Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I made that for you. Oh, I need it. I have two things here. What's the difference?

Good evening. I now call to order the 428th regular meeting of the city of College Place Planning Commission. Will the clerk take the role? Commissioner Ivy present. Commissioner Tan is in. Commissioner Santelano present. Commissioner Rogers present. Commissioner Stepper here. Commissioner Risley present.

And not present is Commissioner Valerio. Also present is community development director John Rickard and senior planner Michael Merritt. We have a quorum. Wonderful. Uh we have a new planning commissioner. Uh let's uh welcome Gayla Rogers. Miss Rogers is a resident of WallWall and an employee of Walwala University currently serving as the VP for advancement and alumni engagement. She has experience in residential and commercial development construction and management. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

Do any commissioners have any conflicts of interest in the appearance of fairness regarding any items on the agenda? Hearing nothing, we will move on. Do we have any public comment? We do not. All right. With no public comment, let's proceed to the consent agenda. Everybody had a chance to review those documents. And if so, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Commissioner Ivy proposes that we approve the consent agenda.

Thank you. Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Hearing none. It is carried. All right. Regular agenda. Uh it looks like it is now time for elections of officers for 2026. Uh Angie Peters, our former chair. Uh term expired December 31st. So we are going to need a motion and a second both for chair and vice chair. Is there uh anyone who would like to step up to the chair position? I I will uh say what I did last time. I'm happy to be vice chair, but my schedule's still a little wonky and anyone. It's really not that hard of a job. They give you a script now.

I can provide scripts if needed. You can nominate yourself or everybody's awfully quiet. You can run the meetings remotely as well. Well, I was hoping to hear from Commissioner Tan, but um if not, I Commissioner Ivy proposes that uh he be that chair for clarification for me. You're proposing that uh Commissioner can be the chair.

I didn't say that. Well, um I'm I'm willing to be the chair. We'll need a motion. I motion that. Well, can it come from anybody? Okay. So, I motion that Commissioner Ivy be chair of the planning commission. Second. I second. Uh all in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Congratulations. You're our new uh new chair. We'll need a motion and second for vice chair as well.

A motion that Commissioner Ricewig um be vice chair for the commission. Any second? Second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Sounds like that is carried uh as well.

If you want to pass the script, you can. It's a lot easier from here on out. I'll go ahead and finish tonight. Um, it looks like at this point then, uh, we will proceed with our regular agenda, which is some board docs training. So, we'll turn that over to staff. Sean, do you want to lead it? You want me to lead it? Do you want our uh, clerk to lead it?

Okay. So, most of you are familiar with Board Docs. for our new members. We we utilize board docs to manage our meet meetings. You can get there um either through the the links that we'll provide you um prior to the meeting time, but also if you can't find that email, you can go to our homepage and there's a link on the main page um to board docs and that will get you into public access. I believe we're only providing public uh access to our boards and commissions. Um, so meaning it's the same for everyone from the public. Um, our council has they have signins. I think we used to provide loginins and user um for our various boards and commissions, but you guys don't ever have executive sessions. So most people just were logging in um like they were a member of the public anyhow. So, um you from there you'll be able to get to all the information that you'll be asked to review um prior to a meeting. All the documents um are usually down in a public um section for that agenda item and you can go back to prior meetings. Um, so you know, moving forward, we may not always provide you with, let's say we reference the comp plan from 2018 or something. We may provide that to you at a meeting, but for future meetings, um, we may not, we may reference it, but we won't wouldn't attach the document every time, but you can go back and find those documents if you need to. Um, things like that. Um, it's it's pretty user friendly. Um, pretty straightforward. Sometimes when you're using it on an Apple product like we are here in the room, it does function a little weirder than your laptop um computer at home.

Um, but that's for the most part it's it's pretty straightforward. So, I did preload everybody's um tablet. If you hit the home button, it should pop up with the agenda. You can then click on agenda items and you'll see a little document along the right hand side if there is an attachment. Um you'll have to click on that item and then you'll see the PDF to open as well. It will open in another tab. So just be aware you might get multiple tabs open and have to go back and forth. But if you have any questions regarding the tablets in front of you, let me know. I can certainly assist during the meeting.

