City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] all right let's begin um this is the April 8th uh 2024 regular city council meeting um before we begin I've got a couple of announcements Bellingham city council uh meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act also like to um acknowledge that we're gathered here on the traditional and unseated territory of Lumi nuac samish and semi Amo people who have cared for intend of this land since time immemorial truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of Heritage and difference We Begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth we pay respect to their past Elders uh Elders past and present please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence displacement migration and settlement that brings us together here today and please join us in uncovering such truths at all public events call please Hannah Stone here Holly Huffman here skip Williams here Lisa Anderson here Michael lillquist here jce cotton here Dan Hamill here all council members are present thank you okay our first item this evening is a public hearing and resolution on the proposed relinquishment of a surplus utility easement encumbering 154 larby Avenue the proposed resolution provides for the relinquishment of a surplus utility ement and a realignment of The Pedestrian easement to facilitate development of 1504 lir B Avenue and here to take us through is Eric Johnston director of public

works thank you Mr ham I'm going to turn directly over to Mr Mike Wilson city engineer he's got a graphic to show to us um and explain what we're doing hi I'm Mike Wilson I'm the city engineer and assistant director of Public Works uh this uh easement is between larabe and the alleyway of that was between Donovan and and larabe you had this in your packet this East West uh Dimension is about 80 ft this whole area is a utility easement that's being proposed to be relinquished uh in the middle of property there's a 10-ft wide pedestrian easement that's proposed to be uh relocated as additional development takes place on this property at some undetermined location there would be a preservation of a 10-ft wide Trail easement or pedestrian easement so that's the request before us today you Mr Wilson any um comments or questions from Council before I open up the public hearing council member Anderson I know that the area is to be determined where the 10 fo will be placed but will it be within the yellow um easement area or is there the chance that they may locate it on ajoining other property that they own we don't know the specific details but based on the relinquishment request it would be happening within the the yellow area thank you any further questions before we open up the public hearing okay seeing none um Council cler please read the names of the people are signed up yeah we had two individuals signed up tonight it was Christine Kalan and Paul Wilbur and we have two

microphones one down here and one upstairs as well just want to turn the microphone on by pressing the the button on the base there should be a light like a green light or a red light okay testing testing we good hello I'm Christine Kenan um I'm currently living at a swift Haven tiny home Village here in Bellingham and uh I wanted to thank you for recently deciding to extend our lease for another year um and the same for Unity Village um I understand that there was some consideration to combine the two groups I I think honestly tiny home Villages like this are going to be the solution to homelessness ma'am this is the this is Germaine only to the public hearing for this subject parcel here oh no it's okay you can go ahead we signed up for the wrong thing that's okay you can go ahead and um speak at the public comment period later okay all right I'm forgive me now you know what I'm going to say it's confusing there's a lot of sheets out there tonight okay anyone else to speak directly to this subject parcel hello my name is Paul wber I also had a similar speech that is not regarding this so should I just wait for the uh okay yeah let's wait for a public comment you'll have your time to to do that later I appreciate it okay and anyone else signed up for the public hearing for this okay I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council Council what is your uh wish move approval second motion's been made by council member Lilo Quist and seconded by council member

Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carries 70 okay there are two further public hearings this evening and um as presiding officer I've decided to uh combine them into one uh hearing um but we do need two votes we need one vote on the interlocal agreement and the other on the lease um so just give me a minute here's a fairly ly uh subject um or or summary statement rather on these public hearings are on proposed ground lease uh between Western Washington University and the City of Bellingham regarding the construction of a Coast Salish House of healing in the Sehome Hill Arboretum the city of Bellingham and Western Washington University with 4.5 million doll in support from the state of Washington are partnering to construct a coast Salish healing house of healing long housee in the Sehome Hill Arboretum city is providing $600,000 in transportation funds for off-site pedestrian and Street improvements as well as two acres of Park property that will be leased to W Western Washington University the ground lease and the amended interlocal cooperation agreement document uh the new development and the future operating guidelines and will Define Define how the house of healing is operated the C Hill arum Board of Governors recommended approval of the ground lease at their March 21st 2024 meeting this is the first long house built in the city of Bellingham and will be used as a cultural

