Bothell, Washington Planning Commission Meetings, 7 Sep 2022

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From YouTube: Bothell Planning Commission Meeting - September 7, 2022

Description

0:03:50 - Public Comments
0:05:30 - Approval of Minutes
0:07:35 - New Business
0:07:55 - Public Hearing: Transfer of Development Rights Public Hearing (continued)
0:10:25 - Study Session: Bike Plan
2:05:55 - Unfinished Business
2:06:05 - Reports from Staff
2:08:10 - Reports from Members
2:12:50 - Items to Reports to Council

A

Yep got my red light.

A

All right welcome everyone. I call the september 7th 2022 planning commission meeting to order. The main purposes of tonight's meeting are a public hearing on transfer development rights and a study session on the bike plan.

A

Before we move on to the agenda items, I'd like to acknowledge to our hybrid meeting format, city of bothell is providing the option to attend this meeting, either in person or remotely via zoom for those participating via zoom. The chat and question functions are not available for use to ensure compliance with the open public meeting act.

A

We have a public comment agenda item at the beginning of the meeting. This time is for issues not on tonight's agenda. Please limit these comments to three minutes. Public comment and hearing testimony will be allowed both in person and via zoom. Those wishing to comment by a zoom were asked to submit an online form by 3 pm today.

A

People wishing to submit written comments were also asked to submit those comments by 3 pm. Email was encouraged as well and will be acknowledged. Those in attendance may also make comments and have been asked to indicate their desire to comment on the sign in sheets. The imagine bottle, notice, city website and tonight's agenda all provided information to the comment to the public on for providing comments.

A

The video of this meeting will be streamed, live as well as recorded and available for later viewing on the city's youtube channel. A call-in number was provided on the meeting agenda for members of the public who wish to call in by phone and listen live to the meeting for our phone and callers during staff. Presentations staff will make every effort to specify which materials they are referencing, so everyone can follow along.

A

At this point, I will take a moment to acknowledge the attendance of the commissioners and I will go by position number commissioner dodd.

B

A

Commissioner westerbeck present, commissioner kurd here, commissioner robson.

C

President good evening, yes.

A

uh By a zoom present, uh commissioner, anders.

A

Also present via zoom and commissioner gustafson.

D

A

So all of our commissioners are in attendance. In addition, senior planner dave, boyd capital projects, manager, steve murakawa and uh senior transportation, planner sherman gong are attending deputy community development. Director ashley twinchell is also attending remotely.

A

Lastly, I'd like to reiterate for the for all some of our meeting guidelines for all meeting attendees. Please speak clearly and pause, frequently state your name each time before speaking, mute your microphone when not speaking and unmute before you speak.

A

If you are also streaming the video live feed, please turn the sound off as there is a delay for commissioners at specific breaks in the presentation I'll be calling on members who wish to speak or ask a question if you wish to speak, please indicate this by raising your hand, I will call on you, as I see you, and if I miss. uh I appreciate a little assistance. If others are raising and can can see you, this will help avoid the problem of having two people speaking at the same time.

A

Identify yourself before you ask a question: make a motion second emotion or participate in debate. Please mute your microphone when not speaking so on. Our first agenda item is public comment. The city has a accepted visitor comment in writing, as well as accepted sign up sheets for those who wish to speak at tonight's meeting. Written comments submitted to staff no later than 3 p.m. Today were forwarded to all commissioners and are part of the record. This time is for items not on tonight's agenda and I'll ask staff. If there have been any comments received.

A

Okay, I've been told there have been no comments received. We do not have anyone in the audience on.

A

Oh yes, please check.

A

um Mr hall, I understand you're in participating online. uh Do you wish to speak in the public comment period on an item not on tonight's agenda.

A

How are we doing there.

A

C

A

At this time, I'm just attending the tdr item all right. Thank you wanted to be sure. If you were interested in speaking, we gave you that opportunity. uh That item will be coming up shortly, so uh stay tuned.

A

So uh I'll close the public comment item. The next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the july 20th meeting.

A

Is there a motion, commissioner? Robson.

C

Motion to approve.

A

All right there is a motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second commissioner dodd.

B

A

It has been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes of the july 20th meeting any discussion around that those minutes chair. I.

E

Have I'm, commissioner kurd? Thank you. uh This is carsten. I just wanted to mention. There are some check, spelling on some names in the public testimony, and I think that the adoption of these minutes is inclusive of any edits to spelling.

A

Okay, so the minutes we received did have next to uh a couple of the individuals giving public testimony the parenthetical note to check spelling. So, commissioner, kurd commissioner kurt is uh perhaps uh making uh an amendment that we would adopt the minutes with the spelling corrected when it happens. I think that is the assumption thanks all right. Thank you.

A

Any other discussion around the minutes.

A

All right, seeing none all in favor of adopting the july 20th 2022 minutes.

F

D

A

Hi all right, I see that all and I as well so it is united, there's unanimous approval of the july 20th 2022 minutes, so we'll consider those minutes to be adopted.

A

Thank you all uh new business, I'll ask the staff. Do you have any new business for for us this evening?.

A

Looking out amongst the staff in attendance and not seeing any so, I will assume there is no new business. Our next item on tonight's agenda is continuing a hearing on transfer of development rights, so we'll open that hearing and let staff.

A

Make a statement.

G

Hi planning, commission and, and uh uh commissioner uh kiernan tonight um we are asking to continue the transfer development rights program to october 19th.

G

We've been working really closely with our consultant and sound transit on getting this to a more finalized state, um we're working with our legal group on some of the language suggested by some transit and then we're also reviewing some of the documents they've provided regarding the transportation memo and so we'd like to have all those documents reviewed before we bring those to planning commission to make sure that we've dotted our eyes and crossed our t's um on that program.

A

Okay, uh thank you, deputy director, winchell, uh any other. Is there any discussion around this.

A

Looking across zoom and down the table, maybe seeing none then is there a motion to extend the public hearing until october 19th, commissioner dodd.

B

I move to extend the public hearing for transfer development rights to october 19th.

A

Is there a second, I second, the motion? Okay, it has been moved and seconded that we extend the public hearing on transfer development rights to october 19th. Any discussion around that motion.

A

Seeing none, I perhaps sent some interest in moving forward, but we have the motion to extend the hearing so all in favor of extending the hearing till october 19th hi, hi, okay, all five present and both on zoom. So we have seven commissioners voting to approve extension of public hearing until october 19th, um with that we will close the hearing and look forward to some substantive discussion around this in a little more than a month.

A

Thank you. Our next agenda item is a study session around the bike plan and I will turn this over to staff for a presentation on the plan.

A

Who's who's lead. So uh yes, mr gong, okay,.

H

Just waiting to get the slide show ready here.

H

All right well uh good evening, commissioners, my name is sherman gong. I am the city transportation planner uh with me tonight is steve morikawa capital division manager, since this session is a continuation from our july 20th meeting, which was over a month ago and for the benefit of others joining now. I just want to remind you that we agreed on the bike plan ultimate vision. Last time and tonight we will discuss how we can implement that vision.

H

So tonight we'll focus on the implementation components of the bike plan based on the ultimate vision, along with the review of the design standards for the bike facilities that will be used for the bike network.

H

Steve. Are we advancing.

H

Okay, we also plan to attend the september 21st meeting as a public hearing to approve the recommendation to city council for the final bike plan and to discuss uh the comprehensive plan. Amendment changes for the bike plan at that time.

H

Before we dive into the implementation, though, I just wanted to briefly review the bike plan's ultimate vision, components which include no on-street bike facilities, allowing for neighborhood greenways, designating downtown core routes, bike routes and considering alternative designs to achieve protected bike bike lanes and to review uh parking impacts on a case-by-case basis.

H

If they are on uh any bike. Corridors.

H

So, project implementation, what we need to consider are some fundamental elements, including basically, the existing and future resources, project costs and priming project timing considerations, and with that I'm gonna turn this over to steve markawa. Now our bothell capital division manager to go over those elements in a little more detail.

I

Sorry good evening, so although the bike plan is not a funding document, I'll be talking about revenue to provide you with some context as we work through bike plan implementation, this presentation is similar to the one I provided to the capital facility plan committee at the end of july and we're going to meet again with them actually tomorrow.

I

So I'm sorry, commissioner, dodd you're going to kind of have to listen twice. This information will help you provide order of mag. Well, the information on the screen here will help provide order of magnitudes available for capital programs and projects, not just the bike plan. So the what I'm trying to do is provide context and available resources that we have across the capital facility plan suite of projects that we want to do um the first.

I

These are kind of the four areas that could be used for capital projects, in addition to general fund general fund is really difficult because it's an ongoing day by day year by year kind of fund, and it's mostly used for personnel and things. A lot of these funds that you see here are more one-time funds for capital projects that they're meant to be spent to build something, and then you move on from there.

I

So the first type is real estate real estate excise tax, which we call read one and I'll describe the columns. The first column basically gives you an estimate of how much we bring in per year. It varies from year to year. We have good years, we have covet impacts, and that kind of thing, but this is our best estimate in the next seven years or what to expect on average. The next column gives you an estimated debt service, so we have built projects or done things that we have to pay back.

I

We don't always do it on a cash basis, in other words, wait until we have all the funds in an account and then build something, sometimes we'll take out a loan build something like city hall, and then we will pay it back year by year. So read one can be used for capital projects. Primarily, I think the major difference between reit one and re-two- I'm not the financial person- is read.

I

One can be used for certain types of facilities like city hall, administrative buildings and actually a lot of the debt service is primarily city hall payments for this building, the last one that the last column you see is the estimated end balance at the end of 2029, which is the seventh year of our capital facility plan, which we're going through now and trying to target. So that shows how much would be left in account at that time.

I

Real estate excise tax type 2 is probably the most flexible one for us in terms of transportation.

I

This is can be used for multiple types of facilities, and we get about two and a half to three million a year. We don't have much debt service on it and the end balance rate. You see there is 5.8 million and that already assumes changes we've made or added to the capital facility plan based on our discussions with the capital facility plan committee. So I think it was at 9.8 or something like that.

I

So we took about four million off to apply to certain projects which I'll talk about traffic impact fee is what we collect from developers or changing use in land use when they're rebuilding something they estimate a fee on trips, so primarily it can be only used for capacity projects and, unfortunately, right now that means vehicular capacity projects that will hopefully change when you would go through the comp plan which I'll discuss later as well, so that typically brings three or four million a year, sometimes it spikes higher.

I

When we get big developments like a 900 unit residential unit in the old seattle times, building that creates a spike in tif funds. We typically have a 1.9 million dollar debt. I think part of that is probably some of the downtown project work like crossroads, and we expect to have 4.8 million ending balance at the end of 2029.

I

I don't know that much about arpa, but that's the american rescue plan act. That's the one-time money that was provided for primarily economic impacts, I believe for covid, and I think it was like a 13 million over x period of time and I think they've been allocating it for various things, like um tourism, small business assistance, uh recreation, community court and I think they've assigned a few things to capital projects like, I think main street ballard's.

I

I think demolition of some parks- and I think the comp plan is going to use some of that funding. So those are kind of to give you a context of some of the local funds that we have available.

I

So let's talk about some external revenue sources and again what I'm trying to do is give you context on the scale and timing of potential funding. I'm not trying to get you into the details and weeds too much. But let's start with grants, so baltha's pretty successful in getting outside funding for especially transportation funds, which is a good thing, because we really heavily rely on it. We try to leverage as much grant funds per dollar of city funds as possible on some projects.

I

We may even get up to eight dollars out of ten dollars from outside grant sources. Grants are competitive, they're, not a sure thing. Typically, they're scoring criteria, many applicants and there's never enough dollars to go around the region as an example. Projects that score well serve a regional growth center, like canyon park, are multimodal serve a lot of people.

I

Unfortunately, if you have a lot of accidents, you may score better, and if the project does not score well, it may never qualify for grants so they're just some projects that will score better than others consistently, and then there are often specific types of projects that grants will fund grants are not next necessarily available. Every year some are yearly metal.

I

Many federal ones are on a two year cycle and some of them are intermittent, such as when congress approves a new program such as the recent bipartisan infrastructure law, essentially sometimes we're applying for grants that will be available three years down the road.

I

We can't start the project immediately once we get notified of the grant they're they're looking down the road a period of time. Most grants require matching funds. Federal surface transportation program stp grants which are bread and butter they fund up to 86 and a half percent, which is pretty good.

I

In order to be competitive, though some grants will provide more scoring points if the local agency provides more funding match and as an example, a lot of our overlay projects, we pretty much wind up with 50 percent grants and that's kind of the sweet spot.

I

There are often limits to the amount of grants that will that they will fund stp. Large projects may get up to 5.5 million dollars for a regional type project, 4 million or less. If it's not a regional project, this you know, regional projects could include large regional trails. Like north creek trail non-motorized grants like safe routes to school and pet bike grants. They typically match max out at two million dollars per grand.

I

Hopefully, you can see this and, like I told the cf committee, there's not going to be a test on it.

I

The intent of the slide is to actually highlight a couple of things. There are a number of grants available, which is a good thing, as I indicated earlier, however, they're not necessarily yearly, so you can see kind of in the second column, you see the frequency cycle, not all of them are every year, so you have to be strategic and plan ahead, some of them the funding, is not available immediately like for the first one.

I

You see that the next available cycle is in 2024 application, but we can't start spending the money until 2027 at the earliest.

I

I've also tried to show you some of the criteria like minimums and maximums and you'll see like up to five million dollars on most of them. There are certain ones that you may get more money out of like the raise grant, which is from five to 25 million dollars from the federal government.

I

Those are competing on large regional scale and then they come pretty far and few in between and we fortunately just got one for the both away multi-modal improvement project and 19 million dollars, but that's the the first one in since I've been here. I think it's been a while so again, not to show you every single thing, but just to give you a flavor of what's out there and kind of the the constraints and the um how much we can get out of this.

I

So another source of funding is the washington legislature or congress. The fed federal government, so federal allocations and earmarks are also competitive, but they're kind of in a different sort of way. Typically, the senators or representatives will somehow prioritize the requests since they're getting so many of them and there's limited resources still so they have their own criteria that they go through.

I

Some of them can range from maximum allocations of two million dollars to like the raise grant, for some reason is between five and twenty million dollars. So if your project's too small, you don't qualify, if your project's too big, you don't qualify. So you have to play those numbers.

I

Typically, the federal government will only fund up to 80 percent or, like I said in the stp program 86.5, we can get money from the washington state legislature as well again competitive in a different sort of way. You have to lobby your legislators and there's a lot of agencies asking for the same money and there's limited resources with our lobbyists. We've been very successful. We've obtained funding for north creek trail on the order of 1.2 million dollars and seven million dollars for the both away project.

I

Oops sorry, so other agencies um are other ways we can get funding. Typically, it comes from partnering with other agencies and an example of this is sound transit, so sound transit has this brt program going on. So, in addition to the improvements they're making for the transit service, they're trying to make sure there's access, pedestrian bike access to the transit stops, so they have a program, a smaller program that funds some funding for that and we are competing for those dollars as well.

I

They've also paid for the entire construction phase of the stage 3 project and 522.

I

We started the project in designing right away, but because there was bad lanes and they're interested in doing that, that sort of funding can become available as well.

I

So what I wanted to do is kind of quickly run you through a project both away project, which you guys know just to give you kind of a sense of what goes into our planning and the funding for a project of this size. This is a big project, but if you imagine anything in the double digits, a 10 million dollar project or something we'll probably have to go through some sort of planning exercise as well, so this project scores very well. It's on a busy road serves a lot of people.

I

It goes to our regional growth center. It goes downtown to the campus as well serves transit when we're done we're going to put bike facilities, we're going to put pedestrian facilities, so it checks all the grant boxes, so it competes very well the project's estimated at about 63 million dollars, our primary reliable source of funds for this type of project are stp federal funds and again, like I said before, in the regional competition, they pretty much max out at about five and a half million dollars.

I

If you compete at the regional level, which we typically do on a project this size, they also have county-wide competitions and that probably maxes out at four to five and a half million dollars, and then we can supplement this with other grants, which we typically do like state grants like tib grants, but those also max out about five or six million dollars as well.

I

So you can see that if we went after grant for the whole project at once- and we were successful in let's say obtaining on an stp grant and nt one tib grant at the same time, we'd probably get about nine and a half million dollars out of 63 million dollars. We need so we would be looking for the rest of the 50 something million dollars and that just doesn't work for us, because we just don't have those kind of dollars. So what we do is we try to put a strategy together.

I

So in this particular instance, we cut the project into three pieces that we say are very workable pieces. In other words, the southernmost section is closest to downtown, and if we do that section and we fix that intersection there, it helps everybody. You go to the north end where it's by safeway and it's also kind of a choke point and we have a wall. We need to build there, which is old and maybe sliding that competes pretty well and stand alone. And then you connect the two with the middle part.

I

So we can justify the three phases and then we break those phases down into design right away and construction phase as well. So we can go after multiple grants of the same type every couple of years and try to put together this project again no test on this, but just to kind of give you a sense of what we do to put these together.

I

So in 2018 we put our first grant together for the stp for just design work and we got the grant. But we couldn't spend the money in. I can't see it sorry, 2021 and 21 22.

I

and then in two years later, because after grant cycle, we applied again and we got phase one and phase two right away and again we can only spend that money three years from them. 23 and 24. 2021. We applied to the washington state legislature and we advocated, and we got seven million dollars in 2022.

I

We applied again this time for three grants: two construction phases of two phases and one right away phase. We got them all, but we can't spend it until 2026 at the earliest. uh We had anticipated putting in about seven and a half million dollars of our transportation impact fees. That's the capacity field fees they talked about and about three hundred thousand dollars in their water utility. um And then this year we got notified. We got the 19 million dollars raised, grant which is fantastic, so we're still looking for about six to eight million dollars.

I

So I talked about a tib grant state grant and so we're likely to go after state grant which maxes out at about five and a half million dollars and we're still going to have to look for another one and a half two and a half.

I

I can't do my math, so we're getting very close, but the whole point of this exercise is to kind of show you the time and the strategy that has to go together to fund some of our larger projects and the reason I'm doing that is because some of our larger, like bike projects or pedestrian projects or trail projects, they range in the 10 to 20 20 million dollar range, and we have to kind of look at this strategy and be aware of what it takes to fund something like this.

I

Now we have potential future revenue sources, which is a good thing. So we're going to do the comp plan update starting soon, I'm going to hit the high points in 23 and 24, and one of the things we want to do is change our methodology for level of service. So, like I said before transportation impact fees, we can only collect it and spend it on capacity vehicular projects, but we want to change that.

I

We want to include non-motorized somehow so that's an opportunity and that may bring more funds for peds and bikes, especially right now we have a safe streets and sidewalk levy. That's going to sunset in 2025.

I

It pays for street maintenance pavement and it pays for sidewalks, but it does not currently include bicycles. So that may be another opportunity when we're looking, maybe in 2024, if another levy makes sense, that's another opportunity for potentially bike facilities.

I

So what we talked about in the capital facility plan committee meeting was those opportunities are coming down the road but they're not here today.

I

So one of the things we proposed to do is put some money up front in 2023 in the bike program and use it as seed money, and I talked about match money to start design to start a phase to start that sequence on a large project- and this is what this money would be there for. We haven't identified the project, we're just putting the seed money in there that, if a project or if an opportunity came available, there would be funding in there.

I

The other thing we talked about was putting in five hundred thousand dollars a year in a bike program, um three hundred thousand would be from read two: that's local funds. Two hundred thousand dollars is an assumption that we would get grants and there are grants there for bike projects. You know regular bike projects. There are also education grants.

I

There are storage grants, there's there's other types of bike grants that we can go after if you have match money as well, so that that would be the pot of money to do that sort of thing and we'll talk about the bike program more later.

I

The third thing we talked about in the capital facility plan was, I talked about the traffic transportation impact fee only for vehicular projects.

I

Well, I also said the projects that compete best are multi-modal projects, so what our recommendation was was to put forward our best multimodal projects and to prioritize those and the two projects that we have that fit. The bill are ninth avenue southeast from 228th to 524 state route, 524 that one is in need of both pad and bike facilities.

I

It is supposedly a collector. There are some roadway improvements. We think we could submit that as a multimodal project can get non-motorized done. The other project is 35th avenue from 240 sorry 35th avenue southeast from 240th to 228th street southeast.

I

If you can imagine just north the monteville business park that stretch, we always get calls that there's no sidewalk. There is no bike lanes or anything, so that's another multi-modal project that we can do and those we are prioritizing and putting to a cfp as the larger projects that we would go after first, because they take care of all types of modes of transportation, not just vehicle capacity, but we can use vehicular capacity money for it.

I

I think that's where I am and sherman will talk to you about the other side. The cost of projects.

A

Let's pause for just a moment. Any questions hey follow up, commissioner.

E

Curd, yes, thank you. This is karsten. Thank you, mr marcow. This is really insightful. um I love talking about grants, uh not writing. Grant applications, though uh I know so. I have a couple of quick questions. One is that uh last night at the council meeting, it sounded like there was an approval for additional staff capacity in public works, and it sounded like from my limited understanding that this additional staff capacity would be used towards grant management a little bit. um Is that targeted towards or prioritized towards multimodal improvements?

E

Or is it just a department-wide capacity increase.

I

So the position would be a transportation supervisor, help long-range planning which we're sorely in need of um right now, the grants this person would be transportation, so it would not be applying for utility type grants or anything there would have to be transportation, work which is all types of transportation, so non-motorized as well as motorized, as well as tdm, trying to people get people out of the cars.

I

So we currently team up to do grants. um Some agencies have their long-range plan to do all the grants. In our group we have a lot of engineers and we task engineers to help write those applications which you say, take a long time and a lot of effort and with presentations and the whole bit.

I

So there are a lot of hands on the grants, but we're still short-handed because there's there are more grants available in the last two years because of the change in administration than there were before, and in order to take advantage of that, you have to understand how to compete well, be up on all the applications and the timing and everything.

I

And it takes more effort, so part of this person's job would be to help with that such that we can apply for more grants. Now, I'm not saying that particular person will be exactly the person doing the grants, but because they're doing and sharing in their workload, we should be able to apply for more grants than we have and we put out a lot of grant applications for our city, our size, I'm going to tell you and we are in two counties.

I

So we have this double opportunity. It's also a double-edged sword because we have to split projects as well, like both away is kind of complicated, because it's in two counties, um but all that being said, we do pretty well and we want to do even better because we see some opportunities in the next.

I

I think the latest federal program is like a five-year program and everybody's regionwide in puget sound, is struggling to get on board and figure out how to do this all this stuff, and so we have probably a limited window where we think we can take advantage of some of that.

E

Thanks yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You know in certain larger jurisdictions there may be some cooperation between departments on pursuing grants for multimodal transportation. If there are other co-benefits, let's say for like stormwater improvement or for fish passage. Barrier removal- and I know some of the projects involved on the bike plan- may have some environmental benefit as well and in larger jurisdictions.

E

It's hard to steer the ship and get inter-departmental cooperation, but I would imagine with a little bit more nimble and I mean there's a lot of grants that are being put out by the city, but do you see or envision any sort of cooperation to get multi-benefit, not just in transportation but across the board type grants.

I

Yeah and we're starting to look at that, as you mentioned, the fish passage culvert grants we're looking at that for both away because we have three horse. Creek goes back and forth three times so we're looking at that um storm water plays a big effect on transportation projects like you know any type, so we're cross doing that community. Develop dave, dave, boyd's, just great because he's looking at tod grants and when we go at our grants and they involve regional growth centers. He helps us a lot.

I

So there is, I think, you're right there is that opportunity, we're smaller and nimbler, but it still takes a lot of time and effort to do that. um Once you get the grants, you also have to spend the grants, so that's also on our plate, and so this position will help us more on the upfront stuff.

I

We think the more. If we get our plan right, it sets you up very well for a lot of grants and but it's very hard to do, and I don't think the general public understands how hard it is to plan and get ready for all this stuff to be ready to apply for all these grants. And I think that's where we're trying to be.

E

Totally my last question is about.

E

Taxation benefit districts, um some of the bike projects that are proposed may have outsized impact on um and benefit to certain businesses that are located nearby and I'm wondering, if um alternative funding mechanisms to get up to some match funds.

E

um Besides just the current um kind of funding streams, the city has have been thought about, or is that kind of off the table.

I

I don't know if it's off the table, I think I know since I've been here. We've looked at that I know the city of bothell has done it once or twice.

I

I think the conditions have to be right. I will write that down and we will explore that, but I'm not sure that's just a staff up kind of thing. I think it's you know, so I think it is a tool.

I

Sometimes when we go looking after funds, whether it's for legislative action and things they we get asked questions of whether we are using all our tools. So that could be one thing that we look at a little bit more.

E

Great yeah, I would just um kind of piggybacking off of that tax benefit district idea.

E

Also proper management of parking likely produces uh additional cash on hand, if done correctly, uh and so that could be another source of small revenue, but anything helps when you're trying to get the match. I get it so.

I

Sure I'm gonna say that there's a competing interest with that as well, because we are looking at tdm and if there's available on street parking and if the environment is right and can support it so that you do get some income. That might be also a.

I

Goal to help fund as well, not just the pet and bike projects, but also tdm programs, to try to get more cars off the road as well.

E

Understood. Thank you.

A

Other commissioners, and as an aside, I cannot see the two commissioners on zoom if they have a question, so I.

I

Should stop sharing I'm sorry I'll bring this back up again.

A

So I'm looking uh commissioners anderson robson. If you do have any questions. No, commissioner dodd.

B

Okay, as sometimes happens, this is a little tangential, but um mr marcara, you mentioned um people, don't realize how much goes into applying for grants. Everything like like this list in the agenda of things that need to happen when you're, um adding a bike lane or redoing the road, like I'm gonna, say until I started attending planning commission meetings, the cfp plan meetings. I couldn't tell you what went into tearing up a road and redoing it. You know I drove on it.

B

I would appreciate it, they were there, but I I wonder if there's an opportunity, because not a lot of people can go to this many meetings. You know, especially without signing up for the commitment right. um I wonder if there's an opportunity to use like the cities like social media channels or something to kind of just educate people who have like two minutes to read about like hey. Did you know what goes into this thing? um I think it's something that residents and would really love to know.

B

um I I just you know, and I realize I'm putting more work on somebody who runs those social media channels, but it it's missing information for a lot of people that would probably really help explain like when the city comes with a levy request, or you know whatever, when they celebrate getting a grant. It's like okay. This is why we need this much money because to me 19 million dollars, I'm like wow they're, going to build all new roads everywhere right, but obviously that's not true, because everything costs so much money.

B

So I think that it's just a thought so not super related, but no.

I

Thank you great idea. Thank you.

A

Others all right, I've got a couple of questions. uh You did mention that re2 could be used for this purpose. Are there other competing demands on route 2, or is it strictly transportation?.

I

No, it's not strictly transportation, so.

A

The other city projects would be competing parks.

I

Yep yeah, okay: it can be used a little bit for maintenance, there's, there's rules and regs for maintenance. But yes, it is fairly flexible.

A

Okay, but when we look at that number coming in, that's not a bike plan number, that's city-wide! That.

I

Is city-wide? That's all we have so it's all transportation, it's! We can even use it for utilities. If we wanted to, we try not to utilities our separate enterprise fund, um but again it is a very flexible source of funding that can be used for many things and you're. Looking at the total amount, yeah.

A

Yeah, thank you. I suspect it as much. He indicated that looking about 500 000 a year for the bike program, how is that administered? Is it a separate fund? Is it just kind of a line in the budget?

A

If you don't use it this year, does it return to the general fund and has to be reappropriated next year.

I

So what we do right now, we actually have a capital program that we call it a week. Well, we call it the bike program, but it's a capital operating program. Okay- and this is where I get it- gets all messy. For me, it is technically not part of the capital facility plan. It's part of the budget, okay, but there are certain things we need to do on your annual basis that require constant funding like pavement, preservation, bridge inspection and maintenance sidewalks.

I

We have some safety programs and we added the bike program a few years ago, so he could get started on a bike plan. We didn't have much money in it at all, so it is a capital operating program. Most of those capital operating programs are funded primarily by reit to money.

I

um That's part of the deduction every year. That's why that pot at the end is not super huge, it's because every year, some of it goes to all these programs. Some other programs, like pavement preservation, are funded by safe streets levy.

I

Waste management brings in some funds to help with our pavement as well, because their big trucks go rolling through. So that's the funding we would use if we don't use a certain amount one year.

I

Our rule public works with finance is roll it over because we'll use it the next year. Okay, just because we don't get something done, one year doesn't mean we can't get it done the next year or we can't build a little pot because there's something coming up in the future that we want to save for sure yep.

A

Thanks I've got a fair amount of experience with capital and operating funds, so I was trying to understand how it fit in that okay and I finally kind of take off on commissioner kurds comment on parking management. uh Parking management could also be used to preserve bike lanes, see a lot of parking and bike lanes yep, so making it even more dangerous swinging around doors opening so yeah. It's a challenge.

A

Seeing no other commissioner comments staff would proceed. Thank you.

H

All right well, thank you, steve for good explanations. There guys that good understanding of cost some examples he gave, and you know what it costs to implement facilities it's expensive and you know whether they're new facilities or just reconstructing facilities.

H

The work is still the same. um You know we considered. We. We looked through the uh all the bike network that we're considering.

