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2021-05-12 Planning Board MinutesCITY OF EDMONDS PLANNING BOARD Minutes of Virtual Meeting Via Zoom May 12, 2021 Chair Rosen called the virtual meeting of the Edmonds Planning Board to order at 7:00 p.m. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Sdohobsh (Snohomish) people and their successors the Tulalip Tribes, who since time immemorial have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water. BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT STAFF PRESENT Mike Rosen, Chair Rob Chave, Planning Division Manager Alicia Crank, Vice Chair Angie Feser, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Matt Cheung Todd Cloutier Roger Pence Nathan Monroe \ Dan Robles BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT None Mike Rosen: It is 7:00 and calling the meeting to order for the May 12t" planning board meeting. Roger, would you mind reading the land acknowledgment? Roger Pence: We acknowledge the original inhabitants of this place, the Snohomish people and their successors, the Tulalip tribes, who, since time immemorial, have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands. We respect their sovereignty, their right to self- determination and we honor their sacred, spiritual connection with the land and water. [ROLL CALL: All present except Todd Cloutier, who joined soon after] 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 1 Mike Rosen: Dan has asked for a minute for an announcement. Dan Robles: Oh, yes. Thank you very much, Mike. I've submitted my resignation to the planning board, and this will be my final meeting. Well, not even that. I'll probably ditch after this. The reasons are 100% personal. We're coming out of COVID. My son is playing premiere soccer now, and everything is on a Wednesday night for some reason. There's just no way out of this one. I have to take that course and rebuild my business and stuff. That's just where it is. It seems like a good time because there's some shifting going on, and there's some placements happening. We could just get the job done without disrupting too many people. I've been here seven years, which is really a long time. I hoped to finish out the term. I think this year is it, but we're close enough. I want to thank everybody who has participated on this planning board, especially prior members like Valerie and Phil. I don't know if you guys remember those folks, but they're the ones who molded me and who showed me what I can get away with and what you can't. It was really important, and you carried forth their ideals. Then, there's a whole new crowd that comes along, and all of you are doingjust a fantastic job. I've got no regrets at all. I just wanted to thank everybody for your patience and your open mindedness and wish you all the best going forward. Alicia Crank: We will miss you, Dan. Dan Robles: Thank you. I've got high hopes for you. I think you're going to be a rock star. You're great. Mike Rosen: Yes, Dan, you said it was seven years ago. Actually, it was May 14t", seven years ago. You are literally within two days. Alicia Crank: You couldn't wait two more days? Mike Rosen: I will say, working alongside a guy whose head was called on to help create things like the space shuttle and the Boeing 777, help us in Edmonds try to figure out how to do things better has been just a real honor to serve with you. You're a smart guy. Dan Robles: Thank you. Alicia Crank: Well, I hope to see you in the audience, especially when we start talking DADUs. Dan Robles: Sure. Yes, I'll keep close. I'll try my best to stay close. Nathan Monroe: I just want to say thanks, Daniel. I could always count on you to have well thought-out, well -reasoned, particular positions. Your voice is really going to be missed, I'm going to be honest. It's really sad that we're not going to have that seat to talk from anymore. 1 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 2 look forward to seeing you around town. I just highly doubt this is the last time you're going to be involved in Edmonds, shaping the future here. [Todd Cloutier joined the meeting] Todd Cloutier: I'm sitting here going, "Dan, no." Yes, life goes on. We all have things to do. Yes, thank you for your service. It was much appreciated. Dan Robles: Thank you, Todd. You've helped me out a lot in a lot of ways that you may not even know. I appreciate it — Todd Cloutier: You made me learn a lot about Bitcoin. Dan Robles: Thanks, again. Have a great one. Have a good meeting. [Dan Robles left the meeting] Mike Rosen: Please, we'll correct the minutes to note that Todd hasjoined us. We would next normally approve the minutes. There were none for us to review, so we'll do that during our next meeting. The agenda for this evening is we'll take any audience comments, any comments on the administrative report. We do not have a public hearing. We do not have any unfinished business. Under new business, we're going to get one of our favorite reports, update on Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Department update. Then, review the extended agenda and then, comments for the good of the order. Does that sound like a good plan, everybody? Mike Rosen: All right. Are there any comments on the administrative report? Hearing none, any audience comments? Natalie Seitz: I'm commenting tonight on the city's intent to regulate the maintenance of trees on private property, as I understand this is going to be something that your board will be considering currently or in the future. One point of clarification that I'd like to see resolved as soon as possible is that the emergency ordinance and findings of fact use slightly different language to describe what the city's deliberating. In some cases, calling it just, "Tree regulations," and then, they use words like, "Especially significant size and "Landmark tree regulations." What I would like is the city to clarify if it is only considering regulations to trees above 24 inches diameter at breast height. I feel it's really unclear, and it'd be really helpful to know that upfront. I'd also like the city to identify what goals and action from the Urban Forest Management Plan the city believes that this action supports. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 3 As the Urban Forest Management plan identifies that, for private lands, it guides education and incentives to encourage good tree management practices. I couldn't find any actions that would support the emergency ordinance or this regulatory development process. I would like the city and this planning board to consider and present evidence, studies, and peer -reviewed research, that demonstrate that increased regulatory burdens will result in private property owners maintaining trees to achieve significant size. I think that there — in fact, I know there's evidence that both in urban and old growth settings, increasing regulatory burdens results in property owners removing trees. There is also evidence that the age structure of our forests are younger and that survivorship of private tree planting programs is very poor. Regulating beneficial activities, more generally associated with climate change has actually resulted in increased omissions. I think, since this is outside the Urban Forest Management Plan, the city really has a burden to demonstrate that what you're considering will actually be beneficial. Since the city is undertaking an action that I don't feel is identified in the Urban Forest Management Plan, I think that the city should undertake extensive public outreach and demonstrate that it's both equitable and effective. Simply stating that other cities have tree ordinances, to my mind, is not enough. To my mind, cities routinely take actions with good intent, but are not equitable or effective. I think there's plenty of example of that. I think that regulating the property of less -developed and generally — some are overburdened landowners as defined by the Washington Health Disparities Data. Requiring those property owners to live under increased hazards, maintenance costs, and permanent encumbrance to the self- determination of use and enjoyment of their property by stating tree replacement clauses — while creating no equivalent burden or requirement to plant trees on un-forested developed properties and centering public investment in those areas, I feel is deeply inequitable. Creating an urban forest with a maximum growth of 23 1/2 inches, which is what it'll be with a limited set of 24, is just fundamentally not going to be effective, either. I do believe that surface water fees have tremendous potential to provide an equitable burden in support of the city's Urban Forest Management Plan, and I really hope to talk more about that in meetings to come. Thank you for considering my comments. I was trying to keep it around three minutes. Mike Rosen: You did well. Thank you very much for participating tonight and for what were very thoughtful comments. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Any other public comments? All right. Mike Rosen: All right, I think we're now into new business. Angie? 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 4 Angie Feser: I do have a PowerPoint that supplements the agenda packet items, so I'm going to share screen right now. Pull that up. Can everybody see that on the screen? I know sometimes, it takes a little delay for it to show. Okay, thank you. Good evening. Angie Feser, Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Director. Greetings to Chair Rosen, members of the Parks and Planning Board, members of the public who are in attendance this evening. I'm here to give an update for the department. As you've noticed, spoiler alert, in the title it says, "Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services and Human Services Department. I'll be elaborating on that a little bit later in tonight's presentation. This presentation tonight is, like I said, a supplement to the agenda packet, which had Quarter One, that's January, February, March, accomplishments for the department as well as highlights of things that have happened since then in a memo form. Then, in addition to that, I did attach the 2021 overall work plan for our department. I designated it in months and quarters and color coordinated. The darker the shade of the items, the more intense the work is how we tried to communicate that in that document. As we all know, the minute you finish that and publish it, it changes the next day. It is a good guideline for us to at least get on paper where we're headed and what we're trying to do this year. Last time I was before the group was the 27t" of January. Time flies. Tonight, we're going to cover parks maintenance and projects. I have some pretty cool photos to show some projects. Programming for the recreation and cultural programs. What are we doing in COVID times? Talk a bit about human services now in our department and city-wide project work that we're engaging on. Then, what's near future work coming up for us? With that, we'll get started. In the administrative branch of the department, you can just put my name behind that, pretty much. Angie is administrative. This is primarily what I'm focused on right now. Obviously, the 2022 Parks, Recreation & Open Space Plan update project. I was here in front of the board a little while ago to get input on the PROS plan and scope of work. We also visited four other boards at the same time to get input. The Diversity Commission, Youth Commission, Arts Commission, as well as the Mayors Conservation Advisory Committee. Took a lot of that feedback, incorporated that. One of the threads that came from that was Equity and Inclusion woven into the project. We have, actually, pretty exciting components in the scope of work that addresses this. One of the pieces of that is actually using interpretation and translation for three different languages: Spanish, Korean, and Chinese both in our written materials and in our live meetings. You've got to weave that all the way through, right? You can't just have it on your website, but then, the survey doesn't come in those languages 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 5 We have a subcontractor as part of the consultant who has been brought on board. PRR out of Seattle who specializes in this. We're working very closely with them to integrate this in a number of ways. We went through the consultant selection. We had three really strong applications. We used a team to