Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hello everyone. It is 6 p.m. I call the May 6, 2025 regular meeting of the Franklin County Planning Commission to order. Will planning staff please call roll and announce whether or not we have a quorum. Remy de Daru here. Manny Gutierrez here. Stacy Ninetton here. Mark Dutder here. Mike Vincent here. Mike Corales here. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum. Thank you. I will now lead us in the pledge of allegiance. 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. I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. So moved. It's been moved by Commissioner Knifton and seconded by Commissioner Daru. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the April 8th, 2025 meeting. Chairman, I've moved to approve the minutes from the April 2025 meeting. Second. It has been moved by Commissioner Vincent and seconded by Commissioner Dutder. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Will staff in attendance please introduce yourselves. I'm Wes McCart. I'm the planning director. Rebecca Gilly, Franklin County Planning and Building Service Administrator. Samuel Albby, uh, Franklin County and Planning, uh, planner.

Jim Bellammore, Franklin County Planner 2. It is now time for the public hearing portion of our meeting. Good evening and welcome. Here are the ground rules for tonight's hearing. Gotcha. One, in-person public testimony will go first. Each person will be called upon to speak during their allotted in-person public testimony section. Please state your name for the record and your position on the proposal. Two, we will then proceed to any online public testimony. Again, please state your name for the record and your position on the proposal. Remember to please mute your audio when not speaking. Three, emailed comments received during the public hearing will be read into the record by staff after the online testimony section of the hearing. Four, all comments shall be addressed to the planning commission and should be relevant to the application. Five, each speaker shall have five minutes to provide testimony and shall speak into the microphone. Six, please avoid repetitive comments. Seven, be respectful of each other, of each speaker, and avoid attacks or disruptive behavior. Are there any questions regarding the public hearing ground rules? Turning for a moment to our commission members, let us keep in mind that we are prohibited by law from communicating with members of the public on the subject matter of these hearings except in these hearings. We also may not participate in discussions in which there is an appearance of conflict of interest to the average person. So let us take a minute to consider as to the matters which are before us for hearing today. Whether we have had any exparte communications, whether we have any ownership interests in the properties, whether we have any business dealings with proponents or opponents of the

matters, or whether we have business associates or immediate family who may either benefit or harmed by a decision in these matters. Are there any commission members who have a declaration at this time regarding any of the items on the agenda? Let the record show there were no declarations. Is there anyone in the audience this evening who would object to any commission member hearing any of the items on the agenda? Let the record show there were no objections. The order of the hearing shall be as follows. One, planning staff shall provide a report. The commission may ask questions of the staff. Two, the applicant or applicant's representatives presentation. Three, in-person public testimony. Four, online public testimony. Five, email public testimony read into the record by staff. Six, final staff comments. Seven, close the public testimony and planning commission discussion. Deliberation of the proposed action. Are there any procedural questions before we begin the public hearing? Item number one is public hearing for file CUP 2025-01D AU at 360 McDonald Drive, Pasco, Washington. This application is to allow for the construction of a detached accessory dwelling unit to provide sufficient housing for family members. The proposed D AU will be approximately 720 square ft of floor space, which is under the allowable 1,600 ft of floor space for DADUs. I declare the public hearing for CUP 2025-1 to be open at where's the clock? I can't see it. 605. Oh, at 605.

May we have staff present the staff report, please? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What you have in front of you tonight is a conditional use permit for a detached accessory dwelling unit. Um although I went too far. Uh the address is 360 McDonald Drive, Pasco. Uh parcel number is 126240111. It is zoned rural community 1. Uh comp plan uses are rural shoreline development approximately 2.909 acres. Uh see go the right way here. So the request is to put uh construction of a detached accessory dwelling unit to provide sufficient space for uh family members. The proposed uh detached ADU will be approximately 720 square ft. The site plan features the site plan included the following distances to the north and south of property line from the proposed detached ADU distance between existing family dwellings and the detached ADU locations of the adjoining road. the existing single family dwelling, the proposed detached ADU, the existing well, and the walking path from the house to the uh detached ADU. You can see here where the uh subject property is located along the shoreline, the Columbia River. Uh you can see that there is some slope on the property that would show on uh our critical areas. Uh it's uh low sloping. It's less than 15% so not a major concern. There is some flood plane areas and some flood plane slopes that

overlap. However, the proposal is outside of any uh concerns on the critical areas. Uh it is also outside of the shoreline environment so there's no need for a shoreline plan. You can see here a rough drawing of where um the site plan is where the proposed ADU will be located uh from the house from the property lines from the existing well. The proposed use is in accordance with the goals and policies of Franklin County comprehensive plan. Critical areas include less than a 15% slope, flood planes, and shoreline jurisdictions. As I mentioned, the conditional use permit application stated that a detached ADU will be used to provide sufficient housing for family members. None of the properties located to the north or south of the subject property parcel along the shoreline contain any detached accessory dwelling units which is not characteristic of the existing development pattern in the area. Majority of the public comments received by staff were against the development of the detached ADU due to existing covenants in the Sunset Terren Heights subdivision. The Franklin County Planning and Building Department does not have the legal authority to enforce private covenants or to base land use decisions on them. So, this is just an aerial view of properties to the south. As you can see, there are no detached ADUs anywhere to the south. This is the north. It shows the

same. So any detached ADU would be um a use inconsistent with uh the surrounding properties. Oops, went too far. Uh Franklin County Public Work Department. So going over the agency comments, public works has concluded that the proposed use will not have a significant impact on the county road system. Public works has the following general comments. An approach permit is required to access Franklin County roads. Any utility extension across Franklin County roads will need to be addressed at the time of the application. Uh we received a comment and forgive me now anyone if I butcher your names uh which I will likely do uh from Sandra Leage and Stephen Agard. Um these were received on the 14th. Uh they object to the C uh CUP 2025-01 on the grounds the proposal violates item two of the original covenant. They emphasize long-term residence in the subdivision and famili familiarity with the original owner's intent. Carrie Hail objected to the um CUP 202501 citing a direct violation of the protective covenants. She notes that the proposal involves additional residential development on the lot that already contains a house which is not permitted by the existing covenant. She expresses concern that approving the cup could set a precedent that may influence the intent and character of the RC1 zone designation. There was included a highlighted copy of the

covenant where you can see that there were a couple different things in the covenant that were highlighted. Mike Brighton Breitman uh submitted comments expressing concerns that the proposal addition would could set a precedent in the neighborhood depending on its appearance and location. He requested additional information uh and architectural details which I don't believe we had. Is that correct, Jim? Okay. On April 22nd uh following receipt of an open public hearing notice in front of the planning commission, Mr. Brighton responded to indicate that upon further review, he no longer objects to the proposed conditional use permit. Chris Bulman uh Brocken objects to the issuance of a uh CUP on the detached ADU violation of the covenant. Concerns that granting the permit could set a precedent in future multiple residents. potential for the detached ADU to be used for purposes like rental property or an Airbnb rather than a home office. Um, again, we received more comments from Chris Bunkin submitted a copy of a letter sent by the uh Fisone family to the neighbors giving details as to the intended use of the detached ADU. Um, this is part of the letter. Our plan is to build a small home office in our backyard, invisible to the view of anyone in the neighborhood. I will use the space to work from home so that I can be closer to the family during the day. Uh, the other point I'll part out here is the only use we have for this is a home office. Nothing in the code is stopping this

