City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 06:30, and the meeting will come to order, please. Good evening, and welcome to the 04/07/2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Will the city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Good evening, mayor McShane. All council members are present with the exception of council member Trumbo. A quorum has been established.

And I don't have on my agenda the exact wording for her. You

got that? Oh, there

it is. Thank you. Council member Trumbo provided advance notice of his absence. Is there a motion to excuse this absence?

Mister mayor?

Mayor Pro Tempe Trolley.

I make a motion to excuse council member Trumbo's absence.

Thank you. Is there a second?

I second. Thank

you. Council member Anderson and Clipper for a second and third. It has been moved by from mayor pro tem Torelli and seconded by council member Clipper to excuse the absence of council member Trumbo. Floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion has been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of council member Trumbo. Will the clerk please start the vote?

I'd be happy to, but my computer is stalling, so hold on just a second. Try it again. My computer is feeling under the weather, think. Hold on just a second. We'll do things the old school way.

That would be fine.

Okay. So maybe we just do a unanimous or a

roll

call Are out we gonna go down the road? Can I

just say You

can just say it?

Okay. All in favor of excusing council member Trumbo. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is passed unanimous. Thank you. Alright. Pledge of allegiance. I have not asked anyone to lead that. Council member Millbauer, will you lead us in the pledge?

No one's registered to provide tonight's invocation. Purchase the person's interested in giving the invocation can find that information on our website or through the city clerk's office. Next on the agenda is honors and recognitions. We have an Arbor Day proclamation. Will Parks and Recs Commissioner Sergio is it Thank you very much. Please join council member Anderson at the podium.

Okay. Do we put that on?

I'm gonna read the proclamation. Whereas in 1892, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established Arbor Day for tree planting, which resulted in over a million trees planted leading to the holiday being observed globally and whereas the first official Kennewick Arbor Day in April 1912 involved planting 8,000 trees along 10 miles of riverfront as reported in the Kennewick Courier and whereas trees play a vital role in protecting our valuable topsoil from erosion caused by wind and water, help reduce heating and cooling expenses, regulate temperatures, purify the air, generate oxygen and create habitats for wildlife and whereas in urban areas, trees boost property values, enrich the economic activity in business districts and enhance the overall beauty of our community and whereas urban and community forestry programs benefit communities by preserving green managing trees and promoting tree planting in various metropolitan areas and whereas April is an excellent time of year to plant trees in Kennewick. Now therefore, Mayor Jason McShane on behalf of the Kennewick City Council, do hereby proclaim 04/24/2026 as Arbor Day in the City Of Kennewick, and we urge all individuals to take responsibility for their surroundings and honor Arbor Day by planting, caring for, and safeguarding trees.

This ensures that trees can keep enhancing our quality of life for the well-being of present and future generations.

I'll accept this on behalf of the Parks and Rec Commission and we're just looking forward to another great year. Of course you're all invited to come help us out at the Arboretum this year. I believe it's on the twenty fourth. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Yes, please.

Where is the arboretum at?

Anybody know where the arboretum is? This is a test.

It's alphabetical. It's before the bonsai garden. I don't know where the arboretum is. Do we

know Eastgate Elementary. Eastgate. It's where we're gonna do the dog park.

Some of us are Eastgate Panthers over here. We know all about it.

We planted a tree there. A tree there? Over's class. Yeah. Eastgate. By Eastgate Elementary near the fairgrounds. Right? 10th And Oak. 10th And Oak. I think 10th And Oak is an appropriate location for an arboretum. Alright, that was my last dad joke of the evening. Alright, here we go. Next on the agenda is for visitors. This is the only opportunity for visitor comment at tonight's meeting. Visitors are welcome to state their opinion on any topic except for election matters and item five a tonight, which is a site specific quasi judicial matter.

The city clerk has informed me there are no online visitors registered to speak. Written public comment relating to Canal Landing development access was forwarded to council before the meeting and uploaded to the packet on the city city's public meeting portal. Alright. If someone wishes to speak, I will ask you to raise their as soon as we before we start that, just kind of a reminder, public comment period is not an opportunity for mutual conversation with council members or for posing questions with the expectation of an immediate answer. Council members will listen closely to your comments but will not directly respond to you.

The city clerk's business card is on the table near the door. If you need follow-up after the meeting, please reach out to her, she will connect you with someone who can help. When it's your turn, please come to the podium and state your name and city of residence before beginning your remarks. Each person is permitted to speak for at once for a maximum of minutes. A three minute timer will be displayed on the screen, and we'll start when you come to the podium. A total of thirty minutes is allocated for the visitor comments. If the city clerk will please start the thirty minute comment period and raise your hand if you'd like to come make a comment. Please. Just come to the podium and state your name and city of residence. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Fran Wandrack, and I'm a resident and a business consultant and a protective single mom that's deeply committed to the safety of our community, especially our children. And I just wanna thank you guys for all the work that you do in the city of Kennewick to make us have a safer community. It's really special to me as I'm sure it is to all of you. So I'm here today to share a framework that I've developed to address the growing concern around the high risk residential facilities that are often associated with less restrictive alternative placements under RCW 71.09. And I initially developed this framework for the city of Richland, where I've had about two decades of a relationship and a friendship with mayor Richardson.

And through that work, it became clear that focusing on accountability at the facility level, particularly through licensing and operational standards, is one of the most promising paths forward in addressing the challenges that these facilities can present in our neighborhoods. So, what I've created is not a ban, and it does not interfere with the state placement authority, which would not work. So, instead, I created a legally structured defensible system that allows cities to regulate how these facilities operate, ensuring supervision, reporting and compliance over time. So I understand that Kennewick's code structure differs from Richland's, particularly with the zoning and the licensing being separated. And because of that, I've already begun drafting to adapt the framework specifically for Kennewick so that aligns with your existing municipal code and process.

