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Cooley steps down as urban renewal “dictator”; elections planned

Gateway Bingo Parlor site to become park - $5 million goes to light rail as PAC continues to move and shake the area

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

Since its inception in 1999 Dick Cooley has been Chair of the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee, or PAC. Cooley steps down this year with a new chair to be elected soon. PAC is the urban renewal advisory committee for all Gateway urban renewal. The goal of Gateway’s urban renewal is to establish Gateway as a Regional Center, as designated in the METRO plan.
The Gateway Urban Renewal District is “maturing,” and this means that many things are changing, including the rules by which it runs. As development continues in the 130-acre district bounded roughly by the I-205 Freeway, Northeast Glisan and Southeast Market streets and 106th Avenue, the amount of tax increment financing reserved for it increases. In fiscal year 2004-2005, its fifth, this amount including carry-over will be more than $2 million. Of this, the largest expenditure, $765,000, will be for staff costs and overhead. There is also $50,000 as local match to federal funds for the redesign of 102nd Avenue, a project that will eventually cost $5 to $7 million; and $80,000 for the reconstruction of the Northeast 99th Avenue and Glisan Street intersection.

However, as in past years, the district’s goals will fall short of its resources. PDC’s popular Storefront Improvement program will receive $100,000, rather than the $125,000 originally envisioned. There are bigger shortfalls. Acquisition of land for mixed-income housing development will receive $400,000 rather than the $1 million originally budgeted; commercial development land acquisition $400,000 instead of $2,300,000, “business retention and recruitment” $50,000 instead of $125,000. Commercial redevelopment of an acre of the Gateway Transit Center, is scheduled to receive $100,000 this year and $1 million in each of the next four years, has no funding on the horizon at all.

The changes are due in part to economic downturns that have held new development to below projected levels, in part due to the Shiloh Inn court case that changed how tax increment funds are collected.

Light rail gets $5 million of “local” funds
One element seems to be a constant: funds supposedly slated for Gateway are to be funneled to someone else’s agenda. During its first year local leaders were dismayed to find that Commissioner Dan Saltzman was offering more than $2 million of their budget to Multnomah County for construction of the Child Receiving Center, which would add nothing to property tax generation and, as far as they could see, contribute nothing to its mission. (Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee (PAC) chair Dick Cooley bargained this down to slightly under $1 million.)

In the 2004-5 fiscal year, every urban renewal district will be called on to pay its proportionate share for two new light rail lines. One line extending south along the I-205 corridor, the other line through downtown Portland before crossing the river and proceeding through the inner east side, at a total cost of $500 million. Gateway’s share will be $5 million out of a budget of $7,350,000.

When this was announced at last month’s PAC meeting, committee member David Panichello was moved to ask, “Are there any other surprises like this waiting for us?”

PDC to buy Bingo Parlor for park
There is some good news for the district. According to Portland Development Commission Staffer Sara King, her agency hopes to complete purchase of the long-vacant 2.2 acre Bingo Parlor site at Northeast 106th Avenue and Wasco Street, for creation of a one-acre neighborhood park from the Ukrainian Bible Church. The church had always shown willingness to sell the land but at one point, impatient with PDC’s failure to secure funding, said they planned to proceed to build a badly needed new church on the property.

A new element of the plan is that PDC will use part of the site for mixed-income housing development. “We will do no formal planning for this without you,” King assured the committee.

Elections scheduled
There will be change this year as well to the structure of the urban renewal program’s governing body, the Program Advisory Committee, (PAC). In this respect it is not unique. As King told the committee, “What our commission doesn’t like is that we have 10 urban renewal districts that all operate very differently.” They have put together a set of procedures for the operation of the advisory committees. Somewhat ambiguously, King said, “We’re under no obligation to conform to them,” but, “if we stray too far from them . . we’re heretics,” a committee member suggested. Heretical or not, the PDC procedures differ in several respects from the way the Gateway PAC has done business up to now. For one thing, they call for an annual election of chair and vice-chair after preparation by a nominating committee. Cooley has continued as chair for the last five years, with no designated vice-chair.

“We’ve never had an election process,” Cooley said. “I’m very proud of the way this group has built itself up into a viable contributor to the city. But we’ve reached the point where we need new leadership.” While assuring the committee that he would remain active, he said, “Five years (as chair) is more than enough. In the startup phase we can be dictatorial, but this is no longer a startup.”

As his last “dictatorial act”, Cooley appointed Hazelwood Neighborhood Association chair Arlene Kimura chair of the first nominating committee. She was joined by Gateway Area Business Association (GABA) chair Fred Sanchez and Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) staffer Renee Jensen. Elections will be held this month.

If Gateway adopted all of PDC’s proposed procedures, there would be major changes. The committee currently contains six paid public servants, and PDC’s guidelines call for them to have no votes. Cooley urged the group to continue the current procedure.

Another rule stipulates that committees must meet within district boundaries. King said it has been hard to find a location that is consistently available. One site often used, Woodland Park Hospital, closed last month. Yet another calls for elections in June. There are also regulations about attendance and filling vacancies.

Woodland Park Neighborhood Association chair Alesia Reese called for Gateway to write its own rules. “Instead of saying, ‘We’re going to fudge here and fudge there, we should have our own unique rules that fit us,’ “ she said. “In the future we’ll have more spending and more decisions to make. It’s better to have written guidelines for future leaders.”

“ At this point Alesia, we have no rules; I make them up,” Cooley said. “But there’s virtue to having them written down.” King agreed, “I’d be uncomfortable invoking (PDC’s procedures) sometimes and not others, depending on whether it’s convenient.”

However, Both Cooley and King said it would not be a simple matter to make major changes in the rules once they were adopted.

From decay to play. A portion of this burned site, the former Gateway Bowl (more recently Gateway Bingo) at Northeast 106th Avenue and Wasco Street, is slated to become a neighborhood park if PDC can complete the deal.

MEMO PHOTO: TIM CURRAN
Development: planning and reality
In a related development, the PAC has started to do economic development planning under realtor Dann Wonser. There is a chance to bring in more medical facilities, he said since, due to the presence of an expanding Portland Adventist Hospital, “Many physicians want to practice here.” However, he added, this brings up an issue: “Do you want to bring in jobs that offer higher income, but also demand higher education than the people living here already have?” In other words, will such jobs go to Gateway residents or those outside the district?

Panichello said that in this area, “I’m convinced that it would make sense to contribute seed money for something huge. You’re not going to get small business growth without it.”

Dorene Warner, noting that economic development represents more than half the district’s budget, said, “Personally I’d like this to be part of a plan, rather than our just reacting to things.”

As they spoke, a new multi-family project by developer Andy Kelley was under way on Northeast Glisan Street at 99th Avenue, and another, by Gordon Jones, is expected to happen soon.

In yet another development, the Portland Planning Commission was expected to complete work on the Gateway Planning Regulations Project by late January. The project is a re-examination of zoning and design regulations in the area. Barry Manning, who will continue to work on issues in the area after the current work is adopted, has replaced the principal author of the proposals, Ellen Ryker.
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