[0:02] This conference will not please start the recording.

[0:06] Good evening. Tonight is uh what are we? We're uh July 12th, 2026. And I'd like

[0:12] to call tonight's work session to order. Or is this August? It is August. I'm

[0:18] already I'm way off in my date. Look at that. August 12th, 2026. And I'd like to

[0:23] call tonight's uh work session to order. Um, clerk, can I get a roll call vote on

[0:29] this?

[0:34] » Council member Ravaro >> present.

[0:37] » Council member Casper. >> Uh, Council Member Casper and Bole are

[0:41] both out of town, but we're going to be calling in or trying to call in for the

[0:44] workshop. Uh, if not, they'll be in on the council meeting.

[0:48] » Is he okay? >> Yeah, sure. Um um

[0:51] » you just need a >> council member Bole

[0:56] » present.

[1:00] » Oh, he muted. >> Council member Bole, can you hear us?

[1:04] » Yep, I can hear you guys. Okay. Can you hear me?

[1:07] » Perfect. >> Wonderful.

[1:09] » We're in the middle of a roll call. Council member.

[1:11] » Yep. Present. >> Council member France.

[1:16] » Present. >> Council member Cerviny. present.

[1:25] » Mayor, Mayor Tom. >> Yeah, I'm here.

[1:27] » Thank you, clerk. >> All right. Tonight, we do have a

[1:30] presentation. This is a comprehensive plan elements prior to final adoption.

[1:34] Uh, we do have WSP presenting. Do we know who who from WSP is presenting? Is

[1:39] it Marty? It is. Marty, are you with us tonight?

[1:43] » Yes. Can you hear me? >> I can. How are you?

[1:46] » Okay, good. How about you guys? >> Great. Great.

[1:49] » Good. I also have Alec Agarola joining me. We're going to tag team the uh slide

[1:55] deck that we've got teed up for the work session.

[1:59] » Perfect. All the way from New York. >> He's from New York. Yes. And I'm from

[2:03] downtown Vancouver. >> Hard to get away this afternoon.

[2:07] » Sounds good. All right. Well, the mic is yours.

[2:10] » All right. Great. Um, I'm gonna have somebody get to this slide deck and I'll

[2:15] probably one of us are gonna be we're going to be saying next slide, please.

[2:20] Um, so next slide, please.

[2:25] So, we just wanted to brief the the mayor, city council, and planning

[2:29] commission on the cl the comp plan update that we've been working on for

[2:34] before my time at WSP, which has been about a year and a half. Alex been

[2:39] through uh this plan update since its inception. Uh we want to review the

[2:44] community engagement and vision portion of the uh effort. Uh kind of call your

[2:51] attention to some of the plan elements, specifically the new plan elements and

[2:56] some sticking points to a few of them. Uh we have made some uh code amendments

[3:03] to implement

[3:09] to implement your comp plan and uh want to touch a bit on the preferred land use

[3:16] alternative which has been around and around and around uh with uh Clark

[3:21] County and other folks. So, um, I'll jump down to the next slide and

[3:27] I think Alex's going to do a little bit of, uh, a refresher on all the community

[3:32] engagement and outreach that he's been a part of since the beginning.

[3:39] » Thanks, Marty. Um, I'm assuming everyone can hear me. Okay. Um, thanks for having

[3:45] us again. Um, it's been a minute since I've uh, been virtually or in person in

[3:50] the center, so happy to be here. Um but want to touch base on community

[3:55] engagement for the comp plan. Um from the inception of this comp plan um

[4:00] there's a public particip participation plan that was drafted um with city staff

[4:05] and vetted through the planning commission and city council back in

[4:09] 2023. And this plan set the framework for all the events and um public

[4:15] engagement methods as shown here. Um as you can see there's been two open

[4:20] houses. um one in March of 2024 and then another in January 2025. A handful of

[4:26] tableabling sessions um at various uh city events like uh our days and um the

[4:33] farmers market at the listener church and then um the city's website had a

[4:39] dedicated web page for the comprehensive plan update um just giving you the who,

[4:44] what, how, and why for the comprehensive plan. And then um we also had several

[4:50] fact sheets, physical printouts that were handed out at community events. Um

[4:55] I believe there's a stack at one point at the front desk there at city hall um

[4:59] to provide details about the comp plan with a QR code to the web page. And then

[5:05] um as several of the planning commission members and the city council members

[5:09] know, a lot of workshops were held with um this whole planning process with the

[5:15] various elements, the land use alternative and so forth. Um and so um

[5:21] we're finally getting to the horizon of this project. Um and all this engagement

[5:26] was used to establish the vision for the cent's future and inform and update the

[5:31] various comp plan policies and the preferred land use alternative which

[5:34] we'll be going over here briefly. So I'll go on to the next slide and hand it

[5:39] back to Marty. Yeah, very quickly to the um just the

[5:44] the highest level uh primer on this is we're updating this plan

[5:50] because it's a periodic update required under the law and Clark County kind of

[5:56] drives the plan update um calendar, if you will, with first

[6:03] starting out with a 20-year growth allocation of population and employment

[6:09] and at a very high level. Um the county allocated 20 years of growth to the year

[6:15] 2045. Currently, Lent sits at about 4,200

[6:20] people and the growth allocation is to um accommodate growth to about 8,800

[6:26] people and the jobs number you have currently is between 800 and a,000 jobs

[6:32] and we're planning for roughly 2100 in the year 2045. So,

[6:39] we're part of the region that updates all of the cities of are updating uh

[6:43] plans along with Clark County. Uh two um critical pieces I wanted to mention.

[6:50] There are new affordable housing requirements under the law. So, the

[6:54] housing element has some treatments um and provisions that that I'll kind of

[7:00] speak to on this next slide. Uh there's also a new climate resiliency chapter

[7:07] that um all of the cities are uh required to to adopt. Uh because the

[7:15] center doesn't meet the threshold of I think it's 6,000 people. Um the climate

[7:19] element speaks to climate resiliency only and not greenhouse gas and vehicle

[7:25] miles traveled reduction. So the climate element that you have will be for

[7:30] climate resiliency. Um this slide here kind of gives you a

[7:35] sense of what uh the housing piece looks like. And the um

[7:43] the the requirement is to is to provide a land supply for enough affordable

[7:50] housing in these various income bands. And I kind of call I call this attention

[7:57] uh the commerce income bands that they've called out in the in the

[8:02] guidance is uh based on area median area median

[8:07] income AMI and it's 0 to 30, 30 to 50, 50 to 80, 80 to 120 and then over 120 of

[8:15] AMI. So, we're looking at uh housing numbers that would um

[8:22] would t these income bands. Um so, you had a uh a housing needs assessment

[8:30] and strategy u put together um that informs the the housing element. So,

[8:37] um you'll see plan policies and some directions in that that element that uh

[8:44] come out of these out of these reports

[8:51] and I'm going to have Alec pick the next slide.

[8:57] Thanks, Marty. Um so, the first element we're looking at is chapter one, the

[9:02] land use element. Um, this is probably the most important and foundational

[9:07] element of the comp plan and it kind of sets up the foundation to all the other

[9:12] elements of the comprehensive plan. Um, and the land use element serves as the

[9:16] community's blueprint for how and where future growth should occur in the

[9:19] center. And the element establishes land use designations, de development

[9:23] policies, and strategies to accommodate um projected population and employment

[9:28] growth in the center while also maintaining the city's small town

[9:31] character. Um the land use element was updated for the latest latest city

[9:36] demographics allocations as Marty discussed for housing population and

[9:42] jobs and also the preferred land use alternative.

[9:47] Um and then with the impact fees, um there's or I should say I should preface

[9:54] um there's some development code related elements to this um per state

[9:58] requirements or the growth management act GMA. Um we updated impact fees in

[10:04] the code to allow deferral for for multifamily housing so they can defer

[10:09] impact fees until later into like building permits and so forth. um to

[10:15] just uh provide a mechanism for them to develop and then um requiring short plat

[10:21] subdivisions to establish adequate public facilities and update approval

[10:25] expiration periods. And then another piece is uh providing clear and

[10:29] objective design standards. Um this is a state requirement where any design

[10:34] standards have to be um concrete and not subjective and loose to interpretation.

[10:41] And so we went through the code and helped clean that up. And then next

[10:45] slide um is the preferred land use alternative. Um and so this is the

[10:53] city's preferred land use alternative that was reviewed and approved by the

[10:56] council some time ago. As Marty hinted at, this has gone through a long process

[11:01] with Clark County. Um but thankfully and gratefully Clark County uh recognized uh

[11:07] the city's preferred land use alternative and it was adopted by the

[11:10] council um earlier this year for assessment in their um final

[11:15] environmental impact statement for growth management. Um and the county

[11:20] council recognized recognized the need for urban growth expansion areas which

[11:25] I'll highlight here in a second. Um so with all the input we got from the

[11:30] citizens and land owners and all the visioning through the open houses and

[11:34] tableabling events while also um engaging with the city council and

[11:39] planning commission and city staff. Um we've landed here with the preferred

[11:42] land use alternative. Um and also during this process the land

[11:48] use alternative recognized the sub area planning effort we did with Tim Tim and

[11:53] Landing and downtown. Um and then this has gone further

[11:57] environments between the county and city staff. Um so to highlight some of the

[12:02] areas we have area one and two. Um those two areas were are currently zoned um

[12:09] low density residential and they're planned to be zoned as medium density

[12:13] residential to accommodate those lower income bands. Um I I believe a few

[12:18] properties in area 2 have already been reszoned recently um and approved by the

[12:23] city. Um area three, this is a couple properties uh within the urban growth

[12:31] area but um not annexed into the city yet. Um, and as we were massaging

[12:37] numbers, um, we just want to recognize once that's annexed into the city, it

[12:42] will be low density residential, um, just to, um, balance out our housing

[12:46] numbers. And then areas four and five, um, these are some of our expansion

[12:53] areas. Uh, they would be expanded north and south of the junction plan with the

[12:58] junction plan zoning, which is shown in that beige there. And then as you go

[13:03] southwest across I5 is area six. And this would be expansion area for

[13:09] employment or light industrial zoning.

[13:16] And then on to the next slide please. So we move to chapter two the

[13:20] transportation element. Um this was largely informed by the transportation

[13:25] capital facilities plan which the city council recently adopted a few months

[13:30] ago. Um so again that informs this element and this was using uh the CFP to

[13:38] update existing conditions for the trans transportation network. So roadways uh

[13:44] trails uh bike paths, transit and so forth. And

[13:49] then uh detailing the future conditions and demand for these facilities as the

[13:54] city grows. and then establishing six and 20 year capital improvement plans or

[14:00] current and potential funding sources. Um and the projects that were identified

[14:05] included widening of the center road, pedestrian roadway improvements along

[14:09] Pacific Highway and um the planned round roundabouts throughout the city.