So my proposed work is also currently being reviewed by three of our local legislative representatives as a broader part of discussions around policy improvements and accountability measures at both the local and the state level. Particularly with, rep Stephanie Bernard, she encouraged me to come tonight and share with you all. So on a personal level, the work that I'm doing is deeply important to me. I'm a survivor of severe domestic violence, including a near lethal incident that occurred in front of my three year old child in 2022. So, when I look into my little Sofia's eyes, I actually see the eyes of all of our children in the community and each of yours.

And that drives my passion to help close the gaps where systems may fall short in protecting them and victims experience systemic failure. So as a part of this broader effort, I've also developed additional policy proposals, including what I refer to as the Decker law which is focusing on providing clear guidance and protections for judges and court professionals handling domestic violence cases. That proposal is currently under bipartisan legislative review with two different legal teams. I've also collaborated on a proposed amendment to Washington state statute RCW nine eight point four zero addressing high risk offenders and custodial interference and that's in coordination with feedback from sheriff Mike Morrison in Wenatchee.

Thank you. Your time has expired.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

You're okay.

What I'm gonna do is I will leave

Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and leave that with the

city clerk Okay. Great. And then I'll follow-up with the clerk for a custom one.

Thank you for your time. Alright. Next individual. Yes.

Please on our front row right here.

Hello. My name is Mary Cloninger. I live in Kennewick, and I'm glad to see that you are going to be discussing the Canal Landing development development because that is why I'm here tonight. First, I would like to thank this council for your service. I believe you care for our city and you want it to prosper.

I am a native Tricidian. I live in an area referred to as the Lampson Homesites. It's located on the North Side Of Canal Drive between Fisher and Williams. I live in the house I grew up in. My family built and moved into this house seventy two years ago.

It was a great place to grow up. Over these many years, I have watched our community grow, sometimes with a little bit of trepidation. But I love my home and living in this area. My concern this evening is the access from our area to Canal Drive. There's only one access out of our entire area of a thousand people.

I have been locked out of there a couple of times in the past. One time was due to a SWAT action, and the other was a fire. So I could not get in to my home. And it leads me to think that if something were to happen to one of our access roads in an emergency, how would we get out? When the townhome development began at Canal Drive in Yost, I was concerned because of the increased traffic coming out of Yost onto Canal Drive.

There's a curve and a hill that makes it difficult to see traffic coming west on Canal Drive. And believe it or not, people are not always traveling at 35 miles an hour. Then I noticed another road straight across the road from our access road, Quinault. I was told by the city that it was an emergency vehicle access road. It's my understanding that that has changed, and it has become a full access road.

We were told by the city engineer that it would be a right turn out and in only by adding a concrete barrier. I'm not sure how that would be effectively policed, and it may make it impossible for the residents of our area to take a left on Canal Drive out of our one and only access.

Mary, thank

you that your time has occurred.

Oh,

Oh,

We yeah. Sorry. We we we don't yeah. We don't allow people to have we got to do that. So

oh, okay.

You can certainly come and finish finish if it's written there. You can certainly come to that.

Thank you.

My name is Steve Kloninger. Thank you, Steve. And we live in the same house and have the same concern about getting in and out of that area. The message we got the last message we got is they were considering making exit from our road, a right turn only onto Canal Drive. If somebody down in that area had a a medical emergency, that's gonna cause problems and lawsuits, I'm afraid.

I believe that short access road due to the curving hill and blind spots is an extreme danger to traffic and will eventually conflict with traffic coming from our area. It's our hope that you will change that access road back to an emergency vehicle access road only and not allow traffic to conflict with our one and only access in and out of that area. I believe it would be the most cost effective solution as it would not cause the need for traffic revisions. Thanks for your time.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mary. Alright. Tony.

Good evening. Tony Sabino, Kennewick, Washington. You guys have seen me up here a couple times before. I first wanted to let you guys know there's been a lot of talk, and I kinda was flying under the radar. I bought the LRA house on 8th And Edison. I did that to stop this LRA from happening. You guys has have said all along that you guys would do whatever you could to help. So I'm here tonight to ask for your help. In buying this property, I overpaid for it. I'm trying to figure out ways to recoup my money out of it.

I'm gonna fix the house up because it was in really bad shape. And one of the things that I encountered when I had a meeting with five different divisions, fire departments, building and say, I'm not sure all the names, but one of the things I ran into was I was told that I'm gonna have to put in fire right in front of the house, and I couldn't access the one across street because it was across the street. And then I would need to put in sidewalks and curbs. And I believe through the discussion, one of the things that they talked about possibly waiving was on Edison putting in curbs and so forth. I'm telling you all this to to some of you have been to that site.

Some of you have not. I know mayor McShane has for sure. And that street has no curbs, no sidewalks. It's got paved down the middle, gravel on both sides. I understand that there may be certain codes out here that as you upgrade, as you do things, are required.

From my perspective, I'm trying to split the lot. And the only reason why I'm doing that is to be able to sell the house and that half on 8th Avenue, and then split the lot off and either sell the other half or put a house on and sell it to keep, to keep it as a single family residence. Either case, I'm gonna wind up probably losing money, maybe breaking even. Obviously, if I have to spend a $100,000 to do all these upgrades, which is probably what it's gonna cost, I also have to bring in the sewer from Ethan Edison all the way down to the end of my property to the neighboring property, So whatever that frontage is. So I guess I'm asking you guys if you can maybe step up and see what you might be able to do to see if some of these things can be waived in order for me to do the right thing and keep this a neighborhood home.

And the only other option I would have was to go the long roundabout way of subdividing this and so forth. And the reason why I bought it when I say subdividing, mean putting in, like, four four plexes or something like that, and I don't really wanna go that route. I see my time is almost up. I thank you guys for your time and for your efforts as well.

Thanks, Tony. Please. Yeah.

