The City Budget - Watch how it's done

http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/boc_bc

MEETING NOTICE:

SECOND NOTICE OF BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING
CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO BUDGET FOR THE 2014-15 FISCAL YEAR

A public meeting of the Budget Committee of the City of Lake Oswego, in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties, State of Oregon, regarding the budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015, will be held on the 1st floor of Lake Oswego City Hall in the Council Chambers, 380 A Avenue, Lake Oswego, OR 97034. The meeting will take place on March 20, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to go over Committee ground rules, City Council Goals, and assumptions for the upcoming budget deliberations. This is public meeting where any person may appear for public comment.

Another Budget Committee (BC) meeting will be held on April 24, 2014 at the same time and location as stated above. The purpose of that meeting will be for the BC to receive the City Manager’s budget message and to deliberate on the Proposed Budget. The Proposed Budget will be published on or before by April 17, 2014.

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Meetings broadcast online:

The Budget Committee Meetings are televised on Tualatin Valley Community Television (TVCTV) Channel 23, 28 or 30. Visit TVCTV.org for up-to-date playback times and channels.

If you are out of the area the evening of a Budget Committee meeting, you can still watch meetings live via live streaming video. Copy mms://www.ci.oswego.or.us/live/ into your browser.

To watch prior Budget Committee meetings online:Go to Tualatin Valley Community Television (TVCTV) to watch streaming video site. For information about programming times, contact TVCTV at 503-629-8534 x 112.

O TSP, Where shall Thee be?

Up Sucker Creek and other public-minded entities have been been trying to get copies of the Draft TSP to see and ponder over.  It's been tough, and the journey has been full of potholes and speed bumps.  But your persistent reporter was not deterred - just shocked and dismayed about what one has to go through to get public records that should be available with the first request.*

FINALLY, after weeks of asking, the Draft TSP was distributed to the Transportation Advisory Board for discussion at their Feb. 12 meeting.  With no time to review the huge document (500 pages in all), the TAB cancelled the meeting and deferred their discussion until the next month.  I called the Traffic Engineer to request a copy, but after checking with the city manager, the Traffic Engineer said that I would have to pay $50 for the whole thing at $.25 per page.  This was beyond my budget, but what do people of lesser means do when presented with a bill that would seem minor to most?  Sit in City Hall to read through 20 or 500 pages of a Desk Copy?

The staff did make the Draft TSP available in several files 2 different formats bundled together in one zipped folder.  Easy.  Not.  Eventually I was able to print 100 pages on my own printer.  When LONAC requested several copies with fees waived for being a public service group, the answer was still, $50 please.  Not affordable for the 8-member transportation committee.  So the group paid $26 per set at Office Depot.  Maybe the city should get their printing done at Office Depot too!  It would be worth a staff member's time (it took 1 hour to do) and the company made a profit!

Of course it doesn't cost the city $50 to print the TSP.  And it doesn't cost $26 either.  It's another bureaucratic roadblock, just like the zipped files - anything to make it harder to get at the text?  What is it they don't want us to see?

Well, maybe we have a chance to find out.  On March 14, the city posted a NEW version of the Draft TSP on their website and removed the earlier version.  If you have a copy of the first edition you can look for the changes.  Any changes reported to me at upsuckercreek@gmail.com will be posted.  Each neighborhood chair was mailed a hard copy of the document set:  Express mail to about 25 chairs at about $5 each or $125.  I bet it would have been cheaper in time and gas to send someone out to hand deliver the documents and save the taxpayer even more money, if that is what we are trying to do here.

So, read the New Draft Transportation System Plan, (2 Parts), and the Staff Report, and let the Planning Commission know what you think about it.  All written testimony needs to be in by 5:00 on the meeting date.  Check the website for further information or questions.

Planning Commission

PUBLIC HEARING

Monday, March 24, 2014

6.1 Transportation System Plan‐Periodic Review (LU 14‐0015) 

6:30 pm, City Hall

*All instances of denial or difficulty in getting public records should be reported to the City Council and the Commission on Citizen Involvement (aka the Planning Commission).  And don't be out off by anyone telling you that they can't give you something because it isn't finished or ready for the public - allow David Powell, the City Attorney to make the determination if the document(s) in question are exempt by statute or would produce a "chilling effect" on work in progress (this is extremely rare).  In other words, it the records are something you want to see, you do not have to have a reason to see them, and you should get a reason if someone isn't letting you see them (or is making it difficult).

