Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

and make sure you turn the mic on there you go oh there we go okay good evening my name is kim lehrman and i'd like to call the city of planning our pasco planning commission to order we'll start with that pledge allegiance I would like to welcome all those in attendance this evening and ask you to join, oops, we just did that, the Pledge of Allegiance. Let's get to our roll call. To begin tonight's meeting, I would like to ask the clerk to call the roll.

Rosa Torres, excused. Pat Jones. Present. Kim Lehrman. Present. Dana Crutchfield. Present. Rachel Thiel. Is our speaker on? She's present. Okay. Jay Handler.

Present.

Ms. Chair, there are five members. We do have a quorum.

Thank you. The Planning Commission is an advisory board made up of volunteers appointed by the City Council. The purpose of the Planning Commission is to provide recommendations to the City Council regarding changes to the City's comprehensive plan, land use updates, block grant allocations, and zoning code. The Planning Commission is tasked with considering the long-term growth and development of the community, the impact of land use decisions on community livability, economic opportunity, housing affordability, public services, and the environment. I would like to remind the audience tonight, proceedings are being broadcast live on the City of Pasco's Facebook page and on Charter Cable PSC channel 191, and will be rebroadcast several times during the next month. This meeting is also being recorded, so you can watch it on the City of Pasco's website, which is pasco-wa-gov. Click on the video on demand link and make your selection there. There are copies of the meeting agenda available on the back table, so you may follow along with the meeting. At this time, I would like to ask that you silence your cell phones to prevent interruptions during our meeting. For those present this evening, when you're given the opportunity to address the commission, please come to the podium, speak clearly into the microphone, and state your name and city address for your records. At this point in time, we don't have anyone in the audience, but maybe perhaps later on. Before we begin tonight's meeting, I need to remind the audience and the Planning Commission that Washington state law requires public meetings, like the one being held this evening, not only to be fair, but also to appear to be fair. In addition, Washington State law prohibits Planning Commission members from participating in discussions or decisions in which the member may have a direct interest or may either benefit or harmed by the Planning Commission's decisions. An objection to any Planning Commission member hearing any matter of tonight's agenda needs to be aired at this time or it will be waived. First, are there any Planning Commission members who have a declaration at this time regarding any of the items on the agenda? Okay, let the record show that there is none. Second, is there anyone in the audience this evening who would object to any Planning Commission members hearing any of the items on the agenda? Is there anyone on the phone? No, okay. Seeing none at this point in time. We value your input. It helps us to understand the issues more clearly and to make better recommendations to the City Council. Furthermore, in many cases, your input here at the Planning Commission meeting is your only opportunity to get your facts and opinions placed into the official record the City Council will use to make its decisions. I encourage you to take full advantage of the opportunity. All right, so next is the approval in minutes from the March 20, 2025 meeting. These meeting minutes were mailed out to the commissioners ahead of time. I trust you have the opportunity to take a look at them. And I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes.

Madam Chair, I'll move to approve the minutes.

Okay. Let the record show that Commissioner Jones had made a motion. And Commissioner Hedler has a second. It has been moved by Commissioner Jones, seconded by Hedler. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Okay.

So the meeting minutes were passed unanimously. And did Rachel Till have an opportunity to go ahead and share her vote?

Okay. All right. Okay. So it's passed unanimously.

The next item on the agenda is unfinished. Nope. We don't have any unfinished business. So we'll move on down to old business. I think my notes.

