Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the July Ridgefield Planning Commission meeting to order. If we could all please stand for the flag salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Thank you. Ms. Siebert, could you do roll call, please?

Commissioner Burkhart?

Present.

Commissioner Flynn?

Present.

Commissioner Moylan?

Here.

Chair Tyler?

Present.

Commissioner Razak? Who did notify me he wouldn't be here. And Commissioner Gorton?

Here.

Thank you. We need a motion to excuse, I believe, if we have a motion for that.

So moved.

Second. There's a motion to excuse Commissioner Raczak. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Ms. Lust, are there any late changes to the agenda?

There are no late changes. Thank you.

thank you with that then we will move into our first public comment period of 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 please use the raise hand feature if you're on zoom and the clerk can 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. And of course, if you're present in person, you can come to the stand. Please limit comments to three minutes. There'll be no back and forth between the commission and the commentator. Is there anybody wishing to make a public comment at this time?

Please. Thank you. It's the first time I've been to one of these meetings. My name is Deon Hess. I live at 1280 North First Avenue, Ridgefield, Washington. I've lived here 20 years. My wife and I blended our family and had brought four kids. All four graduated from Ridgefield High School. Two of them have moved back and blessed us with five grandkids. I want to talk about the, I don't know if you've heard or not, about the development down at the Port Waterfront. I'm gonna mention that I just the one thing that That it's very important to us. I think they're really crown jewels of Ridgefield Middle is five here and how much they impact our life is Davis Park We have the splash pad. We have the boat ramp and the port down there with Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and and we have the ROARC. We are highly, in what our lifestyle is and what we do, this proposed development is gonna, I'm really afraid it's gonna negatively impact four of those five items. Let's watch my time. I used to count how many meetings I go to, but I'm just going to list what I've done so far this week. Saturday, I was at the farmer's market to talk to the port folks there. I was at Davis Park on Tuesday talking to moms and grandmas with their kids that have concerns about this. I was at a Preserve the Waterfront meeting on Tuesday night. I walked with the mayor this morning. I'm here tonight, and I plan on being at the port workshop. On Friday, if you looked at last week, it would probably be the same But I guess the two things that I've got a couple things about to make time I'm just gonna the difference is what I'm seeing I've talked to a lot of people a lot of people and and I'm not talking to the same person I'm meeting strangers and I've yet to find a person that thinks it's a good idea I've yet to find a person that thinks it's a good idea and two examples at the Saturday market in down at Davis Park, we talked to the port. And my wife and I did. As we're walking away, we're walking home. And I'm looking, are you as confused as I am with what they've said? She said, yeah. I mean, again, this isn't the place to specifics. On Tuesday, I was at Davis Park, and I was talking to a young mom with four kids. And very informative, very in tune to what's going on, made a lot of sense. I believe she's opposed to this, too. And as we're walking away, we're telling, you know, that lady, she was really smart. I mean, she was very articulate, and she really understands what's going on. And that's the type of folks I'm talking about. And I've heard from the port, you know, well, it's just a vocal minority, or whatever. you guys don't know what you're talking, whatever. And it's like, no, these are good folks that we're talking to. I mean, they're very good people. And I guess I'm just asking is, and you're probably going to hear from me again, is take that input and please share it or do whatever we can do because that is not what Ridgefield wants. It's not going to do anything to enhance the quality of life of this town. What you guys have done out on the highway is outstanding. Thank you. But anyway, thank you.

Thank you. Is anybody else wishing to make a public comment at this time? Anybody on Zoom or not seeing anybody? Okay.

At this time, we will close the public comment period.

Move forward to the consent agenda. If everyone's had a chance to review the minutes from the June meeting, if there aren't any changes, we can entertain a motion.

I'll make a motion.

We have a motion to approve the minutes from the June meeting. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. On to business. I will turn the time over to Ms. Lust.

you chair tyler and good evening to the commission and members of the public this evening we will be going through a batch of comprehensive plan elements and the purpose of this meeting is sort of a a touch on on this batch of elements um opportunity for discussion and feedback for staff without any expectation of making recommendations at this point. I know for some of you, these elements will be familiar from having looked at them earlier in our process. For others that are newer to the commission, it may be the first time you're seeing some of these things, so it's also an opportunity for us as a group to kind of get each other up to speed on some of these items, again, before there's any expectation of coming together as a commission and making any recommendations to council. So with that, I will go ahead and get us started. Okay, so we'll just as a, to play a bit of a little catch up, just again touch on the background of the comprehensive plan update that we're working on, 20 year growth management plan in Vision Ridgefield. And then we have four draft elements or chapters of the plan to go through, economic development, public facilities, parks and recreation, and arts, culture, and history. And then we'll, of course, at the end of all this, get into some next steps. So my plan is for each of those four elements, I just have a little bit to present. Hopefully you've gone through what is in your packet as well as far as the draft proposed goals and policies for each of those elements. I'll do a short little overview and then for each of those, basically turn it back to the commission for any discussion points, questions, comments to staff that we can use to refine these elements before they do come back before planning commission for public hearing and recommendations.

