Title
Neighborhood Centers Update
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive an informational briefing on the Neighborhood Centers project.
Report
Issue:
Whether to receive an informational briefing on the Neighborhood Centers project.
Staff Contact:
Casey Schaufler, Associate Planner, Community Planning and Development, 360.753.8254.
Presenter(s):
Casey Schaufler, Associate Planner, Community Planning & Development.
Background and Analysis:
Olympia's Comprehensive Plan identifies 17 areas for future neighborhood center development. Neighborhood centers are small walkable and transit friendly business areas within neighborhoods that serve the day-to-day retail and service needs of residents. These destinations are important to achieving community goals to reduce environmental impacts, improve human health, foster community interaction, and create resilient neighborhoods.
Despite these long-held goals, neighborhood centers have not developed as envisioned. Following the last periodic update of the Comprehensive Plan in 2014, the Planning Commission set out to better understand why they have not developed, and to help create solutions. Initial work included stakeholder interviews and an online survey, after which no further work was done until 2021. Results of this early work were consolidated into the attached 2014 Summary.
Staff briefed the Land Use and Environment Committee in September 2021, just before starting the recruitment process to hire a consultant. The successful team was MAKERS Architecture and Urban Design and Leland Consulting Group. Outcomes from these tasks are incorporated into the Neighborhood Profiles and Market Analysis.
Following public outreach events held throughout the summer of 2022, the consultants worked with staff to identify policy and regulatory recommendations to address barriers to neighborhood centers development. The final deliverable is the Olym...
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