Seattle City Council Committee on Transportation & Seattle Public Utilities 3/15/22

Good morning.

The March 15, 2022 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will come to order.

The time is 9.30 a.m.

I'm Alex Peterson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold.

Here.

Council Member Morales.

Here.

Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Strauss.

Present.

Chair Peterson.

Present.

Four present.

Thank you.

Approval of the agenda.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Chairs report, good morning and welcome to the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

Today we will vote on approving agreements related to the John Lewis Bridge.

And we'll also have briefings about the second stage of a term permit in East Lake and the second stage of a downtown alley vacation.

We'll also hear from SDOT on their outreach and engagement planning for the future Seattle Transportation Plan.

So at this time, we'll open the remote general public comment period for the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

I ask that everybody please be patient as we operate this new online system.

We are continuously looking for ways to fine tune this process of public participation.

It remains the strong intent of the City Council to have public comment regularly included on our meeting agendas.

However, the City Council reserves the right to modify these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently.

and in a manner in which we are able to conduct our necessary business.

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

The public comment period for this meeting is normally up to 20 minutes, but based on the number of speakers we have signed up, I'm going to extend it to 30 minutes.

And each speaker will be given one and a half minutes to speak.

So speakers, if you were, please be prepared to speak for one and a half minutes.

And that'll take us to the full 30 minutes that we've extended it to for the public comment period.

I'll call on speakers two at a time in the order in which they're registered on the Council's website.

If you have not yet registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of this public comment period by going to the Council's website, Seattle.gov forward slash Council.

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

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

And the speaker must press star six to begin speaking.

Press star six to begin speaking.

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

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

It looks like nearly everybody's signed up to talk about item four on the agenda, the Seattle transportation plan.

Speakers will hear a chime in 10 seconds or left of the allotted time.

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

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of their allotted time, 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 please disconnect from the line.

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

The regular public comment period for this committee meeting is now open.

And we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

First, we'll hear from Anne-Marie Dooley, and then we'll hear from Alice Lockhart.

Go ahead, Anne-Marie Dooley.

Yeah, my name is Anne-Marie Dooley.

I live in District 4, and I have some comments on the Seattle transportation plan, specifically an issue of bike lanes.

First, I have a confession to make.

I am a biker.

I've never been a member of a bicycle club, and I'm speaking today because I feel that some in the city seem to think cycling is an activity for a small niche group.

I started biking in third grade because I didn't know when to drop me to school.

I continued in college because I couldn't afford to pay bus fares.

Biking also allowed me as a woman to avoid street harassment that comes from standing at bus stops, especially after dark.

Now as a doctor, I continue to bike because I know that small trips on bikes reduces my risk of heart disease and cancer by up to 40%.

But biking in Seattle requires a determination and planning.

It shouldn't.

When my kids were small, it was hard to get into preschool.

Crossing I-5 safely was a nightmare with my three- and five-year-olds.

But I knew if they rode bikes as kids, they were much more likely to continue as adults.

And I certainly thought of my daughter, who is now 13, because as she grows, she'll be subject to the same harassment that I was.

I understand that some council members may not understand this, but a bike presents a huge freedom to women.

It allows us to avoid empty bus stops, platforms, or parking lots after hours.

And I know many women who feel they need a car to traverse the city after dark.

This forced car ownership has been well documented.

Bike lanes are not just a nice extra.

They're absolutely fundamental to equity.

Getting people out of cars, especially families, will only be possible with a connected bike network that's separated, bridged, and protected from traffic.

I'm asking you to please ensure this network is built rapidly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Alice Lockhart followed by Gary Miller.

Go ahead, Alice.

Good morning, committee members.

I'm Alice Lockhart with 350 Seattle, also speaking to the transportation plan.

A deep appreciation to the previous speaker.

That speaker speaks my mind and my heart.

Personal vehicle travel continues to be Seattle's largest source of carbon emissions.

This transportation plan is mission critical to Seattle's climate goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan needs to get serious about reducing vehicle miles traveled, and this means building out support for all other modalities and never sacrificing one transit or active transportation mode for another.

It requires a planned process that will deliver direct, safe, and convenient bike and transit routes to work and services, as well as last mile connections to transit that are safe for people walking, rolling, and biking.

To do these things, we need truly integrated planning, not planning in mode-specific cycles.

We need to prioritize emission reduction over personal vehicle traffic flow.

It also needs to include climate emission targets and metrics for evaluating them and updating the plan as needed in coming years.

I urge council to hold the proviso until SDOT can articulate a detailed planning process that is explicitly designed to meet Seattle's climate goals.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Gary Miller followed by Robin Briggs.

Go ahead Gary.

Good morning, my name is Gary Miller, and thanks for taking my call.

I just wanted to point out that Seattle was under the Vashon glaciation.

There was 3,300 feet of ice on top of Seattle.

And over the course of 6,500 years, CO2 levels went up 75 points over 6,500 years, and that melted that ice.

We've added 50 parts per million since the year 2000. And since fossil fuels were burned, started to be burned in the 18th and 19th centuries, we've added 170 parts per million.

Now, all around the world, scientists are jumping up and down and ringing the alarm bells that we must, we've got to get rid of these CO2 emissions and getting people out of their cars and onto high combustion engines.

Sorry?

Go ahead.

Just getting people on the bikes and out of their cars is one way we can reduce CO2 emissions.

Biking is a chicken and egg problem because, you know, there's a lot of safety issues with people.

One of the things that's helped is the wide adoption and availability of electric assist bikes, which helps with Seattle's topography, but still the safety issue.

Okay, is that it?

Am I done?

Thank you very much.

You can also send an email to council at Seattle.gov.

Next, we've got Robin Briggs followed by Rachel Schaefer.

Go ahead, Robin.

Hello, my name is Robin Briggs.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm here today to talk about the transportation plan.

It needs to be consistent with other city policies, including on climate.

Seattle has the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, but I'd like to point out that the city also has a goal to reduce overall emissions 58% by 2030, which they say will require an 82% reduction in emissions from transportation by 2030, an 82% reduction in seven and a half years.

That's a lot.

The interim goal in 2030 is extremely important.

First, it's a midpoint checkpoint, but more importantly, because the IPCC says that without significant reductions, 50%, In greenhouse gas emissions in this decade, we will get a level of warming that our culture may not survive even if our planet is carbon neutral by 2050. The transportation plan needs to include a plan for how we reduce emissions as called for by the city by 2030. Meeting this goal is going to be difficult and therefore needs to be a foundational part of the plan.

I was dismayed to see that it is not even mentioned in the presentation today.

Please develop a plan and an engagement plan that will offer us informed choices about how to meet the climate crisis.

Don't just ask people what wonderful infrastructure they want or what their values are, although these are useful questions.

We've told you that we want you to reduce our emissions, and it's up to you to tell us how we can do that and to present us with reasonable choices grounded in reality, with cost benefits of alternatives laid out.

Let's start a real conversation about

Thank you very much.

And again, folks, you can email your comments as well, the council at seattle.gov, which will reach all nine council members.

Next, we've got Rachel Schaefer, followed by Christopher Hoffman.

Go ahead, Rachel.

Good morning, committee members.

My name is Rachel Schaefer.

I'm speaking on behalf of Cascade Bicycle Club, also regarding the Seattle Transportation Plan.

This plan is an opportunity to build on the Bike Master Plan, and plan for bike investments for the next decade and beyond.

We support the concept of bringing these plans the four modal plans together to assess them holistically.

Replacing the bike master plan alone would be a huge lift let alone working on all four plans together at the same time.

Back in the creation of the current bike master plan that involved thousands of hours of volunteer effort and it also has really important goals and metrics for our bike network.

We want to make sure that this new plan builds on those goals rather than starting over.

We also know that the values of safety, equity, and climate are important to both SDOT and the people who use our transportation system.

So it's important that those are put front and center when planning for improving the bike network.

We already have a lot of data on where it's most unsafe for people walking and biking in the city, as well as where the inequalities in the bike network are.

So let's make sure that those data inputs are prioritized throughout this entire process.

And as others on the call commenting have already mentioned, this plan is also an important tool for addressing transportation's role in mitigating climate change.

So we're glad to see that the members of the Council are being engaging now, given that the City Council will eventually adopt this plan, and their engagement will be really important throughout this entire process.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we have Christopher Hoffman, followed by Sarah Rudelhofen.

Go ahead, Christopher.

Hi, my name is Christopher Hoffman, and I'm a resident of District 4. I urge you to prioritize Vision Zero in the SDOT master plan.

Many, if not most, of the conflicts between the modal plans come because SDOT wants to preserve flexible, which in reality means parking internally.

In essence, they want to prioritize driving over the health and safety of cyclists.

The current plan says it will prioritize a safe bike network in what it calls critical connections.

So it's hard for me to imagine what's a more critical connection for cyclists in District 4 than the area around the University Bridge going from the bridge to downtown.

Yet SDOT's current plan for this region does not call for fully protected bike lanes for several blocks south of the bridge in this critical connection.

This is what we're doing when the conflict is between cars and bikes.

Imagine the freedom SDOT has to gut the bike master plan when it's between bikes and transit.

I urge you to prioritize Vision Zero in the transportation plan.

Anything else is putting people's commute time over the health and safety of Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we've got Sarah followed by Julia Buck.

Go ahead, Sarah.

Hi I'm Sarah Utilhoppen co-chair of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board and also commenting on the Seattle Transportation Plan.

The board has received presentations about the modal integration policy and the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We have asked many questions during these presentations to try to understand the technical work of what makes up the plan but the answers we've received have not addressed our concerns.

The modal integration policy foiled incredibly complex right-of-way constraints down to a simple list of how to prioritize modes via just four steps.

This policy indicates that the bicycle network is only prioritized at critical connections.

The Seattle Transportation Plan is supposed to remove conflict between modal plans but it appears that it's removing conflict by deprioritizing safe biking infrastructure and eliminating the Bike Master Plan.

Furthermore in July we were shown a draft of the modal integration policy and told that this policy will be key in informing the Seattle Transportation Plan.

If this is the case then the public must be given the opportunity to provide input into the specifics of the modal integration policy as well.

