Olympians imagine city plans

Blueprint for next 20 years: About 150 add voices to growth review at Imagine Olympia event

ROLF BOONE; The Olympian | • Published November 15, 2009

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OLYMPIA – About 150 people took part Saturday in Imagine Olympia, a community gathering organized by city officials to elicit feedback about the city’s future growth and development.

The city is required by state law to update its comprehensive plan, Mayor Doug Mah said Saturday at the event. He described the comprehensive plan as a blueprint for how the city will grow from 2010 to 2030. A study by the Thurston Regional Planning Council shows that the city and urban growth area are expected to grow by another 20,000 people during that period.

Saturday’s four-hour Imagine Olympia event at The Olympia Center launches the first of many public meetings to come about the city’s comprehensive plan. In addition to the 150 people at the event, city staff wore lime-green “Imagine Olympia” T-shirts, and displays were set up addressing climate change and sea-level rise, affordable housing and urban forestry.

There also was live music and a video presentation by faculty and graduate students at The Evergreen State College who interviewed residents during the summer about Olympia’s strengths and its future. Former Evergreen grad student and current city associate planner Amy Buckler also read aloud comments from other residents. Buckler said some noted that the city has biking and walking opportunities, has good schools, is a great destination for finding organic food and is a vibrant city for the arts and festivals.

Others said they noticed closed storefronts and that parts of downtown still look run down. Some said the city needs more diversity and some were concerned that the city has become too polarized in recent years, Buckler said. One display Saturday allowed people to write and post their comments about the city’s growth and needs on a wall. The following are some of the 60 comments posted during the first hour of the event.

• “More police cadets on bikes walking the beat to keep the city clean of graffiti and folks living in their vans for a week.”

• “An agenda for moving forward and not keeping things the same as in the past.”

• “A small town with neighborhood gathering spaces such as coffee shops, stores, etc.”

• “This number is arbitrary and unlikely,” said one person about the city growing by 20,000 people. “(We need) a small, classy city, desirable with small town values.”

Associate planner Brett Bures, who manned the “comment wall” and encouraged passersby to share their thoughts, said the city decided to do the comment wall so that other people could see and read others’ opinions.

Longtime Olympia resident Anne Holm said she would like to see the city protect the waterfront for its views and public access. She also would like to see high-speed transit linking Olympia with Seattle and more affordable housing downtown for those who work downtown, Holm said. Holm also wants it to be a city where the city council listens to its residents, she said. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Holm said.

There are more meetings to come, Community Planning and Development director Keith Stahley said. Although dates were not immediately available, a series of six neighborhood meetings are scheduled from January to March, he said. The process will continue until the new comprehensive plan is drafted and adopted in November or December 2011.

Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403

rboone@theolympian.com