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11/04/2019 - Minutes1 City of Port Orchard Land Use Committee Meeting Minutes – November 4, 2019 Committee Members Present: Scott Diener (chair), Fred Chang, Shawn Cucciardi City Officials and Staff: Mayor Rob Putaansuu, Community Development Director Nick Bond, Public Works Director Mark Dorsey, Long Range Planner Keri Sallee Chair Diener called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm. 1. Discussion: McCormick Woods Trails. Public Works Director Dorsey said that he had received an email request for brown “hiker crossing” signs at Old Clifton Rd, at the point where the Cascara Spur trails ends and people cross north over Old Clifton to a trail leading to McCormick Village Park. Dorsey said that regardless of signage, authorizing a crossing at this location would be a major concern for public safety because of sight distance and speed limits, and it would cost approximately $30,000 to create a standard mid-block pedestrian crossing in this location. Mayor Putaansuu said that Old Clifton shoulder improvements and crossings should be part of McCormick Communities developer negotiations once the current moratorium is lifted. Councilmember Cucciardi agreed. Dorsey said that the City should not take on liability for an unsafe interim crossing location. The Cascara Spur trail and the trail to the park were built without City permits or approvals, and hiker crossing signs will give pedestrians a false sense of security about crossing here. The committee requested that Dorsey contact the individual and indicate that the City will pursue a comprehensive solution to road improvements, trail locations and pedestrian crossings when the McCormick Communities master development agreement is negotiated, and also notify him that the speed limit on Old Clifton was recently reduced from 45 mph to 35 mph. 2. Discussion: 2020 Comprehensive Plan Amendments – Land Use Element. Community Development Director Bond said that minor changes to the Land Use Element component of the 2020 Comprehensive Plan Amendments had been made since the committee’s initial review in August, based on comments from the Planning Commission and the Council’s work-study review. These changes included minor revisions to the Centers map and descriptions. Chair Diener asked that individual close-up Center maps be provided with each Center description in the text; Long Range Planner Sallee will make that change. Additional language was also included in the element regarding the potential designation of Port Orchard as a future Regional Center. Bond said that the City had obtained a grant from the Department of Commerce to prepare a subarea plan and planned action EIS for the Downtown/County Campus centers. The City received $50,000 from Commerce, and Putaansuu is working with other partners such as the Port of Bremerton and the County to obtain additional funds to complete this planning effort. The Key Bank headquarters project and the County’s campus expansion are ahead of this project, but can inform it and will be considered during the subarea plan development for consistency purposes. The RFP for a consultant will go out as soon as possible, and Bond hopes to have a consultant on board by mid-December. Council volunteers for the consultant selection committee will be requested; Diener said that he would volunteer. 3. Discussion: SMP Public Participation Plan and Scope of Work. Sallee said that the City is required by the state to review and update its Shoreline Master Program (SMP) by June 2021, and has received a grant from the Department of Ecology for part of the necessary funding. The grant requirements include preparation of a public participation plan, work schedule and scope of work, which must be adopted by the City Council by resolution. To inform the scope of work, DCD staff prepared a gap analysis indicating where the City’s current SMP requires 2 updating to conform to current state law, City development regulations and best available science. Sallee said that outside of these issues, the most significant change to the SMP will be an analysis of how climate change and sea level rise could potentially impact the downtown waterfront and the Blackjack Creek estuary, and the buildings, infrastructure and public access located there. As part of the update, the City is partnering with Kitsap County on a climate change resiliency study which will include a separate appendix analyzing Port Orchard’s waterfront. Councilmember Chang asked if SMP public notices could be pushed on Facebook; Sallee said that she would work with the Clerk’s office to do so. The City Council will be asked to approve the resolution to adopt the public participation plan, work schedule and scope of work at the November 26 meeting. 4. Discussion: Revised Significant Trees/Tree Retention Code. Bond presented the most recent version of the tree canopy/significant tree code being considered by the Planning Commission, to keep the Land Use committee updated. Diener asked where the basis for the tree canopy code requirements came from. Bond said that the methodology used for the urban tree canopy percentages and standards came from Snohomish County’s tree canopy ordinance. Their GIS analysis indicated that Snohomish County’s urban neighborhoods have about 30% tree canopy coverage. The Planning Commission is still discussing the draft code and may not complete their discussion at its November 5 meeting, since a number of new concerns were recently raised by email by one of the Commissioners. When the Planning Commission has made a recommendation, the code will be brought back to the Land Use committee. 