Vancouver Land Use Hearings

0:00 (upbeat music) - Okay, Senator Marshall, I'm going to start the recording. Oh dear. Oh, let's see. Confirm. And then I'm going to start the transcription. Language. That should, we should be good to go, examiner Marshall, thank you. - You're welcome. Thank you, Ms. Bowen. Yes, and I just saw the alert that this is being recorded and transcribed. So good evening, everyone. My name is Stephanie Marshall. I am the City of Vancouver Hearing Examiner. Today is Tuesday, July 21st, 2026, and it is 6.01 p.m.

0:58 There is only one item on the agenda this evening, and that is a public hearing on an application for a preliminary, excuse me, preliminary subdivision. And this is file number PRJ-169503 and LUP-85740. This is the Southeast 19th Street subdivision proposal. I'm going to go through some introductory remarks and make some disclosures and then provide an overview of the order of the hearing. This is a quasi-judicial public hearing, which means that I will be judging the application. I have received and reviewed the staff report and exhibits that were submitted along with. There was an additional memorandum to the record that was provided to me yesterday.

1:56 So we have exhibits A through R, plus the memo that I received yesterday. I will also be considering testimony provided at the hearing tonight, as well as any additional exhibits that people wish to submit. Anything that you wish me to consider in my final order on this application, please make sure to raise it during the hearing this evening otherwise it will be waived. And if you've already submitted written comments, there is no requirement for you to testify tonight. I will be reviewing again, everything that's in the record. All testimony will be provided under oath and this hearing is being recorded. It's also being broadcast live on CVTV. I will be swearing in each individual before you begin your testimony. And I ask that public testimony be limited to three minutes.

2:55 As far as my disclosures, I've not had any ex parte, that means outside of this room, outside of this hearing. I've not received any ex parte contact from anyone interested in or opposed to the application. As I previously stated, I have received and reviewed the staff report and all of the exhibits that support the application. Anything that you wish to submit into the record, I will be making another statement at the end of the hearing and we'll make sure that you coordinate with the hearing examiner clerk, Clarissa Boat. I don't have any personal interest in the outcome of this application. I'm not associated with anyone associated with the applicant. I don't have any connections to anyone that has submitted public comment in the record, nor anyone on staff. And I've not prejudged this application.

3:55 While it is true that there are other subdivision applications that come before the city hearing examiner, each application is decided on its own merits based on the facts, based on the layout of the area, the surrounding streets. Critical areas, we'll be talking about that this evening. So each application is individually judged. The order of the hearing this evening, I will begin by hearing from the applicant or anyone the applicant wishes to provide testimony. After that, I will hear from staff, city staff who will present the staff report. And then at that time, I will hear from members of the public. If you are in attendance online, please use the raise hand button and we will call on individual persons in order.

4:52 It is not a question and answer type of situation. So if you have questions about something that you might've heard in the applicant's testimony or in the city's presentation of the staff report, please state those questions. And following public testimony, the city will have a chance to address questions and rebuttal and the applicant will as well. The applicant will have the final word because the applicant carries the burden of proof in these proceedings. I think I've covered everything and we will begin with the testimony. So first up will be the applicant and who is the applicant's representative who will be providing testimony this evening. Mr. Taylor, let me swear you in real quick. - Yes. - Do you swear or affirm the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

5:52 - I do. - Okay, great. You may proceed. - Perfect. I'm going to share my screen. - Oh, and I forgot to state for the written record, Mr. Taylor, if you could please state your name, spell your last name and make a brief statement as to how you represent the applicant, what your role is. Thank you. - My name is Jason Taylor. I work for PLS Engineering as a planner and engineer and I am representing the applicant for this project. You wanted me to spell my last name as well. Is that correct? - Yeah, that would be great. Thank you. So Jason Taylor, T-A-Y-L-O-R. - Great, thank you. Okay, you may proceed. - Okay, so the proposal is 19th Street subdivision.

