Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Think we are good. Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. It is 04/13/2026 and the time is now 06:00 exactly. This meeting will come to order. Tanya, will you please call the roll?

Yes. Ali Shosti. Here. Ben Reed is excused. Brian Kesterson.

Here.

Justice Phelps?

Here.

Sandra Pereira Reynolds is excused. Todd Oyofesso is excused. And Bonnie Williams? Here. Now, for the record, there is no remote attendance for board members at this meeting.

Thank you. Are there any added items or changes to the agenda from staff?

Good evening we did add an item earlier today it was supposed to be in the original packet and we realized we had forgotten it. It's item number nine the 2026 comprehensive plan amendment request.

That's a

wordy thing. So we call it the annual docket. We'll cover it. It's just a briefing tonight. No action is needed. So just wanted to highlight that from the Friday agenda that was posted. Okay.

Let's see. The minutes from the previous meeting have been presented to the board. I call for a motion to approve the meeting the minutes of 03/09/2026 as presented.

Is Ali Shasti, I move to approve the minutes as presented.

This is Justice Phelps, I second.

The motion on the floor is to approve the minutes of 03/09/2026. Oh, I'm sorry, is there any discussion? Seeing none, we will move to a vote. The motion on the floor is to approve the minutes of 03/09/2026 as presented. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed? The ayes have it. Tonight we are holding a land use and planning board meeting in which staff will make presentations on the twenty twenty seven, two thousand and thirty two transportation improvement plan, the rediscovered downtown plan, the Central Avenue corridor rezoning, the fourth quarter twenty twenty five ECD update and the 2026 comprehensive plan amendment request annual docket. If there are no objections from the board at this time, we are ready to begin ready for the twenty twenty seven-two thousand thirty two transportation improvement plan. Staff, you may begin.

Good evening board members. David Payne, the city's transportation planner with Public Works here to present on the transportation improvement program, our annual update. So what is the transportation improvement program? So this is the six year work program slash menu of grant pursuits that the city has for the transportation program. It fits within the comprehensive plan.

The comprehensive plan and the transportation master plan are really the twenty year long range plan that this board advises on. And then the six year program is the subset of that where we start to take those concepts from the transportation master plan and again work them into project development and pursue grants. So each year we update the transportation improvement program as required by state law And this is what the map of the transportation improvement projects looks like. So you can see lines for roadway corridors, dots for specific spot locations. You see a QR code in the upper right hand corner.

This is the same QR code that we've used for outreach and engagement for the last four years. And it also so it links to a story map, which is a a GIS product, which is kind of like a a slide deck that you can slide through and then it has an interactive map associated with it. You can zoom in on this very map, click on the dots, and get more information about each of the projects. The story map also links to an outreach and engagement tool that the city's been using for two years called engage, engage.hq. So you may be familiar with engage.kentwa.gov, and that works in in tandem with the story map.

So each one links to each other. So however you however you engage virtually to get to this information, whatever is more convenient to use virtually, this this will get you there whether you've participated in the process in the last couple of years or this is your your first year engaging with us. The tip is constrained in that it is a programmed and reasonably expected plan. So the twenty year plan is fiscally constrained in terms of what are all of the resources we think that we could bring to bear in a twenty year period. And the tip is a subset of that based on what we could feasibly bring in, in that six year period.

So those are those both speak to and relate to each other. The tip is also required in in the state of Washington to be in alignment with those other plans. So that's one of the reasons why it's so important that we have projects and programs adopted in the transportation master plan because that's our menu that we're drawing from to to create the tip. We're also required by the state of Washington to constantly be in alignment for regional plans and local plans so that they all talk to each other. That allows the funds to flow, federal funds to flow, and it also allows for our environmental compliance to be in place when we have projects that move that move forward.

So they're constantly talking back and forth with each other and the state's really good about having those in alignment which enables more federal funds to flow to the state than perhaps another state with with less of a an attention to detail would. So this is the the the period the the schedule that we undertake each year. The cycle, the five month cycle with adoption in May and really required to transmit the updated plan in June. So it starts in January with briefings to City Council, other groups, our stakeholders like Economic Community Development, Parks Department, Kent School District to start to say where are we, how are we doing so far. We track those performance metrics from the plan and then start to get project nominations.

Then in February, we update the material that you're seeing before you today and we prepare the information to go out to the public in March for public engagement and feedback. Then based on then for about a month, we do a period of engagement and feedback, give presentations to this board, to the Kent Bicycle Advisory Board, Diversity Equity Belonging Board. And then in April, later in April, we'll be drafting the update to the plan based on the information and feedback that we've received, publish the draft document. Again, is we're kind of in a continuous engagement period at that point. Hold the public hearing on May 19, currently scheduled.

I should also mention that this year we've we've posted we've we've historically posted posters at the Kent Commons, a physical engagement in person. This year we've also done translation in seven different languages that are available on the engage.kentwa.gov website and posted those at some of the the local grocery stores and whatnot that that tend to have a little bit more representation from the Kent population. We try to do a little bit more each year, even though we don't have a budget to do each more each year. We try to do a little bit better. So that's a new thing for this year.

So with all that, what are the projects that we so far have a recommendation for this year? Here is a map of the overall city. There are four projects. I'll go through each of these in turn in the next couple of slides, but this is the overall view. You'll see two preservation projects highlighted in blue.

You'll see one multimodal project highlighted in green, that's number two, and then a safety project highlighted as number one. And I can come back to this overall view if you have questions later. And again, these are projects that represent a continuation of the comprehensive plan goals, the transportation master plan goals, and and frankly, they they are projects that help us to compete for funds when we're going after grants. They're based on based on safety analysis, equity, or populations served, projects that improve connections or enable connections, and projects that are based on partnerships and ongoing conversations that we have with funding

agencies.

So the first project is a safety project on Pacific Highway SR 99. This is at the South 2 68th Street Intersection. So if you're traveling north on Pack Highway, this is the Woodmont Library in the lower left hand corner. So this is

a

RapidRide, RapidRide A pair of stations. There's not currently a marked crosswalk at that location. So this project would install a pedestrian hybrid beacon enhanced crosswalk at the intersection, mocked up roughly as you see. And the project would improve crossing visibility and access to transit at this location. The second project, also on West Hill, is a non motorized project to add a trail along South 2 40th Street between 30th Avenue South and 32nd Avenue South.

So you can see the dashed blue line. And we're calling it a motorized trail, but it's essentially the same type of street improvement with a planted buffer from the roadway and then a wide sidewalk, a 10 foot sidewalk that's similar to what's been implemented on 30th Avenue as part of the Sound Transit project. So this would be a continuation of that. And this project will also help improve connections to the Kent Des Moines Light rail station and extend the network of of the streets in that area. Now the third and the fourth projects are preservation projects.

So one of these is an award that we received last year from WSDOT through the National Highway System Preservation Program. And then the second is one that we're putting into the tip so that we can compete for future grants. So the first one is reverse order. Sorry. James Street is the one that we've already received awards for.

