Title
Acceptance of Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance (ONNA) Subarea Plan
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
The Land Use and Environment Committee recommends acceptance of the Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance (ONNA) Subarea Plan, as amended by the Committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Move to accept the Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance (ONNA) Subarea Plan, as amended by the Committee.
Report
Issue:
Whether to accept the Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance (ONNA) Subarea Plan, as presented.
Staff Contact:
Linda Bentley, Senior Planner, Community Planning & Development, 360.570.3746
Presenter(s):
Linda Bentley, Senior Planner, Community Planning & Development
Mike Dexel, Chair, ONNA
Background and Analysis:
The City of Olympia 2014 Comprehensive Plan allows for and encourages a grassroots process whereby local residents, businesses, and community organizations work together in partnership with the City to help shape how neighborhoods grow and develop. This process, known as subarea planning, gives neighborhoods the chance to collaborate with the city to help shape their future development in alignment with neighborhood priorities while remaining consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan. Subarea A is the first subarea in Olympia to organize and write a subarea plan.
Subarea A (ONNA) Plan
Subarea A, now named the Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance or ONNA, includes all of the residents and businesses within the subarea boundary. The planning team is composed of representatives from five of the seven recognized neighborhood associations in northeast Olympia - Bigelow Neighborhood Association (BNA), Bigelow Highlands NA (BHNA), East Bay Drive NA (EBDNA), Northeast NA (NENA), and the Upper Eastside NA (UENA). The planning team has been meeting regularly since 2014 to discuss how subarea planning could be an effective tool to shape the Northeast community and to develop the subarea plan.
In February 2015 the subarea planning team requested City Council’s recognition of the team’s “intent to proceed.” In July 2015 City Council sent a response letter recognizing the Subarea A planning effort and setting forth expectations for the completed plan and ways in which the planning effort should be a collaboration between the subarea citizens and the city.
Progress and Outreach
Each of the five neighborhood associations in Subarea A communicated the concept of subarea planning to its members and accomplished the following:
• changed their name to Olympia Northeast Neighborhoods Alliance (ONNA);
• developed their own website (hyperlink attached);
• cooperated with the city in creating an area demographic profile;
• designed a survey and a notification post card that went to all residents and owners in the sub-area;
• collated and analyzed the survey results; and
• based on community responses, wrote a Subarea Plan (attached). (The Appendices to the Plan are included in the Plan hyperlink).
Upon completion of the draft Subarea Plan, interested residents were sent notice of the plan availability on the ONNA website and were asked for their comments. The Planning Commission reviewed the Plan on August 1, determined that the Plan was consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and unanimously voted to recommend that City Council accept the ONNA Subarea Plan.
ONNA’s draft Subarea Plan was presented to the Land Use and Environment Committee on May 19 and August 18. At the August 18 LUEC meeting, staff suggested an amendment to the plan (at the request of the City Manager) to include a statement in the Goals, Objectives and Actions section stating that the level of the City’s participation in reaching ONNA’s goals is subject to available funding. Furthermore, the LUEC recommended an additional “Action” which is to “Engage with the City during the annual Capital Facilities Plan and other City plans’ development.” That action was added to the Implementation Section.
The LUEC recommended that City Council accept the ONNA Subarea Plan with the amendments described above. Those amendments have been shown in “redline” in the attached Subarea Plan and approved by the ONNA Committee.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
The level of response to the initial survey indicates that the residents are interested in their neighborhood and have some agreement for the most important issues. Also, the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations (CNA) is interested in the process and results of this pilot Subarea Plan as it will inform future subarea planning.
Options:
1. Move to accept the ONNA Subarea Plan, as presented.
2. Move to accept the ONNA Subarea Plan with further amendments.
3. Move to not accept the ONNA Subarea Plan.
Financial Impact:
Staff support and expenses for this project are included in Community, Planning & Development’s 2016 budget.
Attachments:
ONNA Subarea Plan (without Appendices)
ONNA Subarea Plan, with Appendices (hyperlink)
ONNA website (hyperlink)