Fife Economic Development Plan

Community Development Department and City Council, Fife, Washington

We recently completed a detailed economic development strategy for the City of Fife involving members of City Council, Planning Commission, and Chamber of Commerce.

City Council wanted to create and implement detailed economic development strategies for the various districts of the city including the Pacific Highway corridor, Port abutting properties, Fife business parks, railroad switching yards, industrial warehouse district, emerging residential areas, and Puyallup Tribal properties. The city wished to determine which markets, strategies, designs, and other implementation particulars were appropriate and would be publicly supported for each and all districts combined. Council also wished to determine the best appropriate site location for a commercial center supporting the developing residential neighborhoods, as well as an overlaying local roadway grid that would serve local resident needs other than the I-5, Pacific Highway, and Port arterial access routes.

We conducted a series of participatory brainstorming workshops with business and property owners, and the public to assess conditions, propose strategies, and define detailed action plan strategies. We developed a series of quick-sketch studies identifying strategic undeveloped properties and the alternative roles each site could provide for local commercial services, additional employment related, or residential uses - including the anticipated impact of the proposed SR-167 extension to the Port of Tacoma. We also identified a series of detailed action proposals to create a focus on the Wapato and Hylebos Creeks, develop a local roadway grid across the railroad and I-5 corridors, and begin the intensification of development along the Pacific Highway corridor.

City Council unanimously adopted the plan following a mail-out/phone-back survey of registered voter households that established overall plan priorities and implementation methods. As a result of the strategies, the city has since initiated detailed planning on the channelization of traffic and proposed re-designation of development uses and designs along the Pacific Highway corridor.

back to urban plans