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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAppendix A -- Farwest. Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 1 of 8 Appendix A August 2, 2022 Hearing Transcript Farwest-- LUA22-000185 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. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Perfect. All right. For the record, it's August 2nd, 2022. I'm [inaudible 00:00:12] hearing examiner for the city of Renton. This morning, we have a site plan hearing examiner conditional use review for the interim maintenance facility improvements at Farwest. The hearing format today is we'll have a presentation from staff, which... Is that you, Mr. Close, doing this one? Mr. Close: That's correct. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. And after Mr. Close is finished, we'll move on to applicant comments, then public comments, if any, then back to staff rebuttal. That's for Mr. Close to answer questions and respond and provide any rebuttal evidence if necessary. And then finally, applicant gets final word. Also, let me apologize for my informal attire. I'm out traveling and I forgot to bring some clothes for this hearing. So anyway, just we'll pretend it's casual Tuesday in Renton today, I guess, or something. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: But now by state law, I'm only allowed to consider evidence that's put in the record today. That would be the testimony that's presented during the hearing, as well as any exhibits admitted into the hearing as well. That way all parties know exactly what information is being considered. And I guess Mrs. Cisneros, you can at this point post the exhibits that staff has given me in advance of the hearing. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. So we have a total of... I see there, and actually Mrs. Cisneros, why don't you include the one that has the staff PowerPoint and the core maps so we can just do it all at once? I think that'd be a good idea. Mrs. Cisneros: Okay. So they're on a different page. I'll do that one, just... Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh, okay. . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 2 of 8 Mrs. Cisneros: This one, this is a two pager. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Mrs. Cisneros: Yeah. Exhibit 21, and here's the other one. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Yeah, awesome. There we go. Oh, all right. Okay. So the staff report has exhibits one through 18. What's the 19 through 21? What was that? Mrs. Cisneros: So there's the environmental room committee report. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh I see. Okay. Mrs. Cisneros: And then the staff report to the hearing examiner along with those exhibits. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. And then added to what was identified in the staff report as the staff PowerPoint, the city of Renton core maps, which is available at the city's website and Google earth, just the aerial photographs of the project site. At this time. I'm just going to ask if anyone has any objections to entry of those documents. If you do, raise the virtual hand at the bottom of your screen, or just unmute yourself and say, "I object." Hearing, seeing no objections then, I'll go ahead and admit exhibits one through 24. I'll move on to Mr. Close at this point. Mr. Close, just raise your right hand. You swear, affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? Mr. Close: Yes. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay, great. All right, go ahead. Mr. Close: All right. Thank you, Hearing Examiner Olbrechts. Clark close, principal planner, City of Renton. Thanks for entering those exhibits in. Let me go ahead and share exhibit 22 here. Mr. Close: Make sure it loads. All right. Can everybody see that? . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 3 of 8 Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Yes. Mr. Close: Okay. So this is staff's PowerPoint presentation for the interim maintenance facility improvements at Farwest, the applicant King County Solid Waste Division, or KCSW for short, is requesting a change of use to temporarily relocate locations from their vehicle maintenance in stores operations at the Cedar Hills Regional Land facility to the Farwest facility located at 201 Southwest 34th street for approximately five years as they redevelop the Cedar Hills location. Mr. Close: This parcel is a 5.63 acre parcel or project site. It's zoned heavy industrial, and it's located within the auto mall area sea and the [inaudible 00:03:53] community planning area. The high seismic hazard is mapped on the sites, and a high level here. The existing development includes the Farwest steel fabrication facility. The reuse of that, they're going to reuse two existing office modulars, the surface parking. There's landscaping out on site, as well as a perimeter fence. No changes are proposed to the existing storm water dissension pond, street, [inaudible 00:04:22], or landscaping. Mr. Close: And there was some images of some of the existing improvements out of the site there. To continue, the parcel contains, as I mentioned, the Farwest facility building. That's just under a 100 thousand square feet, just under 56 feet in height. There's, as I mentioned, two existing modulars. They're just over 4,200 square feet total, and approximately 14 feet two inches in the height. Mr. Close: Applicant is proposing to retain the existing structures, and then add two temporary office and conference-based modulars South and East of the existing primary structure. So together, these two modulars would have a combined area of 1,440 square feet and a maximum height of 16 feet three inches. The modulars are labeled there in the site plan as 31B and 2B. The complete site would have a total