City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. I now call the June 9th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. We'll start off by taking a roll call of the council members by position number. Please stay here when the city clerk calls your name.

Thank you. Council Member Ongulary.

Here.

Mayor Thompson.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Alder. Here. Council Member Kirk.

Here.

Council Member Miles. Here. Council Member Dodd. Here. Council Member Alcabra.

Here.

All present.

Thank you. First up is meeting agenda approval. We're going to start with the City Manager review of the agenda. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Deputy Mayor and members of the City Council. Brief update tonight. It feels like a little more streamlined agenda, but tonight's agenda includes two informational updates under the City Manager report. as well as two staff reports. The staff reports will be on the housing action plan progress, as well as an update from our 2025 Safe Streets and Sidewalks projects. So it's kind of the capstone of the last Safe Streets and Sidewalks levy. We have a team here to talk about that tonight. There's also two items for adoption or action tonight, including providing formal notification regarding annexing into the Shoreline Fire Authority. It's a significant step on the way towards that process and will lead up to a more formal decision in July from council about specific details. And then also you'll have documentation in front of you about financing or giving staff direction to finance the recent land acquisition in downtown. So also for consideration, a little less of significance is determining if there's interest in being a voting delegate at the Association of Washington City's annual meeting later this month. That would be a Zoom opportunity. And then one study session tonight to provide feedback from council on the Draft Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan or PROS plan. Finally, the consent calendar includes contracts for capital facilities, projects related to City Hall, sidewalks, Bothell Way property acquisition, and acceptance of a grant for the Juanita Creek Restoration Project, as well as approval from Council to give direction to raise the Disability Pride flag at City facilities in the month of July in recognition and celebration of many in our community. Again, with the consent calendar, I do recommend all of the items on consent for approval. I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Well, with that, I'll also ask if City Council has any changes recommended to tonight's agenda. Seeing none, we'll move on to public comment. The City has accepted public comment in writing as well as...

Excuse me, Mayor.

Oh, did I skip public engagement opportunities?

Public engagement opportunities. Cool.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

One of these days, I'm going to learn how to read. It's going to happen. Public engagement opportunities. Bothell's Pet Fair offers free vaccines, pet licenses, and microchips, as well as resources, giveaways, and more while supplies last. All are welcome. Please have your pets leashed or in a carrier. That's Friday, June 12th, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bothell Police Department. Pride in the Park. Celebrate Pride Month with us at Pride in the Park. All are welcome at this free, family-friendly event with activities for all ages, including music, crafts, resources, and more. That's Saturday, June 13th, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the park at Bothell Landing. Pollinator Week Webinar. Join us in Snohomish Conservation District to learn about the importance of native plants, habitat diversity, and sustainable practices to create inviting environments for bees, butterflies, and other essential pollinators. That's Tuesday, June 16th from 6.30 to 8 p.m. on Zoom. Now, the City has accepted public comment in writing as well as accepted sign-ups for those who wish to speak at tonight's meeting. Written comments submitted to the City Clerk no later than 3 p.m. today were forwarded to all City Council members and are part of the record. When the Clerk calls your name, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please note that Council will receive your input, but we do not engage in discussion of these topics. Staff will make note of items requiring follow-up. City Clerk?

Thank you, Mayor Thompson. We had one written comment received, which was forwarded to all of you from Carter Nelson regarding the housing action plan, and they provided feedback on that. I do not have anybody signed up to speak this evening. However, if anybody in the audience wishes to do so, please step to the podium, state your name for the record, and you'll have three minutes.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Ellie Lammers. In a week, I graduate from North Creek High School, and I understand that might make me look like some kind of idealistic young person who has simple answers to every solution. But while there might be some degree of truth to that, I also bring a decent amount of personal experience, as well as the insights I've gained from several interviews with countless city or county experts on the topic of homelessness in so much county with me today. In summary, I would like to address the fact that the reality is the services on all the brochures and websites paint a picture that makes it seem like there are far more resources available than there actually are. In particular, the services offered to these vulnerable populations are very often much unavailable or maxed out or gone. In particular, I've identified four particularly vulnerable populations that me and my family have seen fall through the cracks countless times in Snohomish County, particularly the elderly, women, children, and disabled. So I guess my overarching idea is, is there anything that Bothell can do on a city level to meet the needs of these vulnerable people? So a few little anecdotes I have here. My mom has volunteered weekly at Esther's Place Shelter for Women and Children in Everett for about eight years. So she's seen quite a few things over the years, and my family has seen quite a few things. One particular, there's countless cases that continue to shock me. I'm like, how does that person fall through the cracks of the system? There are often dire circumstances that just, there's nothing that can be done. There was a 55-year-old woman who suffered with seizure disorder, Crohn's disease, and a heart condition, living with her autistic son in a car. It took them four months and two seizures later to find housing because they couldn't find anything. All the phone numbers wouldn't answer or were full. All the resources essentially were unavailable. Another woman, a 65-year-old lady, she could barely walk because her living in her car caused her ankles as well so bad that she could barely walk. It took her several months to find housing as well. An instance that I personally witnessed just last Wednesday, I went in to just talk to a few of the people at Esther's Place, the shelter that my mom volunteers at, just to see what their thoughts on the issue were. And I met this five-year-old boy. He was like, oh, I love cars. I turn six next week. I hope I get Hot Wheels like I did from Santa at Christmas. And we had a good talk, but then I found out that after visiting three different social service organizations, this five-year-old boy and his mom were unable to find any housing and had to resort to camping in an encampment known for drugs and violence because they couldn't find any resources after calling countless numbers. I also want to say that we want to thank you for any efforts to increase the low-income housing in the region. Our family has a five-year-old boy who has benefited greatly from this. this housing, and we're very grateful for this low-income housing. But basically, my final point is I would encourage you to think about how the city of Bothell could use its resources to help these people that are falling through the cracks.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? Please step to the podium, state your name for the record, and you'll have three minutes.

My name is Jordan Cavarta. While I walked in here today with a fresh manicure, my hair done, clean clothes, and shoes on my feet, I think back to a time in my life where this wasn't so easily the case. My dad was our sole breadwinner growing up. He came from an extremely well-off, stereotypical LA rich kid family and was an engineer in Seattle by the time I was born. He worked my whole childhood and everything before it to provide for his four kids and his wife. We lived a life I wish I'd been more outwardly grateful for at the time because I watched everything crumble in slow motion when he lost his job back in 2019. We didn't know it back at the time, but he had early onset Alzheimer's and would never be able to work again. The next year of my life was spent in the Social Security office every other Friday, listening to my parents talk about finance through closed doors, watching my mom crunch numbers at the kitchen table almost every night. I remember his first ER trip after he got diagnosed and the silence that filled the space between the numbers that the lady at the front desk was saying at the hospital. Before I knew it, my mom was working again after being a stay-at-home mom for over 20 years. Everyone knew it wasn't optimal and was never her choice, but choice wasn't really a thing for us back then. Between working as a hairdresser while earning her master's in education, all while raising the only kid she had left at home, which was me, I watched my mom flip her entire life on a single dime just to keep a roof over my head. While it's no secret how inspirational my mom is, it still wouldn't be enough to pay our mortgage at the time. I live in Outlook Ridge, right above the switchback into the valley, where the median home price is roughly $800,000 to $900,000. Our monthly mortgage at the time was around $4,000 alone, not counting utilities and living expenses, and that was after years of paying it off. Add on the price of testing, medication, and hospital stays for my dad, and it was the perfect storm for everything to go wrong for us financially. I don't share this story today to walk out of here with sympathy and pity. I share it because it's a prime example of how close we all are to being a part of this issue. Without the grace of my extended family on my dad's side, I wouldn't be here speaking today about the homelessness crisis. I'd be a part of it. While I was lucky enough to have my grandparents pay off my house, I'd like to take Oh my gosh, sorry. I'd like to take the privilege of a voice that I have tonight and address the areas along the relationship between unemployment and housing where we can improve support, in this case, particularly to those living in Bothell, as I know y'all are a city organization. I think we view homelessness as an issue to be solved rather than prevented, which I think is its fatal flaw. It goes without saying that many individuals experiencing homelessness can't work their way back up the financial ladder alone, and it would be ignorant to simply suggest we build more shelters and or group homes, rather than asking ourselves in our city what kind of preventative measures we can take. My question for all of you today is what kind of institutions can be put in place to prevent the pipeline from unemployment to homelessness in cases such as mine and my family's? In other words, how can we prevent one family from losing their home rather than react to hundreds of them losing theirs? Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? And I do have one person on the attendee list and virtually Mr. Miller if you wish to speak, please raise your hand and we'll panel you in That is all I have mayor Thompson Thank you very much.

I Just wanted to point out that The last speaker mentioned you're looking forward to us engaging on these issues. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss issues that come up at public comment. So when we don't engage, don't feel it's because we don't care. Yes, you are welcome to email us and I'm sure we would be happy to share thoughts as we have time. All right, next up is reports, city manager.

