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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole July 10 2007WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL Committee Of The Whole July 10, 2007 Council Chair Carl Weimer called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. in the Council Committee Room, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington. Present: Absent: Barbara Brenner None Dan McShane Sam Crawford Seth Fleetwood Laurie Caskey- Schreiber L. Ward Nelson Nelson moved to go into executive session to discuss the first two agenda items. Motion carried 6 -0 with Fleetwood out of the room. 1. UPDATE FOR COUNTY COUNCIL ON OPEN COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT (AB2007 -018) 2. DISCUSSION WITH CHIEF CIVIL DEPUTY PROSECUTOR RANDALL WATTS REGARDING PENDING LITIGATION (AB2007 -018) 3. DISCUSSION REGARDING WORK ASSIGNMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE COUNCIL'S PLANNING AND POLICY ANALYST (AS2007 -228) Caskey- Schreiber stated one idea is to have Ms. Craven prepare the Council for entering into the urban growth area (UGA) reconciliation discussion with the City of Bellingham. She can represent the Council when working with the City. Fleetwood stated the City and County thought there would be three or four people from each side to create a team to come up with four or five alternative situations for the councils when they come together. Ms. Craven would be one County representative on that tea m. McShane stated he agrees with that idea. Rebecca Craven, Council Policy Analyst, stated that for the next couple of weeks, she will be working with the Planning Department to get the resolution before the Council. She will do some preparation for discussions with the City. There isn't a lot to do with the water resource integration project (inaudible). The first real team meeting is mid - August. Dewey Desler, Deputy Administrator, stated people are working with the consultant. Craven stated she'll be working on those items the next couple of weeks. Once discussions with the City begin, (inaudible). Committee of the Whole, 7/10/2007, Page 1 McShane stated that the Planning and Development Committee discussed leaving the Hillsdale area in the urban growth area and developing a Lake Whatcom urban overlay zone. It may be a good thing for Ms. Craven to work on so the Council can take it to the negotiation with the City. Have a potential resolution for that particular issue. It would be a new overlay for Lake Whatcom urban growth areas that has to do with density. The current overlays for Lake Whatcom all have to do with development regulations. This would be a zone density overlay to protect the lake. They can't change the zoning because there is no zoning to change it to. There has to be a new zone. If it becomes part of the city, then it would be the City's jurisdiction. The Hillsdale and Geneva areas will never become part of the city. They will remain urban growth areas. Crawford stated there are already Lake Whatcom overlays. He asked why this wouldn't be addressed as a zoning change. McShane stated he shouldn't use the term overlay. There could be options from which the Council decides. Currently, there is a subdivision moratorium for those areas. They must come up with a final zone for the UGA areas. Brenner asked why they don't take it out of the UGA. Crawford stated it would become a limited area of more intense rural development (LAMIRD). Brenner stated that's what LAMIRD's are for. McShane stated the City would have to approve it. There could be disadvantages to the City, such as extending sewer and water to existing buildable lots. There are many potential unintended consequences that should be reviewed carefully. The idea of a new zone hasn't been vetted, other than in committee. Crawford stated people in the Lake Whatcom watershed, outside the City, can hook up to utilities, if they own more than one platted lot and agree to not develop to full density. It seems like most of the concern is addressed now because of this City policy. McShane stated this isn't going to be a controversial thing. It will be consistent with the City's policy. Fleetwood stated the issue today is how they can get help from Ms. Craven on this issue. McShane asked if this is something that five councilmembers would want her to work on. Nelson stated he will support it if it lifts the moratorium and if they can find density alternatives that currently exist in other communities, which have traditionally been thought of as urban growth areas and have been removed. Look at the issue of water hookup. Water District 10 will have some concerns. Its long -term comprehensive plan is based on a certain number of hookups. Crawford asked if this is the ability to divide land or the ability to build a house. McShane stated he is talking about dividing land. Committee of the Whole, 7/10/2007, Page 2 Crawford stated he could generally support the effort, but think about compensatory measures for the property owners if they think they can subdivide today or in the future. Make sure they take value into consideration and be aware of how much they can financially impact people. What they are doing on Cable Street is a great thing, and will have a lot more impact than this zoning stuff. He hopes the councilmembers will think about on- the - ground stormwater improvements being a real solution. All these land use measures the Council has taken haven't done anything. They are not having an impact. When they consider land use matters in the watershed. Focus on the expensive solution, which is dealing with stormwater issues in the developed areas. Brenner stated she disagrees that expensive solutions are the best. They already decided to allocate transfers of development rights (TDR's) in the watershed. Ms. Craven should work on TDR's. Crawford stated he wants to know that people can go to the bank on something. Caskey- Schreiber stated Ms. Craven can look at conditioning upzones in the UGA with TDR's. There is not a stormwater system out there that will remove phosphorus. The lake will continue to degrade if they stop all development today. The lake is on its own cycle. They can't make a generalized statement that none of the development standards are doing any good. They don't know how much worse the lake would be if they had not enacted those standards. Urbanization affects the lake. Ms. Craven should look at the issue of the amount of density to allow if they remove the subdivision moratorium. The total maximum daily load (TMDL) study may never come out, so the Council must address this. She was in favor of pulling the area out of the UGA. This may be another way to do it. It will be a zoning change and may be a loss of development rights. Get a healthy TDR bank. She is in favor of this review. Brenner stated don't close the door on many things. Any city can extend services for public health and safety. The County could remove the area from the UGA with an interlocal agreement with the City to serve the area as needed for existing development. She would like that reviewed. The Council concurred to support the idea. Weimer stated the Council will go through a process with the administration on July 24 to identify everything on the Planning Department work list. There may be some things for which Ms. Craven can assist the Planning Department. Nelson asked if they've looked at current County absorption from the last five years. Weimer stated that's coming up. All the small cities are on the short-list. Nelson stated it would behoove the Council to get those numbers. Craven stated the Planning Department gets those numbers. All the small cities have to go through the UGA process, so it will happen soon. Nelson stated there are impacts to the rural areas. He believes that the absorption numbers have diminished. Committee of the Whole, 7/10/2007, Page 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 OTHER BUSINESS There was no other business. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:00 p.m. ]ill Nixon, Minutes Transcription The 1;ponayiRgProved these minutes on August 7 , 2007. CIL ATTE`e'%314 .M... , . O C .,tG Q` Dares Ef V15 -Dav l�P jr15i perk WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON Carl Weimer, Council Chair Committee of the Whole, 7/1012007, Page 4