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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 August_2023_newsletterNewsletterNewsletter AUGUST CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS: City of Port Townsend 250 Madison Street (360)385-3000 www.cityofpt.us 08/07/23: Business Mee�ng 08/14/23: Workshop Mee�ng 08/21/23: Business Mee�ng Mee�ngs are subject to change. Please view our website calendar for an up-to-date mee�ng schedule:www.cityofpt.us/calendar Consider applying to be on a City Advisory Board or Commission. Visit our website for descrip�ons, applica�ons, and mee�ng sched-ules: www.cityofpt.us For more informa�on, contact the City Clerk’s Office at: (360) 379-5083. The following Boards and Com-missions have current and upcoming vacancies: Climate Ac�on Commi�ee Library Advisory Board Lodging Tax Advisory Commi�ee Fort Worden PDA A Note from Council Member Owen Rowe Soon a�er se�lers arrived in qatáy and started calling it Port Townsend, they divided up the land they had claimed into a grid of streets and housing plots. They wanted to sell it to each other and to newer arriv-als, and then rise to the heights of power and privilege on their profits—but the boom never came, and Port Townsend is s�ll half the popula�on of the city they planned in the 1880s. For almost 150 years, we’ve been trying to make that map work. Because of that map, we’ve built suburban sprawl within the city limits. It stretches our infrastructure, fragments our community, and strains our budget. Port Townsend’s sprawling development pa�ern means: •More streets—we have almost double the pavement per person of comparable ci�es•More spaghe�-like water and sewer lines to reach sca�ered developments•More area for police to cover and a maze of cul-de-sacs for emergency services tonavigate•More distance from where people live to ameni�es like parks, libraries, and sportsfields—not to men�on workplaces, schools, and retail shops•More vulnerability to environmental threats like wildfire and sea-level rise This is why the City (City Council, the Planning Commission, and the Planning and Communi-ty Development Department) recently changed the rules to incen�vize infill housing, encour-aging greater density in our exis�ng neighborhoods. Denser development will make it more efficient for the City to provide and maintain infrastructure, and that will make living here cheaper for everyone. But that shi� will take a while to play out—not 150 years, we hope, but likely a decade or more. So how are we going to add the housing Port Townsend desperately needs now, without making our budget problems worse? Our first answer is Evans Vista, and thanks to $5.1 million in federal, state, and county grants, we are planning a new neighborhood of 150 - 200 units with all the infrastructure in place, designed to be affordable and accessible to people with a range of incomes. Look for ways to get involved this summer and fall. In the longer term, our planning efforts will focus on the next update to our city’s Compre-hensive Plan, due in 2025. That’s our real chance to redraw the map, both literally and figura�vely. We can plan a city that is equitable and sustainable, not only financially, but environmentally, socially, and culturally as well. Together, we can design a new vision for Port Townsend—one that will serve the next 150 years. Transportation Benefit District AUGUST 2023 PT Main Street Port Townsend City Council voted unanimously on Monday, July 24, to form a Transporta�on Benefit District (TBD) with an aim to generate revenue specifically for use on local street projects. The City has struggled to keep up with local street projects and improvement needs, par�cularly in the past few decades in the face of declining Washington State funding for such needs. Over 110 ci�es in Washington State have formed TBDs. Now formed by City Council, the District (governed by Port Townsend City Council) is expected to meet on Tuesday, August 1, to consider revenue op�ons. Every Thursday in August - Concerts on the Dock at Pope Marine Plaza! For full line-up visit:ptmainstreet.org Saturday, August 19 - Uptown Street Fair - Join a FUN-filled day with live music, arts & cra�s, the Farmer’s Market, kids ac�vies and so much more. Find out more at: ptmainstreet.org Thursday, August 17 - Sunday, August 20 - Soundcheck - There will be four ac�on-packed days of art, music and crea�vity. Soundcheck celebrates the abundance of local talent in our area. Visit ptsoundcheck.org/event/soundcheck-music-arts-fes�val/ for more info! The event supports Port Townend’s Crea�ve District ac�vies. City of Port Townsend • 250 Madison Street • (360) 385-3000 • www.cityofpt.us Over the past few years, we’ve made somewhat remarkable progress on a number of persistent challenges. We’ve signed a historic new water use agreement with the Mill. We’ve received millions of state, federal, and