Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the June meeting of the Ridgefield Planning Commission to order. If everyone could please stand and join me in a salute to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We could do a roll call, please.

Jeffrey Borkhart.

Present.

Patrick Flynn.

Present.

Steven Moylan.

Present.

Mark Tyler.

Present.

Justin Raczak. Sorry. Present. Heather Gordon. Present.

Thank you. Ms. Lust, are there any late changes to the agenda?

No late changes, thank you.

Then we will go right into our first public comment period. So now is the time for public comment. Anyone requesting to speak to the commission may request to speak at this time. If you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period, please use the raise hand feature. and the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, press star nine for raise hand and press star six to mute and unmute. Is there anybody wanting to make a public comment at this time? Anyone on Zoom? Not seeing anybody, we will close the public comment period. Move on to the consent agenda. If I could, if everyone's had a chance to review the minutes and if there's no comments, have a motion.

Chair, I'd move that the minutes as presented are approved.

Second. Thank you, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now move to the business portion of our meeting and turn the time over to Ms. Lust.

Thank you, Chair Tyler. Just have a presentation this evening, kind of a check-in about where we're at in the comprehensive plan update process in Vision Ridgefield 2045. Shouldn't take too long, just getting us caught up, and then I'll definitely have time if commissioners have any questions about next steps. Great. So just to kind of reframe where we are, why we're planning, we are in the midst of our 20-year growth management plan update, looking ahead through 2045, considering both growth that has occurred over the past 10 or so years since the last update and growth that Ridgefield and its urban growth area has been allocated to accommodate through 2045. Just some numbers, probably seen some of these before in our previous discussions. But just as a reminder, we are required to accommodate about 5800 new housing units and 9300 new jobs through 2045. So last year, after a pretty big public engagement push, some work with planning commission and city council, council selected a preferred land use plan for the city moving forward based on some key principles, including preserving the look and feel of existing residential neighborhoods, targeting that growth that we discussed on the last slide in mixed use hubs where homes and services coexist, support a handful of property owner initiated requests for urban growth area expansion to best accommodate jobs and housing over the next 20 years, and assume that over time, parcels in the existing urban growth area will begin to annex or continue to annex. Kind of the biggest milestone to share is that on April 28th, Clark County Council selected their preferred land use alternative And since city council selected their preferred alternative last year, staff have been working hard with county council staff to advocate for selection of alternative at the county level that best reflects our city's preferred alternative. And it's been a lot of work working on in the background assumptions for different zones, looking at density and critical areas assumptions citywide and on specific parcels, advocating for a map that reflects the city's vision. And where the county council eventually got on April 28th was selection of a land use alternative that does closely mirror what what we were advocating for based on the city's vision. So I too wish I had a better quality image of it, but it is on the screen in front of you. Again, generally aligns with city council's preferred alternative It includes two expansions of the urban growth area. Those are marked on the map. The first is to the north, just west of I-5, and the second is a property that's currently kind of an island outside of the growth area down in the southern portion of the city. So the ongoing work is between city and county staff, again, continuing to refine assumptions, basically make parcel level adjustments, make sure this map is really, really sound before one of the next steps in the process, which will be county's adoption of a final environmental impact statement based on this map. So we'd kind of been, everyone, not just us, had kind of been waiting on that key milestone of the county adopting that, selecting that land use map to be able to kind of put together our schedules moving forward towards comp plan adoption. So everything we do is essentially based on the county's schedule, and they were able to update that in pretty fine detail recently. So they're looking at, late July for issuance of that final environmental impact statement. That's kind of what we're working towards with them now, making sure the final map is down to the detail, accurate to what we've been working on and what we've shared with them, initiating a procedural review process with the Department of Commerce, and then going through their planning commission hearings and deliberations council hearings and deliberations and then their target date for adoption of the countywide comprehensive plan is October 13th, effective October 23rd. So I share this all because we are required to basically follow a half step behind them because our plan is required to be consistent with the county's plan. So based on that, looking ahead, we have put together, subject to change, schedule on the screen before you, that basically gets us to adoption at about the same time. Those latter dates are a little bit wiggly, but basically the October to November timeframe for adoption. We knew it was going to be ambitious, and it is, so look forward to plenty of work this summer. I'm so sorry, but we're all in it together. We've been in a bit of a holding pattern while we waited for that county-level land use map adoption, and now that they've adopted it, we really need to start rolling forward on some of these things. So our plan is to give you all and council basically another touch on all of the elements, goals and policies in the comp plan. Some of these things we haven't talked about in a while, and we've got new people in the room too. So we'll get without the pressure of any recommendation or decision making another touch on all of those things. And then we'll be coming through for basically batching elements together as public hearings and deliberations. That is really what I wanted to share with you all today. Go ahead and keep that tentative schedule up on the screen, and I will turn it back to you for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any questions? Please.

Just wanted to clarify, it looked like from that, I think, very first slide that we have grown roughly 10,000 new residents in the last 10 years, and the projection is for 10,000 more in the next 20. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you.

Kaylie, could we go to slide number two, please? Thank you. So Claire, could you, sorry, Ms. Lust, could you please explain the missing middle housing units? What's the definition of that?

Yeah, so missing middle housing units basically describes housing types that are in size and density between traditional single-family homes and apartments, so things like townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, accessory dwelling units, and the like.

Okay, all right, I understand.

Yeah, that's part of our planning objectives assigned to us are to plan to accommodate housing at affordable to different income levels, and sort of the big, one of the bigger areas of need is that missing middle housing area. So just including that data point in this presentation to highlight that a lot of work in that area has already been done, but still a lot of need moving forward.

Okay, thank you. May I continue, Chair? Thank you. Could we have the next slide, please? So, no, sorry, the map. Yep, thank you. So what is, for the northern UGA expansion, what is that road that goes east-west through there? Just so that I have an idea what the northern boundary is.

Yeah, so the road that is running east-west towards not the northernmost part, but the lower notch, is 289th.

289th, okay. Correct. And then the southern, I can't tell if that's a road or not.

It's not a road, but perhaps a helpful way to orient it would be the yellow properties to the west, that's the Paradise Point subdivision.

On the southern boundary?

To the west.

Oh, to the west.

Yeah, so it's Royal Road there between the blue and the yellow to the west.

Sorry, I'm a little confused. I don't know if it's possible to... You don't have a laser pointer or anything.

Do I?

I'm trying to figure out...

Are you referring to the northern UGA expansion area? No, to the... Or the mall? Mall.

Oh, to the mall property. Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Yeah, that is, it's basically on Hillhurst Road across from the middle school.

Okay, all right, thank you.

On the corner of Hillhurst and Carty.

Right, all right, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Yes, any other thoughts or comments from commissioners? Does it look like you appreciate the presentation and the kind of schedule going forward? Look forward to spending our summer working through this with you. I believe that'll close our business portion. We'll move now to our second public comment period for the evening. Now is time for public comment. 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, please use the raised hand feature. If you're on Zoom, and the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphones, you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, press star nine for raise hand, and press star six to mute and unmute. Or if you're in the audience, you may come to the podium and you'll have three minutes and I'll just remind everyone that there won't be any back and forth between the comments and the commission. Thank you. Is there anybody else wishing to make a public comment at this time? Please.

I'm learning the processes between what's the port's part, what's the city council's part, what's your planning part. So I'm not really sure who to speak to, but I'm trying to speak to everybody. In fact, on Saturday, I'm going to be out speaking to people at the events. We're just trying to make sure that people understand what the public feels about that waterfront land. And I'm loving hearing this environmental impact study mentioned over and over. And I'm hoping that it includes the waterfront and the impact on the refuge. That's a huge draw to this town. It's actually what convinced us to move here. was a visit to the refuge. And so like I say, I don't have any particular questions. I don't know the actual process, but I just want to put it out there again that there are people that are very concerned about the density, especially the plan that's drawn right now has a hotel sitting right on top of the Osprey Nest. It has apartments 100 foot to 150 foot setback from Cardi Lake. It doesn't make any sense. So whatever you guys can do, we appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to make a public comment at this time? Anyone on Zoom that's raised their hand? Not seeing any additional desire for public comment. We'll close the public comment period at this time. And move on to staff reports. Turn it back to Ms. Lust.

