Transportation & Seattle Public Utilities Committee 22123

February 21st, 2023 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will come to order.

The time is 9.31 a.m.

I'm Alex Peterson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Council Member Strauss?

Present.

Chair Peterson?

Present.

For present.

Thank you.

And Council Member Sawant is excused.

If there's no objection, today's proposed agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Chair's report.

Good morning, again, welcome to the February 21st meeting of our committee, Transportation Seattle Public Utilities.

Our agenda today has just two items.

First on the agenda is resolution 32082, which would approve an update to the city's solid waste plan.

The plan is a lengthy document, so it is in committee today just for a briefing and discussion.

so that committee members will have more time to review it.

We'll bring it back to our committee for a vote on the resolution on March 7. Next on our agenda is an update on outreach and work our Seattle Department of Transportation has been doing during its phase two of crafting the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We heard an update from this team back in September on phase one.

I know we're all eager to have a public briefing and discussion on the Seattle Department of Transportation's action plan and review to save lives and reduce injuries by improving its Vision Zero traffic safety program.

We had made room for SDOT at our committee two weeks ago and today, but the executive asked to come to our March 7th meeting, so we'll make room for them March 7th.

We'll give them plenty of time so we can discuss that.

Fortunately, the executive plans to announce their proposed improvements soon, within the next week or so, and hopefully a high-level preview at today's State of the City address.

Rather than just pointing out problems that need fixing, the Harrell administration wanted to add solutions and details of how they will leverage the new $25 million federal grant they received earlier this month.

We are keeping our meeting relatively brief today because I know many will want to attend the Mayor's State of the City address at noon today at Fisher Pavilion in Seattle Center.

which can also be viewed online at the award-winning Seattle Channel.

So we'll go ahead and go to the public comment section of the agenda.

At this time, we'll open the general public comment period for the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

As usual for our hybrid meeting we have people signed up to give public comment both online and in person, and I'm seeing that online.

We have about 14 speakers online but but about half of them.

are actually signed up to discuss an item for two o'clock today at the full city council meeting.

It looks like they're here to speak to Council Member Sawant's proposed ordinance on caste discrimination.

So that is at two o'clock today.

It's not for the Transportation Committee, which is happening now.

as we know from section 11 c3 council committees accept public comment on items relating to their committee only so if you have signed up for to speak on an ordinance that's going to actually be at our full council meeting today instead you want to re-sign up at noon today online or come in here to sign up in person after after 12 noon So I will be calling on those who are here to speak about transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

Okay, I'll go ahead and read the instructions.

Public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Each speaker will get two minutes to speak.

I'll call on two speakers at a time and in the order in which registered on the council's website or on the sign-in sheet in the council chambers at city hall.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of this public comment period by going to the council's website at seattle.gov or by using the sign-in sheet near the public comment microphone toward the front of this council chamber here at City Hall.

For remote speakers, once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of, you have been unmuted, will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak and the speaker must then press star six to begin speaking.

Press star six when it's your turn.

For all public commenters, please begin speaking by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's committee agenda or to our committee's oversight responsibilities.

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

Once you hear that chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

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

If you're providing public comment remotely, once you have completed your comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listing options listed on the agenda.

The regular public comment period for this meeting is open.

We'll begin with the first speaker on the list.

Are you ready here in the chambers?

Come on up and pull that microphone really close to yourself there.

Patricia Harris.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm Pat Harris and I live here in downtown Seattle and I'm here to speak on the issue of the signs on the garbage trucks.

You know those signs.

Breathe clean Seattle.

powered by renewable natural gas.

First, I want to say that the suggestion that Seattle residents are breathing clean around waste management on methane gas powered vehicles isn't accurate.

And Seattle residents shouldn't be encouraged to breathe near them.

Methane gas powered trucks still produce significant levels of air pollution that are linked to illnesses.

And breathing near the trucks is not breathing clean, as they say.

A second point is that evidence is needed that the trucks are in fact running on renewable natural gas, better known sometimes as biogas, and not on conventional methane gas that mostly comes through our pipelines or other methods for fracting.

Renewable natural gas is the gas industry's new favorite marketing scheme, a way to look like they're selling a cleaner product than methane gas from fracting.

A group called Data Leaks uncovered some information, and it suggests that it's highly unlikely the trucks are running on anything other than conventional methane gas.

or conventional gas with a very small percentage of biogas.

By allowing the ads, Seattle is providing what amounts to free publicity for the concept of renewable natural gas, which is oil and gas industries are actively using to cover using gases that are in fact.

Thank you very much.

Next, we'll go to our online speakers.

First up, we've got Megan Cruz, followed by Caleb Horinga.

Go ahead, Megan.

Good morning.

Morning.

Can you hear me?

Hi.

Yes.

I'm Megan Cruz.

Thank you.

I'm Megan Cruz, commenting today on the Seattle Transportation Plan.

At that doing a great job elevating the issues related to the movement of people, but there's still little public facing information about the movement of goods in this plan and the impact of urban freight on Seattle lights.

The issues go beyond traffic impact to environmental and public safety as well as equity compared to cars trucks account for 3 times the vehicle miles traveled on city streets and 80% of transportation related emissions.

Among U.S. cities, Seattle ranks 11th in excess CO2 from trucks and 15th in both annual truck delays and congestion costs.

It ranks among the 52 cities cited for its wide discrepancy in exposure to pollution from freight traffic and BIPOC communities compared to affluent white neighborhoods.

We know we have a problem because since 2018, the city has collected data and attempted to institute policies and codes to mitigate freight impacts.

But each time it backs off when met by resistance.

Just last December, the council declined to adopt a comp plan amendment recommended by the Seattle Planning Commission that simply requires the city to create an urban strategy for freight.

It's time to elevate public awareness of this problem and start hosting public forums.

SDOT needs the support of this committee and the rest of the council to do this.

We have the information we need about this issue.

Now, we just need the political will to do the right thing.

Please help.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Caleb Horinga followed by Clara Cantor.

Go ahead, Caleb.

Hello, Caleb.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi.

Thanks.

My name is Caleb Herringa, and I'm a Seattle resident and the campaign director of Gas Leaks, a campaign aimed at educating the public about the risks of so-called natural gas.

Waste management provides garbage service in the northwest and south ends of Seattle, and it's required under the terms of their contract with the city to power their trucks with 100% renewable natural gas.

Also known as biogas, renewable natural gas is methane captured from landfills, sewage treatment plants, and large dairies.

Waste management touts its use of biogas on the sides of its trucks, which all read breathe clean Seattle, powered by renewable natural gas.

But analysis of data raises some serious questions about whether the trucks are actually using biogas or running on conventional methane gas, which primarily comes from fracking in Canada.

Waste management sustainability report shows that they do not capture any methane at their nearby landfills, And state records show that the majority of biogas projects in the state are already dedicated to other uses than powering garbage trucks.

Gas leaks, the Sierra Club, 350 Seattle, and Breach Collective are asking the city of Seattle and the Washington State Attorney General's office to demand a waste management account for where it is sourcing its biogas.

The company's ads on the sides of their trucks clearly lead a person to believe that its trucks are running on biogas.

And if that's not true, then the ads are misleading and the city should not allow them.

