missing title

Good afternoon, colleagues and everyone and the people that have joined us today, the December 10th meeting for Parks, Public Utilities Technology Committee will come to order.

It is 2.05 p.m.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Present.

Councilmember Strauss?

Council President Nelson?

Present.

Chair Hollingsworth?

I'm here.

There are four council members present.

Awesome.

And Council Member Strauss is excused until he arrives.

We'll welcome everyone to our very last PPUT committee.

I know people are sad.

that this is the last meeting of the year.

But our public utilities are not sad, because they crammed all their last-minute legislation.

I'm just playing.

It's a joke.

Come on, I had to take that one.

So it's been a privilege to be the chair of the PPUT committee.

We've accomplished a lot.

I didn't make a slide to prepare all the things that we have done this year, but we have passed a ton of legislation, a lot of logistical things, and a lot of technical stuff that has come out of this committee, and it has just been really an honor to serve with you all while we're engaging in this process.

So I want to encourage the public, particularly, to stay engaged, to hear about all the council meetings and everything, just to continue to stay engaged, because this is where local government happens.

We're going to now consider the agenda.

I am moving to adopt the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Awesome.

The agenda has been adopted.

We are now going to open the public hybrid, I've switched the words, the hybrid public comment period.

Clerk, how many speakers have signed up?

Currently we have two in-person speakers and one remote speaker.

Awesome.

Everyone's going to get two minutes.

And will the clerk please read the instructions for the public comment?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered on the council's website and the sign-up sheet available here in chambers, starting with in-person speakers first.

If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment period or on the council's website.

The link is listed on today's agenda or by signing up on the sign-up sheet.

When speaking, please begin by stating your name and the item that you are addressing.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted and allow us to call on the next person.

Awesome, and can we call the first speaker?

And you are welcome to the podium once we call your name.

The first speaker is Colleen McAleer followed by Pat Chaney.

Awesome, welcome.

And just give us one second.

We're gonna get the timer up before we start so you know how much time you have.

Just give us one second and welcome.

Okay, you can start whenever you are ready.

Great, good afternoon council members and thank you again for your service.

My name is Colleen McAleer representing Lower Horse Community Club and on the docket is CB121138.

It's to ensure the safe passage of juvenile fish and to purchase the Telera site, the 17-point acre site in our neighborhood.

The entire ecosystem in this parcel from juvenile fish passage to through to Union Bay, and the annual nesting of the bald eagle and the rare habitat for purple marten must all be retained in this bill.

Safe passage supports the tribe's fishing rights will be enhanced by these improvements, and also we can work to retain the city's landmark buildings as well.

The request for an extra $9.2 million makes it a $64 million price tag to pay to Bellevue billionaire owner Bruce McCaw.

As part of the acquisition of the deal, he asked for a courtesy condemnation of the entire site by SBU to enable him to reduce his taxes, but at the cost of maybe destroying the urban forest and the potential future use of the site by Seattle's residents.

So before that extra 9.2 million is approved, the bill needs more clarity about the size and the scale of the projects that are very much needed, and LCC strongly supports these projects for stormwater control and the safest passage.

The ordinance also fails to state that this site is actually a city landmark from November of 2013. It was done by Richard Haig of Gasworks Park and founders of the internationally acclaimed architectural firm NBBJ, founders Bill Bain and Floyd Narymore.

So we requested the condemnation be denied as part of the transaction.

And Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board also has a process that SPU can use in the future to retain as much of the site, particularly the landscape and tier one trees while they're working on the much needed projects that we support.

Thank you.

Awesome, thank you.

Next is Pat Cheney.

Welcome, Miss Pat.

Anyone you want.

Okay, ready?

I'm Pat Cheney.

I'm the Vice President of the Lowhurst Community Council and the Chair of the Environmental Committee.

And as Colleen stated, our community does support the Seattle Public Utility Project to Daylight Yessler Creek.

because it benefits the fish species and adds very needed flood storage.

It is potentially a very exciting and beneficial project with additional open space, tree preservation, and bird habitat retention.

In recent years, as one of Seattle's neighborhoods, we've been involved in several projects with City of Seattle departments, including the Department of Neighborhoods and SDOT and Seattle City Light and others.

And these projects have all been a real win-win for the citizens, and for the City of Seattle.

And we have such great examples of public-private partnership.

And when it works, it works so well.

And so we hope to develop this type of relationship with Seattle Public Utilities on this project.

There are some things that we just don't know yet.

There's kind of a lack of transparency, and we have so many questions.

Some of the questions are, there's no mention of the landmark, like Colleen mentioned.

and why is the Talaris name not used in the bill or the owner's name is not in the bill?

Why the courtesy condemnation to reduce the owner's taxes?

Just questions that we have.

Will the entire Talaris site be preserved as part of the open space or will some of it be sold off and then what will that be?

So just tons of questions that we have.

And so what we'd like to do is, you know, just state that we think the adoption today would be premature for the $25 million before some of these questions come to light and we get an answer.

Thank you.

Awesome, thank you.

And I was writing down your questions so I can ask SPU while they're up here some of those questions that you all have, that you brought up in public comment.

And you can put it in that- Okay, we can leave it here.

box right there.

Sorry, my mind went blank.

No worries at all.

Thank you all for coming and thank you as well.

You have a really great representative with Council Member Rivera here as well.

My favorite from District 4, should I note that.

Is there someone online?

Awesome.

Yes, we will now move on to remote public comment.

Once your name is called, please press star six to unmute.

Eugenia Wu.

Please press star six.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Great, thank you.

Good afternoon Chair Hollingsworth and members of the committee.

My name is Eugenia Wu.

I'm with Historic Seattle and I sent you a letter yesterday so hopefully you got it.

It's for the record and I just want to let you know that Historic Seattle supports the acquisition of the property by SBU.

This is related to CB 121138 of the property in Laurelhurst and we also support the work needed to comply with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to restore natural features to the site.

This is better for the environment overall.

The one thing I had a question on is why the legislation doesn't mention that the 18-acre parcel is, it doesn't mention that it's a designated landmark.

And I think that's a really important fact to include in there because it really informs what happens in the future of the site.

because it has historic buildings and landscapes that are very important.

Historic Seattle would like to be part of the community engagement process that SBU will be undertaking to look at the future of the site.

We have a long history with this property and want to make sure that historic preservation is considered along with all the environmental issues that need to be resolved.

And I don't know if The fact that this is a landmark site was factored in on the appraisals to look at the market value for the acquisition, but I hope that was done as part of the due diligence.

Thank you very much.

Awesome.

Thank you, Eugenia.

Thank you for calling in.

Are there any more public commenters?

All right, if there's no additional people who signed up online or in person, we're gonna now proceed to our items of business.

I wanna thank the public commenters for coming from Lower Hearse.

We received your letters, we got them, and I'm looking forward to asking those questions so we can have some answers as well today about the upcoming legislation.

So thank you.

Will the clerk please read agenda items number one and 12 into the record?

And let the record reflect.

Councilmember Strauss is here, thank you.

