Monday, January 26, 2004

Shoreline Conference Center

6:00 p.m. Highlander Room

PRESENT: Mayor Hansen, Deputy Mayor Jepsen, Councilmembers Chang, Fimia, Grace, Gustafson, and Ransom

ABSENT: none

GUESTS: Ron Posthuma, King County Department of Transportation; Matt Aho, King County TOD Project Manager; and Ritva Manchester, Legislative Assistant to King County Councilmember Carolyn Edmonds

STAFF: Steve Burkett, City Manager; Robert Olander, Deputy City Manager; Julie Modrzejewski, Assistant City Manager; Joyce Nichols, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Director; and Jan Knudson, Economic Development Coordinator

Mayor Hansen convened the meeting at 6:15 p.m.

Steve Burkett, City Manager, introduced tonight’s topic—an update on the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) project at the Shoreline Park & Ride located at 192^nd Street and Aurora Avenue.

Mr. Burkett also introduced Ron Posthuma of the King County Department of Transportation and Matt Aho, who is the project coordinator for King County.

Mr. Posthuma described the project and mentioned that it is part of the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) proposed project list to receive $15 million in funding (if and when that project list is placed before voters and approved).

Mr. Aho described the TOD site and the results of staff work and market analysis. He said this site is not particularly a good one for office space, commercial or retail because it is too far away from I-5 and it sits “down in a hole” from the roadway. In addition, there is already quite a bit of retail nearby. He said that institutional uses and housing were a good fit for the site.

Continuing, Mr. Aho described the July mini-charrette held with potential partners on the site to discuss and develop concepts for the site. The mini-charrette was attended by King County staff and the design consultants, as well as City staff and a representative from the State of Washington, which owns the site, and the YMCA.

Three design concepts were developed in order to analyze the financial possibility of developing a TOD at this site. All three concepts include: public/institutional uses on the site (Shoreline City Hall and YMCA). This was based on a 1999 market analysis conducted by King County that determined that private development was not likely to occur by itself and speculative office development might not be appropriate for the County to do.

An additional constraint is the financial gap in developing the site even with public uses, due, in large measure, to the high cost of constructing replacement parking for any existing parking displaced by new development.

Another constraint in developing the site for City Hall is the time and process involved in transferring ownership the State Department of Transportation to King County and the uncertainty of funds to cover the financial gap.

The three options developed in the mini-charrette included:

· Option A: parking placed below grade across the entire site and serving all major uses (City Hall, YMCA, lease space, parking garage, and residential). The buildings would sit on a podium that closely matches the existing grades at the southeast and northwest corners. There would be two levels of parking under the City Hall area. Phased construction would be difficult and would require dislocation of any transit parking during construction.

· Option B: parking placed in a single above-grade parking structure that is wrapped by City Hall and the YMCA. Additional parking would be available in conjunction with the housing. Construction could be phased, building the parking garage first. Additional parking would be available in conjunction with the housing block. This would require some filling of the site to raise the buildings to street level.

· Option C: Parking split between two garages to allow segregation of uses. The parcel could be divided to allow for multiple ownership or contracts. This causes the least disruption during construction.

Councilmembers Gustafson and Ransom arrived at the meeting at this point.

Responding to Councilmember Chang’s question about how soon such a project could be moved forward, Mr. Posthuma projected that the property transfer details could probably be worked out this year. Mr. Posthuma pointed out that there were other King County TOD projects competing for the land trade equity. These include Northgate and Redmond or Kirkland. If City Hall or some other partner does not locate at this site, these other sites would like move forward ahead of Shoreline.

Deputy Mayor Jepsen asked how much potential there is that a TOD could be mostly private development. Mr. Posthuma said that once ownership issues are resolved, King County could work with both public and private developers.

Councilmember Fimia asked what would happen if there is no RTID funding and also what the projection is for new service hours from Metro for Shoreline, to which Mr. Posthuma responded that there could be as many as 100,000 new service hours county-wide, with perhaps as many as 20,000 of them in the Shoreline area.

Councilmember Fimia said she did not wish to lose the open space and sense of “community” of this space. She suggested that the proposals be taken to the community for comment.

Mr. Burkett said he would follow-up with King County staff to work on next steps. They will be looking at ways to address the funding gaps.

Mayor Hansen declared the meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.

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Joyce Nichols, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Director