1 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:43,560 All right, everybody settled. All right, well, good evening, and welcome to the public spaces commission meeting. I'm Charles Vindley, chair of the commission and the August 27 meeting is now called to order. You may notice we have a new face among us. I like to introduce Mary Karskaden to do it right. Two in a row. All right. She joins us tonight for the first meeting of the commission. She was appointed on August 4th. Commissioner Karskaden, I'm going to, if I three times, I get it perfect. Okay. 2 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:50,920 Okay, she's been a resident of Woodenville for six years and brings previous local government experience as a commissioner in a city outside of Salem, Oregon. 3 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:57,960 So please join me in welcoming our new council or commissioner, welcome, welcome, welcome. 4 00:01:00,020 --> 00:01:05,080 Okay, so before we get started the normal reminders, please keep your mics muted unless you would like to speak. 5 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:10,860 Get my attention. I'll do my best to acknowledge folks in the order in which they get my attention. 6 00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:16,320 Okay, so let's get rolling, so let's first get started with our roll call. 7 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,040 So, staff, please do so. 8 00:01:19,460 --> 00:01:19,860 Commissioner Kerry. 9 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:20,920 Here. 10 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:22,100 Commissioner Washington. 11 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:22,660 Here. 12 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:23,560 Commissioner White. 13 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:24,320 Here. 14 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:25,320 Commissioner Gullich. 15 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:27,440 Commissioner Gawson Moran. 16 00:01:27,960 --> 00:01:28,160 Here. 17 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:29,840 Commissioner Caryan. 18 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:30,680 Here. 19 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:32,120 Chairman. 20 00:01:32,540 --> 00:01:32,880 Here. 21 00:01:33,420 --> 00:01:33,700 All right. 22 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:34,840 We have a corner of the commission. 23 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:36,940 Now please join me for the flag salute. 24 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:37,680 All 25 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:04,640 right. 26 00:02:04,820 --> 00:02:07,040 Next is the approval of tonight's agenda. 27 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:09,760 Is there a motion to approve the agenda in order in content? 28 00:02:10,380 --> 00:02:11,320 So moved. 29 00:02:11,620 --> 00:02:12,000 Second. 30 00:02:12,460 --> 00:02:13,580 We have a motion in a second. 31 00:02:13,740 --> 00:02:14,860 All those in favor say aye. 32 00:02:15,140 --> 00:02:15,420 Aye. 33 00:02:16,060 --> 00:02:16,760 Opposed nay. 34 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:19,480 The agenda is approved in order in content. 35 00:02:20,540 --> 00:02:22,260 Next we'll move on to public comment. 36 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:24,420 I don't see anybody in the office. 37 00:02:24,420 --> 00:02:26,820 I'd go out on the limit and say there's no one here for public comment tonight. 38 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,240 All right, we're already halfway through the agenda. 39 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:35,420 Special presentations, we have none tonight, so we're moving on to business items. 40 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:40,600 So tonight we have our first business item, the thing that I struggle with the most every year. 41 00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:42,840 This is the election of a vice chair. 42 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,660 So I'm going to read this word forward to make sure we get all the rules and stuff right. 43 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:54,460 So with the recent resignation of Commissioner Holly, we are, for the moment without a vice chair, of course. 44 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,120 In order to fill that role, we'll need to undertake an election. 45 00:02:57,340 --> 00:03:03,220 For reference tonight's agenda, tonight's election will be the same process that we do at the first meeting of the year. 46 00:03:03,220 --> 00:03:06,180 So the process starts with nominations made from the floor. 47 00:03:06,580 --> 00:03:10,140 Commissioners do not need to be recognized or called upon to make a nomination, and 48 00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:11,200 no second is required. 49 00:03:11,660 --> 00:03:14,120 So feel free to state your nomination if so inclined. 50 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:20,200 Once all the nominations are heard, the commission will then vote in order of the nominations that were received. 51 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:25,820 So we'll be like, let's say, I were nominated, we go all those in paper of Charles, I, nay, et cetera. 52 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,160 Once all the nations are heard, the commission will vote. 53 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:33,300 And the first nominee to receive the majority of votes will be deemed elected, 54 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:35,720 and the votes for subsequent nominees will not be heard. 55 00:03:36,220 --> 00:03:38,480 So are there any questions before we get started? 56 00:03:40,300 --> 00:03:40,740 No. 57 00:03:41,420 --> 00:03:43,620 If I had a gavel, I would bang it, as it says here. 58 00:03:44,140 --> 00:03:48,060 So nominations are now in order for the Office of Vice Chair of the Public Spaces Commission. 59 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:49,300 Are there any nominations? 60 00:03:52,410 --> 00:03:54,650 I would like to nominate Commissioner Washington. 61 00:03:56,940 --> 00:03:57,380 Second. 62 00:03:58,040 --> 00:03:59,360 We don't need a second. 63 00:04:01,790 --> 00:04:02,070 Okay. 64 00:04:02,250 --> 00:04:02,470 Yes. 65 00:04:02,470 --> 00:04:09,330 Are there any other nominations to make it official? 66 00:04:09,750 --> 00:04:12,650 All right, let's turn it again. 67 00:04:13,530 --> 00:04:15,810 Okay, Commissioner Washington, would you like to say anything? 68 00:04:17,290 --> 00:04:18,910 I'm honored, thank you very much. 69 00:04:19,190 --> 00:04:22,790 Okay, so next we're going to do a vote. 70 00:04:23,590 --> 00:04:28,610 So all of those in favor of Commissioner Washington for the position of Vice Chair signify by saying 71 00:04:28,610 --> 00:04:28,910 aye. 72 00:04:28,910 --> 00:04:31,510 Hi, all opposed to say nay. 73 00:04:32,250 --> 00:04:36,790 All right, congratulations, you are the new vice chair of the Public Space Commission. 74 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,580 No chair if we can take a slight break and we'll do a little musical chairs here and get everyone lined up. 75 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:45,020 Yep, 76 00:04:53,270 --> 00:04:54,170 it was nice knowing you. 77 00:04:57,210 --> 00:04:58,870 I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. 78 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:10,640 All right, everybody getting cozy? 79 00:05:18,490 --> 00:05:40,630 All right, so we will keep moving. So the next business item is the approval of the minutes from the July 23rd commission meeting. So commissioners is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes from the 23rd? So moved. Second. All right, we have a motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed nay. All right, the motion to approve the minutes from July 23rd has passed. 80 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,980 All right. Next business item is discussion of a new upcoming event. 81 00:05:47,980 --> 00:05:52,640 We have Josh Jeffrey, our Public Works Management Analyst, who will begin a presentation. 82 00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:54,380 Thank you so much. 83 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,600 It's my pleasure to actually introduce tonight's item. 84 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:03,820 I would have the honor of introducing our executive intern, Shreeta. 85 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:07,480 She's been with us for the summer and has been hard work on many of the city projects, 86 00:06:07,920 --> 00:06:12,120 including taking the initiative on this particular one, and so without further ado. 87 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:13,120 Good 88 00:06:28,420 --> 00:06:42,780 evening commissioners, my name is Shritha, I am the executive department intern and today I'm here to talk about a grant that we received from King County recently and to talk about a event that we are putting on using that grant money as well. 89 00:06:51,860 --> 00:07:00,600 So in July of this year we were awarded a hazardous waste management grant from King County's hazardous waste management program. 