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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-08-2004MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 The regular meeting of the Planning and Community Development Committee was held March 8, 2004 in the Council Chambers of Auburn City Hall. Those members in attendance were as follows: MEMBERS PRESENT: Sue Singer, Nancy Backus and Lynn Norman STAFF PRESENT: Paul Krauss, David Osaki, Sean Martin, Bill Mandeville, and Patti Zook The meeting was called to order by Committee Chair Singer at 5:00 p.m. PUBLIC HEARING 1. WSC03-0018 Randy Goodwin Chair Singer opened the public hearing. Community Development Administrator Osaki presented the staff report and explained the process. Staff recommends approval with conditions. Chair Singer said from site plan it appears that 314th Street is intended to cross and hook up to Road A. Community Development Administrator Osaki said that the property to the west is junkyard and that property is not part of this proposal. Currently there are no permits or projects for that property. Chair Singer referred to King County minimum density requirement and wondered if this is a new requirement in the last few years. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss replied that King County has actually done this for some time now and is in the process of increasing the minimum density. King County's belief is that higher density should be encouraged within the urban line. It is the developer's obligation to meet minimum density requirements. Chair Singer said the proposal looks like zero lot line development. Shupe Holmberg, representative for the applicant, whose intent is to develop and build single family homes which they opted to do rather than try to maximize the site with multi-family. The property is zoned R12 and could take 48 apartment units. Councilmember Norman wondered about jog to 314th Street from Road A to connect with 124th Avenue. Chair Singer is concerned about traffic connection. Mr. Holmberg clarified that eventually Road A will eventually be developed as a full street; 314th will come to Road A. Part of 314th is barricaded. He clarified location of right in/right out access. No direct access will be allowed from or to 316th. Chair Singer closed the public hearing. Councilmember Norman made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Backus, to recommend approval with conditions as outlined in the staff report. Chair Singer concurred. RECESS AND RECONVENE IN CONFERENCE ROOM 1 at 5:15 p.m. ACTION 1. Approval of Minutes of February 23, 2004 Meeting The minutes were approved. 2. Resolution No. 3700- Cultural Development Authority of King County Grant Councilmember Norman presented the staff report. Councilmember Norman made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Backus, to recommend approval. Chair Singer concurred. PAGE 1 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 DISCUSSION: 1. Accessory Dwelling Units Senior Planner Martin gave a brief synopsis, spoke about the difference in the intent of the code and where staff needs direction or clarification and gave examples. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said the regulations were merged from an old ordinance and staff is looking for more flexibility. There are few lots in Auburn that are appropriate for accessory dwelling unit development because of the small lots in town. Staff would like as much flexibility as possible. An amnesty program is being developed which he explained. He spoke about the parking requirements. Chair Singer likes the idea of flexibility. She wants conflict removed from the regulations and suggested that staff come back with recommended language. Senior Planner Martin commented that issue 1 (described in the memo) could be resolved clearly since it is an interpretation over how to implement. Chair Singer wondered about the ADU being limited to the percentage of the main building and Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said the ordinance says one unit must be subservient to the other. Senior Planner Martin said the ADU cannot be bigger than 800 square feet or half the size of the principle structure. Chair Singer wondered how staff feels about garage conversion. Councilmember Backus commented that language talks about conversion. Senior Planner Martin commented that definition of ADU says 'self contained'. That sentence causes confusion. Planner Mandeville spoke about an issue staff is trying to address. An ADU might force parking onto the street or have the driveway full of cars. Another issue was that an ADU would be detached like turning a shed into an ADU. An ADU must have a kitchen and bathroom. Chair Singer asked about problems with that or problems with permit issuance. Community Development Administrator Osaki gave example of someone who had a detached swimming pool equipment room and wanted to change it to an ADU. Nothing in the regulations said they cannot do. The person did the ADU in good faith and met other requirements for size. Staff wants to see if PCDC supports this or not and spoke about the possibility of changing the code. Councilmember Norman commented that land in annexed areas will be a different scenario than on the valley floor. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said that structures in the annexed areas would be grandfathered. Senior Planner Martin mentioned the original function of an ADU for detached garage and if PCDC wants to retain this purpose. Chair Singer can see the need for requirements for additional parking space to have the ability to park. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said property owner must demonstrate where he can put parking. He doesn't see a reason to maintain the garage space and City may want a requirement for architectural consistency. Chair Singer said this would take care of design issues. 