Clyde Hill News: Residents pursue “Drone Fund II”
Also: City movie night on August 16; “Middle Housing” grant issues linger
This week’s newsletter starts with an update about local residents pitching in to help Clyde Hill PD.
Clyde Hill and Yarrow Point residents have contributed $6,500 so far as part of “Drone Fund II,” a private effort to provide the police department with additional drone equipment.
Yarrow Point Councilmember Michael Hyman, in his capacity as a resident, is leading the effort and is looking for a few more donors to help achieve their goal of $9,500. Please let me know if you’d like his contact information.
Below, after the disclaimer, more information about this summer’s city movie night and the path ahead to bring the city’s land use code into compliance with new state laws.
Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the city. City information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about city business I will respond from my city email account.
Save the date(s)
This summer’s community movie night will take place Friday, August 16th:
Some other dates worth noting:
Thursday June 6, 7-9pm: the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing and review a full draft of the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
Thursday June 13, 6:30-8:00pm: city staff will host a “Comprehensive Plan Open House” for the public to ask questions and provide feedback on the plan.
Changes to the dates for the July and August city council meetings are under discussion. The current plan is to hold a special meeting on Tuesday July 30 and to cancel both the July 9th and August 13th regular meetings.
Here’s a preview of the city’s newsletter that is headed to residents’ mailboxes:
Some other items worth noting:
Clyde Hill Police Department’s recommendation about protecting your mail with a heavy-duty mailbox, and
The volunteer opportunity to join the city’s Budget Advisory Committee.
“Missing Middle” Housing Grant
Time is running out for the city to use a $35,000 grant from Washington State’s Department of Commerce related to developing “Middle Housing” in Clyde Hill. This week’s Administrator Weekly Report includes this update (link):
Based upon grant requirements and provisions, our window to utilize the grant funding is closing quickly and a decision to proceed is needed now. Staff will plan to discuss next steps at the June City Council meeting.
For residents, the public discussion over the past six months around this grant highlights the complexity and challenges here.
Here’s a brief high-level survey of the issues that small cities like Clyde Hill and the other Points Communities face as they work to comply with Washington’s new housing laws.
Missing Middle Housing
“Middle Housing” refers to townhouses and other forms of “denser” housing between single-family homes and mid-rise apartment buildings:
To comply with a recent change to Washington law, Clyde Hill must permit the development of “higher density” housing in the city.
Millions of dollars in state grants
Washington’s Department of Commerce awarded almost $3 million of grants to communities to help them come into compliance with the new middle housing law (link).
The terms of the grants are specific. In Clyde Hill’s case, the city would accept a $35,000 grant and immediately contract with a consultant to run a public engagement process and draft a new middle housing ordinance for the city (link).
Complexity and challenges
While that was the plan going into the February city council meeting, the mayor and city council agreed after discussion to hold off on moving ahead with the grant and consultant contract. From the discussion and referring to the minutes of that meeting (link), there were several factors.
One concern involved the experience to date with the contractor that has been working on the Comprehensive Plan, and engaging with them on more work.
Another concern involved the terms of the grant, and whether those terms align with or go against community preferences. There’s a difference between a policy permitting middle housing and a policy actively encouraging it.
The City of Medina faced similar issues about the difference between what residents want and what a state agency wanted when it accepted state funds to develop a “Housing Action Plan.” Here’s a tweet from a member of the public who attended the Medina city council’s meeting about that plan:
Another CM [council member] is asking what would happen if they didn’t adopt the action plan. They would have to reimburse commerce for the cost of the plan. (link)
An additional concern involved the process: the city appears to have entered a contractual arrangement without council authorization.
Another factor that emerged at a later public meeting involved unclear guidance from the state about what Clyde Hill is required to do here. Here’s an excerpt from that guidance:
What’s next
Based on the Administrator’s Weekly Update, it appears that there will be further discussion about what to do about this grant at the June city council meeting.
Looking at the big picture, this state law is just one of several that Clyde Hill will need to come into compliance with. Compliance involves drafting ordinances that respect both state requirements and local preferences. State grants can help, but might involve obligations that residents do not want to take on.
Longer term, another concern here involves balancing (1) how important this work is to residents and (2) the city’s reliance on a contractor and a part-time employee. It’s not clear, as the city works through its long-running budget deficit, what the plan here is.
More new state laws are expected. Many of the bills related to land use and housing that failed to become laws last year are expected to come back in this year’s state legislative session.
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Dean Hachamovitch