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LUTC MINS 03-20-2006G:\LUTC\LUTC Agendas and Summaries 2006\03-20-06 LUTC Minutes.doc City of Federal Way City Council Land Use/Transportation Committee March 20th, 2006 City Hall 5:30 pm City Council Chambers MEETING MINUTES In attendance: Committee chair Jack Dovey; Committee member Dean McColgan; Committee member Eric Faison; Council Member Jeanne Burbidge; Council Member Linda Kochmar; Mayor Michael Park; Interim City Manager Derek Matheson; Public Works Director Cary Roe; Public Works Deputy Director Ken Miller; Community Development Deputy Director Greg Fewins; Street Systems Manager Marwan Salloum; Streets Project Engineer Al Emter; City Traffic Engineer Rick Perez; MIS Director Iwen Wang; Senior Planner Margaret Clark; Deputy City Attorney Karen Kirkpatrick; Associate Planner Andy Bergsagel; and Administrative Assistant II Marianne Lee. A. CALL TO ORDER Councilman Dovey called the meeting to order at 5:34 pm. Committee member McColgan made a motion to reorder the agenda. New order: 1st – A, 2nd – B, 3rd – G, 4th – E, 5th – D, 6th – F, 7th – C. Moved: McColgan Seconded: Faison Passed: Unanimously B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The March 6th, 2006, minutes were approved. C. PUBLIC COMMENT none D. BUSINESS ITEMS A. S 356th @ SR99 Intersection Improvements Project – 30% Design Status Report Marwan Salloum provided background information on this item. Committee member Dean McColgan asked where the $793,000 will come from. Marwan responded that it will come from the Capital Improvement Fund. Will the east leg of S 356th match the west leg? Yes, it will. What happens to the existing road? This is a very encumbered area; there is a stream, the Hylebos wetlands, and surface water issues. Most of the land will be utilized for water quality and remediation. If any land is left over, it will be possible to sell it. Councilmember Kochmar asked about the existing buildings. Marwan said that the building was bought five years ago but it has no existing business license and should not be conducting business. The only other business is a junkyard; staff has not studied that yet but it should be available by the 85% design status report. Committee member McColgan asked if there are accidents at this intersection or if it is currently failing in Level of Service (LOS). Rick Perez responded that there are accidents there, queuing problems during peak p.m. hours, and that it will fail LOS within six years. Committee member Faison asked if the zoning changes they are considering as part of the comp plan amendment are made, what LOS will this intersection meet? Rick said that with current zoning they expect it to meet LOS until 2020, given the results of a study in 2000. They are trying to take the Triangle Project into account; the new exit on I-5 will add 400 cars per hour. Marwan said the city is in discussion with some property owners already and will contact the remaining. Cary Roe interjected that staff is trying to get the State to fund an improvement of 2 lanes (currently there is one now) as far west as possible, to get ready for the needed 5-lane road. (Staff is doing as much prep work for the future 5-lane road as possible now, including Right of Way (ROW) purchase.) Staff continue working on this issue; the City has concerns regarding the current position of the State on this item. SR99 to 1st is on the City’s Transportation Improvement Board (TIP) list. Possible rezoning (from BP) of the area is another reason why additional study is necessary. Moved: McColgan Seconded: Faison Passed: Unanimously Cmte PASSED staff recommendation on to the April 4th, 2006 Council Consent Agenda. Land Use/Transportation Committee Page 2 March 20th, 2006 G:\LUTC\LUTC Agendas and Summaries 2006\03-20-06 LUTC Minutes.doc B. Grant Funding for Transportation Improvement Projects Marwan provided the background information. Moved: Faison Seconded: McColgan Passed: Unanimously \ Cmte PASSED staff recommendation on to the April 4th, 2006 Council Consent Agenda. C. Gravel Streets Policy Ken Miller provided the background information. He noted that cost estimates are very approximate. Committee member McColgan brought this up at the request of some citizens. Cary Roe said that the City has a policy on existing ROW with gravel roads; the existing policy is not to maintain them. City ROW is different that the lands in the Ballinger Act area; there the City has not authority. Committee chair Dovey noted that most of the roads are in the area discussed in item D (the comp plan amendment). If paved, the cost break-even point is in three years. Maintaining it as gravel is inefficient. When the gravel road services more than two homes and the owners want it paved and there are not drainage issues (that would be exacerbated by paving) it makes sense. If the gravel roads are serviced every six months, this may be completely solve the problem. Options 2 & 3 make sense for the City-owned roads. Committee member McColgan supports this. Committee member Faison said he wanted to know what the people in the Ballinger Act areas wanted but this could occur in the future. Chair Dovey pointed out that they bought their homes under the current conditions and so they already knew what it was like when they bought it. Committee member McColgan said that this is a small section of the City and those citizens do pay taxes. Committee supports item 5 for the Ballinger Act areas. Moved: Faison Seconded: McColgan Passed: Unanimously Cmte PASSED staff recommendation options 2 & 3, and a modified option 5 to the April 4th, 2006 Council Consent Agenda. D. Comprehensive Plan Amendment Selection Process – Lee, Yen, and Lifeway Church Margaret Clark gave