Bill Gates on poverty in the US

From the Wall Street Journal, 3/17/2014, excerpted from the March 17, 2014 issue of  Rolling Stone Magazine.

Notable and Quotable

Should the state be playing a greater role in helping people at the lowest end of the income scale?  Poverty today looks very different than poverty in the past.  The real thing you want to look at is consumption and and use that as a metric and say.  "Have you been worried about having enough to eat?  Do you have enough warmth, shelter?  Do you think of yourself as having a place to go?"  The poor are better off than they were before, even though they're still in the bottom group in terms of income.

The way we help the poor out today [is also a problem].  You have Section 8 housing, food programs, very complex medical programs.  It's all high-overhead, capricious, not well-designed.  It's ability to distinguish between somebody who has family that could take care of them versus someone who's really out on their own is not very good, either.  It's a totally gameable system - not everybody games it, but lots of people do.  

Why aren't the technocrats taking the poverty programs, looking at them as a whole, and then redesigning them?  Well, they are afraid that if they do, their funding is going to be cut back, so they defend the thing that is absolutely horrific.  Just look at how low-cost housing and the various forms, the wait lists, things like that.

 * * * * *

When people in (and out or) Lake Oswego talk about "affordable" housing (also known as "workforce housing" and "low-income" housing), they believe  government-supported housing for low-income individuals and families is a good thing.  Government cannot do anything cheaper than the private sector can - if they do, it's through the cloud of government-supported programs or foundations.  

For every dollar overspent on public (-supported) housing, more deserving people could be helped.  If one factored in the administrative costs of sending our tax dollars to Washington and getting them back for public housing, a $250k dwelling unit (local expenses) might cost $332k instead.  Madness.  

The local guy who ditched all financing from government programs, built housing for $70k per unit and rented them at a rate that covered costs of about $650 for a 2-bedroom unit in close-in Portland!  No one can defend government-subsidized housing (except in a few cases for some felons and mentally handicapped individuals).  The Central Planners who have, and may still be, promoting "affordable" (government) housing for Lake Oswego - if not by inclusionary zoning, then by targets for numbers of units in 5 years, 10 years, etc.   This is wrong.  There is ample proof that this forced construction of affordable housing it a tax to us all - more than programs that already provide housing in a much cheaper way like Section 8 vouchers.  

Get facts.  Figure out who are the people to gain.  

Then ASK QUESTIONS, and then ASK some more. 
Ask until you can't think of any to ask anymore.

Designs for Tigard (HCT) already?

This meeting notice (below) came through my email box first on March 4, seven days before the election.  The meeting update and reminder came on Election Day itself.  I found this notice to be quite strange because the text of Measure 34-210 prohibits Tigard from being involved in planning for High1Capacity Rail (HCT).  Yet a planning meeting is scheduled to be held at Tigard City Hall tonight.

I thought that perhaps on March 4 Metro was just being hopeful about the outcome of the election.  Then I read an article in The Oregonian (excerpts below) that explained how politicians had planned to get around the wording and intent of the newly-revised City Charter all along.  No wonder people don't trust their government anymore. When they don't like what the people want or dismiss the results of an election that didn't go their way, they plow ahead with their preferred agenda anyway.

The lesson from all of this:  You can't write a law that doesn't have a loophole somewhere for scoundrels to slip through if they want to do something bad enough.

Corridor Design Workshop

Corridor Design Workshops will be held in three main locations in the Southwest Corridor: Southwest Portland, Tigard, and Tualatin. The public is invited to attend and learn about the High Capacity Transit (HCT) design options under consideration and to provide feedback to help determine the most promising design options as well as those that could be removed early from consideration based on design considerations and earlier public input. Participants will also have the opportunity for a general update on the Southwest Corridor Plan process, which is currently in a refinement phase.

Currently, over 50 design options for high-capacity transit are under consideration. Community input has already been extremely helpful to project designers. The Southwest Corridor Plan project staff has heard from residential neighborhoods who want to maintain their quiet character, freight interests concerned about a transit line impacting travel time, and economic centers distinctly in need of improved transit service. All of this feedback has helped planners and engineers hone in on design options that are most appropriate for the communities proposed to be served by HCT.

