Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

than we do. Oops. Well, hold on a sec. All right, we'll get a shot. Yay. Is that good? Okay, great. Sorry about that. [laughter and gasps]

So, if you look at a median household income among, you know, the major east side cities, you can see Northbend is is pretty high up there. You know, we're about $180,000. Uh, and that's $40,000 more than we were in 2020. So, between 2023 and 2020, essentially, our median household income increased by about $40,000. Um, there's been questions about why we don't uh index the property to Northbend median income as opposed to King County median income. As you can see here on the chart, you know, the King County median income is around $120,000. If we were to index affordability to Northbend, then essentially uh the rents for the 23 million project would be quite a bit higher than they are proposed to be currently indexed to the King County medianary income. So, this guy gives you an idea of where we are and essentially, you know, we're a pretty wealthy community and we continue to grow. I'm sure some of you have seen some of the housing prices around here and some of the new developments that are coming up. you know, houses are selling well above a million dollars. That's largely because we have the incomes to support that. If we look at housing comparisons again, sort of in Northbend, uh, Snowqualami, Carnation, King County from 2000 to 2024, we kind of see this slow and steady growth uh, between essentially 2000 2007. You'll see that dip from 2009 to about 2014. That's basically because of the Great Recession. So housing prices really took a a sharp hit during that time. People were out of out of work. Uh it was just much harder to get people to buy homes at that time as well. But then you almost had this sort of hockey stick like growth from 2015 on as more and more people, you know, came to Northbend, started buying homes. And right now, um in actuality, our sort of average home price, selling home price is almost a million dollars. Uh we're slightly cheaper than Carnation. I know Jamie found that kind of shocking uh for slightly cheaper than them and with then

were less expensive than Snowquali but still you know quite high. Now I also include on this chart Covington which is the blue line and then Maple Valley which is sort of the bright yellow line. The reason for for that essentially is because we see a lot of the workforce who work in Northbend in particular for the city government live there and that's because they can actually afford those uh types of homes or rental properties in that area. So they're commuting back and forth between Coington and Maple Valley over Highway 18 every day for work. Um the economic development action plan that was that was developed in 2023 and presented and approved by council really called out housing as one of the main barriers for continued economic growth in our city. The lack of those housing options both affordability, middle inome housing, you know, really could put a damper on the city's growth. And then we conducted a business survey in conjunction with our sign survey and we asked businesses, you know, what are some of the factors that affect your business's ability to hire employees? and their answers came back affordable housing, lack of qualified workers and then market rate salaries. So those are all kind of intertwined basically under you within the affordability issue. So if you look at you know sort of from an economic development standpoint again where people are coming to work in Northbend uh this chart here kind of gives you a great idea. So basically based on 2022 census data, roughly less than 300 people both live and work in Northbend. So that's across the whole area. As you can see here, we have 2600 people employed in Northbend as of 2022. So that's really a small fraction of the people who live and work here. And why that's important from an economic development perspective is that the farther people live from a from where they're employed or where an opportunity for work is, the harder it is to attract them. And then once you have attract them to your business, it's gets harder

and harder to retain them as well because if they're traveling those great miles, you know, for commuting, you know, that gets old after a while. It gets very very expensive, you know, paying for gas and everything like that. So over a while, you know, that retrition attrition rate begins to increase. and it gets harder to uh attract, you know, high-quality employees that we need in our community. So, the chart below that shows sort of the range where people uh live and work. Uh almost 50% of the workers in Northbend live, you know, over 25 miles away. And the kind of the circle chart on the left there that kind of demonstrates where most of those people are coming from. So I mentioned earlier Covington and Maple Valley. We have a lot of the workers coming from there. And then we have a lot of workers coming from uh southern Snomish County. So that area we're attracting a lot of workers. There's a little bit of a blip out to the right. Uh that represents people coming from Clellum, Ellensburg, and even farther away. So we do see a lot of those people uh coming here every day uh to work. So getting into, you know, what what type of incomes do you need uh to afford a house here? Uh this information was taken from Zillow and really kind of provides a good good sort of overall estimate basically of what uh it takes to afford a house here. So when they say home value, that's sort of like the average value of a house here in North Ben. So that's, you know, over a million dollars. So if we work with that number and we assume that you know a family's uh but that that 28% of a family's gross income goes towards a mortgage and the mortgage terms are you know pretty traditional 20% down 6.5% fixed interest 30-year term that essentially means your household income needs to be you over $260,000 a year to afford a house here and that's just to qualify for the loan. So that's that's a lot of money. Uh if you look at condos, a bit more affordable. You know, you could have a household income of a little bit over $130,000.

But kind of again digging into some of the Zillow data, uh the median list price of a home uh here in October was a little bit over $1.3 million. You can see this corresponding income to that, which is almost $400,000 for a family. That's a lot of money, and it's it's much more than people who work in Northbend really can't afford. And moreover, you know, the days that the number that the homes are, you know, on the market till pending is only 12. So, we have a really tight housing market here. Things are just getting sold almost as quickly as they're built. Uh, looking at uh, Northbend Rents, kind of a similar story here. Basically, what we really have a problem with is really sort of lack of inventory. So, again, this is pulled from Zillow uh, in October. Uh this demonstrates sort of the median rents and again makes that assumption that you know 28% of your gross income is going to rent in order for to qualify for an apartment. So if you're looking for a studio you have to be making you know about $68,000 a year. Unfortunately the inventory for a studio is one unit. Uh same thing holds true for onebedrooms. If we look at that you need to be making about 90,000 a year. Just about three units available. And finally two bedrooms seven units. Just to sort of an anecdotal story, we uh hired a wonderful city administrator, Amber Emery, uh this past summer. She when she received the offer letter from the city of Northbend, she called a realtor and said, "Hey, I need a onebedroom. What do you have?" And the realtor said, "We have one." And that she basically signed it sight unseen. So that gives you a really kind of nice, you know, kind of, you know, sort of look into the state of the apartment and the rental rental uh issue in Northbend. So when we kind of, you know, take that data that we show for the housing market for apartment markets and kind of overlay it in terms of what our economy in Northbend is like, you know, it kind of tells a really kind of interesting

story. What it really kind of demonstrates when we look at the Northbend economy is that, you know, well over 70% of our workforce is really in two industries. It's retail and services. And typically, retail and services do not pay a lot. We've got the outlet mall here. We've got, of course, the downtown area. We also have the Squam Casino and other industries here in Northbend. So, if we look at, you know, what are the typical, you know, salaries that are being paid for those types of positions, you can see them here. And when we briefed this same presentation to the economic development commission, what was really interesting, we have three members on that commission who own businesses here in North Ben. They saw those wages and they said, "Well, yeah, but we actually have to pay more." And the reason they have to pay more is to attract that workforce here. So, as a small business owner, if they're paying more in terms of wages, that means they are paying or have less money to invest into their business to make it grow and continue to expand. So yes, our local businesses can pay more, but that basically inhibits them from, you know, growing and expanding and investing into the future. So again, why isn't affordable housing important? I mean, one of the big reasons that it strengthens the local economy. The fact that, you know, only 300 people live and work here means that, you know, 2,300 workers don't live here. So they take their paychecks back to north to Maple Valley or Covington or wherever they live and they basically invest it there. They buy groceries, they pay rent, they go out to movies, you know, they have fun. That's money we're missing out on that could go into our economy, add to our sales tax receipts and really help, you know, grow Northbend in the long term. Uh again, having more people here would provide additional customers, additional sales to businesses as well. And then you know just some other things that affordable housing does is enhances family stability, diversify the diversifies the community and strengthens you know the