H

You know we looked at opportunities on every single street to see which ones we could try to do the get the cheap way out, kind of and use existing pavement, for example, but very limited opportunities for that road. Dieting, we'll call it if that's just trying to remove one lane of travel to convert, to use as a different type of facility like a bike or parking again. Those are similar and very very limited opportunities.

H

uh The street narrowing and, and what not to to convert to uh use like that we found for only basically a couple streets. One would be north creek parkway in the north creek business park and another private road up in the canyon park business park on the 26th and 29th avenue corridors.

H

So you know looking at the project costs, you know, as far as converting to our ultimate vision, um we're looking at you know whether we, whether we went to a buffered bike lane, we had to add an extra two feet to account for that, the buffer zone or or whether we're just switching switching the the bike facility to be a protected bike lane we still have to. We still have a lot of infrastructure, rebuilding, that's and that's where the costs come in.

H

Some of those things include listing here is like just demolition of all the elements that need to be moved, including, like curb and gutter, installation, rebuilding and replanting the landscape buffers relocating street trees, as you see like in these pictures here, this is just on a hundredth um rebuilding the sidewalk in the new location. Even though we already have a sidewalk uh adjusting stormwater facilities like the catch basin, you see in the picture there.

H

We also have to consider relocating street lights, relocating utilities, power and communication power, poles, fire, hydrants and water meters. We have to uh also we'll have to will be removed and then, finally, you know the cost of just rebuilding rebuilding the rebuilding the bike facility itself uh and restriping. The roadway in the appropriate location with uh you know, with the bike facilities uh in place and the new curbs so doing a couple of estimates on some selected projects that we we've uh we'll identify in a minute.

H

You know we basically came across a figure of about two thousand to three thousand dollars per lineal foot of uh reconstruction for building a protected bike lane. Just as an estimate. I just wanted to share that with you guys.

H

I

So what one of the things we're trying to tell you is if you follow nacto the typical bike guidelines, a lot of the streets originally, what we had in the bike plan would have been on street five foot bike lane or a buffered bike lane a two foot buffer or three foot buffer with a bike lane, and some of them would have been protected behind the curb you know, but what we heard is we're trying to work for the 90 percent, so we're trying to get everything protected.

I

If you, what sherman is trying to say is if we looked at a protected bike lane versus a buffered bike lane in both cases, if you already have a five foot bike lane there, you would still have to move everything whether you move it two feet, because you got to get two feet on each side of the road for a buffer or whether you're gonna move it five feet and get the bike lane off the road. You still have to rebuild everything.

I

So what we're essentially telling you is that's why staff feels like your vision of all protected is really not going to be that much dramatically different than if we did it on street.

I

The difference will be in the interim. You won't have a lot of on-street facilities because both unlike some of the roads in seattle, a lot of the roads, started off at four lanes. In seattle. We don't have a ton of four-lane roads in bothell. We don't have a ton of grid in bothell because of geography, so there are selected areas where we may be able to do things earlier that look different but achieve protectiveness.

I

So that's why we feel the vision of all protected is fairly comparable to buffered bike lane facilities. The only facilities that would have come out better would have been. If we had five foot on street bike lanes, then we could have kept the facilities we had, but other than those mostly every other facility. We're going to try to put on there would require a lot of work.

I

So I'm not sure if that's getting true, but that's what we're trying to relay to you. We're not just telling you it's fairly expensive, we're telling you your ultimate vision of protected bike lanes.

I

It's really we heard before the concern about. If we don't do a buffered bike lane, it's going to be dramatically more expensive, it's not necessarily going to be dramatically more expensive. I guess is what we're telling you.

A

H

All right, great steve, thank you.

H

So now that you've heard some of the basic context for financial considerations just want to bring you back to the cfp discussion that we had and as steve mentioned, you know, uh the cfp committee has recommended allocating funds for the bike program, with a total of about five hundred thousand dollars um of that of that recommended amount.

H

We we have identified that about 300 000 is uh designated from the re2 funds and could be used for evaluating non-infrastructure elements such as wayfinding, which is a signage or what not to assist riders without decision points such as roadway crossings and such education programs to help teach riders how to uh stay safe learning, how to use facilities at intersections or as we're gonna have soon roundabout um or at transition points.

H

uh We're not transitioning from a new facility, a protected lane to back to an existing bike lane that we have to do for a temporary condition or driving edge driver education to teach drivers how to properly yield to bikes in roadways or at intersections another. Another non-infrastructure element is like bike storage, which requires new development to provide secure storage for bicycles and bike lockers at common bike destinations, which prevents theft and vandalism such and then finally, maintenance which is taking care of existing or new infrastructure.

H

So at this point we just think that that is a good way to allocate that initial.

H

That initial cfp commitment or recommendation an additional 200 000 from of that 500 000, could be acquired.

H

In our estimation, if we include the connectivity portion of existing facilities as an element of grant applications, because that would compete better uh to get funding for bike implementation, if that, if that makes sense, um so at this point we're gonna pause, get your feedback on.

H

If you agree that we can move ahead with uh with that cfp allocation for the non-infrastructure elements we just talked about there and whether or not you want to continue looking at maybe doing some connectivity uh of existing facilities to help us compete better for grants and getting you know that additional couple hundred thousand approximately so I'll pause there.

A

Okay, I'm gonna bring down the presentation, so I can see the other commissioners thanks.

A

So we have we've been asked a question feedback.

A

F

Westerbeck, thank you very much, um commissioner wester back here. The wayfinding, the um uh the other three elements over forgotten, um the um there's education, wayfinding and two others, but I do a lot of reading around bike facilities, as I'm sure you guys do.

F

It seems like the education piece we've been trying to do it for decades. It doesn't seem to impact most drivers very much because we're even worse now with our big cars and phones, and things like that. So I'm a little dubious about that working. I think the others, the wayfinding and the other elements um probably are good places to spend money. We probably get a good bang for a buck, but I I'm not super um uh optimistic about the education with most drivers.

F

So just a comment it seems like, uh but that seems that, statistically in the united states, we're seeing a lot more collisions since the pandemic, not fewer, so we were getting better for a long time and now we're getting worse again. So it seems, like the you know, the necto and other standards moving towards slowing people down making it feel dangerous to drive quickly like kenmore, has been doing road diets and then physically, you know, signaling to the driver with trees and street furniture and buffers, and things like that that they can't drive fast.

F

um Those are all expensive, but that seems to be the only thing that really works to keep you from getting hit. So anyway, just a comment. I know it's just expensive. I build things too. I'm totally aware so appreciate the run down on that very much.

A

Commissioner, dodd.

B

Thank you. um I agree with commissioner westerbeck on education um as someone who exclusively drove for a long time and now rides bikes, I'm gonna say that my compassion for cyclists was not super present until I was one um and I think that's something that a lot of people who start biking later in life experience, I would just I'm not against spending on education. I think I would just want to see like has it made a difference somewhere?

B

You know there are definitely I'm going to say other countries that have had a lot of success with educating drivers and and getting them to um remember that cyclists are also human and have a lot less protection. If your car and bike on a road together, I, if there's a municipality locally that we can copy if there's somewhere, that's seen a reduction because of education. I would love to use what they use to get it through. But just saying hey reminder you should care about these people doesn't seem to do a lot historically.

B

So that's that's my hesitation and kind of the qualifier. I would add on that. So thanks.

A

Other commissioner,.

A

Yes, commissioner, robson.

C

Thank you. Yes, along um those lines with commissioner um don and westerbeck I'm curious about the education portion.

C

If it strictly has to be on educating drivers or if there are other ways that we can educate the community about city, bicycle writing or you know, if uh promoting bike riding um uh to run, errands is a way of educating the public about on how to use their bikes more appropriately or if, when we're talking about education, more strictly talking about educating drivers um because, like commercial or southern commissioner westerbeck, I think that educating drivers um um may be um more challenging than um as, commissioner god said, getting people on their bikes, which in itself is then a kind of education and by encouraging families.

C

This is how you ride with your family or something along. Those lines can also fit into that education component.

A

Thank you other commissioners,.

E

Commissioner kurd thank you yeah. I would piggyback off of commissioner robson's uh comments and say that money spent on traditional education and outreach to single occupant drivers could be better spent uh with partnerships like at north shore, school district with bike buses or, like you know where parents are incentivized to bike with the neighborhood kids together to school. So those sorts of things getting people to bike is a better behavior change than preparing social media outreach or having drivers sit down and take a test for some sort of incentive.

E

So I would encourage more creative approaches to education and outreach.

A

Commissioner, robson.

C

Thank you. I was also thinking it would be helpful to know what other cities have done along those lines within their schools, and if there are school, um other areas that have had success, educating people- and maybe we could borrow some of those programs- might be worth something investigating.

A

Commissioner, dodd.

B

Just to join the train, um I love this like. I wonder if even like some of the education money could be like organized bike to school days, work with local ptas and just have coffee or whatever people drink. That's not coffee. You know waiting at school for the people who do it like just a little celebration like hey. We all did it because it definitely, you know sometimes I'll, walk or bike to get.

B

My son from school and part of that involves meridian, which just doesn't have a lot of pedestrian or bike facilities, um and it's a lot more fun with a group when it's just the two of us. You know you feel a little more at risk, so it like I'd love to see just a little bit. You know just a way to recruit people. You know just give them some quick collateral like a flyer they can send out to their members like hey we're gonna, do this like every tuesday or whatever it is so yeah.

B

A

So, along those lines, the cascade bicycle club does have bike to work day. Typically early may, where it is very similar to what commissioner dodd is uh talking about. There are stations set up along the berkelman trail. You get a free water bottle, you get, you know a donut or whatever, and you might look toward to an organization like that. If, if they had some ideas and were perhaps even interested in organizing something like that, I suspect they might be. I know they have a lot of rides that they put together.

A

A

And just to kind of go away from the, um I guess towards the other side, I think enforcement has to be part of it too.

