HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-22-2021 - Bread of Life - Appendix A - Transcript
Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21)
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Appendix A
September 21, 2021 Hearing Transcript
Bread of Life Conditional Use -- LUA21-000299, CU-H
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 at the City’s hearing examiner
website should anyone need an accurate rendition of the hearing testimony.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Good morning. Okay. Is the recording going, Jenny?
Jenny:
Give me just a second. I've not started it yet-
Mr. Olbrechts:
Yeah, let's get on the record.
Jenny:
...let's go ahead and I will share the screen so those folks that are joining us can also look at them.
Speaker 3:
Recording in progress.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Perfect. All right. For the record, it's September 21, 2021 11 o'clock AM. I'm Phil Olbrechts,
Hearing Examiner for the City of Renton. We are considering a conditional use permit application in this
morning's public hearing. The Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church is the applicant, file number is
LUA21-000299. The format for today's hearing is we'll start off with a presentation from staff and Mr.
Close, are you the lead on this one?
Mr. Close:
I am.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Great. Mr. Close will tell us what the application is about. Once he's done, then we'll give the
chance for the applicant to make a pitch for approval and when they're done with their testimony, we'll
then move on to public comment. And we'll be sure to explain how you can participate as a member of
the public to make sure your comments are heard and recorded by us. I see Ms. Cisneros has put up
some instructions on how to participate. Ms. Cisneros, did you want to go over that at this point?
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Ms. Cisneros:
Yes. As your entering, please rename yourself as either applicant or public. And if you are public, there
will be a time for commenting as the hearing officer mentioned. So down here at the bottom there's a
raise hand feature, which is on the participant's sidebar and so when the hearing officer prompts you to
comment, then you raise that hand. If you'd like to be notified of the decision, please either email me or
state your email when commenting.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. And Ms. Cisneros, do you have a phone number and email address for people in case they're
having trouble connecting today?
Ms. Cisneros:
I do over here on this page.
Mr. Olbrechts:
There we go. Okay. If you're a member of the public and for some reason you just can't, due to technical
problems, can't get your comments heard, then go ahead and send them to Ms. Cisneros there at her
email address. Also, you can give her a call, let her know you're having trouble getting into the hearing
and we'll figure it out a way to get your comments into the record. And as Ms. Cisneros says, I'll be
announcing when it's the public's turn to speak, it'll be after the applicant is done with their
presentation. Then once we're done with the public comments, we'll go back to staff to answer any
questions that were raised by the public and also to provide rebuttal evidence.
Mr. Olbrechts:
And then finally the applicant gets final word and a chance to submit final rebuttal evidence. I issue a
final decision then within 10 business days. As Ms. Cisneros said, if you want to get a copy of that
decision, she can email it to you if you send her your email address or mail it if you don't have email. The
final decision that I issue is appealable the Superior Court then within 21 days.
Mr. Olbrechts:
So with that, let's move on to Mr. Close. Mr. Close, let me swear in first of all. Just raise your right hand.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in this proceeding?
Mr. Close:
I do.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Let's deal with the exhibits here real quick. By state law I'm only allowed to consider evidence
that's put into the record today. That way everyone knows exactly what information is being considered
for the final decision. And I'm going to share my screen here. Oh, let's see. Oh, okay. Ms. Cisneros' put
up her exhibit list. Okay. We'll use hers, that's fine. As you can see there, she has 20, let's see, is that the
whole list? Let me just make sure. Yeah. Okay. There are actually 25 exhibits in total. They include the
staff report to the hearing examiner, site utility plans, project narrative, the parking leases, the shuttle
plan, a traffic assessment, all your public comments and a transportation concurrency memo. If you're a
member of the public and you do not see your email listed in there, let us know and then we'll be sure
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to get that in. But at this point, I just want to see if there are any objections to entry of these documents
into the record. I've already read them myself. That's Exhibits 1 though 25. If you're a member pf the
public, just hit your virtual hand there or say, "I object," if you're not muted. And so are any objections
out there? Okay. I'm not seeing any hold on here.