Gathering Place for University students as well as the public and here to take us through is Nicole Oliver Parks and Recreation director thank you council president Hamill I'm Nicole Oliver parks of Rec ation director I'm joined here this evening by representatives from Western Washington University as well as RC home arbored board we have a member who was also on the steering committee in the audience um you heard about this last meeting and I wanted to quickly go over the basic concept one more time and this is the opportunity to hear from the community on this project we're very excited so as uh you mentioned the co Salish long house um was originated from from a a a letter from the Native American student union and uh they were trying to find ways for the University to address historical and current issues faced by American Indian students on Western's campus um they uh Western's in 2016 it was their top priority and they received funding from the state to fund this project um with the help of uh legislative um Deborah lenov she really helped uh get that funding through and we DED decided to dedicate property within the seahome Arboretum to help with this project um we're pursuing uh the goals of the project is to pursue Justice and equity in its policies practices and impacts for advancing a deeper understanding and appreciation for the sense of place pursuing the academic personal and professional success of its indigenous students faculty and staff building and

sustaining beneficial working relationships with the co- Salish people and expanding Western strength in Academia to serve the current and future needs of tribal communities here is a uh visual representation of the L housee as it's currently designed it is in permitting right now and the um there will be a pedestrian access uh behind it to go to connect with Bill McDonald Parkway there's going to be managed parking uh currently that parking is a free-for-all for students and it will be managed as part of the um development it will provide parking both for the louse and will be hourly parking this is the um public facilities contract there's going to be pedestrian and Street improvements leading up uh to the up of up 28th Street off of Bill McDonald Parkway and the city's Transportation funds are contributing $600,000 to those improvements it's a little closer diagram there's going to be a large Gathering circle behind the long house a place for Gathering uh there's going to be staff and student spaces available as well as a kitchen some other drawings um of the project and uh today we are here to have a public hearing on two agreements interlocal the amended interlocal cooperation agreement which is basically how Western and the and the City of Bellingham cooperate to manage the seahome hill Arboretum and the ground lease which is for 2 Acres 75 years at $1 a year and it establishes those primary uses for tribal activities as well as um making it available for public use

that is all I have any questions cons any questions before we open up the Public Public hearing okay I don't see any questions Council clerk you want to read the names of the people that are signed up we don't have anybody signed up tonight for this hearing okay all right I will close the public hearing and bring it back to council move approval uh for which item the first one thank you 2 468 okay so there's been a motion uh by a council member skip Williams and seconded by council member liquis to approve the ground lease between Western Washington and the City of Bellingham regarding the construction of the Coast Salish House of healing in SE home Hill are bedom is there F further discussion council member list yeah I uh by Good Fortune had a chance to visit uh three college campuses this last week and every single one of them had a long housee or similar Gathering Place for indigenous communities I would consider it now a best practice on most of these campuses they had numerous community centers for ethnic or cultural groups to to gather so this is just a best practice and I would applaud Western for moving ahead with this further discussion Council M Stone um so definitely in support of this project moving forward I guess my question was um seeing that the agreements I understand some of it's just logistically right needing to be between the city and Western wondering at what point or to what extent um members of representives from the local right tribes and nations

would be involved or play any role in the development of this particular space there is been ongoing involvement there is a steering committee of Elders with representatives from mult multiple tribes that have helped guide and Define and um um manifest the vision um there's going to be a a ground turning ceremony and blessing I've already been involved in Another Blessing um so they're very much involved the tribes and Laura Belo is here the tribal leaon with Western if she has anything to add she's more than welcome to answer that question even um my name is Laurel blue and my traditional name is cesi hamia um I'm the tribal aison for Western and the um tribes have been very much involved in fact when I began this um endeavor with representative lenov we attended the Affiliated tribes of Northwest Indians who comprise all of the tribes of Washington Oregon Alaska and some in Idaho and um gathered started with their support and we meet with them several times a year during their conferences so we've engaged with the tribes that way um as Nicole mentioned we have representatives from several native communities and Elders um ainet Squamish sumish and Lumi are represented in the elders committee so everything we do or everything that I have done in this project is to involve the community and elders and partnered with um other organizations such as the city City and the county and park so it's been a labor of love for the last several years and I thank you for this opportunity