[14:15] And then some code related requirements. Um, typically when a development comes

[14:20] in, they have to assess traffic impacts on roadways and if those impacts cause a

[14:26] level of service to decrease to substandard

[14:30] uh levels of service, then they have to um develop mechanisms to offset those

[14:38] and develop like a roundabout or impact fees or so forth. However, um per state

[14:44] law, there's exclusions to these and I5 is an exclusion to that. So, if a

[14:49] development a development will have to um study I5 for impacts uh for

[14:54] transportation and level of service and then um a big piece here is also

[15:01] electric vehicle infrastructure. I'm just updating language allowing battery

[15:07] energy storage for electric vehicles and charging stations um as needed and

[15:13] allowing these in the downtown commercial and downtown mixed use zones.

[15:18] And then uh tandem parking and parking standards. These are related to

[15:23] residential parking standards. Um just allowing these for residential uses and

[15:28] up updating parking space dimensions per state requirements.

[15:33] Next slide, please. Um, and I'll be handing over to Marty.

[15:40] » So, the I mentioned earlier about the the housing element. So, there are not

[15:45] only are there income bands that are required, but there's types of housing

[15:50] that are required. Now, I can touch on some of the code amendments. They

[15:54] include permanent permanent supportive housing and transitional housing.

[16:00] that sometimes you'll hear that the acronym PSH which stands for permanent

[16:04] supporting supportive housing. Um included in this requirement again is

[16:10] the income bands that are you know less than 30% 30 to 50 50 to 80 80 to 100 80

[16:19] 100 to 120 this based on area median income and then over 120 uh 120 AMI.

[16:27] There are code amendments that are part of this that that Alec can touch on

[16:31] because he's been working on the more of the code amendment side.

[16:36] Thanks Marty. Um so for permanent supportive housing PSH and transitional

[16:41] housing um these must be allowed in any zone where residences and hotels are

[16:46] allowed. Um but uh these are being conditionally allowed in the center with

[16:51] specific use requirements. So if these are being permitted um they'll have to

[16:55] meet specific standards. Um, some examples of permanent supportive housing

[17:00] include apartments with on-site case management and behavioral health

[17:05] services and veteran supportive housing. And then some examples of transitional

[17:10] housing include family transitional housing facility and living apartments

[17:14] for homeless youth. Um, and the second item here is

[17:19] emergency shelters and housing. Uh, these have to be allowed in any zones in

[17:24] which hotels are allowed. And on the center, this is just the junction plan

[17:27] zone. Again, um if these are cited on the center, they'll be a conditional use

[17:33] and have to meet specific criteria once if for citing those in the city. And

[17:38] then lastly, it's co-living housing. Um this is housing uh where uh it's a

[17:45] shared living arrangement where each person has their own room and like

[17:49] lockable room. Um but they share a communal space. So usually the living

[17:53] area and kitchen. Um, and these have to be allowed in zones where six units or

[17:58] more are permitted. So that's essentially any zone that's not low

[18:02] density residential that allows other residential uses. So your medium density

[18:06] residential, high density, and mixed use.

[18:11] Next slide, please. Chapter four is capital facilities and

[18:17] utilities. Um, this is pretty much everything that keeps the city running.

[18:22] Um so the city met with various service providers for future facility plans. Um

[18:27] this included service providers like uh Clark Kelllets Fire and Rescue, Lester

[18:32] School District, Fort Vancouver Libraries, CPU, the Clark County

[18:36] Sheriff's Office. Um so we're updating various facility plans for sewer, water,

[18:42] storm water, schools, libraries, etc. and updating the existing conditions of

[18:48] these facilities but also um updating the future needs for these uh various

[18:56] providers and services as the city is growing.

[19:01] And then uh code related again another GMA state requirement is the central

[19:06] public facilities. Um these are essentially uh

[19:11] facilities that are larger in nature and more difficult to site just because the

[19:16] types of uses they are like airports, state educational facilities and

[19:20] regional transportation facilities. Um I'd like to highlight there's none of

[19:25] these existing in the center as you you could imagine and there's none planned

[19:29] but the state requires us to have some language in the code to support these if

[19:33] these are to be cited in the future. Next slide. And uh looks like I'll hand

[19:40] it back to Marty. >> So yeah, the economic development uh

[19:44] chapter or element. Um key to this is the b the urban growth

[19:50] boundary expansion to the junction where you have junction planning and mixed use

[19:55] in that area that would both accommodate jobs allocation and housing for the

[20:02] affordable housing segment. Um, we we also in this element recognize the the

[20:09] two sub area plans that were adopted a year ago last summer and specifically

[20:14] the downtown sub area plan. Um the uh the boundary expansion we I'll touch on

[20:22] a little bit later in next steps, but it's been a big piece to the the work

[20:27] we've been doing with Clark County and the city to

[20:32] kind of dial in the right numbers for for jobs and and population because we

[20:36] have uh kind of a goal of hitting the the allocation and not over capacity or

[20:41] under capacity. So uh part of the the approach to is to

[20:46] again to recognize the sub area plans that will um help on the job side as

[20:53] well as some of the affordable housing side. So

[20:57] that's for that's chapter five. Uh next slide please.

[21:03] um the parks open parks rack open space chapter um really is just uh we're

[21:09] refreshing that based on the recently updated 2024 uh parks plan. So we're

[21:16] incorporating a lot of the goals and policies and the

[21:20] the capital facilities pieces of the 2024 parks plan into this element of the

[21:27] comp plan. So, um, some of some of you will have

[21:32] seen this through the adoption of the 2024 parks plan.

[21:37] Next slide, please.

[21:43] We have a number of what we call minor minor elements. They're not um, growth

[21:46] management has several mandatory elements that you have to have as part

[21:51] of your comp plan, including like land use and housing and transportation.

[21:57] Um some of these other chapters uh that we've got here 7 through 10 include

[22:03] uh a historic uh historic archaeological and cultural preservation uh element. We

[22:09] have an urban growth and annexation element. the environment element. Uh

[22:14] Alec will touch a little bit on that because it has to do with the uh city's

[22:19] requirements to protect identify and protect critical areas ordinances like

[22:24] wetlands, steep slopes, habitat areas, floodways, uh critical aquifer recharge

[22:31] areas and and the like. And then there's a a government element that uh I think

[22:36] we touch on um uh the city's uh approach to good governance and public

[22:44] participation and engagement. So those are the um the minor elements that we we

[22:51] uh call out in this particular instance. and then Alex's going to go through some

[22:57] of the uh critical areas uh ordinances that are part of the environment

[23:03] chapter.

[23:08] » Thanks Marty. Um we can proceed to the next slide please. Um so as Marty

[23:14] indicated uh I'll be going over the critical areas ordinance or more simply

[23:18] put the CAO. Um this is chapter 18300 of the city's code. Um critical areas as uh

[23:27] identified by the state are geologically hazardous areas, critical aquifer

[23:31] recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat areas, wetlands and floodways.

[23:38] Um and so we updated and added several definitions per new state definitions

[23:43] from um just state mandates but also from various agencies that the state um

[23:50] elects to uh put out regulations for these various critical areas. And then

[23:56] we also updated the designations or buffers for uh various critical areas um

[24:02] including the caras or critical aquifer recharge areas geohhazards organoid oaks

[24:07] and wetlands. Um and just noting in the image on the right is an example of a

[24:12] critical area which is a wellhead protection area. Um this is a pretty

[24:16] large one this bullseye and covering um most of western the center. Going on to

[24:22] the next slide.

[24:25] Um a another piece of the critical areas ordinance or the CAO is um if impacts

[24:33] are made to these critical areas um uh the state law requires no net loss. So

[24:40] some sort of mitigation has to be put in play. Um and so we've updated the

[24:45] mitigation requirements per guidance from WDFW

[24:49] uh for Oregon white oaks and riparian areas along streams and then for

[24:53] wetlands. Um this is per ecology guidance and then also uh typically when

[24:59] a application comes through and they're impacting some sort of critical area

[25:03] they have to provide a critical area report for those critical areas that are

[25:08] impacted documenting um those impacts and then how to mitigate to ensure no

[25:13] net loss. So we've updated those for a slew of these critical areas. Um and

[25:20] then going on to the next slide, this is the final chapter of the

[25:25] comprehensive plan which is the climate resilience element. This is a brand new

[25:29] element per this periodic update. I believe was introduced as a new state

[25:33] bill in 2022 or 20 I think it was 2022 for climate

[25:38] resilience. As Marty Marty noted, um the center is not required to plan for

[25:44] greenhouse gas reductions um just because it didn't meet the population

[25:48] threshold, but has to plan for climate resiliency. Um and climate resiliency

[25:53] planning is about preparing today for tomorrow's challenges. Helps communities

[25:57] anticipate climate related risks, protect people and infrastructure, and

[26:00] build a safer, healthier, and more resilient future for future generations

[26:04] in the center. Go on to the next slide. Uh this covers uh updates we've done to

[26:12] implement this new chapter. Um so starting um a couple years ago, the

[26:18] county had a consultant perform a vulnerability and risk assessment for

[26:23] the county and and its cities. Um and so this risk assessment identified specific

[26:29] natural hazards in the center and how those would increase and impact the

[26:34] center. Um and the highest ranking of these was extreme heat and extreme

[26:38] precipitation and storm. Um but due to um

[26:44] public engagement and also a recent wildfire a few years back um is

[26:48] wildfires was also determined just locally as a higher risk as well just

[26:53] due to again the imminent risk of that and a recent occurrence of it in the

[26:58] center. Um and using uh and identifying this

[27:04] information for natural hazards in the center helps us frame how to implement

[27:09] goals and policies to uh reduce these risks and plan for um these to happen in

[27:16] the future. And then going on to the next slide. Um the city has an overall

[27:21] climate resiliency goal which is the center shall enhance community

[27:25] preparedness, response and recovery efforts that build resilience to the

[27:29] impacts of wildfires, floods and other hazards worsened by global climate

[27:33] change. And then you see 12 different topic areas um related to climate and

[27:39] climate resiliency that we have within the resiliency chapter of the

[27:44] comprehensive plan. And these touch on various elements such as transportation,

[27:49] uh, hazard mitigation, economic development.

[27:53] And I will hand it back to Marty. We can go to the next slide.

[28:08] » Marty, I believe you're muted. >> Yes. Sorry about that. Uh yeah, this

[28:14] this slide puts in context the the city's plan update relative to Clark

[28:19] County's lead on the environmental impact statement that was produced last

[28:26] year, October 1st. Um aside from the city of Vancouver,

[28:32] all the other cities and Clark County put together a joint

[28:38] draft environment draft environmental impa impact statement.

[28:42] uh the cities coordinated with Clark County and pro providing information to

[28:47] to release that that draft EIS. There was a 60-day comment period that

[28:54] ended uh toward the end of November. Um, from that, uh, the county went through

[29:02] an a protracted, uh, process to narrow down a a preferred land use alternative.