Hello. Hello. My name is Sarah Stevens, and I live in Kennewick. Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to voice my concerns. My key my key concerns today are, Kennewick Landing over there on Canal. It's the risk and the accessibility of the Canal Landing phase one. The original plan was approved for a single roadway access on North Yost North Yost Place with 92 residential lots intended for zero lot line duplexes. At build out, the new homes will serve about 300 residents. The project includes a 101 units of housing to serve families with low income.

That was in the Tri Cities Business Journal. I live on North Williams on the Lamston home site in the neighborhood with over 210 homes, apartments, and condos, where the only entrance and exit for my neighborhood is located at the North Quinault Avenue and West Canal Drive. The Canal Landing duplexes are across the street from the only entrance exit of my home. Originally planned, there was an emergency access only to be used in emergencies, a Bollard emergency exit exit access only. Now there is a street signage for North North Williams Place with plans to have a second entrance entrance exit right in and right out only.

The city has proposed a paving project on West Canal from Edison to Valen, which includes installing dual faced curb to West Canal and Quinault to restrict left in and out from Canal Landing while allowing the existing neighborhood, the Lambston home site, to the north to have left in and out. There's drawings that we've had we got from the city. We met with a city individual. He came on out. The city shows its protective left as well, but there was also talk of possibility eliminating this, which would kill prompt access to the nearest hospital, essential driving, shopping, entertainment, service trips towards Richland rather than Kennewick.

The most recent drawings show that the westbound lanes of Canal Drive will be reduced to a single lane travel that will quickly become congested with continuous nonstop traffic during peak travel times. Anyways, there'll be lots of traffic, and I would like to propose that that is not a that is an emergency exit only, not a through street on Williams Place. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, please.

Good evening, mayor McShane and the council. My name is Pernell Hodges, and I am a resident of Kennewick. And I'm here on the behalf of the Benton Franklin Health District. I'd like to invite the council and community members to join us for an upcoming event where we'll be sharing and discussing our community health improvement plan, which we refer to as a CHIP. It's a three year game plan to support the people you serve, our residents, and businesses, and improve community health as we grow, focusing on the unique needs of our region.

The CHIP was created from almost an entire year of interviews and focus groups and data collection, where we listened to the needs of the people living in Benton and Franklin Counties. While public health can help diagnose the health of the community, we need your help, and together, we can create lasting change. We are focusing on five key priorities, access to health care, safe drinking water, housing, food secure insecurity, and mental health. He here's one thing we've learned. Think about a cafeteria table at a school that seats five children.

One of those children is facing food insecurity. That's when added up together, that's 10,000 children in Benton County whose family can't reliably afford food. Our CHIP launch party will address our plans for the future and connect leaders in our community with partners to further collaboration so we can bridge the gap and make sure no kid goes hungry in Benton County. The event will be held on April 29 from 03:30 to 5PM at the Richland Public Library. It's an opportunity to hear about the plan, ask questions, and learn how partners across the community can be involved.

We ask that people RSVP, and a link is available at bfhd.wa.gov/chip or in this handout that I have, which I assume I provide to the clerk. We hope you'll join us, and thank you for your time and your committed commit continued commitment to make Kennewick a great place to live. Thank you.

Thank you.

And I and I give you the handouts? Okay.

Thank you. Ira.

My name's Ira Johnson. I live in Kennewick, and thank you for hearing me. I just recently got back from Albuquerque, Mexico visiting a terminally ill friend. And while I was there, I went to Walmart. And as I was checking out, the lady says, be careful out there. I said, yeah. Traffic's horrendous. She said, no. We had a shooting in the parking lot. This was 02:00 in the afternoon, sunny day and everything.

And she said, oh, it happens all the time. Well, I got to investigate that she was right. They have a, National Guard there between the, military air force base and Albuquerque. That's called the war Zone. And the military guys on that side of the gate, they just sit there in their bulletproof RVs they're getting shot at.

They can't do nothing about it. Can't fight back or nothing. It's all up to the National Guard and ICE and all of them to go in there and try to solve this. Well, then I come to find out up by Espanola, just north of Santa Fe, same thing. Well, Espanola is just like going to Benton City, 2,000 people.

It's that many. You know? And so I was noticing now that we got a budget for everything, especially we were talking about expanding the city growing. Well, I think we need to make sure these two guys here, the fire department and the police department, have the equipment, the training, and manpower to back us up and keep us safe because that's ridiculous. I mean, where my friend lived was a gated community.

You know? I mean so that really made me aware of things. So I just wanted to share that with you. And when you're planning your future, expansion there, sure you make room for these two groups. Thank you.

Wendy.

Hello. My name is Wendy Keane. I'm from the city of Kennewick. I wanted to, first of all, thank everyone that we've had all of these meetings about the LRA home, and then we have finally moved in a direction where we do not have the LRA home. And I know that took a lot of work from everyone on this council even though some of you were not here when we came and said thank you last time. I will we'll look the other way this time, but it's okay. But what I did also want to come and talk to you guys about is as a community, we did. We stood together. We worked so hard to make this happen. We had a community member step up and purchase the home.

Nobody could have ever dreamed that that was a possibility. So we, as a community of neighbors, are helping to do what we can to renovate the home and what we can, like, donating our own time, our own resources to get these things done. As we were fighting the LRA, our hands were tied through city council all the way across the board. Being having the city have the opportunity to help this homeowner to continue to have have single families live in our neighborhood is something where your guys' hands aren't tied. This is where you guys can really make the stance versus having a community member purchase the home.

This is where you guys can show up for us and continue to help in creating the type of environment where we want to raise our children and have them grow and have all these great memories. That was really what I wanted to come and say to you guys tonight. I wanted to, first of all, thank you for all of your support. And then as we said last time, the fight is not over. This is where another port portion of the fight where you guys could help us in continuing to make Kennewick a place where people want to continue to come and live and grow their families. Thank you. Any

additional public comment? Yes,

afternoon. Name is Paul McFarlane. I also live in Lansing Loop. I live off of Williams Street. Currently, have three school buses come down to the end of the cul de sac, turn around and come back up.

