The Bigger Picture

As stated in a previous post, the BIA will be offering business and property owners--and other community members--opportunities to engage in defining downtown’s “Next Steps” this year via a campaign to develop a strategic plan for the future of our assessment district. The outcome of this process is hoped to be enhanced service delivery downtown.

When Tacoma’s downtown BIA was originally formed in 1988, the city center was in bad shape: drug dealers, panhandlers and prostitutes seemed to be lurking on every corner, trash and graffiti dominated many common areas, and businesses were moving out. Although controversial at the onset, the BIA’s “clean and safe” programs soon helped bring about a turnaround.

When the district was renewed in 1998, the BIA’s focus had shifted somewhat to include a broader range of services. The BIA sponsored a retail recruitment program, helped create the first online property website in the nation, and increased funding for marketing. The district’s efforts helped downtown reach a “tipping point” over the past several years, during which time the number of derelict buildings dropped while occupancy—and values—increased dramatically.

Earlier this year, the BIA commissioned the firm of Lachman & Laing to conduct a series of interviews with key downtown stakeholders that reviewed security operations and recommended ways to maintain a “clean & safe” environment. In May, the BIA partnered with the City of Tacoma, the Foss Waterway Development Authority and others to host a half-day workshop by the Project for Public Spaces to help stakeholders create an effective action plan for bringing greater life into downtown’s common areas.

During the next three months, the BIA will continue to sponsor a series of themed events to help envision downtown’s next decade of progress and define the steps needed to get there:

Housing Growth
Downtown continues to boom with new housing units. In September, the BIA will initiate discussion on how to continue that growth and what role the district should play in supporting its continuation;

Retail Transformations
The BIA has been a primary partner for the City of Tacoma in stimulating retail activity downtown, implementing several activities recommended by consultant Paula Rees. In October, a renewed discussion will engage merchants, retail brokers, developers and city officials in implementation;

Office Occupancy
While the Tacoma-Pierce County community and the Puget Sound region have grown tremendously over the past several years, office occupancy in downtown has remained flat over the same period. In November, the BIA will initiate a discussion on how to strategically spur growth.

Interested in participating in one or more of these discussions?

Activating Pacific (Tollefson?) Plaza

This weekend, the Tacoma community once again had an opportunity to "catch the vision" of an activated Pacific Plaza with the debut of Showcase Tacoma, an event organizers hope will recur annually. BIA staff member Joanne Buselmeier continues to investigate the feasibility of setting up a management entity to promote more such actiivties in this premier public space.

The best pictures from the event currently available online were compiled by blogger Kevin Freitas. Speaking of Kevin--he's just completed a poll regarding the name change for the plaza proposed by Mayor Bill Baarsma; His Honor prefers the name "Harold M. Tollefson Square" for a previous mayor of Tacoma. Perhaps the City of Tacoma's new blog will conduct it's own poll...?

The Downtown Tacoma BIA was a co-sponsor for the event. The BIA printed and installed the colorful street banners promoting the event, stepped up bicycle security patrols around Pacific Plaza this weekend, and assigned extra hours for common area clean-up pro bono in support of this celebration of Tacoma's native son, Dale Chihuly. By the way--BIA Maintenance crews will leave the chalk art created this weekend on the sidewalks until that art has deteriorated so much as to lose its interest.

We're doing some of the same for next Saturday's Glass Roots Arts Festival. This street festival will focus on local artists/artisans of all media. The Festivals Committee for Tacoma Arts Community, a grass roots arts group, is putting on this event to showcase regional arts, artists and artisans; only goods created, designed, or recorded in the region or by someone living in the region are eligible. The Glass Roots Arts Festival will be located between 11th and 13th Streets in Court 'D' from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Contact person for the event is one of the "alumni" from our Project for Public Spaces workshop--Barb Pemberton, (253) 845-3157, horatios@peoplepc.com, or visit her at Horatios (105 2nd St. S.W. in Puyallup, during business hours).

No Stalling on Downtown Parking

The Downtown Tacoma BIA is one of the stakeholders participating in the Parking Advisory Committee, sponsored by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber and recognized by the Tacoma City Council. This group, which was organized last November for a two-year run, has achieved real progress on downtown parking issues.

The committee's key focus has been on examination, evaluation and--where deemed appropriate--implementation of ten recommendations from a stakeholder process developed in 2003 and subsequently presented to the City. Input from City of Tacoma staff has brought to attention several additional items, especially regarding new technology, that augment the purposes stakeholders had in mind when drafting their recommendations.

Four of the ten recommendations have progressed far enough that the committee believes them to have been achieved:

• Recommendation 1: The City of Tacoma should agree to complete the promised expansion of the parking system.
  The City is abiding by commitments made in 2001 regarding completion of parking expansion projects and has defined the trigger criteria for development of expansion capacity.
• Recommendation 4: The City of Tacoma should establish a balanced parking oversight committee.
  The Parking Advisory Committee is a balanced combination of staff and parking stakeholders as envisioned by stakeholders.
• Recommendation 5: The City of Tacoma should integrate on-street enforcement with off-street operations.
  On-street enforcement and revenue collection have been operationally integrated with parking facility operations. Ongoing review and communication between City interests and stakeholder concerns are helping to improve responsiveness and support.
• Recommendation 8: The City of Tacoma should enhance and possibly expand its enforcement officer force.
  The City has hired the full complement of authorized enforcement officers and put them on the streets.

Two recommendations are moving ahead with significant results to date, but not yet completed:

• Recommendation 2: The City of Tacoma should proceed immediately with façade improvements and necessary seismic, and structural repairs on Park Plaza North and Park Plaza South Garages.
  City staff has recommending a vendor and that Park Plaza South only should be renovated at this time pending identification of a source for a $5 million funding gap.
• Recommendation 9: The City of Tacoma should implement hand-held recorder enforcement technology.
  Committee members have been working very closely with the City’s parking enforcement personnel and are seeing a significant increase in access for customers and clients along with a sizable movement of employee parking to off-street facilities. There is still work to be done on the “moving to evade” ordinance, on a permit system, and to meaningfully link employees with commute alternatives such as transit.

The Parking Advisory Committee hosted a well-attended public forum on parking in June to deepen the understanding of and broaden community input on the mechanics of the current system. Input from that forum will be discussed in an upcoming posting here and will be presented to the Tacoma City Council's Economic Development Committee on August 22nd.

Three other recommendations having to do with more technical aspects of financing have yet to undergo intensive scrutiny by the group. These items will be addressed while, at the same time, the committee reviews recommendations for a parking "business plan" from consultants Miriam Sevy and Ross Tilghman of the Leora Group, LLC. City Councilmembers will get a preview of the "business plan" recommendations next Tuesday afternoon.

The final recommendation yet to be addressed has been the most controversial:

• Recommendation 10: The City of Tacoma should postpone metering implementation pending community consensus.
  Delay in implementing pay stations was a consensus shared in October 2003 by every group within the stakeholder community. There was across-the-board agreement that the City should delay any decision on implementation of street metering until:
  1. Outstanding concerns have been addressed
  2. Enforcement compliance is determined
  3. Economic performance improves
  4. Definition of decision criteria is established
  5. Community support is attained.
  
  Committee members have agreed to work with the City in examining the 2003 consensus position in light of changes in procedures and the addition of new tools, including the ongoing, largely successful enforcement action. They have asked in return that the City refrain from decisions regarding pay stations, permits or metering until it has worked with stakeholders to examine the issues carefully and with broad input to see if the community consensus of three years ago is still valid.

Keeping in Step...

Today we're posting a few brief notes that have been accruing and may be of interest:

For all the current interest over the Miller Amendment, most community members have never seen the resolution. Reading the actual document may help some readers of this blog to better evaluate the many (and varied) opinions expressed about what the legislation is and does. Also of interest may be the recognition that the resolution was submitted on behalf of Councilmember Mike Crowley (formerly head of the BIA and now Executive Vice President for the Master Builders Association of Pierce County), it continues to be memorialized with the name of Councilmember Paul Miller, a downtown building owner who was therefore recused from voting on this issue.

Several weeks ago, we identified Fireman's Park as one of downtown Tacoma's great public spaces. In order to encourage "more feet on the street" there, the BIA has been working with the Tacoma Police Department and other partners to address ongoing security problems in the park. Transients have been able to scramble up into the park from SR-705--and scramble back down after committing petty crimes--but TPD Community Liaison Officer Rob Luke has very recently cobbled together funding to have that route blocked by a high fence. Kudos to Officer Luke!

