Metro makes another plan for you

Metro takes steps to meet emissions goal

Created on Thursday, 10 April 2014 07:00 | Written by Julia Rogers | 

(Image is Clickable Link) by: METRO COUNCIL'S PHASE 1 FINDINGS REPORT, 2012 - The emissions goal for the Portland metropolitan area calls for a 20 percent reduction per capita by 2035.

Two Metro committees host meetings in April and May to help the regional agency develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gases in the Portland area.

Metro’s Policy Advisory Committee and the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation have until December to send legislators preferred approaches to the issue. The Legislature requires the Portland area to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by 2035.

Members of JPACT and MPAC are invited to participate in the joint meetings, which will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Friday, April 11, and again May 30, at the World Forestry Center’s Cheatham Hall, 4033 S.W. Canyon Road.

In a three-stage process, the Metro Council is working with the community to achieve sustainable and efficient land-use and transportation strategies to reduce the gases.

According to Metro, in 2005, each person who commuted in a car or a truck on average dispelled 4.05 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The state target for 2035 is 1.2 metric tons per person, about a 40 percent decrease. Since 1990, the Portland area has decreased emissions per person by 26 percent; meanwhile, the national average has risen by 12 percent.

Interesting that they picked 1990 as a comparison or target date.  See previous post for link to EPA site with graph of emissions since 1990.  

During 2011’s first phase of the project, MPAC (a committee of residents and representatives who advise the Metro Council) and JPACT (a panel of elected officials and leaders of transportation agencies) endorsed evaluation criteria and guiding principles to facilitate scenario development.

A total of 144 models were tested and analyzed using ODOT’s Greenhouse Gas State Transportation Emissions Planning. Ultimately, they found that the reduction target is a realistic goal, but it will require more effort, planning and strategies than originally estimated.

Can you imagine what that planning will look like?  Take a look at the previous post "Cars. Ick!" To see the EPAs suggestions.  In essence, it's more of the same, only more intense this time.  Density, transit, mixed use ...

This year, community and business leaders, local government officials and the public are invited to give input on investments and actions. Committees will recommend approaches for the Metro Council to consider for adoption in December, which will then be submitted to Oregon’s seven-member Land Conservation and Development Commission.

Let them know what you think.  I can't tell if it will do any good, but do it anyway.  This social engineering nonsense has got to stop!  They should concentrate on weatherizing homes instead.  Or other measures.  Question:  how many planners live in mixed use housing with densities they prescribe for others!  

Cars Ick!

Cars, who needs 'em anyway!  Yucky, dirty, smelly cars!
Me! And a lot of other people too.

From the EPA website: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/transportation.html
Transportation (28% of 2011 greenhouse gas emissions) - Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation primarily come from burning fossil fuel for our cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes. Over 90% of the fuel used for transportation is petroleum based, which includes gasoline and diesel.

Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 

Economic Sector in 2011

Total Emissions in 2011 = 6,702 Million Metric Tons of CO2

equivalent 

      * Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry in the United States is 

     a net sink and offsets approximately 14% of these greenhouse gas 

emissions.

      All emission estimates from the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas 

Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2011

On closer inspection, personal automobiles account for about 1/2 of transportation related GHG emissions - about 11% overall.  Since 2008, emissions from automobiles has dropped, perhaps due to an increase in the price of gas, and the poor economy.  Better fuel mileage and cleaner automobiles on the road has contributed to lower GHG emissions in the last recently, though not if measured from 1990. 

Emissions and Trends

In 2011, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation accounted for about 28% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions after the Electricity sector. Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation have increased by about 18% since 1990. This historical increase is largely due to increased demand for travel and the stagnation of fuel efficiency across the U.S. vehicle fleet. The number of vehicle miles traveled by passenger cars and light-duty trucks increased 34% from 1990 to 2011. The increase in travel miles is attributed to several factors, including population growth, economic growth, urban sprawl, and low fuel prices over much of this period. Between 1990 and 2004, average fuel economy among new vehicles sold annually declined, as sales of light-duty trucks increased. However, new vehicle fuel economy began to improve in 2005, largely due to a lower light-duty truck market share and higher fuel economy standards.

