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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-12-2001MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 12, 2001 The regular meeting of the Planning and Community Development Committee was held March 12, 2001 in the Council Work Area. Those members in attendance were as follows:. MEMBERS PRESENT: Trish Borden, Rich Wagner, Sue Singer STAFF PRESENT: Lynn Rued, David Osaki, B Sanders, Dick Deal, and Patti Zook ALSO PRESENT: Mayor Booth; Alan Keimig The meeting was called to order by Committee Chair Borden at 6:30 p.m. ACTION: 1. Interim C-2 Zoninq Map Amendment Principal Planner Osaki showed a colored map. Alan Keimig has a development proposal for the American Legion building on Main Street which intended to use the existing walls. He was granted a variance to use the walls and a variance from street setbacks. Because of the earthquake they are probably unable to use the existing walls due to damage and will lose the variance. He reviewed the Comprehensive Plan map change for the area that was recently approved. Staff is processing zone change for two areas now. Planning Commission held a public hearing in March. Mr. Keimig has immediate needs for his project. He explained the purpose of the interim zoning map change to establish interim zoning until permanent zoning comes before Council.. Mr. Keimig said he got a variance to reinforce walls; intend to meet C2 zone requirements and allow more windows on the street side. The walls are in bad shape. He spoke about the insurance claim and settlement. The zone change will allow them to get a more quality development here. They will continue with the project and redevelop the walls and use same motif and type brick as the original building. Councilmember Wagner asked if City has to declare an emergency to avoid the one year change to Comprehensive Plan. Principal Planner Osaki advised that this change is not a Comprehensive Plan change. This is a zoning change on an interim basis which does not affect the Comprehensive Plan. Councilmember Singer made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, to recommend approval. Chairman Borden concurred. DISCUSSION: 1. Senior Center Activity Alcohol Policy Parks & Recreation Director Deal reminded Committee this was talked about a couple months ago. The Center is taking shape with framing now and roofing next week. The City policy is no alcohol allowed in any facilities, but most cities have a facility that permits alcohol for wedding receptions or anniversary parties. The Senior Center plans to have a staff person on board to let renters know where lights are located, etc.. Staff is coming forward with a draft policy that allows alcohol only in the new Senior Center. He reviewed the policy. The City already requires general liability insurance certificate. He spoke about alcohol restrictions which is similar policy to other cities'. Councilmember Singer asked if people will receive a copy of the policy. The brochure should also tell about the alcohol restrictions. Parks & Recreation Director Deal said that no reservations will PAGE 1 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 12, 2001 be taken in the new center until fall. This will allow a shakedown and staff training for management of the facility. There will be a brochure explaining the renting the facility and the alcohol policy. Councilmember Wagner suggested that Parks & Recreation Director Deal contact WCIA to see about any special liability insurance that may be required. He is concerned about the possibility of over serving of alcohol to patrons and Parks & Recreation Director Deal said that he will contact WClA. The City will provide the facility, but not serve the alcohol. Chairman Borden is familiar with the process for special occasion liquor licenses, but asked about banquet permit. Parks & Recreation Director Deal said he was unsure what is meant by banquet permit. Regarding the liability certificate, Chairman Borden said this is easy to get if you have a commercial policy, but what abut a private person. Parks & Recreation Director Deal will check into this. Councilmember Singer mentioned that she used an Auburn School building for a family reunion and used her home policy for the insurance, but no alcohol was served. Parks & Recreation Director Deal will come back to Committee again when the policy is revised and get their final word. Downtown Plan Planner Sanders advised that the Public Works Committee did not get to the Downtown Plan discussion tonight because the agenda was too long. She distributed an information sheet and will talk about the plan itself and the process. She then spoke about the integrated document which allows for the plan and ElS to be prepared concurrently. The plan is broken into three parts: the plan, environmental summary and draft environmental analysis. She reviewed the adoption process on page 2. The City received 5 comment letters, but one of the letters was received after the comment deadline. None of the letters spoke to the ElS. Planning Commission had a few revisions to the staff recommendations which resulted from Planing Commission February 6th and February 13th meetings. A presentation to Public Works Committee is planned to talk about transportation policies and stormwater. Councilmember Wagner confirmed that a presentation to the Public Works Committee is definitely needed on transportation and stormwater. Public Works needs to think about improvements to be reflected in the TIP. Planner Sanders will invite Tim Carlaw and Joe Welsh to the meeting. Planner Sanders anticipates that Council will have public hearing in April and adopt soon afterward. Part 1 of the plan is divided into six sections which were reviewed. The plan speaks about assets and