Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. The Puyallup Planning Commission meeting for March 11th, 2026 is now called to order. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Commissioner Dave DeGroote.

Present.

Commissioner Millard Barney.

Present.

Commissioner Greg Martin.

Excused.

Commissioner Mark Crosby.

Present.

Commissioner Kyle Landon.

Present.

Commissioner Diane Washburn. Present. Vice Chair Tracy Taylor.

Present.

Thank you. We have a quorum with six present.

Next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda, but I am going to make a motion.

I would like to add one item to the agenda. I am flexible as to its placement. I would like to at least know a little bit about our new commissioners, just an introduction, and I think it would be fair for us to introduce ourselves as well. Do I have a second?

Second. Second.

Do we need a vote? Do I have a vote? Or all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Where would we like this to be added?

I feel like we should do it before election of chair. So now, apparently.

We could do it as like 2B. Perfect. Got it.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? Second. OK. I motion and you second. Perfect. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? And moving on.

Can I ask a question?

Yes, you may.

I'd like to ask a question about the agenda if I can. Just this is just so I can get up to speed a bit from the agenda. It says here in the middle housing code amendments that the City Council approved an interim and it doesn't start until June of 2026. And so I assume that just the current regulations are ongoing right now until June of 26 of this year.

So the interim regulations, I'm not quite sure what you're looking at. Do you have a page number you can give us?

It's page three, City Planning Commission, February 11. It's down to the bottom where it says Middle Housing Code Amendments.

It's in our minutes.

In the minutes.

That is actually a typo. That should be June 2025.

Okay, that's why I was asking, wondering too.

Yes, so the interim zoning was approved in June of 25. It is currently valid through June of 26. And then it could be extended if council needs more time to consider the permanent regulations, but it is currently in place.

Okay, that's just the interim ordinance, right? That's correct. So one other question, just for being educated, there was a lot of discussion in the minutes about Lahar. So when the final regulation is presented, I'm assuming we'll be able to talk about Lahar some more.

So, and I can go into this during the presentation. I'd be happy to talk some more about that. Do you want to just wait until then? That's fine. Okay, wonderful.

Thank you.

Yeah. Anything else? Do I put your flag down?

Get you used to it. Okay. So moving back, do we have a vote on the approval of the agenda? We did that.

Correct. So our next item would be the introductions of our new commissioners.

Okay. So I guess I will start since I introduced this. My name is Tracy Taylor. I've been on the commission for one year. Um, I started doing similar work decades ago as a permit specialist and working in a development consulting office in Malibu. And I currently am doing permit processing and development consulting here in Puyallup as well. I've also sat on a board for the county on developmental disabilities. My daughter is an adult with disabilities, so I'm hitting the two things that really strike my heart. Been a resident of Puyallup for over 20 years and just couldn't hope for it to be anything better. We just keep pushing and pushing. So I think we're doing a great job. Do I have a volunteer for a second or shall we just go down the line? Commissioner DeGroot, do you want to just start and we'll move down the line?

All right. My name is David DeGroot. I've been a resident here for about 33 years. I'm a retired managing curator of the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection at Weyerhaeuser Company, now called the Pacific Bonsai Museum. And I've served previously here in the city on the Lodging Tax Committee and on the Arts and Culture Commission. This is my second year. Well, I've been on this commission for two years now. That's all.

I'm Diane Washburn. Owned my house in Chollop for 30 years now. When we bought it, it was in the county and got annexed into the city, I don't know, about 2001, I think. And it used to be a peaceful, quiet country neighborhood, but not anymore since they put in Stuart Crossing. It's adjacent to me on two sides of my property now. I'm right in the corner. And my background, I'm retired now. I was a software engineer my whole career. I work for various government entities, Department of Revenue, Employment Security, school districts, Pierce County Library System, Seattle City Light, where I was on the emergency management team there. And then I also volunteered at the library about 25 years ago. I have a master's in library science, so I like to do a lot of research and use my logical brain.

And I'm very happy to be here.

Nice to meet all of you too. That's all.

My name is Miller Barney. Um, I've lived here approximately 37 years in the city of Puyallup. I, um, have, uh, recently retired probably about a year ago from concrete technology corporation, which I worked for for 45 years. Um, and I guess my experience, um, being on the planning commission would be as my last position there. I had to work with different codes in city of Tacoma, the port of Tacoma and so forth. So that would be my experience that I've had. Thank you.

My name is Mark Crosby. I've been here for about 55 years from all kinds of different areas in Puyallup. I used to work at the paper mill in Tacoma, but it kind of, so I'm kind of in between retirement and working at NAPA and learning more about the city. So I'm here to listen and learn and thank you for having me.

I'm Kyle Landon. I've been in Puyallup for almost 10 years. So I think you guys have got some time on me. I'm a coastal engineer, which is a type of civil engineering. And I've been doing that for about 15 years. And I think that about covers most of it. This will be my second year on the commission.

