SPEAKER_05

All right, good afternoon, everybody.

The August 7th, 2024 regularly scheduled meeting of the Land Use Committee will come to order.

It is 2.04 p.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Moore.

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_07

Present.

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Wu.

Chair, Vice Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_05

Present.

SPEAKER_03

Chair Morales.

Here.

Three present.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Council Member Wu and Council Member Moore are excused.

Okay.

We have 13 items on the agenda today.

11 of them are appointments or reappointments to the Seattle Planning Commission.

We also will have a briefing and discussion on Council Bill 120832. which is an update to construction codes.

And then we have an informational item, which will be a discussion with community members and experts on anti-displacement measures.

This is a comprehensive planning conversation.

And these are folks specifically here to talk about that through the climate lens.

So if there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee.

Naomi, how many folks do we have signed up?

SPEAKER_03

We have two in person and 10 online.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, so we'll start with the folks who are here in person.

Each speaker will have two minutes to speak.

You'll be called in the order in which you registered.

For those of you who are online, please make sure you press star six before speaking.

And everyone will hear a chime when you have 10 seconds left.

So when you hear that chime, please do begin to wrap up your comments so we can move to the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

Naomi, will you start with the two folks who were here in person?

SPEAKER_03

First, we have Alex Zimmerman followed by David Glogger.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah.

Yeah.

My name is Alex Zimmerman.

Today you possibly approve so many codes.

Probably this is good because without code, without rules, no one country can exist.

Exactly, absolutely.

I'm totally confused only.

Why fundamental code, what we have for 250 years, you not approve here?

You not approve us Constitution, First Amendment, and freedom of speech.

And I talking about this for many, many years.

It's idiotic situation.

You have basic nine council, absolutely identical, and give one minute for speech.

Is this a trouble?

Because what is you can doing for one minute?

I don't understand how you can explain who you are and what is your delivery to you for one minute.

So I talked to you many years.

Opened Bertha room in City Hall.

Yes.

One day per week, so everybody can go and speak for three minutes without your control.

Because by definition, you are Nazi, Gestapo, bandita.

You are pig.

You understand what I mean?

You don't give chance.

Explain.

I speak from Tacoma to Everett more than 4,500 times for many years.

10 years I come here and ask you, it's easy for you and good for people.

It's best for everybody.

Win-win situation.

Give one chance.

Up next, we have David Glocker.

SPEAKER_00

Hello, my name is Dave Gloger and I live in District 5. It has been just over a year since Seattle enacted a supposed tree protection ordinance.

When this was passed, the mayor and council bragged to us about how this ordinance was regulating over 170,000 trees, way more than the old ordinance.

We all know that there is a big difference between regulating and protecting.

And since the ordinance is passed, we have seen the results of these 170,000 regulated trees.

On project after project, we have seen lots cleared of all of the trees as there is no protection in Seattle's tree protection ordinance.

Developers told us that we had to choose between trees and affordable housing, but now we're losing our mature trees and developers are building expensive high-end housing, not affordable housing.

It has been well documented that the Rainier Valley has very low tree canopy and continues to experience a high proportion of matures Mature trees being removed.

I just learned of a project at 5960 MLK Way.

This is in District 2, Council Member Morales' district.

This property has 124 trees on site, and according to the Arborist Report, at least 121 trees will be removed.

Yep, they're gonna protect three of them.

The truth is, they could have cut them all down, since the Tree Protection Ordinance allows for that.

This site has two environmentally critical areas, one for steep slopes and one for wetlands.

So why aren't we protecting those areas?

This is not good environmental science and it is not environmental equity.

It's just the expansion of the heat island in the Rainier Valley.

I ask and beg you to re-look at the tree protection ordinance and create protection for our mature trees while we build more housing.

We can do both.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

That concludes in-person speakers.

For virtual speakers, first we have Katie Garo, followed by Deepa.

Last name starting with an S.

Katie, if you press star six, we will be able to hear you.

SPEAKER_05

Katie, we see you.

Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_26

Oh, press, okay, you're good.

Good afternoon, council members.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

All right, great.

Hi, for the record, my name is Katie Garrow.

I am the executive secretary treasurer of MLK Labor.

I'm here today to thank Mayor Harreld for listening to feedback from labor and environmentalists on the commercial energy code and thank them and hopefully urge you, council, to support an energy code that is stronger than the state.

The proposal builds on the great work that the Harrell administration and this council did last year to pass the building emissions performance standards policy.

And the changes will help to ensure that jobs in the clean energy economy are good union represented careers.

We can and must ensure that new buildings are built with clean energy and are energy efficient so that bills stay low and that there is a habitable environment for our children.

And you know, as they say, as goes Seattle, eventually so goes the state.

In Seattle, we have an important responsibility to be the leaders on issues of environmental stewardship and worker standards.

So I'm hoping to urge support for the energy code policy today and ask you on behalf of our 150 affiliates to move this policy forward.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next, we have Deepa Sivarajan, followed by Ryan Donahue.

Please press star six, Deepa.

SPEAKER_17

Hi, my name is Deepa Sivarajan.

I'm the Washington local policy manager at ClimateSource, a local nonprofit committed to accelerating clean energy solutions to the climate crisis.

And similar to what Katie just said, I'm here to urge support for the Seattle Energy Code that you are being presented with today and to thank Mayor Harrell and the city for moving forward at the, you know, after collaboration with Enviro's and labor and affordable housing developers to move forward a code that is stronger than the state's code.

Seattle has long been a leader in terms of energy code.

The 2021 code Seattle passed was the blueprint, in fact, for both energy codes in the next state cycle.

And so we're glad to see that Seattle is once again a code that is more energy efficient and incentivizes the use of clean energy rather than giving into the demands of the fossil fuel industry who are looking to maximize their profits at the expense of our climate and our clean energy future so just want to urge passage on this and urge Seattle to continue leading on the code over the years because as Katie mentioned as Seattle goes the state goes and so do other local jurisdictions who are looking to Seattle for leadership even before the next state.

So thank you again to Mayor Herald for moving this forward and I urge council passage.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next we have Ryan Donahue followed by Rachel Kohler.

Please press star six, Ryan.

SPEAKER_08

Oh, hopefully you can hear me, yes.

Wonderful, thank you.

Chairman Austin members of the land use committee.

As you may know, my name is Ryan Donahue and I'm the chief advocacy officer over at Habitat for Humanity, Seattle, King and Kansas counties.

I wanted to briefly share our feedback on the Seattle Energy Code update proposal.

That has been proposed basically from Habitat's perspective, largely supportive of efforts to largely mirror the city energy code with the state code.

A recent study was conducted that would find that the average per unit cost difference was roughly $24,000.

It's our belief that lowering the cost to build any unit by an average of $24,000 eases a significant burden on any housing project, whether it's for-profit or non-profit.

That average cost alone would save us at Habitat for Humanity almost $1.4 million on our MLK project alone.

A project that has already been allocated over $7 million from the city.

This is the kind of change that helps move us to achieving the vision of Habitat for Humanity, building a world where everyone has a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.

I thank you for your consideration, and I hope you continue to consider that as you consider this policy change.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next, we have Rachel Kohler followed by Steve Gleb.

Please press star six, Rachel.

SPEAKER_19

Good afternoon, Chair Morales and members of the committee.

My name is Rachel Kohler.

I'm the managing director of Shift Zero.

We are an alliance of over 55 green building, energy efficiency, and climate action businesses and organizations working together to catalyze the just transition to zero carbon buildings for all in Washington State.

We are in strong support of the 2021 Seattle Energy Code updates before you.

Our members include building industry code professionals and affordable housing advocates who have been deeply engaged in the development and stakeholder process for this energy code update.

Thank you to Mayor Harrell for responding to our coalition feedback and moving forward a strong commercial energy code that continues Seattle's vital leadership in climate action.

These code updates are significant to support alignment and compliance with Seattle's BEPS policy and our foundation for keeping the city on a path to emissions reduction goals, while providing benefits to our residents like better indoor air quality, lower energy pills, and much-needed cooling in the face of hotter summers.

The most cost-effective time to build a building right is with new construction, and these codes help us do just that.

This leadership is vital when we are seeing threats to clean energy and energy efficient buildings across the country and here in Washington state.

We urge council to move forward with this code update and our members are eager to support successful implementation.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next we have Steve Gelb followed by Benjamin Meritz.

SPEAKER_11

COUNCIL MEMBERS, MY NAME IS STEVE GILB.

I'M THE NORTHWEST REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR EMERALD CITIES COLLABORATIVE AND THE WORKFORCE REPRESENTATIVE ON THE GREEN NEW DEAL OVERSIGHT BOARD.

WE'D LIKE TO THANK MAYOR HAROLD FOR LISTENING TO THE GREEN NEW DEAL OVERSIGHT BOARD AND OTHERS AND RECOMMENDING OF AN ENERGY CODE THAT ADVANCES ON THE TASTE CODE AND MAINTAINS SEATTLE'S POSITION AS A LEADER IN ENERGY CODES NATIONALLY.

It's important that we build new buildings to meet our future carbon emission standards and fund them accordingly, especially low income.

In low income affordable housing, it's important so that they will not be faced with expensive retrofits in the future to meet our new energy emissions standards.

We also strongly believe that all Seattle residents deserve to live in safe, efficient, and affordable housing and buildings.

This includes our low income residents.

The code is important as we're seeing threats to sensible clean energy and energy efficient building policies within Washington state.

We hope that council will move forward with this energy code proposal.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next we have Benjamin Merritt followed by Keith Rear.

SPEAKER_16

Hello, can you hear me?

Hi, my name is Ben Moritz.

I'm a regular resident in D3, also an affordable housing developer and a property manager.