evaluate and hire them to the contract in front of Council for approval. We kicked off the projects a couple weeks ago on the 29', and we are running at 100 miles an hour already because we have a tight deadline of the end of February'22 to meet requirements for the state funding agency that we work with. It's off to a great start, and I think it's going to be a wonderful project. In addition, with the Human Services Division coming under our umbrella, one of the things I have ascertained since — I've been here for a little over a year now. Feels like five years in COVID terms, but been here over a year. One of things I've recognized is a little bit of a gap in park planning services. A lot of cities have what's called a park planner on staff to handle a lot of the capital projects, and we're lacking that here. Over time, a lot of the small capital projects or major maintenance projects in parks maintenance have evolved to the level of requiring permits, or documentation, or scope of work to be written. The management of those contracted pieces of work, and with a lot of other big projects on the plate like the PROS Plan, Civic Park, and Marina Beach Park, it's hard for me to spend time doing that work. As one of the compromises to the Human Services Division, coming in with a lot of work, I asked for and received permission for an allocation of $50,000 to help through the end of the year for contracted service to help with that. The request for proposals is out on the street, and we're getting some good inquiry nibbles on it, so I'm excited. In a couple of weeks, we'll be narrowing that down and bringing somebody on board, hopefully within a month, to start helping with some of that work to get us through the end of the year. Civic Park Project, we had a bid in April. We had seven bidders come in, which is very encouraging. The bids were tighter. They were really very close to the estimate given by our consultant, so that was exciting. However, at the end of the day, only one of them actually was deemed responsive. There were a little couple of technical issues that were missed in the bid's submittals that disqualified the other six. We felt that it was an appropriate use of community resources to move forward with one bidder just because of some technicalities. We took a step back. We scrubbed the document, cleaned up where we saw the gaps were, and reissued the bid very quickly after that. Currently, the new bid — we actually even updated it since today. Since I wrote this, it's actually going to be May 271". They're going to open the bids again on that. Third time's a charm, right? We're going after it. The good news is that it's turning around pretty quickly because a lot of the same bidders have all their materials spun up and ready to go, and they're just adjusting and bringing in. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 6 Then, some exciting news around Marina Beach Park. I think I reported out earlier, we applied for two half -million -dollar grants. One, we ranked No. 18 out of 80 and didn't quite know if we were going to get funded. Well, with the legislative capital budget going through, there was a robust allocation into the capital program, and the funds rolled down to our project, so we were awarded that one as well. The really great news on both of those, they are eligible to match each other. We don't have to put a penny on the table to match $1 million worth of grants. It's a lovely opportunity for Marina Beach Park. Currently, it's about 20% of the budget, and it's a fantastic start. We can use some of that money, 25% of it, to do architecture and engineering services. We can advance the master plan from 30% to 60 and beyond with that. Then, also, at the same time, work on other grant funding and capital allocations from the city to move that project forward. Parks Maintenance has been quite busy. They're still operating under COVID guidelines, right? Separate crews. Two shifts. One worker per truck. Trying not to crossover. Trying to be really safe. That slows down our workjust a little bit. We noticed through the winter increased levels of the parks, which is phenomenal, right? That's why they're here. The beach front especially, with all the open space, the open air, and beautiful views, obviously. Great increase in attendance. Parks Maintenance is reporting summer levels of usage during winter months. I can only imagine what the summer is going to bring. They've been quite busy with routine maintenance and keeping things working that way. We're so grateful to have the parks and the facilities available to our public. The work plan that I included in the packet does identify quite a few smaller projects that we've identified that maintenance usually oversees. You can go through the list and see it's quite extensive and does require a lot of effort on each one of those. You may have seen the announcement yesterday that Yost Pool will be opening this summer. We're thrilled about that. It will be operated by the YMCA. It's been quite a long time getting that agreement in place. We started talking with them January. Took us five months to get an agreement because the Y was really hesitant to make sure that it penciled out for them, right? With all the COVID restrictions and the limitations of bodies in the pool. Plus, they're behind the curve with hiring lifeguards. Part of that, believe it or not, is in Phase 2. They were unable to do lifeguard training because they had to be in contact with each other to do their training, and in Phase 2, it was not allowed. It's just been quite an ordeal for them to try to get staff on board very quickly and ensure that they have enough staff to run the pool for the summer. They've committed. We saw the announcement. The agreement has been signed, so we're rolling forward and hoping for a really great summer. The Spray Pad, on the other hand, will not open until we get to Phase 4. Oddly enough, this one caught us by surprise because I view the Spray Pad as if it's a playground feature, right? That it's an amenity in the park, that it draws a lot of attention from a lot of activity 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 7 around it. I thought, "Well, if playgrounds are open and available, why wouldn't