Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities 6/6/22

Good morning and welcome.

The June 6th, 2023 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will come to order.

The time is 9.33 AM.

I'm Alex Peterson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Morales.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

Council Member Strauss.

Chair Peterson.

Present.

Three present.

Thank you, and Council Member Strauss did alert us that, and he will be excused, and I'm presuming Council Member Morales will join us during the meeting.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Chair's report, just to summarize what we have on our agenda.

Good morning again and welcome to our Committee on Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities.

We have three items on today's agenda.

First, we have an update from the Seattle Department of Transportation on the progress from the property tax levy to move Seattle.

That was approved by voters in 2015 for large transportation projects.

Second, we have a briefing discussion and likely vote on Council Bill 120585. This is the final approval for the King County Wastewater term permit in Alki for which our committee and the council already granted conditional approval unanimously back in February.

And for our final item today we have a council central staff presentation.

to benefit the general public in large part with an overview of our city's utility tax system, which includes the regressive nature of those utility taxes.

Seattle Public Utilities makes up the bulk of those utility taxes.

So I'm looking and it looks like we don't have any public speakers.

So we'll go ahead and open and close the public comment period.

This time we're open the general public comment period for the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

Seeing no speakers online and no speakers in person, we are closing the public comment period for the committee.

So that enables us to jump into, I know you all want me to read the instructions for public comment do the recording, but I won't, so that we can move forward.

So let's go to item one on our agenda.

Will the clerk please read the full title of the first agenda item?

Agenda item one, 2015 levy to move Seattle progress report for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

Today we have with us the Seattle Department of Transportation to provide a progress report on what is commonly referred to as move Seattle.

As a reminder for the public, the $930 million property tax levy for that package of transportation projects was approved by voters in November 2015 for nine years.

As we approach the end of this levy we're hearing from SDOT their plans for finishing as many of the promised projects as possible during the next 18 months before the levy expires.

So I do want to acknowledge Council Member Morales is here and has been here toward the beginning so we'll go ahead and hear from SDOT on their presentation.

Thank you.

Great, thank you so much Council Member Peterson.

So I'm Serena Lehman.

I work for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

I'm here with my colleague, Kaylin Carney, and we're here to share with you our progress report on the levy to move Seattle for 2022, what we have anticipated for 2023, and then a status update about where we think we're going to be at the end of the levy.

Next slide.

So, just to ground us all in this conversation as thoughts, vision, mission, values and goals are that we are a thriving, equitable community powered by dependable transportation.

We're on a mission to deliver a transportation system that provides safe and affordable access to places and opportunities.

And we are guided by our core values and goals of equity, safety, mobility, sustainability, livability and excellence.

Next slide.

So, as I already touched on, we're going to go through our levy and what we, you know, touch on some key takeaways that if you remember anything from this presentation that we'd like you to take away, go through some highlights of both our 2022 annual report, our 2023 delivery plan, and then touch on where we think we're going to be come the end of 2024, and then have ample time for Q&A.

Next slide.

So our key takeaways are that in 2022, ESSAT most of its planned accomplishments for all of our levy deliverables, we are currently on track to meet or exceed 27 of our 30 programs for our 2015 levy ordinance goals.

And to meet these 27 program commitments, we have an ambitious delivery plan for the remaining two years of the levy.

2024 is just over 18 months away.

Next slide.

So I want to just have a brief moment to remind everyone what is in the levy.

The levy has 30 programs, and it's broken into three different categories.

Safe routes is our first category, and that program encompasses several programs, including our Vision Zero program, our bike safety program.

It also includes things like transportation operations and re-striping of our roads.

then last but not least of that program is our Neighborhood Street Fund program.

Our second major category is maintenance and repair and as you can guess this includes our major paving program as well as our paving spot program, our bridge repairs, as well as tree trimming and tree plantings and stairway rehabilitation.

Congestion relief is our third and final category and this is our largest category And this includes all sorts of different types of programs.

It includes things from our, like, our transit plus multimodal quarter programs, think our Madison project that's under construction right now, but it also includes things like our freight spot program, new sidewalks and our East marginal way quarter program.

Next slide.

Okay, so now I'm going to walk through some major highlights from our 2022 annual report.

So, in 2022 in here is just some high level examples, but we completed for safety quarter projects, including projects on Lake City way 23rd Avenue East 15th Avenue South and standpoint way.

We also completed 16 safe routes to school projects across the city.

