Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Judy, Jennifer, and Robert. Robert tonight. But we do have a quorum. Spencer, would you please read the land acknowledgment?

Certainly. We, the city of Lacey, are on the ancestral land of the tribal people of the Treaty of Medicine Creek, including the Nisqually Indian tribe and Squaxin Island tribe. We acknowledge and remember those tribal people not recognized today who were absorbed or relocated into other tribes for survival. We recognize the ancestors and their descendants who are still here. We recognize and respect the tribal people of the Treaty of Medicine Creek as the traditional stewards of this land since time immemorial and their role today in taking care of these lands in perpetuity.

We recognize and have the responsibility to call attention to the histories of dispossession, forced removal, and abridged treaty rights that allowed our nation, state, and city to develop as they have today. We recommend that the community members read the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854.

Thank you very much. So I'd be looking for a motion on the agenda tonight.

Move to approve the agenda.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor?

Aye.

Perfect. And then the October.

I'll move to approve the October 8 minutes.

I'll second.

K. It was Tanya and Spencer. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Perfect. Do we have any commission member reports tonight? K. How about a department report? Just real quickly, I

wanted to go through the the calendar that's in your packet, right now instead of doing it at the end of the meeting. Just looking forward, we've we'll we'll be canceling some meetings coming up, so I just wanna make you aware of that. So our next meeting will be I think it's in three weeks on November 12. We'll that's a regular meeting. The following week after that, the second meeting in November is the day before Thanksgiving, and so I would assume that most people would probably have plans maybe out of town.

So our plan at this point is to cancel that meeting. And then a regular meeting in December, and then the second meeting in December is Christmas Eve. So we would be canceling that that one as well. So just doing one meeting in November and one meeting in December at this point. So if there's any questions, happy to answer them. But otherwise, just wanted to bring your attention to that.

K. And I just realized I did a major faux pas. I skipped on the public comment. Are there any members of the public that wish to make comment tonight?

There wasn't anybody that, signed up for comments, prior. There's one member of the audience. Mhmm.

And do you wish to make comment?

No.

Thank

you. Thank you. Okay.

We didn't have anybody preregister for public comment.

Yep. Okay. We have no public hearing, no new business. So we move on to old business with Wesley in economic development strategy. Welcome to our meeting.

Well, thank you, chairman. My name is Wesley Wen, staff at the city. Just wanna say good evening to all the commissioners tonight. Back in May of this earlier this year, we came to you staffing consultants, the two that you see there, presented the plan for the work of the economic development strategy, the five year strategy that we have worked with them. And now today, we're just gonna come back to you to present the, the work that was done regarding since then, since May.

And some of the work they've been doing is, engaging with community members, stakeholders in our communities, and our region to talk about where they feel what they think, is good for us. Cities, engage with and they would tell you who it is that they would engage with, but they would engage with a a large, group of folks that are from minor from minority business owners to large, companies here in our city. Then they have been working with Citi's staff to identify some of their strategies going forward, and they have developed three goals, that they will share, that would kinda give us a path forward for the next five years. So to give more detail on that plan and that strategy, I'm gonna introduce Brittany and James. They are the, folks at Echo Northwest that we've been working with them for over ten months now.

And so they would do the presentation and share some of the finding and share some of the recommendation. Brittany, all yours.

Great. Thank you, Wesley. Hi, everyone. It's nice to be with you again virtually this evening. My name is Britney Bagent, and I'm joined by James Kim on my team. And we're we're glad to be back with you. So, James, are you able to share slides? Do you have that ability? Awesome. Alright. And can everyone see the slides okay?

Yep. Yep.

Thank you.

Great. So thank you, Wesley, for that introduction, and thank you to the planning commission for for having us this evening. It sounds like you've got a compressed schedule through the end of the year with holidays coming up, so do appreciate the time before you move into that that busy season. Also wanna thank Wesley's team, Vanessa Dolby, Sarah Schelling, and Shannon Vincent who have been meeting with us every other week for most of those ten months to to put this work together as well as the advisory group that met with us several times throughout this process. So it it was a it was a team effort, and we're we're happy to be here sharing what we learned.

So for tonight, the agenda is effectively to share with you what we learned and how we're translating those learnings into recommendations for Wesley and his team specific to economic development for the city over the next five years. And we're looking for your feedback. We are finalizing this work over the next month or so, and then we'll be coming back to council in December. So really interested in in what's resonating with you, any feedback that you have tonight. So no no formal action, but just some discussion at the end.

We can go to the next slide, James. We do the next slide. Are you frozen? Oh, he looks frozen.

He does look frozen. Oh, there we go.

I thought he was just deep in thought, which he often is. There we go. Okay. So we'll do some quick introductions, remind you about the process and timeline for this work, share an overview of the plan, and then we will save some time for for questions. So next slide.

And then if we get some tech problems, then James, I can take the screen as well. So, again, my name is Brittany Bagent, and I'm a project director at Echo. I lead a lot of economic development related projects. And but I wanted to share that before coming to Echo, I worked on the practitioner side of this work, working in both Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, and led these projects similar to how Wesley has from the, you know, from the practitioner side and then implemented them as well. And so we worked really hard to create to really right size this strategy to something that is both aspirational and within reach for the city and broken it up into several different chunks to get some to get some wins and help help celebrate what's what's happening.

Because the last thing you need is this, you know, overly audacious strategy that you can't really sink your teeth into or something overly vague. So that's been my my purpose in in this work is trying to think from Wesley's point of view of what's he going to do January 1 when he comes back after the holidays and and starts implementing this. So I'll invite James to introduce himself, and then we'll keep moving.

Good evening, everyone. I'm James, project manager with Echo Northwest. I apologize for that little bit of hiccup. I switched my Internet to make sure that we don't have any more issues going forward, and that's when the major hiccup happened. I work with Brittany and many others that go Northwest, touching on projects related to economic development as well as housing development, housing affordability, as well as transit, with cities up and down the West Coast, but mainly focusing, Portland Metro Area and then the kind of the Seattle Tacoma area.

It was a lot of fun learning about your city, and I think one of the themes that will come up is how, an outsider perspective comparing Lacey to a to your nearby neighbors. And I learned a lot through this time about the strengths and opportunities, that lie ahead of you. With that, I will pass it back to Brinia for some, first few slides here.

Great.

Thanks. Oh, actually no.

I can cover this too.

Do you wanna keep it? Okay. You can

I I think I can do that? So we had started the project with some broad set of questions. We are coming out of everyone is coming out of this post COVID, environment. We're in a different, federal landscape. We've gone through an inflation, an period inflation that we hadn't seen in decades.

So what is actually changing, in the county, in the city? What does that mean for you as you think about your next steps in terms of economic development? Who should you talk to? Who should you, try to bring more to your city in terms of residents and workers? And and a perspective that we bring is that a, part of economic development is really place based that, they're key for cities, many municipalities, you have key locations that drive that become a focal point for residents and workers.

