Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Yes, I think you can mute him. Yeah,

what's going on? That's good. Yeah, that works perfectly. Yeah, we can hear you and see in different screens, but Okay, Jim, you can still hear us, right? Yep. Yep. All right, here we go. Uh item number five uh on tonight's agenda, approval of minutes from the last two meetings. Uh number 5.1, approval of the minutes from our meeting from November 24th, 2025. Uh copy of which was previously distributed to the commission. Uh do we have any comments, questions, or a motion on those?

Uh I'll move to approve the minutes as written. I second. All those in favor? I I I. Any opposition or abstension? Okay, that's approved for November 24th, 2025 minutes. Uh, and that'll bring us to uh the next set of minutes for approval. Uh, the minutes from December 8th, 2025. Uh, same routine. Any comments, questions, or proposals or motions?

I'll make a motion to approve as written. Go ahead, Fred. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have the motion to approve as written and a second. All those in favor? I I I. Anyone oppose or abstain? Okay, great. That brings us uh to item number six on tonight's agenda, the public section comment. The purpose of the public comment is to allow community members uh to present information or raise issues that are not on tonight's agenda. Uh Iris, do we have anyone I don't see anyone in the Zoom that wants to uh raise an issue not on tonight's agenda?

Correct. No one signed up. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh I by the way I skipped section four. Apologies I skipped section four on tonight's agenda which which was supposed to be the new uh council liaison update but I understand that uh the new council member liaison will be present at the next meeting and we will get back with council updates.

Yeah, I can uh at least give you a a brief update on our council liaison. Um we we do have a new council leaison. So, um, just to note that we will have, um, councelor Rachel Verdict, um, will be the planning commission liaison for 2026. Um, we've already been talking and she's excited and, um, yeah, has indicated her preference to be here at least one of the two meetings that we hold per month, so on a monthly basis. Um, so [clears throat] yeah, we will have a more consistent presence and that should be a more regular agenda item at least on the meetings when she's able to attend. Great. Looking forward to that. It's great to get council updates during these meetings. So, we really appreciate that.

Yeah, I think it'll be a helpful connection that we haven't had for the last year or so.

Okay. Uh sorry for going out of order there, folks. Um but that will that was item number four on tonight's agenda. We've already done five and we've already done six. That brings us to item number seven, the Commission for Citizen Involvement general updates. I have three uh updates here for you. The first one is the Lake Forest Neighborhood Association potluck and neighborhood meeting. The annual dessert potluck and neighborhood meeting. It will be held Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 um in the Fireside Community Room of our Savior's Lutheran Church. Uh the meeting will cover topics that affect the neighborhood including development and the completion through Aluga Park and the uh zoning change and public hearing on 4,000 cruise ways. Um, again, that is January 1, 21st, excuse me, 2026. Uh, starts at 6 PM. The next one is the first edition Neighbors and Forest Hills Neighborhood Association annual meeting will be held Wednesday, February 4th, at the Adult Community Center, 505G AV Avenue. The doors open at 6, and the meeting begins at 6:30. There seems to be a lot of items on the uh agenda including the Forest Hills elementary rebuild update uh sustainable landscaping Southore fire station and nomination and election of boards and officers. Um again that is Wednesday, February 4th uh beginning at 6:30 p.m. And finally, I have a postcard here from the Lakewood Neighborhood Association meeting. Uh it will be held January 22nd, 2026 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. And this will be held at the Lakewood Center of the Arts in the downstairs meeting room uh the side door entrance on Ridgeway. The agenda is quite a few items. You will hear from Lake Asiggo Corporation um organi organization for

emergency preparedness uh learning about other city initiatives and conducting the board elections. Um, again, that's the Lakewood Neighborhood Association meeting on January 22nd, uh, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Okay, that will take us into the next item on tonight's agenda, uh, item 8.1, uh, the findings, conclusion, and order from the, uh, from the previous, uh, hearing that we completed. Um, this is the hearing on 4,000 cruiseway place reszoning. It is LU25-000029. Um, if everyone recalls on December 8th, we issued a preliminary recommendation for the city council to approve the proposed comprehens comprehensive plan map and zoning map amendments at 4,000 Cruiseway Place and we directed staff to return with a draft finding conclusions in order. Uh, that draft finding conclusions order was previously distributed to the commissioners uh for review. Uh, I guess now we're going to see if there's anyone any comments or questions about that draft, uh, the draft findings, conclusions, and orders.

Okay. None. Um, absent any comments, questions, or proposed changes or edits, then I think our next step is to vote on um, tenatively approving the recommendation as drafted and sending it to city council. So, I'll wait for a motion.

Are we making a motion to vote or a motion to approve? Uh, a motion to approve and then we'll vote. Yeah, I'll make a I'll make a motion to approve as presented. Do we have a second? Seconded. Okay, we have a second from Jim. Iris, if you want to call the the vote on this one. Mitchell, I vote yes. Moreno, yes. Nach, yes. Guinea, yes. Twin, yes. And Bruce, yes.