project from being a an attached ADU. Um code allows a an attached ADU outright. So recommended findings of fact the proposed use in RC1 is in accordance with the goals and policies of the county development regulations zoning and the applicable comprehensive plan. The proposal will not adversely affect public infrastructure. Number three, the proposal as condition will not be constructed, maintained and operated to be in the harmony with the existing and intended character of the general vicinity. Four, the location and height of the proposed structure and site will not discourage the development of permitted uses on property in the general vicinity or impair the value thereof. The operation in connection with the proposal will not be more objectionable to nearby properties by reason of noise, fumes, vibration, dust, traffic, or flashing lights than would be the operation of any permitted uses within the district. Number six, the proposal will not endanger the public health safety or general welfare if located where proposed. Um, should the planning commission move forward with a positive recommendations, I have some uh conditions of approval that I'm going to skip over. Um and the suggested motion and the the uh recommendation of the planning department, planning and building

department is that uh you move forward with a negative recommendation to the board of county commissioners based on six findings of fact supporting denial. If you override, I'm happy to present the alternative. And that concludes my presentation, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Does any commissioner have any questions of staff? I do. It's not our job to enforce local codes and rules. Correct. So, we have no authority legally to enforce a covenant. that is a private contract between the neighbors and we can't uh I did check Gem and I did check with legal counsel on that to verify that was the case. Uh I would also say this is outside of an urban growth area. There was a law in 2023 that passed that if you were in an open if you were in an urban growth area, uh detached and attached ADUs are allowed and uh it would supersede any code that we currently have. Mr. Chairman, so um the negative recommendation that we have is based on the fact that it's outside of the character that's um in that area. it would be the first detached ADU. Normally, you do not want to um allow something that's out of the character with the neighborhood. That's one. And two, our code does not allow home businesses. So even though the application said that um that it was going to be used for family for residents uh the letter that we have in the record pointed to the fact it was going to be

used for a home business which is not allowed by code in in that zone at all. Uh therefore we that's why we came up with the negative recommendation. Okay. But you also mentioned that it's out of character. Out of character doesn't matter does it? because the law says we can have ADUs. The law does allow for ADUs uh detached or attached outright in this zone. They're allowed attached. That's why the conditional use permit. Um but out of character does matter. Uh it was generally within the purview of the planning and building department to recommend if something is out of character to recommend a denial. Is out of character the same as setting a precedent. Uh in this case uh I would say that it would set a precedent. Yes, sir. Okay. But okay, let's I guess this doesn't even matter because it's for an office. But even if it's out of character, if it's allowed in the county, we would have to approve it. Correct. Where it's a conditional use permit, it is up to your discretion whether or not to approve it. Um, totally up to your discretion. I would however s state again for the record that since this is being proposed for a home office that if they were if you were to allow it and move forward with the recommendation uh if they were to apply for a home office business or use that it would be a code violation and we couldn't move forward with that. So again, that's um where that letter was coming directly from the um owner of the property. Uh we did base a good part of our decision on that, but as well as being out of character.

Any more questions? is just hypothetically if it was going to be a family dwelling and we approved it, what recourse does the covenants do they have to sue each other to make I mean what recourse do they have as a I don't know what you call that their community. So yeah the a covenant is I'll just I'll answer without directly answering. I'm not an attorney. Um, and I don't want to play an attorney here in this spot, but in essence, the covenant is a contract between uh property owners. It's a private contract, and they would have the duty to enforce that private contract between them. And it, like I said, if it was in the urban growth area, uh the law supersedes any existing covenant, but it being outside of the uh urban growth area, it did not supersede that particular law. So that covenant would still be in force in effect in that area, but it's a private contract. Any more questions for staff? Does the applicant or applicants representative wish to speak or give a presentation? Yes. Come on up. State your name, address. Yep. Can you hear me? All right. Uh, so I'm Mason Fusonei at 360 McDonald Drive. It's my home and my application. Um, appreciate you guys taking the time. And uh so I wanted to clarify on a couple pieces and ask two questions if that's all right. Um so wanted to clarify on the use for a business versus working from home. Are those two different things? If you if you work from home as

an employee for someone else, is that use of a business or is that use of the space and you happen to be working there? If you are doing any kind of business, that's if you are making phone calls from that house as it relates to your business, that would be considered a home business as it relates to uh our current code. Got it. Okay. Sorry, Mr. Chairman. I I suppose I was could answer. Yeah, I wasn't going to. Okay. And then uh my understanding of the code, which is limited, never done something like this, was that the reason we needed to apply for the conditional use permit was the distance of the ADU from the home. That if the AD the DADU was within a certain number of feet from the primary residence that it would be automatically approved and not require a CUP. Is that a correct understanding? Okay, answer. So, um, yes. So, the reason for that is, um, if it is attached by a breezeway within, I believe, 15 ft. Oh, just to clarify, detached. I was wondering if it was detached within a certain number of feet. Detached. My understanding was if it was detached, but within a certain number of feet. Usually, it has to be connected by some kind of a breezeway. That, Mr. Chair, um, this is Jim Bell, planner. Um if a a dwelling is detached up to 25 feet, it will need to be connected by breezeway which will make it um attached to the primary which will make it incidental to the primary dwelling. So it can be up to 25 ft but needs to be attached but um by breezeway. Okay. So I stand corrected on the distance that that's right. I I was under the impression that if it was detached within a certain number of feet then it didn't need to go through the

cup. So just my misunderstanding but um so uh to the couple pieces mentioned here um um so the first piece was uh yeah the question on the work from home versus business. We have not uh designed the architectural plans yet or the engineer or anything else. So, uh, the plan was, uh, bedroom bathroom, uh, or a bedroom, a bathroom, potentially like a den, guest suite, and, uh, and that was it. We live, um, so that's one clarification was that, yeah, we I might end up working from home there, but, uh, not set in stone. Um, the letter was more to say, we're not going to be renting this. It's not an Airbnb, but um, understand uh, what was submitted. And then um the character of the neighborhood. I wondered if you could pull up the um the aerial of the neighborhood there to the north. Oops. Yeah, there you go. One too many. That's south. There you go. Yeah. So, just wanted to call your attention to basically every property on the east side of the street, uh, whereby there are shops and barns and garages that have to be over 2,000 square ft, uh, directly across the street from us. While it's not on the shoreline on the river facing lots, um, the homes in the neighborhood probably average 3,500 square ft with another 2,000 foot shop across the road. We live in the original farmer's farmhouse built in ' 62. That's a,200 square foot floor plan. Um, and so building this D-ADU allows our family to expand. We have three young kids and uh to continue to use the space on our 2acre lot. Uh, compared to the character of the

neighborhood, uh, in this photo, you have large shops, large homes. Most of the riverfacing homes are double, sometimes triple the size of our home. And then I believe um I don't know if it was this group or another one, but um on um just about it'd be two parcels south and one east, there was just about a uh 200 or so home neighborhood uh on halfacre lots that was just approved to be built and the roads are being cut in and that work's being done now. I think we're maybe two parcels away from that might be in the UG now. I don't know. Uh but considering the character of the neighborhood, if we zoom in very narrowly to four neighbors, I can agree. Uh but I don't think that the things we would like to build on our property violate the character of a wider radius of the neighborhood, including just across the street. And if you zoom out to a quarter mile or half mile, uh we will be the lowest density property on a 2 acre or even a halfacre parcel and what will likely be, you know, one mile radius with the projects happening in our backyard where trucks are rolling through to do that work right now. So I uh I would object or disagree to the character of the neighborhood, which seemed to be the the lynch pin of the recommendation. Would love to be able to build this on my property and expand our family here. We love the neighborhood and love living in Pasco. My wife was born and raised here and we want to raise our family here. So, this would help us do that. Appreciate if you uh if you have support for the motion to do so. Any questions for me? I have a question. Great. What is the the covenants are on what group of houses? Yeah. The covenant 100 houses is it four houses? What is it? It's 32. 32 houses are under the covenant. Yes. And I recognize that what we're proposing uh