90 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:07,040 This grant is awarded every two years, and we received this for the 2026 through 2027 grant cycle. 91 00:07:07,830 --> 00:07:19,100 We received a total of $17,301.74 for this grant, and this money goes towards various different aspects of the event, such as event planning, 92 00:07:19,340 --> 00:07:24,380 outreach, educational materials, speakers, workshop supplies, and more. 93 00:07:24,380 --> 00:07:38,080 And so basically how the grant money works is that all cities who apply to this grant and get it accepted received a $10,000 base grant and then based on city population, they receive additional money. 94 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:45,380 So in this case, our population money was the $77,301 in 74 cents. 95 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:52,520 So the goal of this event is to lead a community-based natural yard care and pollinator protection initiative. 96 00:07:52,520 --> 00:08:01,340 So basically we want to reduce pesticides, herbicides, and other hazardous materials, and teach woodenville residents how they can practice these methods as well. 97 00:08:02,460 --> 00:08:11,920 So the objectives that we need to fulfill through this grant is that we need to host at least one large scale natural yard care and pollinator protection event during the grant cycle. 98 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:17,020 We want to teach residents sustainable landscaping practices, native plant gardening, 99 00:08:17,260 --> 00:08:20,800 integrated pest management, pollinator friendly landscapes, and 100 00:08:21,260 --> 00:08:24,480 nonchemical alternatives to common weed and pest control methods. 101 00:08:25,060 --> 00:08:30,860 We also want to include educational workshops and materials focused on reducing pesticide and 102 00:08:30,860 --> 00:08:35,300 herbicide use, native plant gardening, pollinator habitat creation, and 103 00:08:35,300 --> 00:08:37,360 integrated pest management techniques. 104 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:43,040 And a lot of these goals are in line with what the city is implementing right now as well. 105 00:08:43,580 --> 00:08:50,380 For example, in the event, we will also incorporate education regarding the city's integrated pest management program. 106 00:08:50,700 --> 00:08:56,640 Through this event, we want to engage at least 250 woodenville area residents during this grant cycle. 107 00:08:57,020 --> 00:09:03,880 We also want to increase adoption of natural yard care and integrated pest management practices among participating households. 108 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:08,900 And we also want to support implementation of the city's B-City USA commitments, 109 00:09:09,180 --> 00:09:16,080 including pollinator education, Habitat enhancement, and reduced reliance on chemical pest management practices. 110 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:26,420 So for the actual event details, this event will be held on September 26th, 2026 at 21 acres from 12 PM to 3 PM. 111 00:09:26,700 --> 00:09:30,700 And wouldn't vote, wouldn't be, wouldn't vote without all our amazing community organizations. 112 00:09:30,700 --> 00:09:37,060 So, we have a lot of different community organizations partnering with us on this event, such as 21 acres, 113 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:42,400 pollinator pathways northwest, woodenville arts alliance, and woodenville creative district. 114 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:51,300 We will have about six different booths at this event, the first one will be the city booth, where we will be passing out educational materials, 115 00:09:51,620 --> 00:09:58,560 talking more about our integrated pest management program, and we will also be handing out shovels and 116 00:09:58,560 --> 00:09:59,520 and gloves as well. 117 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:15,160 Pollinator pathway, Northwest will also have their own booth where they will talk more about healthy pollinator practices. And they will also give tours at 21 acres to show how these practices are actually being implemented in real time at 21 acres. 118 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:22,500 Woodenville Arts Alliance will also be hosting a craft workshop which I will talk a little more about a little bit later 119 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:28,160 We will also have motion made tabling at the event, which is actually a local Seattle business 120 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:34,300 And they make pots out of seaweed which is super cool and very environmentally friendly 121 00:10:34,300 --> 00:10:40,500 Northwest Center for alternatives to pesticides will also be at the event and they will talk about non-toxic 122 00:10:40,500 --> 00:10:41,940 methods of 123 00:10:41,940 --> 00:10:48,980 to use in your gardens and finally we will also have a speaker who will talk about hazardous waste management practices 124 00:10:48,980 --> 00:10:52,540 and how to reduce reliance on pesticides and herbicides. 125 00:10:53,860 --> 00:11:01,940 So to talk a little bit more about ocean made they are a company who makes these pots out of seaweed and they're specifically made out of kelp 126 00:11:01,940 --> 00:11:10,900 and what happens is that you put the seed in the soil and you water the pot and then eventually the roots actually grow out of the pot and once they get to that stage 127 00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:23,280 You can plant them in a larger area of soil, and the pot will kind of decompose into the soil, and all the nutrients in the pot will able to basically enhance the plant, and is very environmentally sustainable as well. 128 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:31,400 We will also be handing out seeds at the event, specifically gilardia seeds and a native pollinator mix. 129 00:11:31,620 --> 00:11:35,900 We will also be supplying actual native plants as well from Oxfow. 130 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:47,820 So for the arts alliance craft, basically what will happen is first residents who come to the event will go to the city booth and they will pick up their garden gloves in the shovel. 131 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,980 Next they will go to the ocean made booth where they will pick up their pot. 132 00:11:52,540 --> 00:12:03,240 And after that they will basically have soil, so they'll put in their soil and seeds into the pot and design a garden state that with the seeds that they basically just planted in the pot. 133 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:08,220 So it's going to be kind of from booth to booth getting different supplies and building your own pots. 134 00:12:10,940 --> 00:12:14,180 These are one of the educational materials that I prepared. 135 00:12:14,500 --> 00:12:20,480 It details alternatives to chemical fertilizers, safe disposal of pesticides and other hazardous chemicals, 136 00:12:20,820 --> 00:12:24,760 and some other disposal methods that are outlined by King County. 137 00:12:25,220 --> 00:12:28,260 That residents can learn more about through scanning the QR codes. 138 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:33,400 The other side of this will have integrated pest management strategies, 139 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:38,840 nonchemical alternatives to common weed and pest control methods, and for the additional resources, 140 00:12:39,100 --> 00:12:44,200 one of the QR codes leads to these cities. Integrated pest management program website, 141 00:12:44,420 --> 00:12:50,360 and the other one details other ways for to implement nonchemical alternatives into residence gardens. 142 00:12:52,220 --> 00:12:57,040 That's all I have for the presentations. I would love to hear any questions or feedback you will have. 143 00:12:58,180 --> 00:13:00,160 Yeah, thanks so much for any questions. 144 00:13:00,460 --> 00:13:01,680 Yes, ma'am. 145 00:13:05,130 --> 00:13:07,930 Can you tell me more about the source of the seaweed 146 00:13:08,490 --> 00:13:10,710 that ocean made uses? 147 00:13:11,590 --> 00:13:13,110 Oh, I'm sorry. 148 00:13:13,510 --> 00:13:14,810 That is a good question. 149 00:13:15,070 --> 00:13:17,910 I believe the seaweed is locally sourced. 150 00:13:17,970 --> 00:13:20,350 I actually don't know right off the top of my head. 151 00:13:20,630 --> 00:13:23,190 I know that ocean made itself is locally based in Seattle, 152 00:13:23,190 --> 00:13:25,510 though, and the founder is also from Seattle. 153 00:13:25,670 --> 00:13:28,110 But I will definitely double check on that 154 00:13:28,110 --> 00:13:31,590 and let Alex or Josh know and they'll get back to you on that. 155 00:13:31,930 --> 00:13:37,390 I have the feeling that someone's going to ask that question because they're always 156 00:13:37,390 --> 00:13:47,150 interested in where the paper comes, what trees, who's monitoring that so I would like 157 00:13:47,150 --> 00:13:53,350 to be able to answer that this is seaweed that either is collected because it's not beneficial 158 00:13:53,350 --> 00:14:02,790 to the ocean or it is farmed so that and I'm sure it is I can't imagine that they are out there 159 00:14:02,790 --> 00:14:11,390 just gathering seaweed without. Yeah I believe the seaweed is farmed but I'll definitely get back 160 00:14:11,390 --> 00:14:13,750 to you on that with a definitive answer. Thank you. Yeah. 161 00:14:21,170 --> 00:14:25,470 Do you work with Tom quickly with 21 acres? 