Liberty Lake staff outline Mission Avenue overlay, sign-code outreach and joint meetings

City staff and commissioners used the Jan. 15 Community Engagement Commission meeting to preview two public engagement efforts: a Mission Avenue overlay project and a sign-code rewrite being led by the planning department and a consultant.

David, a city staff member, told the commission that Public Works plans a Mission Avenue overlay project for later this spring into summer and asked whether the commission could help host an informational open house "possibly sometime around 3 weeks from now." David said staff will share details on date and location when they are available; he indicated the event would focus on the stretch by the police station and library and would discuss anticipated closures and delays.

Planning staff have begun a sign-code update, and members of the commission were told there will be a public engagement component. Mark McEvoy (city staff) described the sign-code work as focused on private and commercial signage — "primarily related to commercial signage on commercial property" — and said the revision also touches items such as real-estate and garage-sale signs and campaign signage. The commission was invited to a Planning Commission meeting scheduled for Feb. 26 at 4 p.m.; staff clarified that the Feb. 26 meeting is a Planning Commission meeting to which CEC members are invited (not an official CEC meeting).

Mark and staff said outreach materials and initial public-engagement content will likely be produced by Burke Consulting Group of Seattle; an open-house timetable originally listed for February is being pushed back while staff finalize plans. Commissioners discussed attending the Planning Commission session as "active observers" and suggested the commission could help distribute materials at the farmers market during the spring outreach.

The commission asked staff to provide dates and locations for the Mission Avenue open house and to circulate sign-code outreach details when available.