Council of Neighborhood Associations

April 2019

MEETING AGENDA

Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA)
Monday, April 8, 2019
6:30 – 8:30 PM

  • 6:30 PM Welcome and Introductions
  • 6:40 PM Update from Councilmember Gilman
  • 6:50 PM Growth Management Hearings Board: Recent decision and update on impacts to recent Missing Middle ordinance changes.
  • 7:10 PM Downtown Development Update
  • 7:30 PM Capital City Marathon
  • 7:40 PM Networking: Sharing Tips and Best Practices
  • 8:15 PM Call for Announcements/Topics for next meeting

Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Minutes

Date:  Monday, April 08, 2019      Time:  6:30 – 8:30 PM
Location: Olympia City Hall, 601 4th Ave, Room 207, Olympia WA
Present: Officers: Chair, Denise Pantelis, Cain Road Area. Vice Chair, Dave Marty, Indian Creek. Co-secretaries, Marty Worcester, Redwood Estates. & Jennifer Davis, South Capitol. Darrah Johnson, Wildwood. Jackie Stone. Wildwood. Jim Sweeney Eastside. Judy Bardin, Northwest Olympia, Larry Dzieza, Nottingham, Mark Toy, Southwest Olympia, Melissa Allen, Bigelow Highlands, Mike Gowrylow Lakemoor Community Club at Ken Lake, Ryan Holllander, Southwest Olympia.
Representatives and Guests: Leonard Bauer, Deputy Director. Community Planning & Development. Judy Hartman, Coordinator of the Olympia Marathon.

The Meeting Convened at 6:30 PM by Chair, Denise Pantelis. Members and City officials introduced
themselves.

1.  Minutes of March 11, 2019 were corrected and approved as corrected.

2.  Update from the City Council: was deferred as Clark Gilman could not attend due to illness.

3.  Missing Middle and Appeal to the Growth Management Hearings Board: Leonard Bauer & Member input.

a.   Leonard Bauer reported he could not comment on the appeals in process related to the Missing Middle at this time.
b.   Judy Bardin and Larry Dzieza (CNA members) presented information about an appeal to the Growth Management Hearings Board (Board) regarding the recently passed Missing Middle (MM) Ordinance 7160.  .The appeal was made by Olympians for Smart Development & Livable Neighborhoods (OSD&LN) and was filed in January by eleven appellants. The appeal consists of
two parts:

i.  Compliance with the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) related to the City of Olympia’s issued Determination of Non Significance (DNS) on the MM. A DNS decision means there will be no environmental impacts from the Missing Middle.

      •  The City tried to stop the SEPA portion of the appeal by filing a motion for summary judgement (an upfront decision) stating that the appellants did not have standing to bring the appeal before the Board, because the appellants would not be injured by the MM ordinance. The City lost this summary judgement and the appeal moved forward. The Board ruled that a person has standing if they participated in the process by giving oral or written comments.
      • An up-front decision was made by the Board on this SEPA part of the case in summary judgement in favor of OSD&LN. The Board decided that City made a mistake when it issued the SEPA Checklist which failed to address the unavoidable environmental impacts of the MM ordinance. The Board concluded the City’s action violated SEPA by basing its issuance of a DNS on an inadequate Checklist. Additionally, by not addressing the environmental impacts the City Council did not have this needed information when it made a decision on the Missing Middle.
      • Bob Jacobs pointed out that SEPA is broad and covers items such as: noise, air pollution, storm water, erosion, plants and wildlife habitat. It also covers adequacy of schools, transportation and possible displacement of people.

ii.  Consistency with the City of Olympia’s Comprehensive Plan. Does the Missing Middle follow and implement the Comprehensive Plan?

      • This second part of the case will be decided in a hearing to take place at 9 AM on May 23rd at City Hall. People can watch the legal hearing proceedings, but they cannot comment.

c.   Larry noted that incremental changes resulting from implementation of Ordinance 7160 may be insignificant, but the cumulative effect on the environment may well be profound. Without adequate additional quantitative analysis of future impacts of the Ordinance 7160 in advance, the changes as they occur may be so incremental that they will be unlikely to trigger the analysis that should have occurred in advance. A key point he noted is that lay people can understand that while any one project seems like a minor impact, we need to understand the effect over time.

