Notes from Shoreline council meeting January 13, 2019

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

Shoreline City Council Meeting 

January 13, 2020
Notes by Pam Cross

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

Mayor Hall Declared January 20, 2020 as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the City of Shoreline
Makayla Weary, Mickie Demeke and Christina Kassa, students from Shorecrest High School’s Black Student Union (BSU) received the proclamation.

Report of the City Manager Debbie Tarry

In partnership with the North Urban Human Services Alliance (NUHSA), the City is using a portion of the former Shoreline Police Station located at 1206 N 185th Street as an emergency severe weather shelter this winter. Severe Weather Hotline: 206-801-2797

Saturday Jan 18 from 9:00 to 10:00am The Recology Store is offering a free “what goes where” workshop with emphasis on the blue recycling bin. 15235 Aurora Ave N, Suite 102.

Join neighbors and other community volunteers to restore and improve Shoreline Parks. Volunteer work parties will be Saturdays Jan 18 and 25 at Twin Ponds and Hamlin Parks. PLEASE NOTE: the work party at Hamlin Park, originally scheduled for Jan 18 has been rescheduled to Jan 25. Check the city calendar for additional details.

Public Reminders

Jan 15 public hearing before the Hearing Examiner at 6:00pm in the Council Chamber regarding a preliminary formal subdivision application to divide 1 parcel into 11 townhome unit lots at 18512 Meridian Ave N.

Jan 16 the Planning Commission will have a Public Hearing at 7:00pm in the Council Chamber regarding Master Development Plan and Special Use Permit Conditions Amendments

Jan 20, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, City Hall will be closed and there will be no Council meeting. Spartan Recreation Center and Shoreline Pool will operate on a regular schedule.

Council Reports

Mayor Hall commented on appointments to outside committees and thanked Councilmembers for the work they do representing Shoreline at committees throughout the region, state, and even at the national level.

Reappointments

SeaShore Transportation Forum: Councilmember McConnell as our representative and Councilmember McGlashan as the alternate

PSRC Transit Oriented Advisory Committee: Susan Chang as our representative and Mayor Hall as the alternate

WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery and Watershed Management: Deputy Mayor Scully as our representative. They have a system where a different City is the alternate

Sound Cities Association Public Issues Committee: Councilmember Roberts who has served on this for a number of years. The alternate position is open until our next meeting in two weeks if anyone would like to express an interest.

Subcommittee to review the applications for the Planning Commission positions: Mayor Hall, Deputy Mayor Scully and Councilmember Robertson

Public Comment

Kathleen Russell, Shoreline, Save Shoreline Trees spoke in support of saving the trees on Dayton Ave N between N 155th and N 160th

The agenda was approved unanimously.
The Consent Calendar was adopted, without discussion, unanimously.

ACTION ITEM

Adoption of Ordinance No. 877 – Amending Ordinance No. 829 Limited Tax General Obligation Bond Anticipation Notes

Sara Lane, Administrative Services Director

The only change that this Amendment makes to Ordinance 877 is to extend the authorization to issue Bond Anticipation Notes to December 31, 2020. Ordinance No. 829 delegated authority to issue the debt at any time during the authorization period, which was limited to one year. On June 17, 2019, Council approved Ordinance No. 864 extending the delegation period to February 1, 2020. Due to the delay in closing these purchases, this additional extension is required.

While the Ordinance authorizes up to $25M, the debt we are talking about now is the purchase of the property for the proposed Shoreline Aquatics and Community Center, which we estimate at $17.5M. This includes not only purchase price but all of the closing costs that have been incurred during the negotiation process.

In order to adopt the Ordinance tonight, staff are requesting that Council waive Council rule 3.5.B, requiring a second reading of proposed Ordinance No. 877. Additionally, as per Council Rule of Procedure 6.1.B, as this item is an Action Item before the Council for the first time and is not part of tonight’s consent agenda, public comment for this item will follow the staff report but precede Council review and potential adoption of proposed Ordinance No. 877.

There were no public comments.

