Kirkland Planning Commission Meeting - June 23, 2022
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Kirkland Planning Commission Meeting - June 23, 2022
The Kirkland Planning Commission met on June 23, 2022, from 7:00 PM to 8:07 PM. The primary agenda item was a public hearing on proposed zoning code amendments for Autonomous Personal Delivery Devices (APDDs) on private property. The commission also discussed City Council actions, the Station Area Plan, and future meeting schedules. Four commissioners were present, with three absent.
Public Hearing: Kirkland Zoning Code Amendments for Personal Delivery Devices (File No. CAM22-00195)
Senior Planner Scott Guter presented staff's proposed regulations for APDDs on private property (Option 2), following a prior moratorium and City Council direction to develop regulations for both private property (Option 2) and limited right-of-way use (Option 3). The hearing focused solely on Option 2. No public testimony was received.
Discussion included:
- Commissioner Tymczyszyn expressed frustration that Amazon, the likely applicant, did not provide a presentation or answer questions, and initially indicated he would recuse himself from the vote. He later voted no.
- Commissioner Rutherford noted that the regulations would allow operation on private property in commercial, office, industrial, and institutional zones, but would not permit crossing onto public right-of-way or residential driveways without separate right-of-way regulations.
- Vice Chair Reusser supported allowing private property operation as a testing ground, seeing limited risk compared to public right-of-way.
- Chair Rozmyn made a motion to recommend Option 2 as proposed.
Key Outcomes
Vote on Option 2 (Allow APDDs on Private Property):
- Motion by Angela Rozmyn, seconded by Scott Reusser.
- Passed 3-1.
- Yes: Angela Rozmyn, Scott Reusser, Rodney Rutherford.
- No: John Tymczyszyn.
Motion to Request Staff Update in One Year and Invite Amazon to Present:
- Motion by John Tymczyszyn, seconded by Angela Rozmyn.
- Passed 4-0.
- Yes: All four present members.
- Commissioner Tymczyszyn noted he would submit a dissenting opinion on the primary vote, to be provided by June 27–28 for inclusion in the July 5 City Council packet.
Approval of Minutes
- January 13, 2022 Minutes: Approved unanimously (4-0).
Administrative Reports & Commission Discussion
City Council Actions:
- Deputy Director Jeremy McMahan reported that City Council adopted amendments to sunset the Houghton Community Council effective July 9, 2022. Zoning code amendments for Houghton will be presented to the Commission later this summer.
- Deputy Mayor Jay Arnold updated on the Station Area Plan: Council will consider the plan and the Commission's Comprehensive Plan amendment recommendations at a special meeting on June 28. Google submitted a letter stating intent to use commercial mass timber, limiting building height to 180 feet. The development agreement public hearing is set for July 6. Council requested Google hold an open house for community engagement.
Public Meeting Calendar Update:
- The July 14 meeting will likely be canceled due to a light agenda.
- Chair Rozmyn requested an update on ADU and Missing Middle Housing implementation; staff will provide a report in August.
- Commissioner Tymczyszyn inquired about resuming in-person meetings. Mr. McMahan stated hybrid technology is being developed; the Houghton Community Council's final meeting on June 27 will be a hybrid test.
Comments from the Audience
- None.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, thanks. Okay, we're live. And if we could call roll, please. Catch you, Alan. Hi, sir. Scott Reis here. Here. Angela Rosman. Here. Reddy Registered. Here. And Deep Single. And John Tinchan. Thanks. All right. Do we have four? Yeah, we have four of us. Okay. Yep. So we have one attendee. So if you would like to speak, uh raise your hand. Or okay, we actually have a few more attendees. They just hadn't popped populated yet. But if anyone would like to speak, now would be the time to raise your hand. Um, otherwise, if we could get started, Scott, with the um personal delivery devices. Yeah, we'll go ahead and share my screen here. This is a public hearing angle. I said open the public hearing. Yes, and yes, we can open the public hearing and then have Scott started. Okay. Okay. Sorry, I was opening up the agenda as I was talking. So okay, here we go. All right. Can everyone see my screen? Yes. Okay. I'm gonna move my windows around every time I open up something and this it just seems to populate someplace else. All right, so good evening. I'm here to provide a presentation on staff's proposed uh regulations for autonomous personal delivery devices. Um, tonight's agenda is to receive a presentation from staff and conduct a public hearing to receive public comment and then close the close the public comment and deliberate on recommendation to city council. A little bit of background here in 2019, the state of Washington um developed uh regulations uh for the minimum operation uh parameters for APDDs in the state of Washington. Uh in 2021, the city received uh four APDs APDD applications uh at sites uh where they would place their dispensers. Um staff did not have the tools to uh review these new technology, so city council adopted a moratorium in January this year. Um the goals of the moratorium were to identify the basic facts about the technology, address concerns over the safety and its privacy uh with the technology, identify public benefits, uh, and study other cities regulating the system technology. Well, so we did take this to you before, as well as the public and the transportation commission. And um we received pretty universal uh feedback. Uh the commission's input at the last meeting was pretty much shared by the home community council of transportation commission and all of the public that we know had uh couldn't uh receive comment from so the commission was very concerned about the potential impacts of this unproven technology, uh especially on vulnerable populations or concerned about idle devices and on sidewalks in particular. Um they did uh uh the commission uh thought that the first step might uh seems more likely to be uh to allow these on private property than within the rights of way. Um and that there needs to be a clear story and how these devices benefit the community, and that any benefit should be quantified so that the benefit justifies the risk.
openpublica.com