challenges. She referred to the appendix that has market study. Councilmember Singer wondered how appropriate the market study information is since it is a few years old. She wondered about the cost to update the study. Planner Sanders mentioned that the per square footage cost to purchase has escalated. However, other conclusions such as a large market area to draw on remains valid. It may be $10,000 to update the study. She will review the contract scope of work. If the Committee thinks an update is necessary, staff can look into this. Planner Sanders referred to item 4, downtown plan/strategies/policies which will be discussed tonight. Items 5 and 6 will be discussed at the next meeting. Planner Sanders acknowledged that the City cannot accomplish all that is in the plan in six years. Councilmember Wagner referred to page 176 regarding the urban center designation and expressed concern about how this would affect the City's growth targets. He is concerned about the designation possibly destroying single family neighborhoods. Planner Sanders: rest of city wouldn't have to accept high density housing. PAGE 2 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 12, 2001 Principal Planner Osaki mentioned that urban centers focus population in a one and one half mile maximum square mile area. The City allocates its population growth by concentrating it more towards the 'center'. Urban centers are supported by high capacity transit. Councilmember Singer thinks this needs more discussion. Mayor remarked that Auburn was considered an activity center not an urban center. Chairman Borden has heard that the designation is supposed to be beneficial, but she has not seen the benefit. Planner Sanders will follow up with Committee at the next meeting about this. A discussion occurred about urban centers; where they are located and benefits. Planner Sanders used an overhead that showed section 4, downtown plan, and pointed out some of the 10 districts. The next step is to improve key streets with public street improvements, such as landscaping and street trees, sidewalks, coordinated signage, crosswalks, underground wires, gateways or public art, and minimum number of travel lanes to accommodate traffic. Chairman Borden wondered about a plan for a median on Auburn Way to which Planner Sanders confirmed this is an idea mentioned in the plan. Another idea is to have bulb treatment similar to Main Street. An elevated crosswalk is too costly. Councilmember Singer inquired about gateways and asked how the plan will identify and address them. There is going to be a public perception that gateways are already identified. Planner Sanders remarked that there are options for the process and still flexible. Councilmember Singer wondered, when the plan is passed, does this mean Council agrees with all the policies including those relating to gateways. Planner Sanders remarked that plan introduces gateways as a possibility and the text speaks about possible gateway locations. Councilmember Singer thinks Council will spend more time to tweak the recommendations, but now just looking and commenting on them. It is expected that Council will give specific input about what they agree with and what they do not. It is a question of how in depth Council review will be. Chairman Borden thinks there are very few things to be questioned and the downtown plan is a good guide to the future of downtown. Councilmember Wagner pointed out that the transit map is not included. The plan should be reviewed in depth, but not page by page in workshop. Planner Sanders advised that Metro requested more information about key streets and key transit routes. Policy segments will be reviewed and then talk about any issues. Councilmember Wagner sees the Public Works Committee needing to do a lot of work before the Council meeting, or highlight what is to be discussed. Chairman Borden pointed out that plan talks about making Auburn Way more pedestrian friendly and lots of changes are proposed and these need to be discussed. Chairman Borden inquired about fiber optic cable and asked if downtown is wired for the latest technology. The plan also speaks to Class A office space. Planner Sanders related that the Planning Commission said to refer to this technology in the plan and to explore this further. The Qwest building located in downtown makes the connections possible. Planner Sanders showed another overhead about implementing catalyst projects on key sites for quality development and to stimulate additional investment. To improve business and development image: public relations/media campaign, design guidelines in plan, and serve as basis for design standards. Referring to the townhouse apartments, Councilmember Singer would like to see more historical looking buildings downtown. Planner Sanders advised that the plan does speak to historical issues. Planner Sanders then provided background that led to the policies and on page 61 began to review the goals and policies. She reviewed paragraphs A and B, which speaks to blight. PAGE 3 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 12, 2001 Assistant Planning Director Rued advised that the Zoning Code does not allow taverns in downtown, but it does allow alcohol as incidental to food service. Planner Sanders reviewed goal 2 and policies 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6. Councilmember Wagner wants to be explicit about which buildings are historically significant and to encourage maintenance of older buildings. Planner Sanders said that Auburn has documented buildings of historical significance. Certain properties are flagged on the permit process system so that if someone wants to develop the property, she is contacted and she will contact King County when additional expertise is needed. Per request of