North Downtown Subarea Plan & EIS: The Process Begins

The City of Tacoma is starting the process of developing its North Downtown Subarea Plan and Environmental Impact Statement. As with the South Downtown and MLK subarea and EIS planning processes already underway, this process will develop an area-wide plan, which will become an element in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, identifying short- and long-term goals and objectives for development in the area, and outlining implementation strategies. The non-project EIS will evaluate environmental impacts associated with development alternatives included in the subarea plan over the next 20 years, and identify potential mitigation measures.

The City will partner with Bates Technical College on the EIS process, as it partnered with UWT on the South Downtown subarea/EIS process. Funding for the project comes from a $50,000 State Community Economic Revitalization Board grant. As a part of the process, meeting and scoping notices will be mailed out to community members, agencies, and other stakeholders in late May. The project timeline at this point has the process wrapping up by year end.

• Scoping period – May/June 2013
• Preliminary goals and policies – July 2013
• Draft Subarea Plan and Draft EIS – September 2013
• Final Subarea Plan and Final EIS – November 2013
• Council Adoption – December 2013

The contiguous Sub-Area/EIS planning processes will effectively set the stage for development in all of downtown Tacoma. They are meant to signal to developers that not only are we open for business, but we’ve already taken the first steps for them. The subarea plan outlines the kind of development we want to encourage. The non-project EIS will give a comprehensive, rather than piecemeal, look at environmental impacts of development in the area. It also means that we’re effectively doing now a portion of the public vetting of projects that could come up many years down the road.

The North Downtown Subarea covers a fairly diverse range of neighborhoods, including the downtown commercial core and the north end of the Foss, and reaches north to encompass the Stadium District as well. That seems more diverse than the other two subareas, and possibly more built-up. Which makes us wonder if the process will be more complex and/or contentious than it was for the other two subareas…

Previously from Exit133: North Downtown Next For A Subarea Plan?