City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. I'd like to call uh to order the Lakewood City Council study session of Monday, May 11th, 2026. We've got five members present. I don't know if anybody's on Zoom tonight. Is anybody else on Zoom? Miss Schum. Mayor, there are no virtual attendees. Thank you. Uh, first is the presentation by West Coast Baseball League and I'd like to call Miss Roxan Miles, our parks and recreation community services director to give us an introduction to the individuals.

So, thank you. Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, council members. So, we're happy to be here tonight. I'm going to invite Tony Bonacci to join you there at the table. Uh, in the arena here is also Wade Seagull and he's another partner. And so the discussion tonight is about West Coast Baseball League and the possibility of bringing a franchise here to Lakewood. Also want to point out that Duncan Stevenson who is with Pierce College uh is also here because as you know we have a strong partnership with the college and field one or the home field complex uh is the site that is under consideration. So I'm going to turn things over to Tony here, move through his presentation and I know he's happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you Miss Miles, Mr. Vanaci. The floor is yours. Does he have the clicker? I was gonna I'll click for you. Are you ready? You just tell me next.

Deputy mayor and council members. Thank you for the invitation to be here. Um, as Roxan said, my name is Tony Bonacci. I'm here with my business partner, Wade Seagull. Uh, on behalf of the West Coast League, uh, our organization Southwest baseball group and introduce both of those things to you and uh the opportunity that we might bring both to to Lakewood. So, I'm I'm going to start with a little bit and I I I know that you've received the package. I'm going to start a little bit with uh with a summary of what the league is uh and then what our our our team is and sort of how we operate and what we bring to the communities uh in which we play. and then um and then talk a little bit about where we might go from here. Um uh we the the West Coast League is a summer collegiate baseball league and in that regard it is what it sounds like. It's a it is a a league that operates during the summer months. It it is generally from just after Memorial Day until about the middle of August. Uh the games are played very much or the the games look very much and the schedule looks very much like a minor league schedule. Uh we attract players from all over the country to to to play in our in our league and we play in we play approximately 60 games during the course of the summer. About 30 or 35 of those would be would be home dates. the the the West Coast League within the leagues that do what we do, the the West Coast League is at the at at the high end of of this level of of baseball. We the league started in 2005 as a as a sevenperson league and we just finished our our 20th season last year. Um the initial the initial teams in the in the league, there were seven four Washington

teams, uh two Oregon teams, and one Canadian team. Uh last year we finished our 20th season with with 17 teams. Uh with 17 teams, seven in seven in Washington, five in Oregon, and now five in in in Canada. We've grown from an audience or from a from a fan base that was about 200,000 total fans in that in those early stages to last year over over 750,000 fans, you know, watch watch West Coast League games watch West Coast League games live. In terms of the uh you can switch to the next slide. Sorry. in in terms of the the level of play. Uh we've been fortunate to have elite players uh you know from throughout the country that have that have come to spend their their summers with us on their on their way to to hopefully playing professionally uh or even to further their their college careers. In the last six years, we have had we have twice uh our league has produced the number one overall draft pick um in in uh in Major League Baseball. Uh last in 2025, we had 54 players that were drafted or or uh signed as free agents with teams. And this year, the 2026 season, we had 35 of our alums that began as or that that's that played that were on were on opening day major league rosters. Oh, go ahead. Switch. So, uh our group, uh Southwest Washington Baseball Group, we are one of two groups in in the league that operates that operates two teams. The other being the there's a a group that operates Victoria and Nimo. We operate the two teams. We operate a a team in Ridgefield and this would be uh this would be our our second team. Uh we began uh with a team in Katas uh in in in 2010 uh and then WDE and I became partners in 2019 when

Ridgefield became our our our second team. We are very much baseball at this level is very much of a community experience and that is why we enjoy it and it is it it directs our approach. Uh the the the games become a gathering place for the communities. Uh and and we hope our hope is that our games are the things that people have in common. They're things that the people they both attract people from outside the area to the community and they are and they become what the community uh one of the elements in which the community takes tremendous pride. Um you can go ahead and uh switch the next slide. So we do surveys after every year and I just wanted to speak to to some of the numbers that we that we are particularly proud of. Um uh and our surveys kind of bear out what we hope our product is and would continue to be. You see in the bottom left of the people that come to our game, 74% say that they that they come because it's their it's it's their community team and to support their team. And we have uh 25% of our fans that respond to the survey say that they attend 10 or more games. A it is a substantial commitment and that we that we take a lot of pride in the fact that people that that our that our fans do do come to that many games and and are there to support our uh our players and our team and our team. Go ahead and go to the next slide. Our team is um is it it goes beyond we consider our team much more than the than the than the players on the field. We have one of the things that our players allow us to do and that our organization allows us to do is to

support uh local baseball. So we we we run camps um that have been tremendous successes. Uh we we work with uh local youth organizations and we we provide sort of a we provide a a a path to local players to a enjoy the game and and b to see what they might become. As it turns out, our the players that come to play for us being college age are they they are just wonderful with with little kids. And so they they're they're great role models. They're great at teaching the game and they give us they give us a connection. Go ahead to the next one. We have um we have our organization and organizations like ours present a real opportunity for local employment which tends to be which tends to skew to to younger to younger folks. A lot of them for their for their their their very first uh a lot of them end up being their their very first job. Like you said, we have about 60 summer employment opportunities. Um, you know, we we we we hope that what we do inspires the players that play for us and the young people uh that that work for us. We hope it inspires them to see what they what might be in front of them on on and off the field. You know, in in most cases uh or in a lot of cases that inspiration is sort of uh flipped where watching them do what they do is an inspiration to us. It's it is it's great to watch the players on the field to see what they need to see what they do to to keep themselves in the game and it is really nice to watch to watch people work sometimes for the first time. So that's it's it's it's part of why we do it. Um on the field go ahead to the next slide. I'm actually so actually go ahead

back to to the other one. So, on the field, just to give you to put into context some of of what we're talking about in terms of numbers on the field, and I'm going to use the Katz organization because it has had a 15-year runway and was mature in in terms of the the player development, but in 15 years, we had 92 players were were were drafted out of that organization. Um, and 13 have played in the 13 have played in the have made it all the way to the major leagues. Uh, and we have, you know, had 19 players play in the College World Series and that's sort of consistent with most of the organizations in in our in our our league off the field. Um, you know, preparing for this gave you an opportunity to look back at some of our at our last five years. And in this one, in this case, I I looked at at what we did, what we've done in Ridgefield with our employment numbers, and we've had 245 employees over the last five years that have spent their summer with us. some of them young people, some of them, you know, some of them some of them more mature, but it's it's 245 local summer positions and we've had a hundred of of those have spent more than one summer with us. So, it becomes a place where fans gather, but it also becomes a place that a lot of people in the area end up having in common as a place where they've worked and where they've spent some time. Um, we have internships in addition to what we have as our uh as our summer sort of part-time positions. We have internships that are substantive and educational. They're all they're all paid internships, but substantive and and educational and provide an opportunity that are that are very soughta. And these range from things like broadcasting to uh accounting and uh social media and data analytics. Uh we had a a sports science internship uh for a summer that we did in

collaboration with uh with as a part of a major league baseball study. And so we have things that are that would present ongoing opportunities to people that want to do some of these things professionally that you can do this. Um uh the the the uh the numbers the we we we we referenced some of our the idea that we are a gathering place gives us an opportunity to partner with local organizations and those local and so we can help them get their message out. We can help them raise we can help them do fundraising. These are some examples of some of the things that we of some of the of the nights that we do and all of them end up the fundraising is significant but it's also significant because they get to come out and enjoy the people that that that that support the the components of our business. A lot of them have numbers attached to them and those numbers are undeniably significant. Um, uh, you know, from the things that we talked about in the employment and the baseball to to the the economic development side and the and the the additional, you know, bringing people in from out of town for 30 nights a year is a is a big help. But the reason we frankly we do it in large part for the things that we that are difficult to put uh, a dollar to to the community pride piece, to the relationships we have, our players stay with, host families. those relationships are lasting. Um, I will this this summer I'll go to my third wedding of a former of a former of someone who played baseball with us. Two weeks ago, uh, our former mayor in Ridgefield sent me a picture of himself in Phoenix uh, watching the player that he hosted at Grand Canyon and, you know, just to let me know that he was that that he was in town. And so those are things that are that over generations they have an impact. They become part of the social fabric and they're an important reason

about why we're about why we're here. Go ahead. So the gathering place is the the the gathering place is what we what we believe we create. Base baseball is our vehicle. the players happen to be great, but baseball is the vehicle that allows us to create to create the community gathering place. Um, the opportunity that we that the the reason that we're that we had opened the discussion uh was through the initiative of of of Duncan at at at Pierce, we we began talking about this facility as a as a place that that might be able to accommodate uh what it is that that that we do. And so in order I have I have some notes on this one. So for the for our for a facility to accommodate the the level of play and the and the entertainment experience that we offer. The fundamental thing is a college level playing field uh with college level dimensions and um and and and lights. And that is that's the starting point. It's the hardest thing to have if you don't already have it. It's the hardest thing to to add. And um and and that is what that's what uh what you together with with peers have at at field one at uh at Fort Still. The other There are other components and we have we've had preliminary discussions with uh with Roxanne and with the parks department about the other components that would be that would be required for us to be able to put on uh the experience that we do on and off the field. Those things include things like like uh like an enclosed area like a fence in area so that you have a ballpark experience. Uh we would like to have an increased

capacity that would enable us to to hold you know to hold 2,000 people on a on a given night, not 2,000 seats, but the open space is a big component of that. Um, a concession facility that would enable us to serve food to that many people. And then restrooms and the sound system and other things that would be components of of of that kind of experience. So, those are all things that we're that that that we are working on uh that we're working on with uh with Roxan and and with her staff. the a timeline of what we are likely our timeline to is that we are trying to be in a position to play in 2027. And so that would that would require because of when our league makes its schedule, that would require that that that we are up and going and know where we're and and and know what we're going to be doing by August because that's that's that's when we that's when the league begins working on its on its schedule. Uh so our expectation or our path for the next between now and August time frame would be working uh with uh with Roxanne um uh and with with city manager Russell on on what would be a use agreement and on what we think we might be able to do with the facility improvements and then we would we would go from there to to you know to establishing a a local presence branding the team which is always a lot of Um, and then we'd be up and running for, you know, for next year. Um, with that, I'll I will, you know, I'm happy to take questions. I'm happy to have discussion and I'll turn it back over.

