Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Ready. I'd to call to order the Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee meeting of 09/10/2025. Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Vice chair

Diaz? Here. Council member Hines?

Here.

Council member Spielgage?

Here.

Chair Walker? Here. Moving on to public comment, I'm going to first ask Anna if we had anyone sign up online or in person. Nobody in person,

and I'm not seeing a hand online.

Okay. So, Clark, I am not going to ask you to read the the statement. If we do have anyone join us who is interested in speaking, please pipe up or raise

your

hands, and we'll get your public comment at the end of the meeting. But for now, we're gonna move on to our briefing item, which is the transportation benefit district sales tax revenues for pedestrian safety, and we really need snappy title for that. Councilmember Heinz is good at snappy titles. But I am gonna turn it over to you, Jeff Jenkins, our public works director, for the presentation.

Thank you, chair Walker and members of the committee. Raps. Sales tax.

It's RAPS. We'll we'll workshop that. Yeah. Sorry, Jeff.

No problem.

Jeff Jenkins, public works director, and and joining me today is Jennifer Camerzel. So she's my, adult supervision for this presentation. Yes. Next slide, please. So we're gonna be providing some information today, but we are gonna be asking, for any kind of feedback that you'd like to provide to us.

And this is on the framework that we would are are going to use for the 15% set aside for the pedestrian safety element as part of our transportation benefit district. Next slide, please. You may recall in 2015, we had a a transportation benefit district enacted. It was for ten years. That runs out in March, and Romero actually carried a resolution for the next one, which begins in April, and we begin collecting revenues then.

And these were for primarily transportation related elements, you know, that included things like sidewalk, street lights, and bulb outs. And yeah. Next slide. So what we're proposing, two program areas. First one is what we're calling ADA and sidewalk, and approximately 60% of the revenues will point towards that.

And we're talking about curb ramps, missing link sidewalks, other crosswalks, and and bulb outs, as well as grant match opportunities. And then the second element would be for signal and streetlight improvements, and that'd be about 40% of the revenues. This is would make allow us to make improvements in our traffic signal and streetlight amenities. We'd be putting in pedestrian signals, crosswalk beacons, and illumination. And we put in some pictures here to kinda give you an idea of of the types of improvements we're doing.

And I talked about grant match. We received our HUD grant. I think it was $3,000,000, and our match was about a $100,000 for that 3,000,000. So we were able to leverage, those revenues, to to, as part of that grant and as and as part of that project, which was the Congressional District 10 pedestrian accessibility project, we're able to put in a 130 curb ramps in in in for 21 intersections in curb ramps in 21 intersections. So the grant match part of this thing is is super important, and the and the pictures show the work that was done there.

Next slide, please. So we we heard you when you said, look. Let's let's try to find some easy wins. Let's try to find things that we could do quickly, things that we can market, things that we can use to point to the efficacy of this program. And so we have done that or we'll we'll be doing that in in the first six months really of next year.

And we would use our current dashboard with this that we're using for the streets initiative to help daylight our accomplishments with that. And as well, we would put a dedicated section in our annual transportation benefit district report, and we can call out what this 15% of the revenues do or they have done. Next slide, please. And all of this is gonna be done in concert with existing policy. So, you know, we would be looking at our transportation mobility plan.

We'd be looking at our equity index, our vision zero climate action plan. We're working now on an ADA transition plan as well as our inventory of missing link sidewalks. These would be the programs that we've looked to for project selection. The other feedback that we get are is from our disabled community to do improvements on our accessible routes, and we've got quite a backlog of of of the of requests there. And then, also, we'd be looking for partnership opportunities, particularly with our utilities.

And this would be a great opportunity for us to just provide funding in an existing project that someone else is doing too so that they could do install amenities that that support these criteria. Next slide. So for outreach, we did a an extensive community outreach, 500 as residents. We also did a lot of outreach with the plans that we had mentioned, specifically the transportation mobility plan and our vision zero plan. We're using that feedback to help shape our decisions on where we'll be working and what the priorities are.

The transportation and mobility plan is a great document. It it it provides high level guidance on the modes of transportation that we'd like to see in the future on our existing rights of way. So we were we'll be heavily relying on those plans to help us figure out what what how we're gonna do our project selection. And yeah. Next slide.

