Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

It is 18:34. Good evening, commissioners, city staff, citizens, and stakeholders of DuPont. Welcome to the city of DuPont's planning commission meeting for the 9th of March, 20 six. For those attending for the first time and listening via YouTube and Zoom, my name is Melinda Scow and I am the chair of the planning commission. The planning commission is a body of volunteer citizens who serve as advisers to the mayor and city council. Our delegated authority is to maintain the city's comprehensive planned and land use code consistent with the Washington Growth Management Act. Meetings of the planning commission are open public meetings and they are being recorded. There are opportunities for members of the community to address the planning commission. Instructions on how to make a public comment are in the city's website. Can we commence with roll call, please?

Commissioner Chase, present. Commissioner Butler, present. Commissioner Berlinson present. Commissioner Kovven. Uh, I have not received Did you receive anything? I did not receive anything from Commissioner Kovven. That's unusual, too. Yeah. Should we um Can I get a motion to um approve his absence? I move we ex we excuse Commissioner Culvin from the meeting tonight. Okay. Do I have a second? I second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. And Commissioner Scout. We do not have a quorum. Four. Is four a quorum? Don't we need seven? There's seven. We do. Thank goodness. My for a moment my heart was like, "Wait a second." Good. We have a quorum. Okay. Good. You can proceed with roll call, please. Um, Commissioner Lynch, uh, she she had, uh, she did write in that she is, uh, recovering from cataract surgery. So, make a motion to approve her absence.

I move that we uh, excuse Commissioner Lynch from tonight's meeting. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Roll call poll is completed. We do have two vacancies and we are working hard to try to fill those.

Okay. Okay. Yes, we're ready for approval of the agenda. Oh, excuse me. No, no, no. We should approve the agenda. Yeah. Okay. And then Yes. Pardon me. Okay. Do I have a motion for the to approve the agenda for tonight? So moved. I actually um I

let's go ahead and if we can get an amendment that we will um after the approval of the minutes we will um like to acknowledge commission former commissioner in uh since he is able to join us for this meeting. So, can I get uh someone will second that? Okay. I second the approval.

Okay. All those in favor of approving the minutes with agenda with a adding the um accommodation at 4.6 six for after between five and six. Okay. If so, um all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Agenda passed as with the amendment. Um can I get a approval for

Chair Scout? Before we go too far, I think that we've missed public comments. I don't know if there's any in the audience, but we need to step back just for a second. We We did miss item number three, the public comments. Okay. Are we doing that as part of the open? No, this would just be public comments not pertaining to the electric vehicle code amendments. Okay. Um, digressing back to the public comments. Is there anyone outside of the public hearing motion that would like to make comments? Is there anyone online? Sarah? No.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Chase. Um, at this time, can I get a motion to approve an amended agenda? agenda with um the uh recognizing Commissioner Thor between five and six otherwise approved as written that a that amendment that amendment was a friendly taken as a friendly amendment and so we don't need to vote on the amendment. Okay, I was going in order. Okay. Just need to go ahead and vote for it. Okay. All those in favor? I

I opposed. Okay. And moving to the approval of the minutes. Can I get a motion to approve last month's meeting minutes? I move that we uh accept approve the meeting minutes of February 9th, 2026. Do I hear a second? I second.

Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Opposed. Meetings approved from February 9th, 2026. And at this time, I turn it over to uh Barb for uh acknowledgement.

Thank you so much. So, we are um I'd like to call um Jugal Fard up to um to give him our much thanks and appreciation for his service. Jugle. So, you got us through some pretty tough times, lots of work with the comp sub area plan and the comp plan. And so, Jugle served on the planning commission from February 21 almost January 1st of 2025. And that was a a big heavy lift and a lot of work. and we really do appreciate everything that you did for the planning commission. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

It was very a picture of you. Yes. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Excellent. In about six months.

