Transportation & Seattle Public Utilities Committee 2/7/23

Good morning, the February 7th, 2023 meeting of the Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities Committee will come to order.

The time is 9.34 a.m.

I'm Alex Peterson, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Herbold?

Here.

Council Member Morales?

Here.

Chair Peterson?

Here.

Present.

Thank you.

And council members or committee members Strauss and so on have been excused.

We also have with us Council Member Andrew Lewis.

He is a co-sponsor for items one and two on the agenda today and will be speaking to the items.

Welcome Council Member Lewis.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you.

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

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Chair's report.

Good morning.

Welcome to the February 7th Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

On our agenda today, we have four items.

The first two items are co-sponsored by Council President Juarez, Council Member Lewis, and me.

They represent changes to street names by the Central Waterfront.

The first is a resolution designated Zizalalich as the honorary street name on Alaskan Way from Dearborn to Bell.

The second item designates the name of a new street constructed as part of the overall waterfront project.

Third on the agenda is a final approval for term permit for done lumber in Wallingford that is back to committee after receiving initial conceptual approval from the Council last year.

And lastly, on the agenda, we've got an initial conceptual approval of a term permit request from King County to construct and operate a new significant structure at Alki Point in West Seattle to facilitate their wastewater treatment system.

That's an electric transformer and a retaining wall that would be constructed.

The executive departments and I are hoping to vote all of the items out of committee today.

So committee colleagues, let me know if you do need more time when we get to any particular item.

So we'll go ahead and open the public comment period just for context, we do have one in person speaker and then there's somebody signed up online, I believe, but they are.

online for the 2 p.m.

meeting today for City Council.

So we'll just have one speaker.

I'll go ahead and read the instructions for public comment.

So at this time we will open the general public comment period for the Transportation Seattle Public Utilities Committee.

For our hybrid meeting we have people signed up to give public I will call on all speakers who have signed up for the public comment period.

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

I will start with the speakers who registered online.

I will call on all speakers who signed up here in the council chambers.

The public comment period for this meeting will be up to 20 minutes.

Again, we'll just have one speaker.

Speakers should begin by stating their name and the item they're addressing.

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

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

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

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the time allotted, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker or to start our committee business.

I think that's it for the instruction.

So the regular comment, public comment period for this committee meeting is open and we will begin with the first speaker on our list.

It looks like we've got Kevin Trout here in person.

Welcome, Kevin.

Let's see.

Thank you, everybody that is both here and online.

I'm excited to be here.

I moved here a month ago to Ballard.

It's a beautiful area and It just has so much vibrant walkability.

Kevin, can we start your time over and then pull the microphone really close to you so we can hear you.

Thanks.

Absolutely.

Is that better?

Yes.

Brilliant.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for having me here.

I moved here a month ago.

I moved to Ballard.

It's beautiful and walkable.

just so much of what I wanted when I wanted to move to a new city, a bigger city.

And so it's just been, it's been brilliant.

And I've had a lot of time.

And today I think the thing that is most on my mind is trying to improve that transit and walkability access for all people that live and walk and roll in that area, because it, is an area that you know was built for streetcars right Ballard is a streetcar suburb, it is the thing that connected the city, the background of my computer is the Seattle streetcar map from 1931. It's a beautiful thing and it allowed a lot of people with a lot of different It allowed a lot of people to get around the city in a very different way than what we have now, which is cars.

And I think that trying to undo, redo, reorganize transit and city life around people and walkability and access is one of the best things that this city could do moving forward.

The other thing on my mind today is the 15th Avenue Northwest Bridge Project.

which to my knowledge got basically to the 90% plan stage before really engaging with public commentary.

I saw a billboard that said 60% outside my bus stop today, but it just seems like such a, it seems like such an opportunity to increase transit and walkability and bikeability between the neighborhoods of, Ballard and North Queen Anne.

And I think it's a huge opportunity to put in a double protected bike lane on that bridge and save repaving a bunch of stuff as we move forward into this area.

So thank you so much for having this time in this committee this morning.

Thank you.

Well, colleagues, that appears to conclude our list of speakers.

Let me just check online very quickly here.

And to our clerks following, Jodi, are you able to confirm that they are here for city council for this afternoon?

Actually, they're not present.

So I think we can go ahead and close out the comment, period.

Yes, I think it's fine to close it out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Your microphone is working well, Jodi, by the way.

Well, let's go on to the first item of business.

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

Agenda item one, a resolution providing an honorary designation of Alaskan Way between Dearborn and Pine Street and Elliott Way between Pine and Beloit Street as deeds allowage for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

Colleagues, agenda items one and two are connected, so we'll discuss them together.

We will vote on the honorary street name of Zitzelalitch, then we'll introduce item two and vote on the naming of Elliott Way.

I do wanna turn it over to co-sponsor and District 7 Council Member Andrew Lewis for opening remarks, then we'll hear from central staff and the presenters, and afterward, open it up for discussion.

Again, this legislation is co-sponsored by Council President Juarez, Council Member Lewis, and me.

The Council President plans to speak to this item when it comes to the full council.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Council Member Lewis.

