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Home My WebLink About2016-08-22-minutes-cds-study-sessionKITTITAS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS CDS Study Session REGULAR MEETING Monday, August 22, 2016 - 1:30 PM Commissioners' Auditorium 205 West 5th Room 109 - Ellensburg 1. Call to Order 2. Planning Commission Recommendation on 20 -Year Comp Plan Citizen -Initiated Amendment Requests 3. Other business 4. Adjourn Created on 8/19/2016 9:52:32 AM `PSc"DES ... TO igFc KITTITAS COUNTY THOSE PRESENT GUESTS PRESENT KITTITAS COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES 411 N. Ruby St., Suite 2, Ellensburg, WA 98926 CDS C! CO.KITTITAS.WA.US Office (509) 962-7506 "Building Partnerships — Building Communities" Fax (509) 962-7682 CDS STUDY SESSION MINUTES August 22, 2016 Laura Osiadacz, Paul Jewell, Obie O'Brien (BOCC) Doc Hansen, Stephanie Mifflin (CDS) Jim Goeben (IT) None. P_ lannin_q Commission Recommendation on 20 -Year Comp Plan Citizen -Initiated Amendment Requests: Doc provided the Board with the CARS document with the recommendation from the Planning Commission. Doc explained the document and the timeline. Commissioner Jewell asked why this does not fit within the Comprehensive Plan. Doc stated that specific projects cannot be in the Comprehensive Plan, only the topic. Doc explained how the CARS move through the process. Doc stated he is asking for the Board approval to go with Affordable Housing and Solar Farms as topics in the Comprehensive Plan. The Board approved the two items as topics. Board Direction: None. X Doc Hansen, Planning Official X Obie O'Brien, Chairman COMMUNITY PLANNING • BUILDING INSPECTION • PLAN REVIEW • ADMINISTRATION • PERMIT SERVICES • CODE ENFORCEMENT KITTITAS COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SERVICES 411 N. Ruby St., Suite 2, Ellensburg, WA 98926 ' CDS [l C0.KITTITAS.WA.US Office (509) 962-7506 Fax (509) 962-7682 KITTITAS COUNTY To: Kittitas County Planning Commission From: Kittitas County Community Development Services RE: 2037 Comprehensive Plan Update Citizen -Initiated Amendment Requests Date: August 1, 2016 for August 9, 2016 Planning Commission Meeting Background The Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) requires the County to periodically review and update its Comprehensive Plan and development regulations. On July 21, 2015, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) approved a Public Participation Program (PPP) outlining opportunities for public involvement in the 2037 Comprehensive Plan update process. As indicated in the PPP, all citizens, neighborhood organizations, or others were encouraged to submit proposed changes to the Comprehensive Plan, land use map, zoning map, or development regulations. These requests are referred to as Citizen -initiated Amendment Requests (CARS). Press releases, Facebook posts, and email notices to interested parties regarding the CAR submittal process were initiated to get the word out about the opportunity for citizen ideas to be considered in the Comprehensive Planning process. The CAR submittal process was also discussed at six public visioning meetings during February and March 2016. Two CAR applications were submitted and were posted on the County website for public review. Press releases, Facebook posts, and email notices to interested parties were also sent out to initiate public feedback on the CAR submittals. The six comprehensive plan advisory groups have provided their comments and group recommendations on each of the CAR submittal topics. As described in the PPP, the Planning Commission shall evaluate the CARS that were received. This evaluation includes review of the CAR application, advisory group recommendations and comments, and public comments received. As described in the PPP, unless a proposal fulfills a particular duty wider the GMA. the County has broad discretion to take the following actions: Include the CAR(s) for consideration in the Comprehensive Plan update process; or Defer the CAR(s) to a future amendment docket: or Exclude the CAR(s) from inclusion in the Comprehensive Plan update process. The Planning Commission is requested to evaluate the submitted CARs at the regularly scheduled open public meeting on August 9, 2016, and to provide a recommendation to the BOCC identifying which CARs, if any, should be included as part of the Comprehensive Plan update process. The procedures outlined in the CAR application form notes that this staff report shall analyze whether each proposal meets the criteria included in the proposal form and how it meets the criteria. The criteria are listed below, with the staff analysis further below. i. The proposal is consistent with RCW 36. 70A, the Kittitas County Comprehensive Plan, and the County -Wide Planning Policies for Kittitas County; ii. The proposal responds to a change in conditions beyond the property owner's control applicable to the area within which the subject property lies; iii. The proposal bears a substantial relationship to the public health. safety, welfare, and protection of the environment; and iv. The proposal has community -wide benefit. Once the BOCC has reviewed the Planning Commission recommendation and indicated which, if any, CAR applications to include in the Comprehensive Plan update process, the application(s) that are included will be further analyzed in the Comprehensive Plan update process. Analysis Two CARs were submitted during the application period. CAR 2016-001 relates to affordable housing (see Attachment A). CAR 2016-002 relates to solar energy farms, specifically when located in agricultural or rural lands (see Attachment B). Four public comments were received (see Attachment C for a summary of the comments and the specific comments). Six Comprehensive Plan advisory group recommendations and corresponding comments were sought to inform this process (see Attachment D for CAR 2016-001 and Attachment E for CAR 2016-002). The advisory groups recommended inclusion of the topics (i.e., evaluation of affordable housing and uses on agricultural lands), recognizing that the specifics would be evaluated later in the update process if they were included. The GMA outlines fourteen planning goals to guide the development and adoption of comprehensive plans and development regulations. Two of these goals relate to the CARs, as noted below: RCW 36.70A.020 (underline added for emphasis): (4) Housing. Encourage the availability of affordable housing to all economic segments of the population of this state, promote a variety of residential densities and housing types, and encourage preservation of existing housing stock. (8) Natural resource industries. Maintain and enhance natural resource-based industries, including productive timber, agricultural, and fisheries industries. Encourage the conservation of productive forest lands and productive agricultural lands, and discourage incompatible uses. 69799 Additionally, the topics of affordable housing and agricultural lands were rated in the top ten themes derived from the public visioning meetings held in February 2016 (shown in the graphic below). Top Ten Participant Themes from Community Visioning Meetings 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 ® Maintaining accessibility to outdoor recreation areas ■ Water resources ❑ Resource tourism ® Parks and recreation management El Transit services ❑ Affordable housing Density Employment opportunities Forest lands Agricultural lands Due to the GMA's focus on topics that relate to the submitted CARs and the community's interest in agricultural lands and affordable housing as themes to guide the Comprehensive Plan update, staff believes there is merit in studying these CARs further. Further analysis of these CARs may potentially result in changes to the Comprehensive Plan and/or development regulations, which will then be reviewed by the Planning Commission and BOCC at the time that the Draft Plan is issued for public review and comment. Attachments A. CAR Application 2016-001 B. CAR Application 2016-002 C. Public Comments D. Advisory Group Comments and Recommendation — CAR 2016-001 E. Advisory Group Comments and Recommendation — CAR 2016-002 69799