HomeMy WebLinkAbout05. 05-18-2023 Planning Commission Meeting MinturesCALL TO ORDER
PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
City Hall -Council Chambers
525 North Third Avenue
Pasco, Washington
THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2023
6:30PM
City of Pasco Planning Commission meeting was called to order at 6 :30 p.m., by Chair Jerry
Cochran .
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Chair Cochran led the Pledge of Allegiance.
ROLL CALL
Commissioners Present: Rosa Torres, Mitchell Moffitt, Dana Crutchfield , Paul Mendez, Rachel
Teel , Kim Lehrman, Jay Hendler and Jerry Cochran , a quorum was declared .
Commissioners Excused : Abel Campos.
Staff Present: Interim Community & Economic Development Director Jacob Gonzalez, Associate
Planner Jeff Adams , and Administrative Assistant II Carmen Patrick.
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Chair Cochran explained the Planning Commission is an advisory board made up of volunteers
appointed by City Council.
He further explained the purpose of the Planning Commission was to provide recommendations to
City Council regarding changes to the City's Comprehensive Plan, Land Use Updates , Block Grant
Allocations and Zoning Code. The Planning Commission is tasked with considering the long-term
growth and development of the community, the impact of land use decisions on community,
livability, economic opportunity, housing affordability , public services , and the environment.
Chair Cochran reminded the audience tonight 's proceedings were being broadcast li ve on City of
Pasco 's Facebook page and on Charter Cable PSC Channel 191 and will be rebroadcast several times
during the next month.
He stated the meeting was also being recorded and could be watched on City of Pasco 's website ,
which is Pasco-wa.gov. Click on the VIDEO ON DEMAND link and make your selection there .
Chair Cochran stated copies of the meeting agenda were available on the back table. He then asked
that everyone silence cell phones to prevent interruptions during the meeting. For those present this
evening, when you are given the opportunity to address the Commission , please come to the podium ,
speak clearl y into the microphone, and state your name and city of address for the record.
Chair Cochran reminded the audience and the Planning Commission that Washington State Law
requires public meetings like the one being held this evening not only be fair , but also appear to be
fair. In addition , Washington State Law prohibits Planning Commission members from participating
in discussions or decisions in which the member may have a direct interest or may be either benefited
or harmed by the Planning Commission 's decision. An objection to any Planning Commission
member hearing an y matter on tonight's agenda needs to be aired at this time or it will be waived.
Chair Cochran asked if there were an y Planning Commission members who have a declaration at
this time regarding any of the items on the agenda .
Pl annin g Commi ss ion Meeting Mi nutes Page I of 8 May 18, 2023
❖ No declarations were made.
Chair Cochran asked if anyone in the audience objected to any Planning Commission member
hearing any of the items on the agenda.
❖ None heard, record show s there were no declarations .
Chair Cochran stated the Planning Commission needed and valued public input explaining it helped
the Commission understand the issues more clearly and allowed for better recommendations to City
Council. Furthermore, in many cases , this could be the only forum for the public to get facts and
opinions placed into the official record and City Council will use to make the Commission's
decision. He encouraged those present to take full advantage of this opportunity.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Commissioner Hendler mov ed to approv e the Planning Commission meeting minutes of April 20,
2023 , Commissioner Moffitt seconded , and the motion carried unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
• Memo Shoreline Master Plan Periodic Update
Jeffrey Adams stated his evening, our consultants, Ben and Laurel Floyd from White Bluffs
Consulting will briefly review the comment matrix attached to the Planning Commission report
and edits made to the Shoreline Master Program, which is also attached to your report. The
Commission will then be invited to recommend the proposed changes to the City Council by
vote.
Mr. Floyd stated we've gone through this presentation and the changes that were proposed. We
had the comment matrix before. You can see that's relatively minor comments. And rather than
go through each of those items, I just want to wonder if you have any questions about any of
those changes that are proposed that are before you in that comment response matrix.
