Seattle City Council Land Use & Neighborhoods Committee 1/13/21

You're ready to go whenever you're ready.

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OK.

Here we go.

Welcome.

The January 13, 2021 meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order.

It is 9.31 AM.

I am Dan Strauss, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Here.

Councilmember Lewis?

Present.

Councilmember Juarez?

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Present.

Chair Strauss?

Present.

Five present.

Great, thank you.

The city council rules are silent on allowing remote meetings and electronic participation at city council and committee meetings.

To allow this committee to conduct its business remotely, the council rules will need to be suspended.

If there are no objections, the council rules will be suspended to allow the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee to meet remotely and participate electronically.

Hearing no objection, the council rules are suspended and the committee will continue with this remote meeting.

The Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee of the City of Seattle begins this committee by acknowledging we are on the traditional and ancestral lands of the first people of this region, past and present, represented in a number of tribes and as urban natives.

We honor with gratitude the land itself and the people of this land, and we start with this acknowledgment to recognize that we are guests on this land and should steward our land as such.

And we should act like guests.

And we should act like guests.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

We have two items on today's agenda, a briefing from Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection on the proposed updates to the construction code, including the energy code, and a public hearing and possible vote on CB 119978, which extends the interim floodplain regulations that council adopted earlier this year to comply with federal emergency management requirements.

I had previously stated that we would be considering an application to extend the contract rezone of 1106 34th Avenue at this meeting.

That item will now be considered at our January 27th meeting in order to meet noticing requirements.

The next meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is on Wednesday, January 27th, starting at 9.30 a.m.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

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

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

While it remains the intent to have public comment regularly included on meeting agendas, the city council reserves the right to end or eliminate 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 which we are able to conduct our necessary business.

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

The comment period for this meeting is up to 10 minutes and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once the speaker hears the chime, we ask you begin to wrap up your public comments.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's mic will be muted 10 seconds after their allotted time to allow us to move on to the next speaker.

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

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

There is a separate public hearing on the agenda for item two, council bill 11978, which extends floodplain regulations.

So please reserve any comments for that item for that public hearing.

And IT, if you can assist me in ensuring that if anyone has incorrectly signed up, that we are able to relocate them into the correct public hearing.

The public hearing is now open.

And I am seeing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. possibly 13 people, and so we will, if there's no objection, we'll extend the public comment for 20 minutes at this time.

First up, we have Robin Briggs, Brittany Bollet, Deepa Sivarjan, Arova Morris, Steve Gelb, Alec Conlin, Holly Towns, Charlie Lappin, Michael Fowler, Ingrid Archibald, Bobby Coleman, Elizabeth Stamp, and Amy Wheelis.

We see that you are listed as not present.

So if you would like to join us, please call in now.

Robin, we have you up first.

Good morning.

Hi.

Thank you for hearing my comment.

My name is Robin Briggs.

I'm a member of People for Climate Action Seattle.

We urge you to support the new energy code with two amendments.

We believe the requirement for efficient electricity for space heating should take effect immediately.

And we believe that the rules for efficient electricity for space and water heating should apply to all buildings, not just hotels and multifamily buildings.

So some context, OSC reported this year that greenhouse gas emissions from buildings are on the rise in Seattle, up 8.3% in two years from 2016 to 2018. Those years had a lot of new building, and I'm guessing that those new buildings are contributing to the increase in emissions.

Obviously, we need new buildings.

You just have to walk by a park and see all the people living in tents to know that we need a lot of new buildings.

Or if you rent, maybe you are part of the 30% of Seattle renters who are rent burdened.

So we need new buildings, but we need to accommodate that growth while not growing our emissions.

And this requires new buildings to be clean energy.

Old buildings will have to be converted as well over the next 10 to 15 years, and converting a building is more expensive than building it right the first time.

These new buildings will be standing for a long time.

Let them be efficient buildings that save people money off utilities.

Let them be buildings that their owners and the city don't have to spend lots more money to convert later because they were built to pollute.

Let them be buildings we can be proud of.

Every year from now until 2030, We need to decrease emissions in Seattle by 7.6% to make our goals.

We haven't made that goal ever.

Let's get a good start this year by passing the new energy code.

Thank you.

Thank you, Robin.

And up next is Brittany Bollet followed by Deepa.

Good morning, Brittany.

Good morning, council members.

Good morning.

My name is Brittany Bush-Bollet.

I'm the chair of Sierra Club Seattle Group.

Thanks for taking the time this morning.

I'm calling in support of the upcoming code changes that will ensure that new businesses and multi-family buildings are built to be safe, clean, and free of fossil fuels.

Seattle already faces the impacts of climate pollution every day.

One-third of this pollution comes from buildings, and most of that is produced by the use of fracked gas.

The modernizing the commercial building codes is a simple and effective way to quickly reduce our fracked gas consumption, slowing the damage to our climate.

In fact, every plan Seattle has for meeting its climate goals requires the prevention of new fossil fuel use in most buildings.

Choosing clean electricity for our buildings has health benefits, too.

Gas appliances harm both indoor and outdoor air quality, and gas extraction and transport are extremely harmful.

And it's significant to note that the impacts of frack gas extraction and use are felt most intensely by BIPOC communities.

In Seattle, we know that redlining and other historical and ongoing injustices have already forced people of color to live in close proximity to pollution.

And these outcomes can be measured in literally years of lost life expectancy.

So it's our responsibility to do as much as we possibly can to halt and then reverse this harm.

Electric buildings are an indispensable part of our green future.

as well as an important tool to improve public health, safety, and racial equity.

And so we strongly support the Commercial Building Code updates, as well as future efforts to protect our homes and other buildings, and of course, the people inside and outside them from dangerous and polluting fossil fuels.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brittany.

Up next, we have Deepa and Areva Morris-Fallon and Steve Gelb on deck.

Deepa, good morning.

Thank you.

My name is Deepa Sivarajan.

I'm the Washington Policy Manager at Climate Solutions.

We also strongly support the proposed updates by FDCI to the Commercial Energy Code, which will essentially eliminate fossil fuel uses in new commercial and large multifamily buildings in Seattle.

The proposed updates are timely.

As Brittany from Sierra Club mentioned, Seattle already faces major climate change impacts, and we need to take bold action to reduce Seattle's greenhouse gas emissions and future-proof new buildings.

In Washington State, greenhouse gas emissions from buildings are growing at a faster rate than any other source of carbon pollution.

And in Seattle, energy used to heat, cool, and power commercial and large multifamily buildings accounts for 20% of our emissions.

