Planning 2017-06-22 Minutes - Board of Architectural Review - Foster High School Expansion and Birth to Kindergarten

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Page 6 Public Hearing Minutes June 22, 2017 not know exactly how it’s going to operate, which is the key to the traffic management plan recommendation on page 25 of the packet. Until they know how it works and the details of the plan are rd worked out with the school district it’s hard to say if 43 and other streets require additional “No Parking” sign enforcement. In response to additional questions from Commissioner Mann, Mr. Giberson said for this type of facility a 10-car drop-off would probably be adequate, if the school district enforces the rules. Chris Partman , Police Department, said the Tukwila Police Department would like to encourage a traffic management plan that is staffed by school district staff. She said currently the Police Department spends a huge amount of Police Officer time that is not available to the rest of the City, monitoring traffic around the current elementary school. She said this is an opportunity to do it right and it seems it should be incumbent on the school district to manage their own traffic flow. Commissioner Martinez asked Ms. Partman if she would like the recommendation to stay. Ms. Partman responded, yes. She also said maybe it could be assessed after school has been operational for a while and perhaps it could be dropped, but it’s better to have it in place rather than a child be injured or have a medical emergency and not be treated quickly enough because of a traffic control issue. Commissioner Mann commented that the pedestrian route crosses traffic twice, and the school district should manage traffic or have a traffic light. Also, she said the sidewalk is misplaced, and it should be on the south side of the street. Bob Giberson , Public Works, Director, addressed Commissioner Mann’s comments. He said it is a very peculiar topography, and the sidewalk on the south side didn’t make sense lining up with the jog in the right-away. He said on the south side there is a retaining wall and grade difference where you can’t just tack a sidewalk up against the retaining wall. He said it was the compromising solution, otherwise they would have to rebuild portions of the site for Foster High and that was not feasible. Minnie Dhaliwal , Planning Supervisor, clarified that at one stage there wasn’t room to fit the tennis courts, given the right of way width and the applicant didn’t want to lose more land on the south side to fit in the landscaping and the tennis courts on the school property. Jeff, Fenney , for the applicant, said the current southern boundary of the City’s right-away and the Foster High School property line and the edge of pavement are the same line, so there is no room on the south side to put a sidewalk. The first 10 feet of the property is dedicated to landscaping. If a sidewalk were put in it would force everything on the Foster property further south, and a bigger reduction in parking. Commissioner Mann said she would give up landscaping for the safety of the children. She said a safe route to school is supposed to be a priority and it’s not happening here. She said her vote is to forgo the landscaping and make it a safe route to school. Commissioner Alford asked if there would be crossing monitors implemented as part of the traffic management plan. Lindsay Brown , Assistant Planner, read language from the draft traffic management plan, Minnie Dhaliwal , Planning Supervisor, also provided additional explanation regarding the sidewalk versus landscaping. She said the tennis courts and the tall fences for the tennis courts would be across the street