Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Development
Board Meeting
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
St. Phillip Neri Church Paulist Center
2408 SE 16th Avenue (and Division)
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Joe Hagedorn, Secretary Carolyn Brock, Liz Gatti, Alex Bassos, Matthew Masini, Wendy Kunkel, Amy Lewin, Jack Spadaro, Marilee Tillstrom, Lindsey McBride, Dave Kaplan
BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Vice Chair Linda Nettekoven, Treasurer Holli Ballestrem, Frank Dufay, Sean McCusker, Susan Pearce
Land Use Meeting:
There was no land use meeting in November.
Hand Board Meeting:
HAND regular board meeting came to order at 7:02 p.m. Introductions were made by all in attendance.
• Motion to approve the October minutes with revisions was made by Matthew Masini, seconded by Wendy Kunkel. Motion passed unanimously, 2 abstentions.
There was no Tresurer’s report as Holli Ballestrem was ill and not in attendance.
Crime Report: Officer John Fuletano handed out a report identifying recent crime in HAND. Josh Letter is our regular officer. He reported that HAND is considered a darker neighborhood because of all of the large trees. Rain and darkness make it hard to see at night. For bike safety he recommended taking responsibility by using flashing lights, wearing reflective clothing and checking carefully before crossing street or passing cars. He also recommended:
• Remove all things from car at night (especially presents that you may want to leave in your trunk)
• Keep things out of sight within your car if you must leave them during the daytime (thieves look in windows more during the holidays)
• Be aware that there may be more burgularies during the holidays so: close your blinds when you are not at home; if you have a lighted Christmas tree with presents underneath, keep your blinds closed so that thieves don’t use the lighted window to scope out your home; tell your neighbors if you’re traveling.
Some neighbors expressed concerns about transients living in their yards or under their porches. Officer Fuletano directs if you’re scared and feel threatened in the following situations, call 911: if a transient is in your or your neighbor’s backyard, or seen leaving it; if a transient is under your or your neighbor’s porch or bushes or seen leaving them; if a transient is in your or your neighbor’s front yard drinking or otherwise partying. For questions, the Police non-emergency number is (503) 823-3333.
Light Rail Update: Phillip Kennedy-Wong, Metro Public Affairs Coordinator (503) 797-1755, Jamie Snook, Metro House Manager for the project, and Tom Armstrong, City Planner, Portland (503) 823-3527 came to give an update on the status of the Light Rail environmental impact statement. Board members had provided a list of some questions they’d identified after a field trip in October to the proposed stop at Clinton and Gideon streets. Carolyn Brock asked if they could put their answers in writing instead of trying to answer all of the questions at the meeting. Phillip indicated that the current proposal includes many stations for HAND. Phillip addressed question about increased activity and safety with a description of how safety will be designed into the stations through visibility. He also mentioned that the style of stop at Clinton/Gideon streets would be a typical yellow rail stop. Concerns were raised about ensuring safe and effective bike/pedestrian crossings (i.e., MAX, Freight Train, cars at same intersections with bikes and pedestrians). Jamie indicated that the frequency of Light Rail trains would be every 7.5 minutes or a train every 4 minutes from either direction. Tom mentioned that City Hall is looking to improve upon the intersection and David expressed hope that it would be incorporated into the City’s long term plans. Someone mentioned putting the light rail below street level and Jamie responded that once the train was below street level, it would be difficult and way more expensive to bring it up above ground later in the line (chasing the tail).
The new light rail line is about 8 years out. The review group is currently looking at concerns and constraints identified by the community. Tom indicated that looking at the land use mix is the next step. Phillip mentioned that the planners want to have a lot of activity, variety (i.e., mixed use) and employment opportunities in our industrial sanctuary. The goal is to have redevelopment completed by the time the line is active so that the area supports and is supported by the new light rail line. The schedule is: by late 2011 all of the diagnostics will be completed, from late 2011 to late 2014, Trimet with construct the Light Rail and it will open in 2015. The maps of the proposed Light Rail project are on the HAND website.