Attendees are encouraged to arrive on time to hear an informative staff presentation. Following the presentation, there will be small-group opportunities to focus in on all segments of the corridor between downtown Portland and Tualatin, via Tigard. The public will learn from technical analysis performed so far on the design options, provide crucial input about their preferences, and have opportunities to ask questions at the small-group activities. These workshops will set the stage for more information on the high capacity design options to be shared with the public in April.

Corridor Design Workshop

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Tigard Town Hall

13125 SW Hall Blvd., Tigard OR 97223

Presentation will start promptly at 6:30 p.m., and small-group activities at 7:00 p.m.

Corridor Design Workshop

Thursday, March 20, 2014

6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Tualatin Police Dept.

8650 SW Tualatin Rd., Tualatin, OR 97062

Presentation will start promptly at 6:00 p.m., and small-group activities at 6:30 p.m.

Camille Tisler

Administrative Specialist | Planning & Development, Metro

 *********************************************************************************

This is from The Oregonian printed one day after the March 11 election.  The interviews were conducted Election Eve after all the votes were in:

Oregonian Luke Hammill  March 12, 2014

Tigard ballot measure appears to have passed, barely: 'It's a divided community'

Metro Councilor Craig Dirksen, a former mayor of Tigard, also opposed the measure and joined the crowd at Max’s Tuesday night. He said that the measure’s passage wouldn’t affect the city for years. According to Dirksen, Tigard should keep participating in the Southwest Corridor Plan – which could one day connect Portland, Tigard and Tualatin with bus rapid transit or light rail – because the measure requires that city officials provide residents with cost estimates and other details before putting such a project to a vote. Without planning, Dirksen said, there’d be no way to present that information.

[Tigard Mayor] Cook said he will respect the voters’ decision and abide by the measure, but he wants to keep going with the Southwest Corridor Plan as well.

“I won’t just sit back and do nothing,” Cook said. “We’re going to continue to plan.”

The Case for Cul-de-Sacs

The much-aligned cul-de-sac - the suburban form urban planners love to hate - is given a huge thumbs up for the social connectedness it creates for the people who live in them.  The suburbs are  "Connected Communities" - but it's not for everyone.  

The Case for Cul-de-Sacs 

The Atlantic Cities   EMILY BADGER  OCT 17, 2013

In a weird way, Thomas R. Hochschild Jr. actually first encountered the social cohesion of cul-de-sacs in his latest research when he wandered into one in Connecticut with his clipboard and polo shirt, and someone called the cops.

That never happened on the other types of streets he was studying, places where it would turn out the neighbors didn't know each other as well, and it was less clear who "belonged." Repeatedly, though, he found at the end of cul-de-sacs families who watched each others' children and took in each others' mail, who barbequed and orchestrated the removal of snow together, and who considered each other close friends. In cul-de-sacs, these families had a stronger sense of shared social space and territoriality. An outsider stood out.

In sociologist's terms, Hochschild ultimately concluded that people who live in traditional bulb cul-de-sacs have the highest levels of attitudinal and behavioral cohesion (covering both how they feel about their neighbors and how much they actually interact with them). People who live on your average residential through-street have the lowest levels (in between the two are "dead-end" cul-de-sacs that lack that traditional, circular social space).  

Continue reading at The Atlantic Cities.

Technically, it's still St. Patrick's Day

It reminds me of a summer algea bloom, but much prettier!
Compliments of The Atlantic Cities    

• ADAM CHANDLER
• MAR 17, 2014

Aerial Photos of the Chicago River Being Dyed Green Will Hypnotize You

 

 

