Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We call some Okay, it's 4 o'clock and we have everyone that is going to be here is here. So, I'm going to call the meeting to order at 401. And do we have roll call? Chair Winnham absent. Vice Chair Willam here. Commissioner Balovc absent. Commissioner Godert here. Commissioner Miner here. Commissioner Nance absent. Commissioner Ryan here. Thanks. Okay. And we don't have any minutes to approve. So we'll go on to item three. Any announcements? No announcements, chair. Okay. And number four, planning commission items. Consent to calendar. There's none. And public hearings. None. So, we're right on to item 5A, which is the capital improvement plan 2024 update for the fiscal year 2024 2025 through fiscal year 2029 2030 prepared by the city of Reading to assist the multi-year scheduling of public improvements for the city and confirm with the and conform with the general plan. And I believe we're gonna have Josh talk.

All right. How far do I have to lean forward? Pretty far. Give me a little more. All right. Perfect. I know my voice is a little horse. It was a fun weekend. Uh, all right. We ready? Do I Can I do it in three minutes? All right. Thank you, planning commissioners, uh, staff, and members of the public for allowing me to bring the capital improvement plan today or presentation. So, what is a capital improvement plan? First and foremost, in my opinion, the CIP is an exciting document as it shows the progress of the city with upcoming new infrastructure projects as well as upgrades to existing. In short though, it's a summary of all the capital improvements for all departments within the city. However, it's not a budget document, but rather a metric to gauge the amount of budget necessary to maintain or improve or improve the infrastructure for the city. As a metric, it is utilized for good planning and gives the divisions targets to reach their individual needs. This is a five-year program of projects that is adopted annually, and I know my slide says two years, but it's annually, uh, by city council and is required by government code 660002 or the mitigation fee act. due to the fact that the city currently has or and this is due to the fact that the city currently has an adopted development impact fee program. So that's why we have to take it annually. So since it goes to council ultimately why do we need to bring it to PC? As with government code 6602, government code 65103C

requires the city by law to make findings that the CIP is consistent with the updated general plan. And your role as planning commission today is to make those findings. It is also just a good business sense. As some of you know, we were on the commission for the last general plan update. That took a lot of public and your guys's input to get that finished. And that document is the vision of where reading needs to go. So if that document's the future then this CIP can be characterized as the road maps for the project for all the projects to make that vision possible. So some of the annual projects that you can see uh up on the screen as anticipated we complete some of them. Um, as you can see, there's a large variety of projects and others that were either added or moved, new ones that came on the list or some that were put out in the out years as priorities changed for each division. A list of some of the completed projects are shown here, but the divisions each the changes made by each division are I'll let you guys know right now. Airport completed three projects. They moved seven to the outyear and they added 15 new for a plus five project aggregate. Community services completed four projects and added five new. RU completed three, put two in the outy years and added eight new projects. Reading fire completed four, put two in the out years including fire station 9 and two new projects. Solid waste completed two and added two. Storm drains completed one and added one. Streets completed three and added eight. Water completed three, moved three to the outyear and added eight

new. And wastewater completed three, put four in the outy years and nine are new on their list. As you can see, a vast majority of the funding for the CIP comes from utility rates and competitive grant programs, but there are 45 different funding sources that make up the 7 $718 million within this 5-year program. Another interesting and new funding source that the city will utilize over the life of this program and you'll see it there as SRF loan is the drinking water state revolving fund which is being obtained for the pump house one project that was recently brought to this body. The drinking water state revolving fund program assists public water systems in financing by way of low interest loans for the by financing the cost of drinking water drinking water infrastructure projects needed to achieve or maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements. Within the CIP, there are nine city divisions which make up a total of 165 different capital investments. As you can see, a good amount of those investments are to the city's utility divisions as infrastructure continues to age and must be upgraded with changing reg or must be upgraded with changing regulations required by the state and federal governments. So each one of those just listed is how many of projects each division has as well and their breakout of dollars. So what do we have coming? I'm excited for this one and I think you guys should be too. But this is the new Reading Bike Park that's part of the Caldwell Park expansion. This is just a rendering um as the the project is still in design.

So, one of the bigger elements that we have is the transportation element of the general plan. Um, as you can see up at the top, T1 and PF11 are the general plan goals that go towards safe and efficient roadways. Um, some of the projects that we've been working on, and if you live out Old Oregon Trail, you know that one's going on, is the old Oregon Trail widening project, which is widening shoulders, drainage upgrades, realign the horizontal curve out there. It's very windy, AC pavement, and other mis miscellaneous items of work. and it was awarded to Tulis, Inc. for $2.3 million. Um, another project on our list that's going to improve efficiency is protected left turns. Um, so what's a protected left turn? So, when you get the green arrow, that's a protected left turn. So, we're going to be doing a project that is going to take existing intersections and we're going to add that protective left turn as well as ADA ramps at the corners and adjust the signal and phasing timings to 10 different intersections more or less around downtown. Uh, that engineer's estimates worth about 1.1 million and that is a highway safety improvement project grant fund that we received for that. Let's see. Um, another part of the general plan transportation element, goals T or yeah, goals T, T5, T6, and T8, uh, revolves around bike and pad infrastructure, which requires fed and state grant support. Um the city we've been very very good about getting these grants which is the highway safety improvement that I just mentioned also the active transportation program as well as many others. Um we've got really great grant

