Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development Committee - 05/14/2018 Page 1 of 4 Approved Economic and Community Development Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Minutes May 14, 2018 Date: May 14, 2018 Time: 5:00 PM Place: Chambers East Attending: Bill Boyce, Committee Chair Toni Troutner, Councilmember Satwinder Kaur, Councilmember Agenda: 1. Call to Order 5:00 PM 2. Roll Call Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Bill Boyce Committee Chair Present Toni Troutner Councilmember Present Satwinder Kaur Councilmember Present 3. Changes to the Agenda 4. Approval of April 9, 2018 Minutes MOTION: Move to approve the minutes from the ECDC Committee meeting of April 9, 2018. RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Toni Troutner, Councilmember SECONDER: Satwinder Kaur, Councilmember AYES: Boyce, Troutner, Kaur 5. Economic Development Update Bill Ellis gave a brief talk on recent economic development activities including the Award won by Kent's own Pacific Metallurgical Small firm Manufacturer of the Year, during a ceremony attended by ECD Staff, the present council members and Dana Ralph and Patrick Briggs. Puget Sound Regional Council are attempting to define what the Space Sector means today and what its economic impacts are: who are these employers, what are these jobs, and what are their specific needs when it comes to workforce enhancement. Kent Sponsorship of the AJAC Training Center Employer roundtable breakfast to be held in May is an effort to bring Kent Valley and adjacent district Economic and Community Development Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Minutes May 14, 2018 Kent, Washington Page 2 of 4 employers together to gather insights and foster collaboration on these issues. Councilmember Kaur mentioned Renton's work with Q13 news to promote Renton as a technology hub, and Bill indicated he saw many future opportunities to co-brand with Renton and other organizations and groups to benefit Economic Development in Kent. Chairman Boyce congratulated Bill on the unveiling of underpass lights for Meet ME on Meeker DT enhancement project. 6. School District Impact Fees Hayley Bonsteel, Long Range Planning Manager, presented a proposal to adopt an ordinance setting a maximum allowable school district impact fee of $8,229 for single-family dwelling units and $8,386 for multifamily dwelling units, which will be updated each year based on construction cost index values. The City Authorizes these fees on behalf of the school districts which operate within its boundaries, but for various reasons, and depending on the school district, there has been very little predictability from year to year in the size of the fees assessed on new development, and the proposal is an effort to provide a more predictable cost for developers, while still collecting the funds needed for the impacted school districts. Sally McLean from Federal Way School District requested the floor and read a prepared statement on behalf of Superindtendent Campbell that FWSD was strongly opposed to the proposal to set a cap, explaining that they had determined the fees based on the King County Model established by the Growth Management Act and that it should be born in mind that during the down economy when no one was building housing, they were collecting no fees at all, and now that so much of the construction is multifamily housing which is having a far greater impact on school enrollments than predicted, and on which no impact fees are collected, so it stood to reason that assessments would be high when construction activity resumed. A representative from Auburn School District, while admitting the cap would have almost no impact in his district, also registered his concerns about this proposal. Satwinder Kaur remarks that she feels somewhat uncomfortable that we have no comment from the Kent School District. Ms. Bonsteel notes that efforts to contact KSD officials had not resulted in feedback from them as yet. MOTION: Recommend Council adopt an ordinance setting a maximum allowable school district impact fee of $8,229 for single-family dwelling units and $8,386 for multifamily dwelling units, which will be updated each year based on construction cost index values. Economic and Community Development Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Minutes May 14, 2018 Kent, Washington Page 3 of 4 RESULT: RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Toni Troutner, Councilmember SECONDER: Satwinder Kaur, Councilmember AYES: Boyce, Troutner, Kaur 7. Code Enforcement Civil Infractions Ordinance Matt Gilbert presented to the committee that the ECD Code Enforcement office has been working the Law Department to explore further process improvements in the area of Code Enforcement which went through a lengthy lean process in 2016, which brought more structure and follow through to the process of holding property owners and tenants responsible for substandard conditions on private property. The efficiencies created brought attention to the burdensome nature of the documentation required to bring a troubled property into compliance. The ordinance we propose to council is still in draft form, but it will request that we add civil infraction authority to Chapter 8 (health & sanitation), chapter 13 (fire prevention), Chapter 14 (buildings & construction) and chapter 15 (zoning) of the Kent City Code. ECD proposes to continue sending admonishment letters, as a courtesy to property owners and tenants prompting them to correct violations before a citation is issued. We expect the infraction process to result in faster compliance with less staff time required to resolve each complaint. We are interested in the Committee’s feedback and plan to bring forward an ordinance for action on June 11. 8. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Operations Structure and Grant Funding Cycle Michelle Wilmot presented that city staff will be proposing the establishment of a more structured operation and grant funding process for Kent’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC). Currently, word-of-mouth is the primary avenue applicants become aware of the availability of grant dollars to support tourism activities. While the rules for how these funds are utilized are strict, staff feels that there is a way to expand the definition of tourism to include business travel and other activities associated with all the commerce that takes place in Kent. The current system is very ad hoc and has not resulted in the hoped for variety of events in which to participate. We are currently meeting with our non city partners on the LTAC committee to gauge their openness to changing the process and collaborate on the proposed changes. Economic and Community Development Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Minutes May 14, 2018 Kent, Washington Page 4 of 4 Bill Boyce remarked that the Lodging Tax Funds represent a significant opportunity to provide help to groups who want to stage events in our lovely city, and it would be nice to see more volume and variety of proposals to consider. Kurt Hanson offered anecdotally that his personal involvement with similar grant dispensing organizations utilizing a more structured and competitive process did result in a higher bar for the events that received funding. 9. Adjournment 6:01 AM Committee Chair Bill Boyce Adjourned the Meeting Committee Secretary