So that's the James Street through the downtown all the way from Washington Avenue to Central Avenue. Washington Avenue, of course, being the State Highway SR-one Hundred 81. And Central Avenue, this is the largest competitive grant that we've received an award for at least in the last seven years. So pretty pretty good win for the for the city and an excellent project. The second one is to position us for for a preservation project on East Valley Highway between 2 12th Street and SR 167.

For those of you who've been at the city for a little while, we had a prior project funded for preservation North Of 212, so this would be the next step south between 212 and the interchange at SR 167. Both projects overlay the street with new pavement and give us an opportunity to evaluate the curb ramps and push buttons for ADA and accessibility improvements. So with that, I believe those are the four projects. I'm happy to answer any questions or take any comments. And again, May 19 is the public hearing before before council. So I wanna make sure that that that date is out there. Please.

That's super helpful. So for the number four, am I assuming that's right by Smith Brothers, isn't it? Is that Smith Brothers or just before it?

Just north of, I think. It's North of the Carpinitos. Somebody help me out. Smith Brothers.

Well, Smith Brothers is across the street from Carpinitos. So then it's north?

Smith Brothers is further in the 1167 further south. So this is if you pass if you're going if you're heading north along Central, am I getting that right? And you pass under the bridge. So there's a Carpinitos up near 167 Overpass.

Other Carpinitos.

But you're talking about the other Carpinitos, which much further south.

Okay. Okay.

That helps me. Thank you.

So this would be if you're heading north along Central into the Industrial Valley area.

No, and my question then doesn't relate because I was thinking it was the flood plain area. So I was hoping we'd address that too, but never mind.

Can I ask, what is pavement preservation? What does that work entail?

So it involves repairing failed sections of pavement, milling an overlay of the roadway so that you could consider it like a pavement project Okay. Rehabilitation and maintaining the roadway so that it can extend its life for a for another x number of years.

Okay. I was thinking, I'm just wanting to confirm. So these were prioritized based off the feedback from the ENGAGE survey that went out, ENGAGE survey that went out?

So yes and no. I would say that these are projects that are primarily based on the pavement condition index, PCI. So the city is constantly maintaining and monitoring what the roughness index of roadway is.

Okay.

There's a pavement management process where you wanna make sure, we want to make sure as an organization that we're able to to touch a roadway and maintain it within a certain period of time to increase it the life span of it. Because if it deteriorates too far beyond that that sort of sweet spot, if you will, I can say that as a planner, I can hear my my engineers, you know, teeth grinding. If if it goes beyond a certain level, you're almost better just letting it go and rebuilding it completely because if you if you try to to patch and patch and patch and patch and patch a roadway that's deteriorated, it's not it's not an efficient process.

Okay.

So that's the primary that's the primary aspect for for prioritizing these two particular projects, but they're competitive for two different grant programs. And so we're constantly trying to match up our needs with these different grants and so yeah. So one of them, number three is on the National Highway System. So that's one bucket of money from WSDOT. And then number four is not, but it's a roadway that has a high number

of

trucks and truck traffic. So that one is more competitive for the regional PSRC grants, if that makes sense. So we're we're but Okay. But the the the priority four for roads that are that are smoother and that that definitely has come. We get that feedback from public comments.

Okay. Thank you.

Then when we work on the project, it gives us an opportunity to make improvements to ADA, make safety improvements, that sort of thing that enables those funds enable us to be able to bring that lens to the project. Okay.

And just to piggyback, because it may seem like really weird, like did someone really say this stretch exactly is the worst in the city? That's not at all what David is saying. So we have a whole list through that thirty year or twenty year and comprehensive plan, the TMP and the comprehensive plan element that has a bunch of projects that were done through a more thorough engagement process and evaluation process. And so that is also considerations that are being used to also match with the funding priorities. I don't want to under explain it, but how these rise to the top is a little bit of an art and a science because we also have to we could say we want to do it, but if there's no funding for it, then we have to pay for it ourselves and that means something else would have to be removed from typical work that we do.

And so these are a lot of times we're also looking at what funding is available where we think we can be competitive because we want to pay for it with someone else's money if we can.

Makes sense. To

piggyback on that, number three was not in the comprehensive plan. It's not in the TMP. That's because it's a 100% grant match. So it is fiscally constrained in that it didn't need to be on the city's list before we applied for it. It was an opportunity that we truly just reached out and competed for.

Okay. Thank you.

Will this work be coordinated with the railroads to improve the railroad crossing? Or is that outside the scope of what we can do?

So where possible, it is that the railroad is pretty set with their right of way. And one of the things that we look at is what kind of work can we do that will match up with the railroad improvements. But the work as it's scoped with some of these projects is primarily going to occur outside of the railroad right of way.

And you kind of talked about it, but I'm just curious, and I'm going to use the state terms because that's all that I can think of right now off the top of my head. But the state goes through like a bridge evaluation process to see what for maintenance and preservation. And it sounds like we do that same thing for our roads. Where are we at with the number of roads that need to be preserved in a way? Or the cement being saved or asphalt being saved?

That's a really good question. I wish I had the application that we submitted for both of for the last pair of grants because that information is included in that we yeah. Because we have to report that out. It's also part of the scoring that the state wants to make sure that we are looking at that carefully and reporting out for the entire for the condition of the entire the entire network. So it's it's part of their scoring process because they want to reward cities for doing good management practices and processes.

So having a pavement management index and a pavement management system for the city is what allows us some of the points to compete for this, as well as maintaining part of the National Highway System. Not every city has and maintains part of the National Highway System. Not all of the roads in this city of Kent are NHS eligible. So we're helping to shoulder that responsibility and so the state makes available resources to do that.

Yes. How do these four projects relate to the six year TIP? So is it like this is going to be these four going to be completed this year? Or because for six year TIP to me is not that many projects. I'm sure you have many more projects in mind.

Absolutely. So I can say over the course of my tenure here at the city, it's been impressive at the number of projects we've included in the TIP. So it started with about 52, now we're up to about 72. So that's a visual representation of how much work the city has got going on. But what makes it eligible to be in the tip is we either want to go for grant money, so we're trying to position ourselves to be eligible for those grants, or we've already been awarded.

And in order to be in alignment with the comprehensive plan and the regional plans, we have to then include it in the TIP. It is definitely, it'll make you cross eyed to think about it too hard. But sometimes it's a requirement that it be in the tip so that it shows the alignment and the the public agreement and the stakeholder agreement that this is a priority for the community to compete to put our hat in the ring. And sometimes it's we compete for it because the project is included programmatically, which is awkward to explain. But it's included programmatically in the comp plan because it's maintenance and preservation.

It's a sidewalk project. It's a safety project. It's it's those things that the legislature says that we can all agree on. So then we have the funding for it. Because we have the funding for it, now we need to include it. And the the tip will distinguish which projects have funding and which don't have funding. So you gotta get down the weeds for it, the draft will say. But for the purposes of this evening, only the James Street project has funding. The other three will be looking for funding. Then there's a really fine detail on top of that, because I appreciate the question, thank you, is if it's in the first three years of the tip, we have funding for it.

If not, if we don't yet have funding for it, we tend to put it in the outer three years of the tip because we're still pursuing the funds. And the odds that we'll be able to both secure and execute funding within the first two to three years, and these are capital projects and we're just not that quick.