So next steps for the six months beginning in January until revenues kick in in April, we'll be working on applying that criteria and and finding project locations and specific projects to to begin this work. And in April 1, we would be bringing in our sales tax revenues. Revenues. And and just it's important to know that we're looking at just over a million dollars on a typical year. Next year is not a typical year because our revenues don't begin until April.

So I think when we look at the pro form a there, we're gonna be collecting around $750,000 that we'd be able to point towards this work in '26. And our intent would be to as soon as we can get enough funding to begin work, is to have our our project list prioritized and pointed towards those revenues so that we can begin as early as we possibly can. And in a typical year, we'll be collecting over a million dollars. So we'll we'll have probably, I think, 900 to a a million dollars to point towards this project or this program on a typical year, and that would go on for the next ten years. Next slide.

Sure. Just clarification. In this, they actually constitute as a health assessment.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. That's right. That's right. You know, the other one was ten years. This was nonsense. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

By way, Ramiro

I'm sorry. I didn't quite hear, doctor Samas.

Yeah. Ramirez Taves, my available services director. I was clarifying the action we canceled last year on the 1%. That's not a.

So does not what?

Does not have a sunset date.

Got it. Okay. Sorry. For some weird reason, you're you're coming in kind of, like, a little not garbled, but, like

I think you're too far from the mic because it's over by Walker and not on

the side. Is that what it is?

Yeah. There should be another one. I mean, there is another one that should be picking Romero up. But It doesn't sound like it.

It does. It's it's either that or that mic is very scratchy or something, and and what's coming through one of the twos have anyway, thank you. I heard

My apologies. People just

Not your fault.

You're doing your best. Technology. K. Noted. We will take make sure Ramiro's comments get repeated at this end of the table. Jeff?

So at this point, we'd be open to any feedback that you have.

Great. Well, thank you. I'm sure folks have questions. I just wanna clarify a couple of things before I open it up. You talked about there being roughly a million dollars. Obviously, it fluctuates based on sales tax per year. At one point, I thought we had identified roughly what the need is for sidewalks specifically, and I know pedestrian environment is many things, but, like, hundreds of millions of dollars. Right?

It's yes. I think it's over a billion dollars

Okay.

In, like, sidewalk. So so, yeah, there's quite a bit.

We're gonna do some good work, but we're not gonna fix the whole thing next year. I think and it was really helpful to see, you know, just like a basic curb ramps at a $145,000. Right? So Very A million dollars goes pretty quick. So a lot of good and exciting stuff, but just I just wanna emphasize the the need that we have. And then a a process question. You talked about the money coming in in April. Is the team already at work to figure out how to spend that first year of money? We don't have to wait for the money to come in to start thinking about what's on the list for 2026, do we?

No. I mean, we we programmed it to begin in January. I I don't know if we're gonna start any earlier than that.

So Jennifer Camerzel, Interim Transportation Division Manager. And so we do have a team that started to in preparation of this presentation, formed a which includes ADA, active transportation, our design group, and project delivery team as well. And so we've already started to look at overlaying what Jeff had talked about, the missing link sidewalk locations, the Vision Zero crash locations. So they started to create that prioritization. And then once we, you know, get that guidance to continue forward, we can start looking for those smaller scale projects that, again, don't require right of way, don't require adjusting, you know, private encroachments, those types of things. So maybe more of those easier, cheaper projects.

Okay. Great. And last process question, then I'll open it up to the committee is when is the date of the next transportation benefit district meeting?

I think we have an annual report.

In October? October. Okay. Thank you. I think I mentioned I would try to keep this on my colleague's radar better than I have in the past because it always sort of surprises us,

I think. So thank you.

Alright, colleagues. Maybe we can pull down the presentation for now. Council member Sadalge or vice chair Diaz, do you have questions? Go ahead, council member Sidalge.

Hi. Can you go back to the slide that has the sixty forty? Okay. I looked at it really okay. So those were I just wanted to understand the examples. Is curb ramps, like, part of signal and streetlight improvements? Because I saw curb ramp, that would be 88 in side sidewalks. Right? That'd be in 60%?

Yep. That's gonna be the bulk of what we're doing is curb ramps, missing link sidewalks, crosswalks. Signal improvements are very expensive. Very, very expensive. So Okay.