For the pictures on the right, we want to show some examples of the good work SDOT's doing.

At the top, we see some sidewalk repair from before and after on Aurora Avenue North.

And then at the bottom is an example of a pedestrian safety enhancement project on South Delridge.

Next slide.

So for our maintenance and repair program, we repaved almost 28 lane miles, including work on 15th Avenue South and 15th Avenue Northeast and exceeded our paved paving spot improvements by over 58% with 103 spot improvements.

Additionally, we made 354 bridge spot repairs, we completed six stairway rehabilitation projects, and we planted 371 trees.

I wanted to note that part of our tree program is that we work with the Safe Routes to School program and we planted trees next to Aki Kurose Middle School.

This is part of a program that focuses tree plantings on parts of the city that are seeing the highest recorded temperatures along routes to school that serve communities of color.

And the pictures on the right, on the top, you see one of our major paving programs, 15th Avenue Northeast.

And on the bottom, we thought this was a fantastic example of kind of what our paving spot program can do.

So on the floor, this is on Boyer Avenue East.

You can see the street, and then after a site comes in, you can see the nice new pavement.

Next slide.

And then for our congestion relief program, we continued major construction on our Madison Ave Rapid Ride G-Line and continued construction on Route 7, Route 44. We also made 23 transit spot improvements across the city.

An example, one of our transit spot improvements is in the bottom picture to the right.

This is on 15th Avenue East in Capitol Hill.

This is an enhanced bus stop.

And then, additionally, we completed six freight projects to help freight movement across the city, and we advertised our East Marginal Way project for the North segment, which was very exciting.

Next, so now I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Kalyn Carney, to talk about our finances.

Kalyn.

All right, thank you, Serena.

So this first slide is kind of just a high-level overview of the spending for the Move Seattle Levy since inception.

So we're seven years into the levy, and we spent a total of about $1.3 billion across all fund sources.

For Move Seattle Levy funds, we've spent $626 million.

And so that's a little over two-thirds of the $930 million levy.

In 2022, we spent $212 million total on the levy portfolio, which is in line with the previous four years.

And of that, $78 million was Move Seattle Levy funds.

Next slide, please.

So this slide is showing a summary of our planned expenditures by quarter in 2022, and then our actual spending.

In Q1 and in Q2, we underspent relative to our plan, and this was primarily due to two factors.

One, the concrete strike, which impacted a lot of our projects that are reliant on concrete delivery.

And the other was work on the West Seattle High Bridge reopening.

That shifted prioritization of crews to work on those projects and took some capacity away from levy projects.

But in the second half of the year, we almost nailed our spend plan exactly in Q3 and came very close in Q4.

Overall, we had a pretty good year aside from the impacts by the concrete strike in the West Seattle High Bridge.

Next slide, please.

And this slide just kind of highlights a couple of the programs and within the various three categories that had the highest spending amounts.

So within our safe routes category, this is our sidewalk safety repair or sidewalk spot repairs, our curb ramps, and then work on the Melrose Promenade PBL.

In the maintenance and repair category, we made significant progress on the South Park drainage project, which is wrapping up this year, as well as structures maintenance and AMM pavement resurfacing.

And then in congestion relief, this is our largest category, which houses a lot of the large capital projects, Madison BRT, was the project with the highest spending for the year and is also projected to have the highest spending in 2023 as well.

And then you can see some of the other multimodal projects, Route 44 and Rapid Ride J. Next slide please.

And now Serena is going to talk about our delivery plan.

Great, thank you so much, Caitlin.

So I'm going to walk through again some highlights of what we have planned for 2023. There's some additional slides at the back of the deck if we want to get into more detail about what programs are delivering what over the next year.

But some key highlights is that we'll be delivering 5 Vision Zero safety corridors, including projects on 1st Avenue South, Southwest Roxbury and Olson, Holden Parkway and Southwest Holden, and Rainier Ave South Phase 3. We'll also be delivering 9 to 12 safe routes to school projects, including projects at Denny Middle School, Bailey-Gatzert, and Dearborn Park Elementary School.

We'll also be continuing construction on projects like Madison Rapid Ride G, but we're going to be completing construction on some projects, so we'll be finishing the Route 7 and the Route 44. We will be continuing construction on several bridge seismic retrofit projects, including Admiral Way, McGraw Street Bridge, 15th Ave Northeast, and 15th Ave Northwest.

And then last but not least, we'll also be launching into construction for our East Marginal Way project, which, since I've brought this up a couple times, I'm very excited.

