July 27 City Council Meeting
City Council started with an Executive Session before convening the regular meeting.
WHERE’S THE FUN? Movies at the square, featuring Zootopia 2, was last week. Skate Like A Girl summer day camp is this week at City Hall.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Commenters spoke about the 192nd St. sidewalk project; expressed concern for a cedar tree and concerns about the design of the corner. They noted the “stream” does not flow year round, and salmon cannot live in a stream that is dry.
Tracy Banaszynski spoke about the parcels adjacent to Swamp Creek near 522 (TOD). She supports increased height in exchange for larger buffers. She advocated for no development in the buffer.
Elizabeth Mooney, representative of one of the non-profits that is co-hosting stream fest, spoke and asked people to spread the word. There will be music and fish printing, and it is free.
CONSENT AGENDA
Adopted unanimously.
BUSINESS AGENDA
192nd SIDEWALK / CULVERT PROJECT
John Vicente and Terri Bielenberg presented. The project is just East of 73rd on 192nd and proposes both sidewalk work and a culvert replacement on Little Swamp Creek Tributary 1 (listed as potentially fish bearing). The window to do this work is July 15 - September 30 (fish window). Staff has initiated conversations with the eight impacted property owners; three have acquisitions (two for culvert, one corner), four to five have temporary construction easements. There is one possible tree impact.
Staff requested authorization for condemnation, which allows the use of eminent domain if an agreement cannot be reached with the property owners. This is because the window they have to work is fairly narrow, and they want to be prepared if they cannot reach an agreement. Residents were first notified of the project in Q4 2024 when staff asked for right of entry permission to do surveying. A letter was recently sent out showing the right-of-way line and impacts; as they gather more information, they will continue communicating with residents about what they need and why they need it.
CM Culver asked about the priority of this for culvert projects. Environmental Services Director Richard Sawyer said that this, and the other current CIP projects, are in the top dozen in terms of priority.
CM Adman asked about funding. [The culvert is federally funded]
CM Culver doesn’t believe this is pressing; we are taking the opportunity to go after available grants. He had met with a property owner and was critical of the public outreach and said some residents only heard about this on July 3. It’s 67% passable, and there’s a 100% total barrier upstream. He thinks eminent domain is a big stick to draw, and would like to work with the community to find a way to not use it. He would like the dollars to be used on a different Swamp Creek tributary.
CM Loutsis said he’s generally in favor of improving pedestrian infrastructure within ¼ mile of the elementary school. When it comes to pedestrian safety, anything is better than nothing. Most of the parcels only have a temporary easement required.
Motion passed 6-1 with CM Culver opposed.
169th CULVERT PROJECT
Presented by Richard Sawyer and Andrew Sylvia. This project proposes to replace an existing city-owned culvert which is undersized to handle flow for larger storms, resulting in flooding, and is too steep to allow for fish passage. DFW designated it a total fish-passage barrier in 2021, and it’s backed by a $750k King County grant. The impacts are all temporary in nature (three properties); all the work is within the stream itself and a few feet buffer area. This agenda item also involves a condemnation ordinance for temporary use.
CM Culver, who opposed 192nd, gave this his full support — high priority, maximal impact, and no eminent domain needed.
Motion passed unanimously
MULTI-FAMILY TAX EXEMPTION (MFTE) PROCESS FOR KENMORE INN APARTMENTS
Sam Loyuk presented. This process involves converting the old Kenmore Inn motel to a 27-unit apartment building. Seven units would be reserved for 50% or less area median income (AMI). The property underwent an illegal conversion, and in September 2024 the City issued a notice of violation; the owner went through a voluntary compliance to legalize the conversion.
CM Marshall asked how long the covenant was for, and if it can be cancelled. The City Attorney said it’s for the lifetime of the project, and if they cancel there are severe penalties under state law.
CM Adman asked if there is any verification of whether they’re doing the low-income rent. Sam said ARCH will be enforcing it through audits and annual reporting.
DM Sasson asked which units get the exemption. The City Attorney said that it goes towards the improvements, so the exemption is on what is required to turn the structure to a multi-family property.
Mayor Herbig asked if this conversion counts as new construction on our property tax calculations.
Passed unanimously.
FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORT
Melinda Merrell presented. Everything is on track - property taxes look low because they are cyclical, and we brought in large amounts in April and May. Investment interest is up because they have been doing a good job of getting investments at 4% or higher. They have spent more on legal fees because of the ballot measure. Street fund is doing well and they have an intention of spending down some of those funds.
KAPE’s final court cost for 2025 was just shy of 1.5m. Through Q1, we are just shy of 2m. Infractions are running ahead of target. Public works numbers are ramping up slower than they thought since the facility won’t be completed until later in 2027. Surface water is a little soft, but this is cyclical with property tax revenue dollars so it should get caught up.
PIF (Park impact fees) and TIF (transportation impact fees) are on target. PIF is a little lower but still within range. REET and TBD (transportation benefit district). REET has been running soft; it’s still in line.
CM Adman asked about the net projection on KAPE. Melinda said that it looks like we have enough revenue to cover the cost.