David, can you go back to the original online map? I think, Ali, just to I don't know if this was the question. So these projects are in and what David is highlighting is there's four new ones that are added to the list. So it's not that we're only doing four projects over six years. Those other ones are still included or rolling in.

And the funding doesn't necessarily have to come from a grant from state or federal government?

It doesn't have to, but the reality with the city of Kent is that most of if not I don't want to say all of them, but major projects involve significant grant leveraging for the city. That's that's a function of our reality. Plus capital programs represent a multi year project. This board is familiar with capital projects. So we don't have necessarily a transportation CIP at the City of Kent. We have the TIP. So it serves both of those functions. It's not a budgetary document. I don't want to get into

So I'm curious why we don't have CIP?

We do have a CIP that happens in a completely separate process that the TIP funnels into the CIP. But the TIP has a little bit more level of detail specifically for transportation and there is state law. Because the state is wonderful, they have a different deadline for when the TIP has to be updated versus when our budgets have to be updated. So, this you can think of this as like this is the first step that informs our citywide CIP, which is capital improvement projects overall. And, that process does not come to Landy's and Planning Board, it goes straight to council. But I'm happy to share if you have any questions on that. I can share those documents. Are

there any further questions? If not, we'll move on to the next item. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. If

there are no objections from the board members at this time, we are ready for the rediscovered downtown plan update. Staff, you may begin.

Excellent. Happy to be here tonight. Caroline Eccle, Principal Planner in ECD. So to begin, we are gonna give you an update on a lot of the work that we've been doing on the downtown plan. I know it's been some time since you've seen what we're up to. So we are eager to show you what we've done. We'll start with an overview of the feedback that we received through PSRCs regional growth center criteria report and review. And then we'll talk about some of the developing plan recommendations that are going to be in the plan. We'll look at the project schedule as well. And then I'm open to any questions that you might have.

So first, we'll just start by the in January, on January 15, our regional growth center, the downtown was presented to the Puget Sound Regional Council's growth management policy board. And they are the ones responsible for certifying all of our regional growth centers in the region. And so Kent's Downtown is the one that is in Kent and it's one of the main reasons why we are undergoing our process to update the Downtown plan at this time. And they did ultimately recommend redesignation for our downtown following the finalization and adoption of the plan. So the blue area here that's shown is the specific part of the downtown that is reviewed by the Puget Sound Regional Council.

So that is the portion of our study area. You can see in the dotted line that's a little bit broader is our planning study area for the downtown plan, but the area outlined in blue is the area that they review for their criteria. And they did find that the center supports the regional goals to create compact livable places that accommodate significant regional growth while promoting sustainability and inclusion. So we are aligning with their purposes regionally. And the criteria that they look at are listed here on the screen and the only finding that was of note beyond we meet all of the criteria, The plan target density, the requirement is 45 people per acre or activity units per acre and they did find that their projections for the City Of Kent based on our comp plan show that we would expect 43 people per acre, which is just below but substantially consistent with the regional criteria.

So it didn't impact their recommendation to redesignate Downtown Kent, but we are just kind of right at the line in terms of their projections. Now something to note is that as part of our downtown plan, we did do a market analysis that shows that we would expect pretty substantially higher number. But this is so this is kind of the low end of the calculation and our market analysis shows a higher number. What we expect is that through the implementation of the downtown plan recommendations that we are making that we would be ahead of this 45 people per acre. We should be in really good shape.

So but did want to highlight that that was the feedback that we received. So it's important for us to think about the ways that we're going to be implementing the plan and the work that we're going to be doing between now and the next time we recertify to make sure that we stay on track for future recertification for downtown. So we're in good shape, but we want to make sure that we're continuing to stay on track. So now I'll highlight by goal. We'll kind of walk through each of the goals that we have crafted and talk about some of the specific strategies and actions that we are wrapping into the plan.

So for this first one, goal one is to create a safe, welcoming and walkable downtown that tells Kent's story through art, design, events and cultural experiences. So this essentially is our place making goal and as part of our framework for thinking about place making downtown, we are looking at using the project for public spaces power of 10. So their work has shown that for a place to be great, you can expect to have 10 different locations or destinations, 10 places within a city, 10 destinations in a place and at each of those places you have at least 10 things to do. So if you look at downtown as one of the places in the city of Kent, then we would aim to have at least 10 places or 10 destinations within the downtown and each of those destinations like a park or Kent Station would be destinations. We would aim to see at least 10 things to do at each of those.

So this is one way that we're thinking about our work and that we can start to evaluate how active our downtown is. So that's just one of the pieces of the puzzle for us as we look at place making downtown. These are some of the pieces that we are exploring and including in this section of the plan for place making and activation is probably the key here. Like we know that people attract more people downtown. So we're really looking at a whole suite of strategies that are going to be focused on how do we bring more people into the downtown.

So we're looking at programming strategies, generally investing in downtown parks and public amenities. So we hear community feedback about restrooms and water fountains and other kinds of public amenities benches. We also know that they need to be clean and safe and accessible for everyone to use. And so we are looking at what strategies we can to see how we can provide those services in the downtown. We're looking at strategies specifically for vacant underutilized sites, how do we activate those spaces and create safer spaces while we are seeing the downtown shape and develop over time.

We are advocating and will continue to advocate for some state level tools that might help us to support these kinds of sites redeveloping. We're exploring a code enforcement pilot program for the downtown where we might be able to look at our processes relative to code enforcement and test a few new ideas in the downtown area as a way of sort of putting our foot in the water and seeing if we can come up with some more efficient and effective ways to do code enforcement. We are interested in building on some of the public safety recommendations that our police department and others have worked on. So we've met with them and we'll continue to build out strategies to support the work that they anticipate doing in the downtown. We are looking at creating a regional cultural destination downtown.

We know that we have a lot of important businesses anchoring in the downtown area that serve certain cultural audiences that draw people in regionally. And so how can we support and enhance and really elevate the downtown as a regional destination for those purposes. We're also looking at the creative district designation with Arts Washington and so we're exploring ways that that might be able to help us fund and support some of the work that we're wanting to do in the downtown. For Goal two, we want to provide a range of housing types, services and amenities to support new and existing residents in a vibrant mixed income intergenerational downtown neighborhood. So for this year looking at what opportunities might exist for site assembly in the downtown.

We are continuing to advocate for some specific tools and Kristen is really kind of leading that charge. But we are we have some that we feel like can be improved to help us promote housing downtown. A mix of housing, middle income housing, mixed income housing, those are some of the key pieces that we feel like we could enhance in the downtown to have a broader range of housing options available to residents who might want to choose downtown to live. And ultimately, we also want to make sure that we're reducing displacement risk. So we're looking at strategies for that as well.

In terms of economic development, we have a goal to build a more diverse and resilient economy downtown that highlights local businesses, encourages entrepreneurship, attracts new investment. So businesses of all sizes thrive, careers grow and opportunity is open to everyone. So for this, we are looking at a suite of small business support and retention strategies that we're working on with our economic development team and promoting some entrepreneurial resources, some that we already have and exploring some partnerships as well that might help us offer more. We are interested in recruiting some larger employment anchors. We know that Naden for example is a site in the downtown that we might be able to do that and bring some additional dollars and daytime workers into the downtown area to help bring some additional dollars in life into the downtown.

