The vote was 4-3. The three council members who voted against the proposal, Steven Buxbaum, Steve Langer and Jeannine Roe, expressed concerns about the rushed decision, saying members of the public had not been given sufficient opportunity to voice their opinions.
While we’re certain that the new park will be an asset to the capital city, we agree with the three council members who said the process to get to the decision was seriously flawed.
If anything, the City of Olympia has a reputation for taking an inordinate amount of time to come to decisions. Council members have a reputation of studying some issues to death. How many different parking analyses has the city done over the past three or four decades, for example, to try and craft a solution to the downtown parking problem?
But the decision to spend $300,000 to purchase two dozen acres just west of Cooper Point Road on Harrison was made without much public involvement or discussion.
Originally, the west Olympia Community Visioning Group (CVG) was planning to raise the money for the property purchase. That effort fell woefully short when the visioning group raised only $50,000. The organization plans to use the money for the development of the park/plaza,
But the switch from private to public funding is a major shift in public policy that deserved broad community interaction. The fact that the park has not been part of the comprehensive plan discussion only bolsters the claim of the council minority that the public has not been properly engaged on this new direction for the city.
Some residents called the council to task on the lack of public involvement. They expressed concerns that the agreement with the visioning group gave CVG too much influence on the purchase of the property and development of the park.
“There has been no City Council committee referral, no advisory committee referral activity or recommendation, no public process worthy of the name,” said Olympia resident Joe Ford. “The memorandum of understanding states that the CVG has conducted its own public process. This is not a public process; this is a private process.”
We agree. This proposed park purchase should have gone through the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, then worked its way through the council’s land use committee followed by a public hearing. It didn’t. The city’s normal schedule was restricted, excluding the public in the process.
CVG secretary Jim Randall said he didn’t think the proposal would be controversial after the public knew more about it.
And therein lies the problem. Members of the public don’t know enough about the plan. It’s no wonder people are skeptical.
Besides, there are a lot of unanswered questions, such as how much it is going to cost to develop the park/plaza? Plans call for a public plaza, an amphitheater, educational center, trail, bell tower and a dog park. But the plans aren’t set in stone and city officials have launched a public process to determine how the property should be developed.
“We’re really excited about it,” said Phil Schulte, vice president of the west Olympia Community Visioning Group. “We think it could be one of the most significant changes on the west side in a decade at least.”
We agree that this plaza/park will be a boon to the west side, but as one of the “most significant changes on the west side in a decade at least,” the purchase of the property deserved a full public airing and thorough analysis by the council and its advisory and subcommittees.
That didn’t happen. Instead Councilmembers Craig Ottavelli, Rhenda Strub and Karen Rogers joined Mayor Doug Mah to rush through the park property purchase agreement. Even City Manager Steve Hall admitted during the meeting that “we have not gone through a full public vetting of what the partnership should look like.”
The 10 members of the west side visioning group picked the site, signed the contract and developed a plan for the site which the city will lease back to the group. That’s not a public process.
