Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to tonight's hearing. It is 03/09/2026, and the time is now 06:00. This meeting will come to order. Tanya, will you please call the roll?

Yes. Ali Shosti?

Here.

Ben Reed? Here. Bonnie Williams? Here. Brian Kesterson?

Here.

Justice Phelps?

Here.

Sandra is excused. Todd Olofesso?

Here.

For the record, reponed attendance for board member Justice Phelps has been approved for this meeting.

Thank you. Are there any added items or changes to the agenda staff?

No.

Excellent. The minutes from the previous meeting have been presented to the board. I call for a motion to approve the minutes of 02/09/2026 as presented.

This is Tado Ioffico. I move to approve the minutes as presented.

And this has been read. I second. Is there any discussion? Right. Call for a vote to approve the minutes.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Vote is approved six-two-zero. Right. Tonight we are holding public hearings in which staff will give presentations on the Recode Kent Phase 2 historic preservation in Mill Creek Historic District and Recode Kent Phase 2 community commercial zone. There are action items and a vote will be held to make a formal recommendation to City Council on these items. The process for tonight's hearing is as follows. I will open and close the public hearings. Staff will make the presentation, the board members will have a chance to ask questions.

Board members will place miniature houses on the dais to indicate that they would like to speak. After board member questions, I will invite testimony from the public in chambers. Tanya will call you one at a time. When you are called, please come up to the podium and state your first and last name and zip code for the record. You will each have three minutes to speak.

After all public comments have been made, Board members may have questions for staff. If you are a member of the public and wish to provide public comment, please notify Tanya by signing up on the sign up sheet near her desk. All right, if there are no objections from the board members at this time, I will open the public hearing for the Recode Kent Phase two historic preservation in Mill Creek Historic District. We will begin with a staff presentation from Deja Mitchell.

Good afternoon. I'm Deja Mitchell, Long Range player here and I'm here to present the hearing for historic preservation in Mill Creek Historic District. So jumping into historic preservation. So very recently, the state of Washington adopted State House Bill fifteen seventy six. This bill says that cities must adopt regulations that prohibit the designation of a property as a historic landmark outside of a designated historic district if that property is less than 40 years old, if the designation would restrict the use, the alteration, or demolition or demolition of the property, and the property is less than a 125 years old, and the property owner has not given, written consent.

So currently, the city of Kent regulates historic designations through our interlocal agreement with King County. We also adopt King County's code by reference, and that code by reference states that we adopt King County code twenty sixty two zero four o, which says a historic resource may be designated as a King County landmark if it is more than four years old amongst the other things that's in this box here, but that is essentially the gist of it. So under this adopted code, we already comply with the requirement prohibiting the designation of a property less than 40 years old outside of a historic district. So the remaining provisions of fifteen seventy six are not fully reflected in King County or in our Kent City code. So those remaining provisions that were highlighted in yellow will be what we're what we will be adopting.

So new code will state, except as otherwise adopted in our by reference code 26204O, a property shall not be designated as a historic landmark outside of a designated historic district if the designation would restrict the use of the property or if the property is less than a 125 years old and the property owner has not given written consent. However, a property may be designated as a historic landmark without written consent if the property is, of course, in a designated historic district or if the nominator provides documentation that that property is older than a 125 years old. So moving on to our Mill Creek Historic District. So you may remember in our briefing here that there was some community concern regarding maintaining that historic character of the Mill Creek Historic District among the litany of housing regulations that we adopted in phase one of Reco Kent. We weren't able to get to it in Reco Kent phase one, so we're here now in phase 2.5, phase three to formally recognize our Mill Creek Historic District and provide some language or codify some language around the guidelines for the historic district.

So, again, this district is not new. It was approved for landmark designation in 2013, designated as a historic district by Landmark Commission in 2014, and the corresponding guidelines were adopted by King County Landmarks Commission in 2020. So it currently lies in our N R 2 zone. We also did numerous amounts of outreach with King County with mister Michael Johnson here, a community member who is a part of our Mill Creek Historic Board, the Kent Historical Society, and also presented at the Mill Creek Historic Board meeting to create this draft that explicitly provides language around the preservation of historic buildings and property within this area. So jumping to our actual changes here.