We own and operate about 1500 apartments in Seattle with average affordability around 50% of AMI.

Here to speak in support of the energy code that was prepared by city staff and with a lot of support from various stakeholders.

The energy codes sit at the intersection of our two greatest crises, the immediate short-term crisis of housing and homelessness that we face, as well as the longer-term and equally important climate change crisis that we are facing.

Energy codes are very complicated, and many people feel strongly about them, and too often they tend to fit affordability against climate resiliency.

And in a city like Seattle, where we have a 100% renewable grid, we don't need to do that.

The changes that I proposed today are a good compromise between that.

They maintain Seattle's position as a leader on climate change, including some key provisions that will continue to pull the state code forward, but they don't increase significantly the burden on new construction of much needed affordable housing.

Again, thank you for everybody who's worked on this, and I urge you to move this forward without delay.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next, we have Keith Rear, followed by Marty Goodman.

Please press star six Keith.

SPEAKER_14

KEITH WIERE, Good afternoon.

Chair Morales and Vice Chair Strauss and committee members.

My name is Keith Wiere.

I am a member of IBEW Local 46. We're your local electricians union.

We are the entity responsible for training and ensuring that the local electrical workforce is trained in green standards for now and into the future through apprenticeship opportunities, through our apprenticeship and the good work that we do together getting projects set for the city.

My union comprises 6,100 plus members.

We are spread across four counties encompassing 17 different classifications of electrical work.

So a lot more to electrical work than most folks understand.

And obviously a large portion of our members do participate in the local construction economy and market.

And as the need for clean, green, and affordable housing and office space continues to creep up in demand and grow in need, it is critical that we get it right.

By enacting strong codes such as this energy code amendment, amended code, we can be true proof existing structures that might not be meeting standards right now to the best, but we can do that retrofit work.

and future-proof them, as well as build new leading-edge projects that will show, as always, that by Seattle having a strong commitment to climate and citizens' health and well-being, we can push the rest of the state into the future better prepared to capitalize on billions of dollars of investment being made available.

From electric vehicles and charging stations to hydrogen hubs to solar and perhaps, hopefully, someday floating wind, offshore wind power, our future is brighter than ever, pun intended.

I'd like to thank the mayor's office for working with stakeholders to get this right, an amended right.

I'd like to thank you all for your leadership.

I'm hopeful to move forward with this amended proposal, keeping our city's commitment to clean, safe, climate-friendly building in the Emerald City.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next, we have Marty Goodman, followed by Sandy Shetler.

Marty, please press star six to unmute yourself.

SPEAKER_05

Why don't we move on, come back to Marty.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, I'll come back to you Marty.

Up next we have Sandy Shatler.

Go ahead, Sandy.

SPEAKER_18

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Oh, great.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks so much.

Good afternoon, council members.

This is Sandy Shetler with Tree Action Seattle.

Thank you for focusing on climate in today's comp plan discussion.

And I hope you'll look at how current policy, which removes private property trees, affects climate resiliency.

Today, I sent you the news about 124 trees in the Rainier Valley which will be cut soon for construction.

There will be no room for street trees near this project, and there's no public land available for planting close by.

The residents of the low-income apartments next to this forest and the future residents of the new apartments will be literally surrounded by pavement and cars.

We can do better.

Current policy shifts all future trees to public land.

But without trees on private property, we will reach maximum 17% canopy, which is far below the 30% experts say we need to stay safe from heat and pollution.

Please join Portland, Tacoma, and Bellevue in requiring room for large trees on all private residential property.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

Up next, you have Marty.

Marty, if you press star six, you should be unmuted.

SPEAKER_05

Marty, we see that you're here, but you're muted.

So press star six.

Okay, are there any other speakers?

SPEAKER_03

That's it.

That's all the speakers.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, there we go, Marty.

Please go ahead.

SPEAKER_15

Hi.

Sorry about that.

This is Marty Goodman with Holland Partner Group, a multifamily developer.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to speak today on Council Bill 120832. We applaud the hard work done by the Mayor's Office and the Construction Codes Advisory Board on the proposed Seattle before you today.

which are a precursor to the council adopting the 2021 state codes.

This is detailed and important work to do in light of our ever-deepening housing problem and affordability crisis.

These proposed codes make some important additions to the state codes, such as electric-ready kitchens and new apartment buildings, while also balancing the code's often inequitable impacts on renters and the cost of rent.

Many in the housing industry, market rate builders, and nonprofit builders alike have been engaged in this code update, and we thank the council for moving this legislation forward.

Thanks for the opportunity to speak today.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you.

There are no more speakers online or in person.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, great.

Thank you very much.

Will you please read items 1 through 11 into the record?

Oh, sorry.

I'm going to close public comment period now.

SPEAKER_22

Sign-up sheet rather early.

SPEAKER_05

Did you sign up, Steve?

SPEAKER_22

No, because the sign-up sheet was gone.

SPEAKER_05

Would you like to speak?

SPEAKER_99

Yes.

SPEAKER_05

Please come on up.

SPEAKER_02

Sorry, one moment.

SPEAKER_22

Steve Repstello.

SPEAKER_02

One second.

SPEAKER_22

And I think you got a pretty good report on your dismantling trees in Seattle.

Defolage Seattle is going on very, very well.

We're going to equalize between the north end and the south end.

We'll all have nothing when it comes to trees.

Lot line to lot line does not help shade, does not help all the nice things that trees bring.

Plus, we also should take a look at what's going to happen when it rains in Seattle, which it does occasionally happen.

Where does the runoff go?

As we continue to have less and less area to absorb water, that will press our sewer system.

And every once in a while in parts of the city, when you get too much rain, it mixes with the sanitary sewer system.

And this is a problem which you're only making worse by defoliating Seattle.

Now, something else that is near and dear to my heart is MHA fees.

When they were first put in, many of us were told, we were crazy, that they were not too low.

The gold was 50-50.

50% would opt out and 50% would pay the fees.

In the north end, and I dare say probably the whole city, everyone pays the fees because they are so low.

This goes against what a lot of people really wanted was to spread housing in the whole city.

And the council seems to be unable to deal with taking a look at these fees and bringing them up to maybe getting to where the goal was.

And guess what?

You'll have more money to provide housing for people who really need it.

But that's not as important, I guess, as developer profits.

because the subsidies and the gifts to developers have not resulted in lower cost housing, it's only resulted in higher profits.

SPEAKER_03

There are no more speakers remotely or online.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, and now we will close the public comment period.

Naomi, will you please read items one through 11 into the record?

SPEAKER_03

Agenda items one through 11, appointments 02-915 through 02-919 and 02-923 through 02-929 for briefing discussion and possible vote.

SPEAKER_05

Terrific.

Okay, we have appointees for the Planning Commission joining us at the table.

Good afternoon, everybody.

And then I think we also have a couple of folks online.

Is that right, Vanessa?

Okay.

Okay, so the first 11 items on the agenda are a possible vote on these appointments to the Seattle Planning Commission.

We're joined by Vanessa Murdock with the Office of Planning and Community Development, who will speak to the candidates' qualifications.

And for the folks who are present, we'd love to hear from you as well about your interest in joining the board.

So Vanessa, I'll hand it off to you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Committee Chair Morales and members of the Land Use Committee.

Thank you very much for making time on the agenda to consider our Planning Commission appointments.

I'll just give a brief overview of the Planning Commission.

Planning Commission is an independent advisory body to the city council, to the mayor and city departments on issues related to land use, housing, transportation and livability in our city.

Our planning commissioners are appointed by either the council or by the mayor.

One position is set aside for the planning commission itself.

All appointments are subject to full city council approval.

Our planning commissioners serve as volunteers and serve three-year terms and are eligible to be reappointed to a second full three-year term.

And thank you Council Member Morales for noting that I am the Executive Director of the Planning Commission.

Planning Commission staff are co-located within the Office of Planning and Community Development.

We enjoy the proximity to our colleagues in that department.

I do want to just emphasize that the body itself is independent from that department so as to be able to offer objective advice to this body, the mayor, and city departments.

So with that, I'd like to give the two potential candidates here the opportunity to introduce themselves.

And then I believe we're joined by one commissioner, potential commissioner online, Dylan Glasecki.

And I will speak to Zio Alvarez's qualifications as she is unable to join us today.

So terrific.

With that, I will turn it over to Cecilia.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_20

Hi, I'm Cecilia Black and very honored to be here.

SPEAKER_05

Cecilia, get really close to the mic there.

SPEAKER_20

Oh, okay, is this better?

Yes.

Okay, I'm Cecilia Black.

I'm very honored to be here and excited to talk to you about something else other than the transportation levy.

I am a community organizer for Disability Rights Washington, where I organize non-drivers and people with disabilities on the biggest transportation barriers facing the disabled community, which encompasses everything from housing to transportation and land use.

Outside of my role as a community organizer, I also serve as board president for Be Seattle, which is a organization that works with and fights for tenant protections.

And I'm also a wheelchair user, and as a wheelchair user, I know just how hard it is to find housing in the city of Seattle.

And at the same time, I'm very lucky to have enough resources to get to live in Roosevelt, right next to light rail, where I can tell you firsthand that being able to walk to many essential services and having so many transit options at my doorstep just enables me to be part of the community.

And so thank you.

And, um, If I'm confirmed, I'm really hoping to bring this voice of the perspective of the disabled community to the planning commission.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_10

Hello?

Is this good?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, you can pull it really close.

There you go.

SPEAKER_10

Hello, everyone.

My name is Dylan Stevenson.

I am a Prairie Band Potawatomi descent.

I'm an assistant professor in urban design and planning at the University of Washington, where I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in planning.

