Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the July Ridgefield Planning Commission meeting to order. If we could all please stand for the flag salute.

Thank you. Ms. Siebert, could you do roll call, please?

Thank you. We need a motion to excuse, I believe, if we have a motion for that. Second. There's a motion to excuse Commissioner Raczak. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Ms. Lust, are there any late changes to the agenda?

thank you with that then we will move into our first public comment period of the evening anyone requesting to speak to the commission may do so at this time if you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period please use the raise hand feature if you're on zoom and the clerk can send you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, press star nine for raise hand and press star six to mute and unmute. And of course, if you're present in person, you can come to the stand. Please limit comments to three mi

Thank you. Is anybody else wishing to make a public comment at this time? Anybody on Zoom or not seeing anybody? Okay.

Move forward to the consent agenda. If everyone's had a chance to review the minutes from the June meeting, if there aren't any changes, we can entertain a motion.

We have a motion to approve the minutes from the June meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. On to business. I will turn the time over to Ms. Lust.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or questions they'd like to share on this section?

I have some questions. Please. If I may. Good evening, Ms. Lust. On page 43 of the document, policy 5.2.3, Has, is that like an ongoing, is the inventory updates, are they ongoing or has it basically been completed?

Okay, all right, thank you. On the next page, page 44, policy 5.2.5, work with the port of Ridgefield and the waterfront master developer to maximize compatible employment potential in the walkable max use zone. Um, I guess my question is, has that started or giving the public's interest in this situation? Can you speak to that?

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. That's all the questions that I have, sir.

Thank you. Anybody else have any thoughts or questions?

I have a comment question about, and I guess it fits under goal 5.6, which has to do with supporting small businesses. I feel like the overall tone and emphasis on the economic development is very... you know, towards the mixed-use job centers and the large employers and high-wage sectors and stuff. And I think about down the street from me, which is currently not annexed in the city but eventually would be, there's a two-acre, three-acre small farm. And I wonder if we don't need a policy that helps us to kind of retain some of our history, our agricultural values and historical economy to all

Thank you. Anybody else have any thoughts or comments? Okay, I'll turn it back to you, Ms. Lust.

Thank you, Ms. Lust. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or comments on the public facilities section?

Thank you, Chair. On page 47, Ms. Lust, under current conditions, the first paragraph, we specify sanitary sewer stormwater, but we don't specify potable water. And so I would just suggest that where it says water, we make that potable. And the same would be on page 48 where you have your table 6-1. Again, it adds clarity and specificity.

So this comment is related to page 54 and the projects of adding, I guess, water mains and potable water in other areas of the city. So I had a conversation with the public works director, because in the subdivision that I am living in off of South Royal, you've got the reserve at Seven Wells, you have Seven Wells, you have Clover Hill, and now I think you have Quail Ridge. which is coming online. And in my subdivision, our water pressure is not the best. And in my conversation with the public works director, he indicated that that's because we are at the end of pipe. So the current reservoir,

Okay, thank you very much. Page 56. The first paragraph. The city's goal is to maintain or improve surface and groundwater quality by managing stormwater. increased urbanization can make this goal difficult to meet. And I would like to see the city progress in terms of encouraging the development of buildings, especially like industrial where they have flat roofs with green roof technology. Portland has it. There's a number of municipalities that have it up in the Seattle area. Chicago has the largest green roof acreage in the U.S. We're not a little tiny backwoods village anymore. And I don't

In some municipalities, they fast-track developers who want to install a green roof. So they fast track the permitting process. So to your point about incentivizing, they kind of go hand in hand. Page 58. At the top of the page, it says, in addition, there are short and long term needs to address the expected population and job growth over the next 20 years. The city will need to expand its private stormwater facility inspection program. Do we have one now?

Okay, I guess I'm a little surprised by that. Why is the city doing that versus, is it a legal requirement that?

Thank you for that. Okay. Policy number 6.3.3 on page 63. Supporting stormwater management and water quality improvements, including existing inventory, existing mature trees, tree canopy, future canopy under existing conditions, develop long-term goals for tree canopies. How would we accomplish that if we do not have an arborist?

questions that i have thank you chair thank you any other commissioners have any comments on this section

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments from any of the commissioners?

I had one thing, and I think it's in this section. I think it was just overall, and I can't point to a specific policy, but I'll just say in general what I was concerned about. I just noticed between this section on stormwater and public facilities, I guess, and economic development, that there seemed to be a contradiction between trying to, on the one hand, support and fast-track development and on the other trying to protect our ground waters and stuff and one example of that was there was the one of the goals somewhere which I'm sorry I thought I had it noted but I can't find it right now h

Actually, just to go back to Steven's point about the green roofs, I did think that naturally that green roof emphasis definitely helps with that more than say removing impermeable surfaces, because then you're actually doing something that helps to, you know, have plant life that can filter the water. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments?

Yeah, I've got two that are kind of nitpicky, maybe. But page 54 in the packet, there's the... The chart there and then below that some comments it says because the cardi road Development consortium process in order to lift a UH 10 along that corridor a reasonably funded project to provide urban services, etc Reasonably funded project just kind of sounds like filler words and so I think maybe some clarification on what that actually means what the process might be doesn't have to be 30 words, but maybe just three or four more words just to describe what I reasonably funded means. And then page

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments on this section?

Thank you. Any other final comments or thoughts on this section? One thing I'll add for Commissioner Moylan, that if you are gonna follow up with Mr. Thelmert on the Royal timeline, you should ask him about stormwater, and he can and will speak to you for hours on the topic. And so he will answer any and all questions you have and didn't know you have, so.

He's often very excitable, I think, when you broach your subject with him, so.

