Council may standardize the look of commercial buildings

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake City councilmembers discussed commercial building design guidelines for about an hour Tuesday night during a study session.

The meeting started with Community Development Director Gilbert Alvarado highlighting different problem locations around the city in regard to signs in windows, color schemes and other issues at commercial buildings.

The topic of discussion was brought to the council’s attention by councilmember Bill Ecret, who, on behalf Vision 2020, provided his fellow councilmembers with materials and examples from other cities of commercial building design guidelines. He said the downtown area isn’t attracting new retail growth and when new retail does come in, it typically doesn’t last very long. He pointed to building design standards as one of the major contributors to new businesses not wanting to relocate to the city.

“I encourage you to go online and check out what other cities are doing as far as design and color standards. They may suggest a list of half a dozen to maybe even 10, in some cases, color pallets. They may suggest a structural design of some sort that can include facades, that can include landscaping, it could include everything,” Ecret stated. “I think it really comes down to what character do you want in your city? What do you want your city to look like? What is going to attract future business entrepreneurs in our city?”

Ecret noted that the city’s Destination Development, Inc. (DDI) plan, which provided the city a plan for tourism, downtown development, branding and marketing in 2007, highlighted several weaknesses in a section Ecret called the “Brand Development and Marketing Action Plan.”

Weaknesses in the city in 2007 included gateway signs being difficult to read and leading to “nothing special,” retail critical mass necessary to attract visitors and many locals did not exist, many downtown businesses had poor curb appeal, some businesses along state Route 17 near Interstate 90 had the back of their buildings facing the street making a poor first impression, dozens of plastic banner signs were around town creating a “sloppy, cheap look,” trash was found along many roads and broken and temporary signs created a “bleak impression.”

Ecret noted the city is still dealing with many of the issues highlighted in the plan.

“It’s really come down to now the property owners. And that’s why we (Vision 2020) are suggesting that you consider the point system very similar to your landscape requirements when somebody builds a new business or rehabs a new business,” Ecret said. “It will gain the look that you are probably looking for from landscaping, all the way to your color pallets, to whatever you are looking for in your downtown corridor.”

Councilmember Ryann Leonard agreed with Ecret’s assertion that there needs to be some sort of standardization for commercial buildings, but said that some business owners have a limited budget and might become overwhelmed if extra regulations were put into place.

Councilmember Karen Liebrecht noted if the city was to standardize the look of commercial buildings, existing problems at locations around the city would be “grandfathered” in under the new regulations. Alvarado explained that the city cannot force property owners to make changes after the fact, but he noted the council could put a clause into place that states the property owner has a certain number of years to come into compliance with the new regulation.

City Attorney Katherine Kenison said there are limitations to how much the city can regulate aesthetics.

“You can’t just regulate aesthetics without tying into something that is inherent in the city statutory power,” Kenison explained.

She noted that there a couple of different ways to adopt an identity for the city, in regard to regulating building design standards.

“There is really two approaches to get there. One of them is the themed city and there are several communities in Washington that have taken advantage of that. Then there are others that have built their design regulations around being a historic site,” she explained. “And then there are those that simply have that identity, that local unique identity.”

She said the council has to put in place something that establishes a unique identity for the city and ties the regulations into the protection of that identity. Ecret said the city already has a brand that could easily be turned into a theme, which is that of the city's catchphrase, “Jump In!” He said Moses Lake is a water community and the city could build around that.

Liebrecht said the council needs to be careful about how much regulation is put into place and suggested giving new businesses information about what they can and cannot do and as recommendations, rather than regulations.

Leonard suggesting involving a cross-section of the business community and community at large in the discussion regarding building design guidelines. No decision was made during the study session and the topic will be further discussed at a future meeting.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.