So very much involved in teaching our next generation of planners in both the concept and practice of planning.

Personally, a lot of my research is in indigenous planning.

So how is it going?

that we think about our future from an indigenous perspective.

And I hope to bring that to the planning commission if appointed.

A lot of my research looks at culture and land and the environment, particularly history as well.

And so I really look forward to serving on the commission.

And when I was in my I was taught that one of the best way to learn about a place is to serve the public.

And so I'm really excited for the opportunity.

And now as a somewhat recent-ish resident of Seattle in the Belltown neighborhood, I look forward to seeing kind of the full breadth of planning opportunities and topics that the city encounters.

So thank you.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you very much.

Hopefully Dylan Glasecki is on the line.

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_13

Dylan, please go ahead.

Yeah.

Hey, can you all hear me okay?

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_13

Okay, right on.

So, yes, my name is Dylan Glasecki.

Councilman Morales and other council members.

I am also honored to be considered for the Planning Commission, and I am a 20-year resident of Seattle, an architect at Perkins Eastman.

I also have lived in multiple parts of the city, on for Green Lake, Capitol Hill, and Central District, Fremont.

Lived up on Bainbridge for a little while.

I've been a bike commuter for the past 19 years, both solo and with my son, who started a year biking with me at around two years old and I was eight.

So I've taken many trips around the city, understand the city very well just from a firsthand point of view, from a micromobility point of view.

Very interested in kind of the micro mobility system in our city in addition to.

Building housing, which is what I've been focused on doing with my professional career.

I have about 18 years of experience in architecture in the city doing.

Multifamily projects anywhere from.

Sorry, it's a bit loud here.

Anywhere from four-story to 50-story apartments and condos around the city.

And also looked at transitory development planning in the city, light rail station alignment studies, and station area locations, upsoning studies.

an array of both housing and transitory development studies throughout the city and hope to be able to bring that to the committee.

Additionally, I've done a lot of work with a volunteer for the American Institute of Architects in Seattle.

I'm on the board of directors and chaired an array of a couple other boards, Urban Design Forum and the Public Policy Board as well.

and have luckily been able to take part in council member morales's saddle within reach uh effort over the past couple years as well um and one last thing that i'll just uh highlight my personal interest with the comprehensive plan i've been uh volunteering with the american zoo architects uh seattle chapter on as we've been doing uh studying research and providing uh our feedback as the process has uh materialized over the past couple years, is that I spent a lot of the pandemic biking around the city, approximately 600 miles, and identifying what I thought to be all the neighborhood centers in our city, and have a map that I pulled together, a Google map, so I've been tracking that, and I've had a lot of fun, in a really wonky sort of way, comparing the centers that I've identified with the centers that are in that comprehensive plan, and And that's enough about me for now, but I'm very excited at the prospect of serving on the board.

And I feel like I can bring a lot from a housing point of view, micro mobility point of view, and my own sort of personal on the ground research into neighborhood centers.

Thank you for the consideration for the time.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Dylan.

Vanessa, you had Xiomara to talk about as well?

SPEAKER_06

Yes, one additional candidate for consideration is Zio Alvarez, who is currently sitting on the planning commission as a Get Engaged member.

The Get Engaged program is a program that is operated between the mayor's office and the YMCA of Seattle that recruits younger folks to sit on our boards and commissions.

Zio will be wrapping up her...

one-year service to the commission in September.

She is a designer, architect, planner at Element Architects in downtown Seattle.

She brings a fantastic perspective of genuine community engagement, which she practiced both in her day job right now as well as her undergraduate and graduate education.

and she is very excited to be considered, to be appointed for a full three-year term to the Planning Commission.

SPEAKER_05

Terrific.

Okay, colleagues, if you have questions, I will open it up, but I do first, well, first just want to thank everybody for your interest.

These are volunteer positions.

I will say my former business partner when I was a food systems consultant was a planning commissioner, and she worked a lot, so...

So I hope you know what you're getting yourselves into, because this is a lot of work, but very much needed and very appreciated.

And the fact that you're bringing so many different lived experiences to this work is going to be really important, because as you all know, as we're moving into the Comprehensive Plan Conversations, It's really important that we not just have sort of technical experts who are making these decisions, but that we have your experiences with what this all looks like on the ground to understand how we navigate through our neighborhoods, how we access services, what kind of support different folks in our communities need in order to be able to thrive in their communities.

So really appreciate what you will be bringing today.

The last thing I want to say before I'll hand it over if colleagues have questions is that I really appreciate...

So for each of these volunteer boards and commissions that we have in the city, we have a table that lists out the members and also sort of helps us identify the diversity of people who are represented on this.

And so...

I will say some of our boards are more diverse than others.

And I really appreciate that the planning commission is half men, half women, that we have black, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, Pacific Islander, and really just an array of people who bring their communities and their experiences with them to this work, which I think is also important especially as it relates to the Comprehensive Plan and the work that we do to try to create communities where everybody feels safe and welcome.

So I just want to thank you for that work and see if my, Council Member Rivera, you have a question.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Council Member Morales, and thank you, Vanessa, for being here and all our folks that are willing to take these volunteer positions on for being here.

I very much want to echo my colleague's sentiment about the appreciation we have for all of you because these are, I will say it again, volunteer appointments.

But volunteer doesn't mean it's not a lot of work.

as Council Member Morales just went through and so very much appreciate your willingness to take this on.

And then your particular expertise that you bring to the table because we need that diversity of skill sets to come together at the Planning Commission to do this work as you advise us on.

all things land use.

Vanessa, I do have a couple, if it's okay, of questions about the process questions, really about the commission.

I'm sure I can find this online, but since you're here and for those folks that might be looking online, Can you talk a little bit about the makeup, how many folks are on, and then how you get to be appointed to the commission, who gets to appoint, and talk a little bit about how you go about doing the appointments.

Some of the commissions have appointments specific to districts.

Some are not really done that way.

So I'm just wondering if you wouldn't mind.

giving a little background.

SPEAKER_06

Certainly.

Thank you very much for the question.

There are 16 planning commissioners, Seattle planning commissioners, I should note.

Eight are appointed by the mayor, seven are appointed by city council, and one position is appointed or recommended for appointment by the planning commission itself.

All of those appointments are subject to the approval of the full city council.

In terms of the what we call the recruitment process, the appointment process.

A couple months before we are seeking to make the appointments, we put out a broadcast to city council members, to the mayor's office, to a number of community-based organizations.

We post the notice on our website.

We really try to get the word out as much as possible.

We also tap our past planning commissioners, such as Kara Martin, to reach out to their networks to let them know that this opportunity is available.

That announcement stands out for about a month.

And then at that point, I invite members of the City Council Land Use Committee Chair, that being right now Council Member Morales, her staff as well as that of the Mayor's Office to participate in screening through all the applications, as well as a couple of planning commissioners.

That group identifies individuals to be interviewed.

After that selection has been made, then a new group of planning commissioners, existing planning commissioners, and I and members of city council staff or council members and the mayor's office then go through the process of interviewing the individuals.

We do not have specific requirements in terms of profession or lived life experience or district other than to have to live in the city of Seattle to be a Seattle planning commissioner.

And per the establishment of the Planning Commission in the Seattle City Charter, we need to have one member who is either a engineer, architect, or planner.

We have found that the flexibility in being able to recommend for appointment a diversity of professions, lived life experiences, and geography diversity really allows the Planning Commission to respond to emergent issues that they will be reviewing and providing their advice to elected officials within the city of Seattle.

I've been in this position for about 10 years, and I have seen over the 10 years, over my tenure in staffing the Planning Commission, the composition really has changed.

We now have affordable housing developers on board, policy makers.

as well as individuals with backgrounds in public health and the intersection of public health and planning, as well as community organizers, youth mentors, individuals who are well-versed in the climate change and resiliency sphere.

And so I'm very pleased to be able to have the flexibility to recommend appointments to this body from a diversity of Seattleites across the city.

SPEAKER_07

One more question.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Vanessa.

That was really a great explanation.

I very much appreciate it.

And I just wanna really, it's a comment on moving forward.

I definitely want to make sure that myself and or my office is involved in this process because Seattle is very diverse in its neighborhoods and we wanna make sure we have robust representation throughout the city.

And I think sometimes that's why some of the commissions have a district representative, given that you all don't have that specifically.

We want to make sure that that is actually in practice what gets done so that every neighborhood and district feels represented, particularly when it comes to land use issues because it impacts every single neighborhood and every single district.

So I want to make sure that, like I said, for my part, and I think I can speak for some of our colleagues who aren't here, who also want to make sure that they're involved, would love to figure out a way as we move forward to make sure that we're involved as much as possible.

So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

And just to speak to that for a moment, looking at the chart of members, with the exception of the two at-large council positions, every district is represented with at least one and sometimes two or three members.

Great, thank you.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you for looking at the website and confirming that, Chair.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, Vanessa, we also have several reappointments.

Please go ahead.

SPEAKER_06

So our reappointments, I can read through the entire list.

We do have a number of them.

Per our bylaws, commissioners sit in their positions until that position has been appointed or reappointed.

And due to some clerical errors over the last number of years, we have missed our reappointments.

So we have a number of individuals who should have been reappointed back in 2022, as well as 23. And then we have two individuals who are seeking reappointment this year.

So I will just note the individuals, Jamie Strobel, Lauren Squires, and Michaela Daffern, should have all been reappointed in 2022. Matt Hutchins and Radhika Nair should have been reappointed last year, and this year's reappointments are Rose Uchela-Whitson and Nick Whipple.

Happy to speak to any of those individuals, their background, if there are questions.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, and so all of these, had all these appointments been done, their terms would have expired, will expire between 2025 and 2027. Correct.

