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2015, 02-09 Special Joint Meeting w/County Commissioners MINUTES Special Joint Meeting Spokane County Board of County Commissioners Spokane Valley City Council Monday,February 9,2015 9:00 a.m.—11:30 a.m. Spokane Valley Council Chambers 11707 E. Sprague Avenue Attendance: City of Spokane Valley Spokane County Dean Grafos,Mayor Todd Mielke, Chair Arne Woodard, Deputy Mayor Shelly O'Quinn, Vice-Chair Chuck Hafner, Councilmember Al French, Commissioner(arrived 9:26 a.m.; left Ed Pace, Councilmember at approximately 10:45 a.m.) Ben Wick, Councilmember Spokane County Staff ABSENT: John Peterson, County Planning Director Bill Bates, Councilmember Doug Chase, Parks &Recreation Director Rod Higgins, Councilmember Kevin Cooke, Utilities Director Spokane Valley Staff: Mike Jackson, City Manager Others in Attendance Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Jim Murphy, Sports Commission Eric Guth, Public Works Director Eric Sawyer, Sports Commission Mike Stone, Parks & Recreation Director Tom Towey John Hohman, Community Development Director Carolbelle Branch, Public Information Officer Gabe Gallinger, Senior Development Engineer Rick VanLeuven, Police Chief Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk Mayor Grafos called the meeting to order at 9:09 a.m., followed by self-introductions from Spokane Valley Council, and Spokane County Board of County Commissioners. It was then moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to excuse Councilmembers Bill Bates and Rod Higgins. On behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, Commission Chair Mielke also called the meeting to order. Mayor Grafos welcomed everyone to the meeting and said this is an opportunity for informal discussion. 1. County Potential Ballot Measures Commissioner Mielke explained that the focus of the ballot out now is mostly schools;the next ballot will contain the Juvenile Justice Proposal of 1/1011' of 1% sales tax, which has been approved about four times now, and which measure has seen an increased margin of success each time, usually 65% approval or higher. Mr. Mielke said that the juvenile justice 1/10°i of 1% tax should not be confused with any discussion to replace the jail or community corrections. Mayor Grafos asked about the sportsplex. Mr. Mielke said the County has not done major improvements to the park system for twenty-seven years; and prior to that did some subarea votes like the Valley or South Hill, with mixed results; the last county- wide park system improvement proposal twenty-seven years ago passed with an approximate 69% margin, and he asked staff to look at that, which prompted the City of Spokane's efforts to push hard for Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 1 of 6 Approved by Council: 03-24-2015 their pool update, and then last fall, there was the Riverfront Park update; he said parks are a popular item; said many families use Plantes Ferry Park, and they have continuously had requests for other sports complexes, so staff was asked to look at what that might look like. Mr. Mielke said if the issue went to the voters, the question would be what are the highest prioritized projects to pursue; and at the same time, the Sports Commission has continually voiced the demand for an indoor sports facility to bring sports to the region. Mr. Mielke said that is not to say there is an exclusive demand for an indoor facility, but there is a demand for both in and outdoor; and said the other option of an outdoor venue in Spokane Valley is being discussed; he said these are early discussions and everyone involved is still trying to determine the land options, along with the question of who would bear the operational cost, and would such an event center cover all its costs; he said he is still waiting for the completed business plan. There has been some discussion at the PFD (Public Facilities District), Mr. Mielke explained, about the idea of pursuing this jointly with others; or if the PFD would underwrite any shortfalls, how would that be accomplished. Mr. Mielke said they continue to wait for a detailed presentation of the proposal. Commissioner O'Quinn said there is no ballot date for the renewal of the 1/10" of 1% as research continues; and it probably will not occur until 2017. Councilmember Pace suggested all the sales tax increases coming up on the ballot could lead to taxpayer shock; mentioned his concern about re-mapping the flood plain and the effects on property owners to make sure no one's property rights are hurt; and he asked the Commissioners and the Sports Commission to reconsider the location of an indoor sportsplex as he feels Spokane Valley is an ideal place. Commissioner Mielke mentioned some of the upcoming ballot measures, such as school bonds or levies, fire bond, renewal of the juvenile justice measure; the anticipated Spokane County Library District; perhaps a County Parks ballot measure in the fall; and maybe an effort for a vote for a port district; said that 2017 will likely include discussion on emergency communications and where do we go and how to maintain an ongoing program; at some future point facilities repairs will need to be addressed, maybe combined with criminal justice on a community correction center, together with the idea of the Geiger Building, which he said is a building that won't stand a lot longer without a lot of cash; said there is a need to consider investment in upgrading, or doing something else. Concerning the Saltese Flats and the floodplain and mapping, Mr. Mielke said we need to make sure we allow science