2. Outdoor Storage in the M1 zone Community Development Administrator Osaki advised that the March 1 cover memorandum wasn't in the agenda packet. The memo talked about developing series of discussion questions. This memo was distributed at the meeting and e-mailed to Committee earlier in the day. Memo contains information about the number of M1 zoned parcels. The bulk of land zoned M1 is relatively small. When working on formulas, use building footprint and lot size. On larger parcels of 15-20 acres, allowing 50% for outdoor storage could be substantial. Community Development Administrator Osaki spoke about the upside and downside. Some larger M1 parcels have a small building footprint. Roger Scott who submitted Comprehensive Plan amendment, PAGE 2 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 has a parcel about three acres. His site plan was in the agenda packet. He had a building on the parcel. He reviewed the discussion questions. He talked about existing code requirements and what other cities do, what types of screening is appropriate because some cities had Iow height requirements. Some cities have administrative authority and alternative screening. Auburn's is hierarchical depending on the amount of outdoor storage. He spoke about any additional performance standards such as paving outdoor storage areas. Chair Singer wants discussion at next PCDC meeting with idea of having only certain section of M1 available for outdoor storage, and is this is creating more M2. Certain parts of M1 could be allowed instead of allowing in all M1. Community Development Administrator Osaki commented that City of Renton does that because they have light industrial, medium industrial and heavy industrial. Auburn only has two classifications. Going to three zones would require creating a new separate zoning district specific for outdoor storage and rezoning lots of property. Councilmember Norman advised staff to work with the two existing categories and reference what industrial property is adjacent to. Councilmember Backus said if M1 abuts residential property then has different requirements such as screening. Chair Singer wondered if City is trying to accommodate only contractor's yards. The letter from UPS mentioned no large M2 available land. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss is not sure if there is anything that meets their needs. There is industrial warehouse development in Sumner because Auburn is running out of land. Councilmember Norman said in looking at information from Sumner, she has a problem with reference to specific foliage. She wants staff given direction and discretion or flexibility if there are special circumstances. Community Development Administrator Osaki remarked that the difficult part of the code this code amendment is the percentages. What percentage based on building footprint/coverage? Councilmember Backus asked about percentage for Roger Smith and Community Development Administrator Osaki replied that Mr. Smith indicated he would like to use the side and rear with a 10 feet screen. This is about 50 percent of the property. Councilmember Backus said storage needs to be in the rear of the property and Chair Singer said it depends on what property owner is trying to screen from. Chair Singer wants staff to come back in two weeks with percentage recommendation. Community Development Administrator Osaki spoke about policy direction in Comprehensive Plan on limitation of outdoor storage in M1 zone. Chair Singer would like examples of what sort of proposals could come forward. She spoke about cars on 37th Street that are supposed to be inside the building. Senior Planner Martin said the City could revoke his conditional use permit. His issue is that he can't do his business with that condition. Fred Poe authored the condition. Staff wanted to deny the CUP because staff knew the applicant wouldn't comply with the condition. The City has tried to enforce the condition several times. Councilmember Norman asked about AAA Recycling. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said this is essentially a junkyard and belongs in heavy industrial zone. It was previously located on railroad property and the City couldn't exercise control over railroad property. AAA Recycling didn't get permits when it relocated. The City found out and told them they couldn't be in that location. Railroad property is heavy industrial. They were given 90 days to find another site. Councilmember Norman said the article in the paper inferences that the City let them move there. Community Development Administrator Osaki advised Mr. Scott the code amendment process for outdoor storage in M1 issue would take approximately three to five months which is consistent with Mr. Scott's needs. PAGE 3 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 3. Neighborhood Planning Process Chair Singer reminded that the PCDC that the downtown plan area for the next study area. Planner Mandeville spoke about the Council workshop last year that had discussion about the process, about ways to revise, change or improve the process. Staff would like direction from the Committee. She recalls talking about integration into all the processes and relationships with Planning; Public Works coordination is better. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss spoke about support from staff and departments and good dialogue with neighbors. CDBG paid for Terminal Park playground equipment installed by the Fire Department. Chair Singer asked about the housing repair program and going into neighborhoods and working on blighted areas and if there is a policy where this neighborhood could get first priority for housing repair money. Planner Mandeville said the City could pursue a strategy and Chair Singer would like to see the City get the most for its money and throw everything at a specific neighborhood. Planner Mandeville said that half of the housing repairs were performed on mobile homes, which are really trailers. Chair Singer aid the City needs a new strategy for dealing with mobile home repairs. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said City has a historic inventory and for Terminal Park staff did a number of open houses and handed out home repair applications. Planner Mandeville said in the past City tried not to have a neighborhood plan become an action plan that would have fiscal impart on the City and tried not to increase expectations of what the City can actually do. There is question of parity between neighborhoods and other issue is needs, demands of public being greater than what can be satisfied. He distributed copies of final Terminal Park Plan which had little or no fiscal impact and tried to do as part of original orders, look at delivery of existing services, how to focus services, access to services, and how to integrate plans into neighborhood. Chair Singer said time wise, the Terminal Park Plan seemed to take a very long time between meeting with the residents and actually getting the Plan done. How can the process be speeded up? Planner Mandeville said actual time from start to preliminary draft for review was about 9-12 months. The Plan is considered a mini Comprehensive Plan, has the same elements as the Comprehensive Plan, Plan will become special planning area in the Comprehensive Plan when finalized and will show up on Comprehensive Plan map. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss believes there should be less focus on the document and more on specifics of what trying to accomplish. Planner Mandeville spoke about trying to reduce the number of policies in the Comprehensive Plan. When Terminal Park Plan is adopted it will add 50 more policies. Councilmember Norman asked what was greater neighborhood goal of deciding who is the focus? She could imagine a Lea Hill area coming in and asking how they qualify? When is it our turn? Councilmember Backus asked about a policy in place for future selection and Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said staff originally proposed a program years ago with the idea of addressing decline of certain neighborhoods. Planner Mandeville referred to his notes from 1996 that speak about general criteria such as neighborhood preservation and fighting crime. Councilmember Norman said if there is criteria in place, though not official, there is concern about not being clear of the expected or hoped for results. When starting with momentum, but the processing too long it is discouraging; There needs to be a manageable process and at the end of the year have something to show. Planner Mandeville said that originally he looked at City of Vancouver's program. They have much larger staff and have about 20 neighborhood plans. He explained their planning process which is tied into budgetary process, not the Comprehensive Plan. Their emphasis is to channel ideas to existing City services. There are unique differences between the programs. PAGE 4 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 Planning and Community Development Director Krauss heard Chair Singer's comments regarding quicker process and staff can shoot for an action plan type concept. Regarding policies for selecting neighborhoods, cities that do good neighborhood programs involve all different types of neighborhoods. Councilmember Norman would like to see a couple pages of conceptual idea of why we are doing neighborhood planning and criteria, but keep it simple. What is the program about? Include a concise description of what the program is so it serves an immediate purpose. With staff and Council changes there needs to be consistency, guidelines and basic material is already there, but needs to be in succinct form. Chair Singer never anticipated the Terminal Park Plan being as detailed as it is. It is now a historical document. Councilmember Backus wants to see resources to accomplish goals rather than a paper document. Councilmember Backus is concerned about staff getting bogged down in administrative details and wasting resources that enhance the outcome. Chair Singer has attended classes on working with the public and which advise not to spend lots of time and to show results quickly. Planner Mandeville commented that Terminal Park is 43 percent owner occupied and had the highest mobility rates in the City. He talked about how stakeholders were organized, general meetings, the planning process, workshops, discussions, etc. Chair Singer mentioned that Terminal Park group was making decisions about White River Church, but had no communication with the Church. Someone has to make contacts with involved parties before policies are on paper. Planning and Community Development Director Krauss said if the plan is a component of Comprehensive Plan, then agency review is required as part of SEPA review. If the plan is just operational, this can be done with two or three neighborhood workshops which will shorten the time frame. Staff will do an operational plan in order to get the process going quickly. Chair Singer stressed at the end of process the results need to be more impressive than the plan. 4. CAPER (Consolidated Annual Performance & Evaluation Report) Planner Mandeville said Council will have a public hearing on March 15. He talked about the public review period and incorporating revisions. He provided information on previous projects such as JCPenney building, park view homes, Children's Therapy Center. He provided information on the number of houses repaired, number of disabled adults helped, and reviewed statistics. Chair