Clyde Hill News: Comprehensive plan slips to 2025
Also: Rat problem lingers as city claims penalties “unenforceable;” residents organize budget deficit response
The city will miss a December 31 deadline to complete its Comprehensive Plan, according to discussion at Thursday night’s special council meeting.
City staff did not offer a written prioritization or recommendation about how to respond to the comments the city received from state and regional agencies in response to a draft of the plan. They did prepare a 16-page table with the 51 comments (link).
The council asked staff to come back with the short list of “must-have” changes, based on their legal and risk assessment, so that the city’s plan is compliant.
More context and details about the troubled Comprehensive Plan below, along with updates about the city’s months-long struggle to respond to a complaint about rats and trash, and residents organizing a response to the budget deficit.
But first: residents can apply for openings on the city’s Planning Commission and Civil Service Commission. The deadline is December 3. More information at the city’s website here (link).
Also, the newsletter will take next week’s holiday off — Happy Thanksgiving!
Disclaimer: while I am a council member 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.
No dates available for city response to rat problem; city appreciates neighbor “patience”
City officials appear to have granted a third extension to Clyde Hill residents with an active rat and trash problem that has gone on for months.
According to the city, this complaint is the “sixth time for [the] same house.” (link)
Neighbors expressed frustration with the lack of progress, noting that there is clear city code not being enforced and that the city took several weeks to send legal letters to the property owner.
City officials provided an update to neighbors, explaining that
It is the opinion of our current City attorney that the language in our code (specifically related to a daily penalty versus one-time charges that can escalate) is unenforceable….
Unfortunately, passing ordinances through Council does take some time….
I appreciate your patience on this matter, and I will keep you posted as to the progress of our code modifications.
It’s not clear based on available information when or if the city has successfully imposed penalties.
Efforts over the last three years to address code issues like this one took a backseat to work on the Comprehensive Plan (more on that, below).
A neighbor offered that the resident has only “moved the trash from the front of his house to the side” and not actually addressed the issue. “It is just unacceptable for me to have to chase the rats off for [my] grandkids to be able to play in the street.”
Residents organize budget deficit response, seek “forcing function”
About a dozen residents so far have signed on to a statement asking the city council to enact a 2025 budget that addresses the record ~$200K deficit in the latest budget proposal.
Since the October 7 public hearing about the 2025 budget, a group of residents have been vocal about addressing the long-running gap between city revenues and expenditures. In a statement, residents noted that after engaging with the city at several public and private meetings, they
have not seen a willingness to identify expense reduction options to rein-in 2025 expenses without the forcing function that comes from the requirements of a balanced budget.
The gist of the residents’ request appears to be that the 2025 budget reduce expenditures by ~$200K and demonstrate more progress toward financial sustainability.
Several residents noted that city staff has provided little specific information about the possible impact of decreased spending on city services for residents, just vague warnings about “unintended consequences.” (link) They have also noted issues with the city’s communications around budget issues and what they view as an apparent lack of urgency from the city. Separately, Councilmember Steve Sinwell expressed concern about the “weaponization” (link) of spending cuts.
At a November public meeting, City Administrator Dean Rohla declared “We are as lean as we can be” (link) in reference to efforts to find more savings in the city administration’s budget.
The city council needs to enact a 2025 budget by the end of December. The most recent proposed budget includes a deficit of ~$200K:
If you’d like to connect with the residents working on this effort, just ‘reply’ to this mail and I’ll put you in touch with them. You can contact elected officials at these email addresses:
"Mayor Friedman" <Mayor@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Wissner-Slivka" <council1@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Sinwell" <council2@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Muromoto" <council3@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Olson" <council4@clydehill.org>; "Councilmember Hachamovitch" <council5@clydehill.org>
Comprehensive Plan slips to 2025
After almost three years and $300K of spending, the completion date for the city’s legally-mandated update to the Comprehensive Plan has slipped again. According to the part-time city employee driving the effort,
“There is the intended deadline — the 31st of December… [we] are not going to meet the deadline, so it’s January, February, March… whatever it is.” (link)
He noted that many other jurisdictions are also going to miss the end of year deadline. The City of Medina voted to approve their Comprehensive Plan earlier this month. (link)
For context, according to the city’s website,
The Comprehensive Plan is the guiding document every city in Washington maintains in order to determine how it develops and manages its land as well as how it provides services to the public. (link)
The city’s webpage dedicated to the Comprehensive Plan, last updated in October, still shows December for the plan’s adoption:
City staff “moved [the] anticipated Council adoption from September to October. This is more realistic now” (link) in a formal update in May 2024 (the most recent one I could find on the city’s website).
In December of 2023, this newsletter reported that city staff were still working out a plan for a plan for the Comprehensive Plan update:
Clyde Hill’s administration announced that they are behind and that the “game plan is not set yet.” Compliance with new state housing laws, according to the administration, will involve even more work that it has not yet planned out. (link)
City Administrator Dean Rohla at a public meeting in September of this year blamed the contractor that staff selected to lead the Comprehensive Plan effort, saying
“The contractor we had last time fell apart — that wasn’t our fault.” (link)
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Dean Hachamovitch