Today I wrote that the Tacoma City Council is scheduled to take a final vote on new rules for building new parking spaces downtown.

I said developers of new commercial buildings wouldn’t have to install parking spaces if they didn’t want to, but there would be a limit on the number of private spaces if they decided to build.

I didn’t have the latest information. I thought I had been tracking the issue closely, but I overlooked a pretty obvious change made at last week’s council meeting. At that time councilmember David Boe proposed an amendment to the rules …

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A Gig Harbor residential builder that has specialized in high-end custom homes is broadening its market focus.

The Rush Companies home-building division, Rush Residential, has announced it will begin building less expensive homes in addition to its traditional projects which have sold for $600,000 and up.

“After months of studying local market activity and monitoring the economic recovery, we have made a strategic decision to expand the focus of Rush Residential to serve a wider range of communities, products and price points,” said company president Matt Smith.

Rush recently bought 82 lots in a Gig Harbor North community, Harbor Crossing. …

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The latest addition to Puyallup’s MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, the nine-story, $300-million Dally Tower, has received the Green Building Institute’s LEED Gold award.

The hospital tower, which doubled the space at Good Samaritan, is the state’s first hospital structure to win the high award for energy and resources conservation, said Tacoma’s MultiCare Health System, the hospital’s parent company.

The tower opened for patients a year ago. The hospital tower includes 78 patient rooms and a new emergency department for the hospital.

The gold award was based on the new building’s water and energy saving features including two green roofs, rain …

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Today’s Sunday Business section featured a report on the Tacoma business community’s reaction to proposed changes to city code when it comes to large-scale retail businesses.

Part of that report referenced a 2006 study published by the American Planning Association that outlines best practices for governments when it comes to big box stores. I included a few references to it in my story, but the report is really interesting. I thought some readers might want to read it, too.

A copy of that 69-page report is below.

UPDATE, Feb. 6, 10:55 a.m.: The American Planning Association has asked that …

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CoreLogic, a California-based business analysis service, has released its December Home Price Index. The data show a drop in the price of homes across the country, in Washington and in the Tacoma area. in 2011

Where home prices nationwide were down 4.7 percent at the end of December compared to prices in December, 2010, home prices in the Tacoma area were down 10.2 percent.

November figures showed prices had fallen 10.9 percent in the Tacoma area, the company said in a release Thursday.

Statewide, prices were down 5.3 percent fir December – placing the state between Delaware and New Mexico. …

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Big-box stores and other large retail development would face a new set of hurdles before being allowed to build in Tacoma, under proposed rules presented Tuesday to the City Council.

Tacoma should create a new, “conditional use permit” requirement for development larger than 45,000-square-feet, about the size of Tacoma’s Best Buy store, according to recommendations from the city’s Planning Commission. In addition, such developments also would be required to have more review of parking, site layout, traffic and plans for building re-use should it become vacant.

Finally developers of such buildings could be required to have community meetings about …

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The Green Building Certification Institute has awarded its highest certification – LEED Platinum – to the University of Washington Tacoma’s Russell T. Joy Building.

The Joy Building is the first in Tacoma and first in the University of Washington to achieve a Platinum rating in the “new construction/major remodel” LEED system, the university said in a release Tuesday. It is the second state-funded building to receive this recognition. The downtown Wells Fargo Plaza in July received a LEED Silver designation for existing buildings, and the Pacific Plaza project received LEED Platinum. St. Elizabeth Hospital in Enumclaw has received a Silver …

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Looks like 2012 will be the Year of Meh.

According to an economic forecast presented this morning at the annual Horizons Breakfast, Pierce County’s economy will grow for the second year in a row. But it won’t feel good.

People still will have trouble finding a job. Business profits will stagnate. The housing market will continue to hurt.

This is what healing feels like after a such a wounding Recession. (I’m taking a liberty here and capitalizing it, since we capitalize the Great Depression.)

Soon-to-be former state economist Arun Raha, one of the keynote speakers, said this year’s income …

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