Thank you. That motion passed.

Great. Thank you. And I think that um concludes our work on that one. will be going to city council. And uh just thank you to all the fellow commissioners and to you staff especially because I know that one's been a a long a long one and we've had hearings uh and we heard a lot from the public. So appreciate everyone's attention and hard work on on getting to to this recommendation to the city council. Item number nine, work session. Uh this is the planning commission and commission for citizen involvement 2026 work plan. This is work session one. Uh we're going to review and provide direction on a preliminary work plan to support the relevant 2026 city council goals and initiatives. I'll turn it over to long-range planning manager, Mr. Olsen.

Thank you, Chair Mitchell, or at least outgoing Chair Mitchell. Uh and yeah, thank you, Commissioners. Uh yeah, you know, I think um we really wanted to talk today um to think a little bit in advance about some goals that we can be setting for the year for the planning commission. Of course, um you know, we're working on a work plan for the uh planning commission right now, but um you know, what I had uh relayed in that memo was really more of a summary of accomplishments and things that we kind of are required to take on this year, as well as projects that we anticipate beginning in 2026. Um so we're kind of getting at a work plan but um I just wanted to clarify a bit that um we will actually know be um not necessarily postponing this discussion but the discussion will extend a little bit longer than it might in other years because um we will want to sort of take into account what the council goals are. Of course, we have the summit this week where we'll be talking with city council about potential goals that could be generated, but the actual goal setting retreat for council has been um postponed until later in February. So, I just want to let you know um you know this is a little bit preliminary and um there's still a lot of discussions to be had once we know more about that goal setting. Um so, I think it's February 23rd, is that right when when the council goal setting will be or Jessica actually knows? Uh it's February 21st, so it's that that's a Saturday. Yeah.

So, um probably in early March is the soonest that we'll come back and talk about this again. Um but I want to uh you know, make sure we're kind of in alignment at least on some of the highlights and achievements from last year and that we um talk about them and talk about what to expect for the coming year. Um so with that, I'll just give a brief summary of what was in that staff memo. I don't have a presentation or anything formal for you tonight. Um it'll be relatively informal. Um but I'll start with a summary of um what we accomplished this last year in 2026. Um one of the first things that the planning commission was able to um recommend approval of um and it was eventually approved by city council was the 2024 annual community development code amendments. So, um had called those the 24 through 25 amendments on, uh a few occasions, but it's, you know, hard to call it an annual amendment when it's uh spanning two years. Uh so, anyway, we're uh I'll just keep it at 2024, but um those were some uh you know, a big package of amendments. Um we expect to see those again um relatively soon um for 2026. But uh you know I think we're also talking about potentially combining those with the code audit project and including a lot of what we might have recommended for included inclusion in our annual code amendments in that larger kind of code audit project because it's a very similar um end that we're we're trying to achieve with that. Um so anyway just to sort of summarize this though it was um the 2024 amendments were approved on April 15th and formally adopted on the 6th by city council. Another big accomplishment for the commission last year was to um or at least close the loop really on Senate Bill 1537. Um of course this is the uh bill that was passed by uh the state. Uh I believe it was in 2024 when it was passed and um we're um kind of we've been kind of sorting through the

ramifications of the bill. um staff ended up applying for an exemption to the mandatory adjustment provisions of Senate Bill 1537. And um we talked a bit about this on May 28th and we talked about the HPS in general and and what the implementation looked like that May 28th of 2025 as well as on October 27th of 2025 where um Johanna appeared to the planning commission and told us a little bit more about our request for an exemption um which was approved by the state's new housing accountability and production office or hapo um and so you know there are some provisions or I'm sorry there's um some conditions that came along with that approval that we discussed in a little bit more detail, but ultimately no additional action was needed there uh because we were approved for that amendment or I'm sorry for the um exemption rather. Um, another sort of large project that we talked about in the commission a few times this year was the fair housing policy and education work um in the adoption of an amendment to the comprehensive plan um to formalize the city's uh policy to affirmatively further fair housing. Um, so that was something that was outlined originally in the HPS that we wanted to push forward as one of the first kind of official implementation projects after the adoption of the HPS. Um, which was adopted in late 2024. Um, so we held our first work session on January 27th and got an early start here and got a presentation from Samuel Goldberg of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon or at least he was at that time. um he's actually uh with the state now um talking been talking to him a bit about um sort of HPS related obligations and things of that nature. So we haven't seen the last of Samuel um but uh you know we did get a good presentation from the fair housing council um back in January and then um we held a work session to talk a little bit again about HPS implementation more broadly. Of