Thank you, Mayor. As I mentioned, I have two informational updates to share with you tonight, and then we'll be turning things over for a couple of staff reports. First up, I'm going to start with a preview of an item that will be coming most likely next week from our Community Development Department related to Community Development Block Grants. As Council may be aware, the City, since 2014, has been part of an interlocal agreement with both King and Snohomish County to both receive and then administer funding through the Community Development Block Grant Program, which is funded through the federal government through the Housing and Urban Development Department. Collectively, there are a variety of projects that get funded from this anywhere between affordable housing and human services and many things that are quite important to the city. Collectively across the two counties for the cities that they administer for, both counties have taken about $8 million in CDBG funding. in 2025. So across the two counties, it's a pretty significant amount of money. So the thing to know about CDBG is that when you are of a certain size of city and under 50,000, really the option then is to have that money distributed through counties. Once cities go over the population threshold of 50,000, They become an entitlement city, meaning that they have the opportunity to receive money directly and then must administer the programs. Staff has been working to monitor the progress of the situation, and it isn't like a situation where there's a bell that rings once you go over $50,000 and then automatically checks start coming in. So there is a process of working with the federal government. And we finally had a breakthrough in the last month or so of getting information and getting HUD to acknowledge us as over 50,000 and give us some projections of the progress of being notified would be coming probably in the fall. The complication, because life is never easy, is that both counties, in their interlocal agreement, there's a three-year renewal process, and that deadline is coming up at the beginning of July. So we really have to make a pretty quick decision on whether or not to continue funding through the counties, and they'll administer grant programs of which there are projects in Bothell that would be eligible, or if we decide to then receive money directly, which has been estimated for us but not binding, of around $200,000 a year. So we're looking into that. There's a number of considerations that we're trying to process through, including working with the counties to find out how much of that funding of that $8 million in 2025 has made it to Bothell projects, like how competitive have we been, Would there be more money distributed if we were direct recipients? And then as council is aware of, and we have talked about in other situations as well, there's also language in federal agreements these days that we are part of some litigation on an injunction about some federal government requirements of which we did not qualify for protections against HUD funding because we weren't receiving it directly and now we would be. So we've got a lot of analysis to do and we're gonna do it in a short order. I just wanted to put this on your radar in that you will see something in your packet next week and usually we have kind of a slow build up to things when there's decisions and this will be a situation where there will be a quicker decision. The good news on it though too is that nothing is forever. Again, if in the decision, we'll make a decision that'll impact the city for three years and then we'll figure it out either way. So staff will have a recommendation for you when this comes back and we'll have a lot more details, but wanted to put that on your radar. A little higher note and a little bit more fun is that, as you may be well aware, we have been talking about it for a while, is that the FIFA World Cup is coming to the area. It's a global soccer tournament, if you're not familiar, or football, more appropriately. And in 2026, as you may know, it's being hosted in North America by cities in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. And Seattle is one of those cities. host cities for six matches. Bothell has been working on implementing collective experiences to welcome individuals to Bothell and hopefully have them come experience a little bit of Bothell and also be able to appreciate, again, that whole day or a lifetime. Bothell's everyone's hometown, so we want to welcome people home. If you've been through downtown in the last couple of days, you'll have seen some changes, including some activations that we're proud to be announcing tomorrow. You'll see a news flash go out. We've been working with businesses and the Chamber of Commerce and implementing funding through a Port of Seattle grant with business matches and city matches to really activate. What you'll see is online, you'll find we'll have a website that has a map of different activities and businesses that visitors can go to, including places where matches will be shown. So if they're looking for a place to watch a match in another area on TV, they'll see that. You'll also see banners indicating a walking route from downtown to the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia campus, of which we are partnering with UW Bothell for four viewing, no-cost free watch parties for the community on June 25th, July 6th, July 14th, and the 19th, which is the final match. We'll be hosting those out on the activity fields out at UW Bothell. There'll be games for kids and families to participate in, and the North Shore Youth Soccer Association is helping support that effort, as well as on July 19, there'll be inflatables and different activities. You'll also see then art activations throughout downtown, including banners, floor graphics on the sidewalks saying where you're at, and I'll come back to that here in a second, as well as some business art activations that really are freshening up downtown. Those floor graphics also include QR codes, which, upon scanning, launch a virtual guide hosted by Bali the Otter, a chat bot that connects you to available experiences and navigates around the Bothell Soccer Village, which is our hosting of it. So playing with that a little bit today at my lunch break, went out and Bali will ask you if you're looking for something to do, somewhere to go, navigation, offer you a map. different things and you're able to interact. So very helpful. And then last but not least, down in the park at Bothell Landing, there was also a soccer-themed, but not World Cup-themed welcome sign for all who are traveling to and through Bothell. So we're excited to showcase Bothell and the region to the world and hope that we make new friends and acquaintances along the way. I'm now going to turn things over. We have two staff reports. So we are going to be hearing tonight first on an update on the draft housing action plan. Council may recall many policies that were part of our comprehensive plan discussions that was adopted in 2024. And then also we've had several conversations about the Housing Action Plan and it is one of the Council's priorities. So we are now at a stage where the Housing Action Plan is now a draft that's live and open for public feedback. We wanted to provide counsel with an update as well as to the community. So tonight we are joined by Ray Sosa, a senior planner in community development, as well as Jacqueline Sampson, who is a planner in community development as well. They will walk us through some updates and what to expect. With that, I'll turn things over to Ray.

Thank you so much, Kyle. One moment while we get the presentation fully loaded on the screen. It's giving us a bit of a technical issue there. Bear with us just a few more moments.

Mayor Thompson, we were having some technical issues when we were setting up earlier. We may need to take like a five-minute break while I contact our IT department.

All right, let's do it. Do you think five minutes will be enough? All right, it is 621. We'll be back at 627. Welcome back. I think we have our tech figured out, and I will kick it back over to the city manager or Ray and Jacqueline.

Thank you all. Good evening, council, and apologies for the technical difficulties. We'll get started. Just to note, there is a five-second lag between my screen and the big screen here, so if I pause myself, it's just because I'm giving the presentation time to catch up on the main screen. But as I mentioned, good evening, council. Thank you for being here tonight. Tonight we'll be briefing you all on the housing action plan. No action is required tonight. As I mentioned, we'll just be briefing on the housing action plan, which the draft is now live and open for public comment. So I mentioned, so you have seen this several times and I have talked about this multiple times, but it's worth reiterating the why we're doing this Housing Action Plan. We're doing this Housing Action Plan because it simply is an update to our 2018 Housing Strategy, a document that was written many years ago, a time before the current housing issues that we've been seeing today. And this Housing Action Plan builds upon the policies established in our comp plan that we updated in 2024 and also aligns with recent Washington state housing bills such as HB 1220 and SB 5248 which allow for more housing options across our city and require that the new housing options accommodate for populations making under 80% AMI. And these also support our housing growth targets set by the state. The chart to the right shows a visualization of the housing growth that we have to meet in the next 20 years. Three-fourths of that housing growth has to be for individuals and families making 80% or below AMI, including for permanent supportive housing and extremely low-income families. And so where we're at in the housing action plan timeline, we started this work back in September of 2024, scoping out the previous housing strategy and looking at ways that we wanted to update that in alignment with a comp plan update that was happening at the time. Then in quarter two of last year, so around April, we began looking for a consultant to help us with community engagement. As we heard from both the city council and planning commission, that community engagement is a key component of this housing action plan update. And so when we selected our consultant in June, that consultant helped us out with strategies to identify the populations that we want to engage, including the engagement methods. And we did our first engagements starting in November of last year. My colleague will dive into that a little bit later in the presentation. And so we are now here in June of this year with the action plan draft fully up on our Engage Bothell website. in our city about the website as well, where the public can comment on the plan, comment throughout the plan and provide questions, comments and suggestions. And I will be adopting this plan by the end of this year. And so I talked a lot about why we're doing this plan, but now what is this housing action plan exactly? And so this housing action plan helps us identify those goals and strategies to support housing opportunities. It reflects the current and future housing needs of Bothell residents and ensures that Bothell remains an attractive place to live for all ages and all wages. And lastly, it also connects to the council priority, making sure that Bothell is a connected and thriving city. And as I mentioned multiple times, it aligns with our comp plan as well. And so now passing it to my colleague to talk about a little more in depth of our community engagement that we've done.

Okay. So community engagement is important for the housing action plan in order to shape it with the people of Bothell in mind. And so our team has been doing different approaches to reach out to the community, especially both bringing them into City Hall and as well as meeting the community where they're at. So that includes in-person events. We've been tabling at different community events. That includes... There was a Holi event held by the CHI organization here in Bothell. So we were there. We were also at the Husky Run 5K, the UW Bothell Block Party, as well as the city's Sustainamania events, so just to name a few of those. We've presented different school events as well. Through the Engage Bothell program platform, we have posted our storyboards, which is basically where Um, city members can post just their own stories about their house housing and they can even interact with each other, comment on each other, kind of like a forum. Um, so we've gotten engagement through that platform as well. Um, we have also had our focus groups earlier in 2025, um, within our focus groups, we had both, um, are young professionals, seniors, college students, and homeowners. So we had different focus groups to target these populations. There we asked different questions about the Housing Action Plan, kind of get a feel of what their goals and values were in regards to housing. We've also had in coordination with human services, we met with both tenants and landlords and held a tenant landlords rights workshop with them to get more engagement on their needs as well. So all the feedback that we received throughout this whole process is contributed to the writing of the draft today.

And so, next steps. So, we took the draft to Planning Commission last month to present the same presentation we presented to you all tonight. And Planning Commission feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The only Mesa-Saxon feedback they had for us was to continue our engagement, which we are. So, now that the Housing Action Plan draft is live this summer, we are doing a summer of engagement, continuing to go to the public and asking them to provide feedback on now the draft Housing Action Plan. Staff will close the public feedback process on August 31st which will then, staff will then begin to synthesize the feedback received this summer into updating the Housing Action Plan to reflect that feedback and we'll be bringing it to the Council in October or November to present an updated draft and then go through the adoption process with a target goal of adopting this document by the end of the year. That's an exciting conclusion. No action is required tonight. We wish to provide an update. Thank you for your time.

Council Member Alcabra.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you both. This is very exciting times, finally getting it done. It's great that we're doing community engagement, which is the demand side of things. How about the supply side of things, the developer and the builder community? How much, I know there's, I mean, when the housing plan, action plan itself, the document on the website, it's a very long and detailed one, so there's a long list of things that we're saying, incentive this, incentive that. Is that direct feedback from them? Have we engaged with them? Because we got an email today from one of the constituents on that side, or one of the stakeholders on that side, that said maybe we should do this or that. What do you guys think?

I appreciate the question. And parallel to the Housing Action Plan, we're also doing certain code updates, which we spoke last month about the inclusion of zoning in our MFT code. And those we have engaged with developers mainly to talk about those code updates as well, which are all tied to the Housing Action Plan. So yes, to answer your question, yes, we have been speaking with developers and the development community.

How often do we have conversations with that community?

We've been having conversations with them as we work through the several stages of the code updates. And so next month, we'll be coming back to present an updated MFTE code to you all, depending on how the conversation goes. Through the rest of the summer and in the fall, we may do one more touch point with developers to present to them our updated MFTE code, given the feedback the council gives us. And aside from that, we also, community development has something called the Site Developer The development, I forget the acronyms, but the fact we have a quarterly touch point with developers to give them updates on the work that we're doing, not just on the housing, but all the community development work. So we're very much in touch with them throughout our work.

That's great. Do we know, because we know here's how much, how many housing units we need, you know, for the next 20 years. Do we get, if we do X... then the developers will say, okay, fine, we'll give you y units if you do this type thing. Cuz when we say we want MFTE, do we know how many more extra additional units we're gonna get if we apply that, for example?

Can you expand on that question a little bit?

I'm just saying we're providing incentives, right? Like how much additional less than 80% housing is that going to provide?

Ray, if you'd like. I think, Council Member, one of the things to keep in mind on that is that there's so many other variables other than what the city can do. So our role is to create conditions through the policy choices that you can make of what can be done. And then there's all these economic factors and financing and everything else, too. So one of the, just as a reminder, and we'll be coming up on it in September, that's part of where our commitment of bringing you development updates every six months is to show what is the market producing. And we're also monitoring that on the internal, too, and for the quarterly meetings that Ray referenced, being able to have those conversations of what what adjustments need to be made. So I don't know that there's, like, an exact thing that we can do of where if we do this, we'll get the number of housing units provided. But it's the ongoing conversation of the check and adjust that we have to do.

I appreciate that. You know, we're going to come up, we're going to sign off on some policy thing in the next few months. Like, how do we know that we're actually doing the right thing? You know, that's my question. really. Like, how are we going to sign off on? Say, OK, approved, ship this thing. But will you ship it, and then you wait for feedback, and then you're going to adjust, but are we shipping it with the right approach? I'm not arguing about this. I'm just saying, how do we know we're on the right path?

Yeah, no, I understand the question now. So there's two things to it. So one, the housing action plan, the strategies and goals are more of just, I would say, non-binding. So they're objectives, but they're not necessarily binding in a legal way, more of aspiration things that we should do in a work plan the next few years. So there's that part. And then the second part is when we were looking at the MFT code update last year, we did go through ARCH, through the sub-consultant, to do the economic analysis, which we mentioned through the MFT work. And that is something we can continue to do as we look through the MFT code, is to have their economic analysis help us with the performance to gauge how effective our code can be when that is requested.