uh does violate the covenants and that's something that I plan to work out with the neighborhood. Uh but the first step here, we don't have plans, drawings, engineer, anything like that, was to see if we're able to build it on our property and then my next step would be to talk to the neighbors and make sure that we're going to figure something out together. Um and and that I'm not risking not taking the risk that Remy mentioned uh via his question. um and then go from there with plans and drawings. So, uh but the it's 32 lots. It's the left lots on this photo and all of the homes on the other photo to the south. So, the ones across the street that are a different character of the neighborhood are not a part of those covenants. Um but I don't I didn't want to discuss the details of the covenants. I have other things to object to. And and the covenants are not our issue here. Right. So, I want to clarify this. This is being denied because it's he said office instead of accessory dwelling unit. That is one of the two items. The other item is the fact that it's out of character with the shoreline but legal under our laws by a conditional use permit. That would be a recommendation by this body and confirmed by the county commissioners. Got it. And Okay. And if it was within 25 ft would be automatically approved. Okay. Done. I'm I'm if there aren't any other questions. Well, the whole I got a question. The uh issue of the 25 ft has to do whether about whether it's attached or detached, whether it's a DADU or an ADU. an attached uh mother-in-law quarter or an attached addition still contingent on uh permitting with the

county to arrive at the next step which would be approval by the HOA. So if you attached it that's a that's a different issue. I mean, if we went 25 ft, we're talking about the attached breezeway. It's a it's a a D, it's an ADU. Uh, so that seems to be the uh, you know, the whole the crux of this thing is is the intended use could be approved up to,700 square feet, 16 or 1700 square feet if it was for uh, family use. essentially, but it still have to be approved by the HOA. Well, yeah, based on the coven, not technically approved by the HOA, but would have to be understood with the neighbors. But what they're saying here is that it's the use of it that would be, you know, a potential problem. I mean, if it were an additional home setup for a a family member, it would be smoother sailing is what I'm saying. And just want to put that out there because appreciate your honesty on the whole thing. And yeah, next time I won't go doortodoor meeting with neighbors sharing our plans to try to make it work. Next time I'll just submit what we want to do. Uh so clearly that backfired here in the recommendation based on what I want to do on the property if it was permitted under all of the other permitting steps after this. But next time what happens here? Yeah. Still goes to HOA. Uh for the architecture there's there's technically no Hna HOA is just the CCNR. So yes then the neighbors would we would have to either dispute or sort it out. My plan would be to sort out HOA. Yes. There's whoever comes together in that in that which Yeah. which I'm sure you'll hear from them

next. Right. Yeah. I got a cl I got a clarifying question that I need to get answered because I've um and regardless uh whether you use this for a business uh home business or not. This is from my personal knowledge and I'm not trying to play that the devil's advocate, but this isn't the first time we've seen a rural um community one um DAU um conditional use permit come through to us. But you made a statement earlier on the county municipal code not allowing any home business operating out of your home even if you're working for somebody. But making a phone call from your house, it becomes a home business. I I'd like some clarification because I' i've owned I've worked for different businesses, but I've also um owned different businesses. So, I want to I want to understand that a little bit more. So, and it partially has to do with this and it doesn't. So, it has to do with the fact that it's a detached ADU and you're working out of that is what our current code is based on and the business licenses uh requirements that are currently in code. But if I'm working for somebody else, if I'm working for a bank, I leave my job and I get phone calls from clients at my house. Now, my house became a a a business use technically under our current code. That is correct, sir. Wait a minute. You doesn't make any sense to me. No, you can apply. I had a business for 47 years. We worked out of our home. You can get a license in your home, right? As long as you're not stacking up a bunch of lumber or

something outside or have a commercial vehicles, that can be done. Jim, you had something I wanted to add. Yes. Um, chairman and commissioners. Um, so if you're working for a company and working for, let's say, Franklin County and are allowed to work from home, that would not be considered a home occupation. If you're working from your own business and setting it up there and doing your own practice out of your home, that would be considered a home occupation. Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. So, working for a company outside that's already established and has um their own main office. Working from home does not qualify as um home occupation. But if you're setting up your business out of your address, that would that would constitute as a home occupation. And um what our code is home occupations needs to be um incidental to the primary dwelling. So um a detached ADU will not be considered a primary dwelling. It will be an accessory dwelling or accessory use. If it was attached to the primary dwelling or the single family house which earlier was mentioned attached by breezeway up to 25 feet that would be considered attached ADU to the primary dwelling that would allow for home occupation in the ADU as long as it's a dwelling and um for home and that will allow for it because it's attached to the primary and incidental to the primary use of the home. Yeah. But what he does with his uh detach accessory dwelling, whether it's uh DA, DU or ADU, it's not really our concern cuz he still has to go through the process of applying of going through the permitting, the engineering, and still being able to allowed through his CCRs whether he is able to build or not. We here make that determination of whether we feel that this is uh legal or not

from our behalf. Correct. I would say compliant with the code. M uh Commissioner, thank you. Question. Now, the county still requires an application for a business license within a home, say a home office or something like that, and then you would look at it and go, "Yes, we'll approve this." Or, "No, we won't based on the type of business." Yes. Um so actually all home occupations and general business licenses uh licenses go through the planning department. Um every time that somebody applies through the do our permits uh building specialist act receives them and it goes to my desk to approve based on what's um in the zone what our code says for home occupation. And uh there are certain businesses and home occupations that are um considered exempt which involve anything to do with agriculture and farming. Those ones are exempt but it's based on what type of business it is and all of them go through um our uh our bu uh building specialists and then they go through me or Sam or other planner to review for approval. So I'd be happy to go through that process of whatever else is required. My our understanding was that this was just the first step. So then if that's required or if there's something else that we should do after this step, happy to make that work. You self-employed or are you an employee for a company? Uh yes. And uh so I am employed by uh my own company and then I'm a licensed realtor. So, I work for another firm as a 1099 contractor. I sell apartment buildings here in town. Any more questions? And yeah, just to clarify, like we have not this is this

was step one, so to determine if we could do it or not. The actual use, the plans, uh my contractor's here and he's like I've just been submitting this and helping, but he doesn't know what he's going to bid out yet. like we we don't have plans. So, I'm amendable and want to, you know, work with the neighbors uh to to make it work. Um, and didn't necessarily realize all the details on what we maybe intend to use it for a year after it's built would impact that decision. Any more questions? Thank you. No, thank you. Thank you for time. Is there any in-person public testimony? Good evening. My name is Steve Agard. I live at 60 Terrace Drive and my comments are pretty brief. Uh, one thing is in the actual cup application packet right on the second paragraph. Uh, and I'll just read, according to the wording in the second paragraph of the CUP application, a CUP gives the planning commission discretion to allow uses which are which are otherwise prohibited in the protective covenant if the cup is for the benefit of the entire neighborhood. Uh, that is not the case with this proposal. This proposal does not benefit Sunset Terrace Heights. My only other comment, if this project was allowed to go forward, the planning commission will have similar uh will have established a precedent and other similar projects not in alignment with the covenant could be approved. At that point, the Sunset Terrace Heights Protective Covenant wouldn't be worth very