course, we touched on this at that point and then talked a little bit more in detail about the actual comprehensive plan amendment on July 28th. Um, so it was eventually approved by the planning commission on September 8th and then um or at least a recommendation for approval was issued by the commission at that point and then city council formally approved it on November 4th. So um it has now passed um though of course this is more of an ongoing effort. So, we had initially, you know, when we put this in the the HPS had sort of a near-term and a longer term component to this strategy. So, we've completed the near-term sort of just that adoption of the comprehensive plan amendment to codify the city's affirmatively furthering fair housing policy. Um, but we are going to be continuing to engage in this ongoing campaign um to spread awareness about fair housing and education. So, um this is something that won't necessarily completely come to an end. um at any point in the near future and that we'll be continuing to implement. Something that I think we had a lot of back and forth with uh both between the planning commission and [clears throat] between the planning commission and staff and with city council. Um of course the home occupation code amendments. I think um I get the impression that the commission is probably glad to have cleared those through at least. It was a little bit of a difficult conversation there on those code amendments for the home occupations, but um of course that is something that the commission did recommend adoption of late last year and that we held three work sessions on last year. So of course occupied a good chunk of the commission's work. Um and a public hearing is scheduled for that at city council um in just a couple weeks um actually yeah on the 20th. So not not too incredibly far into the future here. um the comm uh the council's next meeting is is when that take place. Um so that's some serious progress even if

it was u a bit difficult along the way I suppose. Um something new for the commission and we just formally adopted findings for this of course um but was the quasi judicial reasonzoning application that was considered um for 4,000 cruiseway place and um chair Mitchell just outgoing chair Mitchell um just kind of thanked us all for our work on that and I just want to echo that and say you know we don't get a lot of these requests the planning commission so the number of comments and just kind of the level of process was um not typical for what we usually get at the commission and I really appreciate everybody's efforts to um you know move that forward and I think we crossed our tees and dotted our eyes as appropriately as as we can for that application and um I think things went well so I appreciate everybody making that happen. Of course, that's private application, so it's hard to take too much credit for that as staff were to the commission, but of course, I think we um you know did did our duty to um hold a public hearing of course on October 27th. It was then continued um to allow for the submission of additional written testimony until December 8th and um that was when the commission voted to recommend approval of that application. So, um, of course, we adopted findings, uh, just tonight and it will see a public hearing at city council on February 3rd. So, again, not not too far into the future. Um, so the commission's components, um, of that project has been fulfilled as as we noted a moment ago, but um, eventual adoption would not take place until next month. So, those are the ones that the planning commission's role at least has been sort of fulfilled for. There are some other really important ongoing projects. Um, of course, this is really a large project that touches on a lot of different pieces, but the implementation of the housing production strategy is

something that we expect to dominate a lot of this year for um, uh, staff at least, and we expect to get a lot of planning commission um, activity as well related to the housing production strategy. Um, you know, I think uh many of you are familiar with it, but we did outline 13 different strategies within that document to meet the needs that were outlined in the housing needs analysis, which was adopted the year prior in 2023. Um, one of the bigger milestones, I guess, that we accomplished last year was to actually get formal approval from the state of our housing production strategy, which we um formally received on April 18th of 2025. um and sort of saw which conditions were um accompanying that from the state. Uh and of course we talked about that soon after at the commission. Also talked about that at city council. Um gave them a bit of an update on that. And it relates to a lot of different projects that we'll be pursuing for the coming years. Obviously the fair housing project that I just mentioned, but also the code audit and resoning projects that I will mention very soon. Um, one thing that I would mention in terms of a near-term uh, action or sort of um, event that we'll be um, holding at the planning commission is we will um, or I will be providing you with an update on the recently adopted or at least um, as of late last year, these were adopted um, Oregon housing needs analysis framework. Um, so that will be at your meeting on February uh, yeah, that that will be at your meeting on February 23rd. Um, we'll also have a similar update to city council on February 17th. Um, so, uh, we'll actually have Samuel Goldberg from the state now coming in to give that update to council, but I'm going to do my best to just kind of relay that information to you all. Um, because yeah, there I think we were lucky to get him through just that one council meeting and I don't want to overextend Samuel. Um but

I would at least you know say that we can at least review that meeting um record at city council if there is some interest in seeing what he had to say. But again I will I will do my best to talk about that. I think um you know we'll get into more detail of course when that comes closer to um being the subject of our meeting. But it's worth noting that um you know one of the really major components of that is actually that our um housing needs sort of target or our sort of production target rather um will be a little bit different. Um it'll be generated a lot differently than it had been for the last 2023 housing needs analysis. um and you know will be a little bit more tied to a statewide allocation of housing need that is then distributed to sort of different areas of uh the state of course um housing need was largely distributed to the Portland metro region through metro and so we'll be working with metro actually in the coming weeks to start that conversation about um population growth uh estimates etc u but for the most part these things will be calculated much differently than they were in the past and um long story short, we will have a larger need um for in terms of the number of units than we did under the previous kind of framework. So, we'll get into more of that detail on the 23rd of February. Of course, there's the tree regulation project as well. um the um staff really the planning department in general is taking on a lot of large significant projects in you know this year and in the the you know past couple of years as well. Um so of course lots of things related to housing. You know we had the CFAC um removal of minimum parking mandates and sort of a large parking related project. This is another really hot topic in of course the Lake Swiggo community um tree code and um you know not just the tree code quote unquote

