City Council - Community and Economic Development Committee

[Music] welcome to the July 1st 2024 Bellingham city council afternoon committee meetings I am council president protm Holly Heathman and I will be presiding over meetings today in the absence of council member council president Dan Hamill uh up first we have community and economic development committee and that is chaired by council member cotton I will turn over to you great thank you president protm um I'm joined on this committee by um Council M Stone and Huffman and we have one agenda Bill item before us today this is uh bill number 24171 uh consideration of the lodging tax advisory committee's downtown activation Grant recommendations and a request for proposal uh proposals was issued in May soliciting projects to activate and beautify downtown as part of ongoing revitalization efforts projects are being funded using general fund 100,000 and lodging tax Reven Revenue 250,000 the lodging tax advisory committee has approved the mayor's recommendation uh recommendations for use of lodging tax funds and council's approval is necessary before proceeding with um the lodging tax advisory committee's recommendations um I'll note we have I believe the chair of ltac um on this committee today so very convenient and with that I'll turn it over to staff um uh beginning with um uh Community economic development manager Tera andine thank you good afternoon um so the mayor proposed the creation of this new Grant um prop or Grant application earlier this year um and the intention here

is to further activate there's a lots going on down downtown but we wanted to take things a step further um and create just even more excitement about our downtown for residents and visitors uh the tourism Commission agreed and so here we are today um seeking your authorization for the lodging tax portion this marks the beginning of a multi-year effort so the idea is that we would set aside $250,000 a year um we wanted to get started right away try and get some things um on the ground this year so we had a pretty quick turnaround um and you'll learn that there was a lot of interest in in this application um process this offering we're going to have another round later this fall and when we published the opportunity we made it clear that we would be making another round available later in the year so people could kind of think about those proposals um and some some of those proposals take a little longer than three weeks to put together so we're excited about the future as well as a reminder um we come to you to uh authorize the lodging tax funds uh the city council can choose to authorize what's been put before you from the lodging tax advisory committee but you can't um alter those or add somebody to the list you can choose to not fund something um and then I also wanted to clarify Taylor's gonna Taylor web is here by the way this is one of our new development specialist she's been working with Community Development for a little over a month now now um and she along with

Darby gallagan have been providing a lot of support for this effort um so she's going to be presenting to you um the hopefully the awardees and I just wanted to note that we're not asking Council to approve designs um and in most of the cases they aren't designs yet um so this is kind of the first step in the process we have not started contracts we have not gone to the Arts commission you're going to see a lot of Arts related um applications and there are other steps or if something goes into a park there's the Parks Board so I just wanted to let you know that and others know that we are at the very beginning of the process so with that I will turn it over to Taylor web Tera uh good afternoon council members I'm going to go quickly over the proposals um but at any point if you have any questions feel free to stop me um so just a quick overview of the goals and objectives of the RFP um this really is to do two parts either help beautify our downtown or activate those underutilized spaces um be able to especially with the lodging tax advisory commission dollars um be able to bring people downtown and make sure that they're staying longer um and get more people to come into our downtowns but also for our residents who are already here um make them Eng AG in the downtown space in a way maybe they haven't before um so at a glance just with this first round which Tara did mention was a pretty quick turnaround we did get 43 individual proposals um with a total of over $3 million of

funds requested um so with the help of our jury we narrowed that down to $350,000 for this first round and we're recommending um the approval of seven proposals specific specifically for the use of the lodging tax funds um we um and the jury have selected three proposals all from the same applicant um with a total of $250,000 and staff is requesting a council motion and vote to approve this list of projects um as recommended by the mayor and the lodging tax advisory committee and I'll go over those three proposals the first is um an immersive experience which will will um activate some of the vacant spaces downtown which have yet to be determined um this idea is uh almost like a meow wolf idea where we can get people kind of into these underutilized spaces and maybe almost transport them somewhere else the next is an alley activation proposal um four alleys in total uh will be proposed to kind of have art installations hung across them um again as Tara mentioned the exact art installations have not yet been determined yet so we'll be working with the applicant as well as the Arts commission to make sure that we can get something that is a little bit more specific to Bellingham um some of the ideas like The Umbrellas have been done in other cities so we'd like to think of ideas that are a little bit more creative and this last proposal um recommended to be funded using the lodging tax dollars is a mural in the Lakeway underpass um again we do want the mural to be be something

