Very good.
Thank you.
Hello, everybody.
It's September 19th, 2018. It is noon.
This is a special committee of our Finance and Neighborhoods Committee.
Welcome to City Council.
And I know that I'm going to have some colleagues, but in the meantime, we're going to move forward fairly quickly with this.
We have a number of reappointments, and there are two that we are not going to move forward with on the agenda that are on the agenda today, and that's item six for Catherine Kang and item seven for Irving Engel.
They will be coming.
in December for us.
So we've got a number of appointments and various committees.
Kenny Pittman, if you would like to just come on up and bring your group.
And then item 11 on our agenda is an ordinance that's related to the City Light Department.
I see Mara Brugger coming in.
Thank you very much.
That's going to include information about the Capital Improvement Fund.
and the City Lights Light Fund.
All of these items today are going to be on our agenda for possible vote.
We also have an ordinance that's going to accept funding from non-city sources.
We reviewed this at our committee recently, and also an ordinance that amends the 2018 budget.
This is our second review of both these items, so it's my intention to move forward with a vote today.
We also have a resolution on looking at two properties for Historical designation and I'm glad to see our Department of Neighborhoods here.
So thank you very much for that So Kenny, would you like to start with introductions?
What?
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the signal.
We have public comment.
We have one public commenter Mr. Zimmerman Please, you've got two minutes and we ask that you would talk to the agenda and say something that would positively move us forward today.
You're absolutely right.
Thank you very much, Consul.
Dear Heil, my dear Führer.
Very positive beginning.
I want to speak about agenda number 11 about City Light Department.
For last month, I twice go to commissioner meeting City Light Department and talks I will bring class action against City Light for stealing million and million dollars from the people.
And I'm very happy, so in this meeting, present Mosquitto, Consul Mosquitto.
She support me too.
It's very good when Consul support idea what is I have.
But it's not simple what is I thinking, because I, few year ago, win class action for $100 million against Department of Social and Health Service, who still, money still is in case, what is go for eight years.
steal money from 50,000 disabled people.
This case very unique.
It trigger a dozen cases around United States of America similar.
So a million people take money from dirty government who steal money from us.
What has happened with City Light is unique too, because I don't understand how this possible.
What is my bill from 60 bucks come to 300. In City Light, give money to one family.
This in Seattle Times, $2,000.
So right now, question very simple, and I talk this in committee, are you doing this yourself?
Like I spoke before with Department of Social and Health Service for a couple of years, dozen times, nothing happened, or I will bring class action.
You need support this because it's a real tiff.
It's a crime.
These people are supposed to be going to jail.
With my class action, no jail time, because it's too big people involved in this business.
But City Light is a crook, a total crook.
In $18 million, what is?
OK, thank you very much.
OK, now we'll do introductions.
Welcome.
Thank you, Councilman Banchoff.
Is your microphone on?
Look at the green light in the stem.
Okay.
Thank you, Councilmember Baxall.
Kenny Pittman, the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
Good.
Mary?
Mary Bacarella, Executive Director of the Pipeline.
Please move so you don't have to, like, strain your neck.
Very good.
Thank you.
Good.
Alessandra Mauri?
Thank you, I'm glad you're here.
So we're going to read in what, five appointments, reappointments, please.
Okay.
Appointment number 01074, reappointment of Robert J. Flowers as a member of the Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District Board for a term to July 30th, 2022. Item number two, appointment 01075, reappointment of Nicole Grant as a member of the Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District Board for a term to July 30th, 2022. Reappointment of Christy L. Beattie as a member of the Pike Place Market Finance and Asset Management Committee for a term to April 30th, 2020. Sorry, that's appointment number 01138. Item number four, appointment number 01079, appointment of Alessandra Mowry as a member of the Pike Place Market And finally, appointment number 01123 reappointment of Rico Quindongo as a member of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority.
Council for a term to June 30, 2022. Great.
Thank you.
Kenny.
Sure.
Lead us off.
Alrighty.
The first I'd like to talk about briefly is Mr. Robert J. Flowers.
He's a reappointment to the Washington State Convention Center Public Facility District.
That is the former state convention facility that has been turned over to King County several years ago.
He represents the banking interests.
The mayor has three appointments.
He represents banking for one of the mayor's appointments, and this would be his third term.
The other one is Ms. Nicole Grant, who's on her second term, and she represents organized labor.
It's required under the law that the mayor has to appoint someone from organized labor, and Nicole Grant fills that position.
Those are the two for the Washington State Convention Center Public Facility District.
The next three are with the Pike Place Market.
Ms. Christy Beatty, who's an agency appointee from the Department of Finance, is a unique position where it started when the city was providing financing through the levy money.
As a non-voting member, it's more one of just watching the finances as part of that project.
And so it's for a two-year term ending in April of 2020. And this will be her third term on it.
The next one is Ms. Ali Mari, who is a constituency appointment.
This is one of three categories that they have.
They have mayoral appointees, constituency appointees, and governing council appointees.
She represents constituency, which are the vendors and the workers there at the Pike Place Market.
And they're elected by their own separate group to be a representative on the board.
And then the last one is Mr. Rico Curandongo, who is the chair now of the Pike Place Market, and he's also a member of the Historic Seattle Preservation.
And isn't he a member of our constituent group around the arena?
He could be.
He's an architect by trade, very high in demand.
a very deeply engaged community member.
OK, well, Ali, you're the one that's here.
So let's talk to you and about you and about why you want this position.
And I want to say thank you for your willingness to do it.
Oh, yes.
Thank you.
So tell us a little bit about your background.
You're representing vendors.
Are you a vendor yourself?
No, I am an employee of a vendor at the Pike Place Market.
I work at Hands of the World.
And I was, I joined the constituency about a year ago when I started to get more involved with the market.
I've been working there for, I'm going into my fifth year working there.
And I love the market.
It's home.
And I also volunteer at the food bank, which I love doing.
Would you like, I was, so I ran for the position.
I was elected and I have been ratified.
So I have been sitting on the council already.
But I would love, I have been enjoying it so far.
I would like to represent people who are low income in our community more.
And I'd also like to hopefully start putting together some programs to help people who are employed at the market.
I'm not.
Do you have ideas about that?
When you say to help people that are employed, do you have a focus?
Yeah, I think transit is one of the biggest issues facing our community.
I think that's true for a lot of Seattle.
But I know that to be especially true for the Pike Place market.
I know a couple of people who've just stopped working there because it's too hard to get there.
So I think it would be really important to the health of the small businesses as well for their employee retention.
It's, I think, better for small businesses to have long-term employees rather than have high turnover.
So are we thinking about transit passes, that kind of thing that would be funded by the employers?
Yeah, something.
I mean, this is all working and I don't want to speak too much to it right now, but yeah, I'd love to see something like a transit program for the market.
But beyond that, just strengthening our social services there and making sure that the people who are underrepresented currently have higher representation going forward.
Very good, well thank you so much.
Thanks.
So do we, can we vote for all five of these now?
I think it might be best to do the groupings, so for each commission separately, so we could do item one and two first.
Alright, so I would like to move the reappointment of Robert Flowers as a member of the Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District Board and also, Nicole Grant, likewise, is to be reappointed to the Convention Center Public Facilities District Board.
So I'll move both of those.
