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New 122nd Avenue workshop meeting set
The next public workshop of the 122nd Avenue Area Study will be 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 4 at the East Portland Community Center, 740 S.E. 106th Ave.
The study is primarily looking at how the ubiquitous car dealerships on the avenue between Northeast Weidler and Southeast Washington streets can be accommodated while keeping true to land use and transportation goals to make the area near transit stations urban and pedestrian friendly. The projects is looking at a range of approaches, from toeing the line on existing regulations to conceding defeat and recognize the area as predominantly the home of auto dealers. According to project manager Barry Manning, the project advisory committee is looking at something in between these extremes.
“The public input we got was that refusing to accommodate the auto dealers didn’t make sense,” Manning told the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association last month. “People said, ‘They’re here, deal with it.’ On the other hand, people didn’t want the whole area to be an auto mall.”
Hazelwood board member Barbara Harris said the committee was impressed with the design of some dealerships, such as the Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo outlet.
Glenhaven chosen as skatepark
The Portland Parks Bureau has made a preliminary choice of Glenhaven Park, on Northeast 82nd Avenue adjacent to Madison High School, as the site for a new skateboard park.
“It has strong community support, it already has parking and restrooms, and it’s already owned by the city,” Linda Robinson, an East Portland representative on the bureau’s skateboard advisory committee, told the Memo.
The ownership issue pushed the Glenhaven site ahead of land owned by the Parkrose “It’s also high on the list, but it will take time,” Robinson said.
The bureau decided against proceeding with any “skate spots,” small facilities intended primarily for young skaters. “The group felt that it would be a mistake to do small spots at this time,” Robinson said. With so few other options such facilities “would be over-crowded, and that would create opposition in the surrounding neighborhoods,” she said.
In a related issue, the bureau plans to move forward with a master plan for Holladay East Park, including an off-least dog area, on Northeast Holladay Street between 128th and 131st Avenues.
Columbia Knoll lines
We got it just a tad wrong last month. For information and applications for units at The Terrace At Columbia Knoll, the project’s all-ages and family component, call 503-255-5100. For information and pre-applications to The Heights, the senior residential structure, call 503-203-1094. Both are components of Columbia Knoll, the 335-unit multi-purpose housing development now under construction at the old Shrine Hospital property on Northeast Sandy Boulevard at 82nd Avenue.
Asian American Shopping Center planned
Mytien and Tieno Huynh, owners of the Portland Beauty School at 3152 N.E. 82nd Ave., plan to build a shopping mall, with 15,000 square feet of retail space to start with, more to follow, on Northeast Siskiyou Street east of 82nd Avenue, across from Madison High School. Potential tenants include a restaurant and an Asian market, they say. Construction is set to start this summer, with a grand opening in May 2006 marked by a multi-cultural festival.
Shepard calls for a lower Gateway light rail share
For the most part, Opportunity Gateway Program Advisory Committee chair Duke Shepard told the Portland Development Commission board last month, his group is satisfied with its draft urban renewal budget for the coming year.
The exception is $5 million allocated as Gateway’s contribution to a new light rail line to Clackamas County. Gateway’s allocation is “not commensurate with the economic benefits received,” Shepard said. The new line will have just one station on the edge of the district at Southeast Main Street, and thus “will go through the district rather than into it,” he said. The amount allocated “hampers our ability to do anything else with urban renewal, including property acquisition and economic development.”
The commission took no action on the request at that time. However, commission member Janice Wilson said PDC’s relationship with Gateway was “a model for all other districts.” There have been changes in the planning for the new line in Gateway based on the committee’s input, she said.
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