Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

when you were all right. Good evening. The time is 6:30 and I will now call this meeting of the Lakewood Planning Commission uh to order on March 18th. Uh please call the role. Katie Crook here. Jim Larson here. Jim Merritt here.

Sharon Wallace is excused. And Marquair here. You have corn. Outstanding. Y'all please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Wow. Thank you all. I trust you all had a moment to review uh the meeting minutes from our last meeting on March 4th. They were emailed to you. Um would entertain a motion to approve those minutes?

It's been motioned and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from of the Lakewood Planning Commission for March 4th, 2026. Is there any discussion? Seeing none and hearing none, um we'll look to vote this action in. All those approved, please who approve, please signify by saying I. I. All those opposed, please signify by saying nay. The motion carries. Miss Spear, are there any agenda updates? No, Mr. Chair.

Outstanding. We will open public comment. Uh, looks like we have a couple coming in right now. And while they filter in, I'll get through the the verbiage here. Public comments or testimony on public hearings are accepted by mail, email, or by inperson or virtual attendance. Please mail comments to Karen Devo, Planning Commission Clerk, 6000 Main Street Southwest, Lakewood, Washington, 98499, or email k devo@ cityoflakewood. us. Comments received by noon on the day of the meeting will be provided to the commission electronically. For in-person and virtual commenters, each person has three minutes to speak. Attendees are allowed to speak during public comment or public hearings only. Those attending in person will be called on and those attending via Zoom should use the raise hand function to indicate they wish to speak. Once your name is called, you will be unmuted. At that time, please state your name and city of residence and then provide your testimony. Um, Miss Steph is gone. Miss Spear, is there anybody online?

There is, but just um a clarification for the commission's benefit. We do have a somewhat unusual um um agenda tonight. So, I'm going to share my screen just to quickly show what's happening. We have our regular public comment and then no regularly scheduled planning commission hearings. However, the first item of business is a public hearing on the shoreline master program amendment and it's its own animal because Department of Ecologies involved. So, um I guess a question for those that are wanting to speak tonight is whether they want to be in general public comment or be part of that hearing. So, uh, we do have someone online right now and it's HKOS461. Are you wishing to speak during public comment or the public hearing? And I guess they're not. Oh,

sorry. Can you can you hear me? Yes. Hi. I'm sorry. This is Heather Bush from Ecology. Um uh I I don't have a comment. Um but I'm here for the hearing. Okay. Thank you very much. Outstanding.

To our community members in the audience, uh the public comment portion of the meeting is open. Uh would just like to remind you that there is a separate portion for the public hearing on the shoreline management uh discussion. So, if you would like to speak uh during the public comment period on on any uh item, you may do so at this time. Hello, good evening to the member of the council as well as the public. My name is Ibrahim Mir Jalidi. I'm a resident of the city of Lakewood. My the topic that I want to talk about is really uh this zoning and that the state uh legislator are taking up due to what I see it as failure of the cities and localities to do their job and build enough house uh affordable housing units for the residents of their uh uh their cities and towns. The the issue is that I think the cities they yeah they do have they expenses that they need to pay but at the same time they come up with uh different ways of collecting fees taxes and all of those process and procedures takes time and delays the project. I'm not saying that they need to bypass the law of the environment, but really it should not become a source of revenue for the cities while they want to build more houses. It makes no sense to give

tax breaks to developers. Yet people who really want to build houses come up with charges after charges after charges and then add them up and delay those project. I thank you very much for your hearing. Thank you. Is there any other member of the audience that would like to speak during the public comment period?

Hello. I'm here for the uh public hearing specifically as well. But um as a just a reminder and something that I noticed as somebody that is mostly a walking commuter commuter, so I'm out on the sidewalks all the time. Sorry.

Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I'm Haley Ivy. I live over in the Edgewater area. Um and I just wanted to make note that everywhere I go, um I can take many incredible pictures of trash. Um, I I go frequently to Tacoma, Olympia. Um, and I would say that Lakewood is probably thrice as garbage filled on the ground. And I I just want some more attention being paid to the garbage that is not only on the streets that we drive and walk on, but also the parks that we have left to attend. So, thank you.

Thank you. There are no other uh folks signed up, but if you would like to speak uh during the public comment hearing, now is the time. No. All right. Uh we'll declare this public comment period closed. We move on to the public hearing. Miss Spear, how um how would we like to proceed with that? Is it normal operationally? Um, it'll be normal operationally, including I have a presentation if you wouldn't mind for me to walk through prior to actually taking testimony. Okay.

All right. So, uh, as I mentioned just a few moments ago, this is a little bit unusual in terms of the type of public hearing that we're holding. This this evening is a joint state department of ecology and city of Lakewood public hearing on a proposed amendment to Lakewood's shoreline master program. It is strictly limited to one item uh because we do also have a periodic update that has to be done every 10 years. But this that we're talking about here in 2026 is a very specific amendment. Um and some of this I just said but the uh locally initiated amendment is what this is called is to redesate one parcel in the city uh from the shoreline designation which is separate and apart from land use zoning name but they there are also shoreline designations in various areas of the city around certain water bodies and this parcel in particular is currently uh designated shoreline residential. it would be changed to urban park and then the idea behind that is to include it in Edgewater Park. Uh the shoreline master program is also part of our Lakewood municipal code and so when this process is finished and there has been final approval by the department of ecology which is required for shoreline master program updates then the city will go back and take a look at chapter 16.10 10 zero in the municipal code and have it conform to what is in the adopted shoreline master program. So we have state authority for a joint review process which is what the city is doing tonight with the the department and uh the review criteria under a certain Washington administrative code section 17326201 sub1 sub C. The proposed amendments are intended that they will not foster uncoordinated and peacemeal development on the state's shorelines, are consistent with all applicable policies

and standards of the shoreline management act, meet all procedural rule requirements for public notice and consultation, and satisfy master program guidelines, analytical requirements, and substantive standards, including that the rem the amendment will not lo sorry result in a net loss of shoreline ecological functions. So tonight is the public hearing be that is being hosted both by the city and department of ecology. It is the only public hearing that will be held. There will not be another public hearing at the city council because again this is a separate type of legislative action. There is also a 30-day comment period that's ongoing right now. It started March 2nd and it goes through 4:30 p.m. on March 31st. Any public comments during that time frame can be submitted to myself at the email uh you see there tspear@c cityoflakewood us or can be mailed to city hall 6000 Main Street Southwest Lakewood Washington 98499. So if people are going to comment in the hearing uh neither city nor department of ecology staff will be responding to comments or questions. What we will be doing is collecting those uh questions and and developing answers that will be provided at a later date uh to the department of ecology. So the parcel in question is you the one that's highlighted there toward the bottom of this screen. It's uh 9132 Edgewater Drive Southwest parcel number 308502170. And as I mentioned prior, the idea is to change its shoreline designation from shoreline residential to urban park. And what you see here are sidebyside comparisons of the designations made under our shoreline master program. So on the left is the current designation. On the right is what it would change to

and you see the arrow pointing to the parcel in question. you would end up with an extension of the urban park and thus Edgewater Park being able to use that parcel or be incorporated into its master planning process. The uh city purchased that parcel in 2024. The park is the only public access to Lake Stilicum, but it lacks designated pedestrian access, parking, and safe traffic na navigation. The master plan was approved in uh 2024 by the city council and it includes redeveloping the park and relocating the public boat launch to this new parcel in question. So the project is intended to improve public safe uh public safety and emergency access to the lake. So, one more time, looking at uh the master plan, and I know it's very small, but the uh master plan map is to the right here, and you see down at the bottom what would be intended for the parcel in question. Uh and again, it's extending the current park and improving public access. Last thing here um is a larger view of what would be the new shoreline master program map citywide. So hopefully you can see my um little arrow right there down to the parcel again that we're talking about on the shore of Lake Silicon being added to this designation and then incorporated into Edgewater Park. So key dates for this process uh again the public comment that can be submitted in writing is between March 2nd and March 31st at 4:30 p.m. Tonight is the joint public hearing. On June 8th, there will be a study session held by the city council and then the following week, city council will take action on an ordinance. But unlike normal process where if a if the city were to take action on an ordinance, it would be final and have an effective date because

the department of ecology has authority for final uh approval. Council takes that action and then it goes to them for their final approval. So the effective date of this change is subject to department of ecologiesy's final uh review for consistency. And that is the preview. Mr. Chair, happy to answer questions or just have it turned over to you for the hearing. Any commissioner have any question before we start the public hearing. Mr. Estrada. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Miss Bear, on page 13 of our packet.