Second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Great.
And no opposition, and nobody's abstaining.
So that's pretty good for those first two.
So appointments three and four, well, we've got a reappointment of Christy Beatty.
Yeah, the first one is for the Finance Asset Management Committee and the next two after that.
All right, well, we'll just do Christy first.
Thank you very much, Allison.
Pike Place Market Finance and Asset Management Committee.
It's just her reappointment, so I'll move that reappointment.
second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Nobody's opposed.
We don't have anybody abstaining.
The third one or the fourth one is our appointment.
So Ali, this is yours.
That I move the appointment of Alessandra Mowry as a member of the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority Council.
Second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Well done.
Unanimous.
Oh, thank you.
No opposition.
Nobody's abstaining.
Your appointment will go forward next Monday, right?
Monday.
Good.
You're welcome to come.
Don't need to.
It'll be presented to the council as a unanimous recommendation coming out of this committee.
So, congratulations.
Thank you.
Number five is the reappointment of Rico Quirendongo as a member of the Pike Place Market.
preservation and development authority council.
Second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Nobody's opposed.
No abstentions.
That one too moves forward.
So numbers six and seven we're going to be holding.
Do you want to start with the appointment of Christopher?
Yeah.
Okay, thank you.
Thanks, Kim.
Thank you.
Thanks, Mary.
Good to see you, Ali.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you all.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you.
Agenda number, item number eight, appointment number 01125, appointment of Christopher Maycutt as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31st, 2019. Great.
So this is our last appointment for today, and we have Daniel Friedman coming up.
Christopher, nice to meet you.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
Do you want to start introductions?
Sure.
I'm Danielle Friedman from the Department of Neighborhoods, and I'm introducing Chris Maycutt.
He's the City Council District No. 6 for the Community Involvement Commission, the appointee.
He lives in Finney Ridge.
He managed and opened the Chaco Canyon Organic Cafes from 2003 to 2017, and now he's the Business Membership Coordinator Neighborhood Association.
Excellent.
Welcome.
Thanks.
Congratulations on all of your community involvement and thank you for that.
Would you like to talk a little bit more about your interest in this commission?
Sure.
Well, born and raised here in Seattle, I have a kind of a love affair with the city.
I have deep roots in the community.
I went to high school with a Councilmember Harrell's daughter, Garfield, in 1992.
He really is old, isn't he?
He is, man.
Wait.
I hope his staff will tell him I said that.
I think it's permanently on the record now.
I really believe that city government is vitally important because cities can do things that show the rest of the country and the rest of the world what can be done.
So it starts small and local.
have always seeked to be a part of the community and to help the community.
And I'm excited to be a part of this commission, potentially, to be a part of helping move us forward as a city.
Nice.
Would you like to say anything about the commission itself?
Because I'm very enthused about the appointment and about the work you're doing.
But do you want to just highlight some of what you are doing since it's a relatively new commission?
Yeah, the commission's been meeting for about a year.
They've set up bylaws and, you know, really have gotten a strong base for the commission.
And now they broke up into different committees.
They're looking at best practices on community involvement, looking at distribution of resources throughout the city to make sure that they're equitable and that they're reaching underserved traditionally underserved communities.
They just had a briefing on language access and they have a lot of, with the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is doing that work.
So there's a lot of ideas around collaboration possibly for reaching out to people in different languages and making sure that they're represented within the city.
Well, I really appreciate the direction that you are going.
And I think that this is a wonderful commission that, as you say, it's an organic outreach for people who are already embedded in the community to help go back, reach people in ways that maybe we haven't done in the past.
So I think it's very valuable.
And thank you, Christopher, for your willingness to spend your time.
Absolutely.
Do you have anything else that you would like to add while you're here?
Nope.
Okay, well I'd like to move then the appointment of Christopher Maycutt as a member of the Community Involvement Commission.
Second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
No abstentions?
No nos?
So we're in good shape.
Thank you.
I just wanted to say this will be the The second time that I've had an opportunity to, that Chris has had an opportunity to serve the city, he served on our Progressive Revenue Task Force.
I'm sorry, which task force?
The Progressive Revenue Task Force earlier this year and was really helpful in bringing into the conversation perspectives of small business owners, particularly those in his neighborhood.
have always found you, Chris, to be very pragmatic, but also hopeful and with just a really deep desire to help us make the city of Seattle a better place for everyone.
So I appreciate all of your dedication.
I appreciate your willingness to serve on the CIC.
Thank you.
I'm an optimist.
You are, and I appreciate that about you.
Very good.
Thank you.
All right, we're in good shape.
So the next item, would you like to read that in, and we will invite Department of Neighborhoods to come up.
Absolutely.
Item number nine, Council Bill 119325, an ordinance relating to historic preservation, imposing controls upon the Colonnade Hotel slash Gatewood Apartments, a landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board under Chapter 25.12 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Very good.
Nice to see you, Aaron.
Oh, great.
Aaron, you're coming up next?
OK, great.
Sarah, good to see you.
If you'd like to introduce the topic and also we'll hear from, is it Ellen?
Very good.
Thank you.
Okay, so the first item we have is the Colonnade Hotel at 107 Pine Street.
And actually, Ellen wrote both the nomination for this particular building and for the Anhalt as well.
Oh, excellent.
Ellen, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you?
My name is Ellen Miro.
I work for the Johnson Partnership.
We're historic resources consultants, and we were retained by Lighthouse Investments to help them obtain landmark designation for this building.
So they are in favor of both city landmark designation as well as national register status.
So they're attempting to take advantage of all of the incentives available for landmark buildings, both at a city level and at a national level.
Great.
Yeah.
They're really excited to have a historic building as part of their brand.
Nice.
Excellent.
It was a beautiful building.
Okay, so do you want to...
Sure, I'll do it really quick.
So this building was designated by the board on June 7th, 2017 under standards C and D.
I'll go back.
So C, it's associated in a significant way with a significant aspect of the cultural, political, or economic heritage of the community, city, state, or nation.
And D, it embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style or period or method of construction.
Great.
Thank you.
And I know we go through this every time, but it helps just to refresh our memories.
And there is a mistake on here.
The site is not included in the designation, and that's correct in the ordinance and legislation.
It's just the building exterior.
And this building was constructed in 1900 as a four-story brick worker hotel.
And it was designed by Charles H. Bubb in kind of a vernacular but with classical revival style elements.
What's particularly interesting about this building is that in 1907, when the city started to remove and regrade Denny Hill, a portion of this building was affected by that and it had to be demoed and rebuilt in part.
So the historic photo in 1905 is not the same building and frame?
No, it is the same building.
On the left hand side of the historic photo, they needed to take some room for I think the expansion of Pine and the regrading because Denny, it was sloping upward from there.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Ellen.
So they had to...
There was a couple of phases on the building.
Okay, I'm sorry, Ellen, and please bring your microphone closer so we can get you on record.
Sorry, so there was a few phases on the building.
You can almost see the mark along the brick on the first story on what's now Pine Street, where the soil was excavated because Pine Street rose up.
And when they regraded Denny Hill, they removed and flattened Pine Street so that there's actually, it didn't go through before at that location.
So they did that.
And then later on, and that's when they graded Pine Street, they put in the openings there in that brick and reconfigured the hotel inside to move the entrance to the hotel to that side.
