Land Use & Environment Committee

City Hall Meeting Minutes 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Land Use & Environment Committee Information: 360.753.8244 Thursday, July 21, 2016 5:30 PM Council Chambers 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Hankins called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: 2 - Chair Julie Hankins and Committee member Clark Gilman Excused: 1 - Committee member Nathaniel Jones OTHERS PRESENT City Manager Steve Hall Community Planning and Development Director Keith Stahley Business Manager Karen Kenneson Building Official Todd Cunningham Downtown Liaison Mark Rentfrow Public Works Transportation Line of Business Director Mark Russell Engineering and Planning Supervisor Randy Wesselman Project Engineer David Smith Senior Planner Sophie Stimson Administrative Services Supervisor David Kuhn Fehr & Peers Principal Don Samdahl Downtown Ambassadors Program Manager Sharon Holley APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.A 16-0871 Approval of June 9, 2016 Land Use and Environment Committee Meeting Minutes The minutes were approved. 4. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 4.A 16-0834 Update on SmartGov Rollout Ms. Kenneson and Mr. Kuhn provided an update on SmartGov rollout. SmartGov is City of Olympia Page 1 Land Use & Environment Meeting Minutes July 21, 2016 Committee the new community development cloud-based web solution that has replaced the Community Services module of Sungard’s HTE. SmartGov streamlines land use, building permit, inspection and code enforcement processes and brings Community Planning and Development’s (CP&D) technology into the modern era. CP&D went live with SmartGov on June 20, 2016. The following features were discussed: · Cloud based · Inspection app · GIS-based · Lean · Customer account-based online inspection portal · Reporting Phase 2: Online portal for geographic information, permit applications and payments will be coming Fall 2016. Member of the public Greg Schundler asked if there is a plan to integrate Geographic Information System (GIS) with social media programs. Staff indicated there is not a plan at this time. The report was received. 4.B 16-0520 Briefing on Complete Streets Funding Study (Multimodal Concurrency) Ms. Stimson provided a briefing on the Complete Streets Funding Study (Multimodal Concurrency). Cities in Washington are required to build new transportation infrastructure “concurrent” with new development. Transportation concurrency programs evaluate how much growth will come to a community and what street improvements will be needed to manage the new trips. Currently these improvements are focused on reducing congestion. The City collects transportation impact fees from new development to help pay for these improvements. The community is interested in revising our concurrency program to be multimodal; to include improvements for walking, biking and transit. A multimodal concurrency program would add capacity to our street system for all modes of transportation. With a multimodal concurrency program, the City could use impact fees to build improvements for walking, biking and transit. Many cities in Washington have implemented such programs. The City worked with the consulting firm of Fehr & Peers from March to July 2016 to scope a new program. A working group of citizens and key stakeholders met three times to provide input in this scoping process. Staff will provide a similar briefing to the Finance Committee of the Council in August. A discussion with the full Council is planned in September. Upon request Mr. Samdahl provided additional information about the study. Public Comment: · Karen Messmer spoke about her participation in the study. She stated impact fees are only part of the whole funding picture. She urged the City to show good faith in implementing the goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan. City of Olympia Page 2 Land Use & Environment Meeting Minutes July 21, 2016 Committee She commended staff on work so far on this plan. · Roger Horn stated past projects that have been completed using impact fees have generally been on the perimeters of the City. He asked if there were constraints as to where the impact fee funds can be spent. Mr. Samdahl stated the Growth Management Act (GMA) states transportation impact fees can be spent on streets in general. · Jerry Parker spoke about the complexity of this study and how current questions will be answered in time. The information was received. 4.C 16-0835 Welcome Center Status Report and Update Mr. Rentfrow and Ms. Holley presented an update on the Olympia Downtown Welcome Center. The City of Olympia, in partnership with Capitol Recovery Center, opened the doors of the Downtown Welcome Center in April of 2015. The Welcome Center serves as a point of contact and information for visitors to Downtown Olympia as well as for citizens in need of social and health services in the area. Hours of Operation: · 3 days week (looking to add a fourth day). · Winter Hours 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Friday - Sunday. During the summer, hours are expanded on Friday and Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.). · Additional support from Ambassadors is provided until 6:00 p.m. Tuesday - Saturday. Volunteers staff the Welcome Center during all open hours of operation, usually in teams of two or three. The shifts are generally 3 hours each. From January through the end of June 2016 the Welcome Center has welcomed: · 57 international visitors · 97 out of state visitors · 1188 local contacts The Welcome Center has many great partners in the Olympia Downtown Association (ODA), the Parking Business Improvement Area (PBIA) and the Visitors and Convention Bureau (VCB). Each organization promotes the benefits of the Downtown Welcome Center in the course of daily engagements. Additional efforts are being undertaken to continue to raise awareness about the Welcome Center, its volunteer program, and the benefits it provides to the community Downtown and Countywide. The Downtown Welcome Center is funded through a variety of sources including (but not limited to) City of Olympia, the PBIA, the ODA, the VCB and Capitol Recovery Center. The annual operational cost for the Welcome Center including rent, utilities, insurance and other miscellaneous expenses is approximately $24,000. The report was received. City of Olympia Page 3 Land Use & Environment Meeting Minutes July 21, 2016 Committee 4.D 16-0832 