6 • The Southwest Portland Post
NEWS
August 2011
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church allowed to expand via street vacation
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
After struggling with pedestrian ac-
cess issues, as the Southwest Neighbor-
hoods, Inc. Board had before them, the
Portland Planning and Sustainability
Commission voted on June 28 to allow
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church to vacate
two public rights of way to allow for
an expansion.
The church at 6835 SW 45th Ave. has
a congregation of 1,300, giving it the
largest Lutheran congregation in Port-
land and the second largest in Oregon,
church officials testified.
The church is straining the resources
of its current building, built in 1960.
The expansion could best be accom-
modated, they said, by vacating the
unimproved Southwest 46th Av-
enue between California and Vermont
streets, and the public right of way
along Southwest Florida Street.
Among other things, this would
allow expansion of the kitchen and
fellowship hall, and allow the Sunday
School to meet in quarters contiguous
to the building rather than across the
parking lot.
Wendy Collie of the Portland Bureau
of Transportation said that the 46 th right
of way currently has a six-foot ditch for
storm water runoff next to a ten-foot
gravel path.
The church has pledged to provide a
new public pedestrian path elsewhere
on the property when development oc-
curs, Collie said. Regarding the Florida
right of way, Collie said, “There’s noth-
ing there now that would make you
think it’s a street.”
Representatives said that the church
is active in community affairs. It pro-
vides space for 300 meetings a year,
including those of the Southwest Trails
Committee. It regularly provides food
for the needy, and is host to the an-
nual Grauer Back-To-School Project,
in which backpacks full of supplies are
State legislature passes trails liability waiver; New law allows work on trails to resume
SOUTHWEST TRAILS
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
On June 28, Oregon Gov. John Kitzha-
ber signed into law a new trails liability
waiver that will, among other things,
allow the Southwest Trails network
to resume operation and maintenance
work.
HB2865 states, among other things,
that neither public bodies nor private
property owners are liable for injuries
suffered by hikers while using “com-
muter” trails.
Such liability waivers already existed
for “recreational” trails in parks and
public lands. The new law extends this
immunity to the Trail Network, which
makes use of streets, public and private
property, and public easements across
private property that allows people to
walk through areas lacking conven-
tional sidewalks.
The potential threat of lawsuits was
a concern to private property owners
that made them reluctant to allow their
property to be used for trails, it halted
volunteer trail maintenance work, and
threatened to destroy the trail network,
the product of decades of volunteer
work.
The new law allows for safe use of
the trails, and the resumption of main-
tenance and development work.
Although the main sponsor of the bill
was Rep. Chris Garrett (D-Lake Oswe-
go), former Southwest Trails Commit-
tee chair Don Baack gave strong credit
for its passage to Sen. Ginny Burdick
(D-Portland).
“She did what was necessary to get
it through the legislature,” he told The
Post. “I’m very pleased that it’s been
passed.” Burdick, in turn credited Baack
and Hillsdale activist Glenn Bridger
with giving “very effective testimony”
for the measure during hearings.
Baack resigns from Southwest
Trails Committee
Hillsdale
activist Don
Baack, founder
of the Southwest
Trails Com -
mittee and its
longtime chair,
announced last
month that he is
resigning from
Don Baack and his dog.
both the South-
(Post file photo by Po-
w e s t N e i g h - lina Olsen)
borhoods, Inc.
board and as chair of the Committee.
To The Post, Baack complained of
“harassment” by some other SWNI
board members that he said made it
impossible for the Committee to do its
work. He said he intends to form an
independent trails group that will con-
tinue to carry out the vision of creating
and maintaining a trails network.
given to hundreds of needy school-age
children.
Elise Moentmann said the church
was “dedicated to environmental stew-
ardship” and “being a good neighbor.”
She added, “Until the time comes for
development, nothing will change.”
When change does come, “We believe
both the church and the community
will benefit.”
Some critics thought that this was
not enough. Hillsdale activist Glenn
Bridger, and Roger Averbeck on behalf
of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition,
called for better and more assured
pedestrian connections, especially run-
ning east and west on Florida.
Averbeck noted that the intersection
of Southwest Vermont Street and 45th
Avenue represents the sort of “hub” of
commercial activity that the planning
concept of “20 minute neighborhoods”
is based on, yet streets leading to it lack
sidewalks. “This makes connectivity
here extremely important, and we don’t
want to lose this opportunity,” he said.
Transportation planner Lance Lin-
dahl said that the parking lot of St.
John Fisher Catholic Church, which is
likely to remain indefinitely, stands in
the way of Florida Street’s right of way.
Commission member Irma Valdez
called for granting the vacations.
Opponents made “good points,” she
said, “but this is the church’s site, and
they’re trying to do good things on a
limited site.”
Another Commission member, Don
Hanson, agreed, saying, “I’m a huge
fan of retaining rights of way, but here
it would be a huge taking. This is a
community service facility in many
ways.”
Commission member Chris Smith
held out for stronger guarantees of
future pedestrian connections, and cast
the sole dissenting vote on the motion.
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