So everybody has been serving and is just seeking their reappointment.

Okay, I don't have any questions about that, and I'm happy to just move the reappointments.

Colleagues, unless there are other questions?

Great, okay.

In that case, I am going to move confirmation of appointments 02915 through 02919 and appointments or reappointments 02923 through 02929. Is there a second?

Second.

Great.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

SPEAKER_03

Council Member Rivera.

SPEAKER_05

Aye.

SPEAKER_03

Vice Chair Strauss.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Chair Morales.

Yes.

Three in favor.

SPEAKER_05

Terrific.

Thank you very much.

The committee recommendation that the appointments be confirmed will be sent to the August 13th council meeting for final action.

Appointees do not need to attend the city council meeting, but we want to thank you so much for your willingness to serve and look forward to working with you.

Thanks very much, everyone.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_18

Thank you all.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, Naomi, will you please read item 12 into the record and we will swap out the committee table for item two.

Sorry, item 12.

SPEAKER_03

Agenda item 12, Council Bill 1208332 for briefing and discussion.

SPEAKER_05

Great.

Okay, so we are joined by folks from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection.

I will ask you all to introduce yourselves and go ahead and start your presentation once you are settled in.

Too many things.

SPEAKER_23

Oh, that's bad.

Come on.

Unfold.

Unfold.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, there should be a green light on your mic and pull it really close to your mouth.

SPEAKER_23

All right, I think that one's working now.

There we go.

Thank you very much.

Micah Chappelle, Technical Co-Development Manager for Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections.

SPEAKER_02

Good afternoon.

My name is Ardell Jala.

I'm the building official for SDCI, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Good afternoon.

Amanda Hertzfeld, SDCI URM, Unreinforced Masonry Program Manager.

SPEAKER_21

Good afternoon.

My name is Kai Kima.

I'm the principal engineer with SDCI.

Terrific, thank you.

Please go ahead.

SPEAKER_23

Excellent, thank you.

Before we get into our PowerPoint presentation, I just want to give a little background on this legislation.

I want to thank the committee and the attendees for taking the time to review this legislation.

It is for the adoption of the 2021 Seattle Construction Codes that consist of codes from the International Code Council, the National Fire Protection Association, the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials with Seattle amendments.

The code update process began for the 2021 codes back in 2020 with SDCI actively participating to make desired changes in the codes at the state level with input from organizations to develop, organize, and align the requirements and standards for proposed state code amendments so that most significant changes for the Washington and Seattle are consistent throughout the state.

These organizations include the Washington Association of Building Officials, Structural Engineers Association of Washington, Washington Department of Social and Health Services, and Department of Labor and Industries, among others.

SDCI staff have participated in over 250 meetings with various external organizations during this co-development cycle.

We have proposed these changes specific to Seattle through our Construction Code Advisory Board.

The Construction Code Advisory Board is comprised of 13 industry representatives from design, development, construction, and the public that are appointed by the mayor's office.

In addition to the previous external activities, SCCI staff have participated in well over 100 meetings related specifically to the code change proposals that only impact Seattle.

I'm going to share my screen and we're going to walk through some of the significant changes that have occurred for Seattle specific and encourage your support.

All right, we are up and running.

So for Seattle and SDCI, excuse me, for SDCI, our vision is to set the standard for awesome local government service through a purpose of helping people build a safe, livable, and inclusive Seattle with values of equity, respect, quality, integrity, and service.

The Washington state codes for 2021 went into effect March 15th, 2024. This proposed legislation seeks to have Seattle codes effective as of November 15th, 2024 after the legislative process concludes.

Our codes consist of several including the building code, residential, existing building code, mechanical code, energy code, both commercial and residential, plumbing code, fuel gas code, boiler code, electrical code, and the Seattle fire code.

The Seattle fire code is not part of this legislation.

It is part of a concurrent piece of legislation that goes through the safety committee.

We're looking to implement those codes on a similar timeframe.

Some of the major changes in the building code are to the mass timber type 5 ceilings, which allow that mass timber to be 100% exposed in those areas.

I believe the previous number was approximately 20%, so that's a significant increase, and that will allow that beautiful wood structure to be viewed in a more expansive way.

This code change will also adopt the newest or latest version of the accessibility standard A117.1.

This will include tsunami loads where we adopt the latest version of the tsunami design zone maps for Washington state specific that are put out by the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

This code change will include some additional requirements for elevator out of service and decommissioning when that occurs.

It will include updates for energy storage systems that will align certain areas of the electrical code and fire code along with the building code and increase those requirements for those safe installations and response if there's ever an incident for those systems.

ADDITIONALLY, THERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL EV INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS THAT WERE ADOPTED THROUGH THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND ADOPTED BY THE STATE BUILDING CO-COUNCIL THAT WE WILL BE ALIGNING WITH.

THESE EV INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS FOR SEATTLE ARE NOT NEW.

HOWEVER, THERE IS AN INCREASE IN THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE NUMBER TO BE PROVIDED, SO WE WILL BE ALIGNING WITH WASHINGTON STATE ON THOSE.

AGAIN, THIS IS NOT A NEW CO-CHANGE, IT'S JUST AN INCREASE IN THE PERCENTAGES.

Some of the major changes to the residential code are going to be EV infrastructure for one and two family dwellings through the state or model code.

Again, that's not necessarily a new requirement for Seattle.

We did require that through our land use code already.

However, this is something new for the residential code.

Through state law, we are not allowed to significantly modify the residential code And so this is a significant change, even if it came from the state for Seattle in that specific code.

And then another significant change in the residential code is we are modifying lofts.

And it just really changes some of the existing requirements to be more flexible.

In the previous code cycle, these were called sleeping lofts, indicating that that was the only or preferred activity that would occur in those spaces.

But of course, we wanted to be more flexible with what those can be used for.

And so those changes were made in the residential code.

Again, those are made at the state.

However, we are going to be adopting them as well.

Some of the major changes in the electrical code, as I previously mentioned, is an alignment on new installations for energy storage systems.

It will now require a plan review through the electrical rating process.

And again, this aligns with changes in the building code and the fire code, which will be heard through the safety committee.

There's some additional requirements for photovoltaic installations and that they will be required to pass an additional onsite inspection before the installation can be completed.

There are minor changes to some of these smoke control fans that will need to be identified on the plan set drawings as part of the construction documents.

There are some minor modifications to the calculated electrical load that prevent calculated excess service capacity when using the advanced heat pump systems that we require.

And then lastly, there are the modifications I mentioned as well to provide further alignment for the EV charging infrastructure in the electrical code.

There are some minor changes to the mechanical code and plumbing codes.

One of the major ones in the mechanical code is for specific occupancies when they have ducted air handlers and ventilation systems to provide a MERV or minimum efficiency rated value filter of 13 for the ducted and of four for unducted air handlers.

This will assist with maintaining that air quality in the building during forest fires or other adverse events.

I know this has been a concern that has been brought up over the past few years as wildfires increase.

Another change in mechanical code is a higher minimum required airflow rate to capture efficiencies for kitchen range hoods.

This will reduce, the intent is to reduce additional exposure from cooking pollutants that are detrimental to health.

And then for the plumbing code, there's just some minor modifications to some of the definitions and some language addressing dead ends in our water supply.

Dead ends can cause bacteria growth and things like that.

So there's some added specific language around that.

As mentioned in some of the public comments, there have been some changes to the energy code that have gotten significant support.

Some of those changes include the low-rise multifamily has been moved from the residential energy code to the commercial energy code.

This is going to capture those four-story multifamily buildings that used to reside in the residential energy code, and now they'll have to meet the more robust standards of the commercial energy code.

Again, that is a Washington state change that we fully support.

In addition to that, you are going to be required for commercial energy code to be providing electric ready commercial kitchens.

The reason for this is there is a, what they call a fossil fuel compliance path allowance in the energy code.

If you are going through that path, then you would be still required to provide that electric ready for commercial kitchens in the future state if those fossil fuel appliances are replaced.

Then we added an option for multifamily occupancies to provide additional solar or efficiency energy efficiency in lieu of sub metering so there are certain areas of multi-family buildings that are individually metered which adds cost this would allow to provide a single meter in certain instances as long as you provide additional solar pv or efficiency credits within the building Then we do have some additional requirements for post-occupancy completion of commissioning work.

That is going to be verifying that what you're putting in for your energy code requirements actually is what you're putting in.

And then one of the items that was mentioned as far as our energy modeling targets is that it will remain more stringent, about 10% more stringent than the Washington Code for specific occupancies of hotel and multifamily residential.

THIS WASHINGTON STATE DID HAVE A CODE CHANGE THAT INCREASED THOSE EFFICIENCY TARGETING OR ENERGY MODELING TARGETS ACROSS THE BOARD FOR ALL OCCUPANCIES, BUT SPECIFICALLY FOR THOSE TWO TYPES OF OCCUPANCIES, THE SEATTLE CODE WILL REMAIN SIMILAR TO THE 2018 CODE, WHICH IS THAT APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE MORE STRINGENT THAN THE WASHINGTON STATE CODE.

IN INSTANCES FOR EXISTING BUILDINGS, WE HAD SOME MODIFICATIONS.

IN INSTANCES FROM WHERE YOU SWITCH FROM A GAS HEAT TO A HEAT PUMP, THERE'S NO LONGER GOING TO BE A TRIGGER THAT YOU BRING THE FULL BUILDING INTO CERTAIN LEVEL OF UPGRADES.

