Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the January, Bridgefield Planning Commission meeting to order. If we could please start with a fax flag salute. If everyone could please stand.

Thank you. If we could start with roll call. Present.

Present.

Commissioner Moylan?

Present.

Chair Tyler. Present. Commissioner Raxak?

Present.

Commissioner Gordon? Present.

Thank you. And at this time, I believe we'll proceed with the oath of offices for all three of our newest members. I believe that's the two that are present if you wouldn't mind coming and standing in the front.

Okay. I. I.

Justin Rezak.

Heather Gordon.

Commissioner Moylan.

Steven Moylan.

Do solemnly swear. Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly

That I am a citizen of The United States.

That am a citizen of The United States.

And of

the state of Washington. And of the state of Washington. That I will support the constitution. That I will support

the constitution.

Of The United States

The United States.

And the constitution and laws

And the constitution and laws

Of the state of Washington.

The state of Washington.

And will to the best of my judgment. And will.

And to the best of my judgment.

Skill and ability. Skill

ability. Skill and abilities.

Faithfully and impartially perform.

Faithfully and impartially perform.

The duties of the planning Commission

of the Planning Commission

position number

number three.

Six.

And commissioner Moylan, sorry? Washington as such duties are

Welcome to all three of the new members. Happy to have you on board.

Thank you.

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Thank you.

Also, since it is the January of an even numbered year, we are going to be selecting a chair and a vice chair for the next two years. So we will start with the position of chair. If anyone has a nomination for the Planning Commission chair, please state your name for the record and who your nomination is.

Chair, this is Commissioner Patrick Flynn. I'd like to nominate Mark Tyler to be the chair for the next two years.

Second.

And I will consent to that nomination. Are there any further oh, sorry. Mark Tyler has been nominated for the position of commission chair. Are there any further nominations?

I move that the nominations be closed and we cast unanimous ballot to have Mark as our chair.

Second.

Any any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries and passes. We will now move to the position of I guess I'll say thank you all. I appreciate the support confidence. Looking forward to another two years with you. Sorry. And we'll now move to the position of vice chair. Are there any nominations for the position of vice chair? If so, please state your name, for the record, and who your nomination is.

Commissioner Borchardt, and I would like to nominate the current or renominate the current vice chair, Patrick Flynn.

Commissioner Flynn, would you do you consent to the nomination?

I do.

Thank you. Commissioner Flynn has been nominated for the position of vice chair. Are there any further nominations? Hearing none, since we have one nomination, may I have a motion and a second to nominate Commissioner Flynn as the vice chairperson?

I'll put forth the motion to nominate Commissioner Flynn.

Second. Thank

you. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Aye.

Abstain. Abstain.

Any opposed? Say nay. Hearing none, the motion passes. And Commissioner Vice Commissioner Flynn is will continue as the vice chair.

Thank you for your continued faith in me.

Just as a procedural, since we're maintaining, do we need to do the oath, or do we just carry on? That's what I thought. Alright. Perfect. Miss Lust, are there any late changes to the agenda?

There are no late changes. Thank you.

K. And that then we will move into our first public comment period for the evening. So now is the time for public comment. Anyone requesting to speak to the commission may request to do so at this time. If you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period, please use the raise hand feature if you're on the Zoom. And the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, please press 9 for raise hand or press 6 to mute and unmute. Is make a public comment at this time? Not seeing anybody online. I mean, not yet.

Maybe for the next period, but we will, at this point, close the first public comment period. And we will now move to the consent agenda. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes for the last meeting? And if there are no changes, is there a motion on the same?

Chair, I believe the minutes are reflected accurately. I move to accept the minutes as presented.

Second, Commissioner Borger.

Thank you. It's been motion. All in favor of accepting the minutes as presented, say I.

I. I. I. I.

Any opposed? The motion carries. We will now move to business. I will turn the time over to Ms. Lust.

Thank you, Chair Tyler. And thank you to Chair Tyler and Vice Chair Flynn for your continued leadership as well. And of course, welcome to our our new planning commissioners who are officially part of the group. Congratulations. The first item on our agenda is an orientation or for some of you reorientation to planning commission roles and and responsibilities.