Mr. Olbrechts:
No raised hands. So I'll go ahead and admit Exhibits 1 through 25. And Mr. Close, I take it that you want
to get in the staff PowerPoint. Is that correct?
Mr. Close:
I do.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. We'll make that Exhibit 26 and then the City of Renton COR maps, is that another one you want to
get in?
Mr. Close:
Yes.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. We'll make that Exhibit 27 and then finally Google Earth aerial photos, did you want to get that in?
Mr. Close:
I do.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. We'll make that Exhibit 28. So any objections over what I've marked as Exhibits 26 through 28?
Again, you can raise your virtual hand if you have some reason they shouldn't be admitted? Don't see
any, so I'll go ahead and admit Exhibits 26 through 28 as well. All right, Mr. Close, go ahead.
Mr. Close:
Okay. Just pulled the PowerPoint presentation here.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh yeah.
Mr. Close:
Okay. Can everybody see my screen?
Mr. Olbrechts:
Yes.
Mr. Close:
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[inaudible 00:05:44] Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Examiner. Clark Close, Senior Planner with the current
Planning Division here at the City of Renton. This is for, as you mentioned, the Seattle Bread of Life
Christian Church, conditional use permit. The applicant, Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church, is
recommending, as I mentioned, a conditional use permit to operate a religious institution in the R-10
Zoning District. The application was accepted for review on August 12 and determined complete on
August 16. It sounds like some folks are still joining us here, but this project complies with 120 day
review period. Staff, as you saw in the exhibits, did receive some public comment on this application,
five to be exact. And the comments were regarding the posting of the public information sign, the public
comment period duration, some parking for services, the shuttle service that's being proposed. There's
some comments related to traffic and comments related to government regulation on the free practice
of religion. And as you mention, those public comments are in the staff report and can be found through
Exhibit 14 through 23, which also includes, as I mention, staff response. No agency comments were
received for this application.
Mr. Close:
So taking a look at the site, we're located at 3005 and 3009 Park Avenue North. The current buildings
that are located on site are unoccupied, and there's also a vacant lot that sits just behind these two
buildings. The church building was built in 1946 and the residence was built in 1961. So you've seen
some activity for this type of use at this location for maybe, on and off, for 75 years. Together these two
parcels roughly are 0.36 acres in size. As I mentioned, they're Zoned R-10 and has a comprehensive
planned land use designation of residential high density.
Mr. Close:
There are a few critical areas on site, namely regulated slopes, and then you also have the Wellhead
Protection Area Zone 2. Access to the site is provided from Park Avenue North. You have a curb cut
there as well as a pedestrian walkway that ties into Park Avenue North as well. There are three onsite
parking stalls that lead up to the residence and the applicant is not proposing any new construction as
part of this conditional use permit.
Mr. Close:
So, as I mentioned, the proposed use is a religious institution. They're also looking at utilizing that
residence as a parsonage office and then also preschool. The existing church or building is 3,256 square
feet and then there's, as I mentioned, the residents is 1,474 square feet. It also has a full basement,
roughly the same size. And so the applicant is proposing to use the existing church. That's the church
building out there on the parsonage. They're estimating roughly 50 attendees on Sunday morning and
roughly 30 attendees on weekday evenings. That would be Wednesdays from roughly 6:00 to 9:00 PM.
The church has estimated generate 120 vehicle trips on Sunday 53 being those during the Sunday
morning peak hours. And then on weekdays, the church is estimating to generate 44 vehicle trips per
day on Wednesdays and that would include three trips during the PM peak hour, which is from 4:00 to
6:00 PM. And 16 vehicle trips during the church's peak hour, after 6:00 PM.
Mr. Close:
Religious institutions, regardless of zoning, require conditional use permits. The preschool or daycare
center when accessory to a public community facility such as a religious institution is considered
permitted use. If the preschool or daycare center were standalone, they would also require a hearing
examiner conditional use permit. No changes, As I mentioned, to the existing building, that would
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require compliance with the R-10 Development Standards and they are proposing to utilize the former
Kennydale United Methodist Church parking lot, which is adjacent or the opposite corner.
