- City seeks public input on Tacoma Mall neighborhood
- Natural Resources board authorizes purchase of forest in Pacific County
- Boca del Rio becomes Tacoma sister city
The City of Tacoma is currently working to develop a Subarea Plan for the Tacoma Mall Neighborhood that focuses on the vision, goals and strategies for the area. During outreach for this effort, there has been community interest in whether the current name is the best representation of the neighborhood. The City is asking for feedback from members of the community about a possible rename of the neighborhood by filling out a short survey at tacomamallneighborhood.com.
Over the past year, residents have expressed support for changing the name as a way to capture a vision of positive change, to rebrand the neighborhood, and to more fully represent the larger geography. The outreach process has brought suggestions for a name change as well as support for keeping the Tacoma Mall Neighborhood as the accepted, long-standing name of the area.
The survey will help to gauge community response and interest to a possible name change as well as give a list of perspective names for the area. If a name change is chosen it would appear in official City discussions and documents.
The deadline to complete the survey is Wednesday, July 20.
— City of Tacoma
Natural Resources board authorizes purchase of forest in Pacific County
OLYMPIA — The Board of Natural Resources authorized the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to purchase two adjoining 40-acre parcels of working forest in western Pacific County. DNR will purchase the parcels, located 4 miles west of the town of Pe Ell, from willing private sellers for a total of $325,000.
“Adding this prime timberland to the Common School Trust will help generate long-term, sustainable revenue for public schools across Washington state,” said Peter Goldmark, Commissioner of Public Lands.
In other action, the board, in its role as the Washington State Board on Geographic Names, approved new official names for two geographic features:
Hix Bay in San Juan County —Originally named for Cynthia and Louis Hix who purchased property surrounding this Shaw Island bay in 1888, the water body’s name has been misspelled on maps as ‘Hicks Bay’ for many years.
Shaner Creek in Thurston County — The name for this formerly unnamed creek north of Rochester commemorates Melvin Shaner, who operated a business nearby and led local efforts to clean up the waterway.
Names approved by the Board are published in the Washington Administrative Code and forwarded to the United States Board on Geographic Names for federal consideration along with the state’s recommendations.
— Washington State DNR
Boca del Rio becomes Tacoma sister city
Boca del Rio, located in the center of State of Veracruz, Mexico is Tacoma’s 14th sister city.
Tacoma and Boca del Rio are both port cities with World Trade Centers. They also have similar programs in the arts, and in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, and have backgrounds in environmental cleanup work. On the web:
cityoftacoma.org/sistercities.
— City of Tacoma
