Vancouver City Council

0:00 Welcome to Vancouver City Council. I'm Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor for the City of Vancouver, and it is June 8, 2026. It is 6.30, and we will start our City Council meeting. And with that, let's go ahead and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Ms. Steller, please call the roll. Council Member Harless? Present. Perez? Here. Fox? Here. Hanson? Present. Mayor McEnerny-Ogle? Present.

0:59 Thank you. Councilors, you have the minutes of May 18, 2026. Are there any corrections or changes? Move to approve. Hanson? Seconded by Paulson. Paulson? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. You have the minutes of June 1st. Are there any corrections or changes needed? Paulson seconded by Fox. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. We have two proclamations this evening, and let's go ahead and start with our ride transit month. And we have the CEO of C-Tran, Leanne Caver, with us this evening. Hi, Leanne. Whereas C-Tran has provided public transportation in Clark County since 1981, today operating

1:58 local regional and express fixed route bus service, C-van paratransit service, Vanpool, and the current on-demand service, and C-Tran provides cost-effective, safe, and accessible public transportation that empowers the community by providing mobility options that connect them with places of employment, education, healthcare, shopping, entertainment, recreation, social and religious function. And whereas transit demand is linked to high need populations, including seniors, people with disabilities, and low income households, transit provides essential trips and essential jobs for people living in Vancouver, especially black Latinx and immigrant community members, Latinx rather, and immigrant community members who are more likely to rely on public transit. And whereas over 40,000 people, 18 and younger, in Vancouver can ride C-Tran for free through

2:55 the Youth Opportunity Program, now therefore I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, Mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Ride Transit Month in the city of Vancouver and encourage the federal government, states, localities, schools, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and other applicable entities, along with the people of the United States, to observe Ride Transit Month with appropriate events and activities to promote public transportation. Leanne, let's step over to the side here.

3:46 (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for recognizing Ride Transit Month. As you mentioned how important it is to the community, and C-Tran is happy to be here to serve the community. And for those that don't ride transit, Ride Transit Month is especially for those to get out there, and we encourage you to try riding and seeing how the system works and what the benefit and value it adds to our community. So again, we thank you all for everyone in your support in making public transportation and C-Tran successful in our community. Thank you, Leanne. And our second one is the Tourette Syndrome, and we have Liam James McMahon. McMahon. Okay.

4:42 "Tourette Syndrome is an inherited neurological disorder that is characterized by involuntary physical and vocal tics that occur many times a day in more than 350,000 people." Excuse me. Can you please not call me a disability? And I do have some message I would like to share about why does it have to be a disability statement? Certainly. Go ahead and have a seat. I'm reading the proclamation that was sent in to me to read. "350,000 to 450,000 children and adults with Tourette Syndrome, and at this time there is no standard treatment or known cure for this, whereas positive actions to assist children and families living with Tourette Syndrome would result from a broadening of public and professional knowledge and acceptance, and whereas the Tourette Association of America is actively providing services to families, educating medical professionals and teachers,

5:42 and supporting research to better understand the signs and treatments of Tourette Syndrome. Now therefore, I, Anne McEnerny-Ogle, mayor of Vancouver, Washington, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month in the city of Vancouver to promote understanding, compassion, and acceptance for all of our fellow community members who deserve and need our support to break the stigma that surrounds Tourette Syndrome." Good evening, all.

6:40 My name is Liam MacMahon, and I'm the representative for Washington State with the Tourette Association of America. I myself have Tourette Syndrome and coprolalia, so if you hear me make funny noises, curse, or say a slur, it is uncontrollable function of my disability. Firstly, thank you on behalf of myself and the Tourette Association of America. Thank you for acknowledging and validating the relevance of a highly misunderstood disability. I believe that this proclamation is a meaningful step in spreading awareness for those who experience life with Tourette Syndrome or in and around the city of Vancouver. But the first part is awareness, and that is what brings me here in front of you. It starts with all of us in this room to advocate for and understand the narrow complexities of this disability, affecting a misrepresented margin of people in varying ways. If I may share just a few facts about Tourette's, I'd appreciate it.

7:38 Current statistics state that one in every 160 school-aged children have Tourette Syndrome, but it is estimated that 50% go undiagnosed, which likely means the number is closer to one in 80. Education on this disability would provide more accurate numbers. Things vary widely from person to person. I've known a lady to smash her head into her steering wheel, a man to flip people off, a child to yell obscenities, and myself to say slurs or hoot like an owl, as you probably have already heard, but they can change and there's always a repertoire of noises and actions involved. There is no rhyme or reason for tics, but if you may imagine, they can lead someone with Tourette's Syndrome to face discrimination and feel ostracized. I've had Tourette's Syndrome for 20 years and have faced both employment discrimination and public aggression.

