Tacoma City Business Preview - Week of March 24, 2015

Puget Sound Clean Air

At this week's city council Study Session Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Executive Director Craig Kenworthy will provide an update on the status of solving the area's fine particle pollution problem. Kenworthy will also share what's next in efforts to protect air quality in Tacoma and Pierce County. 

Tacoma Link Expansion Update

At this Wednesday's Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee meeting the committee will hear an update on progress on the expansion of Tacoma's Link light rail from Sound Transit and City staff, including current information on the project schedule, funding, and public outreach and a summary of draft findings from the environmental analysis. 

This first public presentation of the draft environmental analysis findings kicks off a series of public presentations. In May the full city council will have the opportunity to review the findings and make a recommendation to Sound Transit on the project to be built. Then in June the Sound Transit Board is scheduled to identify the project to be built.

This IPS presentation will be the first public presentation of the draft environmental analysis findings and will kick off a series of public presentations. In May, the full City Council has the opportunity to make a recommendation to the Sound Transit Board on the project to be built. The Sound Transit Board is scheduled to identify the project to be built at their June Board meeting.

This committee meeting may be worth watching...

Billboards

In a final report to the City, the Tacoma Billboards Community Working Group reported that it had come up short on finding a workable compromise to address the 300+ billboards in Tacoma currently out of compliance with zoning and design standards. The group, convened last year, met 11 times over a 5 month period, was made up of pro and anti-billboard stakeholders including representatives of neighborhood groups and major billboard owner, Clear Channel Outdoor. They were able to identify some mutually acceptable common ground on zoning changes, but little else, including design standards and a transition mechanism. (Read more previously from Exit133 here.) 

That report has been formally presented to the City, and a resolution on this week's council meeting agenda would acknowledge that, and direct staff to use the report to continue working with billboard owners, community stakeholders, and the Planning Commission to develop recommendations on the matter. We'll see how that goes.

Youth Building Tacoma

Another resolution on this week's agenda would authorize the refunding of the Youth Building Tacoma program in the amount of $325,000. Established in 1997, the YBT training and employment project helps young adults (ages 18 to 24) become work-ready. In the current model, participants get training including a trades discovery curriculum, math and reading instruction, driver's license training, and are also offered space in TPU Water math courses. This model produces program graduates that qualified for entry-level positions at TPU Water and Power. 

Purchase Resolutions

Two purchase resolutions on this week's council meeting agenda:

1. Awarding a $207,400 contract budgeted from the Wastewater Fund, for one Komatsu track mounted hydraulic excavator to assist with wastewater and surface water repairs and maintenance. The new model should be more fuel efficient and allow for less invasive, more efficient completion of excavations than the outdated equipment it replaces.
2. Awarding a $404,243 contract budgeted from the Capital Projects - REET Fund, for expansion of the existing parking lot at the Chinese Reconciliation Park by 30 spaces, installation of new signage and lighting, and a new bamboo wall with a Chinese motif and plants. This third phase of the Chinese Reconciliation Park project also removes approximately 1,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil currently stockpiled on site under the Schuster Parkway Bridge.

Other Items

An ordinance scheduled for a first and final reading on the consent agenda for this week's council meeting would create a Local Improvement District for pervious asphalt concrete paving, concrete banding, and modification of storm drain lines and storm water catch basins on Bennett Street from North 35th to 37th streets. 

Dr. Dung Xuan Nguyen will be recognized for his leadership in support of the Vietnamese-American Community of Tacoma and Pierce County.

Lauren Flemister will be appointed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

A final reading is scheduled for this week of a substitute ordinance implementing negotiated rates of pay and compensation for employees represented by the Tacoma Police Union, Local 6, IUPA, and providing for a salary adjustment for the City Manager, as discussed at last week's meeting.

An ordinance scheduled for a first reading at this week's council meeting would continue the downtown Business Improvement Area for a 28th year, through April 2016. The ordinance would approve a work plan for the BIA for the coming year, and the levy of assessments and other projected income to cover the projected at $858,318 budget. The nearly three decade-old BIA provides security, maintained and marketing for properties within the BIA area.

A final ordinance on this week's agenda for a first reading would approve parameters for the issuance and sale of water system revenue and refunding bonds in an amount not to exceed $30,600,000, to refund and defease all or a portion of the 2005 Water System Revenue and Refunding Bonds. Due to interest rate drops since 2005, Tacoma Water expects this move could save around $2.6 million.