All right, so just to,

Get us started and caught up. Um, we are of course working on a 20 year growth management plan under Washington's growth management act or GMA. Um, so something that is required for cities and counties throughout the state of Washington. Um, it is a policy document. So setting goals and policies for different, um, different themes that impact different parts of our environment that we live in, and then also matching those eventually as an implementation step with development regulations that take those policies and make them actionable. So comprehensive plans under state statute have several required elements. Those are land use, housing, capital facilities, utilities, transportation, economic development, parks and rec, and climate change. Most cities and counties do end up adding some optional elements as well that make sense for their communities, and some of those elements that we have as part of this update that are for the most part carried forward from our previous comprehensive plan are arts, culture, and history, annexation, public participation, and environment. Not that Planning Commission needs a reminder, but we've been working through this process for a couple of years now. It really started back in late 2023. And early 2024 is when we started jumping into a lot of our community visioning, public participation, as well as looking at existing conditions in the community. So we'd be able to approach developing goals and policies Information both from Community conversations and data. And then, in the time since then we've really been refining goals and policies, bringing them to both planning Commission and Council for initial reviews and workshops we've had a couple big Community meetings on. um, our community vision and land use in particular. And throughout this time, we've also been coordinating with Clark County. It's a very important part of this update is that the city's plan, including its content and its timeline does have to track with the county's plan. Um, so a lot of the behind the more behind the scenes work we've been doing over the last couple of years is that coordination with Clark County. And that coordination is a bit of what's driving sort of the chapters or elements we're bringing to you in this first batch are ones that are less dependent on some of the county's decisions. The next batch will have elements like land use and housing that are much more closely dependent on some decisions the county is going to be making in the next month or so. And We've got a pretty, well I should say, the county has a pretty progressive schedule to get their plan adopted by mid-October. We'll be following in step with them as much as possible, but expect that ours will be slightly after their adoption. I've been saying by the end of the year. All right, oops. Um, again, for the goal of today's meeting, really looking for, um, feedback from the planning commission on these draft goals and policies to support some more final draft language that will eventually go to public hearings before both planning commission and city council. All right. With that, we'll jump into the first of our four topics this evening, which is economic development. The purpose of the economic development element is to support a jobs and housing balance in the community, fiscal sustainability, and local quality of life. For context, jobs nearly doubled from 2010 to 2021, and quite a bit of job growth is projected in Ridgefield. Over 9,000 new jobs are projected by 2045. When we look at Look at Ridgefield's land use capacity versus that job projection. We're pretty on point. Ridgefield has a surplus capacity of 188 jobs. Being that close to zero is good. You want those numbers to line up, but also we recognize that there's not a huge margin there, which reinforces the need for strategic land use planning and targeted economic growth to meet those job expectations. All right. Again, the full draft goals and policies are in the pocket. But to sort of summarize some key themes and policy direction for economic development, supporting and revitalizing downtown, attracting large employers and high wage sectors, including a focus on sustainability, supporting both mixed use job centers and small businesses, streamlining development review, investing in infrastructure and shovel-ready sites that support job growth, targeting growth sectors such as tech and services, protecting employment land supply, that ties back to the land use equation, and strengthening public-private partnerships in service of economic development. So I'll go ahead and leave those themes on the screen and turn it back to you, Chair and Commission, for any feedback or questions you have at this time for economic development policies.

Thank you. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or questions they'd like to share on this section?

I have some questions. Please. If I may. Good evening, Ms. Lust. On page 43 of the document, policy 5.2.3, Has, is that like an ongoing, is the inventory updates, are they ongoing or has it basically been completed?

say a bit of both. For the benefit of the audience, that reference policy is to inventory existing infrastructure and identify improvement plans. A lot of that is complete through the update of the city's capital facilities plans, which happened in 2024 and 2025. So for identified improvements and those, the planning horizon for those is typically six to 10 years. But they are living documents that as we get more information and look at typically about an annual basis can be updated.

Okay, all right, thank you. On the next page, page 44, policy 5.2.5, work with the port of Ridgefield and the waterfront master developer to maximize compatible employment potential in the walkable max use zone. Um, I guess my question is, has that started or giving the public's interest in this situation? Can you speak to that?

Yeah, I think the, the, the public facing planning portion of that as commission and our audience knows is very much ongoing. Um, the port has not submitted development plans at this time that as staff were able to review, um, to our development code, but this policy statement, I think, speaks to the conversations that are ongoing about compatible development.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much. That's all the questions that I have, sir.

Thank you. Anybody else have any thoughts or questions?

Yeah. I had a question, Ms. Celeste. policy 5.2.4, slightly related to policy 5.2.3, but streetscape improvements I think should be added in there. We talk specifically in 5.2.4 about you know, coordinate with partner agencies, organizations on programs that encourage facade improvements. We talk about signage and wayfinding and improve storefront access. But to me, part of that storefront access, part of that encouraging the redevelopment aspect, to me, one of the things the city can do the best is the streetscape improvements. And that is so critical, I think, for improving desirability for reinvestment in downtown. Then I had a question on 5.5 or comment. Just to potentially consider somewhere in there about the enhancement of remote work opportunities. Something that talks about supporting neighborhood serving commercial and pocket areas. I know we have something similar elsewhere in the document, but specifically supporting third places within walkable distance to neighborhoods. I think of that development that just went in off Hillhurst and that is slowly coming to life. And there's a coffee shop in there and can't help but think how beneficial that will be to create a third place for people. But there's creating opportunities for people to work from somewhere else besides their home if they don't have that opportunity at their home.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, please.

I have a comment question about, and I guess it fits under goal 5.6, which has to do with supporting small businesses. I feel like the overall tone and emphasis on the economic development is very... you know, towards the mixed-use job centers and the large employers and high-wage sectors and stuff. And I think about down the street from me, which is currently not annexed in the city but eventually would be, there's a two-acre, three-acre small farm. And I wonder if we don't need a policy that helps us to kind of retain some of our history, our agricultural values and historical economy to allow that sort of, I don't, again, I'm kind of new to this business, so I'm not sure if this comment fits in here, but I just would hate to see our Red Trek farm be threatened in its future and any other person that would want to have within our city a small farm offers us the opportunity to have local food, I think is something that should be a priority for us, and I'm thinking that's missing right now.

Thank you. Anybody else have any thoughts or comments? Okay, I'll turn it back to you, Ms. Lust.