So we do have four project updates tonight to bring the Planning Commission a little more up to date, up to speed with some of our projects that are ongoing right now. And that is what we're covering under old business this evening. One being the comp plan. And these are all in various stages of completion. Comp plan. transportation system master plan regional climate planning and greenhouse gas emissions reduction project and Energy resilience study as well So through the RFP process I think you're familiar with framework the city selected framework to help guide us through our periodic comp plan update You'll probably remember them with all of their great work through the downtown master plan and implementation of that as well. City staff and the consultant held an initial kickoff meeting on May 9th to do some preliminary planning and work and we're scheduled to Do a kickoff with the city council on June 9th as well. And certainly the planning commission is going to be heavily involved in that effort throughout. But we're really just kind of in the initial phases of that. Early on, the city staff primarily, but more recently with framework included, started meeting with Franklin County and some of the county jurisdictions as well to talk about some of the population projections and early distributions. So I brought a couple of facts and figures that I thought were really interesting from that initial effort and information. Some of it's more, to this point, more of the historical context and based on our previous projections and where we're actually at. With that, you can see here on this slide, back in during the 2018 comp plan update, the 2020 projections for PASCO, the projection was $79,770. and we came in at actually 77,108. So we were off by a little over 2,600 people. And then for the 2024, it was a little bit more drastic there. We projected 88,774, came up with 82,220, off a little over 6,500 on that figure. Now, the interesting thing about Figure 19, and maybe some of you will know this, when we're dealing with our forecasts, you look at either like a low, medium, or high range model when you're projecting populations in the future. During the 2018 update, you know, the medium model was selected. And while we were off a little bit on those total numbers, you can see in figure 19, you know, really we were kind of in that medium range. So I think it makes sense to everybody, the county, Pasco and other communities in Franklin County, we'll just continue to use that medium forecasting model moving forward for the next update. Getting back to our conversation with framework, what you see here is just some of the initial sort of highlights of our discussion about, and I can get some copies too, so you can actually see it's a little bit hard to read, some of the kind of prevailing sort of issues and concerns to be discussed during this next periodic update, whether it be water rates, growth pressure on the Riverview area, property owners kind of wanting to look at some map amendments for their property, and, you know, things like more retail in Pasco so people quit driving across the river to spend their money, or all some of these things that kind of came up in those initial discussions. This is a rough sketch of the schedule for this project. We're obviously in May 2025, just beginning to kick off the effort. This sort of lays out some of the initial work, public outreach, touch points, and different parts of the project, ultimately ending up in around December 2026. As with all of our projects, our grant really drives our deadlines and timelines. So we really kind of have to craft our activities based on that. One of the cool things that came out of the meeting was kind of a sneak peek at some of the imaging that they're starting to look at. And so we're able to share some of these preliminary ideas. So if you have any feelings or reactions or feedback on what you see, let us know. because it's definitely not set in stone at this point, but they were willing to share kind of what they initially came up with, which was kind of neat. For our transportation system master plan, this is probably the project that is really just beginning to kick off. Again, through the RFP process, the city selected DKS associates. I believe we had three different consultants that came in with proposals, and DKS was selected. And we just very recently got under contract with them and we're currently scheduling the kickoff meeting with them. Um, so there's really not a whole lot of specific, specific information on that one quite yet. Uh, but that will be forthcoming. So on our regional climate planning, uh, greenhouse gas emissions reductions project, uh, say that 10 times really fast. Um, That's been more of an ongoing effort. And again, that's really a regional effort where we've joined with Benton County, Richland, Kennewick, West Richland, and of course the city of Pasco are all kind of joined together in this regional effort. Although it is a regional effort, we are definitely looking at specific City of Pasco elements and goals and policy ideas. So, and again, you know, climate does tend to be more of a regional sort of experience and issue. So I think a lot of the community just felt it made sense to join together on the effort. One of the really interesting things that is coming out of some of the initial research, maybe it doesn't really come as much of a surprise to anybody, but is interesting nonetheless, is where some of the emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, are coming from and which sectors and kind of the significance of each, including the subsectors, whether it be passenger vehicles, 37%, industrial natural gas, 16%, and freight vehicles, 15%. Next steps for the greenhouse gas portion of it specifically is to really dive deeper into some of the initial research and develop some of the policy recommendations moving forward. Again, some of these ideas will be mentioned or referenced in the comp plan update as well. But it's also going to be looking at some future emission forecasts. So that will be interesting to see what they come up with, including what the forecast might be based on some of the policy recommendations. Part of the climate planning effort is kind of taking a look at some of our specific vulnerabilities. And again, probably not a whole lot of surprise here. Extreme heat, wildfire, and smoke are the two highest. I don't think that surprises anybody, but sometimes maybe people don't necessarily always think about some of the extreme events that are maybe a little more seasonal in nature, but can still increase issues of flooding and so on, but yet at the same time, potentially for more drought in the summer. The policy audit, what they did is they took a look at all of the different policies for the communities that are involved in the effort and really just try to gauge on, you know, you know, kind of the trends and policy gaps that exist and kind of score, maybe scoring isn't the right word, but just evaluating where the priorities may end up being based on their final research. So they reviewed 13 core documents and 33 supporting documents. They identified 224 separate policies, and those were, again, coded and scored. So for climate resilience, there's currently 177 policies, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, 82 policies, and climate equity, 26 policies. One of those outcomes of that effort is just identifying different elements that affect community living. And just one example is community well-being, trends being parks, trails, recreation, conservation of natural spaces, even affordable housing and approving existing homes, et cetera. Some of the identified gaps is equitable access to green space, social equity and environmental justice and every phase of implementation, encourage high density transit oriented housing, and also climate hazard response and preparedness for vulnerable populations. And that's just kind of really one element that they're looking at as far as community well being. For this particular area of the project, next steps are to complete the greenhouse gas analysis and report. They've done kind of the preliminary inventory, but I think they're just diving deeper to come up with more so they can also draft some policy priorities and suggestions for the communities. On to the energy resilience and electrical study. Again, through the RFP process, the city selected Scott Madden, management consultants for the project. The main focus of this project is to help identify ways of promoting and sustaining the rapid growth in this region, increasing the resilience and sustainability, while at the same time decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Easy, right? Maybe not so easy, but it's important nonetheless. So those are the primary goals for this particular project. And this is obviously not as large as the periodic update for the comp plan, but it's actually a very fast-moving project. This project is slated to be essentially completed next month. So they're moving very quickly, and they're doing a great job. And they're in phase two of the three-phase project. Earlier on, really last month or so, they started some of the initial data requests and reviewing documents, conducting interviews and discussions with area people, including Porta Pasco and Franklin County PUD. Right now they've been working on diving deeper into specific areas of need as well as identifying areas where maybe there's a little bit more stakeholder outreach that needs to be taking place before they conclude the study. but I think they're also kind of looking at sort of preliminary drafts of the end report. They did send us last month, they sent us the initial study outline and report draft, and we accepted that. We thought it looked fantastic. So next month they'll be finalizing graphics, reviewing and finalizing the report for everybody's review and approval. Again, this is essentially where we're at right now in phase two. Beginning here very soon, I think they're looking at some workshops and work sessions as needed, as well as additional stakeholder check-ins with the city and I think the port and PUD. That will lead to additional discussions and maybe kind of different iterations of their report and then, again, finishing off next month. And like I mentioned before, this project probably more so than any of the others because the timing is really just driven by the grant agreements and the timeline and deadlines associated with the grant. So it's a very, very fast-moving project, and they've been working really hard at it. And with that, are there any questions that I may offer? Oh, one more thing I might add. They are scheduled for the... the climate planning, the consultant that has been working on that project they have committed to being on our next month's agenda to present to the Planning Commission and be there for any questions that you might have at that time as well. So just wanted to mention that.

