Downtown housing is key to sustainability

Recently “activists” have suggested that the City of Olympia is not looking at the “big picture” in its review of new market-rate downtown housing proposals. The ink is barely dry on Olympia’s updated Comprehensive Plan and Downtown Strategy. These huge public processes identified the importance of locating as much housing as possible downtown for a full range of incomes to achieve the healthy, vital, safe city envisioned. These city plans build on the Sustainability Thurston Plan with its goals and quantifiable targets that will lead to this region’s definition of a sustainable future.

Turns out the key to a sustainable future does require looking at the big picture — the Regional Big Picture. It’s only through focusing on housing and commercial growth in existing cities and towns – especially city centers – that we’ll achieve the clean air, water, and Puget Sound so key to a vital environment, society and economy.

At the same time, we should be working to attract as many resources as possible to preserve stream corridors in rural areas not yet impacted by development. These have been identified – and they are not in our downtown! As a city and a region, we attack well-designed projects like Views on 5th and Westman Mill at our peril. Our cities desperately need more housing of all types, located where they will contribute to the low-carbon, car-lite, transit and walking-oriented communities sustainability depends on and that our regional and local plans and regulations envision.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Downtown housing is key to sustainability."