Seattle City Council Public Assets & Native Communities Committee 6/4/21

Councilmember Herbold?

but I do not see the visor quite yet.

We will call to order.

Good afternoon.

This is the meeting of the Public Assets and Native Communities Committee.

The date is Friday, June 4th, and the time is 2.02.

I'm Councilmember Juarez, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Herbold?

Here.

Councilmember Mosqueda?

Councilmember Peterson?

Councilmember Sawant?

Present.

Council Member Juarez?

Here.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you all for being here today.

I know Council Member Peterson, our vice chair, will be here soon.

Yes.

Council Member Peterson has arrived and I would like to know, Council Member Lewis is a guest here and has arrived as well.

Okay, so now that our council, our vice president is here, we can get going.

So thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Approval of the agenda, that's item number B on our agenda.

If there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Let's go to C, which is the chair's report.

Today, we're gonna have a different format, so I'll explain it, but we basically have a public comment and two public hearings for items one and two.

And I'll give a little bit more explanation.

And this is important for those of you that are watching and those of you that are calling in who want to comment on items one and two.

So I'll get to that in a moment.

We will first open with our standard general public comment period.

And then we will move into the four items of business on today's agenda.

The first two agenda items referring to the Seattle Center and the second one referring to the Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle Department of Transportation, each have a reserved public hearing for that agenda item.

So that's one and two.

If you would like to provide public comment to agenda items one and two, please ensure that you have marked the correct agenda item number when registering online to speak.

And then we will call your name during the public hearing of that agenda item and not during the public comment period.

Again, during online registration, please ensure the item you wish to speak to is clearly marked since we have two separate public hearings on top of a general public comment period.

That means if the public would like to speak to agenda item number one regarding the Seattle Center sign code legislation or item number two regarding the parks land swap with SDOT, Department of Transportation, You are asked to register online for those items so your name can be called on during that reserved public hearing.

If you speak to items one or two during the general public comment period, our clerk, the dean, will kindly ask you to reserve those comments for the correct item on the agenda.

And then we'll move on to the next speaker.

So we look forward to hearing from the public on all four matters.

So starting with agenda item number one, Council Bill 120051, it is related to the Seattle Center sign code legislation that will allow for the implementation of Seattle Center's signage improvement project, as well as long-term vision for the campus signage described in the Century 21 master plan.

The proposed legislation would amend the land use code to establish regulations for the center campus sub area of the Seattle center sign overlay district.

That's municipal code title 23. Yolanda Ho from council central staff is with us today.

Thank you, Yolanda, who can help answer any questions on this item.

If my council colleagues are ready to vote on this item today, I will move to suspend the rules to allow us to vote on that item today.

regarding Agenda Item 2, Council Bill 120032. That allows for a land swap from Seattle Parks and Rec to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

It would transfer three feet of land from Seattle Parks along East Green Lake Way between Northeast 50th and 57th Street to SDOT, which was inadvertently included as park property.

This legislation clarifies that the land is the property of Department of Transportation.

You will also see in your materials that there are some technical corrections that we need to make by way of two substitutions.

If my council colleagues are ready to vote on agenda item number two, again, I will move to suspend the rules to move it forward in the process.

Then I will make a motion to allow for Exhibit A and the proposed substitute ordinance version two to be corrected.

And thank you, Tracy, for being here.

She's our contact person with central staff to answer questions.

Finally, the last two items on the agenda are both related to Seattle's waterfront.

Agenda item number three, Council Bill 120072, would establish the final assessment rule for the construction of the improvements of the LID, the local improvement district number 6751. An agenda item number four, council bill one two zero zero seven three would authorize the city to issue bonds to pay for cost improvements.

And there's a financing piece.

We'll have more on that.

These are companion ordinances ending in ending in seventy two seventy two and seventy three.

And we'll we'll get we'll get to more of that.

So In addition, we are at the final step in over a decade-long process to establish a local improvement district for Seattle's waterfront.

A local improvement district, or LID, is a funding tool to help pay for improvements in the improvement area.

Eric McConaughey, thank you, Eric, who we've been working for tirelessly on everything, is the lead central staff for these items.

Online, and my colleagues also received a copy of this, as well as the public, Eric did a phenomenal memo and fiscal note dated May 25th.

Six pages of analysis and three pages of the chronology of the lid, which began in November 2011. So if you haven't had a chance, I suggest you read that fascinating memo.

So anyway, these items, three and four, are subject to quasi-judicial rules.

So I ask my colleagues to please ask your questions and engage in discussion but refrain from speaking to individual assessments related to the waterfront.

I have invited all council members to attend this committee so they can have an opportunity to engage on this topic before the legislation moves to full council.

Okay, so with that, we will go into public comment.

At this time, I'm going to read the instructions once, and after that, it's going to have to be read a couple more times.

Our clerk, Nagin, do that, but I will read it for the first time for the public comment piece.

At this time, we will open the remote public comment period.

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

However, we reserve the right to end or eliminate this public comment period at any point if we deem that this system is being abused or is unsuitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently, and in a manner in which you're able to conduct our necessary business.

Public comment period is open for those wishing to speak to items on the agenda, except for the items that I have that have a reserved public hearing.

And remember, those are items one and two.

So if you wish to speak to items one and two on the agenda, please ensure when you registered online, you click the correct agenda items during signup.

So we may call your name during those respective public hearings.

and not for this public comment period.

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

Nagin, how many people do we have signed up?

We have four people signed up for public comment.

Okay, so this is public comment, not public hearing to items one and two.

So we have four people and Nagin, you wanna go ahead and call one speaker in the order in which they were registered on the online list.

Again, if you have not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period by going to the council's website at council.gov slash council.

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

I'm going to finish with my instructions and then Nageen will, you'll call the people, correct Nageen?

Yep.

Okay, so once the speaker's name is called, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue and it's their turn to speak.

The speaker must press star six on their phone to unmute themselves after their name is called.

Then you may begin speaking by stating your name and the item you are addressing on today's agenda.

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

Once you hear the chime, please wrap up your public comment.

Speakers do not end their 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've completed your public comment, We ask that you please disconnect from the line.

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

The public comment period is now open.

And we will begin with the first two speakers on the list.

Nagin, you want to go ahead and start?

So the first person who will speak is Karen Gielin.

And my apologies for butchering anyone's names.

And then after Karen will be Ruth Danner.

So Karen, do we have you on the line?

Yes, this is Karen Gielin.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Go ahead.

OK, good.

My name is Karen Gielin, and I'm a resident of downtown Seattle.

And I'm calling in regards to agenda item number three, the waterfront lid assessment process.

and I did in fact read Eric McConaughey's memo and I want to make some comments on that.

The central staff memo regarding the waterfront lid final assessments and bonds stated that this PANC committee held hearings of all appeals from the hearing examiner's recommendations from both the initial and final report.

The committee used specious logic to claim that they heard the appeals.

In actuality, they did not hear any appellant's responses to the hearing examiner's initial report.

but instead accepted both the initial and final reports at face value.

Appellants were given the opportunity to provide further information in support of their appeals in advance of the PANC committee hearing scheduled for March and April of 2021. These arguments were never heard by the hearing examiner.

