Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call to order the infrastructure planning and sustainability committee meeting of June 24th, 2026. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Diaz? Yes. Councilmember Hines? Absent. Vice-Chair Sedocke? Absent. Deputy Mayor Bushnell?

Present.

And Chair Walker?

Here. Thank you. We are going to move public comment to after our presentation, because we just have 1 presentation today, and I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to hear it. So we're going to move right into our briefing items and we're starting with starting in any commentary canopy enhancement. Mike, Carrie is here with, um, folks from Department of ecology and may come on down.

Thank you so much, Chair Walker, and for having us here tonight. We're going to talk trees again.

And you might have to speak a little louder because the mics are not great.

Oh, okay. Great. Thank you.

Go to your classroom, please.

All right. All righty. Okay, so once again, we're here to talk about tree canopy enhancement, which helps with the neighborhood. We were just at Cubs last night to pass a resolution, and thank you all very much for the support with that. And so tonight we're diving a little bit deeper into kind of the scope and context of the work itself. So again, I'm here with some colleagues from the Department of Ecology. We have May, who is now in there, who is with the Northwest Region Planner. Is that correct? Yes.

But I also work in Southwest.

I adopted her for two years. I'm a West Side Planner now. Probably. Yeah, it's been a while. I think her official title is Northwest Region, and she has been co-opted into helping to support this work moving forward as well. And then we have Dominic as well, who is with the Southwest and Olympic Region as the director. okay next slide please i'm hearing it's still hard to hear you oh is it yes so just speak loudly it's not you it's the mics i will do a little bit of this okay all right thanks okay so tonight's overview um so last night june 23rd council authorized the interagency agreement between the city and ecology to essentially allow for this program to move forward so it authorized the transfer of 1.75 million dollars from ecology through the bridge industrial settlement funds to go to support directly this work and again we'll dive in in just a moment to the details for that. The South Tacoma tree canopy project is what we're calling it here will increase tree canopy as a strategy for long term air quality mitigation. The information presented tonight that both the city and ecology will cover is going to start with the background presentation from ecology. And then we'll talk about some of the ecology led mitigation efforts. So our kind of primary focus of the city, our part is going to be more of the tree mitigation work, but it's just part of the context of this bigger project that ecology is also managing, which is all of the air quality mitigation efforts in the neighborhood. Next slide, please. All right, with that, I'll hand it off to Bob and Meg to talk a little bit about the Bridgepoint settlement background.

Great.

Thanks, Mike. And just a thanks to all of you for your support. We're excited about yesterday's resolution. Really excited to get started on things. So I think you're all pretty familiar with the background, but I'll just do a light touch for those who are less or forgot the details because it's been a couple of years. We did get an $8.95 million settlement from the developer, Bridgepoint Tacoma. back in November of 2024 is when we signed the agreement. And the basic goal of that is to help mitigate the air quality impacts from the truck traffic that's associated with the warehouse operations to come. And we asked for more than that amount of money and got less than what we wanted. So we wanted to make sure, although we're very grateful for what we got, of course, We wanna make sure that we make good use of the funds. And we know that because we only have 8.95, we needed to prioritize the work to make sure that we were addressing the highest needs first. So, excuse me. What we did internally at Ecology is we did some air quality modeling, which helped us determine where the worst impacts would be from the truck traffic. In this map on the slide, you can see that Coming down Union, that's 80% of the truck traffic that's planned, and that's what we're calling our highest priority area. That's where most of the impacts or the highest impacts will be felt. We do want to acknowledge that we know other areas around the warehouse will also have some impacts, but the air quality impacts are worse in that area. So for us, it's a worse first approach, which is how we have done a lot of our settlements, including the Tacoma smelter plume, as you are all very well aware of. So we want to spend to support that part of the community first and with most resources, and then also try to spread the rest of the funds as far as we can to help others. And the other priority areas, which are colored in purple and teal, I guess. Next slide.

I think while we're transitioning slides, just one point on that is The programs are voluntary, so we don't know how well the community is going to want to access those resources. So this phased approach is focused on priority area number one, but there may be remaining funds in it to spread and work our way outward and south in other parts of the community. I think that's what we talk about when we say that we're focused on this priority one, If a majority of the community members don't use the weatherization program, they don't volunteer to do that program, then obviously we're going to have more funds that we can dedicate to other resources in other areas too. So, yeah.

Good add. So as a result of our extensive community engagement, which we've been working on since we signed the agreement, We, and this included connections with local residents, groups, agencies, state and local, including the health agencies. We've been talking to a lot of people over the last couple years to try to figure out the best way to use these funds. And so what we determined after we did all that engagement, which is actually the next slide, we'll talk more about specifically what we did. But we have three basically focus areas of work. And I'll touch on the first two, and then I know we're gonna dive much more deeply into the tree canopy, so that'll be a light touch. So first we have the new air quality monitoring stations. We're really excited about these. They are joining an extensive network that Ecology has all over the state, which provides, I believe it's up to the hour, air quality information We have 3. 2 are already in operation. So one's been at the Oakland High School for the last. I think it's at least spent several months. So you can already go to the map online and look at that data. We also have a new one. We're super excited about that. We just added on South 56 at Fire Station 7 that just went into place, I think, 2 weeks ago. So that data is already online as well. And then the third air quality monitor station will be right along the truck route, so it's going to be on South 35th, just west of South Tacoma Way, like across from South Lawrence. That one we're extra excited about because that will give us more detailed air quality information. The other two are PM 2.5, which is very important, but this one along the truck route will really give us very detailed information, which will indicate exactly what emission components are coming from the diesel trucks. So this will be very helpful for people to understand. And the whole point of these air quality monitors is to allow people to make good choices about their activities so they can protect their health and the health of their families. So the idea is people will log online, check the air quality, should I go for a run, should I take my kids to soccer, those types of decisions. We want people to be able to have that information to protect themselves. So the third monitor will be up, we think they had to work on the electrical panel again, but it should be up early July. It should be up and functioning. You should be able to go to our website and see that additional dot close to the project area. So we have three that are kind of at the north end, or two at the north end and one at the south end of the warehouse. So it's kind of like an air quality monitor sandwich. And we do want to mention that we haven't spent a lot of settlement funds yet. We aren't charging our time to it, but we did hire a full-time employee to manage those air quality monitors throughout the South Tacoma area. And that job is very important because she is the person that is going to keep everything running. If repairs are needed, she takes care of that, maintains the equipment, and also make sure the data gets online so that people have access to it 24-7. That's very important.

She also designed one of the stations, the main station that's going to be put in there. So there's a lot of work, which is why we wanted to hire her right away to get that stuff designed and installed and ready to go.

Yeah. That was some of the first spending that we did is hiring that position so we could get that monitor going.

So it took us a while to get it established.

