Big changes coming to Pasco to make downtown and parks safer
Pasco is moving forward with a series of safety improvements in its downtown corridor and at parks.
While the individual efforts may not seem like much on their own, when combined they paint a clear picture of an effort to improve safety and community wellbeing.
The three key efforts will include a revamp at Peanuts Park North, improved park bathroom security and better lighting in downtown alleyways.
The city council gave staff the go ahead to start working on final plans this week during a workshop meeting following months of community feedback. There were no official votes taken, but staff needed consensus from a majority of the council on which direction to proceed on the projects.
Staff has had to sort through a variety of options weighing cost against likely effectiveness for each of the projects. City Manager Harold Stewart said the severe damage being done to park bathrooms may even outweigh some of the costs to secure and monitor them.
He told the council they should consider the costs they’re already spending.
“We’re already experiencing vandalism in a lot of our parks, which comes with a cost. Even today we had a sink ripped out of one of our bathrooms,” Stewart said. “So there’s repair costs to this, while some of these options are expensive, if we can reinvest that money into prevention instead of spending it on repairs and make our bathrooms open and available to the public in a safer way, this isn’t all necessarily new costs.”
It’s a challenge being seen across the Tri-Cities.
Staff discussed issues Richland faced with not just damage to sinks, stalls and locks, but people kicking holes through walls. Last year Benton County a restroom building was burned down at Two Rivers Park. No arrests were made, but it was determined that the fire was set intentionally.
Most of the damage doesn’t rise to the level of meeting insurance deductibles, so the city faces more out-of-pocket costs.
Mayor Charles Grimm agreed that the security options could likely be offset by saving money on constant repairs.
“That’s an important point, I think a lot of us saw those pictures of the city of Richland’s bathrooms, not even just getting vandalized, getting destroyed over the weekends,” Grimm said. “I mean holy smokes, they’re just kicking the walls down and everything like that.”
Peanuts Park North
The city looked at a variety of options for the north section of the park, which is about 50 feet wide and set between buildings across the street from the main park.
While there were several options for making the space more user-friendly, the big push from the city will be adding gates on each end. The end of the park facing Lewis Street will get a low wall with a 26-foot wide gate. The end opening to another alley will get a taller wall with a gate large enough to accommodate vehicles.
Trees and shrubs were removed from the park in 2024 in an effort to reduce vagrancy and vandalism. The new design guidelines would create overhead shade that could be used as needed.
The design could also allow for space to be used for outdoor events or temporary sport courts, as well as art walk and mural opportunities.
Council gave consensus for staff to proceed with the preferred design for the area. A schedule for construction would come once the design is final and bids go out to renovate it.
Restroom safety and security
Council reviewed a variety of options ranging from more complex code-based locks to full security services and Live View Technology surveillance towers, or LVTs.
Ultimately the council went with daily restroom closure checks and a pilot program for the towers.
Staff said the towers have had success in discouraging bad behavior in Richland parks. The company is offering a trial period to the city to see if the towers meet their needs.
The towers used in Richland are capable of tracking and even speaking to people in parks.
These are the trailers with a light pole attached and a set of sophisticated video cameras at the top. Often the towers have blue lights indicating their use by police.
“I just think what we do has to work, there are already so many things deterring people from going to the park,” Councilman Joe Cotta said. “So any amount of money we’re going to spend here is going to be an investment in these parks, and we want to make sure these bathrooms remain safe and usable.”
Those plans could be put into effect within the next few months.
Alley lighting
After much discussion the city opted to go with an alley lighting approach that will function like a grant program for downtown building owners.
There were concerns about liability and power usage if the city were to install lights on the buildings.
Business owner Thomas Granbois said an alley for his building downtown has seen success with string lights. He felt like it made the area look better and feel safer.
He noted that the height of the building might prohibit that type of lighting for people with shorter buildings with garbage trucks needing to fit into the alleyways.
Pedro Perez said he had already been discussing lighting with his neighbor, and knows many business owners would really appreciate the city’s help paying for the upgrades. Perez owns Nopaleros Real Estate, and purchased Azucar at Out and About in 2024.
“We have a lot of folks that end of sleeping in that alley and so I think having the lighting there would be really helpful,” he said.
“I really like the idea of also the beautification of it having the string lights. When I go to throw trash there, I see Thomas’s alley that has the string lights it looks really beautiful, it looks really nice. That’s one of the ideas we were thinking about as well.”
A split council gave city staff direction to proceed with putting together the basis for a grant program for businesses interested in participating. The city would pay for the lighting and owners would be responsible for installation.
