City Council - Regular Meeting

So three and I'll call the meeting to order clerk please take the roll call.

Mayor Frederick Here. Deputy Mayor Winkler.

Here.

Councilmember Elliott is trying to get online on zoom. Councilmember Walton. Here. Councilmember Gassick. Here. Councilmember Wargo. Here. Councilmember Barrow. Here. And councilmember Thacker. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Now is the time for public comments. Clerk has anyone called in or emailed in?

No, we have no one online and no one's called in.

Okay. No Britton. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak? Okay, thank you. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda.

Deputy Mayor Winkler. Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the agenda.

Council Member Keswick. I second. Do we have any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The agenda is approved. First tonight we have a proclamation. Whereas on 07/04/2026, The United States Of America will commemorate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

And whereas the city of DuPont will join communities across the nation in celebrating this historic moment during our fourth of July hometown celebration. And whereas this milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on our nation's history, honor the contributions of all Americans and reaffirm the democratic ideals that define The United States. And whereas the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 following the Treaty of Paris of 1783 established a framework for territorial governance and the creation of new states leading to the establishment of the state of Washington in 1889. And whereas the city of DuPont was found on the side of Fort Nisqually, which itself was located on the ancestral land of the Nisqually tribe of Indians and has since grown as part of the continuing American story shaped by civic engagement, public service and community stewardship. And whereas the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution founded in 1890 is a non political women's service organization whose members are lineal descendants of patriots of the American Revolution with a local Chloe Clark chapter in DuPont.

And whereas the Chloe Clark Chapter will be organized on 03/01/2026 and is named after Chloe Clark, who was the first school teacher in the Puget Sound area in 1841 and located at Fort Nisqually, which is now DuPont, Washington. And whereas the Chloe Clark chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, in partnership with the city of DuPont, honor those who achieved American independence and all who have shaped and strengthened the nation over the two fifty years that followed. Now therefore, I, Ronald J. Frederick, mayor of the city of DuPont, on behalf of the DuPont City Council, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as America two fifty month in the city of DuPont and encourage residents and members of the community to commemorate America two fifty by learning more about the history of the American Revolution and the generations of service that continue to shape our nation. Signed this February 2026.

Next we have item 7.1, appointment of a member to the DuPont Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. Councilmember Thakur?

Yes. I make a motion to approve Tammy Dickinson who is also appointed by the owners of the two hotels out here in DuPont and would like to appoint as a lodging tax committee.

Okay. Councilmember Walton.

I second that.

Do we have any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Tammy Dickerson has been appointed to the DuPont Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. And we'll move on to our unfinished business. And I see we have council member Elliot online now. So the item 8.1, this is ordinance number 26 dash eleven sixty six approving the 2026 comprehensive plan update and official zoning map.

This is our second reading and I'll turn this over to director Kincaid to discuss this. Go ahead, director.

Thank you, mayor and council. This is our second reading for the comprehensive plan update. This is the periodic update which is required by the state growth management act every ten years. We did a pretty big body of work, hundreds of pages that you have had the pleasure of reading. And the document that you received ahead of time also included the appendices.

So it was even bigger than the plan itself. So the public hearing did not need to have those appendices because they were not subject to the hearing. It's the comp plan document itself. So just in case you were wondering why it grew on you from the first reading to this reading, that's why. So I'm going to start with what we heard.

We held the public hearing in the first reading on 02/10/2020 We We have a we needed to for think about the Chamber of the Commerce as an important partner for economic development goals and policies. We heard that the tree canopy goals and policies ought to be located relocated from the parks chapter to the natural environment chapter that we should think about strengthening tree canopy policy 5.2, which is regarding specifically the tree canopy assessments and inventories. We heard there's some concern just sort of about the language about the Mounts Road in the goal transportation chapter goal T1 policy T12 and that we had corrections and typos and scribner errors to make. So I'm going to quickly go through that. Next slide, please.

Okay. So the first one, the Chamber of Commerce as an important partner. So on your left side, you see the ED14 as it was presented and the way that we held the hearing. The proposed ED 1.4 adds to that policy the DuPont Chamber of Commerce. So continue to strengthen and maintain strong relationships with local and regional economic development partners such as the DuPont Chamber of Commerce.

