City of Burien
BURIEN PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
October 22, 2003
7:00 p.m.
City Council Chambers
MINUTES
Planning Commission Members Present: Robert Simpson-Clark, chair; Jon Newton, Rebecca McInteer, Douglas Rahn, Janet Shull, and Barbara Williams
Absent: Bonnie Isenberg
Others Present: David Johanson, senior planner; Pat Smith, planner; Nancy Bird, EDAW
Chair Simpson-Clark called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Upon the call of the roll all commissioners were present with the exception of Commissioner Isenberg.
Agenda Confirmation
The agenda was approved by consensus.
Approval of Minutes
A. September 23, 2003
Commissioner Williams asked that the second sentence of the first paragraph on page 3 of the minutes be deleted.
Motion to approve the minutes as amended was made by Commissioner Williams. Second was by Commissioner Shull and the motion carried unanimously.
Public Comment – None
Old Business
A. Discussion and Recommendation to City Council on BMC 19.65.095, Comprehensive Plan Amendment Process
David Johanson, senior planner, said the purpose for the proposed changes to the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Section of the Zoning Code is to have the amendment cycle better match the City’s budgetary cycle to alleviate possible budgetary problems that may arise during the Comprehensive Plan Amendment process.
Motion to recommend to the City Council the changes to Section 19.65.095 as set forth in Attachment 1 was made by Commissioner Newton. Second was by Commissioner Williams and the motion carried unanimously.
B. Discussion and Recommendation to City Council on Comprehensive Plan Updates, Land Use, Housing, Storm Water and Existing Conditions Sections
Commissioner Williams said the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Element appears to recommend the maximizing of all existing facilities and only secondarily purchasing new lands. Goal PRO.1, however, as shown in Attachment 3 appears to put the focus on geographic accessibility, an approach that might necessitate the purchase of additional park land.
Chair Simpson-Clark allowed that policies aimed at merely having good parks will not necessarily mean all residents of Burien will be able to use those parks. In order to be accessible to all, parks facilities need to be reasonably dispersed.
Commissioner Williams said the guidelines are simply not clear as written. Chair Simpson-Clark conceded that there is no clear statement of priority that places geographic diversity ahead of intense utilization of existing facilities.
Mr. Johanson said the Chapter 2.0 plan policies were more or less carried over from the original 1997 plan. At that time there were other budgetary considerations, and the focus was on maintaining existing facilities over developing new facilities. Since that time the City has purchased a substantial number of additional park acres. The policy is not written intentionally to controvert the summary; he agreed that the summary may need to be adjusted to more accurately reflect the policy.
Ms. Nancy Bird commented that the goals tend to be more flowery and long winded. Generally it is the individual policies that are more direct. Mr. Johanson pointed out that the summary language in the existing plan reflects the language of Policy PRO1.2.
Commissioner Williams referred to page 3-5 of Attachment 4 and proposed that if Table II is dropped there will be no indication as to where in the $132 million figure referenced in the second paragraph on that page comes from. Mr. Johanson said the figure is referenced in the paragraph but it does not break it out. Ms. Bird commented that the tables had not been dropped, only replaced. They are summarized in the back of the document. She allowed that having a summary table up front would improve the readability of the document.
It was agreed to move the tables to the end of the document and provide reference to them within the document.
Mr. Johanson said staff would welcome any suggestions for changing the land use maps.
Answering a question asked by Commissioner McInteer regarding Salmon Creek, Commissioner Newton explained that J.C. Burk used to be the property owner in the ‘40s and ‘50s. Ms. Burk did not like salmon dying in her yard and asked her husband to block the stream to prevent the fish from getting to their property. The rocks that are in the creek were brought in from the mountains; they were put there to keep salmonids out. The next property owner was Mr. Segale. He was approached about a year ago by representatives from Trout Unlimited, who were trying to get salmon restored in the creek. Mr. Segale and another property owner wrote the City Council a letter asking for no action. Since the entire area has become urbanized, however, it is not clear whether the water in Salmon Creek can even chemically support salmonids. Friends of Salmon Creek currently are working with the Department of Ecology to check on the chemistry of the stream with the goal of considering restoration of the creek. Following the Nisqually earthquake, the environment has improved significantly due to an increased flow of water. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, however, before the creek can become viable.
