We of the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development represent thousands of local residents who have expressed deep concern about recent retail development plans before the city. We believe current weaknesses in the Pullman Comprehensive Plan, zoning laws, and city ordinances leave the city and its citizens vulnerable to grave economic and social consequences from irresponsible national chain businesses.

We offer the Council these outlines of proposals we believe are desperately needed to democratize the decision-making process, and create a more rational, comprehensive planning process. We request that these items be included in the Council’s goal setting process:

1. City Council oversight ordinance. As currently written, Pullman law appears to offer our elected officials no role in decisions regarding development projects, no matter how large, that appear to be technically within code. This is a dangerous transfer of political review to unelected staff. However competent such staff may be, they do not and cannot represent the wider concerns of the democratic citizenry. This ordinance therefore would require all development projects above 50,000 square feet to be subject to review and approval by the city council following open public discussion
2. A fiscal impact report ordinance. The current site planning process Section 17.135.070 Review Criteria #11, does allow for consideration of the "fiscal impact of the proposed development on the city." But the requirement is vague and has been narrowly interpreted. We call for a requirement of a full economic impact study for any retail development plan involving more than 50 employees. The report would study both the costs to the city government in infrastructure and support, and the likely impact of the proposal on existing businesses in the city.
3. An ethical business ordinance. Some large retailers drive out local businesses through ethically questionable practices. Other large businesses behave with far greater social responsibility. One key indicator of the difference is a company’s willingness to pay their employees a living wage. Companies that use unreasonably low pay to their workers to artificially lower the cost of goods create an unfair climate that undermines small and middle sized local businesses. This ordinance would apply only to businesses with 50 or more employees, and would require such companies to pay a living wage to workers, defined as certain percentage above federal poverty level adjusted for inflation.
4. A free speech and democratic space ordinance. There has been a steady decline in available public political space due to recent modes of privatizing public space through malls and other market places once full of public discourse. This practice undermines democracy; after all, Western democracy began in a marketplace (the agora). We call for an ordinance that would allow permits for political speech, union organizing, and other legal forms of democratic discourse in certain large publicly used, privately owned spaces, focusing initially on parking lots with 200 or more stalls
5. A comprehensive traffic safety plan for the city, The rapid growth of Pullman in recent years and strong projected growth require a full study of and plan for traffic. An overall plan is much needed, with special focus on Grand Avenue, Bishop Boulevard, and the Moscow-Pullman Hwy as it becomes Main.

While we offer no legal language at this time, one or more attorneys have vetted each of these proposals, and each is based on legislation already in place in other parts of the state and the nation.

Respectfully submitted by T.V. Reed on behalf of the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development (PARD)