Last month, the City Council put out a request for consultants who could help put together a renewal plan. The city narrowed seven responses to three, said Keith Stahley, director of Community Planning and Development. A committee that includes three council members will interview those candidates Friday at a meeting that is open to the public.
“Each of them have direct experience in working on Community Renewal Areas,” Stahley said.
The finalists are:
• Urbanist Housing Solutions of Vancouver, Wash. The firm’s principal, Kurt Creager, was the CEO of the Vancouver Housing Authority from 1991 to 2006 and helped redevelop downtown Vancouver, the proposal states.
• National Development Council of New York. The national nonprofit organization says it has assisted a number of cities including Seattle, Tacoma and Bellingham.
• ECONorthwest of Portland. The consultant was incorporated in 1974 and says it has completed more than 2,500 projects, including Olympia’s Transportation Mobility Strategy in 2009.
“We’ll be talking to them about their approach to public participation – what they see as the strengths and weaknesses of Olympia,” said Stahley, who sits on the consultant selection committee.
The committee will make a recommendation to the full council, which will make the final decision.
While the council has agreed to consider the Community Renewal Area, it hasn’t agreed to fund the effort, which a city staff report pegged at costing between $100,000 and $200,000. The consultants being interviewed have proposed the cost will be between $75,000 and $140,000, Stahley said.
It could be funded from $78,000 in council discretionary money or from federal Community Development Block Grant funds, or both.
Councilman Stephen Buxbaum conceived the idea of pursuing the renewal area and has championed it as a way for the city to reach its 2011 goal of increasing commerce downtown. He has said that the renewal plan would give the city powers it lacks – to buy property and sell it to the private sector for a private use. He has noted that the law has been used with success in Bremerton and Vancouver, Wash.
Buxbaum said it’s premature to say when a decision on a consultant will be reached, or whether it will be funded out of the council’s 2011 or 2012 budget.
State law defines a blighted area as one that “substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of the municipality” or restricts “the provision of housing accommodations or constitutes an economic or social liability, and/or is detrimental or constitutes a menace, to the public health, safety, welfare and morals in its present condition and use.”
The city hasn’t identified which area would be declared blighted; that would be part of the process, Buxbaum said. The city has the option of declaring one or multiple areas as a Community Renewal Area.
“We certainly have an interest on focusing on downtown,” Buxbaum said.
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869
mbatcheldor@theolympian.com