Among the suggestions the EPAGives for reducing GHG emissions from personal automobiles is to use less carbon-producing fuels, improving fuel efficiency with technology and design, improve operating practices, and reducing travel demand.  Since the biggest achievement in reducing emissions has come from fuel efficiency, how realistic is it for government to impose behavioral modifications on its citizenry, at great expense, for dubious results?  Not very.  Or not at all.  It is a grandiose ideal of those in power to think they can change human behavior by the force of government, paid for by the people they govern.  And another thing, why pick on transportation?  Is it the suburbs they don't like, or just the cars we drive?  

Reducing Travel Demand

Employing urban planning to reduce the number of miles that people drive each day. Learn about EPA's Smart Growth Program. Reducing the need for driving through travel efficiency measures such as commuter, biking, and pedestrian programs. See a list of links to state, local, regional travel-efficiency programs.

Building public transportation, sidewalks, and bike paths to increase lower-emission transportation choices. Zoning for mixed use areas, so that residences, schools, stores, and businesses are close together, reducing the need for driving.

HOT and Bothered

                  

HOT and Bothered

High-Occupancy Toll lanes: another nightmare from the suburbs-hating traffic planners

The Weekly Standard, April 14, 2014, Johnathan V. Last

HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes are all the rage in transportation engineering. Over the last few years, they’ve mushroomed across the country: from I-85 in Georgia to I-95 north of Miami; from I-394 and I-35 in Minnesota to I-15 in Utah. California is lousy with them, of course: The I-10, the I-15, and the I-110 all have HOT lanes. There’s even a HOT lane on a lowly state road in California, SR-237. That’s outside of San Jose, and the toll there fluctuates between 30 cents and $6.00 for the privilege of driving a four-mile stretch of road. All told, there are 21 HOT lane projects up and running in America today. More are in the works.

HOT lanes have a small, but potent, constituency. Progressives, who reflexively support any measure that makes living in the suburbs more costly—their ultimate aim being to nudge people into dense, urban cores—see HOT lanes as a check on suburban sprawl. On the other side, libertarians view HOT lanes as a perfect instrument of free-market economics, allowing consumers to put a dollar value on their time by choosing to pay their way out of traffic—and in turn fostering smaller government by offloading public responsibility for roadways onto private companies. Both sides are, to a certain extent, correct. HOT lanes are wondrously useful to divergent ideological agendas.

The question of whether or not they work is another matter.

Read this powerful article at The Weekly Standard

ONLY 8 DAYS LEFT!

No, I didn't get it wrong.  The Citizens' Budget Committee has extended the deadline for citizen comment on what they think about the draft Capital Improvement Project list.  Here's your chance to get your two bits in.  To participate, go to the City's Home page on the web and look for

Open City Hall 

under the News and Announcements banner.  Anything else you want to tell them about the city's budget?  The deadline for submitting comments is:

5 pm, April 18

The next Budget Committee Meeting will be on April 22 and will be televised live on Tualatin Valley Cable Television (TVCTV), and all Budget Committee meetings are available to view on your computer just like City Council meetings.  The first CBC meeting on March 20 is posted on the TVCTV website.

Check out the CBC website in a few days to see it a draft of the budget is there for you to see.  In previous years, a complete, draft detailed budget, by department, was available to citizens prior to all Budget Committee meetings, so we expect one will be forthcoming for citizens to see and comment on.  If you don't see the information you want or need, contact one of the CBC members (Chair this year is Dave Berg).

The Citizens' Budget Committee also reviews and approves the Lake Oswego Redevelopment Agency's (LORA) budget.  See copies of previous budgets on the same Budgets website.

Note: From the link to the TVCTV website posted above, you can choose to view previous meetings online, or choose to see a meeting live if a City Council or Budget Committee meeting is in progress.

Will Damascas be allowed to proceed unmolested?

In May, a city will decide whether it wants a canned, limited property rights future using the ubiquitous Smart Grown planning template, OR, if it wants the freedom to decide how to make its way on its own, trusting that their intelligence and desire to protect their home will be better than what outsiders think.  They don't need parents anymore - they never did.  It's their city.