Mr. Close:
So that would be the Southeast corner of the intersection of Park and North 30th. It's also currently
leased to King County Metro as a Park & Ride lot, so it has dual purpose there for the parking. It was also
formally the church parking for the Kennydale United Methodist Church before they relocated. And in
addition to the Park & Ride lot, they are also looking at parking at McKnight Middle School via an
existing accessory parking lot, located at 1200 Edmonds Avenue Northeast and this would be an offsite
parking for them. And just shown there in the image is the adjacent parking lot at the main intersection
[inaudible 00:11:40] corner to, to the proposed religious institution.
Mr. Close:
So just a little bit deeper in the code, under RMC 4-4-100, it's based on the number of seats in the main
auditorium. It's estimated that there would be 99 available seats in the main auditorium, which would
require [inaudible 00:12:02] it's use for the religious institution, 19.8 parking spaces. And then daycare
centers require one parking space for each employee and two parking spaces for drop off within 100
feet of the main entrance for every 125 clients for the program. So the applicant hasn't provided enough
project specific information about the daycare per se, with regards to employees, clients, hours of
operation, with the submitted conditional use permit. And so staff has a recommendation at the final
here, that we'll get into a little bit later.
Mr. Close:
And let's see. A little bit more about these two onsite parking areas. The adjacent 1.33 acre former
church parking lot, the current Park & Ride lot owned by the Kennydale United Methodist Church has 76
gravel parking stalls available. And there's, like I said, multiple uses for the parking and the times in
which they would be used would be offset. So the Park & Ride is typically parking during the day, during
the weekdays. Here you would have parking for church services after the PM peak hours, as well as over
the weekends, on Sunday, specifically. And then at McKnight Middle School, their designated area will
be 41 standard surface parking spaces located Southwest of the actual school.
Mr. Close:
So the project is compliant with the conditional use permit criteria. It is not anticipated that the
proposed use and accessory uses would have any negative impacts on the surrounding uses. Feel that it
is an appropriate location, as I mentioned, that you've had buildings there for this type of use for many
years off and on. And then some of the effects on the adjacent property can be mitigated with offsite
parking. It is also compatible with the surrounding use. Parking, we mentioned. Traffic, the applicant is
proposing to shuttle folks from McKnight Middle School to the... Like I mentioned, there are some
parking spaces on site that the van or the shuttle service would be able to pull into. Then no proposed
construction, so noise, light and glare will be minimized and no changes to the landscaping are
proposed. And this conditional use would be subject to the conditions of approval and so staff is
recommending approval of the Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church, as depicted in the site plan and
utility plans, which can be found under Exhibit 2, subject to seven conditions of approval. And rather
than read those, I think everybody's had a chance to see the staff report at this point, but I'd be happy
to answer any questions moving forward.
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Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. So how many people will the shuttles be able to accommodate? Do you know?
Mr. Close:
So it is my understanding that the applicant has a couple of different shuttles in their arsenal and they'd
be able to accommodate their users. But as far as the specifics, I think I would defer to the applicant
when we're ready.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Is it correct that the Park & Ride is subject to a rezone at this time?
Mr. Close:
It is being considered, so there's a couple things going on there. The CN Zone is our first take at looking
at the development regulations associated with the CN Zone. And then we're also looking at widening
the birth of the CN Zone in that area to allow more mixed use.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Yeah. The reason I ask about the shuttles, it seems like the neighbors have a good point that people
given the choice between having to wait for a shuttle at a parking lot a mile and a half and just simply
parking within a few feet of a church, will prefer to just park. Well, first of all, what's the on street
parking situation like around there? Would that be an attractive choice for people, is there a lot of on
street parking available that they would probably take instead of a shuttle?