I think the department's very excited to start seeing that project come to fruition.

So next slide.

Back over to Kalen.

All right, so this is a look at our 2023 spend plan broken out by the three major categories.

We plan to spend $303 million And this is across all funding sources.

So not just the levy, but also including local funds and leverage or grant and partnership funding.

And if you remember a couple of slides ago, you know, last year we spent $212 million.

So this is a big, big increase, a big push towards the last couple of years of the levy to get all the projects done.

We have a couple projects and safe routes, the Pike and Pine PBL, And then our curb ramp programs spends a significant amount of money each year.

In maintenance and repair, we have a couple bridge seismic repair projects that are underway.

And then in congestion relief, the largest one is Madison BRT, again, as that gets towards completion, and then as East Marginal Way starts ramping up.

And that's it.

Next slide, please.

So, as Kayla mentioned, we are having a large plan spend for the remaining couple years of the levy.

You know, we've been very working very closely with our deputy director, Francesca Stefan and her team to look at to look at where we're going to be at the end of the levy.

You know, what does success look like?

So next slide.

So.

We believe, based on our work planning efforts, that we are on track to deliver on 27 of our 30 levy programs that were outlined in the 2015 levy ordinance by the end of 2024. So in this square, you can see all the green are all programs that we're on track to hitting our commitments for the city.

And I want to add that we have done that despite a global pandemic, the West Seattle Bridge closure, and a concrete strike that impacted our delivery across the city.

And so, you know, we are, we are working very hard to meet these goals.

You know, we, we are very committed to meeting our commitments to the voters.

So, next slide for the programs that we are not currently claiming that we're on track to meet those goals.

I want to talk through what that looks like for those 3. three major categories.

One of them is bicycle safety.

In the original 2015 ordinance, we outlined building 50 miles of protected bike lanes and 60 miles of neighborhood greenways.

We believe that we are on track to deliver between 90 and 107, which is going to get us very close to that original 2015 goal.

And then for multimodal improvements, this is a very large program within the levy portfolio.

This includes 11 discrete projects.

Of those 11, we're on track to deliver nine of them.

So seven of those are transit plus multimodal corridor projects.

I'm referring to projects like our Delridge Rapid Ride Project, Madison, Route 7, Rapid Ride J, et cetera.

That also includes a crossing of Northeast 45th, and we've recently launched our Aurora Planning Study.

The two projects in this category that are not on track to meeting their original 2015 commitment are the Berkman Trail, which is delayed due to ongoing litigation, and then Flauntleroy Boulevard Southwest.

This is a project that was outlined in the original 2015 ordinance, and then due to sound transit planning for the West Seattle Ballard Link Extension, we paused to allow for that planning process to play out.

While we did, however, do some near-term improvements, we don't feel like we met the original intent of the levy, so that was paused.

And then for the last program that we will not be meeting our original 2015 deliverable is our light rail connection Graham Street Station.

We had originally committed funding to support Transcendent in doing their infill station on the light rail line going through Rainier Valley.

However, Sound Transit is not scheduled to begin that work until after 2025. And so, you know, didn't make sense to move forward with that project when it fell outside the levy timeline.

So now I'm going to hand it over to Francisco Estefan to give us a couple closing remarks, and then we'll open up for Q&A.

Great.

And would it be all right if we get a comment or question from Council Member Herbold first?

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Yes, I just had a quick question about father I appreciate the historical reference to the reason for the pause.

I was.

a supportive of the pause.

I think I actually may have been a person who initiated the conversation about the wisdom of a pause given the uncertainty about Sound Transit's route and my concern that about $14 million could be sunk into an area that might then have to be torn up in a short amount of time.

And as I think we know, Fauntleroy was the only project in the 2015 move levy that was fully funded by the levy, so not needing to seek funding from other revenue and resources and grant funds in order to fully deliver the project, and that was by design, that it be fully funded by the levy.

When the pause was agreed to by SDOT in exchange for that agreement, we received some commitments to the goals of the project.

And at the time, SDOT said that if Sound Transit's light rail design for West Seattle does not impact Fauntleroy Way, we will move forward with the full project as designed.

If Sound Transit's design impacts Fauntleroy Way, we will work with Sound Transit to implement streetscape improvements on Fauntleroy.

way that align with the goals of the project and reallocate remaining boulevard project funds to address other mobility needs in West Seattle.