And then another, the second focus area is weatherization and distribution of air cleaners. And this is going to be focused, well, the idea behind this is to help protect the indoor air quality. So we know that the air quality outside will get worse due to the diesel trucks, so we want to help create a barrier so that diesel emissions are impacting indoor air as well, so this is kind of a two parter the weatherization services it'll be partial weatherization not necessarily full, but again, depending who participates in this program, we may have more money to do more. And we will offer this to the folks on Union, which is our high priority area. We will not be offering it in other areas. This is just the highest need area. And we are super excited to working with MDC, the Metropolitan Development Council on this. We are going to be signing a contract with them in the next couple of weeks. And they've been doing this work for many, many years with Department of Commerce and have a ton of experience and expertise. And they're an excellent partner. They have a lot of experience working in the South Tacoma area and other areas of Pierce County. We're thrilled to have them on board, and they're really excited to get started on this work too. In addition to the weatherization, the folks along Union will also be offered portable air cleaners and replacement filters. So we're working on selecting a model with our health partners. And we do plan to expand that offering, that resource, to an area larger than just the Union Avenue. So it will be expanded out. further and we don't know the exact extent yet again because some of this is going to be based on what people take advantage of. So it will be a phase kind of rolling project where we make decisions as we go based on community participation and input and the funds we have remaining. And then finally, the tree canopy assessment and tree planting. And again, we're really excited to be working with Mike and his team on this. We appreciate all the support we've gotten from the city. And this was something that we heard a lot about. In the next slide, we'll talk more about how we heard things from people. Okay, so as I mentioned, we've been doing a lot of community engagement since we signed the agreement. And we wanna acknowledge that a lot of people have given us a lot of good information. We've been talking to residents, we've been talking to South Tacoma Neighborhood Council, we've been talking to folks that live in the Oakland Madrona neighborhood, which is that high priority area. So we kind of had a parallel process. The first part of the process was to really drill in to open Madrona. We wanted to get to those folks. We know they are highly participatory is what we heard from folks that they are also exhausted from all of the participation in a lot of the city's planning efforts. So we knew we were stepping into this area that needed more attention. We were gonna have to be a little bit more, put more energy towards getting input from these folks. But they are the folks who are most impacted, so it's really important that we heard from them before we made final decisions. So we had ideas, of course, based on other areas of the country that have similar warehouse situations with Fensline communities. We took those ideas and then presented them and asked for other ideas if people had them. So we worked with a local group, Voice Tacoma Media. They were excellent. The people we worked with live in South Tacoma. They are bilingual. They visited, I think we gave them a list of about 168 homes to visit along Union in that area. and they had one-on-one conversations with about 53 of those residences. So we got some great input. It is in this pie chart here. People were very supportive of pretty much everything we presented, except we did offer to help support a truck electrification grant program, and we got a little less support from that, which we kind of anticipated. They just want their homes protected, their families protected most immediately. So we took this information. We also, at the same time that we were doing this deep dive in Ocamadrona, we were also talking to a lot of local agencies and local groups and residents also about what their experience had been, what have you heard from the community. You live in the community. What are you interested in? And we have committed ourselves to continuing those conversations as we go through this process. So there will be opportunities for people to continue to be involved, continue to give us input. We will continue to seek that. It's really important to us. And it's been tremendous, right? We got this funding for the community. So we want to make sure that it reflects what they want and make sure that we're protecting them as much as we can. So I also wanna acknowledge that in addition to all the work that we've been doing, we have been taking advantage of all the amazing work that the city has been doing to engage with the community, especially that South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan group. We met with them really early in the process and they gave us a lot of information about what folks in South Tacoma had wanted And they had done a full year-long process of engagement. So we were coming in right at the end of that. So we knew that there was a lot of exhaustion already. So it was good to have that data And then Mike has been great to share with us a bunch of other tremendous work that his team and other teams have been doing to gather information about tree planting and urban forest projects. And we heard very similar feedback from the work that we had been doing, that people want trees. So we are being responsive to that and hope that we can do as much work as we can with the money that we have. in all three of the different areas, but just noting that we're gonna continue to seek community input, and Mike and I are already strategizing with Bobak about how we can involve the community in actual projects on the ground as well. So I will turn things over to Mike now to get us into more details on what we have planned for Tree Family.

I think just one thing, on all these efforts, I think one of the things that we've been trying to prioritize is how to make these funds go further. on the tree planting makes a lot of sense because it gets better outcomes for the community. And that's not just with the tree program. I think with the weatherization program too, what we put together is a menu of options that tie into other grant programs, not just the funding that's coming from the settlement funds, so that when we're going out and doing the initial assessments with the residents, We're not just offering them what we can pay for through the settlement funds, but we're also collecting the information and then trying to be that bridge of other grant programs. There used to be a little bit more than there is now, especially from the federal level, but tying into the city's programs for energy efficiencies, tying into the federal programs so we can We're not just trying to look at this through a narrow lens. We're trying to really bolster these funds and make them go farther than what we have within the $8.95 million. So I think that's a really neat part of this project. We are working really closely with anybody and everybody to really strengthen those connections and identify those resources to really, again, make these funds go as far as they can.

And MDC is a perfect partner for that because that is what they've been doing for years is matching people to programs to make sure that they get what they need. So our hope is to raise funding to do the work.