So we did just a couple of changes. So our first one was creating a footnote in our district regulations, so in 1504 of Kent City Code. This footnote just says that all development within the Mill Creek Historic District shall be subject to the requirements set forth in fifteen oh eight twenty twenty. So 1508, 2020 is really the meat of what we've added here. So our updates for 1508 are adding regulations that say that state where the location is for Mill Creek Historic District, the applicability and review process, which essentially states that all new construction and exterior modifications within this area shall be subject to the Mill Creek Historic District guidelines as well as certificate of appropriateness procedures with King County.

That's a whole another procedure that we don't deal with, but it's with King County. And then lastly, we have our preservation of existing historic structures. So that's, again, where our meet is and where we've added majority of our new language, and I'll further dive into that in the next couple of slides here. So our Mill Creek Historic District is separated into two types of properties. So you have your contributing properties and your non contributing properties.

So contributing properties are those that were built before 1962 and still have their historical integrity, whereas non contributing properties are those that may have been built after 1962 and no longer have that historical character, maybe they've been remodeled or something has changed to the point where they are no longer historic. So we based our updates on the contributing versus non contributing properties. Within our Mill Creek district, there are 60 properties, 57 of those have houses and that includes our Kent Historical Museum. Of those 57 properties, 49 are contributing with the remaining eight being non contributing. So as far as regulations, we started off with our contributing properties because those are more restricted than our non contributing.

So in no case shall a contributing building or structure be demolished unless there has been severe damage by fire or some unforeseen circumstances or natural disaster, things like that. And in which case, they will have to qualify for a certificate of appropriateness that says they are allowed to demolish their homes. So, again, that's a separate process with King County. Nothing that we do here, but separate process with King County, and they will say, yes, you're allowed to demolish or no, you're not allowed to demolish. As far as non contributing properties, again, I stated there are less regulations for these properties.

However, if a structure on a non contributing property is proposed for a replacement or it's damaged and there's new construction proposed on a vacant lot, then the style of that new home or new building must match the architectural style that's presented in our Mill Creek Historic District guidelines. We do understand that there are some more nuance to unforeseen events and natural disasters when it comes to contributing properties. So there are a little bit more regulations for contributing properties. So similar to non contributing properties, if a structure or a building was completely lost by some unforeseen event or some natural disaster on a contributing property, then that replacement would have to have the same architectural style as those that are listed in the Mill Creek design guidelines. However, if a building or a property or structure on a contributing property was partially damaged or partially destroyed, then the property owner will have to consult with city staff as well as King County to determine the extent of the damage and if restoration is feasible.

If restoration is feasible, they'll have to consult with King County who may provide assistance through grants or some type of technical support. However, if we find that maybe restoration or rehabilitation is not feasible, then again, they'll have to go through that certificate of appropriateness procedure with King County where they will say, yes, you can demolish or no, you cannot demolish. So that is pretty much the gist of those updates. So we did have a little hiccup with our adoption here, but we're still rolling towards that March adoption date. So this will go to Committee of a Whole next Tuesday for vote. And then we're hoping for adoption on March 31.

And quick update. Sorry, Deja, I didn't catch this earlier. There's because of the way the schedule is, it'll actually be April 7 is the council date.

April 7. I'm sorry.

That's okay. And then, Deja, did you want to add to the record comments from the master builders?

Yes. So they did approve or they did enjoy or like our

I'm sorry. That's the other agenda item. I don't know what I'm doing.

I think that's it for me.

All right. Thank you. Good. Excellent. No worries. All right. Thank you staff members. Are there any questions for staff? All right. There are no further questions from the board. We will call on the public speakers Tanya. Is there anyone signed up to speak?

Yes, Mr. Michael Johnson. All

right. Please state your first and last name and zip code for the record.

My name is Michael Johnson zip code 98030 I live on Jason Avenue right in the middle of the Mill Creek Historic District. So this is personal to me. I want to speak tonight to thank a couple of people in the planning staff for all the hard work and coordination to get where we are. Kristen Holzworth and DJ Mitchell, thank you very much for all the work you put in. I was pretty disappointed in June when we didn't get this in the first go around, but the mayor and Kristen's boss, Kurt Hansen, pretty much assured me that we get to phase two and here we are.

So I appreciate that follow through. Kristen and DJ really helped by going to our board of the Greater Kent Historical District, which I'm a board member and answering questions for the board. I should also say I'm an officer for the Mill Creek neighborhood and also was the chair of the committee, the homeowner committee that produced the design guidelines that was referred to by DJ. So this has been a long process for us since 2013 of applying for the historic district. And I'm very proud that this city is finally doing right thing to try and preserve this.

