Planning Commission

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION CITY OF BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON THURSDAY WORK SESSION 7:00 P.M. April 14, 2016 CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER5 Video-taped www.cob.org CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Ali Taysi, Chairman of the Planning Commission. ROLL CALL: Tom Grinstad, Jeff Brown, Garrett O'Brien (VC), Ali Taysi (C), Phyllis McKee, Steve Crooks and Lisa Anderson Present: Ali Taysi, Garrett O'Brien, Tom Grinstad, Jeff Brown, Phyllis McKee, and Lisa Anderson Absent: Steve Crooks Staff Present: Greg Aucutt, Assistant Planning Director; Lisa Pool, Senior Planner; Moshe Quinn, Planner; and Heather Aven, Recording Secretary. APPROVAL OF MINUTES None to approve. 15 MINUTE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD No testimony given. STAFF PRESENTATION: Moshe Quinn explained the additional components to the Capital Facilities Plan. He noted that the City is required to work with private utility companies to ensure adequate services are being delivered to the community. He commented on the partnership goals between the City and the private utility companies. He pointed out the Capital Improvement Program, a six-year strategic plan matching needed improvements with available funding. He stated that only the first two years are funded, the rest is anticipated. Lisa Anderson suggested that the policies be expanded to include coordination of notifications in case of an emergency. PLANNING COMMISSION QUESTIONS / COMMENTS: The Commission held a discussion on the comment tracker which summarized their comments and:  There was general consensus to accept changes as shown in the following comments in the Planning Commission comment tracker: 2, 3, 11, 17, 24, 32, 34, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 77, and 87.  There was general consensus to make the following amendments to what had been previously proposed for comments: o 13 - substitute "manufacturing" with "living wage" o 18 - include "across all income levels" after "type" o 27 - change "City" to "city" o 39 - change "Require" to "Encourage" o 21 and 63 - Bring an alternate back that refers to the flexibility for mixed-use projects to respond to the market Final Copy - 1   There was general consensus that staff would make additional changes based on ideas / concepts that occurred during discussion to comments: o 42 - A couple of considerations:  strike end of sentence: "…The watershed approach should be conducted at the level of the City's watershed boundaries or lower [see Watersheds map]". o CF-13 on CIP - add language regarding additional public-private partnerships The Commission identified three additional topics that required more in-depth discussion: LU-10 - INCLUSIONARY ZONING It was suggested that inclusionary zoning be removed from the list of tools to be considered related to the provision of affordable housing. There was concern that inclusionary zoning would be thought of as a "magic fix", and thereby not address the real root of the problem at hand. There was a recommendation to provide incentives to induce creating an affordable housing component to a new project, instead of making it a regulation. It was pointed out removing inclusionary zoning does not prevent the option from being explored further. It was pointed out that the cost of providing affordable housing units will be shuffled to the "market-rate" units. There was a brief discussion on the difficulty of addressing this issue in the future if it were removed from the comprehensive plan. There was opposition expressed for taking things out of the plan before all the merits of the idea have been more thoroughly discussed. The recommendation was also made to add a bullet point to LU-10 r.e. "public-private partnerships for shared parking facilities, wetland mitigation, and regional stormwater management." MOTION: O'Brien/Brown moved to remove reference to "inclusionary zoning" from LU-10. AMENDMENT: McKee moved that all references to "inclusionary zoning" be removed from the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan. AMENDMENT FAILED, discussion prevented proper acceptance. MOTION WITHDRAWN, after discussion motion maker wanted to restate. MOTION: O'Brien/McKee moved to remove any reference to "inclusionary zoning" from the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan. VOTE: Motion Passes (4-2 Taysi, Anderson opposed) H-7 - ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS Language related to the importance of acquiring an inventory of the ADUs in the City should be included in the Comprehensive Plan. There was a discussion about the timing of the updates to the ADU Ordinance. There was also a discussion about how a count of the ADUs within the City can be done, and the importance of this occurring prior to the Ordinance being brought through the process. It was suggested that a general inventory of ADUs be gathered via neighborhood groups and empirical evidence. Final Copy - 2 MOTION: Taysi / O'Brien moved to revise Policy H-7 to "Update the City's ADU Ordinance with priorities on evaluating and inventorying ADUs in the City, identifying appropriate areas for detached ADUs, improving permitting and enforcement, and requiring owner-occupancy in single-family zones". There was a brief discussion on what could be meant by "ADU inventory", and that the intent is for all ADUs to be evaluated, whether currently in the City's database, permitted, or non-permitted. VOTE: Motion Passes 6-0 Policy T-3 regarding transit-oriented development This discussion was tabled to next week. GENERAL BUSINESS NEXT MEETING - April 21st - A work session on the draft Bellingham Comprehensive Plan. ADJOURNED: 10:10 p.m. Minutes prepared by: _____________________________ Heather Aven, Recording Secretary Minutes edited by Planning Commission members and various Planning Staff. Final Copy - 3