Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Commissioners, we are live on the YouTube. Hey, are we ready? We're ready. Okay. Hey, uh it's I'm not using It's 6:30. Welcome to the new Welcome to the new chairperson. 6:30. Good evening, commissioners, city staff, citizens, and stakeholders of DuPont. Welcome to the City of Dupant Planning Commission meeting for the 9th of February, 2026. For those attending for the first time and listening in via Zoom or YouTube, my name is Melinda Scowl and I am the chairman of the planning commission. Planning Commission is a body of volunteer citizens who serve as adviserss to the mayor and city council. Our delegated authority is to maintain the city's comp comprehensive plan and land use code consistent with the Washington Growth Management Act. Meetings of the planning commission are open public meetings and they are being recorded. There are opportunities for members of the community to address the planning commission. Instructions on how to make a public comment are on the city website. Mr. Viday, would you conduct roll call, please? Commissioner Chase

present. Commissioner Butler present. Commissioner Brolles. Uh, Commissioner Bolison has uh written in that she will not be here today. So, it would be at this time to make a motion to accept that excuse. I'll make a motion to excuse uh Commissioner Berles. I'll second it. All those in favor say I. I. Oh, any any discussion? Hearing no discussion, we will call. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed.

Okay. Motion is passed to excuse Commissioner Burles. You may continue, please. Vice Chair Coven, present. Chair Scow, present. Commissioner Lynch, present. Commissioner Henry, I have not received Have you received anything about Commissioner? I have not received anything from Commissioner Henry. Okay, then we just

We will make a move to a vote to excuse. I I make a motion that we excuse Commissioner Henry from tonight's meeting. I'll second the motion. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.

Okay. Let the record show we excuse Commissioner Hen Commission Commissioner Henry from the meeting. Okay, at this time are there looking for any public comments on topics other than the public forum that will be held later this in the meeting? Is there anyone online who would like to make a comment? There's no one online at the moment.

Okay. Is there anyone in the chambers who would like to make a public comment other than reference referencing the public hearing later? Okay. No public comments. Moving on to approval of the agenda. If I could have a motion to approve the agenda. I move that we accept the uh agenda as written. I second. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I.

I. All those opposed say nay. Minutes have been approved. Now move on to approval of previous month's meetings for January 12th, 2026. I make a motion to approve the uh minutes of January 12, 2026 as written. I'll second that motion.

Okay. At that time, is there any any discussion on last month's meeting minutes? Hearing none, all those in favor of approval of the minutes say I. I. I.

All those opposed say nay. Meetings have been meeting minutes have been approved. This point um we will open up our public hearing portion of the meeting. Um the ground rules on this will be we will hear from a staff presentation followed by public testimony. At this point tonight, uh we will close the public ter testimony afterwards for tonight, but we are leaving the record and the hearing portion open to take additional public testimony at our regular scheduled meeting March 9th, 2026 meeting after the documents have been released. So, at this point at I am opening the hearing on February 9th at 6:35 p.m. Thank you, Chair Scow. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, um, people that the person that came to. Thank you very much. So we are going to you have in in uh you have this you know set of papers and what we are going to do is bring up on the screen for anybody that may be viewing um and walk through. It looks like a lot, but really it's it's a pretty minor change. If you will recall that we had our um we had a last month's meeting where we talked about the code amendments for electrical electric vehicle charging infrastructure. So these are the proposed tweaks to the code. So what you have is the um DuPont Municipal Code 2510 table of contents and then the actual definitions themselves and you have uh

DuPont Municipal Code 25.126 which is the electric vehicle chapter itself and then uh we'll walk through uh the zoning designations in the DuPont municipal code. 2525 is commercial. 2527 is the community business district. 2535 and 36 are our mixed use and 2558 is the old Fort Lake. So to begin it's just in the table of contents that you have um you see and all of this is done in the strike through underlined format where basically I just took all of the definitions related to electric vehicle infrastructure crossed them out and moved them under E so we would everyone could find them in the E section and that's what we've done um there. So we also um so you'll see where you know there's some changes where we added the word electric vehicle in front of battery um electric vehicle and in front of charging levels just to make sure that it's in alphabetical order. Um Zach, would you move on then to where it starts with 2510 definitions? Just scroll. Oh, it's a different document. There you go. Thank you. So in this document now again you see where we have crossed same thing we've crossed out the the B's um and moved them to E under the definition as well as the C for charging levels. So you can keep scrolling down. So those are now moved to E just as the table of contents um reflects and keep charging charging levels in the C is also looks like it's struck but it didn't we didn't eliminate it. we just moved it. So all the way down now um the definitions the you know so so we have this housekeeping uh work that we've done and so really

