Notes from Shoreline Council meeting July 29, 2019

Shoreline City Hall and Council Chamber
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

Shoreline City Council Meeting 

July 29,2019
Notes by Pam Cross

Mayor Hall called the meeting to order at 7:00pm
All councilmembers were present.

Report of the City Manager Debbie Tarry

July 30th the Lunchtime Concert Series continues. This week it is at Cromwell Park. This is a location change from the original schedule. Visit the Shoreline website for the full summer schedule.

July 30th from 5:30 to 8:00pm at Cromwell Park is the final Karaoke in the Park.

July 31st to August 8th Join volunteer beach naturalists for the final Low Tide Beach Walks of the year. For more details contact shorelinewas.gov/lowtide

Public Reminders

The Planning Commission will meet on Thursday, Aug 1st at 7:00pm in the Council Chamber.

Council Reports

Councilmember Scully attended a meeting of the Continuum of Care Board, the regional body tasked, partially, with reorganizing outreach efforts for the homeless, and also steering the Federal money that comes in to the County. They adopted a set of criteria believed be equitable. Scully’s goal is to make sure that Shoreline receives a fair amount of services while addressing the homelessness issue throughout the County.

Councilmember Roberts attended the meetings of the King County Growth Management Policy Board and the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board (PSRC). Vision 2050 Draft Plan was released a few weeks ago and comments were solicited. The Sound Cities Association wants to issue their comment letter along these principles

1. Maximize the benefits of the region’s significant investments in high-capacity transit by setting ambitious regional goals for attracting housing and jobs in proximity to this transit.
2. Incorporate policies and regional actions that mitigate displacement risk, ensure equitable outcomes and access to opportunity, and support affordable housing preservation and development most suitable for each city and town across the four- county region.
3. Conduct further work by PSRC and member jurisdictions to mutually clarify expectations related to local Plan growth targets.
4. Provide technical assistance and advocate for resources for cities and towns to implement VISION 2050. 

King County Growth Management Board is issuing a similar statement. If there are any concerns, Councilmembers should let Roberts know so he bring the feedback to the next meeting.

Mayor Hall stated the Council received their letter regarding dues from the Sound Cities Association. It comes to about 3.5% for Shoreline. The inflation measure was 2.3%. He sent the same letter the City sent in the past, stating Shoreline Council has generally opposed having increases in membership fees that are more than the rate of inflation.

Public Comment

Bettelinn K. Brown (Briarcrest), Bill Dwyer (Briarcrest), Thea DeYoung (Briarcrest), Joan Herrick (Hillwood), Jean Hilde (Briarcrest), Pam Sager (Briarcrest), Lance Young (Westminster), Stephanie Angelis (Ballinger) and Robin McClelland (Richmond Highlands) spoke in favor of including parks in the upcoming Bond Measure.

Leo Crisafulli is passionate about skateboarding. He skates at Paramount and feels Shoreline needs a second skatepark because one is not enough.

Ginny Scantlebury does not believe Council has enough information to vote on this Bond Measure tonight. She outlined some problems with the proposed Senior Center space in the aquatic center (no storage, no near bathrooms, lack of control/ownership of the space).

Pam Sager wants to make sure that inflatable tubes used for advertising are not allowed in Shoreline, and if they are, please stop.

The agenda was approved unanimously.

The Consent Calendar was adopted, without discussion, unanimously.

Action Item 8(a) Adopting Ordinance No. 866 – Authorizing the Placement of a Ballot Measure on the 2019 General Election Ballot to Authorize a Property Tax Bond Measure for an Aquatics, Recreation and Community Center and Optionally Priority Parks Improvements

Staff Report by Eric Friedli, Director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services

Note: The Community Aquatic Center (CAC) has been renamed. It is now the Shoreline Aquatics, Recreation and Community Center (ShARCC). Staff feels this better represents the intent of the facility, as well as having a more interesting acronym .

The School District (SD) passed a resolution to contribute $2.43million to the construction of the ShARCC subject to an 8-lane pool, spectator area, adequate pool depth, preferred scheduling for SD swim and dive team practices and meets for 50 years, and the SD pays no use or maintenance for 50 years.

