The City Council’s consideration of a switch to a Hearing Examiner system for review and approval of land use applications is moving forward. Here is the process the Planning Director proposed at Monday night’s City Council study session. The City Council did not adopt any process, so what follows is only one possible (but also probable) general approach. We may decide to modify the process as we get into it further.

1. The City Council will begin discussion of the proposal (changes to Anacortes Municipal Code Titles 16-18, and new Title 19) at a study session on March 12. The City Council might suggest alternative language, and would need to decide at the conclusion of the study session how next to proceed.
2. Staff will send the document with the City Council suggestions to an attorney for review.
3. The City Council will discuss the attorney-reviewed document and might consider further changes.
4. At a later meeting, the City Council would itself hold a public hearing on the near-final document.
5. Either immediately following the public hearing, or at some later meeting, the City Council would hold further deliberations, make any (minor) final changes, and then adopt or reject the proposal.

Note that the current draft of the proposal (available here as various documents beginning with the word “Title”) includes two options—one to revise land uses procedures using a Hearing Examiner (Title 19 Option A), and one to revise without adopting a Hearing Examiner (Title 19 Option B). I have repeatedly stated my opposition to adopting a Hearing Examiner system at this time (and I’ll detail that opposition further on this blog sometime later), but I am supportive in concept of reforming our land use procedures, which are currently a sorry mess.

Your comments are welcome. This is a purely legislative (as opposed to quasi-judicial) matter, and you may contact me about it at any time. If you want your comments made part of the record, however, you should submit them through participation in the City’s formal process (i.e. at the public hearing or during an advertised written comment period).

Councilmember Erica Pickett, who the Council elected Mayor Pro-Tem at our first meeting of the year, has assigned each councilmember to four council committees, based on our requests. My committee assignments are:

• Finance
• Parks and Rec
• Personnel
• Planning
• Port/City Liaison (as an alternate)

Although it has improved with Councilmember Adams's efforts to update it, the meeting list on the City’s website still lacks accurate time and place details for these meetings, so I'm maintaining my own version of the list here. My committees are already juggling times to make meetings work with our schedules, so it may take some work to keep it up-to-date.

Much as Oak Harbor and other communities are doing, and as I promised during my campaign, I’ll be working to make these committee meetings more frequent, open, and advertised, and to allow public participation.

Lights will be on at Storvik Park tonight until 9 pm. More winter/snow information.

The City’s Comprehensive Plan and its development code (Anacortes Municipal Code Titles 16, 17, and 18) are adopted by the City Council and together regulate land use in the City of Anacortes. As Planning Commissioner Lin Folsom noted at the last Planning Commission meeting, the City has set the last working day in March as the annual deadline for the public to submit proposed amendments to those regulations.

I’ve spoken repeatedly and at length about the need to revise the entire code, starting from scratch, and without being bound to existing zoning lines. I’ll continue to push for that through getting a head start on our required comprehensive plan update, but in the meantime, if there’s a problem with our land use regulations that you consider especially urgent, please submit a proposal.

Commissioner Folsom specifically suggested that you review the list of uses allowed in your zone, and think about whether you’d feel OK with that use moving in next door. To do that, view a zoning map of the City and determine which zone you’re in. (If you live in Old Town, you’re in both zone R3 and the Old Town Overlay.) Then open the municipal code to Title 17, Zoning, and find your zone. Uses that are outright allowed (no special public hearing required) are listed as “Permitted Uses” or “Permitted Accessory Uses.” Uses that require some form of public hearing are listed under “Conditional Uses.” These uses may or may not be allowed depending on the outcome of that public hearing…but are quite likely to be approved. Also keep in mind that covenants in your development may restrict uses more than the city code.

You’re certainly not restricted to commenting only on your own zone—after all, it’s your city and zones already span vast swaths of land. Please contact me if you have questions or need assistance formulating your ideas. You can find more information about the amendment process in Appendix F of the Comprehensive Plan, or this brochure.