Thank you, Mr. Manaci, for that presentation. Start with any questions here. Ryan, Council Member Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. mayor and thank you very much for coming down and um giving us a presentation. I'm certainly interested. Um baseball's near and dear to me and my family and um I could certainly see us and entertaining ourselves and watching a bunch of games down there. So um I had a couple of questions. So what typically has been your longevity um in each of the cities or places that you guys have had teams? Has it been one shop.

It's we we would be we we would expect a long-term relationship. So, it's been we were 16 years in uh 16 years in Dallas, 15 seasons because we lost a co season. We're going on our seventh or eighth season in 10 of three season in Ridgefield. Um you know, the team in Bellingham has been there since the early 2000s. Um and so most of it so We we go into a community with the idea that we're safe.

Okay. Um would would this be a financial partnership or something that you're looking for the city to I mean I know that there's a partnership of some kind forming but what exactly it would be a use agreement. It would be it would be a use agreement relationship with the the partnership piece is is not a is not a an ownership partnership. No, I understand that. It's an operational where we be we become part of the of you know the of the city's the city calendar and uh but but as far as doing the improvements and stuff.

Oh, so the the the improvement piece would be something that we're in discussion on about how we might how we might fund those. Those would probably be something that would require would require some city participation. Gotcha. Um, and then I guess you're you're looking for some sort of definitive timeline by August. What what other facilities are you looking at right now around here? So, we're in in in in Lakewood. No, we are in No, but in Washington State, we are we are looking in other in other areas. Yeah, I figured so. Okay. Some of those aren't and they aren't, you know, they're not at a at a point where we are where where we're where they're in public discussion. I'm happy to under some

Yeah, I'm happy to have the discussion with you under some confidentiality. I appreciate it. But we do but yes, we're we're looking. Thank you, Council Member Lynholm. Yeah, thank you for coming to speak to us. I can save you some time and just say you want to be in Lakewood. Um you want to be in Lakewood. I can save you some due diligence. Um what do you see as being the biggest obstacle to the facility now to to what you need? Is there a particular buildout that you're like, gosh, that's going to be a heavy lift?

Oh, that's going to be a heavy lift. I don't think so. Um, you know, the like I said, the infrastructure, the the playing surface and the lights are the are the thing, like I said, that you if you have a if you have a bunch if you have a lot of seats and a short and it feels too small and can't see, it's not as good. And so from our perspective, I I think that the the seating the the seating capacity and um and the concessions and and I probably would put um I probably would put the concessions because it has some infrastructure associated with it as the heavier as the heavier lift. There are other things that are smaller like I mean I don't and and we're frankly still in the in in the discovery phase in in terms of things like a sound system and those those kind of things but those are in the grand scheme those are not big components. I think that the concessions piece is probably the biggest because of the infrastructure that comes with.

Would you want to be serving alcohol? We do. We would be serving um we we would have a uh It's an amateur sports facility license that gives us the ability to serve a within a certain it's it's essentially made for kind of what we do. Uh it's a it's a a relatively short window with a definitive number of dates. Um and so yes, we'd be we would be uh that would be part of what we do. Great. Thank you. I'll go to Deputy Mayor Bell. Thank you, Mayor. Um so do you have like an expected attendance size like in a different city that's comparable to Lakewood size?

So the conf So the attendance that we would be we would be trying to be somewhere in the 1300 people average range that that is that is because that's when these kind of work. Um, that would be in order to do that, it is helpful to have the ability to put 2,000 people in the park on on some nights because there are some nights when you're going to have 700. And so, um, in in general, I I think that we would be we would be somewhere in the in the,00 to,400 people on most nights.

Okay. And then we'd have some nights that are larger and then hopefully fewer nights that are smaller. Right. And so you briefly mentioned about the name of the the team. So what would it would that be Lakewood something? It would it would be Lakewood. Okay. So it would be Lakewood and then we would have some fun with this with the second.

Right. Okay. I like that. I like the Lakewood part. Thank you, Council Member Talbo. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um so in understanding the uh facilities and and setup and amenities needed or I guess amenities versus requirements for this model to work in Lakewood. Can you help me understand as far as um what's necessary to have versus what's nice to have? It sounds like at a very minimal the specs of the field and the lighting is the most important but and then concessions. Is that a requirement or is that a nice

It's a it's a requirement because it's it's it's what it's one of the things that enables us to function economically. Got it. Okay. And then as far as seating, um I have looked at some of the other teams around the league and noticed that some of the fields uh are uncovered, but there are quite your older your older teams are in stadiums that are that are covered. Covered meaning covered seating. Covered seating. Covered seating. Oh, you mean like with a overhead? Yeah. So, so can you help me understand how necessary covered seating is or can it just be open bleachers?

I don't think covered seating is necessary. I I I it's um some component of uh seatbacks just for comfort. Some component of of of that I think is probably necessary for it to you know to be the the experience that people would would would want on a frequent basis. But uh not but the covered thing I don't I don't think that's a okay requirement.

That's thank you. Thank you for helping me understand that. Um and then I guess as far as uh just the whole kind of the economic model of things. So granted, I'm thinking your team is or your the league is likely paying for transportation for its teams or or but that's on somebody. That's that's a cost that's being Oh, yes. That's what that's a And so I can see concessions and advertisements help offset that cost. That's right. Um

is there a do you have a target revenue that you need to hit? Do you have a target number uh revenue like a range that you can give us tonight just to indicate to us what you need to hit for a season that would help put in to perspective where concessions and um advertising comes in? Not one that I'd be able to give you. There's I mean part of that is part of that is um is really sight dependent. Um, you know, some places are just more there it it's more to put on a game and part of that's a facility. A large part of that is relates to the facility.

Okay. Thank you. And then as far as the naming rights, yes, that was a question and interest of of mine because it in for this to really benefit and really work for Lakewood, the naming is, you know, we don't want to host with all due respect to cowlets. We don't want to focus whomever's in in Lakewood.

No, no, no. I understand. And and part of part of when we reference the community pride, we get that that's a piece and and it is and it's it is important to us. It's important to us to be stewards of that name and to and to represent it when we're here and when we're in Edmonton and when we're and when we're in Portland and Corvalis and all the other places that we get to go. we understand where we're from and that's important to us to represent to to to wear the name.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then so so just to get a little bit more clarity. So would it be would you be looking to um work directly with the city and just and the city or uh make it more of a community like a naming competition? So, we'd probably we'd probably we'd have some we we probably would would have some fun with the naming competition to be honest. It it it's ultimately there's a large part of it that is uh that is that is you know we need a name that that has that we can brand around and that's actually WDE's expertise and so so we so a lot of it is getting to know the community and getting to know where those where that identity connection is. Uh, and so we would certainly be working with you, but it's it's ultimately sort of a collaborative effort and we do and we've done the naming the the name contest and we have, like I said, we've had fun. It's surprising what people think of.

Thank you. That's great to hear. Um, couple more questions and then, uh, as far as parking, have you so far, uh, established just preliminarily whether or not the existing parking at the park meets your specs and needs. I think that with the with what I think is what I understand to be sort of an ancillary or a supplemental area behind that left field behind what is what is Oh, I'm sorry, right field. behind right field. We think it's we think that it's satisfactory.

Okay. Um then I think uh the last question I had kind of goes back to what council member Pearson asked a little bit is is just trying to understand um if I I really like this. I I really like the concept and so uh I want to be able to you know be purposeful and and how we can uh understand and you know flourish this concept. But if for whatever reason um just because things can just if for whatever reason Lakewood uh could not pencil out, what other or I guess how close are you or how locked in are you with other uh places um to to begin uh market to begin in 2027 because it sounds like you want to come in and start a new team in 2027. we have the with where we are now in our various processes, it sort of requires us to keep a lot of balls in the air and that's that's that's that's where we are. I mean, the as you back into the timeline, you can you can see that we that we need to be making progress and so that's what we're trying to do.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Council Member Pearson. Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, and that's totally fair response. I I assume that you guys, you know, it's not the only only town. So, um, we do have Fort Silicon Park is is a nice obviously a nice park and I don't have any concerns about neighbors or souththeast or southwest and and north really. you kind of have western state and stuff um over there, but we do have a neighborhood to the east and I'm just curious what kind of impact should could we expect or you know with traffic and noise and lighting or whatever what are you guys usually have mostly afternoon evening time you know what kind of like

Sure I actually should have uh I should have given you that the the time schedule so most of our games uh during every But Sunday, most of the games are 6:35 start. If we if for some reason we had a reason to want to be to be late, you know, we we've had a drone show in the past. Uh we had fireworks in the past and I'm not suggesting those, but I but we've had when we have those events where it needs to be dark, we would go later. Ordinarily, we would start at at 6:35 except for Sundays. I think we we are usually at 105 or 1:35. kids get in free. So it's

so Sundays are afternoon our afternoon days because we do Sundays we do kids get in free on Sundays and so um uh and then 6:35 another day. We are we if we get to where um most games have the lights on for some period of time, but it's usually it's not, you know, usually we get to it stays light late late enough that yeah, we'll have some period where where we have lights, but I I think our average game time is somewhere in the 2:45 to three hour range. So, you can do that math. It gets you to 9:30. Okay. Thank you.

There any other questions? So, just just to do tail on to that point, remember our parks stay open till dusk. So, you know, when I first spoke to to Tony, it was like, well, they're the park's still really open by the time the games are pretty much over on mo on most week nights. I think I I don't think it'll be even if it's a three-hour game, there's still probably people in the park at 9:15, 9:30. So, um I don't think you know I don't think we're going to have too much problem with that. It's my opinion on that anyway. Any other council member Talin?