Well, thank you all and welcome to new members and old. Um, I believe our next item on the agenda is the election of the chair. Do I have any nominee nominations nominees?

I hope you didn't say not me because I'd like to nominate you as chair.

I will accept.

I second.

Do we have any other nominations? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I believe the ayes have it.

Thank you.

And we now need to elect a vice chair. Do I have any nominees or nominations?

I believe your microphone was off. Sorry about that.

I would like to nominate Dave. Commissioner DeGroote, would you like to be vice chair?

I'll accept the nomination.

I second the nomination. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Welcome to our new vice chair. Moving quickly along to item number five, consideration of the minutes. 5A, we are being asked to approve the February 11th, 2026 minutes. I believe we've just made a small edit to correct the date to 2025. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes as amended?

Motion to approve the minutes as amended.

Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Minutes have been approved. I don't see any citizen comments for number six. And I believe that you had emailed that we did not have any online or in other sources.

That is correct.

Moving on to item seven, work session topic 7A.

Thank you chair, let me just get my presentation up.

I apologize, Katie, I should have introduced you. Planning Manager Katie Baker will be giving the presentation this evening on this portion.

Okay we'll get there, eventually good evening katie Baker and the planning division. So tonight, we have a presentation that we have given our department dps development and permitting services we've given this presentation on our 2026 work plan to city council at the end of January. We gave this presentation and wanted to share that with the Planning Commission as well. We waited until tonight when we have our new commissioners here. So everyone's hearing this. We're kicking off this new season of new planning commissioners and this upcoming work to be done. So I've modified the presentation a little bit from what we gave City Council, because the first four packages, it's grouped into packages of code amendments, and the first four have actually already gone through the Planning Commission process, and two of them have been adopted by City Council, and two are forthcoming. They'll be presented to City Council in April. for their consideration. However, I do have a slide on each of those and middle housing, for example, is one of those. And so we can pause and answer any questions that you might have. Just know that those first four have already gone through the planning commission, but you're more than welcome to ask questions to understand what the discussion was at the planning commission and the status and any other questions you might have. I'm happy to take questions throughout. Please feel free to raise your flag and Chair Taylor will call on you. Please feel free to stop me at any point. So really, some of you may be familiar who've been on the commission for a little bit, but typically we put together at least a planning division level work plan each year. Most of those items are items that come before the planning commission because you do the bulk of the work in terms of reviewing code amendments to the zoning code. amendments to the comprehensive plan and any other sub area plans or functional comprehensive plans that get adopted. So most of that work does come through the Planning Commission, though not entirely. This, we have a new director, Courtney Brunel is our DPS director. She started back in October of last year. And so She came in and wanted to kind of lay out a roadmap for our department and for city council. So they really understood the scope of work that will be coming before them this year from the DPS department. Again, this is primarily from planning and most of it will go through the planning commission or has already gone through. But that was really the intent in providing this presentation to the city council to kind of give them that roadmap for the coming year. So in the presentation i'll talk a little bit about why we're doing these updates go through each of the six packages of updates and then talk a little bit about next steps. So this again, these are primarily code amendments in for the last couple of years we've been working on amendments to the comprehensive plan that's the policy document that kind of guiding document planning for the next 20 years or so. The new commissioners got their very large binder printed copy of that comp plan tonight. That was adopted in July of 2025. And that has set the stage along with many, many state mandated changes for a whole host of amendments to the zoning code. So that's that next phase of work that we're beginning now. And again, a bit of this we've already done. So again, it's that comp plan implementation that's necessitating these amendments legislative compliance, so the state has been very busy in the last few legislative sessions. Particularly when it comes to housing and increasing. housing options in cities. But there are other requirements as well that the state is imposing on cities and we need to amend our code to be compliant with that. And there's of course minimum compliance and other areas that we can consider going further. We also, for about the last five years, we've been talking with the city council about the need to really streamline our regulations and our zoning designations. I didn't go back and refresh my memory on how many different zones we have in the city, but if you look at our zoning map, I wanna say it's like 25 or 27 different zones. It's quite a lot. And particularly when you look at the changes that the state is mandating, there's less and less distinction between those various zones. So really, we're trying to streamline staff's understanding of the code and having to explain all these different zones to applicants, to developers, to property owners, streamline that process and that that message and try and improve the customer experience as well so that it's very clear what zone you're in, what regulations apply to your property, and how to move forward with a development project. And then kind of the last piece or reason that we've identified some of these amendments is just to remove barriers to development, particularly housing development. We do have certain housing targets in the comprehensive plan that have been adopted, and there are certainly priorities that have been established by city council through our comprehensive plan. And so we want to make sure that the code aligns with those goals and doesn't have unintended hurdles for that would prevent that development from occurring. So, again, there are six packages that we've broken up or groups these code amendments into. The first two packages have already been, not just through the planning commission process, but also have already been approved by city council. So much of the work that this commission did last year, we're already seeing the fruits of that labor council has adopted. Generally, I think your recommendations, which is wonderful. And so I'll just buzz through these pretty quickly. But again, if you have any questions, please just raise your flag and I will pause. So the first amendment was related to Title 19, which is our subdivision regulations. There were a handful of amendments made to this title. We addressed some changes to both short plats. Short plats have typically been four lots or less subdivision. That has been increased to nine lots. We also needed to respond to some changes in legislation allowing new subdivision types called unit lot subdivisions and residential lot splits. And so those processes and allowances have now been added into the code there. And in combination with this, this first package, we also addressed some changes to our application review procedures and timelines. So this was a separate piece of legislation that changed how long that the city has to review various application types. We've actually been operating under these new timelines for about a year now, but we needed to make those companion code amendments so that it was clear that we were being compliant and everyone understood what those timelines were. So those were kind of two big pieces of code amendments that were packaged together, went through this planning commission, I think in December. December or January, you held a public hearing and then City Council approved that last month in February. Are there any questions on this first package related to subdivisions or noticing procedures? Okay. The second package that has also been approved by city council is what we call our phase one zoning map amendments. And you'll hear a little bit more about phase two tonight. But following the comprehensive plan update, that process made a number of changes to the city's future land use map. So that's the map that has kind of broad land use designations. low-density residential, high-density residential, commercial, pedestrian-oriented commercial. So kind of very big categories. Then within that, there are specific zoning designations. So this is really that piece to implement those zoning changes that are necessary. Phase one was what we kind of called the simple, clear, minor cleanup zoning changes. So again, we had presented that to the Planning Commission, you held a public hearing and made a recommendation, and City Council adopted that in February. Package 3 is our middle housing package. So very briefly, middle housing legislation requires that a city of our size allow six, at least six of nine types of middle housing. This is everything from duplexes to fiveplexes, townhomes, cottage housing, or courtyard apartments. It requires that cities allow up to two units per lot, two units of middle housing. And up to four units per lot if the lot is within a quarter mile of a transit star or a major transit station, which is the sounder station or if one unit of the four provided is an affordable income restricted unit. yeah go ahead i'll take a question. microphone.

