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122nd Avenue Study tackles car dealership regulations

Do you accommodate or discourage car lots near light rail?

LEE PERLMAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

The much-anticipated 122nd Avenue Study is about to get under way, Portland city planner Barry Manning told the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association last month.

A response to complaints about zoning regulations by Ron Tonkin Auto Dealerships raised more than a year ago, the study will consider whether such regulations should be retained, eliminated, or modified in some way.

The issues were raised during the Gateway Planning Regulations Project, which examined land use regulations in the Gateway Urban Renewal District and what became known as the East Corridor, between Northeast Glisan and Southeast Stark Streets. Hazelwood Neighborhood Association Chairwoman Arlene Kimura and other Hazelwood leaders asked for the new study to examine a broader area. Last month Manning told them they had gotten their wish in this respect at least: the study boundaries will be Northeast San Rafael to Southeast Taylor streets.

In general, development regulations in the East Corridor are less strict than in the heart of Gateway to the west - except within a certain radius of TriMet MAX Light Rail stations such as the one on East Burnside Street at 122nd Avenue.

“It’s city policy to encourage transit-oriented development that’s pedestrian friendly near light rail,” Manning said. “In a pedestrian area you want pedestrian activities, wide sidewalks, buildings pulled up to the sidewalks and fewer surface parking lots. That policy has been in place for 20 years.” The problem is that before that, auto dealerships moved into the area.

“They have the right to continue their operations,” Manning said. “The key question is, do we allow dealerships to remodel and expand?”

Through the Gateway Regulations Project, many of the regulations that would interfere with such remodeling and expansion were eliminated. Auto repair was allowed at dealerships, and regulations governing pedestrian access and public open space were modified. The biggest remaining issue is a prohibition against “exterior display and storage” of merchandise, including cars, near light rail stations.

How to treat expansion?
“The question is whether the policy is aimed in the right direction,” Manning said. “Do we liberalize it, or hold firm and wait for appropriate development? Are there ways to integrate dealerships that are pedestrian friendly, and transition over time? Do we wait for transit-oriented development in the future, even if the market doesn’t allow for it today?”

Tonkin has its partisans who say the car empire is important to area business and needs to be accommodated. One who took this view was Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard. Last year, overruling his own bureau staff, he declared a new building on a Tonkin dealership to be a “remodel,” permitted under pre-existing rights.

Those present at Hazelwood saw some logic in a firm stance. Manning noted that the area to the west has seen “a fair amount of infill housing (development). They need to shop, but what is there for them here other than Safeway?” “Nothing, and that’s the problem,” Kimura said. Gayland German, who lives one block from 122nd Avenue, told Manning, “The last thing we need is an 82nd Avenue strip. I thought the purpose of light rail was to get people out of their cars.”
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