Transportation Committee 12/17/2024

All up this one.

All right, awesome.

All right, good morning.

The December 17th, 2024 meeting of the Transportation Committee will come to order.

It is 9.32 a.m.

I am Rob Sacca, Chair of the Transportation Committee.

Will the Committee Clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rink?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are three members present.

All right, and I note that Vice Chair Hollingsworth will be arriving in about 15 or 20 minutes, and so she is therefore excused until she arrives.

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

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is hereby adopted.

All right, first wanna make a couple remarks.

Where we're at, where we've come, where we're going.

First off, there are a few notable leadership transitions in transportation policy here in the city of Seattle.

First and foremost, let me take this opportunity to give a heartfelt welcome to the newest member of our committee, Council Member Rink.

Welcome to our committee.

We are very lucky to have you on this committee, on our broader body, and in this institution.

And I look forward to partnering together on transportation policy and any number of things.

And again, we are really lucky to have you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Also, in terms of leadership transitions, we learned very recently that SDOT Director Greg Spotts has decided to retire.

And I want to thank Director Spotts for his leadership of the department over the last two years, two and a half years, however long it's been.

And I want to thank him for his partnership and collaboration with me in my office and my council colleagues over the last year in particular.

Next, today's agenda is a couple of exciting topics.

We're gonna have a refresher update briefing on just good old fashioned permitting.

The generally standard, more routine topics that we encounter in this committee.

Next, we'll also be having a briefing on four proposed permitting projects, a pedestrian and utility tunnel, a renewal of the Triton gas pipeline, and the Pike Place Market skybridge.

Finally, we'll conclude today's agenda with...

A briefing from SDOT on our citywide winter storm preparedness efforts, how we prepare for and respond to winter weather emergencies in our rights away and roads.

At this time, this is the last committee meeting that we'll have in 2024. And so it's a good sort of natural opportunity to take a quick moment to pause, reflect, and even celebrate a few of the accomplishments of this body over the past year.

Together, we started to chart a new path focused on delivering the bold basics of local government.

This body and our broader select committee passed legislation sending the transportation levy package to voters who ultimately approved of this levy with a resounding 66% of the vote.

So I want to thank Seattle voters for your generosity and helping to set the department up for success and make sure our city is well positioned to continuing to deliver the bold basics.

That eight-year levy is the largest.

It's a $1.55 billion levy, and it's the largest and most accountable levy of its kind in Seattle history.

The ordinance we passed together articulated several crucial funding priorities, and data is important, and numbers are important.

So let's kind of sum up.

a little bit.

So that levy package included a transformative investment in Vision Zero to help eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on our roads.

And that total investment total $160 million plus.

We also funded, voters ultimately also funded, $111 million To invest in a generational generational investment in new sidewalks.

Which will ultimately result in the construction of at least 350 blocks of new sidewalks across our city.

Also over $400 million.

We've invested in the levy for basic street maintenance and modernization work.

Over $220 million.

We've invested for bridges and structures.

$151 million has been invested in transit corridors and connections, helping connect people to transit, making sure transit is safe and reliable.

More broadly, I mentioned the sidewalk-specific investment, but more broadly, we invested $193 million for pedestrian safety.

Climate change, protect the environment, and increase our tree canopy.

I know Councilmember Kettle will love this.

We've invested $45 million for freight and cargo, mobility, to help keep our economy vibrant and humming along.

And he'll especially love this.

$7.5 million for good old-fashioned good governance, oversight, and...

Property tax relief education.

This is a non-exhaustive list of the investments in the levy, but together it included many other investments to create a world-class transportation system that is safe and reliable for all.

Also in this committee, together we performed the everyday nuts and bolts of of government, the work that Seattleites expect us to perform, including we adopted the Seattle Transportation Plan, setting the vision and framework for our transportation policy over the next 10, 20 years and beyond.

We've done any number of alley and street vacations, street naming, handled Multiple of those, especially including the renaming of a street to honor storm legend and goat Sue Bird.

Also, our levy implementation legislation included a new levy oversight committee and transportation funding task force.

We've handled and reviewed appointments to our various citizen advisory boards, including the transit, pedestrian, bicycle, and freight advisory boards.

In all, in partnership with the mayor, this body and this institution has well positioned our city to deliver the basics, the everyday basics, in such an extraordinary way.

And I'm also proud of the the great work that SDOT was able to deliver this year as well.

This includes vital investments to maintain our bridges, extend the service life of our roads, build Vision Zero safety improvements, and yes, fill those pesky potholes.

Because data is important.

By the data, here's some select data.

By the data, SDOT was able to Performed 1,500, at least 1,500 crosswalks that were remarked and repainted.

Added almost 18 lane miles of repaved streets in Seattle.

Performed 350 plus spot repairs on the city's bridges.

Added 30 blocks of new sidewalks.

6,200 sidewalk repairs.

through quarter three.

1,131 curb ramps were added.

Over 17,000 potholes were filled in 2024 with an 89% completion rate within the three business day target.

As part of this new Commitment there's a new SLA service level agreement that the city has enshrined into law and made a commitment to voters in the levy that we're going to repair.

At least 80% of reported potholes within three business days and the data point before that showed how we're doing so far so terrific work.

And because of the transformational infrastructure investments included in our final adopted budget.

This council has set the department up to have even greater impact in 2025 and beyond.

Such a partnership.

I appreciate the collaboration.

In terms of the 2025 roadmap and agenda, things that are within our purview and will be taken up and addressed, well, we'll have any number of briefings and discussions on a variety of critically important transportation related topics Including regional transit security.

Implementation of speed enforcement or automated speed enforcement camera legislation to comply with recent changes in state law.

We've taken up in considering the composition of a new levy oversight committee and transportation funding task force, as I mentioned earlier.

We're gonna be looking at how the administration of the new Neighborhood Initiated Safety Fund and the Council District Fund, how those will be administered.

The transportation element, which is a very important portion or element of the comp plan review process.

I'm sure there'll be some work streams associated with that that might be best suited for this committee.

We'll also address the budget proviso and the levy, the mega proviso or super proviso, whatever budget chair Strauss called it.

I defer to that.

It's a good framing.

But in all, I look forward to collaborating more closely with SDOT, the mayor, each and every one of my council member colleagues on this and other topics.

As I alluded to earlier, we'll also be taking up a new confirmation process for a to-be-selected-by-the-mayor successor to director spot.

So we'll go through a confirmation process next year as well.

Plus all the slightly more routine but equally important, critically important work streams of this committee, such as permitting and alley vacation requests, etc., Together, in all, in sum, I can say this.

When it comes to transportation policy in the city of Seattle in 2025 and beyond, I will say emphatically, the future is bright.

All right.

That said, let us move on to the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate solely to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee more broadly.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently, we have one in-person speaker signed up.

There are no remote speakers.

All right.

Thank you.

Each speaker will have approximately two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

One, the public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Two, speakers will be called in the order in which they are registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

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

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

And that one speaker is Abby Chandler.

Hello, many thanks for allowing me to come talk today.

I brought some visuals which I think are on your tables to help out with the conversation.

What I'm wanting to talk about is fixing the street I live on, which is the 4000 block of 12th Avenue South in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

We've had an active landslide for the last two years.

It continues to erode and be a problem, and there has not really been any action to properly fix the issue.

You can see if you look on page one of the slide deck, if you need a map of orientation of where this is, it is about three blocks west of Jefferson Park, above I-5.

The land between 12th Avenue South and I-5 is undeveloped land.

You can see on the next page, we've got pictures.

The first one's just from Google Images of what the street used to look like.

It was a street, there was a guardrail, there was land there.

In January of 2022, you can see the land started to erode away.

Please note there that the post for the guardrail is dangling midair.

Myself and my neighbors, we've contacted SDOT.

They did come out.

They, in the spring of 2022, erected concrete barriers.

And you'll note on the next slide, they also put down a bunch of plastic to help stop the erosion.

We are grateful for that work that they have done, but that does not really fix the issue.

The concrete barriers now just create massive puddles behind them when it rains.

The plastic has mostly eroded away.

The sandbags have also eroded away.

The concrete barrier is very easy to climb over.

It's not really safe for kids to be around.

There is a giant hole.

past the concrete barriers on the slide that says 2023 which is this one you can see if you're looking from the on-ramp thank you abby uh chair that was the only public comment all right

Well, thank you.

Thank you to the public commenter for your testimony and for sharing a copy of this slide deck, very well organized.

And this is exactly the type of feedback that we love hearing.

And we have our experts from SDOT here as well, so we'll be sure to pass along a copy of this.

This strikes me as something, first I'm hearing it, but it strikes me as something where there's an opportunity for close partnership between SDOT and SPU on this issue.

It sounds like there's some drainage issues involved as well.

So in any event, we'll now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, SDOT permitting refresher briefing.

All right.

Looks like our presenters have joined us at the table.

Thank you.

Welcome.

When you're ready, please share your presentation and start by introducing yourselves.

Thank you, Chair Sack.

I'm Bill Laborde, SDOT.

Amy Gray, Seattle Department of Transportation, Street Use.

Liz Schwitzen, Council Central Staff.

Good morning and welcome.

Just waiting for the presentation to come up.

So I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to come here today to present the council term permit program that SDOT administers.

Throughout this presentation, you will see images of the different types of council term permits that the city has approved in the past.

Next slide.

So I think it's important to understand the nature of right-of-way and what permits are.

Right-of-way is property that has been dedicated or acquired for transportation and utility uses.

Streets, alleys, certain public places are examples of rights-of-way, and SDOT manages it on behalf of the public.

Right-of-way extends below grade and above grade, and it's accessible for the public at all times.

A permit is required if someone wants to use this public asset for a private non-transportation use.

Permits are temporary and grant approval for the private use and occupation of the right-of-way.

Permits are evaluated against criteria in the Seattle Municipal Code and are temporary.

The duration depends on the type of permit.

Permits are always revocable and no person has a right to use their right-of-way for private purposes without a permit.

This image shows the sidewalks, parking and planting, the travel lane, which we commonly understand.

So it extends beyond the street.

Next slide.

Significant structure term permits are described in the Seattle Municipal Code and the criteria on which they are evaluated.

Sky bridges are covered under Seattle Municipal Code 1564 and other significant structures are covered under Seattle Municipal Code 1565. Examples of significant structures are tunnels, pipelines, private utility connections, and plazas.