The committee's deference to the hearing examiner's report does not relieve the committee's obligation to hear these formal submittals.

Until the PANC completes its legal obligation for hearing, The proposed legislation cannot be sent on for full council approval.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What's, who's next?

Next is Ruth Danner.

Ruth, are you on the line?

Ruth?

And Ruth, you may have to press star six on your phone.

All right.

Until we can figure out Ruth's connection let's go ahead and go to the next person.

We have Thatcher Bailey.

Thatcher are you on the line.

Yes.

Can you hear me.

Yes.

Go ahead.

My name is Thatcher Bailey and I'm serving as interim executive director of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.

I want to express my gratitude and respect for you Council Member Juarez for leading this committee through a truly exhaustive, thoughtful, and respectful process that has led to the final inception package for the LID, which is such a critical component of funding for the new downtown waterfront.

As you know, Friends is providing the philanthropic component of the funding package, and we want to thank everyone who has participated in this process, especially all the property owners who are contributing to the rebirth, not just of our downtown, but of the whole city.

obviously impossible to calculate the amount of hard work, the number of hours, the property owners, the hearing examiners, the council members and city staff who put into this final assessment package.

Of course, not everybody is happy with the results, but it has been an extraordinary civic exercise, a notable coming together and a great move forward for our city.

So thank you all.

Thank you.

Who's next, Degeen?

Ruth Danner, are you are you connected at this time?

OK, I'll go ahead and try the next person.

We have Clayton Rash.

Are you on the line, Clayton?

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

OK, great.

I'd like first to thank the committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak.

My name is Clayton Rash and I work for the ownership group for the Marriott Seattle Waterfront on behalf of our property and the other hoteliers We submitted a letter requesting relief from local improvement district number 6751 earlier today.

Our industry has faced massive layoffs, furloughs, costly lender forbearance agreements, foreclosures, and catastrophic financial losses.

In addition to absorbing daily operating losses, we have continued to pay our debt service, our property taxes, and our insurance costs.

Our business valuations have been decimated and will require several years to recover.

We are all actively seeking ways to reduce our cash outflows while trying to preserve our employees and our properties.

We hope that the City of Seattle will be an active and accommodating partner in easing the financial burden on the hardest hit tourism hospitality sector and find avenues to assist us.

The waterfront LID assessment during these times whether it is a lump sum payment or an interest only for several years is another financial hardship that is unbearable for our businesses.

We respectfully ask that the city reconsider the LID assessments levied against our hotels and associated properties.

We believe the LID assessments placed upon us to be flawed, inequitable, and based upon outdated and irrelevant pre-COVID valuations.

Businesses like ours need financial support rather than an additional and inflated tax burden for what we are all, excuse me, for what are ultimately non-essential improvements.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Rash.

Great, council member.

We had Ruth Danner out.

I'm going to try one more time.

Can we get Ruth on the line?

I should note that, Murphy, can you hand me that file?

We did receive a letter from Ms. Danner outlining her inside there.

Just one second here.

We did receive, a email from our letter from Ms. Danner opposing Council Bill 007273, dated yesterday at 10.46 a.m.

So I will note that for the record.

So.

Okay, that's the end of the list, Council Member.

Okay, great.

So we're done.

There's no further folks signed up for public comment.

Okay, so with that, public comment is now closed.

And so I wanna thank those that called in.

Again, this has been a long process, so thank you.

We will move to items of business.

So this is starting with, again, Council Bill 120051, Seattle Center Sign Code Updates.

Nagin, can you please read the formal title into the record?

Yes, agenda item one, Council Bill 120051, an ordinance relating to public assets, land use and zoning, establishing regulations for the center campus sub area within the sign overlay district for the Seattle Center, amending section 23.55.054 of and adding a new section 23.55.062 to the Seattle Municipal Code.

There will be a public hearing followed by discussion and possible vote.

Okay.

So this is what I was talking about in the opening.

So now we're going to have an open hearing again on this matter.

So I will now open the hearing for council bill 1, 2, 0, 0, 5, 1. Nageen, how many people do we have signed up today for this hearing on this matter?

We have four people signed up.

So I'm going to let our clerk, Nageen, go ahead and read again the instructions into the record, and then we'll start with those four people that have signed up for item agenda item number one.

You want to go ahead, Nikki?

Yep.

All right.

So once the speaker's name is called, staff will unmute the appropriate microphone and an automatic prompt of you have been unmuted will be the speaker's cue that it is their turn.

The speaker must then press star six on their phone to unmute themselves after their name is called.

Then you may begin speaking by stating your name for the record.

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

Once you hear the chime please wrap up your comment.

If speakers do not end their 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 for this hearing we ask that you please disconnect from the line and if you plan to continue following this meeting please do so via Seattle Channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

The chair has opened.

the public hearing for agenda item one.

And we'll go ahead and begin with the first speaker on the list.

Jeffrey Herman, are you on the line?

Jeffrey is listed as present.

Jeffrey, you may have to press star six.

Oh, perfect.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Please go ahead.

Fabulous.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Jeffrey Herman.

I am the managing director at Seattle Rep, which is located on the Seattle Center campus.

I'm here to speak in support of the legislation that's been proposed to amend the land use code establishing regulations for the center campus sub area of the Seattle Center sign overlay district.

For those of you who don't know Seattle Reps is a publicly owned building.

We serve multiple community based organizations and more than 160,000 people each year.

I want to let you know that info on the signage plan has been shared with us at the Rep and we believe that the plan will benefit both Seattle Center and the Rep. Specifically We believe the new signage will help welcome patrons returning to the rep on the heels of the pandemic and will position the rep to participate in the city's post-pandemic economic build back.

Indeed, we're going to be rehiring 300 plus staff and artists over the next year and resuming our role in driving $27 million in local business activity each season.

We're really excited about a refreshed modern sign design plan, which will be consistent with the look of the new arena.

We support the use of technology and digital signage to replace outdated signs and temporary banners.

This is going to make access to modern marketing communications a lot more equitable.

The use of signs is going to help direct large crowds to events and facilitate connections to public transit and other transportation options which has been a concern in particular for our patrons in recent years.

And finally the signs are going to provide greater visibility for events and activities at Seattle Center and at the Rep and will lift the profile of the whole campus and encourage visitors to return.

So in sum, Seattle Rep supports the legislation and I urge you to move it forward.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Jeffrey.

All right, next we have listed Sun Yang.

Are you on the line, Sun?

Please try star six.

Hi.

Can you hear me OK?

All right.

Yes.

Council member.

My name is Sun Yang and I'm the board chair of the Seattle Center Foundation.

On behalf of the Center Foundation, we want to express our strong and full support of the Seattle Center signage plan as would be authorized and implemented by Council Bill one two zero zero five one.

Like the signage plan approved for Climate Pledge Arena, this signage plan is thoughtfully done and will be a wonderful enhancement to the campus, displaying essential real-time navigation information, especially useful for new visitors to the Seattle Center.

And as you heard from the previous speaker, this plan has been broadly shared with and commented on by Seattle Center resident organizations and the broader community.

We appreciate that their input was included making the proposed plan truly reflective of community desires.

