City Council - Regular Meeting

[Music] okay we'll go ahead and get started here it's 7 o' uh this is the city Bellingham uh city council regular meeting and it's July 15 2024 announcements and upcoming meetings or pardon me announcements on upcoming meetings Bellingham city council meets all requirements of the state of Washington open public meetings act uh before we begin I wanted to uh read a land acknowledgement statement uh we acknowledge that we're gathered on the traditional and unseated territory of lemy nukak samish and Samu people who have cared for and tend to this land since time immemorial truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of Heritage and different We Begin this effort to acknowledge what has been buried by honoring the truth and we pay respect to their Elders past and present please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence displacement migration and settlement that bring us here together today and please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events second announcement Bellingham city council provides Spanish interpretation at all regular evening meetings interpretation can be accessed by inperson attendees by utilizing the headsets located at the front of the room they're in that black box right there the they're the silver um headsets remote viewers can log on to cob.org CC zoom and click on the language icon at the bottom of the screen to listen in Spanish and I wanted to provide

interpretation or our interpreter here just a moment w okay thank you okay roll call please Hannah Stone here Holly Huffman here skip Williams here Michael lillquist here jce cotton here Dan Hamill here I believe council member Sone has another announcement yeah I just wanted to mention um so there's a special meeting I know that notice is going out but since we won't meet again um before that meeting so the Public Works committee will have a special meeting on an off Monday that will be Monday August 5th um from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.

and so it'll be a work session an in-depth work session about the fiber master plan um and the great work of the Broadband Advisory Group so just wanting people to know because that will be a public meeting um again a special meeting held at the Pacific Street Operation Center so not here in Chambers But there again August 5th so there's been notice that's gone out but since again we won't meet again I just want to make that announcement thanks thank you Council mstone okay we'll go to our first uh item this evening this is a public hearing this is agenda Bill 24180 public hearing for an ordinance related to the preservation of landmark trees declaring an emergency and establishing interim development regulations with respect to Landmark trees throughout the city I'll read the summary statement on May 20th Bellingham city council adopted an emergency ordinance relating to the preservation of landmark trees throughout the city which established interim development regulations regarding Landmark Trees State Law requires that City Council hold a public hearing within 60 days of the adoption of an emergency ordinance that's what we're doing tonight following the hearing city council may choose to retain the ordinance as written modify the ordinance or resend the ordinance staff recommends Council retains the ordinance as written and here to take us through is our planning and Community Development director Blake lion Alan Mariner is going to give us an introduction and I'll come

back to you in a minute okay thank you yeah uh Alan Mariner City attorney and as council president just stated you have three options tonight one is to take no action that leaves the ordinance as you adopted back in on May 20th in effect for six months started uh from May 20th on or you can amend it or you can repeal it and as the agenda Bill stated staff strongly recommends that you take no action tonight you're going to here I I met I anticipate a lot of uh testimony public testimony uh both in favor and opposed to the ordinance also public testimony uh about numerous changes that could be made to make the ordinance better or or um staff also has some changes that it would make but there really isn't enough time in one night to do all that uh as an alternative staff recommends that you initiate a type six process process uh and and consider those changes um to the ordinance going through that process it'll be a process that allows for the time both at the Planning Commission and city council uh to fairly consider whether whether there should be an ordinance and if so whether it should be changed um and I'm going to turn over to Blake I think Blake can give you an idea of I'm hoping uh that that schedule for the type 6 process but tonight we're strong recommending that you consider the public testimony then you close the hearing and that that testimony and any written materials be part of what informs the type 6 process thank you thank you enen uh Blake Lon director of

planning and Community Development and I appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you this evening um I'm not going to take the time to go through uh the staff report that has the various different sections and components of the ordinance itself it is in the packet and I think you uh had the opportunity to familiarize yourself with it the part that I wanted to touch on is as Allan had alluded to was a little bit of the type six process and what uh not only you all can expect but our general public can expect as part of that process and then also elaborate a little bit on what's in the staff report that talks about the interim actions that we've done over the past 60 days since you originally uh you know passed the ordinance so when we go through the type 6 process that's our um codified language of basically going through and saying we will go to the Planning Commission we'll do a public hearing with the Planning Commission and get the recommendation from that oftentimes what we'll do in advance of that is have some public opportunity to sit down and talk through the different merits uh in the past 60 days or so since this ordinance was adopted we have received a wide range of public comment as Alan alluded to on various different sides of the particular issue uh and it and that will really afford US the opportunity to go through and kind of work through those details and make sure that we understand the implications uh that are being faced in this community and so we

certainly look forward to doing that uh we then once we have the Planning Commission recommendation bring it forward to you all um for a public hearing again the public will have the opportunity to make comment at that point in time but we certainly hope to hear from some of them tonight so we can help inform that direction as we continue to move forward in doing all all of this I think the one of the things that's important to note and what we strive to do within the emergency ordinance is identify that that um there's a need to protect those um significant trees in this community those that are potentially being um you know have the potential to be threatened uh and removed and because that is a can be a 80 100 150 year decision in removing those we felt it was prudent to um retain those and start from a position of retaining those but as you all know as well as many in the community that we are in a housing crisis and we do have some challenges when it comes to our development and we we want to be able to strike that balance and look for opportunities to provide um housing and and all forms of it um and in order to do that we need to be able to look at site specific processes so as it's enumerated here in your staff report in particular on page nine there's a number of different actions that we've taken to help try to list that first and foremost establishing the city's website uh in particular so that there's opportunities for people to get educated and informed around

the issues to ask their questions to provide their comments and we've set up a dedicated page and uh email address to do that we've been tracking those public comments and we've taken a little bit of an opportunity to just provide you some general uh input but I think in your packet you also received a number of those uh responses that have come in through there and we continue to update that website as um as those come in we did provide a direct mailer to some of our more impacted our landscaping and tree service companies because when we were going through the urban forestry plan we heard directly from a lot of the technical folks and it's important that we understand what their needs are um as a Professional Organization so do our best to accommodate those as well um we have an I I'll I'll expand on this a little bit we've um in the interim process we actually uh split and bifurcated the nomination process from the enforcement process and we felt like we did that for a particular reason in that if there were folks that had concerns about enforcement where somebody might be removing a tree we used the platform C click fix which is where we've started introducing that to the community when they have whether that's noise complaints violations concerns of that nature we've used that uh to try to uh address those concerns we looked at that platform for the nomination process as well but realized that the the mapping wasn't as specific as we would like it to be so we're using a

slightly different tool associated with that called survey 123 which allows us to be a little bit more unique and specific and drive some of that so we're we're ha we're happy with that tool so far uh We've made some adjustments and we'll continue to go through that process for for nominations the part that you'll see in the ordinance that I think has garnered some public comment that I wanted to be very specific with you all is that um as it exist right now there's an opportunity to Nom trees that are of 36 in uh in size at diameter at breast height which roughly about 4 and A2 ft from grade um are already considered to be Landmark trees but if somebody feels like they want to nominate another tree or a Grove of trees they have the opportunity to to go forward and to do that and that goes goes through and gets evaluated by the um Landmark tree committee which is a representation of uh three different appointed staff members one from the parks department one from the public works department and one from the planning department and they'll make recommendations but the thing that I wanted to draw particular attention to is that anybody can nominate those trees and they just have to inform the property owner of that nomination and that's a distinction that we made in the ordinance and it's one that some people have called into question because they feel like the property owner should have the right to um decide whether or not they want a tree on their private property to be

nominated so there's an opportunity to to evaluate that further as we go through the type 6 process and whether or not that's indeed appropriate to do it in that manner um I'll stop there there's definitely folks here that want to provide comments we certainly happy to entertain any questions you might have either now or after the public comment comes forward and look forward to um moving forward discussing it further so thank you thank you Council any comments or questions uh prior to me opening up the public hearing Council memb Zone um thank you director lion just a couple of follow-up questions for clarification so you mentioned that the city is maintaining a website where that public comment is being collected right and that's outward facing is that can you specify if that's through engage Bellingham or if that's through the city website thank you so we do have we do have the the website that's on the city page uh and the easiest way to find is just uh in the search uh menu on the web C's website just Landmark trees and that'll give you a variety of different information associated with that if you have specific comments we set up a dedicated email address which is Landmark trees cob.org and you can either link to it from that page or you can directly email it and it'll come into a general mailbox and we've been tracking it through that effort so just quick followup to that um because I was wondering about the written public comment period right if this goes through a

type 6 process and maybe this is for um City attorney Mariner but just wanting to confirm then this public comment period for written responses will be open until the end of that process I mean so any public comment but after tonight that comes in would would just be rolled into that type six process okay great and then as council members comments that we receive those just get forwarded to that address yes please so that it all goes to one spot okay thanks any other questions from Council Members okay seeing none uh let's see so just Logistics here there's two microphones in the room there's one up there and you have to push the little button at the bottom to to turn it on there's one down here and I think it might already be on if not we'll let you know um and then the um the council clerk will call names and batches of twos and threes and if folks can just kind of line up um up either upstairs or down here just makes the process go a little bit smoother and then the uh guidelines for public testimony are uh on the walls here they're all pretty straightforward um just please um for for this part of the evening tonight restrict your comments to The Landmark tree ordinance and not general public comment there will be general public comment later so you'll have have an opportunity to discuss other things um there it all these things are very basic I don't want to be the vice principal up here we just need to be polite and no clapping no cheering no booing we want we want to

