HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-20-2003 Item III-BMINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE OCTOBER 13, 2003
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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