signify by saying aye.

[50:15] Aye.

[50:16] Aye.

[50:17] Aye.

[50:19] Aye.

[50:19] Thank you.

[50:21] Item 11C is second quarter of 2026 financial statement and investment reports.

[50:26] There will be an opportunity for public comment.

[50:27] This is page 167.

[50:29] I'm

[50:49] sufficient.

[50:49] Good job.

[50:50] May I get it?

[50:51] All right.

[50:52] Almost.

[50:53] He's coming in.

[50:55] Get back off.

[50:58] You doubted me.

[51:00] You like a shark?

[51:00] You know it?

[51:01] It's circling.

[51:04] Good evening, Council Mayor.

[51:05] Early at Jericho Pasco Finance Director for the City of Elmford.

[51:09] Beginning on page 170 of your genders report are the quarter to 2026 financial status and investment reports for the period ending March 31st of 2026.

[51:21] You're going to try to speed this up today.

[51:23] Not a lot has changed from first quarter to second quarter and it's still very difficult to make a lot of projections when you're early in second quarter.

[51:30] So I'm not going to go through every chart and every description here.

[51:34] I'm just going to hit some of the major top points today.

[51:40] So I think if we go ahead and jump to 171 of which would be tabled to, of the report

[51:51] there just to note that so far for our year-to-date revenue remitted from this state of Washington

[51:59] in sales tax activity.

[52:00] We are up 7% compared to second quarter of 2025.

[52:05] Majority of that is due to actual sales tax,

[52:08] which I'll talk about a little bit more here in table five.

[52:17] These other charts that I'm skipping

[52:19] are actual projections to budget.

[52:21] So since we adjust budget a year and it isn't as valuable.

[52:31] Looking at table fairly private here,

[52:33] we have year-to-date sales tax activity.

[52:35] So, as you can see, sales tax compared to second quarter is up that 9.19% between in mind, again, that regular retail trade is down 0.3%.

[52:48] Quarter two is actually up 33.5% compared to quarter two of 2024.

[52:55] So it's continued to go up.

[52:57] It's again due to a big project that we have here in town.

[53:01] We were under the impression that the professional scientific and tech service purchases for that project is about near the end of those purchases, but we will continue to see some construction payments for that for a while.

[53:16] The construction again had the highest dollar increase with the real estate and rental lease having the highest percentage increase.

[53:22] The retail trade continues to decline and is down 0.3% from Q2 2025 and down 2.4% from Q2 2024.

[53:34] If I went ahead and took out the construction sales tax, the sales tax would actually be

[53:41] up less than 0.1% over 2025, so it is all due to construction.

[53:47] And again, these revenues are from cells for November 2025 through April of 2026.

[53:56] Looking at the utility tax, which is another big portion of our taxes that we receive.

[54:01] We are actually down 4.56% from 2026, but I spoke about it last year, each quarter, and

[54:08] I'll probably talk about it through this year until it runs out.

[54:13] But that is due to a large PIF plant investment fees that were paid for it first quarter of 2025.

[54:22] A lot of people put in for those building permits and stuff prior to some building code changes.

[54:26] And so we knew it was going to skew our numbers for the next two years.

[54:30] So we really wouldn't be down in the utility taxes if it wasn't for that excess revenue that we received in first quarter of 2025.

[54:40] So just for quick, the water, that's not a consumption drop because people are following their plea.

[54:47] No, no, no, I don't know if you'll get a better sense.

[54:50] I tried that one, it didn't work.

[54:52] Not even close.

[54:53] Second court, this one's only through June.

[54:55] That's true, yeah, but not expecting more.

[54:57] Table 7, so General Fund Revenue's expenditures, budget to actual, the big takeaway here is that in the budget for the year,

[55:05] We were budgeting to use about 3.5 million and fund balance.

[55:09] The projection is to use just under or just over 150,000 of fund balance due to some

[55:16] excess revenue that we're receiving a lot of it due to under the miscellaneous column

[55:21] which would be interest earned and some excess taxes that we're receiving and then of course

[55:25] we always work hard to underspend our budget and we're projected to underspend the budget

[55:31] by about 2.3 million.

[55:32] And

[55:38] then going on to Table 9, the Citywide Report, this shows that the city's brought in

[55:43] an approximately 14 million more than it spent through quarter two of 2026, sorry, of this

[55:51] revenue over expenditures, 10.25 million of that is attributable to the utility and

[55:56] internal service funds.

[55:58] The general fund, including the managerial funds which are shown in blue, there recorded a

[56:03] net gain of 472,000.

[56:06] However, majority of this is attributed to the $407,000

[56:10] animal shelter donation that we received in quarter two.

[56:19] And then jumping to investments at the end of Q2,

[56:22] we had about 93.5 million invested of that.

[56:27] We had around 70.4 million in the LGIP.

[56:30] The LGIP rate is still holding strong.

[56:33] it was about 3.7 percent at the end of Q2. The feds had continued to talk about some possible

[56:41] rate increases, but with numbers that came in most recently, we're probably not going to see

[56:46] interest rate increase until maybe quarter four now, but we're not going to be seeing any

[56:52] decreases, so these are probably going to hold strong. We also continued to, in second quarter,

[56:59] reinvest some of the investments that matured, and we're able to get around 3.75 for some

[57:07] five-year investments. So when rates, and if they do drop, LGIP drops, we have something

[57:14] locked in at about a higher rate in our portfolio. Overall, staff recommends that

[57:19] council accept the report as presented, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[57:23] Questions?

[57:24] Questions yourself?

[57:25] Questions.

[57:26] So,

[57:29] on your table, well, I guess it's on the page with table six, so you said that the

[57:37] if you take out construction, sales taxes up just like 0.1%.

[57:44] So our economy is essentially stagnant, and can you explain the role of inflation?

[57:51] I'm spending more at the grocery store, so are people spending less on other things?

[58:00] I mean, people are typically buying what they have to and spending less on other non-necessity items.

[58:07] And that's why we're really seeing a segment really in the retail cell, which is where we typically are able to gauge better our actual local economy.

[58:17] because those necessities that we need, a lot of them are still point of delivery.

[58:22] A lot of them are still being ordered off of Amazon and things like that are the locally grocery stores.

[58:26] But it's the vehicles and it's the other things like that that people tend to put a hold on.

[58:31] I am surprised that accommodation and food services is still upward is, but a lot of that,

[58:36] again, is probably increase in prices.

[58:39] It's not that people are able to are getting more.

[58:42] It's just that things are costing more and

[58:45] And keeping in mind that this is December or November through April, so we still, we're behind in the leg of the trend there that we expect to continue to see in some of those.

[58:55] So on the retail trade, so essentially people are spending about the same, they're just getting less across the board, whether it's a tariff, impact or inflation or other things.

[59:08] And that's just what we're stuck with, we don't control that.

[59:11] And they may choose to buy food over clothes, you know, that people have about the same

[59:17] amount of money. They're just not, they're spending all the money that they have,

[59:21] but they're not getting as much.

[59:23] And I would encourage you. It's maybe not necessarily stagnant, but it could be also

[59:28] stable, so it's just not growing stable, but negative, I guess.

[59:32] And keeping in mind that other things that aren't, that people don't pay sales tax on are

[59:37] continuing to go up, utilities, you know, is a great example of that, you know, that

[59:44] comes out of people's everyday pockets and they have to decrease their their spending

[59:48] sometimes elsewhere too.

[59:50] Yeah.

[59:51] Okay.

[59:53] Any further questions?

[59:55] Anybody in the audience?

[59:55] Wish to speak.

[59:57] Coleman.

[59:58] one.

[1:00:02] Three minutes, same rules.

[1:00:08] William Coleman, resident of Kittitas, I just want to confirm what she said. I've been a manager on Main Street for 20 years. Everything is costing us more, but inflation has not trickled down into local paychecks. People are not spending like these two. It's bad. And it's not just us. I hear it from all over the local business community. Thanks. Thank you. Anybody else?

[1:00:33] Okay. Council will give you a second quarter financial status.

[1:00:38] Mr. Mayor, I move to accept the second quarter of 2026 financial status and investment

[1:00:44] reports as presented.

[1:00:46] Second.

[1:00:47] Motion second to accept the second quarter of 2026 financial status and investment reports

[1:00:51] as presented in discussion.

[1:00:54] Here you none.

[1:00:55] All those in favor signify by saying aye.

[1:00:58] Aye.

[1:00:58] Hi.

[1:00:59] Hi, Phil, will I oppose?

[1:01:01] Motion passes.

[1:01:02] Item 11D page 182 in the packet.

[1:01:08] This is comprehensive plan chapter review economic development.

[1:01:12] Hello.

[1:01:13] This is the Kelly show.

[1:01:16] I can't get rid of me.

[1:01:19] Kelly Bandenberg, arts and economic development manager

[1:01:22] with the City of Ellensburg.

[1:01:25] And final item before you tonight from me, anyway,

[1:01:28] is the discussion of Chapter 8 of the comp plan, which is the economic development chapter.

[1:01:36] And I want to start by saying in the three years that I have been with the City of

[1:01:41] Ellensburg, I was most surprised by how much myself included did not realize what the

[1:01:49] city's role in economic development was.

[1:01:52] And I wanted Chapter 8 to be an educational, practical, future-facing

[1:01:58] that reflected the groundwork being done to build opportunities for the future of

[1:02:03] Ellensburg.

[1:02:04] What are our city's opportunities?

[1:02:07] What are some of the impacts of those opportunities and challenges that we need to consider with those opportunities?

[1:02:12] And what does this look like for Ellensburg's future?

[1:02:17] And in the staff report, I listed out some of the changes where content was revised,

[1:02:25] where it was refreshed and where it was new.

[1:02:28] But I really want to focus on the seven goals that we have listed in this chapter.

[1:02:34] The first goal being regional collaboration and economic leadership, excuse me, economic leadership.

[1:02:41] And we would strengthen the existing partnerships and

[1:02:45] expand those existing partnerships regionally to create a strong safety net of economic development

[1:02:53] throughout the county with Ellensburg being the economic development seat of that county.

[1:02:59] Two is economic resilience and diversification.

[1:03:03] As we've heard this evening, people are struggling and we need to develop diversification within our economic strategies so

[1:03:14] that we can create a resilient and diversified retail business trade and

[1:03:21] and expand those existing businesses and support our existing businesses.

[1:03:26] Goal three is workforce and talent development, and that's creating a strong and

[1:03:31] capable, innovative workforce that can rise to some of the challenges that are ahead of us in our workforce.