Thank you, Chair Tyler. A few things to share for staff reports. First and foremost being our former Commissioner Glavin moved out of the city. So he is no longer holding his position on planning commission. He did submit his resignation to Mayor Cole. Mayor is talking to an individual who previously applied for planning commission and was appointed to a different body at that time to see if that person is still interested and the appointment is scheduled for next week's council meeting, the 11th. All right, I'll put in a plug for June 1st, Saturday, which is Big Paddle coming up this Saturday. And then for our purposes, the first week in July will be nice and busy. We do have our planning commission meeting on July 1st, I believe, is the first Wednesday this year. Sometimes we're able to skip our July meeting because of the holiday, but we have too much work to get done. So hopefully not everyone is on vacation. And we can plan to have probably a pretty busy meeting in July. And then I know Trina sent an email to this group about the upcoming city tour, which we're trying to put together for July 2. So if you haven't already, I just ask that you please do respond to her with your availability. And I'm not yet sure what the theme of the tour is gonna be this year, but as always, it's a good opportunity for Planning Commission and Parks Board and Council to get together, get on a bus, drive around the city, be out and about, seeing what's going on. So definitely encourage folks to attend if you're around for that. That is all I have to share right now. Happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions on Ms. Lust at this time?

I have one. So the city's EIS that you mentioned will be performed in, I guess, July, by July. Is that being done by staff or is it by consultants?

So Richfield and the other smaller cities in Clark County, basically adopt by reference the county's EIS. So we're waiting on that, which is the July 24th is their target date. So once that is adopted, we do some local analysis to make sure we have a local EIS that is consistent and relies on theirs, and that's work that our staff, me, and our consultant are doing together.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody else? Okay, we can go to any reports from the commission. We can start at this end. Commissioner Moylan, anything you want to share?

I met with the city mayor just to ask his opinion as to how he felt the commission could be improved the biggest takeaway was I think sometimes we may struggle with a decision. It may be controversial or maybe unpopular, but we have to, I guess, use common sense that we've been brought up with to make those decisions.

That's it for me. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Gordon.

I don't really have anything other than I'll see everyone at the big paddle this weekend.

Nice chair, Flynn.

Yeah, first thing, I'm happy to see members of the public here voicing their concerns and thoughts. Number two, the city tour, especially for the newer commissioners, it is a terrific event. You really learn a lot. about the city, about changes that have been made over the decades to the code, and you get to know members of the other bodies, city staff, Parks Board, city council i'm forgetting someone but um roundabout yes yeah of course yeah uh and uh it's just a really good event so if you can free up that time uh it's you should definitely go it's worth it and uh other than that thanks to the city staff for hosting us and preparing us for this evening thank you commissioner raczak

I will second the Vice Chair's comment on residents joining for comment today. I think it's very easy to overlook the impact of just raising concerns, calling attention to things. Small comments can draw attention. and drive a lot of change, so always very glad to see folks here getting involved. Rather unrelated to our agenda, just to pay compliments to the community development team and staff, our code and permitting process I started my first commercial construction project about a year ago, and because of the work that has gone into the way that process is structured, I find our code easy to navigate as a layman. I find the permitting process easy to navigate as a layman. much to the chagrin of architects and contractors who would have liked to be involved. So just expressing some appreciation to I think that work which seems quite dry, but yields huge benefits to anyone trying to navigate that water. So thank you to the staff for that.

Thank you. And I will third the comment that always appreciate seeing members of the public here and the comments they make. We can't do back and forth, but hope they know that we do listen. And so always appreciate having anyone here participating in the meetings. Also, it's good to hear that you're able to meet with the city manager. I think I mentioned a couple months ago, I met with Mr. Director Thelmert. I always say his last name wrong.

Thelmert.

famer yeah and so i know members of the city staff and especially department heads are more than happy and willing to meet with us and spend time to explain what the work they do and and how our our role on the planning commission can while we don't necessarily are involved with public works there are things that you know are are often need to be considered in that in that realm and so it's good to meet with people and they're always happy to to meet and talk and teach us more about how the city operates and i do appreciate that um other than that i don't have any other comments except as always a big thank you to miss less and just more for being here to making this easy for us and so i think with that we will adjourn