Yes. changes in shoreline use. I think it's page five on the report itself.

I'm sorry. Could you give me the page again? Excuse me. Uh up a little bit more, please. That one there. Changes in shoreline use. The second item there, single family residential structure. currently permitted proposed conditional. Correct. Um but it's not zone residential. So how can we have a residential structure?

It is two two different things. The um shoreline designations are separate and apart from city's land use uh zones. So you could have for instance R1, R2 or R3 around um Lake Stilicum, but they would they could potentially be called shoreline residential under the shoreline master program, but you could also have it designated something different. And in this case, what is happening is we're moving our way toward a redesignation under the Shoreline Master program to urban park versus shoreline residential. So you could have a situation where if this parcel were to be changed to urban park, someone would be able to come in under that shoreline designation to say, I would like to put a a house on this property. Um, if it was owned by a private party, etc. And then it would be a conditional review process under the city's normal uh permitting review to see if it made sense to have that approved or not. it would be presumably a hearing examiner uh review. What we're also doing though with this particular parcel, and you're going to see this as part of the 2026 comprehensive plan amendments, is there is also a um one of those amendments would reszone the parcel in question right now. So, it would become uh open space and recreation in order to be then zoned and designated under the shoreline master program for park use. But in theory, you could have a shoreline designation under the SMP that says conditional approval for a house on this parcel. And then there would be all of the other land use regulations and zoning requirements that would have to be satisfied as well as the review under the shoreline master program for the environmental protections that would be required.

But since the property is owned by the city, the city is the only one who could put up a structure. Correct. Yeah, it's it's a mute point. Okay, thank you. Commissioner Larson, has there been any opposition voiced to this proposal from Can you use your mic? Has there been any opposition voiced to this proposal at I have not received any opposition to this redesignation, but that's what tonight's public hearing is for. And I assume it's gotten this far. It has staff support. I'm sorry. I assume has having it gotten this far, it has staff support.

Th this um shoreline redesation process is supported by the city of Lakewood. Yes.

And um uh how will it contribute to public safety? How would it contribute to public safety? Do we have a boat launch uh envisioned for the property for fireboats or emergency vehicles or anything? Yeah, let me see if I can get this open again and show you what's uh proposed through the master plan. So, what you can see down here, this is the parcel we're talking about. So, this is what the master plan is showing for the use of that parcel. It's to add circulation of um edgewater, but it's also taking a look at the parcel right now and it becomes parking and also where the new boat launch would be located.

Okay. It it looks like it really enhances and supports the Edgewater Park that has not been able to get as much use by the public due to its long and narrow nature. So, seems like a very easy thing to support. Any other questions? How many parking spots is that lot allowing? And are they for boat towing parking or for general parking for the entire park? I do not have those answers in front of me. I can bring it back to you for um your next meeting where you would be taking action though. Perfect. Thank you. Sure. Last call. Anything else? Thank you.

No. All right, Miss Spear, if you're ready, we'll move forward with the the hearing. Certainly, Mr. Chair.

All right, we will open the public hearing portion of tonight's meeting. At this time, public hearing is being conducted on a joint department of ecology and city of Lakewood public hearing on proposed locally initiated shoreline master program amendment. Being that we started the public comment section with our online attendees, we will begin this hearing with our folks in attendance. I will start at the top of the roster for sign in. Miss Haley Ludy, I'm sorry, Ivy. Hey, uh this is Haley Ivy. I actually live a very short walk from Edgewater Park. Um so I feel very passionately about this right here. Um I am curious. Are you able to pull up the Shoreline Master program up on its first page?

Not at this time.

Not at this time. Okay. Well, let me see if I can um remember verbatim what it was saying. Um, so I go to Edgewater Park almost every day. Today I walk there again because I've been doing a lot of reading on this specific hearing and what it's all about and backing up the argument that this is the uh least favorable idea to do for the city of Lakewood. Um, so I went to Edgewater Park today and it was 5 PM and raining, so there was no no one there. So I could stand on the dock and I could hear birds and I could see the ducks and it was so quiet minus the traffic there in the distance. Where else can I get something like that in Lakewood, especially around me, especially for someone who doesn't have a car and goes to our local parks. Um, and then I look behind me at the uh original residential property where it's supposed to be um turned into a uh looks like just boat parking. Um, so we have four spots for the boat trailers and then half as much of the concrete takes up the rest of it. So I'm looking at this sloped grass and I'm wondering how that's even possible. I'm looking at the map from above wondering how it's possible to get in and out of there. Um, when I walk away from the dock, I look, there's a rotting piece of furniture. That's not surprising. It's Edgewater Park on Stacum Lake, the only public access lake. Um, or the only public public access to Stelkum. Um, there's a pipe sticking out of the ground. There's a large piece of plywood nestled in the brush with some garbage. And then I look around the grally part. There's pieces of garbage. There's garbage all over. I'm walking down the grassy strip now. So, if you

look at the map, they want to put according to their master plan a walking path. Um, but when you actually go to Edgewater Park, there's not that much grass to begin with, and it slopes dramatically from the road. So, it's going down like this. You have brush and then there's the lake. I I don't think it's possible to put a walking path there without completely destroying some part of the ground or taking out all that brush. And even if you were able to get a walking path there, there's not that much grass left. Edgewater Park it grass and trees and brush and this master plan is covering it all up with pavement despite the fact that I'm walking to the edge water now and I see this. This is a plastic cupcake that I pulled out today from the edge of the water.

I'm sorry, Miss Ivy. Your time has elapsed. Is it only three minutes? Yes. My goodness. I'm sorry. I did I was not I'm just very passionate about this. This is a terrible idea. We do not need to pave more any parks. This is not for the public. This is for Your time is up, ma'am. Your time is the last plan in grants. Your time is up, ma'am. Thank you for your comment, Miss Ivy. Um, Miss Christina Manetti, you're next. Somebody should have said that it's three minutes. I think it he did at the start.

Oh, did he? Yes. Didn't hear either. Um Christina Manetti. I'm speaking on behalf of u the Gary Coalition, which is a an environmental nonprofit neighborhood. Um, I'm testifying in strong opposition to the proposed locally initiate initiated amendment to the city's shoreline master program, which would redesate a shoreline parcel from shoreline residential to urban park for incorporation to the planned edgewater park. While we support shoreline restoration and public access when undertaken in compliance with the Washington Shoreline Management Act, this proposal fails to meet the act's core mandate to prioritize ecological protection and no net loss of shoreline ecological functions. If you have this land, you have the land, the shore. Putting a boat trailer parking lot is taking away function. It's not adding function. The city's own uh SMP identifies Lake Stilikum as priority fish habitat. That's the words the that's a quotation. A designation that imposes heightened responsibility to avoid degradation and to enhance habitat conditions. Instead, the current proposal does the opposite. The prior condemnation and demolition of a lakeside residence to construct a motorized boat launch and a four stall boat trailer parking facility. That's what it is on the plan. and 19 spaces on the street. So I don't know why Miss Spear said she doesn't know those are four boat trailer parking spaces on that property of uh Dr. Mel former property of Dr. Major Leel's at this is all at significant public expense. It's already introduced new imperous surfaces increased storm water runoff and intensified human and motorized use directly adjacent to the sensitive aquatic habitat. The redesignation to urban park appears to formalize and expand these impacts rather than mitigate them. This approach is inconsistent with the city's own shoreline restoration policies, which emphasize reducing impervious surfaces, limiting pollutant inputs, and

encouraging shoreline residents to minimize ecological harm. It's it's legally and ethically indefensible for the city to impose such standards on private property owners while simultaneously violating them through its own projects. Of particular concern is the introduction of pollutants associated with motorized watercraft and vehicular runoff, including six PPD quinome. I hope you all know what that is. It's a tireder derived contaminant now widely recognized as acutely toxic to salmonids. The addition of parking infrastructure and boat access in a designated habitat area foreseeably increases delivery of such contaminants into the lake, undermining both local and state recovery goals for salmon and other fish species. We respectfully urge that the uh planning commission and the city in general to reject this amendment is currently proposed. Any redesignation of this parcel should be strictly conditioned on habitat restoration, shoreline softening and ecological enhancement, not recreational intensification involving fossil fuel powdered watercraft and expanded parking. The shoreline management act requires stewardship, not contradiction. This proposal as drafted fails that standard. And now is a comment from myself. I'm uh Christina Manetti from Lakewood. I live just a couple of blocks from this site and I pass it frequently. I've lived in Lakewood for 54 years and in this part of Lakewood since 1977. I used to drive by it on my bike when I was a kid. My husband passes Edgewater Park at least twice a day on his walks and knows it well as well. I speak for my family and myself in strong opposition to this proposal which reflects a troubling disregard for both this neighborhood and the lake itself. Um, we are already living with the consequences of the city's decisions in my neighborhood. Each summer, trucks hauling boat trailers speed past my home. There's a curve right by my house, bringing noise,