We ask that City Council request detailed plans about the technical work of what makes up the modal integration policy and the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And we also ask that City Council request specific details about the stated public outreach process.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Julia followed by signed up as Apu and or Kashina Groves.

Go ahead, Julia.

Good morning, council members and Council Member Peterson.

My name is Julia Buck.

I'm a resident of District 6. In 2012, I was in a severe car accident that left me with PTSD and anxiety so that I'm no longer able to drive.

I rely on bicycle and bus to get around, and our current approach to transportation in this city is ableist and classist.

And looking at the plan where bicycles are treated as a nice to have auxiliary.

You know, the price difference between a bicycle and a motor vehicle is enormous.

The price in upkeep between a bicycle and a motor vehicle is enormous.

We need to make getting around our city more accessible, and that means prioritizing buses and bicycles.

And the alternative is prioritizing rich people who can afford cars and, if they're stuck like me, afford cars and a driver.

Thank you very much for your consideration of my thoughts on this and I look forward to a more integrated plan for bicycles to get everywhere in Seattle safely protected from cars and for buses to have right of way.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next we have Apu and or Kashina Groves followed by Catherine Fleming.

Go ahead Apu or Kashina.

Hi this is Kashina Groves.

I'm a resident of District 2 and a member of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board.

So today we're going to hear from the Department of Transportation about the plan for community engagement in creating the Seattle Transportation Plan.

I'm happy to see that that we're planning a thorough equitable engagement process.

But I'm alarmed that in this moment of a worsening climate crisis and pedestrian fatality crisis the plan's architects are still assuming that the highest priority on all of Seattle's arterial streets is private vehicles.

We're going to hear that there simply isn't enough room on our streets to accommodate all the transit, bike facilities, sidewalks, and freight projects in our modal plans, which we've worked very hard to create.

But there is only not enough room if we can see that private cars and trucks, which don't have their own modal plan, by the way, are going to remain our primary way of getting around for the rest of the 21st century.

This artificial constraint leaves transit, freight, pedestrians, and bicycles fighting over the scraps.

I hope this committee will challenge the drafters of the Seattle Transportation Plan to question whether the private vehicle as the dominant form of transportation on every street is in line with our climate, complete street, and Vision Zero goals.

It should be a transportation plan to take Seattle into a greener future not to not to celebrate our car-centric past.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Catherine Fleming followed by Bob Anderton.

Go ahead Catherine.

Hi my name is.

Hi.

I'm a resident in Magnolia as well as an attorney and mother of a 13-year-old girl who attends a school in Queen Anne.

My name is Catherine Fleming, and I'm the founding attorney of Fleming Law in Fremont, in Seattle.

And I appreciate you letting me speak today, because the Seattle Transportation Plan appears to have already concluded its scoping and contracting phase.

And this is alarming, because my work involves focusing on and representing injured bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers due to unsafe roads, period, full stop.

And so what is required is a more connected, safely designed city that connects and has a full bicycle route from one point to another, rather than requiring everyone to get into their cars and not fulfill its promise to reduce emissions.

I have daily to work with and represent clients who are now so injured that they can no longer use their legs.

And we need to look more carefully at, and I urge Seattle, especially ESCOT, to reprioritize.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Bob Anderson, followed by Rachel Brown.

Go ahead, Bob.

Bob Anderton, go ahead and press star six.

It's your turn.

We can come back to Bob Anderton if Bob's not ready.

Bob, press star six on your phone.

Oh, finally.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Good morning.

I'm Bob Anderton.

I have a hard time pressing star six, but I'm the founding attorney at Washington Bike Law.

I'm a daily bike commuter from West Seattle to Pioneer Square, a Cascade member, and I serve on the board of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Just on my commute from West Seattle, I've seen a fellow rider being covered with a sheet after being run over and killed.

And each day, I personally avoid multiple dangerous drivers on infrastructure designed for vehicle speed rather than for human safety.

Having seen multiple bicycle transportation plans come and go I appreciate the idea of a unified transportation plan if this plan actually results in action.

But I also ask that the council take whatever steps it can to ensure that this latest plan finally connects our city for safe travel by bike.

Seattle has some beautiful bike facilities but if they end after a block they don't really help transportation.

It's great to see the many improvements on the North End, but Rainier Avenue and other parts of South Seattle still need much work.

Equitable access to safe bicycle transportation is important.

My work at Washington Bike Law helps make up for the harm caused by traffic violence, but I don't want more clients.

I want safer streets.

Too often, preserving on-street private car parking prevents the building of physically protected and connected bike lanes that would preserve human lives.

While safety shouldn't have to compete with sales, safer streets can be good for business.

Multiple studies of bike lanes created from street parking have documented more customers spending more money.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Rachel Brown, followed by Jack Lynch.

Go ahead, Rachel.

Good morning.

My name is Rachel Brown.

I'm the president of Seattle Subway, and I lead our policy team.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak Mr. Chair and members of the Transportation Committee.

I'm urging you to not neglect the need to create a citywide rail plan as part of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Given the climate emergency and essential need to prioritize climate equity the city must start the citywide rail plan to bring renewably powered link light rail to every neighborhood in the city.

The citywide rail plan is necessary in order to identify the additional rail corridors to parts of the city with high populations of low-income residents and people of color who are transit riders.

Many corridors, including the Aurora Corridor, Georgetown South Park Corridor, and King County Metro Route 8 Corridor are vitally important to serve populations that are otherwise left out of future rail expansion plans.

These corridors are not yet identified as future subway expansion corridors by the city or Sound Transit, and only the city can catalyze the conversation and must do so immediately so people with the most need are served by future subway expansions and so that ST3 is designed with these corridors in mind for ST4.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Jack Lynch followed by Clara Kemper.

Go ahead, Jack.

Good morning.

My name is Jack Lynch, and I live in District 3, a few blocks from the northern end of the Broadway bike lane.

And what I worry about with this plan is seeing Broadway, where the city is spending a million dollars to install a new traffic signal at Broadway and John, and making absolutely zero provision to safe passage of bike lanes at that intersection.

despite its inclusion in the bike master plan, is how much worse are things going to get under SDOT's new de-prioritization strategy, the Seattle Transportation Plan?

I do not own a car, but what I'm left wondering looking at this plan is, is it time to get one?

As SDOT continues to prioritize cars over all else, it's backsliding on its climate goals, its safety goals, and is in desperate need of oversight from this committee.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we've got Clara Cantor, followed by Don Brubeck.

Go ahead, Clara.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hello?

Hi my name is Clara Kanter and I'm a community organizer for Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

And I live along Rainier Avenue in District 2 and I get around by biking and by transit.

And I'm calling this morning to comment on the Seattle Transportation Plan and to echo the thoughts of a lot of the commenters before me to ask City Council to ensure that this plan is prioritizing safety for people on bikes from the very beginning of the planning process.

We need to build out a connected network that feels safe and feels convenient and feels efficient, rather than these disconnected little bits of bike infrastructure here and there that stop and start and leave people on bikes abandoned in scary intersections.

This happens a lot near me in the Rainier Valley.

The only bike route going north-south through my neighborhood is a winding and zigzagging route that goes up and down steep hiddles.

It nearly doubles the time that it takes me to get ready to go, and it doesn't feel particularly safe because Just as it's hard for people on bikes to follow it, it's also hard for people driving to avoid it.

And the result of the high-speed arterials built for cars in my neighborhood is that year after year, over half of the people killed and seriously injured in Seattle are killed on the streets in my district in Southeast Seattle.

And they're disproportionately people of color and low-income folks and unhoused people.

And it's a very real threat for me every single day as I'm walking and biking and getting around my neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we got Don Brubeck, followed by Kay Wolfe.

Go ahead, Don.

Hi, I'm Don Brubeck.

I'm a member of West Seattle Bike Connections and have served two terms on the Bike Advisory Board and have been a member of the Freight Master Plan Advisory Committee.

I live in West Seattle.

I use a bike for a lot of my transportation It's not possible to go from West Seattle or South Park or Georgetown without riding on a major truck street or a last mile freight delivery street.

And our city is a seaport.

We depend on freight for our economy.

The whole region does.

So we need to coexist.

We need a master plan.

We need transportation plans that make sure that we can positively accommodate safely, freight and buses and trucks on the same streets.

I'm concerned that the new transportation plan motivation is in part a way to do an end run around the complete streets ordinance and the bicycle master plan.

I know that the freight master plan was developed in close integration with the bicycle master plan, and I'm concerned that planning not lose the good work of both plans.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Kaye Wolfe followed by Joe Riley.

Go ahead, Kaye.

Hi, I'm Kaye Wolfe.

I'm a bicycle mechanic and I live and choose how I commute to work based on what is the most environmentally friendly thing to do.

And so I primarily bus or bike.

I want to have a whole connected cycling network because as a mechanic, I often see bikes that are rankled due to accidents.

And also as a commuter myself, I have come into four collisions and over a dozen near misses in just the last six months of commuting.

I have had multiple times with serious accidents.

We in Seattle say we value fairness and we really need to look up to that.

Thank you.

Thank you Kay.

Next we have Joe Riley followed by Erica Bush.

Go ahead Joe.

Hey everybody.

Thank you for letting me speak.

My name is Joe Riley and I'm a lifelong Seattle resident.

I'm fortunate to have saved over $8,000 a year by selling my car for an all-transit lifestyle, supported by a rideshare.

And I want to echo previous public comment to voice preliminary support for SDOT to expedite light rail in the Transit Master Plan today.

When Council approved the TMP with six co-sponsors, light rail work was the only required proviso of the TMP approval.

Of course, all modes are important, but light rail is uniquely important to complete before the end of 2022 for billions of city cost-saving dollars.

The city must study light rail and the TMP for the city to require Sun Transit to build the ST3 tunnel future-proofed for ST4 expansion in advance.

Otherwise, the city risks having the ST3 West Seattle to Ballard Tunnel be closed for years with billions of added expense.

These closures are definitely avoidable if the TMP's light rail work helps the city mandate it, which it can.

Light rail vehicles last 60 years without replacement, where buses require replacement after 12 years.

Long-term, light rail also costs less to operate per boarding than buses, and its freedom from snow day, many routes, traffic, and bridge closures give low-income people like me the reliability to not be late for work.

