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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHEX Decision Appendix A -- 10.7 Radiance Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 1 of 11 Appendix A October 7, 2025, Hearing Transcript Radiance Learning Center CUP LUA25-000246 Note: This is a computer-generated transcript provided for informational purposes only. The reader should not take this document as 100% accurate or take offense at errors created by the limitations of the programming in transcribing speech. A recording of the hearing is available from the City should anyone need an accurate rendition of the hearing testimony. Examiner Olbrechts (00:00): Recorder going. Perfect. Good morning everybody. It is October 7th, 2025, 11:00 AM I'm Alre Hearing Examiner for the City of Renton and holding a hearing this morning on a conditional use permit application for daycare center, the Radiance Learning Center. This is project file number PR 25 dash 0 0 0 0 3 9. The hearing format is we'll have the staff lead on this. Mr. Morgan Roth. Give us an overview of the application Once he's finished, we'll move on to the applicants if they want to say anything and it's not required applicants, but if you want to say something, your chance will be after Mr. Morgan Roth is done with his side. After that, we'll move on to the purpose of today's hearing, which is to hear from the public. If indeed on this one we do have any members of the public attending. We'll have a chance to speak. I'll explain how you can get involved. (00:52): Once we get to that portion of the hearing, after we get to public comments, we go back to Mr. Morgan Roth will answer any questions the public had and present any rebuttal evidence he finds necessary. Then applicant gets final opportunity to present rebuttal evidence and closing comments. And I get 10 business days to issue a final decision. So not too complicated. Everyone gets a chance to talk today who wants to talk and that's pretty much the most important part of the hearing. I think now by state law, I'm only allowed to consider evidence that's put in the record. I'm not allowed to talk to staff or the applicant about the project or read about it, the paper or anything like that. Everything I know about this will be based on the exhibits put in the record today and the testimony provided. That way everybody knows what the decision will be based upon what facts it'll be based upon. (01:39): Mr. Morgan put together a detailed staff report that identifies how the review criteria, the criteria necessary for approval are met by the proposal. That typically involves a lot of extra work. And in this particular case we just have six exhibits. It's a pretty straightforward application composed of the staff report, a site plan, a utility plan. We had a little traffic analysis done. Then an assessment, I think project narrative called which as assesses criteria compliance, and then some advisory notes from various city staff about how the project needs to comply with city development standards. So does anyone need to see any of those documents or have any objection to their entry in the record? If you do, just click on the raised hand button at the bottom of your screen and not seeing any takers. I'll go ahead and admit the exhibits one through six, which includes the staff report. So with that, Mr. Morro, let me swear you in. You've been through this before. Just raise your right hand. Do you swear affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? I do. Okay, great. Go ahead Speaker 2 (02:44): Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 2 of 11 Mr. Albergs. Before we move to staff, we do want to enter exhibit seven, eight, and nine, which is the staff PowerPoint and the core maps link and the Google Earth link as well. Examiner Olbrechts (02:54): Okay. Any objections over those documents coming in the record? Okay, again, click on the raise hand button, not seeing or hearing any. So I'll go ahead and admit seven through nine as well. Okay, great. Alright Mr. Mor. Mr. Morganroth: (03:06): Alright, great. Thank you. Lemme share my screen just as enough YI know we do have one member of the public neighbor who has attended. Oh good. Get to that part here. Alright, let me get my screen shared here. Okay. Can you all see my PowerPoint okay? Examiner Olbrechts (03:27): Yes. Mr. Morganroth: (03:28): Awesome. All right, thank you. I'm Alex Morgan Roth, principal Planner here at the city of Renton. I'm going to be making a staff recommendation for the Radiance Learning Center project. This is a conditional use permit they've applied for as Mr. Examiner said, it's LUA 25 0 0 0 2 4 6. A little about the project site. It's got a map down in the bottom there. It's just on the south side of Northeast Sunset Boulevard at 35 0 7 Northeast Sunset Boulevard. It's about a 0.32 acre site's, about a third of an acre. It's in the residential eight zoning districts. The R eight zone designated residential medium density in our comprehensive plan currently has a building on it. It's an 1800 square foot one story building with some associated surface parking previously used as a