exhaust, and danger. They take a blind curve obscured by overgrown laurel bushes where children are sometimes present. And I'm like really scared. This is not a future concern. It is already happening. I'm talking about the stench of the fumes as they pass my house. Sometimes they idle there like when one has to wait for the other one. It's like seriously not good. Expanding it's expanding access for more motorized boats and people will only make it worse. This park is already overcrowded and poorly maintained. I don't know if you went there last summer to look at it, but it's really, really bad. Garbage is routinely left scattered across the ground, sometimes in piles, like literally big piles of it. Visitors ignore the trash cans that were finally put there. There is little enforcement, no real stewardship, and no accountability. People urinate near trees where other people like to sit. These are not isolated in incidents. They are the norm all summer long. And yet, the city proposes to intensify use. We all hate to think what the consequences will be for those of us who actually live there. Environmental protection should be primary priority here. This lake is already heavily degraded with much of its shoreline hardened by bulkheads. Habitat is shrinking and local wildlife need every remaining opportunity for restoration and protection. Instead of enhancing habitat, the city is proposing more pavement, more runoff, and more disturbance. Not every lake is appropriate for intensive recreation. This area has long provided modest sufficient public access for quiet fishing, observing wildlife, and enjoying nature at the water's edge. That balance is being lost. Larger lakes like American Lake are far more suitable for motorized boating. This small park is not. The city should be restoring this site, removing invasive species, they're all over the place. Improving habitat and caring for what already exists, not expanding

parking. I mean, is it a park or is it a parking lot? I mean, call it what it is. At minimum, motorized watercraft should not be encouraged here at all. This proposal sacrifices safety, environmental integrity, and the character of this place, which is my neighborhood. My family and I strongly oppose it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments, Miss Benetti. Mr. Ibraham, I I apologize. I I That is not easy. Thank you.

Thank you very much. My name is Ibrahim Jali. Yes, this parcel actually our home was on it. We were living in it. We purchased it from the bank and we rehabilitated it. It was valued about $2 million, we approached the city because we had intruders into our home and it was retaliated against us and then through the boundary dispute and taken it from us. Although we had three surveyors who disagreed with the city's land surveyor who did not recording his map and also the city rejected the to appoint a panel of three servers that we wouldn't know to give their opinion if the city was correct or not. But that's one problem. The other problem is that this is probably the most expensive square feet of uh park in in towns around here because on one hand the city calls it a parking and you saw their map on another hand calls it a map. Uh call it a park. It's not a park. They want to make it a parking. I know that place better than anybody else. It is shallow the water there. It's not a place to put the motorized uh uh watercraft there. If they want to make the park and have children's play there, I know that water stagnates there. They need to do a biological study. There is a run runoff from the city that it comes down there and it stays there and these kids are going to get cancers and 10 years or 20 years later they are going to say, "Oh, we didn't know that." But I said it and I said it again. You need to do a biological study there. The water is a stagnant there doesn't doesn't leave. If

the motor crafts they come there and park it as they plan based on their map then you are going to have a crescent and oil base pluton there in addition to the runoff from the the street and then you are going to have a catastrophe there. They did have a place that they could move that that was a 100 street but they did not move it there because there some of the city's uh uh officials friend they're encroaching on the city right away in there and also on the shoreline and uh we learn about that because after we were forced out of our home they were following a petition to vacate the street and close it to the public this if that could be proven would be a corruption in government. You should not approve this because you better look into it to see what happened here. How many people they came and opposite from this city and of course the last mayor was wanted to make this his project obviously and his friend who has your time is a laugh.

Thank you so so much. Thank you. Have a great evening to all of you. That is everybody signed up. Uh is there any other member of the public who would like to comment here in the council chambers for the public hearing portion of tonight's meeting? Seeing none, we will move to our uh online. Is there anybody who would like to speak for the public hearing? Please indicate by using the raise hand feature. And uh Mr. Chair, James Dunlop has his hand raised. All right, Mr. Dunlop. Uh, can you hear me? Okay, we do.

Oh, hi. My name is uh James Dunlop and I'm a Lakewood resident. I think this uh well, the whole Edgewater Park uh project it, you know, I think one of you asked how much populist public support there is for it. I mean, there have been public hearings and uh public opposition for for it was uh pretty much universal. I mean no one in Lakewood uh in terms of of the residents or very few Lakewood residents actually support it and you know it's sort of locally initiated by locally initiated that means the city has initiated it or perhaps the city council and as far as uh the uh this particular parcel is concerned it really does seem to be a case of you know the road to hell being paved with good intentions. I do I think that this whole project for a number of reasons is blighted and I I think if you you know this park is small I I mean given that you have taken Dr. Miji's house and uh paid him a pittance or offered him a pittance which uh you know this would never have happened if if it had been the house of for example a retired white officer in the air force retired officer in the air force. No, but an immigrant from Iran, you can get away with that. Uh, you think you can get away with that, but the point is you have this, okay, let's say you want to extend the park. Fine. It's a small area. You extend the park. I can understand that. Uh, kind of uh but then you're going to pave it over and you are catering for a very small minority of people who are boat owners. You you want to pave it. You've got all sorts of issues with uh u imperous surfaces, you know, and and runoffs and so forth, which others have talked about. And uh then, you know, talking about the road to hell is paid with good intention. Yet that is very often what happens uh with the city. They do something at the spur of a moment. It sounds good and then

they don't know what the consequence is. I mean, I suspect the consequences of this is going to be an increase in crime. You know, what is that? you know, what is that park going to be used offseason? I mean, most usually it is offseason. It's only a couple of months of a year when you get intense usage. I mean, it could be used for drug deals, for example, or for teenagers to learn to drive or it, you know, we've got issues of racing. I believe there have been huge issues as far as racing and congregations of cars in the colonial center. And I think that people who organize that, you know, they're always keen to look for new areas. And I think uh this car park might be you know just the place. So you know how is it going to work out. So you know I think when people look back at what's being discussed what's been decided I think they'll realize but it's a big mistake. I'm 95% sure that it will turn out to be a big mistake. So the best you can do is just extend the park. Put trees down grass car park. Absolutely not.

Thank you for your comments Mr. Dunlop. Is there any other member uh online viewing that would like to comment? Please uh use the raise hand feature. There's no one else, Mr. Chair. All right. At this time, we will be closing this public hearing session. Miss Spear, um I see no one finished business. I turn it over to you.

Okay. We have uh the followup to this public hearing tonight is that on our next meeting which is April 1st, the planning commission I'll bring back information to you uh based on the question from Commissioner Crook. Uh and then it will be up to you to debate, deliberate, and if you're ready to make a recommendation to the city council regarding this proposal. And then as described at the start, it'll go through a a process at the city council. But this is all subject to department of ecology approval as well. So, uh, this will be back in front of you at your next meeting. And then in terms of the next item on the agenda, we will now have uh a guest uh presenter uh our housing programs division manager, I'm sorry, no it's not. It's our city engineer, Westonaut, to talk about the 2026 updates to the American with Disabilities Act Transition Plan. Good evening, members of the planning commission. Uh, I'm here for the first of four times I'll be at planning commission to talk about our ADA transition plan. Uh, can you hear me? All right.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And Tiffany's loading the slides right now. Okay. Go ahead.