That's a great addition. Thank you for offering that. Okay, next slide, please. Okay, so now I know there's been a lot of discussions around why here and not there. Thank you. There's been a lot of discussions around why here and not there. And so I just wanted to point back to, again, that initial analysis that was done by the Department of Ecology in terms of who's going to suffer the most consequences from the additional truck traffic. So that's kind of how a lot of the work was centered, at least to start. And then also so on the left you'll see kind of a graphic of what that is right so it's got the primary traffic route noted on the northern edge that kind of. pink area is that higher truck truck traffic route with more air quality impacts associated and that blue area is kind of the additional areas that is expected to see air quality impacts the middle map that's here is an overlay of. existing work that's already been happening in these neighborhoods. And so it's also happening in the context of, I mean, we've been deep diving into the South Tacoma neighborhood for tree programming for, since 2015, really. And so I just wanted to highlight that, although on the right hand side, you might not see that everybody is getting service specifically through this program. Historically, every single square foot at this neighborhood has been serviced through the tree program or has been eligible for tree program partnerships. So I know it's hard to see from here, but the, kind of the blue lines represent green stormwater infrastructure capital improvement projects that have happened since 2018. which had all street trees planted with all those those programs so it's permeable pavement new road infrastructure and then street trees as part of that. The kind of the yellow polygon that's the common mall neighborhood we got a federal grant from the forest service, a couple years ago. And we did a deep dive in that neighborhood for five years of programming and tree planting and community partnerships. I think actually all of you might have showed up at some of those tree planting efforts as well. So you're familiar with that work. And then that darker green area on the south end of South Tacoma is actually going to be this year's green blocks program. So our free tree giveaway that we do every year in one priority neighborhood per year is actually the southern half of South Tacoma going all the way to the city boundary. And so they're all going to get three trees this year, which is why the map on the right hand side, you can see kind of our focus area is primarily those areas that have not already been serviced in either this year or the last couple of years, if that helps to frame it. Next slide, please. So the tree canopy project that we're considering is three primary phases that will take place from now through the end of 2028. The first phase is to conduct, and I have slides on all these too, so I'll jump in more details here in a moment. The first phase happening this year is to do this initial potential tree planting inventory and analysis. So it's just looking at the baseline of the community, figuring out where existing opportunities exist to plant trees, and then what light infrastructure investment we can make to create new opportunities. And 2027 is when we plan to implement the green blocks that kind of free community tree program within all of the priority areas. So again, they're color coded here based on kind of priority. So the inventory analysis is all three areas. The green blocks program is all three areas. But the capital improvement project that's planned for 2028 is really focused on, again, that primary truck traffic corridor. That's where the settlement agreement says that you need to prioritize the most significant investment is within that area. And so this is kind of a compliance with that agreement. Next slide, please. OK, so this phase one is potential tree planting inventory. Kind of in a nutshell here, what this looks at is we have a subcontractor that's already on contract in the city. It's another one of those opportunities where this partnership between ecology and the city allows us to use an already existing contract. So we don't have to waste time, energy, and some of the finance part of it, some of the spending on getting a new contract with a new contractor is something that we already have in place. So using our on-call tree care contractor or tree assessment contractor, They'll do a survey of that entire neighborhood and they'll inventory all the existing street trees. They'll inventory planting strips that don't have trees today that could easily have a tree if someone wanted one. And they'll also identify, and this is the coolest part, depaved opportunities. So they'll put polygons on a map of maybe planting strips that have been graveled over or paved over that if that abutting owner wants to participate in that, bring that earth, we'll say, removing that pavement. It tells us where those opportunities exist, and then we can channel the next phase, which is the tree planting phase. So through all of that inventory and analysis, we'll really figure out structurally how to prioritize our efforts for phase two. Next slide, please. Just some examples of what that inventory looks like because we've done this in similar efforts in other areas. The top left is just our existing tree inventory of the neighborhood. We've already got a lot of hotspots. Some of them were collected through that grant back in 2018, so it could be updated. But we know there's some existing trees there today that we can make healthier and happier by freeing up some more earth around them. Down bottom left is an example of some opportunity for existing plantable space. So those are planting strips that exist today that don't have trees. that could have trees. Upper right, you'll see an example of a planting strip. Again, these are all kind of identified in that priority corridor area. These are real examples in real life. Upper right is just a graveled-over planting strip that, again, if someone wanted to participate in increasing tree canopy, we could use our DPAPE program to remove that gravel, put in healthy dirt, and trees. And then the bottom right is, again, that example of a capital investment, which we'll talk a little bit more in detail here in just a minute. Next slide, please. Okay, phase two green blocks so again, this is a program I know you all are very familiar with, but just for folks that are listening online the way that this program works is it's a free street tree program. Every year in partnership with the tree foundation in the city of Tacoma we administer a free tree giveaway and a priority neighborhood per year. And that priority neighborhood is usually identified based on our equity index our tree canopy analysis our urban heat island analysis. So we center on the neighborhoods that could receive the highest impact for every dollar spent on a tree. Just to be really clear, because GreenBlocks as a program, we already budget and we partner with the Tree Foundation in one neighborhood per year. This is above and beyond those existing commitments for the next three years worth of neighborhoods, right? So this is a new neighborhood we weren't gonna touch already. So this is added work that will be paid for through this agreement. Typically the way that that program works is we open applications in July, During that timeframe, we send postcards to every single property that's within the neighborhood to offer free trees. There's a QR code they can sign up online for their free trees. For folks who don't respond to the QR codes, the Tacoma Tree Foundation actually goes out and door knocks, and they try to engage and have one-on-one conversations with folks, making sure that they understand the program, it wasn't just junk mail that you received, and then to try to tell them about the benefits of trees to themselves, their neighbors, their families. and encourage them to participate if they want to. Just to be really clear, this is a voluntary program. So nobody's going to stick a tree in the ground where it's unwanted, and nobody's going to remove pavement or gravel where it's wanted, right? So all of this is voluntary. But the benefit of this green box program is that in recent years, we've advanced our DPave partnership with the Pierce Conservation District and the city stormwater staff as well. And so we are now going to offer that free DPave services to the community. or we can show up and remove the pavement or gravel and then amend the soil and plant trees at no cost to these homeowners. Next slide, please. And then wrapping it up here, after next year's green blocks program, the intent is to do a heavier investment in a capital improvement project along that primary truck traffic corridor. So as Meg alluded to earlier, there's the primary truck to the north of the bridge industrial site link up on 35th Street and then go north on Union to connect to Highway 16. That's how trucks are going to come in and out. So knowing that that's the primary truck traffic corridor, we did a walk in an analysis and talked to traffic engineering and other folks in the city to figure out along that corridor where could we invest in capital improvements to create more tree canopy, more buffer to the particulate matter that's affecting those neighbors. And so, through that walk, we, I mean, went through every square inch pavement and right away in those areas, there's a lot of constraints, which I think you all are already familiar with if you have been in that neighborhood recently. A lot of zero lot line development, but then there are sidewalks, so there's not really opportunity to create planting spaces, right? There's no planting strips there currently. Then center turn lane medians are often used to access directly businesses, so there's not enough of a break in turning capacity need to create a median in space. And frankly, the other place that was identified is adjacent to Coal Public Utilities property, and they already have plans in place to improve that property, and they will be planting street trees as part of those improvements. So that's actually out of the scope of this because it's already going to be done and not paid for through mitigation funds. It's going to be paid for through TPU's capital program. So what has been identified as an opportunity is this segment here, which again is on North Union Avenue. This is just south of Highway 16, yeah, right up there. And so just kind of color coding here on the map, the blue areas are existing planting strips that do not currently have many trees. And so this capital improvement would amend those soils and create healthy planting strips that we can put street trees in, more tree canopy. On the east side, we are also going to leverage the city's own missing link sidewalks funding. So not hold through the mitigation funds because again, it's ineligible sidewalks. It's not a bare quality mitigation. will be leveraging the city's own funds to make a complete street design there, to make a safe pedestrian connection on its corridor. And the green area in the middle, again, if you're familiar with this location, it's an existing sea of asphalt. There's a huge area in the middle of the street that is double striped yellow, not intended for vehicle turning. It's not really necessary from the vehicle's perspective, this is gonna be converted to a central median planking strip with a ton of big spaces of trees, tons of tree canopy. And then one of the coolest opportunities that we found was on the west side, that kind of yellow-orange area, is an existing parking lot that's in the middle of the right-of-way. And it's currently not really servicing any businesses there. There's one business that's on the north there, and they have their own private parking lot that services their needs. And so this was an opportunity to use, again, our DPAY partnership with the Conservation District to transform a paved asphalt parking lot into a public amenity, an open space. And so we are developing core partnerships with the Conservation District to help manage the deep pave process with Parks Tacoma to potentially consider like a design charrette with the community to figure out what's the best use of the design for that space. But the ultimate goal here is to create a community asset, not this sea of asphalt that it is today.

