The record · Transcript
Council Session — 2025-08-14
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Session summaryEditor-reviewed
The Portland City Council's Climate Resilience and Land Use Committee met on August 14, 2025. After a roll call and reading of the conduct statement, the committee approved minutes from May, June, and July by unanimous consent. The main portion of the meeting featured a briefing from Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staff on the Comprehensive Plan, covering its legal framework, structure, demographic and growth data, implementation tools, and examples such as the Pearl District and Montgomery Park area, along with upcoming legislative planning projects including inner eastside rezoning and the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub process. Discussion included questions about tribal consultation, staffing, housing affordability, climate resilience, and the role of the Planning Commission versus Council in legislative land use processes. A second presentation from Portland Bureau of Transportation staff addressed active transportation trends, historical bicycle mode share data, infrastructure investments, and proposed strategies to increase cycling, including promotional campaigns and expanded ride programs. Discussion also touched on East Portland infrastructure needs and recent decisions regarding traffic diverters in Northwest Portland, including a statement from a councilor outside the committee regarding a related resolution from the Bicycle Advisory Committee. Votes on some matters occurred during the session; outcomes are recorded in the vote ledger. The meeting adjourned with the next session scheduled for September 11, 2025.
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0 There is. Only one. Cannot leave one.
1 Good morning. I call the meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee to order. It is Thursday, August 14th at 9:32 a.m. Diego, can you please call the roll?
2 Good morning. Canal here. Brian. Morillo here. Avalos.
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3 Present.
4 Novick here.
5 Claire, can you please read the statement of conduct?
6 Good morning, and welcome to the meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee. To testify before this committee in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the committee agenda@Portland.gov agenda, slash climate resilience and land use committee. Or by calling 311. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the meeting. In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard. The public testimony will be taken on an item. Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the chair states otherwise. Your microphone will be muted when your time is over, the chair preserves order. Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed. If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given. Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting. Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass. Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually. Your testimony should address the matter being considered. When testifying, please state your name for the record. If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent. And finally, virtual testifier should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name. Thank you.
7 Thank you claire. We have three items on the agenda today. First, we're going to have a kind of comprehensive plan, 101 from our colleagues at the bureau of planning and sustainability. The we're in the midst of a comprehensive plan that goes until 2035. However, the comprehensive plan provides the context and backdrop for everything we do related to land use, including some major legislative initiatives are going to be making their way gradually towards us in the coming months. Then, PBOT staff will share a presentation on our plans and the thwarted hopes for increase in the level of active transportation in the city. Particularly focused on the decline in bicycle ridership. And talk about the history there and what our aims are, and maybe have a discussion about things we might do to try to get back on track. But first, we need to adopt committee minutes from for the last three months, committee minutes for meetings that occurred in may, June and July. Would there be any objection to approving the minutes by unanimous consent? Hearing no objection, the minutes are approved. Diego, will you please read the next item?
8 Item two. Comprehensive plan one on one briefing.
9 Patricia diefenderfer Ryan singer. Come on down.
10 Good morning. Co-chairs. Councilors patricia diefenderfer, for the record. Thank you for having us here today to give kind of a high level overview of the comprehensive plan, what it is and how it's used in decision making in the city. I am the chief planner for the bureau of planning and sustainability. I'm here with Ryan singer, principal planner for long range planning and urban design. We are here today to talk about the city's comprehensive plan, and we're going to tag team on this presentation. So are the slides up? Oh, there we go. Okay. You can see them. All right. Very good. Next slide please. Thank you. Okay. So we wanted to just cover why we're here today. Portland's comprehensive plan is an important document that shapes the way the city grows. It provides a foundation on which decisions about city policies, regulations and investments are made. When the city council considers amendments to the zoning code or to any comprehensive plan amendments which are necessary from time to time to keep the city's policies and regulations up to date, or when decisions are made about capital projects. The city council must make a determination, called findings, that the actions are consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. Several. As chair Novick mentioned, several long range planning items will be coming to city council over the next eight to 12 to 10 months, and will require the city to consider how these proposals are consistent with and advance the policies of the comprehensive plan. So this briefing hopefully will provide the important context for the committee as it deliberates on these projects and help committee understand the comprehensive plan, its legal and its legal framework and how it's used. So next slide please. Thank you. So the agenda for today's presentation is as follows. We will provide some information about the demographics of the city. We will talk about the state. Oops. The state and regional planning framework. We will go into the comprehensive plan itself, its structure and its components. Then we'll give you some information about growth trends. And then we want to give some examples of past plans and processes. You know how city building actually occurs practically speaking. So with that I will go ahead and turn it over to Ryan.
11 The comprehensive plan is the city's main tool for guiding growth in the city. So we'll provide some grounding in the numbers to start off with the discussion later in the presentation. As patricia mentioned, I'll provide information on recent growth trends. Portland's 2023 population estimate is 630,000 residents. This is a decline in population from the 2020 census, but recent estimates suggest that the population is growing again. The estimated jobs are nearly 438,000. The city is starting to recover from the pandemic recession. There are 308,000 housing units in the city in the ten years prior to this estimate, from 2013 to 2023, the city added 40,000 units of housing. So there's many new housing units in the city. Some digging into the household data. A household includes all people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence. The median annual household income for Portland is about $86,000, with variable median incomes by race and ethnicity shown here on this graph. These numbers are important when we're thinking about housing costs, housing choice, and equitable access to housing. Digging into the job numbers, there are a little under 438,000 jobs in Portland. This is from the quarterly census of employment and wages from the bureau of labor statistics. We lose our presentation.
12 Some reason the slides are not advancing. Not sure.
13 If you're able to hit view up at the top ribbon.
14 Sure.
15 Do we need to stop sharing?
16 Is it just frozen on your end?
17 No. I'm getting. There. We go back. Thank you, thank you.
18 Apologies for that.
19 So this is from the quarterly census of employment and wages from the bureau of labor statistics. To read the graph here. The light blue dashes on this graph indicate the average annual wage by sector. And the dark blue bars are for the jobs in each of the sectors. You can see, for example, that the health and social assistance, which is the largest blue bar there on the left of the graph, has over 65,000 jobs associated with it. And the average wage in that sector is just under $79,000 a year. So close to our average wage in Portland. And finally, just looking at the density and some comparison with some other cities in the country, Portland is a little denser than denver and a little less dense than sacramento. Seattle is a little less than twice as dense as Portland. I included Washington, dc as an example of a city with a little higher population, about 700,000, and about half the land area. It also has, by historical coincidence, somewhat similar urban growth boundary limit.