The design is clean and contemporary and will integrate well with the new refresh refresh look of climate pledge arena.

Every investment made now in Seattle Center is beneficially magnified many times over given the challenges this pandemic has brought to each organization on campus.

And it's not an understatement to say that many organizations are facing existential challenges and we need to do everything we can to encourage visitors to come back to the Seattle Center whenever they are comfortable and make their experience the best it can be.

Removing tired old banners and signs and replacing them with this new state-of-the-art signage will go a long way to improving the look, feel, and experience of every visitor.

Thank you, Committee Chair Juarez and fellow committee members for all you do on behalf of our beloved Seattle Center.

We're looking forward to the production installation of the signage and look forward to everyone returning to the Seattle Center soon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sung.

All right, next we have Justin Clark.

Is Justin on the line?

Yes, can you hear me here?

We can.

Please go ahead.

Great, thank you.

Yeah, my name is Justin Clark, and I'm the chair of the Seattle Design Commission, which As you know, Council Memoirs is one of your favorite commissions.

Yes, my favorite of everything.

We appreciate your support.

I am here on behalf of the commission to voice our support for the bill, which is designed really to clarify and improve the distribution, appearance, and function of the signage within the campus.

And the commission has conducted two reviews of the proposal, and we unanimously supported the plan with several recommendations that I'll share about here in a minute.

But the commission understands and appreciates concerns about the introduction of digital messaging within city-owned public realm.

And in 2019, we voiced concern about this issue relative to the introduction of this digital signage near the new arena.

We do believe that the current plan developed by Seattle Center balances the need to provide an updated approach that modernizes signage to message events to the public with a focus restraint on the distribution throughout the campus.

We are encouraged by the role that digital signage can provide for Seattle Center activities to increase the presence of the nonprofit special community events and other organizations that benefit from the messaging within the center.

And we do believe that the proposed amendments will result in a plan that helps reduce the negative impacts of some of the outdated and inflexible signage that really had a lot of issues and limited flexibility of curating events.

We do still have some lingering concerns about the need to balance the realities of sponsor recognition with the provision of information that serves the public.

And we look to the Seattle Center to apply that lens when we're finding sponsorship contracts.

Just to give an overview of the recommendations, I think I only have a couple of seconds here, but we do hope that public art can be integrated into the signage plan, as well as an integration with the bollards, seating, and other freestanding campus furniture.

We look forward.

Wow.

Well, Nagin, you could have let him finish his.

I'm really sorry about Nagin's hot hand there.

Oh, interesting.

Yes.

So thank you, Chair Clark.

If you can please email the rest of your recommendations to the committee, that would be great.

Next, we have Maria Barrientos.

We have Maria on the line.

We pressed our six.

I don't see her.

IT, do we have?

Oh, there we go.

I'm on.

Hi, Maria.

Hi, how are you?

Good.

OK, please go ahead.

So officially, I'm Maria Barrientos, and I'm on the call representing the Uptown Land Use Committee.

Seattle Center had two meetings with us, a preliminary meeting to get our feedback, Then we had a large public meeting that we hosted.

We invited folks from Belltown and Queen Anne Community Council to attend.

So there was a good mix of new residents in Uptown and Northern Belltown.

It was very helpful to get their comments.

And also old, I don't mean they're old, but residents who've been here a long time, how's that?

So there was unanimous support for the legislation.

We felt that Seattle Center was very thoughtful and they responded to all our comments.

We actually had them change concept on a couple of signs.

We wanted them all to be the same size and color.

We love the digital signing.

We think it's great both for visitors and a lot more accessible to all the current resident organizations.

We honestly didn't have any problems with any of the sponsorship contracts or ideas that might come up.

But so overall, we just think it's way better wayfinding, way more contemporary, and we're super supportive.

Thank you, Maria.

Council Member, that was the last speaker signed up for this public hearing.

Oh, we had someone else we couldn't get on.

No?

That was, no, we're all up to date now.

And again, you might want to let people, I know you've got a quick, they're quick on the draw with, uh, we've got, we've got rules.

We got to follow them.

Okay.

Well, so with that, um, we will close the hearing.

That was our last speaker.

And I will now close the hearing for council bill 1, 2, 0, 0, 5, 1. And I want to thank those of you that spoke today.

And I'm going to invite our presenters for this legislation.

And Mr. Nellam, so you can start by introducing yourself and your team, and then we'll go into your presentation and discussion.

Thank you, committee chair, whereas it's my pleasure to be here.

I'm assisted by Carrie Smith from our team and Gordon flowers from the.

I'm glad to be here today as we look forward to formalizing our signage plans.

Before I get into this, is someone going to show, Nadine, are you going to show our presentation?

Yes.

I'm pulling it up right now.

Okay.

Thank you.

I was ready to jump into it, but I got in the way.

You got to get on it.

Okay, there we go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, our first go to our next slide and I'll start.

So I'm glad to be here today as we look forward to formalizing our signage plans on the campus and getting our long term current practices aligned with this legislation.

The Seattle Center campus is being transformed with the opening of the Climate Pledge Arena.

And this legislation is one part of that transformation.

The process of changing signage on the campus began in 2019 with your approval of the Seattle Center's Signed Overlay District.

As signage at Seattle Center is modernized, we are helping make the visitor's experience welcoming, informative, and seamless.

The council's part in this process has been vital through both your approval of the arena project, the 2019 9 overlay district and your recent approval of $8 million in bonds that are being used to purchase new signs with the cost being repaid through the use of those signs.

Next slide please.

We are updating the Seattle Center map to align with the conditions on the campus, as mentioned.

And with a special note, highlighting the inclusion of our new skate park on the former Broad Street between Thomas and Harrison Street.

I don't know if you can see it, but it's right on the right edge.

Next slide.

The proposed sign regulations, the changes are largely administrative to align our current practices with the sign code.

I will continue to authorize Seattle Center signs on the interior of the campus, consisting with the center's signs guidelines approved by the Seattle Center Advisory Commission.

The proposed sign code authorizes temporary signs for events that may not be authorized elsewhere in the city, but are a crucial part of the special event atmosphere within the campus.

This includes things like balloons, flags, movie screens, banners and portable signs.

The sign regulations also align the campus signage program with arena signage.

Next slide, please.

SDCI will continue to regulate signs on the perimeter of the campus as well as any signs on the interior that are not owned or managed by Seattle Center.

Signs containing sponsorship content continue to be allowed on city property, and off-premise signs continue to be prohibited.

Next sign, please.

I want to make clear that while we are modernizing the signs, we are not changing our policies about what and how we promote our messaging.

Our signs will continue to promote Seattle Center tenants and events, and we will continue to recognize the Seattle Center sponsors and event sponsors.

Sponsorship revenue will contribute about $1.5 million to Seattle Center operations.

Sponsorship is different from advertising in that we decide how the message is presented.

Rather than displaying a specific commercial dictated by a paying client, our sponsorship visual recognition on signs is like what you hear when NPR thanks its sponsors.

Next slide, please.

The signage program is designated to elevate the experience for all visitors to Seattle Center and support the success of resident organizations and events.

Next slide, please.