[29:12] from that preferred land use alternative which includes the city's urban growth

[29:16] boundary expansion to the junction and west on the west side of I5.

[29:22] They uh they produced the final environmental impact statement and that

[29:26] was recently published uh July 24, 2026.

[29:32] I will mention that intervening the October 1st dead uh

[29:41] date of the draft EIS and the and the final EIS of July 24. Clark County, they

[29:49] did undertake an agricultural resource lands uh study. They got a very very

[29:55] late start. Um I think they started putting some things together last

[30:02] Julyish. Um they produced a report in November

[30:08] that informed um some of their efforts through

[30:13] the uh final EIS. And as the mayor and coun some council members are are aware

[30:20] that the county council held a number of hearings on the preferred alternative um

[30:26] and whether or not the boundary expansion was going to be part of that

[30:31] preferred alternative or not. Um in the end a majority of the clar county

[30:37] council adopted a preferred alternative that does include the boundary

[30:41] expansion. Um so we put together our our ef our

[30:46] efforts relative to these you know October 1st July 21st uh uh due dates.

[30:53] Um we have worked with Angie and your staff in putting together a seed

[30:58] determination for the city's comprehensive plan draft comprehensive

[31:02] plan. Um and it's going to be published I believe the 14th. Angie knows the

[31:10] publication dates but it's it's happening now. Um this sea determination

[31:14] is is out or will be out. There's a 14-day

[31:18] comment period. Um we also have

[31:23] um some commerce checklist. Next slide please.

[31:31] These are the these are the next steps. Um mentioned the you know final EIS from

[31:35] the county produced just you know really a few weeks ago. Um we've been kind of

[31:42] toggling off that date to issue a city to a city sea um which has been done. Um

[31:50] and then we have a commerce checklist which has a 60-day runout um meaning

[31:57] that the the city cannot adopt a plan until after the 60-day

[32:03] notice um and review period has been exhausted through commerce. We'll be

[32:08] getting comments from them um as as we've submitted the the checklist to

[32:14] there's a a checklist that that they have us uh all of the cities do. So um

[32:20] we will be um scheduling with with work with your staff. We'll be scheduling

[32:25] hearings with the planning commission and hearings with the county uh the city

[32:29] council and uh we'll be adopting the comp plan sometime in the middle part or

[32:36] latter part of October.

[32:42] And that's uh kind of the 30-minute run through of of the plan update and where

[32:47] we sit today. and Alec and I will be happy to answer questions that you might

[32:51] have or issues that you might want to raise.

[32:56] » Real quick, Marty, um I received an email today from the county and it was

[33:00] an update on the I think it was an update on SEIPA

[33:04] addendum. Do you know anything about that?

[33:06] » Oh, yeah. >> Can you explain because I had through

[33:09] and I I didn't quite capture >> Sure. They they they have um I didn't

[33:15] get into the the nitty-gritty weeds of things, but they have what's called a

[33:20] vacant buildable lands model where they run a land capacity analysis of you have

[33:27] x number of acres and those x number of acres can hold y number of households.

[33:32] Um, I think that addendum had some recalculations of of the housing counts

[33:41] from what they originally published and it was like, oh, we need to make a

[33:45] correction here. I think I have that same email. If I if I can find it here

[33:49] real quick. Um,

[33:52] » I'll forward it over to you, Marty, just so so you have it.

[33:56] » Um, I think I have it. Does it show? >> It's It's coming to your inbox now.

[34:02] Okay. Fortunately, we don't I don't see

[34:06] anything in Lenner that made that made changes in the income bands.

[34:16] There are some others that that get hit with uh changes to the to the um 80 to

[34:23] 100 and 100 to 120 and then the number of emergency beds that are for example

[34:29] that are um planned for in this Vancouver UG which would be not city

[34:36] limits but places like Hazel and Fida and Salmon Creek that are part of the

[34:41] Vancouver UG. >> Okay. I'll look at your I'll look at

[34:44] your email just to be sure I'm talking about the same addendum.

[34:48] » I I believe you are actually. >> Okay.

[34:53] Yeah. So, fortunately, you don't have a yellow box.

[34:59] We have other we have other yellow boxes to to just it's really an it's a it's

[35:03] probably as an addendum. It's it's a a point of clarification to

[35:09] uh to make on these on these um >> Okay.

[35:14] » on these income bands. So, >> okay. Thank you, Marty. Uh any

[35:20] questions, >> council commission?

[35:23] » Yes, I have a question. um on this um this little synopsis you

[35:31] just gave us. Does that have to do with the 1500 pages? Is this just a synopsis

[35:37] of that 1500 pages that the county just pass or put together as of July 26th?

[35:44] » Yeah, the 1500 pages. I'm I'm sure you're referencing maybe the final EIS

[35:49] that they published. >> Yes, that's uh from now through 20 uh

[35:54] 45. Yeah. Right. Right. >> And just just as a a bit of a

[36:02] maybe kind of coming back from the beginning is um we did provide uh you

[36:09] with a a memo that it's not a deep dive. It's kind of a like a shallow dive kind

[36:16] of um outlining some of the things that are part of this plan. It's more than

[36:21] this slide deck, but it's less than the comp plan itself because the comp plan

[36:25] and related documents hundreds of pages more than likely. So,

[36:31] but yeah, the county the county is I'm sure is voluminous and um it it also um

[36:37] they will capture all of the comments that were submitted

[36:42] into the draft EIS and then and then as they held their hearings on the

[36:48] preferred land use alternative, I'm sure that they're capturing all of those

[36:51] comments from the public and from others.

[36:55] » Yes, I attended some of those meeting and I put in my comments

[36:59] um when I hear talking about affordable housing, it was just a couple of weeks

[37:03] ago at a city council meeting >> that I talked about and shared many many

[37:09] things that happen when a builder is trying to build that adds on to the

[37:13] expense of the building. So, I don't know, you know, like for instance, uh

[37:20] this one builder because they had the white oak tree, they lost several lots

[37:25] and it cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Um there's a whole list. I

[37:30] don't need to go through all this because I just went through this list

[37:34] two weeks ago when I was at city council. So, I I have concerns of what

[37:39] how can a builder build affordable housing when there's all there's all

[37:43] kinds of delays or there's storm water or there's the underground power. I

[37:48] mean, the list just goes on and on. That adds to the project of the house. And in

[37:54] Washington state, uh what's considered affordable housing

[37:58] is 30% of what you what your income is for that year.

[38:03] So um it's a tough question. >> It's a very tough it's a very tough

[38:09] issue and there are no simple solutions. Um I I will say that you know land

[38:18] supply has something to do with it. If you constrain land supply,

[38:24] land values and prices will go up. Um that was one of the reasons you know the

[38:29] city was so intent on expanding the boundary is to get a little bit more

[38:33] land in the in its capacity so that and those lands that are served by public su

[38:39] uh sewer and water you can get more lots on on on property. Um, there's also,

[38:46] Alec mentioned this. Um, it's it's minor, but it's it's a step in the right

[38:52] direction when you pay impact fees. As long as I've known impact fees, you

[38:57] pay them at the time you you you pay for your building permit. Well, if it's a

[39:02] six-month build, you're paying carrying costs on that six months, and you've

[39:07] just added costs because you had to pay the impact fee. If you say, "Hey, we're

[39:12] not going to require the impact fee to be paid until like occupancy,"

[39:17] then you're not adding additional carrying costs onto onto that project.

[39:21] So, there are few there are some things that can be done.

[39:26] Um, I know some other smaller cities are are talking about whether or not a

[39:32] housing land trust is something that would be considered in the future, which

[39:38] means I've seen this actually recently where you basically buy the unit, but

[39:43] you don't buy the land. And as you build equity in the unit, you can sell the

[39:48] unit and and pull equity out, but the land stays with the trust.

[39:54] So yeah um it's my editorial comment is I see the prices of homes

[40:05] precoid postcoid and it's shocking absolutely shocking so um I think the

[40:12] other is that if you you know when you have a development code that allows for

[40:16] accessory dwelling units small lots um that helps as well you get more

[40:22] housing choice and more housing units hopefully

[40:27] staves off massive uh price increases.

[40:33] » That's kind of I've kind of editorialized a bit, but I'll I'll

[40:37] finish with that. >> I appreciate your comments. U my

[40:43] » question I guess is or statement is that the key word there is the code has to

[40:49] allow for it. We still need to have a seller, a buyer, a developer, and

[40:55] somebody else that actually wants to put a project like that together. It's not

[40:59] mandatory that it happens. The code just has to allow for it. Is that

[41:03] » correct? Correct. >> Correct. Yeah.

[41:06] » And the other piece very quickly is if you have a community that has good

[41:11] paying jobs, that helps on the affordability side, too. I mean,

[41:15] affordability is not just a a one-sided street. It's a two-sided street. You

[41:19] want to have jobs that pay well so that people can afford. You know, younger

[41:24] people, they get into a, you know, a rental situation first. They might have

[41:28] rent a duplex and eventually get into home ownership. But the other equation

[41:33] is to have jobs local in your community. And it helps with, you know, commuting.

[41:39] My, as a again editorial, my older son moved out of my house and he lives

[41:45] downtown Vancouver because he works in downtown Vancouver. And guess what?

[41:48] you're saving a lot of money in gas and insurance. So, there's something to be

[41:54] said of trying to attract local employment for your for your residents.

[42:00] » I know that I have worked on that and I'm I think everybody on this council

[42:04] has worked on trying to get uh jobs locally here.

[42:09] » Yes. >> So that people don't have to travel even

[42:12] just traveling uh you know a half hour drive to Vancouver or Portland. um this

[42:18] the gas and and the time because of the traffic gets worse each year. So

[42:23] » yes >> um there there's a lot a lot to consider

[42:26] and um when I saw this in in our packet today I don't know if other people in

[42:33] the planning commission here uh there's this title 18 development code which

[42:38] that what we're going to have to follow. So I asked Peter to print off a copy of

[42:43] that because I wanted to study that. What is it we have to that we have to do

[42:47] that has been already been passed?

[42:54] » Yeah. Yeah, please. Yeah. Do we have a microphone for Lance? Yeah, you can sit

[42:58] over.

[43:06] » Clerks, can we can clerks? Can we get a microphone over there? Thank you.

[43:11] » Okay. This is not a complaint, just an observation more than anything else. Um,

[43:16] looking at the comp plan, I looked at the 2100 houses we're supposed to be at

[43:21] at 2045 plus or right now. Um, it looks like about 1131 of them or 53% are going

[43:28] to be in the um, uh, the the area medium income of 80% or above. Um, and what

[43:38] that does is it breaks down to 311 homes of 268 to 418,000

[43:45] the selling price. 400 homes of 418,000 to 522,

[43:52] 234, 627 and up. So when I looked at that, it surprised me of how many town

[43:59] homes and multif family units we're going to need to build based on the

[44:04] current estate based on the current pricings of house houses. So just

[44:09] something to think about. Then the other side of it is is you know Alec already

[44:14] talked about the you know UG and the the the lower income and housing and etc

[44:20] those. So, just wanted to point out there's going to be I was surprised that

[44:25] there were more of the multi-medium density than there

[44:30] would be low density homes. >> Why does that surprise you though?