20 Right. Just one point. You say that that the numbers include parks, especially forest park and forest park, I think is kind of distinctive. Yes. So what would happen if you removed forest park from the equation, or replaced forest park with a normal sized park or something?
21 I think we are. We could do the numbers, but our density would probably increase to be closer to what seattle densities are.
22 Thank you.
23 So before before we jump into the substance of the comp plan, we're going to first talk about the legal framework for planning. And Oregon and the Portland metro regional government also plays a role which is unique for regional government in the country. The state of Oregon requires cities to have a comprehensive plan. Those plans must be consistent with statewide land use goals, which I'll cover shortly. And while comprehensive plans are generational documents that are intended to guide development over long time frames, the state also requires periodic updates. The local comprehensive plan must also align with the region's plans. So the Oregon land use goals are listed here. For the most part, the goals are dealing with agricultural land, and forest lands do not apply to the city, and Portland is not in the coastal area. So goals 16 through 19 do not apply. Whenever the city of Portland makes a land use decision, adopting or amending the comprehensive plan area plans, or adopting or amending the zoning code or maps, it must make findings showing consistency with these goals, so we will write an explanation that that describes how we're consistent with these goals. The metro regional government also has a plan that has developed that shape planning at the local level. Specifically, the comprehensive plan must align with the regional functional plan works with its regional partners at metro to ensure that this alignment is maintained and kept. So moving on to the comprehensive plan itself will get into the structure and strategy of our comp plan. The comprehensive plan consists of a vision. Guiding principles, goals and policies. There's a comprehensive land use designation map and a list of significant public projects, as well as transportation related documents. We'll discuss a few of these elements today. I would say that some of them could probably constitute their own briefing. But the vision for Portland is a prosperous, healthy, equitable, and resilient city where everyone has access to opportunity and is engaged in shaping decisions that affect their lives. The guiding principles break down this vision into its component parts and provide context and direction. The guiding principles are intended to be infused into all parts of the comprehensive plan. Every goal and policy can be viewed through the lens of the guiding principles. When being read for interpretation. These principles are important for decision makers and staff to keep in mind as we make decisions, and work is conducted. The strategy for realizing the vision is based on the concept of complete neighborhoods. These are defined as areas where residents can access the goods and services that they need without driving a car. Seen on this heat map as areas in yellow that are more complete, and the red and purple where the completeness score is lower. The idea is the city would focus development in areas in the yellow, and then invest in areas in the red and purple to make them yellow. We do have limited resources to do this. So the focus of the city's efforts to make the most of those resources, the comp plan has a strategy called centers and corridors, the idea being that the center focuses the city, focuses its planning and resources in specific centers and along corridors to implement its complete neighborhood strategies. In centers where there is a high level of neighborhood completeness, the city would focus growth in centers with lower levels of completeness, the city focuses its investment. The urban design framework adds more context to the strategy. The pattern areas represented on this map. Show or overlaid with the centers and corridors, and begin to communicate the unique nature of each center. West Portland town center is going to be a different town center than hollywood, which is going to be different from saint john's. Its geography, history, and people are what make a place. These diagrams and descriptions give a sense of the scale and tension and intention of each of the center types, from neighborhood center up to the central city. We've discussed some of the main elements of the comprehensive plan. There are also supporting documents that get adopted with a comp plan. The transportation system plan, or tsp, is the long range transportation planning document for the city. The employment opportunity analysis projects that demand for employment, land for the city and the housing needs. Analysis does the same for housing. The Portland bureau of transportation is currently in the process of updating the tsp. I don't know why that keeps happening. The tsp is a long range transportation plan for the city, and we're working closely with PBOT in its development. As you can see, PBOT will be developing this plan over the next year with the legislative process in 2027. I'll hand it over to patricia now.
24 Thanks, Ryan. So planning practice today is really centered around the idea of correcting for the outcomes of past planning. And this is supported by the comprehensive plan. So some of these things are include redlining displacement of vulnerable communities, treatment of neighborhoods differently based on race or socio economic reasons, and generally restoring more people friendly environments that were eroded as a result of past auto oriented development patterns. Next slide please. So, as Ryan had alluded, the comprehensive plan, of course, has a vision, the guiding principles, and then a myriad of goals and policies. There are ten topic areas, very varying in nature, for which there are goals and policies in the comprehensive plan. As you can see from the varied topics, long range planning involves not only land use planning, but planning for public facilities and services and transportation to support the growth and development in the city. So the planning bureau planning sustainability work very closely and coordinate closely with other bureaus to ensure implementation of the policies and achievement and achievement of these goals. Next, thank you. The. As we've been saying, comprehensive plan is a document that typically we call a generational document. It lasts for decades. Specific goals and policies are interpreted throughout the lens, through the lens of the vision and the guiding principles. So the comprehensive plan is a tool and a guide for solving problems and the current context and the facts on the ground shape how it is applied. So projects, generally speaking, you know, advance. So no one project advances all the comprehensive plan goals but rather strike a balance among the multiple competing goals. Next slide please. An important element of the comprehensive plan as we mentioned, is the comprehensive plan land use map, which is shown here on the slide. This map has the comp plan designations for all property in the. In Portland. These designations are not the same as zoning, but they are the underlying policy intent for the zoning. This comprehensive plan land use map also shows the boundaries of the city. It's the. The centers and urban service boundaries are also shown on the map. You can see this table. Really the purpose of this table is to indicate this concept of correspondence. Each of the land use designations has one or more corresponding zones that allow the type and scale of development that is consistent with that land use designation. This is how the comp plan is implemented. This table shows how the zones correspond to each land use designation, the designations being. The blue column on the far left, changes to the comprehensive plan. Designations and zones are often done through a legislative process, which requires council action, but changes between the corresponding zones in land use in a land use designation can be done through a quasi judicial process, which does not require council action. So that's just a piece of information a notable piece of information. Next slide please. So the comprehensive plan serves many purposes and has many users. The public uses the comprehensive plan in many ways to understand the strategy and the growth strategy of the city, to have a framework for understanding and engaging with neighborhood planning efforts, neighborhood and area planning efforts. The comp plan was developed through an extensive outreach process, so there are many goals and policies for which portlanders have advocated over time. City staff and leadership use the comp plan to guide the development of work programs, policy proposals, implementation tools, and when prioritizing resources and investments. Staff also evaluate compliance with the comp plan and write findings, as we've been discussing for consistency with the comp plan when developing plans and policies, and those are used in the ultimately in the decision making by the city council. The city council will review, amend and vote on amendments to the comp plan and its implementing tools like the zoning code funding, and that includes the kinds of projects that we bring forward that are zoned zoning code changes or area plans, and also for funding of infrastructure and investments that those also must be done with consistency with the comp plan. Because. So because the comprehensive plan, you know, is a generational document. It is designed to be responsive to changing conditions. And here's an example of how that can work. Like many cities in the us, Portland is experiencing a housing crisis. As an example of the comprehensive plan working to respond to current context is how the plan provides guidance to address the housing crisis. So over the past ten plus years, there have been a number of long range planning efforts, from citywide code amendments to forecasting studies and strategies and documents like the housing needs analysis and housing production strategy that we've mentioned to area plans, which have been focused on facilitating housing production and are supported by the policies of the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan. Next slide please. So as we've noted, there are many tools that implement the comprehensive plan. We've noted that the zoning code is certainly one of them. Other city codes also help regulate development in the city. And together they are the chief implementing tool of the comprehensive plan area plans, plan developments and central city master plan, for example, are other tools that help implement the comprehensive pla. You all are familiar with tax increment finance districts. These are tools that provide funding, but they also help implement the comprehensive plan per state law, tax increment finance district plans are required to be consistent with the comprehensive plan and then a wide range of studies and forecasts, capital improvement plans and programs, and various programs that are administered by staff are additional ways that the comprehensive plan is implemented. So with that, I turn it back to Ryan, who will talk about the growth trends in recent.
