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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-22-2021 - Bread of Life - HEX Final Decision - LUA-21-0002991 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 1 CAO VARIANCE - 1 BEFORE THE HEARING EXAMINER FOR THE CITY OF RENTON RE: Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church Conditional Use LUA21-000299, CU-H ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) FINAL DECISION Summary Bread of Life Christian Church in Seattle requests approval of a conditional use permit to operate a religious institution and parsonage office/preschool in an existing church building located at 3005 and 3009 Park Ave N. The application is approved with conditions. Testimony A computer-generated transcript has been prepared of the hearing to provide an overview of the hearing testimony. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only as Appendix A. Exhibits Exhibits 1-25, identified at page 2 of the staff report were admitted into the record during the hearing. The following exhibits were also admitted during the hearing: Exhibit 26: Staff Power Point Exhibit 27: COR Maps Exhibit 28: Google Earth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 2 CAO VARIANCE - 2 Findings of Fact Procedural: 1. Applicant. Bread of Life Christian Church in Seattle, 1331 118th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98005. 2. Hearing. A virtual hearing was held on the Zoom application at 11:00 am September 20, 2021, Zoom ID No. 895 5690 3305. 3. Project Description. Bread of Life Christian Church in Seattle requests approval of a conditional use permit application to operate a religious institution and parsonage office/preschool for in an existing church building located at 3005 and 3009 Park Ave N. The subject properties have a combined land area of 15,600 square feet (0.36 acres) and contain a 3,256 square foot church building and a roughly 1,474 square foot parsonage with a full basement of approximately the same area. The main auditorium has seating for less than 100 attendees in the congregation. No vegetation or trees are proposed for removal as a part of the project. 4. Surrounding Uses. Surrounding land uses to the north, south and west are composed of is composed of single and multifamily dwellings. Located to the east across Park Ave N is the Cloud Break Café. 5. Adverse Impacts. There are no significant adverse impacts associated with the project. Pertinent impacts are more specifically addressed as follows: A. Aesthetic. The proposal will create no adverse aesthetic impacts. The proposal involves no new buildings or exterior alterations to existing buildings and all undeveloped areas are landscaped. No vegetation or trees are proposed for removal as a part of the project. B. Traffic. The proposal will not create any significant adverse traffic impacts. The proposal will not adversely impact movement for vehicles and pedestrians as no exterior site work is proposed and all existing driveways and sidewalks will remain in their current condition. The applicant submitted a Traffic and Parking Assessment (Exhibit 13) and using the methodology documented in the institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation manual, the church is estimated to generate 120 vehicle trips on Sundays with 53 trips occurring during the Sunday morning peak hour based on 99 seat capacity. On weekdays, the church is estimated to generate 44 vehicle trips per day with three (3) trips during the street peak hour (4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.) and 16 vehicle trips during the church peak hour after 6:00 p.m. According to the testimony of staff, the PM peak hour generation rates were not significant enough to trigger level of service review under City standards. Additionally, the proposal passed the City’s Transportation Concurrency Test (Exhibit 24), which considers such factors as the citywide transportation plan and trip capacity within allowed growth levels. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 3 CAO VARIANCE - 3 C. Critical Areas. The proposal will not adversely affect critical areas. According to City of Renton (COR) Maps, the site contains regulated slopes and is in the Wellhead Protection Area Zone 2. The proposal will not affect either critical area since the proposal involves no exterior construction, no new fill and no introduction of hazardous materials to the project site. D. Noise, light and glare. The proposal will not create any significant noise, light and glare impacts. As recognized in the staff report, the Applicant has not proposed or shown the need for any additional lighting to begin the reuse of the existing property and former religious institution. Building mounted lighting is located along the front façades of both buildings. Mature landscaping, located between the building lights and public right-of-way, mitigates potential glare impacts to abutting properties. Noise impacts are not anticipated to be significant, limited to the sound associated with church members as they enter and exit church services and functions. E. Parking. As mitigated the proposal will not create any significant parking impacts. Parking regulations would require a minimum and maximum of 19.8 parking spaces for the available 99 seats in the main auditorium. Parking regulations require the parking spaces to be located within 750 feet of the proposed use for nonresidential uses. However, RMC 4-4- 080 E.2.f. creates an exception by authorizing the planning department to approve alternative parking arrangements as part of a transportation management plan. City staff have approved such a plan, which proposes two (2) areas for parking for church users (1) the Park-and-Ride gravel parking lot located on the southeast corner of Park Ave N and N 30th St (APN 3342103256), which is used as a public park-and-ride lot for King County Metro. Parking for the church would continue to use the Park-and-Ride lot via a six (6) month lease through the end of March 2022 and/or (2) shuttle service to a designated portion