In discussing Section 4.3.5, Commissioner Williams said the issue is keeping alive the fact that anadromous fish inhabited Salmon Creek at some time in the past. It is the only fully contained watershed stream in Burien. She proposed deleting all references to “fisheries” in the second to the last paragraph. Discussion of this section ensued. Commissioner McInteer suggested that the phrase “although fisheries have disappeared from this creek” be removed from the document.
There was consensus in favor of Commissioner McInteer’s suggestion.
Commissioner Newton said he would like to see more directive wording used in the existing conditions chapter based on the hazard analysis included in the Burien Emergency Operations Plan. That plan calls out the potential for earthquakes and landslides because of the topography of the area. There should at the very least be a cross reference to the emergency plan. The section on seismic potential does not clearly state that the city has determined through a logical process of hazard analysis that earthquakes are potentially damaging and are identified natural hazards facing the area. He noted that there also is nothing in the document about volcanoes even though they are a regional issue. Where there identified hazards, there should be special consideration given to mitigating the potential damages and losses.
There was consensus to include cross references to the Emergency Operations Plan in the document.
Chair Simpson-Clark referred to section 4.4.1, electromagnetic fields (EMF), on page 4-36 of the document and questioned whether the section should be deleted. Ms. Bird said the section is included in the current code and no changes have been made to it. Chair Simpson-Clark said the section is a good outline of the current political concerns about EMF, but there is no consensus as to whether or not EMF poses a hazard.
Commissioner Newton agreed that the sections adds no value to the document and suggested removing the first two paragraphs and taking the third paragraph and adding it to the section on energy. There was consensus to take that approach.
Commissioner Newton referred to section 4.9.5, solid waste, on page 4-107 and asked how often the solid waste contracts are renegotiated. Mr. Johanson said he did not know but could find out.
Chair Simpson-Clark thought it would be useful to include the status of fiber-optic wiring in Burien under section 4.9.7, telecommunications services. Mr. Johanson said the City is working to have in hand as much of that type of information as possible. He said he would follow up on that to see what can be included. He added that the purpose of including the information is to be in line with state law, but there is also a need to make sure the information is up to date. Chair Simpson-Clark thought it would be helpful to include a table of franchise holders and service providers that could be updated every time there is a change. Mr. Johanson allowed that that information is readily available to staff but not necessarily updated in the plan. He agreed that the document could include language saying current information is always available by checking with staff.
Motion to recommend to the City Council the Comprehensive Plan updates to the Land Use, Housing, Storm Water and Existing Conditions sections as amended by discussion and written submissions by the commissioners was made by Commissioner Newton. Second was by Commissioner Shull and the motion carried unanimously.
**BREAK**
Planner Pat Smith informed the Commission that the City Council approved the critical areas ordinance at its meeting on October 20. He said there were a few minor changes made to the draft document and that he would get a memo to the commission outlining those changes.
New Business
A. Introduction to Economic Development Element
Mr. Smith said the City is in the process of drafting the first Economic Development Element of the Comprehensive Plan. A steering committee with 20 members representing a wide divergence of interests has been appointed; Commissioner Rahn represented the commission. The committee will meet for the final time on October 23, following which its draft plan will be made available to the commission.
The steering committee conducted a community forum on July 10 that was focused on identifying issues. The second public forum was conducted later in the month of July to discuss possible solutions to the issues previously raised. The steering committee took the information and spent several meetings crafting goals and policies based on the ideas expressed at those two public forums. The commission is scheduled to discuss the matter fully at its October 28 meeting and to hold a public hearing on November 18. The Business and Economic Development Partnership will be asked to review the plan as well.
Commissioner Rahn suggested that the statistics included toward the end of the draft document show a community in trouble. The city has the fewest college graduates of any area in King County, and has the lowest graduation completion rate for high school students in all of Puget Sound. Major employers in the city do not include manufacturing, high tech, biotech, or significant industries related to the airport. There are a higher percentage of families living in poverty than the county average. He suggested, however, that it is not too late to address the issues.
Commissioner Newton pointed out that the economic level of the city’s residents is tied by and large to the fact that Burien has good affordable housing. The same is true for the unincorporated areas and in White Center; the housing is inexpensive, it is centrally located, and offers a number of similar benefits. The economic status of the city is not a problem; it is an outcome of the city’s demographics.
