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Home My WebLink About04-23-2009 Special p C I'TY O F ~ * PLANNING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE _ p~~ WASHINGTON April 23, 2009 MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Lynn Norman called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers located on the first floor of Auburn City Hall, 25 West Main Street, Auburn, WA. Committee members present were: Chair Lynn Norman, Vice Chair Nancy Backus and Member Rich Wagner. Also in attendance were Planning Commissioner members: Vice-Chair Kevin Chapman, Peter Di Turi, Michael Hamilton, Ron Copple, Robert Baggett, Joan Mason, and Dave Peace. Commissioners Absent: Chair Judi Roland. Staff members present included: Planning, Building & Community Director Cindy Baker, Planning, Building & Community Assistant Director Kevin Snyder, Principal Planner Elizabeth Chamberlain, Principal Planner Jeff Dixon, Senior Planner Chris Andersen, Assistant City Attorney Stephen King and Assistant Planning Secretary Carolyn Brown. Audience members present included: Gil Cerise, Project Consultant, ICF Jones & Stokes and Garrett Huffman, Master Builders Association II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. April 14, 2009 Member Rich Wagner moved to approve the April 14, 2009 minutes; Chair Lynn Norman concurred. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 2-0. III. JOINT STUDY SESSION WITH PLANNING COMMISSION A. Code Update Project Assistant Planning Director Kevin Snyder stated that the purpose of tonight's meeting is a study session to review draft amendments to Auburn City Code Title 18 - Zoning. It was noted that the italicized language is existing proposed relocated code, underline text is proposed is new code, and strike- out text is proposed deleted code. Gill Cerise, Project Consultant from ICF Jones & Stokes, presented the highlights of changes made to Title 18. Committee and Commissioners had the following questions and direction for staff regarding the proposed amendments. Planning and Community Development Committee Minutes April 23, 2009 Chapter 18.02.090.G. Regarding vacating to the center line, Member Wagner questioned what would happen if an owner had dedicated the alleyway on one parcel but the adjacent parcel had not. Assistant City Attorney Steve King stated that in some situations where it would revert back to one property owner and will research further. Chapter 18.04.018 - Accessory dwellinq unit Committee asked to have this chapter cross referenced with 18.04.023 or moved closer together in the code. Chapter 18.04.100 Expand the definition to include other forms of money, i.e. currency, debit/credit, etc. Chapter 18.04.101 - Animal, domestic (exotic animals) Question about where exotic animals are in the code. Staff noted that in Chapter 18.04.495 - Household pet, that a question was raised if exotic species should be defined separately. Auburn City Code incorporates, by reference, King County Code, Chapter 11, Animal Control, which defines exotic animals and it is a very short list. Staff will bring recommendation as to size and number of animals along with the KC Code Chapter 11 to the next meeting for review and discussion. Chapter 18.04.130 - Automobile Repair Electronic repair should be added to auto repair, i.e. car alarms, stereos, etc. Chapter 18.04.280 - Contract Rezone Mr. King responded to Committee's question regarding spot zone, stating it is possible to do a spot zone as a contract rezone and that it is possible to do a spot zone by many mechanisms. Spot zone is a matter of doing a zoning in an improper way. Committee directed staff to look possibility of deleting this definition if not used elsewhere in the Title. Chapter 18.04.330 - Dwellinq Question why a kitchen is designated and not a bathroom. International Building Codes require a working kitchen with major appliances, but not a bathroom. Chapter 18.04.497 - Impervious surface Definition needs to be revised to recognize the use of pervious surface materials. Page 2 Planning and Community Development Committee Minutes April 23, 2009 Chapter 18.06 - Residential Zones Staff provided background information on the proposed Residential Zones. If an item is not on the matrix, generally it is prohibited from the zone unless the use is not addressed in any use matrix, then it would be subject to the Director's administrative interpretation process. Corrections to the Residential Zones and Permitted Use Table were reviewed; some changes are noted below. Chapter 18.06.010.E - Sinqle Family Residential Last sentence regarding multiple family dwellings will be struck. Council asked staff to look at adding bed and breakfast facilities to the Permitted Use Table. Chapter 18.04.901 - Utilitv Substation Staff presented the question if city utilities should be defined/regulated separately from franchise utilities. Group agreed that they should be separate and any conditional uses be included in the City's franchise agreement. Chapter 18.04.895 - Transmittinq Tower This addresses ham radio towers, not cell towers. Staff will include a line in the Permitted Use Tables to clarify cell towers. Group agreed that the Type of Permit Required listed in Chapter 18.31.100.K needs clarification. Chapter 18.04.180 - Boardinqhouse Boardinghouses, with three or more boarders, and renting of rooms with no more than two persons were discussed. The definition of boardinghouses will be updated to reflect "three or more persons". Staff will add language about additional parking as a required condition for boardinghouses. Bed and Breakfast will be defined and added as a separate line item on the Permitted Use Table. Chapter 18.04.351 - Employee Quarters Staff will strike this from the proposed language Chapter 18.06 - Residential Uses and Standards Commissioner Chapman inquired how much do the proposed zones differ from existing zones in terms of allowed density. Senior Planner Andersen stated that one of the basic approaches to the code update's transition from a reference-based system to a density-based system has been to match densities allowed in current zones as closely as possible with the proposed zones. In the single family zones, the densities between the two are very similar. In the multi-family zones, they are not as similar because the existing R3 and R4 zones have density equivalents of 12 and 18 dwelling units per Page 3 Planning and Community Development Committee Minutes April 23, 2009 acre, respectively, and would be replaced by three new zones with densities of 10, 16, and 20 dwelling units per acre, respectively. Commissioner Chapman asked why the City is looking to add more density. Assistant Director Snyder explained that one challenge with current classification system is that it is not very intuitive. Based on information staff has previously presented to PCD Committee, the Committee has indicated that it favored a density based zoning classification system as that would be more understandable. He added that the City's Comprehensive Plan policies regarding density are what have been used to guide the development of the proposed zoning classification system, but that the requirements for capacity and density could change in the future. Chair Norman said this same discussion is going on at the Puget Sound Regional Council, but very little of the discussion has been about infrastructure. This update is really an incremental step for the City. Assistant Director Snyder stated that the City is currently expecting to hear about the density numbers soon from the planning organization and then will bring that information forward to the Committee and Commission. Part of the code update effort is to put language and tools in place for future conversations. Councilman Wagner stated that the use table should be changed to allow household pets in the multi-family zones. He added that language discussing King County use restrictions around wells should be removed from the table as these uses are already regulated by the County. He added the additional comment that interior side yard setbacks need to recognize that there are special setbacks for barns in the RC zone. Due to time constraints, the group was encouraged to forward any further concerns or feedback on proposed changes to Chapter 18, in writing, to the staff in the Mayor's office. Cottage Housing and In-Fill will be discussed in Phase 2, after June 1, 2009. IV. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Planning and Community Development Committee, Chair Norman adjourned the meeting at 9:11 p.m. APPROVED THIS 11th DAY OF May, 2009. Lyn rman, Chair en e S. Tobias, Planning Secretary Page 4