Phillip invited all to attend an open forum to discuss results from other workshops on 11/27 at OMSI, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. or 11/29 at Sellwood Middle School (15th and Umatilla), 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Parks Systems Development Charges: Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong explained that SDCs are one time fees charged to developers for new development during the permitting process. The fees are used to defray the infrastructure costs that the City incurs to support new development. In 1998, the City Council decided to charge SDCs for new residential housing subdevelopments to offset the cost of new parks. Currently, only 20-25% of costs of park development is paid for by SDCs and all funds are coming from residential development SDCs. Also, currently less than 50% of people in Portland live within ½ mile of a park and Portland has below average park service levels relative to other cities in our region. Because businesses also benefit from parks in the area, Commissioner Saltzman has proposed charging SDCs (lower than residential rates) for commercial development to offset the cost of parks, as well. On 12/12/07 at 2 p.m., City Council will discuss and vote on: 1. whether to recover 75% of the costs of new parks via SDCs 2. whether to charge commercial development SDCs to recover part of cost of new parks and 3. what the actual charges will be. Elizabeth urged us to express our support of Commissioner Saltzman’s proposal at the meeting or before by contacting the Commissioners.
Foundation Real Estate Development (no longer Opus Development)/PDC Burnside Bridgehead
Bruce Wood of Foundation Real Estate Development (503) 546-2321. Bruce reported that the PDC Burnside Bridgehead development is a 200+ million project designed so that the high taxes from the commercial development will pay for others that don’t have high taxes. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) extended the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to 12/31/07 so that the developer would have additional time to meet criteria to move ahead with development. The MOU includes a requirement to include affordable housing (30% to 120% of median area income. Catholic Charities/Portland Habilitation is on board to make that happen. The MOU is automatically extended for 1 year if the developer meets the criteria, which according to Bruce has already happened. Bruce mentioned that it has been very difficult to secure and Anchor Tenant (that will occupy 160,000 square feet on basement) for the property and that he continue to try to secure a retail chain (not Home Depot or Loews) or office (not Columbia Sportswear) or even a Museum. He projects that there will be about 150 shops on the ground floor. The goal is to break ground in Spring of 2008 and have tenants occupy in 2011. The Big Pipe project is going right through the project area. Transportation concerns expressed to Bruce were referred to a Portland City decision to create a Burnside/Couch couplet (one way each) and changing types of turns allowed onto MLK and Grand. The City has also decided a specific number of trips the project can generate which is less for office than for residential.
Communications Update: Liz Gatti reported that she had not yet surveyed the current Communications Committee members and asked that they provide to her any archived (via hard copy or email) materials such as newsletter articles, etc. She will assess when to schedule a meeting of the full group. She feels that it might be appropriate to bring the whole Board together once a new President is selected in January to give all a chance to shape the Communications Strategy. She also mentioned that she had some items to put into the Abernethy storage closet. Marilee mentioned that we used to have a storage closet at St. Phillip Neri and it was changed to Abernethy so that it would be more accessible and free of charge. Since the Abernethy storage closet is only accessible during school hours/school year, she recommended that we contact SEUL and find out if there is another storage option through them.
Community Benefit Opportunity (CBO) Update: Dave Kaplan reported that there are 4 CBO projects within HAND that are being funded. 1. Pedestrian Xing at 11th/12th/Clinton, 2. Curb Extension at 11th/Clay, 3. Riverbank, 4. Save Our Elms – matching grants for pruning. He reported that, though Friends of Trees received funds, none of those funds would be spent in HAND because so much of the CBO funds had already been designated to HAND projects. Amy Lewin will add the list to HAND Website.
Tree Planting: Jack Spadaro reported that there will be a HAND/Richmond tree planting in cooperation with Friends of Trees on 12/1. Meet at the church at 39th/Brooklyn at 8 a.m. for a light breakfast and planting. If you come early, you can help with unloading the trees. Approximately 30 trees were ordered this year, a relatively low number. Potential reasons or low number include: the process was all electronic, people may be looking for more tree choices than Friends of Trees offers; and potential saturation of houses with people interested in planting trees.
New Chair Election: January. No Board Members expressed interest in running for the position.
Landmarks Commission Meeting on 11/26: Michelle X of REACH has requested that a HAND representative attend the meeting on 11/26 at 1:30 p.m. at 1900 SW 4th Street. Joe Hagedorn mentioned that he had already sent the letter of support (previously approved by the BOARD) directly to REACH and would send a copy to Board Members.
Holiday Party: BOARD members are invited to celebrate the holidays on 12/18 at 6:30 p.m. at Frank and Anne Dufay’s home at 2232 SE Stephens.
The next HAND Board meeting will be held on January 16th at 7 p.m.
Submitted by:
Liz Gatti, Note-taker
Carolyn Brock, Secretary