SDOT reviews the application against the code criteria and makes a recommendation to the city council.

City council approves all term permits.

In some circumstances, public benefit mitigation is required to offset the impact of the structure on the public's use.

Next slide.

As I noted, sky bridges are a special, specific type of term permit and have a higher threshold of review due to the nature of their impact on the streetscape and the pedestrian realm.

Sky bridges must have a compelling need that cannot be accommodated on private property.

There are three types of sky bridges.

The first are public, which are open to everyone.

These examples can be seen at the University of Washington or at the Seattle University or the Pike Place Market, which is on the agenda later this morning.

These sky bridges have no restrictions on when they can be used and who can use them.

The next type of skybridge is a semi-public use.

These are open to everyone, but access may be limited through private property or a private structure, and examples of these include hospitals or the one at Pacific Place.

There are a few private use skybridges where access is completely restricted for private users only.

The city has a long-standing policy of discouraging private-use sky bridges.

However, it has often allowed sky bridges for public or semi-public uses, such as hospitals due to the nature of their operations, and an urban environment that requires a physical connection between their buildings.

SDOT leads an interdepartmental review of all sky bridge applications through the Sky Bridge Review Committee, which is made up of subject matter experts from a variety of disciplines, and this is code required.

The Skybridge Review Committee makes a recommendation to the SDOT Director based on whether or not the proposed Skybridge meets the criteria specified in the Seattle Municipal Code, including the public benefits to offset the impact of the proposed Skybridge.

Skybridges are also reviewed by the Seattle Design Commission, and they look at the need for the Skybridge as well as the proposed public benefit.

They also provide a recommendation to the SDOT Director.

Next slide.

Term permits require two steps at City Council.

The first step are resolutions which provide conceptual approval and this happens after any Seattle Design Commission review that is required has happened and when the proposal is at 60% of design.

It identifies the conditions to be met prior to the final approval.

You have two resolutions on the agenda later this morning.

The next step are ordinances.

Those occur when the project is at 100% design and after all the conditions and the resolutions are met.

There are three types of ordinances for new structures, which grants the approval and sets the terms and conditions.

And depending on the type of structure, the timeline for new term permits takes anywhere from 12 to 24 months.

A private utility tunnel in an alley would take much less time than a new sky bridge that is part of a larger development project that requires extended review and community engagement.

The next type of ordinance is that term permit renewal, which you also have later on in the agenda.

So at specified points detailed in the ordinance, the permit is reviewed to be consistent with the original approval.

If all the conditions are being met, it grants the permission for the next term.

And this is typically a 15 years.

The third type of ordinance is when a term permit has expired.

At the end of the term, which is typically 30 years, if the permit holder wants to continue to use the right-of-way for this use, then they need to apply for a new permit.

The proposal is reviewed based on the current code criteria and if there are continued need of the structure.

For sky bridges, public benefits were required at permit expiration.

Next slide.

So this is specific to SkyBridge review, as I alluded to earlier.

SkyBridges, due to their impact on the public and their complexity, have an expanded process.

SkyBridges are reviewed by the SkyBridge Review Committee and the Design Commission.

The SkyBridge Review Committee focuses their review on code compliance, technical feasibility, policy objectives, and the adequacy of public benefit proposal.

The Design Commission reviews urban design implications, impact on the surrounding streets, and the merits of the public benefit proposal.

This image to the right is the Pike Place Market SkyBridge that you'll be seeing on the agenda today.

So this is the end of my presentation.

This last slide shows the Chinengate, which is a term permit.

You can see based on its size why it merited a significant structure permit.

And it just shows you one of the many types of permits throughout the city that we have.

And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Well, thank you so much, Amy.

Really appreciate this presentation, this helpful refresher, helpful, I think, for all of us as we onboard a new member.

And, you know, even myself, it's been a few months since we did this.

You know, there's a few of us who are brand new to this committee.

So I found this very insightful.

So thank you.

I will.

take this opportunity to see if any of my colleagues have any comments or questions.

And I guess starting with Council Member Kittle, go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Saka, and thank you for the briefing.

And your last slide, it's interesting because just this week I had a walk, the Market to Mohai walk.

And as part of that, they're looking to take the old sign that was part of the...

as you went into the tunnel and repurpose it on the street as part of the Market to Mohai walk.

And so the, from Chinatown, that's another interesting, way smaller version, but an interesting piece to that and something that the community's gonna be really happy about, I believe.

So another picture for the future.

I'M ALSO INTERESTED BECAUSE WE ALSO HAVE THE NEW OVERLOOK WALK, WHICH I GUESS WOULD QUALIFY AS A SKY BRIDGE, I WOULD THINK, CHAIR, THERE AT PIKE PLACE MARKET AND AQUARIUM.

SO IN TERMS OF THE BRIEFING, AND THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW, I DO HAVE TO SAY, ONE, THERE'S ALWAYS THE EXCEPTION TO PROVE THE RULE, AND THAT FOR ME AS IT RELATES TO SKY BRIDGES AND in private use, and that is with healthcare-related ones.

If you go to First Hill, between the hospitals, and there's another example that is working its way up through the system as it relates to affording the opportunity to have access to healthcare services.

So for me, that is like the exception to the rule, because yes, we should be looking to restrict as much as possible the private use SkyBridge, because I know there's been others that have asked and they've said no.

But like I said, an exception to that would be facilitating healthcare.

That's it, Chair, thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Great comments there, appreciate your feedback.

So a quick comment and question around public benefits.

So public benefit, you noted in your analysis that it is part of the analysis at play here.

There's a statutorily defined legal framework that requires an exchange for the city to grant this.

There has to be some sort of public benefit.

So as part of that analysis, we have to weigh and assess and determine the adequacy and the sufficiency of the purported public benefit.

And there are many, as you alluded to, there are various levels of bodies that are responsible for determining that.

And this body, colleagues, bears final, not only responsibility, but accountability for making that determination.

We are the only one directly accountable for that determination.

And so, yes, we are, as a committee and as a broader body on the council, we are responsible for I wouldn't say approving all.

We are responsible for thoughtfully reviewing all proposed permits.

And sometimes that involves approval.

Sometimes that involves sending back with additional feedback.

Sometimes that involves rejecting.

But we should never be in the business of rubber stamping someone else's work because we are the only ones that are directly accountable for the public benefits.

And so although responsibility is shared.

So as between, so Amy and maybe Lish, if you have any comments on this, would appreciate hearing that.

But can you talk a little bit more about the public benefit analysis and the specific criteria used there?

Sure.

So the public benefit analysis usually looks at the impact of the structure to the public realm.

And so a public benefit would be commensurate to that impact.

So say, for example, A SkyBridge that's been in existence for the Pike Place Market and it's at its permit renewal, it's been there.

It doesn't have a huge impact.

It serves a public purpose.

So its public benefit would not be as high as, say, something that's a brand-new structure introduced to the right of way.

So we're looking to look at offsetting the impacts.

If it's an existing one, there's a lower expectation because we're working in a built environment, and the hospitals are another example of that.

But for brand-new sky bridges, they have a higher threshold to meet because it's something introduced to the urban realm that hasn't been there before.

And public benefits also need to exceed any code requirements.

So if there's an ID, I'm not an expert on SDCI code, but if there's a code requirement for certain mitigation, these public benefits tied to the significant structure have to exceed that.

So examples we've seen on new structures are widened sidewalks to make a greater pedestrian realm, street trees adding to the urban forestry environment, street furniture like benches, and new lighting for pedestrians to make a more welcoming pedestrian environment.

We want things that...

make the pedestrian environment welcoming, because sky bridges take pedestrians off the street.

So we want the people that are still using the street to have an enhanced and the best possible pedestrian experience they could possibly have.

Other examples include public art or public plazas.

And so another thing.

that is needs to be considered for all public benefit is that truly needs to be public in nature.

Um, it needs to serve everybody, not just the users of adjacent building.

It needs to be open and accessible because the right of way is open and accessible to everybody.

So any public benefit that is required for a permit needs to be as equally accessible.

Um, and they need to serve the broadest level of communities.

Lish, did you want to add anything?

I just want to call out the work of the Seattle Design Commission around public benefit analysis.

Any project that requires public benefit mitigation goes to the Seattle Design Commission and that body of architects and designers and engineers looks very closely at each of the elements of the public benefit proposal to make sure that it really does provide a benefit to the public.

They look at longevity.

For example, there was a discussion of a mural on a street vacation last year, or this year, and they talked about how the paint would hold up over time to the weather and the level of detail that the council just can't get into.

And so there's a lot of work that comes, that goes along with the public benefit proposal before it comes to you.

The other thing I would like to mention about public benefit is it's required for the life of the permit.

So for as long as the structure is in the right of way, that public benefit has to be maintained by the permit holder.

It's at no cost to the city.

So if there's any maintenance repairs that are required of it, that cost is on the permit holder and it is for the life of the permit.

And we would prefer tangible benefits that you can see a sky bridge, you can touch a branch rather than something intangible like a financial contribution But those are the only two last comments I wanted to make about public benefit.

Because I think they're important to note that it's not a city responsibility to maintain.

Yeah.

No, that's very helpful.

So thank you, Amy.

Thank you, Lish, for your comments there.

Public benefit.

ANALYSIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART, COMPONENT OF THE WORK AS IT PERTAINS TO PERMITS AND VACATION REQUESTS AS WELL, PROPOSALS.

AND SO, YEAH, RESPONSIBILITY IS SHARED AS WE TALKED ABOUT, BUT, YOU KNOW, THERE'S A FEW FOLKS WHO ARE DIRECTLY ACCOUNTABLE AND IT'S THE ELECTED OFFICIALS, US, AND THE MAYOR.

Okay, great.

Well, this is a wonderful presentation.

One final question, actually, this is for Lish.

When is a good sort of natural opportunity or maybe the only opportunity for council to weigh in and provide directional feedback on these type of proposals when they come in?

Yeah.

So you see the proposals when they are fairly well baked in terms of term permits.

They're at 60% design, which means a significant amount of design work has happened.

Um, you get a resolution like the first two items on your, or the next two items on your agenda today.

Um, and that's your opportunity to sort of weigh, is this an appropriate use of public space?

Um, are the public benefits, if required, appropriate, et cetera.

And we would bring, uh, any pro, for a Skybridge that would require public benefit, we would bring that out.

That process, the evaluation that the design commission and the department has done would be at resolution stage.

So you will have seen a vetted public benefit analysis at that point.

Thank you.

That's very helpful.

So I'm hearing the opportunity, colleagues.

I'm culling some learnings from what I just heard.

The opportunity, colleagues, to meaningfully contribute to this discussion and provide feedback.

front end of this at the resolution stage, it's probably a bit too late.

I'll never say never, but probably a bit too late, probably too baked at that point to provide meaningful directional feedback at the tail end of this process at the ordinance stage.

So today, it's a good time to do that.

Don't worry, we're not voting on anything today.

And so, you know, when this comes up at the next thing, at the next committee meeting, if you have any, you know, that would, well, today or later at our next committee meeting when we ideally vote this out, then that would be a good opportunity if you have any.

So I do note that Council Member Rank, you have a question.

Please go ahead.

Hopefully it's it's a quick one.

Thank you chair.

And thank you so much for the presentation I'm wondering if I could just get a quick orientation to timelines for approval of each of these I know we hear a lot about sometimes lengthy permit times across different departments.

So wondering if you can quickly walk through Approximately the timelines for approval of each of these and what kind of barriers you may face as a department that may delay the issuing of these permits I

So the timeline for term permits takes longer than, say, for a sidewalk cafe.

Just putting it right out there up front.

It's a lengthy process.

It can be anywhere from 12 to 24 months.

And it really depends on the type of structure.

A utility connection in an alley where both properties are owned by the same party and it's just really a technical reveal of feasibility, does this infrastructure fit in the street, typically requires less time because there's less public engagement with it.

barriers that we would run into there is just that getting plans to the point where they're at 60% design so that you know when it comes to you that the structure's technically feasible to be there.

sky bridges and larger development projects or things that have a greater impact where we have a currently one that we early talks with folks who want to do a boardwalk that's a very public thing there's going to be a lot of community interest in it it's close it might be close to a light rail station so that would take a lot longer because there's a lot more stakeholders involved and There's greater level of view.

There's the fact that if it's near light rail station, there's sand transits going to be involved.

There's planning.

So those typically take a lot longer.

We have been really successful.

meeting with the Seattle Design Commission.

They're very responsive to our projects and making sure that they get on their calendar and get reviewed.

So they're not an obstacle in this.

They're very, like Lish mentioned, they're subject matter experts on things like urban design and what makes things pretty and inviting.

I'm not I'm not an urban designer, so I trust their judgment.

There's a public art person on that.

So that's not, it's just a scheduling thing.

It's just one more step.

So that's what adds time into it.

And then when y'all go into budget, I can't bring any legislation to you.

And I do a lot of back work, like doing a lot of review when you all are in budget and working on more important things.

And I always try to prioritize.

And I do prioritize new projects over existing ones, because if an ordinance expires, the permit holder can continue to use it, use this so long as they maintain compliance with the original ordinance.

So I always prioritize new projects.

So usually it's working with the development structure, development schedule, things like that.

But most of the people we work with, I'm very upfront with like, this isn't going to be a complex review.

And when you have 10 people from various departments in a room, it requires a lot more coordination.

So thank you.

And that concludes my questions.

Thank you, chair.

Right, excellent question.

Thank you, Council Member Rank.

Okay, seeing, hearing no other questions, comments from my colleagues, we will now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, resolution 32158, a resolution granting conceptual approval to install, maintain, and operate a below-grade pedestrian tunnel under and across Boren Avenue North, north of Denny Way, as proposed by Oney Boren Ave, Seattle, LLC, as part of the construction of 121 Boren Avenue North in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

All right, thank you.

And presenters, when you're ready, please begin your presentation.

Well, thank you for the opportunity to bring this new project before you.

Like I said, the new projects are priorities and the developer on this one is anxious to get your feedback on it.

So thank you for your time on this agenda.

So there's two separate pieces of legislation for the two different structures.

There's a pedestrian tunnel and a utility tunnel, but I'm gonna do one presentation since it's the same project.

to be efficient with your time.

So, Ani Baran, LLC is proposing to construct and operate a pedestrian tunnel and a utility tunnel under Boren Avenue North, north of Denny Way.

The pedestrian tunnel would connect the buildings located at 1120 Denny Way and 121 Boren Avenue North.

It would connect the residential hotel office and retail for logistical uses, sort of the back of house operations, and taking vehicular trips off the street for a more active pedestrian street environment.

The utility tunnel will allow a thermal heat exchange system for waste heat to be captured and shared between the buildings, reducing energy demand.

City Council passed Ordinance 126135 in 2020 that approved a below-grade private thermal, oh, I'm sorry, next slide.

That approved a below-grade thermal exchange for buildings located under John Street and between the Denny Way project.

This proposal before you today would complete that connection between all three buildings.

And SDOT is recommending conceptual approval.

As noted in the previous presentation, term permits require two steps.

We are here at the first step at conceptual approval.

And if you adopt, conceptually approve these projects, we would bring to you an ordinance that is, when the project's at 100% design, and would set the terms of the permit, the annual fees, maintenance and inspection requirements, and protects the city with insurance and indemnity requirements.

Next slide.

So this diagram shows the connections between the buildings for the thermal heat exchange.

As noted, the council previously passed an ordinance that connected the 1120 John Street and the 1120 Denny Way.

It is anticipated that once the three connections are completed, carbon emissions would be reduced by 160 metric tons, having a significant positive impact on the environment.

Next slide.

So this view shows the three buildings in relation to each other and the existing and proposed tunnels.

The building on the lower left is constructed and is currently operational.

The 1120 John Street building just north of that building started construction in 2022 and is currently paused.

The developer is anticipating construction resuming in the first quarter of 2025 and it will be residential and office uses.

The 121 Bourne Avenue North on the left side of the image will be residential and construction is pending and anticipated to start in the first quarter of 2025 as well.

In total, when all three buildings are completed and occupied, there will be 2,500 residential units and 750,000 square feet of office commercial space.

This image just shows the location in relation to the South Lake Union neighborhood, and it is east of Denny Park and west of I-5.

Next slide, please.

As stated earlier, SDOT is recommending Council conceptually approve the proposed tunnels, and if the resolutions are adopted, we will prepare two term permit ordinances for Council to consider later in 2025. Thank you.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Awesome.

Great presentation.

Thank you.

Yeah, this is in.

And so thank you for including that, that back point, that data point in this presentation.

Do any of my colleagues have any comments or questions?

No.

All right.

Well, hearing none, thank you for that.

Again, intentionally, we are not voting.

Well, this is a net new permit anyway.

I don't think we do that as a standard practice anyway, but we're not voting on anything today.

We'll now move on to our third item of business.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, resolution 32159, a resolution granting conceptual approval to install, maintain, and operate a below-grade private thermal energy exchange system under and across Boren Avenue North, north of Denny Way, as proposed by Oney Boren Ave, Seattle LLC, as part of the construction of 121 Boren Avenue North in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

Awesome.

Presenters, when you're ready, go ahead.

And you just heard about this second resolution as well.

I included the pedestrian tunnel and the utility tunnel in the presentation since they're part of the larger project, even though there will be two separate pieces of legislation for you to consider.

Great.

Do any of my colleagues have any questions about that?

All right.

Moving on.

We'll now move on to our fourth item of business.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Agenda item four, council bill 120846, an ordinance granting Triton West LLC permission to maintain and operate a pipeline system in, under, along, and across 13th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Florida Street for a 20-year term, repealing section eight of ordinance 123-990, specifying the conditions under which this permit is granted and providing for the acceptance of the permit and conditions.

All right.

Presenters, go ahead.

Floor is yours.

Joshua Lacomiac.

I am the PNW Terminals Manager for Shell Pipeline.

Thank you for having me.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to present a project in your district, Councilmember Saka.

Slide two.

The pipeline system runs under, along and across 13th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Florida Street on Harbor Island.

The pipeline system transmits petroleum products between the dock site and the oil storage plants.

Ultimately, these products are transported off Harbor Island throughout the Pacific Northwest.

And this pipeline system was originally permitted in 1947 and has subsequently been renewed by council to the present day.

And SDOT is recommending council renew the term permit.

Next slide.

If the permit is renewed, this term would be for 20 years.

For pipelines and projects that have this nature of infrastructure, we generally recommend a longer term.

And the ordinance will set the terms and conditions of the permit.

And for pipelines, we have additional insurance and environmental indemnity requirements to protect the city due to the special nature of this type of use.

Next slide.

This area shows the general location of the pipeline system.

The top highlighted in the green at the bottom of the image.

Next slide.

This image shows the general location of the pipeline system at Harbor Island.

Next slide.

If SDOT is recommending Council approve this renewal, Triton West LLC has met and continues to meet all the obligations of the existing permit.

If the ordinance is approved, the permit would be in effect until 2045. Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Do any of my colleagues have any comments or questions?

Hearing none, seeing none, I have a question.

So I note that this, it's good to know that this permit, or yeah, this pipeline and associated permit has been in place since 1947. Mighty long time.

Doing the fine work of logistics and enablement to keep our economy humming.

What?

Do, so you mentioned that this is a pipeline system that transmits petroleum products between the oil storage plant and dock site on Harbor Island.

So what is the end use of these petroleum products?

Is it intended for export purposes?

Are we shipping these petroleum products you know, to other locations across the U.S. or, you know, globally?

Or where are they ultimately consumed and used?

So our dock facility brings in product from local refineries, so this would be local use for commercial and residential.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sounds great.

And I'm saying no, just want to confirm, no other questions, comments from my colleagues?

All right, well, thank you all.

Let us now move on to our fourth item of business.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Or excuse me, item four?

Five.

Five, five.

Go ahead.

Agenda item five, Council Bill 120924, an ordinance granting Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority permission to continue maintaining and operating a pedestrian skybridge over and across Western Avenue, approximately 300 feet north of Pike Street, repealing section seven of ordinance 114388 and providing for acceptance of the permit and conditions.

Awesome, and I note that we have some new presenters who have joined us at the table.

Please introduce yourselves, and then everyone, when you're ready to go, go ahead and start presenting.

Hi, I'm Karen Mogmer.

I'm the Executive Project Manager at Pike Place Market.

I'm Brady Morrison, Director of Operations at Pike Place.

Awesome, welcome.