A

The best education is going to be a ticket for running the red light and there's an awful lot of that. That goes on.

A

So I think we're prepared for continue. Thank you.

H

All right, thank you for uh those comments. These uh the education part parts part part of that you guys are talking about. I uh I agree that you know those kinds of uh efforts would be most beneficial in you know. Teaching people um education can be part like just even educating people where the facilities are. You know expanding that kind of education, so people are more confident that they can get from one place to another or we're working. I'm working with a group, a verdant group. It's a health organ.

H

You know kind of like a health organization, if you will to benefits, benefits other disadvantaged groups and stuff, and they have grants that you can apply for they're, not but they're, not for infrastructure improvements. They are more for educational type of programs, which you know if we had that something like that, we could build on, we could apply for grants from them and and they will have some ideas, as you know what they've used uh for other cities, uh I believe linwood and montlick terrace has taken advantage of that.

H

We only have a small part of our city that is in that district, but you know something that we can absolutely look into to expand, that that that type of uh program.

A

Commissioner, dodd.

B

I was going to ask so verdant is part of the snohomish county hospital district right. It's yeah! It's it's a really cool agency. Is there a similar king county agency? I.

H

uh I'm not aware of that right off the bat I mean it could be, but the verdant one had been brought to my attention from uh mayor mayor thompson at the at one point, so we looked into that and started talking to them and attend attend their meetings. That's.

B

Awesome regularly.

H

So just to keep up on that.

H

Okay, continuing the presentation we have um so it sounds like we. You know. We would agree that we want to continue to fund these non-infrastructure uh elements of the bike plan and we'll continue to expand on that for uh the future bike plans and uh updates.

H

A

Then one more commissioner comment, commissioner: westerbeck.

F

I'm so sorry to interrupt. um I had forgotten when I commented earlier about the other two I just slipped my mind, but I just real quick comments. I love the bike, storage and maintenance because um I was chatting with someone. um I went to seattle and used light rail the other day and she was lamenting there weren't safe places to lock her bike for for trips into the city and stuff.

F

Like that, I know people in bothell need that as well and she'd already had a bike, any bike stolen because of that, so those those bike, lockers are really great she's going to get one of those and then I've, ridden and commuted for many years and maintenance is, is really great. um I've had many many flats from broken glass and shards of metal and all kinds of things. So that's a maybe a small thing that goes a long way when the streets are cleaned and swept assuming that's what you mean by maintenance.

F

So I love seeing that I appreciate it.

A

Well, and I would say, kind of piggybacking off commissioner westerbeck's comment as one who did a lot of bike commuting as well: putty wayfinding may be where bicycle shops are, and there are a couple along the way you can only pump up with your hand, pump so much and when you've got 100 psi in your tires, you're not getting there. But if you can get a get aside, it's useful so that'll be part of wayfinding.

A

H

All right, great yeah, that's uh maintenance, including definitely uh not only just cleaning facilities, but you know repairing and whatnot. All of that is part of the maintenance program.

H

um Moving on the other. You know the the other part of this allocation of funding from the recommend recommendation from the cfp committee was uh talking about connectivity, and you know uh the ultimate vision doesn't consider the use of on-street bike facilities, but with the and with the long list of projects that were identified in the original part b uh plans, we basically went away um we've only we've. We've come up with only exception of three projects. That staff feels would compete well for grants and provide connectivity of existing facilities. That would enhance the network.

H

um The first one is the 104th and 104th avenue 23rd avenue corridor. That would fill a gap from 242nd to 236, which is sort of the middle portion of that corridor.

H

There are no bike facilities in that section, and you know um a project that would build new protected bike lanes in this gap would provide a gap from uh would provide a full facility, even though you have to use existing bike lanes from downtown all the way up to you know the over maywood hill and ultimately lead to 228th street. You know with maybe a neighborhood greenway connection from canyon park over to 19th.

H

A second project is construct a shared use path on the south side of sr 524, which which would connect from the north creek trail to the existing shared use path at approximately 20th avenue, on the east side of the fred meyer retail center at thrasher's corner, and this connection would provide a complete, east-west route along the north edge of the city.

H

You know that would uh also provide a great connectivity, even for that, for that section and take you to you know, destination one being the retail core there, as well as leading into the canyon park business park.

H

So we feel those two projects would be beneficial in terms of considering connectivity, even though we're not talking about just building a full on the for the full protected bike lane for the whole corridor, and the third one is is- uh is for 96 avenues, basically, where um the old wayne golf course is, um and it's and it's just to put some sharos from from the bridge some amish river bridge to the gilman trail.

H

This is uh recommended by a resident um avid biker, experienced biker, and he felt that this would be very beneficial, and we agree that you know for not a lot of money relatively.

H

It would provide some benefit for for riders to get some driver awareness for that connection, where the wainida bike lanes and and need to continue to connect to the burke gilman trail. So these projects offer that we feel substantial benefits for for riders and still we can still maintain.

H

We still want to maintain our ultimate vision for the bike plan. So do you think we should continue with that uh methodology in consideration for connectivity and just want to get your uh opinion on that, so that we can move forward with that.

A

All right and if I could see the zoom participants, I see yes.

D

Hello, sarah gustafson here um thank you panagong for bringing these to our attention.

D

Personally, I think that the 23rd avenue and the we need a way sorry in the sr 524 seem to be in line with what we've discussed before I do want to perhaps reopen the sharrow debate, because I know that in past meetings, we've had some discussion. That cheryl's really may not be helpful and may be more confusing. At the same time, I do very much empathize with that person who is trying to cross at wayneed away. So I want to see if we have a vision on sharo's.

A

Did you have a response.

H

Yeah, I I I agree we there is, uh we did not include cheryl's as part of um basically connectivity projects per se anymore and we took those out because we did feel that that wasn't uh that basically wasn't the direction that we wanted to go and we wanted to focus more on the ultimate vision, the use of cheryl's we're not discontinuing we're you're just going to limit those to basically local streets, though we'll talk about that a little bit more when we get into our standard details and whatnot.

H

But um you know for a small section like this. Where this you know, basically, the speed is slow enough. It's 25 miles an hour in that section and it's a short section. We really can't there's really no room to build any other kind of interim facility there to provide that connection.

H

um We're you know we're in favor of of using a cheryl there, but in the in the basically in the the bigger scheme, where we're not incorporating the use of cheryl's, for um you know any other major connections as a as a interim project or connectivity project per se, so that's kind of where we're at, and these are just a few projects again again, because we feel that we can.

H

You know, use that to our benefit to acquire grants by consideration of connectivity. If there's other connectivity projects that you guys can. Think of that, you would like to include also we'd be more than likely to you know more than happy to you know include that in our in our in our lists here.

A

Other commissioners.

E

Commissioner kurd thank you. uh I can sense myself being drawn into the discussion about sharos and I will refrain, I think I've said enough about sharos and I agree with uh everything that you said: planner gong. um I wanted to mention sr524.

E

In my bike journeys to the north of maltby road, one of the main connectivity issues that I encounter is crossing the various state routes which intersect the region. It takes probably five minutes, I'm not even kidding five whole minutes to cross kitty corner across from the safeway to the like.

E

That's kind of ridiculous and every second viewer that you spend in that intersection is life expectancy increase and you might think I'm kidding, but do it and see it's um there's things like signal timing, which I know is like a repeat issue, but that that can be a connectivity um success story too. If we can just manage to get washdot to get on board, I know that it's impossible and it seems like there's so many intersecting jurisdictions and it wouldn't save drivers that much time or you know it's these small things too.

E

It's not necessarily like pavement on the ground, it's the time that it takes and it's the the flow of a journey on bike um that can really make connectivity work or not um overall, really agree with these three as the most critical um I yep totally.

E

If I could add one, I would add the crossings across 405, specifically at 195th, we've heard a lot of testimony whenever I talk to anybody about biking they're, always mentioning that the north creek trail is there's a canyon between the east side and the west side of the freeway, and that's an area that students use to get to college campus and business people use to get to the employment center.

E

Now that we've constructed lots of town homes and residential areas, the only way for those uh future residents to get to downtown bothell is by bike would be over that overpass. um So that's a that's a connectivity challenge, and I know that you know the future use is constricted by washdot again.

E

uh I hope that we can open up some partnerships to.

E

Bridge those challenges thanks.

A

Other commissioners, I would strongly agree with commissioner kurd on the 405 crosslings having written them. They are I'll, just say scary. I would. I would also uh really uh strongly support the 104 23rd, uh not just because my dog walking route, but because it links canyon, park, middle school and that's kind of a prime bike riding group, and if we can get the middle school kids on the bikes, I think you're really growing your bike riding population- and you know there are just a lot of people moving in that direction.

A

uh If we could work, you know we talked about bike buses getting something going there. I think it'd be just a huge benefit and I see so many cars sitting there idling in the bike lane, I might add when it could be used to transport kids. So I really encourage that one commissioner dodd.

B

Thank you, um I'm gonna lean back because I wrote something down earlier um and I'm just gonna ask now. um There was a mention that um the lack of street grid in a lot of places is geographic, but I'm wondering we are the planning commission right, like when new subdivisions go in on relatively flat land. Even it's still the twisty-turny winding, not a lot of connecting roads.

B

Thing like there's two near me off of meridian that have like a small path and an emergency, only connection um that it would be prime for a road to cut through to get from um third avenue southeast to 240th. I mean excuse me um to meridian sorry, I'm getting my own neighborhood confused in my head, it's better when you're looking at a map, um but it's there's just a lack of I'm wondering if there's something we can do to encourage where we do have some flat land in bothell build connecting roads.

B

You know, like that's part of the struggle of biking around and just general connectivity is we have a lot of arterials and a lot of sort of dead, end incomplete side streets um so wherever we can encourage that? I would love to see that too, because, even if it's not a protected bike facility, if I can take a quieter road to get somewhere, I would love to do that.

