MEETING AGENDA
- 6:30 – 6:55 Agenda presentation and Neighborhood Happenings
- 6:55 – 7:00 Prior meeting minutes approval (May)
- 7:00 – 7:30 Update from Council Member Gilman
- Phase II Status and Effects
- Status of Tax Exemptions for Market Rate Housing
- 7:30 – 7:50 Review of CNA Mission/Charter (expires December 11, 2021)
- 7:50 – 8:00 Update on City Administrative Funding for CNA
- 8:00 – 8:25 Discussion: identifying & sharing names & addresses of neighborhood association contacts
- 8:30 Adjourn
Meeting Handouts:
Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Minutes
Date: Monday, June 8th 2020 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Location: Zoom virtual meeting
Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Minutes
Monday, June 08, 2020
6:00 – 8:30 PM
Virtual Meeting
Present: Council of Neighborhood Associations Officers: Larry Dzieza (Nottingham) – Chair, Mark Toy (SWONA) and Jim Rioux (ENA) – Co-Secretaries
Members: Denise Pantelis (CRANA),Judy Bardin (NWONA), Bruce Coulter (NWONA), Bob Jacobs (GSNA), Darrah Johnson (Wildwood NA), Jenn Wulf (DNA), Bob VanSchoorl (South Capital), John Newman (Burbank Elliott Neighborhood Association), Dana McAvoy (Eastbay Drive), Martha Worcester (Redwood Estates)
City & State Representatives & Presenters: Lydia Moorehead (Community Planning). Clark Gilman (City Council)
AGENDA
6:30 – 6:48 Agenda presentation
Introductions +Each Neighborhood representative provides a 1-minute overview of “Challenges and/or happenings of interest in your neighborhood.”
John (BENA) Proposed Green Cove Park is still in limbo. City has asked for clarification on toxic waste. Developer says he has supplied all information needed and City should issue permit. Studies indicate creosote logs are still a problem. We are getting ready for the upcoming election.
Darrah (Wildwood) Still working on how we can get together as neighbors. Had some ideas but set them down until phase 3.
Jenn (DNA) Downtown is neighborhood of protests. Police violence and the presence of white nationalists is very troubling. Many residents support the protests. Many are deeply troubled by police response to protests. We hope protests go on until something changes. Oppose use of tax dollars for protest suppression and for low flying planes.
Great things are happening too. Activism and community coming together. Businesses painting over plywood in support of protest and some businesses opening.
Judy (NWONA) – I have been in so not taking part in protests. There is a new development planned near West Bay. 400 + market rate housing units. NWONA is concerned about traffic impacts
Denise (CRANA) – Food project will do a modified pickup. Asking for brown paper bags instead of green bags. Looking for four items canned soup, mac & cheese, canned fruit and 8” tortillas. Also looking for extra bags and cash donations. They need healthy volunteers to work in warehouse.
There is an upcoming SPRC meeting about prosed townhouse development on Boulevard Rd.
Dana (Eastbay) – We have not figured out how to meet. The City reopened Priest Point Park. Parking along Eastbay Drive has moved to parking lots. Significant increase in people out and enjoying weather.
Bob (GSNA) – Continuing to have lots of pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
Mark (SWONA) – We are holding a virtual meeting n June 18th. Going to try using CAN’s zoom. My replacement for president has backed out.
Jim (ENA) A lot more activity. Good but poor discipline about social distancing. Association is doing well using president’s unlimited account. Talking about trying to conduct normal events. Committed to scheduling and seeing how it goes. City is going forward with spray park. Also tracking what’s happening with Armory. Found out City has taken initiative to gain historic designation.
Bruce (NWONA ) – Had update from Council about gateway project. Moving ahead with Westbay drive installation. Hope is that it will be in place by August.
Bob (SCNA) Calm. Working on a project to address parking in our neighborhood. Working with law enforcement to address parking problem that occurred during recent protest. Appreciate the police force representatives that have kept us informed.
Larry (Nottingham) – not much going on, but lots of construction. Heavy truck traffic. Feel like living on a constructions site. Walkers and bicyclists very active. Still on wait and see for block party. Concerned about statewide uptick in cases.
6:48 – 6:52 Prior meeting minutes approval (April) – Some members wanted more detail. Larry used recording to include more information. Larry also made some edits that were suggested by Bob Jacobs
Minutes approved
6:52 – 7:28: Update from Councilmember Gilman –
Issue of racism and policing are dominating time and attention. There are still other things going on. Tonight, I was was asked to speak about movement to Phase 2 and the Multi Family Tax exemptions.
