Notes on the Pacific Avenue Streetscape Open House
Monday at UWT’s Phillip Hall, the City hosted an open house about the forthcoming Pacific Avenue Streetscape Project. There were easily 120 in attendance for an introductory open house portion which featured six stations, and closing remarks. The purposes of the open house were to inform those interested of what had evolved regarding the streetscape concept and to obtain, from those interested, what changes they would like to see made.
It is a two-phase project and this meeting was about Phase One, which would improve Pacific Avenue from 17th to Seventh. The second phase is scheduled to address improvements for the Prairie Trail and Tollefson Plaza, which was not a addressed in this meeting.
City Manager Eric Anderson gave a brief speech during the introduction in which he said the City wants to restore Pacific Avenue downtown to the vibrant center of the city it once was. He said the cost of Phase One of the project would be $8,000,000, of which $4,000,000 is already obtained. The rest of the funding would come from federal and, possibly, private foundation grants. Other funding could be obtained from the state legislature and a possible LID, if there was interest.
Mark Hinshaw, a member of the project team from LMN Architects, also spoke during the introduction. He said this proposed recreation of Pacific Avenue would be guided by five goals:
- Preservation of existing on-street parking. The newest configuration would lose 13 parking slots – 5% of existing on-street parking.
- Innovation that avoids a “linear park” approach. Pacific Avenue is a commercial thoroughfare and should remain so. Trees would be sized and spaced so as not to interfere with signage. He said Pacific Avenue is the city’s “shared living room,” and as such, should be welcoming and functional.
- Continued two-way traffic, but with a heightened pedestrian, transit, and bicycling element. At this time there are two bicycling options. Response from the open house would be an important consideration in the choice between the two.
- Rain gardens. A central feature of the current design is a complex rainwater filtering system that would reduce and decelerate the pollutants currently flowing directly from downtown streets into the Foss Waterway.
After the introduction, attendees were invited to visit the different stations, each dedicated to a different part of the project and each staffed by at least one employee from the project team companies. At the street layout station (which included four tables) post-it notes and pens were available so attendees could write comments and post them on the most recent sketches of the plan. Tables were also set up with pens and post-its/paper for more involved comments. To further facilitate dialog, representatives from each company on the project team were available at each station for one-on-one questions and comments.
Filed under: General, prairie-line-trail
23 comments
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson May 10, 2011
Query: How do we know Eric Anderson is telling the truth?
C Chris K. May 10, 2011
There really didn’t seem to be that much difference in the configuration of the streets besides the bicycle elements in the two alternatives.
I really didn’t like the buffered bike lane approach. Pacific Avenue is a heavily used bus corridor and will be more so in the future. You would have buses weaving into the buffer zone and into the bike lane in order to pick up passengers in their bus bays. So essentially a driver would have to weave through and yield to two lanes of traffic before each stop. That’s not workable.
The cycle track would work pretty well, but I’d still much rather bulb-outs for transit priority. It provides a much smoother passenger experience because you’re not jerking from side to side for each stop.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson May 10, 2011
Somebody please put Chris K in charge. Tired of this master-builder/contractor/developer welfare bail outs.
Y You're Welcome May 11, 2011
What a giant waste of tax money.
J J Cote' May 12, 2011
@ #5 RIGHT ON!!
Bulb outs? Buffered bike lanes? Who lives in this City, The Jetson’s??? $8,000,000.00 for a linear park? How would Eric Anderson know what the City “once was”? He hasn’t even lived here for barely 10 years, if THAT long. I’m all for bringing it back to it’s “vibrant” time too, but to do so, you’d have to bring back strip joints, Elmo’s, Jerry’s and all the 25 cent movies they advertised. It would bring more “foot traffic”, for sure. Really, can’t you think of a BETTER way to spend $8,000,000.00?
L low bar May 12, 2011
yup. take that 8 million down to the EQC and put it all on 13 so it gets into the hands of a people who have been here longer than 10 years. thanks:)
J JinxMaster May 12, 2011
Agree with #5, 6 and 7. WHY are we continually throwing money at downtown when our vibrant smaller neighborhoods would be so much more productive if given a share of that funding? We’ve done enough to resuscitate downtown. Pronounce it dead. Until downtown pulls itself up out of their own self-built coffin full of our money, I say stop the flow of funding for that area!
R RR Anderson May 12, 2011
that 8 Million would be better spent on a single surface parking lot for DaVida
M Mofo from the Hood May 12, 2011
New! From Subtractive Utopia Books…
“HOW TO BUILD A GHOST TOWN:
The underwhelming story of Tacoma, Washington.”
