Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Oh, there it is. Great. Thank you, Iris. Um, I'd like to go ahead and call the to order the planning commission meeting of March 9th, 2026. Um, Iris, could you please call the role? Narjac is excused, absent. Um, James present. Moreno is exc um absent. Um, Donald Mitchell, sorry. Guinea present. Fly here. Twing here.

Thank you, Iris. The next item on the agenda is actually I'd like to invite um councelor Verdo to be able to provide a update from the city council.

Thank you. Um just a few things to update you on. Um the council did approve our goals, so we will be moving forward. Um I think we're talking about that tonight a little bit. So um those are set. We also um tomorrow will be hopefully approving a city manager prom candidate um tomorrow. So we will be doing that. Um uh Lynn uh Peterson uh will be joining us. She was a previous city counselor and uh also she has been serving on Metro. So she's going to be coming over as a prom for us again assuming that approval is given tomorrow. We um have boards and commissions applications. So if anyone needs to or wants to reapply if your term's coming up, we have that going on. The Southshore Fire Station is also hosting some open houses. So um if you want to get a tour of that, there's going to be one up March 21st. And if you haven't seen the Southshore and you're really curious of its condition, I highly recommend you check it out. Um, we also have a community maker day on March 14th at the library. So, it's a great opportunity to see kind of what a library could be and what that could look like and see um just go out and try different things that you can do um within that library. And I know the library advisory board has been working very hard on this maker day along with library staff. And it should be a great event coming up on Saturday. And then for those of you who may might not have heard, counselor Raph has put in his resignation. So we're going to be sometime in April putting out um uh an application, I guess, or a process to fill his seat until um through the end of the year and then that seat will be open on the November ballot. So um we

have that going on as well. Any other questions that you might have? know will somebody appoint the com someone to replace commissioner Raph then or so um people will apply and the council will appoint um again someone through the end of the year and then his seat will become available for the final two years on the November election. So they'll run um so again just a short interim kind of like our city you know city city city manager prom excuse me um you know just a short term and then we'll have a more formal process. Got it. Thank you. But again, short term there is a formal process in terms of application and and the council will go through that and we'll be learning more about that at the upcoming council meetings.

Thank you, councelor Verdo. Next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Um the meeting minutes being considered are for the meeting uh dated February 23rd, 2026. Commissioners, are there any revisions to the minutes? Seeing none, I would ask for a if anyone has a motion to approve. I will make a motion to approve the minutes as written. Thank you, Commissioner Guinea. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Commissioner Twing. Um, we have a motion and we have a second. Um, we will go ahead and do a vote. All those in favor? I

I. Anyone opposed? All right. The minutes uh for February 23rd, 2026 are approved as written. Um public comment. Does anyone wish to provide public comment or raise an issue regarding items not on the agenda or agenda items that do not include a public hearing? Do we have anyone today, Iris? No, we do not.

All right. Thank you. Moving on. The next item on the agenda is the Commission for Citizen Involvement. Uh, do we have any upcoming meetings or events that promote public involvement or civic engagement? I don't have any on my list. Planning Manager Olsson, anything that you had? Um,

I know that there were two sent out along with the materials, but I don't have them with me currently. Um yeah, we can try to get those for later in the meeting and then we can try to return to that during the um schedule update potentially at the end of the meeting and give folks an update on that. Let's see. I do have an update here from the Blue Heron Neighborhood Association. It looks like they're having a meeting on Tuesday, March 17th at 700 p.m. that will be located at West Ridge Elementary School. Items on the agenda will be to discuss the Southshore fire station rebuild proposal as well as discussion regarding the emergency water supply distribution proposal. And again, the date for that Blue Heron Neighborhood Association meeting will be March 17th at 7 p.m. at Westridge Elementary School. And I also see there is another update from the Mary's Landing Neighborhood Association. Their meeting will be scheduled for Thursday, March 19th and it runs from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. and will be located at the Natham uh sorry, Nathman building um which is located in Mary's Woods. Um items on the agenda for the Mary's Landing Neighborhood Association meeting will be uh a board report, the Southshore Fire Station May bond measure will be discussed. Again, they will also be discussing the city emergency water distribution plan, neighborhood emergency radio practice, and election of officers and board for next year for the Mary's Landing Neighborhood Association. So again, that will be held on Thursday, March 19th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Nathman Building in Mary's Woods.

