Tacoma Downtown Redevelopment Plan

The plan emphasizes simplicity and focus for a downtown languishing for decades. It identifies a dozen catalyst projects and establishes several distinct downtown neighborhoods, each with its own unique blend of uses and public spaces, using the new light rail network for new public and private investment.

In the late 1990's, parts of downtown Tacoma were depressed and seemingly abandoned. Department stores had moved out in the 1970’s and no one had built housing within downtown in many years. Earlier attempts at urban renewal left pockets of vacant property, while the City was saddled with outdated policies and codes, and had no focused investment strategy.

The new plan threw out the old 100-page, overly complex code and replaced it with a document containing less than 10 pages. It set forth a simple, clear goal of building more than 2000 dwelling units within a decade. This galvanized the City into aggressively soliciting developers – both for profit and non-profit – to build new, dense urban housing. Since then, downtown Tacoma has been transformed from a classic example of failed urban revitalization to a stunning success with more than 2000 new dwelling units and in excess of $500 million of new investments.

Location

Tacoma, Washington

Status

Completed 1999

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