PORT TOWNSEND — The city has established a public development authority to protect historic buildings and community assets.
With a unanimous vote, 7-0, the Port Townsend City Council approved an ordinance creating the authority and told staff members to work out details.
“This is the second and final reading that will actually make the PDA,” City Manager David Timmons told council members Tuesday night.
“[But] there is still a lot of unfinished business to get it up and running, which may take several months.”
Still in the works is for the City Council to appoint members to the board of the authority, work with other agencies in establishing a management group and develop capital.
Before making a motion to vote on the ordinance, Deputy Mayor George Randels said he was happy to see the city moving in this direction.
“This is a great step forward for the city,” he said.
“It has some real great potential in all types of areas and I’m happy to support it.”
Timmons said no funding for the agency would come from the city’s general fund.
Instead, the agency will be funded by private agencies that support nonprofits.
“There would be no financial liability, other than our time,” Timmons said.
“We still need to talk with funding agencies.”
The authority has five goals: to preserve historic assets, develop affordable housing, preserve public assets, preserve public places and fulfill projects designated by council.
“There is a lot of opportunity, a lot of interest, and this will be a good fit for the community in carrying out some of the initiatives we would like to see happen,” Timmons said, when he introduced the idea of the authority to the council in August.
Possible projects
Timmons said examples of possible projects for the authority are helping to keep the Customs House at 1322 Washington St. in the public domain, the restoration of the historic buildings in town and categorizing land for affordable housing.
“[These are] projects that have been identified in the community that could be for the PDA to follow through with,” Timmons said.
The impetus for the authority was created in March when Timmons said he wanted to keep the Customs House, built in 1893, in the public domain despite the intention of the owner, the U.S. Postal Service, to sell it.
Postal Service representatives have said for more than a year that they want to get out of the business of owning buildings, to stay competitive with other parcel services.
Also, the Customs House isn’t laid out properly for a postal service, representatives have said.
The building’s stairs are challenging or impossible for some disabled people, and the Postal Service has been petitioned by Port Townsend residents to make the building accessible to people who are disabled — a requirement for federal buildings, but an expensive process.
Timmons said the city doesn’t want to purchase the building, since it has no need for it, but that a public development authority would allow the city to facilitate transfers of important buildings from one party to another in an effort to keep public assets out of private hands.
Through the public development authority, the city won’t own the buildings themselves, but it would be able to guarantee that historic buildings remain in good hands, he said.
“It’s analogous to a land trust,” Timmons said in March. “But this is more of a historic trust.”
“The key is that we will facilitate the transfer,” Timmons said.
“The council has the power to create a public development authority. I believe we want to go beyond just the Post Office building.”
Timmons also intended for the authority to facilitate the creation of affordable housing.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
