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The council also voted unanimously to apply for a grant for $25,000 to $150,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts to enhance the streetscape in front of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.
The expanded amenities and the location of the miniparks haven’t been determined, but the council’s action allows city staff members to begin designing proposals for them.
The artesian well sits near Fourth Avenue and Jefferson Street. Improving the park would require blocking off about 26 parking spaces, said Keith Stahley, director of Community Planning and Development. But he added that the spaces are rarely used.
Ideas for improving the space include a boulder for people to sit on and a river mural on the asphalt that would stretch to Fourth Avenue. Other ideas are adding mobile food vendors, covered tables and chairs and games such as chess boards.
More than 120 people suggested improving the space, including schoolchildren, social-service workers, business owners, Intercity Transit staffers and city staffers, according to a city staff report. “We got a lot of interest and a lot of involvement,” Stahley said.
They identified projects to improve four locations – the artesian well site, the Olympia Transit Center, Sylvester Park and the 300 block of Fourth Avenue, according to a staff report.
The city is taking the lead on the well site, Intercity Transit is studying the transit center, and the state is considering Sylvester Park.
The city also is considering adding “parklets,” or miniparks. The concept, which has been done in San Francisco, involves turning two sets of two parallel parking spaces on downtown streets into mini parks. They could include benches, landscaping and public art.
The city’s Parking and Business Improvement Area, a downtown business group, has agreed to run the process to develop the miniparks.
Mayor Stephen Buxbaum noted that the group was devoting $25,000 to the process.
“I do want to emphasize the collaboration that’s happening on the part of our business community in downtown and driving this process,” he said. “And I think that makes it special to me because I think it has been business-driven in many respects, and this is an investment by our downtown businesses in something they believe in.”
The proposals arose from the city’s continuing Downtown Project, an attempt to make downtown safer and more appealing. Other options under consideration include creating an Alcohol Impact Area, a state-designated zone in which cheap, high-alcohol drinks are banned.
The council is expected to get a proposal on that in the next few weeks. State law would require the city to first enact a voluntary ban on such drinks before a permanent ban could be considered.
Another proposal is developing best practices for bars to curb over-serving of patrons, such as bartenders notifying other bars if someone is intoxicated and should not be served.
This year, the council also will consider changing the city’s Pedestrian Interference Ordinance, a controversial 2006 measure that bans sitting and lying on portions of sidewalks during certain hours.
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869
mbatcheldor@theolympian.com