This is just a short presentation. I thought I'd I'd take this opportunity with, a number of new members to just go over go over the basics again so you're all hearing the same thing from me at once. It's not necessarily gonna be any new information. All of if there are things that are new to you, that is also, of course, fine. So with that, I'll go ahead and just jump right in.

And then when I'm done, we can have a little time for questions if there are presence here is, required under the growth management act. Cities, towns, and counties that fully plan under the GMA are required to have planning commissions. The functions of the planning commission are primarily to make recommendations on comprehensive plans and land use regulations, as well as other community development issues. And those recommendations are made to the agency's governing body, which of course in our case is the City Council. The Council directs the Planning Commission's projects and seeks feedback from Planning Commission.

More on progress And we made

And we with

in

able that. We comprehensive plan, amendments to plans, to long range plans, zoning and development code to the council for approval. Key point here, as you know, your policy advisor is not policymakers. So it is your recommendation to counsel that is the key objective of your work. Some local governments do use planning commissions to review some kinds of development proposals, we don't.

Our development proposals are either reviewed at a staff level administratively or ones that rise to a certain level of complexity do go to the hearings examiner who's an independent land use attorney who reviews those cases. So, planning commission is very firmly in the policy world. The one the one thing you will see on occasion that's site specific are zone change requests. Alright. We do an r bound to code of ethics in state law as well as the city's code of conduct which is shared between the council and the boards and commissions.

Under the state code of ethics, really the key points are that planning commission point. Good then, I code of conduct really boils down to the the same thing. Be appropriate and and be professional in your role as as a planning commissioner representing the city of Richfield. I'm happy to report that as long as I've been here we haven't had any problems with this. So I don't expect there to be, but it does bear repeating that there is a formal state level code of ethics that we are bound to in these roles.

Alright. Those are kind of the basics, but I will go back to the the topic of making recommendations. It's really core to the work we do. It is your role and objective per per state statute and per our practice as a city to make recommendations to council so that they can ultimately, make well informed policy decisions. So that what that looks like in practice is, you know, what's planning commission's recommendation, but beyond that why?

And I think that's something that as a group we've we've really improved out over time is flushing out those recommendations, having really good clear explanations of how you got there, why that that recommendation is made, having that on the record, and me having that to convey to to council. Will they always go in line with your recommendations? No. They hear from a lot of stakeholders. But I will say that our council does commissioners as well as the process used to make decisions.

So they take on board what what planning commission has to say. It does make a difference in their decision making process. As you know, I I convey the recommendations of the council. I strive to do so in an adjective manner, sharing what your recommendations are and why. This is this is a way to make sure that the recommendations of the group are being shared, not of anyone or more individuals of the group.

Although I will say if there's a topic with a lot of back and forth or it's a split issue, I certainly make note of of that, in conveying that information. And it's also my job to report back, and something I certainly strive to be more consistent about. What what did council do with your recommendations? What was the ultimate outcome to close that communication loop, in what is really an an iterative process between the planning commission and council? So, those are our jobs.

And with that, I just note that as as we continue our work together, if there's ever anything I can do to help you do your job better, please let me know. And with that, I will turn it back to you, chair Tyler, and see if there are any questions, comments, thoughts before we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lust. Do any of the commissioners have any questions, comments, or thoughts on the role of the we have as commissioners on the Planning Commission? Not seeing anything. I will turn the time back over to you, Ms.

Perfect. Thank you again, Chair Tyler. The second item on our agenda this evening is the 2026 Planning Commission Work Plan. It is in the packet before you as well as on the screen. And this really ties into what we just talked about, in that that statement earlier that council directs planning commission's projects.

Every year, planning commission as well as our parks board prepare a work plan for the coming year, and that goes to council for approval. Why do we need their permission? Well, we wanna make sure that planning commission isn't working on things that council is ultimately not interested in. Wanna make sure we're using our time together wisely and supporting our our councils policy goals and interests. Fortunately, we have plenty to keep us busy this coming year.

So I will go ahead and present on a draft work plan I put together with some things I know that we'll need to be working on. We'll take any feedback discussion from the planning commission and then our objective with to sure to make six. So those of you that are continuing planning commission members will see a pretty familiar document the the So So be to few

we'll that.

