Block 137 Tries Again...

It's been a few days since I visited my computer to tell you what's been going on, but most of you have been following the Wizer Block development drama for some time and don't need an update.  The LO Review published an article about Part 1 of the DRC hearing on Monday night - Part 2 will be held tonight starting at 6:00 pm at City Hall.

Again, I want to say how impressed I am Bout the thorough and professional way the Commissioners have listened and responded to testimony.  No one will be pulling any wool over their eyes, so keep the rhetoric at home or on the streets - the slogans and repetitious "We did it!" exclamations are only distractions and a bit off-putting.  If Kessi was trying to persuade anyone his project was an ideal fit on Monday night, he did not "do it."

Block 137 supporters, critics flood City Hall

So many show up for review commission's hearing that a second session is scheduled for Thursday night

Lake Oswego Review  |  July 23, 2014  |  Saundra Sorensen

Supporters and opponents of a redevelopment proposal for downtown Lake Oswego’s Block 137 packed City Council chambers and Municipal Court space and spilled out into City Hall’s foyer Monday night, when the Development Review Commission met for the first of what now looks to be several nights of public debate.

The commission met for five hours Monday, listening first to lengthy presentations from city staff and from developer Patrick Kessi’s Evergreen Group LLC. Commissioners offered comments and asked questions before opening the meeting to the public shortly after 9 p.m.

Because of the huge number of people who signed up to speak, comments will now continue to be heard Thursday night. The DRC meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Lake Oswego City Hall, 380 A Ave.

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A quote from Patrick Kessi:   “At over 100 meetings and public hearings, our initial ideas were met with significant community support, but also some opposition to aspects of the design. We then presented the project to you. You asked for good and important changes.”

I would like to clarify that most of the "100" meetings he refers to were with city officials going over application materials or with a select group of residents he asked to comment on his designs.  

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For opponents, alterations in the redesign were not enough.

“The developer was asked by the DRC in the first hearing to break up the mass of the buildings,” Carol Radich said. “Buildings A and building C are the same height and the same length as they were in the original application — they’re reduced in square footage only by the removal of that first floor on the walkways, but the volume and the height of the buildings have not changed.”

Radich told the DRC that its responsibility was to “protect the city’s aesthetic beauty and character,” adding that “the Lake Oswego character is defined both in the code for the downtown area and in the Lake Oswego urban design plan.

“The code interprets village character as a community of small-scale structures, and an assembly of smaller mixed-use structures,” Radich said. “The proposed development, we believe, does not meet the intent of village character.”