Chelan City Council has information filled meeting

CHELAN – The agenda for city council’s meeting, Tuesday, August 8, covered some general subjects including requests for consideration on electrical upgrades for the golf course sheds and tree removal service at the city’s maintenance shop. However, the meeting also covered a couple hot topics within the community, including Chelan County PUD’s proposal for implementation of advanced meters and the Planning Commission’s 2017 Comprehension Plan Amendment recommendations.
 Prior to the detailed slideshow presentation provided by Suzanne Hartman with Chelan County PUD, Mayor Mike Cooney addressed the board room filled with members of the community. Cooney explained the reasoning for the PUD’s presentation as strictly informational “for the viewpoint of people opposing it, to fill the council in and for the PUD to start us off with the purpose.” He went on to state that although hearing both sides, there would not be a debate at that time and requested that all sides remained respectful for the presentation.
Hartman began her presentation by explaining “where we are with the meters and where we have been with them in general.” In 2005 and 2006 one-way analog meters were put in place on each residence, and those meters work with the water system. The analog meters, which are in place now, emit signals and require the use of “meter readers” to be able to analyze power usage levels, and are unable to communicate if any surges or outages take place at the residence, delaying recovery time. Hartman continued, adding “with the digital meters, not only can they talk to us, but we can also talk to them.” This advantage provides immediate response time to power outages, even if no one is at the residence to report it, “we don’t have to wait for you to call us when there’s a problem,” she added.
“Chelan PUD did not jump into this,” said Hartman. Between April and May, PUD representatives attended around 18 different events and meetings, and spoke to approximately 450 members of the community during those times. After revisiting community input and comments in June, PUD commissioners agreed that it was time to move forward with the project and prepare a Request For Proposal (RFP). “A RFP,” explained Hartman, “helps us identify potential vendors to develop the advanced meters.” With member benefits including the elimination of meter readers on property, monitoring and reduction of energy use, accuracy of readings resulting in lower costs and remote connect/disconnect, service calls, there are high selling points on the advanced meters; however, there is also a high amount of concern among community members with the increase of Radio Frequency (RF) waves that will be transmitted with the new “smart” meters. Council member Wendy Isenhart addressed this concern by asking how frequently the smart meter will be transmitting signals, “it adds up to about two minutes a day,” Hartman replied. RF signals are transmitted through a majority of electronic devices already used in households today. One of the most commonly used devices that use RF signals is the cell phone, which produces somewhere around 100,000 times more RF waves than the advanced “smart” meter. As one member of the community pointed out during public comment though, these RF amounts are in addition to the frequencies we are already surrounded in, not in replacement of. Another common concern at last week’s meeting was on electronic or digital privacy issues, how will the information that is being sent out be protected from “hackers”?  Community member Suzanne Keller addressed her concern with the privacy issues during public comment, “Just how secure is this network going to be and what’s going to happen to the data collected?” Keller asked, then added “what are they going to do with our data? PUD said it’s not going to be sold or shared. That’s today, what’s going to happen in two (or more) years?” Hartman explained this concern on privacy and security simply stating, “It’s really no different than what you have now in terms of your meter, it will not see behind your wall,” then continued by describing what information is sent out from the meters, “it’s sending out ones and zeroes, it’s not tied to you, it’s sending out data, the only time it gets tied to the customer account is once it gets behind the PUD’s firewall, it will then be applied to a customer’s account.”
There’s plenty of benefits in regard to the smart meters, but with information and studies on RF effects on the environment and health, the new technology can seem somewhat intimidating. For members of the community who are not interested in the placement of a smart meter on their residence, however, the PUD is offering an “opt out,” although Hartman clarified that the opt out cannot be promised indefinitely, “it is speculative (at this point),” she said.
Concluding the advanced meter segment, Mayor Cooney offered an explanatory statement as to the objective of the presentation “this is an educational process for the council, for the staff … I don’t see this being the end road of this discussion, it will be carried on … at a later date, if we do want to continue this conversation I’m sure the PUD will host just as they have with everything we’ve ever worked with them on. This is not the end of the public comment.”
 

Comprehensive Plan

Airport                          A
Highway Service Commercial          C-HS
Waterfront Commercial                     C-W
Downtown Mixed Residential           DMR
Downtown Mixed Use                       DMU
Downtown Public                              DP
Downtown Single Family                  DSF
Public Lands and Facilities               PLF
Single Family Residential                  R-L
Multi-Family Residential                    R-M
Special Use District                           SUD
Tourist Accommodation                    T-A
Tourist Mixed Use                              TMU
Warehouse and Industrial                  W-I

After a short break allowing the community members that attended for solely for the meter presentation to exit, Cooney commenced the next item on the agenda, 2017 comprehensive plan amendments, presented by Lisa Grueter of Burk Consulting. Some amendments made to the existing comprehensive plan included correct zoning abbreviations for Downtown Mixed Use (DMU) and Downtown Mixed Residential (DMR), urban growth area reductions, and housing cluster changes in the Tourist Accommodation (T-A) overlay. Planning Director Craig Gildroy introduced the presentation and summary of items to be presented. “Planning commission did walk through each of the proposals over about six plus meetings, so they really looked in depth into these and that was after receiving public comments, a lot of written comments, and the public hearing.” The last opportunity for public comment will be at the next city council meeting, Tuesday, August 22, and the last day for submitting written comments, will be Wednesday, August 16, Gildroy added, then went on to address the council members, “the statutory requirement to have the comprehensive plan updated,” he added, “was in the end of June, so staff is requesting … (that) hopefully you’ll be able to work through this and make a final decision on September 26.”
After approximately 20 meetings, the planning commission and Burke Consulting representatives feel that the comprehensive plan is close to being finalized. 15 key areas had proposed changes in the Future Land Use and Zoning Map provided by the planning commission, including the addition of more Multi-Family Residential (R-M) and T-A areas, expansion of DMR area downtown next to Highway Service Commercial (C-HS) area, and overlay additions to T-A on the Butte and a Live-Work zone in the area of Apple Blossom Center.
The land just north of the Apple Blossom Center had originally been zoned for Warehouse and Industrial (W-I), however the revised plan proposed this be changed to R-M, which “allows for a mix of housing and job,” Grueter. Other major zoning change proposals included updating the Northshore shoreline and golf course areas from Single Family Residential (R-L) to T-A, which the exception of a small golf course area to be changed to R-M. In regard to the T-A overlay, cluster development changes were proposed to aide in the preservation of natural landscapes. A number of the DMR zoned areas downtown, which are already designated for multi-family around the north, south, and highway, are intended to remain DMR, but proposed to have “more design standards … development pattern similar to the mixed residential character.” Grueter then provided more input on the needs within the T-A and R-L zones stating they are “trying to figure out an appropriate balance between the flexibility and seasonal uses in the T-A, as well as the year-round need for residential housing types.”

Comprehensive Plan Vision

The next hot topic covered in the presentation was one included in the comprehensive plan vision- 2037, keeping Chelan’s small-town charm. Building heights can be tremendously impactful on the enjoyment of the area. Grueter addressed this with proposals on minimizing that impact. Building height adjustments in the amendment provided to council included height reductions in DMU and Tourist Mixed Use (TMU) zones from 50 to 45 feet, and 10-foot height reductions in R-M, T-A, C-HS, and Waterfront Commercial (C-W) zones, limiting these zones to a maximum height of 40 feet, with the exception of C-W which proposed a maximum height of 25 feet. Another proposed change was regarding the density needs and requirements in each zone. Not all zones were specified for density in previous draft. The updated plan identifies gross density per acre for each zone and includes a density for every land use destination and matched that in the zoning code. The existing Slope Density Chart would be removed, but would retain critical area regulations and add hillside development regulations on slopes greater than 30 percent, which are intended to minimize changes to natural land forms. Grueter provided clarification on what is meant by density “we are proposing a gross density system which means if the zone allowance for RL from 4 units an acre, at 10 acres, that’s 40 units per acre (for example). Then you have to meet all the other city requirements for how you can place those lots. They have to fit per regulations and growth standards. It tells you how many units maximum you can have.” Clustering changes were also added to the proposal, zone depending, taking in to account the natural features on the site and planning the development accordingly. Amendments and additions to water quality issues included implementation of clearing and grading regulations, and the requirement of erosion control, enforcing erosions control where it is not of natural origin, with associated amended city codes for critical areas ordinance, addressing the “best available science for geologic hazard areas” per the comprehensive plan update presentational handout.
The next Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 22 at the Chelan High School Performing Arts Center at 6 p.m., with deliberation and potential actions on the Comprehensive Plan, scheduled for the next two council meetings on Sept. 12 and 26 at Chelan City Hall.
For more information on the 2017 Comprehensive Plan Update visit the city’s website at cityofchelan.us.