is there any other questions other questions okay seeing none thank you for the context in the background thank you I'd like to move approval yep it's been moved so you're good okay you got yeah so motion have been made by council member Williams and seconded by council member uh lillquist any further discussion pursuant to the ground lease um here uh through agenda Bill 2468 don't see any so I'll call the question all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carry 70 we'll move on to the next item uh it's related to the um to the first the one that we we just went over and this is in regards to um an amended interlocal agreement agreement cooperation agreement sorry between Western Washington University in city of Bellingham regarding construction of of the Coast Salish House of healing in the seahome hill arum and I will now entertain a motion for uh approval of the interlocal agreement so moved second motion's been made by counc member Williams seconded by council member Huffman any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 thank you good evening Council good evening to members of the Community uh first up tonight in mayor's report is an appointment and this is just for information only tonight um I'm notifying that I will be reappointing Dave fet to his second term for the Bellingham Housing Authority Board of Commissioners second thing on the report

tonight is about postp point and that is that I encourage all the members of the community to watch the presentation from this afternoon 's Committee of the whole meeting um we talked about the important upgrades that will be necessary at the postp point Wastewater facility treatment and it's a good example of the many needs that we have in our city especially regarding our aging infrastructure and facilities and when it comes to confronting the big problems that many modern cities are facing there are often no straightforward answers and as a city we have a responsibility to protect our environment along with the Health and Welfare of our community members and at the same time we have a responsibility to address affordability and make sound investments in our future and there are not perfect solutions that balance all of these needs equally and we're going to have to make hard choices and in 2022 the city made the difficult decision to change the direction of the plan to create biosoft at post point this decision was room made in response to both emerging concerns about the contaminants of p and to protect affordability for our residents and as a result of this decision our staff has been working hard to come up with a long-term solution for the beneficial use of our City's waste and this process has included learning from other cities industry leaders and exploring emerging Technologies and at this same time we've also had to manage the hard work to improve and upgrade the

existing infrastructure at postp point so that it remains operational until we've identified the viable path forward and last week we received a notice of violation from the Northwest clean air agency regarding our postp Point operations we take this notice very seriously and we are working hard to understand exactly what it means for us best and what our best actions um is from here and as mayor I'm eager to lead in the hard work of investing in solutions for Bellingham and setting us up for long-term success our organization is working to solve some of the most difficult and intractable problems that our community can face and we are eager to work along with all of council and the community moving forward on the important decisions we have to make next up I'd like to talk about trees and that Council uh has set a very ambicious tree canopy goal um that will increase coverage from the 40% that we have today to 45% across the city and in support of that goal I'm excited to share that staff is launching several new programs in support of that goal um these programs will help grow our urban forestry alongside the of all of you is Bellingham residents the programs include coupons to reduce costs for planting trees on private property grants for neighborhood tree planting projects youth education volunteer opportunities and free tree giveaways the first free tree giveaway took place this weekend at the opening of the farmers market season and it's fantastic to see City staff on

hand giving away more than 150 Gary Oaks and brand Furs to members of the Bellingham Community I went home with an oak and I'm very proud to be part of the collective effort underway to invest in a Greener and more resilient Bellingham and lastly we are going to have a ribbon cutting for the new park Edition at Cordata The Phase 2 construction at Cordata Park is nearly complete and I'm inviting the community to join us for a ribbon cutting Ceremony this Friday at 4 pm April 12th in addition to the other amenities the community park Now features a park pavilion with public restrooms a covered outdoor stage a small picnic shelter pickle ball courts Trail linkages to both the North and the South and much more the park pavilion has a full kitchen and a large outdoor patio and table and chairs for 72 it's going to be a tremendous addition to the north side of Bellingham and I'm a delighted to announce that the first guest to use the Pavilion will be the city's department head team we are meeting on Friday for all day Retreat it will be the first departmental treat in many years and I'm excited to engage in this critical team building alongside of them in service to Bellingham in this beautiful new space and at the end of the time we'll all be there for the ribbon cutting and I hope I see all of you there and that's the end of mayor's report tonight thank you mayor okay with that we will move on to our uh regular um committee meetings report out from public works and natural

