Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-20-2003 Item III-BMINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT The regular meeting of the Planning and Community Development Committee was held October 13, 2003 in the Council Work Area. Those members in attendance were as follows: MEMBERS PRESENT: Trish Borden, Nancy Backus, and Stacey Brothers STAFF PRESENT: Paul Krauss, Daryl Faber, Duane Huskey, Shirley Aird, David Osaki, and Patti Zook ALSO PRESENT: Mayor Lewis; Mike Newman, Assistant Superintendent, Auburn School District; Garrett Huffman, Master Builders Association The meeting was called to order by Committee Chair Borden at 5:00 p.m. ACTION: 1. Approval of Minutes of September 22, 2003 Meeting Councilmember Brothers made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Backus, to approve the minutes. Chair Borden concurred. 3. Interlocal with Kina Countv re: SHB 2060 Funds Planner Aird reminded the Committee that this was discussed last spring and a resolution was passed for Pierce County. co; move forward to cc for passing; recording fee on all transactions Councilmember Backus inquired under JRC, how is the representative selected. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said this is being resolved now. He has represented Auburn on the JRC in alternate years. The situation is changing, for example, Kent has opted out and Renton also wants out. The cities believe that they can operate more efficiently with less overhead. Councilmember Brothers made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Backus, to direct staff to prepare the resolution. Chair Borden concurred. 4. Terminal Park Plavaround Parks and Recreation Director Faber presented the staff report. Staff held numerous meetings with the neighborhood. An RFP was completed with five companies submitting information. There will be an interpretive board describing Terminal Park history. New fencing will replace the old cyclone fence. The new equipment will be installed between Thanksgiving and Christmas with the help of the Fire Department volunteers. Mayor requested staff to prepare a series of pictures showing installation of the equipment. Chair Borden is happy to see something happening at Terminal Park. Parks and Recreation Director Faber will be sending mailers to Terminal Park residents inviting them to help out with installation of the equipment. Councilmember Brothers made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Backus, to recommend approval Chair Borden concurred. DISCUSSION: 1. Community Development Block Grant Budget No discussion occurred on this item. The ordinance will be going to Council on October 20, 2003. PAGE 1 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT 2. Resolution No. 3644 — Pacific Annexation Utility Engineer Huskey said this is proposed by Public Works Committee to go to City Council. PCDC does not have the agreements since the agreements deal with utilities. He referred to the map included in the agenda packet and pointed out the Auburn franchise and M&O agreement area, the Pacific franchise area and the new water service boundary area. The emergency intertie is being moved to a new location. The City will collect Vista Height's park fees and give to them. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss commented that the Vista Heights development was a project by Judy Rolland and she sold the property which was going to be townhouses. Utility Engineer Huskey added that Ilako Elementary School's water and sewer bills will be increasing significantly. 3. Auburn School District School Impact Fees for purposes of clarification, this was discussed first on the agenda Chair Borden announced that the Auburn School District (ASD) is requesting an increase in their school impact fees. This is the first request since the City initiated school impact fees. City Council seems to favor increase, but rate lower than requested by ASD. There are spreadsheets in the agenda packet and a comparison of what other districts charge. Why is the school district now requesting the increase, why not before? The CFP shows higher fees than what is currently being collected. Assistant Superintendent Newman, Assistant Superintendent, Auburn School District, said the fee of $2,500 has been collected since 1999. An annual adjustment is done for King County. This is the second CFP he has prepared. There is a big discrepancy between what builders in King County are paying and what builders in Auburn are paying and this has a big impact on the district. He spoke of the need to plan schools to minimize the amount of money that is a direct hit on the bond issue. They will need two elementary schools and a middle school in the next six to seven years. He hopes it will not take five attempts to pass the next bond like it did for the new high school. He spoke about getting the project underway. Builders in Auburn and King County are asking why no fee increase. Councilmember Brothers has the same question as Chair Borden. For several years the fees were set at a certain amount. If the school district does an analysis with the idea of voter approval for funding the new schools, present it to the voters. The City has recognized the need over the years. Why hasn't the school district come back for incremental increases versus an almost doubling of the fee increase? Assistant Superintendent Newman was unable to answer; this has been examined over the years and the district now needs to pursue the fee increase. Councilmember Brothers commented that the analysis showed the need to be $9,000 for single family, and the board voted to request $4,500. How do you account for the disparity? Assistant Superintendent Newman said it is the way the fee structure is set up. The $9,000 was the needed amount with a 50 percent reduction in all jurisdictions. The calculation is the same for each jurisdiction. The needed amount is determined and then this figure is cut in half. Councilmember Brothers wondered if this 50 percent is done State wide. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss replied no; the 50 percent reduction has become an almost defacto standard. The first impact fee was the King County transportation impact fee. ASD did an analysis and produced a legitimate CFP. In order to withstand the predicted legal battle, if ASD can justify x, then they can justify half of x. This is not written anywhere, but is accepted. He can only conjecture why ASD did not come to the City earlier and request a fee increase. It was hard for ASD to get the first increase passed. The City didn't accept what the school district said was the fee and passed a fee lower than ASD requested. The CFP showed increasing amounts could be justified, but the school had to do a separate action. He thinks the ASD was a bit gun shy about seeking a fee increase. Assistant Superintendent Newman concurs with Planning and Community Development Director Krauss that the school district was gun shy about requesting an increase. The school district was a bit beaten PAGE 2 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT during up the first go `round. The School Board has requested that that they seek the fee increase now. Councilmember Brothers wondered if they looked at other impact fees in other areas such as Kent and Issaquah and Assistant Superintendent Newman replied yes. Councilmember Backus inquired if King County approved the fee increase and Assistant Superintendent Newman said the school technical review committee showed the plans and knows the CFP as well as he does. Chair Borden remembered a comment in the Council meeting regarding that the impact fee generated was only three percent of the total need and the implication was that ASD didn't need that much. Assistant Superintendent Newman posed a couple questions: Do the fees offset the cost of building new schools? Do they allow the school district to do the things it couldn't do before, such as bringing in portables if necessary? The answers are yes. The school district tried five times to get funding for the new high school and then he spoke about the reality of the numbers. For temporary portables, when looking at three or four percent, it doesn't sound like a lot, but when you put the numbers together it is critical. ASD annually prepares the plan, the school board reviews for future planning of schools in Auburn, unincorporated King County, Algona, Pacific and part of unincorporated Pierce County. Growth in the school district continues. He spoke of the significant impacts of Lakeland and Lea Hill on their planning. The ASD uses impact fees to do planning in order to allow them to have facilities come on line after voter approval. He spoke about the new high school project, collecting impact fees for design with construction of the school this summer, and school on line in Fall 2005. In response to Councilmember Brothers' questions, Assistant Superintendent Newman said that calculations are based on what is received over time and they haven't looked at where the saturation point is. The CFP looked at Lakeland which has a known build out schedule and they are able to figure out the total number of houses. Councilmember Backus wondered in comparing King County to Auburn, what is the larger percentage of building? Assistant Superintendent Newman said it is hard to track developments for both jurisdictions. Their analysis is done in March in preparation for the plan. They are tracking larger developments. The timeline is a challenge because the two elementary schools on Lea Hill are at or close to capacity now. The Kent watershed area is also a new impact. Assistant Superintendent Newman said that ASD already receives fees from Lakeland. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss explained that Lakeland and Pierce County are subject to different fee schedule because Pierce County adopted a unilateral fee across the county. Mayor remarked that Pierce County has unilateral fee across the county which states what the fee will be for all municipalities in Pierce County. This has superceded the school district and the City. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said the City has elected to respect Pierce County's fee structure and has not challenged. Auburn annexed into Pierce County just south of the county line and is subject to a different fee schedule. Councilmember Brothers wondered if the school district is collecting in City $2500 and collected one million last year based on this number, with continued growth, the school district could surpass one half million dollars. If fees are increased by 80 percent, is the district looking at one million versus one half million? If the school board does not get the increase, will the board be shy one half million dollars of what the budget needs? Assistant Superintendent Newman replied yes. Chair Borden said that Council could pass an ordinance for a certain dollar amount as done before or accept the school district amount. Garrett Huffman, Master Builders Association, doesn't advocate any fee increase. He spoke