Agenda items 1 through 12, appointments 3405 through 3416, the reappointments of Katie Garrow, Emily Hooper George, Eric Howard, Sean Jackson, Jerry Johnson, Edward Lee, Pamela Quadros, Jim Rowe, Michelle Rusk, Ryan Smith, Donny Stevenson, Leslie Veles, as members of the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee for a term to December 31st, 2027. For briefing, discussion, and possible vote, presenting is Tiffany Malachi and Director Marshall Foster, Seattle Center.

Hi, Tiffany.

Thank you, Director Foster for being here to our last meeting.

Go right ahead, jump into your presentation and introduce yourself for the record as well.

All right.

Good afternoon, Chair Hollingsworth and committee members.

Lovely to be back with you from Seattle Center.

My name is Marshall Foster.

I'm the director.

Hello, Tiffany Malacca.

I'm the Waterfront Park Operations Manager with Seattle Center.

All right.

Well, without further ado, again, thank you very much.

We're here today to bring forward reappointments of 12 of our committee members of the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

Tiffany's going to tell you a little bit more about the work of that committee and the council actions that created it, but it plays a vital role in ensuring the continued high-performance, quality, safe, inclusive environment we work very hard to create with the new Waterfront Park.

So, Tiffany, I'll turn it to you.

Thank you, Marshall.

So just doing a really quick overview, our legislative history for Waterfront Park operations, which is, it goes back pretty far now.

We started this in 2009 with the foundation blocks for the operation side really happening in 2017 with the creation of Friends of Waterfront Park.

that was through legislation as a resolution.

And then we had a package in 2019 that actually did three major things.

It established our local improvement district, our LID, which was the property owners putting $160 million worth towards the park improvements.

It set our foundational building blocks for our operations plan, as well as created the Central Waterfront Oversight Committee.

And then it contractually obligated, sorry, obligated us to really operate this park at a higher standard and provide good care to the park.

We came back in 2021 and we designated the park as a park boulevard and in 2023 Seattle Center took over waterfront park operations.

So our foundation for our operations really includes a rich public-private partnership with Friends of Waterfront Park.

They provide our free public programming and events throughout the year.

We, as a city, provide a specialized and dedicated team for maintenance and for public safety on the waterfront.

We have an oversight committee, which we are looking at considering these 12 positions for reappointments that they actually do ongoing evaluation of the park and how it's performing, and they do reporting out to mayor and council on an annual basis.

So our oversight committee has 20 members total, six at large, eight are LID, tenant, property owners or tenants.

We have five nonprofits and the Port of Seattle that are all represented.

This group has done a tremendous amount of work since it was established in 2019. The biggest one was they spent two years developing a performance park standard that we actually used on an ongoing basis to evaluate if we were performing at a high standard, which in both our public safety, our maintenance, and our programming activation for friends.

This group Sorry, my mic, sorry.

This group continues to advise, they write reports to the mayor and council on an annual basis with any recommendations from the previous year where we may have fell short in our actual delivery of public safety or maintenance.

And they will continue to engage with the new Waterfront Park community and Friends of Waterfront Park to continue this work forward.

You might seem like we were just here not that long ago, which we were in February.

We reappointed several of these positions back then.

We're coming forth to reappoint positions as we reset our cycle in 2020 with COVID.

and need to do new reappointments in 2024 and 2026 through 2028 will be our next cycle.

We have two vacancies that are open and we are looking at doing reappointments of the other 12. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about park operations.

And before we go through each of the members that we have on the committee, they are not here today.

We wanted to just come and extend our gratitude for all the hard work that they do with us throughout the year.

This is a very active committee who is really engaged and have a lot of depth and experience in managing public space with us now.

And so we do want to express our gratitude towards them.

Awesome.

I think we can just keep going.

Yeah?

I have a question.

Oh, sorry.

My apologies.

Council President Nelson.

So the big event this year I'm not going to parse when your fiscal year starts and stops, but the big event to Seattle was the opening of the waterfront and so I imagine that that took up a lot of the Oversight Commission's time.

Committee?

Commission?

Committee.

Committee.

So what's the next big thing?

Well, thank you for remembering that moment.

That was a huge moment for the whole Waterfront community.

And I will just give a huge shout out to Friends of Waterfront Park.

They did a huge amount of fundraising to make a public celebration at that level possible.

Tiffany and her team did an incredible job with supporting maintenance and public safety, but in terms of the public experience that we all enjoyed, we were lucky to not have to spend significant tax money on that event to have the philanthropy do that.

In terms of kind of what's next, I think it's where I would start, and I'd open it up for Tiffany to add, is I think fundamentally we're in a stabilize and ensure we have a sustainable path to maintain what we've built.

Thus far, through the performance standard that Tiffany mentioned and our own measuring our success with the public, people are very happy with the experience down there, both the maintenance level, the public safety level.

It is a 24 hour a day, seven day a week operation.

and the ability to sustain a strong staff and also to sustain the funding support and all the relationships that go into doing that well.

You know, we work hand in glove with the Historic Waterfront Association, the Alliance for Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market, hand in glove with the Parks Department, who's an essential partner in all this work, as well as SDOT.

So those relationships are what make it possible.

And so the things that come to mind for me on that question are sustaining the success keeping it well-funded and keeping the relationships strong to be able to keep doing the work day to day.

Yeah, I would 100% agree with that.

This is going to be, 2026 is going to be our first full year open, which we're really excited about.

So it'll really set that kind of benchmark of how we should be operating and where we can level up and continue providing this kind of amazing service down at the core of our downtown.

Awesome.

Further questions, Council President?

That makes perfect sense.

Just in time for a very large world party here in our town.

That's right.

Thank you.

You've done a great job.

We'll just throw that in and do that as well.

So I think we have the list of the proposed reappointments here.

I think these are folks who've served well on the commission, or on the committee, excuse me.

And we're excited to support their consideration by the council to move forward for reappointment.

And I can just run through all their names.

It's one through 12 for consideration in your packet.

We have position number one, Donny Stevenson at large.

Position number two, Katie Garrow at large.

Position number three, Jerry Johnson at large.

Position number four, Pamela Quadros at large.

Position number five, Eric Howard at large.

Position number six, Michelle Rusk at large.

Position number seven, Leslie Volez, a LID residential tenant.

Position number eight, Jim Rowe, a LID commercial tenant.

Position number 10, Emily Huber George, a LID condominium owner.

Position number 11, Edward Lee, a LID residential apartment property owner.

Position number 12, Ryan Smith, a LID office property owner.

And position number 13, Sean Jackson, gotta love this one, the LID property owner on or within one block of Pike Pine Street.

Thank you for that.

No, so this is great.

I'll pause here to see if any of my colleagues, I'll look online or to my left or right, if you all have any questions for Tiffany or Director Foster.

Awesome.

Well, I want to thank the members of the oversight committee for their continued dedication and commitment to this work.

We know that they're volunteer positions and it takes a lot for people.

And I, like you all had mentioned, and I think and I think the council president was getting to this about the waterfront is really what we all consider to be like standard for maintenance and public safety and programming and just a really great front porch of Seattle for folks and just really, really appreciate all the work that you all do on our waterfront and I can't wait to, I'm very proud of what our waterfront looks like.

My mother went down there, we had some people in town, she went down there just a week ago, a couple weeks ago, excuse me, and the first thing she said, and she hadn't been down there in years, okay?