162 00:14:27,330 --> 00:14:29,670 I'm working with Valle from 21 acres. 163 00:14:30,730 --> 00:14:31,230 Good Valle? 164 00:14:31,510 --> 00:14:31,690 Yeah. 165 00:14:33,050 --> 00:14:34,850 Okay, I'm not familiar with Valle. 166 00:14:35,290 --> 00:14:38,670 I'm quickly, he's in charge of 21 acres. 167 00:14:38,990 --> 00:14:45,530 Are you also involved with Niawaki forest that we are putting together for the city? 168 00:14:47,170 --> 00:14:48,950 Oh, I'm not involved with that project. 169 00:14:49,350 --> 00:14:49,450 Yeah. 170 00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:51,610 We've got more information on that. 171 00:14:51,670 --> 00:14:52,810 I'll cover a little bit later tonight. 172 00:14:52,930 --> 00:14:53,290 Excellent. 173 00:14:55,130 --> 00:14:56,990 One last word, where do you go to college? 174 00:14:57,590 --> 00:14:59,170 Oh, I go to the University of Washington. 175 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:07,580 What are you studying? Psychology. Good, psychology. Thank you. 176 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:31,580 Chris, right? Do you have something? No, I think we've got to answer that. Okay. Yeah, well, thank you so much. And thanks for spending the summer with the city. That's great. And that's the psychology note. He was a psychology professor down there, so he's probably going to bug you after the call here, right? It's, she, Shritha? Yeah, Shritha? Sure, I think so much. 177 00:15:32,820 --> 00:15:34,020 Okay, moving on. 178 00:15:34,220 --> 00:15:43,580 Our next business item is, so you mentioned the integration, or excuse the Integrative Pest Management Plan, so we're going to get more about the Integrated Pest Management Plan. 179 00:15:44,780 --> 00:15:45,460 Great to you. 180 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:46,020 Right. 181 00:15:46,980 --> 00:15:48,280 It's almost like we planned this. 182 00:15:49,500 --> 00:15:55,480 Well, I'm very excited to talk about our Integrated Pest Management Plan, and a lot of the work that's gone into it. 183 00:15:55,480 --> 00:16:04,760 As kind of background to this, this really is the fruition of about two years of ongoing policy work and direction we've been getting from the city council and the community. 184 00:16:05,380 --> 00:16:18,600 We've heard starting in really in 2024 that we were trying to reduce chemical herbicide use and we face it out for a period of time where we were actually using no chemical herbicide within the city. 185 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:25,340 over concerns from, we've heard from residents in the Council direction, the challenge 186 00:16:25,340 --> 00:16:29,940 with that though was there was no formal policy for prioritizing treatments or assessing 187 00:16:29,940 --> 00:16:30,400 risks. 188 00:16:30,940 --> 00:16:36,360 And then we also with the not just weeds that we have in the community, it became a concern 189 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:40,220 of how we actually work with our partner agencies in order to treat those. 190 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:48,140 So ongoing in this conversation, too, this became a B-City USA affiliate which requires 191 00:16:48,140 --> 00:16:50,360 There is a formal IPM adoption. 192 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:55,360 And then we started to have this conversation about what that looks like. 193 00:16:55,700 --> 00:17:00,420 And so it's in 10th or 25th City Council gate, it provides some early direction on the policy. 194 00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:08,220 In October, we took it to our Public Spaces Commission, which also provided some input on what the policy should look like, 195 00:17:08,380 --> 00:17:09,600 some things that we should be considering. 196 00:17:10,360 --> 00:17:17,560 From there on, we started developing internally with staff the policy document that we attached to the staff report. 197 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:24,160 And we took that to our BCD committee to review progress on that draft earlier in April. 198 00:17:25,220 --> 00:17:30,840 And now we're here to kind of talk to our public spaces commission to get feedback on it. 199 00:17:31,740 --> 00:17:40,780 So as a reminder, what is integrated pest management is really a science-based sustainable strategy towards treating pests that are encountered in the community. 200 00:17:40,780 --> 00:17:49,020 And that combines biological, cultural, mechanical, physical, and chemical treatments in order to treat pests and vectors. 201 00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:55,920 It helps prevent pests problems of all types, including weeds, fungus, insects, rodents, all the above. 202 00:17:56,540 --> 00:17:59,340 It minimizes, importantly, it minimizes pesticide use. 203 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:04,080 It addresses chemical alternatives and chemical uses such as fertilizers. 204 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:09,480 And the biggest important part about this is it really creates a transparent process by which we protect 205 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:11,280 the health environment of the community. 206 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:14,900 So pesticides come in many forms. 207 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:18,600 There's herbicides, there's insecticides, 208 00:18:19,020 --> 00:18:19,640 there's fungusicides. 209 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,260 And even within those many forms, 210 00:18:22,820 --> 00:18:25,380 they have different ways of treating the pests. 211 00:18:25,660 --> 00:18:27,520 So some are pre-emergent, some are post. 212 00:18:28,830 --> 00:18:31,640 So some are reactionary, some are actually 213 00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:34,160 done intended to be proactive. 214 00:18:34,780 --> 00:18:37,920 And so there's so many categories 215 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,540 is that you can't find a one-size-quite-fits-all. 216 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:44,180 And so what we try to do is balance those 217 00:18:44,180 --> 00:18:46,640 with overarching policy direction, 218 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:49,500 which is where this document comes into place. 219 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,460 As I mentioned, there's really five categories 220 00:18:54,460 --> 00:18:58,520 for which we treat different types of pests. 221 00:18:58,820 --> 00:19:02,260 And so biological is one of the least invasive. 222 00:19:02,260 --> 00:19:05,300 It's where we use things like goats or beetles 223 00:19:05,300 --> 00:19:14,120 or other predators to those types of pests to either take out or address the pests itself. 224 00:19:14,420 --> 00:19:19,520 Cultural is where you actually think methodically about the plantings and the environment that 225 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:25,340 you're creating that either is sustaining them or creating an environment that's less conducive 226 00:19:25,340 --> 00:19:35,280 to them. And so in some cases, you're creating very dense planting opportunities, so it kind of 227 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:39,960 traditional, it's where we're doing the mowing, the tilling, the hand tools, along with that, 228 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:44,260 you kind of have physical and there's a little bit of overlap there of where you can have 229 00:19:44,260 --> 00:19:50,240 other types of treatments like heat treating, barriers, cardboard, and different types of things 230 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:56,000 like that. And then, finally, of course, you have chemical treatments. And those are both 231 00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:59,780 things that are actually 232 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:29,920 Negative, in terms of herbicides, pesticides, but also potentially things that are positive, such as fertilizers, that really kind of target or treatments for health conditions, for instance, a diseased plant will have a chemical treatment to take care of trees and things like that. So, you really, it's really methodically looking at each of these different kind of tools in order to create a system that we can then use operationally in the city. 233 00:20:31,300 --> 00:20:32,540 So, what did we do? 234 00:20:32,980 --> 00:20:37,160 We created a draft plan that, as I mentioned, was attached to the staff report. 