a spray pad?" Somehow, spray pads got tucked under "aquatics facilities" with the state's COVID guidelines. In order for us to open the Spray Pad, we would have to control attendance in a capacity around the Spray Pad area, based on square footage. That would require fencing or a barricade of some sort, controlled entrance and exit, and staff onsite to monitor the number of people and their behavior inside that fenced -off area. It just isn't conducive or feasible to pay staff for that for the summer. The moment we get into Phase 4, that Spray Pad is going to be open if the guidelines allow it. It's been maintained to operate, so it could be turned off with the flip of a switch, so it is ready to go. We have been able to increase our work with volunteers thank goodness. We rely heavily on our committed volunteers. Moving into Phase 3 has allowed us to have a little larger groups, a little more flexibility. This photo on the right-hand corner is the Freedom Club. It's back at it this year. We didn't really allow them to do a lot of work last year. They are just such a tremendous help for us with a lot of the small planting, some flowers and weeding of the beds, so we're very grateful. Earth Day, we were able to have an activity, although it was somewhat limited in size. We have four locations, and it was just great. People were happy to get out and rip out blackberries. Go figure, right? It's good. A lot of pent-up volunteerism out there. Some pretty significant projects that Maintenance has been involved with. I got two to highlight tonight that are pretty cool to show. I don't know if you've noticed, but this actually disappeared from Brackett's Landing North. The wooden post you see here on the right-hand side, where the anchor is leaned up against, was rotting at the base. That anchor, obviously, is not hollow. That's a real anchor, and so it was pushing on that post. Plus, that is an actual railroad tie across the top, which is very heavy as well. Both of those, that was actually starting to really move in notable differences. We, for safety purposes, had to remove all of that. Here are some images of that work that it took. A lot of safety around that. Big, heavy objects overhead. They took a lot of time to make sure that this was done safely and appropriately. It took about a day to get it done, but they did a really great job on it. Then, another really interesting project they're working on is the pier. Underneath the pier, some of the concrete is starting to chip away and come off. Doesn't have any issue to do with the structural integrity of the pier, but it was starting to expose. Metal and a marine environment do not mix well, so that would start to compromise the integrity of the pier. This was part of the pier repair project a number of years ago, but the contractor failed to perform appropriately, to put it bluntly. We were having a really difficult time trying to contract this out for a number of reasons. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 8 Part of this is access, that it's so difficult to work underneath a structure that's on top of water, right? You can't really sit on the water and try to work. That doesn't work. There's been a proposal to use scaffolding, build scaffolding under the pier, but just the scaffolding work alone was $80,000. 1 happened to be poking around on the web and found something called a bridge walker. I thought, "Wait, somebody's gotta have something that they work on bridges like this," right? Over roads. We were able to secure this device that you see here in these images. Two Parks crew, two Streets crew have been working together as a team and working away along the whole entire side of the pier. About three weeks of work. There was a safety plan developed. Obviously, a very precarious position to be in, working overhead. They have to grind the concrete first, and then, apply a sealant, and then, the adhesive, and then, this carbon fiber fabric in chunks with adhesive. Hold that until that sits. Then, they squeegee it, and then, they seal the edges of it. Pretty intensive work to do, but they figured it out, and they have a great system going. They're going to be on schedule. Recreation programming, still lots going on. Being very, very creative about we do, what we're doing. Facility rentals have been available all along, but obviously, very limited. Now that we're in Phase 3, people really want to get outside. Facility rentals are just off the hook right now. Every picnic shelter, and plaza, and closet room area, they have this — like hotcakes right now, so it's great. People want to get outside and gather again. We condition all of our rentals, even our field rentals, with whatever the COVID guidelines are at the time of the activity, right? If we happen to shift back to Phase 2 or move into Phase 4, they have to adhere to whatever's going to happen with the event. We have quite a few programs scheduled for spring and summer. The electronic CRAZE has been published, if you would. If you remember, it used to be a hard copy that went into mailboxes and published together with Mountlake Terrace. We have had to make the decision to go strictly electronic right now. The minute you print something and get it out to mailboxes and the COVID guidelines change, all the programming changes. In order for us to be flexible, we've just gone with an electronic version, which we can change whenever we need to for a program. We're begging forgiveness from people if they really like the print guide, but right now, we're trying to keep it electronic. We've been sending postcards out to the same mailing list to let them know where to find the programs and how to register. Still have our standard programs, but we're shifting outdoors. A lot of camps, a lot of programs physically outside. People are not ready to come indoors and be in activities, we're finding. We're still working on the Waterfront Center, the programming in there. Obviously, we have hours in there from Mondays to Thursdays in the evenings. Working with them, trying to schedule programs in, but with the Phase 3 and the limitations of the group sizes, it isn't really penciling out to be feasible. As soon as we hit 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 