So the levy dollars were all stripped from the project during COVID, then in the summer rebalancing proposal SDOT recommended The project suspensions in 2020, including the funnel Roy project, the Brooklyn trail and the South Park drainage project.

This resulted in reducing funding for father right by $9 million in restoring funding for the Brooklyn trail and the South Park drainage project.

I just, I just want to figure out how, how it is that we can go about restoring as dots, not only the sort of policy based and, you know, wish list commitment to the project but also the funding commitment to the project.

Again, I don't think it can be overemphasized the significance of the voters in 2015 voting to allocate $14 million to this project in order to fully fund it.

I think that says a lot about how high of a priority this project was at that time, and I believe it still is a high priority.

Thank you, Council Member Herbold.

We also believe it's an important project and understand and really appreciate the thoughtful way that people have allowed us to pivot on that project.

It's an important project.

It's so important that, you know, Director Spatz has been out and in the community, walking that space to hear from the community about their priorities and what current needs are.

It's something that we do keep on the radar as a commitment that we would like to meet, and we'd like to find a way to do so.

I think at this point it would be, it's too early to say where all of those pieces would come from, given that we're in the midst of a broader look at a sort of comprehensive funding package, but we have that on our radar as something that needs to be solved for.

As we move forward into looking at our next year our upcoming years of capital investment so really do very much appreciate people being flexible as we were as all of us were dealing with changing circumstances and investment and the.

sound reasoning around not building something and then tearing it back out.

And we recognize that there's still a lot of value to that project.

And we would like to find, first of all, work with the community to define current needs and current scope and any tweaks, and then move forward through our new transportation funding package in the upcoming years.

So thank you very much for helping us keep that elevated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Councilmember Herbold.

And I'll continue to support you on that project during the budget process or wherever there are opportunities.

Wanted to talk about, just to start off with some thank yous here.

You know, this is with 18 months left in this nine year transportation package, just thanking the SDOT team, the engineers, all the staff, the workers out in the field who are constructing all these projects, those who are paying the property taxes also to fund this measure.

And of course, our oversight committee, our volunteers that meet every month.

In fact, there's a meeting tonight.

It's an honor to serve on that committee with them.

I wanted to go through a couple of these slides, ask some questions.

If you could go back, if we could pull up the slides again, if you don't mind.

Let's see, if we go back to slide 15, if you don't mind pulling that up.

Team S dot slide 15, that's the 2023 spend plan.

So just to confirm, that is, those are all funds, not just, so we can see in the bar chart that the levy funds are in green, the rest of the funds are in blue, and then you've got the combined funding.

So when you look over to the right side when it says, Mike Pine protective bike lane 7.4 million is that from all sources or is that from just the levy are we able to discern that.

yeah that's that's from all sources.

The only separation is in the bar chart.

Okay.

That's helpful.

Thank you very much for clarifying that.

And then on slide 17, about the various accomplishments, thanks for highlighting and acknowledging what has not been met.

And then also differentiating, there was that 2018 reset and differentiating that.

I do want to question, though, the bridge seismic improvements, item 12 there.

As I had understood it, and I know the goalposts have moved a little bit around this, and I think that just for the viewing public to differentiate between what is it that they thought they were approving in 2015, and what is it that we're trying to honor with implementation, I think at one point there were 16 bridges that were targeted for seismic improvements, and then there was a letter toward the end of the 2021 where I think SDOT had done some cost updates and there were a few projects that SDOT had deemed too expensive and so the list dropped from 16, well of that 16 I think there were two that were already done so the list dropped down to 11 or 9 and I think what caught the attention of several council members was the dropping off of the Fremont and Ballard bridges because The price tag seems still doable.

And of course, we provided the $100 million in bonding authority for those bridges.

So how is it that you're able to say that you've achieved the bridge seismic improvements?

Because I'm not seeing that, but I think there's some nuance here that you could share with us.

Yeah.

Thanks for asking that question.

That's a really important clarification.

So yeah, I'll go chronologically because it's the easiest way to think about it for me.

So in the 2015 ordinance, it did make a commitment to 16 bridge seismic reinforcement projects.

You are absolutely correct that in 2020, That ordinance didn't specify specific locations, but over time through the regular annual reporting, they developed a list of intended bridges that were in annual reports to the LOC and things like that.

The fall of 2020, a report was taken to the LOC that outlined the really increasing costs that included First and Argo and Fourth and Argo that were over $100 million each.

And we were facing some serious challenges there.