And because we are thinking about economic development, at least with that perspective, one of the things we wanted to address in this process was your older commercial area, your Midtown area. What does that look like going forward for employment, whether it's office or retail? So we start with these questions, and then we thought about this economic development strategic actions, the what what we recommend that the city do for the next five years, why this matters more now. And one of the things that we learned and, perhaps, new to people who haven't worked in Lacey for a long time is that that your city has grown, that you are a, in spite of being, in the same county as Olympia and next door, that you are a regional hub when you when we talk with other, stakeholders in the county, in the region, and and Lacey's role in it with the one of the topics

Uh-oh. We lost him. Alright. I can jump in. So because because Lacey is the largest city in the county, we want to leverage that strength, and we'll talk about that in a few different ways. And good. Oh, we're losing you, James. And but looking ahead, how how is Lacey? What is what is this new Lacey? So how can it be a destination for for people and for businesses?

And so this was this was the the right time to do this and then, of course, in alignment with the comprehensive plan that that you've all been working on. Now oh, man. I can't share if he's sharing. Alright. I will speak to the next couple of slides.

I'm really sorry, folks. I've never had this happen with with him before. But so looking back over the since for the last several months, we had this project divided into the three three sections effectively. The first was research and analysis, and that's when we shortly after that is when we first met with you all. And we did a lot of research around the demographics, who is living there, and the businesses, and some of the real estate dynamics.

I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. This will be easier here so you can see what I'm looking at. And and then following that meeting with you all in in the spring is when we we started conducting several interviews and engaged with our advisory group and did some work with with counsel. So through the summer and into this fall is when we've been developing the strategy, which we'll be going through this evening. And, James, I see you're back, and I'll just keep keep the screen if that's okay, if you wanna jump in on on this slide.

Yeah. Thank you for and thank you. I apologize for, that how I caught up. I actually really don't know how that happened. I usually know why these things happen.

Thank you, Britney, for taking over wherever I was caught off. So when we had, presented to you back in May, we had presented our research of demographic and economic data, and this is a recap of that information or not all of it, but some of it. And there's some things that we had noticed that, your population has grown a lot, but it's also becoming more diverse, in terms of race and ethnicity, in terms of, people who are aged 65 and older. And then there are we discovered there are reasons people come to Lacey, and there are reasons why people might be leaving Lacey for for the day, for the afternoon. And here are list of categories of, activities that we found.

But to put it in more, generic words is people come to Lacey to buy things, and then people leave Lacey to have new experiences. That's a way to think about these category these two lists here. Now the auto dealer at the bottom of the list here has a asterisk and a special note there because, it is really hard to and I think everyone here is very well aware that it's really hard to attract and start, or allow a new auto dealer to start a business. There's a high barrier to entry in that business model. So we're not suggesting that you can, there's actions, that complement each category of, goods or services listed here.

But in the broad scheme of things, there are reasons why people like to come to Lacey, and there are reasons why people who live in late Lacey leave the city to have new experiences. On the right side of this slide is, kind of the industry mix of Lacey residents and the industries they work in, and there's a concentration. About half of the residents, workers are in either retail or, public sector or education and social services education, health care, and social services. And when you look around the types of buildings that are around you in the city or right next door, right outside the border, you can see why, half of your residents are working in these three sectors. After that point, and right around time when we had come to you with the information last time, we started our stakeholder engagement process.

We established an advisory group that we met with multiple times to vet the things that we were hearing to, develop some of the analysis that you will see in the next few slides. And then, we had one on one interviews with, other partners in the area. One of the things we did looking at the data as well as conversations we've had through the adviser group and the interviewees was to develop a SWOT analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And, the strengths, you could think of this as the things that are unique and distinctive about Lacey and things that you could build upon. You could leverage.

It's your location, being next to JBLM and, being next to the capital, the, location alongside Interstate 5. We knew before this, project, before this research, and we we, we affirmed throughout the process that people think there's a business friendly environment relative to other cities in Lacey. And then there's a strong support for small business and start ups. On the weakness, you could think of these as, things that you could try to find solutions for, that there is no clear downtown or a central hub when, we ask people about Lacey. There is limited industry diversity, and that was little bit reflected in the stacked the bar chart that I was going through just a couple of slides ago.

And then the there's few high wage jobs, and that also creates, challenges for retaining talent. On the opportunity side, these are things that you could also act upon. There are people who are coming and want to come from more larger cities, more populated cities because they're looking for housing affordability. And, for employers, they are thinking about ways to grow creative and small businesses. And and then kind of the opposite of the weakness point I mentioned about, few high wage jobs that you could grow into diversify into industries that have higher wage jobs.

Finally, on the threat side, the this is, category of things that may be outside of your control and things that you should be monitoring. Things like what is happening in your neighboring cities. And then because your economy is very dependent on the I 5, any construction work or any disruptions to flow flow of traffic, commute on I 5, it's something to monitor as well as overall trends in terms of shifting demographics, aging workforce as well. Working with the advisory group, we thought we would, develop an a vision statement that is specific to the work that we've done to this, economic development plan, and we created this blurb. We had heard a feedback that, it was too long or it was hard to distinguish what is the most important, so we try to distinguish the very first line here.

I'll read, by 2045. Lace will be a vibrant city with an authentic identity in a rapidly changing region where everyone can live, work, shop, and play, and that is really the center of all the actions that we have laid out in the report. I think, I'll pause there in case there are any questions or comments. We will take more questions and have a more full discussion period at the end of the presentation, but I just want to do a check to see if there are any quick questions that I can answer.

I think we're good.

Alright. Let's keep moving. So taking those engagement themes, we, again, worked with this advisory group and conducted interviews, so we weren't just creating this in a vacuum and learned quickly that there's a lot of interest in elevating the city's identity in the region in providing a supportive role on workforce development, not leading in workforce development. The city doesn't need to lead on that. There's there's plenty of other players in that space.

A lot of interest in creating more vibrant spaces and community amenities as well as expanding opportunities for small businesses. So taking those engagement themes, we then moved them into and workshop them into what ultimately became three goals for the strategy. So the first is around defining and promoting the city's new identity. So this is not the Lacey that the region has known in the last several years and decades, and there's a lot of new energy and momentum with these new opportunities. The second goal is to grow the economy by supporting businesses, and we know that government is not in service of directly creating jobs.

There's only so much government can do, but it is in service of supporting businesses and removing barriers so that they want to land in Lacey, and they want to grow in Lacey. And finally, the third goal is around quality of life and placemaking for residents and new talent considering moving to the area. This was, again, one of the more consistent themes from our engagement around needing to create these gathering places, making people of all ages feel welcome. And to that end, our take is that placemaking is an economic development strategy. Creating these really beautiful and vibrant places is going to help the local economy.

So we have we have a a goal around that. So we have these three goals. And within each of the three goals are four actions that are much more specific, and you have this content in your packet. I'm sharing just an example of this one pager. So we ended up having 12 actions out of this work.