Yeah, I think it's really, need to hear because one of the things we heard directly from one of the residents was hey that park that that treats strip in front of right next to ups and how great would that be to get something down in south Tacoma and this aligns directly with that and then the other thing we heard was well can you use the funds to build a new park and. It's not a full new park, but I think this is an opportunity here where this project just seems to align so well directly with exactly what we heard from some of the residents. And so it's a really neat transformation, I think, of the space.

Thank you. And then on the next slide, we'll dive a little bit deeper into DPave. And again, I don't know how familiar everyone is with the DPave program. back 12 years ago, actually, and I remember that date because the first DPave was the day my daughter was born for the planting event. So I used to co-manage the DPave program with, I'm also at the conservation district, and we, throughout the years, have reclaimed a whole bunch of spaces that are underutilized pavement to now something that actually contributes in a meaningful way. This is an example of something very similar to the scope of this project. This was the McKinley Business District DPave that we did back in 2015. I can't believe it's been that long. The entire business district had asphalted over planting strips. And then this pretty significant area here that just had a bus stop in it was also asphalted over with a couple underperforming family cherry trees. Through this partnership with the Conservation District, our local contractor actually volunteered their services to do some of the pavement scoring so that they could get rid of it with the community. And then the community showed up. I mean, they showed up. We had, I don't know, 100 volunteers show up to do the asphalt removal and the planting assistance. And it was a really cool program, and it gives the community a sense of ownership over their space and kind of reclaiming it back to something that's productive and meaningful to them. If you want to tap forward, please, you'll see kind of the next phase. So this phase was the scoring of the asphalt. Again, the contractor volunteered their services. They scored the asphalt to make it so that people can go in there with crowbars and pop up the concrete and the pavement, and we recycle it. We actually provide recycling services through the city as well for the asphalt so it doesn't get thrown away as waste. And then all that area gets reclaimed. As planting space and so actually I was just out and making me last week, and it looks very similar but much more established today. 11 years later, and it's still going strong, but this is the power of what we can do for the Community by taking these underutilized pavement areas that are pollution generating not really contributing anything but heat to a Community and giving them that kind of power to reclaim those spaces.

And we've got some leads on some contractors that will potentially volunteer their time to do this again. One of which is actually right in the South Tacoma neighborhood. So it's kind of a neat way to bring in the community for this kind of purpose too.

And with those really cool partnerships and opportunities also again reduces kind of tapping into the mitigation funds. So then it allows that funding to get stretched even further. Okay. And I think, The last one here should just be the schedule and next steps. So really quickly, what you're not seeing on here too is we have now a program website. So it's tacoma.gov slash South Tacoma Tree Canopy. That's how you get there. That's where we're going to be posting all the updates on timeline, ways to get involved with the community, events, all those things. We also have heard pretty loud and clear in the last week that the community has a lot of questions about the scope, how big money is being spent, about the partnership and legal obligations. So we're actually in the process of developing an FAQ that will be on there as well. So we've synthesized a lot of those frequent questions or concerns, and we're putting them in that FAQ that will be on the website. So if you all get any constituents who reach out to you who have questions, sending them there to that website will be a really good way for them to all have kind of the same information and clarity. So again, that should be coming up hopefully in the next week is when we'll be published to the website, and we're still kind of collecting some of the FAQs from the community. Getting to the actual scope of work again this July will be having the kickoff meeting with the partnership talking through kind of all the scope of work and how to finish solidifying at least the first phase and how we get into the next phases. That first phase, the potential tree planting inventory report will be this year. In June through November of next year is when we do the green blocks community engagement and also it's when we're going to start the capital design. The capital project work itself has been It's at like 10% conceptual design. We'll get it to an actual like bid set ready document in 2027. And then 2028 is when we'll do the capital project construction. And then that kind of parklet depaid and planting will be that year as well. And with that, I think that was kind of the full scope of the work that we prepared today. And we'd love to have any questions.

Great. Well, thank you all so much. Before we dive into questions, can you, Mike, talk just really briefly about how this ties into our urban forest priority planning? Because obviously it's very belated, but it is not in the project. Would you just talk a little bit about that? And I know we have an upcoming meeting August 12th to hear about that.

Yeah, that's a really great point. Thank you for signaling that. So the urban forestry priority action plan is that for folks on the call is a four phase action plan where essentially we've adopted policies over many years about how we want to increase services for Tacoma and surrounding forestry. And this kind of distills those through council action to say, these are the top priorities of what we want to focus on in the next couple of years. It includes things like updating our zoning code regulations for trees. It also actually flags some community engagement events, too, which have already occurred, based on Council Member Walker really leading that whole process. And then it talks to a couple other things, too, including right-of-way tree management consideration. And so what's coming up in August is we've done this analysis around what it could look like for the city to do more to provide services for right-of-way tree management, whether it's pruning or maintenance or something else, yet to be determined, but kind of looking through what would be the opportunities for that. This, although is very similar in that, you know, it's increasing services to community around tree management, this is a separate distinct project, right? So it does not overlap with that. The funding is different from the Priority Action Plan versus this one. And again, the Priority Action Plan is really looking at how do we best utilize our existing funds and budget, but then also thinking through opportunities to increase and enhance services with future budget asks, right? Whereas this project that we're talking about for South Tacoma, it's this discreet bucket of money that's through this bridge industrial settlement funding, and it's meant to be entirely spent within the settlement area, so not distributed elsewhere. And we're not essentially double dipping, right?

Great. Thank you. All right. I have a couple questions, but I'm going to kick it over to my colleagues to start off. Council Member Diaz, do you want to start?

Sure. Thank you. That's a lot of really helpful information. I think the most helpful of which was really defining that settlement area and where the trucks are going to go. I think a lot of misinformation and even the original sort of organizing efforts to help people get to this place was sort of centered on this would be a problem everywhere. So it's really good to have these helpful definitions around where the air quality is going to be monitored and where the biggest impacts are. I know I was today years old when I learned the truck route is to 16 and not to I-5 because I also believed all the things that had been said in the past. So I guess my thought question around some of that is particularly around the air quality monitoring, the three that have come in. I'm wondering, particularly for our ecology friends, have you guys done this type of air quality monitoring work in other areas where You're expecting the community to go to your website, see what their quality is, and decide what other tickets to soccer that day, and what has that looked like in other communities?