25 During the development of the comprehensive plan, projections for housing development were done as a basis for the plan. We're about midway through the projection period and can start to compare and assess how actual growth compares with projections. So looking at the past decade of permitted housing units in the orange line on this graph and the planned housing growth projection on the blue line, you can see that the growth in housing units is pretty close to that which was projected. Not every part of the city experienced growth in the same way. In terms of broad geographic areas. West Portland and east Portland saw fewer units than was projected. The central city experienced housing growth pre-pandemic, but has seen a slowdown in production in recent years. The inner neighborhoods close to the central city experienced the greatest growth in housing over the past decade. These graphs help to illustrate that while our growth projections have been broadly close, the accuracy does vary by geography, and the takeaway is the city needs to be flexible and maintaining adequate capacity in different parts of the city.
26 Can interrupt you for a minute. I was actually surprised to see that the housing growth has been more or less consistent with the plans. Given that we all know that we need more housing and we are supposed to be generating it at a much more rapid clip, does that mean that the comprehensive plan was sort of more realistic than people's aspirational goals, or does it mean that when the comprehensive plan was done, there was we weren't thinking in terms of so much of a housing crisis.
27 I can start us off by saying that I think it's a over time, you know, there is the type of housing, what type of housing is available and the affordability of the housing also factors in. Right. So that's that's that's what's also influencing here. So we may have housing units but we may not have the right type of housing units, housing units for that are large. You know multiple bedroom for large families or accessible units or units that people can can afford. And as Ryan mentioned, you know, wages have not necessarily kept up with the cost of housing. And so that's where we have kind of the biggest disconnect is in the affordability.
28 Thank you.
29 Shifting the discussion slightly, the numbers of permitted residential units in the last decade is just over 55,000. We did a breakdown by council district here so that folks can see that. And at the heart of the comprehensive plan growth strategy is the centers and corridors strategy, which gives targets for the different areas of the city, with the central city to have the target of 30% of the growth. Over the past ten years, there has been close to that at 24%. And then the target in our centers and along the corridors of 50%, we've been pretty consistent with those targets. We know from other, other data that our inner ring centers, like the northwest town center, kearns and fremont williams have experienced much of that growth, as has have corridors like division. Patricia, I think. Yeah. There we go.
30 Thank you. So we wanted to just give a few examples of long range planning projects and how the continuum sort of the planning process and then into implementation. So next slide please. So as we've mentioned, area plans for example are a way to implement the comprehensive plan undertakes area and neighborhood plans to better realize the vision and goals of the comprehensive plan. And while long range planning. Long range plans are often years in the making and involve extensive processes, implementation of those plans also occur over time. It often takes decades before the effects of a long range plan are seen in a tangible way, as new development on the ground. So over the next few slides, as you can see here, we'll discuss a few examples of such planning efforts to give you a sense of the scope and timeline of these efforts. From those early planning phases through to implementation, and when you actually see change on the ground. So the first example is the pearl district. Portland has been successful in creating attractive and resilient neighborhoods by coordinating land use and transportation planning. An example of this coordinated approach to transportation land use planning is the pearl district, an area that has seen significant development as a result of these planning efforts. You can see the sort of aerials of the area. Decades ago, in the 80s, the area was characterized by open railyards and vacant warehouses. And you can see the aerial that shows what the development and how the area looks today. Through these coordinated planning efforts, the area is now home to more than 11,000 people. There are 1100 11,000, sorry, 1100 units of affordable housing and parks. And the streetcar, an important part of the pearl district development and have been leveraged over time to have leveraged a significant amount of private investment in the area. Next slide please. The planning for the pearl district, as we mentioned, started in the 80s. Implementation tools that were used included creating an area plan and zoning changes for the area, as well as a tax increment finance district for the central portions of the central city, including the pearl. In the intervening time, there has been significant build out of the pearl. There are a few remaining sites. As an example. The broadway corridor is an example of that where prosper in the city are working together to continue to develop portions of the pearl and leverage the past investments that have been made in the area. Next. The next slide is an example of the montgomery park area. So the montgomery park area has recently has a recently completed plan, which was adopted by the city council last year. The plan again paired pairs land use changes with the extension of a streetcar. This effort included a public benefits agreement with the largest property owner to achieve affordable housing employment targets, including middle wage job targets and open space, all of which are to be incorporated in future development of the area. Next slide please. As you can see for the timeline for this project planning, you know, started in 2008 with the idea of extending the streetcar as part of a study that was done to look at streetcar extensions. And when that was first proposed, and PBOT coordinated on a grant application to federal grant to conduct, to get resources, to conduct a land use and transportation planning, which resulted in the adopted plan for the area, as well as the adoption of a locally preferred alternative for the streetcar extension. This type of coordination is, as we've mentioned, the hallmark of planning in Portland. Now, that area is being. Now that the plan is adopted, PBOT is working on the streetcar extension, and property owners in the in the area are laying the groundwork for site development, particularly of the key opportunity site in the area. So this is our, I believe almost our final slide here. So the planning that we're doing today will provide the roadmap for how the city develops and evolves over the next several decades. Ongoing long range planning efforts currently include planning around the central city waterfront, where bts is coordinating with parks PBOT prosper and others to develop urban design strategies for the waterfront in in the central city. To support parks's efforts to create a new design for the waterfront bowl pavilion and to generally support central city revitalization. The inner east side, where bts just completed an infrastructure analysis with PBOT and water that studied the ability of infrastructure in this inner ring area to accommodate additional housing with. The next steps on this project are to do a planning process to look at where the zoning can be changed, to allow for more multi-dwelling and mixed use development in this area, and 82nd avenue, where PBOT and TriMet are making major investments and has a new tif district. These are opportunities. There are opportunities in this area for strategic planning efforts along the corridor. And an example of that is the eastport plaza, which is shown there on the bottom right. So finally, in closing, as chair Novick mentioned, there are a number of long range, long range planning legislative items that will be coming to council over the next many months. And these projects are shown here on the slide. They're in different phases and have different timelines, but as you can see, they're organized here by the phase that they're in. And when the next engagement opportunity is. So in the near term, council will be seeing a couple of projects. And for those projects, which is an urban service boundary amendment and some amendments to environmental, the environmental zones in the code, those the next opportunity for engagement for those are at city council. In the next few months. We have some items that are headed to planning commission right now. So the next engagement opportunity for the public is at planning commission. And then you can see midway there in the slide, there are a number of projects that are at the phase where we will be releasing some discussion drafts in the near term, and the opportunity for the public for those projects will be to provide input to staff on the discussion drafts. And I believe that concludes our presentation. We're happy to answer any questions.
31 Councilor Morillo.
32 Thank you, chair. Novick. Thank you both so much for being here and for giving us such a thorough presentation. This is really helpful as we figure out the future of our city. I have a few questions for you. For starters, I was wondering what the role was of tribal consultation in the creation of this plan and just what that looked like. Did we do a notification or did we do other engagement with them? Or I guess the prior council before us?
33 Are you talking about the comprehensive plan engagement around the comprehensive plan itself? Yeah, okay. Our director, Eric engstrom, was leading that project, so I believe he can speak to that.
34 Good morning. For the record, Eric engstrom, director at the bureau of planning and sustainability. I was the project manager on the comprehensive plan update in a decade ago. So I can try to answer that. Tribal consultation protocols were not as formally adopted then as they are now, but there was engagement with a really broad set of stakeholders. And we did have a number of groups and meetings with tribal governments during that time. It was a while ago, so I can't recall the details, but there were there was contact made and some discussion happened.
35 Okay. Thank you, I appreciate that. And as we're the plan isn't finalized yet. So I take it there is going to be opportunities for us to make consultations with tribes in a more thorough way before.
36 Comprehensive plan actually is an adopted plan. It was adopted in 2018, so subsequent planning processes, for example, these area plans are the opportunities that we have to do engagement with the with tribal governments.
37 Wonderful. I think that in those different spaces, we should make sure that that is something that's highlighted and a big focus for us. I was also wondering how the cei hub fits into the comp plan and all of this.
38 Yeah. So that's a that's a great example of a project where this project actually is a project to update the policies of the comprehensive plan, to be more responsive to some of the concerns and issues related to the cei hub. So the process, that process is underway right now, as you all are aware, and ultimately, whatever policies are recommended through that process will come to city council for to update the comprehensive plan. And as we mentioned, that's a legislative process that requires findings on the part of council which are prepared and drafted by staff, that show how those policies are advancing the comprehensive plan and balancing the different goals and objectives of the comprehensive plan.
39 Okay. Thank you. I have just a few more questions. I'll try to be quick. Sorry. Okay. We have time. I got the Green light. So for a project of this size, how many staff are normally allocated to it? And do you feel like you're sufficiently staffed to carry this out?
40 I can say from experience not. You know, I wasn't here when the city updated the comprehensive plan, but that's a very major undertaking that certainly requires a lot of staff resources, which is one of the reasons why, you know, it's a long range plan. It's meant to project out for many decades, but it also is a plan that stays in place for a long time because it is very resource intensive. What I can say I'm sure director engstrom can speak more to the resources for the comp plan, but for example, an area plan like the montgomery park plan that we did recently, we had several, you know, we had a team probably of 5 or 6 staff people. Some some of the people were spending the bulk of their time on that plan. Other people were supporting the process from their expertise, bringing their expertise from other teams, for example, code writing. And maybe we're spending only a portion of their time, but it does take a whole team and engagement, support and resources and comp support and resources and graphics support and resources to do a planning effort like that. So it really does take a significant amount of resources.
41 And just in terms of the update to the comprehensive plan itself, that's really an all hands on deck kind of exercise that we don't do all the time. Right now, we're more in the mode of doing smaller implementation projects and fine tuning it, but the state requires us to do a more comprehensive update about once a decade. And so when that happens, the 2035 comprehensive plan, that was a team of 20 or 30 people spread across 6 or 7 bureaus that did that work. And there was a couple of years of public involvement. So it's a big project to do a major overhaul.
42 So I take it that this is going to be like one of the top priorities for baps over the next few months and maybe years.
43 Yeah, I mean, we're we have an ongoing long range planning team and carrying out implementation projects to carry out the plan is what we do is what our planning groups does.
44 The focus right now is on implementation of the current plan. Yeah.
45 Thank you. Is there an I know that you kind of this slide shows some of the months and dates for things that are coming up. But is there an anticipated timeline overall for this. And is there anything that council can do to help expedite the process or just help with the implementation?
46 I think just engagement of the council over the course of projects, particularly, you know, as the legislative, as we start to embark on the legislative process is kind of important and the support of the council, and that is very helpful. And there will be instances when we will need to have a conversation about resources to undertake certain types of projects. For example, the inner east project, the project to look at increasing housing capacity through zoning in the inner east area. We've largely done that project through getting grants, small grants to help support the work. As that project becomes more of a larger effort, there could be some, you know, need to have a conversation about resources to do that project, for example. And that's the case with, you know, we kind of do that evaluation for all the different projects that that are implementing the comprehensive plan.