medical office. So if you look at it from the street, it kind of looks like a single family house. (04:21): Probably was at some point was converted into office at some point in the past. They have vacated and now the applicant is requesting approval to operate a daycare center in there. It is currently accessed to via two driveways off of Northeast Sunset Boulevard and I'll get a little bit more into access here, but one of those driveways on the west side of the site is actually shared by the property owner to the south at 35 17 who has an easement across there. And then 1414 is a senior living apartments and they actually have a driveway into the back there that I believe is used more for UPS driver's delivery as opposed to residents. But I believe residents can also access back there. I could be wrong on that maybe just for moving and stuff, but there is kind of three different parcels. So 1414 the site we're talking about and then 35 17 that use the west access there. (05:14): No critical areas are mapped on the site. So again, they're requesting a conditional use permit, which requires a hearing examiner approval to operate a daycare center. According to the applicant, it'd be approximately 40 students and five staff student ages. Randy from six weeks to 12 years old. Work is fairly limited outside of the walls of the building. So no changes to the existing building footprint. They're doing some interior improvements obviously as previously used is a medical office, so doing some improvements to set it up for a daycare. There's some new fencing proposed and then an 1800 square foot playground area that a turf area, which I'll show you on the site plan next. So here's the site plan north at the top of the screen there you've got Sunset Boulevard, you've got the access going in Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 3 of 11 there, you've got this driveway going off to the senior living and then the continues as a gated drive access point to the neighbor to the south. There you can see the existing building. There's already an existing parking lot, they're proposing some res striping there. The hatch area here, that's the area proposed, which would be fenced but proposed for playground area in the front there. And then again some kind of minor other site improvements, striping fencing, and then a little bit of hardscape I think up here as well. (06:42): There's just some exterior shots back when it was a medical office. So you can see just kind of a wood framed one story house, I don't remember exactly. It was built probably in the fifties, maybe sixties based on how it looks. But yeah, pretty simple. 1800 square foot building. You can see this is when it's gated. This will obviously be ungated. This fencing here that you see, this is looking northeast here on the bottom kind of once you're actually on that little access drive there, you can see the neighbor's fence to the back there gate. So that's their property back there. They also use that. And then this photo, you can also see just a little bit of the driveway that's used for access for the senior living for deliveries and move-ins. They are proposing, just go back here quick a looped drive here essentially. (07:33): So people come in park or drop off, they come in the west entrance and then leave in the east entrance. I'll get a little more into a recommended condition of approval we have. We're kind of still evaluating this on what makes the most sense for a safety perspective. We do have pretty high speeds on Northeast sunset. The speed limit's 35 miles an hour, but sorry, I'm jumping around here. But if I jump back here to the, you can see it comes around to curve here and people cruises pretty fast going eastbound there. So that's just something to talk a little bit more about in a second. But just something to note. (08:12): So looking at zoning and land use, predominantly residential uses surrounding the site, it's in the Highlands planning area. The site itself is the R eight zoning district. You've got R eight then to the south and to the east, all single family across the street. And then to the west you've got R 10, so a little higher density. And then you said you got the senior living apartments there and then single family across the street. So yeah, I would say it is a mix of higher intensity residential uses. And then once you get closer, go further west down sunset, you get into some of the more commercial uses there. Daycare uses are permitted in the zone as previously discussed, but with an approved conditional use permit. So access just wanted to show, I thought it was a little clearer kind of showing this shared access here. (09:06): So you can see here's obviously the entrance, here's the, or what they're proposing is the entrance and the exit there and the 10, this would be in only and then out only you got the neighbor back there who also utilizes this who does have in and out privileges through the easement obviously through this right here. And then you've got this where deliveries are made. So you kind of got a lot going in this little area here. And we basically have a recommended condition of approval