Washington County Committee for Citizen Involvement (CCI)

Transcription

1 DRAFT Minutes of October 15, 2013 Washington County Committee for Citizen Involvement Meeting TVF&R North Operating Center, SW Blanton Street, Aloha CCI Members Present Non-Voting CPO Representatives, Guests, and Staff Bruce Bartlett, CPO 1 Eric Squires, CPO 6 Mary Manseau, CPO 7 Marty Moyer, CPO 7 Henry Oberhelman, CPO 8 Tom Black, CPO 9 Glenna Dryden, CPO 9 Paul Johnson, CPO 15 Bill Scotty Ellis, Coalition for a Livable Future Commissioner Dick Schouten Philip Bransford, County Administrative Office Dyami Valentine, DLUT Patrick Proden, OSU Extension Dan Schauer, OSU Extension Welcome, introductions and minutes: Chair Henry Oberhelman called the meeting to order at 7:05. He passed out the meeting evaluation form and asked the group to note future meeting ideas on the form. He also asked people to note specific issues they would like to see Metro President Tom Hughes address when he comes to the CCI in the future. The minutes from the September meeting were approved. Participants introduced themselves and mentioned hot topics in their CPO area. Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten joins CCI for conversation and to check-in - Three basic areas that encompass the work of a Washington County Commissioner: 1. Serving as the mayor and city council for the residents of the urban unincorporated parts of the county (nearly 200,000 people) 2. Provision of traditional county services (election, jail, health and human services, etc.). They set policy, pass laws, approve budgets for services 3. Serve as the Board of Directors for Clean Water Services, a comprehensive sanitation, water quality and stormwater management agency that is very well respected across the country. He will cover three topics. (See his presentation shared at Aloha-Reedville Study Area: This is a phenomenal effort. At the start of the Obama administration the federal government pulled together different cabinet departments to comprehensively address issues of housing, transportation and urban\suburban health. This focused in on key places, and Washington County staff applied for grant funding to look at Aloha-Reedville which was received around three years ago to look at the future for this area. It is a comprehensive look at Aloha-Reedville as a classic inner suburban ring community as we approach a fork in the road - are we going to invest public and private money to improve this community or are we going to let it go into a state of decline? Commissioner Schouten thinks it is pretty clear which way we want to go. The grant was for several million dollars and included matching funds from the County and Metro. The federal planning project grant funding ends in February 2014, and ordinances are likely to be filed related to ideas coming out of this work. We are about three quarters of the way through the project and have received a lot of input from the community, and understand the problems that people think are important, now zeroing in areas and actions that we want to focus on. At the top of the agenda for transportation are sidewalks near schools, the community wants to close sidewalk gaps, more connections between cul de sacs with walkways to schools, shopping areas and transit. This will help people get to places by walking a short distance instead of getting into cars. We are looking at partnering these improvements with real transit enhancements and working with TriMet (westside enhancements). Additional interests in street lighting 1