writers and they bring a lot of that money that 259 million into the city. So we really appreciate those folks. Um, some of the projects we've completed is the Trinity bikeway project down Trinity Street and Continental and But Street, which now efficiently gets you from downtown all the way to the Civic Center on a class floor bike way, which is protected, which is a very comfortable ride for bike riders. That project was awarded to ST Roads for 1.6 million and it was AHSC and streets funded. So, we did actually use some of our own local funding uh to assist that project. Uh, as well we have the ongoing sidewalk maintenance and ADA improvements we do every year. We go out and we fix as much sidewalk as we can fix for about $250,000 and we upgrade as many ramps as we can for roughly about 150,000. Um, in 2014, the city completed an ADA transition plan. uh of that plan, we were to upgrade an enormous amount of of uh up of ramps, but only about 14 per year. 14 to 18 per year. We're currently 56 ramps ahead of where we projected to be at this point. So, that program is being is being utilized very well. And then we have the neighborhood traffic calming program which we institute $50,000 a year towards adding what you guys might call speed bumps or we call them speed tables within the neighborhoods. And we recently completed Cumberland Drive and Grouse Drive. Another huge transportation element for the city because we've got a big river that runs through it are bridges. And those goals are PF10 within the general plan. We also with the roadways we have our ongoing overlay and maintenance which

consists of the AC overlay and the Cape Seals which are much needed projects but we consistently fall short of funding provided by the state through gas tax and other resources as well as a requirement to upgrade adjacent facilities to current ED requirements which equates to less and less payment being rehabilitated every year. Additionally, the bridges that we do build, the bridges are funded by the highway bridge program, which funds roughly a little more than 88% uh funded through the federal government. And then we use a little 11% and change in local match money to receive those grants. And those grants were put in 13 14 years ago. And we're finally starting to see the first bits of bridges. So program takes a little bit to get through, but we're going to be building a lot of bridges in the near future. As you can see that list there. Some of which we already have in progress is the East Side Road Bridge over Only Creek down there off East Side Road south of Bonnie View, which is a project that will replace that bridge um currently under construction with Abacus Construction for 3.7 million. and the old Alurus bridge over Churn Creek located east of Victor. And that project actually will be pretty much wrapping up here within the very very very weeks. And that was a project that was 6.4 million to ST roads. Another goal of the general plan was to enhance our air transportation, which was goal T9. Where am I? As you know, the city retains two airports, both Benton Field and Reading Regional Airport, which both require continuous maintenance and upgrades. They enhance the air travel experience in and out of Reading. As you all keep yourself ab breast of

what's going on at council, you'll have noticed a couple council meetings ago, we awarded the runway rehabilitation and navigation aids project or more officially runway 16-34 and taxiway connectors rehabilitation in Magbar. That is a $27 million project that will completely repave the runway and will add new um signage and navigational tools that the aircraft use. all the pretty lights and signs so they know how to what taxi way to take. So, um that is much needed for the reading airport and we are very excited for that project to really take fold in uh October of this year. Uh additionally, there's all kinds of other projects. There's more taxiway reconstruction, electrical improvements at Reading Regional and as well as they continue to contemplate the new terminal design and do studies to see how big that needs to be as well as just other construction projects like uh um resurfacing the parking the passenger parking lot which is in much need of of a facelift. Uh, additionally, both airports are in need of improvements to the existing buildings, including future upgrades to the hangers and security of Benton and the passenger parking lot. Like I already talked about, the recreation element of the general plan included trails and park improvements, and that's R12 through R9 and EJ6 were the goals in the general plan. and community services. Community services has been tasked with maintaining and upgrading our trails and parks. And that group does a fantastic job in my opinion in obtaining grants and utilizing the general funding that they have and creative ways to provide the best facilities for our communities to play in since we live, play, and work in Reading.

two of the projects um that are due to be well one is one is now actually complete but is still within the CIP which is Shastina Ranch Park over off of Shasta View and Airport Road as well as what I hinted at earlier the upcoming Caldwell Park expansion which is hoped to to bid this year which will add parking lot restorations new playground equipment exercise equipment uh inner park walkway improvements and a new bike track near the existing pump track. My son is excited. Uh this project is estimated at 5 million and it includes various uh state grants and park fees to construct as part of the as part of the general plan. public facilities and services uh equate to the utility infrastructure and services and you have uh reu and solid waste otherwise known as the dry utilities and those divisions have vital infrastructure that the community relies on and like all the reading utilities have everchanging legislature and that require new facilities or upgrades to the existing to maintain compliance for our U upgrades to the city's power plant to meet the changing regulation converting overhead utilities to underground for system resiliency and general system improvements, aging infrastructure are core investments within this current CIP for our EU. For the solid waste division, while its CIP list is small, many of the projects are due to the changes in legislation of the organics material disposal and recycling. But some like the material recovery expansion or MURF as we call it for short is geared towards efficiency and greater output of recycled material processing with the uses of advances in recycling technology and equipment. The MURF project is valued at roughly right now 3.2 million and we will utilize grants to complete that project.

