Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

for sure yep for sure by an order of magnitude so yeah my wife was definitely running around a little nervous on sunday saturday before we left and packing everything up so

Do you guys go up and visit at all, or is it a complete, like, you won't see her again for five weeks?

No, we're going to write letters, send her letters, and she writes letters back to us. And then we're going to go up two days before her camp ends and spend a couple days exploring Orcas Island. It was my first time up there yesterday, and it's just beautiful up there.

Where is Orcas Island? Orcas Island.

It's in the San Juan Islands, so it's up north of Seattle in Puget Sound, and there's a bunch of different islands up there that are all, you have to take a ferry out there, and just magical, beautiful place. If you ever want to go explore Pacific Northwest, San Juan Islands are a really special place.

She's going to Camp Arkyla, James.

What's that?

She's going to Camp Arkyla.

It's called Four Winds on Orcas Island. I guess next year will be their 100th anniversary. They were founded in 1927. And all the kids wear like the old fashioned uniforms, bloomers and everything.

My daughter goes to Camp Orcaila on Orcas Island. So she'll be there the first week of August. We send her there every summer. I actually went there when I was a kid. I'm from Whidbey Island. So Orcas Island is my favorite place in the entire world so far.

It seems just, like I said, just a magical place. It really is. Yeah, very beautiful.

Hi, everyone. We are live and ready to go when you are.

Thank you, Michelle. I'd like to go ahead and call to order the Planning Commission meeting of June 22, 2026. Michelle, would you please call roll?

Commissioner Mitchell.

Here.

Commissioner Moreno. Here. Commissioner Guinea.

Here.

Commissioner Twing. I don't see him yet. And Vice Chair Bruce.

I am here. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. The next item on the agenda tonight is the public comment. Michelle, do we have anyone here tonight that would like to give public comment?

We did not have anybody sign up. No.

Great. Thank you. That moves us on to item number four on the agenda, which will be a review of our meeting on June 8th regarding a legislative text amendments to chapter 55 of the Tree Code and chapter 50 of the Community Development Code, case number LU26-0014. The draft findings were distributed earlier to the commissioners. Are there any revisions to the findings? And if not, do I have a motion to approve?

I move to approve as presented.

Thank you, Commissioner Moreno. Do I have a second?

I will second that.

And then we would need to have a vote. Is that next? Yes. So we'll go ahead and vote on the motion to approve. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, say nay.

Commissioner, Vice Chair Bruce, since you voted no for the decision, the tentative decision, then it would be appropriate if you still want to vote no for the findings as well. Because this is finalizing the decision on June 8th.

Okay, yeah, thank you, Director Naumanalu. I was under the impression I wasn't allowed to make a motion or second it, but I will continue with my nay vote, so thank you. Yep. But it sounds like we have approval from a majority of the Planning Commission, and therefore I believe the findings will be approved as presented. Thank you all. The next item on the agenda, item number five, other business. Do we have any other business for the Planning Commission to consider this evening?

Yeah, you know, I just wanted to note something that I had sent out today that the library site reuse task force is actually looking for a potential representative that serves on the planning commission. I think ideally they're looking for somebody that lives in the sort of downtown or first edition or evergreen area, but that's not a complete requirement. I think that's just like their ideal candidate. I think from the planning commission, we'd be bringing you know, perspective, that would be a little bit more about like, you know, the applicable regulations and the code that would be relevant to this. You know, I'm assuming that commissioners Moreno and Mitchell are likely not going to be willing to do a lot more volunteering when they're not going to be on the commission in the next year or so. So, you know, I think We're looking for a volunteer probably out of the two of you. Obviously, there are other commissioners that we can connect with, too. That's going to be here next year. I guess that would be one of the other requirements. But yeah, essentially, they have done a lot of studies into relocating the library from its current location in first edition, not too far from City Hall, actually, on I think it's fourth street is that right um not too far down from city hall just uh to the north i suppose um so anyway they're looking at um whether that site was viable into the future they've had a number of issues um in terms of the current facility i think um you know specifically um they'd had some issues um with just the capacity and size of the facility. It's getting worse in terms of its seismic sort of ability to stand a seismic event. We've had issues with water intrusion, accessibility, et cetera. So they've been looking at different locations. I think they're still kind of in the process of doing that, but as a part of that larger effort, there was this conversation about what to do with the existing facility in that site when it becomes relocated. So that's what this task force would be focusing on. So anyway, we can, you know, of course, talk about this more as a project evolves. But, you know, that would be ideally they'd look for somebody to apply from the commission by July 3. So, you know, it'd be before our next meeting. But that doesn't mean that we can still try to reach out to folks that aren't here at the current meeting and see if they're willing and able to serve.

Manager Olson, did they tell they give you more details on what the commitment would be in terms of the length of the term or how many times they might meet?

They did, thanks for reminding me about that. They would meet approximately six times between this August and next April. So less than a year in terms of the duration, six meetings. And yeah, I guess that'd be approximately once every two months or so, but that's very, well, I guess that's a little bit more than that, but once every one to two months they'd be meeting.

Thank you, Manager Olson. It sounds like a great opportunity. I would, you know, defer to Commissioner Guinea if he's interested, but I realize he may have a lot on his plate at the moment. And so are you interested Commissioner Guinea at this time?

I am interested. I do have a lot on my plate. And next week we'll have, or next meeting, we'll have several of our folks back and some new commissioners as well.

Yeah, maybe I can reach out via email just to remind folks about this via email because we ideally would like to get somebody before the 3rd and somebody that's had some experience on the commission would be ideal. So while our new members would be great to include, I think there was a preference to get folks that had been around a little bit longer. So regardless, though, I will try to advance this conversation and understand that needs, you know, folks might need some more time to think about this and just kind of determine if they actually have the availability. So no worries. And again, we didn't have a few people here that could be interested, too.

Great, thank you. Thank you, Manager Olson. It does sound like an excellent opportunity. And I'm sure one of us will take you up on that offer, that opportunity. So thank you. Any other business for us to review this evening under item number five from the agenda?

That's it.

Great, thank you. We'll move on now to item number six, which is schedule review.

So that's me again. So I guess, yeah, I just mentioned we have our next meeting on July 13th. We'll be discussing two different work sessions or receiving presentations more or less on two different work sessions. The first one will be with respect to the semi-annual, what we're now calling the semi-annual code amendments, which we've referred to as just kind of our ongoing annual code amendments efforts where we're going to update the... you know, the sort of maintenance items that we identify as we go through implementing the code and on the review side. And a few of those are going to be necessary to comply with new state legislation, particularly House Bill 2138, I believe, or Senate Bill 2138. might be misquoting that. But regardless, there's a lot of state legislation that we have to comply with. Some of the deadlines are this coming January 1st of 2027. So we have to get some code amendments passed before the end of the year with those. In addition to that, we're going to have another work session on the code audit work. So a lot of focus on the code, I suppose, where we'll just get a little bit of an update from Senior Planner Evan Franstead on the Code Audit Project where that's at. They do have a consultant on board for that work at this point. So they're getting going with the public involvement strategy and initial steps of that process. And that's another thing where they will be asking for a volunteer from the Planning Commission to help participate in some of that work. So just a little bit of a heads up on that. We'll be sending you more in advance of that meeting. So two work sessions are, yeah, work sessions studied or planned for July 13th. The July 20, well, sorry, it's the July 27th meeting had to be pushed out actually till August 10th. So we don't currently have an item on July 27th. We had to push that out. That was the Foothills work sessions. The next work session on Foothills will be August 10th. And yeah, that kind of, is at least the most recent update. We're hoping to get something on the calendar for either that second date in July or August. Looking at some, again, I've been teasing this for a while, but we're hoping to actually do a tour that's relevant to some of the projects that we're working on, particularly the code audit and the rezoning. So I'm hoping to have some type of arrangement set up for one of those dates and we'll keep you all posted.

Excellent. Thank you, Manager Olson. So it sounds like no meeting on July 27th at the moment. Is that correct?

That's right. We have nothing scheduled for that date right now. Great. Thank you. And I guess I would just note maybe as other business that this is the official last meeting of Commissioners Moreno and Mitchell. So, you know, again, we just want to thank you for everything you've done. And yeah, it's been great to work with you for all these years. So I wish you well.

Thank you. Although I have to say that I am not happy that now you have a field trip.

Now that I'm leaving. The warm weather is picking up. Yeah. Well, you're welcome to join if you just want. Yeah.

I'm just kidding. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the staff. Thank you, Jessica, Christina, Michelle, Eric. Thank you to everyone. Thank you, fellow commissioners. Everyone's in great hands here in the city and, you know, moving on, but still a resident of LO and looking forward to watching from afar how it goes, especially Foothills Redevelopment.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't feel hesitant to get involved in other ways. You know, we'd love to hear more from both of you.

Been a pleasure working with you both. Thanks. you so much, really.

Yes, I'll echo the other comments and just say my appreciation for both Commissioner Moreno and Commissioner Mitchell. It's been a pleasure working with you both and your leadership and insight has been really valuable as someone still fairly new learning the ropes. You've set an excellent example and you'll both be missed here. So thank you. That brings us to the end of the meeting. I don't think there's any other business unless anyone has anything else to add. I like when the meetings are nice and short tonight. So I think that's it. Unless anyone else has anything else? Manager Olson or Dr. Namanalu? All right. All right. Well, thank you all very much for your time this evening and we'll see you in a few weeks.

Thank you. Good night, everyone.