235 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,820 It really has three main categories, the first of which is background policy foundation, 236 00:20:43,260 --> 00:20:48,960 which provides the why we're looking into doing this scope of intent of the plan. 237 00:20:49,540 --> 00:20:55,300 And it also establishes the framework for which the plan is viewed from as well as what 238 00:20:55,300 --> 00:21:02,000 the authority we have to actually exercise as management, while the city can has broad 239 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,040 range of what we do operationally, we don't necessarily have the same freedoms to impose 240 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:13,300 it on private. So, while we have control of what we do, we can't necessarily take other 241 00:21:13,300 --> 00:21:17,940 landscapers or until how other landscapers are treating the same environments except for 242 00:21:17,940 --> 00:21:24,300 education methods. Then we have the strategic vision and policy direction. This is really 243 00:21:24,300 --> 00:21:30,660 where we identified the goals and summarized how those policies are interpreted and kind 244 00:21:30,660 --> 00:21:35,820 of developed into the implementation. We took the goals that we heard from the City 245 00:21:35,820 --> 00:21:41,040 Council in September and kind of fleshed them out and added a little bit more information 246 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:46,400 on how they can be interpreted and brought into the full plan. 247 00:21:47,140 --> 00:21:51,740 And then it also importantly defines the plan review process. So we wanted to make sure 248 00:21:51,740 --> 00:21:55,800 that this plan is a living document that was something we use and not necessarily something 249 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,380 that is prepared and then forgotten about. 250 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:05,240 So the last key part of this, though, is actually the implementation and that's probably 251 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,000 the densest part of the draft. 252 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:15,440 It outlines what city staff do, it outlines how we make decisions, it basically goes through 253 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:24,180 how we evaluate progress on this and creates a decision-making tree for which we look at things like tolerance thresholds. 254 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:29,360 And another thing that we heard and that was really important for us to try and kind of highlight and 255 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:34,260 I'll go into a little bit more detail is it includes site specific recommendations. 256 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:42,120 Because one of the larger challenges organization like the city has when creating IPM plan is we have so 257 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:46,860 many different environments that we care for and manage from our open spaces to our trails, 258 00:22:46,860 --> 00:22:51,880 which are much more native and natural, to our high activity areas just like the sports fields 259 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:57,440 outside. And all of those have different user bases and different interactions with 260 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:02,380 the natural environment. And we have to be methodical about how we're treating those. 261 00:23:02,860 --> 00:23:08,980 And then we also have quite a lot of right-of-way that we manage and maintain that we also need to be 262 00:23:08,980 --> 00:23:19,760 the cognizant of how it inhibits or promotes transportation and uses throughout pedestrian uses, active transportation uses, and vehicles. 263 00:23:20,120 --> 00:23:23,760 So all those kind of go into play with this. 264 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,440 So looking at the site specific recommendations, and 265 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,860 there's a full table within the staff report. 266 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:37,300 I just wanted to highlight a couple kind of key ones, 267 00:23:37,300 --> 00:23:43,840 It's just a kind of show how we think about these and how we're talking about our pest control processes. 268 00:23:44,180 --> 00:23:48,220 So it defines the management objective and I'm using two examples here. 269 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:56,540 We have the right of way one as well as high sensitivity areas, which is something we heard through our interactions with public that was very key important. 270 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:03,180 We want to be sensitive of playground schools, picnic areas, food areas, and certainly where dog parks are. 271 00:24:03,180 --> 00:24:08,900 And so it defines what the management objective is, basically, what are we trying to do with this space? 272 00:24:09,620 --> 00:24:24,340 We describe a tolerance threshold to it, and tolerance in this regards is how much of a pest will be a situation where we control, or will we allow in this space before we actually have to think about control? 273 00:24:24,620 --> 00:24:32,560 The action threshold is when it starts getting into, this is the actual trigger for us to see something that is tolerated, 274 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:40,500 And understood to be in the environment, so that's something that we actually have to take a little bit more, more necessary action to address it. 275 00:24:40,620 --> 00:24:50,780 So we're trying to constrain the operational ones with the practical means of what we can do as our maintenance team and budget appropriately for it, right? 276 00:24:51,540 --> 00:24:56,080 And the next thing is we also try and identify common species that were target. 277 00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,960 This isn't intended to be the entire list of- 278 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:29,920 But it is to be more broader categories of insects, not just weeds or other elements that we're actually looking at and thinking that we've either experienced in the past, or believe that this is a common occurrence that we need to be aware of. So our teams, as they're doing our maintenance, are looking for those types of interactions in the environment. We just find what those practices look like. So the management practices for insects, 279 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:59,860 for the management practices for weeds and also even things like disease management so we can take a little bit of a look at it and then we finally discuss what is a chemical threshold that we would use so once we kind of exhaust those other other practices how would we then think about the chemical controls and so we do this for a variety of different site spaces but this is just methodically how we're looking at this another thing that before I move on from this too much we 280 00:25:59,860 --> 00:26:04,140 We also talk about in our implementation plan, specifically the monitoring and record 281 00:26:04,140 --> 00:26:05,000 keeping requirements. 282 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:10,260 A lot of that is mirroring what the state's legislation is required to do, but it provides 283 00:26:10,780 --> 00:26:14,800 basic understanding of what those training requirements look like for our maintenance team 284 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,940 as well as what our obligations are for keeping that information whenever we do use pesticide 285 00:26:19,940 --> 00:26:22,500 treatments to make sure that we're being transparent and accountable for it. 286 00:26:22,500 --> 00:26:49,320 And then lastly, we do actually talk about what we want to be doing to educate the public on both what we're doing, but also how they can integrate different types of controlled methods like the mechanical methods like other types of treatments that are alternatives to pass the size of chemical uses into their landscaping and their own type of environment. 287 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,140 So we have that component when they're here too. 288 00:26:52,740 --> 00:26:56,860 That's the summary of it, without going into too much detail of every section. 289 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:02,340 I will add our next steps once we get the commission's feedback which we're asking for tonight 290 00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:06,500 will incorporate it within the draft plan and then we'll share this with the City Council 291 00:27:06,500 --> 00:27:08,180 for their consideration and approval. 292 00:27:08,940 --> 00:27:10,840 But that concludes my presentation. 293 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:15,460 I'm happy to answer any questions you might have on the plan or the process. 294 00:27:15,460 --> 00:27:16,460 Are 295 00:27:21,550 --> 00:27:28,250 there models cities that you've worked with, the namesome that are doing successfully 296 00:27:28,250 --> 00:27:31,370 perhaps started before we are? 297 00:27:31,630 --> 00:27:32,250 Yes, absolutely. 298 00:27:32,770 --> 00:27:39,470 I think the two biggest ones that we use local, actually, are the University of Washington 299 00:27:39,470 --> 00:27:45,330 Bothell campus, which has a pretty model program for how they actually integrate pest management 300 00:27:45,330 --> 00:27:50,690 and do different type of control methods to maintain a near-pestified free campus. 