So please voice preliminary support for SDOT to expedite T&T light rail studies.

Thank you.

Next we've got Erica Bush followed by Ankur Do.

Go ahead Erica.

Hi my name is Erica Bush and I'm a representative from Duwamish Valley Safe Street which is a bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group in the Duwamish Valley.

I live and work in the Duwamish Valley as well as In the University District, I bike from Lower Delridge to UW every day.

And it's an incredibly unsafe and unequitable system that I and my fellow Duwamish Valley residents face.

In order to provide equitable access to biking, walking, and transit, it's absolutely critical that we prioritize on motorized travel.

We need to make investments that prioritize the communities that have been neglected for decades that are facing unprecedented impacts of unsafe streets due to the closure of the West Seattle Bridge in addition to just more increased usage of singular occupancy vehicles.

as well as climate pollution that has impacted our area for decades as well.

So I'm here to ask you to please think about equitability and the access to affordable means of transportation, particularly in the Duwamish Valley and other areas that have...

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our last speaker is Ankur Doop.

Go ahead, Ankur.

Good morning.

My name is Ankur, and I live in District 7, and I'd like to give public comment about the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Seattle has a goal to reduce our transportation emissions 82% from 2008 levels.

We only have eight more years to do this, and currently we're at a measly 1%.

Cycling is one of the most environmentally efficient modes of transport in addition to the myriad social, health, and economic benefits.

I urge the council to ensure that cyclists are prioritized in the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We need bike lanes that are protected, connected, and usable for all ages and abilities.

We must prioritize bike infrastructure over car infrastructure.

We must make it easier to bike than to drive.

You don't see roads for cars ending at arbitrary intersections.

Why should bike lanes?

We cannot build our way out of climate disaster or congestion with more car infrastructure.

Bike infrastructure is an investment in climate resiliency and strong communities.

I ask the council to ensure bicycles are treated as the critical transportation method that they are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes our list of speakers from the general public.

So now we will move on to the first legislative item on our agenda.

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

Agenda item one, council bill 120271. an ordinance relating to the John Lewis Memorial Bridge constructed under the Seattle Department of Transportation's Northgate Bridge and Cycle Track Project for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

Committee colleagues, we had a presentation from SDOT at our March 2nd committee meeting about these agreements being made between SDOT and The Washington State Department of Transportation, North Seattle College, Sound Transit, related all to the new John Lewis Bridge in District 5. And as with anything related to the John Lewis Bridge, I'd like to recognize the leadership of Council President Debra Juarez and many others for getting that bridge.

for pedestrians and bikes built to enhance and connect the Northgate transit hub.

So we're not going to redo the presentation today.

We should be ready to vote today on these, but I did want to ask if our city council central staff transportation analysts had any comments at this point.

Go ahead.

No, Council Member, I think you covered it.

This legislation accepts three different, well, two easements and a trail lease from WSDOT that would allow for the long-term operation of the bridge.

Thank you.

So council members, I'll be moving to vote on this.

Are there any questions though?

And again, we heard this in full on March 2nd and just wanted some extra time to consider the council bill over two committee meetings.

Okay, I'm not seeing any questions, which makes sense because we've got a really thorough presentation previously.

So council members, I now move that the committee recommends passage of Council Bill 120271, item one on our agenda.

Is there a second?

Thank you.

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

Any final comments?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on a committee recommendation that the bill be approved for forwarding to the full council?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the bill pass will be sent to the March 22nd City Council meeting.

All right, will the clerk please read the title of the next agenda item into the record?

Agenda item two, Council Bill 120282. And ordinance vacating a portion of the alley in block six a Denny's second edition in the block bounded by University Street first Avenue Seneca Street and second Avenue in downtown and accepting a property use and development agreement on the petition of HS to you owner LLC for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

Colleagues, as with the next item on our agenda, this project is at the second and final stage for approval.

This item is an alley vacation conceptually approved back in 2016, I believe.

With this council bill 120282, we are essentially recognizing that SDOT central staff have confirmed the applicant has met and or will meet the public benefit and other conditions previously adopted by the city.

We will vote on this alley vacation at our next committee meeting scheduled for April 5, but today we'll have a fuller presentation.

So as usual, I'll turn it over to our city council central staff analyst, Lish Whitson, welcome.

Hi, good morning.

So this is a partial alley vacation for the block in downtown Seattle that's bounded by 1st and 2nd Avenues and Seneca and University Streets, just to the south of the Seattle Art Museum.

As council, as the chair mentioned, conditional approval was granted in 2016. And at this phase of council's review and approval of the vacation, you should consider whether or not the conditions that were placed in 2016 have been met.

If they have been met, then the committee should approve a final vacation of the alley.

And that would allow for the transfer property ownership of the alley right-of-way to the building's owner.

And if you don't have any questions on sort of that framework for decision-making, I'll hand it over to the rest of the presenters who will talk about the project itself.

Thank you.

As usual, here next from Seattle Department of Transportation who helps to shepherd us through these various vacations, streets, alleys, et cetera.

So Beverly Barnett, familiar face here at committee.

Nice to see you again.

Welcome.

Good morning.

Well, we're very happy to be here with this project and what we're going to do for you this morning.

Thank you, Lish, for providing the background.

I just have a couple remarks and then Michael Jenkin, who is the executive director of the Design Commission, is going to make a couple remarks about the commission review and in particular the inclusion of art and cultural space in this project, which is the first time that we have done that.

And then Murphy McCullough is going to go through a PowerPoint.

And they're doing the PowerPoint as the developer to show how the council conditions were implemented.

And it's a bit of a complicated site with many different levels.

So the PowerPoint, I think, shows really well how the conditions were implemented.

So, and as the chair and Lish has reminded the committee, this is the final ordinance, which is the last and second and final step of the approval process.

The council has established a two part approval process in order for the city to stay engaged through the development and make sure that the conditions that were important to the council and that were conditions of the vacation are implemented.

So once the conditional approval is granted by the council, the developer can go out and secure master use permits, development permits, utility permits, and they literally build over the alley.

Many of the conditions that the council is concerned about are kind of the last pieces.

So we generally see the final vacation ordinance around the time of the project opening.

And sometimes afterwards, these documents can be kind of complex.

But we do really appreciate the committee time to go through the PowerPoint, because it does show how the conditions were implemented.

And I think it provides for staff that have a role in monitoring and implementing additional guidance from the committee on the kinds of public benefit features that they think are really effective and meaningful for the community and the kinds of things that we can look to replicate in the future.

So I think this project hewed very closely to the conditions imposed by the council.

We do generally see a few modifications based on code or utility issues.

And when we get into the PowerPoint, we'll look at there were, and maybe Michael will want to speak to this, the art spaces were consolidated at the request of the Office of Arts and Culture to provide more usable and meaningful space.

So I think with that, unless there's questions for me about SDOT implementation, that we'll look to Michael Jenkins, and then the PowerPoint will probably spark more questions, but we wanted to set it up before you see all the good stuff.

So Michael, you want to jump in?

Sure.

Thanks, Beverly, for that introduction.

And good morning, council members.

It's nice to see you all, at least virtually.

Yeah, I think Beverly really hit on what I wanted to just briefly comment on, which is of a multifaceted public benefit package like you'll see in a few minutes.

The innovative approach really here that we think is noteworthy is the 1,200 square foot performance space.

When the project was originally envisioned, it was to be two separate spaces, and again, as Beverly highlighted really to increase the utility of the space they were included, reconfigured into one space.

The space can be directly accessed both physically and visually from surrounding streets, which is important.

The TUNE-U team worked very closely with the city, with the commission, and their consultants, including Sean Pike, to develop a programming and operating plan with equity and equitable outcomes as an organizing principle, which we appreciate.

We think that this project provides a very useful template for other innovative approaches, including those being envisioned by the Cultural Space Public Development Authority.

If you recall, Matthew Richter, who led the effort at Office of Arts and Culture, now leads this effort at the PDA, and he was one of the champions for this project prior to the establishment of the Cultural Space PDA.

And we've also worked with him recently on the Grand Street Commons project, which also included similar space, which you reviewed and approved a couple of months ago.

With that, I think if there's no questions for me, I will throw it over to Murphy and his team.

Great.

Thank you, Michael.

So Murphy, Bill Laborde is going to run the PowerPoint so you can provide Bill the, you know, Next slide, please, kind of thing.

Murphy, and I'm not sure all the committee members have worked with you.

So maybe if you do an introduction and then we'll jump into the PowerPoint with with Bill's assistance.

Sure.

So I am Murphy McCullough.

I run Skanska's real estate operations here in Seattle, obviously with a fantastic team.

And actually, I have Stuart Germain, who is also on the team.

and has been much more into the details.

So in case there is some really detailed questions, he can help with that.

I have been, I'm from Seattle.

I actually live in West Seattle.

So it was interesting to hear some of those comments previously, but I have been working, you know, in the urban core with multiple buildings for, you know, my 30 year career.

I was also chair of the downtown design review board So all of those things really, and Stuart's actually on the board right now.

So we are really trying to make the city better as well as do cool buildings.

So we'd love to walk through this.

First, we are also the contractor as well.

So we are a little bit unique.

Not only are we the developer, we have a whole contracting arm that we can work closely with to really do things that are different.

And we'll walk through some of that here.

So if we go to the next slide.

So this is just location-wise.

I apologize, there is a typo here.

At the bottom of the page, that is Seneca Street.

So the project is between 1st and 2nd in University and Seneca.

So it's the partial block south of the Seattle Art Museum.

And when you look at this slide here, at the top of the page, the kind of green, that is the alley that is still there.

So we did not vacate that portion.

We only vacated the southern two thirds.

If you want to keep going on the next slide.

This is a summary of our public benefits.

And we're going to go through each of these separately, so I won't spend a whole lot of time here, but you can see their color coded here.

So when you look at the open space, you can see the green open space you can see, and the orange is the setbacks from the city.

Yes, streets back to where the building start and then the darker greens the right away improvements.

As Beverly and Michael talked about the arts and cultural spaces in red.

And we do have a hill climb assist from 1st to 2nd Avenue.

It's quite a steep grade.

And then in purple, the bicycle infrastructure.

Also, what's shown on here is there's five separate ways to get into the open space.

There's one off of University, which you can see where the alley is.

There's two on 2nd Avenue, and there's two on 1st Avenue.

lots of ways to get in and through the site.

So if you go to the next slide, the next slide, this is the summary of the public benefits.

I wasn't gonna go through all of these in detail, but of course, council, any questions you have, we can go through whatever you want, but really the open space section at the top and the setbacks below it, those kind of work together, they're both, open space, the setbacks are more adjacent to city streets.

And you can see pluses and minuses there.

When you actually add those up, the pluses and minuses, we've actually provided 222 more square feet of like open space than originally in the package.

that was approved way back when.

We've also provided 52 extra seats in the open space.

We do have one less tree, but what we actually did there, and we do have a picture of this too, we did get rid of two very small pine trees and provided a very large Japanese maple tree.

So we think that's a net positive.

And then going down on the right-of-way improvements, Beverly hit on this.

We have about 350 less square feet of planting and mainly that was because of civil civil vaults.

You know, there's all kinds of utilities that need to go on the side sidewalk, and if you put those in your sidewalk, you can't actually put plantings on top of them.

We also have extra bike like racks and we did provide 16 extra seats.

We originally had 12. Now we have 28 on the right away.

And then the arts and cultural space, like Beverly said, we had two spaces.

Now we have one, which we do think works better by all the consultants we were talking to, and of course the city.

And that, even though they are now combined, there's 58 more square feet.

And then the hill climb assist is exactly like we talked about initially and same with the bicycle infrastructure.

If you wanna go to the next slide.

So this is the open space.

And for anyone who really hasn't been down there, I know it's been COVID, so folks haven't been downtown as much, but the city's come alive.

If you have a chance to go down and see it, it really is a different building.

We've essentially lifted the building 85 feet above First Avenue and created this like open space, arts and cultural and retail village.

So by getting the building out of the way, we can provide all of this open space.

So we're really, really excited about it.

You can see in this picture, of course, the open space.

We do have the bike dock, the seating.

We have a drinking fountain.

We have event infrastructure.

You can see some events in the pictures here, but we have power and lighting and places for folks to set up for an event.

And of course, you know, all kinds of landscaping and trees.

Go to the next slide.

This is the level three lookout.

This is also the open space.

You can see that specimen tree we were talking about the Japanese maple there in the center on the left picture.

This is also if you walk past the big Y column there, you have a big public viewing of the bay.

So it's a really great space.

There's great space for kids to play over there too.

Lots of seating and then on the right you can see the upper space to the left of the right or sorry to the right of the right picture is where the arts and cultural spaces.

You want to go to the next slide?

Here is the setback.

So again, the setbacks are like open space for directly adjacent to the city streets.

So you can see there's you know, some pictures of them on First Avenue.

The first picture on the left is right next to the staircase that goes up into the open space.

We'll get to it, but there actually is an elevator here on First Avenue that gets you up to the open space where you can go over to the elevator to get up to Second Ave for the hill climb assist.

And then in the middle, you can see right there at Second University, another big set back in open space, which directly ties into the open space under the building.

And then on 2nd Avenue there at the southeast corner, close to Seneca.

And what's nice about the open space is much of it is covered.

So many times in Seattle, we know it's just not that cold, but it's raining.

And to have a big space that you could have events and go and hang out and eat your lunch, and mingle with others is what we're really trying to create.

So next slide.

Right-of-way improvements, you can see on the left, that's First Avenue.

If you look closely, you can see, you know, the bike parking infrastructure, the benches and the plantings.

Also, it's a little hard to see in this picture, but the setbacks create a really wide side sidewalks on 1st and 2nd as well.

So you get this really nice feeling as you're walking down these streets.

And then same with 2nd Avenue there.

It's very similar with the bike parking benches and planning.

Next slide.

So the arts and cultural studio, this is really something that has not been done before, as Beverly and Michael mentioned.

It's almost 1200 square feet of performance space.

It's for emerging artists, more based upon movement and music as well.

So we, you know, some of the features of the space itself, you know, we have put in all the infrastructure.

So there's AV systems in there.

There's a sprung floor.

Um, there's restrooms and changing changing rooms.

We have blinds for privacy to, um, it's directly.

You can see it from the street and you can access it directly from the public streets as well.

Um, Sean Pike is managing this for us.

Um, and we are focused on you know, trying to find disadvantaged artists and the folks that are really priced out of the city.

You know, it's really hard to find a space in the city, especially given our proximity to the Seattle Art Museum and the Symphony Hall.

We thought this would be a really great space to program into the building.

So far, even with COVID, believe it or not, this building opened really right when COVID hit.

So it was somewhat of a challenge to get this space program, but we've already had 50 plus groups going through this space, and we're really, really excited about how it's being operated, how it's being used, and we're excited for the future for it as well.

Next slide.

This is the Hill Climb Assist.

So this, I apologize, we don't have the picture from First Avenue, There is an elevator on 1st Avenue that I mentioned earlier that you could walk into the elevator, go up.

Since this is a steep slope, you can go up into the open space, and then you can go over to another elevator that gets you to 2nd Avenue.

So you do have the full hill climb assist.

Bicycle infrastructure, many of us at Skanska bike to work.

I bike from West Seattle often.

And so it's not only important for us, it's important for the city too and for climate change.

And we are right next to the second avenue.

bicycle infrastructure too.

So it's a really great spot for folks to be able to park their bike here.

Those two metal stanchions you can see there, each of them have a quad like outlet there.

So you can charge up to eight bikes at the same time.

Energy is free, so there's no charge.

And then off to the right there, you can see we got a fix it repair stand.

So you can work on your bike.

And that's our presentation.

But we'd be happy to take any questions.

And if anybody wants a tour from the council or folks listening in, we'd love to show you the project.

It's been hard to show folks with COVID.

So we're excited with things lifting.

And hopefully, we can show more folks the building, specifically the ground floor.

Thank you.

And so colleagues, just a reminder today, it's just the briefing and discussion.

If you do have any questions, please, before you vote on this, on our next committee meeting on April 5, get your questions to central staff, to Lish Whitson.

But if there are any questions now, feel free to ask them.

Otherwise, we'll look forward to getting questions between now and April 5. And then we'll vote on it out of committee on April 5. Okay, well, thank you everybody for the presentation today.

We appreciate everybody being here from SDOT and the Developer and Design Commission, so the staff, thank you.

And we will go ahead and see you.

We might, we might, you know, not everybody needs to show up again on April 5. We'll, we'll coordinate.

It'll probably be, it might even be just Bushwitz and we'll see what questions we get, if any, on this.

But then before, before we go, actually, Beverly, can you just confirm, I mean, your belief that they've met all the conditions or will continue to meet all the conditions approved already?

Yes, they have been very careful about working with the city throughout the process and have met all of the conditions.

As we talked about, there are sometimes things that a tree can't go where we thought it could because of a utility vault or something.

So there's minor tweaks, but the spirit and the larger goals and the accountability numbers have all been met.

Thank you, Beverly.

And Lish, from the legislative department perspective, you concur with that, I assume?

Yeah.

And I just want to mention that this project has an exceptional package of public benefits, given its location and the scale of the building that was facilitated by the street vacation.

This is more than you will typically see from the street vacation.

Great.

Thank you for that perspective.

All right, everybody, thanks so much.

We will vote on this April 5, and we'll go ahead and move on to the next item on our agenda, item 3. Will the clerk please read the title of the next agenda item into the record?

Agenda item 3, Council Bill 120281, an ordinance granting BSOP1 LLC permission to construct, maintain, and operate a private parking area on East Howe Street.

east of Fairview Avenue East for a 15-year term, renewable for one successive 15-year term for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

And this project is also at the second and final stage.

In this case, it's for approving a 15-year term permit to enable a public plaza, improved walkway, and related parking improvements in the Eastlake neighborhood in District 4, my district.

The proposal enhances the use of the space for the public and even helps protect a large conifer tree.

This committee and the City Council previously adopted Resolution 31988, granting conceptual approval for this plaza project.

With Council Bill 120281, we are essentially recognizing that SDOT and central staff have confirmed that the applicant has met and or will meet the public benefits and other conditions we adopted a year ago.

Today is the fuller presentation, and we'll vote on this term permit at our next committee meeting scheduled for April 5. I do want to recognize the collaboration among SDOT, the Eastlake community, and the private property owners for moving this project forward and planning to make these improvements that everybody can enjoy.

Well, let's go ahead and say hello again to central staff analyst, Lish Whitson.

Any opening remarks?

I think you covered everything I was going to say on this one.

Thank you.

OK, great.

And then again, let's welcome Estat back to lead us through this.

And we also have a community leader and the property owner here.

But I think is it Amy Gray, I think, is going to lead us on.

Good morning, Amy.

Thank you, council member.

I think billboard is going to run the presentation for me.

So that should be coming up.

shortly, but like everyone said, this is the two-step process where you're at the second step of the approval process for this term permit.

Next slide, please.

So BSOP1 LLC is the private property owner, and they are the applicant, and so they will be the permit holder for this term permit.

The East Howe Steps Steering Committee, which we just call the Steering Committee, is the community group And these two parties entered into a memorandum of understanding that the Department of Neighborhoods helped facilitate and engage both parties in.

BSOP1 will contribute $500,000 for the construction of the new plaza.

That's ready to go as soon as council votes on the ordinance.

And BSOP1 will also be responsible for the long-term maintenance of the new public plaza.

That's one of the conditions of the permit.

The East House Steps Plaza Steering Committee received a $100,000 grant from the Department of Neighborhoods for permitting and design of the plaza.

And the Steering Committee supports the project.

Next slide, please.

Council about a year ago, March 12, 2001, adopted the resolution that's provided conceptual approval to the parties to go forward with the design and construction elements of the park and the plaza and also the private parking.

They worked with the civil engineers within street use to get that approval that is ready.

They have that 100% technical approval at this point, and that would, once council passes, votes on the ordinance, and if it is approved, that permit will be released and they can move forward.

The ordinance is the permit for the project.

It specifies the terms and conditions, including insurance requirements, indemnification of the city to protect the city's risk against Anything that happens there, the fee for 2022 will be $25,000 and $25,488.