building growth square footage, when it's all said and done, to a 102,634 square feet. And the steel facility would be repurposed to vehicle maintenance facility combined parts store. In general, light storage and office use. The parking lot would provide a total of 81 surface parking stalls, which falls within the required parking range for the three different uses, that being office, vehicle service and repair, and indoor storage. Mr. Close: KCSW would utilize the existing curb cuts for access, the primary access being from Southwest 34th Street, and then secondary access is available via an ingress egress access easement off of Land Avenue Southwest. Mr. Close: KCSW is requesting hearing examiner conditional use permit and site plan review for vehicle maintenance and storage facility at the former Farwest steel fabrication facility. The planning division accepted the above master app, or accepted this particular application for review on May 26th, and determined the application complete on June 2nd of this year. A 14 day public appeal period . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 4 of 8 commenced on June 2nd and ended on June 16th. No public or agency comments were received. On July 11th, 2022, the environmental review committee issued a determination of non-significance for the improvements, and a 14 day appeal period commenced on July 11th. It ended on July 25th. And no appeals of the threshold determination were filed. Mr. Close: So just a couple more slides here. As indicated in the staff report, the proposal does comply with the city's comprehensive plan objectives and policies if all recommended conditions of approval are complied with. The proposal has demonstrated compliance with the development standards of the heavy industrial zoning classification. Again, if all recommended conditions of approval are complied with, the proposal is compliant with critical areas regulations, and the proposal is compliant with site plan review if all recommended conditions of approval are complied with. Mr. Close: As indicated in the staff report, the proposal has demonstrated compliance with conditional use criteria if all recommended conditions are approval are complied with. And police and fire staff have indicated that sufficient resources exist to furnish services to the proposed improvements subject to the condition that the applicant provide code-required improvements and fees. The site is serviced by City of Renton Sewer and Water. Mr. Close: So staff is recommending approval of the interim maintenance facility improvements at Farwest subject to three conditions of approval. And I would stop showing there, and happy to answer any questions. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. So where the nearest residential uses to this project? It doesn't look like there's anything close by, but I was kind of... I haven't studied the map. Mr. Close: Yeah. There's really no residentials in the general vicinity. This is the valley, kind of in the core of where the heart of the industrial zoned property in the City of Renton. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: And it seems like the greatest maybe offsite impact would be... Any truck traffic or something? And I haven't had a chance to review the traffic report yet, but I mean, what kind of route are the trucks going to use? Are there any issues with using streets that aren't suitable for truck traffic, or how's that affected? Mr. Close: Yeah, so we did take a look at the transportation as it relates to this particular project during environmental review. The truck trips and counts really coincide, or in fact, they are less than what the previous use was. So we are anticipating a drop there. But the primary routes would be Land and Southwest 34th Street. Those are fairly busy streets, and they do provide good access to the facility. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 5 of 8 Okay. And how long has the current use been vacant? Mr. Close: I think it's over a year now. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh, okay. Mr. Close: [inaudible 00:09:43] with the applicant to talk about when they took over the lease of this particular property. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Close. Appreciate your comments. Let's move on to applicant comments. Anyone on behalf of the applicant want to say something at this time? You don't have to, but now's your chance. Mr. Stone: Mr. Don Stone. I'm a consultant for King County. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Let me swear in Mr. Stone. Just raise your right hand. You swear, affirm to tell the truth, nothing but the truth in this proceeding? Mr. Stone: I do. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay, great. Go ahead. Mr. Stone: Do you want me to comment on the truck route? Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Yeah Sure. That would be helpful. Mr. Stone: Our determination is that we will only use 34th street as the access for our large transfer trucks and tractors coming in. So the Land Avenue access will only be for small cars and visitors coming on site. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 6 of 8 Mr. Stone: Then the other thing is that the lease was... We officially took it over in end of March of last year or April. So we've sort of had a mixed occupancy with Farwest up until that period of time as they were moving. And in fact, they were still removing equipment and are still removing equipment, taking out some of the big cranes and that sort of thing for use in another part of their business. So otherwise it's been empty but monitored all the time. We have security there. And we're also, during this interim period, we've been repairing roof leaks, that sort of thing that have become... They sort of show up and then clean it up so that we can make sure that when we finally get to the point of being able to go in, the building will be serviceable for us. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. And what kind of noises can we anticipate for the proposed use here? I mean, there's going to be some repair activities, that kind of thing. And how would that compare to the noise of the previous use? Mr. Stone: Well, I think that when you think about what they did, was they were making plates for ship building. That was their major job. So they had these huge pieces of steel that were being cut and moved around and bent into the appropriate hull shapes. And what we're doing is just vehicle maintenance. So the noises that are associated with ongoing maintenance, like lubrication, and then some engine work, that sort of thing. So the only things that we ever end up doing that might be a little noisier would be when they're cutting pieces out of the trailers and re-welding. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh, I see. Mr. Stone: Something like that. That's about the only real noise production other than the fact that there'll be some vehicle movement, but most of that, because of the cavernous size of this facility, which is a little over two acres underneath the roof, it'll all be contained on the inside. So the only noise that would be out there will probably be the movement of our trucks. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh, okay. Mr. Stone: That sort of thing, going in and out. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: And is all this behind closed doors, or are the doors left open a lot of time in the summer or something? Or how does that work? Mr. Stone: Well, it depends on the weather. . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 7 of 8 Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Yeah. Mr. Stone: Because this building is very much just a big barn. And we're providing ventilation of course, for the use. And then there'll be spot heating from infrared sources located directly to the maintenance specific area and that sort of thing. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Oh I see. Okay. Mr. Stone: So important to know that this is for a select fleet. There's only 75 total trucks in the entire King County network. And so they'll be seen on a basis of one to two per day. So it isn't like we have any... It's not like a commercial environment where you have a number of vehicles coming in and being swapped out. And these are basically all trucks that have scheduled service times, that sort of thing. So it's scheduled out, and they rate as around two of the large trucks per day would be transiting. Otherwise, it's pretty quiet. Mr. Stone: And I think that speaks to what Clark was talking about, that we think that the... Actually, traffic is going to be reduced from what it was when Farwest was there receiving and shipping steel plates, going in and out. And of course, there's a railroad line that we're not using, but Farwest did use. So that's not going to be active as well. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Stone. And Mr. Close, question I forgot to ask you is just to confirm, is this a project in a critical aquifer recharge area or not, do you know? Because I mean, it does involve oil and that kind of stuff. Mr. Close: It's not, no. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: It's not. Okay. All right. Good. Good. All right. Well, let's move on to public comments at this point, Mrs. Cisneros, do you see any members of the public? Mrs. Cisneros: I do not see any members. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. I guess that's not too surprising. I'll do my usual spiel then. If there is any member of the public who's unable to participate today because their internet's not working or some technical issue of that nature, they just can't figure out how to use Zoom, go ahead and give Mrs. Cisneros a call there. You see . Farwest Transcript by Rev.com Page 8 of 8 her number behind her says 425-430-6583. Or you can email her at jcisneros@rentonwa.gov. And if you're not able to participate because of those technical reasons, you can go ahead and email Mrs. Cisneros by 5:00 PM tomorrow, identify what your technical problem was, why you couldn't participate, and then add your comments. And then I'll likely admit those comments into the record and I'll let the applicant staff respond to that. So just make sure to get that email to Mrs. Cisneros by 5:00 PM tomorrow. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: So with that, Mr. Close, any concluding comments at this point? Mr. Close: Yeah. Just looking at some of the other surface roads in the area, you also have East Valley Road, which is to the East of the site, which is a fairly popular access road for that area. And then as the crow flies, the closest house is 0.3 miles east. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Mr. Close: Or it's going to be on the opposite side of 167. So you do have that built-in buffer as well. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay. Perfect. All right, Mr. Stone, do you want to make any final comments? You have to unmute yourself, but yeah, there you go. Mr. Stone: I can't see that. I can never find it. No, I think that's it. Hearing Examiner Olbrechts: Okay, perfect. All right, I'll go ahead close the hearing. And all this is another, I think, easy approval. I mean, this is an ideal location for this facility. Obviously it doesn't appear it's going to create any adverse impacts to anybody, and that's kind of the core issue for conditional use review and site plan review, is very thorough and everything's been addressed. So should be able to get that approval out within the next 10 business days. So I think we're adjourned for today. Thanks for all for participating. Have a great day. Automated: Recording Stop.