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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development - 04/11/2011 ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES APRIL 11, 2011 Committee Members Committee Chair Jamie Perry, Elizabeth Albertson, Deborah Ranniger. Chair Perry called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes Councilmember Ranniger Moved and Councilmember Albertson Seconded a Motion to approve the March 14, 2011 Minutes. Motion PASSED 3-0. 2. CPA-2010-3 Kentara Short Plat Lot 21 Planning Manager Charlene Anderson stated this is a proposal to amend the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Plan Map. The property currently has a split designation of US, Urban Separator (approximately 0.45 acres) and SF-6 Single Family Residential (approximately 0.34 acres). The City surplussed the Urban Separator portion of the property from a much larger parcel used in construction of the 272nd/277th Street Corridor. The Urban Separator designation is locally designated only and is not included on the Urban Separator map adopted as part of the King County Countywide Planning Policies. It was determined that the city is authorized to change the locally designated urban separators without going through the County. At the Land Use & Planning Board meeting, the Board considered several options, including No Action, Option 1 Schneider Proposal, and Options 2A, 2B, and 2C which were options to consider ‘No Net Loss’ of Urban Separators. Both staff and the Board decided that this applicant’s proposal met the standards for granting a Land Use Plan Map Amendment and it was an insignificant change. It is less than a ½ acre, surplus piece of property. There is still a large portion of the pre-existing parcel that is totally designated urban separator and so the proposed amendment was determined insignificant. Both staff and the Board are proposing approval of the amendment. Albertson asked to hear more of the Land Use and Planning Board discussion on option 2B. Land Use and Planning Board Chair Dana Ralph joined in the conversation on the No Net Loss Lot option. Ralph stated that Option 2B would change the City property to urban separator, and do a swap. It makes more sense that the whole property be SF 6. The entire infrastructure is in place; power, water, sewer, retention ponds and roads. Option 2B does not give up the urban separator that was the concern in the beginning. The concern with swapping out City land was that it would set a precedent for swapping public for private and the board felt that muddies the water. Seeing no further questions or comments, Councilmember Albertson Moved to approve an Ordinance approving an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map to designate Kentara Short Plat Lot 21 as SF-6 Single Family Residential (6 Units/Acre) in its entirety. Councilmember Ranniger Seconded the Motion. Motion PASSED 3-0. 3. Countrywide Policies Update Planning Manager Charlene Anderson stated that the King County Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC) has been engaged in the revision of Countywide Planning Policies (CPPs) for the past two years, establishing first the housing and employment targets for King County’s jurisdictions. The intent of the updates is to ensure consistency with state law, state agency guidance, and hearings board decisions; to align the CPPs with the regional growth strategy in VISION 2040; ECDC Minutes April 11, 2011 Page 2 of 2 and to modernize the narrative. The CPPs serve as the framework for each jurisdiction’s comprehensive plan. The final review draft of the CPPs is expected to be released on April 13, and to go before the the Growth Management Planning Council on April 27th. The final approval is anticipated to occur sometime in June. Anderson provided a brief summary of the Chapter updates. Michael Hubner joined the discussion as a representative of an inter-jurisdictional team to staff the Growth Management Planning Council. Hubner explained the differences between the draft proposed affordable housing targets for King County Cities. The committee had questions on the income scale between moderate and low incomes. Moderate income was defined as from $42,800 to $68,480 and low income was defined as under $42,800. Perry asked how much of our current stock of housing in Kent would be considered low or very low. Anderson gave numbers from spring of 2009; Kent’s number at 50 percent is 54.7 percent, at the 40 percent it drops to 13.4 percent. Hubner noted we are talking about the rental housing stock not the entire City stock. Hubner went on to explain the CPPs, with small technology changes, which has been in place since the early 1990’s. The general approach is to spread the responsibility for accommodating affordable housing throughout the County. The City of Kent and many other South County cities do have more affordable housing and more housing units that are described as moderate, low or very low. Hubner stated that the cities of Kirkland and Bellevue have less available affordable housing; if targets were set on a level playing field they would also be asked to do a lot more than historically they have done. Council has concerns with the high low income target required for Kent, without taking into consideration the stock Kent already has. Has it been looked at as who needs to catch up within the County? Some of the other cities need to also get on the band wagon. Albertson said it should be about working where you live and being able to live and work in our communities. 4. Economic Development Report Economic and Community Development Director Ben Wolters reported Sysco Foods submitted a pre-application to double the size of their facility with a 20, 050 sq. ft. expansion, which will bring approximately 200 additional jobs to Kent. The Kent City Center project is underway and the applicant teams will submit their proposals to the Clerk by April 28, 2011. The former Fondi Restaurant in Kent Station is going to house a new pizza restaurant with a major remodel to be completed by early summer 2011. Business retention has increased. Staff has been calling on Aerospace manufacturing businesses in the area; with the addition of Josh Hall we are getting back to contacting some of our high value employers more frequently. We are also seeing an uptick in working with our Business expansion and recruitment efforts. We are currently working with 7 new projects; 5 are manufacturing companies, 1 is clean energy technology, and 2 are retail. CAMPS will be participating in a large wind energy show, called WindPower Expo held in Portland in a couple of months. We are preparing promotional material about Kent, which highlights why Kent is the place to locate your clean energy or wind power business. Adjournment Councilmember Perry Adjourned the Meeting at 6:43 p.m. ______________________________________________ Julie Pulliam, Economic & Community Development Committee Secretary