City Council Nixes Tax Break Break

The Tacoma City Council yesterday shot down a staff proposal to drastically limit the kinds of projects eligible for the multifamily tax exemption often credited with helping to revitalize downtown.

The proposal, discussed at an afternoon study session, would have restricted the tax break downtown and near the Tacoma Mall for one year to projects with at least 30 units built densely enough to accommodate 80 units per acre. Several Councilmembers told Planning Division Manager Peter Huffman they wanted to explore ways to push developers to build urban housing that puts more units on small lots, but none was in favor of the proposed interim change. City Manager Eric Anderson said the proposal would be removed from next week’s City Council agenda.

City Council Eyes Curtailing Housing Tax Exemption

Next Tuesday evening, February 6th, the Tacoma City Council will consider enacting a one-year moratorium on the multifamily tax exemption for housing projects in downtown Tacoma with fewer than 30 units or a density lower than 80 units per acre.

In order to implement the proposed moratorium, the Council would have to declare an emergency, permitting the ordinance to be adopted without public comment until Tuesday, April 10th--over a month after it is adopted.

The tax incentive is used by many Washington cities and is credited with stimulating much of the demand underpinning the revitalization of downtown Tacoma over the past decade. The incentive has been described as one of the few tools Tacoma has to encourage investment downtown and to revitalize the city.

Why is the City of Tacoma considering implementing this moratorium? There is a concern about the “manner of construction” of some projects within the Tacoma Mall center that have a “lack of pedestrian access improvements.” The city is also concerned that the tax exemption should be “reserved for projects of more significant scale.”

Just as the tax exemption has provided real benefit to downtown revitalization, the proposed moratorium could bring real barriers to downtown's renaissance. The Bridge Condominiums (Marcourt) at 744 Market St. has only has 14 units and encompasses only 54 units per acre, so this model restoration project would not have qualified under the proposed moratorium (which requires a project size of 30 units and 80 units per acre).

The nearby Vintage Y, a historic restoration with only 17 units, would have been barred as well if it had applied for the multifamily tax incentive rather than for an historic tax incentive.

Prium Companies' Foss Waterway project--Nineteen Thirty-Three Dock St.--would also fail to meet the moratorium’s requirements. The project is currently designed to have 90 units on a 1.35-acre lot--only 66.7 units per acre--far short of the moratorium’s requirement of 80 residential units per acre. The Prium project fails the moratorium’s requirement as much of the space of the project is currently designed to be commercial and retail but the moratorium only counts residential units in its density calculation.

This action seems inconsistent with other policies adopted by the City Council--especially the recent commitment to pursue a denser built environment downtown.

Chamber Supports Stronger Involvement in Sounder Route Selection

Following robust discussion at this morning’s Board of Directors meeting, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber agreed to work more closely with Sound Transit to pursue context sensitive solutions in selection of route alternatives and setting design standards in the Dome District for expanded Sounder service.

Directors also embraced the following broad goals by which to measure design and routing alternatives:

• Improve arterial traffic flow and linkages
• Preserve Historic Highway 99 as a community asset
• Minimize business closures and relocations
• Minimize train and vehicle conflicts
• Create new commercial development opportunities
• Improve the sense of entry to Downtown Tacoma and the Dome District

Directors tabled a motion to convene a new Programming & Design Summit, agreeing instead to work through the regional agency’s ongoing outreach efforts to examine alternative routing, reach community consensus and expedite action on the preferred alternative that results.

Chamber Chair Dave Senner observed that the routing decision “is a long-term decision that won’t be made again in our lifetimes” and hence needs to be carefully considered. After viewing multiple alternatives under study by Sound Transit—including two displayed in public for the first time anywhere—directors were asked by Pierce County Executive (and Sound Transit chair) John Ladenburg to consider that “the resolution is redundant—we’re already doing that [working with the community to foster broad public involvement].” Ladenburg and Sound Transit Executive Director Joni Earl invited directors and other Chamber members to participate in meetings that will culminate with a final alignment selected in April.

BIA, TPD Patrols Will Target North End

BIA Security Patrol personnel and Tacoma police officers will be stepping up activity to combat public disorder during the next several weeks.

Last week's meeting with stakeholders from the Theater District and surrounding area of downtown confirmed the need for more targeted intervention. While the stepped up patrol activity will be somewhat random and details are not available in advance, late night ("graveyard shift") patrols and sweeps through the areas around the Winthrop and Olympus hotels will clearly be part of the process.

Business managers, property owners and residents from the north end of the BIA will receive regular reports (after the fact) on patrol activity and its results. Stakeholders who have not yet signed up for e-mail or telephone lists for this purpose should contact the BIA.

The BIA has organized a meeting later this week that will assemble representatives from the Law Enforcement Support Agency (LESA), Pierce Transit, Sound Transit, Tacoma Police and other agencies to examine how surveillance cameras might be put to use for enhanced security downtown. Participants will also learn how one vendor has begun linking camera systems from different platforms to more effectively increase "eyes on the street" in other downtowns.

BIA Mission, Strategies Profiled

John Gillie's interview in this morning's edition of The News Tribune captures the BIA's mission and strategies quite well; it also highlights the genesis and rason d'etra of this blog.

We will strive to live up to the ethos articulated in the final paragraph:

I think we’ve done a lot of the right things. The biggest danger is if we just coast and stop generating new ideas. You’ve got to keep improving what you’re doing all the time.

Theater District Kicks Off Security Effort

Business managers, property owners and residents from the north end of the BIA met Wednesday afternoon and kicked off a broad-based initiative to strengthen their response to unwanted street activity.

The meeting began with a cataloging of some of the measures already in place to combat public disorder, including:

• Targeted late-night patrols by BIA and Tacoma police (TPD) addressing tagging and other concerns;


• Aggressive new management at the Winthrop Hotel working with neighbors to identify and evict problem tenants;


• Recent success in apprehending the downtown bank robber, preventing car prowls and nabbing taggers.

Attendees agreed to take part in an e-mail alert system and discussed feasibiity of setting up a phone tree for similar purposes. Sign-up by the BIA's intern collected contact information for both lists. North end business manager, property owners and residents who did not attend this meeting but who would like to be included in these lists should contact Paul Ellis.

The BIA will be working with Tacoma police to design new patrol patterns deploying district and TPD personnel in new patterns to address concerns of meeting attendees. A group organized by the BIA will also be investigating use of surveillance cameras on downtown streets in the near future.

- Read coverage of the meeting in the Tacoma Daily Index

'Wall of Shame' for Tollefson Plaza?

Dave Seago's blog yesterday notes that the pedestrian-blocking "Wall of Shame" next to the Washington History Museum may be moving. Save Our Station leaders are looking favorably at a city proposal to move the Century Park project to city-owned Tollefson Plaza, across the street and to the north of the museum.

City Manager Eric Anderson is said to be enthusiastic about the plan, and it is also reported that the city would pay the cost of installing the park and a large metal sculpture of an old locomotive at Tollefson Plaza.

This may be a great idea for resolving the current friction over the stalled project, but does it help or hurt "activation" of the Plaza? How long can we continue to add elements to that public space without a master plan? Who's watching out for the highest and best use of the space?