Will Metro and the State have a fit and try to keep Damascus in line?  How do we get these governments that keep acting in ways we don't want?  What's in it for the Smart Growth promoters?  Why are they willing to sacrifice YOUR property rights for THEIR plans?  

The Northwest Connection
April 4, 2014

The Property Rights Plan for Damascus

(On the May ballot as Measure 3-444)

Steve Spinnett, Mayor of Damascus

It’s taken years to be able to navigate Metro’s rules, the state land use laws and still be able to come up with a property rights-friendly version of the state required Comprehensive Plan for the City of Damascus.

I believe we have done that, not just me but a team of us, my work group consists of a city councilor, two planning commissioners, citizens, our city legal team and AKS engineering along with our city planning staff.

It was particularly interesting to have a private sector civil engineering firm critique the work of the “government knows best” planning perspective. They found so many development code policies that simply were unworkable. This was all an education for me and made it worth the hundreds of hours of work we put into our version of the plan.

When our former planning director stated to those attending a town hall that what we want is a city that is planned out for the next 100 years, I thought here’s the agenda that ignores the current community’s rights and prefers an abstract ideal that ignores the market and will never materialize.

When does no mean no?

Or yes mean yes?

Tigard voters said no, but now the City Council wants them to say yes.

Getting around an obstacle like a silly little vote is not a problem for the Tigard City Council - it's all in one's perspective and how one chooses their words.  They didn't like the results of Ballot Measure 34-210, and now they want to manipulate the outcome.

I hope the citizen group that fought the city and "won" will have enough funds to fight the City in court.  The City will have its war chest made up of taxpayer dollars to do with what it wants -- to publicize its message and use the courts to keep opponents at bay.

So the fight isn't over - the measure fought for and won by the citizens -- is still being challenged.  Can you spell N-O?  No high capacity transit or planning or spending on HCT without a vote.  Seems clear to me.  Tigard HCT is in the news - again.

Tigard to launch outreach campaign about high-capacity transit, Southwest Corridor Plan

Tigard residents can expect an outreach blitz from the Tigard City Council in the coming weeks, as councilors strive to hear from as many residents as possible about high-capacity transit and the recently passed Ballot Measure 34-210.

The measure – which passed with 51 percent of the vote, and 37 percent turnout – requires the city to officially oppose the construction of new high-capacity transit projects without voter approval. But the City Council wants to know whether “yes” voters completely oppose high-capacity transit, or if they are open to the idea but simply want the right to approve it in an election.

The councilors are looking to place a clarifying measure on the November ballot to get an answer to that question. But before that, they will hold outreach events in the near future, where citizens can personally tell them how they feel about light rail or bus rapid transit.

Arbor Week Puzzle

Go forth and "celebrate" trees any way you want.  I'm going to use these sunny days to catch up on my pruning.  And please, everyone out there, don't top your trees!  

Here is a puzzle for you to solve (answer next week).

                       Tree Related Cryptogram

"KY KY ZKPPKQSMJ JC FVXMKIV UCR BFVXJ

X EXFJ CP XMM JUXJ KY QUVVFPSM XOZ

ZVMKBUJPSM KO JUV FVQCMMVQJKCOY CP CSF 

CRO MKPV KY XYYCQKXJVZ RKJU JFVVY."

                                                                                                   -- Wilson Flagg

ONLY ONE DAY LEFT!!!!!

Only ONE DAY Left!

You have until 5 pm tomorrow..

...to give your ideas to the Citizens' Budget Committee about what you want to see 

in or out of the budget for next year.  

Go to the City of Lake Oswego home page - under News and Announcements, 

Click on OPEN TOWN HALL to get to the survey.

If you have particular ideas that you would like to discuss in further detail and suggest as a formal proposal, contact one of the Committee members to pitch your ideas.  Be warned - if there is something you want to add to the budget, you should be prepared to suggest ways to pay for it - reductions in the budget.  If you want resources reallocated from one area to another, be specific which item you are referring to.  Whatever it is - 

TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK!  

It's our city, after all.  