Great, thank you. Those are all great, constructive comments. I am making note of them so we can update the draft accordingly. All right. With that, I will go ahead and move on to our next topic, which is another one of the mandatory elements of the comprehensive plan, which is public facilities. Public facilities element is required under the Growth Management Act to provide adequate public facilities concurrent with development. Public facilities include water, sewer, storm water, utilities, emergency services, as well as our city-owned buildings. The overall Envision Ridgefield 2045 project, as I mentioned a bit earlier, does include the capital facility plan updates, which have already been adopted as part of this update project. So this is really, this chapter is really sort of a companion to those capital facilities plans, which get into much greater detail about specific facility update projects and funding, et cetera. Um, and of course, needless to say, um, growth in Ridgefield, you know, creates, um, incredible demand for infrastructure and services, um, which requires us through our goals and policies in this plan, as well as this capital facility plans, um, to really think carefully about prioritization phasing of our, our capital investments. So, Some of the themes, policy themes in this chapter are ensuring reliable, efficient, and sustainable infrastructure to support growth over the next 20 years, ensuring a safe and reliable water supply, managing stormwater to protect both public health and environmental quality, maintaining sustainable and financially feasible city-owned facilities, aligning infrastructure planning with land use planning and projected growth, requiring development to meet service standards and concurrency requirements, planning and funding capital improvements, and coordinating with our regional providers and utility partners on this work. With that, again, Chair Tyler, I will pass it back to you for comments on public facilities goals and policies. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lust. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or comments on the public facilities section?

I have some.

Please.

Thank you, Chair. On page 47, Ms. Lust, under current conditions, the first paragraph, we specify sanitary sewer stormwater, but we don't specify potable water. And so I would just suggest that where it says water, we make that potable. And the same would be on page 48 where you have your table 6-1. Again, it adds clarity and specificity.

Noted. Thank you.

So this comment is related to page 54 and the projects of adding, I guess, water mains and potable water in other areas of the city. So I had a conversation with the public works director, because in the subdivision that I am living in off of South Royal, you've got the reserve at Seven Wells, you have Seven Wells, you have Clover Hill, and now I think you have Quail Ridge. which is coming online. And in my subdivision, our water pressure is not the best. And in my conversation with the public works director, he indicated that that's because we are at the end of pipe. So the current reservoir, which is at the high school, goes to the direction of downtown, then up towards I-5, and then comes back towards down Royal. And so he said, I thought it was at the end of this year they would start widening or making road modifications to South Royal. In between the high school and I guess and he said that would help but once the new reservoir is finished was that 20 28 20 27 the new reservoir that then everyone's water pressure would be much much better so i guess where i'm going with this is are you aware if that road widening or that road project at the south end of South Royal. Is that still on for the end of this year, do you know? Or do I need to have a further conversation with Mr. Thammer?

Mr. Thamer would be able to answer that question better than me. I don't have that project schedule on the top of my head. But yeah, I'm sure he'd be happy to talk through that with you.

Okay, thank you very much. Page 56. The first paragraph. The city's goal is to maintain or improve surface and groundwater quality by managing stormwater. increased urbanization can make this goal difficult to meet. And I would like to see the city progress in terms of encouraging the development of buildings, especially like industrial where they have flat roofs with green roof technology. Portland has it. There's a number of municipalities that have it up in the Seattle area. Chicago has the largest green roof acreage in the U.S. We're not a little tiny backwoods village anymore. And I don't mean that in a caustic way. You know, we're progressing. And I would like to see that architectural or engineering standard or consideration being given with developers. Again, it doesn't apply so much to like housing developers. But like developers of our main industries, which are logistics or manufacturing, they have flat roofs, most of them do. So I would like to insert that comment in and have that considered.

that may be able to be beneficial to pair with some sort of incentives with impervious surface reductions, things like that. Those two can go hand in hand, so you incentivize the green roofs. Because sometimes those big detention ponds take up lots of space and make your project infeasible. So if you add the green roof, it might be able to be helpful in some of the filtration.

In some municipalities, they fast-track developers who want to install a green roof. So they fast track the permitting process. So to your point about incentivizing, they kind of go hand in hand. Page 58. At the top of the page, it says, in addition, there are short and long term needs to address the expected population and job growth over the next 20 years. The city will need to expand its private stormwater facility inspection program. Do we have one now?

Yes, we do.

Okay, I guess I'm a little surprised by that. Why is the city doing that versus, is it a legal requirement that?

It is a requirement under the phase two municipal stormwater permit, which is the stormwater permit the city is now required to plan and inspect under due to our population size. We do have a stormwater inspector on staff.

Okay. All right.

Okay.

Thank you for that. Okay. Policy number 6.3.3 on page 63. Supporting stormwater management and water quality improvements, including existing inventory, existing mature trees, tree canopy, future canopy under existing conditions, develop long-term goals for tree canopies. How would we accomplish that if we do not have an arborist?

So I'll back up a half step and say that a lot of these stormwater policies are reflective of our stormwater management plan, which was adopted in 2025. And as a requirement another requirement of that phase two stormwater permit and so as part of those requirements under the phase two permit for tree canopy Mapping our stormwater team has already contracted with a third party To do some that work Okay, thank you

questions that i have thank you chair thank you any other commissioners have any comments on this section

Yeah, just thinking back to economic development and how it relates to this and the concurrency discussion, one of the challenges I see a lot in infill development and the goals of trying to support some of the infill development is sometimes the concurrency requirements can be a disadvantage for it. So you mentioned targeted investment from the city in in specific mixed use nodes for employment, economic development, but maybe some sort of incentive on the concurrency requirements, whether it's impact fee reductions or whatever the case may be, to support infill development. because that I think goes along with a number of the policies that we're aiming to support. Economic development, downtown revitalization, a lot of our climate goals are all kind of tied to supporting infill development growth. So whatever some sort of infrastructure component that would incentivize infill development would be great.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments from any of the commissioners?

I had one thing, and I think it's in this section. I think it was just overall, and I can't point to a specific policy, but I'll just say in general what I was concerned about. I just noticed between this section on stormwater and public facilities, I guess, and economic development, that there seemed to be a contradiction between trying to, on the one hand, support and fast-track development and on the other trying to protect our ground waters and stuff and one example of that was there was the one of the goals somewhere which I'm sorry I thought I had it noted but I can't find it right now had to do with removing impermeable surfaces to help with water and I just think that if a lot of the goals in here have to do with creating more development which creates more impermeable services it sort of seems like how can we actually make it a goal to remove them because I couldn't think of examples in town of things that we are places big tracks of impermeable surfaces that would be legitimate to remove to help with the storm water issues so it just seemed like a goal that was kind of there because it's maybe ideal but it Is it practical, is it realistic? So that was just my question about that, and I'm sorry I'm not able to point to a specific point right now.

