A really clever animation that John Leisenring (JCL Animations in Olympia), did for Friends of the Waterfront. Click picture to start animation:

Download it (It's a 3.2 MB Quicktime file, if you have a slow connection...)

Best,
Thad

Here's the entire meeting for your viewing pleasure.

The public hearing for Larida Passage is tonight and the city is expecting a lot of people to show up. But, like a lot of folks, I'm not going to be able to attend and just emailed in my comments to the council and planning commission.

Rules for this thread: Share what you're going to say tonight or are emailing in. But, don't respond to anyone's comments. There are plenty of other threads here for back and forth, this is just internet public comment time.

Email for the city council (citycouncil [at] ci.olympia.wa.us) and planning commission (cpdinfo [at] ci.olympia.wa.us).

This Sunday, June 15th 2008 Editorial Board of the Olympian officially came unhinged. In an editorial titled End the blight, approve the height they went on a hysterical name-calling rant worthy of, if not inspired by, their on-line comments cesspool. Interestingly enough, the comments sections on both the editorial and the front page article were 90% anti-Triway.

Y'all know how I feel about the Triway proposal. I feel there is there is no need to critique this unpaid advertisement for Triway as written by Oly2012 for it is so over the top it is embarrassing. I suspect it will backfire on it's authors. Weigh in on the editorial and reportage if you's like but I think it would be fun for people to suggest alternative to the End the Blight, Approve the Height cheer leading chant. Here's a couple from the Olympian's comments section

I've never been good with rhyming and poetry and stuff but I'm confident other Olybloggers are. Let's see your whit in verse.

Edit. 16 June 08.

I have willingly removed two offensive sentences at the suggestion of a docent. The sentences were equating prostitutes to the Olympian editorial board.

I've been working away on the Friends of the Waterfront website, adding stuff about how the owners of the million dollar condos Triway wants to build would be excused from paying property taxes for ten years, etc. But personally, I'm most interested in thinking about exactly what images politicians, and people on the Planning Commission and the rest of us use in deciding what the city will look like for years and years.

I'm pretty much done with commenting on Triway's images for the website. Now I'm starting to make my own versions, roughing out what the city might look like instead of having high rises down there. It's interesting — maybe we should have a virtual redevelopment contest... above-ground Moxlie Creek in Photoshop, etc.

Here's a start

For Immediate Release: June 3, 2008
Contact: Janine Gates, President, SPEECH, 360-791-7736

Community Forum, "Envision Downtown Olympia"

A public forum on Downtown Olympia's future will be held on Thursday, June 19, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1224 Legion Way SE.

The forum, "Envision Downtown Olympia," is sponsored by the non-profit organization South Puget Environmental Education Clearinghouse (SPEECH) with support from the Community Sustaining Fund. The public is invited to envision different perspectives on what we, as a community, want for downtown Olympia. The forum will also address the Urban Waterfront Rezone proposal submitted to the city by Triway Enterprises.

Forum speakers include Rich Hoey, Water Resources Director at City of Olympia Public Works, who will give a presentation on predicted sea-level rise in downtown Olympia; Barbara Gooding, former director of the Washington State Department of Community Development and former City of Olympia planning commissioner, who will offer a brief history of Olympia's current downtown zoning issues; Steve Cooper, downtown property owner; and Bob Jacobs, former mayor of Olympia and member of Friends of the Waterfront. Eve Johnson, former president of the League of Women Voters, will be the moderator.

Audience members will actively participate in the visioning and discussion.

SPEECH can be reached at (360) 528-9158, speech.greenpages@gmail.com or www.oly-wa.us/greenpages.

One of the interesting things about working with Friends of the Waterfront against the request to rezone the space between the lake and the sound has been looking at what the planning commission and the City Council actually *see* when they're deciding what Olympia will look like in the future. I'm just starting to do some pages for the FOTW website with comparisons, like this...:

Views from the 4th Avenue bridge

The City's visualization from the public workshop March 22nd — which includes the rezone on the other side of the street, not just TriWay's imagined buildings.

TriWay's visualization — notice that the street lights on the left look about five stories high, making the buildings feel appealingly small...

http://www.nuprometheus.com/friends/comparebridge.html

Best,
Thad

If you'd rather not have a bunch of new 90 and 65 foot high-rises built on the isthmus between Capitol Lake and the Sound, where the ugly high rise is now, you might look at the new website for Friends of the Waterfront. We're opposing the rezone. (We opposed the last request, in 2002, too; it was turned down by the City Council then.)

For more information:

www.friendsofthewaterfront.org

There are lots of suggestions about things to do on the website, but the next really important thing you might do is attend the City Planning Commission meeting at the Olympia Center, 6:30 PM, June 24th, and sign in as opposed to the rezone, or testify against it. (If you want to testify, you'd better come early; Tri Vo has sent out a postcard to his potential supporters asking them to get there and sign in at 5:30.)

The Friends of the Waterfront have a website that gives some information about the proposed rezone of the isthmus, as well as suggestions on how concerned citizens can act in opposition to the rezone. There are lots of graphics and media links and other good stuff as well. Don't miss the Power Point presentation that shows how the views will be affected!

From Janine Gates via email:

...I attended the Triway Enterprises "open house" last night at Tumwater Lodge, met Jeannette Hawkins and Mr. Tri Vo, the project developer, the project designer, and others. A Triway-hired limo driver enthusiastically insisted on taking me the short distance from the overflow parking lot up to the lodge. That about says who was really invited to this "open" house. I walked back to my car.

I asked Jeannette who was invited. She said the Chambers, the Olympia Downtown Association, the Westside Business Association, the 2012 group, etc." By only inviting such an elite sliver of the community, an opportunity for real dialogue was missed. I asked when she was going to invite the local environmental community to participate in the discussion and she laughed, saying that she had lots of time, "until September." Mostly likely, she had no intention of reaching out so I asked if she would be interested in coming to a forum that SPEECH would sponsor and she said yes, she would welcome the opportunity. So, SPEECH will be sponsoring a forum, date and time to be announced soon, stay tuned.

Do these people really want to work and play with us? I don't think so. I've lived here 25 years and I still don't personally don't know anyone who could afford to buy one of those condos, which they said would retail for $800,000 - $1 million each. They said there is a pent-up demand for view condos at that price. Build it and they will come seems to be their philosophy. But at what price are we wiling to sell the soul of our community - our views, our way of life, our sense of community spirit?