And

to

2026. I went ahead and put them on here. So they then are very much centered around the comprehensive plan update. At this time last year, we all thought it would be done by now. The overall schedule is pushed back about six months for all jurisdictions in Clark County.

At this point, the anticipated adoption date is mid twenty twenty six, which means the first half of this year we will be working on the comp plan. So that's the first item. And what that will look like for planning commission is, definitely at least one study session presentation, public hearing, and recommendations to counsel as as separate meeting items, in the lead up to adoption. As part of the comp plan update, we are really, as our first implementation items, required to make any development code updates that the goals and policies in the comp plan, you know, render necessary for our development code to make sense. And also to update our critical areas ordinance, which a few of you saw first presentation on, at the end of last year.

So those are the two other rows in this major policy initiative section. Obviously, we're already working on the critical areas update. That'll continue to overlap with the comp plan. And then any any code updates that come out of the adopted comp plan is something else we'll work on. As I was reviewing this, realized I missed something, so I'm gonna propose as part of this draft a row number four to major policy initiatives.

Mayor Cole has an initiative for 2026 all about downtown, preservation and revitalization. It is a pretty broad reaching goal. He's calling it the the RISE initiative, which is an acronym, but I don't remember all four letters, so I'm not gonna tell you what it stands for. But in any case, it's all about downtown, and one of initiative is to update our downtown waterfront sub area plan. So that is something we will be working on in 2026.

Alright. The next section, collaboration and education. This is more about, you know, outside of our policy recommendations, making sure that you're you're being fed and staying interested and really feel fulfilled and educated in your role as a planning commissioner. So a a few suggestions under here, the first of which connects to the previous items, which is a joint work session with council leading up to comp plan adoption, identifying ongoing training and education opportunities, community facing items, tabling at state of the city, and then sending a representative to the annual Ridgefield Junction Neighborhood Association business meeting. And then every year or every couple years as it sometimes happens, we do a development tour with council planning commission and parks board getting together on a Ctrip and bus and driving around the town, kinda seeing what's going on and what's coming next.

Everyone loves it, so we're gonna keep doing it. And then finally, annual programs. This one's really obvious, discussed, we have to have a planning commission and do planning commission things. So, this is our commitment to do that as required in the year 2026. That means meeting monthly.

We get maximum of three buys a year, basically. So meeting here together between nine and twelve times during the upcoming year. So with that, I will once again hand this back to you, chair Tyler. Look forward to any input the commission may have on this work program. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Lust. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or comments regarding the work plan for the year that they would like to share? Go ahead.

Yeah. I I I have a question about the tabling. This is, new to me. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what, what that is.

Pardon me. The tabling at State of the City?

Yeah. Tabling at State of the City, Neighborhood Association. There's Sure. A couple different things that

we're talking about. So, last year was the first year that the city did this, but we had a kind of an open house before the state of the city address, down at Ridgefield High School where different city departments as well as planning commission, parks board council had tables, and we invited people who are gonna be attending the state of the city to show up early and walk around and and get to know their city through its people a little better. So we had a few of us there last year, and, it was really nice. Talk to talk to some folks that we probably wouldn't have otherwise. So I'd like to do that again.

And then the Ridgefield Junction Neighborhood Association is a business association centered around the Freeway Junction. And they they have a big meeting every May where a a lot of people, you know, get up and talk, give updates. The city is there. It's just sort of one of the city's regular touch points for its elected officials, business community, etcetera. So I'd like to have some presence there this year even if it's just to listen.

Is there a downtown business association?

Richfield has a chamber of commerce, and Richfield Main Street is a nonprofit organization focused on downtown. So they have they kind of overlap the downtown area. Both of them do, but not there isn't a stand stand alone business association association like the junction one. There's not quite an an equal comparison there. Oh, looks like commissioner Marlin has his hand raised.

I did. Thank you. So, if you could just give us a ir comprehensive plans by six months. I'm curious as to what was behind that.

