SEQUIM — Approaching its first year as a citizens advisory group to City Hall, Sequim Speaks is over the organizational hump.
It is now delving into meatier matters facing Sequim, such as the downtown business district and park improvements, according to its members.
“This is a great opportunity for citizens to say what they want downtown,” said Sequim Speaks Chairwoman Sue Weidemeier.
“A lot of locals don’t really shop downtown and we want to figure out a way to bring them back.”
Pedestrian plaza
With parking and heavy traffic being issues, Weidemeier said she would personally like to see some kind of pedestrian plaza concept brought to the table and discussed — perhaps one that would close off a section of Washington Street.
As Weidemeyer envisions it, it would be place for the community to gather for music, a taste of local foods and libations, and an inviting stroll leading to retail shops.
“I think the planning of the downtown is going to be a hot topic,” said Weidemeier, a mother, soccer coach and water aerobic instructor at Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center who is one of 15 appointed last year to join Sequim Speaks. (The group can have up to 23 members.)
She said it was a learning experience to organize the group, but that has been achieved.
“Let’s not wait for the housing market. — let’s make it happen,” said Weidemeier, who moved to Sequim from northern California in 2006 and, like many, loves where she and her family now lives.
To reach out and encourage residents to speak their minds, the group is broken into quadrants — northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest — with members assigned to each.
Job is to listen
Quadrant representatives listen and bring community comments back to the table, which are presented to the City Council and staff.
Sequim Speaks’ purpose and top goals are:
• To foster increased citizen input to the Sequim City Council and provide an additional communication tool for information dissemination to the greater Sequim community on issues affecting the area.
• To create a visible public, two-way conduit between the general community population and the City Council.
• To establish Sequim Speaks as a sounding board for other groups, such as the Sequim Planning Commission, Mary Miller, recorder for Sequim Speaks, said citizen concerns about parks not only include soccer fields on city land at the Water Reclamation park off Blake Avenue but what to do with Guy Cole Convention Center at Carrie Blake Park.
Miller, wife of City Councilman Ted Miller, said she agrees with Weidemeier about the need for youth soccer fields at the park.
Other concerns she has heard also surround cleaning up sections of town where garbage, junk and old cars can be found.
“I have never been politically inclined in any way and this is a civic duty that I can get involved in,” Miller said.
“For the most part, people in this city seem to not want to go before the City Council and this gives the citizens a voice.”
Because the group’s membership includes those from outside the city limits, they hope to give input to Clallam County Planning Commission and the three Clallam County commissioners, plus others seeking feedback on proposed projects or ideas.
Downtown’s future
The issue of downtown Sequim’s future comes as the City Council last week hired Seattle urban design consultant LMN Architects to lead a downtown improvement planning study.
Commercial stakeholders and interested residents will share their thoughts on everything from parking improvements to downtown redesign to attract developers.
The study will determine the boundaries of downtown to be studied, city officials said.
Unofficially, it would be Cedar Avenue and Maple Street, north and south, and third Avenue to Sunnyside west and east.
The study would include a look at integrating high-density residential development in the city’s commercial core.
The plan would also look at public art and how it can best serve downtown.
The idea is to attract mixed-use development, create the highest level of pedestrian comfort, orientation and amenity; and engage the community through an extraordinarily collaborative effort involving city government, business and community leaders, organizations and city residents.
Design concepts and a traffic and parking study will be included — with community and business stakeholder meetings related to the downtown plan.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays said downtown should be looked at not as an issue but as an opportunity.
“Our downtown is doing pretty well,” he said, and the downtown plan will address topics such as high-density residential development and traffic.
Sequim Speaks project
He said the downtown study is for Sequim Speaks “a real project they can kind of sink their teeth into.”
“It’s not just a way to have more shops, but to give people a reason to come to town — the locals,” Hays said.
“I see Sequim Speaks as really integral in drawing those people, to ask them what would it take for them to come downtown.”
City Manager Steve Burkett said he plans to hire a communications manager position, funded with tourism lodging tax, to not only work to promote tourism but to work with Sequim Speaks.
“In general, in terms of Sequim Speaks, what I would hope is they can focus on substantive issues,” such as helping with the downtown project, Burkett said.
Speaks membership
Sequim Speaks members serve two-year terms and may choose to be spokespeople for their neighborhoods.
Those who want to serve on Sequim Speaks — you must live in the city or in the Dungeness Valley — can pick up and drop off applications at City Hall, 152 W. Cedar St.
The application form is also available on the city’s Web site, www.ci.Sequim.wa.us.
The group’s next meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 28 in the City Council chambers at Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.,
Clallam County Public Utility District representatives will talk about renewable energy prospects.
One of the City Council’s 2010-2011 priorities is to make Sequim a leader in renewable energy.
Sequim Speaks has a representative at the Sequim Open Aire Market from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays on West Cedar Street between Second and Sequim avenues.
You can also email speaks@ci.sequim.wa.us.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.