Any questions? All right. Hearing none, let's move on to our compre comprehensive plan periodic update workshop.

All right. We have Elizabeth Smith here with JUB prepared to give you an update on how we've been progressing and where we're at. Yep, sounds good. Thanks, Michael. Um, hi everyone. I'm Elizabeth Smith. I'm with JUB Engineers in our Kenowick office and I'm part of the consulting team helping John and Michael um and College Place update the existing um comprehensive plan. Um so tonight we're going to be focusing on that and um looking at the goals and policies and how those are being developed. I'm going to share my screen if that's okay. You should be able to. Okay, let's see. Okay, can you see my screen?

No. Okay, let's try again. How's that? Yes, we can see it now.

Okay, awesome. Sounds good. No problem. Okay, we will move to our next slide. So, here's a quick overview for tonight. So, we'll start with the project timeline update, move into discussion on um comp plan element goals, and then wrap up with next steps and how tonight's feedback will be used um moving forward. So, project timeline. So, since we last met um with this group um plus a couple new folks um several key planning tasks have been completed. So, in our November meeting, we met and reviewed the existing 32 comprehensive plan goals, and the group provided feedback on what was working, what needed um improvement, or what could be removed if it had been completed or not relevant anymore. Um, and that feedback continues to help guide the overall direction of the update. So, the items here with the red stars are items that are in progress. So this is, you know, work that's still ongoing and um ongoing across multiple um areas of the plan. So we're continuing to refine some planning data, gather information, and draft comprehensive plan elements um in tandem. Public involvement efforts are also continuing as we move toward um a more refined list of goals and policies. the planning commission. So this group, so you guys play a critical role in the process by reviewing, refining, and ultimately recommending updates to the goals and policies and the the draft comp plan document as a whole. So at our meeting in November of 2025, this um early winter, we reviewed the public involvement strategies, discussed goal themes, and helped verify the direction for the comp plan with all that feedback that we received. And so tonight, our conversation builds on that and provides another opportunity for this group um to provide more input.

So looking towards what is the meat of the comprehensive plan, um we're going to be looking at all of the elements and um how they're being developed and prioritized and the goals that we'll be reviewing will help set the direction for the future and for implementation. And I've shared this um list of the mandatory and optional elements with this group before, but I always like to have a refresher. So the elements on the left here under that mandatory list, land use, housing, capital facilities, utilities, transportation, and climate change resiliency, those are all required elements by the state um and that also have funding. The list on the other end, economic development, parks and recreation, and historic preservation are elements that the city has opted in and are optional. So, this is just reflecting community priorities and local context. And um these elements were included in the existing draft as well. Do I have any questions on this slide or anything that I've covered so far? Okay, hearing none, we'll we'll move on. Um so this slide um summarizes the step-by-step process used to develop the goals and policies. So um first we met with the planning commission and reviewed all the existing goals and got feedback from the group and that was in November and then we internally organized those goals by element. Um the current comp plan just has 32 comp plan goals and it doesn't identify a goal as a land use goal or a transportation goal. So that second step there was identifying which goals are related to which element. Um we then also are in progress of doing a policy audit. So reviewing the policies seeing you know which ones are relevant which have been completed which maybe don't make sense anymore for the city of college place as the city continues to grow things like that. So that is still underway. Um

using that retain, revise, combine or remove methodology that um we've been using throughout our public involvement process. In January, we had a technical advisory group or tag meeting and we reviewed um public survey feedback and developed some element level priorities. And so tonight, we're going to take those priorities that the tag created and review them as a group um and just get additional feedback or um you know, my opportunity to hear ideas that this group has as we continue to move through the comp plan update. And then after today's meeting, we'll refine all of the input received from the public, the TAG, and the planning commission and create an updated list of goals and policies and be workshopping those with um John and Michael. So um this next portion I'm going to ask for some collaboration here, some feedback from the group. Um hopefully you all received your homework, your worksheets. Um so you have some feedback to provide tonight. Um but this list here are the questions that we provided to the tag when we went through this um similar worksheet that we'll be going through together. So, you know, did you have a draft goal um or goals as you're going through this worksheet? And what are they? Are there any challenges or considerations that went into drafting each goal? Are there opportunities or partnerships you identified? And do you have any questions or ideas for the project team to research or um provide clarification on? So, I'm going to go through all of the priorities that the tag developed um element by element and I'm just going to provide opportunity for the planning commission, the group to provide feedback. You know, thumbs up, thumbs down, we like what we heard, we don't like, we're confused, you know, we have other ideas, that kind of thing. All make sense? Carrying none. So, that means yes. Okay,