That's fine, thank you.

Actually, just to go back to Steven's point about the green roofs, I did think that naturally that green roof emphasis definitely helps with that more than say removing impermeable surfaces, because then you're actually doing something that helps to, you know, have plant life that can filter the water. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments?

Yeah, I've got two that are kind of nitpicky, maybe. But page 54 in the packet, there's the... The chart there and then below that some comments it says because the cardi road Development consortium process in order to lift a UH 10 along that corridor a reasonably funded project to provide urban services, etc Reasonably funded project just kind of sounds like filler words and so I think maybe some clarification on what that actually means what the process might be doesn't have to be 30 words, but maybe just three or four more words just to describe what I reasonably funded means. And then page 64, policy 6.4.3, maintain and amend as necessary traffic, park, and school impact fees and water system development charges to ensure new developments pay a reasonable proportionate share of infrastructure costs. I know we've talked about this year after year, I think, those costs are important those those fees are important because they can they pay for a lot of things but they also add dramatically sometimes to the cost of building homes for folks and if we're trying to build a places for people to live who don't make tons and tons of money, then adding 20, 30, $50,000 onto the cost of building a place really, really limits the number of people who can actually afford to live here and move here. So I know that's a balancing act that we always play with. I just like to remind you as often as I can.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments on this section?

Just one compliment on a lot of the stormwater language is that it doesn't, a lot of jurisdictions force you into the surface level stormwater treatment, whether that's detention ponds or lidahs or something like that. This gives the opportunity for broader things, like we were talking about green roofs. It gives the opportunity for things like underground subsurface treatment facilities. I think as we get tighter on space, it's important to allow for and encourage the opportunity for more creative treatments of stormwater facilities. We see this a lot in the north, which is very land constrained. You won't be able to get the projects we want to see if everything has to be surface level stormwater retention. So I just applaud the opportunity for us to explore that when we get into policy level or code level discussions.

Thank you. Any other final comments or thoughts on this section? One thing I'll add for Commissioner Moylan, that if you are gonna follow up with Mr. Thelmert on the Royal timeline, you should ask him about stormwater, and he can and will speak to you for hours on the topic. And so he will answer any and all questions you have and didn't know you have, so.

He's often very excitable, I think, when you broach your subject with him, so.

Yeah, he's very passionate about it, so, yeah. Turn the time back over to Ms. Lust.

Great, thanks again. The third of our four topics is the parks and recreation element. This is another required element of the comp plan update, and it's another one where it kind of has a lot of partner plans that it works in tandem with, such as the city's parks, recreation and open space plan, which is currently undergoing an update, as well as the parks capital facility plan, which like our other capital facilities plan is basically a roadmap identifying needs for facilities and funding mechanisms. So again, to, oops. overview the purpose of the Parks and Rec element in the context of all these other Parks and Rec plans, supporting community health, livability, and providing environmental benefits. Ridgefield has over 140 acres of community parks, neighborhood parks and facilities, trails, open space, as well as regional resources. Growth is definitely, as you would expect, driving demand for new parks and facilities. particularly focusing on new parks, where they make sense and how they are connected to other resources in the community, which the next bullet touches on that well as well. Something we heard a lot of in our public outreach is just the need to expand access to parks, particularly in areas of the city with less existing access. And then again, the partner plans here, the PROS plan, parks, recreation, and open space, and the parks capital facility plan. So a lot of the goal and policy language in here is not new, it's more supportive of what we're seeing developed in those other plans. Again, as an overview of the policy direction, providing adequate parkland and recreational facilities improving both connectivity and accessibility, enhancing the quality access and long-term sustainability of parks, prioritizing new parks in areas with growth and underserved neighborhoods, requiring new development to contribute land, trails, open space for Parks and Recreation, coordinating with our partner agencies, and planning and funding capital improvements and programming, which is done through the Capital Facilities Plan.

All right.

Again, Chair Taylor, I will pass it back to you.

Thank you. Any commissioners have any thoughts or questions they'd like to share? Please.

Ms. Lost, I have a question about the Refuge Community Park, which is approximately 20 acres, and I'm wondering if you could tell me where is that?

That's a fancy name for the dog park.

But there's also the refuge dog park that's listed, which is two acres farther down in the table.

Great point. I'll have to look into that, thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. As a dog owner, I'd be curious about this other one, the larger one. So, all right, thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, any other?

Well, while we're on questions about parks, I also was curious about Flume Creek Conservation Area. which is listed, I guess, as a, I was curious why it's on here, because it's owned by Clark County, but I'm guessing it's within Ridgefield, somehow, not maybe within, anyway, it's a sizable amount of acres, 150 acres, I just don't know where it is, and the significance of, yeah.

Sorry, I'll let you finish your thought. No, go ahead. Okay, yeah, it is in the county, just south of the city, in the southwest there. I believe through our, Our parks rec and open space plan, it is identified as like a park and trail corridor with an importance on coordinating with the county to find ways to extend that corridor into the city. So it's not like Flume Creek natural area is not part of the city, but with the policies around coordination with partner agencies, it's definitely a part of that discussion with our parks team.

So that means like, in other words, eventually it could become a, a park that the city would have or own or just?

Not, no, not the existing area, no. It's part of the county and there's no conversation to my knowledge around any acquisition. It's more that that Flume Creek corridor does extend into the city as it moves eventually into Lake River. So looking at properties inside the city limits where it does extend and making that, which would be part of our park system, sort of match up with the existing county amenity.

Okay.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or questions from any of the commissioners?

Okay.

Turn the time back to Ms. Lust.

