HISTORY OF WALLA
WALLA 2020, 3-20-06
Walla Walla 2020 was formed 18 years ago this spring to envision a livable future for Walla Walla in the year 2020 and to work to realize that vision. Since its founding, 2020 has been a dynamic vehicle for efforts to preserve and enhance the quality of life in the Walla Walla area. This review will briefly summarize major activities in the past, as well as detailing 2020 activities for the period 2004-2006.
The Initial Years
There were 4 prongs to our original brainstorming vision, and we initially established 4 working committees:
1. We wanted a green community, so we established a Trees & Landscaping Committee to help preserve and expand the greenery we already had.
2. We wanted a community that lives lightly on the earth, so we established a Recycling and Waste Reduction Committee.
3. We wanted a human scale community friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists, so we set up a Bike and Hike, or Transportation Committee emphasizing non-motorized transportation,
4. We wanted a community with a strong center and one that respects its heritage, so we established a Downtown and Architecture Committee.
Out of these 4 basic committees, and a later 5th committee on Economic Development and Growth Management, many good things have happened.
A. Greenness. The community has renewed its commitment to trees and landscaping, with many new tree planting projects undertaken by 2020 and others, a city urban forestry commission established at 2020’s request, a parking lot landscaping ordinance developed by 2020, 3 new park areas—Heritage, Xeriscape and Ft. Walla Walla Trail—established through 2020 initiatives and fundraising, as well as Walla Walla’s being officially recognized as a Tree City USA.
B. Resource Use and Reuse. We are now a community that recycles and has programs in place to reduce waste, thanks to an initial system of neighborhood recycling stations begun by 2020, a county recyling and waste reduction committee and office established through 2020’s leadership, a household hazardous waste facility, and curbside recycling throughout the city of Walla Walla.
C. Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities. We now have bicycle lanes on a number of streets, a city bicycle advisory committee established at 2020’s request, new bike and pedestrian trails at Ft. Walla Walla and along Highway 12, bicycle and walkers maps, and Walla Walla’s first Bicycle-Pedestrian Master Plan.
D. Downtown and Architecture. We have seen great progress in our downtown, which has been rehabilitated, and has begun the renovation and reuse of second story space, an active farmer’s market, and a variety of public art—all goals 2020 has worked toward, along with others. Major national awards have been received, and more historic buildings and homes are being restored, as well as being honored by handsome plaques provided by 2020, together with 2020 research reports establishing the buildings’ history. Our periodic architectural awards have made a contribution to this renewal and blossoming process, honoring the restoration or renovation and reuse of historic buildings, compatible new construction, outstanding examples of energy conservation, landscaping, and public art. Recent progress has also been made through 2020’s leadership in partnership with the Downtown Foundation in achieving Certified Local Government (CLG) status for the city of Walla Walla, and the establishment of a Walla Walla Historic Preservation Commission.
E. Economic Development and Growth Management. A more open and democratic economic development program led by the Port of Walla Walla has been established, thanks to 2020’s advocacy, including its White Paper on Economic Development, and some progress is being made on growth management and the control of sprawl through adoption of a new county comprehensive plan under the Growth Management Act resulting from pressure from Citizens for Good Governance, though much remains to be done to protect Walla Walla’s open space and natural resources from continuing degradation. In 2003, 2020 served as the non-profit sponsor of the Northwest Festival of Jazz and Wine to assist in promoting the area’s wine industry as well as its art.
The history of Walla Walla 2020 demonstrates the importance of developing a vision, together with the will to act on that vision through direct initiatives and partnerships with other public and private entities.
2004-2006 Activities
During this period, 2020 has been involved in a variety of new initiatives, as well as a number of continuing activities. While many of those described below fall in more than one category, they are grouped below under six headings: Historic Architecture & Resources; Trees & Landscaping; Growth Management; Downtown Development; Transportation; and Public Processes. .
Historic Architecture & Resources
The Walla Walla 2020 Historic Research & Plaque Project continues to be very active. Researchers Mary Meeker and Kathie Weingart, and coordinator Dan Clark have produced 33 new historic property reports during his period, and 20 new historic building plaques have been delivered.
