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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-05-18 Committee of the Whole MinutesMay 18, 1977 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL OF COUNCIL MEMBERS DISCUSSION Comprehensive Land Use Plan Area: Andover Pk. Southcenter area from I -5 east to W. Valley Hwy. from I -405 to So. City Limits M I N U T E S GARDNER, TRAYNOR, HILL, MRS. PESICKA, VAN DUSEN, BOHRER. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL City Hall COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING Council Chambers Council President Hill called the Tukwila City Council Committee of the Whole Meeting to order at 7:06 P.M. Council President Hill said the Council would divide Area 2, which is the area to be discussed this date, into three areas of discussion. The first area would be Andover Park east from 180th and I -405 to West Valley Highway; the second would be area south of 180th and west from West Valley Highway to south City limits; third area would be Andover Park West to West Valley Highway and from I -405 to South 180th. Council President Hill said during the previous discussion on May 11, 1977 the Council had taken light and heavy industrial and combined it into one classification as Industrial Park. Staff had been directed to create a definition for "industrial park" and the following is their definition: "Industrial Park: An area comprised primarily of light industrial uses with selected commercial and office uses in an industrial park type development which includes adequate setbacks, landscaping, design review, and open space. Certain heavy industrial uses may be allowed by special permit." Mario Segale, 18010 Southcenter Parkway, said he had followed the Comprehensive Plan very closely. He felt there should be both light and heavy industrial classifications. He said the Planning Commission and Staff had pushed for two types of industrial classifications. Mr. Segale said if the City does not have heavy industrial it will have to have it on special permit. He said he did not think it was fair for light industrial to find themselves with someone next door asking for special permit for heavy industrial. He continued it is totally wrong to have someone come along and ask for heavy industrial right beside light industrial. The trend will change and the City will want to become diversified. Safeguards should be put in the planning so the light industrial is together and the heavy industrial is side -by -side. Fred Satterstrom, Planning, said when the Comprehensive Plan was being developed, Staff had proposed one industrial classification but the committee wanted two. He said in May last year Staff again came forth with a single industrial classification. The Committee overruled the Staff and wanted two classifications. The light and heavy classifications were adopted by the Planning Commission. He said Staff went along with the Planning Commission on this because they had no other choice. Bruce McCann, audience, asked if there was a definition in writing of industrial park. There are certain types of usages that cannot be put into a C -M zone. Heavy industrial is not able to afford land that light industry can. It is not feasible to have just one definition to cover industrial. Unless there is a definition for industrial park that is broad to take care of needs of heavy industry, it would not be practical. Councilman Traynor said if economics control everything the City does they might just as well bring in a bulldozer here on the hill and start digging. Council President Hill said if the Council comes up with industrial park zoning there will have to be a definition of what it should be. He said they proposed that the Planning Department come up with a definition of what it should be. The Council is interested in what is best for the City today, tomorrow, and twenty years from now. They want to make sure that it can be developed. He said the Council made a tour through some of these areas where the City has not had good control and all we have is a concrete jungle. The City does not want to box ourselves in so we get a mish -mash of everything. That is what the City Council is looking at. So far our industrial park has gone this way. We do have some problem areas that got out of control. We do not want this to happen again. Fred Satterstrom said there is no difference in setback in heavy and light industry. Mr. Segale said the whole thing cannot be put in one classification. If the City tries to run the two classifications together the user is being penalized. He continued the goal of Tukwila was to have industry. The best thing is to say we are going to have so much of it and put it somewhere in one place. Councilman Bohrer said there is some confusion in discussing the issue. There is no indication that the City is going to change the TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING May 18, 1977 Page 2 DISCUSSION Contd. Comprehensive Land Use Plan Area: Andover Pk. Southcenter area from I -5 east to W. Valley Hwy. from I -405 to So. City Limits Contd. to 4/3 zoning. When the City Council was reviewing Study Area No. 1 which was the valley down here, some industries were not good neighbors, some of the buildings are not very pleasant to look at, although they have made some effort to landscape and make it look good. In terms of time we hope that this plan will work for 5 15 years. It is impossible for anyone to come in