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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development Committee - 12/12/2016 (2)1 KENT Wa 3 H r N G r o À ECONOMIC & COMMUNIW DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES December L2,2016 Committee Members Bill Boyce, Tina Budell, Jim Berrios 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Chanoes to the Aqenda No Changes 4. Aooroval of Minutes Jim Berrios requested clarity and review on item #7 from the November 14 meeting on the Surface Water Manual, no action was taken at ECD, This item has went to Public Works Committee for approval but there seems to be concerns about the vaults for suface water. I would like to know if there will be further review of this item before it is pasted through full Council at the next meeting, Chair Boyce stated there was a meeting at 4:00 today with City Staff - Tim Laporte and Ben Wolters and Council Member Dennis Higgins, Bill Boyce, along with CAO Derek Matheson. It was decided to pull this item from the next Council Meeting and take it back to Public Works Committee and have further discussions between the City stake holders and make sure we are all on the same page with the goal being to bring this item back to the January !7th Council meeting. Council Member Berrios asked about the time sensitivity of this item, Wolters, Economic and Community Development Director acknowledged the Dept, of Ecology has a deadline for this as January 1, however after conversation with the City Attorney and with the amount of work and effort that has already been completed by the City to adopt the standards by the January meeting is showing the City's intent to comply, if not by the except date but within the month of January showing the City is working on this item and moving forward in good faith. Committee Member Budell MOVED and Committee Member SECONDED a Motion to Approve the Minutes of November 14th. PASSED 3-O, with clarification of the sudace water manual item. Berrios Motion 5. Multifamilv Tax Exemotion - Riverbend Site Matt Gilbert, Current Planning Manager spoke on the second part of the 2-part process to allow the Multifamily Tax Exemption at the Riverbend site, In November, the Council set an urban area around the Riverbend site that was step 1, step 2 is to establish a specific area within the Residential Targeted Area, and this is the area within the new urban center where the multifamily tax exemption will be a possibility for projects, This creates a place where future projects can apply through the Council and Code. We are currently working with a developer who is working through the planning process and their application will be coming to the Council within the next year. What Council has to vote on tonight is an ordinance to create the residential targeted area with a minor adjustment to the qualification as it relates to parking garages when the multifamily tax exemption program was extended a few years 2 ago the Council added a qualifying project had to have all the required parking in a parking structure, that was meant for downtown. We are now extending this to the Riverbend site and we are not in and intense urban area, This site is more of an open space context. We have added some language saying projects shall provide structured parking but can also use surface parking within the design, The developer we are working with now has structure parking under 2 buildings but also suface parking within the plan. We wanted to make sure there would be flexibility within the ordinance. Nothing is being changed for the downtown area. Council Member Berrios wanted clarification on the parking change only being for the specific Par 3 area. Gilbert responded, y€s, the new residential area which is the Par 3 area. Gilbert stated the downtown projects will remain the way they are today which says all required parking must be in a structure and it is clearly spelled out like that in the ordinance, Council Member Berrios asked about the question about having a savings to the developer of $25,000, and where did the number come from, Gilbert stated it is not a number he has knowledge of, The savings would depend on the value of the project and we do not know that at this time, When the application is in process that is when we will be able to make that determination, and provide that number. The Dwell Project took the exemption and the Platform did not, The tax break only pertains to the multifamily part and the commercial part is still taxed yearly. Committee Member Budell MOVED and Committee Member Berrios SECONDED a Motion to recommend the Council adopt an ordinance establishing a Residential Targeted Area, and adopt related changes to Chapter 3.25 of the Kent City Code, entitled "Multifamily Dwelling Tax Exemptions." Motion Passed 3-O, 7. Sound Transit Memo of Understandinq charlene Anderson, Long Range Planning Manager presented the memo of understanding from Sound Transit, When Sound Transit Board selected their preferred alternative back in July of 2015 they request Sound Transit staff work with stakeholders to make the connection to Highline College significant and to make sure it is supportive of transit supported development and to see if the permit process could be streamlined. We have also been looking at East, West connections, partnerships that might happen, code applications, and flexibility of those codes. Sound Transit is expected to go back to their board to select a project to build early next year, Sound Transit has asked City jurisdictions come up with a memo of understanding to show we have been working together and what progress we have made. Those items are included in the memo of understanding.If the Committee moves to recommend the City Council endorse the Mayors signature on the memo in your packet it will be voted on January 3'd at the Council Meeting. Committee Member Berrios MOVED and Committee Member Budell