the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, an implementation strategy will be added. Chairman Borden likes the idea of the properties being flagged. Planner Sanders reviewed goal 3 and policy 3.1 and spoke about building height. Referring to a map, Councilmember Wagner pointed out that no gateway is shown on A Street SE. Councilmember Singer asked about a gateway on the Interurban Trail and near PAC. A discussion occurred on marking of bikeways. Planner Sanders reviewed goal 4 and spoke about Dennis Selle's concerns regarding adequate water and sewer services. She spoke about working with Public Works Department regarding underground utilities. The landscape and aesthetic treatments for the grade separation projects were cut back due to budget constraints. The Public Works Committee needs to discuss transportation policies. Principal Planner Osaki referred to pages 69 to 74 and remarked that concepts need to be discussed including a policy to allow a lower level of services in downtown. A theory is that traffic congestion downtown is a good sign that downtown is thriving. He pointed out policy 6-2 relating to traffic impact fees for downtown development. Councilmember Wagner indicated that he is not supportive of the traffic impact fee waiver. Councilmember Wagner wants to know up front what traffic impact fee will be and remarked that City could be treading on legal ground if it wants to lower for downtown area only. Referring to goal 8 on page 75, Planner Sanders spoke about the desired pedestrian look and feel on downtown streets and said there are different ways to accomplish this. She spoke about street lighting and tree grates. Planner Sanders spoke of strengthening bike routes, and about having bike route from residential neighborhood south of the tracks to the downtown. Councilmember Singer wants something in the plan about the City being aware of grates in the street in bike areas because this is now a hazard because the grates are facing the wrong way. Assistant Planning Director Rued advised that the City does not need a policy for this to be changed. Councilmember Singer should contact the Public Works Department directly regarding the situation. Planner Sanders reviewed goals 10 and 11. Staff has been meeting with selected property owners to determine interest in developing joint use public/private parking garages. So far the comments on parking strategies have been good. Wells Fargo may be interested, but the hospital does not seem to want additional parking. She reviewed goal 13, goal 14 and goal 15. Councilmember Singer provided information on LIHI purchasing the JC Penney building, what the plans are, and where other LIHI projects are located. Planner Sanders reviewed goal 17. There is the question of how to attract quality restaurants to downtown and economic development will have to assist. She spoke about adopting the State historic building code. Principal Planner Osaki and Planner Sanders spoke about an R4 zoned area located behind the former Natsuhara building and the zoning here does not seem to correlate with protecting residential neighborhoods. Chairman Borden asked what kind of zoning PAGE 4 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 12, 2001 would be more appropriate. King County Landmark and Heritage Program is concerned about inappropriately scaled multi family buildings in a single family neighborhood. The stormwater management section was skipped over tonight because of issues to be worked out with the Public Works Department. Planner Sanders reviewed goal 22 and goal 23. She spoke about the inventory and evaluation of historic resources. She reviewed goal 26. There is concern about losing historic buildings to development or earthquakes. She reviewed goal 27 and goal 28. Planner Sanders commented that the design guidelines section is next and it is lengthy and involved. The plan divides downtown into three areas: the first is Main Street; second is residential areas; and third is commercial/industrial areas. The districts have distinctively different needs. Main Street is the most restrictive, but the others are flexible. Councilmember Wagner sees the residential areas as a challenge and allowing new construction that is compatible with residential could be difficult. The section on streets in downtown is pretty good. Chairman Borden presented topics for discussion at the workshop: urban center designation; making Auburn Way more pedestrian friendly; gateways; implementation strategy for historic preservation; minimum height requirements; lower LOS downtown; traffic impact fees and waiver possibility. Also for discussion, said Councilmember Wagner, is the R4 zoned area referenced in conversations with King County Landmarks and Heritage staff. Transportation items also need to be discussed. Committee consensus was for a March workshop and Planner Sanders will poll other Councilmembers for a date. The Committee and Mayor complimented Planner Sanders on her good work related to the downtown plan. 3. Community Center Update Parks & Recreation Director Deal distributed a draft scope of work and said Donald Lachman was the consultant interviewed to help with the project. He asked permission to take forward to next Council meeting for approval. He talked about need to get a citizen committee together. There was a discussion of the appropriateness of having non-Auburn people on the task force and the problem with the perception of outsiders spending Auburn's money. Councilmember Wagner spoke of the need to identify what Mr. Lachman will be doing. Chairman Borden mentioned that Mr. Lachman has spoken about focus groups and interviews with citizens. ADJOURNMENT: With no further items to come before the Committee, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. PCDC\MIN\03A-2001 PAGE 5