6 • The Southwest Portland Post
NEWS
December 2012
Planning report calls for parallel main street at 26th, Dolph, and Spring Garden
BARBUR CONCEPT PLAN
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
As this issue went to press, the Bu-
reau of Planning and Sustainability
had scheduled a public open house for
November 29 to review recommenda-
tions of the Barbur Concept Plan. These
include targeting what are now side
streets, parallel to the boulevard, as
potential development areas.
The Plan is an effort to determine the
desired type and level of new develop-
ment on Barbur Boulevard, identify
obstacles to such development, and
identify improvements to overcome
such obstacles. It is a complement to a
wider study by Metro, the Southwest
Corridor Study, which is looking at a
major transit project for the area.
This study recently narrowed the
choice of mode to a new MAX light
rail line, enhanced bus service, or No
Build. The study covers the area from
Downtown Portland to Sherwood, but
it has concluded that if a light rail line
is selected, it should go only as far as
Tualatin.
Planners found that land along the
boulevard consisted mainly of single-
story, car-oriented commercial and
multi-family residential buildings dat-
ing to the 1950s.
The commercial structures currently
have vacancy rates higher, and rental
prices lower, than the citywide average.
Residential areas nearby are home
to people with above-average incomes
and education-levels compared to the
rest of the city. Based on public input,
the Plan calls for mixed-use develop-
ment in buildings three to four stories
tall.
The public previously rejected a
higher level of density. The Plan di-
vided Barbur Boulevard into a series
of segments and focus areas. It gave
the most attention to the northernmost
segments,฀Kelly฀and฀Hamilton.฀
Not surprisingly, the report found
that฀a฀major฀issue฀in฀the฀Kelly฀segment฀
is the internal transportation access
problems in the area, while a benefit
is its proximity not only to downtown
but to the Portland State University,
Oregon Health and Sciences Univer-
sity, and National College of Natural
Medicine campuses.
It proposed to put high-capacity tran-
sit, whether rail or bus, on Southwest
Naito Parkway rather than Barbur Bou-
levard, and to simplify the “spaghetti
maze” of Ross Island Bridge access
ramps.
At the Hamilton segment, the Plan
foresees development taking place pri-
marily on Southwest Corbett Avenue.
However, it does call for reconfiguring
the Hamilton-Barbur intersection.
Immediately south of Hamilton-
Barbur is the segment known as the
Woods, which consists largely of wood-
ed frontages of property oriented to-
ward interior streets. The Plan doesn’t
anticipate much redevelopment here,
but does call for making bike and
pedestrian improvements continuous.
South towards Terwilliger Boulevard
and beyond is what the report calls the
Historic Highway. Two focus areas are
served by Fred Meyer, the anchor of
Southwest 13 th Avenue, and a Safeway
under construction at Capitol Hill
Road.
The biggest problem near 13 th , the
report said, is the fact that the land is
largely in the hands of absentee owners
seen as less likely to “reinvest.” There
is relatively good infrastructure, the
report says, but it calls for a new traffic
A recent view of Barbur Boulevard looking north at 13th Avenue. (Photo courtesy
of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability)
signal at 13 th .
The Capitol Hill area has seen some
new rowhouse development, and has
some “large parcels with a potential for
redevelopment.”
A problem is a lack of continuity
of bike and pedestrian facilities, and
the existing bridge over Southwest
Multnomah Boulevard “precludes bike
lanes and standard sidewalks.” The re-
port calls for new roadway connections
that don’t currently exist.
Near Southwest 26 th Avenue, the
report calls for a “parallel main street”
along Southwest Dolph and Spring
Garden streets and 30 th Avenue for new
development. It also calls for a new
freeway on-ramp at 26 th Avenue.
The Far Southwest segment takes in
the Crossroads at Southwest Capitol
Highway and everything else to the
city limits.
According to the report, “There is no
way to solve the transportation circula-
tion of the Crossroads one intersection
at a time.”
South of the Crossroads to the Wash-
ington County line, the report says,
Barbur Boulevard is relatively isolated,
and retail would have to compete with
more established areas in Tigard.
The report does see potential services
for students north and south along
Barbur Boulevard on their way to the
Portland Community College Sylvania
campus.
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