Blog Layout
Opportunities for Public Input on Comprehensive Plan Changes
June 14, 2020
Frequent Participation Will Hold the City Accountable
There is a process the city must follow as they update the Comprehensive Plan, which means there are ways we can plan to be engaged to stop the Rezone (the up-zoning shown in the 2019 Future Land Use Map). The more people who comment, the better chance of success.
The Black Diamond Comprehensive Plan changes is THE key document to control (or curb) future development. The Planning Commission could recommend removal of potential up-zones of over 1,000 from the Comprehensive Plan that were slipped in without analysis last year.
Steps:
1. The Planning Commission will meet, possibly multiple times, then set a public hearing date.
2. The Public Hearing on potential changes to the Comprehensive Plan should include the public's suggested changes, per BDMC 16.10.140.
3. The Planning Commission will have the chance to review and vote on each individual Comp Plan amendment suggestion to create a formal "preliminary docket" recommendation to the City Council. Staff may try to prevent votes on the public's suggested amendments by asking the Commission to take one vote on staff's recommended changes and rushing the Commission.
4. The City Council will meet publicly and adopt the recommendations as written, or hold their own public hearing if they wish to make changes. The schedule is for Council review in November, and adoption of the Comp Plan changes in December.
2. The Public Hearing on potential changes to the Comprehensive Plan should include the public's suggested changes, per BDMC 16.10.140.
3. The Planning Commission will have the chance to review and vote on each individual Comp Plan amendment suggestion to create a formal "preliminary docket" recommendation to the City Council. Staff may try to prevent votes on the public's suggested amendments by asking the Commission to take one vote on staff's recommended changes and rushing the Commission.
4. The City Council will meet publicly and adopt the recommendations as written, or hold their own public hearing if they wish to make changes. The schedule is for Council review in November, and adoption of the Comp Plan changes in December.
Commenting to the Planning Commission more than once is worthwhile, because a commissioner spends a short time reading your comments, but a long time in meetings run by staff who have opposed the public's changes.
Developer School Impact Fees: On this issue, staff informed the Commission that the developer school impact fee to help pay developer's share of new schools is still something City government is likely to do. The staff plan is to work on this via an "emergency" process for adoption prior to December. The Planning Commission will hold a separate public hearing on adopting changes that will allow Developer School Impact Fees. There will be a Council meeting on the same topic.
The 2020 appeal was filed after the City finished the 2020 update in May of 2021. Here is the closing brief documenting the Citizen group's findings . The City had erroneously assumed there would be 3 or 4 lanes on State Highway 169, but has no funding or project to widen this road.
Charge Developer Impact Fees - August 20, 2020 City Council Decision.
Since 2011, the Enumclaw School District has asked Black Diamond to adopt a developer fee of $12,000 per unit of new housing. Similar changes are needed in Tahoma and Kent School District. This would offset the approximately $35,000 in capital cost per unit of new housing it will actually take to build new schools. Any money not collected by these developer fees is passed on to voters (YOU) for a new school tax bond to be added to your real estate taxes. In March 2020, Black Diamond started the process of changing the Comprehensive Plan to include school district capital plans. This would allow the Council to finally decide to collect developer school impact fees. However, the Planning Commission must act first, and the March Planning Commission meeting was cancelled. Now in June the Planning Commission agenda does not include this issue. This inaction sets us up for schools crowding and higher taxes. To avoid residents of Black Diamond and Enumclaw paying even more for schools (in addition to the 7 proposed schools in Ten Trails that will already require tax increases for over 90% of their cost), the city needs to adopt developer school impact fees. The city should set them at the maximum $12,000, because even this maximum will still leave the majority of the burden of new school costs on taxpayers.
The people filled the meeting chambers to oppose more up-zones at the Planning Commission public hearing October 2019. People commented that with the massive Ten Trails development already quadrupling the city, adding even more dense development would be harmful. The Commission received specific requests that the city remove future up-zones for dense housing and commercial from the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map. These requests were made at Commission meetings and in email follow-ups. However, it appears now in June 2020 that the city is ignoring its requirement to review Comp Plan suggestions from the public [1]. Black Diamond has already approved more than 4 times the local growth required by the Growth Management Act. The issue is so bad that the Puget Sound Regional Council is requiring the city to avoid actions that will further over-shoot its Growth Targets [2]. To comply, the city should remove potential zoning for more Medium Density Residential and Commercial. Inaction this year sets us up for road and traffic problems. If traffic is bad now, we haven't seen anything compared to the added density of the proposed up-zones. The best way to reduce traffic is not to add the land development in the first place. That's why removing new residential and commercial from the Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map is so important. [1] Black Diamond Municipal Code 16.10.130.B. [2] https://www.psrc.org/sites/default/files/eb2020feb27-agenda.pdf