The Edmonds City Council held a study session on June 10, 2026, at 3:00 PM, to discuss the 2027-2028 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) introduction and the 2026 Tree Code updates. The meeting focused on gathering council feedback on project priorities and process for the CFP, and on reviewing the progress of tree code amendments, including planning board direction on canopy cover goals, landmark tree definitions, and tree removal allowances. No formal votes were taken; the session served as a preparatory discussion for future decision-making.
(Note: Dates and times are based on the meeting recording; the meeting adjourned at 4:35 PM.)
Move in. Um welcome to the Edmund City Council study session on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026. We're beginning at 3 p.m. We have uh two items on our study session today, and one item listed for future consent at the end. That's just for review. Um and our first uh study session item is the 2027-2028 capital facilities plan introduction. And I just want to give a quick introduction of myself. Um, because I think um the director referenced a little bit, but today's presentation is a first touch on the capital facilities plan and it focuses on the first two years of the plan. And a big thank you to Director Reum and his team for helping um put together um a more of a holistic uh planning calendar for this year. And these are the projects and funding decisions we are closest to and can most directly align with the upcoming budget. The full six year capital facilities plan will come to council in September. Uh this matters because the capital plan helps us connect long-term infrastructure needs with our financial capacity. It gives us as council and the public a clearer picture of what we need, what we can afford, avoid making short-term decisions that create long-term problems, and how we intend to fund it over time. The budget addresses the near term, while the full capital plan helps us look ahead and make responsible decisions about future facilities, infrastructure, and related opering operating impacts. This is how we stay transparent, strategic, and financially disciplined while meeting community needs. I'll hand it off to Dr. Director uh Rayu and uh go from here. Okay, thank you, Council President. Uh so the the purpose of our this meeting today, at least my goals, uh, I have two. Um I'd like to hear some feedback from the council on process. Um we did do this earlier, and I think it is a good sh shift. Of course, the staff are like, what do you mean do it in June instead of September? So we we we did we got over it though, and we got every uh all the projects done except for parks. Parks wanted to come separate, so that'll happen. Okay, so then the other thing too is just to hear feedback from the council on the CIP itself. If there's very project specific things that you guys would like to talk about, if um you want to typically what you I've seen council members do is that if if it's something you're like that's doesn't really need to happen in the next two years, you push it out, is kind of the typical thing that happens. Push it out, meaning that you take it out of the two the two funded years are 27 and 28, and then you'll get four more years to put projects um if uh if needs be. So I so those are the two things I'm really looking for uh for for feedback from you. Um the other a couple things are the just to kind of uh to refresh everybody's memory and if the public's listening, uh so we do have a comprehensive plan that you know uh identifies how much growth we need to support. And then from that plan, well within that plan, sorry, is there's a capital facilities element. And the capital facilities element discussed and refers to the system plans. So you have a but a set of system plans, one for each system. It was in the council memo if you want to read out the the names of the different system plans. But we so we take all that, all that process, and then we create the six-year CIP. Um, and then the CFP part of it, that that is beyond the six years, and we do that here. That's kind of unique with that, but I also think it's also good to keep that in front of the public so they see that uh on a on a you know budgeting basis to to know that we are actually planning for the longer horizon, not just the the next six years. Um I do recommend we try to lump the discussions around two different very specific things. Um, one of them being the utilities. Oftentimes uh so I'm a utilities guy, uh so we're at you know, most of my experience has been in most people start falling asleep when we talk about utilities. So I would recommend we take the utilities uh kind of just uh first at the beginning and try to see if there's any questions or concerns about that. It's very engineer-centric, it's doesn't really have a whole lot of impact outside of the construction phase. People just want their water to turn on and their toilets to flush, and when it rains, it doesn't flood their house. You know, so we we have selected projects through our uh planning processes for the projects that we feel need to happen uh in the next in the next two years in this in this conversation. And then the other qu the other conversation, which is the a much larger conversation and much more policy-driven conversation is what do we do with general fund funded systems? And so you have three. You have transportation. Transportation does have some uh funding you can't use for parks or facilities, but the other two are parks and facilities. What do you want to use that for? Um, and to be honest with you, the if it's like, you know what, we want to put it all in parks, you're not gonna hurt our feelings. It's that is your guys' prerogative as the council to decide how you want to expend the the real estate real estate excise tax.