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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2012)
March 2012 NEWS Greenway Plan on South Waterfront (Continued from Page 1) said, “It seems the osprey’s little condo has been moved quite a bit.” By provid- ing a new nesting place, “It seems the City is acting in the best interest of the bird.” Osprey advocates said the dolphin is too delicate, is too far away – the maxi- mum distance the bird can be moved comfortably is 300 feet, they said – and is too low; the birds want high nests with good visibility so that they can watch out for enemies such as eagles. Rouse responded, “We’re going ahead with our plan” until it is shown to be unfeasible. The end result, she said is “There could be two nests.” “Whichever one the osprey doesn’t want, the duck can have,” Wark quipped. Osprey supporters seemed agitated when Bob Sallinger of the Portland Audubon Society, one of the city’s lead- ing environmental advocates, endorsed the City’s approach. “I’d encourage you to move forward,” he told the Com- mission. The current plan “isn’t all we’d like to see, but let’s not argue about minor defects.” The alternative nesting site is “not perfect,” but ospreys are known to nest on dolphins and channel markers, Sallinger said. He conceded he didn’t know for sure if the bird would move. Resident Peter Fenner followed to say that Sallinger “didn’t say this was the best location; he just said it might work. We know it works here, we’re not sure it works there.” Jim Davis, South Portland Neighbor- hood Association land use chair, said that he didn’t care personally – “I hate birds” – but that the issue was, “The South Portland Neighborhood Associa- tion wants the bird where it is, or within 300 feet. I don’t see a problem here. I see a problem with Parks saying, ‘This is what we want, and we don’t want discussion of it.’ That kind of thing won’t fly.” National Marine Fisheries Service threatens to veto any new dock A secondary issue involved a human- fish conflict. The original Greenway Plan called for three docks at the foot of Southwest Gibbs, Gaines and Pend- leton streets. Then, in 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stepped in. As the Park Bureau’s Elizabeth Moor- head told The Post, the federal agency does not control the siting of docks per se, but does have authority to regulate and prohibit anything that “harms or harasses” endangered species of fish in their habitat, which includes the Wil- lamette River. Docks meet the definition for “harm or harass,” because their pilings can provided a hiding place for predators of young fish. “They want an overall river recre- ation plan for the city so they know where all the docks will be, and not have to deal with them one at a time,” Moorhead later told The Post. Until then, they are vetoing any individual dock. The Park Bureau is going ahead without a dock at this time, Rouse told the Commission, but they remain com- mitted to providing one “somewhere in the South Waterfront.” This did not sit well with residents. Resident Roger Gertenrich noted that residents raised thousands of dollars to supply a dock, and Leonard Michon said that Corbett and Lair Hill residents could use a dock once a foot bridge at Southwest Gibbs Street, now under construction, is completed. Rouse said that the Park Bureau is currently $1.75 million short of funding, but remains “committed to funding the entire project.” If necessary, they will do it in phases, she said. The Southwest Portland Post • 7 NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS Terwilliger Parkway (Continued from Page 1) to have “too much visual noise,” while one at the intersection of Southwest Sam Jackson Road turned out to have underground utilities that would be problematic. The design must be visible to all modes of transporta- tion: cars, bicyclists and pedestrians, Lango said. The Friends of Terwilliger Park- way is planning festivities for the occasion, and there is one element they’d particularly like to include. The Portland Bureau of Transpor- tation’s Sunday Parkways program plots a circular route five to six miles long and bars auto traffic along it for five hours, allowing bicyclists and pedestrians to tour residential neighborhoods in a new way. The event has drawn as many as 28,000 people, especially when coupled with other events such as the Haw- thorne Street Fair. For two years there has been such an event in Northwest Portland. Now organizers are thinking of moving it to include some part of Southwest. Friends of Terwilliger Parkway would like to the parkway to be part of the route. PBOT officials have shown some resistance. Sunday Parkways usu- ally utilize local streets, spokesper- son Linda Ginenthal told The Post, but officials haven’t ruled the idea out and have been meeting with community representatives. Closing this street to auto traffic is not unprecedented: It is done an- nually for the Shamrock Challenge (formerly the Cascade Runoff) road race. One issue is cost. The event is expensive – five of them cost just under $500,000 – and this year PBOT is allocating only a fraction of this in their budget. One of the biggest expenses is the service of police of- ficers, who must direct traffic wher- ever the route crosses a major street to allow participants to get across without interrupting traffic unduly. Old Sellwood Bridge to move 40 yards upstream in July Current construction schedules call for the Sellwood Bridge to be moved to temporary piers 40 yards upriver in July, Multnomah County spokesperson Mike Pullen told The Post. Once this is done the construc- tion of a permanent bridge at the old location may commence. County work crews were able to get “almost all” of their in-water work done during the “window” permitted by the National Marine Fisheries Service between December 31 and January 31. In-water work is forbidden after January 31 to protect spring Chi- nook salmon migrations. That they did not manage all of it was due to longer than expected delays in obtaining City building permits, inclement weather, and some unex- pected surprises from the river. County crews anticipated that they would have to drive pilings into the riverbed 90 feet deep to make them secure enough to hold the bridge, Pullen said. The bed proved softer than anticipated, and some of the pilings had to be driven 150 feet deep to make them secure, Pullen said. A similar “window” is July 1 to October 31, after which in-water work is forbidden to protect the fall Coho salmon runs. 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