MEETING AGENDA
- 6:30 – 7:00 Neighborhood Report
- 7:00 – 7:30 Housing: Public review process for the Olympia Housing Plan* to address increasing housing supply, diversity of housing types and affordability.
- 7:30 – 7:35 Five-Minute Stretch
- 7:35 – 7:45 Arts Walk and Involving Neighborhoods – Stephanie Johnson
- 7:45 – 8:15 Homelessness – Cary Retlin and/or Teal Russell
- 8:15 – 8:20 February meeting minutes approval
- 8:20 – 8:30 Agenda Ideas
- 8:30 Adjourn
Learn more about the Housing Action Plan before the meeting:
* Actions Identified in the Draft Regional Housing Action Plan – DRAFT Recommendations for Olympia, [a PDF download]: https://olympia.legistar.com/
* Video of Housing Panel Discussion from January 2021 https://www.trpc.org/1002/
* Draft Housing Plan https://www.trpc.org/
* Housing Needs Assessment and Household Income Forecast https://www.trpc.org/
Meeting Handouts:
Arts Walk Expansion https://mailchi.mp/olympiawa.
Housing Action Status List for Olympia
Economic Development Update cna – 020821
Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) Minutes
- Date: Monday, March 8, 2021
- Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
- Location: Zoom virtual meeting
Present: Council of Neighborhood Associations Officers: Larry Dzieza (Nottingham) – Chair, Melissa Allen (BHNA) – Vice Chair, Mark Toy (SWONA), Jim Rioux (ENA) – Co-Secretaries
Members: Helen Wheatley (CRANA), Judy Bardin (NWONA), Bruce Coulter (NWONA), Bob Jacobs (GSNA), Clydia Cuykendall (WCH), Darrah Johnson (Wildwood NA), Martha Worcester (Redwood Estates), Jenn Wulf (DNA), Bill Nevue (Indian Creek), Sherry Chilcutt (ENA), Dana McAvoy (EBPNA), Bob Van Schoorl (SCNA)
City & State Representatives & Presenters: Lydia Moorehead (Community Planning), Yen Huynh (City Council), Amy Buckler, Teal Russell, Stephanie Johnson
6:30 – 7:00 Neighborhood Reports
Bruce asks for e-mail/phone contact list for members to share information. Lydia offers RNA list from updates. Larry brings up privacy issues. Jim says Dave Marti was going to put up something on CNA website. Melissa says we used to discuss on sidelines at in person meetings, no privacy issues with sharing contact information. Larry will send out e-mail for ‘opt out’ of sharing contact info.
Larry: we got thank you card from Clark Gilman for parting gift (Swiss army knife).
Redwood Estates: Pretty quiet. City Parks planted living Christmas Tree at their request at nearby park.
EBPNA: Zoom meeting soon with elections.
SCNA: Pretty quiet, focusing on Capital Campus building plans and lack of comprehensive planning.
Wildwood: Pretty quiet. Nothing new to report.
WCH: Nothing to report.
DNA: One board member resigned, reorganizing (social media person quit) (Melissa – Mentions Olympian article on MFTE, fewer housing options for affordable housing.). Big issue with DNA since most are renters, spend lots of times with tenants rights, promoting cooperatives. Jenn helps organize ‘tenant union’ type stuff to enable to purchase buildings if offered. (Larry – move discussion to later section)
Indian Creek: Lost Kushari from board, just him and Dave Marti on board. Annual meeting at end of April to recruit more board members. Issues with homeless at Wheeler St.
Gov. Stevens: Pretty quiet. More people walking on streets. Parents of younger kids (4-5 y.o) organized biking event on closed off street.
NWONA: West Bay photo op on West Bay drive to dedicate new art for Crossings Project (Salmon and Heron) on April 3 from 1-2 p.m., will put photos on website. Board meeting next Monday. Sorrow over mural vandalism on West Bay Drive.
SWONA: NMG grant application written. Annual meeting on 18th so will get some feedback before due date on 24th. Agenda on our website. Lots of building developments – at least 4 projects on different stages of development on Fern St. between 9th and 16th.