At the time, the LOC endorsed a retreat from the total number of bridges.

And for a year or so we worked under the expectation that that was where we would end the levy.

As we have been reflecting upon really wanting to meet our commitment to voters, we have been digging deep to understand where we could still make really meaningful improvements to our bridge asset inventory.

We have many, many bridges that need many, many things.

And we have, you know, even smaller bridges that are important for safe crossing that crossover major arterials failure, which would be, you know, detrimental and potentially tragic for people on top or under, should they fail so there are many many bridges, we need to deal with so we did pivot.

As over the last year, looking at where we looked at our inventory and need and considered equity distribution, as well as sort of state of state of the bridge and found that if we really searched resources we could, we found.

funding and we found some capacity to move forward on seismic reinforcement on a number of smaller bridges that we could actually fund and get into construction next year.

So instead of staying retreated from the total number, which I think was at 11, we decided that we need this work done regardless.

And while we couldn't afford some of the larger bridges that were on that list, we could afford other really necessary improvements.

And so we are at this point committing to 16 again with a different subset.

I will say there remains need for Ballard and Fremont, and we consistently look for ways to continue to improve them.

on those.

It's not something SDOT typically does because we wanna be able to move into construction as soon as design is done.

But knowing the need there, we did continue with design on those and fund that so we could be ready to do that work.

So it's a bit of a complex story.

It has been moving and we've been trying to problem solve, but continually keeping our eye on investing on the bridge inventory as best we can.

Thank you for that explanation.

The last comment I have and then we'll see if my colleagues have any other comments or questions in planning for the next transportation package if if.

In planning for that we know the Seattle transportation plan is the document that will be a foundational piece of assessing needs and getting input from the community on what they would like to see over the next decade.

So we're talking a lot about the content of what might go in there.

I'm glad that you're doing a variety of outreach in terms of focus groups, but also getting statistically valid information.

Recent surveys showed 66% of the top issue for people are actually the road conditions that affects bikes, buses.

That may be why it was the top, because it's a multimodal concern about road conditions.

The second was transit, which was great to see a real close second and then bridges were third.

So just noting that even though we have some things here that have that are checked off as being, you know, completed via the levy.

the 2015 levy, there's still the conditions out there that when people see them, they may not see that, okay, you met the minimum commitment as articulated in 2015, but maybe more needs to be done in the future.

Or yes, more needs to be done in the future.

And that's where what we're not talking a lot about is the funding sources.

And the city recently doubled a portion of the property tax toward parks and is planning to do triple for housing.

And we have the Crisis Care Center, which is a brand new countywide tax.

Veterans and Homelessness Services is another property tax.

So we are hearing from, I mean, I heard this back in 2019 about property tax fatigue, And now we're seeing the rates go up with different good causes that we're requiring property taxes to pay for them consistently.

And so that is my segue into just encouraging SDOT to look at a variety of funding sources for the next transportation package.

which could include transportation impact fees.

We are trying to lay the groundwork to do that.

In seeing how the housing levy was prepared, how much preparation went into that a year before.

Really, this is the time when you need the authorization, I believe, for that funding source that you can actually in January and February when you're putting together your final package for introduction of the city council for consideration, you have a diversity of funding sources available to you.

And so I know you can't, this team at SDOT probably can't speak to that issue on funding sources, but it is something that we encourage you to start leaning into.

We have some support for transportation back fees, I know right here on this committee.

So really want to see that funding source lifted up as an option.

Again, that's something other 70 other cities in the state have this.

We exempt low-income housing projects, we exempt childcare facilities, we exempt nonprofit buildings.

I guess that's not a question, that's a little speech.

Do we have any other comments or questions from committee members?

All right.

Oh yes, Council Member Herbold.

Sorry, I was raising my real hand instead of my virtual hand.

Yeah, just to add on to Council Member Peterson's comments around transportation impact fees.

We've heard from some community stakeholders in the development community that they really want us to wait until the process of developing the transportation levy to talk about transportation impact fees and I think the message that I've been trying to push out there is yes, We can wait and we should wait to talk about the development of the program itself, but we can't even do that until we take this first procedural step of updating the comp plan.

So we can't wait to update the comp plan, but we can and should wait until we have the conversations.

around the transportation levy when it comes to actually talking about the size of the fee and establishing a program and just having that conversation about the trade-offs around establishing a program.

But again, what we're seeking to do right now is merely a procedural step that would allow us to have those later conversations.