resources thank you very much president Hamill so this afternoon I was joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lila Quist we had um several me several items before us this afternoon the first was agenda Bill 2479 this was to authorize the mayor to enter into an interlocal Cooperative purchasing agreement between the city of Bellingham and the sourcewell purchasing Cooperative so an interlocal Cooperative purchasing agreement between the city of Bellingham and the sourcewell purchasing Cooperative would allow the city to piggy back onto the competitive bidding process conducted by this governmental agency in lie of self-performing its own bidding process this ability is made possible through the interlocal Cooperative act RCW 39.347895 granting two or more public agencies the ability to exercise Powers cooperatively including purchasing in establishing an interlocal agreement the city's minimum bidding requirements can be met and if approved the city intends to piggyback on sourcewell agreement number 09 2920 dtn with blue one energy equipment for the city's Fleet fuel Island canopy and site improvements project um this afternoon we have had a presentation from Andy asbenson was here to report um on this potential inter local there was a motion from the committee that was unanimous and I so move at this time to award again for the mayor to enter into this inter local second motion's been made by the committee chair and

seconded by council member Anderson any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusal most carries 70 thank you very much the next item before us on the Public Works committee was agenda bill 24071 so this and the following item are um related so it's regarding a storm water grant agreement this one between the city of Bellingham and Washington State Department of ecology for the design of water quality treatment best management practices at little Squalicum Creek so the project will improve improve water quality in little Squalicum Creek through the design and eventual construction of treatment best management practices in the Birchwood neighborhood in the city of Bellingham the project will Design Systems to provide storm water treatment for total suspended solids dissolved copper dissolved zinc and reduced flows to little Squalicum Creek by increasing storm water infiltration this project is for Capital Design Services only and so this project project is receiving a grant again through the department of ecology so the total amount is $769,500 leaving the city to match 25% which will be $5,440 and this afternoon there was unanimous motion to approve the grant agreement and I so move second motion's been made by the committee chair and second by council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carry 7-0 thank you

very much so the next item was agenda bill 2472 this is a storm water grant agreement again between the city of Bellingham and Washington State Department of ecology for the design of water quality treatment best management practices this one's at lower Baker Creek so this project will improve water quality in lower Baker Creek through design and eventual construction of flow control and treatment best management practices in the ironate industrial park area in the city of Bellingham this project will Design Systems to provide treatment for total suspended solids dissolved copper dissolved zinc and reduced flows to lower Baker Creek through detention and increasing storm water infiltration this project is for Capital Design Services only again um this is through grant funding so the total project here is $422,900 at $63,800 any further discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 thank you very much and I just wanted to note that there are three other similar items in the consent agenda this evening so those are agenda Bill 2481 regarding lower Squalicum Creek as well as agenda Bill 2482 which is regarding Lake watom and finally 2483 three which is regarding lower padon Creek those three items you'll find in the consent agenda and weren't considered during committee simply because they didn't meet the $250,000 threshold required for um formal consideration and approval during committee but just

wanted to highlight that those items were also in the in the packet um the final item before the committee this afternoon was agenda bill 24073 this was regarding the Holly Street bicycle Lane pilot project so the city of Bellingham climate action plan plan calls for Action to encourage a shift away from single occupancy vehicle trips the bicycle master plan prioritizes Network development and projects to meet cap goals a bicycle facility on Holly Street is a high priority and critical link to the city Network the pilot project will install a buffered bike lane on Holly Street from Ellis Street to North State Street and a parking protected lane from North State Street to Bay Street to fill in important Missing Link in the downtown bike Network as a pilot project a single travel Lane for cars will be converted to a bicycle facility with pavement markings signs and lowcost features without changes to the number of of existing downtown vehicle parking stalls the project is planned to be constructed in early May of this year 2024 Community feedback and operational performance will be tracked and measured to inform future per project so Council support for this P pilot project um was requested this afternoon we had a presentation from Joel fun who is the um assistant Public Works director for um for the city and then also just wanted to note that we had additional staff joining us from public works so Natalie Monroe who's the new Public Works community and Outreach coordinator um