related to a traffic management plan. We want to work with the applicant and the property owner there a little bit more to kind of figure out what is the safest way in my discussions with the property owner that lives there. Just that was his main concern. I do believe he's here with us so he can chat a little bit more about that when you turn it over for public comment. (09:58): But I think, yeah, just some concerns with the speeds there, how are, we're going to make sure that when people are pulling in and out, it's going to be safe. So it is something we looked at, but I think it's Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 4 of 11 something that needs to be looked at a little bit more. I going to come in for their building permits, something we want to work with a few different parties on. So I do have a condition of approval related to that, but that was kind of the main concern just from a land use or traffic circulation perspective. (10:23): So again, just looking at the conditional use permit criteria, we look at consistency of the plans and regulations, appropriate location effect on adjacent properties, compatibility, parking, traffic, noise, light and glare and landscaping. The project complied with all of those as proposed complies with those criteria with a couple recommended conditions of approval just to make sure that it's meeting those criteria. So I am recommending approval of the Radiance Learning Center CUP subject to four conditions. I know, sorry, wall of text there, but I'll just kind of briefly go over each one. So the first one's related to tree credit, so just making sure that they're complying with our tree credit requirements. I know the trees, locations, there's no trees on there right now, but they do need to meet the tree credit requirements, which is 30 credits per net acre. So we'll just want to see a landscape plan submitted showing compliance with that with the building permit. (11:18): Same with the Rough East recycling. I know there was one there before and then it maybe went away when the building was vacant. We want to make sure there's compliance with that. So Republic services can come pick up. Also a little bit related to traffic circulation. We want to make sure that that truck can get in and out safely. So that's something else we'll be looking at with that. Traffic management plan, compliance with the bike parking space requirements, didn't see any bike parking on the site plan, understanding that's unlikely children that be biking by themselves to the school, but we want the availability for staff as well. So just showing that with the building permit. And then lastly, I think the most important one is requiring the applicant to submit a traffic circulation management plan for review and approval prior to issuance of a building permit. (12:00): So we're looking at circulation impacts on any other property owners utilizing the west driveway verification of easement rights, onsite maneuverability and that applies to both the truck, the garbage truck as well as obviously people dropping off their kids. And so this is a very similar language that I do. We've added to a number of other daycare, CS or schools because oftentimes they don't have that quite flesh out by when they're submitting for land use, but it is something we want to make sure we got something on file that they've thought about it and that especially something like this when you've got multiple property owners using the same driveway, make sure everyone's on the same page. And I do think, I know they're aware of that there's other uses using this driveway. So with that, happy to answer any questions. Examiner Olbrechts (12:47): That's pretty straightforward. So the play area is going to be in front of the home, is that correct? Mr. Morganroth: (12:53): That's correct. Examiner Olbrechts (12:56): And I take it it'll be fenced and all that kind of thing. I think there are state regulations that govern that. Right? Yeah, Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 5 of 11 Mr. Morganroth: (13:02): If they want to say anything about that, I'm not aware of all those requirements. I do know there is fencing proposed. Yep, yep. Examiner Olbrechts (13:08): Okay. Yeah, yeah, obviously having kids close to such a busy street, that's an important factor then so. Okay. Looks good. Alright, well let's move on to the applicants. Did anyone want to speak on behalf of the applicant today? Mr. Schuler: (13:23): Hi, this is Clover Schuler with CNS design and I was the applicant of looking. Lemme in Examiner Olbrechts (13:28): Real quick, just do you swear affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? Mr. Schuler: (13:33): Yes. Examiner Olbrechts (13:34): Okay, great. Alright. Mr. Schuler: (13:37): Yeah, so my name's Clover Schuler, CNS Design. I was the applicant working with the new owner of the building as well as the operator will be the operator of the daycare center, Samir, who's actually on the call as well or on the meeting. And yeah, just I guess first on the playground being upfront, yes there is DCYF state license rules that you need to have. Typically we do six foot fence, I