6 • The Southwest Portland Post
NEWS
September 2012
Two neighborhoods concerned about new low-income housing development
STEPHENS CREEK CROSSING
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Home Forward (formerly the
Housing Authority of Portland) is
seeking last minute changes for its
Stephens Creek Crossing project,
and that concerns both Hillsdale and
Multnomah neighbors.
The project will be built on the
site of the former Hillsdale Terrace
housing project at Southwest 26 th
Avenue between Capitol Highway
and California Street. At 122 units,
the new project will be nearly twice
as large as the old one.
Home Forward declined to dis-
cuss the design of the project with
the community, to the chagrin of
some. Now, on the eve of requesting
construction permits, they are seek-
ing five major code adjustments:
•Toreducetherequiredsideyard
setbacks from 14 feet to 10.
•Tosubstitutegravelforthere-
quired side yard landscaping.
•Toincreasethemaximumwall
length from 100 feet to 203 by com-
bining two smaller buildings into
one structure.
• To reduce required window
coverage on the south side from a
required 15 percent of wall area to
six percent.
• To reduce landscaping in the
parking lot from a required 5,500
square feet to 3,700.
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.
program manager Leonard Gard
said, “I would have expected some
minor adjustments, but this is pretty
extreme. It seems pretty late for
this.”
Aside from the issue of process,
residents were concerned about the
second request. Multnomah land
use chair Susan Rudloff said she
wasn’t bothered by the reduced side
yard setback, per se.
However, residents of Southwest
An artist's illustraition of the Stephens Creek Crossing low-income housing com-
plex in Multnomah. (Illustration by Richard Hoyden, courtesy MWA Architects)
California Street were already dis-
turbed that the project had “turned
its back” on the street through a
lack of visual and physical connec-
tion, and they felt the use of gravel
exacerbated this.
“There’s no sense they’re part of
the community in any way,” one
resident complained. Another said,
“I really object to gravel. Home For-
ward will think, ‘We don’t have to
maintain this,’ and it will become a
repository for garbage and weeds.”
Hillsdale’s Duane Hunting called
for either grass or some other green
ground cover.
Police ask for public’s help in solving robbery at Old Market Pub
By Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
The Portland Police Bureau, in
cooperation with Crime Stoppers
of Oregon, is asking for the public’s
help in solving an armed robbery in
Southwest Portland’s Maplewood
neighborhood.
On August 19, at 1:22 a.m., Portland
Police officers assigned to Central
Precinct responded to the report of an
armed robbery at the Old Market Pub,
located at 6959 SW Garden Home Rd.
As officers were en route to the call
they learned that the suspect also took
an employee’s car.
Officers contacted one of the em-
ployees who told police that she closed
the pub and was walking to her car
with another employee when the sus-
pect came running out of the bushes
pointing a gun at them.
The suspect demanded that both
employees get in the victim’s car with
him and drive to the entrance to the
pub, where he forced them inside to
get money from the bar.
After obtaining an undisclosed sum
of money, the suspect told the victims
to lie on the ground and he took the
victim’s car and fled the area.
The suspect is described as an un-
known age white male, 5’9” tall, 160
pounds, brown goatee, white mask,
white shirt, blue jeans, black hat, and
athletic shoes, armed with a handgun.
The victim’s vehicle has been recov-
ered and is no longer of interest. Crime
Stoppers is offering a cash reward of
up to $1,000 for information, reported
to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an
arrest in this case, or any unsolved fel-
ony, and you can remain anonymous.
Call 503-823-HELP (4357) and leave
your tip information. Detective John
Russell of the Portland Police Bureau is
in charge of the investigation. Russell
may be contacted at (503) 823-0836 or
via email, John.Russell@PortlandOre-
gon.gov.
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