Ellensburg Downtown Efforts get National Attention
The Downtown Ellensburg Association’s efforts to mitigate the impact of potential regional retail development have captured national attention and will be featured in the August issue of Downtown Idea Exchange, a monthly publication of the National Downtown Research and Development Center in New York.
The three page story focuses on the Ellensburg Downtown Associations efforts to mitigate the impact of potentially 1 million square feet of regional retail development on this small town’s historic downtown.
The Ellensburg City Council is considering an ordinance that would permit up to 1 million square feet of regional retail development on the outskirts of town along the Interstate. Ellensburg Downtown Association leaders believe that the city’s population of just 18.000 is insufficient to accommodate that amount of new development without negatively impacting the Downtown and other existing business districts.
The Ellensburg Downtown Association has proposed several mitigation measures including minimum store sizes to help ensure that developers focus recruitment efforts on bringing new larger business to the community rather than recruiting existing businesses to relocate. The association has also asked the City to dedicate a percentage of sales tax revenue from the proposed new development to help fund downtown revitalization efforts.
Other proposed mitigation measures include an economic impact analysis to determine if the City’s population of 18,000 can support the amount of retail development being proposed, and developer fees based on the amount of square footage that is built.
City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance for Monday July 30 at 7 p.m. There are currently two SEPA challenges against the ordinance and the City Council will also hear those challenges at Monday night’s meeting.
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