4 • The Southwest Portland Post
NEwS
January 2009
Sellwood Bridge design could impact nearby homes and businesses
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
The Sellwood Bridge Task Force
will recommend one of six proposals
regarding the aging bridge in Janu-
ary, probably at a meeting beginning
at 5:30 p.m. January 5 at the Oregon
Museum of Science and Industry. If
the citizen group cannot decide dur-
ing that planned three hour session,
a “backup” meeting is scheduled
for January 19, according to County
spokesperson Mike Pullen.
The citizen group will be asked to
choose between five “build” alterna-
tives – two calling for renovation of
the existing 1926 span and the rest
for a new bridge – and a “no build
option. This last would shore up the
worst safety problems to allow the
bridge to be used by all vehicles for
the next 20 years.
All five of the “build” options
would require some displacement
of private property, especially on the
east side of the river. In recent de-
cades structures have been build so
close to the span that virtually any
building activity would affect them.
All five of the “build” alternatives
would displace the Sellwood Build-
ing, containing nine businesses, and
Alternatives A through D would
take out one unit in the River Park
Condominiums. Alternative B could
also affect the Riverside Corral.
Alternative D would take out four
units in Sellwood Harbor. Alterna-
tive E, which would veer north as
it proceeds across the river and
which has the longest span, would
avoid some impacts in the imme-
diate vicinity of the existing route
but created even greater disruption
elsewhere; it would take out six
residential units and two businesses
in Grand Place and another 37 busi-
nesses at River Park Center.
All five would involve some im-
pact to park facilities, ranging from
the removal of 3.8 acres for Alterna-
tive E to 4.3 for Alternative A or C.
On the west side, the greatest im-
pact would come from Alternative
C. At the east end it would have
an interchange typical of freeways
(referred to colloquially as a “trum-
pet” because of its shape) more
designed to facilitate high-speed,
high-volume movement than pro-
vide easy access.
Alternative C would require
the removal of the Staff-Jennings
Moorage. It would also make access
between Riverview Cemetery and
its funeral home so difficult that, ac-
cording to Pullen, cemetery owners
say they would likely feel compelled
to move the property.
Alternatives A and B would use a
“roundabout” configuration, while
D and E would utilize a traffic
signal to control traffic flow on the
west end. The No-Build alternative
would cost $54 million.
Of the other five, the cost would
range from $280 million for Alterna-
tive C to up to $360 for Alternative E.
The cost is dependent to some extent
on the architectural style used. For
all but Alternative E, there is an op-
tion to build in phases.
OHSU plans first building for new
19-acre South Waterfront campus
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
While construction is some ways
off, the Oregon Health and Sciences
University is already making plans
for the first building to occupy its
proposed South Waterfront campus.
OHSU’s Mark A. Williams made
the revelation last month in a brief-
ing for the Portland Planning Com-
mission on plans for the proposed
19-acre campus, on land donated by
the Schnitzer family.
To be called the City Sciences Col-
laborative Center, it would be a joint
project with Portland State Univer-
sity, Oregon State University and
others. “Even in a tight budget year
this has made it into the governor’s
budget,” Williams said.
“This is a chance to jump-start
this district,” Williams said while
cautioning that the OHSU center
would still need legislative approval
when there will be heavy demand on
state funds.
In the rest of the briefing Williams
made the same points he has in pre-
vious briefings about the proposed
campus. By design there will be
nothing that requires zone changes,
height limit modifications or other
discretionary reviews, he said.
There will be underground park-
ing, which in turn will necessitate
additional fill on the land, he said.
There will be a strong emphasis
on environmentally friendly prac-
tices and techniques, he said. He
noted that the university’s Center for
Health and Healing has a remark-
ably high 50 percent mode split (50
percent of those coming do so by
means other than private cars), “and
that’s without any bus service.”
TriMet plans to re-route south-
bound Line 35 buses from South-
west Macadam to Moody Avenue,
through the district. They have
made no independent plans for the
greenway area adjacent to the Wil-
lamette River, he said, because the
land is currently owned by the Zidel
Corporation.
OHSU hopes to acquire the prop-
erty some day, but in the meantime
“We wouldn’t want to be in the po-
sition of designing someone else’s
property.”
Williams said OHSU wants to in-
corporate a mixture of uses, includ-
ing housing, to make the campus
a “vibrant, 24-hour” place. Design
Commission member Gwen Millius
asked if the center would include
“workforce housing” that would al-
low those who worked or studied at
OHSU to live near it.
Williams said he envisioned “a
mixture” of housing types, including
student housing, housing for visiting
faculty, and market rate as well as
more affordable units.
Asked about financing for the proj-
ect or a timeline Williams said, “This
will have a multi-decade build-out.”
More facetiously he told the Com-
mission, “All I need is a couple billion
bucks and we can start moving dirt
around.”
South Waterfront Greenway
(Continued from Page 1)
Reed testified that she had used a
similar treatment to the one proposed
on an east bank project, “and it’s held
up really well. It’s difficult to see the
wall now because it’s been overtaken
by vegetation.”
Lindley asked if Marine Fisheries
has a consistent policy about such
developments, or if they are decided
on a case by case basis. “It’s evolving,”
Middaugh replied. “The feds haven’t
worked on a big river environment
like this before. We actually took them
down to the site and said, ‘What do
you want us to do here?’”
Planner Chris Caruso speculated
that in terms of protecting the river
and its fish, Marine Fisheries may
be defeating its own purpose. “One
of the reasons it’s easy to ignore the
problems of the river is that it’s so
hard to get to it,” she said. Middaugh
retorted, “It’s not the fish habitat
that’s preventing access to the river,
it’s industrial development.”