HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development - 10/11/2021 (2)
Economic and Community
Development Committee
Monday, October 11, 2021
4:00 PM
Chambers
Masks are required regardless of vaccination status.
A live broadcast is available on Kent TV21,
www.facebook.com/CityofKent, and
www.youtube.com/user/KentTV21
To listen to this meeting,
call 1-888-475-4499 or 1-877-853-5257
and enter Meeting ID 863 1581 9764
Chair Bill Boyce
Councilmember Marli Larimer Councilmember Zandria Michaud
**************************************************************
Item Description Action Speaker Time
1. Call to Order Chair 01 MIN.
2. Roll Call Chair 01 MIN.
3. Agenda Approval Chair 01 MIN.
4. Approval of Minutes Chair 01 MIN.
YES
1. Approval of September 13, Chair 05 MIN.
2021 Minutes
5. Information Items Chair 01 MIN.
NO
A. INFO ONLY: Business Michelle Wilmot 15 MIN.
Support Communication
Tools
NO
B. INFO ONLY: Housing Kaelene Nobis 15 MIN.
Resources Website Update
6. Adjournment Chair 01 MIN.
Unless otherwise noted, the Economic and Community Development Committee meets at 4
p.m. on the second Monday of each month in the Kent City Hall, Council Chambers, 220
Fourth Avenue South, Kent, WA 98032.
For additional information please contact Rhonda Bylin at 253-856-5457 or
Rbylin@kentwa.gov.
Any per
253-856-5725 in advance. For TDD relay service call Washington Telecommunications Relay
Service at 7-1-1.
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Pending Approval
Economic and Community
Development Committee
CC ECDC Regular Meeting
Minutes
September 13, 2021
Date: September 13, 2021
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Place: Chambers
Attending: Bill Boyce, Committee Chair
Marli Larimer, Councilmember
Zandria Michaud, Councilmember
Agenda:
1. Call to Order 4:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Bill Boyce Committee Chair Present
Marli Larimer Councilmember Present
Zandria Michaud Councilmember Present
3. Agenda Approval
4. Business
A. INFO ONLY: "Food Hub" Study: Job Training and Food
Entrepreneurship Services in South King County
advisory
members and stakeholders include Kent based organizations like World
Relief, Project Feast, and Living Well Kent. Kent Valley companies in food
brand development and contract manufacturing are included, as are regional
non-profits like Global to
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The update from project manager Mike Lufkin of King County covered the
scope of work, its goals and objectives, and introduced the consultant team
selected by the partners to assist - New Venture Advisors. Additionally, AJ
McClure, Executive Director of Global to local gave some background on the
history and development of food entrepreneurship support in the region,
going back approximately 10 years. Kara Martin, also from Global to Local
and manager of Spice Bridge Global Food Hall in Tukwila, discussed their
vision for expansion of business services, highlighting gaps in food business
incubation and acceleration services.
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Economic and Community Development September 13, 2021
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
When asked how long-term viability would be assessed and where
maintenance funding would come from, guest speakers emphasized that
based project is in the very first stage of imagining, and those questions
would be easier to answer in the next phases of the project, and also depend
on which additional partnerships emerged.
The presentation introduced key initiatives to advance business development
equity in a major area of industry within the Kent Valley submarket.
B. INFO ONLY: Permit Process/Amanda Software Update
Matt Gilbert explained how the closure of the buildings in early spring 2020
due to COVID-
permitting process. With a great deal of help from IT, a rapid transition from
in-person interactions and paper plans to remote work and paperless plan
submission and review was achieved. However, these changes meant that
even more labor was required to intake and manage each permit application,
and eventually, the PC was quite far behind, so a second round of
adjustments were required. The first step of that was to close the Permit
Center fully during what is historically a slow period at the end of December
and January, to allow staff to catch up on the backlog.
After initially offering customers the ability to submit permits online 24/7,
after the holiday period closure hours were scaled back so that permits could
only be submitted during certain hours of the day, when staff would be
available to provide quality control and some management of the process.
Barbara Napier described this step as initiating a virtual face to face service
environment as customers were also able to schedule time with a permit
technician to go over their applications, reducing the need for back and forth
communications and multiple resubmittals.
th
Re-opening city buildings on July 19 allowed staff to welcome the public
back and provide some in-person services, but challenges remained. Not the
least of which is that Permit Center and other ECD staff are very hard at
work testing many aspects of the new permitting system as designed on the
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Amanda platform. This effort was started prior to COVID-19, and the current
phase, requires a lengthy and focused effort from staff throughout ECD. For
all of these reasons, additional staff have been brought aboard through temp
agencies, and a term limited inspector position has been converted to a term
limited permit technician, with recruiting in process at the time of this
meeting.
Committee members expressed that they looked forward to future updates
on the progress of Amanda.
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Economic and Community Development September 13, 2021
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
C. INFO ONLY: Upcoming Grant Opportunities from Department of
Commerce
Hayley Bonsteel stepped to the podium to discuss upcoming grant
opportunities from the Department of Commerce.
