City Council

City Hall City of Olympia 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Information: 360-753-8447 Meeting Minutes City Council Friday, April 26, 2013 1:00 PM Room 207 Community Renewal Area Ad Hoc Committee Meeting 1. ROLL CALL Present: 2- Mayor Stephen H. Buxbaum and Mayor Pro Tem Nathaniel Jones Excused: 1 - Councilmember Steve Langer OTHERS PRESENT City Manager Steve Hall Community Planning and Development Director Keith Stahley Abe Farkas, Lorelei Juntunen, and Emily Picha from ECONorthwest Morgan Shook and Eric Ridenour from BERK 2. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Buxbaum called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.A 12-0809 Approval of October 12, 2012 Community Renewal Area (CRA) Ad-Hoc Committee Meeting Minutes Mayor Pro Tem Jones moved, seconded by Mayor Buxbaum, to approve the minutes. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 2- Mayor Buxbaum and Mayor Pro Tem Jones Excused: 1 - Councilmember Langer 3.B 13-0327 Approval of December 7, 2012 Community Renewal Area Ad Hoc Committee Meeting Minutes Mayor Pro Tem Jones moved, seconded by Mayor Buxbaum, to approve the minutes. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 2- Mayor Buxbaum and Mayor Pro Tem Jones Excused: 1 - Councilmember Langer City of Olympia Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes April 26, 2013 3.C 13-0263 Approval of March 1, 2013 Community Renewal Area Ad Hoc Committee Meeting Minutes Mayor Pro Tem Jones moved, seconded by Mayor Buxbaum, to approve the minutes. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 2- Mayor Buxbaum and Mayor Pro Tem Jones Excused: 1 - Councilmember Langer 3.D 13-0328 Approval of March 29, 2013 Community Renewal Area Ad Hoc Committee Meeting Minutes Mayor Pro Tem Jones moved, seconded by Mayor Buxbaum, to approve the minutes. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 2- Mayor Buxbaum and Mayor Pro Tem Jones Excused: 1 - Councilmember Langer 4. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 4.A 13-0326 Review Preliminary Community Renewal Area Analysis and Provide Feedback about Market Overview. Overall, both components of this process should not be seen as “just another study”, but as part of a new way of conducting business that’s more focused and strategic, and that establishes a set of institutional relationships with property owners and developers and builds the City’s internal capacity to replicate these efforts in the future. The Community Renewal Area (CRA) plan should have an action orientation. Component A · Goals: Õ Scan market variables to describe implementation potential on these sites looking at what the strategic opportunities are. Õ Define possible public roles and interests in advancing each site. Given market and other barriers, what actions could (or should) the public sector undertake? Where should it start? Õ Build institutional relationships and knowledge. · Bring data to conversations with landowners and establish a relationship with them on behalf of the City. · Former K-mart site is a strategic site with good freeway access in a central retail area. Our team should follow up on potential investor groups and tools that might be available to them. Since it’s a strategic site, the goal here should be to encourage development of a higher standard than big box retail. What can the City do to influence development outcomes? · Pacific/Martin: This site supports developable land as well as a substantial wetland complex site. The ownership is more diverse and there are issues related to stormwater management, Ensign Road extension through the property, and environmental impacts. City of Olympia Page 2 City Council Meeting Minutes April 26, 2013 Ensign Road is on the City’s Comprehensive Plan as a major collector - right of way widths should be examined given the environmental constraints. The City’s goal is to increase density on this site, but it seems to be “stuck” given the extensive infrastructure required. The City could provide technical assistance, early scoping, and pledges of public infrastructure development to support private development. However, the Martin Way Corridor Study will delve more deeply into the infrastructure needs on this site; the focus here should be on redevelopment potential and steps the public sector can take in the near term. Component B Component B of the study is focused on Downtown Olympia. · While there is no single, clearly articulated vision for the redevelopment of downtown, there is general agreement that the vision included in the City’s existing Comprehensive Plan (starting on page 77 of the Comprehensive Plan) remains largely on target. It states that in the future downtown will continue to be the cultural, social, and economic heart of the City and will support a mix of uses appropriate to a historic downtown, reinforce a walkable urban environment, and encourage multi-modal connectivity. The City anticipates that an update of this vision will occur through the development of a downtown master plan (beginning in 2014 following the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan update), will add definition to the vision, and identify specific public improvements needed to help achieve that vision. The work in developing the CRA will provide important market information for any future planning efforts. · In that context, the goal of Component B is to: (1) understand downtown development market dynamics; (2) identify concrete steps to encourage redevelopment in the near-term, when the CFP and downtown master planning process are underway, and (3) position the City for success in redeveloping specific key sites. · The process will likely pay particular attention to the isthmus as a unique opportunity area, since the City may acquire key sites on the isthmus. · The analysis will include an initial tactical analysis of CRA to assess whether it’s a value-added tool, how the City should approach it (large boundary vs. targeted boundary), and identify near-term opportunities appropriate within a CRA context. If the feasibility study suggests it’s appropriate and Council approves, the team will develop a plan that can be adopted as a Community Renewal Plan. Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) Formation The Ad Hoc Committee supports the formation of a CAC and anticipates the CAC will review similar information (draft deliverables, visualizations, etc.) as the Ad Hoc Committee, and will be charged with providing comment, surfacing concerns, and suggesting revisions. Information derived from the CAC will be provided to the Ad Hoc Committee and City Council for consideration in recommendations and decision-making. Staff, with input from the Ad Hoc Committee as provided below, will appoint CAC members and the CAC will report to the staff and consultant team. · Provide input and feedback to staff and the consultant team about the process and work products. · Assist in community/stakeholder outreach and education. · One or more representative from each of the following groups: City of Olympia Page 3 City Council Meeting Minutes April 26, 2013 1. Thurston County Economic Development Council 2. Thurston Regional Planning Council 3. Visitor and Convention Bureau 4. Olympia Downtown Association 5. Parking Business Improvement Area 6. Two local banks (Heritage and Olympia Federal) 7. Downtown Neighborhood Association 8. Social services (such as Community Youth Services or United Way) 9. Thurston County Chamber 10. Olympic Capitol Park Foundation 11. Port of Olympia 12. Marinas 13. Downtown property owner(s) 14. West Olympia Business Association 15. The Olympia Planning Commission Open house · The open house will be a community education opportunity. It will provide general information about CRA and what the role of the CRA can be in improving downtown. · The open house will focus on the positive, rather than the negative. · The Citizen Advisory Committee could play a role in the open house. Get them to speak with people about CRA and its uses, possibilities, and goodwill ambassadors. The open house could include a tabletop exercise. The review was completed. 5. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m. City of Olympia Page 4