[44:36] » Um because of the the the raw number that

[44:41] we have to grow. I thought that there would be more single family homes, but

[44:45] based on where they talked about on the map and where they would be versus etc.,

[44:50] it looks like this proportionate appropriately, but I just wanted to make

[44:54] sure that we're aware of that. >> Right. And so during the process, we had

[44:59] different uh scenarios that we had to pick out of

[45:02] » and that happens to be the scenario that was chosen of it. So I I don't think

[45:06] anybody here is surprised by those numbers, but Okay.

[45:09] » Yeah. And if you notice, we're trying to keep a lot of those numbers on that side

[45:12] of the bridge as well, too. >> Perfect.

[45:14] » Yeah. >> Okay. All right. That's all I had.

[45:17] » Thank you. Uh, any other questions or comments,

[45:22] planning commission? Anybody else? Council.

[45:26] Okay. Uh, well, Marty, I think that's good. I I appreciate the update tonight.

[45:31] Um, I look forward to hearing when this is finalized and done because it's been

[45:34] a very long and tedious process the last three years.

[45:38] » Yes. Yes. Uh, I'll I'll commend uh the mayor and council and staff uh

[45:45] enduring um a plan update that is more than a year past the due date of June

[45:52] 30, 2025. Um it's been a trying

[45:58] uh collaboration I should say. Um and the fortunate thing is that uh regarding

[46:05] the preferred land use alternative, you know, mayor and council did a lot of

[46:10] yman's work convincing county council that the boundary expansion is the the

[46:15] the right way to go for your your vision and your your growth. So, I'm I was

[46:20] happy to see that. It was um touch and go as the mayor would know for a while.

[46:27] And yeah, we'll uh we'll coordinate with uh Tracy and Angie on um planning

[46:34] commission hearings leading to council hearings in October. So,

[46:41] » it'll be nice to uh get this over the goal line.

[46:45] » Well, >> and then we wait and then we wait for

[46:46] the appeals. >> I don't mean to laugh. I don't mean to

[46:50] laugh. >> Let's not talk about appeals now.

[46:53] » I won't those alone. Let's get let's get it over the goal line and and we'll go

[46:58] from there. >> Oh, you do.

[47:00] » Uh to do to cover all these uh you know preparedness, response, recovery

[47:05] efforts, build resilence, impact fires, floods, all that whole list. Then are we

[47:11] going to hire more staff the city that because that's a lot of work to put on

[47:15] Tracy and Angie? I'm It's just >> She wears an S on her chest over there.

[47:20] Supergirl. >> This is Supergirl. That's a lot of stuff

[47:26] to prepare. So, >> extra staff and extra workshops or lots

[47:31] of things to prepare for that. >> Yeah, agreed.

[47:36] » Um, all right. Well, thank you, Marty. Thank you, Alec. Appreciate tonight

[47:40] » and we will be in touch and talk soon. >> Okay. Have a great evening everyone.

[47:44] Thanks everyone. Have a great evening. >> Thank you again. At 6:19, I would like

[47:49] to close the uh work session and adjourn it. Thank you,

[47:56] » clerk. You can cancel the recording.

[48:02] » This conference will now be recorded.

[48:48] Clerk, please start the recording.

[48:59] » Are we good? >> Okay, perfect. Today is Wednesday,

[49:02] August 12th, 2026, and I'd like to call tonight's uh city council meeting to

[49:06] order. If we could all please rise for the pledge of

[49:09] » allegiance

[49:13] to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

[49:19] stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

[49:25] for all.

[49:30] Thank you, cler. Can I please have roll call?

[49:35] » Council member Ravar, >> present.

[49:37] » Council member Casper, >> I'm here.

[49:39] » Council member Bole, >> present.

[49:44] » Present. >> Council member France,

[49:48] » present. >> Council member Cerviny,

[49:51] » present. >> And Mayor Strobin,

[49:53] » I am here. Thank you, clerk. Thank you, everyone.

[49:57] Clerk, can we please call up any public comments from the audience?

[50:01] » Alco,

[50:16] have you seen the Eagle come into town? Yeah. Sitting there in the roundabout.

[50:23] Boy, have we got a lot of comments on that on Facebook. Boy, but you know what

[50:29] I want to talk about is that, you know, whether you look or think it's great or

[50:33] not great or whatever, you know, I I personally have my opinion. You know, I

[50:38] you know, you know, it's an eagle. It's looks pretty good. But I was up at the

[50:43] library and one of the girls there was reading the reflector and everything and

[50:47] she turned around to me and looked and said, "Wow, how much does this cost?"

[50:56] Well, you know, and so I asked around and I don't know, you know, I mean, who

[51:03] decided to get an eagle? I mean, all these decisions were made and where'

[51:08] this transparency go. You know, I you know, like I say, how much did it cost?

[51:15] Nobody seems to know. And that that that kind of bothers me a little bit. And so

[51:20] anyway, I'm bringing that down from just started with a conversation in the

[51:23] library that he asking people. You know, we're just not very transparent about

[51:28] that. Okay. Now that now on to something that's near and dear to my heart. The

[51:33] other day I was looking on Facebook and somebody had a for sale sign for hay and

[51:38] the city was pulling them up because it didn't have the little sticker on them.

[51:45] Well, this if you if you walk up West 14th from the city limit sign, there's

[51:52] all kinds of signs there that don't have the little sticker, you know, and you go

[51:57] down on the Pacific Highway, there's one there with no sticker. And that's just a

[52:01] symptom of the west. You live on the west side of town. You know, are we

[52:07] getting the public service or the police protection that we need over there?

[52:11] Because you never see them folks over there.

[52:14] And you know, I don't know. You know, are we are we single? You know, what's

[52:19] what's on a sign? You know, I I know that one sign's been there for at least

[52:23] a month and the other one has been there longer than that. and they're pulling

[52:27] signs for some farmer trying to sell us hay and you know leaving those alone out

[52:32] there. You know, we're just not getting the service we need out there. Let's

[52:37] see. Oh, this one was brought up yesterday just because

[52:42] there just after you cross the crosswalk

[52:47] to to what is that? Oh, what is that? Cedar.

[52:54] There's a drainage there along the side and evidently it's marked out so it

[53:00] looks like you are going to fix it. Well, somebody complained yesterday.

[53:03] Well, they ought to put something around there because you know I hid it every

[53:06] time and would somebody please say something at city council meeting. So

[53:11] anyway, that's that's that's for Eric, you know, but I drove by there without

[53:15] getting a hump, but for some reason he it's a pretty big drop there, but I'm

[53:19] sure because it's marked out that they're going to eventually get to it.

[53:23] Well, there's a concerned citizen that wants it fixed now. Thank you. God bless

[53:28] America.

[53:34] » No more comments from the audience. >> Thank you, clerk. Any of those uh public

[53:39] comments from uh people calling in, please press star six to unmute

[53:42] yourself. State your name and address for the record.

[53:49] » Clerk, do we have any callers? None. Looking like it.

[53:56] » Clerk, do we have any public comments to be read?

[53:59] » Uh, no public comments to be read. >> Perfect. Thank you, clerk. That brings

[54:04] us to the consent agenda. If there are no requests for any items to be removed,

[54:07] can I have a motion? >> Second.

[54:11] » It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor?

[54:14] » I I >> abstain.

[54:19] Motion passes. Thank you, council. Okay, mayor's report. Tomorrow, August

[54:25] 13th, we'll be hosting our blood drive at city hall. You can sign up to donate

[54:29] online at redcrossblood.org. There are very few afternoon and evening

[54:34] time slots available. Donors will be eligible to receive a $20 Amazon e gift

[54:38] card on behalf of the American Red Cross. Our rescheduled National Night

[54:44] Out date is Tuesday, August 18th at Holly Park from 4 to 6 PM. Stop by and

[54:48] visit with our local law enforcement, first responders, and firefighters.

[54:52] There will be free hot dogs, drinks, chips, root beer floats, and plenty of

[54:56] exciting activities. And I'd like to extend a thank you to the PepsiCo and

[55:00] Roser for sponsoring the drinks and hot dogs, as well as Free Delay and Lenter

[55:06] Lions for providing chips and root beer floats.

[55:11] And if anybody would like to know the cost of that, please give city hall a

[55:15] call and we'll get you that record. The Lewis River Mobile Food Bank will be at

[55:19] the Wheel Club Community Center on the 4th Sunday of each month from 2 to 4

[55:23] p.m. The food bank is open to all. Their next distribution date is Sunday, August

[55:28] 23rd. And this coming Sunday, we do have the

[55:32] Lenter Farmers Market, which will be at the Legacy Park. That's from uh 1:00

[55:36] p.m. to 5:00 pm and it'll be from this Sunday through October 25th. All right.

[55:43] Please come down, check it out. Uh maybe pick up some vegetables for the week.

[55:48] That's all I have. Uh next up is the attorney's report. Beth, are you with

[55:52] us? >> I'm with you. Hello everybody. I'll keep

[55:56] it short. I don't have anything to add. I hope everyone is enjoying the rest of

[56:00] the summer weather. Please always feel free to contact me if you have any

[56:03] questions. Perfect. Thank you, Beth. Council, any

[56:06] questions for the attorney? >> All right. Next up is council comments.

[56:11] Council member Varara. >> Um, well, I'll mention that I was in

[56:17] Levvenworth uh for a couple of days earlier.

[56:22] I think it was what day of the week is this? It was last week and it was for a

[56:26] budget budget meeting put on by association Washington cities. It's

[56:31] interesting to get together with people from other cities and hear how they're

[56:36] approaching uh things. And I know we have at least one person in the audience

[56:41] tonight that frequently reminds me that the budget is one of the most important

[56:46] things I can pay attention to. So I was grateful to be there.

[56:50] » That's it. >> Perfect. Thank you, Council Member.

[56:53] Council member Casper. >> Thank you. I don't have anything for the

[56:56] good of the order, so I'll pass my time along. Thank you, Council Member Bole.

[57:03] » Uh, hello everyone. I don't know if you can hear me well or not, but um I did an

[57:07] impromptu trip to Mount Reineer with the kids. We're doing some camping, but I

[57:12] hope everybody's having a good night. >> Thank you, Council Member France.

[57:19] » Well, July 13th, I attended the EMS um District 2 board, which is the one of

[57:26] the committees that I'm on. I don't have anything to report from that, but I like

[57:30] to bring that up. Um, also in reading this book, Little by Little, uh, 13 Ways

[57:38] to Kill Your Community, and the reason I'm reading is because so

[57:42] we can do the opposite of that. Uh, Doug Griffith gave a fantastic talk at the

[57:48] um, AWC, Associated Washington Cities training that I went to the end of June.

