Title
Capital Facilities Plan 2025-2030 Financial Plan Discussion & Questions with Chapter Contributors
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Discussion on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan 2025-2030 Financial Plan.
Staff Contact:
Casey Schaufler, Associate Planner, Community Planning and Development, 360.753.8254
Presenter(s):
Casey Schaufler, Associate Planner
Background and Analysis:
Earlier in the year, Commissioners decided to utilize a finance subcommittee for purposes of reviewing and developing a recommendation on the Preliminary Capital Facilities Plan, 2025-20330 Financial Plan (CFP). Commissioners will discuss the draft document, review questions submitted to City staff chapter contributors, discuss staff responses, and determine if additional information is needed prior to the September 16, 2024, public hearing. In addition, the Finance Subcommittee will draft a comment letter to the City Council, for consideration by the full Planning Commission at its first meeting in October.
The Preliminary CFP can be accessed from the City’s budget webpage, attached.
Climate Analysis:
The wide variety of projects included in the CFP, to occur over a number of years, can make it challenging to assess changes to emissions. Overall, the projects proposed help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by addressing energy use in city-owned buildings, electric vehicle infrastructure, transportation projects that also benefit bicyclists and pedestrians, and projects designed to increase capacity and efficiency or our drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems.
By continuing to serve our community members, as well as accommodating new growth, within the existing City limits and urban growth areas, we are working to create a compact and urban community. This helps us reduce emissions from the transportation sector by promoting active forms of transportation and providing for shorter trips required in order to meet our daily needs. It allows for the delivery of drinking water, sanitary sewer, and stormwater treatment facilities in a contained, compact area which is more efficient and costs less to serve than it would otherwise.
The CFP supports the following portions of the Climate Mitigation Plan:
• Reduce energy use in existing buildings.
• Reduce energy use in new construction or redevelopment.
• Set land use policies that increase urban density and reduce urban sprawl. Compact, walkable communities help increase urban density and reduce sprawl. The CFP includes several transportation projects that support compact environments for bicyclists and pedestrians.
• Increase the efficiency of the transportation system. The variety of multimodal transportation improvements in the CFP aim to provide greater mobility options and consider people trips rather than only volume to capacity ratios for automobiles. This considers efficiency of the whole system. It also supports the related strategy of increasing the use of active forms of travel, such as walking and biking.
• Increase the adoption of electric vehicles.
• Increase the use of public transit. Sidewalks, bicycle lanes, safety improvements and streetlights all support use of public transit.
• Increase the efficiency of water and wastewater infrastructure. The CFP includes replacement of aging and small diameter pipes and projects that address seismic issues.
• Divert more solid waste from landfills. The Waste ReSources facility will help the city address garbage issues and may help divert more solid waste materials from the landfill.
While not every project will directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by providing the infrastructure and services necessary to support our existing community and anticipated growth within the growth boundary, we can serve a greater number of people efficiently and compactly, while also providing parks, open spaces, and fire protection.
Equity Analysis:
Equity is considered as the master plans the capital projects generally come from are developed. In addition, equity issues are considered during budgeting decision making. The City strives to balance equity in its capital projects by including projects in various parts of the City, across multiple types of projects (transportation, parks, drinking water, etc.), and by improving accessibility in City facilities (ADA Transition Plan). This work is done within the constraints of the funding sources and limitations.
Some of the high level data that is considered is that in Olympia, roughly 37% of all households are cost burdened, with almost half of those households being severely cost-burdened. BIPOC members of our community are more likely to be cost-burdened than others.
Approximately 42% of Olympians have a household income of less than $50,000. Approximately 15% of our population live in poverty. In 2021, 13.5% of people in Olympia have a disability, up from 12.9% in 2016. Additionally, obesity rates have been rising in children and adults in Washington State.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
The Preliminary CFP 2025-2030 Financial Plan was released on August 5 and written public comments have not yet been received. One person provided comment during the public comment portion of the finance subcommittee meeting held on August 12, 2024. During the review of last year’s CFP, the majority of comments received were related to sidewalk issues such as maintenance and repair, as well as the desire for more sidewalks in the City.
Options:
None. No action requested.
Financial Impact:
The Preliminary CFP 2025-2030 Financial Plan anticipates just under 50 million dollars of capital improvements in 2025. For years 2025 - 2030, it is anticipated that approximately 285 million dollars will be spent on capital investments. Revenues to cover these costs are from a variety of sources, including state and federal grants, taxes and fees, utility rates, impact fees, SEPA mitigation fees, fund balances, and other revenue sources.
Attachments:
City of Olympia Finance Webpage