We require a bond so that in case something happens and the owner walks away from the permit and the city needs to do something to restore the right of way, it's about $15,000.

It's not that huge of a bond because the private parking area doesn't require huge construction obligations.

The ordinance implements the development of the public plaza that the community has wanted and desired, and Dietrich can talk about that later in the presentation, but it really is the next and final step.

Next slide, please.

I've covered most of this.

This is just details who the parties are as a permit holder and as a community group.

Next slide, please.

Here's a map showing the location of the plaza and its connection to the House Street Hill Climb to the east, the project site.

It connects with the loop trail around Lake Union and just sort of shows the location around the East Lake neighborhood at 19 10 Fairview Avenue East.

Next slide, please.

This is a illustrated map showing the hill climb and the relation to the immediate streets.

The image to the right shows the plaza and then the steps that currently exist and have been built there up to another existing plaza further to the east that is also a term permit.

So it really does show the connection and the grade change and the connection towards the lake to the west.

Next slide, please.

So as I mentioned, the Steering Committee received $100,000 matching grant from the Department of Neighborhoods.

BSOP is contributing $500,000 to the construction.

BSOP will accommodate up to 12 community events per year in the private weekday parking area.

So that will be open for community programming that the Steering Committee will help advertise and get the word out about.

And the Steering Committee supports the private weekday parking term permit.

and the construction of the plaza.

Next slide, please.

Excuse me.

Go ahead.

Council Member Strauss has a comment or question.

Go ahead, Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Great to see you, Amy.

Great to see you, Ian, Beverly.

This question, we discussed briefly when you briefed me on this, and it's just how do we, what mechanisms are going to be in place for 20 years from now when everyone has changed their position, the community outreach board might be different, it might change.

How are we able to set for everyone who comes after us the knowledge that there needs to be community events as part of this public benefit?

Yeah, so that's, it's specified in the ordinance, and so that would be sort of the enforcement.

So if it wasn't happening, we could go back to the permit holder and say, you know, you're not doing this, and it's a term of the condition of the ordinance.

I was gonna turn it over to Deetra, and so that she can talk about how they anticipate managing the site and the events long-term.

So Deetra, do you wanna?

First of all, we have a very robust communication system in Eastlake.

We have a couple of different, the Eastlake Community Council has a website.

We have a Facebook page.

There's Eastlake Social that has a Facebook page.

And we have one of the last community organizations that actually has a published newsletter.

So getting word out is pretty easy, and people are used to going to these websites for information.

So when there is an event, you know, certainly we will get the word out that way.

We also, people like flyers distributed, so we use those, you know, within reason, but it's people in Eastlake always know what's going on.

So if there's an event planned or how you can get an event planned should be easy for everybody to understand.

I hope that answered your question.

That's really helpful, Deitra.

And I think what I'm trying to get at here is what happens for the next generation so that once all of us who are on this call are no longer in our positions and I'll use the pandemic as an example, where everything closes down for a couple of years, and then once it reemerges, how does the next generation know that there needs to be public events supported for this public benefit?

I agree.

And I think having it part of the ordinance is certainly important.

So if anyone were to question or wonder, you can go and see that it's part of the ordinance.

Actually, Eastlake has had a pretty sustainable communications network and and board.

The Eastlake Community Council has a board that is very involved in everything and we One of our priorities is to make sure that we pass down information so that everybody, we have a resource center on our website so that people can go to this website and find things like this.

And this could be posted on that.

Thank you, Deitra.

And Lish, I don't know if you had your hand up, but this is one of the reasons it's a 15-year permit as well.

Correct.

So, you know, this will come back for renewal in 15 years, and that's an opportunity for the city to check and make sure that all of the conditions continue to be met.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So at the 15 year mark, they are required to submit an application for me to the future me to review it and make sure that the conditions are met.

We do have inspectors within our group that will go out and I think every other year or every three years, inspect the plaza to make sure that it looks and reads and it acts as public space and that sort of thing.

So we do have some sort of ongoing check-ins throughout the 15-year terms but at the 15-year mark they would be required and that's when we would verify that they are still, you know, we've been proactively verifying at that point that all the conditions are met.

Chair, just to say all of those answers were spot on.

I'm very impressed with the public benefits and your outreach plan.

And Deitra, it sounds like your team is really well set to get the word out.

So just wanted to signal the question was answered, and I'm impressed with your answer.

Great work, everyone.

Thank you, council member.

In this slide, we really show that the design was modified to accommodate this really significant and beautiful tree.

So Estat likes trees, the city likes trees, community likes trees, and so this was able to be saved.

And there will be 16 signed private stalls that'll be available to the public on weekends and holidays.

There's four public stalls that will be signed as well.

The plaza will include landscaping and paver treatment, bike racks, and you can see some sort of a map showing the paving and planting surfaces, a concrete sphere, and typical planting markings on the image to the lower right.

Next slide, please.

So this is the existing conditions right now.

The red line shows where the plaza will be.

It's currently used, it's technically considered unopened right of way, even though there's concrete and it's used as parking right now.

It's just used as public parking.

It's considered unopened right of way because it's not used as a street for transportation purposes.

So that red area shows the area of the plaza.

To the far in the back is the stairs that lead up to the other plaza I mentioned that is under an existing term permit.

Next slide, please.

Here are some conceptual images showing what the park will look like facing east on the right and facing west on the left and trees and plantings and illustrations of that.

Next slide, please.

And here's yet another map showing the connections up to Capitol Hill on the east through the hill climb, through the loop trail, and other amenities around the surrounding area and Lake Union area.

Next slide, please.

So the applicant has met all the conditions of the resolution and they have received 100% technical approval from the civil engineers so that if council approves this ordinance, the permit can be issued and they can proceed with construction of the public plaza and the private parking area.

And like it was mentioned earlier, the original term of the permit will be for 15 years.

At the 15-year mark, they will be required to renew a permit for a successive 15-year term.

At that point, there will be a check-in of making sure that everything is still, they're still using it as anticipated by council when the ordinance, if the ordinance is passed, this ordinance is passed.

And that's it for my comments.

Thank you very much.

And we do have a memo also by central staff.

Thank you, Lish, for that memo about this project.

Council Member Morales.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

I feel certain that I supported the resolution last year.

And I can't believe it's been a year already.

It seems like just a few weeks ago.

I do have a question, though, about the parking And you might have covered this, and I missed it.

But as I understand it, we're giving up public right of way for private parking spaces.

And you had just mentioned in one of the photographs earlier the public parking that exists.

So can you just talk a little bit about what's changing, if anything, and whether there will continue to be public parking available as well?

So for this term permit, that area where it shows the paved within the red lines, that's sort of a that's that's people are public parking there.

It's not designated as public parking.

It's just open.

It's it's.

been paved over and parking is occurring there.

If this term permit is approved, that area within the red would be actually the plaza for the public to be able to use for pedestrians and people walking and biking.

Families to have a respite to use that area and then over just north of this red line off the side of this.

The lower image would be the 16 designated private parking for the applicant.

BSOP one and then there would be four public parking spots noted as public parking at all times.

So I don't.

Ian, do you want to talk a little bit more about the current use of sort of this area that's paved right here?

Yes.

Thank you, Amy and Council members for the record.

Ian Morrison with McCullough here on behalf of the applicant, BSOP1.

And as Amy mentioned, this is current public right of way where it is available public parking.

There is no signage that sort of demarcates that the right of way is improved.

So there is a private parking field for BSOP's property at 1910 Fairview.

And then there's this publicly available parking that Dietrich can mention, or can attest to, is it's sort of known in the community that this is public parking.

With this term permit, should the council choose to approve it, I think one point that is important to note, council member, is those 16 stalls that would be used by BSOP1 are only for weekday daytime hours.

And so as Amy just mentioned, there are 16 stalls under the term permit should it be approved for the weekday during the day.

And then nights and weekends, all of those stalls will be also open to the public.

And as part of the street improvement permit that has received SDOT approval, there is signage that has been approved by SDOT that will demarcate that so that it'll be clear that these are term permit stalls during weekday business hours and available to the public on nights, weekends, and holidays.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, we'll hear this.

We'll vote on this on April 5 at our next committee meeting.

In the meantime, get any additional questions to Lish Whitson and hopefully get those resolved.

And we can vote this out of committee on April 5. Any more comments or questions before we go to our last item?

Councilman Patterson, I think I'd like to add one more thing, and that is this has been the result of a very long process, and the neighborhood has been actively involved in this process.

And I think one thing, just for the Council to know, the Transportation Committee know, is that not only received a lot of public input, but this is an excellent example of a public-private partnership.

We've worked very well with Ian and his crew at 1910, and we think that it is actually a good template for moving forward with things.

As you look around the city at projects that have gone in, It's clear that maintenance is a very important part of it after the initial installation and the fact that our partners are going to maintain this area for everyone is really terrific and we appreciate their effort and agreeing to do that.

So I hope you'll move forward and approve this.

Thank you, Deidre.

I fully support this project.

Appreciate all the work that's been going on for years.

Really appreciate SDOT's involvement and the private property owner working so steadfastly with the community over the years for this public plaza.

All right, well, thanks, everybody, for being here today.

And forward, April 5, we'll hopefully vote it out of committee and send it on the full council April 12. Or excuse me, the committee after that.

Yeah, I think it is April 12. All right, well, we're ready for it.

Thanks, everybody.

Nice to see you again.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

All right, well, I think we're ready for our last item.

Will the clerk please read the title of the next agenda item into the record?

Agenda item four, Seattle transportation plan outreach and engagement strategy for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank our Seattle Department of Transportation for coming early to our committee to discuss their outreach and engagement strategy for their forthcoming Seattle transportation plan.

We heard a lot of public commenters this morning.

We're also getting emails as the word gets out that you're starting this outreach and engagement process and you're telling us today your strategy.

We also know that the Puget Sound Regional Council recently published a draft transportation plan for the region, and Sound Transit is seeking comments on light rail expansions at Seattle, so we're just clarifying that this is SDOT's planning for our Seattle transportation plan.

It's just getting started.

Today, we're simply hearing about their outreach and engagement strategy.