[1:03:39] Goal four is our business development and entrepreneurship, and

[1:03:43] that's really where we focus on supporting and expanding those existing businesses,

[1:03:48] while creating opportunities for new businesses to come into the community.

[1:03:54] Number five, infrastructure and economic competitiveness.

[1:03:58] Dedicating resources to long-term infrastructure planning that will support innovation in our future.

[1:04:06] Number six, is tourism, creative economy, and quality of place.

[1:04:11] We are incredibly fortunate to have an incredible quality of life in our community

[1:04:17] do to our heritage, our culture, and the people that call this place home.

[1:04:24] Strengthening that, building community pride while growing the economy.

[1:04:28] And number seven is commercial industrial and logistics development,

[1:04:33] leaning into and driving the logistical diversification and

[1:04:37] shape it for what Ellen's bird needs rather than waiting for it to shape Ellen's bird.

[1:04:43] So those are the goals as we have laid out in chapter 8, and I really wanted to, rather than give a presentation and go through kind of line by line, I wanted to open tonight up for questions from council for the chapter because this is really really more for discussion and for information.

[1:05:06] There's no action here. This is really intended to be the discussion between the community

[1:05:13] and Council on the comprehensive plan. So I'll open it up to questions from Council

[1:05:19] for Staff, and then we'll do a more round-robin open.

[1:05:24] I have a question. So, when we talk about measuring the different sectors of the economy,

[1:05:39] I mean, it seems like a lot of that is based on employment, and for a few of the sectors,

[1:05:49] like the egg sector, there's a total value in the narrative.

[1:05:57] I would love to see a chart, a graph that has that total value for each of the sectors.

[1:06:07] Okay, just because employment is important, but I think it, in terms of the impact on the

[1:06:24] community, maybe the dollars, is also important.

[1:06:29] And I don't know that you're going to be able to do that because of consistent, there's

[1:06:35] It's not a consistent data source.

[1:06:38] We can give it a shot though.

[1:06:41] Yeah, we can take a look at that and I appreciate that.

[1:06:46] And maybe, you know, tax revenue is a surrogate,

[1:06:51] but not really.

[1:06:52] I mean, the egg industry and their millions of dollars

[1:06:55] versus the university and, you know,

[1:07:00] they're mostly payroll versus, anyway,

[1:07:03] it's kind of apples and oranges,

[1:07:06] that it would be helpful.

[1:07:10] Anybody else?

[1:07:11] I just had a quick question on page 8181 of the plan 193 of our packet.

[1:07:19] Which speech, David?

[1:07:20] I'm sorry, graphic, the figure 8-8, the labor force participation

[1:07:24] 193 of our packet.

[1:07:25] 193 of the packet, I'm sorry.

[1:07:27] Is there something weird going on with the end of the graph?

[1:07:30] 2025, the peak and the decline.

[1:07:33] It just looked like a graphing error to me,

[1:07:35] and it didn't match the text when it talked about peak total workers.

[1:07:38] Oh, wait, I'm sorry. I did. 28. I missed. I'm sorry. I transpose that. Other is 25. Okay. So we have a peak. But what happened? What did we have a real decline? Or did it just fall off the end of the earth? Are you talking about figure eight, 11 or figure eight, 12, I was struck by the vertical up and down. I get the up. If that's really a peak, but didn't just go away. What was happening in April of 2025, 10 year peak? Yeah. I mean, that's another

[1:08:07] question, I didn't quite know what happened exactly.

[1:08:11] That whole last sentence and then the end of the graph looks a little suspect unless there's something I'm not seeing.

[1:08:22] So that was just a question for.

[1:08:24] Well, I will talk to Andrew and see if he has an explanation for the peak other than if there's a specific logical reason for that.

[1:08:37] One of the things I can think about is, we've got more construction going on in 2025 as well.

[1:08:47] So I'll find out specifically, see if we can't dig into why that peak is there specifically.

[1:08:53] We're talking about a net increase of almost 6,000 workers in one year, which seems unusual even for a large construction project.

[1:09:00] So yeah, just a question.

[1:09:02] That's a good question. Thank you.

[1:09:05] Any further questions?

[1:09:06] And then the drop.

[1:09:07] And then the drop.

[1:09:08] It was a concertion.

[1:09:09] I could see the drop.

[1:09:11] But it's not the, you know,

[1:09:12] it's not the east wing of the White House.

[1:09:14] You know, it's some of the other questions.

[1:09:17] I don't have a question, but I was struck by your paragraph on retail leakage,

[1:09:25] especially in light of the report that we just heard from Jericho.

[1:09:29] Yeah. 9,000 Ellen's Park residents are nearly half the population is shopping at shopping

[1:09:37] centers outside the city on average about once a month.

[1:09:42] Yeah.

[1:09:43] So, there's a lot of our money is going to Costco and Winco.

[1:09:49] Yeah.

[1:09:51] Yeah.

[1:09:51] Oh.

[1:09:52] And I just have to say that's kind of creepy that someone is following my phone around.

[1:09:58] Wow.

[1:09:58] Placer AI is a little creepy.

[1:10:00] I was, yeah, I wondered how you found all that data, I mean.

[1:10:04] Yeah, that's creepy.

[1:10:07] I don't like that.

[1:10:08] So it's on the...

[1:10:10] I'll leave my phone.

[1:10:11] Oh my god.

[1:10:12] Yeah, your car will tell where you are.

[1:10:15] Yeah, it is interesting to see that union gap in particular

[1:10:20] with Costco, Winco, the mall there.

[1:10:24] that does tend to be, and it's less the mall than Costco and Winco in particular.

[1:10:33] It's groceries and necessities, so we need to attract a Winco.

[1:10:42] I don't want to chuckle that one.

[1:10:45] I don't want to tip your hand yet.

[1:10:49] I'm familiar with the concept and the term I've seen it applied in lots of different ways.

[1:10:56] Aside from the union gap examples, when we have a large amount of online shopping to the various big boxes in the sky in the cloud,

[1:11:07] Is that counted in the leakage as well?

[1:11:11] No, not in this report, specifically, because it's through Creepy Place or AI.

[1:11:17] So it's still shopping outside the community, so I mean, I guess it's not technically

[1:11:22] leakage, but it looks suspiciously like leakage.

[1:11:26] And just to remind you of that, we have a destination-based sales tax.

[1:11:30] That's true, that's true.

[1:11:31] So it's still, yeah, we're still getting benefit from that.

[1:11:34] not.

[1:11:37] You're also allowed when you're at Costco to say you're zip code and they're supposed

[1:11:41] to apply the sales tax.

[1:11:43] Is that kind of like Amazon's file?

[1:11:46] No, it's like if you buy a car for some reason outside the community, I don't, but if you

[1:11:50] did, you tell them what your zip code is and the sales tax is supposed to apply here.

[1:11:55] If you bother to tell them if they don't ask then it goes to the local community.

[1:11:59] It feels like that needs to be an awareness campaign.

[1:12:01] Yeah, that education yeah, I tell them yeah, they're supposed and they're supposed to know you just tell them

[1:12:09] Do we know they actually do that though?

[1:12:12] Do they actually do that though?

[1:12:14] I don't know, but I tell them where I'm from

[1:12:20] One more question so when you're talking about health care

[1:12:26] It's mostly KVH, which is fine, but our assisted living and nursing care facilities also considered health care.

[1:12:36] And there seems like a significant employer and piece of that health care puzzle.

[1:12:44] I think it is included in that overall, which makes health care one of the, if you go back to our employers,

[1:12:50] We have an employment list.

[1:12:56] It's, it's, I did not see it in the narrative of any mention of it.

[1:13:01] There are two sections to assisted living.

[1:13:04] One has no health care support to it, and the other has in nursing homes.

[1:13:09] Skilled nursing facilities are definitely health care.

[1:13:11] So the top floor on the assisted living facilities is not health care.

[1:13:15] There are apartments with a meal service.

[1:13:17] But on, well, page 186 for me, but figure 815, health care and social assistance is the second largest

[1:13:28] employment by industry sector.

[1:13:32] And you're saying nursing care is included in that?

[1:13:35] I will double check, but yes, I would assume it is.

[1:13:40] Let me make a note of that.

[1:13:41] Yeah,

[1:13:45] it also relates to the demographic information and why Ellensburg has older people than maybe the county does, I think.

[1:14:04] I mean, you moved into town to your assisted living, and or closer to the hospital, and

[1:14:13] right, yeah, closer to services.

[1:14:21] Okay, any further questions to staff?

[1:14:24] You've been in the audience wish to speak to the economic development chapter of the Comprehensive

[1:14:29] Plan?

[1:14:33] Nobody online?

[1:14:34] Okay, this was informational only.

[1:14:36] Thank you. We'll move to I

[1:14:45] was wrong the sales tax. I'm just telling them for no reason.

[1:14:49] Apparently you got to have them deliver it. Somebody was listening. No, I looked it up.

[1:14:55] I don't know what you're looking at.

[1:14:56] But beyond the...

[1:15:00] Collecting the sales tax, we're missing the brick and mortar and the jobs and the,

[1:15:09] you know, people who sponsor are little league and all that.

[1:15:14] I guess I, I would, I would like to revisit if you could come up for a quick, yes, please.

[1:15:27] This is not a comment on a nursing home, you know, making a profit of people who need their services.

[1:15:34] But our community has a significant deficit in terms of the number of beds available in the nursing, skilled nursing facilities.

[1:15:44] And from an economic development standpoint, I know those beds cost between $8,000 and $12,000 a month.

[1:15:51] That's a lot of economic activity, so I don't know if there's a way to encourage that kind of investment.

[1:15:59] But I do know that we transfer a lot of people out of our community for nursing care and their families then don't visit them.

[1:16:08] So it's not just the economic loss. It's hard to visit somebody in Yakima that it is here.

[1:16:14] Well, and in the Bottle community they have catered to nursing home care on many, many different levels.

[1:16:24] there's several facilities very close to the downtown region, and it has become a part

[1:16:34] of their economic story, economic development, and economic growth story is to take that.

[1:16:40] It's not a significant strain on infrastructure, it's making sure to find space.

[1:16:47] Okay, so that's absolutely something that we could look at recruiting developers and businesses.

[1:16:57] The need is absolutely there.

[1:16:58] Yeah, they're putting three people in a room, virtually every room, there's no capacity.

[1:17:06] Is that eight to 12,000 a bed per month?

[1:17:08] Is that anywhere close to what Medicare were in versus?

[1:17:11] So, that's not-

[1:17:13] I have to take a percentage of Medicare patients in the school.

[1:17:15] There's still a small percentage I assume.

[1:17:17] I don't know what that percentage is.

[1:17:19] It's a small percentage.

[1:17:20] It's caring for elderly in a lot of communities has become a very big business and

[1:17:28] not necessarily a caring business.

[1:17:31] And so there has to be some ethical conversations, I think, around what we want to recruit to

[1:17:38] Ellensburg in that, with that in mind.

[1:17:43] Thank you.

[1:17:46] Okay, now we move on to item 11E, which is the comprehensive plan periodic update,

[1:17:51] dealing with land development code amendments.

[1:17:54] And this is page 231.

[1:17:56] There will be an opportunity for public comment.

[1:18:16] Thank you for that, sorry.

[1:18:17] Thank you, Mayor Counsel.

[1:18:18] Mark Rudd, Associate Planner with Community Development Departments.

[1:18:22] I'm going to just jump right in because it is starting to get late.

[1:18:24] So, staff, community development farmative started drafting revisions to Onesburg City Code Title 15, the land development code.

[1:18:31] You'll notice there was no attachment to this item is just for discussion to give a preliminary overview of some of the things we're looking to incorporate largely in response to some changes to state law.

[1:18:42] As part of the Growth Management Act under which we're fully planning jurisdiction, our local regulations have to adopt adequate provisions to implement planned goals and policies,

[1:18:53] these, particularly around housing, just as a reminder, our 2046 growth estimates put us at needing a roughly 3000 dwellings over that 20 year period.

[1:19:03] So our local regulations have to also then comply with the Growth Management Act and a number of related statutes, particularly with regard to timing of when we adopt those things.

[1:19:12] Most of those are preemptory laws under laws that apply to the code, city, authorities, 35A of the RCW.

[1:19:21] And there's been numerous substantive legislation both in the GMA and other sections of statutes since our last plan adoption.

[1:19:28] That means that there was a lot of work for us to do in order to make sure that we're conforming both with the act as well as the goals and policies that we have drafted in you guys have had previews of over the past couple of months.

[1:19:40] Just a reminder at the types of housing that we're really looking forward to, this shouldn't be new to you guys, but we're really looking for the largest area in those lower non permanent

[1:19:49] permanent support of housing categories, up to 50% AMI is kind of the largest income bands.

[1:19:57] And we are required to actively plan for the supply of housing at these income bands

[1:20:03] and adopt regulations that would support that level of housing.

[1:20:08] So there's a number of things that we have been looking to incorporate as part of this.

[1:20:12] This was included in the Environmental Impact Statement and

[1:20:17] elements of this have been shown in the land use section of the chapter.

[1:20:22] This is just a visual way of putting it together.

[1:20:25] So I'll highlight some of these for you.

[1:20:27] One that I believe you folks have discussed a number of times is that combining the residential suburban and

[1:20:32] residential low to effectively then repeal the RS zone to have a single lower density residential zone.

[1:20:40] and to change, to create a minimum density requirement for that combined zone.

[1:20:48] Currently, the RS zone, which is the lowest density of the two,

[1:20:50] does not have a minimum density requirement.

[1:20:53] And in the RL zone, there's a minimum density of six.

[1:20:56] So it would be kind of splitting the difference.

[1:20:58] Well, you can actually split a zero, but I think you understand.

[1:21:00] My meaning, the maximum density that is permitted in the RL zone is currently eight.

[1:21:05] We would increase that to 12.

[1:21:07] The main reason for that would be to incentivize an encouraged development of things like townhomes and duplexes, which under the strictest literal reading of our code, are very infeasable to develop with the amount of lot size that you would need to plat a townhome lot, or the amount of undeveloped lot space that would end up with a smaller duplex structure as well.

[1:21:30] A couple of other pieces, we'd be looking at doing a number of targeted re-zones around

[1:21:36] the city as well.

[1:21:37] This was part of the land capacity analysis for vacant and underutilized properties.

[1:21:41] And so these targeted re-zones can help us really move the needle to hitting these housing

[1:21:47] targets and getting toward that capacity.

[1:21:50] So some specific areas to highlight what's commonly called the canal's property or the

[1:21:55] majority of it down at the southern end of town, that would be re-zoned to neighborhood

[1:22:01] center mixed use, which, as it sounds like, is a neighborhood-centric mixed use category

[1:22:07] that's really more tailored toward medium to higher density residential mixed uses, either

[1:22:15] within a development or across a larger project site, as well as kind of neighborhood compatible

[1:22:20] commercial uses as well.

[1:22:21] And that similar zoning would happen with some areas that are currently zoned residential suburban on West Helena as well as on North airport road.

[1:22:30] And again, these were identified as undeveloped properties that could potentially have these neighborhood compatible commercial mixed use and moderately higher density residential than is currently permitted by their zones.

[1:22:44] A couple of other areas to highlight along West University, there are a number of properties that immediately border West University that are currently zoned commercial highway.

[1:22:54] The key distinction that that has from some of our other commercial zones is it does not permit residential uses by rights.

[1:23:00] It requires a conditionally use permit for uses in there.

[1:23:05] We would propose rezoning that to central commercial two.

[1:23:08] that would permit both, again, mixed uses,

[1:23:12] some potentially broader diversity of some commercial uses.

[1:23:17] Again, mixed use on-site or part of a wider project,

[1:23:19] as well as residential by-right,

[1:23:20] including at the ground level.

[1:23:23] And then finally, further along West University,

[1:23:25] some areas that are primarily zoned,

[1:23:28] commercial highway would be re-zoned

[1:23:30] to regional center mixed use.

[1:23:32] That is a higher intensity than the neighborhood center mixed use.

[1:23:35] There is a, I believe a minimum density requirement there,

[1:23:38] and it's really tailored toward higher density residential projects, as well as, again, mixed uses either within a single structure or across a project site.

[1:23:47] I'm happy to address any of these, please feel free to stop, this is a discussion, I'll make it up.

[1:23:52] I have a question on the minimum in any zone, I guess, if there's a minimum density, so if the rule is three units per acre,

[1:24:05] I own an acre and I just want to build one house, can I do that or is that apply when someone's subdividing or just under our current code?

[1:24:20] It reads that it's for the RS and RL zones only, really just for the RL zone, because it's the only one with a minimum.

[1:24:28] But it states that the minimum density requirement only applies to subdivisions that are greater than one acre in size.

[1:24:36] Okay, we were proposing to remove that as an addition to these that were already incorporated into the analysis.

[1:24:43] So that, yes, if a project were to come in that wanted to do the single house on one acre under the most literal interpretation, we may not be able to do that.

[1:24:52] I would need to chat about what the full implications of a project like that would be, but yeah, we would potentially make that change, but again, these are discussion points, and if the goal here is if any of this feels too far afield, then we can dial this back at this point because we are still on a working draft basis for a lot of changes.

[1:25:17] just sort of that you're saying that it's only when you

[1:25:20] would subdivide.

[1:25:21] That is what our current code states.

[1:25:23] Currently, the proposal is to eliminate the exception,

[1:25:26] right, so it would apply to any single law.

[1:25:29] Correct.

[1:25:29] And for just demonstrative purposes, not to get

[1:25:32] two in the weeds for this, but another one of the proposals

[1:25:35] that you'll find on page 233 would be to permit duplexes

[1:25:38] as an as of right use on any law.

[1:25:42] So we would not have a density kind of calculation for that.

[1:25:46] So, that kind of begs the question for if a single-family home and a duplex are both permitted.

[1:25:53] How do you then run the density calculation at the time of subdivision when it could be six units across?

[1:25:59] So, there's a couple of kind of muddy issues to potentially get into in terms of what projects we actually do the density calculations.

[1:26:08] On, I personally haven't really seen it on a subdivision type basis because there's almost a presupposition that the only thing

[1:26:16] that will be developed as a single family home project for a subdivision when potentially with some of the other changes were proposing there would be the opportunity for mixed housing across a subdivision type development so some of the smaller plexes built in with single family homes and depending on the zone you're in calculations could get really fun if we're trying to apply plat notes for the density restrictions on a lot by lot basis or prescribe that in advance.

[1:26:46] I guess just for myself I would, I'm fine with having the minimum density applying to subdivisions, I would hesitate to tell someone who walks in and wants to build their dream home on the acre that they bought 10 years ago that now they have to build three houses on it.

[1:27:09] Yeah, it would seem like on a single lot basis, you have one standard, but for a short

[1:27:15] platter or even a long platter, you could apply a density standard that it's hard to envision

[1:27:21] taking a single parcel and, you know, in a historically residential sense and saying it,

[1:27:28] you know, unless it's, unless it's zoned.

[1:27:30] Right.

[1:27:31] And there are other provisions in terms of reasonable use.

[1:27:34] We have a non-conforming use chapter that I believe makes special provisions for the development or continued use of single family properties.

[1:27:42] So we can look into where all of this would need to be kind of crosswalked if you will, across other elements of our code in terms of entitlement.

[1:27:49] I don't think we would want to eliminate the ability for the guy who owns an undeveloped one acre property.

[1:27:55] I think there's a different question about walking through the door for future development proposal.

[1:27:59] So I would like to subdivide what is the minimum density required.

[1:28:03] And I think that's what you're talking about keeping the distinction between perfect I think there's ways that we can massage that pretty well

[1:28:10] I think it's a distinction part between minimum density and maximum. Yeah, you know, I mean if

[1:28:15] You know if you're gonna if you have that interest in subdividing you don't really care what the minimum is you're gonna exceed it

[1:28:20] If you have multiple lots within a

[1:28:24] question I was wondering on the

[1:28:26] We have that a lot of that RSL land is sort of remnants of annexations over time

[1:28:31] And historically, I think County residential, you know, three acre lots were fairly common, so I mean, do we sense that there's a bit of that that needs to that capacity exists that's undeveloped that that former, the former three acre lot that could be significantly divided.

[1:28:51] There's probably pieces here and they're further out in the UGA.

[1:28:54] So the boundary that you're looking at is the city limits right now.

[1:28:57] There are some pieces like that throughout.

[1:28:59] Some of those were left over to meet previous density requirements as part of those former plants.

[1:29:06] And some of those have plat notes that potentially prohibit resub division.

[1:29:09] So there's a lot to wait into without being able to make kind of broad general statements.

[1:29:14] Some of it's in the airport overlay where there's new restrictions and maybe didn't apply at the time.