The other side of the house is the wet utilities. It's wa wastewater, storm drain, and water's primary focus for this CIP continues to be upgrades and replacements of the existing infrastructure for to further strengthen the city's resiliency of the different systems. Additionally, wastewater projects like pyrolysis phase 1 and two, which were completed last CIP and future phases three and four within the current CIP, will assist the solid waste division in complying with putting fewer organic materials in landfills by expanding the new facility to treat the organic waste as well. Upgrades to the interceptors are also critical with this in this CIP as those p those pipes are aged and need to be replaced. Some of those projects like the westside interceptor is going to construct approximately 80 feet of 27 inch pipe, 4,700 feet of 24 and 60 ft of 21 in and is valued at about $5.3 million and is funded by wastewater rates. Uh, excuse me. Uh, the North Willis area water mane replacement um, which is just your standard run-of-the-mill. It's your water man that serves your home. Uh it's in the Magnolia neighborhood, kind of the older part of town west of downtown is set to have a project within the CIP and that's currently valued at engineers estimate at 5 million and will be completed with use utilizing water rates. The public facilities and services element which can include police and fire PF1 and PF3. Um and this currently in this CIP the police division does not have any capital investments needed with needed. The fire division however with the completion of the needs assessment last year that was asked for by council was able to hone in on their needs which

include replacement to upgrade the I call them scubas but they're the selfcontained breathing apparatuses or what allows those guys to run into burning houses and and still be able to breathe. uh is a divisionwide goal to replace all of those uh for all fire stations as well as upgrades to fire stations 2, four, and six. Um while the needs like the new build of fire station 9 and remodels to fire stations 5, seven, and 8 are still a need as identified in the assessment, they remain in the outy years of the CIP and will be prioritized as other investments are completed. So, in conclusion, um, as presented to you within the capital improvement plan, staff recommends that the planning commission find that the city of Reading 20 2024 through 2025 to 2029 2030 capital improvement plan is consistent with the general plan. The next steps, assuming you find that it is in in conformance with the general plan, the capital improvement plan will be brought to public hearing at city council and recommended for adoption by resolution. And upon a second reading, the council shall resolve and adopt the city of Reading's capital improvement plan. With that, thank you, Mr. Anthony. Any questions? Yeah. Is there any questions from the commission? Okay. Joshua, I really want to thank you for such a comprehensive and detailed report and for providing us with a hard copy of the CIP. Thank you very much. Um, I can't take credit for the hard copy. When you were when you and staff were reviewing the CIP to ascertain whether there were any conflicts with the general plan, did you discover any and

make any corrections? We I did not discover any when I reviewed uh the public works divisions. Um all the goals I believe they're listed. Shoot me, I left mine over there. Uh it's within section. So within section B, the start of it, the general overview text, you'll see each division within the city at the bottom, they reference their goals and policies um that they're achieving with the general plan. They're in conformance with the general plan. Um so each one of those, so each division reviewed their own. Okay. Um but for public, I can speak for public works. We didn't we didn't find any inconsistencies. Very good. Um, so each sector like airports, wastewater, whatever, there's a project summary in the report for each sector. And I was wondering are those prioritized? Like the first ones the the priority? The reason I asked is because the um the construction dates are not in chronological order. So I was wondering Yeah. if they're prioritized. Yeah, they're they're not prioritized by construction. They're uh it's just the the naming designations that each divisions assign their projects just go alphabetically and numerically. So So really what you're looking for the prioritization is the the year. So 2425 should be being completed now. 2526 will be after July 1st and then so forth. So, so really yes, it's just we use naming each of us used different naming conventions. So, you got to hunt and

peck. And then are the 2425 projects fully funded? Yes. Okay. And how about the 25 26? Correct. Yes. The the projects in the first two years of the CIP are projects that are fully funded. Years three through five are projects that were either partially funded or we're looking for additional funding sources such as Very good. Thank you. Yep. Uh ditto the presentation. Thank you, Josh. Um a couple quick Yeah, a couple quick questions. Um one, just a note on B2, um which is the summary. It says under the fire department, there are no there are currently no planned five-year capital improvements needs for the fire department. those they show up and that's the second paragraph from the bottom page packet page 14. Sorry. There we go. There's two page designations. Oh, do we got a I believe that's just a that would be a typo or something because they show up later. Oh. Oh, there. I'm sorry. I was I was looking for RFD and I was not looking for public safety. Yeah, I follow you. Um Oh, yeah. Under public safety and then under the fire department. Yes, everyone see that? Right here. Yes, but the then the fire department has projects later on in the correct. We will we will need to correct that. Ju Yeah, just want to make sure somebody made note of that. No, thank you. Um and then I'm just going to rattle off a a