with the King County Building Council Association and they don't plan to oppose the fee increase. The lesser amount of fee increase is better. The best thing for them is for Auburn to follow the King County fee. If PAGE 3 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT Auburn follows their exact plan, this gives builders a consistent fee and is consistent from King County to Auburn. This makes it easier on builders. Councilmember Backus spoke about looking at the numbers and is concerned about going from lowest fee in the area to the highest fee. For single family; home buyers care about what comes out of their pockets and are concerned when building costs are increasing when the economy is not good. It is important to make sure that kids are taken care of, but where to find a happy balance? Chair Borden commented that Auburn has people who live here every year and pay significant amount in bond issue. There is the pressure to build schools which raises her taxes. She thinks the philosophy is to distribute the pain across the board. She is interested in the suggestion of King County amount to charge, but how would it be structured? It makes sense to align with surrounding jurisdictions; however, you can't write an ordinance to do whatever King County does. She said that from an economic standpoint, there is no trouble with people coming to live in Auburn and she doesn't think a building wouldn't be build because the school impact fee was too much. She doesn't think this would affect the number of new houses being built. Councilmember Brothers wanted to confirm that Auburn has the lowest cost new homes in the County and Garrett Huffman confirmed this. Assistant Superintendent Newman said that King County has generally adopted the requested amount. King County has adopted the $4,528 amount for single family. Councilmember Brothers inquired why the is gap widening for single family versus multi family housing. It appears that single family homes were generating more kids, possibly because of the lower interest rates on housing. The request for fee increase is 80 percent versus 20 percent for multi family. Chair Borden said the request to increase the school impact fees will go to the full Council for adoption and won't be passed out of Committee tonight. She suggested that Assistant Superintendent Newman meet with the Finance Committee prior to the City Council meeting. How the school district uses the school impact fee funds was new information. She supports the school impact fee increase. Mayor inquired when the will the other cities approve the fee increase and Assistant Superintendent Newman said that he has spoken to the City of Kent. The figures shown are for this year and not sure what fee will be for 2004. Assistant Superintendent Newman said that for year 2004 is what is submitted for in the CFP. To his knowledge, no cities have yet passed the fee for 2004. ; ; Councilmember Backus referred to the project enrollment in the CFP and the different in class number for eighth grade over a couple years. Assistant Superintendent Newman explained their formula for determining enrollment in middle school to high school and said that Derringer students have the biggest number of increase, primarily in kindergarten. In response to Chair Borden's inquiries, Assistant Superintendent Newman said that school impact fees charged by adjacent school districts are much higher than Auburn's school impact fees. Councilmember Brothers thanked Mr. Newman and Garrett Huffman for attending. Chair Borden confirmed that adopting the CFP is one action and adopting the school impact fee is other action. It would be good to find out when Kent and Federal Way are going to do their changes. DO affirmed that Kent adopts CFP in the same process used as Auburn and will find out about the school impact fee. Chair Borden does not have much respect for Pierce County for adopting such a lower fee and for superceding local decision making authority. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss explained that the fee was in effect prior to Auburn annexing into Pierce County and the City is obligated to continue the fee structure set up by Henderson Homes. If Pierce County actually has the PAGE 4 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT legal right of preemption or if the City just went along, he is unsure. When working with Henderson Homes, Lakeland was in the Derringer School District and later the school district changed. Mayor commented that the school impact fee we have now is very low and he doesn't want to go from the lowest fee to the highest fee. Chair Borden commented that the requested increase is more than what was suggested at a recent City Council meeting, but she would be comfortable with a fee of $4,000. INFORMATION Correspondence to Growth Management Services -Dept. of Community Trade and Economic Development re: Growth Management Act Update Grant Planning and Community Development Director Krauss commented that another round of GMA grants are being made available. Auburn put in an application to receive funds for the corridor project along Auburn Way South for the study and phase 1 improvements. The City is hoping to receive the $30,000 grant and the City's chances are good. . 2. Correspondence from National League of Cities re: Auburn's Entry for Urban Enrichment Awards The City did not receive an award. ADJOURNMENT: With no further items to come before the Committee, the meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. PC DC\MIN\10A-2003 PAGE 5