Seattle City Council Land Use Committee 6/8/22

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

The April 8th, 2022 meeting of the Land Use Committee will come to order.

It is 2.03 PM.

It will come to order.

It is 2.03 PM.

I'm Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Peterson.

Present.

Council Member Nelson.

Present.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Chair Strauss.

Present.

Four present.

And Council Member Mosqueda is excused today.

Anthony, if you'd like to just bring that up here, that would be great.

Before we get to public comment and run the agenda, it is Noah Ahn's last committee meeting today.

Noah Ahn's been the committee clerk for, Abel, how long?

Five years, four years, three years?

It's been a really long time.

And we want to honor Mr. Ahn with a proclamation.

So colleagues, I will pass this around.

It looks like people might have signed it for you, if that's okay with you.

And I'd invite former Council Member Abel Pacheco and former Council Member Rob Johnson, who have also NOAA worked for.

NOAA has worked for three land use chairs.

So I'd open the floor to you gentlemen, if you'd like to share any words.

Well, first, let me thank every council member here for their service, and especially over the last few years.

I know it's been just a difficult job, and at the same time, I thank you for your public service.

First, your job, as difficult as it is, is to thank everyone, and your staff is incredibly, incredibly important to all the work that you do.

During my tenure, filling the shoes for Council Member Johnson, I wanna say Council Member Noah Ahn, but Noah was tremendously just a huge, huge asset to my time in service, and for that, Noah, I thank you so very much.

I'm excited for whatever you do next in your career.

This city owes you a debt of gratitude.

So much of what I was able to accomplish is, and appreciation and service and reflection of your service to me and the work and support of me.

So I thank you so very much and I'm here really to honor you and the work that you've done in the city.

Well said, Council Member.

A pleasure to be back joining you all today.

Noah, I remember a long time ago when you walked into the campaign offices looking exactly like you do today.

So kudos to you for discovering the aging serum that all the rest of us are searching for.

But you know, you deserve to be so proud for the amount of work that you've done in a very short period of time here on council.

having touched so many important pieces of legislation, having built so many incredible relationships, and most importantly, your dedication to the city, a city that I know you really love and care about and have really, really honored.

honored by taking on so much responsibility.

You've gotten a lot done thanks to having a great bedside manner, thanks to building great relationships, and being somebody that was really trustworthy and always did what you said you were going to do.

So, Councilmember, thank you for the opportunity to provide a couple of words in honor of Mr. Ahn, and wonderful service, and congratulations to you, Noah.

Thank you gentlemen, and I'd love to take a photo with the three of you four of us in just a moment And I'll just tack on I can't say much more than what's already been said no, you know the product your project management skills are Amazing your ability to analyze understand craft policy I haven't found many other people with your skill level and what I was saying to councilmember Johnson is what I'm gonna miss most is just getting to work with you and because you're a great person to work with, you're a friend, we oftentimes twin, and I think that that is just indicative of the perspectives that you and I share that is, our work is about service.

Service to city, service to nation, and service to other people.

All the skills can be, you know, handled by other people.

And again, what I'm going to miss most is just getting to work with you.

So I'm excited for your next adventure.

And if we could briefly take a photo, and then we'll get to public comment and all of the rest of this packed agenda meeting, if that works for everyone else.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues, for the time here.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, let's do it in front of the seal.

And I tried to get you guys to have signature lines on this.

I'll see you soon, guys.

Thank you, colleagues, for indulging me in this honor of Mr. On today.

We do have 29 items on today's agenda.

A public hearing, briefing, and discussion on Council Bill 120313, which allows some housing types as minor amendment to major institution master plans.

Votes on seven appointments to the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

Votes on 19 appointments to the Design Review Board.

a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120339, which accepts grant funding for OPCD and SDCI, and a discussion and vote on Council Bill 120287, which updates regulations to rooftop equipment features.

At our last committee meeting, we held an appointment for the Urban Forestry Commission due to public comment we received.

We have received conflicting information leading up to today's meeting, so we will be considering that appointment at a later date to allow us to understand the situation better.

And before we begin, if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

I am really realizing, and maybe if you could, I don't have the public comment sheet bookmarked on this computer.

The changing technologies, thank you if you could email that to me briefly.

At this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items only on today's agenda.

Before we begin, I ask that everyone please be patient as we learn to operate this system in real time.

As a reminder, public comment is limited to items on today's agenda.

While it remains our strong intent to have public comment regularly included on meeting agendas, city council reserves the right to end or eliminate public comment periods at any point if we deem the system as being abused or is unsuitable for allowing meetings to be conducted in an efficient manner, which we're able to conduct our necessary business.

I will moderate the public comment period by the following manner.

And just thank you for sending me this, both Councilmember Peterson and Noah, you are both exceptional human beings.

Seeing as we have two people signed up remotely, we will have two minutes to speak for each each speaker and public comment is up to 10 minutes.

I'll call on each speaker's name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak and would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website.

The public comment link is also on today's agenda.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone in an automatic prompt of You have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak Please begin speaking by stating your name and the items in which you're addressing speakers We'll hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time once a speaker hears the chime We ask that you begin to wrap up public comments if you're The speaker does not end their public comments by the end of the allotted time provided.

The speaker's microphone will be muted after 10 seconds to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.

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

Please remember there is a separate public hearing for item one, Council Bill 120313, which relates to housing at major institutions.

Please reserve comments for item one for the public hearing.

The public comment period is now open, and we will begin with the first speaker.

I see the first speaker, Brian Steinberg, is for item one, so I will hold that.

Oh, is that...

Brian Steinberg, are you here to talk about the major institution master plan legislation or are you here to discuss rooftops?

Yes, hi, my name is Brian Steinberg and I'm speaking in support of Council Bill 120313. I'm an architect and principal in the design firm Walter Thompson.

Yeah.

Is this in regards to major institutions or rooftops?

The rooftops, is that not the right thing?

Great, take it away.

And if we can reset the two minute timer.

Okay.

I'm an architect and principal at the local design firm, Weber Thompson.

At Weber Thompson, we work on urban scale housing of all kinds, market rate, affordable, student, senior housing, et cetera, throughout Seattle.

And I'm asking the City Council to support Council Bill 120313 that addresses zoning fairness in the Chinatown International District.

This bill addresses the need of high-rise housing mechanical coverage, normalizing the common coverage that will allow for design flexibility needed to address changes to the energy code, which require larger mechanical footprints.

It will reduce the number of design departures sought to accommodate these basic needs.

This amendment also addresses the need for elevator overruns to the IDR slash C 125 slash 150 to 270 zone so that you can build to the full zoning allowance.