handful of questions and Josh, you can say, you know, somebody else needs to take this on, but um uh as far as with the police department, I I understand that some of this some of this is stuff that we really really need to do and sometimes we throw things in here that are a bit aspirational. Is that true? because there may or may not get uh we we may or may not have access to like future um grant funding or things like that. Is that fair to say? Uh yeah. So those those projects that are in that kind of year three through five range I would think are they're aspirational. They but they are a need. So these are needs that each one of these divisions needs to complete. They're just not funded or Right. Yes. So, the reason the reason I bring that up is I noticed that two other categories that didn't have any projects, uh, police department and building maintenance. I can't imagine I mean, seeing all the facilities around here, I can't imagine there's not some kind of building maintenance that needs to happen in or around city hall or at some of the various facilities that we have. Um, and I know this is not, you know, like trivial building maintenance. you guys just painted the buildings, but you know, any roofs and HVAC's and things like that. Um, you know, as well as the police department. So, I think my my question was, would it be prudent of us to put things in even if they're later on, you know, knowing that we may not have funding identified? Um, but to ha have those in the plan later on as aspirational, knowing that I know there's going to be needs coming up with our facilities. You know, I don't know the police department. Maybe they really do have everything they need, but seems like there could be room for some aspirational things just in case grant

funding comes up. Um, and I I also know we'll get to review this in a year or two, so maybe we get a chance to keep sliding stuff in as it comes. So, so for some of the building maintenance stuff, so building maintenance falls underneath community services. So if you look at some of the community services projects here, uh the Bernie Library infrastructure grant, you know, those are some of the facilities, right? The Reading Library that that we take the building maintenance division has to take on. So some of those projects would be included if they're large enough to be as such, right? If we're doing a small remodel over here at city hall, it's probably not going to make this list. Okay. So, so some of the larger building maintenance um like the MLK Junior Center is one where that's a facility, right? The building facilities takes care of and Right. Yeah. So, but police for now, at least as identified to us, you know, we that new building got built over there. They've got all of their toys. Uh Yeah. Right. Yeah. And they're they're happy. Yeah. Yeah. Their equipment, too, isn't like a firetruck that's a million dollars. So, it's more of police vehicles. Yeah. Smaller investments. That doesn't necessarily need to make this list. Correct. Okay. Um, okay. Uh, go into REU stuff for a little bit. Do you know what this what is system financing? That was on B21. Um, let me see if I can find the packet package page 20 33. Um, but it has system financing as a source of as a funding source for the RU or the utility rate stuff. Um, what what is system financing?

That's a great question. I would have to get back to you on that. Jeremy knows some kind of maybe bonding bonding for it. Yeah, I would I would just throw out a guess. Um, but that we did just recently go out for a significant amount of bonds of 60 plus million dollars I believe the utility went out for. So, I'm guessing it's financing through that mechanism. I don't know if our folks out there know, James, if you No, that's an educated guess, but I can't be certain. Okay. Well, maybe Yeah, they just they just went out uh council just approved that a month or two back. Um, we went out for quite a bit in bonds. So, I'm guessing that the the debt issuance is what that is about. And they and they did update about a month ago their list in its entirety. So, that could coincide, but we could we can confirm that. Yeah. I mean, I guess my only maybe my only comment there is it'd be that's not exactly clear to me without and it sounds like it's not perfectly clear to anyone else in the room. So maybe that could be, you know, maybe maybe we should say bond financing or I don't I don't know, maybe system financing is the right word. We just don't use that vernacular. I think we can clarify with the folks from RU. Um, and then I didn't see when I looked at REU, uh, the REU projects, I didn't see any looked at kind of new power generation. Um, one of the things that I'm hearing and this, this may or may not hit reading, you know, really really quickly, but um, with the artificial intelligence and then automation things, um, there's anticipation for, you know, especially nationally, you know, stress on the power grid and, um, more demand, more more power demand as we all have our, you know, robot that cleans our floors. now or you know I