—-from the introduction:
One City. One Intriguing Nickname:
“The City of Destiny.” But if Tacoma, Washington, a promising port city on Commencement Bay, is a city with a destiny, perhaps a destiny of doom, then what all-powerful evil commander is deceiving the humanity of Tacoma? When did the deception commence? When will it end?…
—-from a review by MNN:
The Mofo News Network, the most reliable news and entertainment source in Tacoma, has witnessed many strange things in the City of Destiny. Recently City Hall announced new streetscape plans for the north side of Pacific Avenue—-essentially plans for a suburban cul-de-sac with an asphalt drainage ditch…
Y You're Welcome May 12, 2011
It’s not a ghost town! There are tons of sweet-arse business thriving right now on Pac Ave. Just like it was before the last major construction project came through and closed half of those business down.
Downtown is a fragile eco-system. It doesn’t take much to kill the business that are thriving. It WILL be a ghost town… again!
L low bar May 12, 2011
and here i thought putting an anywhere town usa grocery store downtown would fix things. i mean when chase bank goes home for the day, being able to get a gallon of milk and some cat food on the way home should make everything all right and preserve that which is unique about the (business) community. #thesignsofbraindeath
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson May 12, 2011
melodramatic, my goodness. EXIT133 MODERATOR, can’t we do something about these sourpuss comments?
BUY NOW, INVEST!
L low bar May 12, 2011
WELL HELLO DOLLY
R Radio Man May 13, 2011
True, # 11… everytime the city decides to “do something great” for downtown, it involves ripping up streets and perfectly good sidewalks making parking and walking (and any kind of convenient passage by or near storefronts) impossible… and business DO end up going out of business instead of being revitalized. It happens over and over, and yet the city continues to make the same attempts again and again… Is there something in the water at City Hall that causes memory loss? Take a look at the three artist’s renderings (printed in this week’s Tacoma Weekly) and tell me if any one of those drawings makes any sense regarding traffic flow.
J Jesse May 14, 2011
I like the Pacific Avenue plan but I also think that street is probably the best looking one in Tacoma RIGHT NOW.
I suppose they can do matching streets on Market, Tacoma Ave, Jefferson, and St Helen’s later when they decide to put a streetcar loop there… and a restored cable car loop on 11th, MLK, 13th, and A st. (In my perfect fantasy world)
With the Pac Ave, Broadway LID, 9th St redo, the plans for a redo on 21st, and said streetcar loop and cable car loop, downtown won’t look too shabby!
J Jesse May 14, 2011
Of interest to me is page DT-35 where they show what I think would be a perfect streetcar map. Note that if there were a streetcar on the blue dotted line, and cable cars on the black dotted lines, you’d never more than a few blocks from it if you’re downtown.
R Rick Jones May 14, 2011
@17 Thanks.
J Jesse May 16, 2011
Just found out the street is going to be permeable asphalt. Permeable asphalt means the introduction of water under the street in places it was contained and channeled away in the past. Are the foundations of, especially the older buildings on Pacific, ready for this barrage? Concrete and mortar pre-1920’s is full of dirty sand, high lime content, and is weaker than that post 1920’s and sometimes so mushy you can stab a screwdriver through it —- take it from an old concrete expert. Hope they took all this into consideration!!!
M Marty May 17, 2011
Jesse, Will you please send those thoughts to City Council, with any other back up material?
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson May 17, 2011
speaking of permeable asphalt, is everyone aware that 5pm, MAY 17th, City Council Chambers will host one of the most important, mission critical public comment periods in modern history?
RESISTANCE to the commercialization of public space is at an all time high. For the first time in longer than anyone can remember, the FREE PEOPLES of the City of Destiny have the funny aftertaste of hope in their mouths. Sickness of monoculture is on the ropes comrades! We can win this thing… Our city representatives can’t do it alone, they need your support… your COSMIC MIND-MELD INFORMATION AWARENESS AIR SUPPORT! TURN OUT!
R Rick Jones May 17, 2011
Marty@22: Matt Weber with AHBL can help you out. I met him at the Pacific Av Streetscape Open House. The plan takes into account the impermeability of the sub-stratum that lurks very near the street surface in the downtown area. My understanding is that under the water filtration elements, including permeable street surfaces, a ‘medium’ will be placed to direct run-off to wastewater mains.
R Rick Jones May 18, 2011
@24 Jesse: Great information. Thanks.
T TacomAroma May 18, 2011
“City Manager Eric Anderson gave a brief speech during the introduction in which he said the City wants to restore Pacific Avenue downtown to the vibrant center of the city it once was.”
…move the mall downtown.