Again, the creative district designation is a strategy that we might be able to use to reach multiple goals. So we're looking at how can we really boost creative economy in the downtown. We're also exploring an innovation district concept that might tie in well with some of the businesses that we have in the Industrial Valley. We're exploring a micro enterprise project that would offer some flexible retail days and restaurant stalls that would allow people kind of a lower threshold to test new ideas in the downtown. And again, strategies for activating some of the spaces that are vacant or underutilized downtown, we're looking at pop up markets or food truck hubs, place things that we could do kind of interim while we're hoping to see new development come in.

Goal four is to transform downtown by embedding health equity and sustainability into every project, program and action, building a community where people and the environment thrive. For this, we are looking at updating our climate element for a comprehensive plan. We are would like to assess and reduce heat island impacts in the downtown, look at floodplain and storm water management, strategies to manage energy use, EV parking and charging, utilizing our brownfields grant and really cultivating a brownfields program that might help us redevelop some of the sites that might have contamination. And again, to advocate for some of the state level tools that will help us further these goals and actions. Transportation and connectivity with goal five, we want to make it simple to get to and around downtown whether by walking, biking, transit or car with convenient parking and connected routes that link people to parks, shops and destinations.

So for this, we're looking at both on street strategies as well as ways to help people navigate around downtown. So signage and way finding is something that can help us with place making, but it's also really key and important to help people know and understand where they can go downtown and how to navigate and explore different destinations that we have in the downtown. We're looking at safe and convenient parking strategies, how we can manage the parking resources that we have and really cultivate ones that make sense around each of our destinations. We're looking at right of way improvements for every mode and which routes might make the most sense for some of those. So we're trying to align with what we see from our public works team as well.

Improved accessibility and looking at our mode split, so commute trip production, so how do we encourage people to choose other modes of transportation to get to and from downtown. This is something that PSRC has a specific interest in and so it's one of the goals that we are going to be working in regardless to in order to help meet some regional goals. Streetscape enhancements, reduced rail impacts, since we do have two rails coming through the downtown, it's pretty important that we look at ways that we can make it easy for people to cross tracks safely. Looking at more comfortable underpasses, ways that we can continue to enhance underneath 167 to make that more comfortable for people to walk or even drive through. And then we're going to be focusing on Central And Meeker as you've seen in some of the previous work that we did on the urban design framework.

Central is really going to be a key piece of our of the plan as we implement it and rezoning that we'll talk about in a moment will also help kind of paint the picture of what we're hoping to see there. And then goal six is really about both infrastructure and coordination key pieces to help us implement the plan. So for goal six, we're looking to coordinate investments and infrastructure and capital facilities to anticipate future growth and development downtown. And with this, one of our pieces that we feel like is going to be particularly important if we are serious about implementing the plan would be to have a staff person dedicated to implementing the plan and working with other partners in the downtown area to make sure that the recommendations that are wrapped into the plan do occur and that we're working well with partners pursuing funding strategies and communicating with the community to kind of keep all of this rolling forward. Staff coordination and process improvement internally is also another function that that person could really assist with.

We have a number of different departments like as you just seen public works has a whole process that we need to make sure that we are aligning with the work that they're going to be doing to make sure that we're kind of digging once if we can and getting work done on a roadway if we're going to do it one time, see what we can get done once. We are also interested in expanding the arts downtown. So how can we we've met with Rhonda Bilebeck and talked about ways that we can help support and also kind of build on the work that she's already done in the downtown area to really make it a culturally vibrant destination for people. So marketing and promotion would be another key piece of whatever we need to do downtown to implement. So we want to make sure that we wrap some of those strategies into the plan as well.

Implementation progress reporting would be another piece. So if we had a downtown program manager or whoever is in charge of implementing the plan, we could have a mechanism to report back on our progress over time, have key metrics that we're kind of tracking to make sure that we stay ready whenever we're going to recertify next time. We're looking at some broadband Wi Fi energy production, consistent design standards really across the city, but certainly across the downtown. And having looked at the abundance of non tax generating uses that we have in the downtown area, we're trying to look at how we can find a balance and promote additional investment in the downtown to make sure that we are generating tax income which will help us provide services to maintain and enhance the downtown. So those are some of the really high level view of some of the pieces that we've wrapped in to the plan.

To kind of go over where we are, we are in the process right now of reviewing the draft, finalizing the draft and reviewing it with staff internally. Then it will go to the Department of Commerce and PSRC for review. We'll open it for public review and comment and then we'll come back to you and counsel for adoption. And then following that, we'll be eligible for our PSRC recertification. So that was a lot. Do you guys have any questions that or information that you'd like to know more about?

Yes. I'll start by going back to I think it's your Slide 10 on place making and identity and place making. Couple of points to make on that. First of all, on item six, I just want to note that I know that the Chief Padilla and the mayor and the police department are doing have done a lot of work to work with the Kent Downtown businesses and the Kent Downtown partnership and I appreciate that. As far as strategy for vacant underutilized buildings, What is that strategy and just to take a specific example and you know what's coming.

Yeah. Is how does this deal with like the no k no and other problem children in the area?

Yeah. I mean, think these are we've identified and are continuing to identify properties in the downtown that are like that particular property have had ongoing challenges. So code enforcement process improvements is one of the pieces that we're looking at. The Brownfields program, the grant that we have that can help facilitate assessments and sort of help boost some of those properties moving is another piece. But we're all looking at a host of strategies really kind of around this. It's a tricky thing to solve, but we Kristen, did you have?

Yeah, you're exactly right. So the no k, no site has been for sale forever and there's a variety of challenges. Some of it is existing zoning, so it's a lawn central, so there's a fix in the works right now that Caroline is going to share with you in the next presentation that she gives. So, one of it is current development standard requirements. Another issue is financing for that project because it's a relatively small site.

So, to get the return on your investment, there's factors and levers at play that some of its development related, others are incentives that the state may have like a sales and use tax abatement program that we could establish. So there's a variety of things that we could do to help promote that. Some of it also is the market is its own factor and its own force and that's where looking at a nuisance abatement program, stronger code enforcement, so that it's less attractive to have that sit and become more derelict, shall we say. And not necessarily that specific site, just generally we have collection of them in our downtown especially where it's prevalent and it's visible and it's costly for the city in ways that we don't always fully capture. And so we're looking into some of that.

The Brownfields grant actually through that we have some resources with some consultants who've done similar work in other cities that we can also look into. We are actively looking at what would a pilot program for code enforcement, what would are there other nuisance property abatement strategies? There is a couple of cities that come to mind. We've been researching and talking with Everett, who has similar challenges in their downtown with some efforts. So looking at that is a top priority and it's something that Mayor and Council are keenly aware of and wanting to see some strategies coming forward out of this.