Oil and gas industry giants like Chevron are heavily advertising their use of trivial amounts of biogas in order to appear like they're cleaning up the product that they sell.

But this provides cover for the continued build out of the methane gas pipeline system, which risks putting our climate goals out of reach.

Seattle shouldn't be letting garbage trucks provide free advertising for false climate solutions like biogas, especially if the trucks aren't actually using it.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Clara Cantor, followed by Jess Wallach.

Go ahead, Clara.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, this is Clara Cantor.

I'm a Konami organizer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Um, I'm speaking today to report that there have been 13 people killed by traffic violence on our streets since the newest thought director, Greg spots announced his 90 day review of vision zero, which is our collective goal to have zero traffic deaths or serious injuries by 2030. That number includes.

Um, 12 of those 13 people were walking, rolling in a wheelchair or biking.

Five people were killed in district two, which represents just one seventh of our population.

Four of those people were killed on Aurora Avenue alone.

And two of those people were killed by government vehicles, one by SPD and one by a Metro bus.

Those are our neighbors, our family members, our friends, and their deaths on our streets are a direct result of policy decisions that are made in city hall to delay safety projects, to prioritize vehicle speeds over lives and to under invest in our neighborhoods that need it most.

I'm delighted to hear that the Vision Zero Review will finally be released on March 7th, and I'm excited to see what's in it.

I'm here to ask this Transportation Committee to review it meticulously and to push SDOT to act with urgency to save lives, to restart important safety projects that have been delayed and been put on hold, like the Georgetown to South Park Trail, West Marginal Way, Beacon Avenue, and to ensure that the transportation plan that you'll hear about this morning actually prioritizes safety.

in action and in detail and not just as a goal on the front page and never again, and make sure that it includes concrete plans to address the most dangerous streets in our city, like Aurora Avenue, like Greener Avenue, MLK Way, the whole of Soto, and to really treat this like the urgent crisis that it is.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we have Jess Wallach, followed by Dylan Plummer.

Go ahead, Jess.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Great.

My name is Jess Wallach, and I'm a campaigns co-director with 350 Seattle.

I just want to take a second and underscore what Clara just shared.

In the last week, it was my roommates who ride bicycles to get around because they don't have cars.

We're almost hit by cars.

Everything that Clara shared, that grief is real, that fear is real, and the need for this committee to take traffic violence seriously is real.

Thank you, Clara, for bringing that.

I'm also calling in this morning about the misleading ads on the sides of Seattle garbage trucks.

Here at 350 Seattle, we are certainly not breathing clean or easy about those ads, with significant questions about whether they're even running on renewable natural gas, or if it's gas, most of which is extracted from indigenous lands in Canada.

We're extremely concerned.

Climate justice demands that we stop the build out of frack gas infrastructure in all its forms.

And so called renewable natural gas just helps the industry appear like they're cleaning up their act while continuing to drill and frack for more gas.

We believe that Seattle residents shouldn't have to be bombarded with misleading information that promotes the expansion of the frack gas and fossil fuel system every time they get their garbage picked up.

especially when renewable natural gas is just as toxic as other fossil fuels to produce.

Whether or not masonage trucks are burning renewable natural gas or conventional fracked gas, these methane gas powered vehicles still produce huge levels of air pollution, just as bad or worse than diesel trucks in some situations.

So as Seattle continues to transition from polluting fossil fuels to clean renewable electricity, we have to hold the line on corporate greenwashing and false solutions.

It would be like Seattle allowing trains to come through with advertisements for clean coal.

We all know that clean coal is fossil fuel industry PR to keep polluting for profit.

Seattle and King County have already taken a critical step of saying no to allowing fossil fuel ads on the sides of buses.

We shouldn't allow them on our garbage trucks either.

Thank you very much.

And next, we've got Dylan Plummer and that may be our last speaker here about transportation or utilities.

Go ahead, Dylan.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to provide comment.

My name is Dylan Plummer and I'm a senior campaign representative with the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club is a national environmental nonprofit organization, and in Washington State alone, we have over 27,000 members and over 67,000 supporters working for environmental and climate justice.

I'm testifying today to highlight the concerns addressed in a letter that the Sierra Club, along with other partners, such as the City Council, regarding the company Waste Management's claims about, quote, renewable natural gas or biomethane.

Waste Management provides garbage service in Seattle and has its use of renewable natural gas or biogas on the side of the truck which all read, breathe clean Seattle, powered by renewable natural gas.

While there are a number of falsehoods associated with Mace Management's claims, as you've already heard from my colleagues, I want to focus on the fact that even if those trucks were powered by 100% renewable natural gas, which they are almost certainly not, the impact of burning biomethane on air quality and in turn public health are identical to those of burning conventional methane.

Studies have shown that methane gas powered engines can produce five to 50 times more ultrafine particles, which are links to asthma, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease compared to diesel engines.

A study by the California Air Resources Board found that heavy duty gas powered vehicles emitted asthma causing nitrogen oxides at higher levels than they were originally certified for, and that NOx emissions tended to increase as the vehicles age, sometimes to levels higher than their diesel counterparts.

This is not to mention that, according to a report by California Climate and Agricultural Network, a greater market for manure-based R&G will likely increase localized pollution for vulnerable rural communities by reinforcing highly polluting industrial livestock farming practices.

So the company's insinuation on the side of every garbage truck that rolls past residents that they can, quote, breathe clean due to the fact that these trucks are powered by biofuel which again, they're likely not just completely misleading.

I encourage the city council to take action on this issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues.

That was our last public speaker here.

Um, that was present.

And so we will go ahead and move on to the first, uh, legislative item on the agenda, uh, which is just a briefing and discussion agenda item one.

Will the clerk please read the short title of the first agenda item into the record.

Agenda item one, resolution 32082, a resolution adopting Seattle's 2022 solid waste plan update, moving upstream to zero waste, for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

Yes, colleagues, this is just for briefing and discussion only today.

We have Seattle Public Utilities here to tell us more about their proposed update to the solid waste plan.

We also have Brian Goodnight from Council Central Staff.

If committee members have any questions between now and when this resolution comes back to committee on March 7th for a vote, Central Staff, I believe, will be preparing a memo We will have a public comment period before March 7th that will analyze the proposed solid waste plan update and can include answers to any questions you might have today.

Councilmember Herbold.

in conflict with the contractual obligations with waste management.

And I'm just wondering, do we know if anybody with the SPU team here with us today will be able to answer some questions on that?

It is related to solid waste, perhaps tangentially, but it seems like it would be really useful to be able to ask some questions about that.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilor Herbold.

Yes, let's ask.

I also did send an email to Seattle Public Utilities asked them to look into that matter, what waste management at one of our contractors is allegedly doing on their trucks.

So, and we can also ask today during this update, absolutely.

So we do have our presenters here from Seattle Public Utilities who will be going through a PowerPoint presentation for us.

And if you look on the agenda, this resolution has some supporting documents, but mainly the very lengthy solid waste plan update is included as attachment A.

And central staff, again, will be doing a memo to assist in analyzing this.

Welcome Seattle Public Utilities.

Go ahead and take it away.

Great, thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Jeff Fowler.

I am the Deputy Director of Solid Waste.

