Upgrading downtown

Concepts spur discussion at first Moses Lake Downtown Association meeting

Wider sidewalks, bigger parking spaces and a park in Sinkiuse Square could be part of downtown's future.

About 30 people gathered in the Moses Lake Business Association conference room in the Desert Plaza building Tuesday morning to look over conceptual drawings of a redesign of Third Avenue to make it more pedestrian-friendly and visually pleasing.

City of Moses Lake Assistant Planner Lori Barlow stressed that the concepts, created by city landscape architect Curt Carpenter, only took into account the needs of the area and were intended to spur conversation and net feedback from those in attendance. They were not a concrete design that will be put into place.

The meeting was the first for the Moses Lake Downtown Association, a branch pairing between the MLBA and the downtown revitalization subcommittee of Vision 2020.

"I can see that we're going to be able to work together really well and have those extra voices that are in downtown all the time," Vision 2020 chair Jacie Daschel said. "When you don't have the merchants at your meetings, then you're not really getting all the input that you need to have to make it all work. Because if they don't succeed, the downtown doesn't succeed."

Between them, the two conceptual drawings included wider sidewalks, trees placed in the center of Third Avenue, a park area in Sinkiuse Square, a covered structure above the intersection of Ash and Third, four-way stops, diagonal parking and larger parking spaces.

The people in attendance offered their thoughts on what worked in the two conceptual drawings (see side bar, page A8) and discussed how the conceptual changes might impact such things as parades, traffic, parking and pedestrian safety.

Barlow said the aim is to take the information and input garnered from the meeting to create a new concept, and hold another meeting and invite input from the public before presenting a plan to the Moses Lake city council at their annual retreat Feb. 4,5 and 6.

"We've got to move, and I truly think that we need a deadline on this thing, because we've been talking about this for several years, and nothing concrete has happened," MLBA Executive Director Sally Goodwin said. "I think we've got a real momentum going, now let's go."

The second meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center.

Mitch Delabarre, an attorney with Jeffers Danielson Sonn and Aylward, said that he was in attendance because the law firm is on the edge of downtown business and he is interested in a more pedestrian-friendly downtown area that support supports retail.

"I'm pleased with the turn out," Delabarre said of the meeting. "I think that's positive, and I think the staff has done a great job of putting together some great ideas."

Action Mortgage loan officer Nolan Billman said he was at a realtor luncheon where Sally Goodwin was a speaker, and ended up sitting next to her. When he mentioned a couple things that he would like to see, she urged him to attend the meeting.

"One of my biggest concerns that I have had over the years, and I expressed it in (the meeting), is that there is just no parking for pickups downtown," Billman said. "I don't shop downtown because of that and this idea that they're using, increasing some of the parking space sizes, that will bring me back to some of those businesses."

Billman said that he thought there were good components in both conceptual designs and that the meeting itself was a good idea.

"I think with these types of meetings, they're going to incorporate those ideas from each of the individual concepts and come up with a plan that's going to work for the downtown and get people down there shopping," he said.

Lucky Break owner Greg Loop said he wanted to gauge the feeling of the downtown business and "see if there's really any energy dedicated downtown or if it's all just hearsay." He thought that there was a good attitude at the meeting, but there's a long way to go before anything happens, he said.

"The main thing that needs to happen downtown, we need to bring in new people," Loop said. "That's just the bottom line. I'm a business owner and I know that if we don't bring in more people, with the malls the downtown core's going to die … without some energy and without some direction."

Loop said he believes that there's interest, but he hasn't seen any energy.

Cobblestone Corner owners Gail and Vern Hellewell said that they thought the concepts and discussion at the meeting were on the right track to go in order to attract more people downtown.

"We want it to be a more friendly environment where people enjoy coming down and want to come down," Gail Hellewell said. "I talk to so many people in Moses Lake who say, 'It's been years since I've been downtown.' We don't want that anymore."

Columbia Basin Home, Health and Hospice administrator Beth Laszlo said that her business decided to move downtown several years ago in order to support the revitalization of the area, and feels that there is so much potential.

"Bringing it all together like this, there's just nothing better for the community," Laszlo said, noting that she plans for her two sons to grow up in the community. "Having something like this is just critical, to my family as well as the community and downtown."

Carpenter said that the meeting went better than expected, noting that there have been a lot of misconceptions in the past.

"We stayed on a real positive note, which was good, which was my intention," he said. "We got a lot of input, what they think they need. It's going to be a lot of good information to go forward with with the next concept."

Carpenter and Barlow thought the responses to some elements of the concepts were constructive rather than negative.

"That was the intention — just to throw some things at them and see what elements they're interested in," Carpenter said.