City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this hybrid regular council meeting of August 11th, 2026 to order at 7 o'clock p.m. Will you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Olson.

Here.

Deputy Mayor Creeley.

Here.

Council Member Pasarewski. Here. Ramirez.

Here.

Keith.

Here.

Rasmus.

Here.

Edwards. Here. Southerd. Here. Roles complete.

Okay. Thank you, Jill. Okay, Council. Does anybody have anything to add or delete to tonight's agenda? Okay. Seeing nothing, we'll move on. We're going to start off tonight's meeting with a public hearing. And the public hearing we are conducting this evening is regarding agenda bill 26-116. This is the electric alarm systems fencing and retaining wall code amendments. audience. A public hearing is a one-way communication that allows citizens to present testimony on a specific topic for the City Council's consideration in their decision-making process. Please frame your testimony as a statement of fact or opinion rather than as a question. When it is your turn to speak, those attending in person should approach the podium, while virtual attendees should use the raise hand option in Zoom. I will call on you when it's your turn. Please clearly state your name for the record. You will then have five minutes to speak. I now call the first public hearing to order on electric alarm systems fencing and retaining wall code amendments at 7.02 p.m. Mr. Josh Kubica, will you please brief the council on this item?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council and the public. Let me share my screen. Hopefully you can see my screen now. Sorry, can I get a verbal okay if someone can see this? Okay, thank you. So electrical alarm systems, state passed a bill, House Bill 1688 back in 2025. This bill established electrical security alarm system regulations when a jurisdiction doesn't have any specific regulations. This bill also required that if you're adopting an ordinance regarding electric alarm systems that you hold two public hearings. We held the first public hearing with the Planning Commission on May 11, 2026, and we're having the second public hearing tonight with City Council. On the image to your right is kind of an example of what an electrical alarm system kind of looks like. It's the black pole behind the chain link fence with some of the wires attached. Our current code is very silent and vague regarding electrical security systems. So when a resident has asked about it, we haven't been able to find a path forward for them in our current code. Based on the bill from 2025, though, we believe we are subject to that law as written, but we're allowed to update our own ordinance to make it fit Edgewood. So other proposed amendments, since we are attaching the fencing code, was to address any outdated fencing codes, height requirements, and retaining wall regulations. So what is an electrical security alarm system? It means an outdoor alarm system that connects a wire structure to an alarm system and transmits a signal intended to detect and alert the property owner of intrusion by utilizing an electrical charge. That is the definition provided directly from the House Bill 1688. So what does the state regulation say? Well, it's not considered a fence. It must be allowed on all outdoor storage properties that don't, about existing schools or other sensitive uses. Requires specific voltage, a maximum height of 10 feet or up to two feet taller than a perimeter fence. Requires a minimum five foot barrier fence. And like I mentioned before, a city may adopt its own ordinances that further regulate these systems. So the proposed amendments as part of this hearing is that we are providing that definition for electrical security alarm systems. We're updating the definition of fence and we're including a new definition for retaining wall that we didn't have previously. As part of the amendments, we are also looking at how fences are measured. So currently, heights are measured from the lowest point on the finish ground to the surface to the top of the fence. That's not changing. What is changing, though, is the proposal for the, in case the fence is located within two feet of a retaining wall, the total height shall be measured from the lowest side of the retaining wall to the top of the fence. Currently, it's the retaining wall gets one height and the fence gets another height. The image, the first image on your right here, the left image, is an example of a fence on top of the retaining wall and how you can start seeing how of a blank wall that starts becoming two neighboring properties and the public right-of-way. The image farther far right has some terracing with some landscaping and screen to screen. So you can see how that breaks up the visual appearance. in the residential and mixed residential zoning district's fencing standards. The front setback would be allowed up to six feet in height if located behind five feet of landscaping fronting arterial or collector roads. That was one of the requests from the public that they live on busy streets, so why can't we have a little bit of a taller fence? The not new is up to four feet in all other roads. Regarding interior and rear setbacks is probably one of the major reasons we were looking at this fence code update, because currently fence heights are measured, are limited to six feet within setbacks. However, interior setbacks for mixed residential one and two zones is zero. So someone can technically have a 12 foot fence, 15 feet fence, technically up to 35 feet, as long as they get a building permit based on how our current code was written. So the proposal includes a new requirement, which is no fences exceeding six feet anywhere else on the property. Um, including what the proposal is, uh, allowance for decorative features. So allow two additional feet for trellises or three additional feet for arbors, as long as they provide 50% transparency through. That'd be on top of the six feet height. Uh, we continue to prohibit to the barbed wire, raised bar, et cetera. So all the other zoning fencing standards, so all the other zoning districts, mixed use residential, town center, commercial, business park, industrial and public parks. The front setback is not new. It's up to four feet for all roads. All other areas this would be considered new is not to exceed six feet in height if located within five feet of a property line or required permanent landscaping strip. So making sure that that buffer that's being required, that fencing is being placed in a way that allows that landscaping to soften the view. Otherwise shall not exceed eight feet in non-industrial zones and 10 feet in industrial zones. The exception would be for recreational uses like golf range rent nets, baseball nets, etc. Regarding chain link fencing, we are continuing to allow if it's visible from the street, except for industrial public zones. However, the new code would allow it, if allowed, the fencing must be either black or green vinyl coated. New to this would be the allowance of barber razor fencing for industrial and public zones, if not visible to adjacent residential uses, located outside any required permanent landscaping, and shall not exceed 10 feet in height and no more than two feet of barber razor fencing. We have a lot of legal non-conforming barber razor fencing around the community in these zones. So the Planning Commission considered this as a way of allowing it. Regarding retaining walls, this is generally all new standards, allowing up to four feet along property lines, the front property lines, and up to six feet on interior side rear property lines. An example is just your top right image, that was a retaining wall in the business park that's facing some residential, it's rather large, the question was to how do we can soften that view. Oh, however, in the town center and mixed use residential zoning districts property adjacent to the public right away shall utilize terracing such that no individual wall exceeds two feet. and all other areas of that property, no individual wall shall exceed six feet. So that is our properties facing Meridian in our town center and trying to be the walkable area that these shouldn't be large walls, but more two feet or so that can be considered almost seating walls. And then terracing, we provide a strict width or a minimum width of two feet to allow the landscaping to be planted to soften that view. However, we know that our edge does have reasons to have bigger retaining walls, especially if there's a public road and safety. And if sometimes there's retaining walls with an interior of the property that no one else sees. So the director would be allowed to provide a deviation through the design review application that all the commercial industrial subdivision projects will have to go through. Now onto the electrical security alarm systems and electrical fencing. This is all brand new code being proposed. So as proposed by our language, it would be allowed in all outdoor storage areas with commercial business park and industrial zones and on any parcel used for livestock. Since the planning commission hearing, another proposal is being added for an exception to allow electrical security alarm systems on legal non-performing commercial, industrial and public uses in residential zones. We also include a number of performance centers, some from the state, some we also looked at for Milton and City of Sumner, that these centers include prohibiting between the system between the front of the building and adjacent street, except for industrial zones and for livestock. Setback five feet and no taller than eight feet when adjacent to sensitive uses like park schools, et cetera. A minimum six foot tall perimeter fence. Powered by no more than 12 volts of direct current. That is actually one of those state requirements when it's not Edgewood specific. Warning electric fence signs every 30 feet. Again, that's a state requirement. Must include first responders rapid entry device that is Edgewood specific to make sure that emergency vehicles can still access these sites safely. And then meet critical area setbacks. Staff and Planning Commission reviewed this against the amendment evaluation criteria and found that it generally conforms with the GMA, conforms with the comprehensive plan, meets state law requirements, and reflects current values. Thank you, Knight, for the chance to provide this presentation, and I look forward to hearing the public comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kubica. Okay, takes us to public testimony. So we have two people that have signed up. First of all, Andrew Wiesenfeld. Please step to the podium, Andrew, and you have up to five minutes. We do not give out bonus points for using all five minutes, but you're welcome to. Okay. Brief but slow.