much. Thank you. Thank you. I have a few comments um from personal experience. My name is Sandra Leage and excuse me, could you give us your name and address for the record? Sandra Leage, 60 Terrace Drive um right across the canyon from the proposed project. Um my um I've lived there for 46 years in that same house. I'm one of the probably the oldest or longest resident of this neighborhood. But during the time I've lived there, um several covenant questions have come up to the neighborhood. One of them was the house that was built next door to ours and we built ours in 1978, but this one was built in 1986. And um when we saw their plans for the house, we looked at the covenants and the covenants said one and a half stories, which means daylight basement. They don't want riverfront houses to be too tall to block the view of houses across the road. But um these people had plans for really high ceilings in way above any of the other levels of the houses along the river there. So, um, the neighbors came and talked to him and they cut this the height of the house down. So, now it's level with the rest of the neighborhood there. So, it does fit in. And my other um experience in this was when my husband and I were going to put a home office in our home, we had an architect come and look. The architect suggested that we put it above our garage, which is at its street level, and put a nice curvy stairway up there. And that would be maximum use of our house without too much cutting into

new construction and all the things that go with that. But looking at the covenants, it would have been too tall. So, we went the expensive route and added the whole addition with a home office right onto the house right there and it worked fine. So, my question I guess to Mr. Fione is why not just add it to the side of the house? Thank you. Thank you. Any more public testimony? My name is Dale Lindseay and I live at 180 Terrace Drive and I didn't even get notified of this um because I wasn't within a 500 foot circle or something along those lines. But it impacts my house because I'm on the river and I'm concerned that if this type of thing allows for putting buildings up, it could restrict views. It could uh impact the u my property value. But I wasn't notified. And I have a concern more with uh the fact that I wasn't notified and I didn't know that um this was even going on until somebody uh brought it to my attention. And so I guess what my concern is more is I would like to suggest that if uh something is happening within an area where there's a covenants that you need to notify everybody that's impacted because obviously if it's out of uh compliance with the covenants. Uh everybody in that neighborhood should have a say or should have um the ability to to make comments on that. And that's all really all my point is. Thank you.

What is the notification area for this type of project? Uh this was set for 500 foot radius. Okay. For and you are out of the 500t radius, I take it. Yeah. I'm at the end of Terrace Drive. So Okay. Any more public testimony? U my name is Chris Balkan and I live in the gully between Sandra Leage and um so my comments are when you move into the neighborhood you're given those covenants and you accept those when you move in. I had to. Everybody's had to. Okay. Now, we need to remember that the covenants are none of our business. Well, but they're our business. That's your guys's thing to decide in your situation. It's not ours. It's not our situation. I feel bad because I brought the piece of paper in that said home office when the one document said I wasn't trying to harpoon anybody on that. The deal was my question was well home office is it going to be a business front because and and that's at a whole different level than the concern about should it even be there. So there's two levels. There's you know what it can be if it's there and should it even be there. Okay. Um, so as far as if it was going to be there, you know, everybody should be able to have be able to work from home. Okay. Now, is it a business front? That should absolutely be ruled out.

Period. But at another level, a higher level, I just don't think the structure should be allowed because it sets a gigantic precedent. And I believe that he honestly has the best intent. The plan looks good. You know, we haven't seen the plan, but the but that's not the point. The thing is if he moves out, it can become anything. It can become an Airbnb. It can become a rental. That's a fact. No, those are that is illegal and that only happens if you do it out of code. It can't become that. It's for family to live in. Yeah. It cannot become anything else legally. Yes. I'd like to see something on that. Can you back me up on this or is that not I think it can be an Airbnb. I think it can be a rental property. M Mr. Commissioner, I I will tell you that the law on ADUs has changed drastically and I do not believe that uh we can enforce that code any longer. What is it supposed to be? Um according to what the legislation is trying to drive, an ADU can be used for any use as a rental, as a second home. Um due to the fact that we have a housing crisis and the legislature has moved forward on that, that has been their intent. It's a little different outside of a UG, but definitely inside a UG that is their intent, but it has not changed yet. Um, I'd have to go. Family legally, it is for family members to live in. I understand your point. Okay. Once one is in, there can be more. Of course there can. That's why it's legal. ADUs are legal in Franklin County. That's my point. And that's Oh,

and by the way, one last thing. The driveway, it's a community road that I use to access my house at 450. I can't even see it. Where is Okay, I will say right there. You were there. I saw it and then it went away. You see that road right there? goes from the top here down well basically to the river but to my house which is that house right there. That road is a 15% grade. Okay, that makes the hill way steeper than 15%. So you're wrong on the 15%. Whoever said that is absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt wrong. the hill is steeper than 15% grade. I know that came up. That was a shock to me. I didn't even know it was a thing to consider. But go back and consider because it is because I mean I graded the road when I built my house. So I know the pitch of the road and I know the road takes twice as long to rise the distance that the hill does to get to the bluff. So do consider that if that's important. I think I made a comment about slope stability in my initial comments was one of my things just to be aware of. You need to look at you need to go measure that grade. And that's my comments. Oh, and this is my next door neighbor. That's just she couldn't be here. give us staff to read in or do I I can

read it in if you'd like. Is there any more public testimony? Okay, seeing none, let's call this call-in testimony. Okay, Mr. Chairman, it says to my con to whom it may concern. This letter is to inform you of my concern as an adjacent neighbor that the proposed ADU conditional use permit 2025-01 would impact my view of the river as I look out my second and third floor windows and deck. My concern is that the roof and line would be visible and should the ADU be used for business purposes, increase parking restrictions. Please consider the current uh protective covenants explicit restriction of this type of structure. Thank you. Chris Hail, Carrie Hail. Is there any call-in testimony? Is there any email testimony? No, Mr. Chair, I looked. Does any staff have any final comments? Mr. Chair, I would like to bring um up that um the whole discussion earlier with it being characteristic to the neighborhood. That is one of the six findings of fact that the planning commission needs to account for in terms of approving this type of conditional use permit. So the fact that it um it was on in red in the um presentation earlier means that it does not go with one of the findings of fact that the planning commission needs to account for with approval. Could you repeat that again? Yes. Um if we could bring that

back. Um the planning commission with conditional use permits needs to approve six different findings of fact. one of the ones that mentioned number two. Number three, it needs to be um it needs to be constructed, maintained and operated to be in harmony of the existing and intended or intended character of the general vicinity. That is one of the six findings of facts that the planning commission needs to consider and it needs to say that it will be um constructed and maintained and um operated to be in harmony. So the fact that it goes against that one um how does it go against that one? Um it was mentioned earlier because of the surrounding neighborhood surrounding properties uh none of them have the detached ADUs on it. None of them. No, there was no ADUs anywhere until we approved it and now there are ADUs everywhere. There's always going to be a first one. If we couldn't do them, we should erase the law. I don't think that's correct. But what I'd like to know is how you can make that assumption without any kind of architectural drawings. Yeah, this that's that point's not correct. The whole harmony and everything else. So, Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, yeah, this is part of the code. We did look up and down the entire shoreline area. We weren't unable to find any detached ADUs. We gave you a snapshot of what there was and where in other areas of the county you might find a detached ADU. This is what the current code says. So I would like to point out that where you may have made exceptions in the past. This is what the current code is. You have every right as a planning commission to uh rule differently and make a different

