6 • The Southwest Portland Post
October 2008
NEwS
Garden Home:
Flower plantings planned
for Oleson Road islands
By Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
On October 18th, the Garden
Home Crossing Committee vol-
unteers will plant daffodil bulbs,
shrubs and trees in six new pedes-
trian refuge median islands con-
structed as part of the Oleson Road
project. Volunteers will also add
3000 daffodil bulbs and plants to
the new Oleson streetside gardens
planted last May.
These gardens will be part of
Washington County’s new “Adopt-
a-Landscape” program that allows
community volunteers to add and
maintain landscaping within the
street right-of-way.
Following the planting which
starts at 9:00 a.m., a community
celebration including dedication of
the new gardens and lunch (Charles
and Janice Moss’ Texas Pit BBQ)
will be held outside at the Garden
Home Recreation Center’s lower
level. Everyone is invited – just let
the leaders know if you’ll be there.
A voluntary donation will be re-
quested to help pay for the lunch.
The dedication will include thanks
to the Citizen Participation Organi-
zation Special Projects Fund and all
the individuals and businesses that
provided money for plants in the 12
new Oleson Road gardens.
Volunteers and donations are
needed. To volunteer for the plant-
ing and fall clean-up and to RSVP
for lunch, please call Carol at 503-
290-6728 or Terry at 503-244-3489
or go to www.gardenhomecrossing.
org to donate for plant purchases.
Please respond by October 11th.
The Garden Home Crossing
Committee is a group of local gar-
deners and supporters who plant
and maintain the median islands
at the intersection of Garden Home
and Oleson Roads and provide the
hanging flower baskets at the in-
tersection and at the Garden Home
Recreation Center.
They also planted the new gar-
dens at 80th and Oleson and near
the Portland Clinic last May. Ac-
cording to Terry Moore, this is their
12th year of “weeding, watering,
and working to keep the garden in
Garden Home!”
Flowers are planted and maintained in the islands at Southwest Garden Home Road and
Olsen Road intersection by members of the Garden Home Crossing Committee. (Post
photo by Don Snedecor)
South Waterfront development
regulations considered by design
commission
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Autumn Special!
¼ Page
½ Price
Full Color!
Call Don or Harry
at 503-244-6933
for Details
The Portland Planning Bureau
staff last month gave a preview of
proposed new South Waterfront
design regulations to a skeptical
Portland Design Commission.
As planners Troy Doss and Lora
Lillard explained, the Bureau is
making minor modifications on
a vision for the area adopted in
2004. Among other things, they are
removing code incentives for the
development of housing as unnec-
essary, since such development is
occurring at a rapid rate.
The planners also proposed to
exempt hotels from a provision
that prohibits any commercial use
larger than 60,000 square feet; this
provision was intended to keep out
“Big Box” retail, Doss explained,
and was not intended to apply to
hotels.
The biggest addition, and the
source of the most commission
comment, regarded the 100-foot
wide area west of the top of the Wil-
lamette River bank designated the
Greenway. The City has a detailed
plan for the greenway, Doss said,
but property owners have the right
to deviate from this to some extent
as long as they retain features such
as public bike and pedestrian trails
and habitat restoration.
If the owners adhere to the city’s
plan, the city will assume respon-
sibility for maintenance of the gre-
enway once it is created; otherwise
the property owner will retain that
responsibility.
Regarding this last, commission
chair Lloyd Lindley asked, “Sup-
pose a property owner elects to go
his own way, and then the property
is sold? You’d have a 100-foot swath
that goes to seed.”
“I can’t give you any more cer-
tainty than that the city has an en-
forcement process,” Doss replied.
Two other commission members,
Tim Eddy and Andrew Jansky,
found the existing plan very de-
manding, and questioned how
many owners would adhere to it.
“There’s a whole lot of good stuff
in here, but (what) if only a couple
of people do it?,” asked Jansky.
Doss replied, “At the end of the
day it’s their decision how to make
that call. We hope it will all fit to-
gether and not look like a Franken-
stein’s monster of disjointed parts.”
Another provision governs “ac-
tive ground floor uses,” a zoning
code goal throughout the city.
Commission member Jeff Stuhr
pointed out that the draft regula-
tions require such uses to be “ori-
ented toward the river,” but there
were no requirements that develop-
ers have such uses. “A developer
could say, ‘Well, this doesn’t apply
to me,’ and just ignore it,” he said.
Eddy said, “I wonder if we could
put more teeth into this? We’ve
long had an absolute requirement
that new development downtown
have ground floor retail, with no
consideration of whether there’s
any market for it.
Here we’ve spent time designing
every square inch on the greenway
side of the path, and on the other
side it’s left up to the development
community and the public space
absolutely stops at the property
line. This is a step in the right direc-
tion, but we’d like it to have more
teeth.” The commission will have a
second review of the proposal later
this year.