And they gave me an opportunity to look at the code as they went along and kept me in the loop. Much appreciated. And in closing, Mr. Kesterson, I think you can tell your wife khaki that you land use and planning board did a good thing for historic preservation and the planning staff. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. Tanya, is there anyone else?

No, there's not.

Excellent. Thank you, sir. If there is anyone in the audience not signed up who would care to speak? Nope. All right. Seeing no further speakers from the public, I want to ask staff if they have any further comments.

No further comments

for When

you have to demolish a building for whatever reason, if it's under fire or whatever, do you have to still follow the guideline to for the new facility or you don't need to follow the regulation and guideline?

Yes. So if someone were wanting to produce a new home or new construction, they would have to follow our design guidelines, the Mill Creek historic design guidelines as far as architectural styles. So yes, and then if they wanted to demolish, they would have to consult with King County, which has their own separate regulations as far as how to demolish and if you can demolish and what you need to submit.

After demolition, the new facility will still meet and conform to the historic district?

Correct.

Yes. Thank you.

All right. And we'll now call for a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Okay. I call for a vote to close the public hearing.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. The motion is passed. The public hearing is closed. I will now call for a motion. Guess this is Ben Reed.

I move to recommend the city council adopt the proposed amendments to chapter 14.12, 15.04, and 15.08 of Kent City Code addressing historic preservation in the Mill Creek Historic District subject to revisions during ordinance drafting and review by the city attorney.

This is Todd OFSO I second.

Any discussion? All right if there's no further discussion I call for a vote to approve the motion as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. The vote is approved. If there are no objections from the board members at this time, I will open the public hearing for the Recode Kent Phase 2 Community Commercial Zone. We will begin with a staff presentation by Deisha Mitchell. Hey, you're there. Excellent.

Okay. Hello again. I'm here to present the hearing for our community commercial zone update. So looking at your screen here, you'll see circle in red is a good portion of where our CC, so community commercial and our CCMU, community commercial mixed use overlay where a lot of them are housed or a lot of a good portion of that zone and that overlay is housed. It also this area also houses the southern portion of our Benson corridor.

And for our comp plan, there is a vision for this area to be mixed use and robust as a designated activity center and a designated growth center. However, because of legacy code, there has been limited redevelopment and residential growth, so it hasn't quite reached that vision that we have in the comp plan just quite yet. So these legacy codes include barriers such as limited site coverage, so it limits the footprint of the building, creating big lots with surface parking, a lot of surface parking. There's high restrictions and there's also commercial requirements, which have full carrying cost if those commercial spaces aren't leased or rented out. So we're looking to increase homeownership options in this area and in our CC and U Zone as well by addressing those barriers in KCC.

So these changes are aligned with our comp plan as I stated before, but also with our environmental impact statement. This will be an interim step before we do a holistic change with our Benson Corridor plan. So moving to some examples of what we're trying to encourage here. So we're really trying to encourage townhomes. They provide home ownership, and they're also a denser housing that fit into that mixed use area.

So these are the units that are most likely to be built right now. From the desire we're hearing from our builders, our public, and some of our counter questions, the market is most likely to produce townhomes. However, the proposed changes open up opportunities for other housing development as well. So it's not just limited townhomes, but we are encouraging and would like townhomes. Next, we are encouraging some structured parking.

I mentioned earlier how our lexicode has that limited site coverage creating those smaller building footprints with large and vast surface parking. And we don't necessarily want that, so we want to encourage less surface parking and more structured parking with activation like you see here. So moving into our actual code update. So we have about six major code updates, and they include increasing permanent land uses and corresponding footnotes, increasing maximum site coverage, height and updates to required setbacks, updating design review requirements and folding in our CCMU regulations within our CC zone regulations, so the removal of our CCMU regulations. So let's see what that actually looks like as far as our residential uses.

I do want to preface this by saying prior to these proposed code changes, the code had two separate regulations. So you had your zone regulations and your CCMU overlay regulations. So in the CCMU, it was only allowed for mixed use development. So you have your townhomes, your multifamily, and your residential facilities were only allowed in the CC zone if they were in your CCMU overlay. Four plexes, five plexes and six plexes were not allowed in either one of these, so we decided to open it up for five plexes, six plexes, four plexes, townhomes, multifamily and all residential facilities to be allowed in the CC zone as well as at CCMU overlay.

As far as the CC zone, these land uses are only allowed within a quarter mile of 104, so really focusing on that Benton Corridor. And then residential facilities are no longer required to have a MCUP, which is a minor conditioner use permit. So that's essentially an additional permit that someone would have to do if they wanted to do a residential facility. And I'll further get into details in the next slide for that one. We also opened it up for live work units.

So live work units were not allowed in either the CC zone or that CCMU overlay, so we said they should be permitted outright. We did update some regulations here so working spaces shall be regularly reserved and used by one or more people who reside in that live work unit, and then no portion of that live work unit should be sold as a separate unit or a separate space. Diving deeper into that residential facility MCUP issue, so prior to, if a residential facility such as assisted living facility, etcetera, wanted to develop in this area in the CCEMU zone, then they would have had to have a commercial or office component. Otherwise, they would be required to do a minor conditional use permit. We got rid of that, so now they are permitted outright just like our other residential land uses.

They still have their required amenities, so nothing is changing there, just the fact that they're permitted outright and we'll have to go through an extra step just to develop. So moving into what we've changed in our development standards here. We increased our site coverage from 40% to 80%. So again, making that building footprint larger so we can have more building space and less surface parking. We also reduced our front and side yard to align more with our with what the CCMU overlay regulations were.

Just a reminder that we did remove the CCMU regulations in totality, they're no longer in existence. But we did wanna find some common ground between the two as there were regulations for the CCMU overlay that were slightly different. So again, we decreased the front and side yard to align more with what the CCMU overlay did have. We also moved up footnote seven to keep the requirements for residential facilities, they are still required to have that 10 feet from front, side, or rear. And we also added required setbacks if the rear of the side yard is abutting a neighborhood residential zone.

So they will be required to have a setback of 20 feet if it's abutting a neighborhood residential zone. So if there's essentially homes, single family homes or middle housing near the property. In our last couple updates here, so we did increase the height limitations from three stories or 40 feet to five stories with an extra two stories if a residential development includes structured parking or some type of commercial use. So incentivizing developers there. And then also, we did change our design review requirements.

So prior to the CC zone and the CCMU zone, we're to do mixed use design standards. So we've switched that to multifamily design standards because they are a little bit more comprehensive and have more requirements for pedestrian and residential spaces. And that is actually all of our updates. Small but robust updates here. So similar to our Mill Creek Historic District, we're looking for adoption really soon.

We'll have committee of a whole April 7 with the adoption shortly after that. I would like to state for the record that master bill builders were in favor of this update. They thought it would help streamline permitting processes as far as mixed use and residential development in this area and really push for that mixed use growth in the area as well. And that is all I have for you.

Thank you, Deja. Members, are there any questions for staff?

Looks like Justice has hand raised. I'm just the messenger.

Thanks, Kristen. Deja, can you go into a little bit more about the parking side of things? Are we allowing parking on Benson, or kind of what's our hope slash goal to make sure that we don't have parking? I know state law might supersede that, but what are we looking at for incentives on parking? Because I would hate to have parking on Benson.

You would hate to have parking on Benson. So right now, the incentives that we have is that increased site coverage, so, pushing for structured parking. As far as parking requirements, we'll still have the parking requirements that are in fifteen oh five, I believe. So nothing new there as far as incentivizing parking outside of that structured parking.

Yes. So good question, Justice. We have limited authority of what we can do. Starting in January 2027, we will have to have a new parking code adopted or the state will preempt us. It's kind of a we get to do it or the state will do it for us, and that will affect a lot of this area.

So we're not changing any parking right now because we're going to have to come back and do a more holistic study. There's also, in 2029, a new state law regarding station areas along Benson will be qualified as part of the bus rapid transit corridor. So there's a lot that the state is already determining for parking. What we are doing, as Deja noted, is saying you can have extra height if you do structured parking. So trying to incentivize, you can go taller if you put some structured parking in as well. So not a super satisfactory answer, but that is seems to be the way that the state is deciding things for us these days.

Thank you.

So when you say structure parking, do you mean building structure?

Yes, like underneath your apartments or your whatever building you're building. So similar to this example here.

So it doesn't have to be a separate structure. It could be part of the building.

Correct.

Okay.

Another parking question. For the townhomes, are there specifications in terms of the parking requirements for the townhomes?

No, it would be the same requirements that's allowed anywhere else. So our requirements in 1505 like our parking standards. So there's nothing special in particular for the CC and CCMU zones.

While we can't require certain parking in certain areas anymore, what we are hearing from developers is it's really hard to sell especially detached or middle housing products if there's not sufficient parking because the clientele that they're selling to typically own one or two cars per household. So especially with townhomes, the structure is normally to have, if not one, a two car garage with the living area over it. And so that's really what we would anticipate. Don't know, Deja, if you can go back one. These look really pretty.

They actually have behind them, so these are front doors truly, they're entrances, but then they also have parking tucked behind them. So it's masked from the street view, but they still have parking and circulation. That honestly, when we have looked at prices in the market, we anticipate more likely than not that we'll see townhomes coming online first with these changes. We have had conversations with developers and our economic development manager told me the other day, he's so excited about this because the reputation is that Kent hates townhomes. And townhomes are a great ownership opportunity.

They're much more affordable than a detached product, and they also offer a lot of other amenities like not having to take care of your yard or other things that fit different lifestyles choices. And so we anticipate though that they would still include parking even if we can't require it.

Okay. Yes. It's just like imagining not having like available parking within these units up on our 104 that would be interesting. Okay. Thank you.

Justice, is your hand up again?

It is.

Okay. I thought so.

With townhouses, are you thinking of and I I see the pictures. I get that part. But then oh, and 1 16th And 256 just off of there, also by Ken Canely. There's that little group of townhouses. Are we kind of thinking of that too, where they'll have like a street that goes off of Benson and there'll be kind of a group of townhouses, almost a neighborhood of townhouses?

I don't I don't know that area. I don't think I know that development.

So it's so are you asking is that a similar product that could be developed? Or will these development regulations apply in areas

that are No, similar development.

Yes. Okay. So, okay, I get the question. Yes. It's entirely possible.

So this right now, you're seeing these images are just the street view from if you were standing on the sidewalk or across the sidewalk looking across. But it's entirely possible that there could be it would be townhomes that have multiple buildings with them. So it could be a cluster of buildings or a community setting depending on the site size. So smaller sites are going to have fewer buildings on them, but that would be something that could foreseeably happen. And we're going to be coming back to you later this year with opportunities to make sure that they're available to be sold in different ways for financing purposes so that they are right now, they can be ownership opportunities, but we're going to expand different ways to own it.

It's a really weird division of land as its own thing, but they can be rented or sold in a variety of ways. So it wouldn't necessarily be like one person owns that entire or one apartment manager owns the entire site. They can still be even though they look like they're within their own community or HOA, they can still be separately owned.

Perfect. Awesome. Thank you.

If there are no further questions from the board, we will call on the public speakers. Tanya, is there anyone signed up to speak?

No, there is not. Right.

Chair, may I recommend that we call for a motion to accept into the record the letter from the Master Builders as well before we move on to any other closing of records? Thanks.

Sure. Call for a motion to accept the statement from the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties as submitted. I call for a vote to approve the motion.

First we need someone to propose the motion and then a second for the motion.

Great. Also, I'll make the motion. Okay. Now I call for a vote to approve the motion as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. The vote is approved. All right. Pardon me? You have to call for the nays. Any nays? There are no nays, the vote is approved. All right. Thank you, Deja. Are there any further questions for staff?

If there is anyone in the audience not signed up who would care to speak? All right. Seeing no further speakers from the public, I want to ask staff if they have any further comments. All right. I will now call for a motion to close the public hearing.

This is Tado Iveso. I move to close the public hearing.

This is Ali Shasdai, second.

All right. I now call for a vote to close the public hearing. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say nay. All right. The motion passed. The public hearing is closed. I will now call for a motion.

This is Todd Oyifesto. I move to recommend the City Council adopt the proposed amendments to Chapter 15.04 KCC, addressing development standards for the Community Commercial Zone and Community Commercial Mixed Use Overlay, subject to revisions during ordinance drafting and review by city attorney.

This is Ben Reed, I second. Any discussion? I call for a motion to yes, I call for a motion to accept no, no, no, no, no. Got it. I call for a vote to approve 33. If no further discussion, I call for a vote to approve the motion as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those against say nay. The vote is approved. Is there any further business to bring before the board?

No, I do think that we're going to be canceling our next March meeting just because we've had a pretty steady pace of work and we're at a point where we are going to be preparing to bring more back to you, but we need a little bit of time to catch our breaths and do that. And so unless something urgent emerges between now and next week, I'd say plan on canceling or not showing up for the second meeting in March.

Excellent. All right. Thank you everyone. Since there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned.