McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan
The City’s Neighborhood Planning Program (NPP) provides enhanced planning and development support to help communities create strong, vibrant, and diverse neighborhoods.
City Council identified the McKinley Hill Neighborhood as a priority for the pilot year of the Neighborhood Planning Program. Through the planning process, the Community identified the following goals:
- Vibrant business district: Support a vibrant economic base; comfortable, family-friendly environment; and unique McKinley identity. Key recommendations include streetscape redesign, art, signage, placemaking elements, new public spaces, business assistance, and parking management.
- Walkability and connections to key destinations: Improve walkability and placemaking within the business district, and enhance connections to transit, schools, parks, and major walking/ bicycling/rolling routes to adjacent neighborhoods and the Tacoma Dome Transit Center. Other actions include wayfinding signage, street tree planting, and traffic calming.
- Activated open spaces: Enhance key open spaces to support community gathering and safety, such as McKinley Overlook, as well as business district gateways.
- Enhance McKinley’s Center with new amenities: As the neighborhood grows, support options for housing, food/ grocery, services, and amenities. Pursue community interests with major redevelopments (e.g., Gault School site).
What’s Happening Now?
After nine months of community meetings, events, surveys, and other engagement with more than 1,500 community members, City Council adopted the McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan in March 2023! You can learn more about the recommendations and changes to come below:
McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan Executive Summary
McKinley Overlook: Construction Starting Later in 2024
Improvements to the McKinley Overlook (East 32nd Street between East E Street and East F Street), one of the key Neighborhood Plan priorities, are now fully funded!
Visit https://cityoftacoma.org/capital-projects/McKinley-Overlook for more information about the project.
Quick Wins: There are several projects in the Plan that have already been funded and/or are already in progress, thanks to the help of our City Council, partners, and committees:
Actions Tracking: NPP and our partners are committed to documenting and tracking implementation of the Plan recommendations. The documents linked below are provided for community members to track progress on the Plan, stay engaged, and steward the Plan’s projects over time. Your continued involvement and advocacy for projects recommended in the Plan will help ensure they happen.
Program Updates
Learn more about what's happening now at our online engagement platform!
The Call: Get Involved, Stay Engaged!
As we shift our focus from planning to implementation, there are still many ways for you to be involved! Email us at neighborhoodplanning@cityoftacoma.org. To date, our Project Committees focused on Arts, Walkability, and Open Space are supporting many of the identified "quick wins."
Completed or underway:
- Select an artist and location for a new mural, in partnership with Spaceworks
- Outreach for residential tree planting in partnership with Environmental Services and Tacoma Tree Foundation
- Supporting traffic calming and street mural at the McKinley Ave and East Division Ln intersection, in partnership with Public Works
- Developing a conceptual design for activating the McKinley Overlook area (E 32nd St near East F St)
Future input opportunities:
- Provide input on developing a neighborhood Placemaking Plan
- Provide input for the McKinley Ave streetscape redesign and enhancement
Timeline
The McKinley Neighborhood Plan was adopted by City Council in March 2023. Over the next couple of years, we are continuing to work with the community on implementing the goals identified in the Plan.
January-March 2022: Neighborhood profile; launch outreach
April-June: Evaluate existing conditions and identify projects and recommendations
July-September: Draft plan for community feedback, identify resources, and begin early implementation
Fall 2022 – Winter 2023: Finalize plan and roadmap for implementation
2023 and beyond: Implementation
McKinley Hill Neighborhood
For the purpose of this plan, we are defining “neighborhood” as the Mixed-Use Center (business district) and the surrounding residential neighborhood. These boundaries may be adjusted during the planning process, but it is important to include public amenities (such as parks and schools) that service the core neighborhood.
Project Funding
The Neighborhood Planning Program allocated $50,000 to support the implementation of short-term goals in the selected neighborhoods. Through our Community Booster Project, over 200 of you voted for the Intersection Enhancement project below. In the 2023-23 biennial budget, City Council allocated an additional $250,000 for the design of the new McKinley Streetscape and the National Endowment of the Arts granted $100,000 towards placemaking.
Intersection Enhancement at East Division Ln and McKinley Ave: The selected project adds temporary bulb-outs at the intersection, a repainted crosswalk, and a painted street mural to calm traffic and promote pedestrian safety (see example photo below). We are continuing to work with elected officials and other City departments and partners to find funding to implement additional community-identified projects.