[1:29:18] I can't remember but my recollection is from the planning commission discussions that the

[1:29:24] you mentioned earlier the the demand of roughly 3000 dwelling units over the next 20 years if I

[1:29:30] remember correctly yeah and our conclusion for the analysis is that that demand can be met

[1:29:36] within the existing city limits or is it within the UGA and the city limits?

[1:29:42] The analysis that we've done shows that if we do specifically these targeted

[1:29:47] We will be able to meet and actually exceed the baseline capacity to have housing units on the land.

[1:29:58] And that doesn't mean that a developer-

[1:30:00] Cooper is going to come in and do a project at the highest capacity on all these properties. And some of these are mixed zone. And so there's assumptions about how much would be residential versus how much would be commercial. So we don't know. And that's why we're proposing is to find a page 233 in addition to these other elements of changes that will be going through as well that can help, again, move the needle potentially a little more proactively to get us toward those housing types as well. Can we have these slides? Yeah, absolutely.

[1:30:29] I'll be able to send these to you.

[1:30:31] And I appreciate the proactive rezoning to the more mixed use.

[1:30:39] And just a reminder to Council, this is the first stop for this item.

[1:30:44] And before it hit planning commission and affordable housing and

[1:30:48] additional stops, I wanted to make sure to go through at a high level sort of your input.

[1:30:53] So this will have a lot more community process associated with it.

[1:31:00] Again, this was just looking back at, I believe some of this was shown to you previously with

[1:31:05] the housing.

[1:31:05] But again, if we do, again, just those targeted re-zones, we would meet the housing capacity

[1:31:11] and meet the adequate provisions on at least on a baseline basis for that.

[1:31:15] And again, 2,500 of this is some level of subsidy, according to the...

[1:31:20] The non-PSH would be non-subsidized.

[1:31:23] So here, I mean, ultimately, some of that would probably need to be in order to be feasibly

[1:31:28] we developed, but we're, I don't think we're necessarily required to address how those units get on the ground necessarily.

[1:31:37] If you go through the housing chapter, there's a lot more kind of policy and numbers basis.

[1:31:41] That first slide, though, says 2,500 of them happened below 100%.

[1:31:45] That's based on the income, am I right?

[1:31:47] Yeah, and that's based on household area needed income.

[1:31:49] This isn't saying that these are income restricted to households at those.

[1:31:54] but we need to plan to accommodate households that have lower AMIs.

[1:31:59] The other point, too, is that as we go through this exercise and we go through all the corresponding land use adjustments and things,

[1:32:09] the real test for commerce and everyone to approve it is that the recommended land use aligns with the demand, right?

[1:32:20] And this is kind of a measure of the demand.

[1:32:22] And it doesn't mean those homes are going to be built that way, because we're not dictating

[1:32:26] that.

[1:32:26] That's just creating the structure zoning and so on density, but the market will dictate

[1:32:32] what is built largely.

[1:32:33] That's ultimately correct.

[1:32:35] We are required to adopt, if these are adopted housing targets and we've adopted goals and

[1:32:40] policies to meet these housing targets, XYZ ways through ABC regulations, we then have to

[1:32:45] put those regulations into effect under the Growth Management Act.

[1:32:48] So, that's what we're doing through this process, facilitating the ability to do these things, but you're correct.

[1:32:55] Another way to say it is, no one is outlawing someone building a single family home.

[1:32:58] No. No. People think that's what we're doing perhaps.

[1:33:02] That's not what we're doing.

[1:33:03] However, just as a counterpoint, as a policy through the conference of governments,

[1:33:08] we've deemed that we're doing pretty good in terms of single family homes in meeting the needs of our community.

[1:33:14] But we will of course, when people walk through the door with a development application,

[1:33:18] we have rules that permit them to do these things, and we will facilitate those as the rules

[1:33:22] pull out.

[1:33:27] Just a quick note on adequate provisions, so I believe this was also part of a previous

[1:33:31] slide in another presentation, but really, this started with just a checklist basis as well

[1:33:36] for what are the laws that have changed over the past set number of years?

[1:33:41] Do your currently adopted rules restrict, or in some ways get in the way of doing XYZ things,

[1:33:50] and how can you address those?

[1:33:52] So we ran through a number of those,

[1:33:54] both for the actual affordable

[1:33:56] and permanent support of housing categories

[1:33:57] as well as a number of other land use rules.

[1:34:00] Some of the other changes that we would propose

[1:34:02] to adopt that has not been incorporated specifically

[1:34:05] into the EIS, but that are consistent

[1:34:07] with the other adopted goals and policies here.

[1:34:13] Are to, and again, we have that note

[1:34:16] about the minimum density requirements,

[1:34:18] So that will be taken in and we will revise that prior to taking that over to planning commission.

[1:34:23] Another one we would revise our density calculations, it's currently in up or

[1:34:27] down whether you're at the .5% to potentially incentivize a project that would

[1:34:32] like to have another unit available, we would potentially round all of those up.

[1:34:37] So to just change how we calculate the density to entitle that one additional unit potentially on a project.

[1:34:45] Again, permit duplexes as of right in the RL zone without a density calculation on those.

[1:34:52] We would permit duplexes in the NCMU zone, that's the neighborhood center mixed use.

[1:34:58] They're currently not permitted.

[1:34:59] And we would strike a prohibition on multi-family, that's any project with three or

[1:35:03] more attached units adjacent to single family, unless they have a specific subdivision plat note.

[1:35:09] There, it's currently restricted under our code, under a strict literal interpretation,

[1:35:15] and that's just based off of a table footnote, so we would strike that to permit those kind of neighborhood compatible, small,

[1:35:23] plex housing, this infill development potentially.

[1:35:27] Any questions on those on this slide?

[1:35:30] Okay.

[1:35:31] More consistency, there are currently some design restrictions that only apply to manufactured housing.

[1:35:37] When it is established as a single family home, and that relates to both roof and wall materials as well as it requires them to be two sections we would strike those provisions technically under state law we are authorized to enforce those however specifically with the roof and wall materials it's inconsistent with some design regulations that this council passed earlier this year that prohibit us from prohibiting certain exterior building materials and so just to create a little internal

[1:36:07] no consistency would repeal those.

[1:36:08] We would also apply single family design standards to some of those small multiplex housing

[1:36:13] if they specifically had a single primary point of entry.

[1:36:17] So think of a four plex or a six plex, small apartment maybe two story home that literally looks like a home with a single front entrance,

[1:36:27] maybe a single rear entrance where all the units are accessed by a single interior corridor.

[1:36:33] From the street, it looks probably like a larger single-family home and is compatible with a single-family, largely single-family neighborhood, for our code, anything that's three or more units currently requires us to go through a completely different set of design standards than these smaller style of residential.

[1:36:52] And so we would revert to the simpler set of rules that govern the smaller style of residential.

[1:36:57] So there's still things like access, requirements, porch covers, minimum transparency, stuff

[1:37:03] that creates kind of a neighborhood feel, it just doesn't have the same intense level

[1:37:08] of detail that larger projects would have, and we would cap that again, it's six attached

[1:37:14] and it would be restricted to where there's a single primary point of entry.

[1:37:18] So it wouldn't be sort of a eatplex sort of thing where there's individual doors, that

[1:37:23] would still be governed by a different set of design standards.

[1:37:27] One of the other ones that staff have discussed is the reducing parking standards for both duplexes

[1:37:33] and multi-family for all of those two in one space per unit, as well as striking the incremental

[1:37:39] additions that are based on bedroom count. And there's a little deviation between those as to

[1:37:45] what the bedroom threshold count is, whether you're doing it based on the number of bedrooms or if

[1:37:51] that's as the base or if it's the type of unit that's the base.

[1:37:55] The only exception would be in the CC zone outside of the historic district where the current standard is 0.7.

[1:38:02] We would retain that as it currently exists as part of this proposal.

[1:38:06] Parking has been specifically identified at planning commission and affordable housing commission as an extreme cost to developing multifamily housing.

[1:38:14] There are estimates in the planning literature that it's anywhere from 20 to potentially 35,000 dollars per space to develop just as a surface parking area.

[1:38:26] If you have one car and it's a two bedroom space, but they built two spaces for the apartment, you're paying in your rent the cost of that space, whether or not you're using that second space.

[1:38:38] And so it creates kind of a inverse subsidy to folks who potentially over park on the property.

[1:38:48] Happy to discuss again any of these as we're going along.

[1:38:51] Yeah, so I had a question on that just having been through some battles with neighborhoods that had parking issues.

[1:39:01] And I'm thinking yellowstone and some others that when you have students and you have a five bedroom house, you typically have five cars.

[1:39:17] And so if we're not going to have a per bedroom addition, you have one five bedroom house with one parking space.

[1:39:32] These wouldn't apply to detached homes, so those would still follow under a single family standard which require minimum two per residence.

[1:39:39] Okay, so we're talking about maybe one to three studio to three bedroom apartment.

[1:39:46] That would be the typical product that I would imagine would be built as a multi-family and

[1:39:50] yeah, when those are attached with three or more units, yes.

[1:39:55] Okay.

[1:39:56] Or duplexes as well.

[1:39:57] Well, is the state doing anything with the building or the fire code for fire suppression systems is normally it's triplex and above is you have a sprinkler system.

[1:40:11] There are different standards, I believe that is generally the case.

[1:40:15] I'm not a building code expert so far as I know they're not moving on any sort of preemptive directions on that route.

[1:40:22] There are other states and jurisdictions that have, though, I think the city of Memphis doesn't require sprinklers for up to six units, and so some jurisdictions that have more home rule authority under their state statutes have been moving that direction, I don't know that that's an area that we would go and these are technically overseen by our fire marshal anyways, so there's an inter jurisdictional question on some fire and building application.

[1:40:44] I just, I foresee the parking issue being an issue for development of these kinds of places in neighborhoods.

[1:40:56] As we saw with Catherine Park, the parking concerns and the number of parking even when we increased beyond the one that was required one space per unit that was required there was still concerns in that neighborhood.

[1:41:13] So, I mean, we have to meet state law, but-

[1:41:18] Yeah, and again, these are beyond state law, so these are things that we believe are consistent with some of our housing goals to incentivize and encourage development of the types of housing that we have identified as meeting our needs based on those AMI thresholds.

[1:41:33] So the question becomes where, so if you have three bedroom apartments, and you're asking for one parking space.

[1:41:42] Sometimes that's okay, but a lot of them will rent with two, at least two vehicles and where do those extra vehicles go?