301 00:27:51,490 --> 00:27:57,510 And also how they've created different environments within that campus that promote things like they have a actual, 302 00:27:57,550 --> 00:28:01,590 what will be where dam and beaver, beaver, river on, with that flows through the campus. 303 00:28:01,870 --> 00:28:06,310 So it's really an interesting natural habitat that they've been very successful, full about doing that. 304 00:28:06,650 --> 00:28:11,730 So we looked for them both to model our policy after as well as for just practical guidance. 305 00:28:11,730 --> 00:28:16,690 we actually toured the campus to get a better feel for how this might work with our maintenance team. 306 00:28:17,350 --> 00:28:21,930 More practically, we worked with two big agencies for us. 307 00:28:22,430 --> 00:28:26,510 We worked with our Noxious weed control board, which is with King County. 308 00:28:26,950 --> 00:28:34,090 They oversee the actual application of pesticides within King County in agencies. 309 00:28:34,290 --> 00:28:39,470 And they do help for our stream pesticide usage when they go into Mammage River and 310 00:28:39,470 --> 00:28:43,590 other places to treat for invasive species. 311 00:28:44,510 --> 00:28:50,350 One of their key critical parts of their program, though, is education and 312 00:28:50,350 --> 00:28:56,730 bettering of practice for the kind of, or that entity that houses that knowledge for the 313 00:28:56,730 --> 00:28:57,490 local community. 314 00:28:58,110 --> 00:29:04,870 And so both as a resource for the private individual, they have a lot of information that people can 315 00:29:04,870 --> 00:29:10,770 get, but we also use them to help guide what is practical in terms of what we can achieve 316 00:29:10,770 --> 00:29:11,290 with ours. 317 00:29:11,930 --> 00:29:18,970 And then, more directly, too, we also patterned this a little bit off of Bellevue's environmental 318 00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:20,470 program. 319 00:29:20,670 --> 00:29:22,990 They actually have a very comprehensive program. 320 00:29:23,650 --> 00:29:28,070 The scale of their city is a little bit larger, and they have quite a lot of different, more 321 00:29:28,070 --> 00:29:29,550 facilities that they would bring into. 322 00:29:29,910 --> 00:29:31,810 We actually kind of consolidated that information. 323 00:29:31,810 --> 00:29:36,450 And so all of those kind of played a little bit of a part into development of this plan. 324 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:46,900 As part of the education and I hark back to the days of the science exhibits that we 325 00:29:46,900 --> 00:29:53,020 all had to do in schools and much information we had to put on little signs. 326 00:29:53,020 --> 00:29:59,920 Just bringing in the University of Washington campus, do they do any action? 327 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:29,980 Nation in any area saying we are doing this in this area and this is what we're hoping to achieve. Do they have signs up such as that that just that the person who passes by could could learn that I would think would be helpful. Yes. Yes, we do. Yes. And actually, we are trying to implement more of the signage too. You'll see in our all of our 328 00:30:29,980 --> 00:30:50,140 There are local beds around City Hall both outside in front of the lawn area but also in our pollinator garden next to the entrance to City Hall we have some signs that have to our codes that link to our own website where they can provide a little bit more information about what we're doing and why we have to manage those areas a little bit differently. 329 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:56,960 So we do it as well as the University of Washington, of course, University of Washington has other 330 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:01,660 programs that they work with their student groups and their professors and their staff to kind 331 00:31:01,660 --> 00:31:09,060 of achieve that too. Thank you for that. And let me ask you this, I'm from Oregon and I graduated 332 00:31:09,060 --> 00:31:14,360 from Oregon State University and so I get their quarterly magazine and then one of them I noticed 333 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:28,080 just that they were proud of the fact that they had made the OSU campus a place with edible fruit for people who were walking on campus. 334 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,580 Has that ever come up in any of these? 335 00:31:30,700 --> 00:31:36,960 I don't know that there are edible, I'm sure there are edible fruits that are native plants. 336 00:31:37,620 --> 00:31:40,000 Anything like that has been considered. 337 00:31:40,000 --> 00:32:01,360 Many times, it comes through in our parks, a lot of times it's a recommendation for parks it actually has been a recommendation for something that we've been thinking about putting within our east road corridor, which is a major linear park project that we're right now in the process of planning in the city, and then actually the University of Washington, 338 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,640 and Bottle Campus 2 has their own edible food garden in space 2 that they use as a model 339 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,340 to extend that program as well. 340 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:13,460 So both locally and apartment agencies, we're looking at kind of how we might integrate 341 00:32:13,460 --> 00:32:13,740 that. 342 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,520 One of the most common edible foods in this area is actually invasive species. 343 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:25,720 It's archimelian blackberries which have a very complicated history for our rivers as well 344 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,140 as it just take wood with the public because I know many of us like the graze as we walk 345 00:32:30,140 --> 00:32:39,060 I don't know. I think combining that with a herd of goats and showing how you're controlling that wonderful plant. 346 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:40,840 Yeah. Yeah. 347 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,500 So that's our current process. 348 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:46,360 Well, good. 349 00:32:47,780 --> 00:32:48,820 Thanks. 350 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:50,980 Oh. 351 00:32:52,100 --> 00:33:04,620 Okay, thinking in terms of community engagement, I know we're up in Wellington and you've got wood trails, all of those places up there. 352 00:33:05,140 --> 00:33:19,740 Is there a way to involve community, either through emails, flyers, what to do, when to do it, maybe a monthly notice on what the city's doing, what you can do, how you can ship in. 353 00:33:19,740 --> 00:33:25,500 And I'd like to draw in the community because a lot of us are gardeners and would like to chip in. 354 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,720 So we're definitely looking at how we can expand that. 355 00:33:29,380 --> 00:33:32,780 Right now, we were working primarily with the, our polymer and 356 00:33:32,780 --> 00:33:41,780 our pathways, Northwest, organization, as well as our garden club to look at projects that might go within our neighborhood parks that are kind of 357 00:33:42,780 --> 00:33:51,040 both educational tools as well as kind of expanding both the pollinators spaces and kind of thinking more on the IPM side of this. 358 00:33:52,140 --> 00:33:55,960 How it also addresses pests. So we're looking at doing those types of things. 359 00:33:56,640 --> 00:34:08,580 And of course, we're always open to suggestions and feedback of how we can incorporate other social media and news flash posts to better provide this information to the public. 360 00:34:08,580 --> 00:34:12,360 So that's something we can definitely look into and see if we can expand. 361 00:34:12,820 --> 00:34:13,560 Thank you. 362 00:34:18,030 --> 00:34:23,390 Here's how much of the actual, in practice, is going to be changing what this is, 363 00:34:23,530 --> 00:34:25,130 approved in place versus what we've been doing. 364 00:34:25,290 --> 00:34:29,490 I know we've been trying to phase out pesticides, and I've read through a few of these. 365 00:34:29,630 --> 00:34:33,130 Like are there any environments in particular where we're doing a pretty serious shift 366 00:34:33,130 --> 00:34:34,850 in the way that we have been managing pests? 367 00:34:35,570 --> 00:34:40,090 I think the biggest two ones, and we've been very experimental so far with City Hall, 368 00:34:40,090 --> 00:34:55,670 But that's going to actually be continuing, and we're looking at fairly substantial replanting by the end of this year on how to kind of address different areas around city hall that to make them both more manageable, but also more reflective of the integrated pest management policy. 369 00:34:55,850 --> 00:34:58,830 I think the other thing it's going to start. 370 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:29,980 Showing up in how we address replanting schemes through retrition. So every time a card goes through one of our medians or we have have a sprinkler go out or something like that, we lose plants. It's just a natural thing that happens. And so what you'll start seeing more and more is those little spaces that are garden within the right of ways, within our communities. Those will start turning over much, much more quickly. 