With me is Susan Fiferis, Director of Solid Waste Planning and Program Management, and Stephanie Schwanger, the Project Manager of the 2022 Solid Waste Plan Update.

I'll be providing a high-level overview of what the 2022 solid waste plan update is, what's new, and how Seattle is shifting focus to move upstream to prevent waste.

I will then go over what the next steps are and what we are asking of you today.

But first, we want to be clear why we are shifting focus upstream to prevent waste and how this relates to the city's 70% recycling goal.

We did not meet the city's aspirational recycling goal to recycle 70% of municipal solid waste by 2022, for reasons we will mention later in the presentation.

SPU will continue investing in recycling, but in keeping with best practice and where the solid waste industry is headed, we are going to focus on diversion and waste prevention, which can offer better benefits in the long term.

And it's better aligned with Seattle's goal of advancing zero waste and the circular economy.

We do not want people to have the impression that Seattle is moving away from recycling.

We need the public to continue to recycle and compost.

The shift to more holistic goals is to guide our work in the most effective and efficient manner to reduce waste overall.

We're here today to brief you on the 2022 Solid Waste Plan titled Moving Upstream to Zero Waste.

The city's comprehensive management plan for solid waste so that you can consider it for a possible vote at your next meeting on March 7th.

The draft 2022 plan update has already undergone preliminary review by the Department of Ecology, which provided us with complimentary feedback and found it to comply with solid waste planning requirements.

We'll bring the plan update back to the committee for your consideration and a possible vote on March 7th, followed by consideration by the full council on March 14th.

You can see here we are in the adoption process.

In addition to review by Ecology, which occurred in step five, the 2022 plan update has undergone both SEPA and an optional public comment review in steps three and four.

We've worked extensively with our Solid Waste Advisory Committee to develop and review the 2022 plan update, in addition to extensive public engagement.

Following City Council approval, the 2022 plan update will be transmitted to Ecology for final approval.

Let's talk about the significant aspects of the 2022 solid waste plan update.

It's required by the Washington Department of Ecology and documents how we plan to manage solid waste in Seattle for the next six years with an outlook toward the next 20 years.

The plan update documents existing conditions and projects, identifies actions to continue our leadership in the solid waste industry, and suggests creating new metrics and targets to help guide our work and measure success.

Some key highlights of the 2022 plan update include incorporation of the city principles from SPU's strategic business plan, especially equity and operational resilience, aligning our work with other key policy documents, taking a more holistic lifecycle approach to solid waste management to eliminate or reduce waste upstream for the greatest environmental impact, working toward development of new metrics to measure success.

This graphic illustrates what we mean by having a holistic lifecycle approach to materials management, from extracting raw materials, to making products, to end of product life.

The solid waste industry has historically focused on managing materials at end of life, or when we're done using them.

This includes recycling and landfill disposal.

Focusing on the whole lifecycle, including preventing waste in the first place, allows us to find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, engage with community, conserve resources, and reduce costs much more than just managing materials at the end of life.

So how is Seattle moving upstream?

We'll continue to support recycling, composting, and diversion efforts while increasing focus on waste prevention strategies.

A few of these strategies include encouraging food waste prevention, developing and supporting rules and regulations to reduce the use of non-recyclable single-use items, building public-private partnerships around reuse, investing in community-led waste prevention work and a circular economy through our grant program, and developing a comprehensive waste prevention strategic plan.

Moving upstream with an emphasis on stopping waste at the source requires we rethink traditional recycling rate goals.

We've had great success with recycling, doubling the recycling rate over the past 30 years, primarily through incentives, programs, policy, and regulations.

We plan to continue our national leadership in waste reduction, but to do this, we must target opportunities to stop waste from the start.

upstream focus keeps waste out of the cycle or decreases it and in turn decreases the negative environmental impacts.

We are currently at approximately 53% recycling rate with a peak rate of 59% in 2016, which is significantly higher than the U.S. average.

There are many good reasons to expand beyond the recycling rate and develop goals better aligned with upstream work.

There are 110 recommendations in the 2011 solid waste plan that if implemented, we believe Seattle could achieve 70% recycling.

However, not all of these recommendations turned out to be feasible or cost effective.

Changes to material types and designs used in packaging have dramatically altered the composition and volumes in the waste trim.

Clear examples are elimination of phone books and the reduction of newspapers.

The recycling goal doesn't measure or communicate the importance of waste prevention, nor does it account for the benefits of preventing or reducing certain specific types of waste, like food.

It isn't even the best measure of the city's recycling and composting programs, which could be better measured through capture rates.

In addition, the industry is moving away from a recycling rate.

The Department of Ecology stopped using the recycling rate as its key metric in their planning efforts in 2016. Seattle is doing a great job of reducing waste generation and landfill disposal with both on a downward trend over the past 20 plus years.

Before the pandemic, we achieved the lowest residential waste generation in our history of 2.1 pounds per person per day in 2019. And thank you.

We have a comment or question from Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

I'm just putting the aspirational goal of 70% aside.

I'm not asking why we did not meet that goal.

But I am interested to know why we lost, apparently, ground since 2016. And maybe that is, as you mentioned, because There are things that aren't in the waste stream anymore that affect the percentages.

But just wondering if you could just get a little bit more granular in the why we've dropped from 58.8% in 2016 to about 52% in 2021. Susan, can I ask you to answer that one?

Yeah, hi, thank you council member herbal.

I appreciate the question and it's a natural and given the slide there.

So the honest answer is we don't know exactly.

We don't have the specific data to tell us why.

But what we believe has to do with it is the composition of the materials has changed significantly over the last decade, increasing materials that are not recyclable and decreasing the materials that are easily recyclable.

Examples of that is the mixed materials packaging, like your flexible packaging.

Think about the dog food bag or the cat food bag or the cereal bag that you get today used to come in a cardboard box, that was easily recyclable, if not, that material is not recyclable.

Also, easily recyclable materials that used to be commonplace, you know, even a decade ago, was your newspaper, your daily paper, your phone books, those types of things, all very heavy material.

They have decreased in the waste stream significantly.

So the change in the waste stream itself, Has we think impacted another thing just specific to Seattle is the fact that the North transfer station opened.

In 2016, at the end of 2016, really went live in 2017. And so material that was going north to garbage that was going north to the King County system was brought back into the Seattle system, which we believe impacted us.

And then also you've seen the.

the boom in construction, and we also think the boom in construction has impacted because we have more material that is truly construction and demolition debris that's flowing through our transfer stations, but is being captured as municipal solid waste, and those are different waste streams.

We think that heavy material has also impacted, but we still have a very high recycling rate, especially when you compare us to anywhere else in the country.

So I hope that helps you understand a little bit.

But again, I go back to we don't specifically know all the reasons.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you, Chair Peterson.

Thanks very much for this presentation.

A couple slides ago, there was a lot of pictures about the food stream and I know that we have been able to significantly decrease our food related waste.

But when you're talking about I think effectively what you're talking about is decreasing consumption of things that we are not going to use and then end up just throwing away so much of our well our food packaging certainly some of it is still a lot of plastic, but there's a lot of other.

I mean, it's hard to buy anything that isn't packaged in plastic and so I'm wondering.

You've talked a little bit about that issue it sounds like Susan that there's materials are different some things are harder to recycle.

I'm interested in the role we may be able to play in.

changing requirements for how things get packaged.

I know that's a much bigger market issue.

I'm also interested in the question of whether there is a market for recycled goods, because I feel like in the last few years, we've heard that the market is decreasing and what we are able to do with our recycled material, the window is shutting on what we're able to do with that.

So can you talk about those issues a little bit, please?

Jeff, do you want me to take that?

Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Morales.

So I'll take 2 part question 1st part.

What can we do to change the packaging?

So we're actively engaged in a number of efforts.

Seattle is on the forefront.

Sometimes I say we're leading from behind, but often we're in the forefront.

We work at a national level with the U.S.

Plastics PAC, which is a national group that evolved out of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and is one of many PACs around the world that is working upstream with package producers to help eliminate materials from packaging that can't be recyclable, trying to standardize packaging so it's more easily captured.

That's what we mean by capture rate, being able to actually capture the material for recycling.

And so we're actively engaged in that.

Then at the state level, we're also actively engaged in the producer responsibility bill that's being, it's known as the RAP Act.

And I believe Council Member Herbold might have spoken on behalf of that.

And we've been working on that for about three years now with our partners around the state, both municipalities, jurisdictions, and then private industry to try to craft a bill that will work for all.

That's another aspect of trying to get producers to take responsibility for what they're putting into the waste stream and making them take the financial responsibility for ensuring that it's recycled.

So we're very actively engaged in that.

It's not something that's going to happen overnight.

I know I'm very involved.

I'm on the board for the U.S.

Plastics PAC.

And I know that we have a 2025 goal of eliminating unnecessary types of plastic, but we're also looking at how can we get people to ensure that things are being able to be manufactured in a way we can capture.

That said, the second part of your question is, are things actually being recycled?

And I can guarantee that they are actually being recycled.

We have we work with our recycler Republic services closely to ensure that the material that is coming through there and we have a very low residual rate, which is the actual garbage going out the back door.

It's around 10% the actual 90% that's being.

But, you know, sorted and bundled and sold as a commodity are actually being sold into markets where it's being used to remake into new products.

So, we track that and we work closely to that under our contract.

So, we can give you more details, but yes, it's being recycled.

Do not believe all the rumors you hear out there.

Thank you.

Please continue with the presentation.

Will do.

Thank you for those questions.

We can go to the next slide.

So we've already made progress in developing some key metrics that will more accurately reflect the industry focus on moving upstream to prevent waste.

For example, we've updated the residential per capita waste generation and disposal targets.

We have developed a consumption-based greenhouse gas inventory of solid waste emissions with our regional partners.

We have teams working on new targets around waste generation and landfill disposal, metrics that could help us better understand the materials in the waste stream, and food waste prevention.

We're developing a waste prevention strategic plan, which includes working to develop other measures of success, such as environmental, social, and economic impacts of avoided waste, cost savings, and job creation through waste prevention and other potential metrics.

Here are some examples of metrics and targets we're thinking about.

Reductions in landfill tons, which addresses diversion as well as prevention, a ceiling on generated tons, and daily waste generation per household or business or employee.

We have a project team digging into the data to establish which of the tonnage-based metrics and targets to move forward with, and the Waste Prevention Strategic Plan effort will investigate measuring environmental, economic, and equity impacts.

To summarize, these are the main takeaways about the 2022 Solid Waste Plan update.

Seattle continues to be a leader aligning with the upstream movement in the solid waste industry to prevent waste at the source.

We're rethinking metrics and targets to align with preventing and reducing waste.

We are working to develop new ways of measuring impacts.

The bottom line is that we get closer to zero waste by producing and using less, not recycling more.

Here is a quick view of where we are in the planning process.

Now that we've briefed you on the 2022 solid waste plan moving upstream to zero waste, we'd like to ask you to consider it for a possible vote at your next meeting on March 7th, followed by consideration of the full council on March 14th.

Once the 2022 plan update is adopted by Seattle, we will submit it to Department of Ecology for final approval.

We invite you to join us in championing waste prevention and moving Seattle upstream towards a zero waste future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I believe earlier in the presentation, you mentioned that the State Department of Ecology has reviewed the draft plan and you've already incorporated or addressed, I should say, their comments.

That's good news.

Yes, Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

This is a very tangential question, but we have an issue in one of our business plazas where a property owner with lots of restaurants, lots of restaurants in this business plaza, a property owner isn't providing sufficient waste receptacles for these food related businesses.

And it's creating a lot of trash and rodents, as you might imagine.

So can you talk just a little bit about what the obligation of property owners are to provide receptacles for their small businesses, for their tenants?

Yeah, thank you.

It's a little bit of a complicated question, not knowing which property exactly, but in general, the commercial customers work directly with our haulers.

They contract with our two main haulers in the city for garbage.

And then they are able to go out more open market for recycling and composting services.

So that is their, those are their options they have to do.

We have a very Very good inspection and compliance team that works mostly with the residential customers, but also works throughout the city, different parts of the city, talking with commercial customers about their waste, about their waste needs, whether they're right size, not right size.

Having said all that, we would be happy to look into that property specifically.

That's really kind of what it takes to deal with the one-off issues.

We have a team that will go out and work with them directly to make sure they have the proper sizing and certainly encourage them to get the recycling and composting services that would be most advantageous.

Yeah, and I think my team is already working with your team, so I appreciate that.

It's just frustrating to hear, you know, our our business neighbors complaining about their inability to get their waste picked up when it's actually the property owner who isn't.

Yeah.

And get the receptacles that they need.

So.

Yeah.

And we do have we do have some ability to do enforcement.

So, but it's a, you know, it's a step process, but we're certainly happy to look into that individual property.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Start with helping them.

And then if we have to go down.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

I know that applies to a lot of our districts.

Appreciate your asking that.

Council Member Herbold.

Thank you.

Another tangential question, as mentioned at the top of the briefing, and I understand we may not have the right folks here from SPU to address this question, but since we did have public comment, I did want to ask the question for the public record.

I appreciate that Committee Chair Peterson has I just wanted to put them on the public record here because of the public comment that we heard in this regards the one the contractual obligation of waste management to under our contract with them to power their trucks with 100% renewable natural gas.

The fact that they advertise on their trucks that they're using renewable natural gas and the claim that through analysis of publicly available information that in fact the trucks may be using conventional natural gas.

Completely different thing.

Conventional natural gas primarily comes from fracking in Canada, whereas renewable natural gas is captured from It's methane captured from landfills, sewage treatment plants, and large dairy.

So two issues here.

One is the advertising on the trucks, correct, and if not, waste management should either paint over them or correct the fuel source for the trucks.

And two, the question of whether or not there is a compliance issue with the contracts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Yeah, we are aware of this information that's come out recently and we're looking into it more deeply to make sure We've got everything correct.

We do have requirements in our contract about using natural gas, and we do have compliance reports that are required from the contractors to be sent to us.

But I don't want to misspeak.

I don't know if anyone else on my team has any more updated information, but I know we are looking into that as we speak.

Really appreciate it.

I don't have anything added.

Jeff.

If you could get back to committee members with the answer after your research, we'd appreciate it so that we can respond to our constituents and appreciate the public speakers for being here and raising this both in online and via email.