But would signal improvements also include potentially new signals? Because one of the things I've heard is there's some areas where people would like to for us to explore adding the signal that doesn't exist. Maybe it's a stop sign. Like, first one that comes to mind is, like, Thompson and thirty seven's right behind, Licken, right, high school. That's one of them along M Street. Would improvement include potentially installing new ones, or is it just, like, dating existing ones?

To the extent that we can, identify a project that we can afford, just using straight revenues, we could we could certainly address those. What I think we're gonna have to do for some of the more expensive infrastructure is to look for grant and grant grant opportunities for our traffic signal improvements just due to the the expense. They're they're just really, really expensive.

Okay. So that actually goes to the next kinda sec question I had, which is it looked like in the timeline we're gonna spend the first six months kinda coming up with a bunch of projects. Is that gonna come back to, like, IPS or some committee for kind of review and and look at the list? Or

The intention was to get the guidance from you all of the prioritization process. So using the Vision Zero action plan as far as, like, killed in serious injury crashes, utilizing the map for missing link sidewalks, overlaying it with the equity index, and then if there's support. Right? The next piece down would be public facilities or places that folks were going and then access to transit. So that was the intent of finding out that guidance.

And then from there would be, again, identifying the projects, and then we know there's a a larger need than what we can fulfill in this first few years. And so we would bring back what we've done and sort of that progress to IPS as part of the annual reporting side of it.

Okay. It's in those, like, list of projects that we got, like, last year in in some of our budget stuff. Is that what you're talking about?

I Not necessarily yeah. You could clarify the list of projects that were included. Oh, the six year program?

Yeah. I I just wanted to know if we would ever get to see, like, what do we think our first set of projects could be?

We can we can certainly put a list together, I think, as we, you know, apply this criteria based, you know, on our our network and and identify this project. We can certainly put a list together and socialize it.

I think looks like I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Well, council member Sadag, if you don't mind if I add on to that one. I think that there there's, like, a a space in between of the final answer, and and you don't and we don't wanna dig in, you know, and be like, oh, no. I want this road on my you know, that's not our job as council members. But right now, we have this list of things that are going to be part of vetting process, but we're not really sure where they are. And I think we need to meet in the middle somewhere where, again, don't let us get in the weeds, but maybe a little bit more specifics on the criteria that are are gonna happen.

And maybe for this first round, is bring us the list, show us how we got there, and then Yeah. We go, oh, yeah. That feels good. Or we go, I think more priorities that go to, you know, crash corridors or something like that.

I think that's exactly where I was getting to. I wanted that just to kinda

understand. That correctly.

Yeah. If if we do, like, these priorities, this is what it looks like. Oh, wait. Maybe we don't really want it this way based on what we have. Okay. The other question I had you had mentioned partnerships.

Mhmm.

Is that, like, partnerships with, like, private developers? Or, like

Mostly with our utility partners, environmental services, water.

Ah, okay. Right. Would that be, like, then earning part of this into, like, a rent opportunity for them? Or, like, how would that work?

I I think we'd be con contributing to those projects where, you know, water is gonna touch a pipe in the ground. They've gotta do some improvements associated with that, but the improvements may not include ramps in in locations, you know, that we would really like

to see. And then we would do the ramps from this pool of money.

Okay. Got it. Yeah. We would contribute money to the overall project, and they could do the work for it.

And then the next question I'm gonna ask you is probably really unfair. So, you know, feel free to completely, like, not answer it in some way. But, you know, one of the things I kinda worry about is, you know, our our overall kind of budget picture, right, and our ability to even plan. Because a lot of these projects, we're we're good we're the engineers. Right?

We would be designing and and doing all that. And I just wanted to maybe this is a pin for next year and and or in midmod or or next year when we're doing budgeting, trying to understand, are there you know, what are the headcount implications? What are, you know, potential funding changes, you know, with streets initiative not whether it passes or not. Right? Like and it sunsets in our our kinda internal capacity. Does that kinda make sense?

Yes. You know, we had talked about total revenue in a year is about 7 and a half million dollars, and and we've operationalized that for the last ten years. That's that's those are, resources that we that our street operations, section has been using to do, improvements in our rights appoint. So to your point, yes, we've got, FTEs that are pointing, you know, right now towards those revenues. And we're gonna be essentially doing the same work, but we're gonna be calling out, you know, these pedestrian improvements to help us market, to help us tell our story, to find some quick wins that are meaningful to the community. So

Okay.

