Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, we're calling the July 22nd, 2026 Planning Commission meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please?

Vice Chair Lambert?

Here.

Member Anderson? Here. Member Hernandez? Here. Member LaCombs?

Here.

Chair Richardson?

Excused.

Member Leonard? Member Arnn?

All right, can I have a motion to excuse Chair Richardson?

Motion to excuse Chair Richardson.

Second.

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. All right, looking at the agenda, may I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

I motion to approve tonight's agenda. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. We have no items on public hearing this evening. Public comments. This is an opportunity for the public to speak to the Planning Commission, pose questions. We may not be able to answer immediately. Might have to ask staff to gather information for our consideration, but we would love to hear from the public if there's an item not on the agenda for this evening. We have an opportunity for you to speak to us. Anybody from the public who would like to speak? Yes, ma'am. Yes.

I need to read the comments.

Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

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 to an item on the agenda, please wait until the hearing has 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 to be recognized by the chair, or in this case, the vice 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.

Pardon me?

Oh, yeah, no problem.

Okay, you ready for me now?

We are ready, yeah, thank you.

All right, well, hello, everybody. I'm Terry Stewart. I'm a Richland resident. Tonight I provided hard copies of some information on the comments that I provided on large-scale data centers, submitted it to the comprehensive plan July 2nd. and presented to city council on July 7th. And so I'm here tonight to see how these comments may be or could be incorporated into the plan. I'm new at this. I'm here to learn. And I offer any help that I can give you based on what you're seeing in that. Why do I think this is important to highlight? The Atlas Agro PGF and data set facilities are requesting transmission of 1300 megawatts, which is 13 times what Richland uses right now. So that type of power demand and the company water demand, as well as production of huge amounts of electronic solid waste, something we're going to have to deal with over the next 10 years. Because even if Atlas Agro doesn't proceed, somebody else will be here. We're attractive to data center development. So I'm hoping that somewhere in the plan we can call this out kind of visibly and have three key principles that we're following. And one is that people and existing businesses and industry have first priority on power and water. We're going to be seeing some shortages in power. I hope we get priority. Also that our natural resources are protected and not extracted, and that any decisions and operations of the data centers are transparent. A comprehensive plan is a good way to start that transparency. So there is eight policies. I'll just highlight one around power. And that is that when we have droughts and hot weather, I'd like to have design flexibility in the data center facilities so we're not always the one having to compensate, that they also are compensating. That would be one type of policy that I'm looking at. With respect to water, there's a lot of concern about monitoring how much water is being used. And in the water effluent, what contaminants might be there. The public would like to see near real-time data that are readily available to them. Two minutes? OK. So like I said, I'm here to learn. And if there's things tonight as you're talking about the land use, if you can point out and say, hey, that was a data center, that would be great help to me. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. I'm not sure we're going to get into the specifics of the data center. I believe this is more of the introduction of the land use section. I do know that the city council has talked a bit about data centers. It was, I believe, on the agenda on Monday. I don't know if there's anything, Director Rizzatello, if you'd like to add.

Yeah, I'll say that's definitely something that could be covering goals and objectives, but primarily where it would live would be And we're just starting the very cursory edits of the staff, so you'll be seeing it like at future meetings. Title 23 and 24 is we're touching up the development code. Typically, you do that sorts of things around specific uses as a performance standard within the development code. So that's essentially where that would live. So there's a proposal. that we're starting to craft as staff on that. But that would live in that development code section. What we're doing right now is the early level, like goals and objectives and existing conditions, if you will, of the comprehensive plan.

Okay, thank you for the detail. And thank you for the thorough document, Dr. Stewart. There's certainly a lot of effort there. And this will be provided to the consultant as well, who you'll see later this evening. Okay, next item, approval of minutes. May I have a motion to approve the June? Oh, I guess we should allow others. Anyone else would like to speak to the Planning Commission this evening? All right, thank you. Okay, thank you for keeping me in line. Moving on to the approval of minutes, approval of the June 24th, 2026 Planning Commission meeting minutes. We have a motion for approval.

Motion to approve Planning Commission Meeting Minutes from June 24th, 2026. I second to approve the motion.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, or any discussion? None. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Minutes are approved. Unfinished business, we have no items this evening. And we're moving on to new business and back into the comprehensive plan update. So this evening, we're looking at the draft land use goals and policies first with Nicole Stickney again. Good evening, Nicole.