Comments/Questions from Commissioners:
Commissioner Crutchfield asked about a comment that I kind of can make out here talks about a
damage to the area that goes along the shoreline between Ivy Glades up to the Chiawana Park
Boat Basin. It's noting that the maintenance personnel removed vegetation. Then the comment
response, I'm assuming that's from the City about what they're going to do about that. So, I'm just
wondering if there's more specifics , like who monitors it, when could we expect it to be mitigated,
and who's in charge of that?
It talks about a Shoreline administrator throughout this , and I'm assuming it's the City, but I did
want to share this one thing that I know from down further on the shoreline where the slope
comes pretty steep. There was some pretty major destruction to the shoreline there, with
construction of concrete, retaining walls , placement of a large container for recreation of the
parties . And it was allowed to continue with damage to the shoreline, even though there was a
stop work order in place. So no one monitored it , to my knowledge, until it was brought to the
attention of the City and as far as I know, it still isn't mitigated. So I wondered that's a lot of
question , but I really wonder what we do with those kind of situations .
Mr. Floyd answered I'll just say for the Shoreline Master Program itself, that is an example of
Pl anni ng Com m ission Meeti ng Mi n utes Page 2 of 8 May 18, 2023
how it's implemented and managed and administered. We can only say so much in the actual
program about how it should be administered. But then I'll tum it over to Jeff to talk about where
the follow up is, because many of the comments that we received , you'll notice, are on this
management administration part of this, which is really outside of the scope of what we're
working on but is important for how this program works. It has to work effectively to protect the
resources.
Jacob Gonzalez interim Director of Community and Economic Development stated just wanted
to supplement the information tonight. Absolutely , this is a concern that the City is taken
seriously . As Mr. Floyd and Mr. Adams identified, there are actually provisions in the Pasco
Municipal Code about what to do in violations of the Shoreline Master Program . City staff is
coordinating with the Department of Administrative and Community Services about reaching
back out to the individual who has identified the violation of the SMP and we are following up
with that individual individually as we speak. So I just wanted to let the commission know that
we followed up with the individual. It just so happened to be that it was a different department
that we worked with that is actually applying the enforcement of the SMP.
Commissioner Crutchfield continued one last question. It talks about substantial development
and special use or variances. They do have to go through the Department of Ecology, right? Even
though there is th is there's another check.
Mr. Floyd answered yes. So substantial development permits can be issued by the City without
ecology approval. But quite often, City or County staff reach out to Ecology if there's questions
so it's done in a collaborative way. Variances and conditional uses require both City and Ecology
approval.
Commissioner Moffitt referenced questions on draft, page 168 regarding the substantial
development permit. My question is, if you look at this, the increases over the period of eight
years is only $2 ,088 , which is approximately 30%. And I would like to know what the City's
average property values are because to me that seems like a very low. My second question is why
do we have this at all? If we're going to allow people to, for example, build a dock and say if you
build a dock cheaply , maybe throw some 55 gallon drums together and some 2 x 1 O's, and as
long as you're under this value, hey, no problem , you don't need a permit.
Mr. Floyd answered first of all , the figure for the dock or for the substantial development permit
threshold comes from the State Office of Financial Management, and I believe it's indexed to the
consumer price index that is probably based out of the Seattle market and it has gone up quite a
bit. I understand there's maybe a lag, but I think it's as of July 2022 was the latest update. So ,
you've got almost a year of cost increases that haven't been reflected and this is already indexed .
So , when OFM changes the threshold, it automatically becomes the new threshold for the City,
even if it says in there that it's only $8,000. So, it's automatically indexed .
Second is we have specific standards in other sections of the SMP for docks and you can't just
do a couple of barrels , it has to be an approved dock. There 're specific lighting requirements ,
there's specific grading requirements , material requirements , dimensions , and it's pretty easy to
get above that threshold . Now you also are on the McNary Pool , which is regulated by the US
Army Corps of Engineers , and there's only so many new docks that they're allowing , and you
Pl annin g Commission Meeting M inutes Page 3 of 8 May 18 , 2023
may already be beyond that.
Once this program is adopted , the City has been told by the state that they're likely a very good
candidate for receiving money to prepare a user guide. And in the user guide, that's a great place
to talk about what we've just discussed. And so , we can take a note of that and assuming that
we'll be helping with that in the future, we can make sure that gets included.
Commissioner Lehrman pointed out to Commissioner Moffitt's where to find the information
regarding docks and a hyperlink .
So , you'll take action tonight, and you can even take action if you feel comfortable and are ready
to say the council would approve it , subject to state support for it. But we'll share the draft red
lines. We'll share the comment and response matrix. There's a whole bunch of affidavits for the
publication for the hearing, the SEP A State Environmental Policy Act checklist. So, there's about
nine or ten things that are part of that package. We'll send that to Ecology and ask them to make
an initial determination on whether the SMP as updated complies with the law and the regulation.
Ecology has 30 days to make their detennination and then they'll come back to us , and they might
have one or two required changes, maybe none, and then they might have some recommended
changes, and then we'll , as a staff, consider whether there's enough substance there to bring back
to you or if it's just minor things and it's just little cleanup. And doesn't materially change your
recommendation , then we could go to the adoption process with the council , and then it goes to
Ecology , and there's an appeal period after that for , like , 15 days, and then it becomes final.
Commission er L ehrman moved th e Planning Commission recommend staff deliver all SMP update
docum ents as p er attached in th e Ma y 18, 2023 , Planning Commission report to Washington State
Departm ent of Ecology for initial determination , Commissioner Moffitt seconded, motion passed
unanimously .
PUBLIC HEARINGS
None
WORSHOP
• Memo Housing Action and Implementation Plan
Good evening, members of the Planning Commission excited to be here virtually this evening
to share with you some preliminary results associated with the Housing Action Implementation
Plan . The intent of this presentation this evening is to provide a general overview of where
we're at with the Housing Action Plan , and particularly with regards to the current housing
conditions , which we'll spend most of our time on this evening, along with some preliminary
strategies that have been identified between staff and our consulting team.
So one of the things that we're required to do associated with the RCWS with the Housing
Action Plan, is to conduct a current housing assessment of who lives in Pasco and what's the
housing like in Pasco , which is one of the fastest growing cities in the Pacific Northwest.
► Population in Pasco 2022: 80 , 180
► Median Age in Pasco 2021: 29.9
Pl annin g Commi ssio n M eetin g M inu tes Page 4 of8 M ay 18, 202 3
► Median HH Income in 2022: $70, 400
► Population Growth: Pasco 18 , 919 AAGR: 2.53%; Franklin County 20, 187 AAGR:
2.11%
Three fourths of households in the City of Pasco are owner occupied, about one quarter are
renter occupied , and the home ownership rate is significantly higher among our households that
are age 35 and older. One of the indicators that maybe lead to the high ownership rate, which is
really quite higher than the state average, is particularly due to the land use policies at the City
of Pasco, where significant amount of the housing stock are single family detached units. I
think that's the correlation between the availability of available rental units and the renters, as
you can see on the screen here.
Data from the building permits:
► The single family housing stock dominates the housing availability in the City of
Pasco.
► There's been a decrease over the last five years more than the previous five years
between 2010 and 2020 in the amount of multifamily units available, although we
expect that number to dramatically increase over the next several years due to the
private market meeting the demands of the growth and also the recent changes to the
City zoning code to increase and accommodate a variety of family and housing
availability.
Regarding the increase of median household income, that income growth has not been felt by
all residents of our community. Equally certainly, there's some room to grow in terms of
ensuring that that income growth is being experienced by all of our members. It's important to
note, I think, in conjunction with the Housing Action Implementation Plan, I think in July , we
will probably be ready to share with the commission at least a draft of the Economic
Development Strategy that is being prepared also by the City of Pasco . And I think what we'll
be able to delineate is sort of the relationship between the jobs in Pasco and the incomes
associated with those jobs in Pasco .
