Gateway Groundbreaking Ceremony

The Gateway groundbreaking ceremony was right on schedule this morning at 9 a.m. About fifty people attended. Speeches were given by Mayor Karen Rogers, City Manager Mark Madsen and Kevin Thompson, President of the Downtown Association, among others. The event was also attended by:

Members of Clallam Transit, Primo Construction, several former Port Angeles mayors, members of the City Council, Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Association; and representatives from the offices of Norm Dicks and Patty Murray.

According to the City of Port Angeles website, the construction chaos won't start getting worse until around mid-August. Their website will continue to provide updated information on Gateway. This site also has photos of the groundbreaking ceremony.

Gateway Center: New Information

This Wednesday, May 9th at 7:30 a.m. there will be a meeting of the Port Angeles City Council and Clallam Transit, in the City Council Chambers. They will be providing updated information about Gateway Center.

If you live, work or shop anywhere near downtown Port Angeles, the Gateway Project is going to affect YOU.

Please attend this meeting. Forewarned is forearmed.

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UPDATE: There was a meeting at the City Council Chambers this morning. The meeting included personnel from Clallam Transit and Primo Construction, the company handling the Gateway project.

They stated that right now there are still more questions than answers, but there will be periodic meetings to keep everyone updated. Tentatively there'll be another meeting in June. They're expecting to start construction next month, and they're hoping to be done by “late summer” of 2008.

The project will include a 2-story parking garage, bus lanes, a clock tower, a plaza area, and a transit terminal building with restrooms. AND, they also said the entire project is funded.

The City has plans for mitigating the parking problems. This includes creating temporary additional parking spaces on Oak and Cherry Streets, and running a trolley during peak periods. The trolley would take people from the parking areas to downtown shopping, the ferries, etc.

Downtown/Gateway/Parking/City Council/ PADA

Things are heating up again in Downtown Port Angeles. Gateway Center construction will be starting soon, and the downtown parking situation will be Godawful. As you probably know, there's a disagreement (to put it mildly) between the Downtown Association and the City Council, regarding the parking situation.

In a nutshell: How much of a priority is it to provide parking for customers shopping downtown?

There have been long-term agreements between the City Council and the Downtown Association, stipulating that the Gateway construction will cause no net loss of parking spaces downtown. But several downtown parking lots have already been condemned (to make way for the Gateway project) and sold. This has created a loss of parking revenue for the Downtown Association, not to mention the huge loss of parking spaces for downtown customers. Just think how much worse it'll get when the construction actually starts. What happened to those agreements???

The Downtown Association wanted to go through the mediation process with the City Council to work out their disagreements on downtown parking. This mediation was to be an alternative to litigation. The City Council turned down the mediation request. So, where do we go from here? Litigation? There might be a meeting between the City Council and the Downtown Association — will this meeting be public or private? Will it be on the record or off the record?

What do YOU think should be done?

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UPDATE: The Port Angeles Farmers Market will be returning downtown on Wednesdays. This will begin in early June. They'll be using the parking lot at the corner of Laurel and West First Streets. Saturdays are unlikely any time soon, at least for that particular parking lot. However, the Farmers Market WILL be downtown (at that same parking lot) on Saturday, April 21st. That's because the Courthouse parking lot, where the Market usually sets up, will be closed that day for a car show.

So come on, Port Angeles residents, be sure to come into town on Saturday April 21st, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to check out the Farmers Market at West First and Laurel. It'll be just like the good old days. And be sure to do lots of shopping and dining and strolling while you're here.

Gateway Center

This is a separate post regarding the Gateway Project. It's probably a done deal, but it's generated a lot of anger and frustration (which has never been heard or cared about by the Powers That Be).

So, are you for it or against it? How will it affect Downtown Port Angeles and the surrounding neighborhoods? How about traffic and parking? Who benefits from the Gateway Project, and who gets screwed?

Welcome!

Welcome to residents of the North Olympic Peninsula. This site deals mostly with Port Angeles issues, but all area residents are welcome to participate. This is YOUR FORUM. This is YOUR chance to vent; to rant. Tell us what YOU THINK:

Population growth

Environment

Economy

Crime

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Gateway Center and how it will affect downtown Port Angeles

Who is most concerned about the welfare of Port Angeles: Chamber of Commerce? City Council? Downtown Association? Other_______________

What do you like/dislike about Port Angeles?

What does the city need more of? Less of?

And any other local issues you're interested in.

OK, Ready? Just click on "Comments" and start ranting.