Commissioner Jones.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. First, I'd like to just compliment everyone who's involved in this. This is fantastic work. So many people don't realize the importance of these things that go on for the future of Pasco, for the future of the Tri-Cities, and how important they are for our overall quality of living and I just want to thank great report this is exciting maybe I'm kind of a nerd but this this is exciting to see this stuff going on and all the different places that it's at so thank you for sharing it and keeping us up to speed pardon me one thing I want to toss in in regards to the comprehensive plan and then it came up as you were doing this for community well-being I I have my Qantas Club of Pasco shirt on today. I'm a proud member of the Pasco Qantas Club. And during the Cinco de Mayo festivities, our club worked downtown helping to park cars. And one of the questions we got asked the most was, anyone want to guess? Anyone want to guess? Where are the bathrooms? And the answer was easy as, well, there really aren't any. You have to just seek and find. And I've mentioned this before at various meetings and things, but I would really hope that as the comprehensive plan moves forward and the development of downtown continues, that we do look at trying to find ways to make accessible restroom facilities available for when there are events going on. You know, the comments have been made, well, you know, vandalism and this and that, and I totally understand that, but I think we also have to be brave and bold enough to realize that these things matter to our communities there were so many families down there at this event and the weather was not the best at all but there's hundreds of people and they had my first sampling of street corn in the in the cup and my oh my I'm a believer it was fantastic so it was wonderful to see all the people and the music and then the clothing and all the celebration that was going on but with so many young families especially if there was designated restrooms clean safe restrooms at least open for certain events it would make a big difference and i just want to keep encouraging the people that are working on the comprehensive plan because it is a community well-being thing as your slide showed so i think that's i just want to keep pushing that because it matters and i think it would really be a quality of life thing for our citizens in our community thank you madam chair

Commissioner Karchil, go ahead. No, I'm sorry.