And the first thing she said to me was, wow.

She was like, Jaya had no clue it was like this.

She usually goes down to Ivers to get her clam chowder and hadn't been down there in years.

But just when people see it for the first time, they're so impressed.

So thank you all.

Okay, so I'm gonna move that, oh, Council President Nelson.

This is a technical question.

For the LID members, residential or commercial, is that an ongoing assessment or was it a lump sum in the beginning?

That's another great question.

They had the choice.

So the city offered them either a one-time payment or they could pay over 20 years with, as is required by state law, interest also accrued.

So the vast majority took the 20 years with interest.

Some though, you'd be surprised, some did do the one-time payment.

So which did most?

What did you say?

Most did the 20-year payment plan because obviously you're spreading that cost out.

and I think this probably went without saying, but I just wanna make sure in terms of those positions and why they're so specific about LID office, LID resident, this was all part of an agreement that was struck when we did the LID to leverage that 160 million for them to have direct participation in ensuring the city lived up to its commitment for the operations of the park.

So that is why this is extremely specific about who is represented in that.

And Joy, to your point of wow, he won't do it, but I will say Director Foster has been involved in this in over a decade and his vision and ability to see what could happen looking forward into the future of what the waterfront could be for Seattle has been extraordinary.

And we're just really happy to be at this moment.

Awesome.

I'm glad you said that because kudos to Mr. Foster because it's been a long time.

Thank you very much.

I thank the people that kicked in one time ongoing whatever, but you had the vision and it's also reflected in the Seattle Center.

So thank you very much.

Thank you for that.

And if I may, real quick, I do want to just acknowledge Council President Nelson, you're finishing your time with the Council.

You have supported this effort.

in countless ways since honestly my first arrival at the city 20 years ago.

A lot of different roles, but your leadership has made a huge difference and the role of this committee in helping us steward not only this, but some big things at Seattle Center with Memorial Stadium and other things that you've helped us do.

So we really appreciate the leadership.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And I see two hands raised.

I know Council Member Rivera, you had said you had a comment before you raised your hand.

And so I'll recognize you and then Council Member Strauss.

Awesome.

Thank you chair.

Thank you for being here.

The waterfront is so special and of course I always have to say give kudos to Maggie Walker and former Mayor Charlie Royer.

because they were so instrumental in this vision for the waterfront.

And then, of course, I'm so lucky, Director Foster, to have worked with you and continue to work with you in this capacity.

But in my other capacity, we've partnered together for a long time and so appreciate all your work on the waterfront.

Now you're, of course, at the Seattle Center, but love that you continue to work on the waterfront activities, because it really has been a joint effort.

And I will say the friends of the waterfront, of course, and you all have heard me say, my spouse, Dan Cully, has been working on the waterfront issues for many, many years.

And so it really, you know, to coin a borrowed phrase, it takes a village and it really, took that to envision the waterfront and at times there were people that didn't share the vision or couldn't really see it but now that it's there it has been so embraced as well as it should have been and so I just am so excited about the waterfront.

I already hear folks who live here and who visit here who make calls and say, you know, I was visiting Seattle and my god, the waterfront, that park that looks amazing, the connection from the market to the waterfront, the new aquarium aspects and all of that.

People just love it and it was done in a way where it seems like it was always there.

And I remember the viaduct and it coming down and doing the race and so many things led up to today.

and it's just really amazing.

But today, I always like to give recognition for all that has transpired before today.

Today we're making these very important reappointments and again, I always like to point out folks, these are volunteer positions, folks care so deeply about this work that they have signed up to help us do the oversight and all the things that need to get done.

And I always like to underscore that because these are not, we get paid to do all this work, these folks do not.

They have other jobs and get paid to do other things, but they care so much about the waterfront that they give extra unpaid time to really do this work.

And that is really impressive.

And I have to say that makes Seattle so special with this particular effort and all our other boards and commissions, people just really volunteer their time.

And we just had a recognition last week, colleagues, as you know, for everyone that serves.

But I am so grateful for all the folks that you're presenting today.

They are reappointments, which says a lot also.

These aren't new folks, and we love when new folks come in too, because you have to have all of it.

and also the fact that they would want to do this again speaks volume to the work.

So anyway, I could keep talking about these folks and how grateful I am and the waterfront, but I gotta cede my time.

But thank you and thank you to all the folks who have decided to continue their effort on this.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair, for letting me go on.

No worries.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

Council Member Strauss, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Tiffany was making sure that Marshall received his recognition for all the work that you've accomplished.

I believe it was slide two.

Just wanted to also take the moment to thank Tiffany for all of your work over the course of all of these years.

None of this would have been possible without all of the whole team working on it.

And Tiffany, you had a big hand in it in those early years and through today.

So just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Strauss.

And let's be honest, Tiffany is the secret weapon here.

She makes this happen every single day with a wonderful, wonderful group that she has assembled down there.

So she will keep making the magic happen and we're very fortunate to have her.

Thank you, awesome.

Well, we appreciate all of your work.

I'm telling you, it's the wow factor.

So thank you.

I'm gonna move that the committee recommends the confirmation of appointment 3405 through 3416. Is there a second?

Second.

Yay, there's a second and a third.

It's been moved in second and third to confirm the appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

I got you.

The motion carries in the committee recommendation to confirm the appointments will be sent to Tuesday, December 16th, City Council meeting.

Thank you all so much.

Really appreciate your time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Okay, will the clerk please read next agenda item into the record, number 13.

Agenda Item 13, Council Bill 121138, an ordinance relating to Seattle Public Utilities authorizing the General Manager CEO of Seattle Public Utilities or designee to acquire by negotiation or eminent domain condemnation a parcel of land in Seattle for utility purposes identified as King County Parcel Number 1525049010, located at 4000 Northeast 41st Street.

Presenting will be members of the Seattle Public Utilities and Brian Goodnight, Council Central Staff.

Awesome.

Thank you all for being here.

Please introduce yourself.

We know who you are, but introduce yourself for the record and then you can jump right into the presentation.

I'm Andrew Lee, the General Manager, CEO for Seattle Public Utilities.

Kevin Burrell, Senior Policy Advisor for SPU.

Jacques Rodriguez, Senior Real Property Agent for SPU.

And Brian, good night, council central staff.

Awesome.

Acquisition ordinance.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth and members of the committee.

And if I could very briefly, just I want to acknowledge Councilmember Nelson.

Thank you for your year as a service.

Dating back to your time in Councilmember Conlon's office and your just strong commitment to the environment or zero waste initiative, I just really want to acknowledge you and appreciate your year as a service.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Likewise.

The proposed legislation before you would authorize Seattle Public Utilities to purchase a 17-acre parcel in the Laurelhurst neighborhood of northeast Seattle with the long-term goal of implementing a capital project in engagement with community to daylight a portion of Yesler Creek's natural stream channel to Union Bay.

And I do want to pause and emphasize that we have a strong commitment to engaging the community wherever we are doing these types of projects, and that is unchanged for this project as well.

I want to be clear that the purchase of this property was not in our strategic business plan or our capital plans.

However, the proposed purchase of this property represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to continue the city's decades-long commitment to restoring urban watersheds and daylighting our creeks.