Thank you. Just making a final note there. All right. Last on our agenda today is arts, culture, and historic resources. This is not a mandatory element of the comp plan. It is something that exists in our existing comp plan, which is the 2016 to 2035 plan does have a historic preservation element. In talking with council, we did a study session with them and basically asked, hey, this is an existing element. It's not required, but based on everything we've heard from the community and our professional opinion working on this plan, it needs to be in there. But what should it look like? And what they landed on was having an element themed around arts, culture, and historic resources. So that is what was presented in the packet as a draft. This probably was some of the newer information for the planning commission. do appreciate any comments you bring to us on this as it's something that being an optional element has some fewer restrictions and guidelines than the other ones. So we really are trying to follow that direction our council gave us to focus on arts, culture, and historic resources. So looking at the purpose, supporting community identity, sense of place, economic vitality, Um, leveraging existing community partnerships and organizations such as art programs, cultural events, um, historic downtown. Um, you know, a theme we've heard a lot throughout this process is that, um, ongoing growth in Ridgefield increases the demand and urgency to preserve Ridgefield's wonderful existing identity while also acknowledging that change is happening and finding some sort of balance or harmony between those two forces. And then simply needing to expand visibility and access to spaces for arts and cultural resources in Richfield. So policy themes in the draft include strengthening downtown arts quarter and cultural identity, creating accessible public spaces for cultural expression, partnering with arts and culture organizations, inventorying and planning for the preservation of historic and cultural assets, expanding funding tools and incentives for arts and preservation, activating public spaces with events and art, and integrating art and cultural features into new development and infrastructure. So once more, I will hand it back to you. Thank you.

Thank you. And commissioners, have any thoughts or comments on policy 10? Please go ahead.

I was going to make sure this thing's on. First, thank you for including heritage with the arts. I think that's extremely important to creating a sense of place, tying back to and honoring the history of our community and continuing what the community fabric was in addition to what the community fabric of our community will be. So huge deal for me. I think it's very important. The other component I'd like to see and hear you do, you do mention the integration of the arts and cultural features into development and infrastructure. I think that's evident in things like roundabouts and things like that. You know, specifically highlighting opportunities for, you know, utility box artwork. I think that's something you see quite a bit in and around Vancouver or other jurisdictions. Can be something that, you know, is through a volunteer or adopt-a-box programs. And really ties together, you know, the sense of embracing art throughout the community everywhere you look. The other component that I think would be good is tying together some of the art with heritage. We've really embraced the bird aspect of everything in tying to the fact that we have the wildlife refuge right next to us. But there's other components of heritage, whether it's Native heritage or any other sort of community heritage. I think there's opportunities to honor that through our artwork and tie together the two and just put art wherever. You know, prior to moving here, I was... a planer in a community that really did embrace art and we were lucky enough to have Burning Man in our backyard and embrace the Burning Man culture and everywhere we had an opportunity to put a sculpture, we did. And it was a huge, I think, economic development and helped us shape our identity. I think we have a real opportunity to do that and embrace it here, embrace our community wherever possible.

Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments from any of the commissioners on the Policy 10?

The only comment that I have...

Sorry, I always forget to turn on the microphone.

Me too. I love the downtown and the historical aspect of it. I guess, and I'm not exactly sure how you would word it or where it would fit in, but somewhere we need parking infrastructure. When we have all these festivals and you know, certain days, Ridgefield days or whatever, it just seems like there's just not enough parking downtown for people to come down, park, walk with their families on the sidewalk. You know, I know that, I guess the former dry cleaning area has been opened up as a parking area, but it just seems like on busy festival days, it's almost impossible to try and find suitable parking. I'm not exactly sure how that is to be accomplished but if we want to connect our residents with culture and heritage and the arts I think we need to make it more accessible to them from a parking standpoint. And again, Ms. Lust, I'm not quite sure if it belongs in this section or maybe under infrastructure. I really don't know where.

Definitely something we can pick at. Thank you.

You're welcome.

One last component on a policy standpoint. I'm not sure what we have from a... you know, historic preservation standpoint, but there's different levels of historic preservation, right? And at some point you can become a little too punitive when it comes to how it could impact SEPA, how it could impact the ability for property owners to make improvements on their projects. A lot of people get confused on what's a national register vote versus what's a local register. For those in the audience, local registers have more teeth than national registers do. but some policy language in there and how you're gonna address preservation while also balancing The promotion for enhancements to those facades like we talked about in the economic development section that's always a hard balance to strike but And it's probably the hardest thing that happens with historic preservation because you want to preserve the building but also enhance the building So just figuring out a way to strike that balance effectively Thank you any other thoughts or comments from the commissioners on this section, please I

Just circling back to the infrastructure real quick. I'm wondering if the city has any resources or other examples of cities where parking can be improved somehow by having golf cart only parking zones. I don't know how many more people could access downtown that way, but certainly a golf cart smaller than a giant truck. And so if we could get four people or three people or however many downtown on a smaller vehicle, maybe they could have better parking available. In regards to policy 10.2.3, this is the section that talks about Using a small portion of public construction for purchase, installation, or maintenance of public artwork, two options that are presented there are implementing up to a 0.1% increase in sales tax under the cultural access program. Cultural access is capitalized. The alternative option there is or using lodging tax funds. None of that is capitalized. would, I guess two things. One, implementing the up to 0.1%, is that something that would then be a new tax, or would it be something that is taken out of the cultural access capitalized tax? And then the second part to that is the lodging tax funds, is, it's not capitalized, so is that sort of just like a indistinguished tax source or revenue source, but there's no specific program at this point where we could redirect those dollars into something like this?

Yeah, so just to note, first of all, these are funding options that haven't been studied. It's just sort of a menu of options at this point, and perhaps could be reworded to be a bit more broad and then focus on options as implementation. But to answer your questions, I believe the Cultural Access Capitalized Program is, I a program that's available at the state level, if I'm remembering correctly. And lodging tax is, I'm not gonna focus on what words are capitalized in here. That's something we can fix later. But yeah, a lodging tax is something that jurisdictions collect off of hotels, bed and breakfasts, et cetera. So that's an existing.

But at this point, there's no line item for cultural infrastructure of some kind?

There is not. Yeah, I believe the implied policy direction would be to explore some of those options, but we can say that more explicitly.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other thoughts on policy 10?