ENA: Regular board meetings happening. 7th Street path proposal to Lions Park, increased interest with new spray ground. Need Right of Way agreements with 3-4 neighbors. Getting advice from ONA on how to proceed. Continue to advocate with City on Armory conversion to community space.
CRANA: Pretty quiet. Denise resigned so +/- leaderless, not much enthusiasm for virtual meetings, hopeful for in-person board meetings with vaccinations soon.
Judy – Short term rental up to Planning Commission on Monday. Big concern losing long term rental housing for short term housing.
Yen (City Council member): Happy International Women’s Day. Some special meetings, last formal meeting approval for Franklin Street improvement project. Approval for Olympia transportation master plan. Meeting with Squaxin – tribe will be involved with West Bay Yards development review – council-to-council subcommittee to work on details. Last Tuesday annual joint meeting with Oly School District for three dog park developments. Reopening discussion – secondary school reopening by end of March.
School staff in Phase 1B rollout. Need for 3rd high school – location TBD – plus new rec facilities (including pool). Met with Tye Menser – he was interested in CNA participation. (Mark – interested on progress with alternatives to incarceration since he emphasized this in his campaign. Yen thought he would be interested in presenting on that.)
7:00 – 7:30 Housing: Public review process for the Olympia Housing Plan* to address
increasing housing supply, diversity of housing types and affordability.
Amy Buckler (15 minutes presentation/15 minutes discussion)
Amy is Strategic Projects Manager with City. (refer to PowerPoint, attached documents for discussion) Focused on long term projects with Lacey and Tumwater. Regional framework for housing actions. Housing Action Plan due by June 15 (pre-Covid mandate, need to update as trends change). Focused on permanent housing, homeless different planning process. Housing needs assessment – county population increase by 85,000 in next 25 years (46% increase in housing stock needed by 2045), 34,000 housing units in 3 cities, 14,000 in Olympia alone. Downtown, Westside Mall, Pacific/Martin Way triangle are priority areas for increased density. Demographics changing, less affordable housing. Half of new households in 3 cities low income by 2045. Racial disparities exist, exacerbated by government policies.
City has hired first diversity coordinator last year, also diversity/equity committee to be developed. Seven needs identified with strategies developed to address with >50 actions (see attached Housing Action Status List for Olympia.pdf). Engage Olympia (https://engage.olympiawa.gov/) has Storyboard and Survey (closes on March 28). Public open house on April 7 (register on Engage Olympia) with written comment period through April.
Discussion: Melissa – nothing on performance measures on plan. Amy – City is working on performance measures, looking at market data. Melissa – CP&D has beautiful plans but no action on affordable housing, depends on ‘trickle down’. Amy – one performance measure number of housing units by type. Landlord survey on ‘price point’ of different types of housing. SFH twice rent cost of ADU.
Jenn – Excited about portions of plan, nothing on housing standards for ‘affordable housing’ (i.e. mold issues, housing repairs, etc.) – big problem downtown with quality of affordable housing – what is plan for that? Incentives for retrofits for healthy homes discussed in housing plan. Amy – Lower costs units more at risk of being displaced via development/retrofitting. Vague projections of City incentivizing building of new affordable units.
Bruce doubts incentives would result in lower rents. Amy – City can put rental limits for certain time period as condition of receiving funds.
Larry – issues about lower incomes to afford housing, what about increasing minimum wage? Yen – City looking at hazard pay for larger employers of essential workers.
7:30 – 7:35 Five-Minute Stretch (meeting through)
7:35 – 7:45 Arts Walk and Involving Neighborhoods – Stephanie Johnson
Jim Burlingame (vice chair for Arts Walk) used to be CNA rep – response to pandemic to decentralize Arts Walk (temporal and physical) – so now Arts Walk Month and citywide. Artists Gallery on westside is participating. Racoon Collective, Front Porch SingOut examples of neighborhood events. Contact Stephanie or Angel to sign up.
7:45 – 8:15 Homelessness Updates –Teal Russell
Teal Russell, homeless response coordinator for City, cited need for better communicating their work.