And then, they needed to widen Pine Street.
So they took off the whole side of the building in 1911, and that's why in the contemporary photo you see only one window in that bay on the end, and in the historic photo you see three windows in that bay.
So with the widening of Pine Street, they removed two of those windows and moved the wall back.
It also looks like they've impacted the roof line.
So that actually was the result.
A lot of buildings lose their cornices during earthquakes.
And I'm not sure which, I don't know if it was in 1949 or the 60, 65, one of those.
It was originally a sheet metal cornice, but somehow lost its ability to fasten to the building and was removed.
when the building was rehabilitated in the 80s.
So the site itself will remain, the building exterior will remain, but if any development wants to go on inside they can essentially gut it and continue?
So we've already obtained certificates of approval for the rehabilitation of this building and those certificates of approval and the work that we are finishing this month has been approved by the National Park Service as well as eligible for tax credits.
So the Landmarks Board has approved all of the rehabilitation work for the hotel that's going into the building, and so has the National Park Service.
You are correct.
The Landmarks Board did not need to weigh in on the interior alterations.
So whatever happens in the rehab work on the interior, that it can be the owner's choice at this point.
Except for that they've got national tax credits.
So it has to be approved by the Park Service.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
Anything else that you'd like to add?
No.
So what's the timing here on moving forward with construction?
They're almost finished.
OK.
Great.
All right.
Well, then, and it doesn't look like we need to delay this, right?
No.
So I would like to support and endorse the resolution that will designate this Grand Street.
Am I wrong?
Wrong one.
Sorry.
One more.
That did look odd.
It's an ordinance, right?
Yeah, thank you.
Well, we get it together here.
It's an ordinance relating to the historic preservation that will impose the controls on the Colonnade Hotel.
second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Great.
Nobody opposes this so thank you Ellen for doing it and just as an aside I would love to talk with Sarah and you about what we're looking at down in Pioneer Square so I'd like to put some time on your calendar and get up to speed on that.
Thank you so much.
Very good.
Yep.
Thank you.
All right.
So, we've got an next ordinance you'd like to read in.
Absolutely.
Item number 10, Council Bill 119348, an ordinance relating to the historic preservation imposing controls upon the unhomed hall, a landmark designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board.
Very good.
So, Ellen, you're still here with us?
Should I stay?
Erin, yeah, absolutely.
If you've done the work, we'd love to have you.
Hi.
So Aaron, do you want to start with introductions?
Yes.
Aaron Doherty, Landmarks Board Coordinator, Department of Neighborhoods.
Great.
I'm Nathan Rosenbaum.
I'm the owner of this building through Manta Holdings.
Good.
Well, thank you for joining us.
I know that you had some other commitments this morning, so it's great to have you back.
You arrived just in time.
Good.
Okay, so this is Anne Hald Hall, and this is for an ordinance to codify the controls and incentives agreements between Mr. Rosenbaum and the City Historic Preservation Officer.
And Mr. Rosenbaum had hired the Johnson Partnership, and Ellen prepared this nomination as well.
So you'll see Anne Hall here.
This was designated May 16th, 2018 by the Landmarks Board under standards C, D, and F.
And you heard Sarah speak to C and D for the last one.
F is because of its prominence of spatial location, contrast of sighting age or scale.
It is an easily identifiable visual feature of its neighborhood or the city and contributes to the distinctive quality or identity of such neighborhood or the city.
So this includes the site and the building exterior built in 1928. The subject property is located in the University District at the southwest corner of Northeast 43rd Street and 8th Avenue Northeast.
Although, for the first three decades of its existence, this building was sited three blocks directly west at 603 North East 43rd Street.
And it was actually moved?
So, yes.
Solid brick, it survived.
It did.
So, known at that time as Acacia Apartments.
Oops, wrong way.
It was sitting in the path of Interstate 5. So, what you see...
That's really impressive that you were able to save it and move it.
So it was sold at auction in 1958, and it was trucked a few blocks to the new site.
And the other site had a bit of a slope to it, and this is a slightly flatter site.
It had some alterations to the entry, but primarily it's very much intact.
You can see the original appearance in the lower photo.
And what was it used for?
It's an apartment building.
It was then and it is now.
With the name of Ann Halt Hall, I thought maybe it was a residence for college students.
Yeah, its current name is an homage to the original designer and builder Frederick Ann Halt.
And Mr. Anhalt built many speculative small commercial buildings and midsize apartment buildings.
And you would probably recognize a number of his works that are in Capitol Hill, including three other landmarks, two on East Roy and one on John Street.
So, his work is primarily characterized as Jacobean or Tudor revival architecture, and this fits in that Tudor revival.
And I think the board was just, I mean, they thought its movement to save it from the construction of I-5 was interesting, but they also were sort of excited to see that it's survived the dramatic transformation that neighborhood's gone through just in the last decade.
So they were very grateful for the stewardship Quite truly.
It's one of those buildings where you can just be proud.
It's still there and here.
It's almost a hundred years old and we're still moving and Connecting it to the community.
So thank you.
Well, mr. Rosenbaum.
Thank you as the owner of this Can you just tell us what your plans are with it?
To be honest at this point.
It's pretty much stabilized.
I bought it about two years ago and And at the time, there were five units.
It was not called Ann Halt Hall.
My wife coined the name because she thought it was appropriate for that neighborhood.
And I've added one unit, one bedroom in the basement.
And I've converted three one-bedroom units to two bedrooms.
And I've tried to restore some of the historic elements.
So that's basically what I've done.
Good.
Well, it's beautiful.
Do you have any questions?
pretty straightforward.
Okay well then I'm going to move that we support ordinance number one one nine three four eight that will put the historic preservation controls on Anhalt Hall.
Second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Nobody's opposed.
We don't have any abstentions.
This will move forward on Monday.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And thanks for preserving the building.
It's just absolutely gorgeous.
I've had an opportunity to go by there and it's, I'm always...
Oh, did you really?
Yeah, I'm always, when I just am out in community, I've seen the building and I've always observed its beautiful character.
in this part of town.
Definitely stands out in the neighborhood.
It was a joy to work on this, it really was.
Really, we should be very proud of it.
Both of these properties are also utilizing special tax valuation, which is an incentive for Landmark.
So Mr. Rosemond and the owners of the colony will get to take advantage of that for their rehabilitation expenditures that they've done in these past couple of years.
Great.
Okay.
Thank you.
So, one just question.
Do I see a sign up there?
Is that recognizing the historic nature of the building?
It's not.
That's a sign.
There are actually two signs.
One is Ann Holt Hall.
We came up with some distinct branding around a two-door type rose and the coloration that I found.
And then underneath it, it talks about vacancies of the building.
But assuming I do get the landmark designation, I plan to put up a sign in the front hallway.
Okay.
All right.
Very good.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thanks.
So we've got the City Light Ordinance next.
Yes.
We'll read that in and I will invite our City Light guests to join us.
I'd love to.
Thank you.
Item number 11, Council Bill 119352, an ordinance relating to the City Light Department amending Ordinance 125493, which amended the 2018 budget, including the 2018-2023 Capital Improvement Program.
Very good.
And did you want to make any calls, Allison, to the next presenters?
Was that?
Okay.