social fabric because you have you know people with different income types here. And then finally you know the revenue you know that the city loses out on that could be used to expand our parks, maintain our streets and provide public safety. So kind of looking at this issue nationally because I kind of led with that that this is really a national problem. Uh the US Chamber of Commerce put out a report uh the state of housing in America this past March and they basically you know highlighted I think a lot of points I made earlier that the lack of affordable housing you know increases employee turnover negatively uh impacts a business's ability to attract and retain talent and really kind of reduces you know the ability to invest in your community and according to their analysis between you know 2008 2025 just in the state of Washington you know because we didn't have enough housing available to especially support our local workers. You know, there was a 15 billion loss in economic output, 8 billion loss in personal income, and loss of over 86,000 new jobs. So, basically, we're kind of leaving money on the table by not really addressing uh the housing issue. So, getting back to who benefits from affordable housing, if you look at what uh the again sort of what this project is for, which is really for people, you know, making 60% of area median income. So remember back King County median income is about $120,000. It's really for individuals here who, you know, will make up to, you know, $66,000 for a household of one or $75,000 for a household of two. And then Relay Northwest has taken this data and they're and then based on their project, they're targeting rents for studios at about 1442 a month and then one bedrooms at609. So, kind of looking again at the salaries here, you know, the people who, you know, work a lot of the retail and service sector jobs here in Northbend would be able to qualify for this type of housing.

All right, so we'll get into, you know, the 230 main project. So, this really started in December of 2023 when [clears throat] Northbend City Council agreed to acquire uh the parcel of 230 Maine uh only for affordable housing. And their goals were to bring long-term affordability to the site. So that's 55 plus years with essentially incomes up to 60% AMI for all the units. They really [clears throat] sort of saw council really saw this uh first project as one that would hopefully be replicated again in Northbend again to kind of address the workforce housing needs really demonstrate the commit city's commitment to our economic development housing action plans which house which uh council approved and wanted to make sure you know we are actually actively implementing them and then you know come up with you know creative and innovative ways to establish that long-term affordable housing. So some of the key milestones in November [clears throat] of 2023 the city city purchased the 230 main property and the funds they use for that are called REIT 2. So that's basically real estate excise tax funds. So anytime there's a transaction of a property here in the city limits the city gets a portion of that transaction that goes into what's called the REIT account. Now under state law we can use REIT 2 funds uh for affordable housing and it can only be used for that. So by using those funds, the city has basically said we are going to make 230 main an affordable housing project. Uh and then in June of 2024, we the city issued a uh request for proposals [clears throat] for developers uh to partner with us on this project. We received a total of three proposals and a committee was formed to go through the proposals and interview the um those uh developers who submitted the proposals and they recommended Related Northwest as our partner for the project. And then finally, in April of this year, uh the city of Northbend and Related Northwest entered in what's called an exclusive negotiation agreement. This is basically an agreement between the city and related northwest to begin the process, uh to negotiate the disposition

development agreement, and we'll get into that in just a minute here. So, this is the project. Uh I think a lot of you saw this at the open house, so probably not too much of a surprise, but [clears throat] basically the proposed project is 40 units. again focusing on 60% area median income. It' be uh three stories and it would contain 16 studios and 24 onebedrooms. Uh of the one bedrooms, one would be the manager's unit. So there'll be a full-time manager on site for the project. Uh in addition, there'll be a community room, so kitchen, common laundry, things like that. Of course, property management. And then the nonprofit partner uh for the project is the Greater Seattle YMCA. And so the reason for the nonprofit partner is it allows them to tap into affordable housing uh funds at the state and local level that can be used for this project. In addition, uh the Greater Seattle YMCA also applies uh provides employment and education support, counseling service, and crisis support. They're a big partner in the workforce development ecosystem here in the greater Seattle area. So folks who are looking for a job or need a job could tap into the YMCA for that. So, in terms of costs and timeline, uh, Related Northwest, and these numbers have been changing, uh, quite a bit due to economic conditions. They're looking at a cost score per square foot of around $350 and about a cost per unit of around 237,000. Uh, once all the financing is locked and in place, which they hope to close on uh, at the end of 2026, they estimate that the construction duration will be around 11 to 12 months. So, in terms of property management, we did, you know, mentioned that there'll be a full-time property manager on site. Uh, Relay Northwest would work with Quantum Residential. They're located in Vancouver, Washington. They've been in this field for over 50 years, and they currently manage all of Relay Northwest projects in Oregon and Washington state. In terms of how we'd like to sort of,

you know, position or target workforce housing with this, uh, Relay Northwest would look work with local partners, uh, such as the North Downtown Association, the Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce, local businesses to make sure this opportunity is known to the business community so they can prepare their workers to begin to fill out the forms and put themselves in a great position uh, to apply for this. Again, as an economic developer, we we always look at what the economic impact of a project would be. So, Related Northwest is estimating to basically invest about $19 million into the site. So, if you look at that from a property tax standpoint, this will bring in about 17,000 a year in new property taxes for the city. And then based on the spending, the estimated spending of the residents at 230 Maine, uh we estimate about 1.6 million in spending and about 22,000 a year in sales tax back to the city. uh looking at construction sales tax which is just a one time it'd be a little bit over $220,000. So basically, you know, where are we in terms of the funding model for uh the 230 main project? So you can see here there's lots of different funding sources to make this work. Kind of something I really want to emphasize is that there's no city of Northbend general fund money being used for this project. Basically all the money that's coming from the city is designated for affordable housing. So that's RE2. That's Northbend affordable housing and sales tax and again RE2 as well. And then we're also going after state money. So RA Northwest actually put in an application to the Washington State Housing Trust Fund that would be used for construction purposes. The city put in an application to Washington State Department of Commerce for what's called the CHIP grant which provides infrastructure support to the sites. So think water, sewer, storm water, those types of things. And then uh starting in 2026, Relay Northwest will be uh going after low-inccome housing tax credits, uh permanent debt, and then they will actually put some of their money into

the project through a deferred development fee. So all these different funding sources you see here get you to, you know, a little bit over $19 million for the project. So in terms of the disposition development agreement, this is uh the purpose of this agreement is really to get to those affordability levels that council has provided us as a goal. Again, that's 60% AMI affordability levels for 55 plus years. So in terms of financial support, uh what they're asking from the city is affordable housing sales and use tax. So we can go back to the slide here. They're asking about 1.9 million for that. that would be used for pre-development construction. They're also asking for REIT 2 funds. So that would be $500,000 for confront uh construction and infrastructure improvements to the site. Uh in addition, they're asking us to uh basically convey the site to them. So the reason for the conveyance of the site is essentially to provide Related Northwest with control of the property that they can then use to go out and get some of the funding needed for this. And how we're going to be conveying the site uh to Northwest is through a long-term lease agreement that will essentially give them ownership of the property over 99 plus years. So they can then take that to their investors and use that uh sort of ownership of the site uh to put in their requests for funding. Uh in terms of code deviations, uh they're asking for departures from private open space. Won't kind of read that all across there, but you can see what they're asking for in terms of deviations. uh frontage and porch. Large reasons for the frontage and porch is because of of you know the it's a relatively small piece of property and we're trying to maximize the number of units on the site. Uh there'll be some porches uh on Third Street, but there won't be any balconies for the um units above the street. They're also asking for off- streetet parking provisions. uh

they will have 20 uh parking spaces on site and so they're asking uh to have uh basically 16 parking spaces uh on the street. Again, yard space and balconies, they're asking for a full deviation on that. And then the roof type uh typically the roof line is broken every 50 ft in a project. They're asking for a partial deviation uh for a roof line unbroken for 93 feet. And that kind of gets back again to the schematic and the design of the project that you can see there. So basically that is sort of the sort of the overview of the disposition development agreement. You know the financial support from the city five of the code departures and again the reason for this is really to get to those afford affordability level goals the council uh established for the project. So in terms of next steps we're here tonight for the planning commission hearing. Uh we'll take this to the community economic development council with a request for council uh consideration action on January 6 uh 2026.

Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Like to open it now for clarifying questions from the commissioners. Please identify yourself by name before you speak so that the recording can catch who you are. Uh, Commissioner White. Uh, so I've only been on the commission for about a year and a half, close to two years now. So, this is sort of the first big development agreement that I've been involved in with, uh, can city staff weigh in on how normal the funding structure is for a project like this? I mean, it seems like this whole project hinges on a lot of luck. [clears throat] I mean, they're applying for grants and that sort of thing. So, uh, if someone could help enlighten me, yeah, about this process and how normal this is and

yeah, I'm happy to answer that question. So, I would I wouldn't say it's luck. I think it's definitely, you know, I think we have a pretty good sense of we know what uh the grantees are looking for. Again, I've got to say a corre answer some of these questions uh beyond including like the low-inccome housing tax credit and those types of things. But for, [clears throat] you know, the Washington State Housing Trust Fund Grant, I know they've applied for those types of funds in the past. They know the mechanism to do that. They know, you know, basically what the requirements are to put forth a really good application. Uh, actually last year the city applied for the CHIP grant. That's the one from Washington State Department of Commerce. We did not get the grant because again, we had just started working with Related Northwest and we weren't far enough down the road. But that was a great learning opportunity because we talked to commerce after their decision and we understood what we needed to do to make ourselves much more competitive and based on the results of that conversation I think we put forward a very strong application because one thing we have much better uh fidelity on the cost of the project. We understand the other sources of funding and we serve and we also understand that based on our request the first request was too high so we actually requested less this time to make us much more competitive. So I think we have a very uh competitive application for that.

Yeah I [clears throat] I nothing to add to that characterization um a lot of strategy that goes into um the kind of scope of the project and then into the funding applications for them. Um, and just to answer your question directly, I would say that this is a very standard um, what's called the little stack for an affordable housing project in Washington state.

Good evening, Commissioner Coul. Um, I also am fairly new to the commission, so I apologize if everyone else in this room knows this, but I'm just curious. We mentioned where we are in this process, what the next steps are. Um, can we just clarify from my understanding, it seems like this project has already been voted on by the council and we're moving forward. We purchased the property, all that. And really the purpose of this hearing is more to discuss this disposition and development agreement which is specific to these five cases on what we will have departures on code requirements. Yeah, that's correct. Right. So it's not necessarily a discussion on are we doing this project, it's are we willing to allow departures to code that exist today. Yeah. The departures to code and then of course the financial support uh for the project.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes. Uh so it says here that uh and I think the main problem that we have seen and have read here is related to parking space. Uh how did you end up with this uh

additional parking space in in the city not inside the property and have you considered that uh northbound we have not just people in northbound [clears throat] but we have uh other areas uninccorporated areas that also come to Northband. Have you considered those people as well? Yeah, the parking requirement and Jamie can correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's it's two uh two parking spots per unit. So, it's 40 total. So, Related Northwest is asking us to reduce the total number of parking spaces down to 32. Uh 12 on site and then 12 offsite, meaning meaning on the street basically. Um just as sort of a point of of you know, kind of clarification, the Habitat for Humanity project required 14 parking spots for that project. And so they were able to come to an accommodation with the city where they would have s seven parking spaces on site and then seven uh street parking for that.

What about the water the water issue that we have here? Uh have you consider also Yeah, we actually uh worked with our uh public works director Tom Moore to sort of understand the potential impact of this project on water. Uh he put together a study. I think um Jamie has that and she could potentially show it to you as well. But if you look over time since I think the last three or four years uh our water usage has also has actually been trending down. So we don't believe that this type of a project will have a significant impact on the water supply or water demand in the city. Yes, there is a memo attached to your packet as well related to that.

Go ahead. Can you speak more about the REIT funding for the purchase of the property? What happens if that property is not used to build affordable housing?

Yeah, that's a great question. So, um, what the chair is talking about is so we used RE2 funds again, uh, for the 23 main property purchase back in, uh, December of 2023. As I kind of mentioned before, that money can only be used for affordable housing. So, if the city decides not to go through the project, we would basically have to repay the RE2 uh fund or account from our general fund to the tune of about $665,000, which would be a significant hit to the city's budget and um would be frankly be something we'd like to avoid. And can you speak to the traffic impact that this building and its residents?

Yeah, we do uh we do anticipate there will be additional traffic impacts. Uh one of the um um sort of application points on the chip grant again the grant that uh is ministered by Washington State Department of Commerce is they want to see what uh essentially is the public transit that's near the facility. So the SV Ncomia Valley Transit and King County Metro stop is about a block away. So, we think if, you know, we're able to attract the workforce uh who work downtown or perhaps work nearby, they can take advantage of either walking to their workplace or using the public transit uh to get to their place of work as well. So, we're hoping to kind of minimize, you know, the parking and traffic impacts as much as we can.

And what about the actual size of the building itself? It seems overly bulky for that site. Does it um meet the standards of the North Bend City Code? I'll turn to Jamie for that one. Yes, it um as proposed besides the deviations um it does. And uh just to clarify for the parking requirement for a multif family housing studio apartment in onebedroom, it's one per dwelling unit, guest parking space is one space per five dwelling units. The um Habitat for Humanity, uh I believe those were two bedrooms, so that would have had a two dwelling unit. So a little bit of a difference there but um

and then just another point of clarification to add uh they will be required to provide a traffic impact analysis. We will um have SEPA determination and a full submitt package will be the next step for this project to come in. So there'll be site full site plan review, environmental analysis, concurrency, including traffic, storm water, um, uh, sewer water, all those things. So,

and what about, um, support for EV charging at the site? There's been a lot of questions that come up about perhaps using that site as a parking lot with EV chargers. How many EV chargers are within one mile of that site? The te uh Tesla added 24 at the outlets recently. Um I think the side view uh pool has maybe has some. Yeah, side view park. Um one one [clears throat] um out at at truck town we know. And I think there are some at the Safeway parking lot. Okay.

There the building code will likely require um I believe it will require I don't know if there's any exemptions for affordable housing. um EV charging on site and I say I might know the answer to that but we um do plan to provide EV charging. They do plan to. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from the commissioners?

I'm going to close the question and comment period. Open it up for public comment. I would ask you to stand up and speak. I've got six names here. Five names I can count. Um, if you could stand up and identify who you are. I have other information on here. You don't need to repeat it. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes. If you need to go further, we can allow it given the time constraints that we have. But please be mindful that uh we don't want to spend the rest of the evening with comments. So, I've asked Commissioner uh White to time the comments. Um, so whoever would like to speak first, I've got Mitchell Carter listed first.

Yes, please. So, we'd like to record you um because this is a public hearing.