as well as Shane Sullivan who's a city transportation engineer um so some recent hires and focusing specifically on transportation and knowing um what a need there is here in the city so exciting to have them join us as well and there was a unanimous motion this afternoon to support the implementation of the Holly Street pilot bicycle lane project and I so move second motion's been made by the committee chair and second by council member Huffman any further discussion on this item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carry 7 zero thank you very much and with that that was end of committee and I'll send it back to you president Hamill okay the next committee uh this afternoon was the committee of the whole we had a couple of items before us the first one was expectations of City advisory groups uh the mayor's office has initiated steps to manage advisory groups more consistently across the city create clear expectations about this important work and enhance the overall experience of volunteering for advisory committees a first step is to establish and communicate clear expectations of All City advisory groups and their individual members especially regarding key expectations established by the uh by City Charter and state law and this afternoon we had um fairly extensive discussion regarding this item with lots of questions and I would encourage folks that are interested in um in this uh particular agenda Bill to go back

and watch the video because there's a lot of back and forth lot of a lot of questions from uh from council members and uh answers from mayor's mayor and mayor staff um just one second here the second item that we had was postp point in biosolids emerging Technologies this is agenda Bill 2475 on September 12th uh 2022 city council affirmed mayor's decision by motion to Halt further work on the biodigestion digestion for Waste solids handling at the postp point sewage treatment plant the recommendation of the mayor was based on the uh affordability affordability concerns greater protection of the Salish sea and focusing climate Ambitions on achieving CommunityWide uh carbon reductions during the August 29th 2022 and September 12th 2022 meetings preceding this decision staff shared that efforts would be refocused uh to uh rehabilitating existing facilities and improving air emission controls staff also committed to consideration of emerging Technologies and the potential for on-site pilot projects staff issued a request for proposals uh late summer 2023 and will report on current status and next steps related to uh potential emerging solids handling Technologies and that's what happened this afternoon there was a a an extensive um um presentation and lots of questions again and I would def I would also encourage um and support the mayor's observations that if this is an important issue to you as the mayor just spoke about during your remarks um that to go back and watch this

very important video um this is a a large project um and taxpayers pay into this um into this um fund okay and then let's see um any old new business okay seeing none I will go to the executive session and I've got a couple of action items here so the first one was potential property acquisition with cram um staff provided information on the potential acquisition of property located at 3300 to 3308 Northwest Avenue owned by NW Avenue LLC I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the real estate trans transaction described in the city's executed purchase and sale agreement with NW Avenue Northwest Avenue LLC with the following terms purchase of the property for $1.2 million with closing to occur on or around April 30th 2024 appr approval second motion's been made by council member Huffman and seconded by council member Lilo Quist any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed extensions recusals motion carry 70 next item was uh potential litigation this was with uh m ham yes sir um would it be useful to mention to the public that uh housing is the purpose behind this res that purchase let me sorry I'm I'm working off a two scripts here so let me let me go ahead and uh thank you appreciate that council member so we're purchasing this property to support future long-term affordable housing in the short term we intend to work with homes now to move Swift Haven and Unity Village tiny home villages to this site

if the required permit is approved we expect to complete the move in Fall of 2024 more information will be made available on the city's website uh likely tomorrow morning okay thank you appreciate that okay sorry moving on uh the next item was potential litigation with Matt stamps um staff provided Council on potential ation matter uh I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to retain attorneys Matthew Cohen and Rachel Cox of stole Rives LLP to assist with environmental permitting and Regulatory Compliance and enforcement matters concerning the postp point resources recovery plant move approval second motion's been made by council member Anderson and seconded by council member hman any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 70 consent agenda move approval motions been made by council member Huffman and second by council member Williams to approve the consent agenda any further discussion on this seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed abstentions recusals motion carry 70 that brings us to the final consideration of ordinances Jer Bill 24056 an ordinance of the city of Bellingham Washington amending the 2023 2024 by annual budget amendment number 11 move third and final second third and final has been made by council member huthman seconded by council member Williams any further discussion roll call please Anna Stone hi Holly Huffman hi Skip Williams hi Lisa

Anderson hi Michael lillquist hi jce cotton Dan haml hi motion carries 70 and next up we have agenda Bill 24058 an ordinance relating to the watka museum and repealing Bellingham Municipal Code BMC chapter 2.39 move third and final uh I'll go ahead and uh give the first or the um the third and final to council member Anderson second to council member Williams was a tie okay uh Dan Hamill hi jce cotton hi Michael list hi Lisa Anderson hi Skip Williams hi Holly Huffman hi and Hannah Stone hi motion carries 70 okay that brings us to public comment period and we're going to take a minute we have to transition technology so just kind of bear with