move on. So, the first element is the land use element. So, and this is a very simplified version of what is in the worksheet um that you all should have received. Let me pull it up real quick and make sure that you have the same document in front of you that I'm referencing. So, Michael or planning commission, can you confirm that you got this document? It was on board docs. Okay, perfect. And went out last week.

Okay, awesome. Thank you, Michael. So, this is the document that is going to be very um summarized on the PowerPoints. I just didn't want a bunch of text. Um but I'll just um go through these slides and open it up for comment and we'll go from there. So, land use chapter. So, pre preserving the small town character was the main goal that we heard in our tag meeting. And so some of those policies were reflecting flexible, adaptable land uses, supporting local food systems, shared vision with the local schools and university and town. Um, and then simplifying the development regulations. So with those, what are the what's the overall feedback from planning commission on that?

This is Commissioner Ivy. So, uh, hadn't had a lot of time to look at this and maybe I missed something earlier. So, I appreciate just having a moment here to look at this.

Yeah. And if um after this meeting, you know, I you can still provide comment to the group. I think if um I'm able to get comments by the end of the week, that would be great. just so we have time to really analyze the feedback and get something comprehensive put together um as we update the goals and policies. But definitely take time read through these. We can go on to the next element. Um and as we go through if you know things pop up on land use or other elements, you can always we can jump around if needed. Um so the next element is housing. So the overall goal was to provide diverse affordable housing options. And so some of those policies to achieve that goal are encourage a variety of housing types, modernize regulations for density and how that's achieved. Um also including you know graphics and things that make it easy for the layman to understand when reviewing those development regulations. Um incentives for preservation of existing housing, promote efficient and compact growth and optimizing land capacity. and housing was a really big topic um of discussion for our tag. So I imagine the planning commission has some feedback on this.

Yeah, this is commissioner Ivy. I was just noticing one of the other attachments which summarized the community survey results. So was uh if I can find the page um under the second item on page five of that survey result was identifying single family homes and multif family dwellings as the most desired um uh options with ADUs relatively low in the desired list of options. And so just wanted, you know, we're talking about higher density and ADUs come to mind in in that and I know that some of this is driven by growth management act, but I just wanted to put it out there that um survey at least seems to encourage us to look at single family and other nonADU type solutions.

Just taking a few notes. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Okay, hearing none. Um, economic development. So, there weren't any goals that the TAG created or developed through their workshop process, but there were a few goals or excuse me, policies that were developed. So those were supporting local job creation, expanding dining, entertainment options, and promoting tourism and visitor activity.

Comments?

Yeah, thank thank you. I appreciate the moment to digest a little bit. the um the promotion of tourism um catches my eye. I um there's a lot of tourist activity in the area. So that that makes sense. The I guess the thing again with the survey um like the the thing that caught my eye is that a lot of the things at the top of the list words used to describe an ideal future college place were about uh residential use of of the city. uh with seem seemingly the um if I if I the way the way I see it the economic um and tourist parts were not ranked as highly by the survey respondents.

Okay. Yeah. So I'm I'm thinking that the survey results was looking at the city as a whole, but when we opened up the conversation to like for economic development, what is our goal? That's probably where that tourism and visitor activity was, you know, highlighted. Maybe not the first thing that a community member thinks about when they think about college place. Yeah, that's fair, right? May not be the first, but still needs attention. Thank you. Maybe go to page eight on the survey. Um

54 believe that it's very important that college place provides opportunity for economic development. And then the next figure is desired businesses. What um question is that Michael? Can you remind me if you have it handy? Uh as you imagine the future college place, what types of businesses do you want to see? Okay. It's on page nine. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Any other comments or ideas, questions for economic development? I don't believe so.