that is a little bit more Bellingham specific and perhaps has some way finding to get people to kind of funnel into the downtown Corridor um so the exact design will be um worked through with the Bellingham Arts commission and the applicant um in addition to the lodging tax dollars we uh do have an extra $100,000 from the general fund um this isn't really the focus for today's purposes but I will go over those proposals because they're really great uh the first is another mural this one on the staircase of Lee Memorial Park the library um lawn again the design will be worked through with the Bellingham Arts commission um some staff have raised some concerns about maybe having paint on the horizontal surfaces of the stairs so we'll go through all of that during the process to make sure that safety is a top concern the next is this fine Billy uh Str of sculptures sorry that will be put downtown um I included some pictures um that I should have maybe put in the other ones um the the two pictures on this side here um are these sculptures that are in Harriet spanel Park um they were just maybe a couple weeks ago put into the park um and so these ones will be very similar they're kind of cute Whimsical um little sculptures and they'll be kind of put in precarious little places downtown um and will really promote this kind of uh scavenger hunt or hide and seek um type of element the next is a wayfinding mural from the Wakka Museum um this one will be um almost exactly as pictured um

the museum worked with the archives to kind of pull some of these images and we'll have the big lettering that says this way to the bay and the final is kind of an interactive art installation um that we're hoping to put in coordination with a community event um that has not yet been determined and this one is there's paint bottles that will be put on little tricycles um and you can ride them around and create a piece of art and then the idea is to take those art pieces and cut them into letters that spell out something maybe like Bellingham or something like that um and hang them up as a temporary art installation downtown so those are the proposals that we recommending to be funded for this first round uh we will have a second round of funding available in the fall of this year um but specifically for the purposes of this committee um we are recommending a motion to approve the use of the lodging tax dollars um to fund these first three proposals that were submitted and that's all I have to share today but if you have any questions I'm happy to answer those thank you thank you so much um I'll first turn to committee for questions or comments Council M thank you um thank you very much and it's exciting to to think about and the number of proposals you'd mentioned was 43 and so I guess one of my questions um is with 43 proposals and I don't know if those are individual proposals and how many um different entities were providing proposals but with 43 different submissions

ending up choosing right multiple especially for the ltech dollars um all from the same organization or right entity if you can speak at all to I mean if there was any consideration for that whether that's good or bad or yeah yeah um the jury itself um really was looking at the proposals separately from who the applicant themselves were um so for instance these three proposals were submitted together as one packet but were broken into individual projects um so the jury was really looking individually at what each proposal was and not necessarily you know that they came from the same person um or the same team um in this case really what what they were looking at is the types of projects that they were um making sure that we had a variety of murals sculptures and activation projects and uh maybe less so on who the applicant was there were lots of great proposals some of them maybe didn't have everything in order uh to to rise to the to the top in this first round there's several proposals that we're recommending apply again in the fall um and yeah some that it was really hard decision that's a lot of great proposals that came in CC member Huffman thank you uh thanks for the presentation um and I I am on the eltac committee and so I've I've gotten my chance to ask a lot of questions already that was a good one from council member Stone um and so just some comments I think it's really exciting that we got 43 prop proposals that's a lot means there's a lot of people out there