2 particularly in darker parts of the area. We will need to coordinate the work with S. Hillsboro planning (30,000 more people will be living there). It is important that Hillsboro contribute their share to address traffic impacts on Aloha. This will require additional street improvements. He listed a number of areas where improvements are needed for people to be able to cross the street to access bus stops. Many of these issues exist elsewhere in the County so these topics are of interest to those outside of Aloha-Reedville. Another topic that will need to be addressed with Aloha is governance. For a long time the County had an overarching policy that they would not get into the urban services business, cities would do that. The world is messier than we would like and doesn t fit with our tidy plans. We have gotten into urban services through the Urban Road Maintenance District, Urban Lighting District and the Enhanced Sheriff s Patrol District. There are things that the Aloha-Reedville area is saying may require a service district. The Commissioner expressed that he has a very pragmatic approach to this; he has a background as a lawyer representing local government. Beaverton and Hillsboro may be annexing some of these areas and can provide services. The County may go to the legislature to form a County Service District to provide services that for areas that aren t annexed. Aloha could be a good laboratory for these approaches. There are good partnerships with THPRD, the County and the schools to provide parks and ball fields. The County is changing the zoning in Aloha to open up the opportunities for the formation of farmers markets in commercial areas. Other changes include opening up home occupations to allow more activities to allow people to work at home, that do not impact traffic. This would impact Aloha but will also be applied County-wide. Bruce Bartlett indicated that he thinks the number of trips and expectations of what they trigger are archaic and don t fit the modern economy. Commissioner Schouten suggested that Bruce come to the upcoming hearing on this ordinance. Tom Black asked about the utility of codes when the County has only a single code enforcement officer. Commissioner Schouten indicated that if the County is going to be providing urban services we will need to create some form of District to provide code enforcement. This may be an issue in other parts of the County and there is recognition of this need. There were some additional questions that triggered a brief discussion of the Loud Fowl (roosters, peacocks) ordinance for urbanized areas, under consideration by the County. Vehicle Registration Fee local dollars to fund road maintenance, a variety of options have been looked at and the Board will be considering this in the spring. There is a growing shortage of funds for tar and paving materials to maintain arterials and collectors. They will do more polling to get information about community understanding and support for this fee. The Board has looked at different fee levels. It is cheaper to do minor ongoing maintenance before the roads deteriorate and major maintenance is needed. They still aren t sure if this is something that will go out to the voters. They are doing more outreach and gathering more input. It might go out for a vote in the fall of Mary Manseau asked, why go to a vote for this, the Board decided what they wanted to do with the full implementation of the TDT even after voters supported that? He responded that the community has indicated they want to vote on this. The County runs on a lean budget and surveys indicate a high level of satisfaction from residents. Tom Black asked about Gain Share and why can t it be used for this purpose? The Commissioner commented on the one time nature of Gain Share and therefore it isn t reliable. The County does not know if they will be able to continue to collect it, and the County does not use one-time money for ongoing expenses. 10-year plan to end homelessness The County is now into year five of the Plan. He shared the 2013 Homeless Assessment Report to the Board of Commissioners for Year Five with the group, available online at The plan is to move people quickly into housing with wrap around services so they can be employed and stay in housing. He described information on graphs showing the homeless (federal definition, state definition). The biggest push is to get people into housing. They also have worked on getting housing for the chronically homeless (chronic long term or episodic homelessness) and providing extensive social services. This may be more humane and also more cost effective. The chronically homeless end up in emergency rooms, etc. so they are more costly if we can t get them housed and helped. The first year of the program was We have made a real effort with help from the Sheriff s Office and Community Corrections to get people into housing when they come out of those 2

3 systems. We have built up our supply of housing especially permanent supportive housing instead of transitional housing. There have been additional federally funded vouchers for housing Veterans. The County has outstanding staff working on this. Henry Oberhelman asked how long the process takes once someone becomes homeless before they come back to being fully functional. The Commissioner indicated the most damage is done during the time a person is chronically homeless so it is critical to shorten that period. Eric Squires indicated that the County should use bunk houses, which were used historically. Commissioner Schouten responded that they are looking at zoning for single room occupancy facilities (small studios). Bruce Bartlett asked about the trailers and campers as housing. He mentioned the Balm Grove experiment out near Gales Creek. The Commissioner stressed the more holistic approach needed to provide programs and services that meet the needs of those community members. There were questions about monitoring of transitional housing for those coming out of Community Corrections, but for those coming out of homelessness have their freedoms and rights. There were some questions about whether there are services to keep families together and the Commissioner indicated that those are part of the services provided. Tom Black asked about facilities like Grange buildings that are underutilized. (This is the transitional housing that the County is moving away from.) Is there card we can give out or a phone number? Use of 211 is the best option for those in need to find resources. Marty Moyer explained that there are several year round shelters and that there are severe weather shelters in churches in different parts of the county. She has seen the numbers going down in her experience as a volunteer. There are also good programs for homeless youth. Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 Overview Scotty Ellis, Coalition for a Livable Future introduced his organization comprised of more than 90 organization covering the four counties in the Portland Metro region, working to make it a more equitable sustainable region. He described the 2007 Equity Atlas booklet which was a ground breaking document with a lot of maps that showed disparities in which populations and communities had access to different resources (food parks, transit, etc.). This was the first time maps had been used to show equity issues in access to resources in a region. Other states have tried to replicate this. In 2013 they released the 2.0 version which is an online version that can be used by anyone. He passed out information on the types of data that is available. He showed a heat map showing that you can get down to the city block level. The tool lets communities tell their own stories and create their own maps. He demonstrated what the tool can do. Go to to look at canned maps, and then learn how to use the system. He demonstrated looking at food, and access to stores or fresh food showing that there is a breakdown of what can be seen, sample maps with analyses. It can take time when you first start working with the system as it loads the specific information you are looking at. This is a great tool to start discussions, these are different indicators can add other parameters to the map honing down to specific information you ask (e.g. stores and farmers markets with fresh foods that take WIC vouchers). Maps will rank areas or neighborhoods by the indicators you select. This allows quick comparisons of areas. You can layer community gardens onto these maps and relate it to affordable housing units. Data is also downloadable. They will do training to help communities tell their story. Glenna Dryden asked if this would be available at libraries for use. Scotty indicated that they are working to train library staff. Tom Black asked if they could schedule training. Dan Schauer indicated that this was an introduction and hopefully we can schedule some joint meetings or regional workshops in several areas where we can fill a room. Trainings are usually customized for the region where training is occurring. There is a fee associated with this type of training. Marty Moyer indicated that we could invite people to meeting, have wifi in the facility. Paul Johnson asked about the definition of equity as used by Coalition for A Livable Future. As a group they are using the definition shown here: In an equitable region: All people have access to the resources necessary for meeting their basic needs and advancing their health and well-being. All people have the power to shape the future of their communities through public decision-making processes that are transparent, inclusive, and engage the community as full partners. All communities experience the benefits and share the costs of growth and change. All people are able and have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and realize their vision for success 3