All right. So we can go ahead and go to the next slide. So tonight is just an overview of the ADA transition plan. So we start out with the why of the plan, what's in the plan, um what's required of the plan, and where we are in the process. So that's what these uh brief slides will cover the next few slides. So, why a transition plan? In uh July of 1990, George HW Bush signed the ADA um Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Um we are a city of more than 50 people. um if those with disabilities can't transit um the facilities in the rideway that counts as discrimination. And I should mention, I should have said it earlier, but this plan is focused solely on the infrastructure in the city rightway. So, our sidewalks, uh curb ramps, pedestrian push buttons. I'll talk about that a little more in the following slides. Uh but again just to sum it up um it is a requirement uh by law and we do meet those requirements as a local government with more than 50 people. So we'll go on the next slide. So what's in the plan? Um we start out with a self inventory. We did that back in 2021. Um the city's done inventories prior to that but in 2021 um during COVID we started the self inventory and that focuses primarily on things like cross slope width etc for our sidewalks and pedestrian ramps as

well as what are our pedestrian push buttons that signals how far are they away from where someone would cross are they audible or not. So, we start out with a good inventory and and as you've seen since 21 till now, it's amazing what capital projects have been built in the city. You can just drive down Washington or Veterans or Graly or Stilicum or South. I mean, I could keep naming them. And we continue to have a season of orange cones around the city. So, um the inventory is is constantly going to be changing. We'll do that inventory update probably on a yearly basis going forward. Um, in the plan there's the description of barrier removal. So, how do we remove them? Um, it can be as invasive as that photo there. That's actually our new signal at South Tacoma Way and 92nd. I just actually drove through it this afternoon. Um, but in some cases it may be uh completely pulling up what's there and rebuilding it. other cases um it might be adding uh truncated domes that are missing everything else on the ramp fits or it could be a signal that just needs an audible push button upgrade. So it can be from a small removal of the barrier to a larger one but first you have to know what you have and what needs taken care of. Um part of the plan is to look at like schedule and budget and then uh put a priority system please go ahead

use your mic. Mr. Estrada could you please define a truncated dome? I know you make reference to that.

Sure. Let's see if I have one in the presentation. I do. If we can go back to the cut uh the slide number two, slide one and slide two both have truncated terms. So in slide number two for this directional ramp, it's that yellow rectangle with the small raised areas and that's to help those that are sight impaired. The requirement isn't necessarily to be yellow but to be of contrasting color and what's more important is that surface um which is divi defined in standards is built and those come there's a variety of manufacturers they can be made out of plastic or even cast iron or brick even so and if you drive around the city you'll see all all different types so that's a great question I apologize engineers sometimes uh use jargon acronyms and we forget. So, apologize on that. So, I think we were back on slide four. Thank you, Tiffany. Thank you very much. So, the part of the plan talks about what budget would be needed um a priority method. So, if a ramp um was basically functional, maybe there's one element that would need upgraded to fully meet all the requirements. It doesn't necessarily make the make sense to repair or replace that one first. It's better off to go to the one that's, you know, as they say, the alligator in front of you. Go to the uh worst first. Um this is a little different than like pavement management where we don't necessarily take care of worst first in pavement management but in this case we're looking at removing barriers making it accessible for those with disability uh public engagement. So I'll talk about that in the slide a little farther on. That's an important element and that's

partly why I'm here this evening. We are running the ADA transition plan through the planning commission and that's why we have these four touches at planning commission before your recommendation to council. And then a requirement is to keep track of our record of engagement for three years. So other things are required in the plan and many of these the city already has or already has completed. Um, we already comply with ADA and PROEG in our designs. Uh, everything that we we build. But starting at the top, the city already has named an ADA coordinator. That's our human resources manager. Um, we already have the grievance form that's already available. The only change we have made to uh like our website review was Mary McDougall had retired and Nicole Camas is now in that position. So that was the only change that was necessary uh related to that requirement. Uh um ADA requirements are broadly available in uh different documents the city has. Um the grievance procedure and appeal process are part of the form. And then the last one is the standards. So that one a considerable amount of effort just completed. This was completed. The city council on March uh 2nd adopted the updated title 12 and ESM and standard plans that came before you as well. I think Angie Silva had three presentations to uh the planning commission, one being a hearing. um that was recently done and that those uh are all updated to meet the requirements of what's referred to as PROWAG uh which meets uh our requirements for the ADA transition plan.

So the good news is a lot has been done and we are just compiling that as part of the plan. So again talking about that what's next um that public engagement So, this this started back in January. Um, we started with a a news bulletin that we were in the process of formally developing and adopting an ADA transition plan. Uh, here at the planning commission tonight, um, I'll talk about it in detail with the schedule on the following slide. Um, but tomorrow we'll be sending out um, letters to our stakeholders. So that's part of it. Stakeholders would be uh the center for independence, uh Pierce Transit, CL Park School District, those that would be interested in what the city's doing in the rightway related to uh ADA. Um as I mentioned, we just actually we just finished uh the report. We posted it this afternoon and in that we have the prioritization plan in that report and that was just posted this afternoon. The goal is to go through the process for count uh council adoption June 1st and then as I mentioned self assessment is going to be ongoing. they'll be happen on a a yearly basis and we would like to be in that position where we are just uh updating what was built uh either from our capital program or from private development because private development as you well know does frontage improvements as well. So, we'll go to that next slide. And I get to uh bring up that from when the planning commission packet was put together 10 days ago till now, the plan has changed slightly. A couple items that were

scheduled to happen on a April 2nd. We got we are able to move those up till March 19th. So, that's where I was talking about adding the plan to the web page and getting that uh message out to our stakeholders. And then it'll either be this Friday or the following Friday in the news uh the weekly Friday city news bulletin there'll be a blurb about the ADA transition plan. Um back on the first and we'll go over the plan in detail with the planning commission. The 15th would be the hearing and then that would um uh let's see I got to get the right date here. Sorry. The 15th would be the planning commission recommendation. Did I get that right?

Um, just the way this is written. 15th is the hearing. Sorry. Well, my apologies because what I did here, Mr. Odd, is add a little thing in where if the planning commission were ready on April 15th, it could take action on that same night. Or if you want to move and take it to the next meeting, you can do that as well. Correct. Sorry about that. Thank you, Tiffany. I thought I missed something there.

Tiffany's looking out for me. I appreciate that. Um, so it could be possible one less touch at planning commission. Then I'll go to council. We'll have one more study session with council to go over the recommended plan. That recommended plan um will take into account what we hear at the hearing as well as feedback we receive from stakeholders and the general public. And the goal is to have this adopted June 1st and then be on the city uh web page uh the first week of June. And then of course the next capital project we build it'll be out of uh out of date because we'll have upgraded something else. So with that um I think that's the next slide is the question slide. Is there anything I can answer?

Commissioner Larson.

Thank you for that update. That's great. While I have the floor, uh thank you for the great progress on Nanza and 112. Those projects are coming along beautifully and uh people are already using the sidewalks and uh soon we'll be having full use of the streets and thank you. Um, I wonder whether it's necessary because it's federal law that you're you're uh um complying with with these projects, but I wonder whether tracking the usage to see the benefit to the disabled public of the these uh traffic access and sidewalk access improvements is actually making and and what the performance is in terms of the public's value. Do you have a a a plan or program for that?

Yeah, we currently do not uh track pedestrian counts is that's what we've referred to it as that would subcategorize maybe those in wheelchair etc. We don't have those kind of counts. I will say though in the prioritization we look at uh locations that would be of higher use around hospitals, schools, those get a higher weight on the prioritization for removal of barriers. So while we don't count, we are trying to be sensitive to the areas with the most need. Maybe as a public service uh project, one of the local uh service clubs, Rotary or Kowanas or something like that could coordinate the schools and the other users that are close to to uh monitor the benefit to the city. Just a thought.

Thank you, Commissioner Estrada.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To uh to Mr. Largeman's point uh and to your comment initially the city has has done a heck of a lot as far as infrastructure uh all the roads all the improvements I mean it's amazing it's it's great as as indicated um the future work on Kendrick will that already include the ADA transition is that as part of the uh of the of the plan.

So, I believe you you're referring to that new section of Kendrick that was at council study session recently and I believe it's 111th or 112th to 108th. It's that section in there. Um so right now if we're basing our current self assessment on 2021 so that would be in its concurrent condition today once that is built with full um facilities not only roadway but sidewalk and ped ramps then that would be part of our yearly update to our self assessment. So after it's constructed, then we would add that into um our data. But as far as that being identified as a a project, um I I can't answer that. Um because there's currently no facilities there. So there's not a barrier to remove, so to speak. Maybe what you're talking about would be closer to what would be in the non-motorized plan, which looks at areas that we would want to add sidewalk or bike lanes uh to. That may be where it would be found.

Okay. I I'm sorry. I was under the assumption that the the new road improvements on Kendrick included the sidewalk and therefore I was wondering whether this plan would would also be part of the sidewalks. But you're saying it's that they don't include sidewalks in Kendrick. I believe sidewalks are included through that sound trans excuse me sound transit system access project. Um this plan is um it looks at data that is collected for the current infrastructure that we have and then from there makes recommendations on which areas rehabilitation of facility should be made. I was just concerned that it would be done. It wouldn't have to be redone later.

