CITY OF SHORELINE
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
Annual Strategic Planning Workshop
Friday, February 28 and Saturday, February 29, 2020
Edmonds Yacht Club
February 28 - 8:30 a.m. 326 Admiral Way, Edmonds, WA
PRESENT: Mayor Hall, Deputy Mayor Scully, Councilmembers Chang, McConnell, McGlashan, Roberts, and Robertson
ABSENT: None
STAFF: Debbie Tarry, City Manager; John Norris, Assistant City Manager; Randy Witt, Public Works Director; Margaret King, City Attorney; Don Moritz, Human Resources Director; Rachael Markle, Planning and Community Development Director; Sara Lane, Administrative Services Director; Eric Friedli, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director; Shawn Ledford, Shoreline Police Chief; Nate Daum, Economic Development Program Manager; and Pollie McCloskey, City Council Executive Assistant
GUESTS: Workshop Facilitator - Allegra Calder, Principal, BERK Consulting
Workshop Presenters - Aly Pennucci, Policy Analyst, City of Seattle; Charles Strazzara, President, Studio Meng Strazzara; Dave Boyd, Senior Planner, City of Bothell; and Doug Larson, Principal and Project Director, Heartland LLC
At 8:30 a.m. the Special Meeting was called to order. Mayor Hall opened with introductions and provided a welcome to Council and staff. Mayor Hall then provided a statement about the purpose of the Workshop and then turned the Workshop over to Allegra Calder, facilitator, who walked through the agenda and opened the meeting with a question for the group.
Council then discussed the 2019 City Accomplishments. John Norris, Assistant City Manager, provided a brief overview of how staff put together the accomplishment list and provided some thoughts on key accomplishments from the staff perspective.
The Council next discussed budget impacts related to I-976. Ms. Calder first asked for clarifying questions then walked through the policy questions in the Council’s material packet. The majority of Councilmembers felt that funding for road surface maintenance is more important than sidewalk rehabilitation funding. Almost all of the Councilmembers felt that backfilling the 2021-2022 Annual Road Surface Maintenance Program with real estate excise tax that is not currently allocated in the 2019-2024 Capital Improvement Program is the preferred approach for funding road maintenance in the next biennium.
Councilmembers also provided their input on exploring alternative revenue sources to fund transportation infrastructure maintenance in the future, such as revenue from school zone/red light cameras, utility taxes, gambling tax, eliminating exemptions from the Transportation Impact Fee, revenue generating business and occupation tax and an increase in the property tax levy lid lift. Councilmembers provided varying perspectives on these different revenue sources. The greatest area of agreement regarded an unwillingness to institute school zone/red light cameras to generate revenue, and that the most important revenue focus for the City is the re-authorization of the general levy lid lift, which is currently scheduled for Council consideration in 2022. Debbie Tarry, City Manager, recapped that the focus on alternative revenue strategies is for the longer term, while the short-term focus is on using unallocated real estate excise tax to backfill road maintenance funding.
The Council then discussed Ground Floor Commercial Requirements in non-residential zones. Rachael Markle, Planning and Community Development Director, provided an overview of the staff research of this topic. Council then discussed the various regulatory tools that could be employed to achieve ground floor commercial uses in non-residential zones. Some Councilmembers felt that a combination of geographic requirement and incentives is most appropriate. Councilmembers also felt that the requirements should be targeted. Some Councilmembers support the intent but are also concerned about adding new regulations. Mayor Hall commented that North City, Ridgecrest, and Ballinger might be areas where the City could try regulations.
Mayor Hall also asked about the Shoreline restaurant list that was developed a couple of years ago by staff, and staff stated that they could update the list and provide it to Council. Councilmembers McGlashan and Chang asked about Shoreline Place as a potential target area.
