Remarks by John Backman
21 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 1:58
“Do we need to add an item for a temporary chair for the next meeting?”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 38:28
“So, before we go to details on the individual centers, maybe think about some baseline things. One really important one for our community is minimize impact to single-family neighborhoods. That's a baseline. that we don't diminish access because right now and for the foreseeable future, people are going to get in their cars and drive to QFC or Safeway. So they need that transportation. But at the same time, overlaying that with more multimodal in the baseline. And set that for all of our centers before we go off into having an area for food trucks. And then I had another question about going…”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 40:29
“Yeah, and because the downside is those if those aren't allocated in town center they have to go somewhere else and that could be a steep climb even you know i understand david you're talking very minimal increases in the density but still has to go through our wonderful process”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:03:55
“So I got for a counterpoint Go back to what David and Evan were first talking about Kiss Principle keep it simple that for our purposes now today in this year That there's a general overlay for all well the three centers and down by the lake something different um without getting into any specifics if you have to go from r18 to 20 to make the numbers work that's what you do knowing that if major development comes you can enter into a development agreement to work out the details for ex for example at pine lake where i live close to um major problem is getting across 228 to the park and ride.…”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:09:19
“So I just say that particularly around the centers right now, it's optimized for traffic. So as a pedestrian, you often have to cross three streets to get across the street.”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:09:30
“So in the TIP, I don't know exactly how they're addressing that. But again, comes back to once a major redevelopment starts, there are all sorts of things at play to optimize traffic. multimodal, getting to transit, but making it possible to connect our parks and our neighborhoods, particularly across 228 being a major issue. It's like crossing Northeast 8th and Bellevue.”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:18:50
“So realistically, because these are land-constrained and already impervious surface, any public amenities you're going to get are going to be hardscape. a park like setting, I would imagine. But the controlling principle would again be developer comes in city reaches a development agreement with them in terms of what sort of plaza or whether it's a parking space for food trucks and not try to specify it at this time, just that connecting particularly across high traffic zones like 228, making sure our schools are connected, the park and ride at Pine Lake for multimodal, rather than getting…”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:33:48
“art commission and see if they agree with it and that that is something that he can do relatively cheap and all inexpensive but all in a sudden that brings identity hey this is the downtown this is a gateway to the downtown so we're often damned if we do and damned if we don't we've got the 228th problem but look at issaquah which was literally built around cow pass and what they have to deal with so you And look at how beautiful Trump Street is. So building some overpasses.”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:34:22
“Well, I know, but for transportation to create better connection to get across our traffic problem. You deal with what we got. Yeah.”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 1:39:31
“So one thought here is because we've been talking about community identity and the problem of just our geography and the way things have developed is that we don't have a single town center. You've got the town center. But in our branding and design standards, we create many town centers. I mean, I'm not suggesting many city halls like some cities have done, but at least create the visual sameness at an entry point for each one of those centers. So you know that you're branded with the city. Since we all know this is the exact center of the universe, we just want to make sure everybody knows…”
Planning Commission · Oct 1, 2026
- Play at 23:01
“I'm gonna do this so that we really focus our conversation on the questions at hand. So I move that we adopt the alternative balance center's approach as presented by staff.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 23:52
“I'll withdraw my motion and start with just straightforward. My position is the alternative. And I don't really have any questions because we beat this horse into the ground a couple times. And it's the approach that most closely aligns with what we were visioning in the comp plan. And a big concern of mine is kicking the can down the road too far to the other commercial centers. Subarea plans are expensive and time consuming and the outcomes are very uncertain. If we do not do something in the town center, according to what we've heard from staff, we're going to end up with town homes…”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 25:29
“So maybe David, yeah. So there's a number up there, 2,200.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 25:42
“I was suggesting the second alternative to maximize the potential of the town center because we don't know what might or might not happen in the other commercial centers after going through lengthy sub area. And it has the greatest potential in short term to help the city's budget, meet the state requirements, and follow what we visioned in the comprehensive plan.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 39:29
“Just sort of technical process question. I understand updating the comp plan one way or the other. Will we have to concurrently run the subarea studies as well and have that all wrapped up? Or is doing the work in the comp plan enough to say that we're going to do the subarea plans in the future?”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:02:04
“So in the mind of keeping things simple, is there consensus among the commission as to the two alternatives for the town center that, Evan, can you go back to the boxes? I'll just call them 1,922 just because that keeps it simple. Is there consensus between these two? Because picking one of these two then drives what happens elsewhere. So if we can give our feedback informally to council that we prefer this option, then that helps council and staff.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:03:29
“Well, I think David said that the 1,900 is kind of where we landed. The 2,200 is to accommodate and think about what the state's requirements are.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:20:59
“Just a quick note on the infrastructure is we don't know where things are going to get built or when they're going to get built, so we can't just throw it in the budget. And then the secondary thing, if there are impacts, development has to mitigate those impacts. So money would be flowing to mitigate stuff. We don't know where it's going to go on the ground. You would hope so.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:33:02
“So I think, David, what you're saying is if we shift from the commercial allocation model to an FAR model, then the market can respond in whatever way the market wants to respond, where the allocation model could end up unintentionally restricting someone to put in a donut shop.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 1:46:56
“I'd like to jump in because I want to back up to policy because there's baseline is we have tension between community interest, traffic, state mandates, but the one we've left out is fiscal. The city's facing a fiscal cliff, which means we need to figure out In fact, Mary, in her handout today, talked about that sort of thing. Seattle Times article in the last couple of days talks about Clyde Hill going out of business because of our state tax structure. The city's ultimately going to face questions similar to that. And so we have to be pretty strategic in our planning and zoning. And the…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 1:51:37
“So just to be clear, I'm not selecting any one of the four options. I'm just suggesting that we focus our energy on which option we're going to go with.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026