AGAIN, THIS IS KIND OF A SOFTENING OF SOME OF THE REQUIREMENTS TO MAKE SURE THAT MAYBE WE CAN CAPTURE MORE OF THOSE EXISTING SYSTEMS WHEN THEY'RE REPLACED INTO THAT HEAT PUMP WITHOUT HAVING TO TRIGGER ADDITIONAL COSTLY UPGRADES.

Along those lines of softening some of the requirements for existing buildings, there are certain buildings that we're providing here in this list that not necessarily have to provide upgrades, but only have to provide a future decarbonization plan.

And those are buildings that provide affordable housing, hospitals, jails, assisted living facilities, nonprofit facilities, small buildings less than 20,000 square feet, and and those that may require significant financial hardship to upgrade the electrical service to install electrical appliances.

Then some of the other modifications for the existing building is that you can maintain 50% of gas heating capacity if the new heat source, primary heat source, is that of a heat pump.

And then for a temporary replacement, in other words, a short-term replacement, it allows for 100% of that capacity to remain a gas heat.

Again, this is a cost-savings effort for future heat pump-related installations.

And then there is still going to be or there's going to be a requirement for existing buildings when they're replacing air chilled coolers or air cooled chillers.

Sorry, I get that one backwards half the time.

That they must be heat pump.

The reasoning there is that those air cooled chillers are large appliances that have a large electric capacity.

or electric draw, meaning the electric capacity is existing.

So there wouldn't be significant upgrades to the electrical system to transfer those or change those over to heat pumps when it comes time to do so.

That covers the significant changes for a majority of the codes.

Included in that is going to be modifications to the existing building codes around unreinforced masonry buildings, unreinforced masonry structures.

I'm going to turn this over to Amanda to explain that portion of it.

SPEAKER_05

Thanks, Micah.

Okay.

Sorry, Amanda, before you start, Council Member Rivera has a question.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Chair Morales.

Micah, thank you so much.

I just want to make sure I'm tracking that Washington State implemented their code changes on March 15th.

Now we're doing ours in November, mostly to incorporate probably Washington states and then to do some that we go stronger than the state, which I understand because we can go stronger than the state, not less.

My question is, how do you determine the changes to make to the code?

Like, how does that process work?

Because you're only bringing a subset of things here.

This is very high level changes.

So how do you go about I understand the ones that come directly from the state because those are coming from the state We don't have a choice, but when we go stronger, how is that determined?

SPEAKER_23

Great question, and I'm sure there'll be multiple answers and some of the others can jump in but those are usually started through a stakeholder process Many many years in advance again for the 2021 the formal process for the 2021 code started in 2020 however The code process began much before that.

There are items that come up in discussion, say for the 2018 code, that might not have made it through.

Maybe there needed to be some more investment in technology.

And so those get carried forward and they continue to discuss those until maybe they can be implemented.

But it is a very significant stakeholder outreach.

They come in and they say, hey, we want to see this in the code.

We want to make these changes.

We've identified an issue here.

Or we have this new technology that may be better in the long run.

And that can start at the national level process.

So SDCI is active at the, what I say, the International Code Council Council.

That covers codes that are adopted in almost every state, in all 50 states.

So some of the ideas come from other states at the national level, and maybe those get implemented here first.

I know that Seattle is a leader, as you all are aware, in the energy code.

So we get approached with ideas, and that's where it starts.

It's just a lot of stakeholder input, stakeholder outreach, and a whole lot of meetings, as I mentioned in the opening presentation, about...

well over 250, 300 meetings just for this code cycle alone with external stakeholders.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, Micah.

And when you go through that stakeholder process, do you then publish what your proposed code changes will be for the public to see?

Or is this like more of an internal process?

SPEAKER_23

Great question.

We actually open it up for public to propose changes as well, but we do post those proposed changes through our code adoption webpage.

We actually have a specific website for the code adoption itself, and we will post those changes there.

In addition, we do hear all the code changes through our Construction Code Advisory Board, so we will post those changes on the Construction Code Advisory Board website as we hold those meetings.

Do you want to add anything, Ardell?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and those are all public meetings, and so the agendas are posted, the code changes are posted, the public is welcome to submit changes directly to SDCI through Micah's team, and then those are reviewed by staff, and then brought forward to CCAB for review, and I did want to also add, again, we are looking at future codes and there may be a gap where they so if you there's a quite a lengthy process in the national codes we are currently working on the 2027 codes at the national level so we're talking about the 21 codes we're two cycles ahead now at the national level and we do try and take changes that we know have been improved nationally and move those forward in our timeline.

A great example is Mass Timber.

That is a proposal that was heard on the national level as a state and as a city.

We wanted to pre-adopt those because we knew that was important to our region.

So those are...

really a real source of where we look for code changes is pre-adoption of future changes.

SPEAKER_07

That's for the planning process of what you're going to change, and then there's the stakeholder process, and then you publish it for the public.

Anyone can give comment.

So there should be no surprises for folks that are really involved in the land use space and in the building space, which is together.

There should be no surprises for folks about these changes because there are various points of entry for being involved.

SPEAKER_02

There are various points of entry.

We can always improve on that.

And we have, I think, in our, Micah mentioned, identified quite a bit of stakeholder engagement, but we are always welcome to suggestions for improvement, thank you.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Chair.

SPEAKER_05

Sure, okay, Amanda, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, first, thank you, Council, for the opportunity to present this afternoon.

My team is very excited about this milestone legislation for unreinforced masonry buildings, and we're appreciative of your time and your support.

Let's go to the first slide there, Micah, thanks.

A little bit of context before we dive in.

The URM program is decades in the making.

The effort was spearheaded by OEM director Barb Graff a while back, as well as SDCI legends John Seehugh and Nancy Devine.

They gained an advocate and council member Herbold back in 2021 who helped shepherd the joint mayoral and council resolution 32033, which establishes the framework for development of a mandatory phased in URM retrofit program.

And the primary goal of that resolution is life safety by reducing the collapse probability of URM buildings.

What's unique about that resolution is that it also emphasizes the need to preserve historic and culturally significant buildings and it emphasizes the need for a variety of funding opportunities and incentives with a focus on culturally appropriate and linguistically appropriate engagement with underserved communities.

So there's a lot to unpack in that legislation.

We'll go to the next slide, please, Micah.

With the primary goal of reducing the risk of collapse of URMs in an earthquake, Resolution 32033 directed the development of a URM retrofit standard.

So on the left side of your screen, you'll see the existing code-based method, and as you can see, there's a lot of work there, which makes it very expensive to meet that level of retrofit.

So the new alternate method is a cost savings method informed by successes in California, as well as development with significant engagement and input from seismic and engineering subject matter experts.

And it's designed again as a minimum collapse hazard in an earthquake.

So buildings, I just want to clarify that buildings retrofitted to this standard will still experience damage in an earthquake, but the risk of injury and to life in an earthquake is greatly reduced.

It captures the most vulnerable collapse hazards in the building in order to minimize the risk of injury and death.

So we'll go to the next page.

So what we are proposing today is what we're calling the retrofit recognition code.

And it's a proposal focused on voluntary URM seismic retrofits.

And it defines the minimum seismic safety standard to be a retrofitted URM so that can change their status in our database.

And it codifies that alternate method for retrofit, which will encourage voluntary retrofits by URM building owners because they'll have confidence in the recognition of their retrofits.

So our intent long term does remain establishing a mandatory URM retrofit program.

However, we know that there are numerous owners with current capacity and interest in retrofitting now, and we don't want to delay those safety improvements.

So we do plan to pursue developing supportive resources, and once those are established, we will pursue mandatory adoption.

And just, I will let you know, I don't wanna get too into the weeds because of time, but we are pursuing federal grants.

We have a grant application in with FEMA right now.

We also are pursuing the development of a transfer of development rights.

We're working with OPCD on that.

And we are working with the State Seismic Safety Subcommittee for a legislative working session this December, asking for a statewide study on financial incentives for both tax and non-tax paying URM owners, because it's not just a Seattle issue, it's a statewide issue.

And that is all that I have.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

So I have just a couple questions, and you actually addressed my last question, Amanda.

I know that there is external funding that's being sought to support this.

As somebody who represents the Chinatown International District, we have a lot of buildings that are at risk.

And we know that a lot of the property owners are low income and are struggling with the idea of having to make these kinds of dramatic changes to their buildings.

So I really appreciate knowing that you're not only looking at the federal level, but looking at what the state can do to provide statewide support for this.

So I met with our intergovernmental relations team earlier this week and did raise this as something that I really think should be on our state legislative agenda for the coming session.

So thank you for that.

Going back to Micah's slides, I have a couple of questions, and then I'll see if there's other questions before we close out.

So looking at slide seven, we know that climate change is going to continue to worsen.

We've We experience extreme heat waves here in the city, extreme smoke events every summer, it seems.

Can you talk about whether there was any consideration to amending the code to require all residential buildings to have AC?

And do you have a sense of what the cost impact would be for having that kind of a requirement?

SPEAKER_23

Thank you.

I'm not certain on the energy code if that was discussed at a broad level or the cost impact.

I know that with the push towards the heat pump requirements that most of those are a combination unit that do have AC.

Some of the studies, my understanding, have shown that approximately well over 60% of the change-outs of forced air units to a heat pump are are going to include the AC as an option.

But I unfortunately don't have that answer.

I can get that for you from our energy policy developer, Dwayne Johnlin, and whether or not that's been included in those discussions and a possible cost impact.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I mean, I know I would love to put heat pumps in my house, but I know they're not cheap and you need one for each room.

So I don't quite know how all of that works, but as we move forward, I think it'll be important for us to start to understand in this, I think least air conditioned city in the country, how we make sure that folks are safe in the heat waves.

The last question then I have on slide six is about the EV infrastructure that you talked about.