CM O’Cain asked what our revenue from KAPE is expected to be. Melinda said through the end of 2025 we ended with $742k in fund balance; we are ahead of target through Q3 at $500k. She anticipates that we will have a surplus amount of money. The fund has intentional transfers to other programs to support them. City Manager Kilgore said that part of what they’re trying to solve is how much they can send to police costs.
CM Culver asked if there was a chance that this ended in the red. Melinda said that if the base operations came in high, she’d have conversations about all the transfers.
DM Sasson said that she hopes we will have a conversation about court costs because the current system isn’t ideal. CIty Manager Kilgore said that the courts have caught up on the backlog, and part of that is because they have not rolled out the transportables. They’ve done their best; part of the challenge is that these are treated the same as every other traffic infraction, and legislation to treat them as administrative hearings would help.
TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Presented by Debbie Bent and Brittany Chue. When new standards were incorporated into the 522 Corridor, 13 parcels around Grocery Outlet and Kenmore Lanes were left out and became the Transit Oriented Development. These parcels received a zoning overlay and developers could choose which standards to use. The TOD was supposed to be temporary but has been extended at six-month intervals for over three years. The majority of the parcels are developed under old standards, which do not provide good stormwater protection for Swamp Creek. Redevelopment of these parcels will both provide environmental and housing benefits.
Staff presented a regulatory framework that balances competing goals of higher residential balanced with protection of Swamp Creek. Our current TOD has a large buffer area which makes development difficult. The residential and commercial areas are separated out, and only about half of the TOD is developable (vs. 85-90% elsewhere). The buffers protect critical areas from development, but as a result land becomes more expensive, and we have affordability requirements, and housing becomes more expensive.
High density helps with BOTH environmental protection and filling the housing need. If we switch to Urban Corridor East, it gives us 162 more housing units. Adopting the Urban Corridor zoning would increase the affordability requirement to 25% of new units from 10%. The optimal situation would be to re-zone to re-zone to Urban Corridor East and Urban Residential. This would open the potential for more residential and affordable units.
CM Adman asked if this is the only TOD area, and confirmed that the shoreline regulation would not change. He asked if they wanted to incorporate bigger setbacks or buffers in the regulatory change or if they needed to wait.
Debbie said if they wanted to increase the buffer it would have to wait, since this would have to go through an amendment and that would take more than a year with ecology.
CM O’Cain said that 85’ felt high in comparison to the rest of the city. She also asked what the impact of 25% vs. 10% affordability is in terms of housing created, and whether we could give the option of buffer restoration to change the affordability requirement. She noted building affordable housing at 50% AMI for 25% of the building is a heavy lift and that could have an impact on attracting good quality development with respect to our shorelines. Not building any housing isn’t going to bring affordability. What she saw in the presentation was leaving it as-is would be worse than redeveloping with restoration.
Debbie said the 25% affordable requirement came from Council direction in 2023; they wanted more affordable housing at 50% AMI. In order to make that pencil, you need more density.
CM Culver asked why there is any urgency in addressing the TOD; we will later be updating the shoreline master plan, and he’s concerned about changing these and allowing developers to vest permits under the new code, which will then change under the shoreline master plan. He wants to complete the shoreline master plan first. He pointed to Ecology’s published draft code, which would require shoreline height to live in the SMP and make restoration mandatory on degraded sites. Height and density make total sense; he has to question why this needs to be right next to the buffer.
CM Loutsis is in favor of the staff recommendation, increasing height and requirements. He was on the planning commission when this was initially discussed; part of the 25% requirement was doing an increase in height and a decrease in parking so the units would pencil CM Loutsis said he doesn’t know how much development is going to happen in the next few years on these parcels; none are for sale. He’s in favor of doing this now.
DM Sasson said that she’s a big fan of this presentation and that this is a data-informed recommendation and she’s in favor of moving forward.
CM Marshall agrees about the lower height, he loves the four-story height of the buildings that went in front of Teo’s. If we can get something to go in, we can improve the stream.
Mayor Herbig said he agreed with CM Adman, Loutsis, and DM Sasson. His concern is that we are seeing developments like what we are seeing at Mia Roma that are just straight residential. He would like commercial integrated. He doesn’t think that height in that area is problematic since it’s adjacent to the highway. Staff clarified that the Mia Roma development was permitted before the regulations; our current regulations require 80% commercial on ground-floor.
STAFF REPORTS
Teri Kilgore said that they’re building the 27-28 budget that will be presented October 5; the next meetings will roll into CIP, and they will be bringing legislative priorities, stream buffers, KAPE deep dive, neighborhood commercial, emergency preparedness, air monitoring, IT Strategic plans, and selection of planning commission members. AND MORE!
COUNCIL REPORTS
CM O’Cain asked if there would be a reserved spot for a youth member. Teri said that this was not calendared. She said this is going to be an important budget season, and we all need to be mindful of where we are at and where we are going. She had six friends at the Bite of Seattle shooting, and it’s hard for her to believe that she knows seven people who have been on the premises of mass shootings.
CM Marshall seconded the interest in a youth seat on the Planning Commission, and the horror surrounding the shooting.
CM Loutsis appreciated the interest in youth seats and will try to work on it in August.
Mayor Herbig said that they always have the prerogative to name a youth to a Planning Commission seat.
