Drafting Regulations

Staff are currently in the process of drafting specific language, and supporting graphics, for the amendments to the Design Regulations. As these are developed they will posted, with the complete set being presented to the Planning Commission at an upcoming regularly scheduled meeting.

Findings Continued

The existing design regulations define some elements that are not permited such as prohibiting “blank walls” and back-lit awnings.

However, the majority of the Design Regulations document states specific requirements. The 1st section (Site Plan, Buildings) incorporates a number of key elements that are identified in the 2006 Storefront Document, making only a few additions necessary.

Given the general strength of the existing Design Regulations, staff have identified three aspects of the 2006 work that we would like to incorporate. Regulations dealing with: AWNINGS, FACADE MATERIALS, and ARCHITECTURAL SIGNAGE

Findings Continued

The character or context of an area is defined by such factors as its architectural style, and quality of public facilities.

The design regulations help ensure that new development will be compatible and complimentary to the existing character and community's vision of the city.

The Design Regulations use the accronym SAFE to define the parameters for all new development.
Safe stands for

S—safe

A—attractive

F—fits the neighborhood

E—efficient and useable

There are also additional regulations that are specific to three areas of the city because of their unique nature. These are the SR-20 and Midway Avenue corridors, and Harborside

Analysis Phase Complete - Findings

This update is focusing on specific design provisions for the historic downtown district.

The rules defined in the Design Regulations & Guidelines document help direct the look and function of new development in our city.

The rules require design that is human scaled, people oriented, neighborhood appropriate, builds on our community's history and addresses the street and public areas.

Staff's presentation to the Planning Commission on July 22, 2008 was intended to gain direction from the Planning Commission. The next step will be to draft appropriate Code language, conduct additional public outreach, and return to the Planning Commission shortly.

The Planning Commission will then be forwarding a recommendation on to City Council.

The adaptation and adoption process involved looking at two specific documents developed in 2006 as part of the Windjammer Program to see how they could best be incorporated into our Design Regulations for the Harborside District (Downtown Streetscape and Storefront Design Guidelines).

The Downtown Streetscape document defines details, often called “street furniture”, that will become components of the Pioneer Way street improvement program.

These describe the elements that are within the public realm, and would largely only relate to new developments, such as street lights, landscaping, public art, benches, bike racks, etcetera.

The Storefront document states that its objective includes restoring the character, integrity, and visual appeal of existing downtown buildings.

However, much of the suggested design solutions are site and building specific, and do not provide direction for new development within the district. This project is intended to take the main principles of that work and incorporate it in the existing Design Regulations so that it is fair and useable for all sites within the Harborside area.

Planning Commission Meeting July 22

On July 22, staff presented the findings of the analysis phase of this project to the Planning Commission.

I will be describing the results of this analysis in a series of posts.

Project Area

The Harborside district and Lower Pioneer area are identified in the image above. These neighboring commercial areas are both centered on Pioneer Way. The historic context of their develop can be seen in the urban design characteristics of these two areas, specifically: architectural style; streetscape; building orientation to sidewalks and street; and, site layout.

The harborside area is the traditional downtown and was developed with a more street oriented form (such as buildings located at the sidewalk edge, limited off street parking, limited landscaping along street). The Lower Pioneer area has the buildings set back significantly from the street.

Both areas have many of the same elements including building facades dominated by ground floor commercial storefronts facing the street. However, the way the buildings and parking have been aranged on the sites, as well as the archtictural styles of buildings, make these two areas signifcantly different from each other. The result is that the Lower Pioneer area is more auto oriented than the Harborside area.

Translating Windjammer Guidelines

The backbone of this update of the Design Regulations will be the Storefront Design Guidelines published in October 2006 and Streetscape Furnishing Specs draft report. These documents compile the results of work done as part of the City's Windjammer Project and illustrate the main components of the streetscape that affect the character of this district. The documents contains numerous detailed recommendations that help define critical streetscape issues and actions that could improve the sense of place for the area.

The work to develop the recommendations in this document came from a series of cooperative workshops with the City, and the Harborside Shops Association Streetscape Committee.

Why not just adopt the Storefront Design Guidelines? There are two main reasons why simple adoption of these, as they are, is not appropriate:

1. many of the guidelines are too specific (a particular building, solution, or site) to be effective and fair as regulations for the entire area;
2. the guidelines are not written in a way that they can be used to review applications in a consistent and effective way.

Essentially this project will allow us to take one last look at both documents, and translate the many great ideas, and important work contained in them, into regulations that are consistent, fair and effective.

Good Site Design = Livability

The basic principles of good site planning, as those prescribed by the Design Regulations, can be remembered with the acronym SAFE.

S - SAFE
A - ATTRACTIVE
F - FITS THE NEIGHBORHOOD
E - EFFICIENT AND USEABLE

This involves attention to how sites, buildings, open spaces, and streets work together to create a positive sense of place. At the scale of a street, neighborhood, or an entire city these combine with environmental, social and economic characteristics to greatly affect the livability of our community.

Design Regulations

The rules defined in the Design Regulations & Guidelines document help direct the look and function of new development in our city.

These rules have been created to meet the community's long term goals defined in the Comprehensive Plan.

The rules require design that is human scaled, people oriented, neighborhood appropriate, builds on our community's history and addresses the street and public areas.

Welcome

With this blog I am inviting you to participate in the City's project to update our Design Regulations. This update will focus on specific design provisions for the historic downtown district.

As with the other project blogs, I am using this site as a central location or framework for community participation and communication, and have included many of the same features.

In addition to this blog, small group round table discussions, coffee house meetings, and other methods will again be used to create an open dialog during this project (in addition to standard meeting and notice practices). Check back here regularly to find:

• up-to-date information;
• report videos;
• monthly poll questions;
• discussion items;
• meeting schedules; and
• a variety of supporting documents and web links.