In addition, an historic database committee has been created to digitalize all 2020 research reports and to put them in a searchable database to be accessible online on a new 2020 website. Andrew Poole, a Whitman College history and technology intern has been recruited to help with this process, along with Whitman technology staffer Mike Osterman, who serve on the committee together with Dan Clark and Mary Meeker of 2020 and Gary Mabley, the City of Walla Walla planner who staffs the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, established through 2020 and Downtown Walla Walla Foundation leadership. The resulting database will incorporate all historic register properties in the area, as well as homes featured in Penny Andres’ books, courtesy of Ft. W.W. Museum, and will serve as the historic properties inventory for the City of Walla Walla.
A new Historic Resources Coordinating Committee has also been formed, initially coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce, to assist the community in providing accurate historical information for publications about the area, and to identify gaps in current historic materials. Now staffed by Tourism Walla Walla and chaired by Kirsten Shober of Kirkman House Museum, the Committee includes Mary Meeker, Kathie Weingart, and Dan Clark.
Several new initiatives involving historic resources have been undertaken through the leadership of Walla Walla 2020 that relate to both cultural and economic development values. In 1998, a Heritage Corridor Management Plan for US Highway 12 from Snake River Bridge to Walla Walla was prepared for the Port of Walla Walla with National Scenic Byways grant funds. The plan recommends interpretive overlooks both at Wallula and at Frenchtown near the historic St. Rose Cemetery. Under 2020’s leadership, Wallula Interpretive Overlook Partners has been organized, a major grant application has been submitted through US Fish & Wildlife Service in cooperation with Blue Mt. Audubon Society and others to create an interpretive site on the bank of the Columbia River just above Madame Dorion Park, and a small grant has been awarded 2020 by partner Union Pacific Railroad. Details are available online at www.wallulaoverlook.zoomshare.com.
In addition, Frenchtown/St. Rose Partners has been formed to acquire, preserve, and interpret the historic 1876 St. Rose Cemetery and Mission site, as well as the adjacent grounds of the 1855 Battle of Walla Walla. Grant applications have also been submitted for these sites, which will be impacted by the route of the new four-lane Highway 12 through the area. Partners in both of the above projects include the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Tourism Walla Walla, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and others. Commemorative observances on and near the site were held on Dec. 10, the 150th anniversary of the battle. Further details are available at www.frenchtownpartners.zoomshare.com
A third project involving historic resources in which 2020 has taken the lead focuses on the Second Walla Walla Treaty Council and Stevens Skirmish which took place in September, 1856. These little known events were the subject of a workshop held on February 11 at Walla Walla Community College, sponsored by 2020. The purpose of the gathering of historians, archaeologists, tribal representatives, and other interested invitees was to attempt to locate these events by comparing historical accounts, as well as field visits to proposed locations, and to discuss possible commemorative activities during this sesquicentennial year. A volunteer archaeologist, Darby Staff from Battelle, has been recruited to lead the project, and an initial archaeological survey of a portion of the most likely site of the two-day fight between Gov. Isaac Stevens and area Indians was conducted on March 4. Further survey work is planned. Dan Clark is coordinating this project.
The final historical project underway by Walla Walla 2020 is a proposal for the renaming of 13th Avenue to Mullan Road, in honor of the first major highway in the northwest, completed in 1862 from the steamship port on the Columbia at old Fort Nez Perce at Wallula to the steamship port at Fort Benton on the Missouri River. The road ran north through Walla Walla from the Fort WW where the VA Hospital now stands along the route of the current 13th Avenue through the penitentiary grounds and on to the Snake and Spokane Rivers, before turning east. This project honors local historian and journalist Vance Orchard, who put forth the proposal shortly before his recent death.
The last Walla Walla 2020 Architectural Awards competition was held in October, 2003. Plans are beginning for another competition in this series for this year.
Trees & Landscaping
2020 continues to maintain the Walla Walla 2020 Xeriscape Park at Isaacs & Rose, thanks to the great stewardship of Nancy Ball, and also to provide some maintenance of the planting area the group established along the Mill Creek Recreation Trail between Tausick Way and Eastgate Lions Park, as well as on the hillside south of Highway 12 next to the Whitman Athletic Fields, through periodic work parties in cooperation with the Whitman College Center for Community Service, and others. Last fall, 2020 organized an additional work party to clean up the walking path south of Highway 12 from Borleske Stadium to Palouse Street with the help of Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Whitman.