5. Discussion: Potential Rezones. Bond said that DCD is seeking early input from the Land Use committee on three potential rezones that have been requested by property owners, which could be considered individually or as part of a citywide rezone action. The Lundberg property is a single-family home on Harold Drive SE which is nonconforming to the Commercial Mixed Use (CMU) zone. The current owner wishes to sell it for continued use as a single-family residence, but the prospective buyer has not been able to secure financing since it cannot be rebuilt if it is destroyed or damaged at more than 50% of its replacement value. Staff supports a rezone to Business Professional Mixed Use (BPMU), which allows single-family residences, but retains the underlying Commercial comprehensive plan designation. The committee agreed that this seemed reasonable, and asked staff to contact Kitsap County to find out if there are any plans for the County-owned property adjacent to the north and east sides of the Lundberg property, and if the County would want that property rezoned as well. The SE Meline Rd properties are currently zoned CMU, but several property owners have expressed frustration with not being able to expand or redevelop their nonconforming single-family homes, or to subdivide for additional single-family development. They have requested rezoning with a comprehensive plan redesignation for residential use. However, other owners still want commercial designation and are opposed to any residential rezoning. As a potential compromise, the neighbors are working on a joint rezone application for Neighborhood Mixed Use (NMU) zoning, which could preserve the local street/neighborhood feel and make the single-family homes conforming, while allowing limited commercial uses in future. The properties on Meline do not have sewer or public water, have substandard road access, and are not suited for commercial development at this time. The area is also constrained by Blackjack Creek and associated steep slopes and wetlands on the west side. The committee supported staff’s recommendation for NMU zoning. The 4.5-acre JMJ property has challenging topography which the current property owner feels is not financially conducive to building an access road and utilities, and developing single-family homes or duplexes under the current R2 zoning. Prior to the adoption of the current Zoning Code in March 2019, this property was zoned R-12 (Medium-high density), which generally corresponds to the current R3 zone. The owner would like the property rezoned R2 so that apartments can be built, which could render a project financially feasible. The committee felt that this property, which is highly encumbered by critical areas and is surrounded by rural roads and rural-type 3 residential development, is not a good fit for apartments and should not be rezoned through a City-sponsored amendment. 6. Discussion: Traffic Impact Fee Study Update. The City’s transportation consultant, Transportation Solutions, Inc (TSI), is currently updating the City’s transportation improvement program and will be working on an update the City’s traffic impact fee study. Bond asked the committee to advise on whether TSI should analyze whether traffic impact fees in the downtown area should differ from those in the rest of the city. To encourage redevelopment, the City could potentially use lower ITE residential trip generation numbers for downtown based on the availability of high-capacity transit (such as the ferry), or create a downtown subdistrict with a lower fee structure. Or, as a project-by-project example, a downtown grocery store could have a significant percentage of customers who walk to the store instead of using vehicles, and so could justify a lower trip generation rate. Councilman Cucciardi noted that the city may not want to lower fees since streets in the downtown and nearby areas may need improvements as new development goes in. Bond said that if traffic impact fees are lowered for the downtown area, it would not result in overall fewer dollars coming to the City, since the impact fee amount would have to be correspondingly raised elsewhere in the city to fund the total cost of approved TIP projects. The committee requested staff to obtain more information from TSI about how the different traffic impact fee scenarios could work, and to bring the discussion to the next Land Use meeting. 7. Discussion: Parks Plan Update. Bond said that the City has selected a consultant, Beckwith Consulting Group, to update the City’s Parks Plan. The scope of work is also proposed to include community outreach about the proposed downtown community center, and potential establishment of parks impact fee implemented through a parks levy or a parks and recreation taxing district. The City Council will be asked to review and approve the consultant’s contract at the November 26 meeting. Chair Diener adjourned the meeting at 2:09 pm. Next Meeting/Location: To be determined.