Okay, this time we're moving on to unfinished business. As of from the previous meeting, um since the um information was not readily available, we are moving we did bring over public comments about the um electric vehicle code amendments. So at this time we'd like to open to public hearing of any comments.

Yes. Thank you so much, Chair Scout. So, on our February 9th, 2026 uh meeting, we held a public hearing for um code amendments for electric vehicle. Um it's a combined um different um sections in title 25. And the hearing did close at the end of that meeting, but we did leave the public comment period open in case there were people that um did not have enough time to read the material and they wish to to sew comments. So at this time, if um you will uh do a call for any public comments related to the proposed code amendments for the electric vehicle. you uh infrastructure amendments.

Uh anyone in chambers like to bring forth.

Hi, my name is Steve Kern regarding implementation of these code amendments and mostly I want to congratulate father. I think you're very fortunate to have someone on the city staff who's doing the best she can bring the city law to facilitate the implementation of charge station infrastructure. It was a long time coming, but you know

Is there anybody online that wishes to make a comment, Sarah? No. At this time, we close the public hearing portion of comment for comments and move forward with uh the unfinished business of the electric vehicle code amendment. So

yes, thank you. And so I just want to say that we um we at our this the staff report provided um in February is basically all of the package of amendments that are being proposed. You had a packet in your materials. Um there is one minor change. If you recall when we were going through the uh packet in February, the public hearing packet, we noticed that we were missing a definition and that definition was for charging station ready. We talk about it in the um in the implementation section of the electric vehicle code. So, uh tonight you would see Oh, good. Thank you, Sarah. She's going to bring it up on the screen. also an a new definition that would be added to um the definition section in the DMC and this would be 2510 05036 called electrical vehicle charging station ready and we took this definition right from um again from model code um so we didn't have to make anything up on our own charger station ready means a designated parking space equipped with the necessary electrical capacity to support a charging station, including the raceway, wiring, and panel capacity. And why it's important to have this defined is because um building codes are requiring a certain number of electric vehicle charging parking lots. They don't necessarily have to be developed already, but they have to be ready, charging station ready. And so we could um imagine you know an a developer making an application and we're and saying like what does that mean and now we can point to this definition and tell

them that is what is required under the DMC. So other than that, um I would ask for um your deliberation tonight and ask that you make a recommendation to to the city council to adopt this as it it is in your packet for tonight's meeting with that additional definition. And if there are questions um or discussion, of course, that's important to have as well. Thank you, Barb. Was there anything left that anyone had any questions about any of this?

Just one question. And Barb, you mentioned that there was a requirement of so many slots, my words, parking spaces, whatever that need to be in developments ready is I can't remember in our document. Do we site that? We we site it to the uh building code. So we map them to the building code so that they they would need to look at that. And we did that because building codes change. Would it would it behoove us to just say that we want to match for the number to match the building code so that we don't have to come back?

I believe three years when when they do it that is when they do it when they change it. We do have that in the language now that they must um comply with that section of the RCW for building code. That's the way it's written. I just want to make sure that we're don't have to plow the field one more time. Right. Yes. Thank you. So, I just have a question. Um, since I wasn't here, I didn't drink the material. This prepares us for like the construction that's going to be in Old Fort Lake, you know, that that whatever is developed. There could be some some of those businesses or those areas that have to have

well the way that um the code is constructed is that and why it was important to go through and do this you know very deliberate uh change is that we were silent. We we we had to recognize that there's different charging levels and that the charging levels that a home that an individual might have for an electric vehicle is different than a charging level that would be like for the the commenters um more of a commercial that that rapid um charging station. So, we wanted to make sure that we said, "Hey, you know, these level ones and twos are are fine citywide without you don't have to get a permit. If you go to the dealer and you decide you're going to buy an electric vehicle, then you can install your your charger, you know, that you're going to need for that vehicle without having to go through a permit process." But what we did is we uh pulled out those rapid charging, the level three charging, and we said, you know, those are um those are a much bigger, they're almost like um you know, an a present- day gas station basically that isn't serving gas, it's serving electricity. And plus the voltage requirements, the all of the infrastructure is is is big. Um, so we in our code we talk about how that would be allowed. Right now the code allows it. It has to be an accessory use to another use. And that was the thing that wasn't working and wasn't compliant with the state law that we would allow in commercial, not in residential, this ability for someone to make a development application for these level three as a primary use. But to to meet the state requirements like with apartments being built and things like that, will those be those apartments be required to have some charging station?

Yes. And that's in the building code. Yes. And that would be that would be more accessory. It's part of um it wouldn't be considered accessory. would be part of the um the uh conditions of approving a future apartment building. Okay.

Is that just like we have to look at do they have the landscaping right? Do they have the number of parking stalls? Oh, and by the way, is a percentage of those parking stalls electric vehicle charging ready? So, that's just kind of what you do as part of the package approval package. Okay. In that case, it would be similar to the number of handicapped accessible parking spots. Yes.

I just I have a just a not being familiar with the the style and um looking through and this isn't highlighted so maybe it already exists in the code. some kind of the vehicle battery exchange station and I I will I didn't read the ordinances or anything. So maybe this isn't I mean this isn't in the ordinances does it address storage of b of those batteries and that I mean these are batteries that are like toxic. So um in that in allowing those does does it address what you can do with those battery what you have to do with those?

So great questions. So um that you will notice so that gets down to what how are we permitting these things and so that that um is part of an electric vehicle infrastructure that would be needed. You'd have to have vehicle battery exchange stations. those would have to be permitted through what we call a type three. So someone applies for that type of facility, they're going to have to go through um hearing examiner and they have to go which means that we have to do uh SEIPA which is the environmental impact analysis for any impacts. We would have to go through um you know the applicant would would have to be showing or proving that they have um that they are what they are going to do with the batteries or how they're going to develop this exchange um station is not only compliant with uh environmental laws but compliant with um you know with with all of the other potential conditions or mitigations for any impacts that they might cause whether it's a fire, potential fire. So you're you what I'm saying is part of that approval process in the type three is going through and looking at all of these different aspects of what what um is it about that type of a use that rises to a level of needing to require as a condition of approval some mitigation or assurance that it's that it's meeting um you know whatever uh compliance measure it needs to meet for safety.

Okay. So, keeping keeping the the storage of those used batteries on site, is that something we should address in the plan or is that part of this mitigation that you're That would be part of the review and the conditioning mitigation. Okay. Okay. Based on best practices. Okay. Thank you. There any more comments or questions about the amendments being made?

Just one more time, can you go over for me please the charging station charger station ready versus the requirement for 10% of the spaces uh able to so so the way it's written it says 10% of total spaces with wiring to accommodate electric vehicle charging and then an additional 20% of spaces must be charger station ready. So that's 30% of all future parking spots in apartments and there. Yes. So So what was the difference between Yeah. I'm just thinking about it from Yeah. The difference like like we talk about affordable housing and that like about this is making these affordable. So

you know it's so true but this means that some of some of that development has to already be plug-in ready. So they have to actually put the infrastructure in and the other portion would just have to have the um you know the the the the basic um it it wouldn't actually go as it's just going to have the the raceways and I'm trying to think of a really good way kind of like when you lay fiber cable but you don't light it sort of so it's it's there and it's available but it hasn't been completed yet to be able the conduit is underground ground, but the cabling's not actually Right. Right.

Okay. And then the battery exchange thing is completely unrelated to the EV charging stations. Correct. The ones we're talking about here.

