Olympia Council of Neighborhood Associations
July 10, 2023; 6:30 p.m.
Live at Squaxin Park
Facilitator: Larry Dzieza, Chair
Notetaker: Larry Dzieza
Attending: Larry Dzieza (Nottingham), Tim Smith, Deputy Director, Community Planning and Development, City of Olympia, Bob Jacobs (Gov. Stevens), Judy Bardin (Northwest), Karen (Clemens) Sweeney (Eastside), Dana McAvoy (East Bay Drive), Martha Worcester (Redwood Estates), Jeffrey Showman (Wildwood), Melissa Allen (Bigelow Heights), Justin Belk (Southwest), John Saunders (South Capitol), Bob Jones (Goldcrest), Leslie Wolff (Northwest), Bruce Coulter (Eastside), Karen Messmer (former Olympia City Councilmember), Jim Lazar (former chair Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee).
Neighborhood Updates:
South Capitol is having a meeting at Lincoln with fire department about how to be more proactive, especially about the weather and 4th of July. Trying to have more speakers and make it fun, like parties and get togethers and maybe get a grant. Also educational.
Bob Jacobs – 8 square blocks and a very successful garage sale. Mike Ruth provided GIS information about Governor Stevens neighborhood. He said he has 104 houses, 121k median income, 9 rental units which must include ADUs.
Karen from Eastside. Just had block party with a big turnout at Lions park with 75 people plus several other parties with a total of about 200 people. They had planned a Pub Crawl but decided instead to make it a doughnut crawl. Mike Ruth profiled Eastside 1,200 housing units 470 rentals $70k median income, 2450 people.
Dave Marty, Indian Creek. Looking to do a summer thing. 430 houses 46 renters $112k median income.
Judy Bardin – Scheduled to have meeting next week and a work party and working on their matching grant. Work parties are mostly weeding.
Melissa Allen, Bigelow Highlands – Having block party with live music and food on National Night Out at Bigelow Park. Related that she has had success with putting out a jar for donations rather than trying to collect dues. Concerned about sidewalks and street safety and desire to be a walkable neighborhood but there are not enough sidewalks and walkways.
Marty Worcester, Redwood Estates. It is small but becoming more active. Got funding to fix the circle and lots of community involvement in fixing it up. Sometimes have a potluck and looking to increase the interaction with “pop-up” parties. Also considering joining with other neighborhoods for a joint garage sale. There are nearby Southwest neighborhoods that are not recognized.
Justin Belker, Got update on capital mall triangle from the city. Pretty general like the previous update last year. Talking about resurrecting their summer party for mid-August. Mike reported that the neighborhood has 2,227 houses, 1,380 rentals. 101 vacancies. $53,000 median income and population 5,000 people.
Dana McAvoy, East Bay Drive, lot of informal outside activities among neighbors. September 7th annual picnic will be held at the Squaxin Park. 135 households. $115k median income. 172 total population indicates single person households.
Jim Lazar, Holiday Hills, not recognized neighborhood. Upcoming Saturday is their neighborhood garage sale.
Leah, lives near Wildwood but area is not part of an existing RNA. She is thinking about creating a new one or joining with an existing one.
6:45 – 6:50 Chair Reports:
Outcome on Zero Parking Minimum and Reduced Maximum Update Council voted to approve it with significant reductions in parking and only requiring a single ADA accessible parking spot regardless of the number of units.
Expanding the Multi-Family Tax Exemptions are being considered. Larry pointed out that this is a tax shift and every dollar exempted to the developer ends up being paid by everyone else through an increased tax rate.
Larry discussed the city’s end of year spending list by the Council. The city ends up with millions of dollars in unexpended budget capacity and then decides how to reallocate that spending. Larry discussed each item. $300,000 of the over $6 million would be for sidewalks. Larry pointed out that there are many items that the City should have known it needed to budget for but didn’t, such as election costs and half of the money for records management. They are also hiring a federal lobbyist that they expect will be an ongoing cost. Usually, end of year spending is focused on one-time, not ongoing costs. The city was undecided on whether to put several million in for funding the Basic Life Support transport takeover by the city from private ambulances.
GIS update on Neighborhoods and Development data. The city is moving from ESRI to ARC-Pro causing city to start a project to integrate online permitting software SmartGov.
Councilmember Update
A question was posed about changes to downtown parking. They are under consideration.
A question about the $1.3 million for homeless spending from the end of year list. Clark described the pattern of the end of year spending. The specific number was thought to be funded for social workers from the Commerce Department. Both this item and the federal lobbyist were fluid and unpredictable.
Other South Sound communities are getting more grants and that is a reason for the federal lobbyist.
Clark reminded the group about the Comprehensive Plan Update and urged the RNAs to participate in the survey about the first section dealing with Public Participation. Clark would like to have more co-creating with the community.