don't know you probably seen some of those videos of like roofing robots and stuff like that like you know all that stuff's got to be plugged in electric vehicles. Um, so I would be, you know, Josh, I know you don't represent RU, but I would be curious if we're what we're looking at or if we're looking at projects that have more power generation um to try to stay ahead of that demand curve a little bit more. Um, maybe if you can speak to that, I'll shut up for a moment. Yeah, I know REU does you know their uh future revenue funded capital projects is a spot where when we discussed it with them where they would have a lot of you know more it was more towards new regulation. I don't know if it was more towards new power generation sources but they did right they're they're setting money aside to make sure ready for those changes. Well, I know I and I'm just reading through we've got reading power, you know, substation controls modernization, breaker replacements, energy trading moni monetization system improvements, future revenue funded capital projects. That's not real specific on what that is, whether that's, you know, new power, but then fire protection, still water substation, workforce management. I mean, I just I go through and I look at them and I'm like, okay, I don't see anywhere that we're actually investing in new power that's specifically called out power generation and I could see that being, you know, certainly in the next 5 to 10 years important. Yeah, there's a there's a whole group at RU resource planning that's load forecasting. In fact, just at last last council, I'd encourage you to watch that. um assistant director Bowers gave a quarterly update and addressed some of that that you're talking about certainly. Um so just last council meeting, you can check that out. But yeah, load forecasting is a big part of what they do. I know our hydro contract

is really good. Our power plants in really good shape. We got the turbines they can fire up for peak demand. And they're actually in talks too um with a private developer to do utility grade solar u tie-in where to to um increase our renewables portfolio. The state requires us to have a certain amount of renewable energy. So they're really good over there. Are you doing the load load forecast thing? Certainly EVs like you mentioned have been a big thing the last 5 to 10 years and they expect that load that demand to just continue to climb. Um so in terms of resourc I think it has a kind of a J curve you know hockey stick impact is at least some of the you know nationally expected right so a lot of what you might see in the CIP and I'm not an expert like uh Josh and his team are but would be more of the there is a tremendous amount of maintenance and um capital investment needed to keep the grid up and running but in terms of load forecasting and power generation RU sort of handles that in their shop and um again last council meeting uh direct assistant director Bowers did touch on that some. So, I'll have to check that out. Yeah, check that out. Uh, in our funding sources, is the I know there's some talk about a sales tax proposal. Um, are we we're not assuming that that's passing. This is kind of budgets asis. Correct. Yeah. This this is what we have status quo as of right now with current funding sources. So, we're not that is not in our purview. I'm nearing the end, trust me. Uh, one was one that's squarely in your or more in your core, Josh. Um, long-term plan for waste management. It looked like the document talked about our landfill facilities being good through 2030 was kind of a project, if I maybe I think I read that right. page 16 according to people smarter than

me. Um, but I was wondering if you could speak just a minute to our strategy on that obviously, you know, it would be expensive and and timeconuming to set up a new landfill. Um, do we think we can expand that one or do we think that actually we know it will be through 2030 but it very well might be longer? Yeah, I believe I believe that facility last we had a meeting about it is still operational. It's got a lot of life left in it. Um there are upgrades here the you know westside hauling yard um things of that nature that are going to help with that as well as processing more at uh at the transfer facility. So a lot of this right is more waste diversion than it is landfill. So we're I know we have the organics waste diversion correct all that stuff. So, we're kind of hoping to pull more out of it before it goes to landfill. Correct. Correct. And and with the organic, you know, the that realm and like I said, the bioolids project being able to take more of that load as you know, we're required to reduce our load. That's going to help us as well. And that's a that's a facility, right, that we make money coming and going because we get to sell the end product as as carbon uh to be used in different industries. So, so yes, we will the load going to the to the west landfill should over with the completion of a lot of these projects slow down and I wouldn't be surprised if you would see that life expectancy increase then landfill. Hold our breath. Wait and see. That's exciting. Um, a fire station one. I noticed it said, somebody said build, but we're still using fire station one downtown, right? We We didn't rebuild that. That was a talk a couple year that was talked about a couple years ago, but

we're just we're keeping that facility and just going to improve it. Um, so fire station one is an interesting, right? As uh as Cameron Middleton, former commissioner would say, that's a historic building and there's always so many upgrades you can do. So there has been uh some work within our engineering staff to look for a new location within the downtown area that can still meet the demand. Um but right now fire station one is functional operational it meets the needs. So that's why it'll you'll find fire station one build in actually the outy years. Um there's a section D of the packet and so that's where that one's going to live until the need becomes you know more of a priority. So most all the ones currently are our fires priority. Okay. Um, I think that's it for me right now. Thank you very much. Okay. So, I didn't do a lot of homework on that one because that wasn't my my my thing, but I I looked a lot at the streets part. So, if we could kind of zoom over to streets a little bit. Yep. I showed up obviously after your whole general plan uh situation. Super sorry I missed all that. It sounds like it was probably tons of fun. Um, but I had some questions. Okay, so I'm looking at page 22 in our in our packet. I kind of decided to go by the list. I thought that might I don't know trying to like get this stuff in some kind of order you could work with. So the one that says Victor and Cyprus. So I have to drive that road quite a bit and I'm like, what the heck? Between Cyprus and Highway 44. Oh yes, I'm Victor. Are why are we not doing that? Is there some master like plan for that?