I have more questions, but I will yield to my colleagues. Council Member Dodd.

Thank you. Thanks for the presentation, Ray and Jacqueline. Council Member Alcabra's question made me think, when I first heard him say, how will we know we're doing the right thing? I was like, well, as a joke, I thought ESPN, like Mean Girls. But rather than developing the ability to tell the future, I wanted to check in on what the cadence will be that we check in on our results. Like, when can we expect as a council to review the policies we've implemented and the the way that our development environment has evolved after enacting those changes.

Yeah. So one of the strategies of the Housing Action Plan is to implement some sort of tracking and monitoring process that can help us get to what you're asking. And that's something that we are here at staff, we are very open to working with both the Council and the Planning Commission to develop what exactly that mechanism and Mechanism a cadence should be for tracking. We haven't thought it fully out yet since we're still in that stage of development. We're still in the stage of developing the goals but Through this process once that plan is adopted and once we receive the feedback we are definitely open to Exploring what that tracking should look like because it is a strategy and I don't depend on the housing action plan Awesome.

Thank you very much.

Yeah Oh Deputy Mayor

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for this presentation and for keeping us up to date. Like Councilmember Dodd said, I really want to make sure that there is a cadence of updates where we're able to follow through on the results and impacts of whatever is passed and adopted. But my question for you is... Is there going to be another survey coming out? I jumped on to Engage Bothell and found the project and the ability for folks to kind of, you know, read the draft, like weigh in with an email. But is there any other public engagement opportunity that might be coming between now and August?

Yes, there will be. So, we previewed this at the block party a few, a week or so ago at the end of May. We had an activity where people can go and vote on the, so staff selected top 10 housing goals and objectives from the housing action plan and the community could vote on the top three favorite through a beat activity where they would put a coin on a jar that was in that strategy and so we were tallying the votes. And so we're taking that activity and putting it online on Engage Buffalo and we'll be getting that live in the coming few days once we figure out the logistics of putting that on the platform. So it's a more interactive way of voting than a traditional survey or poll. But we're very excited for this activity since it was a very popular activity in our in our event and people really responded well to it. So we're excited to get that digitally online and we want to make sure we're doing it right. So that's why we haven't put it out there just yet, but it will come in the next few days and that also will be open throughout the summer.

Fantastic. That's great to hear. It sounds like you're finding like an interactive way to do it too, that it can be engaging. I will definitely look for it and make sure I put it in my newsletter.

Thank you. I appreciate that so much.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate you guys coming out and showing us the work you're doing. Really looking forward to getting this thing done and shipped as you probably are as well. And thank you for your time tonight.

All right, our second presentation, we're going to cross our fingers. Our second presentation tonight is an exciting one. As I mentioned in the review, our last year of the previous Safe Streets and Sidewalks levy was 2025. And as council may recall, just putting in context and for our two new council members too, as we were wrapping up that levy, there were... A lot of the projects or more ambitious things that are on our capital facilities panel list was waiting to see what would happen with the next levy. And the good news is that then what we were able to do in 2025 is really take care of the road conditions and be responsive to the community of what they're looking for and also do some innovation. So tonight, there's two things. One is... continued kudos to Public Works for annually through our last levy, and they'll continue doing it now, is publishing an annual report. So the 2025 Safe Streets and Sidewalks Annual Accountability Report is up and available on the city's website. But instead of walking you through a document tonight, We are going to hear a little bit about one of the areas showcased and funded by our levy. And I'm going to turn things over to our Public Works Director, Erin Lenhart, to kick things off. And then she's going to introduce you to Chad Austin and Wyatt, who are part of our street maintenance team, whom you've seen probably many times out and about in the community, just not normally here in council chambers. So we're excited to have them here to talk about their work and highlight the great service that they're providing at Bothell. With that, I'm going to turn things over to Erin.

Thank you, Kyle. Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council. Very excited this evening to introduce you to some of our excellent street operations professionals in public works, about whom I am very proud. I'm guessing that you know. And as Kyle mentioned, we decided to start switching things up. You've seen me or one of the leadership team from Public Works before you every year for the past eight years, sort of reiterating information from the annual report. So that annual report is provided in the Council packet for this week, as well as it's available online. The facts and figures are there and available to you if you'd like to see those. But we thought we would make this a little more interesting and introduce you to some of the people who are delivering the services funded by the levy. So this evening, I am joined by Chad, Austin, and Wyatt, and they are going to scroll through areas of their expertise for you. And again, no action requested this evening. It's a briefing, but staff will provide information and then we'll wrap up at the end. So with that, I will turn it over to Chad Holti.

All right. Good evening, Council. The Public Works Streets Division is responsible for maintenance of 311 miles of roadway, including temporary repairs such as potholes and permanent repairs with asphalt patches. Ultimately, these activities help keep the safe streets accessible by fixing hazards and addressing infrastructure issues. We create smoother and safer conditions for everyone, whether they are driving, walking, or biking. And for a streets asphalt patching overview, our streets division continuously repairs potholes across the city with higher volumes typically occurring during the winter due to weather-related pavement damage. Areas reoccurring potholes issues are prioritized by paving projects and larger or more permanent repair need to be referred to a capital division for long-term solutions. The Streets Division provides localized patching on neighborhood, local, and arterial roadways. We focus on smaller repairs, while larger preservation patching or pavement projects are managed through other programs. Work is prioritized based on severity, with hazards, conditions receiving the highest priority, followed by citizen-reported concerns and issues identified by staff. And with that, I will turn it over to Austin, her maintenance specialist.

Thank you, Chad. I'm going to go over some coordination efforts as well as processes and repairs from 2025. Coordination between engineering and operations. So street operation works closely with capital division and we coordinate projects and try to help each other meet each other's needs. The streets department is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance. and small quantity patching as well as localized patching. Capital focuses more on long term large scale projects such as overlays or large quantity patching as well as crack sealing. Together in the winter time we meet To go over future projects. We're not overlapping and, you know, wasting funds somewhere that say capital is going to come through and do a large overlay. We would rather them do that. And we can focus our efforts more on like maybe a local road. In 2025, the streets division filled 923 potholes ranging from a one by one, one foot by one foot to a two foot by 12 foot and anywhere in between that. This was much less than our average previously from the years 2017 to 2024. Our average was 1901 potholes. And a lot of that has to do with the implementation of new equipment and capital overlays. And those addressed failing pavement prone to pothole development. patching process so we receive either a customer action request or car or an employee finds a issue in field and that gets forwarded to a subject matter expert for asphalt patching and they develop a plan to repair that issue and then crews dispatch to do the repair and from there we contact the car requester if it was a car and notify them and then formally close the car and then we track all that work in the streets SharePoint log which we are currently moving to Lucid II to better track things but currently we're using SharePoint and then The 2025 patching summary, in 2025 we completed 20,851.5 square feet of patching. Our previous average was 9,990 square feet a year. 2025 that was over 42 different patches and was 367 and a half tons of asphalt and we completed one of the largest projects to date since I've been here which was a 275 foot by 10 and 3 quarter foot patch on East Riverside Drive It was an area that was Failing very bad and we did a lot of potholes in that area. So we took advantage of some of our new equipment and that we received in 2024-2025 to complete that job. And from there, I will turn it over to Wyatt Connors, Maintenance Senior.

Thank you. So the streets operations has become more efficient with the addition of new equipment, including the compact track loader, a 30-inch cold planer, and a pickup broom. This year we got a new Vogel a power paver and a diamond built tack distributor In 2025 we implemented the compact track loader the cold planer and the pickup broom into our patching operation It has increased efficiencies allowed crews to safely complete more asphalt repairs in less time than in prior years It has also reduced material costs by allowing crews to mill and Replace two to three inches of asphalt rather than full tearouts with base replacement then repaving Some areas still require full depth restoration, but many repairs can be effectively completed with asphalt overlay So this year we added the Vogel a power paver it replaced an aging latent drag box that has been that as well exceeded its life and is no longer supported by the manufacturer and The advanced technology reduces physical strain on staff while providing more precise and consistent asphalt application. We also added a 60 gallon diamond built tack distributor. It allows crews to apply asphalt tack coat more consistently and efficiently during patching operations. Previously, tack coat was applied manually using brooms or a non-efficient pump sprayer. Proper application of asphalt tack code is essential as it creates a strong bond between new and old asphalt. I'll turn it back over to Chad.

Thank you. Overall, the streets division has improved efficiency and safety through new equipment and better coordination, resulting in safer streets, more effective operations, and improved customer service. And for council action, no council... Our no action is requested this evening. The 2025 Safe Streets and Sidewalks Annual Report is available on the city's website. Thank you.

Council Member Alcabra.

Thank you guys so much. It's so awesome to hear this, to see this and the work you guys are doing. I think Boyd has some competition about the cool tech you guys are using. I thought the sewer stuff was really cool, but I think this stuff is cooler. So thank you guys.

You're going to get them in trouble. They're going to be like, walk into the office and be like, you're old news, Boyd. Council Member Dodd.

Thank you. Thanks for the update and thanks for coming to join us at our meeting to deliver it. I'm not willing to pit departments against each other, but I think the council member has a good point. I just wanted to say I hope that you all felt like the voters renewing the Safe Streets levy was a celebration of the work that you do. That reflects a lot more on you and your teams than it does on us. So I just hope you guys really took that in and felt that. So thanks for being here.

Council Member Curd. Thanks for the presentation. It's always cool to see the big equipment being used in the field. And whenever I'm like a kid, like, whoa, whenever I see you doing work. And just because we're doing fewer potholes doesn't mean that you're not keeping our roads in excellent condition. And I'll share with you that I had a constituent come and I was stealing myself because they were going to talk about potholes. I was like, oh, we do so much for potholes. We're so good. And the potholes that they were complaining about were in Washtenaw. So go figure. No complaints from the people that are in the know. and i wanted to thank you for bringing up the equipment because using more efficient equipment is helping reduce costs in the long run and also protect our environment by using less material so that's really important to me it's important to us up here on council and to our constituents too so thank you deputy mayor

Thank you. I think Director Lenhart knows one of the questions I'm going to ask, but I'll get there. The Council Member Curd brought up the strategy around doing fewer potholes, but it sounds to me, and tell me, like correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the new strategy like preventing potholes so you have fewer to fill? Okay. See, that's amazing. That's an excellent reason to have fewer potholes because it's prevention at that point. And then I'm going to ask you, just because I'm curious, when was the, I'm going to quote, aging latent drag box first brought into operations in the city and what year was it made? Public Works trivia.

Yeah. So we think we got it in 1992, we're pretty sure, based on some old documents that we found. And it was purchased from Snohomish County. When it was purchased from Snohomish County, it was already retired at that point. And they dug it out of a grass field full of grass. There is no exact date because the serial number on it, you just can't find it. Our guesstimate is probably somewhere in the mid-70s, we would guess, what that piece of equipment is from. We don't have an exact.

I like that you guys have the same curiosity. You're like, let me explain the journey that we have gone through trying to figure out the answer to that question. Okay.