Currently, the city has several plans for various modes of transportation, and this new comprehensive effort will enable us to finally have a more holistic approach to transportation systems and infrastructure.

as well as to refresh the engagement with communities on what the people of Seattle are seeking with their transportation investments.

And this updated public input and comprehensive approach on priorities will become especially important before considering renewal of the nine-year, $930 million property tax levy known as Move Seattle, which expires at the end of 2024. So before I turn it over to Estad and know if our central staff transportation analyst Wanted to have an opportunity to say any introductory remarks No councilmember.

I think guest I'd has a pretty thorough presentation Great.

Well, welcome back Estad.

We've got Jonah Valencia Jonathan Lewis here Go ahead and take it away Hey, super.

Thank you for having us.

I'm Jonathan Lewis with the Seattle's Department of Transportation and co-lead for the Seattle Transportation Plan.

I'll be covering the first slides, but invite Joanna to introduce herself.

Thanks, Jonathan.

And I'm Joanna Valencia, co-leading the effort with Jonathan Lewis from Seattle Department of Transportation.

Thank you.

And there you go.

Thank you, Bill.

So, I have a few slides here to walk you through an introduction to the project.

We are really excited to be getting started on this new planning process.

And Bill, if you'll go to the next slide, please.

Our vision, mission, and core values at the department, and this plan is really about thinking more about these, the mission, mission, and core values, and how we achieve those as a department.

This is a key bridge between those things.

And so we're excited to get started on this process.

Take a look at the next slide.

Four goals for you today for this briefing.

Orient you to the STP, the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Share a timeline.

Get into the public engagement plan.

And then, of course, you all have a proviso on this funding and we will discuss and give you a brief on the next steps for fulfilling the proviso.

So it's great to hear the comments from the public this morning.

And a lot of them are, a lot of the members of the public are thinking very similar to how we're thinking about this project.

There are some key challenges in the city.

around climate action, creating more equitable transportation system, safety, stewardship of our resources.

And those are really guiding lights.

Those are anchored in our vision and values as a department and really front and center for us as we think about this planning process.

Of course, Council Member Peterson, you mentioned that our current transportation levy expires in 2024, and this plan will help inform the development of our next transportation funding package.

So really excited to have a robust community conversation about the future of our streets and how the modes can work together to help meet people's needs as we consider that next package.

And then we're also doubly excited to have the comprehensive plan update happening at the same time.

It's a really unique opportunity for the city As the folks in Office of Planning consider a whole range of issues, including our growth strategy and updates to the growth strategy, we're really excited to be working with them quite closely on our schedules and engagement practices and strategies to think about how our transportation system can help serve the next few decades of growth for the city.

We take a look at the next slide.

We're really anchored to that comprehensive plan.

This is a departmental plan like we have in many departments across the city that help flesh out the details of the direction that's laid forth in the comprehensive plan.

And then other key documents that were anchored to the complete streets ordinance was mentioned this morning, our climate action and our race and social climate action plan and race and social justice initiative.

So we're building on all of that excellent work in addition to what are called the four modal plans.

It's kind of jargony, but we have a plan devoted to pedestrians, bicycles, freight, and transit.

And those are the department's four key documents that we are anchored to today, in addition to citywide documents.

We'll be building on that work.

There was some concerns expressed this morning, but those are really the foundation.

There's such an incredibly rich and strong foundation for us in those documents, both from the network maps, the policy frameworks in those documents.

and the targets that are there.

They're very aspirational in many cases and represent years of work and community engagement to get us to this point.

So that is our foundation and we are hoping to build on that.

I think in addition, we've identified several gaps that fall between those plans.

Emerging and new mobility doesn't really have a home.

We've seen big changes in how urban goods are being delivered across the city.

Small packages have exploded and really changes in need for curbside.

In addition, people, streets, and public spaces, places like Occidental and Bell Street, the Third Avenue Transit Mall, and how we can continue to cultivate streets as public spaces around the city.

There's another key gap in that, what we call the modal plan system that we have today.

So we're hoping to think about how these plans work together, how people use the transportation system.

You know, most people don't just take one mode or the other.

We have multimodal residents.

We want to have a multimodal plan and think about how they can work together to help us achieve our goals and values.

On the next slide.

Well, there's a lot of change in how the system works and how people use the system, but we are keeping the basic bones of our plans the same.

So there'll be some resonance with folks.

If you're really familiar with the modal plan, you'll be able to see that carried forward into the new plan.

So we'll have a policy framework with performance measures.

Again, these are in the modal plans, and we'll be carrying much of that content forward and integrating it here into this new process.

Our priority investment networks, that's the bicycle map that was referenced earlier in the meeting.

We have similar maps for transit, freight, and pedestrians.

We'll be also thinking about other maps that we can help show how things come together, integrated maps, and priority map for people, streets, and public spaces is also under consideration.

We'll be identifying new program and project needs for the department.

A lot of this will look similar to what has been successful in the past, along with new opportunities.

And then updating our prioritization framework and funding strategy.

So those are separated by node in the plans today and we'll be looking at an integrated how to integrate those.

On the next slide is our schedule, high level here.

And this may be hard to read for folks at home.

This PowerPoint is linked at the council's website if you want to see those details or this at our project website.

But we're in the very early and front end of this process, getting ready for our first round of engagement that you'll hear from Joanna about.

and starting work on our policy framework and performance measures, which will run the next few months.

So we pull that together and get input on that.

And then you can see various phases in the project and leading up to a draft plan next year.

and then transmitting a mayor's recommended plan to council for your consideration next summer.

With that, I will pass it off to Joanna to cover the rest of the slides.

Thank you all.

Thanks, Jonathan.

We're excited this morning to share our goals for community engagement and appreciate a lot of the comments that were received this morning.

plan on reflecting a lot of those that we heard as we step through the proviso and making sure that our work plan and our community engagement plan hear a lot of the comments that we received today around the concerns for climate emergency and the need for addressing our continued modal needs.

So with that, I just wanted to share some of our goals for community engagement.

So it's a big project and noting that we will be engaging citywide and also at the neighborhood levels.

We really want to focus on hearing from more voices, ensuring that communities have a seat at the table.

We want to seek to reduce barriers to participation and center racial equity in our engagement process and help people feel empowered to really participate in this process.

This includes partnerships with community-based organization and our Department of Neighborhoods community liaisons programs to really elevate some of the voices and center race and equity in our outreach.

And also, we'll do so by using culturally relevant, accessible, and inclusive strategies that includes considerations for the public health during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

We will use effective communication that is meaningful, relevant, easy, and uses visuals, plain talk, and graphics as part of our engagement.

And really want to emphasize that we will be guided by and co-create with our community and will be iterative in order to ensure that we are accountable to the community and the comments we hear.

And also the plan reflects the community voices, including tracking who we hear from during the process and adjusting our strategies in order to ensure that what we are capturing is representative of our community.

We will listen to our community to shape the plan and also new ways of reaching out and prioritize transparent and inclusive engagement.

Next slide, please.

As part of this process, we will build relationships and listen closely to the people who have not historically had a seat at the transportation table, shape our future transportation system.

And so I just really want to emphasize in the slide here that we aim to prioritize resources to engage with our BIPOC communities, our limited English populations, our LGBTQ plus community and people with disabilities.

Additionally, we plan on engaging with other communities of focus as listed there, and also in addition to a citywide strategy to engage the whole community.

Next slide, please.

In regards to our conversation, we're excited to be able to engage the city in this unique opportunity to be able to talk about land use and transportation, knowing that those two very much are intertwined and connected to each other, and anticipate that each plan will inform the other, and together they will provide an integrated transportation land use and growth strategy for Seattle's future.

I will note that the Seattle Comprehensive Plan is a 20-year vision and policy roadmap for growth in Seattle.

It is the city's framework for big picture decisions on how the city grows and evolves, and includes a transportation element to support our growth vision.

The transportation section of the Seattle Comprehensive Plan will outline broad goals and policies related to Seattle's future transportation system, and the STP itself will provide more detail on the strategies and actions we will take to fulfill our collective transportation visions.

I will note that these two plans kicked off this last week on March 8th, and we are closely coordinating with our colleagues at the Office of Community Planning and Development who are developing the Seattle Comprehensive Plan, including coordination through public engagement opportunities, shared advisory boards and other events, and to ensure that the STP aligns with the city's growth strategy for future housing jobs and community investments.

Next slide, please.

And so with that, we continue to step through fulfilling the council proviso, including finalizing our work plan and community outreach plan to fulfill the proviso and anticipate submittal of this to the city clerk in early Q2.

Again, as I note, appreciate really a lot of the comments that were received today, and we'll continue to evolve our two plan documents that are listed here to ensure that we address the comments that were received.

And so with that, we are really wanted to share.

We are at the very beginning stages of our plan, as Jonathan mentioned.

We are excited to have kicked off the project and launched a project, and the website is available in addition to a complimentary blog post.

to celebrate the partnerships that we have established with eight community-based organizations to work with us over the course of the project to be able to make sure that we are engaging with organizations, as well as partnership with our community liaisons and elevating voices that we don't traditionally hear from.

So just quickly noting that as we've kicked off, we are planning into spring, into fall 2022, a round of engagement that we're calling just a phase one round of engagement to understand community priorities and start previewing initial policy framework and direction and continue to build project awareness about the Seattle transportation plan.

This will continue with phases two into fall 2022 and spring 2023 and phase three into spring 2023. All this information I'm sharing is available online and on our website, and we'll continue to evolve and change as we develop additional information for the public to be able to participate online and also in just future engagement opportunities as we continue to explore ability to be able to meet in person.

Additionally, there's an opportunity there to sign up for email updates, as well as to complete a short survey about the project.

And so at this time, I'd like to move on to the next slide and ask if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that early presentation from SDOT on your outreach and engagement strategy for the Seattle Transportation Plan.

I have just one question, but I'll wait to see if colleagues.

Yes, Council Member Morales.

I have several questions, so I don't know if you want me to just kind of run through.

So thank you for the presentation.

I think the first thing I want to say is that I really appreciate the work that SDOT has done over the last year or two to change the way you do community engagement.

You know, I think As I was working with the department and with community members, particularly on the Lake Washington Boulevard issue last year, it was clear to me that there's been a real focus on equity, on authentic community engagement, and I think some of the things that you're doing here demonstrate that transition.