Yeah, he's very passionate about it, so, yeah. Turn the time back over to Ms. Lust.

Thank you. Any commissioners have any thoughts or questions they'd like to share? Please.

Ms. Lost, I have a question about the Refuge Community Park, which is approximately 20 acres, and I'm wondering if you could tell me where is that?

But there's also the refuge dog park that's listed, which is two acres farther down in the table.

Okay, thank you very much. As a dog owner, I'd be curious about this other one, the larger one. So, all right, thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, while we're on questions about parks, I also was curious about Flume Creek Conservation Area. which is listed, I guess, as a, I was curious why it's on here, because it's owned by Clark County, but I'm guessing it's within Ridgefield, somehow, not maybe within, anyway, it's a sizable amount of acres, 150 acres, I just don't know where it is, and the significance of, yeah.

So that means like, in other words, eventually it could become a, a park that the city would have or own or just?

Thank you. Any other thoughts or questions from any of the commissioners?

Thank you. And commissioners, have any thoughts or comments on policy 10? Please go ahead.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments from any of the commissioners on the Policy 10?

Sorry, I always forget to turn on the microphone.

Me too. I love the downtown and the historical aspect of it. I guess, and I'm not exactly sure how you would word it or where it would fit in, but somewhere we need parking infrastructure. When we have all these festivals and you know, certain days, Ridgefield days or whatever, it just seems like there's just not enough parking downtown for people to come down, park, walk with their families on the sidewalk. You know, I know that, I guess the former dry cleaning area has been opened up as a parking area, but it just seems like on busy festival days, it's almost impossible to try and find suita

Just circling back to the infrastructure real quick. I'm wondering if the city has any resources or other examples of cities where parking can be improved somehow by having golf cart only parking zones. I don't know how many more people could access downtown that way, but certainly a golf cart smaller than a giant truck. And so if we could get four people or three people or however many downtown on a smaller vehicle, maybe they could have better parking available. In regards to policy 10.2.3, this is the section that talks about Using a small portion of public construction for purchase, instal

But at this point, there's no line item for cultural infrastructure of some kind?

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other thoughts on policy 10?

Any other thoughts or comments? Any anything further on this item from you miss lust?

Chair, could I ask one question, please? Ms. Lutz, could you just help us along in terms of a timeline? I think you indicated at the beginning of the meeting that the county is supposed to finish by October. Is that correct?

Okay, and so elements two and three that you just had in your last slide, may I assume that they're coming back before the commission in August and then September? Would that be correct?

Okay, and then from us, um do you i i guess at the end of september or during after the september commission meeting would there be a recommendation to the city council or not yet so we'll go through we'll go through these batches with both planning commission and council as a like a workshop touch like what we did today and then they'll come back

Okay, and then would that be October for the public hearing?

I'm just trying to formulate this in my head, that's all.

comp plan topics on our agenda for the rest of the year okay all right thank you very much for for answering the questions of course perfect okay well with that i think that we'll close our business and move into the second public comment period for the evening anyone requesting to speak to the commission may do so at this time if you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period please use the raise hand feature If you're on Zoom, the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, pres

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to make a public comment? Please.

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to make a public comment at this time?

Thank you. Any other public comments at this time? Not seeing anybody, we will close the public comment period. Turn to staff reports.

Thank you. I'll turn to reports from the Commission. Start Vice Chair Flynn.

We have the city tour tomorrow, which is before the fourth.

One o'clock right here, is that correct?

All right. For members of the public, the City Council, Parks Board, Roundabout, Planning Commission, I don't know if I'm missing anybody, but we all go on a tour every July, and something that Ms. Les mentioned earlier as far as Development codes and standards and all those types of things need to be updated The city takes us all all the different groups around and we look at the different neighborhoods and commercial sites and all that we see how the codes and standards have been updated over the years and It's pretty informative tour City should maybe do that with the public but that might

That's a new one. Former Commissioner Jerry Bush used to talk about that. Yeah, as much notice as possible if we have to have two in a month. I would say that sunsets here are incredible, and I appreciate when anybody from the public comes, even if they don't want to say anything. I appreciate when they come. I think it's important to be part of this process. We live up on... Hillhurst, just this side of the refuge entrance. And so we have a great view of the sunsets from where we are. And there's no danger of a hotel being built right in front of our view. But if there was, I would be horrifi

Um, yeah, I also want to just say thank you so much for, um, to city staff, to Claire and, and all the work with you to make, um, it easy for those of us are nudist work to understand what's going on in the work that's behind what's the planning and, um, making our, you know, listening carefully and taking notes and noticing that we have contributions and really, really appreciate that. Also really grateful to the public for coming down and sharing their views. And I live in a neighborhood, I've lived in Ridgefield for about 20 years and I live in a neighborhood that has vastly changed in the

As a new commissioner, I'm looking forward to the magical mystery bus tour tomorrow. With the city council and members of the staff. Every time we meet, I'm informed. And it's part of the enjoyment of being in this position. as well as hearing comments from the public. And I wish more people would show up. You know, sometimes things that may appear on a planning commission agenda might be mundane or it may sound boring, right? But I can tell you, at least from our perspective, that we appreciate the public being here. And I learn from the public. just as I learned from the staff and from all o

Thank you. Yeah. I think everyone said exactly what I want to say. It was really fun to start looking through this agenda packet and start seeing something that's going to be a final product. I was going back through a lot of our previous. I was trying to find something we talked about before, which ended up being a lot farther back than I thought. And I saw that we first started talking about the comp plan, as you pointed out, around January of 2024. I didn't realize it had been that long. And by the time we're done, it'll be three full years. I was like, well, I'm not sure what we're going t