There are two version of Ordinance 866

• Alternative 1 includes only the ShARCC
• Bond $85.7million which would be $16/month on a median valued home ($480,000) 
• Alternative 2 includes the ShARCC and other priority parks improvements.
• Bond $103.6million $20/month on a median valued home ($480,000) 

The Bond measure options have been reduced by the $2.43million contribution from the School District.

The four neighborhood parks that would be improved are: Brugger’s Bog, Hillwood, Richmond Highlands, and Briarcrest Community (Hamlin). Park improvements would include such things as playgrounds, splash-pads, multi-sports courts, trails, perimeter walking paths, and a fully accessible play area for people of all physical abilities. Additional information available online for the individual park improvements.

Councilmember Roberts' possible amendments to Ordinance 866 that includes parks would

1. Remove Briarcrest Community Park (Hamlin) from the list
2. Remove Richmond Highlands Park from the list 
3. and thereby reduce the bond amount to $93.6million (from $103.6million) 

or, alternatively

1. Remove Briarcrest Community Park (Hamlin) from the list
2. Remove Richmond Highlands Park from the list
3. Add James Keough Park to the list of priority parks
4. Add trails
5. and thereby reduce the bond amount to $100.3million (from $103.6million) 

Discussion

Councilmember McGlashan moved to accept Alternative 2 that includes the ShARCC and other priority parks improvements for a $103.6million Bond. As a frequent visitor to Shoreline parks, sometimes daily, McGlashan recognizes there are other parks that need help too. But he believes Council should honor the previous selection process. Hopefully, Sound Transit will plant a lot of those required 5,000 replacement trees in James Keogh Park.The bond probably won’t pass without the parks inclusion..

Deputy Mayor McConnell would like to thank the community for helping the Council to bring this to the voters, and also recognizes the hard work of the Parks Board. Shoreline parks are highly used resulting in their deterioration over time. Eric Friedli was thanked for listening and responding to the community needs for the Senior Center space in ShARCC. This is still a high level design that will be finalized over time. Friedli said this concept design represents only about 1% of the work they will go through before finalizing the design. There are a lot of opportunities to shift things around. They realize they will have to go through the multi-meeting and tiered process as they did for the design of the pool.

The Shoreline Little League is concerned about the loss of baseball fields. Friedli will work closely with them to review capacity.

Councilmember Scully is in favor of adding the parks to the Ballot. In reviewing the process he said they came up with a plan for the pool, it wasn’t good enough so they fixed it. They came up with a plan for the senior center, it wasn’t good enough so they fixed it. Given the numbers he can’t understand why Council would ask the voters to vote on a recreation and swim facility but not ask the voters for these parks improvements. Scully is now convinced from community input that it doesn’t make sense to pull the parks out of it for the 5 or 6 dollars difference.He asks that community members that have suggestions for configuration of the ShARCC continue to bring these issues to Council’s attention.

Councilmember Chang also supports the measure including Parks. The ShARCC is a community recreation center, pool, senior center, and meeting rooms, bringing together the community in a central area serviced by transit. This is a lot of money, but there is a change to the senior citizen property tax exemption. (The new income limit is $58,423 rather than $40,000. King County residents can apply for taxes payable in 2020 as early as January, 2020 when 2020 application is readily available.but a copy of your Income Tax filing is required at the time of application / pac)

Councilmember Robertson was pleased to hear from the swimming pool advocates, and supporters of the senior center as well as the parks. One of tonight’s public speakers mentioned multi-family housing. These units do not have yards. The parks are their yards. As respects ShARCC, there is still a lot to be done on how space is utilized but Robertson is very much in favor of ShARCC including parks.

Councilmember Roberts believes we have a great park system but there are lots of improvements that need to be done. He attended the Seattle Metro Pickleball Tournament at Shorecrest and stated Shoreline needs to attract more of this type of event. It not only shows how beautiful our city is, but has the potential for income from accompanying food trucks and places to stay. There are many parks that need improvements. Shoreline Little League is concerned about loss of baseball fields, there are three different sized fields. We have only one of the largest and it is scheduled to be replaced by other sports fields.That is a big loss. The Little League wants a delay so they can work out a win-win design with parks. Eric Friedli believes, rather than start from scratch, we see if we can move things around and still include the planned amenities, like they are doing with the ShARCC.

Mayor Hall stated the current pool is dying. Maintenance costs are ridiculous and, of course, paid for by the taxpayers. At this point, it’s basically a hole in the ground

All of the priority parks are in desperate need of help. The Council and staff have been unable to get adequate funding from other sources. He is very pleased that the School District stepped up.

He would like to have seen public and private partners rather than just funding through property tax. The Mayor is not supporting this funding model but there’s no doubt that all of these projects are outstanding projects. Shoreline residents have always expected a higher level of service than we see in neighboring communities. Although not everyone will get everything they want the Mayor hopes the community will pull together as this moves forward.

Councilman Roberts moves to postpone decision to August 5th. Failing to secure a second, the motion dies.

The motion including ShaRCC and the priority parks passes 6 to 1 with Mayor Hall dissenting. 

Study Item 9(a) Discussion of Resolution No. 439 – Approving the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan

As the population in King County increases, Cedar Hills Regional Landfill, the only operating landfill in the County, gets closer to its capacity as a solid waste disposal site.The 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan can be found here.

Autumn Salamack, Shoreline Environmental Services Coordinator, introduced the speaker Government Relations Administrator with King County Solid Waste Division Director, Dorian Waller.

He presented the 2019 Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan that was approved by the King County Council on April 24, 2019. It includes the cities as well as unincorporated King County but excludes Seattle and Milton. These cities have their own system.

King County is in charge of the transfer stations and landfill. Cities provide or contract for curbside collection. Private companies do curbside collection and materials recovery (recycling). And all promote recycling and sustainability.

King County wants to do more recycling to get from its current 54% to 70%. (Shoreline is at 60% while many other cities are at 30-35%). They would like to continue modernizing transfer stations and further develop Cedar Hills Landfill. They plan to open area 9, the last remaining part of the landfill, in order to give the County time to plan, site, and pay for the next option.

Area 9 is scheduled to close around 2038. Area 8 was just opened a week or so ago. But we need to have a plan in place before the landfill closes.

The next Plan update will include options for post Cedar Hills Landfill such as waste-to-energy, waste export by rail, or other emerging technologies.

The Plan has been strengthened by including defined use of the buffer and bird management, among others.

The Plan is approved if approved by cities representing at least 75% of the population of cities that act prior to September 16, 2019. Cities can approve, not approve, or not take action. The next step is final approval by the Department of Ecology by October 31, 2019.

Discussion

Councilmember Chang brought up the changes in the recycling market and asked how King County is dealing with this. 

• Waller: They have established a Responsible Recycling Task Force to identify common ground for advancing recycling. This offers an opportunity to improve on recycling in the region, re-educate the public on recycling best practices, reduce contamination, and reinforce waste prevention messaging.

Councilmember Chang said that you have to have a market that will accept the recycling and repurpose it. 

• Waller said the recycling market is not disappearing but is changing. King County has not seen this as an issue. 
• Mayor Hall added that Recology had said it costs them more to recycle. 
• Councilmember Roberts mentioned that individuals need to be better recyclers (materials must be clean and dry) in order to prevent contaminating whole containers. But what happens if haulers or the King County Transfer Stations refuse to accept the material? What if this whole thing falls apart in a year or two? What is going to happen to rates? He believes we should anticipate increased rates.

Councilmember McGlashan believes more time needs to be spent studying waste-to-energy options because shipping to another state or country’s landfill just means another landfill will soon be at capacity. What are other counties near us doing? 

• Waller responded: Snohomish County ships theirs by rail to either Eastern Washington or Eastern Oregon, and it’s scheduled to last until 2199. When the original Solid Waste Management Plan was developed, the idea was to go from landfill straight to rail, without considering other options. This Plan includes researching other options.

Mayor Hall commented that a 1,000’ buffer is more than three city blocks which is a very large buffer for a modern landfill that has bird management and gas management, etc. And that removes a lot of acreage out of future landfills. He would like the potential for use of more of that acreage to continue to be discussed. As far as recycling, we could save money by better use of compostables that were never shipped to China by working with restaurants and multifamily housing. We also have to see reduced packaging.

Councilmember McGlashan offered kudos to Shoreline School District for their work on recycling education.

Are there any concerns from Council? This will be brought to the Consent Calendar.

Meeting adjourned at 8:43pm.