Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, it is six o'clock and I will go ahead and call this regular meeting of the Planning Commission to order. Welcome. Can I get a roll call, please?

Chair Richardson?

Here.

Member Anderson? Here. Member Hernandez? Here. Member Arm? Here.

And that's quorum. All right, so we will proceed. Let's see. So the agenda here has the public hearing first. Is there anybody here who wishes to make comment that has to do with something other than any of the agenda items? We have one. All right. Sherari, can I get the public hearing rules?

Public hearing and public comic procedures. The purpose of a public hearing is to give the audience an opportunity to address council members concerning the subject for which the hearing is convened. It is an official on the record communication geared towards giving city council information and opinions to consider the decision making process.

Um, I apologize. Sorry. I am, I skipped the approval of tonight's agenda, too, so we won't make you read that again, but can I first get approval of the agenda tonight? A motion and a second, please.

Motion to approve agenda. Second.

All right, all in favor, aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. Casey didn't use her microphone, but she said yes. Okay, thank you. Now we'll move on to the public hearing. Did you finish the rules? No. Okay, I cut you off. I apologize.

Okay. Please note that the public hearing process is not an opportunity for dialogue with the council members. In this case, it would be commission members for posing questions with the expectation of immediate answer. Many questions require an opportunity for information gathering and deliberation. For this reason, members will accept comments but will not directly respond to comments, questions, or concerns raised during this hearing. To provide an orderly process, audience members who wish to speak should raise your hand and wait to be called on, come to a lectern, state your name and address for the record, and after speaking, write your name and address on the record sheet. To allow every participant an opportunity to be heard, the comments should be limited to two minutes per speaker.

Thank you. Go ahead. Could you turn the microphone on, please? Thank you.

Residents, is everyone here? Okay, because I'm here today asking for transparency, I will start by being transparent with you that I am anti-data center for many reasons, the main one being hyperscale AI data centers have only been around for roughly six years. It's simply not enough time to rule out potential long-term health and environmental consequences. And to the best of my knowledge, there has yet to be a county in the US that has allowed their citizens to vote on whether or not a data center should be built. When national polls show seven out of 10 Americans do not want a data center in their city, it is easy to guess why, especially as the use of NDAs has come to light. We are essentially being forced to be big tech skinny pigs. And what makes it even more dire is the lack of transparency as the number one complaint from US citizens on Erin Brockovich's most recent poll. Is that how the city of Richland plans to conduct the Atlas Argo project? I know it is early days, but people around town are talking and they are upset about data center development. When I encourage them to attend city council and voice their concerns, the most common response I get is they have already made up their mind and won't listen to us. Then they start talking about the very ugly BPA polls on Thayer. and the new police building and try to put the puzzle pieces together themselves. Do the pieces go together? We do not know because we have been shut out of the room, but I do hope this changes. In the future, I hope that we can maybe take a look at West Richland. They have Lewis and Clark Ranch, which they're trying to also add a data center to. They have their own web page that has updates for everyone to view, and they have also publicly committed that it will be a the permitting process will have time for public comment. And that's it.

Thank you. All right. Now next on the agenda is public comment. But I don't think we need to do that. Or is that separate? Yeah, that's after public comment. Do you want me to do it first? OK.

The purpose of a public comment period is to give the audience an opportunity to speak to the planning commission concerning items that are not on tonight's agenda. If you are here to speak on an item on the agenda, please wait until the hearing is opened on that particular agenda item. To provide an orderly process, audience members who wish to speak during this comment period, please raise your hand and be recognized by the chair, approach the lectern and speak into the microphone, state your name and address for the record, fill out a card and hand it to staff. Please limit your comments to no more than two minutes. Thank you.

All right, that sounds exactly like the definition we just had for the hearing, so I'm not sure what the difference is here. Anybody else wishing to make public comment? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move on. Can I get a motion and a second, please, for the approval of the minutes from the April 22nd Planning Commission meeting and the May 13th Planning Commission workshop?

Motion to approve April 22nd and May 13th Planning Commission meeting minutes and workshop minutes. Second.

Motion and second. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor, aye. Aye.

Aye.

All opposed? None. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving on and to unfinished business. There is none, so we'll move on to new business. We've got Nicole Stickney back to give us an update on the transportation element goals and policies.

I'm uncertain. Oh, there we go.

Sorry about that.