This threatens zoning fairness to the Chinatown International District and corrects the current code which impacts the land values of the CID disproportionately compared with downtown and South Lake Community Zones.

It also maximizes MHA assessment on high-rise development there that can be used to build more affordable housing.

These code revisions were presented to the International Special Review District Board last month and received their support for the concept.

So we support Council Bill 120-313 and hope you will as well.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Moving to our next appointment.

Oops.

Too many different screens open.

Here we go.

Hung Jee Lin?

I see you're not present so I'm going to go to the folks here and also Anthony as you're working as the backup clerk if you'd like to join Noah here just so you get a sense of what's going on, please do feel free to.

I see we have Alex Zimmerman and Steve Robstello.

Gentlemen, I do notice that we don't have trees on today's agenda and I don't, Mr. Zimmerman, I don't see what you have signed up.

So we will get you set up, but you do have to address an item on today's agenda.

If you are not addressing an item on today's agenda, you will be out of order and I will ask, turn off the microphone.

So if we have the timer set, we will give you the two minutes and I need you to remain on topic on an item before today's agenda.

Yes, about basic.

I think we need to turn off the microphone.

Yes, exactly.

Absolutely.

No problem.

You appoint many people, and I have experience with this commission in Seattle for many years, most of it, it's all commission.

Problem, what is you doing?

And I spoke about this, for example, many times, hundred times before.

I cannot find one honest man, but as you appoint for commission.

So it looked to me very strange because when this one crook or two crooks, eh, it's happened, bad apple.

But you build a system, you know what it mean, but as you always appoint somebody who totally crook.

And I go and speak to many commissioner, I never, I repeat, I never have one voice what is support, what is I'm talking.

Never, and sometimes inside like a 30 people, 20, 30. For example, police commissioner, you know what it mean, never give a chance speak for 15 years or 10 or five.

Guys, what is I want to explain to you?

You doing something what is very unusual.

You know what this mean?

You supposed to be appoint people what is better than you.

but you always appoint people like you or much more than you.

You know what this mean?

So we have what is we have right now.

Seattle totally collapsed.

And no one honest man work for government.

It's my experience for 35 year, what is I have local government experience.

Local this mean we include Olympia too.

Guys, this is absurd by definition, you know what I mean?

So please, please, find one man when I can go to talk to Commissioner what he's told me.

Alex, you're absolutely right.

Nothing happened for many years, hundred times.

So right now I speak to everybody who listen to me, to the 750,000 slaves in Seattle.

Stand up, freaking degenerate idiot.

You know what this mean?

A slave, a zombie.

You need change this council.

We need find one honest man in this chamber, one.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Zimmerman.

Steve Rubstillo, you are up next.

However, you don't have, may I help you, sir?

When we open the public hearing, if you are going to speak to the public hearing, you can speak, but the comments that you just gave were borderline on topic.

Right now, we're done, though.

I'm calling the next speaker.

Thank you.

Steve Rubstillo is next.

I see you want to talk about trees.

It's not on the agenda.

Is there something on the agenda you'd like to discuss?

Well, I guess that's probably part of the problem then is you're not as good as Republicans at stifling speech, but you're working on it.

Quite frankly, the whole purview of this committee should be what is available.

This is what you people are supposed to be the intake.

You're supposed to be the ones that are looking out for that section for the City Council.

And, you know, trees is an old subject.

And quite frankly, there's a lot of things that have been, I guess, much more important.

And many people believe that the talk that I've heard from the city department seemed to be that the idea is to make a tree ordinance to continue to make trees large and valuable, easy to get rid of.

And the purpose of a tree ordinance that most people in the city have been looking for is the ordinance that actually protects trees of value.

Because you know, as a good environmentalist, that the large trees are the ones that actually take carbon out of the air that actually take pollutants out of the air that do good things and shrubs don't do much.

And so this has been going on now for quite a few years, even before you were chairman of the committee.

Steve, which item are you addressing?

Well, public comment, which appears to be something that you really don't want to hear.

You know, the council doesn't want to count the houses and the housing that we're losing that's not expensive because it's private.

This is, they almost look like this is t-ball where we don't keep score.

Land use is something that you have not created the housing problems, but you have not done anything to get rid of them.

Thank you, Steve.

That's I'm just going to give you a warning for next time.

It needs to be on topic if you want to give general comments.

That's where I just let you know that our general counsel that I got the mic at this time.

Thank you, Steve.

Thank you, Steve.

I appreciate you.

Seeing as we have no additional speakers, the public comment period is now closed and we will move on to the next agenda item.

We are moving on to D, Items of Business, Item 1, Council Bill 120313. Our first agenda item is Council Bill 120313, which defines some housing developments as minor amendments to major institution master plans.

Mr. Ahn, will you please read the abbreviated title into the record?

Agenda item one, Council Bill 120313, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, defining the addition of a single development that includes residential uses at a community or technical college located within an urban center as a minor amendment to an existing major institution master plan.

That's excellent.

Thank you.

We are joined by Gordon Clowers of SDCI and Lish Whitson of Council Central.

Staff, before we begin today's public hearing, will you two please brief the committee on this legislation?

I see Gordon and Lish with us now.

I'll hand it over to Gordon to do the short presentation, and I'll make a couple of comments.

All right.

Thank you.

And I'll share my screen with the PowerPoint.

OK.

I'm assuming you can see that?

Yes, sir.

We can.

OK.

So thank you for the opportunity to talk today about this proposal, and the subject is relating to an amendment to Chapter 23.69 of the Land Use Code.

And I'm just going to see if the slides will move.

There we go.

Okay.

And the overall purpose of the amendments are to amend the land use code to provide more flexibility in the main institution land use code to accommodate housing at colleges and urban centers.

Just a little bit of background, a few background concepts before we get into the proposal itself.

The urban centers are of course a comprehensive plan designations for where the city most prefers the greatest amount of growth to occur in the city for the long term.

And Capitol Hill, First Hill is an urban center.

So the land use codes, major institution regulations, the city's overall intent expressed in code is for to is for the major institutions to be able to grow and add to their facilities over time to support their missions and while same time maintaining compatibility with the neighborhood major institutions include larger hospitals universities and colleges that are.

located across the city in various locations.

And the major institution master plan is the main way that the city influences and has a back and forth with the major institution campuses to define the amount of growth that's happening and how it will happen over the long term.

We're talking about a 15 to 20 year time period.

And the major institution master plans or MIPS, as we call them, are approved by the city council.

And so one of the elements of the major institution code is that it allows for a range of changes to occur to existing MIPS.

And those are defined as either major or minor or there's an exempt category as well.

So there are various things that can be desirable to change or approve a change to a plan over the lifespan of the plan.

Some of those are just allowing a little more space in an approved building or allowing an extra space to be rented off campus.

or minor departures from regulations that apply.

And then major amendments are more like adding more space to the campus itself, changing any zoning or development standard that is in the campus land or zoned area and other larger kinds of changes.

So, We have an interest in providing a little bit more flexibility in the regime as it's written right now to accommodate adjustments in the minor amendment category.

And this would be to allow a housing development that had not been included in the affected major institution, which is Seattle Central College.

had not been anticipated back when the plan was developed 15 years ago or more.

And so under today's code, accommodating housing development to occur sooner could not be accomplished without a major amendment to the master plan.

So the intent here is to allow a minor amendment process to be used to update the master plan.

we're narrowing it to be applicable to colleges and urban centers, and that is just sort of tailoring it to be used where it's most appropriate.

And further, the proposal is narrowed to allow just one development with residential uses to occur within the master plan's lifetime.

So that just sort of summarizes the tailoring that we hope that this will accomplish with this amendment.

Here is a map of Seattle Central College.

They do have a site of interest to accommodate housing in a new development.

That is the existing parking garage building on Pine Street between Harvard and Boylston.

There's currently two restaurants including a pizza restaurant on the corners of the Pine Street building as it exists today.

And the eventual proposal would be to rebuild that building with replacing parking but also adding residential uses on top of that.

And here is a just a conceptual rendering of the student housing project that could be accommodated if this code amendment is pursued.

And so just to summarize the overall intent of our changes here are to respond to the ongoing interest of the city to promote and encourage housing to occur sooner than later.

And especially in urban centers and to aid in the mission of a college community college by allowing more students to live closer and on the campus in that walkable transit rich neighborhood we're looking to.

You know just provide that measured amount of flexibility in the code.

to accomplish this and just wanted to let you know that the changes maintain the current processes that apply to almost any development or amendment process.

The prospective housing development would first need a minor amendment to the existing plan and that would have to go through the community advisory committee process, and then subsequently, if if approved, a building would need to also go through that process as well.

And that includes notice to the community when those would occur.

So that is a short summary.

And I'm happy to answer any other questions about this topic.

I'll turn it over to Leslie.

Thank you, Gordon.

I'm going to turn it over to Lish, and then I'll ask my colleagues if they have questions.

I want to just, I'll start with a question that is just clarifying something you just said, which is for a building to be built, it still has to go through every standard check approval process that any building being built in Seattle has to go through.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

The advisory committee process essentially substitutes in a development review for design review.

So that's the venue in which the project would be reviewed.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Gordon.

Mr. Whitson, please.

Yeah, so there's a minor aspect to this bill, which Gordon didn't mention but wanted to raise, because there's a very minor issue that I'd recommend amending the bill to address the bill.

congregate residences which include dormitories and other large facilities where a large number of people live together outside of a single family house.

are permitted or prohibited in various zones.

We have put in an exception for congregate residences that are owned or operated by colleges and universities to allow them a little bit more flexibility to locate in various parts of the city.

The bill would expand that to also provide opportunities for congregate residences affiliated with a college or university.

So there needs to be some sort of agreement between the college and university and the owner or operator of the congregate residence or most likely dorm.

to be located in the same places that other dorms are located if they're owned or operated by the college or university.

So this change is made in a number of places in the land use code.

It's also made in one place in the major institutions code, where it might result in a little bit of confusion.

Section 2369-008 of the code is where we define what a major institution use is.

And it's clear that a major institution use isn't necessarily just those uses that are owned and operated by colleges and universities, but that there are other uses affiliated or associated with colleges and universities that may also be defined as major institution uses.

And there's a set of criteria that are used to determine whether or not those uses not owned or operated by a college or university on a major institution campus are considered major institution uses.

The proposed bill in front of you would amend that section to, say, owned, operated, or affiliated by a college or university, and adding that affiliated by may introduce some confusion in applying the rest of the code section, and so I would recommend deleting those three words from the bill.

Wonderful.

And Mr. Whitson, are you able to draft me an amendment to do so at the next committee?

I would be happy to.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Colleagues, question?

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thanks for the presentation.

Initially, I was looking at the title of the bill, which talked about community college within an urban center, but what I'm hearing you say, and in looking at the body of the bill itself, you're saying that it would apply to other types of universities.

So I'm curious about, you know, my district, District 4 has an urban center, and the University of Washington is adjacent to that.

So I just wanted to understand if this would apply to the U District and University of Washington.

That's a good question.

The key portions of the bill that are describing the eligible institutions really narrow it down to technical colleges, which is what we usually refer to as community colleges.

Okay, that's helpful to know.

And then thanks, Lish, for clarifying that you're gonna bring forward an amendment.

I heard you say the three words you're gonna remove are, or affiliated with, is that correct?

Correct, yeah.

Okay.

Just in section four of the bill.

Okay, in section four, thank you.

And then, I appreciate the chair having, are we going to be voting on this today or?

No, it will be at our next committee meeting.

Okay.

All right.

I think one thought I have is I know there's, I did receive some concerns about, even though it is appropriately narrowed in this case, that it would not serve as a precedent, automatically serve as a precedent for other types of major institutions, so I might bring forward an amendment just to the recitals just to note that this is not meant to be an automatic precedent.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Colleagues?

Vice Chair?

You're good to go?

I'm good, thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

Let me find my So, and I'll just check, Gordon, thank you for your work on this.

Do you have anything else to share, Mr. Whitson, anything else to share before we move on?

No, thank you.

Seeing nothing else.

Well, I'll just add a quick note that on the precedent topic, this is certainly not meant to set any kind of precedent in that major institution master plans when they're developing new plans are expected to plan for the entire range of future development over 15, 20 years that they expect to occur.

And this wouldn't change that, but would just primarily address the existing plans and the ability to be more nimble and accommodate more housing that wouldn't have been expected, you know, 15, 20 years ago when that master plan was being developed.

So I think that's it.

That's very helpful.

Well, with that, thank you, Gordon.

Thank you for all your work on this.

I can tell you, I think I started working on this when I was a staff member here.

It's been that long.

So moving forward, before we open the remote public hearing, I would again ask that everyone please be patient as we continue to learn and operate this new system in real time and navigate through the inevitable growing pains.

We are continuously looking for ways to fine tune this process and add new features that allow for additional means of public participation on our council meetings.

I'm gonna open.

Um, no one remotely present.

Uh, Eric, could you confirm there are no public comment registrants remotely present?

Is that correct?

That is correct.

Thank you, sir.

