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Home My WebLink About021323 Joint City Council/Planning Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesCITY OF PORT TOWNSEND MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING OF FEBRUARY 13, 2023 CALL TO ORDER/ ROLL CALL The Port Townsend City Council met in a Regular Workshop Meeting and the Planning Commission met in a Special Session on the 13th day of February 2023 in Council Chambers at 540 Water Street to have a Joint Council/Planning Commission Meeting. Mayor David Faber called the meeting to order at 6:31 pm. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT (REGARDING ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA) There was no public comment. Councilmembers present at roll call were David Faber, Monica MickHager, Aislinn Diamanti, Owen Rowe, Libby Wennstrom, Ben Thomas, and Amy Howard. Staff members present were Public Works Director Steve King, Planning and Community Development Director Emma Bolin , Planning Manager Judy Surber, City Attorney Heidi Greenwood , and City Clerk Alyssa Rodrigues . Planning Commissioners present were Andreas Andreadis, Samantha Bair -Jones, Robert Doyle, Rick Jahnke, Neil Nelson, Viki Sonntag, and Lois Stanford. DISCUSSION ITEMS Tactical Infill Housing Planning and Community Development Director Emma Bolin and SCJ Alliance President Bill Grimes provided the Port Townsend Infill Housing presentation which included Introduction, What we'll be doing tonight, What do we mean by "tactical infill?", Steps in the Process, What's the statutory context, Reflection, What are our objectives now?, Factors affecting affordability, Tactical infill requires tactical partners, Accessory dwelling units, Cottage housing, Tiny homes, Single-family attached, Unit lot subdivisions, temporary residential occupancy, Miscellaneous amendments, What's the schedule?, and Tonight's Exercise. Public Comment: Andreas Andreadis spoke about housing prices and having a multiprong approach to housing. Carolyn Woods spoke about her support to reduce zoning rules that block infill February 13, 2023 City Council Workshop Meeting with Planning Commission Page 1 of 4 housing, support for ADUs, tiny homes, duplexes, and triplexes, and affordability protection for workers. Kellen Lynch spoke about ADUs, housing affordability, and MRSC report. Liz Revord spoke about the Housing Solutions Network, affordable housing, and introduced the Executive Director of Washington State Housing Finance Commission Kim Herman. Kim Herman spoke about page 2 of the Planning Commissions memo, inclusionary zoning and affordable housing, multifamily developers, cottage housing, lot sizes, unit lot designation, off street parking requirements, and temporary workforce housing. Jane Armstrong spoke about zoning code changes, affordable housing, and affordable housing strategy ordinance. Jaisri Lingappa spoke about the Planning Commission memo issues, data, references, and recommendations from the community. Abbie Little spoke about cottage housing, tiny homes, mobile home park zoning, R3 property with streets and utilities, and cost of infrastructure. Teri Nomura spoke about affordable housing and a community land trust. Connie Segal spoke about community growth, wealth and density. City Council and Planning Commission reconvened around the workshop table for discussion. Discussion: City Council and Planning Commission reconvened around the workshop table for discussion. Discussion ensued around the Planning Commission selections and decision-making process. Discussion continued around having RVs as an ADU and whether it can fit into the ADU provision for the City. Ms. Bolin explained Port Angeles is currently looking at this idea as temporary housing and shared the concerns around it. Discussion ensued around Density Bonuses and why it did not make it to the larger list by Planning Commission. They went on to discuss the history of Density Bonuses in the City and State law around minimum density. They went on to discuss Land Trust facilitation and the intent behind the item. City Council and Planning Commission discussed the items on the list. This discussion included ADU's and parking requirements, comprehensive plan policy, cottage housing requirements in relation to affordable housing, Future steps vs. April 1 deadline, March 27 special session meeting,, house conversion in relation to duplex, triplex and fourplex barriers, Port Angeles progress and process, ADU's vs. Duplexes, and Front Facing Door requirement for ADU's/Duplex. They continued on to discuss the structure, complexity, and length of Code, receiving line in and line out documents in a timely manner, opportunity to address greyed out items on list, adding Land Trust Facilitating to whited out items, Cottage Housing naming, and simplifying the code. February 13, 2023 City Council Workshop Meeting with Planning Commission Page 2 of 4 City Council shared they had no feedback on the draft language. Ms. Bolin and Public Works Director Steve King discussed density and Infrastructure in relation to housing. Discussion continued amongst Planning Commission and Council around further actions down the housing roadmap which included greenfield development and liabilities vs. density and infill, affordability research and direction, affordable housing strategy, Urban Growth Area for County, encouraging dense development in relation to policy, creating concrete goals in terms of how many units per category income related to type of housing, percentage of housing that is not year-round occupied, public investments, and income level diversity living by each other. Mayor Fabor spoke about the importance of working on housing affordability, "what does the most good for the most people in our community" moral framework, Urban Growth Area for County, simplification of the code, housing costs, inclusionary zoning, and an all of the above approach that focuses on decreasing costs and complexity increasing flexibility in our code so more people can and will be willing to engage in building the necessary housing for our community. He went on to speak about having a simplified code/code audit, changes to base density, changes to setback requirements, single stair or point access reforms to allow for easier construction of small-scale apartment buildings, elimination of design review and conditional use, in favor of more by -right permit issuance, and removing parking requirements. The City Council and Planning Commission went on to discuss keeping the housing interesting in Port Townsend, system shift around housing, transportation infrastructure and plan for the future, property taxes on undeveloped property in the City, mowing undeveloped property, 2015 Planning Commission document regarding housing affordability, focusing on things that support health and human safety and getting rid of things that do not serve those purposes, R3 zones, importance of have flexibility, vacant homes in community, Comprehensive Plan Amendment, Comprehensive Plan update in 2025, April 2nd items, Viki Sonntag's white paper, the importance of the work already being done by community, what is the next housing project, accelerating the availability of housing supply, RV's, and the town being the people. Public Comment: Richard Berg spoke about cottage housing development costs and ADU development challenges. Siobhan Canty spoke about not thinking it is helpful to the community to equate more housing or smaller units of housing to affordable housing for working people if the City cannot demonstrate that they know what it means. Michael Mannox spoke about housing affordability, congestion/density, and contract/government housing. Liz Revord spoke about online participation public comment and dates for upcoming meetings. Julia Cochrane spoke about diversity, housing, and the history of zoning laws in relation to diversity. Scott Walker spoke about undeveloped lots being held for future use and parking February 13, 2023 City Council Workshop Meeting with Planning Commission Page 3 of 4 policy changes. Terrie Smith spoke about curbs/sidewalks requirements, regulations for cottage developments, and parking regulations. Kelly Grace spoke about the youth who would like to stay in Port Townsend and creative ways to make this happen. ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:41 pm. Attest: Alyssa Rodrigues City Clerk February 13, 2023 City Council Workshop Meeting with Planning Commission Page 4 of 4