Tacoma City Council Meeting - June 2nd, 2009

Last night’s warm weather City Council meeting was reasonably quick given the full agenda and Citizens’ Forum. Here’s our Cliff Note’s of the meeting:

APPOINTMENTS
Resolution No. 37799 appoints Council Member Lauren Walker as the alternate to the Pierce County Regional Council.

RESOLUTIONS

Resolution No. 37801 authorizes the execution of Amendment No. 2 to the Development, Sale Back, and Lease agreement with Pacific Plaza Development, LLC, in the amount of $358,000 for a pedestrian hill climb on the north end of the South Park Plaza Garage connecting Pacific Avenue to Commerce Street. The project will now remove the existing concrete escalator enclosure and will construct a new straight staircase. This will create a small plaza and there seems to be some hope for a retail space. The new open air arrangement should also enable the building to the north of the garage to actually have windows overlooking the new plaza. Imagine that!

FINAL READING OF ORDINANCES

Ordinance No. 27803 amends the Municipal Code, to adopt the Right-of-Way Restoration Policy, to provide a systematic approach to restore infrastructure, improve performance of street and sidewalk restorations, limit accelerated degradation to the infrastructure, protect the infrastructure investment, and reduce future maintenance costs.

Ordinance No. 27804 appropriates $220,000 from the Municipal Art Fund to create public art for the Pacific Plaza building. The majority of this money was transferred from the private developer via the 1% for public art development incentive. This bit of art is somehow worked into the plaza and staircase mentioned in Resolution No. 37801.

FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES

Ordinance No. 27807 provides for the issuance and sale of Limited Tax General Obligation Bond, 2009, in the principal amount of $1,855,000 to provide financing for general contract changes and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) enhancements to the South Park Plaza Garage rehabilitation project. This is a replacement for a previous ordinance approving a different loan from the general fund that would’ve been repaid via the parking fund. This new loan is via Bank of America.

CITIZEN FORUM

Michelle Douglas from the Tempest Lounge brought a letter to council asking them to “think outside the box” and do something with the old Brown Star Grill property. It’s been closed for five years now and what can the city do to now stimulate activity in the area. The dead space isn’t helping anybody. What are the interim steps for the neighborhood?

Heading back to the sun now. Hoping to avoid dying of heatstroke.