Okay.

All right, colleagues, any more comments or questions.

Again, central staff will be doing a memo for us analyzing this and you can get any questions that come up to Brian.

Good night on our city council central staff.

All right, well, we'll go ahead and go on to the next item.

Thank you to Seattle Public Utilities.

Next up, we'll hear from Seattle Department of Transportation.

We'll go ahead and have our committee clerk read the full title of the second agenda item into the record.

Agenda item two, update on the Seattle Transportation Plan phase two for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

Colleagues, we last heard from the Seattle Department of Transportation back in September on updates from phase one of their crafting of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Estat is back today to give us an update on phase two and what's next.

And colleagues, if you have any questions about this matter, you can obviously reach out to Calvin Chow on our central staff.

Welcome Estat.

Good morning.

My name is Francisca Stephan.

I'm an SDOT Deputy Director for Capital Project Delivery, and I just wanted to kick us off this morning with a quick thank you for inviting us to be here today.

We are really glad that you're interested in this topic.

We are really passionate about it and excited to share information with you today.

Wanted to just talk a little bit about how the Seattle Transportation Plan is really our long-range transportation plan for the whole city.

It's an exciting moment where we get to outline a vision for the kind of equitable, sustainable, safe, and inviting multimodal city that we aspire to be.

And that vision for the future includes ideas, a wide range of policies, of programs, of different strategies, how we can achieve that vision for the future.

It's very much like the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

It's a little different, but it's part of, it's sort of both and.

It will be both SDOT's guiding vision for the future, as well as a component of the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan that is being prepared by OPCD.

I'm really happy to say staff is really proactively coordinating with across the departments so that we have a vision for the future that synchronizes housing and land use, as well as our outreach efforts and the environmental work that will go into adopting both of the documents.

I'm really happy to say that the coordination there has been great, as well as the outreach efforts have been coordinated.

The Seattle Transportation Plan is one of SDOT's really big 2023 priorities.

We are really excited about it.

We as an agency are completely behind this effort.

And it is one of our top things that we're doing this year along with the vision zero focus the top to bottom review and implementation of our very important transportation equity framework, and the commitments of the mayor's executive order on reducing transportation greenhouse gas emissions so you know it is one of our guiding lights along with those other important parts of the work that we do.

as well coordinated, as much as it's coordinated with the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan, it's also coordinated with our funding package that we're developing.

It's not the same, but it is the foundation of, the Seattle Transportation Plan is the foundation of the Seattle Transportation Plan funding package.

It's very much like what we did as a city in the mid-aughts with the Move Seattle document.

The Move Seattle vision framed up the foundation for the Move Seattle Levy, and we're doing very much the same thing here.

So while today, while we're here to talk to you about some of our really great outreach on the Seattle Transportation Plan, we are also looking forward to bringing you in the future more information on the funding package effort as it is developed using the good information and the strong foundation here from the Seattle Transportation Plan.

want to hand it off to my great staff in SDOT who are working on this project.

I want to give them just a minute of kudos to say that the outreach that they have been doing over the past better part of a year is some of the best I've ever seen.

It is going to people where they live.

It is engaging with communities on their terms and in their languages.

It is compensating people for the important time that they give us to share with us their insights and knowledge.

And it is thoughtful and comprehensive.

And I just wanted to give them kudos and say it really is fantastic work.

I think it creates a strong foundation for both our transportation plan, as well as our funding package.

And I'm excited for what they're going to share with you today and what we'll share with you going forward into the future.

So with that, I will pass it off to Jonathan Lewis.

Thanks, Francisca, and thank you, council members, for having us today.

Appreciate your leadership, Francisca, along with Director Spatz and their support for this effort.

So, update on where we are today, on where the project is.

We'll talk about the timeline, a little overview of the plan.

Again, you've seen a lot of this, but just for the folks following along at home.

And then dig into an update where I'll hand it off to my colleague, Lizzie Maul.

She'll talk about what we're hearing and next steps.

So we're in phase 2, as was mentioned previously.

We were with you all during phase 1 of the planning process where we were investigating the vision and goals and objectives for this plan.

This will be a 20-year plan, so it's an opportunity, of course, to take a step back and think about the future of our streets and how those streets support the city as a whole.

So that was phase one, phase two.

Digging into some of the details, there have been what we've called a menu of actions up on the website where folks could take a look at kind of the key strategic directions for the department over the next couple of decades.

And then in the second half of the second phase, phase 2B, we've been taking a look at our network maps, doing a lot of the technical work that's behind the scenes where we've layering those network maps on top of each other and thinking about some of the trade-offs in the right away.

All that's been undergirded with our engagement process that you'll hear about from Lizzie.

Coming up, we'll have a draft plan out in the mid-2023 period.

Let's take a look at the next slide.

So this plan has four key objectives here.

One is, again, to reimagine our transportation vision.

This is that chance to step back from the day-to-day grind that we live in and think long-term about how we achieve our goals for the streets and our city.

Thinking about this system from a people-first perspective and really grounding that work in our values.

And then meeting that moment of this planning process with some exciting inclusive engagement.

So the next side, we'll take a look at why, why now?

Why, why are we doing this plan now?

So first is we've got some key urgent challenges, urgent and emerging challenges.

We heard from a few folks about the Vision Zero top to bottom review that's presently underway.

And that's definitely top of mind and one of the key challenges that we're considering in this planning process.

Another is around climate action and the need to really move the needle further and harder on our emissions reductions.

And then the other is coming out of the pandemic, we've really seen big changes in how people get around and how does our streets and our transportation needs, how have they changed, how will they continue to evolve, and how do we respond and support folks in their trip-making.

The second one is around what Francisca mentioned around the connection between this work and our funding in the future.

And working really closely with our funding team to make sure that we're handing off a great plan that can undergird that work.

The third is around our work with the comprehensive plan.

We've been really fortunate and excited to have these two plans happening at the same time.

And we're doing some coordinating engagement, as you mentioned, as well as there's big changes underway on the on the comp plan side in terms of housing, anti-displacement and where in our growth strategy and we're working with them closely to think about those things.

It's also a big update to the maritime and industrial areas.

We've been working closely to think about freight and urban goods movement in the city alongside that work.

Last I mentioned this, but on the technical side, we've been thinking about the trade-offs in the right-of-way.

One of those is around a vehicle mile travel reduction target that Council asked us to include in our comp plan that cascades directly into this work.

And so thinking about how we achieve that goal as well.

On the next slide, just to talk a little bit more about about our values and how we're anchoring there.

So you can see the department's values up top, safety, equity, sustainability, connect to some of the things I mentioned.

On the livability side, we're really focusing on people, streets, and public spaces.

Dimension of this plan, that's kind of a new body of work that we're really excited about, comes from a lot of folks on the community side saying they're really like the streets like Occidental and Bell, like to see more of those types of spaces across the city to help support their neighborhood commercial areas and so forth.

So excited about that work.

That feeds straight into our goals.

I mentioned climate action and safety.

Stewardship connects to our work around asset management and maintaining our streets and bridges and staircases.

And then equity.

We've had a really strong body of work to build on.

The Transportation Equity Framework was released last summer after many years of effort.

And we've identified about 80 of those strategies that were able to help advance and cultivate in this work.