recommendation than this. Um however, you if you are going to change this, you will have to determine some way in a finding a fact that this has been adhered to. I still don't think that makes any sense. any neighborhood in Tri Cities where there are no ADUs. Of course, there was no ADU before, but now there is. That's why the law was passed to allow ADUs. Only in urban growth areas. Okay. Well, that part I don't know. Um, all right. I can beat a dead horse. Let's move on. Well, wait a minute. We've approved DADUs outside the UG all over the place. Yeah. Out on Oliver Road. All over the place. Uh we had at Birch Road there's been at least I think one or two down Sagemore. There's one off of uh Giesler. I I cannot speak to what's happened in the past. I'm working off the current code as are your other planning staff. But does that make any sense that it it's a new law so there ADUs were not allowed before. Now they are. Of course, the first one's going to be out of character and not in place. That doesn't make any sense to me. And I'm not I'm done. I'm not going to fight it anymore because there are other issues here. Well, in my mind, the main thing is the CUP. I mean, what this is permitted for. Uh if you came in with an aging family member, you wanted to put up a 1600 foot house, this body could pass that. still has to go to HOA in the neighborhood and all that, but this would be the first step in my mind legally. The the the deal with ADUs has always been on the book, but DADUs is a new Washington

state law and we've seen many of them come through. So, that's just my perspective. And that Sagemore DADU was very similar to this from what I recall and it was outside of Yeah, they're identical the urban growth area. The the only the only determining factor here is that it was out of character the way it was presented. And that is something that to me does not make any sense because if if any of these neighbors or anybody else came in here with a submitt of a 720 square foot dwelling whether it's DADU or ADU stating that they're going to have their elderly grandmother living in there. We would not be questioning this. No, we would not at all. I'm also done and I'm ready to move forward. And I'm going to repeat this again. You guys have the final say with your covenants. You have the enforcement power. You don't have to ask us for that. You can stop this some other way. We are not the body to do that. Okay. Just come to the mic. State your name again. Uh Steve Agard 60 Steve Agard 60 terrorist just to repeat I I understand what you're saying but I go back to the paragraph on the application thing. It says you guys can override it if the cup is for the benefit of the neighborhood. What's the benefit? That's an interate. That's an interpretation. It's No, it's in the application. To me, it is a benefit to the neighborhood to have some family members live with you.

Okay. I'll entertain a motion to close public comment. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to close public comment. I will second. It's been moved by Commissioner Vincent and seconded by Commissioner Gutierrez. Is there any? Oh, all in favor? I I motion passes. The public testimony portion of public hearing for CUP 2025-1 is closed. Is there any discussion from the planning commission members? You know, I just want to say I understand the county's position on this thing because how can you push something through that's going to be uh a DADU that is set up as a commercial office. And I get it. That's not that's not going to fly. No. But on the other hand, to say that all DADUs are not going to work based on the fact that we have seen several of them come through doesn't make any sense because this is the direction we're going and uh it just the intent of it. It's for aging family members. It can actually be for depends on the size of the property obviously, but for uh uh workers, it can be for a foreman on a farm. It can be and that whole deal about approval by the county is contingent on the use of this of this DADU. I understand that their hands are tied, you know, but on the other hand, I don't think we just shoot down every DADU that comes across. It's based on use and legality because you still have to get license from the county. Thank you.

Question. I guess I'm unclear exactly how far to the north of the photos that you had given us and you were talking about character. There are at least one home with a it looks like about a 20 by 20 building on it on that shoreline. And in their covenants, they can build a boat house, but we can't build a 1700 square foot or a a 700 square foot house. I guess back to the character of their neighborhood. Uh I understand that we have some rules here to follow but um it may still another structure within their covenants is approved if it's for a boat but not for an approved use of a family member living in it they don't like. So I guess that's my comment. I think we all have the same idea and I think the motion's going to show that. I will entertain a motion if there's no more comments. And can you put the motion on the screen, please? Oops. Sorry. My mouse. We can we can just go off of

here. I'll entertain a motion. It's in our packet. You're right on it. I move that Franklin County Planning Commission forward. Oh, is that a negative recommendation to Franklin County Board of Commissioners based on six findings of fact supporting denial? Is there a second? Motion's going to die if we don't get a second. Second. It has been moved by Commissioner Gutierz and seconded by Mike Vincent that we forward to the board of commissioners recommendation of denial for CUP 2025-1 with suggested adopted findings of fact as detailed in the staff report. Is there any discussion? I think I think I want to just say that the basis of the denial is all in the semantics of the uh of the CU my mind that's I just want to put that meaning meaning that the denial is based on a commercial office okay not in the use of it which is conditional use permit I I could say a bunch of stuff but I'm not going to So, um, any more discussion? Seeing no discussion, uh, may we have a roll call vote, please? Remy de Daru. Uh, yes. Manny Gutierrez.

Are we voting on the N on the We have to pass the pass this motion. Yes. Stacy Knifton. Yes. Mark Dutder. Yes. Mike Vincent? Yes. Mike Corales? Yes. Mr. Chairman, the motion was approved. Thank you. Close the hearing. The you you got denied. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And this is still going to go to the commissioners, but yeah, it's denied. Please close the hearing. Okay. [Music] Um, public hearing has been closed. [Applause] Mr. Chairman, if I might have a minute of privilege. Okay. Is everybody leaving? Um, just for all of your information, our recommendation is bl is squarely on the code and our workshop coming up is our opportunity to change the code. I sense a lot of frustration. Um, some of that directed at the staff. No, not at the staff. However, I will say that um again uh if you could understand the frustration that we have with your current code uh and I think you kind of do um you'd understand why the next part of our workshop is going to be so important as we consider what changes to make moving forward. Uh so this is our opportunity to move forward with a lot of different corrections in the code because I do see quite a few

inconsistencies here uh that we will need to grapple with as we update our code. So just wanted to add that as um sometimes we're a little frustrated with this but we're following uh I just want you to be assured we're following the letter of the code as it is currently written. Appreciate that. Okay. So, now we're in administrative. Um, if you don't have any other business. Yes. Okay. Um, are you are you ready for me to proceed? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, um, you want to introduce yourself? Hello, I'm Emily Wymer with AHBL, uh your planning consultant in our Pasco office. So, we've been working for the county for several years now. I'm happy to be here tonight. So, uh a couple of you uh Thank you. So, a couple of you um were here at the last meeting and some of you weren't. I just want to reiterate that you were presented with a copy of the public participation plan and I did want to follow through with giving you a similar presentation that I gave uh along with Nicole to the county commissioners so that you can be up to speed with what our process is on moving the comprehensive plan um forward. Uh right now we're working on the 2026 to 2024 comprehensive plan update. Um so the update process is required. Uh I will make one note that um the time the legislation the legislature did pass and the governor did sign an extension.

We were supposed to be done with our update by uh end of June of 2026. However, that extension goes to the end of December of 2026. um that may be a very good thing and as we get along here you'll probably understand uh why. Um so the reason for this uh whole process is to give you an overview of of what we plan to do recent legislative changes discuss opportunities for public input. Uh this includes input from the planning commission, direction from the planning commission, uh direction from the county commissioners. Um if there are suggested changes on policies in the comprehensive plan or regulations that you have that you would like to see changed in any way, we will accept comments at any time. I'm as staff uh all of my staff is keeping a list of things to present to the consultant as we move along. Um next um set out the next steps in the update process also to answer any questions that you guys may have related to the intent of the update and the intent of the process. So the periodic update is required by the state growth management act. Uh comprehensive plan that we currently are working under was adopted well current the comprehensive plan was adopted in 2008 uh to 2028. It was correct. It was amended in 2017 17 uh 2018 but it was not adopted until 2021 given the challenges with the Pasco urban growth area. Okay. Um some of the things we have to do is identify the urban growth areas. So we've been in

discussions uh currently with the cities and uh staff uh consultant staff on housing allocations uh countywide planning policies. I'll get into that a little bit more. We have to conform to any legal requirements. So, there's been multiple changes in the law. One of which I mentioned earlier about the ADUs, how's they're related in the urban growth areas. Um there's been a lot of court precedent that's happened over the last several years since we've last updated our plan here uh that we also have to include uh in any of our updates as well as some new legal requirements again of of which I'll get into some of the big ones as we move forward. We have to update our population forecast. We've currently been working on that with the cities because not only do we have to update what the population is, we have to update what portion of the population gets attributed to the uh population growth gets attributed to the different cities as well as to the county. We have to study and address any emergency uh emerging issues. Well, we have to do some stuff related to emergencies also. Uh, and please feel free to ask questions anywhere during this. Um, comprehensive plan establishes a blueprint for the county's development in the future. I like to refer to the comprehensive plan as our land use constitution for the county. Um, guides the physical development of the community. It's a basis for decisions on land use, transportation, housing, capital facilities, economic development, and the natural environment. And again, there will be some some new uh pieces that we'll have in in addition to

that. So, who decides uh what what the plan says? Um so the growth management act obviously controls the entire process. However, the next level down is the countywide planning policies. Um and those are policies that we adopt with in conjunction with the cities. A couple of things we've identified currently um that we need to talk about besides just is there sufficient land to grow for the next 20 years in the cities for our urban growth areas is uh annexations. The current countywide planning policies are a little bit light on annexations. Uh there's some other elements. Again, I'll get into this a little bit further, but climate change is an element we have to add. And there's allocations on reductions of greenhouse gases that will have to be added. That is a policy we're considering under countywide planning policies. It is our hope uh and the planning department to not only adopt the countywide planning policies um but also to enter an interlocal agreement between the county and the different cities to implement those policies. uh something that's been lacking around the state, not just here in Franklin County. Um next level down is our local comprehensive plan. These are goals and policies that will guide our development regulations and our growth, our forecast in the future, how we want to see our community grow, and what policies we want in place to try and uh guide those levels. So the current comprehensive plan elements are the land use, natural uh

transportation, utilities, historic cultural, community facilities, economic development, rural and resource lands, housing and capital facilities. So the comprehensive plan sets levels of service standards for the county facilities and how you pay for them. Uh this is usually done in your capital facilities plan. Capital facilities plan is required element. I will say that the county has fell short in in meeting that requirement uh in the past. Uh we have some examples of other capital facilities plans that we are now working on and these should be updated yearly. Um they basically say what is in existence now water systems um schools fire stations it's all of your capital elements it also is your desire of what you'd like to see in the future and how you plan to fund that. So much like your transportation plan your six-year transportation plan that gets updated every year. Your capital facilities plan also gets updated every year along with the budget process. It is intended to balance the public interest and bridge the gap from where we are to where we want to go. What's new? I mentioned this briefly, but um one of the things that there was a bill that passed that required uh certain counties, Franklin County being one of those counties that must adopt a climate change element. Uh wildland urban interface is another consideration that we have to have. Uh this doesn't mean just um forested areas. That wildland urban interface could be uh

brush, farm ground, anything where we could get a range fire. Uh a little more appropriate to get a range fire down here than it is where I'm from originally in Stevens County. Transportation, we have to address multimodal levels of service. We also have to invite uh tribal participation into the planning modifications. Uh that is a requirement. One that's not listed here that we also need to put on there is we do need to also have uh conjunction with uh our hazard mitigation plan. Uh there are some elements in this bill that passed related to climate change on um you know we're going to see future fires, we're going to see future disasters. How is the county dealing with those? We have a couple different options. Uh, I would say probably the best and most flexible option is the one we're moving forward on, and that's to put some of those in our hazard mitigation plan and our allhazard or comprehensive um plan that we have uh for emergency management. Uh, a little easier to deal with than policies in your comprehensive plan. Um, also some things that have gotten uh passed in the last year or two is increasing the housing supply. So, I did mention the bill that was passed in 2023 about ADUs. Um the conversation that bill actually changes our current code because the law specifically says within an urban growth boundary. This law supersedes all existing codes and covenants um in those areas unless there is an environmental concern. Uh so we're going to be talking a lot more about um that

particular piece. detailed allocations for housing needs. Um something that you've been working on quite uh quite uh quite a lot lately. So uh equity measures we also have to consider racial dispar disparencies in impacts. So if you'll look at the little box there you'll see that the state law now uh defines different income levels. We have extremely low, very low, low and moderate. We must account for um a specific allocation of housing in our plan in every one of these elements. Uh our draft that we have uh contemplated moving forward for consideration. And as soon as we fine-tune that with the cities, we'll get that in front of you so that you can kind of look at that, see if if you have any comments that you need to add. Um, most of the extremely very low income housing because and the emergency housing or the homeless issues because they require sever sewer services to get to the density and size which are affordable. Most of that's going to happen within the city of Pasco. Uh very there's uh I think we allocated what one to uh Connell and I think around 5% for the UG. So still technically county but directed towards the UG. That's correct. So um we don't have a lot of land allocation for the extremely low or very low and part of that is part of our discussion with the cities is we just don't have the infrastructure in a rural county uh to deal with with the housing density that would need to get it to the

affordable level. our update timeline. Uh we're currently in um you know the initial uh evaluation phase. We're collecting data. I know we there's been I don't know how many draft documents come across my desk here in the last few weeks and unfortunately I'm still playing catch-up with the fact that we had no planning staff here for kind of two months. Um, and I'm still getting phone calls, by the way, as a side note of where's my application and we knew nothing about it because nobody here did anything with that. So, um, dealing with a few of those. Now, phase two will be the public engagement. We we intend on having workshops. We're working on a um what do I want to call that? Committee meeting. Um, no, the outgoing paperwork, the Oh man, I lost the word. Um, where you give your opinion. Uh, survey. Survey. Thank you. Sorry, just totally lost it on that one. Uh, we're working on a survey that we're going to send out to folks and have available on the website. We will have a website. uh it's really close to being launched in which case we'll take public comment anywhere through that process. Uh we do also have some scheduled uh workshops. Uh phase three will be to update um so this winter and fall we'll be updating the different elements and the different policies that go there. We expect um this winter or actually this winter early next year winner to actually come and have some drafts in front of you. Again, we'll have whatever we have in draft out on the website.

You're more than welcome to have input at any time, but as a formal planning commission, we'll give you kind of an update on on where we are and ask for your input and guidance as we move forward. Uh we'll also be engaging in SERA and com commerce review. Uh that's a process that's required. I will mention that in uh phase two as part of the public engagement, we do plan on that including the tribal engagement. Uh as a past county commissioner, I am very lawsuit advers. So, we are airing on the side of caution. We will be sending a formal requirement uh or letter of engagement with the with the tribe. We'll be reaching out via email. And we um are using basically every opportunity we can to invite the tribe to come uh so that we don't end up in a uh litigation factor later. Which tribe specifically? um all of all the ones in the surrounding area that would have interest in that. Not every tribe has shown interest. Um the requirement is just federally recognized tribes, but of course you you can invite the other tribes too. We we will be inviting all of the tribes that we are aware of. Uh I know that the Cvilles and the Yakas in particular uh come to mind. Um in Umatillaa um probably the Umatillaa. Uh anybody who would any of the tribes that especially would consider this to be their home territory um from way back. We would we want to make sure we reach out. Uh but we'll probably send notice to uh a whole long list of tribes anywhere. I probably

