From Public Drive to Citizen Initiate: Planning in Seattle's Pioneer Square Historic District from 1990s to 2010s

Abstract

Designation of historic district in urban core helps to conserve physical heritages of city but it does not help to preserve livability of community in the area. To solve social problems and to pursue better neighborhood, local governments have attempted various community development policies. Along increasing interest in public participation policies, this study focuses on participants, initiative, and components of public participated plans The Pioneer Square Historic District in Seattle was designated as the first historic district in the city in 1970. The historic district has been recognized as an exemplary historic districts in the United States. The City of Seattle has applied various programs and plans which influence the Pioneer Square Historic District in many ways. In 1990, Washington Stated Legislature enacted Growth Management Act and in the same year the City of Seattle created the Department of Neighborhood. With those two appliances, the Pioneer Square Planning Committee approved Pioneer Square Neighborhood Plan 1998 and a decade later, in 2010, Pioneer Square 2015: A Strategy for Seattles First Neighborhood was adopted. In this study application of these two plan in the Pioneer Square Historic District is compared and is analyzed. Documents from Seattle City Archive were reviewed with other literatures about the 1998 Plan and the 2015 Strategy as well as other community development policies and historic preservation policies. From 1950s to 1980s, the Federal government led historic preservation and community development with abundant amount of funding. After the 1980s, autonomy of State and local governments grew and initiative changed from the federal to local. Among various similarities between two plans, there are noticeable changes. First, the initiative stakeholder changes from government to citizen. Both plans are known for bottom-up plan making process. However, the 1998 plan was derived by the Growth Management Act and its derivate plans – King County Countywide Policies, Seattle Comprehensive Plans and others, so community members were participated in the process not leading the plan. The 2015 Strategy was initiated by community organizations in the Pioneer Square Historic District. The members of organizations initiated the plan and proposed the plan to the City of Seattle. Second, the contents change from result focused to processes oriented. Components in the 1998 plan does not have much space for community to participate. Mostly the City government projects oriented. However, a big portion of contents of the 2015 Strategy is community meetings among them or with government agencies. Third, the portion of physical components is decreased while the non-physical components are increased. In the 1998, infrastructure and environment improvement projects, and maintenance related elements are the major issues. In 2015, the focus shifted to economy, marketing, image and neighborhoods. For the last, the relation among other programs and department are more emphasized and improved. The significant of this study is traced changes in between two neighborhood plans in Pioneer Square Historic District. Through this change, the change in value among people and growth of community power can be analogized. However, this study could not clearly identify reasons of these changes as well as evaluating two plans.