Title
Neighborhood Centers - Review of Draft Public Outreach Plan
Report
Issue:
The Commission's neighborhood center work group will present a PowerPoint created for the Commission's public outreach about Olympia's neighborhood centers, and review a draft public participation plan to implement Phase 2 of OPC's Neighborhood Center Project.
Staff Contact:
Amy Buckler, Senior Planner, abuckler@ci.olympia.wa.us, (360) 570-5847
Presenters:
Carole Richmond, Commission Chair
Jerry Parker, Commission member
Missy Watts, Commission member
Bob Bengford, consultant, MAKERS architecture and urban design
Amy Buckler, Senior Planner
Background and Analysis:
Neighborhood Centers are small walk and transit-friendly business clusters within residential neighborhoods that serve the day-to-day retail and service needs of local residents and foster community interaction. These are important to community-wide goals to increase walkability, reduce our carbon footprint, improve human health, and foster neighborhood connections and resiliency.
The City has had a policy of encouraging neighborhood centers for over 20 years, but with some exception these have not developed as described in the Comprehensive Plan. The Plan identifies 17sites for neighborhood scale retail and mixed uses. A recent policy update would also allow for medium density residential uses in or around centers. Most of the 17 sites are located where the primary surrounding land use is single-family residential. The conditions of these sites vary from thriving mixed use center to vacant.
To implement the Plan, the Olympia Planning Commission (OPC) and staff are working to inform public dialogue and identify appropriate revisions of Olympia's 'neighborhood center' and 'neighborhood retail' development codes. This is Phase 2 of the Planning Commission's work.
* In Phase 1 (2014 Info Gathering), the Commission gathered input about the public's desires as well as barriers to neighborhood ...
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