TSP: Regional Bicycle Network

This is the bicycle portion of the Regional Active Transportation Plan.  Compare this map to the Lake Oswego TSP Bike/Ped Maps (set of 4).  As with the other maps, look for regional vs local projects, and paths that cross private property..  All transportation plans in the state are part of the LAND USE planning for a jurisdiction.  The roads, bike and pedestrian paths, and transit planning has all been done with future population and development growth in mind.  What I'd like to see (and hear), is someone from the planning department explaining how everything fits together so we are not just looking at its and pieces at any one time.  

For better clarity and detail, visit the Metro webpage for the Regional Active Transportation Plan and click on Regional Bicycle Network Mapbook.

Regional Bicycle Network Map (Feb. 2014):  Lime green = Regional  |  Dark green = City

                                                                                   Dash line = Off-road  |  Solid line = On road

TSP: Regional Pedestrian Network

It's still difficult for me to refer to "pedestrian" as "ped" as in:  "Bike/Ped Pathway".  It may be shorter and easier to use, but the word reminds me of the little nylon sock one uses at shoe stores to try on shoes.  They were called "peds" or "footies."  

I'm quite sure this is not the image the engineering or planning departments want one to have of pathways, but there it is, lingering in my brain for 50+ years or so.  I'll get over it.   

Here's a more relevant image.  Below is the Regional Pedestrian Network Map (part of the Regional Active Transportation Plan).  Section 11, Page 13 shows Lake Oswego and the surrounding area.   Compare the Regional map with the Lake Oswego TSP to see which pathways are on both. The side-by-side comparison will show many linkages that do not make sense by themselves, but we are being asked to make an investment in our infrastructure, and possibly burdening citizens with maintenance of and liability for the pathways for... What? 

 In some cases the new or improved paths might be desirable to the whole community including adjacent homeowners - but as is often the case, we aren't being told the whole the story.  We can't make intelligent decisions or complain if we don't understand what is being done and why.  It appears this is intentional to serve another agenda.  Am I wrong?  Prove it.  Tell me where and when the staff has laid out the detail of the entire TSP and how and why all of the parts will fit together.  This can't just be for one group - it needs to happen everywhere they go, to whomever they speak, and it should be stated in the TSP somewhere.  

Regional Pedestrian Network Map (Feb. 2014):  Lime green = Regional  |  Dark green = City

                                                                                   Dash line = Off-road  |  Solid line = On road

Lake Oswego Draft TSP Bike/Ped Path Map (TSP - March ver.)

NEXT post will have the Lake Oswego Bicycle and Pedestrian maps.  The city is split into 4 parts which is too much for one post.  I will also follow up this pedestrian map with the Regional Bicycle Network Map so the City maps will come inbetween.  

TSP: LO Pedtrian and Bicycle Paths

Unfortunately, the maps do not have street names, so you have to get another map to tell where the paths go.  City maps, and detail for each project is on the Project Pages of the TSP are in the Draft document.  (Download HERE - link is at bottom of the page.).

Another not-so-minor piece of information that is missing is which paths are part of a larger regional network.  Small stretches of sidewalks, where no one on the street wants them, can now be seen as a missing link (gap) in a regional trail system.  In such a case, the infrastructure cost would be paid for by Lake Oswego taxpayers, and maintenance and liability could possibly go to the abutting property owners, all because people can't walk (or bike) on a street that has had no sidewalks for a hundred years and is not in any crash zone now.

There are other surprises for the casual observer - the number of paths that cut through yards to connect cul de sacs with streets on the other side., and other short-cuts.  The words used in the Plan are "connectivity" and "filling in gaps."

Compare the City paths to the Regional Pedestrian Network and Regional Bicycle Network maps.

TSP on agenda for Wednesday TAB meeting

Last chance to talk to the TAB before the planning commission to let them know what you do and don't like about the Transportatipn System Plan.  

AGENDA 

Transportation Advisory Board Meeting 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

7:00 pm

City Council Chambers

For information, phone (503) 635-0274

The meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. To request accommodations, please contact Traffic Engineering at 503.635.0274 at least 48 hours before the meeting. 