All right.
Very good.
Thank you for that.
All right.
So, Eric, would you like to start with introductions?
Yeah.
Hi.
I'm Eric McConaghy.
I'm with the Council of Central Staff.
This is officially my first time at the committee table and my new responsibility of tracking all the great things that City Light does.
So here I am.
Good.
And I'm Paula Lashober.
I'm the Chief Financial Officer of Seattle City Light.
Thank you, Paula.
I'm Darno Cola.
I'm the Interim Officer over Customer Service, Communication, and Regulatory Affairs.
Very good.
Thank you so much.
All right.
So, Eric, are you kicking this off?
Sure.
Yeah.
So, this item is a supplemental budget item.
If it passes, it would allow for City Light to move money within their budget from a few different places to another.
in order to accommodate a change in the budget for the AMI project.
Great.
Thank you.
Is this yours, Paula, or Darnell, who's going to speak to it?
Sure.
We went in front of the council member Mosqueda back in June to talk about the some of the changes on the AMI project and the costs.
At that time we basically, in a nutshell, the memo you have in front of you, we came down in two buckets really, and that is the cost of the meters.
We needed more meters, so all things about meter, whether it be installation, the number of meters, the cost of installing them.
as well, and the other part of it was the system integration and the IT component.
With those two changes in the project and program, they amounted to a total of $17.4 million that we're coming forward and asking for a request for transfer.
Right.
And the transfer is from within Seattle City Light budget.
It's not coming out of the general fund as I understand it.
That is correct.
Okay.
Very good.
So, Paula, I know there have been questions.
There's been questions on, you know, how was it that we missed the sales tax and not that we're trying to go back and find somebody to beat, but we're trying to identify how can we avoid mistakes like this going forward in the future, and then with the forecast number that we had to purchase significantly number more meters than we thought we were going to have to, how have we looked at the growing population in Seattle and within the borders of the Seattle City Lights service area so that we are sure that we've got enough now?
Well, in terms of avoiding this issue in the future, we have taken a couple of steps.
There's a kind of a budget sufficiency document that people, project managers, have to work with when they have a change in the budget or addition to the budget.
And we've put a note on there, don't forget the taxes.
And I was just talking to our material control manager in the accounting division this morning, making sure that She also, whenever anybody's requesting anything, pays attention to whether the taxes are included.
So those are steps that we've taken internally.
And in terms of whether we have enough meters, yes, we've done those studies and have a few additional meters if anything needs replacement or, you know, new customers come on board.
But at that point, we're back into our regular mode of operating as a utility with new customers.
And so those new customers on an annual basis, we're going to anticipate so many new customers and having a stockpile of meters, just like normal business.
Okay and we think we've got a control and obviously that the city of Seattle and King County generally is growing much faster than anybody could have predicted a decade ago and we just want to make sure we've got what we need to be able to support the new incoming customers and that you have what you need so we're not falling behind.
Which fund within City Light will be tapped to cover this money for the transfer?
Well, there's a variety, and if you look at Attachment B to this request, you'll see there's a couple of streetlight projects, some Skagit facilities and projects, Technical Training Center, which is actually coming completely out of the budget as of next year, Enterprise Geographic Information System, which has been delayed quite a bit, some undergrounding work and a small amount from transmission generation radio systems and a battery storage project that's kind of on hold until we move it along.
There's also 8.2 million from programmatic conservation and this is an amount that's typically capitalized.
And you might remember that every year Seattle City Light exceeds its target for conservation and has difficulty spending all of the money allocated in its budget for incentives.
So we do not look at this project as in any way reducing the amount of conservation City Light is going to achieve.
And likewise, for all of these projects, There could be some delays in certain undergrounding things or streetlight things, but in general, as the year progresses, in any given year, we look at all of our capital projects and we see changes that may be occurring, things that we might not quite achieve, and we're not reducing any of these in any way that's going to impact customers, and I'll say, you know, oh my gosh, you're not fixing streetlights anymore or anything like that.
There's quite a bit of budget left in all of these projects.
So some are going to be slowed, but you're not jettisoning any of them?
No.
Any questions?
A couple.
One is for Eric.
On the accountability aspects and the transparency of accuracy in predicting the fiscal impact of these types of programs, I appreciate that the department has taken the issue very seriously and has implemented mechanisms internally to make sure that as you are forecasting the budgetary needs and realities of these programs, all costs are taken into account before requesting allocation of funds and appropriation of dollars to fund these programs.
But I was wondering, Eric, on the city council side, if we have done anything on our end in terms of how we evaluate the thoroughness and the completeness of our fiscal notes and summaries that accompany legislation that, such as the AMI legislation.
Sort of a two-part answer.
One is, I'd be happy to look into it, especially with regard to City Light and see what I can sort of answer in terms of how that's been done up and up until now before I've taken it over.
I can say that for your central staff, we always read the fiscal notes and summaries that accompany them.
And it's really typical sort of a routine task for us to contact the person in CBO that's indicated as the contact and quite often also the departmental contact to ask any questions that aren't answered in those notes.
So in this case, I talked with Greg Shiring in CBO, who is the CBO analyst that works with City Light to inform me about anything in the background that I might not understand or if he had any concerns about what's going on.
So that's...
With regard to that particular document, and for the record, I should say that the summary and fiscal note that comes with each piece of legislation to the council is a great place to start for folks who work for the council, but for anyone out there at large that wants to see what's going on.
It explains the sort of nuts and bolts of the legislation and possibly how it would change the city's budget.
While it doesn't get a lot of fanfare, it's a really typical, ordinary thing.
One of the first things that I do when I get something like this is to crack that open and then explore it a little bit and see if there's parts of it that I don't understand or perhaps I'm a little dubious and I want some more information.
That may not get to the heart of the matter that you're posing.
Yeah.
I mean, I do think, and maybe this is just a conversation that I can have with Director Aristad about creating some sort of system on the council side as sort of a second, third layer of, accountability to ensure that the summary and fiscal note that we are receiving with any legislation around massive infrastructure projects such as this one are actually complete and thorough.
And I'm not sure what that really looks like, but I think it's worth taking a look about.
to take a look at the format of how we do those fiscal notes to make sure that we have a level of confidence on our end that the numbers that we are seeing in the fiscal note are actually complete.
And, you know, I don't want to put all of the onus on the department.
Obviously, they have their responsibility to make sure that they're getting us the most accurate financial projections on these infrastructure projects.
But on the council side, it makes it a little difficult to sort of peek behind the curtain, if you will, to see if it's truly complete or not.
And making sure that we as council members and central staff and our staff know what components should or should not be included in some of these infrastructure projects, I think is just another safety mechanism to make sure that we're stewarding these these public dollars in this responsible way.
Sure.
I'd be happy to convey these comments, talk with Dan Eder, who's sort of leading the charge on looking at CIP projects and the ones that are sort of on a key watch list across multiple departments.
It sounds like there's something here to integrate with that ongoing.
I mean, I just, I was frustrated when I found out about the sales tax issue.
And, you know, when I go back and look at the fiscal note and the legislative actions that we took, that were taken before, there would have been no way for us on the city council to identify that the sales tax was missing.
So, because we get one big bulk number, so I just, I think there needs to be a more systematic, structured way for us on the city council level to be that double check on these capital project budgeting issues.