Yeah, I'm and I'm and I'm just thinking of all the, you know, while we have you here as many questions as I can think of. Sure. um while we have you here. But as far as the use agreement, um how do you typically structure the the your agreements as far as the term? Are you is it is it more typical like a fiveyear, six, seven or shorter time term longer? Okay. Longer.

We would want to we would want because I mean the commitment there's an organizational commitment. um it takes it does take some time to sort of take hold and there's a relationship commitment with you know with host families whatnot. So for from my perspective we would be we would be longer term and by that I would be looking at something that has an overall an overall timeline of something that looked like a like like 20 years but probably with a component with like a 10-year component with some options with an option. That's that's kind of what Thank you. We're sort of at the early stages. We haven't really had that discussion, but we're at the early stages of having those discussions with Roxan. Have you shared a draft use agreement with

Not a draft? We shared our existing use agreement with with Roxan. And then as far as cons concession cleanup, um you are providing the employees that clean up after. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? Great. Thank you very much for being here. I know you've met with Linda Smith and and the chamber and our economic development folks are here also, Becky Newton. And so we're excited about the opportunity um and we'll we'll talk more about it hopefully in the future and uh how we're going to fund some of these improvements. Council member Pearson,

one last question. So you said August is kind of like your when you're looking to really have what ideally you know, you don't want to wait till the end to start your plan. So, ideally, you know, I guess what are you really if you ideally we'd be in June. June. Ideally, it would be it would be in June. And I understand that there'd be pieces that you know, park's not going to be built in June. And so, I we understand that there are some there are some to come items. Okay.

And I also, by the way, the other thing is to speak to your point about um about what or about the needs versus there are some things that I think we can phase. Um I I I do think and I understand that there's a master plan process that's that's and I think that we we hope that we would be a part of that. Um because I do think that there is there is an amount of seating that gets us to next year and gets us open and then there's an amount of seating that that makes it the experience that we would all want it to be. Uh, and I think things, you know, there are other pieces of there are other pieces of that, but I think there's there there are elements of it that we'd be able to phase. And so part of it is getting to see, you know, what do we have the capacity to do and does that get us does that get us through those early couple years,

right? Thank you very much for the for the audience and the time and the discussion. Thank you very much. And I just just want to add it. He did uh they have sent forwarded to me and I'll get it um to the city manager about economic development uh the the dollars that come in with these. So it's elac dollar angle and and sales tax and emissions tax and various things like that. So we appreciate your time. I look forward to speaking with you all again soon.

Thank you very much. I'm going to take a five minute break while we uh get the planning commission settled up here. I do want to say three of us have a very early morning or late night. So, I want to be careful of time. So, we may not have council member comments tonight. That's one of the things that I want to I I may I may drop off. Um so with that let's take a break in uh five minutes and we'll we'll come back here at uh in five minutes. Okay. Thanks.

Let's start with item number two, the joint planning commission meeting. Talk about your work plan. Do we have a presentation for this one or Miss Spear? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh we're having five of the seven members here from the planning commission for you tonight. Thank you for turning out today. Uh chair Mark Hair is going to provide the overview for you.

Okay. And and Mr. Hair, could we get a introduction from all the member? A lot of the members, some of the members have been uh are very seasoned and others are fairly new. So uh they can either introduce themselves or you can introduce all of them please and then we can go through the work plan. Do you have any slides or you just I don't think we have slides. Okay, great. Thank you.

Uh well, first of all, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, council members, thank you for having us uh this joint session of the planning commission and the city council this evening. We always enjoy this. It's a it's a fun time to come together and talk about the things we've done and look ahead to what is on the road ahead of us. Uh before we get into that though, uh Mr. Mayor, would love to introduce the members that are here this evening. Um, we'll start with Dr. Wallace. If you want to just turn that microphone on, you can introduce yourselves to the council.

Okay. Um, hi, Sharon Wallace. Um, retired physician. I don't normally advertise that, but since it's already out there, I'll say it. And, um, I I do a little bit. I help out people charitable wise. Um, but that's not for public comment. And then um mainly I live in Lakewood, lived here all my life and we have about four and a half acres and we we just try to do things that are good for the city, my husband and I.

Good evening. It's pleasure to be here. I'm Jim Merritt. I'm an architect and I'm happy to say I've had the pleasure in my career of working on a number of projects in Lakewood including the building you're in. And that so I'm very proud of these uh things that I've had a chance to be a part of as our team and I look forward to being on the planning commission uh since January of this year and uh to help in just community issues. I've always been very interested in community issues uh in all the committees community but as a resident of Lakewood this is very special. I might say just uh one other thing in family that uh my dad was involved in Lakewood and construction back in the late 40s and 50s until he passed away including contractor of Villa Plaza which is now Lakewood Town Center and a lot of houses u u kind of south of Clobal Park High School right in that area. So as a little kid I was out here a lot with my dad watching what was going on and then I became an architect. So there you go. Uh my name is Christian Lores. I am the owner of uh this roofing company, Lakewood Roofing, which I love the name. It was an honor uh for me to be invited to the planning commissioner and I live in Lakewood. My wife, my mom, my daughters are here, my family. I also been here for probably 14 years. Before this it was um Isaakqua, but I really like Lakewood is a lot nicer, a lot better. And I have again my family here, my business. Uh I'm also an investor in the area and I will be always more than happy to help on on getting this uh helping the city

to get better and just keep improving. Um the council members are doing a great job. I believe the people in charge of the city on the last 30 years have been doing a great job. So I will be more than happy to keep and keep helping on anything I can do to for this city to keep going on the right direction.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, my name is Lynn Larson. been on the council here for a little while and u originally uh we first moved to Lakewood in 1961 uh and I've lived here uh since 199 again with to raise my family here and uh incidentally Jim Merritt's father uh was the contractor that constructed the home that I live in uh which we bought from a man named Jimmy Zerelli who was responsible for building the Lakewood Town Center originally uh with a partner and built the Tacoma Dome. And so there's a lot of rich heritage in the room.

All right. And uh my name is Mark Hair. Uh I am the chair of the planning commission. Mr. Larson is the um vice chair. Uh I have lived in Lakewood since 2020 and uh live here with my wife. We have graduated two kids now out of Clover Park School District and have one more to go. And uh we own a cleaning business that recently expanded from Thirstston County up here to Pierce County into Lakewood and got that certificate of occupancy recently from the city of Lakewood. So we're really proud to to be bringing our economic power uh up here as well. Um before we move in to um again it was referenced we don't have any slides but I'll talk about some of the things we've accomplished this year to date and the remainder of the work plan ahead of us. But before we do that, I would like to say uh a thanks to our our council member liaison uh council member Talbo who uh we miss having on the the planning commission deis, but we're excited to see her continue to do work at the at the council level who visits with us. And our city staff members uh Tiffany Spear and Kevin Devo and or excuse me, Karen along with Jeff Remac and Angie Silva. Uh just a great team to work with. um and collaborate with as as we move through guiding the city forward. Um if you don't know, we meet on the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 6:30 uh similar to to yourselves right here in the council chambers. Um so far this year, we have we elected our new chair and vice chair and we had quite a bit of shakeup. Obviously, we lost two members to the to the city council and uh council member Lindholm and council member Talbo, which opened up some spots on the planning commission to be backfilled. We also had one resignation um which was a little bit painful the amount of

experience that left with um Commissioner Combmes. Um it it hurt a little bit but that opened up the door for some opportunity for some new members to come on board with us and Commissioner or uh yes planning commissioner Merritt and Commissioner Crook who's unable to be here with us this evening. Um as we move through this year, three of our current commissioners will be leaving us at the end of the year. Uh, Commissioner Larson, uh, Commissioner Crook, and Commissioner Estrada will be uh, terms will be ending um, in December. I don't know if they've thought about continuing to serve yet or not, but obviously that's a conversation they'll have with Mayor Boi. Um, so that said, we got our new team set in January. We elected our new chair and vice chair and set our work plan for the year. And and I don't know if you have this list, so I'll I'll run down. Um, we took action on resolution 2026 2026-02, which was the Lakewood Engineering Services Manual update, which was a monster lift. I'm sure you were all uh thrilled with all of that technical reading that you had to do in that update, but there were some good adjustments made there. We also reviewed uh did our annual review of the Lakewood Housing and Permit Activity Report. Uh, we reviewed the five-year CDBG home consolidated housing plan and forwarded recommendations to council. We took action on the shoreline master program locally initiated amendment uh and adopted those rules and and procedures incorporating the national environment and climate change task force forces which we'll speak more about here shortly. We took action on the 2026 Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan and made recommendations to council along with the receipt of the