8:38 My hope is that by Vancouver City publicizing Tourette's Syndrome Awareness Month, May 15th through June 15th, it will be an opportunity for furthering discussions, support, and safe spaces for all with Tourette's Syndrome. I'll leave you with three words, awareness, education, and compassion. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that concludes our proclamations, brings us into community communication. Ms. Dauler, do you have any cards at all for communication? No. Okay. Thank you. I have no preregistration or cards for this section, so I'll close the community communication, bring it into the consent agenda. Councillors will be pulling item number nine. Are there any other items that you would like to pull?

9:34 Item number eight? Any others? Okay. Let me read item number seven into the record, an ordinance relating to water resources protection by establishing development regulations and minimum standards to reduce the risks of contaminants entering water resources, mending sections 14.26.100, 14.26.110, 14.26.112, 14.26.130, and 14.26.135, and adding section 14.26.137 of the Vancouver Municipal Code.

10:24 I'll entertain a motion for items one through seven, ten through 15. Move to approve, Council Member Stober. Stober, seconded by Perez. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Councillor Fox, you pulled item number eight? Yes. So this is an item changing the municipal code. We've had this item on our agenda before. There's been some minor changes, but it's more of an ask that the next time that it comes before should be coming back for a second reading, that the staff report include addressing

11:21 a few of those comments that we had raised in those meetings, which was, you know, talking about kind of how this code could be in conflict with other sections of public speech or campaign signs, and staff has had other conversations with us, not on the dais, to tell us how those particular sections of code are not in conflict, but it would be better if it was included in the staff report given that at least I had raised those concerns because those were brought to me by community members and they wouldn't have the benefit of those other conversations. So does that make sense? Okay. Let me go ahead and read the title into the record. Item number eight is an ordinance of the City of Vancouver amending Vancouver municipal code section 7.04.020 pedestrian interference, providing for several ability and setting

12:19 an effective date. Did you wish Mr. Landy to -- >> I suppose if we need to kind of outline the questions that we've discussed in previous meetings, but they aren't part of the record, so just maybe that's a question back to staff or the city manager if we need to kind of outline some of those questions again or if staff can just ensure that there's a section in the future staff report that includes -- >> Yeah, I think it would be -- >> -- resolution of those. >> Sorry, Lon Pluckon, city manager. Yeah, we can address those with the presentation at the public hearing, and then it would be a good practice for us anyway just because those concerns were raised at council. We have had a chance to address those and we would want the public to have the benefit of knowing what we did to address them much like the city council does. >> Yes, that's what I'm asking. >> Okay.

13:18 So it will be in the report the next time we see this. >> All right, then. >> Any other comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion on item number eight. >> Move to approve item eight. >> Fox, seconded by Perez. >> Perez, those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Item number nine is an ordinance adopting an interim official control pursuant to RCW 36.78.390. Relating to the Evergreen School District Capital Facilities Plan adopted as part of the City of Vancouver Comprehensive Plan in accordance to VMC 20.915.060 and imposing a moratorium on the calculation and collection of school impact fees by the City of Vancouver for Evergreen School District and under Vancouver Municipal Code 20.915.060 for the duration

14:18 of six months based on and adopting certain findings of fact justifying this action and establishing an immediate effective date. Chad, go ahead. >> Good evening, Chad Eichen, Community Development Director for the City. I'll give you just a brief staff report or I'm here for questions. It's your pleasure. >> Let's do a brief staff report. >> Okay. School impact fees charged to new residential development are based on a district's need for new facilities as estimated in their capital facilities plan over a six-year period. The City collects such fees at the time of building permit issuance and then passes them on to each district. The Evergreen School District adopted an updated capital facilities plan or CFP which says that because the school district has adequate capacity at all grade levels for the next

15:14 six years and expects the student population to actually decrease, that they do not need to collect impact fees and that the City of Vancouver, City of Camas and Clark County should revise the ESD impact fee to be zero dollars per residential unit. The reason for this request has to do with timing. State law says that for the City to collect or revise school impact fees, it must adopt the district's capital facilities plan in conjunction with the comprehensive plan or alternatively as part of the City budget process. Unfortunately, staff missed including the CFP in the recent comp plan update because we had decided to tackle impact fees separately to address recent changes in state law. As a result, the next opportunity to adopt the ESD's CFP is later this year with the biennial budget.

16:12 Staff believes it would not be appropriate to continue to collect impact fees for ESD when their own analysis and CFP indicates that there is not a need for any increased capacity or impact fees for the next planning horizon and therefore we are proposing a moratorium on the collection of such fees. We've been in contact with the ESD facilities director and legal counsel and they have not expressed any objection to this proposal. If the interim control ordinance is enacted tonight, Council will need to hold a public hearing within 60 days. If there are no changes following the public hearing, the moratorium will continue for the full six month period or until the CFP is adopted and the VMC is amended, whichever is first. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Councilor, do you have any questions? Yes. Councilor Paulson, go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chad. A couple of questions.