Does that include condominiums?

So condominiums are a, it's a process for ownership that actually does not go through the city. It goes through the county. You can condominiumize anything essentially. So the city regulates kind of the type of structure that can be placed on a property, whether it's a single family home, a duplex, you know, a townhouse. And then the developer or the property owner can choose to condominiumize those individual units. But that's not a process that the city regulates. I will say, I don't want to confuse everyone, but there is a separate process that we've newly established called the unit lot subdivision, which does come through the city for regulation and review. And that is a different way. It's similar to condominiumization, but it's just a different method. And it's a little different in a few ways because you actually would physically own the land as well as the unit itself. But it is a way to allow the purchase of individual units that are shared wall units. So townhomes, for example. Okay. So with the middle housing legislation, so backing up a little bit, we've talked about this a little bit when we were talking about the minutes, but the city council did adopt an interim middle housing ordinance that took effect June 30th of last year, and that was due to state timelines. So the state said cities have to adopt these changes by June 30th. If you don't, there's a model ordinance that will take effect. and the city opted to adopt an interim ordinance that was compliant with the state legislation so that the the model ordinance wouldn't take over essentially so we've been operating under that interim ordinance since last june we've worked with the planning commission to develop a recommendation for permanent regulations And we will be bringing that to the City Council at a study session at the end of March and then anticipated for review and voting on the ordinance in April. I will note, and again, the Lahara has been asked about, there's a provision in the interim regulations that That middle housing does not apply to properties generally properties within the volcanic hazard area or the lahar zone so that's essentially the. properties on the valley floor is kind of the simplest way to think about that I apologize I don't actually have a map in this presentation, but we do have a map that shows specifically what properties are excluded from middle housing. There was concern expressed by city council that. that the addition of middle housing density in single family neighborhoods would add challenges to evacuation in the event of a lahar. There was concerns about evacuation routes and the ability to access those. with the impacts or potential impacts of additional density in those neighborhoods. So as part of the interim regulations, council made the policy decision to not allow the middle housing regulations to apply to properties on the valley floor. This is something that the planning commission discussed when it came before you for a recommendation. There was certainly opinions on kind of both sides of that. And ultimately the vote was to recommend the ordinance, the middle housing regulations, removing that Lahar prohibition, therefore allowing middle housing throughout the city in any zone where it should be allowed. So this is something that will be presented to the city council i'm sure they will discuss it when we presented the study session on march 31 and then we'll see what recommendation they make to include in the ordinance before them in April. And i'll pause there in case there's more specific questions. Okay. And I will try to remember to keep the commission updated. Sometimes it's a little hard when we move on to city council, we forget to inform the commission, but I know you all are interested in how things play out when they get to city council. Please always feel free to ask if we forget to mention, but we will try to keep you apprised of that conversation. And on a related note, I will also mention that on March 24th, the council is anticipated to get a presentation on the heart impacts to the city more broadly. This is being done from our emergency management director with some assistance from one of my planners. And so there will be a presentation really just focusing on the Lahar risks and impacts. We have asked that after that presentation to city council, we know that the commission is very interested in this issue as well. And we'd like to have them come and present to the commission at some point So we are, that's on our minds and we'll look to schedule that as soon as we're able to. Just a suggestion.