371 00:35:29,980 --> 00:35:36,380 and start having more of these different planting schemes that are much more 372 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:44,480 pests that will reduce the pest habitat spaces, but also more native and more 373 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,960 pollinator friendly. And you'll start seeing those kind of pop up in a 374 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:53,640 methodical places. At our park system, it will probably be on a longer term basis 375 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:58,120 when those parks get redeveloped, or as the larger projects come into play, 376 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:02,760 That's when we typically look at large landscaping and bringing them into those projects. 377 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,000 But this sets the tone and the foundation of how we do it. 378 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:13,040 More direct, operationally, we actually are looking at how to better train our staff. 379 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,500 And we're implementing a variety of conferences. 380 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:23,600 We're looking at how to get them licensed, and to be very knowledgeable in these practices and 381 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,680 but better suited to handle these types of situations 382 00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:27,520 as being counter-empt. 383 00:36:28,100 --> 00:36:30,660 And so we're looking at doing that across our divisions. 384 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:33,840 Historically, that's been something 385 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:35,520 we've done a lot of contracting out with, 386 00:36:35,740 --> 00:36:38,660 but now that this has become a policy focus for us, 387 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:41,600 this is something that we're looking at creating 388 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,020 staff experts on. 389 00:36:44,420 --> 00:36:44,560 Great. 390 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:47,920 What if we learned, I mean, the city hall 391 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:50,140 landscaping is where it's been the most visible, 392 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:51,020 like what sort of feedback? 393 00:36:51,020 --> 00:36:54,520 back. I know I provided feedback on that little patch of grass. 394 00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:59,800 Complicated. I'll have to pay the hate field that we had all summer. I'm just 395 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:01,960 curious. I mean because I mean I'm read through a lot of these and it's like 396 00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:05,280 you will intervene when it becomes visually unacceptable, like how are we to 397 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:11,220 find visually unacceptable. Yeah, that one's the tricky part, right? Because I 398 00:37:11,220 --> 00:37:17,680 think one of the early feedback that we had on our our plastic outside was it 399 00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:19,820 It was a little bit visually unacceptable, right? 400 00:37:20,540 --> 00:37:27,820 It's hard for people to see that they saw that as more of overgrowth as opposed to being 401 00:37:27,820 --> 00:37:30,660 the meadowed environment that you would see at UW Bothell. 402 00:37:31,100 --> 00:37:35,360 And really, that's just because a lot of the seating that we did got growth out. 403 00:37:35,860 --> 00:37:42,300 So the grasp was very resistant of all the other types of seating that we're doing. 404 00:37:42,300 --> 00:38:10,980 So, we'll look at those of those types of lessons learned where we kind of have to go, okay, well, now we have to be a little bit more thoughtful about how we're sitting and doing those practices so we can actually make an environment that looks a little bit more intentional and as opposed to being being what it was, which was intentional and did what it intended to do, but I think the vision will be easier for the community to kind of see. 405 00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:15,400 Yeah, I think if it's grass, it should look like grass. 406 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:20,800 I know we have a notion that the manicure lawns and things are kind of, you know, should be pivoted. 407 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:26,840 But if it's a lawn, we have over at Wilmot Gateway, let's keep it a lawn, let's stop by this gate park, let's keep it a lawn. 408 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:33,080 And then you mentioned when it's time to replace things, then go on some more things that look native and natural. 409 00:38:33,340 --> 00:38:37,780 And then there'll be maybe a little bit more acceptance of it looking actual and native, right? 410 00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,800 Now, I'll just pile on, I think, the publicizing this will be a great opportunity. 411 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,620 So this is a cool thing facing out the pesticides and such. 412 00:38:47,020 --> 00:38:48,900 So do what we can to share it with in the community. 413 00:38:50,260 --> 00:38:52,060 Good, Mr. Washington. 414 00:38:52,660 --> 00:38:54,040 Vice Chair Washington, excuse me. 415 00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,860 So as far as public outreach have you considered doing something like, for those 416 00:38:59,860 --> 00:39:04,740 noxious weeds, wooden bills most wanted sort of thing where community can take, 417 00:39:04,740 --> 00:39:12,040 can see visually what like Tansi has been an up-and-coming problem so they can see what 418 00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:15,400 those some of those noxious weeds are that's not just that's not a pretty flower you don't 419 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:20,260 want that. So if they had something that they could look to and be like oh that needs to come out 420 00:39:20,260 --> 00:39:26,000 and hear some ways for you to remove it from your own property that might be a way to move that forward 421 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:32,000 within the community. That's a great idea and we'll have to kind of incorporate that into our 422 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:32,980 engagement process. 423 00:39:36,430 --> 00:39:37,270 Good. 424 00:39:38,490 --> 00:39:42,310 Have aesthetics come into this at all? 425 00:39:44,610 --> 00:39:53,390 I combine the little display out there, and I know what it is. 426 00:39:54,690 --> 00:39:59,860 But are we going to look rather 427 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:31,000 We're also used to manicured everything around here. Is there a happy medium between the very wild look and the very manicured look? Can we do more aesthetically with the native plants? I think that's the balance that we're trying to achieve. And I think that's where we're trying to have a conversation. I think the important part throughout this process will be 428 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:37,120 be making sure we attempt to have that conversation, both in the education side, but also understanding 429 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:38,280 the feedback that we're getting. 430 00:40:38,900 --> 00:40:44,360 Estetics does play a part about this, but I think the primary driving factor was the 431 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:49,640 health and environmental sustainability measures is what we would have heard from the City Council 432 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:50,280 was the priority. 433 00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:58,200 And so we tried to balance the aesthetics and what the communities understanding of these 434 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:03,160 spaces are by developing those different thresholds that we're using for each of those spaces. 435 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:09,420 So we kind of create a space so we're not necessarily changing the planters out there, right? 436 00:41:09,940 --> 00:41:13,900 Those are already something that we constantly, every spring here, 437 00:41:14,300 --> 00:41:20,500 feedback from the community that they love seeing those planners as a part of that space. 438 00:41:21,020 --> 00:41:27,600 But thinking about where we can incorporate elements of this, so that it's thoughtful. 439 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:30,900 Are we going to get it right every time? 440 00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:36,320 We'll probably need to have a conversation and to see and kind of work together. 441 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:41,920 I think the biggest part of this is this is really the city trying to work with the 442 00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:50,160 community and be thoughtful and understanding about, we hear you, we hear this is the concern, 443 00:41:50,460 --> 00:41:56,520 we hear this is the direction you want to go, let's grow together and kind of make this 444 00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:58,160 This is something that we can do together. 