Oh, no. It all included at the same time. Yes. And I should mention that literally today we put the draft plan on the website. So, I fully anticipated changes to the plan through public comment over the next um two months. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Mayor

really a lot of good fine work as since this was put in place I've dealt with the ADA act for the last 30 years also and um what I see here and well with one first comment what I would like to see is the photos up here instead of just us looking at the room if you please even if you rotate them through to me I'm a visual person I like to see the the different uh I'm happy to bring it up back up Commissioner Merritt I'm just trying to keep the public who may watching of who's

to see the different solutions. But here's my comment. I love optimizing solutions. Sometimes you can't afford those. I don't see a lot of examples here of transition solutions. Let's face it, sometimes you just got to put an asphalt slope to get the ADA function to work as opposed to when to optimize it. That's a tough one. None of us like to see those kind of halfway solutions, but sometimes if we're trying to solve the issue for the ADA folks that have disabilities, we may have to do some of those. And that's tough because, you know, with the transition lips and stuff, I know what the problems are, but it is also good to see that um uh you're really looking at how to really optimize some of these. And I certainly appreciate that because I'd love to do that too. But sometimes these little patch things may have to happen because I'm really getting down to the bottom line. I'm more concerned of the people with disabilities than the visual look. As much as I love the visual look.

Well, Mr. Ro, thank you so much for putting this presentation together this evening. I would be remiss if I didn't also just touch on the fact that um you're doing a phenomenal job. Uh I know there is much frustration when construction begins, but when it is completed, it is very much enjoyed and appreciated. Um I do have one question before before you head out. Uh, and because I'm not an engineer, this is probably going to be kind of a an elementary question, but as new projects come online, are those are there requirements uh to meet ADA? Um, do they have to meet ADA requirements with new construction in the city or is it um cuz my understanding is that this pro program is addressing older older projects that that were not compliant but new things are they compliant from the start or would they potentially have to be audited in the future as well?

You're correct. New new projects would meet the requirements. we wouldn't build um something um in conflict with the ADA requirements. The only caveat I would say is there's a it's referred to as maximum extent feasible. So as an example or kind of the typical example, we would like our crosswalks to be at 2%. However, if we were coming down 104th hill from Lake Louise down to but it would be hard perpendicular to that roadway to go with a 2%. There could be a case where we would have to have a slightly steeper cross slope to make it across. Um, you know that that's kind of a maybe not the best example, but there are a few cases where we would h and we have a form for that. we fill it out um is again it's referred to as maximum extent feasible and that's really just um geography geology may prevent certain improvements from happening in the right way things that we just can't do anything about um but Lakewood's pretty lucky we have a fairly flat city you look at roads like southacoma way pack highway still bridgeport uh you until you get up by Walmart grally. So, uh, we're pretty lucky that we're able to, you know, meet all those requirements without having to go through that process.

Thank you for your time this evening. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, you know, I totally understand the dilemma of existing conditions where you can't get those slopes exactly to work. Is there a piece that you are aware of that likes notification whether it's a signage or something watch your step or this is a you know 50% greater grade than what ADA would require but there's some sometimes I think in the legal ease of things awareness goes a long way I don't know

yeah so an example of that would be um let's I I'm trying to remember the cross streets on grally um I don't think it's called Lake Silicon Point road, but it's that north piece of grally that we did first. And when we put the ped ramps in, uh, one ped ramp is not set up to cross the road. So on the other side of the road, there'll be a sign that says, yeah, not to cross. And we'll get a lot of comments about that sign, but that sign reflects what you're talking about. It's there is not the same level of receiving ramp on the other side of the road to cross there. So that would be it. And those are few and far between. We don't have a lot of those in the city.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Ro. All right. Thank you. Thank you, J. Sure. Thank you. All right. So, Mr. Mr. Chair, if you're ready to proceed, we have uh one more guest presenter this evening and now we'll be hearing from the housing division division manager, Jeff Gum, to present the uh 2026 Lakewood community development block grant and home annual action plan. Outstanding. Mr. OT, good evening. You have the floor, sir.

Mr. Yes. Uh so Mr. gets to do all the fun stuff. I was as as he was presenting that, I I traveled to Europe a while ago and I saw some of the ADA improvements they have there and there's I finally figured out what it was on my last trip. There's they have tiles that run through all the transit stations and sidewalks and so forth and there are three grooves and they're consistent through all the new cities and they run to train stations, train stops and I was I figured out what they were from the last trip. I noticed there was multiple um people that were blind or vision impaired that were following those and they can get throughout the entire city. It was it was very cool. So ADA improvements are they're important. Um and yeah, it's kind of neat to see that. It sounds like it's just something that we have to do, but it it's a great service to our citizens. So rather than uh talk about that, I showed up to uh present to you and discuss the city's 2026 fiscal year uh manual action plan for CDBG and home funds. So, this is kind of the time of year that I I go out and present to council members, um, boards, general public, just kind of trying to get feedback on where we're going with the plan. Um, it's something that's required from HUD on an annual basis. So, we receive both CDBG and home funds. Um, CDBG is community development block grant. Community development block grant can be used for a multitude of activities. Um, it it ultimately is supposed to benefit lower and moderate income individuals. um we have to benefit at least 70% of our uh funding has to be used for low and moderate income individuals and we can do things like infrastructure improvements, housing improvements, public services, um economic development as as long as ultimately we're benefiting low and moderate income individuals. The other funding that we receive is home and home is another HUD program and home specifically is used to develop affordable housing. So, one of the projects that we recently invested in is the Lassa project. They're developing 26

units of affordable housing. So, that was something that we put um a million dollars into last year. Um there was a million dollars in the ARPA fund that was contributed to that as well as um substantial investments from Pierce County and the state and the federal government and so forth. So, ultimately it was a $13 million project. So why I'm here tonight again it's it's part of a a recommend recommendation and requirement from HUD to go through the the public hearing processes and and get input. So tonight the fiscal year 2026 annual action plan um is looking to to allocate funding again as I mentioned through CDPG and home. Um it's part of a a greater plan. So, every five years, we put together what's called a five-year um five-year consolidated plan. The five-year plan was developed last year, and it is just that. It lays out five years of CDBG funding, kind of what we're looking to do as a city, where we're looking to go, and what we're looking to achieve with those funds. So, in your agenda packet, um there's a table. I pro provided you u the presentation that I went to council with on the 16th, so fairly recent. um plan agenda. The the plan has a number of things that we're that we're looking to achieve over 5 years. Um one is to prevent and reduce homelessness. There was a number of goals that council decided um they were looking to do. Some of them were housing rehabilitation, keeping people in their homes so they're not becoming homeless. Um tenant based rental assistance to help people become um housed from homelessness. and then homelessness prevention and public services certain activities where we're again trying to keep people from becoming homeless. Um there was a number of goals that were associated with those. The in essence the goals in this case are a number of people served or households served. Um the another goal was to support diverse rental home ownership. This is in this case um

projects that we typically are going to be looking to do with uh Habitat for Humanity. So, constructing new homes and then selling them to low-income individuals. Another goal was supporting public infrastructure. So, the council had um a number of roads that they were looking to improve in low-income neighborhoods and specifically u one of them is in the near the east school. It's Tai school and the other one was on Pine Street. So, kind of in the north end of town and kind of near the south end of town, looking to develop roads and and sidewalks and and street lighting and so forth where there aren't any. Um, and the final thing would be to stabilize the residents in neighborhoods. So, that is what typically we do through um the city's dangerous and nuisance building program. So, we're looking to remove old blighted structures and and turn them around and and improve the neighborhoods. The specific funding that we're looking to uh allocate with the plan in 2026 is we're anticipating about $480,000 in CDBG funds. Um that's about the same as it was last year. The the previous year we received $482,320. So the the budget that was allocated um by Congress was very similar to what it was last year. It's they haven't broken the numbers down to the T HUD level yet. So in probably in a month or so, it it usually takes them until May or June, sometimes even into July to actually break those numbers down and then then we know what our allocations are. So we're proposing about $480,000 is what we think we'll get. Home, same sort of a deal, about $250,53, which is the exact same amount as last year. Again, it's based on the the similar budget as as the previous year. So with that um we take those funds and