Councilmember Eric Johnson and I attended the Association of Washington Cities Elected Officials Essentials training this weekend in Lynnwood. The AWC folks managed to pack a lot of information into a bit less than two days, and I met some other interesting electeds, learned about other cities’ practices, and brought home a lot of good reading material. If you’re interested in reviewing some of it, here are a few links:

• Steve DiJulio’s Knowing the Legal Territory Presentation

• MRSC’s Newly Elected City Officials Information

• WA Department of Commerce’s Short Course on Local Planning

The event reminded me of the importance of continuing education in any field. Planning Commission Chair Laurie Gere’s comments at the last Planning Commission meeting were similarly on point: instead of a hearing examiner, let’s spend some time educating and training our Planning Commission. Although recently-retired Commissioner Clay Leming had a long background in land use, I don’t think any of our current commissioners do. The field of land use law is complicated, and we ought to give these dedicated volunteers all the training they need.

Photo by Elaine Walker.

The City’s celebration of the Depot, including a presentation to Maria Petrish, the driving force behind its restoration, was quite well-attended Friday night (although we’d have loved to have seen more young people!). The Depot, operated by the Arts Foundation for years, recently switched to the City’s control. The mayor invited anyone with ideas and suggestions for its future to contact him. For some background about what’s envisioned, check out the City's 2006 Depot Master Plan (30mb PDF).

Although usually Ward 1 doesn’t get garbage pickup on Mondays following holidays (and yes I’ve heard your complaints about that), today we do because we’ve had two such Mondays in a row. Although I’d forgotten to put out my trash can, I watched city workers retrieve it from its hiding place to dump it for me. Good job, guys. Remember you can also put out a trash bag of equivalent size to your normal service to make up for last week.

The City and the Anacortes Arts Commission are hosting “A Depot Celebration” at the Depot Arts Center (611 R Ave) featuring a 50-year retrospective focusing on the history of local arts and the Anacortes Arts Foundation. The show runs Friday, January 6 from 4 pm to 9 pm and Saturday, January 7 from 11 am to 4 pm. The mayor and Arts Commission will make presentations at 6:30 pm Friday.

The Depot site is slated for many additional changes. For more information, check out the City's 2006 Depot Master Plan (careful, 30mb PDF).

My first council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 3, 2012, at 7 pm. The regular Monday meeting is on Tuesday to observe the New Year's holiday.

On the agenda:

1. Oath of Office
2. Election of Mayor Pro Tem
3. Reappointments to Arts Commission
4. Reappointments to Parks & Rec Board
5. Change street name

Pedestrian safety is a frequent concern of both the public and the downtown merchants I hear from. Drivers on Commercial Avenue routinely fail to stop at intersections to allow pedestrians to cross and exceed the 20 mph speed limit north of 12th Street. The Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey downtown in July 2010 that revealed this is also a top concern for shoppers.

Making our central business district more active and pedestrian-friendly is a high priority for me, and one of my campaign promises. Getting shoppers out of their cars is key to improving our local economy: more foot traffic means more discoverability of our local businesses.

My sense is that many drivers are unaware of state laws requiring yielding to pedestrians, not just in marked crosswalks, but at any intersection. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices suggests one of the following signs can be placed either overhead above a crosswalk, or in the roadway at the crosswalk on the center line. The sign support would be designed to bend over and then bounce back to its normal vertical position when struck by a vehicle.

I support placing the landscape signs at as many different locations as possible on Commercial Avenue and 12th/Oakes. The portrait signs may have the unintended effect of teaching drivers that they need only stop for pedestrians at marked crosswalks, but would still be appropriate for placement in high-use marked crosswalks.

I’ve talked to Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer about this issue. He was quite receptive to the concern. I’ve also asked for a meeting with Police Chief Bonnie Bowers to discuss, among other topics, enforcement of the speed limit.