of the McKnight Middle School parking lot via a license agreement with Renton School District. Parking was raised as a concern by several neighbors in their written comments. They point out that the owner of the Park-and-Ride lot is in the process of acquiring a rezone for the lot for a different use. They also question whether persons will opt to park in the surrounding streets rather than wait for shuttles to drive them to the church from the McKnight parking lot. The Applicant’s parking assessment identifies that the peak parking demand would be 24 vehicles, but that’s just based upon 50 attendees of the church building, which has capacity for 100 attendees. The neighbors have a plausible concern that attendees will find it much easier to simply park in the neighborhood rather than park at McKnight 1.4 miles away and wait for a shuttle that can only transport 24 people at a time. Given the likelihood that the park and ride may be developed for another use, there is room for concern over the Applicant’s off-site parking solutions. For this reason, a condition of approval requires that the Applicant file with the City evidence of continuing off-site parking agreements upon expiration of the current 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 4 CAO VARIANCE - 4 agreements. Further, the conditions require that the shuttle service be subject to monitoring to ensure that it adequately prevent on-street parking. As testified by staff, there is insufficient information to assess the parking impacts of the Applicant’s proposed preschool/daycare use. A condition of approval requires that the Applicant submit a parking demand analysis and parking plan for the preschool/daycare use prior to building occupancy. F. Overconcentration. The proposal will not create an overconcentration of church use in the vicinity of the project site. The proposal would be the only religious institution and preschool west of I-405 on N 30th St in Kennydale. The nearest known churches in the Kennydale neighborhood are the Church of the Beloved located at 1700 NE 28th St (approximately 0.4 miles southeast of the site, which is leasing space within the existing Kennydale Elementary School) and the Antioch Presbyterian Church (Korean Church) located at 4242 Jones Ave NE (approximately 1.4 miles northeast of the site within the CA zone and east of I-405). Conclusions of Law 1. Authority. RMC 4-8-080(G) provides that hearing examiner conditional use permit review and variances are Type III applications. As Type III applications, RMC 4-8-080(G) grants the Examiner with the authority to hold a hearing and issue a final decision, subject to closed record appeal to the City Council. 2. Zoning/Comprehensive Plan Designations. The property is zoned Residential-10 (R-10). The Comprehensive Plan designation is Residential High Density. 3. Review Criteria. Hearing examiner conditional use permits are required for religious uses in the R-10 zone per RMC 4-2-060G. Conditional use criteria are set by RMC 4-9-030. Conditional Use The Administrator or designee or the Hearing Examiner shall consider, as applicable, the following factors for all applications: RMC 4-9-030(C)(1): Consistency with Plans and Regulations: The proposed use shall be compatible with the general goals, objectives, policies and standards of the Comprehensive Plan, the zoning regulations and any other plans, programs, maps or ordinances of the City of Renton. 4. The criterion is met. The proposal is consistent with the City’s development regulations and comprehensive plan for the reasons identified in Findings of Fact 16 and 17 of the staff report. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 5 CAO VARIANCE - 5 RMC 4-9-030(C)(2): Appropriate Location: The proposed location shall not result in the detrimental overconcentration of a particular use within the City or within the immediate area of t he proposed use. The proposed location shall be suited for the proposed use. 5. The criterion is met. The proposal does not result in an overconcentration of religious uses for the reasons identified in Finding of Fact No. 6. RMC 4-9-030(C)(3): Effect on Adjacent Properties: The proposed use at the proposed location shall not result in substantial or undue adverse effects on adjacent property. 6. As determined in Finding of Fact No. 5, as conditioned and mitigated, there are no adverse impacts associated with the proposal, so it will not result in substantial or undue adverse effects on adjacent property. RMC 4-9-030(C)(4): Compatibility: The proposed use shall be compatible with the scale and character of the neighborhood. 7. As determined in Finding of Fact No. 5, the proposal will not create any adverse aesthetic impacts or any other impacts that would create compatibility problems. RMC 4-9-030(C)(5): Parking: Adequate parking is, or will be made, available. 8. The criterion is met for the reasons identified in Finding of Fact No. 5E. RMC 4-9-030(C)(6): Traffic: The use shall ensure safe movement for vehicles and pedestrians and shall mitigate potential effects on the surrounding area. 9. As determined in Finding of Fact No. 5B, the proposal provides for safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians since the proposal for an existing building and associated circulation system and staff has found no need for alteration of those existing improvements. Further, there are no significant off-site impacts since the proposal will only generate three peak hour trips. Under City regulations that number of peak hour trips is not considered significant enough to merit assessment of off-site impacts. Further, the proposed religious use simply replaces a prior religious use and it is very unlikely that the new use will create any more traffic than that generated by the prior use. RMC 4-9-030(C)(7): Noise, Light and Glare: Potential noise, light and glare impacts from the proposed use shall be evaluated and mitigated. 10. As determined in Finding of Fact No. 5(D), the proposal will not create any significant noise, light and glare impacts. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 6 CAO VARIANCE - 6 RMC 4-9-030(C)(8): Landscaping: Landscaping shall be provided in all areas not occupied by buildings, paving, or critical areas. Additional landscaping may be required to buffer adjacent properties from potentially adverse effects of the proposed use. 11. The criterion is met. As shown in the aerial photograph of the project, Ex. 4, the entirety of the property is either landscaped or is developed. DECISION All applicable permitting criteria are met as outlined in the Conclusions of Law above. As conditioned below, the conditional use permit application is approved subject to the following condition of approval: 1. The applicant shall provide a minimum area of one hundred (100) square feet for recycling and refuse collection and the area be fenced or screened with a minimum six- foot (6') wall, fence or landscaping. In addition, the refuse and recycling area shall be located outside the front yard. Refuse and recycling shall be reviewed and approved by the Current Planning Project Manager prior to building occupancy. 2. The applicant shall either update the parking lot lease agreement between Kennydale United Methodist Church and Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church to allow parking on the adjacent park-and-ride lot to begin around 6:00 p.m. or limit weekday evening church services start times on Wednesdays to begin after 7:00 p.m. when parking becomes available. The updated parking lot lease agreement or church hours of operation shall be reviewed and approved by the Current Planning Project Manager prior to building occupancy. 3. The applicant shall provide a parking demand analysis and parking plan for the accessory preschool use to ensure adequate parking and drop-off/pick-up are provided. The parking demand analysis and parking plan shall be submitted to, and approved by, the Current Planning Project Manager prior to building occupancy. 4. The applicant shall comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) by installing four (4) paved and signed ADA complaint parking stalls at the adjacent park- and-ride lot and provide an Accessible Route of Travel (ART) from the adjacent park- and-ride lot to an ADA compliant building entrance. The ART shall meet current City and ADA standards and will require, at a minimum, the reconstruction of three (3) curb return ramps at the intersection of Park Ave N and N 30th St. The siting, location and engineering design of the ADA compliant parking stalls and ART shall be provided to, and approved by, the Community Economic Development via a Right-of-Way Use Permit or similar permitting mechanism prior to building occupancy. 5. In the event the adjacent park-and-ride lot becomes unavailable, the applicant shall provide the City a revised Parking Agreement with the Renton School District that provides for the use of at least one (1) ADA van accessible parking stall at McKnight Middle School. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 CONDITIONAL USE - 7 CAO VARIANCE - 7 6. The applicant shall provide a secured extended use bicycle parking area for a minimum of two (2) off-street bicycle parking stalls to be reviewed and approved by the Current Planning Project Manager prior to building occupancy. 7. The applicant shall provide a copy of all future parking leases/agreements to the City of Renton within thirty (30) days of their effective date. If the Applicant becomes primarily dependent upon its proposed McKnight shuttle service to meet its parking requirements, the Applicant shall prepare and implement a two-year monitoring plan as approved by City staff to ensure that attendees of the project site don’t use on-street parking instead. Additional monitoring may be required after the two years have expired as reasonably found necessary by City staff. If adequate off-site parking options become unavailable for the religious institution to comply with minimum parking regulations, the 2021 Conditional Use Permit for Seattle Bread of Life Christian Church shall become null and void. DATED this 22nd day of September, 2021. City of Renton Hearing Examiner Appeal Right and Valuation Notices RMC 4-8-080(G) classifies the application(s) subject to this decision as Type III applications subject to closed record appeal to the City of Renton City Council. Appeals of the hearing examiner’s decision must be filed within fourteen (14) calendar days from the date of the decision. A request for reconsideration to the hearing examiner may also be filed within this 14-day appeal period. Affected property owners may request a change in valuation for property tax purposes notwithstanding any program of revaluation. Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 1 of 15 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? Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 2 of 15 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 Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 3 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 4 of 15 [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 Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 5 of 15 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. Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 6 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 7 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 8 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 9 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 10 of 15 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. Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 11 of 15 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. Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 12 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 13 of 15 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 Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 14 of 15 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: Bread of Life (Completed 09/22/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 15 of 15 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.