Good evening. Thank you, Chair. Yes, tonight I'll be presenting on the land use element. I'm calling this part one because we are just looking at the goals and policies part tonight as an early review. And then following that, we'll talk about the transportation element. And so again, this is part of our future in focus approach. The city is working on updates to the Richland Comprehensive Plan as well as the Transportation Systems Plan, which is a functional plan that goes into a lot more depth and detail. The city is also updating the parks, recreation, and open space plan. And so those efforts combined are called Future in Focus. And once again, my name is Nicole Stickney. I'm with AHBL. We are the prime consultant leading this effort along with our project team members. All right, so without further ado, I'll talk to the land use element goals and policies. NOW, YOU'VE ALREADY LOOKED AT THE INTRODUCTION DRAFT. YOU'VE LOOKED AT CAPITAL FACILITIES, THE ELEMENT ITSELF AND THE GOALS AND POLICIES. SAME WITH UTILITIES. WE'VE GONE OVER NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. WE'VE GONE THROUGH CLIMATE. LAND USE IS THE CENTRAL PART, OF COURSE, TO comprehensive plan as a whole. So that's still in development, but it will be too very soon. But what we thought we would do tonight is preview the goals and policies so that we can be sure that we're heading in the right direction and have some early discussion on that in order to give it its sort of due review. SO THE LAND USE ELEMENT AS A CHAPTER OR AS WE CALL THEM ELEMENTS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FUNCTIONS IN SOME VERY IMPORTANT WAYS. IT IS THE FOUNDATION TO THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. EVERYTHING ELSE NEEDS TO BE COORDINATED TO WHAT IS PUT OUT IN THE LAND USE PLAN. or element excuse me it does establish the desired development of pattern and provides guidance for future land use decisions so through the goals and policies through the discussion that is where we are setting the stage for the next 20 years of growth in the city and deciding what types of development should occur and where and how that should GO ABOUT. NEXT THE GOALS, POLICIES AND STRATEGIES THAT ARE WITHIN THE LAND USE ELEMENT ARE GOING TO IN PARTICULAR INFORM THOSE ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS AND THAT LINKS DIRECTLY TO PERMIT DECISIONS THAT THE CITY MIGHT BE FACED WITH. UNDER THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT IT SHOULD PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE AND EQUITABLE GROWTH AND WE'RE LOOKING AT PROTECTING THE NATURAL RESOURCES, LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH safety and community welfare. And again, I would emphasize the land use element is closely tied to all of the other comp plan elements, especially transportation and housing. I ALSO WANT TO DESCRIBE THAT THE ELEMENT APPLIES TO ALL OF THE LANDS THAT ARE WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS AND WE'RE LOOKING AT THE URBAN GROWTH AREA THAT EXPANDS BEYOND THAT AS WELL. BENTON COUNTY DOES REGULATE THOSE UNINCORPORATED LANDS THAT ARE WITHIN THE UGA BUT NOT WITHIN CITY LIMITS, BUT THE CITY'S LAND USE ELEMENT AND THE LAND USE MAP THAT IS A PART OF THAT ELEMENT ESTABLISHES THE CITY'S preferred land use for those areas, and that, of course, is linked to zoning. I think we've talked a little bit about the relationship between the land use map and the zoning map, so hopefully that's making sense and connecting. So... As I mentioned, we're still crafting the element itself. There are some parts and pieces from the current comprehensive plan they're going to carry forward, but maybe rearranged, reorganized, modernized, that sort of thing. And then there's also a lot of new discussion being added in. to really bring things up to current situation and topics. So this slide here just lists for you some of those different topics that will be covered. Growth targets being a major item that also relates to housing, housing production. We're going to talk about what's unique in Richland, how Richland was developed over time, and certain special conditions like we have a lot of public lands ownerships. We'll be addressing that. We'll talk about the individual neighborhoods and districts with sort of a broad stroke, but we want to make sure that we've... ARTICULATED THINGS ABOUT THE CITY THAT WOULD BE IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE IN A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. BASIC GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPMENT. WE'RE GOING TO TRY TO BRING EVERYTHING INTO ONE DISCUSSION AND CONNECT TO THE BENTON COUNTY COUNTYWIDE PLANNING POLICIES AND THE OTHER THINGS THAT WE NEED TO INCORPORATE SINCE WE ARE PLANNING UNDER THE STATE'S GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT. So with that, that's my sort of introduction, and I thought I would just next walk through the different land use goals and policies, either looking at them specifically on these slides, but if there were too many, then I'd kind of summarize them for a slide so we wouldn't be here all evening. Are there any questions before we move on to the goals and policies that we have drafted so far? No, okay, great, thank you. The headlines that I put at the top of the slides those are kind of just the general gist the big idea As I see it and then you will you know look at the goal and we'll look at either again the summary of the proposed policies or the policies themselves I Just want to pull up my notes here quickly Well, we'll see. All right, so again, the main idea is shown at the top of the slide, and this first one is, I would say, planning for growth and land use compatibility. So goal LU1, and these will all be numbered according to either the land use element or what part of it it's in. This talks about planning for growth within the UGA and promoting those land uses and activities that are compatible with what's already existing. We talk about established character of neighborhoods. and supporting a progressive, physically, socially, economic, and culturally diverse community. So this is really a nod to how change occurs over time and how we want to be responsive to that. Under Goal LU1, there are some new policies, and I've described these in more detail in your packet materials in the memo, but specifically I wanted to call out a goal or a policy, excuse me, LU1C and LU1D. Those are both discussing coordination and communication with outside entities, so neighboring jurisdictions or other agencies, and that's required with a specific RCW in the Growth Management Act. LU1E is a new policy that is proposed about open space as development occurs. And LU1F is proposed additional policy language about development agreements. Development agreements can be entered into by the city developers and we wanted to make sure that that was addressed both in the comprehensive plan and in the Code amendments that will be coming up. So if we were going to just summarize these policies in general, we're talking about focusing growth and revitalization within existing city areas. We're looking at a lot of infill development in the next 20 years. That idea about strengthening that coordination and communication and protecting community character along the way. All right, and then the next slide moves us on to goal LU.2, and the big idea here is sustainability and quality of life. The goal is very simple, establish land uses that are sustainable and create a livable and vibrant community. So to summarize the host of proposed policies we have, we're looking at a balanced mix of land uses. So we need to make sure that we're accommodating adequately for housing and for jobs, open space recreation and so forth. And we want to be really efficient as we do that. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE GROWTH IS SUPPORTED WITH THOSE PUBLIC SERVICES AND THAT INFRASTRUCTURE TO REINFORCE WHAT THE CITY ALREADY HAS AND ALSO MANAGE COSTS ALONG THE WAY. AND ALSO WE NEED TO PROTECT AND ENHANCE OPEN SPACE AND NATURAL AREAS. THIS IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRESERVING HABITAT, CREATING OPPORTUNITIES TO CONNECT RESIDENTS WITH NATURE, SUPPORT all the things that we value for high quality of living, the recreation, education, health, and economic opportunities. In particular, LU2D policy is a new proposed policy, and that's about the identification, preservation, and restoration of open spaces and natural habitat areas. So that links us then into the natural element. We have that natural environment element separately, but we want to make sure that we kind of cover that topic so that we're being kind of cohesive and very well organized in how we're looking at these topics okay the next uh pertains to residential variety and choices now again we're going to have a separate chapter a separate element which is going to be uh housing but we need to have some overarching direction in our land use element so Here I've listed all of the policies that are proposed, and I'll call out the ones that are kind of new. The goal under LU3 is to maintain a broad range of residential land use designations to accommodate a variety of lifestyles, housing types, and opportunities. So here's the call-outs. We want to distribute our residential unit uses and densities throughout the urban growth area that's consistent with the city's vision. So that's basically saying we want to be well-organized and methodical about it. We want to encourage higher residential densities, especially near the CBD. We want to look at co-living and live-work arrangements as being opportunities that are available in the zoning code. And the idea there is to strengthen the vitality of that area and... MAYBE PEOPLE CAN WALK TO A RESTAURANT FOR DINNER OR WALK TO AN APPOINTMENT, THINGS LIKE THAT. WE WANT TO PROVIDE THOSE OPPORTUNITIES. AND SO FOCUSING DENSITY IN THOSE AREAS WHERE THOSE SERVICES AND JOBS EXIST IS KEY. NEXT, OH, AND THEN I WANTED TO ALSO, I'M SORRY, EMPHASIZE THAT CO-LIVING AND LIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS, THIS WAS NEWLY ADDED. Just wanted to call that out. That's definitely a new thing.

Nicole? Sorry, I have a question. Is now an okay time? Yes, go ahead. I am curious if through your draft process and as you're doing all of this consult work, are we considering that Washington is part of the multi-sector plan on aging and are we bringing into that some of the land use processes specific for an aging population and how we can include that in the comprehensive plan?

Yes, and by background, I'm well aware of a lot of the things that AARP puts out, which is very helpful information. If you have something particular you would like us to look at in terms of a guidance document, I would appreciate that because I'm not aware of something from the state per se. But I will say also this is going to be a hot topic in the housing element because we definitely want to make sure that we have housing for all stages of life, and that's something we are looking at closely.

Okay. If I do send to that, do I send that through city staff or do I just send it directly to you?

How would you all like to send it to city staff?

Please send it to me and then we can pass it on.

Sounds great. Thank you. Yeah. I would appreciate that resource. Thank you. LU3C calls for the city to foster innovative and non-traditional residential developments to meet local needs. This could be through PUDs and the city already has many of those. We could also have mechanisms like density bonuses, new housing types, mixed use housing, mixed use developments. This is not much different than what we had before. LU3D is a new policy, and this will specifically address the middle housing requirements under House Bill 1110, which will be more fleshed out in the housing element, but the idea here is to encourage a variety of housing types, including middle housing, at a scale that is compatible with surrounding neighborhoods and uses. And as a reminder, we did prepare some materials about what metal housing is and some posters, in fact, and that had been displayed at the library previously. That resource is available on the project website. all right moving on promote industry and business opportunities the big idea here is to support jobs and economic growth so for goal um lu4 we're discussing um the idea that we want to promote commercial and industrial growth that supports the city's economic development goals achieving a diversified mix of private industry and commerce job creation supporting a strong and robust economy. And this is always, I think, in full focus here at the city. There's a lot that the city does actively does to foster economic development. The summary of the proposed policies is shown here. Basically, we want to support, again, a diverse base. We know that we can't be a one town, one company town. We need to diversify across different industries so we can be resilient and also prepare for CHANGES THAT MAY HAPPEN, ESPECIALLY AT THE FEDERAL FUNDING LEVEL. WE KNOW THAT WE'RE SUSCEPTIBLE AND SENSITIVE TO THOSE CHANGES. WE CAN ACCOMMODATE RETAIL, WHOLESALE, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, RESEARCH, AND OTHER BUSINESS USES. NEXT WE WANT TO PROMOTE INNOVATION. And so that is something that's being looked at very closely. The idea is to have active research parks really fuel what we already have in terms of innovation, discovery in town, technology centers would be a part of that. High tech employment, manufacturing facilities, all of that is a part of what Richland would look at for its economic portfolio. Next, we want to ensure that compatibility between different land uses. So we call out that we use things like buffers, transition areas, and development standards. That is our mechanism for reducing impacts between areas and uses other than just how we assign zoning on the map. And then performance standards were also brought up. So that is also a part of it, performance standards that can be... implemented on a permit by permit basis or can be set forth in the code. And I would even go a little bit further to say that development agreements could be a major factor for very large scale or impactful projects. And then the last one here, support strategic industrial growth. Again, the idea that Richland has a unique opportunity and unique approach. excuse me, an innovation. So this has to do with what we already have in town, but we're looking for clean energy industries. We're looking to redevelop the former DOE lands that were transferred to Trideck and then the port city and move forward with that. NOW POLICY 4D IN THE MATERIALS, THAT IS REVISED AND SPECIFICALLY WE WANTED TO IDENTIFY MITIGATION CONCEPTS THAT WOULD ADDRESS INSTANCES WHERE MORE INTENSIVE LAND USES AND ACTIVITIES WOULD IMPACT NATURAL AREAS. SO I JUST WANTED TO CALL THAT OUT AS KIND OF A PIVOT POINT. All right, next we want to plan and design for active lifestyles. So the Growth Management Act just does actually call on communities to think about how people are either motivated or not motivated to make healthy choices in the built environment. So this might be things like, are we very car-centric? Are there ways to, you might think about are there ways to walk to school in the neighborhood I live in? How far is the nearest park? Things like that so that we can make sure that we're fostering and providing opportunities to be healthy and sustain an active lifestyle. So the goal is written out, ensure orderly development featuring connectivity, which enhances community access and promotes physical, social, and overall well-being so residents can be healthy and active. And I always like talking about this one in particular because the Growth Management Act doesn't talk about health specifically, like it is not a goal in the Growth Management Act, but IT NEEDS TO BE INCORPORATED, RIGHT? AND WE SHOULD BE INCORPORATING IT. SO THEY DO DIRECT THAT YOU WANT TO LOOK AT THE WAY THAT YOU PLAN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, BUT THE IDEA IS THAT WE SHOULD BE MORE HOLISTIC, TOO. SO THAT'S SOMETHING THAT I WOULD POINT OUT THAT THE CITY HAS DONE IN THE PAST AND WILL LIKELY CONTINUE TO DO. SO WE HAVE TWO PROPOSED POLICIES FOR THIS SECTION. AND THERE'S NO REAL SIGNIFICANT CHANGES HERE. But before I go to these two, I will mention we're probably going to be adding another policy proposal in here about environmental justice. So the idea is to set forth an approach or principles to avoid creating or worsening environmental health outcomes and disparities. So once you see the land use element, you'll see an actual map that shows what the state has already identified as areas that are more and less vulnerable to certain environmental health impacts. We've pulled that work together. The question is whether we put it here, or in the climate element, or both, so we're just teasing that out still. Okay, back to the policies that are on the slide. It says to locate commercial uses so they can conveniently serve the needs of residential neighborhoods and workplaces. And then secondly, and this ties into the transportation element, promote ped and bike circulation, non-motorized transport. throughout the community. We want to make sure that we're thinking about connections to parks, access to trails, and just expanding in general those ped and bike infrastructure systems. So again, it all connects. All right. So those all kind of group together. Any questions or comments before we move on to talking more specifically about the central business district? Okay, seeing none.

Mr. Chair, can I ask a question? Thanks. Nicole, if this is a question for you, then Nicole or for Mike. If you go back to LU1 and you talk about community development agreements, can you expand a little bit on how the city would maybe typically use a community development agreement and whether a community development agreement might be a tool that would be used with regards to an organization like somebody who wants to bring in a data center?

Yeah, certainly. So development agreements have been authorized under the Growth Management Act for some time. It's not a new concept. And this is covered under RCW 36.70B.170, AND SO THE CITY CAN AND I THINK IN THE PAST HAS ENTERED IN DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS. WHAT IT IS IS LIKE KIND OF NEGOTIATING A LITTLE BIT. LIKE WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS AND IT'S IMPORTANT FOR THOSE PROJECTS THAT MIGHT HAVE KIND OF A LONG TIME SPAN OR THERE'S MAYBE SOME MILESTONES THAT THE CITY WOULD WANT TO SEE IN TERMS OF HOW MITIGATION IS DONE. SO IT CAN REALLY BE USED AS A USEFUL TOOL TO ADDRESS UNIQUE SITUATIONS. I LIKE TO REMIND FOLKS WE DON'T ALWAYS KNOW IN OUR ZONING CODE WHAT EXACTLY THE DIFFERENT PROPOSALS THAT COULD COME FORWARD FOR A SPECIFIC PERMIT. THERE'S SO MANY THINGS THAT ARE could work really well in one place, not in another. You have to think about infrastructure. You have to think about the environment, all those things. And we have these layers and layers of codes that really help us to address that, certainly through the State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA. we are able to take a holistic view at environmental impacts, but a development agreement is just one more tool in the toolbox that helps the city be able to address those types of situations. And I know that there are many best practices that have been presented recently, say at planning conferences, where since these have been around for a good number of years, we can see what's worked well, where things have maybe fallen short. Oh, if we could go back, we would change things so that the city can move forward with those types of things, with some confidence and understanding about the legal structure as well. Does that help to answer your question?

It does. Let me ask one other question real quick. So Mike, do you think the city of Richland is its preference to use codes to kind of try to manage like the siting of a data center, or do you think the preference would be to use an agreement like a community development agreement to manage that, or would it be a combination?

