City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello, Council Member Overhozer. Can we test your mic, please, sir? Did you see uh check check? Do you guys hear me? under business. Let's ask um wherever testing testing Eric overhoser there's there's anything there. Uh yeah. Can can you hear me Liz? Can you hear me? Copy that, sir. Thank you very much. You bet.

The kid shows up. I need a ride home. I was like, I don't have time for my mind. Weird. Good evening. It's 7:00. It's December 1st, 2025, and I'm calling this regular meeting of the Battleground City Council to order. If you're able, please rise for the pledge. It's under God.

And Miss Hely, roll please. Mayor McCoy here. Deputy Mayor Bowman here. Council member Kypers here. Council member Ferrer present. Council member D. Roger here. Council member Davis here. And council member Overberhoser here. We couldn't really hear you, sir. Could you? It's only coming through uh it's coming through through the pad. I heard him. I heard you, Eric. Yeah. Try that again. I am present. The clerk is present. That concludes the role.

Uh before we roll into agenda approval, for those that aren't aware, uh Council Member Kypers uh has an oath of office because she is filling uh a short term. So, we're going to swear her in now and then she gets to do it again in January. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I, Jeanie Kypers,

do solemnly affirm do solemnly affirm that I am a citizen of the United States that I am a citizen of the United States and of the state of Washington and of the state of Washington that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington of the state of Washington and will to the best of my judgment. and will to the best of my judgment. faithfully and impartially faithfully and impartially perform all duties of council member perform all duties a council member for the city of Battleground for the city of Battleground.

County of Clark County of Clark and state of Washington state of Washington. As such duties As such duties are prescribed by law. as such duties are prescribed by law. Thank you.

Warned you not to do it. Mr. Chair,

when we have an appointment, the election is for the short and full term. So for those political nerds out there, you can win a trivia. Uh that brings us to agenda approval. Uh council, I would entertain a motion uh with the agenda with an amendment to remove the certificate of municipal leadership award portion as uh council member Overholzer is remote and we want him in person for that honor. So if I could have that motion, please. I move to remove that remove Eric Overholster's presentation from AWC from the meeting agenda and approve the balance. Yes, sorry. approve the the rest of the agenda as presented.

Can I get a second, please? Second. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you.

Uh do we have any council member reports this evening? Okay, seeing none, I'll move on to mayor's report. So, tonight it's my pleasure recognizing to recognize our outgoing council members. Uh we have two of them. I'm not one for long speeches, but don't let uh my lack of uh words reflect on their contributions. I'm just going to say a few words and then I'll open it up to council and to the public if you want to say anything. So, first, um, Miss Davis, I want to thank, uh, you probably don't realize it, but you taught me something pretty profound, and that was, uh, we need to model model good behavior up here. So, thank you for that.

Um, especially as we see public officials, elected or not, under attack. If we want to be treated uh in a good manner, we should show it. So, thank you for that. Um, Cherish uh leads with her compassion. So, uh she's definitely somebody to emulate. Um, one of her driving projects was the or is the uh inclusive park and I'm hopeful that next year uh we'll see that come to fruition. So I think that's well on its way and between the two of them and two others I believe they formed the first majority women block on council.

Wow. So more trivia. Um, so, uh, truly I I thank you both. This is not an easy gig and you both did it with grace and style.

Uh, with that, if anybody'd like to say any words, family, counsel, uh, please, Mr. Mayor, I I would like to say something. Um, I I thought I was going to exit left and go, and then I saw this on here and I thought, "Oh, boy." Okay, here we go. Um, I do want to say that I am grateful for the opportunity to serve uh not only the community but six other teammates. Um, as the mayor said, it is not an easy gig. Um, and so we lean on each other's expertise to help us make the best decisions for the city. I am thankful for our staff. What an outstanding group that Battleground has. And some people might not know it, but they are rock solid and they help us and they guide us and they instruct us and it's truly a team effort. And so I want to thank all of you for that, too. I'm appreciative of the community. I'm appreciative of my family. Uh my kids start out thinking it was kind of funny and then I think maybe they thought it was a little cool. I don't know. I'll take the cool part. Um I'm excited to see the future of Battleground from that side. I'm excited for the new council to come and to continue uh the progress of an amazing amazing city. Um from everyone who sat up here before us and everyone who will sit here after me, I will cheer them on and um somewhat jealous, somewhat relieved, but I will be uh I won't be able to stay away. Um it's why I came up here in the first place is because of my love for this city. So I appreciate the four years. I appreciate all of you and good luck. Thank you.

Jump.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to reiterate my appreciation to Cherish and to Trish, both of you. Uh since I've been on council for such a short amount of time, less than a year, I just was, you know, it was like, as they say, drinking uh out of a a hose, but um it was more like a tsunami at times. And I appreciate the uh partnership that we were able to have in helping me learn and um guidance. And I did learn. We might we might not always have the same views on thing, but that's what it's all about here. But to be able to respect each other meant a lot. And so, thank you for how you treated me and um I wish I I know we're going to be great going forward, but I will miss having both of you as partners.

You want to speak or do you want to or you can have Shane go? Go ahead, Shane.

Yeah. I just want to echo what what the other council members have said. I appreciate the fact that um you guys have been willing to voice your opinions that you've uh stepped up to number one put your name in the hat and run for this and to to be able to bring your perspective to council. I think it's important that we have different perspectives and um we all represent uh 23,000 people but each one of us come from a different background and I think that's very valuable as we go through this um and as we try and do what's best for the city. I think you both have done a phenomenal job doing that. I think you've represented your community well. Um I uh I hope you stay involved. Um there's always, as you know, there's always positions that we need people to fill and and uh you're always looking for uh those people that have been there before because we just don't get a lot of people stepping up and volunteering to do this. And especially in a time where every single thing that we do is under a microscope and and um you know the votes that we take uh you know 50% of the people may hate them 50% of the people may like them or 49 51 whatever but um it's it's tough to to to take those uh arrows that are shot at us and you guys have done that well. So I appreciate it and I hope you the best. Council member Overholzer. Uh yeah, I hope you guys can hear me. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um yeah, to both both of you ladies, uh Trisha and Cherish, I have uh learned a great deal uh while being on council um from both of you. Uh you both inspire me

um in different ways. I I have a great deal of appreciation for both of you. Um, Cherish, uh, we've connected over our love for the community and and the less fortunate. And, uh, I I just, uh, admire your willingness to get out there and and serve people and and help people that need it and your heart for those people. Um, and I hope that we get to continue um, working together in the future. Uh, outside of council. Um, and Trisha, your involvement in the community um I I've seen um over the many years that we've known each other, but you were a great inspiration to me to even uh stick my neck out and and and run for council. And um I I just greatly appreciate our uh conversations we've had. um the uh you know the information and the um guidance that you've been able to give over the last few years uh to me and um I hope that and I pray that we're able to continue a relationship after this as well and you can continue to be um somebody that uh I can lean on for um to bounce things off of. Uh both of you ladies are a great inspiration and uh I I'm very grateful and blessed to have known both of you. So thank you for your service to this community. Greatly appreciated.

You want to say anything or do you have We have a so go ahead. I have something to give you but if you want to speak go ahead.

I just I was fine until my family showed up and then it made it real. So, it's been a real pleasure to serve the city um and the citizens. I've learned a lot over the years about about the city, about myself, how to get along with people, how to be a good steward of our tax dollars, you know, everything that comes along with it. And it it has been a true pleasure and I'm grateful for the opportunity. So, um I plan to stay in Batter. I don't know what I'm going to do, but hopefully something fun. So, thank you So, um Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Council Member.

I'll just make it really brief. So, um I just want to thank you both again for your service. Um Trisha, I appreciate your professionalism. You always stood up for what you believe was the best for this city, and I greatly appreciated that. Um, you could tell that you both had a lot of love for the the community. That's why you served it, right? Um, thank you for you were always you always picked up the phone for me and I'm always appreciative of that and you always just lend me your ear with my concerns that I just needed to have addressed. Um, so thank you for the knowledge that you gave me along the way and I learned some great things from you, too. So, I appreciate you both. I hope you guys it's interesting to see what you guys are going to do next for our community and um thanks again.

So, we have a couple uh little presentations here and now that I know that Trisha convinced Eric to run for council, I'm still going to give it. Just kidding. Uh so this one uh is for council member Davis and uh the pertinent information on here is with heartfelt appreciation for her dedicated service of the member of the battleground city council October 21 through December 25. Uh and they both have the same uh on it uh as far as uh your leadership, your commitment, your steady guidance have helped shape the policies, programs and vision that have moved our community toward a brighter, stronger future. We thank her for her years of service and genuine care for the community. She has undoubtedly left many positive and lasting impacts on the city of Battleground presented on this first day of December uh by Mayor Troy McCoy. And we additionally have something a little more meaningful as well um that I think will speak more to And then uh Cherishes uh with heartfelt appreciation for her dedicated service as a member of the Battleground City Council July 2016 to December 2025. So, uh, she has undoubtedly left many positive and lasting impacts on the sea of battleground presented on this first day of December 2025 by Mayor Tro McCoy.

Yeah. And then the city manager has something for each of you as well. Uh,

Council Member Davis, would you like to come down here? First, let me just say it's been an honor uh serving with you. Um you've been such a joy uh to work with. Now, maybe some of you don't know that Trisha is snowboarding. I'm not really sure what you call it at a house um down in the Valley of the Sun in Phoenix area. And she and I often talk about it. I'm jealous. She has a pool. And I thought as a parting gift that we would perhaps provide you with a sign for your pool area that says, "Welcome to the Davis Oasis. Have fun but obey our pool rules." So we wanted to sort of mimic maybe the battleground municipal code. And number rule number one is no meetings and no agendas, no minutes. Sunshine counts as professional development. Swim at your leisure. Number two, all decisions made by majority float. The only motions allowed will be for cannonballs and or drink refills and budget focus sunscreen and snacks. The biggest approved expenditure will be for quality free time. TD code P510 2021 to 12 2025. Your dates of service. and clear. All right, council member de Roers, which come up here. Now, people probably know this about Cherish, but she is all things, fruit, trees, planting, garden, you name it. And so, we wanted to provide her um with this shovel that's engraved that says Cherish D.

Rogers Battleground City Council 2016 to 2025 with the little symbol of Benny the Bee for all of your gardening. Um, one of the things I loved talking with Cherish about was my adventures walking around this city and foraging every piece of fruit I could get my hands on without trespassing. So, she was um a mentor for me on that and I look forward to still coming to your property and trying out that homemade ladder that your husband made and picking those apples still. So, congratulations and I wish you best. Yeah, if anybody had a few quick words, uh, that's fine. I just wanted to say um Trisha and Cherish, thank you so much for serving for all your time. All the committees you've served on um hearing you in the meetings on discussions and stuff um help keep me informed and um you know learn about things I didn't know or think about perspectives from a different um side. And um Cherish, I just want to say like a lot of people in the community, your compassion you that you always reached back out or often reached back out to other people was just so meaningful to so many people. Thank you

to both of you ladies. Thank you for your service. I can say been there, done that. Uh I really appreciate the time and effort that it takes to be a council member and to think of every facet of the city as you go on u in the future. Um do well. All right. There's I was thinking of a poem that I wanted to say and it slipped my mind. That's what happens when you get old. But enjoy your enjoy your future. Be part of the solution. Thank you. I am Cherish's brother. I just wanted to take a moment and uh say thank you to my sister and to Trisha and all of you guys who have served on city council here. Um, but I I just, you know, there are so many times over this nine years where I've talked with my sister and uh, you know, she's just felt so supported by the city, by the staff here, um, and and the people that she's worked with. Uh, even when there were differences, she's always, um, you know, spoken highly of everyone. and um just I'm really proud of her and really uh excited and I'm very grateful for the example that she set for her nephews and her nieces and for the rest of the family and uh looking forward to seeing you know where she goes next. So, thanks so much.

I'll keep it short like Mr. Mayor. Very grateful for both of you and uh your service to the city. It's been an honor and I look forward to uh where you guys will land next and I get plugged in because I know this won't be the end. Thank you very much for your service. Really appreciate it. Both of you ladies have been absolutely phenomenal people and phenomenal leaders. I just wanted to say that I have had a chance to get to know both of you and both of you have been so compassionate, so kind, and have such a heart for this community. And I appreciate your leadership. I appreciate your strength. I appreciate your courage and the kindness and professionalism that you've continued to show. So, I just wanted to tell both of you how much I appreciate you being strong women in a role that is very, very difficult. And a lot of people here don't see how difficult it really is. all the research it takes that goes into each issue that you're having to vote on uh the knowledge that you have to gain and um I just appreciate both of you. Well done young man. No. Okay. Well, thank you all for participating in that. Um I think it's pretty evident on the effect you both had. So, best of luck and I'm sure we'll see you soon. Uh, that brings us into the boring part of the meeting, which is the rest of it. Uh, so, uh, those on council may be aware, I can't go into this in too much detail, uh, but I am now the unfortunately the chair of the board commission of the Catran, uh, Mayor C or former mayor C passed away. Um, so I know we had talked

earlier about not spending any money. I am going to have to involve legal to some degree, but not to anything bank breaking at this point. But we'll have to come back in an executive session probably with the new council to hash this out a little bit. But what um I have asked our legal to do as long as uh the council's okay is file a notice of appearance. Uh what this will do if there's anything filed against the board composition committee our law firm will be noticed that's all that means. So we so nothing can go by through the through the through the finger. So um as long as that's okay that's all I've uh uh bringing forward now to do that. So, if everybody's okay with that, uh, our firm will provide a point person for that and file that this week sometime. Uh, additionally, um, Senate Bill 582 dropped and that is, uh, the FRDU bill. So, one to follow eliminating the, uh, the FRDU overlay on the railroad. So, uh, yeah, that is going to be talked about this year. So, um, I know Council Member Davis was definitely, uh, involved in that as well. So, wanted to just make you aware of that so you can track that. It's a short session, so it'll go fast. Uh, that brings us to our presentations. That's it for the mayor's report. Uh, presentations. Uh, who's introducing? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Robert Frier from the city manager's office. It is my pleasure this evening to introduce you to our newest recreation and event center coordinator, Heather Svenson. Did I say that right? Sweet. Uh, we asked Heather if she could share some information about her

background and her interest. And so, I've got that here. In terms of her professional experience, she has 20 years experience in the hospitality industry. Most recently, she served at the Waverly Country Club as the event manager in Portland as well as the Hilton Vancouver uh at the downtown convention center as in sales and events uh uh management. Prior to that, she has five years experience working as a food cart owner/chefounder caterer before going into the event management business. Uh and that's supplemented by many years working in the restaurant uh industry as well. Uh, she's married to her husband, Noah, and they have a four-year-old daughter together named Juniper and two cats named

Petey and Oliver.

Petey and Oliver the Cats. Uh, her education, she has a bachelor's in linguistics, uh, communication sciences from Western Washington University in Bellingham. Uh, in terms of her hobbies and special skills, uh, she enjoys textile crafts including sewing, knitting, and embroidery. She enjoys outdoor recreation, hiking, camping, uh reading and writing, uh puzzles and games, traveling and cooking. We asked if there are any fun facts uh that she'd like to share. Uh she is a a PNW native uh from Yaka. Also lived in Bellingham for 10 years uh and then Portland in the Vancouver area. She's also a lifelong vegetarian, which I I could never do, so more power to you. Uh any additional information she wanted to share? She loves event management and she's very excited uh to be starting uh her first government job and we're very excited to have you and so if anything you want to share and then we'll go shake hands with council members.

Um I think about that just about covered it. Um fairly word for word. Um, but yeah, my name is Heather and I'm excited to be working at the Battleground Event Center and really excited to um learn more about the community and to get to know some of the events and happenings here. So, pleasure to be here.

Happy to have you on board, Heather. I think it'll be great to have some of that small business experience as we have a lot of clients come into the event center. You'll know how much it means to them. Are we fully staffed at the event center now? I I shouldn't say that out loud, I suppose. Uh, that ends the presentations. Uh, brings us to citizens communications. Uh, I have one signed up. Uh, I think she knows the rules, so I'll forego that, Jessica, and we'll get the three minutes up for you. Hello, council. My name is Jessica Cole and I just wanted to say congratulations to Troy uh I'm going to use your first names to Troy and Jeie for coming back for another four years or you got that little stint in between too to make be con consecutive. And um I just wanted to share that um today is World AIDS Day and um in our Clark County community we have two organizations that uh we have more but two that I wanted to highlight that um support folks with HIV and AIDS and one is um Cascade AIDS Project and um I don't want to butcher them so I'm just going to say um you should look into them. they have um great supports for um folks. And then another one is Martha's Pantry. And Martha's Pantry has been around since the 1980s and it's um also the both of them are in Vancouver. And so they're a pantry. Um they they started off serving folks um living with HIV and AIDS and but they do serve all folks, you know, um in need. So you should check them both out in my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica. Do we have anybody online or anybody else in the audience that would like to utilize their three minutes? No one online, Mr. Mayor. Okay. With that, I will close the sophistication portion of the uh meeting. Brings us to consent agenda. Council, what's your pleasure? Move to approve. Motion by Dep Bowman, second by D. Roers. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I I

both consent agenda passes. Uh we have a public hearing on the comprehensive plan. Want to give us just a quick Good evening. Yes. I'd like to turn it over to our planning supervisor Sam Kummit to give you a quick summary before we open the public hearing.

Good evening council and interested citizens. Um, we're here at the point of a public hearing to entertain any testimony on the city's comprehensive plan. It's in draft form. It's in it's been out for review for several weeks. Uh there's been a lot of work put into this by the city's planning commission as well as the advisory team that helped develop our uh climate action um chapter or climate element. So, hats off to the work on them. Uh we won't be formally adopting the plan in terms of an ordinance, but uh we uh ultimately staff would like to get a motion from you to uh move this plan forward as drafted uh with an amendment to include the parcels identified in the staff report. Uh I believe the person uh Mr. Marty Miller is here that would like to testify during the public hearing portion. Um that change came uh few weeks ago at the recommendation at the recommendation of our planning commission. Um just sort of a note in terms of how we got to that point. There were several sightsp specific requests where people did want to include their uh parcels in. uh we couldn't justify the majority of those because essentially we've got capacity for our residential needs and then I've already spoken about uh satisfying our needs for employment with the dollar's corner expansion. However, uh driving out to this site, there's a half street road in road that's already been built by a newer subdivision. uh bringing these parcels in could um carry out the full street improvement when those parcels develop. And I'll let uh Mr. Miller speak to more of the specifics on that. So, uh those are

that's all I have in terms of introduction and um you could uh open up the public hearing or address any questions to me now or after the public hearing. I have two procedural questions for you. Uh, one, if we could have a map ready to pull that parcel up, and two, are you wanting a motion tonight or are you wanting a motion in the future?

Uh, I would like a motion, which would be just a consensus motion to move this comprehensive plan as drafted forward in 2026. Uh, once the county finalizes their process, we'll be coming back to council with a formal motion. So, Uh the motion wouldn't be binding. It would be more of just a general consensus. The council could change their mind in two or three months on any part of this until it gets to its final form.

Okay. Thank you for that clarification. With that, I will now open the public hearing at uh 7:34 p.m. for public testimony. Individuals are limited to three minutes to provide testimony regarding the comprehensive plan update. Uh please direct your comments to the mayor. Uh I have uh one person signed up and I hear another. So uh just approach the dis. You can stand or sit whatever uh makes you more comfortable.

Oh yeah, and please state your name uh and address for the record. I don't know. Absolutely. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, council members. Appreciate your time very kindly. the you may have received a handout related to uh the site maps. I'm sorry, sir. Could you please state your name and city of residence?

I'm sorry, I apologize. My name is Marty Miller. Um I used to be a member of of the Battleground community here for about 30 years. Have property at 12818 Northeast 249th Street. Mr. Kremmit is passing out a a series of photographs. So, I'll make this very brief. The first map uh that you have in there is a site map of the proposed area that was presented to the planning commission. Um the next few photos that you will see in there, as Mr. Kummit uh alluded to, are the half street improvements on Northwest 30th. This is also bordered by Northeast Dublin, and this is also bordered by Northwest 6th. Um, typically I would say, you know, if there was no infrastructure there, it would make total sense not to do anything. But in this case, when we take a look at the amount of infrastructure that already exists, the uh stubbed in roads, the stubbedin pathways, it makes sense at this stage of the game to actually go ahead and complete the process. Uh, you'll see another map in or pictured in there of the Riverbend subdivision. Uh, we lived in this area for approximately 30 years. My family on my wife's side actually lived in this area for about 50 years. When I take a look at what Mel and Houston Oo have done in this area, they've really created a first class community. Um there are some additional pictures in there uh where you'll see a gentleman that has a business uh in there. He is running uh storage for dump trucks, RVs, buses, what have you under the county. that is his call and I don't I don't take any offense to that whatsoever. We talked about community here just a little bit ago. When I take a look at Whoity the uh the way they have laid that out and what we're looking for long term, I think that that is more embracive of what you

folks uh as far as the vision of looking towards community and I applaud that. Ultimately, that decision will rest. Um, when I take a look from the Sterling Ranch subdivision looking out to where this business is is located right now, the question is, is that something that embraces community? Ultimately, that will be your folks's decision. The reason I'm also speaking to you folks tonight is there are some additional photos in the very back there. And if you'll take a look, the first one in blue, that is the Sterling Ranch subdivision prior to development. The next uh photo right beyond that is the same blue photo, but it's in green. Those are lava flows uh in that site. The third uh photo in there, you can see the rock pile with one of trucks in there. The reason that's relevant is coming through the planning commission, this was looked to be an R3 site, and it would be my suggestion to consider looking at this as an R5 site. If you'll continue into the the final three areas as far as pictures are concerned, that is the area that is north of Northwest 30th and it is highlighted in there the rock flows that we can see. In fact, you can see an old picture of my mother and father-in-law's house with the um 62 Chevy sitting there and you can see the rock piles in there. This will not be an easy site to develop, but working with city council, working with the planning commission, you know, what we would like to do is figure out a workable solution that works for everybody to be able to achieve again what they've been able to do over at Riverbend and Wity. And I see that I've expired my time, so I don't want to.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very kindly. I appreciate your time. Hi, my name's Jessica Cole. I'm from Battleground and um I just want to say I appreciated the uh open house last week or so on the comprehensive plan. Um the staff did an amazing job on it and the cons consultants did a really great job like explaining stuff. Um I know this is a very big project and all the different moving pieces between us and county and all that. And um I just appreciate all the feedback sessions. This is one of them. And um even though I feel like it's late in the stage in some ways um they still took uh the feedback from all the folks that were there. And I just want to highlight um what we talked about last week, the um people that showed up uh business owners and um residents is um having a place for our kids to live, you know, when they grow up and having jobs for folks that live here. And so the the focus areas that I recall um or are important to me are housing, the economic development and the uh growth and annexation which are you know very um handinand and transportation. So all that to say um thank you to all the work that's been done and that's going to continue and I uh support moving it forward.

Thank you Jessica. Anybody else for comments regarding the comprehensive plan? And please state your name and city residents.

Sorry, I didn't know I just was to sign up. My name is Pearl Agard, 2511 Southwest 18th Street. This property is north of 199th Street and just west of the firm foundation school. There's a ditch that's about a 100red years old that runs on my west side of my property. The county before we went into the city, the county took care of that ditch and would come in. U we've been on the property since ' 81. The county came in twice and redug the ditch out and I was always told that it run to Mill Creek although it does stop before it actually reaches the creek. I have complained several times that about the maintenance. It used to be 9 ft deep. Now it's about 3 or 4 feet deep. used to want run 10 12 horses out in the pasture all winter. I now have 400,000 ducks out there. Um I I'm have pleaded for help. I think the ditch should be cleaned out. Uh I understand why you're looking in a different area to take care of your serious problems, but please don't forget us. We've been here for a lot of years paying our taxes. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further members of the public wishing to speak? And anybody on Zoom? No, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Seeing no further members of the public wishing to speak, I'll now close a public hearing at 7:42 p.m. and open the floor council. But Sam, um I was trying to pull it up to see what the acreage is there. If we look at this this piece right now, um I'm I'm I'm not OCD, but maybe a little bit, but why why do we not just make Dublin Road the cutoff and and grab that extra 20 30 acres above this parcel too and bring it into the urban growth boundary? Why not just is that going to affect us if we do that and just say, "Hey, we're going to just include this whole area so that it kind of squares that off."

Uh, that's a good question and we've kind of looked at that as well. Um, the short answer is we can't justify numerically expanding into this area for residential growth. Uh we haven't really included this area as an alternative to study. Um if the council chose to do that um you know we could that could happen but it it could be pulled out um given we really haven't Yeah. So the short answer is numerically we really couldn't justify it which was kind of the initial reason why I initially said no to Mr. Miller and his neighbors those three parcels uh is sort of at at a whole at a high level we're looking at the entire city. Um I said we don't we can't we don't essentially need any more land for residential. however, it was really doing a site visit, looking at this investment of infrastructure that's already there and um actually being short on the uh the residential land needed for the over 120% median income, sort of those larger combination with our trail plan. Um that's where I said I think we can bring a little more in. you know, I none of this can necessarily be guaranteed until it's vetted through the county and then the state will take a close look at it. But, um, yeah, the short answer is absolutely, it'd be a logical place to grow. Um, but just yeah, in terms of the quantity of land we needed, we we didn't recommend it.

We could do You think that that this one would be okay, though? This one would probably isn't going to create more problems for us and all the work that's already been put into this.

Uh yeah, I think this would be the safer route to go. Um if the council collectively said, let's just bring in everything within that Dublin Corner um area. I'd probably get together with Mark Hersse, public works director, say, "Let's put together a capital plan and see where it shakes out." you know, the worst that could happen is in a year the state says this needs to go. But um but yeah, that's the reason we didn't recommend it is we we just can't justify it at that kind of the bottom line. But we could take it as an out of cycle request uh

five years from now, 10 years from now. We we can't do it as an out of cycle request. It would be 10 years before we'd look at that again.

Okay. I mean, I this is just my personal, you know, I'm looking at um just a map that shows the area that is developed to the west, which is going to be northwest 6 in that area that goes clear up the side of that property. Um, and it looks like it comes that uh the property on Dublin, which is on the corner of where we're showing the urban growth on the east north north uh east corner there, that propertyy's already in. And so, um, you know, there isn't a lot to develop there. That that one property just just to the north that's fairly good size looks like it could be potentially developed into stuff. there's a massive home right on the corner that's not going to develop. But, you know, I think anything that we can pull in and kind of try and square that up would would be better at least, you know, for the future. Um, but if it gets hopefully it's not a thing where they throw out everything and say, "Well, no, that whole area, you know, if we've got

and that's what I don't want to jeopardize is if we think that this will come in, then you do your thing." Um, if we think we can get another I know that parcel just to the north, uh, according to Onyx was like 8.1 acres more. Um, but if that screws things up, you know, I'd leave that to you guys.

Yeah. No, I appreciate the practical looking at that as well. the I think it potentially could jeopardize the one note of caution is these areas that you're talking about weren't part of the the EIS analysis Marty Miller and these other two parcels those were included in the sight specific analysis so that was the environmental review has been done on that so that's that's the one note of caution I'd Um, thank you.

Uh, Sam, quick question. Um, planning commission, uh, recommendation was R3 or R5 or did they get that detailed? I don't remember if they gave that detail. I don't think they did. Um, it would come in as low density residential and um, I think I I think it was open-ended whether it was R3 or R5. Uh, Mr. Miller has made a pretty strong recommendation for R5 based on the lava rock and the practicality of making that really kind of pencil out on their end.

Yeah. My my only concern with that is um I know we're really low on R3 and and we need I mean if we're going to add residential um those bigger lot sizes and like they used to be would that makes sense to me. Um, I don't I'm not a developer. I don't I don't know what the economics are on it, but um I would I would be favored moving it forward with a with a bend towards R3 um because that I think is the only housing component that we're under supplying in the city right now. I believe council you want to add?

I was just talking about when I looked up the parcels on the Clark County website, it showed them as R5 and she was trying to say that county might have it listed as something different. And then I was like, well, if it's the Clark County website, why wouldn't it say what it is and not the county the county zoning designations are very different than the city ones? But why wouldn't it say on there? Rural five. Yeah, it's probably rural five. Oh, it's rural five, not R5. Okay. Okay. But I I have no issues with adding this parcel and figuring out R3 and R5 later, but I would not want to go any higher than R5. R3 for me is much preferred.

So, do you need a motion to I think he just wants condenses and move forward with Yeah, I think you could. Um, I don't think you need to decide R5 or R3 this evening. Um, I think just bringing it in as step one, we could when we do come back for final adoption. Um, that could be when you make that final decision. Yeah. And I wasn't trying to work. I was just saying for R3 for me it's a no-brainer. R5 would have to think about longer. Mhm.

Well, this could be something that I mean, we're just putting it into the urban growth boundary and it could be 10 years before they develop it. We could have a completely different council here. Well, we will in 10 years and and um you know, a developer is going to plead their case at that time. So, I I do think it's a good piece to bring in growth boundary though. I support it since the uh it's the owners of the properties who are wanting to come in anyways. It'd be a different story if they weren't the ones who are asking for the initiation of the properties to be in our both within our boundaries. I agree. I'm seeing consensus.

Any com Mr. Council Member Overholder? Uh yeah. Oh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um yeah, I agree. Um, and I I'd just like to make a motion to to move the draft plan forward as drafted and to include these parcels recommended by the planning commission as part of that.

Sure. We'll we'll make a formal motion of it. Can I have a second then? Second. Second. Uh, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, that brings us to ordinance 2025-18, the budget.

Good evening, council. This evening is our final budget hearing for our 2026 budget. Council has the opportunity to accept public comments on the budget and then after the budget either have discussion, ask questions, modify the budget as presented or adopt. And with the note that we do need a budget adopted by December 31st. With that, I recommend opening the public hearing.

Just trying to find my clock here. Okay, with that, uh, I will open the public hearing at 7:53 p.m. for public testimony. Individuals are limited to three minutes to provide testimony uh regarding ordinance 2025-18 fiscal year 2026 operating and capital improvement budget. Please direct your comments to the mayor. Please approach the dis state your uh name and city residents and we will give you your three minutes. And is there anybody online as well?

No, Mr. Mayor. Oh, okay. Seeing uh no members of the public wishing to speak, we will close this public hearing at 7:53 p.m. And could we have the title read, please? Ordinance number 2025-18, an ordinance adopting the 2026 budget for the city of Battleground, Washington, and providing for effective effective date thereof. Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt ordinance 202518, the fiscal year 2026 operating and capital improvement budget in its entirety is presented. Second,

council. Any discussion? What? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just want to thank Megan. Um, your patience with all of us who are not uh number oriented like you, who has a love for numbers. Um, if you did get irritated, you never let us know with all our many questions. Um, and I just want to thank you again. Without uh somebody like you, our city wouldn't be as great as it is and fiscally responsible. So, um, it's been a pleasure and again, I appreciate your patience, especially with me. Um, and, uh, well done. Thank you.

I'll just take the time to commend council. I think this is the most I've seen individual counselors dig into the budget um take an interested and productive view or part in it. Um it's great to see it takes many voices uh to make this a good voice. So uh good job everybody for uh really taking really the most important part of our job seriously. Well done. With that, do we need a roll call or can we do this voice? Let's do roll call.

Council member Kypers, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Ferrer, how do you vote? Yes. Council member D. Roger, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Davis, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Overhozer, how do you vote? Yes. Deputy Mayor Bowman, how do you vote? Yes. Mayor McCoy, how do you vote? Yes.

Motion carries unanimously. Okay, that brings us to the comprehensive storm water master plan update. Good evening, council. I'm going to invite Emily Stevens up from Windsor Engineers and she's going to give a presentation about the storm water master plan.

I'm going to share my screen for the present. a little slow. Um, good evening, mayor, members of the council. I'm Emily Stevens with Windsor Engineers. Um, here to present on the comprehensive storm water master plan. This is the second draft that you've received. My second time presenting. Um, I think I was a little bit later last time in virtual. So, it's it's the same presentation tonight. Just going to kind of skim through some of it again. Wanted to bring it forward in case you had any questions or comments. Um, the purpose of a comprehensive storm water master plan is to assist the city with managing storm water infrastructure and programs, support um required permitting, NPDES phase 2 permit compliance, incorporate and implement storm water management plan items. Um, one of the bigger items is providing a capital improvement plan that informs the budget and city's planning process for 20 years and then establishing long-term storm water goals. Um, so again, I know we've gone over this before. Um, the comprehensive plan is an extension or the storm water plan is an extension of the comprehension plan that was just discussed following the same process of adoption um, and a very similar timeline. What the storm water comprehensive storm water master plan does is it kind of takes out the required storm water section of a comprehensive plan and really um like boosts it I guess um enhances it and and just kind of clearly outlines the plan

that the city has for storm water management of its infrastructure and programs. So we are at the second council review public hearing. Um in case if there's any other questions or comments to address what's new from the original um well not the original but the last version which was 2015 um we have included long-term goals um and actions that relate specifically to long-term goals. Um there's a new fish passage and protection section. And then this one also addresses some staffing needs and recommendations for um managing the city's storm water program. Additionally, um newer from the last draft that you saw, we did incorporate um a storm water um development charge update. So, we worked with the city or the city worked with a sub uh sub consultant that went through the storm water development charge assessment and there's there's no recommendations really or like changes happening now and I'll let Mark speak to any questions on this, but um one of the appendices included is this um storm water development charge update since it hasn't been updated in a while. So, that is something um if you have any questions or comments on, we'll take some questions at the end. I'm almost done here. Um but the rest of the appendices were also new from the last draft that you saw. This is the same um CIP that we shared last time. Nothing has changed. This um total CIP cost, it's over the 20-year term of the plan. So, we just kind of combined everything, but it's really more of a those costs are spread out over an annual basis. And with that, I will just open it up for any questions or comments. Thank you.

Could you bring the development charge slide back up?

Is the recommendation to go up to the maximum? So, we're not making any recommendation right now. Um, when the comp plan ultimately gets adopted, we'll also have sewer plan update, uh, transportation plan update. Additionally, there's some new state laws that talk about scaling of impact fees. So, uh, we would like to do a holistic look at all of our impact fees and system development charges when we do that. Um all this is saying is that $1879 would be the max amount that we could justify. Um planning commission was very interested in looking at the fees too when when we go back over it. Um they recommended approval of the plan but very much wanted to touch on that before um that was um dealt with. So again, sometime next year, I'll bring all of that back with all of the fees so you can see the bigger picture versus a bunch of one-offs. You know, I realized now I probably made a mistake. Probably should have invited the planning commission to that Wolf Industries tour because, uh, looking at our impact fees holistically, uh, and what that does to home affordability. Um, it's a balance, right? You want to be able to pay for the infrastructure, but you don't want to burden. That balance is tough. So, I appreciate the information on this council. Any other questions before we open up the public hearing?

I just a thank you for all the work on this. I I actually read it twice and I'm not really nerdy about this stuff typically, but I just wanted to be clear that I understood some of the things. And if I looked at if I understood in the recommendation section, it looked like there were about 41 recommendations in total. um four that were more about how to pay for some of the improvements and how to maybe go about the implementation planning. Um, and I thought it was great that you did kind of a risk analysis, but I'm just wondering if, and I don't have ideas on this, but I felt like maybe there is more prioritization that we could understand and you probably automatically know that because you're in this all the time and you could probably name them off, but I would just like to under that part better and we could sure do that in a onetoone session, Mark, if that's um, appropriate. But I just had more questions about that.

Okay, with that, um, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. 8:03 p.m. for public testimony. Individuals limited 3 minutes provide testimony regarding the comprehensive storm water master plan update. Please direct your comments to the mayor. Is there anybody wanting to speak on this? Anybody online?

No, Mr. Mayor. Uh, with that, I'll close the public hearing at 8:04 p.m. Um, I did want to make sure that um we did get the young lady's name and address for the ditch. Okay, it's the first I've heard of that. So, we'll we'll have somebody contact. I don't know what the right answer is on that, but when storm water comes up, it seems pertinent. Um, we don't need this is uh this will come back to us. So, I think that ends ends. Thanks so much. I know that's a lot of work in there. So, appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh any administrative reports tonight?

U just one. Mayor, we're putting out some press releases on this, but um I'm not sure if you noticed this weekend we're getting a little festive for the holidays. All of the banners along um West and East Main Street have been swapped out with the holiday banners. Our season greeting sign is up. Um, and what I wanted to let you know is that we were approached by um, someone from our community, Luke Rogers, who's owner of Clean Choice Professional Services, um, is the prime sponsor of a very large effort that we will enjoy this Friday um, during the tree lighting. And he approached us and asked if he could light it up outside. And so, um, this entails installing a beautiful light display at the event center, the building, the trees, the light poles. Um, and we're really excited about what that's going to do for our event. We also, this project was made possible thanks to contributions of several local businesses and individuals um such as Desiree Lawrence whose realer are John El Scott, Leanne Dodge, State Farm Insurance Agent, Terry Hammock, a Viligo Drywall, Impact Automotive, and Dev's Coffee Bar. They really did provide generous donations. We're really excited to see what it's going to look like and we're waiting until the tree lighting event which I want to give a reminder is this Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the event center. Um we just wanted to thank our sponsors because it was really generous on their part to provide um what you're about to experience this Friday. So um more details are on our website and we will also put in um our thanks to these donors on our website press releases and our social media channels. Other than

that that concludes my report council communications. Go ahead council roers. So I wasn't very clear earlier when I spoke so sorry I was nervous. I just want to thank staff and over the years that have helped me while I was on council. I just want to make sure I totally skipped over that because, you know, I was worried about crying and all that. So, thank you all for all that you've done for us and done for the city. Thank you, Kers.

Oh, thank you, mayor. Um we've had some discussions um over the last few months about the um intersection at Grace and Maine where we're going to have project work starting next year but also uh with all the additional activity around Allen Ernie and um in that intersection you know more concerns around public safety um traffic safety and just wondering if we could um get some updates from um Mark and the staff on what the options might be for short-term fixes at that intersection since we are a little ways out from having final resolution on the realignment of that whole um area. Um, I know you've done some work on it, but I was wondering if in January we could get maybe some recommendations from you, what the costs would be and what the timeline would be to get things to get those recommendations implemented and how that aligns with the actual project work that we have planned uh for the intersection. So, anyone have any heartburn about that?

No, I'm seeing consensus here. Okay. Going to wait till January for that.

Yeah. Um, and we have another event coming up judging the Christmas lights. Um, there is a mayor's choice. I'm happy to let our two outgoings make that choice. Grab some hot cocoa. You too. Can you Can you arrange that? You can do it December. You can do it tomorrow. That's fine. I'll be in touch if you'd like that. Uh that'd be a nice um whoever would like to do that. Uh it's fun. Drive around. I mean, they have a map. Uh I'll go any I'll go regardless, but uh let you have that. It's kind of fun. Uh with that, since we passed the budget tonight, for those that aren't aware, that makes uh the next meeting in December uh not needed. So, the next regular city council meeting will be held Monday, January 5th at 7 p.m. with a study session at 6:00 p.m., I believe. Are we having pictures? 6 p.m. potentially. We'll be check your email. Uh

TBD still working on it. Trying to confirm. Okay. Hopefully, we have pictures. So correct anyway uh with that it is 80 is 8:10 and this meeting is adjourned.