As some of you are aware, SPU has done or is in the process of creek floodplain restoration or daylighting work in Thornton Creek, Piper's Creek, Mapes Creek, Longfellow Creek, Taylor Creek, and Ravenna Creek.

The proposed legislation enables us to continue that amazing legacy of work in this neighborhood of Northeast Seattle and Long Gassler Creek.

Councilmember Hollingsworth, I did note the number of questions that were asked, and I've written them down.

So at the end of this presentation, we'll make sure to try to address them, together with Kevin Burrell.

So with that, I will pass the presentation off to Kevin, who will provide additional background on the proposed legislation.

Thank you again, council members.

Maybe just to start to thank our members from the public for joining us today and providing their comments.

We really appreciate them, and we do hope to address as many questions as we can.

So again, just restating what Andrew had covered, the purpose of the legislation before you today authorizes the utility to acquire a parcel in Laurelhurst neighborhood of northeast Seattle.

The details of it are it appropriates an additional $9.2 million to augment the existing $55 million that was already approved in the 2026 adopted budget.

What it will do will amend our capital improvement plan spend plan for the years 2026 to 2031. This is a detailed story, so hang on to your seats and I'll work through these issues.

So why are we buying a property?

First of all, the acquisition will allow SBU to comply with the Department of Fish and Wildlife's requirements.

The details are as follows.

So Yesler Creek flows within an SBU-owned pipe storm drain that bisects the Talaris property.

The pipe is considered a fish barrier and will need to be removed at SBU's expense when it fails.

In the end, the pipe will actually need to be replaced with an open creek channel.

And just a couple years ago, we received a development proposal which came in to build over the pipe.

As you might imagine, we only had a 20-foot easement.

That was not enough rates to do the work to restore the creek.

More specifically, why now?

Should a development proposal happen to move forward at Talares, SBU and the ratepayers would be in the unenviable position of having to remove homes and displace families to restore the natural creek channel.

So essentially, preemptively buying it so as to not have to mitigate those conditions down the road.

And I should just remind you that we are using rate funds to acquire the property as well.

So just drawing us into location, so the property again is the Talaris site as it's historically known.

It's in Council District 4. It's in the northeast part of the city near Union Bay, University of Washington.

Zooming in a little bit farther, you can see some of the important details.

So the site, it's about 18 acres.

It's hemmed in by 38th Avenue Northeast, Northeast 45th Street to the north.

Just by way of history, the site was developed in the late 1960s by Battelle.

It then changed hands until Arrest Institute bought it, until the current owner today purchased it in 2000. The site, including its buildings and landscape, was designated as landmark in 2013. And so you can see in the picture here, Yesler Creek running diagonally across the property, which is within SBU's pipe.

Zooming out for a little bit more of the background and context, that pipe is a 72-inch storm drain that conveys Yesler Creek, as we mentioned.

The drain itself is part of a larger drainage system, which houses about 890 acres to the north.

All that is to say, rain that falls in the shaded blue area on the map goes through SBU's pipe before discharging to the Yesler Swamp or bog and Union Bay to the south.

That's a lot of water that's coming down the hill at one time.

So as stated, SPU received a previous proposal of development, a previous development proposal in 2023, which we reviewed.

The site proposed 48 new residences and utility infrastructure to serve the development.

The site amenities were designed in such a way by the applicant to accommodate existing public utilities and other existing conditions, including the landmark status.

However, at that time, SBU's existing pipe creek culvert, shown in blue again here, and Department of Fish and Wildlife's requirements for fish passage had not yet been fully considered.

So we spoke with Fish and Wildlife in early 2024. Their message was, we would not be able to obtain state permits to extend the life of this 63-year-old pipe without removing it, given that it is considered a fish barrier.

In other words, when the pipe fails, it would need to be made fish passable within a five-year period, which really puts us on the hot seat.

So the restored creek channel would require an approximately 200-foot wide corridor.

The corridor would include the creek channel, a 100-year floodplain, and adjacent riparian habitat buffer.

All this to say, the proposed development was essentially considered infeasible by the team.

So, and I also mentioned the 20-foot easement that we had was not sufficient to protect our rights or the pipe or put the creek back.

So again, early February 2024, SBU approached the property owner to discuss purchasing the site in lieu of condemnation.

And once again, just to put a fine point in it, purchasing the property now will help minimize having to displace homeowners and remove development should it happen to restore the creek when the pipe fails.

So just a bit about the transaction and details.

So we negotiated the purchase price for the property in lieu of condemnation.

That was, we actually told the property owner we wanted to buy the property or have it, and they were, I'll just say frankly, not happy.

So this was a purchase in lieu of condemnation.

The utility and seller reached an agreement on the price based on the appraised value, kind of late summer in July, late July.

and using rate funds, the acquisition will be approximately 64 million of which I mentioned, 55 is already included in the adopted budget.

And the legislation adds an additional 9.2 to SBU's budget authority moving forward.

One of the key components to the purchase and sale agreement, there is a time driver and sensitive nature here for council's approval.

deal-making as part of the acquisition here is the purchase and sale agreement stipulates that SBU would close on the 2nd and we would have a sort of drop-dead date of August 31st, 2026 to close.

And SBU is prepared to close on January 2nd with council approval.

However, should the city not move forward at that time, SBU would incur additional costs.

Okay, so we're really excited about this.

It's early, early, early days.

We have as many questions, I think, as the community does about what will happen here, and we just want to recommit to what Andrew's already said.

We will double or triple down on community engagement to make sure that all voices are heard and are brought into this conversation.

and this is the first step in a long process.

Since this was not part of our capital spend plan, we've not done any work on this and it will take us a number of years to get there.

But we're excited to get started and to work with the community.

So for property management, we're gonna develop a property management, landscaping, and security plan for the site.

It's vitally important.

And just for transparency, we don't have any plans at this time to allow or open it up for the public, at least not in the near term.

All right, I'm gonna park here for a minute.

It's gonna take a few minutes to walk through this slide.

There's a couple important notes.

So what are the next steps beyond just community engagement and property management if we're allowed to acquire the property?

We'll need to establish the site needs.

That is, how much of a site will SBU need to restore the creek?

And the second part of it is, how do we put together a long-term capital plan with partners to actually do the work?

So let's start with site needs.

The SPU may not need the entire site to restore the creek channel floodplain and adjacent habitat corridor, and I should say the project will be developed in stages, but our specific site needs may not be known for a couple of years.

But once we do determine how much property it will need for creek restoration, the rest of the property will be evaluated for use or disposition following standard city policies.

And to that I say that would include public notice, Conducting community outreach to nearby residents Talking with property owners and community groups Our folks at Landmarks and Historic Preservation And of course doing public hearings as well So the whole gamut Okay, so shifting gears to long term now.

So Andrew mentioned, it takes us five to 10 years to plan something of this scale.

Our current creek work, as you may know, is actually focused in Thornton and Fauntleroy.

We're investing heavily in those two locations.

So this site was not on our radar for do now, but we are folding it into our upcoming strategic business plan planning cycle for the next five years.

So I'll just say we will expect to have more answers within a few years while we look for funding and seek partners on the project.