It feels awfully tidy. I'm not sure I've ever had such a kinda tidy strategy before, but here we are. So each of the 12 actions have have this level of detail, and I'll I'm sharing this just as a an illustrative example. So for each of the actions, we have some content around why the action is important. Ties back to some of the research and analysis and the engagement findings as free of jargon as we could we could do.

We also have a metric per action because we can't move the needle on what we can't measure. So that said, metrics can be often be overly onerous on staff. So we're recommending leveraging other resources as much as possible. There's some surveying in here, but making sure that Wesley's full time job isn't just tracking metrics for this thing. And then we have a series of next steps.

And so this is what our recommended idea of what are some manageable chunks to really bite off in in sequencing, how to really achieve these actions. In many cases, these actions are leveraging work that has already is already underway. We aren't suggesting they're starting from scratch in a lot of ways. There's a lot of work to build from, so we're uplifting some of that work. And then specific about where the city would lead versus where the city would support on each of these actions.

We know that economic development is a team sport. Wesley and his team can't possibly do all of this, and so the support roles are really important. And then we have a category on resourcing. So this is symbolizing one dollar sign, two dollar signs, three dollar signs, really just an order of magnitude of 1 dollar sign would be building on an existing program or policy. 2 dollar signs is a new program or a new policy piloting something new, and then three dollar signs would reference capital expenditures.

And so Wesley and his team will be working with counsel on on these resourcing asks. And then finally, on each of these, James did a lot of great research on best practices. And so we don't have to start from scratch with a lot of these. A lot of neighboring cities in Washington and Oregon and other neighboring states have done similar initiatives like we're suggesting, and they've had positive outcomes. And so we've highlighted best practices so that the team can turn to some of these examples and and learn from them, reach out to them.

How did you do this? What did you learn from it? And so forth. So we have each of these one pagers, and I believe you have them in your packet if you'd like to like to follow along. So for the rest of the presentation, I will give an overview of each of the three goals and then just give an over high level overview of each of the actions so you can get a sense of what what the the group will be doing, what the team will be doing, and how.

So the first goal, again, is around this idea around economic identity. So the first action in this goal is to really celebrate and promote the city's diversity via storytelling. So that involves expanding the night market and other events. A lot of interviewees told us about how much they appreciate these events and want more of them. We're suggesting creating a faces of Lacey series profiling small businesses that engage in these events and really developing a marketing campaign around those businesses.

The second action would be to create a comprehensive visioning process. So through this project, we had a vision statement that James went over. It's, of course, not, you know, a full community wide process. And so what we're suggesting is that the city think about their vision for economic development because you have to tell your story or else other other places will tell it for you. So we're suggesting a framework around convening council members, senior department leads, groups like like you all with the planning commission and a facilitated workshop and develop a common understanding of what the city's economic identity is as well as the neighborhoods and their identities and then build out a a cohesive vision with those elements and then go to the community and survey the community on on what their feedback might be on that.

Once you have that full vision, building out a framework to communicate that work back to developers, brokerage firms, new businesses may be interested in the city, and other investors via via collateral. And the final action in this goal is to work with the Port of Olympia and with Thurston EDC on the benefits of import export services. So we worked with Mike Reed at the port closely on this one in the Foreign Trade zone. So those two organizations are working right now. They're in negotiations.

It sounds like to create a new role that would be all about the Foreign trade zone, all about the FTZ, and sharing resources with businesses in the region about the benefits of of working with the FTZ. And so our recommendation is around of solidifying the city's role in that process and looking to to Everett as an example. The Port Of Everett in Snohomish County jointly markets their FTZ, and they host roundtables for businesses and do a whole host of other services. And so it's a great example of how these different jurisdictions and organizations can work together and not not replicate each other's work. In the second goal of this is really the kind of bread and butter, nuts and bolts of economic development.

This goal is all about supporting the the local economy through supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs and existing and new employers, all the the business related actions. And so the first action here is to create a microenterprise accelerator program specifically to home based businesses. I think this came up as an idea from Wesley in one of our very first meetings around supporting these home based businesses, providing coaching and technical assistance, working with other service providers to tailor curriculum for micro enterprises and home based businesses. Think things like licensing and branding and digital marketing and cottage food production rules and things like that. And so really tailoring some of that work for them and then having some longer term work with these businesses around celebrating and developing celebrating them and developing some pop up spaces.

The secs second action here is around strengthening and formalizing the city's BRE program. This is business retention and expansion. So we know that companies are most likely to grow where they start, and so we wanna lean into that and do that by developing a business resource navigation team. So this would include representatives from different departments in the city and regional partners to set up a protocol for quick coordination when businesses reach out with a problem or an opportunity that there's there's a really solid process here and having some consistent materials and a consistent experience for them. Spokane did a nice job of something like this called the rapid response team.

So they can fast track projects and help businesses navigate through permitting and public works and planning and and so forth. So that's an example we're pointing to. The third is around recruitment, business recruitment, and this is a this is squarely in the support role for the city. Thurston EDC does this. They do all of the region's business recruitment, but we wanna make sure that the city has all of their updated information for Thurston EDC, including updated industrial sites, employment sites, and resources, and then to join them when they are promoting the city to businesses or trade shows and and others.

And to create a really clear process for handling relocation inquiries because companies can call the city, call Wesley, and ask about some information because they wanna relocate. But we wanna make sure that that that process is really clear and consistent depending no matter who they talk to at the city. And the fourth action here is around childcare. This is another supportive role for the city. One thing of many, of course, that COVID revealed is the importance that childcare plays in economic development, and this also came up in interviews quite a bit.

But we now talk about childcare as being a part of economic development infrastructure and a really necessary system for people to be able to work is to have a place for their kids. We aren't suggesting that the city become a childcare provider or lead in this space, but really support what the EDC and others are doing around childcare. Walla Walla Valley did something similar in terms of a multisector partnership that is a really nice example here. But there is some work that the city can do in with planning to identify regular right excuse me, regulatory adjustments and to anticipate needs that are related to site design and infrastructure. So there's a clear role for the city in this one as well.

Alright. And the third goal, thanks for sticking with me here, and then we can open up if there's any comments and questions, is around quality of life and attracting people to visit and attracting for people to relocate via really bold placemaking actions. And in this world where people can increasingly work remotely, they are looking for communities with vibrant spaces. So we wanna lean into that and think really creatively about that. So the first action is around supporting, we're calling experiential retail and entertainment.

So, again, as James was saying that people come to Lacey to shop and go to other places for experiences, but we can recapture some of that specifically in Midtown. So we have a recommendation here about looking at zoning code updates that are allow for temporary uses and can imagine some new possibilities specific to mixed use and flexible uses for things like pop ups and festivals and outdoor markets as well as investing in public spaces to really support nighttime activation, walkability, and so forth. This is one of the more expensive recommendations because it would involve capital expenditures just as an example, but there's there's a lot of really great examples. We've flagged two in Everett and Tacoma as as far as how they've adjusted their permit programs. The second is around activating the opens activating open spaces, specifically the Karen Fraser Trail.