That's two times a day. So to make them have to battle this transition that happens within our Quinault area, Williams, down to Neal Road, Pipette, is going to be a big, big concern. Also, the transition switches in from two lanes to one going east on Canal. That is gonna make a mess out of everything. Sweeney, I I would definitely look at your plans and try to make the revisions that need to be done. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. Next. Yeah. Tina, please.

Good evening. Tina Gregory. I just wanted to bring up the thing about prayer. I can only do it twice a year, and it's obvious that you can't get anybody else to come in very often. So I'd like you to rethink on that of allowing people that are not residents and allowing more flexibility there because we need to bring our lord back in America.

And then I wanted to know what's the process that you're moving on with this LRA stopping future ones because it's not over. The fight has just begun. So I'm really hoping that maybe this gal that gave you information, you can go with her. And then I convinced my friend to come in because she thought nobody's gonna listen. It doesn't matter. I've lived here my whole life. And if you really think about Canal and pulling out of there, if you're in an ambulance and you're forced to take a right hand turn, now you have to go down to Edison Street. Oh, no. There's a train. Now you have to wait on the train.

You're you're really jeopardizing this whole neighborhood, and it is very inconvenient to only have that one access. And so I really want you to think hard about their lives back there. There's a lot of homes in there. There's a lot of disabled people. And like the gentleman just said about the buses, this is not a thing where, oh, we're gonna have another place across the street, so now there's no left turns. It's very important that they are allowed to turn left on Canal. So I just hope that you can think hard about that before you make decisions. Thank you for all that you do.

Thank you, Tina. Any additional public comment? Yes, please.

Good evening. I'm Brad Anderson. I live on North Volland Street near the intersection we've been talking about tonight concerning the condominiums across on the South Side Of Canal. I came here largely just to learn, and I've certainly learned a lot by just listening. The one comment I would have to make is that I'd like to make, however, is the second or the east ingress, egress to this condo development is down on a starting a slope and it's it's a curve.

So there's there's site restrictions there. And I'm concerned just from a practical matter of traffic that vehicles exiting, that's second what was supposed to be emergency only ingress, egress. I I can see an axe accidents happening there because there's regular speeding going on eastbound, westbound canal all the time, day and night. I I live I live there. I've been there now a little over ten years, and it's getting, obviously, more traffic.

There's more cars and more people living here. So I'm concerned about just a practical matter of traffic accidents when you're deaccelerating. We have the benefit of on eastbound on Canal, we have a turn pocket. You can deaccelerate, stop, watch your traffic, and I do that several times a day for ten years, and it it's fine. And I can turn left.

I can turn right, but you have to be really vigilant because there's more traffic and and there are a lot of speeding for some reason. I that's dismaying. But the second, I I find what I learned tonight among many other things is that this development apparently is requiring two ingress, egresses to a small development. And I live on the side of the street with probably over a thousand people with only one ingress, egress, and it's been that way since I've lived here for over fifty years, and it seems to work okay. I'm not advocating for it, but it was alright for us.

Why does this little development get to two? So I'd like your consideration for that and I appreciate the opportunity to come here tonight to address this. Thank you.

Thank you, Brad. All right. Any other comments?

Alright.

This comment period is closed. Next item is approval of the agenda. If the council member would like an item removed from the consent agenda, please be recognized by the mayor and state the item number you would like to have removed for further discussion. That item will be considered separately. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor McShane.

Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

Move to approve the agenda as presented. Is there a second?

Mayor.

Council Member Millbauer.

I'll second the motion.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded seconded by Council Member Millbauer to approve the agenda as floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion has been properly moved and seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded by Council Member Millbauer presented. Board of of

Directors

All right. That has passed unanimously. Consent agenda. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kennewick City Council for reading and study are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussion. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor McShane.

Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second?

Mayor? Council Member Millbar.

I'll second the motion.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tempterreli and seconded by Council Member Millbar to approve the consent agenda as presented. Will the Clerks please start the vote? And that is passed unanimously. Next is an ordinance related to a site specific rezone of property of 4501 South Olympia Street. After the staff report, we'll council have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information. Let's please wait on general discussion or debate until after a motion has been made. Will the city clerk please read the ordinance by title?

Maybe, Mayor, this is an ordinance amending the zoning classification of certain real property within the city of Kennewick located at 4501 South Olympia Street from residential suburban

Thank

Thank by counsel rather than legislative. Quasi Thank judicial matters require the counsel meet the appearance of fairness doctrine. I am going to ask that counsel listen carefully to the following questions. If your answer is yes to any question, please ask to be recognized. I will So I'm going to ask all of them and then ask to have anyone recognize that. So the questions are as follows. Do you have any interest in the property or the application? Or do you own property within 300 feet of the subject property? Will you stand to gain or lose any financial benefit as a result of the outcome of this proceeding? Are you unable to consider the application in a fair or an objective manner?

Have you engaged in any ex parte communications with either the proponents or opponents? Does anyone have a yes to that? Okay. It is established that Kennewick City Council can consider this matter fairly. Right. Let's see. Mr. Lares, we'll may we have a staff report, please?

Oh, thank you, mayor. Okay. So what I have in front of you today is change of zone 20260001. And the the applicant is, again, Peter Harpster of Harpster Land Development. The property owner is Big Sky North, and the proposal is to rezone 37.67 acres from residential suburban to residential low density. The property currently has a land use designation of low density residential, and the location is at 4501 South Olympia Street. Not working. No. You can click next for me. Thanks.

That's fine. Oh, there we go. Okay. So this here is the vicinity map. As you can see, the property that's outlined in red and labeled as subject property is the property that is proposed to be rezoned.