That brings us to the next item on the agenda which is the work session. Um so I would turn it over to planning manager Olsen um to take the lead here if that would be okay with you sir.

Absolutely. Thank you uh acting chair slash I guess vice chair Bruce and um yeah acting chair for today. Just go with that and uh the rest of the commission. Um glad we're able to get a quorum today. So appreciate you all coming and being here. Um going to talk for the second time this year about work plan for 2026 to really fulfill city council goals. Um as uh councelor Verdict just mentioned, you know, there was a recent council goal setting um retreat and uh recently council did adopt their goals for 2026. Um and so we do have those um sort of formally adopted now. they were still kind of um in draft form when I was putting the materials together. So um they were um oh I guess they were formally I guess they're formally proposed now. Um they're going to be uh actually adopted I suppose on March 31st. So um uh anyway so we at least have them in draft format. Um but regardless you know I think we know where they're headed at least a little bit more than we did originally. Um so regardless of that though um the council did hold their retreat I believe on February 23rd um last month so they were able to talk a little bit about it um actually yeah it might not have yes anyway they did hold their retreat and they are um on track for their goals this year and for the planning commission really um there aren't any huge curve balls you know I think um no real surprises so this is going to be a pretty straightforward uh discussion that we're having today. A lot of the work that we're taking on this year, we're proposing to take on this year, um would be a continuation of work from last year. A lot of really, you know, these multi-year work plans and initiatives that um we're we're making progress on and were intended to be completed quite yet, but we're continuing to uh truck away at and um hoping to at least uh get to adoption on

one of them, which would be um Director Newman's uh project with the tree regulation amendments. And so that's something that will come to a hearing at the planning commission as scheduled um in 2026. But I will just really quickly go through the status of our 2025 work plan. So what we were doing last year. Again, most things are currently in progress. Given that we talked about this at our last meeting, the sort of first meeting of the year in January, I won't go into too incredibly much detail about this, but I will just kind of briefly let folks know where we're at. So um you know, the the first project on that list was the Foothills Plan Update. Um, just as a reminder, that's something that will be continuing on for quite a while and we intend to complete by the end of 2027. So, in terms of particularly the components that would come to the planning commission, the code amendments and zoning changes, comprehensive plan amendments would be um planned to be adopted by the end of not this year, but next year. Um so still have uh you know a bit of time to work on that project but we're actively discussing it and we'll be holding a work session with you all next month to talk a little bit more in depth about that. Um so we're we're moving along as scheduled really with that project but uh just in a general sense really transitioning we're talking about vision goals and objectives right now. So, we had been talking about opportunities and constraints and doing a lot of um existing conditions analysis, talking about what's down in the area and um the various different sort of topographical access all sorts of different challenges that we've um found down in that area and sort of been um exploring um as we go through that work and al also the sort of opportunities that they present as well and the sort of different sort of um amazing uh you know elements that are already in the neighborhood. including Foothills Park that we can build upon with this work. Um so as I mentioned, you know, that's kind of we're smack dab in the middle of that work, but um hope to have a number of different at least I think um three or four different work sessions with you all at the planning commission this year

relate to foothills and um hopefully we can get outside for at least one of them. That's that's the idea at least. Uh and as I mentioned also with the tree regulation amendments, I mean these are big projects, right? I mean the foothills project is a big sort of neighborhoodwide planning effort where it's one of the last areas of the city where we really haven't planned it out completely. So it's a big big effort for Lake Asiggo and this is also another big effort where we're taking a pretty comprehensive look at our tree code and recommending amendments both to make them more clear and objective and to make them more implementable and clear to um the common person and just easier to understand. So, uh that's something that we are again on track for completion. Um intending to come to the planning commission for a hearing on June 8th and then that would go to city council for ultimate um a hearing in late July and ultimate adoption in early September is the current schedule there. So something we intend to actually finish this year um even though obviously it'll be implemented for a long time thereafter.