And we see this as 2.2 miles of opportunities for trail activation with things like public art, like murals and sculptures and other pop up activities. Bellingham, for instance, has examples of activating its waterfront trail system to generate a lot of momentum with its entrepreneurs. So that's that's a good one to look into. The third is around investing in year round gathering spaces and programming to enhance residents' livability, and quality of life is key. We're all humans and need these really important experiences.

And we heard time and time again a call for third spaces from our engagement. So a place that's not home, it's not work, it's that other space for you to spend time with friends and family. So here, we're recommending an assessment of a permanent location for the food truck depot that would be proximate, so close to other complementary uses like housing and parks and and so forth, and then to develop a storytelling campaign around these third spaces. And finally, we are recommending supporting development with some targeted incentives. And so recommending exploring utility rebates or other rebates for other fees, specifically for small and underrepresented business owners to lower those barriers to starting a business and expanding a business.

And we've looked at what Bothell has done with Pop Shops on Main. It's a program that helps entrepreneurs access affordable spaces and share utilities and share technical support. So instead of paying traditional rent, participants are contributing a share of their monthly revenue while also accessing these these workshops and peer roundtables, which is a nice example. So that's those are all of our recommendations. And we can touch briefly on implementation and then and then open this up.

So in the first year of this strategy, we're suggesting that the team launch these more foundational actions that are leveraging work that they've already been already been working on as well as starting to measure those metrics. And then years two and three would be to start scaling the programs, and year four and five to think about how to perhaps adjust and evaluate what they've done, maybe reprioritize things or deprioritize things depending on some macro conditions. And so while that full vision statement should remain consistent through the next five plus years, preferably into twenty years, these actions we can see start to change and adjust depending on depending on what what the city is needed. So with that, I can pause and ask for any comments and questions.

I'm gonna go to Elliot first.

Sure. We just recently took the, I guess so it's not called the Woodland Trail where there's a parallel to Pacific. It's called the Karen Fraser Trail. It's it's already in in place. Correct?

It's already what? I'm sorry.

The Karen Fraser Trail is still is already in place. It's we realized that's what it was. We were on Woodland.

Oh, okay. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Oh, okay. So we, yeah, we recently took that, and we were so delighted with it that we got all the way down to, Downtown Olympia from Lacey.

Mhmm.

We know we're based in, by the the Woodland Park.

Mhmm.

But the the drawback that we had was trying to negotiate the Olympia streets. You know, where that dumps. Are there plans for providing for bike lanes in Olympia that you know?

I I don't know. I can't speak to Olympia's plans, but in this plan, we're recommending in addition to activating the trail with some art, also some interactive signage and being really clear about exactly what you're talking about, some of that directional signage and pointing visitors to amenities and give some give some wayfinding so that it can feel more accessible and offers that feeling of I belong here, whether I'm on a bike or or I'm walking to do some some fairly simple urban design elements that can make it a really special place.

Right. And then the the other question I had is, I've I've been alarmed at how many apartments are are going into Lacey. You know, apartments are nice because it brings economic development with businesses, etcetera.

Mhmm.

But there's a common complaint that there there's no structure infrastructure for grocery stores or just general shopping North Of I 5. Is that something that's going to be addressed in the future?

We so we've looked at some of the neighborhood specific elements, but then are recommending a deeper dive into some of the neighborhoods that would be specific to the areas that are growing and in what ways. And so some parts of the city, of course, are growing, have more warehouse spaces versus housing, and they have very different needs. And so we've recommended doing that deeper dive on on the neighborhood specific needs to address some of those things.

Well, that's a long worded you don't know yet.

It's a long worded that's that's a it's a recommendation to do it. We did not do it as part of this project, but we've recommended that, that type of work.

Okay. Because it it would seem that Cabela's area in Sarra would be ideal for that.

Yeah. Elliot, so, this is Ryan. We we have, the zoning in place and the infrastructure in place for future grocery uses North Of I 5. It's been, you know, stated throughout the entire comp plan process and even prior to that that it's a huge priority to get those types of uses on that side of I 5. And and, you know, we have the things in place that will allow that.

Now we just need the the private side to, you know, put those uses out there. You know, there's I think there's a couple of things happening. One that's maybe a good thing and one that's maybe a a little bit of a challenge. One is that there are new businesses on the North Side Of I 5 that have been established that are extremely successful in the last year or two. And so it's proving itself as a market for new businesses to go into to be successful.

The other thing that's maybe a downside is that the grocery industry in general is not really expanding. There's you know, I I don't know. I can even think of the last new grocery store outside of maybe the Trader Joe's that we've got coming soon that, has proposed anything, you know, in the last twenty years even. So, you know, that we've really not seen a growth in the grocery industry at all. In fact, there's been probably some more retractions with Albertsons, you know, owning Safeway and that and that kind of stuff.

So it seems to be more consolidations than expansions at that at this point. So the good news is we've got the infrastructure. We've got the zoning in place. We're getting a proven market out in that area. Now we just need somebody to take that next step and provide that use out there, And there's undoubtedly a demand for that use as well.

And I think too, just another thing to add, some of the strategies actually identified in the economic development strategy or some of the actions, especially as they revolve involve creating an economic development or an economic identity and vision for the city, getting some of those materials put together, a marketing campaign to try to attract some additional users. Those things might start to and along with the proven track record that we're seeing with the new businesses up in Northeast Lacey, that might start to draw additional interest in the users that people out in Northeast Lacey are looking for.

And to add to that, with the Nisqually Tribe project that's coming online in next couple of years, there will be more retail space that will be coming. The team here of Equinor West have not really looked at that project because we don't know when that will happen or what that impact or direction they will take. So, they have mentioned it but have not really dived deep into that, conversation.

Yeah. And, you know, if you look at the, like, the Safeway there at Oxbury, right, parking lot is never overflowing. So Safeway and Albertsons at this point don't have any incentive to go on to the north side

of the street because they're just

gonna be competing with themselves. And even the Fred Meyer and Lacey, that parking lot is never overflowing. There's a lot of times it's full, but it's not overflowing. So Fred Meyer is going, okay. Maybe now isn't the right time to expand.

Period?

Yeah. I was, I I was really interested in this. I live right, you know, just on the outskirts of of the where Downtown Lacey, I guess, might be. It's a big town. Yeah.

And and so I I loved it. And I bought my house there specifically because Karen Fraser Trail, the Chehalis Trail, and those trails. So making an art installation, making it more public friendly, making it something where people are really taking that trail more than just riding your bikes. So, you know, in my neighborhood, we walk with our dogs and around the trails a lot. But going westbound from, like, the Midtown area by Slater Kinney, if you take that trail westbound and can get to to, like, the night market, I mean, that place is booming.

So it seems like that's a really great way to to activate, that part of our our community and and really support those small local businesses. And I think that the childcare is a massive thing and also those in in year round spaces. I was listening last night, and they were talking about what was it? The yard? Is this Yeah. The yard. Yeah.

Magic here.

Yeah. And it seems like I mean, that's something that we keep hearing. Like, there's nothing to do. You know? Or what do we do in the winter when it's raining? We wanna get our kids outside. So really creating more spaces like that to bring people and to really get the the younger crowd, give people, places to do it and and make it a great place a better place to live. I I really enjoyed hearing these ideas.