And next, I have the zoning map right here also outlined in red labeled subject property. The light yellow is, zoned residential suburban, and the dark yellow is zoned residential low density. And that blue on the bottom left hand corner of the subject property, that's public facilities. And just a brief history of the property. The city annexed the site in 2007 through ordinance fifty one eighty three and zoned the property agricultural, the property was rezoned to residential suburban on 2018 by ordinance fifty seven sixty one.

When it comes to permitted uses, with our zoning, the RS and RL zones do allow for single family and middle housing units, but RL allows for smaller lots. So RS has a 8,000 square foot minimum lot size, while, RL has a 5,500 square foot minimum lot size, while both zones do allow for townhome lots with a, 1,800 square foot minimum lot size. So when it comes to approving a changes zone, there are certain conditions that must be met through our code, which is the first one of the proposed amendment conforms with a comprehensive plan, promotes the public necessity, convenience, and general welfare, and that does not impose a burden upon public facilities beyond their capacity to serve or reduce such services to lands which are deemed unacceptable by the city, and that the amendment is consistent with all applicable provisions of the Kennewick Municipal Code, including those adopted by reference from the comprehensive plan, and for residential properties that the property is adjacent and contiguous with resident with land of the same zoning designation. So if you wanna rezone to RL, it has to be right next to property that's already zoned RL. And just a brief summary over the hearing that was in the planning commission.

So planning commission held their meeting on 03/16/2026. Members of the public did show up, and there were a couple that did speak in opposition to the proposal, mainly towards the future subdivision of the land, which has not been submitted yet. The applicant's representative did attend the meeting, they did speak in favor of the proposal, essentially stating that as of right now, this is just the change of zone. They haven't submitted any preliminary plan applications and that any applications would meet any and all applicable city regulations. And with that, the planning commission did recommend approval of changes zone 20260001, and I'll be happy to take any questions.

Alright. Do we have any questions of staff? Okay. Just a couple quick ones for me for me. So, Joseph, as we're talking through this, the maximum number of units that could be put on the property or subdivided onto the property doesn't change on this change of zone. Is that correct?

Correct. If they were going for townhome lots, yeah, that's pretty much the same as, you know, for RS and RL is the maximum.

And so if they were not doing that and then we just looked at the smaller lot sizes, what would be the increased number that they could potentially fit on this property? Recognizing you haven't laid out city streets or any of those types of things. Just a plus or minus.

Correct. If I remember correctly, I know they did do a pre app, which proposed, like, roughly around 200 lots, but that was their, like, proposal. It was like a mix of townhomes and single family. So there's a good amount of potential, you know, when it comes to how many lots can be fit in that piece of property as is, but I'm not sure if Steve would possibly know that answer or

Mhmm. Thank you for running those numbers so I didn't have to. But, yeah, I I like I said, I just wanted to make sure that and and again, this is the applicant has applied to do this change as part of what they wanna do with the eventual property, which they haven't fully laid out yet as they're still running through their program.

Correct. Yeah. They haven't applied for anything as of today.

The rough number for the the 8,000 square foot lot, which would be the RS zone, the current zoning would be 200 lots. That's really rough. That doesn't take out any roadway or anything like that. Let me see if I can give you a real quick number then the the other one. So the other one is five five thousand.

Would chime in, but my math is off by a couple lots, so we'll let Steve do it.

Yeah. Yes. It is closest without going over.

Yeah. I

just will say in my twenty years of public service, I've always liked it when an elected officials ask me for something specific like that. So

if, hypothetically, again, you'd be looking at three twenty two lots with

the 5,000 square foot. Which still is significantly lower than the townhome number.

It would be lower than the townhome number and those numbers do not take out roadways

or

any other type.

So this

is just a rough scale factor.

That's just

122 lots if it's just straight single family. Yeah. Yeah. Without taking anything else out.

Yeah. And like I say, as you mentioned, the layouts, may have looked at some combination of townhomes and other things. And so just kind of putting it in perspective for me as I'm evaluating that change and what the potential impacts are. We've heard a number of people talk tonight about impacts related to traffic and new lots and some of those types of concerns that I think it's important to recognize the scale. So, alright. So any other questions to staff? If not, I will entertain a motion. Mayor McShane. Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

I move to adopt the ordinance as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor. Council Member Millbar. I'll second the motion.

Alright. The floor is open for discussion. Oh, wait. Sorry. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Charlie and seconded by Council Member Millbauer to adopt the ordinance as presented. The floor is now open for discussion.

Council

Thank you for your clairvoyance Mr. Mayor. I apologize I didn't get the exact numbers in my brain. I was getting an update on Southbridge versus Kennewick softball game. The current capacity for housing as the without this passing of this ordinance is, and then if we pass the ordinance, it will be did we come up with two zero one roughly? So 200 as is 101 if we change it?

Two zero one as is three twenty two if I mean, if changed to RL.

Thank you. Thank you very much, mister Mayer.

Yep. Thank

you. And then just a clarification again that that if it were townhomes, it would be significantly higher.

Would They're

equal, equal, but both of those, the townhome number is higher than the three and twelve. Exactly. Correct.

Roughly two to three times. Any

additional comments or discussion?

Okay.

It has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the ordinance as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote? Directors the Board of meetings and other items of interest. Of I will start with council member B. Chung.

Thank you, mayor. On a selfish note, had a request from my daughter. So on the weekend, don't know if anyone's been out to Lawrence Scott Park. She's been playing pickleball there for a couple years, and now the lights are in. She said, hey.