Well, I am happy to bring this request to re-permit the SkyBridge on behalf of the Pike Place Market Public Development Authority today in Councilmember Kettle's district.

Next slide.

Pike Place Market PDA currently operates and maintains an existing skybridge over Western Avenue.

The skybridge connects the Pike Place Market with the waterfront by providing an accessible route through the parking garage on Western Avenue.

And it is heavily used by the public, residents, tourists, visitors, business people, shop owners.

Council originally approved the Sky Bridge in 1989, and it is at the end of its 30-year term as originally granted.

And SDOT is recommending approval to re-permit the Sky Bridge.

Next slide.

If Council approves the permit, it would be for 15 years with one renewable 15-year term.

The term permit ordinance would detail all the requirements of the permit, including fees, maintenance requirements, inspection reports, insurance, and indemnification obligations.

Next slide.

The Seattle Municipal Code requires public benefits when a skybridge has reached the end of the 30-year term.

The Skybridge Review Committee and the Seattle Design Commission reviewed the public benefit proposal from the market and found that they provided sufficient mitigation for re-permitting the skybridge.

Those public benefits are, and the image shows some of them, an elevator upgrade that replaced a system originally installed in the 1980s that is faster and can accommodate more passengers, replacing the fire escape stairs to make them wider and ADA compliant, and the installation of four bike racks at Alaskan Way.

Next slide.

This image shows the SkyBridge in relation to the market and the connecting parking garage on Western Avenue.

Inside the garage, there is wayfinding that shows users how to use the SkyBridge to go to and from the market.

If you go through there, there's painting on the ground.

There's painting on the sides of the walls saying to the market or to the waterfront.

The SkyBridge also accommodates large pipes that circulate water to the market from a central cooling plant in the garage.

Next slide.

This aerial image shows the SkyBridge location in a larger context of the surrounding neighborhood.

Next slide.

SDOT is recommending council approve the re-permitting of the existing pedestrian SkyBridge.

It provides an important pedestrian and accessible connection between the market and the waterfront.

Pursuant to Seattle Municipal Code 1564.08.

And the criteria listed there, we believe there is no significant impact of the Sky Bridge re-permitting and it serves the public's interest.

If the ordinance is approved, the first term will be in place until 2040. And happy to answer any questions you may have.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Do any of my colleagues have any comments or questions?

Council Member Kittle, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair Sack.

I'd like to welcome the PDA here today.

I really appreciate it.

I just wanted to note, obviously we're in discussions with PDA and SDOT related to Pike Place.

As Chair knows, earlier this year we had a change in the Seattle Transportation Plan related to Pike Place.

where we're going to bring the three entities together, along with a lot of different stakeholders that are involved.

And that's going to start soon, although we have a new PDA chief on board, and now we have an SDOT chief that's leaving.

That's going to complicate things a little bit, but we'll still press ahead in the beginning of the new year as starting the process and to have it basically worked, I believe, by the time summer comes.

And I just wanted to say that as an update generally related to Pike Place, but also say that, you know, part of, you know, looking at Pike Place means looking at holistically the entire area and to include Western and Alaskan Way.

THIS SKY BRIDGE CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM THAT DISCUSSION.

THE SKY BRIDGE IS VERY IMPORTANT IN TERMS OF THE OVERALL MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE AND SO RENEWING IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THE OVERALL CONVERSATIONS THAT WE HAVE IN TERMS OF THE PEDESTRIANS GOING FROM A TO B OR X to Z, Zed, and then, you know, so these, you know, so north, south, east, west, and all the above.

And so definitely approve, recommend approval of this sky bridge and, you know, basically everything as it relates to the connectivity of Pike Place to its surrounding area.

Thank you, Chief.

I mean, Chief.

Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

All right.

Any other comments, questions?

Hearing, seeing none.

Thank you all.

Great, great presentations.

We'll take these up again next month.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We will now move on to our sixth item of business.

Will the clerk please read item six into the record?

Agenda item six, SDOT presentation on winter weather preparedness.

Awesome.

So thank you.

And will our presenters, newest presenters, please join us at the table and share your presentations.

When ready, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

Good morning.

My name is Rodney Maxey.

I am SDOT Deputy Director in charge of operations and maintenance in the right-of-way.

I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity and Chair Saka for inviting us to give a presentation on our winter weather and emergency plans.

And I also want to thank the Council and Chair Saka for your introduction, your statements, praising the many hardworking people at SDOT for finishing strong on the previous levy.

And thank you for the support that the council and the mayor gave us to get the opportunity to serve the public again with a new levy.

Without further ado, I will introduce my Division Director of Right-of-Way Maintenance and Urban Forestry, and he will give you our presentation on winter weather in response.

Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you, Rodney.

Again, my name is Darren Morgan.

I'm the Division Director of Right-of-Way Maintenance and Urban Forestry here at the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Got a lot of great information to share with you this morning, particularly around winter weather planning and response operations with an emphasis on snow and ice.

So before we dive too far into the details, I think it's really important that we ground ourselves in the mission essential functions that drive our day to day planning and operations when we're faced with challenging forecasts.

Among these include maintaining key arterial and waterway operations.

We have a lot of movable bridges that can also be impacted with winter weather events.

We have to focus on mitigating hazards in the right of way, and particularly in winter weather.

Those show up in all different shapes and sizes.

disseminate critical transportation information, and just as we've been hearing for the last hour, issuing permits authorizing the use of the right-of-way.

All of these key things need to continue happening regardless of the weather and the impacts to the transportation network.

So diving into some of the details on how we do that, we lay out specified service levels following a winter weather event, particularly around snow and ice.

We'll get into more detail on that in a little bit.

We focus on distributing timely information to the public, not just during the event, but certainly before winter weather poses a significant threat to the region.

We prioritize key arterial streets to provide access for first responders, transit, freight, as well as general travel.

And this is a really, really important point that our snow and ice network is founded upon an arterial network in close collaboration with first responders like Seattle Fire, Seattle Police Department, King County Metro, and our freight partners.

We work hard to stay in close contact and coordinate with the Seattle Public School System.

They serve significant function beyond education, particularly during winter weather in terms of shelter and community resource.

Removing snow from curb ramps and bridge overpasses to support equitable access and mobility to folks who may not be driving clearing bike facilities during long duration events.

And last but not least, I want to point out that we emphasize our public messaging around the fact that sidewalks and driveways are the property owner's responsibility.

Before we dive too much further into snow and ice response operations specifically, WANTED TO TAKE A MINUTE AND SHARE SOME INFORMATION AROUND OTHER WINTER WEATHER EVENTS AND FORECASTS THAT REQUIRE SDOT TO LEAN IN, PLAN AHEAD.

IN FACT, TODAY IS DECEMBER 17TH.

RIGHT NOW WE'RE IN THE KICKOFF OF WHAT WE CALL AN ATMOSPHERIC RIVER THAT CAN BRING SIGNIFICANT RAIN AS WELL AS WIND AS THESE SYSTEMS MOVE THROUGH OUR AREA.

And these are impacts that we plan for and coordinate with our other city departments to make sure that we are coordinated and ready to respond to impacts.

There are also many nights and days where we are actually taking snow and ice response actions without a region wide significant event.

Frequently, we are deploying anti-icing and de-icing activities overnight because sometimes winter weather shows up just for a few hours.

Freezing temperatures may not last long, but short duration freezing temperatures can have significant impacts.

And so these descriptions from the National Weather Service would indicate a real significant event that would typically require us to move into a 24-7 full response operation.

but that does not mean we're not deploying tactics throughout the year.

Next slide.

In terms of our snow and ice routes, we publish the snowplow routes on our public-facing webpage, and they include both gold and emerald snow routes.

I want to make really clear that this is not a prioritization per se, rather it's a simplified way of explaining levels of service.

On our gold routes, Our goal is to achieve bare pavement of all lanes within 12 hours of a lull in the storm.

And on our Emerald routes, it's bare pavement one lane in each direction within 12 hours of a significant lull in a storm.

Again, we only plow arterial streets.

We plow snow to the curb except the transit stops.

And we also inspect and educate and enforce sidewalk regulations throughout the city while we're in response mode.

all towed lane miles.

Our snow and ice routes include just over 1200 lane miles of street.

I wanted to take a minute and talk a little bit about our mobility branch, which is an operation that gets stood up on our day shift when we're in a full activation.

This has distinct leadership and crews to tackle the critical pedestrian routes that have no adjacent property owner or maybe owned by the city of Seattle.

We typically rent equipment to support this operation before winter weather arrives.

It's very labor intensive.

It must be done very strategically to have the optimum impact.

This mobility branch is also part of our sidewalk enforcement arm where street use inspectors from our department will be moving throughout the city to communicate with business owners and property owners in real time about the need to keep pedestrian surfaces clear and safe for the public.

In terms of our resources, we have a variety of small and large plows and spreaders, road graders, front end loaders, sweepers and materials.

One thing I wanted to point out is that all of our snow and ice fighting equipment, all 72 pieces of our snow and ice fighting equipment, serve multiple purposes throughout the year.

I'll take, for example, a flusher truck.

It's a large 3,000 gallon tanker truck.

Throughout the year, that piece of equipment may be watering trees, flushing sidewalks, alleys, streets, doing dust control on dirt streets, or cooling our bridges.

That's all in addition to applying anti-icing or de-icing liquids during winter weather.

So we strive to make maximum use of all of our equipment, and much of the equipment that we do use during our construction and maintenance activities throughout the year is repurposed at the right time in order to be ready for winter weather.

In terms of our staffing, this year alone we've trained over 160 people, sometimes for the first time.

Often these drivers have been through this many, many times.

We are very grateful for the partnership with Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Parks and Recreation, as well as Seattle City Light, who are key partners in our planning, preparation, and execution of our winter weather responses.

In terms of SDOT crews and people, When we stand up our full incident response mode, our response operations is located at Charles Street, 714 South Charles Street, just down in the central, excuse me, in the Chinatown International District.

We do have four maintenance operations facilities, one at Holler Lake up north, one again at Charles Street, one at 4200 Airport Way, that's our Sunny Gym facility, and in West Seattle, close to Westbridge Park.

When we stand up for a full incident response, we're going to pivot to two 12-hour shifts, which allows us to be operating 24 hours a day.

In terms of materials, we have salt, granular road salt and liquid magnesium chloride brine pre-positioned throughout the city.

This is something that we're taking care of throughout the summer and fall.

We again have these materials located, co-located with many of our staff at Charles Street.

We also have some right of way at 8th Avenue South and South Forest in Soto, again at Holler Lake, and then two other locations in the southwest part of the city, at 2nd Ave Southwest and Highland Parkway Southwest, and the 9200 8th Avenue Southwest location.

And we begin thinking about restocking as soon as we start fighting snow and ice conditions.

We have both granular and liquid magnesium chloride brine to allow us maximum flexibility given the circumstances that we're fighting.

The weather in Seattle can get very challenging to deploy de-icing and anti-icing material precisely.

We need specific temperatures, humidity and air temperatures and pavement temperatures to deploy our liquid magnesium chloride brine.

safely and effectively.

Over-applying it can be just as hazardous as not applying it at all.

And it's important to note that if we can get ahead of the storm and apply these materials to the road surface before freezing temperatures, before freezing rain, before snow flies, it can save us a lot of time and money by preventing the snow and ice from bonding to the road surface, making the cleanup easier.

That's why timing is so critical, and we spend so much time poring over forecasts and talking with the National Weather Service to make sure that we deploy our resources at the right time.

So again, I think you've already been able to tell that this is year-round work for us, Doc.

We're inventorying and inspecting materials long before the winter season.

We coordinate with King County Metro and our other transit partners to make sure that our snow and ice routes conform to the routes that they would intend to use during winter weather.

We do a lot of training, some with consultants, with each other, and we also set aside time to perform what we call dry runs with our SDOT staff as well as with those from Parks and Seattle Public Utilities.

We reorient on equipment, make sure we're familiar with any upgrades to our equipment.

We talk with our vendor, our contract vendor for snow and ice services, make sure we have all of our contacts and information accurate.

Review our processes for kicking off contracted services when needed.

We hold an annual interagency winter weather conference in November, inviting institutions and agencies from around the region to collaborate on things that are going well and things that need to be improved.

AND COORDINATE OUR MESSAGING TO THE PUBLIC.

WHEN WE GO INTO A 24-7 OPERATION, WE WILL OFTEN ACTIVATE OUR INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM.

THAT'S WHAT IMT IS HERE.

WE ARE CONSISTENTLY LOOKING THREE TO FIVE DAYS AHEAD OF THE FORECASTED WEATHER.

WE'RE LOOKING AT DIFFERENT SCENARIOS.

WE'RE STARTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH VENDORS AND PARTNERS IN THIS TIMEFRAME.

And within one to two days prior to a forecasted event, if we believe that it could have significant impacts to the entire region, requiring coordination and communication throughout the region, we will stand up our incident management team to ensure that all of our staff are ready across all parts of that organization and begin checking our vehicles, equipment, and resources.

When we're activated, obviously we'll have daily coordination calls with the Office of Emergency Management, We'll be participating in command and general staff meetings, both with OEM as well as with tactics calls within our organization.

And that's when we'll begin having scheduled conversations with the Seattle Public Schools.

Typically that's done at two to three o'clock in the morning.

They have staff and we have staff that are dedicated to inspecting routes around their schools to make sure schools, well, to make sure that the schools are making the best possible decision given the conditions that are out there.

In terms of communication and coordination, we have a few very effective ways in which the community can get in touch with us and we can share information with them.

684 Road is typically the communication channel that we recommend the public uses to get ahold of us.

We've also instituted a new Find It, Fix It element for snow and ice category, which went live last year.

Internally, we use Charles Street Maintenance Operations Center to coordinate across departments and our TOC will be activated 24-7 in the Seattle Municipal Tower.

The TOC does a fantastic job collecting all kinds of information from our traffic cameras to support operations responses, coordinates with 911 dispatch, helps push information out to social media, might assist us with establishing detours, calling audibles for things that need to be done in real time, really supports our effort to provide information to the public during an event.

using our traveler information map and dynamic message signs as needed.

The last few slides here talk a lot about our public information efforts.

Our job is to communicate with the public and encourage people to prepare for a major snowstorm, to make sure they know how to access information and resources, and be aware of their responsibilities, particularly keeping their sidewalks and driveways clear of snow and ice during an event.

So we share a continuous drip of information throughout the year on our website, social media channels, and our blog.

We start in the fall, and in the early winter, we begin to share importance of winter weather prep, such as getting your snow shovels, and feature the work that we're doing to prepare for winter storms like we are here today.

We also connect with multicultural media outlets to share our winter weather information and have translated much of this information into 14 different languages.

We also will promote a video that we co-created with rooted in rights to highlight why it's important for people to clear their sidewalks.

It's not just the law.

It's the right thing to do.

Continuing on in communication engagement, right?

We talk also about clearing leaves from gutters and maintaining trees.

And why certain streets are plowed to avoid driving as much as possible.

Generally, we do find that people are prepared in advance of challenging weather, I think, to a lot of benefit.

And we've got a series of social media tiles here that highlight how we share some of this information.

Touching back on sidewalks again, right?

We all have a responsibility to keep our sidewalks clear.

We can't be everywhere at once.

We talked earlier about how labor intensive this work is, right?

We rent equipment.

A lot of this work would have to be done by hand.

And we rely on people to talk to their neighbors and work together to create a plan to support their neighborhood.

Residents and business owners are responsible for doing this work, and we can't emphasize this enough.

All right.

So that is a brief overview of all the work that we do here.

and we'd like to make sure we take some time to answer some questions that you might have.

Absolutely.

Well, I guess first off, thank you so much for this wonderful presentation.

I really appreciate the department coming in here and kind of sharing out and being transparent about this really important body of work.

And that really does make a tremendous impact on people's everyday lives in a positive way, especially when we land it right.

And as you alluded to, there's a lot of work that goes into this.

year round, you know, we don't just show up and like, yeah, there's so much that goes on behind the scenes in terms of planning and preparing.

There's a strong emergency management component here as my esteemed colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Queen Anne, you know, he loves emergency management.

So there's a central component of this work that underlies this work as well.

But I just want to thank you all for for again, sharing out this important work and it's very impactful and I appreciate it.

And I understand this used to be a regular annual or periodic kind of update item for this committee.

And so, So I wasn't aware of that before I thought of this.

I just think, hey, with the winter weather, this will be a great presentation.

But I would like us to do this as well, maintain that tradition on a going forward basis, just because it's just good information for the public to understand.

All right.

Comments, questions from my colleagues?

I guess looks like we have Council Member Kittle, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Thank you very much for coming.

And I would just like to echo the chair's comments regarding Those members of your teams that are doing the work, particularly in inclement weather, it's so important.

And so I'd just like to add on my thank you for that and for yours as well, for your work that you do and in terms of the management of that.

It's really important.

I listened to this brief through the eyes of someone who grew up born and raised in western New York between Buffalo and Rochester, New York.

So a little different perspective related to winter weather.

One of the things I've learned from being in Seattle is that it's really hit and miss.

It's hard to plan for it as opposed to Western New York where they know it's coming and it's just a question of are you in the lake effect band or not.

So I recognize that's a challenge that we have in Seattle.

We can go winters with nothing and then next thing you know every other winter I guess it's El Nino related and the like.

And I suspect this year, I've read reports that this year we may be getting some snow.

So it'll be interesting to see if it's passed.

One of the things I wanted to kind of highlight based on my observations is that, you know, preparation for winter weather is really also the need to take care of the fall weather.

And I bring this up because of leaves, for example.

And I think of bike lanes, actually e-mobility lanes.

And I've been seeing this a lot in terms of they're really not as well as maintained as they could be.

And so that would reduce bike use, but also the scooters.

You know, we had the Packers in town.

A lot of people, they use those scooters.

And it seems like they're using bike lanes more and sidewalks less.

but that will not continue if leaves are kind of, you know, in the way in different areas.

And, um, but it also complicates snow removal too.

Uh, as we move by, I've gotten a lot of requests regarding, Hey, Snow removal on the arterials in Queen Anne.

I mean leaves, like on Queen Anne Boulevard Park, that road, removing the leaves in that area.

I get a lot of inquiries about that.

I do believe it's ongoing, but I just bring it up because it does impact if we were to get a sudden snow without that taken care of.

So I just wanted to highlight that and particularly related to bike lanes.

Would you like to respond to that one?

Yes.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Yeah, I've been doing this for 10 years as an executive at SDOT and Darren's been doing it with me in various roles as senior manager and then division director.

um we had we we're one thing we're really grateful to the mayor and the city council is the funding that we got for bike lane maintenance because originally we put the bike lanes but we we had no maintenance budget and so this is the first time ever in SDOT's budget that we actually got funding.

So Darren is leading an effort where now we are going to have a standard where we will be sweeping those bike lanes with new sweeping equipment, small sweepers that we've been piloting for the last year.

And at least three times a month, every bike lane will get.

The other interesting thing, Council Member Kettle, is We've been rapidly putting bike lanes out, right?

And one of the things we noticed afterwards is some areas have more deciduous trees and leaves falling.

So we are also piloting some new equipment where we can just take gigantic vacs and just vacuum the leafs out.

And all that started, like, in the last six months.

So we recognize that that definitely is a problem.

And we do work with SPU, like Councilmember Saka did, to get out there and clear those drains and communicate to the public to help us as best we can.

So thank you.

And that funding that Rodney's referencing is funding that was in the levy that you sent to voters and the voters approved in November?

Awesome.

Thank you.

Well, I really appreciate incorporating the lessons learned and all that, and it's breaking news for the urbanists in terms of updates related to what's going on in that frame.

By the way, just an aside, for whatever reason, I've been seeing a lot of cars going into bike lanes too, which is a problem.

This morning on Queen Avenue North, somebody jumped into a bike lane.

I was like, what?

And then that person took a left onto John Street, like towards Seattle Center.

And I was just, I was amazed.

And just as an aside, that is something I'm seeing.

Usually I'm seeing some people park, like maybe a delivery or something like that.

But this morning was like a whole other level.

And I just wanted to raise that as an aside.

It's a little different from this briefing, but that is something.

And my understanding is I think Estat's also learned on that the early bike lanes were a little too wide that kind of makes it easier for cars to get in there.

I don't know if that was on purpose or not, but it seems like the newer bike lanes, or maybe it's based on where I'm seeing them, but I just wanted to highlight as an aside, again, not part of this briefing, but cars going into bike lanes is a problem.

It seems to be a growing problem.