The use of fossil fuels, as Brittany mentioned, in buildings also increases air pollution and related health impacts, such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease, which disproportionately impact BIPOC and low-income communities.

However, as Robin from PCA mentioned, we would also like to see these two amendments to the proposed updates, which I have also submitted in writing to the Council.

Firstly, regarding section C403.1.4, which formalizes code restrictions on electric resistance and fossil fuel space heating and extends them to multi-family buildings.

This element of the code is currently scheduled to be implemented in 2022, even though most of the code will be implemented this July.

We believe this delay is unnecessary.

The technology is here and it is affordable, and we need to act on the climate crisis now.

Secondly, on section C404.2.3, which requires heat pump water heating for group R1 and R2 buildings with central hot water, we urge the city to extend this provision to all buildings covered by the code, not limiting them just to hotels and large multifamily buildings.

By approving the code without these unnecessary delays and limitations by building type, the city has the opportunity to make headway on Seattle's climate goals and protect the health of our residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And up next is Areva, followed by Steve, and then Alec.

Areva, are you present?

IT, I'm not seeing her.

Areva, you may have to press star six.

We just had you there for a second.

One more time.

Hello?

There we are.

Good morning, Areva.

Hi.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Yeah, hi.

My name's Arvia Morris, A-R-V-I-A.

I think there was a typo by me in my registration.

Yes.

My name is Arvia Morris.

I'm from the 43rd District Environmental Caucus.

And I'd like to testify that we really need these building codes improvements now.

And the reason is population growth.

It's not just meeting our needs for today.

The population in the Puget Sound area is set to continue to explode throughout the rest of the decades we're facing.

So we really cannot You know, we're missing all of our climate goals now, so it's just going to be even more exacerbated with all the population growth.

So we absolutely need to be building zero emission buildings starting immediately.

And designers and the building industry will probably be upset about this, but they really need to adapt.

And I don't think it's asking too much.

There's definitely architects that can design buildings that are zero emission.

and they don't need to have fossil fuels in them, and they can be very comfortable and climate-resistant homes, climate-resilient homes and office buildings.

So just think about it.

We have done a really, I'd really like to thank the council for all and the, you know, the state government for all they've really done to try to help us get through COVID.

But you know, and we're one of the best states in the country for COVID.

But we're nothing compared to Japan and New Zealand and Australia who really handled this.

So think about it, in 20 or 30 years, and that's an acute crisis.

The climate crisis is a chronic crisis.

So what are we going to look like in 2040 if we don't address this immediately now?

This is a chronic crisis.

We need to get on it with these building codes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Arvia.

And up next, we have Steve Gelb, Alec Conlin, Holly, you are on deck.

Steve, good morning.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Steve Gelb with the Emerald Cities Collaborative, Shift Zero's Building Electrification Task Force, and the Housing Development Consortium's Exemplary Building Program.

I'm here to support the updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

We need to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in our buildings by restricting fossil fuel use and improving efficiency.

The proposed energy code updates put us on a path to achieve these climate goals.

Emerald Cities has worked hard to make certain that the impacts of this code can and will be equitable.

Through the exemplary building program, the affordable housing community has piloted measures that will be implemented through this code.

We've worked to reduce premium costs and demonstrated that there are benefits for affordable housing providers.

Additionally, with coordinated efforts and sufficient resources, the adoption of new technologies required by this code and the work it will generate can provide opportunities to diversify the construction workforce and open doors for women and minority-owned businesses.

Finally, we believe that with proper planning, including the incremental steps forward that are represented in this code, we can have a just transition for the small number of fossil fuel workers that may be impacted by the code.

And we can and should do more.

We need amendments to remove the delay for buildings to use electricity for space heating.

This is a proven technology and it's ready for implementation now.

And finally, we need to require that all buildings covered under the code use electricity for water heating.

Using our clean and plentiful electricity in our buildings just makes sense.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Steve.

Up next, we have Alec Conlon, Holly Towns, followed by Charlie Lapham.

Good morning, Alec.

Good morning, council.

This is Alec Conlon, the campaign's co-director with 350 Seattle.

Thank you for the chance to testify today and I believe you'd happy new year to all of the council.

Like everyone else we've heard from so far, I'm here to advocate for the strongest possible version of the energy codes, and in particular to ask Council to please introduce an amendment to ensure that the codes are implemented in 2021 and not in 2022 as is currently proposed.

It's my understanding from the process that there was quite a bit of back and forth on the implementation date before the legislation was transmitted to Council, and it was disappointing to see the legislation currently would mean that it's not implemented until 2022, and I'm hoping that council can rectify that in the next couple of weeks as it's moving through council.

As you've already heard, last month OSE released the city's greenhouse gas inventory for 2017 and 2018, providing important data on how we're doing when it comes to responding to the climate crisis And unfortunately, Seattle's overall greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise.

And there's one single main reason for that, we now know, and that's that between 2018 and 2016, climate pollution emitted from our buildings, from oil and gas burned in our buildings, rose by 8.3%.

And so tackling climate pollution from our buildings is absolutely vital if we want to realize the goals of Seattle's Green New Deal and be able to say that we're doing our bit to avert the climate chaos.

and that means implementing the codes this year and not next year.

I also want to mention that these energy codes are not a panacea.

Even after we pass these energy codes, new residential homes and commercial buildings under three stories in Seattle will still be getting built this year and next year with oil and gas heating as we do additional stuff to change that.

But the energy codes are a great start, so let's make sure that we make that start this year and implement the energy codes in 2021 and not 2022. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Alec.

Up next, we have Holly, followed by Charlie, and then Michael Fowler on deck.

Good morning, Holly.

Oh, good morning.

This is Holly Cams.

Thank you for letting me speak.

I'm a city resident and a mechanical engineer, and here representing the 43rd District Democrats Environmental Caucus.

We urge you to pass the Seattle's Commercial Energy Code.

Buildings are the second largest emitters of greenhouse gases in our city.

The time is now to transition to clean energy in our buildings.

Our health, and I know we've been in this crisis, but you guys remember the smoke?

I almost forgot about the smoke this last summer.

Our health, our economic stability and our planet are all affected by climate.

This code is a very concrete step in combating climate change.

And I've been following the city staff's process led by Dwayne Johnlin.

It has been incredibly thoughtful, well-vetted and inclusive.

This code has energy efficiency and renewables, which we fully support, and it also cuts the use of natural gas for heating since 75% of the greenhouse gases in buildings come from natural gas.

This aspect of the code will result in the biggest reduction in CO2.

We therefore ask you to go a little further.