And that's how I propose addressing it for your discussion. Next slide, please. Moving the tree canopy goals and policies from parks to natural environment chapter. So I just want to point out that the goal eight, the reason why it's in the parks, although it might seem like an odd place, is that the goal eight of the Growth Management Act in RCW 3670A requires that the evaluation of tree canopy coverage be located in the parks and rec element. That's why it was placed there.

So I just wanted to copy though the natural environment is not silent on the tree goals. And we have in the natural environment chapter the following policies, three of them that we're promoting the urban forestry, protecting our tree canopy coverage, maintaining tree preservation ordinance, protecting the retainage of significant trees and minimizing grading during site prep. So those are three policies that are already embedded in the natural environment chapter and particularly that NE15 speaks to the importance of that tree canopy coverage. The other two, obviously, if you have trees, you're going to have the canopy, so protecting those trees. Next slide, please.

So with respect to this strengthening the PR 5.2 for the tree canopy assessments and tree inventories, the parks chapter, listed the goal and those policies that are found in that chapter now. And PR 5.2 says that we would aspire to conduct tree canopy assessments on a regular schedule and to maintain up to date tree inventories. I know that that is the way that it's written right now. I would not recommend that that be changed. I think that our good intent is to put teeth to these policies where we can do that, but we also must balance that against whether or not we put some empty language that we cannot attain.

So if we determine tonight that we want to just say we're going to conduct this, we're going to do this, then we need to make sure that we're developing all the things that make sure that we are able to follow-up on our promise here in this plan. Using the word aspire, I don't think negates the importance of being able to do these tree canopy assessments. In fact, they are required by the state law and to maintain those inventories. It's still very important as written. Next slide.

The concern about the Mounce Road text in the transportation chapter, I've pasted what it says. Yes, it does have a goal about collaborating and mentions this potential Mounce Road connection as a way to potentially reduce I-five congestion. And then policy T12 mentions the Mounts Road just in terms of being able to create alternatives for people to not get trapped in the city if something were to happen. And then just a reminder below that, that the sensitivity analysis was done and it is included as an appendix to this plan. It goes through the steps of understanding the feasibility of opening the road and really it concludes that that would be something that would be such a significant lift for the city and that it isn't something that would be easily achieved.

So I just want to say that we're not saying that this is something that would be even feasible to do. But just leaving that goal and policy in the transportation chapter, it's helpful because if, in fact, it comes to pass that there is a decision by the leadership here that that might be something to look into. We may want to go after partnerships or funding to do so. And if you have that here, then it would be a request that would have more weight to it. So I would suggest not being too concerned about that language simply because it isn't saying that the city would be doing anything to Open Mounts Road.

Next slide. And then we have our typos and our scrivener's errors. So I'm very appreciative for the readers that take such special care. And we have a list of those and we have we will be correcting those, including some of the wrong dates. We just have a nice list that you were able to give us to just go through that document and make those corrections. And then lastly in the document, there are some if you notice some yellow highlighted areas. There are not very many of them, but I want to explain what those are. We had our reviews from the Puget Sound Regional Council who has to certify this plan. We also had a review from the Washington State Department of Commerce. They were very complementary, both agencies on this plan.

And I felt really positive about that. So the two things that they were looking for were really kind of the housing element because it's all about the housing for commerce and PSRC right now. So the page 143 of the whole PDF, we just added a little text. It's highlighted none of the goals or policies or substantive stuff changed with this, but they wanted us to just lift some words from the land capacity analysis that's in the appendix and put those into the plan itself rather than having somebody go to the appendix. The number of emergency housing basically is what that is.

And then the other thing that they wanted to see done is on pages three seventy and three eighty five of the document where you are looking through the appendix that's titled the land capacity analysis. Analysis is to show our work, and so that's where you'd see yellow highlights in that document as well, showing how we figured out in terms of looking at our capacity analysis with what would be the full build out versus what would be possibly achievable and just making sure that with that work we could still say at the end of it even if full build out never occurs, we still have capacity to meet our requirements. And that is the only changes that you have to this document. And with that, I am here to answer questions or any kind of discussion that you'd like to have.

Do we have any motions at all about this ordinance?

Deputy mayor Winkler. Mr. Mayor, I move we pass ordinance number 20 six-eleven 66 approving the 2026 comprehensive plan update and official zoning map.