Melissa asked for his reaction to some Council saying the need for the CNA and RNAs is less because there are so many more commissions and social media that do a better job representing a broader cross-section of the community.
Leah cautioned that social media can give a very distorted view of public opinion. Clark said that including more voices should not mean discounting others.
Downtown Association is doing an “I Love Oly” event. They had a big weekend and a great street party and more attendance than Art Walk (using geo-fencing techniques).
The Arts Interventions at the Armory are being conducted and doing concerts. Olympia Art Museum pop-up happening.
Melissa gave Kudos to the Eastside RNA for pushing for the Armory.
City Engagement Survey
Larry briefly highlighted the survey results that showed one of the most positive responses came from residents about their neighborhoods. Larry said that we should highlight that while 70% of residents believe the city is on the “wrong track” we really like our neighborhoods and we should build on our strengths.
Sidewalk funding backgrounder – Jim Lazar
Jim was involved for many years on getting funding for sidewalks. He discussed the codes and funding in the past which provide little funding and sparse requirements for new construction (i.e, one side of street only sidewalks). They got funding tripled to $150,000, made improvements to the codes, and mapped out the condition of sidewalks using volunteers.
Launched a sidewalks and parks utility tax vote increase that passed. But when it passed, the Council used the $150,000 for repair and then the Council removed all the funding during the financial crash in 2008. It was never restored.
For a variety of reasons, the Utility tax revenues has stagnated. In 2005, the sidewalk revenue was $1.08 million. In 2023, just less than a million. Mostly due to less land line phones.
Jim highlighted the use of the Utility tax revenue to go towards Fones road (several million) instead of using regular transportation dollars. He considers it is a diversion from the what the voters voted on.
Jim discussed options for funding. He pointed out that the current approach of having the homeowner pay for repairs is not working. Another idea is to create a Local Improvement District (Ocean Shores sidewalk example) but can be very contentious. Increase development impact fees and apply it to new developments for sidewalks when a big development has an adverse impact on walkability.
Another option is a Transportation Benefit District that can be used or increased for sidewalks. Also the Voted Utility Tax could be increased.
Bob asked about Fones Road costs. He sees it as being excessive given what is being built. Jim said he doesn’t think it was based on costs but rather the amount of match needed for the road project.
A question was asked about how much the public is willing to pay for sidewalks.
Larry said that based on listening to discussions by the city, they are looking at changing their policy and take more responsibility for sidewalks.
Melissa asked why the downtown property owners are not responsible for their sidewalks and the city takes care of it all. Larry said that the city’s policy is generally recognized as inconsistent.
Tim’s Report on Development
Tim Smith provided an update on city development project 1500 mf in permit review 600 under construction for 2,100 city wide. Judy Bardin asked how many were SFH. There are about 480 single family lots with most construction in apartments.
Larry informed the attendees about the Habitat for Humanity open house.
Website Grant Planning
Dana McAvoy updated the CNA on the grant to develop an easy to use and low-cost website development tools and service. Subcommittee meetings are being held and the results will be brought back to the group.
MOU Finalization
A vote passed unanimously to accept the current version of the MOU.
Proposal for Quarterly Neighborhood Forum – Sidewalks
Larry and the members discussed what a forum on sidewalks might look like. Justin suggested that the $3 million taken for Fones Road be restored to build and repair sidewalks. The participants would include city officials and employees.
Larry in response to questions said that there would be joint preparation for the meeting to assure that is based on a foundation of facts and jointly agreed to by RNAs and the city.
Larry believes that connecting with local schools is important for broadening the reach of the forum. Several ideas were raised about what kind of data (especially financial) would be needed and assumptions to be agreed upon. Jim Lazar added that the “side effects” of certain development policies (stormwater) that affect sidewalk conditions and their funding should be included. Another issue was how much the city spends on mega projects to the exclusion of smaller projects that could be widespread and show all of Olympia that the city cares. One idea is setting aside a percentage of improvement money for neighborhood directed priorities. Bob Jacobs also raised the relationship between street trees and sidewalks.
Clark said that the $300k for sidewalks (identified in the end-of-year spending) out of the $140 million was a small investment but will result in a positive start.
The CNA agreed that sidewalks should be the first quarterly forum.
City Council Candidate Neighborhood Questionnaire: Go/ No go decision
It was voted to send out questions to candidates.
Other Items
Bob Jacobs was thanked for paying for and arranging the Squaxin venue.
Melissa shared that she set up a voter registration booth for their block party and recommended others do that too.
A suggestion that the Port and its airport might be a topic going forward.
Judy asked about plans for funding for sea level rise. Clark replied that it is being discussed.
Minutes were approved.
Council of Neighborhood Associations 