Okay, thank you. My name is Nicole Stickney. I'm with AHPL. We're the consultant, the prime on the project of updating the comprehensive plan. And as a reminder, that effort is known as Future in Focus, and that includes a couple of different elements. It is a update to the parks plan, which is being worked on separately, and you'll hear more about that in future meetings. Secondly, there's an update to the transportation system plan. We call that the TSP, just more of a functional plan, and it takes a full inventory of the transportation system, the network, how that all works, and we'll look at the next 20 years looking at what those major projects are. And then the comprehensive plan, and that is a key policy document It's something that we update under the Growth Management Act for Washington State, and we are in the periodic update cycle. So the real focus today is to talk about transportation and the goals and policies that would appear in the comprehensive plan, but of course I'll be talking about the TSP as well. There we go. So with most of the elements that we've brought to you before, we're bringing to you goals and policies that are shown with tracked changes so that you can see what the exact pivots are that we're proposing in terms of modernizing or changing the language. This one's a little different because there are so many changes being made to the transportation goals and policies. So it really just looks fresh to you. And it should because there are so many different options ITEMS THAT WE NEED TO INTEGRATE WITH CHANGES MADE TO THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT, THE SORT OF THINGS THAT WE'VE TALKED ABOUT BEFORE, PRIMARILY WHEN STEPHANIE WAS HERE IN FEBRUARY, SHE TALKED TO YOU ABOUT LEVEL OF TRAFFIC STRESS AND THOSE TYPES OF MEASURES FOR NON-MOTORIZED transportation. So that's going to be very important. And then we'll also talk about some of these shifts into looking at more of the multimodal plan for the city. So that's really kind of the explanation for why things are changing so dramatically. It's all driven by the Growth Management Act changes. So with that, I just want to remind you of this slide. This is one of the things that Stephanie presented before. You can see kind of a hierarchy here for how things are done locally. And I just want to remind you of what some of the objectives are here. So if we put it all together, the Growth Management Act It applies to the whole state of Washington. We are fully planning under the Growth Management Act, and so that is the primary thing that we're looking at. Moving down one echelon, I suppose, is the Benton Franklin Council of Governments. Now, they have an important role because they are the metropolitan planning organization, and they're also the conduit for federal funding for research. transportation projects for road projects and things like that so they have these projects and different policy documents plans that they work on it works for the whole community and Richland of course is always at the table heavily involved with that if we go down a level then we're looking at our comprehensive plan so that's for the entire city and one thing that I think it's easy to overlook, but super important to all of this is how land use is connected to transportation. We can't be planning for one without the other. We have to make sure it all works together as a system and can function for the community. So the comprehensive plan is the place where all of these different things come into the fold. And as you'll remember, we've talked about capital facilities and utilities, economic development is part of that, housing. So all those different topics come together And the comprehensive plan is more broad-looking, and it includes the vision, which is where we're headed, and it pulls that all together. And then specifically below that, we would have the transportation element, and that's what we're talking about today. And then the icons at the bottom are just to remind you what a multimodal... system looks like and also the other opportunities for consideration like freight. Freight is super important, especially in Richland Port of Benton activities, things like that. The rail that we have is a completely unique asset and really important to getting goods around and things like that. So all of these things come together. That's just kind of a reminder of where we're at. So for the rest of my presentation, I'm going to go through a series of slides and kind of summarize for you, just take you step by step through what you would receive in your packet, which is our goals and policies that we've crafted at this point. A little bit about how they're organized. There are eight different goals altogether. So I will go with one slide for each goal. And then also call out how many different policies have been written for each one. And I was just going to go through it as basically a summary. So if you have any questions or concerns about a particular topic or a policy that you see or anything like that that you wanted to bring up today, please do so. As I said, I'll just go through one slide for each goal so you'll know when to pose the question or bring up a concern that you may have. So starting with goal one, this has to do with an efficient and multimodal transportation network. So we set the stage, we were talking about providing an efficient transportation network that's something that accommodates all those modes of travel while supporting the city's land use vision and meeting existing and future needs. So we do look at a forecast and a model that predicts what traffic will look like in 20 years time. Essential to this goal is the recognition that streets are public places that serve multiple functions and are not just conduits for vehicle traffic. So we are looking at roadway classifications and designs that facilitate efficient movement of people and goods while balancing that comfort and safety. Think about the residential neighborhoods. We're also looking at compatibility with adjacent land uses, and we emphasize that the transportation facilities enhance rather than disrupt any of that community character. Again, it's about bringing it all together. Key policy direction under this goal is the creation of well-connected street networks. We want to link local streets and provide additional collector and arterial access to the major destinations. In this way, the city can improve the local circulation, reduce congestion, and offer more direct routes of travel. And this connectivity also supports emergency