I'm wondering if you can dive a little bit deeper into that.

and talk about how these requirements apply to multifamily housing.

Would you like to do that?

SPEAKER_23

It'd be great if I turn that over to Ardell.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

Thank you for that question.

So the existing Seattle municipal code and the existing Seattle electrical code, so as we currently enforce today, have requirements for EV readiness for multifamily construction.

And that requirement is 20% of new parking.

So in new construction, multifamily, the current requirement is 20%.

The new requirement when we adopt these codes will increase to 45% of parking will be required to be EV ready.

And as a city, we've taken some...

modifications to what's been adopted to the state.

And so in the quantity, we are comparable to the state.

But the state has three types of EV readiness, and one is EV capable, one is EV ready, which aligns with our EV ready today, and one is EV charging, which means they have a minimum requirement for how much equipment actually needs to be installed.

And so what we've done in our code is maintained EV ready, as the requirement and match the quantity.

And so what we're looking for in multifamily is 45% of new parking stalls to be EV ready.

And what that does is gets the power and the capacity at the panel.

It gets the conduits in place and it gets basically the outlet.

And what it doesn't require is the actual equipment to charge it to.

SPEAKER_05

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council Member Rivera, is that a new hand?

Yes.

Okay, please go ahead.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

Well, I would be remiss if I didn't invoke Barb Graff's name when it's synonymous with URM.

So Barb, I hope you're enjoying your retirement.

Is that for us?

but I guess she needed to retire at some point.

And Amanda, thank you for coming back, because I know you did a URM presentation to us.

On slide 13, though, on this new alternate method, would you remind me, the new alternate method, as opposed to the existing code-based method, is it equally protective Or is it slightly less, but the community, the expert community has found it's negligible and it is less expensive and we're able to do them more if it's less expensive, do more of these buildings.

I mean, so they've determined that like the, even if it's different, it's still sufficient to be able to make a difference.

And it's more likely more buildings could actually get retrofitted.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, that's a great question.

Thank you for asking.

I will take a stab, fill in.

The performance of the methods is not the same.

The alternate method is a reduced standard.

It's still...

Its intent is to reduce the probability of collapse by addressing the most vulnerable components of the building, which are the parapets falling outwards and the walls and floors separating, which can lead to collapse.

This is a minimum standard.

building owners can retrofit to higher standards.

This was developed, one, based off of successes in California.

Los Angeles started, the state adopted it as a model, San Francisco, other cities followed, and it was tested in the Northridge earthquake.

The buildings that were built to this lower standard, or that were retrofitted rather to this reduced standard, They did have more damage.

However, there were no injuries or deaths related to them.

So our stance here is that we've been trying to pursue retrofits for decades, and we understand it's expensive, and we would rather URM owners do something rather than nothing.

And so that is why we developed this standard.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_21

If I may just add, just for clarification, I think we did talk about this the last presentation that this committee is.

The alternate method does have criteria in order to be qualified to use this method.

So not all buildings can use this method.

There's seven criteria within the documents that a certain building needs to have a certain layout, certain structural characteristic in order to do this method.

And again, the idea, like Amanda mentioned, is to do something rather than nothing.

in the development of this alternate method over the past year and a half to two years, we did engage the local engineering community and using their local expertise, having worked on these building over the past 10 to 15 years, and in order to come up with this method that we're planning to adopt, so.

SPEAKER_07

Would you remind me how many URMs there are again?

I know you said this last time and I'm sorry, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04

There's roughly 1,100 in the city of Seattle.

Statewide, there's many more.

The numbers vary from 17 to 33,000.

They're working on some data analysis.

And that's why we're working with the State Seismic Safety Subcommittee is that it isn't just a Seattle issue.

SPEAKER_05

And the idea is to identify those most at risk.

You've talked about doing this as a phase in.

And so the idea is to start with those buildings first and then sort of make your way through.

Great.

Okay, any other questions?

Well, thank you all for being here and sharing this.

Colleagues, this is a pretty dense presentation.

I'm sure we could be here all day.

And we will.

No.

We will be hearing back from you, though, for two more committee meetings because there's a lot of material here.

And we do want to make sure that before we take a vote on it that the Land Use Committee understands what's being proposed.

Colleagues, that is an invitation to you all to reach out to the team if you've got additional questions or to at least be prepared at the next committee meeting if there are other things that come up.

The goal is to vote this out of committee September 4th, I believe.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_99

18.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Okay, we are gonna move on to the third item and do another table swap out.

So while folks are coming up, will you read item 13 into the record, please?

SPEAKER_03

Agenda item 13, informational item 2519, Comprehensive Plan Roundtable Series on Climate for discussion.

SPEAKER_05

So we are going to be joined online by Akeksha Chatterjee with 350 Seattle.

And here at the table with us is Alex Brennan from FutureWise and Jamie Strobel with the Nature Conservancy.

Before I ask them to introduce themselves and get into their oral presentation, I just want to provide a reminder about what we are trying to do with this series.

I'm hosting roundtable discussions on the comprehensive plan.

We had one before on housing.

We're having one today on climate.

We'll also have one on economic development and arts, and one on accessibility and mobility.

And the point is really to talk about density and anti-displacement strategies through the lens of these particular topics.

So I'm going to ask each of you to go ahead and introduce yourselves.

I have some questions to get us started, and then colleagues, please feel free to jump in.

SPEAKER_25

Should I go ahead and start?

Yes, please.

All right.

Great.

Well, thank you so much for having me today.

My name is Alex Brennan.

I'm the executive director at FutureWise.

I'm going to give a little background about FutureWise, our history and our kind of priorities and role in the planning process.

We were founded in 1990 with the passage of the State Growth Management Act by advocates that had worked to get that state framework for planning passed through the state legislature.

And thinking back to that time, we were in a situation where we were seeing damage to our environment, our forest lands, wildlife habitat, farmland across the state.

We were seeing impacts on our infrastructure and services, the ability to continue delivering those to increasingly sort of sprawling urban development.

We were seeing increased traffic congestion because of the lack of coordination between our transportation systems and our land use systems.

And we were missing opportunities to invest in our existing neighborhoods.

And so FutureWise was really founded on the goals of addressing those challenges and trying to reverse that pattern of development across the state.

More recently, we have also been focused both in our own advocacy and at the local level, but also in terms of state legislation and trying to update the State Growth Management Act to tackle some of the most important challenges that our state is facing now that weren't as directly addressed in the original Growth Management Act legislation.

And in particular, I wanna highlight the The housing and climate change updates that have passed the last couple of years in the state legislature, those have been major priorities for us.

And we've been able to lead broad coalition efforts with legislative sponsors to get those updates made.

We really see the planning process as a really crucial piece of the broader comprehensive strategies, both to address our housing crisis and our climate crisis.

And I'll say specifically within that, there are a lot of things that were kind of already integrated into our planning process in other ways, but particularly thinking about opportunities to design communities where you don't have to drive as far, both because you have better transit, walking and biking infrastructure, but also just because you're closer to the places you want to get to.

And then also building, designing our communities in ways that build buildings that regardless of the energy code, which we just got to hear a bunch about, are more efficient.

And I can talk more about that a bit later.

And then last, the opportunity for natural carbon sequestration strategies.

When we protect our forest lands and farmlands, our wetlands, there's a lot of opportunities to sequester carbon through those lands.

AND THEN JUST AT THE LOCAL ONE LAST NOTE ABOUT FUTUREWISE AT THE LOCAL LEVEL WE ARE HAVE BEEN ENGAGED IN A COUPLE DIFFERENT WAYS WE HAVE BEEN FOR QUITE A FEW YEARS NOW THE BACKBONE STAFFING ORGANIZATION FOR SEATTLE FOR EVERYONE WHICH IS A COALITION THAT CAME TOGETHER TO PASS THE 65 HOUSING AFFORDABILITY AND LIVEABILITY AGENDA RECOMMENDATIONS and today we co-chair the Complete Communities Coalition, which is another broad-based coalition advocating for similar issues around housing, housing affordability, climate justice, and the Comprehensive Plan update.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Jamie, go ahead.

SPEAKER_24

Hello?

Okay.

Hi, I'm Jamie Strobel, I use she, her pronouns, and I'm the Director of Climate Action and Resilience for the Nature Conservancy of Washington.

And I've also been a volunteer on the Seattle Planning Commission for several years now, although I'm here wearing my TNC hat.

I've spent my career in environmental and climate justice over the last couple of decades, and I've worked for CBOs, for regional tribes, in local government, and in nonprofit.

and have done a lot of work around the systemic integration of climate and equity into our systems and policy.

At TNC in particular, we are concerned about climate change as one of the biggest threats to both nature and people.

And so you might think of us as kind of looking at bigger picture or preserving lands or some of the preserves and literally land that we manage.

But we do have a concern about what is happening in our cities as well, because what is happening there has a direct impact on land use elsewhere.

and making sure that we are preserving some of our biggest places for carbon sequestration because we are making cities that are sustainable and livable and are easy to get to.

We also do a lot of science around climate science and research around urban heat island, tree canopy coverage, looking at air quality and involved at the state level as well.

We worked with FutureWise on the HB 1181, which was to integrate climate into the comprehensive plan update.

Seattle in particular, as a Seattle resident, Seattle faces a lot of significant challenges because of climate change.

Everything from wildfire smoke that didn't used to be a season and now it feels like a season.

Significant sea level rise impacting our shorelines.

If you've ever been down to Alki or the Duwamish during a king tide, you can definitely see the water levels and the impacts that has.

More extreme weather events and...

And more high heat days in particular, we are the second least air conditioned major city in the country.

And our infrastructure wasn't really built to deal with heat in the way some other cities across the country are.

