Seattle City Council 11/8/2021

Thank you, son.

The November 8th, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2 p.m.

I am Dan Strauss, president and pro tem of the council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mosqueda?

Present.

Peterson?

Present.

Sawant?

Herbold?

Present.

Juarez?

Here.

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Council President Pro Tem Strauss.

Present.

Seven present.

Thank you, and when Council Member Swann joins us, I will let the record reflect.

First item of business, presentations.

Presentations.

Council Member Herbold has a proclamation honoring Richard Kelly, a respected community leader.

Council Member Herbold will first present the proclamation, and then I will open the floor for comments from council members.

After council member comments, we will suspend the rules to allow our guests to accept the proclamation and provide comments.

Council Member Herbold, you are recognized in order to present the proclamation.

Thank you.

Before I do that, can we confirm that our guest is with us?

They do not see a guest.

Yeah, I don't.

That's why I'm asking.

I don't see Theresa Boyle's name here.

There's no there's no caller or video caller.

Why don't we go through some of the other agenda items and when that person comes, we'll come back to this.

Is that- Is that all right?

As long as that's okay with the City Clerk Simmons, I'm fine with it.

We're good for that.

Yes, that's fine.

Great, moving forward.

Approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the Seattle City Council meetings of October 18th and November 1st, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there's no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objections, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Thank you.

Moving on to the approval of the introduction and referral calendar.

If there is no objection, the introduction and referral calendar will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the introduction and referral calendar is adopted.

Moving to approval of the agenda.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Council Member Herbold, we have more quickly moved through these items than I expected.

Would you like us to go to public comment?

We have 10 people signed up.

Yes, let's move into public comment.

That's okay with y'all.

Great.

And for folks presenting public comment, you may or may not have presented in public comment in the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee.

I do run a very literal understanding of the rules regarding public comment and that I require public commenters to be addressing an item on the agenda.

Since we are at full council, this will be either the agenda or the introduction and referral calendar.

So I see, for instance, signed up number one, Howard Gale.

Howard Gale, there is no item on the agenda for police accountability today.

There is a bill on the introduction and referral calendar relating to the police.

And so noting that I need, when you first begin speaking, please state your name and the item on the agenda or introduction and referral calendar in which you are addressing.

So colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for the items on the city council agenda, introduction referral calendar, and the council's work program.

I thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It reminds the strong intent of the city council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, city council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point We deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I will moderate public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period, since we have 10 speakers, will be for 20 minutes, and each speaker will be given two minutes to speak.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered by public comment on the council's website.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number used for registration and using the meeting phone number, ID, and passcode that was emailed to them upon confirmation.

This is different than a general meeting listen line call-in information.

I am at this time only seeing one individual not present, Jim Wilson.

Again, 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 yet registered to speak and would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment by going to the council's website at seattle.gov forward slash council.

The public comment link is also listed on 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 is their turn to speak.

And then the speaker must press star six to begin speaking.

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

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda and or introduction and referral calendar.

So we are just commenting on today's agenda and introduction or referral calendar.

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

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

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

Once you have completed your public comment, we ask 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 comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

Please remember to press star six, not pound six, star six, to hear the, after you hear the prompt that you've been unmuted.

Mr. Howard Gale, first up, I hear you're already with us and I'm going to call on the first number of people so you know which list you're in.

So we have Howard Gale.

David Haynes, Randall Olson, Allison Van Gorp, Susan Davis, Melissa Weschler, Maria Barrientos, David Tan, and the only one not present currently is Jim Wilson.

Good morning, Mr. Gale.

Good afternoon, Mr. Gale.

How are you today?

Good afternoon, Howard Gale.

And I want the clock to stop because Councilmember Strauss, you have incorrectly stated what the rules are for public comment.

Public comment for committees is different from the full council.

Anyone could comment on items in the full council that have to do with the yearly action plan.

And that includes the budget and that includes public safety.

So I would like my time to be restarted.

And I would also like again to state for other listeners.

that the stipulations stated by Councilmember Strauss are wholly incorrect.