Please remove the proposed delay in the use of efficient electric space heating and also require efficient electric water heating for all commercial buildings, not just hotels and multifamily.

We need you to step up and make these changes that the construction advisory board were reluctant to do due to pressure from a few designers and developers.

The CO2 we emit now cannot be taken back.

We need the city to get back on track to meeting climate goals and build sustainable affordable housing and buildings in the cheapest way possible in new construction.

And I agreed with all the previous speakers.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Holly.

Good morning, Charlie.

And then following Charlie is Michael and then Ingrid Archibald.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning, Council.

Happy New Year.

I'm Charlie LaFam with the Martin Luther King County Labor Council.

We represent King County's unions, um, across one second, I'm going to step outside.

We represent working people all across King County and we're supporting the building code updates because we know that climate change is hurting working people right now.

Just think about who has to work outside on the worst wildfire days.

Think about who has to live with a near shot of a highway or a truck route.

It's working people.

And I know we're all excited about the new leadership in Washington, D.C.

and what we can build toward there, but we can't wait.

We need to do what we can do here locally to make a difference on climate change.

And the building code is one of the most influential things that Seattle can do.

Equally important, though, is the jobs that this will create.

It's going to create so many significant, good-paying union jobs.

This is infrastructure.

This is work, building.

the buildings of tomorrow.

So the labor community strongly supports these energy code updates.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Charlie.

Up next, we have Michael and then Ingrid Archibald.

We will, at that point, have exhausted our time.

So I will move at that time to extend our time and reduce comments to one minute.

So if you are Bobby, Elizabeth, Amy, or Johnny, please be ready to have your comments delivered within a minute.

Good morning, Michael.

Good morning Council Members of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

My name is Michael Fowler and I am also speaking on the Energy Code.

I'm a Senior Associate at the firm Methune where I'm an architect and the Sustainability Integration Leader for our Seattle office.

I also represent AIA Washington on the Washington State Energy Code Technical Advisory Group.

Today, I'm here on behalf of AIA Seattle to voice our full support for the approval and adoption of the Seattle amendments to the 2018 Washington State Commercial Energy Code.

Speaking as an architect working in Seattle, this next code step can be met and achieved.

In anticipation of the upcoming adoption date, there are buildings in the office which are already being designed to meet this next code.

This includes one new building permit application that went into the city of Seattle just last week on Friday.

The American Institute of Architects has the AIA 2030 commitment, pushing the profession toward all carbon neutral building design by the year 2030. The current goal of the commitment is an 80% net reduction in energy use from a comparable existing building stock baseline, a level which exceeds this current proposed code.

There are 48 firms in the state of Washington who are signatories to the AIA 2030 commitment.

and who are working to design and build projects that meet or exceed this proposed code, including many examples which are already built.

Again, on behalf of AIC Seattle, we fully support the adoption of this code, and I thank you for providing time today for comments, and I look forward to seeing this code being approved by city council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michael.

Up next, we have Ingrid and then Bobby followed by Elizabeth Amy Willis.

You are now, I am not sure if you're, you are now present.

Thank you.

So up next is Ingrid.

Good morning, Ingrid.

Good morning.

Thank you so much, council, for taking comment and extending our time today.

My name is Ingrid Archibald.

I occupy Duwamish land and I'm a resident of District Six.

I'm also an organizer with Stand.Earth, which is an advocacy organization that challenges governments and corporations to put people and the environment first.

I specifically support communities across Washington who are taking on fossil fuel threats in working toward climate justice.

A key piece of this movement is solving the issue of how fossil fuels are quite literally built into our world and our daily lives.

And it is long past due for us to move beyond fossil fuels and build to the clean energy future.

We know that using fossil gas in buildings is harming our public health and contributing to climate change every single day.

We know that the future is electric and that the necessary technology is ready today.

We know that fossil gas is not a climate solution.

And we know that vulnerable communities and communities of color are most impacted by indoor air pollution and the dirty consequences of fracking.

I urge you to pass the proposed updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

I also ask that the council take two further simple steps to ensure our new buildings are efficient and climate resilient.

First, remove the unnecessary delay for buildings to use electricity for space heating.

All buildings should be able to heat with efficient electricity as soon as the code is implemented this year.

Second, require all buildings covered under the code use electricity for water heating, rather than just hotels and apartment buildings.

And that is my entire comment.

Thank you so much for your time and for your leadership.

Thank you, Ingrid.

And colleagues, if there is no objection, the public comment period will be extended for an additional 10 minutes.

Hearing no objection, the public comment is extended for an additional 10 minutes.

And we will please thank you, IT, for already changing the public comment timer for one minute.

We have Bobby, Elizabeth, Amy, and Johnny.

Bobby Coleman, welcome and good morning.

Good morning, Council Members.

My name is Bobby Coleman.

I'm the Administrator for Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability at Seattle Housing Authority.

My division is focused on ensuring a greener present and future for our tenants and staff.

Like others on this call, I'm here to support the updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code.

At FHA, we've been focused on energy and water efficiency for many years and are committed to improving building performance across our portfolios, as well as ensuring long-term durability and sustainability of new buildings.

At SHA, we are working to reduce fossil fuel use in our buildings that are already using electric space and water heating in our new construction and redevelopment projects, while also pursuing opportunities to improve efficiency of fossil fuel equipment in our existing buildings.

We're encouraged by the efforts of the council to make Seattle a resilient and carbon neutral city for all Seattleites, and to that end, these updates help to ensure that future.

Seattle is seen as a climate leader, and the Affordable Housing Committee will continue to do our part to support this leadership.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bobby.

And good morning, Elizabeth, and Amy, and finally, Johnny.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

I see you there.

There we are.

Good morning.

Hi.

OK.

Good morning, council members.

Thank you.

I'm Elizabeth Stamp with NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and I'm here to express NRDC's strong support for the proposed updates to the Seattle Commercial Energy Code and the proposals to strengthen and speed up those updates.

Today, buildings are the source of a third of Seattle's climate pollution.

And in our work at NRDC across cities, and across the world, we've seen Seattle lead on climate in many ways.

But the city's recent greenhouse gas emissions report shows that more is needed for the city to meet its goals.

And buildings are a particular area where pollution will increase unless you act.

As another speaker mentioned, we all remember, despite all that's going on, we can remember last summer's wildfires and choking smoke.

And we all know that climate change made those fires worse.

Now it's rainy, and flooding is worse.

Thank you.

Now this is.

Elizabeth, thank you for those comments.

And if you'd like to send your written comments into us, we'd gladly accept them.

Last two speakers are Amy Wheelis and Johnny Kocher.

Please be aware, public comment is limited to one minute.

Good morning, Amy.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yeah, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair Strauss and committee members.

My name is Amy Willis.

I'm a policy associate at the Northwest Energy Coalition.

I also co-chair SHIFT Zero, a relatively new alliance of organizations advocating for equitable access to zero carbon buildings.

This morning, I sent you a sign-on letter about these code changes with support from SHIFT Zero members like the architects, Seattle 2030 District, and EcoTolk, as well as many other organizations advocating for climate action in Seattle for the sake of our city and residents.

You have heard from so many voices today in support of the energy code changes.

So I will just say as somebody who works a lot on building and energy code changes, I've never seen so much interest in energy code as I have through this process.

For me, this just really underlines that people are excited by the action council has taken so far on climate and is really ready for more.

These code changes have been thoroughly reviewed and vetted, and I hope you will move them forward.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Amy.

And last, we have Johnny.

Johnny, good morning.

I see you there.

You might have to press star six.

Can you hear me now?

We can.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Sweet.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Johnny Kocher, and I work for the Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent nonprofit working to shift towards a low-carbon future.

The City Council has a key opportunity here to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector while not increasing construction costs.

In addition to approving these code changes today, the City Council should take two further steps to ensure our new buildings are efficient and climate resilient.

First, remove the unnecessary delay for buildings to use electricity for space heating.

All buildings should be able to heat with efficient electricity as soon as the code is implemented.

And then second, you should also require all buildings covered under the code to use electricity for water heating rather than just hotels and apartment buildings.

Rocky Mountain Institute research has shown that all electric buildings are cheaper to construct than mixed-scale buildings.

By passing these code updates along with the two additional amendments, the city of Seattle will continue its legacy of being a leader in sustainability and help push the state to be on track to reach its climate goals.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Johnny.

And with that, colleagues, seeing as we have no additional speakers remotely present, we will move on to the next agenda item.

Our first item of business today is a briefing on the proposed updates to Seattle's construction code.

Noah, will you please read this item into the record?

Item one, overview of proposed construction code changes.

Thank you.

We are joined by presenters from Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, as well as our Council Central staff.

Will everyone please introduce themselves and then take it away.

We'll start with Central staff and then SDCI.

Good morning, Yolanda Ho, Council Central staff.

Is there anyone else from central staff?

Ketel's here, but Ketel Freeman is also on the line.

OK.

Hi, my name's Ardell Jala, SDCI building official.

Hi, my name is Kai Kimau.

I'm the principal engineer from SDCI.

Morning, my name is Micah Chappell.

I'm the technical code development manager for SDCI.

And Dwayne Johnlin, the energy code advisor for SDCI.

Good morning.

It's great to have you all with us today.

I believe it is SDCI that will lead our presentation.

Is that correct?

And so feel free to take it away at your convenience and leisure.

We're just waiting for our presentation to start here.

Thank you, Dwayne.

So as Dwayne starts, again, my name's Ardell Jala.

I'm the building official.

And thank you, Chair Strauss and committee members for having SDCI present to you the overview of the 2018 Seattle Code changes.

As regulators, we enforce building codes that provide a set of minimum requirements for building construction.

The codes protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the public.

Codes also advance sustainability and climate change initiatives.

Model codes go through a governmental process, resulting in a new suite of codes every three years, which then get amended at the state level and then further amended by the city of Seattle.

By updating the codes, we ensure that new technologies, materials, and methods, as well as better approaches to health and safety, can be incorporated into new construction.

This results in the city's building stock having improved building construction quality, energy, and safety performance for years to come.

Next slide, please.

The SDCI purpose is helping people build a safe, livable, and inclusive Seattle.

So what changes are in the 2018 code that help us achieve our purpose?

Duane and Micah will be going in more detail, but I'd like to briefly highlight safe Seattle.

The new code reflects our most current understanding of the seismicity of the region.

It adopts new tsunami provisions for our critical care facilities.

There's a robust set of code changes to safely construct wood high-rises with new provisions for mass timber and CLT construction.

We're also adding sprinklers to townhouse construction.

Let's talk about a livable Seattle.

There's code changes that clarify requirements for tiny house construction, as well as reduces the minimum size of an efficiency dwelling unit.

The energy code changes contribute to a more sustainable and therefore a livable city.

And finally, an inclusive Seattle.

This code provides new requirements for gender neutral restrooms.

Next slide, please.

So while we expect much discussion today on the energy code amendments, there are multiple codes in the suite of 2018 codes.

Amendments to each of these codes listed will be included in the legislation to council.

Dwayne and Michael will provide an overview of the most significant changes to all of these codes today.

And with that, I'd like to pass it off to Dwayne on the Energy Code.

Thanks, Ardell.

The 2018 National Energy Code came out just before 2018, of course.

Washington State added its amendments during 2019, and then Seattle worked out its amendments on top of that during 2020, almost all of which strengthen the code.

Seattle's amendments often get picked up in subsequent state and national codes as those move forward.

So state law doesn't allow us to touch the code for single-family or low-rise multifamily energy issues.

So these amendments that we'll talk about here apply to all the other building types.

In the principles that we use for developing the Seattle Code are focus on building high quality walls and windows and roof because those are going to last for generations.

Stop installing new gas heating and water heating and make all the electrical systems as efficient as possible.

And finally, start ramping up our new renewable energy supply.

The idea is that our new buildings will be easily able to meet our carbon neutral standard for 2050 without having to rip them apart and rebuild things between now and then.

So those five issues you see on the left side of your screen are the most critical ones for meeting our four principles, as you'll see in this next group of slides.

But there are at least 100 smaller changes that mostly clean up this code.

Space heating and residential water heating make up perhaps 90% of our gas use.

We're tackling those in this code cycle.

And then the other minor gas uses will need a lot more work with the community going forward.

We're greatly restricting the use of gas and electric resistance for space heating in favor of heat pumps.

There is a list of 18 exceptions that allow electric resistance for small loads and supplemental heating and cold weather And that was driven partly to reduce affordable housing costs.

A late change was that exception one was added to delay the effective date for this until next year.

And you've heard from a number of commenters about their opinion about that one.

Another significant change is that for hotel and multifamily, at least, we're not any longer allowing central water heating systems to be heated by gas or electric resistance either.

which means that using heat pumps for this as well is going to be the way we go.

We delayed implementation of this one until January 22 from the very beginning of this code update because the technology is new for a lot of our engineers and builders, and we need this extra time for education and training.

We've reduced lighting power to 10% below the state standard.

recognizes this rapidly advancing LED technology.

And we're requiring a suitable electric outlet behind every gas stove in apartments so that it'll be easy to plug in an induction cooktop in the future, literally plug and play.

Now, the state code and Seattle code require each new building to select from a list of above code options for each one of their projects.

And the state requires a total of six credits from this chart.

Seattle will require eight credits.

By the way, I'm going through this.

This in eight minutes is what we've spent the last 18 months full time doing.

All of our tall buildings and our complex buildings like labs and hospitals use energy modeling.

to comply with the code.

And that's a complex software-driven calculation that lets people build some things worse than code and balance that with other things that are better than code.

A major change this year is that the metric for that calculation will now be carbon emissions.

And since Seattle's code is more stringent generally than the state code, we'll require lower carbon emissions in this calculation as well, lower than the state code, as you see in that yellow highlighted area.

And significantly there, we will not any longer be allowing energy modeling to be used to make the building envelope a lot worse than would be allowed for other buildings.

Since like we mentioned at the top, these walls and windows will be with the city longer than any of us will.

We got to build them right to start with.

We're requiring a small solar array on most buildings.

But we're exempting affordable housing because this is one of the only things that could be easily added to a building after the fact.

For buildings that can't or don't want to put the solar on their own roofs, we've provided an option to gift that solar array over to an affordable housing project.

Note that we also require a large area of the roof on all these buildings to be set up to easily accommodate a larger solar array in the future.

And in case you're wondering, this would take up just 3.5% of a roof of a two-story building or 36% of the roof of a 20-story building.

And with that, I'll hand it over to Micah Chappelle to run through the highlights of all the other codes.

Thank you, Dwayne.

I appreciate the time.

The state does limit what jurisdictions can modify in the residential code And as such, most of the changes to the Seattle Building Code and the Seattle Residential Code were collaborated and approved through the state.

Members of SDCI worked with multiple organizations, including the Washington Association of Building Officials, Structural Engineers Association of Washington, Department of Social and Health Services, and the Washington Labor and Industries Department.

Members of SDCI participated in over 350 meetings as Dwayne indicated over the past few years.

All of our changes to our codes have been reviewed and approved by our Construction Code Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by the mayor.

And those highlights to these 2018 amendments include mass timber, which, as many of you are aware, is CLT, at least that's the common name that most folks call it.

And as what occurred is there are three new types of construction created in the 2018 code.

It's a type 4, A, B, and C.

with type A being able to be constructed up to 18 stories in height.

Next slide, please.

Additionally, we had a modification, although minor, it does align efficiency dwelling units with the required habitable space of dwelling units.

There was a deficiency in the code where a dwelling unit could be smaller than an efficiency dwelling unit.

So that modification was made to address those smaller spaces.

Next.

As Ardell had mentioned, gender-neutral restrooms were introduced into the state code.

As a policy, Seattle has already allowed these, and is what the new code provisions show is that it provides the guidance when these are constructed or chosen.

It is not a requirement, but it is an option for those that want to provide those types of facilities and provides jurisdictions a way to review and inspect those facilities to make sure they meet the most current standards for accessibility and allowance of use.

Next slide.

This change or series of changes for our high-rise shaft pressurization is for smoke control and egress.

And what this does is it's more specific for Seattle and provides modifications that take most of our policies and actions or response times and everything into consideration and modifies various sections of the code to address those accurately.

Next slide.

Additionally, is what we have is some, as you heard mentioned, increased or actually a new section that talks about tsunami loads and how those need to be taken into account when designing buildings in certain types of risk categories of structures.

And those are, as Ardell mentioned, your hospitals and even what they call elevated evacuation structures.

Some of you may see those when you go down and visit Long Beach or places like that.

Additionally, we have some increase in seismic load.

This was more of a national-level code change, but, of course, Seattle is adopting it, and it is more specific to what occurs in Seattle as well as other locations that have high seismic activity.

Next slide.

Now we're moving into the residential code.

And one of the major changes that we have in the residential code is that the state adopted a change for automatic sprinklers, um, as well as some habitable attic information.

And we're including some items, including sleeping lofts and some changes to tiny houses for some discussions of legislation.

Next slide.

The townhouse sprinkler changes At the state, we're approved and worked through with the Washington Association of Fire Chiefs and the Washington Association of Building Officials, as well as others, and we're approved at the state level.

Seattle is allowed by law to modify this one area of the residential code.

And as such, we have decided to eliminate an exception.

And what that exception does is at the state level, Townhouse buildings that had four units or less did not have to require or install automatic sprinklers.

What Seattle chose to do is to remove that exception where we now require that all new constructed townhouses have sprinklers installed.

Next slide.

Didn't like me doing.

The last item on the list, or one of the last items, had to deal with tiny houses, and that's okay if it doesn't come up.

There were multiple changes and requests through the state that looked at tiny houses and wanted to incorporate that somehow.

So instead of having a separate appendix for everything, the state took and worked through the most important parts of Appendix Q and moved those into the main body of the residential code.

for use in all dwelling units.

That would incorporate what we call sleeping lofts, and that would be a small space primarily used for sleeping.

And what it does is it incorporates some safety measures, including smoke detectors and egress.

When a lot of folks start to wonder how big these are, they're gonna be a maximum size of 69 square feet, usually between 35 and 69 square feet.

So when folks try to picture that, just think of maybe like a built-in bunk bed, So those are now in the main body of the code, as well as some definitions that go along with that.

And then the last modification to Appendix Q does identify what a single dwelling unit of 400 square foot is and provides some specifics for that, including some modifications for energy code to help with the air barrier testing for these smaller spaces.

Overall, there are just multiple changes for addressing tiny spaces or small houses in the new residential code.

Next slide.

Additionally, some of the major changes we want to make note of, as most talked about the smoke filtration or smoke that happened during the wildfires, this new allowance creates a space to install that MERV 13 filter, which will work to filter out that smoke during an event.

This is not a mandate that all new filters are installed as a MERV 13, but it does mandate that the space be provided for those when those systems are installed.

Additionally, the electrical code has a modification to address the calculated loads for those advanced heat pump systems in the energy code.

And then we have aligned our electrical vehicle charging infrastructure to match that of the land use code, which has become more restrictive as of last year.

And then the last item of note would be plumbing, our plumbing code, and an air admittance valve, which is a modified vent that we had multiple or a standard, what they call a code alternate for, and so we are now putting that into the code as a standard allowance.