and develop something like that without landscaping. If the City makes heavy industry a permit type of use there are areas where the Council would not want to see areas developed industrially. Councilman Van Dusen said the Council is not trying to eliminate all heavy industry. They would just like to keep out certain types we have to have safeguards what we saw over by the river hit the Council hard. Councilman Traynor said maybe the City should put a freeze on all building until the safeguards are established. Mr. Segale said if we look back over the past three years how much bad building has there been? He continued it is past the time when a steel rolling mill can come in here because they could not afford the land. Dick Goe, audience, said he had a recollection that a couple of years ago an oil refinery was being considered, not in Tukwila, but neighboring, and the land value cannot be used as a reason for undesirables coming in. Light industry could also be undesirable. Mayor Bauch said we need to keep in mind the fact that one of the things in the fire zone is they can control allowable uses. Within the zoning code the zone controls what the building looks like. Sometimes we would be surprised if we knew what goes inside the building we are tending to think in terms of the outside of the building rather than what is going on in the building. We have to look at that side too. Councilman Bohrer said we do not mean to say we are going to have a single category for zoning. He said maybe the last sentence of the definition of "industrial park" should be "heavy industry may be allowed if compatible with surrounding buildings." Councilman Traynor said he had no intentions of changing the zoning at this time. The only intention he had is to say all of this industry shall be considered industrial park. The definition does leave out heavy industry arid that is not the intent of the Council. Fred Satter strom suggested the deletion of the last sentence. Councilman Pesicka said when the Council toured the area being considered at this time they saw places that did not look very good. They agreed then they wanted to bring them all up to look like industrial park. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT COMMERCIAL CLASSIFICA- TION BE GIVEN TO THE AREA FROM STRANDER BOULEVARD TO I -405, WEST OF WEST VALLEY HIGHWAY AND EAST OF THE RIVER. CARRIED, WITH GARDNER VOTING NO. MOVED BY BOHRER, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT COUNCIL ACCEPT STAFF RECOMMENDATION THAT INTERURBAN TRAIL, CHRISTENSEN ROAD TRAIL, AND OTHER PUBLICALLY OWNED RECREATIONAL LAND EASEMENTS BE SHOWN WITH THE GREEN DESIGNATION OF OPEN SPACE DOWN TO 180TH STREET. CARRIED. Mr. Segale said it was quite scary to see changes being made to the Comprehensive Land Use Map and he hoped Council was allowing themselves enough time to consider the changes they were making. Councilman Bohrer said it was the intent of the Council to hold a public meeting after the entire plan had been considered in areas. He said no definite action was being taken as a result of these weekly meetings until the final meeting is held. RECESS MOVED BY MRS. PESICKA, SECONDED BY VAN DUSEN, THAT THE COMMITTEE OF THE 8:35 P.M. -8:45 P.M. WHOLE RECESS FOR TEN MINUTES. CARRIED. The Committee of the Whole Meeting was called back to order by Council President Hill with all Council Members present as previously listed. MOVED BY BOHRER, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT COUNCIL ACCEPT THE STAFF RECOMMENDATION FOR DEFINITION OF INDUSTRIAL PARK WITH THE DELETION OF THE WORD "LIGHT" IN THE FIRST SENTENCE AND DELETION OF THE LAST SENTENCE. Councilman Van Dusen said we could state we are trying to loosen up the land use and are we doing this because there are not enough controls on the zoning to give it a park -like setting? Will we get into trouble with spot zoning? Councilman Bohrer said there is nothing this plan can do to give the City relief from spot zoning. The intent was to insure a park -like atmosphere throughout the area. Whatever the Council does here is their own choice. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING May 18, 1977 Page 3 DISCUSSION Contd. Comp. Land Use Plan Councilman Saul arrived at the meeting at 8:55 P.M. Area: Andover Pk. Southcenter area Councilman Bohrer said it was the intent of the Comprehensive Plan to from I -5 east to be general and not site specific. W. Valley Hwy. from I -405 to *CARRIED, WITH GARDNER VOTING NO. So. City Limits Contd. MOVED BY VAN DUSEN, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT COUNCIL DISREGARD INDUSTRIAL PARK DESIGNATION AND RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL DESIGNATION OF LIGHT AND HEAVY INDUSTRIAL. ROLL CALL VOTE: GARDNER, HILL, SAUL, PESICKA, AND VAN DUSEN VOTING YES. TRAYNOR AND BOHRER VOTING NO. MOTION CARRIED, FIVE TO TWO. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT THE COUNCIL ACCEPT SECTION 1 OF AREA 2, AS AMENDED, SHOWING THE OPEN SPACE AND THE CONDITION OF THE COMMERCIAL AREA. CARRIED, WITH GARDNER VOTING NO. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY SAUL, THAT THE SECTION ACROSS THE TRACKS THAT IS NOW INDICATED AS HEAVY INDUSTRIAL BE CHANGED TO LIGHT INDUSTRIAL. CARRIED. Council President Hill said the Council would now consider the area south of 180th to the City limits from the West Valley Highway to I -5. Councilman Van Dusen said when the noise survey is done he thought it would indicate this was not a place to put residences. Councilman Saul said across the freeway it is residential and he did not feel it was out of the way to build residences there, it is separated by height and it is a good view. Councilman Bohrer said the area that is west of Southcenter Parkway is light industrial. Mr. Segale said he had about 10 acres that is designed residential and he would like to see the property retained as it is. The hill lends itself to spacious lots, some very nice homes could be built there. Councilman Van Dusen said if the City is not going to use the noise survey in the planning we might as well cancel the survey. Councilman Saul said he lives closer than anyone to the freeway and still people are building and putting up with a little noise. He said he lived about 200 feet above the freeway. Fred Satterstrom said the engineering department took noise readings up there when the leaves were off the trees. The dbs. readings above the freeway were quite loud but as one walked down the slope the meter reading went down fast to 50 dbs. during the rush traffic. Mr. Robison, audience, said he spoke to Mr.Breysse,who will be making the noise survey, and he mentioned the reason the apartments were desirable in high noise areas is because apartments do not have yards so the people are outside where the noise would be an annoyance. In building a lot of the growth is retained and it makes the hillside beautiful. Council- man Pesicka said she would like to see as much single family property left as possible. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY GARDNER, THAT COUNCIL ACCEPT SECTION 2 OF AREA 2 AS SHOWN ON THE COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE MAP. CARRIED, WITH VAN DUSEN AND HILL VOTING NO. Council President Hill said the Council would now consider Section 3 of Area 2 which would be Andover Park West to the Freeway from 180th Street to I -405. Mr. McCann, audience, said he would like to refer to area shown as low density residential with the sliver of yellow along South 180th Street. He said he would like to request the Comprehensive Plan be changed to reflect that area as red (Commercial). The history is that the top area is a flat bench and there is a bench lower down. When the land was developed and sold off some of the property retained ease- ments that allowed entry. Some time ago it was appraised at approxi- mately $2.50 square foot. At this value no one could afford to build a residence there. The setting is conducive to commercial. The kind of access available is adequate. The hillside is stable. He said they had no intention of trying to develop the bench for anything. Fred Satterstrom said the Planning Commission wanted to to have red (commer- cial) on the whole thing to 178th Street. The top of the area is undevelopable and unreachable. Most of the commercial land use would be in the valley. Councilman Saul said he was not really convinced that TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING May 18, 1977 Page 4 DISCUSSION Contd. Comp. Land Use Plan the top of the hill could not be residential. Mr. McCann said the cost Area: Andover Pk. of utilities to the top of the hill would be prohibitive. Mr. Segale Southctr. area said he did not feel the area is suitable for residential. He thought from I -5 east to the area should be commercial, apartments would be dangerous in that W. Valley Hwy. location. Councilman Bohrer said Mr. McCann's anticipated use was from I -405 to office type use. Mr. McCann said he thought the top bench would develop So. City Limits as a free standing office complex or a group of small offices sometime Contd. in the future. The lower bench they could see as a restaurant or offices. He said the project would be in good taste, it is not their intention to put in apartments. Councilman Traynor said if the property is commercial, apartments could be built there. The property might be sold and apartments built there. Mayor Bauch said on the zoning you could put the stipulation in as to what can be done there. Councilman Bohrer said at an earlier meeting the Council had talked about introducing an office classification and this might be the place for it. The street is steep and hazardous. We would not want to put anything up there that would make for a lot of traffic. ADJOURNMENT 10:10 P.M. //4 4 MOVED BY SAUL, SECONDED BY VAN DUSEN, THAT THE AREA UNDER DISCUSSION BE REDESIGNATED AS COMMERCIAL. Fred Satterstrom said he wanted to point out the possible impact it would have on the property to the south of 178th and 180th. It would be easy for it to jump the road. Mr. McCann, audience, said the answer is no way could the property to the south be developed commercially because of the cost. He could not see that it would be practical. Councilman Bohrer said he felt by changing that area to commercial, we are opening up the possibility of a lot of traffic up that steep hill. *ROLL CALL VOTE: GARDNER, HILL, PESICKA, VAN DUSEN VOTING YES. TRAYNOR, SAUL, AND BOHRER VOTING NO. MOTION CARRIED, FOUR TO THREE. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY VAN DUSEN, THAT THE PROPERTY TO THE RAILROAD TRACKS BE DESIGNED AS COMMERCIAL. CARRIED. MOVED BY SAUL, SECONDED BY MRS. PESICKA, THAT SECTION 3, AREA 2, BE ACCEPTED AS AMENDED. CARRIED, WITH TRAYNOR VOTING NO. MOVED BY VAN DUSEN, SECONDED BY SAUL, THAT THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING ADJOURN. CARRIED. 46 0..et-44J Norma Booher, Recording Secretary