Draconian Bay Area Plan

Read the entire article at:
Courthouse News Service

Citizens Fight Bay Area 'Smart Growth' Plan

August 8, 2013

By William Dotinga

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) - Citing environmental concerns, a Bay Area citizens' group asked a state judge to set aside a regional urban plan which advocates high-density growth rather than suburban sprawl.
     Bay Area Citizens, a nonprofit represented by self-described conservative legal watchdog Pacific Legal Foundation, filed for writ of mandate in Alameda County Court.
     It sued the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, claiming the agencies' plan to comply with state greenhouse gas emissions law violates the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
     State law requires that local agencies produce a sustainable-communities strategy to reduce passenger vehicle CO2 emissions by 7 percent by 2020, and by 15 percent by 2035.
     The plaintiff claims the Bay Area agencies plan to do this through "a draconian high-density land use regime that will require nearly 80 percent of new housing and over 60 percent of new jobs in the Bay Area to be located within just 5 percent of the region's surface area."
     Broadly speaking, the plaintiff opposes so-called "smart growth," which creates densely populated, walkable, mixed-use commercial and residential centers, to reduce sprawl and traffic congestion. Bay Area Citizens seems to prefer spending public money on road and bridge improvements rather than mass transit, and to oppose zoning-or to prefer "more flexible" zoning.
     The plaintiff claims that while the sustainable-communities strategy itself does not regulate land use, it "provides powerful tools to coerce a local government to comply with the strategy's land-use prescriptions, even over the wishes of local residents, taxpayers and their elected representatives."

The End of Affordabioity

If I have shared this paper with you already, consider this a review of how far and how deep the smart growth ideology has gone.  This writer gives us a bleak picture of where we are headed.  We currently have two Town "Centers," two "Employment Districts" and a couple "Corridors."  We also have several "Neighborhood Villages" and "Neighborhood Commons" (or activity nodes).   All of these places have definitions that give shape to how our town is shaped and used (up).

When (not if) commercial land in the corridors (and Foothills) becomes mixed use (horizontal or vertical), the density of Lake Oswego could surpass anything seen in the past.

Is this what Lake Oswegans asked for?  Is this why any of moved here and paid a premium in house prices to do so?  Metro doesn't care.  And given how our local elected officials have given in to Metro's demands when they didn't have to, our town has been laid bare to all manner of smart growth manipulation.

If there is one place to stop this madness, it is at the local level.  Who is brave enough to stop Metro's destruction of our town - at least changing it without public approval?   Who will step up to the plate and be a voice for independence?  The 2014 City Council election will be crucial to the future of LO.

SOS is one group in Australia fighting back against the same overbearing land use restrictions that harm the average person and seem to benefit only a certain class of developers and political, transportation, consultant, industrial partners.  Read the paper and know that this land use scheme is not about saving the planet, it's about something else.  But what?

This 5-part video from SOS is a parallel to what is happening in the US.  Each part is short and VERY good at explaining what is going on.

The End of  Affordability

"LIKE CHOOKS IN BATTERY CAGES."

Battery cages, the cruelest of all factory farming systems, are illegal across the European Union and have been condemned by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. California should be celebrated, not sued, for taking a stand against these inhuman (Oops! That should be  inhumane) practices.

Who owns abandoned RR lines?

Answer:  read the Supreme Court Decision from Monday, March 10, 2014

What implications does this have for the Willamette Shore Line?

The Death and Life of Neighborhood Activists

The City Journal (see link at right) has an older book review from July 31, 2009, on two books about Jane Jacobs, community activist and author of, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities."  Jane Jacobs and her book have lent a politically-correct credibility to current urban planning philosophies and is a standard text used in most urban planning curriculums. The book review points out what I have said before - that Jane Jacobs was a NEIGHBORHOOD activist, not a lover of central planning that assumes a superior ideology is better than the wisdom of the people.  What she fought for was not a certain style of "vibrant," "mixed-use," city structure, but that city planning was best left to its inhabitants, not for a elite class of planners to impose on the public.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, 

and only when, they are created by everybody.” 

― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

HOWARD HUSOCK 

Jane Jacobs’s Legacy

Excerpts:
Still, few appreciate the extent to which Jacobs’s personal experience in Greenwich Village helped forge her influential ideas. It’s not only the remarkable fact that her study of the street outside her window at 555 Hudson Street sparked key insights about the preconditions for safety and neighborhood vitality. The same deeply local experience led to the development of another, less understood side of Jacobs—her role in shaping, for good and ill, the tactics of what has come to be called community activism. Anthony Flint’s book makes a significant contribution here, smartly built as it is around the perfect foil: New York’s brilliant, high-handed, take-no-prisoners modernist planner-in-chief, Robert Moses, whose plans to crisscross lower Manhattan with highways and housing projects, as he’d previously done throughout the city, were thwarted by Jacobs and her band of Greenwich Village mothers.