The other question I wanted to ask is, Back before COVID, I was working with SDOT on developing district-specific levy accomplishments, and we had worked with SDOT to develop sort of a prototype report for It was for district one but the idea was is that would be replicated for other districts, and it would be included in future annual levy reports, and the.

district specific report itself covers a number of different projects by project type, says what year it was completed.

And as far as the project types, it's broken up by safety corridors, safe routes to schools, bicycle safety, neighborhood street fund, stairway maintenance, And I just was really excited about being able to use this to share with my constituents, how much amazing work is was being done with this levy.

And I'm wondering, Are we still using that format to report out levy accomplishments?

Again, I recognize that it was something that SDOT was sort of beginning to launch in late 2019 with the goal of these types of reports being in the annual the annual reports, but just I don't recall seeing the use of this kind of reporting out since that time and just wondering where that's at.

I don't know that we've done that recently.

It's something we could take another look at.

It's been a few years, so we could revisit that and what it would take to package the information in that way.

I think there's some value to it, and we could definitely take a look.

So thanks and and to the point of the long term funding package we to are very interested in having a robust and diverse funding package so we are eager to look at ways that we can continue to be creative and create revenue streams that help us deliver important projects for the, for the city and the community that just really keep us moving.

And, you know, we've we've really one thing that we often don't celebrate enough is the way in which the levy has enabled us to compete for state, federal and partner funds.

You know, we are at a point where, you know, we've had the nine hundred and thirty million dollars of levy that's almost been one to one matched.

with those other funds.

So I think just an important note that as we think about diversity of funding sources and keeping all the options on the table that we remember that, you know, some of the things have really, we've actually done incredibly well to bring in support from other places to leverage, to deliver for the citizens of Seattle.

So I appreciate that.

And we'll take a look at that reporting that you're asking about.

I just sent you a copy from past years.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

Any other comments or questions about this progress report on the Move Seattle levy?

All right, well, thank you to the SDOT team, and we'll go ahead and move to the next item on our agenda.

Thank you, bye.

Okay, will the clerk please read the short title of the second agenda item into the record?

Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 120585, an ordinance granting King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks Wastewater Treatment Division permission to construct, maintain, and operate a transformer and retaining wall at 63rd Avenue Southwest for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

As I mentioned earlier, our committee recently saw this item in February and we unanimously granted conditional approval to King County for the term permit via resolution 32079. SDOT is back to confirm that they have met or will meet the conditions outlined in resolution 32079 so that we may now approve the related council bill.

Before I turn it over to the presenters, I wanted to thank Lish Whitson from our Council Central staff for his review and memos regarding this item.

Lish, do you have any opening comments for us?

I think you've covered everything I was going to say, so thank you.

You're welcome.

All right.

Well, let's go ahead and turn it over to our presenters.

Good morning.

Good morning, council members.

This is Amy Gray and I work at SDOT and I have Zach from King County in this meeting as well to answer any questions specifically about the overall project.

And Amy, could you speak up a little bit or turn up your volume?

Thank you.

Is this better?

If you could just speak up some more.

Thank you for having me here today.

It's been a challenging technological morning.

So like Council Member Peterson said, we're here regarding the transformer ordinance.

Next slide, please.

King County is seeking the final approval for the transformer and retaining them all at 63rd Avenue Southwest as it intersects with Beach Drive Southwest and Southwest Spokane Street.

The transformer is necessary to support the permanent standby generator at the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Facility and the 63rd Avenue Pump Station.

King County is conducting a larger environmental project and to provide permanent backup generator power to the wet weather treatment facility and the pump station and these transformers are necessary to allow that to happen and prevent untreated wastewater being discharged into Puget Sound.

So significant structures require council approval.

There are structures that will be in the right of way for a long duration.

There are structures that impede the city or the public's flexibility in the use of the right of way and are necessary for the functioning of the facility.

And this project meets all three of those criteria.

Next slide, please.

Term permits are approved in two steps.

We achieved step one in February when council provided conceptual approval via the resolution 32079. And we are here at step two, the passage of the ordinance.

The ordinance will grant permission to use and occupy for the long-term right-of-way, and it details all the terms and conditions for King County to construct and operate the transformer and retaining wall.

Next slide, please.

So King County is proposing to do this, as I mentioned, to help support the high capacity standby generator.

And it is needed to regulate the voltage between the two facilities.

There will be a transformer located on King County's property at the wet weather treatment facility to the west.

