Introduction

OLY2012 is a group of independent citizens who care about downtown Olympia and hope to see it evolve in the best way possible for the community as a whole.  Just as the community has been divided by the proposed Urban Waterfront Rezone, the OLY 2012 steering committee was torn on this issue initially.  Back in March, our first straw vote on the issue amongst our initial six-person steering committee was split, 3-3.

True to our mission of building broad-based community support, in early June we published what we hoped would be a “compromise” proposal for addressing the isthmus issue in our first position paper: Today’s Vision for Downtown Olympia.  The proposal called for opening views and park space through the center of the isthmus by purchasing and removing the Capitol Center Building while approving a modified rezone to enable the building of mid-rise, mixed-use structures on the western edge of the isthmus.  Our hope was that our compromise proposal would unite the community, just as it united our initially-divided steering committee. 

Since then, we have continued to study what the rezone would mean to downtown Olympia, and through this process our opinion has evolved.  Our final position fully and unconditionally supports building mixed-use structures on the isthmus, and thus, supports approving the rezone suggested by the City of Olympia staff and recommended by the Olympia Planning Commission.  We do not think that approving the rezone will necessarily preclude the realization of our compromise vision for the isthmus.

The following position paper thoroughly details our findings and supports our conclusion.

Environment & Community

The root cause of many of the most challenging problems in our world today is suburban sprawl -- enabled by our 20th century car culture. We need to take responsibility and change how we live at the community level if we are to begin addressing some of our most severe environmental and societal problems.

Urban density is one answer.  It mitigates the threat of global warming by reducing our auto-dependant carbon footprint.  It lowers our transportation costs, which lowers our overall cost of living.  It enables us to eat more healthfully because less sprawl equals more local farmland.

Density also brings communities together and helps address social ills.  Suburbia has polarized our society; density will moderate it.  In our suburban culture today it's easy for the haves to ignore the have-nots: homelessness isn't a problem to a typical suburbanite – it's merely a once-in-awhile inconvenience.  Density offers us the opportunity to change this by bringing us closer to one another. 

Smart Growth

Growth is inevitable, and with the rising cost of gasoline alone, density is bound to occur naturally – we can’t sprawl forever.  But density is not as simple as just building high rises in urban cores.  For communities to function with density, the environment we create must be designed with both humans and the outdoor environment in mind.  This is what the term smart growth is all about.  If we ignore the questions of where and how to accommodate more people living in our urban core, density could actually do more harm than good to our downtown.

Renowned urban activist Jane Jacobs wrote that in order for city parks to foster – not hinder – healthy urban communities they must be surrounded by the daily activities of human life – living, working and exchanging goods and services.  She argued that expansive urban parks that don’t play a role in these everyday activities denigrate urban cores by fragmenting the organic patterns and conventions of city dwellers, and by providing an unwatched habitat for at-risk members of society to fester uncared for by the greater community.

The Growth Management Act and our city’s comprehensive plan attempt to employ these concepts of smart growth.  These documents call for mid-rise – not high-rise – mixed-use structures.  They call for parks that are appropriately scaled to the urban environment.

With this in mind, sacrificing height and density for the far-reaching promise of converting the isthmus into an extension of an already generous park complex would not be wise.  Not only is the park alternative not feasible under any financing package we have heard of, but it would create additional challenges for our urban society, while providing little incremental benefit.

On the other hand, cradling Heritage Park and Percival Landing within beautiful structures on the isthmus that support the 24/7 lives of our citizens would sew these great parks deeper into the fabric of our downtown, nurturing a sense of safety, function, vibrancy, virtue and civic pride in and around them.

The Other Alternative

The isthmus is bound to change, especially in the short term.  No one in our community has argued in favor of keeping the blight that currently exists on this valuable piece of land, and Triway Enterprises, which owns much of that blight, has made it clear that if its rezone application does not receive city approval, it plans to build a 63,000 square foot, 41 foot-high office building (plus 10’ of HVAC mechanics) with adjacent surface area parking.

This, too, would be a terrible option for downtown Olympia.  It would not create - much less “jumpstart” - desperately-needed housing in downtown.  Moreover, single-use office buildings do very little for their surrounding communities.  In addition to impeding much of the same view from the State Capitol that the housing option has been so criticized for, an office building would cause terrible traffic congestion (rush hour) and leave the isthmus devoid of human activity for 13 hours each weekday and 24 hours each weekend day.  Office dwellers on the isthmus would have little stake in the community around them – they would drive in from the suburbs, park their car, work an eight hour day, perhaps buy lunch, and retreat back to their homes at the end of the day.  In short, single-use office buildings suburbanize the urban core itself while facilitating continued use of the suburban development model (i.e., sprawl) throughout our region.

