The City of Lakewood’s $17 million investment to extend sanitary sewer into two of its poorest neighborhoods has started to pay off.
McDonald’s is expanding its restaurant on Union Avenue in Tillicum. And Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity has started construction on the first of as many as 30 new homes in the same neighborhood. The project also introduces sanitary sewer to the nearby Woodbrook neighborhood.
“This is the culmination of 11 years of work,” said David Bugher, assistant city manager for development.
He’s referring to when the city adopted its master land-use blueprint that called for extending sewers into the neighborhoods.
The developments will be the first to hook up to the new sewer system. The goal of the project is to bolster development and protect the environment from failing septic systems. Residential sewer customers throughout Lakewood pay a monthly surcharge of about $1 to help finance the project.
It remains to be seen how many more property owners will hook up. In March, the city changed its policy on connections from voluntary to mandatory because too few people pledged to tie in.
The city will mail out notices Oct. 1 indicating the system is ready for connection. Owners will have 90 days to hook up, or they will begin paying the monthly service charge as an “availability” fee until they do so. The charge is $34.19 a month for single-family homes. Hooking up will cost thousands of dollars, but the city is making low- and no-interest loans available.
A resident of Tillicum for more than seven decades said the happenings in the last year or two are “the biggest positive enhancements that this community has had since I’ve been out here.”
“Sure we had to put up with torn-up streets for a year, but it was worth it in my book,” said Jim Taylor, vice president of the Tillicum-Woodbrook Neighborhood Association.
Tillicum has a large number of renters and absentee landlords, Taylor said. Many don’t take care of their properties. Having owners move into Habitat homes and take pride in them may persuade others to maintain and repair their properties.
McDonald’s closed earlier this month and is scheduled to reopen by Oct. 31, Bugher said. The project will tear down the existing trailer-sized McDonald’s with drive-thru service only. It will reopen as a larger full-service restaurant with indoor seating.
Having another sit-down restaurant in Tillicum will ease traffic on Union Avenue during the lunch hour, he said. The thoroughfare is clogged with soldiers driving from nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Some may decide to eat inside instead of using the drive-thru.
Bugher said it’s the first commercial development in Tillicum in eight years. He said other businesses have made inquiries with the city, but he declined to identify them.
“I think the development activity is going to pick up once the system is activated,” he said.
This is the first time Habitat for Humanity has built homes in Tillicum. It is a joint project between the organization and the City of Lakewood.
Three-quarters of the dwellings in Tillicum are rentals, according to the revitalization plan adopted by the city. Bringing more homeowners into Tillicum will improve safety and increase the tax base for an area that has struggled with a reputation of poverty and crime, said Sue Potter, Habitat’s development director. More than half of the population lives in poverty, the plan said.
Potter said Habitat for Humanity could have built without sanitary sewer. However, it wouldn’t have been able to build as many homes and help as many families because it would have had to set aside land for septic drain fields. Plans call for the first 12 homes to be built by 2013.
“We’re going in a big way,” Potter said.
Taylor said redevelopment in Tillicum won’t happen overnight, but called the recent progress a good sign.
“It’s been a long time coming, and now that it’s starting to show up, it’s exploding,” he said.
Christian Hill: 253-274-7390
christian.hill@thenewstribune.com
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