Oh, no problem.

For once. So to piggyback on to Commissioner Jones, there's a downtown Peanuts Park bathroom that's usually open, one of the newer bathrooms and very nice, and then Volunteer Park, which is along the parade route. But that's about it. So if you're over towards Lourdes, a little farther over or further south, then yeah, it's a walk to be able to get to those two. We were parking cars at the Tri-Valley.

We were parking cars at the... union mission and managing that parking lot and there as people walked up towards everything you know there was not not a lot like you said so i just think it's important that we consider this as we move forward and some some local businesses were very kind and letting people in but you know that's their own decision as a business and they have to make that on in their best interest so i just place it think it plays a vital role so thank you for sharing that i appreciate it

Does Commissioner Thiel have anything to share?

I'm not seeing any activity there.

Okay. Well, I just wanted to share out that it looks to me, and maybe I misunderstood, that there is two new master plans that are in the work from the Regional Climate Planning, which is a consortium with Richland and Kennewick, and then also the Energy Resilience Study

Yeah, and actually the energy resilience, the transportation system master plan, and even, well, the energy resilience, the climate planning, and the transportation, those all three actually weigh in and will affect the overall comp plan update in different ways. So there's really four different sort of identified projects, but all of them will influence the greater master plan in different ways.

Absolutely. And so what I was going to share is that, to me, it looks like a new set of workload onto the planning department. And so what I was going to ask is if there is additional staffing to be able to help take up all that work. Because anyone who reads through these documents will absolutely see the details that go into it and then the crossover into all the other plans that you had mentioned is impressive and it has to be really well thought out plans in order for our city to be able to continue to live, play, and grow here in our community.

Yeah, so there's no specific employees, although we're going to enlist the Planning Commission on a really significant level over the next 18 months dealing with the comp plan update. But, I mean, honestly, it's possible because of the funding from the state and with the consultants that we've hired to be on the team. And what's really cool to see is that they all kind of recognize the influence that they have on each other And there's even going to be some collaboration with the different consultants, even though they're under separate contracts. They understand each other. Many of them know each other. So it's really, you know, yeah, it takes a bit to manage from a staff level on the effort. But it's great to have great consultants helping us out. So thank you.

Right.

So another question I had regarding the regional climate planning project. plan and the Energy Resilience Study is oftentimes when we talk about stakeholders, we talk about our residents, our citizens, our developers, our social services. And in the case of energy, as well as like transportation, are we also inviting the ag community industry into the conversations too?

Yes, they're definitely involved. There's kind of a, I guess you can call it almost like a technical advisory group that is set up, and they meet periodically, and they definitely include members of the ag community. They're definitely heavily represented in that group.

Excellent. And one of the... consulting firms that you had mentioned previously had done the downtown Pasco master plan. And I remember right, they did a really fantastic job of public outreach. And I've always felt like they set the gold standard. And so I hope that the other consultants that are doing public outreach can follow their lead.

Thank you.

That's all I have. Does anyone else want to share? Okay, so next we'll move on to a public hearing. And the public hearing we have is for the 2025-2029 Tri-Cities Assessment of Fair Housing. There is no master file that is associated with this. And we'll start with discussion with comments from the city staff.