47 And the list that's on the slide. Here is a list of the projects that are already kind of in the pipeline coming your way, and that a lot of those were initiated by the previous council, but over time, one of your roles is to give us direction around what other fine tuning do you want us to do with the plan? I know we've had discussion around environmental justice and the interface between residential and industrial areas. For example. That's a policy area that's on our radar. We know we may embark on further fine tuning of the middle housing regulations. That's something that's on our radar. But as time goes by, we want to engage with with you all in terms of what your interests are and what what changes you want to push for.
48 Wonderful. Thank you so much. Those are all my questions.
49 Councilor Avalos.
50 Thank you. Really appreciate seeing today's overview of the comprehensive plan and the work that we clearly have ahead. And for me, what this what stood out to me in the plan is not that it's just a technical document, but it's actually a statement of our values and our priorities for how we're going to continue to grow and invest in the next two decades. Obviously, for east Portland, that is particularly important. Our community has historically carried the weight of underinvestment and limited infrastructure. So I see this plan as giving us an opportunity, but also a responsibility to correct those inequities by ensuring that growth brings about better housing choices, safer streets, quality jobs, etc. And just in general, access to daily needs that we have in our neighborhoods. As I move forward, my commitment is to make sure that east Portland isn't just on the map, but is at the center of it and at the center of the conversation. I think that that means making sure that every zoning change and infrastructure investment policy decision that we make is really reflecting this broader vision that we're trying to create with this comp plan. We're looking for healthy, connected, resilient communities, especially in east Portland. And so on that note, I want to ask a couple of questions. First, how does this plan balance the need for density with preserving affordability and preventing displacement?
51 Yeah, I think we're always looking at those issues and trying to ensure that projects proposals coming forward are striking that balance. We do. For example, when we start a project, we have an equity toolkit that we use as a tool to identify who, who the stakeholders are of in a particular area or that will be affected by a particular project, how the project or the might affect different communities differently, and who who is burdened and who benefits. So we start with an assessment of the landscape and understanding how to go about doing that informs both how we go about doing engagement and also how it shapes the proposals themselves. And so, you know, looking at what the existing conditions are, understanding where they're, you know, what the socioeconomic data is of that area, understanding, you know, are there low are there preponderance of low income households or people of color and how these different proposals might affect those kinds of communities? And so that's reflected in our proposals. Ultimately, I can give like a concrete example would be we did a plan last if it was last year or the year before, to be honest with you, it was called the lower southeast rising plan for the lower, you know, the outer southeast area. And that plan was really focused on actually trying to create more complete neighborhoods by introducing a neighborhood center in an area that doesn't have a lot of commercial area or access to neighborhood retail and services. But as a part of that project, we also did some zone changes that increased the housing capacity in the area. But we did it in a way that was very kind of selective and mindful of what was already on the ground. We avoided, you know, locations where there was naturally occurring affordable housing, for example, to ensure that we're not kind of contributing to any forces that might result in displacement. So it's approaches like that that we, you know, use to try to formulate policies that are, as you know, supportive of stabilizing, stabilizing neighborhoods as possible.
52 And I think Ryan alluded to the infrastructure philosophy, which is there are parts of town that have good infrastructure and can be considered complete communities today. And oftentimes those communities are on the wealthier side and have more resources. And the plan explicitly is trying to aim more growth to those places where there is resource. And at the same time, invest where there's been underinvestment. So aiming growth and making sure that that more affluent neighborhoods aren't dodging their responsibilities in terms of accommodating growth is a big part of the plan. And I think the example coming up for you on that is going to be this inner east side rezoning work.
53 Thank you. One thing that I am thinking about right now, as we know, the fred meyer and gateway has been in the news as it is leaving. It's leaving a huge hole in our community. And, you know, the gateway neighborhood has been under a tif district. They extended it in 2022 so that it could we could generate some more dollars because one of the big challenges that happened when they were trying to implement those dollars was that they just didn't stretch as far because the infrastructure was so lacking. Right. People who want to come do projects in east Portland, they have higher barriers, higher costs, because they've got to do all the frontage improvements. They've got to put in the sewage and the infrastructure. And so I'm curious, how does a plan like this, which you know, I see has a little bit of fluidity, right. Obviously we're in the middle of updating it. But how does a plan like this stay flexible to changing conditions. Right. Because I look at what's going on in gateway. We district one councilors are gathering community to talk about what that that redevelopment might look like. And again, there were also some like weird zoning things that were going on in that district as well. How would you see the comprehensive plan in this kind of scenario adapting to that? How could we, as councilors, use it as a tool to help inform how we guide the community toward visioning what that plot of land looks like?
54 Yeah, I could just maybe comment on that because I was in the meeting yesterday about gateway. The gateway is a good example because planning for that has been going on for 25 years, since the mid 90s, and the zoning today doesn't look much like the first version of it. And so over that 25 years, there have been several major updates to that plan to respond to changing conditions, changing the initial plan. The light rail hadn't even been really expanded yet. There was just the original blue line. Once those other lines came in, there was some adaptation of the plan. Economics have changed. You're absolutely right that the street network and the infrastructure has been one of the biggest challenges in gateway. Some of that is starting to come together now. But but it's been a long haul. I think this latest opportunity, the fred meyer site, has always been seen as a really key opportunity site in gateway, and in the past it was, you know, there's always been drawings of what grand visions of what could happen on that site that have never been realized, in part because the fred meyer was still a viable business. But in this moment, there's an opportunity for us to look at this and make some adjustments to that plan that would be appropriate to both the near-term need to activate that site, which is not really a zoning issue, just a tactical issue of how do we keep the site active. But but definitely engaging with the property owner and the community on what's possible in that site. And if that means changing zoning or changing rules that that that's definitely that's the kind of what we do along with the housing bureau and prosper Portland, when these opportunities come up.
55 So I would just add that there there has been a lot of planning done for the area. And the plan, you know, the zoning is I wouldn't expect that the zoning is much of a barrier to the variety of things that could happen on the site that that would be of interest to the community. I think it's an instance where evaluating the zoning and then the infrastructure needs and trying to figure out what is an appropriate approach, more tactical approach, I think, is, director engstrom said. For that area is probably one of the path forward.
56 And a role we can play in that is there are both regional and local resources for these kind of opportunity site situations, and in the past there have been other examples where we've collaborated on a project to look at what's possible on a big opportunity site like this, and then come up with a vision and help advance and help find a buyer for that site that's going to advance that vision. So it we do long range planning work that involves code and policy, but we also work with prosper and housing to roll up our sleeves around particular sites. Another example that has been the post office site downtown, where there's just been a lot of day to day work on how do we get that street built, how do we finance it, and something similar could happen with that site if there's interest.
57 Thank you. Last question. What strategies are in place to adapt this plan to emerging climate risks like extreme heat, flooding and seismic hazards? That's particularly important in east Portland. But how are you? Where is that layer of putting on climate risk as part of the vision for how you structure the comp plan?
58 Yeah, the comprehensive plan, one of its the one of the key five principles is resilience. And that really speaks to both, you know, social resilience but resilience to climate change. It has a significant amount of policies related to how to create a more climate resilient city. We have, you know, a natural resource protection, for example, and planning for natural resources and different climate threats is something that we do. We have a group of staff who work on those kinds of efforts. So I think it's just a you know, it's a question of working alongside, for example, the new climate and sustainability commission and trying to, you know, identify what priorities might come out of those discussions. I know there's one of the first tasks for that commission is to do a climate action plan. And I imagine that bts and our planning staff in particular, will will be involved and support those efforts.
59 And there's an opportunity, particularly in east Portland, because the land pattern there is so auto oriented. Historically, there's places like 122nd avenue or 82nd avenue, have a lot of paved parking lots without any trees. And as redevelopment occurs there, there's an opportunity to Green those sites. You know, when you place a parking lot with an apartment building and potentially a Green roof or at least some street trees, that's an improvement from a resiliency perspective. So growth can be a tool to help Green some of those corridors. There's a limit to that. It has to be partnered with more proactive investment in the existing land uses to. And that's that's maybe the role that PCEF plays. But but land use can help us ensure that the new development is greener than what's there now.
60 Thank you. I think I'll just say a final comment that it would be great to talk through. What does it look like with new district representation, to bring in district counselors to talk about the neighborhoods? Obviously, we need to be looking at the city as a whole, and it's not like it's broken up by these arbitrary district lines. But I do think there's an opportunity to combine your community engagement goals with having district representation. And, you know, I know for east Portland, we are definitely with having three new tif districts coming online. There's a lot of discussion about what it looks like in partnership with the district counselors and these different bureaus who are making these plans for east Portland to collaborate. So I'll invite that conversation in the future. But thank you for your time.
61 Councilor Kanal.
62 Thank you, chair Novick. First, let me say this is one of the better presentations I think I've seen in the last seven and a half months. I appreciate you and your team for putting it together and walking it through for us. A couple clarification questions on slide six. With the demographics, it says 29% of households are bipoc. What's the metric of determining if an entire household is bipoc? If some members are and some members are not?
63 That is a I believe that's a census.
64 Methodologies for that.
65 On the same slide, how does 21, I believe it's 21% having kids. How does that compare to other cities? One of the conversations we've had up here a lot is that whether whether or not we're a city that is conducive to having and raising kids, and I think this is relevant to preschool for all. But a lot of city conversations, too.
66 So our household. Size has gone down significantly in the past three decades or so. And so that and that is sort of directly sort of there's fewer, fewer children. But that is also, I will say, a trend that is found in urban centers throughout the country.
67 Yeah. That's what I was going to add, is that I think that's that's a trend that's common to cities. And I think to your point, you know, schools factor in quite a bit into people's decisions about where to live and affordability also does. So I think in all our efforts should be thinking about like how do we improve affordability? How do we ensure that there's access to services, including education and schools. And so it's kind of not a it's not something that's unique to Portland. It's something that is kind of a, a planning challenge that all cities are striving or working, dealing with and that we are always striving to address. And when we do area plans, and certainly when we do the comprehensive plan, for example, there's a lot of coordination with other services, including school districts, to ensure that there's capacity in schools for families with children. And so I'm not aware of any capacity issues per se, but I think affordability really plays a role, a significant.
68 Role in Portland. There is a dynamic to be aware of, which is that the household sizes are much bigger on the eastern half of the city than they are in the western half. And so the majority of kids in the city are in the eastern side and probably district one.
69 Yeah. So I'd love to follow up and get the comparison. Not of the trend, but the actual number percentage wise for those other cities that you compared to on a couple slides later. On slide 11, you've listed a lot of the goals. And I know that in our guiding principles we talk about human health and environmental health. But the slide 11 list is the Oregon land use goals. Where does land use as it relate to safety come into play? I mean this primarily in regards to crime prevention through environmental design, but also things like allowing land uses that create public health and safety hazards, specifically airborne health hazards.
70 I would say that goal six air, water and land resources and goal seven natural hazards are speak to some of that. And then in our comprehensive plan, we have more specific goals and policies about health, human health and safety.
71 And in goal 11, there is a tie to emergency services in the facilities and services piece.
72 What I'm talking about non-natural uses of airborne contaminants. I'm talking about ice and weather. Where the ice facility. Oh, I want to know where state law would relate to the use, the intentional use of poisons against the population, and whether or not land use is a tool that we can use for that on an ongoing basis.
73 That's probably not so much a land use issue. Land use is geared more towards the natural or inherent constraints or infrastructure related things. So day to day, like human decisions are less governed by land use.
74 So we should fix that. So for the 2045 transportation system plan, to what degree does transit fit into that? Given that TriMet is a state agency?
75 Yeah. The transportation plan contemplates all modes of transportation, and so there's a significant amount of coordination that happens with metro at the regional level, because the regional transportation plan is developed at the metro level. And also significant coordination with TriMet. So it's an interagency plan that reflects the regional strategy for transportation and investments, and then how that is specifically playing out within the city.
76 To give you an example, like the inner southeast or the outer lower southeast rising plan that you mentioned earlier, which was an area south of foster road and outer southeast, that planning effort included close coordination with TriMet. And they actually the plan included some recommendations for bus route refinement, which TriMet is now carrying forward. So we were required to involve TriMet in our land use plans. And we do. And then the reverse is true. Also, when they do their service updates, they're required to talk to us about that. And we have recurring meetings about, you know, service changes that might they might be making and how that might affect land use.
77 Does the same apply to trains?
78 Yes. Okay.
79 I'm going to follow up on one of councilor Morillo questions. The word outcomes for correcting for the outcomes of past planning might already answer this question, but are we correcting for the lack of tribal consultation principles used in the process of past plan development as well? Is that part of that effort?
80 We're always looking to improve our engagement and outreach processes, and we are very much currently with some of the projects that we showed that are in the pipeline right now. We have undertaken, started conversations, sent communication to tribal governments. So we're very much at the very early phase of projects that we're we're working on currently communicating through our office of government relations with with tribal governments and trying to coordinate with them as, as they wish to coordinate. Yeah.