Housing Action Plan Implementation (HAPI) grants of up to $100,000 are
available for cities that have adopted Housing Action Plans - like the recently
adopted Kent Housing Options Plan (KHOP). Possible KHOP related projects
for this grant could include middle housing code amendment support,
collaborating with SKHHP on establishment of a monitoring system for
naturally occurring and subsidized affordable housing, and/or further work
related to mobile home park preservation. Councilmember Michaud asked
could mean creating a database of all housing considered to be affordable
(either naturally or because it is subsidized to be so) and then monitoring the
various threats faced in a housing market like the greater Puget Sound
region is experiencing, specifically profit taking sales and redevelopment into
more up market housing. Hayley also emphasized that a coordinated effort
with the SKHHP partners, was an attractive option both in terms of pooling
funds and sharing responsibilities on a larger scale project.
Transit-Oriented Development Implementation (TODI) grants, also at up to
$100,000, are available for cities to facilitate TOD in areas of high-capacity
transit including bus rapid transit. Subarea plans, environmental review, and
local code amendments are all eligible costs; with several bus rapid transit
lines coming to Kent in the near future, there is great opportunity for Kent to
update land use in response to these transit investments. Specific options
include studying several future RapidRide corridors at a higher level, or
focusing on the RapidRide I line and completing a subarea plan and new
zoning for station areas along that corridor. Given the recent application for
Canyon Ridge Center (along the I-line) to be designated a countywide center
candidate, staff are interested in input on these options and how they can
support various city planning efforts. Committee members felt that staff
should focus on this I-line corridor as the priority target for a grant
application, since it is coming on first and the most is known about what
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might enhance this corridor.
D. Reappointment to the Public Facilities District Board - Appoint
Kurt Hanson Explained that Mr. Haffner had been selected to complete the
unexpired Term of Mike Mills, who resigned his Position 2 seat in May of
2019. He also explained that the make of the Public Facilities district board is
a combination of members who have been approved by booster organizations
external to City government, and members who are appointed by Kent City
Council. Position 2 is a council appointed board position. Because the
unexpired term completed by Mr. Haffner was less than 3 years in length, Mr.
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Economic and Community Development September 13, 2021
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
Haffner is eligible to serve two full terms as a board member, should the
council appoint him next week, and if he wishes to continue serving as a
board member.
MOTION: I move to appoint Greg Haffner to Position 2 of the Public
Facilities District board for a four-year term starting on September 1,
2021 and ending August 31, 2025.
RESULT: MOTION PASSES \[UNANIMOUS\] Next: 9/21/2021 7:00 PM
MOVER: Bill Boyce, Committee Chair
SECONDER: Zandria Michaud, Councilmember
AYES: Boyce, Larimer, Michaud
E. INFO ONLY: Importance of Pollinator Gardens - Small Changes can
Bring Positive Impacts
Kurt Hanson, Director of Economic and Community Development, introduced
a slide show to explain what a pollinator is (bees, and other insects that are
attracted to flowers, as well as some bird species), and why we aren
talking about a pollinator garden. Pollinator gardens are generally small in
scale and highly designed. While they provide both beauty and habitat in
developed areas, they definitely require regular care and maintenance, and
the city is interested in taking on.
On the other hand, a pollinator meadow, such as is already installed in Lake
Fenwick Park, is achieved with a spray-on mix similar to hydroseed, only with
multiple easily propagated bloomers that are then allowed to self-sow, and
do not require mowing, irrigation or much other maintenance. These have
many potential applications for municipal land management, with no great
outlay of funds or manpower. The city could utilize this in its own projects,
and it could request or require regional partners to utilize the same
techniques to mitigate the impacts of development or lack of development on
large land swaths.
Both Councilmembers Larimer and Michaud, remarked that they had seen
this technique utilized in multiple settings, and feet it adds much more
beauty and other value to a place than simple grass hydroseeding.
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5. Adjournment 5:26 p.m.
Rhonda Bylin
Committee Secretary
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6/B
ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Kurt Hanson, AICP, EDFP
220 Fourth Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
253-856-5454
DATE: October 11, 2021
TO: Economic and Community Development Committee
SUBJECT: INFO ONLY: Business Support Communication Tools
SUMMARY: Staff will present on work completed to date to inventory, assess, and
assemble a guidebook of culturally competent and diverse business technical
assistance services available in Kent and throughout south King County. Update will
provide detail on ECD partnerships and information sharing with business technical
assistance organizations and explain how the guidebook resource will support the
work of main street organizations, chambers of commerce, and economic
development professionals.
In addition, this presentation will include an update on ECD and Multimedia efforts
to create materials for use at the actual permit counter in Centennial Center and
at the virtual one designed to educate business applicants on resources available
and how best to prepare for commercial projects in the City of Kent.
SUPPORTS STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL:
Thriving City - Creating safe neighborhoods, healthy people, vibrant commercial districts, and
inviting parks and recreation.
Inclusive Community - Embracing our diversity and advancing equity through genuine community
engagement.
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6/C
ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Kurt Hanson, AICP, EDFP
220 Fourth Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032
253-856-5454
DATE: October 11, 2021
TO: Economic and Community Development Committee
SUBJECT: INFO ONLY: Housing Resources Website Update
SUMMARY: Creating a Housing One-Stop-Shop resource was an early
implementation item for Kent's Housing Option Plan (KHOP). Staff identified a lack
of clear and concise resources available to the public when looking for housing
information on the City website. The Planning, Human Services, and Rental Housing
Inspection Program team identified each department's most commonly used
resources and which information was not available on the current website. Long-
range planning staff will discuss the collaborative process and provide a tour of the
new "Housing One Stop Shop" webpage.
SUPPORTS STRATEGIC PLAN GOAL:
Inclusive Community - Embracing our diversity and advancing equity through genuine community
engagement.
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