Alright.

Thank you very much.

Thanks, councilmember Sedolgate. Councilmember Diaz, any questions, comments?

It feels like a silly question, but I'm wondering if any of this proposed allocation budget also includes, like, neighborhood education around why which of these things would be chosen in their area. I assume it doesn't. But part of that question comes from I personally don't know what the difference between a curb ramp and a bull bout is in terms of why engineering wise we do that. Mhmm. And so sometimes we get questions from folks. Like, I've had constituents ask me, like, oh, why why did the city do this instead of this other thing that we want? So I'm just curious.

Know, for the purposes of 15%, you know, to the extent that we're, going to partner with larger projects, I think we would use mechanism that we use to communicate with the public as part of our project management process. You know, to the extent that we could, identify a bunch of locations and maybe bundle and come up with a dedicated package, we could do our own outreach as part of that package. But I you know, we don't have an educational component per se that's been identified other than our typical project outreach.

Okay. I guess my only question.

Thank you, council member. That's got me thinking about what we could supplement with, like, a request to MCO or something. I don't know. Thank you for that.

I feel like there's a better story to be told there, or everybody doesn't need to walk out of this an engineer in their neighborhood, but, like, some semblance of why or what requirements, I think, might be helpful.

Yeah. Good. This

leads to my next question, so I'm gonna ask you before I kick it over to you. I know people email us all the time, and I understand they email you all the time. Hey. I'd like a roundabout. Hey. You know, somebody crashed in in my neighborhood. My kids almost got hit on the way to school. You know, I know you have a list somewhere of things like that. Does that factor in that list of community I don't know. I oh, community requests, I guess.

Well, for ADA, we get a lot of Mhmm. Requests through that. I think it's over a thousand or it's a huge list. K. So we would certainly reference that. You know, I'm not sure if if, you know, what our our ability is to mine three one one and other things, you know, to to find other opportunities. But

So I'd say, yeah, for so how we historically manage at least for ADA requests, we recognize that there's usually a targeted need. And if we can help close that gap, right, so that someone doesn't need to use paratransit or parachuteal, those tend to provide some a little bit higher of a priority and kind of that nexus side of it. I think our intent is very similar to Vision Zero action plan and also to Safe Routes to School where we've created that prioritization. And while we'll still, you know, get complaints and and notices of, you know, maybe some hazardous conditions, we'll take it into consideration on what's exactly happening, and that might not be showing up in the data that we we've got, whether, you know, for crashes or proximity to, you know, public areas, those types of things. But I think in general, what we've always tried to do is refer back to the our either prioritization process or kind of identify the need and that, you know, we're doing our best to work through those efforts and really kind of break lead that that larger TMP process.

And that kind of goes back to the map that Jeff had in his presentation about our high pedestrian areas or, you know, access to to certain areas.

Okay. Yeah. And I was thinking about it along the lines of what councilmember Diaz was talking about through education, kind of what can a person do if they you know, who do they contact? And we have been well trained to send people to 311. So where did that data end up? And so good to know that it gets referenced and appreciated.

Thank you, chair Walker. Lewis, thank you for the presentation. I know we've kind of early on the stages here, but I really appreciate what we got here so far. I think I also really appreciate let me end with appreciating the Kerberos and giving us numbers. I think often, I'd ask, how much does cost to Kerberos? Well, that's that's fine. It's a good option there. So I think that's really good. When we do our when you do prioritization, I like, I think there's multiple slicers we do to figure out where. Is one of those ever cost?

Like, do we ever look at, like, what are the cheapest ones? Because I wonder about because one of the questions I have is often, there might be one that's like, this one really needs to get done, but it's twice the cost of two other ones. And then do we think about that? How do we balance speed and, you know, number of address versus maybe kind of the highest priority? So is that something we can look at?