[57:55] And um one of the things that we this city does, I'm so there's a lot of

[57:59] things this city does that I'm proud of to as a matter of fact, but one of the

[58:04] things that they've started now is going to be the junior city council. I think

[58:09] that's very important. This this book talks about involving young people as

[58:13] well as uh involving older people in your community. Um, the other thing that

[58:18] they talk about is that people don't they just don't communicate anymore

[58:23] because they're just on their cell phones all the time. And so, um, eight

[58:27] or nine days ago when I was invited to an open house, I attended and a lot of

[58:31] people showed up for that. And I thought, what a fun way to get your

[58:35] neighbors out and just come and sit around and visit and and everybody

[58:39] brought some food and have some food. Well, then um just last week I got a

[58:45] text from one of our citizens that said uh come on over to our block party and

[58:50] I'm like, "Well, I'm not going to miss a party." So, I went to that and it was

[58:54] awesome. I couldn't believe it. I thought it was an HOA party. It wasn't.

[58:58] It's just a block party they have every year. And there was tons of food and and

[59:04] desserts. And there was 42 people there that were just sitting around. They've

[59:08] been doing this every year just having a great time. This is all stuff that I

[59:13] want to foster that I think in our communities where you get to know each

[59:16] other other than just texting or calling each other. Um I w I was really really

[59:22] impressed. So I happened to bring my uh city council cards and pass them around

[59:29] and I said if you have any questions or complaints or uh anything positive too

[59:34] is always nice and email me at this address because then I have can keep

[59:39] track of it. if you just call me then, you know, I don't have any way to track

[59:43] it that, you know, this citizen complained about this or was happy about

[59:47] that. And so, um, going around talking those those 42 people, a huge huge issue

[59:55] is the electric bikes and the go-karts and where they live. There's this trail

[1:00:00] behind their house and they just run tear up and down that road. And I I

[1:00:05] walked out there and I could see you could see the dirt bike um you know the

[1:00:10] the imprints and uh and one of them even showed me some pictures. There were some

[1:00:15] impressive go-karts. Those things must have cost a fortune. Either that or

[1:00:19] they're really good at building things. And I actually printed the picture off

[1:00:23] and forgot to bring it with me tonight. So, I will be showing that to you

[1:00:27] because um I don't know about having go-karts that you know running up and

[1:00:33] down these streets and even the the dirt trail where people are saying they're

[1:00:40] they're going out walking and they're almost getting hit by either electric

[1:00:43] somebody on electric bike or by a on a go-kart. So, I know that if I got run

[1:00:49] over by a go-kart wouldn't be so good, but um cuz I've

[1:00:55] already had a couple car accidents that that was bad enough. But I was excited

[1:00:59] that people are engaging and they're telling me the stuff that's going on so

[1:01:04] that I can turn around and and report it. Uh because I think it should be

[1:01:09] looked into or some ordinance is created, which we're talking about

[1:01:13] doing. And um so I'm I'm glad about that. I got a phone call yesterday,

[1:01:19] somebody with a complaint because the code enforcement hadn't gotten back to

[1:01:23] them. So just things like this, our city council wants to be involved and we want

[1:01:28] the city to be in the citizens to be involved with us too. The other thing

[1:01:33] that I went to on uh this was a couple weeks ago. I don't know if you reme

[1:01:39] remember a car Carol Landwear came here and gave a talk about community court.

[1:01:46] Well, she had a community court at the battleground uh municipal courthouse and

[1:01:53] she had all these people that have drug and alcohol addictions. they graduated

[1:01:58] from their class and it was very impressive to see these people and me

[1:02:03] being a retired jailer I love it when I see people are being successful in their

[1:02:08] lives and getting either mental health or uh addictions getting help with that

[1:02:12] and not have to keep coming back and forth through the system getting

[1:02:16] arrested and in and out of jail all the time. So, it was very impressive and um

[1:02:21] very thankful to get invited to something like that and see something

[1:02:25] positive happening and I guess I can quit talking now.

[1:02:31] But I just was excited about the things that I had to share. And uh you know I

[1:02:36] just see really good things happening in our city and also of these 42 people

[1:02:41] most of all all of them said really positive things about our days and about

[1:02:46] the eagle and um really positive things about the park and make my milk and some

[1:02:53] of them said what was that from and I explained that and now we've had our

[1:02:57] third third cart coming in. a lot of positive talk about that. Very happy

[1:03:02] because there's a couple negative things on Facebook, but you know, people get

[1:03:06] really brave on Facebook. They just say whatever they want,

[1:03:09] » but in person when they're telling saying you all these positive things,

[1:03:12] it's pretty cool. So, that's it. >> You sure?

[1:03:15] » Yeah. Well, I can talk longer, but >> thank you, Counselor Cery.

[1:03:22] » I don't have anything to add. You know, it's it's nice to hear about

[1:03:27] the the some of the positive. We get a lot of negative uh sitting up here um

[1:03:32] from residents or people that walk in and talk at the podium. Um and it gets

[1:03:38] it does wear on you. It wears on you, you know, because the city, the staff,

[1:03:43] uh the volunteers, they're working their rears off and it shows. And for those

[1:03:48] that just come up and just complain, which we have the chronic people that do

[1:03:52] so, uh I hope for one day they open their eyes and actually take a look

[1:03:56] around and see how beautiful this city actually is and the people and the

[1:03:59] effort that goes into it because it's tremendous.

[1:04:03] You know, our festivals are are growing bigger and stronger and better each

[1:04:08] year. Um baseball is exploding. Uh uh we've got new parks. Um, we've got a

[1:04:16] police force that does protect our city. Uh, you know, whether people want to

[1:04:20] negate that or not, that's up to them. Um, we've got counselors that are very

[1:04:24] involved in all aspects of city government. We've got a city staff that

[1:04:28] puts in tirelessly amounts of work every single day. You know, when you were

[1:04:34] saying that in our work session that uh we're going to have to hire more people

[1:04:38] for all that. No, no. What we do is we just keep putting these hats on and we

[1:04:42] keep going because, you know, I you can't raise taxes enough to to hire the

[1:04:46] amount of people that it actually takes, right? Or you're not going to have

[1:04:49] residents and you're going to have a line of unhappy people. So, you know,

[1:04:53] hearing the the positive attributes that you just gave uh to staff in the city

[1:04:59] itself, I I I got to thank you because that's that's amazing. And I I wish more

[1:05:04] people would take a look at it. Sure, we're going to have our faults. Every

[1:05:06] person has faults. We're human. Uh we're not perfect. We try our best and and we

[1:05:11] keep going forward. But our city is stunning and the overall responses that

[1:05:16] I see out there is people commending, boy, I wish I could live in Le Center.

[1:05:23] So with that, >> don't forget the music at Stern Wheeler

[1:05:26] Park. I know people that are coming from Bonavville down to listen to that music.

[1:05:30] » Telling you, we live in a very fortunate community

[1:05:34] and it's doing better every single day and we're going to keep it that way.

[1:05:38] Okay, enough of my soap box. We do have staff reports tonight. We have public

[1:05:43] works and community uh development staff report. Uh Miss Tracy Coleman will be

[1:05:47] presenting. Tracy,

[1:05:52] » thank you, Mayor Council. Okay, so in regards to uh public works operations,

[1:05:59] our rideway mower is back in service. I'm so excited for that. So we can start

[1:06:03] getting caught up on our rideway mowing. And if you notice, they're out there

[1:06:07] doing that now. So, I'm excited to say that. We also ordered a new flailer and

[1:06:12] that will be coming in in the next week or so. So, um we'll be able to play a

[1:06:16] little bit of catchup. Road striping, if everybody noticed, has occurred this

[1:06:20] last week and we're going to have continuing more some more road striping

[1:06:23] with our safety project, our horizontal curve project. So, you'll see some more

[1:06:27] striping coming on in the city. The construction of the new public workshop

[1:06:31] is nearing completion. We did a walkthrough for the final punch list.

[1:06:35] So, we're working on that. Staff, as you are aware, installed the 250th

[1:06:40] anniversary com commemorative eagle statue, as everybody is aware. Um, we do

[1:06:46] have an approved budget every year and that budget approval did include an art

[1:06:50] project in there. the art project. There are multiple art projects in this budget

[1:06:55] and um the purpose of the statue was to surprise the residents of Le Center with

[1:07:02] something to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the celebration of

[1:07:06] independence. And so if you wanted to see how much uh we can spend on art

[1:07:11] projects, that's in the approved budget of 2025. And we have not exceeded that.

[1:07:15] In addition to the Eagle, we have other art projects that are coming forward.

[1:07:20] Uh, one of the projects that you can see is installed in Legacy Park and that is

[1:07:24] the redo of the story pole. So, that's been done and then we have um grants

[1:07:29] that are coming in as well for our art projects in the city. So, hopefully

[1:07:33] people will take a look at the budget and see what we had budgeted for that.

[1:07:37] In regards to the legacy park, as you know, we have two food trucks that are

[1:07:42] already open. They're bringing revenue into the parks for us. We have another

[1:07:46] one scheduled to come in this Friday and they will be in operation on the 17th.

[1:07:50] That is a Thai uh food truck which will be good and a little bit more variety

[1:07:55] here within the city. Our bathroom doors, we do realize uh they are metal

[1:08:00] doors and they do get hot when they're facing the sun. So, we're looking at

[1:08:03] some alternative paint to put on those to keep those from getting too hot. So,

[1:08:07] we're kind of working out some of the quirks at the park right now and kind of

[1:08:10] getting everything finalized. So, kind of bear with us as we go. If you notice

[1:08:15] over there right now, we installed a new other piece of artwork on the top of the

[1:08:20] building. So, if you haven't seen that, go over and look at that. I think it's a

[1:08:24] great commemor commemorative statement as to the Makeine Milk building. We

[1:08:29] installed fans. Uh the fans are remote controlled, so we're trying to get those

[1:08:34] wired up so you can flip them on with a switch. Every time now you flip it off,

[1:08:38] you have to go and turn the fan back on. So, we're working on that. We're also

[1:08:41] working on putting in, we've had a lot of complaints about the park, so we're

[1:08:45] putting in a split rail fence next to the playground so people maybe don't

[1:08:49] have to watch their children as much to go out into the road. Uh we can help

[1:08:52] protect them from that. The um let's see, the other things we're working on

[1:08:58] is uh a mop room for the food carts. We do have one that's in the building

[1:09:03] itself that we're using temporarily. Um, we're also working on installing a large

[1:09:08] propane tank so we don't have multiple propane tanks out for the food vendors.

