September 6, 2011 Meeting Minutes


7:00 PM
Roll Call: Don Butler, Susan Dawson, and Patrick Siever are absent
Review and Approve Agenda: so acted
Approval of minutes: July's corrected minutes approved; August minutes approved.

7:05 PM
Public comment on topics not on the agenda: None.

7:10 PM
Jay Osborne, Manager, King County Road Services Division
Jay outlined the future of road services for residents of unincorporated King County. Under a new “Tiered Level of Service” that would be implemented in 2012 (assuming KC Council approval) roads in King County would be rated as to their need for service because funds are far too inadequate to pay for all needed road servicing.

8:10 PM
Greg Wingard
Greg reviewed the Pacific Raceways project. KC Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee is considering zoning changes to the site as a “pilot project” giving the council some latitude in zoning and use regulations on the property. It seems to circumvent normal means of land use determination and causes concern. The normal Conditional Use Permit method DDES currently uses is adequate according to John Starbard, current director of DDES. Mr. Wingard asked the Area Council to contact the Executive.

After discussing these issues, the council moved, seconded and passed a motion to send a letter to King County Executive Constantine, with a cc to the TrEE Committee. The letter will state the Area Council sees no need for the proposed Ordinance, as it appears existing CUP process is sufficient to the task and is deeply concerned about the precedent any new Ordinance would have across the Rural Area.

8:50 PM
Black Diamond MPD Update
The Hearing Examiner will make his report to Black Diamond City Council by September 13. Closed record hearing is expected to begin around September 21. Options the Examiner has are to accept the Development Agreements as they are, make recommendations for correcting perceived problems, or reject entire DA’s. People who testified previously in the Open Record Public Hearings, or submitted written testimony may testify in the closed record hearings coming soon.

9:00 PM
County-wide Planning Policies
As the Growth Management Planning Committee updates the County-Wide Planning Policies (C-WPPs) comments from the public may be made at it next meeting on September 21. More discussion on the affect of this legislation on the unincorporated area resulted. After discussion GMVUAC voted to sign on to a Joint Rural Area UAC letter to the Suburban Cities Association (SCA) asking it to reconsider a proposal it made to the GMPC to exempt 19 existing School-District-owned sites from any new policies on restricting tight line sewer extension into the Rural Area. As he missed the last meeting, Warren Iverson wanted to voice his disapproval of the vote in August in which our council objected to grandfathering 19 school sites from the new GMPC regulations.

9:05 PM
501(c)3 Status
Rob Morris reported that while we can obtain this status, we may not want to, as we will then have to refrain from expressing our positions on issues we face. Rob Morris will pursue this issue.

9:15 PM
Council Business
As elections will cost ~$5,500, or much more, the council decided to suspend elections until February 2-12 pending resolution of our status with the county. Work on the Train Show is progressing satisfactorily. Ravensdale Park has been under construction for 3 weeks.

9:50 PM
Adjournment