excited to um do things that make Bellingham more fun and interesting and um and attractive to tourists uh in particular which is what ltac funds are lodging tax funds are are for um just to remind the public that lodging tax is a tax collected from hotel stays and that tax is specifically intended to do fund things that generate hope more hotel stay while also uh also benefiting our local economy as a whole so it's kind of a cyclical relationship there with those funds um but yeah and uh I guess I I voted to recommend approval on uh these proposals uh at the alac committee and I will do so here as well so motion to approve great um council member Stone yeah um just a couple of other questions one was you mentioned that there'll be a second opportunity for submissions in the fall um my understanding was that this 250,000 was is that annually or or was I mistaken on that yeah so the the tourism commission is contemplating three rounds at $250,000 per round so about 3 years some of these proposals will take a year to implement but we wanted get another one out on the street as as quickly as possible so just to follow up so then that funding would be in the coming year or or plus I think we're being flexible about timing yeah that makes sense um and then I guess just one question it wasn't addressed but in the packet it mentioned that there were a series of projects to activate the Commercial Street Parking Garage would also be supported using budgeted general fund um and

parking fund and other sources and I know there's been a lot of discussion about that facility in particular and I believe that that's going to be coming up on a council agenda in the near future is um to discuss right what will happen or at least an assessment of that property and so I'm just wondering any installation that was done in that area the idea is that would be something that could be preserved and potentially used in another location if something changed about that facility or if that's taken into consideration at all I think that it is being taken into consideration I think it was a a right now we're not proceeding with there there were some specific proposals involving more murals I think that the idea is let's let's take a moment think of beautification in kind of that larger context of the of the structure sounds great thank you I'm seeing no other questions from committee um before we deal with the motion on the table open up to the rest of the council uh council member loquist thanks I don't serve this committee but do definitely like these projects very good use of lodging tax money my question has to do with the Waterfront in downtown I was just down at the waterfront again it's a really Lively great place a great tourist draw and good for us locals as well um but you know we drove and parked there we didn't walk from downtown to the Waterfront which has always been the long-term Vision um is there any thinking about that might that be part of a future

round to kind of connect the those those areas together the port's doing a very good job of kind of activating that space on their own but you know wouldn't be nice if we activate a downtown they activate the Waterfront and they all go together it's a excellent point count council member lilyquist and one of the program goals and objectives that we identified is encouraging those connections between the downtown and other areas like Oldtown like the Waterfront and so explicitly that's part of what we're hoping to accomplish and certainly hope future rounds and I think we can do a debrief to see if we want to tailor or create a specific emphasis on a future funding round to accomplish that the other piece I think it's really important as council member hutman noted to talk about um because this is funded by eltac we're trying to encourage those longer stays and um create a draw for visitors to come to our community to stay to linger and find Value in Bellingham but at the same time there's everyone that lives here and calls Bellingham Home benefits when we're activating our empty storefronts or creating um Identity or celebrating our cultural history with activations in our Alleyways we're making Bellingham better for everyone by in making these Investments and so I just wanted to emphasize that too thank you mayor um council member Anderson thank you um I support this one of the things that I'm most excited about is the mural for the Lakeway underpass it is such a blight

looking area and very prone to Graffiti and being that a lot of the people coming into downtown will offramp at that section it's a hi trffic area I think some beautification on that underpass is much needed I I like the graphic that it shows both sides that was going to be my question that it needs to be both sides but I it's also a plug either for the city um when funding is a little bit better or perhaps a future project the median between the off the The Underpass going to Ellis that section could really use some beautification because it really is the entrance to downtown and it's a it's a sad little section and it's uh part of my neighborhood and for years we've as the York neighborhood has been asking that the city address some beautification in that area um let alone just upkeep and maintenance but hopefully if anybody's listening who has thought about what they might be able to do for a grant proposal that area is ripe for some sculpture or some um Works similar to the um I really like the changes that have been made for the roundabout um before you start heading to Fair Haven when you're exiting the downtown area that is a wonderful visual piece and I'm hoping at some point that median section could maybe um be honored with a little investment from the city to welcome people into downtown so this is a great start so thank you great I see no further questions um uh All In favor of the motion to approve please say I hi I um I'll opposed any extensions as seeing none