Good evening Planning Commission. Tonight I will be addressing the 2025-2029 Tri-Cities Assessment of Fair Housing. The Tri-Cities Home Consortium, which includes the cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland, conduct a comprehensive fair housing plan process every five years to identify and address barriers to equitable housing access. This effort is closely aligned with the consolidated plan and serves as a key component of broader housing and community development strategies. The purpose of the assessment is to better understand the challenges certain individuals face in securing fair housing, particularly those who are part of groups protected under federal and state fair housing laws. By identifying these disproportionate obstacles, the consortium can develop more targeted and effective policies to promote inclusive, equitable housing opportunity throughout the Tri-Cities. The Fair Housing Assessment identified several key barriers that limit equitable housing access in the Tri-Cities. A primary concern is the limited supply of affordable housing, which restricts options for low and moderate income households. Additionally, there is a shortage of accessible housing units that adequately serve seniors and individuals with disabilities. The assessment also revealed that many residents lack awareness of their fair housing rights and the legal responsibilities of landlords. Language barriers further compound access challenges for non-English speakers and gaps in transportation infrastructure hinder residents' ability to reach essential services such as employment centers, schools, and health care facilities. Addressing these impediments is critical to advancing fair and inclusive housing. To address the identified barriers to fair housing, the Consortium has outlined a set of targeted actions for 2025 through 2029. To increase the supply of affordable housing, the Consortium will continue its partnerships with local housing authorities and other affordable housing entities such as Habitat for Humanity, and we will broaden outreach efforts for the Down Payment Assistance Program, ensuring multilingual access to better serve diverse communities. In parallel, the consortium aims to expand accessible housing by supporting owner-occupied rehabilitation programs across all jurisdictions and exploring the use of home funds to retrofit existing homes for improved accessibility. Efforts will also focus on promoting accessible design standards among developers and advocating for policies that support the development of accessory dwelling units, which can offer flexible and affordable housing options for individuals with varying needs. To further support fair housing goals, the Consortium will focus on increasing community awareness, improving language accessibility, and enhancing transportation connectivity. Planned actions include hosting fair housing trainings for landlords and nonprofits and partnering with local housing authorities to deliver resident education programs. To address language access barriers, the Consortium will translate key documents provided interpreter services and collaborate with nonprofits to better understand and meet the needs of non-English speaking populations. Additionally, the region will work with Ben Franklin Transit to support student transit programs and prioritize connectivity improvements through updates to transportation planning and city standards. Infrastructure investments will also focus on expanding bike and pedestrian networks and upgrading crosswalks to meet accessibility standards ensuring safer and more inclusive mobility for all residents. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to review the fair housing planning process and proposed actions for the 2025 to 2029 period. These efforts represent a commitment to removing barriers and promoting equitable access to housing for all community members. We look forward to your feedback and collaboration. as we continue working toward inclusive and sustainable housing solutions across the Tri-Cities. I'd now be happy to answer any questions you may have, after which we can open the public hearing. Commissioner Jones?

Thank you very much, Sharon. Being the first time I'm seeing one of these, can you tell me who makes up the home consortium?

The consortium is the City of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland.

I mean, specifically, what offices from HC?

It's the CDBG. Okay. The Block Grant Administration.

And do they meet both independently as the cities and then together to work on this stuff?

Yes.

