With only Good of the Order left on the agenda, Tuesday night’s Issaquah City Council meeting looked to be winding down when Council President Stacy Goodman introduced an ordinance that was a surprise to the public.
The council unanimously voted to enact an emergency six-month moratorium on certain development to go into effect immediately.
Although the council members had all received copies of the ordinance in advance, Tuesday’s meeting was the first time that they all looked at it together, as Councilmember Paul Winterstein noted.
A copy of the ordinance had not been included in the agenda packet that was made available to the public the Friday before the council meeting. However, according to state law, a public hearing for the moratorium will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 17 in the council chambers.
The reasoning behind the sudden action was that, according to a report submitted by the administration at the council’s July 11 work session, development has not been following the standards set by the Central Issaquah Plan, which was adopted in 2012 to guide the future of growth in the city.
The ordinance mentioned several categories in which building is not living up to the Central Issaquah Plan’s ideals, including “architectural fit with the community, urban design elements, vertical mixed use, affordable housing, parking and district vision.”
“I don’t bring this proposal lightly … the [Central Issaquah Plan] has significant flaws that need to be addressed,” Goodman said.
The council wishes to use the six months to closely examine the Central Issaquah Plan and figure out how best to rework it so that its goals can be achieved in the future.
“We need to back up, make [the Central Issaquah Plan’s] vision clearer … This is the appropriate move at this time, to sit back, take a pause, regroup and then define things and move forward,” Councilmember Bill Ramos said.
The moratorium does not apply to all development. Any building project that is currently underway, or complete permit applications that were already submitted before the meeting, are allowed to continue moving forward.
Also exempt from the constraints of the moratorium are properties covered by development agreements; development having to do with public transit; public facilities like fire stations; public schools and Village Theatre; projects involving the sale and development of land owned by the city and public capital projects; remodels and tenant improvements; single-family homes on lots already vested through platting approvals; developments considered to be affordable housing, which are defined as being at least 40 percent comprised of affordable housing units; and emergency repairs or construction due to a natural disaster or similar cause.
Goodman told the Reporter in an interview that the emergency action was necessary because the council “was no longer willing to wait” to change development practices, especially considering the many complaints the council has received from the public about development.
“We’re getting what we allow, not what we envision … we need to revise a number of policies,” she said.
Council members pointed to Issaquah’s expected growth in coming years as evidence that a major change in how development occurs is needed. Earlier at the council meeting, Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff had told council members that the Puget Sound’s population will likely increase by 800,000 — the equivalent of Seattle and nearly all of Tacoma, he pointed out — by 2040.
“We’re trying to minimize the impact — it’s better than not having any plan at all,” Winterstein said.
“In terms of as a northern state, as a high-service state, we’re the fastest-growing, and Issaquah has had a chunk of that,” Councilmember Tola Marts said. He said that with that growth in mind, having houses that working families can afford is “an important part of who we are as a city.”
“Right now in the pipeline we have 936 housing units — none of those are affordable,” Economic and Development Services Director Keith Niven told the council.
Describing the Central Issaquah Plan’s ideal, Goodman said that it would look like a “pedestrian-friendly” city with “focused growth” that is “more urban than suburban.”
In light of the negative feedback that the public has given about development thus far, Goodman said that she expects people to be in favor of the moratorium at the public hearing next month. She said that the reason the council passed the moratorium decision without first notifying the public was to avoid a rush of developers submitting applications for new projects before the moratorium’s start date.