9 Phase 4, we'll be programming those rooms pretty heavily. We're still being creative with programs around the building as well. Our LEAP program that we started last October is still functioning. The distance learning program for kids, we're still running that program in the Anderson Center. All city facilities right now are still, actually, closed until after the Fourth of July, so the Anderson Center is not open to the public, per se. Cultural Arts is still working hard on writing programs. Write on the Sound is still happening. Even though it's in October, they're trying to decide right now virtual, or in person, or a combination of both, which is pretty difficult to do. They're trying to work out that. They have been very successful in securing the speakers, but they're just trying to figure out in what capacity that's going to run. Still trying to provide some live performances. Two -fold, to give people a sense of normalcy in our community, but also to support our local performers and artists, right? They've had a really tough year and a half with COVID as well. There's going to be some limited performances at the Hazel Miller Plaza. We usually do concerts in the park there. We're also going to have some activities at the Walkable Main Street. We're going to have performers coming in, two a day, on Saturdays for the duration of that. Then, the Arts Commission and Diversity Commission work together on some community art grants. There was a first round at the beginning of the year that were pretty successful, and there's a little bit of funding left that they're still trying to give away here early summer. Human Services came into our family, effective April V. No fool's day. Again, that April 1't keeps popping up with me for some reason every year. Something happens on that day for me. We inherited Mindy Woods, who is an existing program manager. She's on the books at half time, but we know she works a lot more than that. She's amazing. She's the contact person between the city and the individuals in the community who need resources. Our focus currently is to develop our program priorities, right? The counsel has allocated a significant budget for that program, an approved social worker that will be a contracted service for the city. They have some pretty high expectations of what the program is going to be, so we're working with — currently interviewing local service providers as to what they offer and if they're interested in providing that contracted social worker. We're talking to all the council members to see what their goals and priorities are for the program as well as other city leadership and setting up the program for success for this year in that capacity. A lot of work getting up to speed on a lot of things. Shannon Burley, a deputy, is point on this and is doing a phenomenal job. Oh. Of course. Sorry, got a little button happy there. Cross departmental or city-wide, we're supporting other projects with a lot of development services. Great to work with them. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 10 Highway 99 Renewal Plan. I is part of that team, working on that with Shane and other directors. Also, Highway 99 Gateway Sign, our cultural arts manager, Francis, is heavily involved with the design of that gateway sign and that work. Then, the improvements on Highway 99, we are fortunate to be involved in the landscape design as far as plant material and irrigation. I pushed my way into that. I wanted to make sure that we had a lot of say in that because we're the ones who maintain it when it is done. It's been really helpful. I've used two of our maintenance staff on that group. They attend all the meetings, and have direct feedback with the landscape architects on the project, and tweak their plant selection and irrigation components. When we inherit it, it'll be a little easier for us to maintain. Fourth Avenue Cultural Corridor Planning Project still continues. Francis does a lot of work with that. We share that with Economic Development Department. Walkable Main Street is coming again this summer. We are involved in a couple of capacities. Obviously, litter and garbage to support on that. We are also going to be heavily involved with "activating the space," we're calling it. In order to get people to stay in that Walkable Main Street, they're not dining, or having beverages, or in a retail shop. We want them to still linger in Main Street itself, so we're providing tables, and chairs, and some games. Giant versions of things like Jenga, chess, checkers, Connect 4, and corn whole games, we're setting those up in the street for people to engage in and be active with. Then, Francis, again, is helping with some performers in the street. Just as background music. We're not setting it up as a concert, per se, with seating. Just some background music and getting further down Main Street, towards 3rd and 4t", to activate that space little bit more. Again, of course, we always support and help out with the Farmers Market. Then, internally, with the city, we're developing an equity program. Starting at the director's level, and then, we take it into the department level. How do we create equity, both internally in our departments and city, but externally, for our customers and clients? We're involved with that as well. Upcoming, what's on our near horizon? Obviously, the civic rebid at the end of this month. PROS Plan will keep us pretty busy for the rest of the year. Very exciting. The Salmon Safe Certification Program. We're trying to launch. We're real close. We've gotta finish up the scope of work with that organization. Obviously, implementing the Human Services Program this year. Chipping away at those small capital projects with Parks Maintenance. Then, of course, all of our programming and facility usage as per State's Reopening Plan. Other than that, we're not really doing a 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 11 whole lot. Just I'll open it up now for questions and comments. Happy to share that. I'm going to stop share on this screen. Mike Rosen: Roger? Roger Pence: Well, I will ask my perennial question about the welcome sign. "Welcome to Downtown Edmonds" on 104. The end of last year, it was going to be done at the