Uh, Mr Rodriguez, could you check to see the public common sign in sheet for There's no other sheet.

So that's that, okay.

Mr. Zimmerman, were you signed up for the public hearing?

Is that, okay, that's correct.

So we have to stay on topic on the bill before us, nothing else.

This is, I'm giving you a preemptive warning because the last one was a little on the fence.

I always stay on topic, no problem.

They hired a dirty, damn Nazi, fascist, mass bandit, and a pure psychopath.

So I want to speak about agenda number one, about this, what is, I see this, yes, look like youth in zoning.

You're doing very good job, you know what it means to, you know what it means, I spend in university with four students in one room, long time.

Yes, student need a room.

Problem, what is, I see this right now, for many year, everything what is come to, What is this?

Oh, use, land use and zoning.

Very interesting to me.

And I look at this and talk, what is this?

For many years, one council go, another council come, another rules, another council, another rules, another council.

It's go, go, go, go, zoning, go, go, go.

Life not better, guys.

So you're doing good job for 20 years, everything down.

Seattle totally in ruin right now.

Can you explain to me what is this people council doing for last 20 years?

Very good job, and we go down and down and down.

How is this possible?

I'm totally confused about this.

I'm a businessman.

When this happen in business, it's supposed to be bankruptcy 20 years ago.

That's exactly what you're doing.

And I have very good news for you, forgive me for a little bit, 20 second expression.

Today see United Nation make a statement in this in Seattle time.

No more COVID in America.

It's only two city have COVID, Seattle, one in Africa.

This exactly what's happened.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman.

I did forget to read the instructions.

Mr. Rubstello, Are you, would you like to speak to this item?

Then before you get going, I'm gonna read the instructions to stay legally compliant with this.

Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

I'll call on one speaker at a time and in the order in which you registered on the council's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak and would like to, you can sign up before the end of this council hearing by going to the council's website, CL.gov forward slash council.

The link is also on today's agenda.

Once I call on speakers' names, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and the automatic prompt if you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn to speak.

Please begin by speaking and stating your name and the item in which you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment must relate to Council Bill 120313 as this is a public hearing for Council Bill 120313. If you have comments about something that is not this bill, you can provide written comment to my office.

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

Once you hear the chime, we ask that you please begin to wrap up your public comments.

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

Once you have completed your public comment, we ask that you disconnect from the line, and if you plan to continue following this meeting, please do so via the Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on today's agenda.

The public hearing on Council Bill 120313 has been open, with Mr. Zimmerman giving the first testimony.

Mr. Rubstella, would you like to provide public comment on Council Bill 120313?

That is correct.

That's what I said.

It must relate to this bill.

Yes.

Actually, one free shot is probably enough for a meeting, and I think that if you allow me to, I will speak to this one.

It's getting tough following Alex, and then your long statement is like reading a use agreement on a computer.

But there are two different processes of trying to do things.

One in the city is our regular zoning process.

The other is major institutions.

Major institutions was designed to make things easier.

And that's what has happened.

And adding one sounds to me a little fishy because if you have zero, zero to one is a complete change of use.

You've got 40 dormitories and you add one dormitory, that's not a major impact.

You have zero in an area and you add dormitories or housing to it, that is a real major change.

And major institutions was a tip of the city to give up a lot of zoning authority to major institutions so they could do whatever they wanted to do or whatever their need was to do.

to change this policy, slip this in, is going to make it much less difficult to take the normal look at does this belong here.

So I think that a little bit of cynicism, you know, Bush versus Gore was not supposed to be a precedent either.

And minor change to one person is a whole lot different depending upon your perspective.

Thank you, Mr. Rubstall.

At this time, I do not have any additional speakers present or remotely present for the public hearing on Council Bill 120313, and the public hearing is now closed.

Thank you to everyone who provided public comment today, and thank you, Gordon, and thank you, Lish, for your presentations today.

We plan to have this legislation at our next committee meeting.

Please, Mr. Whitson, I would love to sponsor that amendment for you, and any council members that would like to join me are welcome to co-sponsor, and I understand Council Member Peterson may want some clarifying language, which I support as well.

Items two through eight.

Our next set of items are seven appointments to the Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

Mr. Ahn, will you please read the abbreviated title of the next seven agenda items into the record?

Agenda items two through eight.

Appointments zero, two, two, one, seven through zero, two, two, two, three.

Appointments of Sophia, Ben-Alfu, Chuan-Lin Hu, Mark R. Jones, Jamie Madden, Diana Paredes, Caleb Germanaro, and Lindsey goes behind as members Equitable Development Initiative Advisory Board.

That's it.

Thank you, Mr. Ahn.

And Vice Chair Morales had equitable development initiative in her committee before we merged back into the Land Use Committee.

So any point that you want to jump in, commissioners, I oftentimes will ask many questions.

I have been advised with 27 appointments before us today.

If I ask the level of questions I usually ask about you, we'll be here till midnight.

So please, apologies in advance if you would like to meet one-on-one anytime, I'd love to chat with you.

We do, we have, for these appointments, we have Patrice Thomas from Office of Planning and Community Development.

Patrice, will you please share a brief overview of your role and the role of the EDI Advisory Board?

I will.

Good afternoon, all.

My name is Patrice Thomas, representing the Office of Planning and Community Development.

and currently the Interim Division Manager for the Equitable Development Initiative sitting in the department.

Brief overview.

First, just want to start by saying it is my greatest pleasure to share a bit about the role of the Equitable Development Advisory Board.

My deepest, deepest gratitude to the existing board members who have served selflessly, guiding and moving monies into the hands of community, building capacity, acquiring land, and supporting the delivery of equitable development projects.

Secondly, I'm excited to welcome incoming board members who are willing and eager to do the same as we continue to move the work forward.

The EDI board is instrumental in administering the equitable development initiative, which is grounded in a community-led approach to responding to residential, commercial, and cultural displacement pressures throughout through financial awards to support permanent homes for BIPOC-led community organizations and other anti-displacement strategies.

For example, they have established and stewarded a vision for the program since its inception.

They developed funding priorities that staff used to draft RFPs and evaluation criteria during EDI fund or processes.

They review applications and make recommendations on funding decisions.

In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of past investments and contribute to valuable insights on racial equity and social justice related, social justices related to other OPCD programs.

including the evaluation of public engagement and policies for the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

Today we have in the room of our seven appointments, Mark, Jamie, Diana, and Caleb.

And so when ready, please introduce yourselves in that order.

Thank you, Patrice.

Really well said.

Mark,

coming on.

Hey, Mark.

Hey, it's a pleasure to be here.

I'm Mark Jones.

