It will be a big night for Richland City Council which meets at 6 pm on Tuesday at city hall. If you want in on the excitement, you can be there in person or watch it live on Richland City View or cable channel 192. For more information, check out the packet that accompanies the agenda.
Traffic safety enforcement — speeding
Richland residents will be happy to hear that a crack down on speeders is in the works. The city will apply for a grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) to obtain traffic safety supplies such as radars, lidars, printers and scanners to issue traffic infractions.
The grants will be awarded to agencies that participate in impaired driving and High Visibility Enforcement (HVE) which uses elements that make enforcement efforts obvious to the public.
Grants will be awarded in mid-January.
MOU with Atlas Agro
Richland’s Electric Utility Department will sign a memorandum of understanding with Atlas Agro, to provide electricity to their green fertilizer plant. Bonneville Power provides the energy to the city and Atlas Agro has said they need almost 300 mgw of new nuclear power. It’s still not clear where that’s coming from.
Traffic impact fees for new development
The council will vote on traffic impact fees for new development. The fees are a bit lower than those proposed at the June 6 council meeting
There is an exemption for low-income housing, “defined as housing with monthly costs, including utilities other than telephone, that do not exceed thirty (30) percent of a household’s monthly income for a household with a family income not exceeding eighty percent (80%) of the City of Richland’s median family income.”
The council discussed the fees at its June 6 meeting. Public Works Director Pete Rogalsky had a map of four areas with new development and proposed a plan that increased the charge to developers for traffic improvements to support their projects.
Developer and Kennewick Mayor Pro-Tem Gret’l Crawford, who explained that she had a project at Duportail St. and Queensgate Dr. in Zone 2, expressed her concerns with the fee at that meeting and their impact on the price of housing. She said the increased fees would make homes unaffordable.
The biggest increases are in zone 2 from $854.81 a unit to $2,453.84 and Zone 3 in the Badger Mt. South area from $2,229.09 to $4,951.56. The numbers are on page 188 of the packet.
Crawford provided a detailed explanation of her concerns with the fees to the Observer which was included in a previous article.
Councilmember Theresa Richardson had the matter pulled from the consent calendar where it would have received no discussion and one vote along with other consent calendar items. Richardson voted no and the final vote was 5 to 1 with one abstention.
Ironman competition to receive $91,610 in lodging tax fund awards
The Ironman competition, to be held next September in the Tri-Cities, received the largest amount of award funds from the lodging tax fund. Cool Desert Nights will receive $20,000. Three Rivers Ultimate Frisbee received a grant of $8,000. To see a full list go the packet pg. 47.