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| Mid-county resident Dave Gray asks questions of Sharon Kelly at the official kickoff event for the Streetcar System Plan held at Parkrose High School last month. Kelly, representing URS Corporation, is working with the city to provide professional planning, engineering and architectural design. The Streetcar System Plan is the long-range planning effort to re-introduce streetcars to Portland’s inner east side and to introduce them to outer East Portland. |
| MEMO PHOTO: TIM CURRAN |
Currently, the car runs from Northwest 23rd Avenue and Lovejoy Street through the Pearl and downtown to Southwest Lowell Street at the end of the developing South Waterfront District. A proposed extension, currently seeking funding, would run through the near-in east side between the Broadway Bridge and a new span to be built near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Adams, who gave a brief speech at the Parkrose open house, said that new routes would not necessarily have to extend to downtown, at least not immediately, and would not necessarily have to go through urban renewal districts. “It can be creative,” he said.
It would have to clear three “hurdles,” he said. “Is the ridership there? Can the land be redeveloped (to higher density)? Is there a desire to redevelop? If you don’t want density, we respect that. But if you’re interested in redevelopment, this is something you should look at. This is a chance to kick the tires.”
Streetcar advocates claim that the presence of the facility results in much more redevelopment, at higher densities, on adjacent land than would otherwise occur. Adams argued that this is necessary, given an expected in-migration to the region and the end of cheap gasoline.
“The era of cheap oil is over,” he said. “Gasoline now costs more than $90 a barrel. Economically challenged people are spending more on transportation than they are on food and shelter.” For the sake of such people, “We need alternatives to a fossil fuel-dependent transportation system. Our carbon footprint is so much less when people aren’t driving alone.”
The mood at the first open house was a mixture of interest and skepticism. Anti-development activist Jim Karlock asked about the amount of increased density the city’s neighborhoods could expect. Adams said he wasn’t sure, and that much of it could be accommodated with existing zoning. However, he said, “People are coming here whether we want them or not.”
Asked about the benefits of streetcars and development, he said, “There will be more amenities close to you. That, in itself, reduces congestion. It’s so much better for seniors and people who have trouble moving around.”
Parks proposes development fee increase
The Portland Bureau of Parks & Recreation is proposing to more than double its System Development Charges (SDCs) for new housing development and to add a charge for commercial development or expansion. The funds would be used for new park development.
Currently, Portland builders are required to pay $3,117 per unit on home construction in SDCs. This, parks advocates point out, is the third lowest of 14 local jurisdictions collecting such fees and, they argue, it pays for just 20 to 26 percent of the cost of the new park facilities that new development makes necessary. The proposed increase would raise this rate to $8,632 per unit for parks development in the central city, and $7,879 everywhere else. The highest fee now is charged by West Linn: $8,029 per unit. In addition, the new commercial fee would charge $410 for every new employee added in the central city, $228 elsewhere.
The fees must be spent in the area they are collected in. Because of this, Mid-county, with its high rate of new development, stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
Hazelwood parks advocate Linda Robinson told the Memo that within PP&R, “There was a strong move not to add to the parks system, to just take care of what we have. Well, that’s not too cool for people out here.”
Some critics have said that the rate increase is extreme, enough so to end development. The builders are already suffering from an increase in construction costs, these critics say.
“The homebuilders said the same thing when they first put in the fees (in 1998),” Robinson said. “It didn’t then and it won’t now. They were already paying for water and sewer costs and for some of the roads. With construction costs going up, the SDCs will be a lower percentage of the costs. The way things are now, the deficit for park development just keeps getting bigger.”
The issue will go before the Portland City Council for action at 2 p.m. on Dec. 12 at City Hall.
102nd construction open house scheduled
The Portland Office of Transportation has scheduled an open house to provide information on construction activity related to the 102nd Avenue Project. It will take place from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 11 at the East Portland Community Center, 740 S.E. 106th Ave. Phase One of the project, between Northeast Glisan and Weidler streets, will begin the second week of January, probably at Glisan, Project Manager Dan Layden said. The work may result in temporary lane closures at times, but the hours of construction will be limited to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to reduce the effect on rush-hour traffic.
Two Parkrose NA events
Parkrose School District and Parkrose Neighborhood Association will co-host Family Night beginning at 6 p.m. on Dec. 12 at Prescott Elementary School. There will be pizza and ice cream, though not necessarily in direct combination. Although this will be an indoor event, it will also be a celebration of the school’s new park and community garden.
On the afternoon of Dec. 15, the neighborhood association will be doing a bulb planting at Senn’s Dairy Park, Northeast Prescott Street at 112th Avenue. Rain or shine. Dress to work with soil.
In a related — and belated — announcement, longtime volunteer Mary Walker has replaced Marcy Emerson-Peters as chair. Emerson-Peters has moved on to be the group’s land use chair.
Banfield seeks pet food donations
Banfield, The Pet Hospital, in partnership with Meals On Wheels, is seeking donations of pet food for low-income people. As Kelsey Huwaldt of Banfield told the Madison South Neighborhood Association last month, some Meals On Wheels clients will skimp dangerously on their own food intake to keep their pets fed. Donations can be made through December to any Banfield facility.
Big boxers, neighbors meet
Representatives of the Madison South and Roseway neighborhood associations met last month with their counterparts from the SmartCentres Corporation of Canada. The latter has been trying to create a big box retail project on a 26-acre former landfill on Northeast 82nd Avenue at Siskiyou Street, across from Madison High School. The neighborhood groups have opposed the project as unsuitable for the site and detrimental to the community in several ways. Two months ago SmartCentres withdrew its development application and canceled a scheduled public hearing, apparently in response to the widespread opposition and critical city staff evaluations.
According to reports, at the meeting Madison South board member Frank Walsh told the SmartCentres people, “Should SmartCentres with the land at 82nd and Siskiyou be available, we need to see a plan that is radically different from the original application. And if this is not something that is a possibility from SmartCentres’ perspective, then we respectfully ask them to walk away from this development and pursue other, more appropriate locations.”
Flavio Volpe, SmartCentres communications director, indicated to the Memo that the course the neighborhood asked for might not be out of the question. “We are looking at all options in the built form, and uses other than retail,” he said in a phone interview. What they did not propose to do is disappear: “We fully intend to make a proposal to build something on that site.”
Walsh reported that he asked why SmartCentres had chosen Portland for its first U.S. development venture. (It has 185 shopping centers in Canada.) According to Madison South, SmartCentres’ Andrew Sinclair responded, “Why not?”
Volpe gave the Memo a slightly more cogent response: “Portland is vibrant and well-informed. It’s a great place to launch our U.S. business venture.” He added, “We understand that every principality has different needs.”
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