Great.
I will definitely follow up with you on that.
Second question is around the shuffling around and reallocation of dollars within the Seattle City Light budget to provide additional funding for AMI.
You mentioned a little bit around the streetlights, and streetlights is something both, the two lines that are mentioned here are streetlights, arterial, residential, and floodlights.
Streetlight LED conversion program, and they're usually at 3.5 million, 5.4 million, and you're reducing 200,000 from the arterial bucket, and 1.6 million from the LED conversion program.
I just wanna get a sense from you all.
I'm having a hard time believing that there's not gonna be some sort of neighborhood residential impact as a result of these reallocations.
And I think that street lighting is something that I hear about a lot when I'm talking to constituents, particularly in the space of public safety.
so as the department is considering these these shuffling of dollars I want to make sure that communities who have been asking for additional lighting because of public safety issues aren't going that this cut isn't going to be done on their backs.
Well, City Light has been working on replacing all the street lighting in the city with LEDs for several years now, and they're totally on track, and we don't expect to run into problems that, you know, we couldn't replace a light when needed.
So if you've got any particular neighborhoods or communities that...
It's hard for me to say that because I don't know how this is actually going to be implemented in terms of on the ground who may actually be impacted.
It's just hard for me to...
fully evaluate what the impact is of a $1.6 million cut to the LED conversion program and the $200,000 cut to the arterial residential and floodlights.
That's probably much, much smaller and probably is not going to be an appreciable difference.
But Eric, maybe afterwards, if you could follow up with me about some additional information about how this will actually potentially impact neighborhoods who have perhaps been on a list waiting for the streetlight work to be done in their neighborhoods.
I can think of Georgetown and South Park and other parts of South Seattle who to continue to express concerns about street lighting that is insufficient, that is contributing to public safety concerns in their neighborhood.
And I wanna make sure that we're not, you know, making their wait even longer and that, you know, we're gonna sort of take seriously their concerns about poor lighting in their neighborhoods that is contributing to public safety issues and livability concerns.
I'm happy to support this legislation today if we vote on it today, but before there is final full council action, I'd like to have an opportunity to get that additional detail so that I can feel better informed and more comfortable about a vote that will come before full council on this ordinance.
We'll make sure we follow up with him as well to talk about the plan and prioritization.
I appreciate that.
Good.
President Harrell?
Yeah, I don't expect anyone to know this off the top of their head, but isn't there some kind of metrics on street lighting repair such that we have a goal of We have a goal of fixing them within so many days and a percentage of those like Within three or seven days.
I'll make this up 80% I think there's some kind of establishment metric.
So I guess the question become there is and I can't tell you the number on top.
I can't but Paula Paula.
We report on the metric for street lighting every month within the financial report for City Light that we send to both the mayors and the councils, both staff and members.
And it's, the goal is 90% responded to within 14 days.
And we are meeting that goal.
In fact, we've been exceeding it.
And that doesn't mean that every single response is fixed exactly because some are more complicated and underground repairs or something like that.
we are meeting the target.
That's for streetlights repairs.
And that also takes into consideration, as I recall, the fact that some communities don't report as soon as others, right?
And so that's why you went to the matrix where you're doing it by quadrants, because we did find us in some poor neighborhoods.
Complaining as much thing as someone else was calling in and then I think you developed those so I agree with councilman Gonzales point that we want to make sure any cuts doesn't in any way jeopardize this sort of high bar that I think the utility set for Responding and and again it recognizes some committees don't respond.
Don't complain is quicker, right?
I think particularly in the conversion program, the LED conversion program, I mean, there's a reason why City Light is moving towards LEDs.
And I think, you know, neighborhoods like the LEDs much better than the orange lights that have been historically in place.
And again, I just want to make sure that the $1.6 million cut from that particular BCL is not going to create a negative impact on communities who've been waiting for LED conversion to come to a neighborhood near them.
Okay, we'll get it to you.
Great, and I think you've got a list, and my two colleagues have brought this up loud and clear, so if we could see that this week, be helpful.
And I'd also like you to remind us, if somebody has a street light out in their neighborhood, you've now posted on the polls, right, a number to call and a number to be able to identify which poll is out.
I can't verify that.
Do you know, Darnell?
I can, because I've reported them.
You can use your Find It Fix It app.
Very nice.
There is a poll number that is tacked onto each utility poll that helps Seattle City Light.
And they're good folks to identify where it is and what the age is.
And they are incredibly responsive when you report them.
You've actually used it.
I've used it a lot.
As Maura knows.
Put Council Member Mesquita's personal number on those.
You mean Gonzales?
No, City Light.
Oh, I thought you were confusing me with Teresa again.
No, I said put...
I promise about your age.
You missed it, but I already made fun about how old you are.
All right.
Okay, very good.
So appreciate your help.
Let's move on beyond this.
Council Member O'Brien, you're here.
We're delighted to have you at the committee.
Is there something specific that you wanted to bring up on this item?
No, just share the concerns of how we can manage these capital projects.
And I imagine this is not the first place you've heard that, so I don't need to beat it up.
But I just think we have some work to do to gain the public trust back on investing these things.
And it seems like we're just You know, it's not City Light, it's little things here and there across the city, but it feels like we have a lot of work to do to just kind of tighten things up, so.
All right, very good.
Any other questions, colleagues?
I'd like to move adoption of Ordinance Council Bill 119352 relating to City Light Department and the amending ordinances.
Second.
Those in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Nope.
No abstentions.
We're good to go.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you so much, both of you for coming.
All three of you for coming.
Thank you.
All right, next item of business.
Allison, would you read this in for us?
I'd love to.
Item number 12, Council Bill 119338, an ordinance authorizing, in 2018, acceptance of funding from non-city sources, authorizing the heads of Executive Department, Department of Parks and Recreation,
and others.
Human Services Department, Seattle Information Technology Department, Seattle Department, the Fire Department, and Seattle Police Department to accept specified grants.
Thank you so much, Council Member.
That's okay.
Right here.
I appreciate it.
All right.
Eric, how's that chair going for you?
It's like the comedy hour at the table today.
No kidding.
Okay.
Well, Eric and Lise, would you like to make your introductions and then we'll move forward.
Yes, I'm Eric Sund of your Council Central Staff.
Very good.
Lisa Kay, Central Staff.
Very nice.
Thank you both.
So this item, colleagues, has been before us at our last meeting.
We needed to have two opportunities to review this.
Eric, would you dive in, please?
Sure, Council Bill 119338 is the second general grant acceptance ordinance of 2018 and authorizes a number of different departments to accept grants and other funding from outside sources for a whole range of purposes.
The value of the grant awards that would be accepted in this ordinance is about $2.6 million.
The bulk of that is in parks related grants, which come to about $2 million.
The biggest single one there is $1.14 million for boat mortgage renovations near the boat ramps at Don Armini and Stan Sayers parks.
And remind us where those are.
So Don Armini is in West Seattle, just across the way on the city-facing side.
And Stan Sayers is down on the north side of Genesee and Genesee Park.
Great.
And I know we went through these almost line for line last time with the youth play fields, the renovation, the mortgage, the programs at Aki Kurose and Denny Middle School.
our Get Moving initiative, and the Shadow Wave Wall at Jimi Hendrix Park.
