McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan

What’s Happening Now?

After nine months of community meetings, events, surveys, and other engagements with more than 1,500 community members, the City Council adopted the McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan in March 2023. You can learn more about the recommendations and changes to come below.

McKinley Overlook: Construction Is Underway! – August 2024

Improvements to the McKinley Overlook (East 32nd Street between East E Street and East F Street), one of the key Neighborhood Plan priorities, are now fully funded.

Visit the project web page for more information about the project.

Quick Wins

There are several projects in the McKinley Hill plan that have already been funded or are already in progress, thanks to the help of our City Council, partners, and committees:

Actions Tracking

NPP and our partners are committed to documenting and tracking the implementation of the Plan recommendations. The Actions Tracking Table is for community members to track progress on the Plan, stay engaged, and steward the Plan’s projects over time. Your continued involvement and advocacy for projects recommended in the Plan will help ensure they happen.

Completed or Underway:

• Select an artist and location for a new mural, in partnership with Spaceworks
• Outreach for residential tree planting in partnership with Environmental Services and Tacoma Tree Foundation
• Supporting traffic calming and street mural at the McKinley Avenue and East Division Lane intersection, in partnership with Public Works
• Developing a conceptual design for activating the McKinley Overlook area (East 32nd Street near East F Street)

Future Input Opportunities:

• Provide input on developing a neighborhood Placemaking Plan
• Provide input for the McKinley Ave streetscape redesign and enhancement

Intersection Enhancement – Division Lane and McKinley Avenue

The selected project adds temporary bulb-outs at the intersection, a repainted crosswalk, and a painted street mural to calm traffic and promote pedestrian safety (see example photo below). We are continuing to work with elected officials and other City departments and partners to find funding to implement additional community-identified projects.

McKinley Hill Neighborhood Plan: Timeline

The McKinley Neighborhood Plan was adopted by the City Council in March 2023. Over the next couple of years, we are continuing to work with the community on implementing the goals identified in the Plan.

• January-March 2022: Neighborhood profile; launch outreach
• April-June 2022: Evaluate existing conditions and identify projects and recommendations
• July-September 2022: Draft plan for community feedback, identify resources, and begin early implementation
• Fall 2022 – Winter 2023: Finalize plan and roadmap for implementation
• 2023 and beyond: Implementation

McKinley Hill Neighborhood: Location and Profile

For this plan, we define a “neighborhood” as the Mixed-Use Center (business district) and the surrounding residential neighborhood. These boundaries may be adjusted during the planning process, but it is important to include public amenities (such as parks and schools) that service the core neighborhood.

McKinley Hill Neighborhood: Project Funding

The Neighborhood Planning Program allocated $50,000 to support the implementation of short-term goals in the selected neighborhoods. Through our community booster project, over 200 of you voted for the Intersection Enhancement project below. In the 2023-34 biennial budget, the City Council allocated an additional $250,000 for the design of the new McKinley Streetscape and the National Endowment of the Arts granted $100,000 towards placemaking.