So it's hard enough for one city to do something like this and gather all this data and make it usable. I can only imagine what it's like for three to bring all their data together check their egos at the door, and put it together into something that is workable and usable and honest. And I wanna, as I read this thing, I was amazed at how it felt to me that that's what took place, that there was a real effort amongst the cities to bring information forward. It was very honest and open. You know, here's who we are, here's what we are, good, bad, or indifferent, and here's what we need to work on. I think there were some fantastic things that you pointed out that need to be done. It's amazing, and if half of the things that are being proposed here can take place in the next five years, what an amazing impact it'll have on the Tri-Cities. read it read through as in kind of a persnickety set of lenses as we are to recommend and that kind of thing just like you asked to do and so I've got a couple pages of notes here that I want to read and share they are some of the things that were on there my comments are actually going to be very much in support of so this is this is actually quite exciting. But it's from a very persnickety pair of lenses that I just wanted to pull out some things and pick some things that I think maybe should be considered in it as well or just other things that are worth looking at and underscoring what's in here. Wow, that's quite the setup. Here we go. And I gave a copy of my notes to the chair and I can give a copy to the clerk as well for the minutes. if like so. Chair, if I may go on? Okay, thank you very much. They reflect various pages throughout the presentation. On page 12 in the executive summary, as I read that, one thing that really popped out to me is that sobriety is a key factor that's holding back many homeless people from improving their situation, and I'm sure we all know that. But in the area that says community needs and trends, I would advise that perhaps that be able to be considered as a community need and trend. We know how much sobriety impacts people's ability to succeed and to get themselves together, get their lives together. I think that's a missing element of this. Page 13 where it references education rates. The report states in 2022, Asian and Hispanics were less likely than whites to obtain a high school diploma. My first career was as an educator. I was a school teacher for 16 years, and then I went to the dark side for 17 years as principal and superintendent. So these comments I make are with 33 years experience as an educator, doctorate degree in education and administration. I can say that the language barrier plays a significant role in student success. If non-English speaking students are taught English, their achievement test, graduation rates, everything tends to improve. As there are many studies that support students who are bilingual tend to use more of their brain, they process information better than many of their peers. And I quoted three studies at the bottom of that paragraph if anyone wants to look at those for support of that statement. I'm not just making it up as I go. It's a very true thing. maybe there can be ways to look into that and I'll reference that more as we go through. Page 13 and 65 referencing zoning. The cities are going to need to become more creative in allowing small homes, possibly creating mini motels to be built or old ones retrofitted to provide more housing. And this is kind of where I'm making some fairly bold statements, but that's what our job is here. I believe we need to consider that these need to be operated by cities, counties, the state, or farmed out to local nonprofits as if they are in the public sector, the need for the investor to make a profit tends to eliminate the possibility of free and affordable housing. And so nobody wants to see government get more involved in things, but theoretically, if the city cities, tri-cities, whatever, were to run affordable housing, the need for a profit would be eliminated and thusly they would be more affordable and possibly able to meet more people's needs. The next one, page 15, increasing language access. Again, I believe there was something in the report about training people in speaking English or perhaps a plan to work with the schools, CBC, or other entities to raise the level of those who can speak and understand English rather than just focusing on translation. I think they could be parallel to really help people improve their standing. Page 15 and page 62, increasing transportation. We have a tremendous public system in place now with the Benton Franklin Translate and references made to that in there. Good equipment, great drivers, and as wide of a route and circulation as can currently be afforded. I believe that it should be looked at that more organizations who see benefit from it, those being the cities of Pasco, Richland, Kennewick, the school districts of the same communities and the counties, should all take a more active role in helping the funding instead of just expecting the transportation system itself to develop and do the funding where so many others benefit from it. Page 19, that page underscores the need for greater language service. There are a lot of really noticeable themes throughout this whole report, and that is certainly one of them. Page 39, poverty rates across all three cities have decreased. I thought that was a very interesting thing to see. That was since 2017. Page 44, unaffordable rents exacerbate housing problems, including overcrowding and housing cost burden, forcing many people to live under one roof, which creates many unsafe situations. Page 48, this one really grabbed me. Substance use disorder. Of the groups looked at, it was identified in the study that 25% have a mental health disorder, 59% of chronic health conditions, 52% physical disability and so on. That's a lot of people that need a lot of help. I believe that there would be very few, if any, for-profit facilities that would ever be in place to serve the needs of these populations and have it be affordable. If we're really going to make an impact, local governments in partnership with state, federal funds and local nonprofits are going to, in my opinion, it needs to be looked at to build and operate facilities, perhaps dorm types or something to really meet the needs of these high risk populations. And again, removing the need to make a profit, making it more affordable. And I have nothing against profit at all, but as I've worked in many different settings like this, private entities want to make money, and that's fine. That's a wonderful thing, but it impacts greatly the ability to provide these services. Page 66 talks about ADUs, and you mentioned them also in here, which I think is awesome. Many communities have found some success with the implementation of ADUs. accessory dwelling units, the biggest problem becomes where to put them and the zoning and regulation laws that boards just like us have to review and recommend to city councils. We have Pasco, Kennewick, Richland all with their own unique zoning regulations. So how do we make a unified approach to that? Land values can be prohibitive in placing them because land is extremely valuable. They're not making more land, so that's a big issue as well is where to put these. If you put them out in the middle of nowhere, that creates transportation issues and that has its own issues. So these type of units, I think, need to play a large role in the upcoming 20-year plan for the Tri-Cities. So thank you for letting me read these. Again, this was a very exciting read. I really want to compliment everyone involved making it. A lot of work, a lot of digging goes into creating something like this, and I compliment you. and they're like the themes that keep running through here. The people that are in need and you identified them on there better than I can. So I really hope that government entities that receive this take it seriously and continue to look at trying ways to address the needs that are in this consortium report. Thank you.