445 00:41:58,300 --> 00:42:08,960 Me this halfway is dead heading, not part of the landscaping. 446 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:10,680 Is it not allowed? 447 00:42:10,900 --> 00:42:17,120 Is it now going to return to what I'm seeing at Brittany Park in the green space there? 448 00:42:18,340 --> 00:42:20,480 If a tree falls, it stays down. 449 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:30,600 But out here, I see that normally a gardener would want to go by and deadhead the chastodazies 450 00:42:30,600 --> 00:42:31,320 that are dead. 451 00:42:31,720 --> 00:42:34,080 But is that not allowed in the plan? 452 00:42:34,580 --> 00:42:39,280 Is it not going to be because in nature, nobody is deadheading? 453 00:42:39,780 --> 00:42:40,840 Yeah, it depends. 454 00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:42,900 I think that depends on the environment. 455 00:42:42,900 --> 00:42:47,040 We don't take that kind of heavy-headed approach in our 456 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:53,140 wooden, like our wood and trails in our open spaces environments, where it's a much more natural environment. 457 00:42:53,680 --> 00:43:01,600 We're not allowed to take those types of measures in our stream environments that we have at Rotary Park and other spaces like that. 458 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:11,080 But is that something that we would take at, for instance, Wooden Creek Park or Womong Gateway Park, where there's a lot more activity? 459 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:18,920 those spaces, we have to balance the risk that comes with having trees in the kind of natural environment, 460 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:26,000 the fallen trees in those types of spaces with the use that we're seeing with bicyclists going on this 461 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:30,440 amount of river trail, with people playing in the park and doing that. 462 00:43:30,620 --> 00:43:36,660 So, what I'd say is we try to take a thoughtful approach on what is appropriate where? 463 00:43:42,150 --> 00:43:42,550 Other questions? 464 00:43:42,550 --> 00:43:53,410 I just have some comments, it would be really engaging to have the community and 465 00:43:53,750 --> 00:44:08,130 homeowners people that have property land to be involved or know what's happening and how they can take your information and use it in their area. 466 00:44:08,130 --> 00:44:24,770 So I don't know how what kind of public outreach is planned or how involved it will be that I can see if neighborhood engagement would be a really positive thing for the whole area. 467 00:44:25,990 --> 00:44:41,750 I think you'll start seeing more events such as the one we're planning right here to do with the community to actually kind of express how these things can be done and using our partners like 21 acres to kind of get that information out. 468 00:44:42,150 --> 00:44:53,030 It's both a requirement of us as a B city as well as something that goes very much directly with where our policy direction is looking like it's going with this draft plan. 469 00:44:54,310 --> 00:44:59,950 I think you'll also with every part project that we've kind of 470 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:29,980 Now, kind of have teed up, for instance, like the Milwaukee Forest Project, there's a component of that, that is that education, that is the purpose of that, is to help teach by showing, right? So, we're taking on the initiative to do these types of things and to kind of give the example that then can be followed with on an individual basis in home. So, you'll start seeing a little bit more of that in some of our projects, but definitely that's something we can do. 471 00:45:29,980 --> 00:45:35,740 kind of incorporate with the education outreach we do annually with B-City and more. 472 00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:45,760 So as a resident there will be outreach or some place that a resident could go to get help information. 473 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:46,760 Absolutely. 474 00:45:47,140 --> 00:45:47,500 Publicize. 475 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:59,780 Yeah, we've already done, I think, well, I want to be careful, because I believe we've already had an article in one of our newsletters that went out, but we certainly can look at potentially doing another one. 476 00:45:59,780 --> 00:46:06,620 And most likely in the spring time when people are more thoughtful about planning and preparing for the rest of their time. 477 00:46:07,580 --> 00:46:08,200 Thank you. 478 00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:11,080 One more question. 479 00:46:11,260 --> 00:46:13,560 This only applies to city on property in a right of way. 480 00:46:13,740 --> 00:46:20,580 Like, how are we partnering with the large developments in the city to see if, you mentioned education for the places out of our jurisdiction? 481 00:46:21,140 --> 00:46:25,980 Have we been intentional with trying to get the big developers on board with this plan? 482 00:46:25,980 --> 00:46:41,140 And I'm mostly curious about spaces where there are public spaces that we have the splash pad that's coming but it's a private property, I guess, like how in what situations do we have the ability to kind of influence in those types of areas? 483 00:46:45,210 --> 00:46:46,250 That's a good question. 484 00:46:46,250 --> 00:46:58,890 I think we have strong relationships with the development community and the developers 485 00:46:58,890 --> 00:47:03,250 around this area and we certainly try to influence it where we can. 486 00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:12,130 It is a conversation as opposed to regulation in those circumstances and so we definitely 487 00:47:12,130 --> 00:47:18,050 we have the conversations, but it's not something we can impose on force. 488 00:47:18,590 --> 00:47:22,830 And so we do provide feedback to them, particularly when new projects go through. 489 00:47:23,850 --> 00:47:28,570 There's comments and process that we can have with that process, but it's a non-inforcible 490 00:47:28,570 --> 00:47:28,870 one. 491 00:47:31,010 --> 00:47:39,110 And more importantly, some of our partners with that are already existing and that are community 492 00:47:39,110 --> 00:47:42,730 property management. They've been very much 493 00:47:43,590 --> 00:47:48,690 abrasive of this type of material, even on their own. 494 00:47:49,210 --> 00:47:55,310 So I think we have a good relationship with those where they've been receptive to it. 495 00:47:55,750 --> 00:48:00,350 Now does that go so far as to changing their individual practices? 496 00:48:00,730 --> 00:48:02,390 I can't speak to that one. 497 00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:05,980 All right. Thank you so much, Chef. Any more questions? 498 00:48:05,980 --> 00:48:06,220 questions. 499 00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:12,680 When did you become a B-City? What year? 500 00:48:14,020 --> 00:48:14,660 20.5. 501 00:48:15,800 --> 00:48:22,620 All right. So I'm guessing that the big development over here was already planned before 2025. 502 00:48:24,020 --> 00:48:33,660 What do commercial businesses or anything coming into Woodenville now to help Woodenville keep 503 00:48:33,660 --> 00:48:35,940 Keep it status as a B city. 504 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,200 Are there requirements for you to be a B city? 505 00:48:42,940 --> 00:49:01,160 There are requirements for us to be a B city, to what extent, that the requirement, as it extends to private property, is that we have to provide education to private property owners on pest management on practices that promote pollinators, friendly habitats, and those things. 506 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:10,020 We cannot impose regulations on them on what they plan to or how they kind of take care of their spaces. 507 00:49:10,380 --> 00:49:22,500 Well, now I argue the point that I've heard that businesses say McDonald's had to build its new building to what the city said. 508 00:49:22,500 --> 00:49:26,660 This is what we want commercial buildings to look like in Woodenville. 509 00:49:26,660 --> 00:49:39,760 Am I right or that they wanted a bid, there's a look about buildings in Woodenville that are supposed to look what? 510 00:49:41,580 --> 00:49:45,200 I don't want to overstep kind of where I'm at. 511 00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:54,720 Well, no, what I'm saying is, if commercial buildings have to look like, well, 512 00:49:55,620 --> 00:50:00,000 You know, if you all had to be shabbed toes, okay, if we were 11 words. 513 00:50:00,850 --> 00:50:14,910 I'm sure that when Levin North, when they say, okay, we want a 11-worth look, we want a woodenville look, where I'm going with this, and just wait for it. I'm building my defense. 