Loading...
2021-10-06 Architectural Design Board MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN BOARD Minutes of Virtual Meeting Via Zoom October 6, 2021 Chair Lauri Strauss called the virtual meeting of the Edmonds Planning Board to order at 7:04 p.m. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT Lauri Strauss Alexa Brooks Maurine Jeude Joe Herr BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT Bruce Owensby Kim Bayer (excused) STAFF PRESENT Eric Engmann, Senior Planner, Development Services Lauri Strauss: Calls the meeting to order Eric Engmann: Does roll call. Present: Lauri Strauss; Maurine Jeude; Joe Herr; Alexa Brooks Absent: Kim Bayer (excused); Bruce Owensby Approval of Agenda Lauri Strauss: Asks for a motion to approve the agenda. (Moved and seconded) Agenda is Approved 4-0. Approval of Minutes Lauri Strauss: Asks for a motion to approve the July I' minutes. (Motioned and seconded) Maurine: Mentions that they are pretty verbatim. July 111 Minutes are Approved 4-0. Lauri Strauss: Discusses the agenda components. Confirms these is one item on the agenda. Discussion Item- Multifamily Design Standards Lauri Strauss: Introduced the new item and reads the memo. Asks if Eric has a presentation for the Board. Eric Engmann: Introduces himself as a new planner in Edmonds, who primarily works on code amendments. Mentions that tonight's meeting will be an introduction of the topic and to hear initial thoughts from the Board. Asks for a quick introduction from each Board member so he can get to know them and a bit about their background. Lauri Strauss: Introduces herself. • Chair/president of ADB • Is an architect who lives and works in Edmonds • On the Board for at least seven years Maurine Jeude: Is a citizen member of the Board. • Always was interested in architecture • Second year on the Board • Retired after career at the Seattle Times as a writer Alexa Brooks: Als a resident of Edmonds. • Lived here for a little over two years • Found out about the Board from her neighbor, Lauri Strauss • Is a landscape designer Joe Herr: Has been on the Board about six years. • Is a professional building designer • Talks about he became Board member after working on a project in Edmonds • Talks about affordable housing and how design standards can mean that the costs of projects go up Eric Engmann: Talks about the three phases of a code amendment. • First is the formation phase. This phase is for creating the initial ideas, brainstorming, early outreach, scoping, and big picture thinking • Next is articulation phase. This takes the big picture and refines it into a workable draft. There is lots of scenario testing and public input, then results in the draft code. • Last phase is the adoption phase. There is formal draft that requires public meetings. Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 2 It goes through environmental (SEPA) and then City Council review. • The best processes have engagement and public involvement early in the process and allows for in in all three stages. Talks about the dual role with ADB and the Planning Board (PB) • Mentions the ADB specialized role with design and building • Lists the responsibilities listed in the Code for ADB • PB is the local planning authority • PB holds public hearings and makes official recommendations on code amendments to council • Sees ADB as diving deep into the issues and working with residents on the draft solutions. Utilizing their expertise. • Mentions PB has a lot of background in public outreach and will really utilize them to help with that strategy. • Sees PB reviewing a lot of the components of the plan and making suggestions and asking questions • Mentions there will be some meeting dialogue between ADB and PB Talks about the set goals, what this is set up to do. • Discusses the related goals in the Comprehensive Plan, the overarching document that sets the City's goals for the future • Housing Goal J1 "encourage flexibility in housing types while ensuring compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods" • Talks about the consensus from City Council to move this project forward • Mentions the minutes from the Council meetings are summarized as an attachment Discusses how to establish the scope of the project • Talks about creating the framework of what goes into this multifamily design guideline code amendment • One set of scoping is the development types and zones of the city • Not discussing single-family • Focus will be on multifamily zones • Talks about other zones that already have existing design standards • The other set will be the design components themselves • Talks about buildings form, setbacks, facades, and many other topics Discusses the types of topics • Mentions that form and massing are important • But will also want to consider things like sustainability, affordability, and equity Discusses the intended stakeholders. Sees three main groups. • Government- city staff, boards, and council that will review and rule on the regulations • Residents- people and groups that live in the community Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 3 • Developers- people that will be building using these regulations Talks about the importance of balancing between flexibility and specificity Mentions the pros and cons of having each of these components Suggests a balanced approach Asks the Board for any questions up to this point. Laurie Strauss: Mentions specificity can limit creative design and can lead to some bad decisions. Provides an example about window requirements that can be bad for energy efficiency. Agrees with a balanced approach. Joe Herr: Talks about a specific project that required window specificity where there was no room to allow interpretation. Lauri Strauss: Agrees that if it gets too specific, it can end up with bad design. Eric Engmann: Mentions that he likes scenario testing to see potential outcomes of the code. Introduces the second part of the presentation. Would like to hear/interview the Board about the current regulations. Would like to hear about what works well, what doesn't, and final goals for this code amendment. Starts with asking about what works well with the current guidelines. Mentions that it is ok if some of the members aren't very familiar with the existing code. There will be time to understand the background moving forward. Alexa Brooks: Still unfamiliar with the code. Joe Herr: Likes how the requirements are shown in the staff reports. Feels that it helps a lot. Mentions that there are a lot of different guidelines to keep track of. Mentions the need for flexibility in some instances. Lauri Strauss: Provides an example of code