to dictate what the end point would be, but it all still comes back to what is the evaluation of someone's property; he said the hope is the right questions are asked and there is due diligence as the property risks are important. [9:26 a.m. Commissioner French arrived.] Regarding the field house or sportsplex, Mr. Mielke explained that the business plan is not yet complete and it has not been determined who will oversee the operation, although the PFD (Public Facilities District) has expressed an interest; and he said they are prepared to take on that operating loss; said the PFD also likes the idea of being able to walk from one facility, like the arena, to the other, like the field house; he added that the PFD indicated that if they feel their board members can't get any leverage, then they are not interested in overseeing the operations, which Mr. Mielke explained, means someone else would have to do that; said if an entity in Spokane Valley would be interested,perhaps the hotel room rates could be increased to help those costs.Mayor Grafos expressed concern about Spokane Valley being left out of the research and out of the discussions; said we would like to participate especially since our citizens will be asked to pay for it; adding that he does not feel it should be located downtown. Commissioner Mielke said the Board of County Commissioners has not been the driving effort in this project. The discussion about the field house or sportsplex continued including Council comments about the need for research, study, and working together, and not wanting to make a commitment until the demand is known. Councilmember Hafner said the perception is that the City of Spokane, the Sports Commission and others have already made a decision and Spokane Valley was not included in those discussions. Commissioner O'Quinn said she urged Eric Sawyer to make sure Spokane Valley is included in discussions, and that she asked Mr. Sawyer to consider the Valley as a location. Councilmember Pace said that Spokane Valley does not have a representative on the PFD and that should be rectified. Deputy Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 2 of 6 Approved by Council: 03-24-2015 Mayor Woodard noted that about one quarter of the county population is within the Spokane Valley City limits; he agreed with the need to make sure about the facility and its location. Commissioner O'Quinn said she is willing to work with Eric Sawyer and whichever Councilmembers would like to be included in that conversation. Mayor Grafos added that another consideration is that there is no "free land" downtown as the PFD would lease that back from the City of Spokane; suggested it might be more feasible to buy property in the Valley and have no debt service; said those are some of the issues he would like to discuss with all involved. Mayor Grafos also said that Mr. Sawyer had indicated they had discounted the valley as a location. Commissioner Mielke suggested a joint meeting might be prudent to examine ballot proposals; look at regional facilities and how they serve the entire county; said he is not aware of the quantity of land in the Valley, or other cities such as Cheney, and that he is trying to balance the investments across the community. Councilmember Pace suggested purchasing land in Spokane Valley might be a better investment than leasing downtown; that Spokane Valley has great roads and plentiful free parking; and that the train track issue will be mitigated in the one area of concern; said trains haven't stopped people from getting to Valleyfest every year; and said this issue can't go anywhere unless an elected official from Spokane Valley becomes a representative on the PFD Board. Commissioner Mielke said the PFD operates under state statutes; that it has a defined objective and is not about geographical representative; said the members who are appointed are based on business expertise of running an enterprise and not on where they reside. 2. Marijuana—Regulations/Issues Mayor Grafos explained that we have a moratorium on marijuana uses other than those already licensed by the State liquor Control Board; that we are waiting for the State to come to some decision about medical and recreational marijuana. Councilmember Hafner suggested the need to work together with the County and other municipaliteis to find common ground on this topic. There was also brief discussion about buffer zones and moratoriums; and about what changes might take place concerning criminal infractions. 3.New City Hall/University Center Mayor Grafos said that the City has purchased property at University City for a future city hall; and that he anticipates the project will move quickly; and that it is an exciting project. Mayor Grafos added that most of the old mall at University City would also be taken down,which will enhance the area as well. 4. Sewer Extensions—Sullivan to Flora,Barker The industrial areas shown on the map as proposed for sewer hookups were briefly discussed and it was mentioned that this is an issue where the City and County can likely work together. S. Legislative Agenda—Spokane Valley and Spokane County Mayor Grafos explained the Recouping Code Enforcement Costs/Lien proposed legislation, and said we are trying to get the state to agree that we can recoup some of the property cleanup costs. Deputy Mayor Woodard mentioned that Councilmember Higgins and City Attorney Driskell are in Olympia today testifying before the senate regarding this lien authority proposal,that counties have the right to have first position lien authority but cities do not. Commissioner Mielke stated that they are experiencing some similar challenges and frustrations in dealing with nuisance property. The possible $5,000 cap wa mentioned but it was noted that several legislators have refused that suggestion and that the community banks oppose the legislation. 