PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING

1 City of Lake Forest Park – Planning Commission 2 Regular Meeting Minutes: April 14, 2026; 7:00-9:00pm 3 Hybrid Meeting Held in the Emergency Operations Center 4 at City Hall and Virtually via Zoom 5 6 Planning Commissioners present: Chair Sam Castic, Vice Chair Janne Kaje (via Zoom), David 7 Kleweno, Cherie Finazzo (via Zoom), John Drew, Marty Ross, Hina Shahid 8 9 Staff and others present: Mark Hofman, Community Development Director; Josh Rosenau, City 10 Council Liaison 11 12 Members of the Public present: William Ackerman 13 14 Planning Commissioners absent: Meredith LaBonte 15 16 Call to order: Chair Castic called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM 17 18 Land Acknowledgement: Cmr. Drew read the land acknowledgement. 19 20 Approval of Agenda: Chair Castic proposed an amendment to the agenda to add the RUE NOA to 21 the meeting agenda. Cmr. Drew moved to approve the agenda as amended. Vice Chair Kaje 22 seconded, and the motion to approve the agenda was carried unanimously. 23 24 Welcome New Commissioner: Cmr. Shahid introduced herself and briefly described her 25 professional background. The planning commissioners also introduced themselves. 26 27 Approval of Meeting Minutes: Cmr. Drew, Cmr. Kleweno, and Vice Chair Kaje provided edits to 28 the minutes. Cmr. Drew made a motion to approve the February 10, 2026, Meeting Minutes as 29 amended. Cmr. Kleweno seconded and the motion to approve the minutes was carried unanimously. 30 31 Public Hearing: No public hearing. 32 33 Next meeting: The next meeting occurs on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 34 35 Public Comment: No public comments. 36 37 City Council Liaison Report: Council member Rosenau announced that a new Public Works 38 Director was hired and started and discussed staff updates with the climate coordinator position and 39 stormwater coordinator. Council member Rosenau also discussed updates with the roundabout 40 project and the lakefront project hearing. Council member Rosenau also announced that there will 41 be a town hall on May 20th at Third Place Commons. 42 43 Vice Chair Kaje discussed his concerns for the roundabout project including traffic mitigation and 44 communication with the public. Council member Rosenau stated that he will relay the concerns to 45 city council. 46 47 48 1  1 Old Business: 2 Planning Commission 2026 Work Plan Approved by City Council 3 Mr. Hofman stated that the Work Plan was approved by City Council. Chair Castic gave a brief 4 overview of the approved work plan. 5 6 Planning Commission Working Group Discussion- Housing Initial Feedback 7 Cmr. Finazzo discussed meeting with a developer to discuss feedback for pre-approved plans and 8 zoning regulations for ADUs and DADUs. Vice Chair Kaje also discussed similar takeaways. 9 The planning commissioners discussed potentially bringing in a speaker to discuss middle housing. 10 Mr. Ackerman gave a brief comment on his concerns about how increasing housing can impact 11 quality of life for city residents, including the impacts of tree removals associated with development. 12 Chair Castic, Cmr. Kleweno, and Cmr. Ross agreed to meet and create a framework for middle 13 housing objectives. 14 15 New Business: 16 Critical Areas Ordinance Update- Introduction and Discussion 17 Mr. Hofman gave an overview on how to prepare for an SMP update and the Critical Areas 18 Ordinance update and the challenges for the city. Mr. Hofman discussed the need for environmental 19 consultants in order to get the most updated sciences to inform the code ordinances. Mr. Hofman 20 also proposed bringing in staff member, David Greetham, to the next meeting in order for Mr. 21 Greetham to give the planning commissioners a brief walk through of the current critical area code. 22 23 Election of Planning Commission Chair and Vice Chair for 2026 24 Cmr. Kleweno volunteered to be Chair. Chair Castic made a motion for Cmr. Kleweno to become 25 Chair and the motion was approved unanimously. Chair Castic also made a motion for Vice Chair 26 Kaje to remain in the Vice Chair position, and the motion was approved unanimously. 27 28 Yamaguchi RUE NOA 29 Vice Chair Kaje mentioned that this RUE can be an example of how the critical area code can be 30 strengthened during the update. Vice Chair Kaje also posed the question of how does the city deal 31 with the comments from the Muckleshoot tribe related to development projects. 32 33 Reports and Announcements: No reports and announcements. 34 35 Agenda for Next Meeting: Discussion on objectives for affordable housing and Critical Area Walk 36 Through. 37 38 Adjournment: Cmr. Drew made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Cmr. Kleweno seconded, and 39 the motion was carried unanimously. Chair Castic adjourned at 9:00 PM. 40 41 APPROVED: 42 43 ______________________ 44 Sam Castic, Planning Commission Chair 2