Among downtown issues, parking is certainly the Rubik's Cube--an incredibly complex system that requires constant input from a kaleidoscopic variety of parties to reach a solution. The Chamber's Parking Advisory Committee has been working hard with City of Tacoma staff to move the pieces of the puzzle to a position that benefits a larger number of stakeholders--more on this topic tomorrow.

If you haven't made plans to attend this weekend's Showcase Tacoma event, you are missing an opportunity to support this community's next big chance to activate Pacific Plaza--so get your feet on the street!

Bending the Amendment

What might otherwise have been a rather staid committee meeting for the Tacoma City Council this afternoon was enlivened with dramatic outbursts and a surprising revelation.

The revelation was the presentation of a letter from A.F. Evans Development, potential developers for the controversial Winthrop Apartments, announcing that they had reached "feasibility limbo" on the project and disclosing that their purchase and sale agreement with the building's owners has expired. Whether the Winthrop's availability will lead to a bid by other interests or is simply a bargaining tactic remains to be seen.

The drama of that revelation was temporarily overshadowed by incendiary verbal exchanges between downtown merchants and at least one Councilmember as discussion on the Miller Amendment ensued. Several merchants expressed the opinion that the concentration of large low-income projects in the vicinity of 9th & Broadway is a blight and leads to civic disorder. Councilmember Tom Stenger characterized their opinions as "bigoted".

In the end, the committee determined to bend--not break--the Miller Amendment:

• City staff was asked to come back to the committee with recommendations for policies that will encourage more low-income housing without entirely voiding the Miller Amendment (e.g., suggesting an appropriate mix of subsidized and market rate units);
• Staff was also asked to look into what measures (if any) the City might take to enforce better management for low-income projects;
• Councilmembers also asked for suggestions on how to better address the public disorder evidenced in the area around the Winthrop and Olympus projects.

Needed: One Vision for Downtown Housing

Downtown Tacoma languished for decades; despite widespread public support and massive investment of public dollars, revitalization eluded community efforts. In the mid-1990s, a common vision was iterated that established new private investment as the benchmark for success, sparking the upwards tide that has carried us to today's renaissance. That's the power of a common vision.

It's what we lack today for urban housing, despite the boom that drives development of condos and apartments all over the city center. As blogger Derek Young asks in this week's edition of The Business Examiner, "Do we know where we want to go? Do we know how to get there? Would we even know if we had lost our way?"...

The BIA needs to be renewed again in 2008 if it is to continue. As its leaders contemplate the path to that goal, they want to include the broader downtown community in dialog over where the city center is going, what services will need to be in place to support continued growth, and what share of the common burden ought to be borne by property owners through the assessment vehicle. During the next few months, the BIA will sponsor a series of themed events and activities to help define downtown’s next decade of progress and the steps needed to get there, leading to the development of a strategic plan.

Downtown continues to boom with new housing units; the BIA will initiate discussion on how to continue that growth and what role the district should play in supporting its continuation.

Putting Views Into Action

Per our earlier post regarding the so-called "Miller Amendment", the Tacoma City Council's Neighborhoods & Housing Committee will continue their exploration of this topic at their next meeting, August 8th.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber has weighed in on the City Council's decision to maintain, amend or abolish the Miller Amendment--in real terms, deciding whether or not to continue City Council oversight on subsidized housing projects. The City's original adoption of this process came in response to the Chamber's request (based itself upon the requests of downtown business and property owners) to limit the number of "below market" projects and allow downtown's demographics to become more balanced over time.

"Ten years later", the Chamber observes, "we submit that the effort has been successful and that downtown demographics are becoming more balanced as a result. Despite this progress, downtown is not there yet. Downtown's demographics are still significantly skewed to lower income, and even the plethora of projects currently in the pipeline--should they all come to fruition, which is in no way certain--won't alter the profile enough to bring about the desired balance.

"Downtown also lacks any comprehensive housing strategy that would provide a vision for its future development", the Chamber concludes; "lacking this kind of guidance, the best that the City of Tacoma can do may be to let the market seek equilibrium without any subsidies."

Councilmembers Baarsma, Fey, Manthou and Stenger need to hear from members of the downtown community regarding this issue. We'll post results here as they become known...