So I can start. So we have a network across the entire state. A lot of the work that we're doing now is associated with the Climate Commitment Act. So we identified 16 different community areas across the state. where we knew we considered them overburdened by air pollution. So that was based on a lot of different data, which highlights to us areas that are suffering from air quality issues that need more attention. So there was a grant program. We definitely had those identified as a high priority area already. So when we saw a bridge coming to an area that we had already identified as one of those, we knew that we were going to put some attention on it. But I think for the Climate Commitment Act, and even before the Climate Commitment Act, we have had this network of air quality monitors on our website, and we connect also with EPA, and they have a network also, and the local air agencies as well. So this information about these monitors has been shared broadly for years. And I think just depending which agency it is, they might promote this more to different communities based on what they're experiencing. And I think for us, focusing in on these 16 different communities is where we're putting a lot of our energy now. And again, it just happened to overlap. So we see this a lot, communities that already have issues and then new projects are coming in. So it's pretty common for us to share this information with people. In general, ecology has this approach with a lot of the other impacts to resources, right? Like for Tacoma smelter plume, it's all about information for people. Like if you know you're in the smelter plume, test your soil, make sure your kids aren't out there playing in the dirt and then eating sandwiches or just eating dirt as some kids do. So it's definitely something that we try to share with people as much information as we can about what we know. in the environment because we can't always address everything. We would love to clean up all the air in the entire state and we know that's not possible and there is industry and there is more industry coming and we know that's part of the economy. So we want to try to step in where we can and let people know here are some steps you can take to protect yourself that you have control over that will help you. And I just want to recognize that a lot of this work that we're doing, it is a band-aid. I heard someone use that term yesterday. And we totally recognize that. There are a lot of situations like this where the best we can do is to try to give some resources for people to counteract things that are happening to affect their environment. So I don't know if you want to add to that.

So the network of stations, I think one part of your question is, well, how well is it being used? And I think we're still, I would say, still in the infancy of this information being readily aware, like people just really understanding what's out there, who's providing that data. And the best thing I can think of is like your iPhone now, if you pull up the screen or you put up the weather app, it's going to tell you the weather, but it's going to be at a very macro scale, right, where they're pulling that data from. They even tell you the air quality on your app when you pull it up there. But if you want something that's more specific and granular to your community, every single one of these monitoring stations gives you that. And every single one is an addition to that network that provides that extra level of granularity for people that really want to dig in. Similar to if I'm going to go to my app and look at weather, I would rather go to NOAA's website because it's going to be pulling from a little bit better data that I trust. giving people different sources of information, I think is really helpful. And you can even compare and contrast, you know, like I know my wife does it. She pulls her data from NOAA and it's always 10 degrees lower than what I pull up on my phone just straight away. And so, you know, it's kind of funny to laugh at, but I think just, it gives people awareness. And I think we're trying to get the word out too about the availability of this data. And I think we're still, like I said, in the infancy of that, but I think it's, um, The more people can relate it and see these dots on the map that are really specific to their area, they're going to trust the data a little bit better than this kind of macro level.

And just to add a little bit to that inspired information. But we are early, right? We're about to put out a broad South Tacoma mailer, which will let people know all of the things we have planned and coming up and opportunities for them. But then also part of what we want to do is educate people on how to use the data. Like here's where you go, here's what it means, here's how often you should look, or here are things for you to be thinking about. So we will be using education. That will be a big component of the outreach that we'll be continuing on, especially as people get these air cleaners in their homes. We've already been working really closely with the Puget Sound Asthma Coalition They have been doing a lot of work with portable air cleaners as well as the local health agency, Pierce County, and then also the state health department. So we've already been meeting with them a lot to talk about how can we best educate people because it's great to distribute the air cleaners and to set up the monitors, but if people aren't using them, why are we spending this money? So we definitely want to make sure that it's a two-step, right? We first provide the resources and then we make sure people can use them and benefit from them as much as they can. So we wanna do more with that, but because the air quality managers are just coming online now, we're still trying to figure out the best way to share that info. So the mailer that'll come out soon, and we can make sure you all get a copy of that, of course, we'll have the website and it'll talk a little bit about that, and then we'll do even more as things progress and as the larger station goes online, and then as we start interacting with people and providing resources like the weatherization, we'll be meeting with people one-on-one to say, here's your portable air cleaner, and don't forget to check the outdoor air too. So we're gonna try to tie all that education into a lot of the outreach we're doing for all phases of this project.

Great, that's really helpful, thank you. After what was gonna be my natural strength was this, is there gonna be money or work around actually telling people about not just the air purification, but the data that it exists to go and sort of do some social engineering around training people to do that at work, like clicking past whatever pops up on your phone and thinking about it. I think it's probably one of the reasons it was on an overburden map was because there's communities already sandwiched between an industrial area and a highway, right? And so now we've got this extra piece. So it makes sense that we probably should have been doing this a long time ago, but now there's funds to do it. So that's great. I think my other thought was, and it might be for maybe Ecology's comms team, is there going to be some tracking around like usership or like how many people are actually clicking and looking now versus snapshots in the future and for how long that might be?

So I think we, yeah, so we've been talking a little bit about performance measures for this and I think, and I'm totally speaking out of turn because I haven't talked to our website people, but usually we have a way that we can track hits to the site, and I think specifically the air quality team can probably answer those too. As far as monitoring who's clicking the dots right around the warehouse, that's a great question to ask. I'm gonna make myself a note here so we can know specifically. We have a website also that we're about to update now that we have the resolution to move everything forward, and we also have MDC coming on board. So we're gonna do the big update on the website and the mailer, And that is another thing we can track to the heads to our site, and I think we can we can get a count of how many people are clicking on the air quality site too. But that's a great reminder that that's something that we definitely need to make sure we're looking at early because you're right, the interest is like as we put information out to the Community and start getting our feet on the ground. do we see an uptick in people using? And if we don't see people using it, that's an indication to us that we need to do better. Like obviously we're not telling the right people or enough people or in the right way how to get to and use this data. So thank you for that.

because yeah I think longer term for the city we want to make sure we're being good steward of that I think longer term too to make sure we're keeping that muscle building around people in not just this community but other communities obviously quality monitors y'all have um but I think this is a good model for how we might think as a city making sure that we're putting that information out there and we're happy to come back too at some frequency when there's milestones um

Just pause for one second. I just want to say yes to your offer to send us that mailer when it goes out to community. Just via email or whatever. So we know that.

And then my other question is not for anyone in the room, but I'll put it out there in case anyone knows. The slide around the planning strip piece and the little potential not park, because it's not going to be a park, but where we might put some trees in a parking lot. I really am excited about the concept of actually using our other public works money to fix the missing sidewalks that are on either side. I'm wondering if somewhere in their public works is going to look at how we get people from one side of the road to the other.

That's a great question, and I will circle back with our other college colleagues to see if that's on the plan as well.

Sounds expensive. Sounds like an expensive question, but it is a real... It's a big road, and now there's going to be a planning strip, and there's already a lot of unhoused neighbors in that area who are living, right? So, like, I always worry about their safety in general, or people coming off that bus line that doesn't connect to Target. It's already got some issues that I think can be improved.