will stay in Eastern Washington. Uh but I again I would rather heir on the side of caution. I will suspect that we'll probably not see engagement from tribes that are pretty far away that weren't um down in the area uh from way past. And then phase five will to be uh the update adoption. Uh again, we're targeting to be done by May and June uh with the comprehensive plan. We may not have all the development regulations done at that time. Uh but our hope is shortly thereafter. What's going on here? Uh shortly thereafter to um engage in that. Where did I go here? Oh, there we go. So public input is guided by the public participation plan. Uh that particular planning element does not come in front of the planning commission. It is uh the start. It was uh put in front of the county commissioners and adopted. You have a copy of it. Um it's not much different than previous public uh participation policies other than adding the climate change and the tribe aspect of that. Um part of that plan is to update the website. Again, we're about ready to launch the website. Uh we'll have an ongoing email list. We've had some members of the public already that have some developers and others, builders that have reached out to us to be put on that list. Uh our plan is to do direct mailings and public notices to hold workshops uh throughout the county. Uh we'll have comment forms on the website. Um people are more than welcome to come in and put their comments in even in the

office uh if they so choose. uh contacting county staff and consultants. I've briefed all of our electeds and department heads throughout the county uh that this process is going on in our um in our staff meetings. Um I know the assessor and the treasurer are very interested in making sure that their concerns are addressed as we move forward. I think that's a great thing to have our other electeds involved in that process because they see some issues. I know I've been talking extensively with the uh assessor over um annexations and some of the concerns we have there. Uh so again, he's very engaged in wanting to look at the countywide planning policies and the policies we have referring to uh that issue. Uh we'll be including all of you guys as planning commission and the board of county commissioners. Of course, anytime you have any thoughts, please share them with me or uh one of the other staff and we'll make sure that those move forward. And that doesn't have to be officially in a meeting. Um vision statement. It guides our work, focuses our positive future in Franklin County. Uh I believe what you see up here is our current vision statement. Then we get into the population and I'm going to turn this over to you and let you speak for a few minutes on the population. Sure. All right. This graph shows the rate of population growth in Franklin County versus the state of Washington um on two different axises axes. Um, so as you can see, Franklin County was growing pretty similarly with the state of Washington. And then sometime around around 2000, Franklin

County started really growing. Um, so the current population is a little over 102,000. And if you go to the next slide, believe yes, uh, Franklin County is now the second fastest growing county in the state. And that's based on the percent change in population. Uh this graph is just graphing the different jurisdictions over the past 14 years. Um Pasco is obviously the big hitter around here. Unincorporated Franklin County followed by Conell and Mesa. Misa and Colotus. Here we get to population projections. This is part of the growth management act. They direct OFM the office of financial management to um project population growth um every five years for every county in the state. So the county takes that information they're given we are given three options this low series a medium series and a high series. Now typically Franklin County as well as other counties around the state like to choose medium forecast. It seems to have worked out well. Um and this graph just shows for the past three cycles um they're grouped so that the median projections are all the um solid lines. So we can look that the median projections in the past have actually um I don't know how to say this it has not come to fruition but the medium projection has uh worked out well. the closest. So yeah, we examine previous projections to get a good sense of um the future. So this year our working group has reviewed

data from the most recent projections and the medium projection does seem to be very fitting. Um and that is something that the board will take action on. They'll adopt um this officially during their countywide planning policies and adoption. So the medium series projects out um the population to 2046 and it is the county's role to determine how that population is broken out into the specific jurisdictions. So of just gives countywide numbers the county then has to deviate out into the jurisdictions. So that is what uh we're working on now with the different cities um to come up with that proposal for the board to adopt. So, do you have a projection for 2046? I don't know it off hand. Um, it looks like we're getting close to 150. Um, so, so it it has been the discussion with the cities to choose the medium projection and and yeah, 2046 we're going to be more than likely somewhere in the probably 170,000 range. Yeah, I believe it. So when you take a number like that, how do you figure how many households that should be? Are you using a multiple of two, three, four or how how do you do that? Yeah. So for this, the county is just divvying out numbers of people and then each jurisdiction has their own census data which determines the average household size. Um so part of this update process is the county assigns those numbers to the individual jurisdictions. those jurisdictions are also updating their comprehensive plans and have to use the count the numbers that the county has divvied up. So then they will plan and say we can accommodate however many number of houses the county says we will need or we can't and this is what we're

going to do about it. So the unincorporated areas become your the planning commission's Franklin County planning commission's job to decide what the density of each household is. in. So, we're given that information from the state and then we have to apply it to make sure that we have enough buildable land to uh allocate the housing where it would be appropriate by income level. One more complication to that issue. Um, so again, this is why some of the conversation has been with the city of Pasco on allocating uh a a major portion of the lowincome housing because their ability to have a much much higher density than we have. Even in the urban growth area, their densities have exceeded what ours are. and a good share of our urban growth area is still not served by sewer which limits our ability to have extremely dense housing. Uh and when I say that I know a lot of folks will think of houses but in this case I would think of town homes and apartment buildings and those type of structures which we tend not to have in the uh county even in the urban growth areas. Different structures also have different average household size. So for the county, it's much easier. It's typically single family and that's a much easier number that we can use. Do do you factor in industry growth into population? We yeah we do have to distribute jobs, anticipated jobs and economic growth as well with with population. Franklin County is a county that has huge industry presence that wasn't here

20 years ago even. So, so, Commissioner, um, one of the things that we've had, so we have in addition to this periodic update that we have for our comprehensive plan and development regulations, I also have four applications for changes. Um and what we did was confer with the uh with the county commissioners on this as well as the applicants. And we have uh officially rolled all of those applications for comprehensive plan amendments and updates uh changes to the comprehensive plan into our update cycle. So, we suspended any yearly updates that will come and these four proposals will be integrated into the decisions that have to be made. So, when we get to that point, in addition to the overall comprehensive plan, you'll have four applications in front of you with recommendations um that we'll need to act on. Uh I will mention that one of those is a master plan resort um uh which is an overlay. Uh one of those two of those applications are actually in our industrial area north of Derold and those areas um are being asked to to be put into the urban growth area. So when you asked about are we considering you know industrial areas or business areas uh to go into the urban growth area that is a consideration. Our preliminary discussion with the city is we might not be able to um move the urban growth area boundaries much considering that we did those a few years ago here. Um as it relates to housing. However, as it

relates to industry, uh there are going to be some proposed changes that you'll all get to consider and have input on a as we move forward. As you can tell, we're not quite there yet. Um and again, one of the other things we're going to have to consider is how does this climate change element affect pretty much everything we're doing? Uh I have spent considerable amount amount of time. I will tell you this is brand new. Um there are some counties that had to put this in their updates that are due this June 30th. However, they're not required to put everything in uh that we will be. Uh we did get some grant money allocated from commerce from the state to add this element in. uh it was in the legislation that passed at the state level. Uh so we're going to be doing some extra work as it relates to this, but one of my concerns has been um I don't want to see agriculture attacked. We are a large agricultural county and how do we how do we balance that element with the need for industry? How do we balance that need for uh growth in agriculture? Uh you know, you've had in front of you uh recently over the last few months an increase in some dairy herds based on the dairold expansion. Um we had a premeating with some some folks who are interested in some other expansion that they're looking into. Uh so how do we you know when you start talking about methane uh emissions and climate change reducing the climate change element or