Mr. Gale, would you like to?

Clerk, you can restart the clock.

Thank you.

Mr. Gale, we will accept comments on the work plan today.

Yes.

Because I'd rather us continue in a good way than to have an argument today.

So two minutes have been restarted, and there you go.

Thank you.

Howard Gale, District 7, speaking on budget and failed police accountability, part of the council's work plan.

Last week, KOW published more information on the ongoing OIG scandal involving a failure of the OPA to properly investigate police abuse and a failure of the OIG to perform its mandated function of providing a critical review of OPA investigations.

The KOW report also highlights OPA Director Andrew Meyerberg's background as a defender of police abuse and as a lawyer who prior to directing the LPA was willing to violate legal ethics in that pursuit.

The response to these revelations has been slander from the federal court monitor accusing a minority-run news source, the South Seattle Emerald, of engaging in clickbait.

The CPC has engaged in obfuscation and prevarication, claiming to be monitoring the OIG whistleblower complaints, when those complaints were in fact determined three months ago not to fall under the jurisdiction of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

The council remains steadfast in ignoring this scandal for three months now and counting in the hopes that it will be forgotten.

The KOW story proves these failures will not be ignored.

Faced with the news today that there's a $20 million shortfall in revenue, the council has failed to cut a penny from the police accountability budget and, in fact, has proposed adding more money to a system whose agencies are involved in scandals and failures and are costing the taxpayers 10.8 million, that's more than half of the 20 million shortfall, independent of an additional accountability system in the SPD, which costs around another 10 million.

We must invest these monies in a system that provides for full civilian community control over police, as so many cities have done post-George Floyd.

Go to seattlestop.org to find out how.

That's seattlestop.org.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gale.

Up next, we have Mr. David Haynes.

Please begin by stating your name and the item in which you're addressing.

Welcome.

Thank you.

I live in District 7. I just want to point out SPD needs to have a law that they need to prioritize over time to fight crime in my neighborhood.

OK, I'm sorry.

I want to address something totally different, though.

I just want to point out we need about the Grand Avenue alley.

We need 21st century first world quality housing and commercial buildings not overwhelmed by roads, buses and trains and planes.

City Council should approve the vacated alley with a caveat of better 21st century approach to developing housing and community benefits.

As in the actual residents benefiting with a robust floor plan and noise abated home away from the noisy street.

Echoing intoxifying one of the most oppressive problems in America and especially Seattle.

It's all the inner city concepts of housing built on side of noisy polluted highway, forcing a sidewalk on perimeter next to road, while still forcing a no curb road to middle of a housing project, allowing inconsiderate drivers a shortcut, while inviting pedestrians to walk on curbless road with drivers.

Why can't two housing projects join from the center of land and robustly build higher and further away from the road?

Vacating an alley only to be used to let disrespectful drivers to bother pedestrians is bad interpretation of 21st century, first-world quality development.

And as more proof, government isn't qualified to help develop properly, to give people a reprieve from the modern wheel, bothering people like the biggest nuisance to peace and quiet quality of living.

I think City Council needs to vacate the alley with the caveat they have to build from the center of the property out, not pour, get the toxic plumes and noise polluted side of Rainier Avenue while the rich suffer too close to the other side of the road, while another street gets to divide the property, ruining pedestrians' day every day.

Please reconsider the demands of all the developers, private and public, to begin building robustly, higher, and not so accommodating to the road, forcing people to live too close to it, causing all this warehouse echo housing that's causing a mental health crisis.

Thank you, Mr. Haynes.

And I do see that the next number of people are signed up for the public hearing on clerk file 314459. And so the last person that we have signed up for general public comment is Jim Wilson.

Jim is not present at this time.

Jim, if you are listening, please use the phone number that was distributed upon confirmation, not the council listen by.

I'll give you just a minute because we would like to take your public comments if possible.

And IT, can you confirm with me that Jim Wilson is not present at this time?

There are no other public comment registrants.

Thank you.

Seems we have no more public comment registrants.

Public.

Clerk, I don't have a point in here to close public comment.