That completes the highlights of our 2018 code updates, and we hope that you look to move these forward.

And if you have any questions, please let us know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you, Ardell, Dwayne, and Micah.

And if you could be ready to reshare the PowerPoint presentation as colleagues may have questions.

I have a few, but I will hold my questions until I see what my colleagues have to ask.

Colleagues, any questions?

I see Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

Thank you for this thorough presentation and really appreciate the department and the chair setting it up as a presentation first so we can get our feet wet with these changes and better understand them before the actual legislation comes down.

Um, and one of the things I was excited about last year is when the city council passed the update to the fiscal note to, uh, have a climate change questions that we ask about, uh, emissions and adaptation.

And this, these changes will probably, when that fiscal note, fiscal climate note is completed, we'll show all the benefits.

Um, in that fiscal note and just sort of wanted to say that I look forward to that.

I know that'll be coming along with the legislation when we actually get the legislation to see those climate change questions.

You addressed a lot of those in your presentation about dealing with emissions and also adapting to climate change like wildfire smoke.

So thank you for that.

I look forward to the revised fiscal climate note with the legislation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Colleagues, other questions?

Vice Chair Mosqueda, good morning.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

I appreciate the technical walkthrough of these details outside of the technical and sort of stepping back to the macro.

I've heard a lot of excitement about this, and I'm really looking forward to working with the Chair and the folks who provided the presentation to get into the details and hear a little bit more about ways that we might want to strengthen certain elements of the legislation.

Councilmember Strauss and Mr. Chair, do you want us to hold a discussion for possible ideas for strengthening or potential changes until the next opportunity for us to meet.

I'd be happy to have that conversation today.

We had previously expected that this legislation would have been transmitted earlier and could have been before us.

The legislation has been transmitted as of this last Monday and will be on next week's introduction or referral calendar.

So I do hope to move swiftly at the next committee.

Um, so would welcome the conversation here today.

Please continue, yes.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I am really excited about this.

I think in some of the preliminary conversations I've had and in talking through the initial draft with our team, one of the things that I'm interested in is eliminating the delay and allowing natural gas to be used for both water and space heating.

And just would love to hear more about opportunities there or potential interest among colleagues and to the extent that they're able to, the department as well.

the departments.

Mr. Strauss, would you like me to?

Please.

The heat pump water heating is still unfamiliar to many local engineers and contractors.

So at the public meetings, the feeling was that we needed some extra time for education and training.

So that, I think, really does need that delay.

It's new for too many people.

Heat pumps for space heating, though, is already common and well understood.

The addition of that additional delay was something that happened at the Construction Codes Advisory Board meeting.

So it's not absolutely necessary.

We delay that for another year.

Thank you.

I see Councilmember Lewis coming off mute.

Councilmember Lewis, do you have thoughts to share?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do, since we're queuing up this discussion, sorry, I'm trying to get my notes back up in front of me here.

This discussion on potential changes, I just want to ask central staff, because I have an interest in extending the restrictions on I'd be interested in extending it to commercial buildings.

I wonder, in the process of getting these code updates put together, why that's not in the initial package, what the potential hurdles are there, and how we might work together over the next few weeks to, you know, take advantage of this opportunity in reexamining the energy code to make sure that we have the broadest possible impact to meet our climate goals.

And it seems like adding commercial buildings would be a good way to do that.

So that's my question.

I'll take that one, too.

We could do this.

Hotel and multifamily water heating loads are really predictable, so it's relatively straightforward to design and size those systems.

With other commercial buildings, especially most all Seattle buildings of any size have ground floor lease space, right?

There's a lot more variability in the hot water needs depending on who leases those spaces.

Retail stores hardly need any.

Restaurants and gyms and clinics need lots of hot water.

So we could certainly extend the water heating requirement to other building types.

It would be somewhat trickier for the engineers.

And really, part of this was just my sort of intuitive calculation on how far we could take anything this code cycle.

But it is doable.

Well, if that's the case, Mr. Chair, just a brief follow-up.

I've already flagged my interest to central staff about pursuing such an amendment.

So I just want to reaffirm that here publicly, that I definitely want to pursue the amendment to expand that requirement to commercial buildings, at least for the committee's discussion at a future meeting.

We'll come up with a draft for you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis and Council Member Mosqueda.

Your thoughts are also recognized here.

And so I'll ask central staff to make sure to brief myself and other members of the committee before the next meeting.

I think that, you know, Council Member Mosqueda asked one of the questions that I already had queued up, which is understanding asking Dwayne to describe why the market might need more time to adjust to water heating requirements.

And so I just want to ensure that we are making the differentiation in changing timelines regarding what is already a common item on the market.

So heat pumps are already quite common.

Sounds like we might need more time for water.

Did I get that correct, Dwayne?

You did a good job.

Great.

Thank you.

Do we have other questions?

And maybe Dwayne or Micah or Ardell, can you tell me a little bit more about the outreach that was done to inform this proposal?

I could speak to the Energy Code part of it.

And wow, last year we had eight public review meetings, two and a half hours long each, where we hammered out technical issues, followed by three long meetings of the Construction Codes Advisory Board, as well as individual presentations for more than two dozen organizations.

That and hundreds, maybe it's even thousands, of follow-up exchanges with local engineers and other stakeholders.

I'd say this probably holds the record for the most public outreach on a construction code ever.

I'm glad to have a record-breaking piece of legislation before us.

This is great.

I was going to say, this is Micah.

I could follow up a little bit on that with the other codes.

Just in addition to that, this cycle, we went out and collaborated with many organizations throughout the state.

In the past, there were some rumblings that Seattle just does whatever they want.

And so in order to advance the codes together as a region, We went out and did a lot of collaboration throughout the state, on the east side of the state, all over with the Washington Association of Building Officials, and got their members on board with many of the significant changes.

That's why the state has adopted these changes, and we're not just coming at you with, these are all Seattle changes.

The majority of the changes that we highlighted today are at the state level.

And so we're moving together as a region instead of just a city.

And part of that was going out and like I mentioned, we did over probably 250 meetings with all these various organizations and holding all these discussions on how to make the codes better as a whole.

And so that's what we've done.

The collaboration, as Dwayne said, probably record-breaking as a region.

So I think the codes are probably extremely well done this cycle with a lot of significant changes.

affecting the entire region and not just Seattle.

So thank you.

Thank you, Micah.

Thank you, Duane.

One of the questions that I have here is regarding the electrical grid.

I can only imagine that the increase These changes will increase the load on our electrical grid.

I can also assume that with energy efficiency, both with the appliances that we have in our homes, as well as the R value of the new buildings that we're building, that there will be some savings there as well.