response and system resilience or redundancy. If a road is closed, how are you gonna get through town? The commitment to complete streets is another defining element. The city has had a complete streets ordinance on the books for some time, but we wanna make sure that it's given due discussion in our transportation element. This is that commitment where you're requiring new streets where feasible and also the existing streets, this is contact space, to be designed and modified to balance the different needs for access, mobility, health, and safety of all those users. The users would include pedestrians, people on bikes, transit users, those behind the wheel, people moving the freight, and also persons with disabilities. And finally, accessibility is reinforced. This is through continued investment in ADA compliant infrastructure. This would be things like installing or upgrading curb ramps at intersections. And long-range efficiency, we need to support that by identifying and securing the rights-of-way for future transportation corridors during that development review and the planning process. And finally, goal one also recognizes the importance of freight mobility, supporting freight rail services that serve our local industries and commerce. Again, think of North Richland. Any comments or questions about that first part before we move on? Okay, great. Okay, so we'll move on now to this theme of improving transportation safety. And as a reminder, we heard a lot about transportation safety when we did our public outreach, as you'll remember from the presentation just two short weeks ago. So goal two does prioritize those safety improvements. We put a clear emphasis on reducing the fatal and serious injury collisions in the city's adoption of a vision zero principle. signals the local commitment to eliminating traffic-related deaths and severe injuries. They do that through a combination of engineering, education, enforcement, and evaluation. We also noted that safety projects need to be prioritized for those users that are vulnerable, including pedestrians, people on bikes, and people on motorcycles too, who face a disproportionate risk in the traditional roadway environments. This focus reflects equity considerations, which we're required to do and should do, and also best practices in modern transportation planning. This goal also calls out those industry proven safety measures that can address common crash types. These are things like speeding, roadway departure, pedestrian and bike conflicts, and also intersection related collisions. So some examples of remedies we would bring forward are traffic calming treatments, enhancing the crosswalks, protecting bikeways, improving lighting, and also improving intersections through design upgrades. I wanted to specifically call out policy T2E. That says that we should evaluate the need for traffic calming measures for new development and address existing neighborhood concerns where speeding and cut through traffic is likely to occur. In addition, where feasible, we want roundabouts. They've been identified as a preferred form of intersection control because they have a demonstrated ability to reduce those conflict points, primarily the left turns, and the severity of crashes as compared to traditional signalized intersections. So it's not a one size fits all, but many times those are a preferred approach. And then finally, neighborhood safety is addressed. And that's through the evaluation and implementation of those traffic calming measures, the ones I just read. Safe routes to school is also emphasized. That's to ensure that children can travel safely, walking, biking, or other modes that they take. Oh, and I almost forgot, the additional policy that we have in there also addresses safety at the at-grade rail crossings. This has to do with street connections and different routes, and it's really important during emergencies and those periods where major construction is taking place. So in summary, these measures would establish a comprehensive approach to safety that integrates the system design, user behavior, and operational resilience, protecting all of our travelers. So again, big focus on safety. Anything before we move on from there? Next, we'll talk about enhancing the operating efficiency. And this has to do a lot with the level of service. So those are the performance standards that we're looking at in our transportation system. And level of service is not anything that's new to our comprehensive plan or planning approaches. But what is new is the multimodal level of service. And that was something that we spent a whole lot of time on at the early stage, deciding how this was going to look for Richland, how was it going to be applied, how was it going to be measured? Because while you have really straightforward quantitative measures for level of service for intersections or roadways, you would look at capacity or delay time at intersections, things like that, the non-motorized level of service It's a little bit different, because when you're looking at multimodal options, it's more about how you feel using the system. And so we call it a level of traffic stress. So goal three is centered on improving those operational efficiencies of the system, while still maintaining safety, of course. Efficiency is also evaluated from that multimodal perspective using those standards as I mentioned for pedestrians and bicyclists. This way the city can encourage walking and bicycling as viable. and a comfortable travel option. Also, traffic efficiency is also addressed in a way. Now, the city doesn't offer transit service, but of course the city can look at opportunities to make access to transit more appealing or more comfortable, so that's kind of the focus area there. So we're looking at those bus stops and the mutual benefits of coordinated planning, where those stops are. And then I also wanted to call out that to manage growth-related impacts, the city uses a transportation concurrency management system, and that's gonna level up with this updated TSP. The city is going to be monitoring the development and ensuring that those level of service standards are met within the required timeframes. and the regular analysis and tracking of this collision data, I'm sorry, the concurrency data will allow quicker and more consistent development review. We've also called out that there would be regular analysis of collision data points, and this will inform the city's safety planning and help prioritize projects that improve efficiency while reducing crashes.