2026 shoreline restoration activities presentation by the PRCS department and community other community organizations and reviewed the draft 2732 transportation improvement plan. We also last week finalized and approved rosters for the uh NA natural environment and climate change task forces. That those four separate task forces will each have one planning commission representative along with a supporting cast of six community members uh with various roles throughout the community both in the business side um the environmental side. We have um experts on the science side of the house and educators along with community members who are bringing lived experience to the table. Uh as we continue to develop those plans as we move forward with the remainder of 2026 and our primary work plan. Uh our four task forces will begin to meet um and develop the a 10-year implementation plan and a three and fiveyear work plan. They will draft the climate change and GHG emission comprehensive plan sub elements which um will be exciting work and will be very impactful. Uh the urban forest management plan will begin to come to life and the heat mitigation strategy and implementation plan uh which was started I think two or three years ago with a citywide assessment of of heat mapping. We will also continue our 2026 comprehensive plan amendment cycle which is as you know is an ongoing process and our 2026 annual development regulations uh will continue as well and then we will begin setting our 2027

comprehensive plan amendment cycle docket as we get closer to the end of the year. Uh Mr. Mayor, that is a summation of what we've been able to do so far and subject to your questions and give it back to you. Well, you've already had a busy, very productive year it looks like and uh and just, you know, it's only early May and you've done a lot of major items. Yes, the engineering services manual update was very large. Um, but you've got you've got some other very important things on here. Do members have any questions of the any planning commission members? Put people on the spot. you what do you Okay, thanks. Uh any questions for us? Planning Commission? You made mention of something, Mark. Um, I don't know if I necessarily have any questions, but I would like to say, you know, being on the planning commission, we get to see kind of a macro picture of what's happening with the city and we get a perspective that's a little bit different than you because you get to feel the heat of the hot lights and and the direct conversations with with um sometimes upset citizens and sometimes very elated citizens, but we get that kind of third party over-the-shoulder view. And recently we've been talking with uh Mr. Aut city engineer and and some of the other city staff and the conversations that we've been able to have at planning commission I think were for me were really eyeopening to things that I just never considered about how the city works. And this is I'm going to highlight something really probably elementary if there's for for all you planning folks, but uh we talked about and I forget the name, Jim, you probably can recall this off top of your head, but when you stand at the city crosswalks and you see those areas that are painted yellow and they have those little raised dome surfaces, you know, you see those things and it just kind of brushes right by you. But

we had a really in-depth conversation about the intent of those type of devices and how we're bringing changes to our community that are beneficial um for people that are across the spectrum of need throughout the community. And those little those little dome surfaces are for folks that um are are visually impaired. It allows them to understand and know that they're in a crosswalk position. And it just never dawned on me that that's what that was for. And and when we talk about the degree of the angle of a crosswalk and and the type of slopes and these things that just I think for the average person, it probably just blows right by them. But that's where we're at as a city. And we're thinking about those things. Those are good things, good problems to be solving. And I think it speaks volumes about this council, about this city, and the people that live here. Those are the kind of problems that we're solving here in Lakewood. and I'm proud to be part of this organization and I know the other members are as well.

Yeah, same after you.

Okay, perfect. Um, as a contractor, I have another point of view also um in my ecosystem. I am always talking to other contractors and I am very well aware of problems that most people don't see. And now that you ask mayor, so I'm going to throw you a problem. Uh one concern and one little constant that I keep hearing from um friends and partners and contractors is the speed of uh permits in the city. Now as a businessman I am looking out for how can I help the city to make you know more money because you guys need it uh to to make our city even more beautiful and more efficient. And if the permits take extra extra time, they take longer, then starts making the contractors not to file for them. And homeowners when they're trying to renovate a house because I see it myself. Homeowners asked us sometimes, hey, can you do this for me? Sure, we're going to do all this paperwork and they're like, can you just not do it? I tried to do it myself last year. It was not approved. Takes forever. Whoever is there is not trying to help me. And I'm like, huh? And I see that and I ask more contractors about it and contractors are doing are dealing with this situation every now and then and it keeps growing. So you are the one in charge. So then it's up to you, but I would recommend probably having to check probably that department to just to tell them, hey, you guys are here to help to speed up the process. Don't block contractors. Don't block homeowners. There's a big amount of revenue coming from that department. Um, yeah, just just a comment. Who what do I

know? I'm just a roofer. Yeah, I think you have a lot of lived experience and we appreciate those comments because we do hear those complaints from time to time. They don't, you know, it's only the people who actually take the time to write to us and we pass those on and we're committed to a better process, but that doesn't always mean that things get done. But I appre you got a great perspective because you're in the arena every day. So thank you.

I could also probably add to that discussion, but over time maybe we can help because it is about helping and and getting those process to work a little better. I I don't want to get into a lot of detail on it now because there is a lot of detail but there are things I think could be done to help that and I sure wouldn't mind uh collaborating a little bit with the departments that are responsible for permit. I will say this on the positive side, the staff that I have had respon uh connection with both on a planning side and in permit side have been very good and I believe our staff uh support for the planning commission is amazing totally amazing in that I don't know how they get it all done. The other thing you've done as a as a city, which I I look back in some of my projects back in the 90s where I was thinking about and actually suggesting a few plans on roundabouts, wasn't really thought of in the Northwest, but in the world it was. And to see what Lakewood has done now, I know it's at number 19. It's just finishing is remarkable. And I think it is a way and I've heard from staff on you know the learning curve is not easy in that there are a few things I'm going to talk to Troy about in a few now that I do have this hat on I I'm thinking you know just as a team member to make sure we can help with those things but I commend you on that because I think it is very progressive out there as far as looking at the planning of a community and it is very beneficial in that. So, thank you for taking the step you did because I think it was a risky step when you started to push to make that happen. Thank you.

We do hear about the roundabouts, good and bad.

I just wanted to make a brief comment on the heat mitigation since I was going to be on that task force. Um, I've had the experience of living in Arizona uh for two years and working with the Marines and um going out in helicopters looking for people who might be traveling in the desert that were not adequately prepared because they were trying to avoid um people and uh and so we would find people and I think that I am sensitive to that issue and I've noticed and I'm really excited that you're going to have heat mitigation as part of this because I've been measuring ing temperatures. Well, that when I'm in the city, I look at them and then I come to where I live and it's 3 to 5 degrees cooler and I can't help but think of all the effects on the people, the businesses, uh the the the dangers that the city has from excessive heat with hot surfaces and then some of the simple things of when I've traveled when I was in the Navy in different parts of of other countries like Israel and that where they build completely different than we do here. Everything is done in white buildings with white roofs because it reflects light. They have all of their um their their heating and cooling is all done uh you know with uh just it's state-of-the-art heating. They they do all with with with sunlight. Nothing is done with power. And so they it's it's very efficient. And so I think there's a lot of really exciting things that Lakewood does. Just down what you were talking about with the things for disabled people. I saw those and I was so excited. I thought, "Oh, good. Now people can be able to walk." They know I knew what the bridge were, but not everyone does. now they do. So I think there's been a lot of really forward thinking here and I'm really excited of where we're going to be going in the future when all these different areas. They're very impressive. So thank you for your leadership.

Thank thank you for that. The heat map doesn't lie. I mean I I think the heat map if we did one today or this summer it would probably say the same thing as the first heat map. And we know exactly where we don't have trees. Um, and so we talk a lot about trees here, but um, we got to find ways to plant them and and and fix some things. So I we thank you for getting involved in that. I mean, the planning commission's really taken on a lot in this in this latest stuff. Um, it's one reason we sent it to you guys because we knew that that was something that we you were up to the challenge on it. Get good people on the board. But it is it is a lot. We're, you know, it's a big thing. You're still on green. Are you talking or Christian? Go ahead.

Urban forest management. It's about trees, right? We want to um keep working on on protecting the the temperature and making sure this area don't overheat. And uh at some point you're going to there's going to be new regulations. Just keep in mind um you just put something in there at some point if a tree has to be removed so a building or a house can be built on that area. Just just add something so we can just plant other trees somewhere else. And um so my point is don't let a tree uh stop a house from being built so jobs can be created and the whole city can benefit from it. just just don't don't make the trees stop the uh the progress of the city and economically. That's I just want to point that out. And if that don't happen, then at some point it's going to be just impossible for homeowners or contractors to build anything.

So, thank thank you for that. I have an example I have an example of how uh this the city and the planning commission have been able to work together this year. Uh the city uh recently acquired a property that uh they needed our support for reszoning next to the Edgewater Park. And while uh I originally objected to the paving of the of the parking area and uh and uh another council me another commission member uh disagreed with me and so I put it in my pocket and while I was having my automobile serviced at Boil's Auto Repair at Edgewater Park and Stoical Boulevard, I took a walk down Edgewater Drive and uh dog gone if there weren't people fishing down there.

Yeah.

Not just one person. There were five different fishermen evenly spaced down the ed down the Edgewater Park. One on the dock on the far end where we're going to be putting the the parking lot. and uh a woman uh had a blowup paddle board uh who was going to uh go onto the park and uh two different uh fishing boats that were trailering or untraing their fishing boats from the uh very very minor little short boat launch ramp there. And uh I came to the realization that uh oh and and I talked to the fishermen fisher and one two fisher women and each one of them lived within three to 10 blocks of the park and had walked there. And so it truly is a community resource and a community asset that I had no idea of uh what it was. So, I certainly stand corrected with my commission member uh who disagreed with me and I changed my position entirely because as a radiate little spot, I'm really looking forward to seeing how many more people once it's improved with the massive improvement that's going to be done there will enjoy the park. So that was because uh the the city had the foresight to see the expansion of the park and the value was there and uh and our involvement in being able to assist by making sure that the zoning fit as well. So thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you for that, Mr. Larson. A a lesson we can all learn right about that. Sometimes we have to admit that we're wrong and if you're an elected official long enough, you end up being wrong once in a while. Anyway, well, Mr. H, any questions from council? Really grill these folks tonight?

Council member Lindholm, I just want to say thank you for all your work. Um, planning commission is underappreciated. um you spend long hours on hard things. Um it's technically an advisory council, but the reality is we take everything you say incredibly seriously. Um and we're loathed to disagree with it if we can help it. So, so thanks for all you're doing. I would also point out we have two of your items in front of us tonight to discuss. So, uh we're gonna right after this we're going to roll into the tip. So, uh thank you for working on that. Mr. Mayor. Okay.

Just want to last time say thank you so much uh for allowing us to be here tonight and and have this joint session. I just want to one last time take the opportunity to uh highlight uh Miss Spear and Miss Dero week in and week out. They are in here until the sometimes the wee hours and um and no complaining. They're just getting after it. And I think it just speaks volume about the team um the the culture that's here at the city staff and and uh we do not live in a perfect world or a zero defect environment. We don't pretend to live in that world. I think what we do well here is we respond to adversity and we overcome the challenges that are uh before us. Um and I think uh I couldn't imagine a better place to be. So thank you for all that you do.