6:51 It's a subdivision that includes 23 lots. Most of the homes are attached dwellings. There are four, five plexes, a duplex and then one single family detached home. The proposal is relatively simple. We have frontage improvements on the existing Southeast 19th Street on the north end of the project. And then we have a public road that is very short, comes into the site and terminates with a modified cul-de-sac detail, kind of a custom turnaround that better provides access to the lots within the project given the unique shape and dimensions of the site. And yeah, within the plan there are provisions

7:45 to serve each of the lots with public sanitary, sewer, public water and stormwater systems to deal with stormwater. This is the general location of the site. The site is mostly a field with sun brush and some trees along the perimeter of the site. It also shows how there's an undeveloped site to the east of us. There's a residential community to the north and further east of us there's newer single family homes that have been developed. But SR 14 is to the south, Ellsworth Road is to the west and 19th forms the northern border. The chunk that's taken out of the western end of the property is an area that is owned by Wash Dot.

8:43 And we don't have improvements proposed within that area, within the Wash Dot right away. The zone of the site is R 22, which allows 23 to 27 units within the site. The applicant proposed to do a residential subdivision, though an apartment complex with up to 27 units would have been allowed. The applicant decided that fee simple lots and detached housing was a better option for this site, given the location. - Excuse me, Jason Clarissa Bowen, hearing clerk. I don't think we are able to see your PowerPoint. - Oh, you're not. - Yes, I was just gonna jump in and say, are you referring to something 'cause I'm not seeing it. - Okay, I am sorry. - Sorry for the interruption.

9:42 - Yes, so let me, I thought I was sharing, but I guess it just went into a presentation mode. Okay, can you see the screen? Okay, perfect. - Yes, thank you. - This was the first slide that we skipped over. This is the site. This is the general area, the field, the 19th Street Ellsworth SR 14 to the south of us. This is the zoning. So we're within an R 22 zone. There's a lower density zone to the west of us and further to the east, there's also an R nine zone. I'm sure everyone's aware that the city is updating their comprehensive plan. It becomes effective in about a week.

10:39 So these zones are relevant for this application given the vesting that we have, but a lot of these zones, well, these zones will no longer exist within the next week, but that's, yeah, that's not relevant to this application. Here's our preliminary plat. It shows kind of a lot of detail for the site. It shows where driveways are, where we're gonna have parking spaces, where all the utilities are going to go, street trees. So basically the plan that shows all of the elements of the site and how they can all be accommodated within the same plan without conflicts. The lots, a lot of the lots are at the minimum lot size of 1500 square feet.

11:34 And there are a number of lots that are served by shared driveways that come off of the 109th court, which is the modified cul-de-sac detail that I was describing previously.

11:59 Yeah, because of this constraint site, we do have underground stormwater facilities. The sites also sloped away from Southeast 19th street. So there wasn't an ability to serve a majority of the site with gravity sanitary sewer. So a lot of the lots are served by grinder pump systems,

12:28 but the site is served by public water. There's a location to the south, or there are critical areas on site. The area on the south end of the site is proposed to be retained, which includes the larger wetland area that's located on site. There are three other small wetland areas on site, two and a half of them are proposed to be filled. And we are currently working with Department of Ecology to get the necessary permits to complete the fill of those wetlands. So I believe there's a letter from Department of Ecology in the record where they indicate that they don't have any, they generally don't have issues with the proposal

13:26 as it currently is shown. But there's a condition for us to get those permits prior to getting final engineering approval. This plan also shows the grading of the site. There's a wall on the south end, and you can see how there's a lot of grade from the north end to the south end of the site, and how it shows how the site will be graded out in its final configuration. In the end, we believe that all the application was complete and all of those requirements were met. We believe we meet the approval criteria and all the City of Vancouver development standards have been met with this proposal.

14:21 We're good with the findings and conditions that were written in the city staff report. I think there are a few minor changes that we've requested and coordinated with the city. Crystal may go into more detail on these items, but I think there's a removal of, we're requesting a removal of conditions seven, eight, 13, and 14, mostly because I think some of them just don't apply to the specific proposal that we have. And then the one condition that we would request to be modified is condition four, regarding the WSDOT, regarding obtaining approval from WSDOT for our proposal. We believe that all of our improvements are outside of WSDOT right-of-way.

15:20 So if we happen to have improvements within WSDOT right-of-way we don't have an issue with getting approval from them, but we believe the condition should be modified to say obtain approval from WSDOT if there are improvements in WSDOT right-of-way. That gives us flexibility. There may be some debate about the northwest corner as to where WSDOT right-of-way ends and where city of Vancouver right-of-way starts. Based on our research, our improvements are within the city of Vancouver right-of-way, but we'll make sure to work with the city and WSDOT to arrive to the correct conclusion there. But having that line on that condition would give us some flexibility so that we're not outright required to get some kind of approval from WSDOT.

16:16 And that is all I have, thank you. - Okay, thank you, Mr. Taylor. I do not have any questions for you at this time. So unless the applicant has any other person providing testimony on the application, I will go to Crystal Sanchez on behalf of the city. - I believe we're done, thank you. - Okay, thank you very much. Okay, Ms. Sanchez, you swear or affirm the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? - Yes. - Okay, thank you. You may proceed. Please introduce yourself and tell us who you are and spell your last name. Thank you. - Hi, I'm Crystal Sanchez, last name S-A-N-C-H-E-Z, and I'm the associate planner with the city of Vancouver, case manager for this project. Okay, let me share my screen so we can see the presentation.

17:16 Can you see the screen? - Yes, I can, thank you. - Perfect. Like mentioned before, we are here for Southeast 19th Street subdivision. Let's go to the next slide. This is just an aerial overview of the site. This is for a 23 lot subdivision in the R-22 higher density residential district. To clarify, this project is being proposed with a public street and two smaller streets. The staff report did mention that this was being approved with a private street as a main street, but that was a slight error on my part. And just to clarify, I believe this is the most up-to-date site plan.

18:14 I believe the middle median had to be removed to meet solid waste requirements. So the applicant is utilizing narrow development standards for these lots. Narrow lots require one guest parking space for every three narrow lots. The applicant is providing eight on-street parking spaces on Southeast 19th Street, which meets this requirement. A final determination of non-significance for SEPA was issued with the staff report. And the applicant is proposing... There's two, actually there's two critical areas mapped on these lots, wetlands and Oregon white oak. A critical area report and bank use memo were submitted. So the applicant is proposing to partially fill the existing wetland habitat and retain more the high functioning areas that will be located in Tract A.

19:11 The partial fill will require about 6.051 wetland credits to be purchased from the Columbia River Medigation Bank. The critical area and bank use memo have also been reviewed by the Clark County Wetland Biologist as a third-party reviewer, and they concur with the findings found in the report. And regarding the Oregon white oak, the applicant submitted a memo with findings regarding this on our... We had a historic mapping that showed an Oregon white oak. From this memo, they found out that there's evidence that indicates that the Oregon white oak naturally fell from the adjacent Eastern parcel with the upper portion extending onto the property, not providing habitat value within the wetland that will be protected. Next slide. We did hold a notice of application and public comment period.

20:09 The comment period was held from April 30th to June 1st. Public comments are included with the staff for as exhibit P. We received four public comments during this period. Some common topics that were brought up were residential density, compatibility, traffic safety in critical areas, as well as stormwater concerns. The applicant is proposing attached single family dwellings and one detached single family homes, which is allowed in the R22 zoning. The zoning also allows smaller lights, lot sizes as small as 1500 square feet. This project has been reviewed by city's transportation and stormwater departments and was deemed that the project can meet their requirements as conditioned. Here's another aerial showing the zoning. It's surrounded by R22 on the North and East side. To the South of the property, it's separated by Highway 14 and we have R4 zoning located on the other side.

21:09 To the West, it's also separated by street and it has R9 zoning on the other side. And we've gone over these applicable code sections listed here already. So staff is reviewing this for subdivision approval. The approval process for this is a Type 3 subdivision, which is required for 10 lots or more. It was reviewed against the preliminary approval criteria and subdivision technical standards. And like Jason mentioned earlier, the city is in agreement with a revision of condition number four and the removal condition number seven, eight, 13 and 14. And staff recommends approval of the subdivision as condition in the staff report with those revisions. Right, I'll stop sharing.