And we're doing more hardening of the barriers and protected bike lanes, which I think will help that issue.

And that's also something that was funded in the new levy.

Yes.

Another example how this levy is better than the past levy.

I really appreciate your reference to staircases.

Again, when we do...

when we kind of come out with programs, we kind of do them generically, and then we find we get smack dab into reality.

And one reality for Seattle, particularly D7, is this thing called slopes.

And it's going to be impacting everything.

Impacts the previous discussion related to Pike Place Market.

It impacts, I think there will be impacts related to the comp plan.

But it also impacts the ability for people to move around.

And it's kind of unique.

And as I always call, Staircases they're up and down sidewalks So that's another area of interest for me as a council member So thank you for adding that and whatever we can do to ensure that that unique I don't know if it's more unique to d7 than other parts of the city, but it's definitely You know a feature for for district 7 you know Queen Anne Magnolia, but even If you come into the city, it's more of a slope there too.

It's really more of a sidewalk issue.

On the sidewalks, I appreciate your point.

The hard part sometimes is when you have neighbors who are elderly or don't have the means.

This is an affordability piece.

By the way, that's an affordability piece in my hometown, too, in terms of my mother and getting plows to come take out all the snow.

So this is something across America, but here, too, in terms of the affordability, and particularly those more elderly, their ability to do sidewalks.

So one of the things I was thinking about, and I really appreciate your work with OEM and OEM's work as part of this.

And I appreciate Chair Saka's little OEM shout out.

I was, as you two may not know, Bill knows that, you know, look to turn every committee meeting into a public safety committee meeting.

But, you know, one of the things, and by the way, I would like to get a tour of the talk as well at some point.

No problem.

We can arrange that.

I would like that.

But you know, one of the things is like organization.

And one way that our neighborhoods are organized are through like the block watch program, SPD's block watch program.

And block watch captains tend to be more active and more engaged in neighborhoods.

And that might be something in a way to kind of build up a reserve for us to go out and to at least inquire and maybe assist in getting neighborhoods organized to assist in this area in terms of winter weather.

I have two comments on two subjects there.

First, in terms of topography and steepness and slopes throughout this city, plays a key role into the safety and our tactics of how we operate.

There are many streets that are so narrow and so steep that we couldn't safely plow them, and that's one of the reasons we do so much public outreach and engagement about which streets we do plow and which ones we don't.

so not only for pedestrians but also our streets, that the number of steep slopes around the city make it very, very challenging, very different from some Midwestern cities that maybe deal with snow year-round and don't deal nearly with as much complexity of slopes and weather systems.

On the second point, with regard to block watch captains, something I didn't dive into too much detail in my presentation was the fact that last year we actually did kick off an outreach campaign partnering with the Seattle Police Office.

Seattle Police Department and the Block Watch Captains.

And we distributed a number of shovels and ice melt as part of the night out in August.

And we've continued to maintain those coordination and that partnership.

It was a heavy, heavy lift both for SDOT and for the Block Watch Captains.

And so we're continuing to look at how best to optimize our communication and coordination with this block watch captain.

John, myself, and my neighborhood took advantage of that as an opportunity, and we used several folks from SDOT to communicate with that program.

So I think we're going to continue to build on that.

So thank you for that.

You're right, and I remember that because a lot of people don't realize I'm still block watch captain for my neighborhood.

And SNAP, by the way, if we're going to go into Seattle neighborhoods, actively prepare.

So I think, yes, so I think that's great.

And thank you for that reminder.

I wasn't thinking about that.

Partly because I already have my own shovel and everything else.

You wouldn't expect anything less for somebody from Western New York.

One last question is, earlier this year, early fall, I believe, I went to the fire garage.

And where all the ladder trucks, the fire engines are maintained.

Great tour.

Then I got a bonus tour of the main garage.

Is there any, in terms of equipment maintenance, the trucks and the likes, because it seems to be like varying types of trucks, or maybe in smaller vehicles, I love having the small, in terms of taking care of leaves, the small brushers, or when I grew up, we had sidewalk plows too, by the way, similar.

What is the challenges related to the maintenance of that equipment, those varying types of trucks and the like?

I'll take part of that question.

We have, we work hand in hand with FAS and the mechanics.

As a matter of fact, when we do and go into a 12 or 24 hour storm response, we pay for the mechanics to work overtime to maintain the vehicles.

Like Darren said, our dump trucks that we use for snow plows are used for paving, asphalt, concrete, and potholes.

And we're proud of that efficiency, whereas many cities in New York and other places, they have hundreds of pieces of equipment that they only use for snow.

And their budgets are, you know, sometimes north of 80 to 200 million a year, whereas our budget is 7 to 10 million a year.

I think what we try to do, which makes it difficult because we use the vehicles year-round, they take more wear and tear, but we have them on a replacement system that's fairly good, as I used to manage the fleet, where we try to replace them every seven to ten years, and we monitor the hydraulic systems.

The bigger deal with the plows, and I'll let Darren address this a little bit more, is The hydraulic systems with the plow and the spreader attachments add more complexity than when we're using the dump trucks and the other equipment for paving.

We also increased during this 10-year period that Darren and I have been doing this, we've increased the snow and ice fighting equipment by at least 50, 60 percent.

So I'll let you continue, Darren.

Yeah, I think the only point that I would, you know, highlight is just the corrosive nature of the materials, right?

The The salt is just so corrosive.

And we often don't get the opportunity to do a shakedown event, right?

ALL IN WHEN SNOW AND ICE THREATEN OUR REGION.

AND SO THAT'S WHY IT'S SO IMPORTANT THAT WE START WORKING WITH OUR FAS PARTNERS IN AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER TO MAKE SURE THOSE SPREADERS, THOSE PLOWS GET PUT ONTO THE TRUCKS THEMSELVES, GET RUN THROUGH THE SHOP, GET AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACTUALLY OPERATE ON THE STREET BEFORE SNOW AND ICE EVEN THREATEN.

AND THAT'S OUR OPPORTUNITY.

to understand, you know, which parts have been impacted by the storage period, which is actually the most challenging part of keeping this equipment, you know, up and running.

So huge shout out to our partners and mechanics at FAS that do this difficult work of helping to restart and, you know, coach our staff and coach each other on all the changes and all the technical pieces of each plow and spreader throughout the season.

It's a big body of work.

Okay, thank you.

And please, you know, when I was at the fire garage and the main garage as well, they've never seen a council member before.

So, and I got to see some folks in the, you know, like the welders.

But if you can, please pass a direct note to the maintainers that we also appreciate their work and their specific efforts that they do that are so important for, that's not really seen.

because they're back in the garage as opposed to being out.

So please pass a specific thank you for their efforts as well.

We will, and feel free to make an appointment during a storm.

You can come down with us into the garage.

Often we bring the mayor or deputy mayors down there and introduce them also to the mechanics.

So we'd love to do that.

Sure, although I'd probably be shoveling snow for my block watch group.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Excellent comments there.

Appreciate all that.

And yes, I offered and would love to do that during one of the next, personally, and go visit the teams during one of the next things.

Potentially as early as next month, who knows?

But anyways, yeah, thank you again for your comments, Council Member Kettle.

And with respect to the bike lanes, yes, there's a continuing ongoing effort to harden some of these bike lanes to prevent cars from going in there.

If you want to see a real-life, tangible, concrete example, pun intended, it's close to City Hall.

Check out 4th Avenue.

That work was performed this year since we were in office.

And it's literally in our backyard.

and appreciate the...

So the focus of this presentation was on winter preparedness with the focus on snow and ice.

But as you pointed out, there are a number of other factors that impact this work, including wind, which is concentrated in the winter months and late fall as well, early spring, whatever it is.

But we experienced a recent event this past weekend.

And so just wanna celebrate the work that from ESSOT's perspective that went on to respond to that.

I was this close to email, you guys know I email a lot about micro details in my own district, things that I elevate from my constituents directly or I just happen to see it, like the railroad tracks thing.

But I was this close to emailing the department about a downed tree on Saturday that was on Delridge.

There's like one critical ingress and egress route for many cyclists to the main part of the city outside of the West Seattle Peninsula, especially in that area.

And hundreds of primarily cyclists, but often pedestrians use that area every day, especially during commuting business days to get to in and out of the city, the main part of the city outside of the peninsula.

And so there was a big tree that blocked and obstructed safe passage.

And you guys had it cleared by yesterday morning in time for the commute time.

So I just wanna, little work like that, like I said, hundreds of people use that, especially during commuting hours.

And so that kind of work is very impactful and really does make a difference in people's lives.

So appreciate it.

All right, Council Member Rank, go ahead.

You have a comment, question, you were recognized.

Well, first of all, definitely count me in on the tour.

Would love to attend and see the work in action.

You know, I also wanted to voice that I certainly appreciate how challenging this work can be.

In a previous role, I actually was a part of the Office of Emergency Management daily coordination calls providing updates on the homelessness response system response and just want to voice my appreciation to the SDOT team, especially those out doing the work when I I think many would prefer to be warm at home.

So have to voice the appreciation.

Also, you all have just been incredibly communicative partners to the homelessness response system during those times.

So thank you.

And I wanted to go actually to slide four.

From the looks of it, as I understand it, these look like activation thresholds.

And I wanted to ask for SDOT specifically, Do you all have more of a light switch on and off system or are there more graduated tiers when there are conditions that are far exceeding these?

Yes, we have graduated tiers.

Like Darren said, Darren's staff, SDOT runs, our operations side runs seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

So a lot of what people don't see is probably 60 to 90 days during the winter.

Darren's folks and our folks are out treating the icy bridges, steep slopes, shaded areas where trees are.

That happens every night shift.

during the winter, kind of quietly.

However, we, like Darren said, we get additional cold weather snaps where it will come in.

The biggest danger here in Seattle, having been born and raised here since the 60s, is ice, not snow.

You know, like we know Denver's flat, even though it's surrounded by mountains.

And Seattle is one of the steepest hills in America where it actually snows or has ice.

We have many, many hills here that people would call mountains in 70 percent of the states of this nation, great nation.

So this is part of our biggest problem, that people think, well, people don't know how to drive in the snow, or why doesn't the city do a better job?

The reality is a lot of professional snowplow drivers in many other parts of the country could not drive their snowplows in Seattle.

on 18 to 20% grades, you would have a runaway plow.