make sure that the um that the space here is uh that people feel safe basically that they can express their opinions and uh and that we're civil so with that I'll go ahead and open up the public uh hearing and Miss gat you want to start calling the names all right we have just over 20 individuals signed up um first up we have Robert biringer Jamie Donaldson and Megan Woody thank you Council for taking this time for tonight thank you to council for his opinion regarding the process and making sure that we take the time to properly do the due diligence to get it right the first time or second time around uh I would note that in the original May 20th it was commented that we didn't feel that 60 days was going to be or that we didn't want to wait we had to have an emergency right then because we didn't want to wait 60 days to get the process done we're at 60 days now or near near nearly so so had we done a normal process we would be having the meeting now to be able to finalize it's just an observation not a critics at all and to the director thank you for your process one thing I didn't hear from you or from Council is this title six process when would that expect to be done that was a question okay and then um a couple of things we have a number of trees there was some confusion when we called into the department regard was a diameter or circumference apparently it is a diameter okay that's been clarified I guess and then um the requirement to have an arborist come out is going

to be a significant financial burden um on some of our residents here here in the city and I would propose that to be considered by the director the council and and that a ARB be retained on staff to be able to support that and to be funded by uh the permit F fees that go along with the The Landmark tree removal process um I myself have trees that do not fit the 36 criteria but they do they did when it was a circumference and so we had questions in there they're all basically dead but they didn't meet the 10% living requirement but I already have substantial limbs falling off that um unhoused individuals who use our trees for Shades and we're close to the school the Bellingham High School students are over there sitting underneath their trees I can see this is a tree that doesn't is going to fall on people and yet I'm hamstrung not necessarily by The Landmark tree but by the the street tree ordinance which is similar to this one and so because I'm restricted by what I can do and not do by by the city we're putting public at risk and I want you to recognize that and provide make a provision for an arborist to be available for those who cannot afford it and that was it thank you for your [Music] time good evening Council May L my name is Jamie Donaldson I am here to speak in favor of a very strong ordinance to protect and preserve Legacy trees here in Bellingham in fact I would encourage you to make that ordinance even stronger using recommendations from the watom million trees

project an organization for which I have volunteered on numerous occasions I live in Fair Haven this is a neighborhood as everyone knows it's undergone a lot of change a lot a lot of densification I'm fine with that but I do also realize it comes with a commensurate loss of large trees and vegetation and there are impacts to to that now um I'm no scientist so I can't speak to whether or not the loss of trees and vegetation is contributing to increased uh temperatures in my neighborhood I believe it probably does what I do know is that the loss of vegetation and I'll just say I I used to take keep track of the large large trees coming down in my neighborhood within a two block radius of my apartment and it was dozens and then dozens and it became such a a depressing Enterprise that I stopped counting but it's a lot of trees and where I do notice the impact most specifically is on bird populations I'm an avid bird watcher and the number of birds has declined over the 10 years in my neighborhood and as well as the diversity of birds so there's lots of scientific research about the environmental and climate change benefits that large trees acre to our community I want to speak very briefly about the health benefit that large trees acre to our community and I came across a a published paper in the international Journal of Environmental Research and public health which lays out a study of 200 other studies done on the public health benefits of large trees now these are real

benefits things like weight loss cognition Improvement Lower crime when we keep the large trees and on and on and on so the the benefits of large trees are overwhelmingly positive there is one that isn't so great and that is the pollen for those of us who suffer from allergies but all in all large trees the large ones not the little saplings that are planted on new developments those take forever to give us the benefits that the large trees do so I also wonder do the benef public health benefits of large trees also decrease when we cut them all down if we get benefits When the trees are left large what about when we cut them down so I would be curious to see what the health benefits will be on the neighborhoods in Birchwood when those 350 large trees are cut down for the new Housing Development on Meridian so please uh enact a strong ordinance you have a lot of people support yes we're Tree Huggers and they provide real benefits to people thank you all right and then after Megan we'll have Randy Sanders George Sanders and Chad smid good evening Council so I'm here today as a homeowner and a property owner in Bellingham and when I bought my lot in Bellingham I had this Grand idea that I'd put my house back here I'd build a shop or a garage up here and then I'd put an apartment in it to rent out we are experiencing such a housing crisis crisis right now that this ordinance is affecting a lot of properties in my neighborhood where people do have those kind of plans where they

were planning on putting in an Adu or you know um putting in another home on their lot and this tree ordinance really affects them especially the canopy coverage and the fact that somebody else can nominate a tree on my property and say oh that tree's pretty okay well now you've just taken my lot and this home that could have been for somebody and demolish that idea um I think it's unfair I do not think it's right that somebody can nominate a tree on somebody else's property to say that they can't cut it down or canopy coverage at that being twice the inches into feet so if you had a 24 inch tree and you turn that into your canopy coverage that's being proposed in this ordinance you've got 4 48 uh 48 ft there that you can't disturb you can't do anything with you can't build next to I know my lot is 80 80 ft wide and so when you take that say 24 in tree and you take that 48 ft of that canopy coverage you're and then you've got my 20-ft driveway and then my 5-ft offset that leaves no room to build that shop to build that apartment to build that home for somebody else I just want you guys to let that ring in your ears a little bit how much this ordinance is going to affect housing crisis and these neighborhoods that have that ability to build that Adu or that extra apartment in their you know in their yard for somebody else to live in thank you thank you good evening um my name is Randy Sanders my husband and I have lived at the North End of the sanch neighborhood since 2001 uh

in that time development has taken several mature Cedars Redwood numerous fruit trees and dozens of Furs and Maples we are now facing the loss of several more mature Cedars and furs with a saale of a lot near us although the developer has said that he will do his best to avoid taking out the trees we've heard that sort of promise before before moving to Bellingham we lived in mendosa Argentina located on the Eastern Slope of the Andes with a climate like Reno Nevada the region is quite arid but productive because of irrigation by channels from the mosa river that irrigation is not only for agriculture AAS or canals bring water to the trees planted along every street in the metropolitan area population currently over 1 million citizens of every neighborhood have pride and I have an example a photograph one of the canals on I believe that's alamaa which is one of the major streets in downtown mendosa citizens of every neighborhood have pride in their city and enjoy the Shaded main streets even in the height of Summer the trees do more than beautify the city they also alleviate heat flooding and other hazards tree removal and even the pruning of trees whether on public land or private was prohibited I learned this firsthand when at one point I inquired about the possibility of removing a large Sycamore limb which hung directly over the entrance to my garage doing so would have incurred a non- inconsequential fine we also lived in Tucson Arizona where Zer escaping has been

promoted for decades currently the million trees initiative LED and driven by the City of Tucson mayor Regina Romero is is working to plant 1 million trees by 2030 to increase the city's tree canopy and help mitigate the effects of climate change additionally they have implemented a green storm water infrastructure program called storm to shade or S2s trees are protected because they give life to the population there's an undeniable intertwining of water quality tree canopy and human health in doing a bit of online research to make sure my facts were up to date I came across the tree Equity score website and this is how Bellingham rates don't let the preponderance of green give you a sense of complacency or accomplishment we cannot afford to take anything for granted it seems to me that you the city council do your best to be forward thinking thank you Randy your time is up thank you good evening I'm George Sanders thank you I live at 462 consolidation Avenue thanks thank you to the mayor and city council for the first time I feel like I've been given the means to effectively Advocate to save our green wall buffer zone in my particular neighborhood I fully support making the emergency Landmark tree ordinance permanent follow along to see how this emergency Landmark tree ordinance is working right now these are new trees in our neighborhood there is Ashley Street Byron Avenue the new Big apartments and where we have planted 30 new trees where no Evergreens existed this is

mature Forest and we have established over 30 large trees that are um well over 12 feet tall now loss of landmarked trees on this parcel that's outlined in yellow will unshed Lincoln Creek and negatively affect the water quality the trees that we have planted have created brand new deep shade for Lincoln Creek chure Forest extending all the way to Ashley Street is now under immediate Threat by a builder who will ask for reduced critical area they picked this parcel up for $45,000 it's been ecologically distressed over the years but now we are very threatened by the fact that a developer has captured this this piece of property and is threatening to eliminate our green wall buffer zone these are our Landmark trees enough said we've measured and they are big landmarks trees mature trees are ideal buffers for neighborhood transition zones mature trees shade Lincoln Creek and our thank you George your time is up all right we had Chad SMI Michael ferer Wendy Larson and R Perry ESRD hi my name is Chad Schmid and I'm a owner of property here in Bellingham and there's been a lot of talk of stuff and we have a bunch of letters and notes we've been made and I've made and actually colleagues of ours about talking points for this thing that are some loopholes that are in there uh some of the discussion in of the urban Forest plan has been ongoing for over since 2021 and many of the considerations expressed in this ordinance are made are included in the draft plan having worked on this

plan for nearly three years and discussing existing tree protection nearly at the at every time it seems unlikely that a six- week delay to adopt The Landmark protection tree without public notice will be necessary we've been talking about this for a while I think it's time to either make a decision and work on this there's also been definitely a lot of discrepancies in how the ordinance is written and I understand like there's been no discussion on whether the applicant is responsible for the fees incurred in by hiring the consultant or time frame in which the committee is to commit its review without some clarification this section runs the risk of adding even more delays and cost to permitting applications the cost will only increase in a if an applicant is required to acquire additional land to accommodate mitigation planting the mitigation planting May lift fit within the does not fit within protect boundaries we're not sure if some of this is required or needed but that is also an added unnecessary cost and being forced for someone to do something with their property that shouldn't be done um it's not that we're against trees or protecting but there needs to be some further thought on this ordinance before it's brought down there's also been talk of people have called in and all of a sudden this ordinance came through oh we need we have chainsaws running massively people are falling trees you have to get permits to remove trees in the first place on your property and

