PORT ANGELES — The city of Port Angeles is working its way through the 85 recommendations made by the American Institute of Architects to determine which ones are feasible to undertake now and which should be put into long-term plans, city officials said Monday.
City Manager Kent Myers and Nathan West, city community and economic development director, told about 100 people at the noon meeting of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce about plans for the recommendations made in August.
The most dramatic of the AIA’s recommendations was to “decouple” First and Front streets by making them both two-lane roads and reconfiguring how bicycles and pedestrians navigate the city.
That’s still being studied, while several other suggestions already are on their way to becoming reality.
The report, which is available on the city’s Web site at http://tinyurl.com/ybzpbsm, was funded by a $15,000 grant with a $5,000 match from the city, and is based on a three-day visit from a six-member AIA design team in March.
Myers said the city staff — along with members of the PA Forward committee, a citizen advisory group — selected 30 of the recommendations as feasible to do in the near future.
Huge endeavor
“We recognize that something like the decoupling of First and Front is a huge endeavor and very expensive, and it should not be entered into quickly or without a lot of planning,” West said.
“It wouldn’t be responsible to move forward on that if we weren’t sure it was in the best interests of Port Angeles.”
Aesthetics was a large part of the recommendations, West said.
“They were really concerned with how we could improve the visual quality of our city,” West said.
Since the architects were in town, the Paint the Town program has fixed up many of the downtown buildings, West said.
“That is one example of something that we were able to accomplish fairly quickly,” West said.
The architects also indicated a lack of entertainment options in the evening, Myers said.
“They noticed when they were in town that there weren’t many things to do,” he said.
“So that is something we will have to work on.
“An essential part of creating that vibrant downtown is having mixed uses, with residential as well as business, throughout the downtown area.”
Myers said creating more festivals would also add entertainment options.
“We are really working on getting some more festivals going — and of course, we had the very successful CrabFest in October,” he said.
“So we would like to create more opportunities like that to have things to do.”
Review zoning
Both West and Myers said that the city will continue reviewing zoning laws and other improvements to help the city.
Among them is the height requirement that currently limits buildings downtown to about three stories, West said.
A comprehensive plan for building height could allow taller buildings if it didn’t obstruct other people’s views.
“We are also very aware that people depend on those beautiful views that we have here in Port Angeles,” West said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