then to them we add program income and any re reallocated funds. Um as it's up on the screen you can kind of see table three it breaks out the the programs that the city is looking to fund and this is basically to keep up with the five-year plan and be consistent with where we're going in activities. So, we were we're proposing to fund um housing major home repair in the amount of $412,719.83. Um that is specifically to rehabilitate seven households for low-income owners, um elderly household members and so forth. There's a an allocation that's proposed of $25,000 for the emergency assistance for displaced residents program. Um that would seek to serve 30 individuals. Those funds are typically used when we're closing down structures, whether it be the city or the fire department or the health department. Rather than close a a unit down, whether it be an apartment or a single family house, and put somebody out on the street, we're able to use these funds to reallocate um for them for single family housing. Whether they're moving into an apartment, we can pay deposits. Uh we can pay the first and the last. We can pay their moving costs, whatever, whatever. if we need to pay utility deposits and so forth to get them in because it's kind of a big lift for a lot of low-income households to come up with those sources. And nowadays, if you're looking at a even a cheap rent is $1,500 times three is $4,500 to get somebody into unit. That's that's that's a heavy lift for many families. So that's what we use those funds for. Um there's an allocation proposed for CDBG emergency payments program of $10,000. That's something we've done for the last four years. Um, we typically fund it at a higher level, but the recommendation is only 10,000 this year because we still have about 65 or $70,000 left from the previous two years worth of funding. And it it slowed down a little over the

last year, which is a good thing because it it is what it is. I mean, it's it's emergency payments program, so we're able to help people with food, clothing, when we again when we close buildings down, um, we can buy them food, we can buy them clothing, bus passes, um, all kinds of things. it it it's a little bit different than just providing the housing assistance first and last and down, but it has to be broken into different um categories based on the the HUD requirements. So, there's a an allocation for CDBG um admin of home housing services for $12,000. Uh that is a specific allocation because as part of the home consortium, the city receives its funding through the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority. So TC allows in essence or enables the city to to obtain HUD funds. We wouldn't otherwise be a large enough city with enough funding to get them directly. So we partnered with the city of Tacoma and created a consortium. Those funds come to the city of Tacoma, but as part of that consortium, they have to to manage those funds and ensure that they're they're properly um expended and and all kinds of administrative features. So they take our 10% admin for their program to run in essence our admin side. So there are still some admin activities that are required of us um for our program. So we have to do environmental reviews and all types of things inhouse when we do these projects. So that that 10% um in essence the $10,000 would allow us to use those funds for admin purposes for our home. So both of us have to do admin side and and CDBG is providing an eligible activity to use um admin for that specific activity something HUD is they noticed about five or six years ago and created a category because there was a lot of grantees that were as doing the same thing as city liquid is and didn't have an admin source to run those. So um the final um CDBG allocation that's proposed would be $96,000 in administration. Um, and this is just a

standard 20% for CDBG administration. So, all the programs that we run, environmental review, staffing costs, um, construction, management, all all the programs that we run in-house, um, there's two staff members, myself and Martha Larkin. So, she coordinates the programs and and I tend to do the the followup and and pass it back. So, that that covers the staff time for both Martha Larkin and myself. Um in that budget there's a couple of reallocated um funding sources. There's 2023 rebuilding together South Sound that was reallocated for 75,000 administration. We didn't spend it all in 2024. So there's about $720 that's being reallocated. And every year we we propose that there's going to be about $100,000 in program income because that's pretty consistent between a 75 and $120,000. And that comes back from our loan program. So our major home repair loan program. there's payments. Um, there's also people that have reached their 20-year limit and have paid us back. So, there's typically a pretty steady steady stream of revenue coming back that we reallocate for the exact same program. Um, for the home program, we were looking to allocate everything to what's called the affordable housing fund. Typically, what we do is was we'll gather those funds for a couple of years, two or three years. I mean, it's kind of hard to do a project with $250,000. So, we'll typically pull those um and and fund a larger project down the road. Uh typically something along the lassa side or Habitat who's looking to develop houses. In years past, Habitat's done 41 or 42 homes for us in the Tilicum neighborhood. So, there's there's that sort of activity is kind of what we're proposing to continue into the future. And then kind of major milestones and and where we're at. So, this started in February um 24th. We did a public hearing, had a number of comments primarily about affordable housing. A

lot of senior um comments, a lot of veteran, elderly and so forth that are that are having issues with uh meeting their housing requirements or meeting their payments of their bills and and some of the requirements that is is required of them to maintain their houses and so forth. Um there was a lot of comments about deposit assistance and tenant based rental assistance, those types of things. uh the Tikcom Community Center came into that meeting and and was they mentioned that they would be looking in the coming year to apply potentially for $10,000 for a grant to do an audit. So they're looking to apply to commerce for a grant for between $2 and $400,000 to do some improvements on the Telecom Community Center. And one of the requirements would be to have their audit current and updated. Um and they they need to to do that. They haven't done that this year. So, they don't have the funding sources. So, they were looking to to apply at CDBG. Um, I did not include that in the plan. The only reason I did not is because they haven't come in yet to apply. Um, and if they do, I would propose to use admin dollars instead of program dollars. The $10,000 is kind of it's a small ask. um there there's typically admin dollars that are left over at the end of the year and it does preclude them from having to do all the reporting and all of the customer service there. There's there's just a lot to go on with CDBG if if you're going to do a small allocation. They've got to track the people that are coming into their program and they have to track them daily and it has to be an increase of services and it it's just a big lift for a $10,000 ask. There really isn't it it wouldn't make sense to do it that way. So admin kind of circumvents some of those rules and allows us to to fund things like audits and those things that are they're they're not really service related. They are service related, but they're allowing an organization to kind of maintain and and keep moving forward. So, uh this is kind of the next big steps for us would be

April 1st to April 30th. It's our 30-day comment period. So the public can come in um send emails, whatever we have. council then follows on April 20th with a public hearing at the council at the council meeting. Um and then eventually this comes back to council on on May 4th and it's approved and sent to HUD on May 15th. So that's kind of where we're going with this and you have any questions or comments? Commissioner Estrada.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you Mr. Gum. Appreciate you very much. A quick question. You mentioned Habitat for Humanity a number of times in in our in our coordination with them. Um I noticed that u additional leverage of funds private sector banking and they also mentioned uh Habitat for Humanity. When we provide funds to Habitat, is it to Habitat for Humanity or is it to the recipient of the home? And is it is it a loan or is it a grant? And if it's for the individual who's purchasing the home, they buy the home. So, are we supplementing the individual please?

Yeah. So, when we work with Habitat, the the funds actually go into a different couple of different places. one, we're typically supplementing the development side for Habitat to develop a house. It used to be $250,000. Now, it's about $400,000 to to build a house, 350 to 400. So, we're typically providing a grant to Habitat to lower some of the development costs. Um, that allows them to sell it to the next user, the ultimate whoever's buying it for a lower price. So, right now, they're selling a house for about 275 or $285,000. So there's a there's a loss there in essence for them. So we're trying to fill that gap. Um the other thing that we provide is the down payment assistance to the final home buyers. So typically if someone's coming in to buy a house for 275, they have to be 80% area immediate income or lower. So the amount of a a loan that they're able to qualify for is typically lower than say you or I could qualify. So somebody who's at 80% really is only going to be able to qualify and make payments on something around $200,000, maybe a little bit less. So again, there's a second gap. So when they're buying that, they need to have about $75,000 in down payment assistance. So we provide that to the homeowner. Um depending on what their income is. If they're 80%, we'll charge them a 1% deferred loan. If they're 50% or lower, we'll charge a 0% deferred loan. and then they're able to to secure their their conventional loan through Bank of America or whoever. Um, there typically is a Department of Commerce. There usually is a $10,000 uh home first, like a first depime home buyer program that's provided as a grant. So, there's there's a number of funding streams that they bring together, but we do provide grants to Habitat as well as loans to the the final home buyers.

Thank you. I had a question and it's it's gone. So, uh, Mr. Dum, thank you so much for this presentation this evening. Um, I remember hearing you last year talk about this and, um, I think this is is a great program. My question just popped into my head. How do people that are in need of this assistance, what pathway do they come to you through? um different ways. So the the people who are that we do the housing rehab program, we typically send out um in the to in the Lakewood uh connections letter, we'll send out updates. We haven't done that for probably about eight months now, maybe maybe longer than that, almost about a year, but we'll typically send that out so they can get some information out to the homeowners about our down payment assist, sorry, our homeowner rehab program. Um we've done that for down payment assistance as well, but it's that's typically where we do that. Um, we also used to send out and again probably need to do so again. We used to send flyers with the water company when they would send their bills out. We would send a flyer and says, "Here's all the programs that are out there." And those have been really good and and a lot of it is word of mouth. Um, we have on our our housing rehab program, I I believe I've got six or seven households that are on a wait list. So, it's it's pretty consistent where we finish one or two. There's usually one or two that have have backfilled. And it's there's a lot of word of mouth going out there. I mean, we've in in 20 years we're we're on what number 205. Um so there's there's a number that we've done. Um that's just for one of the programs. And for our home, we used to do housing rehab. So there's about another hundred homes. So Lakewood's we've done about 300 homes over 20 year period. It's there's a lot of lot of people that it's impacted.