So hearing no objection, the public comment is now closed.

Is there anything further I need to do here?

No, there is not.

And if our guests aren't here, you can also, without an objection, move it to the end of the agenda under other business if we still want that opportunity for the proclamation guests to join.

I don't see them yet, but I could be wrong.

Thank you, Deputy Clerk Schwing.

Council Member Herbold, do you have a preference?

We could also do the public hearing on the clerk file first.

She won't be joining us.

I've just learned that our guests will not be joining us at late today.

So given that, I don't feel like we need necessarily to do a public presentation.

If you would like to do so, I'm happy to move forward with that.

But given that our guest could not be with us today, I'm fine with us all sharing our best wishes with her via the proclamation separately.

Great.

Let's do the public hearing and then we'll come back to that just because we're right in the middle between comment and hearing.

If that's all right.

So for the public hearing on clerk file 314459, will the clerk please read the title of clerk file 314459?

Yes, agenda item one, clerk file 314459, a public hearing for the petition of Grand Street Commons LLC for the vacation of the alley in block 14, Joss C. Kinnear's addition to the city of Seattle being the block bounded by South Grand Street, 22nd Avenue South South Holgate Street and 23rd Avenue South.

Thank you.

Before I open the public hearing on this item, I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Peterson, Chair of Transportation Utilities Committee as the sponsor of the clerk file to provide us with the introductory remarks.

Council Member Peterson, please take it away.

Thank you, President Pro Tem Strauss.

Colleagues, I want to start by thanking the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Design Commission, our City Council Central staff, and the affordable housing developers for presenting to us during our Council briefing this morning.

For the benefit of the general public tuning in to our City Council meeting now, the presenters this morning walked us through the request from the real estate developers asking the City of Seattle to formally and permanently vacate an alley near South Grand Street and Rainier Avenue South, as presented in Clerk File 314459. Our Transportation Committee received a similar presentation a few months ago, and now the Clerk File is ready for action by the Council.

The public hearings and initial legislative votes to vacate streets or alleyways usually happen at our transportation committee, but due to the council's busy fall budget season and our desire to expedite the production of low-income housing, we're having the public hearing this afternoon and then plan to vote on the requested alley vacation at our full council meeting next week.

Approval of the alley vacation would facilitate the development of this mixed use, mixed income project to be built near frequent fixed transit.

Transit of our growing, which includes our growing light rail system.

Nearly half of the 771 new residential units would be affordable to low income families under 60% of the area median income.

I look forward to the comments during today's public hearing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

As presiding officer, I'm now opening the public hearing on Clerk File 314459 relating to a petition of Grand Street Commons LLC for an alley vacation of Block 14, Joe's C. Kinnear's addition to the city of Seattle beginning of the block bounded by South Grand Street.

22nd Avenue South, South Holgate, and 23rd Avenue South.

The online registration to speak opened at 12 noon today and I will call on speakers in the order in which they registered.

The online registration will remain open until the conclusion of this public hearing.

The same rules applied to the public comment period will be applied to this public hearing.

Each speaker will be provided two minutes to speak and each speaker will hear a chime when they have 10 seconds left of the allotted time.

Speakers' microphones will be muted at the end of the allotted public comment time.

Public comment relating to the clerk file is only being accepted at this public hearing.

Speakers are asked to begin their public comments by stating their name.

Please remember to press star six, not pound six, star six after you hear the prompt if you have been unmuted.

bringing up the list.

Here we have Randall Olson, Alison Van Gorp, Susan Davis, Melissa Weschler, Maria Barrientos, and David Tan.

Randall, good afternoon.

Welcome.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment today.

My name is Randall Olson.

I'm a land use attorney at Cairn Cross and Implement in Seattle.

I represent Mount Baker Housing regarding this project.

This is an exciting day.

I have been working with Mount Baker housing on the valley vacation for over two years.

And it has been a very long journey, but the city should be proud of what it is helping to achieve here, including the 206 units of affordable housing at 60% am I just in the Mount Baker housing portion of this project, there'll be over 350 units of affordable housing across the entire project.