Well, thank you for your good good work already this year. really a a lot of stuff and um so thank you for that and hopefully the schedule will lighten up a little bit as the year wears on. I'm kind of looking at that but I see the comp plan docket and I can't remember off the top of my head how many how many items are going to be in front of you on that. So um thank you for your work and thank you for all your comments. Mr. Pwinsky, can you have a presentation? You're going to do the presentation. Thank you. So, that begins on page 16 here. We're only 16 the 27 2027 2032 transportation improvement plan or TIP. Um and uh Mr. Pwinsky is here to walk us through the changes that have been made already approved by the planning commission, I guess. And so, uh, and we'll be asked to look at this. So, take it away, Troy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the council, before you this evening is the 2027 to 2032 six-year transportation improvement program or TIP that starts on page 93 in your packet, the presentation. I'll kind of go through it here. So, what is a tip and why does it matter? The tip is required by state law that the city updates its program annually and presents it to the state department or submits to the state department of transportation by July 1 of every year. Really what it's intended for is mainly for revenue based planning. Uh we do need it for state and federal grants. It's required for every application we make, state and federal. Uh this year we've added prioritization so that we can kind of judge what would be kind of next up on the docket for transportation funding. And really it's a a system focus in that we can orderly plan our development, preservation and improvement of the transportation system. The two last sentences on this slide are pretty critical. The adoption of the tip does not commit the city to constructing the improvements and that if need be uh via the council or staff uh the tip can be revised following by the council approval following a public hearing. New this year we've got prioritization. Uh we've made a factors uh a list of factors here weighted by safety, multimodal accessibility, funding uh primarily that makes up 70% of the scores and then traffic volume readiness uh preservation performance with the comp plan and environmental. Uh we made a matrix up for each of these components or categories and it was pretty apparent which projects were very high, which ones were high, which ones were average,

which ones were low and which ones were very low. Changes to this year's tip. Project-wise, uh we've completed or will be completing here shortly. The contract uh has been signed and the contractor is about ready to start either this week or next. The final street lighting project we've had for the last 10 or 12 years. Uh this is a program that we've had mainly on local access streets but also on arterials placing luminires on wooden power poles primarily. Uh this will be the last of that. We've kind of hit the last of the power poles that are available. Uh there are a couple still kind of solo power poles out there that uh either don't have enough power availability or for one reason or another are not suitable for street lights. Kendrick Street uh will be advertised later this summer early this fall. Uh Kendrick and as well as 111th from Bridgeport to 112th Street. 112th Street. We've just completed here the paving on and reopened it two weeks ago. Striping will be in two weeks and the street lighting for that won't come in until about August, but that'll complete that job. Kuster from Bridgeport to 75th will kick off later this summer. And then 112th Street from South Tacoma to Steel. Uh the contract for that will be signed later this week, early next. And uh they'll get started on that as well. But that'll be a quick burn uh oneweek project. Two new projects added to the tip. The ADA transition plan is kind of a placeholder for an annual program to uh update the facilities in and around the city that don't currently conform with the ADA. Mr. Aught will be here shortly to kind of go over that with you. And 75th Street Extension. This is a pretty large capital project that would

bridge the gap between Phillips and Kuster uh along the Bridgeport area. It'd be a east west connector that the city could look into. Funding uh funding currently for transportation is kind of up in the air a little bit with the expiration of congressional appropriation from 2021. uh that is expires at the end of well it currently expires at the end of this fiscal year and Congress not only has to allocate new money they have to deal with a $200 billion shortfall so they're currently going through that as such we have heard not yet about what kind of programs are going to be available we still kind of sit and wait this slide there's a chart on the right that shows where we kind of sit for what is currently allocated or committed a primary funding source for us is the Sound Transit Lakewood station access improvement program which I'll go through shortly. Uh that makes up a good chunk of the blue. There is a couple of state programs in 27 or state and minor federal money we have in 27. Um the bulk majority of the red in 27 is not Tacoma job that will uh carry forward. Uh other than that, it is the annual programs you typically allocate in the red. Very little green surface water management on this slide as well. So we're pretty busy in 27. Uh we dropped down a little bit in 28, not quite a bit in 28. And we have a little bit of the LSAI liquid station access improvement in 29, but then really don't have any money other than allocated programs in 30 through 32. Getting into the Lakewood station access improvement. I mentioned 112th here a little bit ago between Gral and Bridgeport. That's winding down on construction. We have the Kendrick

Street portion that is getting really close to finalizing design. Also getting close to finalizing design are the New York McCord and the 47th Avenue projects. winding out the priority one projects are the Clover Creek Drive and the 115th Street extensions. And those two projects are primarily waiting on Sound Transit Design. They're currently at 30%. We had a good meeting with them this afternoon. Um, but they're still at 30%. So, we're kind of holding our stuff back a little bit as we can't commit to horizontal or vertical alignments yet until they're moved along a little further. Once priority one is complete, we will see uh in 28 and 29 about constructing priority two. Right now, we're currently about a million and a half above ahead of budget. So, prior all of priority 2 looks good to be funded, which would be Davidson 111th on the Davidson and Clover Park High School connections, as well as the 47th McCord, the Chicago San Francisco and Boston down there on the Spring Brook area sidewalk and bike connections. Going to funded projects, the blue projects on this are all Sound Transit funded. The green project at the top is TBD local that's going to carry forward into 27. And then we have a federal job we're looking to still hopefully get out if we get right ofway completed uh later this year. And there is one small project we have down there at the bottom from DSHS. We need to relocate the traffic signal at Western State Hospital. Those are the only funded construction projects that we have moving forward. Unfunded projects. We

have two in the green up there that are designed and ready to go. Well, designed a little bit on a 100th. We're at 90% pushing to 100 on 100th. Uh we've got right of way that we're about ready to obligate on 100th Street for seven parcels I believe we've got to get out there. And then uh the one at the top is the large 75th project. Other notable projects are the Green Street Loop, Yolk Brook non-motorized loop and interlock and drive. Talking about equity this year as well as kind of a new focus on the tip as shown in the map. Projects are pretty evenly dispersed. There are a couple areas on the on the map that aren't as well dispersed, but that's due to recently completed projects in in the Lake City area. Veterans Drive, Washington, Interlockan, and 112th and Gral have all been just recently completed. as well as the Fort Stilikum neighborhood. You know, we've completed Angle L, Angle and Lwood, Hipkins, Stilikum Boulevard, some larger projects, some of the stuff in the northeast. We've completed a lot of projects on South Away. As far as tip, estimated expenses by neighborhood, again, some of them are a little more heavily weighted. Downtown has the downtown green street loop which is just really a program that's a placeholder now until the downtown transportation feasibility studies completed which we'll get a list of projects out of that that we currently are estimating at about 25 million but won't know until we actually get the list of projects out of that and Oakbrook has quite a few larger quite a few they have two larger projects kind of sitting in there that would be for As far as equity in user management as well as equity at geographic,

we want to make sure that we're allowing enough non-motorized, enough safety projects at intersections as well as transportation preservation projects, getting a good mix of those. And I think that this slide shows that we do a pretty good job of that. Obviously, roadway is a large amount of the projects that we have, but roadway does incorporate annual preservation. It does incorporate intersection safety and non-motorized in each of the roadway projects. So, good mix of those. Lastly, we have our annual programs, the pavement management system, um, of which we go semianual, either somewhere in the 20 to $40,000 range is what we're currently estimating. minor capital at that does your patching, your striping, and your curb repairs at 270,000 a year. Chip seal, we do about six lane miles per year, and we're on a 25-year cycle. Neighborhood traffic control, which does your speed bump or speed humps, your feedback signs, traffic circles, around 30,000 a year. bridge inspection. We're now taking that on inhouse. Uh which varies between five and 55,000 per cycle depending on what we've got going on. Uh and the ADA upgrade which you'll be taking on this evening. In the lower left, you'll see our PCI is drifting just a little to the right. We do need to get a new pavement management rating to to verify that. Um, and the overarching theme on the right of that bar chart is the PCI is kind of dragged down currently a little bit by local and collectors. Moving forward, actions that we're expecting kind of coming up. Conduct a required public hearing next week. Adopt a resolution approving the tip on or around the 1 of June. Authorize planning

and public works to pursue grant opportunities consistent with this tip. and then authorize the city to submit the tip on July 1st. Thank you very much, Troy. Uh, any questions? Council member Talbo.

Thanks, Troy. Well, first I want to start with compliments because thank you for arranging the tip this year. Uh, it's taken a different format that I certainly can appreciate. So having worked in a format very similar to this, so um I appreciate the effort being put into prioritizing projects, especially because I understand completely the uh significance of trying to get at projects that are needed and address rehabilitation as well as uh level of service and or just connectivity and network needs. especially when you're facing the challenge of uh having to acquire right ofway or even significant costs like um dealing with poles and undergrounding or just utility relocation. So prioritization is key and um thank you for putting that going forward. I think my biggest question and takeaway from the tip has to do with the um well if you don't mind going back to the slide with the sound transit projects yes so I just wanted to ask the priority two the priority two projects do those are you seeing that the design and construction of those projects will fall within this 2631 or 2732 tip cycle or are we only looking at design and completion of the priority one projects?

Yes. So the the Lakewood station access improvement must be constructed prior to January December 31st of 2029. So we are currently on track even a million dollars ahead budgetwise of completing priority two projects by that date. So yes, we do plan on designing and constructing priority one and priority two. And I do want to make sure that it's critical here that these priorities were not set by the city. These are sound transit priority projects and we cannot start on priority two until we have completed priority one.

