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Agenda
#8 PUBLIC HEARING (5 minute testimony per audience member): Review of preliminary biennium budget update - increased permit fee income but also more operational spending
#10 Bridge design vote (2nd attempt at Council approval)
#12 Ziply Fiber still asking for fines to be waived for a promise to (maybe) expand coverage
[ Note: Meeting agenda was posted late ]
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Meetings are streamed on the City website and TV, Comcast channel 21.
Public Comments (three minutes each) are accepted in person at the start and end of the meeting. Virtual comments can be made via pre-registration (see the city’s webpage for instructions).
Additionally the Council always accepts email at: citycouncil@ci.woodinville.wa.us
- Budget update mixed
- Bridge design take 2 (3?)
Public Hearing on Agenda
Tourism Zone and a City Bond
Woodinville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on September 27th at 7pm.
Topics include:
- Allowing the “Harvest” development (aka the “Wine Village”) to exceed the maximum ratio of residential to commercial in the tourist zone
- City using a bond (debt financing) to build parking on 1/2 acre of land exchanged in the deal
Developer Ask:
The developer is asking is for permanent code change to increase residential density in the entire Tourist Business Zone (TBZ). Also the developer wants the ability to build all housing *before* building commercial; stating that commercial/retail space is not as profitable.
Offer:
In exchange for this code change, the developer would gift ~1/2 acre to the City. The City Manager has suggested this could land could eventually be used to construct a multi-story parking garage.
Complications:
1. Although no estimates are given the typical cost of parking structures imply construction of the garage will exceed $10 million. Ongoing operations and maintenance will cost more. City Manager suggested funding would come from some type of debt (bond). No details were available at the August meeting.
2. The land for this parking is not aligned to the southern round-a-bout (see aerial photo), meaning entrance/exit of cars to the garage will require additional spending to upgrade the on-site roads OR introduce new traffic slow downs on Woodinville-Redmond Rd.
3. This code change effects *all* of the TBZ not just “Harvest” property, meaning all future developments & re-developments in the area will be allowed higher residential/commercial ratios and residential first construction ordering.
Background on TBZ:
The Tourist Business Zone (TBZ) is identified as a commercial area of Woodinville. It is specifically intended for business of a tourism nature. In order to maintain the zone’s purpose a maximum 2:1 ratio of residential to commercial square footage was established.
The logic of that ratio was to limit density to at most two floors of residential above one floor of commercial. However that design pattern was not required and developers could build some pure residential as long as an offsetting pure commercial is built first - maintaining the 2:1 ratio.
Background on the Harvest situation:
When the agreement for the “Harvest” development was passed in 2019 a maximum of 425 housing units were allowed. However land use also remained subject to the TBZ square foot ratio.
The developer chose to design large townhome style residential units. These large units were more profitable and could be pre-sold.
Larger townhomes (3 stories w/ 4 bd) meant the square footage ratio was the first zoning limit reached. Contrary to their claims, the developer was not guaranteed 425 units, it was just another type of limit.
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Meeting Agenda and latest details will be posted one week before the meeting at:
https://www.ci.woodinville.wa.us/163/Meetings-Agendas
During public hearings members of the audience are allowed 5 minutes of testimony before the Commission proceeds with debate.
Meetings are streamed on the City website and TV, Comcast channel 21.
Public Comments (three minutes each) are accepted in person at the start meeting. Additionally you may email specifying that your comment is for the September 27th Planning Commission at: PublicComments@ci.woodinville.wa.us
- Developer allowed to exceed residential ratio (and build residential first)
- City receives 1/2 acres t
Save Our Park and Ride
The city has had a consistent decline in King County Metro service (reduced frequency, longer travel time to destinations, and full route closures). It is a negative feedback loop, poor service reduced riders, reduced riders is cited as a reason to reduce service.
This is a disservice to those that depend Woodinville's transit. Now there is an active threat to the Park and Ride transit hub in our city.
It appears to be another in the shady pattern selling out our downtown for developer to benefit.
In the spring of 2023, city council suddenly changed a meeting agenda. Taking a vote without any explanation or debate - possible signs of a serial-meeting? Based on this, I made a formal Public Records Request: for all emails from Mike Millman in the month of March. After a three month delay, the emails arrived. Amongst the emails was one from King County Councilmember Sarah Perry's assistant mentioning a past meeting (sometime before March 21st) to discuss City of Woodinville purchasing the Park & Ride from WSDOT (who own all P&R properties).
A follow-up records request to King County for 6 months of email related to Woodinville's P&R (response took only 30 days). In this was the same March email and a series of followups in July. Mike Millman was without approval or consent saying the city was "very interested" to send WSDOT a proposal for Woodinville's buying the P&R land. His apparent plan is to convert it into apartments (on top of the more than the 1600 approved this year). Given his very developer-friendly approach and known relationships with local builders, the motivation is questionable.
This proposal must be stopped.
Woodinville's Downtown is already set for a decade of construction that will likely leave us with Redmond-style, sheet-metal canyons. At a very minimum the public must be informed and given REAL TIME to provide feedback on the issue.
Everyone that lives in or travels through Woodinville must speak up and save the Park and Ride for our city and to save the democratic ideals of open and honest government.
Recent stop and Route closures are being used as an argument that Woodinville doesn't need a P&R
Comment from a regular commuter (pseudonym "M")
Guest Article Woodinville P&R: An Important Transportation Resource
Situated right next to town center, surrounded by existing housing, and just a 10 minute walk from the new housing developments, the Woodinville Park and Ride is a vital transportation resource for Woodinville residents, visitors, and commuters alike.
As Woodinville embraces growth and town center shifts to a more dense, pedestrian-focused area, congestion along NE 175th St worsens - both residents and visitors deserve an effective transit solution to reduce congestion and equitably serve mobility needs. The Woodinville Park and Ride is strategically located to play that role if invested in properly. For example, pre-pandemic usage data showed that the Woodinville P&R helped remove ~600 vehicles from the road each day. And, of course, this does not account for the nearby riders who arrive by foot.
Despite this, routes like the 931 which carried some 200 riders per day between intra-Woodinville locations and connected them with the most popular destination from Woodinville (Redmond, according to Sound Transit data*) have been permanently cut leaving a patchwork of rush-hour commuter routes like the 311 and 522 to move people locally between the downtown retail area and other parts of Woodinville. At the same time, those same routes face unprecedented highs in over capacity trips and lows in on-time performance. These failures in service push more people to solo commute, adding to the congestion, and further marginalizing those without that option.
Just as Woodinville plans for additional housing capacity to handle growth, the city must also consider and invest in mobility options to complement that growth and the Woodinville Park and Ride is paramount to that plan. Fortunately, and after much fanfare, the P&R is the pivotal component connecting Woodinville to high capacity transit as part of the upcoming Sound Transit BRT project. However, that connection is threatened. Lets speak up and engage the city to prioritize investing in the P&R as part of a transit solution in Woodinville.
*slide 24: https://woodinville.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=11&clip_id=1679&meta_id=160013
Screenshot of King County Metro performance dashboard for the 311 route provided by "M"
Harvest 3rd amendment, downtown traffic flow directionality
After a surprise meeting cancellation on October 3rd (see screenshot) City Council returned to the chambers with a standing-room only audience.
On the agenda were:
- Public Hearing on a third amendment to the Harvest development agreement.
- First reading on a code-change that allows development in the Tourism Zone to be more residential than previously allowed (this affects more than the Harvest land and spans the entire area)
- Discuss and direct staff on the future pair of round-a-bouts and roads across/around the former rail-road land
Public Comments were contentious covering topics of tourism zone over-development, Park&Ride secret meetings and the frequent cancellations of Council meetings (4 months with only single meetings).
The Public Hearing on Harvest's requested 3rd amendment included a 30 minute Council discussion and over an hour of comments. In general the comments were divided between residents against the change and businesses in favor of it. After this the formal vote was deferred to a future meeting (now at least November 14th, because the November 7th meeting is also cancelled). Councilmembers in Mike Millman's majority seemed inclined to move forward regardless of concerns that the Harvest developer is using this agreement to build more unaffordable housing while restricting the city's use of his land gift in ways that benefit his business.
Code change was discussed after the commenters from the Harvest agreement left the room. Despite this change being a prerequisite to the Harvest agreement. It passed with only one councilmember (Best-Campbell) pointing out the zoning will now permit developers to request more residential across the entire tourism zone.
Finally staff presented possible traffic flow patterns on the Wood-Sno Rd and Little-Bearcreek Rd area. The eventual direction to staff was to further investigate a dual round-a-bout design that maintains two-way traffic flow on both roads.
It was mentioned that the next regular council meeting would have been November 7th, but is now cancelled and a special meeting will occur on November 14th. No reason was given.
Council Agenda was late to be posted, reducing the public's chance to review.