which is um uh you know not not necessarily the same as uh the development code that the planning commission deals with but um you know we are of course going to be talking about that more throughout 2026 and did conduct a few work sessions last year on July 28th and December 8th. Um so um as you know you've talked about recently with Jessica at our work session um the last work session that we held on December 8th again uh there is also an ad hoc treat task force that's been meeting around that project and we'll continue to meet throughout 2026 until that project is closer to fruition and of course we have made some progress with um the resoning for housing project um Michael McName will be leading that work and um you know basically we talked about that in the context of the housing production strategy and its implementation last year. Um it is a component of the housing production strategy and we did conduct a work session with the planning commission about that. Um just to talk about kind of the general scope of that project. Uh but for the most part um we're still kind of in the early phases of this work. We were awarded with a DLCD housing planning assistance grant for this project last year and um we were we ended up going with DLCD's option to work with one of their sort of in-house consultants. They have a um grouping of consultants, kind of an in-house roster of consultants that um they um can assign to cities for projects like this. Of course, we could have opted to do an RP as well, but um we decided to go with I guess a simpler option for this particular project. And we ended up um being awarded uh or or being I guess matched with rather the consultant team at Cascadia Partners and we'll be working with uh Jamon Kimmel who was around for a lot of

the middle housing work that we did back in I think it was 2022 when much of that was happening. So, um, you know, we, um, have a history of working with them and they do great work and I think it'll be a really good consultant team to work on for that project. So, that's something that we'll be talking with you about sooner than later. U, we're still working to complete the contract with that consultant team and work with PLC on the specifics of the scope. So, we're still refining that, but um, that is something that we anticipate getting going this year and then completing by the end of 2027. Um, so that will be a large project that, you know, could be somewhat contentious, but it will be um a sort of more systematic look at areas of the city that could be upzoned um to add residential density that would meet the needs identified in that housing needs. And on a similar uh sort of uh side of things, we also have the code audit and amendments for housing and business. This is similar in that it is a housing production strategy related project uh but it is you know sort of also looking at not just housing but economic development and business activity as well. So really working to identify barriers in the code to either the development of housing or business um activity and economic development. And um you know another project where we have also procured a grant this time from Metro. So, a little bit more similar to the process we used for the foothills project. Um, we are currently working to finalize the intergovernmental agreement with Metro. Again, kind of negotiations about the scope and just kind of refinements, but expect to get out a RFP in February for that project. And, um, yeah, we'll have at least the IGA approved by council in February and then um, hoping to issue the RFP very soon after. and we anticipate that that will be finished by August 2027, but um it's probably more

like the end of 2027, whereas the grant only goes up the um that period in August 2027. So that's just one clarification. And of course, Foothills um that's something that I have been deeply deeply involved with and um working on on a very sort of uh aggressive if you will basis working quite a bit about that. um dedicating a lot of my hours to this project. So excited to come to you at our next meeting in January on January 26th to share some of the results of our first round of analysis and um our look at existing conditions in that area. Um so we'll have our consultant team from first 40 ft who um we brought on to uh to help us with that project. They presented to you back on August 25th um talking about our public involvement strategy for that project. But now that we have a little bit more work conducted and have a little bit more to share with you, [snorts] we wanted to come talk about the results of that work and the results of that kind of existing condition inventory phase and think about how that should um sort of frame where we end up going with some of the conceptual alternatives that will be developed in a um a next stage of the project. So really trying to transition from that existing conditions analysis to visioning um with you. So, we'll be meeting both at the end of this month to talk about what we found in terms of the existing additions and um our next meeting would be scheduled for early March to then talk about translating that into a vision for for the area. And so, we'd be talking a little bit higher level principles vision, not necessarily conceptual, you know, actual sort of on the ground physical designs at that point, but um we will be going through that process throughout the year. So, a lot of progress to be made on that project this year. Um and of course there are many different advisory committees for that. We have both a technical advisory and a

community advisory committee. And um we'll be holding some open houses and things in the coming month um or coming months rather probably at the end of February. We'll have an open house on that. We have a community advisory committee uh meeting tomorrow actually um for the project and um lots of other kind of uh events and sort of outreach that we have scheduled going on there. So lots of activity and we actually just released a story map for the project. So, we have these more um you know technical documents where you can go through and kind of read the the what we're calling a field guide with the findings and we also have um this kind of interactive what we're calling a story map tool um its own website where you can go through that information. There's lots of opportunities for members of the public to weigh in and answer some questions and start providing input there as well. So really have a a larger kind of um communications campaign right now to spread the word about that and are trying to um spread that around. I think we sent that out to all the boards and commissions so you got that as well.

