City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. I have 6:01 p.m. I'm going to go uh call the city council meeting of May 4th to order. Uh all council members are present except for Miss Molton. Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini. Miss Molton is at a recycling conference tonight. Uh, I move that we excuse her. Second. Motion and a second. If there's no objection, we'll consider her excused. Hearing none, Miss Molton is excused. Would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we have a couple of announcements and some committee reports tonight. So, let's start in on the announcements. Uh, first of all, as we've said before, Fourth of July parade this year does require registration. Uh we expect a lot of interest in the parade as a result of the 250th birthday of the United States and of course the port's centennial although maybe more for the 250th birthday of the United States. And uh so we want to help control some of that. Um we are requiring registration at anacordiswah.gov/4th. And also very importantly, we are disallowing explicitly candy to to be thrown from vehicles and parade participants who want to distribute candy need to do it from as far out as the bike lane. Going to continue messaging around this to make sure that we get this right this year and we don't run over any children. Uh there is a mother's day lunchon at the senior center on May 7th. Registration is required. Go to the senior center website for more information about that. Kids Fishing Day at Hart Lake is May 30th. Uh parks department's got all the information that you need about that. It is kids age 14 and under. And Bark in the Park, Saturday, June 13, uh 10:00 a.m. Storvick Park. Uh the uh parks department is also coordinating this event. Coordinating this event. The library is coordinating a nature themed trivia night 6, two days from now

at 6 pm at the library. Bring your team to compete for prizes. And then uh story and craft time with Cammy Bratton will be this week at the library May 8th at 10:45. I'm going to assume that's a.m. for ages 0 through 5. And the library's got a book fair for grown-ups. See, there's something for everybody at the library. Uh May 20th at 6 p.m. Uh there's more information on the library's website about that. We've mentioned this before, but the Gimis Ferry is out of service starting uh today. Um and it's expected for about two weeks. The county is providing passenger only service, but we expect greater parking demand. Importantly, parking rules are not modified or suspended during this time here on the Anacortis side. Uh, and only parallel parking is allowed on sixth and seventh streets and by default everywhere else. So, unless marked, parallel parking is the form of parking that we allow. And you may be ticketed for more creative forms of parking. uh 12th in commercial. I know this is the source of a lot of questions. Uh so we do have some new information. The signal equipment, the new poles and signals that uh are expected to improve the throughput there at the intersection have arrived at Wash Dot's inspection yard. So they we do not have them in our hands yet. Uh but uh we are making progress there and we expect to do that construction the first week of June or thereabouts. And now council, I think we've just got the one uh committee report on the agenda. Public works committee.

Mayor Walters, Mr. Fantini.

Um the public works committee met just before this meeting. Um, it was uh public works director Logan Lee along with uh the new assistant public works director as of the first of this month, Will Ludman. Congratulations to Will. Um, we talked about the right-of-way code. I know I mentioned last week that are we're putting together based on guidance from MSRC that a lot of other cities have also written into their code. Um just guidelines on how to maintain the right of way in front of homeowners' homes or maybe in the alley could be behind too I guess. Um that we got a first draft of that. They're still working on it but that is going to come to full council for a big open um discussion as well. We also had a little bit of conversation around the parkletits and there is a desire to kind of um set forward some rules and regulations and just kind of clean up and organize what we're doing exactly with the parklets. So that's something that they're working on um as well. Uh we also got an update on 12th and Commercial which the mayor just provided for us. And then um for those that have been asking, yes, the speed monitors that are out on Oaks Avenue um are do belong to the city. We did purchase um one or maybe two of these um and they will move around the city based on uh the need and so those are the city as opposed to other ones which occasionally show up which belong to the state. The state can just decide to put those up. Um that was it from public works but I also uh wanted to compliment whoever is doing uh all the graphics on the presentations. Um pretty impressive. Thanks.

Thank you. Um that's our last announcement and committee report that's prepared. Does anybody have anything else? No. Hearing none. Uh we'll go on to public comment. I have two people signed up for public comment and um then we'll take anybody else after that. But let's begin with Pat Gardner.

Please adjust the mic. We got a longer one for you. That's right. And say your name in your neighborhood.

Good evening, mayor, council members. I'm Pat Gardner of Anacortis. What I'm here about, I saw the article or on the ordinance for 5026 regarding prohibiting the feeding of wild animals, which I'm all for. I have no problems about that. But talking to a lot of people, not downtown, but in the rural part of but still city proper, they have no idea. And there's nobody going to stop me from feeding the deer. And um I guess they don't get next door or they don't get the papers so they don't see this. And I'm wondering about having an insert in our utility bill that might catch their eye. Also, it was brought to my attention today about feeding birds. You don't want to feed the birds in the summer this time of year because there is so much out there for them to feed on naturally. You feed them during the winter. there's a lot of u nature you know berries and whatnotss that they like to eat and let them go after the natural stuff rather depending on artificial foods but that was uh brought to me today and so I just wanted to bring that to your attention thank you

thank you all right next on our list is Alan Israel Hello. Hi. Uh, my name is Ellen. I'm from out of town. I am a public affairs specialist with the US Small Business Administration. Uh, and I just wanted to stop by and let you folks know about the disaster assistance we're offering in your area due to the storms and flooding that occurred just this last December. Um, the Small Business Administration offers assistance in the form of lowinterest fixed rate loans available to homeowners, renters, businesses, and nonprofits. So, not just uh businesses, even though we are the Small Business Administration, uh, homeowners actually receive most of our funding and uh, our most of our applicants post disaster. Um, for homeowners, the interest rates start at 2.875%. Uh, businesses at 4% and nonprofits at 3.625%. 625%. Uh the funding can be used to make repairs or replace damages to your uh primary residence to your place of business or to any equipment and personal property that might have been damaged uh including things like your car. Uh businesses also have the option to apply for an economic injury disaster loan, which is a working capital loan designed to kind of help you meet your regular financial obligations that you might be struggling with post disaster. Uh so if you're just not seeing as many um customers come in and you're struggling to meet your payroll or your rent or pay your utilities, the uh idol or economic injury disaster loan is designed to help with exactly that. Uh there are a couple of ways to apply if you're interested. Uh the first is going to be at our website which is sba.gov/desaster. Again, that is sba.gov/desaster. Uh, but we also have um available