Colleagues, do you have any other questions about these?
The goal is for us to accept these various grants, as you said, approximately $2.6 million that we can then put into the 2018 budget to continue with projects that have already been approved.
Anything else?
I do.
No other questions?
We have a slight amendment to this on page 2 in item 1.3.
There was a misspelling of Armini, so it said Armani, and it sounded like something else, and we will correct that to Armini, so I have to move to make that change.
Can I have a second?
Second.
Okay.
Those in favor of this amendment say aye.
Aye.
All right.
I think it's been fixed.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
The version we have in Legistar has been corrected already.
Correct.
Okay.
So I'm going to move Council Bill 119338 as amended to adopt and accept these grants.
Second.
Those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Any opposition?
No abstentions.
So thank you for that.
It was a lot of work I know for the acceptance of two million dollars and appreciate moving forward.
Okay, item number 13, Council Bill 119339, an ordinance amending Ordinance 125493, which amended the 2018 budget, including the 2018 to 2023 Capital Improvement Program.
Very good.
Thank you for this.
And this matter in front of us, likewise, was reviewed at our last committee meeting.
This is changes within the budget control levels, and we've got our experts here in front of us if you have any questions.
So, yes, so this is the second quarter supplemental ordinance.
Appropriates about $32.5 million in total of which a little over $12 million is in the general fund.
Some portions of both the general fund and other dedicated funds amounts are backed by new grant fee or reimbursement revenues so the net impact on city finances is not that high.
The largest single item is for, or the largest two items rather of note are for the judgment and claims fund.
It's a $15 million appropriation for the fund itself to authorize additional expenditures related to paying out judgments, claims, and related litigation expenses.
And a related $10 million appropriation from the general fund that's to deposit more money into that fund in order to keep it solvent with those higher expenditures.
We've had a number of conversations about this.
I also want to highlight one other item that is in the summary attachment.
It's item 3.4, which is the public benefit for the I-5 LID study that's related to the Washington State Convention Center.
This came up this week while we're working on looking at Lidding over parts of I-5.
This is not construction money.
It's planning money, but it came out of the negotiation and the public benefit effort, Council Member O'Brien, that you were helping lead.
Thank you very much for that.
So I just want to note that it is incorporated in this particular action that we're going to take today.
That's great.
Good.
Anything else?
Any questions?
I think there's an amendment that I have.
Do you have copies of that, Eric?
You do, and I do too.
Great.
Thank you.
This is about the sweetened beverage tax appropriation for the balance of the money for 2018. And the executive was not able to, didn't have this ready in time.
and so asked if I would move this forward and I said I would as long as their recommendations are consistent with what the Citizen Advisory or Community Advisory Board was recommending and It is consistent with what they're recommending.
This would allow the city to spend the balance of the sweetened beverage tax revenues on the recommendations of the Community Advisory Board.
Eric, you may have more detail than I just did, so if you want anything to add, please do so.
Council Member O'Brien, would you read the language in just so it's clear for the record what it is we're doing?
Sure, so you want me to read the- Were you saying on page six in section seven?
Sure.
I'm about to read it myself, so I'm going to let you have it.
Great.
So it would strike language and add underline below so that it would read, the following new positions are created in the Office of Labor Standards, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Department of Education and Early Learning.
So it would add that Department of Education and Early Learning.
Okay.
And then on page seven, in section seven, it would strike and add some language so that that section would then read, the mayor or the mayor's designee, the superintendent of parks and recreation, and the director of education are authorized to fill the positions under their respective authorities subject to the municipal code, title four, the city's personnel rules, civil service rules, and applicable employment laws.
Again, what we're adding there is the and the director of education.
So there is a part of the table we would insert of one full-time position under the Department of Education and Early Learning, an early education specialist senior.
I think that encompasses everything.
If I may very briefly, so when the sweetened beverage tax was created a couple of years ago, there was also a community advisory board established, as a customer member of Ryan mentioned.
And the timing of that really didn't allow for the board to be formed and make recommendations in advance of some of the money being programmed.
Or if it had waited, then there would be a very short amount of time to utilize the funds in 2018. And so there was a reserve placed in finance general of about $2.8 million.
which would be held until such time as the advisory board could make a recommendation.
And so this table on the second page of the amendment inserts a new section in the supplemental ordinance which increases the appropriations in a number of places to implement those recommendations.
And then to balance that out takes the appropriation in finance general for that reserve out.
So it's basically just spreading it out from the reserve to the departments.
So Council Member O'Brien, do you feel comfortable that this accomplishes the goals?
Yes, I do.
And now that I'm looking at the back, there's a great little summary that someone wrote that has the effect of it.
So why don't I read that, because I think that's clearer than anything here.
Great.
Actually, to summarize what Eric just said, the 2018 adopted budget included reserve budget authority of $2.775 million backed by Sweden Beverage Tax Revenues and Finance General to be released upon recommendation by the Sweden Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board.
This adjustment transfers the full amount of this budgeted reserve to support expanded food access programs in the Human Service Department and the Office of Sustainability and Environment, as well as education programs in DEEL and contract budget in AUD to support public health evaluations with Seattle King County Public Health, as recommended by the Community Advisory Board.
That's a thing of beauty.
Very nice.
Any other questions?
Go ahead.
I was just going to ask if you can remind me what AUD stands for.
That is the budget system code for auditor.
Got it.
Spell out auditor in the future.
I concur.
Very good.
Any other questions on this?
Any other questions on the underlying legislation?
So why don't I go ahead and move Amendment 1, if that's okay?
Please.
Very good.
Second.
Okay.
Those in favor of supporting Amendment 1 pertaining to the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board recommendations say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
No.
No abstentions.
Good.
So we now have an amended ordinance in front of us.
Any other questions at this point?
So I'd like to then move adoption of Council Bill 119339 as amended.
Second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
No.
And no abstentions.
Thank you very much.
Eric and Lisa, Council Member Bryan, thank you for bringing this in.
You bet.
Okay, item 14 is a resolution which I tried to get in before.
Yeah.
Okay.
You were trying to finish up quickly.
Yeah.
Item number 14, resolution 31836, a resolution designating the Grand Street Commons Redevelopment Opportunity Zone pursuant of RCW 70.105D.15.
Oh, thank you.
You almost have it.
I'm good.
Okay.
And making findings in support of such designation.
Thank you, presenters, for being here.
Would you like to introduce yourselves?
Good to see you again, by the way.
Yeah, thank you.
Can we have an updated PowerPoint?
Is that okay?
Sure.
It should be on there.
It's the one you sent to me at 10.30?
Yeah.
Oh, perfect.
Okay, great.
And Chen Lin, you're going first.
There's a little button on the stem, and it should have a green light.
See where her hand is?
There you go.
All right.
Great.
And can we start with introductions?
Yeah.
Chen Lin, who is Office Planning and Community Development.
Hello, Joe Ferguson, principal and co-founder of Lake Union Partners.
Connor Hanson, director of real estate, Mount Baker Housing.
Great.
Thank you all three for being here.
So who's going to lead us through your PowerPoint?
I'm going to have really quick start and summary and then they will run the presentation.
I just want to have very quick talk about the purpose of the legislation is really trying to enable them with our redevelopment opportunity zone to enable them to seek department ecology funding to clean up contaminated site.