Since you said it's sometimes hard to, once you've moved on to city council to bring it back, is there a way to adjust the agenda for the meeting directly after city council meetings? That it can just be part of your staff report?

Absolutely. I mean, it's just something we will note. Yeah, we can certainly I mean, we should be giving you updates during the staff report portion of the agenda. So we will just make a better note so that we're, I mean, it seems like it just could be part of just the general agenda to to just report back on the prior council meeting. Yeah, kind of a thing. Yeah, absolutely. We're happy to do that. Okay, and then the last item that's already been through the planning Commission is related to the critical areas ordinance, so this is a separate chapter of the zoning code or the municipal code. This is chapter 21 of six that regulates all the critical areas in the city wetlands streams steep slopes and. Aquifer recharge areas, others, habitat, most of them. So as kind of a companion item to our comprehensive plan update, we're also required to assess our critical area regulations, bring them up to date in terms of best available science from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Natural Resources, and Department of Ecology. Again, this is something that has been through the Planning Commission. This was a very heavily discussed item. We've had a number of work sessions with the Planning Commission. We had a lot of engagement from residents who were able to share their concerns about some of the increases in particularly with stream buffers. That was really one of the, I would say the biggest change that was being proposed was those stream buffers. And so eventually we did get through the public hearing process, the planning commission did make a recommendation. We issued the SEPA environmental determination on those code amendments, and we did receive a couple of responses from area tribes. We've since worked with them, made some, I would say generally relatively minor amendments to the code. in response to some of the issues that they raised. We've provided a response to the tribes and reissued the SEPA determination. And then we will be doing a little bit more notification to residents. And then we'll be going back or going to the city council to present them with the ordinance, the recommended ordinance from the planning commission for their consideration. So again, we anticipate that going before them in April.

Yeah, my question would be, could we find out what all the concerns were about this that were brought forth, especially with the tribes and so on, so we would know how that might affect homeowners?

Yeah. Kendall, do you want to speak to that?

I don't know if I can do like a quick summary because we did, there were several comments that were received. I will say that I have an email prepared that's going out to you all as well as community who have signed up for some of our listservs that will include a link to the permit. And it has a table that outlines the comments and then what was changed or whether or not we did make a change. So I think that might be a good resource. But I think a lot of them were, when we say minor, they were kind of general things that are already in the process. And so it was kind of more acknowledging it in the code. There were some others that needed some changes related to stormwater regulations that wasn't caught in our initial draft. So we worked with our stormwater staff to ensure that that it aligns with the existing stormwater regulation so that there's not an inconsistency there as far as what types of dispersion and whatnot can be done within buffers next to these critical areas so that we don't have conflicts. So there were kind of more of a comprehensive look related mostly I think to wetlands and our stream buffers as far as what's allowed within the buffer area related to stormwater. i think that's kind of what i can give you on a high level there were some other adjustments um we're working on an update to the faq that will be available for property owners as katie mentioned we'll be doing a mailer out to give direction to kind of check out that faq for more information on what may have changed And we've also done kind of more of a high-level video of what's changing in the critical area code that's available for just kind of a quicker snapshot for the average property owner. But we are still encouraging residents, property owners, who if you have questions of how the changes may impact your property, that we can look at that on a site-specific scale.

Okay, and you'll send us a link then to that information?

There will be, yes.

Okay, very good. Thank you.

I just had a clarification. Back on the last slide, it's noted that it's the best available science that these were updated to, but that is not the case with the stream buffers. And our commission chose to move forward without adjusting any of the buffers at all to the latest tools provided to us by WDFW. Right. Unless that's been changed through this.

Well, the planning commission did recommend a change for non-fish bearing streams. So those streams had either a 35 or 50 foot buffer, depending on the stream type.

On city properties and such.

That as well, separately, that was also changed. But for non-fish-bearing streams, it went from a 35- or 50-foot buffer to 100 feet, which is the recommended minimum buffer for streams for pollution removal, most effective pollution removal. And city owned properties did change to follow the fish and wildlife riparian management zones. So those range from we did take a look at that from the different properties and those range from about 100 to 202 feet depending on the stream and property.

Okay, but I guess if the SEPA process doesn't yield any other complaints, then so be it. Okay.