I'm just reading a uh letter from Quinn Gear, longtime resident of North Bend and owner of Gear Auto Repair in Snowquali. Uh he unfortunately was not able to be here tonight. Uh, good evening, mayor, council, planning commission staff, and city staff. Uh, my name is Quinn Gear. I'm a longtime resident of Northbend and owner of Gear Auto Repair. I'm here tonight to address project BLN 2025-0499, the proposed 40unit affordable housing project at 230 Main Avenue North. Our community recognizes the importance of creating affordable housing, but this particular project, as currently proposed, is not a good fit for its location. The plan includes 40 housing units with only 20 on-site parking spaces in an area that is already experiencing a severe parking shortage. Residents, business owners, and visitors consistently struggle to find parking downtown, and this development would only make that problem worse. Providing only half the required spaces will force residents to park on already full nearby city streets, causing congestion and reducing safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. Rather than exasperate an existing issue, the city could use this property to help solve it. Another option could be to convert the site to public parking with electric vehicle charging stations in a park-like aesthetic with large map of downtown Northbend as a focal point. In addition to relieving congestions for residents, it would allow the city to recuperate costs from electric charging income. It could also attract tourism and support downtown businesses, especially travelers who need a quick charge or convenient place to park while visiting local shops and restaurants. If the city still wishes to move forward with a 40unit project, there are better alternatives. For example, a 1.72 acre parcel on Souththeast North Bend Way listed by CBRE provides ample space for parking, storm water management, and proper residential access. This site's size and zoning would allow a project of

this scale without burdening downtown infrastructure or residents. Uh I'd like to add that uh the stalled hotel project and there's land kitty corner to the mall entrance that could be also used for a project of that scale. Uh our petition now signed by members of the community urges the city to reject the current proposal at 230 Main Avenue North. Two, present options to repurpose the property such as public parking with EV charging. Three, relocate the housing project to a more suitable location such as Southeast Northbend Way. We all want North Brand to grow responsibly, but growth should enhance, not diminish our quality of life and downtown accessibility. Thank you for listening and taking our community's concerns seriously. Respectfully, Quinn Gear, 247 Main Avenue North. Uh, I am also a neighbor of Quinn and I agree 100% with his letter.

Thank you. Thank you. Next on the list, I've got Jim. If I mispronounce your name, please forgive me. Jim Messa. Mesa. Mesa.

So, my name's Jim Mesa. Um, I am developing a house across from the library at 112 East um 4th Street. So about a year and a half ago um we came to the city um we were presented guidelines for the mixeduse commercial area which is different where this facility falls into. One of those guidelines is we're required to build 12t ceilings in our downstairs because it's mixeduse commercial. I did not see that variation listed for this project. It does not look like it has 12t ceilings. We also asked for other variances like the parking variance because where our house is located along the library there is one of the few streets in Northbend that hardly ever has cars parked on it because there's a large parking lot for the library. We were told absolutely no variances would be given. So, we had to incorporate into our design three parking spaces because we were trying to offer a development option that would allow a downstairs unit that my daughter would live in and two small one-bedrooms upstairs and we were planning to try to do those at a reasonable rate. Right. So, we've ran into a lot of things that have increased our building cost based on the design guidelines that we were forced into that are being ignored for this project. One of those being parking, one of those being 12t ceilings, and there are others. So, for me, I understand the need for affordable housing. One of the reasons we went with two very small units on top of the house instead of just a single one because we were looking to try to set a rent level that was reasonable and not gouge the community. My wife is a big community activist. Many of you know her. Um, so for me, this project is the right

project. It's definitely in the wrong spot because the mixeduse commercial zone in downtown doesn't fit this model. And so I think it should be rejected and moved to an a different spot. I also think the 12oot ceiling requirement needs to be listed on the thing because it is not. And I'm sure there's other other ones too. If I went back and looked at all the things we tried to push for variances and were told absolutely no variances, the city of Northbend does not give variances. And I told Rebecca at the time her job description said she was supposed to provide variances.

If I can make a point of order, please address your comments to the chair and not to the staff.

I got into an argument with Rebecca at the time because her job description was she's the one that decided on variances and she told me there were zero variances granted. So we did not get any variances for our project which increased our price for building and building those units. So ultimately the rent we wanted to offer for those units is going to be higher. So, I think if the city of Northbend wants to have more affordable housing, they need to look at the guidelines they're forcing on people building, especially small builders that want to try to build a reasonably priced house and reasonably priced rentals, but they can't because of some of the things that are being forced like 12ft ceilings in a residential development. Just doesn't make sense. Finally, I'd like to ask um you know, how many people that are in this decision actually live in the downtown commercial corridor

that this is going to affect? Does anyone in this process live in that area? This is a time for comments and not questions, please.

Okay. I will make the comment then that I feel the people that are making the decision don't live in the area, won't be impacted by this, and so I question whether that is a reasonable thing to do. [clears throat] I also question the design saying that it fits on the property correctly because I can't believe that design guideline fits the water permutation requirements provided to provide return of the groundwater and have water permeability in that lot because that was another thing that we were forced to comply with. So that's my

thank you for your comments. The next person on the list here, thank you um Jim for your comments. The next person on the list here is Jenny Hennessy. And I forgot to remind people, please address your comments to the chair, which is me. Um please do not ask questions of the staff or the commission. That time for questioning was when we asked the questions. That's the way the meeting is set up. Please make your comments directly to us. Um and please try to stay within 3 minutes. Thank you. Thanks. Um well, I wholeheartedly support the need for affordable housing in our community. I am I agree with the people who have spoken before me and I respectfully ask that you guys um reject the DDA agreement. Um, it's crucial that we adhere to the standard parking and height restrictions and making exceptions for affordable housing sets a concerning precedent for our city. The infrastructure at 230 Maine just simply can't support this development. I have two concerns with this with this proposal. One is the deviation of um the current code and the aesthetic impact. Our codes are in place for a reason and altering them to accommodate this project just doesn't seem justifiable. I also strongly oppose the reduction in parking. It seems unrealistic given that there probably will be about 80 vehicles, two vehicles per unit there. If you have driven down Southeast Orchard Drive, which is where I live, which is very heavily townhouse, um, condo apartment specific, there are cars everywhere in the grass in the side view parking lot there. There's an overflow of parking. So, I have personally experienced that. I've lived in Northbend for the last 5 years and it has gotten significantly worse. Um, and so I anticipate that this will happen down there as well. Also, a three-story building would obstruct our mountain views, which is integral to Northbend's identity as a small town. This development risks transforming our unique character into something that

does not resem or resembles Isiquar Redmond and not in line with our community's vision. I also after Thank you for sharing the numbers. Um, I don't think $1,800 for a one-bedroom apartment is affordable. If you're making $40,000 to $60,000 a year, that's unaffordable. Um, I thought I made good money, but apparently I don't according to those numbers. Um, and I have a hard time, you know, paying my rent. So, it's going to be very difficult for those people to make that affordable. Um, so thank you for listening to my concerns. I think that there's a better path forward for affordable housing that genuinely meets the needs of the community without compromising our standards and values. Thank you, uh,

excuse me, applause really is not appropriate. I'm sorry. I didn't hear what she said. It was echo.

Oh, thank you. Next up, we have Janelle McCarti. Okay. Uh, so I've lived in the Snakcomi Valley for 25 years and I've taught in this school district for 20 years. Um, and so every time affordable housing comes up, I try to speak to it. I've spoken in Snowquami. I've spoken in Northbend before as well. And many times it gets stalled. It's been stalled so many times. And so I think speaking up for it is my place. Um just today, this morning, I got a heartbreaking email from a parent who said, "I'm really sorry that my kid is coming to school tired. We got um we had to leave our apartment. We couldn't find another suitable place. were staying with grandparents, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sharing sharing a space with a lot of people. And um and that broke my heart. As a teacher, I want all my students to have housing. Um as a teacher, I want my colleagues to have housing. My many many teachers are driving on Highway 18 or over Snowqualami Pass to come to work. Um, I've known many teachers over the course of my career that have had to leave the Snookcomi school district because they couldn't afford to live here. Um, so that is a very very sincere concern. Um, personally, I uh I definitely want my own kids to be able to have housing uh when they come back to work nearby. I want to be near my grandkids. Um, uh, friends who live I live in downtown Snowquami. Friends who live nearby that were renters have had to leave because of the rent changing into um, being able to sell that house and make a lot more

money. So, I've had many near and dear to me move away. Um, then the apartment complex that is in our neighborhood just down the block is affordable housing and it has been since we moved in in 2001. and they have been very nice neighbors. So, I really think that um being able to have neighbors that that can afford to live here and work here is extremely important, worth the worth the benefit. Um when our neighbor decided to raise her house, uh we our mount view was blocked and I remember setting up couches near the window. We had kind of a little pity party when when the house went up, but that neighbor is still there. um she's able to stay in her house. We haven't had flooding um hurt her home or our home. And so we're very happy that it has worked out. Also, just finally, as a Christian, it's extremely important to help the poor. And I think that is part of part of our call and part of who we are. Um and so I urge you to support affordable housing in any way that you can. Thank you.

Thank you. And we have, if I mispronounce this, please forgive me. Is it Tia? Trisha Erlick. [clears throat]

Hi, I'm Trica Erlick and I'm here to support affordable housing at 230 Main Street. My husband and Sam and I own the adjacent property at 145 East 3rd. I acknowledge that yes, but creates barriers that block install affordable housing and continue the housing crisis that challenges us locally and nationally. So, I'm here to say yes. And um 230 is one of a limited number of mixeduse commercial residential properties in downtown Northbend. The property we own next door has switched between commercial and residential over the years. We've consulted with the town on its commercial development and have been told that some uses might require a very costly traffic impact study. 40 units with 20 parking spots is tight and we don't need to spend anything to know that it will impact traffic heavily. Most of the commercial residential mixeduse units in downtown Northbend are owned by small businesses, families, nonprofit organizations, and individuals. Most of the buildings are older and retrofitting them to code is costly. There are few spaces left to house large restaurants where the costs to input grease traps and sprinklers are exorbitant. The regulatory burdens that face these property owners get passed down to their tenants and make the enterprise of starting a small business overwhelming for community members in the snowquali valley. Just recently I saw a post from falling river meets around a reduction in service areas due to the challenges facing their businesses. Part of what makes small businesses successful is other compelling and accessible nearby small businesses. Part of what makes affordable housing successful is a thriving commercial core that offers employment in the service industry. I agree with other commenters that the generosity offered to this proposal should be extended to other properties in the mixeduse downtown. I support bringing in housing that will serve our preschool teachers, bus drivers, ski patrollers, and EMTs. I ask that you consider this development not in a background vacuum but in the context of a vibrant downtown Northbend with

attractive businesses, eclectic restaurants, and compelling storefronts. I would encourage you to consider adding firstf flooror retail or restaurant space, sprinklers and grease traps included, to the proposal to maximize the utility of the mixeduse commercial residential zoning of this piece of land and to contribute to the vibrancy of Northbend. I ask you to consider other commenters statements about parking and other locations, but not at the expense of the urgent need for more affordable housing. I would love to see the city work towards creating a compelling and charming downtown core. Uh perhaps properties with environmental hazards like 302 West Northbend Way could be used for parking. We look forward to seeing how this space can work towards a vibrant Northbend that supports the people providing services within it. We hope the planning commission takes this opportunity to think holistically about how to serve our rapidly growing community. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. There are no more names on the list to speak, but if you want to speak, please feel free to come to the podium and please tell us your name when you get to the podium. I'm Alicia Mesa um with I don't need to tell you who I'm with. I live in Northbend here. Um, and I just want I have a clarifying question or want to understand what is I'm assuming there's a um limit to income that they have in order to be able to apply for this development. Is there a I can't respond to questions. That was

Oh, okay. Well, I just would love to know what that what that is because oftentimes what I I want affordable housing. This has been a complicated and we've been trying to do this for 10 plus probably 20 plus years. So, I really want this, but I also need I think we need to be making sure we're helping the right people. Um because we really do need that workforce area. And a lot of the time what unfortunately happens with it is it doesn't so many people make just too much money to be able to qualify. And yes, we need to help the ones that don't make that much, but there is a huge amount of people in that middle area that always get missed because of this. So, I just am I I would love for us to have a little bit more information about what the salaries are or you know what the qualifications of that kind of stuff are.

Thank you. Are there other speakers? Thank you. Please let us know your name when you reach the p the podium. Hello. Uh my name is Chris Brennan. I'm a resident of the DCMU zone. Uh pretty nearby the project. Not in my backyard though. Um sorry that was a fun of a joke. But uh I just want to say uh I understand the need for affordable housing. I bought my house knowing that 230 Maine was earmarked for um affordable housing. You know, I as much as I love uh looking at Mount Washington uh across an empty green field and letting my kids like run to it on the way to school, obviously could be used for better things, affordable housing is really admirable. Um I want to commend uh everybody that's worked uh you know towards this. The funding, you know, seems like it's coming from a lot of different places. Pretty difficult. You know, not a lot of funds from the city going towards it, which is great. I just want to echo what many other people have said that I just think the site is just wrong for this um scale of a development. um you know view aside parking really important um I I think there are a lot of issues that I my main thing would be I don't think parking should necessarily block this because people over cars but I really think there needs to be more thought put into how we're going to mitigate the impacts because it's not just I have to drive an extra block to park on my way home from work it's the businesses that don't have any off- streetet parking um you know may not be able to survive which seems at odds with the workforce housing goal. There's no businesses. There's no need for a workforce. There's no need for this housing. Um my primary concerns, like I said, um parking. The other thing would just be the, you know, the FBC is really cool. Forbased code northbend. You read it and you're like, "Wow, this is cool." And I'm glad the Mesa, you know, family is here to talk because I was really curious about that development. I look at the plans and it's like beautiful. Um, and a lot of

the reason it's like that is because of the FBC. And I see this affordable housing, you know, development go up, throwing away a lot of the core things or at least five of them in the FBC. And I think that makes it suffer a little bit. And I hate to see affordable housing, you know, people that are benefiting from affordable housing, uh, essentially get a lesser experience than what we've decided just as recently as 2021, I think, when it was created and edited in 2025 in June, I believe. uh you know, calls for. It just seems seems a little strange. I want them to have the same experience of this, you know, highly livable uh city that's easy to reach, hard to leave. I don't I don't remember how that that saying is, but that that's all I have to say about it. I support affordable housing. My my main thing would be if there are other sites that we can apply these awesome funds to, we should look into that. Thanks. Thank you.

Any other people who wish to speak, please come forward. Let us know your name when you begin speaking. Hi, I wasn't planning on speaking, but my name is Michelle. I live in downtown. I've lived in Northbend for about 13 years now. Michelle

Michelle Shadel, excuse me. Um, I moved here with my family of four, and we were lucky enough to get in before the prices went crazy. So, about 13 years ago. I think affordable housing is amazing. I think it is incredibly needed in our community. I would completely agree with the comments that this spot feels like jamming a wonderful idea into a postage stamp. Um it is incredible beautiful building. Why we need to reach that height I'm not exactly sure. Um I would um appeal to the commission commissioners to really consider how we are deviating from like we said our code. I would really completely um ask you to consider that my home is 100 years old this year. Um and I moved here with an instant comfort in Northbend feeling like it was going to be home. It is hard to leave. It is completely hard to leave. I want to live here for the rest of my life. If I feel like my community is crushing the air out of what the value brought me to Northbend, that changes the whole dynamic of our community. Um, my neighborhood, yes, while it is mixed use, I know my neighbors and I do not have any driveway. I park on the street and yesterday there was zero parking on my street. On my entire block, there was zero parking. Between you and me, I had to illegally park yesterday, and I'm a resident. I've lived here for 13 years. I would urge you to consider or reconsider this plan of 40 units and 20 parking spots. There is undoubtedly going to be more cars that are going to

be there. Undoubtedly, there are. We are stealing borrowing from Peter to pay Paul in parking in this community. And while affordable housing is incredible a need that we all really want to see happening, let's find a bigger postage stamp to put it on than downtown where so many of us are going to be impacted there. I have practically lived the majority of my life in affordable housing. Hopefully, I live the rest of my h life in this house. Hopefully, it will still be affordable for me, but I need a way to get to my home. And if I have to walk three blocks away, maybe when I'm 75, that's not going to be so easy. Um, so please, please, let's not bend over backwards and break something that's working really well with the sight of some of our goals. Let's make sure we're focusing on the whole picture. Um I I am concerned about the conveyance to this um company. They don't live here. They don't have their boots on the ground every day in this community. So what have they got to lose? Um their character is not being impacted, but ours is. Um so I would just urge you to really take the time to think about how many people this is impacting. Um, and again for affordable housing, but let's possibly reconsider a better location. Thank you.

Thank you. Please, no applause. Anyone else wish to speak? Please come forward. Let us know your name. Thank you.

Hi, my name is David Vosler. I'm a new resident to North Bend and um we love it here. We escape from South Belleview. I don't want to um talk about 230 uh Maine. I don't know really anything about it or or a lot of the comments that have been made. I just want to make a uh really an important uh personal plea to to support continue to support affordable housing as it as it appears the uh city and a lot of the u residents have been doing apparently for some time. And I'm delighted to see that. I have a a disabled son. He uh bags groceries at a QFC. he can only work part-time due to his disabilities. Um, and and and for folks who are like my son John and and others, I'm a physician and I have patients. I'm I'm a neurologist. I take care of people with developmental disabilities. They've got to have places uh that are near uh my son can't drive, so he needs to be near to the places he works at. And um so I want to just thank everybody actually for what I'm hearing is a lot of support for affordable housing. Again, I'm not speaking directly to this project, but I just want to uh enter those words into the uh public record. Thank you.

Thank you. There was one person that got up. Oh, we have two people. [laughter]

Hello, my name is Eric Bau. Um, I've lived here since 2000. I live on Berat. Um, I wish my wife was here to speak uh just because she worked in uh affordable housing for 5 years and she wanted me to come and speak on our behalf. Um, I don't think that this is a good idea to have 40 units and assume that you're going to have 20 cars. It just is not ever going to happen. Does anybody have a girlfriend nowadays or people visit them? Right? Like it just isn't going to work. The there isn't going to be a lot of parking. The you know like the uh the sheriffs that not the sheriffs, the one of the uh um anyway the wildlife enforcement guys that park their trucks along the you know the annex, right? The it it's going to get it's going to get really tight. And also I fear for our businesses downtown. I've always wanted us to have a really nice and vibrant downtown. We are stuck in um uh basically retrofitting stuff for uh earthquakes and things like that. These these buildings downtown, they're not easy to de it's already expensive to own a business. Some of it is it's slowly getting better. Um but mostly it's the parking problem I really believe. And also, I think having onebedrooms and studios, I mean, I really would like to see affordable family housing. And I I guess I'm just dreaming about this, but you know, um, so that somebody could have a family in these places instead of just one bedroom, right? So, I mean, you would think it's just is it just couples or like um anyway, so too many too many um parking spots missing on this and I think it's going to hurt our business downtown for sure.

Thank you. Oh, thanks. And go ahead.

My name's My name is Scott Rocklin and um I live just uh blocks down on on Main Street and [clears throat] um I have a brother who is who's a builder that's built affordable housing for over 30 plus years and he's finishing a project. He's retiring so no worries. Um but he's finishing project O Cara right now and um it's actually for families. Uh it's uh it's really they've got plenty of parking. and they've gone by the code and everything and um you know this issue has been the primary concern I'm I you know I've heard from everybody and was mine was the parking and the city parking that's that's available and um there was mentioned earlier that that there would be a loss of 665,000 approximately or something but I believe that's the price they paid for the property and if that's so they could sell the property and use that fund for another property and um you know I'm a I'm a real estate broker and I and I'm around these this area. I've been here for four years, but from Belleview primarily and I've been just I mean going around the town and you know rebuilding my house and going up and down North End Way and and all around where Safeway is and everything and there is there's a lot of land here that has a lot big, you know, more appropriate spots um that could house the parking that could they could build a um you know, building like this comfortably with beautiful parking. I understand that they can't do the parking because they can't dig in. It's not it's a you know flood plane and and so we've got we've got issues with the parking and I agree that we have to have affordable housing. I've got a brother who lives in affordable housing and it's a mess with the parking. It's up in Sunset um in Reon and the He was telling me stories the other day about how they

just park and they get tickets and they leave and they move their cars and they get more tickets and it's just it's a fiasco. Um I don't want to see that happen. I definitely want to plead with you to consider what other options there are unless that we can find parking. I think it'd be a beautiful project if they could, you know, do underground parking and fit it in there. All the better. but they can't do it and and we know that. So therefore, that's why I maybe we need to spend a little time just reviewing some other properties before we go forward. And that's really all. Thanks. Thank you. Are there any other speakers?

Please tell us your name.

Yes. Diana Gear, 247 Main Avenue North. the cute little blue house on the corner that you all have driven by. Uh let's see, we purchased that property in 19 91 but started living there in 1988. Um so I yeah I just want to echo the concern for affordable housing, but to think that and to think that to look out my window and see a 93 foot threestory 40 unit building would be grief and loss and I've been through that before but it the team the committee that said that they came around and they took pictures to try to get this building to fit in didn't take a picture of my house or Michelle's house. So, I I too agree. This is just not the place. I see the congestion, the traffic congestion on a daily basis. My kitchen window, my living room window, look right out on those streets. Of course, there are peak hours where it picks up. No one wants to wait at the traffic light, so they're cutting through because they can get to the stop signs and the roundabouts much faster. But there have been instances, thank God I do have a driveway. Um, we have a garage, it's great, but um, if there's cars behind me, it's harder to back in. Uh, which is safer because of the volume of traffic on that street. When I back out, I'm having to wait. And, and I understand people need to get to where they need to go, but to my point, this is not the place. it it I would urge you to look for other locations especially the one that Mitchell mentioned that my husband wrote

about. Uh thank you. Thank you.

Do we have any other people who wish to speak? My name is Marilie Carter. Um I've lived in the valley for about 50 years. This is just kind of a safety observation. As I was driving on Second Street and turning onto Berat, making a right-hand turn. Number one, I couldn't see around. And this is not even in the same area that we're talking about. It's before you get there. Um the car I couldn't see around the cars half the time to see if I can make a safe turn or if I want to go across the intersection. This time I was turning and the very end car there was a person, a lady getting out of her car on the driver's side and as she was getting out of course her doors open and she's standing there doing whatever she was doing to get out of her car and so I had to go around her. There were cars coming the other way and all of a sudden I realized how very narrow the street is and it would apply not just to Berat but also to Third Street, whatever the address is of this place. I think it's third because it's across from our church. Um I don't I don't think it's going to be a safe situation when you have cars on both sides of the street. Sometimes you can't see when you're turning or trying to make a turn. And if drivers are getting out of their car, it's going to narrow the street even more. So to me, it's partly a parking problem, partly a safety concern.

Thank you. Do we have anybody else who wishes to leave a comment? I will close this part of the meeting to p to public comments and I will now open it up for discussion amongst the commissioners.

Well, I just wanted to say thank you. Oh, and sorry, Commissioner Fisgen. Um, I just want to say thank you. That was a wonderful representation of civic engagement and voicing your concerns and your your um support for affordable housing and and some for this project itself. Um I I think there's a lot to digest here. This is a very um contentious topic. Um I think all of us are in agreement that we have we have a need for affordable housing and we have a need to support the people that are working in our our community that actually don't live here and you know they're spending a lot of money to get to and from the city of Northbend. Um, I understand the um the concept of moving this project to another site. I'm not sure how feasible that is. Um, I don't I mean I'm not sure what other sites the city owns for affordable housing, but um it is a really interesting thought that I think the city should deliberate on. So um I just wanted to say thank you and um I think this is very very helpful and informative. That was it. I also want to thank the community for their comments. I appreciate hearing from a wide range of opinions both supporting the project and not supporting the project. This is an important change for our city to plan an affordable housing development of this size and nature. So it's it's important to get the community involvement for everybody to speak their mind and then for the planning commission to use the wisdom from the staff to use the feedback from the city uh the community members and our own understanding to come up to a decision. So, now that the commissioners have asked their questions of each other or made their statements and we've heard

from the community and we've heard from the staff report, I would like to call the motion for the piece the uh planning commission to um vote on recommending the disposition and development. Yes, Mr. Koul. Yes. Go ahead. Next,

Commissioner Coulan, I I just want to clarify from R and we will be voting on this now. Uh what happens like say we don't approve or vote to approve on this these DDA like does that torpedo this project in the water? Is it go back to the drawing board for relate northwest and they come up with a different plan and propose it?

I I could try and give that answer. I think there's a couple of questions. You can either uh move the development agreement as presented forward essentially to the community economic development kitt committee for their um basically their uh discussion on November 18th. You [clears throat] could uh simply table this to a future planning committee meeting where if you want to discuss it more you could do that or you could you know take the position where you reject the development agreement. So there's essentially three options you can move forward with I mean on this uh proposal

and so I do understand I think our options moving forward. I guess I'm trying to understand better the uh outcome of those decisions if we say we go against it again does that project does the project where does it move from there? Is it still feasible? Does uh relate Northwest again? Do they come back with a plan with either more parking or something that requires less parking? Yeah, I mean that's that's something we could go back to Related Northwest with. We have talked about the parking issue and we've talked with the related northwest about it. They're obviously aware of it, you know, from the open house, from discussions with staff, you know, briefings with the community economic development committee so we could, you know, move forward to try and address those more. Um the one sort of issue we have with this project is is sort of the timing. um they they are hoping to go to the capital markets early next year to secure funding for the site and if they miss a certain deadline that that postpones the project further down the road which potentially adds to increased costs for the project. So um that's sort of you know why we're bringing this forward to you tonight so you know we can keep the project on track and be able to meet those capital market requirements for funding. Is there a way to present a second option like uh instead of third 40 houses for example 30 house then then you have like more parking spots?

Yeah, I'll maybe turn this over to Seya but in those questions have been asked before basically but essentially because you need that density to meet the affordable housing goals for the project. If you decrease the amount of density in the project, you know, a couple things would have to happen. The city would have to contribute more money into the project to reach the affordability levels. uh likely we would not be able to do that, but I'll uh leave it to Asia to potentially add more to that question. And Asia, if you wouldn't mind coming up just so we can hear you.

Hi everyone, I'm Asia Corbre with Related Northwest. Um, so affordable housing, big topic. Um, a lot that goes into the front end um that many folks uh you know don't see and then they get presented this project and they're like how did we even get here in the first place? So, um, to to answer your your questions about kind of the the size of the project directly, um, Washington state is in a a pretty severe housing crisis right now. And the dollars that we use to fund, um, the construction and operations of affordable housing, those are public dollars, including the Washington State Housing Trust Fund that we've applied for. Um and so uh those funders uh kind of get to decide what the priorities are for affordable housing. And right now given very constrained resources in such a severe housing crisis, they're looking for um density. And what we have found is roughly 40 units is kind of the gag point for them in terms of what they will be willing to fund at this time. Um and so uh you know there is a bit of a trade-off with some of the code deviations that have been presented today um along with you know number of units and parking stalls. So um we we think that what we've kind of put together here is a is a winning model for getting funded um and will get us you know that much closer to securing the dollars that we need for construction and operations. Um, I hope that answers your question.

And may I I al also want to add a little bit more on the parking situation at the state level. So, the state legislature has recognized the dire need for uh housing affordability. And this year in the 2025 legislative session, the legislature actually passed House Bill 1183, which actually [snorts] takes away local jurisdictions ability to require off- streetet parking for affordable housing. So, the city of Northbend has not adopted that yet, but should a project come back at a later time, it's likely that our regulations would not be able to require any off- streetet parking for an affordable housing project.

It [clears throat] doesn't mean that they can't provide off- streetet parking. It just means that our code cannot um require it. May I comment? Um, we want to provide parking even when there's no parking requirement. Often in our developments, we want to provide parking, right? We understand that we need to provide livable, functional, efficient opportunities for rental housing. Um and so we try to find the balance, right, of what is a fundable and attractive project and what is feasible for residents in the community. Um and so we we definitely understand um and hear all of the comments about parking and and the concerns with traffic and um we will continue to work to find solutions that are acceptable for the community. Um, and I, you know, with that we, uh, the most efficient way to do that is to continue moving the project forward while we look for solutions. Um, as James mentioned, uh, there's just a lot of timing. Uh, there's a lot of pieces to affordable housing, as I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with. And so, um, you know, it is a little bit of a, um, a juggling act to, uh, to secure funding, um, while also doing design and while also really having meaningful community engagement and processes like this. So, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your comments and um we absolutely hear all of the concerns and all of the support um and are uh committed to, you know, providing a project that the community will um find beneficial.

Thank you. Thank you. Um I just wanted to um jump in with a little bit added detail on the um traffic analysis that will be performed before anything moves forward. Um, so at that point, just for everyone's awareness, like at that point, if like there is a major traffic analysis issue that we we discover related northwest, we'll have to go back to the drawing board to make amendments if we find them. That is correct.

That's correct. That's a part of what's called the concurrency analysis, and that includes a traffic analysis. And a project cannot bring uh local levels of service at intersections below what's considered a passing grade of D, a level of service D. And should a project create more traffic that trips it lower than a level of service D, it cannot move forward under our our regulations unless they provide some sort of mitigation that bring those intersection level of service back up.

That's that's very helpful. Um, and I hope everyone like understands this is just the starting point of this this whole discussion, but I also I the parking issue. Um, I totally get it. I actually I can't remember who made the comment about um the people using the um third as an arterial street. Um I I'm one of those people. Um I drop my kids off at the Village Project every morning. Um and I get stuck and I have a I have a call that I have to get back home to. Um so I use the back streets as that. I I understand the parking issue, but I'm also um I have two kids. I have a husband and I have two more kids that are coming via C-section next Wednesday and we have one car um and we're not getting a second car. Um car needs are changing. Um and so I also want people to be you know considering different um ways of living um than what we are all you know used to. So that was my last comment um and I'll give back to the chair. So

any other comments from the commission?