there's already a process with the city so I think it caused a little bit of scrambling and freaking out the council a little bit about what's going on and yes there are people that want to protect trees we all want to protect trees but we also want to do the one thing provide needed affordable housing and you can't always have both some of the people that are complaining about about wanting to protect trees they got theirs what about the person that wants to have their house here in the city wants to live here where are we going to put these houses with some of these restrictions how are we going to do this the good saying is the right tree in the right place yes they're not mature trees but if we plant have a ratio to plant replace trees or a fund that where the city charges us and then you guys acquire property that can't be developed and put more trees on it to keep this significant thing and it is scary that individual can nominate a tree on someone else's property and infringe on a personal a person's property rights with this that is kind of a scary thing as intaking concept thank you time is up be careful hello I'm Michael fear uh executive director of walk and million trees project honorable coun and staff w a million trees project strongly supports the landmark tree ordinance for many reasons including blood and extreme heat issues that and resilience issues for that that we'll be facing more and more in our city as well as for improving environmental justice the

ordinance as written is a good start we support staff's recommendation to have the ordinance continue that said there are some reasonable small modifications to the ordinance that we suggested in a letter sent to council and key staff over a week ago we hope everyone read it using a type 6 process to consider such changes is fine um as long as there is adequate public notification ahead of time we encourage uh the city to at least allow a week or more if possible for such notification um to ensure there's a a good open public process and transparity uh transparency about that we do hope the type uh six uh review will start as soon as possible meanwhile the ordinance states that it's council's job to set a fee for the landmark tree nomination staff's memo suggests $107 of uh per hour of Staff time be charged per nomination to us that's excessive and will greatly discourage the effectiveness of this ordinance imagine how the cost will add up for say 10 to 20 trees that are nominated by a neighborhood association we've had some neighborhood associations contact about that very contact us about that very thing instead we recommend that there should be a small fixed fee per application if any and not per tree I say if any because lots of comparable cities in our region do not charge a dime for such n nominations that includes Olympia Vancouver Washington Arlington and many others thank you thank you hi I'm Wendy Larson and I uh I'm going to read a few comments that I sent in

earlier today via email and uh those comments are footnoted to document some of the sources for some of the things I'll say uh just want to say that I strongly support the emergency Landmark tree ordinance that was approved in June 2 24 I think it's well written overall and vitally important Bellingham has long needed greater protection of its largest urban trees it's true for multiple reasons including to improve our community's climate resilience most other communities in our state have long had such protections and it's overdue here I support the landmark tree ordinance becoming a permanent ordinance as City staff has correctly recommended moreover I encourage you to incorporate the readily achievable and sensible revisions that watt camilon trees project has suggested in its letter submitted on Friday July 12th these matters are of tremendous and rapidly increasing importance June was the Earth's 13th consecutive months to break a global Heat record it it beat the records set last year for the hottest June on record climate experts and Community planning experts tell us we should consider this The New Normal we need to be preparing for more heat more often that's the reality the Urban Tree canopy plays a crucial role in cooling our neighborhoods direct shading from trees can decrease temperatures by 9° fahren water evaporates from wet vegetation and trees also release water vapor through transpiration the cumulative evapo transpiration can cool the community by another 6°

fahit research shows that the most dramatic cooling effects come when neighborhoods exceed 40% canopy cover less than that and the benefits of tree canopies are quickly overwhelmed researchers have also found that the benefits of tree clusters are much greater than the benefits of single Standalone trees such as those planted in sidewalk openings along streets and of course mature trees do the heavy lifting of this vitally important work young trees provide only a fraction of the evaporative and transpiration benefits which mature trees do right here at home headlines less than a week ago on July 9th pointed out the difference a lack of Urban Tree canopy makes as Seattle was 10° hotter than Bellingham that 10 degree differential is between two City locations less than 80 mil apart Seattle and SeaTac lack the benefits of the urban canopy which Bellingham has and it makes a profound difference right here right now the trees we save now are going to determine the temperature of our city in the next Cent once lost it is incredibly expensive to find mitigations we currently can halt further un necessary loss of our current tree tree treasure and irreplaceable public treasure and public good thank you thank you all right and then after Perry we'll have Ali tacy Christine kalinin and Meredith Foster good evening members of the council for the record my name is is Perry esri I'm representing the building industry Association of wam County and the wam County Association of Realtors

you have two letters from our associations that have been provided to you uh one was Friday one was um later today um I think you got copies in a hard copy of the one that was submitted today I won't belabor those nine pages of uh offering suggestions but I do want to touch on three important points I think the first one from our associations is the impact that this is already having on housing I can name to you many instances where individuals have been representing properties and the question immediately comes up can I put an Adu here is this property eligible for Middle housing any of this sort of stuff and the answer is we don't know um you're going to have to go through some sort of a process to determine look at the size of those trees there if they're bigger than 36 in the answer is probably not um but you going to have to deal with the city something else that I wanted to bring up with this is every time you see the word discretion think about risk that's risk to an individual that has to go through some sort of a process and eventually end up at unfortunately it's Mr Lions over here to make a decision either it's up or down and that risk translates to higher cost and and um less housing in the in the ultimate scheme of things which brings me to my concerns about a type six process that's just more delay more uncertainty and we're already talking about an ordinance that introduces a whole new permitting scheme that goes along with every other permit that you have to

apply for to try to build something in this city so um it adds a new committee it adds a new process um we're going the wrong way with affordable housing if that's what we're trying to accomplish the last thing I wanted to bring up was the due process issue we talked with a lot of City officials about this ordinance um like Mr Schmidt said we talked at Great length with uh some of this in the context of the urban forestry management plan our understanding was always that nominations on private property were going to be with the consent of the property owner that's a big difference than notify I looked at a application today for a landmark tree there's no doubt about it this tree is probably a landmark tree as it stands but it's been nominated in every category and when you look at it it there's nothing on the city site that says that the property owner was notified so I can't tell if the property owner was notified so do you know are they aware of what the process is what's their opportunity to come in and contest it um are they oper you know are they authorized to give evidence to the committee or does it go to the hearing examiner or where does it go but the bigger thing I wonder is that tree was right on the property line it's massive it's going to take a huge protection Zone and it implicates the neighbor did the neighbor get any notice that their property is now encumbered thanks thank you evening council members my name is Ali tesi uh thank you for the opportunity to

speak on this topic I filed a detailed written comment last week which I hope you all have read or will read as a part of this legislative process um broadly I support tree preservation in Bellingham and your efforts to codify canopy goals through the urban forestry management plan I think it's going to be complicated but we can do it but I do believe in balance and planning and I do not support this emergency ordinance as drafted uh I believe that it's nowhere near a balanced document it completely disregards critical components of our community planning most obviously housing which you're hearing about from a lot of people um as noted in my written comments I have serious concerns about transparency and predictability in the process and about the subjectivity of the landmark tree criteria it's outrageous that we would allow anyone to nominate any Tree on anyone else's property for a landmark status utilizing subjective undefined criteria such as exceptional Beauty who decides that I have serious concerns about the lack of Engagement with the practitioners the design professionals who who will have to use this ordinance to design our housing projects once it's adopted no one asked us anything uh I have serious concerns about who it's being written for and the equity issues that result from protectionist planning which is really what this is we're talking about protecting halves a lot of people or at least one speaker commented on that already and I have my biggest concern is

about the one-size fits-all nature of this ordinance there's no discussion of the fact that each site is unique a Greenfield site is different from a developed single family lot and that is different from an Urban Village lot where we are planning to put a ton of housing in our community I feel like the city is kind of gaslighting the entire Community with the suggestion that we can accomplish our housing goals while implementing an ordinance like this which is focused on preservation as our first choice if we focus on preservation not removal and mitigation particularly in our undeveloped areas we will not achieve our plan densities and we will increase the cost of housing there's no question about that as many of you have said over the years there are very few things that the local government can do to affect housing affordability two things the city can do are increase Supply and reduce regulatory burden this ordinance does the opposite of both of those things um I'd also question if we even have an emergency on our hands at all we have a 40% canopy cover today one of the highest in the state for a city of our size and graphic and it's been achieved and maintained with our current set of regulations our canopy is not dramatically disappearing what is the emergency we attempting to avert why do we not have an emergency moratorium on the 18 to 24mon review cycle for project permitting or on impact fees that impact the cost of housing or on the implementation of new

regulations that have the potential to limit our land Supply why are those not emergencies that we are legislating today our housing crisis is a real emergency and we should treat it as such over the coming months once the community will engage in a broad discussion related to the urban forestry management plan um I can share with you already numerous examples of how this emergency ordinance is impacting our ability to develop lots that we're working on I can give you specific projects if you want to reach out to me via email and I can walk you through how this ordinance will impact density and cost and may make projects not happen at all your time is up thank you um I do encourage a type 6 process so that we can have a more open discussion and I would ask you to please reconsider a more balanced approach to this ordinance thank you hi my name is Meredith Foster I am here to express my strong support for the landmark tree ordinance and to urge Council to retain and improve this vital legislation trees are what make Bellingham special I grew up in a small town in Texas where trees in nature are not prioritized or protected I chose to live in Bellingham because of its natural beauty because of how immensely different it is from Texas and other places throughout the US people need to be around nature because we're a part of nature I feel healthier and happier living around so much natural beauty I'm one of countless others who love Bellingham for this exact reason the landmark

