Clyde Hill News: February City Council Meeting Preview
Ballots due Tuesday! Nearby hotel to be used to house homeless; Goodbye, Mercia Hedge and... Calvinball
A reminder that ballots are due Tuesday February 8th. Both measures on the ballot for Clyde Hill residents involve levies (taxes) to support the Bellevue School District (link and link).
Now, our disclaimer:
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. The 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.
February City Council Meeting Preview
The City published the meeting packet on Friday here. Some issues, from a resident point of view….
Residents may want to take a close look at the City’s Stormwater Inventory Maps (link) to see what is on their property. It’s not clear from these maps which of these pipes and catch basins the City is taking responsibility for and which the City is expecting residents to take care of. There is an agenda item for “Discussion re: stormwater policies” even if there is no explicit call out to the ongoing 17th Street Stormwater problems.
Residents may also be interested in the outcome of the agenda item “Reminder re: CM Moore Code Enforcement Resolution.” What the City enforces (and chooses to not enforce) and how and why has emerged over the last year or so as a contentious issue, mostly because of inconsistency (that the Mayor called out publicly at a 2021 meeting) as well as lack of clarity (detailed in previous newsletters, for example here).
The January 2022 meeting discussed ongoing community concerns about code enforcement as well as a resolution to address them. That resolution, the Council agreed, needed refinement. The City Attorney’s guidance suggested an approach involving “a statement of policy to prioritize... without repealing” code.
Calvinball
Last month, the City revealed a change to its approach to complaint-based enforcement: complaints had to be from parties materially or significantly affected. It’s still not clear when and where the City communicated this change to residents.
For example, the City calls out restrictions about RVs, boats, and trailers here. One resident complained late last year and was told this wasn’t being enforced based on ambiguity in the code. Another resident filed a complaint regarding the same code in January and was told it wasn’t being enforced because the complaint was not from an adjacent or affected neighbor.
Here’s a photo of the Mercia Hedge being removed by City-hired contractors last week. A mirror-image of this hedge, across the street to the north, remains standing.
Other issues
The City will also offer an update on finding new legal representation and ask for approval to pay its bills, replace a police SUV, and accept a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology for stormwater projects in 2022. It’s unclear if that grant will help residents near 17th Street.
Next-Door Transitional and Supportive Housing
The former La Quinta hotel, just outside Clyde Hill, may become housing for the homeless.
Local news reported (KOMO, KIRO7) that “The former La Quinta hotel would be purchased through the Health Through Housing initiative, which uses tax money to buy vacant motels and convert them into housing.”
It also noted that this proposal “is getting pushback from the [Kirkland] community.”
Separately, nearby Medina is working on related legislation. Washington recently passed a law that “requires cities to allow transitional or permanent supportive housing in any zoning district that allows residential dwellings.” Medina appears to seek “guardrails that can be adopted to ensure potential impacts are limited.”
Another win for Clyde Hill PD
To close the newsletter this week: another win for Clyde Hill’s Police Department, which was “recognized by the Lexipol Connect program for achieving Gold level in 2021 for consistently and effectively disseminating policies to officers, issuing timely policy updates as laws change, and ensuring officers are trained on policies.” (via CHPD’s newsletter)
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Dean Hachamovitch