Study session.

Yeah. And that's right. And so um actually in April we'll have a study session. And it won't just be at the planning commission. We're intending to do that as a joint work session with the development review commission. So inviting those folks to come join during the regular planning commission scheduled meeting time. So you don't really have to do anything different. You're just going to have other people coming and sort of meeting you all and talking about this work and and sharing their thoughts here. So, um, you know, an opportunity to weigh in on the draft amendments in addition to, um, what you've already weighed in on in terms of some of the concepts and the sort of, um, difficult sort of, uh, concepts that were identified in the early phases. So, yeah, tree code is another big piece. And of course, uh, we have another project where we're just looking at the entire code. So the code audit and amendments um that project is currently um actually we have an active RFP that is um you know we're soliciting for a consultant to conduct the work related to the code audit project. We have received a um grant and we've um completed an intergovernmental intergovernmental agreement with Metro to accept a grant of about $300,000 to complete this work. Um and we have a um an RFP out to select that consultant. So we're hoping to receive uh you know those proposals within I think the next week, right? Um

closes on Wednesday.

Closes this Wednesday. So we'll we'll be starting to review those very soon, but intend to have a consultant selected and start negotiating uh midappril um to early May. So um making progress on that and should be able to come for a few work sessions here at the planning commission this year. But again, that's kind of in the earlier phases, but um becoming a lot more real once we get that contract executed. Um so that's another one that's in progress. add to the list of in progress projects the reasonzoning for housing project which is another one where we're looking really citywide at areas where the city could um potentially uh be adding either capacity or um just looking to uh redevelop and add um actual housing units to its supply um here within the city. So really um thinking a lot about a methodology for how we're going to undertake that work. Um doing some technical analysis at the the outset and then um looking at some sort of potential areas, some focus areas where we could sort of make some moves, potentially unlock some capacity. And that's going to be the first part of the project is just identifying those focus areas. Once we've kind of identified those focus areas, we'll start drilling down into a lot more depth and do a lot more kind of place-based engagement with the folks in um those particular areas and um those will become their own kind of specific projects. Um but uh related to that work, I would just mention that we have um received a grant um there's no formal agreement yet, but it's very soon it will be formal. Um we um expect to very soon receive a grant from the state, the um Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. Um we expect to receive a grant that will allow us to work with Cascadia Partners as our prime um for the consultant work on this. Um and they will have a subconsultant team of some sort and they're still putting that together, I believe. But that's something where we're expecting to actually um finalize a contract with them relatively soon,

hopefully within the next couple of weeks. So, that's something that we should be able to get started relatively early on, a little bit, a few months at least before the code audit project because we don't have to do an RFP because we're kind of utilizing one of DLCD's in-house consultants and Cascadia partners. Um, of course, Cascadia is um, you know, a great consultant that we've hired through other RFP processes before, so don't take that as like an indication of the quality of their work either. Uh, another project that, um, I guess, you know, we're we still haven't made too much progress on, but hoping to advance this year is the low-income rental housing tax exemption. So, um, had originally scheduled to complete, um, that by the end of the year last year, but, um, probably going to need a little bit more time this year to undertake that work. Um, so that's one that we have on the the slate for this year. Uh, another one, um, and this is actually one that's in the completed category, which is, um, just nice to say out of this list, uh, but the fair housing policy and education, uh, comprehensive plan amendment component at least has been completed. Um, you all adopted that last year as a planning commission and then it went to city council who subsequently um, adopted that formally and adopted findings to make that um, official. um you know more or less uh that was uh completed um yeah basically by the end of last year. So though that is complete though we still have that policy in the comprehensive plan. I think as some of you noted at the time you know that's not really you know a policy in and of itself isn't um going to affectuate much of an outcome. So there's a lot of um other work that needs to go along with that fair housing and policy and education piece. So the and education piece is is the part that will be more ongoing and something that we do not anticipate um being complete anytime soon. That will be something that we're continuing to work on through the end of our HPS and I'm assuming through future HPS cycles as well. Um that's something that we think is