believe their wax says four feet, but we would like to do a six foot fence around the exterior of the playground for the safety of the children as well as I know that there's going to be planning requirements so they kind of work together. So yes, there would be a safety for the children in the playground area. I think other than that we've been working on a little bit of a space plan and we would be less than 40 children is where we're looking at right now for the use of the building, just per ratios and square footage of classrooms that we're looking at. So I think the 40 children or less is an accurate representation of what we'd be looking at for this space. Examiner Olbrechts (14:47): And I don't know if you're the right person to ask, it's kind of a traffic question. So we're talking about up to 40 kids. I mean are they all dropped off usually about the same time as people are going to work in the morning? Does this mean we're going to have a line out onto Sunset Boulevard around the corner? Mr. Schuler: (15:04): No. Examiner Olbrechts (15:05): Oh, go ahead. Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 6 of 11 Mr. Schuler: (15:05): No, the client is willing to do a staggered start date and that's actually start times and that's very common practice where you can do staggered start times for the different classrooms. So we wouldn't be looking at all the children at once and that is a very common practice that I see with a lot of my clients in the traffic management and parking. There will be unloading zones in that parking area and we actually were able to get quite a few parking spots that would be able to supply for the staff as well as creating quite a bit of unloading loading spots for the parents, which would be limited to 15 minute type of drop off. Examiner Olbrechts (15:48): Oh right, right. Yeah. So is the staggered, is that in the conditions of approval or in the project proposal or just trying to find where that is? Mr. Schuler: (15:57): Honestly, I don't know if we've gotten that far into at this time when we were doing the conditional use working with our kind of traffic engineer, but it is something that we would be able to address and again with the approval before the building permit, it looks like Alex said that we would be submitting a traffic management plan with them before the building permit approval, but we are willing to look at a staggered and I know Samir's on the call, I'm not sure if he wants to talk to that more and he will be operating the daycare. Examiner Olbrechts (16:31): And I understand that one of the conditions of approval is going to essentially enable staff to continue to work on this and probably work out some kind of a staggering plan is they find that's necessary. And you said Samir, is that your traffic engineer or who's that? Mr. Schuler: (16:46): Samir's the owner. Examiner Olbrechts (16:48): Oh, the owner, okay. Okay. Mr Shala me swear you in if you want to say something, just raise your right hand. Do you swear affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? Speaker 5 (16:56): Yeah. Examiner Olbrechts (16:56): Okay. Alright, go ahead. Speaker 5 (16:59): Yeah, and we will be doing staggered start times as well as the dismissal times and that's how we have been operating in other locations as well Examiner Olbrechts (17:09): Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 7 of 11 And Speaker 5 (17:10): It works out good like orderly dismissal and things like that so it helps us also. Examiner Olbrechts (17:17): Okay, yeah, sounds good. Yeah, like I said, because a pretty high speed street or fronting and right after a corner, so yeah, we don't want to see lines of cars sticking out there. That could be kind of a problem. Okay, sounds good. Alright, well let's move on to public comments at this point then. And Mr. Morgan Roth had said we did have at least one member of the public if you want to say something, click on the virtual hand at the bottom of your screen it says raise hand. Okay, we got Mr. Hood. So Mr. Hood, just unmute yourself and okay, you know what you're doing there. So now your video's not on, that's not required. I just wanted you to know in case that wasn't your intent, but we don't need the video. Let's raise your right hand. Do you swear affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? Speaker 6 (18:01): I do. Examiner Olbrechts (18:02): Okay, great. Go ahead. Speaker 6 (18:05): Alright, well we're excited for the change of guards upfront. We have only just one or two concerns and it really does stem around traffic flow. We've been coming in and out of this driveway now for many a year and as time has moved on, the traffic count has come up quite a bit on sunset and as you know there's a lot more coming as soon as those people start moving in down the street from us in the new development. But that being said, what we struggle with already is getting out of the driveway when someone is trying to come into the driveway. When you have a person in the third or the middle lane wanting to take a left into the driveway and you got traffic coming around the corner at very high rates of speed and due to the angle