tree ordinance is crucial to maintaining this natural beauty mature trees are essential to our community providing benefits such as air purification carbon sequestration temperature regulation and storm water management trees provide shade and transpiration cooling our Urban environments and off offering crucial climate protection in times of increasing heat and climate change like the heat wave we experienced last week role of our mature trees becomes even more vital I support the recommendation from City staff to retain the existing Landmark tree ordinance maintaining this ordinance is essential for ensuring that our mature trees continue to receive the protection they deserve additionally any further policy modifications or revised development regulation should go through the type 6 legislative process ensuring thorough consider a and ample opportunity for public input I urge the council to preserve and strengthen the landmark tree ordinance by incorporating these um these thoughts by doing so we can ensure the protection of our mature trees which are in invaluable and I can't overemphasize enough so unique part of our community for our environmental health aesthetic appeal and historical significance thank you all right we had Christine is it Kalan or Callahan and Then followed by Robin Thomas Mary K Robinson and Travis Boyd is it on okay hi I'm Christine Kenan I uh I live at Swift Haven tiny home Villages and I've heard now a lot about talking about affordable housing um

it's definitely not necessary to cut down trees to have affordable housing um Swift Haven would be a prime example of that um I I really really think with the housing crisis that we're in right now tiny home Villages are the most viable um way to go uh it's been wonderful for me um I have the first unit with all the plants that you can see um I I feel very fortunate to have the plants that I do but they're not trees and uh I'm I'm living in a parking lot on tarmac and I have to water twice a day sometimes to keep all my flowers alive and I can tell you trees are very important and I think the ordinance you have should be continued I I think it's easy to chop something down and regret it later you know these trees are are old and you you can't replace that easily and there is scientific proof that it does help to stabilize climate and um so I I hadn't planned on speaking on this but I I do have a very soft SP spot in my heart for trees and and homes and uh I I would suggest more trees and more tiny home Villages thank you yes hello um I'm Robin Thomas I live in the seahome neighborhood and I am here to um Cong congratulate or thank you for this emergency tree ordinance and um encourage you to to go to the type 6 uh process where we could um have more discussion about uh details and and getting this ordinance improved um uh I wish that we had had it earlier when we started the urban ma urban planning uh forestry planning process um I noticed trees starting to come down in our

neighborhood um a lot of preemptive cutting uh most of the trees um in SE home are already on lot lines but people um people were afraid of what might come down the hike and so we're preemptively doing that and I think this process will allow us to take a look and discuss what those are I don't think most of the trees that have come down almost there's only two of them that are actually in the footprint of the new homes that were built um they could have been worked around um and uh I also uh would like to encourage you to lower the cost of nominating trees um in that case it means that lower inome neighborhoods can't won't be able to do to do that effectively so I think about places like Birchwood um where there's a lot of tree canopy that could be lost just because people can't afford to nominate those trees um thank you thank you good evening Council Mary K Robinson I'm a realtor here in Bellingham I work with quite a few out of area buyers who want to buy a home here in Bellingham and I've never once had a buyer say you know what this place needs more trees so when I heard about the emergency ordinance I was confused I did attend one of the city's listening sessions and learned that Bellingham already has a 40% tree cany cover that's very good when compared to most other cities across the country indeed American Forest is used 40% as their Benchmark goal however against the advice of the consultant the various City departments Council voted to increase the canopy coverage

to 45% I'm certainly not opposed to trees nor have I met anyone who doesn't like trees and uh the issue is not the trees but rather the more is better attitude which competes with the goals for the city as it relates to housing American forest website goes on to explain that tree canopy targets should consider constraints such as development densities and land use patterns to meet the current housing crisis in Bellingham the city needs to add 900 units annually 60% of which need to be affordable to 100% of Ami in the last 20 years Bellingham has met that goal of 900 units just twice 20 years City and average permits 600 units a year put that in perspective 540 units would be the equivalent of seven Elanor apartment buildings it's already very expensive and cumbersome for builders in this area to to complete any new units much less than 900 a year we already have a shortage of building lots and the lots that are buildable have have challenges with critical areas pipelines steep slopes and now we add a tree ordance on top of that with many unknowns as to the permitting process and the costs even the new town homes and Dewey and Mount Baker Highway took four years to get permits the carrying cost over four years were roughly $400,000 and that was without a landmark tree ordinance what is the time the risk the costs that will be added to any project if there's a landmark tree issue the smart Builder will just pass any project with large trees rather than risk the unknowns and

face a potential Financial loss you can't have your cake and eat it too and not gain weight you can't have a 5% increase in the tree County with the current city ug limits and build 900 units a year and keep them all affordable don't take my word for it just do the math something has to give if you're committed to having enough housing for residence and housing stability for those who are on the margins governing is not easy and I don't won't Envy you but hoping that the city will achieve 900 units a year while increasing the tree canopy to 45% is wishful thinking you are not elected to wish for housing for all you are elected to take action to make housing for all a reality thank you all right and then after Travis uh we'll have Laura Weiss Todd lagy and shaa Naf I'm uh Travis Boyd realer here in Bellingham and um I think some things were pretty said uh pretty well said on a lot of the big ideas with Statistics and whatnot um there's been some topics brought up here with health benefits of trees and how they're good for us what's the health benefits of homelessness that's kind of what we're dealing with right now uh in this community you go in a lot of areas here Baker and behind Walmart and that's a big issue with affordable housing then you're adding tree canopy into this U there was just a prime example showed a house to see other day and the owner wanted to buy it and be able to um put some houses on there for families um or whoever wanted to buy them and there's a big

unknown developing in Bellingham is a gamble you don't know by the time you get your permits in your permits could be switched unless you have another 40,000 or whatever it is your project could be stopped so you're at 18 months or even further and trying to get housing squared away um that also affects leases um renters pre-sales and anything like that delays for families that are coming in um to this community there's another issue that we have with expanding our commercial district and and bringing in jobs there are companies that want to be in this area that want to be in wam County want to be in Bellingham but they can't feasibly do it because there's no housing for the employees that could come about or it's too expensive and if you're going to be building either apartments or town homes or whatever it is we need housing for all of our people that are looking for jobs here in this community to build this community into something amazing and keeping it going good um so we got costs of building this is just going to make that an even further cost um and time that's going to be adding onto that I just want to say for a lot of the you know people that might be Pro this decision I have a lot of buyers that would love to switch houses with you and take your house and you could go live on a lot that's filled with trees there's a lot of people that appreciate what you have and you guys have a house but they don't so thank you good evening my name is Laura Weiss and I am here um

to support strongly support the landmark tree ordinance um perfectly happy with the idea that it go through a type six process to work out some of the details um several speakers prior have clearly an uh articulated the benefits of trees to our community and I'm not going to try and repeat any of that because it's been very well said um but basically we all know that trees enhance our quality of life provide shade on summer days all of those things protecting the largest oldest trees will simply make our community more Vi livable and more Equitable um and I really hope that we can find a way to stop thinking about trees versus housing I feel like with creative thinking with maybe spending a little bit more money in certain places with um Ingenuity we can have both it doesn't need to be trees versus housing and when I think about um I was just standing there thinking about what I was going to say I didn't prepare comments this time as I usually do I'm picturing a development in in Phoenix Arizona right houses right next to each other with no trees because it's Phoenix and I am concerned that if we focus only on housing and providing housing which is critically important we're going to end up with housing that looks like that and there's going to be very little Greenery and very little shade and very few people are going to in the long run recognize this as Bellingham anymore if we allow that sort of thing to happen um the last point I want to make is just simply that I think

that that $107 per hour fee to nominate a tree is much too high and um it would not be Equitable and is an economic barrier for the average citizen to nominate a tree I was thinking about um what other fees the city has and by way of example we currently charge only $60 for a person with a boat to get an annual fee to get that boat inspected so that it can go on Lake Wacom or lake samish that's $60 a year um for someone who owns a boat compared to $107 per hour for someone to try and make our community a better place so I hope you'll consider that thank you for your time thank you good evening Council mayor my name is Todd Lusty I'm here as a private citizen I'm not representing any Union I might be affiliated with nor any commission that I might sit on I'm here tonight to tell you A Tale of Two ordinances and I want to juxtapose that by saying that it was the best of times in that we have a new mayor and she's shown that the city can and will pivot for what's important but it's the worst of times in that I think that our priorities might be a little off in what we're calling an emergency for over three years I've been trying to get a walking mailbox ordinance through the city and lo and behold we finally were considering it and it got pushed off again this afternoon and yet protecting trees on private property is an emergency I think if you walked through our city and asked people what's more important to put in a locking mailbox ordinance to protect people's ballots to