Flint describes how Jacobs and a powerful coalition of Village citizens and officials (including the young Ed Koch) successfully led what we would now call a neighborhood-preservation movement. A turning point was the defeat of Moses’s plan, first announced in 1952, to run a four-lane highway through one of the city’s landmarks, Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park. Over the course of the fifties and early sixties, Jacobs helped stop two other disastrous projects: the replacement of 14 blocks of the West Village to make way for apartment towers, and the construction of a Lower Manhattan Expressway linking New Jersey and Long Island. The tactics that helped defeat Moses have become commonplace. Children marched with banners for the benefit of newspaper photographers, and activists got the word out in editorials in the fledgling Village Voice.

But none of this might have mattered had Jacobs not made the intellectual case against high-rise housing, neighborhood clearance, and highways that ran through cities—indeed, against the profession of city planning itself. She was untutored except in the way celebrated by the Yogi Berra aphorism: You can see a lot just by looking. 

It’s tempting to see Moses chiefly as a public front man for private interests; real-estate developers and contractors certainly got rich through his “slum clearance” and highway projects. But the bohemian quality of Jacobs and her allies can obscure crucial facts. Moses was a classic progressive who used eminent domain to wipe out minority-owned small businesses and to displace thousands of residents of modest means. Jacobs, despite her start in the Village, and despite leaving New York for Toronto during the Vietnam War so that her sons could avoid the draft, was more libertarian than leftist. (Flint notes that Death and Life was praised at its publication by William F. Buckley.)

Moses thought that expert guidance and planning could create an environment that fostered enjoyment and fulfillment. Jacobs demurred: “To approach a city or even a city neighborhood as if it were capable of being given order by converting it into a disciplined work of art is to make the mistake of substituting art for life.” Her struggle, then, was not just about neighborhood preservation; it pitted individualism and liberty against regimentation imposed by a benevolent despot.

It’s difficult to imagine her having a kind word to say, for instance, about the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, where eminent-domain power is to be used for massive clearance and the construction of subsidized high-rises and a sports arena. It’s classic old-style urban renewal, dressed up with plans to use a big-name architect. 

Earth as Art

                                                                We must look to the heavens . . . 

                                                            for the measure of the earth.

                                                            Jean-Félix Picard

                           

                                         

 Earth as Art series - USGS and NASA imagery of Earth from space.
See more images at:  Earth as Art

Hunting in the city

Unfortunately, both of these articles are not available online without a subscription.  If you can find them in print, they are well worth reading, especially the Time article - very thorough and  informative - the WSJ is more opinion.

The subject of both pieces is the growth of wildlife populations - in their natural habitat and in urban settings.  The results of overly abundant populations in the wild can be devastating for the animals, for the ecosystem, and in cities it can be dangerous to humans.  The protections government put into place to support animal survival may have worked too well.  Surprising and thought provoking articles!

Can't See the Forest for the Deer

To cull or not to cull? That is the question towns increasingly face.

Wall Street Journal 3/12/2014

By Al Cambronne

The U.S. now has 30 million deer, a hundred times more than a century ago. From California to Long Island, the rising deer population has resulted in widespread property damage and crop losses, as well as an increase in Lyme disease and often fatal deer-car collisions. The causes are clear: a lack of natural predators, increased hunting restrictions, and "suburban sprawl" that has created a new attractive habitat.

Less well known is the damage the exploding deer population is doing to America's woodlands and forests. Each year, every one of those hungry deer devours around 3,000 pounds of vegetation. When they browse too many of those tons from the same small scrap of forest, it has consequences for us, the deer themselves, the ecosystem of which they're a part, and the American landscape.

Read the remainder in the Wall Street Journal.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time Magazine

America’s Pest Problem: It’s Time to Cull the Herd

David Von Drehle 

  
Dec. 9, 2013

Photograph by Daniel J Cox / Getty Images

After nearly wiping out many wildlife species 50 years ago, Americans are once again living close--sometimes uncomfortably so--to all kinds of feral creatures. Why wildlife in the U.S. needs stronger management

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Faced with an outbreak of lyme disease and rising deer-related car accidents, the city council of Durham, N.C., authorized bow hunting inside city limits in November. Authorities in San Jose, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley, voted to allow hunting wild pigs within that city in October. Rock Island, Ill., one of the five Quad Cities on the Mississippi River, recently approved bow hunting in town, provided that it occurs in green spaces — golf courses, parks, cemeteries — or on private land.

