Clyde Hill News: Trash service delays, Clyde Hill bus service at risk
Also: 70mph on 92nd, some City Council Meeting recap, & our new Mayor Pro Tem!
Also: the City’s 2022 Goals, an update on enforcing code while the City is updating it, and the 17th Street Stormwater problem. First, 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.
The Trash
Briefly: it’s not clear when the bins will be picked up. There’s been no service due to local Republic Services workers supporting striking workers in San Diego. This disruption extends the backlog we have from the holiday schedule and bad weather. (Link)
You can see updates from Republic Services about Clyde Hill service here.
The City plans, once the strike has ended, to engage “Republic Services with respect to any performance fees, customer credits, special collection events, and/or extra collection that are allowable under the current contract.” (Link)
In neighboring Yarrow Point, the Mayor has hired a truck to address the issue in the short term. Their problem is much more acute: recycling hasn’t been picked up in four weeks. From driving around, things are not as bad in Medina, Hunts Point, or Clyde Hill.
Clyde Hill Bus Service Still At Risk
The Mayors of Clyde Hill and Medina are lobbying KC Metro, hard, to maintain bus service for our community on the 84th corridor. They and other representatives of the cities met with KC Metro this week.
Metro proposes eliminating Route 271 and replacing it with a new route along Bellevue Way and eliminating Route 246 (based on low usage). (Link) From Medina’s City Council:
“King County Metro Bus Route 271… currently serves the citizens of the Cities of Medina, Clyde Hill, and Hunts Point. King County is looking at eliminating Route 271 and therefore impacting Medina [and other Points Communities] residents. The Points Communities are working together to ensure our residents keep Route 271.” (link)
Medina just passed a resolution outlining “the importance of Route 271 for our community and the need to keep it.” It is a powerful read. You can see it here: link.
Clyde Hill and Hunts Point passed similar resolutions in December. (link) Yarrow Point will consider a similar resolution at its February meeting. (It’s not clear why the previous Yarrow Point Mayor and City Council did not address this issue earlier; this information appears to have been publicly available since September 2021.)
Transparency: The City’s 2022 Projects and Programs
At this week’s City Council meeting, the City Administrator offered an update on the City’s plans for the year ahead.
This is great transparency: the City has to make trade-offs and set priorities in response to change. For example, since setting out its initial plan during last year’s budget process, the City faces an urgent need to find new legal services. As the City writes, “Since approved in December 2021, Staff have prioritized the non-required Target Issues in 2022 and have provided a general timeline for deliverables.”
Parts are still in draft form; you can read the original here. Briefly, the work has been broken down into groups:
required, like developing the 2023 budget
staff priorities, like Update Title 17 (the Land Use Code) and City Hall Improvements
targets, the remaining items after the priorities, like holding the Pumpkin Festival and designing 2023’s overlays
on hold, like updating the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
There is some additional work that does not appear to be in the plans. For example, the City just notified Council about new online permitting services (link):
On Tuesday, January 18th the City is rolling out a new online portal to PermiTrax, called Citizen’s Connect. This will allow people to apply for permits online and to pay for those permits using a credit card or check without coming into City Hall. This expands the City’s abilities to provide great customer service to its residents and people doing business in Clyde Hill.
For sure, progress to celebrate.
Land Use Code (Title 17) Update (delayed) and Enforcement (not yet paused)
The City Tuesday gave an update on code enforcement. You can see the slides here or watch video of the presentation and discussion here.
The gist is that back in May, the City paused enforcement of part of Title 17 and changed policy regarding complaints, adding a requirement: “The Complainant must demonstrate that they are significantly impacted.”
It’s not clear when the City told the community about this change.
The council also discussed a resolution from Councilmember Scott Moore seeking, similar to the May action by the City, to pause enforcement of the parts of Title 17 under review until that review has been completed. For reference, the City recommended these parts of Title 17 for review first because of what it termed “defects” in those chapters.
You can see that discussion here. There appeared to be support for this action. Because of concerns with the specifics of the resolution, Councilmember Moore will revise and bring it back to Council as soon as possible.
This week, the City also shared that the actual review of the Title 17 code is further delayed (link). “Due to lack of a quorum as well as non-availability of training via a third-party until later in February/March, the Planning Commission will not meet in January.”
Stormwater issues, snow, reckless driving, and contracts
During the City Council meeting, Public Works shared update about the 17th Street stormwater drainage problems. The City has drafted a letter to residents:
They also reported on other stormwater drainage problems that they addressed:
The City also shared details about its snow response. (My opinion: it was great! If you have an opinion one way or the other, please share with the City. Otherwise, how will they know?)
From this month’s Police report: an accident and “Driver cited for driving 70mph in a 25mph zone:”
They City also sought and received approval for contracts for architectural support for the City Hall remodel, records management, and to continue Eastside Transportation Partnership.
Mayor Pro Tem
Councilmember Kim Muromoto was unanimously voted in as Mayor Pro Tem. In the event the Mayor cannot fulfill her duties, he will fill in. You can read more about him here.1
Also, the one newly elected (me) and the two re-elected council members were sworn in.
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Dean Hachamovitch