B

But to get you know a lot of places, I have to take 228th or meridian or 240th, or lots of roads that are not ideal for biking and also have a lot of cars. So just uh something I don't know who solves that who determines where a developer needs to put in a connecting road. But I feel, like that's a missed opportunity.

H

Yeah a lot of a lot of development is, you know, based on accessibility that not only for the residents that will ultimately live there, but there's fire requirements. You know fire access and um those type of things that kind of dictate a little bit where roads go and what kind of access they have to have.

H

So um I think uh you're right that if we could provide more grid system- and you know neighborhood greenways- even like what we're talking about in terms of providing an alternative for bike routes, instead of just on main high main main roads.

H

um Although we're you know, we did hear that you know we're kind of focusing on having a couple of spine roads and spine routes to facilitate a more direct. uh You know, route to get from one end of town to the other, for example, as is something we're also hearing. So we're kind of we'll have more discussion on that in here and get your opinions on those too.

B

Totally- and I appreciate that- and I don't mean to say like because I know I've been the queen of like, we must connect canyon park to downtown like still totally believe that, but I think there's a lot of other opportunities too. Thank you. Okay,.

A

um Commissioner robson did you no okay.

H

Okay, um you wanna take a shot at that.

I

I

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, the 500 000 we have per year. We all agree that we're going to include programs that are stuff.

I

The three projects that sherman came up with is all that remains of his plan b, which used the old system as much as possible and tried to connect everything.

I

The reason these three came up with is those three corridors have existing facilities on most of that corridor. There are just a few gaps most of the a lot of the other facilities like 9th avenue.

I

Three quarters of the corridor doesn't have a facility and would be sheriffs, and we heard loud and clear- that's not really a good facility. So these are the opportunities we heard um crossing a few locations should be added to that. But those are the ones that we would add that are a little different than what we're going to talk about in the next segment, which are division projects, because these are connecting up existing facilities where we can. What we would do would install final facilities, in other words on 103rd, sorry, 104th and 23rd.

I

We want protected bike lanes and, if there's no facility there now likely, the first thing we would do would be looking to put protected bike lanes. So we do it once and be done, even though the rest of the 85 percent of the corridor will steep still be a five foot bike lane until we get to that or redevelopment occurs similar to 524 that crossing to connect the north creek trail that we're going to finish soon to what facility we have on the east side of 527.

I

That would be in finished form as well, so that we won't lose anything so to speak, um but in a normal prioritization process. Those may not be the most key projects for the vision, but they make sense to look at because in the short term, they provide better connectivity of what we have today.

I

If that makes sense, so some other resources we're going to have, could be allocated a little differently than all toward the vision, and we just want to make sure we're clear on how we do that.

E

Okay, commissioner, kurd thank you, I don't speak for the commission on this, but I totally agree. I understand- um and I know that we're working with limited funding, but I would also uh come from a place of understanding that the city residents of the city have come to expect incremental progress.

E

We've had canyons in our downtown for over a decade of just gravel parking lots, we have a mismatched mat, you know single sidewalk and then it is an asphalt path and then it's grass and then it's a ditch and then it's a sidewalk like we're used to this, and that's what we understand. We understand that the city is a work in progress, and so I I speak for myself when I say I totally get it. I think that's the right way to use the money, and I endorse that.

A

Okay, so one other comment I'd make and since we're talking about essentially operating funds- and we've talked a bit about partnerships too, a partnership I'd suggest you look at is within the city with parks and rec, and we talked about group rides and I think the uh the summer nights was a great success. Getting people on the streets getting pedestrian activity.

A

Also, some some established bicycle rides. You know a couple of saturdays in the summer establish a couple of points that you ride back and forth. It gets people riding, it gets drivers expecting to see bicycles out there, and I think it would be not real expensive, but I think there'd be a lot of benefit just to getting those bicycles out there and raising the visibility of the issue so thought there, commissioner, dodd.

B

Thank you. um I know we have lime scooters in bothell. They also have bikes. So I wonder if we could work with them to get some bikes available if they'd give people. You know five bucks during this event to start something like that, um and then I will say I second everything commissioner kurds said like. I think it's it's a great plan, so I really appreciate all the work that went into it.

D

H

Okay, great thank you and uh thank you for the feedback and we'll keep on moving that with that program.

H

Next part of this uh presentation we want to talk about is about the vision and um looking at some projects that a method to to how we implement those projects and the and basically that we we do have a limited resources. And so even if we only had three projects, we would have to prioritize them.

H

So, um instead of trying to find the merits of any specific project and argue which one is the best, we felt that we had to establish a set of criteria that we could use to rank all projects so that we can be objective and look at them.

H

Look at them in that way, so that uh and establish a a a weight for each criteria uh and and review each project.

H

So we basically did that um first, the select group of projects that you see on this map here um these these projects were selected because they were critical to a connection to the regional system, to adjacent cities or to disadvantaged communities which included. Where you see, I identified the affordable housing community or designated mobile home parks and again just looking at it from an equity standpoint. That's where we were that's why we picked these um as a starting point, so we assign a weight to them.

H

The each weight in the uh in each criteria is either zero or the full amount of points. There's no in between. You know a range just and you could do that, but you know it would just spread it out a little bit more, and you know at this point in time um it's good that we just have a general idea of what we feel which projects are kind of more critical at this point.

H

H

We wanted to look at these projects and move on to getting your feedback. um Let's go on to the criteria on the next page here and describe each of these equity is our highest awaited criteria.

H

um It was a project any route that was a direct link or access to a disadvantaged community or affordable housing or the designated mobile home parks were afforded were awarded 25 points, um employment or transit uh was awarded 20 points if that route is a link to an employment or retail center, such as canyon park or or north creek business park, etc or transit facilities. If there's a bus route or a future bus route that we know that's going to come, then um we felt that that was critical for people to get to jobs.

H

You know part of this kind of really a bus route is just as much of part of your bike network as a bike, a bike lane.

H

um The next category was institutions and we award 20 points to routes that provide direct access to the college or public school campuses.

H

Again, um we feel that that's reaches and reaches an uh a part of the equity, um the equity system, because you know you have to education, is you know one way out of that uh uh out of that community?

H

If you have, if you're in there now um and then recreation was uh weighted with 15 points, if a route accessed accessed a trail or a or a park, there's community benefit there for all ages and abilities, and connectivity was over to 10 points if the route access the adjacent jurisdiction like a city or county facility or if it attached to the the bike plan spying network, such as the regional trails, north creek or savannah's river trails, or along the uh proposed net spine of the bothell way, bothell ever highway and ninth corridor, for example, that takes us from one end of town to the other, or we felt also 228th street, which is a east-west spine.

H

If you will, we included that as well and then the final category that was ordered 10 points was safety.

H

We awarded 10 points if the route improved safe. Writing for that particular facility um and gave that 10 points with the vision you know protected by protected bike lanes is inherently providing a safe are, you know, is, is providing a safe, a commodity in itself. So that's why it not really you know everything you do is going to be safer, so to make it worth a lot more points like it's. Just not didn't really mean reasonable. So that's kind of why we went that way.

H

um We did staff made one minor change to the uh packet and that was to move five five of those uh weighted points from the employment transit category to back to the equity side, because we just kind of caught that at the end, when we had internal staff discussions and felt that equity sort of should be the top category and hot most highly weighted. So um and and oddly enough, when we you know when we did make that change, the rankings of the projects actually didn't change at all, just the score.

H

So um you know we're welcome to look at any combination. You guys want to.

H

The commission would like to you know, suggest um and, and- and you know, look at any options that uh you may want to consider in terms of this waiting that we did so I like to kind of take a pause right now and get your feedback on on how we did this and what it it did for our projects for the vision projects.

A

All right, then, if I could see the other commissioners so mr dodd.

B

Thank you. um I had a couple of questions on um that. The equity determination, so designated mobile home parks totally makes sense. There's zoning overlay and everything um for identifying disadvantaged communities in affordable housing so for affordable housing. Is it just built, affordable, housing or is it sort of like more like market rate affordable, like you know, not super noon? You know that kind of stuff.

H

So uh when we, when we thought about equity, there's not a lot of information for that so definitely designated affordable. Housing is what we looked at. That's what's on the map in the blue.

H

You know the blue spots there near downtown and all that um there are designated mobile home parks in the city, but there are also manufactured homes, communities that are not part of that, but we recognize those and we wanted to kind of consider that as a disadvantaged community, although I wouldn't say they are necessarily all people that are disadvantaged, I just use um holly hills as an example there's also the cascade um cascade vista, I think, is called up on sr524.

H

uh There's the act. There's the community, that's on the west side of the city there, I'm not sure the name of that one, but just outside of the city limits there on 240th. If you go past shelton view elementary down, keep can you continuing that way? So um you know we want to.

H

We want to be sure that we identified those as best as we could, because there's really not it's not like we're in seattle, where you can identify a specific community, a specific race, if you will to identify if that's a disadvantaged community or not, um and so we we just we looked at those these kind of uses, these kind of residential uses schools again to try to reach to that that kind of community, and also really thinking about just multi-family housing in general.

H

I've also kind of considered that, as you know, where you're going to be, if you're, if you're you know more lower income, you're, probably living in a multi-family community rather than a single-family house. So those are the kind of categories that I thought of in terms of trying to you know make make a make a stab at the equity at the equity. You know ranking if you will so that's kind of how we did it.

B

That totally makes sense. I would- um and I realized that this is a data monster to talk about, but I would love to see it at some point evolve into looking at maybe tax records or something of because there's a number of residents of bothell who've been here long enough that it's they've seen it go from an affordable place to live to a very, um almost unreachable place to live. They can't afford to move within the city. um So um just looking at.

B

And I don't know how you would identify necessarily but parts of the city where we have a focus of those residents who, where the opportunity to bike and just save money on transportation, would would could be life changing right. So I just expanding what we think of as disadvantaged communities. But again I am not a data scientist and that sounds like a nightmare. So thank you.

H

Sir commissioner,.

