HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development - 09/12/2022 Pending Approval
Economic and Community
KENT Development Committee
W-...... CC ECDC Regular Meeting
Minutes
September 12, 2022
Date: September 12, 2022
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Place: Chambers
Members: Toni Troutner, 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
Toni Troutner Committee Chair Present
Marli Larimer Councilmember Present _
Zandria Michaud Councilmember Present
3. Agenda Approval
4. Business
A. Approval of Minutes
1. Approval of Minutes dated July 11, 2022
MOTION: Move to approve the Minutes dated July 11, 2022
RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Zandria Michaud, Councilmember
SECONDER: Marli Larimer, Councilmember
AYES: Troutner, Larimer, Michaud
B. 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update
Kurt Hanson introduces Long Range Planning Manager Kristen Holdsworth,
who joined the Cit of Kent on September 1. Kristen comes to Kent after
working as a senior planner for the City of Lynnwood and is originally from
California. Kurt also takes a minute to commend Kaelene Nobis, who has ably
steered the LRP ship solo since the departure of H. Harper in early June.
Updating the City's Comprehensive Plan will be a major focus of Kristen's
work as she begins her career with the City, and she provides an overview of
what needs doing and why and what elements of the plan update are already
underway.
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Economic and Community Development September 12, 2022
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
A Comprehensive Plan is a vision for the city for the next 20 years. If done
well, it explains who we are as a community, what our goals and aspirations
are, what type of services and amenities we have and need, and how we will
continue to accommodate for growth. The Comp Plan proactively anticipates
challenges and opportunities. As the community's plan, it should effectively
and efficiently connect people to opportunities to work, play, and enjoy the
community while also protecting natural resources that are vital to the PNW.
The state requires most cities and counties to update their comprehensive
plans every 8-10 years. GMA mandates that jurisdictions plan for both
household and job growth through the next 20 years. For western
Washington cities, this means we are planning for the time-frame of 2024-
2044. We can't dictate the free market or require development to happen,
but we must make sure we have designated land capacity through our
comprehensive plan, zoning, and development regulations. In 2017, PSRC
started updating the regional policies for growth. Then, King County and the
cities updated the countywide policies through the growth management
planning council. Kent's update deadline is the opportunity to make these
policies work for Kent, and provides flexibility as long as we aren't directly
conflicting with any of the overarching policies.
The Comprehensive Plan is a broad visioning document with goals and
policies. We also have functional plans (such as stormwater management,
transportation management plan, economic development plan, parks plans).
Regulations such as the zoning map, development code, and design
guidelines implement the vision into specific development requirements.
Projects can be privately or publicly funded - such as Kent station, ST light
rail stations, or redevelopment of the Canyon Ridge shopping center north
quadrant.
Here's a quick summary of what's in the 2015 Comp Plan (about 200 pages
with an additional 100 pages of technical data):
It includes 9 elements - Human services is not required by state law, but
jurisdictions have the option to add optional elements
We also have 3 subarea plans, which are adopted by reference.
Importantly, we have 2 PSRC-designated growth centers. These are areas of
regional significance that have connectivity to transit, economic, and housing
opportunities. These areas are important for Kent to meet housing and
growth targets, but they also have regional significance and come with
opportunities for additional grant funding.
Downtown was designated in 1995, and a MIC was designated in 2002. In
2025 there will be a re-certification process for these centers, so part of our
Comp Plan process will be ensuring the centers comply with the process.
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Economic and Community Development September 12, 2022
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
We are finalizing a contract to bring on a consultant to assist with the Comp
Plan update. Meanwhile, we have identified a few key efforts that will be
essential to the process. Equity lens focusing on inclusion, respect and
transparency through outreach that meets the community where they are
and how they want to be reached.
While much has been accomplished, Comprehensive Plans aren't intended to
be static documents. They are updated every 8-10 years to recognize
changing conditions and anticipate new needs. Kaelene is going to provide an
overview of some of the work the City has been participating in to help us
identify issues to address for the next 20 years. Taking a periodic look at
progress toward goals has been essential to identifying where adjustments
might need to happen. One key finding of the most recent KC Urban Growth
Capacity Report is that Kent is on track to meet 2035 housing and
employment targets. It also led to an update of County Wide Planning
Policies. The updated CPPs create consistency with PSRC's Vision 2050 and
reflect new priorities to address equity and social justice. In March 2022,
Kent ratified the CPPs and growth targets through Resolution 2033. Because
we are on track, Kent maintains flexibility in planning, provided we are not in
direct opposition to CPP goals. Currently we are on track to accomplish
10,200 new housing units and 32,000 new jobs over the next 25 years.