Thank you for those.

Commissioner Hatfield.

A couple of things on here. I definitely, having worked in the medical community for decades, I see a big need for addressing the homeless and the needs of people that are struggling. Don't have a lot of answers for that. And I think part of it is also controlled by the state governments and things of that nature. Years ago, there were facilities through the state where they could help people, long term perhaps, and then these were shut down and leaving people just to go on the street or what have you. So that's a significant problem. I've seen the city operate, I think it was the Seymour Motel, and I don't know really what happened with that, if it's still in use. Also, I think it has to do with the Catholic charity on the corner there, where I believe by the gambling place, we're close to it on the corner. And I don't know if that's still in operation as well to help people. But it's a huge problem to tackle. visited Seattle recently and it was kind of a shock because I expected it to be really overrun with the tent city and all that that has kind of been in the media about Seattle but we saw none of that I mean we were like where what's happened and I stopped and visited with some business owners along like Pike Street Pioneer Square it got a little worse in the Pioneer Square area but up a little bit further north on what used to be First Avenue, a couple of the shop owners said that they have, the council's been working with ambassadors, and I'm not sure exactly what the function of those are, but they go out on the community to see how they can plug these people in to services. And I think also, actually, there's a police presence as well to protect people the rights of the people who want to bring their families or to patronize the different shops and not be afraid of doing so. So I think that has to be a really big, important part of this plan. The other thing that is kind of completely on a different part of the plan, I think if I'm not mistaken, a state law was passed recently or it's in the books which limits the amount of increase that landlords can do. And I don't know, I was talking to somebody recently, it's rather new, but that might help control some of the people who don't have the resources. to be able to afford some places that maybe a landlord might want to jack the price up because of the vacancy being, you know, so poor. Not that all landlords would want to do that, but this will kind of help maybe to rein that back. And actually, I think our community is working really well with bilingual kind of help. And I know the school district certainly is with dual language. and different things like that. So I've seen an improvement in that markedly. Is that it?

Yes. Is Commissioner Till on the line?

Okay.

All right. I'll go ahead and share some of my thoughts. Thank you so much, Commissioners, for the work you guys do and diving into are very thick packets and digesting the information and bringing in your own personal experiences as well as our neighbors too, because we do spend a lot of time talking to our neighbors and trying to be able to gain their perspective too. One of the things as a teacher in Pasco School District is I'm really excited to see that this is the first plan, any kind of information I've ever received in the last four years from the city of Pasco that listed languages beyond Spanish. And for a long time, we've had these citizens and their children in our schools. So we know these languages are being spoken. And so a couple of the languages that you guys have shared out is Burmese and Ukrainian. So thank you for recognizing that and valuing the large diversity we have in our community. Of course, those two languages are not the only languages that also needs translation. I do like the point about partnering with the school district on English language education for adults and for our residents, and there is through Pasco School District evening classes that residents can take for free to learn English. I would also like to see that the affordable housing information pamphlets, posters to also be brought into the schools, places where parents would be collecting their students or meeting with administration. And even for our staff, not all of our staff is certified, certificated level of salaries. And so an opportunity for them to be able to see that too and pass on that information to their neighbors and their family members. I was really impressed with the city of Kennewick, as well as the city of Richland's long list of how they're getting that information into their committee members' hands, as well as the educational opportunities of organizing outreach opportunities for for either landlords to be able to become educated on how they can be able to be part of the consortium and part of the affordable housing or residents, too. And so I was really impressed. I was a little bit sad to see that PASCO didn't have as much of a list. And so I wanted to learn a little bit about your thoughts about that, like if we had less of a grant or if in the past we've led the way in some areas and they're playing catch-up.

So yeah, so Pasco really has led the way in that and Kennewick and Richland haven't and so They're pretty much trying to catch up now in the past Because we all get home dollars Pasco has done more down payment assistance Unfortunately with the price of houses now we haven't done one since 2022 but just this week I did help the grant administrator over there do her first one in Kennewick. So hopefully we're getting that information out more so that people know that we do have these funds available too.