Okay, sounds good. We will move on um to transportation. So, the goals and policies that or the priorities that were developed through the tag meeting is having a goal of a safe, efficient, multimodal system. So that you know like PED car and then policies are funding network improvements adding midblock emergency standards. So making sure that those are consistent as they're developed um so that both users um going through the crosswalk and the the users using the crosswalk are experiencing the same thing throughout the community and then expanding transit for growth. Commissioner Ivy. So on this on this transportation one, I guess the the thing that's still in my mind is the ADUs and trying to understand the growth man management act, but it seemed like the uh some of the things around the ADUs um um correct me if I'm wrong like parking is not required to be supplied with the ADU.

Currently it is one spot. Okay, wonderful. So, I guess the concern was that if we're not requiring parking with the ADU, then it becomes a transportation problem as the vehicles have to go somewhere and potentially blocking the things that we're trying to establish here.

Yeah. So, I'll just add a note that special attention to make sure that parking and how that's reflected in future development um is looked at, which you know, city still requires one parking spot for ADUs. Any other comments or questions on that one? Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to capital facilities. So, there were a couple goals that were developed through this um um for this element specific. So updating um or upgrading aging infrastructure, providing essential community facilities, so water, sewer, storm, and supporting inclusive parks systems. And the policies that were also developed are fund and expanding facility sustainability, use long-term financing strategies, and coordinate improvements with land use. Those are pretty boilerplate. um you know not anything those are those are to be expected especially for the capital facilities plan. Okay, not hearing any comments or questions there. So we'll move on. Um we have utilities. So the two goals that were developed is fostering innovative utility planning and protect public health and resources. And those policies supporting those goals are implementing sustainable utility solutions and provide resilient utility services. Again, those are to be expected. They're pretty general and reflect what's existing in the comprehensive plan.

Okay. Any comments on that one? I have a quick question. Yeah. Under the policies, implement sustainable utility solutions, including innovative practices such as purple piping for water reuse. Is that um for city infrastructure? Yes. Specifically, not for residential, commercial,

I believe. So, I'm pulling up your notes real quick. John Michael, if you remember more clearly, feel free to jump in, but let me just pull up my notes. That would be development of a new utility. Um, we, you know, are always looking for ways to utilize the cleaned the the waste water. Um, and so it would be specific to parts of town that where we could, you know, make that happen. For instance, you know, possibly the Stone Creek area, um, development south of Midnier. Um, part of it is utilizing our waste water um to irrigate with. Just kind of makes sense if we can do that. Um the other part of it is you know our aquifer is um diminishing and even though we have sufficient water rights to handle our growth estimates the water table's dropping roughly 2 feet every year in the in the deep aquifer. So um this is another way of you know reducing our irrigation our demands on the municipal water system for an alternative way to Yeah. So,

thank you, John. Any other questions or comments on the utilities element? Okay, hearing none, we will move on. Um, the historic preservation element. So, a goal that was developed is preserve and celebrate heritage with policies that are collecting and sharing community stories, supporting historic district efforts, pursuing preservation funding, and incentivizing historic property care. Um, we will be meeting with the Historic Preservation Commission. um we'll actually be meeting with them this Thursday uh to go over the same exact content specific to historic preservation and also share the draft element that we've um shared with the city but we'll be sharing it with them before we share it with planning commission. Um so curious if there are any comments or questions on this element. Okay, hearing none. So the last one is the natural resources which will um merge into a climate and resiliency element. Um this element is being funded separately from the overall comp plan update and they there is a a separate technical advisory group just for this element. This is a new requirement um with this update. So the state has provided additional funding um for this element. But the policies that came out of this discussion were promote water conservation, encourage functional green spaces, um, and increase stewardship awareness. Any comments or questions there?

I actually have kind of a question for the uh uh reduce the need for extensive landscaping. encourage functional green spaces. Um, and this may be more a question for John. Are are we is that more moving towards more zeros escape versus oh, we want x number of trees and this much grass and as we move forward through some of the development requirements.

It's probably moving more towards um a zeroscape type of requirement, choosing native plants. Um but it also um could focus on you know larger developments making sure that we are like in parking lots providing adequate shade um to keep down the cooling. But um and then there's the potential development standards for um schools to you know require turf grass instead of all this lawn that has to be irrigated especially for their athletic fields. You know there's a trend towards that. Yep. Thank you, John. Yeah, thank you, John.