But Duane or Micah or Adele, could you speak to, does the city's current electrical grid have the capacity to handle the increased usage that would result from these higher standards?

I asked a representative from City Light to be on.

Is Julie Banerjee, are you there?

There you are.

Hi.

Thanks.

Hi.

Good morning, Julie.

Good morning.

My name's Julie.

I work at Seattle City Light on our energy conservation programming and new construction.

And in response to this question, we've been looking at the impact to our grid.

And exactly like you said, the buildings that are going to be going through this on it will have much lower energy use because of the energy efficiency requirements.

We definitely recognize that the code amendments that will shift the building technologies using fossil fuels to electric may contribute to localized impacts on part of our distribution infrastructure that we believe are manageable.

We're undertaking an analysis of how electrification of our transportation buildings to meet our city goals will look in a really detailed way in 2021.

Thank you, Julie, and thank you, Duane, for having City Light here.

appreciate that.

My other two questions have already been asked by Councilmember Mosqueda and Councilmember Lewis.

And so I will hold those questions and welcome the amendments that you're bringing forward.

What I and I'll just generally state that I believe that Micah had said something to this degree in his presentation, or maybe it was Ardell, my apologies, you're all doing such great work, that the buildings that we're building today are going to outlast our reliance on on some of the technologies that we have to heat our buildings today.

I think of the fact that many buildings that we still use today in our city were originally built with steam as their heating source.

And while we no longer use steam, the way that those buildings were built impact, as Duane said, having to go in and do surgery on a building is more costly than if we are to just build it the right way the first time.

And if we are going to meet our 2050 goals, we have to be making these changes today.

So I just want to thank everyone for Ardell, Duane, Micah, for all your great work, Julie for joining us, and Yolanda for all your great work too.

And colleagues, if there are no other questions, we will move on to the next item.

And we will have the energy code and construction code changes before us at our next committee.

Vice Chair Mosqueda, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

What is the timeline for us to work with central staff if there are amendments that we would like to pursue?

Before the next meeting would be most appreciated.

On our original timeline, that we had anticipated the bill to have been introduced last week.

We would have moved forward to vote it out of committee next week, at the next committee meeting in two weeks.

If we are still able to meet that timeline, I would love to meet that timeline.

So if you could have that amendment before the next committee meeting, that would be great.

OK, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, could I just speak?

Please.

if we're going to make especially the change to the water heating scope, it would be advantageous to do that really fast, like in the next couple of days.

So there's time to get out to the local engineering community and make sure that we got it right.

Thank you, Duane.

Allow the record to reflect that we need to move swiftly if we are working with the water.

I believe that what I heard from Council Member Mosqueda, Vice Chair Mosqueda, and please let me know if I was wrong, that water would not be included in that you were focusing on the heat, the space heating.

Is that correct?

I think we're going to do some follow-up calls with some of the stakeholders that we heard from, but I hear the desire to make sure that there's ample time for stakeholder engagement.

We really pride ourselves on that in our office, as you know, so we'll make sure to work with you, Mr Chair, and the keep the department up to date as well.

If there are any potential amendments to be worked and would would absolutely want to make sure that the stakeholder, the broad stakeholder groups get a chance to weigh in and provide any feedback before any amendment would be introduced into your committee.

But thank you for that reminder, and we'll get back to you pending those conversations.

Thank you.

And one last round of thank yous to our Dell Dwayne Yolanda Micah, really great work.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

And our next item of business today is a public hearing and possible vote on Council Bill 119978, which extends interim floodplain regulations.

Noah, will you please read the abbreviated title into the record?

Item 2, Council Bill 119978, an ordinance relating to floodplains, extending interim regulations for 12 months to continue to rely on updated national flood insurance rate maps.

Well, now I'm excited.

Floodplains, that's my jam.

Let's do this.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And we are joined by Maggie Glowicki from Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, Ketel Freeman from our Council Central staff.

We discussed and passed these interim regulations last year in this committee, and we received a briefing on this extension that is before us last December.

Again, we had anticipated the bill would have been transmitted to us sooner and that It would have been before our last committee.

That said, here we are, which is why we are going to hopefully take a vote on this today.

Maggie, could you, after we hear a little bit from Maggie, we will open the public hearing.

Maggie, could you provide us a brief refresher for us before we open this public hearing?

Maggie, you're on mute.

Sorry about that.

I am on mute.

So good morning, Chair Strauss and committee members.

Thank you for having me here today.

And I will provide an overview of the legislation to extend the interim floodplain regulations.

So I will share my screen.

And I do have a PowerPoint.

This is the PowerPoint that I did provide in December, but it's a short one and we'll provide the overview so that.

everybody is refreshed on the Interim Floodplain Development Regulations Extension.

So I'll provide an overview of the proposal, a reason for the extension, our public outreach to date, and our proposed next steps on the legislation.

So in July, City Council passed and the mayor signed Ordinance 126113 establishing the interim floodplain development regulations.

So these contain the building codes and other standards that homes, businesses, And people are safer from flooding through the permit application that provides the permits for construction on property within the floodplain areas.

So the Federal Emergency Management Agency, otherwise known as FEMA, produced updated maps and established the minimum requirement standards for the regulations that were adopted as the interim regulations.

And these regulations are due to expire on February 24th of 2021. If the regulations are not extended, property owners in FEMA floodplain areas may not be able to purchase flood insurance or renew their existing policies.

So the reason for the extension is that SDCI needs additional time to evaluate properties that are not mapped by FEMA but are mapped by SPU as flood prone to determine if additional areas need to be included in the regulations.

Also, public outreach and the environmental review for the permanent regulations have taken longer than we initially anticipated.

So here's an example of an area in South Park where SPU has this area mapped as flood prone, but FEMA does not have this area.

So we would like to make sure that we include every area that we know of that is at risk to flooding so that the regulations apply to those areas as well.

So public outreach completed to date is that we do have a web page up and running that provides information on the interim regulations, as well as our work on the permanent regulations on that page.

We have information for people to sign up to be on our email list to be included on future public meetings on our on the permanent regulations.

We've sent out 2,400 postcards to property owners in the map floodplain areas.

And so far we have over 360 subscribers to our email list.

Our next steps will include public outreach that will include public meetings online and additional updates to our website.

We are currently working with SPU staff to evaluate those areas that I talked about that are mapped as flood prone by SPU.

And then we are working on developing the permanent regulations.

So if there's any questions, I can answer those questions.

Thank you, Maggie.

