Thank you so much, and apologies to the audience for the slight delay in gaveling in this afternoon.
My name is Andrew Lewis.
I'm serving today as the Council President Pro Tem in the absence of Council President Juarez, and this council meeting of September 5th, 2023 will come to order.
It is 2.04 p.m.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Council Member Nelson?
Present.
Council Member Peterson?
Present.
Council Member Strauss?
Present.
Council Member Herbold?
The remaining council colleagues were previously excused from today's meeting.
Presentations, there are no presentations on today's agenda, so we'll move on to public comment.
I want to say at the top of public comment, we are joined today by a delegation of city officials from the city of Carnation.
As is the protocol of the council, these elected officials from Carnation will be prioritized to speak first today to items either on the council agenda or the council work plan and With that I will hand it over to the committee clerk to preside over the public comment period the time limit will be set at two minutes We don't need to play the video So with that I'll hand it over to you madam clerk to preside over the public comment period.
Thank you today We'll start with in-person public commenters and our first public commenter is mayor Jim Rybel from the city of Carnation.
I
Thank you.
My name is Jim Revell.
I'm the mayor of the city of Carnation.
I'd like to thank everybody on council for being here today and serving the citizens of Seattle.
Thank you very much.
We're here today because the Seattle City Council could not provide a meeting date and time that reflects the urgency of the situation.
The city of Carnation adopted a state of emergency declaration on August 30th, 2023. The declaration was adopted unanimously by the Carnation City Council due to its concerns and doubts about the City of Seattle's ability to operate Seattle's dam on the South Fork of the Tolt River.
Carnation is about 20 miles east of here.
We have a population of 2,300.
We're situated on State Route 203 between Duval and Falls City.
Like Lahaina, we have one road in and one road out of our city.
We are at the confluence of the Sonoma River and Tolt River, 16 miles below the Tolt River Reservoir Dam, which supplies one-third of Seattle's water and over 30 million gallons per day or more to a dozen other municipalities, generating over $30 million a year in revenue for the city of Seattle.
In the event of the failure of Seattle's dam, flooding models indicate that the 2,300 residents of Carnation will have less than one hour to evacuate to high ground before our city is swept away with a 30-foot wall of water and debris coming down.
Carnation was incorporated in 1912. Seattle built this dam in 1964. Seattle's dam puts all of our lives and property at risk.
We get no benefit from this.
We get no water from it, we get no revenue from it, yet we have 100% of the risk.
As required by regulation, Seattle's dam has a warning system that protects life and property in Carnation.
Yet, that system has failed six times in the last three years.
And I'll repeat, six times in the last three years.
With each failure, it becomes more and more apparent that Seattle hasn't addressed the number of foundational issues, and it simply can't comprehend the harm it is inflicting.
Installing hardware is only part of the solution to this problem.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Carnation Councilwoman Adair Hawkins.
Hi, I'm Council Member Adair Hawkins, mother of four small boys.
The emotional state of many members of the community was severely impacted by the false alarm event of July 28th, 2020. Seattle further inflected emotional pain on September 9th, 2020, January 13th, 2021, May 10th, 2023, June 19th, 2023, and August 22nd of 2023. In these events, the siren either failed to sound during its weekly test, emergency communications went out in error, or the siren sounded when it shouldn't have.
Carnation's residents do not trust the reliability of Seattle's emergency communication system.
Let me help you understand the trauma that Carnation residents have lived through due to Seattle's dam.
On July 28th, 2020, the Tolt Dam warning system went off just before lunch on Tuesday.
The sirens began wailing and an ominous message unlike any we've ever heard before started blasting across the Snoqualmie Valley.
The Tolt Dam has failed.
Evacuate the area immediately.
That message continued blasting from those sirens for 45 minutes.
Over 2,000 people simultaneously tried evacuating as cars fled through our one road, gridlock on our streets stopped all movement.
People abandoned their cars and walked up to higher ground.
Some older residents and disabled residents who couldn't make it to the evacuation site simply waited to die.
Others were injured in their attempts to get to high ground.
In the chaos, pets and livestock were lost.
Thank you.
Oh, sheriff and emergency.
Sheriff and fire scrambled to figure out how to respond and found their emergency response plans either didn't exist or were so old.
King County did not have a plan, SPU did not have a plan, 911 did not have a plan.
Our C staff of 13 were desperately trying to find out what was happening while at the same time trying to get themselves and other residents to safety and while knowing that their friends, family, and property were in danger.
30 minutes after the siren sounded, fire in King County got on loudspeakers to tell Fling Citizens it was a false alarm.
While Seattle's siren kept insisting the Tolt Dam has failed, evacuate area immediately.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Carnation Councilman Ryan Burrell.
Hi, my name is Ryan Burrell.
I'm a council person and a father of two.
As I stated before, it's impossible to kind of overstate the amount of confusion and the terror that the initial dam failure alert 2020 inflicted on our residents.