By modernizing the signs and increasing the digital technology, tenants and events can be highlighted on all signs across the campus in a dynamic way, not just on a sign associated with their organization or a static temporary sign on the grounds.

And we can do this with fewer signs and banners decluttering our campus.

This map shows you the location of current signs and pole banners on the campus.

We have a system with a few aging digital signs on the perimeter of the campus, with static signs and vinyl banners on the interior of the campus.

There are also wayfinding signs.

Our staff currently keeps the wayfinding information updated as venues, organizations, and events evolve, and the vinyl banners are regularly updated and replaced.

Because change is a constant at Seattle Center, these physical sign updates take a lot of time and create a lot of waste.

Well, you've already moved to the next sign, and so this map shows you our proposed signs.

We are updating existing signs and introducing technology as part of that update with the goal of meeting the expectations of our visitors.

A small number of signs will be new addition.

I'm especially proud of our ability to eliminate 120 vinyl pole banners and replacing them with just 10 digital pole banners.

Not only will our signage be decluttered and consolidated, but we will have the ability to communicate with our visitors in an emergency or with public service announcements.

Next slide.

Some key details of our program are Seattle Center owns these signs.

We will work with the arena for a coordinated look and operations of the signs, but we control the content.

Seattle Center own signs on the perimeter of the campus will continue to contain changing static images, not video display signs.

Brightness limits are the same as the rest of the city.

And plus, the signs will also have light sensors which automatically dim or brighten the displays in direct correlation with ambient light conditions.

Next sign, please.

Finally, this shows you the proposed concepts for the signs.

This concept has been reviewed and refined through SEPA review, the Seattle Design Commission, the Seattle Center Advisory Commission, our resident tenants and organization, and our Seattle Center neighbors.

Thank you, and are there any questions?

So at this time, we'll move to our discussion.

Are there any questions or concerns that we wanna address to our guests and also to Yolanda?

Yolanda, thank you for doing the summary and fiscal note as well.

Okay, not hearing any.

So with that, I gotta do some technical stuff here.

So if there's no objection, I'd like to suspend the rules related to voting on a council bill on the same day a public hearing is held.

in order to allow the committee to take the vote on a recommendation today.

OK.

Hearing no objection, council rules are suspended.

So with that, is there any more discussion?

All right.

I move for passage of Council Bill 120051. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member.

So we have a second.

I moved.

We have a second.

So for the discussion, will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

That's four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

This recommendation will be scheduled.

I'm sorry, the motion passes and the committee will recommend Council Bill 120051 to the full council on Monday, June 14th.

Thank you, Mr. Nellems.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is a long time coming.

Can't wait to see the drop the puck.

Okay, so let's go on to item number two, which is Council Bill 120032 regarding the parks land swap.

Madam Clerk, will you please read the official title into the record?

Agenda item two, Council Bill 120032, an ordinance relating to Woodland Park transferring jurisdiction of a portion of Whitman Avenue North from the Seattle Department of Transportation to Seattle Parks and Recreation for open space park and recreation purposes transferring a portion of Woodland Park adjacent to East Green Lake Way North from Seattle Parks and Recreation to the Seattle Department of Transportation for transportation purposes, and finding after a public hearing that the exchange of property meets the requirements of ordinance 118477, which adopted initiative 42. There will be a public hearing followed by discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

As I shared with you in my chair's report, we're going to go to an open hearing.

I will now open the hearing for council bill 1, 2, 0, 0, 3, 2. Nageen, how many people do we have signed up to address item number two?

We don't have anyone signed up.

OK, so since we don't have anyone signed up, we don't need to read the instructions.

And so do I just move forward that the public hearing is open and now I just close?

Yep, that's it.

OK, so it's open.

We don't have any speakers signed up.

So I will officially close the hearing on that council bill.

So I will now close the hearing, which I just did, and nobody signed up, got that done.

And so we will move to invite our speakers for the presentation.

Tracy, you're here.

Thank you.

This is item number two.

And I'll let you go ahead and have the other folks, including the superintendent, Aguirre, introduce themselves and their team.

Go ahead.

Tracy Ratz of Council Central Staff.

Excuse me, Jesus Aguirre, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Max Jacobs, Seattle Parks and Recreation.

Sam Spencer, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Brian Glass, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Hey guys, good to see y'all.

Nagina's gonna, I understand Nagina's gonna pull up to the PowerPoint for you, correct?

That would be fantastic.

Yes, I'm having some technical difficulties, one second.

Hey, Max, how's it going?

Great.

Hi, Council Member Juarez.

How are you?

I'm fine.

So.

How's it going, Jesus?

Going well.

Thank you.

How are you?

OK.

Oh, good.

It's here.

All right.

Let's do this.

Well, thank you.

Thanks again for pulling that up and council member.

want to appreciate our partners here from SDOT and of course Max Jacobs is here from SPR they're going to join me today if you have any questions but as you mentioned at the opening well this is about requesting approval for property transfer between Seattle Parks and Recreation and Department of Transportation and as you mentioned at the opening there was a there were some errors in documentation that was introduced a few weeks ago but council members have the substitute ordinance and attachment A in the packets attached to the agenda that just fix it.

So it's just a paperwork issue.

And so this is really about clarifying, excuse me, about this property trade related to work that Seattle Transportation is doing in the Green Lake area and creating that swap.

So we can jump into the presentation here.

Well, sorry, I couldn't find my screen.

So, again, the Department of Transportation has made these street improvements along East Green Lake Way, and just sort of to orient folks, when you think about Woodland Park, the eastern part of Woodland Park, where all the fields are, is a property.

There's a parking lot, and then there's a green strip along that eastern edge.

The work that the Department of Transportation has done, and we'll show that in the next slide, required utilizing a small sliver of Parks and Recreation property to help bring that project to fruition.

And in exchange, as we went through this process, we've identified a portion of Seattle Department of Transportation property that actually is in their jurisdiction, but we've been maintaining it along the northeastern side of Woodland Park, or northwestern, excuse me, next to the lawn bowling property there.

And there's a street right-of-way that's going through that that will remain as part of parks, excuse me, Department of Transportation, and then the remainder of it will go into our jurisdiction.

So that's the land swap, the little sliver on the east side for actually a larger property on the northwest side.

So if you can go to the next slide, Negin.

And this shows you, again, the multimodal project that Department of Transportation has been undergoing for Green Lake and Wallingford Again, required the usage of a three-foot sliver between 50th Street and 57th Street.

And again, this is the swap.

The first picture there shows you the section with that multimodal project.

The image on the far right shows you, obviously, Green Lake with the rest of the project that SDOT is is working through on that.

And I'll pause here to see if any of our friends from SDOT want to add anything specific to their project there or if council members have questions about this specific project.

Is there anything from SDOT or are we okay?

And we don't we don't have anything to add, but we definitely are here to answer any questions that any of the council members have about the project and specifically what it accomplishes or what is being done on what was formally or what is what is currently parks jurisdictional property.

Okay, so now that the presenters are done and we've gone through the PowerPoint, I'm sorry, Sam, did I cut you off?

You okay?

No, that was me.

Yeah, I cut him off.