I do not have any questions because I've asked them at the last time that we passed this interim floodplain regulation.

And then I also had questions at the last meeting.

So all of my questions have been answered.

Colleagues, any further questions for Maggie?

Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Chair Strauss.

And for those who are tracking the new fiscal climate note, this legislation was initiated prior to the implementation of that, which is why the fiscal note does not discuss the adaptation issues that are impacting here, like rising water levels, et cetera.

But since this is just an extension of the interim regulations, we'll look forward to that.

we can consider the rising water levels due to climate change, which would be answered through the adaptation question and the new climate note.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Peterson.

Vice Chair Mosqueda?

Thank you very much.

I'm wondering if we could put this presentation back up just so I could see that map one more time.

Yes.

Oops.

There we go.

Thank you.

In this area of the map, I'm trying to orient myself here.

Are we talking, is this the South Park area here?

Yes, so this is in the South Park neighborhood.

OK, and these are homes and businesses that in the South Park area there.

That's correct, yeah.

OK, and then with this, what was it one or two weeks ago?

There was that extremely high tide that we all saw pictures of that had water rushing over Al Qaeda walkway.

Did any of the high waters that day also affect this area?

So that's where SPU really keeps track of all those areas that are impacted during the high tides.

And so we are working with SPU staff on all those areas that they're mapping and keeping track of during extreme high tides.

Okay, great.

And do you, sorry, Mr. Chair, this is just a slight diversion because the map is so powerful here.

Do we also have those maps that show the rising tides and perhaps, you know, this ties into Council Member Peterson's longer term goal as we look at the impact of climate change.

But I remember seeing some maps about on how the various neighborhoods of Seattle will be impacted if climate change is not mitigated.

Do we have those maps that we could also reference for folks as we continue to lift up policies like these?

So yes, again, SPU has these flooding maps as well as sea level rise maps.

And so again, I'm working with SPU staff to evaluate the data that they have to see what we can do as we move forward with our regulations and planning.

Okay, thank you.

Maybe just to call the SPU and we'll be able to get my hands on those maps one more time just to refresh my memory on which neighborhoods we're talking about, though this affects everybody in the city and the region.

I appreciate you putting this back up there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

No additional questions.

Yeah, and I can also send a link to SPU's website.

So it is a public website where they have the flooding and the sea level rise maps.

So I can send that to you as well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Thank you, Maggie, for this great presentation.

Council Member Juarez, please take it away.

I just have a quick question on the map because Maggie, I remember seeing a map a while ago, and maybe I'm wrong, but are we included the unincorporated as well on the Duwamish?

At this time, only the areas within the city of Seattle.

Okay, so, but when it floods, it doesn't know the difference between incorporated and incorporated.

So, and I know that's an issue for the people who want to be whether or not they want to be annexed into the city of Seattle.

I remember that's been an issue.

Is there a way or I'm guessing you have the map for the unincorporated piece down in that area?

Yeah, so there's where we could.

OK, if you're asking if we can get information on that area, yes, we can work with King County staff because I know they have.

They should have that information and I've heard reference to it in conversations, so I will.

We can work with King County staff to get that.

Because we were that was one of the issues of the environmental impacts and want some of the questions that were coming up about annexation and those neighborhoods.

So it doesn't I mean, I just want to see the whole picture.

So we have an idea how to work with King County.

Okay.

Yeah, because you know that there's money on the state side, on the county side, and the state side for the floodplain stuff and mitigation and all these issues that come up from that area.

So I just kind of wanted to see the whole picture.

Okay.

You can delineate what's, you know, within the City of Seattle limits, but we also need to see how that's going to impact our folks that are not in the annex but still use the same roads, resources, employment, same buildings.

So if we could see that, that'd be great, whenever you get a chance.

Okay, I will do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Maggie.

And seeing no further questions, we will move to open the public hearing on this bill.

And I'll just take this moment actually to ask colleagues.

Colleagues, are you feeling comfortable with passing this interim floodplain regulation today, understanding that your information will come to you?

I'm seeing thumbs up.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

And so before we open the remote public hearing, I would again ask that everyone please be patient as we continue to learn.

to operate this new system in real time, navigate through the inevitable growing pains.

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

I will moderate the public hearing in the following manner.

Each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

I will call on one speaker at a time in the order in which they are registered on the council's website.

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

The link is also posted in today's agenda.

Once I call on the 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.

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

As a reminder public comment should relate to CB 119978. If you have comments about something else You can always provide written comments by emailing my office.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left, and there are a lot of time.

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

If speakers do not end their comments by the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be unmuted 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 the meeting, please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

The public hearing on CB 119978 is now open.

IT, can you confirm to me that there's no one signed up for public comment?

Confirmed.

Wonderful, thank you.

At this time, I do not have anyone remotely present to speak.

Staff has confirmed that there's not a member of the public in the queue before closing this public hearing.

So the public hearing on CB 119978 is now closed.

Thank you for everyone who provided comment today.

As I mentioned before public comment, before we moved in public comment, it is the desire of the chair to pass this out of committee today.

And in order to pass these regulations, to get these regulations in place before the previous interim regulations expire, I will be asking to suspend the rules and allow us to vote on this item today.

Is there any further discussion on this bill before we vote?

Council Member Peterson.

Chair Strauss, I was really happy that we got to look at these back in December and then are hearing them again today.

So that's what gives me the additional comfort to proceed now.

So thank you for letting us have this extra time to be introduced to the concept in the previous meeting and then to consider it now for a vote.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

I move to suspend the rules to vote on Council Bill 119978, the same day as the public hearing.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

It has been moved and seconded to suspend the rules to allow for a vote on this item today.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Yes.

Eric Strauss?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

And thank you all for your time today.

This item will be back before full council this coming Monday.

Mr. Chair, I believe that was just the vote and the rules.

Was it?

Now you need to call the- Wonderful.

Here we go.

Thank you for that great oversight, Clerk Ahn.

I move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 119978. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

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

If there are no additional comments, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Lewis?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez.

Aye.

Council Member Mosqueda.

Aye.

Clerk Strath.

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

Now the motion carries.

And again, thank you for your time today.

This item will be back before the full council this coming Monday.

Is there any items for the good of the order?

I don't know, Council Member Mosqueda may have something.

I don't have anything this time.

Just to say thank you for having this first meeting of the year.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's always good to see you all.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all.

Thank you, colleagues.

This concludes the Wednesday, January 13, 2021 meeting of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

As a reminder, our next committee meeting will be on January 27, starting at 930 AM.

Thank you for attending, and we are adjourned.

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