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

Here's the entire meeting for your viewing pleasure.

The public hearing for Larida Passage is tonight and the city is expecting a lot of people to show up. But, like a lot of folks, I'm not going to be able to attend and just emailed in my comments to the council and planning commission.

Rules for this thread: Share what you're going to say tonight or are emailing in. But, don't respond to anyone's comments. There are plenty of other threads here for back and forth, this is just internet public comment time.

Email for the city council (citycouncil [at] ci.olympia.wa.us) and planning commission (cpdinfo [at] ci.olympia.wa.us).

This Sunday, June 15th 2008 Editorial Board of the Olympian officially came unhinged. In an editorial titled End the blight, approve the height they went on a hysterical name-calling rant worthy of, if not inspired by, their on-line comments cesspool. Interestingly enough, the comments sections on both the editorial and the front page article were 90% anti-Triway.

Y'all know how I feel about the Triway proposal. I feel there is there is no need to critique this unpaid advertisement for Triway as written by Oly2012 for it is so over the top it is embarrassing. I suspect it will backfire on it's authors. Weigh in on the editorial and reportage if you's like but I think it would be fun for people to suggest alternative to the End the Blight, Approve the Height cheer leading chant. Here's a couple from the Olympian's comments section

I've never been good with rhyming and poetry and stuff but I'm confident other Olybloggers are. Let's see your whit in verse.

Edit. 16 June 08.

I have willingly removed two offensive sentences at the suggestion of a docent. The sentences were equating prostitutes to the Olympian editorial board.

I've been working away on the Friends of the Waterfront website, adding stuff about how the owners of the million dollar condos Triway wants to build would be excused from paying property taxes for ten years, etc. But personally, I'm most interested in thinking about exactly what images politicians, and people on the Planning Commission and the rest of us use in deciding what the city will look like for years and years.

I'm pretty much done with commenting on Triway's images for the website. Now I'm starting to make my own versions, roughing out what the city might look like instead of having high rises down there. It's interesting — maybe we should have a virtual redevelopment contest... above-ground Moxlie Creek in Photoshop, etc.

Here's a start

For Immediate Release: June 3, 2008
Contact: Janine Gates, President, SPEECH, 360-791-7736

Community Forum, "Envision Downtown Olympia"

A public forum on Downtown Olympia's future will be held on Thursday, June 19, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1224 Legion Way SE.

The forum, "Envision Downtown Olympia," is sponsored by the non-profit organization South Puget Environmental Education Clearinghouse (SPEECH) with support from the Community Sustaining Fund. The public is invited to envision different perspectives on what we, as a community, want for downtown Olympia. The forum will also address the Urban Waterfront Rezone proposal submitted to the city by Triway Enterprises.

Forum speakers include Rich Hoey, Water Resources Director at City of Olympia Public Works, who will give a presentation on predicted sea-level rise in downtown Olympia; Barbara Gooding, former director of the Washington State Department of Community Development and former City of Olympia planning commissioner, who will offer a brief history of Olympia's current downtown zoning issues; Steve Cooper, downtown property owner; and Bob Jacobs, former mayor of Olympia and member of Friends of the Waterfront. Eve Johnson, former president of the League of Women Voters, will be the moderator.

Audience members will actively participate in the visioning and discussion.

SPEECH can be reached at (360) 528-9158, speech.greenpages@gmail.com or www.oly-wa.us/greenpages.

One of the interesting things about working with Friends of the Waterfront against the request to rezone the space between the lake and the sound has been looking at what the planning commission and the City Council actually *see* when they're deciding what Olympia will look like in the future. I'm just starting to do some pages for the FOTW website with comparisons, like this...:

Views from the 4th Avenue bridge

The City's visualization from the public workshop March 22nd — which includes the rezone on the other side of the street, not just TriWay's imagined buildings.

TriWay's visualization — notice that the street lights on the left look about five stories high, making the buildings feel appealingly small...

http://www.nuprometheus.com/friends/comparebridge.html

Best,
Thad