17:08 It's a six month moratorium, but it's a gateway to a longer period of fee relief, correct? That's correct. It's basically to get us through this period before the capital facilities plan can be adopted. So in other words, we're not anticipating that we're going to suspend these fees just for six months. We're anticipating it will be much longer than that. This just allows us to do it until we can officially do it using the normal process. That's right. Okay. And what are those fees currently or what have they been? I can give you the exact amount. There are two different fees. One is for single family residences and a different fee for multi-family residences

18:01 per unit. The single-family fee for Evergreen is $6,432 per residence. For multi-family residential unit, the fee is $3,753. And both of those will go to zero. That's correct. And we currently collect those fees on behalf of the Evergreen school district because of an interlocal agreement we have, correct? That's right. It's passed through to the district. So when a developer or a private citizen comes and files a permit for a single-family resident or a multi-family residence, we collect a total fee and a portion of that fee is this fee that you're talking about, correct? That's right. And do you happen to know ballpark approximately what percentage of the total fees we collect

18:58 would be comprised of that fee specifically? I don't know offhand, but it is a sizable proportion of the overall fees that are collected. Would you say close to 30 percent? I'd say 20 to 30. Yeah. Okay. So it's a pretty significant reduction. It is. And it's a reduction that's not a temporary reduction. It's not a six-month reduction. It's a longer term, potentially a six-year reduction. Probably longer if their student projections continue to show no significant increase in student population. So that's good news for those who are concerned about the cost of new housing. Absolutely. In this district. Yeah. Thank you, Chad. Thank you. Any other questions? Councilor Perez? Thank you. Just to go off a little bit on those numbers, the key question is whether those savings

19:53 will actually translate into lower housing prices, lower rents, or more housing supply for working families. Is there a way to measure that? Yes. I can do it. No, I'm sorry. It will absolutely bring down the cost of building a new project, residential project. You're asking how to quantify that? How can we prove that those savings are actually translating to lower costs for working families? That I don't know. Okay. Maybe we can put some thought into that later. Yeah. Thanks. Any other questions? Well, let me clarify that. Not maybe. Let's put some thought into how we're going to look at that. Okay. Thank you. You want a solution right now? I'm sorry, ma'am.

20:52 This is not your opportunity. Any other questions, Councillors? I'll entertain a motion for item number nine. Move to approve. Paulson seconded by Stover. Roll call vote, please. Councilmember Harless? Aye. Perez? Aye. Fox? Aye. Paulson? Aye. Stover? Aye. Hanson? Aye. That concludes our consent agenda, brings us into communications from the council. Councillor Harless? Pass. Councillor Perez? None for me tonight. Thank you. Councillor Fox? I think I'm wondering and just following up on just the conversation we just had, actually. And I'm thinking to myself that the state has actually convened many working groups

21:45 and studies on how the effective fees and impact fees and permit timelines and all of those things affect the cost of housing and how it affects housing production. So I'm not sure our individual staff would have a particular answer for us on how I mean reduction of one fee, of course, will reduce the cost of that particular housing development. But beyond that, for more in-depth information on fees in general on production of housing or affordability or fees in general on the cost of rent, I'm just doubting that. I think that's beyond the scope of our staff, but the state has done a lot of work on it. So maybe I'm also offering the fact that I have a lot of that information, a whole policy

22:44 team that works adjacent to me, if that's of interest to this council. Okay. I see heads nodding. All right. Thank you. Any other comments, Mayor Pro Tem? Okay. Paulson? Stover? I'm going to pass. And Hanson. Just a quick note. We had over 300 entrepreneurs in Esther Short Park this Saturday for the Lemonade Day, sponsored by the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, 317, 27. There were a ton of them, and I'm sorry it rained on them a little bit. But what a nice variety. They had to develop their business plan, create a product or a service, and market it, and very creative children. Congratulations to all of them.

23:39 And then the bell tower is now working, although with all the rain and such, we want to keep it closed. Unfortunately, everything was working except the speaker. So you could read the diorama turned, and we all cheered for it. It has been years since that was working appropriately. We'll fix the speaker. City Manager, any comments? Yeah. Just a couple of things to ensure I track everything for follow-up after the meetings tonight. I've got an item from the dinner discussion about ensuring that the Council understands how the non-conforming use interpretation would apply to lots that are vacant in existing neighborhoods in areas where there might be controlling CC&Rs. Just to amend our staff report to provide some more clarity around the adjustments made for the ordinance related to occupying medians, and then to do some research to determine

24:35 a method to try to track cost reduction impacts on the end user for fee reductions. We will look at external resources to see if there's already ways to do that. In addition to the possibility that Councilor Fox mentioned, of course we have a continuing relationship with Eco Northwest, who does a lot of research into the housing markets around the area, and they may be able to provide some assistance in that. Okay. Anything missed? Sounds like quite a list. Thank you so much. City Attorney, anything? Nothing from legal tonight, Mary. Thank you. That concludes the business portion of our meeting. We will now go into the portion where we have a community forum as our policy that this gives us an opportunity to hear from our community members. We will be turning off CBTV and continue with our audio recording. I have two green cards filled out, ready to go.

25:34 So Ms. Dollar, if you would kindly give CBTV their one minute warning to turn off the videos.