Okay.

I mean,

just piggyback off what Karen said. I was really interested and really excited about the food truck looking for a more permanent location. That's the one thing that I've noticed across the country. I was over in Kennewick visiting my best friend, and they've built a couple permanent food truck locations over there that were really nice that were even gonna be used in the bad weather with, like Mhmm. Structures built over them. And I thought those were really unique in that that would be something that would be utilized a lot over here. So I was really happy to see that maybe that could be a solution here in Lacey.

We'll have to add that to the list of, best practices. Thanks for sharing that.

Spencer? Yeah. Number one, I wanna say thanks to the city of Lacey. As a former small business owner, I understand, every penny counts, especially when you're starting up. So to have that b and o tax exemption for $500,000 and less revenue is really impactful because a couple $100 at the end of every month makes a difference when when everything counts. So I appreciate Lacey doing that and showing some foresight in that. Some other issues that I ran up against while running and scaling was SBA classifications of small business. It didn't make sense. And I know this isn't a City Of Lacey issue, and you have no ability to affect that. It's more of a general question.

Is there any attempt willpower, or is there anything to change that, to make that a more progressive graduated scale where you're not trying to compete with an Amazon warehouse? The 500. And being put yeah. Being in a in a 500 person small business.

Right.

When I'm over here with either a two a two person team and then up to maybe a 12 person crew, I'm competing on the same field, and that's inherently unfair because we don't have economies of scale. So I was just curious if anybody here has knowledge of anything happening on that front.

So you're talking about an entity that can't even get the doors open right now Mhmm. To change a process that is so obscure to them. I I would say no.

I had to ask.

One thing that is is a

Washington related issue, but I that I found to be really challenging to deal with was the requirement to collect sales tax at every location that you were doing business. As a small business, again, you don't have the software systems because they're expensive to do that in an automated fashion, and that was a real big challenge. And then the reporting to every single jurisdiction, on and on, the administrative burden that comes with that puts a huge challenge on on small businesses is statewide. Have we identified anything of that that might be impactful?

I will tell you what I'm hearing is that department of revenue is hearing that from business owners, with the streamlined sales tax, which just went online in 2021. And so they are looking at ways to try

Are they gonna mandate that

the cities participate in that? Yes. Okay.

Well, for

for I've been looking at the our websites and upgrading some of the things. One thing I've noticed is our, finance department website have a really robust, you know, tax and fee on their website. You can go to you can fill out the tax form online at their website. So they make it a lot easier as one way in which they could help you to alleviate that challenge. Sure.

Okay. Thank you.

K. Well, Britney and James, thank you so much. Thank you for your hard work. You know, Lacey is a bit of a challenge because, like, you the one of the biggest things you identified, we don't have a central hub. Right?

And that's because our town didn't grow organically out of a central location. And so we've got what we've got. And but the one thing about Lacey is that we tend to be extremely, versatile, extremely nimble in how we solve problems. And so I think we've got a great format to begin to work with here. And, you know, you were given a challenge because Lacey is configured the way it is. But I think I think this is a good foundation to work from.

Well, thank you for that, feedback and for all of the feedback. It's been a real pleasure working with Leslie and his team and to think about how to how to make some really authentic recommendations that feel feel most appropriate for Lacey. You have a ton to work with. We continue to hear James touched on this, but continue to hear business friendly the city is, especially from businesses that work across the region. If they could pick, they would wanna only work in Lacey in some cases.

And so we continue to hear a lot lot of really positive things from which you get to work from. So maybe you don't have that classic downtown, but you do have a lot of opportunities for these amenities and place making, and such a strong culture and reputation in the region. So I think there's a lot to work with.

Yeah. One comment I've got is, you know, the last few times I've visited Spokane, and they've got that spectacular riverfront park. Right? But one

thing

that they do is they they host a lot of pop up festivals in that park. And and what's making me think about this is you brought up the Karen Fraser Trail. And but they space things out. Right? It's not concentrated in one spot in the park. And that really encourages usage, and it gets people to go through the entire space, which I think creates a vibrancy.

Yeah. I agree. I think there there's a lot there's a lot around events, and there's and to share, there's just a lot of interest in it too. So

Organize a bike race. Yeah. Like Spokane have the basketball tournament every year.

Exactly. Right.

I'm bigger every year. We can do a bike race tournament.

Exactly. So with kids. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Alright. Well, thank you.

Well, thank you. Yeah. If there's any other feedback, James can or excuse me. Wesley can help you connect with us, but we'll be wrapping this up and presenting the council in December. So thank you again for for the feedback tonight.

Awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

You. By the way.

Nice meet you. Visit more often.

Love to invite me. Standing invitation.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Now we will go on to the comprehensive plan update. Ryan's gonna tee this up, and we'll say, at the end of this, what we are looking at is making a recommendation to the city council for adoption or further amendment. So, Ryan Yep. Kick it off.

Thank you.

Yeah. I'm I'm actually gonna walk you through most of this and then turn it over to Hans at the end, for a couple additional items. But, yeah, thanks for teeing this up. You know, we had the public hearing for the comprehensive plan two weeks ago. Those comments are included in your packets, both the written comments and then the the oral test that was is is in the minutes for the meeting as well, summarized in the minutes for the meeting.

So, hopefully, you've had a chance to go through all those. We're gonna, provide some summaries for you. And then, we do have, so, basically, you know, you have the the whole package in front of you tonight for consideration for recommendation to the city council. We do have two potential amendments that staff would suggest as a result of the packet, but there may be more as the planning commission goes through this review. And then after we are done with kind of our part, we also wanna turn it over to all of you if you have any additional comments, questions, concerns, as a result of the public hearing or the process.

This is essentially kind of designed to be the last meeting for this to go through the planning commission, so this would be the opportunity to do that. So as as you wanna share screen and and bring up so, I'm just gonna go kind of I'll I'll say issue by issue through, and maybe you can zoom in on that just a little bit. The the different issues that got brought up at the public hearing, this is in the staff analysis, which is attachment six in your packet. The the first one is you heard several concerns about a rezone of the Mullen Road property. This is the property that, the city purchased from Blott and is now in the process of transferring to, the the, housing authority for Thurston County.

The proposal as part of the the land use map and and the, zoning map was to rezone this to moderate density residential from its current zoning of open space institutional. So previously, this this property was, designated for a sewer treatment plant. When Lot owned the property, that was for the, the OSI, zone, which was, more compatible with that. The o part of the OSI zone, the open space institutional allows institutional uses like government buildings and those kinds of things. So it was to be more compatible with the future use of that property as we're all aware the the sort of treatment plant never moved forward.