Councilmember Gasek.

I'll second.

And now do we have further discussion? Okay.

Deputy Mayor Winkler. I just want to thank everyone that's involved. This starts with people on the planning commission staff. I know the council spent a lot of time reading and coming up with ideas and suggestions. I know they've spent a lot of civilian input. When I say civilian, I'm sorry, put my military cap. Citizen input is what I meant to say. And which was all critical. And I just want to thank everyone for their input on this long document. And I want to thank Barb personally for responding to my emails. I look for errors and I thank you for being so kind in responding to those. So thanks.

Next we'll call on council member Elliot online.

You

Yes, hear we can hear you. Okay, thanks. So Barb, thank you for this, and thank you for explaining about the Growth Management Act and how the tree issues had to be in the parks and recreation area. And then but I still want a question about the word aspire to. Because we talk about, in the natural environment section the importance of doing a tree assessment, the importance of trees.

But if we don't conduct our own study of our trees, if we don't conduct that, how will we ever know where we are? That's why and this is not we don't have a timeline on this. This is a ten year plan. So I just I don't understand why we can't just use the words conduct a tree survey.

I think that we have all agreed that word choice is extremely important. And I think if you just want to strike the word aspire, it's like you said, it's not got a timeline to it. I feel like aspirational statements to me carry more power. We will have to do a tree inventory. We will have to do that work.

So that's not something we can just not do because we've said we're only going to aspire. It's not like it's a I don't think of the word aspire as like, gee, it's a good idea maybe someday. And so that could just simply be a different perspective on grammar.

Director, is that something that could be brought forward to the tree committee?

It could. We could definitely. In fact, the tree commission will be working. It's on their work plan to try to help develop the program to be able to do that tree inventory and the canopy analysis. So in terms of and also it's on their work plan to continually giving feedback on the annual amendments to continue working.

I mean this is a work that doesn't just end should you adopt it tonight. It's always going to be worked on year after year and but absolutely the tree the tree commission is clued in and it's on their work program for the tree inventory and assessment.

Thank you. Councilmember at the core? So

I have two comments. No questions on it. But number one comment, I just wanted to echo what our deputy mayor said. Planning commission did a lot of work and not just because I was part of it but I will take that credit too with everybody else. And seven of us worked almost two years.

It took almost two years to go through this comprehensive plan update. Some of us really went into the page by page, paragraph by paragraph, and sometimes even line items. Sometimes we needed to correct the grammar mistakes and sometimes the spelling mistakes. And from there, everything else, right? So kudos to the Planning Commission who really is a volunteer body and they spent four years two years on this specific comprehensive plan update.

And also great job on the council who accepted and also modified or suggested changes to it. So really great job overall from everybody. And again, also had a lot of input. So thank you, citizens, for coming forward and speaking up for what is good for our own city. My second comment.

So from my memory from Planning Commission, and I'm not suggesting any changes, but I just wanted to draw some attention here. One was I already had this discussion with the city staff but we are not going to implement it in our comprehensive plan. Number one is when we have a development take place, the Center Drive will take two left turns. Currently, we have a one left turn on McNeil, but there will be two left turns and there will be expansion of that McNeil. And currently we don't have sidewalks on both the sides.

And there was a one time I raised that during planning commission and now also. I think it could be an expensive deal. How much expensive? I don't know exactly. So I'm gonna leave it up to there, but I just wanted to draw attention that it would be nice to have because it's going to be the main signal light after we have after we almost doubled the population of DuPont.

So if we have two sidewalks, that will be great. Second, from my memory lane, I can draw the attention is we worked on vacationing the property for school board And then now the school is going to go at the McNeil. And there was some, you know, a lot of discussion took place how it's working right now with the Chloe Clark and Pioneer and then when the elementary school comes up on a McNeil, then there will be a little time between they get off and then the middle school gets off. So the traffic will be really a nightmare. How are we going to solve that problem?

Are we going to widen the road? Are we going to have the roundabouts? Are we going to have signal lights? Or are we going to ask school to have enough parking or a big driveway? So those are the main two concerns what I wanted to draw the attention and that's all I needed to make as a comment. Thank you so much.

Councilmember Walton.

Barb, are we kind of coming back to the wordsmithing because I love doing words English teacher. Are we going to then change conduct Aspire as that do we vote on that or is that just agreed upon from?

