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Gateway Urban Renewal Area decides how to use funds
Like many other such sessions last month, the Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee meeting was canceled. Unlike most of them, this gathering was not due to the January snowfall. Megan Gibb, who had been assigned to serve the area by the Portland Development Commission two months before, resigned from the agency.

Meanwhile, PDC and the Portland City Council continued to look at how they will use the proposed new Affordable Housing Set-Aside fund. This is a portion of each urban renewal district’s budget that will be reserved for the development and/or preservation of affordable housing and related activities. In the case of Gateway and three other districts, the designated set-aside is 30 percent of the total budget.

Within this subcategory, staffers Leah Greenwood and Andy Wilch have drafted proposals for how the set-aside should be spent. For Gateway and three other districts, they propose the following:

•A minimum of 35 percent of the funds to be spent on rental housing and development for people earning zero to 30 percent of median area household income. This should produce somewhere between 140 and 440 housing units within the four districts.

•A maximum of 45 percent to be spent on rentals and home ownership opportunities for people earning 31 to 60 percent of median income. This should produce up to 450 units.

•A minimum of 20 percent, and a maximum of 30 percent, to be spent on home ownership opportunities for people earning 61 to 80 percent of median, or up to 100 percent if the housing in question has at least three bedrooms per unit and thus would support families with children. This should produce 200 to 300 units.

•A maximum of 10 percent for public facilities that serve predominantly low-income people.

The PDC, and especially commission member Sal Kadri, continues to push for more of the funds to be allocated for home ownership opportunities, while low-income housing advocates want more directed toward housing for very low-income people. Both seem to favor a proposal to amend state law to allow, for the first time, urban renewal funds gathered within a given district to be spent outside that district.

Gilbert seeks master plan
According to Arlene Kimura, Hazelwood Neighborhood Association chair, developer Ted Gilbert may pursue a master plan for his property — across the street from the Gateway Fred Meyer at Northeast 102nd Avenue and Pacific Street — a course long favored by city planners. Gilbert has been trying to build a four-story mixed-use structure that he said would be the first phase of development of the property. However, in a year of trying, he has been unable to come up with a scheme that he feels is financially feasible and also meets city regulations. Gilbert could not be reached for comment at press time.
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