4. Back to Sewer extensions Staff distributed copies of the information for sewer extensions in the industrial areas, and discussion included mention of the County planning to run a sewer line in 2015 to TschirIey; with Mayor Grafos asking about the possibility of that line being extended. Spokane County Utilities Director Cooke said that originally they planned to serve this area east of the Spokane Industrial park to the pump station; that Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 3 of 6 Approved by Council: 03-24-2015 as a result of a recent study, they realize they can get there just by extending the gravity line to Euclid; they mentioned exceptions from that point and possible extensions through developer or late corner agreements; said it has been in their six-year plan to get sewer to this area and up until about six months ago, were planning on building a pump station at approximately the termination point shown on the red line in the map; but now it appears that would be very expensive; said part of the problem with a pump station with no flow is it becomes an operational problem; said they will have to do some additional cleaning because it will be some time before they have enough flow from that area to flush out that line. Mayor Grafos said he would like to see if the County could extend the line up to Tschirley to the north end of the proposed gravel pit as that would be an economic benefit to the County and to the City; said if that were done, we could upgrade the road and he mtneiond the idea of possibly working together; said there are about 144 acres of industrial ground that could be developed. Commissioner O'Quinn said the Commissioners are obviously not going to make any decisions today, but will consider all these issues for future discussions. Mayor Grafos suggested the Commissioners also examine the gravel pit and sewer utilities; and asked if there would be a potential to move the gravel pit for possible better location, which would open the area for more development. Commissioner Mielke said the County already owns the area, and that re-locating a gravel pit is not an easy thing and they would need to find an alternate location first; said they own the property but not the mining rights and again stated that it is challenging to try to find locations for gravel pits. Councilmember Hafner asked how imperative is the gravel pit and when did the use of the pit start. Commissioner Mielke replied that they have already executed agreements with Central Pre-Mix to leave the site on Sullivan, and that they are already slated to leave there in a couple years; said they just came to the Board to renovate the old SCRAPS building for their purposes and said that move is imminent; also noted that the engineering and road departments were looking to move to that site within eighteen months, and to clarify, he said the County is moving, not Central Pre-Mix. In response to a question about other gravel pits, Commissioner Mielke said that there are some scattered about, but some don't have enough acreage to house maintenance crews. There was brief discussion about the City's plan to resurface Euclid, which would be a fill and overlay rather than a complete "tearing up" of the entire road. Mr. Guth said it would be prudent to look at what utilities could make that area more viable, and Mr. Cooke said he would be happy to work with the City to put in a late-comer's agreement. Concerning the anticipated future needs due to expansion, water was also discussed as some of the water districts are getting close to their limit of water rights. Commissioner Mielke stressed the need to continue to have state policy changed, as the original calculation of what was needed for one residential unit, is vastly different today from what it was twenty years ago using old formulas. 6.Rail Transport Issues—(Oil, Coal) Discussion included the number of trains coming through Spokane Valley and that they end up separating half of the city; of the need for support in pushing the issue of train safety on our side of the state and not just the west side; the idea of pressuring the railroads to combine the lines as a way to work together on Bridging the Valley; the realization that the railroads are protective of their lines and generally not interested in joining with others; that sometimes it seems as if the railroads are a sovereign nation and no matter how much discussion or pressure, they can still just tell people 'no'that they are not changing. The Barker Road overpass/underpass was also mentioned and of the estimated $30 million cost to do that project. Councilmember Wick said that the state did their own ecology study on the topic of trains and transport safety, and that Spokane Valley was left out of the entire study. [Commissioner French left about 10:45 a.m.] Councilmember Wick said there is a need to find some sort of funding source for the grade separations; that it is a big issue but it is not getting a lot of conversation. Commissioner Mielke said he feels we won't get far without working jointly with the railroad; but when we focus on oil and coal the railroads tend to get defensive; perhaps a better angle would be to discuss volume of train traffic and that delays for them represents an economic impact; that we do not want to disrupt communities and at the same time, don't want to do anything to hamper their ability to increase their volumes. Deputy Mayor Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 4 of 6 Approved by Council: 03-24-2015 Woodard said that a large issue for property values is also trains blowing their horns and that properties are devalued as the trains use their super horns; stressing that is a critical aspect to getting those crossings separated. 