Nicole, I'm just noticing that your slide, you have a summary of five proposed policies, and on the stuff that you provided, there were seven. So were there two new policies under this? Is that?

No, I just counted wrong. I counted wrong on this one.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something else.

I put these slides together for you. Fairly quickly. So there are eight altogether. And again, I've sort of just given you the summary, but if you read through the actual policies there, you'll see the exact standards called out. That'll make more sense, by the way, when we're talking about level of traffic stress two, level of traffic stress three, when you get the rest of the element that'll go with it.

Thank you.

Yeah. And that'll be coming pretty soon to you. I'm thinking in the next month or two. Another question?

Yeah. My question is about T3F, minimizing driveways along major streets to reduce conflicts. Is that something that you're looking at restructuring or just for future development and implementation?

Yes, your question is about item F, minimize driveways along major streets to reduce conflicts between drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Encourage shared driveways or provide access off side streets and alleys. And we're also going to add cross easements to that statement. That was something that we just saw when we were meeting earlier this week. So the city already has standards and requirements about access management. This is addressing that. What was your specific question?

Is this something that you're looking at restructuring, like something that will go in and change what it looks like currently, or is this something for future development and considerations?

Carlo's probably best positioned to answer that.

I mean, the focus is on new projects that we bring forward in the capital projects, but also on development. So as development is executed in the city, making sure that we are doing access management and making sure that we're not overly burdening the roadway with a bunch of driveways that create conflict points with everybody else.

Cool. Thank you. I'm just kind of envisioning that section like by the uptown where there's so many driveways coming out. And I didn't know if it was some sort of reconfiguration or if it's just for future. So thank you for answering that.