So, what does affordable mean? The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines
affordable housing as households that expend 30% or less of their household income on
household costs. City of Pasco:
► Average Rent: $1,272; Affordable to households making $50, 880
► Median Sale Price: $386,000; Affordable to households making $96,500
Renters and owners both experienced income growth between 2010 and 2021 , but the
magnitude of the changes differs by tenure and renters are the most vulnerable to the rising cost
of housing. This can be due to a variety of factors, including just the limited availability of
rental homes on the market, certainly something that we will be looking at into the future.
Who is impacted by housing is based on their employment in terms of the employment sector.
So there is certainly a lot more room for us to make some improvements , identify some policy
solutions, identify, and mitigate those gaps for our residents in the City.
Pl annin g Commi ss ion Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 8 May 18, 2023
Needs:
► 15,000+ new housing units by 2040
► Increase housing options for increased younger householders
► More housing for lower and middle income earners
► Housing options for seniors
Strategies:
► Continued evaluation of potential regulatory barriers
o Code amendments
► Housing Incentives
o Subsidies
o Regulatory relief
o Increased flexibility
o Fee Credits/Reductions
► Preservation of Housing Stock
o Incentives
o Subsidies
► Completed/On-going Regulatory Changes
o ADU's allowed city wide
o Missing Middle allowed 80%+ of zoned residential
o Flexible standard increased near: public schools, parks and recreational facilities ,
health related services, public transportation, civic/government facilities
o Residential Design Standards (In progress)
o Updating Community Development Block Grant Policies
o Anti-Displacement Policies
We do not want to take a one size fits all approach. So what works in one city may not work in
Pasco , but what this has shown is that there is a significant need and feasibility for us to hire
staff that are focused on housing, increase our community engagement efforts , train staff not
only at the City , but with our partner agencies on just the general awareness of available
housing resources, partnering with our public agencies such as the school district chambers and
economic development partners about housing opportunities and just continued work on the
overall housing challenges we're facing in the community.
Comments/Questions from Commissioners:
Commissioner Crutchfield stated her concerns as the City was built to accommodate a certain
amount of growth. We only have so much capacity for traffic, sewer, again , to accommodate
and I hope that is being looked at by planning department since it is proposing this aggressive
growth. I have a problem with part of this information that says they want to identify incentives
to private developers via bonus densities and exemptions from certain development standards.
Also , you may have a completely dead lawn next to one that is well taken care of and so I find
that we're not even really taking care of those already established places. Also , I would hope the
city would really look at those kinds of developments with a stem eye and safety for all.
Jacob Gonzalez answered each county is responsible for allocating growth projections to each
Pl ann in g Commission Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 8 May 18, 2023
of the jurisdictions within each county. So, we work closely with our partners literally across
the street at Franklin County during our comprehensive planning years . Allocate that
percentage that will be for Pasco and our neighboring communities do the same. Those are all
derived out of the Washington State Growth Management Act. The forecast numbers
themselves are delineated from the forecast team at the Washington State Department of Office
of Financial Management. In tenns of the long range planning with regards to infrastructure,
particularly transportation , water, sewer, irrigation, etc., I think it's safe to say that for the first
time in a very long time , that the City of Pasco actually has all of our major long range
planning efforts aligned together. And so when we work closely with the Department of Public
Works and also the Division of Development Review Services, we all are using generally the
same forecasting numbers.
And certainly, there are some incentives that we can maybe evaluate and identify that maybe a
practical and reasonable for growth in the City of Pasco. But by no means would those
incentives be used to deteriorate or produce levels of service with regards to traffic,
transportation, safety, or infrastructure that is less than the adopted level of service standard. So
while there may be incentives that may be provided or recommended to the Planning
Commission in the future about accommodating increased growth, certainly none of those
would be to the extent that would deteriorate the levels of service that we experience on our
roadways or on our infrastructure today. It's important to note that I think staff certainly has an
eye on the growing transportation challenges across the city, the entire City along those lines .