county dollars to focus on workforce housing and bring the Evans Vista neighborhood to life. We’ve secured millions of dollars to rebuild Discovery Road, including new pedestrian and bicycle features. We’ve built an awesome City team with a powerful mix of long-tenured staff and new talent. There’s plenty more, but that’s not my point. My point is actually the opposite: while we’ve made lots of quick progress, we’re really playing catch-up for years and years of chronic neglect. That’s right. I said it. We’ve underinvested in infra-structure, from streets to sewer, from parks to people, and of course, housing. We’ve o�en been too unaware or embarrassed to come out and say it, probably because we don’t like le�ng our community down. We’ve needed for many years to have an honest reckoning about what it means and what to do. So here we are. This is the general theme of our new short videos – check them out here: h�ps://cityofpt.us/videos. It was also the general theme of a report drawn together by your fellow residents who served on the Financial Sustainability Task Force, and that I wrote about last month. Their task was literally to think about our history of underinvestment and then to the future in how to best provide services and levels of service you depend on without breaking the bank or bankrup�ng future genera�ons. A key theme of their work: doing nothing is not an op�on, and actually makes things worse. Council member Rowe also speaks to this point in this newsle�er, drawing a link to our history, map, and unsustainable development pa�ern. The theme also carried into the all-day City Council 2024 strategic workplan retreat, helping to focus Council members and the City team on how to make real progress on things like housing, streets, and parks while at, the same �me, delivering day-to-day services. It was clear from that retreat that change is challenging for all of us, but that though�ul and real change is needed over mul�ple years to get to where we want to go. Finally, this theme will be baked into the 2024 budget, a process that I will admit is dry and doesn’t garner a lot of community a�en�on or engagement, but is fundamental to what we do and where we’re going. My team and I are assembling a budget that reflects our community’s priori�es – and those harsh reali�es I state above. We will be taking the dra� budget to City Council and the community for feedback over the coming months. I invite you to be part of the process, to review the proposals, to help us weigh tough tradeoffs, and to tell us what you think. A�er all, if we’re going to truly catch up and put that chronic neglect behind us, it’s going to take all of us – along with a he�y dose of our courage, commitment, and crea�vity – to succeed. ~ Coffee with the City Manager, first Friday of each month - Friday, August 4, 9 - 10:30 a.m., Velocity, 431 Water Street ~ Port Townsend Library A Note from City Manager John Mauro Child summer Library ac�vi�es: Saturday, August 5, 10:30 - 11:00 a.m. Port Townsend Farmers Market Story�me. Join us at the Port Townsend Farmers Market for an outdoor Story�me designed to build early literacy skills and foster a love of reading. Story�mes will be created with toddlers and preschool age children in mind, but all ages are welcome. Please dress for the weather, and bring a blanket or cushions to sit on. Thursday, August 3, 1 - 2:00 p.m. Shadow Puppets in the Library Pink House Mee�ng Room. Ages 7-12. Stories with Shadows! Par�cipants will learn a brief history of the art of shadow puppetry and create one or two puppets of their own! Thursday, August 10, 1 - 2:00 p.m. Sing Your Song in the Library Pink House Lawn. Ages 0-12. Everyone has a voice. Open up your mouth and sing. In this light-hearted, engaging and playful music program, families with kids are empowered to sing togeth-er. Ukuleles, acous�c guitars and harmonicas accompany silly and sweet songs about trees, bugs, coun�ng and being itchy. Learn original finger plays, nonsense rhymes and new words to old songs. "Singing Books" are brought to life with melody and music. Sing. Laugh. Read. Tuesdays, June 6 - August 29, 10:30 - 11:00 a.m. Story�me in the Park at Chetzemoka Park. Join us at Chetzemoka Park Gazebo for an outdoor story�me designed to build early literacy skills through stories, rhymes, songs, and full-body movement. Story-�mes will be created with toddlers and preschool age children in mind, but all ages are welcome. Please dress for the weather, and bring a blanket or cushions to sit on. Tuesdays, June 6 - August 29 from 1 - 2:00 p.m. Read to Rover in the Library Children's Room. Dogs are wonderful listeners! Kids ages 5-11 are invited to bring their favorite book or choose one from our library, then build reading skills and confidence by reading aloud to a cer�fied therapy dog. Thank you Olympic Mountain Pet Pals for your support for animals and childhoodliteracy!