Across the country, hunting is poised for a comeback, and not just because the folks on Duck Dynasty make it look like so much fun. We have too many wild animals — from swine to swans. Whether you're a Walmart employee in Florida wondering what to do with the alligator at your door, a New Yorker with a hawk nesting on your high-rise or an Ohio golfer scattering a flock of Canada geese, you now live, work and play in closer proximity to untamed fauna than any other generation of Americans in more than a century.

Too many deer, wild pigs, raccoons and beavers can be almost as bad for the animals as too few. This is why communities across the country find themselves forced to grapple with a conundrum. The same environmental sensitivity that brought Bambi back from the brink over the last century now makes it painfully controversial to do what experts say must be done: a bunch of these critters need to be killed

Read the whole article in Time Magazine.

By the skin of their teeth!

The Tigard ballot measure requiring a public vote before Tigard can spend any time or money on planning for, amending maps for, regulating for, or building a high-capacity transit system appears to be passing.  The unofficial results, as published by the Washington County Election Division is below - about 200 votes separate the two sides.

However this election turns out in the official count, it would be nice to know why people voted the way they did.  In principal, Up Sucker Creek believes in and defends the public's right to vote on issues that can change their town significantly.

 
Next update: March 12, 2014 at 4:30 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY REPORT        Washington County, Oregon        unofficial 

Run Date:03/11/14     Special Election 

RUN TIME:10:18 PM     March 11, 2014 

                                                                                                      VOTES         PERCENT 

 PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 12) .   .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .         12              100.00 

 REGISTERED VOTERS -           TOTAL .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     26,972 

 BALLOTS CAST -                       TOTAL.   .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  . .   9,803 

 VOTER TURNOUT -                   TOTAL.  .  .   .   .  .   .  .  .  .                             36.35 

 34-210 City of Tigard
          Charter Amendment - Transit 

 VOTE FOR  1 

 Yes  .  .  .  .  .   .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .    4,997                50.98 

 No.  .  .  .   .   .   .  .  .  .  .   .   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .   4,804                49.02

======================================================================

TSP Public Hearing Dates

The Planning Commission 

will hold a public hearing regarding 

the Transportation System Plan on 

March 24, 6:30 

in the Council Chambers at City Hall.  

Citizens may comment on any aspect of the Plan which includes these transportation project types:

• Trail system - local and regional
• Pathway - pedestrian only - typically asphalt
• Pathway - combined bike and pedestrian
• Sidewalks - concrete curb & gutter
• Bike path - shoulder, separated
• Roadway up-classifications
• Transit - bus routes and possible future HCT
• Did I forget anything?

Note:  Some pathways and bike paths appear to be recreational only and not intended for transportation - accomplishing daily tasks.  The TSP does not make that distinction even though some seem obviously one or the other.  Some local paths cut through private property - parking lots and at property lines - but these are not clearly marked either.  

City Traffic Engineer, Amanda Owings, may be able to help you if you have questions.

Read the documents at the Transportation Advisory Board webpage - you will need to unzip the files.  Once unzipped, there are two PDF files - one titled "Body" and the other labeled "Technical Appendices".  Both have good material, but start with the Body.  Projects are listed in charts and shown on maps.  

It would be best if testimony is written and sent to the Planning Commission prior to the meeting.  

Train Day in Tigard

Actually, it's not about trains per se, it's about High-Capacity Transit options in Tigard.  A group of Tigard citizens want the public to vote on whether or not they want a HCT system running through their city.  The HCT could be either Bus Rapid Transit or Light Rail.

The debate on this issue has been raging for quite awhile and some prominent locals and local and regional corporations and unions have lobbied against it.

Today is the day everyone will see which side won.  It would be nice to know what the voters were thinking when they cast their votes.  Did Tigard ever do a survey of its citizens to gauge their willingness to have a HCT line in their city, or the development that comes with it?

It's not business as usual anymore - citizens want more of a say in how their city grows and functions in order to maintain the quality of life (or livability) they desire.

Go Tigard!  

Whichever way the vote turns out, I hope that Lake Oswego will retain its independence to choose its own path into the future.

It's our city after all.  

Correction, explanation and apology

CORRECTION:  

It's never pleasant to admit to one's mistakes.  But public mistakes require a public apology.  

USC was incorrect in interpretating the code amendments in a previous blog.  I apologize for the mistake and the assumption of any unprofessionalism by city staff.   

It is also a good time to clarify that I respect all our public servants and understand that they have difficult jobs that are not made easier having to deal with conflicting messages from many sources. My criticism is directed at certain ideas and philosophies of land use and planning that are currently in vogue.  

It's common these days to hear of people who wake up one day to find that something is going on in their town that makes it feel like a foreign place. If they had only known that their city government had changed direction, they would have done something. But the plans that created the transformation were in the works years before, and it would have taken dozens of people working full time to keep up with all that was going on.  People have to trust that their local government is working on their behalf, not in pursuit of an ideological belief or outside influences.  

The city is at a crossroads.  Should we go forward in a low-growth, slow-growth mode, or plan for a high-density, vibrant and connected urban future?  

This fight isn't personal and it isn't about any single person.  So again, my apologies when I get things wrong.  If I do offend, I hope it is because you don't agree with me.  Leave me a comment so we can discuss it, and allow me to change my mind, or vise versa. 

Oh those Wisconsinites!

Spring rains, or beer?  In Wisconsin, it doesn't rain much this time of year.

Iditarod? Ha! These Guys Race Bar Stools on Skis

Brothers Dominate a Sport That Put Tiny Drummond, Wis., on Map

By JESSE NEWMAN, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated March 4, 2014 10:34 p.m. ET

There are strict rules in bar-stool racing: Sleds must consist of two skis and one bar stool.
Read the article at The WSJ 
Jesse Newman/The Wall Street Journal

Tool kits to make or unmake a city

A blueprint for how to transform a neighborhood into a station community.  The LO Planning Commission has been hearing about code changes for months now and will hear about more on Monday, March 10.  Check the agenda attachments for the PC meeting and track all upcoming code changes carefully.

Tigard Triangle: Existing Conditions 

GREAT PLACES  Click to see illustrated suggestions to  fundamentally transform a low-density, suburban lifestyle into an urban one.  
SWCorridor Plan
Steering committee recommendation | Attachment B
Regulatory framework and financial incentives toolkit

July 22, 2013 

Toolkit: Regulatory framework that sets the stage 

This toolkit describes key transit supportive policies and regulatory tools and offers some possible examples of their application in the Southwest corridor. Information is included to illustrate
how the changes can raise the development potential within the corridor. Described in more
detail below, the policies that are recommended for further action by local partners include the following:

• zoning code changes
• examining density maximums and building height          
•  non-compliant use provision  
• stepbacks
• commercial corridor assessment 
• parking requirements and parking management 
• trip generation reductions
• responsive parking ratio
• shared parking 
• unbundling parking 
• design code changes
• layered landscapes and active open space 
• ground floor active use provisions. 

ZONING CODE  Non-conforming use provision
WHAT
In downtowns, main streets and mixed-use corridors, a non-conforming use provision can attract redevelopment on a smaller, site-specific scale. These code provisions allow a property with an existing auto-oriented use that would no longer be permitted in a zone to be continued if the property is redeveloped in exchange for increased density, a greater mix of uses, and higher design standards. This increased flexibility in a code can affect a developer’s decision to approach a specific site. In many cases, the redevelopment and design of the site may turn out to be even more important than the allowed uses.
WHY
Auto-oriented land use areas along the corridor may find this code change helpful to incent local redevelopment projects that would otherwise be limited in scope.
HOW
A local jurisdiction would examine their development code and determine the best locations to apply a non-conforming use provision. The policy could be targeted in areas where the city wishes to see redevelopment occur. This approach can be implemented in base zones, plan districts or overlay zones. 

Another estate fights for its rights

Even one instance of bureaucratic abuse is too much, but a pattern of regulations run amok have robbed families of their life estates.  Another family is now in jeopardy of losing their fortunes to a public policy that covets private land and demands that it be preserved at the owners' expense.

The Sensitive Lands regulations have been tabled as part of the Comprehensive Plan until the Council examines them in detail. Until then, the Council ruled that there would be no new sensitive lands added, and there would be no new mapping of sensitive lands.  Click here for map of SE Quadrant.

At the City Council meeting on March 4, Bob Thompson, of the Lake Oswego Stewards, told the Council of a family that is dealing with the Planning Dept. over an enlarged Sensitive Lands boundary that went from a tiny corner of the property to cover 80% of the 1.55 acres.  Upon the patriarch's death, the family is now facing the devaluation of the property that is their inheritance.  

Watch the video clip of the council meeting to get the full story.  Open up the Interactive Agenda and click on the agenda item you are interested in:
No. 7 Citizen Comment.