But how are we thinking sort of 360 departments that's a great question a good flag, I know came up in conversations with our public works colleagues and we're doing the 10% design thinking about. What should this look like in the ideal future state, how could be improved pedestrian crossings or even bike lane, you know all those types of things were in scope. Just to be really clear, especially for folks online, too, again, the mitigation funds are specifically about air quality, right? And so pedestrian crossings isn't something that we could fund through this funding source. Now, again, maybe if there was different funds available through Public Works and there were some of those connections that were funded through a different means, I think we kind of have that conceptual design and ideal location for that. I don't know that we can commit to it at this point, but I will definitely circle back with Public Works and see if that's on the table for this.

I think those are my two big questions. I just want to thank you guys for all the work, the presentation. I think it's really helpful information. I'm excited. There's an FAQ coming. Excited. We'll have a website where we can point folks to where they can get all of their questions answered. Because in my mind, it does feel a lot like the Osarco situation, where we have folks from ecology coming back every year and telling us more about it. This might not be that, because there's not that much settlement. But there is some similar amount of, I think, future engagement and thought that we need to keep doing in this neighborhood.

not just because i live there but it is my neighborhood i think it's super cool too because this uh you know because this area has been identified as an overburden for air pollution it's not just us so while we're going to be working in the space on this project our entire team from the air quality because we got climate commitment act funds is going to be remaining to support the south tacoma neighborhood so that cohesiveness is really important to us which is why we've been working really closely with that team in the air quality program So all the work that we're doing through this project builds on that and uses the information that we're collecting and all the input from the community to help further beyond just the life of this project, which I think is really a neat component to why a college has been involved in this too.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Great. Thank you, Council Member Diaz.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you also for being here today and going through all this. I'm really excited about the opportunity here. As you mentioned, it is an overburdened community in terms of air quality, and it's really important that we try to address that as best as we are able. The settlement funds are not nearly enough, but it will go a long way from nothing. Well, not nothing, but it helps. One of the questions I had is of the $8.95 million, how is that kind of split out? The 1.75 is particular for trees in this portion. Is it kind of splitting out into the different buckets that you mentioned earlier where it was air monitoring and then the weatherization? Is that just kind of the three main buckets?

yeah, so we have, I think the breakout and again this will fluctuate depending how people take advantage of the different resources, but. we've spent I think it's the total amount we set aside for the air quality monitors is similar to the trees, so I think it's about one and a half million and that. funds that position for I think it's eight or nine years and then pays for all the equipment and updates to and maintenance for all of those stations and then the tree part is 1.7 and then I think I would love to be able to do the math in my head but it's something like around five or so that covers the weatherization piece and again our hope is that we can braid enough funding that we actually spend less on the weatherization because we can use the low income funds and then have more funds available for either like we could expand the tree or we could expand the air cleaners. And that would be a future question for folks who live in the area too. And we're trying to do that as much as we can. Think about how can we ask questions and make sure that they have the ability to influence what we do. We have some great ideas here, but we know it's not set in stone, right? If we only have like 10% of the folks that we anticipate being involved with the weatherization, then that gives us like a couple million more dollars that we can do something with. So the question would be where do we want to spend those funds? Again, we have restrictions on the settlement fund, both geographically and on the focus of the spending. So it's a little bit of a question mark, but I would say the bulk of the funding is the weatherization piece, maybe. like two thirds, and then the other third is for the trees and the air quality monitors.

Yeah, I think part of it too is when you enter into contracts with companies, you have to understand, like figure out what the timelines are for some of these things. So that's one thing we've been trying to, well, it's really nice to have MDC now PIGDA as our contractor because we can start to have these conversations with them. and use their local expertise to help us really figure out like how long should we leave our solicitation open for volunteer on the weatherization program because we know that we want to give in particular this community enough time to be if they want to be part of it and participate in it give them enough time but also we all you know we know that this facility will be in operation and there's going to be real impacts and so We have to establish where those cutoff points are so then we can pivot and use the funds that are remaining in any one of these buckets into other areas. So that's some of the conversations we're having right now. I think we'll have to adaptively manage as we go.

And I think one thing to add to that too is we need to get property owner permission to do the weatherization work, the air cleaners and the, that's a different story. We can get those to renters and everyone. So we're going to work hard. to make sure that property owners who are renting are able to participate and make sure they provide this for their, the people that are living in their property. So we know there's a high rental rate in this area already, so that's a concern of ours, just to make sure that our outreach is intensive enough to really get to those property owners so renters can benefit from this too, for sure. We hope they will, and we'll work hard to make sure.

And I appreciate the effort to maximize how far these funds can go. I think that's really important. We do that at the city very often, trying to maximize our funds. And you mentioned earlier the pedestrians and infrastructure and all these other things. So this is not outside our wheelhouse. One of the other questions I had is what kind of work are you doing with like the I do a lot of air monitoring, obviously, for this entire region, and I'm concerned about duplication of efforts and what kind of partnership is going on there. And if you guys are updating your website, it makes sense that the Houston Clean Air Agency would maybe have mirrored that kind of information as well, because not everybody thinks they go to Ecology's website for air monitoring. I personally think about the Clean Air Agency, and so I'm just curious about how the partnership has been with them.

So we met with them early on and unfortunately because they're a small agency and I know a lot of agencies are facing budget issues they didn't have a lot of resources to share with us right our initial when we reached out to a lot of agencies we were kind of scoping to see who had funding that we could take advantage of and leverage to add to what we had but they are aware of this and I know that our air program works really closely with the local air agency so there isn't duplication and I know sometimes it's Monitors are funded or maintained by other AIR agencies, but they're part of our network and reported on our website. So that relationship already exists. That partnership is already there. So our AIR team, when they're adding them online, they are already working with the AIR agencies to make sure that we don't have like two right near each other and they're spread out.

Those AIR monitors are also going to share that data to the local AIR agencies as well.

Yeah, I think they already do. I'll double check with our air team. I'm probably speaking out of turn without knowing 100%, but I know that like EPA has monitors too, and we cross share with them as well. And I know that the air agencies take advantage of all the monitors that are already set up. So we can check on that to see how exactly that works. I would assume like Puget Sound and some of the other air agencies just point them right to our website and possibly EPX also, but I don't know for sure what that looks like.

Yeah, those partnerships are really strong. I mean, the bus electrification program is also another example about their psychology and the air agency working together in the city. But yes, we can get those follow-up answers that's more specific on that.

And are those air monitors looking at anything other than PM 2.5, or are they looking at things as well, like ultrafines potentially or others?