then the only thing that is changed is we changed the definition of the electric vehicle charging station um in 25105035. So I'll wait until we all get caught up to that. Um so the um the the definition of in the current code for charging station or or now we're calling it the electric vehicle charging station to be more specific in DuPont Municipal Code 2510 050. It's 035 because we had to re number things. Um the new definition that you're seeing in the underline uh is consistent with the uh state model code. So what we had previously um was fine but this is clearer um where we crossed the old one out. Now we say that electric vehicle charging station means a public or private parking space that is served by battery charging station equipment that has at its as its primary purpose the transfer of electric energy by conductive or inductive means to a battery or other energy storage device in an electric vehicle. An electric vehicle charging station and this is an important addition to this. an electric vehicle charging station equipped with level one or level two charging equipment is permitted outright um as an accessory use to any principal use. And what that is setting up for us when we go through the code that ones and twos are fine. We're not going to be concerned with those. But it's when we get if you remember the charging levels, the one, the two, and the three we went through um last month. I can go through it again if need be, but the battery

exchanges facilities and those rapid charging stations, those are the ones that we're most interested in regulating, not someone that drives home and plugs in their electric vehicle um to an outlet that they've that they've installed. Um, and you can see that on the previous thing where we talk about these charging levels, but I think I feel like we covered that all already. And I did not change those definitions in in this document. Only the electric vehicle charging station is changed. Then we move on to So that's it in definitions. That's all we're changing in definitions. Um, then we move on to the actual DuPont Municipal Code chapter. uh regarding the electric vehicle infrastructure and that's DMC chapter 25.126 and there's quite a bit of work here what we had um needed to be massaged I will say and we can go through that so the first thing where you're going to see an underline new text uh is in 2512630 we just put allowed ware electric vehicle charging. I mean that's just that's just housekeeping. But then on number two in 030 you see all new text about compatibility and this is where we were missing in our existing code. So the compatibility for land use compatibility purposes the charging activity should be proportionate to the associated permitted use. Electric vehicle charging stations permitted in residential districts shall be designed to serve the occupants of the residential units with level one or two charging levels. Whereas level three or rapid charging stations

um are expected I don't know why I have a question mark there but that's a typo pardon me are expected to have a more intensive use and will require additional sighting requirements. Then you'll see new text um below that in uh number three, subsection number three for battery exchange stations where I have just added um that they would be prohibited in residential zones. That was currently in the code or zones that are designated for critical area protection because we don't want batteries in critical areas where we're protecting them. I eliminated item four because honestly it made no sense to me. We talk about charging stations being able to locate along public streets. So that is has been struck. I think we need to make sure we're we're we're having a little more control over that. Um in the process for review, this gets into that control. The new residential construction remains the same in 25126.40. You go down though and I have added a a sub sub section in number two because number one is talking about new residential construction but our code was silent on uh other types of construction. So I've added that new industrial commercial or multifamily construction if associated. So if if we have new industrial, commercial or multifamily construction, the installation of electric vehicle infrastructure is going to be processed when possible with the underlying permitting process. So that will streamline that for um not only the city reviewer but also the applicant.

Um and then we talk about four um is then retrofitting. So again, one and two are about new construction. Three and four are about retrofitting. And so when we get into an industrial, commercial or multifamily or master planned development site, if we're retrofitting something that's existing, and this talks about the that control that I mentioned earlier, we're going to we're going to process that as a type two site plan approval in addition to the other permits that may be required. So that gives the um applicant a clear uh idea of how will this go. So they will submit you know the site plan approval type two is administrative. They don't have to go to hearing examiner but as their application packet that gets submitted. They will they will give us that site plan that shows that it's consistent with, you know, parking and uh distance from critical area buffer and landscaping and any of that other stuff that we would need to review as part of their total permit proposal to site uh a battery exchange or a a rapid, you know, rapid charging station in any of these allowed areas. Um, Commissioner Cen had a question. That's okay.

