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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development Committee - 01/08/2018Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes January 8, 2018 Kent, Washington Approval 2/L2/L8 Date: January B, 2018Time: 5:03 p,m. Place: Council Chambers Attending: Bill Boyce, Tina Budell, Satwinder Kaur, Danielle Butsick, Steve Wilson, Matt Gilbert, Brennan Taylor, Tim Higgins, Ben Wolters, Julie Pulliam Agenda: 1. Call to Order 5:03 p.m. 2. Roll Call Taken 3. Chanoes to the Aoenda None 4. Aoproval of Minutes Committee Member Budell MOVED, Committee Member Kaur SECONDED a Motion to Approve the Minutes of December 1L 2OL7. Motion PASSED 3-O. 5. Sound Transit Update Danielle Butsick, long-range planner for Kent's Economic and Community Development Department gave a brief overview of where the Sounder garage project in downtown Kent is and what can be expected on the project in the near future. Site Selection: Staff has been working on this project with Sound Transit for about a year, since January of 20L7. The first step was to determine where the garage and access improvements would be built. Sound Transit conducted a really robust stakeholder engagement process to identify the site for the garage and received a lot of feedback. The stakeholder group (met between February and October) included: Kent Station/Tarragon Green River College Local residents and business owners Kent Chamber oi Commerce Blue Origin Transit users, including bicycle commuters The site selected by the Sound Transit Board was what we all referred to as "site 3" on the east side of the railroad, south of James and west of Central Ave. Preferred Site: This was the site option A, was recommended by the stakeholder group, the most preferred in comments received by the public, staff's recommendation, and the recommendation of City Council and the Mayor. The site has 8 individual lots including: Washington Cold Storage, building and turn-around lot, Sound Transit surface parking lot with about 70 parking spaces. Five smaller lots on Central Ave, including a Chevron gas station and coffee stand, a barber shop, insurance office, and bail bonds office. Page I of 6 Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes January 8, 2018 Kent, Washington Approval 2/L2/L8 Site Advantages: There are a number of advantages to this site. Cold storage warehousing and distribution use is less compatible with the vision for the downtown area than it was 50 years ago. It also takes advantage of a property that is already owned by Sound Transit, potentially reducing acquisition costs. Garage Locations Option A Another reason this site was appealing is that there is a lot of flexibility in how the site is used. Within the preferred site, there are several different layouts that could be selected. Option A would be;. Expensive to build because it would require building over or "lidding" over Railroad Avenue.. That would take a lot of engineering complexity, and ito Elevates the cost per stall because a large portion of the first floor is unusable for parking.o 550 NET STALLS Option B o Would use the Sound Transit lot and the smaller lots along Central Ave.. Staff have recommended to Sound Transit that this option is not ideal because it would:. Require a complex acquisition process for the smaller lots on Central. Preclude future redevelopment of the Central Ave frontage.. 49O Net Stalls Option C . Would use the Sound Transit surface lot and a portion of the cold storage building and lot for the garage . Realign Railroad Avenue in some way to the west of the garage, between the railroad and the parking garage. . 464 NET Stalls (very preliminary numbers) Preferred Improvement Package Along with the garage, Sound Transit has committed to including a package of non- motorized im provements. There will also be some specific to the site - like frontage improvements as part of permitting process. This is a high-level package of potential off-site access improvements. These improvements were part of the stakeholder engagement process - some were identified in the 20t2 Sounder Access Study, and others were identified by staff, stakeholders, or members of the public during Sound Transit's outreach. Page 2 of 6 Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes January 8, 2018 Kent, Washington Approval 2/L2/L8 Sidewalks at bus stations up to 100'from stop. Routes 180, 166, 168. Project Timeline o This first step is really important and that's where we are now - staff is working with Sound Transit and their consultants to come up with a site concept that gets us the most parking for our dollar, takes advantage of the opportunities on the site to improve non-motorized access, and integrates with Kent's and King County Metro's vision for the area as a welcoming, pedestrian-oriented transit center. A couple of key things that we're working on are 1) realigning Railroad Avenue to run adjacent to the railroad tracks (rather than lidding the building over the road, which makes us lose parking spaces and elevates the cost per stall), 2) straightening James Street to eliminate the curve around the cold storage building to improve motorist and pedestrian safety, and 3) continuing the bike lane on the south side of James along the garage frontage. a a There is still a lot of preliminary design work to do to make this work; Sound Transit will be scheduling workshops for staff to work through some of the hurdles with their consultants. . This is assuming the traditional design-bid-build project delivery method. . Design-build delivery method (where one contractor is hired to manage design and construction) has reduced the time required for other projects - project is designed, permitted, and built simultaneously. It presents opportunities for engineering efficiencies when changes can be made on the fly to make the design and construction methods work better together. . Some