Weekly Update 08/31/2025

Some bits of business…

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Report – August 29, 2025

Despite getting off to a slow start, the Marina dock replacement is on schedule! You can watch videos of progress in action here: https://www.youtube.com/@CityofDesMoinesMarina

There is also a new Community Survey. Yes, we did a parks survey and a communications survey just a couple of years ago, but well… new management, right? 😀 This one also asks for your ideas on a broad range of stuff like event planning and programs for kids and seniors and it”s all great. 🙂

And… since you can never take too many surveys, this is my personal fave, this concerning some big improvements at the Beach Park. Take the Beach Park survey!

Seattle Times Article on Big Catch sculptor

If you’ve ever noticed the hysterical guy kissing the fish sculpture and wonder how it came to be the centrepiece of Big Catch Plaza? This article gives you a biography of Rich Beyer – and a family-friendly version of the story of how how your City Council got more than it bargained for. Seattle’s ‘Waiting for the Interurban,’ other works show artist’s humor

Light Rail Opens December 6, 2025!

https://www.soundtransit.org/southkinglink

SR-509 Tolling and free Good To Go stickers

Here is a detailed blog post on how SR-509 and tolling will work. There is also an offer to get a free Good To Go sticker. I got a $15 FlexPass for free! You can too!

https://engage.wsdot.wa.gov/sr-509-expressway-opening/

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

This Week

Thursday

City Council

Study Session – 04 Sep 2025 – Agenda – Pdf

5:00pm COW

SUSTAINABLE AIRPORT MASTER PLAN UPDATE

The SAMP Draft EA Record of Decision will drop somewhere between the end of September and the end of October. What does this mean? It is the main approval for expansion of Sea-Tac Airport into 2032 – a larger expansion than the Third Runway.

Des Moines is to the airport what suburbs of Detroit were/are to the auto industry. Decades ago we developed an eco-system of people who work in the airline industry or construction and we got attached to the notion that the airport/aviation are somehow ‘good’ for Des Moines. This has allowed the airport to get away with doing tremendous damage to the Citynerate a ton of money, none of which stays here.

This SAMP approval is a bit like COVID in February 2020. I can tell you clearly what is going to happen. But we’ve been so unprepared for so long, every year it gets tougher to get people to take action.

DISCUSSION ON COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE PILOT

At the request of City Manager Caffrey, we abandoned the standing committees we’ve had since forever for a six month trial of the COW. In theory, the committee system is much better than what we have now. I chose the committees I wanted to work on because I knew they could very productive. Others have been terrible. And as a specific, I would cite Municipal Facilities, the group charged with reviewing the Marina Steps.

First of all, I never thought that committees were ever meant to make big decisions. They were meant to develop expertise on specific issues, which would lead to good policies. That would speed the full meetings where drafts would only require a final polish to become law. Study Sessions? They used to not be about making big decisions. They were about, you know, studying things. The current system has morphed committees being Study Sessions and Study Sessions being just another meeting.

This is frankly because the Council has been both fractured and also, uninterested in putting in the time necessary to take advantage of the benefits committees offer.

Frankly, a lot of it comes down to time. Many electeds have day jobs or just don’t want to put in the time to develop expertise on various issues. In the past, if you already agreed with the City Manager’s plan for the Marina? What was the point?

The makeup of the Council will change dramatically in January. I favour foregoing any decision until then, and re-instating committees then

6:00 Study Session

• INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH HIGHLINE SCHOOL DISTRICT
  Staff Presentation by City Engineer Tommy Owen
• DRAFT ORDINANCE 25-001 SHORT TERM RENTALS; AMENITY RENTALS Staff Presentation by Prosecutor Tara Vaughn
• DES MOINES MARINA STEPS FUNDING AND BIDDING UPDATE
  Staff Presentation by Public Works Director Michael P. Slevin III, P.E
  and Finance Director Jeff Friend

At the last Economic Development Committee meeting, the group recommended splitting the discussion of short term rentals and amenity rentals into two pieces. And yet? This thing is here as sort of a package deal. I dunno what to think.