4.   Downtown Development Update – Leonard Bauer and Member Questions. Leonard provided a handout Downtown Projects Recent and Underway  (click here to see it).

a.   He reported 640 units of downtown resident housing units were built since 2015. Most were 2 person units. Two hundred more are in the process of being built. He could not give any figures on the rental costs as this is proprietary information not often shared by owners. Those who
voluntarily share it are not representative of rents so not helpful to present. According to information available the need for downtown units is expected to double in the next 10 to 20 years. Questions and response to the questions follow.

    • Question: How many units being built are considered affordable units

Response: Only the Billy Franks complex is specifically classified as “affordable or lowincome.” Most of the current units being built are called “market price.” Their owners are given tax incentives to reserve a certain number of their units as “low-income” units.

    • Question: How many units would a person with a dishwasher’s salary be able to afford.

Response: Market Flats had proposed designating a few small studio units to be built for that level of income, but ownership has changed and uncertain if current plans still have some more affordable units.

    • Question: How many low-income persons will be displaced when new development occurs?

Response: Current building projects will not displace any current renters. Leonard said he did not know how many will be displaced with future projects being planned. More will be known once the 2020 Census is completed.

    • Question: How about parking space requirements for new units being built on current parking
      lots?

Response: Current zoning requirements do not require buildings now being built to have
parking space for residents. You can view on-line the city’s Downtown Parking Strategy

    •  Question: How are AirBnBs considered in relationship to housing?

Response: It is being studied. A briefing on this issue will occur within the next 2 months.

    • Questions: Is there a new push for downtown grocery stores as part of residential increase.

Response: Not yet, but it is expected to be addressed as density increases.

    • Question: How far back from the street are new buildings for renters required to be?

Response: There are no rules yet for the downtown area. Future units may be expected.

    • Question: How will buildings affect the commercial zones? Will they cannibalize businesses?

Response: The buildings may change the face of downtown with a demand for more businesses.

    • Question: There is a high number of commercial vacancies on the West side. How will new zoning requirements impact these?

Response: Zoning changes are expected to increase density and thus attract more businesses. However, the impact of on-line shopping such as Amazon cannot be predicted.

5.  Capital City Marathon (click for details) by Judy Hartman, Coordinator of the Marathon

a.  Time and Place: The Marathon is Sunday May 19. It begins at 7AM. The course begins and ends at Sylvester Park. There is a time limit for runners to complete the race, at which point, volunteers, police and traffic safety, and course officials are no longer expected.

b.  History and Numbers: The first year of the Marathon was 1982. Some of the original runners will be attending or running the half marathon or 5-mile run and will be recognized as part of the celebration, including Joan Benoit Samuelson. Usually 2000 finish the marathon. This year there are 200 more registered at this point before the race than last year.  Over half of the runners are local residents.

c.  Impact on Businesses and Neighborhoods: The event is planned so all preparation and ending of the event is completed in a single day.  Closures of parks and roads begin as early as 4AM on the same day and all clean up completed by the end of the day. The event brings a boost to the economy on the day of the event and beyond because of people coming from outside to stay in hotels and view the marathon. It has been well supported by businesses and residents. The impact on neighborhoods is taken into account. All neighborhood associations along the route have already been contacted as well as businesses and churches.

d.  Clean Up After and After the Event Reviews: If there are any issues about clean up, let the coordinators know. Water cups are used (20,000) to reduce use of plastics each year. Complaints are rare. We usually hear how thankful residents are for having been well informed. Organizers meet to evaluate the event and develop an action plan from recommendations for the following year such as safety issues with more police presence at certain intersections and clean up issues.

e.  Volunteer Training and Needs: The marathon event is run entirely by volunteers and sponsored by many local businesses. Volunteers are trained for tasks and who to call for medical or safety concern. Sheriffs and police staff more personnel at intersections and remote places on the course for safety concerns. Volunteers are spaced to be in view of the next place a volunteer is located along the course to further enhance safety.

i.  Many volunteers are needed along the course and for various tasks. NAs were encouraged to inform their members and encourage them to be involved as volunteers and in getting the word out and to visit the org website for details.