I feel like we're speaking the same language here. Um, I, I looked at it and I was just like, either that's like world war two or Vietnam era, somewhere in there. Um, and I wasn't wrong based on what you said. Um, so thank you for going down that rabbit hole and trying to understand, you know, it's, it's provenance at this point, it's an antique. Um, so last question is, um, will the paper be getting a name?

Yes, it will be getting named here soon. What's the process for that? Going through kind of our communications team and the rest of the staff, and then we'll go out to vote for the public.

I love that. Then I won't even suggest a name because it'll, it'll, there will be a list of names for us to choose from. And I just know, and you've probably experienced this, that people get really excited when they see the street sweepers and the snow plows. And so I just hope that this paver feels the same amount of love and the folks working on the paver, you know, will feel appreciated when it's seen out and about. There's going to be a fun name, I'm sure. Thank you for humoring Council by naming a paper for us. Thank you.

I always appreciate it when you bring staff in that actually does work to talk to us. No offense to the lovely people who push pins for a living like me, but it's really cool just to just hear from the people that are actually on the ground doing the actual work. I had the same. I don't remember who said it, so I'm not going to call anybody out. But I love that we've invested in equipment that allows us to be more productive over time. Like we're going to be reaping the rewards of that for a very long time. And hopefully we'll have even fewer potholes to fill next year because we've done such a good job this year. So thanks, y'all. Really appreciate it.

Thank you, council. And that completes the city manager report portion tonight. And I'll turn things back over to you.

All right, next up is council reports and conversations. Council Member Gerd, I appreciate the getting out in front and not having to look around for five minutes while everybody decides whether or not they should push a button.

Conversations. Tomorrow is the Metropolitan Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting, and so I'm sure... You all are on the edge of your seats, but one of the things that MSWAC does is advise King County on solid waste division rates. And we heard a while ago, And it was pretty early, so I didn't share that rates were going to be pretty steep. But over the course of the year, the county's solid waste division had gone through kind of a process of re-looking at the rate increases that were needed to fund a pretty important suite of capital projects to extend the life of our twilight year landfill. And they spread some costs out and did some analyses and were able to reduce the rates. So the rates that MSWAC will be writing a letter in support of are approximately 73 cents per month on average in 2027 of increase. So it's pretty phenomenal to hear responsive county government hearing that Our constituents and our communities are feeling the burden of increased utility costs, and so this is one where I'm excited to sign the letter indicating our support. If you'd like more information, please email me.

Deputy Mayor?

I will just say thank you, Council Member Curd, for serving on that committee and preparing to represent us in that way. It's been a long time coming. There's been a lot of conversations around these utility rates, but we're hearing it from every utility, and that's where there is concern. So thank you for surfacing those concerns and being part of that letter. Thank you.

I would love to entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Council Member Dodd?

I was thinking, and I'd like to move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. I have a motion from Council Member Dodd, I'm glad you were thinking about it, to approve the consent agenda with a second from Deputy Mayor Aldrich. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? Seeing none, City Clerk?

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name.

Did you want to speak to the motion?

I was going to speak to the motion. I'm very excited to see the disability pride flag on here and to see this for the first time next month. And so thank you, staff, for bringing that back and moving it through the process.

Okay. Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council Member Ongulary?

Yes.

Mayor Thompson?

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Alderks. Yes. Council Member Curd.

Yes.

Council Member Miles. Yes. Council Member Dodd. Yes. Council Member Alcabra.

Yes.

Passes 7-0.

Thank you. All right. Ordinances and resolutions. Our first agenda bill of the night is about authorization to issue taxable bonds to reimburse the general fund for property acquisition costs. City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor, and good news and good evening. several weeks we've had some property acquisition transactions in front of council and our second one that was approved or authorized last week did in fact close and record with the county today so we are officially owners of two more parcels with those two parcels we've been funding we funded that acquisition through the city's general fund which temporarily reduced available fund balance and cash reserves The intent all along has been to restore the general fund, to align the financial structure with long-term planning practices, and to bring you through that process and get authorization to move forward with some financing. I'm going to turn things over to our finance director, Kuan Wang.

Thank you, Kyle. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. So tonight, we are back in front of you asking for your authorization to give the finance director the authority to issue and sell taxable bonds to reimburse the city's general fund for principal and interests and related costs. paid for the acquisition of two properties for future development. As the city manager mentioned, the background of this, the city recently purchased two properties intended for future development and community investment. By doing that, we funded the purchase using general fund. So in order to free up the general fund, we are proposing to use limited tax general obligation bonds to reimburse ourselves and they will free up the amount for other purposes during the holding period. So taxable limited... tax geo bonds. So we are asking for the authority up to $3.6 million. So the bond will reimburse the city's general fund for both principaled, about $3.1 million, interest and expenses. We solicited competitive bids. We had four bids. In this interest rate environment, it was a very difficult process, but we got a really good bid for about a 5.1% borrowing. So we will repay the bond with proceeds from the property's future sale. So during this period, again, we will free up the general fund amount by using this bond financing. This is a taxable structure because the purpose of the properties will not give us the tax exempt status. So the borrowing cost is a little bit higher than the tax exempt bonds. But again, both the interests and the principles will be reimbursed by future sale of the property or redevelopment of the property. So we are holding the general fund harmless by doing this. So with that brief introduction, again, we are asking for your consideration to authorize the finance director to issue and sell taxable bonds to reimburse the city's general fund for principal, interest, and related costs paid for the acquisition of the two properties for future development. If I can answer any questions.

And if nobody has any question, Council Member?

Just for my personal education, how, so can you explain very briefly, I know it's a complicated technical, that you had to outsource it to somebody to do it, but like very briefly, how does the process work? issuing bonds and then us paying for the bonds?

Yeah so we use our city's finance advisor PFM financial advisor they work with our bond council and then really we send out a competitive bid proposal to solicit, you know, bids from banks and from other investment firms. So that's the process. And then we receive those competitive bids back. And among those, we chose the most competitive one. So it's through, again, an instrument that we hired PFM to have that for us.

And competitive meaning the least amount of yield payments? How does it work? How do we pay off? Investors require, you know... a regular payment?

Yes. So, over the next 10 years, we will be paying the interest to, again, pay off the debt. With the competitive bid, it's not the lowest cost or the highest return. We had different measurements, and again, we chose this one because both the interest rate and our ability to pay ahead of the 10-year maturity without cost. So we chose this particular bank to allow us for the financing.

And to just, the assumption is that, or maybe, I don't know the assumption, but then we'll pay off that, not pay off the regular payments we pay, the interest rate, the interest payments we have to pay back through the general fund. That's correct. Okay.

But at the end of the day, if or when we sell the properties or reinvest it, again, the general fund will be paid of using proceeds of that sale or that reinvestment.

How are we able to afford them? So that's what I'm not understanding. How are we able to afford the interest payments but not the... Because... 3.6 million.

Good question. Because up front, we will be paying $3.6 million. And that would hold up that amount for the next 10 years, as an example. But instead of paying that up front, we're just borrowing and pay as you go. I mean, just like your regular mortgage, I cannot afford paying... you know, X million dollar upfront, but I'm able to borrow and using the income that I earned. And again, through the regular tax that we generate, the tax revenue will be going to pay for the interest. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Kuan, for the presentation and the information. So 5.1% interest on a 3.1 million comes to 158,000. So the difference between 3.6 million and 3.1 million is 500,000. So that means we have borrowed interest for interest to cover three years. Is that right?

So the borrowing, we are asking for a 10-year term, but so anytime during that 10-year, we have the ability to prepay. So I really don't have any firm number because we will be able to prepay at any time if, again, we will be able to sell or to reinvest the property. Sure. Do we pay interest monthly on this bond, or how do we pay? Yeah, we pay it on a semi-annual basis, so every six months, because for the sake of our administrative cost, so we'll be just doing that every six months.

Okay, so on a $3.1 million, is my calculation right, we are borrowing at 5.1%, so it comes to $158,000. So we pay every six months half of that, is that right? So three years or... No, I'm just saying annual interest that we pay as a city. Oh, actually we are borrowing 3.6 million, right? Correct. 3.6 million at a 5.1% interest, is that right? Correct.

So right now, according to the schedule, we are paying about... About 260. So I'm going through the schedule. So the first payment is about $80,000. So the next one is about $87,000. So it's also compounding interest. So it's about $80,000 per payment over the next year.

My only question is, once we are exhausted with the $500,000, the difference between $3.6 million and $3.1 million, we have a $500,000 positive cash, and we use that funds to pay interest every six months, is that right? That's correct. Okay, after three years, we will not have the funds to pay unless we sell the property. Let's say we don't sell the property in three years, then we need to pay it from the general fund, is that right?

No, the general fund will be paying, starting the first payment. So, again, we are borrowing against our own credit. So, as we collect from different tax revenues, the amount will be going to the interest payment. Okay, good. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so... So the general fund will be keeping this, but in terms of cash flow, if you look at it from a cash flow point of view, instead of coming up with $3.1 million upfront, we're able to kind of have a payment plan. And then at the end of the day, when we sell the properties or reinvest them, we'll get both the principal and interest back. Sure. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

If nobody else has anything to say, I would be more than happy to entertain a motion. Council Member Dodd.

Thanks. I move that we authorize the finance director to issue and sell taxable bonds to reimburse the city's general fund for principal and interest and related costs paid for the acquisition of two properties for future development.

I second.

I have a motion from Council Member Dodd to move the recommended action and a second from Council Member Anguillari. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? Seeing none, City Clerk.

Thank you. Please say yes or no, and I call your name, Councilmember Ongilary.

Yes.

Mayor Thompson.

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Alderks. Yes. Councilmember Curd.

Yes.

Councilmember Miles. Yes. Councilmember Dodd. Yes. Councilmember Alcabra.

Yes.

