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LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
Last month, the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission heard a detailed report about the progress of the East Portland Action Plan, and the efforts of community activists to reverse the negative trends in the east Multnomah County.
However, minutes earlier, the commission had helped move some of those negative trends forward.
During a report on the progress of the East Portland Action Plan, 15 speakers under the direction of city employee Lore Wintergreen testified to an impressive list of accomplishments, especially in terms of transportation projects. These included $3 million allocated for new bike boulevards, new crossings on Southeast 122nd Avenue near the Midland Library, and the Oregon Department of Transportation project on Sandy Boulevard.
Other high points were Linda Robinson's work on the proposed Gateway Green recreation area; the translation of information into Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese and Somali, led by fulltime AmeriCorps member Mike Vander Veen; the MAXaction project, using 40 volunteers to survey light rail riders; and grant programs that have dispersed $350,000 for local projects and leveraged nearly $700,000 in pledged contributions.
Lead speaker Katie Larsell said that too often, “Good plans (get) put together by good people full of great ideas that just seem to languish on dusty shelves where they go to die.” The EPAP committee's answer is a multi-targeted approach that calls for advocating for the area's needs through as many city processes as possible.
Chris Smith responded, “I'm astounded by what you've done. Talk about assets, this part of the city rocks! Keep going!”
Commission chair Andre Baugh said, “This is the essence of what the Portland Plan should do.”
EPAP member and Hazelwood Neighborhood Association chair Arlene Kimura replied, “This is validation that we're on the right track.”
“Not only are you on the right track, you're leading the track,” Baugh said.
Critics of EPAP say that despite becoming adept at artless self-congratulation, what EPAP has accomplished is the creation of one more government job - with more to follow - whose core mission provides a fig leaf of accountability to the city, while wallpapering over the endemic neglect since the area's annexation 25 years ago. As inner North and Northeast Portland gentrify, it forces low-income people to head eastward looking for cheaper rents; at the same time, thousands of immigrants are landing east of 82nd Avenue, while the lack of authentic, strong leadership in east Portland hinders opportunities to bring significant change to the area. In addition, skeptics say that despite being a group of well meaning folks, EPAP adds another level of bureaucracy by overseeing money already allocated for planned projects, then taking credit for them with liberal accounting methods.
Before hearing the EPAP report, the commission had reviewed a request from a consortium of non-profits asking for ten years of tax abatement for the Ash Street project, a new 47-unit apartment building at 12026 S.E. Ash St. Development team representatives said the building will contain 23 one-bedroom and 24 two-bedroom units. Twenty percent of the units will be reserved for people earning 60 percent or less of median area family income. Jae Javanje, one of the two principal partners, said that 34 units have already rented.
Rob Justus, the other principal partner and founder of the non-profit JOIN, told the commission, “I was really frustrated with the lack of affordable housing available to people coming out of homelessness. In 2006 and 2007 I convinced a couple of my board members to create a housing project that was mission-driven, that did not tap into the usual funding sources and that kept costs low.”
Initially, commission members asked why the developers had not included larger units, of three to four bedrooms, useable by large families. “This is not Goose Hollow; there are a lot of families here,” Commission member Irma Valdez said. Planner Uma Krishnan said the abatement program did not dictate what sizes the units should be.
Annette Mattson, vice-chair of the David Douglas School District board, said that the number of families in the area was precisely the problem as far as she was concerned. The district is already at capacity, and has no means to add more facilities at this time, yet more affordable housing projects likely to contain children continue to be built in the area, and they regularly receive tax exemptions. Currently, she said, 26 to 28 percent of all property in the district is temporarily or permanently tax-exempt.
“These exemptions have slowly accumulated, without any consideration or study of the broader community impact over time, or even on the mission and responsibilities of our schools,” Mattson said. “Every exemption you give puts a greater burden on the property owners -- the homeowners and businesses within the (district) that do NOT have exemptions. The David Douglas School District has about the lowest tax assessed property value per student in the state.” She added that 78 percent of the district's students qualify for a free or reduced lunch, indicating a background of poverty that places extra burdens on the district. She concluded, “There is nothing less than equity at stake here.”
Javanje said he “sympathized” with David Douglas but added, “There are groups with limited income needing affordable housing.” Asked by commission member Don Hanson if he paid the system development charges normally assessed against developers Javanje said, “No. If we had to, we couldn't make this work.”
Commission members seemed conflicted by the testimony. Howard Shapiro told Mattson, “I find your testimony compelling. We're between a rock and a hard place. We do need to provide affordable housing where it's needed.”
Commission member Chris Smith said, “I'm very torn on this. It supports lots of policies we've been encouraging, and the developers are playing by the rules.” However, he said, “I'm thinking of the equity goals of the Portland Plan. We're seeing concentrations of low income housing in certain parts of the city. We're making this worse rather than better.”
Commission member Don Hanson said, “I'm also torn. I sometimes feel the table is tipped and the (affordable housing) is all going to one place. The reason is the land is more affordable; building costs are pretty much the same everywhere. We need to look at the contextual issues Annette raised.”
In contrast, commission member Irma Valdez said, “I feel I'm the only person in the room saying 'sales tax'. We can't dictate where people live; if people want to live in David Douglas, there's nothing we can do about it. We'll have to make choices we don't like.”
Commission member Mike Houck said, “I'm not torn in the least, I'll vote for this, but I feel the bigger issues need to be addressed.”
Commission member Karen Fischer Gray, who also serves as Parkrose School District superintendent, said, “When you think of putting a lot of new people into an area, think of the services they need. There's so much inequity. It's not good for kids to be in overcrowded schools, and it's not good for the community.” Gray was the only commission member to vote against the abatement for Ash Street; eight others voted for it.
Senior planner Joe Zehnder said that the issue was one of “concurrency - matching facilities to need. Up to now in terms of siting we've been opportunistic.” He promised to provide more information on where and how the city provides property tax exemptions.
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