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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Economic and Community Development - 05/12/2014 � KENT I<I r .xcron ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES May 12, 2014 Committee Members Committee Chair Bill Boyce, Dennis Higgins, and Jim Berrios. Boyce called the meeting to order at 5:00 pm. 1. Approval of Minutes Higgins Moved and Boyce Seconded a Motion to approve the Minutes of April 14, 2014. Motion PASSED 2-0 in Berrios's delayed arrival. 2. County-wide Planning Policies Ratification Planning Director Fred Satterstrom stated that the Growth Management Act requires planning consistency among jurisdictions within the same county. Kent is asked to ratify a planning policy for the City of Issaquah proposing to designate a portion of their downtown as an urban center. The Growth Management Planning Committee (GMPC) agrees with this proposal and the King County Council passed this proposal on to the cities to ratify. Staff recommends approval to move this to City Council for their concurrence. Higgins Moved and Berrios Seconded a Motion recommending to the full Council ratification of an amendment to the Urban Growth Area Map in the 2012 King County Countywide Planning Policies (CPPs) to add the Central Issaquah Urban Core as an Urban Center as approved under Growth Management Planning County (GMPC) Motion No. 13-1. Motion PASSED 3-0. 3. Economic Development Strategic Plan Economic and Community Development Director Ben Wolters stated that he presented the Strategic Plan (SP) before Council at their workshop last week with councilmember Higgins expressing the need for the city to conduct broader community outreach. The mayor's leadership team has been generally positively receptive of the SP. Wolters stated that he might propose removal towards implementing a manufacturing institute to support manufacturing and would possibly propose adding a task that would focus on attracting foreign investment to Kent as the city has experienced some success with foreign investment, stating that he believes there is a regional push in that direction that will occur within the next 10 plus years and feels that Kent is in a good position to take advantage of that. Wolters questioned how the Committee would like to proceed in order to get to adoption and closure on the Plan. He stated that the update to the comprehensive plan (CP) is coming up and that process can begin concurrently with the Committee's continued review and evaluation of the development strategy and ultimate adoption of the Plan. Satterstrom stated that according to state law, the Comprehensive Plan (CP) is due for update every 7 years. Kent's last update occurred in 2004. Legislation allowed an extension due to funding problems. Kent must be in the process of updating or adopting the CP by June 30, 2015. The CP may be amended annually as well as considered outside of that annual cycle by declaring an emergency to move forward with an amendment. Wolters stated that the CP includes an element related to economic development. This SP is more comprehensive than the previous SP. Staff's effort was to highlight how the breadth ECDC Minutes May 12,2014 Page 1 of 4 of what the city does impacts economic development and vice versa. Staff saw the SP as a precursor for setting the stage for the CP. The Committee asked that staff report back minimally twice a year on the city's progress and what the Committee needs to take action on. Higgins suggested that staff present the SP to the Chamber of Commerce and Kent Downtown Partnership (KDP) upon adoption. Berrios spoke about the importance of reaching out to businesses and making sure they are kept informed with respect to infrastructure issues and where funding will come from. Kent needs to maintain credibility with the community as we go through the SP process. If Kent can rally the community around the SP, we can grow our city. Wolters asked the committee if they would entertain a resolution coming back next month approving and adopting the SP. The Committee concurred with approving the SP next month and moving it to full Council, with Barrios stating that the SP can be adapted if needed. One of the goals of the City is to conduct broader outreach through the CP update process to receive more citizen input. Satterstrom stated that the Growth Management Act (GMA) encourages citizen participation. He stated that Kent has evolved into a more diverse community. Part of the outreach program for the CP update will be to consider how to reach those diverse populations which traditionally haven't been involved in comprehensive planning. The City held a meeting with Futurewise; who is working on the issue of how to reach those diverse communities. The city is working with Futurewise on a collaborative effort to integrate the results of those findings into the CP. Satterstrom stated that an announcement was made at the Mayor's leadership team meeting that the process of rolling out the CP was underway and that all departments would need to delegate representatives for an interdepartmental team to decide on what the outreach program would look like. Staff will report back to the Committee once the outreach and work program is developed. Upon recommendations by the Committee Wolters stated that perhaps an executive summary of the SP could be posted on the city's website for public preview. Informational Only 4. Sound Transit Federal Way Link Extension Update Satterstrom stated that he was showing a 10 minute animated video presentation that illustrates what elevated or at-grade station types might look like, and to provide a visual to consider different alternatives Sound Transit has talked about with regard to the Federal Way Extension and what those options might look like. Satterstrom stated that the presentation reflects the East Link of the Bellevue to Redmond Light Rail System alignment. One option under consideration is a trench design at Highline Community College. Satterstrom stated that those council members touring the existing light rail station sites will see noise wall mitigation, trails that have been worked in, and other mitigation offered at other station sites. Staff will conduct an internal analysis of transit-oriented development opportunities that the different stations and alignments offer. Staff approached the Urban Land Institute (ULI) about holding a panelist discussion to collaboratively identify those they wish to include on the panel such as economic development, planning, and commercial real estate experts. Once technical expert panelist selections have been made, ULI will hold a Charette where staff will pose questions related to "Which of the 8 alignments and station locations in the Highline area offers the most ECDC Minutes May 12,2014 Page 2 of 4 advantages and captures the best opportunities for transit-oriented and future economic development?" The panelists will take a multi-disciplinary view of this question. Staff will meet with ULI on May 22nd to become familiar with ULI, with the project and with the protocols and requirements for entering into an agreement with ULI. Once Kent contracts with ULI, ULI will tour Kent, hold discussions with their panel of experts, and make their presentation answering questions posed to them by Kent staff. The technical panel may look at Federal Way station locations in July. Deliverables include panel presentation at the end of their day in Kent with the submittal of a formal report within six weeks along with a power point presentation. Informational Only S. Parking Zones Amendment — DSAP Implementation Wolters stated that this item was presented before the Public Works Committee at their last meeting as an informational item and will return to the Public Works Committee for action. Discussion has been held over past several months on parking in downtown. King County conducted a parking study that educated Kent staff to parking inventory opportunities and issues. Kent Downtown Partnership (KDP) indicated interest (in part sparked by a hair salon business owner with collaboration by several council members) in extending parking for some portions of the downtown streets beyond two hours. Council found that it is not legal to move your car every two hours on the same street. With this recognition, interest, and the study that was conducted, the city was able to collaborate with the KDP. Lisa Vivian with Eberle Vivian lead a volunteer parking committee comprised of KDP and city staff representing several departments to craft the parking proposal. Wolters defined those streets where 2 hour parking would remain and where parking is proposed to change to 4 hours as favored by all the businesses, while preventing all day parking for commuters or employees yet provides more latitude to support the businesses along those streets. Former Deputy Chief Strauss suggested changing the two hour parking along State Street to no parking limitations to better serve the turnover for the health clients in that area. KDP has recommended changing the existing two hour parking along Titus Street adjacent to the parking lot owned by the city to provide additional parking for employees to supplement what is already within that parking lot. Informational Only 6. Land Use and Planning Board (LUPB) Schedule for May-July Satterstrom stated that the LUPB will hold a workshop this evening (May 12) to consider the Downtown Design Guidelines (DDG) and Recreational Marijuana Zoning. The LUPB will hold a public hearing May 271h on the DDG, a public hearing or workshop on June 91h with a possible hearing to be held June 23r'.on recreational marijuana. The LUPB will hold a workshop June 91h and June 23r' with a public hearing on July 141h to consider Riverbend property amendments. The Riverbend property amendments will be brought before the Committee late July or early August. Informational Only 7. Economic Development Update Wolters stated that the General Services Administration (GSA), landlord and developer for the Federal Government, held an industry day question and answer session about new Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements they are putting out in the marketplace for a new regional Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Headquarters. GSA proposes a 300,000 sf facility that would house 1600 employees. This would include employees currently at the Renton site and consolidation from other FAA facilities in Region 10 of the FAA covering much of the western Pacific Northwest states that includes Alaska and Hawaii. This coming Friday is the next deadline date for submittal of preliminary proposals. Kent reached an ECDC Minutes May 12,2014 Page 3 of 4 agreement last Friday with Mortenson Construction, LMN Architects and Heinz development who will proceed with submitting a proposal for the city owned Naden site. Wolters stated that it is his understanding that GSA will bid exclusively on the Naden site. GSA does not require property owner approval at this point; they just want to see who is out there and who wants to go with what and then GSA will provide feedback for their more formal submission that will occur in the months ahead. Wolters stated that another developer became aware of the opportunities at the Riverbend site and will wait to see what happens on Friday, but may proceed with submitting a concept for the FAA facility for that site. Staff will continue developing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Riverbend site. Staff is receiving good preliminary interest through our contacts in the market place on the Riverbend site. The GSA has expanded their site search to a 10 mile radius that includes an adjunct of the southern portion of the Seattle Downtown Business District that brings into play a couple office buildings with the square footage to accommodate the FAA facility. The challenges for those buildings is that a decision needs to be made on whether to hold off signing leases now and over the coming months to clear out potential space to meet the requirements and deadline for the targeted opening date of August 1, 2017. GSA has confirmed that this project is fully funded. Wolters stated that he has been given the go ahead to submit a supplemental budget request related to permitting and is in the process of drafting that request which will go to the Mayor for consideration. If approved, this proposal would include funding for this year to add some temporary assistance to help with the permitting process throughout this year. Informational Only Adiournment Committee Member Boyce adjourned the meeting at 6:20 p.m. Pamela Mottram, Secretary Economic & Community Development Committee P:\Planning\ECDC\2014\Minutes\05-12-14_Min.docx ECDC Minutes May 12,2014 Page 4 of 4