D

Thank you very much and thank you for putting together the colorful map, which really has really helped and being so clear about the criteria and why you're doing all or nothing on some of these to kind of tell with commissioner dodd's suggestion.

D

Is it possible to get our diversity, equity and inclusion committee, the group of residents who are about 20 people from different parts of the city, to weigh in on this, and maybe ask them to choose okay of the 30 projects here, which 10 projects? Would you give an x to and use it resident data.

H

um Yeah we've. You know: we've tried to we're trying to work with our our dei consultant on staff act actually with the city right now and um to get their opinion on how we develop this criteria too. So, unfortunately, they're just really under busy right now we're trying to get them to help us on. This has been a little bit slower and we're, but we're continuing to look at that avenue and see if they can provide us some other guidance really to to to make sure we're addressing that adequately.

A

Commissioner, robson.

C

Thank you. um First of all, I just this just makes me so happy. My little excel. Loving heart is just gonna explode with joy over how detailed and you and your team have put so much work and care in to explaining and prioritizing things that I I'm blown away. I love this so much so. Thank you so so so much for you know making um your decisions really really clear on this front and color coding everything.

C

G

C

um It's I just have a really quick question, and that is with um some of the top projects. I'm looking at here I'm seeing that there's a plan for a bridge um across the samamish river trail on um east of riverside drive. I might not understand like like a real bridge.

C

You guys are planning on building a bridge um because that's awesome uh it's way more than I was anticipating um when we're talking about um bike lanes, and so I'm just you know a little clarification. I think um I think it's project two I think yeah, is that a bridge.

H

Oh yeah, yes, it is, and I'm gonna let steve talk about that. That's a capital project so.

I

So that one appeared a few years ago as part of our capital facility plan outreach and it's been on our transportation needs list for a while. um The thought there is it's not specifically located. It's currently says brickyard road, but there are a couple opportunities along east riverside drive, especially if that trail gets done. That could make sense.

I

But the thought there was opening up the south side of the samamish river to get to the trail. Basically is the biggest thing we would have to talk further, whether they could actually get to the um transit turn around in the middle of the interchange, which is more difficult, because you would have to walk across 522, which washed up probably wouldn't be thrilled, and maybe a lot of people walking across it wouldn't be thrilled either.

I

So that has been on our list for a while. It just has not been funded and as part of the plan, it's obviously a pen and bike bridge. Nothing else. So that's why it's included here.

A

Other commissioners.

A

Commissioner curd, yes.

E

Thank you. uh I will um concur and say, I'm really happy with the way that you've displayed the information um yeah. Thank you.

A

Others yeah I've, um the bridge also caught my eye, and I also look at the east riverside trail and I've got really complicated feelings about that uh it.

A

I think I wrote it once and swore never to ride it again, because it is uh kind of narrow and just doesn't feel safe. On the other hand, you've got the uh the trail on the other side of the river. So if I were going from kenmore to I'd I'd be on the trail, you know almost seems redundant, but then you you looking at the equity lens. There are a couple of mobile home parks there. So I can definitely see the need it's very, but I guess talking round and round, I think, having the bridge.

A

There would make that particular project worth a whole lot more than having that project by itself or in fact, having the bridge by itself.

H

A

Thank you any other comments on the delightful color-coded excel spreadsheet.

A

Commissioner, dodge.

B

It really is a delightful spreadsheet.

A

Thank you, so I'm thanking you for it. I'm not thanking commissioner dodd for well. I I wasn't taking commissioner dodd's comment as thanks to me, but thanks to staff, I'm concurring so with that. Why don't we carry on all right? Well,.

H

I appreciate your your comments and uh and the praise there, the um one question again this is uh this: is our our selection of criteria of of routes and things that we wanted to rank at this time.

H

There's we will be ultimately ranking all of them uh in the whole network, um but if you guys would like or if any, I didn't hear any additional routes that you would like us to include in this initial uh system, if you will, uh from what we have already but we'd, be welcome to you know include anything else that you guys would want to see.

A

I actually did have one other comment. I looked over at my notes here and I was a little surprised that so few projects got institution points. Did you look out at all the public schools and.

H

The the the reason why and we we noticed that too, is because this uh system that we looked at these routes here are primarily on the major connector routes uh arterials, if you will and schools are not located on those arterials, basically except the camp except the uw campus.

H

Most schools are on more of the local street system or the neighborhood routes, and so that's why you just that's why you just don't see them uh more more, more scoring from that standpoint, but once we included it for if we were to include 104th or um I don't know any any other the where the schools are actually, then we would probably see a higher a higher number of those scored.

A

Yeah, for instance, if we look at bothell high, that would bring up and in west hill as well. 88Th avenue goes by two two schools um that I'm not seeing. So I guess just look a little more. Maybe if it's not exactly our school isn't exactly on the route, but maybe a block away, maybe open it up just slightly, because I think that's an important population to serve the school age population.

A

Commissioner, dodd.

B

uh Thanks, I just noticed uh project number 11, um meridian avenue from 228th to 240th. It's like fifth from the bottom on the spreadsheet. um It also serves recreation, that's not marked, it serves the shelton view trail. There are entrances right there on meridian, oh.

H

Didn't know that okay.

A

That pushes it up a color.

B

It might be green now.

H

Okay, thank you.

A

And I wouldn't be too surprised if, on further consideration, commissioners had other thoughts and I'd encourage you to share them with staff. Commissioner dodd.

B

On that note, if things occur to us as you're, you know driving someone you're like. Oh, that's how you get to that thing. Would it be appropriate for us to just send an email with citing a line item? Is that okay, or what's the best way to give that feedback.

H

uh I'm not sure it used to be going prior. Our communication was with planner staff nathan, but he's not with the city anymore. So.

I

I guess send it and I'll send it to sherman yeah.

B

Okay and then we'll work.

I

With cd to get it through them as well.

B

Let us know if we get annoying, probably.

A

And we also do have this coming back at the next meeting for the public hearing. So there is an opportunity to drive around with your spreadsheet in hand and think about criteria right around that's right.

H

All right, okay, great! I I appreciate all your comments on that um moving along. We want to switch gears and I'm going to talk a little bit about our standard details before we to wrap up here for the night.

H

So we want to talk about the revisions that we made to section 3-4 of the bothell design and construction standards covering the bike facilities.

H

The language reflected the changes referencing, the use of the nationally accepted resources such as the national association of city transportation officials.

H

You guys know, as natto, with the urban bikeway design guide and along with the federal highway administration's separated bike, lane planning and design guide, so those references were used will be used and referenced for the treatment of intersection access and crossings and for the three facility types that we are, including entire in terms of the standard details, those to be used to help guide staff in the review of alternative designs, uh as we talked about previously like you know, if we have an opportunity for using barriers for protected uh protected bike lanes instead of the the standard detail which is to have the landscape strip and then the bike lane and sidewalk.

H

So there are three go ahead. There are three uh standard details that we want to include. The first one is shared use paths.

H

These facilities will be separated completely but could be adjacent to traffic.

H

They are shared by bikes and pedestrians together and are usually only on one side of the roadway with travelers users, traveling bi-directionally.

H

The standard cross section is a 12 foot path uh and with two foot shoulders, if, if uh possible- and uh since these are generally built only on one side of the roadway, it is a little difficult to assign developer developers that are required to make frontage improvements. So it's because everything you can't put it all on one one developer to do that and you don't want the road kind of going back and forth and back and forth up and down the road. So a little tough.

H

The next the next standard is the second type facility is our protected bike lanes, of course, and like shared use paths, they are separated from traffic but usually adjacent to the roadway.

H

Bikes and pedestrians are designated to their own lanes for travel, but are separated by a tactile delineation treatment, um which is mainly for ada, uh so that they're, not somebody walking along the sidewalk, won't cross into the bike path.

H

um That's noted there's a little note there that may or may not have made the packet that you guys have in the standards uh just designating tactile delineation there.

H

um uh These facilities are also only directional and the bike lane will be six and a half feet in width and but may be narrowed under certain circumstances. With the public works director approval.

H

That is mainly when we have potential uh significant impacts to sensitive areas. Wetlands or property impacts that we may go from a six and a half to five. For example, um the sidewalk section is always five feet in width and um these facilities are generally easy to easily assign to developers as half street improvements, so that works pretty well and as we discussed previously, the protected bike lanes may be a little less visible than in-street bike lanes at intersections and driveways.

H

The final standard to be included are neighborhood, greenways um or cheryl lanes, where bikes share the roadway with vehicular traffic and may take the lane for travel. They say the facilities utilize existing roadway infrastructure, but include the use of cheryl markings on the pavement to show that bike use is allowed, but also serve mainly as an excellent way-finding tool for routes through neighborhoods that connect to actual bike routes.

H

These will generally be used only on low traffic volume and low speed roadways signed for 25 miles an hour or less.

H

So those are our standard details that we're going to include and just uh open that up for any comments. Now.

A

Commissioners, commissioner, kurd commissioner and then commissioner dodd thank.

E

You um thanks for opening up the details.

E

There's a lot I could say, but I will refrain and just limit my comments to curb ramps um and curb ramps have a lot to do with bike accessibility onto grade grade separated it's not really grade, separated but separate from the grade of the street facilities and so want to make sure that there's enough curb ramp and the curb ramp is located in a an adequate location for whatever bike facility is there as well as for pedestrians.

E

There have been some new curb ramp designs, employed in downtown bothell recently, specifically at the top of kasener way and beardsley maine beardsley, um and it's exciting to see that there's so much space for curbs uh curb ramps. That's definitely ada like that. But um when cars are taking those corners, they take them a bit close and if you're standing on the yellow delineations, you could still get hit, and so I don't know um I'm not an engineer.

E

So I don't know these things, but I would imagine that curb extensions might um be a good way to um shape how vehicular traffic turns around uh corners, and so that could be one way to maybe have cars slow down before they're. Turning just so that there's additional time to react to people in the bike facilities or even on the sidewalks.