one-on-one assistance with our staff at the disaster assistance center that we have open at the Burlington Parks and Recreation Building right now. It's open Tuesdays or no, sorry, Wednesdays through Saturdays, uh, up until May 9th and then again on June 6th. Um, the SBA is there, FEMA is there. Um there are a couple other nonprofits and uh emergency management there uh ready to help disaster survivors uh with their applications. So uh the deadline to apply for a physical damage disaster loan is June 10th and for economic injury that deadline is going to be January 7th. So there's still some time, but it it is uh just a good option to have in your disaster recovery toolkit. Uh I encourage folks to apply even if you're not sure if you qualify just because you're not obligated to take the loan. It doesn't cost anything to apply and, uh, we look at your credit history as a whole. So, there's no magic number that we're automatically looking for that'll discount you. So, uh, that's all I have for you folks. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you very much. And if you have any, uh, written information or electronic information you can provide to either the clerk or to my office, we'll help, uh, push it out. Thank you. Uh, anyone else for general public comment? Mr. Barrett? Thank you. My name is Pat Barrett, 1201 Fifth Street. Marcia, it's good to see you in that seat. Thank you for being there and for your service. It's uh I haven't seen you since this started. Anyway, uh I would like to say uh two subject matters today. Number one, and these are first off, this is a kudos. I have no idea what's going on with within city hall right now or within the the the planning organiza or the planning department, but I hear all kinds of comments from contractors about how long it takes to get a permit, etc., etc. I have to tell you, I have seven solar projects on my plate right now for family and businesses, and we just got a commercial permit appro applied for and approved within one hour. So whoever did that from a technology because it wasn't a human being that did that not in an hour something happened that you guys made changes and I just want to say thank you for that. Whoever's doing it good job and we had another residential project that we were applied for late last year and it only took a week. So somebody's doing something right. Thank you very much. So please tell them so. Okay. Uh the other subject is as you well know uh the Anacortis housing authority has been in the news a bit and we made some significant changes in personnel. We are uh currently have a temporary uh director of how director that's working with us Brian Carroll who we are happy to have and we're very fortunate to have

him. Many of you know Brian from past history. Um, just know that we're partnering with you on the Olsen building when it comes to working with the city and the port, etc. And it's moving forward. That hasn't stopped. And in fact, the changes that we've made should enhance our ability to continue to work with you and we appreciate that. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Merritt. Thank you for your partnership. Anybody else? Anybody online? No. All right. Close the public comment period now and we'll proceed to the consent agenda. There are four items on the consent agenda. Uh council. Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt. I move to approve the consent agenda items A through D. Second.

A motion. and a second to approve the consent agenda in its entirety. If there's no calls to remove anything from the consent agenda, we will go ahead and take a roll call vote on the consent agenda. Mr. Franc Miss Hunt, yes. Mr. Courier, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Clea McGrath, yes. Mr. McDougall, yes. Mr. Pantini, yes.

Mayor, the eyes are six. The naysay are zero. Sounds like the eyes have it and the consent agenda is approved. Thank you very much. Our next item of other business is resolution 3213 adopting the Anacortis Community Forest Lands Plan. And Mr. Vokes will present this item. Good evening, Mayor Walters, council members, members of the public. Uh it's great to be back. You've seen quite a bit of me in the last few weeks. Uh in front of you is a years in the making resolution adopting an ACFL plan update. Uh since you have uh been looking at the material we got you around April 15th for the April 20th meeting, excuse me, uh we did add one sentence. I believe it's on page 22 um at the urging of Ms. Molton uh addressing basically the possibility potential goal of adding a second maintenance person and and the associated costs with that. Again, presents no obligation to anybody to have it mentioned in there, but uh it was something that was uh asked of us by council. So, we did that and um obviously we're here if you have any other questions. um about the plan, the update, the process. We'd be happy to address them. Thank you very much, Council. And we will fix that uh spot where it says choose verb on the screen there. That uh should be resolve. Mayor Walters.

Miss Hunt.

I think Mr. Franciac's already got that taken care of. Thank you. I did want to acknowledge uh all the comments that we received on this and we have continued to receive comments since the last presentation. Um and comments that were just received verbally as well. People really have strong feelings about the SFL. Um I support this plan. I think it is a it's a great step forward into the next five years. Includes some things we've been needing. I would not be surprised if five years from now we see some other big changes as technologies involve as use patterns evolve as our climate potentially evolves. We don't don't have a crystal ball, but I think five-year chunks allow us to respond in a timely way as things do evolve. And I thank the forest board hugely for um all their work on this over a couple of years and staff and everyone who shared their opinions and their data. Thank you.

Walters, Mr. Young.

No. And you know I I following the lead of my colleague Miss Hunt I recognize that there are differences of opinion to approach. But what we do agree on is that our forest lands is a treasure that we want to protect it and yet at the same time we also want to be able to enjoy it. You know my idea uh for moving this forward and happy that we are is that you know I I still cons I consider it a living document. You know most policies are um codified at the moment but also open to interpretations or views as they change. And I think if we we remember that going forward, this will allow us to have the basis of where we want to go, but yet at the same time be open to other things. And so unless there's any other comments waiting,

Mr. Young, you should feel free to make your motion. Okay, good. I um motion is our we approve resolution 3213 adopting the interquartis community forest land plan. Mayor Walters just want to make a comment before we adopt this. I just a second first in the absence of a second. Is there a second? A second. Okay, we have a motion, a second to approve resolution 3213 as presented. Now discussion.