protect them from Identity Theft or to stop people from cutting down trees on their private property I think most people in our city would pick the first one but maybe I'm wrong I don't know so with that I hope that you'll actually take that lesson learned and really apply that going forward and consider what is or isn't an emergency and as we consider the tree ordinance we shouldn't forget that we are bringing in $9.3 million in our Greenways fund this year that's a 67% increase from the 5.58 million that came in last year the city has enough money to actually I would think buy up the property to increase its tree canopy coverage without impacting private citizens and without impacting the housing that they want to build so I hope you'll take those into consideration and uh look at a more Global picture and really prioritize what the needs of the citizens are thank you all right and then after Shauna we'll have Samantha hamstreet uh Amy Berger MCN and Brooks Anderson good evening Council mayor lond director planning director lion my name is shaan f and I stand before you tonight as a real estate professional a middle housing Advocate and an environmentalist yes really I paid to have solar panels put on my house I drive an EV I avoid P plastic packaging and I diligently recycle so when I say that I have concerns about the tree ordinance know that my comments are coming from a place of shared goals I've heard it said tonight in fact that this is not a battle between trees and

housing and that we can have both but there are aspects of the current ordinance that is counter to the housing goals that really need to be examined before the final product is put forth I have recently represented an number of buyers property buyers Visionaries who believe in the goal of providing housing by way of adus in a way that blends in with our existing neighborhoods gentle density I've had buyers find great properties to BU all a home in an Adu on an infill lot some with tear downs but inevitably there are trees on the property or the neighbor's property whose tree protection area area would certainly bleed into the subject property so what happens if that tree is on the neighbor's property well I'm not about to trespass so I called the planning department to find out my next step is there a process for this do we just knock on the neighbor's door does the city make the call well the department staff said that the process for finding out about the tree on the neighbor's property is when and if the owners decide to build at that point they would treat the tree like a critical area and let the owner know they needed an arborist report if the tree was indeed over 36 in in diameter well at least with a critical area you can look at Google Earth and kind of do a little bit of your due diligence but have you tried to figure out the width the certain diameter of a tree via Google Earth you're looking down at this you can't even figure out where the tree is on the property

to do your proper measurements so doing any due diligence is very very difficult Department staff went on to say that even in the case of a tear down the owner would be able to at least replace the structure that was on the property they would be guaranteed need that well in some cases these tear Downs are very small in relation to the entire square footage of the property I'm not going to get excited as a developer if I'm going to be able to replace a 600q foot structure on a 5,000 foot property honestly I don't understand how we can say that we can we're focused on trees and housing when we're looking at those kind of metrics there's a lot of potential to add gentle density but the existence of trees coupled with this ordinance create a barrier to building and if we truly want to increase the quantity of Housing and make housing more affordable then we must stop adding barriers to the process of creating it thank you my name is Samantha Hamry and I actually need to apologize I intended to sign up to speak after the end of the meeting during the general comments so my apologies I am going to withhold my comment until then you Amy or Brooks Amy or Brooks if you want to step forward Brook good evening and thank you for listening to all of us and all of our different points of view and thank you for the community for turning out and showing up for this important topic as well as the one that's going to follow this um I totally support this ordinance 100% I think it's long

overdo and uh I support the learned a lot about the nuances of what's involved in this from the different points of view very important to hear what everybody things however I do take issue big issue with the people who have spoke spoke the realators and the developers about this being um something this ordinance being a detriment to affordable housing I was a realtor for 20 years what they're talking about is not affordable housing it is not the buildings that are being developed currently and all of the crying about needing 900 units per year they're not affordable housing they're expensive and they even the apartments short of the ones that are being subsidized by the different funds they're not affordable in fact they're really unaffordable if you look at the cost of rents in our community so I really take issue with the building Community having been involved in the building building Community for as I said 20 years you're not building affordable housing the woman that spoke earlier that lives in the tiny houses and her ad um advocacy for tiny houses and affordable housing she you know what we all can't live in tiny houses and that transition she really spoke to the truth when she said that's affordable not what's being built currently by developers and Builders I'm sorry they're crying wolf there is not a problem it's about profit and their livelihoods not about affordable housing so I really encourage you to go ahead with this ordinance trees are extreme important in

our future and what this ordinance does for landmark trees is so inconsequential to there being any relationship to affordable housing thank you is Amy here Amy like to speak all right that concludes our sign up then okay all right I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back to council council member Huffman thank you um first of all I want to thank everybody who has spoken and written in and um done a lot of work to to share some really thoughtful comments um real world examples and and um I really appreciate that that all the information that has been shared with us I think it's it's it's a lot to consider um I hope that you will continue to share as as we potentially go through this typee 6 process and consider this ordinance further um I have a question for Mr Li um so the the ordinance has been in place for about a month what kinds of impacts uh or real world results have we seen so far I know it's a short time yeah thank you um as you heard tonight and tonight's a great reflection of that we do we are receiving comments on both ends of the Spectrum um those that want the ordinance uh in place those that want it stronger those that are concerned about the implications that it will have um when we talk about and you've heard a few comments this evening about um the concerns about ambiguity or what those real world impacts are um there are absolutely concerns that are being expressed that are being discussed with City staff I can certainly take a

moment and transition to the podium and show you a couple examples um as one of the comments were made kind of the the variations can depend on the site specific issues that are associated with it but I think one of the more notable pieces that I would love to be able to articulate for you this evening is um when we evaluate the there's concerns that that um it's going to be a an absolute and I think one of the things that the ordinance does try to do is it allows yes there is a a default position that the trees that are greater than 36 in um are Landmark trees and that there is a process by which you can nominate a tree there's also a process by which you can have that tree evaluated for removal the question then becomes what does that process look like how long does it take and what are the implications so if you'll bear with me for just a moment I'll pull up a an illustration and I'll kind of articulate that a little bit for you so I want to show you um two I think real world examples um and I apologize this is a little hard to to see especially probably from the back row but I'll I'll try to do my best to kind of indicate what we have here is uh an example on 41st Street where there's an in interest in extending the existing RightWay further down and allowing for there to be additional development to the right side of this image and what would be necessary and if you can see it in a slightly darker shaded area that's an extension of the existing roadway that would

continue and provide access to those to those future homes there's two shaded homes that you can kind of see on the lower end of the image and then one up on the right so those are existing conditions so it's everything kind of to the right of that if you will and what the colored lines on here represent green is uh sewer um purple is storm water and then um blue is is portable water and there's a need to look at extension of those existing utilities and so one of the challenges that exist is all of these circles that you're seeing represented effectively represent the um canopy of existing trees and as you're thinking about extension of this roadway and planning out those different utilities and the extension of those utilities you're now having to take into consideration the placement of landmark trees so these two uh red circles that you see on the lower portion of the image represent uh existing Landmark trees that under the ordinance need to be protected and preserved and then all of these that are here kind of in the uh orange and and darker colored circles represent existing trees that would need to be potentially removed and so again that balance that you're trying to strike when you're looking at development examples is in this scenario you have to first and foremost and this is where the real world cost comes into play is that in order for somebody to determine feasibility on this project and determine whether or not they should move forward they have to do first

and foremost a tree survey to understand the size of the tree and the implications and then they have to do some preliminary engineering and design work those costs UPF front didn't typically incur to the extent that they would in this type of scenario and so now you're looking at spending tens of thousands of dollars to determine whether or not a project is even feasible in that case where that project is not feasible if you extrapolate that over two or three projects then the cost the amorti of those costs goes to a project that then becomes viable so it it it will absolutely create additional costs associated with that um and if you choose not to put the utilities in that location and have to redesign it there's a cost associated with that so I'm not trying to take a position on good or bad I'm just trying to give you the right now the real world examples of hey this is an upfront cost that does have some um challenges and there are going to be trade-off so in this scenario if the if the applicant were to move forward we would retain those particular trees that are identified in the red and then the balance or or at least a portion of those that are um kind of surrounding the site here would be removed as a result of the the need to extend that roadway one other example that kind of came into our department and I just want to try to illustrate this for you sorry um this is an example where you have one lot that would be broken up into three uh the gray area kind of

illustrates the driveway that would provide access into the uh two homes that are on the left hand side and then there would be another access point off of the right to the house that's been kind of Illustrated in yellow in this configuration there are 34 trees that would be removed and 23 that would be retained those that would be removed are in the red circles and the retained ones are in the green so part of what we're talking about and this is the ambiguity that you heard a little bit earlier is okay how do we create some level of predictability and work through that now we can work with the design professionals around this stuff to start looking at potential configurations potential different rearrangements and I did a little bit of uh sophomore animation on here a little bit but you can see you can start to rotate some of these and move them around a little bit on the site and try to do some of this kind of stuff but this is the type of stuff that are design community and development Community have to go through is a lot of these different iterations and machinations to try to come to an example that might work um on a particular property and see if there's an opportunity and all of these certainly have benefits and it's what our design Community is used to going through but it does not allow for that degree of certainty and predictability and one of the things that you often hear in this profession that the two biggest implications to development and trying to work

through that are speed to Market how long does it take to get through the process and um lack of predictability lack of political certainty on those two things and so this is the challenge that we're facing and we have to try to weigh that with the environmental benefits of that and I'm I'm only saying this because we've got our work cut out for us there's a lot of public input that we want to try to uh take in and we want to try to find and strike those balances because because it is a need to provide both and it can't be a this or that that it has to be a collective approach so follow so um these are some relatively complex at least to my mind um examples maybe you can simplify it a little bit for me with a hypothetical so um something we're trying to encourage a lot of is is folks building adus in there on their properties if they have room um there's a lot of homes in the area that I live in that we have a lot of big trees we also have property that has potential for for adus if somebody with a property um with a backyard uh wants to build an Adu for their aging parents say and they have a landmark tree right in the middle of the space where they would potentially build a dwelling what would the what would the process be like under this ordinance for that person so if it is that uh 36 in tree it's already uh by default a landmark tree so they would come through the city with a in one scenario with a development application to propose that Adu um and through that process