Yeah. I mean, we've got flexibility in that, you know, how we you know, we're gonna do the biggest bang for the buck that makes the biggest impact for the community using the resources we have. So

yeah. Yeah. That's definitely something we we've talked about ahead of time. And so, right, taking out the ones that might not need that the right of way. So if there's, like, a fence right up against an area that might need to be relocated,

we know that there's

time and impact, then that might be something where we would bundle, right, for another bigger package where we could partner or see there's other opportunities to go after. But, again, trying to do a little bit more of the show that we are using the money a little quickly Yeah. With the small improvements. And then just that's important to note for you all. Right? That's why we showed some of the different examples is that it's it may not be then that complete street. So the curb ramps might just be curb ramps just to provide, you know, ADA or that sidewalk, you know, maybe just that five feet. If there's a need to put in curb you know, it might not be curb and gutter, we probably aren't gonna be putting that in. It's just really the that pedestrian safety connection. Yeah.

No. I mean, that was kind of my first question. It's just, like, you know, stand versus kind of depth, which I do. The other question I had was around partnerships. So we talked about so a few of us are Chris Transit board members. Right? And so as we think about a new bus stop or a new stop coming in, is this something we've talked about? Often, there's ADA requirements that are triggered by that work that we could partner or leverage that matching fund conversation with another agency and things like that. Has that been part of this comp I know we're very early. Has that been part of this conversation too?

It's, you know, it's it's great, great topic. Last week, we had a a meeting with the CEO of Pierce Transit, and we've got a follow on meeting. Is it next week or two weeks from now? Two weeks. Two weeks. Yeah. To continue that conversation, to do exactly what you're talking about. And what can we do to partner you, Pierce Transit? In that conversation, you know, the we found out they had, you know, revenues to put bus stops in, but it was difficult to kinda do it in Tacoma. So we wanna know why, you know, what what was causing these difficulties and see if we can work through these things and work together in a way that they can support, you know, not only, you know, the work that we're doing here, but larger initiatives like our streets initiative. So

I just I that was something else I thought about. Right? Because I I think one of the one of the benefits of kind of this funding source is its flexibility. Right? We can do lots of things. So I think about that. The one I was thinking about is cost. One of the other pieces we got, partnerships. I also think about some of these projects or these work probably score very high on, say, state and federal criteria. Some of those require matching funds, but I also think about, is this an opportunity to Sorry.

Oh, why am I so sorry? I'll pass a little while back later. So but part of me was, would this also be an opportunity to say, hey. This street probably wouldn't score well on these federal state criterias. We have money to fix that. It's something else I'm thinking about too. Right? That that this could be dollars if you do those that kind of work versus, versus the, some of the other places we know will score well. Get you know, ear marshals, federal government. It's not a it's part of broader multi multi modal projects. So I was thinking there's lots of ways to slice it, so I'm just very glad to be looking through that.

Absolutely. So one of the examples in the presentation was fiftieth and Pacific, and so we did just that. We are applying for a grant, which we did get restored middle school. And as part of it, though, we realized there was missing link sidewalk a block away between the senior center and Chime And Pacific. And so we've used some of the missing link sidewalk money from real estate excise tax to help complete it because we know it be cheaper to do with a bigger package.

But we also use that as match for the grant as well in addition to Safe Routes School. And so it got funded. Now we've got a bigger project that includes, you know, two areas of missing link sidewalk that probably wouldn't have been done, you know, as part of a grant by itself. So, yeah, a really great example of of what I think we wanna strive to do more of. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I think of safe routes schools, another example, safe routes parks, if that ever is something that we ever get towards someday, another idea of how we can use some of this money. So, no, I think in the presentation, I to customer Dia's point, I do think some educational components are really important for the public to understand kind of why this, not that, why this area, not this other area. Not that they can, like, do the engineering diagram themselves, but just so they understand.

We have a newsletter we're doing every month now. We'll be putting this on our streets initiative dashboard and call it out specifically to help with this marketing aspect of it. So Yeah.

I think that's okay. Perfect. That's rough marker.

Thank you, council member Hines. Just a couple other just clarifying questions. I know I've asked this before, but just so that it's publicly, we say it too. I know there's other dollars that can go to pedestrian infrastructure, and in fact, our resolution said at least 15%. So if the perfect thing comes up next year and it would complete a project, right, and it fits in, we could go up to 20% on Fed stuff if it made sense.

