In their first opportunity to question city staff about the mayor’s multi-departmental Downtown revitalization effort, councilmembers focused on safety concerns and on beautification efforts during Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

The Council, overall, seemed pleased with the approach, which the mayor previously characterized as “holistic,”

After a brief re-cap of the city’s efforts, much of the discussion focused on working to clean up and revitalize the area, making it attractive to new businesses.

Councilmember Don Persson was first out of the gate, asking about landscaping requirements, litter and code enforcement.

Planning Director Chip Vincent explained that the city can hold downtown landlords responsible for landscaping efforts, including maintenance, if it is associated with the building permit and said the city was in the process of hiring a new code enforcement officer.

This summer, the city sent letters to every business downtown that had issues and received voluntary compliance for more than 40 of them. There are a few stragglers, including five in particular that are not making any headway and Vincent said the city was “taking progressive action” against the owners.

According to Community Development Project Manager John Collum, two warnings and three fines of $100 each have been issued to the businesses not in compliance.

Council President Ed Prince also asked about a no smoking ordinance recently passed for the transit center and parking garage. Police Chief Kevin Milosevich said the police are doing some enforcement, including three expulsions from the park.

“We’ve been using the expulsion ordinance in the park to deal with that issue,” he said.

In response to a question from Councilwoman Ruth Perez about crime statistics downtown, Milosevich said the police study crime trends annually, but said they look each month at the number of calls downtown and the arrests made.

Collum also provided the Council with an update on the downtown partnership, which he said had filed for nonprofit status as a main street organization, which it expects to receive within 30 days. The group will meet in early November to discuss priorities and develop an initial vision for downtown.

Vincent also provided an update on the Pacific Glass building at Second and Main, which was damaged by a fire this summer. According to Vincent, the building owners have recently received an insurance settlement from the fire and are working to begin cleaning up the site.

“We are pressing them to get that done as quickly as possible,” Vincent said.

After that, Vincent said the owners are open to working with the city and with surrounding property owners to try and put together a larger parcel that could help “maximize” the zoning and bring new buildings to downtown.

Following the meeting, councilmember Armondo Pavone, who owns a business downtown, said he was pleased with the administration efforts, but would like to see more time spent on a master plan approach for the entirety of downtown.

“On all fronts, the idea and effort is in the right direction,” he said, but added, “I would just like to take it a step further and have more of a cohesive plan on paper.”

Pavone said he thought a master plan really helped people visualize the goals for the Sunset Area and he thinks one for downtown could do the same, particularly when it comes to design elements and standards, an issue Perez also brought up during the meeting.

“We know what it is we’re trying to accomplish,” Pavone said. “Let’s quantify it and put it on paper.”

Pavone also said there has to be a deeper look at establishing exactly what the boundaries of downtown are for planning purposes.

The issue came up during the meeting as well, as councilmembers asked about areas near Rainier Avenue South, which is technically not considered part of the downtown area, but is included in the minds of many residents.

For planning purposes and statistical, the downtown core ends at Shattuck.

Prince also said he was pleased at the approach the city was taking.

“I appreciate that (the mayor) is not just saying ‘Community and Economic Development: Handle this,'” he said. “I think that comprehensiveness is different from what we’ve done in the past.

Prince also reiterated that public safety downtown is key.

“To me, the two most important things downtown directly correlate to police and feeling safe – perception is reality – and the way it looks,” he said.

Prince said the city’s options are limited by property owners who may not want to improve their buildings and that his only concern is that the program will take time to work and that the people my not see results immediately. But he did think that once momentum starts to build, it will become a business decision and property owners will get on board to attract new tenants.

“Downtown did not become what it is now overnight and we’re not going to be able to change it overnight,” he said.