And just a reminder, too, these priorities that were developed by the technical advisory group are still very much preliminary. They're still draft. Um, these are just some things that they heard and kind of what they thought um reviewing the survey results. And so, planning commission gets that extra layer. you know, you get the the survey results, the tag feedback, and now um this is the opportunity and you know, over the next week to um provide even more um feedback on more information. So, still draft um nothing is set in stone quite yet.

A comment on the the turf. Um it seems like we're using belt end suspenders maybe for the the uh sustainability if we're providing purple pipe but then also not irrigating was purple pipe not an option for the school. I think everything's on the table. Um it's just a matter of whether or not we can, you know, implement the purple pipe in the right sequencing. So, you know, um there are other areas that where you probably wouldn't put turf, but you still need grass um for Yeah, just there's who knows. Yeah. But just a comment to that. But I think one of the advantages of moving one of the other advantages of moving to turf is a a reduction in maintenance and and cost to the schools as well. So it's not just a a water thing in that in that particular aspect.

And maybe at a future school site, purple pipe is viable, but in an existing site, putting purple pipe infrastructure in is going to be quite costly when it's already been developed and disturbed. What is purple pipe?

It's a way to describe a um irrigation system that's using reclaimed water. And so I think they literally put it in purple pipe. So it's just kind of a generic a way of describing it, but it's a non non-pottable water system that's been treated um to a safe level. like you probably could drink it, but it, you know, is not advisable. Um, but it's certainly clean enough to irrigate with. Other than saving water using like turf um and maintenance, are there any like drawbacks or um will it create because the regular grass also filters the air and it filters you know it makes it so that our um our environment is cleaner using turf. What what would it do? Um,

yeah, there there are most likely other environmental concerns that we would want to consider. I mean, I I don't know a lot about, you know, turf or astroturf, but I would assume that it's some sort of plastic product. Um, I think that, um, and when you have an athletic field that's played on heavily, you have to irrigate it more to keep the grass healthy. Whereas like if it's just a a grass area where the kids are going out there twice a day during recess, you can cut back on the irrigation during the hot months and then you know so that you know that we still would have grass areas for for play, but um those areas you would cut back on the irrigation and it would just be kind of dry, you know, brown grass in August as opposed to, you know, so Okay,

I I don't have any objections to the policies listed here. Appreciate the need to reduce the um extensive landscaping. Curious to see how the plan the city decides to move forward.

Yeah. And the second part of the comprehensive plan update will be updating and modifying the existing development regulations. So there's also been funding provided from the state to do that effort. So once the comp plan is complete, we will then move on to development regulations this um summer fall time. So that's where we'll get into you know the more detailed aspects of some of these conversations. This is more highlevel aspirational 20-year timeline. Um but that like specific um you know portion of that is going to be addressed more in the development regulations and there will be opportunity for public comment during that time as well. Okay. Um, so I'm going to bring up this slide that I showed kind of at the beginning before we went through all the comp plan elements just as a refresher of some, you know, questions we asked the tag and that I'd be asking this group. you know, are there any opportunities for partnership or um things like that or items that maybe the tag missed in some of these elements, priorities that you want to make sure is highlighted. Um or you know, just a thumbs up on everything looks good, they covered everything. Um or if there's any other questions or comments or things that you want um the city or consulting team to review and make sure that we um can research more so it's more clear for our next meeting. Uh, Commissioner Ivy. So, just under again under the housing uh talk about the on the page it talks about higher density um but the survey respondents were also looking for a single family and some multif family but uh the ADUs were not anywhere near the top of their list. So just encourage uh some consideration for the uh survey responses and the needs of the community for uh family oriented housing. Thank you.

Y thank you.

That's really challenging. Um, I hear what you're saying and I mean I I saw the survey and you know I everybody wants you know that cute little house with the white picket fence and um what we're hearing from the state is and you know the HAP tool you guys recall seeing that um that's pushing everything towards multifamily and um it's really challenging to write a comp plan to comply with that um and also meet the demands that the you know what we're hearing from the public. Um so we're we're walking a tight rope so to speak Rick here. I think the other thing may help put you at at a little bit of ease with ADU is the state has created requirements that we have to follow. So most people, provided they have the space on their lot, won't have a problem doing the ADU.