Okay. We'll get there in just a second. Anything else? All right. Thank you, Mr. G. Thank Thank you so much. Thank you, sir.

I've got a comment, Doug. This may be a Polyiana comment, I have to admit, because I see too many issues that it comes down to permits. And if there was a way to have a checklist for the minimum to get by to get the permit from the building department jurisdiction, there may be a simpler way to get these construction modifications done whether remodeling or new construction. I think we have a challenge of just giving the criteria which is simple that you can get the permit easier. That's polyiana. I realize because it's a hope. It's a hope because I think there's great savings to be made if we could simplify a little checklist if you do this and dot dot dot and can it be that? Well, I think it's possible. You know, I've seen enough that can uh can maybe help that. Anyway, there's my comment. Just

Yeah. And I I think that's a good comment. I mean, we you're not the only person I've heard that from. So, it's it's something that we're working to hopefully achieve the new permit system. I don't know if we're going in the right way or in the wrong direction or it's still in the process. So, it's something that we'd like to achieve and make it easier. So, yeah, I hear you Mr. Gum. Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you, M.

Mr. Chair, we have one more item tonight. Um, and this is hot off the press with the city council. So, I have one more thing to walk through uh in a slide deck and then with us is Karen Bolter. She is one of the consultants that has been hired by the city to help us get through the process of uh complying with state law, House Bill 1181, which I've mentioned in the past. It's related to climate change and resiliency. So, she's here um just not only to hear your conversation tonight, but should there be a question that where she is the one to answer, I'll be able to phone a friend and ask her to do that. So uh but as you know for the last year year and a half there's been this discussion about the creation of a natural environment and climate change program in the city. The intent is to incorporate both the specific work required under House Bill 1181, which is climate change, um, anticipating what's happening in the city of Lakewood because of climate change, and then also looking at greenhouse gas emissions, but it's also looking at urban forestry. It's looking at vehicle miles traveled. It's looking at energy efficiency and a number of other things. And between now and mid 2029, there are certain things that the city is required to do in terms of updating its policies and its regulations. And so what has been happening since the council said, you know what, we're going to incorporate all of those 1181 things as well as the city's own uh 2050 tree canopy goal of 40%. and its own intent and desire to create an urban forestry program into this one thing called natural environment and climate change. That had been decided by last fall. But then the question became how is there going to be some sort of advisory body um providing information and recommendations back to

the city council regarding um not only 1181, not only the tree canopy, but other other environmental concerns over time. And so what has come out of all of those conversations that have been ongoing for a number of months is that um the city council this last Monday night, so just two days ago, took action on uh updating the planning commission's work plan for 2026. And I'm going to walk you through that tonight and then have two questions for you at the end. So first of all, this is just showing that under your current rules of procedure, uh you are able to convene what are called task forces to investigate issues within the scope of your authority and then it can be done on your own or at the direction of council which is what has happened here. Right now task forces are limited to five people with a maximum of three members of the planning commission on each one. Uh you research a topic, identify issues, gather information from experts and the general public, and then make a con clear, concise report back to the planning commission for then the usual thing where you take a look at a topic, hold a public hearing, and make a recommendation up to the city council. What we are going to do as staff is bring to you a recommendation at your next meeting to actually increase your task force size because of the topics we're talking about with the climate change and resiliency. Um we're thinking that you're going to need more than five people on some of these groups just because of the the breadth of what needs to be covered. So, as I just said two nights ago, the city council said we're going to incorporate into your work plan starting in 26 um complying with 1181 as well as the natural environment and climate change. Not only doing what you would normally do, which is that review and recommendation to council, but also convening these committees or task forces uh and then gathering their input as well.

So what are you going to be talking about between now and mid 29 is everything under House Bill 1181. But in the near term, in this year and next, the focus for the task forces and then your recommendations to council will be um taking a look at creating a 10-year implementation plan and a 3 to fiveyear work plan that says here's the the overall idea of complying with all the stuff by 29, but also what are we going to do after that? And then once that 10-year idea is set up, what can we do in the short and near-term uh and midterm 3 to 5 years? Looking at the urban forest management plan, looking at vulnerability assessments. So what parts of the city, what parts of the uh geography, what parts of the people are most vulnerable to climate change, looking at where heat islands have been identified. And you remember, most of you at least, there was some review of that done in 2024 where the city identified in partnership with the Department of Health in Pierce County, where in the city are the hot spots. Um, what can be done to help counter some of that? And then also creating a native or climate resilient planting plan that would be used for trees and vegetation in rights of way, in city parks, and on other public properties. So just a sideboard that was set, a couple of sideboards set by the uh city council. The task forces that will be convened are to only address council directed work. It will be an advisory role. There will be no um independent decision-making by those task forces. The recommendations will be incorporated into what you always already handle for comprehensive plan and regulation amendment cycles. and then it will be supported by planning and public works staff. So this is really tiny print and I do apologize for that just to try to fit it on one slide. But what you see down in

the bottom that's highlighted, these are the new items. And there is a lot of overlap here, but essentially you are now um considered the board that is providing information back to council on the NA uh natural environment and climate change program. And that includes uh scheduling task forces and then providing feedback on specific items between now and uh early to mid 2027. So, these items are things that are going to be covered through task force work and then recommendations by the planning commission to the city council. All of this uh not all of us, some of this begins uh actually in the second quarter, which will be a couple of weeks from now, but you'll see quite a bit of it is third and fourth quarter of this year. When and what kind of a task forces are we talking about? uh as of now we have a tentative uh schedule for you where in May and June the focus will be on the creation of that 10-year as well as the three to fiveyear work plan. Also in June would be a task force related to local climate impacts where you're getting information from those with lived experience in the city as well as technical experts and then also heat mitigation. the same idea. It's the lived experience and the local expertise on a task force. July and August looking at the urban forestry management program and also taking a look at the goals within 1181 related to urban forestry. October and November you're going to be busy actually September as well. September you're continuing your urban forestry and also strategizing and revising uh strategies for the heat mitigation or urban heat island issues. October, November, we'll be looking again at an updated or a further along uh set of recommendations regarding climate element updates. And then there'll be a little break for these task forces as uh staff and the

consultants go back and take all of the feedback and recommendations from the task forces. And then we'll uh start to work its way through again the the um development regulation or comprehensive plan amendment cycle process. And then in May of next year, there'll be uh one more convening of and I shouldn't say that one more, but there will be additional convenings of the task force focused on climate element updates uh to take a look at the updated draft. All of this work is going to be facilitated by the consultants and again planning and public works staff will be there as well. And then um starting next week or next meeting, there will also be some names uh brought forward to you to consider in terms of appointing uh the task force members. Starting last November, the city actually began reaching out to uh the local university or colleges um people that have been expressed interest over time in environmental issues. Some of them serve for instance on the tree preservation uh regulations of a few years ago. there was a committee for that. Uh but also our our utilities in the city, other public agencies. So we've got some names or organizations that uh we would bring to you for consideration for the task forces. But there's also the question of how you yourselves may want to be represented on those task forces and when and and how those would be meeting. So here's your two questions. And if you want to think about it and come back and talk in more detail on the first, we can certainly do that. But maybe there are some reactions tonight as well. First of all, the participation on the task forces. So, at a minimum, you would need one planning commission member to be on each task force. And right now, we're looking at four of them. There's the one working on the implementation and work plan. There would be one on the climate element updates, one for urban forestry,

and one for heat mitigation. There could be up to three according to your rules. um do you want to think about having the same members serve on all of the task forces or would you maybe say one of you or two of you want to be on one of them and a different group would be on another. Uh so that's one kind of area is how you yourselves would be participating on your task forces and then second is the schedule for that. Do you want to have these incorporated into your regular planning commission meetings, which you could anticipate would make them longer. They would start at 6:30 still at this point and then go later in the evening. Or there could be other options. There could be maybe right before the planning commission, for instance, having uh the task force meet or it could be another time uh and another day. Uh so something like that. So again, I don't know if there's anything off the cuff on either one of those. Mr. Chair, you may want to talk about tonight or if you guys would like to chew on this and and talk about it further on April 1st.