While Seattle's Public Utilities Department has apologized and promised to replace the 40-year-old siren and to fix all communication and planning problems, we still continue to have issues.
On September 9th, 2020, January 13th, 2021, May 10th, 2023, The siren failed to sound during the regularly scheduled test.
Each of these results in a flurry of concerned messages from citizens to city hall and our council members.
On June 19, 2023, a siren at the nearby Girl Scout camp sounded and triggered an emergency notification from Eastside Fire and Rescue.
Seattle Public Utilities had no idea what was happening and panicked citizens flooded our phone lines.
This again indicates the City of Seattle is not adequately coordinating with its partners in the Snoqualmie Valley.
On August 22, at 1.17 p.m., Seattle Public Utility sirens again sounded, triggering the same confused and uncoordinated response.
What Carnation citizens have concluded is that Seattle's alarm systems are unreliable.
The city of Seattle has generally failed to empathize with Carnation's residents, indicating that the alarm had only gone off for only two seconds in this most recent false alarm.
It's clear that Seattle is unaware, unable to understand, or unwilling to recognize the psychological damage its 2020 event had on Carnation residents.
In this latest false alarm, Carnation staff called Seattle on August 22nd, not the other way around.
Cell notifications went out alerting the public that the damage It was not until 6 p.m.
that evening, five hours after the event, that Seattle officially informed the Carnation community that it was a false alarm.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Carnation Councilmember Dustin Green.
Thank you.
My name is Councilman Dustin Green.
I'm the father of four.
Despite the lessons that should have been learned from the July 2020 event, there still is no way to communicate false alarm all clear out to Carnation's residents.
And the perspective seems to be that it's somehow our responsibility to be able to do that.
Seattle has failed to fix its emergency alarm systems.
Seattle has failed to improve communications.
Seattle has failed to create a functional partnership with emergency organizations, King County, and the city of Carnation.
Seattle has failed by minimizing and dismissing the fear and trauma inflicted on the residents of Carnation.
Now, in addition to the mental and emotional trauma we are dealing with, we now have a significant number of citizens ignoring the alarm.
On August 22, 2023, instead of evacuating the city, people began calling City Hall, calling the library, calling their council members, checking social media, calling 911. Everything but what they should have been doing, which is evacuating.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, regulates a 200-foot-high earthen dam.
The relicensing process for your dam is underway, and the City of Carnation is an active participant in this process.
We want to work in partnership with FERC to ensure that the Tolt Dam is operated safely, not only to produce water for Seattle, but to protect the mental health and well-being of Carnation's residents.
The City of Seattle has taken a passive role in its ownership of the Tolt Dam and its responsibilities to the communities it impacts as operator.
The failures we've outlined are not ours to solve.
They aren't King County's to solve.
They aren't I-1-1's to solve.
Putting responsibility on all these other agencies to solve your problems is not acceptable.
Apologies that aren't backed up by action are meaningless.
We have organized a community forum to outline desired changes to our relationship with you.
Seattle Mayor Harrell and the Seattle City Council are all invited to attend this event on September 30th, 2023 at 10 a.m.
in the city of Carnation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Carnation Deputy Mayor Tim Harris.
Thank you.
I'm Deputy Mayor Tim Harrison.
I'll be closing out the comments for the City of Carnation.
In the packets that we've presented to each member of the Seattle City Council, we include a formal invitation to the public forum and our annual dam evacuation drill.
This annual drill was created by and funded by the City of Carnation following the 2020 false alarm.
Once a year, we bring the community together to learn about emergency response agencies, how to prepare for an evacuation and where to reach high ground.
We call this event Be Dam Ready.
To date, the City of Seattle has contributed a t-shirt.
We predict that this forum will lead to specific new elements in our relationship with Seattle, and these may include, but aren't limited to, fines to the City of Seattle for any failure of the Tolt Dam Warning System or its related communication systems, the creation of an insurance instrument for the City of Carnation and its residents to mitigate the fact that neither earthquake nor flood insurance will cover a dam failure, a third-party emergency management evaluation of Carnation and the surrounding infrastructure around Carnation to identify its ability to ensure timely evacuation of all the residents in the event of an emergency with recommendations for improvements that the City of Seattle must take.
An annual franchise fee to operate the dam, to offset the direct costs to Carnation, including staff time, communications, emergency supplies costs, and maintenance costs to our trail system and whatnot, to enable our citizens to be able to evacuate.
An annual mitigation fee to fund mental health services to the community.
We look forward to your participation with Carnation's residents.
We're also inviting FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, our congressional delegation, our state legislators, and members of the press.
Thank you very much for your time.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Our next in-person speaker will be Eli Johnson.
Hello and thank you for your time.
I'm representing Glass, which is a marketplace for local government procurement.
I just came onto the team because we have made a contract with Seattle for procurement of safety supplies.