Yeah. Thank you for your work on the foothills, Eric. It's really like coming together so fast.

Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we we spent a lot of time getting the consultant on board, but um now that they're on board, we're really getting a lot of work done quickly and um it's fun to finally get into the uh sort of pen to paper stage that we're going to be entering in in the next couple of months. So um you know, of course things are still very conceptual and still um yet to be uh determined, but um we have a pretty aggressive schedule. So I guess I'll pause there. That's really an overview of projects where we've [clears throat] already seen this to some extent at the planning commission and um you know some of them are complete but a lot of them um are projects that were just um from a staff level you know we're going to have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to these projects and um anticipate that much of our energy will be going towards those projects for the most part this year. Um but I guess I can just really quickly pause and ask if there's any questions about what I just covered. I don't have any questions about it. Um, I think that was a great summary. Uh, at the end it's got this recommendation that says that we should provide some direction on the top three commission accomplishments from 2025 as well as top three themes or ideas that the commission would like city council to consider for their 2026 goal setting session. Is that what we should do now? Yeah, you know, I think um I think now is probably the best time to talk about the accomplishments piece at least. Um and so, you know, I guess um I could make some guesses as to what you might pick as your your biggest accomplishments, but um you know, I I was leaning towards thinking that the uh home occupations work probably wasn't going to be something that um you wanted to highlight. Um but um otherwise,

not yet. Not yet. [laughter] Um otherwise, yeah, I think uh with that, I guess I'd just say that's my assumption, but that's obviously open to discussion, but um you know, I guess my uh my thoughts if this might help generate some discussion um would be, you know, the affirmatively furthering fair housing project. um even though it's a private application, you know, I think that 4,000 cruiseway place was a a big uh project that we saw come here to the commission and also um one that will have a tangible impact on I think it's a significant accomplishment nonetheless. And um yeah, I [clears throat] think you know we could talk about our work on the tree regulations project. Of course, nothing was formally adopted. We could talk about um the annual code amendments from 2024. There's also different things that we could talk about as accomplishments and they don't necessarily have to be things that were formally adopted in um but yeah what what what are some of your thoughts on accomplishments from last year? I know we're in this phase where we have these quite long projects that take a while to kind of um you know become a little bit more real and then obviously you know multi-year projects to adoption. So, you know, not a lot of those came to fruition last year. 2024 was the adoption of our housing production strategy, which, you know, kind of gave us a work plan for the coming six years at that point. Um, so we're really just kind of getting started on that. Um, so, um, I hope, uh, this doesn't make you think that we're not doing anything in the planning department. We we are staying very busy, uh, despite not having formally adopted, uh, as much as usual last year. No, I think everyone knows uh that you guys have definitely been busy and uh you know the information that we get always seems very well prepared. From your list, I look at item three, six and 8 as kind of some of the things that I would want to highlight. You know, focusing on the work on fair housing, housing production strategy and reszoning for housing. I think, you

know, you see a common theme there, but you know, that is one of our top concerns is, you know, how can we expand affordable housing throughout our community? And I think those items definitely highlight some of the work that I feel like we should be proud of over the last year or so. Yeah. So that's the affirmatively furthering fair housing. I think just general HPS implementation which um is kind of an overlap I guess a little bit with that but that's I'm okay with that. Um and um the third one that you suggested was the reasonzoning for housing project that

and then I guess number 10 the foothills as well. I feel like we're still kind of in like at least from the commission's point of view, we're still kind of being presented information and not really being asked to analyze or decide too much on that yet. I'm excited to again like Commissioner Njok said, I'm excited to see, you know, how that progress, you know, continues on that project, but I can't say that like I feel like that's a huge accomplishment for the commission. A little premature. Yeah, not quite yet, but I'm really excited about it for sure. Cool. All right. Well, is there um some consensus, I guess, about those three projects that Commissioner Bruce mentioned?

Um the reasonzoning that's for 4,000 Cruise Way. Um the reasonzoning that uh Commissioner Bruce suggested was just the project which really, you know, the the main progress we made last year was getting the grant um for that approved by DLCD. Um but it it's it could be inclusive of that as well. Um, but you know, I think like I said, it's that that is it is a separate project that's kind of scoped in and of itself that we anticipate getting um going pretty soon here.

Yeah. I to me I think when I think of like how the public responded and the like most interaction the public had all year with us was definitely that uh land use application. So, I think as far as like uh for better, for worse, how we may or may not have aligned with the public's voices, like I do think that was a a significant uh moment for the planning commission to provide input on and guide the community.

Yeah, we don't have many of those opportunities at the planning commission. You don't get um applications like that very often. So, it is a unique opportunity. Yeah. Or for the public to come in to the meetings. [laughter] Well, they're always welcome to come in. It's just some some things generate a little bit more um passion than others, right? Yes.