And so, this isn't going to be 15 bullet points of we're going to do all of this to address vacant and underutilized lots, but it's saying we need to have attention and direction towards that and a lot of these other actions also help support that effort. So, that was really long winded, but it's not unfortunately, there's no silver bullet. There's no well, the city can just buy this property and we'll flip it and it'll be all fine. It's going to take many layers of efforts because these are complex problems and so they require a lot more detailed complex solutions that we have to work on. And so part of this, I think what you're seeing in this plan this time versus last time is also a calling in of the city and property holders and other interested parties in downtown to be more proactive in shaping what we want versus being responsive just to what is happening.

So on your Slide nine, you mentioned 10 places in Kent. Is that a requirement from PSRC? No. Just an example.

It's genuinely just a rule of thumb that we are using to help ourselves even just think about what are we really trying to accomplish? How will we know if we're approaching success at all in terms of really creating a great place for people to come in Kent. And so we see downtown as a place with a lot of potential. There are some great destinations, Showworth, Kent Station, the historic core of the downtown, Titusville, all the parks that we have. We have the bones, we have a lot of key pieces.

It's just figuring out how do we make each of them great. And so this is one of our ways of thinking about it. So it's not something that is required by any stretch, but it's something that we are using as a way to kind of track and think about whether we're going to be successful.

Can I ask, what's the update on eliminating the train horns going through the city? Think that was part of it's not in the plan, but it's insinuated that if we can get rid of the horns going through that, that will help promote a more development, commercial development.

And I know that that is already underway. Do you have more detail on that Kristen?

There it's on the I don't know why I needed to raise this. I just saw it's actually on the agenda for a council update on next Tuesday's council meeting. So, are happy to send you a link to that when it's done. Rob and David are two of the many people that are involved. I think what the last I heard was for the rail line that's closest to central, so that one, there's many projects that have been completed, but they have to have all of them in place and signed off by the federal government before they can stop the train horns.

What I heard is because of the shutdown that happened last year, they were close to getting that inspection and then that caused a little bit of chaos in everyone's schedule and everything like that. So, I'm sure we'll be hearing an update from them in the next week or so and we can share that with you. I know they also have some grant funding to study the BNSF lines, which are the ones that are closer to 167, but that is not a guaranteed quiet zone or anything like that right now. It's just to study opportunities.

Okay. One other question is at the forefront of this the plan really led with a safe downtown. What initiatives does the city have lined up that will run parallel to all of this work to really help address the safety issues? I mean, do we have anything the number of boarded buildings continues to grow? Yes.

I just it's hard to think about us advancing our downtown without addressing in parallel the safety concerns and just what it's causing to our existing businesses and infrastructure. Yes.

So as part of that work, I met with the police department and they have a series of strategies that they are they have worked on and are will be working on. So some of those will be referenced in our plan, but we're also going to be exploring continuing to explore ways that we can again activate some of these spaces that are vacant or neglected as a strategy for improving safety in and of itself. So we think as we bring more people downtown as we do, it's kind of a chicken and egg in some ways like it will help safety. Like if you think about cornucopia days, for example, when there's more people out, people feel more comfortable being out. So those are some of the strategies that we'll be building on.

For the police department, some of the things that I heard from them, I think they're going to be expanding their bicycle patrol services. They would like for us to make recommendations to really promote maintenance in the downtown. So just cleaning up like a regular sort of cleaning a clean team was one of the things that we discussed. So we're working on how do we craft that, how frequently, how much would that cost, how do we get a partnership together to really make sure that we're staying on top of maintenance issues and as we do that, those maintenance teams will also be able to see where we have activity happening downtown that may or may not be what we want to see downtown. So they might be able to help the police department know where to be looking and where to focus their energy and attention.

So that's one of those pieces of our plan that will be kind of dovetailing with their work. So what we really heard from them was activation, maintenance, Those are two key pieces that if we don't have strategies for those, then it's going to be harder for them to do their work. So those are some of the requests that they made, but we are still crafting those in partnership with the police department as well to make sure that we're addressing all the needs. It's gonna be a tricky, it's a challenging problem.

Yeah, and one of the things that the police department will be not shy to say is that a lot of the challenges are due more directly to drug usage that's happening than generally just people being unsheltered. Like, drug use is a key driver of a lot of that. And, unfortunately, what KPD what our police department is allowed to do because of the evolving legislative context in Washington State, there's been some challenges there. And so part of this is really continuing to advocate at the state level for, you know, has different receiving end impacts from that legislation than other communities do. And so really spelling that out, think Caroline alluded to we're going to have more bike patrols.

My understanding is we are one of the first jurisdictions to get an extra grant that came out of some settlement money and some other things to actually hire on and bring on more police officers. So, the department said one of the things that they know is really effective is having boots on the ground, bikes on the streets, the more local availability, but because of staffing resources, they haven't been able to do as much as that as they would like. And so, this is an opportunity, one, to succession plan for attrition that may be coming down the line, but also to have some extra resources to do some of that extra eyes on the street working with the community. So, we hear it and we know it's real and again, the safety part is a real component, but it also is a multi pronged approach and some of this is we can't argue and we can push as much as we can and advocate at the state level, but there are certain things that every legislative session, there are surprises that come out that we have real significant concerns for how it affects and it really does affect Kent differently than other jurisdictions I've worked in.

And so that's a continued piece of it is also not to lose the ground that we barely have on some of these issues, but continue to move it forward.

It's almost like we owe to the businesses that have continued to stick around through it, that continue to have their windows broken, like some kind of allocation to help them offset the cost because it really is hard to walk by businesses that are choosing to just board up and stay in business and not replace windows. The boarded up buildings is it's just a hard look for our city. It's not welcoming. And it's probably, I would assume, discouraging for the business owners as well to continue to be burdened with the cost to replace their windows.

Yes.

And the boarded up buildings are a little bit by our own design because we require property owners to secure their sites so that people can't break into them and then inhabit them and start fires and all these other things. And so, the solution up to this point has been, okay, your window is broken, you have to do something to secure your site still, you're still responsible for what's happening there. And that's for better or worse, that's what the historic pattern has been. But I think what we've been talking about with nuisance abatement and other property turnover strategies is, are there other tools in the toolbox that we can look at? And some of that comes down to, I think, honestly, a resourcing strategy.

We have two code enforcement officers for the entire city. So thinking through some of these items of there's a lot here, what's the city's priorities and where do we think we'll make the most impact with what we have. And so some of that, I think what we're hoping is to be able to do some economic analysis too down the road of estimate of how much it's costing the city versus if we were able to put a program in place. So, there's some examples of cities out there that we're researching right now on

it. Yes,

I know some of our challenge or opportunity that we're also exploring right now are kind of what we can provide as a city to businesses to do things like tenant improvements or making repairs. We have to walk a little bit of a fine line because we can't gift public funds. And so we're exploring ways that we can appropriately support businesses who are investing in our downtown and make sure that we're creating an environment that is attracting new investment as well. So we know that that's a key piece. Mean new investment doesn't want to come in when they see that as well.

So we're looking at that. I think park safety was another piece that we've had some good conversations about with parks and also the police department. How do we communicate to people when parks are open or closed and how do we like them appropriately? And do we need other ways to define boundaries or to kind of delineate appropriate use of public spaces at certain times. So there are lots of mechanics for each of these pieces of the puzzle that I think all together, I think we have an interesting set of strategies that we're going to be able to put in the plan that will at least help move it forward.