So I do want to talk to the City Council and just say that we are here to have a bigger presence, so hopefully we can help with procurement, not just in that part, but in your committees and other parts and departments that Seattle has.
Basically what we have is a marketplace or website where you can search for anything that you would need, from paperclips to satellite phones.
And if you can't find what you want, I think what makes us really stand out is our vendor team, which is exemplary.
So if you need a certain budget or if you want something that is minority owned, if you want something that is local.
If you want something in a certain time, if you want something warranty information, they'll get everything to you faster than anyone else can do.
But since we are growing very fast, we are just a startup in Silicon Valley, we just want to kind of spark up the Seattle.
area starting here, of course.
So we have the one contract so far, but I have left some flyers with my information just about the website and get in touch with me.
So if you do want to just kind of streamline your procurement, please reach out to me as I would be the new local contractor.
contact for that.
Instead of having to go through Excel sheets or searching through your own time to find something or find something new or get new contracts, you let us know and we will do all that work for you in a timely manner.
I thank you for your time and I would really appreciate if you could just send the information to the departments and committees that you represent and with that I will be finished and thank you again.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Katie Rusciuto.
Good afternoon.
My name is Katie Ricciuto, and I work for the U District Partnership in the University District.
I'm speaking today in support of Resolution 32100, supporting the development of Highway Liz in Seattle.
And I'm also speaking in support of Clerk File 314496 for an alley vacation in the U District to support development of a Sound Transit parcel as affordable housing.
Both of these items before council will have important impacts on the future of the U-District.
Highway LIDs are critical infrastructure projects that will allow neighborhoods like downtown and the U-District to reclaim public space.
For example, a LID effort between Northeast 45th and 50th Street in the U-District could result in 14 new acres of land that could be used for affordable housing, open space, retail, and safe crossings for pedestrians and cyclists.
And the future use of Sound Transit's surplus parcel at 45th and Roosevelt in the U-District represents an opportunity to create similar benefits for our neighborhood, including affordable housing and other community uses, on a rare vacant parcel in the U-District.
The alley vacation is an important step in making that development possible.
So thank you to Council Member Peterson for your leadership on the alley vacation, and Council Member Lewis for your sponsorship of the Lid Bill.
And we look forward to the benefits both of these council items will create for Seattle and its residents.
And I urge you to support them.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our last in-person speaker is Kathleen Brose, and then we'll move on to remote speakers.
Good afternoon.
My name is Kathleen Brose, and I am a lifelong Seattleite currently a Ballard resident.
As you are aware, Seattle is a city of neighborhoods, and Little Saigon is one of them.
It is on the precipice of disappearing.
Danny Wesneat of the Seattle Times recently wrote, Little Saigon is such a rich, unique slice of Seattle, originally populated by war refugees, it's hard to see what's ruder than the way we are trashing it with our vainglorious Seattle neglect.
Why are some members of the Seattle City Council allowing a tyrannical minority of people, consisting of addicts and their criminal activities, to destroy this neighborhood's unique culture and its small businesses?
What is your motivation other than total destruction of this neighborhood?
I just don't get it.
Will you please, after everyone returns from vacation, try again to make open drug use in Seattle a crime.
Place the addicts in a secure facility and get them the recovery services that they need.
Arrest and jail the drug sellers.
Please save little Saigon.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our first remote speaker will be Michael Ruby.
Is Michael Ruby on the phone?
Michael Ruby, if you are trying to talk, you might have to hit star six.
In the meantime, I will move on to Colleen McClure.
Good afternoon City Council and thanks for being here.
I'm Colleen McAleer for Laurelhurst Community Club Council.
We urge Council today to grant Clerk File 314496, the petition to vacate part of the alley at Northeast 45th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
Right now, there's no development plan, but with Sound Transit wrapping up, this petition is needed for an RFP to build 200 units of fully affordable housing.
for all income levels in that category.
It's a great public benefit to offset a very small piece of the public space.
It includes family-sized units for seniors and those with disabilities as well.
The project is a stellar example of a collaborative effort by Sound Transit, SDOT, and this city council to ensure that 200 residents in the U District will have a permanent home near the light rail metro transportation hub, and also access to employment opportunities in the growing U District.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson, your transportation committee and your staff for thinking out of the box on this one for a one-time opportunity for sort of free land to build affordable housing permanently.
Also today vote yes on resolution 32100, Council Member Lewis' support of developing the lids across I-5, another great way to shape our city with green spaces and more affordable housing, and vote yes on Council Bill 120625 to increase uses for automated traffic cameras.
This saves lives, especially since our law enforcement officers just don't have the numbers to go out and do what they used to do.
And we'll assist in identifying the offenders and each potential one.
Thanks so much for your work.
Thank you.
It looks like possibly Michael Ruby is now available to speak.
Are you hearing me?
Yes.
Thank you.
This is Mike Ruby.
I live in the Wallingford neighborhood.