A relatively new piece of legislation - HB 1220 or "Housing affordability" law,
will have a big impact on the update process and a few main components of
the update. Historically, we have had to make sure we had the capacity for
new housing units based on only a number. Now, we must also designate
levels of affordability and include strategies to attract those levels.
Commerce is still working on guidance for determining levels of affordability,
KC Growth Management Planning Committee is having conversations about
how to equitably distribute targes, especially since some cities have had
many more affordable units than others.
Kent's Update will therefore include the following:
Strategies for missing middle housing (duplexes to townhomes)
Examine historical zoning and disparate impacts or limits to wealth creation
through home ownership opportunities
Displacement and anti-displacement strategies
A climate element which is not required, but we are electing to do it as grant
funds are available from K4C to support this
Immediate next steps are:
• September 20: Contract on Council agenda for approval
• September 30: Submit Commerce grant application
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Economic and Community Development September 12, 2022
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
• Ongoing: Monitor conversations regarding housing needs allocation at King
County Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC)
• Coming Soon: 2024 Comprehensive Plan Community Kick Off!
C. 2022 Permitting Activity
Deputy Director Matt Gilbert will provide an update on permitting activity in
the first measurable period since covid restrictions eased. In broad terms,
even despite the pandemic, development activity in Kent has been
remarkably stable, with City staff processing and reviewing some 5000
applications per year. This necessitates some 20,000 inspections annually for
building services and job site inspectors in the field.
While we are not currently tracking exact numbers, with buildings open to
the public again now for more than a year, we are answering hundreds of
questions each week at our public counter in addition to phone and email
inquiries. Staff find phone and email to be the most efficient way to deliver
service for these types of inquires, and many customers have become
accustomed to working with us in this way.
Meanwhile, the number of permit and land use review staff has declined over
all and some of the changes we have made mean that some things take
longer, especially on the front end. As an example, before we went
paperless, it was the applicant that was burdened with providing the city 5
sets of paper plans, which would then be routed and dedicated to the specific
type of review. Now with Bluebeam providing a digital platform for
document review, multiple paper copies are no longer needed but each
separate reviewer must access a single digital "session" so plan review
requires many more steps and touch points for each individual reviewer.
Overall though, we feel pretty good about the vast amounts of paper saved
and vehicle trips back and forth to city hall avoided.
The nature of the projects has also changed a lot as the city has grown.
There has been a big increase in the number of vertical urban style
residential projects, with 5 major apartment projects underway since Covid
began. There are also major infrastructure and regional legacy projects
underway in Kent. This is of course Sound Transit and these require
dedicated staff to oversee due to the multiple iterations of plan review
because ST is making design decisions at the same time as they are building
the basic infrastructure. Metro's Rapid Ride I line also requires input not just
from ECD but all the transportation related functions in Public works, with
multiple construction locations for stops, signals, lane widening, and other
modifications related to safety and impact reduction for adjacent properties
of all types to consider. The point is, regional investments in Kent, while
welcome and necessary to enhance our community, are not free.
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Economic and Community Development September 12, 2022
Committee CC ECDC Regular Meeting Kent, Washington
Minutes
Infrastructure related to advances in tech, like 5G, are also creating notable
impacts. With equipment upgrades needed at hundreds of locations, many on
our near public right of way, and federal requirements in place for quick
turnaround, staff still must look at each individual install and its power
connections, resulting in a staff time intensive effort.
Other technologies changes that are impacting staff include a marked
increase in permits for residential solar panels. While they have been around
for quite a while now, it has been a slow trickle until recently. However, 25
applications in 2022 thus far is a notable uptick, which is likely to continue
growing, possibly due to federal tax incentives provided to those who make
the switch.
A number of changes brought about by the pandemic are also seemingly
here to stay, and as we move forward and make adjustments continue to
impact permitting. These include going paperless, accomodating hybrid work
schedules, changing hours for our public counter, and adding additional staff
to the permit center.
5. Adjournment 4:43 p.m.
Xh ByUAv
Committee Secretary
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