With regard to street trees and planting strips, 2020 corresponded with the City of Walla Walla and Dan Clark and Mary Campbell met with the City’s Urban Forestry Commission to follow up on concerns about street tree trimming and stump removal by Pacific Power, and obtained an agreement for better neighborhood notification of power company tree work. 2020 also sent a letter of request to K-Mart to discontinue its practice of placing unsightly advertising signs on planting strips on major arterials throughout town, which has now stopped. In addition, 2020 provided a letter of support to the city for a brownfields grant regarding environmental assessment and restoration of the old Tausick Way landfill, among other properties.
Growth Management
A new initiative of Walla Walla 2020 during this period has been the monitoring and enforcement of Walla Walla’s new wireless transmission facilities (cell tower) ordinance. In a test of the city’s excellent new ordinance, we reviewed a Verizon application to extend a tower adjacent to Walla Walla Community College utilizing an intrusive extended antenna mount, and discovered the ordinance was being ignored by developers and staff alike. To protect the integrity of the ordinance and avoid further blight, 2020 opposed the application, and later appealed the hearing examiner’s approval to superior court, where a settlement was negotiated with Verizon for a less obtrusive installation. 2020 then met with city planners and requested notice of all further tower applications. Additional 2020 efforts resulted in an internally mounted antenna for a new tower at the city golf course, and a flush mount for a planned tower at the city cemetery, as well as the tightening of the ordinance to require either flush or internal mounts on all future towers. 2020’s cell tower committee members are Sandy Simmons, John Cole, Mary Campbell, and Dan Clark.
2020 also provided written and oral testimony at city-county hearings on amendments to the urban area comprehensive plan, expressing opposition to the proposed Pennbrook, Robison, and Frazier farmland conversions. 2020 continues to support Citizens for Good Governance, led by Nancy Ball, in its aggressive monitoring and appeals of non-compliance with the Growth Management Act by Walla Walla County. 2020 also continues its membership in Futurewise, formerly 1000 Friends of Washington, as well as subscribing to the Waitsburg Times to keep up on legal notices regarding land use applications and actions.
Downtown Development
2020 continues its organizational membership in the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, as well as its participation on the Farmers Market Committee through members Sandra Cannon and Barbara Clark. 2020 is also a partner with ArtWalla, formerly the Blue Mountain Arts Alliance, in the Heritage Park Art Project which will fill the windows of the old Odd Fellows façade with scenes of Walla Walla history; Jeanne McMenemy is our representative on the project.
Transportation
2020 continues to pursue the goal of creating a pedestrian and bicyle path along Mill Creek from downtown to Washington Park, and continuing west along the Mill Creek levy. We were previously successful in getting the Corps of Engineers to include a path along Mill Creek through their new headquarters property, and we have been seeking to monitor the development plans for the old cannery site from 7th to 9th. In doing so, we discovered that the city was not implementing the Shorelines Management Act along the Mill Creek channel through the city, though legally required to do so. As a result of 2020 correspondence and conversations with the Department of Ecology, the city has now been ordered to comply with the Act. As a result, the community now has a new tool and leverage to utilize in working with creekside developers to assure appropriate public recreation access along Mill Creek. Dan Clark and Sandy Simmons are working on this.
2020 has also been represented in intercity transit activities by transportation chair Stanley Green. Bus service to connect Walla Walla with the Greyhound depot at the intermodal center in the Tri-Cities has been provided by contract with a private carrier through state grant funds following the discontinuance of Greyhound service here.
Public Processes
2020 continues to provide leadership in partnering with the American Association of University Women and Walla Walla Community College in providing regular candidate forums. This critical community function had not being regularly provided for a number of years following the demise of the League of Women Voters, until 2020 revived it in 2002. Dan Clark coordinates the forums.
Several public bodies established as a result of 2020 initiatives continue to have 2020 members on their boards, including the Walla Walla County Resource Conservation Committee, formerly the Regional Recycling Committee, chaired by 2020 member Sandra Cannon, with additional members Sandy Simmons, Barbara Clark, and George Ball.
Future Work
Walla Walla 2020 continues to be a useful vehicle for its members’ work in protecting and enhancing the quality of our community. How we will we use it in the coming years is up to you.