greenhouse gas reductions how do those uh go hand in hand? Uh I've got some ideas and concepts that I haven't quite put into words yet but um that are out there and to try and and deal with some of this. I I will tell you that Department of Commerce has also hired a consultant to give us some numbers based on data they have available. Some of its transportation, some of its agriculture, some of its people. We'll get all that information. We'll be sharing it out there when we get it. That's what we're going to be working off of. Commerce was also supposed to have their draft guidance adopted by now. It's still draft. So, we don't even have guidance from the state on what's going on. Part of me says maybe that's a good thing because I don't mind being first out of the gate in this realm because we'll tread that water the way we would like to see it fit Franklin County yet meet the state mandates. I wonder what that climate change thing looks like when we unpackage it and check it out in being an agricultural county like you you say. Well, I I will tell you that I think the conservation district is going to be our friend on this and um there is a good many crops where you are sequestering carbon. Um, there's quite a bit of alphaalfpha grown here. Alfalfa is a good crop that puts nutrients back in the soil. It fixes nitrogen. It also does fix carbon. Um, so there's how do we offset some of that is

is to reason I'm bringing it up is to get you guys to start thinking about, you know, how would we address this in different industries? um like a carving credit then, right? So, we have a a building proposal uh in front of us or coming in front of us that's um to add another corn dryer out here at at the uh uh graining facility. Try what is it? Tri city's grains. Um they want to add another dryer and a little more storage for grain. And as we were having the premeating today with them, one of the thoughts that went through my head was so even though they're adding another dryer, they're not going to be drying any more product. So it's just going to make it faster. And one of the benefits of that is they're going to be able to move those trucks to unload much much faster, which means I don't have a bunch of diesel trucks sitting there idling waiting to unload. That is a net carbon reduction. Those are the types of things I'm trying to think about. How do we capture to show that we are in fact trying to make offsets even though we might be expanding industry. Uh so again I welcome different thoughts like that because it'll help us develop policies. question. If we come up with a I'm going to say a fairly conservative approach to this, who's going to say that our approach is right or wrong? Is there a body that's going to say Franklin County, you didn't do it right? So my experience in the growth management act is there are a lot of people out there willing to file a lawsuit or a petition to the hearings

boards uh against counties. Uh some of those groups are known very well, some are not known all that well. I would suspect that some of those groups may target different counties to try and test whether or not we have done this adequately. Um, again, I think building a good record on this and and this is where I'm spending a little extra time here on this because I really am looking for any and all input. And as we go along, we'll be sharing more details. You know, this is tonight. It's mainly, you know, I want to say like a 50,000 foot view. We'll get down into the nitty-gritty of some of this in future meetings. Um, but I think if we build a good record, we'll be able to defend whatever we choose to do. But, um, I will say that I I want to make sure that our policies lead us in a direction that gives us, um, difference as a county. That is a requirement of the law. even though it's not always felt like it's upheld, uh, it is in the law and we're gonna we're going to push that one. So, um, this is Sorry, are we able to get a copy of the comp plan update? I can via email the comp plan update on this slide here. So, I can I can definitely send all of you this slide presentation if you'd like. Uh again, uh you know, our comp plan is online, our current comprehensive plan. Yeah. So, I would encourage all of you to take a look at what our current comprehensive plan is. And if you have a policy that's in there or a goal that no longer fits or something you want to add, by all means,

please tell us. Uh the earlier you can share that information with us, the better. Um, and again, here's my information. Uh, as well as Nicole, who is the lead for AHBL. Uh, that's that's our consultant on this, and you can email her at planner. And again, we'll have that uh website up here shortly. Uh, we were hoping to have it launched by now, but we've had a few other things coming up that's kind of been in the way. And then again, you know, what items should the county address as far as future growth? What policy updates does the community feel are needed uh given the growth and the changes? Especially over the last few years, we've seen some growing pains. Um I would suggest that accessory dwelling units will be one of those topics we'll talk about, I hope. Um what are the desired outcomes and results of this effort? Um, you know, um, I will tell you that, um, I come from a pretty conservative area of the state. I've helped a lot of other counties through comprehensive plans, both fully planning and not fully planning, uh, over the last 30 years. So um I have some thoughts of my own but there are areas of our current code and regulations where I feel that we are definitely overregulating people. Those are my thoughts. Uh my thoughts count but not as much as yours and the commissioners at the end of the day. Um and I've got some spots where I think we are uh very much lacking. Uh I know that uh Gemma and I'll speak for Gemma and I on this. We had a heck of a time when

we're going over the code uh reading through different parts uh trying to get what's there and what's not there. Uh the use tables um those use tables have since in the short time I've been here been the bane of my existence. There is um a whole lot of conditional use permits. Um there's very few permitted uses and uh I am very much a advocate of due process and in order to regulate we must identify the harm we're trying to prevent. That harm must be real and the regulation must be proportional to the harm we're trying to prevent. So that is an axiom that I keep with me all the time as we're going through this. Um and I'll I'll pick on ADUs. What is the harm we are trying to prevent? Is the harm real? Um you know where's that balance uh in regulation where we should and shouldn't allow them uh or we allow for a greater density of them. Uh that's just one example uh but I think it's a very relevant example considering you know topic of tonight uh but that applies across the board right um I will tell you that uh I have been in discussions with the state legislature over the last many many years and um there has been a battle to keep detached ADUs out of uh rural areas. Oh, really? And but that has slowly been changing. Um so again, I think there's a balance there. One of

the things we have to look at is what's the environmental uh piece to that as well as what's the housing element to that. Um, I know when I look at housing down here, since I'm staying in a hotel when I'm down here, uh, it's very expensive. Uh, and that is something that we're required to do in the in the housing element. So, I I think that's again I think that's a balance that we're going to have to get in the code. There is also no I would think that it'd be more accepted in the rural areas than in in the urban areas. Commissioner, that would be a comment that I would urge you to put into the record. I mean, because I mean, you got a family farm and you know, your family folks going to live continue, you know, to live on the farm and and then the state mandated the deal and just basically put the boots to the HOAs. In that regard, I I think your innovative agricultural um subdivision, short subdivision is uh exactly along those lines. We've seen a considerable number in our time here, Gemini, short time that we've been here of those come across our desk. And I think the idea of those was definitely to try and keep the family on there. We don't always see that happen. Mhm. Uh we have seen some where it's expansion of businesses and it it's gone to employees but it's still uh very much in keeping with you know how do we develop agriculture and the housing that's that's needed. farm working farm farm worker housing is another element that will be part of our uh housing discussions and something I uh again I didn't have time yet to dive deep into the policies but I think we can strengthen some of the farmworker

housing policies in the comprehensive plan um as it relates to that um so I'd open up for any other discussion you you guys might have. Commissioner, I also want to add that um currently the county code actually allows multi-ousing for farm family and farm labor on um AP20 and AP40s, the agricultural uh farm locations, but that might be a discussion or comment that commissioners want to bring up in terms of policy because it allows up to four and I believe any more will require um certain approvals. And if you have anybody who uh you're aware of that wants to put comments in, uh please encourage them to do so. Um my experience has been the better that we can develop the record. Um regardless of the path that the commissioners choose at the end of the day, uh the more defensible it is. Um our worst enemy is having little to no comments. Uh I would rather have a ton of comments spread all over the board uh for us to choose from than to have one or two comments and limit there. I will tell you uh again having been a county commissioner so I've sat on both sides of the fence on this issue. Um, under the growth management act, the commissioners are not allowed to choose something outside of the record. Much like the closed record hearings, uh, that, you know, the recommendations go from here to the county commissioners. Uh, they have to stay with what's in the record. The same is true with adopting uh, policies, goals, and development regulations. They have to stay within the record. We can supplement the record ourselves. Um, but having public comment included in that

is always helpful in picking a path that's defensible and meets the character of the county. So, if there's no further comments, Mr. Chairman, um, that concludes my presentation. Okay. Uh, I think that's it. Finding.