And also just say, welcomely, we invite the community, our partners, our tribal governments, our nonprofit partners, again, Landmarks and Historic Preservation, adjacent property owners such as Parks, and University of Washington to work with us on this exciting project.

All right, to bring it home, this is the last slide.

So when completed, and what you're looking at here is actually the reconstruction of Mapes Creek from about 10 years ago, but the creek work will basically enhance the existing open space that exists on the Tulare site today.

It will open and elongate the natural creek channel, add additional flood storage, and of course, add benefits for fish species.

It will also mitigate flooding.

We're getting a lot of rainwater from roadways and properties up in the north part of the watershed, so we may have to construct other facilities to slow the water down as it's on site or before it gets to the site.

But once a complete creek solution is done, that is from Talaris down to the lake, the site and nearshore habitat will provide benefits for all fish species.

That includes juvenile salmon who use small streams in offshore areas like this for feeding sources and refuge from predatory fish.

So a similar example, we did a daylighting project at Mapes Creek in the Rainier Beach neighborhood at Beersheva Park.

Councilmember Rivera, you recently visited during the summer, so thank you for joining us for that tour.

After the lower Mapes Creek culvert was converted into an open channel, several hundred fish were documented at the mouth of Lake Washington the following year after construction was completed.

We hope to see those same benefits realized in this location.

So with that, we will turn it over for questions.

Thank you.

If I may, I can sort of run through some of the questions that I heard and I'll be sort of interviewing Kevin, if that's all right.

Absolutely.

And then we'll go to Brian Goodnight after the questions.

Do you want to go to Brian first?

Can we?

And then we'll jump into the question.

Is that OK?

Yeah.

Brian.

Thank you, Chair.

My comments, super brief, is just something I like to point out each time that wasn't explicitly mentioned, is that because it is amending the budget that was just adopted by the Council in November for 2026, the bill would require a three-quarters majority for full counsel consideration.

So I just wanted to put that on the record.

Thank you so much.

All right.

I believe one of the questions I was asked was, why courtesy condemnation?

And so Kevin, if you could expand on that.

Well, it's an interesting way, I think, of posing the question and a fair one.

But just to say accurately, the property owner did not want to sell the property and was heavily invested in several attempts to develop the site.

And frankly, we showed up late into the discussion with a whole heap of bad news for them based on what we were given by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

So we're purchasing this site in lieu of condemnation.

Condemnation is the other alternative or litigation.

In this case we think just by way of law there are benefits that a seller would receive by doing it this way, but it wasn't a joyful gift for them to walk away from this property to say kindly they did not want to sell to the utility.

Next question was, will the entire parcel, and I believe you already addressed this, but if you could just readdress this again, will the entire parcel be used for the creek daylighting?

Unknown at this time, and that's the exciting part in terms of working with all of the stakeholders to figure out how 200 feet and all the water coming down the hill will fit into that gorgeous landscape.

And we have not done any work on this, and I say that somewhat bashfully, but we are excited to partner with our community members to figure out what can be realized.

But it will be a corridor of 200 feet, which is a footprint that needs to be considered.

I had three more questions.

The first one was, why wasn't the landmark designation included in the legislation?

Probably me in a dunce move and also even labeling of the title slide was my fault and just an oversight.

I'm being fairly vanilla here.

The talking point about Talaris has always been in my, and the landmarks has always been in my comments as well, so I apologize.

It's not to detract from or I think the question at hand is whether or not this is not meant to be disclosed fully to the public.

It's quite the opposite.

We are excited to work with the community and everyone else who has interest in helping us get to the end product on this.

Yeah.

That being said, what I'll add is that the proposed legislation doesn't make any change to the landmark status or doesn't imply any change or anything like that.

That landmark status will continue on with the property.

Another question was, was the landmark status included in the pricing?

I think the best way to describe it, the appraiser used the proposed development as its North Star.

What are the appraisers doing?

What are they appraising as part of the pricing?

So that, of course, was obviously considered for the development.

It was not the base buildings and everything else, but what would be there as a result of the development.

I will add to that.

Because the existing base development took into consideration the landmark status, there were restrictions on things like the number of units they could potentially build out.

And because that was the basis for the pricing, we believe that actually led to more favorable pricing for us.

If this were to proceed down the condemnation pathway, one of the implications might have been that we would have potentially had to pay substantially higher.

The last question I think I wrote down was why wasn't the property owner included in the legislation?

I'll take the blame for that as well.

Not meant to not disclose or disclose our colleagues here other than just trying to draw attention to what I think is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore one of our important creeks here.

Hopefully I covered most of the questions that were asked, but yeah.

Awesome, and I'm gonna defer to Council Member Rivera, because it's in your district, and I know you've been working hard on this, so Council Member Rivera.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Director Lee for being here, or General Manager Lee, I always call you the wrong thing, I'm sorry.

And for your team for being here, and our central staff, Brian Goodnight for being here.

I also want to thank you for briefing me on this proposal prior to today.

Always appreciate your engagement with council as you're bringing these forward.

So I'm not just looking at this for the first time today.

I had similar questions as to community because of course as we all do when we are engaging with departments on something that impacts our districts, we do our due diligence to make sure that we are keeping our constituents' interests at heart and asking those tough questions.

I do understand that and appreciate that legislation actually contains in the body of the legislation the requirement to do the community outreach, so that is there and I appreciate that that is contained in the legislation.

That is really important to me and I know to our constituents as well, those in chambers and those who are not in chambers but who are neighbors, and there are many and of course including our tribal partners and I will say that this daylighting piece and I know that we haven't really talked about it too extensively but there are state law requirements as part of this and I know you mentioned it but I just think it bears mentioning it again because I sit actually on the Waira 8 salmon recovery committee and it's a regional effort to do salmon recovery across our region and it's really requiring, the state is requiring cities to do certain things like fish passage.

There are other components, that's just one of many components that the state is requiring to really, you know, on the environmental aspect and to really to promote salmon recovery in our region which is of utmost importance to our region and more importantly to our tribal partners in our region.

So wanted to say that because this is something I very much care about and I did go visit MAPES earlier this year and really the amazing things that happen when you daylight a creek and you do this fish passage because other wildlife returns also to the site.

It's really beautiful to see.

And the other great aspect that I noticed while being down at Seward Park is community's involvement and engagement is really critical.

They really become just a huge partner in this effort and in the caretaking of the space, which is really beautiful to see, which has happened at Seward Park and community host a tea on the site that they invite other community members to, which are really, it's really amazing.

And anyway, so all that to say that the work of daylighting, doing the fish passage and daylighting the space is really important work.

We have to do it.

and also we want to do it.

So it's both, right?

The state is telling us we have to do it, but it's also we want to do it.

And like I said, it's really important, not just to me, but to the constituents that I represent.

And I'm very appreciative that Seattle Public Utilities has been a really great partner as we're doing this work.

And like I said, and I'll say it again, I really appreciate your intentional focus on ensuring, look, we don't know a lot yet about exactly how this will all take place as early on, and it starts with the acquiring of this property, which hopefully no longer will be known as the Talaris property, but as Yesler Creek, or we have a Yesler Creek, but something akin to that, because we're taking back stewardship.

of that property, and so I know it'll be named something else.

