City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is Thursday, March 26th, and I'm going to call this session of the Richville City Council to order. Would you please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance led by Councelor Hamiltonian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with all. Thank you. Have a seat. That feels appropriate. It's opening day. It's opening day. This should be a banker's holiday. Miss Julie, would you please call the role? Council member Davis, present. Council member Favlla here. Council member Wells here. Council member Burl present. Council member Hamilton

here. Mayor Prom Chipman here. Mayor Cole present. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Stewart, are there any late changes to the agenda? No changes, Mayor.

Okay, we're going to move on. We have a proclamation to kick things off tonight. It is Red Cross month. Um, so I'm going to read the proclamation and then we're going to have uh Mr. Derek Chin and uh others come up from the Red Cross receive it and we'll let him say something. So, uh, the the proclamation says, "Whereas Red Cross month began during World War II when President President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on individuals to address growing humanitarian needs. What started as a national call to action has become a community a community tradition reaffirming the power of compassion and the impact we can make together. And whereas every March communities come together for Red Cross month to honor the people who provide comfort and care when help can't wait with a special focus on the 92% of the Red Cross workforce who are volunteers. And whereas for Ridgefield, we honor the volunteers and donors of Southwest Washington chapter of Red American Red Cross. In 2025 alone, the Southwest Washington chapter provided relief and recovery to over 900 households. They collected over 166,000 166,000 units of blood, supported over 5,000 service members through the service of the armed forces program, and trained over 50,000 people in CPR, first aid, babysitting, water safety. And whereas Red Cross Month is a special time to recognize our neighbors who step up to care for each other, said Megan Doug Doler, the Northwest Region CEO. Throughout our raging, these community heroes provide a beacon of hope in people's darkest hours. Whether it's comforting a family after a disaster, donating vital blood for hospital patients, saving a life with the skills like first aid and CPR, or supporting military and veterans families. Now therefore, I, Matt Cole, mayor of the city of Ridgefield, Washington, do

hereby proclaim the month of March as Red Cross Month and remind all residents that you can make a difference as well. Join the red the Ridgefield humanitarian effort by volunteering, giving blood, learning life-saving skills, or making a financial donation dated this 26th day of March, 2026. Thank you very much. Come on up. We'll give that to you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Great to have you. Thank you. Thank Yeah. Podium is yours.

My name is Derek Chin and I'm the executive director of the Southwest Washington chapter of the Red Cross. And I just want to say thank you uh for the recognition. We appreciate that we can uh work with uh various partners and volunteers that live in your community and we're particularly grateful for the hospitality that you extend to us. Uh we have a Red Cross club at the high school. We do blood drives in the area. We do various workshops for preparedness and we are very again grateful for what you extend to us.

Thank you. Let's do a quick photo real quick. We'll have you come up and council I think we can stay here. Um yeah. Yeah, just right here. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's all good. It's all good. Julie will take it.

Thank you again, gentlemen. Good to have you. All right. I always love doing those Uh, okay. We're going to move on. Uh, it is now time for public comment. Anybody wishing to address city council regarding items not subject to a specific public hearing may do may come forward at this time to the podium or use the raise hand feature located at the bottom of the toolbar of your Zoom screen. For controls over the phone, press star 9 for raise hand and press star six to mute or unmute. Please state your name and limit your comments to

My name is Ron Enslo and I'm a resident of Ridgefield and I just wanted to explain about that Red Cross. They are they have left now. But my wife has been on the board of the directors of the Red Cross. And she is a perfect example of if it weren't for the Red Cross, she would not be alive today because they brought her 1,500 pints of blood in one year.

So it's, you know, it's really worthwhile. Good evening, council. My name is Heather Gordon and I'm a resident of Ridgefield. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you this evening. The Garden Club is here tonight, as you can see, um to ask for your help and support to continue some important work we're doing. This ask is also important with the work city itself is doing. The work has to do with native plants that we are installing in our parks and public landscapes. So, here's the ask. We request that city landscape maintenance practices be changed and adapted in areas where primarily native plants are being used so that these plants can thrive and deliver their benefits. In a meeting with Ryan Theur in May 2025, I was informed that the only way to alter landscaping practices for certain city areas like our roundabouts or parks is with city council direction. So why do we need to change our landscaping practices? Typical landscape maintenance practices do not support native plant installations. Thus, these new installations will not do what they are designed to do. And they're designed to save the money maintenance costs, save the city watering costs, deliver important important environmental benefits to the city, and create natural Pacific Northwest beauty within our city. Here's four examples of how our maintenance practices um would alter in spaces that are primarily native and pollinator plants. Plants would be allowed to express themselves and not be sheared or pruned into hedges or boxes. They would be encouraged to grow together and fill in and create denser growth that prevents evaporation, shades out weeds, and

creates habitat for bees, butterflies, and birds. The leaves and plant matter coming from these plants will be left to break down naturally to enrich soil, create healthy plant fertilizer, and create habitat. And herbicides and fungicides would not be applied on the soils anywhere near these plant installations. This request has urgency. The garden club is nearly two years into maintaining a lovely native plant area in Davis Park. We gifted this area with the understanding that we would pass the maintenance along to the city around year two so that we could turn our attention to another city park and do more and we're ready to do that. We're ready to start on some new projects. We've been talking with parks about this, but we need a good handoff to our babies. Um, also the city now has amazing amazing native plant installation throughout all of the storybook hollow park. 95% of that park is planted in a diverse range of native plants. With revised landscape maintenance um practices, those plantings will provide lots of benefits to residents in the city. The city also has two recent roundabouts planted in primarily natives. So, we're doing it. Ridgefield is planting natives and we're meeting a goal set in our own 2016 comprehens comprehensive plan to plant natives, but we do need to adapt how we as a city take care of these new landscapes so that we can actually reap the benefits. We're asking the city to change how it maintains landscapes in certain areas. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Is there anybody else wishing to give public comment? Come on up.

Hi, I'm Manisha Sharma. I'm part of the Richfield Garden Club. I moved to Richfield um just a few weeks shy of a year um back to the Pac Pacific Northwest after 10 years. Love this area. And I have a single point to make. Bees, bees, and please more bees. Um the city has considered being a B city for a while and they've talked about it for a month. Would just really like that initiative to come back onto the table. There is the Cersei Society which sponsors the initiative which provides free yes very free uh support to the city in developing landscape practices that will help the special plants uh plant areas in our city. So I'll just close with a lot more time and just say please Morbees.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Judy Reel. I am a co-president of the Garden Club and I first want to say how proud I am of the club and in particular the importance I want to stress the importance of this issue to our club. I'm here to talk about process. Um, what happens now? I when I heard that we actually had to go to city council to get instructions to how to properly care for the newly planted plants, I was actually rather surprised because I'm not experienced with city council directing frontline workers and how they do their jobs. You don't tell storm water uh drain people what tools to use. is you don't tell building maintenance people what kind of cleaning fluids they should use but apparently you need to actually get involved in how we take care of our plants and so we've done so we are here but my question is really what now um do you guys have to bring a motion do you need a staff report do you proceed by way of ordinance on this and the reason it's important is because that takes time and we're faced right Now with developing projects for the spring and the summer and as a club I think we need to know well where do we put our resources um we need the plans to be properly cared for and and we think that that will be done but the question is when will that instruction come down if on the other hand my suspicions what what I what I originally thought would happen are correct is that council really doesn't need to weigh in on this kind of specificity if it turns out for example that Mr. Thamard or um Mr. Stewart can simply give the direction. No, no, let's figure out the proper way to maintain these plants and work with the garden club. Then it would be really helpful if somebody in the city could get back to Heather Gordon just so that we know where are we in the planning

process and how long is this going to take. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello. Good evening. My name is Shelley Gder and um I live in Ridgefield and I'm representing uh the Fourth of July committee tonight. Uh unfortunately I have a black thumb so I will not be joining the garden club but I appreciate your energy and excitement for it. Um, so I'm coming to talk about the candy situation. Um, and I'm just, um, took a few notes off the Facebook mom's group about what was happening and how upset people were that there wasn't going to be candy this year in our parade. Um, so one of the comments was, "The kids come out so far out to the street for the candy. I drove in a few parades and they literally right they're literally right next to the moving cars. No matter how many times we had to stop and tell everyone to move back, they just kept coming to the street. Um, someone also commented, "Abs, absolutely. If parents would step in, that would make a huge difference. When I was in it driving, we had to stop multiple times to make sure kids were out of the way. It happens at multiple areas throughout that short route. I honestly can't blame them for cancing the candy. Every year, kids are literally moving closer and closer into the street just to get candy. I almost see almost see kids get knocked over by other kids and fall further in the street by moving cars. It is so dangerous and they just want candy. Um, we had our kids sitting on the curb in front of our chairs and waiting for people to walk by and hand out candy. Within minutes of the parade, starting a huge group of kids came and stood right in front of them and continually walked right up to vehicles to get candy. Not only was it disrespectful to our children, but it put people in the parade at risk. Um, so just kind of as a thought, many municipal municipalities are have canled throwing candy at a