And so what we try to do is we do do those things gradually.

The other challenge that we have is when it ices, it turns from rain to ice.

You can't put liquid de-icer out from rain to ice.

It's not the dry snow you get in Montana or Wyoming.

Specifically, Darren and I, since we've been at SDOT, where we do pre-treat with granular because we found out we could treat the granular right around freezing.

If you treat with liquid before it freezes or during rain, it can cause more slippery surfaces or coefficient of friction.

So those are really the important things for people to remember.

Like we've had over the time, people ask us, well, why don't you clear all the residential streets?

Well, if you cleared the residential streets, you would have to tow cars.

We're from the Northwest, and people in the Northwest may not react too positively to their cars getting towed on one hand.

And then the other thing is you'd have to keep clearing and treating the 5,000 miles of the entire network, which really we wouldn't be able to do safely.

And as you know, the fun, fun thing you know about Seattle, and I'm sure you've all learned, is people love to cross country ski.

and snowboard and sleigh, you see thousands of people out there on the residential streets.

So that's kind of more of a tradition around here.

But we proceed to close streets as soon as we have ice.

We proceed to do...

We proceed to do To stand up and only do like a day shift Where we treat or only do a night shift where we treat before we get to the point where we make the decision based on the National Weather Service whether we go into the 12-hour shifts in the 24-hour responses And we also unfortunately have to do the same thing on the back end sometimes a snowstorm takes one or two weeks to gradually fade as opposed to just warming up to 60 degrees in one day.

So hopefully that answers your question.

Yes, and I've definitely been caught in the NWS constantly checking, like, any day now it'll end, and then it ends up going on for four more days.

Thank you for that response.

And kind of moving to, you know, some may know that I'm proudly car-free, and so I bring the perspective of an active pedestrian and someone who uses our buses.

And I wanted to talk a little bit more about sidewalks and kind of a connecting point to Councilmember Kettle.

I also did a stint out in central New York, and spent four years in very intense snow conditions.

So having that experience, being in a city that has very different infrastructure to address snow because they can expect it every year, I reflect on the fact that, you know, understanding they have larger budgets set aside for that and different technology and also just different topography, not having to deal with hills, and there was a different culture around snow response.

Namely, we knew about around the end of October, everyone starts salting their sidewalks.

And there was just a different culture around that.

And I think about my experiences there compared to here, where never there did I slip on black ice.

But every year, like clockwork, I slip on black ice in this town, even if I'm not on a hill.

And so I give this prelude to say, have we talked about how we can talk to our neighbors around proactive salting of the sidewalk in front of their house.

And is that messaging you would provide?

If so, why or why not?

Go ahead, Darren.

Yeah, so we don't get so specific as to demand a specific treatment option.

But what we are messaging is focused on getting ready and making sure that folks know how to do that.

I think you're speaking to a real significant culture difference in terms of the level of readiness and expectation.

It's one of the things that really continues to challenge us here in the Northwest is that we may have, like you said, years where it doesn't snow at all or barely reaches freezing.

And then some where we have maybe two solid weeks of freezing and folks are scrambling to get the resources and to learn how to do that.

So the best that we can do is to educate, inform, and continually reinforce what people need to be doing now just as you're doing and I'm doing right now.

We use as many media channels and outlets as we can.

And again, working with our block watch captains to kind of educate.

And over the last 15 years where I've been living here and working in this arena, I've noticed more and more people coming to this city that have those experiences and share them.

And so that's why I think it's really important to continue the conversation, to find all different kinds of ways to kind of talk about those stories.

We don't wanna get into a situation necessarily where we're pushing all of that salt out onto the sidewalk every day unnecessarily, but we do wanna make sure that people are prepared And that also our retailers are prepared to provide those things, right, for our communities when they're in need.

So I don't have the, you know, the silver bullet answer to your question, but I agree.

It can be a challenge for folks to look ahead.

So we just need to continue to reinforce that messaging.

Right.

And I think one of the things like you talk about culture is the culture here, if you talk to long-term people, was that, you know, it was going to snow and then it was going to melt in three or four days.

So most, you know, homeowners, whether you were young or able or whatever, for the last 60 years in the city, did not salt or, you know, or shovel their sidewalks for the most.

But I think, and ironically, it used to snow more in the 70s and 80s here.

People don't know that.

But It's something we're working on, and we did one of the things that Darren did an outstanding job of, like Councilmember Kettle said, he not only worked with the Block Watch, but we worked with Department of Neighborhoods to try to do this outreach.

And we put in systems, you know.

The challenge was, is that The labor intensiveness would cause us to need thousands of city workers in order to provide that service.

But we're open to keep improving and constant improvement.

I think we've constantly improved the last 10 years and we're open to any suggestions you may have so that we can get better.

Thank you for that.

I'm deeply interested in making sure we can prevent falls, particularly on Black Ice, just considering how dangerous it has been.

And we've even seen deaths in this community from falls on Black Ice.

So more that we can be doing to prevent and just work on preparations and build a culture around preparing, I'm all on board for.

My next question is a bit about our buses and road clearing and just wondering what informs the difference between a gold route versus an emerald route.

I'm particularly thinking about working folks and their ability to get to work in the midst of severe weather.

Not everyone has the luxury at times of working from home, but thinking about how our prioritization of what streets get cleared and what bus routes then are operating and how that maps onto the needs of our frontline workers in our community.

who are needing to go out and still do jobs during this time.

Go ahead, Darren.

Yeah, so like I mentioned earlier, we do coordinate very closely with King County Metro, and they have established a significant number of routes that they believe move the most people most effectively and efficiently during winter weather operations.

Again, golden emerald is not necessarily a prioritization, but usually more closely related to the design and the width of the actual roadway.

Let's take Aurora Avenue, for example, right, multiple lanes versus, say, CHERRY STREET, MAYBE IT SEGMENTS VERY, VERY HIGH DEMAND STREET, A LOT OF SLOPES, BUT TWO LANES IN EACH DIRECTION FOR THE MAJORITY OF THAT.

WHAT SERVES A TREMENDOUS NUMBER OF PEOPLE, RIGHT?

SO AGAIN, THAT'S A PARTNERSHIP AND WE RELY ON KING COUNTY METRO'S ANALYSIS AND COORDINATION AND PARTNERSHIP WITH OUR PRE-EXISTING ROUTES.

AND WE LOOK TO UPDATE THOSE BASED ON THEIR SERVICE CHANGES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE READY TO ADJUST FOR THEIR FALL SERVICE CHANGES.

One thing I would want to point out too about King County Metro is that many of their buses that serve routes within the city are transporting people from around the county, right?

And the road conditions outside of the city of Seattle are unfortunately something that we can't control.

And in many cases, some reduced services are a result of impassable roadways just outside the borders of our city, right?

We also work very closely with the Washington State Department of Transportation They've been an excellent partner, and we make sure that those buses that are transiting on I-5 and 99 have good egress and ingress to our street network.

So again, I'm not sure that completely gets to your question, but again, our plan really is formulated around supporting Metro and supporting those folks who really rely on transit to get to work because not everybody has the option or the luxury to stay home during winter weather, right?

And it's one of the things that I, you know, if you ask me, what am I worried about the most?

It's really about, you know, everybody together collectively making the best decision to stay home if they absolutely can, but also doing our best to support King County Metro so that they can serve the most people that have no choice but to get on a bus or on a train and get to work during winter weather, some of which are our own staff, right?

Right.

I think you'll see that our messaging, our network covers their network exactly.

We work every year.

Every time they change their routes, we meet with them in the summer.

Every route is covered on our snow route.

The thing that Darren brought up that I think maybe the council might be interested in is that many of the Metro bus drivers do not live in the city of Seattle and they don't have even the snow fighting capability in some of the suburbs.

So what happens and it also happens with the school district and, and, and some other employers here, they can't get into the city using transit.

or driving so they don't have their complete workforce.

What we do to try to stay ahead of that is when we see the snowstorm coming, we put our folks in hotels.

The majority of our staff lives outside the city as well.

But that's how we cope with that is to try to get them in hotels 24 to 48 hours in advance of the storm.

Because the number one thing you need is people to fight the storm.

You have to secure your workforce first.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And my final, thank you so much for that response.

Um, and my final question here is how, how are we measuring our success in our response?

Are we looking at, you know, key metrics, like how many buses are staying on schedule, how much of a workforce I just would love to know, you know, as we move into a world of, um, as our climate changes and maybe we have more snow in the future, how, how are we measuring a successful response?

So we're not measuring by Metro Metro decides to shut down routes that for their own, um, their own reasoning and I'll defer to them on that.

The reality here is now, like Darren said, most of the buses are the 80,000 pound slinky buses and they do not maneuver well on the steep hills in Seattle.

So a lot of times Metro intends to run certain routes and ends up canceling those routes because the buses can't adequately navigate the route.

In the old days, the fleet was a little bit more diverse and they could switch to smaller buses that had more capability.

But now they really, really can't do that.

So we just have to go with whatever their decision is.

That concludes my questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Awesome.

Excellent questions, Council Member Rank.

I appreciate your engagement and thoughtful questions.

And I say that because...

Your last question was one that I had.

I remember during the prep, I was like, how do you guys measure your success internally within the department?

Just be prepared to ask that question.

It's gonna come up.

I thought I was gonna be the one to ask it, but excellent question.

I think ultimately, and I appreciate the response here from our SDOT partners, Ultimately, I think who determines whether our city effectively responded to a particular like severe weather crisis, like how well we did that.

I think the public is best positioned to make that assessment, but we should still to measure our own and do self-assessments as well.

But great, great line of questions.

Council Member Cattle, I know you have another question, comment?

Chair, thank you.

Just quickly, and partly to your answer, Council Member Ring, part of it is there's only a few routes like off the hills that are actually practical.

So that's part of what drives the difference between the routes, just from a practical perspective.

Kind of goes to your point about the buses themselves.

I just wanted to also add, Mr. Laborde, as you know, we have seven districts and two at large, and we all have newsletters, and we're all connected to the West Seattle blog or the Queen Anne Magnolia News, so if you want to echo these kind of announcements out, we're more than happy to put them into our newsletters and the like so we can get the word out even more.

That was it.

Just a public service announcement, Chair.

Over to you.

Thank you.

Definitely be in contact with you about that.

Awesome.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

And I think that the department has its own communication channels where it engages directly with media partners.