At 11:00 a.m. Ms. Calder introduced a panel on commercial requirements in non-residential zones, which included a discussion of mandates, incentives, disincentives, and the trade-offs of each when considering commercial requirements. Following the panel discussion and lunch with the panelists, the Council began a policy discussion about commercial requirements and what, if anything, the City should consider.
Mayor Hall proposed that the North City and Ridgecrest business area major streets (15th Avenue NE and 5th Ave NE/NE 165th Street) be explored as a pilot for some level of commercial requirements. Councilmembers Robertson and Chang agreed on 15th Avenue NE in North City. Deputy Mayor Scully was interested in providing flexibility in what the requirement would be for certain types of commercial uses. Councilmember Roberts was interested in a pilot but wondered about North City only, or North City and one or both of the light rail station areas. Councilmember McGlashan similarly preferred North City and both station areas. Councilmember Chang also asked about Shoreline Place.
Following this discussion about where to potentially target commercial code requirements, there was general consensus reached by the Council that a Comprehensive Plan amendment is probably not necessary to achieve these requirements, but that a Development Code amendment would allow for this. Some Councilmembers were interested in having staff put together language for Council to consider that would direct staff to revise the Development Code instead of moving forward with a Comprehensive Plan amendment, as is currently scheduled for the forthcoming Comprehensive Plan Docket Council discussion.
In addition to discussing potential target areas for ground-floor commercial requirements, Council discussed what percentage of commercial should be required, building heights, and parking reductions. Councilmember Roberts stated that he would like the Planning Commission to look at potential incentives broadly, including parking reductions, height increases or other incentives, for consideration.
Ms. Markle brought up outreach to current property owners, and Council agreed that this would be helpful. It was also agreed that staff develop potential direction language for Council consideration to direct staff to work on a Development Code amendment for the forthcoming Council meeting where the Comprehensive Plan Docket will be discussed.
Council then discussed the proposed Shoreline Aquatics, Recreation and Community Center (ShARCC) and Priority Park Improvements, which began with the Ms. Tarry providing an overview of the materials packet to the Council. This included key policy questions for Council consideration. While there was some disagreement, Councilmembers were generally supportive of her recommendation.
Other discussion items around this topic included the concept of potentially giving the pool to the School District prior to its closing, creating a future parks measure in the 2024 timeframe, holding a priority parks only vote this year, developing a smaller parks only ballot measure for consideration by the community, developing a ballot measure that includes a community center at a total cost of around $75 million, and exploration of a metropolitan parks district.
At the conclusion of this discussion, Council direction to staff was to close the Shoreline pool in the fall of 2021; develop a priority parks only ballot measure for 2020 for either the primary election or general election, with a size of no more than $38 million, but with options for the makeup and size of measure, but likely not including the purchase of the storage court property in the proposed measure; offering the current Shoreline Pool to the Shoreline School District for their ownership and management; and consideration of a potential future ShARCC ballot measure in 2023/2024.
Council then discussed their proposed 2020-2022 City Council Goals and Action Steps. Council provided staff direction to make some amendments to the Action Steps for Council Goals 1 and 2. Council did not propose any changes to the Council Goals themselves.
The first day of the Strategic Planning Workshop adjourned at 4:35 pm.
Council Chambers - Shoreline City Hall
February 29 – 8:30 a.m. 17500 Midvale Avenue North, Shoreline, WA
PRESENT: Mayor Hall, Deputy Mayor Scully, Councilmembers Chang, McConnell, McGlashan, Roberts, and Robertson
ABSENT: None
STAFF: Debbie Tarry, City Manager; John Norris, Assistant City Manager
GUESTS: Workshop Facilitator - Allegra Calder, Principal, BERK Consulting
At 8:30 a.m. the second day of the Special Meeting was called to order. Following a welcome from the Mayor, Ms. Calder began by walking through the agenda for the remainder of the workshop. Some general thoughts from the Friday session were shared, including having staff provide an updated Planning Commission work plan to Council on a semi-regular basis, and including the Commission’s work plan as part of future Council workshop packets. Councilmembers stated that they would like an update on development applications in the review and permit pipeline. Councilmembers also asked that staff provide the ratio of owners vs. renters in the station area update that will be provided to Council later in the year.