Commissioner Rahn said there are many steps that can be taken to improve the statistics, some of which have already been taken. Town Square and the renovation of 152nd Street are two good examples. If good goals and policies are written and followed, a lot of good things will happen that will benefit the community, all without endangering the small-town character of the city.
Mr. Smith said the three most prevalent issues that arose from the community forums were housing, safety and schools. Those are the items the attendees saw as most important to economic development. The draft element attempts to address those issues as well as others.
Chair Simpson-Clark asked what needs to be done with Burien’s housing stock in order to improve the economic development of the city. Mr. Smith answered that housing really does make a difference in the city. As an example, he noted that everything south of 85th Street in north Seattle has been within the incorporated city for many years and has curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Everything to the north of 85th Street only recently was incorporated and therefore does not have those amenities. The entire area both north and south of 85th Street is within a single school district, yet all of the properties south of 85th Street enjoy property values 25 percent higher than the properties to the north of 85th Street. Clearly streetscapes affect the economic status of a neighborhood, and the condition of the housing stock has a direct tie to the economic health of the entire city. Businesses seeking to locate in a community look at the condition of the housing stock to know where their employees will be living.
Chair Simpson-Clark suggested that the goal of providing affordable housing in sufficient amounts runs counter to the goal of improving the economy. That is because efforts to provide relatively inexpensive housing will not draw higher wage workers. The only type of affordable housing that would serve to advance the economy of Burien would be a policy focused on better value housing. The housing stock in Burien currently offers the best value in the entire Puget Sound area.
Commissioner Newton said most of the people who live in Burien are in the city because they want to be and because they can afford to be. The demographics of the city, however, are changing; there are many more immigrants than there used to be, many of whom have lower educational levels. It would be inappropriate to look at the demographics and suggest that there is a problem to be fixed. The city does need to have more jobs, but the schools have done well for the most part. One thing that could improve the economics of the city would be to offer more English-As-A-Second-Language classes to assist the immigrant populations in becoming more effective in the workplace. There may need to be more outreach to the Hispanic and Asian communities through their churches and social groups to see what their needs are. Mr. Smith said the city is working to get the minority populations involved and figuring out what services they need.
Commissioner Williams said education will serve as a substantial part of the solution. She allowed that there are a number of things that can be done to deal with some of the issues facing students in the schools that get in the way of their doing well. What happens to the kids is what will happen to the future of the city. If the dropout rate continues to rise, businesses will not want to locate in the city. A very high percentage of Burien students are enrolled in private schools; there should be an attempt to gain input from private school administrators as well as those involved with public schools.
Chair Simpson-Clark asked staff what information is available regarding private school students and how they compare academically with public school students in the city. Mr. Johanson said he would see what information is available.
Chair Simpson-Clark highlighted the need to think through each policy as it is developed, with a focus on what would happen if the policy were to be implemented and found to be wildly successful. If the City focused on offering the cheapest housing around, the result would be an influx of residents who need the cheapest place to live. If on the other hand the City focuses on offering good value in housing, not necessarily at the bottom of the scale, those with the good sense to recognize good value will be attracted.
Commissioner Newton asked if any Highline teachers were involved in providing input during the development of the draft document. Commissioner Rahn allowed that there were none. Commissioner Newton said the challenges the teachers are facing is where the rubber meets the road. When there are students coming to school who have not had a good breakfast, their attention span wanes critically. Often they have no one at home who can help them with their homework. Those are the instances in which Big Brothers and Big Sisters and mentoring programs can yield positive results. There are a number of retired business people and others in the community who could serve as mentors for struggling students. It would be very helpful to know what the teachers would like to see.
Director’s Report
Mr. Johanson reported that the City Council at its January 20 meeting officially selected Urban Partners to serve as the developer for Town Square. Urban Partners is partnered with GGLO, a local architectural firm.
Commissioner Newton said he hoped the developer will select subcontractors from the local area.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn was made by Commissioner Rahn. Second was by Commissioner Newton and the motion carried unanimously.
Chair Simpson-Clark adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m.
Approved:
/s/ Robert Simpson-Clark, chair
Planning Commission
/s/ Scott Greenberg, director
Community Development Department