Mr. Close:
As you get West of Park Avenue North, there are some limited on street parking that is available. I think
it gets used up by the residents in the area and the existing businesses first. And so, as far as this goes, I
don't think there's a whole, whole lot of on street parking for this particular use.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Do you think there'd be any benefit to maybe some kind of a monitoring program to see if people
actually use the shuttle? Because it seems like if the Park & Ride is subject to a rezone, that that's going
to stop being a Park & Ride fairly soon. And also I think, like your staff report, mentioned the parking
leases are of short duration to begin with. So, would there be a benefit to see if the shuttle process
works in lieu of the Park & Ride, do you think?
Mr. Close:
I do, yeah. I do think that, as mentioned, is one of those conditions by monitoring, making sure that
there is a lease or an agreement in place and then, as you mentioned, some sort of monitoring program
would be beneficial to the residents in the area as well.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Is that already in your conditions? I might have overlooked that.
Mr. Close:
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It doesn't go into the detail of the monitoring of the shuttle.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. Okay. Maybe I'll-
Mr. Close:
It's only detail about the agreement.
Mr. Olbrechts:
...I'll make that more expressed. And then also just the staff report notes that a conditional use permit is
required for this because it's not being used as a church. I take it what you meant it is that they can't
piggyback on the former conditional use because that use has been abandoned. Is that what's
happening here?
Mr. Close:
That's correct.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. How long does it take for a use to be considered abandoned in a case like this?
Mr. Close:
I believe one year, could be wrong on that.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh I see. Okay.
Mr. Close:
But, Kennydale United Methodist Church hasn't operated out of this facility since pre COVID.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, I see.
Mr. Close:
And so it's been at least a year and a half, ramping up closer to two years.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Years. Oh, right, right. And then your report also noted that the applicant admits there could be noise,
light and glare impacts. And I think your assessment on the light and glare was, that no new light fixtures
or exterior ones are going to be installed and you have a lot of landscaping to mute that, that seems
adequately addressed. The noise though, do you know what noise will be created by this? It seems like it
would just be the times when you have services, people coming in and out of the building, is there
anything else going on there that might be a noise in impact?
Mr. Close:
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Not that I'm aware of.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, okay. Okay.
Mr. Close:
You might get some noise associated with the daycare, if they go outside and use the outdoor facilities.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Right. One of the standards I always have a problem with in the Renton Code is it says that, "All
undeveloped areas must be landscaped," and I think that sometimes we're not real exacting about
requiring that in every case. I just notice, in this case you had a little aerial of the project site and there
was like a big bare spot to the side of a church, I think its on the West side. I couldn't tell what that was,
is that an un-landscaped area? Or maybe you could pull that up?
Mr. Close:
On the West side of the church?
Mr. Olbrechts:
I think, yeah. If I was seeing that correctly, it could just be my bad vision, but. Yeah. Right there.
Mr. Close:
Let's see hear. Let's take a look.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Yeah. It looks like a... Or at least it was a lighter colored area. I don't know if that's a bare-
Mr. Close:
Are you looking right here?
Mr. Olbrechts:
Yeah. Right there. Yeah.
Mr. Close:
Yeah. That's the playground.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, that's the playground. Okay. Okay. So we don't need that landscape. Right. Right. Okay.
Mr. Close:
Right.
Mr. Olbrechts:
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And then finally, in terms of level of service analysis, there was no LOS analysis done of affected
intersections. I take it, is that because it didn't meet a threshold for the peak hour trips. Is that what it
boils down to? Is there a threshold, like 10 or something where they would have to do an LOS analysis?
Mr. Close:
Yeah. It's 20 PM or AM peak hour trips.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, okay. And this one was three, so that's well below. Okay. All right. Got it. Okay. Those are all the
questions I had. Thank you, Mr. Close. Very helpful.
Mr. Close:
Thank you.
Mr. Olbrechts:
So let's move on to the applicant. It's your turn to speak if you want, you don't have to, but now is the
time. And I'm a little curious about the shuttle capacity. How long people will wait, what incentives
you'd be able to give people to take the shuttle instead of parking nearby? Since I noticed that seemed
to be a big concern of the neighbors and it seems to be a plausible concern. Who wanted to speak on
behalf? Is that you, Mr. Susu? There we go.