And my comment today is to voice support for approval of the alley vacation.

And I also ask that you support and approve council member Mosqueda's proposed amendment, which would waive the requirement for Mount Baker Housing to pay the city for the vacated alley.

As the council knows from tackling this issue of affordable housing for many years, affordable housing projects face many of the same permitting and construction cost issues that market rates and housing does.

lumber, steel, concrete it takes to build affordable housing is the same it takes for market rate housing and the costs are the same.

Same with the permitting process.

So those costs limit how much affordable housing can be built and funded.

Here, the city's office of housing is funding the construction of Mount Baker housing, affordable housing building.

And council member Mosqueda's amendment would waive the requirement for Mount Baker housing to pay for the vacated alley land, which the effect of that would be to keep affordable housing dollars with the office of housing where they could be deployed to construct more affordable housing in the city.

So the issue of developing affordable housing is not one of a lack of desire, but rather a lack of funding.

And Council Member Muscade's amendment is an easy way to allocate more dollars towards affordable housing.

So please approve the allocation and the proposed amendment.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Randall.

Up next, we have Allison Van Gorp, followed by Susan Davis, and then Melissa Weschler.

Allison, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for this opportunity to speak.

My name's Allison Van Gorp, and I'm a resident of the Mount Baker neighborhood.

I live near the current Mount Baker housing development along McClellan.

And I'm calling today to speak in support of the alley vacation and Council Member Mosqueda's amendment You know, living where I live, I've had the opportunity to see Mount Baker Housing in action, especially as they've expanded and the construction that's underway currently along MLK and McClellan.

The recent and ongoing construction has been well done and it appears to be well managed.

We're in a housing crisis right now and building more affordable housing, near amenities like we have in our neighborhood, light rail, parks, access to jobs and shopping.

It's essential, and I'm looking forward to sharing these facilities in my neighborhood with more neighbors.

I'm urging you today to do whatever you can to encourage this type of affordable housing development near opportunities, near transit, near parks.

Please approve the alley vacation and Council Member Muscata's amendment to waive the fee for the vacation.

I wholeheartedly support Mount Baker Housing's Grand Street Commons project.

And your approval on this next week will help the project to move forward more quickly and with a larger number of affordable units.

Thank you.

Thank you, Allison.

Up next, we have Susan Davis, followed by Melissa Weschler, and then Moya Barrientos.

Susan, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Susan Davis, and I'm here to talk about the Grand Street Commons.

of vacation of the alley in block 14. I also live in Mt. Baker and just a block and a half away from the Mt. Baker Village off of McClellan.

And I'm also a customer of Deer Auto, which will be the business adjacent to the building and to the alley.

From my perspective, the alley between Holgate and Graham has not been used as any type of thoroughfare in my 30 plus years of living in Mt. Baker.

I strongly urge the City Council to vote for Mt. Baker Housing's request to vacate the alley, which would allow Mt. Baker Housing to build one structure on the entire lot instead of two on either side of the alley.

Plus, building one structure would create an additional 45 affordable apartment units.

If the alley is not vacated, building two structures would increase their cost.

Vacating the alley for the Mt. Baker Grand Street Commons would allow the City of Seattle to reach our common goal of creating more housing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Allison.

Up next is Melissa Weschler, followed by Maria Barrientos, and then David Tan.

I see Patricia Gray has signed up.

But Patricia, you are not listed as present currently.

So please call in the phone number that was provided with the confirmation, not the council listen line.

Melissa, welcome.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

This is Melissa Wexler with the Rundberg Architecture Group.

I'm calling in support of the petition for Grand Street Commons for the vacation of the alley in Block 14. We are the architecture group that's been designing not just this block, but the other two blocks of Grand Street Commons.

And on behalf of our entire company, I'm calling in today to express our strong support for Mount Baker's alley vacation.

This project creates a great opportunity for the city to transform an unused public property into affordable family housing while simultaneously reducing investment costs for the Office of Housing.

In addition to 50 additional units of affordable housing fixed at 60% AMI, the city will also be gaining a vibrant public plaza that will benefit the whole neighborhood, not just the residents in the new building.

The plaza and reconfiguration of South Grand Street will create a central destination for the neighborhood featuring pedestrian-oriented open space, seating, enhanced landscaping, space for gathering and play, and supplementary lighting.

Second, we'd also like to voice our strong support for Council Member Mosqueda's amendment to waive the alley vacation fee on this project and other similar projects in the future.

Given that Mount Baker is relying on funding from the Office of Housing to execute this project, It's logical to cut out the circular references and reduce costs up front to allow these projects to remain competitive for public funding.

For this project in particular, where the alley has never been in use and its elimination will have no negative impact on circulation or services for the rest of the neighborhood, waiving fees for the property in exchange for affordable housing is a no-brainer.

Finally, even before the vacation has been granted, this project has required significant time and investment in the community already.

spanning from an extensive public outreach effort during a pandemic, nonetheless, to a long string of meetings with SDOT and the Design Commission during the alley vacation process, which has taken over two years to bring the project before you today.

Projects that require street and alley vacations take exponentially more time.

Thank you, Melissa.

My apologies if the ding interrupted your comments.

Please do feel free to send in any other comments you'd like reflected on the record to us.

Up next is Maria Barrientos, followed by David Tan and Patricia Gray, still not listed as present.

So if you'd like to call in, please call into the number provided in the confirmation email.

Good afternoon, Maria.

Welcome.

Maria, I see you're on mute.

So if you press star 6, not pound 6, there you are.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

This is Maria Barrientos.

I wanted to say that I volunteered to assist Mount Baker Housing on this alley vacation process about six months ago.

I did want to say, obviously, I support the alley vacation.

It does make the entire three block project work way better.

Creating this great public plaza for the community use and providing the opportunity to build more affordable housing is a really good thing.

I urge you all to vote yes for the alley vacation.

I also support council member Mosqueda's amendment to waive the alley vacation fee.

It's a very easy way for the city to ensure scarce affordable housing dollars are spent to create housing.

I will also add, I was stunned at the cost and length of the vacation process.

And as Melissa mentioned, the fact that all the funds are coming from Office of Housing It's sort of sad to spend that much money to get through this process, but hopefully we're almost there and appreciate the opportunity to talk.

Thank you.

Thank you, Maria.

Up next is David Tan, followed by Patricia Gray.

Patricia, you are not listed as present, so please do call in if you'd like to provide comments.

David, welcome and good afternoon.

Thank you very much, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is David Tan.

I'm the executive director of Mount Baker Housing Association.

We are the proponent of, part of the proponent of the petition for the vacation of the alley at Grand Street comments project in block 14. Rather than reiterate what everybody else has said in front of me, which is all very true, I wanted to point a little bit to Maria's comments just before me about the extensive cost and time related to the allegation on this project, which I believe would be true for other projects.

And I say this in support of Council Member Muscat's amendment to the petition.

If I understand the numbers in our own budget correctly, we have spent well over a half a million dollars in pursuing this allegation.

And it is somewhat inefficient in my view to to do, you know, to have that sort of hanging over our heads as a non-profit affordable housing developer who is the fortunate recipient of city funding for our projects.

So I urge you to vote yes on the alley vacation and also speak strongly in support of a council member's amendment.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, David.

Patricia Gray, IT, can you confirm that she is not present?

There are no further public hearing registrants.

Thank you.

That was our last speaker remotely present to speak at this public hearing.

Public hearing on clerk file 314459 is now closed.

Anyone who wanted to speak and could not is welcome to send us your written testimony at councilatseattle.gov.

The bill is scheduled for a vote on the November 15th, 2021 city council meeting.

The council is still accepting comments again via email at councilatseattle.gov.

Moving on to the next agenda item, payment of the bills.

Payment of the bills, clerk, would you please read the short title?

Payment of bills, Council Bill 120217, an ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of October 25th, 2021 through October 29th, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you, I move to pass Council Bill 120217. Is there a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to pass the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

Hearing no comments, Deputy Clerk Schwinn, would you please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Herbold?

