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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability continued its Eastside MAX Station Communities Project last month, telling Mid-county residents of their plans for four MAX light rail stations and the surrounding land and streets. Those who came, in turn, told the planners what they thought of the efforts.
As Project Manager Tom Armstrong told two gatherings at the East Portland Community Center last month, “The vision of what a light rail station could be is not going on at these stations. We’re looking at what we could do to improve them, particularly with regard to zoning changes and transportation improvements.” They expect to have concrete recommendations in May; the Portland Planning Commission and City Council will review these recommendations before adoption, and, an additional review process for specific zone changes and projects will take place. “There’re lots of chances to shape and mold these proposals,” Armstrong said. “It’s not too late. It’s not a done deal.”
With regard to the Parkrose-Sumner station he said, “Coming from the airport, this is the first station where you find people living, where you really start to enter the city. One of the key challenges here is that not only is the station next to a freeway, but it’s at a major interchange. There’s a real gap on Sandy. There’s a new café, and what the (Foursquare) Church has done with the (Rodeway Inn) motel has been great; it’s what we’d like to build off of.”
Armstrong said the city is considering improvements to Northeast Sandy Boulevard modeled on what it did to the street near Hollywood several years ago, installing wider sidewalks and street trees. The city also proposes to change the zoning on Sandy west of 97th Avenue from its present CG general commercial designation to CS, which is a commercial zone that requires building to the sidewalk, without parking in front.
Regarding the area bounded by Northeast 99th and 102nd avenues, Wygant Street and Sandy Boulevard, Armstrong said, “We assumed there’s to be a major redevelopment here, and it hasn’t happened.” The city still expects infill development here, but the question council members now ask is, “How can we make it fit in better? We want to encourage infill development and higher density. At the same time, there’s an existing neighborhood, and we want to respect what’s next door,” Armstrong enunciated. Thus, this area is proposed for downzoning: going from CG to CM, a zone that requires at least 50 percent residential as part of any development, and R2, a low-density apartment and row house zone. To the south, between Wygant and Prescott streets, they propose reducing the allowed density still further, going from R2 to R2.5, a zone designation for single family homes and row houses.
However, the planners see the Parkrose park-and-ride lot, the land occupied by Elmer’s Restaurant and the Pony Soldier Motel as opportunity sites for some major future development. Consultant Tom Litster said there was a need to retain the park-and-ride. “Unlike 122nd, it’s fully utilized. A lot of that, I suspect, is people coming across the bridge to park and use MAX.” However, a developer could build a podium above the parking and on it construct about four floors of housing, with 150 units and 15,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space. To facilitate this, the city proposes to rezone both properties to CX, its highest density development zone.
But this is not the end of the story. “This would not be inexpensive to build,” Litster said. Armstrong said there could be indirect subsidies by TriMet, reducing the sale price, and the city, providing tax abatement on the improvements. In terms of profitability, he said, “We need to see how wide the gap is, what we can do to fill it.” He didn’t rule out the possibility that the development would be low-income housing, but said the city’s aim for the area is a mix of incomes.
With regard to transportation, consultant Alan Snook proposed a network of bike routes that would not require bicyclists to ride on Sandy Boulevard. The team also proposed improving Northeast 96th Avenue to city standards. “City policy is that property owners are responsible for building sidewalks,” Armstrong said. “Because of its importance, what we want to explore on 96th is to see if we can leverage some public funds to reduce the private costs, and build it all at once, not in pieces. Not in this economy, but in two or three years.”
Homeowner Kurt Smart said he feared that if the street were improved it would become an extension of the park-and-ride. Armstrong said that Smart and his neighbors could conceivably institute a permit-parking district, but it would annually cost them $38 per household.
Attendee John Beyer suggested encouraging office development rather than small shops. Planner Barry Manning said this was more likely at Cascade Station, and the city is concentrating on retail development in Parkrose. Armstrong said, “If someone wanted to build a five-story office building, why would he want to build it here?”
At a subsequent meeting, Armstrong said the city has more modest plans for the 148th and 162nd station areas. “These are more residential neighborhoods, not regional centers. There might be some (future) commercial here, a place to buy a cup of coffee, but the real commercial sites are on Stark.” The city is committed to adding new streets but is prepared to be flexible about it. “We don’t want to be a slave to the 200-foot block pattern,” he said.
Most of the zone changes proposed for these areas are downzones so that new development is not looming over its neighbors as much. The exception was the southeast corner of 148th, where the city proposes to change CN2 (low-level commercial) and R2 to CS in order to legalize what’s there now.
However, city planners did see the southwest corner of 148th Avenue and East Burnside Street as an opportunity site. The discussion soon zeroed in on what sort of on-site parking a major development would have here. Litster suggested a ratio of .75 spaces per unit. To this Pamela Schlenker, a neighbor to the 148th Avenue MAX station responded, “In reality, most people have two cars per unit. Where would the rest go?”
“If someone wanted a project with more parking, he might choose not to build it here,” Litster said.
“You’re assuming developers will think about these things,” Schlenker replied. “They want to build, sell, make money and move on. Those of us who live on these streets are screwed.”
Neighbor and property owner Bernice Green chimed in, “I can’t rent to anyone who has two cars. But people who ride MAX think it’s their God-given right to park on our streets.”
Armstrong argued, “The long-term view is that people will become less dependent on cars, and there will be less vehicle miles traveled. There’ll be more services so you don’t have to drive as much.” This is already happening in inner-city neighborhoods. That precipitated a deluge.
“But we don’t live in inner Portland!” one man said.
Another added, “Keep it in inner Portland. We don’t want it here.”
There were similar reactions to proposed pedestrian improvements, especially street trees. “You guys are really big on trees,” Green told the project team. “They cover up the street lights so you can’t see a damn thing. People have just gone crazy about planting trees. Why should the property owner be responsible? They collect leaves and garbage. I’d like to take a chain saw and cut them all down!”
The project did not consider zone changes in the 122nd Avenue area since this was recently studied. It did propose a series of pedestrian-oriented improvements, and identified the park-and-ride lot and the sheriff’s office property as opportunity sites. “These are sites where we could really leverage some change,” Armstrong said. This is despite the fact that the Ron Tonkin auto dealership empire has expressed strong interest in the sheriff’s office property.
Centennial neighborhood activist Louise Cody said that too often commercially zoned property is used for housing development, leaving residents with no commercial services within walking distance. Armstrong said the city could look at requiring some commercial uses on commercial properties.
During a discussion about pedestrian improvements Schlenker complained of people “jay-walking with their little doo-dads, walking right in front of you.” She suggested stopping all traffic at major intersections “so you give pedestrians a chance to get the hell out of the way.”
Green agreed, “You have to watch out not to hit those idiots.”
Armstrong said there would be specific recommendations for the stations and areas around them in May, followed by open houses for neighbors to see the results and comment to planners, but probably not in the same way.
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| Focused site study renderings for the Parkrose/Sumner and E.122nd Ave/Menlo Park & Ride Transit Station. Focused site studies are conceptual development plans to determine financial feasibility and explore what buildings at future development sites might look like. These are renderings of what current zoning might allow a developer to do, with an overhead and birds-eye view of possible development of the Park & Ride lot at Parkrose Sumner Transit Center. No specific developments are proposed at this time. | ||
| Submitted Graphics | ||
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