Did you have another? Sure. Okay. Okay. So now moving into package five, and this is a package that has not come before the planning commission yet. So I think I'll be spending a little more time on this one. I guess I should clarify and say we've started presenting to the Planning Commission on this package. So the kind of primary amendment, the big portion of this package of amendments is having to do with the city's design regulations. We currently have two code chapters as well as a separate guidelines document that regulate various design components in various zones. The objective of this is kind of twofold. There was state legislation that was adopted, House Bill 1293, that requires cities to ensure that their design regulations are clear and objective, meaning any applicant can follow the guidelines and clearly apply them to their property. They are measurable. You know at how many feet you have to modulate your building. You know your window percentage, your glazing percentage is x. It's measurable and clear and objective. We also have acknowledged that having Three standards in three different places is confusing for applicants it's more difficult to administer and it's certainly not ideal. And so, with these two things in mind we're taking this opportunity to completely overhaul our design regulations we're essentially folding everything into kind of our primary design chapter. which is chapter 20.26 of the zoning code. The other standalone chapter, the mixed use design review overlay will go away. The separate document that is the downtown design guidelines will go away. Everything will be encompassed in this one chapter. That said, it's a very large chapter. It's a lot of changes. It's a whole different structure to our design regulations. So this is a pretty big undertaking. We do have consultant support that are helping immensely with this proposal, with this project. I believe we've been to the planning commission for one introductory meeting. We'll be going to our design review and historic preservation board next week to give them essentially the same presentation we gave you all. And then we will come back to the Commission to work through and refine the guidelines get to a point of public hearing and recommendation. In association with this package, we also are pairing other more housekeeping type of code items. So there's a couple of those. We have a chapter that regulates electric vehicle infrastructure that you'll hear a little bit more about tonight in a later item. We have a chapter regarding wireless facilities. We're going to make some relatively minor or simple straightforward cleanup items or cleanup. amendments to those two chapters and package that with the design standards. And This one is, it may stay packaged with the Clear and Objective Design Standards package, but it may end up getting pulled out separately because it's turning into a little larger of an undertaking than we maybe anticipated. But we'll also be looking at our administrative procedures for how permits are reviewed, how they're approved, their noticing, their appeal periods, their application process, all of that. Those currently live in, you can see about 10 different chapters in the code. We're looking at just more of a streamlining of not necessarily changing how those are processed, but just streamlining how that's displayed in code. Again, the intent here is so that it's easier for the average person, the average applicant to look at the code and know what's expected of them with a certain permit type. So I think Yep, that's everything for package five. So I'll take some questions on that.

If I could ask a question on that. One of the things that causes me to try to tear out what little hair I have left is when I find in reading something repeated references to other parts of the code instead of simply saying what the issue is, which means it takes a tremendous amount of time to go back and find where in that section of code is this reference and so on. So are you suggesting with the simplification process that we might run into more of that?