And I want to thank you for sharing about that. remind the public that Pasco was the first out of the three cities to be able to pass an ADU code off of the state's law that was passed a few years before that. And so that was the work of your guys' department, work of the Planning Commission, and also work of the City Council. And so We do have ADUs, but my question back is how readily is that information available to the public, such as the blueprints? At one point we were talking about having a streamlined process of blueprints as well as permits to be able to help our citizens take advantage of this opportunity.

yeah you know and i'll be honest with you because i guess i'm relatively new here in pasco i'm not familiar with that particular effort um certainly we'll look into it and report back to the planning commission thank you all right thank you at the top of my head that's all the questions i have does anyone else have anything else to share okay

all right so seeing that there's no more discussion um then we go ahead and open the workshop okay excuse me open the public hearing um any individuals who wish to speak on this particular item which we do not see anyone in but is there anyone online no uh not other than commissioner teal okay so I tap the gavel for public comment.

One, two, three.

One, two, three? Okay. Two and three. All right. I would entertain a motion for closing of the public hearing. Okay. All right. And do I have a second?

Second.

I'll second.

Okay. Motion made by Commissioner Jones and seconded by Commissioner Crutchfield. And all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Okay. Three, four ayes. Commissioner Thiel?

Affirmative.

Okay. All right. So... Let the record show it was moved by Commissioner Jones, seconded by Commissioner Hatchfield, and a motion passed unanimously. Crunchfield, I am sorry I wrote that down because I don't know why it's Hatfield tonight. It is Crunchfield all the time.

Hatfield, McCoy, no.

So path forward coming from city staff.

Yes, so the next steps will be the presentation to the City Council workshop on May 27th with the formal adoption scheduled for June 2nd. Then we'll submit this to HUD for approval along with the consolidated plan, which we were still holding on to as we needed to wait until we received our initial fiscal year $25. allocation notice which has been received now and upon HUD approval then the plan will guide the proposed actions for the next five fiscal years and I do want to let you all know that all of your comments will be also implemented into the plan.

Thank you. Next up we have no workshop so now we'll go ahead and move on to other business.

So it's my great pleasure to introduce to the Planning Commission, the community, although we don't have anybody online other than Commissioner Teal right now, introduce the new Director of Community and Economic Development, Haley Miller. She comes to us from Marysville on the west side. And Haley, would you like to say a few words? Yes.

I would. Thank you, Craig, for that. And good evening, Planning Commission. This is a great first meeting to attend. I can tell you're very organized, and I'm not quite used to that. Hopefully my previous planning commissioners are not listening, but it looks like a good group, so thank you for that. And, yeah, like Craig said, I came from the west side. My previous role was at the City of Marysville, similar position. It was a very lateral move for me. And lucky for me, I did just go through the comprehensive plan process over on the west side, and we just finished it yesterday. few months ago so this will all be repetitive but exciting and you know obviously it'll be unique to Pasco so Craig and I were talking that we'll probably have a pretty busy agenda for this group the next 12 months so we'll be using all of those meetings to update you on that process so I cannot wait to get to know you guys and and Pasco community I do have some family throughout the area and have always visited growing up. So I do feel like I have ties. I'm not a complete stranger to the area, but there's definitely a lot of things I don't know. And so I'm excited to dig in and learn with you guys and, and be a part of this great group. So appreciate it and look, look forward to future meetings. Thank you.

Yes. Welcome director Miller. Um, one thing I think you'll find director Miller as, um, This Planning Commission works really well together, a high level of respect. They take the role of being a commissioner very seriously and take the time to be able to meet with the community and share it out. And we look forward to getting to know you, and so feel free to contact us any time if you have any questions. We look forward to it.

Thank you. And I wanted to say thank you for your volunteer service. I said this at the beginning, but I don't think planning commissioners or other commissioners get enough thanks for their free time that they're providing. So I just always like to see that at every meeting just because we're very thankful for your help. Thank you.

All right. There's one more. June meeting?

Yes. The next meeting falls on Juneteenth, which is now a holiday. So it was proposed that we push that back a week. to June 26th, and does that work for you guys? Okay.

All right. Seen with there's no other business, I would accept a motion for adjournment.

Move to adjourn.

Okay. All right, so it's been moved by Commissioner Jones, and I seconded by Commissioner Hethford. Okay.

Who?

Kedler. Sorry. Kedler. Sorry. I told you. I told you I was going to need a little grace. 726 adjourned.