City Council Talks About Gardens and Public Testimony Tuesday

The Yakima City Council meets Tuesday in a virtual meeting as city hall remains closed.
The meeting starts at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, January 19th on ZOOM. A short agenda for the council. Council members will get an update on the current pandemic. They'll hear the latest COVID numbers and how the Yakima Health District is handling vaccination efforts. The council is expected to recognize the retirement of Jeff Cutter after 23 years with the city of Yakima. The council is also expected to talk about community gardens and standards that need to be in place to manage the gardens.
City officials say the standards are "intended to be minimal, encourage and allow private or public land to host community gardens. Likewise, the standards are intended to ensure that the gardens are compatible with the adjoining land uses and not have negative environmental impacts to the area. There are a number of management related requirements in the City Code including a maintenance plan, agreement or written permission from owner, and a site plan that identifies plots inside the garden and others." The council will discuss the standards on Tuesday.
City officials say public comment has been difficult under the current restrictions but the council will talk about a plan Tuesday to hear remote testimony from the public. The city will look at some simple requirements;

"Require community members to sign up to comment by 3 p.m. the day of the meeting.
Limit comments to 3 minutes, or Council could reduce the time to 2 minutes.
Limit total comment time to 30 minutes, the same as pre-Covid guidelines."

If the council adopts the resolution remote testimony would be available to the general public during the February 2 city council meeting.
The following precautions are in place for the January 19th regular meeting due to COVID-19:

"The meeting will be conducted via Zoom.
Since Yakima City Hall is closed to public access, no community members can attend in person.
E-mail ccouncil2@yakimawa.gov to provide written comment to the City Council. Written comments received by 3:00 pm on Tuesday, January 19th, will be provided to the City Council prior to the meeting. There will be no opportunity for verbal comment from the public during the meeting.

The January 19th Yakima City Council regular meeting will air live at 5:30 pm on Y-PAC, Charter Spectrum Channel 194, and be streamed live at https://www.yakimawa.gov/council/live-stream/

Another option is to call in and listen to the meeting:

Dial 1-253-215-8782 or 1-888-788-0099
When prompted for the meeting ID enter 954 2013 7741 #
When prompted for the participant ID enter #
When prompted for the meeting password enter 269593 #"