High Priority for transparency on TSP

The Whole TSP Makes One Wonder
Citizen View, Lake Oswego Review, March 27, 2014

Some 69 percent of the spending is slated for bike paths and trails to connect places in the city (page 107). Has anyone taken even rudimentary measures of the current usage of existing trails and bike paths/lanes? Some data was right under the planners noses in the traffic data presented. Bikes on roads at evening rush hour — near zero. Has anyone calculated the additional annual maintenance cost to the city of these new projects? Silly. 

Then we have the roads to nowhere. Projects 133, 134, 135 and 136 all are to expand Foothills Road from its current position north to D Avenue (parallel to the railroad) and extend B Avenue from the new Foothills Road to Foothills Park (see pages 41 and 42 of the March draft of the TSP). These projects are given “high” priority. High priority for what — stealth development of Foothills? Oh, and the cost estimate — a mere $10.5 million — which looking at the terrain and right of way needed is significantly underestimated. Has anyone looked at the current average day traffic to Foothills Park? I think not. Silly.

The proposed draft also has multi-modal projects. Yes, that means bus and transit. While the document refers to the aging of the Lake Oswego population and mentions the need for on demand/circulator transportation (page 88) it makes no real recommendation as to what should be done and contains no projects for implementing such a plan. Then there is a proposal (projects 101, 102.2 and 170) to study new transit centers with a cost of $200,000. Silly.

The TSP was never voted on by the Lake Oswego Transportation Advisory Board before being placed on the planning commission agenda as a public hearing on Monday, March 24. Some members of TAB had serious questions and issues, which were not addressed by the planners. Why has the TSP been rushed to the planning commission by the planners?

Some members of TAB are going along with the move to the planning commission and plan (as of this writing) to submit a letter of endorsement to the planning commission without a vote of TAB. Is this the proper procedure? What message does this convey to the planning commission?

Is our city dedicated to transparency and involvement of the citizens in its direction? The whole TSP scenario makes one wonder.

Gerry Good is a resident of Lake Oswego and a member of the Lake Oswego Budget Committee.