So kudos for that, and I'm happy that that kind of work will continue.

That said, you know, we heard a lot of public comment.

Clearly, folks are very concerned about at least a perception that we are moving away from all of the planning that you've talked about that we have done in the past, particularly around Vision Zero, around our climate change goals.

I just want to say two things, and then I'll get to my questions.

So I live in Southeast Seattle.

To ride my bike into work, it would pretty much be just a straight shot down Rainier Avenue.

But I can't do that.

If I want to avoid traffic, if I want to make sure that I am not at risk of getting hit by a car, I have to take a much more circuitous route.

I think there's 34 turns that I have to make to get into City Hall.

and two hill climbs.

So I really want to make sure that we're talking about how people can get around, particularly if they cannot drive.

And there are lots of folks here who cannot drive and need to be able to get around the city differently.

The other is around our climate action goals.

And I will say that several years ago, my son was maybe 11 at the time.

sat around the dinner table and just sort of announced that he was not sure he would live to be 25 because we aren't even trying to meet our carbon emission reduction goals.

And we know that here in the city of Seattle, that is very true.

We are way off track.

And so those two things are front of mind for me as I'm listening to what you're saying, anticipating what we will be doing over the next year.

So that said, I have five, six questions.

The first is if you can talk about how the bike and pedestrian safety analysis is being used in the plan and how we're ensuring that that plan when it's complete will help us achieve our Vision Zero goals by 2030. Chair, do you want me to just run through them all?

Yes, it looks like we're all taking notes so we can circle back and then answer the questions.

Sure, and also happy to send these afterward if we don't get to everything.

Second question, since transportation emissions account for the majority of Seattle's climate pollution, this plan could be the single most important tool we have to achieve our climate goals.

So can you talk about how the planning process will prioritize reducing climate emissions and lowering miles traveled in personal vehicles?

The third question is about equity.

And I should say that these are questions that we are hearing from community, many of whom I think we're probably calling in today.

So the third question is, how will the planning process achieve equity for people who are disabled, for low-income people, for our communities of color, and for people who have been displaced but still need to come into Seattle?

How does SDOT evaluate and how are you reporting on how you've achieved our existing policy goals that are already defined in our mode sharing, carbon emissions, reducing vehicle miles traveled, the plans that we already have that we've all referenced?

How will the planning process achieve mode share goals without putting transit, bikes, and pedestrian access into competition with one another?

I think, you know, somebody mentioned we're going to hear that there's no room for all of these things, but that's only true if we're only making space for cars.

So how are we actively going to do something different?

And then it seems like the plan is really hinging on the urban village strategy.

And as you mentioned, we'll be talking about the comprehensive plan in the next year or so as well.

And it is very possible that that strategy will shift.

And so how do those two things connect?

So I will leave it at that.

I'm also happy to send these questions so that we can continue the conversation and continue talking about it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

And thanks for getting all those questions out.

And I know there'll be more as we go through this process.

And for SDOT and, you know, whichever of those you'd like to tackle now, feel free.

Yes, thank you, Councilmember.

Great questions.

And just on a point of order, we'll respond to each of those live during this meeting.

Is that okay?

You know, you don't have to respond to each one now.

We're just getting it out on the public record and then You know, when SDOT comes back, we'd definitely like to hear a response when you come back.

But ideally, we'd get those sooner, the answers sooner, maybe even put them on your blog, SDOT blog.

That would be helpful.

But to the extent you're able to answer any right now, that'd be great, even if they're partial answers.

Sure, sure.

So Joanna, I think I'll take the first two.

I think you're more engaged in the third question.

So in terms of safety and the bike, bicycle and pedestrian safety analysis and how we're using that, it's definitely the case that our safety goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries is a key performance target that we want to anchor this plan around.

I think that the specific way we're going to use BPSA, I think we are still working on a technical approach to this planning process.

So that discussion is underway.

We're working closely with our Vision Zero team and folks in the department that work on traffic and roadway safety to help develop that.

But I think the key thing here is that we are hoping that this plan can help us make more progress, that we can help double down on some of the countermeasures that we have been pursuing, but also just our approach.

There's been a very interesting shift at the federal level on a safe systems approach.

It's something cities have been encouraging for a long time, and we're really excited to see more support at the federal level for that.

And that's thinking more holistically about the streets and how they function.

I think a lot of the comments from the public were along these lines.

We really need to re-envision our streets to be safer spaces and not just embroider around the edges, but really rethink how they function and meet our needs.

And the second question was about climate.

And we do have some very aggressive goals for our city.

And we have while we've made per capita reductions in travel emissions, We are growing so fast that our overall reduction in admissions is very tiny.

It's in the single digit percentages, one to 3%, something like that.

And we didn't set a per capita goal.

As a city, we set a total goal.

So we need to make much more vigorous progress if we want to achieve those goals.

That is also one of our priority goals for this plan.

When we looked across the four current modal master plans, and added them up, we just weren't sure we were gonna achieve our emissions targets.

And so thinking in a more holistic way is, we think that doing that in this plan and thinking across, cutting across modes and across strategies and across approaches is key.

We are developing a technical approach where we can try to weigh different strategies and trade-offs on the efforts and funding that goes in, and the emissions reduction that comes out, and try to be strategic about our approach to carbon emissions.

trying to achieve our targets and certainly make much more vigorous progress is a great one-two question, because those two, along with the third question, equity, are really three foundational ideas behind why we're doing this plan.

I'll pass Q3 to you, Joanna.

Thanks, Jonathan.

So in regards to thinking about how the planning process will achieve equity for our communities that you mentioned, Council Member Morales, so some of the concepts that we can explore and will be exploring are just policies, policy statements and ensuring after we hear from the community and in regards to what we've shared in regards to our engagement strategy and obviously making sure that those stakeholders are very much involved in our process and informing our policies, our networks that we are prioritizing and what our maps look like.

Additionally, I'm thinking through project prioritization processes and ensuring that equity is infused into criteria that we use to help prioritize projects and locations and also funding and having those conversations and around those frameworks.

The displacement question is a big conversation.

I think it's a citywide conversation, and we are engaging in that in our coordinated advisory committees.

But in regards to the STP itself, we are working with OPCD to collect data and take a look at what we're finding for for displacements and where our communities are being displaced, especially for folks that are getting displaced outside of the city of Seattle and having like you said, having to travel back.

And so, as part of that we're taking a look at what does the transportation access look like in regards to.

to that and is there anything that the city of Seattle can do to to address gaps in transportation systems?

I know we've had initial conversations with several of our communities in regards to I've been displaced and the locations I've been displaced have poor transit service and it makes it tricky for me to get to maybe my non-peak hour job and so We're hearing some of those comments and working through what we can do, at least in the Seattle, and also just what we can do also regionally in regards to addressing some of the displacement concerns that we've already heard from our community.

And Jonathan, for four and five, in regards to evaluating and reporting your policies, I'm gonna hand it back over to you.

OK, sure.

So I think your question is about how we're building on our existing modal plans.

Sorry.

This might be an offline conversation, but I'm curious about how you're monitoring.

What is the evaluation process, and how are you tracking your own metrics to make sure that you're achieving or that you need to course correct?

Okay, that's a great question.

And I think from an outsider's perspective, it could be hard to, not that I didn't mean to imply that you're a council member, but for the folks watching at home, it can be hard to kind of figure out where are the different places where we track our progress at SDOT.

The main place is in a report called Moving the Needle, And there we monitor through an annual report our progress on many of our metrics.

I'd say if you're from the community and you just want a one-stop shop, that's probably the easiest thing to find and reference.

But then inside many of our programs, many of the programs are launched with performance measures.

So our Vision Zero program, our bike implementation program, our pedestrian program.

And they have measures that they're anchored to.

And many of them issue an annual or biannual report where they track their progress.

So if there's something someone is specifically interested in, we could help connect them.

But a lot of those are drawn directly from our modal master plans, the bike plan or the pedestrian plan, or the move Seattle strategic vision document.

This is where a lot of those come from.

We surveyed our current plans and we found 300 performance measures.

What we didn't do is check to see, are we tracking against all of those?

That's an awfully big number.

We do track many of them, but I think we're interested.

A lot of them are pointed in the same direction or duplicative, so we're looking at opportunities to do some alignment and integration of our performance measure landscape.

So it's easier for us to keep an eye on things and help us track our progress.

I think your last question.

Jonathan, I don't know if Calvin Chow has any comment at this point or questions.

Yeah, council members.

I kind of wanted to just reiterate that the transportation plan, it is a planning and policy document.

It will include a implementation and funding strategy, but those implementation measures, you know, that's sort of where the rubber hits the road.

What are we going to go out with to voters as a proposal for the next package in the levy?

And that's typically where we do our, you know, set our metrics for what are we delivering and how are we achieving against the plans that we'll make.

So a lot of what this work will be doing will be trying to establish what those, you know, what we'll be measuring against as we go into the next, several years of transportation investments.

I just kind of want to reiterate that because there are the implementation steps that will have to come to make this a reality, I guess is the thing I wanted to highlight.

Thank you.

And Jonathan, go ahead and continue.

I think you were addressing Council Member Morales' question.

Yeah, there's a couple more questions still.

One was about integrating the modal plans, trying not to have competition among our priority modes.

I think we have four modal master plans, as I mentioned, for walking, biking, transit, and free, and our comprehensive plans, getting really policy wonky, I'm sorry, those are identified as our priority modes, and those should have right-of-way priority.

I think several folks on the calls this morning, and we've heard many times that it feels like those four modes are in competition with each other.

And it's another underpinning of why we're doing an integrated plan is to try to create more integration and less competition across those priority modes.

Will we get to a point where we don't have difficult trade-off conversations in the city, we will not get there.

But we want to create some additional policy guidance, more clarity, and minimize the, for lack of a better word, the street fighting that goes on when we're weighing these difficult trade-offs.

And really, we want to think about when we're making those trade-offs, how can we help that that conversation be anchored to our core values around climate action, safety, stewardship, and a more equitable transportation system.

Your last question was about our relationship to the comp plan and the urban village strategy.

Um, so, um, I don't want to speak for the comprehensive plan team, but we are working closely with them and they will be developing some alternatives, land use alternatives they study.