I've been working this type of work for quite a while, and specifically for the last six years, working various projects that are related to EDI, or some of them are in EDI.

I'm a recipient actually of EDI for something called Community-Owned Resource Development.

So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

If not, I'll move on.

Colleagues, any questions at this time.

Well, I just want to say thank you to mark the, the work that cord is trying to do in really providing a tool, you know, a financing tool.

The mechanical piece of how we actually put community led development projects in place is really important and really want to thank you for being willing to serve on the advisory board but also just for the work that you're doing in the south end to try to bring together the people who are interested in doing equitable community development and really pushing forward as a sort of united front to make sure that the needs and the perspective of folks in the south end are reflected in the kind of projects that get put into place.

Thank you for being here.

You're welcome and thank you.

Yeah, just echoing that, thank you for your service, Mark.

Seriously, we under, and this is for all the commissioners, you do this on a volunteer basis on work that is incredibly important to our city and it's work that we, we take your perspectives and opinion seriously and I just want to take this moment to say thank you.

Well, thank you council members I'm just as excited to be here as all of that I'm Jamie Madden, I live in Belltown with my wife and our three year old living our toddler community through the last few years down here.

I consult on affordable housing and early learning development.

I have clients both here in Washington and across the country in Massachusetts.

And I'm working on a book about affordable housing that aims to explain what it is, how it works, and how we got into this mess from the perspectives of developer, resident, and researcher intertwined with memoir of my own personal and intergenerational experiences of poverty and housing instability.

In many ways inspired by the EDI, I had the pleasure of helping out some EDI grantees and there was never a book I could send them to a resource I could send them to to demystify affordable housing.

So I hope to bring all of these perspectives, someone who grew up lower class professional with expertise and financial feasibility for community development.

and a parent in a neighborhood that's actively being harmed by landowner neglect, both public and private, and experienced continued displacement due to high housing costs.

My toddler even lost her best buddy to high rents, but thank you all.

It's always an honor to be invited to help out, and I hope I'm useful to EDI.

It's a growing national model for community development, and I think Seattle should be rightfully proud of it.

Thank you, Jamie.

Patrice, you did mention we had other folks here, but not everyone.

Are there other folks remotely present that would like to speak?

We have Diana in the room and Caleb.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone.

I will leave.

I was up next in the roll call.

And thank you for having me here.

Council members and Patrice and other members of the EDI board.

I am excited to join the board and to be appointed.

I've been a Seattle resident for almost eight years now.

And as soon as I arrived in the city, I had the privilege to join the work of organizations who have now established the EDI board when it was in its, the efforts were in their early beginnings.

And I am excited to see the mission of the initiative come to fruition.

And I'm eager to get to work with board members, Patrice and as well as you all council members and making sure that we prevent further further displacement of communities of color, low income communities and communities who have called Seattle home for generations as well as their culture.

I currently work at King County on evaluation of Best Charts for Kids initiatives, and I feel like I'm eager to bring a perspective from what has worked with BSK in terms of applying a racial equity lens as well as a economic justice lens to providing public service and programming in the context of the EDI board.

So thanks again, and I'm excited to join the board.

Wonderful.

And thank you for your work with Best Arts for Kids.

And it's always great to have a local on the board.

Caleb, welcome.

Hi, everybody.

Thanks for having me.

My name is Caleb Germinero.

I'm I'm an educator in the area, a high school coach.

I work with youth and also work at Estelita's library, small social justice library, currently in the central district and an EDI recipient and formerly displaced from Beacon Hill.

So bringing that perspective to the EDI space and also being an advocate for youth who are often rendered invisible in all of the decision-making around place and space within the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Caleb.

And Patrice, I believe that's everyone remotely present today.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

And I'd like to give a final shout out and thank you to the EDI team.

We are the administrative muscle to the board itself.

So just want to extend some gratitude there as well.

Really well said.

And vice chair, do you have any closing remarks on EDI?

Well, just that I think this is a really great example of how the city can proactively work on anti displacement strategies on mitigation strategies, and really you know, follow the lead of community members to really shape what they want to see about how their neighborhoods change and grow.

And both the EDI initiative and the advisory board members will play a really important part of in advising us as council about how we should be listening.

So I'm excited to be working with all of them and really happy that you are all willing to serve.

Really well said.

With that, if there's no further questions, I'm not seeing any or any discussion.

I move to recommend confirmation of appointments 02217 through 02223. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointments 02217 through 02223. Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

Appointments 02217 through 02223 pass.

Thank you all for your service on the advisory board.

These appointments will be before full council for a final vote on this upcoming Tuesday, June 14th.

And you do not need to attend that meeting.

And I just really want to, again, thank you for your volunteer service to our city.

We rely on you for so many things and we really appreciate your service.

Our next item of business is our 19 appointments to the Design Review Board.

Mr. Ahn, will you please read the 19 agenda items into the record?

Agenda items nine through 27, appointments 02224 through 02228 and 02230 through 02243. Appointments of Maria Barrientos, Brenda L. Baxter, Troy Britt, Penn DiGiulio, Che Fortaleza, Anna Christina Garcia, Stuart Germain, Christian Gunter, Chuan-Lin Hu, Brian L. Johnson, Nicole Lee, Kun Lim, Christina Lin, Catherine Liss, Benjamin Meritz, Joe Riley, Lisa Richmond, Gavin Schaefer, and Emily Van Gelderen as members Design Review Board.

Thank you, Mr. Ahn.

We are joined now by Erica Erica, I'm going to ask you to say your last name so that I don't say it incorrectly, and Shelly Bolser from SDCI.

Erica and Shelly, can you provide a brief overview of the role of the design review and design review boards?

Sure, I'll be happy to.

I'm Shelly Bolzer, I'm the Design Review Program Manager, and we're joined by Erica Ekstroms, and she is an amazing person that assists and supports a lot of parts of our program, including the appointment of Design Review Board members.

So the design review boards review larger and more complex proposed development on private property within the city.

There are eight design review boards and there are 40 regular appointed board members and also one get engaged board member.

So you recently recommended approval of the get engaged board member at a previous land use committee meeting.

We rely on these committed folks to move design review projects through the permitting process.

And these volunteer board members commit their time and expertise to ensure that these projects benefit everyone who experiences Seattle, both now and in the future.

Each board member is appointed for a two-year term and there's an ability to renew for an additional two-year term.

So that long list of appointments that you see today include a mix of both of those types of appointments.

So today we have a number of folks joining us there was a little bit short notice for this meeting so not everyone was able to join.

But we are very grateful to all the people that have served and are going to be reappointed, as well as the people that are coming in we're very excited to work with everyone.

