Yakima City Council Votes To Approve The Plaza

By a vote of 5 to 2, the Yakima City Council agreed Tuesday to move ahead with plans for a downtown plaza in Yakima’s central parking lot.  Council members Bill Lover and Holly Cousens cast the two dissenting votes.

The original plaza plan  called for a $14 million public/private partnership, but in May the council scrapped the original plans and set a 60-day clock on a cost-cutting effort within the parameters of the original design. The design firm of  Gustafson Guthrie Nichol  did just that, and after reviewing 80 options for savings, pared away $2 million in engineering costs, revised utility relocation costs and materials expense.  The biggest savings comes from a $750,000 reduction in the cost of granite.

In addition to the cost cutting, the city requested that private donations be raised from $8.5 million to $9 million. Downtown plaza committee members quickly agreed.  The total cost of the project is now $12 million with the city’s share at $3 million of which $1.2 million is already invested.

It remains to be seen exactly what the next steps will be, but whatever they are, they will be taken with an eye toward building a unique plaza as an economic driver for downtown Yakima.