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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Planning and Economic Development Committee - 02/16/1993 CITY OF CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE February 16, 1993 4 : 00 PM p�1VIICC1Ph� Committee Members Present City Attorney' s Office Leona Orr, Chair Roger Lubovich Jon Johnson Jim Bennett Planning Staff Other City Staff Lin Ball Alana McIalwain, Administration Jim Harris Tony McCarthy Margaret Porter Fred Satterstrom Guests List available upon request GROWTH MANAGEMENT UPDATE (JIM HARRIS) Planning Director Jim Harris informed the Committee that at the March 16 meeting the Committee will be asked to designate definite potential annexation boundaries. With the Council ' s backing, staff will be speaking with citizens during April and May to obtain feedback. In response to Chair Orr' s inquiry about the Chestnut Ridge annexation, Mr. Harris stated this item is now before the Boundary Review Board. If no one takes jurisdiction by the end of March this area will be annexed into the City. INTERIM ACTIONS MANDATED BY COUNTY-WIDE PLANNING POLICIES/MINIMUM RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES (F. SATTERSTROM) Planning Manager Satterstrom reported that when the City of Kent adopted the County-Wide Planning Policies, one of the commitments was to review the City ordinances for opportunities for affordable housing and also review and consider a minimum residential density ordinance, Policy FW-2 in the County-Wide Planning Policies. The importance of the density ordinance is to try to ensure affordable housing. The staff report states that the density ordinance is meant to encourage cities to establish a minimum density goal in single family as well as multifamily zones. In order to ensure that land within the urban area will be used more efficiently, four alternatives were described. Mr. Satterstrom was asked to bring this item back to the March 2 meeting with information regarding densities in other cities and more flexibility in minimum densities. CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES FEBRUARY 16, 1993 PAGE 2 CATHOLIC COMMUNITY SERVICES (CCS) IN 1993 FUNDING (LIN BALL) The Human Services Commission recommends reallocating $7, 000 of 1993 general fund human services dollars granted to the CCS Housing for Homeless Men Project to the CCS Emergency Severe Weather Shelter Program due to the fact that the men's shelter will not open in 1993 . This will result in a total allocation of $17, 000 to the Emergency Severe Weather Shelter Program, the same level of funding as 1992 . Jim Bennett MOVED and Leona Orr SECONDED a motion to reallocate $7, 000 to the CCS Emergency Severe Weather Shelter Program from the CCS Housing for Homeless Men Project. This item will be forwarded to tonight's Council meeting. Motion carried. REVISED PLANNING DEPARTMENT WORK PROGRAM (JIM HARRIS) Planning Director Harris reported that significant changes have taken place in the Planning Department' s work program since the last update on October 6, 1992 . The level of service provided to citizens by the Planning Department has been affected by the loss of seven (7) employees since January 1992 . Mr. Harris remarked that the department is no longer able to shift personnel resources from one area of the department to another. These personnel losses impact the whole Department and the level of service provided to citizens. Human Services Manager Lin Ball reported two major areas of change in the 1993 Work Program. Five new programs/issues that have been added to her work program in 1993 : Homeless Response, Section 8 , CDBG Interlocal Agreement, New Contract Development Process, and Metro Subsidized Bus Tickets. The most critical change is the recent resignation of Alice Shobe, a Human Services/Block Grant Planner. With only two planners in the Office of Housing & Human Services, this means a 50o reduction in staff. This reduction of staff makes it impossible to execute the work program presented to the Committee in October 1992 . Kent's lead in responding to human services needs is now jeopardized with the loss of staff. Planning Manager Fred Satterstrom reported that 3 , 648 hours have been lost in the Planning Services Division in the last three months due to the resignation of two planners. The Division' s ability to deliver services has been severely impacted by these resignations. The ability to cover the public/information zoning counter is cut in half. There is a severe reduction in hours available to review plans for major and minor development, and the number of hours to work on land use permits (subdivisions, environmental checklists, rezones, conditional use permits) are severely reduced. SEPA review resources are reduced by 40%, and the landscape plan review time is cut in half. CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES FEBRUARY 16, 1993 PAGE 3 A double impact in the work program in the area of the comprehensive plan has occurred. We have lost one-half of an employee who worked with elements of the comprehensive plan which are necessary to meet growth management mandates, and the Planning Department surrendered all of its growth management money to the 1993 general fund to pay staff salaries. As a result, the Department does not have the option of contracting for professional services to help with the environmental impact statement or other needed programs. Another tremendous impact is the lack of resources for coordination with regional and subregional committees. Mr. Satterstrom is concerned about being able to deliver the kind of service that the City has grown used to. Administrative Assistant Margaret Porter reported the loss in January 1993 of an additional part-time secretary. As a result, turnaround time on completing work has been lengthened. The secretaries are experiencing additional interruptions since the major duties of the two part-time secretaries were to answer the phones and work the counter. Mr. Harris stated that the Planning Department is pursuing replacement of key positions with the Executive Committee, and is meeting with the Human Resources Department regarding a Department audit. If we are not able to hire replacements for key positions, the 1993 work program will be drastically revamped. This will effect the customer service. OPEN SPACE TAXATION PROCESS (JIM HARRIS) Planning Director Harris reviewed a letter to the Mayor dated January 2, 1993 regarding a new program for current use taxation of open space property. King County recently passed Ordinance 10511 establishing a Public Benefit Rating System to replace the former method for calculating current use taxation on open space land. The program applies to property within incorporated and unincorporated King County with the County acting as the initiating agency under RCW 84 . 34 . 037 . Under the RCW and Ordinance 10511 City involvement occurs in two ways: 1. The Ordinance requires expert recommendations on certain resource categories for property to be accepted into the program and determination by the appropriate city staff experts. 2 . In all incorporated areas, the decision to approve property for current use taxation must be made by a six-member panel consisting of three County Councilmembers and three City Councilmembers. Mr. Harris explained two alternatives for complying with RCW 84 . 34 in approving or denying open space applications in incorporated areas: CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES FEBRUARY 16, 1993 PAGE 4 Alternative 1: The three designated members of the City Council hold a hearing, make a decision and transmit the decision to the County Council. The three designated members of the County Council hold a separate hearing. If the decisions conflict, the Clerk of the County Council will schedule a joint meeting. Alternative 2 : Designated members of the City and County Councils hold a joint hearing to decide on the open space applications within the City. The Committee suggested that the Council Members from the Planning Committee be the selected members. Jon Johnson MOVED and Jim Bennett SECONDED a motion to adopt Alternative 2 as the Council decision-making process which designates three City Councilmembers to meet with three County Councilmembers at a joint hearing at Kent City Hall. This will be forwarded to the full Council on March 2, 1993 . Motion carried. A City staff contact person needs to be identified by Tony McCarthy, and Mr. Harris would like to be the contact person for the Open Space Taxation Applications. PERMIT CENTER (NORM ANGELO) As requested at the January 19, 1993 Committee meeting, Fire Chief Norm Angelo reported on how the Department Heads Permit Center plan will appropriately address the concerns of public safety, customer service, time periods for plan review, and consistency and predictability. Steve Burpee complimented the Planning Department for delivering some major building permits in 105 days given the shortage of manpower and the hiring of a new building inspector. However, Mr. Burbee expressed concern about the timelines for tenant improvements. He would like to see some flexibility and willingness for timelines to be shortened (five days instead of 40) without jeopardizing public safety and welfare. Mr. Burbee stated the lack of staff should only reflect timelines but should not affect accountability, customer service, customer satisfaction, consistency, predictability, or public safety. Chair Orr commented that timelines is a major issue in the Mayor's Task Force Report, and everyone is focusing on that issue. She is pleased to hear that the development community understands that with limited staff, timelines will not be easily addressed. Timelines also affect customer satisfaction. The Mayor' s report mentions hiring consultants when the workload gets too heavy. Chair Orr is concerned about where funding for consultants will come from given the City' s financial status. Chair Orr spoke of a friend who had problems with the City obtaining permits for a remodel and who wrote a letter indicating their dissatisfaction. Ms. Orr spoke with the customer and Chief Angelo and the issue was resolved. Another friend had a similar project and called Ms. Orr three times at different phases of the project to comment on what a wonderful job City staff had done. This occurred after the complaint from the first friend. CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES FEBRUARY 16, 1993 PAGE 5 She commented that the City obviously has people who are able to take criticism and make corrections. Ms. Orr has copies of letters from satisfied citizens dating back to 1987 and through January 1993. She assumes that the satisfied customers are spreading the word that Kent is not the worst place to do business. She hopes that people who have had problems have taken the time to make suggestions, and the City will make the necessary corrections and improvements. She feels the City has not done everything wrong and sees the Department Heads report as being very positive. Dan Ivanoff of Birtcher Frank Properties commented that they recently received building permits for two projects and expressed appreciation for the ongoing cooperative relationship they received from the City. Mr. Ivanoff stated that his company competes with developers in Renton, Auburn and Tukwila, and Kent is probably the fastest process to get through. Birtcher Frank Properties has had an excellent experience with the Building and the Planning Departments. ADDED ITEM - SECTION 8 (LIN BALL) Human Services Manager Lin Ball distributed a memo responding to questions brought up at the January 19, 1993 Committee meeting regarding the Section 8 Housing issue. Perhaps the answers to these questions will help the Council decide at their upcoming retreat whether to make Section 8 Housing a target issue for 1993-1994 . ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 5 : 35 p.m. 930216.PC