There you go. I hadn't actually intended to testify on this subject, so somewhat serendipitous, but as you drive through Edgewood, and my comments here are directed to the new fence height of six feet plus a two-foot trellis on top of the crown of the fence, As you drive through Edgewood, there are many, many, many examples of people who have built fences. Some are relatively new. There's one, I think, within about a half a mile of this building that's brand new, and others that have been around quite a while, where you've got a six-foot fence along the perimeter of the property, and then someone has built a trellis directly on top of that, probably about another two feet. So you're talking about an eight-foot fence that technically would have been in violation of the existing code, limiting it to six feet. So I'm glad to see that the city has recognized that an adjustment is needed in the height of the fence, the way that they've proposed it. If you've driven around, say, the Proctor district in Tacoma, You'll see there are very, very nice properties there who have built trellises on top of their fences, very tastefully done, lots of curb appeal, very attractive, probably improves the value of the home itself. And I know that Tacoma, building code does allow for the two foot over and above the six foot fence. So it looks like the city of Edgewood is following along that path. So I'm definitely in favor of the adjustment that's being proposed here. The only word of caution that I would offer is because we're trying to promote economic development along Meridian, that we want to do that in such a way to give business people the opportunity to ensure that they're able to secure their property, but from a curb appeal standpoint, to ensure that they're doing that in such a way that they're not driving away potential customers or, you know, walking traffic, that sort of thing. But in general, I would say that what's being proposed here is definitely in the right direction. So those are my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. Next up, we have Kyle Hardkey.