Yeah. So between Cypress and Victor, you're actually going to find that project. Is it somewhere else? Yes. That's the Victor improvement project. Yeah. Okay. That's And that was my other I have a question mark by that one. I'm like, is that what that means? Yes. I tried to figure out I'm like, all right, what is he saying? Yes. Because I could not imagine. Oh, yeah. Because it's a construction of low stress. Yeah. See, lingo like this, not super helpful for normal people. I read construction of low stress active transportation facilities on Victor Avenue. That doesn't say the road is a horrible buggy trail washboard. We're going to now solve your problem. That's what that means. But that's what we're talking about. We're gonna Yes. We're going to do both. We're going to Okay. See, I didn't think I liked low stress active transportation facilities, but now I'm excited about them. Yes. Yeah. You you'll get sidewalks. You'll get, you know, you just don't want to like pop a tire actually. And I have fairly large tires, but I mean, I'm sure if anybody was driving something small, like we're missing some people in those holes. Yes, they're big. Okay, that's exciting. All right, so that question mark is no longer a question mark. I thought that seemed really weird. We're going to do that end, but not the other end. And what's this other folder all we're doing? Um, okay. Uh, Shast View North I thought was awesome. Actually, I have an A+ next to that. So, I was grading it as I was doing this. Um, traffic calming gets a boo uh from me. Oh, and I wondered why this wasn't on there. Shasta View and College uh College View right by Simpson or where where you dead end there at Simpson. That is a heinous little like one-way stop really, you know, tea intersection. They're looking at putting I think it's called Phoenix Academy on the corner. Then there's some other school going in next to

arts of school of the arts. There's something else going in down there. There's like a lot of stuff happening on that road. And that little tea intersection is awful and dangerous. Super dangerous. The other part that makes it super dangerous because there are no sidewalks. Um I know we really love bike lanes except um I really should just keep a tally in my car. There's probably no law against that. I know I can't text you, but I could keep a tally of all the people that ride their bike on the sidewalk. Typically going the wrong direction against traffic. So, they're not really using the bike lane, but there is no bike thing, no pedestrian thing, no sidewalk, no I mean, like at night if it's raining really hard, you actually uh if you're driving a large truck, say for instance, and you turn that in the dark, you could pretty easily drive over the curb. Um because it's not a real curb, doesn't really go anywhere. that whole thing. I just wondered why that was not in our list because that end is it hit hits a lot of traffic and with the students and all the stuff going on. I'm like that's not even on the list. Mhm. So got Yeah. So So this plan, it's secretly the Victor project, isn't it? No. No. So, so this plan as as you recall, this is all of our capital improvements that we the city are going to go and do. So, as entitled, I believe they're entitled, Phoenix Charter Academy is actually going to have to widen that road right there, put bike or I don't actually I don't think they're conditioned for bike, but their sidewalk is something. Yeah, they have to build their frontage. So as you'll as more projects come through planning commission projects are entitled to build these infrastructure for us as they cause basically more use in the area. So we need bigger, better,

more expanded facilities. So that project right there is going to do some work at that T intersection. Uh restriping the line, getting it a little further out, widening so you'll be able to actually make right turns kind of like make the corners corners. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of not now. Correct. Now they'll only do their side. The other side that's the other vacant lot until we have a project come in. That will unfortunately stay the way it is. So until unless there becomes a need from traffic in our division to go and fix it, you know, which usually comes with accidents, near misses, things like that, or we have capacity problems. See, they have a food thing at Mercy Oaks. Yes. Down there. And uh uh somebody ought to go down and take a look at that when they're down there because there isn't anybody. There are a lot of old people that live in that area. So between the students and the old people, you know, you got both ends of the spectrum, neither of which are probably your premium drivers and they're trying to pull out onto that road, but with all of the parked cars along there, you can't see at all. And there are a lot of near misses on those days. It's a it's a pretty treacherous spot. So, I really kind of combed my street list and I was like, "Darn it, nothing." Uh, John Caldwell, our traffic ops uh engineer or manager that you guys met, I think last planning commission, he's been in talks with them about the food bank and the traffic that gets generated from it. Um, we've been talking to them about getting traffic control if it gets really busy. We've Yeah, he he actually we have videos. he drove it on uh the Saturday that it was super congested and and I think it's a Friday morning they do it so you have a lot of people going to work and students coming to school and it's really like people just sort of jump out there and throw caution to the wind and try to get around the park cars but it's a pretty dangerous spot and