Yes.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

President Pro Tem Strauss?

Yes.

7 in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Committee reports.

There are no committee reports on today's agenda, so I'll move on to other business.

And I know from communicating with Councilmember Herbold, unfortunately, Theresa Doyle is unable to join us today.

I do want to thank colleagues for the opportunity to sign on to that proclamation.

And if anyone would like to say anything on the record, we can use this moment to share your thoughts.

I will begin by saying that I wish that I was lucky, lucky enough to know our friend.

And I want to make sure that I'm getting his name completely correctly.

through this.

Richard Kelly, Dick Kelly, I knew that that was where I was having the trouble.

I wish that I had had that opportunity to know him after reading the articles and hearing friends share their stories of him.

There are forces like this few in our lifetime.

And I just want to thank Teresa for and Ken.

Wow, Richard Kelly, for your service to our, our city, our state and our nation.

Colleagues, any other comments or questions at this time?

Council Member Mosqueda, seeing, please.

Thank you, Mr. President, Pro Tem.

Mr. President, would this be an appropriate time for me at the good of the order just to flag again for council colleagues the amendment that I would like to be bringing forward next week, just recognizing that this is not an opportunity for vote today, but to flush out a little bit more of the comments that were offered in public comment, would that be an appropriate time for me to do it?

Sure, take it away.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr President.

Colleagues, I wanted to thank you for the opportunity again, as I discussed this morning to have you review amendment number one, which is discussed on page five of the central staff memo that accompanied the conversation we just had on 31 4459, which is the petition for Grand Street Commons.

Thank you to all of the members of the community who have spoken today and all the letters and calls we've received The amendment would remove the requirement that Grand Street partners pay the appraised value of the alley space.

Adopting the amendment would reduce the MHBA and the city's cost to develop the affordable housing project by at least $400,000.

As we talked about this morning, this is an exciting opportunity to bring forward the amendment to waive the vacation fees so that those dollars can go directly into supporting the affordable housing onsite.

The amendment is a precursor to legislation that my office has been working on with Lish Whitson.

And I wanna thank Aaron House again for my office who've been having conversations about how to create an exemption for all city funded affordable housing projects.

This is a great example of where we can remove an internal barrier to affordable housing and allow for us to save precious affordable housing money to be in directly invested into more homes.

This amendment and the legislation to come later this year align with our earlier values expressed as a council in 2018 when we passed the City Surplus Ordinance Act to try to make sure that surplus properties that the city had remained in city hands so that we could build affordable housing on site.

If departments were not interested in that surplus land for things like affordable housing, then it would be offered to community partners, nonprofit developers, to build things like affordable housing coupled with other public service amenities.

This is a great opportunity as a city for us to be looking at ways to improve the code, reduce fees so that we can continue to encourage and incentivize the creation of more affordable housing.

I think as one caller noted today, there's not a lack of interest.

There is a lack of funding and anything that we can do to reduce the fees coming back to the city to streamline both the permitting and the application and cost of building affordable housing we want to do, especially in the wake of COVID.

I think the exciting opportunity that will present itself in the upcoming week will be to pass this amendment in addition to the underlying bill, which we received a briefing on this morning as well in council briefing.

As you can see from the presentation, affordable housing coupled with public space for community cohesion.

engagement and opportunities for the city as a whole including space for arts and activation of our streetscape.

This is a great opportunity for us as a city and with the amendment that I'm hoping to bring forward next week with your support colleagues I hope we can also make it a more affordable opportunity for locations like these and later this year with broader legislation to apply this same concept to other street vacation opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I will look forward to sharing more comments next week and council colleagues.

Again, if you have any questions about amendment number one, please feel free to reach out to my office or anyone on central staff.

Lish Whiston and Aaron House are your contacts.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

Any other items for good of the order and other business?

I will make the request here to be excused from the November 29th council briefing and full council meeting.

Are there any objections?

Hearing no objections, thank you.

Colleagues, if there are no other items for the good of the order, colleagues, this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on November 15th, 2021 at 2 p.m.

I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

We are adjourned.