1. CALL TO ORDER
   
2. ROLL CALL
   
3. CONSENT AGENDA
   The items on the Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be adopted in one motion unless a Board member or person in the audience requests, before the vote on the motions, to have the item considered separately. If removed, the Chair will indicate when the item will be discussed.
   January 8, 2014 Meeting Minutes Approval
   
4. OTHER BUSINESS
   - Welcome new TAB Board Members: Mike Peebles & Rick Nys
   -Announce TAB alternates: Don Nash, Dave Luck
   -Celebrate former TAB Member Tom Fahey at City Council, May 6th -Conferences & Trainings: Active Transportation Summit, April 21st in Portland
   
5. CITIZEN COMMENT
   
6. STAFF REPORT (15 minutes)
   

1. 6.1  Lake Oswego Assistant City Engineer’s Report
   CIP Update
   By Erica Rooney, P.E., Assistant City Engineer (5 minutes)
   
2. 6.2  Lake Oswego Traffic Engineering Report Special Events update
   By Nancy Flye, Traffic Engineering Technician III (5 minutes)
   
3. 6.3  Lake Oswego Police Department Report By Lt. Doug Treat 
   

     7. BOARD DISCUSSION / ANNOUCEMENTS / REPORTS 
                        Confirmation of TAB meeting times/days
                        Draft TSP Review – Amanda Owings
                                    -Discuss schedule, comments and resolution, planning commission
                                     hearing results, changes to the draft 
      8. ADJOURMENT 

          Next Meeting Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Architectural Victory

Daily Journal of Commerce, by Inka Bajandas, April 3, 2014

An architectural victory for autistic students

 

A rural setting is expected to help foster education at Victory Academy, on the edge of Wilsonville. 
(Opsis Architecture)

Opsis Architecture partner James Meyer has designed many educational spaces, but a new one for students with autism was a unique challenge.

“There are lots of subtle issues that are engaged in the space,” he said. “Literally nothing is accidental in the design.”

Last summer, Opsis staffers started designing a new home for Wilsonville-based Victory Academy. With 38 students enrolled last fall, the nonprofit private school for children with autism has reached capacity in the church space it leases.

“They were in a search for a new site,” Meyer said. “Really, the right thing to do was build a new school that was designed for autistic children.”

Continue reading at the DJC

Good things in small packages

Not suburban infill maybe, and some not big enough for a family to live in, but big impact indeed!

Small Buildings With Big Impact
Wall Street Journal, April 5-6, 2014

Good ideas often come in small packages. That was the inspiration for writer Philip Jodidio's new book "Small Architecture Now!" (Taschen, $59.99). It includes 64 structures, a third of them residential, that show how diminutive design can make a big architectural statement. As reduced budgets have led to more interest in smaller buildings, architects have found other benefits too—such as greater creativity. With bigger buildings, some clients "shy away from doing things that are unusual and inventive," says Mr. Jodidio. And as architect Tom Kundig told the author about his single-room Gulf Islands Cabin on a small island near Canada's Vancouver Island: "It's so small you have to go outside. That's the point!"

         Mazama, WA                                                                Ensenada, Mexico

          Gulf Islands, BC                                                           Tokyo, Japan  

Comments on Metro Active TSP

active transportation:  human-powered transportation. 

E.g.:  bicycling and walking

Means of engaging in active transportation:

roadways, shoulders of roadways, sidewalks, pedestrian pathways, trails, bike paths, etc.

I love many of these trails and paths and approve the concept of linking them for expanded use.  They are a treasure people in the Portland area are lucky to share.  However, all of the path linkages are not necessary, and some are unwelcome intrusions into residential neighborhoods.  The other problem with the regional projects is when they hit the Lake Oswego Transportatipn Plan (TSP) and Capital Improvement Project (CIP) list, there is no explanation of their total cost and the potential cost to each local entity including maintenance and liability expenses over time.

In the TSP there is no explanation of why a project is needed and what benefit each project has to Lake Oswego taxpayers.  Lake Oswego taxpayers will pay the full cost of the projects, or a portion of a matching grant, and most certainly, the maintenance, liability and traffic and neighborhood problems created after a pathway is built.  We need to be able to balance the need for a trail with other city needs and apportion local resources where they will do the most good.  Much information is missing for citizens to make that judgement.

Many of the local bike and pedestrian pathways in the TSP are listed as "gaps", but here is no explanation of what "gap" the new trail segment is supposed to fill.  There is also no list of which trails (local or regional) that cross private residential and commercial property.

What, Why, Where, and How much? 

The Regional Active Transportation Plan will consolidate and replace other regional bicycle and pedestrian plans.  Below are maps of the Regional Pedestriantrian Network and the Bicycle Network. .

At this point I was going to post 2 maps from Metro, but I have been struggling to figure out my PDF converter.  Until I get it right, please use the following links to see the Pedestrian Network Mapbook and the Bicycle Network Mapbook, both part of the new Active Transportation Plan.   Look for trails, paths and bikeways that are in the LO TSP.  (In a future post I will hopefully have a list for you.)  While paths and trails in general are a good idea, this isn't a wish book, the plans translate into real taxpayer dollars and real impacts - good and bad - for the public.

Water rules the day

Remember when it was a good thing to have a creek on your property?

Or visit a beautiful garden?

 

  Clean Water Act Expansion Draws

Ire From GOP As White House 

Prepares To Regulate Waterways

 AP | by HOPE YEN | Posted:  04/04/2014 8:50 am

HUFF POST GREEN 

                                                            Lawn is a puddle;

                                                            Thin streams run along the road;

                                                            Water rules the day.

Yerry Hill Road Haiku

IMPORTANT: Save the dates!

In the coming months, the City Council will be approving several KEY land use-related plans.  Each one of the 6 items listed below has their own timeline for public meetings, open houses, Planning Commission public hearings, and City Council public hearings.  Ever feel like everything is being thrown at you faster than you can catch it?  You'd like to know what's going on and give your 2-cents worth, but have no idea what's happening?  Below are, at minimum, 6 issues that will each have significant impact on how our city functions and what it will look and feel like.  Why is all of this happening so all at once?  What is the rush?  Why do we have so many consultants employed doing planning work when we have one of, if not the largest planning staff per capita in the state?  There is something very wrong here, and citizens have lost control of their city.  

It's our city after all.

0.   Open City Hall Survey

       The Citizens' Budget Committee and the City Council have asked for citizens' opinions on the Draft Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) list.  There only 5 days left to contribute your thoughts. The topic is listed on the Homepage of the City website, but here is only one comment so far.  Off topic: If the City hopes to capture citizens who aren't regularly involved with City affairs, there have to be other ways to get their input.  

The CIP list has the TSP projects on it, but they are spread out among several sections: 1) Parks and Recreation, 2) Pavement Preservation, 3) Roadway Improvements, 4) Pathways, and 5) Bicycle and Pedestrian Pathways (any others?).  Up Sucker Creek will have its own list of TSP problems shortly.  In the meantime, look for items that - you want to see gone, you want emphasized, and that you have particular issues with.  If a project makes the list (even as an unfunded project), it may get done regardless through grants or other funding sources.  Don't depend on the funding status when you decide what project is valuable to you.

• Deadline for input is April 9 at 5 pm 

1.   Transportation System Plan Update  

       The Planning Commission told the Engineering/Planning staff to take back the TSP draft and get
neighborhood input.  Staff sent out information to Neighborhood Association Chairs to share with neighbors.  If your NA has not yet contacted you with information on the TSP, call them, or call the City Engineering Dept.  This is not a great way to get involved with neighborhoods as each NA varies in level of activity, but all citizens care and want to be involved in transportation and growth issues.

• Transportation Advisory Committee meeting  April 9 (no agenda yet)
• Planning Commission work session  April 14  5:45 pm
• Commission for Citizen Involvement follows PC meeting; Citizen Comments are between meetings 

2.  Code Streamlining and Updates 

     Timeline for Adopting Code Amendments:

• Planning Commission hearing May 12
• City Council study session June 17
• City Council hearing and adoption July 1

Community Development Codes are going through an updating process.  This is an important issue to follow.  If you care about density, the height and bulk of buildings, the purpose (mixed use with residential, or retail and office, or bowling alley), and parking requirements - this is your chance to be involved.  Height, setbacks, FAR will be altered or blended with other zones to "streamline" the codes.  Don't wait - the timeline is short!  
      