I'll talk a little bit about the elements in the next slide, but just as a reminder here that the kind of two big streams that kind of cascade down that diagram or the engagement and then the technical work.

Okay, so now the slide about the comp plan.

So I mentioned that the comp plan team is really focused on housing and the growth strategy, and they're considering some changes to where we grow as a city and how we grow.

And then on top of that, they're planning for a city 20 years out that has almost a million residents.

That's a pretty big jump in population, also equally large employment growth as well.

And that means lots of new trips and lots of new ways, lots of new kind of patterns that will be emerging.

So we've been working very closely with them on the modeling side, on the engagement side, on our environmental reviews, and also working to have a joint release of our our planning documents and environmental documents in the coming months.

So have that to look forward to.

And then ultimately an implementation strategy that's really supportive of both efforts, but the housing and the transportation side.

All right, on to the elements.

So kind of the key, like what will be in the plan, in the kind of nuts and bolts of the plan.

So on the policy side, we're doing a lot of policy alignment and modernization.

We have kind of the cornerstone of SDOT right now is what we call the four modal master plans.

This one for walking, biking, transit, and freight, all developed at different times.

Mostly pointing the same direction, but a little bit of policy alignment there and consolidation.

Again, building on that transportation equity framework that I mentioned.

And then really just updating these things to reflect the current and urgent challenges that I mentioned.

Feeds over into performance measures.

You'll continue to see a vigorous focus on achieving Vision Zero, carbon reductions, and creating a more equitable city, as well as our asset management and stewardship measures.

The investment networks, in addition to priority networks for walking, biking, transit, and freights.

We'll have a new network for people, streets, and public spaces.

Again, doing the work of- Excuse me, Jonathan.

Sure.

We've got a comment or question from Council Member Herbold.

Okay.

Thanks.

I think maybe Jonathan was about to get into the question that I had, which is really about how the maps for the modal plans will be integrated in the STP?

Will there still be separate maps for the separate modes or like how are that this is a big concern that folks had when we were moving to this model and just want to understand a little bit more about how the modal plans are going to be reflected here.

And I hear you on one hand saying integrating, so to me that sounds like one big map.

But on the other hand, you're talking about investment networks, so maybe in maps, both plurals, maybe they're going to still be dealt with separately.

And the conflicts identified, just talk a little bit more about that.

Thanks.

For sure.

Thank you for your question, Councilmember.

It's both and in terms of what you'll see in the final plans and in the draft documents coming out in mid-2023.

So we'll have some maps that show how things interact with each other and layer on top of each other.

And we will continue to have discrete priority networks for walking, biking, transit, freight, and then people, streets, and public spaces as key tools for how we plan for and build out those discrete networks.

And then in addition, layering them on top of each other and thinking about how complete corridors and complete streets are built out.

So the final plan will include both.

So that's a really important.

Important point, thank you.

And just a follow up on that each of the modal plans also had.

In addition to all the projects that people were interested in having done over a certain number of years, there's the implementation plans for each of the different modes.

And so those implementation plans, I think, talked about a cadence of implementation and prioritization and funding.

And so how will that work for the different modal plans?

That's also a great question.

What we'll see in the Seattle Transportation Plan will be a consolidated implementation chapter.

And then what we see in the annual implementation planning process across the department are those discrete programs, the bicycle program, the freight program, etc., and the pedestrian program, etc., developing a programmatic implementation plan.

So I would expect Um, that those types of programmatic needs will still continue to.

Uh, occur, I think that the.

Kind of key question is, like, um, and council has a role in this, obviously, but how those programs are shaped in response to the plan or the funding package.

Um, and what types of implementation planning is needed beyond the.

Uh, into the next, uh, levy or future for transportation package.

Well, there's still be separate goals for each of the different modes as far as like, historically, there have been either dollar amounts that were the goals for each year, sometimes percentages or I just don't want to sort of Miss the trees for the forest.

If we're kind of putting everything under under one umbrella in the interest of of equity.

I think it's really important to recognize the separate needs and progress that is really critical to be made for each of these different modes and have a way for us to hold ourselves accountable for either making that progress or not.

Yes, Council Member, thank you.

That's also a great question.

I think a lot of this is going to be a lot clearer this summer when we share out a draft, but you'll see a kind of parent document where things are coming together.

You'll see a lot of discussion about how everything works together from a walking, a biking, a transit perspective to meet community needs.

We'll also see the eight elements of the plan, and these build on and advance the work of the modal master plans that we've worked on and cherished for many years.

And so there'll be eight of those, one for bicycle, transit, freight, walking, Also one for vehicular, curbside, new and emerging mobility, and people streets and public spaces.

So those eight kind of like sub plans or chapters will really focus on the needs of that element of the right of way.

Anchored, of course, to how we deliver complete streets and achieve our goals.

And inside those, you'll see kind of a wedding cake of performance targets.

At the very top, you'll see our cornerstone measures around such as Vision Zero and Climate Action.

And then in each element will be some network related targets.

So we are not losing that the richness and integrity of those modal plans, but also thinking about how they build on what we're hearing from community and and the technical side to achieve that bigger picture vision as well.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

Last two things I'll note here are around the work that we'll be doing to hand this work off to our Seattle Transportation Plan funding package team, thinking about project and program needs to deliver on the goals of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

along with how we prioritize projects consistent with our values, and then that funding strategy.

So all of those things will be along the 20-year horizon, and that funding package team will be looking more at the near-term needs.

Okay.

With that, I believe I'm going to hand it off to Lizzie now to talk about phase two of engagement.

Thanks.

Thanks, Jonathan and Francisca, and thank you, council members.

We're excited to share an update on engagement through the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We've hosted an online engagement website and have been out in communities talking with folks over the past nine months.

We've had more than 28,000 visits to the online engagement hub with folks actively participating and providing a lot of feedback.

We've had over 61,000 total data points collected so far.

We've also been prioritizing going to where people are already gathered in community, and Francisca touched on this a little bit.

We've participated in 68 community events and 45 meetings and briefings, as well as additional pop-ups at grocery stores, farmers markets, and other neighborhood locations.

We attended a lot of festivals over the summer, including the Duwamish River Festival, Big Day of Play, Othello International Festival, Seafair, and D&D's Pow Wow.

and had more intentional meetings and briefings over the winter months with specific organizations and community advocacy groups.

Next slide, please.

We also know that there are so many amazing community-based organizations that are serving communities all over Seattle, and we've had the opportunity to partner with seven organizations through this planning process, including the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Central Area Collaborative, Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association, Estelita's Library, the Kami community of Seattle-King County, Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing, and Smash the Box.

I also wanted to note that four of these community-based organizations are also working with the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan Update.

So we've really been able to have broader collaborative conversations about community visions for transportation, land use, and housing all together.

Next slide, please.

Each of the community-based organizations created their own engagement plan and have been hosting events and working with their communities to inform us about their community's transportation challenges and opportunities for the future.

They've all been doing a ton of work on the Seattle Transportation Plan in addition to their usual community programs, so we're super thankful to partner with them.

Here are a few, just a few examples here.

The Khmer community of Seattle King County has been hosting events and field trips with Khmer elders and youth to explore more of Seattle's transportation systems.