Yeah, I think that broadening the language is great. One of the other things that a lot of the cities that we think of that are these arts bastions, like I just came back from Santa Fe. One of the things they do with every single public works project is they require public art to be a part of that public improvement project, and maybe that's part of the capital improvements plan that it's weaved in and sort of a requirement as part of our things, almost like we do with the roundabouts, right? So...

Thank you.

Any other thoughts or comments? Any anything further on this item from you miss lust?

I do not have anything further other than maybe one slide with next steps. But I do want to Yeah, thank you for the constructive feedback. This is all really helpful and will help improve the draft for the next time you see it. So much appreciated. Um, I will just flip forward to next steps. So, um, we got our, our touch on batch one there. Um, right now we're looking at splitting the rest of the elements into two more batches. Um, batch two environment annexation, public participation. Those are all some of the, um, like optional elements versus the required ones that we've been working through. And then kind of the big ones are in batch three, and those are some of the ones that are more dependent on the next steps that the county is taking. So land use, housing, transportation, and climate will be, I think, the meatiest ones to go through when we do get a touch on them. These are ones that Planning Commission has seen kind of first drafts of over the past couple years. But it'll be good to get back to them and sort of look at them in a batch together. Yeah, definitely appreciate some of the comments today about how these different elements intertwine with each other. And I think we'll get into that even more with land use, housing, transportation and climate. So part of this overall process is we're required to do a SEPA or State Environmental Protection Act review and determination for the comp plan update itself, which is a bit unusual. Often we think of those environmental reviews as being project specific. It's what it's called a non-project action. So really looking at potential impacts of policies on the environment. Fortunately, the county is doing a lot of this work countywide Ridgefield as well as the smaller cities in the county are then going to be sort of piggybacking on that work Making sure we acknowledge specific local conditions and then adopting our own under the umbrella of the counties there final environmental impact statement is on track to be done July 24th, so then we would be taking the work we've been doing locally on SEPA and wrapping it into that and following up. Once we get through these review sessions, we will be bringing batches of elements back to you for public hearings and recommendations to council. We'll make sure before we do any of that, that our project page on Ridgefield or on table is updated with all of our most up-to-date documents. So folks are able to go on there and review and prepare to, testify at public hearings as they desire. Capital facility plans, as I mentioned, those were all updated in 2024, 2025 as part of this overall project. Based on work that the county has done in the meantime, we need to do some minor tweaks on them. Nothing major, probably not gonna require even like more touches at planning commission and council at staff level work, but just a heads up that that's ongoing because ultimately the overall adoption of the comp plan does encompass capital facilities plans. So just to be aware that we're following through on some minor updates on those. And then again, just to note, After a comp plan is adopted, great, we have all of our policy direction. The big implementation piece, there's a lot of implementation that will be ongoing over the next decade plus, but the big immediate implementation piece is to update our development code to adequately represent any policy changes that need to be made actionable through code. Um, so kind of thinking ahead as a planning commission who looks at development code updates, um, we will be eventually, um, after the comp plan is adopted, sort of making that pivot from, from policy into code and you'll be involved in that process as well. So again, thank you. Um, really productive, I think, and appreciate your time as always. And with that, I am done. Thanks.

Mr.

Chair, could I ask one question, please?

Please, yes.

Ms. Lutz, could you just help us along in terms of a timeline? I think you indicated at the beginning of the meeting that the county is supposed to finish by October. Is that correct?

The county's latest schedule has them finishing October 23rd.

Okay, and so elements two and three that you just had in your last slide, may I assume that they're coming back before the commission in August and then September? Would that be correct?

Yeah, we'll either probably do August, September. having one planning commission meeting a month does get a little tricky for timeline for a whole comprehensive plan update. Right now, I don't have any concrete plans to do a second meeting in any month, but sort of as a general heads up, we might have to. But for now, your next touches would be on those next two batches in August and September.

Okay, and then from us, um do you i i guess at the end of september or during after the september commission meeting would there be a recommendation to the city council or not yet so we'll go through we'll go through these batches with both planning commission and council as a like a workshop touch like what we did today and then they'll come back

to Planning Commission for public hearing and recommendation to council.

Got it.

Yeah.

Okay, and then would that be October for the public hearing?

I believe so. I don't have that schedule in front of me. That's fine. But I can share it out with the commission.

I'm just trying to formulate this in my head, that's all.

Yeah, I think we're gonna have, we are going to have

comp plan topics on our agenda for the rest of the year okay all right thank you very much for for answering the questions of course perfect okay well with that i think that we'll close our business and 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 please use the raise hand feature If you're on Zoom, 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 9 for raise hand and press star 6 to mute and unmute. And as always, if you're here in the audience, please feel free to come forward to the podium. The comments will be limited to three minutes. And as a reminder, there will be no back and forth between the public and the commission. Is there anybody wishing to make a public comment at this time? Please.

Good evening, my name is Robin Knight. I'm a Ridgefield resident. This is my first time at one of your meetings, so thank you. You mentioned a little bit about the waterfront redevelopment plan with the port, and I'm not sure if you guys are aware that there has been a petition circulating out there which has almost 2,700 signatures. It's been growing as I've been sitting here tonight. And what that petition is asking for is for a reevaluation of the scale and density of the project, protection of the waterfront's natural beauty and wildlife, ensuring that an extensive environmental impact study is done, infrastructure and safety planning before development moves forward, water and resource concerns addressed and solved before the development moves forward. and meaningful community input in the decision-making process. I also don't know if you're aware that we are being told that phase one is confirmed and that's before the community re-engagement summer engagement program that the port came out with barely even kicked off. I want to share some of the comments that are on this petition because a lot of the people who have signed this aren't able to be here tonight. So I wanted to read some of their words. One signer says the integrity and serenity of our little town has already been profoundly affected by the many developments that have already been built. To maintain the quaint, warm, small town feeling that we all know and love Ridgefield to be, the current residents, community members, and wildlife need to be put at the forefront. The waterfront has been loved by generations of Ridgefield families, and our community members deserve a communal outdoor space, a space that does not displace or disrupt the current wildlife setting, nor the quiet lives that the downtown residents were promised years ago when investing in their homes and families here. Another resident says, Cardi Lake is in my backyard and the proposed development is heartbreaking. The below was taken from an article and slightly modified, author unknown. Some places aren't empty land waiting for a better use. They are the use. They are the backbone of Richfield. The reason people come here to breathe, reset, and feel something so real again. The reason this land isn't just scenery, it's identity. Because once this kind of land is gone, it's gone for good. A hotel and housing can be built somewhere else. A ridge-filled sunset over the water cannot. And I don't know if you guys have had a chance to see a sunset down there, but I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful, quiet place right now to see one. So thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to make a public comment? Please.