So the the comments that we received on this was varied over mostly about development of that property, traffic density, compatibility with the adjacent residential uses, high groundwater in the area, the impacts to schools and sidewalks, those kinds of things. And so when we were looking at this, you know, we had originally suggested a zone of moderate density, and this is getting back to the what I said said as far as the amendments that we're suggesting the planning commission make is the staff recommendation on this moving forward is actually to rezone to low density residential rather than moderate density. The reason being is that it is the lowest intensity of residential development that we allow in our zoning district. And so things like traffic and density and and those kinds of things, you know, this this property needs to develop. It's it's gonna be owned by somebody that will develop it in the future.

The highest and best use probably is something that's a little bit higher density. But when we're looking at all those issues, you know, potential traffic, the groundwater issues, the the adjacent residential areas that need to be compatible with those adjacent areas, then our recommendation is low density residential. And and I just wanna remind the planning commission as well is that at this point, you know, a lot of what got brought up, it needs to be analyzed through the future development applications associated with that property. So things like, groundwater and stormwater and utilities and traffic and those kinds of things, that's not really anything that we can best address at this level. It's really best addressed at the project or the permit level when we do the technical analysis and review of that of that project.

So I just wanted to let the planning commission know that. Kind of the best way at this point to handle it would be through, you know, looking at the zoning from a very high level and saying, okay. What's most compatible with the future development of the property and compatible with the third surrounding area? And then I I did also wanna mention that, related to the future development of the property is that the housing authority is actually gonna be holding a community meeting coming up at the end of the month at Camacha Middle School and has already sent out invitations to the neighbors at this point. So, they are this is a voluntary meeting.

They're not required to do it, but they wanna get information out about a future project there. Again, one that we do not have a development application for. So that's gonna be October 30 from six to eight at Camachan Middle School, and that's gonna be a way for neighbors to be able to share their concerns directly with the future developer of that that property as far as what their concerns are. So any questions on that? Anything else that you might have heard that you have questions about related to that topic?

I was just curious. With the housing authority, I thought that their goal was to provide it, you know, larger amounts of low or, you know, accessible housing. And I'm just wondering if low density is in alignment with the maybe the goal of of the housing authority.

It is. And that's a great question. So, you know, under standards, low density zoning that allows up to six units per acre, and it's a five acre piece of property. So a traditional single family development would be allotted about 30 single family units. The proposal at this point, again, there's no project in front of us, and so we have to consider this from a very high level, is that, the the housing authority is considering using our cottage housing regulations, which are for smaller footprint dwellings.

Like, that's the name implies, cottage style development, which if you do that through our development, through our zoning code, it allows you to essentially double your density. So they could get up to 60 units at, a cottage style development. And that's what their future proposal is is to do a a development a a cottage style development, though, so that it would allow them up to that number of units using that the provisions for our account.

So yes.

Has the housing authority selected a vendor who's gonna be running that?

They have not. As far as we know, I mean, that's that's down the road. It's going to take probably at this point a a few years, you know, to go not only to go through the entitlement process, but also to construct and operate. My, you know, personal knowledge and experience with the housing authority is that they're very well run, you know, provider in our community and have a a very good track record and invite

So they're not

intending to sublet that out or sublease that to a different group like Lehigh or someone else?

Correct.

So the housing authority, they they may have a contractor that manages the property, for However, it's their own, you know, they provide section eight vouchers and those kinds of things. So it would be through the housing authority's own programs. Thank you.

A comment I wanna add for the commission is that, you know, some of the comments we received at at the public hearing were from neighbors that are downhill from this property or concerned about storm water. So current development regulations that are from the state require that any new development keep storm water on-site. So that's not as much of a concern as it would have been, say, twenty years ago.

Yeah. Yeah. So the, you know, the technical review of the application certainly will consider the storm water impacts not only the property itself, but anybody in the surrounding area that would be impacted as well. Alright. Anything else on this one?

Could move forward to comments on our climate elements, specifically around the use of language that is currently more supportive than it is prescriptive. So the the commenter gave the the comments that, well, you you're providing language that is suggesting that the city should do certain things and not requiring that the city should do certain things when it comes to, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and and those kinds of, topics. This I you know, I don't know if the planning commission was necessarily aware of this, but, we knew that this could be an issue early on. We'd received comments from the Thurssen Climate Action Team and others. And so we actually went to council on August 12 and asked them the specific question and asked the the council to give us guidance on whether they wanted the to suggest the supportive language or the more prescriptive kind of mandating language where when these policies exist.

And the answer we got back from council is they really like the supportive language because it gives us the flexibility, to do different things rather than, the prescriptive language that may kinda pin us in a a little bit of a corner when it comes to things like greenhouse gas emissions. So, at this point, the staff's recommendation is to continue to continue with the the language as is. You'll see in the staff recommendation, there have been some changes to some of the language to be a little bit more requiring. So instead of, like, I'll see g two a. I'll just use the top one there as an example.

Instead of the word consider, use the word prioritize. So when using, lower carbon building materials, policy r a d instead of seek homeowner homeowner financing. It's support resilient upgrades for low income residents, identifying grants, so it's and develop rebate programs. So it's it's really, you know, being a little bit more prescriptive where we can. Policy t two a at the bottom, if you wanna go down to that one, Hans, is another.

Instead of the word embrace a safe system of approach to transportation, it is implement a safe system approach. So where we've been able to, we've massaged, I'll say, some of the language to be a little bit more requiring and all than, previous language, which was maybe more supportive.

Ellie, you have your pen there?

I put it back down, but I I really don't like the idea of of having prescriptive because, you know, we're our costs are just through the roof with with all the new mandates and free energy, mandates for electrical, mandates for solar, you know, to to build. And then when you start adding on, you know, whatever you want, silver or gold certificate for, climate, you really we have to put a a break on some of this at some point. You know, the the costs are just through the roof for for construction.

K. Thank you.

Right. So what I'm hearing is kinda general supportive going forward.

Yes. Just just keeping the, the supportive rather than prescriptive. When you start saying that you have to do this, you're you just start creating huge costs that really eliminate even the ability to build at some point.

Got some of that.

I was just gonna say or add that and as far as these policies that we show as kind of examples of where those opportunities did take place and where those steps were taken, These ones are specifically called out because they are generally in alignment with other documents that the city has already previously adopted. So there was a little bit of an opportunity or a space that or a step that we could take in that realm while still being consistent with the guidance that council has recently provided and then also historically provided on some of these topics. So it was really I mean, we did get, feedback on all sides of this topic. It is something that people care about deeply. So this was kind of that middle balancing act that we were able to find, that really seemed to thread that needle, if you will, and find that that middle middle zone.

Okay. Thank you.

The next topic was about traffic safety at the roundabout at Marvin Road and Willamette Drive. I hope you all had a chance to look at this. There Scott Ager, our public works director, provided a response to an email directly to the person that made the comment. And so at this point, I don't think it's necessarily something we need to address through the comprehensive plan. Basically, the, you know, the email states that, you know, the record on roundabouts is that they they tend to be, safer in terms of theirs.

There's less, catastrophic collisions than there are in, you know, standard signalized intersections. And then also goes on to talk about the volume of traffic and how that's increased over the last twenty five years out in the Ox Prairie area. So just FYI, that response was made to that person who made the comment. I don't think there's anything that we need to do to address it in the comprehensive plan.

I would agree with that.

So, the next one I wanted to go through is the comments from the Olympia Master Builders. So not only did they provide comments at the hearing, I also, emailed you early to earlier today with some additional comments that they provided. And so I think their comments that they submitted today were very similar to the comments that they submitted through, the hearing. And so I'm just gonna go through the hearing once tonight because I've already kind of pre prepared those. But I think in in general, they're kind of in keeping with the the comments that they made today as well.

Our our response is that we don't believe there needs to be any adjustments to our policies as a result of the comments. We've kind of gone through them and, you know, some some of them we definitely agree with and others, I think, just are need to be addressed or need to be addressed through other measures other than the the comp plan. So I'll start with infill priority versus delivery tools. So master builders were concerned about things like, review times for application processes and and fees that are transparent and those kinds of things. Just recognize that there are now state requirements that we have what we call shot clocks for review time, so we're required to review permits and and projects within a certain amount of time, and and those are, standardized now across the state.

We also publish our fee schedule on our city website and, those kinds of things.

When was that implemented? When is the effective date of that law?

It is in place now. So it's been in place for, what, 5290 for about a year now, sir. So that that has

exception. Yeah.

So fifty six eleven has no bearing on that?

What is fifty six eleven?

That was that was a senate bill that established another set of timelines, and the effective date of that is 01/01/2028. So I was just reading about it tonight, and it had a similar list with sixty five days with this, this, one seventy for public events. So I don't know. That was the final Ring a bell. Both house approved bill.

It's 5611.

5611.

They'll get back to you on that one.

Yeah. Yeah.

I I was just I was like, what? What?

It's not uncommon that somebody brings up a bill and you don't know my Oh, I know.

I know. I live in that world. But, see, are you guys doing this? We were supposed to start January 1. What? Yeah. Yeah.

'20 Yeah. '28 is only '21.

Yeah. Good day.

Yeah. A little bit

of breathing room. It was very sparse. It was three pages total including the the preamble, and it didn't say that it was an amendment or a change to something else, but it looks like it was missing a lot.

Right. Elliot?

Well, I was looking at some of their, requests and, like, number seven was affordable housing toolkit for housing programs, adopt an annual affordable housing toolkit resolution, MFTE, refresh fee reductions, free preapproved plans, expedited permits with production targets and sunset review. What what how's that addressed?

I don't think those elements are appropriate for a comp plan.

Okay.

Yeah. And and and that's a that's a fine answer. The other thing I would say in response to that is that we do most of that already, Elliot. So, you know, we already have preapproved plans, at our at our counter for for anybody to use, reduced fees for structures that are 1,400 square feet or less. You know, the we we have a whole tool.

We well, we don't have a formal toolkit. Like, we don't say these are all the options to you, and that's something that we could certainly think about doing as part of a promotional material kind of thing. We do have a substantial number of of incentives that we offer for smaller, you know, lower square footage homes. And so that's that's something to consider. But like the like the chair said, that's not necessarily something that needs to be specified in the comp plan.

Yeah. And and the reason I say that, Elliot, is because there is a defined process for how we have to amend the comp plan. And the more specific rules you put in the comp plan, the more difficult it is to pivot as, environments change.

Mhmm. So we we we do a a sub substantial amount of that. I'll I'll just go through a couple of maybe of the others, and so we don't bog down too much in this in this section.

One one of

the things related to housing need and capacity, is that, you know, they they requested that the city, you know, we we have to look at, our capacity capacity for for for homes and making sure that we're meeting state targets for population and housing, but we can't guarantee that those units will be built. And so they have some suggestions as far as, like, keeping track of what are our housing projections and are we meeting those projections. And, again, I think that's a worthy comment. It's just not something that necessarily needs to be addressed through the the comp plan. Yeah.

Also related to some fees related to, transit and other transportation options, and getting some credit for those. And we do allow for most of those concepts through our existing regulations. So it's just something I wanna make you aware of there, but not something, again, that needs to be handled through the the comp plan. Let's see. Is there anything else on so that we need Neighborhood Commercial, comment about making sure that corner stores are permitted uses, that we do allow live work and day cares.

They are already they already do that. In fact, one of the things I wanna point out, and actually, this kinda refers back to our previous discussion on day cares, like, on the economic development strategy, is that state law. So here's another bill, s b fifty five zero nine, which now, states that, day care centers are a permitted use in basically every zoning district in the city except for industrial and open space zones. So that's a new thing. The the state is saying, hey. You know, we want these everywhere. So you could, have a net what used to maybe be a commercial day care center allowed in a commercial zone. Those are now allowed in residential areas.

So the other there were two other comments that we flagged from their, additional comments they provided in advance of tonight's meeting. One had to do with the the lot property, which we already kinda discussed, but they were kinda echoing some of that there. And then the other one had to do with the, implementing zones of one of our future land use designations, which we actually get to. That's also another comment that we received, so we'll talk about those in tandem. But those are the two that we flagged that were new or kind of not previously reflected in their old comments. So those are the only two that I had in mind.

So next one, 1302 Alder Street Southeast. This was supportive of a rezone of that parcel from open space institutional to low density residential. We need to review that one at any length. The next one is just as Hans mentioned, the implementing zones of commercial mixed use future land use designation. So there was a request for, our light industrial commercial zone to be included as an implementing zone of the commercial mixed use future land use designation.

So we've got six different, land use designations. They're shown on the screen there. This was, the recommendation was for light industrial commercial to be in the is it general commercial? Commercial or mixed use. Commercial mixed use. Commercial mixed use? Was it general commercial, or was it both?

No. It was in currently, it exists within our light industrial designated future land use. Okay. And then the request was for it to also exist, and be an implementing zone of our commercial mixed use, future land use designation, which is predominantly, made up of, existing zones that allow for both commercial and residential uses in some blend. And we left light industrial, commercial out of that because there is no residential component of light industrial, and it doesn't align, generally speaking, with the development intensities that we see in the more commercial mixed use designation.

And that was not actually looking at this, but that was more or less our response to that request. And that one was received at the public hearing and then also echoed in the Olympi Master Builders comment that we received earlier today that we've shared with you guys. That makes sense.

Any questions on that one?

Elliot?

I know I was shut down once before, but I I ran a business out of my home. You know, I got up to 22 employees, and and I started getting complaints from one particular neighbor, you know, didn't like the traffic. And, the police came and said, well, yeah, he's a licensed bonded businessman, and you're he's in a light commercial, area. You know, it was up by the Lacey Post Office. So with these new change in regulations, when the police come, they they would not be able to have their business license out of their home anymore, would they? Would they

Well, there's a there's a lot to that comment, Elliot, that I can respond to. But, you know, the the thing the thing for, you know, home home occupations are allowed anywhere in residential areas. They are limited in square footage, and they're limited to how many employees outside of the home that you can have operating from there. And so this doesn't change any of that. What this does is it looks at the various this is a 30,000 foot level look at what our uses are across the city and categorizes them into these six different land land use categories.

