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About The Southwest Portland Post. (Portland, Oregon) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2012)
6 • The Southwest Portland Post School Construction Bond (Continued from Page 1) to fix and where, a citizen-led, long-range facilities plan advisory committee recommended the school board prioritize criteria. Those criteria included year of construction, accessibility, seismic ratings and a “Facilities Condi- tion Index,” which entails using a benchmark to determine the relative condition of facilities, Barnett said. The board, with public input, chose to focus first on rebuild- ing high schools and to prioritize rebuilding schools with capital partners. Franklin, Grant and Roosevelt high schools will be rebuilt, and the planning work for reconstructing the remaining six high schools will be included in the bond. Faubion PreK-8 School also will be replaced through a capital partnership with Concordia University, a Christian university. “I’m a big proponent of public schools and the separation of church and state,” said Hillsdale resident Arnie Panitch, during the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association meeting on September 5. “I’m very nervous about this partnership at Faubion.” “My question to you is: Will there be any change in ownership? … I’ve seen other situations where the census falls off and (a public school turns) right into a parochial school,” said Panitch. Barnett said Portland Public Schools is partnering with Concor- dia, not relinquishing control of the school. Faubion gets a new building and Concordia, which is next to the school, will have an opportunity to provide its students with real world NEWS experience as student teachers. “The school board is not in any way throwing land to them (Con- cordia),” Adkins said. Some of the vacant schools will be used as temporary space for students while other schools are rebuilt, Adkins said. Adkins and Barnett also visited the Hillsdale Neighborhood Asso- ciation in May. Since voters rejected a $548 million bond to upgrade Portland school buildings in May 2011, school district officials have been reaching out to the community to find out why the bond failed and what the community wants. Adkins said public approval of the school district’s major facilities overhaul isn’t a given. “This is our dream, our hope, and it’s something that we have to earn.” Voters did approve a local option levy that also was on the May 2011 ballot, which pays for teachers and operational support, but the con- struction bond’s failure halted the school district’s plans to improve and rebuild schools. The school district will involve the school community in the design of schools that are slated to be re- built, Barnett added in an email on September 19. Community access would be a priority with schools potentially sharing meeting space, gyms and stages with the public. At the Hillsdale meeting, Adkins said she would love to see hous- ing become a part of future school plans. If this bond is successful, she added, others might be put before the public in the future. For more information, visit www. pps.net/about-us/Bond.htm. October 2012 Street Paving Srategies (Continued from Page 5) hardship.” Justin Wood of Fish Construction tended to agree with Adams. “For us, we’d much rather develop the block as a whole, and pay our share of it,” Wood said. “To build streets parcel by parcel costs ten times as much, and it’s hard to sell a house with mud in front of it.” On the other hand, Wood said, “It’s not always easy to get the neighbors to agree. It’s better to develop to a lower standard.” This brought up another issue: how the streets are paid for. Normally, owners representing a majority of the street frontage ownership must agree to a street’s development through a Local Improvement District. However, in the past, people were allowed by the City to build on un- improved streets by signing a waiver stating that when someone proposed to build a street, at any time in the future, they would “waive” their right to oppose it. Second, third and fourth genera- tions of property owners have found these waivers of remonstrance bur- ied, to their dismay, in their deeds. Leon said there were 12,000 such outstanding waivers in the City. Leon said that the lowest cost pav- ing options, done citywide, would run $91 to $96 million. PBOT has looked at a variety of options to pay for this. One, PBOT’s Jennifer Cooperman said, was to spread the cost of street improvements over a wider area. This brought a groan from southwest residents, who tried this approach two years ago with the so-called Halo LID with disastrous results. Asked to testify by Adams, South- west Neighborhoods Inc. board pres- ident Marianne Fitzgerald told the City Council, “There were arterials where we really wanted sidewalks. We tried to create LIDs covering a quarter-mile to bring the cost down.” “Within a block people were okay with it, but the further away they were, the less accepting people were. It was still expensive; the storm water costs were killing us,” said Fitzgerald. Indeed, Leon said, storm water in- troduces a new element to paving in southwest. It is best to treat runoff on site, she said, but because southwest clay absorbs water so poorly, it is necessary to convey it off-site. Cooperman said PBOT has looked at several formulas to help pay for paving. One, a new gas tax, is deficient for the same reason the statewide tax is: as more people do less driving in more fuel-efficient vehicles, the amount of revenue steadily decreases. A sales tax, in addition to encoun- tering Oregon’s traditional hostility to this approach, would not generate enough money, Cooperman said. Other options are some sort of user fee and general obligation bond. Council praised PBOT’s efforts to look at new paving options. Commis- sioner Amanda Fritz said, “I’m really pleased to see this coming forward, and the new design options. We need to look at who pays, who benefits, and is it fair.” Fish said he appreciated that Leon had presented “a menu” of options rather than advocating for one ap- proach. “I find this range of options incredibly helpful,” he said. PoSt a to Z BuSineSS CaRd diReCtoRy 503-244-6933