Um, on number two, um, talking about, uh, new industrial, commercial, multif family construction, um, being part of the permitting processes, would you have a level three charging station in a multif family home? Uh yeah, it's I don't know too many 480 volt systems in a in an apartment building possibly and we'll get to that when we go through the use districts themselves. Um Commissioner Chase,

just a quick question. As long as we're on that page, can looking at number four under where permitted the public streets and you eliminated does that mean that I'm aware of some people that have I guess what you would call a a vehicle charging station, a level one or level two that they charge their car is on the public street in a in a parking spot, but the charging station is in their house or is it at the car. Where's where where do you

when you say it can't be on a public street? The the the um so we we talk about in here and it wasn't changed that you can park your electric vehicle anywhere. Um the charging station is the plugin at the home. Okay, that's that's all I wanted to know because I was going Yeah. probably going to have some very upset folks um if we don't allow them to park their car legally and charge. Yeah.

Yes. Thank you. And so then we're talking about, you know, in four that types type two site plan approval is required and any other underlying permits that may be needed um such as you know electrical design review, parking, signage or landscaping. Um and so then you will see all of this language that is struck where we struck um you know that that it was a type one review. Um I struck that because I think we need to make I I think that we were sort of in this code version we weren't clearly saying residential those ones and twos are completely different from the threes. And so I think that this was just sort of a way that it was they're trying to make it, you know, doable or manageable. Um and the electrical permit required is struck only because it's mentioned um in other code sections. And then um battery exchange is not eliminated, but it's been rolled into um it's been rolled into other sections. So we didn't get rid of it, we just moved it. So design criteria is where you'll see in the 050 um the the thing that we have changed is the number required. So um this is more consistent with the legisl legislation and the model code now that new develop is a development is actually required under RCW1927540 to build charging to have charging stations um for new new um de not we're not talking about single family residential so I think I want to clarify that um but commercial

development, multifamily development. Um the new statutes are requiring that they um build charging station equipped or outfitted parking spots. So we've cited to that section of the RCW that mandates that. Um and it goes on to say if you read that statute that it's you know greater than one space or 10% of total spaces. It's got to be wiring uh and able to accommodate the vehicle electric vehicle charging. Um and then it goes about 20% of the spaces have to be station ready. And I do think I need to find a definition to add to that. I believe it's in the building code. So this is all the um international building code requirements that we now have to make sure that they're meeting when we approve a multifamily or commercial or industrial anything other than you know single family or middle housing development. We go down to um the wayfinding signage. Again, a lot of this is taken right out of the model code. I just struck this last sentence under uh 521260550 for design criteria and guidelines subsection five where it says that wayfinding signage is exempt from the provisions of chapter 25116. That's our sign code. Um, I don't think that we want to make u an exemption for signage because of the fact that we want to have at least some control about where these signs offsite signs are going because a wayfinding sign is going to be an off-site sign.

Can can we go back to number two? The number required. [clears throat] Mhm. So, in reading number one and number two, where there's communityowned areas of a residential development, does that require charging station? So, I guess what I'm looking at is um if we were if a developer was to design a pocket park, for lack of a better term, which is communityowned, do they have to put a charging station in?

Possibly. It just I'd have to check the building code. I honestly don't know the answer. I'm not I'm not I'm not trying to stunt here. No, no, I actually I'm not sure. So I, you know, I took that right out of the state model. I guess I'm that's really going to increase the cost and I would question the use. Let me bring that answer back to you. Okay. Yeah. You you understand where I'm coming from? I do. Yeah. And I kind of need to put one in every little park. I kind of tripped over that myself and so let me let me do a little more research on that one.