Mr. Wang:
Yeah. For this shuttle line-
Mr. Olbrechts:
Let me swear you in real quick. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in this
proceeding?
Mr. Wang:
Yes.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. And, sir, how do you spell your last name? Is it S-U-S-U?
Mr. Wang:
Wang, W-A-N-G.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, okay. All right, Mr. Wang. Okay, go ahead.
Mr. Wang:
I think for the parking and the shuttle service, I would like that Mr. John Lin to talk about this.
Mr. Olbrechts:
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Okay. Let's see. And I didn't quite hear who he... What was his last name, I don't see him in the
participation list here?
Mr. Wang:
Yeah.
Mr. Lin:
It's me, it's John.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. And Mr. Lynn is your last name L-I-N?
Mr. Lin:
Yes.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Let me swear you in. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth and nothing but the truth in this
proceeding?
Mr. Lin:
Yes, I do.
Mr. Olbrechts:
All right. Great. Go ahead.
Mr. Lin:
Thank you. I just want to thank all the residents who provided the inputs, comments. So I think the
parking is the main concern. So I want to address that by saying that the street parking has never been
our plan. So we operate in a current location, which is near Exit 12 of 405. We have also utilized a
nearby Park & Ride, we use our shuttles to do that. So our congregation basically using that service in
many years in the past. So we'll be doing similar things when the Park & Ride, if this do end, we're going
to use the McKnight and then we have two shuttles for that purpose. The capacity will be around 24 for
each trip and then we're going to use the driveway for our drop up and load up people. And for 50
people, we expect that to be finishing half an hour. So we do feel pretty confident that our congregation
is going to be doing the same thing they've been doing over the years in our current location.
Mr. Olbrechts:
So, your other branch, you're saying you're using a shuttle service and the congregation has been using
it, that they haven't been parking instead close to the church?
Mr. Lin:
Yeah. So our current location is rented location, so we share the parking with maybe five other
companies, fitness centers. So the parking is tight so we have to basically to use the parking right,
there's no other place to park.
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Mr. Olbrechts:
Oh, I see. Okay. Got it. Great. Okay. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Lin:
[inaudible 00:25:00] quite a bit. Yeah.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Sounds good. All right. All right. Any other comments from the applicants team?
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Hearing none. Let's move on to public comments. At this point, if you want to participate, I think
I'll start off by, just raise your virtual hand and then we'll unmute you so he can speak. I see. We have
Mark Hancock and Ms. Cisneros, do you want to unmute him so he can make his comments?
Ms. Cisneros:
Yes.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Mr. Hancock, you're unmuted. Let me swear you in real quick. Do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth and nothing but the truth in this proceeding?
Mr. Hancock:
Yes, sir. I do.
Mr. Olbrechts:
All right, go ahead.
Mr. Hancock:
Thank you. I appreciate the chance to talk. My name is Mark Hancock, if you want to email which is
markmark@email.com, that's Gmail. I've been a two decade resident of Kennydale and I've been
tracking the land use issues in our neighborhood for quite some time. We're a neighborhood of about a
thousand homes and this intersection is our primary intersection and the way we get to and from the
freeway, most of us.
Mr. Hancock:
So a couple things. Number one, it appears to me that you have, but please read carefully my email to
you on August 18, which is your Exhibit 16, and where I have a lot more detail than I could convey now.
By the way, do I have three minutes or five or just and make my point?
Mr. Olbrechts:
You have five minutes, at least. Yeah. Go ahead.
Mr. Hancock:
Okay. I'll try not to overdo it.
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Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay.