What would you do if this were your property and your family?

Does anyone wonder why people tend to cut valuable trees down on their property in advance of tightening regulations?  It isn't because they hate trees, it's because they know that government will be involved in their PRIVATE property.

The injustice cuts deeper when there is no scientific criteria for what animals the tree grove habitats are for and what the habitats should be like to justify the regulation (taking).  What are we doing with someone else's land?

If the public wants to control land, it ought to be willing to purchase the land.  Just like everyone else.

Connecting dots - SW Corridor Plan includes LO

A must-read website for a look at the future as designed by Metro - with the assist of local representatives on the SWCP Steering Committee.  I bet no one in the general public ever heard of the SW Corridor Plan and that despite what any LO rep. said, community buy-in is non-existent.

Southwest Corridor Plan 
SHARED INVESTMENT STRATEGY RECOMMENDATION 

The Southwest Corridor Land Use Vision – a community
vision for places throughout the corridor 

Each city in the Southwest corridor began this collaborative effort by looking at its downtown, main streets, corridors and employment areas to define a vision for these places that reflects their

unique characteristics and local aspirations. The area contains a wealth of opportunities for jobs and stable neighborhoods and is expected to grow significantly in the future. The corridor includes important regional retail and employment destinations as well as many major trails and one of the nation’s few urban national wildlife refuges.
Population and employment projections are based on Metro's growth estimates and have been distributed to cities based on their population allocations.  It would be nice if job growth could be predicted and that these would be full-time, family-wage jobs. 

            Households      Jobs

2010    78,800               187,900
2035    111,900              259,200 
For built-out cities like Lake Oswego, the only way to accommodate more growth is to increase the density of low density zones or change the uses within zones through code changes.  LO code changes are being crafted now.  

The Southwest Corridor Land Use Vision compiles local land use plans and puts them into a common language, creating a foundation for the many projects (ranging from transportation to parks) to be categorized and prioritized based on how well they support the shared corridor land use vision.

• Mixed use The corridor includes opportunities for areas with a mix of housing, employment and services in a walkable environment. Good access to transit with high quality pedestrian and bike facilities are critical elements for these mixed use areas to help leverage infill and redevelopment.
  
• Higher intensity residential Infill and redevelopment is likely to be the primary generator for new development in the corridor. The majority of new residential development that does occur will be found in the mixed-use areas, and these areas will need to integrate natural features into development to ensure a high quality of life and connections to nature. 

To develop the land use vision, each city identified key places and categorized them based on the importance of a high capacity transit investment to connect them (see map pg. 7). These key places were used to draw the draft high capacity transit alternatives, thus ensuring that the transportation solution supports the community’s vision for growth. The prioritized key places also help focus investments for other types of transportation as well as parks and natural resources. 

Recommendation: Shared investment strategy

The Southwest Corridor Plan and Shared Investment Strategy includes a strategic project list for transit, roadway, active transportation and parks and natural resources as well as ideas for policy change and development strategies. The Southwest Corridor Plan evaluation, project partner priorities and public input provided the foundation for the Southwest Corridor Shared Investment Strategy. 

Achieving desired development: Regulatory environment and financial incentivesNatural areas

The public sector plays a key role in realizing a community’s land use vision. Often, the development forms desired by communities are limited by the regulatory environment or not financially feasible.  Two important tools can help the public sector set the stage for
development consistent with community goals. Those tools are 1) changing the regulatory framework and 2) providing financial incentives. Together, these actions can catalyze market value and stimulate private investment. 

Here's how it works:

1.  Metro creates a Plan with the help of a few key people in each community.  Metro planners do the planning with help from consultants.  There are usually a few open houses for the public.   This is public input.  

2.  Local communities are encouraged by Metro to do planning for new land uses by offering grants for the planning work. The same consultants might work with multiple communities on similar plans for each.

3.  New land use designations are codified in a comprehensive plan.  Metro's plans are useless unless backed up by a city's own plans and policies.  Metro cannot act - only its "partners" can do that.

4.  New development codes support the new vision for the new land uses - typically high-density, mixed-use.

5.  Local jurisdictions create funding mechanisms for achieving elements of the plan - streets, paths, bikeways, parks, transit, and subsidies for preferred types of development.

CHECK MAPS on pages 3 and 7 to see where Lake Oswego connects with the SW Corridor .