[1:41:54] So maybe if it's available and I mean on some lots, it will be, but some lots, you know,

[1:42:16] we're wanting the parking to be internal to the multiplex, right, usually.

[1:42:25] I mean, as a general policy basis, yes, if there's not sufficient parking on a site as part of a development, again, these would be the minimum requirements.

[1:42:33] So if a developer wants to provide one space per bedroom, this is not restricting them from going above our minimum standards.

[1:42:40] If they think that's what's going to make a project pencil better for their project, we're not prohibiting them from doing that.

[1:42:48] Which I imagine-

[1:42:50] I share the concern, once we allow it to be built on any level, any scale, reversing that mistake is very difficult to do.

[1:43:01] Because you have people and you have an expectation and you've permitted a use and now that parking scarcity becomes a neighborhood issue and we will hear about it.

[1:43:14] So that's just, I'm just, I guess, what we're saying is that we have feedback that that might not work.

[1:43:21] Yeah, well, I think it's different.

[1:43:23] I think the transition effect is that you've got traditionally low density neighborhoods that will have higher levels of density that are added incrementally, and the street parking will change.

[1:43:34] We, my street, you could probably go up and down four blocks and two-thirds of the street sidewalks or the curbs are not occupied.

[1:43:43] Now, if you put a 12 plex in the middle of that, then some of that would probably end up on the street.

[1:43:48] And I think that's what typically happens.

[1:43:52] I don't know, it's just my observation.

[1:43:55] To be clear, we haven't done a deep dive analysis of if we hit the greatest potential density on every parcel.

[1:44:02] What is the potential for parking leakage off site for this?

[1:44:06] We haven't gotten into those levels of weeks again.

[1:44:08] And this is first pass to you guys before we take out even a working draft to the public.

[1:44:14] And I think everybody in the room understands to the goal is to try to remove some of the barriers to building housing.

[1:44:21] And so looking at what those levers might be and they will have trade-offs associated with them.

[1:44:27] Yeah, you know, if it's near transit, that's different, if it's near, if there is on

[1:44:36] street parking available, that's, you know, that's different.

[1:44:40] I just, some, some streets, there's not on street parking.

[1:44:47] I mean, and we might want the flexibility to on certain arterials to not have on street

[1:44:55] parking, so, you know, the

[1:45:00] And the idea of having a little extra for overflow, and I get your point about a developer could do more, but some won't, because they really want to maximize and not spend that extra, we say $35,000 for a parking spot.

[1:45:23] I mean, I feel like I understand that the need to, you know, remove some of the barriers.

[1:45:31] I'm just saying that one might not be the barrier that we want to remove because the pushback is going to be not worth.

[1:45:38] I understand that Council has consideration suffered from just urban planning principles, so I appreciate the position.

[1:45:46] And I'd be willing to entertain something a little higher than one, maybe, and for certain conditions, certain sizes of places or something.

[1:46:00] I don't know.

[1:46:02] Just a preview note, some rules that are not being incorporated in this round.

[1:46:08] But we will have to adopt by the middle of next year would prohibit us from requiring any parking for affordable housing projects.

[1:46:15] So, well, I guess that kind of drives that decision, then, is for development that doesn't want to qualify for affordable housing credits, then you're stuck with the old parking requirements.

[1:46:34] And to me, that just absolutely makes it.

[1:46:36] We're going to have to accept it for one set of housing.

[1:46:39] We have to offset it for a different kind of development and different kind of housing.

[1:46:44] because we're not going to be able to accommodate all the parking if all of this stuff is next to each other and we don't have, you know, minimums that represent what people actually do.

[1:46:54] And again, just, we can get into all of that and again, I appreciate the position that you're in, but again, that would be that we can't require any parking on site.

[1:47:02] They may have a need that they feel that they would need to accommodate as part of those projects.

[1:47:08] It's difficult for me to imagine a developer not providing any off-street parking even for an affordable housing development.

[1:47:15] Because most folks here do have cars and have gotten here to this community with a car.

[1:47:23] Moving on, I appreciate your thoughts there and we will go back to that piece.

[1:47:31] We have to, we would, excuse me, propose permitting transitional housing and permanent supportive

[1:47:36] housing by rights in the neighborhood center mixed use zone that's currently in conditional

[1:47:42] use and requires a CUP in that zone.

[1:47:45] This is another piece that gets us a little bit in the weeds, so if you'll bear with me.

[1:47:51] On the left is our existing street frontage tight map that applies to properties when we're

[1:47:59] applying our design code. So this relates to really how the building has to be developed

[1:48:05] with reference to the street. So things like transparency, entrance to the street, as

[1:48:11] the code has written some specific building details. On the streets that you see highlighted

[1:48:15] in red, those are considered storefront streets. So those in the current rules, we do not permit

[1:48:23] It's residential uses within 30 feet of the sidewalk on the ground level.

[1:48:28] Council may recall that these were the ones that we've recently designated also as major pedestrian corridors in order for us to not flout some other recent preemptive laws that we can't restrict these uses unless we so designate streets as those.

[1:48:43] You just orient folks to where that was.

[1:48:45] Oh, yes, I am so sorry.

[1:48:46] I look at this all the time.

[1:48:48] Here is the county courthouse for folks.

[1:48:51] Here is Pearl and Fourth, which is, and as I always

[1:48:57] orient myself kind of the hub of downtown

[1:48:59] so the Davidson building would be at the Northeast corner

[1:49:02] of that, the Unity Park right there.

[1:49:04] I think there's six water to be here to find.

[1:49:09] So University down to Second Avenue here,

[1:49:12] Yep, water over to just ruby on the fourth street side and to pine street apologies. Sorry. I look at these so frequently. I forget.

[1:49:23] I was trying to. That's very similar to me, but I was a pearl goes up to what university on the existing and that gets changed.

[1:49:30] Yes. So the key distinction between storefront streets and secondary streets. So the storefront earned red.

[1:49:37] the secondary are the ones that are designated in purple is that on the north section of pearl it

[1:49:45] goes from being a storefront to to a secondary so the north section of pearl two blocks here and

[1:49:51] then all of the blocks that are currently designated on water street again the key reason and distinction

[1:49:56] between these two is on the designated storefront streets residential use is not permitted at the ground

[1:50:02] level along those streets.

[1:50:05] We would propose remapping these and then clarifying in our rules for secondary streets that

[1:50:11] residential uses are permitted at the ground level along those.

[1:50:15] These were highlighted for the Planning Commission at a recent meeting.

[1:50:21] We also had a separate kind of sit down confab with some members of the development community

[1:50:25] and the Onesburg Downtown Association who strongly endorsed these changes, because there

[1:50:33] are potentially redevelopable sites along these blocks that are outside of the kind of

[1:50:38] true core of downtown where we have the existing brick building stock from the 1889 rebuild.

[1:50:46] And so there's the opportunity to potentially develop those with ground level residential or

[1:50:51] been exclusively residential uses on some of these sites.

[1:50:55] That currently is not permitted because of the street front designation solely.

[1:51:00] Is the residential definition, you have to, is it, it's not per se where the unit is relative to the street, it's the door.

[1:51:10] So ground level residential within 30 feet of the sidewalk is not permitted on storefront streets.

[1:51:16] So I think one of Tyler, the building that Tyler has, Tyler Glenn has,

[1:51:22] trying to remember the block, but it's on, you know, water and...

[1:51:28] Water and fourth. I mean, some of those...

[1:51:30] That came in the door right before those design standards went into effect.

[1:51:34] That kind of design wouldn't be permitted on the storefront street.

[1:51:39] Is that correct?

[1:51:40] Correct. Yeah, but we would permit something like that

[1:51:43] along the secondary streets that we, what we would re-designate as secondary streets.

[1:51:48] I remember when this was presented a month or two ago in concept to the planning commission,

[1:51:52] there was some real question whether that was a wise approach prohibiting storefront

[1:51:58] or storefront level, residential, as a way to really eliminate innovative design, if that makes sense.

[1:52:08] I think the intent, and again, I wasn't there when these were passed, I believe, in 2013, if memory serves.

[1:52:15] I believe the intent was to incentivize and induce more commercial uses, the actual mixed use structure, commercial down below residential up above.

[1:52:26] But we've seen in developments that have happened where these requirements are in place that instead of doing that, we don't actually proactively require commercial space.

[1:52:34] We just restrict the ground level residential and it's just the dwelling units themselves

[1:52:39] So you could have a common space

[1:52:40] So the perfect example would be kind of across the corner from that where the other building now has kind of that

[1:52:46] Concrete area that's out front

[1:52:48] A what I believe is fairly sparsely used kind of

[1:52:52] Recreation space where they're potentially could have been dwelling units there, but for

[1:52:58] That specific restriction. I just don't see a lot of it

[1:53:02] But I was in Salt Lake City a couple of years ago and downtown walked around downtown quite a bit and I was struck by the number of ground floor

[1:53:08] They look like townhouses more they were like literally sidewalk to the front door and I know in larger cities

[1:53:13] You've got basement apartments and things so I know that's not the style or probably what's in demand here

[1:53:19] But it just seems like I'm just yeah, I get it. I get it the ground floor with the residential above but

[1:53:26] You know, prohibiting it seems, I'm, you know, I can live with it either way, but it just.

[1:53:32] And again, that prohibition would still stay in place where the remaining red areas are.

[1:53:37] And again, most of those are already developed out with a lot of our historic building stock.

[1:53:41] And I think what we heard also pretty clearly from that sort of informal conversation with some developers and downtown association was.

[1:53:50] We want to preserve the core of the retail function and use of the core of our downtown.

[1:53:57] And there are spaces where you're halfway between kind of the heart of downtown and

[1:54:02] halfway between campus that are effectively undeveloped that could potentially accommodate

[1:54:07] a residential, exclusively residential use, potentially very well to kind of transition between those two spaces.

[1:54:13] I guess, so just

[1:54:20] adding to the conversation, if you, what this does is, and if the residential

[1:54:33] is built out on all of those purple streets, it kind of limits the walkability, the expansion

[1:54:41] of downtown. So, if you have a commercial experience and then you start walking past

[1:54:52] a block of residential, that's the end of the commercial and because you're not going

[1:55:00] to go further to get more commercial than that block. So, that was the intent of the

[1:55:10] the storefront streets originally and the second area, the limitation on the secondary.

[1:55:16] Yeah, if we're going to more mixed use outside of the downtown, maybe that's okay.

