Downtown Plan Emphasizes: Vitality, Sustainability, Healthy Economy and the Arts

The Downtown Plan Update was presented at a public information session last Wednesday. The Update builds on the Destination Downtown Plan, while focusing on four primary visions for downtown: A Balanced, Healthy Economy; Achieving Vitality Downtown; Sustainable City; City of the Arts. These themes sound good, but what do they really mean for Tacoma?

A Balanced, Healthy Economy
The goal of this theme is to build on existing efforts to create downtown as a major employment, economic and cultural center developed around world-class companies. This will be accomplished by fostering an entrepreneurial culture for businesses particularly in the target sectors of:

• Business and Professional Services
• Creative Arts and Design
• Financial Services
• IT and Software Design
• Trade and Logistics Services

The Plan calls for efforts that focus investment and redevelopment in the international financial services area (north end of downtown), the commercial core (between Tacoma Ave, Cliff Ave, S. 15th St. and S. 7th St.), and the Brewery District (south end of downtown).

The Plan also calls for implementing a comprehensive parking management strategy in downtown. This means developing a paid parking (on and off street) system that integrates with other viable transportation alternatives (biking, transit and walking among others).

Achieving Vitality
Essentially achieving this vision requires flexible regulations and design guidelines to encourage recognizably unique and desirable areas in downtown. This vision seeks to apply livability criteria, like walkability, access to adequate sunlight on the street, attractive and pedestrian scale façade treatments to building designs. This effort will help ensure that downtown buildings intentionally create and define a sense of place rather than hamper it. Improving perceptions of downtown safety, integrating activities and plans with UWT and striving to preserve the historic character of downtown are other components of this theme.

Sustainable City
Emphasizing sustainability in downtown, means facilitating a coordinated approach to economic, environmental and social considerations. To achieve these diverse goals the Plan makes a number of diverse recommendations to encourage sustainability in downtown:

• Plans for future housing should consider walking and high capacity transit and distances to employment centers.
• Strive to create a family friendly downtown by planning for amenities that attract and benefit all ages.
• Consider connections to adjacent neighborhoods.
• Develop an urban agriculture or community garden program to increase access and knowledge of fresh foods.
• Provide more alternative to driving alone into and around downtown via complete street designs that provide for walking, biking, transit riders and other non-car centric forms of transportation.

City of the Arts
This final vision builds off the City’s two established art clusters, the Theater District in the north and the museum area in the south end of downtown. Establishing the creative arts and design as a target sector for Tacoma helps to brand Tacoma as a desirable urban environment with a high quality of life. To build this cluster the Plan recommends the following efforts:

• Establish a public-private partnership to assist the burgeoning creative class
  Support and incentivize artists to move downtown .
• Fund and support public art.
• Continue to revitalize the Theater District.
• Formulize a master plan for a 15th Ave. “Glass Walk” to high light public art in downtown.
• Create a post-secondary design curriculum at SOTA and UWT.

For more details on these visions for downtown Tacoma go to the City of Tacoma’s downtown plan website.

OR

The Planning Commission will conduct a Public Hearing on October 1, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. to receive testimony on the proposed Downtown Plan Element of the Comprehensive Plan. The hearing will be held in the Council Chambers, 747 Market Street, Tacoma. Written comments may be submitted through October 10, 2008, via (a) U.S. mail to Planning Commission, 747 Market Street, Room 1036, Tacoma, WA 98402; (b) FAX to (253) 591-2002; or (c) e-mail to planning@cityoftacoma.org (enter "Downtown Plan" in the subject line).

What’s In Store for Downtown Tacoma? Find Out Tonight

An information session on the Downtown Element of the Comprehensive Plan will be held TONIGHT (September 24th), at 5:00 p.m. to provide an opportunity for interested citizens to learn more about the Downtown Plan Update and ask questions.

The City has been working with VIA Architects to update the Downtown Plan. The Plan is a component of Tacoma’s Comprehensive Plan, which is developed in compliance with the Washington State Growth Management Act.

