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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2020.09.25 Special Council Minutes MINUTES McCall City Council Special Meeting McCall City Hall VIA MS TEAMS September 25,2020 Call to Order and Roll Call Work Session Adjournment CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Giles called the special meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 9:03 a.m. Mayor Giles, Council Member Maciaszek, Council Member Nielsen, and Council Member Sowers all answered roll call. Council Member Holmes was absent. City staff members present were Anette Spickard, City Manager; BessieJo Wagner, City Clerk; Michelle Groenevelt, Community Development Director; Morgan Bessaw, City Planner Valley County Commissioner present was Sherry Maupin McCall Area Planning&Zoning Commissioners present were Scott Broyles, Johanna Krahn, and Robert Lyons Also, in attendance was Dian Kushlan, Kushlan Associates; Cynda Herrick, Valley County Planning&Zoning JOINT WORK SESSION#3 with the McCall Area Planning& Zoning Commission and the Valley County Board of Commissioners AB 20-278 Code Updates on General Development Standards—Discussion only Community&Economic Development(CED)Director Michelle Groenevelt presented the McCall Area Code Update. At their December 13, 2018 meeting, the City Council approved a contract with Diane Kushlan of Kushlan Associates for the project management of the McCall Area Code Update. Since 2018, numerous code updates have been accomplished. The July work session kicked off the next round of Code updates and staffs goal is to provide an opportunity for communication between members from McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC), City Council, and Valley County Commissioners with these work sessions. Ms. Kushlan provided the update. She gave a brief recap of the previous two workshops held on July 24 and August 27,2020 and an overview the of development standards focusing on the"how" of development. She explained the content of Chapter 8 pointing out the highlighted the areas Pagel of 3 MCCALL CITY COUNCIL September 25,2020 Special Meeting being changed and the new sections being proposed. Reason for the changes include: Implement goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan;Codify provisions of the McCall Design Guidelines; Update to reflect other policies and current practices; and Clean-up — reorganize, simplify, and eliminate inconsistencies. The focus is on the most policy driven changes in the highlighted sections which are grouped and explained below: Timber Harvest, Fire Mitigation, and Landscaping There is explicit policy in the comprehension plan to create development standards to protect heritage trees and native vegetation. Areas of focus in this section are: • Maintain and increase McCall's urban forest as a key component of the green infrastructure network with economic and social benefits o Create development standards to protect heritage trees and native vegetation • Achieve no net loss of tree canopy coverage and strive to increase the overall tree canopy to reduce storm runoff,absorb air pollutants,reduce noise,stabilize soil,and provide habitat • Preserve, to the extent reasonable, native vegetation consistent with ensuring wildland fire defensible space • Strengthen incentives and requirements for tree preservation for new development. • Maintain McCall's heritage trees ➢ Timber Harvest—Changing the standards for tree removal and replacement and clarifying the role of the City Arborist. No changes to the allowance for salvage of dead, dying,or hazardous timber and conditional use permit for timber harvesting. Staff is looking into ways to implement enforcement of these laws and have a consequence for not following the city code, especially the removal of heritage trees. ➢ Fire Mitigation—New guidelines for the assessment of fire hazard to be reviewed in the site design process and maintain a current code requirement for a 30' defensible space zone. ➢ Landscaping - Adopting provisions from the McCall Design Guidelines, new standards for water conservation,use of drought tolerant and native species, irrigation, and new standards for required trees, shrubs and lawns. Lawns, except for native grasses, are limited to 10% of the site area. PZC Member Robert Lyons asked if it is possible for the City to mail a letter to the property owners so they can be made aware of the law. Staff stated it is possible, but the expense and labor would need to be examined and reported; Staff does, periodically, reach out to the tree professionals to remind them of the laws. Commissioner Lyons suggested giving a letter to give the local title companies to include in their new owner packet and staff was amenable. Parking Lots, Loading Areas, Driveways This section relates to vehicles and how to manage and create standards for these three areas of code. The areas of focus are: Page 2 of 3 MCCALL CITY COUNCIL September 25,2020 Special Meeting ➢ Codifying provisions of the Design Guidelines—minimize the impacts of hard surface areas, buffer from adjoining properties, and improve pedestrian circulation. ➢ Maintain safe conditions—accessible for fire equipment and improve interface with the public right of way. Site Design and Service Areas Two new sections were added which is both a way to integrate all the standards already mentioned into a review as part of the site design process and also addresses some standards for protection of other natural resources besides native vegetation and tree in terms of waterways, grading, and site modification. As well as areas such as electrical boxes, garbage areas, or insular support areas for mostly commercial buildings. These two new sections are: ➢ Site Design - integrates standards, standards for protection of natural site conditions, and standards for site modification. ➢ Service Areas—standards for buffering from adjacent properties. Next steps include meetings with PZC on October 6 and November 3 then setting dates in November and December to bring before Council and the Board of County Commissioners for public hearings. Comments Staff stated they are fine tuning the details with other City departments and then will send out a summary to PZC prior to their meetings. Commissioner Johanna Krahn asked if the code could be simplified for different standards for different districts to make it more user friendly. Staff stated they have created a Residential and Commercial Development Guide to help pull together all the different code sections that are relevant. Council Member Sowers expressed his preference on presenting it to Council with the current code compared to the proposed changes. All members expressed their appreciation of the presentation and were supportive of the changes. ADJOURNMENT Without further business, Mayor Giles adjourned the meeting at 9:40 a.m. 00 J% SC rtcCA At j) �ii ATTEST: = u S$AL "s_Robert S. iles, Mayor l ..i.. � = 0 - ,�, ��. BessieJo agner, ty Clerk '*n,,,,,,,,Stitoo Page 3 of 3 MCCALL CITY COUNCIL September 25,2020 Special Meeting