Clyde Hill News: Land use code improvements on hold for a year?
Also: garbage and recycle pick-up day to change; police contract negotiations ahead
Clyde Hill residents now have new information about how the city will approach state mandates to permit greater housing density. As part of that work, the Planning Commission appears unlikely to consider any proposed improvements to the city’s land use code until April 2025, more than a year from now, according to the “draft work plan” the commission unanimously approved earlier this week (link).
Garbage and recycle pick-up day in Clyde Hill will be switching to Wednesdays starting April 3, according to a memo published on the city’s website Friday. Also, the administration reported that the city’s “Financial Sustainability Plan” to address the recurring budget deficit will be ready for the city council in April. Details on these stories and more below — but first: the city’s new branding has been installed at City Hall:
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.
Waste pick-up day
Garbage and recycle pick-up day in Clyde Hill will be switching to Wednesdays starting April 3, according to a memo published on the city’s website Friday (link).
Clyde Hill’s annual Spring Clean-up will be Wednesday, May 15th. “Residents will have the opportunity to place bulk items, extra furniture and yard waste out for pickup. More information on the clean-up event” will be available online, according to the city.
Police contract negotiations ahead
Clyde Hill is preparing to hire the Summit Law Group to help in this year’s contract negotiations with the union that represents Clyde Hill’s police officers. Previously, Clyde Hill used a different firm.
A document on the city’s website includes an item “Labor Negotiations Support Contract w/ Summit Law” (link) as an agenda item for the March city council meeting. The city has only one labor entity (the police union) it negotiates with.
For context, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the city and its police officers runs through December 31, 2024 (link). In early 2023, Clyde Hill and the union representing police agreed on a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA). In 2022, the city piloted a “take home car program” (link) for police officers.
Also not clear is where the city will find budget savings in order to deliver on its financial sustainability goals as the cost of policing goes up. The publicly available information about the budget balancing work has not provided detail about this topic. Public safety spending represents about half of Clyde Hill’s general fund expenditures — 35% on law enforcement, 14% on fire and emergency medical services — with public works and general administration making up the rest, according to this November 2023 budget presentation from the city:
Land use code updates and the Comprehensive Plan
The city’s Planning Commission appears unlikely to consider any proposed improvements to the city’s land use code until April 2025, more than a year from now, according to the “draft work plan” the Planning Commission unanimously approved earlier this week (link).
Commissioners called the plan “a starting point” and noted the need to revisit and update the work plan as new information becomes available. The document is still marked as “draft.”
Briefly:
The Planning Commission is booked through June with its work on the state-required Comprehensive Plan update.
The backlog of concerns with the city’s land use code (also known as “Title 17”) has been growing for years.
The Planning Commission blocked out nine months on its calendar to work through Title 17 changes to accommodate three new state laws related to housing.
The Planning Commission is booked through June with its work on the state-required Comprehensive Plan update.
The “Comp Plan” articulates the city’s larger goals and policies for housing, transportation, capital facilities, and more. The plan provides a framework that the city’s actual land use code (zoning, setbacks, fences, etc.) then puts into practice.
It’s not clear from the publicly available materials when exactly the community will be able to review the plan. At the council meeting earlier this month, the written report indicated that all was well; the verbal report explained that the effort was about a month behind schedule (link). The Comp Plan process has been plagued with problems related to expectation setting and execution (see “Comprehensive plan timelines at risk,” link) for over two years.
The backlog of concerns with the city’s land use code (also known as “Title 17”) has been growing for years.
Any proposed changes to Title 17 go through the Planning Commission for review, public hearings, and additional resident feedback.
The council last referred proposed Title 17 changes to the Planning Commission over a year ago (January 2023). There has been no action taken on those proposed changes.
Earlier this month, the city council agreed to “resume the practice of referring proposed Title 17 changes to the Planning Commission.” (link)
Residents and the council have expressed concerns about clarity, consistency, and enforcement of the land use code. Some policies have not been publicly documented (“unwritten policies”), while parts of the city’s code are simply not enforced as written. Some examples of changes ahead include sightline visibility at intersections, addressing problems with the city’s enforcement rules, stormwater requirements and substantial remodels, and cleaning up the fence and hedge code.
The Planning Commission blocked out nine months on its calendar to work through Title 17 changes to accommodate three new state laws related to housing.
It’s not clear when any proposed changes related to these laws will be ready for the Planning Commission to consider. For example, the city does not yet have a plan for how it will draft its “Missing Middle Housing” ordinance. City staff initially proposed spending another $35,000 with the current contractor working on the Comp Plan.
Commissioners signaled some scheduling flexibility. During their deliberations, commissioners used a lot of softening language around the work plan (like “outline,” “pipeline,” “live document,” and “fluid plan”).
There may be ways to improve Planning Commission “throughput.” (During the public meeting, one commissioner called out the commission’s throughput as “the big elephant in the room.”) The Planning Commission’s chair offered a point of view on the commission’s rate of progress:
“I do want to point out that a lot of times the reason we meet once a month is because we have very limited staff resources at the city and so even if we want to meet twice a month I don't think that will be work for us to do. As you can see tonight, we’re working on the housing element… we are only able to work on half of it. The other half is still being worked on [by city staff] and that's why it’s split into two.” (link)
Residents who have feedback about this work plan can call or email the staff liaison to the planning commission (link), planning commissioners (link), or the city council (link).
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Dean Hachamovitch