4 Paul discussed how this tool fits with several of the different city sustainability efforts. Scotty described how the data included became so complex to help answer the needs of a lot of different groups. The data is a way for communities to raise questions about why certain services aren t present in particular areas. Tom Black asked how will they keep the data fresh. Scotty indicated that this is an issue that they are trying to deal with. The work was grant-funded, hosted at Metro. They are trying to find ways to get data sent to them so it can be updated monthly. Bruce Bartlett asked how data could be updated by the data originator. That may be something that is done in the future. They are also looking at downloading data as shape files. Patrick Proden discussed the work the Intertwine data management system and that they might want to look at that. He discussed the Food Systems work being done in Washington County and that they would like to bring him into that group. Scotty discussed some work they have done in the health area. Bruce discussed the expansion of urban agriculture and individuals keep reinventing the wheel. It is important to find a way to network players together. Washington County 2035 Transportation System Plan Update Dyami Valentine, Department of Land Use & Transportation presented a brief status report on this project. They want to give an update on their public involvement process. Outreach to the CPOs is under way over the next month or so as the project s process begins updating existing maps. There are also workshops on of six study focus areas that haven t been looked at in-depth for a number of years these are open. He will give a brief overview of the structure of the modal plan process. We are updating our maps, the policy framework was adopted but this modal plan development with updated maps will be of more interest to most people. It includes evaluating performance in the future based upon projections of growth looking at performance measures and goals of the policy framework. Some preliminary evaluation work has been done. There are six study areas in urban areas which haven t been looked at in the last ten years. They will incorporate work by other jurisdictions. Will be working with Workshops will be on 10/22 South County (Tualatin, Tigard, Scholls Ferry Road); 10/29 north-south connection between S. Cooper Mountain and the Hillsboro industrial area; November 12 - three Study areas will be looked at in a single workshop - Walker Road north of 26, Bethany Hillsboro, Cedar Hills, Cedar Mill area. They have been getting out to CPOs, cities and agencies. Once they have collected information about issues, concerns and problems they will integrate that information and go out in Open Houses. The will move towards preferred solutions. There are a variety of other outreach activities as well. The Open House material will also be available in virtual format. Tom Black asked how the Washington County plan fit with the Metro Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) update? They aren t completely in sync. Washington County is catching up with the 2010 RTP. They are being consistent and it will help inform the RTP to some extent. Some projects will go on the financially constrained list. At the Open Houses the same people who always come? Could they hold the Open House somewhere else like a grocery store? They would like a wider audience and are doing some community TV spots and some farmers markets. Mary Manseau mentioned that they have been reaching out the Parent Teacher Organizations for a joint CPO 1 & 7 meeting they are having. She asked about the future performance, looking at projects to be built in the future. Is the list on the TSP website? Yes it is the financially-constrained RTP list. They will have a map of those at the workshops. They do not have those up on the website, but that is a good idea. It is on Metro s website. She indicated that this will help people understand why some improvements are not proposed. Marty Moyer expressed concern that LUT does not really understand the routes that people drive. Germantown Road residents have not encouraged Multnomah County to make improvements to Germantown, Cornell and Cornelius Pass. What is the relationship with Multnomah County on those roads, and this planning work? Dyami indicated that they have not reached out to Multnomah County with regards to those facilities. This is a limited update, primarily urban, etc. This will be a likely discussion as part of the Westside Transportation Study. CCI Steering Committee Elections The nomination period was opened at September CCI meeting. A vote will be taken. Henry Oberhelman was nominated as Chair by Marty Moyer, Seconded by Glenna Dryden, Tom Black is willing to serve as is Bruce Bartlett. The group agreed to leave nominations open to allow others to be contacted and to volunteer. 4