They've relayed to me that this work has been transformational for breaking down barriers between government and community who have not been engaged in processes like these before.

The Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association has held workshops with youth advocates in South Park and developed a community walk for us to experience and reflect on transportation in the Duwamish Valley.

Smash the Box has been active at community events and is using creative engagement and working with other community-based organizations to get the word out about the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Estelita's library held events throughout the summer and created an impact report that includes thoughtful takeaways about transportation and land use.

And this is really just a sample of some of the work these organizations have been doing.

We're really looking forward to featuring community reports and findings on our website this spring.

Next slide, please.

So right now we're nearing the end of our second phase of engagement, but here's what we've been asking folks to engage with online.

We've had a set of interactive draft transportation maps for folks to comment on.

And we also wanted to check back in to see if our draft vision goals and objectives felt right after hearing a lot about what we want to achieve together during our first phase of engagement.

We also asked about the future of transportation folks want to see, acknowledging that there are trade-offs with all of the futures presented to them.

And then we also asked what actions we should take to achieve our goals.

Many of these actions and ideas came directly from the first phase of engagement.

Next slide, please.

So we put out a summary of the first phase of engagement in September, and our summary of phase two will come out this spring.

Here are a few highlights.

We had a lot of conversation about increasing affordable transportation choices and options.

asks to specifically invest in communities that have seen less affordable transportation options but would highly benefit from increased choice in transportation.

Safety is a major concern, as we also heard today during public comment, and is a barrier to achieving an equitable transportation system.

People want to see our transportation system rebalanced to provide more mobility options and uses of our streets.

Maintenance is key to a good transportation system.

And people want more access to reliable transit and want to feel safe while they wait.

And our BIPOC communities have specifically continued to highlight safety and access to affordable transportation systems.

Jonathan shared where we've been, so what's next for us?

We will be working on a draft transportation plan that we'll be sharing publicly in mid 2023. We'll also continue to engage with folks through phase three, and they're looking forward to having more conversations about prioritization through this next phase of engagement.

We have an email address, a multilingual phone line, and there's a link as well as a QR code to get to the engagement hub for the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And next slide.

Just another plug that we're partnering closely with the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan Update.

So feel free to check out their engagement website as well.

Thank you.

That's what we have.

Thank you very much.

I have a question.

Oh, go ahead, Council Member Morales.

Well, I've got several questions, Chair Peterson, so I don't know.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you.

So I first want to acknowledge that there does seem to be kind of a shift in culture happening at the department, which I really appreciate.

you know, I was listening to Director Spatz on the urbanist conversation that he had.

And, you know, he talked specifically about the kind of de-siloing of the departments that the divisions that's happening right now.

You know, the concrete people are talking to the tree people now and making sure that there's a real understanding of how to be intentional about the work that's happening.

So So I appreciate that.

I will also say that the slides still give me pause when we're talking about safety.

You know, one of the slides mentions, let me see which one it is.

Well, I don't have the numbers, what to see why to see I don't need this plan right now and there's still a description of needing to balance, quote unquote limited road space.

I think we have to remember that there's almost 4,000 miles of road in our city, which is about the distance between here and New York.

So when we're talking about complete streets, when we're planning for safety, I think it's important to remember that also, according to the department's data, we only have about 4% of that road space that's dedicated to on-street protected bike lanes, or not even protected, just bike lanes, including sharrows.

So as we're having this conversation, and I agree that with some of the commenters, I hope that we have a chance to do a really detailed overview or review of the Vision Zero report when it's available.

I'm interested in to what extent the department is really considering removing public storage space of private vehicles, of private property in exchange for more public rights of way.

you know, looking at the S.GIS data, the right of way, the sidewalk maps.

There's large portions of our city, as you all know, where we have on street parking, but no sidewalks.

So can you talk a little bit about the intentionality you're bringing to making some of that shift?

Thank you, thank you, council member, and the question is about the storage of vehicles in the right of way?

Is that, did I understand you correctly?

Well, I'm thinking, yeah, especially, you know, there are folks who can't drive.

There are folks who are effectively kind of subsidizing storage of cars on public land in a space where they themselves cannot access.

And so I'm interested to know, you know, how we promote a more equitable access to our public road space.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Well right right now our current policy framework does prioritize our priority implementation of priority modes is our top priority for the right of way and long term storage of vehicles is our current lowest priority in most street context types.

That policy has been around for about a decade and it's been very controversial to implement as I'm sure you are aware.

I think we have worked to build on that policy framework to try to provide more clarity and more clear guidance, both to staff and decision makers around the role that these priority investment networks meet in terms of achieving our goals.

And there are, what's normally the case in a street is that we're weighing priority modes against priority modes when I think what we've heard very clearly from the community is that priority modes shouldn't be pitted against each other.

We should really be deprioritizing storage or in some cases general purpose traffic movement.

And so we have starting with council's directive to create a vehicle mile travel reduction target for the city.

That's a new policy frame.

that creates a new lens through which we can view some of these trade-offs, and we're trying to provide some clear guidance for our teams and for everyone that helps strengthen our implementation posture.

Thank you.

Can I ask another question, Chair?

Please keep going.

Um, maybe what would be helpful is if you could sort of explain what the department's definition of essential travel is.

And I, you know, I think of essential travel as being able to go to the grocery store, you know, being able to get to the doctor, get my kids getting to school safely.

And so I think Understanding your last point, which is that, you know, different modes, don't need to be pitted against each other different needs don't need to be pitted against each other and I, I agree with that completely.

when we're talking about safety, when we're talking about people being able to navigate their neighborhoods, that is essential.

And it's just not clear how that phrasing is used.

So maybe you could talk a little bit about what that means for the equitable allocation of the right-of-way.

Okay, that's a really big question.

I think that in maybe There's a couple different ways to view essential, and there is an emergency response definition that I don't think you're referring to, and that revolves around like after the Cascadia quake or after a major declaration of emergency, how we would get around what would be essential.

I think more from a day-to-day perspective, there's a really clear focus, and what we're hearing from the community is they want safe, affordable, and reliable travel options.

and starting with walking, biking, transit, and also acknowledging that there are certain trip types and certain times of day that really driving is a key thing that needs to happen.

Someone gets off work or needs to be at work at four o'clock in the morning, for example.

So someone going to a a soccer game with a carload of kids is really a really difficult trip to do on transit.

So we have worked to kind of balance the different kind of trip profiles while and taking that into consideration while focusing our right of way allocation and our prioritization of the right of way on moving people and keeping people in creating safer streets.

So that means creating streets where cars are going slower.

and prioritizing our right-of-way allocation.

As someone mentioned early on, the right-of-way allocation today does not line up with our goals for travel.

We see way more towards the storage of cars and way less for transit and people walking and biking.

So we are looking at that and trying to reprioritize how we can move into the next couple decades of effort here.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I think that is part of the challenge, right?

Whether it is policy or not right now, and I hope it's not, it does feel like we are prioritizing car parking over safe sidewalks and safe ways for folks to get around who can't be in a car.

And so I'm glad to hear we're moving that direction and look forward to working with the department to get us there as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions at this time?

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair Peterson.

Jonathan, Francesca, Lizzie, what a wonderful presentation.

I really appreciate your time today.