E

E

For specifically that protected bicycle lanes on 370.4, I'd like to see a bulb or some sort of uh extension on the curb uh encouraged, at least it's not going to work everywhere, obviously, but um that curb ramp is really critical component of these designs and so I'd like to make sure that's codified into your standards. Thanks.

H

Yeah this uh the standard for actually showing the treatment at intersections is really. This is really just a primary.

H

Concept, I guess, if you will drawing um as we mentioned any any intersection treatment, including curb ramps, and how that how that gets designed will be on a case-by-case basis following nato guidelines, and you know, recommended treatments where, like you say, they have the extended. um What do they call them? uh They're like a curb island. Almost if you will, uh where it requires, requires cars to to drive a little uh in a bigger path that than uh right next to the right next to the curb ramp.

H

If you will and gives you a little bit of a refuge spot there, um which is that seems to be the standard design for protected bike lane facilities so again not on this standard, but uh there's so many variations for intersections and whether or not it's a bike route intersecting, a bike route intersection or it's a heavy heavy vehicle.

H

You know busy super busy intersection. We will look at different, different ways of treating that. So you know just too many to too many to really uh specify for for our code other than we're just saying that it will follow the natto standards that that are the guidelines shown in in those documents.

I

If we can get together with you later, I'd like to specifically understand what you're pointing at.

E

A

Commissioner doug excuse me, commissioner, dodd.

B

Thank you. um I just had a question about um 1e difficult to assign for developers for shared use. Paths um totally get that if it's on the other side of the street from the development you can't make them build it as part of their development. Is there an opportunity to just collect they're part of the cost of the improvement and put it in a fund hold it? You know for later, like I just I don't know.

I

There could be that opportunity. It hasn't worked well for us in the past, because, typically, let's say you want to build a trail. So we talk to you about cost, so you get to collect five million dollars and one developer comes in and gives us in lieu of there's certain timelines when you have to spend the money and if you can't get that trail in then you get back the money. So that's not our preferred way.

I

I think it can be done. What sherman has done is looked at many of our streets and if there is already something on one sided street, like 524, leans itself, pretty well to a shared use path on one side, because there's north creek trail and then you hop over to the east side. There's that you know interim one there. Now we don't own.

I

You know: snow county unincorporated is on the north side of the street, so we control the south side, so that kind of lends itself well most of the streets that we are looking at. There's already some facility a little bit back and forth, and so that's why the cycle track.

I

The raised protected bike lane seems to fit better because we can get that continuity, while development occurs and you have that unfortunate stepping stone thing where you're traveling along a protected bike lane, and then you have to go back to the regular one and then hop back on. Unfortunately, I didn't talk about that, but that is a funding mechanism. Development is a funding mechanism and it's a big one and that's one of the ones we're leaning on for our ultimate vision.

B

That totally makes sense you can call the different bike facilities, adventure, biking.

H

Yeah, the other uh other corridors that we're thinking about, like a shared use, path on one side is like holly hills drive from north creek parkway up the uh seattle times, development building. That's there now they in they're installing a path on the south side on the south side of that road up to where their property ends, and so our plan or our project.

H

Beyond that up to the community itself, will probably you know just continue that on one side rather than having um uh a protected bike lane on both sides of the road and then further mario just continue on 192nd all the way down to 130th, which is the again another roadway, that's half ours and half from woodenville's, so to control that we'll probably also look at a shared use path. Only on the west side of that corridor.

H

All the way to you know to the interchange and up to wooden elementary et cetera.

A

Commissioner, dodd.

B

Sorry, when you said shared with windville and shared with snohomish county, I I was wondering is there? Are you guys tracking opportunities to maybe team up on those projects? Okay,.

H

Yeah we, we definitely are in fact like, like that, woodenville that roadway over there 130th 132nd. We have a sidewalk project that we're already working on and we're trying to coordinate with them.

H

But you know we would like to do one thing and they don't have really any plans than other than the cheapest way out right now so kind of concept, so we're just trying to you know make something that will fit they're what they're trying to build and at the same time provide what we want to and uh that would meet our kind of meet our standard and do the best we can on that.

B

That makes sense kind of like when someone wants a new fence, the other neighbor doesn't and yeah.

H

Thank you, yeah.

A

Other commissioners.

A

I would just urge you when we are doing developer segments, there's a piece, then that starts and stops at the end.

A

You need to address what happens in the interim uh and and it's I'd say it's much. I think it's more of an issue for pedestrians, because you're walking on a sidewalk here and there's a sidewalk here you got to cross the street. uh It's often difficult, um absolutely so be aware of additional signage where things end bikes on roadway or you know somehow making people aware that conditions are changing.

H

Yeah are in the language in the text of the standard details there.

H

We do say that or we're indicating that that the properties that are putting in frontage improvement facilities need to extend along their frontage property and transitioning, even if it goes beyond their property, so that we get the complete for the frontage on the developers side we get the complete section and then even if they have to do transitions off of their property, that that that's how we we would, we would require that.

A

Thank you other commissioners, seeing none. I think we can continue.

H

I think that's it so yeah, that's all we have for our our presentation tonight. So if you guys have any other questions, we're free to talk about them now.

A

um I don't know that this was a study session, so we don't particularly need.

A

Are you looking for an action from us today on this? I think.

H

We got, I think, the actions and recommendations that you we've been kind of discussing along the way is is, is really all that we were hoping for, and we've we've got that so.

A

And at the september 21st meeting our next meeting, you will come back with a public hearing and look for a recommendation coming into that correct. That's correct!.

H

Recommendation to approve and move on to approval to city council yeah saying well yes, and a little language on how we will address this adoption into the amendment for the comp plan.

A

All right well, thank you. I think you've noted a high level of interest in this, so we appreciate you bringing it to us for our consideration and discussion. Absolutely. Thank you.

A

So with that uh the next item is unfinished business. Is there any unfinished business to be brought to us.

A

Seeing no indication reports from staff do we have reports from staff.

G

Yeah um deputy director winchell here I'm just going to provide some staffing updates um for the planning commission. So in case you all didn't know, yesterday was jeff smith's last day with the city of bothell, so he was serving as our interim community development director.

G

The city has gotten a or has made an offer to a new community development director and they have accepted his name is jason greenspan he's currently working for the southern california association of governments and then he's previously a director in middletown, new jersey. So his first day will be november 1st we'll likely bring him to planning commission on november, 2nd or november 16th. So you will get a chance to meet him in that meantime I'll be serving as the interim director.

G

So any things that are director-ish can come my way and then this this is a higher that won't necessarily. You won't see this planner as much, but it really impacts our strategic planning group. So um earlier this this year we introduced kirsten man to you all um who was filling nathan's spot and was in our development services planning group.

G

We've now filled her spot and our development services planning group, which really means come november 1st we will be stacked up again and so some of the things that have maybe been slightly delayed because of our changes in staffing. Hopefully those will get back up to speed and will be operating with a more full staff. So just wanted to give you all those updates and as things progress we'll keep you all up to date and if you all have any questions about any of that, please feel free to reach out to me thanks.

A

Great, thank you. That's all good news, so I'm sure you're pleased with it as well.

A

uh I think that ends the reports from staff reports from members.

E

Commissioner, kurd as always, um I uh have two um uh I guess reports. The first is that um I didn't talk with uh interim uh director winchell about this yet, but we are planning to do another missing middle tour of lower maywood, hopefully in september, perhaps next week, at the end of next week there on the 16th friday, but I will confirm some times and make sure that that time still works for staff and is convenient for staff before sending commission an update and everyone here would be invited.

E

Obviously it would be an open meeting, so public is invited too.

A

So if there is a quorum, we need to do appropriate public notice, so you'll need to hook in whatever timing is required. For that. I.

E

Will be promptly coordinating with uh uh with staff on that? um So yes, that's the first report, and the second is that I'm excited to share that I've been appointed to sound transit's citizen nazis and excuse me, community oversight panel, which is a volunteer board similar to planning commission there's no regulatory capacity, but sound transit board was interested in hearing from community members on the east side and all throughout the area.

E

This board meets monthly, to discuss sound transit operations and management and strategic planning and give feedback to them, and so I'm excited to share that. I am going to be a voice for bothell on that board or on that panel, um and I will hopefully be able to provide updates about um sound transit projects, as I hear them from sound transit.

E

I'm just a mouthpiece, but hopefully I just wanted to share with people who may be listening or interested in community development that it's I like to bring our city's issues to the fore, specifically uh when I'm sitting on this panel. So if you have considerations or want to talk about future sound transit priorities and your ideas, please share thanks.

A

That sounds great. Congratulations. I think. Yes, we shall, commissioner dodd.

B

Thank you very much. um I'm super excited about another missing middle walk. I was going to say if the 16th doesn't work out. There is another maker's market. I am 95 sure on the 24th and there's probably an opportunity to put out a sign and say we're leaving city hall at this time and you might get just people who happen to be downtown um and then I look forward to sending you my thoughts about sound transit. Commissioner kurd, please get us light rail. Thank you.

A

Other commissioners.

A

There was a really interesting presentation, I think, in the last council meeting before their august break on the economic impact of development and to urge you all to listen to it. If you haven't, there are definitely some planning implications to it.

A

The one I don't know if I was being overly sensitive or picking up something that wasn't there, but they did seem a little. I don't know how much they valued open public space.

A

There was some questioning, it was looking at maximizing economic uh value of land use decisions and there are other values I think we need to be aware of, so that was the only caveat I'd put on that one, but otherwise I think it was very interesting, provide some very valuable food for thought.

A

Anyone else all right any items to report to council. I don't think anything came out of this one.

A

Well, with that there being no further business, is there a motion to adjourn commissioner dodd.

B

I moved to it during the meeting.

A

E

My second commissioner,.

A

It's been moved and seconded that we adjourn all in favor.

E

A

It is unanimous. The uh september 7th meeting of the planning commission is adjourned at 8 15. This evening next meeting is september. 21St.

A

And I think we're off by all.

A