I think it'd be a little bit of column A and column B. I need big development to make sure infrastructure costs and the ability to use what when it's always going to have development agreement. However, what I will also say, We only have Crystal Ball into the future, and I think so it's a level set playing field for everyone. I am a believer in performance standards and putting that like in the development code titles because then you can go in the RMC and it's there and people can follow it. So I believe in putting it in both places. So, I mean, the idea is to be incorporating some of this stuff in a development code. The other thing as well, is to put in a section about development agreements. Because what I will say is that comparing my time when I was in college place, WE HAVE A CODE AROUND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS. AND HERE, WE KNOW THE RCW EXISTS, BUT IT'S RELATIVELY SILENT IN A VERY POINTED WAY IN THE MUNICIPAL CODE. SO THE IDEA IS TO THROW ALL THAT IN, BECAUSE I MEAN, I VIEW THE MUNICIPAL CODE AS LIKE YOUR ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANICA FOR CITY OPERATIONS. SO THAT WOULD BE MY PREFERENCE.

I think I'd add two more things. Yeah, I'll answer your question here in a second. Two more concepts here. One is I wanted to emphasize that development agreements are brought about via a legislative process. So it is a policy decision at that point. That means it's a council decision. It's not referred to a hearing examiner or a different review authority. That means it also includes public comment, a transparent process. I wanted to highlight that. And then the other thing I wanted to point out is that Hopefully I didn't lose my thought. So it's legislative. And then, oh, yeah, this process we're in right now, the comprehensive plan, is where we set the stage, kind of the benchmark or the high policy ideas of what the city is going to try to achieve in the next 20 years. So that is really going to be used as kind of one of the things that we look at. But how does it measure up against the comprehensive plan? Any other questions?

I just have it based kind of on that and just to get a better understanding of the development agreement since they don't come before us. Is there going to be any point that once these policies are solidified that we Collectively, we'll go back and look at like existing ones to understand if there are opportunities to help us meet these goals a little bit better. And just like as an example, I had somebody approached me about installing EV charging stations in the uptown. It's wow. It's a nonprofit. They essentially put the charging stations and provide the vehicles for low income families to have access to transportation. And when I contacted economic development about it, they let me know that there was almost an anti-development agreement in place with the uptown, essentially saying that no development would happen there. And if the city were to develop, then management of the property would go back to the tenants and owners of the space themselves. And so I guess I would only know because I was checking on that, but that seems like that would be a really great opportunity to help provide some of this income that we are trying to get into the communities. So just curious of when do we start kind of looking at or how do we understand what's in place and maybe impacting our ability to meet some of our goals?

I'll let Mike answer that. But real quick, I would just comment that Your question is well taken because it shows the complexities that we deal with. And in fact, it is also my understanding that the uptown has these It's not an anti-development agreement, but these controls on it, I believe it's an actual covenant or a condition or restriction on it that spells things out that is old, but it carries forward. And that's where land use gets complicated and difficult. And so, yes.

I would also say Columbia Point Golf Course, right? The city is paying upwards of $100,000 to an outside company to manage it. There's a lot of opportunity to make trails and more housing around there, but because the contract's not being competitively bid or offered to anybody local to manage it, it's kind of just not really an option that we could even understand what the benefit to the city would be.

I mean, what I will say with some of the development agreements or old development statutes as we run across them, if there's stuff that's in conflict, we can definitely bring that up to you and then have a discussion around it. As far as what's going on at Columbia Point, I know there was a longer-term agreement for the golf ants predated me by a long time. So I'd have to do more research into that one to get back to you on that. As far as the Uptown one, because I was curious myself on that one, what essentially happened with that is, believe it or not, years and years and years ago when that was built, the federal government initially built it. Then when essentially the city reincorporated it, People are given the choice of whether or not to buy the structure or the government would sell it to someone else or lease it. At that juncture, it almost looked like a very obscure piece of cake and all over the place because instead of there being collective parking, each one of those businesses had like a sliver, which initially worked okay. But then over time, some owners kept up their stuff while other ones not so much. So councils, and this is probably going back over a decade ago from my research, there was a collective decision between folks up in Uptown and the city, hey, the parking lot and the alleyway should be like a city asset, and then they worked collectively at the time. uh... to work with the state to get some brownfield money equina up and that is actually something will be looking at i'm going cuz there's still is an ongoing uh... some ongoing cleanup the needs occur but uh... the city took ownership they out loud at the time because there were a lot of older uh... heathen tanks underground things like that that need to be remediated now for whatever reason when they occurred there was this uh... statue put in place at the time within the agreement of them and this is going back a long time where it said if there's like any sort of development in the parking lot and the way it was crafted it also looked at stuff like the charging stations that it could essentially revert back to each of the owners which that would cut That's a lot of different owners. So that caused like a whole hodgepodge of issues. So all of that to say that is something we are looking into. And I will say coming out of the comprehensive plan, one of the things that economic development is going to be having dialogue with our business improvement districts on is is that the best way to run the business improvement districts? Because a lot more of the cities and things like BIDs, they've pivoted over what's called downtown Main Street organizations. And if you do that and you get certified as a Main Street, there's actually like a B&O tax credit that the businesses – when you pay the state, instead of giving money over a state, you pledge it to your downtown association and then that money can be used for revitalization and do a bunch of cool stuff. We did that in College Place in Colfax. So you hit the nail on the head that it's a very complex and bigger level discussion.

Definitely one worth having, though. Yeah. Hopefully we can.

Yeah.

Well, I think, too, that we need to make sure the code doesn't preclude from doing that on other private commercial development, though. Yeah. Because right now, if you came to the city, they might have to look at it as a fueling station, gas station, which conditional use permit. There's just no, and I don't know if Richland's like this, but a lot of times logic doesn't prevail because you have to find the most reasonable, consistent use. And I think Badger Mountain South was a development agreement along with the LUDAR is a good example, and that For example, when certain number of homes are developed, then the city is obligated to put in police station or fire station. The school district is obligated to build the schools out. That's been a pretty successful one. Horn Rapids might have been, I think that was a development agreement as well.

Yes, some portions of it, and I'll get into that later, but we'll be doing another update to the plan up at Horn Rapids to solidify that better.

Yeah, great discussion. Thank you. Going back to the slide, we'll next talk about the central business district goal and policies. So this says, develop an attractive and vibrant central business district, or CBD, that showcases Richland's unique features and assets. You can see the different ones listed here, probably pretty typical, pretty on point with what we've already been talking about. Looking at LU6D, this one says explore opportunities for partnerships and collaborations, encouraging different types of catalyzing projects such as pop-up business opportunities, co-working spaces, community kitchens, and events that bring people to the city. So this is supposed to sort of lower the bars of entry to smaller businesses that want to be active in the area, and it's also meant to be sort of forward-thinking. A lot of times, as has been brought up, you can't forecast what new technology is going to be or what the trends are going to be, how people are going to change their lifestyles, and you want to be able to respond to that. So this sort of shows evidence of moving in that direction. Public facilities is the topic for goal LU7. We want to encourage and facilitate an efficient use and location of infrastructure, the transportation system, and public facilities serving the community's best interest. For these, we've just summarized them. I wanted to highlight that goal LU7C addresses the transportation network, and then there's also several at the end. that you'll notice that talks specifically about addressing disparities regarding education, healthcare, and environmental health outcomes in response to different legislative measures. And that's going to be fleshed out in the land use element itself. As I mentioned, we're going to have a map that shows where these health disparities have been measured, but also just a general discussion about how the state's approaching that. We also have a proposed addition at LU7I, just kind of a checklist item, a proposed addition to comply with Washington Administrative Code 396196415, which addresses what actions need to be taken if probable funding runs short. So this is supposed to be fiscally achievable, the things that are in a comprehensive plan. So we have to have mechanisms for that. Just in summary, as you can see here, again, it's about efficient infrastructure. It's about community health and encouraging partnerships along the way. So probably pretty typical stuff that you would expect for public facilities. Next, we have some themes and concepts that are kind of unique to Richland, kind of packaged together under goal LU8, and that says address unique land use situations in the urban area or urban growth area with policies to sufficiently ensure compatibility between land uses without infringing on private property rights. So there we're going through a series of topics. How do we manage How do we manage uses and development in the Yakima River floodplain, for instance? How do we work with our waterfront locations to make sure that the uses there are per the community's desires? We talk about mineral resources. We talk about regulating land uses around the airport for compatibility and safety purposes. And also how to promote redevelopment. And again, all of these topics are sort of, you know, talked about in this land use element that you'll see soon. Additionally, we will add some language about shrub step areas within the UGA. That is kind of forthcoming based on some research that we're waiting on. But I wanted to call that out, that that's a placeholder right now. We also have under proposed policy LU8G, a proposed policy about encouraging redevelopment where there's vacant industrial or commercial land. Perhaps those could be converted to residential uses, and that can be done under brownfields programs perhaps, or maybe it wouldn't even take that. So those are all kind of in the mix there. The next one, Island View, there were specific goals and policies that related to a subarea plan that was created some time ago. There was a specific call out for a single family overlay. We're going to propose that that be, we sort of move on to the next step with that. We could retire that plan because most of that development has occurred. DOCUMENT DOESN'T NEED TO BE UPDATED IF WE CAN FOLD IT INTO THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. SO MORE DISCUSSION TO COME ON THAT. I JUST KIND OF PUT A PLACE HOLDER THERE. BUT IF YOU WANTED TO LOOK AND SEE WHAT THE CURRENT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SAYS, YOU COULD GO BACK AND CHECK THAT. BUT WE'LL BE TALKING MORE ABOUT HOW THAT WILL BE CHANGED. IT WILL BE IMPORTANT TO TIE THAT TO A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE SUB AREA PLANS IN GENERAL. SO THAT'S FORTHCOMING. Okay, lots of topics here. So the next one, kind of under the umbrella of private property rights. So we want to ensure the appropriate protection of private property rights and adhere to prevailing state and federal laws as well as constitutional requirements. IN PARTICULAR, LAND USE POLICY 10D IS A PROPOSED NEW POLICY TO ADDRESS INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN RESPONSE TO RECENT LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES. SO WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE REACHING OUT TO DISENFRANCHISED COMMUNITIES AND ACTIVELY TRYING TO ENSURE THAT WE CAN HEAR THEIR VOICE AND INVITE THEM INTO PROPOSED CHANGES. So I have the policies listed here, except the first one, I kind of truncated it. You can see the first part there. But as you can see, this has to do with permit processing timelines, being fair as we work through that. We should call that out. That's an important thing. How we process comprehensive plans, that we have an open hearing process, we provide adequate public notice. It's basically calling out the things that the city is doing and is called to do to make sure that we're planning under the Growth Management Act and we're also adhering to private property rights. And the appearance of their in Washington State as well is a major component to that. Okay. Historic and cultural resources. I don't really have too much to go into detail about this. This is more of just ensuring that we have structure in place in terms of a goal and policies about preserving historic structures, districts, and cultural resources. There are certainly things that the city has been talking about recently and how they'd like to move forward and be more may be deliberate in terms of how they're looking at these resources. And there's opportunities out there to collaborate and work within kind of the existing structure of what's available in terms of tax incentives, opportunities for cultural resources, things like that. So kind of leveling that up, if you will. Moving on.

Mr. Chair, can we go back to that last slide for just a second? Is that picture communicating to us that the Richland Holiday Inn is a cultural or historic designated building? Why is that picture there?

Because it's that kind of style of mid-century buildings.

But there's no protection on that building or any kind of designation on that building?

No, no, I didn't. I wasn't trying to imply that. I thought it was attractive and talks about how it's an example of the time period that a lot of Richland was developed around. Yeah. Yeah.

Chair, if I could add some context to it, too. One of the things we're looking at investigating, and I believe we got a green light from council because it was presented at a council workshop a month or two ago, is unlike our neighbors, Piasco and Kennewick and even Prosser, Richland isn't what's Calls certified local government for cities. They get a CLG status. It's pretty easy. Yes adopt this historic preservation boilerplate code the state has it says you'll essentially try to promote like your historic buildings and if you have that and let's say private private property owners such as like those in the alphabet homes and if they were, because anything over 50 years old per the state could qualify for this, but it'd be up to the property owner. If they've restored it to how it looked historically, and then the city signed off on it, you actually can then get a property tax reduction from the state if you're a certified local government. In fact, both places I worked at before, College Place and Colfax, We worked to become certified local governments and stood up pretty aggressive programs. So that's why you're seeing a lot of proposed policies here because for We haven't done it historically, I think because in the lens of a lot of public, they didn't really view Richland as like historic view to like Walla Walla or other cities because people think of it like, oh, 1800s or whatever. But per state and federal guidelines, it can be anything 50 years or older. And if you restore it, it could fall into that and you could get essentially a pretty nice, property tax reduction, both state level and even federal level, should the property owner so choose to do that. So it's before administration right now, but we are going to be looking at potentially passing an ordinance like that. So that way we could opt in a CLG and then give private property owners that tool if they so choose, because without that, you can't do it. So.

While we're paused, let me ask a question real quick around if the city has an aspirational goal, like for example, you know what, we'd like to expand our swimming pool, or in the next 10 years, we'd like to have a performing arts center, or we'd like to develop Columbia Park West. Is the comprehensive plan where that an aspirational goal like that would go, or is that more like in a strategic plan? Or where would these kind of aspirational goals around in the next 10 years, we would like to see this infrastructure either expanded or built in the city?

I mean, it should be in both. And you do want to have your capital facilities projects that you forecast to have over the next six years, 20 years, long-term, short-term time frame, you want to have those listed out in your comprehensive plan. So that's important to do that. Now, that doesn't mean we have to get all that work done now. we can make amendments in the future, especially if a key opportunity arises or support swells for a certain initiative. Since we were talking about 50 years, 50 years ago would be 1976. Some of us might think 50 years ago is like 1950, but it's not, so just a quick note. Okay, urban design. Let's talk about vibrancy and improvements. Goal UD1, unchanged, but we have some proposed new policies, create an attractive and culturally vibrant pedestrian and bicycle-friendly environment throughout the city. The summary of the proposed policies is shown here. It's about walkability, it's about redevelopment, sustainable development, a lot of the ideas that we talk about. The bottom one I will call out in response to the question that just came in, we want to protect important views, enhance access to natural features, support public art, museums, interpretive centers, and gathering spaces. So once again, when you're looking through there, UD or urban design policy 1D, 1E, and 1G, those are all proposed new policies, again, to level up and kind of boost our opportunities and direction that we want to do. I think protecting important views is a good call out too. You know, that was something that we noted that, nope, that should be popped in here, so. And then moving on to the same theme, urban design, looking at commercial area revitalization. The city wants to move forward and continue to revitalize those commercial areas, such as areas in the CBD, the Uptown, and the Island View corridors. Proposed policies are shown on this slide. Basically, this is about making a welcoming experience and looking at all those different elements that make a place have a particular sense of identity and fostering that along the way. Now looking to natural features, Development should be done through appropriate design and should protect those natural features. We want to think about our rivers, our shorelines, our ridgelines, what steep slopes, and then those different archaeological and historic resources. A lot of times that's actually the view of the river or the view of the mountain. Those are our resources. So some proposed policies here. Development should be planned and designed to account for the topography and landscape. while minimizing the environmental impacts. It's actually pretty high bar, so that's a lofty policy. Next, hillside development should, as much as practical, blend in with the natural shape and texture of the land. And lighting comes up here as well. Lighting should be designed to promote public safety, but also promote those dark sky principles. So we don't want to be illuminating the night sky lighting. when we don't need to be. There's safety, security, but then it stops somewhere. We want to beautify our public spaces. So the goal here is to promote community beautification by enhancing public spaces and thoroughfares, encouraging private property beautification, and again, the light pollution comes in. We want to regulate light pollution, because that also provides a beautiful environment. ITEMS ARE SUMMARIZED HERE. I WOULD WANT TO NOTE THAT PROPOSED POLICY 4D IS AN ADDITION TO ENCOURAGE PUBLIC COMMUNITY-ORIENTED DESIGN. AND 4E IS A PROPOSED ADDITION, AGAIN, LINKING IN MORE CLOSELY TO THOSE DARK SKY PRINCIPLES. SO IT RELATES IN A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT REALMS THERE. And this brings me to my final slide, and so let's talk about further discussion, what you might like about what you just saw, what you think is missing, and keep in mind that you'll get another look at this once we have it packaged together with the land use element itself.

Mr. Chair, I was going to ask Nicole a question about, so you call out light pollution, but you don't say anything about noise pollution. I'm curious why noise pollution isn't mentioned.

That's a good question. Yeah, we can look at that too.

Should noise pollution be mentioned?

Yeah, we can look in to see where a good fit for that would be. We think about noise impacts quite a bit with industrial development, as well as vibrations, which I underappreciated until I was working in a building that was right next to a rail line. And so vibrations are an issue too with noise and all of this. So yeah, we can look into broadening that concept. That's a good observation.

And then I just had one, it's not like a big deal. I just remember when we were talking about the city's like mission statement and looking that we talked about the progressive word and it was in like one of the first policies again in here. And like, again, I just like don't really understand what that means relative to all of this. So I was just curious if the decision had been made to take it out of the mission statement, if we should follow suit, like in the policy or if there was,

Explanation of what that yeah, I think you'll see that swapped out next time Because we yes, we discussed that so as I recall that is the case Good point. I'm trying to remember which Where this was and I want to make sure that wasn't a word that snuck in when I summarized it rather than the actual Text Oh, here it is. Okay. Goal LU1. Yeah. It's a carryover. It's a carryover. So it's from the existing comp plan, talks about a progressive and physically, socially, economic, diverse community. So yeah, we'll look to retool that.

I'm not like opposed to it. I just, I understand what physically, socially, economically means. I don't totally... You know, just one of those kind of weird things.

Right. And as we discussed, that word carried perhaps a different meaning 10 years ago. Now it's more of a politically charged word. So we want to make sure that we're wordsmithing for those types of situations so that we can be unambiguous and really on target with being precise.

I think it's all really good. I think it still just goes back to identifying the opportunities that we currently have and making sure that we're finding opportunities to meet some of these goals and policies versus not addressing what's already in place.

I like the idea of streamlining, getting rid of island view, for example, as a sub area. You can accomplish that definitely with zoning. so long as we're not creating a zoning district that's just island view, because then you've kind of defeated the purpose.

Well, and that's sort of what we found, is that there was some zoning that was catering specifically to that area, and we're like, well, we can just shift this into a more, into a different zoning district that will work just as well. Yeah, to accomplish what needs to be done there.

In the development agreement, I know the contract rezone you can't really do exactly by state law, but the development agreement I think makes a lot of sense in that the public does have more involvement as opposed to carte blanche zoning where the concern is, well, we're adopting this. How does this affect me or anybody else in the city? So that's where the specific site development consideration review is really beneficial to those impacted. I think when we get to zoning standards, we'll have to look also at conditional use permits as well as an opportunity to capture a lot of those, really the catch-all, where you can't always design or create performance standards for things you don't expect. No one thought about data centers even 10 years ago. Five years ago, definitely a local zoning. They heard about them, but they're coming at lightning speed. So definitely we'll look to that, I think, in the actual allowable uses section. Otherwise, I like where you're going with this and definitely brevity is preferred for me.

You know, maybe it's a code question or maybe it's not. Maybe it's a comprehensive plan item around the beautification of the city and of our neighborhoods and kind of the trade-off between, you know, beautification looking like a beautiful green lawn and or beautification looking like this, you know, very like zero landscaping with rocks and shrubs and trees, like what the city of Richmond has decided to do in front of WinCo in our entrance, right? That is a very low water, all rock, you know, as opposed to that being lush green grass coming in. So do we speak in the comprehensive plan or is it in our code around how do we decide whether the beautification activity is grass versus zero scaping something? And do we care or do we want it to be one way or the other?

I think that's a great question and there was a section early on when we had talked about our climate plan and then we were talking through some of the comprehensive plan and I had asked that we be intentional about ensuring that what we're putting in our comprehensive plan does not sort of override what our climate plan is because I think if we are making efforts at reducing extraneous water usage in one area, but then we're not going to make those same efforts in another area. And so I don't know that we've followed up on that yet, but I do appreciate you bringing that up.

Part of the reason why I brought it up is because I work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. We have this beautiful campus with green grass, these huge green lawns. And the organization I'm in is an energy efficiency organization. And a lot of our staff actually live in Seattle and Portland. And they come to Richland, and they see these huge lawns. And I mean, if you live in the desert, you love to see something alive and green. At least I do. But all of the scientists and engineers point out how much energy and water it takes to keep that stuff alive. And here we are, Department of Energy Laboratory. And we're, you know, are we really walking the talk or not here, right? And so, you know, there's this balance between saving energy and water and having things that look beautiful, right? It's a tough balance.

I think lavender is beautiful and it is drought tolerant, so.

Yeah, I mean, I know there's language and a climate plan we're investigating. I mean, I would say it's maybe somewhere we should look a little step further at that. Because I... I've been helping public works look for grants and other things. And one of the things that surprised me during discussions in the summertime in the older historic part of Richland, apparently our water pumping as a city is actually more than that of actually Kennewick. And the reason is because in the older part of town, a lot of the sprinkler systems and so forth, are actually linked into the potable water system. So that's like all going out, which I mean, before we started having climate issues, neither here nor there. I mean, where I'm from, Illinois, that's how it was. But given the fact we are in the desert and stuff, that probably isn't the, best thing, and where I previously worked on Colfax, they have a group called the Police Spacing Aquifer Committee, and they were investigating and putting in rebates for zero escape and stuff like that, so something we could look into.

I think... I don't know which Nicole, how much time we have before we get this done to really dive into development standards. And maybe some of this can be, we'll get through what we need to and commit to looking at them later. Cause there's just some things I know I don't want to get hung up on at the expense of the comp plan deadline, but talking like Kara said, the watering versus, you know, the benefit of the greenery. It's like you could put street trees in with focused irrigation, get the urban heat protection effect and then not have the grass. But the other thing I really can't stand around Tri-Cities is sidewalks right at the curb. But you don't have that. I mean, you just feel like you can get your head taken off by a big truck. by a mirror. And I know engineers love it because they don't have to irrigate it, that strip, and there's no trees. But everybody does it here. And those are the kind of things I'd love to dive into. And maybe at the end of your presentation, we can talk schedule. I'm just curious how we're trending on that, too.

Sure, of course. Yeah, I would share that when I've talked with staff, one thing I've brought up as a suggestion is that we come up with kind of a potential work plan for the planning commission once we do finish the update because there will be all these other things that would be good to look at and yeah we do want to make sure that we're meeting our statutory requirements and the deadline certainly and we will get there but we want to also identify kind of next steps and things that can be that will need some time to really be worked on. I think landscape code is already in that bucket. So yeah, we will be identifying that.

Great. I've captured all that. All right, please move along.

Okay. Well, I don't have slides for the next part. What we have provided for you maybe I'll just pull it back up to the first slide here, is the transportation element has been put together. Now, as a reminder, you had three different encounters already, I would say, with the transportation stuff. We started with a discussion about the non-motorized level of service, which is a level of traffic stress approach that's being used and that is... IT'S A NEW REQUIREMENT BY THE STATE, SO IT'S A DIFFERENT WAY OF LOOKING AT TRANSPORTATION IN THE CITY. WE WANT TO LOOK AT NOT JUST PRIORITIZING VEHICLES. WE WANT TO LOOK AT HOW WE CAN QUALITATIVELY MEASURE THE NONMOTORIZED SYSTEM. SO WE DID A PRESENTATION OF THAT. YOU SAW A BUNCH OF SLIDES. YOU HAD AN EXPLANATION OF THAT. WE HAD ANOTHER PRESENTATION WHERE WE TOOK A CLOSE LOOK WITH YOU AT THE GOALS AND POLICIES. And we got your responses on that, and we made some subsequent changes. And then we've also come to you, and this is with our partner, Transpo Group, looking at the proposed list of projects, and we provided the map that showed those that's part of the transportation system plan update, but also folding into the transportation element. So what you've been provided for this evening in your packet was that transportation element and a memo that called out some of the key points. So I thought we would just discuss that and get your feedback on that material as well. So the other thing I would emphasize is that this transportation element is going to be a companion in our comprehensive plan But it relates back to this TSP that the functional plan so that is forthcoming and that will be much more detailed in terms of methodology of the Model that was used for transportation demand all of the kind of nitty-gritty work That was required to to do this update All right, so as a reminder, the transportation element was put together based on the requirements of GMA, including those new requirements that have been put out. We looked at Department of Commerce guidance and also a direction from the state DOT and So the element is basically a summary of the TSP, which is a technical plan, and it incorporates a lot of the other work that the city's already done. Recently, they adopted, for example, the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. That was back in 2024. So that was one of the building blocks getting to where we are now. We've also informed this work by looking at what the Benton Franklin Council of Governments has. In particular, they have a regional freight plan. Benton Franklin Transit has a long-range transit plan. We looked at the Washington State Strategic Highway Safety Plan called Target Zero. which is from 2024. So this has really been a great opportunity to incorporate a lot of these recent changes and recent documents. There had also been an amendment made to the existing city's comprehensive plan transportation element back in 2023 by staff, and so we made sure that we were looking at that as well. So when you are reviewing or have reviewed that transportation element, the proposed new version, you'll note that we have provided a list of those reference documents that show that coordination and that consistency. We wanted to really show the evidence of that work. There is discussion that provides additional detail about the functional classifications. That was kind of elevated, if you will, in terms of the discussion. We show how it relates to the adjacent jurisdictions, and it also has to do with positioning the city for state and federal grants. A level of service I talked about, and again, you did see that in February and June, so I didn't want to show you slides you've seen before. The team had looked at short-term and long-term transportation deficiencies based on their model and their future forecast and identified those projects that would need to be done to rectify those. And so the short-term and long-term transportation project list identified is included and you saw that just last month. So it should be relatively fresh. And then also I wanted to emphasize that more detail and depth is provided about funding and implementing the transportation needs over the next 20 years. So they've looked at probable costs, forecasting that out, looking at what the city's revenues typically look like, gas tax and all the other things that help forecast CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, THAT ALSO INCLUDES THE DEVELOPER COSTS, AND SO IT SHOWS HOW THAT WOULD ALL WORK TOGETHER AND IT ALSO ADDRESSES A REASSESSMENT STRATEGY IN CASE ONE OF THOSE FALLS OFF. AND HOW WE CAN STILL MOVE FORWARD IF REVENUES DO FALL SHORT. And then lastly, the goals and policies are at the end of the document, kind of building on the discussion and everything there. We did show that in track changes. The new stuff is in track changes, just to make that very clear and obvious for you from what you previously saw. So any questions or feedback on that process or any of the content in there? We'd certainly come back if there was a specific item you wanted a little more explanation on, but I figured we are probably pretty solid at this point. And once we get to public hearing, we can dive into anything that needs further review or discussion, certainly.

I felt like it was pretty straightforward. Straightforward. I had seen before. Okay. So thank you.

Cool. Oh, and I will mention, tomorrow evening there is a... regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission and Daniel from Transpo Group will be there to talk to that group about non-motorized transportation. So we are making sure that we're doing that crossover with different citizen groups in the community. So that's certainly an open meeting. It will be at the community center tomorrow night just to put that out there.

I had one question that wasn't pertaining to the transportation plan. It's just like an process question sure I don't know who wants to answer it I noticed the last open house we had it looked like there was 24 maybe 48 hours advance notice put out to the community on social media and then there were print copies here I'm curious for future events do we endeavor to have I think earlier notice and maybe like in different areas

Yeah, what I've learned through this process is the city has certain protocols about days they'll put information out, things like that. So a press release went out far before it hit the social media. And I think it was at the website earlier too, but there was a little lag there with some of it. So we understand this better now. We can make sure it's all coordinated.

Well, I'm wondering, is it only appropriate to advertise these from your agency only through the city? Or could your agency be advertising it through different city groups or through different organizations? Or does everything funnel only through the city socials and through the city website?

