HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Minutes - 09/19/2000 COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 19, 2000
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Leona Orr, Sandy Amodt, Tom
Brotherton, Tim Clark, Connie Epperly, Judy Woods, Rico Yingling
STAFF PRESENT: Matt Jackson, Fred Satterstrom, Jacki Skaught, Steve Mullen,
Jackie Bicknell
PUBLIC PRESENT: Tom Noguchi, Greg Easton, Mark Hinshaw, David Ringstrom
The meeting was called to order at 5:41 PM by Chair Leon Orr.
Commuter Rail Station Area Study
Planner Matt Jackson said the Commuter Rail Station Area Study was a project that had
gone on since December of 1999. It was initiated in conjunction with the City of Kent
and Sound Transit and it's an opportune time to discuss it because the Sounder Transit
commuter rail started service yesterday and will be stopping in Kent on November 6`h
The project was done in collaboration with four different consultants: Mark Hinshaw,
from LMN Architects, who helped with some of the urban design and land use issues;
Greg Easton from Property Counselors, who did the financial analysis and the market
analysis; Dave Ringstrom from Ateliers, who did a lot of the streetscape work; and Tom
Noguchi from Mirai Associates, who did the transportation analysis.
The project was initiated after the Downtown Strategic Action Plan was adopted in 1998.
That Plan set up a framework to look at several issues. One was to promote construction
of new commercial and office and mixed use zoning in the downtown. It was also to
encourage the promotion of in-fill housing in the downtown area and to look at specific
redevelopment opportunities within target areas downtown. The project does actually
consist of several different products—there's a Market Analysis, which looks at some
specific financial information about proposed land uses in the area, and also updates a
previous analysis done in 1998. It also identifies vacant and re-developable properties
downtown—properties that have no improvement value, are considered vacant, those less
than a thousand dollars, and those that have an assessment value of improvement that's
less than half of the land value but were considered to be re-developable in the future.
There are several conceptual urban design elements and concepts in the Plan, and a lot of
those tie in with other projects that the downtown design guidelines of the City recently
updated, as well as with the Gateway Project. A lot of these things are tied together and
the City has spent a lot of time and effort in trying to encourage development downtown
and taking a serious look at what's going to happen. Obviously, one of the areas that's
potential for redevelopment in that downtown area is the Borden site, and if and when
that does happen, the Plan does consider different land uses and a potential process for
master planning or Planned Action Ordinance that the City could look at for doing that
project as a larger review as opposed to doing individual elements that are typically done.
Council Worksbop,9/19/00 2
The Study looked at an area of 1,500 feet around the proposed Transit Station because
that's considered a reasonable walking distance.
Greg Easton said that their work generally could be categorized as two pieces of
economic analysis—market analysis looking at demand for potential uses in the future
and financial analysis looking at financial performance. Market analysis had a fourfold
purpose: to update market analysis prepared as part of the Strategic Action Plan
originally done in 1996 and then again in 1998; looking at competitive conditions in the
south commuter rail corridor; looking at those various communities served by commuter
rail; and looking at how Kent could be competitive for various types of land use in
comparison with some of the other communities. Also, the relationship with downtown
and the East Hill commercial districts is looked at for the potential of each of those to
serve a distinct niche within the market place. Using all that information gave updated
projections for potential levels of development over the next 20 years within downtown
generally and the staging area in particular.
The first result of the study was that the City of Kent in the downtown serves a very
strong and dynamic market area, both in terms of growth in population and in terms of
purchasing power within that area. Second, the development that's occurred
demonstrates the validity of some of the influences projected to occur within the Kent
downtown over the years. In some areas actual absorption has fallen short of some of the
projections made previously. There are a couple of reasons for that: assembly of sites for
new development hasn't proceeded as quickly as possible, and there'll continue to be a
. difficult balance between the cost of redevelopment versus what tenants can afford to
pay. Office zoning continues to be very strong for immediate potential and office rents
that are being commanded in downtown Kent today are enough to support new
construction. Residential development is maybe the greatest opportunity. That's
something that will occur over time as a result of the regional population growth, but
particularly related to the commuter rail. Commuter rail will have the greatest influence
on potential residential development in the downtown than any other use. Retail potential
will be strong as those other two uses develop over time. Finally, there is still the
potential for a full service hotel in the downtown but probably the only way to really
realize that is to do it in conjunction with a conference center.
