Notes from Shoreline council meeting October 26, 2020

Pam Cross, reporter

Shoreline City Council Meeting

October 26, 2020

Notes by Pam Cross

The meeting was held remotely using the Zoom platform.

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

Proclaiming America Recycles Day

This proclamation recognizes November 15, 2020, as America Recycles Day in the City of Shoreline. This is part of a national effort to promote recycling. Throughout the month of November, it calls upon residents and businesses to learn more about waste reduction and recycling options and commit to recycle more materials every day of the year. While Shoreline is doing well, about 70% of what goes into landfills in King County could have been reused, recycled, or composted.

Proclaiming Extra Mile Day

This proclamation recognizes November 1, 2020 as Extra Mile Day. This is to recognize the importance and value of volunteerism and giving back to the community.

Report of the City Manager, Debbi Tarry

COVID-19 Update

Case counts in King County are still high. The average over the past 14 days was 93 new cases per 100,000. The target is 25. Shoreline’s numbers remain low, but continue to rise at almost 4 cases per day. There were 42 new cases in Shoreline in the last two weeks.

Please continue to take prevention measures seriously:

Wear a face covering, especially indoors in public settings regardless of the distance between people. Remember the guidance is wear a mask AND maintain at least six feet of distance from others.

Limit the number of people you are with, and the time you are with them. Avoid large gatherings.

Do what you can to improve indoor ventilation by opening windows as much as you can. More fresh air means lower risk of infection.

Wash hands frequently and clean surfaces often.

Get tested at the first sign of illness.

More information available at shorelinewa.gov/covid

Halloween is coming! Practice these Healthy Halloween Tips.

Public Health advice: Choose other options besides trick or treating such as a costume parade, scavenger hunt, or spooky movie night with family.

If you do trick or treat, wear masks as part of or in addition to the costume, maintain distancing, bring hand sanitizer and use it frequently. Wash hand thoroughly when you get home and set candy aside for 24 hours.

Set out individual bags of candy to grab instead of handing it out at the door. Or you can slide candy down a cardboard tube to the kids.

Ronald Bog Park Closure

Sound Transit is working on the Ronald Bog Park trail. This will require the park to be closed for about two weeks.

The eastbound right lane of 175th in front of the park will be closed during work hours for trucks to enter and exit the park. More information at shorelinewa.gov/lightrail

November 3rd General Election

Ballot drop boxes are open 24 hours daily until 8pm on Nov 3rd.

Shoreline has two drop boxes located at Shoreline Library 345 NE 175th St and the Shoreline Park & Ride 18821 Aurora Ave N. The Shoreline Library drop box has been moved to the lower library parking lot, just off of 175th street and is now a drive-through location.

You can still register in person at King County Elections in Renton any weekday 8:30am - 6:00pm.

Closer to home, you can register in person at a vote center. Nearest locations are Kenmore City Hall and the Dempsey Indoor Center on the UW Campus. The vote centers are open October 31st, November 2nd and November 3rd. For more information: kingcounty.gov/elections

145th Interchange Online Open House

Learn about the current challenges at the 145th and I-5 interchange and our plans to address those challenges. Share what’s important to you and provide your comments October 26 through November 20. Go to 145thInterchange.infocommunity.org

If you are unable to participate in the open house event, email Bob Earl, Shoreline Engineering Manager at bearl@shorelinewa.gov before November 20th to discuss the project, request mailed or emailed drawings and/or request a copy of the online open house.

For more information go to shorelinewa.gov/145interchange

Climate Change Champions Series

This free series ended Tuesday, October 27th. The City of Shoreline partnered with Washington State University to offer this 7-part educational and action series.

All videos in the series are available on the City’s Youtube page at YouTube.com/cityofshoreline

Council Reports

• Councilmember Chang attended a meeting of the Regional Transit Committee. They are getting closer to Metro’s adoption of the recommendations of the mobility framework emphasizing equity and providing services to priority populations throughout King County. It is already part of how Metro determines how areas get services, but this will give bigger weight to some of these equity issues.
• Councilmember Roberts. Last week the Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board adopted the 2021-2024 Regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) at $4.3B for the 2021-2024 term.
• Councilmember O’Connell. Last week there was a Joint Transportation Board Meeting. They are on schedule in spite of the pandemic. They are at phase one, public engagement (virtual or remote). The second phase works on reliable east-west connections, all day reliability and transfers . Phase three will be revising peak routes in and around Shoreline.
• Deputy Mayor Scully attended the conference for the City’s state audit which was uniformly good. There were a couple of minor errors but nothing material. The only potentially bad news is that we historically have only one audit per year, which is costly. There is a possibility that the Federal government might require a separate one based on some of the COVID related expenditures.
• Mayor Hall   The Governor’s office has been holding periodic conference calls with mayors in the state to discuss COVID. The most recent included a report from the State Department of Health that provided a breakdown of where COVID outbreaks are occurring. The two most common places for outbreaks of COVID-19 are in restaurants and at grocery and retail stores. It’s important to continue to support local businesses, just remember to stay safe.