looking to get busier I think as they add more stuff along Shasta View. Yes. Paving is good though. Paving on that street's terrific. We just did that a couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah. No. So, that part's all great. I was just like, but that one Yeah. spot I was like, maybe you need another stop sign, which not usually a fan, but um Okay. And I like low stress that I didn't think I liked. That was a biggie. I know the other thing that I was kind of looking for um on uh this Peaks deal that we haven't really done or I don't know, you guys talked a little about it or something, the subdivision thing. Uh every single time that ever comes up, all I ever hear about is when are they going to put the other bridge across the river? And I realize this is kind of the price tag is obviously low, but $64,000 question. Um, I don't see anything in here to look at it, study it, start doing a stick model of it. Nothing. Currently, the the roads that are up in that area, uh, Kesmic Dam and Courts Hill handle the traffic adequately. Um, I mean, some would argue in a case of emergency, they don't, and that's understandable. Roads aren't designed for emergency, you know, 50,000 people leaving at once. uh we designed for the peak demands you know AM peak and PM peak. So currently those roads are adequate to serve that area. As more development occurs there could be a need which then that development could trigger uh another access route. um they would have choices at that time uh to build a bridge or as like I said more more uh maybe regulation shows up with the fire mitigation it could become a city issue but right now we currently have capacity on the roadways up there so the bridge is not needed. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. And I might just add I think the bridge discussion is a good one and also to your um comments Commissioner Ryan about Shast generally as as Josh alluded to we sort of operate in the realm of development pays for itself right so um as development occurs along the Shastview corridor as they get entitled they're conditioned on development to to to make up for the impacts that they have on our roads and and on our traffic networks. And so that's different than the CIP where we're, you know, we barely have enough money to kind of fix the potholes you were just alluding to on Victor, right? Um, so when development comes along, they have to pay for the impact they have on our roads. And those projects get done usually by the development or they they'll pay their fair share towards a capital project or something of that nature. And so those are definitely needs you're bringing up that are are good and necessary, but uh we don't take them on as a city project solely. Generally, we have to wait for development to come along and pay for it because we simply don't have the funds to sort of build it for us. No, I get I get that. We can't just run around and like let's build it and they will come. Make it all look like, you know, Disney World. Yeah. Yeah. Um although that is 43 square miles. So, yeah. And and there is like like the Shasta View North project you mentioned that was say again the Shasta View North project. Yes. That was conditioned a portion of it as part of the holiday development. So the city and the developer, the council decided we could work together and they paid almost a million dollars of what they were going to construct as far as their traffic mitigation. And then we also brought in traffic impact fees to cover the Delta so we could actually do the project that's needed. That makes sense because that strip is silly and with the shopping center it's actually kind of horrible. Yeah, that one corner is just uh not not well signed. The turn lanes aren't good. So, I mean, even if they just kind of went out there with some paint, uh, might might help a little bit. It's it's a little, uh, it's a little vague, but there's a lot of traffic and I wasn't sure if the Phoenix thing was going to be a thing. They have

a sign. It's entitled. So, you have an entitlement for that project and conditioned. Um, as well as Reading's uh, School of the Arts wants to do a high school expansion. Yeah. Um, they're currently in portable buildings on that site, but they're they're entitled as well. Simpson's use permit is actually pretty complex and quite old, but they have a really they have several amendments to their use permit, uh their master plan in terms of what improvements they need to do to the Shasta View corridor, too. So, we've been in talks with all of those property owners in the past year or two. Um in addition, Lily has been in communication with um Mercy Oaks, the food bank folks to make sure they're in conformance with their use permit. If they're not, that that use permit would need to be amended and potentially trigger traffic improvement. So everything you're bringing up is certainly valid and we're we're aware of and it it could be triggered in the future based on development and they're already in fact conditioned to do some of that if they begin to break ground. I just get a lot of I get a lot of uh questions about that and I'm like I don't know I'll ask. There you go. Then this came and I was like oh perfect time. Thank you. Yeah. The end. Um thank you for the report. It was very thorough. I have a couple comments. Luke, thank you for your extensive. I had quite a few of the same as him, so they've already been addressed. Um, I guess I would just like to see more evidence-based strategies in the report, just kind of how you concluded and the departments of the priority of the projects um, and the long-term effects, but I I know the checkpoints come to commission and council, but we rotate out that it was hard for me to see what actually had been completed. I know some dropped off because I was back in 2018 on the commission. So, it's just kind of hard to piece all of those together without having what, you know, what dropped off, what actually got completed, and what we foresee in the future. Um, that's just a comment. I your report is so extensive that that

would probably be really long, but it does help like the roads and the police station or fire department. I know that's a huge community concern and it's alarming when it says there's nothing for the next 5 years. So that just to have some why that would help. Um I think that is my comments. So unless anybody has anything else? No. Okay. Thank you. All right. I'm going to open it for public hearing. Do we have anybody who would like to speak on item 5A? No. Okay. We do not have any blue cards. So I'm going to close the public hearing. If you have a comment, you have to fill out the blue card in the back and submit it right up here. Okay. Do we have a motion? We have a Madam Chair, I'll make a motion. Okay. I move that the planning commission find that the city of Reading's 2024 through 2025 to 2029 2030 capital improvement plan is consistent with the general plan and that the planning commission find it so thank you Michelle. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thanks Aaron. All in favor? I. Any oppose? Okay. The motion carries. Thank you. Okay, seven commissioner comments. Any comments from the commissioners? There's very little of us today. Uh, director's report. Madam chair, we skipped six. Oh, we did. That's right. We skipped out six. Public comment. Do we have anybody who would like to have public comment again? Fill out a blue card in the back and submit it up here, please. Or do you