Commissioner Larson,

I have two points. First of all, this is a boatload of extra work. Uh and it's uh delegated by the city council to us. And I think that it's only fitting that uh to each task force there be at least one city councilman uh assigned to the task force. I I think that it will shorten and ease uh the communication and the time uh for each task force to work if there's a direct leaison with the city council as well as uh the city council then if there's staff to be uh assisting or functioning in the in the work that uh that there be a leazison to support staff because somebody's going to have to budget allocate budget to staff. to do that. And uh it seems to me appropriate that a city council person beh. Uh secondly, uh this is a lot of information at on short notice and I'm not comfortable in making a decision to answer your questions tonight.

Thank you, Commissioner Shrada. Anything? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I miss Bear I I read it was uh recommend recommended that each have seven and that two be from the planning commission. Is that is that correct? In terms of these the advisory committee coming from the council. No. Yes. Well, their their uh their goal was to have seven per task force and two being from the uh planning commission.

Yeah. And so that's why looking at your rules of procedure, they they are different from that. So looking to make a change to that at your next meeting. And um if you want to stay with the two that's recommended or or required by uh the city council action, certainly can do that. Absolutely. Um, but we do need to change your uh rules of procedure to to allow the seven that they that they uh included in their resolution or ordinance. I can't remember what it was. Yeah. I I would not go to two at the expense of an expert, you know, from that perspective. So, just my my point of view.

So, I'm sorry. You're you're suggesting there should be one count. I I would not go to two at the expense of an expert. Okay. So, if you needed to have an expert on one planning commission member and have that expert rather than not, that would be my recommendation. Thank you. I do have something to say, I guess. Commissioner Mayor, which side of the uh the process will a consultant team be brought on board? At the beginning or at what point? Can you ask that again?

Can you have consultants that will be part of the uh information gathering? Will the planning commission or the task force be in a in kind of an assessment role or a research role?

It will probably for the most part be assessment of um technical data that's provided on some of the topics. On the other ones, particularly those where it's asking for lived experience, that's going to be people sharing what they have seen and worked with or lived with uh here in the city on topic X, Y, or Z. So, um just so you're aware, the consultants were actually um commissioned to start their work last fall. So, they have been busily doing things in the background. We're not starting from scratch. And so, there will be things coming to you. It won't be a blank slate. Not to say it can't be amended. It's assumed it will be but there there will be the the lived experience conversations and then looking at uh drafts as starting points coming from the consultants.

Followup question. Are there four different consultants or is it one consultant team? It is one consultant team. Wow. Okay. Um, Miss Spear, will we will this body actually select the task force members from recommendations? Am I hearing that correctly? Yes. Yes. Okay. And will there be recommendations brought forward or presented for each of these four task forces that are already presented here? Yes.

Okay. Um, I think I know um some members that are not here now have have expressed some some interest in participating in this. I think it would be best if you all agree for us to chew on this and come back to our next meeting. Let this wash over you. Take some time to consider. But what I'm hearing right now is that um we want at least one planning commission member on each of these four task forces, possibly two. Um but we want to ensure that we have expert u representation along with the community lived experience. And we also have the uh recommendation that a council member be present on each task force. Um regarding um just regarding the time of the meeting um and how that aligns with our current meeting uh processes and procedures. Um open to the discussion here, but I I think these conversations are probably going to run long.

Yeah. Uh I my recommendation would be that these be held separately from the already scheduled planning commission meetings. Um but and if I could, Mr. Chair, you may well have once you know who is on each task force, some of them will be available during the daytime, some will be night time. So the different task forces may well be on different schedules as well. Yeah. Uh so is there any other further discussion? Commissioner Estrada.

Thank you, Mr. We have three new planning commission commissioners. Some of these topics were discussed prior to y'all being on board. maybe some sort of a a summary of what is entailed so that we can then maybe select or pick one that we feel we would be more comfortable with assisting. Mhm. From my perspective certainly I can I can bring that information to you on the first as well. Absolutely.

Outstanding. Anything else? I would encourage each of you to to to go back and let this just wash over your brain. Think about where where your experiences, expertise, and and u and passions live and lie. And uh we look forward to seeing the recommendations that come from staff at our next meeting and moving forward with these task force selection. That's it from me, Mr. Chair, but it looks like city council member Tabo's here may have a report. Perfect. Council member Talos, good to see you. Thank you.

Thank you, planning commission. And um thank you for uh weighing uh thoughtfully on this topic um of of and and being open to all the uh different options that Miss Spear talked about tonight. I know that it's a lot of work that you have ahead of you. Um, and it is heavily appreciated, I think, by all of council. I know that it was important to council to try to, I think, um, maximize resources, but also, you know, be open to, uh, making sure that we are getting solid ex you know, solid expertise to from these technical areas. So, appreciate your work on that. Um this I will try to keep it short but this month has been a little bit meaty. Um I think there are you know so we did pass the we took action on the passage of the engineering and development standards. So thank you for your work on that. That is uh that one forward with the staff's recommendation with the planning commission's recommendation. There were no amendments to that. So, thank you for all your work on that. That was a big um a big piece. Uh this month we talked about uh at our on our executive session a couple things. Um I think one touching on in the I think it was 2022 legislative session when the state passed um legislation requiring um public defense. Is that 2022?

Yep.

Yeah. That um that cities now cover the cost for public defense. But in doing so, they also passed legislation to allow cities the option of increasing their sales tax by onetenth of 1% to um I guess supplement their budgets and paying for public safety related expenses and related to public defense. So, the council has begun to um crack the nut, so to speak, or at least just began to open the discussion to to talk about that and what that means and what that just all the the uh challenges and um understanding the sentiments of the community with that. Um, frankly, council was talking about this last year and I think the year before, too. So, this is not a completely new topic, but I think it's beginning to become more, you know, we're going to this council is going to going to have to make uh is going to be the council to take action on it. So, um I think what will happen is more we will discuss it more at our council retreat on April 18th. We started to um understand it a little bit better this month, but there was no um there was no uh hard uh direction to staff in either in either way other than to continue to get some more information on I think our our financial situation and also um begin to look at uh just how we what our options are in terms of um how we take in existing revenues and our our revenue streams because that

continues to be the crux of the or or a big piece of the discussion. Um so I wanted to just give you a summary of that. Um the other I think media topic that we discussed uh this week is also related to the H barns. Um we so I think I've mentioned it before but um our legislative delegates in Olympia have it it looks like uh we we've been successful in securing $200,000 from um from District 28 for that project to take care of some structural repairs associated with construction. So small piece of the pie, but we still we still need to discuss uh the architectural program of the building. In other words, you know, the vision and the intended use for really what what will what we are building what we are building to and what we are building for because we have the option of on one hand um going in a going on a full restoration path. Um, which entails some expenses and and kind of tedious carefulness in in all the strings that are associated with restoration when you're under a state grant or a state historic grant. Um, but we also have the option potentially of looking at just um a rebuild, fresh rebuild of some of the of some of the architecture to in some ways minimize costs. Uh, I think the savings is about 500,000 between the two options. And the

full uh cost estimate as we understand it now is like 13.5 to 14 million uh for the project. But that's we're only at a 30% design level. So um that could increase as more and more becomes dis as the project becomes designed. So, um I think the big news of it all is that in the end the council uh decided to create our own little subcommittee to begin to talk with how to begin to talk with partners parks partners with parks um and have some more direct discussions with them and and in ensuring fleshing out the vision and then I think ensuring kind of getting a better sense from them of the the usage and commitment and level of um I think level of of staffing or not staffing but volunteer uh effort that they can provide on a post construction basis. So, um, that's myself, Council Member Pearson, and Council Member Brandstutter that are part of that subcommittee, and we will begin to meet with, uh, partners for parks, um, next week. I think that's when we're meeting. So, I just wanted to give you summary of those were kind of the two meteor things that we've discussed at council this month. And like I mentioned, we have a upcoming retreat uh April 18th and that's also the same day as the youth council. So um and that's when really I think we will be able to get into deeper deeper discussion on many other things and priority setting for the year. So I'll stop there. I can answer questions or turn it back to Miss Bear. Any

commissioner have any questions? No. Thank you so much, Council Member Tabo. We appreciate your time. Thanks for being here tonight. All right, Mr. Chair. So, that is it. Your next meeting is scheduled for April 1st. All right. It is 88.