As he does each fall, he has been meeting (virtually) with our three State Representatives, Rep. Ryu, Rep. Davis, and Rep Salomon. He shares Council’s priorities including funding for 145th and so forth.

There was a workshop, kind of a Housing 101, about affordable housing, that was very interesting and helpful.

Several Councilmembers and members of the Planning Commission and Parks Board members attended the first session of Training in Racial Sensitivity. There will be two more sessions.

Public Comment

None

Comments for the Public Hearing (Enhanced Shelter) will be heard under Action Item 8(a)

Approval of the Agenda adopted by unanimous consent.

The Consent Calendar adopted unanimously by roll call vote.


ACTION ITEMS

8 (a) Public Hearing and Adopting Ordinance No. 906 - Interim Zoning Regulations for Adding Enhanced Shelter as an Allowable Use in the R-48 Zone

Presentation by:

Nora Gierloff, Planning Manager
Colleen Kelly, Recreation, Cultural and Community Services Director

There was a brief overview of the Enhanced Shelter.

The background presented has been covered in previous Meeting Notes (Aug 10 and Oct 12). It included the need, location availability and description of the property, funding, and Council actions.

Proposed Ordinance 906 is a temporary change in regulations that is good for 6 months and renewable in 6 month increments. The location is zoned R48 which does not currently allow enhanced shelters. Therefore in order to proceed, enhanced shelter has to be added as a permitted use.

Other alternatives discussed by Council would require more time with the potential for loss of the grant funding.

Tonight’s hearing focuses on a proposed interim ordinance that would define an additional type of homeless service, Enhanced Shelter, and permit that use in the R-48 zoning district on an interim basis.

In addition, some of the requirements of the grant funding that King County would use to operate the shelter conflict with the zoning code index criteria for homeless shelters as currently defined in SMC 20.40.405

Index Criteria for Homeless Shelters in SMC 20.40.405

Staffing plans

Requirement for regular reports to the Council on how the shelter is meeting performance metrics

Documentation of the number of calls for service to the site and an agreement that the shelter operator will be billed for calls over an agreed threshold.

Shelter operator to contribute to the cost of a mental health professional to assist in police response, perhaps through part of the RADAR program.

Require adherence to the Good Neighbor Plan.

Agreement to discontinue the shelter use if documented violations of the operational agreements are not addressed in a timely manner.

Proposed Council Amendments for operation of Enhanced Shelter

Councilmember Chang Proposed Amendment 1

20.20.018E definitions

Definition: Enhanced Shelter – A low-barrier, 24 hour a day facility intended to provide adults experiencing homelessness with access to resources including, but not limited to, housing, basic needs, hygiene, case management and social programs as they transition to permanent housing.

Replace “adults” with “persons”. The purpose of this is to allow flexibility in the type of population that is served by an Enhanced Shelter.

Councilmember Chang Proposed Amendment 2

Require a Good Neighbor Plan acceptable to the City that would address how the facility would deal with potential issues caused by residents of the shelter and how the neighborhood would bring issues they see for resolution.

Councilmember Chang Proposed Amendment 3

Require a memorandum of understanding (MOU) or similar document between the City, Lake City Partners, and County that gives the City more power than just “code enforcement”.

Councilmember Chang Proposed Amendment 4

Require an annual report/assessment prepared by the operator and County to the City. In addition to statistics about numbers served and numbers moved to permanent housing, it would be good for the report to provide information on the details of the homeless population being served—where are they from, reasons for homelessness, how were they referred to the shelter, and whether they are participating in treatment.

Councilmember Chang Proposed Amendment 5

Include a minimum distance from sensitive uses such as daycares, stores selling alcohol, schools and community centers. We have two examples in our code that mention distances to daycares. Could we look at what other municipalities require for Enhanced Shelters?