I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember the efforts by the Jackson Street Community Council to stop the division and destruction of their community by the proposed Interstate 5. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I-5 did to that neighborhood.
And we are told by the elders of the Zion American Lutheran Church that I-5 displaced many of their German American congregation in what was then called the Latona neighborhood when it separated Wallingford from the University District.
I urge you to support Resolution 32100 to put lids for I-5 on the planning agenda for the city.
Lids over freeways have been built for Mercer Island, the East Side, and Montlake neighborhoods.
It is past time for less affluent areas to be considered.
The importance of reconnecting communities has been recognized by the federal government, and funds have been provided for local action.
The state has funded prior LIDs through their transportation budget.
This resolution will give the city a basis for applying for federal funds and lobbying the legislature to include these projects.
The proposed LIDs over I-5 will be long overdue reparations to these damaged neighborhoods and will restore needed connection between the communities.
I say glory to the Jackson Street Community Council.
Support 32100. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker will be Steven Antupit.
And Steven will be followed by John Fiat.
And go ahead, Steven.
Good afternoon.
My name is Steven Antupit.
I'm a resident of University District.
And as a volunteer member of the U District Partnership Board, I'm very excited to see the effort coming forward after several years of work with Sound Transit to make possible what is now in clerk file 314496, The relocation of the alley for that parcel is an essential first step to maximizing the opportunity for affordable family housing in the U District.
We've had the largest share of MHA contributions to the city's funds, but we haven't really seen any new development that serves those most in need.
So making this parcel available per the terms of the public benefit terms that the city lays out in the clerk file are appropriate to making sure that the results serve those in need.
I also want to speak in support of resolution 32100. The I-5 lid opportunity between 45th and 50th is tremendous size and of much less complexity than some of the other situations in the city.
It makes another important opportunity for us to reclaim urban space for people and to address our critical housing needs.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker will be John Fiat, and John will be followed by Scott Bonjukian.
Go ahead, John.
Hi.
Hi, my name is John Fiat.
I'm with the LID I-5 Steering Committee, and I am in support of Resolution 32100. Throughout our eight-year campaign, we have met with county, state, and federal officials and have been told that city council support is fundamental to LIDING I-5.
You can offer that support today.
Your support shows that the city wants to substantially improve the environment around I-5, and that you too are willing to join the many housing, open space, and transportation advocates we have met with over the years in achieving that goal.
Whether by earthquake, as with the viaduct and waterfront, or proactive legislative action, as with the 520 bridge, I-5 will most certainly need massive work in the foreseeable future.
Your vote today is an important action that the city will be a leader in determining the outcomes of that future.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Scott Bondjoukian, and Scott will be followed by Jim Kastanis.
Go ahead, Scott.
Hello, Council.
My name is Scott Bondjoukian, and I'm with the Little I-5 Community Group that has worked to reclaim public space for people and transition us to a more connected and sustainable city.
We support passage of Resolution 32100 which supports the development of Litchcross I-5 as a critical step in project development and policy, and as a natural follow-up to the 2020 feasibility study, which found that living more of I-5 in central Seattle is feasible and would create necessary healing of our urban neighborhoods that have long been divided by an urban concrete canyon.
It sent a clear signal to the public and our partners at the county, state, and federal levels that this is a major opportunity and priority of the city.
It supports not only the central Seattle segment that's already been studied, but also a possible lid site in the University District and acknowledges the special considerations needed for the environmental injustices where I-5 slices through Yesler Terrace and the Chinatown International District.
We look forward to working with all city departments on advancing this work, including with OPCB right now on applying for a federal grant application, and with SDOT on funding the project in the 2024 Transportation Levy Renewal.
Thank you for your time and attention to this visionary civic project, and we look forward to working more.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Jim Kastanis, and Jim will be followed by John Grant.
Go ahead, Jim.
And you may need to press star six.
Hello.
My name is Jim Kastanis.
And eight years ago, seven to eight years ago, we started LIDAR5 campaign.
And as John and Scott pointed out, it's been quite a journey.
We started with people just rolling their eyes at us, and now we've come to this day where the resolution is before you all, and I hope you vote positive for it.
We've gone through many stepping stones on this particular project, but one in particular I want to mention is the feasibility study that the city allowed us $1.5 million to do.
And I wanted to point out that it was one of the first times that the city had allowed money going from the public benefits package to support a study and not really a physical outcome for that money.
In other words, nothing was built.
It was simply a study.
The city believed in us then, and I hope you all believe in us now, that the LID would be part of a trilogy.
It would be the waterfront project, the Pike Lake Market, and the LID.
It would be many acres of land to connect the city and would really help in many ways, whether it's environmental or otherwise.
So I hope today that you all vote in favor of the LIDI 5 and continue this campaign towards federal funding, state funding, and whatever it takes to get this thing built.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next speaker is John Grant, and John will be followed by Abel Pacheco.
Go ahead, John.