[1:55:25] If we're satisfied with the size of the downtown and we're not thinking that it's going to grow outwardly, then that's okay.

[1:55:33] But I think that has to be part of this discussion.

[1:55:36] Is,

[1:55:39] are we limiting our commercial area to those red streets?

[1:55:44] Because once it's residential on the ground floor, people won't walk past it.

[1:55:56] Walk past it.

[1:55:56] Go to another commercial.

[1:55:57] You got to another commercial area.

[1:56:00] Because you're separating, now you're in the residential area.

[1:56:04] You're not in the commercial area anymore.

[1:56:09] And I mean, I learned that at an EDA, not Allen's, but a downtown association conference, right?

[1:56:17] And that was the message that was driven home, is you need the continuity of the commercial.

[1:56:23] But it doesn't appear to be broken up.

[1:56:25] I mean, the red is all together, it is, and so, but-

[1:56:33] get smaller in the proposed?

[1:56:34] Just for reference, like this is Kelleher Motors here.

[1:56:37] This is a development that has already developed without pushing to the street front.

[1:56:42] There's actually parking that's fronting the street right here.

[1:56:45] This is an undeveloped gravel surface area.

[1:56:48] So this is kind of the area that we're talking about.

[1:56:51] And it is kind of a policy question for the elected.

[1:56:54] Do we kind of require that this match the same form of the areas that's

[1:57:01] a block and a half further to the south, or potentially open up some of those options.

[1:57:06] And as it redevelopes, do we want to connect with the other way?

[1:57:08] That might not be a fair way to characterize it, but that's the way that we were thinking of, kind of the levers.

[1:57:12] I think they're all excellent points.

[1:57:13] I think we've been talking about the University of Wake horror for as long as I've been in Ellensburg,

[1:57:17] and it doesn't really exist in any functional way.

[1:57:21] The barrier that university avenue is for pedestrians is significant, and it is what it is.

[1:57:26] But I also think there's an argument that communities find that when they're when they don't have a, you know,

[1:57:36] downtown Seattle, when, you know, end of the day, everybody leaves, you've got a ghost town, right?

[1:57:41] So there's an argument on a small scale that if you have a mix of residential in your urban core,

[1:57:47] that will help stimulate activity in your community.

[1:57:49] So I think, frankly, Seattle would love if that were still the case because they've the remote work.

[1:57:54] It could be, I think we're getting into what, how precisely do we're designing?

[1:57:59] But it's a good point, I think they're all good points.

[1:58:04] So figured that out.

[1:58:08] I do, unfortunately, have more.

[1:58:11] Now we're going to get into some of the other preemptive laws.

[1:58:14] Some of these are part of the Growth Management Act.

[1:58:16] Some of these were separate bills that are passed under separate statutes.

[1:58:19] Some of them got really nitpicky.

[1:58:21] We are only allowed to require a minimum parking stall size.

[1:58:26] The largest minimum parking stall size we can require is 8 feet by 20 feet for residential uses.

[1:58:33] So we're making a couple of changes in our code where we reference 22 foot setbacks for

[1:58:37] garage frontages to 20 feet.

[1:58:39] And then a lot of this is actually going to be changed in the public works development standards.

[1:58:42] Because that's where a lot of the specific dimensions for these things are housed.

[1:58:47] They'll be doing that as part of their administrative updates, I believe, next month.

[1:58:52] We also have to permit up to six existing non-conforming spaces.

[1:58:56] So whether they're constructed differently, marked out differently in terms of size,

[1:59:00] to count toward a residential development on an undeveloped lot, or

[1:59:04] if they wanted to put new residential uses in an existing structure on there.

[1:59:07] Just a suggestion, anything that's required highlighted is required, and then we don't have to talk about it as much.

[1:59:12] That's we're going to have a handful of these.

[1:59:15] So residential parking preemption, religious shelter preemptions for things like outdoor encampments, safe parking efforts, overnight shelters, and temporary small houses.

[1:59:24] When those are on property under controlled by a religious organization, there's a ton of very prescriptive and narrow preemptions and authorities.

[1:59:33] So we would mostly reference the RCW to incorporate those.

[1:59:36] And there's a good definition for a religious organization, right?

[1:59:40] There is the definition of religious organization for this RCC.

[1:59:44] We don't need it as long as, I mean, it is what it is, I go.

[1:59:49] Yes, there is.

[1:59:52] Density bonuses, we have to adopt a specific, additional density bonus for

[1:59:57] housing that is developed on a property longer controlled.

[2:00:00] By our religious organization, the wording of this one through a couple of loops, but we're ultimately going to adopt another section of our density bonus chapter that would just apply to these. It would effectively allow 150% of the existing density bonus on a property. This isn't religious organizations, but there's new preemptive standards for shelters. So we basically have to treat them like any other land use for our purposes.

[2:00:29] So, under our current zoning code, we have a number of standards that relate to services on site and operations that we can't enforce anymore.

[2:00:39] There are some specific things that we can still require from them, like personnel policies, single point of contact, in case of emergencies, and we would include those in code.

[2:00:51] Composting, we have to permit composting.

[2:00:57] I don't want to hold the up, but I think it's okay if that composting has become an EPF, I'm sorry.

[2:01:03] I can relate to this, but I'm sorry.

[2:01:04] It's not becoming an EPF.

[2:01:06] We are incorporating the definition of organic materials and facilities to our EPF definition.

[2:01:12] Not to include composting, got it.

[2:01:13] Yeah.

[2:01:17] Design, this is, unfortunately, something I do need to dig into a little bit.

[2:01:21] But this took probably the most volume of us to look through.

[2:01:26] There's a new preemption for the types of design requirements that we can impose on exterior design of new development.

[2:01:34] And those standards have to adopt one or more ascertainable guideline standards or criterion by which an applicant can determine whether a design is permissible.

[2:01:46] Asertainable per Webster means capable of being learned with certainty, so there's no

[2:01:52] fudging the numbers, there's no subjectivity allowed in it, even if it's a guideline where

[2:01:58] it's an option, it needs to be clear how they can meet the guideline, the thing that we're

[2:02:02] preferring to do, and those standards can't result in a reduction in density, height, bulk,

[2:02:08] or scale over what would otherwise be allowed for a development in that zone for that type

[2:02:13] of development.

[2:02:14] I was going to ask, did that don't go off the track, but did that effectively eliminate

[2:02:19] form-based codes?

[2:02:22] I mean, it seemed we were all in on form-based codes when we did our land development code.

[2:02:25] But now it seems like that's a little too prescriptive.

[2:02:28] It's only if they do those specific things, right?

[2:02:32] So you could have form-based code if it's part of the base zone entitlement, right?

[2:02:37] If it's more kind of permissive language versus restrictive language for certain types.

[2:02:42] getting into windows and transparency levels.

[2:02:46] Yeah, and we can still maintain those elements

[2:02:48] if they are clear and objective

[2:02:50] and don't reduce bulk height and density.

[2:02:52] That's questionable whether they were clear

[2:02:54] and objective they were in.

[2:02:54] And 15%?

[2:02:56] Line of the reader, I suppose.

[2:02:58] So just some examples of stuff

[2:03:01] and the top three are hypothetical,

[2:03:03] but based on some stuff we have in our code,

[2:03:05] so a compliant regulation might see something

[2:03:07] like parking lots along an interior property line

[2:03:09] that need this type of landscaping at this type of depth,

[2:03:11] where there's dimensions, there's material standards and you can look through and figure out what you need to do, that is all compliant.

[2:03:19] A noncompliant standard might read something like the scale of any mixed use building in this zone shall complement the established character of the neighborhood.

[2:03:26] Well, how big is the neighborhood? What is the character? Is there a divine diversity there already? What would we restrict based on all of that?

[2:03:33] So something like that, not going to fly.

[2:03:35] or when located near a residential zone, the maximum height of your commercial building has to be reduced to the maximum height of that zone.

[2:03:42] That would specifically restrict the height based on a consideration other than what you're allowed to do in that underlying zone.

[2:03:48] So that can't be implemented anymore.

[2:03:53] The bottom one is one that's actually in our code.

[2:03:56] It asks for a certain type of design to use window or entries that reinforce the pattern of small storefront spaces.

[2:04:03] I don't know how to measure what a small storefront spaces versus a larger one, so there's elements of subjectivity in these that we can no longer enforce as of the adoption of our comprehensive plan.

[2:04:17] This led us to some choices, we can strike only the very limited element with interregulation, that's noncompliance, if there's a single vague term, or we can replace that vague term with one that's pretty clearly along the same line of intent as what was in there.

[2:04:32] we can make that limited swap out or do that kind of targeted strike through.

[2:04:37] We can replace a completely non-compliant regulation with one that is compliant.

[2:04:41] So for that last example, what they're trying to get at is like some neat arrangement

[2:04:46] of the transparency of the storefront.

[2:04:48] So we can ask for windows and or entries with evenly spaced or symmetrical pattern.

[2:04:54] Symmetry is something that you can objectively do, evenly spaced is also something

[2:04:57] that you can measure out with a measuring tool.

[2:05:00] So there's ways to get to the same sort of design parameters that were in the code without just taking everything away.

[2:05:09] Except where we can't.

[2:05:10] So things like landscaping that adds visual or seasonal interest to a space.

[2:05:15] I would don't know what that means in terms of creating that on a year-long basis.

[2:05:22] There's opportunities for us to retain standards that ensure quality design features, though.

[2:05:29] So this was one of, I think, like three options of six.

[2:05:34] Like three have to be implemented and you've got this menu of things to meet the standard.

[2:05:38] And then there's all these additional guidelines that you can do that we would like to see these things in.

[2:05:42] And this is specifically for non-residential open space.

[2:05:44] So we're still going to be able to achieve, I think, some of the design goals on this way.

[2:05:50] We can also newly establish a compliant standard to fill in a gap if we've taken something away.

[2:05:56] So, where we have limited options, we can provide more design choices for folks as well.

[2:06:02] We could also change a guideline that's recommended to a standard, again, to kind of fill in a gap if there's a bunch of elements that are no longer there.

[2:06:10] And provide a lot of it as providing objective references to other sections of code.

[2:06:15] This choice was made a lot in our regional retail commercial master site plans, which had a lot of non-compliance with the statute.