Good morning.

Good morning, Chair.

Thank you so much for the invitation, and it's good to be here this morning to speak to this resolution that is in front of the committee.

Resolution 32080, the resolution creating the honorary designation of Alaskan Way between Dearborn and Pine Streets to adopt the word that has been used or the name that's been used since time immemorial to describe this place, Zizilalich, the little crossing over place.

It's an honor to be in a position to co-sponsor this resolution with yourself as chair and Council President Juarez as co-sponsors.

And really appropriate given the process that has led us here today on our reclaiming of the waterfront from the viaduct structure and the cultural and engineering process that we have gone through to really engage in the placemaking to endeavor to the best of our ability to honor the designation of This is going to be a place where people want to live work play and gather in a way that it has not been for decades.

playing host mostly to a large cumbersome concrete freeway wall.

And that would not have been an appropriate place for us to designate Aziza Lalij.

That would not have been a place that could be a centerpiece of our community.

I believe that this designation really is going to adopt an appropriate name that manifests what our mission has been and what we've been endeavoring to create in partnership with the Office of the Waterfront, with our partners in tribal governments, and our non-profit patrons who are activating the space.

So with that, I have nothing else to add except to say that I look forward to being in a position to formally vote on this resolution when it gets to full council, but appreciate the opportunity to speak to it in the committee and to indicate my appreciation to you, Mr. Chair, for sponsoring and advancing this policy as well.

So with that, I don't have any additional comments and I will hand it back to the chair.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis.

Thanks for providing that history and the collaboration and outreach and partnership that went into this.

We do have Eric McConaghy from our City Council Central staff with us today.

Thank you, Eric, for your memo on these items.

Eric, did you want to walk us through any of the changes being made or have any introductory remarks before we turn it over to our presenters?

I think what I'll do just very briefly is orient folks to where these things will happen.

I'm sharing my screen now, and I believe you can see this.

The large representation of the sign in the middle is taken from materials from SDOT, the Office of the Waterfront.

We really appreciate that.

This is just to show that Alaskan Way would be in green and white as an official street.

But overlaying that will be the honorary designation of Zitzelowicz in white and brown and people probably have seen these kinds of honorary signs other places in town.

To the left, With north being generally to the top, you can see kind of a reddish brown line to indicate the extent of the honorary designation.

And then lower, kind of in the bottom of the map, the proposed Iliad Way designation for the new roadway.

So this is just to kind of start with a little geography.

It's probably going to be a little redundant with the presentation that's upcoming, but that's some framing remarks for you.

And happy to take any questions, but also happy to step aside.

Thank you very much.

We can go straight to our presenters, and we know you'll be here, Eric, if we have questions at the end.

So good morning to our presenters from the Office of the Waterfront and Seattle Department of Transportation.

Let's go ahead and introduce yourselves, and we'll get started with your presentation.

Hi, I'm Angela Brady.

I'm the acting director of the Office of the Waterfront.

Marshall Foster, I'm the Interim Director of Seattle Center and supporting Angie on this item.

Matt Beaulieu, Seattle Department of Transportation, Transportation Operations, Engineering and Design, supporting Angie on this.

Great, so Council Members, thank you so much for making

with us today.

We're here to gain your approval, as stated previously on the Alaska and Illinois White Street Naming Ordinance and Resolution for Honorary Tribal Street Naming Designation on Seattle's waterfront.

Next.

We're going to provide a brief overview of the program, including a summary of some of the construction progress our team has made over the years, and then cover some of our tribal outreach partnership that has led us to this proposal.

for an honorary tribal street naming designation on the waterfront.

Many thanks to our council members for supporting and championing this legislation, especially Council Member Juarez, who has provided us unwavering support on all things waterfront over the years.

Next.

This slide shows an overview of the projects included in the waterfront program.

Our work spans from King Street to the stadium district at the south end, up to Bell Street and Belltown at the north end.

As you know, the spine of the program includes construction of a new Alaskan Way and Elliott Way along the former footprint of the old Alaskan Way Viaduct, and a new linear park along the water's edge west of the new street.

We're also delivering a mix of projects that improve east-west connections between downtown and the waterfront, including four pedestrian bridges, a host of pedestrian and bike improvements along key corridors downtown, two new overwater piers, and several key partner projects, including the Pike Place Market's market front, and a new aquarium expansion of the Ocean Pavilion.

Next.

In terms of the city's construction schedule, we started building a new seawall, which forms the foundation for our new waterfront in 2013. And the new waterfront has been under construction ever since.

All projects shown here in green are part of the waterfront program.

And those shown in blue are some of our partner projects.

And as you can see from the graphic, we plan to be complete with construction of our new waterfront in 2025. just a few short years from now.

Next.

I thought I'd touch on a few of our key construction milestones starting in 2019. We haven't been to Council for a while, so I thought I'd do a quick summary of where we have been over the years.

Some of you may remember the state's new SR 99 tunnel opened in February of 2019, at which time the Viaduct demolition work began.

The city had completed restoration of the historic Washington Street boat landing at Habitat Beach, located just south of Clement Dock around that time.

And we were able to begin construction of the new Alaskan by LA Way in September of 2019, once the majority of the viaduct was removed in the central waterfront area.

Our first big milestone was reconstructing and opening Columbia Street to two-way transit in early 2020. And just after that, we all know COVID hit.

We made the tough decision to put intense health and safety protocols into place and to keep going with construction.

We ended up delivering a new Pier 62 that year, which opened in September 2020. And at the same time, we were hit with a failing Pier 58, which we promptly demolished under emergency contract.

By February 2021, we had started construction of a new Union Street pedestrian bridge.

And by July of 21, we had completed the majority of the south end work on a new Alaskan way from King Street to Columbia, and we're able to open that segment to traffic.

From there, we focused on constructing new utilities and roadway from Columbia to Union Streets.

Next.

In December 2021, you all might recall, King County was hit with the longest concrete strike on record, and we endured five long months with no concrete.

That strike did put a dent in our progress.

However, we focused on the program elements we could get done with the materials we had available.

The strike did cause a delay to the start of a couple of our projects, but we were able to start Marion Street pedestrian bridge construction and construction of our Overlook Walk project that connects the market to the waterfront in June of 22. In August of 2022, we completed and opened Alaskan Way up to Union Street.

which allowed us to switch traffic to the new road and begin construction of our new park promenade.

In September, we began construction of a new Pier 58 between the aquarium and the Great Wheel, and we started demolition of Pier 63 just north of the aquarium.

And finally, in December 22, we were able to celebrate the opening of our new Union Street pedestrian bridge and elevator to the public, improving access and mobility at a very challenging location on the waterfront.

If you haven't been down there, I encourage you to check it out, especially if sunset is absolutely gorgeous next.

One of the crown jewels of our new waterfront is the Overlook Walk, a pedestrian bridge connection between Pike Place Market and the waterfront.

This slide covers the very challenging interface and coordination efforts between four contractors on what is a very constrained site.

We have a utility and a road builder, the Overlook Walk contractor, the Aquarium and Exposition Pavilion contractor, and an elevator contractor all working at the same time in the same space.

On the right, you can see the transformation that is happening in that area with the overlook block and the new aquarium expansion really taking shape.

And on the left are images of what will be the final product.

We're looking forward to continuing our great progress on the projects.

Next.

And quickly covering what's in store for 2023 here.

Construction of our park promenade and roadway work, the overlook block, and Pier 58 will continue construction throughout 2023. If that wasn't enough, we're starting construction of a few additional new projects this year as well.

Next week, we'll be starting construction of pedestrian and bike improvements along the Pike and Pine Corridors downtown.

We're kicking off the Bell Street project, which provides enhancements to pedestrians and bikes along Bell Street from First to Elliott.

And in late March, early April, we plan to open a new Elliott Way roadway from Union all the way up to Bell Street and to Belltown.

Also this summer, we'll be starting construction of improvements in Pioneer Square, leading us to wrapping up and opening the Marion Street Pet Bridge at early fall, at which point we'll begin removal of the temporary Marion Pet Bridge.

And finally, looking into early 2024, our plan is to have wrapped up design of the Bell Street project, and we'll be readying that project to start construction.

And we'll also begin construction of a new public restroom on the waterfront early 2024. I could go on and on and on about construction, but I wanted to make sure we have plenty of time to cover the street naming legislation.

So without further ado, I'm going to hand things off to Mr. Marshall Foster, who worked on this legislation for us, and he will cover that and do the work effort for you.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you so much, Angie.

And good morning council members it's great to be with you in a new role which I'm still getting used to watching Angie go through this work.

I just have to I just have to take a second to recognize her and her team.

and the phenomenal job that they've done keeping that program alive and thriving and moving forward during COVID and the rest.

It's been a remarkable process.

There's 16 projects in that program, all of which require a huge amount of care and expertise to bring them to light.

So just huge kudos to that team of keeping this whole thing on track.

Um as uh Angie mentioned and thank you Eric for your for your introduction.

Um this is a really exciting day for for the waterfront program and I think for the city.

Um we have been working for I'm going to say more than a decade close to 1314 years with our tribal partners to make um the waterfront a central part of elevating and uh doing a better job of of recognizing the role of And I'm going to take a few minutes and tell you about all the many of the different things we're doing.

But this is in many ways kind of one of the more visible things that we're going to we're excited to bring to you in terms of capturing that relationship with the tribes.

As Eric mentioned, you know, with this major new investment in the street and the surface street and the roadway connection up through Belltown, we do need to establish names for these elements.

And we, through those conversations with the tribes, came to the conclusion that it would really be appropriate to establish an honorary name that elevates the original place name of the waterfront, Zidzalalich, which we'll talk more about in a moment.

So just the details of what the legislation in front of you would do.

There's two pieces, as was mentioned, both an ordinance and a resolution.

The resolution would authorize the honorary designation of for Alaskan Way as well as the Elliott Way.

It would also through an ordinance establish the new portion of the street which goes essentially north from Pine Street needs to have a name and from our very early work on the waterfront, you know, our community engagement that took place our subsequent environmental work, the name Elliott Way was established.

And so we would like to also establish that as the underlying name for that northernmost portion of the new street.

Next slide.

So just the details of that, Eric, your map was very similar to this.

You can see here Zitzelalitch would be the honorary name of this entire stretch that you see in front of you.

Both the pink color and the purple would have that Zitzelalitch designation.

And then we would retain Alaskan Way as the official name for the surface street, the areas along the waterfront, as they have been known for quite some time.

The new roadway section north of Pine, which is what you see on the right side of the screen, would be the Elliott Way section.

And I also just want to thank Matt Beaulieu at SDOT and their whole team who've done a very careful job of kind of vetting these proposals to make sure they work well with our street grid system, with emergency response, with all of our mapping to make sure that it'll be very legible and easy for the public to navigate these new streets as well.

Next slide.

So just stepping back from the details of the legislation to share a little bit about our our history of partnership with the tribes.

This just shows you kind of in a snapshot, a lot of the different things that we've been doing you know we've been working.

both formally in our government to government partnership with the tribes on permitting, that goes all the way back to the permitting of the Elliott Bay seawall replacement, to also a lot of cultural and community work with the tribes as well to really understand their history, to understand the way they have historically used our waterfront, both as a cultural space, but also as a huge part of their economy with fishing and all of their tribal rights to use Elliott Bay.

And then based on that, have developed a partnership on a whole host of different elements from public art to programming to things like what we're doing today with the street renaming.

Next slide.

You know, if we step back and just think overall, what are the major priorities that we've consistently heard from the tribes?

Protecting salmon and marine habitat.

That's been absolutely the most primary message and focus.

And things like the L.A.

Bay Seawall Project are living examples of that commitment to the tribes.

Creating design features that reflect tribal history, art, and culture and elevate it in what we're doing.

A lot of things that I'll show you some examples of in a moment.

Providing gathering spaces for tribal celebration.

A key thing that we're able to do thanks to the new Pier 62 and our partnership with Friends of Waterfront Seattle is provide now a dedicated permanent home for salmon homecoming on the waterfront, which for years was, you know, moved around the city to different locations.

We're happy to now have a permanent home.

Public programming that celebrates history and culture and incorporating native plants with native uses into the landscape.

These are all things that we are addressing in various parts of the waterfront work.

Next slide.

Just a few images, not going to go through everything.

You know, everyone's aware of the seawall.

That is a living habitat, salmon habitat system below the sidewalk.

And so you can, this was in construction.

Today we do actually kayak tours under there where you can see how the habitat systems work.

It's been overall very successful from a scientific perspective, the University of Washington continues to help us monitor the effectiveness of the new seawall and for habitat and it has very much been a success story.

Next slide.

Just some of the overall strategy that we've developed with them about how we tell the story and integrate plantings into that system.

So this is talking about the relationship between land and water and the way that near shore environment works to support a whole range of flora and fauna.

This is part of what, when you see the landscape design that is starting to actually be built and visible on the waterfront, it supports this, you know, kind of journey between land and water that's taking place.

This was a very important part of our conversation with the tribes.

Next slide.

Art.

You know, public art is an incredible opportunity to express these values and this commitment.

We have a whole host of different elements which speak to tribal history and culture.

Sean Peterson of the Puyallup Tribe is doing a major series of welcome figures.

right at the foot of the new Pier 58, which is under construction now.

An artist named Oscar Tuazon is working with a range of tribal carvers on a series of wooden forms that evoke the longhouse that will be along the waterfront between Coleman Dock and Fire Station 5 on the waterfront.

And then a really interesting partnership that has taken place between Maylynn Foster, Tamela LeClaire, and Kimberly Dariana around a major piece that will be at kind of the heart of the new Overlook Walk that Angie described, which has more of a basket weave form that will be a really exciting piece of public art, you know, very central to one of our premier public spaces on the waterfront.

And then you see at the bottom just a whole bunch of hosting, creating opportunities for the tribes to have space on the waterfront.

That's an image of a Muckleshoot event that took place as part of the opening of the new Pier 62 in 2020. Next slide.

We did establish a land acknowledgement for the waterfront program, and this was based on partnership with the tribes.

Seattle's waterfront stands on the lands and shared waters of the Puget Sound Coast Salish people whose ancestors resided here since time immemorial.

With gratitude, we honor the land, water, and its peoples.

This has been an important part of our community presence and outreach and the message and framing we give the community when we work on the waterfront.

This was also the moment where the tribes introduced to us the idea of bringing the original Lushootseed word for Tzitzalawitch back into use here on the waterfront.

And so this was a couple of years ago that we did this, and it really launched the conversation with them around the naming.

Next slide.

I'm not gonna go too far into the history.

I think people have probably heard the term Little Crossing Overplace.

Suffice it to say, there's a rich, history of how this place was described.

There are a lot of different terms that have been used.

In our consultations with the tribes, seeds of Lawleach was the consistent best representation of that idea of little crossing over place.

And so their recommendation to us was to use that term.

