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Progress
Sunday, March 24, 2002
Opportunities and challenges abound as cities define their cores LIONA TANNESEN THE OLYMPIAN
An apartment with a view, a job in the city, a symphony concert, a Christmas shopping list or a dinner in a nice restaurant bring people downtown.
In a traditional downtown, buildings press up against the sidewalks. Workers,
shoppers and people out for an evening can walk wherever they need
to go.
But anyone looking for that sort of downtown in Lacey, Tumwater, DuPont, Bucoda and Rainier won't find it easily among shopping centers, businesses sprinkled along busy streets or tiny towns.
These cities bristle at the phrase "strip mall," and many city councils spend hours working on plans to create, remake or improve their downtowns.
"The town center is important to community cohesiveness," Tumwater City Councilwoman Karen Valenzuela said.
The image of a perfect downtown isn't easily overlaid on cities like Lacey, Tumwater, DuPont, Bucoda and Rainier.
Planners can't pick up buildings behind oceans of parking spaces and push them closer to the street.
Cities can't grab business owners or corporations by the collar and order them to open a shop in the downtown.
The cities want a place where people can walk, buildings close to the street -- and a clear heart to the community.
Lacey
Lacey is changing its downtown bit by bit, from a place where people drive to shop into a downtown where people can walk, shop, work and play -- by 2020.
"I think we're going to see a rebuilding over time," said Lacey Mayor Graeme Sackrison.
City officials point to two new office and retail buildings on Sixth Avenue.
The buildings are up against the sidewalk -- with restaurants, a wine and tobacco shop, and a gym visible to walkers -- the way buildings are in traditional downtowns.
The city also will switch two streets to one-way streets and realign Sixth Avenue to ease traffic problems and make the area more pedestrian-friendly.
"You have to work around buildings that are already there," said Steve Chamberlain, president of SCA Consulting Group, which developed Bell Towne. "You can't wipe the slate clean and start from scratch."
Tumwater, DuPont
Tumwater -- whose first downtown was sliced in two by Interstate 5 in the 1950s -- and DuPont are creating new downtowns.
DuPont, a city of 3,000 people, plans to have a 30-acre downtown area off Interstate 5.
Pedestrians could walk to boutiques, restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores.
Planners hope the district will lure people off the freeway.
Tumwater's plans for a city center would place a 200-acre downtown between Airdustrial Road, Israel Road, Nicholas Street and I-5.
On March 5, the city approved up to $30,000 for a design consultant to spend on plans for the town center.
Rainier, Bucoda
Rainier and Bucoda, both in more rural areas, don't have large-scale changes in mind for their downtowns.
The few people moving in and out of Bucoda, population about 630, pretty much balance out, city officials said.
The lack of sewers and the lack of money for sewers put the brakes on growth in Bucoda, said Gee Gee Clark, Bucoda's clerk treasurer.
Bucoda's most visible change is a new recreational vehicle park outside of town.
The town also has applied for grants in hopes of adding water lines and other items.
Rainier -- which grew from 991 people in 1990 to 1,492 in 2000 -- is changing, city officials said.
Rainier recently cleared drainage areas and stopped flooding on Center Street.
The city also plans to add railroad crossing bars and a new modular home for the Rainier Police Department, which moved into the school district building when its roof collapsed in heavy rains last year.
Rainier, Bucoda, Lacey, Tumwater and DuPont aren't striving to replace Seattle or Portland.
But the cities do want a community center, a recognizable heart around which the life of the city would hum.
Liona Tannesen covers Lacey for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5427 or ltannese@olympia.gannett.com.
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