Organization

Citizen's Committee for Tacoma's Future Development

1957-1968

The Citizens’ Committee for Tacoma’s Future Development was created in November 1957 at the request of the City Council. The objective of the committee was to survey the six-year program (1958-1963) of civic improvements that had already been tentatively adopted by the City Council. These recommendations help the Council determine what will be on the municipal ballot in the upcoming election. Chairman at the time, Reno Odlin, explained in the 1957 report that, “it [the committee] was to determine and to recommend to the Council an order of priority and importance of the various projected outlined therein.”

The committee consisted of over 200 people, so it was divided into eleven subcommittees by the chairman with an overseeing executive committee. The subcommittees ranged in themes, and included street lighting, streets and bridges, sewers and drains, public buildings, off street parking, airports, golf courses, transit, urban renewal, finance, and publicity and promotion. The recommendations put forth were approved by the citizens of Tacoma in the spring 1958 election.

The Committee was re-activated in November 1962, with Roe Shaub as the chairman, to review to the civic improvement programs for 1963-1968. The subcommittees remained largely the same as before, removing golf courses and off street parking. The recommendations by this committee emphasized investing in public buildings like Tacoma Public Library and the Fire Department, and on improving streets and bridges.

The Committee was once again reconvened by Mayor Tollefson in November of 1965 to review the 1966-1971 Capital Improvements Program that was developed by the City Planning Commission. In the final report from the 1965 committee, Chairman L. Evert Landon commends the work of the nine subcommittees he appointed, in addition to explaining the legacy of the two previous committees, both which received Public Relations awards for their work. The committee endorses a slightly increased property tax and in the initiative by the Association of Washington Cities to “secure one-tenth of the estate sales tax revenue for cities.”

Written by Lauren Moseman, 2022.