So, um, so you could have an EV charging station if it were a level. You could see where they might come in with a development proposal to, excuse me, to have both uses cited. So, not saying that it would always happen that way, but it is possible where you might have somebody that wants to develop a charging a level three rapid charging station and then they would also provide this battery exchange there. It's kind of like a less schwab will do, you know, you can have this and you can have that. Um, they may not always do that. Um, but that's potential,

right? It was more of a question like just the technology for the exchange is not a it's in development I think is the best term. So I was just trying to think about was how we work towards achieving like this gentleman's objective. Yeah. This is a bigger picture, but

yeah. So, really what that would do is elevate. So, so if we were to have somebody that were to come in and they wanted to do um you know that here's some scenarios, right? They come in and they're just I think I believe what this um proposal will look like when it comes in is they just want to build a a rapid charging station. That's it. Okay. Then that would be allowed outright. Um and we would we would process that as a as a level two. That's going to be an administrative decision. Let's say this gentleman, his investor is like, "Yeah, no, let's go for it all. Let's set let's submit a proposal that says we want to have our level three charging station. Oh, and we also want to have a battery exchange station." Now, all of the sudden that proposal is elevated to be the the type three that it puts that extra layer of review that takes it out of just an administrative staff review into hearing examiner.

All right. Thank you.

Okay. Any other further comments or questions? Are are we looking to send a recommendation then tonight? Yes, I would really like that if you're comfortable with it. Um so that we can get this in front of the city council. I'll take a step at making a motion that to recommend to the city council that they accept our work tonight on um chapter 25 including the section on battery exchange.

Yes, including the definition the newly added definition for 25105036 for electrical vehicle charging station ready. That's what I said.

Do I have a second? I second. Okay. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I.

All those opposed. Okay. It is passed to send this on to the city council for recommendation. Thank you very much as always. You do great work. Good planning commission. Hey, at this time we're moving on to unfin new business and I believe um to accommodate our requirements, we will be watching a short video on open public meeting.

Yes, we do hope the link works. Oh, look. There it is. So far so good. So, this is um required training that we all need to take. And so, we'll roll this. It's uh from the AWC, the Attorney General of Washington, and it's a training for the Open Public Meetings Act. Can you guys see it? Okay. Or should I dim lights? Are you good? Uhoh.

Oh, hold on. How do I get volume? There's no volume. Don't have any volumes. Yeah. You know what? What? We can do this. We do close captioning. That'll work. But how come we can't get any volume? I think if you went down there,

go ahead and click on this again. Um, no, that's the that's just the Huh. Well, I guess I just really think we need to have the volume. Um, and we don't want to start pressing buttons. So, what are we missing here? What are we missing? Let's go ahead and play them. And is it down in here? Maybe. Auto. Normal. No. Stable volume. Oh, your volume's turned off.

Stable volume. Oh, that's not it. Um I'm wondering if I can. Oh, because it's muted. That's why. Because this is going over. We have to unmute the unmute the YouTube. Is that why? It's on YouTube. Oh, I wonder if it's over here.

Nope. Wait. Yeah. Oh, there we go.

Okay. Now you can That should play it now. Something like that. Well, I'm afraid we can't get volume, so we'll just put it up in close fashion.

Yes. I don't know. Let's see. Let's get rid of this one. I have no idea. This is where maybe the speakers in the real. Okay. Well, you guys really okay with just the cap closed captions or do you want to just watch it? We'll send you the link and you can watch it at home. Would you

you we could just send you the link and you can watch it at home then. I thought it would be so fun to watch it all together. Then something we need to sign off on this to send back to the clerk. You would just um send an email that you watched it and then we can put that in your file. Okay.

That you satisfied that. You could just send it to um Sarah. Oh, darn. Okay. So with that, that was our um what we were trying to accomplish tonight. Okay. At that point, moving on to any public comments.

No one in the chambers. Anyone Sarah online for public comment? No one online. Okay. Any comments from the planning commission? Commissioner Chase? Um, I just wish to report that for our April 13th meeting, I will be out of town and will not be able to get to the meeting online. Thank you. So, I'm going to ask for an excuse excused absence right now.

Duly granted. Okay. Then at this time at 7:09 we will adjourn the meeting. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. These minutes over and um