So I'm going to make a little bit of space for the folks to introduce themselves, and we can start with Ben Meritz.

Ben, I believe you're here.

If you'd like to unmute yourself.

Shelley, before we jump in, I just want to, Erica Ickstroms, now that I've heard how to say it correctly, do you have anything you'd like to share?

Yes, I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge that all of our board members are volunteers in this role, which is a huge time commitment.

This group has collectively demonstrated a tremendous level of knowledge, passion and commitment to serving the city and representing their respective interests on the board and we are just thrilled to have them join the program this year.

Well said, Eric.

I couldn't say it better than myself.

Shelley, I'll pass it right back to you.

And I'll also just acknowledge that in this last budget session, I set up a work group to identify ways to improve the design review program, because I think folks from all perspectives understand a reboot is needed.

We do need the design review boards to ensure that buildings are built that meet the standards of our community and we need to make sure that these boards are not set up in a way that slowed down the needed housing our city needs.

So for the folks coming on board, that's my charge message to you to make sure that our buildings are built in a way that reflects our communities and please do not unnecessarily slow down the projects that are needed for our city.

So with that, Shelley, I'll pass it back to you to introduce your folks.

Great, thank you.

Would you like to say a few words and introduce yourself?

A little space.

Okay.

I'm not sure if Ben is perhaps multitasking, so I'll move on to the next person.

And then if he wants to introduce himself later, that's great.

Che, are you ready to say a couple words?

Yes, hi, good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for having me here.

I'm very honored to be in front of you today.

I'm very happy to receive this recommendation from the Design Review Board to be part of this program and represent my local community.

I have been practicing architecture for the past 25 years and lived in different places.

I first moved to Seattle in 2014, moved out for a couple of years and went back.

This is the only city where I actually returned.

And I feel like it's time for me to get involved, get deeply engaged in the community, and at the same time be able to serve.

So very much looking forward for this opportunity and hopefully get started soon.

Thanks so much.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Shea.

Thank you, Shea.

Gavin, Schaefer, are you able to say a few words?

Oops, it sounds like your mic is not working.

How's that?

Perfect, thank you.

Great.

Hi, my name is Gavin Schaefer.

I'm being recommended for the Southwest Design Review Board.

I live with my wife and two-year-old son for the last few years, and we're happy residents.

There's a lot of exciting things happening in West Seattle in the next decade and lots of great development.

I'm an architect.

I'm a certified Passive House designer with the International Passive House Institute.

I'm a registered project manager, and I'm a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

So I hope to bring some professional background, but first and foremost, serving as a community representative.

So thank you so much for the opportunity.

I'm really looking forward to serving.

Thank you, Gavin.

We're glad to have you here.

Joe Riley, would you like to introduce yourself?

Hi, everybody.

My name is Joe Riley.

I'm the Policy and Communications Director at Seattle Subway, the Puget Sound's grassroots and foremost light rail advocacy nonprofit.

So naturally, I'm very interested in the intersection between transit and housing.

I am honored to be a part of this group.

I believe that good design benefits everyone.

So I hope to ensure the city's high quality design standards are met while also keeping the review process as time sensitive and efficient as I can.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Joe.

Thank you, Joe.

Khun Lim, would you like to say a few words?

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Khun Lim.

I am an architect and urban designer with offices in Seattle and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

My family and I moved to Seattle eight years ago.

We live in the U district.

I love Seattle.

I spend most of my free time walking around in all the neighborhoods in Seattle, especially U district.

And I'm excited and honored to be recommended to join the City of Seattle, my adopted hometown, design review board for the Northeast Board representing design interest.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Glad to have you here.

Maria Variantos, would you like to say a few words?

Yes, I sent an email to the committee members because I didn't think I'd be able to be on this call, but I am and I really want to be on the West Design Review Board and feel like I could contribute something and appreciate the invite.

Great, thank you Maria.

And we had Troy Britt and I am not sure if he's still here.

Troy if you're here feel free to introduce yourself.

There you are.

Yeah, thank you.

I'm honored to be recommended for the Central Area Design Review Board.

I'm a designer at a local landscape architecture firm, and I have an extensive background in working on community engaged development projects and affordable housing, as well as public parks.

So as a resident of Central District for the past two years, I've lived here with my wife and two dogs, and looking forward to giving back to the community and preserving the character of the neighborhood that I'm part of.

Great, thank you, Troy.

Glad to have you here as well.

Ben, I'm not sure if you're able to unmute yourself.

If you are, feel free to say a few words.

Okay.

Seems like that's not possible right now.

That's okay.

I want to make sure I didn't miss anyone.

We have a number of folks.

I think I caught everyone, but if I did not, feel free to unmute yourself.

Okay, I think that's it.

Thank you very much.

Anything else you'd like to add or colleagues, any questions?

I have no questions, but I just wanted to say that this is a very well vetted group and I just thank you very much for serving.

Well said Council Member Nelson.

I agree wholeheartedly.

So with that, I recommend confirmation of appointment 02224 through 02228 and appointment 02230 through 02243. Is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of appointments 02224 through 02228 and appointments 0230 through 02243.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Morales.

Yes.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Appointment 02224 through 02228 and appointment 02230 and 02243 passes.

And these appointments will be back before full council on Tuesday, June 14th.

You do not need to attend that meeting.

and above everything and all else we want to thank you for your service, your volunteer service to our city.

Please do make sure that our buildings fit our city well and are built quickly.

We have a lot of housing backstock that we need to get built so We appreciate your service and let's get to it.

Our next agenda item is council bill.

Thank you, Shelly.

Thank you, Erica.

I hope you have a great day.

Our next item is council bill 120339, which accepts grant funding for both SDCI and OPCD.

Mr. Ahn, will you please read the abbreviated title into the record?

Agenda item 28, council bill 120339, in ordinance relating to grant funds from non-city sources, authorizing the directors of the office of planning and community development and the Seattle department of construction and inspections to accept a grant and execute related agreements.

Wonderful.

We are now joined by representatives from OPCD and SCCI.

Can you, there are a number of you.

I see Maggie here.

Hey Maggie, if you can introduce yourselves and kick off the briefing, looking forward to it.

Hi everyone, thank you for having us here today.

I'm Maggie Glowacki and I work for the Department of Inspections and oh my gosh, I just, Department of Construction and Inspection, sorry about that.

And I'll pass it off to Patrice to introduce herself.

Hi, this is Patrice Carroll.

I work for the Office of Planning and Community Development.

Uhm, and did anyone else want to introduce themselves or OK?

Where the key ones I'm going to share my screen.

Hopefully.

Alright, we're set.

So, as notice that we are here to talk about two different grants that we are.