6.  Networking Time for CNA Attendees: Denise proposed sharing tips and best practices of our Neighborhood Associations (NA) – What’s working, what’s not?

a.  Improving neighborhood resident interactions, and participation and attendance at NA meetings

i.  Jennifer Davis said they have increased neighborhood interactions by having events such as a magician performance to encourage parents with children to attend. Parents showed up and it worked well. Having food at our 6pm meetings has helped. It worked well when we needed involvement in grant writing. This year we sponsored a meeting on Emergency Preparedness, one was on Banners, and another on Parking.  Having a theme for meetings 2 to 3 times a year increased involvement and attendance.

ii.  Lakemoor Community Center has get-togethers at parks. They had a fishing derby and kids were able to catch fish and a NA area 4th of July parade. They also built a dog park built for NA residents only. It has increased interaction among residents. Signage for events was found helpful by some NAs. Types of signs used that worked increased attendance at meetings included sandwich boards, signs stuck in the ground at several places

b.  Dues & Cost Issues: NA dues are usually voluntary. Having a donation basket at meetings and events helps to get funds for events. Others consider in-kind donation in place of dues such as grant writing, blackberry picking and trimming, pocket park upkeep, or 5 hours of volunteer time in lieu of dues. It helps to find out what residents are willing to do and then put them in charge of doing it. One association has a suggested donation each year of $10-15. Another NA links voting to payment of dues.

i.  Home owner’s association (HOA) dues are mandatory but not always paid. They are able to collect the back dues as part of cost of house when a house sold.

ii.  Denise said: One business gave us two-for-one pizzas to reduce that reduced the cost of food for one of our meeting. The pizza place also gave us a free salad from business called . This was for one of our general meetings. Others said it food was difficult due to so many allergies and food preferences.

c.  Dog Park Survey: It was noted that there is a Dog park survey being conducted by the city of Olympia. Three plans are proposed. It was posted March 21st and the deadline for completing the survey is April 15th. NAs were encouraged to go on- line and do the survey right away to meet the deadline. Off-leash parks are part of the survey. NAs may find that it would work for some locations and not others. The Port is also considering a dog park in addition to the city’ planning.  There is a dog park at Powder Works Park in Dupont that is worth visiting as an excellent example of a dog park.

d.  Number of Meetings and Locations for Meeting.

i.  Melissa Allen said Bigelow NA has a four-meeting requirement per year. They have had one successful block party. She thought meetings about a particular issue would help. Jennifer Davis reported South Capitol NA meets monthly except for summer and December. Bruce Coulter, Northwest Olympia NA, meets twice a year. One meeting is about relationships with the city, and one for NA business.

ii.  Some NAs meet in homes, others in schools and at fire stations. Several said meeting in homes makes people uncomfortable, and they felt it was better to meet at a neutral site. Others NA meeting in homes worked well for them. Locations need to be free of charge. You can contact firehalls on their website to reserve space in advance. Some places will not host a meeting because they do not have liability coverage and are concerned about it.

e.  Communication within the NA: Pros and cons were mentioned of subscribing to Next Door Media. It depends on what people post and the technological acumen of NA Members or if the NA already has a web site. Several NAs communicate primarily by email list serves.

f.  Emergency Planning: Systems are needed to let folks know if they need help in an emergency. Suggestions were having houses use an agreed upon signal. Others were to partner with churches for emergency locations and supplies. It was noted that Olympia has a clear plan. Any new locations for gathering or emergency supplies meet city regulation requirements. The Red Cross certifies the locations and reserve supplies places. If there is no location in your area, it is a good idea to partner with a business or church to become certified.

7.  Announcements

a.  Eastside subarea & Armory designation as a historic site. There is a town meeting soon about the Eastside subarea plans. One issue is having the Armory designated as a historic site rather than being bulldozed as is currently planned. Eastside NA wanted to know if others are interested. It was suggested that Eastside talk to City Parks. The military donated the Armory to the city who is working on deciding about it being an historic. Let Jim Sweeney know if you are interested in the meeting or have ideas about the Armory use.

b.  Homeless workshops: Jennifer announced she is on the homelessness workgroup. They are hosting a series of workshops, the next two Public Meetings/Workshops are

i.  Saturday, April 20, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Olympia High School

ii.  Saturday, May 4, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Capital High School

iii.  For more details go to Engageolympia.com  or Homelessness Response

8.  Words of Appreciation:

a.  Appreciation was expressed to Leonard Bauer for news and updates sent to all members. It helps keep us all informed.

9.  Agenda items suggested for May 13th CNA-Meeting:

  • Rules and Regulations for Home Owner’s Associations. State and Local laws.
  • State laws affecting cities.
  • Association of WA Cities –
  • Grant writing support and funds for neighborhoods recap. The person overseeing it is at .25 FTE dedicated to NA.
  • Homeless workgroup updates.

The Meeting Adjourned at 8:30 PM

Submitted by Marty Worcester – Co-Secretary

20190408-minutes PDF