And it was important to them that we use the Lushootseed term.

for that, not, you know, for example, we talked about Salish Sea, which is another term that's talked about a lot for Elliott Bay and Puget Sound.

But seeds of knowledge and bringing the original chute seed into use was something that was very important to them, and we're happy to be able to move forward.

Next slide.

So that's the proposal in a nutshell.

I think we're happy to answer questions at this time.

Thank you very much for that in-depth presentation.

wanted to see if our city council central staffer eric mcconaughey if you had anything to add beyond your memo and introductory remarks no thank you appreciate it okay thank you and colleagues uh including council member lewis any comments or questions uh no thank you mr chair um appreciate the presentation and reserve the rest of my comments for a full council Okay, thank you.

And just for clarity for committee members, that presentation actually covered both items one and two on our agenda today.

So for our committee colleagues, any comments or questions before I move this item to a vote?

Okay, well, let's go ahead and move this item.

Our first vote, which will be adoption of the honorary designation via resolution for Zitzelalitch.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32080. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend adoption of this resolution.

Any final comments or questions?

Okay well the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to adopt resolution 32080. Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Three in favor, none opposed.

Excellent, the motion carries.

The committee recommendation to adopt resolution 32080 will be sent to the February 14th City Council meeting.

Again, thank you, Council Member Lewis for your co-sponsorship of that resolution.

And to move the item two, we'll go ahead and read it into the record and do that parliamentary procedure.

So will the clerk please read the short title of the second agenda item into the record?

Agenda item two, an ordinance relating to city streets designating the name of a new street constructed as part of the Central Waterfront Project connecting Alaskan Way with Elliott and Western Avenues between Pike and Bell Streets as Elliott Way.

Truncating use of the Elliott Avenue name as Western Avenue for briefing discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

And colleagues, again, we heard this presented with item one, but for clarity's sake, Eric, would you want to share the map again that shows the extent of Elliott Way or do we want to pull up that slide toward the end of the PowerPoint?

Sorry to put you on the spot there.

I'm happy to do that.

I can do that now if you like.

Great.

Just give me a moment.

That part of my computer decided to go to sleep for a second.

We're back and I'll share it.

Thank you.

Sure, should be on its way.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it's this portion of the roadway here down at the South, running from Pine to Bell, and then I'll show you, as shown in the first attachment to the ordinance, here's the new road, Elliott Way.

The same piece of road, just now pointed differently.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any comments or questions while we have executive staff here with us and central staff?

Yeah, Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

I do have some questions that are more about long-term uses, improvements, and right away in this corridor, if the panel can answer them, and I defer to whoever would be the most appropriate.

I candidly think if we were designing the roadways and transportation corridors in the waterfront area today and convening that planning process today, we would have made some different choices.

I think it's been interesting to see throughout the pandemic and also throughout the years where we haven't had the viaduct, the way people have adjusted their commute patterns, their driving patterns, where it, it seems like we could make some bolder choices on the waterfront in terms of what we're using the space for that is being taken up considerably with a bigger footprint for cars including on this Elliot way designation.

So my question is not, I mean, we're not going to obviously change anything right now, we're in the middle of building it, but it's more about the future ways that we can adapt and change these spaces potentially.

So my first question, just as a threshold question, is to what extent will we have the ability to make changes to use, to right away, to the nature of the vehicles that are allowed in some of these spaces?

And to what extent will there be some residual consultation that's required with WSDOT or some other actors that would have to be worked out in an intergovernmental way?

Is it different for Alaskan versus Elliott Way, like it since we're sort of creating a completely new thing here with Elliott Way, would we retain the right, for example, to go through a full Green Street conversion at some point with Elliott Way?

And for that matter, do we have that flexibility with Alaskan Way?

So just those threshold questions first, and then I may have some follow up questions.

I'll try to answer that, Angie.

So I'll just say first that Alaskan Way from Yesler south to King is actually a state highway.

It's under state jurisdiction.

And so part of the reason we had a long set of conversations over a good long eight or so years about the design of Alaska Mine Alleyway overall.

But ultimately, the state has jurisdiction through Gessler South.

So if we were to make a change there, we have to obviously sit down with the state ferry department.

There's a major ferry terminal at that location, obviously, at Colman Dock, which is really important to the state and also to the city.

King County Metro, you know, we've put plans for them on that segment of Alaskan Way as well.

Those are really important to King County.

One thing I might note is we did some work with in consideration of the West Seattle to Ballard light link rail.

We did do some work with community and King County Metro and state back when we made decisions on that corridor and the width of it where once the new light link rail was in place, that we could come back and actually remove the transit lanes from that segment of the roadway.

So that is one area that we do plan to do something there in the future once light link rail is in place and open to the public.

As far as the remainder of the roadway along Alaskan Way north of Yesler and up into Belltown, that is a city street.

There are two lanes each direction with on-street parking.

And the city can do with it what we may.

I guess that's what I would say.

The Elliott Wave portion, I just do want to highlight, there's the segment between, basically between Pine Street, working our way north, takes you up and over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks.

So it's actually a bridge structure that takes you up and over those tracks.