Yeah. It's a you know we didn't it was a lot more sort of formal of course in the sort of um the procedure I guess for the hearing and you know pro or con but um you know of course we do somewhat similar process for a lot of our legislative hearings um like for the adoption of HPS or something um but yeah this you know I think it's similar to the something that would be at the DRC in terms of the number of people that showed up and had comments. Well, I appreciate the work that um staff does and and the all the the the time and all the work that goes behind each one of these items. It's just so much. And um I I trust you to recommend the ones that were, you know, the ones that you're most proud of because you did all the work.

That's you helped, of course, too. you all you all did quite a bit too. So, of course, um yeah, I appreciate that though. Um and yeah, I think uh we definitely have some overlap on the for relief affirmatively furthering fair housing project. I think that seems like a one that we're in alignment on. Um I know Rachel, you suggested the 4,000 cruise place. That's something um I think we could add to the list, but you know, I you know, they're not everybody was on the same page with that. So, you know, it's uh it's up to you as as whether you want to kind of take credit for that. Um, and yeah, you know, I think we can talk about housing production strategy implementation more broadly. Um, that's totally fine as kind of an accomplishment for 2025. Um, there's just so many balls in the air. So, we talked about Senate Bill 1537. We talked about um, you know, other kind of pending land use legislation that we're going to have to address in the near future. Um, we had a quasi judicial, you know, resoning applicant. I mean, we had all these things that kind of are related to the HPS that, um, you know, we're not just tracking those individual projects, but we're tracking that as a larger project, too. So, um, anyway, I I think it's fair to kind of double dip in that way, if you will. Um but yeah, any other input on that? Um I got input from from some of you, but um just want to make sure um there's nothing else that folks want to say before we move forward.

I'll just make another I'll make a second, I guess, for 4,000 cruise way. if if nothing more to memorialize that um you know we should expect either the DRC or the planning commission or full city council or or others more of these type of applications in the future than less as we move towards you know the city of Lakeo is landlocked by the urban growth boundary there's only a finite amount of both land suitable for housing and industrial land for traded sector jobs and things like that and I thought it it was important to me to see that hey this process works and seemed to work very well. Um not the fastest but like we went through the process as many folks were included and the sides were heard in the issues. But if you have a project that conforms to a zoning change, land use, reuse of your property and you're in the city of Lake Oiggo, this is a great place to do business and you will get a fair hearing and you will get to move your project forward. Like I think that's important that um you know not only that the community inside the city of Lake Asiggo sees that and demonstrates that to the credit of the staff um but folks outside of the city that are looking to either relocate or expand or or come into the city and do business there. So that that's that's my thoughts on that. Thank you.

Thanks Commissioner Guinea. Yeah, I think um I think you know I think we could talk about 4,000 cruiseway place for the furthering fair housing and maybe just the ongoing HPS work more broadly as the the three accomplishments. Do you feel do folks feel generally comfortable with those? Okay, sounds good to me. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yep, that'd be great.

All right, sounds good. I appreciate it. Um, and yeah, I really just have a very small portion of the new work for 2026. So, I I guess that gives you a sense of just how much um we're going to be kind of continuing with the um the projects that we're talking about um that we started talking about last year. So, really foothills, the reasonzoning and the code audit are going to be huge um components of what we talk about in the near future here. Um but um I want to mention also um that we um will be talking about another component of the HPS which is the adoption of a lowinccome rental housing tax exe exemption. Um and uh that's something that Jessica has been um looking into and will be uh talking about in a little bit more detail with uh the commission in the coming year um if not you know sooner than you know the end of the year I think probably. Um, and yeah, that's just kind of a tax exemption that would be similar to one that was adopted by the city council a couple years back that was just targeted towards nonprofits and I believe um I I think Posianda took advantage of that particular tax exemption for the Elito site. So, Commissioner Nach is familiar. Um, so yeah, this would be something similar to that, but would not just be oriented towards nonprofits. Um, and you know, it's something that we want to talk about at the planning commission, although planning commission action isn't, I think, technically required for the adoption of that. It's something that'll just go to city council, but um, it is something that, you know, we want your input on regardless. So, or at least, you know, to keep you apprised for everything going on. So, we will be discussing that. So that's really um yeah a bit of work that we haven't really initiated so far but um just given the sort of need to apply for grants and the length of time that it takes for those grants you know I think um you know we'll we'll actually be starting a lot of projects in terms of actual contracting and a consultant on board um that we've already talked about

at the um at the planning commission. So, um, yeah, I think, you know, like I said, I think in terms of staff, uh, priorities, you know, really the foothills, the resoning, and the code audit are big priorities this year, but, um, you know, this that's that's staff. So, I want to talk to you about what you think,

um, the commission's uh, goals are for the year. And of course, I just want to add another caveat, I guess, before we get into this that, you know, we do want to um, you know, that this may change, I guess, depending on the council's goals. I doubt that it'll be very different. Again, a lot of what we're talking about is work that we've already initiated, but um, you know, we will want to circle back on this once we hear more about what their goals are for 2026. Um, so this is really our initial take and we'll have another pass. So, with that, um, how do folks feel about the three things that you're excited for for 2026 or or do you have anything to add to that list? Are you are you comfortable with the three projects that I talked about there or do you have any additional suggestions?

