Water, shade, seating and flexibility just some of the elements that a seattle designer has incorporated into 5 different designs for a downtown plaza presented to the Yakmia City Council today. Kathryn Gustafson, a Seattle designer who's from the yakima valley says each design is hugely different...some of the designs called for no loss of parking others called for cutting parking in half or allowing no parking at all.  "They all will have the same elements in them its just how they're organized and how many different activities you can have in each."
Those elements are things that tie into the elements of the Yakima Valley water, shade trees, green space. The design firm formed 4 different designs for the plaza in front of the Capital Theater and one for the plaza on 2nd Street. Ballpark costs range from 5 million for the north plaza design and 8 to 10 million for the south design in front of the Capital Theater. The city council must now narrow down which design it wants to pursue for funding and more public comment. a public meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Seasons Performance Hall. Gustfason says her favorite design is the creation of a plaza in front of the capital theater that doesn't allow for any parking and takes the entire space. But a parking study also presented to the council today found that the city could create a number of new parking spaces by changing from parallel to angled parking on streets surrounding the proposed plaza in front of the Capital Theater.

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