Approval of Ordinance with FEMA Required Amendments to Building Regulations Pertaining to Flooding Mr. Cunningham provided a briefing that covered revisions to the existing flood damage prevention ordinance; Olympia Municipal Code (OMC) Chapter 16.70 adding updates to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) for the City of Olympia as revised by FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) including an introduction of new language to OMC Chapter 16 regulating flood damage protection for Sea Level Rise (SLR). The proposal, if passed, would require flood-proofing compliance 2’ above the lowest “base flood elevation” as mapped by FEMA up to a maximum elevation of 16’. FEMA established flood hazard areas of the City of Olympia are subject to periodic inundation which can result in property damage, loss of property, creation of health and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures for flood protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare of the City. Downtown Olympia has a history of nuisance flooding during heavy storms, high winds and tidal events. In order to participate in the NFIP, the City is required to comply with regulations for flood damage prevention including preparing an ordinance to address flood damage prevention revisions as determined by FEMA studies. Pursuant to the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 and in accordance with the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, FEMA performed a study and analysis of frequently flooded and flood prone areas of Thurston County, establishing newly revised elevation maps related to flood damage protection. Through this study FEMA determined modifications to the current FIRM were needed; these new maps will become effective as of September 1, 2016 and must be adopted by the City of Olympia in order for the City to remain a member of the NFIP. Additionally, over the long-term is the concern of SLR and the potential to increase flooding in downtown Olympia based on climate and sea level changes. While it remains difficult to predict the level or timing of SLR, the City continues to increase its understanding of Olympia-specific implications. City Council has been briefed on the subject of SLR and continues to evaluate the need for such regulations. These SLR regulations are a first step in providing for some level of protection addressing SLR now while Olympia continues to address the implications of SLR in the long-term as climate change scientific analysis predicts. In order to protect existing public and private assets, long-term engineering, operational and capital facility solutions will need to be developed. This work is planned for 2017 and will result in an SLR Master Plan. Currently Olympia is vulnerable to flooding during relatively short-term periods in the winter months which result in, one- or two-hour long flooding events. Generally, these events are predictable allowing us to prepare for them. City staff closely monitors weather events reacting to flood hazards as they occur. As SLR is expected to increase; the City will need to continue efforts in addressing flooding impacts caused or exacerbated by these flooding events. Pursuant to the NFIP and the City of Olympia’s involvement in the program, Olympia must adopt these revisions City of Olympia Page 4 Land Use & Environment Meeting Minutes July 21, 2016 Committee to the published FIRM prior to the effective date. The importance to our community involvement in the NFIP is in the ability of our citizens and businesses to purchase flood insurance through the NFIP; the Federal Government makes this insurance available to member communities. A community that does not participate, doesn’t comply with or withdraws from the program faces the following sanctions: 1. No resident will be able to purchase a flood insurance policy. 2. Existing flood insurance policies will not be renewed. 3. No Federal grants or loans for development may be made in identified flood hazard areas under programs administered by federal agencies such as Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Small Business Administration (SBA). 4. No federal disaster assistance may be provided to repair insurable buildings located in identified flood hazard areas for damage caused by a flood. 5. No federal mortgage insurance or loan guarantees may be provided in identified flood hazard areas, this includes policies written by Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Affairs (VA), and others. 6. Federally insured or regulated lending institutions, such as banks and credit unions, must notify applicants seeking loans for insurable buildings in flood hazard areas that there is a flood hazard and the property is not eligible for federal disaster relief. As part of the flood damage prevention ordinance, including the development of a specific SLR elevation of 16’; staff has reached out to various construction community groups such as the Olympia Master Builders (OMB), architects and citizens in order to provide an understanding of what changes are being revised or proposed to the subject of flood damage prevention and sea level rise. OMB invited staff to their Government Affairs Committee meeting on June 30, 2016 where the City’s Building Official provided a presentation to the members related to flood requirements and SLR provisions. Planning staff continues to be actively engaged with participants of the downtown strategy meetings where discussion of flood prevention and SLR continues to be an active discussion item with our development community. Member of the public Karen Messmer stated she felt staff's figures were too timid and urged the City to require a higher protection level. The Committee unanimously recommended approval of the flood damage prevention ordinance and the sea level rise flood damage reduction ordinance and forwarded them to City Council for consideration. 5. REPORTS AND UPDATES 5.A 16-0781 Status Reports and Updates Mr. Stahley outlined upcoming meeting topics for LUEC August 18, 2016: · Downtown Strategy preliminary draft will be presented by Amy Buckler. City of Olympia Page 5 Land Use & Environment Meeting Minutes July 21, 2016 Committee · Northeast Sub-Area (ONNA) plan will be presented by Linda Bentley. · Update on the Urban Forestry Asset Management Plan and the street tree inventory status will be presented by Shelly Bentley. The report was received. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m. City of Olympia Page 6