Passes 7-0.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Quan. Next up, we have an agenda bill, 26013, for the Shoreline Regional Fire Authority Annexation City Manager.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Council. This item should feel fairly familiar to you and that it's not substantially different than what we discussed last week. Before you tonight, though, is an opportunity for action. So while last week we received direction to come back this evening, tonight we have a resolution before you for consideration, which would formally request annexation of the city of Bothell into Shoreline Fire Department's Regional Fire Authority. And so that would be a step of us, again, notifying them that we are interested. They will return in kind. And then also authorizing staff to solicit letters of interest to serve on the pro-con committees. That will also be done in conjunction with advertisement of a public hearing. So we're going to talk a little bit about that tonight. But just to reset where we're at in this process and the council milestones for ARIF, annexation between now and November 3rd, should this move forward. Again, tonight is all about requesting action. What I want to be clear on is that there's still work to be done before anything final or the details that I know Council is interested in. This really gets the process going. The RFA Board would also accept, and then, as I mentioned, with that scheduling the public hearing, we'd be looking at that in July. Some of the items for discussion that, again, I know council has interest in that we will continue to be working on and doing so in earnest, in fact, at 8.30 tomorrow morning. Chief Cowan and I will be having a negotiation session, but we're looking at things around levels of service considerations, governance model, and finance impacts and budget refinements. All of this work will be going into what we will present for that public hearing, get feedback from the community, and then ultimately inform what goes on the ballot in November should Council continue to move forward. So you still, I think, as we talked about this journey, and I introduced the graphic of the timeline a couple of months ago, there's still opportunities to reflect and say, hmm, this isn't what I thought. So we're moving forward, though, and learning. We're following the same guideposts. Again, these are hopefully familiar, but just again, always think of that person hasn't seen this before we are really looking to uh... you can maintain the same values that we have over the last three years in this journey uh... in then way as some of the things that we really wanted to highlight is that as i mentioned is earliest tomorrow morning staff from the city and charlie rfa will be working on uh... rfa plan amendments and other legal agreements as needed so this is where Again, what the community will be considering in terms of joining the RFA has a lot of detail, but not everything. We will need some operational guidelines and real definition of what goes where, who pays for what, and what are we deciding. And so ultimately, an interlocal agreement will be drafted for council and board consideration. And we're working hard to have that done so that you'd be informed in July. That's our timeline commitment. The public hearing on July 7th, then, will be the opportunity for the community to provide some feedback, as well as, as I mentioned, we are looking for letters of interest to serve on the pro and con committees. And that is due in August. But as we also know, summer recess is coming. We're looking to tie all of this up no later than the July 21st meeting. One thing that I'm just going to add for context, I spoke with Chief Cowan earlier today who confirmed on Friday evening last week The Snohomish County District 10 fire commissioners also had a meeting. We've been monitoring to see what they would do. As you know, we have an interlocal agreement to operate fire out of their fire station in Snohomish County. And they are, it sounds like at their meeting tonight, they meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays, are also considering putting a ballot measure in front of their voters in the Snohomish County District 10. So then we would be looking and seeing in conjunction of if both pass then the fire district 10 would Dissolve would become part of shoreline fire RFA as with the city of Bothell So we're gonna keep an eye on that, too There's really nothing that the city has to consider in our negotiations for that again the fire district itself We have an agreement with them that we would be able to We'd be able to roll out of that. Not everything is going to flip like a switch on January 1st. So we'll make sure that they still receive services and that will end up sunsetting. Also, just an interest in speaking with Chief Cowan today, too, is that they also understand that while we're having conversations about governance for the Bothell City Council, the fire district would sunset and not be represented, although they'll still be very informed stakeholders as residents within the RFA boundaries. So all that being said tonight, again, this really formalizes a resolution that we will send over to the board. I believe the RFA board is also meeting this week, so we'll get this over to them, and they will be able to consider also accepting that resolution. is the necessary step through the RCWs of making sure that these two agencies can work together in this way. With that, Quan and I are here to answer any questions and I'll turn it over to you.

Council Member Alcabra.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, City Manager. I sent you that question. I mentioned this during our one-on-one, but I just wanted to... And you mentioned there will be something more formally written on the level of service analysis, current and post-merger, correct?

Yes. To answer to that question that came up last week, too, and what I do also owe counsel, I will send out the video link spliced to the portion of where Chief Cowan addresses that from Shoreline RFA's consideration. But we are absolutely working on the best way to articulate to voters of that balance of understanding of we're not painting a picture where there's not a scenario where they're not going to receive service, but putting in a contextualization of how that service is provided, at what cost, and at what responsiveness.

Hi. Council Member Gerd.

I'd like to move that we approve a resolution requesting annexation of the City of Bothell into the Shoreline Fire Department Regional Fire Authority, directing submittal of the resolution to the Shoreline RFA Board of Commissioners pursuant to RCW 52.26.300 and authorizing staff to solicit letters of interest to serve on the pro-con committees for a potential ballot measure on the November 3rd general election.

Second. I have a motion from Council Member Curd and a second from Council Member Dodd to move the recommended action. Would anybody like to speak to the motion?

I'll speak to it, Mayor. Okay. Thank you. I am anxious to get this to the community for feedback. So I am supporting taking this important step forward so that we can get to the public hearing. And I would just encourage members of the public to to look at the materials that are published in our agendas so that they can be informed on what it is we're considering, the background, the why, the process that has got us here, and be able to weigh in. One of the saddest public hearings are the ones where nobody shows up. And I would really like our community to be well-informed and prepared to share that feedback, knowing that, you know, ultimately they're going to have the final say with the ballot. So I'm just looking forward to moving this process along so that they can have their time and space to contribute to this process. So I will be supporting moving forward with this. Thank you.

Council Member Rainey-Leary.

I second with the Deputy Mayor Alrix. Just a quick question. I'm also new to this process. How does the public hearing works and how much time we give for a public to be aware that they can share their voice?

I'm going to ask the city clerk to cover that question or we could also follow up. But in terms of what is the code say in terms of publishing notice?

THE PUBLIC HEARING IS SCHEDULED FOR JULY 7th AND WE WILL PUBLISH IT NO LATER THAN JUNE 19th AND POST IT ON OUR WEBSITE AS WELL. AND THEN AT THE SAME TIME WE'LL BE GOING OUT WORKING WITH THE COMMS DEPARTMENT TO PREPARE THE NOTICE FOR LETTERS OF INTEREST FOR PEOPLE WHO WISH TO SERVE ON A PROPOSED PRO CON COMMITTEE AND THEN THEY'LL BE DOING SOME ENGAGEMENT REGARDING THE PUBLIC HEARING AS WELL.

And to tag on to that, as Laura mentioned, there's a statutory and legal requirements of how and the method and timing that we have to follow. And in this case, too, we are planning on doing additional communications because it's a matter of importance. We can put out factual information and also because of that pro-con solicitation. So you'll see it published the official legal way as well as through social media and news alerts.

Thank you.

And I will just say I'm encouraged that this is still going along. I hope the negotiations go well, and I hope that we can see this through all the way and nothing comes up in the meantime. But thank you for bringing this today, and I think we're probably good to go for a roll call.

Okay. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council Member Ongulary?

Yes.

Mayor Thompson?

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Alderks? Yes. Council Member Curd?

Yes.

Council Member Miles? Yes. Council Member Dodd? Yes. Council Member Acabra?

Yes.

Passes 7-0.

Thank you very much. And thank you. And Kyle's going to stay there because our next agenda bill is appointments to the AWC annual business meeting delegates.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. No presentation tonight, but just to walk you through what's in your packet. Again, there's an opportunity to participate in the annual meeting. I believe we get three delegates. Oftentimes, we're asking for participation by those who are attending in person. In this case, again, the meeting is available via Zoom. It is scheduled for Thursday, June 25th from 4 to 545. The agenda and all the materials will be posted on June 18th, but we also have to... provide who our delegates are before that. So there's always the opportunity as well to have delegates ready, and then the agenda might compel you on whether or not participation is necessary. Again, in previewing what we anticipate on the agenda, I think as I mentioned last week, there are some procedural aspects and then also board positions. The city's region is not out for representation, so there's not as much direct impact, but the board certainly does make decisions Impact the city so with that we're looking to see if there would be anybody who is available and interested in Participating or at least being on the watch list for knowing what's being discussed Deputy mayor I'm going to say it this way.

I have a standing meeting with the city manager scheduled for that time So I would gladly pass this on to somebody else. I

Council member Curd. I am technically available.

Council member Curd, I think you're technically available, might carry the day.

Great.

Congratulations.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you.

Do we need three people?

There's a mix. I'm looking at their website. They're actually reporting who's in. There's a mix of one, two, and three, depending on the city. Again, a lot of the annual meeting is a ceremonial formality and I don't anticipate anything super controversial. I think a lot of the board positions, not all of them, but there's some that are unopposed. So yeah, I think one is great. And again, it gives you an opportunity to monitor. What I also did read, and I don't wanna misquote it, but while there's registration, yeah, that's what it is. So there's registration is due early, and then voting delegate registrations, cancellations, and substitutions will be accepted until 2 p.m. on June 25th, so it's like, We have the deadline of what we plan for, and then if something does come up when the agenda gets posted, what would be helpful is if we identified who to contact since we won't have the opportunity to pull council together to see who's a volunteer, or we could just get general direction of if there's something controversial that comes up, the mayor and deputy mayor will be the primary two people.

I am also technically available at that point in time and could make that happen. I'll just say in case anything comes up or if Council Member Pickard has something at the last minute that makes him less technically available, I could jump in as well. Council Member Rudd.

I am also available at the time if we need three people to vote on something crazy.

Well, we will hope for not that, and staff will go ahead and get the three of you registered with AWC, and we'll monitor and see what happens.

You can just feel the enthusiasm up here, and those are the people that volunteered. All right. Do we want to take a break before our study session? I'm seeing a no. All right. you want to take a break all right we're gonna go with a break because I could kind of like to take a break too but we're gonna do a short break at 729 we'll be back at 735 all right welcome back we have a study session tonight but our parks recreation and open space draft plan review and feedback city manager

Thank you, Mayor. And the purpose of the study session tonight is for Council to be presented with an overview of the Draft Parks, Recreation, and Open Space, or PROS, plan. And we are looking for feedback on the plan's vision, goals, and strategies. We're joined tonight by both the Parks and Recreation Director, Nick Stroop, but we're going to turn things over to our Parks Planning and Development Manager, Aaron Milner, who has been doing... I'm going to say a whole heap of work as we move forward with several planning efforts, and in particular, this PROS plan. So, Aaron, thank you for everything you've done in this, and we look forward to hearing where the plan sits today.