Greetings, Council President Juarez and City Council members.
My name is John Grant with the Low Income Housing Institute, or LEHI, and I am testifying today in favor of the proposed alley vacation and development of affordable housing at the site.
We'd like to thank Council Member Peterson for his leadership and also for partners at Sound Transit that allowed our organization to establish Rosie's Tiny House Village on the site to serve homeless people in the surrounding neighborhood.
Rosie's Village has sheltered over 100 people since its opening, and connected chronically homeless people to essential services and housing.
Our villagers need affordable housing and the alley vacation proposal is an important opportunity to expand the availability of affordable housing units.
We encourage the council to maximize the affordability options to ensure very low income people can access these units, especially people earning zero to 30% of the area median income.
We look forward to partnering with Sound Transit and the city to find other opportunities to site new tiny house villages on public land.
Please support this proposal, which will bring more affordable housing to our community.
Thanks for your time today.
Thank you.
And our last speaker today is Abel Pacheco.
Abel, are you present?
You may need to press star six.
Good afternoon, Council.
My name is Abel Pacheco, Government Communications Director for the Central Corridor at Sound Transit.
I'd like to express my gratitude to Councilmember Peterson for his leadership and the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee for approving Kirk File 314496 and recommending subsequent approval by the full Council this afternoon.
Sound Transit supports the approval of this conditional alley vacation and looks forward to the continued partnership with the City of Seattle to deliver affordable housing near our U District Station.
Thank you.
Thank you to all those who commented.
I just want to confirm with the clerk, do we have any more?
That's all our speakers, thank you.
Excellent, thank you so much.
We will move on with the council agenda.
Adoption of the introduction referral calendar.
Introduction referral calendar has been distributed.
And if there's no objection, the introduction referral calendar will be adopted.
Hearing and seeing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.
Adoption of agenda.
Hearing no objection, the agenda will be adopted for today's council meeting.
Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.
We will begin our agenda with the adoption of the consent calendar.
And just as a reminder to council colleagues, the consent calendar includes minutes and payment of bills along with Council Bill 120646, 120647, and 120649. If there's any objection to the adoption of the consent calendar or any member wishes to remove an item, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the consent calendar?
Council Member Nelson.
Aye.
Council Member Peterson.
Yes.
Council Member Strauss.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Council Member Herbold.
Yes.
Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis.
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
The consent calendar is adopted.
Moving on to committee reports, we begin with a report from the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee chaired by myself.
Will the clerk please read into the record item one from the committee report for the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee.
The report of the Public Assets and Homelessness Committee, agenda item one, resolution 32100, a resolution supporting the development of LIDs across Interstate 5. The committee recommends the council adopt as amended the resolution.
Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.
And thanks to the number of people who testified today regarding the resolution.
Just to catch people up, this is the resolution regarding litting of certain parts of the I-5 corridor throughout the city of Seattle.
We had two committee sessions on this legislation.
The resolution is meant to inform the planning process for the City of Seattle as we go into the comprehensive plan and the related plans within it for housing and transportation.
that considerations be made around the potential for expanding LIDs over different portions of Interstate 5 across the entire city, and we heard testimony today from people regarding the potential of LIDing in the University District as well as other parts of the city and the downtown core.
This is really exciting, and I think as we wrap up the work that we've been doing for the past decade on the Seattle waterfront, the potential for one of our next big challenges as a city really could be taking advantage of potential new partnerships in the state legislature and through federal investment that's been made available to expand litting in the I-5 corridor.
We have seen in recent years through the new convention center, as well as the previous Washington State Convention Center, the use of the space above Interstate 5 as an area to develop and expand the capacity of our public assets in the downtown core.
We have new initiatives to reunite communities through the practice of letting over freeways from the infrastructure policies of the Biden administration that opened these partnerships up to opportunity and taking full advantage of that through our planning is something that we should be doing as a city.
The process really should be done in collaboration with the Office of Planning and Development through the comprehensive plan that we will be considering next year.
And in that spirit, we are moving our first of what will likely be several resolutions to guide that work and work in close partnership with our departmental colleagues to advance this policy.
So I see this as the first in a series of resolutions similar to how this council worked with previous executives and mayors to structure our work around the Seattle Central Waterfront.
Um, with that, um, I just want to, um, thank a couple of people who made a significant contribution to this.
Um, Lyle in the Office of Planning and Development, uh, who has been working with us as the key planner on this work and, um, bringing it along.
Um, obviously, Scott, uh, with LID I-5, who testified earlier in this hearing, um, who has been a, uh, um, an inexhaustible advocate for advancing this work forward and doing a lot of the elbow grease toward getting feasibility studies and other critical pieces of planning in place to get us to a period of time where the city can take this on as a real and significant achievement that we can aspire to in our planning process.
I am going to rest with that as the introductory remarks.
I do know that there were some concerns from advocates in the community that some amendments that were a little more prescriptive couldn't be added to this resolution.