items that come into play later in the process, but that staff is thinking about now are construction staging and how Sound Transit will handle surplus propefties once construction is complete. We want to encourage Sound Transit to be strategic in the properties that they purchase for staging and focus on properties that can integrate with the project as future Transit Oriented development, and we want to avoid a situation where we're left with a vacant, unimproved lot like the one on Smith and RR. . Staff will continue to work with Sound Transit staff and their consultants, and we'll continue to update you as the project moves forward. Federal Way Link Extension Estimated Project Timeline Charlene Anderson brought the updated timeline to the Committee. Page 3 of 5 Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes January 8, 2018 Kent, Washington Approval 2/L2/LB January - July: Monthly Updates to ECD Committee January - February: Finalize Project Requirements for RFP March 2O,20tB: Update to City Council Workshop 2nd Quarter 2018: Value Engineering Exercise: RFQ issued January - April: Finalize Development and Transit Way Agreements June, 2018: Execute Agreements 3'd Quarter 2018: RFP Issued Due 2ndl3'd Q 2019 3ra14tn Quarter 2OL9: Contract Award Open to Public 2024 6. Permitting Workload Uodate - Next Steps Ben Wolters lead a discussion on the extraordinary year ECD has had in permitting and building a give a more detailed review. What total building activity looks like, what it has meant for the permitting process overall workload, and meeting our own performance goals in production and issuance of permits. Then Wolters will speak to where we are heading in 2018. Building Permit Valuation 2Ot7, $237,730,698.80, almost equal ZOL4, $242,579,L29.2O that was the year Amazon was brought to Kent which was a 9100 million dollar project. In 20L7 the big driver of revenue was 319 single family homes that were permitted along with a lot of tenant improvements in the valley for industria I properties, Permit Activity shows permits received and permits issued but not all permits issued in 20L7 are permits applied for in the same year, permits issued could have been applied for in a previous year. The number of permit applications and permits issues has continued to go up since 20L4. In 2OL7 we have reached the capacity of the workforce of what we can issue. There is currently a $2.47 million in permit fees of 323 backlogged permits. We have received these but have not been able to issue them. If we would have had the resources to keep up we could have potentially had an additional g2 million dollars in revenue above and beyond the $3 million we already have brought in above revenue projection, So together that would have been $5 million over 2Ot7 revenue projection. Wolters is concerned with this backlog if the developers have to wait too long they will just move on to other projects and we will lose that revenue. Page 4 of 5 Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes January 8, 2018 Kent, Washington Approval 2/L2/LB So how are we doing against our performance standards? There are 154 different kinds of permits but we have combined into 5 basic types. We are not keeping up in the days we have set as our standard, We are just not able to get to the permits per our standard first review time frame. Where we are today, prior to Christmas we were on average 57 days behind schedule. Due to a big push by the Development Engineering Division and the Building Division Staff we were able to reduce to 32 days which is the average of all 5 permit types. Staff wanting to start 2018 in the best way possible, but it is not sustainable. Looking ahead Wolters feel we will have a year very similar to 20L7 for 2 reasons, there has been no let-up in single family housing permits. We just heard from one developer he will be submitting 40 new homes in 2018. We also have a pipeline of lots that will be approximately 250-320 more signal family homes. Permits start at the first of the year for Marquee on Meeker, other multifamily complexes and robust activity in the industrial center. Wolters feel it will be about a million over budget revenue. We are working on a budget proposal to the Mayor to increase staff, consultants, and overtime to assist with the permitting backlog. Steve Wilson explained they are calling and talking to the developer to let them know. We are trying catch up. The service level agreement with the customer is 28 days; this is the expectations for the developers to expect to get their permits back. Chair Boyce said we do need to figure out how to stay consistent within the standards the customers are expecting. Ken Sharp spoke to the length of permitting. It just takes too long to get a permit. 7. Showare Uodate Tim Higgins presented to the Committee a review of 20L7. This is still an estimate we are working on final numbers. Concerts are down a little. Thunderbirds revenue is up due to playoffs. 2Ot7 numbers will bet budget not quite as good as 2016. We had the same number of concerts, but they were smaller less sales less revenue. 2018 is looking good we are already working on 4 shows. First quarter should have 10 concerts. Our business model is taking hold and is working. Net Revenue and expenses estimated 20L7. There is an increase in wages. There is a new requirement with security which is becoming industry standard. Food and beverage sales are how ShoWare makes its money. We need to replace some of the infrastructure of the kitchen flow and design. Some of the equipment needs to be replaced and other pieces we need more of them. Wolters stated we are approaching year 10 of the building and the maintenance costs are showing up. Page 5 of 6 Economic and Community Development Committee Minutes Approval 2/12/LB 8. Directors Reoort Starbuck and Sonic is a go for a spring opening January B, 2018 Kent, Washington 9. , Su Julie Pulliam Page 6 of 5