the city staff would be evaluating that that Adu and include consideration of the landmark tree and in this case if that Landmark tree is uh located in such a way that the Adu cannot be designed around uh that particular then there's an opportunity to go through through uh requests for removal of the Lamark tree um there is consideration for uh the mitigating effects of that loss so a replant requirement and a monitoring requirement that would go along with that I think the challenge that we're hearing that exists is the lack of certainty around when that decision is made for whether the tree is can be removed or not and so that's the part that becomes challenging for folks is okay if I'm going in and trying to design that Adu and I'm engaging the design professionals when do I get that determination on whether in fact I am allowed to remove that Landmark tree or whether I have to redesign or or consider an alternative project and that's that's the part that poses the challenge right now C member Stone yeah I guess before getting into too many ieal or the details of the ordinance itself perhaps questions for um the City attorney but I just want to be clear on our role as a council at this right juncture and lots of comments related to the type six process and so it's unclear to me whether right the options before us take no action amend or repeal obviously it was if it was repealed I'm presuming there would be no type six process but I don't know for certain okay um but if

there was no action or amendments presented um whether amendments at this point in time could theoretically be adopted separate and before a type 6 process or if it would require some sort of right emergency for those amendments to be put in place during those six months or at what point that trigger for the type six process comes into effect and or is that just going forward regardless just trying to be clear if there are right amendments proposed this point do those take effect immediately or do they require a type 6 process for there to be any changes well if you made amendments tonight they would take effect they would you'd be amending the ordinance if you go into a series of work sessions I think then um the issue Rises whether you need to have a whether you're adopting a new interim uh Landmark tree ordinance and whether you have to have another public hearing but whatever you do would be temporary you know for whatever right now now it's 6 months um that may need to be extended to get through the type six process um but anything you do without going through the type six process would have to be temporary so the temporary so looking at the next six months we could Implement some changes that would take effect immediately but would be temporary within those six months put anything permanent in place that requires the type 6 process to go forward right okay and so what's the estimated time for that type six process type six process typically would take us uh about the

six months um as alen articulated when we went we've gone through that a couple times depending on the extent of the public comment and the analysis that needs to be done it often takes longer than six months um typically uh the better part of a year okay member liest yes thank you for this thank you for the discussion thank you very much for the comments um I actually kind of agreed with things I heard on what people might consider to be both sides of the issue um I am a strong believer in supporting a healthy tree canopy as valuable but also kind of as invaluable we really do need a healthy tree canopy and it needs to be throughout the city not just in Parks that's not the way the ecological benefits the uh benefits that have to do with heat effects the benefits have to do with Public Health they don't work if the trees are all over here in a park and they're not in our neighborhoods which is why we're struggling with this if if we preserve all of our parks and bought five new ones that wouldn't achieve what we're trying to achieve that wouldn't give us a healthy community so we do have to deal with trees on private property as well that's why this is difficult it will be a balancing act and what we really need is a comprehensive approach with programs and incentives the kind of things that'll take months if not years to develop the kind of things that I've been advocating for since 2015 when we came up with the idea of an urban forestry plan which was just adopted and that

just sets the foundation for that comprehensive approach so this one piece is sort of out of sequence uh and on its own but please realize that I don't think I think nobody thinks that a landmark tree ordinance is actually the solution to the larger problem um I believe that actually there are genuine trade-offs between the preservation of of trees and housing and other issues for example I think solar panels on your roof is a good idea but trees can get in the way with that this is not easy this is not complicated some said we can't have Cav our cake and eat it too that's also a bit of a simplification but there will be genuine trade-offs and I don't think anyone should pretend that it's simple it's straightforward and there won't be compromises and there won't be costs along with the benefits especially if you don't do it well so I very much support the idea of going back and doing the type six process you have to realize when we pass ordinances we usually don't pass the first draft we pass the second draft maybe even the amended second draft we didn't do it in this case because we pass it as an emergency ordinance but please realize emergency is not the sense of this is the most important thing in the world it's an emergency it was an emergency only having to do the fact that it was preemptive to people cutting down trees and so the emergency just meant it took effect right away that's the only sense of it's an emergency it's not more important than housing it's not more

important than climate change it's not more important than say Public Safety or Justice it's not an emergency in that sense so please realize that I I don't think we rushed into this out of a a disproportionate sense of the significance of trees but merely because timeliness mattered in this matter in the way it doesn't usually matter that's why a lot of jurisdictions do moratoriums to prevent preemptive applications that thwart the whole intent of the production um trees have enormous ecological benefits and those benefits are what I was looking to as a justification for our urban forestry plan and the justification for a landmark tree ordinance the ecological benefits and services include storm water control which by the way costs us as a community hundreds of millions of dollars to build and then operate that infrastructure trees has storm water control devices is really really valuable um shading and wind effects habitat they create privacy they create public health benefits they add climate resiliency they protect against heat island effects which by the way are also very expensive to your individual bill as well as to the community there are enormous benefits and so that's why I support this but there's one thing that sticks out of my mind that I think is just too subjective and I know the staff recommendation is to leave this in place don't get into too much legislating tonight but there's one sharp corner I think is too sharp and I'd like to shave it off tonight and

that one sharp corner is that um you can nominate a tree not just because it has a distinct species or functional value or historic significance or ecological benefits such as habitat or nesting or feeding for a threatened species but simply because it has possesses exceptional Beauty I think that's a can of worms we don't need to bite off I think that will be difficult to determine difficult to chew contentious and argumentative but keep in mind even an ugly tree provides ecological benefits it still prevents heat shading it still strol water it still adds to health benefits it still creates habitat and privacy it still protects from wind even a quote unquote ugly tree trees are valuable whether they're beautiful or not and by the way I think trees are beautiful I I like looking at beautiful trees and I noticed several today and I call commented to myself on their beauty and I also noted they were like a foot in diameter but they were beautiful so I would like contrary to staff's recommendation to make one Amendment tonight to uh Delete two lines that have to do with using exceptional Beauty as one of the characteristics to nominate a landmark tree or a landmark tree Grove that is section 4 a part two and section B part two those are the lines which say uh the tree possesses exceptional Beauty which warrants Landmark status and the line which says a Grove contains exception Beauty which warrants a landmark tree status I I move that we strike those two lines um from the

ordinance second okay motion or a motion for amendment has been made by council member list and second by council member Stone Miss gett did you get the amendment is a little bit repeat the sections um that would yeah so in the ordinance there's en acting section 4 um which has the sections A and B um they're mostly on page 16 of the packet both A and B have subpart I I and those are to be struck and those are the two subsections uh one for a and one for B that refer to exceptional Beauty as a criteria that would be used to judge candidacy a Amendment clear to council members okay any further discussion to the amendment okay seeing none we'll vote on it all those in favor signify by saying I opposed extensions recusals motion carries 60 I will now entertain a motion to um um either pick or pick one of the three options that are identified in the packet council member Willams well I wasn't ready to make a motion on this just yet but um reading through all of the emails and listening to the public aom here tonight and reading through the ordinance many times um a lot of issues jumped out at me and a lot of those issues were expressed in the emails and the comments um the issue of striking a balance between housing and Forestry is is something where um I believe that has that is going to be regulated and all that this does in my mind is to say there are Landmark trees they can be removed under certain circumstances for developing housing and they have to be mitigated but the one

thing that um jumped out at me a lot was um a concern about a lack of definitions a lack of um feeling like things were not defined properly like my colleagues comment about beauty Charlie Brown thought he had a beautiful Christmas tree but yeah who knows um and so taking the time to go through the process now oh one other point I wanted uh to make too is as I recall in the original um vote that we took um some incidents were cited of people that did cut down trees when they shouldn't have and so the level of emergency with that we felt at that particular time was that needed to stop those trees were cut down even at the direction of the city not to do that and people just said I'm going to do it anyway and so the sense of emergency for us was to stop that behavior immediately so but now that we have this on the books now it's time to refine it um Institute the the concerns that we've heard and see if those can be be addressed in a way that makes this work and lead to a balanced program that we can work with so on that I move to what are the options we have again uh we can you can vote to retain the ordinance as amended modify the well we we just modifi the ordinance we just modified it yeah orend the ordinance sorry about that my mic was not on so we we just modified the ordinance through the amendment that council member was put forward so it would be to it's it's keep the ordinance as as amended as how I would I guess I would say it is that correct I would say um amend

ordinance 20245 d017 to delete section 4 a small double I and 4B small double I to eliminate those two sections regarding Beauty that's the new motion that was I thought that was the motion where where does referring this to the type six process commit separate separate motion well you've given direction to staff to do the type six process you could do a motion but I think we have enough to go with the type six process okay got it but you don't need you're just amending the ordinance that's already in place okay maybe I'm not being clear are we finished with that part I got it okay that's it I move that we retain the motion or or the ordinance as amended okay and further uh refer this ordinance to go through the the type six process okay okay any objections from legal on that one any questions on on that motion second second a motion that's been made by council member Williams and second by council member lillquist any further discussion council member Huffman um a process clarification um if so as we've we've got one amendment to this ordinance on the table already I think there are probably others that could could be brought up other issues brought up um that have come into question with this ordinance um if if at any time staff for example finds that there is something in this ordinance that is causing an unnecessary issue um can we amend this ordinance at any time you want um staff could come back with proposed amendments to the temporary ordinance I think that you