3.  Clear and Objective Housing Standards

      Timeline for Adopting Code Amendments

• Planning Commission work session April 28
  
• Planning Commission hearing anticipated June 9
• City Council hearing and adoption in July (TBD)

The City has drafted amendments to bring the CDC into compliance with State requirements for clear and objective housing approval standards, intended to reduce unnecessary costs and delays in permitting needed housing.  (Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 197.307: Approval Standards for Certain Housing in Urban Growth Areas, and Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) 660-007-0015: Clear and Objective Approval Standards Required.).  Refer to Housing Needs Analysis 2012

Mixed-use, multi-family and "affordable" housing seem to be preferred.  High density residential will be (and in most cases already is) allowed in all commercial zones.  "Affordable" means new multifamily housing, though low cost of construction doesn't seem to count.  The city does not need to guarantee housing, only that there is land available for multifamily housing.  Codes will also cover height, setbacks, size of lots, attached dwellings, and what and where buildable land exists.

4.  Citizen Budget Committee

See the Budget Project Page for more details and a view of this year's budgets for the 

City and LORA.  The Budget Committee advises on the LORA budget also and past years' budgets are available for viewing.  

• Draft Budget should come out prior to the Budget Committee meeting for members and the public to review.  (The title, "Citizen" isn't accidental.). This is from the City Manager's office and will be posted online.  Call the City Managers office with questions.
• Budget Committee Meeting April 22, 6 pm Council Chambers.  Meeting will be televised.
• Follow-up meeting in May.  TBD

5.  SW Employment District Plan

• Planning Commission review of grant / IGA  April 14  

Planning Commission Metro and ODOT Grant Review (IGA Agreement).  See meeting packet for issues related to this topic, mainly composition and selection of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee
.

6.  Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (TCWTP)

See recent posts on this topic.

• Open House April 24  5 - 7 pm,  Oswego Pointe Condominiums, Riverside Room

TCWTP CAC Meeting and Open House

Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (CAC) Meeting

Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) Meeting
Date/Time: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 4:00pm - 6:00pm

The next meeting of the CAC updating the facilities plan for the City of Portland’s Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lake Oswego will be held on Wednesday, April 9 on the 10th floor of the Portland Building, 1100 SW 5th Ave in Portland. 

The CAC will be finalizing their recommendations and preparing for the Open House.  This meeting is open to the public.

CAC Members (as of Fall 2013):  Tom Badrick, Bruce Brown, Mary Beth Coffey, Al Iverson, Ruth Spetter, Dan Vizzini, Kara Warner, Dave Gooley, Rich Martin, Dave Gooley

Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant - Open House

Date/Time: Thu, Apr 24, 2014 5:00pm - 7:00pm

The Citizen Advisory Committee is updating the facilities plan for the City of Portland’s Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lake Oswego invites you to an open house to share its proposed plan and hear community feedback.

The Open House will be held on Thursday, April 24 from 5-7 p.m. in the Riverside Room at Oswego Pointe Condominiums, 5065 Foothills Drive in Lake Oswego.

Please contact Becky Tillson, BES Public Involvement, at 503-823-2827 for more information.HERE'S the Summary Page for the TCWTP Open House held April 24, 2013, the only public held so far.  There were 26 citizens in attendance and some filled out surveys.  The responses are interesting.

“I asked the pros and cons of these plans -- did not get an answer i understood.”
 “Ongoing construction audits to insure minimal impacts on rates akin to Acuity proposed audit for Lo tigard Water Project.”

“What is the context of tcWP?:
a. Willamette river Basin and; population b) Lake oswego uGmA c) sW Portland
d) tryon creek state Park e) interceptor capacity sE of Boones Ferry rd.”
 “Do not reflect correct inflated costs for Lt projects us. st benefit of plant const. at current $.”

Bring your questions.  

• What parts of the plan are attributable to Foothills Development?  Who will be paying for these enhancements?  
• If it is LO citizens, then will the money be recouped from development in the area?  
• Are natural resources being protected with plans for cut and fill?  
• In previous CAC meeting notes BES engineers said that energy recovery is cost prohibitive.  Will LO undertake this scheme anyway?  For whose benefit at whose cost?  And WHY?  "Sustainability" cannot be driving this. Portland is the most sustainable city there is, and if they don't want to do it, why should we?
• Actual costs in current and inflated dollars, and anticipated funding sources.
• Effect on utility rates.  
• Why expand the plant ?  If for future population growth, how many people are expected, when, and where will growth occur?   
• What is the household (or person) capacity of the current plant, and what is the capacity of the new plant?  

Climate hysteria

The Oregonian, March 30, 2014
Climate hysteria leads to bad public policy: Guest opinion 

By Roy Ashmun

A fissure near California's Mammoth Mountain is emitting hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide per day. 

(AP Photo)

Guest columnist John Kaufmann wants us to conclude that global warming is a man-made phenomenon driven by carbon dioxide. Reports I read say the earth's temperature has been constant for the past 15 years while the level of carbon dioxide has increased. Ice core data show that increases in temperature preceded increases in carbon dioxide by centuries. Climate models have overestimated temperature increases and failed to detect warming in the deep atmosphere (up to 75,000 feet) where the carbon dioxide effect is supposed to be most direct. And “climate scientists” have fabricated and altered data and withheld information that would allow other scientists to verify their findings. Consequently, I have yet to be persuaded of man's sin of carbon pollution.

The earth's climate is affected primarily by three factors: solar output, marine currents and the occasional catastrophe. At this time the climate scientists don't know whether clouds result in adding or subtracting to temperature, let alone the effect of the primary greenhouse gas, water vapor, which is 97 percent of the greenhouse gases. Consider there is a fissure in Mammoth, Calif., that is discharging hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide a day, thousands of coal mines are burning in China, hundreds of thousands of acres of forests burn each year in the U.S. and livestock flatulence is a major additive, yet man's behavior is the transgression that must be punished.

Kaufmann enumerates the number of articles and organizations supporting the belief in man-made warming as proof of its reality. I would be cautious about relying on consensus science. Recall the sun revolves around the earth; the earth is 6,000 years old; continents are stationary and immoveable; stomach ulcers are not a disease, etc. By the way, is there any other discipline that measures orthodoxy and apostasy to such a degree?

The earth may indeed be in a warming phase, but there is no ideal temperature in this dynamic system. Greenland was green before the advent of the Little Ice Age and is likely to be so once again as the climate continuously changes. I grudgingly concede Kaufmann’s side generally wins public opinion polls because the phrase global warming/climate change has an implied link to “man-made” that is accepted without doubt. And public opinion is quick to perceive variation as a trend as in the observation, “We had (more) (fewer) cold days this year. It must be because of global warming”
I assert that mankind's role in the changing climate is minimal based on the evidence that Kaufmann finds so persuasive. A difference of opinion would be just that, but climate hysteria has resulted in public policies that squander economic resources promoting alternative fuels and distract us from issues that we do have control over.

Roy Ashmun lives in Northeast Portland

Revenge of Revenge of Gaia

From The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2014

Notable and Quotable

From an article by environmental journalist Adam Vaughan in the Guardian (U.K.), March 30:

Environmentalism has "become a religion" and does not pay enough attention to facts, according to James Lovelock. The 94 year-old scientist, famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a self-regulating, single organism, also said that he had been too certain about the rate of global warming in his past book ["Revenge of Gaia," 2006], that "it's just as silly to be a [climate] denier as it is to be a believer" and that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms. . . .

Talking about the environmental movement, Lovelock says: "It's become a religion, and religions don't worry too much about facts." The retired scientist, who worked at the Medical Research Council, describes himself as an "old-fashioned green." Lovelock reiterated his support for fracking for shale gas, which has been strongly backed by David Cameron and the government but vigorously opposed by anti-fracking activists . . .

"The government is too frightened to use nuclear, renewables won't work—because we don't have enough sun—and we can't go on burning coal because it produces so much CO2, so that leaves fracking. It produces only a fraction of the amount of CO2 that coal does, and will make Britain secure in energy for quite a few years. We don't have much choice," he said.