I think I'm hearing that perhaps there is an amendment or an intent to make an amendment.

I can speak to that. You can.

Okay. Thanks, Gordon.

Yes, very briefly. So we've gone through the amendment process with other complicated pieces of legislation. Know this is very important to Councilmember Elliott. Procedurally, if she want to move to amend this language, she can make that motion. Any of you could second and you could vote on it.

In regards to this language, would say this is not to dissuade any motion. Just perhaps say this in a legal context is that I think one of the concerns that the Planning Commission has or excuse me, that the Planning Director has is that regulatory language usually is in a nutshell what is allowed, what must be done and what is prohibited from being done. And so you frequently don't want to have too much regulatory type language in a policy document where you want to be more open ended. Having said that, yes, if you move to change that language, that can be in there. There's no reason not to.

But just it would be understood, interpreted by another mayor and the staff is this would be a council priority, right? You're voting on documents, a policy document for the planning of the city. So that was going to be a priority. That's what it would be. So we know we're going to have a meeting next week.

We're going to talk about council priorities. We would assume that if you made that change, this would be one of them that we'd have to talk about. I think that was the only thing we want to just make you aware of in terms of this real edge case of language and being regulatory versus policy wise. So that was the only thing I would ask you to consider. But yes, if you want to change that language, Councilor Morrilli, any other council member could make an amendment and just be a move to change the word to this.

The Premier Winkler, Can shorten

I finish? I wasn't done.

I'm willing to take it as a friendly amendment. Yes. So you know.

I just had more to share.

Sure. But just when it gets to that point and abbreviate, make this quick, I can do that. Okay. But go ahead.

So I was just looking at the definition because that's kind of where I was with I'm looking at it however you're reading it, both sides. Aspire talks about someone's hopes or ambitions towards achieving something, whereas conduct is the manner in which a person behaves. So I see where Beth is coming from on that. It's a little bit more commitment. And if I heard you correctly, Barb, we have to do this. Anyway, it's part of the bigger package. So conduct does have, according to Webster's, a little bit more kind of a solidifying type of tone to it. So I just want to share that. I think it's a better use of the word to have conduct than aspire. So just my opinion.

I concur. And I think we can abbreviate this really simply by if Councilmember Allian wants to make that amendment, I take it as a friendly amendment and then I don't think we even need to vote on it because it's a friendly amendment. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes. So effectively, as a friendly amendment, you have Councilor McElliot making this motion or not making motion but saying, I would like this change. You made the original motion. You would agree to amend your current motion to say we adopt the comp plan with the change of erasing the language expire at

So I think I need to hear Councilmember Elliott to say that she makes the motion to asks us for a friendly amendment.

Yeah, go ahead Councilmember Rayleigh. That's correct.

I'll ask for a friendly amendment to change the words, to delete the words aspire to and just say conduct.

And I accept that friendly amendment. Okay.

Okay. So just procedurally now you have the motion in front of you is to adopt the comp plan with this amendment and nothing else?

And I have a technical. I you might have to make one.

I got Robin there before you. I'll get you here. Go ahead.

We need to make sure someone seconded this. I'm not sure anyone seconded it yet.

Yeah. Was there a second to your original motion?

Councilmember Barrow.

Councilmember Gassick.

Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, Sean. You made a motion. I

seconded the comp plan before initially. The amendment discussion came

up. Okay.

So there was a second. So it's a proper motion. Okay.

Okay. I have a question for Barb. When the changes that you've made in the document that you or the papers you gave us today, are those just automatically going to be done then unless or do we need to make an amendment for them?

You do not need to make an amendment for them because they're on the I just put them on the record.

So Councilmember Barrow, that's sort of the reason why we can have the second reading structure so that we can get those initial takes from the council and then we can come back with a different product if we need to. Yeah.

Deputy Mayor Winkler? So, I just want to make sure we're okay procedurally. I just worry about that Robert. We have a motion, we have a second, we had a friendly amendment which was accepted. Are we good at this point?

Your parliamentarian says you're good.

That's all I needed to hear. Okay.

Do we have any further discussion? Okay, I'll call for the vote then. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Aye.