Yeah. So there was additional work that needed to be done to inform the basically the land use options at the county level, which then feeds down to each of the cities in the county. A big part of that was the the mandate from county council to engage an agricultural resource land study which was deemed necessary as a piece of information to allow county council to make an informed decision on a preferred land use alternative but ultimately add time to the process. That was a key driver. Thank you.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

I I had a question about sorry. When it says the Planning Commission will conduct public hearings, I was just curious what that looks like in general. That's the first item on the

Yeah. Absolutely. So as we work towards our our end goal being adoption of a comp plan, I'm still putting together the pieces for what our interim steps are to get to that. At a minimum, major policy recommendations such as this are required to go through hearings at both Planning Commission and City Council. So procedurally, what that looks like is, for something like this, typically, like, a a work session presentation with planning commission followed by a public hearing at planning commission, then counsel holds a hearing, then counsel makes a decision is the typical order of operations there.

Like I said, I'm I'm still figuring out how to strike a balance between bringing planning commission and council like every part of the plan for a public hearing and just dumping it all on you and saying, hey, have a hearing. There there is a middle ground there. I'm figuring it out. But there will be at least one public hearing at Planning Commission that serves as feedback to funnel up to council for further action on the comp plan.

And does that take place during normal Planning commission Yes. Meeting type? It does. Alright.

No one else has any additional questions. Have a I have an additional question. I on as it relates to code updates that come out of the comprehensive plan, it specifically references title 18. I know that's sort of our scope. That's sort of your scope.

But there are other code titles that are in there that have direct impacts to implementing the comprehensive plan. Know, things like urban forestry and like engineering design standards, things that should tie back to development standards. Are those gonna be brought forward in terms of update timelines at the same time that title 18 is being updated? And will planning commission have an opportunity to weigh in on that as well?

Sure. So to answer the first part of that question, your your point is absolutely correct. But the planning updates of the comp plan and the parks and transportation and public facilities updates are very much intertwined. Where we're coordinating is at that policy level. So in 2024, our staff updated the parks and trails plan, updated the transportation capital facilities plan, as well as the water and storm water plans, with with the idea being that the planning horizon for all of those and the comp plan are all on basically the same schedule, so through 2045.

So they are coordinated at that policy level, and then the implementation happens under that umbrella. So for example, our engineering team did a big update and refresh to the development engineering standards in twenty twenty five twenty twenty four to 2025. So will those come at the exact same time as the Title necessarily, but their guiding plans are on the same path. So we feel pretty confident they'll be coordinated in that way. And as to how planning commission is involved, typically, our work is limited to updates to title 18.

Sometimes we'll be working on a topic, and there's, like, a couple one off updates that need to be made to other code sections to support that work in title 18, and I would package that together for you. But, typically, it is focused on the development code.

Any other thoughts or comments or questions from any of the commissioners? My only comment I think that would that jumped out to me because I I think I said this last year too with with the training. I I I think that's an important aspect of our our work to help us all to be better and better understand the city. And so that kinda jumped out because I know I I I was the chair all last year as well and then didn't really do any training. And I think I let when I read it and it says work with staff, I just kinda I think I let it left it to wait for staff to do it.

And so that's something I I hopefully, we can I can be more active and engaged in in trying to find opportunities where we can get some training maybe on a quarterly basis? I I I mentioned this at a meeting several months ago where I reached out to the director of public works, and he was very happy to have me come over for several hours and would have kept talking to me because he loves the the stormwater system very much. And so but it was a really interesting experience to just go sit with him and talk about stormwater systems, talk about sidewalks, and learn more about while not really within our scope, it's tangential and and impacted by our scope. And so it's good to get better better acquainted with some other aspects of the city, and I think that could be a good place to start there. So with that, do we have a motion?

And and just as a note, I believe it would with the since it wasn't included here, would the motion then need to also include a recommendation is to add the the rise aspect of

Yeah.

If that's something that somebody making a motion would desire to do.

Yes. If that is the case, I would suggest language along the lines of motion to recommend approval of the 2026 planning commission work plan amended to include the downtown sub area plan update.

Commissioner Borchardt, ditto exactly what miss Les said. Motion.

Second.

We have a motion. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I understand this will be presented on I believe I read January 22.

