Notes from Shoreline City Council meeting Sept 9, 2019

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

Shoreline City Council Meeting 

September 9, 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

Sept 13 - 22 Welcoming Week, Building a Community of Neighbors, begins with a racial history display in the City Hall lobby on Monday Sept 16. This display details the policies and practices that have impacted Shoreline’s racial history and will be available Sept 16 - 20 during business hours. There will be a number of other events throughout the week.

Sept 14 is the first Tween Night of the year. Hours are 6:30 to 10:30pm at the Richmond Highlands Rec and is open for free to kids from grades 5 and 6. Parents must check kids in and out at the door. More information available online.

Park volunteer work parties are Saturdays and Sunday in September. This month work parties will be held at Brugger’s Bog, Twin Ponds, and Hamlin parks. Additional details including times and meeting locations available online.

Public Reminders

The PRCS/Tree Board will hold a retreat on Saturday Sept 14th from 8:30 to 1:00pm in the Council Chamber.

Council Reports 

Councilmember McGlashan and Deputy Mayor McConnell attended the SeaShore transportation forum meeting and heard a presentation on the 5-year capital improvement plan. There’s a surprising amount of work that goes on to support the maritime activity. Pier 5 in West Seattle is being prepped for deep berth ships. Pier 46 near the Colman ferry dock will be divided into a cruise ship terminal and small ship terminal for non-international cargo ships.

The Sound Transit Executive Board has approved $3.7M to the ST board for the preliminary design of our 148th pedestrian bridge.

Councilmember Scully went to the Continuum of Care Board (formerly All Home) meeting (homelessness). The Regional Action Plan has now been released. Right now it is just Seattle and King County but going forward, it creates a new executive board with the intent of bringing order out of the chaos of existing services. They voted on the list of priority projects for Federal funding. There is about $47M of federal funding that is available for local programs that provide homelessness relief efforts. One of the responsibilities of the board is to submit a ranked list of the order in which we think projects should be funded to the Federal Government.

It is still heavily oriented to programs that serve Downtown Seattle. One of his goals is to see that we get regional federal funding for across the county not just Seattle’s Pioneer Square District.

He is pleased that at least one Shoreline project is Tier 1 priority (will be funded). There are a fair amount of non-Seattle projects also in Tier 1. But it is still heavily weighted towards Seattle, and he wants to make sure that isn’t the tradition going forward.

Shoreline wants to continue to provide local programs in conjunction with our non-profit partners and also in conjunction with all the other government agencies in a way that will make sure that all services are located throughout the region.

It is being funded by Seattle and King County. Suburban cities are not being asked to contribute at this point. We don’t want to pay in because we already pay King County taxes.

Councilmember Roberts attended the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) legislative committee meeting. They are planning to forward to the DC board several priorities, including support for our Comprehensive City Transportation Bill, supporting efforts to fully fund the public works trust fund, supporting the creation of tax increment financing option for cities, preservation of city fiscal health, and support funding for medication assisted treatment services in city and regional jails. Also included are support for new resources and policies for increasing affordable housing, and funding for watershed based approaches addressing fish blocking culverts.

Changes that were considered but not included were support of just-cause eviction and changes to the landlord and tenant act.

Mayor Hall took the time to thank all Councilmembers for spending time on these committees and working for the Shoreline Community beyond just attending Council meetings.

The Mayor and Councilmember Roberts attended the groundbreaking for the new ST Lynnwood Link.

Today was the second to last meeting of the Orca Task Force trying to help save the whales and salmon in Puget Sound. Habitat loss and conversion of forests and shoreline armoring (bulkheads) are still a significant issues that are continuing to damage Puget Sound. Compared to several jurisdictions we’re seeing Shoreline City projects are actually improving stormwater and improving habitat.

Public Comment

Pat Anunsen is concerned because the Court of Appeals ruled that Ronald Wastewater has no “right” to service customers in the Point Wells area. Ronald WW has requested a Supreme Court review and Anunsen has several questions for Council.

Robert Doran, from ROIC San Diego, reiterated that as respects #441 (Action item 8b), it is ROIC’s position that approving the Agreement would be premature. ROIC is working with Merlone Geier to resolve their concerns. Although progress has been made. there are still numerous issues to be settled before the Agreement is solidified.

Gail Steele spoke of concerns about AirBNB locations. For safety, neighbors need to know who lives in the neighborhood so Neighborhood Watch knows who belongs. Currently Shoreline has no codes for AirBNB - room rental codes apply. Seattle has codes and regulations specifically for AirBNB. Shoreline needs to establish a means to identify a property as an AirBNB as well as establish taxes, rules and regulations.

Ginny Scantlebury spoke about homelessness. The current failure of government to solve homelessness is why she doesn’t think we need to add yet another layer of government. The regional approach is costly, there are only one or two out of seven members of the steering committee to represent the 38 suburban cities that could potentially belong to this. Other Washington cities have done good work without adding more money. Housing is not the answer. Need help for drug and mental issues.

George Whiteside was unsure if this was the correct venue for his concerns. His children attend Cascade K-8 Community School that is in its 4th year of construction. Kids are actually in a construction zone. Drilling is taking place a floor above the kids' heads and metal shards are falling onto desks. He wants something to be done.

Councilmembers felt he was at wrong meeting because schools are a separate jurisdiction. He should speak at a School District meeting but he left before they could mention it to him. He will be contacted with this information. However, Councilmembers acknowledged that the City does the permitting and has a responsibility to all residents.

(for the complete comments, view the video of the Council meeting online)

The agenda was approved unanimously.

The Consent Calendar was adopted, without discussion, unanimously.

Action Items

8(a) Public Hearing and Discussion of the 2020 Community Development Block Grant Funding Plan

Mayor Hall opened the Public Hearing.

Staff report by Bethany Wolbrecht-Dunn, Grants Administrator

The City financially supports Human Services delivery by non-profit agencies using General Fund and Community Development Block Grant Funding (CDBG funds). Each year, the Council must hold a public hearing on the proposed use of CDBG funds and act to adopt an allocation plan. For 2020, $322,565 CDBG funds is estimated. The Interlocal Agreement with King County for administration of our grants calls for major housing repair (0% loans for roofing and other projects that keep people in their homes), a housing stability project for renters, and capital projects for planning and administration. This provides continued support to the Sound Generations Minor Home Repair Program and support of a housing preservation project at King County Housing Authority’s Westminster Manor (upgrading electrical).

No pubic comment.

Hearing is closed.

Discussion

What amounts are involved in the Major Home Repair and Housing Stability Major home repair? The maximum loan is $25,000 for a 4-6 year term. When the house is sold, the money comes back to the City to replenish the fund. This takes an average of 5 years.

Housing stability loans are much smaller amounts, for example a few hundred dollars used for paying a utility bill. The total for Shoreline is about $16,000.

Is there a backlog of requests we cannot fulfill? Yes, for Housing Stability there is always a backlog.

This will come back before Council on September 23rd.

8(b) Adoption of Resolution No. 441: Approving the Shoreline Place Development Agreement Between the City of Shoreline and Merlone Geier Partners

Rachael Markle, Planning and Community Development Director provided the staff report.

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 441 with the Planning Commission’s recommended development agreement and modifications. Adoption of Resolution No. 441, as proposed, will authorize the City Manager to execute the modified Shoreline Place Development Agreement with Merlone Geier Partners.

A quick review of the key components of the Agreement followed. During the August 5th Council meeting, members of the City Council articulated potential changes to the proposed Development Agreement. Staff and the applicant subsequently met and negotiated additional changes to the Planning Commission’s recommended Development Agreement.

Motion and Second to adopt Resolution No 441 with the Planning Commission’s recommended development Agreement and modifications.

Discussion

What are the remaining unresolved issues mentioned during public comment?

Jamas Gwilliam, Vice President of Development, Merlone Geier Partners replied:

Two items still waiting for additional information. Merlone Geier and staff agree that issues have been addressed that are in the Development Agreement but other issues are private property decisions that don’t belong in the Agreement. The actual items are primarily site issues more related to CCNRS "covenants, conditions, and restrictions.” These are confidential issues and not applicable in this regard.

The major amendment process is unclear (adding parcels is a major amendment). Margaret King, Shoreline City Attorney, says it is clarifying you don’t have to start at zero. A major amendment opens the Agreement up again, but it is an application for an amendment - not for a new Development Agreement. The amendment will be considered as additive to what has already been negotiated in the previous Agreement. Making additional parcels a major amendment lets further Councils have a say in how this project develops over time.

The amount of retail space is expressed on today’s slide as a percentage instead of square feet. Does this change anything? No, it doesn’t change the number of retail square feet that is in the Agreement itself. This slide is not part of the Agreement.

Articulation features (Building articulation refers to the many street frontage design elements, both horizontal and vertical, that help create a streetscape of interest), seem to have changed from 35’ to 80’, but then later it repeats 35’. Both numbers should be the same. Need to strike 35’ and insert 80’.

City codes may need changes to eliminate some of the changes requested by Council.The project already met the minimums required by code. If those are not satisfactory, we need to increase those code requirements.

It’s regrettable that impact fees are being negotiated on such a large project because they could do a lot of good for the community. We are giving up $1.4M in park impact fees, for example. The cumulative credit column for the impact fees needs to be updated.

Major residential projects will have a huge impact on our schools. Perhaps that should be addressed in future Development Agreements.

The School District has an avenue to address increased number of new students because the State pays on a per student basis. The School District can put forward a capital building project as well as propose that we charge school impact fees. So it doesn’t need to be in this Agreement.

This Agreement might not be perfect and it might be incomplete, but it’s time to move forward instead of trying to get to a perfect Agreement. This is just part of the ongoing process and staff will be involved at every step forward. There are multiple permit applications to follow. 

Motion and second to modify the amendment per the planning commission recommendations passes unanimously.

Motion and second to correct impact fees table cumulative column passes unanimously.

Motion and second to correct final document to strike 35’ and insert 80’ passes unanimously.

The Mayor, Deputy Mayor and all Councilmembers individually thanked all parties for the hard work that went into this project.

Motion and Second to Adoption of Resolution No 441 as amended passes unanimously.

This whole process has been too labor intensive, so by addressing changes in the code this onerous process can be eliminated. Developers of future projects will know what is expected of them, and we will eliminate the need for a Development Agreement for every future project.

Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm