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

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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.”