probably probably have to have another public hearing if you made an amendment we just had one tonight and you didn't you made some two amendments uh so that that would be the caveat we could do it but we we'd have to let the public weigh in okay so after well the the type six process carries with it public input correct type six would uh involve a public hearing before the Planning Commission and then a public hearing before city council okay and if I may through the um Landmark trees at cob.org email address and through the website that we discussed earlier this evening there's a continual opportunity for engagement in that way we will certainly have through the type 6 process engagement with the public hearing and Planning Commission as well as the city council and it's likely that we can potentially do some workshops in advance of that I don't want to commit to anything yet because we still have to plan that portion out but what I want the council and the public to know is that through that Landmark trees at cob.org email address there's throughout this entire process There's an opportunity to engage thank you con little question so often when we refer something to staff for further work like this type six process we also kind of share some of our thoughts on areas that we would like to be addressed um I have to admit that the nomination by others surprised me that was not what I was looking for originally I had a much simpler conception um and I'm not sure if it will

work um and I think it has the potential to create the greatest uncertainty for land owners or people who do want to provide the housing that we say we want them to provide either as an Ado on their own lot or maybe the three lot development so me personally I I would request that it's part of that type 6 process and as part of the staff process in particular look at that aspect because it's the one that I least understood and least expected and and least prepared to have an opinion on more Stone yes so this is challenging um I I mean I support the type 6 process and I imagine that we will come back with a different ordinance at the end of that type 6 process so without I mean I've got a multitude of comments and questions right and suggestions and um and without coming through those I guess then my immediate concern is over the next six months or you said it could be upwards of a year while that type 6 process is moving forward what happens in the interim and part of my concern is just the bandwidth I feel like it's you director lion who is going to be car caring the Lion's chair pun intended of of this right and all of the questions and concerns that come forward and so I'm just wondering how is a city going to balance and manage that over the next six months or so I appreciate your concern it's certainly one that I share um but I but I think that one of the things that we've tried to do in this several months no a couple months I should say um is we've been as those

comments have been coming in we've been trying to do a matrix of tracking those different comments understanding the the range of uh input that's being received some of which uh we've been trying to kind of separate if you will from um those that are directly involving projects and development proposals we have certain staff that are are more in tune with what those development activities are and responding to those we're certainly um going through the implementation efforts and trying to work with identifying the committee The Landmark tree committee and the staff associated with that and how we're beginning to address that we've got um we've got enforcement staff that's been engaged in this so it's it's a bit of a divide and conquer type of approach at this point because we're getting such a range of uh different input to receive and so part of that process moving forward is to kind of synthesize that out and figure out what we can build into a revised or modified ordinance and so um we'll continue to to do that work but I appreciate your concern because it is uh there is a a wide range of um thoughts and opinions on the matter and we want to certainly do our part to make sure we reflect that and do the proper analysis associated with it follow so I guess part of that concern also is regarding the right consistency and predictability and those who are trying to right operate um in that time and so I'm not certain if there's you know anything else that internally staff is

able to do right to help people who are trying to navigate this in real in real time because I understand that there are some things that staff's also trying to navigate and put in place right yeah absolutely I mean I I I think from the standpoint of it being and one of the responses that we've provided to some that have made comments already is when they ask those questions you know we were dealing with the fact that it was an emergency and interim ordinance and so some of the implementation pieces we're still working through and figuring out those details and so we've been trying to be responsive to members of the public that have uh expressed those concerns or are less than certain about which way it will go and we've been having weekly discussions uh internally to try to create that level of consistency you heard it mentioned tonight about some of the pre-application or maybe even somebody that's coming into the public counter through our permitting process and wanting to get some clarity and so we're trying to do our part to make sure that staff is giving to the extent they have that opportunity um the ability to give consistent feedback and input but but we're still working through some of the implementation efforts on our on our own as well so one of the things is communicating out I guess some of the feedback right that we've received to me speaks to confusion in the public about what the meaning of an emergency ordinance is and the fact that it is actually in effect

now right and it's been in effect since May 20th when we first passed it um and that and what what's already protected right nominations and other things aside and so I guess one of the pieces i' noted that in the definitions I don't see Landmark tree included in the definitions just clearly if to me if I was looking at this about how to identify what is a landmark tree and what's already protected I didn't see that in the definitions I don't know if that's something that I mean I know if you read on well in section four if you're looking at yes Landmark tree inventory and then how that's defined I was thinking as an easy reference that Landmark trees are already defined and you know you're able to um to identify those but I wasn't sure if there would be additional communication out um right from the city just in light of what feedback we've received if there's going to be outward communication from the city to to help clarify or address you know some of those questions or an FAQ on the website that and I think that you know we've we have a web page dedicated to specifically this topic and so we can certainly use that as the platform uh to communicate those types of things that that are coming up or maybe to track those various different issues I agree with councilman Williams we we kind of approached it looking at the uh section four but I understand your point and getting that UPF front early and you know if you don't make it down to page um you know section four and you

want to know what it is up front that there may be an opportunity to do that I also wanted to take a minute um maybe to in another response to your earlier line of questioning and that's with regard to the staff level the part that I want to be clear about too is that and council member liqua touched on this a little bit is that the same staff that's doing a lot of this work is also the staff that's doing the urban for forry plan so you know in terms of some of the technical reviews and things like that so we're going to have some prioritization and workload uh issues that we've got to work through on that and we're still that's we've tried to separate them a little bit but it is there is some overlap with the staff involved counc M Williams did you have a followup or you no okay okay so I'm going to call the question it's 8:45 we still have a full meeting ahead of us and I think at least as many public commenters signed up as were at the public hearing so there was a motion made by council member Williams and a second by council member will little any further discussion on that motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries uh 6 Z with one excused okay I was going to take a five minute break do do you want to do that before your presentation mayor okay we're going to take a 5 minute break and we'll come back at 8:50 bathrooms are downstairs by the way except for [Music] n [Music] e e okay we've got everyone back and we

will now proceed with the rest of the meeting and the next item on the agenda is the mayor's report mayor L thank you Council hello to members of the community and our city employees that are here this evening um I really enjoyed the richness of the previous conversation and indeed um as I was musing about the mayor's report tonight I was reflecting on complexity and nuance and so you'll hear that as I give my remarks in the mayor's report but certain certainly complexity and Nuance was evident in the conversation that we just had and I want to begin tonight by addressing political violence and I would like to acknowledge that Saturday's assassination attempt against the former president um and Echo what so many others have shared as our country reacts to this and to quote our current president there is no place in America for political violence no exceptions we cannot allow this kind of violence to be normalized we resolve our differences at The Ballot Box and not with bullets and as we move further into this election season my plea for our community is that we turn toward and not from our democratic ideals let us embrace the complexity and Nuance of the work before us the work before us as a Nation as a state and as a city let us avoid oversimplification and a drift to extremes I hold a belief that by balancing the tensions inherent in this complexity we can make people's lives better and strengthen our democracy I also want to acknowledge that I see many of our 1937 Union

employees in the audience tonight and you are all engaged in the Democrat process at the local level I will be listening tonight to help inform my understanding of the complexity that exists in our current and ongoing bargaining I want to acknowledge that the city and 1937 Representatives have met 18 times since August of 2023 and in May the union voted down a proposal that the city put forth us to April following that vote the city has REI reprioritized resources to put more on the table we have had many important Financial conversations currently underway and given our current and forecasted Revenue shortfalls our negotiations with the union and our other labor groups are informed by the present Financial challenges and I encourage everyone to watch today's recording of this afternoon's Financial presentation it lays out a clear status of the city's Financial picture the general fund expenses exceed our Revenue sources and we are dipping into reserves in ways that are unsustainable we began this year with $41 million in reserves and we are presently on track to end the year with about 19 million this financial reality is also reflected an executive sedu message to All watcom County Employees today when he announced Ed a temporary hiring freeze at the county finding collaborative ways to ensure employee needs are addressed while balancing our deficit spending is the highest priority of my leadership team and meanwhile we are also striving to address salary Equity issues in

our bargaining our current proposals include changing the comparable cities to align with how we determine comparable wages with our non nonrepresentative e team employees and we are also looking at salary restructuring that would significantly Advantage the lowest wage earners the most given the current status of bargaining we've requested mediation a mediator has been assigned and I the Council City leadership we look forward to continued constructive discussions with the 1937 leadership I also want to acknowledge that earlier today I announced my appointment of Janice Keller and Forest Longman as the city's Deputy administrators both Longman and Keller are veteran city of Bellingham employees collectively bringing Decades of experience in public policy financial management and executive leadership to these key governance positions my commitment is to G to deliver great local government in service to our community and we need smart capable enthusiastic leaders providing strategic Direction and oversight for our city initiatives Janice steps into this role with a deep understanding of Bellingham and a shared and demonstrated commitment to Excellence in government Forest brings a unique 360 degree view of City operations and The Proven ability to be responsive to community needs through the Strategic in investment of public resources I am excited to welcome them to these critical new roles on my leadership team expanding the deputy role is essential for our community as the

city's portfolio of business has increased in complexity while we strive to meet the needs and service level expectations of our growing population this is an important Evolution to make a stronger Bellingham and on a good news I'll close this out with um an announcement that the popular children's craft fair is returning 50 local youth ages 13 and younger will gather at the downtown Bellingham Lee Memorial Park which is right outside the children library on the lawn on Friday July 26 for the annual children's craft fair from 11: to 1: p.m.