Singer wants a report from Daryl Faber about Tobacco Reduction Program. She referenced page 2 and asked for clarification of accrued and unencumbered which was provided. She mentioned the domestic violence program and wants an update on this program. She also wants a discussion in the future on the housing repair program. Some cities don't give any money to agencies; this policy hasn't ever been reviewed in Auburn. There are agencies that have received funding for many years and agencies assume this will continue. The City needs to look at this again and discuses at the Committees of the Whole. Planner Mandeville advised the PCDC might want to sit down and talk with the Human Services Committee. Chair Singer agreed that HSC needs more direction from PCDC. However, Councilmember Norman doesn't want to pull the rug out from under agencies depending on money. Chair Singer commented that what she wants is goals for this, targeting specific blighted areas and get accomplished versus spreading a little all over. She doesn't want to wait until the end of the year for discussion. Chair Singer referenced page 2, 2.2, Accessory Dwelling Units, and said the City has done this for years, policies are in place for years. This is outdated and needs to be revised. Chair Singer referenced page 5, 3.2, Terminal Park Plan, says completed, but no accomplishments are listed. Councilmember Norman referenced page 13, Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, and asked for clarification. Planner Mandeville said this pertains to HUD program. CDBG doesn't allow neighborhood PAGE 5 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 revitalization program, but allows funds targeted for economic development of neighborhood have to organize into neighborhood association with half residents being Iow income. Chair Singer referenced page 5, 3.6 about after school program and Planner Mandeville said the after school program is no longer funded from the Planning Department. City funded in general fund and Parks Department. Chair Singer referenced page 6, regarding economically integrated with rich/poor in same neighborhood and what this means. Planner Mandeville said HUD advocates this, not to have economically segregated neighborhoods so you can't distinguish between old and new. Chair Singer referenced page 7, recreation facility improvements and City is working with the Rotary and service clubs so this needs to be added. Someone needs to explore the read and feed program which she explained. Chair Singer referenced page 7, 6.2, education training, and look at funding the career fair. Chair Singer referenced page 8, and talked about property across the street for CDBG money if necessary, and building behind Schucks's is a good place to utilize section 108 funds as the City needs to do something there to generate jobs. Chair Singer referenced page 8, 7.1, long range planning, and said this was accomplished years ago and needs to be updated. Item B, spell out KCCORE and WSHRC. Chair Singer referenced page 9, item D, second paragraph, talks about emergency, and asked if Auburn is paying for more than Auburn residents. Staff needs to double check and make sure only Auburn people are being served. Planner Mandeville said it is hard to determine how many Auburn residents are homeless or become homeless. There is an amount of staff time to gather information, using regional data for human needs. Plan is that want to do our part to invest in regional problems. Chair Singer referenced page 10, bottom, no specifics about what improvements are requested. Planner Mandeville clarified that only written comment was from Julia Bruce, HUD representative and they were only technical comments. Chair Singer referenced page 12, D, and asked for clarification of national objective. Planner Mandeville referred to the appendix matrix that talks about national objectives. She doesn't see that the City has used CDBG effectively to eliminate slum and blight even though we have been talking about this for years. Chair Singer asked for clarification about classification of different races. It appears that white and Hispanic are being combined. The Hispanic population is increasing and might change the numbers significantly. Planner Mandeville said that Hispanic is not a race, but rather an ethnicity. Chair Singer said the Federal government wants specifics too, and is concerned that Auburn is not planning to meet new needs and won't have exact numbers of who it is serving. Planner Mandeville spoke about classifications in US Census. Chair Singer said this needs to be discussed for human service needs and need a report on meetings with community and what human services needs are. OTHER BUSINESS Councilmember Norman spoke about a vacant house of Main and Pike and wondered what is going on because the house is a blight on the neighborhood and Main Street. She agreed with a letter writer. When talking about neighborhood planning, if the City can't do anything to deal with these types of situations then they can't just come up anywhere. Chair Singer mentioned two boarded up houses on A Street SE that were razed and discussion should be held at PCDC. Chair Singer asked about the blue ribbons on trees and poles all over town and who is responsible for removing the blue ribbons. Chair Singer referred to a new position in the Parks and Recreation Department and wants to know what that person will be doing and wants to discuss this at the next PCDC meeting. PAGE 6 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MARCH 8, 2004 Chair Singer expressed concerns about crime at Scottie Brown Park and wants to discuss this at the next PCDC meeting. ADJOURNMENT With no further items to come before the Committee, the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. PCDC\MIN\03B-2004 PAGE 7