All the kerfuffle seems to concern one use case. But ordinances apply to the entire city. On the one hand, you have someone with a very nice home, with a very nice pool, which sounds like a lovely use case for a short term rental – as stated in the ordinance. On the other hand, the homeowners also have a web page offering to rent the place for parties up to 40 people, by the hour. That sounds like something very different, especially given the fact that they have neighbors on three sides, one of which is a hard ‘no’.

Everything about this is awkward and complicated. How complex? There is language in the draft mentioning ‘noise’ as 80 Ldn. The bad news is that the aircraft overhead (supposedly) conform to a 65 Ldn. To get a special permit requires a hearing costing $7k. And then there are state public health requirements for commercial pools that have my head swimming. 😀

You too can run for City Council!

Marina Steps

As I wrote last week, the Council will decide whether to move ahead with the Marina Steps project. It is being described by the City as a ‘go/no go’ decision point. Here is Bond Ordinance 1773.

We are $900,000 short, even with the bond money and numerous attempts at downsizing (including a $100,000 value engineering fee)  and taking money from other funds. The only path forward would be to take more money from other projects in future years, such as necessary repairs to the police station.

I am, frankly, troubled by some of the slides in the packet. The City is recommending that we proceed with all options.

• It does not mention that we could reduce that deficit to $400,000 by removing some of the options (B,C,D).
• While the City Manager admits that borrowing all this money before having any projects ready to go was not good, there is no accountability as to why. In fact, at every fork in the road, every time anyone raised the notion of ‘a la carte’ – breaking the bond money, and elements of the Steps into separate projects. When I mentioned simply omitting the splash pad in 2024? Nope. That wasn’t the Council, that was then City Manager Tim George. We’re bidding the whole thing. This entire thing has been all or nothing.
• And yet now, completely out of left field, the packet raises a possibility of moving the money to Midway Park, even though the Council was repeatedly told that the ordinance was limited to five specific projects. And apparently Midway Park is at ninety (90%) design? What? The last memory I have is a presentation to the Council in August 2024 which said the project was ten (10%). That’s what the presenter says on video.

Plan B

All the questions re. Plan B and accountability are obviously mine.

There has been a broad Marina Redevelopment strategy since at least 2007. You can already see some of the bones of the original Marina Redevelopment planning. If you look at the new park above the Beach Park, that is close to what was proposed over a decade ago. The upcoming Beach Park renovations have also been on the board for over a decade. But the Marina Steps, and everything from the center of the Marina south is nothing like what was proposed starting in 2017. The only constant has been that the City and the majority want something. Anything. Whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent has become irrelevant.

And to now even suggest, out of the blue, that one can arbitrarily move money to other, totally unrelated projects, and that they are fully designed, when there is so much work left to do at the Marina? It’s not only poor planning it’s a violation of public trust. It’s just more of the same.

When I’ve raised the notion of dry stack (boat storage), tenant restrooms, or any pre-engineering on long term projects at the Marina, the City simply quashes it by saying, “We need to do another capital project study – if the Council wants to do that.” Uh huh. If the packet is to be believed, the implication is that the City has had no trouble proceeding to a final design on Midway Park — without the Council.

You simply get the result you want by working on the things you want to, and avoiding proper information on those you do not. That is why there is no Plan B. It is Cortés destroying his ships in order to only make one outcome possible. (It’s also the Port’s go-to move: we can’t help with airport issues because We need another study. Hopefully Congress will get right on that!  Someday! )

I said it from the dais a few weeks ago, ‘public planning’ in Des Moines is currently an oxymoron. Setting up a planning commission, a strategic plan, a fiscal plan, after all the ‘planning’ is decided is cynical.

I have always supported connectivity between 223rd and the Marina Floor. It was a good idea in 2007 and it still is. But not this. We should make every attempt to repurpose the remainder of the bond money towards other projects at the Marina which will create a net plus over time. Boring, but financially responsible. When the City is stronger, when we have a strategic plan we are committed to, then we should build the  project that residents and businesses truly deserve.