Great. Thank you, Kyle. Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council. We're here today to present to you an update to the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space plan, also known as the PROS plan. There's no action required tonight. Staff are providing a review of the draft PROS plan and seeking feedback on the draft vision goals and strategies within the plan. So really quickly, just to bring you back up to speed again, the PROS plan is a long-range planning document that identifies goals, priorities, and resources for the Parks and Recreation Department. Updates are required every six years to maintain grant eligibility through Washington's Recreation and Conservation Office. The six-year interval also provides the opportunity to ensure plan values and priorities are in line with our community values, desires, and needs. So guided by public inputs, the plan assesses needs and conditions of the existing park system and prioritizes future investments. So here's a look at our project timeline broken down into project phases. We've completed the community engagement and plan development phases of the Project and we're now reviewing the completed draft plan as part of the adoption phase So this the draft plan is broken down into four separate chapters I'll be walking you through all four of these chapters This evening so chapter one of the draft plan this provides an introductory overview of our park system a community profile analysis a review of all of our relevant city plans and And discussions of current program and event offerings. So the plan is primarily focused on our city-owned parks and open space properties within our possible city limits. And as you can see from the table, we have 384 acres of parks and open space land amongst 27 properties. So the plan also takes into consideration parks and open space property owned by others. including private and public schools and other recreation providers who provide valuable recreation spaces and programs for both the residents in Snohomish County and incorporated area residents as well. So this slide provides a summary of the discussion and findings within chapter one and outlines future considerations for our Parks and Recreation Department. Bothell's population will continue to grow as will our city through annexation and densification. With growth, our reality is that there's limited land available for park system expansion and open space preservation. Not only will our population grow, but our community will continue to diversify. And as our parks and open spaces play a critical role in Bothell's commitment to environmental preservation and climate resilience, we need to continue to prioritize parks and open spaces, green infrastructure. And then with the pause of recreation programming during the pandemic, there's this priority to meet our community's desire to reinstate recreation programs and services. And finally, our staffing and resources must also grow to meet our community's desire and need for increased services. So chapter two of the draft plan discusses the planning process and community engagement. Now, we've discussed community engagement and the community engagement findings in detail in our last study session in April and an update to council back in November. So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on this, but quickly want to remind the council that our engagement strategy involved a variety of methods, including an online survey, focus group meetings with key stakeholders, and pop-up tabling events in an open house. Of the seven park board meetings you see on the screen here, we have one remaining. And we have two more opportunities here with council in the form of a public hearing and final plan adoption later in July. So moving on to chapter three of the plan. Chapter three provides a system overview of topics such as park access, visitation data, current park asset conditions, recreation programming demands, funding and staffing needs in comparison with peer cities of similar size and characteristics. So just as a refresher here, as we discussed in our April study session, the plans identified several gaps in park distribution, primarily in our Snohomish County portions of the city. The data from the walk shed analysis hasn't changed at all since you last seen it, and the analysis found that approximately 50% of Bothell residents live within a 10-minute walk, also known as a walk shed, to a city park or open space. So these walk shed gaps are loosely identified with the the red dash circles you see on the maps. The key finding here is of those 50% of the residents that live within a walk shed, 90% of those residents live in King County, and only 10% live in Snohomish County. So this county disparity is even more pronounced when you look at the state environmental health disparities data on the map on the right, where we see some of our most impacted populations live within a walk shed gap as indicated by the deep purple. on the right hand side of your screen. So at our last council study session, we also heard some interest from council on housing density related to park and open space distribution. So this map shows low density residential address points in yellow and high density residential address points in a light pink color. Overall, our high density residents have better access to parks and open spaces with 57% of them living within a park walk shed compared to those living in low density areas of which 42% live within a walkable distance to a park or open space. And for review here again, we also discussed level of service as defined by park acreage per 1,000 residents. So currently, just as a reminder, Bothell owns and maintains three and a half acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. To maintain this level of service with the projected population increases in 2029, we're required to acquire 10 and a half acres of additional parkland. And to meet our 2044 population projections, we'll need to acquire an additional 100 acres of parks. So these figures highlight challenges in meeting future demand as our population continues to grow. So the plan does go on to identify some priority areas for land acquisition for new parks and open spaces to fill these park walk shed gaps and to anticipate city growth. So this evaluation you're looking at here is based upon available map data and narrowing searches to locations that possess best qualities for acquisition. So it's important to note here that feasibility is not considered as part of this study and there's some further investigation that would be needed to fully determine whether any of these properties meet the needs of the city. The assessment is divided between parks and open spaces as each have different characteristics and criteria that make them good candidates for acquisition. So you can see potential parkland acquisition areas loosely identified here in tan and potential open space acquisition areas in blue. And our walk-step gaps are also identified here. And park land acquisition looks at attributes that are desirable for development of new parks. So it looks for places for recreation and outdoor gathering. For example, when you're looking at park acquisition, we're looking at things like the presence and amount of critical areas on the parcel, since that has a large impact on how the site can be developed. We're also considering things like ownership and whether or not the site is currently developed. And then those parcels that are within walk shed gaps or close to trail connections are prioritized in this analysis. Open space acquisition, on the other hand, that emphasizes ecological protection and prioritizes those parcels that contain environmentally sensitive areas, are larger in size, and have proximity to current and future developed areas. So once again, this is just a starting point for identifying some of these areas and much more work needs to be done. So chapter four of the plan, this outlines the plan values, goals, and strategies, as well as a bunch of other things like capital project prioritization, recreation programming implementation, staffing and operations considerations, and future funding mechanisms. So these implementation strategies, they're all wrapped together in these planned vision goals and strategies. We'll review these all together. And they have been changed since council last seen these, based upon input received from our Parks and Recreation Board and Planning Commission. So we're looking for council feedback this evening on these. For our overarching goals and our vision and supporting strategies. So here's our vision statement as it reads in the plan. As of today, Bothell's park recreation and open space plan vision reflects the community's evolving and diverse needs by guiding the care of lands, facilities, and programs that enriches quality of life. Through meaningful community input, our parks and recreation department is dedicated to upholding a welcoming and dynamic system. Together, we are committed to maintaining and enhancing our natural environment, community spaces and program enrichment opportunities now and into the future. So once again, there's four goals here that we'll cover. Each of these has supporting strategies And this first goal is to maximize current system potential through design and implementation. This goal focuses on the need to make sure existing systems are utilized to the fullest extent possible through design and the addition of multi-use park amenities and facilities. So this first strategy, redevelop community parks equitably through intentional design for community and ecological benefits, this speaks directly to the the goal of realizing the potential of our current community parks. There's a need to expand the variety of recreation facilities and amenities within our park system to include not only multi-use fields, shelters, and sports courts, but to also offer a greater range of amenities, things like skate parks, inclusive playgrounds, and bike pump tracks, for example. So our open spaces are places to be preserved, but they're also great places for people to interact with nature. So there's opportunities to enhance these areas, providing limited amenities such as trail connections and seating areas. And our multi-purpose facilities can support programs and events in parks, like multi-use lawns, for example, or open air shelters can be used for fitness, wellness, or art programming. Paved trails and boardwalks are great places for nature education and guided tours. While our existing system, our existing park system is generally in good condition as our population grows and as park usage increases, operational demands will continue to rise. So goal B emphasizes taking care of existing park assets and resources. Increasing parks and open space maintenance resources will ensure longevity of our park assets. Additional staffing is necessary to deliver and maintain the capital improvement projects currently underway. And to restart to recreation programming will require dedicated staff. As we look to expand our park offerings, our resources must increase in alignment with our operational needs. There's a need to better track and prioritize replacement and repair of park assets. And we must continue to build and strengthen our volunteer relationships. So recreation programs and cultural events are important in Bothell, and there's a need to enhance recreation and enrichment. The city should continue hosting community events and expand cultural activities through partnerships with local organizations. To promote equity, Bothell should activate lesser-used parks in lower-income and high-density areas focusing on youth and senior populations. The city should build partnerships with organizations interested in recreation programming, such as the North Shore School District, UW Bothell, Cascadia College, Bothell Library, and other providers. And there is a need to enhance outdoor education opportunities, activating Bothell's open spaces and trails. And this can be achieved through partnering with educational institutions, nonprofits, and natural resource organizations. And while maintaining our current system is a priority, preparing for future growth requires planning and investment. This goal focuses on positioning the city to meet future needs. As we covered, about 50% of our residents live outside a park walk shed. Most of these areas are in Snohomish County and there is a need to acquire additional parks in those areas. There's also a need to acquire additional open space for passive recreation and conservation as Bothell continues to become more urbanized. Direct collaboration across city departments and other governmental agencies can help advance projects that achieve multiple benefits. Some examples of this include habitat restoration, water quality improvements, and trails projects. There's a desire to create more local trail connections, and this was identified as a top community priority. And lastly, we must also develop a strategy for currently unfunded capital projects and diversify funding for these projects and future operations needs. These considerations include further exploration of grant funding sources, reevaluating our park impact fees, and exploring a future voter-approved property tax levy. So this slide shows our currently funded projects in progress, our unfunded projects in motion, and unfunded visionary projects. This is a similar list council will be considering through our capital facilities plan this year. be plenty of opportunity to prioritize these projects during the CFP update. So many of these unfunded projects in motion have funding associated with them, just as a point of clarification, but not for design. So a good example of an unfunded project in motion is the park at Bothell Landing where we have funding for our design and permitting, but not for the construction phase of the project. So the key takeaway here from this slide is that of the 14 projects that are listed here, there's currently exists a $70 million funding gap. And this is the remaining steps toward plan adoption. June 11th, this Thursday, the draft plan will be in front of our Parks and Recreation Board for final recommendations. A public hearing will be held on July 7th, and council will have an opportunity to consider the final plan adoption at the July 14th council meeting. And then also later this year, the parks element of the comp plan will be updated to reflect the pros as part of the larger citywide comp plan update. So with that, there's no action required tonight. We're seeking some feedback on the draft plan vision goals and strategies and welcome your comments and questions.

Thank you for the review. I had a question around just how you grow parks and open space land in like our city environment where a lot of land is already used for housing or there's there's not a lot of remaining just empty land is part of this process with like the consultant that you're working with going to help inform a strategy or provide a strategy for how to grow it in that sort of more unique way I imagine four score and seven years ago, it was like, well, we'll just build it over there where there's a field, but we're running out of fields.

Yeah, so I mean, there's obviously some realities that we have to deal with as far as the amount of land that we can acquire to maintain our current level of services on that level of service graph that we showed. Some of the strategies are within the goals already, so it's maximizing the potential of our park system. So you can look at a site, for example, like Park and Potholani, for example. So what we have in design right now is a pretty densely developed park, and so we're maximizing the potential of that park as much as possible. Another thing we're looking at, you know, you look at the Wayne Golf Course, for example. So right now that's classified as an open space property. But as we look to develop it, that could potentially be classified as a community park. So it's offering more services to our community, but still serving the open space needs of the community. So it's also activating our current open space properties. And I think this was a comment that maybe you had at the last meeting by providing swinging benches, for example, you know, on just these small little amenities that enhance the experience and connection that people have with these properties.

Yeah, that makes sense. I had a related question. I wonder, so thinking about like the King County TDR program that preserves the, I think it's Magnolia Dairy up on West Hill. Is there any mechanism, like if you take an area like Queensborough, where there just really aren't parks, it's fairly built out as far as housing goes, where we could, there's some kind of benefit we could offer a property owner that says, okay, you're living here, you're going to live here for 40 more years, and then for some kind of benefit, I'm thinking tax-related, but I'm making this up as I'm talking, and it's recorded, so I'm trying to be circumspect. To where the city will then acquire that after a certain amount of time as future parkland like is that a program that has ever existed Or is that and you can tell me that sounds insane, but like I'm wondering if there are ever Creative ways to power acquisition even if we're thinking longer term So it's a great question it is something that we have taken Just some really preliminary steps looking at working with our community development department one property in particular that comes into mind is

You know, the opportunity for the Meridian property that DNR owns and looking at what the opportunity might be there. There's also some other areas that we could explore that would be really classified as open space. So there's a large swath of land, for example, that is up in Snohomish County that's owned by Snohomish County, but it's in the city of Bothell. It really would just be trails, things like that, but it's something. So there are some opportunities out there, not to mention there's the Shelton View Forest opportunity. There's also some opportunities to work with our current stormwater facilities to make those a little bit more park friendly. And then we also have had some, recently had some residents contact us about what it might look to do like a living trust, for example. So there are actually some really cool things that are sort of bubbling up right now, but still quite a bit of details to work out yet.

Yeah, that makes sense. And that's exciting to hear. Trails, that did surprise me how high up it was on the list. And I think just growing up in Bothell, I don't know a different trail system better. So do you have any more detail on what people were seeking when they ranked that? Do you know, like, is it specifically connecting to different things? Is it building out East Rail to come to Bothell? Like, do you know any more about that?

You know, it was really quite across the board. You know, you did hear folks that were interested in more passive-use hiking trails, but I think a lot of our experience in Bothell is along our regional trail system, and that's how people often recreate, and I think there's a lot of value in those systems, so I think there's an attachment to that regional trail system. So, you know, my mind is building those connections to those systems for folks. And that's a, I mean, that's a, it involves a lot of different departments within the city to make that happen. It's not just a Parks and Recreation initiative.

