Bike to Market Day with Downtown On the Go

Gear up for Bike Month by biking to Opening Day at the Tacoma Farmer’s Market on Broadway between S. 9^th and 11^th on Thursday, May 3 from 10:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m . 

Map Master’s will be on hand to show you safe, quick, and easy bike routes.  Downtown On the Go will be offering tours of the Park Plaza North Bike Cage and selling low cost bike helmets. 

Plus….Pierce Transit will show you how to load your bike on the PT bus bike rack so you can get back up the hill later in the afternoon.  

To see a full schedule of Bike Month events, go to www.downtownonthego.com/go/bike-month. 



Employers invited to Live Downtown Interest Session

Downtown employers are invited to join Downtown On the Go on Thursday, March 29, 2012 from 4 – 6 p.m. to learn about their Live Downtown program, a free benefit for employers.

THE LIVE DOWNTOWN PROGRAM:

* Improves your employees’ commutes
* Aids in employee recruitment and retention
* May reduce your parking costs

Downtown On the Go has partnered with HomeStreet Bank, O’Connor and Associates, American Financial Solutions and other downtown businesses to offer discounts on home ownership and rentals for your employees. They can save up to $6,000* on a new home or up to $2,400 a year on a rental property. And it costs you nothing.
* Depending on loan amount.

DETAILS:
Thursday, March 29, 2012
4–6pm, short presentation at 5pm
BLRB Architects | 1250 Pacific Ave, Suite 700
Take the bus, the Tacoma Link or enter garage via Commerce St. and we’ll validate your parking.
Light refreshments will be provided.

PLEASE RSVP to dotg@tacomachamber.org

Chamber Luncheon Featuring: Downtown Tacoma, Sponsored by the Port of Tacoma

On March 9th, the City Center Luncheon was reborn as the Chamber Luncheon with 80 people in attendance.  This change was brought about by the increasing demand for updates and information on what is happening in our community, including the greater Tacoma area.  For more on this change, please see the previous blog post here.

Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland
After introductions from Tom Pierson, President and CEO of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, and Don Johnson, Port Commissioner for event sponsor the Port of Tacoma, the jam packed program brought Mayor Strickland to the podium.  She provided an update on coming changes in 2012 for the City of Tacoma.  In addition to the budget challenges faced by the City the Mayor highlighted the need to encourage innovative entreprenuers. 

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Pacific Avenue Reopened

Commuters can now get from one end of downtown Tacoma to the other on Pacific Avenue, thanks to an earlier than expected opening of our main street in association with Sound Transit's D-to-M Street Project. Vehicles, transit, bicycles and pedestrians all have access to the roadway, including safe crosswalks and new sidewalks.

Beginning Tuesday, March 20, 2012, A Street will be closed between 25th and 26th streets and will not reopen. This section will be re-graded and re-paved to serve as a pedestrian and bicycle underpass.

According to Sound Transit, work still to be completed includes:
- Solidifying the rail bed and lay track from D to M Streets
- Completing the Pacific Avenue rail bridge
- Installing new crossing gates, signals, and other safety equipment along the rail line
- Building a new pedestrian underpass on A Street
- Re-paving South Tacoma Way and make improvements to South C Street
- Providing landscaping to the area

The bridge will also undergo a paint job before it's officially done. The final phase of construction for the project is anticipated to be completed, with trains running to South Tacoma and Lakewood, by fourth quarter 2012.


Local members of the Sound Transit Board prepare to tour the project after the opening of Pacific Ave.


Crews are still doing work on South Tacoma Way but Pacific Avenue is open to all traffic.

Downtown Parking Going Market Based

As previously discussed here, the City of Tacoma is considering updates to its downtown parking regulations.  After hearing public testimony on January 24th and in recent Environment and Public Works Committee meetings [EPW], EPW recommended amendments to the package that would remove the cap from structured parking proposed as part of a downtown building.

As one councilmember put it, by moving away from the "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" nature of the parking standards the City is choosing to honor transparency and encourage development.  A number of downtown property owners, the Tacoma Chamber, and other interested parties joined the BIA in encouraging the City to move to a truly market based solution.

If the amendment proposed by EPW is incorporated into the regulations, the City will allow developers to build only the parking they need, not too much, not too little.  The City will be discussing this proposal on February 14th at 5PM in council chambers and again on February 21st at the same time.

Learn More about Transportation in Downtown Tacoma

UPDATE: New date & time for the Public Health & Transportation Forum: 2/16/12 @ 1PM

Downtown On the Go is presenting two transportation-related forums this February:

On Feb. 2, 2012, in partnership with Futurewise, we’ll discuss transit-oriented communities as they relate to Tacoma and the South Sound. Presenters from around the region will talk about the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Growing Transit Communities program, which has partially funded Tacoma’s South Downtown Subarea Plan and the MLK Subarea Plan.  Participants in the workshop will have the opportunity to discuss and visualize how transit-communities communities can developed and how they can be beneficial to a community, its residents and its businesses.  (Note: This workshop is oriented towards public officials, planners, designers, developers and community leaders, and is open to the public. A social will follow the presentation.)

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, 2-4 p.m.
UW Tacoma, Carwein Auditorium
REGISTER today with Futurewise

On Feb. 16, 2012, DOTG will partner with Transportation Choices Coalition and the Coalition for Active Transportation to host a forum that will address the connection between public health and transportation and all of the momentum around this locally, in the legislature and nationally. A recent bill in the state legislature (HB 2370) proposes including health in the state transportation system policy goals and has brought new interested on this collaboration. The panel will be moderated by Victor Colman, Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, and will include Representative Andy Billig, D-Spokane, Julia Walton, inova planning, and Kirsten Frandsen, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. More information about the panelists is available on the DOTG website.

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, 1-2:30p.m.
UW Tacoma, Carwein Auditorium
Register today at Transportation Choices Coalition


(Post provided by DOTG's Kristina Walker.  For more information on these or other DOTG activities, please contact Kristina at 253-627-2175)

Proposed Changes to the City's Downtown Off-Street Parking Requirements

The City Council’s Environment and Public Works Committee has been approached by the Planning Commission with an array of recommended changes to downtown’s off-street parking regulations. Proposed changes include the elimination of a minimum number of parking stalls developers must build, a cap on the number of parking stalls allowed, and limitation on new or expanded on-site surface parking lots. The many aspects of the proposed revisions could be both advantageous and harmful to the development of downtown.

The proposal recognizes that getting rid of the requirement to build a minimum number of parking stalls within new developments encourages movement to a market-based system. No minimum requirements mean that developers will not build stalls that are unnecessary for their developments. Developers will be able to tailor to the unique parking needs of each project.

However, the proposed revisions also would include implementing a maximum number of parking stalls within the IFSA and decreasing the maximum number of stalls within downtown. This moves away from the City’s original intention to create a market-based system. In comparison, the much denser Portland allows 36% more stalls than proposed by the City of Tacoma. A cap on the number of stalls would hinder developers from building the amount of parking that some tenants may require, which puts downtown Tacoma at a clear disadvantage for future development.

It is vital to recognize that the proposed amendment being brought to the City is loaded with potential. While the city is encouraging smart development with one regulation, it is limiting opportunities with another. The City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed amendment on today, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, providing an opportunity to those who want to encourage the future growth and development of downtown to give their opinion.