Comp Plan Nightmares (1)

The City Council will finish up their review of the Comp plan on Tuesday afternoon at a special meeting starting at 4:00 pm in the City Council Chambers.

At many of the hearings with the Planning Commission and the City Council, there were voices saying, "So it's not perfect, just approve it as is."  "This plan has been in the works long enough, approve it as it is."  "It would be an insult to throw all the Citizens' Advisory Committee worked on it away, approve it as it is."  Yada Yada.

Isn't it the City Council's job to review the work of the staff?   Staff cannot make policy and the Comp Plan is partly a creation of the staff and outside consultants.  And isn't it the job of Advisory Committees to advise, not write a plan with goals and policies with the expectation the Council must take their advice?"  And isn't it the Council's ethical responsibility to the citizens who elected them to hold true to their campaign promises, some of which were to halt the progression of urbanization in Lake Oswego?  The Comp Plan is the first critical fork in the road.  There will be many more, but this one will establish a direction that will be extremely hard to pull back from.

Here are just SOME of the major elements of Comp Plan Part 2 that are troubling for people who want to retain the character of Lake Oswego as a small-scale, family-oriented, small town.

A-1.  Maintain land use regulations and standards to: 

        a.  Promote compatibility between development and existing and desired neighborhood 

 character;   Promote doesn't exactly "protect" or "ensure".  Promote is a feel-good verb that means anything the reader wants and leaves interpretation open to the planning dept. writes codes, or anyone.  

         i.   Enhance opportunities for mixed use development in Employment Centers, Town Centers, Commercial Corners, and appropriately zoned areas within Neighborhood Villages. Sounds exactly like, "eliminate barriers to mixed use development" which is the charge for the Code Streamlining project, being done with a grant from the state and the help of a consultant that is in the works but not yet approved.  Code Streamlining is intended to make it easier for a city to site mixed-use (commercial and residential in the same building or side by side) within the city.  It would consolidate zones and increase development size and intensity in some more protected zones or limited use zones - Eg.: high density residential in Employment Zones and Neighborhood Villages.  

E-1.  Ensure that amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Map are subject to specific locational criteria and other standards, including:  If you like the Comp Plan map now, how can it be changed?  

         e.  Effect on overall land supply, and the Metro Housing Rule (OAR 660-07-000);
In the he rule requires communities within the Portland metropolitan area to allow development at minimum densities of six and eight units per net buildable acre in suburban areas and 10 units per buildable acre in more urbanized communities such as Portland, Beaverton, and Lake Oswego. In addition, the rule requires all jurisdictions except small developed cities to zone land so that one-half of all newly constructed residences are attached single- family housing or multifamily housing (Section 660-07-000). 

         f.  Demonstration of public need for the change and that the proposed amendment will best meet identified public needversus other available alternatives; and,
What is public need?  Well...

          g.  Other criteria determined necessary to ensure conformance with the Comprehensive Plan..  

Applying the Metro Rule may insert increased density into a SFR neighborhood.   If every neighborhood had to comply with the "need".  How would neighborhoods be protected? 

E-2.  Maintain residential neighborhoods at existing zone and plan density designations, except where changes to higher residential density designations:  
The "except is the problem.  We were told rpeatedly that the new comp plan would notl change the zoning or do any upzoning of residential areas.  Allows low-density residential land to become medium- to high-density. Delete everything starting with "except".  This policy would allow up-zoning in residential zones, especially single family areas.  Are there any areas that exist now that the staff foresees as being acceptable for up-zoning?  Let's zone it that way at the outset so we know what we are agreeing to.  Don't have a clue?  Then drop the goal and do a Comp Plan amendment later.  See comp plan for list of exceptions. 

E-3. Applications for a Zoning Map/Comprehensive Plan Map amendment to change the designation of an area from residential to commercial or industrial shall be governed by the following procedures and criteria:

            i.  If the property is subject to an adopted neighborhood plan, the zone/plan change complies with applicable density change criteria as contained in the neighborhood plan; and
            ii.  The zone/plan change complies with all applicable Comprehensive Plan Policies and Goals, including the Housing Density policies contained in the Complete Neighborhoods and Housing chapter, and all of the following:
            xii.  Allow commercial and residential uses within the Southwest Employment Center and Kruse Way Area Employment Center at densities that support mass transit and which take advantage of the regional transportation system. These activities, in appropriately-zoned areas, may include:
                A.  Employee intensive businesses such as major regional office complexes, high density housing, and associated services and retail commercial uses; and,
                B.  Commercial activities that meet the needs of the traveling public, and other highway-oriented retail uses which require access to a large market area, in areas adjacent to I-5.

The Kruse Way commercial district - the Class A office buildings and some commercial, ould be available for housing.  The general idea is that ground level parking lots (considered a waste of land) would be converted to garages with apartments or condos above or alongside amongst other commercial or on vacant land in the zone..  How high?  Perhaps up to 9-stories depending upon the code streamIining.  Housing needs commercial / retail / services to serve the residents, so the area would function as a Transit Orientd Development.  The policy doesn't spell that out what a TOD is or how it might impact the city.  A TOD in this location would satisfy Metro's goals of having Lake Oswego included in the SW Corridor High-Capacity Transit Plan.  (See posts on the SW Corridor Plan.)

This one goal would effectivly add an entirely new reaidential and functional district to the city - WITHOUT  - citizen awareness or vote.  it would be akin to adding a city within a city with the possibility of outstripping the other Town Centers' population densities.  The proportion of single family homs and home owners xontinues to grow smaller with each density up-zone, bringing with it pressure for more of the same with few long-term homeowners to care.  

For those who want to retain whatever is left of our town's character as a small town, opening this door, even if the development would not occur for man years, would create a situation where Lake Oswego could not pull back from code allowing increased density without allowing the equivilant elsewhere in the city.  It would be better to use this area as the mitigation area for down-zoning other areas in the city rather than having nowhere else to turn.  This effectively locks in current density levels (in this plan) with upzoning allowed and no good place to shift density.  

How and why was all of this not spelled out for the public and the council?  Or many of the goals and policies that sound innocuous until put under a thorough review of what the impacts would be in the real world.  There are many more such goals, but this is the most egregious without the possibility of fixing it later.  

This blog post will end here, but I will finish my nightmare scenarios in the next (shortly). This is getting too long for one post!