Thank you for the question. Next topic. I keep wanting to advance this the wrong way. Let's see. There we go. Sustainable and active transportation is the next sort of theme. And the goal, number four, reads, encourage the use of transportation modes that promote energy conservation, circulation efficiency, and an active lifestyle. So two things I want to call out. One is we've talked a lot about health and health outcomes and things like that, and especially how that relates to land use planning. We want to make sure there's good opportunities to make healthy choices. And then we've also talked a lot about climate change and reducing vehicle miles traveled, things like that. So this is one of those places where these ideas converge and come together. So goal four basically encourages the use of transportation modes that promote energy conservation of all the things I just read. And reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a central objective. We talk about alternative fuel sources, energy efficient transportations, and those strategies that also just reduce VMT overall, the vehicle miles traveled. And as we know, when we have alternatives to driving alone that are viable, such as walking, bicycling, and transit, this can help support environmental sustainability as well as public health. I would go on to say that the goal emphasizes identifying and implementing active transportation improvements that make bicycling and walking safe, convenient, and attractive. New development is required to include those sidewalks. We're looking at improved shoulders and signage. Off street trails are also important. Where those are put in the system, they can support that internal circulation and also connections to neighboring areas and those common destinations. Pedestrian friendly design and compatibility with the planned transit system are also key priorities. So we're looking at enhancements such as improved pedestrian crossings near transit stops, which we talked about a minute ago. It all fits together. In general, the broader vision is design a circulation system positioning the city as a bicycle-friendly community supported by those complete street principles. And also, it's important to call out that the city supports transportation demand management approaches. And that's known as TDM. Those are the approaches done by the larger employers through the state's Commute Trip Reduction Act. THE HOSPITALS, THE SCHOOLS, ANY OF THE MAJOR EMPLOYER AREAS, INCLUDING CAMPUS-STYLE WORKPLACES, WE WANT TO REDUCE THOSE PEAK HOUR CONGESTIONS AND OVERALL TRANSPORTATION IMPACTS SO THEY MIGHT OFFER TRANSIT PASSES OR THEY MIGHT KIND OF DO A STAGGERED WORK SCHEDULE, THOSE TYPES OF APPROACHES. AND COLLECTIVELY THESE STRATEGIES CAN PROMOTE A HEALTHIER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM. Okay, we are halfway through. Next is balancing mobility with the environment. Goal TE5, it says establish a transportation network that balances mobility needs with the natural and built environment. Looks like there's six proposed policies. Nope, wait. Five, there's five policies for this one. I had to double check. And the summary is shown on the slides there. But I would also say streets are not recognized, are recognized not only as transportation corridors, but also under this theme as visual and environmental elements that are shaping our city's identity. So we're looking at the use of streetscape treatments GATEWAY FEATURES ALONG THE MAJOR ENTRYWAYS. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT ENHANCING COMMUNITY CHARACTER. ALSO RELATED TO THAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE. WE'RE ADDRESSING THAT THROUGH STRATEGIES THAT WOULD REDUCE CONGESTION AND ALSO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY. I HAVEN'T BROUGHT THAT UP YET BUT THAT IS A MAJOR ISSUE HERE IN THE TRI-CITIES. WE HAVE HIGH OZONE LEVELS. AND WE'RE RECOGNIZING THE STRONG LINK BETWEEN TRAFFIC CONDITIONS AND EMISSIONS. And those street system improvements are also designed to incorporate the best management practices for stormwater approaches. That helps to reduce pollution from the runoff and protect our local rivers and waterways. These features allow transportation investments to contribute positively to environmental stewardship rather than just simply mitigating the harm. The goal also includes planning and implementing street designs that mitigate the hazards to wildlife, particularly in areas where those transportation corridors intersect with natural habitats. For those areas, landscaping and buffer installations can help do those things, but also just reduce the noise, improve aesthetics and so forth. So in summary, goal five ensures that mobility improvements support those long-term sustainability, resilience, and quality of life goals, and minimize the adverse impacts on ecosystems in neighborhoods alike. All right. Community well-being and access. Goal TE6 says to ensure the transportation system fosters a sense of community, enhances community access, and promotes physical, social, and overall well-being so residents can live healthier and more active lives. So education and outreach is a very important part of this. We're prioritizing that in order to help residents understand the transportation system, the planning concepts and future needs across all traffic modes. We find that an informed community is better equipped to participate in the decision making and to use the transportation system safely and effectively. So I hope you would agree that we've been very upfront in our approaches and our request of the community to contribute as we're working on these plan improvements. Also, physical connectivity is reinforced through an interconnected network of those sidewalks, trails, and non-motorized corridors linking destinations together. Also important in this theme is design features. We're talking about things like lighting, which would incorporate improved visibility and safety as well as personal security throughout the network. This is particularly important for the pedestrians and bicyclists that are hard to see. when it's dark out. Land use and transportation integration is also strengthened by encouraging commercial uses that are conveniently located and easily accessible from neighborhoods without getting in the car. And so together these policies position transportation as a tool for building healthier and more connected and livable communities. And I'll go a little quicker as we go through, because a lot of it's really connected, as I said. Goal seven addresses the practical realities of funding and implementing the transportation system plan in a fiscally responsible way. So we can't just say we're gonna do all these things, we have to say that we're gonna be able to afford to do these things. So a central policy that we've proposed is to maintain a balance between available revenue and capital facility needs. We know that when projected funding isn't sufficient, the city needs to explore additional funding sources and then consider adjustments if needed to the level of service standards. And then if that doesn't work, then we would need to reassess the land use assumptions. This is a structured approach. It's a methodical approach required by the Growth Management Act. This promotes transparency as well as long-term financial sustainability. I would highlight that investment decisions are guided by a focus on projects that deliver the net benefits to people and businesses and minimize the environmental impacts. So techniques like low impact development just for stormwater purposes and also green infrastructure, those are encouraged to reduce the life cycle costs and the environmental harm. Also, an impact fee program ensures that new development contributes to the improvements in vehicle capacity and the other objectives, of course. Bottom line is growth is required to pay a proportionate share of traffic impacts through mechanisms, including the SEPA-based mitigation, those impact fees, or frontage improvements. Other tools available by law. The city has a couple different tools in the toolbox for this. Also project prioritization criteria helps to emphasize safety, system preservation, concurrency, and connectivity, while also looking at the needs of underserved and vulnerable populations. So we're aligning our funding strategies with those community values and outcomes. So the whole idea of this is making sure that the TSP is both implementable and also equitable. And this is the final one. This is regional and interagency coordination. So I talked earlier about the regional metropolitan transportation plan and the roles of state and local jurisdictions. This is putting out specifically how that all works together. Six policies for these. So this underscores the importance of coordinating the CIS cities transportation plan with the efforts done on the regional level by the state and with neighboring jurisdictions as well. We all know that transportation systems don't operate solely within the municipal boundaries So we have to collaborate and address regional traffic patterns as well as our shared infrastructure system so the committee were Excuse me the city works with other jurisdictions to construct a regional network that's connected of active transportation facilities and the going beyond city limits and Furthermore, the support for regional planning extends across those roadways, the rail, the air, and the non-motorized travel modes. So we're also thinking about things like the Tri-Cities Airport when we do these planning efforts. It's all one system. Collaboration with the state and major infrastructure providers, including the operators of our rail, help to identify and implement improvements. We're looking at state highways and other regional facilities. The bottom line is the goal emphasizes aligning our project timing and design standards to ensure compatibility and maximize the efficiency. We want to work with partners to advance projects that are of mutual benefit and timed strategically. And then also grant funding is always an important consideration that further expands the city's ability to implement critical street connections and system enhancements reinforcing that value of the partnership driven objectives. So hopefully that was an easier way to digest a lot of the information. If we were to look back now at what we've just been talking about and look at an overview of the goals and policies, these are some of the major themes. Comprehensive multimodal network. We talked a lot about safety and accessibility. That's an important focus. Proactive and coordinated planning. That has to do with some of the fiscal items and some of the regional work we need to do. And then finally, we always keep in mind the sustainability and the well-being of the community alongside all of this. So thank you for the opportunity to walk you through this. As I mentioned, we are going to bring forward The rest of the element, which is the description, it'll basically be a shortened version of the transportation system plan, but without as much detail to it. And it'll support, of course, the goals and policies and talk about requirements under the Growth Management Act. So I'm looking for feedback or questions or we want to know more about something when you come back. Is there anything like that that you'd like to give in terms of feedback or questions?