Mr. Hancock:
Secondly, I am okay with this application as long as the new church has access and use of the Park &
Ride lot across the street, which was the original church Park & Ride lot, but they didn't purchase it
when they bought the building. Whether or not it was available, I'm not sure, but I can assure you it will
be available in the future because the Methodist Church retained ownership and in the course of this
rezoning project, they've informed us that one of their members is a real estate developer. So they're
waiting till it becomes CN across the entire parcel, and it'll probably become available for sale. So if the
church wants to buy the parking lot, we don't have anything to talk about. But if they don't buy the
parking lot, then we're back to the van solution, and which we've all been talking about. And I don't
have any confidence in that.
Mr. Hancock:
My first question to you as the hearing examiner would be, I understand the CUP is necessary because if
the church assembly use an R-10 lot, but if that wasn't the issue, wouldn't the van proposal require a
variance? Because if you've got an assembly building with no parking, then you're really asking for a
variance. And variances have a whole different set of criteria here, which are much more stringent than
what we're talking about now. So I'm just want to add some perspective to this discussion. On the van
solution my primary concerns are two. One is that if it's not used, it'll go away and I think that the
assumption that there's only going to be 50 people and that the congregation won't increase, the
building holds a hundred. So you can say there's 50 now, but that doesn't address the change in the
future.
Mr. Hancock:
So if the van's not used and the people decide that the hassle of McKnight, McKnight's a mile and a half
away, it's not nearby then and people park in the neighborhood, which I understand. That's what I
would do. Then at some point, they're going to discontinue the van because no one's going to use it.
And so I think at which point your whole approval is really on the rock. So that's my first question is, is
the staff condition number seven talks about, "They have to have offsite parking available." There's a
different between whether or not it's offered, it's available and whether or not it's being used. And the
applicant's original for proposal on this project was that they would offer it to their people, they would
not require them to use it. So if they're not requiring their people to use it, it's only being offered and it
becomes a hassle. Then at some point, no one's going to use it, they're going to stop running the van.
It's just human nature.
Mr. Hancock:
So I think the condition number seven needs to include that the van has be used and has to always be
there because otherwise what's the point? By the way, they have vans on their other property's are they
going to use them for both churches at the same time, assuming the churches meet at the same time, or
are they going to buy more vans? So even that's questionable plus drive vans that you have van drivers
is yet another potential issue. So it's messy, you don't required, I have no confidence in it at all.
Mr. Hancock:
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The second thing would be a problem is the change of use of property and first of all, we're only talking
about the main service on Sunday, night meeting. What about weddings? A lot of churches have big,
those spaghetti feed. There's a large hall underneath, the church new levels, there's [inaudible 00:29:56]
in there.
Mr. Hancock:
For that matter the staff talked about parsonage next door, that's actually [inaudible 00:30:03]
basement, it opens to the back yard. So I think with the basement, are offices and rooms down
[inaudible 00:30:10] basement. And I guess for the record, if you want have pictures of this building. All
you have to do is Google 3000 Park Avenue North, Renton, Zillow, and you can see 35 photos of this
building and the so-called basement of the parsonage next door, assembly hall underneath it. So there's
an opportunity to, if you don't want to go look at it or don't have time, you can at least see 35 pictures
on Zillow.
Mr. Hancock:
I could talk for a long time, but I think my email summarize, I just don't have any confidence in the van
thing and I think to have the van available is a lot different than having a van required, both in the
conditions of the approval and required of the congregation to use it, but it's messy. I hope they can buy
the parking lot from the current owners if, and when they make it available for sale, because once it's all
zoned commercial, I'm sure they're going to want to sell it to raise funds for their congregation. But
that's it. Please condition this approval so that our neighborhood has leverage and recourse if things
change, but either in terms of the use or in terms of the van solution and or the uses on property.
Mr. Hancock:
The other thing churches do is they often share their buildings with other groups or other
congregations. So what happens if another congregation has services in there on a Sunday afternoon?
There's the vacant lot just below the church, I assume that you could just put a building permit on that
lot for some future use. So what happens if uses on the property change?
