City Council

CITY OF UNIVERSITY PLACE MINUTES Regular Meeting of the City Council Monday, September 16, 2024 1. CALL REGULAR MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Figueroa called the Regular Meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken by the City Clerk as follows: UCouncilmember Boykin Councilmember Worthington Present Excused N Councilmember McCluskey Councilmember Flemming Excused Excused O Councilmember Grassi Mayor Pro Tem Wood Present Present FF Mayor Figueroa Present Staff Present: City Manager Sugg, City Attorney Kaser, Administrative Services Director Petorak, Police IA Chief Burke, Communications Manager Seesz, Communications Specialist Kleber, Planning Manager George, and City Clerk Genetia. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IC Mayor Pro Tem Wood led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. L 4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA D MOTION: By Mayor Pro Tem Wood, seconded by Councilmember Grassi, to approve the agenda. The motion carried. O 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS – None. C 6. CONSENT AGENDA U M MOTION: By Mayor Pro Tem Wood, seconded by Councilmember Grassi, to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: EN A. Approve the minutes of the September 3, 2024 Council meeting as submitted. B. Receive and File: Payroll for the period ending 08/31/24; Claims dated 08/31/24. C. Receive and File: 2024 Second Quarter Financial Report. D. Authorize the City Manager to award the Public Works Maintenance Building Office Addition project to T Estate Design and Construction in the amount of $145,000.00 and execute all necessary contract documents. E. Authorize the City Manager to award the Sunset Terrace Park Improvement project to Estate Design and Construction in the amount of $189,193.64 and execute all necessary contract documents. F. Adopt a resolution forming a Storm Pond Committee. (RESOLUTION NO. 1052) G. Authorize the City Manager to update and amend the AWC Master Participation Agreement, last amended by Council in 2016, to enhance dental and vision coverages beginning in 2025. The motion carried.  City Council Minutes of September 16, 2024 Page 2 7. CITY MANAGER AND COUNCIL COMMENTS/REPORTS City Manager Sugg announced that the installation of the pad and retaining wall for the Inclusive Playground at Cirque Park have been completed today by Public Works crew. He also informed Council of the upcoming Oktoberfest event on October 11 at Market Square. Councilmember Grassi thanked the team who will be putting on the Oktoberfest event and encouraged the public to attend and engage with the community. She reported on her meeting with Community Connection Place’s leader regarding the upcoming Princess Tea event. Councilmember Boykin acknowledged and was thankful to attend a remembrance ceremony on September 11 to honor those lost in the tragic event. He thanked WPFR for the invitation. U Mayor Pro Tem Wood reported that he attended the September 11 ceremony and thanked the WPFR for hosting a very well-done ceremony. He attended the Pierce County Climate Conversation meeting and N shared information he gathered from the meeting on potential source of funding, tax credits, membership, and collaboration opportunities available for the City to look into and further investigate. O Mayor Figueroa reported that he spoke at the September 11 ceremony representing the City and gave FF credit to the Communications staff and the City’s consultant for their assistance. He shared his take back on the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Conference that he attended and commended the Communications team for their outstanding work in representing the City. He also shared his observations of the City of Charleston community. STUDY SESSION 8. COMMUNICATIONS REPORT ICIA L Communications Manager Seesz and Communications Specialist Kleber reported on the Communications Department’s role in fostering a vibrant and connected community. Ms. Seesz stated that the keystones of the Department’s goals are transparency, trust, and engagement. She indicated that the Department is D committed to transparency which is the cornerstone of effective governance. By ensuring clear and open communication, residents are empowered with the information they need to be informed and engaged. C Building trust is also at the heart of the Department’s mission, ensuring that efforts are directed towards O establishing and maintaining trust with the community, and that every message conveyed upholds the integrity of the City’s values and objectives. Community engagement is central to their approach - by actively seeking to involve residents by connecting and providing multiple channels for feedback and U interaction. She also touched on brand management and department support – brand management is crucial in shaping how the City is perceived; the Department is dedicated to building and maintaining a M positive, consistent image of the City reflecting its values, achievements, and identity. Their strategic approach to brand management helps to enhance the City’s reputation and ensure that messaging EN resonates effectively with both residents and external stakeholders. Support for departments and teams is another key aspect of their role – they provide help and a conduit through which the City departments communicate their projects and objectives, aligning their messaging with the City’s overarching goals. This internal collaboration strengthens the City’s collective impact and ensures that its messaging is unified and T purposeful. Information was provided about the City’s current communications channels (website, social media, print/e-print and broadcast) and how they effectively serve the community; the latest social media trends and their impact on the City’s outreach strategies; how non-social media platforms play an important role in the City’s overall communications efforts; as well as additional duties and tasks that support the Department’s goals. Comments were made regarding the possibility of capturing a synopsis of valuable on-line public comments received for Council to see on general communication concerns, trends and talk topic; there was expressed excitement about the City’s website update; interest in knowing an active plan on how the City can increase its e-newsletter engagement; engagement in FlashVote; and expectations on the use of reels to imbue trust and transparency. A suggestion was made about showcasing/highlighting the work, service, and role of City Commissioners. The Communications team was commended for an excellent report and for their hard work.  City Council Minutes of September 16, 2024 Page 3 9. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE Planning Manager George recapped the prior study session discussion on the City’s Comprehensive Plan, providing a scope of this periodic update, approach used, and public involvement efforts to ensure that the Plan is consistent with all recently adopted state bills (HB 1220, HB 1110 and HB1337) and other state requirements. Thomas Carter, Associate Planner of LDC, Inc. presented highlights and provided insights into the major updated components of the Comprehensive Plan. The periodic updates include: Land Use Element: Contains narrative body updates in the Growth Management Act portion of the element to emphasize green spaces, environmental justice and wildfire risk mitigation; Vision 2024 updated to Vision 2050 Multicounty Planning Policies to address current regional growth strategies – current goal of 65% growth in growth center and 75% growth in employment near high-capacity transit areas; Pierce County Countywide Planning Policies to focus on growth targets and tribal coordination, and creating healthy U communities through planning; Land Use Aspirations – minor updates with no fundamental changes; and Major Land Use Issues to comply with to updates to Regional Growth Subarea Plan and new regulations N from Commerce and Puget Sound Regional Council. O Land Use Element Goals and Policies contain changes in the (1) General Land Use pertaining to Growth Management making considerations for all income segments of the community, taking into consideration FF historically underserved communities, design developments to provide more non-gas options for transportation, and to consider how development might have a health and livability impact to the community; Land Use Compatibility with focus on growth within the city, making sure it complements and enhances the community and removed exclusionary terms in the Land Use element such as “character”; Community IA Facilities to emphasize access to human services and facilities for all, and strategic location of those IC services, making sure they are equitable/accessible to the population as well as making these locations resilient towards potential climate events; Green Infrastructures added provisions about coordination with other neighboring jurisdictions for the purposes of environmental monitoring; Open Space and Resource Protection – no major changes, focus on preserving green spaces and keeping U.P. as distinctive from L other communities as possible; Plan Map Land Use Designations to make sure that the current and future land use is compatible with adjacent jurisdiction’s land use; Residential Land Use emphasized making green spaces easily accessible for everyone also in transportation, providing housing for all those in every D stage of life, provide a variety of housing options for everybody, consider innovative housing types such as ADUs, cluster housing and cottage housing, and promote greater density while maintaining current building C heights; Commercial Land Use to make new commercial development accessible to everyone using all O forms of travel, supporting existing businesses through land use decisions to make it easier for existing and new business to expand, increasing diversity and goods via supporting underserved communities and tribes, and making goods and services readily available and accessible to historically underserved U communities; Light Manufacturing/Industrial and Business Park Use emphasized keeping uses separate and protecting the Industrial zone from adjacent incompatible uses, and analyzing impact on new proposed M Industrial uses to historically underserved communities; Parks and Open Space emphasized equal access to parks, open space, recreational opportunities via walking, tribe support in identifying areas that need EN enhancements, utilizing the regional conservation plan and referencing the regional open space conservation plan and land use elements; and Essential Public Facilities for retrofitting public facilities to be resilient to severe weather and climate events, and an emphasis in locating facilities near the regional growth center. (2) Special Planning Areas pertaining to (a) Regional Growth Center in recognition and T maintenance of U.P. Regional Growth Center, to ensure consistency with Comprehensive Plan and Subarea Plan, to prioritize investments and enhance accessibility, connect residential neighborhoods, provide affordable access, and retrofit for energy efficiency; (b) Day Island/Sunset Beach to improve connectivity and walking environment, support activities coherent with existing uses, promote clean and healthy living, and address climate change and greenhouse emissions; and (c) Leach Creek Area to plan for new development and future public facilities, incorporate climate change measures, and employ low impact development methods. Housing Element: Contains narrative body updates in accordance with the Growth Management Act acknowledging HB-1337 and HB-1110 provisions; Vision 2050 Multicounty Planning Policies; Pierce County Countywide Planning Policies focused on meeting affordable and moderate income housing goals, preserving existing housing and building new units, and ensuring affordability for all economic segments with special attention to historically underserved communities; Housing Aspirations to make sure there is  City Council Minutes of September 16, 2024 Page 4 a broad choice of housing options for all those at different life stages, more multifamily housing, diverse housing with convenient access to transportation, goods, schools, parks and employment, and smaller forms of housing and middle housing; and Major Housing Issues to ensure that the range of housing is not reflecting population needs, the difference between related family/married with children individuals and unrelated family has increased, so more development focused on related family and single family housing; large single family housing is being built (but a lot of the population is aging in place which might want smaller lots/homes to take care of), addressing increased cost burden due to housing cost, and impact of housing costs to those who work in University Place. Housing Elements Goals and Policies sections contain updates in Neighborhood Preservation focused on enhancing and preserving existing housing stock, promoting the maintenance and repair of existing housing stocks, affordable housing options, promote the home ownership opportunities for those with moderate, low, very low and extremely low incomes, encourage and fill developments to help facilitate more affordable U development, and allowing diverse housing types in residential neighborhoods; Housing Choice added support incentives for the encouragement of affordable, diverse and permanent supportive housing units, N promoting increased housing options to increase affordability, encourage small lot development to provide the options for affordable homeownership, increasing the density of residential developments and O discouraging detached