All right, perfect. I just wanted to also say that I think acknowledge the tremendous amount of work that's come into this and we've had a ton of feedback come through, a lot of people that are passionate. Um I think it shows that we've had a lot of community back support. Maybe not everybody's agreed on it. I love that. Um people are willing to come up and share though. Um, I think from my perspective, just what stands out is it seems like a pretty aspirational document without teeth. And I think that that's something that we could build on in the future. And just kind of looking at it, I mean, the three things for me it was like financial sustainability. You know, what's the cost to implement some of the things we're talking about, like looking at that, maybe setting up some measurement and accountability going forward, like what are the key metrics that we want to see happen? Um, and what are measures of success for those things? I mean, I think those are things that could be added. I mean, I think this is a great step in the right direction. Um, and then as far as prioritization and implementation, I mean, there's times where recreational use and conservation may butt heads and how are we looking at those things, you know, and how are we resolving those? So, I think that in my mind, I'm okay moving forward as well where we're at. But I think those are things to look at as we move forward and kind of make this more robust and and um addressing things like fire safety. I know it was put in there and there's a small amount about that, but that should be a more have more meat to it. I think as we move forward, have a solid plan. How are we going to deal with uh other issues of that nature? But again, I think it's like from where I think it started to where it is now. I think it's it's it's a great document. So, I would I would also support it in its current form, but then also maybe even consider looking at it prior to the five years um to come back and see if there's things we could do to drill in a little bit closer on those issues.

Mayor Walters, Mr. Ventini.

Yeah. I I also wanted to just say, you know, we're kind of this is possibly the final step of of a two-year process that that we've been down. Um, and I think it's worth noting that, you know, after the first draft came out in 2025, there were 21 public meetings that have been held to really vet this. And I I want to take a moment to just thank everybody that has given me handouts, that has given me information to read, that has stopped by the bank to tell me um their opinion. Um, I have learned more from the passions of others through this project than I think I ever could have on my own. Um, I I it's not perfect, but it's a great place to start from. And I think that as the other council members have said before, given climate change or other things, we might be looking at this again sooner than later. Um, I was also reminded, um, this past week that regardless of how good our plan is, there's always going to be somebody in the forest that is doing something that they shouldn't want to do. Um, and it's up to us to nicely tell them to stop and and move along. So, uh, thank you so much to staff and to the public who put their words into this, um, for all the help to get to this point. Mayor Walters, Mr. Kra.

Yeah, thank you. I I also just want to say thank you to staff and for to the public for and other other community members and organizations who have helped whether they're the community scientists, um the friends of the forest, um the forest advisory board. You know, most cities don't have forest lands that require some kind of um management plan. We are very unique in that and we are lucky that we had uh community members in the 80s who wanted to preserve this land and figured out a way to start that process. Um so I do want to say that that the while this may not be the perfect situation perfect plan I think it is vastly improved from our previous one. I think it's uh digestible by the average person. Um, I I really like how it talks about restrictions, current conditions, projected use, actionable steps. Um, it talks about fire issues. It talks about conservation issues, water issues. I think that it's it's a document that really gives um context and context and the intent of um how we want to preserve, why we want to preserve, not only to keep the um the e ecological integrity, but also that the community is is expected or um invited to appreciate and spend time in the forest lands. I think that's a a big component that if we don't have kids, if we don't have students, if we don't have community members who are able to enjoy these forest lands and learn to appreciate it and and the the diversity that that exists within those these natural spaces, you know, they're not people aren't going to want to preserve them. So, I think this is a really incredible opportunity that we are able to have for our community. Um, and I think that this is a great document um

that took a lot of effort and is well organized and shows all of the um positive impact and and care that went into it. Mayor Walters, Mr. McDougall, I don't have much to add that uh my fellow council members haven't already said and said very well. Um, I did want to mention briefly that whenever we do make a a major, I guess either like code roll out or plan roll out of this kind, um, I think to paraphrase council member Walters from a few years ago, we will have missed some things

and we will go and address those things. So if as that occurs, we will go and address those things. So one thing I would love to maybe see is in a year or two like let's let's do a 30 minute review. what's what's working well, what's not working well, what could what could be improved, something like that. But thank you all very much. Thank you to the community as well for uh for all of the input as well.

Uh thank you everybody. Um while there are a lot of strong feelings, my sense is that uh there's a lot of unonymity that uh we care about that place and we have strong feelings because we treasure it so much. But um aside from climate and some technology, it's not a lot of things are changing in the forest. It's not as if it's being developed. So there was some suggestion about the 5-year um periodic update to the plan. Maybe it could be every year. No, I was just saying that to get I was just saying that to get Bob's reaction. Uh uh but that is that is the subject of part of your uh next uh item on the agenda is the ordinance setting setting the frequency in in there. Um and potentially we could do something akin to an annual report um so that you could council could identify if you want to take on something. Okay. Any other comments at this point?

No. Do you want to vote? Okay. If uh there are no other comments, we'll proceed to the vote on resolution 3213. Hearing none, uh the motion is to approve resolution 3213 of adopting the Anacortis community forest lands plan as presented. All those in favor of the motion adopting the resolution say I. I. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the resolution is approved. Thank you.

Um congratulations, Mr. Vogs. All right, but we're not done with Forestlands yet. Uh, Mr. Lungsford is here to present to us an ordinance that would provide um some framework for the plan going forward and also some enforcement capability.