I don't necessarily think that will be the case. And we can certainly take that comment into, you know, we'll note that as we're thinking through these changes. We haven't drafted them yet, first of all. I would anticipate, what I would prefer to see is instead of nine or 10 different chapters that outline the various processes, that they're grouped together in one chapter. You have a type one process and you say a type one is adjustments from occupation. You list the permit types that follow that process. And then hopefully we no longer have to have separate individual chapters for all of those processes, so I don't think it'll lead to a referencing of those other chapters it hopefully will just consolidate it all, but your your concern is noted. there's certainly pros and cons to doing that way, I think a lot of times we reference things so we only have to make changes in one place, but it can lead to a lot of hunting and. spinning around the code to try to find what you're looking for. Okay, I don't see anything else so we'll move on to package six. So this is phase two of the zoning map that I had talked a little bit about phase one that was part of package two now with package six we're on phase two too many numbers flying around here but. This is again implementation making changes to the zoning map to implement the comprehensive plan that was updated. These are things that staff identified as being more complex, needing more analysis, requiring more changes to the code, the zoning code regulations, requiring more property owner coordination and outreach. There's a variety of reasons, but we identified these chapters and these companion zoning map amendments as needing more time and analysis. And so we've grouped them in phase two, We have just begun presenting some policy questions related to some of these chapters to city council. Last night we were at city council to present or to kind of ask, ask a policy question related to the single family residential. zone chapter, got some initial feedback from them. We're going to do that probably three or four more times with different facets of the specific zoning regulations so that the planning commission can have some high-level policy direction from council before we start getting into the weeds of consolidating zones, making decisions and recommendations about Minimum lot sizes setbacks and other property development standards so we're we're trying not to get into that level of menu show with the city council, but just to ask some big policy questions. of them and then bring that direction back and. That can inform us all as we develop the actual amendments to the zone chapters. So again, we did that for the single-family zone last night. We will be going in two weeks to council with some questions about a couple of the mixed-use zones, and there'll be a few others along the way. That will then allow staff to start developing draft amendments for the Planning Commission's consideration. So over... we'll be getting that policy direction from Council in the next month or so and then we'll start bringing drafts to the planning Commission probably starting maybe in April or in May and working through that process. We have I haven't really touched on the timelines as i've been talking about these slides we do have. An outline an aspirational timeline for these things, but I do want the Commission to be aware that if certain topics need more time need more work sessions, we can do that, we will adjust the schedule accordingly. There are there are valid reasons to get this done quickly, only because. We have a land use map that has been recently adopted that gives one direction and it's very important that the zoning map is consistent with that. But we are not trying to rush this and there's really no state mandated deadlines with most of these things, and so I do want you all to to feel comfortable weighing in asking for more time if it's necessary we're happy to provide that as best we can. So, just touch on a couple of specifics. I'm actually going to skip this one for now because it relates to my item later on this evening so I'll come back to that. I'll just briefly kind of go over the different zone chapters and the changes we anticipate then. So again, the single family zone chapter, we are looking to consolidate. There are currently or historically have been five single family residential zones. We're hoping to probably have three at the end of the day. So doing some consolidation there. Again, just a way to streamline, make it more simple and straightforward to implement and for property owners to understand what applies to them. We have a commercial zone chapter we call the sea zones there's at least one zone that is being proposed to be eliminated from the zoning map parcels have been already been re designated on the land use map. So we'll be eliminating that from the zoning code chapter and then potentially making some other updates as well to our commercial standards. We have a mixed use zone chapter that contains five different mixed use zones. That's another area where we will likely go down to hopefully three different mixed use zones at the end of the day. So doing some consolidation there as well as looking at things like the minimum density standards and potentially making some adjustments to those based on what we've heard from the development community in the last 10 or so years of those zones existing in the city. Our M zone chapter is primarily manufacturing related uses. We have probably much more minor updates here, but what we call the Benaroya property, it's technically the South Hill Business and Technology Center, I think is its real name, in this like darker blue here on the screen. They have asked for certain considerations or certain allowances to be added to the business park zone, which is the zoning of their property. And so we will be meeting with them talking more about what what they're looking for and bringing those requests to the planning commission for your consideration as well. And then I think this is the last one, this has to do with the fair zone and the fair parking overlay chapter So those are two different chapters in the code that are specific regulations that pertain to properties owned by the Washington state fair. Some of you have been on the Commission for a bit may remember that as part of the comprehensive plan update this actually may have been. Commissioner DeGroote may be the only one who remembers this, but there was extensive conversation during the comp plan update. The fair was asking to redesignate certain properties that they owned. The commission brought up concerns about future use of those properties. These are properties outside what we think of as the fairground boundaries. And there were concerns that, you know, we don't want to open the door too wide for anything and everything on those properties. There was a recommendation to require a master plan for the fair to go through. So we want to bring those considerations back and talk more with the planning commission about how best to implement that. Any questions on that last package before I move on? So the planning commission's role is a big one. You get to look at every chapter that's part of these packages, make your recommendations. Certainly staff will bring you draft, you know, suggested language, recommendations for changes, but we really do rely on this commission to think through those, to give direction on the level of zone consolidation, changes to property development standards that you think best fit with this community and meet the goals of the comprehensive plan. Again, at the kind of at the end of each phase you'll hold a public hearing on those draft amendments and then make a recommendation to the city council which staff will then present. Um, we do have a webpage, um, at least on every topic that we've started working on and we will continue to develop those as we move forward. Um, so most of, you know, the draft codes that have already been developed, um, are online. That's kind of the easiest, quickest place to find them. Um, but we can certainly always provide you information if there are things that have already come to the commission at earlier meetings that you'd like to see, please don't hesitate to reach out. And we'll provide that to you. So with that, that concludes my too long presentation. Almost.

I actually just have a quick question just because on the last page you did mention traffic impact fees.

Yes.

This is a stickler for me and a lot of my clients. Not that we don't believe our infrastructure needs rebuilding and boosting up. Is there anywhere... available to the public that shows exactly where those fees are applied? I mean, that's always my concern is I have a client that's going to pay $40,000. I want to know where that's going. You know, what is the accountability for traffic fees and where that actually goes?

So our engineering staff are working on this right now with council and there's a list of projects that are identified that came out of the comprehensive plan update. And those are what are identified for where those funds should go. And so there is a list, I believe. It's been in a recent council agenda packet. So that's essentially where those funds are required to go. When we collect the fee, that's where it's supposed to go.

Good to know, because, I mean, I have clients that are paying, you know, $40,000, $60,000. The one that's going in where the old Toys R Us is not my client, but they're paying a quarter million dollars in traffic impact fees. So, yeah, I think accountability is important on those.

Any other final questions? All right, well, you'll hear a little bit more from me later, but thank you.

