Land use committee meeting, October 17, 2023

Tuesday, October 17, 2022, 7–8:30 p.m.
Meeting will take place remotely. See details below.
This is a public meeting. All are welcome!
Facilitator: John Carr, STNA Land Use Chair

Join the Remote Meeting
You can either dial in (audio only) or join by Zoom. Any last-minute changes will be posted here too.

Video:
Click here to join

Dial-in:
+1 253 215 8782
Meeting ID: 948 4800 9986

Agenda

– No current land use proposals to discuss.

– SE 59th Ave. and Woodward Visioning. This summer we chalked off a section of the wide intersection at SE 59th at SE Woodward and gathered ideas on how to make this space more inviting, interesting, friendly, beautiful, functional, welcoming, etc. Most respondents were interested in seeing some kind of landscaped island or bump-out to narrow that intersection and/or a community use for part of the space.

Join us to discuss possible options. To be clear, there’s no budget or plan to do anything at this point and no commitment that PBOT would even be interested in funding or doing a project in this area. It’s also important that the adjacent neighbors support any idea for change.

Some links and resources for reference:

• Arleta Triangle Project
• Mercury article on the ATP
• W Burnside & 10th
• Sullivan’s Gulch painted bulb out
• Concrete barrels
• Intersection treatments (Seattle)
• SE Lincoln & 30th (before and after)

SE Lincoln & 30th aerial view:

SE Lincoln & 30th initial temp project view:

– Powell-Division Safety Improvements Project. We learned last month that while all the crossings in South Tabor (Powell @ 57th, 61st, and 79th and Division @ 64th and 77th) are still in the works, the rapid flashing beacons that were included in the 2017 design have been removed from all but the crossing at 79th. Here’s the explanation we received from TriMet:

After submitting the plans in 2019 we were asked to also submit NCHRP documentation to support the suggested crossing improvements. This analysis helped determine the appropriate level of crossing infrastructure for each intersection.

· At Division and 77th the analysis supported a crosswalk only.
· At Powell and 47th data indicated active or enhanced crossing was appropriate.
· At Powell and 57th the analysis supported a crosswalk only.
· At Powell and 61st the analysis supported a crosswalk only.

I asked for clarification about what is “enhanced” about these crossings if they do not include signals. The response:

In terms of making everyone feel secure crossing at the locations that didn’t meet the warrants for a signal, I’m going to reach out to traffic engineering colleagues to give you a better answer than I can.  Further, there clearly is interest in making sure city, state and TriMet project improvements work together. For example, Wendy Cawley, the City traffic engineer, and I will discuss how the tools PBOT is providing, (like the speed cameras) will complement the crossing modifications at  57^th and 61st.

The next TriMet board of directors meeting is Wednesday, October 25, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. in Gresham. We’ll discuss whether to give testimony and what we’d want to say. (To submit two-minute virtual testimony individually, sign up by noon the day prior.)

– Free Street Tree Program coming to South Tabor in 2024. The City’s Urban Forestry department surveyed South Tabor for street trees earlier this year, but decided to move the planting schedule to next year due to contractor capacity. They will use the spaces surveyed and prepared this year for their proposals to adjacent property owners in 2024. Per their 10/10/23 email:

Property owners will be notified about proposed street trees beginning 9/15/24 and we will be planting in South Tabor in the winter of 2024. As of today we have 296 proposed spaces for trees across 170 addresses in South Tabor.

By the way, the current specifications of this program requires a fully improved right-of-way (curb and sidewalk) with a planting strip width 4 feet or greater. Many of the planting strips in South Tabor are narrower than that. Opportunities for planting in those areas may come up in the future via other programs.

STNA is eager to help promote the Free Street Tree Program, so stay tuned as we learn more about ways to build out our tree canopy.

– Mt. Tabor Maintenance Yard project updates. From the looks of things at the worksite, the groundwork for the multi-use path has reached Division. At a past meeting we learned that PP&R employees do not currently have on-site parking for their personal vehicles. In the meantime, some of them are parking on the street in South Tabor. Please help keep an eye on their vehicles and report any theft or vandalism to the police.

– October updates from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

– SE Uplift Land Use and Transportation Committee (LUTC) Meeting. The October meeting took place on 10/16 in a hybrid format. Details below. Visit SE Uplift’s LUTC page to learn about and attend future meetings.

As a reminder, here’s our collection of land use and transportation resources.

STNA is committed to holding open, public meetings where everyone is welcomed and respected. Please email us at info@southtabor.org if you have any questions, concerns, or need special accommodations to attend and participate in your neighborhood meetings.

Email landuse@southtabor.org if you have land use questions or suggestions for future meeting topics. 

All land use committee meeting summaries are posted here: http://southtabor.org/land-use/