And then we anticipate that we'll have to try some things out and probably adjust over time. So it'll be kind of a little bit of trial and error too as we kind of navigate and figure out what works and what doesn't. But we're interested in trying some new things and so we're exploring to see what we're allowed to do and what we're able to do.

Thank you. Yeah.

Question on something I don't see in here is how you work with the drive. There's a lot of people who want to preserve some of the historic buildings. There's also they're gonna be the desire. There's the need to create new buildings and how do you integrate those in some way that's aesthetically pleasing?

Yeah, I think so some of that will be part of our place making approach. So however we approach place making the historic nature of the downtown will be a feature of that in some ways. And so highlighting what we have that exists, I think will be important. I know Kristen's also been they've been working on some other historic preservation related initiatives.

Yes. And our current design guidelines for downtown already do address historic core versus the new areas. And so that is something that is I don't think we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I think it's something to reassess. Honestly, there hasn't been a ton of pressure to develop in the historic core.

So we haven't gotten to test those design standards well because there hasn't been an interest in redevelopment there. But it is something that is called for already and we intend to continue. I think there's other ideas such as additional designations for historic landmarks or preservation areas that we can continue to explore too. Some of it is it's already covered under the Main Street program, which is about local businesses and historic downtowns. And so, some of that work has already been done and so, it's continuing that work.

I

think with that, there's a couple of points that I want to just highlight too, but Kristen, you just mentioned, and I know we're looking at it with our downtown and the historic side of things. But I think looking at what other cities have done too, and in fact, even our state capital has done. So for Olympia and the and the state capital, they've taken part of our historic buildings and actually have grown the historic buildings, so added in to the historic side of things because 95% of the buildings there are historic, whether or not I like we like that or not. But looking at how we can grow those spaces and make them change, that seemed to work well. And if Olympia can do it, obviously, Kent can kind of take some considerations and kind of look at how we're redesigning our downtown or if a building if a developer wants to grow a downtown building that's historic, well, here's what they might be able to to kind of do and make different.

I wanna highlight safety too. I think that's gonna be a big issue, and I think we talk about the chicken and the egg, safety is gonna come first, especially for a lot of our communities that don't live in downtown but come to downtown or we hear things about downtown, we're gonna wanna see safety. And I think it's great that Kent is actually one of two, if I remember correctly, cities that got the grants from 1520 or 2015 so far. And so I think making sure that we're utilizing those and highlighting that in the downtown if we're going to want downtown to be that area is going to be vital. One thing I I do wanna caution on, and I get it, is the place making of the power of 10 and having our designations and 10 destinations.

We can't lose sight that Kent isn't just downtown with our designation points. Yeah. You have East Hill. You have West Hill. And all of these are great, and I'm sitting here, I'm like, yes. This is awesome. This is what I want or what we want, but you have communities on both hills that also have needs.

Yes.

And if, you know, the Arts District isn't gonna be able to happen in downtown, well, let's look at East Hill or West Hill Mhmm. Where we also have a community, and we also have a need. Yes. And I understand that we're trying to please the state and the county, But really, let's not just put all of our eggs in the downtown basket and let's look at the other communities, especially if it doesn't work.

Yes. We are going to be embarking on the Benson Corridor plan as well. So that's an exciting new project where we'll be able to focus kind of on East Hill and that corridor as it comes all the way down into Kent Kingly. So we anticipate that the place of Kent, the broader place is going to have multiple destinations throughout. We want each of those we want East Hill to have 10 plus places to go and destinations and things to do with each of those.

We actually think there's probably quite a bit there. We can just support it and help organize it some. But we're really excited to sort of work on that as well. We definitely hear you and want to make sure that we are serving the downtown as the core and the heart of the city, but also recognizing that we had two very distinct situations on West Hill and East Hill as well. So definitely hear that feedback.

On the event, you mentioned stuff about events and cultural events. Know, since this is projecting forward, are you looking at how things are changing? And I'm thinking specifically that I've watched the Cornucopia days consistently shrink over the last twenty years. In the meantime, the Cajun Fest last year got 8,000 people and has been growing every single year.

Yeah. So interestingly around that, I mean, some of it somewhat anecdotal. We don't have a lot of metrics that we put in place around some of our events to really so I'm interested in looking at some more data that I I feel like there are a number of communities that have, interesting events that are similar to the events that we hold in Kent. But the unique thing about kind of the Cajun Fest or the Creole Festival is that it is unique. There aren't other cities that are attracting that particular niche culture.

And so we think that that something like that is something that we could build on in the downtown and really promote and move forward in a way that could be really interesting. So that is actually one of the events that I feel like will be kind of amplifying in the plan or recommend that we lean into.

You're have to find some place to put it.

Yeah, yeah. There are some We've got some ideas, but I think it'll be referenced in the plan. It certainly won't We won't be able to do all of the work to plan how to grow that event or some of the other events, but we will not to it and kind of lay out that this may be where we could focus some of our energy and attention in a more dedicated way to really grow one signature event that's really unique to draw regionally and to grow over time. So I think we'll be able to reference some things and have some strategies in place that we're looking at some other cities who have really grown there, certain events and so we're hoping that we can wrap in some recommendations that will support us. But then the implementation side is really where all the partnerships and the event development will occur.

So that will be the more important part I think and more fun.

And then in a similar note, you mentioned pop up things. I'm assuming stuff like the Kent Farmers Market and there is the balance of the desire to have these things with the damage that it does to the businesses that are there full time?

Yes. And in that section, we've actually made notes specifically about that learning that we learned from some of our past events and the impacts that other businesses in the downtown have experienced during those events. So we're looking at strategies and we'll be recommending that we that is something in particular that is paid attention to as we build out future events in the downtown area specifically how do we promote and build business for those businesses that are permanently downtown as we bring additional people and attention to the downtown area. So we have made note of that being a concern and we'll make sure that we address it. Again, we won't have all the solutions in the plan, but we will make note of some specific pieces that we know will need to be addressed when those events are planned in the future.

So that's something we've heard.

Yes. And that was something that is already in there loud and clear. We've had several examples from other events where we've heard from storefront business owners or brick and mortar business owners where they've said, we're not against this, but we need to talk about how it's being implemented or how these things are or are not taken into consideration. And I think one of the this goes into like the overlapping of the goals with five, the recommendation of having someone from the city who's a point of contact to help facilitate those conversations and to bring resolution. Right now, I think there's a lot of people in the city who do a sliver of different pieces and it's hard sometimes, you know, in order for to address one issue, we have to bring in parks and public works and ECD and various departments from ECD and then we also bring in law and there's all these other components and then we have to track down like representatives from the business and the downtown partnership and all these things.

And so, having one person there as the person who's coordinating that, so that it doesn't get into everyone else's work, so that they can kind of keep running it all the way through the process to find that resolution. It's something that we've identified as a need, not because anyone's purposely not doing their jobs or trying to drop responsibilities, but it is one of many other duties as assigned. And so recognizing that if we truly want to move the needle, we probably need someone who can keep track and have that as one of their primary focuses.

Thank you.

So following up your statement, does the city have economic development manager or so that would be the person deal with these type of things, I suppose?

