As part of their revitalization plan and in an effort to try to make downtown a booming and hip metropolitan area, the city is seeking to hire a consulting group this spring to help renovate the Downtown Business District, or what they are calling the “Civic Core.”

In a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, Community Development Project Manager John Collum and Economic Development Director Cliff Long presented to the City Council an executive summary of a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a Downtown Civic Core Vision and Action Plan.

According to Collum, they are trying to find a “visionary” consultant who can “look at the entire area and tell us how they can function together.”

“The idea is we want the consultant to take a look at this area and say, ‘How can it work better?’” said Collum at the meeting.

In the document, the core is defined as the area that runs along South 2nd and 3rd streets and tapers off at Burnett Avenue South. It is home to the Piazza Park, Gateway Park, Renton Pavilion Center, Transit center and Municipal Parking Garage. The area also includes a block that reaches south along Burnett, to create a connection to the Burnett Linear Park.

Key issues the city hopes the consulting group will solve include determining the best use of the transit center facility if it is relocated, the expansion and/or restructuring of the parks and parking garage to ensure safety of its patrons as well as increase foot traffic in the area, integrating festival street to support larger events and festivals, and successfully utilizing private investments and development opportunities.

In addition, the city is also hoping the consulting group will also be able to gather info on traffic patterns within and through the area, figure out how to create a pedestrian-friendly environment and determine how to fund and finance options for plan recommendations.

It was noted in the draft of the RFP executive summary that “this project brings an opportunity to utilize placemaking to reimagine and reinvent the public spaces that make up the Civic Spine area, by better understanding the interaction of land uses, public facilities, parks and trails, maintenance, private businesses, streetscapes, programming, and social connections as they merge in the center of Renton.”

Councilman Armondo Pavone, who owns a business downtown, but not in the area designated for the RFP, said that while he thinks the city is heading toward the right direction, the revitalization should have a more holistic approach, one that considers more than just the Civic Spine .

“I believe what we’re doing is part of the right track,” said Pavone. “I firmly believe that we need to go a step further. I’m hoping this becomes a global deal instead of just looking in the downtown core area. I’m hoping this becomes more than just looking at a couple of city blocks.”

Collum said he estimates that they will start distributing the RFP in the next couple of weeks, but it is currently difficult to determine the exact timeline for the project.