There's no city financial commitment.
and there's no any land use and zoning action required for this destination.
And the project it is located in the future Jenkins Park light rail station in two block so it's really support the transit oriented development vision for the city and create a gateway to that station, it will also potentially help clean up the brownfield site and revitalize a neighborhood that is under-invested right now.
It also, for that, the affordable housing is going to create, also support the city's affordable housing goal, and the development's also going to perform the mandatory housing affordability requirement on site, so further affordable housing goal.
We're also exploring some affordable commercial opportunities, so hoping that can have that happen.
Very good.
Thank you.
Thank you for the introduction.
All right, thank you.
Okay.
All right, well done.
Thank you, Chandlin.
Thanks for including us on your agenda today.
We're excited to tell you a little bit about our Grand Street Commons project.
But again, I'm Connor Hanson with Mount Baker Housing.
We're a 30-year organization, private nonprofit, that develops and owns affordable housing strictly in Southeast Seattle.
We have nine communities and 424 units right now and about 500 more in planning surrounding three of the light rail stations.
Happy 30-year anniversary, by the way.
Thank you very much.
We are coming up on a 10-year anniversary here pretty soon.
Joe Ferguson, again, co-founder of Lake Union Partners.
Our company has been focused on central neighborhood redevelopment here in Seattle.
And we're known for our mixed-use ground floor activity.
We like to bring in local retail.
and complement the communities that are existing there, but really focus on placemaking.
We've been successful with 600 units completed and another approximate 1,500 units in the pipeline, and recently partnering with groups like Mount Baker Housing and others to exceed MHA affordability levels.
So here's a map of where the project that we're talking about today.
It's a 3.2 acre site just two blocks from the future East Link light rail station that opens in 2023. It's three blocks, it's extremely contaminated.
And we teamed up with Lake Union Partners in order to have a mixed income community.
And so part of the vision is this project is much too large for us to take down on our own.
And same for Lake Union Partners for that many market rate units.
So we're looking to do a joint venture development.
The vision is to obviously provide affordable housing, clean up the contaminated site, transit-oriented development, but also placemaking.
This part of Rainier Valley doesn't really have a focal point yet, and with the future East Link Light Rail Station coming in, there's a great opportunity to create a town center.
There's a lot of single-family residential development that's happened around this area, but nothing really commercial-wise.
What's your expectation for commercial there?
You know, we have neighborhood service retail in mind along Rainier, which is high traffic pattern and high visibility.
And then as far as the town center placemaking concept, you'll see in the plans coming up here, 22nd Avenue is already a green street and allows us some really neat opportunities to do smaller local retail.
So somewhere between 1,000 square feet to 1,500 square feet, and so that's definitely the strategy.
That's the model, good.
What's the source of contamination?
Well, I have a slide on that, but it's everything that you can think of.
There's an old dry cleaner there that used to make machine parts, foundry, so it's dry clean solvents, petroleum, lead.
I can get to that slide.
I think that's case in point of why nothing has been done up until now.
Really quick on the housing numbers, it's where half the units will be affordable out of 700 units.
So Mount Baker housing is going to develop around 100, and these numbers are very preliminary.
We're a little bit a ways out before breaking ground, but we're targeting about 150 units.
reserved out to people earning 60% of the area median income.
This would be your typical Office of Housing tax credit project.
And then Lake Union Partners is going to utilize MFT and MHA to balance out the half of affordable.
Great.
Thank you.
I want to underscore our appreciation for that.
We know that's what's needed.
And having your assistance in the private sector and nonprofit really helps.
Yeah, we're really excited about this model to develop at such a large scale and hopefully bring costs down as you all are very well aware of how expensive it is to develop affordable housing right now.
So we're looking forward to exploring ways to team up with a group like Lake Union Partners and try to create efficiencies within the development phase, but also the construction, the pre-development phase, but the construction phase.
Briefly, just a quick overview of what we're here to talk to you about today, the Redevelopment Opportunity Zone.
We were here in the first quarter of 2017 for our Mt. Baker site.
Mt. Baker Housing has piloted a project with the Department of Ecology for urban brownfields.
The big bonus or new, what's new about this is it's allowed funding to come directly from the state to groups like us to clean up contaminated sites within the city or the state.
Up until now, ecology hasn't been able to do that.
So this will be the second redevelopment opportunity zone that the council has voted on.
Why it's so critical is because part of the law is We have to have the local city jurisdiction pass this resolution to designate these properties as contaminated.
So that's a key part to allow funding to come from ecology to us.
And on the first Redevelopment Opportunity Zone we've done, we were successful in getting $6.6 million from the state in the last year's capital budget.
So it's worked and this is also going to be a good model moving forward for groups like us for these urban contaminated sites.
The state is now creating a revolving program for what we've created here.
I just wanted to express my gratitude and thanks to you all for coming in early, I think last year before session started.
And that gave me an opportunity to really understand what you all were trying to do with this particular area of our city.
And I was really excited about being able to work with our Office of Intergovernmental Relations to advocate for the funding that you just described from the state that I think is gonna go a long way towards helping us reverse some of these, you know, just tragic, horrible treatment of our land historically and allow us to have better uses for land that is currently just sitting there abandoned and toxic.
And so just really appreciate your willingness to keep us, my office, in the loop on this issue.
And I just had an opportunity to meet with our Office of Intergovernmental Relations, I think earlier this week, maybe last week, I can't remember anymore, and have sort of put this back on the lobbying agenda for the city of Seattle.
I'd be really interested in I think it's important for us to be seeing if we can figure out if we can inventory some additional brownfield sites throughout the city of Seattle as a strategy to really highlight the need to the state of Washington around ongoing continued investment in this.
land is very scarce and we have an affordability crisis.
I think it's really important for us not just look at our own publicly owned land, which we did last week through your committee here, thanks to Council Member Mosqueda, but also looking at land that we're not currently tracking because it's a brownfields site.
And so I think there's a lot of value now that we have this mechanism and assistance by the state to really begin the work of creating an inventory of those projects to see see how many additional parcels we can identify here for affordable housing development.
Totally support you in that effort.
So let's continue.
One question I have, though, when we get back to this is for the in the resolution, there is a like you said, there is you need to have confirmation that it is a polluted or contaminated site.
And we make a statement here that the soil and groundwater contamination occurred on the parcels many years ago.
without MBHA and its partners stepping forward to clean up and redevelop the parcels of contamination likely remain.
Is that enough in the resolution just to acknowledge the fact that it does have these contaminated conditions?
So our environmental attorney has been working with the city's attorney on this and You know, he's here right now, but it's to my understanding it is enough.
It's past that sniff test So it's it's not something we've just proposed and hoping it works it there has been a collaboration effort between Us the Attorney General and the city attorney.
Okay, very good.
Thank you for that Well, let me not belabor this but do you want to continue with your presentation?
Well, so here's just a quick slide on the on the pollution sources if you if you're into geeking out on this kind of stuff, but it's basically everything that exists that's bad that could be in the soil and groundwater.
And so there's a variety of different ways that we have to treat this, but I think the fact that we're able to do this all at once for a project of this size is what makes it really efficient to address this.
Here's some current pictures of what the site looks like right now.
