City Council

City Hall City of Olympia 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Information: 360.753.8447 Meeting Minutes City Council Thursday, August 29, 2013 5:30 PM Room 112 Ad Hoc Community Renewal Area Committee 1. ROLL CALL The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. Present: 3 - Mayor Stephen H. Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Nathaniel Jones and Councilmember Steve Langer OTHERS PRESENT Community Planning and Development Director Keith Stahley Program Assistant Robert Hornbein 2. BUSINESS ITEMS 13-0686 ORAL REPORT - Citizen Advisory Committee Isthmus Action Planning Process Mayor Buxbaum summarized the Isthmus action planning process and the August 23 Ad Hoc Community Renewal Area Committee meeting for Councilmember Langer, who was unable to attend. The key question addressed in the previous meeting, and the focus of this meeting, was how to move the Isthmus action planning process forward. The Mayor presented the idea of holding a series of three meetings with the Citizen Advisory Committee. Meeting #1, tentatively scheduled for late September, would be aimed at establishing a renewed process, exploring how to do the work and work together, and presenting the idea of holding a design charrette focused on redevelopment options for the Isthmus properties. Potential Community Renewal Area (CRA) boundaries could also be presented at this meeting. Meeting #2 would be a modified design charrette involving three groups moderated by facilitators and supported by technical experts in architecture, urban design, and planning. This meeting would generate multiple ideas on how the Isthmus property could be developed, and provide an opportunity for Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) members to work together and work toward agreement. With this input, the technical experts could develop one to three illustrative plans for future consideration by the CRA Ad Hoc Committee, CAC,and perhaps the community. This process could serve as a model for future downtown planning efforts. City of Olympia Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes August 29, 2013 Meeting #3 would update the CAC, as a whole, on the CRA process, and get the CAC’s input on how to present the CRA project to the general public and generate ideas for a public engagement process. One possibility that has been explored is holding open houses with dates still to be determined. The Mayor expressed interest in this meeting happening before the end of the year. A topic not discussed at the August 23 meeting, brought up by Mayor Buxbaum, was how to present the Isthmus action planning process to City Council that focuses less on CRA and more on a broader context of community renewal. Two other challenges presented by the Mayor were how to frame community renewal for the general public, and how to move forward in a manner that is thoughtful and inclusive of City Council as a whole. After this overview, discussion followed among Mayor Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Jones, and Councilmember Langer related to the overarching question of how to move the CRA/Isthmus action planning process forward. Topics discussed included: · Challenges presented by the various interest groups represented on the CAC. · How the CRA/Isthmus action planning process relates to the Downtown Master Plan. · The City Council needs to be clear about whether to move forward with CRA outside of and separate from the Downtown Master Plan process. · The importance of getting both the CAC’s and the City Council’s buy-in. · Redevelopment on the Isthmus can catalyze and set the stage for redevelopment in other areas in Olympia. · The Isthmus can provide a learning laboratory that can inform and provide a model for future redevelopment and planning efforts. · The Isthmus provides a good opportunity to engage people and the CAC, and can provide a setting that enables people to work together and work toward agreement. · While it is important to allow the CAC to advise the City on where to focus its efforts, the CAC still needs leadership and direction from the City Council. · Creating a process that includes the CAC and the City Council as a whole is important. · More work is needed to build support among the CAC, and the City Council as a whole, for continuing the CRA process. · A key element missing in the process is agreement among the various participants. As the process moves forward and next steps developed, thought needs to be given to how to build agreement. · Timing is important. While more preparatory work is needed in developing a process that is inclusive, it is also important to ride the wave of momentum that is building. The Ad Hoc Committee members generally agreed and acknowledged that the City of Olympia Page 2 City Council Meeting Minutes August 29, 2013 Isthmus can provide an opportunity to move beyond some of the larger economic development barriers Olympia is facing, but that they need to be mindful about creating a process that is inclusive of both the CAC and the City Council as a whole. Both Mayor Pro Tem Jones and Councilmember Langer expressed concerns they felt needed to be considered as the CRA process moved forward and next steps planned . Mayor Pro Tem Jones sees value in de-emphasizing CRA and creating more separation between the City’s community renewal efforts and the State’s Community Renewal Act with its implied threat of condemnation and eminent domain. He expressed concern about moving forward with the Isthmus without more Council education and involvement. At this juncture, the larger effort would be better served by involving City Council and the CAC in the effort. Councilmember Langer echoed Mayor Pro Tem Jones’s concern that if the Isthmus is moved forward without the full Council, there will be Councilmembers who will be surprised due to their lack of involvement in the process. He agreed the Ad Hoc Committee should take a leadership role in focusing efforts on the Isthmus , but that leadership should be grounded in the question of how to bring others along, and the awareness that at this point, some Councilmembers are not on board. He clarified that as the conversation shifts from community renewal to the Isthmus, people need to be made aware of that shift and that they be brought along whether or not they agree. Councilmember Langer expressed the importance of the Ad Hoc Committee being open about communicating the shift in focus (what is happening and why) and shared his perception of the benefit of doing so in bringing the Council, Citizens Advisory Committee, and the community along. The conversation shifted to the degree of buy-in among CAC members regarding the Isthmus action planning process. Mr. Stahley shared that he has heard from CAC members who have participated in the Mayor’s brown bag lunch meetings that they are willing to come to the table with open minds and discuss the idea of participating in a charrette focused on the redevelopment of the Isthmus. Mayor Buxbaum observed that the critical part, which is something of a test, is to see if everyone will not just sit at the table together, but if they can also work together. An environment needs to be created where people will listen to each other and listen together. Another critical component to moving forward is building agreement among the City Council as a whole, and that a question to be explored is whether the consultants can help. At this point, Abe Farkas from Eco Northwest, joined the conversation by phone and the topic shifted to developing the design charrette and planning for the City Council meeting where a CRA update would be provided . Mr. Farkas observed that the key issue and question is how to align interests around the issue, and that a set of principles should be developed to guide the design charrettes as had been provided to the CRA Ad Hoc Committee. He advised that information should be presented that would ground the charrettes in the realities of the economic conditions, available resources, and market trends. Mr. Farkas also said it would be useful for people with technical backgrounds to present three possible City of Olympia Page 3 City Council Meeting Minutes August 29, 2013 scenarios. From his experience, this provides the opportunity to gauge public sentiment/opinion about specific elements of a proposal, and a fourth option often emerges that reflects broader agreement. The decision was made to schedule the CRA update for the October 1 City Council meeting. This would provide the opportunity for the consultants to present updates on both Components A and B and to begin the conversation about next steps towards the three step Isthmus process noted above. After concluding the conversation with Mr. Farkas, the remainder of the meeting focused on reviewing the draft Isthmus action planning process report, and discussing the Planning Commission’s role in the CRA/Isthmus action planning process. The discussion was completed. 3. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. City of Olympia Page 4