The purpose for the Financial Analysis was threefold. First, to identify some variety of
prototype or demonstration projects. These are projects that may be identified as being
on specific sites but in fact are supposed to be representative of what could happen in the
downtown. Eleven different potential projects were looked at and for each of those the
purpose was to do one of two things: either demonstrate that its financially feasible under
current conditions or, if not, identify what conditions would have to exist to make it
feasible. Several projects were included that are covered by LMN in their design plan but
different portions of development on the Borden property was looked at, and also some
additional projects on North Railroad and North Central, and the potential development
of a hotel on Harrison Street. The potential for redevelopment of Penney's was looked
at, and also some properties on South Railroad and some just outside of the 1,500 foot
Council Workshop,9/19/00 3
radius on Meeker Street—a vacant site where a bank branch was proposed several years
• ago before there was a consolidation.
Conclusions were that those projects represent a wide range of uses, a range of large scale
to some smaller scale projects, and a range of potentially differing City roles, either as a
property owner or provider of utilities, etc. Another major conclusion was that all those
projects could be feasible in the foreseeable future with the exception of a couple that
were relatively low density. Projects on the Borden property have a potential for the city
to enhance the feasibility of those projects in a couple of different ways. One way is the
traditional way of buying it at a certain price and clearing it. It might have to be made
available at a lower price to make the economics work out. But there's a different way to
do it that has the same result, and that might require extension of streets and utilities into
the property, which might be more in keeping with what the city's traditionally done.
The final conclusion was that, in every case, the cost of providing parking was a very
significant impact on the development economics,but that cost could be reduced by
enhancing the development economics in ways such as shared parking facilities. Those
projects and developments close to the commuter rail facility is helped because they can
have a lower requirement for parking.
Mark Hinshaw said were asked to look at a variety of land uses that could potentially fit
in the general station area site, emphasizing what might happen on the Borden site for the
future. A combination hotel/conference center might best be located in this place because
it would be across from the library and Performing Arts Center as well as having a share
• of the garage available to it for night time and weekend use. A multiplex cinema
complex might anchor the center of the site with associated restaurants and retail. A
potentially large retail tenancy might take a number of different forms whether it was just
comparison shopping or whether it was a food center kind of retail. A number of smaller
pads around the site was also looked at for smaller retail and office uses above with some
retail being against the commuter rail parking garage so that it would work as a natural
part of the site configuration. An area of residential use was looked at that might create
a village-like atmosphere for people that would want to live within close proximity to the
rail station.
About 10 urban design principles were followed in all of these attributes and aspects of
land use. One is extending the street grid into the site so it's not just a massive super
block but is broken up into smaller blocks and units so that it feels like a natural part of
the downtown. Also important was to create a village-like ambiance so that it wouldn't
seem like a shopping center or some foreign, alien kind of center, but would be individual
smaller buildings that would fit the scale and the character of downtown although they
would be newer and perhaps in some cases, unusual or larger, but would not be one
massive kind of internalized development. The creation of a central public space was
looked at around which a number of uses could orient themselves and be in close
proximity to the commuter rail station so that there would be a sense of place where
community events could happen, like art festivals and events that the City traditionally
has. Certainly the length of the station is important. The east/west link was introduced
that would tie the station right into the center of development as well as linking it to the
Council Workshop, 9/19/00 4
rest of downtown, because certainly the connections into the heart of downtown are vital.
Housing was placed at the north end rather than commercial development because of
trying to be sensitive to the neighborhoods adjacent so there's a scaling down and a
quieter kind of atmosphere and would be a buffer to the more intensive commercial area.
It was not just focusing on Borden by itself but also looking at what might emerge over a
10 to 20 year period in the entire study area.
Tom Noguchi said their task was to support the land use planning, not just talk about
public transportation. First, a look was taken at existing transportation conditions in the
study area. Then,problems of today were assessed without having any changes to land
use. There are several key arterial streets surrounding the study area, like James Street,
4th Avenue, and Smith Street. During PM peak traffic hours there are some system
backups occurring. The previous study estimated that there will be approximately 450
new trips generated in the PM peak hours. New parking garage facilities will generate
more traffic. The potential development of the Borden site and the surrounding area
could generate about 745 PM peak trips. Combining the new trips of today, there may be
an additional 1,200 trips during one PM peak hour. Sound Transit is helping the City of
Kent to improve some situations. The parking garage will be built later on and Sound
Transit will build part of 2"d Avenue and part of Temperance Street, and there will be a
new signal at Smith and 2"d Avenue.
A traffic simulator model was used to look at all the streets in that area and the trips were
added. It was found that four key intersections James and 4`h,James and Central, Smith
and Central, and 4`h and Smith will have some kind of additional degradation in level of
service or delays. In the model, 4th Avenue becomes very critical. If nothing is done, the
backup will go all the way to James or sometimes beyond it. Central Avenue is really
backed up today and it will get worse. The City has projected to provide a southbound
right turn lane which concept the Public Works Department will have to evaluate. At
Smith and Central there is a split phasing because there's a left turn lane and a second left
turn lane. The plan is to have an exclusive two left and two through lanes in that area. It
is suggested to do some kind of traffic control in that area, particularly left turn control.
