I have seen the planning staff presentation on Federal Way’s future downtown three times, and the answer has already been identified by several cities for over the past 100 years.

No one is going to mistake Federal Way for Bellevue, but the potential is there, and their downtown area is about the same size. It is a good model to follow. Bellevue, with retail on the first floor with 8-10 floors of views of Lake Washington above that. Federal Way can do the same thing and capture views of Poverty Bay the city shares with Des Moines if they go a little higher and stack view property on top of the mall. And there are some great places to eat or shop at the mall.

Federal Way can decide what it wants to be. Many cities are more than 100 years old and have already made their choices on what they will be.

The answer is to move City Hall downtown.

The idea is to create a place where people want to be. Ruston and the Proctor area in Tacoma, for example, are what you want to achieve. They combine food and enthusiasm, which is another asset that Federal Way has — a vast selection of interesting restaurants, thanks to our diverse population. Any area becomes more interesting if they have shops that make you want to go inside.

Moving City Hall downtown immediately provides 300 shoppers and a lunch crowd. Auburn, Kent, Renton, Enumclaw, Burien and Issaquah have let their City Hall be the focal point around which to build their future. Auburn has what the old-timers call the new City Hall, which was built where the old City Hall used to sit. The design included a huge gathering place for parades and holiday celebrations with a large Christmas tree to capture the holiday season with ornaments — and the downtown grew up around City Hall.

Kent followed the concept, but also put its senior center downtown in a reasonable attempt to control land use planning and to ensure large groups of the population were joined together where the services were. Many cities used the Growth Management Act as a reason to incorporate rather than have developers go out to rural areas where the land was cheaper. Auburn does not have its senior center downtown, but in one of the parks.

Tukwila started as an incorporated shopping mall. Auburn faced that challenge when the SuperMall of the Great Northwest (its former name) was built and there was concern about competition with downtown from the mall.

Federal Way already has a mall that divides the downtown core with a major highway through the middle at 320th Street, which will be a challenge to create a pedestrian-friendly environment. Fortunately the city owns a building in the downtown core, the old Target building. And the Performing Arts and Event Center (PAEC) is a very nice addition to the north part of downtown that can share daytime parking with City Hall — but a wine shop and chocolate shop need to be recruited, for example. Or possibly the Metropolitan Market would consider returning? Only if they were in a more visible location. And there should be a creative mind out there that can market Federal Way’s access to the bay.

The area north of the downtown above the PAEC provides views of the mountain and needs more attention and creativity. It could be the place to build high quality condos of 15-20 floors to take advantage of the views. Then we start to look like Bellevue and could be competitive with them. To ensure movement on both sides of 320th Street, the city could contract for a golf cart shuttle service to move tired shoppers.

Federal Way resident Bob Roegner is a former mayor of Auburn. Contact bjroegner@comcast.net.