Commissioners, anything?

I do have one question. In the survey results that we've been over so far, I didn't see anything in particular called out. relating to T7E, addressing the need identified for underserved and or vulnerable populations. What were some of the ideas that we could implement that would meet those needs?

A lot of that you're going to remember back to the climate element, because that really does have a strong theme for equity and overburdened communities and those themes. And that, of course, relates to our transportation systems planning, because we're looking at if you put in new facilities and things like that, where are there going to be air quality impacts? Where is there going to be different exposure risks? And I should mention too, once you see our land use element, that will also bring that theme forward because we have a section where we're looking at where those by census tract, where we have certain areas of town that are more vulnerable and more at risk due to certain factors that the states looked at. Things like poverty levels, exposure to particulates in the air and things like that. Everybody is exposed to ozone risk here in the Tri-Cities. That's not by census tract, that's everywhere. So we're bringing that together in that sense as well.

So this wasn't related to any specific thing, it's just to ensure that it's kept top of mind throughout each phase of the process?

Yeah, and I would also add it informs a lot of what we do in terms of outreach too, right? Because we need to engage as much as we can and do our best efforts to try to engage community members that are typically underrepresented that we don't hear from. in the typical surveys and things like that. So that's why we're doing outreach in a number of different ways and that will need to continue to be carried forward. Great, thank you.

I have a piggyback question on that. So it says specifically address a need identified for underserved and or vulnerable populations. What was the need that was identified specifically? Is it that transportation access is too expensive, not prolific enough? Could you elaborate a little bit more about what that need was?

Yeah, I'd be happy to. Can you tell me again what the number is that we're looking at?

It's still T7E. 7E, okay. And it's the last bullet under E. Okay.

Yeah, we may need to rephrase that. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. It may need to say... Oh, I see now. If we read it in context, it says prioritize city improvement projects and participation in state and regional projects based on the following objectives. And then it's got many different things listed. And it says address a need identified for underserved and or vulnerable populations. So I guess what that's saying is when a particular concern has come up or has been identified, that would be one of the criteria.

Okay, so maybe we could put that in a little bit different language. Because the way it reads right now is that there's been a need identified, but I want to know what that is. So you're talking about a future need that may come up.

Yeah, it's saying that when you're prioritizing things, when you're deciding with your dollars, remember how we did that exercise that one time? When you're deciding how you're going to prioritize projects or advance something on the timeline further than another project, If there's a way to serve a need from an underserved or vulnerable population, then you want to kind of lift that one up a little further. If you had points to award, you'd give it a point for that, along with those other objectives.

Thank you.

Yeah. So this is more of like an approach type policy. Because it's supposed to be broadly applied to a number of different situations we could see in the next 20 years.

In the survey work, do you recall any specific needs that vulnerable population groups brought up?

What I can say about that is just mobility is such an issue. Having to get to work, having to get to the do the errands and things like that. We're all dealing with high gas prices right now and things like that. So that's kind of the idea. And we know where those population centers are and we know where those employment centers are. And so it's about just creating choices and creating opportunities. I know transit certainly looks at those things. So that's what we're looking at. And also we might, for example, prioritize putting in a new sidewalk in an area that maybe is low income, or we know that property values are lower, things like that, where we know that there's maybe also some vulnerability due to collision data or something like that. That would be an example of how to prioritize based on a need.

Thank you. Any other questions? I think that's it.

Fantastic. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Nicole. All right. With that, we move on to item number three, the Transportation Improvement Program, presented by Carlo D'Alessandro.

