The Issaquah City Council voted unanimously at the Nov. 7 meeting to amend the six-month development moratorium to exempt certain small projects, to adopt a 12-month city development work plan for the council and to hold a public hearing at the Feb. 21, 2017 meeting to discuss extending the moratorium by an additional six months.

The council made the decision after hearing from over a dozen small developers at the moratorium’s public hearing on Oct. 17 that the moratorium was threatening their livelihoods and lifelong savings. The developers begged the council for an exemption so that they could continue to put food on the table for their families.

The council discussed this input at a work session on Oct. 26.

The amendment passed on Nov. 7 allows development for small projects that consist of four or fewer residential units or non-residential development projects whose total floor area does not exceed 3,000 square feet. The council clarified the amendment’s initial language to specify that this did not mean an allowance of 3,000 new square feet of development, but that the entire building’s area cannot be larger than 3,000 square feet.

“I’ve been very sensitive throughout, as we’ve been talking about the moratorium, about the financial impact and hardship that the moratorium may cause … I think the projects that we’re talking about, the smaller projects, are modest changes, light impact and not necessarily part of the scale and fit conversation that the moratorium surrounded,” Councilmember Mariah Bettise said.

The exemption will apply to not only the small projects that were non-vested (that had not yet submitted complete permit applications when the moratorium was passed), but will apply to future small projects as well. Of the original 22 non-vested projects halted by the moratorium, seven will be helped by this amendment, according to information included in the agenda packet.

“The idea that someone is on the list or not on the list based on timing, I’ve never been comfortable with,” Councilmember Paul Winterstein said.

“It’s this feeling of, you just weren’t in line at the right time, and that’s a really hard thing when you’re dealing with really small projects and people who have their livelihood wrapped up in something and were hoping to maybe move on to a better life,” said Keith Niven, the city’s director of economic and development services, who gave a presentation to the council on the moratorium at the meeting.

“The number of residential units and amount of square footage that we will likely see through potentially this amendment to the moratorium seem small and insignificant to us and the community, but are very significant to the folks that are sitting over here (for audience comments) and then the people who will be coming in after,” Niven continued.

The city-wide moratorium was passed unanimously as an emergency ordinance at the Oct. 6 council meeting with neither prior public notification nor a chance for public comment. It went into effect immediately, though complete permit applications that had already been submitted were allowed to continue moving forward.

The council stated that the reason for the moratorium was that development in Issaquah was not adhering to the standards established by the adoption of the Central Issaquah Plan in 2012, specifically the categories of architectural fit with the community, urban design elements, vertical mixed use, affordable housing, parking and visions for each district.

Five small developers spoke during audience comments at the Nov. 7 meeting. Some were appreciative of the proposed amendment to the moratorium, while others did not believe it went far enough.

Terry James, who had previously spoken at the Oct. 17 hearing, thanked the council “for listening to the owners and the small residents here and the local impact that the moratorium is having on them.”

“We are so tired of waiting … I beg you, please don’t make us wait any longer. I urge you to vote tonight, to approve the administration’s recommendation to exempt small projects,” Terry Phelan said.

However, those developers whose projects are not quite small enough to fit into the 3,000 square-foot or four-residential-unit restrictions asked the council for the moratorium to be further narrowed or for its potential one-year or longer timespan to be decreased.

Ivana Halvorsen, who is working on the redevlopment of the Jackson’s Shell on Northwest Gilman Boulevard, said that “the threshhold of 3,000 square feet feels very arbitrary and very tiny.”

“[I] ask you to consider shortening the moratorium if you can. It’s a pretty big financial hit,” said Don McFaron, who had been trying to develop and resell property on Mine Hill Road but has now been held up.

Projects exempt from the moratorium according to the original ordinance passed Sept. 6 include 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.

Councilmember Eileen Barber was not present for the vote.