Yakima city officials are hoping you'll take the time to fill out an online survey that will play a key role  in deciding what the design concepts for a proposed downtown yakima central plaza will look like. The City of Yakima is encouraging as many people as possible to fill out the questionnaire so the plaza design team has a broad range of feedback to work with and to ensure that the input gathered represents a true cross section of the community.

The two-page questionnaire can be filled out electronically on the City’s website at yakimawa.gov. The questionnaire can be filled out anytime over the next three weeks. It will close on Friday, May 9th.
The first page of the questionnaire asks people to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 a variety of elements that might be incorporated into a Downtown Central Yakima Plaza including movable chairs and benches, a weekly farmers market, an open lawn area, a water play feature, free Wi-Fi, special lighting, food concessions, etc. A 1 rating would indicate “I don’t want this”, a 5 rating would indicate “I would love this!” The second page is designed to gather input about why people visit Downtown Yakima, how far they might be willing to walk in different weather, how safe they feel downtown, and other similar information that will be taken into consideration by the design team as it puts together concepts for a plaza. “What the design team learns from the responses to the questionnaire will have a big impact on making sure that the concepts that are developed are reflective of what our community wants and needs in a plaza,” said City of Yakima Economic Development Director Sean Hawkins. “The design process will rely heavily on community input. So, it’s very important that people take advantage of the opportunities to participate in creating the plaza concepts,” said Hawkins. The plaza design team is scheduled to visit Yakima again in May to share some of the feedback that will have been gathered from the questionnaire. Preliminary plans for a plaza could be done by late summer with final designs ready for review in early fall of this year.

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