Right. And that's great. That's to in my view an aggressive uh completion timeline. So that's that's great. We want we want and we need sidewalks in those areas completed sooner than later. So thank you for working on with Sound Transit on that. Um can you tell me more about the the new project that's been added that 75th Street extension? I just want to preface this because this this is important I think for my colleagues and us to understand that when we look at this tip document I know that these are these are typically kind of like sleepy documents. We're trying to just get our transportation projects done. But when we add brand new projects in this document and we adopt it, we there are legal risks that we should know that we um are faced with in some in some instances with this project and particularly in terms of how we are cons keeping consistent with our comprehensive plan. Our comprehensive plan has requirements to it in the whack and even under PSRC guidance. um as a result of as they are as these requirements are tied to the growth management act and meeting our compliance with the GMA but also SEIPA. So, it's really important that the projects in our six-year tip align with the goals, the policies of course in our comprehensive plan, but also the technical methodology in which we we did to forecast our our our network and

assess our future needs. My question concern I think we need to get an understanding and a handle of is the the where and why this project ended up in the tip because it's not it it hasn't been analyzed in the comprehensive plan. In the comprehensive plan, we analyze our arterial roads because at a minimum and our arterial intersections because at a minimum, the whack requires you to uh forecast to analyze your existing condition and your future level of service for arterial roads. But 75th and uh those side streets off of Phillips are not arterial or minor arterial roads. Those are local streets that were completely left out of the network analysis in the comp plan. So I think that there's we need to be careful in in the way we treat this project. If the if if the desire is to take a look at this project, then technically the correct way to go about it would to would be to amend the comp plan transportation element. You could do a small amendment of the element and the FI and the accompanying FIS so that you reanalyze the whole network as a whole and that connectivity because what's proposed of this 75th extension is you're proposing a minor arterial or or arterial street at least at least from what I saw in the picture in the tip two lanes curved under sidewalk etc. etc. So, I want to preface that, but I also want

to give you I also want to of course give a chance to can you inform us and help us understand where this project came from?

Let me start by saying 75th is a collector arterial in the code municipal code. So, uh 75th from where the road terminates on the let's just say the east side of the creek from that point back to Bridgeport that is currently a collector arterial. Phillips Road is a collector arterial coming back as well. So we are talking about a 550 foot section of which nothing really exists and a about 150 foot section of roadway on the west side of the creek is currently not classified as an arterial. That's basically what we're talking about here of new street not being classified. I I do want to also preface it that none of these projects in the tip are specifically called out in the comp plan. Uh there are projects in the comp plan does show projects that are in the tip that are in the CIP as well. Uh none of the other streets are and I'll bring Angie up to kind of discuss some of the other things about the the comp plan. M Silva Sorry. Um, if I understand correctly, you're referring to the environmental review on capacity projects related to transportation in our established LOS. Correct. So, the lists for transportation in our EIS. Correct. Okay. Troy, can related to this kind of extension project and looking at the feasibility in the tip, will that relieve pressure off of other connecting roads in the surrounding area as part of that? the the the genesis of this project really comes from relieving pressure on Stilicon Boulevard which is precoid was at capacity and is starting to show signs of now that we're starting to recover our transportation of being at or near capacity again. The idea here is

that you only have very limited streets currently. You have Gral Lake Drive, you have Interlockan Drive and you have Stilicum Boulevard as east west connectors. Other than that, you're going to Chambers or you're going down to DuPont. There are plans for work at Chambers. Two weeks ago, the Pierce County got a large grant for that bridge. There is work going on planned on Gral Lake Drive and Pack Highway for Railway from Sound Transit potentially here in the near future that will will do major renovations on those bridges. When when that happens and you already have a bridge or a road that's at capacity, you have interlocking bridge that's 99 years old, there is concern for major congestion when these other projects go on than with your east west corridors. The genesis for 75th is to do is to relieve stress off of Silicon Boulevard which is your major currently your major feeder east west. What I will also preface is 75ths is not a new idea. Pierce County had this idea 30 40 years ago. This isn't a brand new idea for this. There's a reason why that ride ofway is 60 ft wide all the way through there. They just did not implement it because it wasn't necessity at that time. Um that's that's what I'd say about that. Yeah,

Troy, part of the review of this feasibility of the east west connection that again, if I heard you correctly, could provide relief from surrounding transportation network that is at capacity or concurrency issues, which the comp plan environmental documents do document that. What I'm hearing from you is you want a little bit more analysis to justify adding this to the tip at this stage. Is that correct, ma'am? I I I don't think I I guess I I think I I slightly disagree that the FIS covers this project because the FBI covers the level of standards that are failing and what because you have to you have to you have to disclose that in your comp plan. But but this segment is not disclosed as a failing level of service or or a need in the FIS when when in in our environmental pol in our environmental document we're looking at Silicon Boulevard the corridor between 88th and 83rd and Grley Lake and Washington Boulevard. So if this is a level of service need then it should have been covered in it should have been documented in the FBI. If it exists in some technical appendix that's not published on the website then perhaps that may answer it. But I think that where we where I see it now and I'm going to I'm going to finish here in just a sec. where I see it now is that as it is sea prohibits peacemealing of or segmenting. So by adding this road uh and saying it's a need in the network after this after the EIS was adopted uh it can be seen as the city is you know it can be seen as bypassing the

comprehensive environmental review process to some degree. So I don't feel comfortable with including this project in the tip at this time until there is further um circulation and until there's further analysis that shows where the need and the purpose and the level of service justification comes from because otherwise I think it puts this the city at a risk for further as as this project wants to evolve um for further ch legal challenges. So we got to do it right

beyond the sea and NEPA level at a tip project would evaluate those environmental impacts. So not just with the comprehensive plan looking at the citywide transportation needs right this project would also depending on its funding sources be required to do NEPA if it's fedally funded or even SEPHA especially with a bridge crossing in a critical area. So you're looking for kind of a transportation model 20-y year and sixyear impacts on that level of service if this east west connection was included. Correct. Ma'am,

I want to jump in here on a on another facet of this now that we're on the subject of this. But at least you've explained how it ended up in here because when I saw it, my deal was how did this end up in here again? Um, again meaning that in the recesses of my mind and if council member Brandanstead was here, he would be able to tell us, there was somewhere at the beginning of cityhood some idea about putting a bike trail, a pedestrian bridge across there and the neighborhood went nuts. Is is am I wrong in that? So, so the day we say, "Oh, yeah, you're not getting a pedestrian trail, you're getting an entire street," um, I I understand the technicalities of why I get the whole Silicon Boulevard maybe at um, you know, over capacity out of what what do you call it? Um, what are we looking at here? And a bridge. And how easy and now the Chambers Creek Bridge you spoke to. Everyone has wanted to get rid of that dam. They need to get rid of the dam. Everyone realizes that there's not anybody that argues with that. But here just to build another street to put a bridge across. Is it is it even realistic? Even before we talk to the neighborhood for the reasons state council member Talo stated, You got these environmental, oh, we're going to cross the river and I mean understand from our perspiring behind it, but we've got like a neighborhood there.

Yeah, I I I completely understand that. I do want to also bring up that the Stilicum Boulevard is dependent upon a dam that is

80 some years old as well and is already starting to see seepage on it. Uh so from that perspective between that and interlock and bridge was really the genesis of this. I don't bring those to you lightly and I don't expect it to be constructed in the next 10 years. However, if you don't start planning for it now at some point in the future it becomes very very difficult to do this. It's not something that I would say that is going to be easy. It's definitely feasible but it's also something that would be transportation wise the largest positive impact for the people of Oakbrook and negative on some. I will 100% agree with you for those who have to live with 8,000 cars going and buy their house where they typically didn't before. That's a total change of what they had before. But there's not a lot of real estate left to be putting arterials on. I will just make one last comment and that is and that is I think in general so so I just piped out things from a practitioner's point of view reference and experience from a council member and a repres me member of this community when we build new roads I think that we should be looking at how do these roads connect people to jobs and people to economic centers. And to me, when we build new roads, we should be trying to connect our economic hubs and our job centers as best as we can. So, I don't see that this is a even at that from that angle, I I have a hard time seeing how this is a purposeful need. Thank you.

There any other comments, questions? Council member Pierce. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, I I we're going to have a lot of projects in the next 10, 15 years that are not going to be easy projects to fund. And I feel like we're going to be end up, you know, going out to vote on a lot of these and and trying to get levies and things for for projects because we're we're not going to have, you know, we don't have a big pot of money for road projects, right? So, um this could be one that goes, you know, in however long. Um put it out to people, see if they want it, and what, you know, if we don't have any other better, you know, project at the time. But uh the the one um see the the one item that I wanted to to touch on was the prioritization um list and bring that back up because the one thing I didn't see that gosh Sorry. Thank you. So, there's the different categories and we have safety, multimodal, funding, comp plan. You know, that could be kind of getting into what I'm I guess getting at here, but like we've got a number of as as council member Talo kind of gets at is like projects that could promote economic development, that could promote, you know, being in in a job center and things like that. And how do we really add that category into this

prioritization list? Like one of the examples that we talked about at our retreat was the Green Street Loop, but really kind of reimagining the Green Street Loop as being I think someone said the old Lakewood Speedway or something that basically goes from like Bridgeport and 112 all the way down to um down to to Lakewood uh to Gravaly Lake and then back and then up and and and something like that, you know, if we were able to revitalize that whole kind of gross strip of Bridgeport, that may score okay, but I think that there's elements of it that wouldn't be accounted for in something like a Green Street Loop type of project that expanded there. And so I don't know if comp plan is, you know, 3% comp plan doesn't really do much when it's compared to safety multimodal, but like those are elements of it. But but there's also, you know, the other kind of like economic development side, the the bringing people into the area. um you know having it as a a potential for a linear park as a destination as a you know these kind of other elements that um I'd be interested to see if a project if we include some something else in the category how some of these other projects that aren't necessarily just oh here's an arterial and you know is it safe or not versus you know there's a lot of arterials that aren't the safest around here like we've got gravel shoulders and stuff everywhere so But to council council member Tubble's point is like connecting, you know, job centers and and and higher density areas and and doing improvements. You know, I think that that's really where some of the focus needs to be. Um,

and I didn't see I couldn't get that out of the prioritization. Prioritization is like basically any arterial that doesn't have a sidewalk scores high here is essentially like you're at 70% if you just don't have sidewalks.