Yeah, well, and a lot of our bigger trails aren't multi-jurisdictional. You know, I'm sure that's a very easy to schedule meeting. So, thank you.

I think with the connections to trails, it also makes sense just to, better utilizing the existing park and open space land that we have. So instead of paving it over for people to park there, they have easier access to walk or roll. So while we don't have that framework really built out in the Snohomish County portion of our city, neither parks nor easy walking access anywhere. like that focus of end goal of the plan to you know better utilize the resource that we have by making those connections and yeah the purpose of a park shouldn't be parking it should be activation so I really appreciate that that feedback that I kind of gleaned I also really liked in And I hadn't seen this in previous PROS plans, but maybe I wasn't looking. The cell phone data, that was really interesting to hear some of the analyses that you pulled out of those data, especially around the difference between how long people spend in certain different types of parks and how that's changing over time, especially before and after COVID. uh, the pandemic, um, year. I am also curious about trails though. And that's when reading through the pros plan, when, you know, uh, council member Dodd brought it up to like people utilize trails as open space, um, and, and park. And it's a, um, it's a source of activity, um, And maybe it's because there's so much green along the Sammamish River, but people utilize the North Creek Trail too. And so I'm just wondering why, is it because we have land along the Sammamish River Trail and we consider that to be open space and we just don't have land alongside the North Creek Trail? Do you see opportunities for small programming, not necessarily like active programming, but infrastructure to support activation of the North Creek Trail as something that's in the Parks Department's wheelhouse? What are the opportunities that the North Creek Trail might provide?

So I think one of the things with the North Creek Trail, if you've ever walked or rode that whole section of the trail, it's pretty fragmented. And a lot of that has to do with how the trail was constructed. Some of it was constructed through private development, some of it was city funded. So it's not easy to navigate, quite honestly. So that's the one thing that we have on our mind as far as parks and recreation is just general wayfinding along that trail. And I think there's just some general improvements that could be made as far as just consistency across the entire trail segment. But I do think that there's opportunities there as far as even, I mean, I think it's a nice experience, actually, that trail section. Maybe it's a little bit different experience than along the river, the Sammamish River, but you do get glimpses of North Creek, for example. and there's a lot of opportunities there, and I think there's even education opportunities along that segment.

I would just add, I also see opportunities to put exercise stations, more benches, more places where people can go along the trail but have a place to rest, perhaps have a little lunch, and then move on.

Thank you. Great presentation. A lot of information. All of our residents love our parks. So first question, I have 72 million deficit that we were talking. Is that we arrive by each park? We have 14 parks in this presentation. So the 72 million, how did we arrive? Is it by each park?

Yeah, I mean, some of these projects are like pretty far down the road. They're really visionary. We don't have any funding associated with them, and they're just general projections of what the project could cost. And then there's other projects, for example, the Park at Bothell Landing. It's a little bit more near term. We have a better understanding of what the projected costs are. For example, the Park at Bothell Landing is a $30 million chunk of that $70 million. As we start developing the planning efforts and design for some of these other parks, some of those numbers will come into clear focus, but that's just a general estimate. and probably not the reality of OOC over time.

Would it be possible for our council to have a look at it by each, the 72 million, how we arrived? Just, I know this is not set in stone. Can we have that information by park?

Yeah, absolutely. It's actually in the plan, in the implementation section of the plan. There's a graph in there that shows exactly what portions of those projects are funded and what's unfunded.

Okay, but would you mind sending it, just that slide with the 72 million, please? We can do that, yeah. Okay, and then I have a next question. Do we have any senior citizen specific parks in Bothell at this moment, senior citizen specific?

We don't, and, you know, mostly because everything we do, we try to make it inclusive to all ages. That's really part of our mission. We certainly recognize that we have a large senior population, and we want to find ways to create amenities where they can, you know, be in the park and certainly enjoy the park as much as anyone else. But we really do go, you know, at every park from this place of we want everyone to be able to come and enjoy the space.

Yeah, absolutely. Just wondering if we have any plans in future, like activating parks or anything, ADA accessible, all that, especially there is a lot more senior citizens too, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, our focus really has become accessibility. So think about we're doing an inclusive playground up at the Cedar Grove Park. We actually hope to break ground on that next year. That's really a park that's meant to address people from the day they were born to the day that they leave the earth. So it's really meant to bring everyone together and be a space where everyone can interact with each other and interact with the amenities that are there.

And last question on the Wien open space. First of all, thanks to city manager last time. He educated me. Prasad, we are investing a lot of money in the Bothell Downtown parks, not in Snohomish side and all. I definitely understand the sentiment. We should spread the investment along the Bothell city, so not just in Bothell Downtown. I just wanted to acknowledge that. Thanks, city manager, for educating me last time. I just wanted to say something on the way in open space. We did two open houses, which is really great. I'm not sure how many council members attended. If at all possible, please do share with our council members, because I have not seen many council members attended. If at all possible, those two presentations, please share it with us. Whenever council members have time, we can take a look at it. I would appreciate it. And then the question also on the Wayne Open Space, just as an information, we are at the intersection of three cities. Whenever I go, because I live close to that, whenever I go to Wayne Open Space, I see a lot of people from Kirkland and Kenmore. So what kind of opportunity we as a city can work with the Kenmore and Kirkland because it is not only we are We should be investing it in my opinion. They should be also. There should be some partnership, any ideas how we can work with other cities because their residents are also using it.

Yeah, typically, I mean, parks are maintained by the local jurisdiction. So Kirkland and Kenmore both have a park system of their own. We know that our residents go and use those facilities as well. For example, Kirkland's actually a really good example because they have a swimming pool, they have some indoor facilities, they provide some recreational programming that a lot of our residents actually go over and use because we simply don't have that here. So there's always room to talk, and I have frequent conversations with the City of Kirkland, the City of Kenmore. We have explored jointly what maybe perhaps a dog park might look like with the City of Kenmore, for example, because they border us. But yeah, I mean, we're always talking amongst agencies, but typically the way that the local projects are funded are funded through the local jurisdiction that has the park.

And also to update to the failure council members, Dog Park is possible now in the Wayne Park as per the consultant. I mean, that's great news for our residents. I think Dog Park, it was not possible. Now it is possible, it looks like, so which is great news. Thank you for that. I think there's a lot of interest in it. Thank you.

I WAS GOING TO ADD, SO ONE OF THE WAYS, THERE IS A LOT OF SHARED USE OF PARKS. I ACTUALLY HEARD FROM A LOT OF KENMORE RESIDENTS ABOUT SHELTON VIEW FOREST BECAUSE KENMORE KIND OF STOPS AT THE COUNTY LINE BUT THERE'S A LOT OF ALMOST KENMORE RIGHT THERE OVER THE BORDER. BUT THE KING COUNTY PARKS LEVY IS A WAY THAT WE ALL IN KING COUNTY CONTRIBUTE TO A LEVY THAT THEN GETS DISTRIBUTED TO THE DIFFERENT CITIES. SO I KNOW THAT THERE'S DIFFERENT PROJECTS HERE AND IN KENMORE AND KERKLAND THAT ARE BENEFITING FROM THAT. As future levies or I think it's done now what passed but as future levies are considered at the King County level It may be that that more regional use project can it can potentially be include I'm looking at you Nick just to make sure that I'm this feels like speaking out of my lane and that's absolutely correct and actually the King County levy has put a significant amount of money into the Wayne open space so there's

It continues to be, yeah, continues to be a source of our funding.

And for senior, it is, I constantly remind myself to step back and look at the whole system. So for senior activity, I love that our parks are evolving to be more all ages, but we do still work with and fund the NPRSA, which leases to the senior center. So we still have those focused recreation opportunities. It just may not look like a Bothell Park specific park. Um, so I just share that in the sense that I constantly have to remind myself to take a step back. So yeah.

Uh, to that point, I'll just say that, um, one of the, I think from my understanding, one of the popular features of parks that are really beneficial for seniors are like the outdoor gyms. And so when you are thinking about, you know, a park for all ages, um, and, and you have, it's in the plan, I've, I've seen it listed, but it's like thinking about, you know, where are, Where are some of our senior population centers in the community? Obviously, near the senior center. But those are opportunities for those outdoor gym setups where we know that we can best serve our senior neighbors. I'm glad that that's a conversation and I'm glad that it's already on your radar. Um, and I'm, so I'm just like connecting dots at that point. Um, and to, uh, council member angular is question of the, um, I also sent it to you in teams. But page 177 of our packet has the funding level of planned projects. And I just did some quick math. 75% of the deficit is made up of Bothell Landing, Shelton View, and Parkland Acquisitions. Bothell Landing being, what, almost a third of that? It's a $34 million project that's anticipated. And I don't necessarily have questions about how the Shelton View property acquisition funds are going to be found because we've covered that. That, I think, is part of a lot of the conversations that we've been having with the state. And so I understand that that project is ongoing and getting work done. So really my question is around what are some of the strategies, like you've mentioned some of the strategies of how to acquire parkland, but my question then is how do we fund the parkland acquisition? Are there strategies in mind for, and like Quan's looking at me, like you might have opinions. He's like, how are we financing this? And so that's my question. $7 million for parkland acquisition doesn't sound awful. It doesn't sound like, you know, we're reaching for the stars here. It seems very attainable. And so I would just like to know sort of what are your thoughts in Not just identifying the land, but also identifying the funding for that land.

I'll take the first shot at that. Your 2040 vision calls out the development of a levy. Staff are currently working on just the preliminary, what does that look like? Potentially going out and asking the community, here's a list of projects, here's a list of programs. Would you like to fund these? There's also a number of grants that we actively pursue. We're currently pursuing four grants. And to speak to Shelton View, we actually have our presentation with the DNR board tomorrow. So we're excited about that. And we've already done two other presentations to RCO. We have one more to go. But we are always actively looking for grants. We also see opportunities, again, coming back to sort of those partnerships. So we think about acquisition, but we also think about what already exists. So one of those big examples that I continue to use is sort of up in that northeast corner where we've got a large school district property. And what is the opportunity to perhaps partner with the school district to, you know, make that more accessible, make that more open and make it more of a community type amenity than just a school amenity that, you know, is under programmed right now. So, but we, we're always seeking different ways to fund things. I mean, that's the, That's sort of the park's way. Most projects are funded by multiple sources. So whether it's state, local, federal funding, we try to patch it all together and purchase things.

Yeah, thank you for walking through that. When looking at some of the priorities, I'm really motivated by the parkland acquisition and because of the equity piece. And you've heard me say this before. I really would like to see, especially on the slide relating to the acres needed in 2029, So that's, what is that slide? 13. Like that seems like 10 acres in four years at $7 million. Seems like you have the pieces are coming together to like make it happen. And I'm really excited and I hope to see that happen from this plan. But, you know, I also want like to know that the community is on board and But it just seems very attainable, and that's really encouraging.

Yeah, and to your point, we think it's very attainable. And we think about like the Sheldon View Forest, for example. You know, that's 26 acres. If you start looking at that, you couple that with a couple other things that we're looking at right now, within four to five years, we could increase that walk shed to like 75% instead of just 50%, just picking up the things that we're aware of right now.

