Thought I would pass along some views provided by the state on the new heritage building at the Capitol Campus. This new building will dramatically change the view of the hillside from Heritage Park, and will remove most of the tree-scape along the east hillside according to the pictures.

As we talk about the vision of this area by the original architects, I wonder where this building fits?

I've heard that it is to be designed LEED, but I don't think they've made any definite promises.

Total cost is about $141 million for the new 'Heritage Center' which will be a very big improvement from the existing building-- in aesthetics and design. 

In November of 2002, the City Council adopted the Parks, Arts & Recreation Plan, which established the goals and policies of implementing new parks and selecting park and open space properties. This plan also amended the Growth Management Act ordinance, originally passed in 1994.

The plan inventoried existing city owned park land, and outlined future projects and estimated costs. The document also included an implementation schedule up to 2025.

In all, the inventory indicated that the City owns just below 900 acres of park land, of which 590 acres are undeveloped. This does not include state or federal lands. (Chp 6 p2)

The Parks plan projected their expenditures up to the year 2025. They estimate to spend about 5 million a year on land acquisition or development of current lands, using grants, taxes and levies. (Table 9 - Final Implementation Plan)

The document includes a huge push for the City to acquire the waterfront lands on the west side of Budd Inlet. Currently, the city owns about 32% of Budd Inlet shorelines within the city. [PAR 8.6: With the Port of Olympia, jointly improve public recreation facilities on the East Bay, West Bay, and the Port peninsula. (Ord. #5971, 12/14/99) Also: POS 4.4 An area from the 5th Avenue Bridge to West Bay Marina, from the west shoreline of West Bay to West Bay Drive is an important scenic waterfront that needs to be planned in a coordinated manner. Creating a vision for this area will involve a variety of stakeholders including property owners. Port of Olympia and other local, state and federal agencies and the public. A plan for this area may include recreation facilities, proposed changes in land uses and multi-modal transportation improvements. A planned waterfront from Percival Landing to the West Bay Marina will allow for predictable and organized public and private investments.

Goodmorning OlyBloggers, Just thought I would pass along an interesting morning, which involved this fine fellow from the city on his basket lift about 2 feet from my apartment window. Santa?!

Not quite, actually, quite the opposite: Here is a picture of him on the other side of the street. I've been watching him all morning go up and down capitol way removing strands of christmas lights from the tops of all the trees. I really had no idea they were up in their, but as I watched they just seemed to appear out of nowhere in the trees.

Does anyone remember a time when Capitol Way was all lit up with lights? I don't.

Who knows how long those lights have been hanging out up in those trees. I feel bad for this guy though, those lights are so tangled. He is being so meticulous about moving his lift to every trouble spot and undoing it, rather than just yanking on them.

This job is going to take awhile. (Sorry for the crummy picture, it's from my phone)

[Forward from TESC Media Relations]

Some of you may have remembered last spring when the Evergreen Nightline began running. It ran on Fridays and Saturdays between midnight and 3AM, and on Sundays between 9PM and midnight.

During the 11-week pilot period, the Nightline carried over 3600 people, for an average of about 38 riders an hour. The ridership was excellent, and the usage was consistently high. On several occasions, the Nightline was almost at full capacity.

This Fall the Nightline will begin again under contract with Intercity Transit and Evergreen. Several changes are being considered, including the changing of route times and the route itself. These are a breakdown of service changes that are proposed based on input from students at Evergreen:

 Revised Route

• Condense downtown service (loop back into downtown at Plum Street instead of Puget Street)
• Serve both the Dorm Loop and Red Square.

• Leave TESC Campus at 12:00M, 12:30AM, and 1:30AM
Changed from existing: 12M, 1AM, 2AM


• Leave Downtown at 12:00M, 1:00AM, and 2:00AM
Changed from existing: 12:30AM, 1:30AM, 2:30AM

Possibility to add a 2:30AM departure from campus, and a 3AM departure from downtown.

How important is late-night bus service to you, and what do you think would increase efficiency and use?

I very randomly stumbled across this great case study which comes to us from Canada. Thought it would be an interesting read since we have our own parcel of distillery in Tumwater whose future is still up in the air.

In all, the city worked with developers to keep the historic look and feel of the buildings, which sat on a 2.7 acre parcel. The developers were given several incentives, including reduced impact fees, etc... to keep costs down. In total, over 200 units were created. The avg selling price was initially between $150 to $216K, with 95% of units sold within 3 years.

Here's the document:

Just heard over the scanner of a plane crash somewhere near the Thurston/Mason County border. They requested some Olympia fire units to assist.

Thought I would also round up some other growth that is on the table around the city. These are either priliminary submissions to the city or project discussions, or may have already begun. Like with the clearing near Division & Walnut Rd, these things can slip by with little to no fuss. Take the entire moonscaping of the development along Mud Bay & Evergreen Pkway/101 Interchange for example. That will soon be a 58-Acre development. It is slated to have 231 single-family lots, 24 duplexes, 63 triplexes, 54 sixplexes, 20 townhomes, and commercial buildings with at least 7000 sq ft of floor space. And lots of garage doors. Link to location here.

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1. Trillium Neighborhood 'Village' Master Plan

• 79-Acre Master Planned Neighborhood here.
  
• A total of 517 housing units are proposed, with 311 single-family residences,
  26 duplex units, 180 multi-family apartments, and 1 unit in a mixed use building.
  
• Also proposed is an approximately 1.4 acre commercial site, a one-acre community green, other open spaces, and associated streets, utilities, and public services.
  
  

2. Bing Apartments

• 6-Story 133-Units. Location here.
  
  

3. Prather Valley Park

I definitely think we should bring back the cobblestone streets to downtown. I spotted the work crew cutting up the pavement to install the new bulb-out along Capitol and shot the cobblestone being exposed for the day. I really really like it. Though it is probably not the best to bike on. It is sort of amazing that the first layer of pavement didn't destroy or distort its cosmetic look.

Much talk about TriWay right now. Though no one seems to be talking about the Colpitts development at Columbia & 5th Ave. For this project, 88+ parking spaces will be removed and the city will spend $200,000+ on clean-up. In the spirit of taking a look at what could be, I did some (crummy) photoshopping of what a 7-story building would look like around a sea of 1 to 3 story structures surrounding it.

The 100+ units of housing will sell for "market rate" which could mean anything from about $290,000 to $400,000. The project will also have a 2 level parking area.

So why aren't we as focused on this project as being out of place, or not catering to a more affordable level? With the 'view' and alternative use argument aside, these two projects only have a difference of a few hundred-thousand dollars.