I know that there's communications requirements that the city adheres to because of, and I'm going to talk out of my area a little bit, but from what I understand, like if they're putting information out on another channel and then somebody comments, then what is the city's obligation? You know, it runs difficult. So what I can tell you is that we have an opportunity for folks to subscribe to the individual projects that are put on that Clearview website, Cleargov website, excuse me. If you subscribe to it, then you'll automatically get a notification that anything new goes up. So as soon as the event is posted about this was a transportation open house, you would receive that. So that's a really good way to stay informed. Social media is great, but not everybody sees it in their feed either. So it's a little unpredictable. So we are working through those ways of communicating through our public participation plan to make sure we're doing that.

That's great.

But we definitely had lessons learned. Thank you for pointing that out about timing with Facebook and that sort of thing.

And I do get that. I just know that even on the Facebook or not that, yeah, on the event that the city had created on the city's page, there was a lot of feedback that was like, there's only 24 hours, I can't get there at four. And so I'm thinking that as we strategize, if we really want people to show up.

And we do.

Yeah, we have to get it out earlier, even if it's like us. So I signed up for those alerts so that I can then screenshot stuff and share and try to get the word out. I don't have access to everybody. And unfortunately, I don't stand at Safeway and hand things out, even though I would love to. That sounds actually like a great day. But I'm just curious, like, if there are other avenues that we can utilize to get the information out to various populations that we're really wanting to hear from. So thank you.

AND AARON, YOU ASKED ABOUT SCHEDULE. SO RIGHT NOW WE'RE LOOKING AT GOING TO PUBLIC HEARING BY ABOUT OCTOBER TIME FRAME AND THAT WILL POSITION US WELL TO HAVE THE 60-DAY NOTICE PERIOD WHICH WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR AGENCY REVIEW. WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET SOME EARLY AGENCY REVIEW THAT WILL the team be prepared for any changes or requests that come from perhaps different state agencies. And you can expect that you will get a lot of material over the next couple months, especially when it comes to the development regulations. But Our job is to make it easier for you so that we can show you, okay, there's all these red lines, but maybe a lot of it's just we changed something and it's had 100 instances in this section, but we can tell you where the meaningful changes are that you would want to focus on that have consequence. So anything that we send out will be accompanied by sort of a memo summary or explanation or with the code changes, we are going to actually include a lot of like comments in the document itself so that you can say, Oh, this is because of an RCW. Okay, got it. And move on to the next thing. So, um, again, it's our job to present it, to make it as, um, I don't know, tangible as possible, but it is complicated, so I don't wanna sell it short either. But yes, we're excited to be getting towards the end of this process, and please, if you can, reserve those workshop dates. Those are gonna be important to us to make sure that we can meet our timing schedule, and so we can continue bringing material to you and doing the review as we need to.

I think you're doing a great job with the summary memos. I appreciate that. And the layout I really liked with the new additions. And then you can then refer back to the entirety of it. So well done. Thank you. Mike, could I ask maybe staff could send out an email with the invites, and we can start early on getting the confirmation. At least, I think the invites get thrown on your own Google calendar, your work calendar, sometimes depending on your phone setup. Yep. That would help. Put a note for us, too. And with that, thank you again, Nicole. Any communications from staff?

Yeah, I'll cover some key points. First thing is that, and this is from a long, long time ago, but the shoreline management plan that the city was engaged in running through the city council process about two years ago. We've had an issue with some of properties along Yakima River area where folks want to develop along DuPorto, things like that, because when the bridge went in and other geographies changed, our new plan actually accounted for that. But unlike other planning documents where the city approves it and then you're good to go, SHORELINE MANAGEMENT PLANS ARE ACTUALLY A VERY UNIQUE ANIMAL, WHERE A CITY CAN ESSENTIALLY APPROVE IT, BUT IT DOESN'T TAKE EFFECT UNTIL THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY SIGNS OFF ON IT. AND OF ALL CITIES I'VE EVER WORKED IN, AND I DEFINITELY THANK YOU AS STAFF FOR HAUNTING THEM, AND WE ALL DID, IT SAT ON RANDOM FOLKS' DESK FOR OVER 880 DAYS AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY. And then we started the bugging them. And finally they like, we're like, oh, okay, here's the approval letter. So finally it got like approved and, and now we can move forward. So I just want to throw that out there because I know there was like some community that was questioned, like what was like going on and our staff was very diligent and telling the college to meet their own statutory deadlines, because if the shoe was on the other foot, we would have been burned. But yet, when it went to the state, they could just do whatever they want, apparently. And we are working with area legislators to fix a quirk in RCW that allowed them to do that. That will be forthcoming. Also, last night at council, they approved the PROS plan, the Parks, Recreation, Open Space plan. That was out for public comment for a while, and you had a look at it a while back. So that's on effect. That's really good because it opens them up for grant opportunities for various parks. One of the things that I assisted the Parks Department with is going after our RCO grant to potentially refresh the Columbia Park West plan. That was done over like a decade and a half ago, back when Bateman Island was still connected, and there were other concepts that needs to be refreshed. So hopefully we'll be getting money for that. And then our Queen Energy... money. We're starting to award contracts for that. So economic development staff is grading proposals. I would expect within a month we'll be awarding the contract to be doing planning around the Richland Innovation Center. That was some property we obtained from Port of the Benton. And then likewise, We're also working with Tri-Dec for part of that to do a contract with us to get some of the grant money out to do planning for the 1341 area lands around where Atlas Agro is looking at, but then also... lands north, because Department of Energy, Y-Bound, D.C., they've had discussions around, like, hey, this land gets cleaned up. It should be for productive employment purposes. So we actually have a future for what that looks like. That money will go and help for that. Benton County, with the whole shrub step issue, they're actually working on a concept for A shrub step bank where essentially it would be a debit and credit system, and in cases where developers have mitigated it the best they can, but then there still is a deficit, essentially being able to buy credits, and then with the credit money get land to essentially protect the shrub step bank. And we've been working, we're asking them to do like an interactive calculator where not only staff but the development community could enter in information and they actually see essentially what the amount required would look like. So we've been working with Fish and Wildlife and the county on that because up until recently, Fish and Wildlife, was just benchmarking a lot of their comments on basically this memo around wind farm shrub stuff, but not shrub stuff in general, and it just didn't relate. Tomorrow night is the Park and Recreation Commission. They'll go over active transportation, 6 p.m., down at the community center. And then also economic development is his award of the contract from lodging tax to do a wayfinding plan because right now a lot of our systems, a number of them are very old and disconnected, but some areas aren't signed at all. So There was a plan done from 16 years ago, and Walla Walla fell in the same category where it was a company that did nice science, but a lot of times they outstrip a jurisdiction's ability to actually do the whole system, so we're going to value engineer it and then get that going. So you'll be seeing that in the future here. And then the last item is we will be looking for a new planning commission member because unfortunately Mr. Shane Leonard is moving from the area and he turned in his resignation. So spread the word for any folks that want to apply to be part of this body. And with that, that's the update.

Thank you very much. Any questions, commissioners? All right. With that, we will adjourn at 729. Will you gavel for me?