Yes. So we work very closely with economic and community development together. So as Kristin and I sit right next to you, we're all in there together with our economic development team. And Bill Ellis is does an excellent job at leading the charge. But even with having an economic development person, he has a lot on his plate as well.

And it's there's still all these through lines that can get lost in the shuffle. And so having a guide, a person who really can be a point of contact for events or for business owners in the downtown might really help. So we're going to test out some things that may help us in other areas of the city too.

Yes. And so it's again, it's a capacity issue. A lot of cities that would be even smaller than us would have seven people in their economic development team specifically and we have one and a half to two people. So, they're just different structures of how the city is structured and so that's something that we're highlighting as a need, ultimately we'll need funding and we'll have to talk with counsel about how to get creative to do that. But I do want to be conscious of time, we normally end at 07:30. I can do the docket pretty quickly, but would you all be okay if we move on to the central rezone?

Yes. It's adjacent to this. So if you have any other questions, we can go there. Well, I don't know.

So if there are no objections from the board members at this time, we are ready to begin on these Central Avenue corridor rezoning presentation. Staff, you may begin.

Excellent. Okay. So this is one of the first pieces that we are going to recommend moving forward with that will help us accomplish some of the goals in the downtown plan. As we looked at the downtown plan, we recognized that we have some goals in our comprehensive plan, some goals from the region. So we recognize that certain things are needing to happen in the downtown and Central Avenue.

The purple line here from our urban design framework is one of the key pieces of our recommendations in the downtown plan. So we're hoping to see new development coming in along Central Avenue and we know that there are lots of moving parts to help facilitate that. One of the things that we can do more easily is to look at the zoning. So right now, zoning along Central for the most part coming through the downtown. This is between James, that's the line here at the North down to Willis is here.

Most of this is currently GC MU, general commercial mixed use and you can see that everything around it is DCE or downtown commercial enterprise. And so we are recommending that we basically extend DCE zoning all the way across Central Avenue. There are a couple of pieces down here that were also GCEMU that we'll be pulling in. And then one piece here, this is the La Huerta and some sites adjacent to it along Smith. So that formerly was DCE T or the Transition Zone Of The Hill and we are recommending pulling that in as well to DCE.

Ultimately, what this is designed to do is it will allow for increased lot coverage. It reduces or removes setback requirements for these areas and it also increases the max height. So it will be consistent with everything that a developer would be allowed to do in the rest of downtown. They would now be able to do along Central Avenue as well. So it sort of extends that essentially across the corridor creating a more even playing field, I guess, for developers who might want to do something along Central Avenue.

So with that, I would open for any questions that you might have regarding the rezoning or if you have any other questions for the downtime before we move on to the docket.

So just real quick. So I'm not completely familiar with what each of those zones actually means. Yes. What would you do be able to do tomorrow that you can't do today in that section?

So it essentially lifts the high requirements to unlimited, which is what we allow downtown.

Okay.

So that's a big piece. It allows for development to be taller. It also removes the setback requirements and allows for additional lot coverage. So a building could come closer to the street, be could basically occupy a greater portion of the site, which with the sizes of lots that we have especially along Central, maximizing the allowable coverage on a lot would allow for developers to more feasibly build something that would pencil in the market. That's essentially what we're trying to do is just accommodate the same kinds of development that we are trying to accommodate throughout downtown also along Central.

Are there further questions? Hearing none, let's see. If there are no objections from the Board of Members at this time, we are ready for the fourth quarter twenty twenty five ECD update. Staff, you may begin.

Good evening. This was actually prepared by Deja, but she is out attending one of our other staff weddings this week. So she has bridesmaid duties, so I am filling in for her. And so this is the quarter the 2025 quarterly report. We apologize that it is a little bit delayed. We switched our permitting system. It was a really big deal. You may have heard about it. We had actually a a going away party for the old permit system because we transitioned from something called Kiva, I have no idea what it stands for, into something called Amanda, also does not stand for anything in particular. So we have a trend.

We're consistent there. But Kiva was a twenty plus year old system. I think they actually started the program to do the transition fifteen years ago. So it was probably closer to 30 years old at this point. It was an a permitting system where we did tracking.

There's been a lot of change, a lot of things that have happened. We also had two recessions during that time once we started the project, but new technology, including this Amanda program, allows you to submit online so all plans can be reviewed. We don't have any paper that we have to roll out anymore. And so as part of that transition, Kiva officially left the the city's purview for our day to day staff functions in, I think it was around February. And so because of that, staff have been really busy trying to get what was in Kiva transferred into the new Amanda system.

And as you can imagine, if you have something that's 30 years old talking to something that's two years old, there is a little bit of a translation gap. And so so it took a little bit of data cleanup because we had to pull from those two systems to create the permit report. So, basically, the good news is we're no longer having to pull from two systems. Everything going forward is in Amanda, and we have that historical record. But this report was the first of where we were doing that double duty, so we are potentially double counting.

So we're looking a little bit back. It's the 2025. We did add some notes in this report just to let you know things like, hey, we issued an RFP for Brownfields. Well, we actually now have those consultants on hand and that project is rolling. So we made some notes of we selected a consultant, so you know who we selected.

But happy to answer any questions if you have them. Okay. One cool thing I do want to note, you may remember a couple years ago, Kayleen helped lead some updates on accessory dwelling units, and we had reported that over the city's past twenty plus years, we'd had less than 30 permits come in. And over the last two years, Nate and I were just talking about it, the current planning manager, we're seeing about 20 to 30 permits come in every year now. So the changes that you all made before the State Law even took effect have really opened up opportunities for that smaller, truly small infill development housing opportunities that are less than a thousand square feet.

So that's not reflected in this report, but it was something that we were just discussing today between other meetings. And so I wanted to give you all a little bit of a I think sometimes we get so lost in, like, what are we doing? But there's real tangible results. That's 20 to 30 more housing units in the city to meet a variety of needs so wanted to just let you all know that too and congratulations on that work. That concludes my update for that item.

If there are no other questions, if there are no objections from the board members at this time we are ready for the 2026 comprehensive plan amendment request annual docket staff may begin.

Thank you. Good to be here. It's been a while since we've talked about the comp plan, but you knew it would come back. So just a quick refresh, there's state law requires comprehensive plans to be updated periodically. We call that periodic update, and it happens every ten years. So we adopted our comp plan in Kent in 2024. Our next big periodic update is in 2034. We'll have a five year midpoint reporting reflection check-in. But between that, the state says, like, your vision long term should be pretty stable. You shouldn't have dramatic turns and plot twists.

And so they said, there's a state law that says once a year, can do smaller amendments to your comprehensive plan. And they can be multiple, but at the end of the day, you have to group them all together so that you're looking at the cumulative impact of what's happening. And so we call this the annual docket or the annual process. The state has a whole, like, slew of reasons why we could have exceptions to that. So for budgeting purposes, if we're adopting a new sub area plan, all of those technically count as comprehensive plan amendments but are allowed to happen outside of that cycle.