Mr. Hancock:
And then one tip to the city that I mentioned in my email, then I'll stop. On the East side of Park, there is
end to end parallel parking and the shoulders a little bit wide, its gravel. And the problem we've had in
the past with the churches before was that they tend to come in and park head on, which means the
cars are encroaching on the road. And the little kids run out between the cars across the street, jay
walking over to the preschool. And so I think it's in the city's best interest and the church's best interest
to clean up the direction of the parking on the East side of Park, opposite the church so that we don't
have kids running out into Park Avenue when things are going on.
Mr. Hancock:
So that's it. I appreciate the chance to talk. I hope the church can figure it out, but I think without a firm
promise and commitment, I think making a van available as opposed to being required is bogus. So
thanks to everybody and I hope you all can work it out. Appreciate the chance to touch base.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Hancock. Okay. Was there anyone else who wanted to speak at this point? So raise
your virtual hand or no, don't see any takers. Ms. Cisneros, maybe you want to post your email address
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and phone number in case somebody's trying to get through. Let's see. You can sort of see her on the
little screen there. Ms. Cisneros, maybe you want to just verbalize your phone number because it's a
little, oh, there it is. Okay. We got the big one now. There we go. If you're trying to connect, you can't,
give Ms. Cisneros a call, she's monitoring the phone number right now, (425) 430-6583 or give her an
email shout.
Mr. Olbrechts:
All right. With that, let's move back to staff. Mr. Close. There were a lot of good questions raised. One of
those questions was does van service comply with the city's parking standards or would they actually
need a variance for something like that? And in terms of, you might want to explain how a monitoring
program could work, what I had discussed adding in terms of ensuring that the shuttle service actually
works and what recourse the city would have, if it doesn't.
Mr. Close:
Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Examiner. So offsite parking is allowed. Typically offsite parking is roughly between
500 to 750 feet from a building's use. However, under RMC 4-4-080 E.2.e. and f. the department of
basically CED can modify that maximum distance when a transportation plan is put in place. And so
here, the applicant is proposing a shuttle service and as John mentioned, it's something that they are
accustomed to using as part of their practice. And so in addition to that, staff is recommending that that
service be available for the use of the religious institution. So if we need to make condition number
seven stronger in order to have some monitoring service, I think we are happy to go in that direction.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Yeah. What I had in mind was monitoring and I think along the lines of the existing condition, if it
turns out it doesn't work, the applicant would be required to come up with a new plan that does, or
they lose their conditional use permit authorization. Mr. Hancock also asked about what if there are
changes in uses and I take it, the city code would require a new evaluation at that point, if there's any
changes in use of the building. Isn't that right?
Mr. Close:
That's right.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Okay. Anything else you wanted to add, Mr. Close?
Mr. Close:
Yeah. Just to strengthen the record here. As I mentioned, the purpose for the conditional use permit
was not only that the former church abandoned that use, but also the expansion of the parking offsite at
McKnight. At McKnight that would also require conditional use permit under RMC 4-9-030 J.2.c. So a
couple of-
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Is that the parking standard that allows offsite parking that's further than 750 feet?
Mr. Close:
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No. That was 4-4-080, here we're talking about 4-9-030, so two different sections of code.
Mr. Olbrechts:
Okay. Great. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Close. All right. Move on to the applicant. Sir, did you want to make
any final comments? Don't have, to now's just your chance. All right. Doesn't look like I have takers
there and that's just fine. So I'll go ahead and close the hearing. And I think the neighbors and their
comments raised some valid concerns about the parking and I think a good monitoring program just to
see how well it works would be a good idea. I'll add that to the language of the conditional use permit.
I'll extend that out for a few years and that would cover, not just services, but any other kind of activities
going on in the church. Just to ensure that this doesn't create a parking problem for the neighborhood.
And obviously if the church has been working with the shuttle service before and it worked then, there's
a good chance it'll work here too and I certainly hope that it does. So anyway, appreciate all your
comments and participation today. I'll get that decision out within the next couple weeks and everybody
have a good afternoon. We're adjourned. Bye.
Speaker 3:
The recording stopped.
Mr. Olbrechts:
All right. Oke dokey.