PORT ANGELES — Potential.
It’s something that local leaders say Port Angeles has and what a report released last week says is letting slip through its fingers.
The 87-page report released by the American Institute of Architects last month addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the city’s downtown and international corridor, which includes First and Front streets east of Lincoln Street, and provides recommendations on how those areas can be improved.
While the grant-funded report, which required a $5,000 match from the city, doesn’t only address tourism, it does say that the potential the city has for capitalizing on the traffic to and from Olympic National Park and Victoria is being squandered.
The issues, according to the report, which is based on a three-day visit from a six-member AIA design team in March, is that travelers are not given enough of a reason to stay in town when they are heading to or from those destinations.
Zooming in
“In theory, an up-close glimpse of Port Angeles should be as good as it looks on an air-photo, but something is lost when you zoom in,” it says.
Some of the design team’s recommendations on solving that problem are:
• Creating a facade improvement program to improve the look of buildings in those two commercial areas — which the city has already done.
• Adding information kiosks and signs that point people to activities and points of interest.
• Improving public recreation and access on the waterfront.
• Expanding art-related activities.
• Better define downtown through unique streetscape designs.
Jan Harbick, Port Angeles Downtown Association vice president, said she agrees that more needs to be done to attract visitors, especially those getting on and off the MV Coho car ferry which runs between Port Angeles and Victoria, to stay for a while.
“Well, it definitely needs to be done,” she said.
“For so many years, we have been known as the place to get to the ferry.”
But she also said that the “Our Community at Work — Painting Downtown,” which was inspired by the design team’s visit, is working to solve that by sprucing up buildings, mostly downtown.
Harbick, who is also co-chairing the Painting Downtown project, said about 38 storefronts have been repainted through the project.
The city’s facade improvement program also will contribute to that, she said.
The program provides up to $10,000 from the city as a match to commercial property owners who wish to spruce up the outside of their buildings.
City Economic and Community Development Director Nathan West said a trial run of that program will take place in October.
Referring to the Painting Downtown project itself, Harbick said downtown merchants have already noticed a change in their customers’ attitudes about downtown since the spruce-up effort began.
“They can feel the energy downtown,” she said.
“Merchants are improving their sales . . . they are excited about the feel of downtown.”
Harbick said Painting Downtown may not have occurred without the design team’s visit.
“I think we have all been kind of waiting for a catalyst, and I think that the AIA was that catalyst,” she said.
Based on some of the report’s recommendations, City Manager Kent Myers said the city is speaking with Olympic National Park staff on creating an exhibit at the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center on City Pier to give tourists on the way to the park another reason to spend time downtown.
Waterfront promenade
On top of that, Myers said the city wants to create a promenade on the waterfront, which it has planned for about six years, and also fill The Gateway at Front and Lincoln streets with activities — such as the farmers and community markets — throughout the year.
While designs are still preliminary, Myers said a promenade would likely resemble a boardwalk that would be intended attract more people down to the waterfront and boost foot traffic around downtown.
The city is seeking $4.5 million in federal funding to build the promenade through a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery — or TIGER — grant.
The grant will be awarded by February.
To establish a promenade, Myers said its design must mesh with ferry terminal improvements that may happen next year in order for pedestrian and bicycle traffic to not be disrupted by cars and trucks heading to Victoria.
“We are trying to accommodate more transportation uses in a safe, attractive, inviting environment,” he said, referring to the pending project.
The same TIGER grant application also includes $9 million for ferry terminal improvements.
If the city doesn’t get the grant, a promenade would be delayed, Myers said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.