Hi there, thank you mayor council and Josh for keeping this electrical security system thing moving forward. I spoke to some of you in the past. I am a resident of the city of Edgewood and also a business owner in the city of Edgewood. I have a landscaping company on the. West Valley highway, amazing landscape services and we have been burglarized and vandalized. Numerous times we had a, we had a someone break into our. Facility in November of 2021, they broke in and tried to get into our property. They weren't successful that time. And so they came back six weeks later on January 15th of 2022 and not only stole every piece of power equipment that we had that two guys could put in the back of a truck, but they stole one of our trucks and then proceeded to use that truck to kill a little girl in Midland with our truck. It was one of the most heartbreaking tragedies that I've had to deal with. I know for sure that if this system was available for us at that time that, and we had it installed, that she'd still be alive today. And I really appreciate you guys keeping this alive and keeping it moving forward because without her, Business owners having the tools that are necessary to keep the bad guys out of our property. A chain link fence. We block our gates with trucks. People still steal the trucks. We do everything that we can. The police chief has come to our property and given us some tricks and tips on how to secure things better. But this is truly a... as close to fail safe as I've ever heard. I know some friends of mine have Western Self Storage in Sumner and they have the system and they had the similar problem where they just couldn't keep the bad guys out of their property. They put this system in and immediately it stopped. Bad guys do not go through These systems, and if they do, it alerts the police immediately and puts on flashing lights and does all the things that bad guys don't want to see. And so I thank you and I. Ask that you approve this and make it available for us business owners to be able to protect our. investment and our assets and the jobs that we create in this community. And I just want to thank you for keeping it alive. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Kyle. Any other public comment in this public hearing? Don't see any hands raised in our audience or the virtual audience. Josh, do you have any final words to say before we close our public hearing?

I do not have any. Thank you.

Okay, with that, our public hearing is closed at 719. And that takes us to next portion of our agenda, which is audience comment. So we also have Andrew. Andrew Wiesenfeld that has signed up, and he wrote down the PSE rate increase. So that is his topic. So, Andrew, you already know the routine. Step up. You got five minutes or going to pass out something. So Mark and Christy were getting a little handout before Andrew starts his five minutes or something. And just so you know, Deputy Mayor Creeley and Councilmember Keith, this is the notice of public hearings and requested changes to Puget Sound energy rates. So we will make sure you get a copy of this. Okay, Andrew. Oh, he's asking out to everyone here.