I don't know if that was what you were concerned about or if it was the other way. I don't know if I have anything else to add to the conversation right now. I I did want to ask um a lot of the state requirements are um I think based on uh the west side of the state that's very dense in population and and short in land. Um we don't have that issue right now here. We don't have um our city of College Place, the New York City is Waw Wala. Uh and then we have the the county of Waw Wala has seven eight cities and they're all spread enough so that we have more land than we we can develop or even attract um businesses. Um, so I don't know. I know that we need to comply with state regulations, but I don't know if there's how much flexibility there is, at least for the time being. Um, since we don't have the the land, you know, we have more land right now that that we need. We we need people. We need businesses. We need to populate some of that some of our land um before we get into like a density type issue. John, do you want to add to that or I can kind of respond?

Well, I I'll we need we need more people. Um, you know, our growth trends are while they are positive, they're going up. They're not they're not rapid growth. they're not. Um, and while it does seem that most of the GMA is written for, you know, rapidly growing cities, the west side, maybe Spokane, um, or the Tri Cities area, um, we're not feeling that pressure, but we still are feeling the the the issue with affordable housing. Like, it's still a problem here. even though we don't have that rapid growth and and yeah, you know, you you look outside the city limits and it seems like it's just there's oodles of land that we can grow into and that seems like the easy answer, but um the it's really challenging. Um, and we'll talk about this a little bit later as I give you an update on the our urban growth boundary applications, but um, there seems to be a perspective from um, the west side consultants that are applying the regulations very um, stringently um, a westside mentality. Um, and so it's it's it's really challenging. I mean, I I don't have an answer for you. Well, um, and I don't know if Elizabeth, if you have anything to add or Michael, but um, or if I've answered your question. I I hear what you're saying. Yeah, we're being told to densify internally before we seek more land. Um,

you can follow along with the our process with the county as well. Uh, but it's not easy unfortunately.

Yeah, good timing that it's next on on the list of items for tonight. So, you might have more questions then, but it's something that we in the city are actively working with um the county on and it's been a pretty lengthy detailed process um to get even where we're at. So, we hear you. Um more information to come. Any other questions, comments, suggestions, notes on any of the element priorities that I've shared from the tag? Okay, not hearing any. So, we will um wrap up here. So, just as a quick last slide, next steps. So, you know, we're in that second phase two um of the four-phase process for the update. So, after tonight's meeting, um I will wait to hear for any additional feedback from your group that you provide, John and Michael. I think if you're able to get feedback um by Friday, that would be fantastic. I know it's a short week um but we will compile all the feedback from the planning commission from the tag um combine it with the survey feedback and provide a refined list of updated draft goals and policies for each element um and then they will come back to you for further review as we continue to move forward um a full comprehensive plan update. Okay, thank you everyone and I really appreciate your time. All of your effort and feedback um really is important in shaping the comprehensive plan and making sure that it reflects the community um that you've been.

Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Okay, so then are we headed to reports next? I like it.

So, comprehensive plan applications or UG applications. Um it's if you recall it's a combination of we've got a couple of swaps areas that we're pulling or requesting to pull urban growth area out of um our UG and reallocated elsewhere. And then we have some other expansion areas that are based on our um our research that is indicating um our land capacity analysis that's indicating that we have a dem a need for additional multifamily. Um there was a workshop in was that in January um early January before the planning commission and it was rather short notice um for city staff. We weren't aware of it um and we still hadn't received their land capacity analysis. Lot lots of things were still up in the air. Um, we attended that meeting and requested that the Okay. So, so there was the workshop and then later that month there was a scheduled public hearing on their docketing um system and the the workshop was a um overview of their staff reports for the upcoming um planning commission meeting on their docketing system. and they basically were recommending that our most of our applications not move forward except one of the swaps. Um so at that workshop we requested that they uh not hold this public hearing