One way to do that is to put more landscape median in the middle and ask people to go to
the intersection to make turns. At Smith and 2"d, there will be a signal.
Pedestrian crossings at Smith, particularly at I't Avenue and the Railroad area, is very
difficult. The design for this area will be to channel pedestrian traffic to use this signal
instead of the one at 1't Avenue. On 4 h Avenue, the congestion southbound is pretty
severe and part of that is because the intersection at 41h and Smith is operating with split
phasing. It doesn't have an exclusive left turn pocket and the recommendation is to add
additional left turn pockets. Probably a whole section from Smith and 2"d will have to be
to widened to 5 lanes to continue the left turn pocket that will be needed there.
Dave Ringstrom said that as landscape architects on the project,their charge was to look
at open space opportunities and how they might factor into the City center and then to
begin to look at some of the actual materials and standards that might be employed to
• address some of the traffic issues. This is a very significant resource from the open space
Council Workshop, 9/19/00 5
standpoint that will give the city a distinct image of parks. Developing park space on the
railroad right of way across from the Farmer's Market is part of the recommendation and
that over time, the City look at perhaps extending the lease agreement to a part of the
Kent Gypsum site. There's opportunity there to support some sort of urban park
development and increased housing density downtown and looking at perhaps some
agreement with the railroad to upgrade their frontage along the old depot. There is a
tremendous opportunity here to achieve a system of urban park walks that could really
benefit the downtown. One of the other germane issues here, along with the Sound
Transit Station, is the interim parking lot and then frontage along the new parking garage.
The notion is to, rather than these spaces all becoming more hard space,hard state, which
may in fact be too much for the level of activity, that these be a continuation of the green
space, and that one could begin to establish a city center gateway at this point moving
through a system of parkway that brings you to this major intersection and then a very,
very urban streetscape corridor, linking from the Justice Center down the Second Avenue
extension and on down to Meeker Street.
Mr. Ringstrom said that his firm, in 1999, worked with Parks and Public Works on the
2000 Downtown Sidewalk Replacement Gateway Improvements. Part of that work was
to look at gateway improvements at Willis Street, and they will also be looking at
gateway improvements at James Street. As part of the construction going on now there
are some materials in terms of pedestrian crosswalk pavement and pedestrian lighting that
are being installed. This study will identify key intersections from both the pedestrian
and vehicular standpoint and then suggest utilization of the same ornamental fixture for
• both vehicular lighting and pedestrian lighting along Second Avenue and the retrofitting
of the existing curb extensions on Meeker Street, modifying the plan and improving
visibility and pedestrian lighting. That could also begin to happen up Railroad Avenue to
really link the north/south streets and major east/west streets. These recommendations
also embody a different treatment for Smith Avenue whereby there would be a
continuous planting strip adjacent to the sidewalk that would incorporate a natural,
physical pedestrian railing. The conceptual notions that are presented have been
graphically developed to be something that might be an artist fabricated element that
would coordinate some of the key intersection markers that will probably happen as part
of the Phase II Gateway Improvements.
Planning Manager Fred Satterstrom thanked a former employee, Linda Phillips,who got
the consultants together, started the study, got it on its way and then turned it over to Matt
Jackson. Linda retired at the end of July. Mr. Satterstrom also thanked the consultants
and said the City got a lot of bang for its dollar. The purpose of this was really to study
because we have a lot of preconceived notions or questions about whether these kinds of
transit orient development scenarios are feasible in downtown Kent. The financial study
here has shown that a lot of what the City would like to see in downtown Kent is
financially feasible. There, obviously, is a lot of work to be done. There's funding and
grants that need to be worked on, and staff will be working with the Economic
Development Officer on a lot of the opportunities that are out there. There are some
transportation improvements that have been suggested tonight to make this work where
• the City as well as the private developers are partners. This isn't something that's merely
Council Workshop,9/19/00 6
done by the City—it's done jointly. The Kent Downtown Partnership board is in favor of
this. They recognize that there are sites in downtown that are either undeveloped or
underdeveloped that really need to infill with the kind of development that will support
downtown and they have been brought into the process. Property owners, transit people,
Sound Transit, the City's own internal people (several different departments), developers
and retailers in the downtown area have all been brought in on this. It is, in a fashion, a
vision of what can happen, what financially is feasible and offers an opportunity to begin
to work on a lot of those steps that are in Chapter 5 of this report.
The workshop adjourned at 6:45 PM.
Council Office
2°d Floor,City Hall
220 4 h Ave. South,Kent,98032
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