Councilmember Roberts Proposed Amendment 1

Change the proposed use table from Permitted(i) to Conditional(i).

Councilmember Roberts Proposed Amendment 2

Under the conditions, add a requirement that in order to operate, the City and County must enter into an interlocal agreement (ILA) to address staffing, security, emergency response, etc.

PUBLIC HEARING

Public Testimony. Time is limited to 3 minutes per speaker.

Support Ordinance

• David Anderson, Shoreline
• David Trainer, Shoreline
• Stephanie Henry, Shoreline
• Gretchen Holtz, Shoreline
• Brian Henry, Shoreline
• Carrell Tysver, Bothell
• Domenick Dellino, Shoreline
• Brooke Lather, Shoreline
• Pastor Kelly Dahlman-Oeth, Kirkland

Oppose Ordinance

• Margaret Willson, Shoreline
• Jackie Kurle, Shoreline
• Jack Malek, Shoreline
• Barbara Twadell, Shoreline
• Nancy Morris, Shoreline
• Vinay Venkatesh, Shoreline
• Sudeeptha Jothiprakash, Shoreline
• Diane Pfeil, Shoreline
• Dicky Leonardo, Shoreline
• Nancy Pfeil, Shoreline
• Joanne Godmintz, Shoreline
• Tylor Husske, Shoreline
• Stephen Kurle, Shoreline
• Shang Lou, Shoreline
• Jean Muir, Shoreline
• Chris Brown, Shoreline

COUNCIL DISCUSSION

Motion and second to approve Ordinance 906 - Interim Zoning Regulations for Adding Enhanced Shelter as an Allowable Use in the R-48 Zone

Deputy Mayor Scully

What I’ve heard over the last few years is general agreement that we need to do something about the homeless. Folks are not happy with the current state of affairs for a variety of reasons and we are asked why the City isn’t doing more. We have done something about individually reported problems. But what we haven’t done, until today, is find not a solution, but something to make this problem better.

Is this the right thing? A low barrier shelter is the need. This model, I’m convinced, is the best way to do a low barrier shelter because you have a private room and you can stay in the shelter 24 hours/day until you get yourself into housing.

Is this the right place? Yes, I think this is the best place in Shoreline for it. We don’t have an industrial area to locate it in. We don’t have a large undeveloped area. We have one very large commercial boulevard, Aurora, and part of Ballinger. Other than that we are basically a residential city with some commercial districts. Although there are potentially other Shoreline locations, King County has said we will put it here. If we locate it someplace else, we will hear the same concerns from another neighborhood. We heard similar comments from the neighborhood near Ronald Commons. Yet I haven’t heard anything since it’s been completed. People say well it’s a different type of facility and it's for families. Nevertheless, it's a place where homeless people live. I understand the fear but I don’t think generally it’s going to work out the way the neighbors think. In the unlikely event that it does, then we’ll have to re-think. But having fear drive us when we have an example right here in Shoreline (Ronald Commons) where those fears have not come true, would be a real shame. There are a large raft of amendments out there - some will make it better but some are concerning because I think they would undercut this project. I am not convinced that we need any of these amendments.

Councilmember Robertson

I support the shelter moving forward. I want to do this in the best possible way to reassure the neighborhood and businesses. I think maybe some of the amendments will help. I take the safety of the community seriously. Just recently I visited the Seattle shelter on Elliott Way. While it was not an exact comparison, I thought it was similar. I saw peace and comfort and safety inside and outside. It was a clean, respectful and supportive environment.

I’ve also toured The Oaks facility. That gave me confidence. Its individual rooms, enclosed grounds, space for food preparation and space to provide services gives it the potential to provide a healthy place for people in personal crisis. I believe the people are highly incentivized to follow rules in order to keep their bed. With winter on its way, I want to give this shelter a chance.

