The Enumclaw City Council took one more small step toward building a downtown pavilion, though anything resembling concrete plans are still a long ways away from materializing.

The topic was broached during the Feb. 14 meeting.

First, a little bit of history about these developments.

According to Michelle Larson, Enumclaw’s parks and recreations director, the idea of a downtown pavilion has been circling amongst movers and shakers in the city for several years, at least since the city put out a 2017 community survey asking local residents what sort of attractions they’d like to see be added to their city.

The survey, which 183 people answered, showed more than half (57 percent) of respondents wanted to see one built, while more than a quarter (27 percent) said they’d “maybe” like to see one. Only 16 percent of respondents said they didn’t want a pavilion developed.

The same survey also showed strong support (60 percent approval) for a summer spray park, and even more enthusiasm (63 percent) for more lighting to hold pedestrian-scale night activities.

Then, in 2019, local business owner Marilyn Nelson — responding to the council’s “request for proposals” for downtown development — proposed developing said pavilion in the lot between Cole St., Initial Ave., Railroad St., and Stevenson Ave. (the same lot currently housing the Arts Alive! and Enumclaw Chamber of Commerce buildings).

Nelson envisioned a two- or three-story tall building that would house Arts Alive!, the Chamber, other retailers, and maybe even condos, next to a couple open-air covered structures and maybe even a small stage.

However, the plan was deemed economically infeasible, and was scrapped.

Discussion on downtown development came to a standstill until former Council member Hoke Overland brought it back to the forefront last summer, Larson said, forming a pavilion task force with current Council members Anthony Wright and Corrie Koopman; with the help of architects Jeff Dahlquist and Richard Flake, the task force came a very preliminary plan of what a downtown pavilion could look like.

THE ROUGHEST OF PLANS

The goal of building a pavilion, as well as several other attractive amenities, is to expand the downtown corridor and increase foot traffic on the west side of Griffin Avenue, Larson said in a presentation to the City Council.

This would mean designing a structure that would be highly versatile and fairly large (at least compared to other local buildings), as well as attractive. The city council also appears interested in making sure whatever final design is approved is contextually relevant to Enumclaw — possibly incorporating significant historical elements, like railroads, agriculture, or forestry, into the project.

What’s been drafted is a building that would take up nearly a full quarter of the lot where this project is being proposed.

A front-facing view of the proposed Enumclaw downtown pavilion. Image courtesy Jeff Dahlquist and Richard Flake

One of the most striking aspects of the current design is that it can transition from a fully-walled structure to an open-air environment — and everywhere in-between — with the use of folding glass doors that make up the exterior walls of the building. According to Larson, the doors would fold like an accordion into various columns around the outside of the building, providing maximum flexibility for hosting outdoor, indoor, public, and private events.

A rotunda on top would supply even more natural lighting.

The interior would be mostly open space, with the exception of a caterer’s kitchen (not a full kitchen, to help cut down on maintenance expenses for the city) and bathrooms in the southeast wing of the pavilion.

The bathrooms, Larson said, would be accessible from the outside and inside of the building, and depending of the kind of event happening (specifically, private vs. public), access could become restricted.

The southwest wing would lead into a permanently open-aired space with a retractable cover. Council member Wright said this space would be perfect for community movie nights, with films being projected on the far wall. The other side of that wall, abutting the current Arts Alive! building, would be used for storage.

All in all, Larson told the council, the building’s uses are myriad; providing informal seating, gathering, and dining space for locals and tourists, hosting weekly farmer’s markets, and being a part of seasonal fairs and festivals like the Chamber’s various beer and wine walks and the local Rotary’s Street Fair.

The current cost estimate for building construction is $1.6 million.

“That is a very rough order magnitude (ROM) estimate,” Larson said in a later interview, adding that the cost can easily double or triple when other factors like site development, engineering costs, and inflation are figured in. “When we had ROM numbers done for the pool project that we just did, it was about $480,000. Well, the total cost, the actual cost, ended up being around $890,000… so that estimate is without literally talking to contractors and getting exact costs of materials and things like that.”