How how come all the course aren't aren't lit up? I said, well, donate some money or get a job fair going and start selling cookies, and you guys can pay for it. No, but it was a request that she's saying now that that's become so popular, is such a great thing, that it's kind of becoming a melting pot for all the youth on the weekends that they're lining up there waiting to play more pickleball. So what a great problem we have. So as we think through that, whether it's creative ways of getting the community more involved like they were to get the original set of lights and all the things we've done out there, just something to put on our agenda that we've got kids from all the high schools showing up there, getting in line and they're all kind of meeting each other and playing kids from different schools.

Probably better than what I was doing when I was in high school. We didn't have a pickleball court. Nobody in the city ever put one together, or we would have been there playing pickleball. No, just another thank you to the city and everybody who worked so hard to put that together. That's a great thing. As we have the opportunity to increase lighting, even if it's one or two courts here or there, I think we try to do that. That's all I've got tonight.

You.

I did attend the update for the Veterans Cemetery back on March 25. If you don't know, they've selected land or they're looking at land North Of Horn Rapids on the Riverside Of 240 on a circle of land owned by the city of Richland. So they're gonna be doing a lot of testing prior to purchasing it from Richland, but they are moving forward with that. Did the visit Tri Cities meeting also on that day as well as the Tri City Chamber annual awards luncheon. I attended the Columbia Basin Badger Forum.

They presented a lot of data on the federal, energy, all the all the lines, the dams, and how that all works, at data centers that are wanting to come in area and how that works. So it was very informative. I had this continuum of care meeting. ECA governing board, mayor pro tem governs that and attended that one. This was our tri deck annual reception. And also, you know, as elected officials, at least I received two badges for the Girl Scouts who sell cookies and had the opportunity to purchase a progress

the pleased And Just

in response, this is for City Manager Aaron. Could you send us maybe an update or some further information on the topic du jour regarding the ingress, egress of that neighborhood and what has gone on in the planning commission and what were the decisions made and when were they made and just so we can be aware because this is an issue that I wasn't aware of until tonight. So I appreciate those who've come and they share these issues with us. And just share it with us as a council so that we can kind of be up to speed on what's happened before and what's happening going forward.

Yes, I already added it to my list to send out to you guys in the weekly report.

Okay. Thank you. And that's all I have for tonight.

All right. Thank you. All right. Council Member Clipper.

Well, thanks, Mr. Mayor. I went to the ribbon cutting at the Pasco Airport yesterday, and the centennial celebration of the first air package delivery started right here in Pasco, Washington on 04/06/1926. And I didn't know until yesterday that led to United Airlines. And so pretty exciting stuff.

And the reason why I'm so choked up is it just reminds me that as a former military aviator myself, the the bold and exciting rescue of of our two downed crew members from the f fifteen there in Iran. Just very thankful. Thank God for their recovery. We're seeking your permission to take approximately two minutes to just discuss. I went over Brianna Murray sent us a follow-up reference to the meeting we had last week.

And could I just go over some numbers real quick? Yes. So she said that the state collects all and I knew this beforehand, but the state collects all fuel tax and then distributes revenue to cities and counties, approximately $2.09 $6 of tax paid on each gallon of fuel is redistributed back to cities based on population. And I'm here to report having run these numbers, I think we are literally victims of highway robbery by the state of Washington, and here's why. Kennewick receives approximately $1,512,000 and another $96,569 from a separate fuel tax.

The amount of the money the city receives in both cases is unrelated to the amount of fuel actually purchased in the city. It is based on population. And one briefing alone that I've gone to here as a member of this city council, which was the hydrofoilers meeting, they said one in five people who comes to come to watch that event travel over 50 miles to get here. That means when they get here, they have to purchase fuel to get back home generally. So I say that not if we're just being reimbursed based on our population, they're robbing us about 20% of fuel purchase here at a minimum and that the state of Washington owes us at a minimum another $302,400 which would bring us up to $1,804,400 and that would fill a whole lot more potholes.

And so I say that we go to our state legislators and ask that they propose to the legislature next year that gas tax be reimbursed to the cities based on zip codes, not on population of the city, so that the fuel actually sold in those zip codes is reimbursed to the cities themselves.

You.

Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

I guess just to respond to that immediately, until you tell me how many gallons are actually sold, you really can't say whether we're being ripped off or whether we're getting good deals. So we need those numbers before anything else. I'm not sure where City can get those numbers from, but that may be something to look into. As for myself I was able to attend the Washington Municipal Clerks Association convention over a 100 crystals. You have no clue how much energy was in that room.

That was amazing. Attended the Tri Cities regional chamber, our annual awards along with council member Clifford and council member Milbauer and our city manager. Attended Superior Court adult drug court, and they're going to be having a open house celebration a week from Friday. Attended the Association of Washington Cities, the Council Leaders Exchange, essentially modeled after the Mayor's Roundtable. It gathers council presidents, deputy mayors, mayor pro tems.

And I was a panelist on a panel discussing building collaborative councils. This council is held up as an example of a very collaborative council. And after some of the stories I heard, yes, it is. During the issues discussion, I did bring up LRAs. That brought a lot of interest on that.

Two other areas that were important though was the local impact of AI. How it's impacting not only the job market, but the physicality of data centers and all that good stuff. And the other was the efficacy of tax increment financing. It's a system that Pasco is using out by the Broadmoor Mall area and it has some good things but also has some things you have to be aware of. Attended the reception as councilmember Millbury said along with councilmember Clifford disability board today and I did want to bring up for consensus of council during our retreat one of the things that was brought up is we're heading for tougher financial times.

And what I would like to see is a workshop that discusses the health insurance that is paid to counsel lot of

And the

of at a workshop to about what are the alternatives. And we are fairly unique in that Richland based their program on us. PASCO gets no medical insurance for a council member. There are some reasons to have it, but there's also some reasons to look at it, particularly in tough financial times. So with consensus of council, I'd like to have staff take a look at maybe in a May agenda or something like that for workshop and see what are some alternatives. Another thing to look at potentially is potentially a or could be a citizens led salary

Salary commission.