Okay, it is the exact same presentation that was done for Planning Commission Workshop except for a few key changes being that we're actually soliciting the recommendation to city council for approval of the TIP. So I'm gonna quickly breeze through what we had already talked about at our workshop. And if there are still any lingering questions, I'll be happy to answer them and then obviously solicit a recommendation for council approval. So again, the tip is us doing our six-year look ahead, essentially. And it is a required document, required by state law, that we have to do. And it is more focused on from the state requirement level, it being a planning document for future funding allocations. So if we do get grant funds or if we plan on asking for grant funds from federal or state agencies, this is a document that would document those things and allows us to obligate funds for future projects. And then beyond that, it is a coordinated plan for the region. We submit our TIP to our region, our MPO, the Benton Franklin Council of Governments. They use it as a planning document themselves. And it also allows us to be transparent about our projects, whether or not they'll ever make it to the state government. tip or have any funding from any federal or state agency even if it's completely locally funded we try to put all of our transportation projects into the tip and also helps us convey the types of projects that we are prioritizing to get funded at the city so here's the funded projects i won't go through them all except to say that we've been really successful in getting projects funded. They're on the tip sheets that you should have and the explanation of what those projects are, the description of it, and their associated cost to perform. So a lot of projects funded, lots to do. This one in blue, 13, 15, and 16, this is combined into one project from the way we communicated to the public as the Dupertail Corridor Improvements Project. But it is essentially three different projects squished together into one project. Some other unfunded priorities, and the only reason they presented as unfunded priorities is because they're in the top 10. We have lots of unfunded priorities, but in the top 10, Gage Boulevard improvements and Central Richland Active Transportation improvements.

Carlo, I had a question in the workshop, and I didn't ask it, so I'm going to jump in now. When it comes to the unfunded or the partially funded projects, Some of those have been on the tip for a long time. How do you update what those costs are gonna be for those projects? So it's unfunded, but it's unfunded for 10 years, meaning the costs are gonna change quite significantly. Is that part of the process that you go through in updating this tip?

Yeah, so some projects we've already projected what an escalation would be for delivering that project in a certain timeframe. So if we thought that the project would be delivered in, let's say, 2028, and the first time it hits the tip is in 2020, we had already escalated those projected costs for 2028 delivery. There are projects that we thought we would deliver earlier and then have to move it a little further down in the tip. Generally, what we'll do is we'll apply an escalation factor to it without producing a brand new engineer's estimate. And then we'll have a new price or a new cost there. What you'll notice in this year's tip sheets versus last year's is most of the projects haven't moved in the time frame in which they're delivered. So the costs didn't get updated. Thank you.

On that same vein, how are you assigning for the 40, 44 projects, the ones that are farther out there, seems like all of them are thrown into 2030. Is that just the convention that you're using, and how long have they hung around, and are they just there to be, I'm trying to figure out what that means.

So there are, yeah. There's a bunch of projects. We won't deliver a bunch of projects in 2030 or 2031 or 2032. But what we're required to do for specifically related to projects that have a transportation impact fee associated with them. So we have code that has projects identified that use transportation impact fees to fund them eventually once we build up enough fund balance. They're required to be in our TIP. That's in our planning documents as required by state law. So then we put them in the TIP, but they're essentially put out in sort of this point in the TIP where we know we won't be able to deliver it, except that we need to be transparent about having it in our planning document. So that's one thing. There's other projects that we actually do feel that we'll deliver in those later years. And then there's projects that the state DOT will require us to push out into later years so it doesn't show up in their four-year stip, even though we already secured some level of funding. They complicate things, I'll just say. They make us essentially change the project delivery timeframe so it doesn't become a burden on the state for planning releasing of funds, even though we've secured funding, but we know we're not gonna be able to deliver that project in a certain year. But let's say we'll have a project that has secured funding in 2028 for design, but we still don't have secured funding for construction. And they don't want us showing that project up, having that project show up on their state tip. So they make us move it to the later years. So it's outside of their four-year time frame that they're required to report on. and inside our six-year time frame that we're required to report on. That's a very complicated one that I don't agree with, but they make us do it anyway. So those are like the three examples of why you see a bunch of projects sort of hitting the back end of the tip. I don't know if that's a satisfactory answer, but...

It's an answer.

Yeah.

It's a difficult answer.