Thank you, Mayor Walters. And um I just want to say thanks to Mr. Folks and Miss Jordan for working on that plan for so long and the public that helped us with the force board. Those are volunteers. So the the way the reason it looks so nice is Miss Jordan helped us make it look a lot more presentable and digestible to the community. So thank you to her specifically. Uh okay. Ordinance number 5029. We are here to talk about some of the things you just discussed and before he was mayor, council member Walters. Now, Mayor Walters helped to organize some of these concepts after conversations with uh Forestland's user named Bill Bobberry, Mr. Robert Barry. So, we are going to kind of scroll through some of the issues at a level like this and if you want to dig down, just stop me as I proceed or the mayor can chime in. And I believe this is open for public comment, so we'll make room for that as well. So, here we go. The first section um 8.10130 looks at some of the enforcement and penalties in the forest lands establishing those penalties for violating posted restrictions. Also clarifying definitions and clarifies trail use enforcement. As you might remember, if you were on council or were a devote of council meetings from uh in person or online, you saw that various things were put into ordinance in the past such as ACFL hours, alcoholic beverage, smoking and vaping, fire prevention, things like that. So, that's been discussed. Most recently, uh definitions were added. um on trail use. This a new addition would be to uh we've had many complaints about people traveling off trail or things of that nature. This would allow us in this now to um under the discretion of the director of the parks and recreation department director,

which is currently me, but won't always be um to designate where it's unlawful to travel off trail and to allow the uh infra civil civil uh civil infraction per RCW 7.0 7.80. So, this would be a new addition. Mayor, would you like to add anything on that one? Uh well, just that it's not entirely up your to your discretion. Uh, no, that's true. The trail uses are supposed to be identified consistent with the ACFL plan, but we we received all these comments during the ACFL plan development that well, you know, we want to enforce the rules, especially with respect to motorcycles and there isn't really a good mechanism for doing that. This would create that mechanism. Right. Thank you for that clarification.

Mayor Walters, Mr. Fantina, question. So, um, with the trail enforcement provisions, does the parks department like do you have the capacity to do that? Is there going to be kind of a new protocol that is written kind of to work with the police department or how does that exactly how will that enforcement come to play?

We work with the police department every day on a variety of things throughout the city, be it parks or Washington Park or the forest lands. So, that relationship is well established. So under this we would follow the plan. Say you know uh we had a seasonal closure for motorcycles, right? So we would try to work on that enforcement and work with the police department. They could probably have a conversation with the person the first time or they could potentially go out and sight them the second time and this would give them the mechanism to do so helping to kind of bring some of the ideas you put in the plan to give it the teeth that people have been asking us for. That's a common complaint that we get. motorcycles in the wrong season, motorcycles on the wrong trail. So, this would give us some teeth to deal with that. Okay. Thank you.

And so, we would expect uh APD to respond to complaints within the ACFL just like any other part of the city. The only exception of that being the couple of parcels that are not yet inside the city limits boundaries, but we're working on bringing them inside. And then in the summertime we will expect that uh we will have more of a continuous presence uh by virtue of the school resource officer um in the ACFL. Thanks for your question, Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt.

So one of the um rules that is we hear a lot about not being followed is dogs off leash in the forest lands. Is it is AMC 604100 that requires dogs to be on leash everywhere in the city sufficient or do we now have to put dogs must be on leash signs along with the trail use signs? Well, more signs without getting crazy is usually helpful, but um we don't need a specific provision. I mean that's the law in the whole city.

Okay, thank you for that question. That's that's exactly how we interpret the same. Yes. Okay. On to the next one. Um, this one's governing ACFL management. So, um, and it clarifies some of the questions about, uh, you know, there's a common push pull sometimes between conservation and recreation. So, this gives you some language to talk about that and especially with within the conservation easements as well. So it kind of clarifies that for the public. Um definitions regarding development existing design designations. Um we already have some additional uh rules about uh adding adjacent land. So this puts that into the code as well and then talks about some of the the management map. So defines boundaries etc. Any question on that? Mayor, anything you'd like to add?

Uh, do you have 128100 next on your slides? I do. Okay. Excuse me, Mayor Walters. Can we go there? This is probably a question for you, not for Mr. Lensford. Um, 128060 says the city can acquire additional parcels and add those parcels through the process in AMC 1218060. And the only other item in that section is that we can add parcels to our urban growth area and then incorporate them into the municipal boundary. Is that the extent of the process we're referring to? No, that's cross reference error. That should be 040. Okay. Thank you. Which is the designation section? Thank you. So we'll fix that. Thank you.

This one um conservation easement program. I mean, you might remember again if you were a avid watcher of city council meetings, we spent, I think, a lot with Miss Swetnam's help and the Scadget Land Trust, another partner of ours in the forest lands that even though they're not on the island, they are integral to what we do with conser conserving and conservation efforts. And um we updated the conservation easement program and the deed to put it all together because there were several deeds, 20ome conservation separate deeds, brought them into the one. So, um, this this section, um, brings some of that language into the municipal code and, um, we used to have a map that I confess I was very poor at keeping up with in city council chambers. Whenever anyone would add groves, we were supposed to keep that up. We did for a while, but then it did not happen for some time. The once the program was largely completed successfully in 20078, we didn't keep up with that map. So, the mayor has uh done a good job in removing that provision, but um and then raising the fee to 2,000 per acre for the conservation ement program. Mayor, anything else you'd like to highlight? Uh just that that uh raising the fee helps generate more cash to maintain the forest lands. Uh but um it also is the same fee that was adopted in 1998 adjusted for inflation.