And I think what I hear you saying, which I agree, Council Member Kettle, is the department should also use, feel free to use our office as an additional tool to help amplify communication.

because we have thousands of people on our newsletters as well, and it's a different way to reach other people beyond the standard channels you use.

Okay, so this was excellent.

Really loved this presentation.

I always hear, we always hear like, oh, well, you know, Seattle, when two inches of snow in Seattle, the city shuts down, but in upstate New York, you're like, 10 feet, blizzard.

They go about their daily business.

And you see all these funny memes and all these things.

And OK, well, by the way, I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was raised there up until middle school age before we moved down west.

And so I've seen it too.

But as we sort of distilled from this conversation today, it's not at all an apples to apples comparison between Minneapolis and Seattle, upstate New York and Seattle, even Denver and Seattle, which is in the middle of the Rockies.

There's three, and I always tell people there are three differentiators for why, you know, why we're positioned to respond the way we are today and why it's uniquely different than in some of those other cities across the country.

One, the topography, the terrain, night and day difference.

They don't have anywhere near the hills and the grades of hills in those other parts of the country that we do here.

Unique, imposes a very unique challenge.

The second thing we learned is the infrastructure Here in Seattle is not the same as it is for many valid reasons.

We don't necessarily need a $200-plus million budget specifically for snow and ice response here.

And so they have a very advanced, sophisticated response capability because they need to.

And here we endeavor to meet the need.

And also there they have...

their respective transportation departments or public works department equivalent, SDOT equivalents in those other jurisdictions, they have They perform the work themselves.

They also contract out with third-party contractors for plowing, for example.

But there, they also have those third-party contractors prime or subcontract that work to local neighbors, block watch captains, people in neighborhoods who are able to quickly affix or attach a plowing contract rigged to their pickup truck and just go plow the neighborhood non arterial streets.

And whether there's a formal subcontract in place or not, like people often do that anyway, just because to be good neighbors and help out their communities.

And then, so the infrastructure is not at all the same.

And the third thing we talked about is really the behavior and the culture that we have, including I'll add driver behavior around and readiness around some of these very unique circumstances and comfort level and ability to successfully navigate these challenges.

It's just not at all the same.

And so it's a funny meme, very funny.

Seattle shuts down for two inches of snow, not true.

But we also need to put everything in context and it's not at all in apples to apples comparison.

My question relates to salt use.

And so on that slide, I appreciate seeing some of the diversity of treatment options to address snow and ice, and salt is one important element of many, of a blended approach, a holistic approach for treatment, but to address snow and ice conditions.

But I would just be curious to better understand how you determine What is the how to provide the best treatment in the right location?

How do you make those determinations specifically as it relates to salt?

So forecast ongoing conversations with our friends who I know at a first name basis at the National Weather Service is really what it comes down to.

We have a lot of temperature sensors on our trucks.

We have handheld devices.

It's about monitoring, looking ahead and planning ahead, looking at what resources we have.

What was the forecast 12 hours ago?

What is it now?

And typically, we expect to be in an operation, as we know that snow and ice is coming, we are positioning our trucks and plows throughout the city so that when we make that decision, we can communicate it effectively and quickly and use our operational timing.

So we have a 12 hour day shift, 12 hour night shift, right?

7 a.m.

and 7 p.m.

we're typically doing shift change.

And so we are looking at all of those kind of constraints and considering the weather over and over again before we deploy either liquid or granular.

As Rodney mentioned earlier, you know, when we get in marginal conditions where we're concerned about warm temperatures heading into freezing conditions, which are really, really challenging around here.

I appreciate all of the context that you shared about those other cities and how the culture, the topography, and the weather systems are so unique and different.

Here we can be in a, you know, 40 degrees during the day experiencing rain.

And in just a very short, short period of time, you know, we could have plummeting temperatures as cold air masses move from the north.

And so timing is everything.

Communication is everything.

And making sure, again, that we have our materials stocked before, you know, the event and that we are deploying our crews in such a way that we can be, you know, we can react to changing conditions and use the best information that we have.

Are we gonna get it right 100% of the time?

Probably not, but we darn do our best through communication with the National Weather Service and our crews out in the field.

So the decisions that we're facing, is it granular?

Is this liquid?

At what time should we start deploying to have maximum benefit?

And that'll change for every single event.

So there's really no one size fits all to that.

But again, the purpose behind us using those materials is a anti-icing framework rather than a de-icing framework.

So the anti-icing emphasis is about getting that material on the pavement surface before the freezing temperature, before that freezing precipitation, whether it be freezing rain or snow hits the pavement, that prevents that bonding, which facilitates a more rapid cleanup rather than having that material solid to the surface.

And then having to de-ice, which requires, you know, three to ten times as much material to melt it rather than plow it, right?

So those are all the kind of detailed things that are going through our minds as we work collaboratively with National Weather Service.

I'm so sorry to interrupt.

We lost quorum, so I'm just letting you cancel my ring.

Thank you.

Is it a matter that we're not voting on anything?

I don't know.

We can continue if you'd like.

We're going to continue.

We're not voting on anything unless I hear anything else.

But duly noted, we have lost quorum.

Anyways, we're wrapping up here anyway.

So thank you for that.

And I defer substantially to the department and its best judgment on what is the appropriate treatment at the right location at the right time.

From my perspective, I strongly support the use of salt as one of many tools.

So don't be gun-shy about using salt, among other tools, from my perspective, because it is a proven and effective treatment option of many.

Go ahead, Mr. Maxey.

Thank you, Sam Saka.

We do, I mean, the interesting thing is we have microclimates here.

which you know, especially like our divergence zone.

But another thing, like Darren mentioned, what you do have happen here is sometimes all of a sudden it's raining and it starts in the middle of the commute.

It starts to snow.

We've had it snow, you know, six to 12 inches in an hour, hour and a half where people start abandoning their vehicles.

Those situations, we're ready to fight back, but the harder situation where we need a little more patience in that situation is we have to get all of the abandoned cars out of the way before we can treat the network officially.

So sometimes that, when that happens, that slows us down a little bit, so I just wanted to give you that perspective.

And then really, like you both asked, and Councilman, member rink i hope i'm pronouncing that right the way we measure our success is we constantly send our crew chiefs our managers our street use inspectors our executives darren and myself we go out and we make sure that if we told the comms department that the road is dry and passable or has been plowed or adequately treated be we make sure that that's so before we go and send out that message to the comms team.

And so that's the biggest, you know, is the actual every single arterial we try to drive during and throughout the snowstorm.

Awesome.

Really appreciate the comments here, this presentation.

One final question.

So I love the...

Well, the resources contained in here, the slide 16 where it talks about communications and engagement, you know, this gets to the cultural thing.

It's not necessarily, like, the city does, yes, play a strong role in responsibility and helping to keep people safe and on our rights away and keep, like, make sure people are able to successfully and safely navigate our transportation system and infrastructure including during inclement weather events like snowstorms and ice storms.

And that doesn't absolve the individual of personal responsibility to do their part.

Responsibility here is shared, is where I'm going.

We all play a role, and these are some of the cool things we can all do to help out.

Help out ourselves, help out our immediate neighbors, and help out our broader community here.

so so thank you for sharing this uh resource also like the The Find It, Fix It app, resources you shared there on one of the earlier slides, and slide 13, I think, and the SDOT customer care number, great resources for people to go and report information.

Can I ask, is there a singular resource or website that the department maintains that is regularly updated, where people, so instead of reporting out information that our constituents or just broader members of the public can go to look and just see an updated, not necessarily real time, maybe near real time, update of where things currently stand.

Do you maintain a website, a resource like that?

So yeah, at seattle.gov forward slash winter weather is where you can see the interactive travelers map.

So that will show during an event where our plows have been and where they've been over the last 12, six and three hours.

And there's also a link to all of the traffic cameras around the city that have public feeds.

So you can actually see for yourself the condition of those streets before you make a decision to go out.

Awesome.

another good resource that we should all consider sharing out in one of our future newsletters.

And you asked my question about how we internally measure success.

Thank you, Council Member Rank.

That is all my comments and questions, but Mr. Maxey, Mr. Morgan, really do appreciate your presentation here.

Obviously, it engendered a lot of discussion and And because it's a really, I think it's a reflection of the importance of this body of work.

And so thank you again, I appreciate your partnership.

Thank you to the many workers behind the scenes that don't show up as part of their day jobs or everyday work for the city at right here in council chamber.

but who are actually doing the work.

So this is, like I said, very impactful and important work, and it really does make a difference in people's everyday lives and shapes how we interact with each other, our communities, and helps keep us moving and connected safely.

Anyway, so this is really important work.

Thank you, thank you again.

All right.

Well, I think that's the last item on the agenda, so...

Any other final comments, questions for my colleagues?

Go ahead, Councilmember Rank.

Thank you again.

Great first committee meeting for me personally.

So really excited again to be able to participate and offer my perspective.

And I wanted to circle back quickly to something I named during council briefing yesterday.

Just the noting that in the past, so since December 8th until December 14th, I talked a little bit about the unfortunate pedestrian collisions that we've seen, you know, one being off Lake City Way, another in Soto, another in South Park, and another in Ballard.

But wanted to note then shortly after our council briefing yesterday, there was another incident also off Lake City Way.

And I wanted to name this in this committee space just about, you know, our tremendous need to be advancing Vision Zero.

I know, notably, In two of these areas, there are actually Vision Zero projects underway, both for 130th and then also looking on 1st Ave.

But just think it's important to make sure we're continuing to center that this is real and happening.

And I don't know the status of the victims of those who have been hit.

And I'm truly hoping for further safety and healthy recovery.

But think it's important to name the human element and our important work ahead of us for safer streets.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Rank.

Yes, our work.

We've made some incredible investments, including through the levy.

Recently, the voter approved levy to address Vision Zero.

And I think the department itself has done a lot of good work to help to better position our city to make better progress in achieving these.

If we have this goal and commitment, it shouldn't just be a pie in the sky thing.

We need to always...

you know, be prepared to make further progress and improvements.

And, you know, these reminders, so thank you, Council Member Rink.

It's a good reminder, sobering reminder, I'll say, that our work together continues.

We'll continue to do this.

So, in any event, well, thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

We have reached the end of today's meeting.

Our next meeting is January 7th at 9.30 a.m.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Seeing none, hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

It is 1138 AM.