[2:06:23] you. Doing all of that also allowed us to then reorganize where stuff should be together

[2:06:30] but is not in code and has been frankly a little bit frustrating to administer and I imagine

[2:06:34] a little frustrating for the development community so there's three different areas that talk

[2:06:38] about landscaping standards that apply to a side yard property line depending on what

[2:06:43] the thing is we're just going to put them all in the same place that way you don't have

[2:06:45] to look across four different chapters. The other big change is that we can only have

[2:06:51] have a single meeting if there is a public meeting about design, and except for landmarks

[2:06:56] and design commission, they can potentially have more for theirs.

[2:07:00] But regional retail commercial master site plans, currently required council approval after

[2:07:04] hearing examiner recommendations, so that would just change to a type three permit hearing

[2:07:09] examiner only. Any questions on all of those pieces?

[2:07:13] The vast volume of what you're going to see in our proposed ordinance is attacking this beast

[2:07:19] right here. So, it's going to look like a lot of nitpicky strike through changing, moving

[2:07:24] around stuff. A huge portion of it is really just trying to hit on that. There's a couple

[2:07:30] of other things that we wanted to address at the same time. One of them is about our design

[2:07:34] permits. So, it's either a type 1 or 2 permit under our code. It's administrative process,

[2:07:40] but a type 2 requires limited public notice and comment. The permit type, I think, is meant

[2:07:46] to entitle a conforming site or building design.

[2:07:50] The LDC permits, the upshot of that

[2:07:52] is that they're confined then to the local project review act.

[2:07:55] So we have to, once we determine it complete,

[2:07:57] issue a decision within a certain amount of time.

[2:08:00] If someone's on a building project, stuff changes

[2:08:02] based on review for any number of reasons,

[2:08:05] utilities, structural things, fire code, provisions

[2:08:08] that they didn't recognize at the time.

[2:08:10] So we end up in this weird procedural cycle

[2:08:13] where we're doing multiple design reviews

[2:08:15] or multiple amendments as an entitlement before they even pull a building permit.

[2:08:20] Or before we'll issue the building permit, they need to have this in hand.

[2:08:23] We think we can just put it all into the same review process because it's all administrative anyway for

[2:08:28] most of these review types.

[2:08:30] So we would repeal this permit, all of the standards that we're again looking to substantially revise based on the last thing.

[2:08:36] It would just be reviewed when someone pulls a commercial building permit for a project.

[2:08:41] Any questions there?

[2:08:41] Okay. Similarly, another kind of can of worms is our site development permits. So these

[2:08:50] are basically intended for a project applicants to do preliminary site clearing and grading.

[2:08:57] Over the time, the scope has really creeped on these so that folks are looking to entitle

[2:09:03] a range of construction specific elements, so things like utilities, things like location

[2:09:10] of buildings and square footages and site design elements.

[2:09:15] Stuff that's well beyond the scope of, am I allowed to move dirt around before I actually go vertical with a building permit.

[2:09:21] And it's getting a little messy in terms of procedurally how we do things between our department,

[2:09:26] between public works, and how some of our commercial review is working.

[2:09:31] And again, as a planning permit, it's subject to local project review act timelines,

[2:09:35] which, again, puts us in a very strange time crunch for all sorts of project elements that maybe need to be, like, cycled through revisions.

[2:09:43] Our proposed changes would reduce these to clearly specify this is just your permission to move dirt around,

[2:09:50] and if you want review on all of these other things, you need to submit the appropriate permit.

[2:09:54] So whether that's a standalone utility permit, a construction permit that reviews the utilities, things like that.

[2:09:59] But this will probably be a fairly substantial change for our development community, who's used to kind of the current

[2:10:06] Regime that we have going on right now. So we may try to vet this with them a little bit more before

[2:10:14] This ultimately comes back for public hearings, but this is another proposal of ours

[2:10:19] Another specific one

[2:10:21] We would look to repeal our commercial neighborhood zone, which is currently only zoned on two parcels in the city

[2:10:27] As was shown in your packet, there's a weird inconsistent gradation between the RO zone and the NCMU zone in terms of the permitted uses allowed.

[2:10:37] It's part of our area-wide rezone where we would do some of the targeted zoning changes.

[2:10:41] We would incorporate re-zoning those CN parcels to NCMU.

[2:10:46] A quick note from the land use presentation you guys had the other day.

[2:10:51] Urban neighborhood, future land use designation would duly permit the NCMU zone

[2:10:57] as an eligible zoning designation.

[2:10:59] So to make sure that the neighborhood scale uses are appropriate to neighborhoods there,

[2:11:04] we would make some targeted changes to the land use table, because currently,

[2:11:07] things like taverns, marijuana dispensaries are permitted in that zone,

[2:11:12] which don't necessarily feel appropriate to have in the middle of a neighborhood.

[2:11:16] So we would do some targeted changes in there.

[2:11:22] Lastly, subdivision streets.

[2:11:24] We have this convoluted set of standards and potential departures for exceptions for how you're

[2:11:32] required to design a street when you do a new subdivision.

[2:11:37] There is this sort of moot applicability for the special provisions that we grant to local access streets.

[2:11:42] It says as of this date, only subdivisions approve before the adoption of this ordinance are eligible,

[2:11:48] which is a weird thing to then have lingering out in code and perpetuity.

[2:11:54] Those departures for these also require a special public works authorization unlike the rest of our departures

[2:11:59] Which are really I have an alternative design proposal. It meets the purpose of the standard and has our director's review

[2:12:05] So we would change these to kind of be standardized across these street types and

[2:12:12] Change some of the administrative standards there as well

[2:12:17] Sections would also then be reorganized for clarity. I just hit on those topics

[2:12:21] Other targeted revisions to the land use table, those would be repealed and replaced largely just for organizational clarity.

[2:12:29] If you look at the columns for those, they don't line up when you're looking across different use types.

[2:12:34] So we've got three different tables for residential, commercial uses, other special uses.

[2:12:39] And if you're trying to look through to all three of them to see where you're at, it doesn't line up.

[2:12:43] So we would repeal or replace just to keep it cleaner and easier in retaining most of the standards.

[2:12:48] and we'll be calling out what the specific changes are as part of any updating ordinance.

[2:12:53] And then clarify density intensity standards and uses for the manufactured home park zone

[2:12:59] across some of those other use tables where they're currently not there.

[2:13:03] Strike a minimum manufactured home park standard.

[2:13:05] Those currently have to be a minimum of three acres where with the established minimum density requirements that we're looking to have.

[2:13:12] And you could potentially have a smaller one on a smaller size if there's the potential to do that use.

[2:13:18] We would also update our permitted landscape plant material standards.

[2:13:21] The existing list comes from a dead link website that when you actually find what it is

[2:13:25] refers to the pollution region and it was from an ecologist and former arborist, but they

[2:13:31] were doing a lot of hobby orchards on their property and they're like, this tree seems

[2:13:35] to work out here, which doesn't seem like the best use of here's the trees that you must

[2:13:41] have in our.

[2:13:42] So we found a bunch of appropriate regional uses from Benton County Conservation District

[2:13:47] has a list of Columbia-based and appropriate species, the Washington native plant society,

[2:13:53] also drought-resistant fire-resistant species as well.

[2:13:57] And then general internal consistency and cleanup.

[2:14:00] With all that, our next steps.

[2:14:02] Planning Commission Affordable Housing Commission will look at a full text of what we currently

[2:14:05] have drafted, with some of the guidance that you folks have provided.

[2:14:08] We will tweak what we currently have drafted before we get that out to them.

[2:14:13] Those amendments will ultimately require an ordinance that will go before planning commission

[2:14:16] and have Council approval, and that will run concurrent with the Complan Adoption Cycle.

[2:14:22] Next year, we're going to have more stuff that we're doing, though, that are technically related to this cycle on what's called Unit Lot Subdivision and administrative residential lot subdivisions.

[2:14:33] We'll also take a quick review of our critical areas ordinance to see if there need to be any revisions based on some guidance understate law for that.

[2:14:42] that, as well as develop a work program, we've heard some interest in looking at the airport

[2:14:47] overlay.

[2:14:48] We'll have some discussion on that at the planning and affordable housing commission

[2:14:50] meeting.

[2:14:53] There's a lot of stuff there.

[2:14:55] I want to give the audience a chance to you, so that's a lot.

[2:15:00] So we gave you some feedback. Absolutely. You've been in the audience wish to speak to this issue.

[2:15:09] That was a lot of work. Thank you all for. It's not a short ordinance, and it's current draft, so we appreciate your patience when that comes before you. We

[2:15:25] have experts. Okay.

[2:15:39] Of course, escaping, you were supposed to stay the whole meeting.

[2:15:43] Just kidding.

[2:15:46] She's like, what?

[2:15:48] Going out with the rest of the group.

[2:15:49] Just mean.

[2:15:50] I apologize.

[2:15:51] Just mean.

[2:15:51] I don't know.

[2:15:54] We have a number of items in the manager's report.

[2:15:57] Just a reminder, we have our community grant programs open for applications.

[2:16:02] These are 2027 grants.

[2:16:05] The applications are due.

[2:16:06] the 31st of August this year. I believe that's still the date? Yes. We also have the AEE

[2:16:15] Commission grants. These are 2026 funded grants. Those are also due at the end of the month.

[2:16:22] And more details can be found on the City website. A reminder to Maronite is the ADU

[2:16:29] homeowner panel at Hal Hall. It's from 6 to 730. If you're interested in ADUs

[2:16:34] so you can listen to people who have worked on them and with them, so opportunities to continue to educate about options for housing in our community, rodeo and fair items kick off this month and so pay attention and just join in on one of the many opportunities that just lost.

[2:16:57] Sorry.

[2:16:58] Thank you.

[2:16:58] I appreciate that, too, Chair.

[2:17:02] Excellent.

[2:17:04] So, just an amazing opportunity.

[2:17:06] I had the opportunity to visit the Radio Grandstands off of the ribbon cutting.

[2:17:11] It's a really impressive facility, ADA access, updated facilities.

[2:17:17] It's a really nice gym that will serve our community well.

[2:17:21] So in a reminder to council, we do our annual employee picnic and so from 1130 to 130, I believe, at the City Shop.

[2:17:31] We will have some of our front offices closed on so folks can attend, but council is invited and encouraged to show up.

[2:17:38] We'll make you a cheeseburger.

[2:17:40] And that is again Wednesday the 19th.

[2:17:43] We also have, and I would just remind I handed these out and I can send these to council as well.

[2:17:50] Well, this week we picked off our community results team and so this is part of our priority

[2:17:56] base budgeting and what I provided you are the matrix of attributes that we rate the

[2:18:03] programs on and so these are sort of basic attributes are, you know, what is the level

[2:18:09] of mandate?