81 Thank you for that. I'll probably end up following up on that piece with. I'm also going to follow up on one of councilor Avalos questions. So you use the pearl district as an example. And I appreciate how you highlighted the creation of parks and other investments that are not immediately part of a narrower vision of development. And I noticed that in your slide on, on on the areas of Portland that east Portland is having fewer new units built. It also has one community center. I think we've done a decent job very recently in increasing the number of parks from the Green space side that are being built up, although there's still more work to do. What is the what is the role of the comprehensive plan and of your teams in the other sorts of investments in east Portland, including community centers that would, I think, your distinction between growth and investment. What is the investment going on right now east of 82nd, let's say?
82 Yeah, I can't speak to specific investments that are happening currently, but the comprehensive plan certainly talks about, as we said, kind of a foundational principle of the comprehensive plan is this notion of directing growth to areas that have, you know, that are high amenity areas and then and then supporting those areas that are, you know, with investment, the other areas with investment. And so that's a foundational part of the comprehensive plan. There are lots of policies related to comprehensive plan about that. And that's really where coordination with the other bureaus. So you know, all many bureaus of the city, obviously the work of many bureaus of the city help implement the comprehensive plan. And so the role that I think that the planners play in the long range planners play in that is, you know, being at the table and supporting other bureaus when they are looking at doing investments. So, for example, PBOT working on the transportation projects for 82nd avenue, the, you know, planning bureau, planning staff have been involved in those conversations. We've gone to we've tracked meetings and conversations at community, have had about equitable development strategies and their desire to see, you know, various actions related to equitable development. You know, be part of the thinking of 82nd avenue. And so and we support PBOT in their efforts and, you know, engagement with community.
83 So just a follow up on that.
84 This is on slide 36. Because you focused so much on centers and corridors. There are fewer centers in corridors identified in east Portland. So in terms of how you like, if you look at the map, you can see and obviously d4 also has fewer. But one of them is the central city, which is a large part of d4. And I think gateway applies to. But there there's large swaths of empty Green area on that map. So I'm curious as to how that side of it figures.
85 Into the.
86 Planning processes could, you know, contemplate, such as the outer southeast example that I gave could contemplate adding centers to some of these areas in order to create those more complete neighborhoods.
87 Also, just to add that one of the elements, Ryan, when you showed the list of elements of the comprehensive plan, one of the most significant elements, but maybe underappreciated, is the list of significant public investments, that there's an infrastructure project list that goes with the comp plan that covers the different types of infrastructure, including streets and sewers and water pipes and parks. And that is the 20 year list that sits kind of above and informs the five year capital improvement plans that each of the bureaus operate under, and the process of identifying what's on that list and what's going to be prioritized on that list. We went through a process to rank that list based on a number of factors, and one of them was equity and aiming investment at east Portland. And so the current list is when it comes to infrastructure investment, the current list is fairly heavily weighted towards the east. And we're seeing some of that play out with work that's been occurring on 82nd avenue. Now. It's been a decade long effort to wrestle 82nd avenue away from ODOT and really get the plans in place and the financing in place to make that improvement. And it's been a deliberate decision to focus on that 122nd as major investments. Because of that historical underinvestment in east Portland. That's why we're doing that work now there and not maybe doing the same thing on barbara boulevard in southwest Portland, even though there's an equal need there. We want to get to that eventually. But 82nd was prioritized for the reasons that you've stated.
88 Okay. I think that clarifies I was looking at that exact slide and seeing that, you know, because I asked about community centers and not adopted with the Portland comprehensive plan. It starts with parks and rec. So I appreciate that clarification. I have one more question than a comment. The question when we were talking about councilor Avalos question, you referenced a tactical approach in gateway that included working with the property owners or even helping find new buyers. When do we have the conversation about the city buying and developing the land directly? Where does that occur in this process.
89 That I mean, we've heard that suggestion from a couple folks recently, and that's I think that's an active question. That's that's under discussion. The issue would be, you know, what money are we going to use to do that? And that's always been the barrier to that kind of opportunity. We had a similar discussion with, with with other opportunity sites throughout the city when they come up, it's something we should be looking at.
90 Okay. Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think my, my this also relates to st. Johns. There's a couple sites there. There's a couple I mean across the district. And I'm curious about maybe having a longer conversation off the dais about how that relates, in particular in my district, to remedying the harms of past planning. I just wanted to make one quick comment, which is when the cei hub item comes back. I'm just going to ask for as much time as possible. I want to be very clear. That is almost certainly not going to get done in one meeting, and I don't want anybody to be surprised by that later or say, oh, we're taking too long. This is a very large issue, and I don't want to be put in a position of feeling as I think I'll speak for myself. But I imagine other colleagues may feel this way, that the timelines from the administrative side have been very short. Sometimes that's not on you at all, but I just wanted to flag that. I think this is something that we should have multiple meetings about and bring in the public as much as possible. And when you bring in the public, it takes time and that's good. So thank you, chair Novick.
91 Thank you. Councilor Kanal. Actually, ironically, my next big fat question is about where we might want to reduce the amount of time we're spending on things. And this is a complicated, multifaceted question. But there's a number of issues where I know that there's a number of councilors would like to see action, they'd like to see action quickly, and they'd like to be involved in that action. But in the context of land use, sometimes there's a barrier to acting quickly in that. There's steps you want to take in order to make sure that our decision will hold up at luba and in court. And there's also issues where the planning commission is involved. And although I think the council would like to be engaged on issues before they come out, the planning commission, I think that sometimes in terms of like the record for review by luba, it would be problematic if the council held hearings on an issue before the same time the planning commission was doing so. So I'm going to list three items, and it's okay if we don't get to all of them and sort of pose these questions for each of them. What are the barriers to swift action? What is the involvement of the planning commission and what limits are what opportunities are there and what limits are there for council engagement? And an overlay of that is that we could always, theoretically, councilors not in the context of a public meeting, and therefore we wouldn't worry so much about the maybe wouldn't worry so much about the record. But if we three of us go and talk to you about something, then maybe that violates public meetings law. So the three topics I wanted to ask those questions about are one. Rezoning some of the inner east side to allow for more growth. Two addressing the critical energy infrastructure hub in a way that theoretically could sort of reduce the scope of the hub. And third, some of us are interested in. Where when it comes to things like warehouses and distribution centers, establishing buffer zones between those and traffic rules between those and residential areas and schools in order to limit impact in human health. And there, like one example I was given, was that if one barrier to rushing ahead to doing that is that if we establish those buffers, that limits the amount of industrial land, and we probably shouldn't do that without seeing the economic opportunity analysis come to us first, etc. So again, that's a big gnarly question related to three different things. But pick which to start with and hold forth on barriers to speed barriers, council involvement, barriers and opportunities. Involvement of the planning commission.