end of last year, and that didn't happen. Then, in January, it was going to be — anyway, it's been put off three or four times now, and I'm really, really hoping that it can be done in the foreseeable future. Can you give us some assurance on that? The sign is fabricated. It just is awaiting installation. Angie Feser: Right. It's been fabricated, but it needs to be assembled yet, and it has to be set with the crane. Then, the foundation for that has to be built as well. There are quite a few bigger pieces to this to put together. Like I said, our Parks Maintenance crew has really had to shift into a lot of routine maintenance and were slowed down with COVID guidelines. We're trying our best. We're trying to look at ways to possibly subcontract out pieces of this. Obviously, our Parks Maintenance crew doesn't operate a crane, so some of that has to be contracted out. We're trying to see if that contractor can do a little more work for us rather than Maintenance staff in and of itself. It has been very trying, don't get me wrong. I wish it was up, too. The other part of that is the Fishing Pier Project took precedent over the gateway because we have funding issues that. We only had the grant funding from Fish and Wildlife. Runs out in June, so we had to complete the project by June in order to get it paid for by Fish and Wildlife. We lost two crew members to that for three weeks, not to mention the training that happened before then. We've been pulled in a lot of different directions. Public Safety, unfortunately, takes priority over the gateway sign. For example, the Brackett's Landing North project took precedent over the gateway sign. Trust me, I want it up, too. Roger Pence: I appreciate how priorities are set and the forces involved. It's just that after some length of time, when months drift into years, it does become a problem. Anyway, I've made my point. Second question. After reading the material in the packet on the PROS Plan, I went online through our new city website, and I did a search on the PROS Plan. The only thing that came up was the one that was last updated in 2016. Apparently, there's nothing accessible online on the current PROS Plan. I'm hoping that that can be rectified quickly. Angie Feser: Yes. We haven't started the public engagement component yet. We haven't set our calendar as far as a public engagement date. We haven't missed anything by not having it up. We just did a big city update on the website and still working out some of the bugs 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 12 and kinks. I know that's not an excuse, but you're right, that is part of the project. Hopefully, within a week or two, we'll have some more current PROS Plan information up there about what's going on. Roger Pence: Yes because that website exists for more purposes than just allowing or facilitating community engagement. It ought to be accessible to folks like us who just want to keep up with what the projects are. Anyway, get that online as quickly as possible. Angie Feser: Sure. Roger Pence: Thank you. Mike Rosen: Alicia? Alicia Crank: Comment and a question. Accessibility as it pertains to Walkable Main Street. I know there's been a talk about that. My comment is I was watching the Ability Summit that Microsoft puts on every year. They did it over two days last week, and there was a resource that I wanted to share that will lead into my question. It's called Opensidewalks.com. It's a program that we can use, that municipalities and others can use that helps the quality of life for people with disabilities. Accessible sidewalks, design, and that kind of thing. I just wanted to toss that out to the group. My question is, since Walkable Main Street is happening, there's been a lot of talk around walking accessibility, disability accessibility, and also parking. Honestly, my one question, I hope it's easy, is does the city plan to put together some type of parking map or a walkability map to answer some of the questions and the frustrations around, "Where is there parking?" and so on and so forth. I know that ED had something on their website in general about parking. I'm just wondering if there's going to be something very specific to Walkable Main Street that makes it a bit more user-friendly for people who do want to show up to support local businesses or do whatever. I'm hoping the answer is "Yes." That's my question. Angie Feser: I think it's a really great question. We've heard that loud and clear from last year to this year. Patrick Doherty is the lead on Walkable Main Street. We're supporting him in a minor role. Public Works and Streets is involved as well because they're the ones who are going to close off the street and put the barricades up. We've been in very detailed meetings about creating ADA-accessible parking closer to Main Street and taking regular parking spaces, making them ADA during Walkable Main Street. One or two spaces at every intersection, right, so that they have the ability to be much closer to Walkable Main Street. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 13 There's also a conversation, I believe, around possibly talking to Bank of America and using their lot as a designated parking area. The city would possibly lease that and designate that parking They're definitely exploring things like that. Keeping the width on the sidewalks open because now, with the streateries, and then, you have an occasional performer who shows up. He's strumming a guitar, and they're sitting in that space, it gets narrow pretty quickly. We're trying to be really conscious about that, too. Another reason to activate the street space to encourage people to move up and down that area inside the street rather than the sidewalk. Yes, the graphics, creating a map to let people know, "Hey, you can park here, and here, the Public Safety building. There's always good parking on this street." That's definitely one of the visuals I think would be really beneficial this year to communicate that to folks, like, "How do you get in there easily?" I think folks don't mind walking a block or two, but they just want to know where they can park when they get there, right? Alicia Crank: Right. It's the knowledge piece. It's, "Okay, I know ahead of time. I can