Remarks by Jason Voiss
247 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 7 of 10
- Play at 13:45
“Okay. Thanks, Amanda. Taking bets, which is going to be the big topic this evening. I'm going with parking. I think parking is going to be the one. All my chips are in for parking. Okay. All right. So we are now going to move along to transparency. It looks like Emily is up. So Emily Medina, please go ahead.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 18:00
“All right. Great. Thank you, Emily. question from the commissioners regarding transparency. Everybody knows their stuff. Commissioner Holmstrom.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 19:35
“Okay, we want to deliberate when you guys can make all of those things during amendments. Right now, we just want to ask questions.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 19:41
“But you are more than welcome to in about a half hour. Questions, questions? Commissioner Adair.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 25:01
“Maybe can I add something? So if I tell me if I'm wrong, if I'm simplifying this wrong way, basically, like you said, deviation it's in the code. They just have to follow the menu of items. So they know exactly if they're looking for the deviation, what they need to do in order to get it. A variance would be more to your point. You have some type of troubled lot topography. That's going to be a little bit more, I think to Emily's point, you know, they're going to look at it. They might be able to give you some initial guidance, but ultimately, And if you're doing a level four anyway, it…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 25:57
“Okay. So Commissioner Kress, and then we'll go Vice Chair Patterson.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 27:20
“All right. I would assume every city has some type of threshold. And I'm going to piggyback off to John for a moment. Didn't I read in the packet there's also like a 10% of the size also? Does that also trigger? bringing those up to code? Is that parking, 10%?”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 29:00
“Great. Thank you, Commissioner Kras. Vice Chair Patterson.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 32:40
“I just want to make sure you're done with your presentation. Okay. I think that was the last slide I saw. There it is. There it was. Okay. Any questions for Emily regarding transparency or deviations or any of the above? All right. Well, thank you, Emily. Okay, that is two of four. Oh, thank you. That was a little mistake. Just wait till later. Amanda, do we have anyone signed up that would like to make public comment regarding transparency?”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 33:30
“All right. All right. We're going to continue to the next proposed amendment regarding multifamily uses in the urban urban village, commercial and retail zones. And Andrew Love will be presenting on that. So Andrew, when you are ready, please go ahead.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 37:13
“Nonsensical question. So you're going to be presenting parking? Yes. Lucky you.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 37:17
“Okay. Questions as far as the UV RET zone? Anybody? Commissioner Zachroff, that's in your neighborhood.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 37:37
“All right. Amanda, has anyone signed up to speak regarding the Andrew's first presentation.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 37:45
“You'll be a comrade. Okay. All right. Okay, Andrew, this is the big one. This is the Super Bowl. Yes.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 44:16
“Great. Thank you, Andrew. Questions? Okay. We'll start. We'll cruise around.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 49:27
“Just a clarifying question, Andrew. So the idea, I mean, really the intent of that law was to be able to take commercial buildings and turn them into residential. That was the whole heart of it, right? They didn't want to put a burden on converting those.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 50:54
“So just for fun, an example is city hall is going to be, they bought the edetics building. They just bought on Newport. Yes. Now, because on, is it new? Maple is a maple, but the use isn't changing. It's just office to office. Correct.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 51:39
“I was just trying to get to an example of maybe, again, something converting. Again, it's really more about what's going to be used within the structure.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 51:47
“Right. And again, maybe it's just because it's mostly the conversations we hear. The idea was really to help convert commercial buildings into residential for more housing. But obviously, on the flip side, it has to do like if the school district was to buy an office space, then they would have to conform with parking. Correct. OK. I do have just two small questions. And this one kind of bothered me. So there's like half a parking spot. Yes. And then there's this whole spiel in the packet that talks about rounding down, decimals round down. Is the half a parking spot, it's based on the size…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 53:43
“Okay. No, you see it in the table. I mean, again, everything like single family, it's very clearly one or zero, no minimums. And then you get to these weird decimals. And again, to your point, no one's going to build a multifamily with one half of a unit. So obviously it's based on the square footage or the GFA, GMA, probably getting the acronym wrong.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 54:13
“I had it written down much more elegantly than I proposed. Anyway, okay, that was my question. Any other questions regarding parking? All right. Amanda, one more time, has anyone signed up to speak?”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 54:30
“Okay. Well, that concludes the presentation question and public comment portion of our public hearing. So we will close the public hearing this evening at 7 24 PM. All right. This is where we earn our money. This is deliberation and voting, which we're going to move into this process. And we're going to, again, address each amendment one by one. This evening, our alternate commissioner, Commissioner Adair, will also be a voting member. And we'd like to begin with, and again, please note, all commissioners can deliberate. Just voting is a little bit different. So we'll begin with the natural…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 55:55
“Is there a second? Thank you, Commissioner Adair.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 56:00
“Perfect. And staff has been kind enough to help us with some prompts. You guys will see those throughout the rest of the evening. OK. The motion to recommend approval of the proposed Title 18 amendments related to requirements for natural context areas in central Issaquah as presented has been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion or someone would like to make an amendment regarding them? And you can begin discussions. I mean, like I said, if you get to a point where we're starting to move towards an amendment, staff will be friendly. They'll prompt us to make the amendment. So, again,…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 57:14
“Thank you, Commissioner Adair. anyone else like to comment okay chair voice i i would agree with commissioner adair i think there's a little bit of give and take here again if the street separates the natural context area builders and developers are able to do more but if it is adjacent or budding up to then again we want our developers to take that into consideration is a qua is a unique city with a lot of wonderful outdoor attributes, and we'd like them to take advantage of it. And I think we gave them an out by offering a couple different things, whether it's the two streets, three…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026