PORT ANGELES — A petition is being circulated to downtown merchants which asks the City Council to cancel the planned Port Angeles International Gateway Transportation Center at Front and Lincoln streets.
Debra Hendren of the Society for Professional and Living Arts told about 40 people at the Port Angeles Downtown Association’s monthly “Morning Mingle” on Wednesday that she is going door to door seeking signatures on the petition.
Hendren said she found virtually no support for the project during recent informal surveying she has done.
She said there must be “a better use” for near-waterfront property, and that the project should be re-evaluated or moved to another location.
The downtown association’s executive director, Arla Holzschuh, said the association and its elected board of directors were not involved in the signature-gathering effort.
Holzschuh said the association has worked hard to get the best project possible, including adequate parking.
The downtown association is one of three parties involved in the project. The other two are Clallam Transit and the city.
“How can the city put forth something we all are against?” Vicki Adams of Sound Bike and Kayak asked during Wednesday’s meeting.
Adams said Clallam Transit doesn’t maintain the bus staging area it has now on Oak Street. The current project also is not the same one that was first proposed in 1997, she said.
City Manager Mike Quinn said Wednesday afternoon that he was willing to make a presentation on the project if necessary, which he concedes has changed and become more costly over the years.
It will have a public plaza area, which is an important element for downtowns across the nation, he said.
Entrance to downtown
The Gateway Center is intended to be an attractive eastern entrance to downtown Port Angeles.
The project has four components — a two-level parking garage, a staging area for as many as six Clallam Transit buses and a Chamber of Commerce visitor center with a small, adjacent plaza area.
Holzschuh said there were lingering concerns about whether the city would be able to pay for maintenance of the building and plaza once they are built.