SECONDED the motion to move to recommend to the full City Council ECDC Minutes December 12,2016 2 3endorsement of the Mayor's Understanding between Sound PASSED 3-O. signature on the Memorandum ofTransit and the City of Kent. Motion 8. ShoWare Update - Information Onlv Ben Wolters stating Showare is in line to have a relatively good year and Wolters is expecting it to be similar to last year (2015). We are seeing a steady increase on admissions, Another factor is the region is growing around the facility and the population has increases since the opening. Council Member Boyce asked a question about a tax that was passed for the Tacoma dome, and are we preparing for the time when our building gets older. Wolters stated we are working toward that, and the Councils decision to set aside $500,000 annually for operating, which we have been outperforming and is money going back to cover previous expenses is a good start. The Council also set aside $300,000 year, Tim Higgins ShoWare General Manager is working on a schedule to replace and repair normal wear to the building. Areas of interest going forward to replace will be:o Mechanical systems. Lighting systems (some have already been replaced)r Telecommunications. Public Announcing & video production systems. Seat replacement will be a big ticket item in the millions. Carpet replacement will be in several 9100,000 Council Member Berrios mentioned the cracks in the concrete and Wolters stated they are mostly cosmetic the reality is concrete cracks there are some treatments that can be used and make it still look good, At this time ShoWare is and will continue to monitor this. Berrios stated we clearly have the right person in Tim Higgins managing the ShoWare Center, Wolters agreed. Berrios asked if ShoWare is still getting good trade recognition. Wolters said yes we are on the map for a wide variety of events. 9. Marketinq and Tourism Update - Information Onlv Ben Wolters reported on the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee back in September deciding to select JayRay to be the marketing consultant and the he contract with JayRay was signed today. With the signing of the contract the decision was madeto start with a smaller contract for just over $19,000 with 2 basic tasks, 1) an overall assessment on where are current marketing efforts are for Kent and make recommendations for a 12 month program, 2) Plus all the information related tothe website, social media accounts have been transferred to JayRay and maintaining a very active Website is a very important task. Wolters said we are on our way to the new and exciting activity. The Committee has a reserve of almost a half million dollars with on average each year of approximately g200,000 from Hotel/Motel tax revenue, This can be devoted toward marketing if the LTAC chooses. Wolters is looking forward to the Committee make some real significant roads in marketing Kent next year, We have a Lodging Tax meeting in January. ECDC Minutes December 12,20L6 3 4 1O. Economic Development Uodate - Information Onlv Bill Ellis gave a presentation on the Training Center and the America promise Grant in August of 2016, unfortunately we were unsuccessful in getting that grant. But agood outcome from pressuring that grant was we were recognized by the Dept. of Commerce to take the lead on repurposing Wmati dollars. The state legislature in2013 set aside over $12 million dollars to put a training center at the City of Renton's airfield. That project hit a dead-end when it became clear to the City of Renton there was no business plan to provide training at that location and there was no operating entity that could take on the mission, Seeing the partnership the City of Kent has pulled together, the colleges we haveparticipating, AJAC, Social Services, as well as pointing to the real need we definedin Kent for the residents to have an approximate training center they have endorsed the idea we will work with our partners to come up with a working functional business plan to achieve the original intent of the legislation to create a training center in Kent. We have been working with the College workgroups to define the revenue we would have, what programs that make sense for the colleges to put forward. We have also worked with CAMPS to understand the employer interest and demand. We have had conversations with no-profit trainers like AJAC and Seattle Goodwill, as well as introducing the concept to the Kent school District. We are hoping do with the Port of Seattle aggressive move to acquire real-estate there would be a way to obtain are a series of buildings named the Rivers Edge owned by King County Flood Control District on the NW area of Kent and we have felt like this is an ideal location for 2 reasons, 1) It is split into 3 smaller buildings which could allow an independent operation from the colleges and non-profits but also have the benefits of being co-located next to each othei. It is on the main bus line from downtown Seattle and Kent. One of the key components is that we canreach new students, new employees that the existing campuses would not normally get. This location has a lot of areas around it that could benefit from new workforce We put an email of interest and found the Port was outbid. We are working with the Port to see if there will be a way to still either purchase or use the buildings, All the proponents for the training center are all in favor of having the Trãining Center in Kent, By January we may have a business plans from Goodwill and AJAC to operate a training center in Kent and a understanding from the colleges. We will have all of what we need in place but the real-estate piece Ellis wanted to add the rents are moving up because of low vacancies rates in the Kent Valley are up L2o/o over last quarter of last year, 11. Adjournment of the meetinq 6 o.m. Julie Pulliam ic & Community Development Committee ECDC Minutes December L2,20'J.6 4