Yeah. Yeah. So then we go down to um the next changes you see on this are in the um in '05 design criterion guidelines when you get over to uh 12 subsection 12 um and I just eliminated design review pursuant to is not required because that's not consistent with what I said earlier that design review may be required. It just depends upon what is being um proposed. Um so I I I I didn't want to just flat out give an exemption um without because we're building in that site that type two site plan approval. That's where we can determine what would be needed based on what is being proposed. Um and then 13, the land use compatibility. we've already taken care of that that we um that proportionate language you saw in another section. It just seemed out of place here um under 050. And so I put that um I I followed the the model code and I put it um under where permitted. So that is everything in the actual DMC. That's our mainly mo most of the changes that are um significant in terms of the the amendments. Now we get into the actual so where we've have set this up that we've got our definitions then we went through the um the electric vehicle code itself for where it's permitted, how we process and all that sort of thing. Now, we're going to go to each one of these chapters um that are the different zoning designations, and these are very minor amendments, but the first one that we

have is chapter 2525, and that's the commercial district. And if you go down to um that first change there, this is where we were talking about that the electric vehicle charging and battery exchange was uh listed as just an accessory use. in our commercial district and we have struck that and we've moved that as a U permitted use in the commercial district and again with appropriate guard rails for site plan review and then we go to so that's it for that chapter then 2527 yes question um so you struck

oh thank you. I missed that. Thank you. Um, yes, because it's completely gone. There are no other accessory uses. Good catch. Okay. And I would have I bet I bet I did that throughout here though. 2527 community business district. Same thing where we have struck under 2527025 the listed accessory uses. We struck the electric vehicle and we moved it up to being a permitted use in our community business district and there was another accessory use. So we can leave that in the table of contents there. And then the mixeduse districts, we have two, 2535 and 2536. And this is where we started to get fancy as we were doing our um we we're going to be rehauling overhauling the code here. But this is where you see that table start to come in from a a an amendment some amendments that we did last year, I think. So, um, which the table I think is a lot easier, but if you go to the permitted and conditional use table in 2535 for the mixeduse district, you'll see that we've added electric vehicle charging facilities and battery exchange with um, a P and we struck 025 accessory uses. So I will need to strike that in the table of contents because that was the only one. Same thing.

Just as a comment, do we need to put a guide as to what P and C and I thought we had it and X. Yeah, I thought we had it in here, but you know what? If we don't, we do need we do need to individual. Oh, I guess it is the head. Okay. Yep. I was looking at the front end

which maybe we could Yeah. Okay. So 2536 then the mixed use district two you see the same thing occurring where we've added in in the table um in this mixeduse district as a a permitted use in mixed use 2 um outright and we've removed it as just allowed under an accessory use. And then finally, uh, the Old Fort Lake districts 2558. If you remember, we created our own, um, zones, um, in the Old Fort Lake. And if you scroll to that table, we we're we had the electric vehicle charging stations permitted across the board, but we've already resolved that they're allowed in the um single family and well middle housing. I mean, we're going to consider middle housing and single family as those places where people would want to plug in their electric vehicles into their one or two charging levels. But when you get then into multifamily. So first of all the use type has been beefed up to be electric vehicle level three rapid charging and battery exchange facilities because we're just focusing on that in this in these in these uh use uses allowed uses. So, we do not allow those in single family or middle housing. In multifamily to uh to your question earlier, maybe could be allowed, but we're saying that should go through a conditional use permit. Um because we just need to make sure that it's it's it's proportionate as we were saying earlier in these changes needs to be proportionate.

Good call. My uh uh concern I guess or issue that I had is um you know the voltage going in I guess to the multi is 240 volts but the level three is a 480 volt. Okay. Um so you would need some kind of a transformer or something like that to power those um charging stations if it's a level three. Yeah, that was my my question.

That's a good question. And so, um, thinking about that, maybe it should, um, well, I mean, a conditional use, you could make that a condition. I I don't I don't know. I mean, that that multif family I did sort of struggle with a little bit because, you know, we I guess as I'm thinking this through and is that we don't allow for that large of a multifamily complex in DuPont. So it might be appropriate for us to just um remove that um as an allowed use in a multifamily and people could just have level two charging stations maybe if they build you know parking car ports or something. Um, but we can, you know, I'll finish my presentation and then we can move on to that sort of discussion and if we could either do it tonight or we could hold off and do that to the final draft at our next meeting. And then in the civic um the civic it's a it's I've got this proposed as a conditional use but not allowed in the park recreation or open space zones. And that is the end of my presentation for tonight. Thank you. I would ask that this uh this all be entered into the record um for the public hearing portion on on these proposed amendments.