COVID-19 Phase 2
Phase 2 – Second phase allows limited openings and groups of up to five. Still need social distancing and masks. That’s happening about half the time. Asked to limit travel. Businesses can open when they meet state guidelines. Church services still very limited. Some in person worship allowed. Outdoor up to 100 people with social distancing or indoor with up to 25% capacity and 50 people max. In home with up to 5 individuals. High risk people should limit their participation in social activities
At the City, a majority of operations staff are returning. Parking staff returned to their shifts, so meters are functioning. Clean team has been working very hard. A planned event with DNA to power wash downtown has been postponed
Finance team has returned to City Hall to draft 2021 budget documents.
There is a Downtown project, initiated by Mike Reid our Economic Development Director, to find ways to use public infrastructure (closed streets, etc.) to allow additional restaurant seating, sidewalk sales etc.
One big question is what could bump us back to Phase 1? We did see a Mother’s Day spike and cases continue each day.
Condition for Phase 2 that we have less than 25 cases in 14 days is target not a rule. Health care facility capacity and testing sufficiency could keep us from falling back. Dr. Diana Yu is back, and she has put out a plea to use face coverings. Changing from “should use”, to “must use”.
Larry – Agree that mask use is an issue. Discussion with association received resistance. Messages from authorities is mixed and needs to be more consistent.
Jenn – I was at Target and I was bumped by someone without a mask. We need stronger wording in messages.
Mark – I work at DOH and as of Monday it is mandatory to wear cloth face coverings always when in the office.
Larry – Can you talk about testing?
Clark – I personally do not have a lot of information. Kaiser and Providence both have testing. Testing is now considered adequate in Thurston County
Mark – State just issued new testing strategy. Criteria are looser. Only need COVID-10 like symptoms, be in contact with someone who has symptoms or be in contact with someone in an institution like a nursing home or jail.
Multi-Family Property Tax Exemptions
Council Member Gilman reviewed the history of the program. The program is in the Olympia Municipal Code. It was adopted in 1977. At that time, we had a single program that offered a 10-year exemption. It was limited to Downtown. Legislature expanded program in 2009 to include an 8-yr. exemption for unrestricted market rate projects and 12-yr. exemption for projects with minimum of 20% low income.
There were a few projects around 2009, then very few until 2017. There are now five active projects in. Owners receive an exemption on value of residential development. Land is still taxed.
Non-profit projects receive an exemption through a different program.
There are 102 Washington cities eligible. Twenty-six have had projects that were granted the exemption.
The program has geographic boundaries. Our area is Downtown, eastside between 4th and State up to Martin and Martin up to Lilly Rd. and Westside along Harrison up to Decatur.
LUEC (Land Use and Environment Committee) is concerned about how we can have a robust public dialog in social distancing environment. Staff will provide a briefing with options, but I’m inclined to wait until we can meet.
Clarks said he has four criteria that I’m thinking about:
- Would the project have been built without incentive?
- Does the community benefit warrant the financial benefit to the developers?
- Is there a net benefit in local government revenue?
- Is there a possible combination of incentives to spur the creation of income restricted affordable housing?
LUEC will discuss on June 18 5:00 pm Zoom meeting.
Larry – This has come up a lot. There has been debate about effectiveness, but it seems that this was exactly the policy that Council wanted at the time. Times have changed so now we are questioning whether it is still the policy we want. We need a new baseline to answer that question.
Clark – JLARC did a report and had concerns about sloppy implementation at the City level. The questions are: Do we continue the program? ….and if yes How do we tighten reporting?
Judy – Is there any data? Can we get data? How many were constructed? What are they renting for? Who can afford these units. Is it having a negative effect on low income units? New units seem to be luxury units and seem to be driving low income out of downtown.
Clark – City is now gathering data. Cary Retlin is trying to collect that kind of data. That is coming and we will begin annual reports. We are working with Lacey and Tumwater conducting a housing plan that will look at exactly what Judy was talking about.
Bob – It’s unfortunate that Olympia is one of the Cities that was sloppy. It is also a concern that there is an assumption that the market will not create the necessary housing without subsidies. We should simply let the laws of supply and demand work.
Larry – With regard to the current climate around racism and policing, what can we do at a neighborhood level?
Clark – Acknowledge that there is racism in Olympia. Have eyes open and standing witness makes sense. Be willing to watch and speak up.
We have mostly been in a grieving and raging time. We need to move to some hard listening that centers on people of color and others that have been historically suppressed so that solutions make sense to them.
One specific action is a proposal to create a Human Rights Commission. We also have two complaints against Olympia police offices. Unfortunately, that they have been tried on Facebook. We should focus on structures and leadership rather than looking for bad actors.
Clark outlined the case that involved a statement made by a corrections officer that was detaining a protester and the photograph of an officer posing with armed people. Internal review of both are underway.
Larry – Have you looked at our agreement with the police union?
