Tacoma City Council is scheduled to vote later this month on a resolution that would update its policy for selling city-owned surplus properties.

According to a draft of the resolution, councilmembers recently asked staff to develop a policy that encourages citizen participation and the consideration of community safety, neighborhood needs, and affordable housing when disposing of city-owned property. The new policy aims to encourage the development of unused properties to generate new property taxes, sales taxes, B&O taxes, and family-wage jobs. It also establishes guiding principles for the sale of city-owned property and creates classifications of properties for sale. In addition, the new policy provides guidelines for staff to use when negotiating sales, including substantial flexibility to sell property to governmental and nonprofit agencies, adjacent property owners, and public-private development partners. Overall, the new policy is designed to help the city keep properties which meet its ownership objectives and sell properties which do not.

City staff discussed the issue with city council’s community and economic development committee on four occasions. The committee made a ‘do pass’ recommendation on the policy revisions last week.

Tacoma City Council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the resolution during its meeting on Tues., Aug. 21 at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers on the first floor of the Tacoma Municipal Building, located 747 Market Street. A draft version of the resolution is available online here. Meetings are streamed live online here and broadcast live on TV Tacoma.