514 00:50:17,350 --> 00:50:30,830 Business is coming in. If they would acknowledge that there are some commitments to be city and to have them say, yes, we understand what you do. 515 00:50:30,830 --> 00:50:38,670 need, what can we do to help, or can you say to them, we need to be able to maintain 516 00:50:38,670 --> 00:50:48,530 this B-City status and your cooperation is expected. Is that the other way of saying 517 00:50:52,170 --> 00:51:00,370 that they could, they could be asked to cooperate in their plantings and things. 518 00:51:01,630 --> 00:51:01,990 Yes, no? 519 00:51:02,010 --> 00:51:05,030 That's clearly something that the City Council shows not to do. 520 00:51:05,890 --> 00:51:06,230 Oh. 521 00:51:06,470 --> 00:51:13,750 That would have created, in my opinion, probably a much, just like if you said you wanted all the buildings in town to look a certain way, 522 00:51:13,750 --> 00:51:20,730 that's going to involve resistance and costs and the poll in our pathway, we have a very simple, 523 00:51:21,130 --> 00:51:25,890 we educate them and we hope that they do some things. That's a very low threshold that 524 00:51:25,890 --> 00:51:33,010 everybody can clear, because if we started requiring certain things, there would certainly, 525 00:51:33,170 --> 00:51:36,550 certainly the City Council would have to approve because that would start putting some legal force 526 00:51:36,550 --> 00:51:43,610 behind some things and there would be inevitably some resistance to that. Depends on 527 00:51:43,610 --> 00:51:46,530 not exactly how much, but there would certainly be, I think, some resistance. 528 00:51:47,170 --> 00:51:49,750 So the City Council has clearly chosen a very low bar. 529 00:51:50,230 --> 00:51:55,810 We'll just educate them, and which, the poll on their path is, makes it quite simple. 530 00:51:57,590 --> 00:52:01,010 We could do more, but that's something for the City Council to decide. 531 00:52:01,890 --> 00:52:03,930 I don't think that this time they want to do that. 532 00:52:05,050 --> 00:52:10,970 I think I would just add that yes, the City does have a certain control over building codes and building standards and aesthetics. 533 00:52:10,970 --> 00:52:19,730 We have a downtown streetscape plan, for example, that denotes a lot of different treatments to even sidewalks and planter beds in the downtown area. 534 00:52:19,890 --> 00:52:28,830 So that's one example of how we can facilitate some control and affect the impact that new developments will have on the downtown area. 535 00:52:29,470 --> 00:52:33,150 Like with any decision in that vein, though, there is a balance, right? 536 00:52:33,210 --> 00:52:37,130 We want to welcome new developments and create the city in what we think is best. 537 00:52:37,130 --> 00:52:42,510 But to do it in a manner that is smart for the developer makes sense for them, right? 538 00:52:42,710 --> 00:52:47,110 We want to be able to welcome their project, but also create something that is woodenville. 539 00:52:48,030 --> 00:52:52,770 And that's the balance that the council has to struggle with on many different levels and 540 00:52:52,770 --> 00:52:54,010 many different decisions. 541 00:52:54,490 --> 00:53:01,890 So we do stop short of requiring certain plantings in private property, or 542 00:53:01,890 --> 00:53:06,910 property though about say a city right of way like the downtown streetscape plan I mentioned, 543 00:53:06,910 --> 00:53:13,850 we do have some more control there and I think the city has taken the stance that we have a 544 00:53:13,850 --> 00:53:19,290 we have a lot of work to do ourselves and so we can lead by example and show developers and property 545 00:53:19,290 --> 00:53:24,110 owners in the area what's possible and what what's to do and what not to do and as time goes on hopefully 546 00:53:24,110 --> 00:53:30,290 those will take more root but intended I guess and we can provide resources to help with that as well. 547 00:53:30,290 --> 00:53:31,010 All right, 548 00:53:35,860 --> 00:53:38,860 well, thank you so much for the conversation, Josh, and the presentation. 549 00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:40,620 We're going to keep moving. 550 00:53:41,340 --> 00:53:47,780 Next on our agenda is comments from our council liaison, unless our councilmember Weiss is not virtual or anything tonight. 551 00:53:48,460 --> 00:53:52,940 No, she was not able to make it tonight, and she sends her regards, and we'll get a message from her person. 552 00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:54,080 So we'll scratch that one. 553 00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:57,420 All right, Alex, so you got the mic, reports from staff, please. 554 00:53:57,420 --> 00:53:59,260 Yes, just a couple of things to mention. 555 00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:04,960 Commissioner Roy, you mentioned the Miyawaki forcing method, and we have a Miyawaki force planting event. 556 00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:11,200 coming up on October 3rd, that's from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for by Homeward Pet. 557 00:54:11,740 --> 00:54:16,620 We've got our temporary dog park over there, the area to the north of that, just behind 558 00:54:16,620 --> 00:54:21,360 the dog park between that and Little Bear Creek will be the site at which this event 559 00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:28,200 has held. We're hoping to get about 300 volunteers, so we need lots of help and your help as commissioners 560 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,480 and within your own circles would be greatly appreciated. 561 00:54:31,220 --> 00:54:35,840 We have lots more information on our website, including a sign-up sheet for hopeful or would-be 562 00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:36,240 volunteers. 563 00:54:36,660 --> 00:54:40,600 And we'll get that out to you via email if that would be helpful, but otherwise it's on 564 00:54:40,600 --> 00:54:42,840 our website and on our social media as well. 565 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:48,400 And the other image I've got up here on the screen, I will admit, is less than compelling. 566 00:54:48,720 --> 00:54:54,180 But that bare dirt there is rotary park, and that is the site of the future play structure. 567 00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:58,340 And this picture was taken about a week ago, and it is already stale. 568 00:54:58,340 --> 00:54:59,900 And I guess that's a credit too. 569 00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:28,820 The team that's helping install that, it's largely installed at this point. We've got some more finishing work to do over the next few weeks, so it's not quite open yet. But if you were to stroll by, you'd see quite a different scene than we have here, and we'll be sure to get you more information as we get closer to opening about that. That's it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any questions? Good. Alex, have you approached Carol Lee regarding getting rotarians to volunteer? I'm sorry, Carol Lee. 570 00:55:30,540 --> 00:55:36,560 We have a number of different groups that we're reaching out to, and I believe that her group is part of that as well. 571 00:55:37,140 --> 00:55:37,540 Good. 572 00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:38,040 Yeah. 573 00:55:41,060 --> 00:55:45,940 All right, next we're going on to reports from the commissioners, so I will call your name and let me know if you have a report. 574 00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:46,680 It's a commissioner Kerry. 575 00:55:47,300 --> 00:55:47,500 Nothing. 576 00:55:48,380 --> 00:55:49,700 Vice Chair Washington. 577 00:55:50,740 --> 00:55:57,280 I posted the Miyawaki flyer at my office because I work in landscape construction, so I should hopefully be able to get a few people there. 578 00:55:58,520 --> 00:55:58,920 Great. 579 00:55:59,040 --> 00:55:59,360 Commissioner White. 580 00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:03,340 No, thank you. Commissioner Gazi Mourad. 581 00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:12,680 Just noticed that from here on out, there are three of us and we're going to push for 582 00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:21,660 chairs and nice areas where all the people can walk in and out, ADA type of, just be aware 583 00:56:21,660 --> 00:56:28,200 of that. With you, Mary, being here, we're almost the majority, not quite, we're almost 584 00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:34,920 Yes, we need worse benches and things like that. 585 00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:39,380 Yes, we are. 586 00:56:39,460 --> 00:56:41,280 Yes, we are. 587 00:56:42,140 --> 00:56:47,180 This is not a really contentious group usually, but we'll see. 588 00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:48,040 All right. 589 00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,640 That is true. 590 00:56:52,700 --> 00:56:54,540 Commissioner Carscaden. 591 00:56:57,580 --> 00:57:09,760 Okay, well welcome again, for myself, school starts Tuesday, watch out for the school buses, refresh yourself on the rules for when you do and don't stop and don't run over my kids. 592 00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:17,000 All right, with all business items done, the meeting is adjourned and I've got this tonight. 593 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,000 Thank you so much, see you next month.