Tacoma City Business Preview - Week of June 11, 2013

Port Shoreline Public Access

This week, in lieu of the regular City Council study session, a joint study session of the Council and Port of Tacoma Commissioners will be held at the Fabulich Center at noon on Tuesday. The main item on the agenda is a discussion of the Port Shoreline Public Access Plan and the Interlocal Agreement that will set forth a flexible approach to shoreline public access provision that the Port and its tenants may use at their discretion to fulfill the public access requirements of the City’s adopted Shoreline Master Program, in lieu of site-by-site requirements.  The Draft ILA sets out how it plans to address public access requirements.

• Provide a mechanism to better ensure that mitigation required for individual projects can help create an integrated, connected public access system; 
• Streamline permitting for both the Port and private applicants; 
• Provide certainty to the Port and the City over the 10 years of the proposed agreement; 
• Provide a methodology for the use of a public access fee-in-lieu that can be utilized by both the Port and private parties. 

Upon finalization of the draft ILA, staff will submit a request for resolution to authorize the execution of the Agreement. 

Final Readings

Four ordinances are scheduled for final readings at this week’s City Council meeting.  We heard the first readings of all four at last week’s Council meeting.  The ordinances would make adjustments to Click! cable rates, clarify changes to Tacoma’s taxicab regulations, and amend both the building and fire codes for the City.

Citizens’ Forum

It hardly seems like a month has passed since the last Citizens’ Forum, but it is once again time for you to share your thoughts on any issue over which the Council has jurisdiction.  

Bikes, Trains, & Automobiles (& Pedestrians)

Four items on this week’s purchase resolution

1. $774,351, budgeted from the Streets Special Revenue Fund, for traffic signals and pedestrian beacons located between South 56th and South 74th Streets for the Tacoma Water Ditch Trail Traffic Signals project;
2. $921,999 budgeted from the Streets Special Revenue Fund, to install and upgrade traffic signal for the South 25th Street Corridor Signal Improvements project;
3. $1,379,234 budgeted from the Streets Special Revenue Fund, for Local Improvement District No. 8659;
4. $35,000, plus sales tax, for a cumulative total of $1,927.511, budgeted from the Tacoma Rail Mountain Division Fund, to increase the contract for the Blakeslee Junction Track Realignment project.

Item 1 would fund two traffic signals at South 56th and South 74th streets, and three pedestrian crossing beacons at South 54th, South 66th, and South 72nd along the Water Ditch Trail.  ADA compliant curb ramps, crosswalk markings, sidewalk improvements, signage and lighting will also be installed.

Item 2 would install one new traffic signal at South 25th Street and J Street and upgrade two existing signals along South 25’” Street at Yakima Avenue and Tacoma Avenue. Work will include vehicle and pedestrian signals, detection, ADA compliant ramps, electronic signal controllers, and traffic signal interconnect.

Item 3 would construct standard pavement for three alleys, a fourth alley with pervious pavement, and a temporary street segment; and construct storm and sewers with associated structures. Work on private properties is also included in this LID project per property owner agreements including driveway construction, removal of vegetation, and removal and construction of fences.  

Item 4 would increase the contract for work on the tracks at Blakeslee Junction to cover additional construction costs required to complete the project. As a part of the WSDOT widening of I-5 through Lewis County the Tacoma Rail, Puget Sound & Pacific and Union Pacific railroad tracks at Blakeslee Junction needed to be reconfigured. 

Other Items

An ordinance up for a final reading on this week’s consent agenda would vacate the west 200 feet of the alley right-of-way lying south of Puyallup Avenue and east of East L Street for a commercial fueling facility. 

A resolution on this week’s City Council meeting agenda would amend the General Government Fee Schedule for Special and Miscellaneous Services, to include a $50 fee for housing providers who operate rental properties outside the city limits and attend the Crime Free Housing Program Phase I Landlord Training. 

A second resolution on the agenda would authorize the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma, in the amount of $375,000, budgeted from the 2009 LTGO Bond Series E Fund, for the City’s portion of the replacement of approximately 3,300 linear feet of existing water main and the addition of seven fire hydrants to Fort Nisqually in Point Defiance Park, with an estimated project total of $750,000.