The fire department has deemed it's too unsafe for them to even go in.
We are working on a demo permit with the city of Seattle to get rid of this structure, and we've had a few neighbors reach out to us who are very supportive of the efforts we're doing, and there's been no pushback at all to anything that we're working on, as you can imagine.
Here are some renderings of what we believe the project will feel like.
I want to stress that these are extremely early, and we've just basically hired someone to help create what we're shooting for, but just to give you a sense of the scale of the project.
Yeah, we're focused on obviously involving the community into what these buildings will actually be, but for representation purposes, just simply borrowed some design ideas from other buildings in our portfolio and Mt. Baker's portfolio, and to give you a scale, or a sense of scale that is specifically with the open space.
We're really focused on setting back from the streets, creating this idea of a public square.
And the image on the lower left is the 22nd Avenue South that I mentioned connecting Grand Street back to the light rail station.
And that is where we've envisioned the smaller local retailers.
Great.
And before you leave that slide, may I just underscore a couple of elements that I really support.
One is the green, whether it's a water reclamation project or whatever on between the cars and the sidewalk.
So it provides both safety and it's, of course, beautiful and it helps create that sense of urban lung to have the green space there.
I don't see, maybe you have a plan for bicycle connections.
I want to make sure that, It is either there or, you know, the block away, like you said, with the, if it is a greenway, that there's still ways that bikes can get through that.
And then if you'll also accommodate pedestrian lighting as you're going in there, that's something that we're promoting.
Pedestrian lighting for age-friendly as well, if there's places for people to sit along the block with some benches that aren't necessarily lie-downable.
What we're trying to do is, on these new developments, from a standpoint of folks that may have a struggle standing or walking for a long time, if the benches are such that the knees are slightly lower than the seat and have arms like this, then they can stand up easily.
And if you're looking at accommodating families or folks that may just have difficulty getting around, just something to think about as you're putting in these design elements.
You bet.
Yeah, that's good feedback.
The Green Street itself does come with its own guidelines and some of that you're seeing represented here with the stormwater detention that you mentioned and other ideas, but we hear you loud and clear.
Great.
Thank you very much.
And this is just a plan view of the same, trying to give a sense of where the buildings lay out relative to the parcels.
And so it's actually currently four separate blocks, or I should say four separate buildings on three separate blocks.
And we'll be advancing these plans obviously with OPCD and STCI in the future.
Very good.
Are you getting any advanced support or priority because this is focused on affordable housing, but also pollution cleanup?
Do you get put up in the ranks as far as SCCI?
Chen Lin, what do we get?
I will ask.
I know affordable housing have it, and green development have it.
I don't know.
If you get double count?
Yeah.
When we permit our projects, we're priority two.
There's a new process that's just started here in July, and so we've yet to see how that actually works.
We're going through it right now, but it's all intended to expedite things.
But nothing to my understanding because of the environmental remediation that we're doing.
And you'll be going through design review for this as well, is there?
We're working on the process for that.
Part of the ways to create efficiencies is to permit the project altogether, which is, I don't wanna say unprecedented, but it's unusual.
Usually we would just do our project, they'd do their project, but we're trying to actually, given that we want this to be a town center concept, to have it be permitted all at the same time.
And so we're exploring the two different ways to either do the way that affordable housing is now to do it with his administrative review or if we go through the typical process.
We know that having and garnering neighborhood support is so critical on something of this size and we want to make sure that obviously you're listening to the community now.
I really appreciate Joe what you were saying about having the smaller footprint for retail so that somebody that may have a small business or somebody like our ventures partners that we work with around immigrants and who are wanting to get started in business themselves, it just makes it affordable and possible.
And we'd like to have them in on the front end of this.
Can I just get a word in real quick?
Because I have to dash out.
Yeah, sure.
I think we're just about done to vote.
Well, what I wanted to say is if I weren't here, I'm a big fan of the project, and Mount Baker Housing Association has been great partners to the community.
Thank you.
So if I'm not here to vote, that doesn't mean I'm going to vote no when it gets to up there, but very supportive of this project.
I looked at this before, so I just have a matter I have to attend to.
I'm sorry I have to miss just a little bit, but thanks for all the work you're doing and the work we're about to do.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great.
And Council President, thank you for coming.
Is there anything else you want to explore on this or?
No.
OK.
I didn't see any flags that I was concerned about, and I think we're adequately prepared.
So we're great.
I just have someone waiting on you.
Sure.
Good.
Thank you very much.
I'll bring your notebook.
All right.
Anything else?
Any questions?
In terms of uses on the street level, I can't remember if when you all came to talk to me, I can't remember what you all said about affordable childcare space.
That's something we're exploring.
So Wellspring is right across, their corporate office is right across the street.
And so they're going through a little bit of an upper level management change over right now.
So the people we were talking to previously about this are no longer there.
But there's a lot of time for this project to come together and definitely something we want to look into but can't.
guarantee that right now?
Yeah, that's obviously the capital and capacity needs for affordable child care in our city aren't going away anytime soon and it's one of the things that you know we've been doing through my committee is just really evaluating where we can co-locate some of these affordable child care centers and we certainly as a as we're looking at models of future affordable housing, particularly transit-oriented development, we want to emphasize our interest in incorporating childcare and health clinics and those things all in one place.
Since it's going to have income-restricted units there, it just makes a lot of sense to do that kind of a model.
So I appreciate you all's willingness and commitment to continue to explore it and hopefully it'll be able to be achieved.
Yeah.
And I will say we're shooting to have at least 35% of our units be family size, which is two and three bedroom units.
So that's across the board with all of our projects that we're planning right now.
So there could be a good opportunity there.
And there's a new local billionaire that's also put out some potential dollars for this kind of program too that we're hoping to maybe explore.
Well done.
Thank you for that.
Billionaires just one of them, so we're waiting for the other ones to come out too nice I Agree Councilmember O'Brien any further questions on this resolution.
No, I think this resolution straightforward the projects can be great obviously we'll We're going to be hearing a lot about it.
I assume it will come through various other processes as it moves forward.
But let's get the dirt cleaned up.
Very good.
Yeah, that's it.
And if you all have any leads on sort of how to move forward on sort of this concept around identifying future brownfield sites, I'm not sure if anybody is keeping that kind of an inventory, but would be interested in having an offline conversation with you all.
Yeah, let's talk.
So we can talk about that.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Member?
I was just asking, Allison, a couple of months ago I met with two leaders of an organization that's providing health care for seniors.
And I believe that one of their offices is up on 23rd and Jackson, maybe.
But I just would like to reach out to them because they were talking about wanting to expand locations, just to make sure that they have your name and make that connection.
OK.
Any no other questions, and I'm going to move adoption of resolution 31836 which will designate the Grand Street Commons Redevelopment Opportunity Zone as we've discussed.
second.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Okay you know you'll have the support of Council President Harrell but he's not here to vote so we'll move forward with this next week.
Thank you both very much.
Thank you very much.
This is a big big important step for the community.
Yeah.
Thank you.
All right well That's the last item that we have on our agenda, and I do want to acknowledge and say thank you, Allison.
She did an amazing job of pulling all of this together in the last couple of weeks for a special committee, and thanks to all of you for participating, and I appreciate that very much.
The meeting's adjourned.