All right, take it away, Andrew. All righty. Since I've already introduced myself once, I won't do it again. One comment, two asks. One comment, as former chair of the Economic Development Advisory Board, I wanted to go on record, public record, to acknowledge the service of our former vice chair, also a small business person here in Edgewood, Michael Pierce. He did an exceptional job when he was on EDAB, committed, and one of what I call the Three Musketeers, who helped the board through its doldrums, and work towards the board and its vibrancy that it has today. And the reason why I wanted to lead off with that is the board, city, we're gonna be facing challenges in the very near future as to the health of the economy. in Pierce County and outside Pierce County. And this goes to notice that I put in front of you about the rate increases that Puget Sound Energy is proposing for the next three years, a 30% increase on average for electrical, 20% on average for natural gas, And having worked with statistics in my professional life quite a bit, I know that averages tend to lie. I think you find that if, in fact, they'd used a median rather than a mean, that there are going to be many more people who are going to be paying if they have both electrical and gas utilities in their residence, as well as business people, probably far more than the 50% over the next three years. So here's my ask. I've reached out to the director of Milton Fife Edgewood Chamber of Commerce, asked her to talk to her chamber people to come down to Lacey next month on the 29th to testify against these rate increases. They're job killers. They're going to make housing all that much more unaffordable, both outside Edgewood and in Edgewood. It's going to impede economic development, no doubt. And so I've asked the Chamber to come forward with their business people to speak against this. And I'm asking city council to select one of their members to come down to Lacey next month to speak against this as well. I'd also ask that you reach out to your counterparts in Puyallup, maybe talk to Jim Castema. He knows the ropes as a legislator, former legislator. and other council people that you may deal with and to ask them to come down to Lacey to testify against this as well. Singular individuals, as passionate as they may be, they're not gonna move the needle. What moves the needle is when community leaders such as yourself, chambers of commerce come down and testify against these kinds of rate changes to explain the reality and the consequences to the UTC. If we're not down there speaking against this, then these rate increases are likely to go through and we're gonna suffer the consequences. Ironically, the name Puget Sound Energy, there's no actual ownership of Puget Sound Energy in the Puget Sound. Puget Sound Energy is actually owned by five or six large investors outside of the United States. Most of them are Canadian. One of them is Dutch, and I think another is a private equity group. So they don't really have an investment, so to speak, as to the quality of life here in Puget Sound. My second ask.

Your five minutes is up.

Okay.

Yeah. Sorry. Thank you, Andrew. And you'll, I'm sure, let us know the date of that. It's actually on your document. Okay. Perfect. Sounds good. Thank you, Andrew. Is there any other public comment here tonight, either in person or in the virtual audience? Don't see any hands raised among participants. I assume there are none. Okay. That concludes our audience comment for tonight. Okay. Takes us to the mayor's report. so just a couple of things to pass along i spoke at the seeds of change dinner recently a week or two ago that's kind of a quarterly commitment to speak on thursday nights to the mountain view community center group i enjoyed that The Tuesday morning free lunch pickup is continuing just fine. We gave out over 50 lunches today. There's a few more weeks to go, but our staff here at City Hall is doing a wonderful job of stepping up and committing to covering that lunch timeframe and handing out free lunches to our local community children over the summer. Also, just want to say I attended the National Night Out last Tuesday night. We didn't have a study session. Just want to say thank you to the host homes for stepping up and opening up their homes and their yards to host the events. I think every event that I went to was special. Very appreciative of the opportunity to meet as a neighborhood. Very appreciative of our police department going around the fire department making visits. So everyone was very happy. It's a very positive event, that national night out. Finally, just want to say tonight is my 36th anniversary. My wife and I can think of no better place to be on a Tuesday night on our anniversary to be with you all. So that concludes my mayor's report. Next up, the consent agenda. Are there any items to be amended or pulled from the consent agenda? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved.

Creeley second.

Okay. It has been moved by Council Member Rasmus and seconded by Deputy Mayor Creeley to approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Okay, motion carries. Council Business. Council, there is no official Council Business agenda items tonight, so keeps us moving on. We are now to our final item, which is Council Comments. Who would, and Jason Ramirez. Council Member Ramirez.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. My question's for Public Works. Going in line with curb appeal of Meridian. And I understand we as a council canceled the contract for maintenance on Meridian for budgetary purposes. I was just wondering if there's a plan with public works of getting out there and cleaning some of them up because they are going over the curb as well as the sidewalk. And I just was wondering if that was somewhere on the schedule over the next few months. Thank you.

Okay, I'm not sure. Oh, there he is coming off. So, Public Works Director Chuck Henderson. Chuck, would you like to address Councilmember Ramirez's questions?

Yes, thanks for the question, Councilmember. We're... planning on getting out there and doing a cleanup relatively shortly. It will not be to the level that it was when we had a landscaping company going out there weekly, keeping care of it. But yes, it will address the weeds coming over the curbs and it has been sprayed. So yeah, Most of them should be dead at this time, but we are planning to get out there with some string trimmers and get that cleaned up.

