David Rockabrand

Gwendolyn High

Marshall Brendan

Matthew Hebb

Edie Jorgensen

Comprehensive Plan Amendment - Pre-Zoning
Rebecca Lind - Manager Strategic Planning
Don Erickson - Comprehensive Plan Amendment - Project Manager

No recommendation has yet been finalized. The East Renton Plateau Potential Annexation Area Study has been going on since last year. As the development applications to DDES have been filed over the last couple of years, Renton has seen a growing need to plan to be able to service the increased development, since this area is anticipated to eventually be annexed into the City. All current development applications are been considered and approved under King County design and zoning regulations with no accommodation for the Renton standards.

State law allows PreZoning which would apply at the time of annexation. PreZoning now would provide certainty to current residents of Renton's plan for our area at and after annexation. ProZoning is achieved through amendment of Renton's Comprehensive Plan. Currently, the Plan has no specific guidelines for this area. PreZoning under the Comprehensive Plan will provide clear legal guidelines for how the Land Use Designations would be applied to specific development applications.

Under the state's Growth Management Act, neighboring jurisdictions are required to accommodate each other's Comprehensive Plans. Currently, the lack of specific details in Renton's Comprehensive Plan allows King County to make no accommodation for Renton standards in the mitigation or design requirements of any development application.

One of the facts that the study has found is that Renton has the capacity and the goal of concentrating higher density and multi family housing in its downtown core. There is hardly any need for higher density and multi family housing anywhere outside of the downtown core. One of Renton's Comprehensive Plan goals is to provide a full range of housing options. One type of housing that Renton does not have an abundance of is known as Executive housing. The current level of development and the potentially developable land in the East Renton Plateau Potential Annexation Area offers the opportunity to achieve the Executive housing capacity that Renton desires in this area.

The current planning guidelines of Renton forbid multifamily development in the East Renton Plateau Potential Annexation Area.

Commercial development will not be extended eastward along 128^th. Instead, the existing commercial areas will be upgraded and filled in to provide additional commercial capacity. Recent applications to rezone residential parcels along 128^th to commercial zoning, including parcels in the area of the Hop Inn market, have been denied.

Renton and King County calculate zoning density differently. Renton has a net area dwellings per acre system, as contrasts with King County's gross area dwellings per acre. In King County, if a 10 acre parcel is zoned R-4, has a 2 acre wetland and the plat will require 2 acres of roads - 40 units can be allowed. Under Renton standards, sensitive areas and roads are removed from the equation first and only 30 units could be allowed on that same parcel. Thus, R-8 under Renton is almost comparable to R-6 under King County. In addition, the City of Renton has no minimum density requirement Generally, the current density inside the Renton City Limits is R-8.

Final recommendations will be presented to the Renton Planning Commission on September 3, 2003. The Renton Planning Commission meets on the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesday s of each month. Only Renton residents may be appointed to the Renton Planning Commission. The Commission will consider the staff recommendations and the comments of citizens who attend the September 3^rd meeting and then formulate a recommendation that will be transmitted to the Renton City Council for a vote and adoption.

Marshall B asked about the specific process by which annexation happens. Rebecca Lind explained that there are two ways. 1) Annexation is proposed to the city by a petition of voters and placed on an election ballot. 2) A petition to the city by 50% of voters and owners of the acreage proposed to be annexed. Method two was newly approved by the state legislature in May 2003 and has not been tried. It may be challenged in court based on the March 2003 state supreme court ruling that annexations must be by a vote of the resident voters.

A citizen in the audience asked about the consistent and persistent lack of interlocal agreements between King County and Renton. The overwhelming impression of the residents is that this ongoing lack of formal agreements has led to each jurisdiction using the other's lack of cooperation as an excuse for both to continue to ignore the needs of the residents. Rebecca Lind said the it is the goal of Renton staff to achieve interlocal aggreements so that land use, infrastructure and transportation standards and goals can be coordinated. She sees the challenge as having been that the goals of the two jurisdictions are not in synch. She cited the example of things as simple as the difference in the way density is calculated (see above) as contributing to the difficulty of crafting interlocal aggreements. Differences in basic building and roads standards is another example of the kinds of stumbling blocks that have been encountered. She did say that the a major goal of the effort toward this Comprehensive Plan Amendment is to give specific guidance under the Comprehensive Plan with the hope that it will lead to better success in seeking interlocal aggreements in the future. Until these specifics are incorporated into the Comprehensive Plans, the minimum requirements for cooperation mandated under the Growth Management Act will not be in place, and King County will be allowed to continue to grant development permits without consideration of Renton standards.

Water District 90 will continue as the provider of water for our area for as far out as any plan exists.

Fire and school districts would also not change.

• Go to this website:
  http://www.ci.renton.wa.us/
• On the left side of the page, click on the link that says: Site Index
• Scroll all the way down to the link that says Strategic Planning and Click it.
• Next, Click on the link that says: East Renton Plateau Potential Annexation Area.
• At the bottom of this page they have provided a webform that allows you to submit more comments.

Dave Christensen - Sewer

In 1999 King County granted the sewer franchise for this area to the City of Renton. Renton only pays for and contracts construction of new capacity of sewer under a Utility Improvement District. This is a relatively rare process. The only times existing homes are required to hook up to new sewer extensions are 1) the home is inside a Utility Improvement District or 2) the existing septic system is determined to have failed by the King County Department of Health and the home is within a certain distance of the new sewer line.

The usual method by which the sewer system is extended is by requiring developers to install the extension of the system to serve new subdivisions. The 2000 King County Comprehensive Plan Update added the requirement that all new subdivisions inside the Urban Growth Boundary are required to be served by sewer. Development permits will not be issued without service. Renton will not provide sewer service to multifamily development outside of the City Limits.

When a development does extend the sewer system, they are allowed to create a Late Comers Agreement. This agreement specifies the cost to existing property owners to hook up to the extended system. City of Renton oversees these agreements and only allows Late Comer fees to be required of the property owners whose property actual abuts the extended main.

Keith Wooley - Transportation

Renton has begun planning traffic and landscaping improvements under the NE 4^th /128^th Corridor Plan. The goals are to improve NE 4^th/128^th from I-405 to the Renton City Limits through construction projects and more specific development requirements. The main proposal is the conversion of the existing center turn lane to a raised and landscaped median with more limited turn pockets to better control left hand turns along the entire length of the corridor. Also proposed are street trees, sidewalks and bike lanes along the entire corridor along with some additional traffic signals and better traffic signal synchronization to facilitate free flow of traffic.

• Go to this website:
  http://www.ci.renton.wa.us/
• On the left side of the page, click on the link that says: Departments
• Scroll down the page until you see the link that says Planning/Building/Public Works and Click it.
• Next, Click on the link that says: NE 3rd - 4th Corridor Improvements

John Inganen - Parks

Mr. Inganen gave an overview of Renton's Parks policies and stated that under eventual annexation the 3 existing parks within the East Renton Plateau Potential Annexation Area (Maplewood, Liberty and the unimproved parcels - one adjacent to Maplewood Park and the other adjacent to the Fire Station on 156^th) would always be maintained retained as parks. He also outlined another development standard difference between King County and Renton. King County requires a certain percentage of each subdivided parcel to be developed as recreational space. Renton's requirements are for larger neighborhood parks spaced throughout the community. The smaller lots in-development lots required under King County regulations are maintained by the home owners associations and have limited access and facilities for the general public, and are smaller, while Renton's standards 'pools' the area for larger spaces for recreation accessible to the general public and are maintained by the city.