Yeah. Okay, continuing on. So new projects in the TIP, Snively Road and SR 240 Snively Road intersection, those have been added because of the Veterans Cemetery development. That's a road and an intersection they'll be required to construct as part of that development. They need to be in the TIP because they'll likely receive some level of funding. from a federal or state grant, so we're putting it in the TIP. Just for transparency reasons, Central Richland Active Transportation improvements may break up into discrete projects in the future, someday. It does happen in 2027. we'll likely have an amendment that we need to bring forward to council to amend the TIP with some new projects. And the two things that are not shown in the TIP are the citywide transportation system plan. I said adoption plan in 27, adoption is planned in 26. But the new projects that would come out of that plan wouldn't be included until the next tip comes before you. So that would be the 2028 to 2033 tip, which we would bring before you in 2027. And the annual pavement preservation program, this is an annual maintenance program. We don't know what projects we are doing at this point in time for next year's pavement preservation program, so we don't put it into the TIP, one because it's a maintenance program, but the other because we don't actually have projects to show or know what the funding is, and all the funding that comes into that pavement preservation program is local only. and then the remove projects that are there mostly because construction happens we get them off the tip because we're delivering those projects or at least starting to deliver those projects in 2026 so they won't show up in the 2027 tip there's a big project list and the tip map and which you've had in your packet. So the path forward, we've posted this on our website for the public to view. We had the planning commission workshop and today's the meeting to solicit the recommendation to council. Then council will have a public hearing and their meeting to hopefully to approve the resolution adopting the TIP. all this to happen so we can submit our tip before June 30th so that our MPO, BFCOG, can do their regional public process so that they can submit the regional tip to the Washington State DOT to put into the state tip, all so we can get funding in 2027. Yeah. So I have a recommended motion before you. If you have any questions, this is the time to ask.

Thank you, Carlo. Any questions from commissioners?

Just one more on the calendar. So basically, maybe the next three years, just because you're talking about funding for 2027, so what do the dates mean? So I understand there's a pool, and that's limitations by the state, but which ones are real? I mean, of your list, of your priority list, are these really going to happen in 2026, 2027, 2028? But then when you get past that, they're placeholders? Is that more what it is?

Essentially, yeah. The ones that are real, I would say, are the ones that have secured funding associated with them. You can't really deliver a project that doesn't have secured funding anyways.

I didn't understand all the notations on the tip and stuff, so I couldn't tell which ones were actually funded or not. I mean, I saw the cost, but I couldn't tell.

So there's a notation where there's an S. S means the funding is secured.

I needed a key.

And the other notation is a P, which means planned. And so if it's planned... It means we don't have funding yet. There are certain funding sources that are identified that say planned. One will say HSIP, which is a city safety program funding source. But we may not have that funding source secured or awarded to us. But when we say planned, that means we do plan on asking for grants from that funding source in the future, that type of thing.

Thank you.

Thank you again, Carlo. Okay, with that, I will move that we recommend to the Richland City Council adoption of the 2027 to 2032 Transportation Improvement Program. Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion? All in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes, thank you. Any further communications from staff or from liaisons?

I guess I'll start. As of next Thursday at five o'clock, I will no longer be here at the City of Richland. I have been hired as the new development services director for the city of Snohomish, and we'll be heading a few hours west of here. So I just want to say it's been a pleasure working with all of you and getting to know you, and you're in good hands with the staff we've been able to bring on board over the years and with the comprehensive plan with AHBL. And I'll look fondly on my time here.

Mike, I'm shocked. How long have you been here?

Just about eight years.

Well, I did just drive through Snohomish today on my way back, and it needs your help. So just congratulations. Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Yeah. So first of all, congrats on and thank you for your work here at the city. We're going to be naturally recruiting for positioning ASAP. So we'll involve you and the hiring of that. So I'll put out feelers as far as someone would want to be on the panel for that. Also, we did get that Queen Energy plan and grant, and there has been a grant agreement signed with that. So, Economic Development Division, they're starting to dole that up into the industrial park components. So, there'll be one that shortly goes out for the Richland Innovation Center area. And then also a refresh rate at Horn Rapids one, because they never made it over the final hurdle. AND THEN WE'RE NEGOTIATING WITH TRIDEC TO DO A FURTHER ANALYSIS ON LANDS LIKE NORTH OF WHERE ATLAS AGRO IS AT BECAUSE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY IS POTENTIALLY CONSIDERING SOME VARIOUS OPTIONS ON THOSE LANDS. SO IT WILL BE A PUBLIC PROCESS OVER THE NEXT LIKE YEAR AND A HALF, BUT IT'S GOOD NEWS THAT THE STATE GRANT IS FINALLY GETTING THROUGH.

CONGRATULATIONS.

THANKS.

Todd, anything from city council? Okay. Commissioners, any other comments? Okay. Well, Mike, thank you. And again, echoing Mike's, Mike and Mike, sorry, sentiments. Thank you for all of your service to the city. So with that, I will adjourn the meeting. It is 7.03. Thank you.