All right. So your next item, I don't have a presentation, but for the record, Kendall Walls with the Planning Division. Your next item is one of the code amendment items that Katie just presented on, which is for Chapter 20.56, which is our electric vehicle infrastructure code chapter. This is part of Package 5, which is the design standards update, and it was identified as what we're calling a housekeeping item. This code chapter was established in 2011. And this was before we really had a lot of any real regulations related to electric vehicle EV infrastructure. So it was put in place to give some standards and guidance for development At this point in time, the building code is kind of caught up, and it does have standards for this type of infrastructure, so there's less of a need to have this separate zoning code chapter. Sometimes there could be... inconsistencies between the two where the building code would really kind of rule in that case. So that's why it's been identified for a cleanup item, a housekeeping item. So the building code kind of covers where the infrastructure goes, how much, how it's powered, and minimum accessibility EV stall standards, that type of thing. So we did talk with our building code staff to kind of have their read on it. And that was kind of what the information that they gave us. It doesn't necessarily deal with restricted use of electric vehicle spaces right now. There's like signage standards that are required in our zoning code chapter. So that doesn't really get carried over into the building code. required signage is also one of those things as well as lighting and protection, which is kind of like bollards for in those parking stalls. There's also some words and phrases that are in our existing code chapter that are not defined or dealt with in the building code. So those were kind of identified as potential gap areas. The permitted locations themselves, they're kind of repetitive. There's a table that's in the EV infrastructure code section that says what types of infrastructure is allowed per zone and if it's permitted outright, what that permit process is. But it's also repeated in the different code chapters themselves. So we don't see an issue there by eliminating the code chapter itself at this point in time. There is one area in particular which has to do with our mixed use zones. It does deal with one of our mixed use zones that was the first mixed use zone that was established, but when we've established other mixed use zones over time, it didn't get carried over as far as permitted uses. We've done interpretations to ensure that they could still be implemented in those zones, kind of following the similar standards for that other MX mixed use zone. But we may need to add something into that zone chapter to address what types of infrastructure is allowed and how. So that's an area that we've identified as a potential code amendment to come forward for review. We'll also do more analysis of what standards are in our code that we need to ensure that we do have a definition for. So some of those definitions in Chapter 2056 may be moved over into our general definition section of the zoning code. So that's something that we'll be looking at further. Excuse me. Still getting over a cold. I'm a little bit froggy. And then another area that we've identified for some cleanup items is within mainly those other codes chapters where it talks about what types of EV infrastructure is allowed in that zone. it references back to this chapter 20.56. So by eliminating that chapter, we'll wanna do some cleanup to remove those references so that there's not a dead end in the code. So those are some areas that we've identified that there's gonna be some cleanup by removing this chapter itself. And those would be coming forward to you at a later date as part of this full package of code amendments. but we wanted to bring this forward to you tonight in case there's anything else that you've identified as potential concern that we should take into consideration when we go in and draft those amendments.

So just a quick question as you keep talking, keep saying where it's allowed or an allowed use. Is it just the building code that dictates where it is a must use? I mean, I know that there are a lot of places where you have to have providing one EV charging station per X number of parking spots. Is that just building code or is that going to be in the?

That's building code. Yes. And then in zoning code, it's more of if you wanted to add it and it wasn't already required.

A quick question. Is everything that's in this packet you gave us, I got the impression that it's not covered in something else in the code? And if it's not covered elsewhere, do you potentially have a problem if somebody challenges the code if we delete this part?

So that's what I was just talking through. There's different components within this chapter that we will carry over to ensure that there's not a gap.

But that's in the future.

Yes. This was more just an initial work session to say we're looking at deleting this chapter altogether. Here's some components that we've identified that would carry over. And we'll bring a draft code for you in the future that will have the full markup.

So we're not today voting on to delete that at this point? No, no, no. Oh, okay.

It'll be part of a full package that we'll bring forward at a later date. Well, it depends. We might do separate packages of the individual amendments, but we would come before you for a public hearing in the future, likely. I think we've identified June for a public hearing on the full package, and that's when you would make that vote.

Thank you.

Good clarification.

Okay. Right.

All right. And now I am back for. The item which will also be brief on the op professional office zone, so this is something I kind of skipped over in the presentation here, since we have it as a separate item on your agenda, this is part of package six. Which is again that phase two zoning map package, this is related to the professional office zone, this is a standalone zoning designation in our code was established in 1992. And the intent was really to provide for professional office uses. In close proximity to associated uses such as hospitals or public offices. which may be adversely impacted by typical retail commercial uses. So this is something where I think at that time, there was an intent to ensure that there would be land available specifically for office uses, professional office uses. And we, quite frankly, just live in a very different world in 2026. Not as many people are working in offices. There is plenty of office space available. Nearly every commercial or mixed use zone allows for office space. There really just aren't the hurdles any longer that it seems like there were in the early 90s that necessitated this zoning designation. it's also very sparsely applied on the zoning map, I think there were three or four little pockets of this zoning designation prior to our comprehensive plan update. Now that we've been through phase one of the zoning map we've already rezoned a couple of these this circle here so just for orientation, this is the South hill mall. 512 is kind of this big white area here. So this is that corner right as you're going over the 31st overpass before you get to 9th. That little block there was zoned professional office. In the phase one, it was rezoned, I think, to CB, which is a community business designation. So still allows for those office uses, just other uses in addition. And then a couple other areas, for example, this one in the lower corner here, this is still zoned OP on the map for now. We'll change that as part of these phase two changes to a mixed use designation. So again, it will still allow for office uses. It just doesn't need to be that specific limitation. So because this will no longer be used on the zoning map, We are proposing to just delete this code section entirely from the code. So I have included it here in your packet. You're free to ask any questions that you have about it. But our proposal is to strike that entire chapter. And it'll be grouped together with this larger package of amendments. Are there any questions or concerns?

