Remarks by Jason Voiss
247 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 10
- Play at 0:14
“All right, commissioners. Hello, hello. We've got a lot of commissioners here, and I'm sure a lot of commissioners have a lot to say, so we want to get started. And we're going to call this meeting, this joint meeting of the PPC as well as the DC to order, and it currently is 6.34 p.m. A little boilerplate, today's meeting is a hybrid meeting. The commissions are in person, but staff or members of the public may be attending virtually or in person. Feels like I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask anyway to make it official. Kristen, do we have a quorum?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 0:57
“Okay, great, we can talk, we can speak. We'll begin, as we always do, with public comment. And for this meeting, we're gonna hold general public comment at this time for all general topics being discussed this evening. So we're going to include the planning policy agenda items as well right now.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:17
“Okay. I like it. Has anyone signed up to speak this evening?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 2:01
“Okay. I don't think we need to go through absences or anything, right? No. We won't shame anybody. Okay. We're going to skip all the boilerplate for public comment. We're just going to get right down to business. That's why we're all here. And our first item of business is to discuss architectural design standards for Issaquah amongst other cities. Adding flexibility and predictability to the design standards is one of the items on the promoting building investments in Issaquah's work plan. Kristen Leeson. planning manager is going to begin the presentation as long as her computer is working.…”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 19:10
“To help me with your name, Commissioner Fassoon?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 21:51
“Okay, I think we're gonna keep going. We're gonna have plenty more time to ask Kristin questions, but let's let her continue with the presentation.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 34:50
“So start with questions. Okay. Now it's your guys' time. Lots of questions. I'll start with one just quick question. If is a clause the most prescriptive was Bellevue the least prescriptive?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 35:02
“And Sammamish was the next most prescriptive. Yes. Woodinville was what third?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 35:42
“Okay, that's a great explanation. All right, time to open it up. Commissioner Kress, I know you've been waiting patiently.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 38:07
“I was going to say the only thing to add to Commissioner Crass's point, it's not just the city council that's changed. It's also other demands from Olympia, the state. So there's, yeah, to your point. So things have changed in 10 years. We'll keep that one off the mic. Commissioner Adair.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 42:07
“I never knew about that. Kristen just shared that with me the other day.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 42:39
“I can't remember who said it, whether it was Commissioner Morgan or Commissioner Brennan, but that's part of the issue, too, is having such a difficult permit process, which some of the feedback I've heard from developer friends has been the permit process in Issaquah is difficult, and being able to have Certainty in that part of developing would be much more helpful for developers, whether they get what they want or not. At least they know quickly versus they go seven steps down the road to find out that, nope, you're going back to square one. Oh, just one thing. Commissioner Fassoon.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 44:21
“Would anyone else like to speak? I feel like a few people here are taking up a large part of the conversation. Commissioner Matthews?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 50:19
“It sounds like you kind of... are thinking more like Bellevue, where they have a strong intent, even in a direction. So it is kind of swinging that pendulum this way.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 50:38
“I think you might find more than a few people agree with you here. Commissioner Stanchak.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 52:54
“That's great. Thank you, commissioner. Stand check. Um, one thing I'll just mention and then I'll pass it back to John and then we're going to want to do a time check to make sure you're getting what you want before eight. is two things, I think. One, again, Commissioner Kress brought this up. It is a very different environment than 10 years ago. And I think someone else brought it up. We were developing like crazy. We had these development agreements that were coming through. The Development Commission was working overtime every month of every week. So that has changed. We do not have that…”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 55:12
“That's all. You could sell that bumper sticker all over town. A rule book, not a guidebook. And I don't know who brought a blue building. There was... No, I know... right right right i feel like right i feel like it's woldemort or something right we're not supposed to speak its name um commissioner stanchek”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 57:48
“So we can do this in one of a few ways. We could do it by raising of hands. How many questions you have for Kristen?”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 57:55
“So what is that for the half hour left? It's about seven minutes per. seven minutes we can either go around, people can give their opinion, we can vote, we can do it, you know, obviously a non-binding vote, but we just want to do a round robin.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 58:16
“I'm not going to mess with the presenter. I don't want to get in trouble. But we'll start with this one if we want to come back to when we can. We'll have like two minutes to spare. But we're on a hard 8 o'clock, so... We'll start with Commissioner Stanchek.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:04:26
“Great. And what a great group. We should meet more often. Yeah, I'm in agreement. I really liked what Commissioner Kras said. Rulebook, not a guidebook. I think, again, a stronger intent. Rulebook. Guidebook, not a rulebook. Thank you. That bumper sticker would not have sold. But yeah, just having a little bit less prescriptive and a much stronger intent. As far as the seven styles themselves, I would say I like Commissioner Morgan's for interim purposes because staff obviously needs to study this. I don't know if it's going to require a consultant or what, or if we can do this on our own,…”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:06:24
“I don't know how much you're going to get in addition here. I know. I know. Let's do that. Should we do round robin again? I would like to defer to Commissioner Allender too, but this seems to make more sense because we're trying to do a rapid round. So Commissioner, stand check.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:10:14
“I think it's all been well said about the category thing.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:12:16
“Thank you. Follow up question. Isn't right now currently design review is at a certain level and everything, right? Because before, prior, it used to be like level one through four. Now it's like only three and four.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:12:38
“Right, okay. I think there are great points made by everybody. I won't go into all of them. I think those six different aspects, what, two, three, four, five different aspects, six different aspects, missing a comma. Yeah, door walls. I think those are fine. I think Kristen made the point earlier, really massing scale and rough lines, I think, are even more critical. But again, I really like this idea of a guidebook, not a rule book. So I think that'll be helpful.”
Planning Commission · Sep 10, 2026