And the transformer adjacent to 63rd Avenue Pump Station The pump station is currently all in right-of-way and King County does not own any property adjacent to it, so there's no other feasible location for it to be except within the right-of-way.

It will be approximately six feet high and nine feet wide and occupy approximately 300 square feet in the right-of-way.

We'll know exactly what these dimensions will be after King County signs the contract with the contractor and the contractor gets the specifications for the exact transformer that they will be installing.

The term for this permit is unlimited.

This is similar to other King County permits we have with similar facilities.

For as long as King County operates a wet weather treatment facility in the pump station, the permit is valid.

And then if they ever stop those operations, then the permit would be revoked.

It's not is also coordinating with King County to minimize construction disruptions to the neighbors with as it relates to the healthy streets project at South Beach beach drive Southwest.

The city and King County are currently working on a fee-in-lieu agreement so that there will be temporary restoration by King County of the right-of-way.

And then when SDOT does the improvements for the healthy street, that they will finalize that using the fee-in-lieu agreement.

This will allow the street to not be torn up twice and have a huge investment for nothing.

Next slide, please.

This is a larger map of West Seattle showing the approximate location of the transformer.

Next slide, please.

These are more focused shots.

The slide on the left shows the wet weather treatment facility to the west and the trenching and the underground work that will happen in the right-of-way and then the location of the pump station.

The slide on the right shows a more detailed location of where the rat transformer will be adjacent to the pump station.

Next slide.

So this is the existing conditions on the site.

There is a current retaining wall that will remain and the existing vegetation.

Next slide.

We had King County develop these images to show what the transformer would look like after the project's completed.

You can see on the far left, it's looking out towards the beach.

The middle slide shows the retaining wall necessary to support the transformer.

And the last slide on the right shows it looking up towards the right-of-way.

Next slide.

King County is going to be doing enhanced landscaping with native species.

They've got a pretty detailed plan that they're working on to provide native plants and make it as green as possible.

They are also planning to screen the transformer as much as possible with the landscaping and have it blend in so it's not just a large structure just out by itself.

Next slide.

King County conducted public outreach in May 2019. They posted in the West Seattle blog an early heads up about the overall project of doing the transformer and the work that it would involve in the right of way.

In March 2022, they sent flyers to the neighborhood about the overall projects, more specific to their location of the impact to those neighbors.

And in September 2022, we asked King County to send a follow up flyer that specifically called out that the transformer would remain after the construction project was complete.

We didn't want that to get lost in the overall message of the larger project.

Next slide, please.

So King County is here seeking passage of this council bill for final approval.

And if the ordinance is approved, the permit, like I mentioned, will be in place for as long as King County operates the facilities at the wet weather treatment facility and the Alki Pop Station.

And that's the end of my presentation.

Any questions?

Thank you very much.

And we appreciate King County Wastewater Treatment Division being here today.

Is there anything, Zach, that you wanted to add?

Thank you, Council Member.

Now Amy covered everything.

Thanks, Amy.

OK, thank you.

And again, colleagues, I want to thank Lish Whitson for his memo, which is attached to the agenda.

And Council Member Herbold, please.

Thank you.

I wanna just thank King County and Estat for working together on this project.

Really appreciate the commitment to making sure that the impacts of this project are managed, including the commitment of keeping one lane of traffic open during the work.

The criteria for review in the municipal code or a significant structure proposal aren't only the potential impact to view blockage, which I think you addressed really well, but also the effect on pedestrian activity, pedestrian safety, and accessibility for the elderly and handicapped.

I'm wondering if you could describe a little bit of how the county is working to address those items as well.

Thank you for the question, Council Member.

We, as the project begins, we are doing a targeted outreach in any section of what we're working on.

So if we are communicating with the community, working along with the city, especially with the Health Street Initiative program.

So if there are any group of, example, the one that you've mentioned, we will coordinate and make sure that their concerns are addressed.

So I think I hear you saying that you'll work on mitigation of pedestrian safety impacts should you become aware of them.

It's not a, should you become aware of them through outreach?

It's not something that you're proactively doing or maybe you haven't identified that there are impacts and that's okay too.

Council Member, we have already engaged a traffic control.

So we have a extensive mitigation program when it comes to pedestrian and walkability.

So it's already ingrained and we can provide more additional information.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions?

Lish, did you want to add anything?

No, thank you.

Okay, as I had read your memo it seemed to confirm basically the presentation we got today so they they're sort of aligned.

which is nice to see.

