HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Planning and Economic Development Committee - 06/05/1990 CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE
June 5, 1990 4 : 00 PM
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT PLANNING STAFF
Jon Johnson, Chair Charlene Anderson
Christi Houser Lauri Anderson
Jim Harris
OTHER CITY STAFF Fred Satterstrom
Carolyn Lake
Alana McIalwain
SEPA - PROCESS FOR POSTING
In response to citizen complaints about lack of a posted public notice for
a SEPA project, Planning Director Harris proposed a new procedure for
affirming posting of SEPA action. Once the laminated public notice is
posted, the file copy of the SEPA determination will have a rider affirming
the date of posting of the public notice. Mr. Harris read the rider for the
committee. He responded to Ms. McIalwain that the file copy would note also
any reposting dates.
Committee members agreed with the new procedure which Planning staff will
initiate on a trial basis.
3VISED 1990 WORK PROGRAM
Senior Planner Lauri Anderson stated that in light of the new Growth
Management Act, staff proposes a revised work program for the update of the
Comprehensive Plan. The state Department of Community Development
regulations for implementing the new legislation are not due until October.
It would be premature for staff to follow their initial work program which
proposed a citizen's advisory committee by the end of the summer, issues
research, and policy formation. Planning staff proposes to continue
gathering background information, working on the profile, doing
interdepartmental and interjurisdictional coordination, and updating the land
use inventory over the summer. Around November, staff would begin the issues
research and the remainder of the work program on this project.
To accommodate the postponement on the comprehensive plan update, staff
proposes to move two projects forward, the downtown plan implementation and
the historic preservation project. The time frame for historic preservation
would be intensified and completed in half the time originally proposed
(three months rather than six months) . The Committee members agreed with the
change.
JOINT LAND USE/TRANSPORTATION PLANNING CONFERENCE
Senior Planner Anderson reported on a conference she and Ed White of the
Public Works Department had attended in late April on linking land use and
'ransportation. The most radical premise presented was not to do anything
.bout traffic; when it became bad enough, people would find something else.
Other issues examined included 1) local traffic impacts, e.g. , short cuts
STY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE
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through residential neighborhoods. ; 2) smooth-flowing traffic is important
to economic growth; bottlenecks cost time and money; 3) community access with
regard to health and safety; and 4) environmental quality.
Some trends in travel presented were 1) more people are traveling in
metropolitan areas, a) more people are working in the job market and b) there
is an increase in jobs; 2) more people are traveling by car; there are more
cars per household; 3) suburb-to-suburb traffic is more common than suburb-
to-central-city traffic; transit does not handle this well; 4) people are
traveling in areas where highway capacity is not provided; dollars for
traffic improvements have not increased.
It was noted that land use patterns, density, location of commercial centers,
etc. impact transportation. Conference attendees talked about densities
required for a good transit system. Also important is locating residential
population and jobs in the same areas at two ends of a traffic corridor.
Site design criteria impact transit, i.e. , having pedestrian and transit
access incorporated in developments. On-site services such as dry cleaning
and video stores can encourage transit use. Day care was the most important
on-site service. Attendees were given a tool kit for solving suburban
congestion including: 1) change the structure of freeways, 2) good incident
management, i.e. , detour warnings before a bottleneck, and 3) demand
nagement i.e. , advice on alternative methods of transportation. The most
�.tteresting case study discussed was from Florida which is one of the other
states with growth management legislation. Transportation facilities need
to meet the land use patterns.
Councilwoman Houser noted METRO needs to adjust their routes to accommodate
the citizens who need to use their services, i.e. , bus service to the welfare
office. Ms. Anderson noted Planning staff is meeting with METRO
representatives June 7 to discuss new services in Kent. It was noted that
steep parking prices can be a disincentive to driving, but if they are too
steep, people would be forced into areas where traffic is not desired.
Chairman Johnson noted parking is a potential problem with commuter rail;
people will park all over downtown. Unless a multi-storied parking facility
is built, there is no facility to accommodate parking. Councilman Johnson
would like METRO to go into the neighborhoods to pick up people; make it more
convenient to ride transit. He would like service from East Hill to downtown
and on to West Hill. Committee members would like to have a report on
staff' s meeting with METRO.
Ms. Anderson will distribute to committee members a copy of the conference
summary report.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at approximately 4 : 30 PM.
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