By John McCallum
Managing Editor 

Cheney planners seek public input on downtown

 

Last updated 6/14/2018 at 8:38am



Cheney Planning Department officials are inviting residents to come to the City Hall auditorium or the Wren Pierson Community Center later this month to answer one question.

What kind of city is Cheney?

The meeting, which takes place June 25 at 5 p.m., is the public’s opportunity to discuss that question while learning about ways to make whatever is decided a reality through the Washington State Main Street Program. The state program, an offshoot of the national Main Street program, currently has been used by 32 cities in the state, many with populations approximately the size of Cheney’s, 10,000 – 20,000 people.

The meeting is the brainchild of Planning Department intern Patrick Hanley, who attended the RevitalizeWA 2018 conference April 22-25 in Port Townsend where information on the Main Street program was presented. Port Townsend has taken advantage of the program’s resources, and Hanley said he was impressed with the Western Washington community whose downtown had virtually no vacant storefronts, no “big box” retail stores and an efficient blend of commercial and residential development.

By contrast, using information from local sources to look at Cheney’s downtown from G to D streets, and First to Second streets, Hanley was able to determine the city’s core has a vacancy rate of 26 percent. Even more, the diversity of existing businesses is limited to 25 percent retail, 21 percent service, 19 percent restaurants and the rest bars.

Hanley said Cheney has a lot of elements working in its favor, from the university to a good school system to nearby natural resources for recreation and business.

“It’s also easy to see there are some hold backs and issues in downtown,” he added.

The state’s Main Street program focuses on four areas of transformation in a community: economic vitality, design, promotion and organization. Resources help define transformation strategies that cities might fall under and focus on specific segments such as workers and residents, elderly and family, agriculture vs. specific industries and a college town with varied entertainment and nightlife.

“Cheney could fall under 4-5 categories, but right now, we fall under only one or two,” Hanley said.

Other cities using the state’s program include Selah, Ellensburg, Waterville, Moses Lake and Prosser. The latter just received a $25,000 grant to help beautify its downtown, with some of the money going towards restoring the main neon sign at its historic theater.

At Cheney’s June 25 meeting, a representative from the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation will give a short overview of the state’s Main Street program, with assistance from the Cheney Merchants Association. There will be a question and answer session, after which the audience will take part in a community-development exercise.

“We want to hear from people,” Hanley said. “We can’t plan for people, we have to plan with people.”

While the meeting was originally slated for the City Hall auditorium, discussion about access at the June 12 City Council meeting raised the possibility it would be changed to the Wren Pierson Community Center.

For more information on the Washington Main Street Program, visit preservewa.org/programs/mainstreet.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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