March 2013
NEWS
The Southwest Portland Post • 3
Some projects mysteriously cut from the draft list; What about Hoot Owl Corner?
SOUTHWEST
CORRIDOR PLAN
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
Citizens, as well as officials, have
weighed in on the Southwest Corridor
Plan process. Last month project staff
published a list of individual capitol
improvement projects that would ac-
company the five alternative transit
improvement projects recommended
for the area.
These five include one light rail line
from Portland to Tigard. The others are
“bus rapid transit” routes from Port-
land to Tigard, Tualatin or Sherwood,
plus a looser “hub and spoke” plan
potentially providing enhanced bus
service to other destinations.
Portland City Commissioner Aman-
da Fritz, recently appointed to repre-
sent Portland on the project’s Steering
Committee, asked why citizen groups
were not consulted before the list was
compiled.
Others are concerned as well. Roger
Averbeck, Southwest Neighborhood,
Inc. transportation committee chair,
complained that some projects were on
some alternative lists and not on oth-
ers. “Hoot Owl Corner on Southwest
Capitol Highway at 30 th Avenue, the
Southwest Garden Home Road and
Multnomah Boulevard intersection,
and Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard
north of Barbur were not included at
all,” said Averbeck. Mostly, however, he
was unhappy with the process.
“They didn’t talk to us first, they
just put what they wanted on the list,”
Averbeck complained. “This is public
information, not public involvement.”
SWNI board chair Marianne Fitzger-
ald had similar complaints. Accord-
ing to Fitzgerald, Metro staff first put
forward a long list of potential projects
within the corridor, and then released
its final list in February.
“There was no public process at all
between the publishing of the first and
second lists,” Fitzgerald said. “Now
they say we can remove things from
the list, but we can’t add to it. It just
floored me.”
Metro spokesperson Cliff Higgins
agreed with Fitzgerald that Metro
hadn’t accepted public input on their
list of projects and wouldn’t add to it
now. However, he told the Post, plan-
ners did receive a public buyoff on their
methodology. Moreover, Higgins said,
the list is merely being used to evaluate
the five alternatives, and does not mean
that other projects won’t be funded as
part of the Southwest Corridor.
West Portland Town Center
designation reemerges in Barbur
Concept Plan
As The Post goes to press, the Bar-
bur Concept Plan is scheduled to be
heard by the Portland Planning and
Sustainability Commission on Febru-
ary 26. However, the Plan’s main point
of controversy appears to have been
smoothed over: a proposal to eliminate
the West Portland Town Center.
The Plan is an effort to examine
Southwest Barbur Boulevard, and
adjacent streets, to decide what sort
of development should go on differ-
ent parts of it, and what sort of public
improvements are needed to achieve
these results.
The Barbur Concept Plan is a local
counter-part to the Southwest Corridor
Plan, a regional effort that will consider
whether to put light rail, or some other
mass transit improvement, through this
corridor.
West Portland Town Center has been
controversial since Metro so designated
the area near the confluence of Barbur
and Southwest Capitol Highway in
1996.
Metro’s 2040 Plan calls for high
density residential development as
well as pedestrian and transit-oriented
commercial uses in designated town
centers.
The designation was a source of con-
flict during the Southwest Community
Plan process between neighborhood
activists who wanted to see such devel-
opment occur and those who did not.
In fact, no such development has
occurred in the intervening years,
and City staff members have come to
doubt that it ever will, even if massive
amounts of money were spent on public
improvements.
For that reason, a draft of the Barbur
Concept Plan’s final report suggested
that Metro and the City “reconsider”
the Town Center designation.
This alarmed activists such as Roger
Averbeck, Southwest Neighborhoods,
Inc transportation committee chair.
“All the alternatives for high capacity
transit go through the West Portland
Town Center,” he told the Post. “This
is the big one.”
Withdrawal of the “town center” des-
ignation could endanger the chances of
securing funding for needed changes,
he said.
The message was heard. City Project
Manager Jay Sugnet shared a memo
with the The Post that said, “A town
center planning effort should be con-
ducted, in conjunction with an access
and circulation study, to develop a
community vision and strategic plan
for the area.”
Southwest kicks off
Comprehensive Plan process
Multnomah Arts Center was the host
last month to the first of seven public
workshops on the proposed new Port-
land Comprehensive Plan. About 40
people attended the session.
The Comprehensive Plan will update
a document in place since 1980, and will
set regulations governing public activi-
ties and private development through
the year 20-35.
Based on feedback received at the
session, the Bureau of Planning and
Sustainability staff will prepare a draft
plan for public review in the fall.
A large percentage of the written
comments received addressed trans-
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