PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles business leaders were briefed Monday on the first $3.26 million phase of a waterfront improvement project that includes an esplanade, waterfront walkway and an overhaul of the west end of Railroad Avenue and a portion of Oak Street.
City Economic and Community Development Director Nathan West and consultant Bill Grimes of Spokane-based Studio Cascade told Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce members that construction of the first phase of the Port Angeles Waterfront and Transportation Improvement Plan will begin in July if the city can obtain all of the permits it needs.
It is slated to be finished early next year.
The Port Angeles City Council approved the final design for the project earlier this month.
“This has been a very important project for the city,” West said.
The plan was created by Studio Cascade and other consultants with the help of public input. It is intended to make the shoreline a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly place.
The esplanade will be on the west side of the Coho ferry terminal.
The first phase kicks off the city’s broader waterfront redevelopment plan, which includes a new park between Oak Street and the Valley Creek Estuary and new landscape and lighting improvements along Railroad Avenue and City Pier.
The total plan, which includes 10 capital projects and 11 phases, could cost $17 million if fully implemented.
“We certainly don’t expect to do that overnight,” West said. “The money is presently available for phase one.”
Phase one will narrow Railroad Avenue west of the MV Coho ferry dock and Oak Street from Railroad Avenue to Front Street to widen sidewalks and provide for more parking spaces. Rain gardens and other vegetation will be planted later this year.
West said the project’s diversity will help the city acquire grants in the future.
“Of all of those 10 capital projects, the waterfront is the focal point of the WTIP project,” West said. “It really is our most important element.”
Grimes, founder of Studio Cascade, said planners are “trying to balance our desire for ornamental planning with harshness of this kind of climate.”
He said the first phase will be a transition from a seafront on the north side of Railroad Avenue into something “a little bit more urban and city-like” on the south.
“It should provide a very interesting, dynamic environment as you’re transitioning from the waterfront space back to the city,” Grimes said.
The city has pledged $3.5 million for the work in 2012, $2.5 million of which comes from the economic development fund while $1 million is split between the general fund and the city’s share of a grant for The Gateway transit center.
Grimes said the project’s three key functions are blending, welcoming and inviting, and the three key attributes are to be memorable, comfortable and respectful.
West said the seeds of the project were planted in a 1997 downtown revitalization plan. It also stems from a 2009 architecture study that the city contracted.
“It’s long been a very popular proposal, a very popular project,” West said.
The project is partially modeled after similar efforts in Bremerton and Bellingham.
It is intended to show off the city’s waterfront and to promote economic development downtown.
The City Council will consider asking voters to approve a new special property tax levy later this year to provide up to $6 million in funding for the waterfront improvement.
The city has not identified when Railroad Avenue east of the ferry terminal would be improved.
The project received an award for outstanding achievement from the American Planning Association and the Planning Association of Washington in October.
Asked about the major obstacles in the implementation of the waterfront project, West said the challenges will be the slew of permits and negativity in the community.
“There are individuals who perhaps focus on really keeping things negative or perhaps feeling like the best way to shoot down the project is to talk about it in the absence of public process and talk about it outside of the public process,” he said.
The city then has to be “essentially mitigating rumors as a result of that negativity,” he added. “It really is the biggest hurdle we face.
“We saw that happen in great deal with The Gateway project, and certainly we don’t want that to happen again.”
For more information on the city’s waterfront and transportation improvement plan, visit www.pa-waterfront.org.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
