Lakewood

PREFERRED VENDOR n Puget Sound Energy www.pse.com Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility — Kittitas County Leaders in utility-owned wind power pse.com/environment At Puget Sound Energy, we share your commitment to clean energy and the natural beauty and economic health of our state. That’s why we’ve invested more than $2 billion in clean energy over the past decade. LAKEWOOD, WASHINGTON neighboring cities.“There are still pockets of op- portunities to develop and we’ve seen a number of small subdivisions come down the road that are ei- ther underway or about to get underway and what’s really impressive is the price point of that housing,” says Caulfield. “But we’re not looking to compete with anybody,” asserts Anderson.“We’re trying to complement what’s going on here in the region–not just from an economic development standpoint, but in terms of housing and jobs and transportation and things along those lines.You can live in Lakewood, have a short commute, and have a better lifestyle, and we’re attempting to ensure that for all elements of our citizenry.” across departments to ensure that projects and clients are well-served with a high level of customer service.We’re very welcoming and well-versed in what it takes to keep our businesses happy.” Lakewood doesn’t have a true downtown, but the city is currently going through a subarea plan- ning procedure for its central business district, an area that covers approximately 300 acres. Plans include Complete Streets for enhanced pedestrian walkability, a park,multi-modal transportation, and increased housing density with options for both Millennials and seniors.“The subarea plan is not just focused on creating a vision of what we’d like to see in that area, but the city will also be paying for all of the environmental review associated with future development in the downtown,”Caulfield reports, “so that when property owners and builders and investors and businesses come in, because of the subarea plan and all the work that the city will have completed, essentially all they’re going to have to do is pull a building permit.That’s one of the huge benefits of doing a subarea plan.” Anderson talks about another one of Lakewood’s noteworthy infrastructure projects: “We have rather significant bodies of water throughout the city, and we have a couple of major streams that run through town. So, the quality of those waters is always something you need to look out for.One thing we’ve done is replaced hundreds of catchment basins with more modern, baffled storm drains to make sure that the pollutants off the roadways don’t reach those waters. So, people see a street project taking place–the new curbs, the new top dressing of asphalt, but what they don’t see is the hundreds of thousands of dollars in replaced storm drains to maintain water quality.” Lastly, although Lakewood is essentially built out in regard to housing,Newton maintains that it is still a very affordable community with homes that are priced significantly lower than those in its larger,