Thank you. At this time, um are there any public comments online? Do we for the public hearing portion? No, no one online. Okay. Is there anyone in the uh chambers? Please step up to the podium and give your name and just name and city.

Just name and city. push it. Okay. Is it on now? Okay. Anyway, um yeah, I'm Steve Kern. In the interest of disclosure, I own I'm a co-owner of a piece of land over at Boxdale Station. I think the three folks on the left know about my situation. I don't believe Melinda [snorts] that I've met you yet. All right. But um yeah, we have a a nationally uh a national firm that wants to put in a high-speed charging station at that location. And it's a perfect spot because it's approximately 30 mile void on the interstate between easy on easy off EV charging. The nearest one to the north of us is 10 miles north. The nearest one to the south of us is 20 miles south. Um I I really commend Barbara. I mean, she's done a great job. I mean, she's gone way beyond what I asked her to do because, you know, the state published RCW35.63.127 back in 2009. And one of the things that mandated was that every municipality adjacent to I-5 or I90 or um a couple of the other busy roads around Seattle had to allow the placement of EV charging infrastructure adjacent to the interstates. And so that that was a that was a given. But the DuPont code was a little I think a little bit behind. But um they allowed accessory use. But you know, one of the statements in this uh RCW was that um a community can um can only uh let me just read a

jurisdiction may adopt and apply other development regulations that do not have the effect of preluding the sighting of EV infrastructure in places where that use is allowed. So EV infrastructure was allowed at our location over at Barksdale, but because it was only allowed as an accessory use, the proponent who wants to put in the EV charging station was going to be forced to build a some sort of building or a big parking lot or something, which is not typical of EV charging stations these days. And so they said, "We're not going to pursue this until we get just clear-cut permitting." So I presented the problem to Barbara and she's gone ahead and done a whole bunch of research and tried to clean up the DuPont code and I I I just I mean you went way beyond what I asked you to do. So thank you for what you've done. Um all I can say on the positive side is that um you know Puisound you know you brought this up John you brought this up. Pugesound energy was consulted before uh they even made a proposal to DuPont. uh PSC said that you could take 1700 1,700 kilowatts off the line. That was enough to put in 12 parking slots. So all this stuff has to be done well in advance before the city of DuPont would grant a permit. So uh the result is that no dimmonition in the power supply for the city of DuPont would would result. So a lot of the homework was done already. Uh the other issue that I know Lee you brought this one up. What about parking [laughter] and or how are people going to access this? And right now we're in a betw twix and between stage. People that are coming southbound off the interstate are coming right out at exit 119 now. They come down to the roundabout. They go around it. But there's still a median in place and that's supposed to be taken out. I don't know what the timetable is

for the DOT to do that. But right now, it would be hard for anyone, especially semi-tractor trailers supplying those two big hotels to turn left and go up into those two hotels, much less uh cars coming into our proposed EV charging station. But when everything gets resolved and that meeting gets taken out, the other thing that's going to happen, because you brought this up, what about compromise to the existing limited parking right next to that big yellow building? Uh the answer is that the new proposed EV charging station would have its own entrance. The people who want to use it won't even go into the area that you have used in the past. Um the other thing that I think is kind of interesting, apparently DuPont charges at least a 6% utility tax. And so people that come in to charge their vehicles are not going to just get off scot-free. I mean, this is going to actually benefit DuPont. Right now, DuPont probably gets at the most 3.5 cents of sales tax on every purchase made in DuPont, but the utility tax will also go into the DuPont coffers. So, there's a lot of reasons why I think this is a great opportunity for DuPont. But I appreciate the efforts of the city to try to bring their code in line with state mandates. And also, you know, I welcome obviously personally we've had this land for about 10 years and we've been paying $7,000 a year of property tax on it. It'd be nice to start getting some revenues on it, [laughter] but thank you for your attention. All right.