The Downtown Plan has not been updated since 2001. Downtown has changed considerably since then including new housing, the development of the convention center, museums, offices and the LINK light rail corridor. This draft update considers the research and recommendations proposed by Angelou Economics in the recently completed economic development strategy for the downtown.

The downtown plan update is intended to:

• Coordinate land use, transportation, economic development and parking strategies
  Create a walkable downtown through application of best practices such as “complete streets”
• Establish urban design principles with an emphasis on the public realm
• Link economic vitality and environmental quality through an awareness of the regional effects of growth management, land use and transportation decisions
• Promote partnerships to promote infill development and link land use policy and economic revitalization strategies
• Foster collaborative relationships among the community, city and “city builders” and encourage property owners to think beyond the property boundary to achieve mutual benefit
• Responsibly increase density while laying the groundwork for creating a high quality environment and retaining Tacoma’s character

The Planning Commission will conduct a Public Hearing on October 1, 2008, at 5:00 p.m. to receive testimony on the proposed Downtown Plan Element of the Comprehensive Plan.

Both meetings will be held in the Council Chambers, 747 Market Street, Tacoma.Written comments may be submitted through October 10, 2008, via (a) U.S. mail to Planning Commission, 747 Market Street, Room 1036, Tacoma, WA 98402; (b) FAX to (253) 591-2002; or (c) e-mail to planning@cityoftacoma.org (enter "Downtown Plan" in the subject line).

Reinvent Your Commute in Tollefson Plaza on Oct 1st

Join fellow downtown commuters, as we kickoff the "Downtown: On the Go!" campaign, a collaborative effort by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, the City of Tacoma, Pierce Transit, and Pierce County aimed at reducing traffic congestion and parking challenges in downtown Tacoma by getting commuters, students and residents onto buses and bikes, walking, and sharing rides instead of driving alone.

WHEN: October 1st, 11am-2pm

WHERE: Tollefson Plaza

This will be a fun event with lots of transportation resources for commuters, residents, students and employers including lunchtime vendors, prizes from local shops, free bus passes, games, live music, and more.

Here are some of the opportunities and activities available to you in Tollefson Plaza on October 1st:

• Get lunch from local food vendors – receive $1 off just for coming!


• Sip coffee or tea from Mad Hat Tea Company and Blackwater Coffee


• Listen to the Brazilian jazz of Olympia music group, Ocho Pies


• Learn about commute options: Transit, Carpool, Vanpool, Walk, Bike


• Pick up the new downtown walking map


• Tour the Pierce Transit Vanpool, Bus and Bus Plus vehicles and practice putting a bike on the front bus rack


• Talk to Vanpool riders and learn a new way to get to work


• Play games to win prizes from local vendors, including free monthly bus passes


• Give input on downtown plans with VIA architecture


• Learn how businesses downtown are encouraging alternative transportation options and how your business can create a transportation plan


• Sign up for piercetrips.com to begin logging your commutes, entering to win great prizes, and calculating cost and pollution savings


• Give us your input on a car-sharing survey and receive a two-for-one cupcake coupon for Hello, Cupcake


• Practice your chalk skills as you explore the art of transportation


• Pick up a Pierce County Bike Map and learn new routes to ride


• Plus: Special prizes and information especially for UWT students, including the chance to win a Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit bundle if you sign of for the new student version of piercetrips.com

JOIN US IN TOLLEFSON PLAZA!

Tacoma Downtown Parking Survey Needs Your Input

Make your voice heard. Fill out the Downtown Parking Survey right now!

Parking is vital to the success of Tacoma’s downtown. The City of Tacoma is engaged in a project to examine current parking conditions and explore future solutions, including paid on-street parking.

As an early step, the City wants to capture the views of downtown employers, employees, residents, students and visitors in the central business district. Please provide your assessment of the current situation, and your ideas about effective parking management strategies for the future.

Please take a moment to complete the survey by September 26.
The survey is available on-line at www.barneyandworth.com/tacoma.

Spread the word, and encourage your business neighbors and coworkers to respond to make this survey as representative as possible.