Thank you. Right, Mayor Walters. Mr. for Fantini. Um I think that's awesome. Um with that rate being adjusted from 1,000 to 2,000, has have we been in communication with the Scadget Land L land trust about how this change is going to affect any existing donor conversations that are happening already or will they just

My experience, Mr. Fantini, unless Mayor Walter think was um that people are eager to for us to have land to conserve because we've conserved it all. So we still get bequests to the And then we just hold those in the endowment which is Mr. Hogland manages that for the Mr. Hogan's department manages it for the city. And as land becomes available then we work with you through the process to put into easement if that's your preference. So we take the money we hold it in the endowment which generates interest income for the forest land stewardship and then it's there if we do have land to act on. I understand. Thank you. Thank you for your question. And it seems like there's plenty of demand. There's plenty of demand. Correct. Mayor

Mayor Walters. Go ahead. I just wanted to double check if we have money waiting to be turned into a conservation easement already. Does that go at the $1,000 an acre rate or the $2,000 an acre rate? Do we have any such money? We don't have any now. Mr. Miss Hunt, we have none. So, Mr. Correct. Yeah.

May Mr. I was just curious about if we're taking it to 2,000 that adjusts it for inflation. Um, has it ever been have we ever thought about increasing that even further? I know there's a lot of passion and people that are willing to donate, but that money goes back into the fund that supports the maintenance of the park. So, I'm wondering if that consideration has been looked at. No, there's been many discussions and um we wanted to make it at the time the and Mr. Ves was here at the time so he can step up and talk if if that's a a need is to make it affordable for folks to do and to entice them to do it. Quite honestly, people have been giving well beyond, okay,

in their bequests recently what we have and like we got one for 150,000 from a generous family and we had very little land to use but they happily gave that to the forest endowment fund to raise in interest income for the forest land. So we live in a generous community you have you all have seen that we've seen that we're very fortunate and that continues to happen. So people are giving well above the 2,000 mark now, Mr. Courier. It's been my experience recently. So do you feel like keeping it at that level makes sense because it allows a smaller donor to be able to donate feel like they have more impact and that people that have more ability would still be more generous with their contributions.

I that is exactly I think what will happen based on my experience. Thank you Walters. My understanding is that the the forest lands endowment fund can exist without the C, the C cannot exist without the forest lands endowment fund. So many of us who would like to uh leave our estates to the forest endowment fund can do so. Exactly. Without preserving any land necessarily. Thank you for that point, Miss Hunt. That is exactly right. You do not need to conserve land. People can give and it still benefits the forest lands

and then also as we acquire additional forest land acreage. So the initial acquisition not the conservation through the uh conservation easement program we spend different money to acquire those parcels. So if people wanted to donate to that effort they can do that as well.

Correct. That is tradition we have done that as well. Thank you mayor. Yes. So those have been in a Mr. Hogan can speak to that. Those have been where we have traditionally kept the quarry funds which has helped us to acquire land. Mr. Hogan anything you'd like to add on that? Uh no, but that's that's a good point. Without those Corey funds, um that is the you know the source of operating revenues that that um ACFL management fund has available now is those uh C earnings funds. So y that's because the quarry lease has ended although there's still more mineral rights there but

correct. Correct. Okay. Anything else on this one? I'll move on. So the management plan uh which you're just previously discussing talks about updating it every five years with various goals and objectives and um specifically calls out fire protection ongoing management um management actions. So this is an area where because this is the first read there's you know we would welcome comments from you on this. This is obviously a place for public comment could come in as well tonight. Um, so we just having just gone through a very long process. There's always room to improve it as you have pointed out. Um, it's something we look for and whenever we're updating a draft. So if there's comments you have on here, we're happy to discuss them. As you can see, one points one through five here. Talk about, you know, kind of the existing plan that's very similar to what you just passed tonight. Um, but this always can be improved. So if you have ideas around the edges or senator you want to do that, we're happy to discuss that and and staff's not looking for a passage next week on this and I don't believe the mayor is either if I may speak for him or wanting to work this through with you. So

Mayor Walters, Miss Hunt, the plan that we just adopted, I believe says 2025 on its cover, but we're adopting it in 2026. So that's not going to confuse anybody about but the next one it's actually supposed to be adopted in 2031, right? Maybe we shouldn't change the name of the plan. We're just so excited that uh we couldn't help ourselves. We'll find a way to clean make that very clear. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Uh protection standards slide five. Um prohibited. This is kind of helps us bring into the uh AM municipal code some of the protection standards that we have and have been discussed but it brings it into this regarding operations and maintenance. Obviously development codes will follow the city codes and whenever a building project I think um unified uh unified development code we follow all of those and then an an item B on this is bringing um uh capital facilities plan to you if there's any capital facilities projects so that the public has a chance to discuss it through you at budget time. So we'd want to make sure because that's you know we understand that the various things that have been proposed in the forest lines be they the kayak launch or the bike at little cranberry or the bike skills park just so that the public wants to weigh in on those and so we would bring them to you in a variety of fashions. So that'd be one fashion that could be discussed at the time but bring it to the capital facilities. So this would bring that to light just give more conversation. Okay, many of these practices are already ongoing regarding deoperation maintenance like use of chemicals to control noxious weed. forest board has worked with staff on years if we try we can all whenever we can by manual removal of a noxious weed that's new to the forest lands and at the very last resort of things we haven't not weed is a good example if we can't get it out we do use uh chemicals if we have to in a limited fashion so we study those talk to our folks our friends at the county how they noxious we board how they best the best best do it and then we proceed that way but that is the last resort so

Mayor Walters oops Miss So that was one of my questions. It says the use of chemicals to control noxious or invasive species is allowed only when other means are not adequate. Is that at the dis in fact at the discretion of the parks director or do we want to be more specific about the hoops we will jump through?

