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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2012
Vol. CXXIII, No. 231
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF TACOMA Devoted to the Courts, Real Estate, Finance, Industrial Activities, and Publication of Legal Notices
Published Since 1890
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County overhauls construction permit services online
Groundbreaking ceremony, open house for Sprague Avenue project Images Courtesy City of Tacoma Tacoma city officials will mark the beginning of construction of the South Sprague Avenue enhancement project with a groundbreaking ceremony and open house next week. The project will provide landscape improvements and enhanced visual buffers from South Sprague Avenue and the adjacent residential street to the east, known as residential Sprague or "Little Sprague," according to City staff. Just over half an acre of arterial roadway stormwater runoff will be treated with bio-retention rain gardens, and nearly half an acre will be enhanced with landscaping that will improve the city's tree canopy and reduce rainwater runoff in the Foss watershed. A new median will be constructed in South Sprague Avenue to provide traffic calming for a new neighborhood gateway wing also included in this project. Earlier this month, Tacoma City Council awarded a $548,429.25 contract to Westwater Construction Company to complete the first phase of the project. The second phase of the project, which is tentatively schedule to begin next fall, is currently in the preliminary design phase. That phase of the project will include the installation of landscape plantings west side of South Sprague Avenue from South 23rd to 19th Streets, and the installation of pervious pavement, a defined parking lane (east side) and swales to improve drainage (west side) to the residential stretch of Sprague Avenue between South 25th and 19th Streets. The groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Mon., Dec. 3 at 9:30 a.m. on residential South
Sprague at the end of South 23rd Street. The open house will be held at 6 p.m. on the same day at People's Community Center, located at 1602 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. It will provide an opportunity for the neighbors on residential South Sprague to meet the City's construction team. An overview of the project and the construction schedule will be provided as well as a question and answer session.
Before you apply for a permit for your next building project, you can now check online to see how many people are waiting in line at the Pierce County Development Center. That's one of several online improvements launched by Planning and Land Services (PALS) to make it easier for residents and businesses to apply for permits for projects in unincorporated Pierce County. Another new tool enables applicants to see which properties are set for inspections each day. These tools are part of the online dashboard that enables customers to submit and track applications at their convenience, saving an estimated 3,000 miles per month in trips to the Development Center in Tacoma, according to PALS Director Dennis Hanberg. "Thanks to the online dashboard, we have seen a 25 percent decrease in walk-in traffic at the Development Center, even as business has increased," said PALS Director Dennis Hanberg. "Customers tell us the dashboard makes key information quick to find and easy to track." Hanberg and his staff have been adding features to the online dashboard for more than a year. The newest tools, launched in October, show wait times in the Development Center and the list of inspections for the day. Other popular tools include: About My Property -- Provides detailed information about specific properties, including zoning regulations, environmental conditions, and school and fire districts. Public GIS mapping technology gives a visual of the parcel with terrain, photo and information overlay options; Permit Search -- Allows users to easily search records of any current and past permits on a property, including any comments or public access documents and maps attached to the permit application; E-Notification -- Keeps customers informed via email on the status of a permit application; E-submittal and e-payment -- Allows users to quickly and easily apply and pay for permit applications online. "When I hired Dennis in 2011, I told him I want to remake PALS into the best county permitting agency in the state," said Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy. "Dennis and his staff put themselves in the customer's shoes and built a system that makes the permit application process more efficient and transparent. I am excited to see what they come up with next."