Council Schedule Highlights Week of December 2nd, 2019
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
1:30 pm Community Development Committee
Regularly scheduled meetings are broadcast live and replayed on channel 22 (Comcast and Click! Network) and channel 20 (Rainier Connect). Access meeting materials at www.piercecountywa.org/councilcommittees.
Proposal №2019–97, Affordable Housing Incentives
Sponsored by: Council Derek Young, Marty Campbell, and Connie Ladenburg
We hired a consultant to review the County’s affordable housing incentives first adopted in 2010. The result was pretty grim… only 4 projects to date have used the incentives and delivered housing to the 80% area median income target. This bill is intended to address the consultant’s recommendations:
- Eliminate limitations to fee waiver program
- Broaden density incentives
- More infill incentives
- Reducing parking requirements near transit
I have some ideas to add and plan to hold the bill over to the first committee meeting next year. If you have thoughts, please send them my way.
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019
9:30 am Tax Structure Work Group
I was recently appointed to represent counties on a legislative work group on Washington tax structure. We have the most regressive tax code in the country. That means most people pay more than people with the same income in other states why the wealthiest pay much less than their peers. It’s also highly localized which means that poorer areas struggle to provide critical services.
This is a multiyear project so don’t expect much immediately, but there will be lots of listening to the public as staff completes its analysis over the next 18 months.
5:00 pm Special Council Meeting — Note special meeting time and location
Thornewood Castle
8601 North Thorne Lane Southwest
Lakewood, WA
(Council District №6)
Regularly scheduled meetings are broadcast live and replayed on channel 22 (Comcast and Click! Network) and channel 20 (Rainier Connect). Access meeting materials at www.piercecountywa.org/councilcommittees.
This week the Council in-district meeting is going to the very much haunted Thornewood Castle in Lakewood. As always, this is an opportunity to hear from the public, but we will also have community updates from:
- Town of Steilacoom — Mayor Ron Lucas
- City of DuPont — Mayor Mike Courts
- City of Lakewood — Deputy Mayor Jason Whalen
- Anderson Island Citizens’ Advisory Board — Dave Jacobson
- Affordable Housing Presentation — Bill Vetter, Council Senior Legislative Analyst
Thursday, December 5th, 2019
Puget Sound Regional Council — Growth Management Policy Board
After many months of meetings and amendments, the update to our regional land use plan, Vision 2050, should be ready for a vote and recommendation to the Executive Board for final approval.
This has been quite an undertaking. Although it’s a document you’ve probably never heard of, passed by a similarly unanimous body, it’s the most important legislation I’ve ever worked on. Here’s some background.
The good news is that I think we ended up in the right place. To improve jobs-housing balance, we added new requirements for large cities to plan for enough housing to serve the employers flocking to the area. We also beefed up policy language to encourage economic development outside King County.
This is a big deal for our quality of life, environment, transportation, equity, and cost of living. These have always been goals for the region, but our land use decisions weren’t meeting the challenge of growth demands.
After the update is complete, it will require updates to our countywide planning policies, local comprehensives plans, and finally zoning code.
Year End Schedule
Final 2019 Council Meeting December 10, 2019
First 2020 Council Meeting January 2, 2020
My Weekly Calendar
A couple of years ago we got a request for my forward-looking calendar. Rather than have staff waste their time on public record requests, I decided to publish screenshots. Now I’m adding a link to the calendar as well. If you have questions, feel free to call. Keep in mind, my schedule isn’t static. Things will get added, deleted, changed, etc. There are conflicts that I have to pick between. But if people want to see where I’m at and who I meet with, that’s fine by me.