Improving the City’s Tax Base

As we see budgets of schools and other local public services cut, we need to support improving the local tax base.  The current Triway Enterprises proposal for condos and commercial space on the isthmus would increase the assessed value on two small parcels by about $150 million.  Property tax revenues on those parcels would grow to $1.4 million – even with an eight year abatement given to condo purchasers.  Initial sales of condos would generate $1.6 million in real estate excise tax to fund infrastructure projects.   Building and furnishing condos and commercial spaces should generate about $8 million in sales tax.   Condo re-sales and commercial activity would generate other taxes.

These additional revenues will help fund school, library, city, county and transit services, as well as repairs to our city’s abundant public waterfront amenities like Percival Landing.  The rezone does not block off the waterfront.  Almost all downtown waterfront is publicly owned.  What is blocking off the waterfront is the lack of a tax base to repair the boardwalk and build the parks and trails for the waterfront we already own.

Our state’s Growth Management Act is almost two decades old.  Our city’s comprehensive plan, calling for 2,500 units of market-rate housing in downtown Olympia, is 14 years old.  It’s been six years since the City rezoned Columbia Street to Urban Waterfront Housing.  But, in all that time, and after a good deal of expense in sound planning, hardly a single unit of market-rate housing has been built downtown.  There’s no denying that Olympia - despite its progressive and green reputation - has fallen woefully behind its counterpart cities in other parts of the region.

These facts confirm our argument that attaining urban density is not as easy as simply building high rises wherever they are least likely to face public opposition.  Urban planners understand that in order for an urban housing development project to be truly successful for the community as a whole, it must take advantage of the best amenities that the urban landscape has to offer – the everyday lives of citizens and our city’s amenities should be woven together, not segregated.  The blight-infested isthmus holds our city’s best privately-owned amenities.  And, it is owned by a local developer who wants to build in a smart growth manner.  It’s time for our city to capitalize on this opportunity, not stand in the way.

We must revitalize our downtown business district, and lend additional support to our many family-owned small businesses we all treasure.  These restaurants, shops and service providers are the only alternative in our community to the big box stores and malls that are evermore prevalent in Thurston County.  The addition of market-rate housing downtown will diversify and improve our downtown economy, and offer a choice for citizens who want to adopt a lifestyle of living, working, shopping, dining and playing in an exciting urban environment.

Views

The rezone will not “wall off the waterfront”, since almost the entire waterfront - fresh water and salt water - is publicly owned.  We currently have a walkable waterfront, with unhindered views of Budd Inlet and the Olympics – a waterfront that will, over time, be greatly improved with the development of trails and parks on the West side and throughout much of the Port.

We acknowledge that the rezone will marginally impede some of the viewshed from the state capitol campus and the hillside leading down to Heritage Park.  But, is a completely unobstructed view of the water and the mountains – from the capitol campus -- really what we want if the foreground of that same view is of blight, or of office space for 9-5ers?  OLY 2012 prefers a view that confirms that Olympia was chosen by our former state leaders as the Capitol because it is an exemplary city unto itself.  We agree with the existing city-state compact to make the fountain park the Capitol’s view corridor.

We prefer a view that tells us that our city can adapt to change and live up to its reputation as a progressive, environmentally conscious and globally minded community.  We want a view that gives us a sense of hope for the future that lies ahead.

We remain committed to the redevelopment of downtown Olympia, including the building of market-rate housing for all income levels, and adequate parking to meet the needs of residents, business owners, and visitors.  We want a diverse, walkable, inviting and economically thriving downtown we can all be proud of!  Furthermore, we want to save as much of the farmland and forestland of Thurston County as possible from the everyday threat of suburban sprawl by developing denser, more diverse housing options for Olympia’s citizens.  The environmental and social problems facing our world today must first be addressed at a local level.  This issue of rezoning the isthmus is a first step towards these goals.

Click here for our rebuttals to common arguments against the rezone not explicitly addressed above. 

 --
The OLY 2012 Steering Committee:

Troy Bussey, Jr.
Cheryl Duryea
Sharon Foster
Enid Layes
Maureen Morris
Jackie Barrett-Sharar
Peter Stroble