It remains to be seen if this will be money well spent.
The proposal, pushed forward by mayoral candidate Stephen Buxbaum in the final days of the primary election campaign, is designed to take advantage of a state community renewal law.
The law would allow the city to purchase derelict properties in blighted areas of the community, then sell them back to the private sector for redevelopment.
Only time will tell if this is a cost-effective way to breathe some life back into rundown sections of the city center where boarded up windows and empty buildings are deterrents to economic growth and development.
City officials envision a consultant-led, yearlong public process to define where and how best to use the state law in Olympia.
Buxbaum is an enthusiastic supporter of the plan, saying it could open the door for public-private partnerships that are otherwise outside the scope of what the city can legally do with property it buys. It’s worked in Bremerton and Vancouver, Wash., and it could work here, too, he opined.
He said it could help the city qualify for urban renewal grants and fit nicely with $2 million in federal low-interest loans available for community development in Olympia.
The City Council recently voted 6-1 to seek their blight consultant. The city elected officials have not taken an official position on whether to create a community-renewal area or decided where that area, or areas, might be.
But there’s already been a lot of speculation that the 300 block of Fourth Avenue – home to several vacant buildings – is a likely candidate. A more controversial one would be the vacant buildings on the isthmus next to Capitol Lake, where community visions of the best use of the property range from a park to commercial redevelopment.
It’s hard to argue with the overall goal of revitalizing rundown areas in downtown Olympia.
But it’s also hard to argue on behalf of a big city expenditure on urban renewal property purchases at a time when the city is already up to its ears in debt on big projects such as the new City Hall. That’s the point made by Council member Karen Rogers, the sole dissenting vote and also a mayoral candidate,
Who knows what it will take to kick-start interest in downtown development, short of a major upswing in the national, regional and local economy?
It’s too early to get too excited about the blight consultant. But the city, for better or for worse, is about to take the plunge.