I would just refer back to some of the considerations I raised in my remarks this afternoon that I anticipate this being the first of several resolutions as we go down the path of narrowing in on how this work is going to be managed.
And we can fill in more of the considerations attached to those amendments at that time through subsequent legislation and in the broader work plan of the city council.
But this is a big step forward.
This resolution represents the first formal council action recognizing an interest in advancing, expanding our lid zones throughout the city.
And I look forward to continuing this partnership and with our partners at the Washington State Department of Transportation who are interested in syncing up these planning processes to take full advantage of these opportunities.
With that, I wanna open it up to colleagues who have any comments on the resolution and I will reserve any additional comments I have until the end of our discussion on this agenda item.
Any council members looking to be recognized?
Council Member Strauss.
Thank you, Council President Pro Tem.
I'm very excited for this resolution today because it is the next step in an important project.
This has rippling impacts across our city, reconnecting neighborhoods, creating new park space, and creating potentially new buildings.
As Katie Rusciuto from U District Partnership mentioned, there's potentially 14 acres in just between 50th and 45th We have a lot of work to do.
We have worked as hard as we can to get bridge improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists.
It might be time for us to look at 50th.
Those two neighborhoods are so close and so easily connected if there was a lid there.
And this is, you know, if we can have 14 acres of public and private land, it would be amazing.
I know in the committee presentation, there was a photo from the project in Dallas that is just a park that was publicly funded.
You look at Washington, D.C.
at the Capital Crossings Project.
They were able to add seven acres in downtown Washington, D.C.
that was, I believe, completely privately funded.
And what this did was it reconnected the grid and it created new buildings.
They were all LEED certified.
Let me look at this from the federal highways.
Just these seven acres in DC are estimated to generate $40 million in annual property tax revenue.
So it's not just a nice thing to have when we are able to privately fund these projects, we're also able to reap the benefits while reconnecting our city.
I know that there's different challenges highlighted for downtown and what the report stated is that this is possible.
We just have to figure out which of these variables we need to take into consideration.
And so this is not something where we need to dump a lot of public money into, because there is a private market to make this happen, as was seen in D.C.
And I think that these two places that have been highlighted should just be the start.
I'd really love to see a lid up at 130th Station as well.
Thank you, President Pro Tem.
Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.
Are there any other questions or comments on the underlying resolution?
Seeing none, I just want to, again, oh, sorry, Council Member Nelson.
Yes.
Sorry.
So I really appreciate learning more from public comment and also from your words today.
I'm going to be abstaining because I have always supported the theory of litting I-5 and I need to know more, frankly.
I see the benefits and I also read the study Findings, you know some things say on and off ramps are particularly challenging.
This would be more expensive you know, it would be challenging, it would be expensive, et cetera.
So I think that in, because this is just the first step in a series of resolutions, I'm gonna take the time to bring myself up to speed about where our potential funding partners are right now.
Because when I hear that WSDOT is telling us to kick sand Council Member Strauss over, you know, PED.
Estat, Estat, okay, on some of those plans.
Just want to make sure that we're all in line with what our funding will allow us to do, what our potential partnerships are, et cetera.
This is not a no against the project.
I just feel like I need to understand it a little bit more.
So I'll be abstaining.
Council Member Nelson, just to clarify, when I was talking about Estat, what Council Member Peterson and I have worked on is making sure that there's a protected bike lane on 45th Street Crossing.
That's what they've told us to kick rocks about.
Because there's not enough space.
And so...
So this would create the space?
A lid would solve the problem.
Got it.
Thank you for the clarification.
Thank you Councilmember Nelson.
I do want to state that it is the understanding of the President Pro Tem from consulting with the clerks that a resolution need only show a majority vote of those present.
So I just want to clarify to community members given that there are only five council members present, an abstention is not, and abstentions by our rules are not permitted.
Just taking a moment of chair's prerogative to outline that a colleague abstaining is not going to materially impact the passage of the resolution.
And Councilmember Lewis, I made sure to find that out because I certainly did not want to be a barrier to this.
This is just reflecting my just desire to know more.
Yes, excellent.
Thank you for that clarification.
And with that, I don't have any additional comments on the resolution, really looking forward to the next steps and how this will inform our planning in next year's comprehensive planning process.
And with that, I will call the question on the underlying resolution.
So will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?
Council Member Nelson?
Abstain.
Council Member Peterson?
Abstain.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Three in favor, two abstentions.
Thank you.
The resolution is adopted and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?
We will now move on to item two.
Will the clerk please read item two into the record?
The report of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee, agenda item two, Council Bill 120625, an ordinance establishing additional uses for automated traffic safety cameras to increase safety and amending sections of the Seattle Municipal Code.
The committee recommends the bill pass as amended.
Council Member Peterson, as chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to address this item.
Thank you.
Colleagues, as you may recall, we already designated illegal drag racing zones with Council Bill 120600 back on July 25. This Council Bill 120625 before us today and recommended by the Transportation Committee will incorporate into our municipal code additional camera enforcement provisions from Washington state law.
In addition, this Council Bill 120625 provides a warning for the first infraction for these new cameras.
Issuing a warning for the first infraction will encourage a positive change in driving behavior while providing an initial reprieve for low-income drivers.
And this is feedback we received from the community.
This Council Bill 120625 was approved by our Transportation Committee on August 15, and recommends adoption today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.
Any council colleagues wanting to speak on this agenda item?
Okay, seeing none, Council Member Peterson, do you have any final remarks on this as the chair of the committee?
Thank you, President Pro Temte.
Just to note that the next bill on the agenda will be the one where we will be retaining the funds here in Seattle for traffic safety, Vision Zero infrastructure projects.
So that's what's going to happen in the next bill.
Thank you for getting us ready for that item.
Let's get a little closer to it.
Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the council bill?
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Yes.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
The council bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation?
Will the clerk please read the highly anticipated item three into the record.
Agenda item three, council bill 120638, an ordinance relating to financial policies for automated traffic safety camera revenue, amending sections 5.82.010 of the Seattle Municipal Code and repealing chapter 5.81 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
The committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
As foreshadowed, Council Member Peterson, as chair of the committee, you are recognized to address this related item.
Thank you, President Pro Tem Lewis.
Colleagues, as required by the 2022 state law, half of all new revenue from the Additional Automated Enforcement Camera Authority is set aside for the state's Cooper Jones Bicycle Safety Awareness Program.
But in response to requests we heard during committee deliberations, for the remaining camera revenue to fund local we want that to fund local traffic safety projects and that's what this bill council 120638 does.
It directs city government's portion of future net revenue from the new speed zone cameras toward vision zero safety efforts throughout Seattle.
including infrastructure that increases protections for pedestrians, cyclists, and everyone using our streets.
Our Transportation Committee approved this council bill on August 15 and recommends approval today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Are there any council colleagues wanting to comment on the bill?
Seeing none, Council Member Peterson, do you have any closing remarks on the legislation?
Thank you.
I do want to thank City Council Central Staffer Calvin Chow for helping us identify this solution so we could direct these funds to Vision Zero projects.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the Council Bill?
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Yes.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The council bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation?
We will now move on to item four.
Will the clerk please read item four into the record?
Agenda Item 4, Council Bill 120639, an ordinance relating to acceptance of funding from non-city sources, authorizing the general manager and CEO of Seattle Public Utilities to accept specified loans to partially finance costs related to the construction of the South Thornton Natural Drainage System Project, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts the committee recommends the bill pass.
Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.
Council Member Peterson, this is another piece of legislation from your committee.
You are recognized to address this item.
Thank you.
Colleagues, Council Bill 120369 authorizes Seattle Public Utilities to accept two loans from the State Department of Ecology for the Thornton Natural Drainage System Project.
The first loan has a below market bargain interest rate of only 1.6%, and the second is a forgivable loan.
The city is expected to save $5.7 million by accepting these loans relative to traditional bond funding that would have otherwise been used.
This project is located in District 5, and so SPU briefed Council President Horaz's office, which is comfortable moving forward on this legislation.
I'd like to thank Brian Goodnight from our Council Central staff for his review of the legislation and for confirming no concerns.
I'm grateful for the initiative of the staff at Seattle Public Utilities in applying for this financing to manage SPU's costs to benefit our constituents and rate payers.
Colleagues on our transportation committee approved this bill on August 15 and recommends approval today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Peterson.
Any colleagues who want to weigh in on this agenda item?
Seeing none, Council Member Peterson, do you have any closing remarks before we vote?
No, thank you.
Thank you.
Well, with that, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the Council Bill?
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Yes.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
The council bill passes and the chair will sign it.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation.
Will the clerk please read item five into the record.
Agenda item five, clerk file 314496, petition of the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority for the vacation of a portion of the alley and block bounded by Northeast 45th Street, Roosevelt Way Northeast, Northeast 47th Street, and 11th Avenue Northeast at 1000 Northeast 45th Street.
The committee recommends that the council grant as conditioned the clerk file.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
This item also coming from Council Member Peterson's committee, and I recognize you, Council Member Peterson, to speak to the clerk file.
Thank you, colleagues.
This clerk file was approved by our Transportation Committee on August 15. This clerk file is just the initial authorization to vacate a portion of an alley in District 4. This is located at Northeast 45th Street between Roosevelt Way Northeast and 11th Avenue Northeast.
The southern portion of that alley will actually be relocated or reconfigured rather than eliminate it.
The reconfiguration of the alley will enable a nonprofit to be selected by sound transit and Seattle's office of housing to maximize the number of low income housing units to be built in the heart of the university district near the light rail station.