Yes. I mean, we've you know, in a in a year, we'll be generating 7 and a half million dollars. So and and the language under the TBD is so general. It's essentially for transportation purposes. Mhmm. So, yes, we can you know, we have other opportunities to to tap into that funding to take advantage of projects as they emerge.

Great. And I know you mentioned REIT funding too, and that's also a moving number year to year, but that's the other one that I'm aware of that we rely on to build pedestrian infrastructure. Are there others that I'm not thinking of?

Streets initiative funding. And we stopped collecting revenues, I think, in April. So but we have enough for year 11, probably part of year 12. K. So

yes. Keep building what we can?

Yes.

K. This is maybe related to the question I asked earlier about what the need is. And I think that one of you mentioned at one point the inventory of missing link sidewalks. Do we have an up to date inventory? Do we know exactly where those are?

I am 90% sure I heard that we have that. I'm not sure when the last time we did an inventory of it, but I think we have a layer in in our GIS that shows our missing leg sidewalks. I'm 90% sure I saw that layer. So

Great. Great. Alright. Well, I think that that answers my questions. I do wanna get ahead of the TBD meeting so that we can have a meaningful conversation.

I know it's been a report out every year, and you guys have done a great job, but I'm hoping to engage my colleagues maybe a little bit more deeply, especially because we have this new allocation. But excited about the work we're gonna be able to do and the education we'll be able to put out to the community. So thank you all for putting this all together and putting the thought behind it. And I do wanna say, I mean, I asked a lot of questions about what ifs and lists of projects and things like that. I I'm really supportive of what you presented in terms of the, you know, utilizing the data we have already with Vision Zero with the Safe Routes to School projects.

Yeah. Excited about, you know, parks potentially having that Safe Routes to Park program eventually so that we have that official data too and and working with partners. Thank you for mentioning the ADA ramps to transit. I think that's a really exciting possibility that may be relatively easy for us to if we're doing this work anyway, we can coordinate. So, you know, excited about the approach in general. So but I think we're all excited to dig a little bit more into the the the prioritization when we get to that point. So

Great.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Anna, we have so many fun updates on our topics for upcoming meetings. We do.

We only have three meetings left this year. Don't come next week. There is no special meeting next week. Don't come on the twenty fourth. That meeting is canceled.

The next meeting actually, don't come here on October 18. Go go to Council Chambers because we're gonna have our CBC update. Our October 22 meeting is jam packed full of stuff that people have been asking for versus the planning commission work program, then we're going to finally have the transformed neighborhood traffic calming program update and the automated traffic enforcement update. No meetings in November, and then just because we're you know, there's a final meeting. December 12 is Landmark's preservation commission interviews and 30 design for.

Great. Thank you, Anna. And so just if it wasn't clear that October 22 meeting is going to be a long one, so if you it is possible to clear your schedules because we did have to move that presentation from next week to October. And I thought they all sort of went together pretty well. So it'll be a long one, but we just have a lot fewer meetings. So I thought a a one long one would be okay. So looking forward to that. Thank you, Anna, for coordinating all these things. I know it's been a a busy week in terms of coordination. Two other items of interest, we have a very specific and different one today.

We very recently held interviews for the Transportation Commission. That was at our August 13 meeting. Since then, a commissioner has had to resign causing a vacancy, and staff is requesting that Felicity Waldron, who we interviewed. And as you may recall, we thought very highly of if if she would be recommended to the at large number three position. If there are no committee comments or question, I would entertain a motion to move this. But I know council member Sadalgi, you weren't here in August, so I I do wanna take a pause and see if there's any questions from the committee on this one.

Sounds like a good idea to

me. Great.

Alright. Council member Hines, would you make the motion?

Yes. We have I do. Okay. I move to recommend the appointment of Felicity Waldron to the at large number three position on the Transportation Commission position on the Transportation Commission to fill an unexpired term to expire on August 2027 to the full city council consideration.

Second. Been moved in second. Any final comments or questions? Alright. Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Alright. The motion is declared adopted. Thank you, and, appreciate the staff for bringing this suggestion forward. Think, was interesting and fortuitous timing. So glad we could fill that. Any since our last meeting, has anyone visited one of our CBCs or have any other items of interest as it relates to this committee?

I don't know if you can see my Zoom hand, but I have a question.

Yeah. Go

ahead. I don't know if I missed it at the beginning of the meeting, but did we ever call for public comment?