Hi, oops, my name is Shawna Fisher. I'm a Ridge Shield resident. I wasn't planning to come here today, so I am just off the cuff and I'm gonna speak from the heart and that is about the... Ridgefield Waterfront, really. And truly, if you think about it, I'm sure you guys have been down Main Street where you turn left onto Pioneer, and the most amazing stop sign is there with the heart, right? The heart is there. And if you really think about it, truly, the heart of Ridgefield is downtown. And to me, that's really where Ridgefield begins. There's something just like magical and empowering and just... centering and peaceful and just comforting about downtown. It is truly a special place. And I actually moved from Vancouver to Ridgefield. And the reason I moved was because of my experiences with driving downtown and going to the refuge and just being able to have place to breathe right because there's so much value in that open space for mental health for just to bring yourself clarity and peace and comfort and calm and just to be able to surround yourself with nature is truly something you don't get everywhere and I've been talking to a lot of people and a lot of people come to Ridgefield for that so it would be a shame to put stuff down there that can't be undone so i invite you guys to work in collaboration with the port to see what could really be better down there than what's proposed and for if there's a way to really just take a step back because you know just and maybe and i invite yourself to maybe go down there and just you know like robin was saying you know go enjoy a sunset and just see the feeling that it brings and just being able to walk there and imagine walking down there with apartments and housing and all this infrastructure that that doesn't belong down there of course you know up by the freeway it's great there's costco now and all of that is wonderful but down by the waterfront and downtown is truly a place that i feel like we could look at revitalizing that and how we can support the local businesses down there, right? They feel like there's so much more to do to support and enhance those businesses with maybe more. We have such great parks in Ridgefield, maybe, you know, some enclosed little park picnic areas and things like that, and just really protecting the the birds and the osprey cam and all of that, right? It's just, it's magical. You know, you can't just go like, oh, I'm just going to move the osprey nest somewhere else, right? That's like the Kiwa Trail is closed for the Sandhill Crane. So why are we just going to move an osprey nest, right? So I feel like it's just, let's look at preserving the beauty and the reason why people are called to Ridgefield. So that's, there's that. So thank you for listening.

Thank you. Anybody else wishing to make a public comment at this time?

I'm new to the meeting. Excuse me. I just didn't know. I'm a football fan. Do you get to comment on each half, or is it a one-time thing?

You can comment during each. Yeah. Go ahead.

I'm losing a few friends lately. I just like that. I haven't written notes. I'm just going to give you something hot off the press. And I was talking out on the phone, and you might have heard me when I'm coming out there. I'll take responsibility for it. I put a post on Facebook yesterday afternoon or yesterday morning. It's been on there for two days about what I'm being told about the parking and what they want to do with the boat ramp and the parking area, excluding non-resident folks. And apparently, I got a phone call this afternoon from Ethan Perry, the executive director, and I'd just like to share where that goes. And I know I come across passionate, I come across concerned, and I come across frustrated. And I'm going to share some frustration with you, how that conversation went. He goes, Dion, you posted something on Facebook. Yes, I did. Where did you get that information? My exact answer, and I would tell you, you guys told me. Two years ago, I went to a meeting to discuss the parking and the boat ramp. Two years ago. And they told me, and I don't remember if it was Randy or if it was one of the commissioners, we don't want that to be a regional boat ramp. We want that to be just a boat ramp for the local folks. That's also been out in the community the last couple weeks, and I confirmed that. a couple of former city officials, I said, hey, I'm gonna release this on Facebook, is this fair? Both of them told me yes. And I could go into more, but I don't have time. The other thing, the conversation came up, I said, you know, one thing that will stop this, if all three of those commissioners will publicly say that they will not privatize that boat ramp or make it for Ridgefield residents only. And his answer was, well, I gotta get back to you. Number three, oh, I got a lot of time. He asked me, well, how many parking spaces do you think we need? Where are we at on this whole process? We spent $100,000 for a plan. put it on the conceptual site plan, and then we changed it a little bit on Saturday at Farmer's Market because the building that was on what I was told was going to be boat parking, which won't be enough space, and again, I don't have the time to explain that, was left blank. And when I point, I go, well, what's supposed to go there? And he said, a possible building. So trying to get a boat ramp plan, these are the words I'm getting, possible, potential. Look at the site plan, potential parking. and concern, because somebody asked about the potential parking, a person there, because of the 10 apartment buildings they have right by, and there's not enough parking for that, and wouldn't they have to park there? And the response was, yeah, that would be a concern. So anyway, that's what we're up against, the community's up against, and that's why I come off a little frustrated and a little passionate. So anyway, but thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comments at this time? Not seeing anybody, we will close the public comment period. Turn to staff reports.

Thank you, Chair. Nothing to report other than have a happy 4th, whether you're celebrating it here in Ridgefield or elsewhere.

Thank you. I'll turn to reports from the Commission. Start Vice Chair Flynn.

We have the city tour tomorrow, which is before the fourth.

I got excited, sorry.

One o'clock right here, is that correct?

Correct.

