It has come to my attention that Gary R. Tabor, candidate for Thurston County Superior Court, has received considerable campaign support from the Olympia Master Builders (www.omb.org). Maybe you have seen the advertisements on IT Buses [pdf].

Tabor's challenger, Ed Holm, is not without his own issues. As the director of the Thurston County Prosecutor's Office he is accused of mismanagement.

The campaign of Gary R. Tabor has received over $15,000 from Olympia Master Builders via the OMB political action committee "Peoples Choice for Leadership" (this information is tricky and very difficult to find on the Washington Public Disclosure Commission website (www.pdc.wa.gov, but here's a short-cut: type "peoples choice for leadership" into first entry field ["filer name"]). In a time of increasing environmental peril, is this the kind of influence over the judiciary that will do society good?

It seems that those of us who are concerned with the issue of how to best approach the problem of creating a truly sustainable society are left with a difficult choice.

Is it too late to organize a write-in campaign?

- bert

I very randomly stumbled across this great case study which comes to us from Canada. Thought it would be an interesting read since we have our own parcel of distillery in Tumwater whose future is still up in the air.

In all, the city worked with developers to keep the historic look and feel of the buildings, which sat on a 2.7 acre parcel. The developers were given several incentives, including reduced impact fees, etc... to keep costs down. In total, over 200 units were created. The avg selling price was initially between $150 to $216K, with 95% of units sold within 3 years.

Here's the document:

PRESS RELEASE

Olympia, July 21, 2008

In response to widespread public interest in finding an alternative to the proposed increase in height limits on Olympia’s downtown isthmus between Capital Lake and Budd Inlet, a new group has formed to investigate the feasibility of acquiring the area of the proposed re-zone AND the Capital Tower Building for eventual incorporation into Heritage Park.

The new group called the “Steering Committee for Public Acquisition” is comprised, in part, of former Olympia Planning Commissioners who believe that the current height limit on the isthmus of 35 feet should not be increased to 90 feet as recently proposed.

The group also believes that as part of the current discussion of the future of the isthmus that the City Council and the State needs also to carefully consider the option of public ownership, with just compensation to present owners, for the area from the twin bridges to Water Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues. This option would not change the status of Bay View Market, the Olympia Yacht Club or the Oyster House.

If sufficient community interest exists, the Steering Committee plans to create a non-profit association for the purpose of thoroughly investigating the ways and means to bring about the de-development and preservation of the isthmus as a great public space for the benefit of all. Their goal is to develop a public-private partnership to bring this about.

The Steering Committee will host a public meeting on August 4 from 7 to 9 pm in Room 2004 at the Olympia Community Center (222 Columbia St. NW) to link up with others who are supportive of this concept.

For additional information contact Jerry Reilly at jerryreilly@msn.com (360 561 4212) or Jeff Jaksich at eastbay4@comcast.com (360 352 2735).

A really clever animation that John Leisenring (JCL Animations in Olympia), did for Friends of the Waterfront. Click picture to start animation:

Download it (It's a 3.2 MB Quicktime file, if you have a slow connection...)

Best,
Thad

After an interesting conversation with another business owner this afternoon, (who doesn't share my view on the development of downtown) I had a thought...

What are the underlying issues with the Triway development on the isthmus?

Yes, there is the view and the history and there is the luxury condo-problem and the tax breaks, ...

But, I have a view questions floating around in my head I would like to get some answers from you Olybloggers:

Is downtown good the way it is?

Should it stay the way it is?

Do we need change? Do we mean by change development?

Does development mean more housing? If housing, where and who could build it?

So, if you followed me so far, let's get down another few questions:

How much does it cost to build a multiple story building in downtown.

Who could take on a project like that, finance it, fund it, etc.

Are all developers evil?

If so, who else could build a project like that? 

Let's find a solution to those answers and we can come up with a masterplan of how we want Olympia to look like in 10 years - hey, it's Olyblog2018?!?!?

And, then write a "buisness plan" of how we can achieve that.

That's what I did when I wanted to open my business:

Answer all the questions I could think off, write the answers down, answer more questions and write them down and before you know it, you got a working business model.

If we could create some synergy (gotta love that word!), perhaps we could shop the idea to a view developers around town/state and see what they say and perhaps we can come up with an alternative plan/solution for downtown. Usually it's much easier to convince people that they should consider your voice, if you have a plan...

So, with those words I shall leave you for the night to ponder...

cheers,

mathias

Thought I would also round up some other growth that is on the table around the city. These are either priliminary submissions to the city or project discussions, or may have already begun. Like with the clearing near Division & Walnut Rd, these things can slip by with little to no fuss. Take the entire moonscaping of the development along Mud Bay & Evergreen Pkway/101 Interchange for example. That will soon be a 58-Acre development. It is slated to have 231 single-family lots, 24 duplexes, 63 triplexes, 54 sixplexes, 20 townhomes, and commercial buildings with at least 7000 sq ft of floor space. And lots of garage doors. Link to location here.

<break>

1. Trillium Neighborhood 'Village' Master Plan

• 79-Acre Master Planned Neighborhood here.
  
• A total of 517 housing units are proposed, with 311 single-family residences,
  26 duplex units, 180 multi-family apartments, and 1 unit in a mixed use building.
  
• Also proposed is an approximately 1.4 acre commercial site, a one-acre community green, other open spaces, and associated streets, utilities, and public services.
  
  

2. Bing Apartments

• 6-Story 133-Units. Location here.
  
  

3. Prather Valley Park

Much talk about TriWay right now. Though no one seems to be talking about the Colpitts development at Columbia & 5th Ave. For this project, 88+ parking spaces will be removed and the city will spend $200,000+ on clean-up. In the spirit of taking a look at what could be, I did some (crummy) photoshopping of what a 7-story building would look like around a sea of 1 to 3 story structures surrounding it.

The 100+ units of housing will sell for "market rate" which could mean anything from about $290,000 to $400,000. The project will also have a 2 level parking area.

So why aren't we as focused on this project as being out of place, or not catering to a more affordable level? With the 'view' and alternative use argument aside, these two projects only have a difference of a few hundred-thousand dollars.

go to original

...

Friends of the Waterfront has been calling for a comprehensive community-wide visioning process to determine the shape of our waterfront area. The general public should determine how this vital area will be used to support the high quality of life we all want to continue to enjoy in Olympia.

The next step in the city's consideration of the isthmus rezone proposal is the public hearing before the Olympia Planning Commission at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at the Olympia Center. Tentatively, people will be able to sign in starting at 5:30 for a slot to testify.

Meantime, we seek Letters to the Editor in support of our position. We also have yard signs, and window signs available for distribution.

Please visit our website (www.friendsofthewaterfront.org) for all the information on this proposal and links to city files and letters to the editor. See the Images section of the website for interesting commentary on the proponents' misleading graphic depictions.

360º Panorama:

Here's a more detailed 180º Panorama: