What’s cooking at Vancouver City Hall this year?
The city council wants to add technology to beef up public safety, address the affordable housing shortage, lock down a sustainable street-funding program and find ways to increase diversity on city boards.
Adopted March 2, the council’s priorities for 2015 will shape the direction of city staff’s work. The priorities stem from goals the council set during 2014 strategic planning sessions that will culminate with a fully fleshed out strategic plan later this year.
Everything the council plans to accomplish this year falls under the council’s overarching five-year vision to “grow a more prosperous city, become a more vibrant city and grow a more safe and welcoming city.”
“Vancouver is a growing city,” Councilman Jack Burkman said Tuesday. “We have come most of the way out of the recession, and business and government are making investments. We want to invest our time and taxpayer dollars into the best possible services and help our economy in the best way possible. These goals reflect what we have learned from the surveys of citizens and from many discussions. The primary intent of this is for us to focus and move ahead while the economy is good.”
Here’s a look at what the city council hopes to achieve by the end of 2015:
Traffic and community safety
• Fill all vacancies at the Vancouver Police Department and measure the results.
• Create and launch a plan for the police department that includes technology investments aimed at improving community safety, such as traffic enforcement cameras or surveillance cameras in public spaces.
• Reopen the east precinct to the public during regular business hours.
• Increase the police department’s community outreach.
Welcome people of all cultures and heritages
• Revise council policies to address recruitment of diverse populations to governance boards.
• Find a way to recognize indigenous people as an important part of celebrating Vancouver’s distinctive heritage.
Be the most connected community in the region
• Develop and deploy a “mobile citizen platform” that allows people to conduct city business and access information in a mobile format.
• Negotiate with CenturyLink to maximize broadband access to the entire city.
Street funding
• Adopt a street-funding program that provides reliable, dedicated, long-term funding for streets, including pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Affordable housing policy
• Review and revise the Multi-Family Tax Abatement program to ensure objectives are being met.
• Ensure federal funding programs have the greatest impact on affordable housing in future grant cycles.
• Explore policy options to address the lack of affordable housing in Vancouver.
Waterfront park and waterfront development
• Push for the highest feasible density in the first phase of private development on the 32-acre downtown waterfront project.
• Finish building the Columbia Way extension into the area.
• Establish a Local Improvement District to speed up the completion of public infrastructure on the site.
• Develop a funding and financing plan for the 7-acre waterfront park and begin construction.
For more information, go to www.cityofvancouver.us/citycouncil and click “2015 Strategic Plan” on the left-hand menu.