As stated in the six-page approval of Sound Transit's petition for the alley vacation, we expect to see a sufficient number of extremely low-income units to offset the 35 tiny homes temporarily being provided on that lot by Rosie's Village.
The specific approval language states that there will be, quote, at least 15% of housing units affordable to households earning 0 to 30% of AMI, and the Office of Housing and Sound Transit will explore the potential for including up to 30% of housing units affordable to households earning 0 to 30% of AMI.
The process for this alley vacation was an exception to the rule, granted because the requester was Sound Transit in collaboration with the city's Office of Housing to facilitate a low-income housing project by a nonprofit on this land, which is currently owned by Sound Transit.
The regular procedures for the request for proposals for development projects be issued before the city provides its initial approval to vacate an alley or street.
We appreciate central staff navigating this exception for sound transit so we could sequence this process in a way that assists our government partners to facilitate a maximum number of low-income housing units.
I believe it's a shared goal of creating as many additional units of permanent low-income housing as possible so that more people in need have a safe place to call home, including many who have been experiencing homelessness.
By creatively optimizing our public infrastructure to reconfigure this public alley, we're enabling the construction of many more units affordable to extremely low income people at this centrally located intersection where future residents can walk to jobs, education, health care, and of course, public mass transit.
including Sound Transit's U District Station.
After the space has served approximately 35 residents of a tiny old village for several years, it should serve as a permanent home for dozens of additional low-income residents, including housing-ready individuals who have experienced homelessness.
Many thanks for the hard work and creative work of SDOT, the design commission, Seattle's city council central staff, and for my legislative aide, Hannah Thorsen, for enabling this important milestone to move forward on this permanent low-income housing project.
I'm also grateful to have partners in Sound Transit and our city's Office of Housing who understand It's imperative to create as much housing as possible for extremely low income housing, for extremely low income people, so we can finally move beyond the homelessness crisis toward a more sustainable city for everyone.
As I mentioned, this is a clerk file that was approved by our Transportation Committee on August 15. Thank you.
I hope you adopt it today.
Thank you, Councilmember Peterson, for that background on the clerk file.
Can I actually ask you a question regarding the sound transit exception for the vacation process?
Is that an exception created by a city policy or a state law?
It's my understanding that's a city policy.
Interesting.
And I think very warranted given that we have a very strong interest in expanding opportunities to create more permanently affordable housing and really appreciate Sound Trance's partnership on this.
Um, I know that there are other partners, um, who would be interested in prospectively seeking, um, street vacations, um, to unite parcels to build affordable housing, uh, but that typically they still are subjected to the more strenuous street vacation process.
Um, so I'd be curious to, um, learn how the city might, uh, be able to expand the criteria, uh, to create other opportunities for partnerships like this.
Uh, since historically, I, as I understand it, um, just creating affordable housing is not always a sufficient, um, public, uh, public, um, benefit, uh, that is conferred to the city.
I think given our compounding and severe affordability crisis and, and our homelessness crisis, um, personally think building affordable housing in and of itself is a sufficient public benefit, but, uh, I know that that's not necessarily, the case in current policy.
So, in any event, I think that this clerk file is a great step forward.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't recognize your leadership, Councilmember Peterson, in helping to really organize and push for the citing.
of the tiny house village that has been on the site while this deal and this policy has been pending that has made a big difference in that neighborhood and made a big difference on our efforts to respond to homelessness.
So I appreciate your leadership in that.
This parcel could have just sat completely vacant with no utility to the community, but instead for several years, it has hosted a tiny house village that has made a massive difference.
And I really appreciate your leadership.
And I know that the people who have been able to take advantage of those tiny houses very much do as well.
And now we're ready to go to the next step and build permanent housing at this site.
So with that, I don't have any additional remarks.
I want to open it up to colleagues if there's colleagues that want to speak to the clerk file.
Seeing none, I'll turn it back to you, Council Member Peterson, for any closing remarks before we vote on granting the clerk file.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, President Pro Tem Lewis, and I have no further comments on this.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Will the clerk please call the roll on granting the clerk file?
Council Member Nelson?
Aye.
Council Member Peterson?
Yes.
Council Member Strauss?
Yes.
Council Member Herbold?
Yes.
Council President Pro Tem Lewis?
Yes.
Five in favor, none opposed.
The clerk file is granted and the chair will sign the conditions of approval.
Will the clerk please affix my signature to the conditions of approval on my behalf.
Okay, items removed from the consent calendars, our next item on the agenda.
No items were removed from the consent calendar, so we will move on to adoption of other resolutions.
There are no resolutions for introduction and adoption at today's meeting, so we will move on to other business.
Do colleagues have any other business to come before the City Council?
seeing and hearing that nobody wants to be excused, which is typically what we do under this agenda item.
I'll move on to our final item adjournment.
So colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.
The next regularly scheduled city council meeting will be held on September 12th of 2023. It is 3.02 p.m.
and we are adjourned.
Thank you.