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| Hazelwood HydroPark nears completion Editor’s note: For your reading pleasure, we present Perlman’s potpourri — a roundup of news items from the neighborhoods of Gateway and Parkrose in Mid-Multnomah County from veteran Beat Reporter Lee Perlman. Perlman attends dozens of meetings and reports on important concerns, issues and events relevant to everyday life in the Parkrose and Gateway neighborhoods. In August’s potpourri Perlman reports on the steady progress of improvements to the Hazelwood HydroPark, the new public parking garage at the Gateway Transit Center, and the Parks Bureau’s permitting for Glenhaven Skatepark adjacent to Madison High School. Also in this month’s potpourri, Perlman tells us about the new private off-leash dog park next to the new Banfield Pet Hospital corporate headquarters. Perlman also reports on the apprehension of members of the Gateway Urban Renewal Program Advisory Committee to City Commissioner Erik Sten’s new “30 percent rule.” Perlman follows the progress of the 102nd Avenue Improvement Project as it attempts to get a chunk of funding to complete the second and final phase of the project, all the way to Stark Street. At the invitation of the Portland Planning Commission, a cadre of heavyweight Mid-county citizen activists, with others from around the city, held a “sit-down” meeting to find out how these activists thought the city was doing with issues like infill development and design, traffic and sidewalks, and trees and parks. From a Hazelwood Neighborhood Association meeting Perlman attended, he reports on the board putting a home developer through its paces. Perlman’s final report this month is spicy. iCandy Bar & Grill, a new “sex bar” near 122nd on Southeast Division Street, has irked neighbors because of suggestive signage and bikini-clad ladies sunbathing and waving to passing motorists. Who ever said neighborhood news reporting is dull? LEE PERLMAN THE MID-COUNTY MEMO Transit garage open, clinic to follow A new public garage, with 480 spaces dedicated to Gateway Transit Center users, opened in early June. An adjacent headquarters building for the Oregon Clinic, a joint project by the clinic, the Portland Development Commission and the Gerding-Edlen Company, should be complete in September, according to PDC’s Sara King. Skatepark seeks approval The Portland Parks Bureau has formally applied for a conditional use permit to build its planned 10,000 square-foot skateboard park at Glenhaven Park, on Northeast 82nd adjacent to Madison High School. Construction should be underway by fall, according to bureau spokesperson Rod Wojtanik. Banfield dog park nears opening The public off-leash dog park at Banfield Pet Hospital corporate headquarters should be open for public use by early September, according to hospital sources. People interested in using the park can pick up instruction packets at the building, on Northeast 82nd Avenue at Tillamook Street, starting Aug. 25. Dog owners will be required to obtain certificates from veterinarians that their dogs have had the appropriate inoculations. They will also need to have a Banfield Pet Hospital trainer certify that the dogs have “pleasant dispositions,” and will not be a danger to other dogs. Once owners have completed the requirements, they will be given access cards that will enable them to enter the park at any time. The 1.7-acre field will be subdivided into areas for larger and smaller dogs. The park also has a water feature where breeds such as Labrador retrievers can frolic. Dogs and owners will enter through a kind of gatehouse, providing them with shelter, a bathroom and a place to sit while the dogs play. It also contains a sink suitable for washing dogs before returning to vehicles.
Work is progressing on the proposed new Hazelwood HydroPark, a four-acre parcel housing a water tank and the old Hazelwood Water District headquarters building at Northeast 117th Avenue and Holladay Street. It is one of four Portland Water Bureau properties being converted for greater public use in a pilot project conceived by Commissioner Randy Leonard. A pathway and new park benches should be installed by August, Water Bureau spokesperson Sara Bott told the Memo. According to East Portland Neighborhood Office Executive Director Richard Bixby, the office will move into its new location in the headquarters building in late Aug., probably August 21. Bixby said the office will be “down” for one day, but hopefully no longer than that. Still to come is a planned water feature. On hold for now are two other improvements. The promised resurfacing of Northeast 117th Avenue will be delayed a year due to a backlog in Portland Maintenance Bureau’s roadwork schedule, Bott said. As for a proposed community garden, this has been put on hold due to differences among neighbors as to whether this is appropriate here. “We’re new at this, and we don’t want to take a wrong step,” she said. 30 percent affordable housing rule worries Gateway The Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee (PAC) last month debated a new “30 percent set aside” rule for city urban renewal districts. Conceived by Commissioner Erik Sten and approved by the Portland City Council, it stipulates that each urban renewal district, including Gateway, must set aside 30 percent of its budget for “affordable” housing. PAC members reacted to the proposal with some dismay. “This hurts us several different ways,” Developer Dick Cooley said. “In order to have a higher-quality mixed-use area, we need higher demographics.” More low-income housing would send the district in the opposite direction, he said. More students from poverty backgrounds would be a greater burden for schools. Most significantly, any affordable housing is likely to benefit from tax abatement, meaning it will generate no tax increment funds for area projects. This last point “hits this district harder,” Cooley said. “(Districts such as) South Waterfront have already invested a lot of money in TIF-generating projects. We haven’t.” Frieda Christopher of David Douglas School District said, “The last thing we need is more tax-abated housing. We decided that economic development is the key in this area.” “This would mean a loss of land for development for jobs,” Alesia Reese of Woodland Park agreed. “If they’re going to do this set-aside, we should put pressure on to have the minimum it can be,” Christopher said. PAC Chair Dorene Warner said that the city has a policy of not concentrating too much low-income housing in one community. With the new policy, they may be “shooting themselves in the foot,” she said. Portland Development Commission’s Leah Greenwood said that the directive from City Council made clear “it’s not a question of whether” the set-aside rule would apply to Gateway. However, she said, many details about how the policy will be implemented from district to district have yet to be decided. There will be at least two public meetings in August (dates were not available at press time), and “What drives the results will be the input council hears,” she said. In other Opportunity Gateway news, Warner was re-elected as chair of the group last month. >>continued |
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