I think some of those are actually, were directed by council.

Um, And we're still in the early conversation around that as I understand it.

But they'll be looking at maybe some new growth target areas.

They'll be looking at potential citywide changes.

They'll be studying that and have a community conversation about that.

We feel like our role is to help wherever council and the department and the mayor want to go with the growth strategy, we want to help cultivate a transportation strategy that helps support that and make it a success.

And so we are working closely with them to think about we might need to prioritize new transit investments.

There might need to be new systems of bikeways and prioritize sidewalks, things like that to help make that a success.

So we're working closely with them have several groups of her respective teams meeting a couple of times a week to help improve coordination and collaboration across the planning processes.

Thank you.

And I see Councilor Herbold's hand.

Go ahead Councilor Herbold.

Thank you very much.

This question may have been answered in the discussion of the modal plans, but I didn't hear it.

Historically, there's been an annual implementation plan for each of the modal plans.

What is going to serve that function moving forward?

Yeah, I'm not sure if I should answer this one or you,

Yeah, Jonathan, we can probably tag team this one in regards to what we're envisioning is really being able, we're excited to be able to holistically look at it and engage in those conversations, as Jonathan mentioned, in regards to resolving some of the conflicts and items.

And so what is envisioned is, as Calvin also mentioned, in regards to the implementation strategy of what this looks like, but a project list that can be thinking holistically, like a corridor type approach, Council Member Korbold, that could be, you know, bike pedestrian corridors or something as an example.

And then as part of that, there could be packaging of sort of implementation or a project list.

Another item is combined with the availability of funding, developing a strategy around your implementation, like a short-term sort of implementation strategy and middle-term implementation strategy and a long-term.

You can divide that up, really tying it with the CIP process from a zero to six year sort of approach, six to 10 and 10 and beyond in regards to kind of more visionary sort of implementation.

But in regards to that, that's kind of what we're envisioning in regards to how the individual implementation plans would fit into the STP conversation and division for being able to look at our whole transportation system and how we're tackling all the different modes and uses.

And we've been talking a lot about the street use, but one of the other components of this STP is the people streets public space thinking in regards to just how our community also experiences the right-of-way and providing good spaces.

I think there was a comment that was made earlier in regards to transit and the hubs and the safety at those locations.

And so we're excited to be able to think about the space as well, in addition to how travel occurs in our right-of-way.

And Jonathan, please go through that.

Thank you, and it looks like Calvin Chow has something to add.

Yes, Council Member Herbold, I think Council is going to want to pay attention to how that gets presented to Council going forward.

We have used that, particularly during budget, to kind of understand sort of how the budget is going incrementally.

It gives us some confidence that it's been vetted and it is consistent with the plan, so it's definitely something that we'll want to make sure we understand how it's going to be handled under the STP.

Thank you, Calvin.

Thank you.

I think Council Member Strauss may have some questions, comments.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Jonathan and Joanna.

This has been a really robust conversation.

And I was wondering if you could cycle back to slide six.

Really appreciate the page numbers on your slides.

uh...

this is great and i really appreciate and i see that there's a difference between powerpoint uh...

loaded up on wedges star in the powerpoint for you with the four different plans in that fourth plan being a truck rather than a car and the reason that that's so important is because cars have the ability to accelerate decelerate uh...

they have smaller turning radiuses uh...

and so our plan really does need to be for these larger vehicles and not for cars.

So I really appreciate the change that I see there.

I'm just going to highlight a couple of things that Council Member Morales said.

Her questions are very similar to the questions that I have, which is how do we get to Vision Zero?

How do we address climate crisis?

And how do we ensure that we're building for all ages and abilities?

And I think, and I'll raise this, that we have the opportunity, even though there's limited right of way, and in some places all four of these plans have to work together, we have the ability to work in collaboration, then put modes in conflict.

And sometimes that just means keeping everyone in their lane.

And I know that that's easier said than done.

And when we are able to provide the space in our streets and to designate and delineate where people need to be.

It keeps them out of conflict.

I know this from having been hit by a driver and spending four days at Harborview.

And so that Vision Zero aspect is just very, very important to me.

And I think that the way that we're able to meet Vision Zero, we're able to meet our freight goals, our transit goals, all of these is by ensuring that each mode has a connected network.

For people riding their bikes, that means that they don't have to cross high-level stress zones without that proper infrastructure.

For buses and for freight, that means making sure that they don't get stuck in an intersection that they can't get through, or they don't get stuck being required to make a turn that they can't make.

So these connected networks really is how we're going to be able to get there, and again, My hope and I think the hope is shared by you that we make this in collaboration rather than in conflict, understanding that transportation is our second largest driver of the climate crisis.

We have to get moving quickly.

We need to ensure that freight is moving freely, so that it's not idling in our city.

It's center of mind for me and I hope colleagues that it's center of mind for you as well as we try to build towards our 15 minute city where people are able to walk in any neighborhood to get everything that they need.

That's only possible if freight is able to move into these communities because there's no way to buy a Gatorade or a coffee if the freight can't get to that store to make that delivery.

And similar to freight is the freight of people, our transit systems.

And what's really important in this work is that we uplift the transit plan, because it's my understanding, and I've got a couple questions, I promise you, Chair.

So, Jonathan, when we get to my questions here, just understanding, it's my understanding that the transit plan is the oldest plan of all four of these.

Is that correct?

It sounds right.

The bike plan and the transit plan are both the most out of date, and I think the transit is Transit definitely feels most out of date, yes.

Right, because the bicycling technology and planning hasn't changed so much in 10 years.

However, 10 years ago, when we were looking at transit, we weren't even thinking about, I don't even think ST3 is on our transit plan, right?

And here we are in this committee, just maybe two committees ago, we're having the draft environmental impact statement presented to us about transit.

And so in this plan, it is important that we're not just planning for buses.

It's that we're not just planning for Sound Transit 4 because we now have the ability to go to voters to ask them for transit dollars so that we can accelerate Sound Transit 3 and so that we can build the train network that we need in our city so that we're able to take people off of our streets and still get them around town in a way, in a mode that people enjoy to use, that is reliable both by experience and by timing so that you know when you're going to get where you're going when you leave home.

And so I guess I just want to make sure, have we considered this, the rail aspect of our transit plan?

What is the plan for buses and how do we support the connected spines, but then also the connected expansions?

And I guess the conversation for the public and for you is, what do we want our light rail system to look like?

Because this conversation is gonna drive where we go.

So with that, I will turn it back to you, Jonathan.

Thank you for letting me have a moment to share my thoughts.

Mostly because Council Member Morales beat me to my question.

So I appreciate the teamwork.

Thank you, Councilmember.

And I think through the community engagement, those are key questions we also want to be asking the public is how can we best serve the existing transit system?

And how can we continue to grow that system?

I think you're absolutely right.

Our transit plan is woefully out of date and doesn't reflect SD3, which is the sound transit, the big sound transit program to add light rail from West Seattle to Ballard, as well as several infill stations in the city, 130th and South Graham.

along with investments in some of our BRT corridors, our bus rapid transit corridors.

So we're excited to update our net modal.

What's listed here on slide six is our priority investment networks.

These are the targets for where we want to be making those walking and biking investments for infrastructure to serve those things.

And thinking about, you know, it takes just dropping a station into a neighborhood is just the tip of getting the best usage out of that station.

And that's Sound Transit's role to get it built and keep the trains running on time.

There's a real partnership across our agencies and with Metro on getting bus service to reliably serve, creating ways for people to walk and bike.

to those stations and continuing to target growth around light rail so we can get the, it's a huge, huge investment, billions of dollars are being invested in light rail in our city.

And it's important that we plan around each and every station to get the most value and transportation service we can out of each of those stations.

really great point in a conversation.

We're excited to continue with the community.

And our transit plan has helped shape and target where we would like to invest, you know, the city invests in transit as well through the Transportation Benefit District.

We purchased extra bus service.

We and other ways to keep buses moving quickly.

So this plan will help us prioritize those investments as well.

Thank you.

I see Council Member Morales has your hand up.

Thanks, I just last comment.

First, I just want to thank Jonathan and join up for for being here for answering all these questions.

I think what you're hearing from community and from us is that we just really want to see a plan that will include the details of you know, demonstrate the details that we need to see to know that we're going to reduce our carbon emissions, we're going to increase safety, and that this plan is really going to move Seattle into the 21st century instead of keeping us sort of anchored in the Eisenhower era.

So look forward to working with you all over the next year.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

My question is, since the particular focus of this presentation today is about how SDOT's going to start their outreach and engagement and listen to the public.

Coincidentally, I had a briefing recently from Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.

They're actually doing an outreach and engagement strategy for their six-year spending plan for the Parks District that's coming up for renewal, not renewal, but for us to say how we'd like to invest those dollars.

And in addition to hearing from small focus groups that are very familiar with particular mode of transportation, or in this case, particular park usage or community center usage, recreational programming, they are doing, in addition to those focus groups, they are doing statistically valid surveys of the public.

So, and they apparently do that every two years anyway.

So, by asking hundreds of survey respondents their zip codes, race, income, abilities, priorities, then you could obtain cross tabs of the priorities of different groups.

So if we were to focus on, you know, what is it that low income residents are seeking or prioritizing by doing a statistically valid survey, it'll help to inform that.

So just wanted to know, as part of your outreach and engagement strategy, are you doing a statistically valid survey?

Thanks for the question, Council Member Peterson.

We are exploring statistically valid surveys as a tool to use.

Additionally, as part of even the survey that we have out right now, due to our Title VI requirements, which requires us to collect a lot of the information around demographics that you already shared, including the zip code, we are collecting that information.

And those are some of the methods we are using to make sure that that we're able to track who we're hearing from.

And again, pivot is needed in order to ensure that we're hearing from our representative community.

So definitely we'll have all those items in our toolbox and we'll continue to track and just pivot as needed as well to ensure that all our voices are represented.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here today and also for the work you're doing to do that outreach and put together the plan.

So I know we'll be touching base frequently over the next year on this.

All right, colleagues.

Thank you for all being here today.

And this concludes the March 15, 2022 meeting of the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

We anticipate that our next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 5. Thank you, and we are adjourned.

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