22:04 - Okay, thank you, Ms. Sanchez. And I appreciate both you and Mr. Taylor addressing the revision of condition four and the removal of those other four conditions. So thank you for that. Again, I don't have any questions at this time, but I may have some after public testimony, so thank you. Okay, all right, now is the time for public testimony. Again, I will be swearing you in because testimony will be provided under oath. I ask that you limit your comments to three minutes. One additional request I have is that if you have submitted a written public comment, you do not need to read from that because I will be reviewing all the comments that are already in the record. So with that, who would like to provide public testimony?

23:02 Please use the raise hand button and we will call on you. I'm not seeing any raised hands at this time. - I'm not seeing any raised hands either, examiner Marshall. - Okay. - Oh, nope. - Here we have. - Yes, Rosalind. - Rosalind, Rosalind, good evening. Thank you for raising your hand. I'm happy to swear you in. And if you've got some comments you'd like to make on this application. Oh, hello, good evening. All right, please raise your hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? - Yes. - Okay, great. Thank you for joining us.

24:01 Please state your name and spell your last name and let us know how you relate to this property. Are you a neighboring property owner or interested citizen? - Yes, so my name is Rosalind Hupp. It's spelled R-O-S-E-L-A-N-D. Last name is H as in Henry, UPP as in Paul. And I reside at 10404 Southeast French Road, which is adjacent from the property that we're talking about. - Okay, all right, thank you, go ahead. - Okay, so I think I had a couple or a few questions regarding this property. 'Cause I don't overall have any like concerns about the type of development that this is gonna be, but it's overall more about

24:58 like the proposed 23 lot development and how that will potentially have all of this traffic that's funneling through like the single access point on Southeast 19th Street. So I'm sure, or maybe you don't know, but there are two other, or I should say three other developments along our area. So one specifically about maybe a quarter of the mile up the street on the left-hand side, if you're going North, North up Ellsworth, there's a community there, a small community of houses that were built. And then on the adjacent corner of on French Road and Southeast Ellsworth, there's another development that's being developed there on that corner. And then now we have another development

25:57 that's a little bit further down the street on Southeast 19th, that's a pretty large development of four bedroom homes with single car garages. And now we're talking about another development on the corner, again, which is fantastic of these 23 lot development townhomes. And so my main concerns is thinking about the traffic that's gonna come from this. We at that corner of Southeast Ellsworth and French Road and Southeast 19th, that's a four way stop. So one thing I'm wondering is, will there be some kind of street light or any additional development that will be created to manage traffic? And as well as, you know, being able to deal with like the additional traffic,

26:56 'cause again, when we're looking at Southeast 19th Street and as well as Southeast French Road, we're directly up against a highway, highway 14. And in addition to that, we recently have had, you know, someone murdered on our street, which is actually my husband. And so my other concern is safety. So I think with all that, that's pretty much my biggest concern is the safety factor, the increased foot, the increased traffic, and as well as like, you know, what type of parking is gonna be the situation because even if they have garages or parking lots, I can also assume that potentially you might have people parking on the street from time to time, and this is after the development is complete.

27:55 And then I think the other piece of it is, is, you know, how will the noise, you know, in addition to what we already have with the traffic noise, how will that be dealt with?

28:13 - Sorry, I was still muted. Thank you, Ms. Hupp. I appreciate your comments, and I do see that you've asked some questions. So at the conclusion of public testimony, when I turn it back to Ms. Sanchez and Mr. Taylor, hopefully they can address some of those questions that you have. Thank you again. - Okay, thank you. - You're welcome. Is there anyone else that would like to provide public testimony this evening? If so, please raise your hand with the raise hand button. - I'm not seeing another. - I'm not, I'm here. - Raise hand. - Okay, okay.

29:10 Well, I'm going to move on then to Ms. Sanchez. If you are experiencing issues with the raise hand button and you manage to get that to work, we will take your testimony out of turn. Okay, Ms. Sanchez, rebuttal testimony for the city, please. - So regarding transportation, our transportation department have, of course, reviewed the applicant's plans and documents, and they have deemed that this project can meet their requirements as conditioned. Regarding the garages, they're proposing at least a one car garage per lot, and there is eight on-street parking spaces that will be provided on Southeast 19th Street. I don't believe there is a stop sign or a light proposed with this development,

30:07 but I will pass it over to the applicant to verify. That is pretty much the rebuttal from the city. - Okay, thank you, Ms. Sanchez. Mr. Taylor, or if there's another person for the applicant, Mr. Taylor, good to see you again. All right, it's your turn for rebuttal. - With projects like this, we rely on the city to tell us to what extent we need to study traffic and intersections within the area. Generally, if you propose a larger project, you're going to have to study the level of service of intersections, and the city does a pretty good job at kind of understanding where there are current issues and where things need to be looked at.

31:05 With the 23 lot subdivision, where a majority of those homes are smaller attached homes, that doesn't actually generate a lot of traffic. I think we had like 14 p.m. peak hour trips, which is usually the number that you look at when looking for traffic impacts during the times where there's the most traffic, the four p.m. to six p.m. window. So with only 14 trips, the city required us to submit a trip generation memo, which details the trips that are created by the development and also looks at where those trips will go within the City of Vancouver roadway network. City of Vancouver also collects fees

32:04 based on where you send trips. There are certain intersections where they know there are issues and they have plans to collect fees so that they can then provide mitigation and improve intersections. So this development didn't send trips to any of those intersections that the city had identified, and the city didn't indicate that, there's no indication that there was a failing intersection near the site, so no intersections were specifically studied for level of service standards. So yes, there is a minor increase in traffic based on the development, but based on the size of the proposed development, no mitigation is being required. There is a stop sign on 19th Street. We looked at site distance for the proposed intersection

32:59 and 19th Street, so there's available site distance. Our proposed entrance meets intersection spacing standards and we're providing frontage improvements that will, we're providing frontage improvements that will widen out the 19th Street on the north end of our site while we're not providing any striping for a left turn lane or anything like that, the width of 19th Street will be 36 feet wide at our frontage as it intersects with Ellsworth. It will at least give the city an opportunity if they decide it's necessary in the future to put in a dedicated right turn lane or left turn lane from 19th Street onto Ellsworth.

33:56 So that's all I have from a traffic perspective. As far as safety, there's not much that, not much we can do with a residential subdivision development. There's, you know, the future residents will pay taxes that goes towards the city's, city's fund where they provide policing and safety services. So there's nothing specific that the proposed development is doing. Though, that I'm not sure exactly what the homes, you know, what the design of the homes will be, but most modern subdivisions include some kind of a ring doorbell. You know, a lot of the new subdivisions

34:55 that I've seen come with doorbells like that. I don't know if the home builder is going to be providing those, but you can drive, some neighborhoods, some new neighborhoods you can drive through at night and see all the glowing green dots. I think that goes a long ways to providing a safer neighborhood where there are cameras, things are being recorded in it. You know, it makes it so that it's less likely that somebody's going to be committing crimes in newer neighborhoods like that. Regarding the noise, it's something we understand that there is a lot of traffic noise because of SR 14. There's nothing specific that I know of that the developer is going to do to address noise, though at, I'm sure it's going to be a factor when they start to build homes where they're going to make sure

35:55 that the windows are of such a quality and the insulation is of such a quality that it doesn't pose an issue to future residents. I think that addresses all the issues that I heard, but I'm here to answer any other questions. - Okay, thank you, Mr. Taylor. I want to state for the record, it looks like Ms. Hupp put a comment in the chat and I regret not stating this at the outset of the hearing. The chat is not monitored by me. I did see it flash up there and comments introduced into the chat will not become part of the record. So I just have to let Ms. Hupp know that. So I did see that you had maybe made a statement or asked another question,

36:53 but unfortunately it's past that time to address that. So thank you anyway, Mr. Taylor and also Ms. Sanchez, I do not have any additional questions and it appears that we are at the conclusion of the public hearing. So at this time I will go ahead and close the public hearing and I will close the record. No new exhibits were introduced during the hearing. And I have a date by which my final order will be issued on the application. And that date is Tuesday, August 4, 2026.

37:40 And with that, we will go ahead and close the public hearing for this evening. Thank you all for your attendance and your participation. Have a good evening.