The latest news from the October 24 Blaine City Council meeting …
Public hearing on proposed property tax increase
Blaine City Council held a public hearing on the city’s proposal for a 1 percent increase to the 2022 property tax levy, which would equal about $3.50 more per year for Blaine residents. The proposed property tax levy would raise $13,424 more revenue next year, for a total of $1,355,912.
“We have future growth we’re anticipating as east Blaine is being built,” city finance director Dan Heverling said during the meeting.
Only one person spoke during the hearing. Council is expected to vote on the proposed levy at its next meeting on November 14.
Vote delayed on downtown revitalization design contract
City council voted 4-0 to delay voting on an engineering design services contract for its downtown revitalization project. Councilmembers Garth Baldwin and Mike Hill were absent and mayor Mary Lou Steward abstained from voting. Several councilmembers voiced they wanted to wait until the next council meeting when more members were expected to be present to vote on the contract.
Council was first set to vote on whether to give Seattle-based KPG Psomas the $620,000 contract during its September 12 meeting, but asked for more time to look over the contract. The project includes improvements to the Peace Portal Drive streetscape, Martin Street parklet and G Street Pavilion. Funding has already been approved for the downtown revitalization’s total $2.83 million project costs.
“We want to prepare the bid documents for the end of 2023, that’s why we’re trying to keep this fresh on your plate,” interim city manager Dave Wilbrecht said, adding the project was about a month behind now.
Council delayed the vote at the urging of councilmember Eric Davidson, who said he didn’t feel comfortable voting on a project of this scale without a full council present.
KPG Psomas has designed areas of downtown Redmond, Duvall and Snoqualmie.
Ad-hoc downtown advisory committee
Council approved the city manager’s recommendations for five community members to serve on the newly-formed ad-hoc downtown advisory committee, and voted to add two more community representatives.
Council approved forming an ad-hoc advisory committee during its August 8 meeting to discuss proposed policy changes, code amendments and make recommendations for downtown development. The committee, which was scheduled to start late August, was first set to include one city councilmember, one planning commissioner and five community members. Council asked for two more community representatives, making seven total.
City staff selected from the twelve who submitted applications. Council approved world-renowned architect Bruno Freschi, Port of Bellingham employee Greg McHenry, former planning commissioner Susan Sturgill, builder and business owner Scott Meaker, developer Gurdeep (Zeal) Bains, business owner Mia Richardson and Glen Pentland, who has helped improve the Salishan neighborhood.
Council unanimously approved Davidson as its representative for the ad-hoc committee. The planning commission representative is Kevin Owens.
Before approving the representatives, councilmembers had discussed delaying the vote.
“Mr. Wilbrecht sent out the list last week asking for us to reply to him with whether we agree with the five people or not,” Steward said. “We are getting nothing done as a council. We’re putting things off and putting things off. We had an opportunity to look at this and ask our questions to Mr. Wilbrecht. It’s time for us to make a decision on something. This ad-hoc committee is something we really wanted to improve our downtown and send a message to the developers that this city council was willing to get things done and work with all parties to get something done.”
New ward boundaries
Council unanimously approved new voting ward boundaries that state law requires to be updated after U.S. Census populations are updated every decade.
The new map’s first ward, which covers east Blaine, goes south to the city limits east of I-5. This area was previously in the second ward, which includes much of downtown. The third ward, which covers all of Semiahmoo and west of 6th Street, will remain the same, except for the addition of a downtown section north of Boblett Street.
No members of the public spoke during council’s October 10 public hearing on the boundary map.
The city hired Redmond-based Sammamish Data Systems to oversee the redistricting process. Now that the boundaries have been changed to reflect the most recent U.S. Census population counts, the city will not be able to adjust its ward boundaries again until after the 2030 Census.
Each ward has two city council representatives, and the city has one at-large representative. Councilmember Richard May suggested council discuss reviewing its current voting system and possibly doing away with the ward-based city council positions.
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