Notes from Shoreline City Council meeting Jan 7

Shoreline City Hall
Photo by Mike Remarcke

CITY COUNCIL MEETING 

JANUARY 7, 2019

By Pam Cross

Mayor Hall opened the meeting at 7:00pm. All Councilmembers were present except Deputy Mayor Salomon who has begun taking on his duties in the Washington State Legislature.

There was a brief report by the City Manager, Debbie Tarry.

• Tween Night at the REC is this Saturday Jan. 12th from 6:30 to 10:30 for 5th and 6th graders.
• Public Reminder: The Parks Funding Advisory Committee will meet Wednesday Jan 9th at 7PM in room 303.

Council Reports: Mayor Hall reported he had a meeting with the City Manager Debbie Tarry, City Attorney Margaret King, and a Mediator they will be working with, to try to make progress with the Town of Woodway towards the long term future of Point Wells.

There were six speakers for Public Comment.

1. Nancy Morris made a special request for all local and state officials to carefully consider our environment in policymaking decisions. As part of this, candidates should consider the reputation of commercial enterprises that contribute to campaigns.
2. Meghan Peterka stated that at the December 6th PRCS meeting, ST advised that 1,000 trees will be removed from Shoreline beginning in March 2019. Peterka has regularly attended the ST community meetings and the number of trees had consistently been in the area of 200-300. The response was Shoreline WA DOT land is now being included, and that 1,000 is the accurate number trees. Peterka has not seen this reported in any media and feels that this information should be widely distributed since trees are important to Shoreline residents. Peterka also wanted to express concerns about the state of the construction site just north of 150th and 5th Ave. but was out of time. Her written comments were presented to Council.
3. Ghazy Kader expressed displeasure with the state of existing sidewalks and doesn’t feel Shoreline needs new sidewalks when current sidewalks are in such disrepair. He was opposed to Prop 1.
4. Andy McRea Supports adoption of Amendment 24 in the batch amendments. The existing exempt tree removal stops at 6 regardless of lot size. Many properties are larger than an acre and support hundreds or thousands of trees. A limit makes sense, but this cap does not.
5. Naomi Hillyard advocates for a more diverse City Council. Hillyard would like to see renters, people of color, and/or immigrants for the open Council seat and future elections.
6. Wes Brandon expressed pleasure at the response to the open seat on the Council as representative of the vibrancy of the City.

The Agenda and the Consent Calendar were adopted by unanimous consent.

Action Item 8(a) Adopting Ordinance No. 850 - Amending Development Code Sections 20.20, 20.30, 20.40, 20.50, 20.70 and 20.230.

Steve Szafran and Paul Cohen returned to present the Staff report.

The Amendments were edited by Staff to reflect the Mayor and Council’s requests. Staff recommended that Council adopt Ordnance 850 with the modifications proposed by the Mayor and Councilmembers.

It was unanimously agreed that Amendments 1, 3, 9,10, 21,27, 28, and 32 proposed by Mayor Hall were grammatical changes for clarity, and not substantive.

Passed unanimously without additional discussion.

Amendment 15 (homeless shelter) was not included in this list because of concerns with the language: prospective residents will not be allowed “entry” until identification can be presented.

Does this mean they can’t come to the check-in desk or equivalent? The shelters will assist in obtaining identification but if people cannot come in without ID, then they cannot receive that assistance. Attorney suggested replace “entry” with ”residency”.

Passed unanimously with the word “residency”.

Amendment 15 (homeless shelter) Sanitation requirements are in the building code and not required here. The reference was removed.

Passed unanimously.

Amendment 15 (homeless shelter) requirement for at least one parking space per staff or volunteer removed leaving it up to the Director to determine parking for the individual location.

Passed unanimously.

Amendments 17 and 18 (rooftop amenities in MUR zones)

Council had proposed a 10’ step-back to avoid multiple rooftop amenities from looking like another story.

A question arose whether elevators would be included in this step-back requirement. In order to be ADA approved, an elevator is needed for access to rooftop amenities. However, it is possible that an elevator could be located in a corner. A 10’ step-back would be unrealistic, as is the expense to add a second elevator from the top floor to rooftop. Is an elevator an “amenity”or mechanical equipment necessary for the building? This is not a current problem, so it could be addressed in the next batch of code amendments.

There was no motion to move forward with the Council suggested step-back.

Amendment 24 (exempt significant tree removal based on parcel size)

It was moved to reject the Planning Commission’s recommendation to allow more trees to be removed without a permit based on the size of the property.

This Amendment died due to lack of a second so the current cap of 6 trees remains.

Amendment 30 (change minimum parking spaces for professional offices from 1/400sf to 1/500sf.)

This change is in line with neighboring cities and requires fewer parking spots. Shoreline code does allow more parking than the minimum. This might create a problem for businesses that operate out of a former house in the light rail area.

This amendment passed 4-2, with Councilmembers McGlashan and Scully opposed.

Amendment 34 (waivers to not meet frontage improvements)

Proposed change limited waiver for limited opportunity for additional improvements to “of a local street adjacent to the R-4 or R6 zones”. This change clarifies the discretion of the Director of Public Works.

Passed unanimously

Ordinance 850 as amended passed unanimously.

The Mayor expressed his appreciation of Staff’s complete and timely responses to the many questions council had.

Council left Chambers for 60 minutes for an Executive Session to evaluate council applicant qualifications RCW 42.30.110(1)(h)

Action Item 10(a) Selecting applicants to interview for City Council Position #6

There were a total of 53 applicants.

The Mayor and Council returned and selected 6 applicants to be interviewed at January 28th Council meeting. Those applicants are: Genevieve Arredondo, David Chen, Jennifer Greenlee, Eben Pobee, Rebeca Rivera, and Betsy Robertson.

10(b) Electing a Temporary Presiding Officer for the January 14, 2019 City Council Meeting since the Deputy Mayor moved on to his new position and the Mayor has another commitment, Councilmember Scully unanimously elected.

The meeting was adjourned.