Clark – Yes and I shared with the rest of Council
Bob – I have been concerned that people have focused on complaints. My experience is that if anyone is in a regulatory role they are probably going to get complaints and they are probably not doing their job if they don’t.
Clark – That is the reason for a clearly prescribed process for reviewing those complaints. The city has been involved in 5-year effort to reform. The question is whether we will be able to deal with systemic racism.
Martha – I’m concerned with the use of choke holds and other means of carotid or respiratory suppression. I was employed in health care. We had ways for taking down people that were high. We never touched their head. These practices can cause brain damage.
Jenn – Police are responding with a lot of force and have been for several years. There is not a need for this level of force, and it is a great concern to me. People and business owners are not sure they want to stay in Olympia due to police response.
Larry – Emotions are high. Ideas are being put forward. The question is how to sustain these discussions when the emotions are gone. We need to institutionalize the force for change because this takes a long time.
7:28 – 7:54 Review of CNA Mission/Charter
Larry reviewed the MOU with the City. We will need a new MOU in 18 months. There are several provisions that are worth reviewing.
- Neighborhood Issues Forums – Are these happening?
There was some discussion about meetings in the past that fell into this category.
Denise mentioned that there was a thought that the neighborhoods would have a voice at Site Plan Review Committee Meetings but there has not been much traction for that. We need a more concerted effort to get neighborhoods involved.
- New Development Provisions. – MOU states that CNA will have a roll in housing proposals. Is that happening?
Lydia – City issues Notice of Application and at that time nearby NA’s are included in distribution. Each neighborhood has two contacts listed. Anyone that responds becomes a party of record and receives updates on the permit process.
Larry – What triggers a notice?
Lydia – It depends. Not all building permit trigger notice. If a proposal needs a land use permit or goes to design review, notice is required.
Judy – Nothing goes to design review until it is five units. Anything less would go to staff. So small improvements like a car port or an ADU would not trigger notice.
One of the provisions of the Ciyt’s MOU includes a section regarding the CNA role in “Co-Hosting” Neighborhood Development Forums in conjunction with the City and developers. Larry asked what history of this element is. Seems like opportunity to develop stronger relationships.
Denise – The thought at the time we wrote the MOU was that this would help developer avoid resistance.
Martha – The thinking was to create opportunity for associations with limited capacity to join together and have stronger voice. That’s what the sub-area concept was introduced to accomplish.
Lydia – Developers are required hold co-hosted neighborhood meetings.
- Neighborhood and Sub-Area Plans –
Larry – Second neighborhood is creating plan. What is status?
Lydia – Eastside. Their plan was accepted in January. Previous was ONA
Jim offered to make a presentation to CNA.
- Annual Reports
Larry – The only one I found was quite extensive
Denise – That one was an extraordinary effort. Subsequent years were more abbreviated. They should all be on our website
7:54 – 8:06 Update on City Administrative Funding
Hosting of CNA website. Current host ending and we need to find a new one. We requested funding of the website, a Zoom account and a Survey Monkey account. The website was not included, it is not in the language of the agreement, but the full amount was approved.
Zoom account – Requested a Zoom Pro account. Not clear how we give control of account to others. The group discussed alternative and decided to try the following.
- Larry will create the account.
- Members will request the meeting.
- Members will be given the password so that they can control the meeting.
- After the meeting Larry will change the password.
Survey Monkey – We went with “Team Advantage”. It offers many features that we think will be good for our membership.
8:06 – 8:15 Question from Bob Jacobs
Could Works In Progress (WIP) distribute a copy of their paper to the CNA e-mail addresses?
Bob – There is a more basic question about whether our contact information is available to the public.
Lydia – Per OMC that information is public. This typically is requested by developers. This request is new.
Bob was interested in knowing if people were comfortable with sharing the information with WIP. Consensus was that it was ok.
Bob asked if hard copy or e-mail was preferred. Consensus was e-mail.
Bob will share this with WIP.
8:15 – 8:18 Insurance Update
Mark conducted research and found that it is not cost effective to seek an umbrella policy. Best approach is for each association obtain their own policies.
8:18 – 8:22 Raising Funds
Jenn asked about structure of other associations dues. Members shared their dues structures and the importance of communicating value of association to the neighborhood.
8:22 – 8:27 Question about increasing membership and meeting with neighbors
Jenn- With COVI-19 we are losing neighbors and members. What are others doing to increase members and neighborhood connections?
Darrah – Quarterly newsletters help keep members engaged.
Larry – Key to the question is, “What is the value you bring to the neighborhood?” In my area we have shared things we care about that leads to an ongoing activity level. The association also provides a voice for engaging in local politics and policy.
Judy – Do you know why you are losing neighbors.
Jenn – Its economic pressure. Loss of jobs. People are moving home, to family or to location of new jobs.
8:30 Meeting was Adjourned
Council of Neighborhood Associations 