As part of this, I'm sure, this is exciting work, and also there's more to come.

But the intentionality around working with community, both neighbors that live nearby and our tribal partners and many others, is really critical to this effort.

and the fact that SPU recognizes that and is intentional and it's written in the legislation so that anyone that comes after any of us can, because this is going to be a long-term project, is beholden to what's in the legislation is critical.

And so I really want to thank you for that.

Thank you for the partnership on that.

And thank you for all the work ahead of time that will go into next steps on this project.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

And I want to just thank the entire Seattle Public Utilities Team, General Manager, Director Lee.

I don't know if Bob Hennessy shared with you, I probably spent about 15 minutes going over with him how much I appreciate Seattle Public Utilities as a department and your can-do attitude getting out there to solve issues, whether it's Walter Vining's team responding in person or the emergency crews that you have out there working 24-7.

I've just been incredibly impressed over the last week and the last years.

I'm just raising my hand today as the budget chair as a reminder, not just to the Seattle Public Utilities Department, but to all departments citywide that you need to get this type of budget type of legislation in earlier so that we're all able to coordinate as a city.

So that's my immense gratitude and we'd love to do the budget all at once.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Council President Nelson.

Hello.

So I have a couple of questions.

Let's see.

First of all, it was mentioned in the presentation that the property was sold by Battelle in 1953, right?

I think around there, no?

2,000 to the current owner.

Okay.

All right, so it's gone.

predominantly, I thought that Battelle was mentioned anyway, but the spirit of my question was there is a long interval of time between a sale of a big, huge piece of property and ultimately trying to get the most out of every square foot, which is what a lot of people do when they buy property.

There are structures on here, but it could have...

and a whole bunch of other things.

And so I'm just wondering, was the site not ideal for building for so long because it was sort of marshy?

I'm just wondering if it was known that there would be problems going forward and that's partly why development took a long time and ultimately only consisted of a few buildings and plans for housing that never came to fruition.

I would actually defer to our current site owner and the opportunities and challenges developing in a marshy area presented.

I know that they've taken a couple of attempts to try to maximize the value and benefit of the property, but have not been successful, SBU being the last customer to give them new information that changed their direction.

but I would kind of tend to lean on them to address those questions if they were here with us today.

For us, I do know the creek was really central in part to this parcel.

It used to go right through the center of it so it would have made existing soils challenging at best to construct without having to do additional work.

We'll find out more about that as we to do more of our own exploration.

From my part, I would say that it is really exciting to think about what it can become.

If I'm not mistaking, it might drain Green Lake a little bit.

I could be wrong on that.

That's just sort of uphill and to the west.

But the point is that it is, yes, Little Creek is carrying a lot of water and it is a huge piece of infrastructure.

And I understand the need to keep it in good shape or remove it altogether.

The infrastructure, I mean.

I'm not done, did you have anything you wanted to add?

I think Councilman Rivera had a comment based on what you said, if that's okay.

Councilman Rivera.

Not knowing what the plans of the property owner, I do want to, or were rather, I want to say though that in my conversations with Seattle Public Utilities, it was disclosed that actually not having housing on there at the moment was advantageous to the utility because now you'd have to...

Oh yeah.

Right.

So in that sense it is probably an easier project because the city would have had to redo the pipes anyway and then if there had been things on the land it makes it ever more complicated and expensive.

So in this sense, I wanted to also add that bit of information that is probably, even though this is costly, it would have cost even more had there been things on the site.

So to that degree, this has been sort of fortuitous at this juncture.

I can't speak to what came before.

Here's what I'm getting at.

It is a unique piece of land.

It drains a whole bunch of water.

We're a hilly town and it is, as you said, a marsh.

and it seems as though, and while I hear what you're saying about the disappointment on the part of the current owners that what has to happen here and the terms that we're going forward, that kind of is what happened when you buy property that's sort of on a marsh in a way that it's really unknown and as our environmental regulations and our knowledge of the importance of protecting marshlands and well, I see both sides, let's say.

Here's also what I have to ask.

What are you gonna do with the rest of the pipe?

Because it is, I'm looking at all these maps here and it goes under 45th.

And so this will be an expense for SPU at some point.

So is that planned for?

That's correct.

And Council Member Rivera, I think you hit the nail on the head.

It's really at SPU ratepayers risk to not do anything to then have more to do later.

And that's why I started with this presentation.

The full story is the creek does not stop at the southern property line of the Tolares site as it's affectionately known.

It continues underneath Northeast 41st Street down onto a small wedge of our colleagues here at Parks Department behind me and then also touches gently onto the University of Washington's property before it lands in the Department of Natural Resources essentially, or shoreline.

So we have not just work to do on this site, but technical challenges to get this creek under a roadway in a way that will be supported by fish and wildlife while also working kindly and carefully, we hope.

And so far, early feedback from parks has been kind to partner with them and the University of Washington to really make this a gem of a creek restoration project, but more to come.

for both the property and downstream area.

So thank you.

Said with alacrity, right?

And one last question.

It's a money question.

Going to the fiscal note, I noticed that there's a dollar sign amount for 2026. It's, I think, on the third or fourth page.

Where was that?

I'm sorry, I'm not finding it.

There was a big number in 2026, it was 76,000, maybe million, and then the following year was quite a bit less.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Brian?

Yeah, Councilperson Nelson, thanks.

I think you're referring to the revised CIP page that was included just as a reference point.

So capital programs, the budgeting for them over a six-year period is dependent upon the projects that will be pursued.

So what this was trying to show was that in the adopted budget that you all adopted for 2026, it has 67.5 million in this capital program for SPU right now.

What the page is showing in Strikeout is that if we add 9.2 million to it, then the new amount would be the 76.7 million.

Okay, that is the difference that people are talking about.

Okay, so it is more, and it also, just for people's awareness, it is more like a one-time payment than spread out over a long period of time, because there's a big expense in 2026, and then it's maintenance, etc. continues to be a project.

And then I can take offline what might be the potential impact to the rate payers.

To be determined.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We don't know yet.

And we'll be obviously engaging on that over the next several years to plan that out.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council President.

Council Member Rivera?

Well, I just, you see the unintended consequences.

Now we're trying to bring back the creek when it was, you know, paved over, if you will, and the challenges involved.

The one thing about this particular, when SPU has done these daylighting of the creeks, it gives opportunity for along the creeks that have been daylighted, just the opportunity for some green space, because all of that, the whole point of the daylighting is to bring back the creek and the salmon and then some of that wildlife so you're seeing in these neighborhoods a return and so I'm excited about that part for this area but in some ways it's not lost on me that we You know, humans did something, now we're undoing on an environmental.

But we are doing this, and this is important work.

And so I really thank SPU for that.

And then, yes, to be determined on costs and all the other things.

But at this moment in time, I think this is an important effort.

So thank you.

And we can look at Thornton Creek, right?

I mean, we have done this before and that has turned into such an important, it's not an amenity, it's landscape.

Absolutely.

And I mean, to Councilmember Rivera, your point, where we have implemented these projects, A, we've done an incredible engagement with community and the community cares about these projects.

but they've also been a point of access for community, both waterfront access, for example, in the Taylor Creek, the Mapes Creek area, and then just parkland.