until we had a chance to evaluate their staff report. Um, we also asked that the that the county broker a um joint meeting between the Department of Commerce and the two jurisdictions to see if we could figure out what their issues are and um see if we can get those that resolved. Uh so the the uh public hearing never happened. Uh they did postpone that. The planning comm the county planning commission um was concerned with their recommendations um and they want staff to work with the city to try to figure a path forward. Um we're still trying to schedule that meeting. Um, and we've had a couple of um I've had some side conversations with uh the with Melissa, their acting director, um to try to see if we can get some of our differences resolved and we're trying to work forward. um any any detail? I don't want to get too much into the weeds on this, but um it's a challenging process that we're working through or what is basically 100 net acres within the college place UG up for possible annexation if it were to get moved into the UG. Both of those January meetings, the initial workshop and then a follow-up workshop are available on the county website. I'd be happy to point you towards them if you want to listen to a whole lot of land use talk for a couple hours. I find it entertaining.

Uh you might as well, but then you're in the right job. The um Yeah. So, uh, so what I hear you saying is that working through the process with the county on on some, um, land use things and there are some points of coordination. They do need to be resolved and identify barriers, um, from others that the city is still working through.

Yeah. So, their land capac the county's land capacity analysis, which looked at everything outside the city limits, um, we received that like the day before they had their workshop. Um we have our consultant um JV has found some discrepancies in their land capacity analysis. Um the jurisdictions through the countywide planning policies and agreements in place have established a methodology for the land capacity analysis that we're all supposed to follow. And so there's there's a couple of discrepancies that we've identified. One of them being that they were you utilizing a city limit boundary that was incorrect. So they were um that flawed a lot of their research, but also some of the properties that um should have been excluded based off of improvements on them already were um left in as having potential for redevelopment. And so they're also saying that because um there are lands in the county that can handle the growth that College Place might expect um that we don't that's a reason for not needing to expand our UG which is a little baffling because those those lands that are available are not adjacent to us. Um so we're not quite understanding what the logic there and that applies to the the the the areas like area five that are commercial. Um they're well we have found you know we we had an economist look at our um uh jobs available in the city and what our our needs are. um we're showing that

even a one to one um match is insufficient. Um we would really need much more um land available for jobs um in order to meet the the actual demands. So um we're we're struggling with that.

Yeah, college places, as you may know, pretty much a bedroom community. lots of people working outside of College Place while living here. And to correct that, we need industrial and commercial lands um or we're going to stay a bedroom community and that's going to be tough. Well, the other other thing that's that's challenging is is if you're doing that development in the county, especially when you're looking at residential that you're using a lot larger chunk of land per house, per code, than what you can do inside the city, which negates the uh drive from the west side for higher density. So, it kind of goes against what the the state's requesting. Mhm. Um for the swap applications, um there's the area I don't have the map in front of me, but um area A area A up off of Bllelock. Um that area they're saying is urban in nature. Um but under the guidelines that the state has established, there's no bright line between what's urban and rural. And um our argument is that it's it's rural and that we don't serve it with utilities. It is part of a private water or public water system, but it's not the cities. We don't have any sewer up in that area to serve it. Um and it's no different than the area to the north of it and to the west of it for the most part. So we, you know, anything off of Bllelock, we we believe could be pulled out of of the UG. Um, and that is crucial in that the area A and B, they're not arguing about B, area B,

which is like H Shaker Farms, and there's a couple of houses out there. Um, they think that's rural in nature. So that but we need both of those in combination in order to to make our expansion areas um pencil out because you you can't you you can do it's a one to one expansion B or swap so you're not allowed to to Yeah. So that's co causing problems for um areas basically the the piece of land between the Conan piece between the school district pop property and Stone Creek and then there's also for some odd reason there's resistance to allow the school district uh to be in the in the UG. They keep arguing that we can just serve them with water and sewer through an local agreement,

but if it's city school district, it seems like it should be within the city boundaries. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's the college by school district and it's but is it's not a you know, it's not a city function, but um it's and it's serving, you know, the this part of the community. um the west end of town basically. Um and it you know there are provisions that allow utilities to extend out to schools um if it's not growth related but the school wants to be in the city. Um it does, you know, agreements have to be in place and um you know, we if they're going to be utilizing our water, we'd like to have a say in what the standards are for how their land is developed, how the how they utilize their park, you know, their their athletic fields. Um if they're going to need our water to irrigate with, um which is a possibility. While the while the land did have irrigation rates at some point, they're not perfected. they um so they may be looking to us to figure out, you know, how to irrigate it. Um Purple Pipe might be a solution, but um if they're not in our city limits, it's hard to, you know, we we wouldn't have any say on on the development standards of how it develops out. Um but also you know we have resource officers and and agreements like that that are in place and um so states in the county the county has to bear that burden for the resource officers one would would think that that would you know be a possibility might be why wahi is still in the county so the sheriff can do that instead of the

