PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Waterfront District is taking steps toward its long-term goal of making the downtown district a beautiful destination for locals and tourists alike.
Turning the district into a designated Main Street Community is one of the key steps in that plan, said Sam Grello, executive director of the Port Angeles Waterfront District (PAWD).
The PAWD is working through logistics and plans to apply for the state program in July, Grello told the Port Angeles Business Association during its Tuesday meeting at Joshua’s Restaurant.
Port Angeles’ Main Street boundaries likely will encircle the waterfront district and extend to the Port Angeles Boat Haven, Grello said.
Being part of the program will provide access to information, networking opportunities, training and guidance to support downtown revitalization, according to the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.
In addition, the program will provide a tax incentive that can help fund continuous downtown improvements.
Once Port Angeles has a certified Main Street Community, businesses operating in the district can donate to the Port Angeles program and receive a Business & Occupation or Public Utility tax credit worth 75 percent of that donation.
“The money still flows through Olympia,” Grello said. “But then it comes back here.”
That funding also will help the PAWD implement Elevate Port Angeles, a five-year, 64-step strategic action plan that outlines key steps to transform the downtown district.
The strategic plan has four categories: authentic promotion, welcoming design, economic vitality and a sustainable model. Each of those silos has four strategies, which, in turn, generate four concrete action steps.
Those steps encompass a wide range of actions all aimed at improving the downtown area.
One example that Grello is currently working on is developing flower planting, flower basket hanging and a flower maintenance program.
Outside of the strategic plan, the PAWD has been taking other steps to accomplish its goals. That includes spending an hour every Tuesday weeding downtown, recommissioning the downtown walking tour map so it becomes a take-home keepsake, and redeveloping the area around the marina to become more public-friendly.
“These are all things we’re looking at,” Grello said.
The PAWD also is embarking on a plan to mitigate storefront and building vacancies downtown. The first step is assessing the reason why each space is vacant; the PAWD will then develop a plan to address those vacancies.
The PAWD is leveraging “positive pressure,” Grello said, to improve the waterfront district. One example is the PAWD’s successful efforts to lobby the city of Port Angeles to pressure wash the downtown sidewalks.
Starting Tuesday morning, the city’s public works staff have been working to pressure wash the sidewalks on First and Front streets between Lincoln Street and Valley Street, including the side streets, Public Works Director Scott Curtin said.
Work will proceed until Friday, at which point the crew will assess its progress and decide if it needs to continue into next week, Curtin added.
Although the narrow focus of the PAWD is to beautify and improve the waterfront district, Grello said he hopes the improvements will have larger impacts — such as making Port Angeles an attractive place to move a family and attracting more businesses investments.
“We all need to be Captain Ahab, hunting for whales to come to town,” Grello said, referring to Moby Dick. “Whales of capital.”
A big part of the success of the PAWD, a relatively new organization, depends on community support and belief, Grello said.
“The only way the waterfront district works is by buy-in from the community,” he said.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