Thank you. Uh, seeing no one else in the in the chambers, once again want to remind that when we close this p public testimony tonight, we will leave the record open for the hearing to take additional public testimony at our regular scheduled meeting, March 9th, 2026. At this time, we will close the public hearing portion of the meeting at 7:07 p.m. Okay. Uh, moving on to unfinished business. Now, will we go on we will go on to the electric vehicle infrastructure code amendments. So since we're going to leave the originally when this agenda was built, we were thinking that we would not continue the hearing. So since we are continuing the hearing, we have an opportunity to go ahead and discuss, but my recommendation would be that I mean that we wait until we hear the rest. I mean this is our time to discuss it basically. I wouldn't um I guess I should rephrase what I'm trying to explain is there's no expectation because we're leaving the hearing or we're going to hear testimony potentially in March that you would be deliberating at this time. But it's on the agenda for just further discussion if you have any further discussion.

Um since we will be continuing on and may hear more information next month. uh feel the we can go ahead and close this unofficial uh business and we will continue to discuss it next month. Yeah, every everyone in agreement with that.

I I do have one statement. Um uh so I I think what I said earlier was actually wrong. um because apartment buildings have large HVAC units and those are normally 480 volt though they'll already have the supply on uh on site. So um yeah, I I'll retract what I said earlier and I'm sure that a level three would be would be fine in an apartment building

probably. I mean that like again if we were in a city where we where you see you know these gigantic complexes I would be like yeah we should make that allowed but here it's a little different. I mean we do limit the number of units in a complex. We limit the height. So, it just may may be a non-issue is what I'm thinking because it would be quite an expense to try to build into a a multifamily structure that's as small as they are here in Dupont. So, I I'm kind of open to either way. I mean, yeah, I don't know if other commissioners have thoughts about that, but that was that is the one thing that I kind of got stuck on. I think my own concern, you know, is because this is the beginning of where you're going to see potentially more and more homes putting in their own charging stations.

Um, personally in my mind, I think of the um level three as being like he, you know, as he proposed, those are revenue existing charging stations. Mhm. If it's a residential, you tend to have the lower Yeah.

at level two. And who's not to say in 5 years what's now considered level three will actually become a level two. Um I would feel personally when we are dealing with those buildings and the fact that it is eventually going to put strain I'm okay with leaving level two for any residential building because you are there for the duration you're there you are parking you are at your residence. Level three is usually for those who come and they're stopping on their way. That's not that is a temporary stop. Whereas a level two would be um would be your this is where I'm here for the duration.

Yeah, that's where I feel that I don't personally feel the need of a level three at this time and a multif family. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And just the other the other side of that coin, I would think that if a developer wanted to put one in that that may be the cost benefit may be there versus having to put the power to a level two to every carport or whatever. I'm just looking at they may want it's it's a revenue maker if they put it in they're going to get return on their expense.

It's kind of an amenity even to think about it could be sold as an amenity like a swimming pool but we have our rapid charging. I mean I could see that too. Yeah. I'm just saying I I I think it's we're not mandating that they have to put in any level of charging. I'm just thinking that it might be nice to allow them to put in the level three or level two as the case may be.

So, I just want to say one one clarification. in a a new apartment building, the building code will require that they have parking spaces that are that are set up for um EV charging. Yeah. So, so actually this was going to be a question. I'll I'll chime in. And being kind of new, I'm I'm looking at this with fresh eyes, if you will.

So, looking at the old Fort Lake zoning districts, right, there's a multiunctional plot on there. And according to this, if I'm reading it correctly, uh maximum is 680 units. So if 10% of that is required, that's 68 assuming each unit gets a parking spot. I don't know. That's 68 plus mandated electric charging stations, which is I'm just trying to make sure I understand. It's a lot. Yeah. So

to your point, it is required. So, I just want to say though the multifamily zone in the Old Fort Lake um the zoning desk designation there, it's no more than 150 units per building and up to 680 units. You're right. If they built a complex, a dense dense complex. So, if you actually had somebody that would build that out, um, then they may be better off. Well, I guess my point was the gentleman here is talking about 12 parking spots and now we're talking potentially 68 required. So, just as something to consider, that's Well, and what is bigger than

what he's talking about is he wants to put in just a standalone 12. [clears throat] Yeah, I got that. Just you're talking if you've looked at these like the amount of space it takes up and power requirement.

