New Ideas For Historic Preservation

At last week’s study session the City Council heard a presentation from staff on the past, present, and future of the historic preservation program in Tacoma. The “future” part was the focus of that presentation, with staff sharing some ideas for combatting perceptions of historic preservation as a negative or hinderance to development, and repositioning it as a forward-looking asset to economic development.

Issues raised include moving historic preservation from a reactive program to a proactive one. A major step in this direction would be the adoption of recently proposed code changes to prevent “demolition by neglect.” It sounds like we can expect a formalized proposal to come before Council this fall. 

Another program that has been in discussions for a while now is the live/work and work/live adaptive reuse

Increasing public awareness of the various historic preservation programs and their benefits for Tacoma was also mentioned as a goal for these new efforts. To that end, as the initiative to improve the image and visibility of historic preservation programs in Tacoma moves forward, the public can expect to see more efforts from the City at outreach, education, and facilitation.