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07/06/2020 - Minutes1 City of Port Orchard Land Use Committee Meeting Minutes – July 6, 2020 Committee Members Present: Fred Chang (Acting Chair), Jay Rosapepe City Officials and Staff: Mayor Rob Putaansuu, Community Development Director Nick Bond, Long Range Planner Keri Sallee Acting Chair Chang called the meeting to order at 9:30 am. 1. Discussion: Donation Policy. Mayor Rob Putaansuu said that he would like the City to adopt standards for accepting donations from the public for street furniture, due to recent requests to donate benches. There have also been some free speech concerns about what is acceptable to say on a bench inscription or plaque. The Mayor and Public Works staff have identified seven locations in McCormick Village Park where bench donations would be appropriate, and the Mayor would like to identify additional potential sites. The Mayor presented a draft guidance document for street furniture donation prepared by the City of Bainbridge Island, which shows potential locations, acceptable types and manufacturers for street furniture. This type of information would be useful for Port Orchard’s local service clubs and would result in a uniform quality and appearance. The Mayor asked the committee members to send any suggestions and proposed revisions to the Bainbridge Island document to Long Range Planner Sallee, for incorporation into a draft Port Orchard guidance document. The City Attorney will also need to review any proposal for limiting what can be said on street furniture. 2. Discussion: Downtown Subarea Plan Economic Study. Community Development Director Bond presented an economic analysis for the downtown area that has been prepared by the City’s consultant, GGLO, as part of GGLO’s work to develop a subarea plan and planned action EIS for the City’s downtown and county campus areas. The study was also presented to the Economic Development & Tourism committee meeting in June. Three scenarios were provided for residential and commercial capacities in this area, based on the available buildable land. It is estimated that capacity is available for approximately 1,000 - 1,350 additional residential units, and 500,000 - 850,000 sq ft of additional commercial/office building space including the proposed county courthouse complex. GGLO considered whether properties were vacant, redevelopable, or unlikely to redevelop when creating these estimates. 3. Discussion: Multifamily Tax Exemption Areas. Bond said that staff has been working to update the multifamily tax exemption area code requirements as directed by the City Council, and has also completed two of three tax exemption maps to correlate with the three new tax exemption types. The Type 1 tax exemption area will require a developer to build multifamily housing within a designated center and within ½ mile of transit, and dedicate a certain percentage of the development as low-income housing, in order to qualify for a 12-year tax exemption. Chang said that he doesn’t think this proposal encourages downtown housing, as he would like to see. The Type 3 tax exemption area requires structured parking, or apartments within mixed-use development, both of which will have a higher long-term tax return to the City along with higher upfront development costs. Staff is still working on the Type 2 map, which focuses on properties that are likely to redevelop and/or have low building value to land value ratios, and will have this map for review at the August committee meeting. Chang asked if the Sinclair Apartments would have looked different if any of these requirements had been in place when they were built. Bond said that while the multifamily tax exemption options could potentially have been used by the developer, the appearance of the Sinclair Apartments site would likely have been different under the City’s recently- adopted residential design standards. The tax exemption may affect the commercial viability of a project, but the design 2 standards determine its form and appearance. Right now, the commercial building at the Sinclair Apartments site is proposed to be used as live-work units, with living units behind a storefront. 4. Discussion: Ruby Creek Neighborhood Subarea Plan. Bond presented the draft Ruby Creek Neighborhood Subarea Plan, for the area formerly known as the Sidney/Sedgwick Center in the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The Planning Commission will be considering it on July 7 and holding a hearing in August. The City’s public outreach process for the plan was restricted by the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a cancellation of a planned neighborhood open house. However, the City did send postcards about the upcoming planning process to residents and property owners in the area, has maintained a public information website, hosted an online survey, and will notify all property owners of the upcoming Planning Commission hearing. The City did not get a lot of feedback on the online survey, possibly because most of the residents within the neighborhood are renters who may not feel a lot of long-term attachment to the area. The current population is about 464, and future population at buildout is calculated at 1,816. The neighborhood would include a small downtown with shopfronts on the main floors and apartments located above, a potential Kitsap Transit park-and-ride, and a public park in the eastern part of the site that has floodplains and other critical areas. The floodplain areas may also have potential value as offsite mitigation areas for areas to be developed that propose critical area buffer averaging or similar impacts. There are three main areas of the neighborhood, divided into the north side (apartments), downtown core, and south side (live-work units and existing commercial at the Sidney/Sedgwick intersection). Council Member Rosapepe asked how existing traffic problems at the SR-16/Sedgwick corridor would be addressed; Bond said that these improvements were already in the City’s adopted Transportation Improvement Plan, but to some degree improvements would have to follow development and the receipt of transportation impact fees. The City has applied for a grant to replace the culvert under Sidney Rd, and may seek grants for floodplain restoration if a park is developed on the proposed site. Proposed utility plans, including sewer and water, are consistent with the City’s current plans as included in the Comprehensive Plan. Acting Chair Chang adjourned the meeting at 10:36 am. Next Meeting/Location: Monday, August 3 at 9:30 am, via Zoom teleconference.