make a plan." As opposed to going, "Surprise, I can, or I can't do it." I'm being super lofty, and this is just me just thinking out loud. Not something I'm asking you to do, but again, around that accessibility piece. We do also have people that are visually impaired. As much as we are also focusing on making sure that we're doing things that are visually aware for people, we are also going to have some folks that are visually impaired that will also be impacted. I know we're trying to make this as inclusive as possible, but the devil's in the details and how to make that happen. Angie Feser: Yes, there's been a lot of work around a lot of details this time around. Thank you. Good reminder. Great comments. Thank you. Mike Rosen: Anyone else? Questions, comments? Yes, Matt? Matt Cheung: You mentioned that on the Walkable Main Street, there might be, you said, periodically maybe a musician or someone that could be — that's permitted, right? Someone could just pop up, and if they wanted to —1 guess I'm wondering, is it allowable for someone to set up a booth and sell something? Angie Feser: Not at this time. I think I hear you saying, "Can someone bring in a booth and sell goods?" Mike Rosen: Yes, local people trying to sell art or something like that. Angie Feser: We're going to shy away from that because of the Farmers Market. Farmers Market runs on Saturdays, and we're trying to be very sensitive to the retailers in that space. Some are maybe not as supportive of Walkable Main Street. It would be hard. They're trying to survive as a retailer, so if the city allowed competing retailers to come out in the street, that would be really hard to support, I think. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 14 At this time, we're not allowing or creating a program to allow vendors inside the street. We're going to line the streets with tables and chairs for people to stay, and like I said, those gaming activities will take up and fill those spaces in there. Then, the performers that we do have are twice a day on Saturday afternoons. The first one will be local high school groups coming in and performing. Then, after that will be another shift of local performing artists. It's more background music just to add some nuances and acoustic sound to the space. It's not amplified. It's not a concert or anything like that, but it's just to add a little bit of flavor to the day. Does that answer your question, Matt? Matt Cheung: Yes. I actually hadn't really followed it very closely, so I don't know what actually had been discussed. Alicia Crank: Actually, Matt, you opened up another thought — oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Nathan. Sorry. Nathan Monroe: It's all right. I just had one comment, two questions. First comment, great job as always. That was a lot of information. You clearly know your stuff, and we all appreciate it. Angie Feser: Oh, thank you. Nathan Monroe: I honed in on two things. I wanted to make sure I'm right. Angie Feser: Sure. Nathan Monroe: We had five non -responsive bidders for the civic project? Did I hear that? Angie Feser: Actually, six. Six out of the seven. Nathan Monroe: That is a phenomenal amount of non -responsive bidders. Was it tricky? Angie Feser: Yes. Yes. It was so sad to watch because it's a $10 million bid, and they missed one little submittal — signing something, basically, like, "Yes I promise to do this." We actually had the attorneys scrub the bid documents and really clean it up to prevent that from happening again. Nathan Monroe: Who put together our bid document for that? Was that a consultant or was that us? Angie Feser: Well, the consultant did the technical pieces, right? The drawings and the specs. We used Public Works. Our project manager is actually housed in Public Works. Project engineer. He oversees all those pieces and stitching them all together. They were really just nuanced, hard things. It was painful to watch because it was just a tiny little thing that they tripped up on. It was a little confusing: two required submittals had pages on their own, and the third one 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 15 didn't, but it was written in the technical pieces. It was really easy to miss, and that's what happened. Nathan Monroe: Well, fingers crossed, third time's the charm. I know prices don't tend to go down. They go up. Angie Feser: Right. Oh, they're going up by the hour right now. Nathan Monroe: Then, my other question, I know we talked about this before with the pier. I can't remember where it is. I know we got into a lawsuit with the group that did the pier. I'm assuming they can give some of the money for this repair? Is that true? Or do we have to eat the whole thing? Angie Feser: No, that's long gone. I believe there was a settlement around that whole project. We actually had to pay them out to finish it and be done, and they weren't able to perform the work. We are working with Fish and Wildlife because Fish and Wildlife actually owns the pier, but the city maintains it. I think Fish and Wildlife would like to hand it off to the city, but they can't do that until it's fully repaired. They put money on the table to help with the repairs to get it done. That was that money that ends in June that we're trying to finish all the work and use that money. It's about 56,000 1 think is what we've got right now. That just about covers all of our hard costs. Nathan Monroe: Okay. Well, like I said, thank you. Great work. Angie Feser: Thank you. Mike Rosen: Alicia, you had something else? Alicia Crank: It's probably more of a comment than a question, and it is coming from a position of accessibility. My hope is that, as part of our — I know you can't really "police" Walkable Main Street. No one wants to use that word, per se. My hope, as far as that accessibility piece and what's being permitted, and what Matt's question triggered for me, is that I'm hoping that it is not going to be permissible for there to be leafleting. Especially because now, it's a political year, too. I just have a feeling that there might be people out there trying to push out information to try to take advantage of that space, but also creating a hazard with numbers of people. My hope is that that's not going to be permissible in that space. I can totally see someone trying to do that. Angie Feser: Right. That's a good point. I'll bring that up with Patrick. We haven't addressed that yet. Alicia Crank: Yes. I used to work somewhere where we had to plan the annual festivals on the street, and we had that free speech space, which is what Matt reminded me of. I was just like, "Oh, my God." I can totally see people going crisscross, crisscross, doing that kind of thing, and just creating more harm than good around accessibility and spacing. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 16 Angie Feser: Got it. Matt Cheung: On that, could a restaurant offer free samples to try to attract people into their restaurant? Angie Feser: You mean they would be out in the streets? Matt Cheung: A restaurant, could they try to draw people into their restaurant with samples or with coupons or something? Angie Feser: That's a good question. I think it's going to be interesting to watch. We're trying to encourage the retailers to come out of their shops a little. It's kind of strange, but a lot of the restaurants have the streateries now. They've expanded their space out into the streets and the parking area. The retailers are like, "Hey, wait a minute. We're not coming out our front door to double our floor space, if you will." We're trying to get them to do that a little bit. They say people just walk by the front of their store, and they're not coming in. They're not engaged. I think some of that's going to change, too, with COVID and vaccinations. People are going to start feeling a little more comfortable about going into places now, too. I think that will help. I think that's a good question about, "Yes, what if you had a restaurant out there giving out free samples in the street? What does that mean?" Or, "If you had a retailer out handing out coupons, what does that mean?" I think these are good questions to address in our planning group. Good thoughts, Matt. Thank you. Roger Pence: I want to follow up on Alicia's comment about leafleting on the street. I think you really need to talk to our city attorney on that because, clearly — clear to me, anyway. I'm not a lawyer. If you can leaflet on the sidewalk on 5t" Avenue on a normal street, on a normal day, which you can. That is perfectly legal. It's a little difficult to envision making that illegal or impermissible in the middle of the Main Street right away merely because the street is closed to vehicles. I think that will be a real problem. A little leafleting, to me, doesn't seem harmful or something that we need to take steps to prevent. Angie Feser: Right. It's an interesting question. It also comes down to — it's a city event. If you have a city -sanctioned event, sometimes that's a little bit different. We'll definitely consult with our attorney on that. Roger Pence: In the past, it hasn't been labeled as an "event." It's just merely been a street closure, and whatever happens, happens. If it's going to be redefined and recreated as an event, then, that will need to be made clear to people. Off the top of my head, it doesn't have the look and feel of an event, even with a few entertainers here and there. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 17 Mike Rosen: Thank you for this. I think that there are over 60 things on your list that you shared with us. You have accumulated so many more responsibilities and accountability. You're doing very well, so thank you for that. We do serve, I guess, as your unofficial board with limited — our sphere of influence is shallow. We love hearing about all these things and being a part of your champions. We do look forward to actually being able to help you. Angie Feser: Yes, and we'll be back with the PROS Plan at three major steps with this group. We've got some things for you to sink your teeth into, so don't worry. Mike Rosen: I think that brings us to our extended agenda, which I think is looking remarkably similar to previous ones. Rob Chave: Yes, it wasn't changed from the one that was discussed with council. I will say that it's in flux right now. Shane, I believe, is going to the Council on a couple of issues. No. 1 is tree codes and next steps. Then, secondly, next steps with what to do with housing recommendations. Those two things in combination, after discussion with the Council, will have a lot to do with what your extended agenda looks like. I think right now, you have to take it with a grain of salt because probably, by your next meeting, there will be significant changes. Mike Rosen: Understood. Rob Chave: The one thing that will happen at the next meeting for sure is the development activities report because that'll be ready to go. Mike Rosen: That'd be great. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for Rob on the extended agenda before we go to the closing comments? All right, let's take comments for the good of the order. Roger, we'll start with you. Roger Pence: The code reviser. Council, I think, has authorized a full-time position for somebody working on the code update. Where are we at on that? Rob Chave: Yes, we just hired an experienced person who's done quite a bit of code work. He just started. We're actually talking to him this week, especially after Shane's meetings with the council. He's going to be rolling along, working on a number of things, so we're excited to have him on board. Roger Pence: Okay, yeah, if we could have an understanding of a schedule, and priorities, and what he's going to be working on that's within our orbit, that would be helpful, I think. Mike Rosen: I would just ask, too, that if you have any understanding of where we're at with filling the open Planning Board positions. If you know, since there were some applicants, when the council intends to be reviewing and appointing? 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 18 Rob Chave: Right. I think I saw on the council's extended agenda that they're interviewing a candidate on the 18th, which would be next week. Mike Rosen: Great. Thank you. I did not see that. I appreciate it. I have nothing else, so if no one has anything, we will adjourn the meeting at 8:03. ADJOURNMENT The Board meeting was adjourned at 8:03 p.m. 5/12/2021 Planning Board APPROVED Minutes Page 19