It has been at this discretion of the parks director working with staff and so that's how we have operated that. Uh I can think of three three areas where we use chemicals in the forest lands. One is the notwheat example. Two was uh a plant commonly called I think archangel or something we found up at the top of um 19th and where avenue would be that we tried for years to pull out. We couldn't do it. Um and then um occasionally scotch broom more mostly we pull it but sometimes we will cut it and do it with a uh 24D solution at at 8% and then that's how we've done it. Those are the three I can think of where we've used it.

Heart lake. Oh, aquatic applications. Thank you, Bob. Yeah, aquatic applications where uh we use that occasionally. Yellow iris and another one would be another one. So, I I'm comfortable leaving it at the discretion of the parks director. But if that's what we think, I'd like to make that explicit. And if it's not what we think, I think we should say explicitly who has to sign off. That's the suggestion. That's great. Mil Walters. Mr. Young.

No, I I agree with um um Miss Hunt. Um at this point, you know, the thing that I'm confident we have here in the city, at least from my perview, is that we have competent staff that's going to try every single thing to make sure we don't have to resort to those last alternatives. And I think if that changes, then we'll review that. But right now, uh, we do have some issues that need to be resolved. I've got one woman, um, who's calling about horse tales, and she's also calling about, and she's worried because for her, um, being 92, it's kind of hard for her to sort of dig them up, but it it's something that she's obsessing over, but it is an invasive species. So, at the end of the day, I don't know how we resolve it with the tools that we do have. I know and I've seen uh staff go through extraordinary lens to not try to use those last resort options, but you know, sometimes we do. I I just think that's just the cost of life um um you know, life and the world we live in right now until we can further address those things. But, you know, I wanted to sort of bring that up and also say that I agree with um leaving it, you know, for the discussion. Thank you.

Thanks, M.

Yeah, we try our best. I think we rely on the friends of the forest. They provide great help at our work party, so we can just do things manually. It's a great The community is again very generous with their labor. Okay. uh ACL boundaries. You have the map um in front of you in the packet, so I won't go into that. And then other items. So this came up, I think, uh request of Ms. Molton. Is that correct, Mayor? Regarding drone policy, this would be new, something for you to consider. Um so illegal to unlawful to operate aircraft to land on or take off from any body of water or land area within the forest lands. This does not imply to hang gliders from Mount Erie which is allowed in the plan or pair of gliders from Mount Erie provided they have a place to land. So those uh we do the places where we have drones we use them with the help of our police and fire to spot you know we spotted a plume of smoke last year thanks to the help from uh APD I think they have the drone and fire department. We've had volunteers help us with drones during the 2018 fire at Little Cranberry and um sometimes we help where some of the signage that we're working on. We work with our police department to get photos of areas to put together signs that we're going to do on Mount Erie. We're working on currently with the Samish Nation. And so those are the examples. Occasionally we also get a request for filming on Mount Erie, so commercials or things like that. And we'll work with them on drone policy there. That's about it. Okay. Any questions at this time on this matter? Again, we're just we're this is a slow walk with you. This is not a speedy this is not a race.

Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt. Sorry, I have one question out of order. Um, back in the mapping section, it talks about the management map in addition to the public use maps which we're all familiar with. Uh, 1218A. Okay. Does that map already exist? I've never seen that map. I haven't seen I think the management map is the one in the forest plan. Bob, help me. Um the one that breaks down the areas, the seven areas of the forest lines. Is that what it's referring to?

Well, what what I'm This one says it's going to include public access routes, public utilities and the parcels. Um just it seems like there's a few things that aren't on our other maps and I'm just wondering if that's something that's already on the website that I just missed or I don't think so. We'll review this and clean it up so it's clear to you. That's great. What what's on here is great. I just want to find it. If our GS if our GIS department can do it, then we'll get back to you. They can do it. Yeah, they can do it. No, almost all the layers exist. I think that correct one single map does it. Right. Great. Thank you, mayor. That's correct. Yeah. Thanks. But I think um Oh, sorry. Just go ahead.

I think that one of the objectives of this was so that everybody could get on the same page. I mean, some of this was drafted back when we were talking about the A Avenue bike park. Um, so that, you know, that information could be publicly available and authoritative, right, Mr. Young.

Uh, thank you, M. Mayor Walters. Um, one thing I do want to add that I'm hoping we eventually um can designate places that people uh with drones or, you know, remote aircraft. I happen to have three of them. Even though I've never used them, I've been planning for years to finally have time to be able to do it and take a couple of pictures of our glorious area. Um, but you know, I I respect the decision about the forest lands. I really do and I agree with that. On the opposite hand though, it would be good if in that drone policy we could at some point uh designate where there may be one or two spots people can just take their drone up and be okay. I just think in absence of where by saying where you can't. I you know I think it would be clearer for other people. So that's my only suggestion and I appreciate it and maybe one day you might see me out there with my drones up and clap for me please because that would be a monumentous occasion.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Can you identify horse? Sorry, Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt. Can you identify horsetail from a drone? Can it tail infestation?

Depends on the drone. I think it depends on the drone. How low did you want to fly it? All right. So, uh, council, I think, um, this is the first read on this ordinance. Maybe some of the major questions are what update frequency do you want on the plan? What do you want the conservation easement fee to be? Do you want to adopt the drone use policy or any of these other sections? Do you have any comments on that? or are you good with bringing the entirety of this plus the drone policy back next week?

Okay. Uh without objection, we'll bring all of it back with a couple of the corrections that have been highlighted here uh next week for your consideration. Is there an opportunity for public comment next week also? Oh, no. Um and I should say we have an opportunity for public comment tonight on this. Thank you. Uh, is there anyone who would like uh to comment on the ordinance as presented? Go ahead. Come on up. You have three minutes. Please adjust the mic to your satisfaction. State your name and your neighborhood. Thank you.