this event hosted by the Bellingham Public Library is an excellent opportunity for community members of all ages to support young entrepreneurs who are spending their summer creating unique products to sell each item is $5 or less and all sales are cash only we encourage everyone to mark their calendars for this festive outdoor event in downtown Bellingham bring your dollars and join us there and that's the end of mayor's report tonight thank you thank you mayor that will take us to our standing committee meetings first of which uh this afternoon is public works and natural resources and that was ched by council member Hannah Stone thank you president Hamill um before going doing our report out just another mention in case people are watching the um report out just from public works again that we will have a special meeting of the Public Works committee on Monday August 5th so that's going to be an off Monday from 5: to 9:00 p.m.

at Pacific Street operations center um to discuss in-depth the proposed and forthcoming fiber master plan um so for anyone interested that will be open to the public so this afternoon I was joined this afternoon by council members lillquist and council member Williams Because council member Anderson is not with us today um we had several items before us the first of which was agenda bill 24181 so this was a contract award for padon Creek restoration 24th to 30th streets Phase 2 this is en058 Bid number b-224 so the padon creek restoration um includes 24th to 30th streets pH 2 project is a continuation of the city's efforts to improve fish habitat in padon Creek phase one was completed in 2022 this was between the foot bridge and Connelly Creek phase three when funded will extend from the foot bridge to 30th Street this phase involves changes to padon Creek between 24th Street and the Confluence of Connelly Creek from a channelized section to a new Channel with Natural Pools large Woody debris and improved riparian buffer the city received two bids which were publicly opened on June 26th 2024 mdia contractors was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $ 68,7 159 including any applicable Washington state sales or use tax Engineers estimate for this project was $753,000 188 the project is not subject to the apprenticeship requirement since it's less less than the $1 million threshold um this afternoon we heard from Public Works director Eric Johnston

as well as Mike Wilson joined us and Craig Mueller was the presenter and also project engineer um for this particular project the city this afternoon the committee moved to award the contract to Mia contractors and ISO move second motion has been made by the 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 abens recusals motion carries six with one excused thank you very much the next item before us this afternoon was agenda bill 24182 this was a contract award for the Donald Avenue water quality retrofit project this is EV 171 bid number 42b d224 so the Donald Avenue water quality retrofit project will construct a new phosphorus optimized storm water treatment system facility within the public right of way at the corner of Donald Avenue and Northshore Drive the project will enhance treatment of urban runoff in the lake watom Watershed the city received three bids which were publicly opened on June 26 2024 Premier Services Inc was the responsive responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $82,700 $62.50 once again this project is not subject to the apprenticeship requirement since it is less than the $1 million threshold um and this afternoon we heard from Public Works director Eric Johnson as well as Jessica Bennett um who was the engineer for this project there was a unanimous recommendation from the committee to move to award the contract to premium Services Inc and

is so move second motion has been made by the chair and seconded by council member Lio Quist any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signified by saying I I oppose exensions recusals motion carries six uh with one excuse next was agenda bill 24183 this is a contract award for fire station number five rof project this is Bid number 43 b-224 fire station 5 R roof project will replace the roofing and install a new fall arrest protection system the city publicly opened five bids on July 2nd 2024 SRS roofing company was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $149,500 th000 the project is not subject to the apprenticeship requirements since once again it's less than the $1 million threshold in addition solar panel installation was considered for this project but due to the age of the building and the surrounding significant trees um was not not included in the project this afternoon we heard from Public Works director Eric Johnston and we're also joined by Joel fun assistant Public Works director um there was some discussion regarding the discrepancy or the the difference Just Between the engineers's estimate which was $350,000 and then the the bids um that came in all of which were under that estimate um but the lowest responsible bid obviously being significantly below um so internal discussions and investigation about maybe why those Roofing bids have been off um and that will be addressed going forward perhaps with um with

the engineer um for future projects but at this time it's in our favor and the committee recommended unanimously to move award the contract this is to SRS re roofing company and I so move second motion's been made by the chair and second by council member Williams any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying I I opposed exensions recusals motion carries six one excuse the final agenda item before us was agenda bill 24184 this is regarding a noise variance so with Lumen telecommunications work for Lumen telecommunications work so Lumen Technologies is requesting a variance from the requirements of the city's noise ordinance which is BMC 10.24.18 this is for construction related to telecommunications infrastructure the work will be at night in the residential area in vicinity of Ellis Street and and Sunset Drive Ellis Street and Plymouth Drive and coolage drive in the Cornwall Park and Sunnyland neighborhoods between August 5th and September 6th Lumen on behalf of their contractor north sky Communications has requested to complete the work at night to minimize traffic impacts and to ensure the safety of both workers and residents staff concur that completing the work at night is in the public interest as it minimizes disruptions to traffic and pro provides for the safety of the public and contractor this afternoon we heard from Public Works director Eric Johnston as well as Mike Wilson assistant director of engineering joined us and just confirming that um

although construction work would hap be happening between August 5th and September 6th it would not be every night in every location um but would be progressively covered throughout that period of time there was a unanimous recommendation from the committee to move to approve the requested noise variance for nighttime construction work between August 5th and September 6th then I so move second motion's been made by the chair second by council member Williams any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed extensions recusals motion carries six uh with one excuse thank you very much um that was all the business before the committee and with that we adjourned and I'll turn it back to you president Hamill thank you uh the next committee that we had was planning uh this afternoon and that was chaired by council member Michael loquist yeah thank you normally it's chaired by councelor Lisa Anderson she has an excused absence that left Skip and myself and then we added Hannah as a third member to fill out the plan committee we had one item before us today was an ordinance relating to the establishment of identity theft prevention measures for registered Residential Properties to the city throughout the city and establishing a requirement for secure locking male receptacles in chapter 6.15 of the Bellingham know civil code identity theft and discarded bills can have a significant impact on financial well-being of an individual and or

household and eff to support the need for safe and secure housing for all residents the city is establishing a requirement for locking mail receptacles for all properties that are registered through the rental registration safety and inspection program um this actually is been under discussion and in the works uh for a while mail theft identity theft package theft loss of bills uh loss of financial documents can have significant negative impacts locking mailboxes are already required in all new apartment buildings and have been for a while locking mailboxes are easy to get that comply with the United States Postal Service guidelines um but existing buildings didn't have this requirement and on rented property you can't just put in a secure locking mailbox it's not your property so this says the landlord then must put in a secure locking mailbox we did make one Amendment to the proposed ordinance which was an adding an effective date um if we pass it as written it would just everyone immediately would basically be out of compliance instead residential rental properties have a have to register every January 1st so we just made that the effective date by January 1st you should have one of these in place uh we then made a motion to refer this to Committee of the whole to come forward to the entire committee council member Anderson for example is not here today um my expectation is that we'll vote on the amended ordinance at that time uh so the motion uh simply as it'll come back

at our next meeting presumably our next meeting if the the schedule allows um for fin disposition that's the end of the committee report thank you chair uh that takes us to Committee of the whole and we had two items for uh for the committee the whole the first was a a financial update through May of 2024 was a presentation given by the uh Finance director Andy asbenson um the mayor touched on a couple of the items dur in a report and I don't have too much to add other than I I would definitely watch the video it was very a very well done presentation uh and there's also the report on the website and that's if you just go to cob.org and search for uh Finance reports it comes up and so that it's very thorough and well done the other item that we had before us this afternoon was a resolution honoring Darlene Peterson for her service to the city of Bellingham Darlene was the court director for Bellingham municipal court for over 10 years and is retiring this year after 33e career in the criminal justice system I worked with Darlene when I first started about 10 years ago and she's really brought a lot um to uh to Bellingham and so we we had a resolution honoring her uh City attorney Mar Mariner we did vote on this this afternoon we didn't need to vote on it again tonight well technically you should vote on it because you can only take action but I know we fully executed the resolution uh this afternoon so I'll leave that to you okay well this afternoon we passed a resolution and

and um I move motion has been made by the uh by the council president and second by council member list any further discussion on this one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose extensions recusals motion carries six with one uh excused uh old and new any items okay we didn't have any this afternoon e either so okay we'll keep moving along then the next item we had was executive session we had two items the first was a potential property acquisition with Matt stamps one of our attorneys staff provided information on a potential Lake watom Watershed property acquisition totaling 74 Acres with one development unit uh I will now entertain a motion to authorize the mayor to close the real estate transaction described in the city's purchase and sale agreement with Scott and Eileen stroes with a purchase price of $90,000 and with closing to to occur on or around July 31st 2024 move approval move approval um move already did yeah the motion was um hutman second was um council member Williams any further discussion on that one seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed Obion recusals motion carries uh six with one excused last item that we had for executive was uh discussing bargaining strategy with Monahan staff provided information on a labor relations matter this was for information and discussion only and no action was taken consent agenda move approval second motion has been made by council member Williams and seconded by council member

Huffman any discussion on on consent agenda go ahead council member Stan so just one I just wanted to highlight um the first item so agenda 24188 it's titled as interlocal agreement with watcom County for alternative resp respon team but just highlighting that the receipt of an additional $60,000 Grant from Association of Washington cities um will be going to support that work of the art um so the alternative Response Team programs work so thought that was worth highlighting thanks fair enough any other items for consent agenda seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose abstentions recusals motion carries six with one Excuse miss gu you got the motion R the second on that one right okay great okay um that takes us to public comment period and our staff has to change the technology a little bit if we could put the rules back or the guidelines back up on the on the wall that would be helpful