We checked the list and no one had signed up, so we skipped it.

Oh, someone will never forget a mail.

Okay. We have a public comment. Great. So we did, at the beginning, call for it and then said if anyone comes later who wants to speak, we will open it up again. So, Jake, we can see your name. Please feel free to unmute, and I'm going to read the intro to public comments before you get started.

Okay. Please don't have a chance to interrupt.

Yes. When you are called, Jake, please state your name for the record. You have two minutes to make your remarks, and please be mindful of the time frame. Anna is gonna pull up the clock on the screen so you can see how long you have, and we'll let you know. But go ahead and start whenever you're ready, Jake.

Alright. My name is Jake Johnson, and my husband and I, we live over in over on the West Slope right by Narrows Marina. However, have a property over in Lincoln District, which is, you know, what I wanted to bring to your attention. And, really, it's not specific to the Lincoln District. It's all over Tacoma.

I drove around today after an unsuccessful attempt at making a pitch to counsel last night. And I say that because I was right at the tail end of the meeting, and I don't think my scripted approach worked. And so the issue we're having is our tree canopy. We're seeing birch trees throughout the the city are infested with an invasive beetle. And the city of Tacoma has these birch trees on their approved tree list.

And so I I'm a little bit frustrated because it looks like the urban forestry team is aware of this. They're aware that this invasive beetle is out there. They're aware that it's been out there for years. And yet you're requiring folks to that wanna you know, they're going through a permitting process to replace trees that maybe they're they're taking down or to plant them. Yet your your approved and recommended trees are these birch trees.

And all throughout Tacoma, I mean, some massive trees are dying or dead currently. And I I'm just not sure where to go for help because it doesn't seem anyone is really solution driven in here. So I'd like to see if this committee would make an investment in looking into this and providing an update. So that, I do have what I'll do is I I see the chair, and I'll I'll shoot you an email with what I sent to the urban forestry team. But, yeah, that's my only public comment. So thank you.

Great. Thank you so much, Jake. And, our environmental services director has noted your comment. I would love it if you'd send me an email, and then we can, move back with you. It looks like we have other public comments. So I'm gonna move on to the next person, and then we'll open it up for your comments.

Hey. Hi. This is, Rob Crabill calling. I've just been tuning in mostly to reintroduce myself to you all in a new capacity on planning commission. Last week, I stepped into the role of chair, and my hope is in that role to be attending these committee meetings more often, likely virtually since they start a little early.

But just wanting to, sort of extend, an offer for you all to come to planning commission meetings as well. I'm really hoping that we can work together more closely over the next couple of years. I know that council is gonna change in its makeup in one way, shape, or form, but really wanting to to make sure that as we're tackling some big issues coming up, including trees, that we stay coordinated and that we work together. And I wanted to come to this meeting to hear some of the context and nuance of your discussion. The public comment that came before me was also really helpful as, we get ready to gear up for some tree conversations on the planning commission.

So but also invite you all to to tune in to our, meetings and, just looking forward to to working with you all in this new role and capacity. That's all. Thanks.

Great. Thank you, chair Crabill. Are there others folks signed up to give public comment?

I don't see any more hands. No.

Okay. Well, thank you, both of you, for coming today and making public comment. I will now open it up to committee members if you have comments or other items of injure other items of interest. Council member Hayes? Yeah. No.

I wanna thank the commenter, Jake, for calling in. He did reach out to me originally about the cicchio of the birch, the beetles. I've we shared it with staff and Mike Carey, so they're now well aware. So thank you for following up, Jake. And, I either happy to have the committee follow-up or I can follow-up with directly with what I

found out. Great. Thank you, council member Hyde. Any other items of interest? I do want to let my colleagues and the public know that we are starting a round of outreach council driven outreach, which I feel like is atypical on our free resolution that we passed earlier this year.

So going to the West End Neighborhood Council tonight and then other neighborhood councils throughout the month to hear from the public on that resolution and as we we move that work forward. So I will have many reports in the future under other items of interest. And, of course, we're looking forward to hearing from all of our committees on at the October 8 meeting and our annual reports from the CBCs. Alright. With that, I will entertain the final motion.

I move to adjourn.

Second. Been moved and second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. The meeting is adjourned.