And the first one is a grant for a station area planning in the north end of Seattle.

There are three new transit stations to light rail stations, opening in 2024 2025 and also very close by to this area is a BRT station that is opening at 145th and 15th Avenue in 2026. So our stationary planning is looking at all of these three areas.

We've done a lot of work to date.

We actually got started back in 2019 and went through several phases with the community to develop a vision plan, kind of a plan for what the community would like to see in these areas.

And we are now poised to take the next step and begin some implementation, and that would be a zoning study, environmental analysis, and then eventually bringing forward some legislation for new zoning around these stations to make the most of those capital investments.

The legislature in 2021 appropriated 2.5 million for cities to facilitate transit oriented development.

So we were able to take advantage of this new program and the city of Seattle was awarded $250,000 again to support our environmental studies for this station area.

So this funds will help us hire consulting services to perform a full EIS because this is a kind of a transformational change that will happen in this area.

And we are also aligning this with our comprehensive plan update because we feel that there are many, there are several key citywide land use policies that could also affect this area.

And we want to make sure that those things are in tandem.

that we're not coming in with a rezone proposal and then a year later with comprehensive plan amendments that will change all of the proposals that we've made without benefit of those comprehensive plan amendments.

So we very much wanna do this together and do it in a coordinated fashion.

So that's our plan.

I'm gonna turn this over to Maggie now and she'll tell you a little bit about her grants and then we can pause for questions.

So the grant that i'll be talking about today is from the Department of ecology for the shoreline master program competitive grant that ecology offered at the end of.

Last year, and this grant is to support shoreline planning and planning related efforts that advance local shoreline planning priorities and to improve the implementation of the shoreline master program.

So SDCI was awarded $50,730 to complete the final modeling for the Habitat Evaluation Procedures Program that's part of our Shoreline Master Program mitigation planning.

Next slide, please.

So as many of you know, or as all of you know, SDCI is responsible for implementing Chapter 2368 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

It's also known as the Shoreline Master Program.

So one section in our program is 2368.127 that provides for the development of a mitigation program that improves the implementation of the SMP by establishing a permitting tool to measure ecological impacts and to mitigate and the mitigation for these impacts.

So the Habitat Evaluation Procedures Program is the tool that SDCI is developing to implement this section.

And the Department of Ecology grant will provide the funds for SDCI to complete the modeling portion of this work.

So we have been working on this program for several years now, and we just have one last portion to finish up the modeling work, and then we can move on for approval of the program.

So, and the next slide is for questions, if anybody has questions for us.

Thank you, Maggie and Patrice.

It's all very straightforward to me.

Colleagues, any questions?

I do have just a question about the tool.

Maggie, you and I go way back.

We worked together on, I don't know if it was the last update to the Shoreline Master Plan, but that was a long process.

So is this tool going to facilitate future I mean will it will it help going forward make for council to make decisions on updates because this mitigation will be able to be modeled faster easier etc.

So Council Member Nelson this is just a portion of the whole package of the shoreline master program so the tool is intended to help in the project permitting.

So it's at the project stage, not at the program development stage, but it's an important tool for the implementation of our Shoreline Master Program.

And I'm sorry to get into the weeds because we're not even talking about the tool, we're talking about the grant.

You're fine.

I appreciate you, Council Member Nelson, you'll quickly see that we get into the wonk zone quickly here.

So it's always welcome, always welcome.

Maggie, Patrice, this is very straightforward.

I see you have something else, Maggie, please take it away.

I was just gonna say as part of the implementation of the tool, we will be bringing a director's rule back to council to review and approve as part of the Shoreline Master Program.

Wonderful, and as Council Member Nelson noted, this is not about the deepness of this policy area.

It is simply accepting a grant today.

Typically in my committee, I have a rule.

It is not a required rule.

I have a rule that bills are heard twice before we pass them out.

Because these funds do not require a public hearing and because I'd like to get these funds dispersed as quickly as possible, colleagues, unless there's an objection, Just vote him out today.

I'm seeing thumbs up, head nods, yes.

So any further discussion before we move to a vote?

Seeing none, Maggie, Patrice, you did a darn good job.

I move to recommend adoption of Council Bill 120339. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend adoption of Council Bill 120339. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Council Bill 120339 is approved.

Thank you, Maggie.

Thank you, Patrice.

And thank everyone else for this legislation.

It will be back before full council on Tuesday, June 14th for a final vote.

With that, our final item for the day, that is correct.

Our final agenda item today is Council Bill 120287, which updates rooftop features and equipment.

Mr. Allen, will you please read the abbreviated title into the record?

Agenda item 29, Council Bill 120287, an ordinance relating to land use and zoning, updating regulations for rooftop features.

Thank you, we are joined again by Jordan, Gordon Clowers of SDCI and Ketel Freeman of council central staff.

I also see we've still got a number of people still hanging on from the appointment section.

Feel free to drop off at any time.

And if you'd like to continue following the meeting, please do so via the Seattle channel or the listening options listed on the agenda today.

Gordon, Ketel, take it away.

Sure, I'll say it.

A couple words about the bill, maybe remind the committee a little bit about what Council 120287 would do and then discuss a couple of amendments for the committee's consideration today.

This is, of course, the 2nd briefing and discussion by the land use committee on Council Bill 120287, which would modify regulations for rooftop features.

Gordon walked through a presentation at the initial briefing back in late April.

Just by way of a reminder, rooftop features are defined by the code as pretty much anything that extends above the roof line.

When you think about the height limit of a zone, that height limit is actually at the line of the roof.

It's not necessarily at the top of any features that may extend above the roof.

Rooftop features are things like mechanical equipment, parapets and railings, penthouses for stair and elevator overruns, solar collectors, greenhouses, amenity areas.

There are a couple of things that are driving the changes that are recommended here in the bill.

1, our modifications to construction codes as the committee will remember last year, the committee modified the energy code to include stricter energy requirements to help meet the city's carbon emission goals with the stricter energy code comes more demand for rooftop space for mechanical equipment.

There are also some market conditions that are driving some of the changes here.

Folks like to eat and drink on rooftop decks, and some of that is reflected in some of the changes here.

How does the city regulate rooftop features?

Three primary ways.

One, percentage limits on rooftop coverage, limitations on the height of rooftop features, and also screening and roof edge setback requirements.

So those are sort of the three mechanisms that the city uses to mitigate the appearance of high balkan scale to go along with having these rooftop features.

So what would Council Bill 120287 do?

It would increase rooftop coverage limits that varies by zones.

It would clarify the types of allowed rooftop features and make some allowable features more consistent across zones.