Well, colleagues, this is something, since we did approve the resolution before in February, conditionally approving this, we're familiar with the project.

We have the district council member here who's gotten her questions and comments in, so I feel comfortable voting on this today so that we can move it forward for Estada and King County.

Okay, so let's go ahead and do the parliamentary procedure to consider this officially.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120585, item two on our agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend passage of this Council Bill.

Are there any final comments or questions before we vote?

All right, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass the council bill?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, the motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass the council bill will be sent to the June 13th city council meeting.

Thank you to Zach and Amy and Lish.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Well, we'll go ahead to the third and final item on our agenda.

Will the clerk please read that full title of the third agenda item into the record?

Agenda item three, utility taxes 101 for briefing and discussion.

Thank you, colleagues with Seattle Public Utilities paying by far the largest share of utility taxes to the city hall to the city's general fund.

I've asked central staff to provide this committee with a utility taxes presentation.

to enhance the understanding and transparency for the general public about these charges that impact everyone's utility bills, and they are regressive with lower income residents paying a greater portion of their household income toward these utility bills and in particular the taxes that we charge on top of the actual cost to provide the services.

So while these utility taxes are authorized by state law, they do go above and beyond the actual cost of, for example, providing the drinking water.

And because utility bills have been increasing per our rate path and they're regressive, we just want to shed additional light for the general public on how utility taxes work.

And so I appreciate central staff putting this quick presentation together.

Thank you, Calvin Chow, for standing in for Brian Goodnight, who also worked on this.

Welcome.

Morning, council members.

Thank you, Chair Peterson.

As you mentioned at your request, we put together this presentation.

I'd also want to acknowledge Eric McConaughey, who helped provide this material.

I wanted to start with an overview of utility taxes and just to start that utility taxes are a form of business and occupation tax.

And fundamentally, this is a tax on the operation of the business that is recouped through the utilities rates and charges.

And the utility taxes are paid by both public and private utilities, which include both telecom, natural gas, steam, and other utilities, and our two public utilities, which is the focus of this presentation.

So for Seattle Public Utilities, that is drainage, solid waste, wastewater, and water.

And for Seattle City Light, that is electricity.

As I mentioned, utility taxes are imposed on the utilities business operations within the city's jurisdictional boundaries.

And some utility taxes are capped by state law, such as the tax on electricity, which the state limits to 6%, while there are no prescribed tax limits for drainage, solid waste, wastewater or water.

The taxes are levied on the retail business of the utility, which means that revenues such as wholesale revenue are not subject to the tax.

The utility tax applies to all business activity both within and outside the city limits because it is on the business operations as a whole.

And so for instance, both Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light provide service to some Burien customers.

The city's utility taxes apply equally to the retail revenues from both Burien and Seattle customers.

I'd note that other jurisdictions can also impose similar taxes or fees, and those are collected only on the customers within their jurisdictions.

So here are the current utility rates.

Electricity, as you can see, is capped at 6% and was last adjusted in 1990. The Seattle Public Utility tax rates vary between 11.5% and 15.5%, with the most recent adjustment for solid waste in 2017. And this slide shows the contributions of the utility taxes to the general fund for 2023. In the top left, you'll see that public and private utilities are estimated to bring in about $232 million, or 14% of the city's general fund this year.

And then lastly, I have a slide here showing the breakdown of public utility contributions to the general fund.

Seattle Sea Light will generate about $60 million in 2023. Drainage and wastewater from SPU, about $65 million.

Solid waste, about $24 million.

And water, about $37 million.

And that's the last slide I have prepared, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Calvin, could you go back to the previous slide?

just so that's on that one.

Okay, thank you.

Colleagues, are there any comments or questions about this?

You know, I know you all are familiar with this, just for the viewing public to know that this is a revenue source for the general fund.

We are literally taxing our other partner agency years, Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light.

And that money is flowing into the general fund.

So it's just important to know when people get the utility bills and they do see those taxes above the cost of the services provided that it does have a real impact.

So we just want to be, I want to be more transparent about that as we start gearing up for budget season.

All right.

Well, seeing no comments or questions, I want to thank central staff for that.

That's going to be a very useful document as we go forward here.

And that was the third and final item on our agenda today.

So if there is nothing further for our committee today, colleagues, the time is now 1031 a.m.

And this concludes the June 6th, 2023 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

The next committee meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will be Tuesday, June 20th.

I wanna thank you and we are adjourned.