Yeah, salary commission. That thing. I know Sunnyside does that, where it's a citizen committee that really determines what our pay is. So those are things we need to do in my mind as council members if we're going to be leading the way. I'll get off my soapbox and turn it over.

Real quick, if you are asking to bring that forward for workshop, we would need to get consensus.

Yeah. And and I think my my comment would be if we could do that as part of the budget process, that wouldn't seem to make sense to me. And so I don't know if it needs to be a workshop in May, but sometime in the next couple of months would be that same time frame, right?

Because we're looking at millions of dollars and we're lint, we're pocket lint comparatively speaking. But we're not talking specifically about where does it fit in the overall budget. We're talking about us as a council and how are we perceived by our constituents. We don't pay anything for our insurance. Their city staff pays insurance.

And I think that alone deserves a more robust and focused discussion because it says, what is the model that this council or other councils should follow. This was something I brought up several years ago. I was told no. Councilman Trumbull brought it up at our last budget where we discussed income tax, right? And that just kind of got rolled over. So I guess I feel strongly that this is a small enough subject that could be handled in fifteen minutes, but it will allow us to have robust discussion. Maybe I'm the only person who wants to look at it that way. Can I make

a comment there, I do think that's worth having discussion in the budget process? However, if you look for dollars at the cost of council versus the city budget, it's about oneone thousand of the city budget. So I think it should be given oneone thousand of the time of consideration. That's just my 2¢.

Other discussion on that particular item?

Thank you. Yes, Mayor.

I'm happy

to have a discussion in either format. Thank you.

Any other comments? Council Member Beacham.

I'm just trying to remember. I mean, like said, I think it's been brought up multiple times. I think it was brought up at the retreat. I thought at the retreat we had discussed it and decided that there wasn't consensus to bring it forward. Maybe I'm mistaken of that. We go back and look. I'm not in favor of spending any time on this. I've made my points clear multiple times of why I don't think we should bring that up. It's not for those members of us sitting up here that can afford health care. It's for the people that I think could run for City Council that could benefit from that.

We've had multiple people run for City Council in the past. That, that could be a determination of whether they can run and serve or if they go and have to work a second job at night. And for that reason, I would say it opens up more people's opportunity to run for this. This is the people sitting up here, obviously, there's a couple of people that don't get it. They get it through their past employment. And I would say the rest of the people don't need it. They can opt out of it at any time. But for me to make a decision on people for the future, I would say I'm against it. I've stated that probably four or five different times that it's not for me, it's for the people in the future to allow that single mother. We've had multiple of people like that run-in the last few elections, and they wouldn't have been able to do it without that small paycheck.

I know we're paid minimum wage based on the state's requirement of what we're paid. The health care, though, I think, was big to some of them. So that's where I stand on it.

At this retreat, if I may. Mayor Pro Tem Trolley, please. I raised the issue. There was no consensus because people were we didn't have the entire council there. We still don't have the entire council here, and I understand that. As far as the only reason you're on this dais is because you get insurance, you shouldn't be here. Simple. If that is your motivation as I get good health care, then that is not a

good I thing to add

think you completely missed what I said. What I said was it might allow somebody not to work a second job because they're getting their health care paid for. So I didn't say they ran for their health care. I said it gave them the opportunity to participate in this process.

Councilman big Beecham, if you can show me one council member in the last twenty years who had to make that decision between well I can't run if I can't get the health care I would be glad to entertain that but I know for a fact previous council member his wife got medical through the state I mean through the city school system. He got medical through working at Hanford and he still tapped the city. It costs $30,000 a year for a family of four. You're paying that. And if we aren't going to even discuss if that's the right thing to do and we want we want pools, we want lifeguards, we want police officers.

That is one FTE in health care funding just from us. And the question you have to ask yourself is that the right thing to do. And maybe there's ways to manage that and maybe the staff can come up with that. But if there truly is no interest in that, then we need to stand up and say, yeah, I don't care whether the public knows or not. But I will tell you, and I feel really strongly about this, the whole collaborative council thing is based on the ability to have other people listen to you.

And if we're going to shut it down because it's an uncomfortable subject, and as far as it being one thousandth of the city budget and only deserves one thousandth of the time, that's disingenuous. And that should be treated as such.

Can we counsel consent if we're going to

do this?

Can we move it forward and just have it once and for all, have a conversation? Because we've literally had this multiple times and Chuck, it's been multiple times and it's okay, but let's just move it to something and get rid of it. Either we do it when we talk about the budget or we do it in a separate one. I'm fine, but let's just put it to bed. This has been brought up more than twice.

Does anyone else have another comment on this before we move? Okay. So my recommendation is that we do have it as part of the budget conversation. I understand where councilmember Torelli is coming from that we want it to be a subject that we actually talk about, right, and not something that's embedded into other portions of the budget. I think that's the appropriate time and place for that. I don't think it's going to be a fifteen minute conversation, unfortunately. I think it's going to be a little bit longer than that, but maybe it needs to take that time. So I would be supportive of having another conversation about it. It's not been talked about since I've been on council, and I'd be open to having that conversation. I just would suggest process wise it would be done during the budget period.

Like I said earlier, I'm fine with the discussion on it. And either forum works for me as long as we have appropriate amount of time to discuss the issue.

Okay. I was gonna say if you're counting.

Yeah. I'm counting.

That's a majority.

Majority to talk about during budget.

Yeah. But like I said, I I wanna make sure I'm clear. As far as what I'm saying, it needs to be part of the discussion, but it needs to be its own part of the discussion so that we spend the adequate time on it. And I do think it's important, just as my point of view, I do think it's important that we spend that time on it because of what it is and what it's being spent on even if it is a thousandth of the budget. I think it's important that we talk through those things and set a good example. All right. City Manager Erdman, do you have anything you'd like to report on?