So, that's what I have for um our UG applications. And did I leave anything out? I think we kind of covered most of it. Yeah, I think that was mostly it. We're still ongoing. We've got our meeting with Commerce scheduled for Thursday. I don't know if you saw that come in late today.

No. Um, and then we will hopefully get public hearings scheduled after we have time to mediate and respond to any comments. But while we received staff reports, we never received any um requests for information on our applications over the past seven months before they decided to recommend denial of them. So, we'll see. So, they're recommending none of it move forward then.

Uh they're recommending none of the expansion occur and that only B for a little bit of C on the swap occur to figure out how to make that pencil in terms of a one one swap a swap if it is 25 acres out it can be 25 acres in it cannot be 24.06 out and 25.55 in. So if we were to if they were to throw out area A and the single family residential portion of C and just do B for multif family C. Um we would be off by an acre and a half and have to sort that out with them. But So we can in theory we can take out more than we can bring in but we can't bring in more than we take out.

Correct. Right.

But we have what five proposals for UG expansion that aren't part of the swap um that they're recommending denial on. So um and and this was this is just to get on their docketing system. So they have a two-part hearing process. Um the first phase of the docketing is they are supposed to just evaluate the applications for on the merits of what's in their their code. Um I kind of think they went a little bit beyond that. Um, so we're requesting that we get on to the final docket regardless of what staff's opinion is of our applications because that's when you actually get into the real nuts and bolts of reviewing the application and arguing whether or not, you know, it should be approved. Um, so if we can't get onto the final docket, then we don't have a leg to stand on. So, and is this the county? So, the county commissioners?

Yeah, the county commissioners would be the decision makers. Yes.

Are they providing any rationale or are they just saying no, you can't do it?

I mean, their staff report has somewhat of a rationale in it, but we don't agree with it. I mean it kind of plays into your comment earlier about the you know the west side um you know interpretation of the of the regulations you have you have the growth management act which is an RCW and then from that you know that's the state law and then from that you have the wax which are the agency's rules on implementing the RCW W and so they while they are still I I guess I would say loosely their law um but they're they're rules that the agencies have created and there's there's a lot of way to interpret those rules and we have a different interpretation. Um, so any other last parting questions on this topic? Is there anything that we can do to help or?

Not at this time, I don't think. Well, if we have nothing more, shall we move on to the Tyler Tech Enterprises?

Sure. So, uh, last November, we were going through our final phases of implementing that software. Uh we had uh Tyler Tech staff come out and support us in December with rolling that out and getting it online and active. Um we are now accepting permits and plans and um public works permits as well and fire permits all through the system. Um still accepting paper as well, but we'd like to move away from that. But uh getting people comfortable and familiar with the system, holding some hands uh and more than happy to do that. And then also looking for feedback on uh how to make the system uh more clear. Talking to a contractor today, letting them know if they have any um suggestions or need any clarifications or guidance. um certainly let us know and we can try to make the system run smoother. But uh for the most part, those that have that are repeat customers and have gotten used to it uh have acclimated quickly and we're now accepting uh quite a few applications through that. So that is all. We're still I guess that's not all. Um, we're off our go live support team and we're we've got about 3 4 months of uh additional support that we're ironing ironing out a few little kinks but uh other than that seems to be operating pretty smoothly. Wonderful. Um, if we're done that we've got closing items. Uh, our next regular scheduled meeting is March 17. Um, is there any other business for the good of the order?

Hearing none, do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion. Do I have a second? Second. With no objections, unless there are any, uh, the meeting is adjourned at 7:02 p.m. Thank you very much.