I apologize.

There's one more slide just to show you some some other aerial images of the swap.

Again, this shows you that the two red lines on the far left picture, the ones that kind of the top left is the wider property that we're receiving from SDOT in exchange for the bottom right, there is a very thin sliver.

along the park and then some zooming in there.

And I will say that the property that we're receiving from SDOT is much larger than the property that they've taken for this.

We have about 3,200 square feet that we're giving up and we're getting, from the perspective of Parks and Recreation, we're getting about one and a half acres of land.

Okay, great.

So at this time, I'll open up for discussion.

Colleagues, do you have any questions or concerns that you would like to address to our guests or to Tracy Radcliffe from central staff?

Okay, hearing none, seeing none.

Okay, we're good.

All right, so I got to do this again.

If there's no objection, I would like to suspend the council rules related to voting on a council bill on the same day a public hearing is held in which we had but there were no speakers in order to allow the committee to take the vote on a recommendation today.

I'm sorry.

Second.

Oh, oh, okay.

Thank you, Alex.

I need to go there.

So, um, but I need to say the hearing, no objection, the council rules are suspended.

Okay.

So now I'm going to make, as parks noted, we need to make two technical corrections to the proposed legislation and to exhibit a, What is being changed is the map and property description, which was introduced a few weeks ago, inadvertently included a street as part of the new park property.

The substitute ordinance and attachment before you today clarify that the street remains with SDOT, that Seattle Department of Transportation.

So now, this is the first technical correction to Exhibit A, I move to substitute Exhibit A, With proposed substitute exhibit A version 2, is there a second?

Second.

Motion has been moved and seconded.

Is there any other questions?

Seeing none, if there's no further discussion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no.

So I didn't have to take an original vote on that or individual vote, right?

I could do it the way we just did it.

Correct, Council Member, that's the way you did it is perfectly fine.

Okay, so the motion passes and the Exhibit A has been corrected to version two.

Okay, here's our second technical correction to the bill.

I move to substitute Council Bill 120032 V1 with proposed substitute version, is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

There's no further discussion.

All those in favor of that correction say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no.

Ayes have it.

The motion passes and the bill version one is substituted with version two.

So now I'm gonna go for the final vote.

So I move for passage of council bill 120032 as amended.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the Council Bill 120032, version two as amended.

Yes, Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

That's four in favor, none opposed.

So the motion passes and the committee will recommend to city council that they pass 1, 2, 0, 0, 3, 2 as amended on.

We're gonna do that Monday on June 14th, correct?

Yes.

Okay, so Monday, June 14th, it'll be on the full council agenda.

Thank you.

Thank you, Parks.

Thank you, Tracy.

Thank you, Estat, Brian, Christy, Sam.

Thank you, Sam.

All right.

Thank you, council members.

So we are going to move into our agenda items three and four.

Now, I'm going to do a little quick little preamble, and then we're just going to kind of kind of move through this.

These are companion ordinances or bills.

And so council member one, two, zero, zero, seven, two council bill one, two, zero, zero, seven, three.

The first one being the final assessment roll on the lid six, seven, five, one and the bond issuance, which is basically the financing piece.

So What I understand today is I'm gonna have our clerk read items three and four to the record because the presentation, because their companion ordinances are gonna be explained together, and then we'll move forward.

So Nagin, you wanna read both items three and four to the record, and of course we will vote on them separately.

Yes.

Agenda Item 3, Council Bill 120072, an ordinance modifying, approving, and confirming the final assessments and assessment role of Local Improvement District, or LID, number 6751, for the construction of the improvements of LID number 6751. as provided by Ordinance 125760, levying and assessing a part of the cost and expense thereof against the several lots, tracks, parcels of land, and other property as shown on the final assessment roll, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts, up for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Agenda item four, Council Bill 120073, an ordinance relating to financing public improvements within local improvement district number 6751, also known as the Waterfront LID, authorizing and providing for the issuance and sale of local improvement district bonds, LID bonds as defined herein, to provide funds to pay or reimburse a portion of the costs of the LID improvements to make a deposit to the local improvement guarantee fund and to pay the cost of issuance of the bonds, pledging the lid assessments collected in the waterfront lid and the amounts available in the local improvement guarantee fund to pay and secure the lid bonds, providing parameters for bond sale terms, including conditions, covenants, and other sale terms, providing for and fixing the installment payment terms and interest rate on assessments in the waterfront lid, amending section 20.08.020 of the Seattle Municipal Code to conform to changes in state law and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts, briefing discussion and possible vote.

And Chair Juarez, I will note that I have pulled up the presentations for both agenda item three and four.

And once everyone is done introducing themselves, I'll go ahead and share my screen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm glad you read the formal both three and four into the record in the formal manner in which it was presented.

So with items three and four, we have we have we have Eric here and I'll let Eric introduce himself.

And I understand we have two other folks from FAS.

they can introduce themselves and then we'll go through item number three first, which is a PowerPoint, item number four.

I would ask my colleagues, if they don't mind, to go ahead and ask their questions after the presentation of three and after the presentation of four, if that makes sense.

Does anyone have a problem with that?

Okay, great.

Why don't you go ahead, Eric?

Hi, good afternoon.

I'm Eric McConaghy.

I'm the council's central staff.

Hi, this is Glenn Lee.

I'm the City Finance Director and I'm with FAS.

Hi, I'm Christy Beatty and I work with City Partnerships as City Partnerships Manager in FAS.

Thank you.

And I understand, Eric, you're going to kick us off.

Yes, please.

Okay.

So, as I said in the intro, I'll give an overview of the two bills.

The first bill that covers the final assessment role.

And we'll just go to the next slide, please, Nageen.

There you go.

So 1-200-72 deals with the final assessment role and the companion bill, 1-200-73 deals with the LID bonds.

Referring to this bill, 7-2, it would approve the final assessment role for the Waterfront Local Improvement District.

We may have already been using the abbreviation LID or LID through the meeting so far.

So just for the public, if you hear LID or LID, we're just referring to the Local Improvement District that's defined in the ordinance that formed this LID.

It would limit the final assessments to this total, this $174, $379, $463.

That is the $168 million limit on the LID plus financing.

It would allow for payments within the first 30 days of publication or payments and installments for time.

It also would handle delinquent payments.

It also would provide for deferral of payments for economically disadvantaged property owners.

And so let's move on to the next slide, please.

Very briefly, because the folks from FAS will talk more in depth about this, 120073 authorizes the sale of waterfront LAD bonds to pay for the cost of the improvements.

And next slide, please.

So the waterfront LED revenue, that $174.38 million, is about 49% of the total funding necessary to pay for all of the waterfront local improvements, local improvement district improvements.

So that totals about $357 million.

The other sources for that are city, state, and philanthropic sources.

Next slide, please.

Here's the improvements that are listed, the Promenade, the Overlook Walk, Bonaire Square, Union Street improvements, Pike, Pine, Street Skate improvements, and the Waterfront Park.

These are specific projects that are defined in the ordinance that formed the Waterfront Local Improvement District.

And altogether, the cost of these improvements is about 48% of the total cost of the overall Waterfront Improvement Program.