So the two are PM 2.5, the Oakland High School and the Fire Station No. 7. We call it regulatory level monitor. That's going to be... near Saltacoma way on 35th, right on the truck route, that one's going to be collecting a lot more. So, and I, I am not an error person, so I'm just going to speak. And if they were there, they'd probably be cringing, but it is, um, we know for sure the black and brown carbon, which those are the indicators that this is coming from a diesel engine. And then there are other pieces too, like the nitrogen oxides, I believe, and the sulfur oxides as well. but we can get that information to you exactly what will be collected from that station. So that station will be a lot more robust and give a lot more detailed information because we know PM 2.5 is a big concern. We also know that the sources come, there are multiple sources. So it could be wildfire smoke. It could be wood stove smoke. it could be other other types of emissions the diesel truck but you can't tease it out unless you have that extra data which really breaks it down to the very specific components so we can get that information to you about what else it's collecting but i know that black and brown carbon piece was really important to us because that is the diesel engine indicator for us yeah i think they call it nox or something like that yeah nox and socks so um thank you for that yeah it's really important to be able to

differentiate between all the different sources. One of the other questions I had is I know Union was supposed to be the primary truck route, but that's not necessarily going to be completely the truck route. I'm concerned about Erica Wally along 56th Street up to I-5. It's a very well-traveled portal already. I guess I'm not sure if this would fall into our own, the city's monitoring of where trucks are going. Trucks might take the wrong turn, right? End up like, oh, I missed my exit, so I'm going to take 56 instead. So these things happen. And so I'm just curious about the potential instances of that occurring and then how we might

And so I'm just kind of concerned about.

about that potentially as well and any kind of mitigation that could occur based on that. It's a little bit further south than the current footprint of where you guys are looking. So I don't really have a particular question there as a concern.

I think I can just touch on it a little bit and then I think Mike probably has a lot more. But I think for us, we are recognizing that beyond Union, there is going to be truck traffic in other areas. And the map showed there's a couple other routes that will be used. I know they're working on improvements, trying to steer the trucks in a certain direction. So we know it'll be heavy on Union, but we know it'll be elsewhere too. So that's why we're trying to expand the reach of the portable air cleaners to folks. And the tree work will expand beyond the Union area to to try to buffer some of that so while we are working on that priority area we are planning on expanding resources to support others who will be affected. Just less so again the air quality monitor modeling that we did was really important because we didn't really know until we saw the data and and talk to our folks about where are really the worst impacts, we know that. Between it's like 300 and 500 meters from a roadway is really where most of the particulate matter starts to drop off ultra fine less. But ultra fine is tricky because that's like in the new and emerging and we don't have as much information it's not regulated yet, but we know it's out there so we're trying to again worse first but recognizing there is a need. for protective measures elsewhere, too. And then I'll let Mike answer the questions about roadway improvements.

Yeah, and that's a really good flag, right? So we've been conscious of that this whole time, that while the primary truck traffic corridors this way, reality might be a little different, right? So that there's going to be some impacts elsewhere, too. And I will go back to the kind of map that I shared earlier, which is that every square foot of this neighborhood is going to have an offering. So although the capital project primary truck traffic corridor everybody in the name of the whole seven month boundary is getting an offering of three trees and that analysis that we're doing to start in phase one this year. is going to be for the whole neighborhood and then second to that even directly South which the northern extent is going to be 56 street all the way to the southern extent of the city is a green box program for this year. And so, again, everybody even deeper south of this area will get a free tree offer this year, too. And so I can't emphasize enough, everybody's going to have an opportunity to participate if they want to. We're not going to force trees on people, right, because we have to have the buy-in from the property owner. But I think we're centering a lot of the hard infrastructure improvements, the capital project on that primary quarter, just because if we had $50 million, it'd be a different story. But with a couple million that we have, that's where we can center it. And then what's not shown here too, is that there are a lot of already planned improvements for the South Tacoma neighborhood through other efforts too, like the Sounder Station and things that are happening as well. And so it would be great to have a consolidated map maybe with all of those things so that everybody can see holistically, oh, there's a lot of energy here. I've said anecdotally, and I'll say it again, I think South Tacoma, in honesty, is getting more love and attention than probably any other neighborhood in Tacoma in the coming years between this project, some previous projects I mentioned, and then the improvements that are happening too. We're getting a lot of love.

And I would agree with you there. I'm really excited about all the things that the seeds have been planted for a lot of great projects in South Tacoma, so to speak. And I'm really looking forward to them growing. And it's in no small part due to efforts like with partners like Ecology and all the other organization, Sound Transit, Takawa itself. Just a lot of really good work happening. So those are all the questions I have. I just appreciate the partnership and trying to maximize the dollars and impact and all the work that's been done on this. I'm really looking forward to continued updates.

Yeah, and we're working really closely. We continue to work really closely with the permitting division and out of planning. And a lot of the decisions that we were based on were based on the permits that were issued. So That's where our modeling came in to look at, well, the permits were issued this way. Let's look at the impacts of that. With some of those efforts to steer that the city has been working on to steer the track to go that direction. That's really where we came in and said, okay, well, let's look at that pollution in that area and really focus this on priority number one. So a lot of that had been just a lot of coordination with the permitting and planning division too. So.

Great. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. And I want to make sure we get to public comment here. We have people who have been waiting a while. Just one really quick question. On the investments, the public works investment, the trees, the depave, who's responsible for ongoing maintenance of that? Is that something the city is taking on?

So currently the way that it's scheduled, so for some of the other depaves that we've done, typically there's a community organization that steps up and says that we're willing to take on ongoing maintenance for that a lot of it's a buy-in of the abutting property owner they wanted those improvements in that deep paving so they'll take that on for that specific parklet there's a conversation right now with parks tacoma potentially as having some level of partnership in it they are kind of in process of acquiring some different parcels that are in the neighborhood too that are going to have their own improvements and so kind of considering that as part of the chain is a discussion alternative to that our public works staff have And our street operations staff that are already going to be doing the median maintenance, they express that it's not a lot of additional maintenance, but also hop over there if we need them to do that as well. But it will be the city or parks.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you again. And a reminder to everybody listening that all of this information is on the website that I just went to, which is, if you Google South Tacoma, South Tacoma Tree Canopy Enhancement, you will get right there. But thank you again and looking forward to updates and participating where we can. Please let us know when we can come out and plant trees and we can rah rah with the community. We're here for it. Absolutely will. Great. All right. We're going to go to public comments. And so those listening online to request to speak during public comments or items on the agenda, please either sign up in front of the room or if you're speaking virtually, please press the raise hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or star nine on your phone. Your name or the last four digits of your phone number will be called out when it's your turn. Claire, has anyone signed up to speak virtually or in person?

Oh, we have one virtually and two in person.

All right, let's start.

We also received one written comment that was provided to you guys earlier in the meeting.

Great. um sorry i missed that uh question for you so we have one written that's in our inbox we're going to start with uh in person um so when you're called please state your name for the record and you'll have two minutes to make your remarks please be mindful of the time frame and clerk will turn it over to you and for those who are in the room you can come up here and set up the table so that people can hear you online

Tom recently had a birthday. He's 85.

Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Tom. That's a good one.

Yeah, well. I have a poem writing in seven, but I don't read it. I've read it. Seven only rhymes with a few words.

Excellent.