[1:09:12] And we um, yeah, that's about it for for there on

[1:09:16] public works. In regards to storm water, we applied for a grant for a storm water

[1:09:21] pipe uh, over there on the frontier. As you know, we have the storm water pipe

[1:09:24] that has uh, failed and we've been trying to get money for that. That's a

[1:09:28] about a $1.4 million project cost. We applied for a grant. It's kind of a It's

[1:09:34] partial grant, partial loan. So, um we're not sure if we're going to get it.

[1:09:38] We didn't get it last year, but I just want you to know that we have applied

[1:09:42] for that and we're we're working towards trying to get that fixed, but it's a

[1:09:45] it's a big cost in our budget, but we're doing the best we can to try to move

[1:09:48] forward on that and hopefully hoping that the good Lord stays with us and it

[1:09:52] doesn't fail in the interim. Uh swailes and wetlands are being mowed as time

[1:09:57] allows as well because a lot of those have to be weed eated. we can't use our

[1:10:01] rightway mower. In regards to the wastewater treatment plant, we have also

[1:10:04] applied for two grants there to help with some of the funding. They're very,

[1:10:08] very low interest rate loans. They're about a half a percent. Uh public works

[1:10:12] trust fund and I think the Department of Ecology are the two. So, we've applied

[1:10:16] for grants there. I think they're totaling about $3 million. But all the

[1:10:20] plant parameters remains well within the compliance of the NPDES permit. Our

[1:10:26] influent number two screen has been disassembled and rebuilt. Our ultrasonic

[1:10:31] sensor level sensor failed and at pump station number two. And so the new

[1:10:37] sensor has arrived and we'll replace it this week. We're almost done with that.

[1:10:40] Utility water pump 2 has been reinstalled and returned to service. I

[1:10:44] reported on that last month. And two pumps from Riverside Lift Station and

[1:10:47] the process basin have been pulled and being rebuilt.

[1:10:51] We have a follow-up replacement for our variable frequency drive that's been

[1:10:56] installed in the ASSB blower and has now returned to full operation. An

[1:11:01] engineering report has been submitted to the Department of Ecology on July 22nd.

[1:11:05] They have 60 days to respond. The deadline is September 26th. When they

[1:11:10] respond and they give us approval, we can proceed with ordering the MBRS, the

[1:11:14] screw press, so on and so forth once we have approval from them so we can move

[1:11:18] forward on the capital projects that were approved in our general sewer plan.

[1:11:22] In regards to engineering, as you guys know, Four Street project is ongoing.

[1:11:26] You you uh drive by it every day and you get a little bit of delays in there, but

[1:11:30] we thank you for your patience as we uh continue to work on that project. and

[1:11:36] also for the four street widening Breezy Creek. Same thing. So, they used to be

[1:11:41] the same project, but now they've been separated as you know. One's one's for

[1:11:44] the the um signal itself on Ivy and Fourth and then the other one is actual

[1:11:50] widening including a new covert replacement across the creek

[1:11:54] shared use path. Uh that is we are interviewing engineers next week for

[1:12:01] wash dot so we can go out to bid. Once we get the engineers and we select the

[1:12:06] engineer, we can actually go out to bid on that project. We're still hoping to

[1:12:10] go out to bid later this month and have an award at the September council

[1:12:14] meeting so we can start that project. The safety grant is in going on right

[1:12:20] now in the city of Le Center. As you can see, there's additional signs being

[1:12:24] added. There's additional guard rails being added. We have increased

[1:12:28] reflectors um that are be going to be going on in the roads. Uh L center road

[1:12:32] will have a nice uh it's not going to be a torch down. It's um what's the name of

[1:12:38] it? If it's not torch down, somebody help me out here. No, let me think here.

[1:12:43] It's uh same thing I did on my crosswalks.

[1:12:47] Come on, you guys. I reported on this >> 88.

[1:12:50] » Yeah. What is it? >> The ADA?

[1:12:52] » No, I I'll come back to it. But I'll remember it. I'm having a brain fart.

[1:12:56] Okay. And then also if you notice when you're turning off of Le Center Road and

[1:12:59] you go on to Timmans Road, there is a curb that is has been placed there. That

[1:13:03] was part of the safety project because people are turning off of Lenter Road

[1:13:07] and turning wide on Timmans Road or trucks are coming off of Timmans Road

[1:13:11] and turning wide on Lenter Road, cutting traffic off. So we have a curb that's

[1:13:15] been placed in there. Uh let's see. The tribe the roundabout design is on hold

[1:13:20] right now. We're waiting to hear back from the tribe. They are looking at the

[1:13:23] their property whether they're going to allow us to build a retaining wall or if

[1:13:26] we're going to slope back that property which is where the make milk building

[1:13:30] used to be. Uh let's see downtown 2.0 the archaeological cultural resource

[1:13:36] study right now is out and uh DAP came back. Everything was good with that.

[1:13:41] It's out with the tribal. There's four different tribes it goes to. We should

[1:13:45] hear back from them in a couple weeks so we can move forward on that. May I speak

[1:13:50] in regards to the groundbreaking? Okay. So, we're going to have a groundbreaking

[1:13:53] ceremony on September 17th at what time, Mayor?

[1:13:57] » It's going to be between 3:30 and 5. >> Okay. Between 3:35. We'll give you

[1:14:01] another update this next month, but put that on your calendar to be out there.

[1:14:05] In the building department, Steven Hillside has 13 homes under

[1:14:08] construction. Lockwood Meadows has 10. Urban Meadows has eight. Golden Grove

[1:14:12] has 11. And exit 16 Sips and Scoops is in the final stages of completion. and

[1:14:18] Paradise Park Fairfield Hotel foundation and pool concrete are completed for the

[1:14:23] first floor and flame flaming framing is in progress. Make my milk building is

[1:14:29] completed. We actually have the roofing done and like I said the art piece on

[1:14:35] top of there. You want to go out there and take a look at that. And then we

[1:14:38] have um recognition coming for the arts council that'll be installed this week.

[1:14:43] And then we have the gutters going down next week going on the building next

[1:14:46] week. Code enforcement. There were 23 new cases opened. Of those 15 of outside

[1:14:52] of the 23 that were open, we had 15 that we closed and there are currently 14

[1:14:56] open cases. In regards to the community development, we have received new

[1:15:00] applications in June, changing the total amount this year to 25 land

[1:15:05] applications. And we have in residential a total of 37 this year in other 49 with

[1:15:12] a total of 115 to date. And just so you know, the July numbers represent about

[1:15:17] 90% of on track compared to last year. And we received a large subdivision

[1:15:22] application and three other applications that will be in next month's reporting

[1:15:26] that should put us on target, if not over budget for our revenue that we're

[1:15:30] expected to receive. That's all I got. >> You sure?

[1:15:34] » I think so. I can keep going, but I only read about a quarter of the report.

[1:15:39] » All right. Thank you, Tracy. Uh, council, any questions or comments for

[1:15:42] Tracy? I remember you talking about that application,

[1:15:48] but I cannot remember what it is either.

[1:15:54] » It'll come to me. I'll just blurt it out. Just give me some time.

[1:15:57] » Well, let's hope you don't do it during the WSP contract.

[1:16:01] All right. Any questions, comments, concern for Tracy Council?

[1:16:06] » Just thank you, Tracy. I I really appreciate all the work that you do.

[1:16:11] That park's looking amazing, isn't it? >> Oh, man.

[1:16:13] » Yeah. Yeah. Did we get the uh plaque for the museum? Yep.

[1:16:17] » Uh we have received it. We'll be installing it this week. All right. Yep.

[1:16:20] We have two different things that we're putting up there for the museum.

[1:16:23] » Okay. Uh, oh, and just a reminder, if anybody

[1:16:27] sees the photos of the mayors on that board at the Make Mind Milk building, if

[1:16:32] you guys know of anybody that has the missing photos of those mayors, please

[1:16:36] contact city hall so we can get those photos up there to give them the

[1:16:39] recognition they deserve. Okay, next up we have the WSP contract amendment.

[1:16:44] Tracy Coleman will be presenting again. Tracy,

[1:16:49] » thermoplastic. Thermoplastic is what's being put on the

[1:16:53] roads, which is better than torch down or paint. Look that up. Okay.

[1:16:58] » So, she did it right during the WSP thing, like I said. Right.

[1:17:03] » All right. It was before, mayor. It was before. So, this basically this is a

[1:17:09] contract amendment to WSP for the scope of work on the comprehensive plan and

[1:17:13] development regulation periodic update. Uh, I want to give big kudos out to

[1:17:17] Angie Morurell who has applied for a second grant for us. H that has allowed

[1:17:23] us to pay for some of the contract costs for WSP. The first one she got last year

[1:17:27] of 36 and this one she got this year was $22,000. So that's and that's what this

[1:17:32] contract amendment is going to be paid for if council approves it. So thank you

[1:17:36] Angie for doing that. The city signed a professional service agreement with WSP

[1:17:40] in February of 2000 February 12th 2024 and it was for 241,498.

[1:17:47] The agreement was for them to provide project management, community

[1:17:50] engagement, public involvement periodic update, seer review, planning commission

[1:17:54] and city council coordination adoption for that comprehensive plan. They

[1:17:57] represented tonight. So you can see the update of the final comprehensive plan

[1:18:01] that we're hoping to adopt. The amendment number one that we had for

[1:18:05] them due to delays because of the county was in June 24th of 25 for an additional

[1:18:10] 89,917. This totally came out of our our uh

[1:18:14] general funds and that made the new contract total of 331415.

[1:18:20] They're asking for an additional amendment as we're getting close to the

[1:18:23] dollar amounts being spent. the update of the city of LA center comprehensive

[1:18:27] plan and development regulations to meet the mandated update requirements which

[1:18:31] were required now by the department of commerce. Additionally, there have been

[1:18:34] county delays still in adoption of the comprehensive plan and with the land the

[1:18:39] preferred land use alternative vacant biddable lands model that we're working

[1:18:43] with um for updates in GIS and envir and an environmental impact statement which

[1:18:48] Clark County just sent out and is currently in the comment period. So the

[1:18:52] county is more than a year behind which has caused cost increases for all the

[1:18:55] cities not just us. So this additional services that they're asking for uh to

[1:19:01] complete was in the paragraph that I just read above. They're sk see seeking

[1:19:05] to increase their contract amount to the maximum amount of what we received in

[1:19:10] the grant which is 22,219. And that contract would then not exceed

[1:19:14] 353,634. So we're nearing that home stretch and

[1:19:18] we're hoping that the county adopts us by year end. But that's basically what

[1:19:22] this amendment is for. They wouldn't exceed that and um the budget impact

[1:19:27] wouldn't be in in effect as far as we go from the general funds because of

[1:19:32] Angie's grant that she obtained for us. >> Thank you, Tracy. Thank you, Angie.

[1:19:38] Council, any questions, comments?

