2 • The Southwest Portland Post
EDITORIAL
June 2011
City Council authorizes use of Sears Armory for emergency operations
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
By Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
Portland City Council voted 4-1 on
May 24 to authorize the use of the Ser-
geant First Class Jerome Sears Army
Reserve Center in the Multnomah
neighborhood as an operations center.
This operations center will ensure the
City is able to effectively respond to
emergencies on the west side of the
Willamette River.
“Council’s approval of the Sears
Center for emergency operations is
a positive step towards addressing a
compelling safety need for Portland-
ers,” said Mayor Sam Adams. “Cur-
rently, no public works emergency
vehicles, equipment or supplies are
located on the west side of the Willa-
mette, leaving Portland at risk during
a significant event. Creating an emer-
gency operations center at this location
will change that.”
The Sears Center, located in South-
west Portland at 2730 SW Multnomah
Blvd, was previously identified by
the U.S. Department of Defense Base
Realignment and Closure process as
surplus property.
The City subsequently received a
public benefit conveyance from the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency authorizing the no-cost trans-
fer of the property for use as an emer-
gency operations facility.
“We know Portland is vulnerable to
earthquakes, winter weather and other
natural disasters. The use of the Sears
facility as an emergency center will
enhance the City’s overall capabilities
and enable a more timely and effective
response to emergencies,” said Carmen
Merlo, Director of the Portland Office
of Emergency Management.
After an extensive public engage-
ment process in 2007 and 2008, Council
originally recommended the redevel-
opment of the site for a mixed income,
rental and ownership housing devel-
opment.
However, after performing due
diligence, the City determined the Port-
land Housing Bureau did not have the
necessary capital to adequately fund
the project.
Additional outreach was performed
by the City in January and February
2011 to the Multnomah Neighborhood
Association to affirm the community’s
support for the site as an emergency
operations center.
But according to Moses Ross, chair
of the Multnomah Neighborhood As-
sociation, this option is not without its
critics.
“Concerns and potential site usage
issues were raised that identified un-
acceptable use of the site that are not
in the neighborhood’s best interest,”
said Ross.
“These issues surround the potential
for daily maintenance operations to
be scheduled from the site that would
generate excessive noise to a predomi-
nantly residential area.”
“General maintenance or staging
operations on the site are considered by
the neighborhood as unacceptable and
do not fit in with the neighborhood.”
“Usages beyond emergency support
do not meet the criteria or the benefits
intended by the Army for relinquishing
the property and are not supported by
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the neighborhood.”
This was re-en-
forced by a motion
that the neighbor-
hood only supports
this property use
type if it is limited to
emergency use. This
motion passed with
unanimous vote.
With Council’s
approval May 24 of
the reuse of the site,
the City will sub-
(Post file photo by Don Snedecor)
mit a revised reuse
master plan to the U.S. Department of
ing the designated use of the facility
Defense and U.S. Department of Hous-
from affordable housing to emergency
ing and Urban Development, amend-
operations.
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Phone: (503) 244-6933; Fax: (866) 727-5336
general email: news@multnomahpost.com
web address: www.swportlandpost.com
Editor & Publisher: Don Snedecor
Reporters/Writers: Polina Olsen and Lee Perlman
Retail Advertising Manager: Harry Blythe
Graphic Design: Leslie Baird Design
Printing: Oregon Lithoprint
© 2011 by The Southwest Portland Post. All rights reserved. The opinions of the artists
and authors contained herein are not necessarily shared by the publisher.
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