And then as a part of that, breaks it down into a a finer grain of detail as far as what zoning district fits within each one of these broad categories. So it does not change anybody's zoning as a result of this. It is really just kind of setting the framework for if somebody wanted to rezone a piece of property or those kinds of things. It says, basically, sets a road map forward for what those areas will look and feel like in the future. Will it be general commercial, or will it be residential? It it puts them into those broad categories. And at this point, there is are no zoning changes that are associated with this.

Hey, Spencer. Oh, no.

No. No. Note that, by creating the future land use map, really, the only outcome is that the transitioning between implementing zones will be easier. Worst case scenario, we're working with the same rezoning standards that we have today. So, really, there is no negative, side to this. It's just either current conditions as they are or slightly improved review timeline and process. So similar to how previously things are possible, that avenue could still be explored in Elliot's case, and it wouldn't be necessarily impacted by this decision based on today's

standards that we're working with. K.

And then the last one, number seven, if I wanna scroll down well, it's the not last one. We stopped one more. It's Hans. It's gonna go through it. But this is a general comment from he was a member of the thirst thirst and climate action team to all of the local jurisdictions about some of the the climate goals and policies.

And so this was just a general comment on that. Didn't have any specific things for for Lacey that we needed to address. So, so that's kind of our summary at this point. We do have we had, one additional comment come in today, which we've forwarded you the the comment, related to some of the implementation of the of the comp plan, specifically related to the Hawkesbury Business District zone and and the zoning consolidation that, is proposed through the comp plan and some of the text changes associated with some of the standards in that zone. And so Han'll Han'll work, through through you with that.

Yeah. So we received, two written comments actually actually today on this topic. I believe one of them was already cc'd to everybody. That was from CH and attorneys at law. It has to do with a, the Hawkesbury Business District parcels.

We have another one from Joseph Slattery that I actually printed out, and it should be attached to the meeting agenda moving forward. But I can pass these ones out if you guys wanna take a look at that. But it's the one that you received earlier today and this one are really speaking to the same instance and example that we'll address. But we wanna make sure that you guys got the full comments as they were written, so that you can have a take look opportunity to take a look at that. I mean, that's pushed. No. Okay. And they are attached to the meeting packet. So, but really what it is is a, echoing of the other, comment that you guys already received today. So just making sure that you have the full record.

Let me see if I can make it a little bit bigger as well. And then Yeah. And so, Elliot, for you, you will be able to find what I just passed out attached to the the meeting agenda as well, and it is available. And, again, it is kind of an echoing of the other public comment that you guys received.

But

really what it, speaks to is I should say that there's actually sorry. There's a range of different topics that are covered in this public comment. There's only one that specifically speaks to the comprehensive plan as far as what we're working on, and it has to do with the use of warehousing and distribution activities within the Hawkesbury business district. So that's, I believe, bullet number one on that packet that I just passed out.

You wanna maybe mention that the other two are relative to the item that you've already made a recommendation on to counsel. And so that's why we're not talking about the other two items that are on there. So those are the permit processing standards that you guys made recommendation. The these comments will go to council, and so council will be able to review them as part of their review. But because the planning commission has concluded your review at this point, it's you've made a recommendation. And so at this point, it's with the council make to any of those changes, and and we'll make sure that they get, like, this, as a part of their review.

Yep. So, yeah, again, the concerns speak to, whether or not warehousing and distribution activities are a permitted use within the Hawkesbury business district. Today, as it's currently written, they are listed as a accessory, conditional use within that district provided it's a secondary use. Here's actually the full definition of it. Activities to in conjunction with primary functions such as businesses business headquarters, research and design, marketing, or retail sales, and subject to the granting of a conditional use permit.

Through the consolidation of the different zones that we did as an exercise as part of this update, we looked at where there was overlapping zoning designations and opportunities to consolidate them. One of those opportunities existed within the Hawkesbury Business District where we actually had two subdistricts, one of which was more commercial leaning and one was more business leading. After a review of those two subdistricts, we decided to consolidate those all into one Hawkesbury Business District to really streamline and simplify that chapter. And then also in doing so, we took the permitted uses within that chapter and really consolidated them into one list. So now at this point, with the draft as it's currently drafted, anywhere in the Hawkesbury Business District, your regulations are the same.

So you don't then have to go and find out then what subdistrict or category you're in and then find the additional requirements specific to that zone. So simplifying that, we do have existing language in the draft, that still created a pathway for warehousing and distribution activities, but it wasn't explicitly stated. And so the comment is really raising concerns over the fact that it was no longer explicitly called out. So our staff recommendation as part of tonight's activities and this is the other one where we are recommending a minor change is just to add that bullet back in as currently listed, within the adopted chapter as it's written today. But, again, as from a implementing perspective and a staff perspective, it doesn't really change how we would approach that, but it does more it does now more clearly state it within the text.

So It addresses their concern. Yeah. And and Without changing anything. Correct.

Mhmm. Yeah.

So that's the other one. There's a longer answer here that is also shared with you guys, but that's really the summary of it. And, yeah, we can take any questions on that one if you have them.

K. So what we'd be looking for here is the recommendation of the city council regarding revised comp plan. The motion should state whether you want to incorporate these staff recommendations from tonight into the recommendation to the city council. So before we have discussion, I will look for a motion in a section in a second.

I would move that we move forward with recommending the proposed comp plan with the staff recommendations included to, the city council for approval.

Is there a second?

I second.

Perfect. K. Any discussion on this?

Just so just so it's clear from a staff perspective, there's there's two recommendations. The one is to modify the the zoning district associated with what we've called the Mullen Road property from moderate density, taking that to low density. And then the second is that chapter that Hans described. It was a sixteen thirty seven.

It's the Hawkesbury Business District. Yeah.

Detaining the section on warehousing in the Hawkesbury Business District would be the two.

Yep. As well as the changes to the language and the climate?

Correct. Which have already been in included in your in your materials. So, yeah, we're we're good

to They're not new as of the the public hearing.

Yeah. Okay. It's just to demonstrate some

Alright. So I'm gonna start on the floor here. Carrie, do you have any discussion?

No. Thank you.

Tanya? Nope. Spencer? Elliot?

Weren't we going to vote on the Alder Road project also, rezoning?

Yes. This includes that. So this would be a recommendation to, recommend to the council rezoning that property from open space institutional to low density residential.

I approve that. Yes. Okay.

Alright. The motion on the floor right now is to recommend to city council that they approve draft 2025 comprehensive plan with the additional staff recommendations introduced at this meeting tonight. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Genanimous. We did it. This is a long road, guys. Thank you so much. And thank you all for your thoughtful comments. I mean, I think it's obvious to the citizens that pay attention that this group is very deeply committed to promoting the city while trying to promote it in a way that our citizens want us to go. So this is huge. Thank you all very, very much. And with that, we will see you in three weeks, and I'm gonna adjourn this meeting.

Thank you.

Thanks, Elliot.

Wow. Determined why they were

so up in arms about the