Towers on the Foss Clear Another Hurdle

In a planning process that began in March 2004, the Washington State Department of Ecology recently approved an amendment to Tacoma’s Shoreline Master Plan that allows for 180 foot towers to be built on the west side of the Thea Foss, north of the Murray Morgan Bridge. The property in question is owned by SimonJohnson LLC who has proposed to build up to four mixed use towers on the site. SimonJohnson is interested in possibly providing space for residential, commercial and retail tenants in the development as well as providing for parking and recreational uses.

The approved height increase is conditioned on a number of details including; providing enlarged view/access corridors, maintaining an average distance of 100 feet between the tower portions of the development and developing 50% of the roof as usable recreation space. The amendment also reduces the height limit to 90 feet on the municipal dock site adjacent to the Murray Morgan Bridge, clarifies the design review responsibilities of the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority, protect the view of Mt. Rainer from Fireman’s Park and clarifies the regulation overall.

Coming Soon… Pacific Avenue Construction

Roadway construction on Pacific Avenue between S. 17th and S. 25th Streets is scheduled to on Sunday, August 23rd. According to the City of Tacoma Public Works Department, this section of Pac. Ave. “desperately needs repair and is failing rapidly.”

The primary goal of the Pacific Avenue Improvement Project is to remove and replace both the base section and the asphalt surface of the street. The project will also repair sidewalks, curbs and gutters, where needed.

Constructions will take place between now and winter 2008 in the following stages:
1st Phase: 17th to 21st Street (west side)
2nd Phase: 17th to 21st (east side)
3rd Phase: 21st to 25th including 25th from Pacific to C Street (west side)
4th Phase: 21st to 25th (east side)

The Good News:

• The construction work is scheduled to take place at night between the hours of 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• No construction work will be done at the concrete intersections.
• Angle parking will be maintained within the area during the day.
• Sidewalks will remain open.
• The City and contractor will work with businesses to accommodate delivery schedules.
• No utility work will be done at this time since it was done when the Light Rail was constructed.
• When the project is complete (scheduled for winter 2008) we’ll have a new road and nicer sidewalks

The Bad News:

• The street will be torn up!
• There will be less access to shops, restaurants and other businesses along this segment of Pacific Ave.
• Road construction projects often create a noisy, dirty and inhospitable environment.
• During construction times (9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) the road will be restricted to local and emergency vehicles only.
• BIA sidewalk cleaning service along this segment of Pac. Ave. will be limited for the duration of the project.

The City of Tacoma Public Works Department is holding an Open House for residents and business owners to learn more about the scope of the work, the construction schedule and answer any questions about the potential impacts.

The Open House will be held on Wednesday, August 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Tacoma Municipal Building, 747 Market St., Room 708.

For more information regarding this project, please contact Karrie Spitzer in Community Relations at karrie.spitzer@cityoftacoma.org or by phone at (253) 591-5790, or contact Dan Seabrands with Public Works at dseabran@cityoftacoma.org or by phone at (253) 591-5150.

Tollefson Plaza Moves from Vision to Action

It is official: the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber have signed the contract for Tollefson Plaza that will have the Chamber manage the Plaza and its growth as the center for Tacoma’s civic life.

Bordered by the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, Courtyard by Marriot Hotel, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Washington Tacoma, and retail shops and restaurants, an activated Tollefson Plaza will tie together a multitude of interests into one high-profile hub of activity.

Funding for the project received an early supporter when Rainier Pacific Bank became the first to donate $10,000—an encouraging boost representing the significant value that activities in the Plaza will add to downtown.

Events anticipated to activate the space include: Friday lunch markets, big screen movie nights, annual holiday festivities such as a Holiday Tree Lighting and a New Year’s celebration, and a Harvest Festival, among other events. The addition of tables, chairs, and all weather covering along with other aesthetic improvements, will soon create a more inviting environment.

The Chamber is convening area stakeholders to discuss future details and strategies for the Plaza.

For more information contact Joanne Buselmeier, JoanneB@tacomachamber.org