Notes from Shoreline City Council meeting March 25

Shoreline City Hall
Photo by Mike Remarcke

Notes from March 25, 2019 Shoreline City Council Meeting
By Pam Cross 

Mayor Hall called the meeting to order at 7:00pm

Mayor Hall proclaimed March 31, 2019 as Cesar Chavez Day in the City of Shoreline. Cesar Garcia accepted the Proclamation. Mr. Garcia, while attending the Shoreline Arts Festival with his family in 2016, asked for the location of the Latinx Cultural Room.

He was told “we don’t have one - why don’t you open one?” Since that time, he has been active in supporting the Shoreline Arts Festival, has served as a consultant for The Arts Council’s first Dia De Muertos Event, and has provided guidance and inspiration in bringing Latinx cultural activities to Shoreline.

Debbie Tarry presented the Report of the City Manager
Applications are now open for the City’s first Community Bridge program. Its goal is to help multilingual residents from diverse backgrounds better understand Shoreline’s government structure and to increase knowledge of Shoreline’s city services and resources. Applications are available at shorelinewa.gov/communitybridge and must be submitted by April 12th.

Tuesdays 3/26, 4/23 and 5/28 Home Improvement Workshops 6:00 to 8:00pm at City Hall. Reserve an appointment to discuss your project  shoreline.gov/homeimprovement
There is also a vendor fair that does not require an appointment.

Public Reminders:
--The final meeting of the Parks Funding Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday, March 27th at 7:00pm in room 303 of City Hall.
--The PRCS/Tree Board will meet on Thursday, March 28 at 7:00pm in room 303

Council Reports

Councilmember Chang attended the Regional Transit Committee meeting. Metro is transforming from a transit agency to a mobility agency to coordinate ride shares, bicycles, scooters and other forms of transportation with how they will work with transit.
Councilmember Scully attended the Salmon Recovery Council meeting where they reviewed the Orca Task Force report. He feels current programs do not go far enough, that the time for compromise has passed and it’s time to take action to recover salmon. Once accomplished, the regulations can be dialed back.
Mayor Hall stated the Orca Task Force recommended a 3 year suspension of whale watching but compromise occurred in the legislative process in Olympia.
Council had dinner tonight with the Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman and Executive Director Stephen Metruck. Discussions included regional opportunities, and how to deal with airport noise, mobility and freight movement through the region.

The King County Regional Policy Committee is looking at a proposal to renew the King County Parks Levy. Council Chair Rod Dembowski has proposed adding additional funding which may include renovation and replacement of pools in the region (which is of interest to us as we look for funding of the proposed new Community and Aquatics Center) and also a fairly large sum of money for regional bike and pedestrian paths to connect the Burke Gilman Trail and the Interurban Trail.  We don’t have a seat on this committee so Mayor Hall plans to make some calls to advocate for Dembowski’s proposals.

Public Comment

• Ev E Phillips spoke about the problem of off leash dogs in Shoreline
• Bill Boyington complained about a neighboring residential yard used by a non-Shoreline resident for commercial storage
• Mark Rettmann spoke on behalf of Save Shoreline Neighborhoods against rezoning two residential lots
• Pam Cross spoke on her own behalf in favor of adding the Amendment regarding the rezoning to the Docket
• George Whiteside spoke about the 185th Street Corridor and his concern about 188th Street

The Agenda and Consent Calendar were adopted unanimously

Study Item (a) Discussing Draft Options for the 185th Corridor

Nora Daley-Peng, Senior Planner, made the staff report and was assisted by Miranda Redinger, Senior Planner, and Kendra Dedinsky, City Traffic Engineer.

Two purposes for tonight’s presentation: to provide a summary of the fall public outreach
and to debut the draft material that will be shown to the public at the open house on April 2nd, from 6:00 to 8:00pm in Council Chamber and in the lobby.

The goal is to present a vision that is future focused and supports the needs of all users. The 185th St Corridor will unite the Aurora Corridor to the future Light Rail Station and connect to the North City business district.

There are several different lane configurations. There are different configurations for different sections of the roadway.

• 185th St has options for two travel lanes and center turn lane with bike lanes, or two travel lanes and two BAT (Business, access and turn) lanes with protected bike lanes, or four travel lanes and center turn lane with a shared-use path (bikes and pedestrians going in both directions) 
• 10th Ave NE has options for two travel lanes with buffered bike lanes, or two travel lanes with bike lanes and on-street parking, or three lanes (two travel and center turn lane) and bike lanes.
• NE 180th has options for two travel lanes with bike lanes, or two travel lanes with buffered bike lanes and on-street parking,

No decisions have been made. An analysis will be done comparing how each benefits all users, livability and costs.

There are four identified sites for community gathering places along the corridor.
At the July 15th Council Meeting, the preferred option will be selected and on October 21st, the final corridor strategy is scheduled to be adopted.

Discussion
There are a lot of projected failures for “level of service.” However modeling for the next 15 to 20 years is extremely difficult. The City has been studying this for years, it’s about making the other transportation modes work. With movement to walking, biking or transit from automobiles we can expect to see projections change as more movement is made. We need to stop looking at level of service only as respects vehicles. Once we look at all modes, we may be able to meet our level of service goals. Or the goals may need to be modified.

At the end of the day we will probably end up with a hybrid of the different options.

Study Item (b) Discussing the 2019-2021 City Council Goals and Work Plan
Staff report by John Norris, Assistant City Manager

Discussion
The staff was thanked for their work on this. Scheduled for Consent Calendar.

Council stepped away from the dais for an Executive Session: Litigation and Potential Litigation

30 minutes later, the meeting resumed. It was unanimously agreed that the City Manager negotiate and execute a severance agreement under the parameters discussed and with terms acceptable to the city attorney.

Adjourned 9:02pm