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McKinley Hill Neighborhood

McKinley Hill Neighborhood PlanMcKinley Hill

The City’s Neighborhood Planning Program (NPP) provides enhanced planning and development support to help communities create strong, vibrant, and diverse neighborhoods.

 

City Council identified the McKinley Hill Neighborhood as a priority for the pilot year of the Neighborhood Planning Program. Through the planning process, the Community identified the following goals:

  • Vibrant business district: Support a vibrant economic base; comfortable, family-friendly environment; and unique McKinley identity. Key recommendations include streetscape redesign, art, signage, placemaking elements, new public spaces, business assistance, and parking management.
  • Walkability and connections to key destinations: Improve walkability and placemaking within the business district, and enhance connections to transit, schools, parks, and major walking/ bicycling/rolling routes to adjacent neighborhoods and the Tacoma Dome Transit Center. Other actions include wayfinding signage, street tree planting, and traffic calming.
  • Activated open spaces: Enhance key open spaces to support community gathering and safety, such as McKinley Overlook, as well as business district gateways.
  • Enhance McKinley’s Center with new amenities: As the neighborhood grows, support options for housing, food/ grocery, services, and amenities. Pursue community interests with major redevelopments (e.g., Gault School site).

What’s Happening Now?

After nine months of community meetings, events, surveys, and other engagement with more than 1,500 community members, City Council adopted the McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan in March 2023! You can learn more about the recommendations and changes to come below:

 

McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan Executive Summary

McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan Executive Summary

 

Quick Wins: There are several projects in the Plan that have already been funded and/or are already in progress, thanks to the help of our City Council, partners, and committees:


Actions Tracking: NPP and our partners are committed to documenting and tracking implementation of the Plan recommendations. The documents linked below are provided for community members to track progress on the Plan, stay engaged, and steward the Plan’s projects over time. Your continued involvement and advocacy for projects recommended in the Plan will help ensure they happen.

Program Updates

 

Learn more about what's happening now at our online engagement platform!

 

The Call: Get Involved, Stay Engaged! 

As we shift our focus from planning to implementation, there are still many ways for you to be involved! Email us at neighborhoodplanning@cityoftacoma.org. To date, our Project Committees focused on Arts, Walkability, and Open Space are supporting many of the identified "quick wins."

 

Completed or underway: 

  • Select an artist and location for a new mural, in partnership with Spaceworks
  • Outreach for residential tree planting in partnership with Environmental Services and Tacoma Tree Foundation
  • Supporting traffic calming and street mural at the McKinley Ave and East Division Ln intersection, in partnership with Public Works
  • Developing a conceptual design for activating the McKinley Overlook area (E 32nd St near East F St)

Future input opportunities: 

  • Provide input on developing a neighborhood Placemaking Plan
  • Provide input for the McKinley Ave streetscape redesign and enhancement 

 

Timeline

The McKinley Neighborhood Plan was adopted by City Council in March 2023. Over the next couple of years, we are continuing to work with the community on implementing the goals  identified in the Plan.

 

January-March 2022: Neighborhood profile; launch outreach

April-June: Evaluate existing conditions and identify projects and recommendations

July-September: Draft plan for community feedback, identify resources, and begin early implementation

Fall 2022 – Winter 2023: Finalize plan and roadmap for implementation

2023 and beyond: Implementation  

 

McKinley Hill Neighborhood

For the purpose of this plan, we are defining “neighborhood” as the Mixed-Use Center (business district) and the surrounding residential neighborhood. These boundaries may be adjusted during the planning process, but it is important to include public amenities (such as parks and schools) that service the core neighborhood.

McKinley Hill

Project Funding 

The Neighborhood Planning Program allocated $50,000 to support the implementation of short-term goals in the selected neighborhoods. Through our Community Booster Project, over 200 of you voted for the Intersection Enhancement project below. In the 2023-23 biennial budget, City Council allocated an additional $250,000 for the design of the new McKinley Streetscape and the National Endowment of the Arts granted $100,000 towards placemaking.

 

Intersection Enhancement at East Division Ln and McKinley Ave: The selected project adds temporary bulb-outs at the intersection, a repainted crosswalk, and a painted street mural to calm traffic and promote pedestrian safety (see example photo below). We are continuing to work with elected officials and other City departments and partners to find funding to implement additional community-identified projects.

   

 

Past Community Events

Every month through summer 2022, we held a public event to address different aspects of the plan and offer opportunities for you to share your feedback.

 

Past Community Event Information

Date Topic Materials
February 3, 2022 Virtual Plan-A-Thon Kick-Off Event: Introduction to Neighborhood Planning

Video

Presentation

Summary Notes

March 10, 2022 Neighborhood History + Identity: Virtual Tour and Arts/Culture/Identity Discussion

 Video

Presentation

Summary Notes

Historic Survey Report

May 9, 2022 Community Walk + Talk: Neighborhood Mapping and Walkability
Summary Notes
July 10, 2022 McKinley Hill Family Fun in the Park  Summary Notes
September 10, 2022  McKinley Neighborhood Fair - learn more on Facebook  Summary Notes

 

Steering Committee Meetings

Date Topic Materials
February 24, 2022
Steering Group Meeting #1

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

March 28, 2022
Steering Group Meeting #2

Agenda

Presentation
Minutes

Audio

April 25, 2022
Steering Group Meeting #3

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

May 23, 2022
Steering Group Meeting #4

Agenda

Presentation 1

Presentation 2

Minutes

Audio

June 27, 2022
Steering Group Meeting #5

Agenda

Presentation

Action Matrix Draft

Minutes

Audio

July 25, 2022 Steering Group Meeting #6

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

August 8, 2022 Steering Group Meeting #7

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

September 26, 2022 Steering Group Meeting #8

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

October 24, 2022 Steering Group Meeting #9

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

January 23, 2023 Steering Group Meeting #10

Agenda

Presentation

Minutes

Audio

 

Arts Project Committee Meetings

 

Date Topic Materials
July 20, 2022 Arts Project Committee Meeting #1

Agenda

Audio

August 10, 2022 Arts Project Committee Meeting #2

Agenda

Audio


Walkability Committee Meetings

Date Topic Materials
November 3, 2022 Walkability Committee Meeting #1

Agenda

Presentation

Audio

February 2, 2023 Walkability Committee Meeting #2

Agenda

Presentation

Audio

March 2, 2023 Walkability Committee Meeting #3

Agenda

Presentation

Audio


Open Space Committee Meetings

Date Topic Material
November 9, 2022 Open Space Committee Meeting #1

Agenda

Presentation

February 8, 2023 Open Space Committee Meeting #2

Agenda

Presentation


Neighborhood Planning Program

Questions?

Email your Neighborhood Planner

 
Staff
Lauren Hoogkamer, MSUP/MSHP 
Principal Planner
Email
(253) 591-5254 

 

Anneka Olson, MA

Senior Planner

Email

(253) 331-3742

 

Learn More
Join our general distribution list

Join the McKinley Hill NPP distribution list

 

Documents 

Tacoma's Mixed-Use Centers 

 

 

Social Media @PlanningTacoma

Historic Preservation on Facebook     Instagram logo




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