important here. um annual CDC amendments uh were sort of we uh lost track of the annual I guess uh cycle of them last year and so we uh had been ideating potentially including them into this code audit work. Um but that's something that um we're proposing to bring back as kind of a separate piece for next year. So maybe they're going to go into more of a bi-annual cycle just given the giant number of big sort of work chunks of work that we're taking on um unrelated to these sort of maintenance amendments, but we did adopt those um in early 2025. We adopted sort of these maintenance amendments. So um we're going to aim for early 2026 or so to hopefully do something similar um for the next round and not wait for the entire code audit project to be complete probably um before we get there. Um so that's evolving but we intend to kind of get back to a more regular schedule with that. And um another one that's been complete is the home occupation standards. Um as you are all aware you know that came through the planning commission. Um you all made a recommendation um tenatively approved um as modified by you all as planning commission. Then it went to city council was um further modified and um eventually approved and um findings conclusions order were just adopted not too long ago on February 17th, so just last month. So a little bit of a a bit of a fresh update on that that I didn't have for you last time we spoke about this. Um so that is formally complete at this point. Um we did other work of course in 2025 including uh quasi judicial uh public hearing on the 4,000 cruise wave place. um comprehensive plan and zoning map amendments, those proposals. So, um don't want to lose track of that work and um of course that was also adopted by the planning commission and city council similar to the homeox. Um those were also formally

the findings were formally adopted on February 17th. So, another very recent completion. Um and I just mentioned sort of the 2024 annual code amendments that we adopted at the beginning of 2025. Again, we're hoping to get back on track here. um and uh mandatory adjustments, although we didn't have to kind of complete anything for adoption by the planning commission or city council. Um our uh planning manager, Johanna Hasty, did a crazy amount of work to put together an application for an um exemption to those requirements for the city, which was approved with some exceptions. Um there are we received almost all of those uh exemptions from the mandatory adjustment provisions except for a few different cases. So um in that respect that work is complete although it did not require adoption by the planning commission or council. So, um, did a lot in 2025, but again, really, I think the overarching theme is we're taking on really big chunks of work here with housing, with the entire code, looking at barriers to both housing and economic development. The code audit, resoning, looking at ways to increase housing production in the city. Um, you know, the tree code is just a giant giant sort of I don't want to say quagmire, but it's a Pandora's box,

a lightning rod.

Yeah. um it's it's very complicated and a lot of a lot to talk about there. So um you know that's continuing for for this uh year and so of course we do have a limited capacity and it's kind of been allocated for these projects I guess within the long range department that we do have. So I guess that's just one thing I would note on that front. Um, in terms of the goals that were adopted by the planning or I'm sorry, by the city council for the planning commission, um, it was actually on February 21st that they met to talk about these at their boards and commissions retreat. Um, and uh, I guess, you know, this is an ongoing council goal. It's I don't think it's changed the entire time um, since it's been adopted, at least since I've been here. It's been a long-standing goal. So it's planned for change and growth with a focus on enhancing the community's quality of life and sense of place. So I think maybe there's been some word smithing in there but it's remained very similar for quite some time. So we have an associated initiative to um you know as we kind of have already covered but begin a comprehensive review of the development code to identify barriers to housing production and uh economic development and implement code amendments to address those barriers. That's really the code audit project. uh another initiative to begin implementing the near-term strategies in the housing production strategy, including reszoning um commercial and mixeduse properties and evaluating the um low-inccome rental tax exemption program. So, again, things that we're proposing to continue working on this year. Another uh relatively I mean, I'm not sure we specifically called this out, but um a long-standing council goal has been to support business investment and job creation within the city. a sub sort of goal under or initiative rather under that goal was to continue the update of the foothills district plan. So nothing too surprising last year it was to initiate work on the foothills district plan update. So we're we're moving forward there. Um and there's also uh one that