But again, we own the structure and we own the roadway.

So I don't know if that answers all of your questions or not.

Yeah, so Angie, just to clarify, it sounds like the dividing line is Yesler between where we have a little bit more authority and leeway.

So where it goes from Alaskan Way to Alaskan Way South is sort of the dividing line of where we go from state highway to city arterial?

Yes.

OK, excellent.

Can I just add one comment to what Angie said?

I just want to emphasize the importance of the commitment we made to Pioneer Square to reduce the width of Alaskan Way on the south end.

So that was a contractual commitment as part of our final environmental impact statement for the project.

It was made with WSDOT.

So they also committed that we would remove a lane in each direction at that time and provide additional green space.

A key thing that I'm sure some of the committee members will remember is for the city at the time, we decided to provide dedicated transit lanes in each direction because of the importance of King County Metro service.

The original design did not include those, but we decided to do that to make sure we were prioritizing transit.

The thought was and the commitment was made that once the light rail was replacing the metro rapid ride service, we could reclaim that space for a variety of different uses, greenery, green stormwater infrastructure.

But I just want to emphasize that because I know that is a particular area where there's been plenty of questions about the width of the street.

Thank you.

Council Member Lewis, any follow-up comments or questions?

No, it was just good to confirm with our panel that for future planning purposes, there is some leeway in the core waterfront and on this newly designated Elliott Way for potential future improvements that emphasize use for those spaces for pedestrian and non-vehicle uses.

Thank you.

And thank you for being here as the district council member.

It's really important to have your ongoing input on this.

Well, colleagues, I'll go ahead and move this council bill if there are no other comments or questions.

Let me just check.

Looks good.

Okay.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120507. Is there a second?

Thank you, thank you.

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

Any final comments or questions before we vote?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass council bill 120507.

Council member Herbold?

Yes.

Council member Morales?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120507 will be sent to the February 14 City Council meeting.

All right, we'll go on to agenda item three.

Will the clerk please read the short title and thank you to our presenters and to central staff for the previous two items.

Excellent.

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

Agenda item three, an ordinance granting Dunn Lumber Company permission to construct, maintain, and operate a private communication conduit under and across Latona Avenue Northeast, north of Northeast North Lake Way for a 15-year term for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

Colleague, as I mentioned earlier, we saw this term permit in committee back in May.

We voted as a full council to approve initial conceptual approval via Resolution 32053. The Seattle Department of Transportation and central staff have both determined that Dunn Lumber has met the conditions from the initial approval.

So they're back here today for final approval.

Before I turn it over to presenters, I want to thank Lish Whitson from Central Staff for his memo and ask if he wants to make any introductory comments on this item.

I have nothing to add at this point.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, welcome to our presenters from the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Take it away.

Hello, my name is Amy Gray, and I'm with the Seattle Department of Transportation, and I think Bill is going to bring up the PowerPoint.

And I want to thank you for the opportunity to present the Dunn-Lumber term from an ordinance for your potential vote today.

Next slide, please.

Dunn-Lumber is seeking council's approval to construct and maintain a private communication conduit under Latona Avenue North, north of Northeast North Lake Way, The communication conduit will connect the existing Dunn Lumber office and warehouse with the new warehouse across the street.

SDOT has reviewed the materials provided by Dunn Lumber and recommends approval.

Next slide, please.

Significant structures are covered in the Seattle Municipal Code under 1565. They are defined as a structure that will be in the right-of-way for a long duration, that it would impede the city's or public's flexibility in use of the right-of-way, and is necessary for the functioning of the business.

The proposed communication conduit meets all three of these criteria.

Next slide, please.

Council permits require two steps.

As noted, council provided conceptual approval in May of 2022 via resolution 32053. We are here at step two, which is the passage of the ordinance, which details the obligations of the permit, including the annual fee, maintenance obligations, indemnification insurance, and bond requirements.

Next slide, please.

The council bill before you today would allow permission for Dunlumber to install and maintain this private communication conduit and had, like I said, they have met all the conditions for approval as set out in the resolution.

And next slide, please.

This image shows the approximate location of the communication conduit between the existing building and the new building across the street under Latona Avenue.

Next slide, please.

These two images show the new facility looking northeast at 3,800 Latona Avenue Northeast on the left side and looking southeast on the right side.

Next slide, please.

This map shows the approximate location of the communication conduit in the Wallingford neighborhood.

I-5 is to the right and Lake Union is to the south.

Next slide, please.

Dunlumber is seeking this final approval step from council to construct and operate the conduit.

If the ordinance is approved, the permit would be in place for 15 years with a second renewal of another 15-year term.

Next slide, please.

Thank you, and we're here to answer any questions council may have.

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, any comments or questions for this final approval for the term permit for the underground construction?

Okay.

Well, thank you to Team Estad for the thorough presentation, and again, central staff, Lish Whitson for your memo and confirmation that the applicant has met the requirements of the original resolution.

Council members, I'll go ahead and move this item now.

Council members, I now move that the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120506. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Any final comments or questions?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120506.

Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Three in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to pass Council Bill 120506 will be sent to the February 14th City Council meeting.

Thank you.

Now to our last agenda item.

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

Agenda item four, a resolution granting conceptual approval to construct, maintain, and operate a transformer and retaining wall at 63rd Avenue Southwest, intersecting with Beach Drive Southwest and Southwest Spokane Street to support the operation of the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station Facility and 63rd Avenue Pump Station Facility in the West Seattle neighborhood, as proposed by King County, for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Thank you.

Colleagues, this council bill, wait, this resolution would allow initial approval for King County to construct, maintain, and operate a new structure for the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Station in West Seattle.

Specifically, it's an electrical transformer and retaining wall to provide backup power.

After the council grants initial approval, the Seattle Department of Transportation will negotiate the final approval for a term permit.

And then we'd see them back in our committee for final approval of the term permit.

So today will be conceptual approval.

We are fortunate to have the district council member on our committee here, Councilman Herbold.

And so, again, want to open it up to city council central staff to see if they have any introductory remarks.

No, thank you.

Okay, and thank you for your memo, which is posted online, that was very helpful.

And Council Member Herbold, if you had any introductory remarks, otherwise we can turn it over to the presenters.

Okay, we'll go ahead and turn it over to Esta, welcome, and King County.

Hi.

I'm also going to introduce Zach from King County.

He's the project manager for the overall project, and he can answer technical questions about operations and Electric City and voltage and all that sort of stuff.

So I wanted to thank you again, this opportunity to speak to you.

This proposed transformer and retaining wall are a critical component of a larger environmental project to protect Puget Sound and the public from untreated wastewater being discharged in the event of a power outage.

Next slide, please.

The transformer is necessary to support the permanent standby generator that King County is installing at Alki Wet Weather Treatment Facility and at the 63rd Avenue Pump Station.

The image shows the existing retaining wall with the pump station in the background.

and the existing retaining wall will remain, the new retaining wall that is necessary to support the structure of the transformer will be to the left of that existing retaining wall.

SDOT has reviewed the application and recommends conceptual approval.

Next slide, please.

This proposed transformer and retaining wall meets all three of these criteria.

It is essential to the functioning of the facilities to operate the permanent standby power.

And we believe that it meets all the requirements for the code.

Next slide, please.

As Councilmember Peterson noted, this is the term permit resolution stage where Council has the opportunity to review the project and provide conceptual approval to King County to go further.

Passage of the ordinance would come later, and it would be the actual permit detailing the terms of the permit for King County to use the right-of-way for these purposes.

I also wanted to point out that, oh, this is a slide, sorry.

King County will locate one, the project actually requires two transformers.

One will be located on their property at the Alki Wet Weather Treatment Facility, which they own.

The other will be located in the right-of-way adjacent to the 63rd Avenue Pump Station.

The 63rd Avenue Pump Station is actually in right-of-way, it's covered under a separate agreement with King County that was negotiated in 1961. commonly referred to as the 1961 agreement, where the city transferred assets over to King County for wastewater treatment facilities.

The transformer adjacent to the home station would be approximately six feet high and nine feet wide and occupy approximately 300 square feet of the right-of-way.

Next slide, please.

These 2 maps show the location of the treatment facility in the image to the left, the trenching that will happen to install the electrical wiring through the neighborhood, and then the location of the 63rd Avenue pump station.

The image to the right shows the existing pump station, sort of that circular item and the proposed location of the transformer and retaining wall.

Next slide please.

These images show the existing site conditions.

Oh, I'm sorry, Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Can we go back to the previous slide?

Yes.

I just want to confirm information that I received from some inquiries my staff did, that the work will be done in phases and at least part of the road will be open while the work is taking place in both phases.

I believe so.

Zach, would you like to confirm?

Yes.

So there would be sections that we work on each time.

We will not be on the street the whole time.

So it will be phased.

And just also confirming that there will always be a part of the street open.

Yes, that's correct.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next slide please.

So this shows the current site images.

Like I noted, the new transformer and retaining wall will be located just in front of the existing retaining wall on the image on the left.

And the image on the right shows the slope and the current landscaping at the site.

Next slide please.

These images we asked King County to provide show through a drawing what the proposed transformer and retaining wall would look like after construction.

The one on the left shows the same orientation as the previous slide.

The one in the middle shows the retaining wall that supports the structure and the transformer in green.

Then the one on the very far right shows looking north east towards towards the street of the retaining wall there and the transformer Councilmember question.

Yeah, thanks.

Just another question about the visual impacts to the view from the street.

It's not really very clear from the image, do we have any information about the height of the green structure?

And whether it would be great to know also if there were other options of sport with a lower height, or if not, why that might be perhaps it's not viable to do so because the space available.

But yeah, just wondering what the visual impact is from the street and the height of the structure.

Zach, I believe the height is about six feet of this transformer, but I'm going to turn over the questions about other alternatives to you.

Yeah, so we looked at one alternative going over the poles of Seattle City Light.

And when we started that conversation, We were told that we can't use those poles because they wouldn't accommodate the structures that are there to have additional conduits that would run to there.