Council stated that they would like to add a discussion of tree regulations to this second day of the Strategic Planning Workshop, along with a short discussion on financial sustainability.
Assistant City Manager John Norris then reviewed the Council Goals and Actions Steps from the proposed amendments offered by Council on Friday and Council supported the proposed approach and edits outlined by staff.
The Council then began a discussion of the various policy issues identified in their Workshop materials packet. This began with a discussion of a Council Salary Commission. While some Councilmembers were supportive of not instituting a Council Salary Commission, others were somewhat supportive, and others felt it would make sense to adopt a Salary Commission section in the City’s Municipal Code. Council provided direction to staff to develop and bring back proposed Municipal Code language that would establish a Council Salary Commission sometime this year, but not convene the Commission until after 2022, and then continue to perform a Council salary review on a regular interval of time. A five-year interval was suggested. Some Councilmembers also stated that they want to see a market analysis of other City Councils’ compensation as part of staff bringing back proposed Municipal Code language for Council review.
The Council then discussed the City’s support of the Shoreline Farmers Market. Some Councilmembers were fearful that if the City pulled funding from the Market, it would cease to operate. Other Councilmembers stated that they would like to see the City’s financial contribution to the Market capped. Other Councilmembers stated they would like to see if a potential Diversity and Inclusion Commission, if formed, could support the Farmers Market.
While one Councilmember was interested in a City-run Farmers Market Model, in which the Market would become a City-run program, the majority of Councilmembers were interested in a non-profit model. The Council directed staff to support the Market in moving towards this model, but also stated that they would like to review this as part of the biennial budget process later in 2020. Council stated that they were also supportive of inviting Brendan Lemkin, Shoreline Farmers Market Executive Director, to a Council Dinner Workshop Meeting to further discuss the Market’s future.
Council then discussed the proposed Environmental Sustainability Work Plan, including a discussion of no new natural gas regulations in the city. Some Councilmembers were supportive of an exploration of this type of regulation, while others were not. Council also discussed potential incentives to move away from natural gas and heating oil as sources of energy for home heating for Shoreline residents. Councilmember Roberts requested that staff research how many households in Shoreline use oil versus other heating sources. Councilmember Roberts also stated that he was interested in requiring electric vehicle infrastructure in new homes. Council provided overall agreement that they are in support of the staff-proposed Environmental Sustainability Work Plan and look forward to future discussions about how best to achieve the City’s Climate Action Plan goals, including potential regulations on energy sources for home heating.
Council then discussed Diversity and Inclusion training for all Boards and Commissions and was supportive of the recommendation to hold some sort of training, potentially on an ongoing basis. One format that was discussed was to hold a roughly three-hour evening training, that while strongly encouraged, would be optional for Councilmembers and members of City Boards and Commissions. Inviting the Boards of partner organizations in the city was also discussed.
The final policy issue from the agenda discussed by Council regarded potential purchasing code changes to increase purchasing authorization, and the majority of Councilmembers were supportive of the staff-recommended changes.
Council then discussed the topic of tree regulations, added at the beginning of the meeting. Various Councilmembers had different interests regarding tree regulations, including interests in the City’s frontage improvement requirements as they pertain to trees, reviewing the City’s tree regulations in the Development Code, which regulate trees on private property, not wanting to review tree regulations at all, and adding a policy statement to the right-of-way tree code section regarding tree preservation. Council agreed to bring back the tree regulation discussion at their Strategic Planning Workshop in 2021 in order to have a fuller policy discussion about the potential review of the right-of-way and/or development code tree regulations.
The Council also briefly discussed the issues of financial sustainability for the City and impact fees.
The Special Meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm.
/s/John Norris, Assistant City Manager