Okay. I'd really love to see that projection in a future slide. Could you put that together? That's really exciting. Thank you.

I, okay. So you said Shelton view and you said North shore school district and the ding, ding, ding. So Shelton view elementary built in the late sixties for people who don't remember that, um, is finally on this last levy that passed going to be rebuilt. And I wonder, cause I have floated this in theory before, but like specifically it's, right outside the forest. There's a forest entrance by the back entrance to the school, and there are trails through it to get to the front entrance of the school as it stands today. And I wonder if working on a partnership, because they're going to rebuild the playgrounds, I assume, when they rebuild the school, if we could do a cool fence set up that they can lock the entrance to the school when it's the weekends and lock the entrance, you know what I mean? So it still preserves it for the school. But if that's an opportunity to add an all-ages inclusive playground, in a part of the city that doesn't have a city playground in partnership with the school district as they go into a big capital projects phase there. So I guess, one, is that crazy? And two, how do I ask about that in the future without bothering you?

Well, first of all, it doesn't bother us at all. So partnerships with the school district is important, and we do recognize that as an opportunity. The school district, similar to us, as they move forward with the replacement of their playgrounds, are looking at, inclusive amenities. So I think it's possible. I think that the school district would be willing to have a conversation with us. I know that they've been, just like anyone else, when they go to build these things, certain things fall off of the project list as they do some value engineering. But I think there are some opportunities when we look at those more outdoor amenities and things that the local surrounding community could use and benefit from. And it could be a mutual benefit to the school district as well. We've had opportunities to go up and actually present to some of the elementary classes up there at Shelton View and just the amount of excitement that the kids have about these big spaces and Shelton View Forest being one of them. It's really cool to see.

I've gotten to hear from my Chilton View student about some of that, which is pretty exciting to me. He never wants me to talk to him about it, but it's cool that he's excited when you guys go. That's awesome. And you're right, they've been doing a good job. The new Frank Love Playground is vastly improved as far as accessibility goes. Thanks.

This is very exciting. I'm looking forward to the future. I had a question as I was going through the packet. There is a, so we have Main Street, the pedestrianized Main Street. Whose department does that, who owns that block from a department's standpoint?

Well, so it's public right-of-way, and so you have a street that goes through it. So really right now it's a combination of a couple departments. Public Works kind of takes care of the surface. We take care of the plantings that are within the Main Street area, but Public Works takes care of the street, the streetlights, any of those amenities, the sidewalks, things like that.

Because the question in my mind, that makes sense. The question in my mind, now that it's blocked, and hopefully it's blocked for a very long time, would that be considered a park? Eventually? Not right now, maybe.

Yeah, I really... don't know. I mean, it would be considered a community space for sure if it were blocked. I would say that, you know, again, every time that we look at sort of these areas that we've closed, we have to think about infrastructure. One of the things that Main Street for sure is missing is a public restroom. You know, when you see closed areas, and I was just down at one down in California, they have this really, really nice public restroom, and that really kind of helps activate the area because it is infrastructure that's necessary for

We're recording, so I'm not going to crack a joke about what you just said.

And at some point, we'll get a chance to talk about what we want Main Street to be, including public restrooms, after six years. And I'm super looking forward to that conversation.

And that'll be in the downtown sub-area plan, right? Is that where we have that conversation? Okay. I'm getting nods. Thank you.

So... that's now I know it was a street and it was blocked it's technically a street but it's gonna be blocked for a while and I in my mind and when I leave council eventually I'm gonna be hanging out there like I hang out in other parks is that could that be considered an open park or an open space however the definition we use

Yeah, I don't think it's been defined yet, but I certainly think the conversation is probably to come and to be figured out at a date to be determined down the road.

I think it's already been determined it's a place we don't like to have events, but we're working on that too.

Well, there's considerations, too, for access. It is still a route for deliveries and stuff like that. So I often see vehicles parked right outside the bollards. So it's like open space with four asterisks after it in my head. So I imagine it's hard to balance what happens there with all the needs that still exist.

And that's my question. It's unrelated to your proposed plan, but reading this made me think of a space that we have that public can use. that's blocked off, and yes, there was a street, and we rigged it to be not a street anymore, you know, or for cars.

It's a street, right, and so, but council has a priority where you're looking at activating right away, but also of like a town square environment, right, so then, I think there's a semantic question of, let's say we have a town square in downtown. Is that a park? Who owns that? I mean, ultimately, it's owned by the city. I think who maintains it is something. How do you think about it? So what I hear you saying is from the standpoint of, as we have conversations with the community about places to recreate, congregate, and enjoy Bothell, is it something we would put on the inventory, right? Like if we have a parks and open space page, is that something? And I think yes, at that point, yes. Maintenance is already taking place by parks. So it's like what we know is who owns it would be the city. And then it's the, I think what the council is eager to have the conversation on is what are the conditions of what is, what's the experience there and what does it look like? Sure.

Asked because it's sitting in no man's land right now and not much we have it closed off. Yes Well, there's some maintenance and but has closed off right and it's a space that we it's purposed for the community It's closed to vehicles, correct? Okay

It's open to people on there.

Like to human beings, people walking.

And that's why I like, I don't like to think of main street as being closed. I like to think of it as being pedestrianized. It's open to people. And it is a semantics thing.

So fine. You guys, first language, English, you guys can argue with me and all that. My point is it's people can go and walk on it, not drive in it. Right. So what are we going to do with it? And it's not in, the plan and the pros current pros plan, but what are we going to do? And it's not a public works plan. So like what's going to happen?

So it is part of the conversation around the downtown plan is what are the, what are the features, amenities and future of it? And then it becomes something that from a, there's an investment to it, right? I think council before I even arrived, it was briefed about there's some aspects of financials of what it would take, um, including of, uh, uh, Potentially and we may have we may be past that now, but at one point there was Federal loans that we're taking out to our federal grants paid for Repurposing the streets are we paying that so there's a financial contribution and then what does? You know having been part of a pedestrianization Both hybrid and permanent in a previous community. It's the the design that working with the businesses to make sure that there's still access to the Privately on property that's there and that sort of thing. So there's then it becomes a project It becomes a capital facilities project to actually implement the vision.

Sure. We need to come up with a vision though And that's part of the downtown plan. Okay, cool. Thank you.

I think the reason there's a some confusion on council is because I know Kyle it was before your time here but we actually had a conversation about doing events there and we were asked for resources and we gave resources to specifically do events downtown and then that was gradually walked back by staff over the last kind of few years and that thing that council originally was had given resources for and wanted to see just doesn't exist.

So I think there's a difference between events and the public space. I think those are two different issues, correct?

Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Because there is events and recreation. We talked about the PROS plan. And this is what actually also triggered in my mind.

I think there was a nexus to it. And again, the report that Director Stroop gave at the end of this, like some of the feedback then that we've had of, people who have done events and activations on Main Street is lacking infrastructure to do those events. There's inadequate power. There's not running water. There's not restrooms. And so there are things. Those are the investments that, again, to do that activation, to do it well and successfully, those are the things that would have to go into that. But again, yeah, that is not part of the PROS plan.

Fair enough. And really nice restrooms, by the way.

And my understanding is that all of those questions, all of those conversations are not going to be had with parks. They're going to be part of the executive, like there'll be conversations we have with the executive and maybe public works. Like how is, it might be multi.

So remember recently we had the parking conversation. It's like six departments. That's how we do things, right? So we have a connected purpose. There's very few things that are singular department in this city.

Since we're talking about restrooms so much, when we look at Main Street, would the restrooms serving the pop shops or the restrooms at the park at Bothell Landing be, like, best practice-wise too far away to count for Main Street?

Yes.

Okay.

And do you know roughly when that conversation is going to happen around actually doing something with Main Street instead of just saying that it's not good enough to do things and then not doing anything to make it better?

Again, so then the downtown plan, there's the vision of what is it that we're going to get to and then it becomes a project and then you have those conversations.

But when are we going to have that conversation around Main Street? I mean, I know that's something we have been asking for for.

years now um and i believe it's teed up for later this year that's why i asked the question just now like yeah the damp you're having a downtown plan uh walk here this month there will be absolutely a stop on main street to talk about that um the downtown plan coming to council i mean so all of those things are under but i mean so when we

Part of the reason we were initially looking at kicking off the downtown sub area plan is because I was asking about this a couple of years ago. When can we do something with that space? And you had said that would be best served in the downtown plan. And we're like a year and a half into the downtown sub area plan right now. And I'm wondering when we get to have that conversation about Main Street. like what we want it to eventually be. Yeah.

And my conversations with community development, again, that is, that was the, the let's put it in context of what are we trying to do overall with downtown? Correct. So that is part of that conversation. Again, it's coming back. I can get a date to council.

Okay. But, but just to be super clear, we are having a conversation about what we want it to be, but then we are also going to have the conversation about how to do that specifically around that block. Correct.

Yes, if in the plan, if the council's consensus is in that plan is that you would like to turn that into, if you would want to pedestrianize that two block section of Main Street, then it becomes, yep.

So that won't happen in the plan? That will be outgrowth from the plan? I'll follow up with you. Okay. So it's just, it's been six years and like, it would be really nice to know like when we were going to have that conversation. I thought that was going to happen in the downtown sub area plan.

I think we're saying the same thing. That's why I want to follow up with you because I think we're saying the same thing.

Okay.

What I want to be clear on is that the downtown sub area plan does not, is not a financial plan. It is not a engineering plan. Correct. Right. But correct. But it is, that's what set things. Our plans become then implemented. Right. And so this is the plan that sets up for implementation.

Okay. Perfect. And I would just really like to, at some point in time, have a conversation about, where the restrooms go, where the outlet goes, what amenities we want there, where kids can play while their parents are hanging out, like things like that. Um, so, and I'm looking forward to that and Nick's probably looking forward to not having to hear about that anymore in the middle of this study session about the pros plan. Yeah, but this is still a little bit of a sore spot with us and I'm very much looking forward to getting that resolved at some point in time.

I'm also looking forward to, like six years ago, I'm not even sure more than one of us was here. So having a conversation as this council feels very important as well. We can't always stick to decisions that happened before the majority of us were even here.

All I'm asking for is a conversation.

Yeah, I'm just saying it's got to be a fresh conversation with the perspectives we have now.

Correct. That is how that will work with this council.

I just want to say thank you, Deputy Mayor, for pointing that deficit spreadsheet. So you don't need to send me anything. But I just looked at Wayne. It's only 2 million deficit for Wayne. But I just want to let everyone know, when we talk to the consultant, it takes 15 to 20 years for the Wayne Park, whatever they presented. So it's a long way to go for anything to do with the Wayne, it looks like. I'm just letting you know based on the consultant. So, yeah, thank you.

does anybody have anything left in the pros plan in that case we will adjourn to executive session And there's probably something I need to say to do that. It is 8.33 p.m. Council will now adjourn to executive session to evaluate the performance of a public employee pursuant to RCW 42301101G for 45 minutes with no action expected. And Council will adjourn at, I know I have to math now, at 9.30. I don't know. What's 45 minutes from 833 p.m.? 918 p.m.