conflicts on a project on Main Street. It required an entrance off Main Street but wasn't ADA accessible because of the slope. Would like to see some flexibility in the Board's decisions. Talks about the good and bad of the 30-foot height limit. Doesn't want to change the feel of Edmonds but the code doesn't allow for different roof types. Eric Engmann: Asks the Board to talk about areas outside of downtown. Mentions they have a lot of townhome type projects there. Lauri Strauss: Talks about multifamily in many mixed (uses) now. Talks about multifamily having Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 4 more density and concerns from the neighbors. Mentions the Board doesn't have control about the zoning components, but how it looks. Joe Herr: Talks about the difficulty on the Board to address resident concerns about zoning when that isn't part of the ADB decision. Eric Engmann: Mentions that problem is a struggle with decision making planning (type) board across the country. States that is often difficult. Asks if anyone else has a comment on what works well. Maurine Jeude: Also appreciates the staff reports that show the criteria and how they have been addressed. It is very helpful Lauri Strauss: Mentions it is important to have different guidelines for different areas- Westgate. Talks about having a theme. Likes the lower, middle, top design components for downtown. Like guidelines that are specific but open to interpretation. Eric Engmann: Reiterates that she is talking about blending those type of standards. Asks about the guidelines that they don't like. • Asks what hasn't worked well • Things that are difficult to ensure established goals are met • Mentions there have been several discussed already Lauri Strauss: Talks about what happens with minimum standards. • That contractors and developers are going to do the minimum, gives examples • Likes the idea about testing the new guidelines to see if they will work in most situations. Eric Engmann: Mentions staff will look at getting outside help with graphics to help with this. Alexa Brooks: Asks to correct that she represents landscape designers, not landscape architects. Asks how residents can have a say in the process. Mentions that the Edmonds landscape can have a lot of different challenges. How do the standards affect wildlife, native plantings, sustainability, all those challenges? Lauri Strauss: Agrees with Alexa's point. Talks about how minimum landscape standards affect sites differently. Reiterates that minimum standards can be a major challenge. Will need to think about many different scenarios: area, zoning, lot size, etc. Alexa: Says that it can't be one size fits all. Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 5 Eric: Mentions this will be one of the things talked about moving forward. Provides an example of a five-foot landscape strip. States this is the specific requirement, but the guideline can influence how and where it is located. There is the standard itself and the guideline that can be more flexible. Lauri Strauss: Adds that this example could also discuss an environmental benefit; a habitat benefit for wildlife or wetlands. Maurine Jeude: Talks about the variance process. Mentions the difficulty the Board has will not being able to grant some form of variances. How allowing some small changes to a project, that would require a variance today, could have a positive impact. Eric Engmann: Talks about that flexibility. Mentions it is a double-edged sword because some people may not like the flexibility the Board could have if it could grant some variance type approvals. Mentions it is something to discuss in this process. Talks about having public involvement early. Mentions this will go to the planning board next week to discuss the outreach plan. Joe Herr: Asks if the Master Builders will be involved as a stakeholder. Eric Engmann: Confirms that he has contact with the Master Builders and will reach out to be a developer stakeholder. Lastly, asks about what the Board wants to see as the goal of this code amendment. What does the end of this process look like? Mentions that it is about the goals for these multifamily design guidelines. Lauri Strauss: Would like to see more leeway for sustainability. Allowing things like extra height for LEED Gold buildings, as an example. Would like to have "carrots" for doing more sustainability, such as extra area or height. Joe Herr: Mentions that Lauri is mentioning incentives. All developers love incentives. Lauri Strauss: Reiterates that this could lead to better design and help mitigate effects of climate change, etc. Maurine Jeude: Mentions that the overall idea is to account for the character of Edmonds. How will these new buildings fit into what is envisioned for Edmonds? Would like to protect that character and not another small city that got big. Mentions the theme of development. Lauri: Also talks about the character of Edmonds. Wants to keep that character. Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 6 Maurine: Talks about the sense of community throughout every district, even as someone walks from one district to the next. Alexa: Discusses the charm being the community. Would like to integrate the community more with these decisions. Lauri: Reiterates that the guidelines should bring in sustainable design and keep historic buildings. Talks about resiliency, from storms and tsunamis as an example. Eric: Mentions a lot of this is getting the tools to make those decisions. Ends the discussion by thanking the Board. Discusses Next Steps: • There will be bigger discussions with a lot of different groups • Will be sending out a survey to the Board about some preferences • Will continue initial discussions with stakeholders • Asks the Board to let people know about this. • Will come back next month to talk about the big picture and the scope • Let's the Board know about the webpage for this code update topic Lauri Strauss: Mentions the Boards interest in other areas too, downtown, Westgate, Five Corners, (Highway) 99. But says that multifamily has been difficult for approving projects over the past five or six years. Mentions the roofing, how they fit on the site, windows as examples. Talks about the scenarios as being a good place to focus. Member Comments Maurine Jeude: Mentions she won't be able to attend next month's meeting. Lauri Strauss: Hopes Kim and Bruce will be there. Mentions they will have some good comments to discuss. Asks for any other comments. (None) Moves to adjourn the meeting. (Moved and Seconded) ADJOURNMENT The Board meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Planning Board Minutes October 3, 2021 Page 7