you know relates to Jessica's project. So I want to mention that here just council goal to com combat climate change and strengthen the community's resilience to climate impacts. and the related initiative is to adopt an update to the city's tree regulations. Um so those are the sort of overarching goals and initiatives that we're working with here. Um and so you know I essentially prioritized um our work plan according to those goals. So it's really nothing surprising work would continue. Tree code work would continue. The code audit amendments um would continue to uh or wouldn't necessarily continue but it would uh move forward I guess. then the grant uh funded work would initiate and um get going. Same with the reasonzoning for housing project and um you know we would start to make some progress with that tax exemption the low-inccome rental housing tax exemption program and of course as I mentioned the ongoing community development code amendments kind of maintenance uh amendments that we are proposing to kind of bring back for um either 2026 or maybe we could say 2027 because it'll probably be by the beginning of 2027 that they're going to be adopted. So, um, we're going to have to come up with a something that's not annual code amendments so that people aren't confused about that, but we'll we'll figure something out that's less confusing in the future, but we are going to do a project of that sort um to just kind of keep that sort of uh consistent eye on the code and make sure we're not kind of losing track of these um sort of important uh sort of quick fixes that we um are are identifying as we work through various different development review projects. Um, so yeah, it's not super complicated, but there's a lot of work really involved with all of these different projects, lots of work plan items to discuss with you all throughout the year. Um, so I think it'll be a great year. Um, and like I said, I think it'll just be one where we complete just one project and just make a lot of progress and a bunch of others.

That sounds great. Thank you, uh, Planning Manager Olsen. And I know I speak on behalf of everyone on the commission to say that we look forward to working with uh you and the rest of the city staff as we support the city council in completing their 2026 goals and beyond. So thank you for that summary. Very helpful. I don't think there's anything we need to vote on or approve based on this. Yeah, I mean if you have any suggestions or input um please let me know but um otherwise just be yeah any conversation is welcome I suppose.

No um I'm personally looking forward to some additional work on the um low-income housing credit project. I think that'll be important as we, you know, recognize a goal of needing additional housing in Lake Aiggo. That was discussed at the previous meeting and I think, you know, getting sinking our teeth into that low-income housing tax credit um will be something I think I know I'm looking forward to. So, yeah, thank you. Yeah, it might be a good opportunity to go check out some of the projects that have benefited from similar exemptions already within the city.

That'd be great. Thank you. Uh turning now to the next item on our agenda, other business. Um do we have any items of other business that we need to attend to this evening?

I guess I would just really quickly um continue to mention what councelor Verdict mentioned earlier that uh the boards and commission's recruitment cycle is open. Um we are going to have two openings on the planning commission this year. both um Commissioner uh Moreno and Commissioner Mitchell are terming out. So, they'll have the opportunity to apply again if they want to sit on um if they they want to continue on their seats. But, of course, if they don't, we're we're going to have to get some some good alternative replacements for them. So, um you know, encourage folks you know that you think would be interested to apply. um you know, we always have a great uh sort of field of applicants, but um doesn't hurt to get the word out and just kind of push push it to folks that you know would be good applicant um candidates. So,

how common is it for someone to serve again like after you've completed a term? It's relatively common. Yeah, I think a lot of times people get appointed like midterm. So people will um resign, you know, after 2 years or so, which I believe I think that's how you got on board, right? I think you're filling out um the remainder two years of Commissioner Scenon's term. So anyway, I think you know that's a really common one where people have only been there for two years and then they want to reapply. Um but yeah, we we get that even for folks that are filling out their full terms sometimes, too. I definitely want to reapply, so don't let me forget. Yeah, I'm really just putting it out there for Commissioner Mitchell and Commissioner Moreno to hear as well. So,

we hope that they uh participate as well. So, thank you. Great. Um, any other business? Thank you, Planning Manager Olsen. Um, next on the item on the agenda is a schedule update. I see that we've got an updated calendar here looking forward. Um, any details that we want to cover on the schedule update? Uh just a reminder that we've canled the next meeting in March. So our next meeting will be that April 13th meeting. That will be the joint meeting with the development review commission on the tree regulation amendments and the meeting after that in April will be our work session on foothills. So getting into that visioning conversation with you all. I won't get it too complicated. Um that's yeah brings us through the end of April. So that's a long time from now.

Sounds good. I don't have any other items on the agenda. Do any of the commissioners have any other items to discuss this evening? Thank you very much. With that, we'll call the meeting adjourned.