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122nd Avenue study gears up

LEE PERLMAN
The MID-COUNTY MEMO

As this issue of the Memo goes to press, planner Barry Manning of the Portland Bureau of Planning was about to get the 122nd Avenue study under way. He has assembled an advisory committee that includes Barbara Stickley of the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association, Beverly Tobias of Mill Park, and Peter Fry of the Ron Tonkin corporation, with a representative from the Gateway Area Business Association being solicited. Manning said meetings should begin by late November or early December.

The study will cover the area along 122nd Avenue between Northeast San Rafael and Southeast Taylor streets. It will look at current development regulations, designed to create a pedestrian and transit-friendly environment near the light rail station, and see if they can be made to mesh with the development needs of Ron Tonkin and other auto dealers. Some of the issues were resolved during the recent Gateway Planning Regulations Project, but the code still prohibits “exterior display and storage” for businesses in the area.

“These are policies in place we want to revisit,” Manning told Hazelwood last month. “How do you achieve your vision for this area, and how do these dealerships fit into that? We want to explore what kind of development is feasible.”

Fry said that in addition to existing businesses Tonkin wants to bring their Isuzu, Grand Tourismo and Nissan dealerships to 122nd, and existing zoning regulations stand in the way of that. “This is destination retail that’s enormously important to the area,” he said. “We bring people to the area, we employ thousands of people, we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.”

He questioned some of the basic assumptions of the zoning. 122nd is “almost twice as wide as a street in a typical pedestrian district.” Although a center median might help pedestrian access, “I don’t see this being the same as Hawthorne or Alberta.” He added, “This is one of the first areas outside downtown to get CX zoning. (The most intense zone in the code, this is geared to creating high-rise office buildings.) The area is over zoned, and the market hasn’t performed.”

Manning called the comment “a valid one.” The zoning is geared to “long-term goals,” he said.

Not all Hazelwood residents are Tonkin fans. Glenn Hartel complained that customers taking test drives use area streets as “a race track.” Gayland German said that dealers’ loudspeakers disturb the peace for neighbors, and that managers are contemptuous of complaints. Linda Robinson said she feared that new dealerships would make 122nd look “like 82nd Avenue.”

Fry said 82nd dealerships sell used cars. It is in Tonkin’s interest to make their showplaces attractive. “Cars are far more expensive than they ever were before,” he said. “More than half our customers are women. We’re getting low customer satisfaction because of competition from new places in Vancouver and Beaverton. We won’t be trying to sell cars off gravel lots.”

As to complaints about dealer behavior, he said, “That’s important for me to know because I occupy a special place in the Tonkin empire.”
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