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Tacoma staff outline community‑led outreach for possible street levy; committee to meet this week
Summary
City staff told the Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee they are launching a Community Levy Committee and broader engagement to shape a potential street levy; staff emphasized the process is informational and the committee will bring community priorities to staff before council decisions in April.
Corey Newton, assistant public works director and city engineer, told the Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee on Feb. 25 that staff are conducting community outreach to inform a potential future street levy but are not seeking action from the committee at tonight’s meeting. “This presentation is informational only. We are not requesting any actions from the IPS committee at this time,” Newton said.
Joe Franco, special assistant to the director, described the Community Levy Committee (CLC) as an advisory body that will help ensure staff’s levy framework reflects geographic equity and lived experience. “The Community Levy Committee serves as an advisory capacity as staff develops a potential levy framework,” Franco said, adding that the CLC will help interpret broader engagement findings and advise on draft public materials.
Staff said the CLC is intended to represent a wide cross section of Tacoma — including transit advocacy groups, business organizations, neighborhood representatives, seniors and youth — and that initial outreach invited about 22 stakeholders, with 19 confirmations as of the morning of the briefing. Newton said staff plan a four‑meeting CLC process that begins with orientation, proceeds through technical analysis and feedback, and ends with a committee summary staff would use to shape a levy package for council consideration.
Council members pressed staff on how the committee will be prepared to give input, how the city will avoid creating unrealistic expectations and how to reach everyday residents. Council member Hines urged using concrete exercises to help the public prioritize investments; she suggested an engagement exercise that gives committee members a fixed “budget” to allocate among categories so residents can see tradeoffs. “If you start by, ‘Well, what do you want?’ we’ll quickly run into the neighborhood of a transportation package we would never be able to pay for,” Hines said.
Newton said staff and the consultant plan specific activities and town‑hall style listening sessions to surface priorities and that the city will use a mix of stakeholder briefings, listening sessions, surveys and digital tools to expand reach. Franco said staff are producing a video series and newsletters to highlight past Streets Initiative projects and matching funds as part of outreach.
On schedule, staff said the CLC’s first meeting was planned for the day after this briefing, with additional meetings through March and an early April final meeting. Newton said staff expect to bring a study session to council on April 14 and, if council directs staff to proceed, return with a resolution the same day. Staff also noted a potential election day of Aug. 4 if the council places a levy before voters.
Rob Bridal, chair of the Planning Commission, spoke during public comment and asked the council for guidance on parking code work the Planning Commission anticipates. “I just wanted to flag the conversation that y’all are gonna have on the parking code requirements… we’re really looking for some input from council on the types of things that you all would like us to study on this,” Bridal said.
Next steps: staff will convene the Community Levy Committee, continue broader outreach and return to the committee and council with a draft package if the process moves forward.