Plum Street Village – high barrier tiny homes (no substance abuse, >18 year olds) just celebrated two years, low profile, about 30 moveouts in 2 years, mostly to permanent housing.
Mitigation site – 125 tent spots at Franklin Ave., low barrier – soon to be micro-houses (8’ x 10’) with money from Providence and other partners and space from Port.
Hope Village, New Hope Village also on periphery. 2828 Martin Way – Interfaith operating, walls are up.
Unsanctioned camps visited regularly (Ensign Road, Deschutes Parkway, the Jungle*), takes council members whenever possible (Yen went recently) – on private property. (*between Martin and Pacific near Fatso’s). Decatur woods encampment also on radar (one of smaller camps). Coordinate with social service providers. Wheeler site is a challenge – dumpster use by non-homeless – drop boxes not left for long periods.
Deschutes Parkway cleanup in planning stages – people not asked to leave (eviction moratorium). RV and trailer sewage issues (dumping into catch basins). Conversation with Seattle Public Works on how they are responding to this issue. Also working with Parking Services on ‘liveaboards’ (+/-100 in public Right of Way). Spend $16,000/month on garbage disposal and cleanups.
Larry – Any progress on homeless shelters outside of Olympia in county? Teal – Working with county on ‘scattered site’ model. Port discussing RV Trailer Park but for tourists, not homeless.
Melissa – Locked storage for homeless still? Concerns about spread of items around RV trailers. Teal – Secure storage available (shipping containers) but for essential possessions, not for soiled items. Storage is staffed, open for certain hours, stuff fits in 80 gallon rolling garbage can. Another place for Covid+ people who need storage while in isolation.
Fifteen people from mitigation site helping to build micro-homes. One of biggest issues on street is lack of formal ID, they often get stolen.
Larry – will Covid relief bill help? State also doing something for funding homelessness response.
8:15 – 8:20 February meeting minutes approval
Minutes approved.
8:20 – 8:30 Agenda Ideas
Bob – Short-term housing ordinance presentation requested (seconded by Judy). Issue with losing permanent housing.
Larry – West Bay Yards development agreement should be a topic (it creates a 15-year commitment). Bruce – Daniel Einstein challenging SEPA on project. Concerns are traffic impacts on West Bay Drive. Melissa has continued concerns on City bypassing GMA requirements. Yen can report back from Council, nothing to say right now. Shoreline restoration may be part of development. Larry reiterates concern about development agreement bypassing adequate community input that “short circuits all the processes of land use and planning and while that’s really a sweet deal for a Council to be able to do this” it presents transparency and participation issues. Bruce offers to ask Daniel Einstein to present. Yen says it will not bind future councils to decision. Would like City representative to speak in addition to Daniel Einstein.
Bob – Should include new Smyth Landing and other projects north of West Bay Yards to discuss cumulative effect. Judy – new Smyth Landing project in preliminary stage. Helen – concern about process – City trying to bypass community on input. Larry reads agreement – binds City to land use regulations at time of signing. Bob – State legislature has degraded SEPA process for years. Yen pushes back – ‘sweet deal’ phrasing.
Melissa – Former council member made comment – people should leave planning to the planners – upset at City attitude with its citizens. Yen takes message back to City Council, she does not run the CNA meeting. Tired of ‘one-way’ communication from City to CNA but not back to City. Melissa would like update on housing issues at next meeting, particularly affordable vs. market rate housing. Larry – example of Boulevard project. Mark asks about new housing project on westside (Lydia and Mark take offline questions about westside development projects). Jenn would like update on tenants’ rights from City.
Yen – asks for homework items from CNA. Larry – 1. Process for West Bay Yards, Mark – 2. Modification of MFTE for market-rate housing to 12 year with affordable housing only (8-year option not addressing affordable housing issue). Jim – rephrases – wants City position on this issue. Concern about adequate time for full agenda (Lydia – get laundry list together – some speakers may not be available. Lydia can provide flow chart for development process). Judy – State legislature have one bill on modifying MFTE. Yen – available for discussion later on any topic.
8:30 Adjourn