[1:19:44] » If not, I will entertain a motion. All move to authorize approval of an

[1:19:49] increase in the WSP comprehensive plan and development regulation periodic

[1:19:54] update contract not to exceed an additional $22,219

[1:20:00] with contract contract maximum price of $353,634

[1:20:08] contract expiration date to remain December 31st 2026.

[1:20:16] I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. All those

[1:20:19] in favor? >> I I

[1:20:22] » I didn't hear council member Bo's vote.

[1:20:29] » He's going to say >> council.

[1:20:31] » I I Okay, thank you. Uh opposed. >> Abstain.

[1:20:36] Motion passes. Thank you, council. Thank you, Angie, for going out for that

[1:20:40] grant. We appreciate it. We really do. Uh, thank you again Tracy for the

[1:20:45] report. Hey, that moves us to ordinances, resolutions, and public

[1:20:49] hearings. We do have a public hearing ordinance 2026-10 MDR16 code update. Mr.

[1:20:56] Brian Cast will be presenting. Brian, are you with us?

[1:21:00] » I am. Mr. Mayor, can you hear me? >> I can.

[1:21:03] » We can hear you loud. >> Mic is yours.

[1:21:05] » Very good. Uh so before council this evening is a

[1:21:11] proposed code change to the city's MDR code uh MDR16 code. Uh currently the

[1:21:16] code states that um in order to foster an opportunity for the creation of a

[1:21:22] variety of housing products and to promote housing affordability,

[1:21:26] architectural variety, and unique neighborhood character. uh MDR projects

[1:21:30] which are over 10 acres or more um must include uh 75 no more than 75% of one

[1:21:38] housing type. Um so for example, if you have a 10acre project um you're trying

[1:21:43] to do a detached single family uh you have to have at least 25% of either

[1:21:47] multifamily uh like apartments or uh town homes like

[1:21:53] an attached product or something like that. Um we've heard feedback from

[1:21:58] property owners, from developers um at both the planning commission and city

[1:22:03] council meetings that um it can be a challenge to meet this requirement on

[1:22:07] smaller projects sort of in that 10 to 20 acre size. Um you know for the most

[1:22:12] part they're trying to focus on one product type for those size of

[1:22:15] developments and then you end up with sort of this required 25% of just a few

[1:22:19] units of this other type which often doesn't seem to really fit the

[1:22:23] neighborhood character. Um, also, you know, we've heard from neighbors that,

[1:22:27] you know, they prefer to kind of just see more of a uniform project, um,

[1:22:32] without, you know, sort of this mix of product type. And also, um, we've heard

[1:22:35] from developers that, you know, these sort of required few units, um, that are

[1:22:40] put in there can be difficult to market and sell. Um so at um not last night's

[1:22:47] planning commission meeting but two uh last month's planning commission meeting

[1:22:50] uh we also had some public testimony and at that time planning commission asked

[1:22:54] that um some code uh revisions be proposed. We brought those uh this

[1:22:59] proposed revision to the planning commission last night and they voted

[1:23:03] unanimously to recommend to council to uh approve this change and the change is

[1:23:09] really very simple. Uh the only change to the code language is to change that

[1:23:13] uh number 10 for 10 gross acres to 20 uh gross acres. And this change will, you

[1:23:20] know, allow basically um projects that are required to meet this mix of housing

[1:23:25] types to have a little bit more units um so that they can better integrate them

[1:23:30] into the neighborhood and um you know have a a project that is more in line

[1:23:36] with what the city uh council and planning commission would like to see.

[1:23:40] So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have u

[1:23:44] before uh opening the public hearing. Thank you, Brian. Uh, council,

[1:23:51] » we got feedback. You got feedback. >> Council,

[1:23:56] » I have a comment or two. >> I think what's being proposed makes

[1:24:00] sense, but I have a couple of questions regardless. I'm curious. Are there any

[1:24:05] pending projects currently being contemplated

[1:24:10] that will likely go forward with this change and perhaps would not if the

[1:24:14] change were not made? Um we do have one project that's

[1:24:20] underway, but I believe that they um this code change will not apply to them.

[1:24:24] They're already vested to the old code and will be um you know it's a little

[1:24:28] bit larger project I believe. So they will be uh providing that 25%. at

[1:24:33] planning commission uh last night. Uh Angie, our planner, pulled up a map. And

[1:24:39] I think the other property that this uh potentially could apply to that's

[1:24:43] currently zoned MDR16 is out there at the Timman uh landing sub area. Um

[1:24:49] there's, you know, part of that that's zoned, I believe, high density

[1:24:52] residential and a portion of it that's zoned medium density residential and I

[1:24:57] believe that the medium density portion is exceeds the 10 acre threshold. So, if

[1:25:01] this code change goes forward, that MDR portion of the Timmans Landing uh sub

[1:25:06] area um you know wouldn't be required then to have this mix of of product

[1:25:11] types. The other areas that are zoned MDR16 are under the current 10acre

[1:25:16] threshold. So, this change wouldn't really apply to those properties.

[1:25:22] » Okay. Thank you. U have one other question. Uh

[1:25:27] the threshold going to 20 sounds fine to me. Uh the the mixture of housing types.

[1:25:35] I'm wondering if there is some way anyway that it makes sense that perhaps

[1:25:42] swaps could be done where one developer might develop land that's extremely high

[1:25:46] density and another then would be freed up to do more of what they want and not

[1:25:52] have as high a density. um rather than having to put the same

[1:25:57] standard against every

[1:26:02] project that comes in, would there be a way that one project could help offset

[1:26:07] the requirement of another project? >> I don't know if that even

[1:26:12] » Yeah, I mean I think there is a potential to do that. Um you know, it

[1:26:15] requires some additional code revisions. I think something else that was noted

[1:26:19] last night at the planning commission meeting is, you know, up until very

[1:26:22] recently here, this MDR16 zone was really the most dense zone in the city.

[1:26:28] And so, you know, the types of products that you can put in that, you can put,

[1:26:31] you know, sort of smaller detached homes. You can do, you know, attached

[1:26:35] town homes like a triplex or a duplex or a quadplex or you can do apartments. Um

[1:26:41] however now the city also has a highdensity residential zone which is

[1:26:44] you know intended for you know intended for apartments and so you know we do

[1:26:50] have the ability and the zoning now for some you know some more dense products

[1:26:55] um that previously would be you know sort of fitting into this MDR16 zone.

[1:27:02] » Okay. Well thank you for your comments. Appreciate it very much.

[1:27:05] » Yeah. Thank you. >> Hey this is uh Council Member Bole. You

[1:27:09] guys hear me? All right. >> Yes.

[1:27:14] » Um, so with this new zoning change, is it going to be a requirement that there

[1:27:19] is a mixed >> use of

[1:27:23] different styles of houses, town homes, single family residences, or is it going

[1:27:30] to be just at their own discretion? So the code already currently requires

[1:27:36] this mix um for projects that exceed 10 acres. So all all we're simply doing is

[1:27:41] changing that threshold where the mix of product types applies to moving that

[1:27:46] from 10 to 20 acre um size 20 acre or larger projects.

[1:27:54] » And just kind of shooting from the hip here. I mean I feel like the spirit of

[1:27:58] the city is kind of less is more. We want growth, but we want it to be

[1:28:05] consensual to what CIA's, you know, our history is. And

[1:28:14] how is that going to affect what we've been trying to do from years

[1:28:19] past? >> Sure. Well, I I think some of the

[1:28:23] feedback that we've got from developers is, you know, that they've developed

[1:28:26] under this current code language. um you know so they have a you know a 10 to 15

[1:28:31] acre project they're putting in you know generally um you know single family

[1:28:37] detached seems to be you know sort of what the market is is demanding in L

[1:28:41] center so that they'll do the 75% of that and then they have to do 25% of

[1:28:45] something else they're generally picking in an attached like a duplex or triplex

[1:28:49] sort of project and they said they've been getting a lot of comments you know

[1:28:52] from the public and even from you know planning commission members of like how

[1:28:56] come you're putting this you know these town homes here, you know, we'd rather

[1:28:59] just see it be um, you know, more, you know, detached that sort of fit with the

[1:29:04] rest of the character of the neighborhood. And, you know, their

[1:29:06] answer is, well, that's what the code makes us do. Um, so, you know, it's sort

[1:29:10] of that kind of feedback that we've been receiving that's prompted uh the

[1:29:15] proposals here uh this evening to to change that threshold and raise it up to

[1:29:19] 20 acres. Brian, I believe last night at the

[1:29:24] planning commission. >> I'm sorry.

[1:29:28] » I was just going to say, so does this kind of like meld us between the current

[1:29:32] MDR16 and the highdensity residential? Yeah, I mean the probably the result of

[1:29:40] this code change will be that you know that these you know projects that are

[1:29:44] below 20 acres you know I'm guessing will be largely

[1:29:50] you know building only detached single family so you know sort of like you know

[1:29:54] just we have the LDR code uh LDR 7.5 so those are sort of your larger lots and

[1:29:59] your larger detached homes and then on the MDR you know on these again 20 acres

[1:30:05] or smaller projects You'll probably see, you know, smaller detached single family

[1:30:09] homes um as we, you know, continue to, you know, have um lands come into the

[1:30:16] city in the future, you know, and there's larger parcels, you know, that

[1:30:19] are over 20 acres, you know, that they will be required to to continue to do

[1:30:22] this mix. Um and now again, we have that um highdensity residential zone as well.

[1:30:28] So, um, you know, we'll see more sort of the apartment sort of product that

[1:30:32] people, you know, had been putting into, uh, this MDR zone. Um, you know, think

[1:30:37] like on the north side of town there. Um, you know, that will probably be more

[1:30:41] focused in that high density zone that's more out towards the junction.

[1:30:50] » Oh, yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh my question I last night at the

[1:30:56] uh planning commission meeting I believe Dennis Seal brought up how many 10 to 20

[1:31:02] acre pots in the city limits do we have that that would be affected by that

[1:31:08] » and I don't remember the answer. >> Yeah. So I think you know we looked at

[1:31:13] that zoning map last night and I think the the main area as the zoning map

[1:31:18] currently sits that this would apply to is the the Timman Landing area.

[1:31:23] um with a portion of that that's zoned MDR. There is, you know, there's another

[1:31:29] um parcel that's zoned MDR that's in this size range, but I believe that

[1:31:33] already has a an approved proposal on it. Um and so this code, you know, there

[1:31:37] wouldn't be vested to this code. They're vested to the the current 10acre

[1:31:40] threshold and would be required to do the mix. And then there's a a piece of

[1:31:45] property sort of south of the high school that I believe it was under the

[1:31:48] current 10acre threshold as well. So regardless of this code change, they

[1:31:52] would not be required to do a mix of product types there.