[2:18:10] Some of the things that we do are required and a lot of the things we do, we're the only

[2:18:14] want to do these things. And so those types of programs and proposals will

[2:18:19] rate higher. And so we created a matrix and you can see the scoring if you have

[2:18:24] any feedback on this scoring or any of the items. I'm a feel free to reach out to

[2:18:29] me but we will do orientation this week and we are working very, very

[2:18:35] diligently and especially in finance and across our departments to prepare all

[2:18:39] of that information that the community results team gets to look at. We have a

[2:18:43] staff results team, our community and staff result team will primarily focus on general

[2:18:50] governmental programs, and so those are the things that are, again, primarily tax funded

[2:18:54] programs. And then we have an internal team that's going to work on our enterprise funds

[2:19:00] and so all of our utility funds, so we're working a parallel process because we thought it

[2:19:04] would probably be a lot for some groups to look at some well over 100 different programs.

[2:19:10] So we do a lot as a city, and I think this will be a fun process to sort of open the doors and help people advise on

[2:19:18] prioritizing

[2:19:18] signatures for the city. So with that, I

[2:19:23] Can stand for any questions and we'll turn it back to the mayor. Questions from CM Andrew?

[2:19:30] Josh

[2:19:35] Yeah, hey, not much of a report. I do want to say a big thank you to

[2:19:41] city staff and city council for their support with dealing with my kiddo going through his surgery. Good news was there's a little bit bigger than we thought but super successful and he's already chasing our caps around the house making dinosaur noises, so I called out a victory.

[2:20:07] But yeah, that was an update. Thank you to everybody.

[2:20:12] Thank you.

[2:20:13] Glad to hear that.

[2:20:13] Yeah, glad things worked out.

[2:20:15] David.

[2:20:17] Let's see, light on meetings.

[2:20:19] So I attended.

[2:20:21] I was asked to participate in a task force at Stacey, who's left now,

[2:20:25] put together to evaluate some refinements to the chapter nine, chapter two,

[2:20:33] or the comp plan, the old chapter nine, the new chapter two, and it's mostly related to zeroed in on policy and goals and that kind of thing.

[2:20:41] So, Council Mayor Goodlow was also on that with me.

[2:20:45] And it was, I give Stacey a lot of credit.

[2:20:48] It was a very productive conversation, but it wasn't exactly linear.

[2:20:53] So credit to her for sifting through all of that.

[2:20:57] And then I attended, just out of my own interest, I attended a American Planning Association

[2:21:03] webinar on the new housing bill.

[2:21:06] And basically, it's planning for housing reform in the 21st century.

[2:21:10] So it's all the elements that go with that bill that Congress passed this year, that will

[2:21:14] be unfolding here in the years to come.

[2:21:17] Then Finance Committee, I get the detailed briefing, what we heard tonight, and Jerk, again,

[2:21:21] just, it's always amazing the detail that she put in the effort she puts into this and

[2:21:26] staff that pull all this stuff together for us. So much appreciated. And then last week I was

[2:21:33] able to attend the behavioral health court graduation. And it's if you haven't done it and you're

[2:21:41] interested in kind of getting a feel for how the community works. I think there are a lot of really

[2:21:46] good stories coming out of that and a lot of people put a lot of time into that. So that was that was a

[2:21:52] highlight and then I was able to attend one of the performances of our Shakespeare in

[2:21:59] the park.

[2:21:59] So once again our downtown or Unity Park is becoming a venue and even though the smoke

[2:22:05] canceled the Thursday event for us it was able to see Friday.

[2:22:08] So one of our own city staff in fact was prominent on stage, I was shocked so Mark did a great

[2:22:15] job.

[2:22:16] Mark Red was quite good, and I know whether I saw there, I think Kelly did some work for the posters and stuff.

[2:22:23] So it's nice to see our city staff getting involved in community events, so that's all I had.

[2:22:28] Thank you.

[2:22:29] I attended the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Recovery Board annual meeting where we

[2:22:37] forwarded on a number of grant proposals for fish habitat kinds of projects.

[2:22:46] And also attended a, I guess, a listening tour from Department of Ecology, Washington Water Futures.

[2:22:57] Just, it was,

[2:23:01] yeah, talking about water.

[2:23:03] Is there bad news?

[2:23:04] I think nothing too happy in that, I'm sure.

[2:23:07] It wasn't, yeah, I guess the background.

[2:23:11] Yeah, we could be worse.

[2:23:16] The have coming up this week, the Transportation Commission, the Environmental Commission

[2:23:24] and the Utility Commission meetings, as well as meeting a group of Japanese students

[2:23:30] on Friday and some three decarbonization consultant interviews.

[2:23:39] So,

[2:23:43] okay, so I did coffee with council a couple of weeks ago with Mayor Elliott and we had

[2:23:51] a really nice attendance, I thought. Good conversations about several different topics.

[2:23:58] I did attend the task force meeting for chapter 2 for the comp plan.

[2:24:05] And I think it had been a really good meeting.

[2:24:08] A lot of lights went on in people's heads

[2:24:11] of what we're really trying to accomplish

[2:24:12] with that chapter in the goals.

[2:24:14] And so that made it really productive.

[2:24:18] I think it'll be a little easier going forward

[2:24:21] because of that.

[2:24:23] Library Board was canceled because there's

[2:24:25] some big library thing going on this month.

[2:24:30] So that kind of took the place of the meeting.

[2:24:33] I mean, at Parsley Rec last week, we got kind of an update on the status of where the feasibility

[2:24:41] study is with the pool and the future of it and what we're doing, kind of an outline

[2:24:46] of the work plan.

[2:24:49] So that was really interesting and we should have, I forgot what they said with this in the

[2:24:56] year, early next spring, we should have a report back on that.

[2:25:00] And I think something like that, I don't remember, but that work is going on.

[2:25:06] So we should sit soon.

[2:25:10] Cog had a special subcommittee meeting with the folks from CWU who are helping with the

[2:25:17] implementation of the economic development work, particularly with the role of the executive

[2:25:26] director in the scope of work for the next couple of years. There was a presentation

[2:25:32] at the COG meeting and there was concern among some of the folks who are already involved

[2:25:38] with economic development work that there's some overlap of being proposed. Work week

[2:25:43] done, it's already been done. So we had a meeting to get that all squared away and it was

[2:25:50] was very interesting and I think everybody's happy with the plan that we had moving forward.

[2:25:57] So that was last week.

[2:26:01] Our executive director is doing impressive work without, still without an office.

[2:26:11] I think he's still without an office but he had had his little work tablet for 24 hours

[2:26:16] when we met with him when that meeting happened last week.

[2:26:20] So we're slowly getting there and it's obvious to me he's going to need some staff support

[2:26:25] pretty quick to be able to do all the stuff that's lined out for him.

[2:26:31] So that was a good meeting.

[2:26:34] Other than that, I haven't done anything in the last two weeks.

[2:26:39] Sir.

[2:26:40] Except a lot of yard work.

[2:26:43] Okay, so my work life has been a bit chaotic, so unfortunately my reports are pretty minimal.

[2:26:50] KitKom, there's a lot.

[2:26:52] We're still talking radios and we're getting staffed and we're just doing a great job for

[2:26:55] us and so I always let him speak to it more than me.

[2:26:59] Unfortunately, because of that hectic work life right now, I missed my art commission meeting

[2:27:03] this week.

[2:27:04] But I am super happy and proud of the LTCH for helping with the upcoming rec center.

[2:27:11] that's a big support and I'm sorry and then I have another meeting coming up

[2:27:16] later this month and I was also fortunate enough to see the Shakespeare in

[2:27:20] the park. I didn't know it was going on half the time because I don't know

[2:27:23] Shakespeare but very entertaining nonetheless.

[2:27:30] Over the last few months all the

[2:27:33] fire departments in Conor Tessie County have been rated by what's called the

[2:27:35] Washington State Survey and Radiance Bureau and there's a score attached and that

[2:27:40] That correspondingly affects your fire insurance rates.

[2:27:43] For businesses it's significant for residential properties many times.

[2:27:47] It's a smaller portion.

[2:27:49] I requested sending here anything back from them.

[2:27:51] I requested kick-com scores and our scores are up, which is cool.

[2:27:55] So I'm trying to figure out what we did to improve our scores, which overall positively affects the rate here is here.

[2:28:01] I don't know what KVFR's rating is, I don't know if it changed, I kind of doubt it did.

[2:28:06] There are four out of 10 ones the best and that's where we've been stuck for a very long

[2:28:11] time.

[2:28:12] But that would be through KBFR.

[2:28:15] I spent a bunch of time in Kansas City talking to federal officials about wild land, it's

[2:28:22] depressing, it's going to get worse, that's all I'm talking about.

[2:28:26] D-DAC is tomorrow, they're going to do a coordinating meeting with the ADU group, they're going

[2:28:30] to meet first at the courthouse, then go to the ADU meeting, so that's a tie there.

[2:28:34] We've got Cog tomorrow, the EMS meeting was Thursday, this is more good news, transfers

[2:28:40] are almost inevitably moving, EMS transfers away from hospitals, nursing homes, and such

[2:28:46] are almost assuredly moving outside the fire department.

[2:28:51] They've started that process, it's very contentious, I can guarantee you it will cost you more and

[2:28:57] the service level will be lower. It may cost you more in two or three different ways.

[2:29:01] So pay attention to that and have input if you care about that.

[2:29:04] Went to the springwood?

[2:29:05] Can I ask, does that mean higher contracting with an ambulance service?

[2:29:11] And that's almost assuredly the outcome in this way to probably double the cost for the transfer.

[2:29:18] So based on the rates they charge other communities.

[2:29:22] Springwood Ranch, the water retention.

[2:29:25] Went there too.

[2:29:25] That was awesome, it was really cool to see a project that looks like it'll basically benefit everybody and be a pretty good investment of a lot of dollars, but a lot of it federal and state money and a really cool outcome for the tribe and it just I was trying to find out who loses in this whole thing and maybe a few sheep that can't swim.

[2:29:47] That's about it.

[2:29:49] I wanted to just totally endorse the coffee with council since we've gone to something

[2:29:55] that's co-located with an event is absolutely worth it.

[2:29:58] I'm not saying it's not good to interact with people.

[2:30:00] Well, but when it's two people, it's the same two people. So having it in advance, we need to absolutely continue doing that. So that's it. And I'm pretty adjourned.

[2:30:14] Yes, sir.

City Council Meeting

Transcript