We've done it in coordination with park, especially in the Thornton Creek area, Knickerbocker Creek, Thornton Confluence, and so we've really worked hand-in-hand with community to make sure that they see the benefit of this.

Council Member Rivera.

And General Manager Lee, can you, I'm so embarrassed, but the community, there's, is it the Somali community in Mapes Creek that's doing, Bob Hennessy is nodding, their stewardship of the creek is so amazing and they do these teas there and they, I mean, just, I cannot say enough about the work that the Somali community is doing there.

I just, it's important to call this out because it's part of all these restorations it's also the community efforts and we need to recognize that and we need to recognize the community's contribution so I just want to say from the dais I very much appreciate the Somali community at Mapes doing all that stewardship I mean they even the community comes they do clean up work there.

That's important.

That is a benefit back to all of us in the city because of course so many people go to all these places from across the city.

So this is all really important work and I just wanted to also recognize the community's contributions.

Yep, absolutely.

Are there any more additional questions?

Thank you, SPU.

I know that I'm comfortable voting on this ordinance today because we want to ensure SPU owns the land in order for them to start planning to engage with community.

And I know that there is two things I know in life.

There's due diligence and then there's Rivera's due diligence.

and that is a level that I know, and I say that with all love, okay?

You know that.

Good.

Because I know that you also brought a clause calling for more robust public engagement that strengthened the bill and I know that you will be watching this, making sure that that engagement happens to make sure that that community is engaged and can put their fingerprint on stuff and we can be able to have this could work properly and address the concerns that we heard today from the folks from Laurelhurst.

So thank you all for coming.

So with that...

Thank you for the recognition.

There's Rivera's due diligence.

Absolutely the clause.

So I'm going to move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 121-138.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been, thank you.

It's been moved in second to recommend the passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments, colleagues?

Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Aye.

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

the motion carries in the committee recommend the bill pass will be sent to Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 city council meeting.

Thank you all so much.

Really appreciate it.

Will the clerk please read item number 14 into the agenda.

Item number 14, council bill 121137, an ordinance amending the amended landscape conservation and infrastructure program, LCLIP, funding plan for the South Lake Union and downtown as adopted by ordinance 127252. Presenting today are members of Seattle Parks and Recreation and Karina Bull, council central staff for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Awesome, Superintendent Diaz.

Yes.

And Andy, we're good to see you.

And then Karina Bull, so happy to see you.

Last meeting of the year.

We've done a lot of work together.

So go ahead, introduce yourself, and we can jump right into the presentation.

Thank you, Council Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Or is it afternoon these days?

I know.

My name is A.P.

Diaz, I'm the Superintendent of Seattle Parks and Recreation, and we are before you again so that you might consider modifying the Landscape, Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program, which we call LCLIP, to include Westlake Park improvements.

Westlake Park is the gateway to Seattle's downtown and a vital link to the city's most iconic destinations.

As an important transit hub, the park serves downtown workers, residents, and tourists with connections to Seattle Center via the monorail, the Summit Convention Center, Pike Place Market, and the new Seattle Waterfront.

The park is an important neighborhood asset for downtown residents, the center of downtown retail core, and often tourist's introduction to our city.

Deputy Superintendent Andy Scheffer is with me to support the presentation.

and I want to thank you for this opportunity to tell you why we are coming with you here today about Westlake.

So I'll turn it over to Andy.

Thank you very much.

The purpose of the legislation is to modify the LCLIP funding plan to include Westlake Park improvements.

Seattle Parks Foundation has been a great partner to the city in efficiently delivering a comprehensive design and construction for essential improvements in the park.

under an expedited timeline.

After negotiations with the artist Robert Mackey, we have added scope to include the removal of the Seven Hills sculpture and transportation and storage of the fountain, the arch, and the Seven Hills sculpture for reinstallation in a future park project.

We are being opportunistic.

by removing the Seven Hills sculpture while we have construction activity occurring on site and funding available to do so.

This will be transformative in opening up sight lines at the south end of the park.

The removal of the Seven Hills sculpture fully supports the project goals as it directly responds to crime prevention through environmental design.

By bettering sight lines and opening the area to activation, we will better enable the ground floor of commercial spaces to spill out into the park and welcome the public.

Right now the activation is cornered on all sides by the sculptural components.

This is the third piece of legislation associated with the project and will set the stage for future revisioning of the Westlake area as a transportation hub.

In this slide you can see the Seven Hills sculpture, the fountain and the stage.

The baseline scope included removal of the fountain, the stage, and making electrical infrastructure improvements.

it did not include transportation of the fountain and stage to a storage area.

So the new added scope includes transportation of the fountain, the stage, and the Seven Hills sculpture to a storage location.

First and foremost, the scope includes expanding the public open space and introducing vegetation.

That was one of the number one comments in the robust public engagement process was to soften the site and introduce more vegetation.

In the site plan here you can see the locations of the fountain, the arch, and the Seven Hills artwork.

Also very important to this work is expanding the size of the stage.

Right now the stage is very small and it has been problematic in exercising our First Amendment rights.

the stage will not only get larger, but it will also be ADA accessible.

As described early in the presentation, the LCLIP funding provided for the City of Seattle is focused on Southlake Union and downtown, and it's divided between Southlake Union and downtown as a percentage of the revenue for each one of those areas and the funding has exceeded expectations and we are able to maintain our downtown funding plan commitments and add Westlake to the list.

So the goals for this legislation are to revise the project list for the LCLIP funding, but first and foremost to enhance the safety and security of Westlake Park in removing the Seven Hills sculpture.

The project is currently under construction and they are diligently and vigorously pursuing completion in the second quarter of 2026. And this illustration is the paving pattern at Westlake Park.

The contractor's gonna be combing the park from the south end to the north end to remove trip hazards.

That was part of a previous amended legislation.

They're also gonna be introducing vehicle ramming mitigation in preparation for future events.

Thank you.

Awesome, slide eight to me looks like, you remember those books when you were a kid and you would hold it close to your face and then pull it out to see, so that's what I did to the screen and nothing popped out.

Sorry, I just had to say that.

Karina, do you have anything that you wanna add?

Yeah, I'll add just to emphasize that the money from the LCLIP revenue is due to the revenues being higher than forecasted.

So this isn't taking away money from any existing project.

It's just adding it to the revised scope of Westlake improvements.

And then also, the removal of the Seven Hills art installation will eventually end up incurring additional expenses for the city that may or may not be able to be covered by the LCLIP funding, depending on where it is located.

LCLIP revenue can only be spent in South Lake Union in the downtown area.

The additional expenses would include community engagement for relocation of the art installation, the actual relocation, the installment, and any artist fees associated with that.

This SPR is committed to relocating it in a different park that is prominently located in Seattle, at least one acre in size, and that would happen within five years.

So something to keep in mind.

Awesome, thank you.

I was actually with some people, meeting with some people at MOHAI who were talking to me about this project and I knew about this coming to committee but had emphasized that and had wonderful things to say about parks as well.

I will pause here and see if any of my colleagues have any questions regarding this amendment.

I know we heard about LCLIP over the summer and I will pause.

I know this is in Councilmember Kettle's district.

I don't know if you have any questions.