Yeah. I mean, I think about those rapid charging stations as basically being the new new gas station without gas pumps. BA basically that's what it is. You're going to drive in, it's going to have a canopy and you know, it's just not going to be a gas pump. You're going to be plugging in a Yeah. on the about the 68 units. Um uh I don't think it has to actually be 68 units itself. Just you have to have the ability to uh so and all it is is just a 240 volt um circuit that you would that would need to be installed. So um I I I think like uh that wouldn't be too difficult. And if it needed to go higher than 68 again or higher than 10% I'll say um you know it again it's just a 240 volt circuit um that wouldn't necessarily need to have a charging unit there just ready to have one put in

ready to have one that's the way the building code is written because it's um it's intended to um I guess I would say promote or facilitate ate people living in these apartment buildings to be able to actually have an electric vehicle which help me I guess understand this as as I come on board here is it says 10% of toll spaces with wiring able to accommodate electric vehicles an additional 20% of spaces must be charger station ready and that's where you said you need to find the definition of what that actually means yeah I need to because I interpret that as 10% must like already have a plug Yeah,

which is I would argue and I'm not a, you know, I don't build massive, you know, apartment complexes, but I would wager that's a fairly upfront cost, high cost and then 20% ready. Yeah. That means pre-wired the whole and potentially. Yeah. So that's a massive additional cost and power to create and that's why I was looking at at least allowing them the option the option of a

putting that in because just putting in the the 240 volts they're not getting well they can up the rent to get their money back or they could put in potentially x number of level threes receive some money back and not have to do I would argue perhaps not having to do as many level twos because it's in and out it's fill your tank and so I I have question is the RCW 1927540 which mandates that's a Washington state requirement

revised code of Washington so they're saying that whatever future has to do this. Yeah. And do we have the option of saying we don't have to do it?

Well, you know, you both are bringing up something that I'm going to double check with the building official because that 1927 is building code, not the land use code section in our uh statute, our state statute. Um, and when I said to him like, "Hey, I'm just going to site to that building code." He said, "Good, because it it's just sort of in flux." So, but let me double check with him about the intent of what is currently adopted and make sure when we come back that I not only have a charger ready definition, but that we also have a better understanding of of what that looks like. and and maybe it's eliminating in this code the details of what it says now and just mapping it to whatever that RCW1927 says because what we would be doing if we receive a application for a development is we're going to be looking that it meets those requirements whatever they are at the time. So, but I think that that's something that for further discussion when I can get my facts together to share with you.

Commissioner Lynch, did you have anything you wanted to contribute at this time? I know sometimes we forget the online presence there. I've been listening. It sounds uh sounds actually pretty straightforward. Uh, and I I second the um Barbie, you did a great job on all this. Thank you.

Okay, so we'll continue when we have a couple more answers next month on that for definitions. Uh, is there anyone online wanting to make a public comment? No one online, no one in chambers. So, uh, this time, uh, we have planning commissioners and Barb, I will also hand it over to you.

Thank you. Um, I do want to introduce our, uh, new employee to my right. This is Sarah Buchanan. And Sarah is joining us, uh, in she's going to be helping us with the planning and community development work. So, Zach thankfully has been filling in for us after Janet retired and he's just been just amazing running the equipment, doing the meeting notes, and I'm just so thankful because I don't know how we would have managed without you, Zach. And so now we have Sarah who will be fulfilling that role that you know you always saw Janet sitting here and and Sarah will be coming to all of the meetings and running the equipment and doing the meeting notes and helping me with agendas and notices and all that.

So welcome. So thank you Mr. Len. We have been very honored to have you in our chambers and I know you will appreciate probably having your Monday evening back. [laughter] Um also at this time um someone was not with us on the last meeting of December and then was not acknowledged in January. So at this time I would like um Barb to acknowledge one of our former commissioners who was who has moved on to city council.

Yes. And I was hoping that uh Jugal would be able to make it tonight to give this um this service award to him in person, but um I'm sure I'll see him tomorrow night at the city council. But we are um you know, we were so thankful for his service on the planning commission. He served for um four years um and did an amazing job. and now he is, as you said, um on our city council to continue his good work for the city of DuPont. But I will give Mr. Thator his service award appreciation tomorrow if hopefully he'll be at the the city council meeting. Thank you. Any other planning commissioner comments tonight? No. Okay. Um at this time at 7:22 PM we will adjourn the meeting and thank you very much. Thank you guys.