Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2012)
April 2012 NEWS The Southwest Portland Post • 3 Committee imagines focus areas along Barbur Boulevard By Lee Perlman The Southwest Portland Post The Bureau of Planning and Sustain- ability’s Barbur Concept Plan process last month processes last month en- tered a visioning phase, with members considering an ideal future for seven “focus areas.” These are also potential station sites for a future light rail line or high capac- ity transit route. As proposed by planners Jay Sugnet and John Fregonese, these areas are: Gibbs Street, Hamilton Street, Terwil- liger Boulevard, Capitol Hill Road, 26 th Avenue, Crossroads (the Southwest Barbur Boulevard-Capitol Highway- Interstate 5 interchange), and Portland Community College’s Sylvania Cam- pus. The current land uses at these loca- tions are “a limited number of build- ing types repeated over and over,” Fregonese told the project Stakeholders Advisory Committee last month. “We want to start thinking with a bigger box of crayons.” Fregonese suggested the type of higher intensity development seen on the city’s main streets, and particu- larly Northwest 23 rd Avenue, Northeast Broadway Street, and Southwest Capi- tol Highway in Multnomah Village. Fregonese spoke favorably of Mult- nomah’s Headwaters housing project, where “in summer you hear the buzz of animals and birds.” Even more im- portant is access to shopping. “The number one reason people go out is to go to a retail store,” Fregonese said. He said there should be parking for both bicycles and cars, and extolled mixed-use development. “Right on a retail street may not be where you’d want to live, but a block away?” Much of southwest includes “formerly auto-oriented suburban areas that are evolving,” said Fregonese. Planners need to be flexible in their approach to Barbur, Fregonese said. “What works at Capitol Hill may not work on Terwilliger,” he said. Indeed, the focus areas as selected are themselves “crash test dummies” that can be rejected or moved if needed, he said. “We need to test what you do and don’t like, ask the public to mix and match, and learn from our failures.” This was a fortunate attitude to take because, before the month was out, the South Portland Neighborhood Associa- tion had officially called for Gibbs Street to be removed as a focus area. Delegates Laura Campos and Jim Gardner both said that the area is largely composed of single-family homes, which Gardner pointed out include part of the Lair Hill National Historic District. They would be in jeopardy if the area was rezoned for higher density. Sugnet said the area was chosen in part because PoSt ClaSSifiedS adS Just $2 per word or $32 per column inch. Call (503) 244-6933 today to place your ad. Help Wanted Cook/assistant for local B&B. Very part-time now, more towards summer. Mostly mornings, esp. weekends. Resume to bellaterrabnb@gmail.com Freelance Reporter The Post is seeking a freelance writer/ photographer to cover Southwest neighborhood meetings, happenings, etc. E-mail cover letter, up to three clips, and current resume to: Don Snedecor, Publisher, The Southwest Portland Post, don@multnomahpost.com. Snail mail or fax OK. No phone calls, please. of the tram and new pe- destrian bridge bringing people to OHSU. The study is not propos- ing zoning changes for single-family neighbor- hoods, he said. Fregonese said the focus areas need not be “monochromatic.” The Stakeholders and planners also looked at other focus areas. Planner Glenn Bolen said Sylva- A potential light rail station, Southwest 26th Avenue nia was included in the is one of the focus areas of the Barbur Concept Plan. hope of “connecting and (Post photo by Don Snedecor) making it more a part of remodel doesn’t get tagged with it all.” the community.” Averbeck asked if the Oregon Depart- Hillsdale activist Baack said that ment of Transportation would cooper- Southwest Multnomah Boulevard west ate with proposed changes to Barbur of 19th Avenue is “a really great place and freeway accesses. for redevelopment.” Fregonese replied, “They’ve changed Another stakeholder, Ken Williams, a lot. They’re not just about moving cars said areas to the west between Barbur anymore.” Some years ago, efforts to Boulevard and Interstate 5 are totally restore on street parking to Northeast undeveloped. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard pro- Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. duced “a pitched battle,” he said. “Now transportation chair Roger Averbeck we’re free to dream and imagine.” cautioned, “When you have a freeway Different rates of speed may be ap- off-ramp, it changes the conversation. propriate in different places, Fregonese The closer you get, the more expensive said, and traffic projects could mean and complicated development is.” “spending a lot of money for minimal SWNI land use chair John Gibbon improvement. The level of service is not agreed: “I live in the neighborhood, the king anymore anywhere in the U.S.” and I avoid those areas like the plague.” Williams said, “The problem isn’t Sugnet said perhaps such areas would Barbur (Boulevard) per se, but what’s be better suited for office development. around it,” including access streets. Gibbon added that the cost of City- Stakeholder Bill Garryfallow said, required storm water treatment with “The more people view Barbur (Bou- any development would be “really levard) as their home, the less they’ll spendy.” Fregonese said, “We need to zoom through.” make sure the person coming in for a