So do any of the people that are in the professional zone right now have a complaint about this change?

Um, they probably for the most part are not yet specifically aware of it. Um, and we can certainly do that outreach to make sure that they are aware. I will say that with the zoning changes, um, their use will not become nonconforming. So there might be certain property development standards that do change, but their uses will still be allowed in any of the zones we're proposing for redesignation. Wonderful well we hoped, this would be a fairly informative and easy night for you. don't anticipate this in the future, your packets will be large full of code chapters with lots of amendments but we're looking forward to the conversation as we move forward and. These are very important and needed changes to the code, so we appreciate your engagement. Well, thank you both.

Next item on the agenda is the staff report. Do we have a staff report this evening? Does it have anything to do with the council meeting?

I did write that down. I think Katie actually already touched on it because last night we were here for council to seek policy direction related to the single family residential zone consolidation question, which I don't know if we should get into the details of that. I don't want to confuse you all at this point in time, but we'll bring that information forward when we are really looking at that code and the path forward for it. But I think as far as items that the planning commission more recently worked on, those will be forthcoming in April. So we'll have more updates in the next couple of months. That's it. Okay.

Moving on to item nine.

Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

I know when we all came on as this crop here, I guess our three quote unquote seniors here, we've been here only a year more. You went over kind of some training and topics, especially when it came with, you know, public requests and quorum rules. And I was just wondering if you guys had planned to do that again for,

newcomers and maybe a refresher for us now that we've been doing it longer but so we did an orientation um with the new members and then they have or will be going through kind of a separate more formal orientation on things like open public meetings act that kind of thing um we can other commissioners take that training again if they would like to

Yes, if you would like to have retraining on our Public Records Act and our Open Public Meetings Act, we can go ahead and let our public records specialist, Steph Gunn, know, and we can definitely arrange that. Regarding our rules of procedure, if that is something the commission would like to review on an annual basis, we would be more than happy to bring that forward to you all. If you wanted to review it, make any modifications as needed, we'd be happy to do that as well.

I would also add, I know we typically provide links, resources for the short course on planning. So if you are interested in taking that again, we can share that information. Those are a free service that you can access for a training online on just planning related topics. So just let us know when we can.

Okay, I was just making sure they didn't miss out. And I know a public records request has been a hot topic. So just want to make sure they were aware as well.

So anyone else? All right, moving on to Commissioner comments. Commissioner Landon, was that your comment? Or which do you have another comment?

That's it, I guess. That's not my comment, but I don't have any other ones.

Commissioner Washburn, any comments?

I have one comment, and it's something that I've brought up before. It's about the best available science for the Lahara Zone. And I've sent this to all the city council. It's a USGS survey, computer modeling simulation of the Lahara on the west side of Mount Rainier. done in 2021. And I hear that people are aware of it, but nobody seems to pay any attention to it. And what I read in here is their computer simulation says the lahar may not even reach Puyallup. And if it does reach Puyallup, the quickest it will get here is four hours. So I just wanted to put in my two cents worth about that and make sure everybody's aware of this study.

Oh, we're all on the same page. I'm with you on that.

Agree. Commissioner Crosby?

As I listened to the last meetings about the Lahar, yeah, you guys had a pretty intense discussion on that. Yes, we do.

Commissioner Crosby, do you have any other comments?

I do not.

Commissioner Barney, any comments for the evening? Vice Chair DeGroote?

Well, I wasn't here last meeting to engage in the spirited conversation about this, but I would highly recommend as someone who lives near Shaw Road and sees the problem of getting out of the valley for whatever reason, it doesn't have to be a lahar, it could be whatever, or for whatever reason, I would really... I've already urged some council members to consider access, alternate access from the valley to the hill. Now, there are several streets on the west side of town that can get you from the valley to the hill, but not on not on the east side there's a a little over two miles between meridian and shaw road it's a long stretch and i would really like to recommend that we consider the possible rebuild and reconnection of 21st street southeast that's one uh, explore upgrading and connecting 13th street Southeast, which is another street that runs past Lockett house, I think. And, um, yeah, and it's a very short distance between that and 13th street on the Valley floor, um, or the existing easement at good Sam, uh, connecting, uh, seventh street Southeast with seventh street Southeast. So, um, If for nothing else, the best way to avoid traffic snarls and congestion is to disperse it. And giving residents a way of getting up the hill and taking those off Meridian, taking those off Shaw, and giving them alternate routes, I think would be in everyone's best interest. So this is just something that I'm trying to promote. Thanks.

Thank you. And I don't actually have any comments for this evening either. But thank you all, and thank you all for being here as well. And we are adjourned.