Other Groups Opposed to the Rezone Request -
20/20 Vision Olympia Seeks a Professionally Led Charrette Planning Process for All Downtown

20/20
VISION
OLYMPIA

Who is signing on to 20/20 Vision Olympia?

We are citizens who have entrusted city planners and decision-makers to care for Olympia, but who now believe that: (1) professional planning intervention for the downtown is essential; and (2) the proposed high-rise condominium development on the isthmus will degrade not only the historical aesthetic vision for our state capital, but also the present-day beauty and essence of our downtown.

What does 20/20 Vision Olympia hope to accomplish?

Olympia is blessed by its incomparable physical surroundings and its very caring and engaged citizenry. 20/20 is grateful for the myriad, Herculean planning efforts that have thus far shaped our downtown. However, before the isthmus question is resolved, we want our city council, ideally in partnership with our state government, to become even better advocates for our capital city by funding a planning, design, and implementation effort that would ensure that all of Olympia's disparate stakeholders (citizens' groups, elected leaders, governing agencies, and investors) will have the opportunity--starting in 2009--to work together using the charrette* model-- to make concrete and specific plans for a downtown that: (1) supports our merchants and businesses; (2) offers an appropriate level of market rate housing in a sustainable and livable setting; (3) addresses public open spaces, including the waterfront and state capitol campus; and (4) promotes an ever-higher quality of life for all Olympians.

To engender the trust of all Olympia's disparate stakeholders, we believe the professional planning and design consultant/team should, for the sake of optimum fairness and neutrality, be based outside of Olympia. We further believe that their most critical aim must be to conceive, with our help and guidance, a downtown whose physical legacy of beauty, timelessness, sustainability, and architectural integrity--and its uniquely creative spirit--inspires future citizens and care-takers of our city for several generations to come.

We look forward to a not-too-distant future when Olympia is widely acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful and economically vibrant cities in the Pacific Northwest--and one of the best places to live in the entire country.

20/20 Vision Olympia's website — http://www.2020visionolympia.org

* Notes on the charrette:

• The charrette is a multi-day, collaborative process that produces a feasible plan. It is not a plan authored by a select few that will affect many. It is not a "visioning process" that stops short of implementation.
• A central element of the charrette in this case is the "planning/design team," a multi-disciplinary group of professionals that provide the necessary expertise to create a feasible plan that considers all relevant input. This team is the constant of the charrette.
• The charrette has become a technique for consulting with all stakeholders. Such charettes typically involve sometimes intense multi-day meetings, involving municipal officials, investors, and residents.
• A successful charrette promotes joint ownership of solutions and attempts to defuse typical confrontational attitudes between residents, governance groups, and investors.
• Charrette participants agree at the outset to abide by the results.
• For investors and municipal officials, charrettes achieve community involvement, with the added objective of avoiding costly legal battles.
• At this very moment, charrettes are the foundation of the best planning/design efforts occurring in cities across the U.S. and throughout the world!