the background information on this item. Public Comment: Barbara Nappier, Abbey Road, on behalf of Lifeway Church, she asked for the timing. When would the new zoning be in effect? Staff responded that it would be in effect five days after publication, after approval, in 2007. She then said that if a separate re-zone is requested ‘they’ will do traffic and soils analysis for their area. Ron Reuber, Clerget Mgmt Corp., of, Tacoma, said he has spoken to Committee members before about what’s working in Federal Way and what’s driving development. When you look at the groups of properties that are ‘left over’ they are pretty much all BP. There are some big chunks of land left in the south but they are lacking basic utilities. There will only be a low density, but it’s not too usable yet. It makes sense to look at the area and see what can be done; the sensitive areas will be protected anyway. Can you expand the area of your study to include them? BP & BC uses zoning, 2 things stuck out: 1) The height restrictions in BC zone are an issue. Height limits are not applied through the code well. 2) Auto body shop restrictions in the two zones. Councilmember Kochmar asked how the City had adopted each use for each zone (BP vs. BC) ? She suggested making BP more useable and asked how long it would take to make these text changes. Ms. Clark responded that it would take 5-6 months. CD staff would have to discuss this issue with PW. Would they combine uses? How would this affect traffic? Councilmember Kochmar said she thought that would be a great idea. Committee member McColgan said that in his mind this can be divided into two items: 1) An economic development issue, and 2) A residential zoning issue. BP is not really being developed while BC is in demand. He asked if it was necessary to spend ½ million on studying the issue and delaying the developers two years when they only have a few requests. Do the few requests warrant a ½ million dollar study? He wants to encourage development and BC usage. Committee chair Dovey agreed with McColgan on the BC/BP usage. It should be simple to look at the different options and use it as an economic development tool. The City is getting so many requests in this area and it seems to Chair Dovey that the committee could make the comp plan amendment changes once and for all along with a comprehensive traffic and water study. This would give developers future security. $450K would force development to sewers and improve water quality. It would be a real roadmap for future development. Land Use/Transportation Committee Page 3 March 20th, 2006 G:\LUTC\LUTC Agendas and Summaries 2006\03-20-06 LUTC Minutes.doc Councilmember Burbidge said that she understands the concerns but would rather have Council look at this issue and make a quicker decision; it will help the Council members focus on what they are trying to achieve. Committee member Faison thanked Margaret Clark for her hard work on this issue and said he agrees with Councilmember Burbidge that the next LUTC meeting should be devoted to threshing out this issue. He is not sure it warrants $500,000 spent on studies and is more concerned with the traffic issues than the water issues. Chair Dovey agreed with Committee member Faison and noted that this is a first cut at the topic. He thinks the committee should move Lifeway forward. They (Lifeway) will pay for the sewer mitigation. McColgan suggested keeping Lee & Lifeway separate, and look at 9.6 RS for Lifeway. Faison does not want cluster housing at Lifeway but is accepting of 9.6 RS. Dovey said he accepts more density, more to the GMA’s numbers. McColgan agrees. They will look at this again as a committee and come up with answers in two weeks. They will discuss BP/BC and the overall plan for this area. Action on the Comp Plan Amendment will be requested at the April 3rd LUTC. Cmte will take ACTION on this item at to the April 3rd, 2006 LUTC. E. Off-Site Real Estate Signs Code Amendment Margaret Clark gave the background information on this item. Public Comment: Sam Pace, Housing Specialist, King County Assoc. of Realtors, spoke to support staff recommendation. He said that Realtors have a self-policing policy that is already working. Councilmember Kochmar told Mr. Pace that she agrees with his support of staff decision. Moved: McColgan Seconded: Faison Passed: Unanimously Cmte PASSED staff recommendation on to the April 4th, 2006 Council Consent Agenda. F. Planning Staff Position Request Greg Fewins provided the background information. Chair Dovey said that this item will fit into the discussion on the comp plan amendments in two weeks. Committee member McColgan said that the intent of downtown development funding is for downtown development. Action on the Planning Staff Position Request will be requested at the April 3rd LUTC. Cmte will take ACTION on this item at to the April 3rd, 2006 LUTC. G. Proposed Resolution to Grant Noise Variance to WSDOT Karen Kirkpatrick provided the background information. The committee noted that this will speed up the work, a benefit to citizens traveling. Cary Roe pointed out that this issue may come back to the Cmte in regards to Phase III and that is type of request is becoming more common. It may be that the Code should be amended to allow the Community Development (CD) Dept. more latitude regarding this. Mayor Park asked if this issue can be held to the 29 days requested. Mr. Roe said that the Public Works (PW) Dept. will work to track it. Moved: Faison Seconded: McColgan Passed: Unanimously Cmte PASSED staff recommendation on to the April 4th, 2006 Council Consent Agenda. 5. FUTURE MEETINGS The next scheduled meeting will be April 3rd, 2006. 6. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 7:54 p.m.