Okay. That's unanimous it appears, so that has been approved. Next, we'll move on to item 8.2, Ordinance number 20 six-eleven 67, approving the transportation impact fees. This is also a second reading. Director Kincaid, you have the floor again.

Thank you. The ordinance, it contains the actual proposed new section for the DuPont municipal code, which would be 2 thousand 606 transportation impact fees, as well as the fee schedule that was done showing the methodology and the defensible rate that you could charge. So all of these documents would work together. And the transportation impact fees are something that it's going to help the city be able to collect monies, to be able to make those improvements to the system, to the transportation system as needed so that growth is paying for growth. So I don't really have much more to say unless you have some questions for me.

But it's pretty self explanatory. And again, what you would be doing if you adopt this, approve this would be authorizing a new section in the DuPont municipal code to authorize the collection of transportation impact fees. The code section explains how that would work in process. And the company document is that fee study that then would what we would be doing is updating our fee schedule to reflect that a new development or redevelopment that would be considered according to this code to assess impact fees, applicant would then see the fee schedule that would be updated by resolution at the next meeting to reflect those new fees that we would be charging upon application.

Do we have a motion for this ordinance?

Councilmember Hargo. Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve ordinance number 261,167 improving transportation impact fees.

Councilmember Barrel.

I second that motion.

Is there any further discussion? I'll see none. I'll call for the vote on that. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed? Aye.

That ordinance has been approved. We'll move on to the mayor's comments. I have a couple things tonight. Everyone's gonna see a lot of activity this year concerning America two fifty and the celebration of DuPont. Our parks and rec people and the America two fifty committee are all hard at work putting together lots of different events and things in the city.

So I would encourage everyone to participate as you see those things come up. Another bit of good news that we just received is that the Nisqually tribe has made the decision that DuPont will in fact host their canoe journey. And this is going to be a big lift for the tribe because it's going to happen down at you know when the canoes all meet down at our Nisqually, Sikuality Beach. And there's going to be a lot of people involved in that and it's going to be a pretty good lift for the city too because we have police support and all kinds of other support involved. It'll be on July 31 is the current date and it should be a great event here in DuPont and I look forward to it.

Does the council have any reports?

Just a quick update on the legislative issue. I brought up House Bill 2,489. I voiced some concerns about it. That bill did not make it out of the House of Origin, which means it's technically dead. I just, regardless of your personal thoughts on the bill, I just want to thank everyone regardless of how you put your input in, who contacted our legislative reps.

Both sides of a bill is always important. So, I asked for people to put in input, and I know a lot of people did, and I just wanted to give a quick update. Also, quick update on the budget process. We all received an email this afternoon from representative Levitt that our request for 103,000 made it into the preliminary budget, and she is tracking it. So good news on that front so far and hopefully it comes out in the final budget. And that's all I've got.

Councilmember Walton.

Yes. That's great news about the canoe journey. Super exciting. Just wanted to mention on February 17 and two things, Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year and also Ramadan started on February 17. It runs from March 19. I really encourage people to Google. There was a huge celebration at Bellevue Square Mall for Chinese New Year. It was amazing. But if you can reach out to any activities and events that celebrate that level of diversity, I think it's wonderful. But just happy Ramadan and happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate and those who enjoy people celebrating that. So thank you.

Council Member Elliott, I see you're still there. Are you have any comments? Okay. Any other comments

from the council?

Seeing none, we'll move on to the city administrator's report or comments.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to take a moment, Deputy Mayor Winkler, I think you did a nice job, but I want to just take a moment to celebrate, all of the work, time, energy, effort Director Kincaid, the Planning Commission and the Citizens did on completion of the comprehensive plan. So I think many times in local government, we do what we need to do and we just sort of move on, but I just want to take a moment and say congratulations to all of everyone in the hard work and the completion of a long project and well worth it and an important document to our community. So kudos to all involved in that.

And then we are still looking for people to serve our communities. So we have openings on the Planning Commission, the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and the Parks and Recs Commission. So we have information available on the Bits and Bytes also on our website under the vacancy tab, or you can reach out to anyone on the council or anyone who works for the city staff. We'll be happy to get you to the right place if you're interested in volunteering. So just want to encourage anyone who would like to serve their community to reach out. We're always looking for volunteers. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Keith? I'm seeing no questions and no further business then. It is 06:39 and I will adjourn the meeting.