Move and second to adopt and waive 2nd reading of the proposed Ordinance.
Passed unanimously

Discussion

We need to have the continued conversation regarding this property. However, does purchasing the land guarantee a new facility will be built there?

Reply: No, but it does provide a guarantee that we’ll have that preferred location available, should Council move forward with a community recreational center.

What about the current users? Will the current storage court users have to immediately relocate?

Reply: No they can still lease there and we hope they stay. We will contract out to a professional property management firm that has experience managing storage facilities.

You mention in the staff report that any income from investment properties in excess of interest and operation costs that are not able to be applied to early principal payments will be invested and reserved to reduce the final principal payment at the end of 3 years. Will storage fees reduce the price of developing at that site?

Reply: Yes because it would make the property acquisition costs go down. On the other hand, construction costs continue to go up every year so we can’t guarantee what that difference would be.

Due to the failure of Proposition 1, we are buying a business without a planned use for the property. It makes good business sense, but as a government entity, is it a good idea to buy and operate a business when we may or may not have a use for the property down the road?

It’s been a long way to get to this point. If we don’t lock down the location and land, then someone else might buy it. It’s hard to find a parcel this size. This allows us to entertain all of our options. If we don’t need it, or don’t have public support for a new community center, we can sell it.

This represents our vision of our city, our community and our town center, beyond dollars and cents. When Council was discussing where to locate City Hall, it came down to dollars and cents, and we lost an opportunity to locate it near Echo Lake making a nice civic center there with public access to the lake. We have our current location but some trade offs had to be made and it limited the ability to build a civic center here. We have to continue to work towards a long term goal of developing this area into a functional, connected area that makes sense. With the community center on the trail, suddenly the Park at Town Center became not just a strip of grass, but a connector that helps to build “place.” Using the property in this ordinance is a great step towards stitching a downtown together.

We are not in an unusual real estate bubble that has overvalued the property. The value of this property is going to continue to increase. Council has been trying to acquire property in this area in order to develop a town center. If they cannot get support for a community center, we can use it for something else or at least control what future use is if we sell it. We will get revenue from the rental operations. Finally, as a reminder, using the school district property for the Aquatic and Community center was virtually a wash when compared to this location.

We already have the authority to purchase this property. Our discussion tonight is about funding.

Vote: Ordinance passes 6-1 with Councilmember Scully opposed.


Discussion Item 9(a) Discussing Ordinance No. 880 - Amending the Shoreline Municipal Code to Modify any and all Masculine or Feminine Language to Gender-Neutral Nouns and Pronouns

Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk gave the staff report

The English language contains many words that include the word “man” (chairman) or that announce an individual’s gender (landlady, him, her). Gender specific words contribute to gender biases and are exclusionary by implying a certain job is a “man’s” job, or certain tasks being “woman’s” work, for example. It is also binary leaving male or female as the only gender identities.

In August 2019, the City Council amended its Rules of Procedure to remove gender pronouns from the language. Staff has since reached out to the Code Publishing Company to inquire about amending the Shoreline Municipal Code to make it gender neutral.

Code Publishing informed staff that cities from Alaska to California have adopted similar policies, and they received their first inquiry about gender neutral codes in 2017. Estimated cost is $450 to $750. (from the staff report)

Staff edits to draft ordinance:

Section 1. SMC Amendment

SMC 1.05.040(G). Editing ordinances as necessary to replace gender-specific references terms with gender-neutral references terms.

This will keep consistent language throughout the ordinance.

Section 2 Directions to Codifier

A. Subject to final approval by the City Attorney, the City’s codifier, Code Publishing Company, has authority to update pronouns terms within every title, chapter, and section of the Shoreline Municipal Code, when appropriate, as it exists on the effective date of the Ordinance to provide for gender-neutral terms.

This change allows the codifier to replace all terms (instead of just pronouns) that have a gender reference.

It is currently scheduled for adoption (on Consent) on January 27, 2020.

Changes like this change our thinking and now we are changing our code. This is a very good thing and we hope that more cities across the nation do this.

Any objection to seeing this come forward on Consent? No.

Meeting adjourned.