Councilmember Chang

My primary issue is the location. As far as the set-up at The Oaks, with the individual rooms and what that means for peace of mind of the residents, room for services and so forth, I get that. The facility is perfect. But I’m strongly opposed to the location. I work for a permitting agency for the City of Seattle, so several homeless shelters have come across my desk when in critical areas. There has been a real attempt to keep them away from residential areas. Before tonight, I spent hours going through a list of shelters in King County. The list included names but no addresses. After locating them I drove around 32 of them (all I had time for). Although these were supposed to be enhanced shelters, not all were low barrier. Those closer to residential areas were for women or sober living shelters. Tiny houses were women only or family + singles. This gave me more concerns about location. This is not what I thought we were going to be doing when we discussed council goals. I thought we were going to research sites in Kenmore, Bothell, LFP as well as Shoreline and meet and decide together. Other cities have done this, deciding which city would have what kind of shelter. Why aren’t we doing that? We are driven by timing but not everything should be driven by the grant. These things are so difficult to site I can’t believe there won’t be more money available. Instead we are trying to find any way to write legislation to make this happen. I’m also concerned about the effects on retail, the owners of Shoreline Place, and the developer of the Alexan. I feel that this is not the right place for it but at least I would like to put some guardrails around it. The community concerns are real. As currently written, this does not have the details that we need to make sure that we get the kind of facility that we’re hoping for.

Councilmember McGlashan

I spent a couple years on the committee for King County’s 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. (This plan dates back to 2005). There were a lot of people from different agencies and multiple meetings. After years of meetings, nothing ever seemed to happen. Now things seem to be happening. We have these shelters. We have the possibility to help homeless women and families. It is disappointing to me that the population in the most need is not being addressed equally and being supported. Is this the correct spot to locate a facility like this? Probably not. But right now we have the money, the building is available and it has a set-up that can be instantly used. This is during a pandemic and with winter coming on. Residents can stay there all day. The individuals we are talking about are all over the city now. I see them when I take my dog for a walk through the parks. We need to take advantage of this and partner with the County and make a go of it. It’s up to us to make it successful not only for the residents there but for the entire community. I think it’s time to give it a shot. These opportunities don’t come around that often where we can make a difference in people's lives.

Councilmember Roberts

I know we’ve been thinking about this for a long time - since our goal setting retreat in February. We have really listened to the community and want to do what’s best for everyone in the neighborhood as well as the unhoused. The question is trying to find a balance to meet these needs. I want this shelter to be successful and meet its goals where 50% of residents will end up in permanent housing. But the larger problem, which is not a problem of Shoreline’s or Seattle’s making, is the challenge of how the Federal Government has failed to address economic issues for people below the poverty line. It has not supported public housing for a long time, and has not seriously considered things like raising the federal minimum wage to help people get out of poverty. It has not considered a universal basic income. Council has limited choices. We need to balance the needs of the speakers with the needs for shelter for those who have not spoken. We have to make sure King County and Lake City Partners are good partners with this by using the processes and codes available to us.

Councilmember McConnell

This decision isn’t getting any easier. I’m always concerned when there’s a lot of haste done in anything, especially something of this magnitude. I haven’t heard from this community that they don’t want to be involved in helping the homeless. But the neighborhood has begged us for conditions that they haven’t seen in writing. I am very concerned that we are damaging our trust with the community. We need to do whatever we can to have enough control that the community feels that we have their back. This is a strong neighborhood. We need amendments that have teeth in terms of guardrails or I cannot feel this will be successful. There is a timeline for the grant, but the problem is so dire in the region and in the country, there will be funds available in the future. The Elliott Shelter (see CM Robertson’s remarks) is on Elliott Ave and it is a like a freeway. When a shelter is near residential, we should all be concerned. We need to try to safeguard the investment that people have made in their homes for the good of the City. Also, Lake City Partners has one line for experience: 30 bed seasonal shelter. Catholic Family Services that runs the Elliott Shelter has a lot of experience. Their staff will know when they are making a mistake and how to fix it. Elliott Shelter is only about a month old so it looks nice and shiny. People are happy to be there. Housing is a huge problem that is not easy to remedy. But I only have one city that I’m responsible for and I really want to make sure that we are successful.

Mayor Hall

Housing is a basic human right. And I believe our City will be safer and our community will be better off when every human being here has a safe place to sleep at night. I think we can help the homeless and keep our neighborhoods safe with a Memorandum of Understanding without risking loss of the grant due to additional delays. People complain when governments move quickly but they also complain when governments move slowly, especially in times of crisis. When King County declared homelessness an emergency 5 years ago, we supported that. We have taken some steps as DM Scully pointed out and those steps have made progress. We identified opening a shelter in North King County as the highest remaining priority gap in services. We’ve spent several months now refining this opportunity to try to address that gap and protect the community. It is important to protect our community - we’ve heard a lot of concerns about that. I know that some people fear the homeless whether they’re on the street or in a shelter or in a tent city. I’m proud that our community declared itself to be a safe and welcoming city for all residents. It's important to remember that we already allow people to live in R48 in low barrier settings (referring to single family homes). Background checks are not required for rich people to buy houses in Shoreline so I don’t think they should be required for poor people who can’t afford housing. I think there’s a justice issue there. We have wealthy and middle class people who have substance abuse and behavioral health disorders who live in houses in every neighborhood in our city. I feel uncomfortable if we welcome those people who have challenges while shutting out less privileged people with the same challenges. The great thing about an enhanced shelter is we won’t just have the risk of people with behavioral health challenges living there, we will have people with behavioral health challenges who have case management and support services living there. There will be minimum of three full-time staff on site who can connect them with treatment and other social services and help them into housing. I think that will make both the people who stay at this shelter and the whole community safer and healthier.

Motion and second to list enhanced shelter as Ci rather that Pi (CM Roberts proposed #1)

The interim ordinance could be changed to permit enhanced shelters as conditional uses subject to index criteria, rather than permitted uses subject to index criteria. But it would lengthen the review process and add another appeal opportunity.

The idea is to provide Council and the City additional authority to ensure that King County and Lake City Partners are good partners and work with the community. Additionally, we need to make sure we retain control in case this doesn’t work out as we hoped. It’s a way to prevent putting the City in a situation like Renton’s adversarial position with the County over the Red Lion shelter. We have a good relationship with them but with our current staff and their current staff. There needs to be something in writing that can be pointed to if/when staffs change. This could be accomplished by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which would allow the City to set consequences.

VOTE

In favor: CM McConnell, CM Roberts, CM Chang

Opposed: CM Robertson, DM Scully, CM McGlashan, Mayor Hall

Motion fails 4-3

Motion and second to add requirement for Interlocal Agreement (CM Roberts Proposed Amendment 2)

Under the conditions, add a requirement that in order to operate, the City and County must enter into an interlocal agreement regarding operational issues of concern.

There are certain details that we don’t have and should get in writing. The ILA would be between King County and the City of Shoreline. The County contracts with Lake City Partners so Shoreline is not a party to that. If KingCo decides to use someone else, we would have no say. Since the operator is determined by the type of resident served, KingCo could change the entire thing without agreement with us.

VOTE on motion to require Interlocal Agreement

Amendment passes unanimously

There are now motions to amend the Interlocal Agreement (ILA)

MOTION by CM Chang to amend the list in the ILA to include a provision that the City needs to approve any changes in the operator of the shelter.

Motion is seconded. There is no discussion.

VOTE

Motion passes unanimously.

MOTION by CM Chang to include a requirement for a detailed referral plan in the ILA

Motion is seconded.

There can be a lot of people who make referrals, including self-referrals, police, churches, nonprofits and so forth. It’s important, for example, that deputies from Snohomish County aren’t just dropping people off in front of the building. Without a detailed referral plan, it will be kind of like the wild west. Most shelters work with a couple of agencies for referrals. It is another way we control what kind of shelter this is. The ILA should detail those agencies that will be decided between County and Lake City Partners. It doesn’t sound like it has been pinned down yet. This would be better addressed by the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding).

VOTE

Motion fails 0-6. Chang supports

Motion by CM Roberts to amend the list in the ILA to include revised amendment proposed by CM Chang (Proposed Amendment 2)

Require adherence to a Good Neighbor Plan that addressed litter, noise, security procedures, and other issues of concern.

Motion is seconded. There is no discussion

VOTE

Passes unanimously

Is there a management plan in place? King County requires a management plan in its contract with its shelter operators. Lake City Partners has never operated a 24/7 shelter before so it has not needed a management plan in the past. We have requested a copy of the plan when it is available.

Returning to Amendment adding another index criteria to state the shelter operator and the City of Shoreline shall enter into an ILA regarding operational issues and concerns such as the list that we have amended with some new motions.

VOTE

Passes unanimously

DM Scully moves to amend the definition of enhanced shelter and replace “adults” with “persons”. (CM Chang’s proposed amendment 1)

This allows the County to let other persons into the shelter, but does not require them to do so.

No discussion.

VOTE

Passes unanimously.

VOTE on Main Motion to approve Ordinance 902 AS AMENDED

Passes 5-2

CM Chang and CM McConnell opposing


Meeting Adjourned 10:37


REMAINING AGENDA ITEMS MOVED TO LATER CALENDAR