That estimate is just for the building, and not the other amenities the City Council is considering.

For example, the current draft also calls for an amphitheater, playground, and some sort of water feature, pulling popular elements from the 2017 community survey (a stage for concerts and other events was supported by 45 percent of respondents).

The plan also calls for the playground to be designed like an old-fashioned locomotive, harkening back to when Railroad Avenue was actually a railroad.

FINANCING AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

This is where the conversation gets tricky.

The City Council could possibly tackle the pavilion on its own, if the final price tag doesn’t stray far from the ROM estimate.

“We’ve got a fair amount of real estate excise tax money set aside, and the [Fund] 180 dollars that have been designated for public properties and buildings,” City Administrator Chris Searcy told the council on Feb. 14, referring to a pot of money earmarked to fund the operation and maintenance of current city properties, as well as future land acquisitions and property development. “If we’re talking a $2 million project, we can do quite a bit on our own.”

Obviously, the addition of any amenities would raise the final costs, and would encourage the city to apply for various county and state grants to supplement its coffers.

However, there’s another large project on the City Council’s mind — the revamp of the Enumclaw Senior Center.

In short, the century-old building either needs a major facelift or to be torn down and rebuilt entirely; council members appear to heavily favor not only the latter option, which comes with an estimated cost of up to $3.4 million, but to expand the project so that an entirely new community center would be constructed, large enough to not only house senior activities and services, but also potentially the local youth center, Arts Alive!, the Chamber, and even some of the more public-facing city employees.

It’s been suggested the community center would also be built in the same lot as the pavilion, replacing the current Arts Alive! and Chamber buildings.

It’s highly likely the cost of the pavilion and the community center will force the city to ask residents for funds.

“If we’re talking both projects, we’re getting up in the $5, $7, $8 million range, then we’re talking about having to go out to the voters for a bond issue on that one, unless someone’s got a magic key to the state’s checkbook,” Searcy continued.

To pass, a bond measure both needs enough voters to turn out for the election (at least 40 percent of those who cast a ballot in the last general election) and reach 60 percent approval, known as a supermajority.

The last time the city of Enumclaw ran a bond measure was in 1999, asking voters for $5 million to repair 6,700 feet of cracked streets and more than 25,000 feet of crooked sidewalks, the Courier-Herald reported; the measure only received 45 percent approval.

The Enumclaw School District ran its own bond in 2015, asking voters to approve a $1.60 per $1,000 in assessed value tax rate (to collect more than $68.5 million) to help upgrade Enumclaw High School and build a new Black Diamond Elementary School.

The measure passed with 60.05 percent approval; four less “yes” votes, and the bond would have failed.

Obviously, the final designs and the proposed tax rate to fund the pavilion and senior center/community center will ultimately affect local support for a bond measure — but in general, is this something the City Council can accomplish?

Council member Wright says yes, because these are items the local community has been asking the city to provide for years.

“I think that for a community center, it’s easy to support, and I think that when we talk about the pavilion, it’s easier for the people… that are pro-business, to be more on board,” he added. “You’re providing seniors with something they’ve been wanting for a long time, [and] the town’s wanted a community center for at least over 20 or 30 years; people are always asking the question, ‘Why isn’t there something for my kid to do in town?’ So I feel like you’re going to get a lot of families that way, a lot of seniors that way.”

Still, Wright said the city will have to develop a strong ground game and allow the public more than ample opportunity to give input and criticism if there’s any hope of the bond passing.

As for next steps, Searcy said the City Council will need to flesh out plans for both the pavilion and senior center/community center to determine how to tackle these projects.

“What we would want to… do is have both these proposals get to the same level of detail, the same level of comfort in cost estimates, and then also discuss how they might [interlace] with one another, or even potentially become one another and become combined,” he said. “I think were heading in the right direction, but before we want to spend too much money on designing to a higher level of cost quality, [we need] to really decide… which one’s going to take priority, or are they both moving forward.”