5 MTAC Report from Bruce Bartlett he provided a handout. (See addendum at the end of these minutes.) He is happy to discuss any topics. The meeting materials are available on line. The Public Engagement Guide did not contain any real surprises. Transportation is a tough one to engage most people. Mary Manseau asked about the Metro model is projecting that in 2035 N. Bethany will be only two thirds built out. Right now one third of the land has been approved for development, or a neighborhood meeting has been held. How can we ask about this model and its validity in projecting what will happen. Beaverton School District is also using the model, and that is why they are looking at a new school in the south but the schools north of 26 are full. Bruce said he would try to get her an answer. Tom Black would like Metro to look at the issue of air quality monitoring and the need for more stations in the state. Dan Schauer mentioned that Kathryn Harrington indicated that she would be interested in talking to the CCI about the Urban Growth Report and the next growth Management Decision. Announcements: Tom Black raised an issue about public notice on development review and city of Hillsboro./ He asked if the CPO Boundaries change if the City Boundaries change. The answer was no. The CPO Program Vision Mission going to the Board of Commissioners Work Session early in January It is up to the CCI Communications Committee about whether they want to convene as a group and form an agenda. JB will be coming to CCI soon. There was some discussion about when the new CPO Handbook will be provided and orientation held. The draft will be provided to allow comment by late January and Orientation sometime in February. The group had a brief discussion about the IGA and getting CCI feedback to Sia and Patrick. Participants were asked to complete meeting evaluation forms and the meeting was adjourned at 9:14 pm. These Draft Minutes were prepared later than the normal schedule, in January, and have not been approved by CCI. OSU Extension 5

6 ADDENDUM to October 2013 Minutes: MTAC Report to Washington County CCI Bruce Bartlett October 2013 The Metro Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) is a 35-member committee comprised of planning professionals, business representatives and citizens that provides technical support to the Metro Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC). MPAC is a 28-member charter-mandated committee of local government representatives and citizens that provides consultation to the Metro Council on policy issues, especially those related to services provided by local governments. The Washington County representative on MTAC is Bruce Bartlett (bruce@actisdesign.com) and the alternate is Dresden Skees-Gregory (dresden@nwsustainable.net). MTAC meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month from 10 a.m. to noon at Metro Regional Center. Their agendas cover a wide array of topics: population and employment forecasts and modeling, regional transportation planning, regional active transportation planning, Climate Smart Communities Scenarios (mandated by the 2009 Oregon Legislature to reduce statewide CO2 emissions), Industrial Site Readiness, Community Investment Strategies, as well as review of regional planning and development grants among other subjects. Potential future topics to be pursued in the next year include: governance of the Urban Unincorporated Areas, active transportation/intertwine, and downtown/main street redevelopment/urban renewal. These are usually complex subjects which are analyzed by the staff of cities, service districts and municipalities, consultants, and, occasionally, by citizens in the Metro region. These discussion are held at a professional level which lends itself to a robust understanding of the issues and their impacts. Details of MTAC s work can be found at Agenda Item Highlights: Southwest Corridor Plan (October 2, 2013 meeting packet) o Objective: Review Southwest Corridor - Steering Committee recommendation and project partner actions to support recommendation to MPAC Public Engagement Guide (October 2, 2013 meeting packet) o Objective: To provide an overview of the Public Engagement Guide (formerly Transportation Public Involvement Policy) and bring awareness to local partners of public engagement guidelines outlined in the guide. Willamette Falls Legacy Project Community Conversation presentation. (Sept 18, 2013) o Objective: To provide information about the project and seek input from MTAC representatives on the vision for the site Urban Growth Report and 2015 growth management decision (Sept 18, 2013) o Objective: Inform MTAC of timeline, milestones, and engagement opportunities that will lead to a 2015 growth management decision. Acknowledgement and Review of Draft Regional Active Transportation Plan o Objective: Recommendation to MPAC on ATP resolution, acknowledging work completed to date and initiating further review prior to adoption as a component of the Regional Transportation Plan in July Eco-Efficient Employment Objective: Learn more about eco-efficient projects in the region s employment areas and discuss additional opportunities. 6