And that's a challenge also because if everyone does air conditioning, that's also increasing our greenhouse gas emissions.

So the more that we can figure out ways to reduce emissions through land use and through the way we're building our buildings and sustainable transportation systems, all of that has an impact.

And a particular concern, too, is how are we making sure that those impacts aren't disproportionately impacting some communities?

And the built environment plays a key role in setting us up in our communities for resilience and sustainability.

And there's a lot of...

historical land use decisions that were explicitly racist, that we have not fully unpacked all of the implications of that yet.

For example, there's research that correlates urban heat islands with redlining maps, and this is something that's true across the entire country, actually, that places that were historically redlined are also places that tend to have higher urban heat island temperatures during a heat wave.

And then there's also a connection between displacement and sustainability goals as folks can't find affordable housing if they are being pushed out because we don't have enough housing supply in the city.

they are having to travel in more.

And as you get outside of the city of Seattle, the transportation infrastructure is not as robust, the public transportation system.

And so people are having to commute in for their jobs or having to travel farther to get to those things.

And so...

All of this is a big concern.

I know the city has set a lot of really ambitious goals, but the comprehensive plan, I think, is really an opportunity to think long-term and think about what are the big systemic changes we can make now in order to set us up for success in the future because we know our population has continued to grow.

And the good news, you want some good news because we've talked a lot about sad things, Some good news is that our per capita emissions have reduced about 20% since 2008, but we still have a goal of trying to reduce emissions by 58% by 2030, and we've only gone 5% of the way there.

So we obviously have a lot of room for growth to be able to address that.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Akeksha, we'll go to you and then we'll open it up for questions and conversation.

SPEAKER_27

Thank you, and thanks for having us.

My name is Akeeksha Chatterjee.

I'm a campaigns director with 350 Seattle.

350 Seattle is a grassroots community-led group that's confronting the root causes of the climate crisis.

We formed in 2013, and our mission is to work towards climate justice by organizing people to make deep systems change.

So that is resisting fossil fuels, building momentum for healthy alternatives, and fostering resilient, just and welcoming communities.

So we've been around for over a decade advocating for climate justice, and over the past three years have played a significant role in winning Green New Deal solutions here in Seattle, including campaigning to upgrade half of our community centers to run on clean energy and serve as climate resilience hubs through heat, smoke, flooding, and extreme winter weather, which we all know the scale and frequency are on the rise as the climate emergency accelerates.

um so as a grassroots climate justice organization that's working on achieving a green new deal future the kind of solutions to the climate crisis that we advocate for are intersectional so that means they not only tackle climate pollution but they also aim to reduce rampant inequality and create good well-paying union jobs in the process The comprehensive plan plays a major part in how our city will grow and so it's actually one of the most impactful climate policies for the next 20 years.

It's also a huge opportunity to implement intersectional solutions to the climate crisis that can put Seattle on a path to achieving climate justice.

So I really think that by bringing a climate justice lens to the comprehensive plan and particularly to housing density and transportation, we can plan for Seattle's healthy low carbon future and address environmental justice and create good green jobs in the process.

And I'll just end here by saying that I think we have an opportunity to serve as a national model for equitable and sustainable planning, where other cities could look to Seattle for climate action and climate policy ideas and directions.

But I think that's really contingent on us seizing that opportunity.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, thank you very much, everyone.

I will acknowledge that this is not my area of expertise, so I really appreciate you all being here to help us understand how these things are all related.

I'm gonna get us started and ask, particularly since here we are in the summer, as temperatures rise and we have more extreme heat events, We have more regular smoke events coming every summer.

Can you talk a little bit about how the city can better plan for extreme heat?

SPEAKER_24

Do you want to take that or do you want me to?

SPEAKER_27

I can kick us off.

So I think when we're talking about planning for extreme heat, I immediately think of how are we going to build climate resiliency?

Just to extreme heat, but also to other forms of extreme weather like wildfire smoke so one thing we can do is implement climate resilience hubs so.

We need, I think we need specific goals and policies for how Seattle can implement resilience hubs that prioritize local communities on the front lines of the climate crisis.

These are well-trusted community-serving facilities that can be used year-round as neighborhood centers and also keep people safe through heat waves, wildfire, smoke, and extreme winter weather.

It's also a key way that we can make progress on Seattle's climate and equity goals.

I know that the Office of Sustainability and Environment is doing a year-long community planning process to define strategies for community resilience hubs.

And so I think the comprehensive plan should be very much aligned with this process and also help ensure that existing communities are not displaced in the process of implementing resilience hubs.

SPEAKER_05

I'm sorry, can you just define a resilience hub?

What does that mean for the viewing public?

SPEAKER_27

These are community serving facilities.

So in Seattle, a community center could be a resilience hub, but it could also be a library or any community center, basically, that people can go to when extreme weather strikes.

And like I said, they can also serve as your own neighborhood centers.

So they double up as, yeah, multi-use facilities that can keep you safe when extreme weather strikes.

Is that sufficient?

SPEAKER_05

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_27

Okay, to continue on here, I think the number one thing we can actually do to build climate resilience in the face of heat waves and other extreme weather is to support communities to thrive in place.

And that means building abundant, affordable housing, prioritizing anti-displacement, and you know, making sure we are building density all across the city.

And then I'd just like to note additionally that also when we talk about climate justice and resiliency and planning for more extreme weather, I think it's important to also talk about land and land ownership.

So having ownership over land is central to many communities.

And one of the things I wanted to highlight here is our equitable development initiative.

I think is one of the key ways we can continue to pursue that.

So the EDI program serves communities at high risk of displacement in acquiring and developing their land for affordable housing, cultural anchors and commercial spaces.

I think it's 1 of the few effective ways the city of Seattle has to invest specifically in communities impacted by decades of gentrification and displacement.

So we should be doubling down on programs like that and finding more ways to invest in our diverse communities and neighborhoods and ensure that our jumpstart funds remain dedicated to programs like.

These are the kinds of programs that build community infrastructure, affordable housing, enhance local services, and our core aspects of building resiliency, especially when we are facing extreme weather events.

Check.

Thank you.

SPEAKER_24

I think to add to that, we can think about our infrastructure resilience too and thinking about where are the places that we might need to create cooling centers.

Are those cooling centers welcoming?

I think to build off of what Aki said, sometimes communities that are, you might be limited English speaking or come from different cultural communities and they might not feel comfortable going to the standard cooling center.

So how can we support community-based organizations that are maybe creating their own resilience hub or cooling center that is welcoming and folks feel more comfortable at?

There's people who speak their language.

There's food that's familiar, right?

There's also, I think, an important thing, not just for extreme heat, but also for all of our climate resilience groups.

is to think about we're not an island of ourselves in Seattle, that we are part of a region that is experiencing all the same things.

And so how can we actually leverage our partnerships with other jurisdictions, with King County, for example, is working on an extreme heat mitigation plan.

And so what are the ways that we can partner and to ensure that all communities have access to a cool place or also thinking about how new buildings that are being built and the neighborhoods that they're in How can we ensure that those are places that have access to green space, that have cooler areas, that have trees in that neighborhood, or that have gardens, or...

And, you know, there's so many things, too, literally around painting our roofs white, right?

Like, that can help reduce urban heat in addition to that.

So...

And I would also point out the public health department, which is a Seattle and a King County agency has done a lot of really great work too, in terms of reaching different communities and having, they have these really cute comics that are in 12 different languages around staying safe in the heat that has all these different solutions.

And so partnering with public health and other agencies to be able to support and get the word out during heat waves.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you.

Did you want to?

SPEAKER_07

I do have a question because when you talk about, Akisha, that I'm not quite understanding the correlation between you're saying the EDI investments and the homeownership as it relates to this climate piece.

So you were talking about it, but I'm not quite catching it.

what you were trying to say.

Like, how does that intersect with the climate?

Are you just saying that we shouldn't be displacing people, that keeping people, folks in place is advantageous?

SPEAKER_27

Yeah, I think keeping people in place is definitely advantageous.

I think when we're talking about resiliency, we are also talking about our community and community connections and literally spaces where people can go when extreme weather strikes and EDI is one way in which communities can have control.

over that process and also control over their own land.

It is also about literally being housed and staying healthy.

And I mean, when we're talking about resilience, I'm also thinking about what makes for a good life.

We want to be investing in healthy, rooted communities, places where people want to live, work and play.

And the EDI is one way to do that.

We're thinking about long term planning here and not just like worst case scenario, where can people rush in extreme weather?

We're really talking about fostering just communities.

And I think that's where the climate piece is so important as well, because that is going to be our future.

Heat waves and wildfire smoke are going to be the new normal.

And people need these spaces where they can gather with their own community and feel safe and supported.

And I think EDI is one of the programs we have to achieve those ends.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

I'm not sure that I, I mean, the EDI program isn't necessarily, I'm not sure that these cooling centers and resiliency hubs have been a part of that.

So maybe that's something that the program can look into.

That is not the current, my understanding of the current projects that are involved, but if there are, I think that's great.

I will say that the tree canopy piece, particularly in our neighborhoods that have been, you know, in our less, you know, In our communities that have been marginalized, those communities, there's definitely a tree canopy issue that we should be supporting.

We should be expanding tree canopy because I think that definitely helps.

I actually grew up in an apartment building where we had a black roof and it was very hot.

There was no AC.

We lived on the fifth floor of a fifth floor walk-up, huge building complex.

And I can tell you it was...

very, very hot.

But we did actually have a park nearby.

And so it was a place where we could go and take advantage of the tree canopy and the cooling.

So definitely having parks across all our neighborhoods, particularly where there are less parks and less tree canopy, we should be planning for that as part of the plan.