Staff will continue to bring back to the Planning Commission policy recommendations and
code regulations that continue to address those challenges to increase access , increased
connectivity, increased safety, etc.
What's often lost about the housing discussion is that the second highest household expenditure
outside of the household cost itself is the cost of transportation. And so, staff certainly is well
aware. We welcome your comments , we encourage those comments. But by no means will we
offer incentives or exemptions that would deteriorate the infrastructure credibility for residents
or businesses in the City of Pasco.
Commissioner Lehnnan stated I noticed that it says on page two that there were 825 responses
from the survey April through May. I was wondering, in the past we've seen a lot of surveys go
out. How does that number 825 compare to past surveys? Is that an increase about standard or
below what you've seen in the past?
Jacob Gonzalez answered, unfortunately, that's a pretty high number. We are excited that we
had the staff report was drafted last week, so we're closer to 900. But ideally, we'd love to have
a much higher number of responses in any survey or any engagement effort. We're never going
to capture the entire community. But by no means will staff use this to be representative of the
entire community, because it certainly is not. I think ideally, we would have much higher
participation. I think what it really demonstrates is that there's more work to do in terms of
increasing our engagement with members of the community.
Commissioner Lehnnan stated you had mentioned about an increase in community engagement
and hiring a new staff member to help out with that. Will that also include help promoting the
community block grants to be able to possibly help educate and provide in multiple languages
Planning Commission Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 8 May 18, 2023
so we can be able to attract a greater diversity of our residents to be able to capitalize on the
same opportunities as others may?
Jacob Gonzalez stated I think so. I think what we're going to be able to take advantage of, of the
Housing Action Plan is a much more definitive set of recommendations that actually get us to
these solutions versus broad based policy recommendations because, quite frankly , we've
already addressed a lot of the regulatory changes . This Planning Commission has been a big
part of that. Because of those successes , we can now move forward towards , I think, the more
tangible recommendations , such as maybe hiring more staff or looking at reprioritizing our
existing programs. I do know that in particular, our staff working with the Community
Development Block Grant Program are working with our marketing team to identify some
methods to increase engagement variety over across a variety of mediums to make sure that the
community members are aware of that program.
OTHER BUSINESS
• Memo 2022 Comprehensive Plan Amendment Docket
Jacob Gonzalez stated this is just a brief summary of what was accomplished during the 2022
cycle. The City Council adopted several ordinances , numbers 4649 through 4663 last month, I
think , 15 out of 16 Comprehensive Plan Amendments that you saw over the duration of 2022 and
the earlier parts of 2023 . Next you will see the privately initiated amendments that were adopted by
Council. There was one amendment, that was continued for the 2023 docket because of the pending
environmental review. But outside of that item , all of the other private and City initiated items were
recommended by the City Council for approval and those are now essentially in effect. So what we
will begin to see now over the next several months and likely several years, are the corresponding
rezones associated with these land use amendments.
The 22 docket is now complete and now we work on the 23 docket. And I think you'll be happy to
know that we've only got two applications . One is the one that was continued from the 22 cycle.
And then we have one new application . That period ended on May 1. And we expect to bring these
two items back to you this summer and early fall , 2023. But really just an opportunity for us to
thank the Planning Commission for your extensive involvement and effort in probably one of the
larger dockets adopted in the state in recent time. Thank you for your time.
ADJOURNMENT
Chair Cochran stated with no other business, I recommend a motion to adjourn.
Commissio ner L ehrman made the motion to adjourn the meeting, it was seconded by
Commissioner Moffitt. Pass ed unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 7:35 pm .
Carmen Patrick , A ministrative Assistant II
Community & Economic Development Department
P lannin g Commission Meet in g Min utes Page 8 of8 May 18, 2023