7. Status of the UGA(Urban Growth Area) 2014 Expansion Spokane County Planning Director Peterson said the UGA is presently under appeal and working its way through the courts and hearings board, which had invalidated the County's previous UGA update; said there were a number of land use applications that were vested before the appeal was filed, and some of the areas were near or adjacent to Spokane Valley; the Morningside subdivision connection was vested, and a short plat was vested for the Central Valley high School site; said that until the appeal is resolved, no further vesting can be declared; and that of course they would like it resolved as soon as possible. Mr. Peterson said they are seeing some good progress with the appellants, and once accomplished, then the County and the jurisdictions can look at the 2017 update of the UGA boundary; said there is no requirement to expand, but this is an opportunity to look if there is a need to do so. Commissioner Mielke said the County only adopted one plan since the Road Management Act passed, that it was updated in 2001, and they are now looking to see if they missed anything; said they had to go back and check some assumptions about urbanized areas and what is anticipated in the next twenty years. Mr. Mielke said they have about twenty-one different study areas and they feel many of them are already urban in nature, and he mentioned some of the areas previously missed, such as Monte Del Ray, and the Humane Society Property around Havana, which is half in and half out of the UGA, and half Light Industrial and half Low Family Residential. Mr. Mielke said the Mead, Mt Spokane area is the largest area and there are some mobile home parks on one side and several housing developments on the other side, but the houses weren't hooked to sewer. Mr. Mielke also noted there is a hearing tomorrow night to change the low density in the Glenrose area, and that the company FutureWise doesn't think that is appropriate and will sue; said the County can always appeal but hearings boards always rule against Spokane County; and he said that some of these issues stay in the appeals court process for years. 8. Spokane Valley Parks Master Plan and Vision The "recommended capital projects" list was discussed briefly with mention of such projects as the development of Balfour Park where the new library is planned; development and replacement of some facilities in Browns Park, such as the bathroom and picnic shelter, as well as the sand volleyball courts; property acquisition with a yet undetermined area; and mention that the projects are contingent upon funding. Mr. Jackson mentioned that it could be six to ten years before some of these projects are actually accomplished as they are part of a long range plan. The development of a dog park was also briefly mentioned and Commissioner O'Quinn said they have a proposal for a dog park at Dishman Hills but have no funds for that yet; but she is aware of some citizens in the community willing to help with funding. 9. County/City Mutual Support Concerning the Justice Commission, Councilmember Pace said that Commissioner Mielke previously told him that the state mandates the size and composition of this Commission, but actually the state statues indicate the composition and size of that board are determined by the Board of County Commissioners; and he asked why Spokane Valley is not treated as an independent entity like the City of Spokane, and then have the smaller cities have their own representation. Commissioner Mielke went over the structure of the commission, which includes a variety of representatives, such as Chief VanLeuven who is also co-chair of a subcommittee; adding that Chief VanLeuven found that other city police chiefs were fine with him serving; and said that Mr. Jackson took a similar initiative about contacting other cities to get input about Spokane Valley representing those entities. Mr. Mielke said the City of Spokane is the only jurisdiction specified in the interlocal because the focus is on felonies, which is what the prosecutors spends most of their time on as 70% are inside the Spokane City limits; said the number of Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 5 of 6 Approved by Council: 03-24-2015 commission members is limited by state statute and they don't want a large commission; said that he and Commissioner O'Quinn's roll in this is to serve as facilitators. There was some further discussion about only having elected officials versus having others, such as city managers or attorneys, on the commission. Commissioner O'Quinn said that the Council's voice at that table is important and she encouraged councilmembers and staff to join a sub-committee. There was also some brief discussion about the status of the Bigelow Gulch project There being no further business it was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. Commissioner Mielke also adjourned the Board of County Commissioners. The meeting adjourned at 11:35 a.m. G-� A ES n Grafos,Mayor Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Joint Spokane Valley/Spokane County Meeting Minutes 02-09-2015 Page 6 of 6 Approved by Council:03-24-2015