So, uh, one one thing I do want to mention with that is the prioritization is really for us to go look at getting grant funds. And yeah, you're right. There are a lot of grant funds out there that are aimed at arterials or specifically arterials that do point to centers of of job growth. That's typically why we've kind of scored them the way they are. As a council, you're more than, you know, welcome to adjust these priorities or pick pick off of this list anywhere you would like through the CIP process as well. You know, you don't have to stick to, you know, hey, this is the highest on the tip. It needs to go next. It's really just a mechanism that we had for staff to be able to, you know, observe and see what was next for grant funding. Nice. Any other questions? So my my question is now that we've been brought on the project score list is I I feel like the next big item there's a lot going on but the military road edgewood to far west how does that look from a grant perspective where are we in that process of trying to get that segment funded

so it's been through PSRC once it scored very low on the PSRC on the last funding round in 2024. Um, TIBB has been very positive with it. Uh, talking to them a little bit about it. So, that'd be something we would look to discuss with the city manager about applying this year for TIB. Okay. So, so the Kuster stuff's done, but that that would be the next probably. And and is the Mount Tacoma Drive one is that fully funded, too? Tacoma Drive is fully funded through TBD.

Okay. And then I wanted to go to the pavement chart. Um is way back in there. So I'm just doing off memory. It's pretty stable, I guess. But for all the work we've done, should we be concerned at that level or is is that what does that mean? What does a 70 something mean? So 70, we typically have been in the upper 70s since the last 10, 15 years. I will say that we do need a new refresh on the pavement management system, a new rating, if you will, but you you start to worry when you get down below 70 on these things a lot. Um, and and for what it is, it'd be nice to be 80, but it's not necessarily feasible to continue to keep that up. Again, I would wait until we get a new scoring. We We're due for one for the next grant round.

Okay. Thank you. Um, any other questions? So, we're going to have the public hearing on this next week.

Yeah. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd just like to address a couple of comments. Um, this is a policy document for council to make changes as you would with any other system in place. I have seen transportation plans be modified at the council level every time based on preferences they have be it for economic development components trying to fe feed into that and for neighborhood concerns. I mean I can point to three of them in my mind right now that was the right you know a project for overall transportation model that never made it forward because of some of those challenges. So cancel is that is the ultimate decider on these. The one thing I'd say is if we don't have engineers that are looking forward to try and address congestion, they're not doing their job. And that doesn't mean that all these projects are going to come through are going to be even approved by the council. We're okay with that. But if we have people that don't say, "Hey, you have a potential problem on our current capacities." and bring options to relieve that into the future, then we're not doing our job. But that does not mean that there is an adamant directive that council has to agree with the prioritization, agree with where these projects are in place. That's entirely what these discussions are for.

Thank you for that. Um, any other questions for the So, the public hearing is next week. We'll hear if anybody wants to talk to this and then we'll probably have some further discussion. It sounds like um appreciate the changes. It's at least it's more colorful. I'm used to the old to the old thing. Did we put anything in front of the PSRC this year? So, PSRC has not had a call. Okay, I'm good. Uh they will look to maybe have a call this winter potentially. Uh but they do not have a call currently yet. Council member Talo,

since we're in a session, if you'll be at the any of the TIB workshops, we may see each other there.

Oh, good. Yeah. T TIB traditionally has been, not that TCRC hasn't been good to us in some years, but they they spread the stuff pretty thin, so hopefully the military road project wedge, which I think a lot of people would really appreciate. There's a lot of traffic on there. Um, any other projects near to give anybody Harper? Um, with that, thank you very much, Mr. Aught. Review of the Americans with Disabilities Act ADA transition plan. And we heard a little bit about it from the planning commission. So, I appreciate you being here tonight to kind of walk us through this. It looks like it's 91 pages, so that's going to take a while. Do you have a presentation?

I do have a presentation. It is not 91. You know where it starts your presentation? Yeah. So that starts on page 183 of your packet. Thank you.

Yes. And I I'll start before we go through the slides. When we were here March 9th, uh some of the council comments were to extend the comment period time. So that's why we find ourselves here two months later. So and again as you heard from planning commission uh we had three touches at planning commission and I'll talk about that in the next slide. So this is the the reason for being here this evening is planning commission recommended to bring the ADA transition plan document the draft document forward to council for a study session with a tenative um adoption at on June 1st. And again um as you heard uh planning commission enjoyed that process going through there and it was a a unanimous vote to bring it forward to council. So this is a good summary slide about um about the plan. It is is required by law by federal law. Um the city of Lakewood finds ourel you know above 50 employees. We have done that self evaluation. We will continue to do that self evaluation. Um we as we have always done we'll continue to remove barriers to the pedestrian access path. Uh we have the ADA coordinator in place. Um and then our goal or our plan is that this will be updated on a three to five year cycle. And again just to remind everyone the scope of what's in this plan is that pedestrian access route within the rideway. So, it's your your sidewalks, your curb ramps, crosswalks, head push buttons, those items that are

all listed there. But we did not include other city-owned facilities. So, that exhaustive survey in 2021 um really gave us the opportunity uh for our GI the basis for our GIS system. And you can see we we have a lot to be proud of as a city. We are now we transitioned from you know a county infrastructure system to a city infrastructure system. That was some of the impetus to become a city in 1996. So in that time we are now up to and this again this is a snapshot in 2021 and as you well know we've had a very robust capital uh program and continue to do so. But we're up at um 67 miles of sidewalk. Um we when we did that assessment, we inventoried over,200 uh curb ramps, looked at all our pet push buttons, and looked at almost 2,000 driveways. And again, a snapshot back to 2021. At that time what we saw and again capital has taken care of a number of these issues especially among veterans Washington grally um and Stilicum were missing or outdated curb ramps slope of um the ramps or even sidewalks that were outside of tolerances. So I'll go ahead and move on here. I want to talk a little bit about our design standards. So um AC or engineers are good at acronyms. So we throw around PROWG all the time but that stands for public rights of way access guidelines. So just to make that clarification

uh DOT formally adopted it in December 24. We have followed uh those design standards for a while now. Moving to the state level, it's unsurprising that the state also follows that same um design guide and it's in the chap you'll find it in chapter 15 in the wash dot design guide and then that lift that was talked about both with uh planning commission and you're well aware of was in March uh the council uh adopted the update to our title 12 and 13 and our engineering standards manual and those updates weren't just for ADA they were holistic across the board and it was definitely uh needed at that time. But part of that update formally adopted the wash dot design manual which thereby adopts Pearl and I would just say that this covers not only our own work or capital work but it's also all the development work that occurs in the city. So, there's a number of ways that our pedestri pedestrian access routes um improved. One thing you'll see, as you saw in the tip, that there will be a request as part of the the budget process that will be starting here soon is um some dedicated funds just for improvements, ADA improvements across the city. and it'll be talked about a little bit later, but where we based the cost on that would be um upgrading at an intersection all the ped ramps and the push buttons. So that was the cost that we picked as a baseline for that request that'll be forthcoming. Uh the next one is our capital improvement projects and those are moving again very quickly. Um

and it's corrected a number of barriers within the pedestrian access route. Our on&m folks on a day-to-day basis deal with um issues that come up. Things like vegetation in the sidewalk or a faulted sidewalk from tree roots. They might go go out and grind the sidewalk if appropriate. If not, we will bring a contractor in to make those repairs. But those are done um you know as soon as they are the city's made aware, we we take action. The other ways are if and this really is a capital um it should be under capital, but if we have an overlay project that affects the crosswalk, then there'll be upgrades associated with that overlay. But finally, this even applies to development. uh typical on a development that may come in if the sidewalk is out of spec for cross slope or width um or the driveway and often the driveway is up upgraded as part of a a development. So those things just occur naturally. So we have this constant um change within the city that's improving our network both our capital projects and what goes on with development. So this is uh the implementation but also kind of our battle plan on a five-year cycle. So the inventory would be updated annually based on the capital work. um that would also be able to feed into our prioritization update and then the tip is updated on a yearly basis. Um but the from the budget side, the CIP capital improvement um program is updated on a two-year cycle with the budget. And then finally, every three to five years, we would do an update to the ADA uh transition plan.

Really to the best way to look at it is a living document. So we had to come up with a scoring uh system and it makes these these are intuitive. The condition of the infrastructure would make up about half the score and then we use traffic volume as a surrogate for also pedestrian uh usage. And then if there is a known complaint that's um sorry I skipped known ADA use. So even at incorporation, the city focused around our schools citywide and many of our original sidewalk built after 96 was around schools starting with the elementarymentaries. Uh but looking at those uses that do draw a high number of ADA users and pedestrian users. Um, and then lastly, complaints. And, and I'll be honest, we don't get a lot of complaints um, as far as from our pedestrian access route. I think in when I was here in March, I mentioned one that had to do with a sight impaired individual and a T intersection versus a four-way intersection, but those are few and far between, and those make very good sense to make those upgrades. So these are the big numbers. Um and you can see the big numbers that would take to bring everything within compliance. The largest uh portion would be sidewalk and driveways. And that's just simply because uh sidewalks need to be 2% or less to be compliant. We have a lot of two and a half% sidewalks within the city. Um our pedestrian signals um Again, we are we have and will continue to do a

lot of signal upgrades. We'll address a lot of that third uh row. And then with that is often the curve ramps. And this was the request I was talking about that bottom left. We'll be looking at making a request in about the $260,000 range uh in the budget process. And again, that's to look at or how we came up with that cost was a typical intersection with PE ramp upgrades and PE push button upgrades. That doesn't mean that that would be uh the only type of project. It would be a function of what is prioritized. And again, um this is something you've seen before, but just looking at funding, we're aware of our local funding. Um our a real estate excise tax. Uh there can always be general fund. Um our transportation benefit district is currently funded at $20. It can go up to 40 without a vote. Um that money is primarily used to back our our bonds that we currently have and have built a lot of projects. And then we also have the transportation mitigation fee, the TMF fees, but that's solely in the downtown sub area. On the grant side, which was talked about a little bit during the tip process, uh we we have the HSIP program, CMAC, which is your congestion mitigation air quality through PSRC. You could also have your STP, your surface transportation uh funds could also fund projects, though those are holistic to the road typically. Uh tap um and then that safe routes to school and bike and ped. The city has been uh very successful with those. We've built

projects uh especially when they opened up high schools to that. We did that far west work. There was a lot of missing sidewalk on Far West up by Lakes High School. That's a fairly recent uh completion. We also did that first piece of 112th by Clover Park High School. That was safe routes to school as well. Uh bike and pad was up at 84th in Pine which there was no crossing to boards lake park there. We have that signal now. And then that ultimately connects to the Water Ditch Trail. So that was a nice addition to the work that we also did on South Dakota Way. And then lastly is was there was a little discussion about TIB, Transportation Improvement Board. They've always been a good a great funding partner uh to Lakewood. Many many projects within Lakewood have either been funded or partially funded but with TIB funds. So just talking again, I've mentioned some of these items as we've gone through, but we've we have a lot to be proud of over the last 30 years of uh progress that's been made in our infrastructure transitioning from that county look of uh through lanes with gravel shoulder. We have a lot of nice infrastructure on our both north, south, and east west arterials as well as collect our art materials and our local roads. Um 2021 was that inventory. That third column, the 22 to 26, that's not an exhaustive list of projects, but again, it's a list of projects to be proud of. And it shows um projects that are built around the city, different uses, and definitely removed a lot of barriers. In