First of all, I'm here to focus on an issue, but first I'd like to suggest that the group use a opt-out rather than an opt-in approach to this project. It feels like an opt-in. And I'd certainly like to see you try an opt-out where people have the opportunity to say, no, we don't want the tree, but it goes in if they don't, as opposed to raising their hand. That's just a quick comment. So the issue that I'm spotlighting is one of involvement. As a government group, we do a great job of getting input and briefing residents. But I don't think we do a very good job of involving them in the decision making. So I've written a little poem. There is some grief in this neighborhood about not being involved in the decision making. Dissolve the grief. We feel the poetic justice of your prophetic Trastascus, having ninety seconds to punt after years of being so blunt. Time is the single phenomenon whose march for all is common. One time, one march, one result. No confusion, no timeless insult. Participation breeds understanding. Being briefed, more like grandstanding. When we talk, we cannot listen, nor discover worthy division. Perhaps for the South of Tacoma, a tree commission, wise to form one. Take time to listen rather than brief. Time together will dissolve the grief.

All right, next we'll have Kit Burns.

My name's Kit Burns, and I appreciate the chance to be here. I have a lot of different thoughts, and there's not enough time, two minutes, to actually express all of those. Councilmember Diaz, when you're talking about crossing the street, the city council just approved to make a crossing from Marlene's on 38th Street. So that's a lot of money. So I don't see that as a possibility for these funds. But I have taken the proposed agreement and marked it up, and so I have a number of comments that will be in this, and I'll be happy to send that to everybody, including Kimmy and everybody on the committee here today. You know, in thinking about this, as an experienced architect, Having worked as an architect for more than 50 years, I've looked at this and, you know, I've talked with the South Tacoma people and been involved in bridge industrial more than anybody in the city, actually. I got involved in it inadvertently. But that was my background. And I've looked at the bridge thing. And I have actually a map, which I will send to everybody, that shows the routes that should have been in the 10W traffic report, but it shows all the routes. South 56, there's been over 20,000-plus trucks sent for the last three, four years servicing, and there's been no protection. And so as I started to think about this, I started thinking most of the people in this area are – or many of the people in this area are renters. How are we going to track this information? That's one of the things that's in this document. That's not determined. That's a real critical thing that needs to be determined. But also because of my experience with many of these other things, I realized that this thing about weatherization, which is a big chunk of money, it's not well spent. It's not, and it shouldn't be. So I would like to have a follow-up meeting and have kind of a public meeting and have a discussion. You know, I don't want to dictate things, but I would actually take that $5 million and make that for trees. And I'd make the city responsible for actually watering those trees in the right way. and have funds available for people that wanted them additionally in their property, on their house. But the city should take responsibility for watering those trees, nurturing those trees for three years. And I thought you could set it up like a paper route. It used to be a paper plane. And you have that responsibility for the city. And typically when you order these trees, you want to order them advanced. You don't want to in July start picking trees. You have to be very careful about the selection of trees. So I have a lot of ideas. Obviously, I'm not going to go over them all today, although I'd be happy to. You probably have other things planned for this evening. But I put a lot of thought into it. So this is just a rough draft. I will send it to you. I'll also send you a map of the traffic routes. I thought everybody had a copy of it. I sent out so many versions. I don't know, Joe, I hope you've seen it. But I'll send that to everybody. And I thought I said it to maybe everybody else, but maybe I forgot. Anyway, thank you so much.

Thanks for that opportunity.

My name is Heidi Stevens. It's absolutely shameful that the city created this air quality crisis and is now spinning this after two years of deliberately excluding public awareness of this overpriced for little results plan. And please tell Mayor Ibsen this is not free money. As he said last night, this was a hard won settlement, which your press release didn't even mention. meant for the residents of South Tacoma to determine, except we were completely cut out of any actual decisions. We seem to have been actively kept out of any meeting of the city's involvement because it's not true that this is focusing on the highest impact area when going off of flawed SEPA traffic and warehouse layout info. And the Green Blocks location isn't even anywhere near there. And after two years of supposed outreach, Tens of thousands of dollars are going into more inventory and analysis for volunteer tree planting, but no actual land purchase for preserving mature trees or depaving the 2.5 million square feet of mega warehouse above our aquifer. But do you think we don't know that the city completely failed to carry over any of the street improvements from the Prologis requirements to Bridge Industrial? So the city stuck themselves with those costs and is now taking our settlement money to apply nearly a million of it to a median strip where a few middle of the street trees in a two block area are not going to improve that heat island two years from now. And who wants a parklet while being blasted with diesel exhaust? And if I'm wrong, how would I know? The presentation came after the vote and we haven't been included in any decisions or itemizations of this. We've only been talked to and given high level updates, but not involved at all. I was in that neighborhood plan group and we never discussed the warehouse or use of settlement funds. That was for South Tacoma Way. But going forward, the way to involve community is not sending us to a webpage, but to actually give us a seat at the table and not spring these bad decisions on us after they've already been made. So I'm looking forward to that invitation. Thank you.

Thanks, Eddie. And next we'll have Kathy Irwin.

This is Kathy Irwin, South Tacoma resident. I will not restate what Heidi just said. I totally agree with what she has said. I want to make sure that everybody is clear that this is not about trees. All of us love trees. All of us want more tree canopy. And I'll bet any survey that's been done out there for the last 10 years, every single South Tacoma resident has said, we need more trees. So there's no mystery there. The mystery is why the Department of Ecology chose to speak with the planning department, which generated this whole mess. with the permitting of that warehouse as a primary source of information, why they did not choose to speak with South Tacoma residents first and why we had to seek them out only as they were starting to do a survey of that specified area of South Tacoma. Using outdated, unrelated information from prior studies does not count as community engagement. Telling people they are not allowed to be in meetings does not count community engagement. This process lacked authentic, honest engagement with South Tacoma residents. Deception was used from the start to conceal the nature and priority with these city and Department of Ecology meetings. You shouldn't be surprised that we are angry, suspicious, and skeptical of what is really going on. You set the situation up by perpetuating this whole situation of withholding information from South Tacoma residents. Now you're doubling down, as we have seen with the press releases and emails and comments that have been coming out. Let's get back to the point. This is not about tree canopy. This is about you guys digging your heels in and forgetting that we, as South Tacoma residents, deserve a voice in this, and that this has been a shameful process from the start.

All right, so we'll close public comments and move on to topics for upcoming meetings. Marvin.

On July 8th, there'll be the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant Gas Utilization Facility Status Update, and then the City Right-of-Way Design Manual Update. On July 22nd, the Stormwater Discharge Permit on Tribal Land and Stormwater Comprehensive Plan Update. And then on August 12th, Transportation Commission Interviews.

and then the tree and landscaping code update and then the update forestry priority action plan update great thank you any questions from the committee all right anyone visited any committees boards or commissions since our last meeting all right I will entertain a motion to adjourn moved and seconded all those in favor signify by saying