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HIGHWAY 101 REVISITED: BUILDING GREAT COMMUNITIES ON THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA By Jeff Aken, Community Policies Program Manager 6 We all have an idea in our minds of what a strong, vibrant downtown looks like. It is a place where locals and visitors alike want to spend time. It is filled with thriving businesses, attractive buildings and streets that work for people—pedestrians, cyclists, cars and freight alike. It is a place that celebrates its history, a place that feels like a real community. Picturing the ideal downtown is one thing. Making that vision a reality, however, can be a much greater challenge. Forterra is working with communities on the Olympic Peninsula to address this challenge by focusing on the intersection of economic development, historic preservation and urban design. In early June, Forterra hosted two innovative workshops on the Peninsula that brought together a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including key civic and community leaders along with planners, business leaders and preservation experts to focus on opportunities to maintain, enhance and revitalize historic downtowns. As we have seen all over the country in recent years, much of the retail and commercial growth on the Peninsula was designed for the automobile and located on the edges of cities and towns. This pulls critical investments away from the hearts of communities. Many of these downtowns are struggling to attract and retain businesses and update streets and sidewalks. Unlike many newer communities in the Puget Sound attempting to define a downtown where none exists, Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Shelton, Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Sequim all have well-defined downtowns with walkable streets and commercial spaces. The challenge they face is how to drive new investment into those downtowns and revitalize storefronts while making streets safe and welcoming for people wishing to explore. Many of these communities have already made great progress in these efforts. Port Townsend is well known for its strong Main Streets program that has been addressing economic development and historic preservation since FORTERRA.ORG Hastings Building in downtown Port Townsend. Photo by Joe Lipka, www.joelipkaphoto.com
1985. Port Angeles and Sequim have both passed ambitious new downtown plans in the last 18 months and regionally the Discovery trail is connecting communities with a town-to-town bike/walking trail. Hoquiam, in Grays Harbor County, has been working with businesses to activate downtown streets and create compelling events that show off the historic downtown. The workshops Forterra hosted advanced the efforts underway across the Peninsula and helped to define the key challenges to their implementation. One of the main goals is to build support among existing business owners for the revitalization of downtowns. It will also be important to educate residents and elected officials about opportunities to bolster economic activity downtown and the necessity of marketing development opportunities. Lastly, one of the biggest challenges is working with cities to obtain financial resources to support these revitalization efforts. To address these questions in more detail, Forterra partnered with Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation’s (DAHP) Main Streets and Certified Local Government programs; Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) Community Programs and local business owners, property managers and planners. This group brought inspiration, experience and opportunities to these communities and offered concrete ways to tackle the issues they face. Some of the opportunities identified included the Main Streets tax credit programs, WSDOT’s pedestrian and bike funding and tax benefits for historic preservation that derive from becoming a Certified Local Government. Forterra is also working with Ocean Shores and Aberdeen thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). We will partner with Ocean Shores and Aberdeen to help implement important changes unique to their towns. Ocean Shores recognizes the need to create a safe, convenient way to walk from its beaches and hotels to restaurants and shops in commercial areas. We are assisting them in developing a Complete Streets ordinance that will ensure that Ocean Shore’s streets work for pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities along with cars and freight. The City of Aberdeen is pursuing a downtown revitalization plan and Forterra is helping with community engagement and visioning around the development of this plan. Both of these efforts are furthering Forterra’s community programs; an entity that truly is able to “create great communities.” In addition to linking economic development, historic preservation and urban design in communities, Forterra will provide technical assistance to two tribes, The Makah and Quinault, through EPA’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Grant program. This planning, policy and community engagement work will take place in the fall of 2012. The Makah Tribe is working to improve both the health of tribal members and the walkability of the community. Forterra will conduct a walking audit for Tribal members and assess the feasibility of a Rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA) focused on a proposed waterfront trail. The Quinaults are planning to move their historic village out of the Tsunami zone and are working with Forterra to build civic engagement and understanding among tribal members about the planning process and how they can participate in the upcoming discussions about the village relocation. Great towns with strong economies, sustainable transportation and a high quality of life will be critical for the Olympic Peninsula. Not only will they help the Peninsula’s residents, they will help protect its great lands by reducing the demand for sprawling development. This is the thinking behind Forterra’s Olympic Agenda, an emerging plan for the Peninsula’s economies, communities and lands. Working with small towns across the Peninsula this year has not only furthered the goals of the Olympic Agenda, it’s shown that there’s great hope for similar success across the whole region. 7 Downtown Aberdeen. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons FALL 2012
Page 1 and 2: FALL 2012 formerly CASCADE LAND CON
Page 3 and 4: message from the president ////////
Page 5: OUT ABOUT /////////////////////////
Page 9 and 10: Sounder expands that kind of easy a
Page 11 and 12: THE TRUE NATURE OF OUR URBAN FOREST
Page 13 and 14: 17th Annual Conservation Awards Bre
Page 15 and 16: Locally we must let our actions mat
Page 17 and 18: in our backyard ///////////////////
Page 19 and 20: FORTERRA ENTERPRISES BOARD /// chai

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