Keeping the momentum on foothills and housing production strategy. Agree. Yep. Yeah. the KOD and resoning are going to be two of the biggest housing production strategy projects and um two of the projects that will have probably the biggest impact I would say um in terms of overall production. So um agreed co-signed on what Brian said.

All right. Well, um I don't want to belabor this, so I appreciate the input. Um, let me know if you have any other thoughts. Again, we'll continue this conversation um likely in early March. Thank you, Eric. And of course, at the boards and commission summit. So, I guess

it's related enough to our 2026 goals. I'll just talk a little bit about the boards and commission summit. So, that's again um we've already talked about this a little bit, but it's very much related to 2026 and what we're going to be taking on as a city. Um, so I just mentioned um that you know we're also um you know obviously going to be meeting on Thursday night at 5:30 at the adult community center but it is a little bit of a different um structure this year and it's going to take the format of a think tank um I've been informed um and the idea is to generate new ideas from the community um sort of outside of the box ideas that enhance the Lake Asiggo community. So it's really open-ended. It doesn't even need to be specific to planning, although I'm sure that that's most likely what your inclinations will be. Um, but it is supposed to be, you know, again, this sort of outside of the box um kind of uh ideas are are are very much accepted. They don't need to be scoped or funded or or anything of that nature. It's it's really um a brainstorming session, I think, but it's going to be a little bit more um structured like a Shark Tank or or a show like that, I think, this time. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Um but yeah, I just want to give you a heads up that you know your your ideas will be not only welcomed but um you will be asked to um come up with a a concrete sort of discreet idea um to uh present in that format and I think initially you'll present it amongst a group um you'll be in like a small group and you'll talk about it and um I think the idea is that one idea will kind of emerge and then go compete with the rest of the ideas that that emerge from the other groups. So, um, just want to give you a heads up.

This is for city council and then the different commissions. Will there be community members there as well? Um, typically we don't invite outside community members. There is a large presence of community members on all the boards and commissions, but it's primarily intended for just boards and commissions. Um so members of um obviously the planning commission but development review commission um you know the uh and the city council sustainability advisory board, city council, all the all the council members are there. It's um led by the city manager their

Yes. Yes. She's usually the one that facilitates the event um or at least the their office will um and yeah I mean there's you know all the different boards and commissions will be able to weigh in. So, but it's not on the record.

No, I don't think it is. I I don't think it's on the record and they don't they don't like record the meeting or anything like that. And I will say uh the city manager uh will is out this week. So, she will not be at this boards and commissions, but I do believe the assistant city manager Megan Failen will be there in her in her place. But uh but no, we haven't we haven't recorded the meetings or you know they aren't considered formal meetings and in as [clears throat] far as I recall and that doesn't trigger any kind of quorum requirements or anything like that. I guess I'm sort of still learning all that stuff.

No, it's it's kind of a informal brainstorming session and it's um yeah, it's a typical sort of event that um city council likes to conduct in early January. you obviously the city manager's office is the one that throws it but it's um really to inform city council goal setting. So they always conduct their goal setting after the summit and sort of take those ideas into consideration and then their kind of goals um are developed based on that input. Um so that's kind of the the general process. Um so there will be you know um summaries of the events but it won't be recorded per se. you know, summaries of particularly the ideas that emerge from from the sort of think tank.

Sort of intimidating. I've never been asked to be on Shark Tank before or anything like that. The last one that I went to was kind of fun. It was like a brainstorming session and you have um you know just postits and notes and markers and and then you have a notetaker that's just you know just one of those typical retreats where you're brainstorming. Um yeah I'll be there and I'll be note takingaking. Yeah, light refreshments like shakuderie stuff and yeah it's it's very informal. It was fun. Yeah,

it's light. It's fun. Um, it'll be a different structure as I mentioned this year, but I think it'll probably just be more light and more fun probably because of this. Um, and then everybody laughs because everybody wants food trucks and they're not going to do it. [laughter] Well, you know, that's never you never know what'll come out this year. Yeah. Yeah. But Hills Redevelopment. [laughter] Yeah. That's where all the food trucks will go. Yeah. We We have to figure out how the food trucks are going to get there in the first place. So that's where they're going to park.

