January 11th 2021, CNA Meeting

MEETING AGENDA

• 6:30 – 6:50   Agenda presentation and Report from Neighborhoods
• 6:30 – 6:50   Agenda presentation and Report from Neighborhoods
• 6:50 – 7:20   Update from Councilmember Gilman 
  • Potential Neighborhood Topics:
  •    Council’s Legislative Agenda
  •    Capitol Protests – Impact on Neighborhoods and State’s Response
  •    State Auditor Letter on multi-family housing monitoring and enforcement
• 7:20 – 7:25    LBA Road Comprehensive Plan Amendment – Larry Dzieza
• 7:25 – 7:45   RNA Update and Matching Grants – Lydia Moorehead
• 7:45 – 7:50   Sidewalk Video & Five-Minute Stretch
• 7:50 – 8:10   Discussion: Membership Retention and Recruitment
• 8:10 – 8:20   Discuss Process for Elections for CNA Officers
• 8:20 – 8:25   November meeting minutes approval
• 8:25 – 8:30   Agenda Ideas for next month Ideas 
• 8:30              Adjourn   

Meeting Handouts:

Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Minutes

Date: Monday, January 11th 2021           Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM

Location: Zoom virtual meeting

CNA Meeting Minutes – January 11, 2020, via Zoom, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Present: Council of Neighborhood Associations Officers: Larry Dzieza (Nottingham) – Chair, Melissa Allen (BHNA) – Vice Chair, Mark Toy (SWONA) and Jim Rioux (ENA) – Co-Secretaries

Members: Judy Bardin (NWONA), Bruce Coulter (NWONA), Bob Jacobs (GSNA), Jenn Wulf (DNA), Darrah Johnson (Wildwood NA), Martha Worcester (Redwood Estates), Bob Van Schoorl (South Capital), Dana McAvoy (Eastbay Drive), Dave Marty (ICNA) Lori Doran (BNA) and Charlott Person (BNA)

City & State Representatives & Presenters: Lydia Moorehead (Community Planning), Clark Gilman (City Council), Stephanie Johnson (Parks, Arts and Recreation)

AGENDA

6:30 – 7:20   Agenda presentation and Report from Neighborhoods

Bob Jacobs (Governor Stevens Neighborhood Association): I have nothing to report related to the neighborhood. However, there is a lot going on related to housing in the City and I’d like to provide an update.

The “Missing Middle” ordinances were found illegal by the Growth Management Board and the City was ordered to fix the ordinances. The City appealed three times and lost and is now appealing to Superior Court. I will report back when the court rules on that appeal.

The “Housing Options” ordinances, which were included in the minutes of our last meeting, were approved by Council and are now law. They allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in all R 4-8 zones. Sixplexes and courtyard apartments are also allowed in R 6-12 zones. Staff also said that densities in the range of 8-12 units per acre is now the density goal the City wants to reach. Not just the top end of the goal.

We will need to watch to see how this develops. We should expect thing to change. I will provide a report on the Superior Court decision at our next meeting.

Judy Bardin (NWONA): I’m going to add on to Bob’s report. Bob did not mention ADU’s. ADU’s use to be limited to 800 sq. ft. and were required to be proportional to the house. The limit was increased to 850 sq. ft. and they can now be two stories and up to 1,000 sq. ft. if attached to a garage. There are no requirements for the owner to be on site and no parking space requirements.

Marty Worcester (Redwood Estates): Our neighborhood is quiet. [Board] Officers agreed to stay on due to COVID. Things are going well in our neighborhood.

Bob Van Schoorl (South Capital): We had our annual meeting. We elected a new board. We will have our first board meeting on January 19^th. Not much happening except that there is a focus on safety with all that’s been happening at the Capital Campus. Working well with OPD.

Planned renovations to the “press building” on Capital Campus resulted in a proposal to close the adjacent street. This will restrict access to our neighborhood, so we are having discussions with the design committee.

Dave Marty (ICNA): A City representative attended our annual meeting to discuss homeless and traffic on Wheeler Ave. Looking for new board members.

Dana McAvoy (East Bay Drive): East Bay Drive has been pretty quiet. We are monitoring RV’s on East Bay Drive. Seems to be staying at about 5 RV’s. The Port of Olympia will hold a Zoom meeting on the 20^th. Its part of the Port 2050 planning.

Bruce Coulter (NWONA): [Larry showed an image of the art on West Bay Drive]. Bruce described the art and talked about the plans to install another piece on the other side of the road. That installation is delayed due to a planned development project. Bruce encouraged others to go take a look.

Oly Ecosystems has cleared large portion of the woods along West Bay drive.

The NWONA Board has agreed to stay on for another year. We meet next month. Our membership has stagnated, and we are interested to hear what others are doing to increase membership.

Stephanie Johnson provided an update on the Eastside St. Crossing project.

Melissa Allen (BHNA): We will try our first Zoom meeting next week. We will try to elect new officers.

ONNA forged a partnership with ENA to work on pedestrian safety. Not sure what will happen, but it’s great to work together and get to know others.

I received an e-mail that addressed a complaint that the City was not filing reports required for four tax exempt buildings. Does anyone know what this is about?