of the road you can't actually turn into the first lane, the best you can do is to turn into the second lane to get out of the driveway if you're taking a right out of the driveway. (19:39): So what we're most concerned about is that we are going to have the ability to continue to use the driveway in a safe manner, as safe as possible and that has to do with volume. And so we are talking about volume a little earlier. It sounds like volume is something that's being considered, which is really important to us and the fact that the school would like to create a one way traffic flow from sunset through the back of the building and then back down the other driveway which is on their property. And of course we would not be honoring that one-way traffic flow. We would be coming in and out on the street as it is now. So these are the things that we'd like to just bring to the forefront as our concern. Other than that, everything else seems to be in good order. Examiner Olbrechts (20:52): Okay. And Mr. Hood, just to clarify, I mean I think it's pretty evident but you didn't directly say, so you are the property owner that adjoins this project to immediately to the south and you shared the driveway, is that correct? Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 8 of 11 Speaker 6 (21:05): Yes, 35 17. Examiner Olbrechts (21:07): Okay, got it. Great. Okay, thanks Mr. Hood. Alright, does anyone else want to say anything at this point? Anybody else out there? So back to Mr. Morro, you mentioned that the traffic flow is staff's going to continue to work on that. What kind of options are available to address that impact at this point? Mr. Morganroth: (21:28): Yeah, I mean options are everything from making it just basically having only one entrance instead of having the two right there. Examiner Olbrechts (21:38): What would you do with Mr. Hood then? Because he doesn't have an easement across Mr. Morganroth: (21:42): Well, so it would only be the entrance that he currently uses. So we'd keep that one because the other one is it doesn't look, it's been heavily as heavily used. You look on street view, the one on the east one one that he doesn't use has been, I don't think they used to use it really. I don't think it was easily, it's skinnier, smaller, kind of the main one is the east one. The good thing about the main one being the east one is that there's definitely is room for two-way traffic. So that's what we're trying to figure out is it makes sense for in part of it's a behavioral thing, right? You can tell we've dealt with this before with schools. I think we've all dealt with dropping kids off at schools and people don't like to listen to the signage and the things that tell 'em not to park it a certain way or go. (22:24): So some of it's can we make sure that people, that the daycare users do use it the one way as they're supposed to while still allowing Mr. Hood to exit his use that driveway and exit onto Sunset. Something that's this small compared to some other daycare centers we've seen sounds like significantly less 30 to 40 students somewhere in there. Staggered start times. I don't think it's ever going to look like an elementary school in the morning with a line of cars. It's just not going to be enough people at one time. Maybe you get five kids every half an hour, it's not going to look that busy. I don't think so I don't think it's going to be like that, but that is kind of why we want to talk to Mr. Hood more and see and the applicant and kind of figure out what is the best solution for everyone. (23:09): And that's something we weren't able to quite do before coming here. That's why we have the condition of approval. I mean the applicant still has to get building permits, so it is definitely something that is the highest priority before they actually are applying for building permits to get figured out. But that was a couple ways closing it off or again, just having pavement markings and stuff that really make it and some of it's on the applicant to make sure that the parents are following the rules. Some of it it's enforcement, right. Unfortunately the speeds on sunset, that's just a faster road. The speed limit's 35 people go 50 50 or more. There's not a lot the applicant can do about that, but it's certainly something that we'll be taking into consideration. We got to figure out what is the best way to make sure. Yeah, Mr. Hood can continue to use the driveway, how he's used it historically. Examiner Olbrechts (24:02): Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 9 of 11 Yeah. Yeah, I mean and I take it then that the public works will consider queuing impacts potential. You said that's probably not going to be a problem, but I mean still if we're talking 40, if they didn't do staggering and everyone's coming in between eight and nine o'clock in the morning or something, it could be an issue. There isn't much room for the cars to line on the property. Mr. Morganroth: (24:23): Yeah, sorry to interrupt. I think certainly that's something we'd look for with the traffic management plan is the staggering. That's how we would make sure they're doing that because making sure they're