All right. For members of the public, the City Council, Parks Board, Roundabout, Planning Commission, I don't know if I'm missing anybody, but we all go on a tour every July, and something that Ms. Les mentioned earlier as far as Development codes and standards and all those types of things need to be updated The city takes us all all the different groups around and we look at the different neighborhoods and commercial sites and all that we see how the codes and standards have been updated over the years and It's pretty informative tour City should maybe do that with the public but that might you might get too many people involved But it's tremendous. Also to something that Ms. Les said, I think we used to have two planning commission meetings a month, maybe 20 years ago when there was like 2,000 people here. So this would represent basically the entire city. And I actually, I think there might have been two planning commissions at one time. Have you ever looked into that?

Not the two planning commissions, no. Maybe I'm wrong.

That's a new one. Former Commissioner Jerry Bush used to talk about that. Yeah, as much notice as possible if we have to have two in a month. I would say that sunsets here are incredible, and I appreciate when anybody from the public comes, even if they don't want to say anything. I appreciate when they come. I think it's important to be part of this process. We live up on... Hillhurst, just this side of the refuge entrance. And so we have a great view of the sunsets from where we are. And there's no danger of a hotel being built right in front of our view. But if there was, I would be horrified and I would be very passionate and I would be banging the podium wherever I go. And so I'm just thankful that there are so many people who are expressing their concerns about this, and I would encourage anyone who's concerned about it to keep going to the podium and making your voice heard. And other than that, thanks to the city staff for, this is a big project, as you know better than we do. It's tremendous, and I'm just always impressed when we are going through something this big and how well prepared and thoughtful you go through with all of this and all the people that work for you and with you. It's just a tremendous level of professionalism and so I can't thank you enough and I hope the members of the community recognize how hard everybody is working on this type of a project, so thank you. Thank you.

Please. I'm just going to echo that. You guys work extremely hard and for the limited staff resources that the city has, we are coming up with quite an extensive comprehensive plan and I think it's really good and balances a lot of the sometimes competing interests, and sometimes overlapping interests. So very, very complementary to what we've seen so far. Also echoing, I love seeing people show up as well, so tell all your friends. Somebody once told me, Somebody once told me the world is reigned by those who show up. And so I think it's important for people to show up and speak their concerns. That's how democracy works. And we may be a very small portion of how overall development and growth happens. but I think we're pretty important when it comes to these overarching policy goals and setting the agenda for the next 20 years. So that's what we're doing right now. That was a lot of the discussion points on a portion of the topics tonight. So just so that the public is aware, Now is the time to let your voice be heard when it comes to these overarching big picture policy discussions because, you know, it will impact us until 2045. So that's what I got to say. And also happy 4th. And also the U.S. men's national team did win. Sorry to my buddy Igor who lost.

Thank you. Commissioner Gordon. Okay.

Um, yeah, I also want to just say thank you so much for, um, to city staff, to Claire and, and all the work with you to make, um, it easy for those of us are nudist work to understand what's going on in the work that's behind what's the planning and, um, making our, you know, listening carefully and taking notes and noticing that we have contributions and really, really appreciate that. Also really grateful to the public for coming down and sharing their views. And I live in a neighborhood, I've lived in Ridgefield for about 20 years and I live in a neighborhood that has vastly changed in the last five years. And I'm living with cement trucks every day going by and big trucks of gravel being moved and it's been incredibly disruptive and changing. my quality of life in Ridgefield, but I knew when I bought my house, that would happen eventually. So I'm not completely shocked, but it's much longer than I thought it would be. And I'm seeing signs in my neighbor's yards about the waterfront, and I'm aware and reading up on it. And my husband and I use the waterfront to walk our dog. We love it down there. So I think everyone that moves to Ridgefield comes here because they appreciate the beauty, the nature, and the specialness. I really hope that as a community we can be creative and that's one of the reasons I wanted to be on the Planning Commission and serve the city when I can is because I believe in creativity and I don't think we have to be like every other city anywhere and just go with like what everybody does and develop, develop, develop in a ways that don't serve us as a community. So that's what I'm really hoping for and again, I hope that people will continue to share with the city council and with us and whoever decision makers are about what the goals and values of the city are because I think we do have a special place to live and we want to keep it that way.

Thank you. Commissioner Moylan.

As a new commissioner, I'm looking forward to the magical mystery bus tour tomorrow. With the city council and members of the staff. Every time we meet, I'm informed. And it's part of the enjoyment of being in this position. as well as hearing comments from the public. And I wish more people would show up. You know, sometimes things that may appear on a planning commission agenda might be mundane or it may sound boring, right? But I can tell you, at least from our perspective, that we appreciate the public being here. And I learn from the public. just as I learned from the staff and from all of the commissioners. So that's all part of the process. So thank you all.

Thank you. Yeah. I think everyone said exactly what I want to say. It was really fun to start looking through this agenda packet and start seeing something that's going to be a final product. I was going back through a lot of our previous. I was trying to find something we talked about before, which ended up being a lot farther back than I thought. And I saw that we first started talking about the comp plan, as you pointed out, around January of 2024. I didn't realize it had been that long. And by the time we're done, it'll be three full years. I was like, well, I'm not sure what we're going to do for the next seven years, but you put that to rest, then we'll have plenty to do. But it's really fun to start seeing how much work has gone into this and start seeing it come together as a final product. And thank you for all that work that goes into this. It's a big lift, three years of it. Really appreciate that. And I'll echo again that we love having people from the public here. We love hearing your public comments. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We don't get to go back and forth and talk and kind of respond. But I hope nobody takes that as that we're not listening. We do listen. We do hear what you're saying. And I'll also finally echo the sunset. I moved here from Alaska about four and a half years ago. And solstice up there is a huge thing because it's just how long the days are. Big party time for Alaska. And we've kind of brought that tradition back that we love kind of going out. It's our tradition now to go down to the Overlook Park and watch that sunset on the solstice every year. It's something we've loved and enjoyed and hope to love and enjoy for many years to come. Also, again, looking forward to the Magical Mystery Bus Tour tomorrow. It doesn't look like it'll be as hot as it was last year, which I'm very excited for, but again, thank you to everyone for being here. Thank you for staff and for the commission. With that, we will close our meeting.

Thank you.