So what we're talking about is what's actually in that comp plan document, the pages one through whatever for all of the elements that we adopted during 2024. In order to meet that annual threshold, we do have some standards of review. And so this helps staff determine not just do I think it's a good idea or not, but, really, what is the reason why we need to do this now and not wait for another eight years or whenever the next periodic update is happening. So the first is we don't want it to adversely affect public health safety and general welfare. That's kind of the general planners code of ethics is assessing that.

The second is is there new information that wasn't available or has changed since we adopted the comp plan? So you can't just say, oh, we changed our mind. We want to do this new thing. There needs to be some sort of circumstances or something that also happened to say, we need to talk about this now, and we didn't need to necessarily evaluate it or have that policy direction previously. The amendment will result in long term benefits to the community as a whole and is in the interest of the community.

So this is not for typically, when we talk about community as a whole, we're not necessarily saying every single person in Kent is going to benefit, but it's not a spot rezone request. So it's not looking at one property who says, all of a sudden, like, I want a gas station here. And even though no other property that's like mine is allowed to have it, I think I need this special right. That is not what the comprehensive plan annual amendment process is for. It's meant to be more holistically looking across the city.

And then finally, it's consistent with the other goals and policies and the comp plan. So we don't want to create discrepancies or conflicts by introducing this amendment. So we look at everything else concurrently with what we've adopted as well as what we're proposing to adopt in its total sum to ensure that there's consistency across our plans and policies. So the process, normally, amendments to the comprehensive plan are due by September 1. So what that means is this is sorry.

They're always due by September 1. There is a difference between public. So what's interesting in the annual amendment process is the public can initiate amendments as well as the city. So this year, all of them have been initiated by the city. But in past years, there have been amendments that were initiated by a private property owner or a neighborhood group.

So it is something that we have a process and a deadline for because we have to batch them all for review together. We say first, if you wanna be considered for the next year, so for 2027, you have to submit the proposal for what you want by 09/01/2026. So these proposals were all identified on the list last year to be studied this year. We did roll some of them over. Truth be told, we already knew after we adopted the comp plan, we had some, like, this may need to change because of state law or other things.

And so some of them we just waited on because there wasn't an urgency, but all of these were 2025 was really the initiation, and now we're bringing them to you all for review. There's only three. It's pretty pretty simple this year. But what happens then is after September 1, staff review them. We look to also make sure, you know, is this in line with our work program? Would this add completely new work efforts that isn't really a city priority or council and the mayor haven't directed us to do? Or do we already have this planned for two years out? Is there a reason why we need to move it up? So we look holistically within a variety of requirements, but then also look at the effects on the other work that we've already identified that's in progress. We go to you all.

This is our info only session, basically an introduction. Then we will do a briefing and hearing on these for you all to make a recommendation to city council. And then it goes to committee of the whole, which is the council vote, and then for final council approval. So this process, because it is a comp plan amendment and we are amending the sub area plan for the downtown, those have to be tied together. And so as the downtown plan goes, so will this docket process.

So you all will have the hearings for both items on the same night. So we have three proposals for this year. One is an update to the land use designation maps. This is really more of a scrivener's error than or clerical error. On our part, we had many, many eyes look at the map, and we still missed something. So it's more of just fixing that error, and we decided to include it here so it's just shown in the official record of what happened. The second one is updating the future land use designations. This should say table instead of map. I apologize. And we'll discuss what that what that means.

It's because we've had recode Kent and zoning consolidations. And then the last one is a functional roadway classification. We talked about something has to change because Veterans now goes has access onto State Route 509 and that whole intersection interchange has been completed, it necessitated a change to evaluate that roadway classification. So the first one is embarrassing for me to say because it was entirely my eyes that missed this. But for some reason, when we did our future land use map, which is this is what's in the current comprehensive plan, just this section right here is showing the zoning instead of the land use designations.

And I don't know how we missed that, why we missed that, but what it should show is these two blues instead of the three blues. So it doesn't actually result in a policy change for us. It just is making sure that we have the land use all in one map and the zoning all in the other. So not an actual policy substantive change at all. The next one, you may know this table as the land use designation tables.

What it does is it's the crosswalk between if you have this land use, what should your zoning be? We, as you may recall with Recode Kent, we updated those terms. So we had our old zoning names, and we have the new ones. So right now, this table says, here's your implementation zone, and it has the old labels for those zones. So this is really just doing that crosswalk of, oh, if it says SR one, it's now gonna be NRL.

If it says MRM, it's not gonna be NR four. So this is just updating the table in that plan. We talked about this when we did the recode kit and said we're gonna have to retroactively update the comp plan with these new names. We just didn't have time in 2024 to know what our new names were going to be. We saved that for when we actually were doing the code updates.

And then the last one, I already previewed it, but this is Veterans Drive, and it runs down into the valley. And it is Veterans Drive. It becomes South 2 28th Street as you go down the hill from west to east, and that, is currently classified as a minor arterial, from the point up to 68th or State Route 181, depending on how you wanna call it, or West Valley Highway. We like multiple names in this city. Basically, to, where this, yellowish orangish line is going, that is the road I'm referencing.

This part of Veterans Drive, because of 509 increasing, because of the development that's gone in with residential and other uses along this, public works would like to reclassify that to a principal arterial, which means that it is anticipated for higher loads of travel but also has different development standards for that roadway. So the engineering standards would be increased. They've looked at it and have said that after we pass West Valley Highway and we go into the valley, that really the traffic patterns haven't changed or necessitate that to be changed at all. So it would just be from here over to the, basically, I five. So that is a request for that reclassification.

Why is that important? Well, we just had a conversation about the tip, and so there could be other programs and grant funds that if we've reclassified it, we could be eligible for additional funds to meet those new standards. Also, new development that would come in, we would expect them to meet those higher standards for that more traveled roadway. So that's pretty short and sweet. We don't have any major huge policy conversations or questions for you all, but I'm happy to answer any questions or feedback you may have.

So real quick on your page three, the standard of review.

Yes.

The one of the things that I noticed that is not there is something that looks like review of progress to date indicates we need a tweak in order to get where we want to go.

Yes. So the Kent City Code Title 15 has a chapter specifically for calling out what the process for amending a comp plan is in the annual process. So there's some middle criteria standards for even just passing that threshold, and then that this is the staff review part where we weigh in additionally on the staff report. So it is considered of do we need to make this adjustment or tweak, but it's not in the official Kent City code language in that section that I cited.

But I mean, what point do we say is we is or is we ain't getting there?

So that is really a more appropriate question for the five year check-in where we do monitoring on here's what we said we're going to do, how we'll have permit records and everything else shown. It's not a perfect one to one. We can't say because we put these policies in, this for sure happened because there's things like interest rates and inflation and things. But we track and say, generally, we were hoping to see this trend. Are we following along in that? And so that happens at a five year period.

But one year is just not enough time

Not enough time to catch the trends and especially when you think about permits really what we're seeing built now was in for permits about three years ago. So anything that's coming on that has their grand opening for new construction it really wasn't affected by the comprehensive plan because three years ago is when it vested to all those old requirements. So we wouldn't see that until another year or two. And then in five years, we

can report on it. Cool.

Any other questions? Okay. With that, I'm done.

All right. Is there any further business to bring before the board? No. Seeing no further business, the meeting is adjourned.