complying with that something else could be. So I know Mr was talking about the ability to turn right from that east, sorry, the west entrance onto sunset. It is a very tight turn radius. So that's an option two is having the applicant widen that out a bit so it's not just like a sharp corner you have to turn. Yeah. Right now if you have to go into the left lane, you're essentially, you have to make sure this car is not coming in each one. So that's another option I think we'd look at too is just some sort of slight modification of that driveway maybe widening out a bit. But I'm really confident we'll get there. I wouldn't have taken it this far without thinking that we will find a solution. In talking to Mr. Hood, I know he's been very great to work with and had some ideas on stuff, so I have no doubt we'll get there. That's why put it as a condition of approval and we will work with both the applicant and Mr. Hood to make sure we got something that works for everyone. Examiner Olbrechts (25:22): Okay, sounds great. Mr. Hood had his hand raised. I don't know if that's left over from last time or Mr. Hood, was there something else you wanted to say? Speaker 6 (25:31): No, that is intended. Okay. Alright. Just real quick, my wife wanted me to ask the question, has there been any communication specifically with the management at the home at the senior citizen home? Mr. Morganroth: (25:48): So they received a copy of the notice like you, but they did not submit any public comments? There's not any formal communication with them, but that is another party certainly that we probably try to reach out to since they, again, I know you said Mr. Her that they do use it, right? Mainly for deliveries and move-in, is that correct? Speaker 6 (26:11): It's interesting, it's a catchall for them and the traffic that they have coming and going. Many of times the trucks are so large that they're not even able to drive up their driveway. So you know what they do? They park underneath the big evergreen trees right on the driveway. Mr. Morganroth: (26:35): Right in the driveway there. Interesting, okay. Okay. And that also comes down to an enforcement thing. I don't know what their easement say that that would be hopefully something that the property owner could enforce and that's something we have to look a little closer at what their easement is and allows for, because certainly don't want big trucks backing up into sunset or whatever or try to go around the loop Speaker 6 (26:58): Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 10 of 11 There. Yeah. Alright, that just wanted to bring that up. Mr. Morganroth: (27:02): I appreciate Examiner Olbrechts (27:03): That. Alright, and back to Ms. Chu, our final word. Mr. Schuler: (27:10): Sorry about that. My screen went crazy. So I was looking at our space plan, just let you guys know, we're in the low thirties, right? For children. Mr. Morganroth: (27:23): Oh, you're cutting out a little bit. Your audio coming in very Mr. Schuler: (27:27): Well. Sorry. You Mr. Morganroth: (27:28): Want to try turning your video off? Maybe going Mr. Schuler: (27:31): Slow? Am I back? Yeah, Mr. Morganroth: (27:36): There we go. Yeah, that sounds better. Yeah, Mr. Schuler: (27:39): My back. You're good. Okay. Sorry. No, it's my wonderful internet. Mr. Morganroth: (27:42): All Mr. Schuler: (27:43): Good. It's my internet. Wonderful technology. So I think right now looking at our space plan, we were in the low thirties for a number of headcounts, so it's even better. So we would not be hitting 40 by any means. We're maxing out probably in the low, I think it was around 32, 33. So I mean every child matters and every count. I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. And I mean, I will say to Mr. Hood's point about the senior community parking. I know that the building's been vacant for quite a while, but when I've at least come over to that building to meet with Samir or to do some work over there, they were utilizing the parking of that building for a lot of their vendors and staff as well. So of course that would now be going away. So I think that maybe they were trying to, taking advantage of a vacant building and using that parking, but that for sure is going to have to be something that the senior community gets back to. What are they really allowed to do and not do. Appendix A -- 10 (Completed 10/20/25) Transcript by Rev.com Page 11 of 11 Examiner Olbrechts (28:48): Makes sense. Okay, thanks Ms. Schuler. Alright. Like I said, pretty straightforward. We've got the traffic issue and really appreciate that the city's making a strong effort to work with Mr. Hood and Mr. Hood is being pretty civil and cooperative and so it looks like you guys should be able to work out a good solution on that issue. Of course, the most important thing is to be safe out there and take care of some good efficient turning movements. So it looks pretty good overall. I should be able to do that approval probably adopting the city's recommended condition for the traffic issue. So anyway, thanks all for participating. We're adjourned for today. Have a great rest of the day. Mr. Morganroth: (29:27): Thank you.