single family dwellings, implementing design standards for accessory dwelling units and detached accessory dwelling units to match the principal residence, and to promote the universal FF design standards consistent with the American with Disabilities Act; Housing Affordability focused to allow development of variety of housing types to all economic segments, consider populations of high displacement risks when implementing regulations, having consideration of new housing being within walking distance to transit where possible, maintain and achieve the suggested housing targets, consider IA siting of affordable housing near transits and services, providing incentives for those developing affordable IC housing for extremely low and moderately low income households, evaluate updates to the MFTE programs in effect, encourage developers to take advantage of opportunities and incentives for developing small lots for affordable housing, consider a model similar to MFTE that would require a portion of future developments to be affordable to extremely low to moderate income households, provide a study that L produces information on which options would support affordable housing and that would reach housing supply targets, identify and update policies that are not effective in helping to achieve housing targets and affordability, and monitoring and revising progress towards meeting the City’s housing needs; Permanent D Supportive Housing, Emergency Housing, Housing for Persons with Disabilities updates include providing opportunities for the provision of accessible and assisted living housing, securing grants associated with C permanent supportive houses, emergency shelter beds, transitional housing and housing survey at-risk O populations, and encouraging supply of permanent supportive housing within the area; and Housing Inventory updates include increasing housing types available, providing cost effective housing opportunities and options, promoting support volunteer services that help elderly people take care of their homes and U repair and maintenance needs, promoting infill development near existing utility and transportation infrastructure, support strategies in encouraging affordable, diverse and permanent supportive housing M units, increased middle housing options such as duplex, quadplex, triplexes, making sure new additional housing types architecturally match the existing surrounding housing, and allowing for attached and EN detached units. General updates to Capital Facilities, Transportation, Environmental Management and Utilities Elements updates include: Equitable Services to increase accessibility to services for historically underserved T communities; Health Disparities to address and reduce health disparities for all through targeted strategies; Regional Growth to implement strategies in line with regional growth plans; Greenhouse Gas Emissions to adopt plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through protection and preservation of natural resources and green spaces; Climate Resilience to consider impacts of increasing climate events on services and increase resiliency of these services; Green Infrastructure to enhance infrastructure to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly; Economic Development to support established and emerging businesses and industries; and Collaboration to work with Tribes and neighboring communities for coordinated efforts. Capital Facilities Element contains updates to Energy Conservation in conserving energy and looking at alternative energy sources; Stormwater Pollution to reduce stormwater pollution from transportation facilities; and Green Building Retrofit to reduce energy consumption for green building retro fit.  City Council Minutes of September 16, 2024 Page 5 Transportation Element contains updates to Transit Access to make transit programs that provide access to historically underserved communities; Mobility Choices to ensure mobility choices for underserved communities; Transit Alternatives to invest transit alternatives to increase options; Multimodal Transportation to improve multimodal transportation for goods; System Resilience to increasing resilience of transportation system; Stormwater Pollution to reduce stormwater pollution from transportation facilities; Mobility Patterns to be responsive for changes in mobility patterns; and Walkable Communities to promote walkable, healthy and transit-oriented community. Environmental Management Element contains updates with key focus on Puget Sound Restoration in promoting efforts to restore Puget Sound; Natural Resources Protection to protect and preserve natural resources and green spaces to help offset greenhouse gases; Tree Canopies to preserve, enhance and inventory tree canopies within the City; Climate Change Mitigation to mitigate the effects of climate change and promote resiliency to climate impacts and natural hazards; Best Management Practices to implement U best management practices to mitigate impacts to natural environments; Coordination with Tribes, neighbors and local agencies; Wildlife Protection for protection of fish and wildlife species; and N Environmental Impact Reduction to consider and reduce environmental impacts to those disproportionately affected areas. O Utilities Element contains updates to Energy Conservation to conserving energy and looking at alternative FF energy sources; Utility Infrastructure to support investment in utility infrastructure; Renewable Energy to promote the use of renewable energy; Green Building Retrofit to reduce energy consumption for green building retro fit; Community Impact to minimize impacts to surrounding communities; Coordination for coordination with local agencies, tribes and jurisdictions on siting of utilities to protect Puget Sound; IA Hazardous Waste Management for preparation and implementation of hazardous waste management plan; IC and Utility Provider Update for updates to utility provider information. Mr. Carter also touched on the collaborative process/steps in updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan. L Questions were asked about the context into the decision to remove the term “character” in the Land Use element; the incorporation of the Climate Action Plan in the elements/policies of the Comprehensive Plan; State law regarding the types of housing around transits and how it would affect University Place housing D regulations and policies; housing regulations to help developers build affordable housing; intent for the universal design standards policy and how it might impact University Place; and examples of changes C impacting University Place. A digital copy of a tracked/redline version of changes to the Comprehensive Plan was requested. O 10. ADJOURNMENT - The meeting adjourned at 8:54 p.m. No other action was taken. Submitted by, U M Emy Genetia City Clerk EN T