Richland City Council plans special meeting on downtown waterfront

The Richland City Council has set aside four hours Thursday afternoon to discuss redeveloping the downtown waterfront.

The council meets for a special session at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Courtyard by Marriott, 480 Columbia Point Drive. The meeting is open but there will be no opportunity for public comments.

It begins with an hour-long, closed-door session to discuss “lease or purchase of real estate.” The state open meetings law allows a closed session on buying or leasing property if a public discussion would likely increase the price.

When it comes out of executive session, it will spend three hours discussing its vision for downtown with Kerwin Jensen, community development director.

The city provided no details about its agenda. A city consultant previously recommended that the Tri-Cities Public Market be sited either at Howard Amon Park near the “fingernail” band shelter or at a vacant city-owned site at 650 George Washington Way.

Public market backers have asked the council to eliminate the park site in favor of the more visible George Washington Way site, currently under a development agreement with Adam Brault and Crown Group.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Richland City Council plans special meeting on downtown waterfront."