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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