Okay.

Now I'm on.

Okay.

So good evening and welcome to the June 25th City of Bellevue Planning Commission meeting.

This evening's meeting is held via hybrid format with both in-person and virtual options via Zoom.

Tonight's meeting will provide an opportunity for public comment during the oral communications portion of the agenda.

All written um comments that have been submitted prior to 11 a.m.

today, Wednesday, June 25th, will be summarized into the record.

We have three study session items on the agenda tonight.

The first of these is the economic development plan update for the City of Bellevue.

City Council directed staff to initiate the kickoff of for the new economic development plan in December 2024.

Staff will provide an informational update on the progress updating Bellevue's economic development plan, which is scheduled to come back to council for adoption at the end of the year.

So that's the first item.

The second one is sustainable Bellevue Environmental Stewardship Plan update for 2026 through 2030.

The environmental stewardship plan is a strategic roadmap to achieving Bellevue's 2030 and 2050 climate and sustainability goals.

It was set to be updated every five years.

And the third item is the critical areas ordinance land use code amendments.

Every 10 years, Bellevue periodically reviews and evaluates the adopted critical areas policies and regulations using best available science to ensure protection of these areas.

Staff's going to provide the planning commission information on the gap analysis that was done and the key elements currently under consideration for the draft code.

And I I wanted to mention, since we do have a fairly um packed agenda tonight with three study session items, I am going to be looking for people to kind of prioritize their um comments.

We'll try and make sure we get everybody's in, but just bear that in mind as we're going through the um agenda.

So with that, I want to move forward to the roll call.

And um before I do that though, I wanted to um welcome um two new commissioners um to the uh to the planning commission.

Um first um um Mariah Kennedy.

Um so welcome.

We're really happy to have you here.

Um Mariah's um joining us uh she's um she's been a uh director of energy policy at Microsoft for um for six years, and before that, Puget Sound Energy has a wealth of experience that I'm sure is going to be really helpful for this planning commission.

So we're we're glad to have you here.

Yeah.

And then in addition, um we have um Arsha um Nilchian who's um who's joining us and really excited about um about you joining us as well.

And I look at your background, and it's amazing how many um intersections and common things we have in common, except I'm like more than 30 years your senior.

So I'm sure that um I'm sure that by the time that you um you reach my age, you will have done much more in life than that I have done, but we're really happy to have you here as well.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And and congratulations on your recent um graduation from uh University of Washington Law School, which was also my alma mater.

So great.

Yeah.

Um okay, let's do um let's do roll call then.

Um Vice Chair Conloom.

Present.

Uh Commissioner Ferris.

I'm here.

Um, Commissioner Kennedy.

Present.

Uh Commissioner Liu.

I'm here.

Commissioner Nilchin.

Here.

Um Commissioner Bilobasis.

I'm here.

And um our deputy mayor, um, counsel liaison is um is absent tonight um on city business um that he's attending to out of town.

Um, one other thing I wanted to mention about the selection process too for the new um for the new commissioners was we had a fantastic field of people who applied.

I mean, we had um about 23 applicants.

We interviewed um six candidates um as finalists, all exceptionally qualified people.

So um, you know, I I um it was a very difficult decision um that we had to make to try and um choose you.

I mean we had um about 23 applicants we interviewed um six candidates um as finalists all exceptionally qualified people so um you know i i um it was a very difficult decision um that we had to make to try and um choose you i i think we made an excellent excellent choices but there was a lot of great talent that was interested in stepping up for um the city of bellevue and really appreciate the interest that uh people um have it's kind of one of those interesting areas where I think sometimes much like you know schools I went to I'm not sure I could get it onto the planning commission now there's just so many talented people you know that that are coming forward and and applying so congratulations again on on um joining the commission so glad to be here so thanks thank you um okay now let's um let's move ahead to the agenda um can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda I would like to motion that we approve tonight's agenda sorry can I give a second second any further discussion okay all those in favor say aye aye aye okay next we'll go to reports of the city council boards and commissions and I'll I'll turn that over to you um Kate if you want to give us an update it's from boards and commissions okay and then we'll go next to um uh staff reports um and the planning commission meeting schedule if you can cover that um Kate as well we would be happy to um the meeting schedule uh is in your packet um I wanted to note that um we talked about the retreat at our last meeting um in November and uh for the commissioners that were not present uh there is general consensus to hold it at the regular November meeting time I think it's November 12th um and uh I'm reserving the community room at Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center for the retreat so that should be a nice um nice venue um and I will be furnu firming up the agenda um and the um add those study session items to the calendar as we get closer to the date great um okay forgive me I do have a quick comment and a question for Kate um so comment one oh my goodness so many public hearings and two in the same night this is going to be terrible um also a silly question it's probably been on there forever you listed um priority numbers um next to each one of the sessions and honestly I don't remember ever talking about what that indicated um it um it's sort of a general priority so uh through priority three are things that you you are required to review and priority one is um sort of things that can um are you're not required to weigh in on so and two is somewhere in between that's helpful I don't know I had this my first time I've noticed it so thank you.

Yep.

Okay are there any other questions for Kate on um staff reports or the schedule okay next we'll go we'll go on to um oral and written communications.

So the total time for oral communications is 30 minutes.

Speakers are going to be allowed three minutes um up to three minutes to speak um staff leaves on uh Kate Ness will call on speakers in the order in which they've registered either in person or online if anyone from the public has missed the 530 p.m registration deadline you can still provide public comment if there's remaining time um please use the raise hand function in Zoom if you're attending virtually or motion to staff if you're here in person to indicate that you'd like to speak um there are rules also adopted by the city council limiting the topics about which the public may speak during our meetings under ordinance 6752 the public may only speak during public comment about subject matters that are A related to City of Bellevue government and B are within the power and duties of the planning commission.