Yeah. [laughter] Um so yeah, just just a heads up. This is all related to goal setting. So I just wanted to kind of let you know about the kind of um uncommon structure of that event, but really encourage you all to come and I think it'll be a fun one and this is really your opportunity to talk to city council about what you want to be doing this year. So or you want what you want other departments to do as well. Sounds good. Yeah, sounds like fun. Yeah, I would encourage you all to join if you're available. Um, but yeah, otherwise I think um I have what I need for the the top threes. So, thanks Chair Mitchell.

Great. Thank you. I think that concludes uh that item on tonight's agenda, which will bring us to the next item number 10, other business. Uh just one thing I want to let you know about. Of course I already mentioned that we have a new uh council leazison to the planning commission Rachel Berdick. Um I also wanted to mention though that we will have a new uh sort of attorney presence at our meetings a presiding attorney. We have a new land use contract actually um or sorry a new legal contract for somebody to help out with land use related um legal matters including um attendance at planning commission hearings and on occasion to planning commission meetings. So, um, we actually have a contract with a different firm than we did for the last few meetings. So, um, Chris Crane, um, is no longer, uh, going to be our contracting attorney for land use matters. We now have somebody that's going to be, um, dedicated to those types of, again, land use matters for the entire year of 2026 at least. Um, her name is Suani Miller from what is it? Miller Nash, I believe, is the firm that she's from. Um, and yeah, she's been great. so far and will be um at least throughout uh the year she'll be our our land use uh legal sort of presence at planning commission meeting. So, um, she's also going to be in attendance at our next meeting, the inerson meeting on the 202 or January 2020 January 2020, oh my gosh, January 26, 2026. I can't say it for some reason. Um, and uh, she will also uh, you know, be joined by councelor Verdick who will be there in person as well. So, it'll be a good opportunity to meet those two um, new kind of presences at the planning commission on the 26th. That's the That's my business.

Great. Thanks, Eric. Up next, item 11, schedule review.

Yeah, I've probably already gone over all these dates in my summary of what's coming next for you all, so I'll try not to belabor it, but um the 26th, our next meeting in two weeks, we'll be talking about Foothills opportunities and constraints. Um hoping to actually utilize a cool new tool um potentially to talk about that. So might um might introduce that in March but um we might be able to uh use that with you all too. So um anyway uh it will be a good discussion regardless. We have a lot of content to cover and eventually we are hoping to use something called meant to meter to um sort of do some uh get some takes from the planning commission without um I guess without them being immediately public and known to everybody so that they come up a little bit more anonymously and folks can see um kind of the progression of of what people are thinking about um without you know kind of having it be in the conversation format I suppose. So it'll be interesting. it'll be a little bit new, but um we've been testing it out and it works fairly well. So um we'll be playing around with that new tool at that work session most likely um as well as the one in March. Um and yeah, in early February, we have uh we had tentatively planned uh work session to continue talking about goal setting with you are with you all for that first meeting in February on the 9th. Um but because of the postponement of the council goal setting summit or the goal setting retreat rather um that looks like we're going to have to push that out to probably March their first meeting in March. Um so that may end up being cancelled that meeting and and on February 9th. So just a heads up there. Um if nothing else pops up for that date that might end up being cancelled. Um, and on the 23rd, I will go over this new housing needs analysis, the statewide u sort of framework that was developed and the rule making specific to that and giving you a summary of what that looks like. And we'll be talking about that. Um, and again, more foothills on March 9th as well. [clears throat] So, a lot

of foothills, a lot of goal setting in the coming months. And uh yeah, I guess that that should cover us at least through early March. Great. Thanks, Eric. I think that uh takes us through tonight's agenda. So, unless anyone has any questions, comments, or or final thoughts, I just have something to say to all of you. Happy New Year. Thanks. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. When does uh when does Commissioner Nhak take over then as chair? The next meeting.

Well, then I think we should do a motion to formally thank uh Chair Mitchell for all of his service over the past year. [snorts] Absolutely. It's been a lot of work preparing and leading the meetings and I feel like he's done an excellent job. So, just want to maybe I don't know maybe it doesn't have to be formal but just say thank you. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Don, for a beer at the next meeting after the next. Yeah.

No, thank you. Um it's it's really a privilege to lead um such a group uh who really come committed and um having read and have ideas and questions and comments and and and come prepared um and you know, different different lines of thinking and and nobody's uh as far as I could tell been afraid to um say what they're thinking and you know, that's the point. We're there to uh deliberate. Um, so really really proud to be the chair uh for this past year. And of course it's only possible with the help of staff. So Eric, Jessica, Iris, Christina, everyone um everyone that's presented and just done a great job of really tipping us uh and and handing everything for us to do. Um makes it much easier. So appreciate that.

Humble. Humble as always. All those kind words. Should we all Should we all leave? [laughter] Eat dinner? Yeah. The We've been here for just over an hour, so um yeah, I think it's time to adjourn. Thanks everyone. Yep. Thanks everyone. Thank you.

Thanks all and What are you?