parade, which we know it's a high-risisk environment. Um, and also our insurance company does not does not cover that any longer. A slip, trip, or fall is a great risk. Falling off a float or vehicle is a risk. You can sue the person handing out the candy, the person driving the vehicle, the organiz the organizer of the event. There can be an alternative to cast passing out candy, but please leave it up to our committee to decide what that looks like. Um, and just a moment to reflect. Getting a Tootsie Pop tossed from a float or knowing that every safety measure was taken, no one got hurt, and every child, every driver, and every spectator went home safe. We appreciate everyone's understanding and support as we continue improving our events for all who attend. And just in closing, I also want to say on the record that if a city council can make final decisions regarding the Fourth of July event without any discussion or input from our Fourth of July committee, I want to caution other volunteer organizations in Richfield because you might have a Ridgefield City Council making decisions for your events that you don't have control over. Thank you.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Sandy Shill. Uh, thank you city staff, council, mayor for allowing me to speak. Thank you, Shelley, uh, for speaking on behalf. Shelley is going to be taking over my role in the 4th of July. And so, uh, this is one of the first things she gets to experience. Um, this will be my 19th year volunteering on the 4th of July committee. We put this event on with the city as our number one supporter. I heard through the grapevine that the council had a sudden thought that we needed to reserve spectator seating for those who showed up late. It was discussed, quick vote, unanimously passed. Not one council member thought to say, "Should we talk to the people that put on this event?" I could have given you a few other things to consider in that discussion. For the past three years, no, back up. Now, we're hearing another grape vine that the city is going to force us to allow parade entries to hand out things during the parade. And I'm not just talking about candy. talking about rubber balls, flags, toothbrushes, pencils, everything that comes off these floats. Every entry has something to pass out now because they feel obligated. For the past 3 years, the children have been creeping closer to the parade entries endangering themselves. The parents are not monitoring them. They get complaints from we get complaints from entries and we're mandated to marshall the course and the route. Twice I walked the length of Third Avenue from Pioneer to Division during the parade,

hurting the children back to the curb. The parents were no no help. Some told me to f off. I was under so much stress that I stopped the parade twice to get kids back from the moving trucks. Yet it was feudal. Our parade is now a wheel of chance that a child is going to get hurt. Two years ago, a 19-year-old in the Battleground parade got trapped under a tire of a trailer, broke many of her bones. At the time I was checking in on her, she was in her 19th day in the ICU. Her head got trapped under the tire and it didn't run over her head, it scooted it down the asphalt. And she has permanent brain damage to this day. As a surgery nurse, I've had to experience a few of my patients die before me. But when a child dies in your presence, it is different. It never leaves your memory and it haunts you forever. That little girl will never leave my memory. I do not want to be part of an event that another memory is sealed in because I wanted to prevent it, but a group of people who didn't want to talk to us insisted on us having it. Thank you.

Thank you, Michelle. Is there anybody else wishing to give public comment this evening in the room? Mr. Le, is there anybody online? Not seeing no one on one, mayor. Okay, great. Thank you. We're going to close public comment at this time. Thank you for everybody who showed up tonight. Thank you for your thoughtful comments and we'll be responding to people. We've been taking notes, but thank you very much. Okay. Um, we are going to move on to the consent agenda. Council, I would accept a motion. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Thank you, councel. And we're going to jump right into a presentation. This is a presentation on the sidewalk management program led by Mr. Ryan the from public works. Over to you, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Tonight, we're going to be discussing our sidewalk management program. Uh recently the city uh the city's sidewalk program was reviewed by WCIA, the city's insurance provider, and the WCIA took a look at our policies, our procedures, um our municipal code, and uh some of our our processes to um see if there were ways to improve um through that process, that review. Uh there were a few key takeaways. Duty. The city has a duty to exercise ordinary care in the maintenance of its sidewalks to keep them reasonably safe for ordinary use. Importance. A successful sidewalk maintenance program is just as important as a street maintenance program. The sidewalks serve as the streets and highways for the pedestrians that travel through our community. Purpose: The side the sidewalk maintenance program is intended to prevent trips and fall incidents due to the deterioration of aging sidewalks, expansion of roots, and ground settlements. Historically, the courts have ruled that cities have a duty to the public to maintain the sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition. So, now we're going to look at our sidewalk system overview. You'll see on the table uh over the last 10 years, the city's sidewalks have grown uh tremendously. In 2016, we had

33 miles of sidewalks. And in at the end of 2025, we had 84 miles of sidewalks. an increase of 51 miles or 154% in the last 10 years. Uh typically over the years we've averaged about 5 miles per year, but between 22 and 23 we added 11 miles of sidewalks that year. So, our sidewalk management program was designed with input from WCIA to limit liability and ensure compliance with Washington state statutes. There are three main components of our sidewalk management program, new construction, private developments, and city capital projects. uh you're all familiar with these uh as these come before council for approval. Second, our ADA transition plan which is looking at compliance with ADA standards and identifying gaps in current sidewalk system. Uh this will be coming to you in the future as we complete that plan. And third, uh, which is what we're going to be focusing on tonight, is the sidewalk hazard reports. Um, so these are issues that are reported by, uh, residents and employees of the city um that, uh, issues that are presenting uh, safety concerns. So when the city receives a report of an unsafe sidewalk, public works staff go out and assess the

unsafe condition and rate the uh issue into three categories. Monitor, grind, and reconstruct. If the unsafe condition creates a tripping hazard, public works staff paints the hazard orange to make it more visible until the issue can be repaired. And I know that uh this was noticed a few months ago as a lot of areas and especially in downtown started turning orange. Uh and this was required uh or not required but recommended by WCIA to bring awareness to tripping hazards. So the first category monitor uh the city will maintain an inventory of sidewalk issues that are less than a half inch. This could be a lift or a crack. Uh half inch is critical because it's about the uh the distance that for a trip or for like a bike tire or something to get stuck in the crack. So every six months the uh public works department will visit the site and assess if the defect has become worse. If the issue reaches the half inch threshold the issue will be moved into the grind category. Uh public works will grind sidewalk issues that are 1/2 to 2 in. Grinding should be done when the ground is dry to minimize staining and dirty water runoff. Cracks and lifts that are more than 50% of the sidewalk thickness cannot be repaired by grinding. After grinding, the issue will be moved

back to the monitor category. And grinding can typically only be done once before total reconstruction will be required. And in the pictures, you can see that uh what the finished product looks like where we get the the two panels to line up again and uh be relatively smooth. The final category is reconstruct. As you can see in the pictures, the uh damage and the hazard is is pretty extensive or can be pretty extensive. If a sidewalk issue is more than 2 in, the city will require the sidewalk to be reconstructed. a sidewalk located in front of a city-owned property or located in the historic downtown corridor. Pioneer from Fifth to Maine and North Main, Pioneer to Mill, will be reconstructed by the city. A sidewalk located along a private property is currently the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. So, starting in uh in July of 2025, the city had a backlog of about 59 reported issues. That some of these issues went back as far as 2016 and 2017. So, public works went out and assessed all 59 of the issues following our our new program. And through through that process, they categorized each incident or each issue into the three categories. We ended up with six mon uh sidewalks that needed to

be monitored and we have continued to do that uh every six months since then. and 33 were designated as needing grinding and the public works department has completed all 33 of those issues. That leaves us with the last the 20 sidewalk issues that are going to require reconstruction. And that is what we're going to spend uh the rest of this presentation um discussing are are those final 20 and what what how we're going to handle those. Our current sidewalk code is uh Ridgefield Municipal Code Title 20 and it establishes that the responsibility of all construction, repair, upkeep, reconstruction, and maintenance of sidewalks and curbs are the responsibility of the abuing property owner. the the city has has had no issues with uh requiring and enforcing construction, repair, upkeep, and maintenance of sidewalks. Uh reconstruction is the the issue that that we'll be discussing and how how do we want to handle these going forward. So our current process establishes that uh the process for reconstruction but it is unclear and needs revision for clarity and compliance with state statutes. So step one of the process currently is for public works to evaluate and report to council the issues needing reconstruction. Step two is council makes the

determination that the work is needed. And step three is notice is served on the owners requiring them to reconstruct the sidewalk. So, we've put together a few options for how we can move forward that uh I'm looking to get some feedback on tonight. Um I'm going to just go down uh each column for each options left to right starting with option one. And uh again, I'll be looking for some feedback and comments. Option one, the responsible party would be the city. The process for completing required construction reconstruction. The city would identify the issue, complete a condition assessment, prioritize work over multiple years. Enforcement. There wouldn't be any enforcement in this scenario because the city would take on the work. So, the budget considerations, the current annual sidewalk maintenance budget is $20,000. We could seek state and WCI grant WCIA grants to supplement city funds. Typical sidewalk reconstruction for one panel would be typically less than $2,500. There are low administr administrative resources needed for this option. We are estimating that the sidewalks would need uh the current sidewalks. I have not done a specific review on each issue, but just looking at them kind of collectively, we're estimating about 50

to $70,000 to complete this backlog of sidewalk repair, which using that $20,000 budget would take us three to five years to complete. uh possibly shorter if we were able to get grants or other funding. Uh it could also be completed as a one-time uh budget initiative in a future budget year um to get us current and then uh we could use the the budget the ongoing budget for new issues that that came up to keep us current. So option two, the responsible party would be the abuing property owner. Uh and I should add that option two is basically what we have today in code. Um but we would need to make some updates to keep us um in compliance with state statutes. Uh the process for completing required reconstruction. The city would use the full statutory process to get estimates, hold a hearing with published notice, and pass resolution declaring the work needed and the work will be assessed to the property owners if they do not do the work in a certain time frame. Enforcement. If the work is not completed within the time frame, the city can do the work and after completed prepare an assessment role and then pass an ordinance that imposes the assessment to be a lean on the property and collected from the property owners as a special assessment. Budget considerations. There are no budget impacts unless the work is not completed by the property owners. We would then need to use the existing $20,000 annual budget until the assessments are completed or the money's collected.

This process is very time consuming from administrative standpoint. So moving on now to uh our option three. The responsible party would be the city and the abuing property owner. Kind of a hybrid model of option one and two. The process for completing the required reconstruction, the city would work with property owners to reach an agreement for the share of the work. It could be 50/50 or another arrangement. Uh this could be reached in the form of a settlement agreement or a grant program enforcement. If the work is not completed within the terms of the grant program or settlement agreement, the city would then proceed to use the process set out in option two. Uh budget considerations. The city's proportionate share of sidewalk reconstruction repairs. Again, it could be 50% or some other portion. Current budget for the sidewalk maintenance is 20,000. So that would cover the the city's portion of that of that share. Uh and this option would also be time consuming from an administrative standpoint. So I think with that I'll uh kick this back to you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Tamer. Okay. Uh I'm sure we're going to have some questions. So uh I'm going to start with the more senior members first. Councelor Wells, any questions from you? I do have questions. Uh Ryan, I got one question. You said the WCI grant could be up to 50% if we were successful. I I I'm not paraphrasing what you said. I'm trying to listen and hear again what you did say.

I think what Mr. Thur was saying is that WCIA grants may be used. We we would go after those to try to actually defay the cost for the public. The 50% was in the hybrid model that the city might pay 50% and the adjacent homeowner might pay 50%. I think they're two different things being brought together. I think it's a different part of a question. I I guess what I'm going to say if the project was um a thousand bucks and WCI WCI would turn around and pay 500 of it. No, we don't know. Do we know the match requirement for the WCIA?

There is no match requirement for the WCIA grants. That's not the 50% that Mr. Thur was talking about. Okay. So if it's $1,000 and we apply for $1,000 and the project's $1,000, we could get $1,000 from W to amount. Correct. So then if we didn't get it, then we're back to the hybrid where there'd be 5050 for the city and the uh property owner. Yes, correct.

Okay. Um, I've witnessed some of the repair on the sidewalks that the crews have done and they've done an immaculate job. They really, really, really do good job. Uh, compared to having a outside contractor come in and do it. I'm sure we're doing it a lot cheaper. Uh, they do part of a panel a day and then move on to another one and then they pour it. One of the questions I have, do we mix the concrete ourselves or do we have a mini mix come in and do the pour? Um, and that that was one of the questions I had.

Yeah, typically we would use a mini mix service uh unless we had enough that that we could bring in a full truck, but that's very rare. Okay. How long are most panels? Six feet. Pardon? Six feet. Six feet. Six feet. What's the thickness? Typically 4 in.

4 in. 6 * 4 is 24 cubic feet or 24 square feet. And you get 80 80 square feet per yard at 4 in thick. So you would use a third of a yard per panel. I'm just doing a little math. I poured a lot of concrete. Okay. Little institutional knowledge there. Um I think I'll pass for now and let somebody else ask some questions. I may have another one.

Great. Thank you, councelor. We'll go to uh Mayor Potm Shipman and then we'll go to councelor Brook afterwards. I guess I'm just sitting here thinking about this and the administrative costs of trying to manage all this and um it just seems like it would be more cost effective for us to just do it. You know what I mean? I mean, let's just spend the $70,000 and get it done. I mean, I and try to get some grants to cover it. But I mean, it's I guess what what I'm thinking about is how we want, you know, the city and downtown, you know, we want it to be attractive. We want people to come downtown. We want people to come to the shops and do all these things. And so that requires keeping the sidewalks up. And um and when you look at these pictures and when you walk on the sidewalks and they're not kept up, it isn't conducive to having people come down here. And so to me, even if we spent the whole $70,000 to get everything fixed up, that's a very small amount of money compared to what it would do to the downtown to get the people, you know, feeling comfortable coming here and it and the sidewalks looking nice. That's just that's my opinion about it, but to me, it's like a very small amount of money to do the whole thing oursel.

Great. Thank you, Mayor Potm. Uh, councelor Burkel.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I don't have a question, but I have a comment, and I think I've spoken to some people about this. The city I lived in, Illinois, every spring, they would come around and they would review the sidewalk panels and if you had a panel that needed repair, they would let you know. And we had a 5050 program. Resident paid 50, city paid 50. I can only suggest to you we did not have a bad panel anywhere and it was the program was easy to execute. It got the job done and like I say our sidewalks and the city I lived in in Illinois, they were perfect. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Pavlla.

Thank you, Mayor. You know, as I sit here and kind of look at all the options, I am inclined for option one that the city take responsibility because this seems like it the more equitable and consistent um option. Sidewalks are essential public infrastructure. It does not mean the homeowner is only using that portion of the sidewalk, so therefore they should pay for this portion. And I think about the families that I work with, the families that we serve, and then to pop this additional expense onto them when people are already really struggling, it doesn't sit right with me. Um, I also at the same time appreciate the hybrid model. I don't know if 5050 would be the answer. I think there would need to be wiggle room on there. maybe even doing waiverss for people who just cannot afford that. Um, but I just consistency overall and that equitable for everyone. It I agree that I just think option one would be the best and that's where I'm kind of leaning right now.

Great. Thank you, councelor. Uh, councelor Davis. Yeah, thank you, Mayor. Um, I just have a I guess a couple of questions for Mr. Thur. So, in your experience, have we had a situation where the sidewalk is in disrepair because of like an action or negligence from the property owner? I am aware of a few situations. We've the the two that I'm thinking of, we were able to approach the property owner about getting them fixed and they took care of it. Okay.

Mostly it was from equip either equipment or a vehicle that was very heavy um driving across the sidewalk. Okay. In terms of just like general maintenance, do we have any like guidance? I mean, I have a sidewalk in front of my house and outside of pressure washer washing that when I do my driveway, I don't really do anything else. Is there any I mean any other guidance that somebody could be doing that would maybe help defay or you know the option that they would get one that gets to disrepair.

Uh so the the main issues that we have sent out letters for regarding maintenance would be leaves piling up um and then like like probably why you pressure wash to keep the the green slime that builds up. Um, and then also snow and ice removal uh during inclement weather. As far as what are things that people can do if they're Well, most of the city has street trees. Yeah.

So, trimming roots from growing underneath, especially the roots that are right at the surface from growing underneath the sidewalk can help tremendously. And there's products that you can put in the ground to uh like root barriers that can stop the roots from coming underneath the sidewalks if and I guess maybe this is for this is for other city staff. So if there's street trees um is it common for those trees to be maintained by the HOA or by the homeowner? you know what I mean? Like in

CCNRs, so it's it's kind of a mix. Okay. We have some HOAs um like the Pioneer Canyon HOA that all the trees are maintained uh by the HOA, but there are many HOAs where it's the responsibility of the property owner.

So I guess I mean all I don't want to take up too much time. I guess where I'm at is I feel like I would agree with councelor Favlla where I think it's like basic infrastructure. I think you you sort of put it in the same bucket as roads. Um and I you know from that perspective it's like the the maintenance of it would would go back to us. I do want to have a a vehicle for us available where if it needs to be repaired because of somebody's negligence that that goes back to that person. But I guess I'm also trying to tie that that nexus between, you know, if you're a homeowner, like, you know, a lot of people trying to keep up with their stuff and sometimes things just need to be replaced, you know, regardless. But this just seems like a piece where you don't really have much control over whether it gets to a state of disrepair like that one has. and that would that would give me pause asking somebody to pay for that when there it's really sort of a situation that's out of their control. Um so I I don't know that's just like I guess some insight to my thought but I would want to have an opportunity where if somebody was negligent and it caused that that we can that we could still charge them and it wouldn't be the public pain for that.

That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you counselor. Uh we'll go to councelor Hamilton.

Thank you. Um, I almost feel like I recognize we're doing code changes and we're talking about code. I almost feel like we need to separate this into two issues where we're dealing with the immediate 20 that we need to and we can look at that and I am of the agreement as well that option one makes sense to me all while going after grants and doing what we can to offset our own personal costs. Um, but then moving forward looking at potentially looking at option three, I don't believe 50/50 is the right answer. I think we should have further discussion on that. less on the home on the property owner more on the city but I think that we should immediately look at and fix like you said infrastructure that needs fixing right now and in those costs that we're looking at like Mayor Prom mentioned admin labor is a cost so if we are already spending money and it takes away that from our our staff I think that that makes a lot of sense and all those numbers pencil out um because option two is what we have right now so that seems like that one should sort of be off the table to me. It doesn't have to be off the table, but it's not one that makes sense to me personally. Um, so I think that I agree very much with the maintenance piece that councelor Davis said as well. I think that that makes a lot of sense. So, one, immediate, and then three, I think a further conversation could be had where we figure out what those numbers look like in a realistic fashion, and then we do our due diligence to make sure that the public knows moving forward what that looks like. Because I think like councelor FLLA said, if all of a sudden you have a sidewalk cost that you didn't have and you're having trouble paying your groceries, that's a pretty rude awakening. So I want to make sure that we prevent that process and educate and talk to people as much as possible while we have thoughtful discussions about what that percentage of accountability looks like.

Sure. Thank you, councelor. Uh couple of questions for me and then we'll go back around. I think other members have follow questions. Uh Mr. entertainment. Could you walk me through the process of what it what like what does it take to repair a sidewalk? Is there you know if you were to pass this on like let's say we're to go to option two. What is there a permit required to do it or they just do it um as far as constructing a sidewalk? Is there is there design standards to go to it? Like I know that we talked about a third of a yard or something you know they have to get that but you know I know it's not just like pouring concrete down there if they're if they're diying it or something. Is there rebar involved? All of that stuff. I know what you said was the average cost is under around less than 2500 bucks.

Yes. What what what is all involved though for a homeowner or property owner to have to repair a sidewalk panel?

Uh they would have to get an encroachment permit from the city to do work in the right of way. Uh there we do have design standards so we could provide them those standards. Um there is so I should back up on the encroachment permit. There is a cost for that, but that is something that we could look to do a reduced amount or wave in these instances. Um, let's see. So, we could provide them with our engineering standards uh for sidewalks. And uh does that answer your question or do you want to walk through how

I guess what it's getting to is is it's like it it doesn't necessarily feel like a simple like homeowner repair like like I I'm moderately handy. I wouldn't probably touch this. And so what you're doing is you're kind of pushing other people you're pushing people to go to a contracted solution which probably seems the most appropriate to maintain those quality standards but also makes it really expensive. I think 2500 bucks to put on a property owner is is um you know to say that and I understand that this is kind of a common way like option two it sounds like it's pretty common in a lot of different cities like this is not a new thing right

it's just yeah um I'm also curious about the resources like what are what are the staff resources so if we were to say option one I mean you don't have infinite hours for your staff I know that like every time you get up here and you speak I and talk about the things you're doing I'm always just blown away because you don't have a huge huge team and there's a lot of ground that you guys cover and you guys do a tremendous job. If you were to take this on, what is the impact of that? So, what are we saying no to I guess? Yeah. So, I should say that when I came up with that cost of just under $2,500 that was actually to use a contractor. Okay.

Not city staff. It would be considerably less if we use city staff. But to your point, we would be competing with a lot of other services that we provide because weather is a big factor when it comes to pouring concrete. Um, and even though the work itself might may not take a while, it takes a while for the concrete to cure. So, we have to protect that sidewalk so people aren't walking through it. So, it would be significant um, you know, drain on the city's right staffing. But I believe that we could do most of these with contract work. Um, and if we batch them together, you know, I think we could get it below the 2500 per per panel or per project.

Sounds good. Okay. So, just a just a couple of follow on and then we'll go back to other questions too. Just for consideration, has there been a consideration number one to not place this on necessarily the individual property owner, but maybe the HOA and where there's an absence of an HOA, which is not a lot of communities that don't have HOAs, but would that be something that maybe reverts back to like the hybrid option or something? Have you considered that? Um, and number two, I know that we do things like backflow testing every year. Like every year I get a notice and I pay the guy like 45 bucks and he comes out and does this backflow test. Is there and it's a it's a it's the guy, right? Everyone knows the guy that comes around. Is there something we can work out where maybe there's like a designated contractors with fixed pricing or something like that where if we had a hybrid option or we had an option to that we could make you know do professional to standard replacement and come come up with a program that way and if it's on the homeowner then they can say I'm going to call the guy and then it's you know considerably less or something like that at a discounted rate. Has that have either of those been considerations or is that something that would be worth considering? I'd be looking around the council probably for I guess that side of it, but seeing if you guys have considered that first.

No, we we have not considered either of those options. I did just learn today that there are um a couple of cities in this area that do have a contractor list, but I just learned of it today. So, I'm not I'm not sure what but I could certainly look into that and be able to report back next time we we come to you. Sounds good. Great. Thank you for the answers. Uh, Mayor Prom, you had I think I'm good. Okay, we'll start with uh we'll start with councelor Hamilton. We'll work on the line. How about that?

Thank you so much. Just since we just spoke about this, thank you. I'm happy I got to go now. So, um, the contractors, you were talking about the city staff having to like protect the work. Essentially, the contractors are committed to protecting like they're going to so that's part of that 2500. I just want to be clear that it's not like an over and above. Okay. Thank you. Uh a a clarification. Did you suggest that we would charge the homeowner a fee to get the permit to repair the sidewalk? So there so there is a cost for an encroachment permit, but what I was saying is that we could decide um the council could decide to not charge in this circumstance, but an encroachment permit is is for any work that someone is going to do in the right of way.

Um so but there is a fee associated with that currently. All right. Thank you. Just to shed a little light on it, uh, how much is a normal encroachment permit? 350 bucks. Yes. I I will just step in here because I because I think the current code also has uh a fee waiver right now for that encroachment permit. I I I remember looking at that. So, I think that's already been a consideration and been addressed. Okay. Thank you. It's quite expensive. It is

just a little going outside of the box here, but when we were speaking about the tree roots coming up under the sidewalk, do we have anything like an approved tree list that developers use on preferred trees to prevent the rooting from happening? We do. Yes. Okay, cool. Thank you.

Yeah. Um, and I guess in that that same vein, um, you know, I think it would probably worth looking at, you know, whatever our process is when we sign off on sidewalks for developers just to make sure they're hitting those best practices to uh, stay away from that. I also think that, you know, one of the things that our council tries to do is uh, preserve a lot of the natural environment. And so I I I would want to pay attention to the rare but existing consideration that if we really want to preserve like a large tree that's going to have a sidewalk going next to it, we're kind of asking right for we would have to plan that that's probably more likely to need to be repaired down the road. um and I think assume some of that um you know and that just has to be part of our equation when when we're looking to uh to do that. So um overall I I like the conversation. I think if we do it in house maybe there's a member of the council that might be able to to do the work. I mean sounds like we'd have a qualified individual. So

we're taking applications. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Thank you. Uh, councelor Pavlla, just one comment for council and anyone listening. You know, there we have so many neighborhoods with trails behind their house and we're not asking them to fix a trail when something goes wrong, the portion of the trail that's in front of their house. So, um, I would like to have you all just food for thought.

Any other questions, council? Just one last comment and just going back to something you said is, you know, sort of ancillary, but I just to put a note on it like you talked about root barriers. I don't know much about those, but um I'd be curious to know about that and if that if that is something that is preventive enough. Um is that something that maybe we should consider adding to our development code? You know, as far as making sure something like that is installed, especially, you know, you talk about putting trees there and that's a big culprit. So, is that something worth considering? That's all. One more. Okay. Just a refresher, please. Um, you can grind a raised sidewalk if it's below what level? Two inches.

Two inches. And And that has to do with the thickness of the sidewalk. All right. So only 50% of the sidewalk thickness. If a resident were to call and say, "Hey, I have a sidewalk that's elevated an inch." um when might they be able to have someone or the city come out and grind it down?

So, we could get someone to come assess it right right away within a few days. Uh as far as when the grinding would happen is going to depend on several factors from uh our workload to weather conditions. Uh typically I would say within a month um because we will be trying to to group um these work orders together so that when we're loading up the truck we're not doing it for just one. We're going to try to do several together for efficiency. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I have one other one other from councelor Wells.

Uh and in our tree ordinance the ones that we do plant along sidewalks have a tendency not to cause root problems. They uh have got condensed roots so that they don't raise the sidewalks like they do in Oldtown here. The trees have been planted years ago. Okay, I think that's all the questions we have from council. Do you have what you need from us or do you need like more clear direction? What would you This is perfect and we'll be coming back following up with you. Sounds good. Thank you for the work you do.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Uh, that closes our presentation for this evening. We're going to move on to our first item of business. This is the second reading of ordinance number 1475. This is the approval for the issuance of a limited tax general obligation bond for the Ridgefield Community and Recreation Center. And we'll for that we'll go to Mr. Kirk Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council and residents. So, um, like you mentioned uh, Mr. Mr. Mayor, this is the second reading of um the ordinance number 1475. So, what we're looking at here is the potential issuance of limited tax general obligation bonds for the community center. Um and what we're looking for council is to give authority for the city manager and myself to um enter into a sale and obtain the funds to build that community center. So, we're just looking for um council to give us the structure that is um what we want for sale parameters. And what we're looking at is 15.5 million. That would include 15 million for the construction and construction management cost for the city portion of the project. And then um 500,000 for issuance costs as well. And um the final maturity date to make the sale um would be December 1st of 2026 with a 20-year term. Um so the maturity date for the bond payments would be um in 2046. Um and then a true interest cost not to exceed 5.5%. That gives us the flexibility to make the decision for the best sale and best interest of the city. So with that that's parameters. We've had multiple discussions on this already. I'll turn it back to you for any questions.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Uh, council, any questions for Mr. Johnson or staff on this issue? I do uh before we move into any motions or anything like that, I I think it is worth clarifying that this is uh I've been asked about this a couple of times in the last week. This would be a council manic action, which means that council would approve uh the bond. Anytime we hear bond, I think a lot of times people think, you know, like school bonds, it, you know, this is not going to go to voters. This will not raise your taxes. This is not uh a cost that is directly passed on to taxpayers. And so this is something we're deciding and the city is doing out of its uh its own debt capacity. So with that in mind, any any other questions or comments before we move on? Okay. Seeing none, thank you. Uh Mr. Johnson, Miss Julie, would you please read the or the ordinance into the record? Ordinance number 1475, ordinance of the city of Richmond, Washington, authorizing the issuance of one or more series of limited tax general obligation bonds of the city in the principal amount of not to exceed 15,500,000 to finance cost of developing, constructing, improving, and equipping a city community center. Antipate cost of issuance the bonds providing the form terms and covenants of the bonds providing for the disposition of the proceed sales of the bonds delegating authority to improve the final terms of the bonds and providing for other matters related there too.

Thank you very much and council I would accept a motion. I move to adopt ordinance number 1475 as presented. I'll second. Okay. It has been moved by Hamilton, seconded by Burkel. Any remaining discussion hearing? None. Miss Julie, would you please call the role? Council, Council Member Hamilton, yes. Council member Burkel, yes. Council member Wells, yes. Council member Fidella, yes. Council member Davis, hi. Mayor Prom Chipman, yes. Mayor Cole,

hi. Thank you, council. The motion carries and we are on our way. Appreciate it. Okay, our next item on business this evening is the first reading of ordinance number 1477. This is the 2026 budget amendment. Mr. Johnson, back over to you.

Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. Um, what we have before you today is just a followup to ordinance number 1476 where council implemented a rental assistance program and revised uh Richfield Municipal Code 3.10. um at our last meeting. Um the funding for this program comes from um a state credit against the sales tax um portion that the state gets. So it's not an increase in sales tax to um any of the buyers um in the Richfield area, but it is a credit against the amount that this uh state would have received otherwise. And it can only be used for affordable housing purposes. So, what council asked us to do at the last meeting was to come back before we do our normal spring supplemental budget um to set a um budget for this program so that we can get started a little bit sooner than we would have been able to otherwise. Um what council um instructed for staff to bring back was $50,000 for 2026 and then come back in 2027. We'll we'll talk about the budget for 2027 during the normal budget process, but come back to council in 2027 with some details on the program to potentially make changes to the program itself. Um but what we're asking is one single item for $50,000. And um with that, council does have the option if they so choose to wave seconds so we can get this done. Um from the time that the original program was approved um on March 12th, we have 30 days till that goes into effect. We've worked with our nonprofit agencies and staff to get this program ready to go with a target of May 1st. This would allow us to get to that point and get this started um as soon as possible. Um any questions? I'll turn it back to you. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Council, any

questions? Pretty straightforward. Okay. That's easy. Um, seeing none, Miss Julie, would you please read the ordinance into the record? Ordinance number 1477, ordinance of the city of Richmond, Washington, amending ordinance number 1455, pertaining to the 2026 budget. Great. Thank you very much. This is first reading. Uh, however, we do have the option to wave second. Council, if you would select all, I'll give you an opportunity at this time. Mr. Mayor, I move to uh wave second on this. A second. And did

Yeah. Um and I move to wave second and uh approve ordinance number 1477 as presented. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Was it previously seconded by Yes. Okay. Moved by Favlla, seconded by Chipman. Any discussion? Council hearing? None. Um, Miss Julie, would you please call the role? Council member Davis, I. Council member Favlla, yes. Council member Wells, yes. Council member Burkel, yes. Council member Hamilton, yes. Mayor Pro Chipman, yes. Mayor Cole,

I. Thank you very much, council. Motion carries, and we're on our way on that one, too. See? Okay, we have a third item of business tonight. This is the first reading of ordinance number 1478. It's repealing ordinance number 1470 and revising the corporate boundary of the city of Ridgefield to include a portion of South Royal Road. Uh for this we'll go to Miss Miranda Lane.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, in 2025, the city discovered that a portion of South Royal Road was not included with the road sections that were annexed into the city. In January of this year, city council adopted Ordinance 1470 to revise the boundary to include the ride ofway. During the county review, it was identified that there were some questions and suggested edits that the county had. Uh, upon meeting together, we reached an agreement of what that should look like, and that is what is presented to you tonight. Thank you, council. Is there any questions for Miss Lane?

All right, Miss Julie, would you please read the ordinance into the record? Ordinance number 1478, ordinance of the city of Richville, Washington, repealing ordinance number 1470, and revising the corporate boundary of the city of Richville to include a portion of South Royal Road. Great. Thank you. And this is first reading. Um, and I'll make a motion. Okay. Yes. Uh, Mr. Mayor, I will make a motion that we um approve ordinance number 1478, which repeals ordinance number 1470 and wave second reading. Okay. Second.

Okay. It's been moved by Chipman, seconded by Pavlla to adopt ordinance number 1478 uh as presented and wave second reading. Council, any discussion? No. All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Julie, would you Oh, would you please call the role? Yeah. Council member Hamilton, yes. Council member Favlla, yes. Council member Davis, I. Council member Wells, yes. Council member Burkel, yes. Mayor Pro Tim Chipman, yes. Mayor Cole,

I. Thank you, council. Eyes have it. The motion passes. Appreciate that. Okay, we have a fourth item of business this evening. Uh this is a motion to approve the elevated east side reservoir construction management contract. So Miss Lang, back over to you, ma'am.

Thank you again. So the city requires the support of a dedicated construction management team to ensure the successful completion of the east side elevated water reservoir project. The project's scale, complexity, and funding requirements will benefit from the specialized oversight. and the city staff does not currently have the capacity or technical resources to manage the day-to-day construction activities. The requested contract amount is 1,34,681. And the scope of work includes contract management and administration, submittal review and recommendations for approvals, construction observations and weekly construction progress meetings, materials testing and engineer of record special inspections, and many other components. The funding for the project is comprised of a combination of debt issuance for a drinking water state revolving fund loan for 15 million and water system development charges for the balance of the construction and construction management expenses. The contract would be awarded to Consor. Any questions?

Council, any questions? Uh, councelor Burkel, just a comment. I would like to thank city staff for going back and renegotiating the original price from consort and saving our city approximately a quarter of a million dollars. Thank you very very much. Councelor Hamilton. Thank you. I I second council Burkel's sentiments. Um I was reading through the contract and I appreciated that there's very clear assumptions and deliverables. So I think that that language makes a lot of sense um in the scope of work. Um, and I was just curious if it goes longer than 30 months, which is the contract, is there any what happens then? We will have to have a conversation about a scope change as far as duration goes.

Okay. Thank you. Other questions, council. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. All right. Um, okay. At this time, if there's no other questions, I would entertain a motion. I move to approve awarding the contract for the construction management services for the elevated eastside water reservoir project to Consor North America Incorporated for the amount of $1,34,681. I'll second. Okay, it's been moved by Hamilton, seconded by Burkel. Any remaining discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I.

All opposed. Thank you, council. Motion carries. All right. Our final item of business this evening is a motion to approve Urban Downs 2 phase two and three final plaque. Miss Lust.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council and members of the public. Um the item before you for action this evening is phases two and three of the Urban Downs 2 planned unit development. Um the project, next slide please, is located um east of Northeast 10th or South 85th Avenue between Urban Downs to the south and Gley Farms phase three to the north. Next slide, please. Um this shows the preliminary plan unit development layout. Council previously approved final plot for phase one, also known as Meadow View by PY Homes. Um phases two and three are outlined here in orange. Next slide, please. All right. Phase two and three. Um the final plot before you this evening includes um 93 lots. It is a mix of single family detached residential lots and single family attached or townhouse residential lots. Um 61 lots, detached, 32 townhouse lots. The um single family detached lots range from um 4600 to 8200 square feet on average 5,300. The town home lots range from 3,400 to 3,800 square ft. Um the overall average throughout these phases lot area um between both product types is 4700 square ft. Um and this was developed and approved through the preliminary PUD process um to achieve our codified um goals for mix and variety of housing types within a subdivision. Okay. Um if we go quickly to the next slide. Um while phase 2 and three doesn't have internal open space areas, there are two direct pedestrian connections to the large open space park and trail area in phase one. Um which is

kind of outlined in this image. It's to immediately to the west of the phases before you this evening. Okay. Julie, can you just bounce back to the previous slide? Thank you. All right. Um staff review for this project is complete. Um public private improvements are all complete. No performance bonding is required. Um draft CCNRs were reviewed and as a condition of approval are required to be recorded along with the plat. Um I'll note that as with some other plats we've looked at recently, there is currently an urban holding overlay on the property. Our code allows urban holding to be removed concurrent with final plot approval. Um so part of this approval is to um both approve the final plot and concurrently remove the urban holding overlay. And with that I will hand it back to you mayor. Thank you.

Great. Thanks Miss Les. Um council any questions for staff on this item? Okay. If there are none the final plat I would entertain a motion. I move to approve the urban downs two phase two and three final plat as presented. I'll second. It's been moved by Davis, seconded by Wells. Any remaining discussion hearing? None. All I have one. Oh, do you?

Yes. I have a question that I'll just bring up. is the attached walls between the two. It's a common wall. Is that and I know staff probably will not be able to answer it, but there's a fire department question. Is that will that be a firewall inch and a half thick sheetrock on each side of that attach uh where it's a common wall? Typically for common walls on townhouse products, yes. Um, fire suppression is required as part of the the building permit process. Okay. Thank you. Other questions, other comments? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor say I.

I. I. All opposed. Thank you, C. Motion carries. All right. That will conclude our business for this evening. Uh, we're going to move on to a public hearing now. So, uh, this is a public hearing and first reading of ordinance number 1479. This is the approval of Urban Downs 2 phase phases two and three development agreement. Miss Les, back over to you.

Thank you again, Mayor. Um, so bouncing forward to a related development agreement and this is a public hearing and first reading only. No action is being requested at this meeting. Um so concurrent with the final plat review for this project um the city and the builder um LAR Northwest um have proceeded with a draft development agreement addressing the town home lots 53 to 84 in these phases of the project. The terms of the development agreement which are included in full in your packet are fairly straightforward. Um the goal is to achieve a mix of housing types including attached town home um middle housing while allowing a semi-attached product with enhanced design features, two-car garages, um fenced and screened bin storage and additional street trees as part of a a design package being addressed through the proposed development agreement. Um the there are a lot of exhibits to the DA showing different um proposed uh architectural elevations for the products in this area as well as a composite map and some sample plot plans. Um those are in your packet but I think the next slide does show just an example. Um again these are the 32 attached product lots within the um Urban Downs 2 phase 2 and three area. Composite sketch shows how some different um product styles would be interspersed within that area. And then the next slide um simply gives an example of a plot plan showing a semi-attached product um as well as um how some of those architectural enhancements would be achieved as well

as um avoidance of having mirrored or identical products next to each other. So with that I will turn it back to you mayor for any initial discussion before the public hearing. Thank you. Thank you Miss Lust. Any questions for staff at this point? council. Uh, councelor Favlla, we'll go to We'll start there and we'll go down here.

Thank you. Do we know how tall those little gates are to hide the garbage cans? Because most CCNRs require that the garbage is not visible from the street. And I'm concerned that that little fence isn't going to be tall enough for even like the largest uh recycle cans or if someone goes over in their garbage um and then all you see is like garbage peeking out by the street. Sure. The proposed height for the screening fence is four feet. Do we know how tall the largest garbage can is? Between 43 and 45 in tall.

Did Okay, that's your only question. Okay, great. Um, we'll go to Council Hamilton.

Thank you. Sorry, I was excited. I was like, I'm talking about the same subject. Um, yes. So, that was my um my concern as well. I went and measured mine last night, it was like 45 to 46 inches at the tallest lip of the th you know, whatever. Um but I also noticed when I was reading through the development agreement in 5.3 it says maximum height of 4 feet and I think it should say at least required at 4 feet in that arena. I think in order to prevent what council was talking about. Um, and I on another note want to say I think that this development agreement was a really innovative look at creating new product and thinking outside of the box and I really I think that these are really inventive and really cool how they created some new features and it's not your typical product and I really appreciate the work that went into the to the DA so that we could have stuff like this in Richfield.

Thank you. Uh, councelor Burkel. Yes, just a quick question. I noticed that each unit will have a patio. Will that be a covered patio as we I think we do require porches on uh on homes? Um based on the current designs, there are three different product types in here and I believe two of the three are currently designed with the rear patio um being fully covered.

Thank you. Um, I'd like to correct my last question because I asked it in the wrong uh pretext. I should have been asked now instead of in in the uh phase part of it. So that that's all I wanted to say. I asked at the wrong time and that was on the common wall. Other questions or comments? Council? Yeah, go ahead. Councelor Davis.

Thank you. Um I just I think it I what really stands out to me is I think it's a great creative solution. Um I think that um it's encouraging to see a lot of the developers finding opportunities to get uh what's commonly referred to as missing middle housing um into our community. And um I really just I find this to be um just a a really unique, interesting in all the good ways um solution to bring some town home town homes into uh the community um and have it blend in with a lot of the detached single family. And so, um, just hats off to the creativity of both, um, the developer and staff. Thanks.

Yeah. Um, the overhang on the door, I know we can't really see, but there is, it is covered, correct, on both models or the variations. The variations do, I believe, show a cover over the front um, porch step. Okay. Thank you. Then we will confirm.

All right. Uh if there is no other questions from council, I'm going to open the public hearing. The public hearing is now open. If you signed up with city council with the city clerk before the meeting, your name will be called and you will receive permission to unmute your microphone or step up to the podium. If you did not sign up in advance but would like to speak, please use the raise hand feature on your toolbar. If you're joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and press star six to mute or unmute. The city clerk will grant you permission to speak. And when speaking, please state your name and keep your comments to three minutes and there will be no back and forth discussion between uh with city council. This public hearing is now open. Is there anybody in the room wishing to give comment during the hearing? Come on up. Hi, I'm Jean Stemp and I am vice president of Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. And I would just like to um make sure that as uh the city is looking at the CCNRs for these new developments that we are paying attention to both um state laws in terms of making sure they're not requiring ornamental lawns and also to the city's u ordinances for dark sky to make sure that the lighting within the neighborhood and the lighting on the houses um fits into those ordinances. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Temp. Is there anybody else wishing to give comment on this specific item during the public hearing? Okay, Miss Julie, is there anybody online?

Not see no one online. All right, I will give the room one last chance. Anybody? Okay, hearing none. This public hearing is now closed. And council, is there any remaining discussion? All right. Uh if that's the case then Miss Julie would you please read the ordinance into the record. Ordinance number 1479 ordinance of the city of Richmond Washington approving a development agreement with Clintar Northwest LLC for the development of portion of the urban downs to residential community.

Great. Thank you. And this is first reading only and will be coming back to us at a later date. Okay. Uh that concludes our public hearings for the evening. We're going to go back into public comment. Um, if anyone wishing to speak to city council regarding items not subject to to a specific public public hearing may come forward at this time to the podium or use the raise hand feature located at the toolbar at the bottom of your Zoom screen. For controls over the phone, press star 9 to raise hand or press star six to mute or unmute. And please state your name and limit your comments to three minutes. Is there anybody wishing to give public comment tonight?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council, City Staff Jeff Bigu. Uh, I just wanted to make a couple comments on your sidewalk management program. First of all, I want to commend the city for initiating this. As a resident of Oldtown and my wife and I, we walk Oldtown several times a week and I can tell you that my opinion is many of these sidewalks are unsafe and are a definite safety hazard. Luckily, I'm still able to have no mobility issues, so it's not an issue for me, but I can see where it would be for other people. So my thought process would be go with option one, have the city fix all the sidewalks to standard to have a level playing field, start from there, and then moving forward maybe do a hybrid program moving forward. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Big. Is there anybody else in the room tonight wishing to give public comment? Miss Julie, anybody online? Not seeing one online. Okay, hearing none, we will close public comment and we will move on to council reports. Uh, council, anybody to go first this evening? Councelor Davis? Yeah, sure. You shrugged, so that was enough for me.

Yeah, that's enough. All right. No. Uh, it was good. Uh, I'm sure I won't be the only one that offers kudos to, uh, staff for an amazing state of the city, but I will just leave it at that. I thought it was a great state of the city. Um the parks task force for the county keeps moving on down the tracks. Um we've had some pretty good insight. I think the not recommendations, but the options um are going to be things that we would find agreeable. We'll see. But um if that keeps moving along, um first and foremost, our priority is going to be to um keep the wonderful work that our parks uh department within the city is able to do and um be able to retain the resources to keep that going. Um let's see. This morning we had the uh legislative breakfast uh hosted by uh the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce that all of us were able to go to and so I won't dive too much into that as well, but it was good to get a briefing uh from our uh legislative contingent uh on the tail end now of uh coun or council of the legislative session now that's wrapped up. And then um Mayor Cole and Councelor Hamilton and I were able to go and tour uh EOCF um to learn just about how they serve kids and families. Um they facilitate like the Head Start program and things of that nature. And so that was um very rewarding. My wife once upon a time uh was a teacher for Head Start and so um I've seen a lot of what that looks like uh from her perspective, but it was cool to see um that I guess on a on a through a different lens and seeing opportunities for us to partner. So, um I guess last thing is happy baseball opening day to all who celebrate. Go Mariners.

Go Mariners.

Thank you counselor uh councelor Mella. Thank you. Yeah, I huge shout out to the staff uh who helped us put on the state of the city. I think oftentimes people come to hear what we have to say, but I think what we have to say is great and fun, but it's really the staff behind the scenes making sure that everything goes off perfectly and that people are taking care of and all the volunteers that showed up to talk about the great work that they're doing and other city staff to talk about what they're doing in their parts of the city. So, I feel like everything that everybody else did was much more than us just sitting up there talking. So, I really appreciate that. Um, I have been busy. I was recently appointed to the Clark County Opioid Abatement Council. Um, so I have been busy trying to they threw me right in the thick of it. Uh, it is RFP time. So, we are reviewing uh a lot of programs, doing some really good work in the substance abuse community. Um, so I've been busy doing that and I attended the breakfast with everyone else and that's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, councelor Hamilton.

Thank you so much. Um, yes. So, state of the city obviously have to say we have to say thank you to all of you because it was just incredible. But I want to give a particular shout out because she told me she listens to this to Megan Damas. Megan Damas was the council whisperer that got us all of our cards and made sure that we were prepared to sit up there. She did all the leg work. Then we got to sit up there and and and do it. So Megan, thank you very very much. And I want to welcome Mia to the team as well. She was nice to meet her that night. Um I got to attend the Richfield Main Street community meeting where our very own mayor was one of the speakers. He did a wonderful job. And we also got to hear from Ethan Perry from the port and Jesse Jimenez from PAL. And it was a really comprehensive look at all the programs and a really community focused night that felt really good. And uh the food was delicious too from Nest, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was good. Um I personally in my new position at the YW.CA helped to facilitate what's called the Shine Gala this last weekend and I'm very happy to be um on the tail end of that because putting on a gala boy I didn't know. But um our mayor and his wife were able to attend which was awesome because our one of our very own Ridgefield residents was honored that night. Um Dr. Megan Dudley who is the president of the Ridgefield Multicultural Initiative was uh awarded the Val Joshua Racial Justice Award and so I just wanted to give her a shout out for the work that she does in Ridgefield and I was really pleased we got to honor her that night as well as Dr. Karen Edwards from Clark College. So two very big staples in our community I wanted to say thank you to. Um I went to the board the school board meeting and I had a couple oh I wanted to put there was a couple summer maintenance projects that I thought people would be pumped on that I took a picture of their slide. I apologize I should pull this up. Okay. So, they are there's a roof replacement going on um at the high school this summer. Um but then the RHS tennis courts that everybody drives by, they are getting resurfaced and they're adding pickle ball lines to all six courts. So, that means those will be

closed from June 15th to July 15th. Just something to keep in mind. And then they were talking about um at the R RHS stadium, they're removing bleachers from the student section and they're replacing those. So, they're not putting the bleachers back in because the kids get, they said they get so rowdy and they like to jump and be, you know, they like just get really into cheering alongside of the cheerleaders and rooting for the team. So, they're going to just remove those and make sure that they've cleared all nuts, bolts, things that could hurt children um afterwards so that they can just jump to their hearts content and not break chairs. Um and then they're doing more parking lot striping and there's Southridge. There's all kinds of updates that they have going on. So, that was a fun meeting and I thought it was interesting. They mentioned there's a superintendent student advisory council and and one of the board members mentioned our youth commission here and and being a good inspiration for that. So, I wanted to say that the good work ripples out. I love it all. Um and then today we did the the chamber um legislative review event and the EOCF tour and the fire commission meeting and it's all been great. I feel great. I love it. Happy to be here.

Nice. Thank you very much, counselor. Uh councelor Burkel.

Thank you. I'll keep it short. Um, state of the city I thought was very well done. I think it was wellreceived. Very, very positive comments. We were able to spend three lovely hours at the Clark County study session. If you've never had the opportunity to do that, you will find it. You will. Main Street put on an absolutely terrific program the other evening and as someone reported our mayor made a wonderful presentation as well today at the retired Ridgefield group. Mayor Cole was there answered numerous questions until they ran out of questions. So I really appreciate and they appreciated that. and also this morning at the Greater Vancouver Legislative Breakfast. Got to talk with many of our legislators and find out where they are on certain issues. So, thank you.

Okay, Councelor Wells. Okay, I'm going to correct Mr. Burkel on the county meeting. Uh, it was three and a half hours and I know he was there all the time because he rode with me. So, I just wanted to share that. Sorry, Mr. Burke, but I'll do better next time.

Okay. Um, I attended the Clark Regional Alliance board. I'm one of the board members. Um Clark Regional is pairing back on some of their uh decisions in the next year or two due to the economy the way it is. Uh being a little more conservative. Not that they're quitting anything, but they're just not being quite as aggressive as what they have planned in the past. Uh this is a personal note for the pain that everybody has. Uh, two weeks ago I went and got fuel in my pickup and the pump shuts off at $175 and I got 40 gallons. Today I went and got fuel, the pump shut off at $175 and I got 31 gallons.

So that's a difference in in two weeks time. Anyway, that was just a note for the public. Um, also today at the legislative uh forum that we attended, uh, Mr. Burkel and I had the opportunity to talk with Alicia Topper and I'm going to spark everybody's interest. On May 18th, the Richville Junction Neighborhood Association is having their annual meeting and she is going to be there and she has some comments to make that has come down from the legislature this year uh that will help seniors with their taxes. and the tax brackets have raised a lot and it comes from the uh jurisdiction where you live what the medium income is. So you can be uh have a higher threshold if you live in Ridgefield for tax uh uh help. I I'm trying to find the word, but that that's what I'm trying to say. And uh I guess that was it. So, if you're curious whether you will fall fall into the category, uh, attend the meeting on May 18th at Dollar Tree.

Thank you, counselor. Okay. Uh, Mayor Poten, you know, my list is pretty much the same, so I I just won't even go into it. Nothing, you know. Yeah, it's okay. It's great. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We're all busy.

