TACOMA, Wash. – The City of Tacoma’s South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan has earned top honors, securing the Community Involvement award from the 2025 Joint American Planning Association/Planning Association of Washington Awards for Excellence in Planning. The award celebrates exceptional dedication to outreach, education, and meaningful engagement throughout the planning process.
The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan distinguished itself with its deliberate and inclusive strategy, empowering residents – including those from historically underrepresented communities – to collaboratively shape the future of their neighborhood. With more than 1,300 community interactions, the planning journey fostered broad participation from youth, small business owners, and long-term residents through multilingual surveys, pop-up events, interactive mapping tools, focus groups, steering group meetings and the direct allocation of $50,000 in community booster project funding guided by 400 resident votes.
“We worked hard to ensure that the South Tacoma community played an integral role in developing this plan and I’m thrilled to see those efforts recognized and celebrated,” said District 3 Council Member Jamika Scott. “I am especially proud that the City of Tacoma applied a trauma-informed framework to our community engagement, ensuring that everyone’s voice could be heard. The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan is going to help all the best parts of South Tacoma shine because it is rooted in the community’s needs and vision for the future.”
“The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan is a community-led effort, made possible by the work of outstanding and dedicated volunteers who took the time to lead on outreach, navigate difficult conversations, and collaborate to find actionable solutions for the neighborhood,” added District 5 Council Member Joe Bushnell. “Thank you to every person who volunteered or contributed their thoughts into setting a vision for our community!”
The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan represents a community-driven vision that supports economic opportunity, health and environmental justice, cultural identity, and neighborhood affordability, and is powered forward by actionable strategies directly reflecting residents’ priorities.
More information on the South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan is available on the City’s website. The City Council is anticipated to consider the final plan for adoption next month.
Community members with questions about the South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan can contact Alejandra Villeda at avilleda@cityoftacoma.org or (253) 591-5137.
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