Leo's vision for downtown Pasco
On the council I will pursue a strong urban core in our Historic Downtown area as I believe this is a top priority for the City of Pasco as we must continue these efforts to revitalize an aging yet important area of our city. We need to be teaming with the private sector, entrepreneurs, and port districts to create unique development partnerships to stimulate revitalization efforts in the downtown central business district and if done right, these will have far reaching impacts economically and culturally.
With the most impressive strides being made over the last few years, Pasco’s downtown has gone from being abandoned and neglected to having a thriving central business district, with boutiques, insurance agents, travel agencies, and eateries. This sustained momentum needs to be encouraged.
We must focus on how to complement the newly renovated Peanuts Park and our unique natural assets like the Columbia River, and start highlighting our multitude of cultural amenities and attractions. We must also focus on highlighting local art because art increases tourism, promotes the city’s economic base, and creates cultural opportunities for our area’s residents, not to mention strengthening and fostering positive social change.
By standing shoulder to shoulder with the private sector and by realizing that a partnership based on mutual respect between both private and public sectors is the best approach to achieving successful developments, we will achieve our economic development goals. This will be an evolutionary process but with a strong and imaginative economic development plan and community input, we can truly create a downtown that is everybody’s neighborhood spot.
Downtown has a unique character that we need to emphasize. This is where the story of Pasco started and I believe spearheading economic development will create an identity of the downtown that we have been waiting for and foster more community among the residents of Pasco.
what we need to do as a city:
- Ensure that the Downtown Pasco Development Authority is adequately funded and held accountable.
- Seek funding to renovate the nearly 50 year old outdated Downtown Pasco North Plaza. When combined with other downtown investments, the North Plaza will serve as a catalyst for Pasco’s vibrant downtown and attract visitors to support small businesses and economic growth,.
- Address the homelessness and drug problems in the downtown core.
- Create real estate “opportunity zones” to spur private development.
- Hold quarterly meetings with downtown businesses so the city can better address their needs and open the communication lines between those businesses and the city, code enforcement, and PPD/PFD.
- Partner with private developers, and the port district to incentivize business to invest and assist in highlighting our Columbia River Shore area.
- Promote art in the downtown area and provide spaces for murals.
- Reform small business regulations, permits, fees, and zoning codes so businesses can expand and allow new ones to start in the downtown area.
- Allocate funding to improve the “branding” and “wayfinding” of our downtown area and assist in advertising for people to come to downtown.
- Allocate more funding to revamp our downtown streetscape such a using community development block grant funding.
- Implementing an outdoor dining seating standards and which maintains pedestrian accessibility.
- Using ARPA funds to fund a grant program for ADA improvements and Fire Suppression systems for aging buildings.
Ending Street Homelessness
Let’s be real about Street Homelessness, it isn’t a housing problem. We need to start connecting these individuals to drug and mental health services. Every year the count of homeless continues to rise.
What are we doing about it? And why aren’t we holding our elected representatives accountable? We cannot let them die on our streets. The city shares responsibility with the County to start addressing this issue. This campaign and my role will be to strengthen the relationship with our county, local non-profits, and providers to start seeing progress in the homeless population. If we continue to allow them to congregate in certain areas of our city and allow them to panhandle or hang out in parking lots or behind businesses, word gets out and more will come to our area. If we don’t get out ahead of this, we will find ourselves looking like Seattle and Portland.
It is not good for people to live out in our streets, and it’s certainly not good for our city and its businesses. It’s also not good for our city and county to continue to waste our tax dollars. We must stop being architects of failure and look for partners with fresh and creative ideas to get people off the street.
It’s time we implement a tough love approach. I believe in personal responsibility and that we should direct these individuals to a path where they can get their lives back together. What path do we want them on? We want them on a path to mental health treatment, drug rehabilitation, and job training but most importantly onto a path to hope. I’m not heartless, but if we mix compassion with commonsense policies, we can finally clean up our city.
We need collaboration, transparency, and innovation in order to start making progress on reducing homelessness. We also need leaders who will be relentlessly focused on seeing results.
On the Council, Leo Will:
- Push the City to Declare a State of Emergency and demand assistance from the State.
- Fully fund a Homelessness Coordinator who will be accountable to the city council.
- Strengthen the partnership with the County to ensure we the City have a seat at the table to discuss the city’s goals with the new tax dollars from the Counties Mental Health and Drug Treatment Sales Tax increase.
- We need to institute a public campaign against giving money to panhandlers and a strict no-public camping policy.
- Enforce our no panhandling codes on public property.
- Enforce a No Lie or Sit code.
- Creation of a drug court and veteran’s court.
- No allowance for safe injection sites in the downtown corridor.
- Need to open the lines of communication with our local non-profit partners.
- Work with the Pasco-Franklin Housing Authority to seek funding or fund create interim housing.
- We need to start prosecuting open drug use, plain and simple given the result of the Blake decision that has made drug possession and usage legal.
- Lobby the state to take the handcuffs off our men and women in blue and allow them to be the guardians our city needs.
- We need to enforce our NO DRUG ZONES. Perhaps even hold violators in the local jail for a duration of time so that they can get the necessary treatment they need.
Housing & Affordability
The American Dream has not become the American Nightmare in Pasco. The ability to find a place you call home is virtually non-existent. Pasco is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The average sale of a home in the city of Pasco has surpassed over $400,000 and a family needs a household income of over $100,000 to even qualify for a home of this average price. The vacancy rate in Pasco is roughly 0.5%. For every vacant apartment/rental, on average there are 18 applicants. It’s been noted that we are on the verge of a housing crisis. Let me be clear: WE ARE IN A HOUSING CRISIS. We need bold ideas and a fresh approach to building affordable housing in Pasco. Not to mention by 2038 the population is expected to grow to roughly 120,000. This is an increase of 48,000 people which presents us with the issue of creating housing to accommodate that growth. We need approximately 15,000 new housing units to be added to our housing inventory in the next 20 years. Combine all of this with the fact that housing costs have far outpaced wage growth at levels never seen, it’s time that the city implement a plan now. These ideas will ultimately supplement the creation of the Pasco Housing Action Plan.
PASCO’S OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT
- ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BUILDER/DEVELOPER/ENGINEERING COMMUNITY IN THE CREATION OF THE PASCO HOUSING ACTION PLAN, TSMP, AND FUTURE LAND USE PLANS
- ESTABLISHING A REAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PASCO-FRANKLIN HOUSING AUTHORITY- AND SUPPORTING THE INCREASE IN THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM
- CREATING FLEXIBLE ZONING POLICIES TO ALLOW MULTI-FAMILY HOMES-DUPLEXES, TRI-PLEXES, CONDOS, AND ETC.
- INCENTIVIZE THE ZONING AND DEVELOPMENT OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING WITH INCENTIVES SUCH AS MULTI-FAMILY TAX INCENTIVES, UTILITY WAIVERS, AND DEFERRAL OF IMPACT FEES
- MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF RECENT ZONING CHANGES THAT STEMMED FROM HB 1923-“MIDDLE HOUSING” BILL WHICH NECESSITATED THE CHANGES TO OUR ZONING CODE WHICH WOULD ALLOW DUPLEXES, TRIPLEXES, AND COURTYARD APARTMENTS, PROMOTE ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS AND LOT CLUSTERING AND AVERAGING
- REAL IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE HOUSING LAWS-FOR EXAMPLE SUCH AS THE NEWLY PASSED LAWS PERTAINING TO :
ESHB 1042: USING EXISTING BUILDINGS FOR RESIDENTIAL PURPOSES.
E2SHB 1110: INCREASING MIDDLE HOUSING IN AREAS TRADITIONALLY DEDICATED TO SINGLE-FAMILY DETACHED HOUSING.
ESHB 1293: REQUIRING COUNTIES AND CITIES PLANNING UNDER THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT ACT (GMA) TO APPLY ONLY CLEAR AND OBJECTIVE DESIGN REVIEW STANDARDS TO THE EXTERIOR OF NEW DEVELOPMENT, WITH EXCEPTIONS.
EHB 1337: EXPANDING HOUSING OPTIONS BY EASING BARRIERS TO THE CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS.
E2SSB 5258: INCREASING THE SUPPLY AND AFFORDABILITY OF CONDOMINIUM UNITS AND TOWNHOUSES AS AN OPTION FOR HOMEOWNERSHIP.
- BI-ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE NEWLY CREATED RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS.
- FINALIZATION OF THE RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS
- OVERHAUL THE CITY FEE STRUCTURE FOR DEVELOPMENTS WITH ALSO THE CREATION OF A FEE CALCULATOR
- REVIEWING THE CREDIBILITY OF TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDIES
- PERMITTING PROCESS NEEDS TO BE STREAMLINED AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 2SSB 5290: CONSOLIDATING LOCAL PERMIT REVIEW PROCESSES.
- NEED TO IMPLEMENT SOFTWARE FOR SUBMITTING PLANS AND FILLING OUR PERMITS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING
- RE-EVALUATING THE STREET CONNECTIVITY ORDINANCE
- ACTIVELY LOBBYING AGAINST THE COST INCREASING ENERGY CODES REQUIREMENTS
- SUPPORT INTEREST IN THE TRADES-CONSTRUCTION LABOR BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH LABOR TO BUILD THE HOMES WE NEED AND MEASURE HOW THE CITY WILL IMPLEMENT HB 1308: HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION PATHWAY OPTIONS, INCLUDING TRADES.
- SEPA EXEMPTION ORDINANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF 2SSB 5412: CATEGORICALLY EXEMPTING FROM THE STATE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (SEPA) PROJECT ACTIONS THAT PROPOSE TO DEVELOP ONE OR MORE RESIDENTIAL HOUSING UNITS WITHIN THE INCORPORATED AREAS IN AN URBAN GROWTH AREA. IT ALSO EXEMPTS MIDDLE HOUSING WITHIN THE UNINCORPORATED AREAS IN AN URBAN GROWTH AREA, IF THE PROPOSED PROJECTS DO NOT HAVE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM SAFETY OR OPERATIONAL DEFICIENCIES.
- LIFTING THE SINGLE-ROOM OCCUPANCY MORATORIUM-CITY TOUTED THIS DEVELOPMENT BUT HAS SINCE PLACED A MORATORIUM ON THIS TYPE OF DEVELOPMENT
TRI CITY ANIMAL SHELTER REFORM
Back in December 2022 and January 2023, five animals were carelessly euthanized: Doodle Bug, Ziva, Baxter, Tyson, and Zane. When the community asked for answers they were stonewalled. Then the Pasco city council was asked to consider the creation of an oversight board for the Tri-City Animal Shelter (TCAS) but to this date have yet to bring it up for council discussion and subsequent vote. We cannot wait any longer. We need new leadership on the council to push this through among other reforms so the community can begin rebuilding its trust with TCAS. Our local government should understand that it is prudent for us the community to be skeptical and critical after the many years of poor leadership from TCAS. The Tri-City Animal Shelter has been plagued for years by mismanagement and for the last few years, TCAS has been run by numerous contractors in 2021 after a surprise inspection, the shelter was shut down and Pasco Police issued a search warrant where they ended up seizing many animals, taking them to emergency shelters in the area. When is the cycle of malpractice going to be enough that the council will start to act? Leo Perales is running to ensure no more animals are euthanized for frivolous reasons and will see that the TCAS regains its footing and trust with the community.
On Day 1 Leo Will:
- Implementation of a TCAS Oversight Board. This would be a Tri-Cities-wide board given that all cities provide funds to operate the facility.
- More efficient and expeditious training for volunteers. This has been a major issue for those who wish to assist the shelter in its mission.
- Mandatory Operational Audit of the Tri-City Animal Shelter to ensure that data systems, policies, and procedures are appropriately used to manage and carry out the shelter operations. It would also audit the welfare conditions of the animals.
- Investigation from the shelter into families or persons who adopt pets from the shelter. I have seen instances and testimonials from individuals who are reporting abuse from individuals and families who adopt and then abuse pets, concerned residents report them and nothing gets done or those abusers abandon those adopted pets and then go back to the shelter and adopt again which seems counter to what we expect for these animals which is a good home where they are being taken care of rather than by a government agency.
- Public access to the shelter’s policies and processes, specifically when it comes to humanely euthanizing animals. Codifying a policy that all aggressive animals will be evaluated by a behavioral expert and that animals being euthanized shall be the last resort of action after all other steps have been exhausted but that is solely at the discretion of the behavioral expert.
- TCAS needs to document and record whom they contact for assistance or if another shelter can take in a troubled animal. Currently, there is no information as to whom the shelter contacted and the public has been given various answers like “we didn’t contact those that we know would say no” or “we contacted numerous shelters” but have no documentation of whom was contacted. This is a reference to the 5 dogs that were euthanized.
Leo's Priorities
- Housing & Affordability
- Ending Street Homelessness
- Reform of the Tri-City Animal Shelter
- Fiscal Responsibility
- Safer Neighborhoods With Adequately Funded Police, Fire Services, & Public Works Services
- Planning and Building Department Streamlining
- Street Vendor Reform
- Efficient and Responsive City Services
- Make Pasco Work for Small Business
- Advocating for Smart Growth
- Reform of City Zoning/Street Connectivity Codes
- Creation of Tax Incentives for Multi-Family Housing
- Fix Road 68 and Maintain our Roads and Infrastructure
- Collaboration with Our Sister Cities and Counties
- More ownership of the Hapo Center
- Engagement with the Community
- Continue the Investments and Revitalization of Downtown Pasco
- Safe Drinking Water and Maintaining our Waste Water Treatment Plant Systems