You can think of these as sort of cascading down.

So the total cost of $737 million, one part of that is the waterfront improvements, 357. And then funding a portion of that, about that 174 million and some, is the LID.

Next slide.

Eric, you should point out that in your summary and fiscal note, all of that is laid out on page two of your six-page memorandum that lays out the six areas, what they're counted for, and then to contextualize the bigger picture of the big project right down to the 160 plus million for the lid.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

And overall, I should have said in the beginning, because I think it's helpful to note that the memorandum that I prepared goes into more detail in all these things.

But for the sake of this meeting, I'm highlighting some key points.

As has been mentioned, the process for the Waterfront Local Improvement District goes back a decade or more.

It was first anticipated in 2011. With that, we're in its 1-2-3-7-6-1.

That created the Central Waterfront Improvement Fund.

That's the fund that's used to pay for waterfront projects, excuse me.

It offers an interfund loan to that fund that could be paid for with, at the time, was described as a future waterfront local improvement district.

Between 2012 and 2018 at a very high pass, multiple resolutions and ordinances were approved.

They did things like confirming a funding plan for the waterfront with potential LID support and also in different loans with repayment from a possible future LID.

Things picked up sort of pace in May 2018 when the city declared its intent to form the waterfront LID with that resolution 31915. Um, in July, the hearing examiner took up the hearing on that formation.

Um, and then submitted a report in September of 2018. Next slide, please.

Um, after considering all the information from that hearing, the city formed the local improvement district.

It was given a number 6751. It created the Waterfront Local Improvement District Fund and also authorized the sale of waterfront LED bonds in the future.

The next step then that has been the sort of active chapter we have been in is actual coming up with the final assessments for the Waterfront Local Improvement District.

The final assessment role is just like it sounds like it is.

It's literally the list of all the properties in the Waterfront Local Improvement District and the assessment against each of those properties.

The hearing examiner conducted hearings, filed an initial and final report on those.

The property owners filed appeals of those recommendations.

This committee, I held hearings on all of the appeals, and then recommended a denial of each appeal and approved the final assessments.

And that brings us up to date on pretty much the last sort of official action before the meeting now.

That was back in April of 2021 was that last action.

Next slide, please.

So next steps.

We're literally in one of the steps right now.

If the committee votes to recommend these bills for approval, they'd go to council.

It was brought to my attention, there's a typo in my memo.

I said they could go to council.

I believe in the memo it says June 17th.

That's not right.

It would actually be on the 14th, the Monday.

Thanks to the chair for catching my typo.

I appreciate it.

At full council then, if these bills are recommended out of committee today, the first step would be to adopt the findings conclusions decision document.

That's the official written record of council's approval of the final assessment role.

and the decision on all of the appeals.

And then in sequence would be to approve these two bills.

First, the one ending in 7-2 and the one ending in 7-3.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have.

So can you go back to the last slide, Nagin, on the clerk file, the 314476?

that's on there, or if you can't, that's okay.

But you brought up that.

So that's the, the FCD, the findings, conclusions and decisions.

So my understanding, Eric, if you could just flesh out a little bit for people who aren't familiar with this, for those of us that have been knee deep in this for quite a while, that clerk file lists each appeal, is that correct?

That is correct.

And was that what was in front of us in April?

That's correct.

Okay.

On our April, Committee meeting that's correct.

Okay.

So what i'd like to do folks.

Are you are you done?

Is there anyone else?

Oh, we also have a new guest here.

Alina johnson.

You want to I just introduced you but you are from Oh, hi.

Yeah, I work with glenn and christy.

I am and i'm policy allison.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Thank you um, so Just because it's easier for me to kind of to have the discussion um, I would like people now if they have questions of our friends from FAS, and Eric, who's been working on this, and the memo that he provided.

This would be a good time to ask questions about three, but you certainly can ask questions about item number three when we're done with item number four.

And I would also like to thank Eric, because he did do this with Central Staff and some other folks.

In his six-page analysis, and then there's also three pages of a chronology starting in November 2011, And all of those are online, so you can look at them and click on them, starting from the first ordinance right up from November 2011 to today, 2021. And so that's there to kind of give you the chronology, the resolutions, the ordinances, how we got to the financing plan, how we hired the hearing examiner, what the findings were, the initial report, the final report, the appellants, what the issues are, the 17 issues that went back to the hearing examiner, All of that is included in the last three pages of his nine-page summary and fiscal note.

So with that, I'm going to ask my colleagues if there's any questions or concerns that they would like to raise at this time, or ask of our guests regarding item three right now.

OK.

Hearing none.

Council Member Lewis has raised his hand.

Oh, I didn't see it on here.

Where are you?

Yeah, I'm over here.

I'll tell you what.

When you're next to Eric, you kind of look alike.

It's all relative.

It depends on how our screens show up, I guess.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you, Madam Chair.

I just want to ask a couple of questions, and I appreciate the invitation, Madam Chair, to come to this committee as a non-member to discuss this legislation regarding the Local Improvement District, which is in District 7. You know, certainly I'll have more comments when it does arrive at full council, but I want to take advantage of this opportunity with Eric to ask just a couple of questions, some of which were answered in the presentation.

I did want to ask, what's the breakdown, Eric, in terms of the residential versus commercial LID payers in terms of the contribution or in terms of the total raw number of assessments, just out of curiosity?

That's a number I do not have in my head of all the things that are filling my head with the LID.

I don't have that handy, but perhaps if I ask, may have that number handy.

Yeah, I can speak to that.

There's over 6,000 parcels in the lid, and the bulk of them are residential condos, but 80% of the total assessment dollars come from commercial property.

So the residential component represents 20% of the total revenue, despite representing most of the ratepayers?

Yes.

And that would be 20% of the $174 million figure?

Yes.

OK.

Moving on to the next question, and I think this would be one for Eric.

In terms of the projects that are incorporated in the Local Improvement District, how many of these projects are completely new infrastructure improvements versus refurbishments of existing assets?

Yeah, I'll tell you what, why don't we, this might be a good time to refer to the slide that lists the projects as a way to contextualize that, if that'd be okay, Nadine, if we could take a moment.

Yeah, that's a good one.

We asked him to put that in there, the six projects.

Yeah.

Is that slide two or three?

There we go.

So council member, I'll just move through the list and describe them just qualitatively, and hopefully this will answer your question.

So the promenade will be the walkway that'll be along the new Alaskan way, right along waterfront.

So absent of these improvements, there would be a new roadway there.

The promenade makes it so that it's more park-like, has other features.

pedestrians and bicycles and those sorts of things.

There has been a roadway there, as you know.

There will be a roadway there, but the promenade is the improvement upon what would otherwise be there.

The overlook walk will be a new connection that comes down from Pike Place Market down to the new waterfront park.

There, as you know, there have been ways to get down there through stairways and that sort of thing, but this will be a vaulted sort of bridge-like structure with views of the water.

and other sort of public gathering spaces that'll arch over and incorporate an expansion of the aquarium.

So there are definitely new features to that.

In terms of the movement of people, there has been a way to walk down, make your way from Pike Place Market down to the waterfront, but nothing as substantial as the Overlook Walk would offer and really does not compare.

So from that point of view, the Overlook Walk is new to the scene.

The Pioneer Square Street improvements, the Union Street pedestrian connections, and the Pike Pine Street improvements all improve on existing infrastructure.

They are significant, but as you know, those thoroughfares exist.

And the Waterfront Park, there has been park space down on the Waterfront Park for quite a while, but not quite like this, and this involves I so much want to refer folks to all of the imagery, the pictures, and the scheduling and things that are on the Seattle Waterfront website, because there's a lot of visual pictures there that I didn't have in the scope of the slide.

But the waterfront park doesn't introduce a park to the waterfront, because we have had park spaces down there.

But it will be, again, in a scale that has not existed before.

I hope that's helpful.

I'll sort of stop there for a moment.

Eric, that is really helpful.

Thank you.

And, you know, the scope of those questions, I mean, these are questions I would ask of of any lid that was before the council, because I do think.

I do think it's important given our oversight role, because I've heard, I haven't actually seen this actualized, but I've heard of schemes, not necessarily associated with this project, around using LIDS as a potential revenue mechanism to make replacements to existing capacity infrastructure, which you know, for me, would not be consistent with the purpose of LIDS, which is more to make, you know, the acquisition creation of new assets and like new improvements rather than, you know, just.

the maintenance obligations of the city, right?

So I just wanted to ask those questions as a way of underscoring that this is a project that is aimed toward the creation of new improvements and new assets that will considerably change the built environment and the urban landscape of this particular local improvement district.

So I don't have any other questions at the moment relevant to this initial part here.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

So, colleagues, is there, I know there's a lot here and customer Lewis, thank you for being here.

I know this is in your district.

I know this is important to you.

I know it's important to your constituents, but it's also important to everybody citywide.

It's a regional asset.

It's a state asset.

It's for all of our commerce, our business, our cruise ships.

Our parks, it's quite a project.

It's been going on for a while.

So I thank you for your questions and your presence here today.

So what I wanna do is I wanna see if there are any other questions and any other comments from my colleagues.

And after that, if there's anything else that we need to hear from, from our friends, from FAS or Eric.

Okay, in the interest of time, just to streamline this in, then I'm just gonna go ahead and move to, to go to the vote.

All right.

Okay.

I'm sorry to jump in just to interject.

Would you like to hear from the folks about item number four?

No, I just switched that up.

I apologize.

I was just telling my staff since I really wanted Council Member Lewis to get his questions answered.

But I think now that I've kind of has some opportunity to kind of see how the flow is.

I'd rather we just take the vote now and then we go to four and the presentation and then do it.

So I apologize, I should have, I don't know how to get a message to you.

That's what we're going to do.

It's fine.

I was asking just on behalf of folks from FAS, I think.

I was just curious.

Thank you for answering that.

I appreciate it.

Don't anyone go anywhere.

That's my point.

OK.

So I just want to go ahead then and move forward on this.

So here we go.

I move the committee recommend pass Council Bill 120072. Is there a second?

Second.

Great.

It's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

That's four in favor, none opposed.

Okay, so the motion passes and the committee will recommend the City Council pass Council Bill 120072 on Monday, June 14th.

Is that correct, Negeen?

Yes, that is correct.

So now let's go to item number four, and you guys are all still here.

And again, I want to thank the people that put together all of the information in our packets.

There's a ton of it there.

I had a chance to go through it last night and this morning, and also Eric's memo and the timeline.

So I will let you all go ahead and go forward with that presentation.

I'm going to share my screen again.

One second.

That's just three pages, though, correct?

Yeah, this is regarding the bond issuance finance piece, kind of squaring away the Seattle Municipal Code with the RCW, the 10, 20 year payment, and then also how we do it if people can't pay right away.

I forgot what the term that you used.

You're probably going to correct me, Eric, and you should.

The deferral, the deferral payment.

So go ahead.

Well, this is Glenn Lee, the city finance director.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I think I'll start with this.

It's good to be with you today.

My colleagues and I are here to describe the LID bond ordinance that is before your committee.

As Eric described, the LID bond ordinance authorizes the sale of LID bonds subject to passage of this legislation and the final assessment role, we expect the LID bonds to be issued this fall.

One point I want to mention is that the LID bonds are different from other bonds that are authorized by the council, typically during the budget process and routinely issued by the city.

LID bonds are not directly secured by the city's full faith and credit, as is the case with these other general obligation bonds, but rather LID bonds are secured by the properties in the LID area.

They're there for real estate assessment MAC securities.

So I'd like to then turn this over to my colleague, Kristi Beattie, to share more information about this particular ordinance.

Kristi?

I think you're on mute.

Great.

Thanks, Glenn.

My name is Christy Beatty, and I've led the staff work on the LID administration for a number of years, along with my colleague Elena Johnson, who is also on the call.

And so I'll just take a minute and speak to a few of the key points shown on the slide here that are contained in the bond ordinance.

First, as Glenn mentioned, the bond ordinance authorizes the issuance of the LID bonds.

Secondly, it establishes the maximum size of the LID bond issuance.

The amount of the bonds that will be issued will not exceed the final assessment roll amount that was just voted on by council, less any amount of assessments that are paid to the city during the 30-day prepayment period.

And I just want to take a second and talk about that prepayment period for a moment.

During that 30-day prepayment period, LIT participants can pay their assessments in full or in part without incurring any interest.

LID participants can also choose to finance their assessments over time.

Any balance that remains after the 30-day prepayment period ends will be billed by the city to LID participants in 20 annual installments beginning the year after that 30-day prepayment period.

So essentially, the LID bond issuance is the vehicle for providing that financing option for those who choose to prepay.

Third, this legislation provides a formula for determining the interest rate that will be paid by those who choose to finance the assessment.

The final interest rate on the bonds is not known at this time and won't be known until the LIB bonds are issued, which we anticipate to be later this year.

But the legislation addresses this timing issue by establishing a formula for determining that interest rate.

We do want to note that this is, for a couple of different reasons, somewhat of an unusual LID bond issuance, in part because the size of the LID bond, the LID itself is quite large compared to other LIDs, and also the 10-year interest-only payment option that's reflected in the ordinance that was just voted on is also somewhat unique for LID bonds.

And we don't know exactly how this will...

I'm gonna stop you really quick.

You just for the public and for some folks, our colleagues on the 20 year to pay on the lid that the first 10 years is interest.

Can you just flesh that out a little bit more?

Yes, exactly.

So what we've done in this case is we're providing an option for those who choose to finance the assessment to pay interest only without any penalty for the first 10 years.

The interest does accrue during that time, and so it eventually is due on the full principal amount.

However, it provides a little bit of an easier pathway into the payments for those first 10 years because the amount is lower.

It represents interest only.

Beginning in year 11, then, the principal amount of the full assessment is divided into the 10 installments in the second 10 years of the 20-year installment period, And therefore, there would be a significant increase in the assessment amount due in year 11, because that would then represent 1 10th of the principal amount due in the 10 years rather than being spread over 20 years.

There's not a requirement to pay that as interest only in the first 10 years.

It will only be billed at that amount.

And you're going to touch a little bit on how the Council Bill ending in 7-3 also talks about handling delinquent payments and deferral payments for economically disadvantaged property owners as well.

Yes, we can touch on that.

Would you like us to touch base on that now, or wait until the end?

We can do either.

Wait until the end.

I just want to make sure.

I saw your PowerPoint, too, so.

OK, that sounds great.

OK, so then fourth, I just want to mention, as described in the slide, that the legislation provides a formula for establishing a debt service reserve that's called a guarantee fund.

It's actually a fund that's required for LIDS, and it is a fund that the city may draw on in the event that annual installment payments that are made by LID participants are not sufficient to pay the debt service that's due by the city.

So it essentially acts as a reserve and a security for investors.

We can go to the next slide.

Glenn touched on this a little bit, and those you may want to just maybe you can reinforce this.

I think it's important for people to know why these are not general obligation bonds and why that's important in protecting the city's treasury and budget.

Are you going to?

Sure, we can speak that.

We also have Michael Van Dyke on the call, who's the city debt manager.

Oh, yeah.

But it essentially the lids are a different financing mechanism.

They are unique in that they are backed by the properties within the lid.

And so they are different from bonds that are issued otherwise by the city that are guaranteed by the full faith and credit.

So when an investor chooses to invest in a LID bond, they're actually, their investment is backed by those properties.

And so in that way, a lien is actually put on properties in the case of every LID at the time that the LID is implemented following the passage and implementation of the final assessment role.

And would the LID on their bond rating have the same rating as the City of Seattle, which would be AAA?

Um, not necessarily the lid bond stand alone as as a separate issuance, but we are backed by and we do have that strongest rating among the credit agency.

So that definitely provides the context for the city.

But each bond rating is reviewed independently and rated independently.

So, um, but yes, just to emphasize that the city does continue to maintain the strongest bond rating available from bond rating agencies.

Okay, so we can look for just a moment then in terms of the timeline for the lid bond issuance, just to touch on a couple of key steps that would follow.

Today we are presenting with a possible vote by the committee.

June 14th, this would be in front of the full council for a possible vote.

Assuming passage at that point, in late June, we expect that SDOT would file the final assessment role with the city clerk.

That's a key administrative step that is consistent with the SMC.

At that point, then, we expect that in early July, FAS, and specifically FAS Treasury, would notify LID participants of the 30-day prepayment period through mailing a payment notice to each participant and providing notice in the Daily Journal of Commerce.

That 30-day prepayment period would end then in mid-August, and that essentially would be the point at which the city would then determine the amount of the LID bonds based on the amount of prepayments that were received.

In late October then, the city would sell LID bonds, we anticipate, and that would allow LID bond proceeds to be available to the city in early November.

So if this schedule changes, this would be posted on the waterfront or both waterfront and

Yes, OK, we will keep the waterfront website up to date and so that will continue to be a good source for information, but the individual assessments will only be made known through those prepayment notices that will be sent individually by mail.

OK.

And with that I will close my comments, but I will turn it over to Elena to speak just a bit on the deferral option that is available through SMC and RCW.

Oh good, so you're going to shore that up with the state law.

Yeah, we'll talk about that.

OK, yeah, so so essentially there's there's a couple types of deferral options.

The state really has the robust deferral program and essentially it's similar and tied to the same kind of deferral program that people can do for their property taxes.

So they have a program for seniors and low income individuals.

And in the in the state program, essentially people can defer their assessment for the life of the lid, and even potentially longer than that.

So it's very long term, and they just need to work with the county to submit the proper paperwork, I think every year.

The city program is a little bit different.

The state law allows for the city to also have a deferral program, and we do, and it's in our code.

And so essentially, this is much more of an emergency deferral program.

You can really only defer up to two years, or at least that's the amount of years that the lien would be on this deferral from the guarantee fund.

And so the city deferral program is, you know, just kind of like in addition to this state program that already exists.

And all deferred assessments, I guess it's important to note, carry interest.

So you would defer them, but you'd also pay interest on the amount that you defer and would become due at the end of the term that's deferred.

OK.

OK.

So is there anything else from Eric or our presenters before I move to ask my colleagues what questions or concerns they may have regarding item four?

No, thank you.

All set.

Well, I don't see Council Member Lewis.

I want to make sure I'm not missing it.

OK.

Oh, there he is.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

I will jump in just a little bit on this, just from the point of view, because I'm sure that my office will get inquiries, rightfully so, from constituents who want to pursue deferment options in the future.

Is there any kind of support and vision for circumstances where that might pose a hardship?

I can imagine in some cases of the residential assessments, that there may be some folks on fixed incomes or that maybe want to pursue a deferment, but it might feel like they're setting themselves up for failure because it's going to be accruing the interest and it's going to create like another hardship or burden.

And they might be penalized essentially for not being positioned as their neighbors who can pay in a lump sum up front, for example.

Like, is there any kind of support currently envisioned, or is that something that the council could maybe pursue over the next several years, given that, you know, this is a financing scheme that we're going to be, you know, paying off for several decades?

Just, you know, as that need becomes more apparent, because I'm sure that folks will start, you know, talking to us about it if it is a hardship.

I just wanted to throw that out there as a question for the panel.

Well, I would just answer and say we don't have anything right now that would be in that direction.

But I think the step that we did take to try to alleviate the concerns is the step to essentially structure the payments and structure the bond debt service around interest only for the first 10 years.

And essentially, that was intended to bring down the payment amounts that would be actually due, at the same time allowing any LIT participant to pay over and above that as they chose.

But at this point, there's not any action in place right now to move beyond the deferral options that are currently offered by the city or the state.

and property owners also include the non-profits that we spoke to or had contacted us, the non-profits that are in the lid area, correct?

Okay, sorry Council Member Luz, I cut you off, go ahead.

No, no, no problem, Madam Chair.

I should have waited to be recognized again for a follow-up, so no worries.

I'll probably have some additional questions offline in this area for the panel, but I do appreciate that initial conversation.

And it is related to my earlier question around the percentage of the lid that is in residential property, which, as we noted earlier, was like a fifth of the total lit assessment.

So I do probably have some additional things I'll be talking to folks about, but we can do that offline.

OK.

Is there any other questions, concerns that we want to put to Eric from central staff or our friends from FAS and Mr. Van Dyke who's joined us?

Okay, so seeing none, then I'm going to move forward on this.

I move the committee recommend to pass Council Bill 120073. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

There's been a motion that has been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Great, thank you.

Council Member Peterson?

Yes.

Council Member Sawant?

Yes.

Council Member Juarez?

Yes.

Chair Juarez, that is four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion has been moved and seconded.

Clerk called the roll.

Motion passes.

Committee will recommend Council Bill 120073 to full council on Monday, June 14th.

Okay.

So let's go to our last piece on the agenda that concludes our items of business.

All items passed out of this committee, as I've shared, will be forwarded to Monday, June 14th for the full city council meeting.

Council Member Lewis, I look forward to discussing some of these issues offline.

And you can also, of course, contact Eric McConaughey and our other folks and friends, Glenn and team from FAS.

The next public assets and native communities meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 9th at two o'clock.

And with that, we stand adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.