Yeah, I do have a couple of things. Quick update on the convention center. We're still on time and on budget. We had a meeting with the county this week to clarify the process for starting to utilize rural county capital funds for that. So we just wanted to make sure they were aware that we're getting ready to start drawing on that. So, we had that meeting. I think we're set for that. And then I wanted to give also give you an update that all the other entities so the public facilities district and the port both approved the parking lot agreement for, Parking Lot e. So we will go ahead and start a kick off meeting for the design changes for that and start working with the engineering firm to move that forward. So good news there.

And then a quick update on the LRA. The resolution that we passed in conjunction with the school district was sent to our legislators as well as the about a month ago. Brianna has reached out to the governor's office on our behalf to set up a meeting with staff to start that conversation at that level. Rep Connors has scheduled a meeting that we're going to host here on April 27 to kind of start the conversation regionally at the staff level. So she has invited the administrators from all the local jurisdictions as well as all of our state representatives. That'll be kind of a kickoff to kind of get the ball rolling for legislative updates for the next session so with that that's all I have

all right thank you so a couple other updates Benton Clean Air Agency for those that are unfamiliar operates on behalf of the State Department of Ecology for Benton County. We do have a transition starting there where the general manager is getting ready to retire after a long service. Rob Rogers did an excellent job there at the Benton Clean Air Agency, and we'll be looking to hire his replacement here shortly. I had an also opportunity to attend the Tridec meeting, executive meeting. One of the things to just be aware of if you're not is what we call shrub step mitigation in Washington State. If you're unfamiliar with shrub step mitigation, this is a replacement, I think, in kind is what it's supposed to be. To

that Which not

defined yet at the state level. At any rate, we have certain areas of the city like the Convention Center where shrub step mitigation had to be provided, in which case we're having to lock down other areas of sagebrush, rabbit brush, and other like activities to help protect some of these natural environments. You might be surprised to hear that some of that shrub step would also exist at Vista Field where the former airport was and may not be the place for critters to live. But that shrub step is something that the state passed. I'll be quite frank.

The updated maps for that were passed during COVID with very little little publication and notification to local communities. It's something that representative Connors is working on specifically with Trident to try to address, especially in the urban growth areas of the cities where we're already inside inside that boundary. There can be some connectivity within those, you know, general areas like at Badger Mountain, for example, where we have a lot of open space. But some of these other areas where you may have a one residential lot that has a little bit of rabbit brush and other brush on it that's in the middle of the city. I don't know if I call me Center Boulevard or something like that.

That may not be the best place for that. So we're working on that through Tridec. I did have a good opportunity to meet with the other mayors last week and have a good discussion. And part on that discussion was less restrictive alternative housing and focusing on trying to get some additional assistance. We appreciate their attention to that as well.

I can say just as a report back that all of the four mayors of the cities are interested in making sure we not only try to fix things here at home as best we can with whatever code changes need to be done and working collaboratively with all of the jurisdictions to try to find what makes the most sense. We'll also be working on the legislative agenda to go through that. We appreciate representative Connors for helping to convene that. There's a lot of action that needs to go on with that. There's a lot of changes we would like to see.

I am concerned already that based on our lack of feedback from certain offices that there's not a lot of interest from certain parties within our state to make changes to this. And I'm concerned that they have not heard well enough the things that were said. And I want to make sure to point that out that we are going to as per our resolution, we are going to actively be seeking to make change at the state legislature for less restrictive alternative housing in twenty twenty seven's legislation. And so we appreciate everybody's efforts and ongoing continued efforts. I do know that there was some concern raised about a recent city of Kennewick post about the LRAs, not recognizing perhaps enough of the communities involvement in that.

I'll state for my own self as I read through that, I did not think that we didn't do that, not realizing that we hadn't said that. And so I will just say again publicly thank you to all of the members of Kennewick who have helped with that, both folks from our SOCT who's right there local on the street, as well as neighboring communities as also people for Pasco and other locations. And so we could not have done it as a community without you guys. So we very much appreciate that. And I appreciate you guys continuing to come and show up.

I do know that there's members of our neighborhoods over at the city of Richland tonight as well, helping their with their activities. We do understand and express support for them in their issuing of moratoriums and things they think are the right thing for their cities. But we do recognize that here in Kennewick, we're not able to do those types of things. And so we're focused on the things that we can make real change with here. Appreciate that.

With all that, I know we've got a lot of other things. Had an executive session as well. I just wanted to spend just a minute because I haven't had an opportunity to address the community on our drought conditions in the state. So for those that have not been paying attention yet or have not heard, Washington State has declared another state of emergency for drought. This is not just limited to the Yakima Basin.

We have drought conditions across the state, the Olympic Peninsula, a lot of of pressure seeing on pressure pressure supply out of the Yakima River. So right now, the Bureau the of Reclamation is designated at a 44% supply year for junior proratable water users, which is like what Kennewick is. Columbia Irrigation District for our residents in Columbia Irrigation District, there are no restrictions planned at this time, although we could see a curtailment in October like we did last year for the first time in the history of the basin. And so those things are still evolving. We are very fortunate to have as much snow as we do have.

Right now, the reservoirs some of the reservoirs are on flood curve controls because they are full. So that's a good thing. It's much better than we've been in the last couple of years, but we still have a lot of summer yet to come and a lot of things we're going to be going through. But I thought I'd just take a minute and update us on that. With that, we appreciate everyone's time and attention tonight. The council will now adjourn to Executive Session pursuant to RCW 4,230 one-ten. Employee. The audience is welcome to stay in chambers during the executive session. Council will not take any action after returning to open session. The executive session will conclude at, what time are we at?

So it would be seven no, 08:08. Perfect. With the I'm gonna say 08:10 08:10 because we'll have two minutes to go meet in the other one.

You're good to go, mayor.

Alright. It is now 08:11, the meeting is concluded. Thank you.