Good evening, council. And mayor, uh, I live in Anacortis on K Avenue. I heard two ugly and your and your name. Whim hoops.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. There are two ugly ugly words, kayak launch. Um, people have donated to the ACFL to preserve it and uh that's what I also want and um that's also the goal of uh Evergreen Islands of which I'm a board member. So hearing that uh the ACFL would be part of the capital facilities plan. Capital facilities sounds to me like building structures docks and I think that we are totally opposed to that and we follow somebody else who started the keep it wild campaign for that reason. So if you really want something in the capital facilities plan, I propose that you limit it to the top of Mount Eerie and to uh Har Lake. Those are the recreational areas that need facilities and like plumbing. So that's my comment.

Thank you.

Any other comments at this point? Come on up. Brian Wcher, 2407 Forest Park Lane. uh in consideration of several of the comments from the council, I would remind the council that when you read this program or the the new plan, best available science is the overriding principle which guides both the director's decisions in implementing something like eradication of an invasive species as well as any other actions that are taken either by the board, by the director and staff or by the city. So best available science is the governing principle of the regulatory process that we presented to you as a forest board this time. So that should be the overriding principle in the management of all of our city lands and jurisdictions but particularly in the city forest lands where it's so crucial. And secondly, as a forum or port commissioner, I would advise you that there's very strict regulations about the operation of drones within an airport zone. So the forest lands are juxtaposition in many places to the airport. And so we have a special obligation in using drones in the forest lands to abide strictly by FAA regulations because they're there for a reason. and our pilots aren't always perhaps as accurate as the drone operators. So, I would hope that we would keep those in mind as we move forward in regulating drones and in regulating everything about the forest lands, particularly the decisions that

we allow the director to make on his own. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wcher. Anybody else? Do we have anybody online interested in uh providing a comment? Okay, thank you. Uh, a couple of quick notes. The capital facilities plan articulates a plan for any um any item above $20,000 in value that is going to have a lifespan of X number of years. five 10 10. So that could include even like repaving a parking lot. Um so those types of things need to be in there. Uh the drone policy that you might uh might have noted on the slide there, you saw it only briefly only regulates takeoff and landing which is consistent with the park uh state parks whack because the airspace is regulated by people more important than us. So, council, I heard that you would like to bring this back with these couple of edits next week. Put on the regular agenda or the consent agenda. Regular agenda. We can have public comment on it again if we want. Yep. Regular agenda. Okay. Hearing no objection. That's what we'll do. Thank you. We'll move on now to our last item of business, which is the cemetery fee update. Mayor Walters Council. Um, tonight we're going to talk to you uh about Cemetery Unified fees. Last week you worked with us with the help of Miss Swetenham's office to uh pass some new uh provisions in the code regarding the cemetery. And so we wanted to bring to you before we bring you unified fee some of the costs and fees that we're looking at to bring to you

next week to get your have a conversation about it. And I'm here with Miss Darby Jordan our subject matter expert. So if you have nothing but nice things to say I'll bring her up and she can talk to you if you have any things you're just unhappy with and you can just we'll talk to me. So um here we go. Green burials. So, we discussed that last week in the new ordinance and those prices would be the same as our current full burial. So, a casket burial, those prices would not change. So, one would need to buy the plot or already own a plot at Grand View that would that would facilitate a full burial and then the green burial price would be the same as in turning every anyone else. So um the green barrel allows has a a a vault that does not have a bottom so that the deceased can rest on the ground. That's the only difference that will keep the structural integrity of the grave but the cost is the same. Okay. Next is the columbarium. So you went through this last week. Colariums are new to us. We have two of them up there. You can see Miss uh Jordan has outlined to you on the far right photo of what the whole is the whole structure is the columbarium. The individual places for interment are an are the niches. So compared with other municipal cemeteries, thank you Miss Jordan for putting this all together. You can see that the fees um range from Edmunds uh the high to CJ the low. Miss Jordan noted that siege of woolly are singles only one set of cremated remains can go in where it's our niches hold two sets of cremated remains. So those comparables with other municipal ones. There's other non-municipal cemeteries but we chose like to like as best we could. You can

see in the example from the Auburn cemetery that price changes from top to bottom not unlike real estate. So with that in mind and I can toggle back if you want to look comp and compare um the average of the four cities 18202918 and our staff we suggest the top two rows at 2600 the middle two at 24 and the bottom one at 22. Okay I'm happy to toggle back and forth at any time related costs. So a funeral service at the columbariums requires us to as any other burial uh that the family chooses to attend. So a service that is uh would be 425 and then shutter engraving. the shutters or the covers on the front. And so, um, the cost of the engraving would be done by a third party, but they would pay us and we would manage that. And then our the that the setting fee, the taking on and putting back off would be part of the shutter engraving fee. So, our removal and replacement and then the engraving itself. I got the nod. I'm right. That's the that one is part of that cost. Questions? May Mayor Walter,

Mr. Mantini, go. Yeah, Mr. Manini, sorry. Um, first of all, thank you so much for putting all this together. I feel like you've turned a lot of us into SMEES up here now just by looking at all of these these slides. Um question for you is um there's obviously a lot less maintenance involved with columbariums than there are with traditional graves it seems like. Is that would you say that's accurate? Yes and no. Go ahead.

Maybe just different um maintenance. No, there's no mowing or trimming around each individual marker, but um they actually get cleaned with Windex and paper towels to keep them looking shiny. that's what the manufacturer um so there will be just hands-on maintenance in a much more um you know much more often so that doesn't exactly apples for apples but it definitely will require some the other part of it is that we are taking responsibility for these things if something happens to it will have to be replaced at city cost so it's not one single marker it is 32 of them or 64 of them.