Yeah. Yeah, we are. And, um, thank you. We recognize that everyone here is very involved and very busy. So, thank you for that. And I'll just go back to the state of the city. Um, of course, thank you to staff for helping plan, especially our communications team and Mr. De Moss were fantastic as usual. Uh, we're sometimes like hurting cats up here and they do a really good job with it. I also we it was a different bit of a different format this year. Um, which I really really appreciated. Sometimes necessity breeds, you know, opportunity. Yeah. So, um, I like how we did it this year. It was really good. I heard a lot of great feedback from community members about how they like that format, too. It felt a little more comfortable and intimate. Um, I just as we've been around out and about in the community, I've talked to other people who are not from our community who have attended other states that the city addresses and um and have said that ours is was a really fantastic, delightful event. And and my response to that is a lot of times it gets treated as like this policy, this mechanical policy speech where you just say, "Here, here's what we're doing. and you got to update people on what's going on. But we tend to make it more of a community celebration and that's kind of fun through our make a difference awards. It was really especially fun to honor people like Kathy winners this year and neighbors helping neighbors both very much deserved and to be able to to celebrate our community and the people who are truly doing a lot of work and it's not just the winners there's there's multiple nominees that we go through and you get to see firsthand uh just the the effort that goes into really making an impact in this community. So thank you for that and council. You guys all did fantastic. Thank you for your partnership in that and it was really especially good to introduce our rise initiative for this coming year which was going to focus primarily on downtown. We talked quite a bit about that, but there's really an opportunity and it's not just a master plan and exercise. There really is a community engagement effort as well. So looking forward to that plan coming together. Um I it was also mentioned that we went to EOCF today and did a tour. Uh something that stuck out to me there is how much child care really

matters. How how much it becomes an economic driver. Um it's not just a luxury that parents that some parents can pay for, some parents need, but it really is. In fact, in Washington state alone, they said today $6 billion is lost in earnings every year because of parents who have no access to to adequate child safe child care. And so when you think about $6 billion going like not being produced in our state, that's a huge thing. and what does that mean for this community? So, as we start looking towards things like our recreation center um and our community center, I think we've been talking about child care will be a component that's vital to us. It's not just a nice to have. I think it's going to be essential. So, I like that. Um councelor Burkel mentioned the work session with the county council last week. It was uh the cities of Lenter, Ridgefield, and CAS went there um presented uh you know talked about transfer of development rights. This is uh this is an effort to really preserve farmland where we really really need to preserve farmland most inside of Clark County. Um once farmland goes away, it's gone forever. And that's not lost on us. As we look at our own growth plans and we look at how do we how do we facilitate our growth and how do we meet the demand that's being placed on us by the public and by the state and um I I you know Steve uh Mr. Stewart and staff have worked really hard over the past few months and you guys have done an incredible job uh going through what transfer development rights is and and how somebody who can own property can transfer can can have their their development rights purchased by somebody else who's uh who's a receiving place you know where it's maybe less characterized by agriculture more by development and so that helps us lock up a land in perpetuity and I think it's a really good program so the the the challenge now will just be convincing the county council still um that this is the right course of action, not just for our community because we have vision and what we're doing here, but it really is the right thing we can

do for the multiple farmers who are here in Clark County who still want to make this our livelihood. So, uh we hope to see that coming together, too. Uh Councelor Hamilton, great job on the Shine Gala. It was that was definitely a lot of fun. And again, special recognition to Dr. Megan Dudley and Dr. Karen Edwards for their work to uh fight racism in our community. So, um, one quick last plug. This weekend is event called Get Involved Ridgefield. It's being hosted by Ridgefield Main Street. Um, there's going to be a numerous organizations there. It's from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. right here at the rack. Uh, I highly encourage you if you're thinking about getting involved, come see that. Our city staff will be there and it'll be good to just have a, you know, be present the public with a lot of opportunities for how you can involve, but that's this weekend. So, that's all for me. We'll go to you, Mr. Stewart. Thank you, Mayor, Council, and members of the community. Most of what I would have covered, uh, you've already covered in a great fashion. So, thank you very much for doing that. The one thing I did want to make sure the public was aware of is next Thursday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in this room. Uh, there will be the a special meeting of the Ridgefield Coalition of Governments. This is a meeting that is held uh annually between our city council, our school board of directors, and our port commissioners. uh an opportunity for all of you to share the work that you are doing jointly and separately and get a better sense of how uh we can work together. So looking forward to that meeting next Thursday at 5:00 pm in this room. Other than that, uh happy to answer any questions you might have.

Council, any questions for the city manager? All right. Thank you, sir. Um go to Mr. Thamer in public works.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I just wanted to report out that this week our development engineering team uh from community development and our public works team participated in a lean process improvement workshop focused on development review and development inspections. And I was able to attend the report out uh this morning and I was just impressed by the team spending so much time and effort on uh making sure that we're doing our processes in an efficient manner looking for gaps and looking for areas where we're duplicating efforts to uh increase our efficiency. And also just the focus on uh our development uh developers making sure that the process is a good process for them and that it's smooth and efficient. And then also on our end users, not just public works, um, who most of the infrastructure goes to, but also to some of the private storm facilities that are transferred to HOAs, making sure that they're getting a good product and also uh some of the uh private privately maintained parks, making sure they're getting um good products from our development process. So that's all I have, but uh happy to answer any questions.

Great. Council, any questions for public works? Uh, not a question, but a comment. Congratulations to your wife for her nomination in the reflector. Not only are you a very hard worker, but apparently you have a power couple in your house. So, thank you. Thank you. I'm proud of her. Questions? All right. Thank you again. Uh, Mr. Johnson, we'll go over to you next.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, just a couple of things. Um, since the last time we talked about it, the city's been notified that we received two more awards. Um, this morning, um, well, first I'll start. Last meeting, we presented the budget book and performance metrics to council. This morning, we found out that we received an award from the Government Finance Officers Association for our presentation on the budget. and they specifically mentioned at least one of the reviewers that we did an outstanding job on the performance metrics and how it meets council's goals. So, I wanted to highlight that. And then we also um received an award for the popular annual financial report which is a conted version of the annual report and um we got that award as well. And then finally um we start our audit next Wednesday. So, Mr. Mayor, you will be um set up for a meeting or you already are set up for a meeting to be interviewed by the auditor as well as Mr. Stewart um on the 2nd. So, any questions that you may have, I'd be happy to answer them.

Yes. I want to know, do these awards are is do you get actual hardware for these? We have plaques that are in my office and then we get a little medallion every time we get it for each year. So, I was curious. I was curious how they got displayed, right? I mean, congratulations to the team. Of course, it's almost so much. It almost seems like Yeah. Yeah. It's like it seems like it's just I wish they give us some additional funding so we can do a lot more projects around here. They don't seem to want to give us money. They just give us that medallion. Can you melt it down to

not advocating for that? Okay. Any other questions for finance director? Okay, great. Congratulations. Thank you very much for the update. Yes, our city attorney. Good to see you.

I got one. I'm I'm sorted. Well, I have to say with over 15 years working at the city, that was my first state of the city address and I was blown away. I just it was awesome. So, I thought it was just everything I would have expected it to be. But beyond that, I don't have anything to report. Just happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you. And I said this when you told me that last week. I'm blown away that that was your first one in 15 years. That's impressive. Yeah. Any other questions for Miss Marker? Okay. Great. Thank you. And we'll go to Miss Lust. Nothing to add this evening. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Anything for community development? All right. Thank you very much, Miss Naireys.

Uh I do have a couple of things this evening. Um first of all, I do want to echo um the shout out to Megan Deas. Um I know that she really worked yeah worked hard um on this event and I am just um always amazed by the impressive work that she does and her passion for this community um and I think it showed in this event too. So thank you Megan. Um I also wanted just to let you know that um our discover downtown dash is coming up again on April 1st Saturday. That's the 4th. Um, and it is basically a giant scavenger hunt around downtown. Uh, people need to solve clues that take you to uh different locations and different businesses and then they get another clue um to go to the next place. Um, so it will feature a lot of um interaction with our merchants downtown as well as some of our art and history. Um, there's also a couple other things going on on the same day. The um Ridgefield Wine is doing a sip and paint. Uh the uh refuge, the National Wildlife Refuge, um is having a writer's workshop. And as on every first Saturday, um the art gallery from 5 to 7 will have an artist reception um to announce the new theme for the art gallery for the following month. And I think that's all I have.

Great. Thank you. Any questions for the deputy city manager? All right. Thank you very much. And last, but certainly not least, Chief Dorad. Nothing to add, Mr. Mayor, but happy to answer any questions. Okay. Any questions for the chief? All right. Thank you very much, council. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.