The Bothell and Kenmore city councils are set to take a recess in August, after wrapping up some lingering policy questions at their July meetings.

Bothell’s city leaders met on July 17 to approve some construction and interlocal agreements, make appointments to the Shorelines Board and pro/con committees for the city’s public safety levy lid lift and capital bond measures for the November election and discuss the rental house in Cedar Grove Park.

The next regular meeting for the Bothell City Council will be Sept. 4. Tentative agenda items are available through the city’s website at www.bothellwa.gov, or by calling the City Clerk Division at 425-806-6150.

The Kenmore City Council had several important agenda items at its last meeting of the summer on July 23, including the plastic bag policy, temporary homeless shelters, the St. Edward ball field project and mobile home parks.

Due to concerns of plastic waste, the Kenmore City Council directed staff to write a policy memo and present at the council meeting on June 11. The council directed staff to write an ordinance prohibiting retailers from providing plastic bags and requiring a 5-cent charge for recycled paper bags. As proposed, it would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

Also in June, the council discussed temporary homeless shelter regulations and low-barrier temporary shelter regulations. Over the last year, Kenmore has received multiple requests to use sites as temporary shelters. The city has appropriately conditioned applications through its Temporary Use Permit process.

However, the question was raised as to whether Kenmore should have specific code provisions for temporary shelters to address concerns of safety and security, and establish expectations for temporary shelter permit applicants. The council decided to move forward with an ordinance for indoor and outdoor temporary homeless shelters, but revisit low-barrier shelters at another time.

The council was also set to continue the discussion about mobile home parks from its July 9 and July 16 meetings, providing preliminary direction to staff on preferred land use and financial assistance strategies for the six parks in the city.

Before recessing for the summer, the council got an update on project cost estimates for St. Edward. The current $7,071,910 project cost estimate for turf fields includes synthetic turf, field lighting, parking lot illumination, bleachers and dugouts. The estimate for grass fields (with no field lighting, no parking lot illumination, no bleachers or dugouts) is $5,450,510.

More information can be found on each city’s website: www.bothellwa.gov and www.kenmorewa.gov.