Okay. Thank you, Chuck. Yes, Council Member Southard.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make two motions. Is it okay if I do them one at a time? Sure. I would like to move to have the subject of automatic license plate readers presented at our September 1st study session.

Okay, do we have a second on the motion before the floor? Okay. Okay, so we have a motion to put automatic license plate readers on the September 1st study session agenda. And we have a second. So, Council Member Souther, do you have the floor?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have some questions about automatic license plate readers and There's some concerns I have, and also there's the passage of a relatively recent law by the state, and I was curious of how that affects people's privacy and civil liberties when using automatic license plate readers in common highways.

Okay. Councilmember Edwards, you now have the floor.

I'm just interested to learn more about these cameras, just because it's a very hot topic issue right now, locally and nationally. And so just getting more information about them.

Yes, Council Member Pasarewski.

I just have a quick comment. Is this the same as a flock camera? Okay. Okay.

Okay. Speaking for Chief, that's three weeks from tonight. I'm guessing if this is intent is to start a conversation, I would think he's ready to have some information to start a conversation about this in three weeks or so. Do you have anything you want to add? Because I know this is going to be

on your plate sure thank you mr mayor uh three weeks is sufficient to get some basic info for you just to so that it's out there we don't currently use automated license plate readers in the city of edgewood our cars are equipped with them but uh after the passage of the law you referenced the sheriff's office deactivated all in all of our cars until we can find a way to be more in compliance with that law so we currently don't have them nor do we have flock but we can definitely get together some basic info on how they work what they do and don't do dispel some of the myths talk about some of the the privacy and the sharing restrictions and things like that give you some basic info 3 weeks might not be enough time, but if it is, we could try to get a representative from flock to come in as well.

I'll make some contacts on the future agenda list. September 1st is free, but it looked like it could be moved to the 15th. We wanted. If that would work better.

Right. Okay. Why don't we, well, we'll stick with the first. That was your motion. Yeah. And we can go ahead and adjust later, move to postpone. But we'll keep it clean. We'll keep it with September 1st for now.

Thank you.

So any other comments to the motion on the floor to place? Okay. City Attorney Maylee Barber would like to, has her hand raised. Maylee?

Thank you, I just wanted to add, to make it easier for everyone, it's Senate Bill 6002 is the Senate bill that's being referenced with the ALPRs.

Oh, okay, thank you. Yeah, we will go over that Senate bill on September 1st and some other items that Chief will have for us. So any other comments to this motion? Council Member Keith?

I don't know, point of order, point of information. In our bylaws, it says that two council members can put a topic on the agenda. And I take that to mean, and parliamentary procedure takes that to mean, that we don't actually have to vote. I think that discussion's fine, but basically just two people can insert information.

You're right. There's multiple routes. That is one route, but this is a route that Council Member Southard has chosen. So we will continue with, you know, we have a motion on the floor. I think it's cleanest to move forward with the motion on the floor. Okay. Any other Council comments on this motion? Okay. All those in favor of placing the automated license plate reader topic on the September 1st study session agenda, say aye.

Aye.

And the opposed, say nay. Okay, motion carries. Council Member Souther, you had a second motion.

Well, based on the previous comment, I would like to add the United Regional Approach to Homelessness in Pierce County on the September 1st day session.

Second.

Wait, we're not doing a motion, though. I just did what you told me to.

You have to have two people. I'm your number two.

Okay. Okay.

And then that's it. So you can't confuse it with the motion and there's no parliamentary questions.

Yeah. Okay. Duly noted. We have two council members that have placed an item on the agenda and it's the United Regional Approach to Homelessness topic to the September 1st study session. Okay. Thank you. Any other council comment here tonight? Yes, Council Member Edwards.

I just want to thank the police department for letting me come along on National Night Out to do that ride-along. The backseat is not comfy at all, so don't go in the back. But I just wanted to say I had a lot of fun. The three places we went to were great, and just thanks for everyone who participated in National Night Out.

Okay, thank you. Any other council comment? Yes, Council Member Keith has her hands raised.

I also wanted to thank the police. We had the concerning incident with the reader board sign that sort of blew up on social media and the police were on it quickly, efficiently, With dedication. And I appreciate that very much.

Yes, I agree. Anything else? Okay, I sense that we're done. So we are adjourned at 737. Happy anniversary.

Good night, everybody.

Thanks, Mark.