I am concerned about the parking situation. I'm I'm at a loss to understand how we transition from a car dependent city to a city that becomes walkable and local and people uh use other forms of transportation like bikes and scooters and ebikes and we transition to a more physically active city. We're not there yet. Um adding additional parking would discourage that move in my opinion. So, but I am concerned about the the current needs for parking and that people will likely want to drive their cars to and from their affordable housing to their jobs. So, I'm concerned that the location is not near enough to where the job centers are for Northbend, which would be the Safeway Plaza and the Outlet Mall along with the downtown strip. So that's one of my concerns that to consider as part of this vote and part of this discussion. Um the other questions I had were answered. Water is not going to be a problem based upon the reports from the city. Um I think that the size of the building looks bigger than what I'm used to seeing, but it's appropriate for a project of that size. Um, those are my my considerations. There any anything else the commissioners want to speak about? Uh, yeah, Commissioner White, I'd like to piggy back off of uh Commissioner Koulan's comment regarding what happens if this project is torpedoed. Um, I mean, and maybe this topic is better suited for city council meeting, um, since that's not really what we're

addressing here is financing. But um so let's say they can't go forward because this gets delayed too long and they can't apply for grants. Then what happens? Then the city has to go back to soliciting bids from developers. Is that what would happen?

I can answer that. So yeah, that that would be potentially one option we could try again for another affordable housing project. Uh currently we're under, as I mentioned in the presentation, an exclusive negotiation agreement with the Related Northwest. Uh if the city decides to withdraw from that agreement, we would have to pay back any and all costs that Related Northwest has uh incurred for the project to date. Uh so that would be a cost that would come out of our general fund. Do you have an approximate idea of what that would be, that cost? I don't have an approximate cost, but the the limit in the agreement is up to $200,000.

Okay. Um, I also did have a a comment based upon one of the comments tonight was I didn't see in the development agreement uh a restriction upon income for low-income housing. Is that in place? Yes. In order to meet affordability levels, there is uh income restrictions. So, it's 60% AMI and that's AMI for King County. Uh for one person it's up to $66,000 per year and for um a family two it's up to 74,000. Thank you. Just to clarify, I didn't see on the exceptions here, I think there's a 30 foot limit to buildings in North. Does this fall under that?

It's a 35 foot height limit. Uh this would meet our standards. Waiting for a motion then um to approve to approve to an amendment to uh reject this. Need a motion.

Um before I make my motion, I will just make one last comment. This will next go to the economic development committee for their review and approval and then it will go to council. And so there's a lot of other people that will take a look at this. Um but as a um commissioner that is very passionate about um uh affordable housing, I would like to make in a recommendation to approve the DDA for related northwest at 230 Maine um for affordable housing. Um and that is my recommendation. Have a second or an amendment? Second.

We have second from Commissioner White. Call for a vote. All those who are in favor of passing this as is, please say I will I will say I given the what we have with our restrictions. I believe commissioner would vote no.

So the motion passes 4 to one. Thank you for your participation in this meeting and this conversation. Uh this agenda item is now closed. We will now move to the sign regulation portion of this discussion. If you wish to stay around for that, you're welcome to. You might not want to stay here and that's also fine. Yeah.

Yeah. Sounds like I We still have the meeting.

Yeah, we we have not actually dismissed the meeting. So, if you are if you are staying around, please have a seat. Otherwise, please leave the hearing room so we can continue. Right. We'll now have a discussion about the sign regulations. This is our second review of prohibitions and exemptions and definitions starting on page 51 of the agenda.

Uh good evening commissioners. My name is Caitlyn Hupworth. I'm an associate planner with the city. Tonight I'm presenting some revisions based on feedback from commissioners on uh sign code amendments for definitions, prohibitions, and exemptions. Um within your packet is a handful of exhibits. Um, exhibit A describes the revisions that were made based on commissioner feedback at both meetings and direct feedback that I received over email. Um, it walks you through amendments that were updated based on those comments um, for each different section that is being presented to you tonight. Um today I'm looking for a final set of feedback on these pro on these definitions, prohibitions, and exemption amendment proposals. Um ideally the next time that you see this, um it will be ready for the adoption process. Um which is looking like it'll be around probably March at this rate. Um, but yeah, I'm hoping for feedback tonight that I can incorporate into the final set version of this.

Sure, Commissioner White. Yeah, Commissioner White. Uh, my only comments are really regarding some definitions that didn't seem like they should be placed in this sign section. Uh, for example, the definition of a commercial center um is at the end of page 56. Uh there's definition of facade area and facade front which is on page 57. Uh definition of a franchise that's at the top of page 58. Uh so those those are my main comments. I can just send those to you if you or do you have thoughts on those being included here? Did you I guess I didn't understand the context of your question on those.

Sure. The question was they they weren't sign related. So I it was clear to me why the definitions were included with signage.

I see there will be specific associations with some of these terms that seem like they might not be related in the actual design um specific design amendments that are going to be presented to you at a later time. If we decide down the road that they are not relevant to the sign code section, we can absolutely remove them down the road. Um, I would like to keep them in the draft for the time being and then once we get to the hearing and adoption phase, we can weed through it, decide what is no longer relevant, what should potentially just be a zoning code definition. Um, but I do appreciate the feedback.

I think an example of that is there may be regulations that say a sign within a commercial center shall meet the following requirements. So, you need to know what a commercial center is to know if that's applicable. Those are all my comments for the signage. Thank you. I I may have missed it. I saw we put out for a public feedback and I think we got 17 responses. Were Were those posted anywhere? Like I think I missed where they I didn't see any.

Uh so yes. Um, so the city hosted a uh business survey specifically looking for feedback from business owners about proposed sign code amendments and also just business satisfaction with working with the city. Um, uh, we have reviewed the results with the economic development commission and they voted to extend the survey to solicit more responses. 17 responses is not an equable equitable percentage of the businesses that are in our community and we want to try and solicit more feedback from a greater number of business owners. Um I will be working to repost the survey and have a little bit more of a direct contact with our local businesses. Um we have a business contact list that I am intending to use to try and more directly ask for feedback. please. Um, and we will be revisiting what the survey results are at a later time, hopefully with more feedback and a little bit more of a diverse weighted response.

And just to clarify that, revisiting, will it be in a planning commission meeting or will that be something economic development commission to see? I'm happy to present it at both. It would likely go to economic development commission first. Um, but once they have reviewed it, I am more than happy to provide you um, a copy of what the responses look like. I am even able to send you a copy of what the current responses are looking like right now. Um, if that is of the interest of commission, I'm happy to send that after this meeting. I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Kaitlin. Okay, noted.

I have a question about if the survey responses are light, are there other methodologies we can use to get survey feedback? Um so the method of survey distribution was primarily online notices. Um there was a notice on our uh website on our social media pages. Um the downtown Foundation plugged us to their business contacts and then we were also featured in the Snowqualami Valley Reporter. Um in terms of trying to encourage more feedback, um I plan to reach out directly to businesses. um dropping off physical flyers throughout town as well as through email. Um [clears throat] that's my plan of approach for a secondary.

I don't disagree. I just was wondering what you were using. Yep.

I like that that there's an active approach of meeting with the different business people. You want to Oh, sorry. just so it doesn't echo. Um Kaitlin, you've done such great work on this. Um I think like all the feedback that we've talked about in the past few meetings where this has been discussed has been incorporated and is reflected here. Um I do I would I will be really interested to see what the um business surveys actually um show to make sure that we're meeting all of that. Um but I think we're in we're in great shape. Um so awesome work and I know that you had two interns that were working on this with you over the summer. They're long gone now, right? They're back at Western. Okay. So, I thought, yeah, great work.

Thank you. I really appreciate that.

Any other comments from the commissioners? This is a review. This is not a vote. So, we're just hearing um back from the staff. I think we've covered the agenda. Now, the last item on our business is adjournment. And um it's 8:05. So I declare this meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone who has attended this meeting with us. Applause is not appropriate. This is going forward.