Olympia needs to go up if it's ever going to grow up

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By Dennis Adams and Jeff Pantier | For The Olympian • Published July 19, 2008

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Should we make Olympia more vital and sustainable, or let downtown stall while growth sprawls?

Olympia faces that clear-cut choice with the isthmus height amendment. A city's sustainability starts with density — more people living downtown simply means less sprawl. With the amendment, we can make Larida Passage possible, with its 141 units of quality housing. We can have the magnet that finally makes living in downtown Olympia attractive, creating a vibrant city center where cars are optional.

Or we can say no and let downtown continue to stand still.

For 14 years since the adoption of the city's comprehensive plan, we have failed to make any kind of start toward fulfilling the downtown housing goal that is one of the plan's cornerstones. Say no, and we will stay on that do-nothing course.

That's the real effect of what opponents would have us do. They paint a dreamscape of parks and views — but on property other people own, created with phantom funding no one will provide. They've even solicited a proclamation from five ex-governors and a former secretary of state that seems to call for the entire isthmus to become a park. If that's their vision, it's a misguided myth.

The reality is that every one of those former governors could have provided the leadership and state taxpayer funding to make the entire isthmus a park — when they were in office. None did so.

It's easy for them to make such a suggestion now. They no longer have responsibility for the effects on the state's budget and the city's downtown and sustainability. Not one of them even lives in Olympia.

As a plan, their proclamation is unworkable. It would require the state and city to spend tens of millions of public tax dollars to buy the whole isthmus and create a park. It would force the businesses already on the isthmus to move. It would sacrifice downtown for a sliver of the Capitol's view.

As a design, the proclamation confuses fact and fantasy. The Wilder and White plan, which has guided Capitol Campus development since 1911, set the campus view corridor across the fountain block. The height amendment has no effect on the historical view corridor. Despite opponents' newfound hopes, the view corridor was never meant to swallow the entire isthmus.

As policy, the proclamation conflicts with state growth management goals and the city's comprehensive plan. The governors were entrusted to uphold the state's growth management goals during their terms in office. More than ever, sustainability — and stopping sprawl — are at the heart of those goals.

The city has tried to attract housing in the past, but the truth is that results have been almost nil. Downtown remains a collection of mostly low-rise buildings where businesses too often struggle through the day until life ends at 5 o'clock.

This decision is really about balance. Olympia already has some of the most outstanding views of any U.S. capital. Those views will remain outstanding. What the city needs now is a thriving, sustainable downtown, where people live. It needs the height amendment to start making that possible.

Dennis Adams is a real estate broker and Jeff Pantier is a principal in an engineering, surveying and land planning firm. Both live and work in the Olympia area.