So the only option that was available to us was to put a transformer close to the 63rd pump station.

And that's the only place that, during the design, that came to town.

Thank you.

OK, I think we can go to the next slide.

Lish, did you want to add something?

Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, but also there is the water level that the transformer needs to be above.

So that's one reason why it's higher than potentially optimal.

Very helpful.

Thank you.

Key County is adding some enhanced landscaping to the area.

As you can see on the slide before, it wasn't too robust, so they are adding some landscaping features here.

This is the proposed landscaping plan as it stands now.

Zach, I'm going to get the name of this wrong, but on the retaining wall where the transformer sits, but where the transformer is not located, there's concrete pavers with ground cover-ish thing coming through, so it doesn't look like just a giant slab of concrete there.

They're doing something to make it more permeable for water to pass through and having more native species in the area.

That's correct.

All right.

Next slide, please.

We asked King County for their public outreach and how they communicated with the neighbors in the area.

In May 2019, they did a post to the West Seattle blog.

In March 2022, flyers were sent door-to-door within the area shown on the map to the right, talking about the overall project, which was the wet weather treatment facilities, installing the jet backup generator power and why it was needed.

We asked them to do a follow-up communication to the community in September 22, specifically addressing that the transformer, showing what the transformer was going to look like once the project was complete.

Folks that were watching the project after construction knew that they were at least informed that there was something was going to be there after the trenching and all the roadwork was done.

We wanted to make sure that that was specifically called out.

Next slide please.

So this is a larger map showing the location of the proposed transformer on the Alki point.

Next slide please.

And just to reiterate, we're here to seek councils conceptual approval for the transformer and retaining wall we believe it's a critical component to protect Puget Sound to have permanent backup power.

Currently, if power goes out in the area, untreated wastewater is discharged into Puget Sound because there's no power to the facilities.

This is necessary for the overall project.

If the ordinance is, if the resolution is passed, I will prepare an ordinance that will come back to you later specifying the terms and conditions.

For the permit, with permits that we have with King County, we generally have them be, the term is longer than the normal 30 years.

We have them for a number of projects.

One's in South Magnolia, another one's at the Barton Pump Station.

And so long as King County operates the facilities at the wet weather treatment facility and the pump station, the permit would be in effect.

If King County transfers that operation over to anybody else, we would have that new entity have to work with them.

They would have to seek approval to have that permission.

But so long as King County operates the facilities, that would be the duration of the permit.

That is consistent with our other permits that we have with them.

Yes, Council Member.

Thank you.

Just wondering if you could give the ordinance that will come back to us, We'll have terms and conditions contained within the ordinance.

Can you give us some flavor of the types of terms and conditions we can expect?

Thank you.

Sure.

It's generally, they have to pay a fee.

That's important to Estat to operate.

King County is self-insured like the city, so we make sure that the city is protected against risk associated to anybody harming themselves on the site.

Under private parties, we're named as an additional insured under insurance.

We have King County indemnify the city and have a protection yet again saying they're operating this private structure in our right-of-way, so they're responsible for it.

We have maintenance obligations for making sure it continues to work and that the right-of-way is not disrupted.

If they need to do work there, they have to get a permit for a construction use permit.

similar to any other person seeking to work in the right-of-way.

We have inspection requirements for them to make sure and submit reports to the city where they detail the structural integrity of the retaining wall, make sure it's still functional, things like that.

Thank you.

Very helpful.

We know what to watch for.

Appreciate that.

Next slide, please.

And that's the end of my presentation.

Thank you very much.

And really appreciate the research that our district council did for the meeting and airing things publicly here.

So people are even more aware of what would be happening at this particular location through this initial conceptual approval via resolution.

And just want to make sure we don't have any other comments or questions at this time.

Council Member Herbold, please.

I just want to express my appreciation for King County staff meeting with no auditors from my office.

answering questions, the outreach they did to neighbors, and also for working with our folks at SDOT around some of the other issues regarding the Stay Healthy Street in that area.

Also, thanks to Lish Whitson of Council Central Staff for answering a question that we received from a member of the public in our own outreach.

around this resolution.

So much appreciation.

Thank you.

I agree we've been in really good hands with the term permit process over the last few years.

It's been heartening to see it work so well.

All right, council members, I'll go ahead and move this item.

I now move that the committee recommend adoption of resolution 32079. Is there a second?

Thank you, it's been moved and seconded to recommend approval of the resolution.

Any final comments or questions?

Okay, will the clerk please call the roll on the committee recommendation to adopt resolution 32079. Council Member Herbold?

Yes.

Council Member Morales?

Yes.

Chair Peterson?

Yes.

Three in favor, none opposed.

Excellent.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation to adopt resolution 32079 will be sent to the February 14th city council meeting.

All right.

Thank you to our presenters and to city council central staff and to committee colleagues for your attention to these items.

Uh, this will conclude our meeting for February 7th, 2023 meeting of the transportation and Seattle public utilities committee.

Our next committee meeting will be on February 21st.

All right.

Well, thank you.

And we are adjourned.

Yeah.

you