I don't want to put you on the spot, but anyone?

You all are easy.

Okay, well, awesome.

Councilmember Rivera.

I've got to keep up my, there's the Rivera, what did you call it?

There's due diligence and there's the Rivera's due diligence.

So I say, and Andy Shippers, he's nodding because he knows what you mean.

But you know what?

I'll take it because that's good.

we have to do our due diligence, right?

I will say that in that vein I did meet with Parks to review this project and answer some of my questions because Wherever the money's coming from, a million dollars is a million dollars.

It's a lot of money and so I always wanna make sure that I'm asking all the questions on behalf of constituents and we have to do this work at Westlake.

It's appropriate to do.

It's part of our maintenance and operations of parks.

There are some things there that we're trying to also and council member Kettle you can speak to these and I see you have your hand up but there's some things we do on a septed crime prevention through environmental design that we've tried over the years there and we continue to to address that as we're trying to keep the area you know, usable and safe and for constituents that go there and for visitors that go alike.

And I do know that, Parks, you had indicated, Andy Schiffer, that there was considerations.

Do we, you know, repurpose the structure and how much how much would that cost versus storing it.

And really the cost was not a lot more if we were not to store it.

And then there were, of course, considerations about the artists and working with the artists and community's interests.

So I raise all that, Chair, to say all of these things are considered when we're doing this work.

And it's not taken lightly that the costs involved, right?

And if it's not, it is important to maintain, I mean we own this artwork and it's important to maintain these things and if the cost is not going to be so exorbitant to store it and relocate it and all of those things, and it makes sense.

And so I just, as part of the due diligence, I ask those questions, and I feel comfortable moving, proceeding in the way that Parks is recommending.

And just to say, I super appreciate my relationship with our folks at Parks, Superintendent Diaz, Andy Schiffer and I have had the pleasure of working together.

It's been my pleasure to work with you for all these years and I really appreciate even within that I always ask all the questions as Andy knows and I'm very satisfied with the answers I got back.

So thank you Chair.

Thank you Councilmember Rivera.

Councilmember Kettle.

Yes, Chair, thank you.

The D-7 version of the D-4 due diligence has been done.

I've been in briefed on obviously the Westlake Park, the broader Westlake projects in mind, and then also the considerations with the artists and so forth, so yes.

been in briefed and key here is to well the two things one is the Westlake Park project ensuring that it is done and done well and done right particularly timely as on top of that given the FIFA World Cup and then separately yes we have these art pieces and we need to do right by that as well so I understand the the various moving parts to this to this project with the L-clip and and of course the L-clip itself is you know and what's going on with that is so huge, not just for Westlake Park, but as noted between South Lake Union and downtown.

So I just wanted to say as the D7, given the role and the issues with LCLIP and so forth, or the attributes of LCLIP, that yes, we're set on this.

And I think not only parks, but also my conversations with the mayor's office.

Awesome, thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Are there any other questions?

All right, awesome.

I know those might be old hands, Council Member Kettle and Council Member Rivera.

Old hands?

Yes.

Awesome.

So I'm gonna move that the committee, first of all, sorry, thank you all for coming, and thank you also for giving us a background on this.

Super supportive, and I know that the council members from, District 7, Councilmember Kettle, you know, had been working on this as well in LCLIP and just wanting to make sure Westlake Park is, again, as we talked about, the waterfront as our front porch, making sure that Westlake looks good as well, because it's that pike pine core that goes up into my district, District 3 as well, but just connectivity across the city.

So thank you all so much.

And also, wanted to mention, opportunistic was the word.

No worries.

I had a teammate who would say, I'm going to go down, we could sit at these hotels, I'm going to go to the consergy in the front, I'm going to go to the consergy downtown.

I say, consergy, concierge?

And so I had, you know, you never know.

Sometimes the words are all over the place.

So thank you for that.

Anyways, and I will not mention your name.

I move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 121-137.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and second to recommend passage of the bill.

Are there any final comments on this L-Clip amendment to move the artwork?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Kettle?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Strauss?

Council President Nelson?

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Motion carries the committee recommendation that the bill passed will be sent to Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. And I see Superintendent Diaz, did you want to say something?

Thank you.

I would like to say thank you.

Council President?

We did this sort of back and forth.

I'm sorry.

No, Council President, all you.

We expressed appreciation for each other I think at one of our last meetings, but I do want to say that you handled this legislation with grace.

Thank you so much for really getting done what needed to get done.

I mean, that was a display of willingness to serve or wanting to serve.

I guess I don't have a fancy word for it, but I do appreciate you making this for it because there's a lot riding on Westlake right now and it's such an exciting project.

So thank you very much for that and that just exemplifies your service and stewardship of the city and our parks and open spaces.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Awesome, and I think Councilmember Rivera has one last thing to say.

Just really to give a note of recognition to our central staff, Karina Bull, who did a great job shepherding this through and then just reaching out and making sure we didn't have questions and if we did, making sure we had answers to those, so thank you.

Awesome, thank you.

We always love our central staff and thank you, Parks.

This has been a great year.

We've had a lot of legislation come down through committee with you, Parks, and you are Parks, excuse me, Parks Public Utilities and Technology coming down this year of all of the legislation and then improvements and all of the reports that you all gave us.

And we have a really good baseline on where we're moving and where we're going in the city.

And just really grateful for your time and dedication and commitment to the city and also to the parks department that we all love with the green spaces.

So thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Awesome.

And with that being said, Council President, this is your last Public Utilities Parks Technology Committee, the PPUT Committee.

I wanna thank you for all of your due diligence.

There's a Nelson due diligence standard as well.

but your commitment to infrastructure in our city and making sure that we do have open spaces and that our public utilities are working well.

The nuts and bolts and the guts, we call it the bold basics, but the non-sexy stuff that we have to do in government that a lot of people just don't see the back end.

I know that your office has had been committed all year on that and it's just been an honor to serve with you during that process and knowing how much time and dedication that you put into that all year.

Thank you very much for those comments.

Thank you for your leadership.

I remember one of our first conversations was you really wanted infrastructure at least to be, you know, as one of your, if not the one that you chaired, were on because it's very important to you too.

It's what makes a city.

Awesome.

It's the tangible things people can see in front of them and then they can see it like moving forward.

So thank you.

And colleagues, thank you Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you Councilmember Kettle.

Thank you Councilmember Rivera and thank you Council President Nelson for joining us on this committee and all of your hard work and due diligence that we did in committee work before we sent it to full council.

I could not have done it without you just because you all brought so much knowledge and information and questions and your amendments that you brought to certain things.

She says with a smile.

Yeah, I love the amendments, but it strengthened all of the legislation that came out of this committee, so thank you all for your commitment and work.

Just really, really grateful.

Well, thank you everyone.

And the committee for, with that, we have no other items on the agenda.

And if there's no further business, which I see none, this meeting will adjourn.

And that's gonna conclude our final December 10th meeting of the parks, public utilities and technology committee.

and my mother is watching.

Hi, Rhonda Hollingsworth.

I love you as always.

And we're just saying hi.

I know you're watching.

Everyone's waving at you, even Rekera, our phenomenal security.

Hearing no other business.

It is 3.35 p.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.