Yeah. And then if our big concern would be a if a tree falls on it, um you know, it would it would damage it and then it's one solid structure. So the entire thing would have to be replaced. So that's what we took into consideration when we looked at these and setting the cost as it's not just the mowing and the trimming of the markers. though.

Okay. Thank you. And then this is a budgetary question. Um, if the money that is, and I should probably know this, but I'm going to ask because I don't. Um, the money that is generated from the cemetery from these sales, does that go into the cemetery fund that is then only used to maintain the cemetery? Is that accurate? So, currently it would go into fund 102. That's a cemetery, Grand View Cemetery fund. Fair. Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. I think that the the follow-up question to that is it generating enough money to maintain it long term.

I'll start in Miss Jordan. So, the issues of the trees we've never had to consider in this way before. So, we like large trees at Gran View Cemetery. I think they add to it. Um, we might have to look at those and maintain those in a different way for safety of the structure around them. So we would maybe do more work with arborists or our own arborists, but we probably have to get a certified arborist out to look at them in a way that we haven't before. So that is one of the costs we're looking at in this. And you know, as Miss Jordan pointed out, there's some other work that we need to do similar to what we do in the mausoleum cleaning and caring for that we do that's different than mowing. Anything else you can think of? just that we anticipate this to be quite popular and so then to look towards the future to then purchase the next set of columbariums to install up there. So um that would be the other the other thing the funds would go towards

Walters. Miss John.

Um, first of all, thank you. Um, I've in the 16 years I've been here, I've watched um staff and the city really offer that tender care and and and it's a beautiful thing. having lost four of my family members in about a year and uh three months about three years ago. Uh the challenge was that um in trying to deal with cemeteries and funeral homes that own the cemetery and then the cemetery itself being owned by a multi-corporation that's throughout and those prices are not very clear. Some don't even have to um advertise their prices. And so at open it really is in the middle of grief a most difficult time. What I appreciate about the smallalness of our city and the efforts that you know you do for what you do particularly given that you grow up here too. It it really is a touching and tender thing and I appreciate it if as long as we can being held within the city if we can cover those costs. I mean we have to be real about where we are and what those costs are in association with it. But my fear in that it moving out of our hands is that it sometimes it goes to uh other organizations that may not have the same code of compassion that you do. Uh the profit line bottom line is the number and those numbers are um can really be escalated at the point of grief and then even at then what choice do you have when the opportunities are limited? So I'm saying what I'm saying to you is a

multiaceted thank you. I know it's not easy. I appreciate you working as hard as you are to offer this service on this island with limited space. I I I just think it's important and to streamline that process in the middle of grief is a beautiful thing. And so I'm thankful for that. And so I just think that to answer those additional questions that I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of whether or not the arberish you've got to work with whether or not the price points are within reason. I mean we can't use city money to augment in that way but we can offer the compassion especially during the time of bereiement. And so, you know, I I wanted to say how much I support this and how much I um appreciate the transformation um to modern times because a lot of people are doing um cremations these days. And then there's this new group, you know, wanting um additional things such as um you know, green burials, you know what I mean? And also um you know there's so many things on the horizon at this point. Some even wanting to be shot into space. Okay? You know if we get there that's a whole another thing but I I'm hoping we won't get there anytime soon. But ultimately um thank you. I think the prices are reasonable and I took a hard look just simply because I knew what um you know we had to do for my family and it uh also was thoughtprovoking for that future um you know for for the future of whether or not you know you choose to um you know be buried fully in the casket or whether or not you do

believe in cremation or whether or not you want to be green. All of those things are what we all individually and as well as families will have to address and I appreciate the city still as we're small enough to where it's still workable for now and I appreciate the work that you're putting in. So, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt,

I can echo Mr. Young's thanks because uh the the Grand View staff has put three generations of my family into various locations of Grand View now all with um excellent advice and compassion. So, thank you for that. To address um maybe Mr. Fentini's question, can you flip back a couple slides to the suggested one more? Thank you. So, those are the prices for each niche. We call them niches, not niches. Is that right? But my understanding is just like the current niches, you could have two sets of crees in one.

So it's not necessarily $2,600 per person if you can you can get double occupancy. So that's reasonable for a lot of families. And I also tell Mayor Walters that like you I'm sure I did the math. When we fully sell these out, we have covered the cost of installation and purchase and we're self-insuring for a tree to fall. I'm comfortable with that. Miss Walters, can I add one more thing? Mr. Young,

thank you. No, you know, even in looking at these prices, you know, we um you know, I know it's on the east coast, but you know, we were paying nearly $5,000 for just to be able to put one in. you know, and and it it was a struggle in the sense that um you know, it was it was a lot, especially after, you know, the funeral costs and everything associated with it. And and so these prices, at least from my recent memory, I don't know what to do out here. And I look at those comparables that you gave, those are very reasonable. And especially if you can do two people together in a family thing, that is still a whole another level of compassion and opportunity. So I do think that the prices are reasonable given my recent memory. So I just wanted to add that and say thank you. Again,

just to let you know, we did share these with the main funeral home here in town and just asked their opinion of how we they felt um and uh they they felt very comfortable with these price points. Um they felt like this was was a pretty good even middle ground. So, ask the experts.

We have an asterisk on this item. So, now seems like a good time to ask the audience either at home or online. Nope, those are the same thing. Either online or in the room as to whether or not you have uh public comment on this item right now. Nobody here in the room. Nobody online. Okay. All right. Right. So, this was just presented as a discussion item because it's going to come to you as part of the unified fee schedule next week. That wasn't quite ready for this week, but also now we have time to calculate how much we'll charge to shoot you into space. So, uh that's everything for tonight and I'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting. We'll see you next week.