Allow penthouses for lodging uses, eating and drinking establishments, and office uses in the Pioneer Square mixed zone to have a larger footprint and make other clarifying edits to the code.

There are a couple of amendments that are attached to the agenda today.

And unless you have any questions about the bill itself, we can walk through those amendments.

You know, Keto, let me, I'm gonna move the adoption of the bill and we'll walk through the amendments one by one, if that works for you colleagues seeing agreement here.

So I moved to recommend adoption of council bill 120287. Is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded.

And Mr. Freeman, if you could summarize amendment one, which makes technical corrections, please do take it away.

Sure.

Maybe I'll just share my screen here so that you all can, we're all looking at the same amendment at the same time here.

Hopefully I'm getting this right.

All right.

Can you all see that?

Yes, sir, we can.

All right, so this is Amendment 1, and this is largely a clarifying amendment.

It would acknowledge that there is a new height that didn't exist prior to the MHA up zone, so that's a 55-foot height limit.

It makes some accommodations to make it clear that buildings that are over 40 feet, so in that 55 height limit range, can take advantage of certain dispensations that are being provided by the bill, so more rooftop coverage.

It also makes an edit to a scrivener's error that was brought to our attention by Gordon, clarifying that there's one section that governs office space, it references lodging space, so making that correction.

That is amendment number 1. Any questions about amendment number 1?

I do not, but that's because I'm the sponsor.

Colleagues, any questions to amendment 1?

Seeing none, so no.

We have no, these all are very straightforward.

And since we don't have any questions or further discussion, I will move to amend Council Bill 120287 as shown in amendment one, is there a second?

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120287 as shown in amendment one.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Nielsen?

Aye.

Council Member Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill The motion passes Council Bill 120287 has been amended as shown in Amendment 1. Amendment 2, I'm also sponsoring Amendment 2 which makes changes related to certain zones in the International District.

Mr. Freeman, could you share an overview of this amendment?

Sure, so you should be able to see it.

Hopefully I'm showing that Amendment 2. So the committee will recall that this amendment or the basis for this amendment was discussed in public comments when the bill was initially briefed back in April and at the public hearing.

And sort of the originator for this particular amendment is Weber Thompson, and Weber Thompson has a tower project planned in the International Special Review District.

It might actually be useful for me to show the downtown zoning map here and perhaps I'll do that to help describe what this amendment does.

But as the committee knows, in certain parts of the ISRD, tower development is more likely That tower development primarily would occur in part of the ID that is sometimes referred to as Japan Town.

It's the area shown up here where you see IDR, International District Residential, and IDRC.

There are some development standards there that dictate floor plate sizes that are essentially tower floor plate sizes.

Weber Thompson noted that unlike in other parts of town where Towers, which are, of course, skinnier, have a different lot coverage development standards.

Those would not apply in the IDR and IDRC.

I'll go back here to the amendment itself.

So what would the amendment do?

It would allow additional height for elevator overruns and additional rooftop coverage for new buildings in the international district residential and international district residential commercial zones.

I would only apply to new construction and I would only apply to development that's over 125 feet in height.

I'll just note here that at the committee's request, Gordon briefed the International Special Review District Board on Council Bill 120287 and the potential amendment back in May.

Thank you.

What was the report from that briefing?

Gordon, did you have positive reception, negative reception, mixed reception?

Yes, there were at least two, maybe three or four people who commented favorably about the proposed amendment concept anyway, and that they recognized that the taller buildings would have slimmer square footage on their rooftops, slimmer form overall, and that they saw purpose for allowing more coverage.

and also a higher height of the roof items and also potential flexibility on the setback from the roof.

Just recognizing that that is different than the standard provisions that are more tuned to the lower buildings in the historic lower scale main heart of Chinatown ID neighborhood.

And then there were a couple of other inquiries about sort of rooftop coverage in general and the mechanical equipment.

So the board did not vote on any particular statement, but I didn't hear any opposition.

Thank you, Gordon.

And I will admit some skepticism to this amendment when I first heard about it.

And it was very important for me to recognize the fact that as we allowed for higher heights in this zoning through zoning changes, that means you need to have different types of elevators which require different types of mechanical instruments on the top of the building.

It all makes good sense.

Once you read into the the weeds, the wonky details of it all.

I'll just admit where I'm coming from transparently.

Vice chair, this is in your district.

Do you have anything you'd like to share?

Just that I do want to thank Gordon.

I did ask him to brief the ISRD and to make sure that we had heard back from them, that they were aware of what was being proposed.

And as he said, there wasn't any objection raised, so I'm good.

Thank you.

Great.

Any further discussions or questions on amendment two?

Seeing none, I'd like to move to recommend to, I'd move to amend Council Bill 120287 as shown in Amendment 2. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to amend Council Bill 120287 as shown in Amendment 2. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Vice Chair Morales?

Yes.

Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Council Bill 120287 has been amended as shown in Amendment 2. I thought we had 3 amendments just to.

Uh, yes, that's great.

You may, you may be thinking about the memo from back in April, which identified 3 amendments.

Um, essentially, the 2 of those amendments were collapsed into the 2nd amendment.

So, both height and rooftop coverage are addressed by amendment number 2.

Wonderful.

And I do, I'll call out something that you said in your initial presentation with the changes in building code standards.

We now require more equipment that previously was not on the, on the rooftops that is now on the rooftops.

And so to address the climate crisis with higher efficiency buildings and different uses of heating and cooling our buildings, there is a greater need for additional space for rooftop equipment.

With that, are there any questions or discussions before we vote on the underlying legislation?

Colleagues?

Seeing none.

Man, what a great committee today.

We're just rolling.

So with that, I move to recommend adoption of Council Bill 120287 as amended.

Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend adoption of Council Bill 120287 as amended.

Will the clerk please call the roll.

Council Member Peterson.

Yes.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Morales.

Yes.

Chair Strauss.

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

Council Bill 120287 as amended.

It passes and we'll be back before the full council on Tuesday, June 14th for a final vote.

This leads us to item E.

of our agenda, which I was gonna drag out for days, weeks, months, years, so that Mr. Ahn would never leave us, but here we are on the day, the final item of our agenda on Mr. Ahn's final committee meeting for now, is what I will say.

Maybe one day we'll see him in this seat.

So this does conclude.

Anything for the good of the order, colleagues?

Thank you, Noah.

Thank you, Noah.

With that, this does conclude Wednesday, June 8th, 2022 meeting of the Land Use Committee.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Land Use Committee is on June 22nd, starting at 2 p.m.

That meeting may be canceled.

Just letting everyone know that meeting may be canceled, in which case our next meeting would be July 13th.

Thank you for attending.

We are adjourned.