This presentation in particular really demonstrates to me that we have about 15 corridors in Seattle that everyone wants to use and everyone needs to use these corridors.

And the question comes to me is how do we reconcile these different priorities?

And then I know that you are starting to look at this and I see the importance of this plan before us today, really front and center is to identify the conflicts that we need to resolve.

I don't necessarily see this plan resolving conflicts in each corridor and on each street, I just want to make sure that I'm understanding your presentation correctly.

This overall Seattle Transportation Master Plan that combines all of these master plans into one isn't supposed to be the silver solution that solves for everything.

Rather, it is giving us the map that is needed to identify where the pinch points and conflicts are for us to be able to better prioritize street space.

Did I get that correct?

I just want to double check.

I think that's it's true.

And there are some corridors where we think we're going to be able to make some adjustments in terms of what our priorities are.

So there's not as much of a fight downstream.

But then we will also, to your point, lay out policy guidance and prioritization in the plan that helps our implementation folks make decisions.

So it's both.

That that's great I appreciate that because you know I was in interbay just this last weekend, which I believe is a transit road, it's also a freight road.

it's the third most used north, south corridor in our city between highway 99 and.

I fought interstate five and what really stood out to me was is that a street that is appropriate for bike lanes.

even though we need bike connections through there.

I'm going to answer my anecdotal question for you, which is no.

I don't think that 15th Avenue West is a great place for bike lanes.

And it also means that the corridor that is between Myrtle Edwards Park and Fisherman's Terminal needs to be greatly improved.

The bike infrastructure that was put in there was put in in the 1980s when we had a very different understanding of how to safely separate bicycle infrastructure, right?

You know, I joked with someone this weekend, that's where I learned to ride my bike because it was a caged facility.

But the reality and the reality is, is that today that bike trail through Interbay is still a caged facility.

And we know today that that's not an appropriate way to build bike trails.

And so I just want to thank you for the presentation and allowing me to share my reflections from this last weekend.

I will Jonathan as you know I passed a statement of legislative intent last year to look at our light rail network specifically beyond sound transit three sound transit three is already done, or the plan is already done.

It's already baked I can't get them to go to Crown Hill despite my best try my best attempts.

to check my assumptions.

Will the slide request be included in these maps as far as what is our transit plan, specifically light rail planning beyond ST3?

And if so, how will this specific aspect of outreach be accomplished?

Thank you, Council Member.

Yes, we have two provisos that we're working under for this plan.

and absolutely considering light rail or Sound Transit program expansions beyond ST3 as part of our work and that will be reflected in the transit element that I mentioned.

And we are engaging with Sound Transit on that work as well.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you, Jonathan.

I think that's important.

And also, I think that this is an opportunity, since ST4 and beyond are not necessarily planned, is to be able to say to Sound Transit, these are the needs that meet our community.

Right, like we know that Crown Hill and reconnecting back to Northgate and beyond is a great way for the Ballard extension.

We also know that we need a lot more east-west connections.

And also I know that we need to work with Metro to provide better east-west direct connections to light rail stations.

So I guess there's not a question in there for you readers, but I guess, you know, back to the question of how do you plan to do, are you planning to do broader outreach beyond Sound Transit or is Sound Transit kind of your main partner there?

Also a great question.

We have been engaging with and discussing with folks that are interested in transit, Transit Advisory Board, Seattle Subway has given us some early input into that map.

And then we'll be, once it's shared out with the public this summer, as part of that draft plan, we'll also be excited to get additional input.

Really well done.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Thank you, Lizzie, Francesca.

Thank you.

I've got one question and I think a comment so the in terms of when you're engaging with the public I really appreciate in your slides where you summarize what you're hearing so far and the questions you're asking.

When you're asking people how they would prefer to get around, you know, and I hear a lot about wanting more affordable travel options, my mind's going to transit in terms of moving the most people in the most environmentally friendly way.

Also, how are you accommodating then the needs of freight to move goods throughout the city.

Obviously we've got, we're a port city and the whole state relies on us to move goods.

We need to get food to the grocery stores, et cetera.

So how are we, how are you all accommodating the needs of freight?

There also was a comment, a public comment about not just, my question is really about accommodating freight in this, as you're surveying the public, but also how do you make that more environmentally sustainable and safe?

Thank you, Councilmember.

Let's see, there's several different dimensions to our work related to freight and urban goods movement.

I think that our freight master plan is one of our most recently prepared plans and is still very current and prescient in terms of its network.

We do not see many changes to that planned freight network.

There's a little bit of embroidery we're doing.

For example, the State Route 99 viaduct doesn't exist anymore.

But beyond that, we are developing a pilot project to combine a freight and transit lane, and we're really excited for that work and look forward to those results.

We are laying some groundwork in this plan, where if that's successful, we could see additional freight and bus lanes around the city to help maintain freight and goods reliability and travel time reliability around town.

I think We don't get a lot of necessarily community input on the freight network, but we know that to support the city and to support about a quarter of our jobs in our industrial areas, a quarter of the city's jobs are located in those industrial areas.

We really need to focus on freight and goods reliability and movement.

The last thing I'll add is that there's been a huge huge explosion of small package delivery, which is the type of good movement that's largely kind of outside the realm of the planned networks.

So we've been doing a lot of work thinking about that.

We have a close partnership with the University of Washington's Urban Freight Lab.

And And they're helping us kind of hone in on the needs of the city over the next couple decades as we adapt to that change and how packages get around town.

And a key piece of that is those critical access functions of the curb.

We just are way, I think one of our earlier member, people that spoke talked about the kind of the goods movement, the alley overloading issues, and see some opportunities to work with SDCI on Updating our off street loading opportunities and alley, addressing alley congestion.

So, several key wedges there around how we're thinking about the future freight and goods movement.

Thank you for your question.

Thank you.

And lastly, you had mentioned eventually this will lead.

toward potential funding package.

We know that the Move Seattle property tax is expiring next year.

And we support King County Metro through a sales tax, the Seattle Transportation Benefit District.

Unfortunately, that sales tax is regressive.

I know I hear a lot from constituents about property taxes.

We are going to property taxes to support other important issues in Seattle.

So by the time we get to the Seattle Transportation Plan funding, I think we'll want to try to diversify our funding sources and not just assume it's going to be the same property tax because by then people, our constituents will be feeling the challenge of paying those property taxes.

So I know that we are, you know, cities around Washington State, around the nation, they use impact fees to support transportation and other priorities.

Just wanted to make sure you're all looking at a diversified source of funding as you think about how to pay for all these great things we want to do.

I can jump in.

Yeah, we are definitely looking at all the different possible sources.

Obviously, we have relied on a levy in the past.

It's not the only thing that we're looking at.

We're looking at all the the complete package of different funding strategies that SDOT might pursue, and that includes what you're talking about.

Thank you.

Colleagues, I know we're eager to all run over to Seattle Center and hear the mayor for his State of the City address.

I really want to thank Seattle Department of Transportation and all their partners for the work they're doing on the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And we'll have you back in committee.

We know you'll have a draft of the plan in a few months for us to go over.

And thank you for all your hard work on this.

All right, colleagues, with that, the time is 11.06 and this concludes our February 21st, 2023 meeting of the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

The next committee meeting will be March 7th.

Thank you very much.

Bye.