2026, again, we've already done heavy lift. We have uh title 12, 13, and ESM's all been updated. And here we find ourselves wrapping up the ADA transition plan. Um looking forward to that adoption and that's this next slide here. A little bit about that. So just a little history um of the process that's been done this year. The web page was done in January. Uh February, we started with notices in the city manager um bulletins, the weekly bulletins. March 19th, we sent out the email to interested stakeholders and that was a large group. It includes center force that Councilman Brandstead had mentioned the March 9th meeting. Um we had three touches at planning commission uh two study sessions and then the hearing. The next step would be tonight the council review but also the tenative scheduled adoption for June 1st. And then lastly we have in place our grievance process. Those forms are available. our PL um HR manager, Nicole is our identified ADA coordinator. And then we also have the my 311 which deals with a lot of those emerging issues I mentioned earlier like falting sidewalk or vegetation in the rightway. So with that, available for any questions council may have.

Thank you, Mr. Rod. Any questions for Mr. M. Council member Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, appreciate the presentation and uh, one one of the questions that I had was it was mentioned about um, when development projects come in and they have frontage improvements to do, how so we have some GIS information that does it does it really? So, we've actually surveyed the sidewalk and and I've identified which areas of sidewalks are not compliant because it's when you look at a at a site, you're like, "Oh, yeah, there's existing curb sidewalk there. I don't have to do anything." Is it clear for them that they may have to do something um through the GIS or how would they get that information that when they come in to do get their bu building permit or their tenant improvement that they actually may have to go replace the frontage even though there is sidewalk there? because that's a hard conversation to have like what do you mean I have sidewalk there I have to rip it all out and put it back so how is that communicated and and is that publicly available to them or they have to come in and get information or what's that process like

yeah so that's a great question so there's a number of things that can happen that would help a developer with that one the pre-application conference um is a great process um all aspects of city fire um water, etc. in those meetings. And what we've gone to do recently, and I would say in the last 12 plus months, is we'll actually send someone out and go measure that sidewalk. So, not only the width, but the cross slope because we just don't want to miss that from the get-go as you're bringing up. The developer themselves often they want to make a change. Um, in addition, they have to, you know, if it's a, let's say, a new restaurant coming in, they also have to make a connection from that restaurant to the sidewalk for ADA as well. So, there's there's often a number of changes that are done up front. Um, and then as they come in for review, those are our first review comments would be anything that would be missed on that submitt, if it was a site development permit. Um, we would But uh kind of the recent typical ones I've seen is sidewalk out of width or sorry sidewalk cross slope or width because some portions of the city like in the downtown have a wider sidewalk requirement than than what we have built on Bridgeport. Um and then driveways. That would be the other those are kind of the the three main ones. But they often have a number of other frontage improvements that go along with it. So removing and replacing the sidewalk is costly, but it's usually rolled up with the other improvements that are required there. Hope I answered your question.

Any other questions? Oh, you got another question. Thank you. It's more of an observation, I guess, rather. So on the Green Street Loop topic, I'm looking through the ADA plan and there's a number of of ped um whatever they're called little buttons um that are called out along Bridgeport. There's actually a far worse number of non-compliant driveway approaches along Bridgeport there. And I think if we can look at the big picture of all of how all of our plans come together and this ADA plan and our transportation plan and our you know that's what the comprehensive plan is really all about Is your mic still working?

Okay.

Just one thing to keep in mind with the Green Street Loop and like improvements for pedestrian access, including ADA, the RA downtown transportation feasibility study will be looking at those safety aspects as well as ADA compliance. In addition to that project, it's going to have series of alternatives for transportation designs for all modes of transportation, not just about cars or bikes or people walking. Um, I think it's currently scoped in budget for no action. So, what we have today, what does the downtown plan say today, but two action alternatives and one we're bookending right now and brainstorming is that green street loop. Should it stay in the current alignment or should it look differently at different stages of the project? This council will be engaged as part of that and getting feedback and are we on the right track from a policy framework. And one of the first uh topics to be soon to you is kind of an overview of the draft public participation plan and upcoming events that we plan not just in the in the month of June but also throughout the summer etc. So stay tuned. There's going to be more as we dive deeper in that. Thanks for the update, Angie. I think to um Council Member Pearson's point, I think that what I'm getting from tonight's study session is that the scoring criteria and the percentages associated with the waiting in the tip uh could use probably some more discussion with our other council members because I I agree with you, Council Member Pearson, that whether you whether we call that criteria comp plan or consistenc with the comp plan, but just in general consistency with the goals and objectives that we're trying to achieve economically, but

comprehensive applied planwide and citywide probably 3% and scoring that very low uh doesn't do much doesn't give much advantage to those projects that we're trying to elevate. Although I recognize that those that the Bridgeport Way is a huge arterial and would require some funding but nonetheless still deserves the benefit of of priority ranking to that degree so that we so that it's even the more better positioned for all types of grant funding and other roads like Bridgeport. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Thanks for that work, Mr.

Thank you. So, we'll see you on June 1st. Yeah. Uh yeah. So, all right. Yeah. The only addition to the draft plan would be a summary of the comment process. So, all right. We'll look forward to the June 1st action. Good. Thank you for your time.

Items tenatively scheduled for the Monday, May 18th, 2026 regular city council meeting and study session. So that's a six o'clock start. Um got a number of things on the consent agenda including uh additional work on Stilicum Boulevard. um resolution and then uh adopting the carry forward adj budget adjustments uh resolution for the application of the Washington State Historical Society Heritage Grant for the H barn preservation and uh the encroachment process uh item for discussion and and then the long- aaited review of the automated traffic safety camera program. So, we'll see where everyone's going to get their uh their speeding tickets. Reports by the city manager, Mr. Russell.

Uh yeah, Mayor. Um just not going to speak a lot tonight because everyone has their calendars in there, so need to take a few minutes to go over that and just reiterate that we are headed to DC tomorrow to meet with our federal delegation. Thank you very much. We do have who's um and we do have a lot of stuff towards the end of the month, the Arlington project and things like that and I urge people to go to that if you can. Um it's it it really is a a very good event. So, council member comments. So, uh we'll start with council member Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh no comments tonight. Council member Talbo, I will keep it short. I do plan to attend the downtown neighborhood association meeting this week. I will be a little late. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Lindholm. Mayor, just to highlight the Rotary uh beer and winefest is coming up on Saturday. If you can make it, that's a great event. That's all. Mr. Mayor, thank you. That is a It is a great event.

Deputy Mayor Bell.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I too will be going with you uh tomorrow to DC and uh city manager and really looking forward to uh meeting some meeting our representatives and talking about our priorities. So, I think it'll be a really great trip. Thank you. Yeah, I'm very very hopeful. We're, you know, looking for money for the barn. Um, and it sounds like things are are going pretty well in that regard. I appreciate um uh Tony and his his partner being here tonight. Um, he and I have had had have had several discussions over the last couple months uh about their interest here in in Lakewood and that in the field there at Fort Silicon Park. Um, I thought it was constructive um, comments. I'm and I'm I'm really excited about it. I hope I hope we can pull it off that we can uh bring that here because I think it get gives people a lot to do. I mean, 30 times a year there's there's entertainment available. that's outside. And um yeah, and uh so yeah, I think there's a lot of things, a lot of positives for this community. We have the name now. We've got that nailed down. Um and and that was important to to a number of people I spoke to. So, um I'm glad we've got that taken care of. So, I'm hopeful that that that we can we can work through this and and we'll see if we go from there. Um I had sound uh Pierce transit meeting tonight. Um uh two meetings actually. Uh the regular meeting which went uh pretty pretty quickly and the next meeting which um and I'm going to look at council member Talo because she might know what it means. Cag citizens trans c

citizens transportation advisory committee. Yes. These are They're usually mandated committees

and they talked about the changes that they want to make. And of course, Lakewood because Sound or Pierce Transit is here and and we also have a lot of writers um is going to be impacted, but they are in the midst of they were getting community comments tonight. Some were critical of the plan. Um, Pierce Transit or is is is thinking very hard and we may know as early as in next month or two of taking a 3/10en of a percent increase in the sales tax to the voters to expand service. So, it would not only expand the hours like about 10 o'clock on weekdays and on a lot of routes. So people they're having difficulty after a certain hour when they shut down early of getting people can't take it to and from work. So they're expansion of hours, expansion of routes, um a lot of other items involved in there. But there were there were some critical comments today from some of the writers about and the one thing the last point before I had to leave here was for this meeting was a guy saying, "Well, I'm not sure that the routes to the sounder stations actually are working on a timely basis with when the sounder sounder train actually arrives or leaves. Um, which I found interesting. You think by now they would have figured that out. But apparently he was he was very concerned about he said, "Well, I I ride it. I'm telling you, I have to the train drops me off and and there's no bus for a half hour or more." So there there are things they need to to work out um on that. But anyway um there'll be more coming on that. So with that, I appreciate everybody's participation tonight and thank you very much.