Students plan Ritzville's future look

RITZVILLE – Community members, business owners, and city officials joined four Washington State University advanced design students and their professors to review conceptual designs to revitalize downtown Ritzville in a public meeting Feb. 26.

The partnership between the city and the WSU Rural Communities Design Initiative and Innovia Foundation kicked off last fall after the City Council authorized Mayor Gary Cook to sign an agreement with WSU for design and presentation services.

The $5,800 agreement was paid for by the city's Hennings Fund, an endowment created by Willard and Patricia Hennings to improve the city's public appearance.

City Clerk-Treasurer Julie Flyckt reached out to WSU's School of Design & Construction, resulting in students and professors visiting Ritzville Sept. 24-25, touring the town, and holding an invitation-only brainstorming session with city officials, community members and business owners.

The Feb. 26 meeting was the second phase of the project, designed to have the public review initial draft concepts and provide input to inform future conceptual designs.

Presenting design ideas were undergraduate students Josiah Pearson, Keyaira Mumford, Caedy Jones and Nicole Dryer; along with professors Bob Krikac and Michael Sanchez.

"These are not necessarily design decisions. RCDI designs with you, instead of for you," Sanchez said. "We really value the community's input."

Priority goals include economic development, a community gathering place, connecting the plaza with historic downtown, improving functionality for community activities and developing streetscape guidelines.

The project will involve creating gathering places for festivals, a car show, concerts and community activities; creating "active use" businesses in close proximity to the plaza; connecting the plaza with downtown businesses and parking; connecting historic buildings with streetscape concepts; improving transportation for walking, biking, cars and trains.

Mayor Gary Cook said the plan has changed from focusing on revitalization to the plaza area to broadening out to most of downtown.

"I really appreciate where you are going with this," Cook told the students. "We first started with the plaza, and looking at other areas really brings things together and gives perspective to the downtown," said Cook.

Council member Debbie Chapman suggested the project include Columbia Street, "otherwise we're missing a lot of businesses."

"I concur," said Council member Dennis Chamberlain. "It's a second aspect to the historic district. That area didn't get finalized, but it would be great if we could include that. If you encapsulate it as it was originally visioned, it would include Jackson."

Following the student presentations, those gathered broke into work groups to brainstorm ideas for downtown broken into three areas: Broadway, Railroad and Main.

Afterward, students summarized the progress. Pearson pointed out the group's desire to turn the plaza area into mostly pedestrian, while allowing clearance for trucks making deliveries to access the area. Mumford highlighted the need for both parking and beautification around Broadway, as well as the need for electrical access for businesses and events.

"I would love to see it come about. It's a great plan, but it all comes back to money," said Cook. "A big part of something like this is maintenance. Are you going to have the city crew do the work of watering and raking leaves, etc., or are you going to hire a lawn care service? Are the people willing to pay $5 more on their utility bills to pay for that? It all comes back to what the community wants."

Sanchez pointed out the designs were simply meant to encapsulate the community's ideas.

"We don't want to compete with graduates we send out into the community, so we do a conceptual design to capture your ideas, but it is not something you will design from. Engineers will take the ideas and work with the building codes and get you the designs," said Sanchez. "But this is where it starts."

"Our job now is to take all this information and boil it down and see how it looks visually, and return in the spring," said Sanchez, adding he hoped to see more community members to provide additional feedback.

The third phase, reviewing the design packets, is expected to take place in April or May, and the community is again invited to attend.

The fourth phase of project implementation involves identifying grant funding opportunities and moving forward with constructing design phases this summer.

"It was great to see all the progress in the different groups," said Flyckt. "I'm excited to see what they come up with."