want them to come give you your name? Okay. Yep. So, no blue cards are up here. Do you want to fill out a blue card, sir? You will have to fill out a blue card and submit it up here for them. We can't require him to fill out a blue card if Okay. [Music] Can Can you give his name so we can have it for the record? And then even that we can't necessarily require but we can request. Okay. So you can come up and please state your name. [Music] That's okay. There's a microphone right over there with the green light on it where they were just speaking. Yes. So we'll set a timer when you start speaking, sir, for three minutes. Wow. It's official. Uh, my name is Alex Juk Alexander. I'm from Sack. I'm passing through Tru Chico a couple days ago and making my way to Oregon. It's a little cooler there by the hills and the crags in the mountains. Um, just a couple pointers, just something from my background, my construction background. Uh, stopped by the Reading City Hall Fountain, noticed it was off. Um, okay. Uh, uh, something interesting I thought maybe be worth a try be the parking misters, like a sprinklers, but also like a finer mist. It's very dry here, but I understand I'm from sack. I'm used to a little bit of a cooler climate. And then I also noticed that the flowers were not dusted. Um, maybe add a little bit of compost to them.

uh drinking fountains. Some of the fountains weren't working when I was driving around on bike and uh I noticed that the transition between the bridge when you're going on a bike, it's not smooth like a straight shot. You have to maybe if you could like have somebody get on a bike and go from one bridge side to the other and make it just like a nice even um the one other thing I wanted to mention was the when I was on the bus the windows were all rattling. It was very uh irritating. And uh one of the cool things I when I was at Chico, they had a swimming pool. Uh it was like part of the river and it flowed into this like little area and it's like a they did a really cool thing with part of the river. But I noticed you guys' water really cool here. So I think that's it. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Are there anybody else that would like to speak? Okay, seeing none, the public hearing's closed. Uh, commissioner comments, we had none. And now we're on to Jeremy, director's report, please. Thank you, chair. Uh, just a couple of quick updates for you all this evening. Um, I'll go in order of the last couple of council meetings. So, at last council, we did bring a riverfront specific plan update to the council. I don't know if any of you had a chance to check that out and maybe fast forward through some of it. very long, a couple hours, actually maybe closer to two and a half, three hours. Um, I am working to get a condensed version that I I plan to present to this body and give you an update in the next hopefully next month sometime. I'm also going to bring it to SEESAC. So, um, we'll do sort of a condensed version,

give you the road map and next steps and get some feedback from this body that we can then bring all that together back to council. So, you'll be a part of the feedback loop. And just to let you know, we are working on that currently. Um, and then in terms of the council meeting prior to that one, we brought the tree ordinance. If you had a chance to look at that, uh, the city attorney brought that item to to council and, um, you heard from council there that at this point they want us to take another crack at the ordinance. And, uh, we got some pretty strong direction from the council that, um, they they want the ordinance to be stronger in some ways, but they're not interested in assessing the mitigation fee or looking into the mitigation fee at this time. So, uh, I won't go into more detail at this juncture, but just to let you know, we are working on it. Unfortunately, uh, Mr. Emanuel is going to be permanently retiring. Uh, I don't have his help anymore. Um, neither do we have the help of our other retired annuitant here at the end of the fiscal year. Um, so, as always, staffing's always a struggle. Um, but I'm committed to trying to get this tree ordinance to you and in some way, shape or form get to the finish line on this ordinance because there is a lot of other uh good revisions and edits to that ordinance apart from the fee conversation. And so be looking for that to come to you sometime this summer um as we try to try to bring that back to council with some targeted edits and revisions. So um that is my update for you all at this point. Any questions? I'm available. I just think you could probably get Kent Manual back one more time. What's that? He's been retired what, four times? Yeah, I know. It's about He might stay through the tree ordinance. Yeah, he Hey, he he he loves it. Um, you know, we're at this juncture I I think either way he'd probably be ready to retire, but also too, we're trying to be good with our budget. So, um, every department's going through struggles of staffing and making cuts and stuff. So, yeah, we're going to miss them dearly. Both him and Linda are really valuable to our department. They bring a lot of decades of experience. Um, staff all love them. Uh it's, you know, I'm, you know, Lily's worked with

them for 20 plus years and so they're they're a huge asset to the department. We're going to miss him a lot, but uh we'll can't say he'll still come around for lunch every once in a while and hold a workshop with staff or something so we can still learn from his 40 plus years of experience, but we'll thank him from the commission and Linda as well. Yeah, I will. Okay. If there's nothing else, this meeting's adjourned.