Yes, January 22 and chair Tyler, as you know, they like to hear from from our chair. So I will I will connect with you, but I am hoping you have some availability on that day to make a a brief presentation, and I will be there as well.

Excellent. And like I promised to come last year, this time, I'll actually show up. So I will be there. Thank you. With that, I believe that concludes our business. So we will move into the second public comment period for the evening. Anyone requesting to speak to the commission may do so at this time. If you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period, you can use the raise hand feature if you're on the Zoom, and the clerk will you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. If you are over the phone, please press 9 to raise your hand or press star 6 to mute and unmute. And if you're in the audience, you're welcome to just come to the podium and make a comment at this time on anything you so desire.

You're not seeing him on Zoom or on the phone or audience? Okay. Then we will close our public comment period and turn the time now back to miss Lust for staff reports.

Thank you. Just wanna say happy New Year to everyone, and I'm looking forward to our work together this year. The years always go by so quick, but we do a lot. And I appreciate this group and and your engagement with with all the topics we touch. Speaking of which, couple updates first December meeting, code updates, the package that had a good chunk in it about, residential code and and housing uses.

So there are a couple items in there about, like ADUs, duplex, triplex, to improve the processes, around getting getting those middle housing products built that they did approve. That batch had a bunch of other stuff and to a lot of housekeeping items. So that was ultimately approved by council. We have one more batch of code updates. It's the one that had the sign topics in it as well as a few other miscellaneous items. I'm currently looking to bring that back to council for approval. They already had a hearing on the first meeting in February. Yeah. I think that's all I have. Thanks.

Thank you. And now is our time to have any reports from commissioners. We'll start with Commissioner Glavin since move down this way then.

No reports. Just happy New Year, and I wanna welcome all the new commissioners to the Planning Commission. It's gonna be exciting year working on the comp plan.

Thank you. Vice Chair Flynn.

Thank you, Chair Tyler. And once again, congratulations to you for a well fought election and earning the vote of everyone. Congratulations. A couple of things. Happy New Year to everyone. The new roundabout art at fiftieth wherever you turn to Costco. That is awesome. And I know there were students involved and some local businesses involved. So job well done everybody as far as I can tell. I attended the tree lighting, which was I question.

Question. A

of the year. If you're nervous about anything,

that's chair Tyler is here.

If you need anything

from him, thanks to the members of the public who are here, distinguished member of the student body up at Ridgefield High School. And thanks to our city staff for preparing us. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Flynn. Commissioner Borchardt.

No new updates on my end. But also, as Commissioner Glavin said, happy New Year, and congratulations to our three new commissioners. Welcome aboard.

Thank you.

Commissioner Gordon.

Just want to say I'm really happy to be here. I'm looking forward to the work and I think yeah, I'm just excited to be part of the learning and growing and supporting this community and I appreciate getting to know everybody as that happens. And happy New Year to everybody too. Thank you.

Thank you. And I hope I say this correctly. Commissioner Zach.

I'll I'll take this opportunity. It's a weird pronunciation. The C is silent. That's how my Polish great parents decided to Americanize Rasvik. So, Rasvik.

Thank you for asking.

Nothing to report just yet on day one, but I will echo commissioner Gordon's sentiment. I'm thrilled to be here and joining the work of the commission. Looking forward to getting to know you all and digging into the last little bit of the Complin updates. That's exciting stuff. So, thank you all for the warm welcome.

Thank you. Commissioner Moylan.

I have nothing in addition to what's already been said to add. Just thank you and happy to be on the commission, actually excited, but looking forward to advancing the comprehensive plan forward.

Thank you. Echo everyone here in welcoming all three of you again. Happy to have you on board. Looking forward to get to know you better. I will say that everything I have learned, I've learned from vice chair Flynn who has been on the commission for quite a long time. Mhmm. Mhmm. So he is also a great resource. But everyone here is also very happy to help. And as I said, looking forward to working with you going forward.

Also, as always, thank you to the staff and and everyone here for everything you do to get us prepared and make this easy for us. I'm very happy to have some members from the local schools. I'm I'm sure here for the their deep interest in public engagement and not for a school assignment. So happy to have you all here and welcome. I hope you can make it out again in the future. I believe with that, we will adjourn.