I think it is something that we really should be prioritizing.

And then I will say like full disclosure, my spouse has worked in the past, not currently for both the local and national TNC and the work that you all do is really important.

especially, excuse me, it's been a long day, especially in the context of preserving our tree canopy and our wetlands for carbon purposes, carbon emission purposes.

And so it's something that we really should be looking at when we're doing this comp plan piece.

And particularly when we're talking about adding density to already dense places.

So this idea of park preservation and tree canopy is really important.

And then we have a lot of community centers in town, and I know our Office of Sustainability and Environment is looking at creating Cooling centers at some of those and so how do we build capacity to make sure that our commute our existing?

community centers of which there's one and most Well in all the districts for sure if not all the neighborhoods how to make sure that that existing city resource is is meeting the needs and of the community by making sure that that is also a place, a safe place where people can go cool off, particularly now, because a lot of the new development will take some time to build, but we're having this heating issue now, and we have these existing community centers now and community spaces.

So how do we ensure that those are meeting the needs of the community as we think about places for folks to go.

And also the unhoused because we have a lot of folks living unhoused and community centers are a great place where folks can go.

So making sure that we're prioritizing our communities centers for this purpose.

And my understanding is not all our community centers are ACed.

And I know that the libraries also, which is another asset that the city has currently, I know the libraries are looking to make sure that they're actually being responsive by doing retrofitting for AC.

for cooling purposes as well.

So how do we continue to support that as well?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, thank you.

As I will say, the community centers and libraries in District 2 do not have air conditioning, so it's a huge issue.

And I do want to get into this question.

We've heard a lot for the last year or more I'm sure Council Member Strauss will say much more about the tension between the need for more housing affordability, more housing density throughout the city so that we have the supply that we need to address our housing crisis and also You know, there are absolutely parts of the city, including District 2, where we do not have enough trees.

And that is, as you were saying earlier, Jamie, where the heat islands in the city are.

So can you talk a little bit about...

you know, trees are not just a climate issue.

They are a race and social justice issue.

They are an environmental health and justice issue, as is the need for more housing so that folks have places to be and stop getting pushed out of the city.

So help us walk through that.

SPEAKER_24

Do you want to add your comment first?

SPEAKER_25

I can jump in first on this, even though you probably...

I want to hear what you have to say.

You will, you will.

And you as well, Akisha.

One thing that I wanted to...

Just hearing the conversation already, I wanted to flag about...

I think that's particularly important about trees is the location, right?

I mean, we have the citywide tree canopy goal, but I think that often obscures the...

the really big disparities in tree canopy in different parts of the city, and particularly if we're thinking about heat island effect and the impact of heat on communities.

If you have a sidewalk that you're trying to walk down where there are no trees the entire block, that's gonna be really different than if you have several breaks of shade already in place.

So I think that that's really important for the city in terms of prioritizing investments.

It's also important, for the city to be thinking differently about trees that are actually going to be shading the right-of-way or the public spaces, as well as our parks, versus trees on private property.

I mean, it's also great to have trees on private property.

They provide different types of amenities.

Some of them are right up on the edge of public spaces and are also providing shade, but I think, you know, A tree that is nice to look at from far away provides a different level of benefit from a tree that's really addressing the heat impacts that you're seeing as you're trying to get around in your neighborhood.

So I think those are some really important things to be thinking about.

I also think there are these challenges in how do we protect our trees as we're also adding housing, and we know we need to build a lot more housing in the city during the 20-year planning period that we're looking at.

There are going to be some inevitable trade-offs in that situation, but I think there's an opportunity to look for the win-win opportunities as much as possible and think about how are we enabling different types of housing development that are going to create the flexibility for developers to build the housing we need while retaining trees on site.

And so one thing I think, that is a bit overlooked that we've been digging into more lately is the building code and ways that our building code often disincentivizes the missing middle housing types that we are increasingly zoning for because of state law as well as local advocacy.

But there's a lot of aspects of the building code that make it expensive and difficult to build a a four-unit apartment building that is attached versus building a detached single-family home or four townhomes that are next to each other that have a lot of the same building code requirements as single-family homes.

And so when we create that flexibility in our building code to build more of those small multifamily homes, buildings, we are creating more opportunity to not cover the entire lot or just have more flexibility in where that building goes to move around trees and protect them.

So that's one thing I wanted to highlight.

SPEAKER_24

I think that there's two pieces to this issue, right?

There's how are we adapting to the changes that are already here?

And then there's how do we not make the problem worse?

And I think that part of this is we're contributing, transportation emissions are one of the largest contributors to the city's greenhouse gas emissions footprint.

And one of the biggest things we can do is encourage people to get into public transit, to reduce single occupancy vehicle usage, to be able to, which also has all sorts of other side benefits of like, for water quality, for air quality, all these things.

And I think that housing, the connection to housing, housing affordability and availability is so critical to being able to address the transportation problem.

If people can literally walk within a 10 minute walk shed of their home to go to the grocery store, to go to a park, to drop their kids off at preschool, to be able to do all those things in their neighborhood, That's huge, right?

And right now we have that in some areas of the city, but we don't have it in all neighborhoods.

We don't have that.

And the more that we can create places, so density in some ways is actually really a great sustainability solution and being able to reduce that footprint, reduce that reliance on your car.

um the the the thing about tree canopy tree canopy is like a really complicated uh because trees take a while to grow so so part of it is um you know there has been a lot of emphasis by the city to try and plant more trees to increase tree canopy coverage they've set goals and targets around it um But there is, it takes several years for a tree to establish and they're not necessarily providing shade during that time period either.

Like there's a certain percentage that die off in extreme heat if they're not getting maintained, if they're not getting watered, if they're not getting...

That first couple years is their vulnerable period.

And so it's going to take a while for that to be the solution.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in it, right?

It means, yes, we definitely need to address it.

But there is some, like, shorter-term things that we need to address in order to...

while also doing that.

So I think...

That's why infrastructure, addressing housing quality, addressing reducing transportation emissions, all those things, it's all interconnected and being able to address the problems.

SPEAKER_07

Well, I mean, this is the comp plan, so I think, yes, it's not or, it's and.

SPEAKER_24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And all of this.

And, you know, to your point about the tree protection, I mean, I just was having a conversation with Director Torgelson at SDCI and just...

How do we help communities?

You know, some communities are more vocal about tree protection and others not, so they'll report if they see something, a tree at risk, an old growth tree.

So how do we educate community about what they can do if they see, you know, a tree that is about to, you know, get harmed in their community?

And so we talked about, you know, can you put...

There's got to be some kind of...

education campaign of sorts you know do we put a create a pamphlet that we can put put in with the city light bill so that we're like educating the public about what their recourse is if they see this because we are seeing old growth trees coming down across the city so How do we protect the trees that we do have?

To your point, they take a long time to build and we need to educate the public.

But we do need to protect, I mean, we need to plant new trees so that one day, hopefully my grandchildren, if I have any, can experience the benefits of that.

So we have to do all of it.

And we do need to support transportation choices.

Because we need to get folks out of their cars more as much as possible anyway around here where we don't have as robust a system.

But we're getting there and we're working on that too.

And so how do we make sure that we are supporting that?

And then to the point we made earlier, how do we make sure that the existing infrastructure by way of community centers and libraries are also can be retrofitted to have AC and function as cooling centers.

So we need to do all of it.

And as we are building density, we need to make sure that we're going to have to have maybe more community centers, obviously more schools.

And by the way, the schools don't have ACs either.

So how do we make sure that the new schools we build have AC or whatever, you know, heat pumps that also can have the cooling component to it.

So that to your point, we got to prepare for the future.

So I see it as all, not just some or, and we need to do all that and we need to do it as part of the comp plan.

So really appreciate this conversation and I know more to come.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Council member Strauss, any questions on from you?

I thought I saw you pop up.

SPEAKER_09

No, I don't I just, I appreciate you calling my, my name out and talking about the balance for.

Preserving trees, growing trees, the need for density and council member.

I really appreciate what your personal story about living in a building with a black roof and having proximity to trees and parkland.

Not a one size fits all conversation.

It's not an easy answer and it's one that we have to address.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

Great.

Well, I really appreciate all of you being here for the viewing public.

If you don't know, we will be reviewing the comprehensive plan next year.

But I do think it's important that we keep the conversation going this year and really start to dive into the different elements of the comp plan so that people understand why those different chapters are in there and how really it's all very related here.

to making our neighborhoods safe and healthy for everyone.

So thank you all for being here.

And I look forward to continuing this work.

Okay.

Any final comments you wanted to make?

SPEAKER_24

I think we had one.

We were thinking about, so HB 1181 passed at the state level, which is a requirement, but it passed at a time where it means the city of Seattle is actually not required to meet those requirements because of the timing requirements.

We will eventually have to.

So we have an opportunity now to kind of get ahead and actually, and the city is doing this already, which is great, which is creating a climate element and being proactive about it.

And we have the opportunity to kind of lead the way with that.

And Alex, you want to add to that as the lead on that?

SPEAKER_25

I mean, I think that you covered the essential piece of it.

I mean, you know, just really encouraging the council to, you know, to not wait for the requirement deadline in 2029. This is an opportunity to do stuff we need to do now.

You know, we know that we can't wait to address climate change.

And the State Department of Commerce has a lot of great resources that they've been developing as part of this process.

So, you know, I think the planning department here is already well aware of that.

just encouraging you all to take advantage and be part of and a leader in that statewide conversation.

SPEAKER_05

Terrific.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thanks, everybody.

This concludes the agenda for the August 7th Land Use Committee meeting.

It's 4.04, and we're adjourned.

SPEAKER_07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Thanks very much, everybody.