Planning 2012-08-23 Minutes - Public Hearing - TMC 18.28 Tukwila Urban Center

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PC Public Hearing Minutes August 23, 2012 losing potential developers; retail and sales tax leakage to other jurisdictions; concern with the City's approach; burdens on regulations in the TUC on existing business owners; new requirements and impacts to landlords and tenants such as replacing a roof, which would trigger new requirements; no transportation impact analysis on draft plan; sufficient capital facilities such as utilities; sewer system capacity for growth and development; cost of off -site improvements on new development; urban center goals; obligations of an urban center and what it means to be an urban center; what the obligations are as a City; strict design guidelines; growth targets; concerned that the TUC Plan does the opposite of encouraging growth and meeting certain thresholds. Ms. Balint raised issues of concerns as a result of an EcoNorthwest study completed on the earlier version of the plan; Ms. Balint said she is not ready to address the level of detail for specific concerns until after the general concerns are addressed. Commissioner McLeod asked if Ms. Balint's letter would suggest the recommended changes, she's requesting. Ms. Balint said there are specific recommendations in her documentation, but if the Commission does not want staff to go back and do more work then they would like the opportunity to meet with staff one on one to discuss their specific concerns. She also mentioned that SEPA is supposed to be performed at the earliest point and time possible, as a tool to guide decision making to inform decision makers. So she hopes the environmental review is done as early in the process as possible at this point. Commissioner Mann inquired on the City's participation in developer incentives. Staff confirmed that incentives have been added to the current draft of the plan. Chair Alford stated that some of Ms. Balint's comments did not seem consistent with the current draft plan. Ms. Balint said she was looking at the most recent draft. Commissioner Hanson asked staff to address the comment that Ms. Balint made regarding impacts to a property owner replacing a roof. He asked if it was an accurate depiction of what's possible. Staff said in accordance with the current code, if exterior changes are greater than 10% of the building value, it would trigger Design Review. For non conforming buildings, when a building is destroyed by more than 50 it needs to be rebuilt. Staff said that generally roof replacements have not triggered Design Review. Mr. Balint requested that the code is clarified regarding required improvements to existing buildings, etc. when a property owner makes improvements that exceed 10% of the value of the building. Commissioner Strander inquired whether the EcoNorthwest study was on the City's website. Staff replied that it had not been removed from the web site since it was presented in 2009. Bob Schofield, developer, said that he has been developing on Southcenter Parkway since 1974, and provided comments on where he thinks the City is economically. He said there are lots of vacancies and the stores are hurting very badly. He doesn't think that the rents on West Valley Highway and Strander are one quarter of the rents on Southcenter Parkway anymore. He said Southcenter should be a much more powerful market, but the ability to gain new tenants and hold onto old ones has really declined over the last three or four years. Mr. Schofield said that he really admires staff and their work greatly and he understands what they are doing, but he knows that we are facing very tough times and we have to be very careful with what we do and when we do it. He encourages staff to be extremely careful in considering their tax base. Commissioner Mann inquired about the decline in sales, and asked Mr. Schofield if he saw development of the residential area in Southcenter as a potential built -in clientele that are more apt to shop in the area. Mr. Scolfield said that you have to be very careful to what you impose on everything in the plan, and said that he thinks there's a bigger problem that he doesn't want the City to lose sight of. He said the City needs to keep a Page 3 of 5