[1:31:58] » Thank you. Thank you. >> I think to me what this shows is that

[1:32:05] it's really not the city that's driving the development, right? Somebody has an

[1:32:10] idea. Clearly, they have a piece of property in mind. It's not the city that

[1:32:15] said, "Hey, there's this piece of property that you could come and ask for

[1:32:20] a reasonzoning for. Somebody has an idea." It's not the city that that gets

[1:32:26] to determine whether or not somebody wants to sell property or or develop

[1:32:30] property. So, um, either way, we're still going to get blamed for being in

[1:32:36] the developers pockets and looking for, uh, you know, every every reason in the

[1:32:41] book to add more people to the city to clog the roads and things like that. So,

[1:32:49] I I think we should just get on with it. >> Well,

[1:32:53] » let's open the public hearing. And before I do that, I just council also

[1:32:57] knew that this is stuff that you guys have talked about in previous meetings,

[1:33:01] right? You guys wanted to do away with having to have condos and apartments and

[1:33:06] and kind of get back to the single family dwelling units and this opens

[1:33:10] that back up, right? They're not required to put a mix small compact kind

[1:33:17] of like the man meadows area. >> So, this this opens those doors. So,

[1:33:23] » I think this counts as being more business friendly,

[1:33:27] » doesn't it? >> Is that what your conclusion?

[1:33:30] » That's what I'm going to say. >> I love it.

[1:33:34] » Ask reflector to >> All right. Um, if there's no more

[1:33:39] questions to Brian, I I am going to open this up. Have any more questions or

[1:33:43] comments?

[1:33:48] » Okay. At this time, 7:15 p.m., I'd like to

[1:33:52] open up the public hearing. This will uh public comments. They need to be limited

[1:33:57] to the ordinance 2026-10, please.

[1:34:03] » At this time, is there any public comments from the audience that would

[1:34:06] like to speak?

[1:34:13] I was waiting for Al.

[1:34:20] Alfella 36016 Northwest Connecticut Road.

[1:34:25] You know, Casey, you might be right. That might be considered business

[1:34:29] friendly. You know, I'm glad you caught. You've

[1:34:34] done your due diligence. So, good job. So, that's my positive

[1:34:41] thing to say tonight.

[1:34:44] And the museum is open this Saturday from noon to 4, but I can't say that.

[1:34:50] » Thank you for not saying that, Al. I appreciate that. Any other public

[1:34:53] comments? Uh, please step up to the podium.

[1:34:58] » All right. Are there any comments from those calling in? Please press star six

[1:35:02] to unmute yourself. Please stay to the limited or limit yourself to the

[1:35:06] ordinance 2026-10.

[1:35:14] Do we have any callers? >> No callers at this time.

[1:35:17] » Are there any public comments to be read?

[1:35:20] » No public comments to be >> No public comments to be read.

[1:35:23] » Okay. Last chance. Anybody would like to step

[1:35:27] up to speak.

[1:35:31] » Please step up.

[1:35:36] My name is Jim Newell and I'm um at 1518 West Aton Place the Center and uh I'm

[1:35:47] basically close to that gravel

[1:35:52] walkway or where you can take dogs and and

[1:35:58] down into the trail. My concern is I see a lot of kids and I

[1:36:05] know that this is summertime and kids will be kids, but I'm seeing a lot of um

[1:36:12] kids on the electric bikes, electric scooters,

[1:36:17] even the big wheels and u go-karts. That was new last week. um

[1:36:27] they don't have helmets on, you know, so safety is concern. But one of the things

[1:36:33] that bothered me was last year there was a posted no electric

[1:36:42] bikes. And I don't know what happened to the two signs that I was aware of,

[1:36:50] but the beginning of the summer, those were removed. I don't know if those were

[1:36:57] removed by the city or if they were removed by

[1:37:03] kids that didn't want to see that or adults, whatever. But

[1:37:11] safety is concerning. >> Parents with or kids, I mean, adults

[1:37:18] taking their dogs for a walk. Um, it's not safe. It really isn't. I've got two

[1:37:25] little ones myself and uh I've seen kids come ripping down, crossing the bridge,

[1:37:33] and uh I've got a dog running this way and a

[1:37:37] dog running that way. and barely have time when they're skidding to a stop to

[1:37:44] get my dogs close at hand. And I just I worry about that. You know, if there's

[1:37:51] an older older person than I am, can they get out of the way? And there's

[1:37:57] places that are runners on that gravel road that get concerned. And so anyway,

[1:38:05] that's that's my concern. Especially the signs that were there are not there

[1:38:12] because I sit right on the corner and if I could do something about saying, "Hey,

[1:38:18] listen. Watch what you're doing." And if there's

[1:38:22] a cop sitting on the corner, he just sits there and says, "Well, there's

[1:38:26] nothing I can do." So, thank you for your time and what you're doing.

[1:38:32] » Thank you very much. And the city will look into that. Appreciate it. Okay. At

[1:38:37] this time, 7:20 p.m. I'd like to close the public hearing and turn this back

[1:38:41] over to council. >> Council, any questions, comments, any

[1:38:46] further? If not, I will take a motion.

[1:38:52] » Mayor, I move to approve ordinance 2026-10

[1:38:56] updating the MDR16 code as presented.

[1:39:04] » I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded. Clerk, can

[1:39:08] I please get a roll call vote? >> Council member Ravaro,

[1:39:12] » yes. >> Council member Casper,

[1:39:14] » yes. >> Council member Bole,

[1:39:16] » yes. >> Council member France,

[1:39:20] » yes. >> Council member Cerebony,

[1:39:22] » yes.

[1:39:25] » Okay, ordinance passes. Thank you, council.

[1:39:30] » Thank you, Brian. Uh, good job. Appreciate you staying up late tonight.

[1:39:34] » Thank you. All right, next up we have the public

[1:39:38] hearing again. Ordinance 2026-09, the MIR annexation and reszone. This

[1:39:44] Angie Merrill will be presenting. Angie, >> good evening.

[1:39:51] » Tonight we have the Mir annexation and um they are requesting to annex

[1:39:56] approximately 10.1 acres into the city of L Center on May 12th. uh 12th a 10%

[1:40:05] notice of attent intent was accepted by the city council. The applicant

[1:40:11] submitted a 60% petition on May 13, 2026.

[1:40:17] Perent municipal code 18.290. It allows for parcels outside the city

[1:40:23] limits to annex into the city of L center. Um to be eligible for the

[1:40:29] annexation, a property must be contiguous to the existing city limits

[1:40:33] and within the urban growth boundary. The project parcels due above the city

[1:40:38] limits to the north. The property to the east was recently approved for

[1:40:42] annexation. The Larsson property um and then the property to the west is

[1:40:49] in Clark County. The mirrors are the mirrors are the property owners and

[1:40:54] they're the full owners of the property. Thus, they exceed the 60% requirement

[1:40:59] and their parcel is located totally within the urban growth boundary.

[1:41:04] There's availability for the city of Le Center utilities to this parcel.

[1:41:10] Um upon annexation, the property will be zoned LDR 7.5 with an urban holding

[1:41:17] overlay until there's some kind of um development request if there is any kind

[1:41:24] of development request at a future time. And um at the hearing last night, the

[1:41:30] planning commission hearing, planning commission um recommended approval of

[1:41:35] the mirror annexation. And uh staff recommends to city council opening a

[1:41:41] public hearing to accept public comments for the proposed annexation.

[1:41:47] » Okay. Thank you, Angie. >> Um any questions for Angie? Council,

[1:41:53] » I have a question. Um could you kind of explain a little

[1:41:57] bit more what you mean by residential density transfer transfer from a

[1:42:04] critical area uh shall be in accordance to this uh the

[1:42:08] center municipal codes code but so you're taking a residential density and

[1:42:15] transferring it to or from a a critical area and I think you know maybe some of

[1:42:21] the people in the audience would like to know with more what that means. too.

[1:42:26] » So that proposal tonight is this is just for an annexation. There's no density

[1:42:31] transfer for that. But >> yes, that has nothing. We're not

[1:42:36] requesting that this evening, is there? >> Okay, I get it.

[1:42:38] » Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you.

[1:42:42] » Thank you. >> Any other questions for Angie?

[1:42:50] Okay. Uh, so at this time 7:24 p.m. I'd like to open up to public hearing.

[1:42:56] Public comment should be limited to ordinance 2026-04.

[1:43:00] Are those in the audience please step up to the podium

[1:43:04] and state your name.

[1:43:10] All right, seeing how there is none, uh, any callers calling in, please press

[1:43:14] star six to unmute yourself, state your name, and please stick to the ordinance

[1:43:18] 2026-09.

[1:43:27] No callers, clerk. >> No callers.

[1:43:29] » Are there any comments to be read? >> No comments to be read.

[1:43:32] » Okay. >> Uh at this time, 7:25 p.m. I'd like to

[1:43:36] go ahead and close the public hearing and turn this back over to council.

[1:43:40] Council, any questions, comments, conversations?

[1:43:44] If there isn't, I would definitely entertain a motion.

[1:43:50] Mayor, I move to approve allowing the owner of parcel number 209692-0000

[1:43:58] to proceed with the annexation process to bring said property into the list

[1:44:04] under city limits.

[1:44:08] » Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Clerk, can

[1:44:12] I please have a roll call vote on this? >> Council member,

[1:44:15] » yes. Council member Casper, >> yes.

[1:44:18] » Council member Bole, >> yes.

[1:44:21] » Council member France, >> yes.

[1:44:24] » Council member Cerviny, >> yes.

[1:44:28] » All right, ordinance passes. Thank you, council. Thank you, everyone. Thank you,

[1:44:31] Angie, for the work into that. I'm sure there's going to be more to come. Um,

[1:44:37] at that point, uh, we don't have any unfinished business. Council, we do have

[1:44:41] a new business, uh, to discuss real quick. Council uh councelor Caspber and

[1:44:48] myself will not be attending next uh meeting at the end of August will be

[1:44:53] unavailable. Um I have actually asked councelor Bole to chair the meeting with

[1:45:00] you as a council since it is his last meeting. I wanted to see if there was

[1:45:04] any objections to that or any concerns about that.

[1:45:09] » Okay. >> Councelor, are you with us?

[1:45:14] I am. >> Are you up to the task?

[1:45:18] » Absolutely. I'd love to. >> Be your last meeting.

[1:45:22] » I know. I'm sad you guys aren't going to be there.

[1:45:25] » There are no parties allowed. All right. >> Oh, well, I will cancel all the

[1:45:31] all the things. >> All right. Okay. Well, then uh that

[1:45:36] concludes it. Um at this point, I will uh take a motion for adjournment. So

[1:45:41] moved. >> So moved. It's been moved and seconded.

[1:45:45] » Uh, yeah. Did I get a second or both of you guys did that? It's been moved and

[1:45:48] seconded. All those in favor? >> I I

[1:45:51] » opposed. Abstain. Motion passes. Meetings adjured. Thank you for

[1:45:56] attending.

Work Session and Regular City Council - 12 Aug 2026

Transcript