Larry indicated that Clark has been asked to speak about that.

Jenn asked what a “subarea” is. Melissa provided a brief explanation. Larry suggested an agenda item to go over Comprehensive Planning and Subarea Planning

Mark Toy (SWONA): Held a quarterly meeting on December 17^th. Attendance was low. A topic of interest was a pre-proposal for a development 9^th and Fern. Concerned about traffic and the fact that it would wipe out the pocket park. We are also facing several new developments and concerned about the cumulative impacts of traffic at that intersection.

Jenn Wulf (DNA): We elected new board members in November. We are holding monthly meetings. We have had several scary events with protests, some involved shootings. Things are very tense. Feels like something has changed. People are scared.

We would like to coordinate with South Capital Neighborhood since they are facing similar issues.

We received an e-mail from the City about conversion of the Armory into a community center. We would like to work with ENA that is working on that.

Darrah Johnson (Wildwood): Not a lot going on. Since our last meeting in December we held a holiday lights tour.

Jim Rioux (ENA): No meeting in December. We held a relatively successful Winter Walkabout. It included prizes for holiday decorations. We had good participation.

We contacted the Parks department about the spray park at Lions Park. Great idea but nothing being done to address increases in traffic and parking needs. City response was not encouraging.

It is good to be working with ONNA but I’m pessimistic. City staff has no funding and nothing is going to happen unless Council sees it as a priority.

Lori Doran and Charlott Person (Bigelow Neighborhood Association): We are new board members. Not much going on likely due to COVID. We are concerned about membership but waiting until we can do face-to-face activities.

Lori mentioned the sale of a large apartment complex to an investment firm and discussed her interest in discussing opportunities for tenant owned apartment complex. Could the City help?

Larry Dzieza (Nottingham): Meeting coming up on the 27^th. We created our first web site. Looking for ideas about what to post.

7:20 – 7:35 Update from Councilmember Gilman 

Council Legislative priorities include; state resources to address homelessness, affordable housing and mental health and chemical dependency services; climate change; $6M for design and Right-of-Way acquisition for the new interchange in West Olympia; clarification of statutes related to unauthorized paramilitary groups and authority and tools to address individuals carrying weapons.

Regarding cumulative impacts, the Transpiration Master Plan is focused on providing a better, data driven way to address transportation needs. The Comp Plan process begins again this year. That is the best way to get issues and priorities addressed. This will be a multi-year process.

Bob spoke to housing options ordinances. Bob and Judy’s presentations were correct. This is a switch from form based zoning to use based zoning.

Missing Middle appeal is delayed to February 19^th. That hearing will set the date for oral arguments. To Bob’s question about why the City chose to appeal. The City valued the effort that went into passing ordinance, we disagreed with the reasoning of the board, and whether they had reach to make the decisions that they did.

Multifamily tax emption reports. JLARC audited the program and found it was loosely run. We, like many other Cites still have gaps in our reporting. The Council’s Land Use and Environment Committee (LUEC) will take up this issue.

I will rotate out of the CNA liaison position. Yen Huynh will represent Council starting next month.

7:35 – 7:37 LBA Road Comprehensive Plan

Larry provided an overview of the recommendation to remove the construction of the road through the LBA Woods from the City’s comprehensive plan.

Judy Thanked and acknowledged Clark’s work. She also pointed out the Growth Management Board invalidated the missing middle ordnance because it didn’t meet the Growth Managment Act (GMA). The concern was parking and the expectation that it could more than double density. We are now monitoring density Citywide. That could obscure what is going on in neighborhoods. She suggested the City look at monitoring density on a subarea basis.

7:37 – 7:50   RNA Update and Matching Grants

Lydia provided an update on the RNA update process. Information is due on February 12^th.

Some 2020 -matching grants had to be revised due to disruption of COVID.

2021 matching grant applications will be due on March 15. Considering a workshop for the last week in January. If you are planning something that requires City property, that takes more planning. Projects need to be started in May and finished by the end of the year.

7:50 – 7:55   Sidewalk Video & Five-Minute Stretch

7:55 – 7:58   Discuss Process for Elections for CNA Officers

Next month we will select officers. Larry will send out something beforehand. Mellissa and Larry discussed how important it was to have the previous officers as a resource.

7:55 – 8:20   Discussion: Membership Retention and Recruitment

Larry facilitated a general discussion the following ideas were offered.

• Co-officer positions to reduce the workload

• Focus on doing just a few things well

• Don’t be bound by bylaws, use common sense and be creative

• Clarify expectations

• Reach out to new neighbors

• Hand out flyers (in person)

• Use sandwich boards for communication

• Create group e-mails and list serves

• Create tool libraries

8:20 – 8:21   January meeting minutes approval

8:25 – 8:30   Agenda Ideas for next month Ideas 

The following ideas were offered

• Presentations on the Comprehensive Plan by Subareas

• Overview of upcoming comp plan process

• Discuss common issues for upcoming comp plan amendments

• Discussion of what is good for the community. Can CNA be a force for positive change?

8:30 MEETING ADJOURNED

20210111-Minutes PDF