Sunday, May 10, 2015
Point Ruston Update
This article in The News Tribune does a great job of summarizing the different approaches between Ruston and Tacoma as they have dealt with Point Ruston. It also outlines the current status of the project and where negotiations stand with the proposal to have Tacoma run the permitting for the entire site. It's a long article but well worth the read...
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7 comments:
Sadly as the world turns we must recall the fate of Rustons previous largest taxpayer. Ruston closed him down with a 200 percent tax increase because they didn't like his sign.
With their objective of turning the town into a bedroom community the eight years of attacks on Point Ruston haven't gone unnoticed. They do not want this project completed and will fight to the end to stop it.
BREAKING NEWS: new Ruston hotel gets 400 percent tax increase because ... Their primary methodology is to deliberately run up the costs on a project until it fails.
It will be impossible for Point Ruston to survive in such a hostile atmosphere. Tacoma or fail.
What is Ruston's reason (in plain english) for stopping the process?
Is the following answer truth or fiction?
(Re: March 19, 2015 at 10:01 Anonymous said…)
"Ruston is currently in the hands of 10ish people who are looking out for their own interest. Let's start at the top: Mayor Hopkins lives on 49th St. across from the Unicorn Tavern and his house directly overlooks Point Ruston, just below the Mayor on Court St. lives his appointed chair of the Planning Commission K. Moser (has a beautiful view of Point Ruston), step next door and find recently appointed Council member L. Syler (yes appointed not elected and yes same beautiful view), go one more block down the hill to Commercial St. and you find 3 more of the 5 council members houses (Kristovich, Hunt, and Hedrick) sitting side by side also directly overlooking the Point Ruston project. Then there are a few other individuals with a monetary stake: for hire Town Engineer - J. Morrissette from Olympia, for hire Town Planner -Rob White from Gig Harbor, for hire Town Attorney - Carol Morris from Gig Harbor. Each of these professionals are currently charging hefty fees to provide services, guidance, and advice to the aforementioned mayor and council members. Each also becomes completely unnecessary should Ruston be annexed into Tacoma.
So can the citizens vote to be annexed? Yes, but we will have to do it against the will of the few and at the risk of retaliation from the above and the police department (they to would become unnecessary and redundant).
March 19, 2015 at 10:01 PM
On the north side of the bridge , for some, their views ARE gone because of "new building". (i.e. the Commencement Apartments on 52nd Street.)
On the south side of the bridge, for some, their views WILL be gone because of "new building". (i.e. Point Ruston village)
All in the name of progress
Commencement is situated behind a two story school building. I surmise the view lost was looking through the school windows?
South side is approximately 100 feet above Point Ruston ground level. People on the edge will no longer have a view of the old smelter or a EPA superfund site instead there will be Point Ruston urban village. A tradeoff most of us would relish.
Go North Side!
Bittersweet, some of the overall great views that Ruston enjoyed for 100 years are going and some are gone (bitter). The Point Ruston build looks good (sweet).
"...overall great views" is a misnomer.
All of Ruston except Point Ruston/Ruston is a flat plane. The view is strictly territorial.
Point Ruston is 80 to 110 feet below Ruston flat plane.
Point Ruston has view corridors which were non existent in the Smelter days.
It is very hard to shed a tear for imaginary views that never existed for over 100 years.
Point Ruston was split off from Tacoma in a tax avoidance maneuver. The Smelter basically subsidized the Town of Ruston. Now they are solely dependent on sale of Town owned land. The property fund is running low and when depleted the Town/City of Ruston will cease to exist.
Better days are in the offing.
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