If the city wants to see empty buildings filled, they need to change some requirements in the city codes.
I, too, am trying to fill an empty building.
Over the years I fought hard to have a childcare center in the center of town in a commercial zone.
Then I struggled for months to have one built in a residential zone.
Not only did it cost time and money, but it caused bad feelings that I still feel today.
What got me through it all was the children and families I served.
Common sense would help make this community a gold mine.
Ideas are out there but are not being taken seriously.
We citizens pay taxes to employ those who serve our community.
They are there to help, not knock us down.
Ideas are discouraged with a list book of codes and not encouraged with, “Let’s make it happen.”
I remember trying to plan a remodel of a building downtown for a grand Italian seafood restaurant with a lighthouse dome on top that would view either the mountains or the water from all angles.
Between all the city departments and negative nodding heads, I scrapped that project.
After that, I stopped dreaming about what Port Angeles could become and focused on my businesses and other interests.
That was a loss for me and the community.
Jane Childers,
Port Angeles