92 Thank you. Commissioner or councilor. A trade off is public involvement. One of the state land use goals is they call it citizen involvement in the goal. But public community involvement, we're constantly kind of trying to balance that with time. So that's one constraint on time is that we have to do public involvement and that does take time. If you're doing it right, that occurs at the stage when we're formulating the plan, when we have maybe a discussion draft, as patricia mentioned. It also occurs at the planning commission when they hold hearings. And then it occurs again at council when you hold hearings and folks come to give input. So that's a real constraint and one that we can't dodge if we if we cheat on public involvement, plans get appealed and overturned. So the another constraint is technical analysis. Sometimes we have to do the due diligence around the technical work. The eoa is a good example of that, where we have to document the industrial land supply before we can do stuff that affects it. Big rezoning projects sometimes involve traffic modeling or transit coordination or transportation analysis, and that's another constraint on time, because that's that generally involves consultants and that takes time. The procurement. Another constraint in the opposite direction sometimes is funding. When we do, the bureau is funded to maintain an ongoing planning function, but we don't always have adequate funding in an ongoing way to do big projects. And so a big project like the inner east side rezoning is, is more than we can carry with our base budget. And so we have to seek resources for those specific projects. And sometimes those grants take time to procure. And sometimes once we get a grant, they have timelines. And that's one of the issues with the ci hub project, is we actually have a grant that has a timeline. And so we're balancing that with public involvement and the idea that we want to do this. Right. So those are some of the factors that affect those things. I think the role of council or the committee is you have a legitimate role in, in getting policy ideas started and, and, and then giving us direction to, to when we're scoping projects. And an example of that is we've identified the desire to brief you on the inner east side infrastructure study that we just completed, because we'd like to use that as a moment for you to give us some guidance on where you'd like that project to go. So I think there's a council committee role early in projects when we're just getting started to either birth the project or give us pivotal direction before we get into the process. It is awkward for you to be doing it at the same time as the planning commission. But. But we know that council offices often send staff to watch the planning commission. And we know that you often direct constituents to watch the planning commission meetings. And so that's an appropriate role to sort of advocate, advocate for folks to pay attention to the planning commission. And then obviously, you have a role at the end when there when the recommendation is coming to you. So that's kind of how I see those different roles.
93 I would just add about the involvement of the planning commission. So Oregon state law requires that land use legislative projects go to the planning commission for recommendation to the city council. So that's the primary role of the planning commission is to play that function.
94 And I think I know that the inner east side update will have to come through the planning commission. What about anything we're going to do about the psi hub or an environmental overlay zone for warehouses, etc?
95 All of those projects that you noted are land use legislative projects that are amending the zoning code or amending the comprehensive plan, and therefore do require a recommendation from the planning commission. So the legislative process does involve, you know, staff developing recommendations. Input is sought from the public to staff on those recommendations. And those recommendations are evolved into what's called a proposed plan. That proposed plan is the plan that the planning commission deliberates on and makes their recommendation on. And then sometimes the planning commission testimony is received by the planning commission. Sometimes the planning commission makes amendments to a proposal. And then that is that's what becomes the recommended plan. And that proposal is what comes to the city, to the city council, both to the committee initially and then, of course, to the full city council.
96 So to give you an example of the that industrial residential interface policy issue, we've done some research on that topic because we know that it's an issue. And the past council had identified it as an issue. Our previous commissioner in charge had asked us to do that research. So at some point we could provide you a briefing on the research we've done on that topic. Hypothetically, you as a committee could say, great, do a project, and then we'd have to work on, you know, if the council passed a resolution saying, administration, please do this project. And it was funded, we would then do the project and then eventually make its way back to you. That's that's that that's how the process could work.
97 So, Eric, you said earlier that you think that the briefing that we hope to get on the on the infrastructure study for inner southeast could provide us opportunity to give some input. So that's not at a point yet where it's in the planning commission and we should shut up.
98 So no. Yeah. That early stage we're going to pivot from doing the background studies to doing the actual plan. And that would be a perfect time for the council committee to weigh in and say, well, if you're doing this project, here's some considerations we want you to pay attention to.
99 And I think you just said that as far as the sort of environmental justice idea around distribution centers concern, that's early enough that, again, we could provide some direction and requests. What about the ci hub work? Is that something that is far enough along that we shouldn't we need to step back, or is there still an opportunity for council to provide some input on the front end?
100 I think the ci hub at this stage is in that process, where I think we did get some initial feedback from council, right? We had a work session with the full council. I believe that was in February. If my memory serves. We also had meetings with with council offices, council staff to give input and guidance on the outreach for that project. And so that that was greatly influential in the development of the engagement plan for that project. But I think now we're at the stage where the pre-legislative part of the process is going on. And so it's, you know, it'd be we're we're at the stage where we're sort of doing the technical work that that Eric mentioned. We're doing engagement with the with the community and the public and different interested parties and experts. And we'll be developing a set of alternatives that will eventually find their way into the discussion draft. So I think that's the process for developing that particular project and receiving input at this time.
101 And to be really clear, you all, I think, got a letter recently from some of the stakeholders on that project. We got the same letter, and we're in the process of figuring out what to do with that input.
102 So that input.
103 And our next step would be another draft that I hope incorporates some of that feedback. And then and then we go from there.
104 And councilor Novick just wanted to make one comment about your question about the warehouse. The warehouse residential kind of, you know, interface. And that's a project where as as director engstrom noted, we have done some research and we have some, you know, we've done some thinking about it, but also it is that is the kind of project where it would be important to have the economic opportunities analysis adopted first, and then that would be a follow up action because of the impact that it potentially has on the industrial land. We wouldn't want to sort of, you know, do that in in advance of figuring out what the what the impact is to the economic opportunities analysis of such a policy.
105 And that because that project is not yet in our work plan in any kind of formal way, it's a little bit further back in terms of the process. You know, as I mentioned, we're happy to brief you on the research we've done. After that, the legislative branch and the executive branch would have to come to some agreement about whether this is a project that we're going to do. And what's the timeline on the economic opportunities analysis. Again, I should know.
106 Yeah. So the timeline for that is that it's likely we're going to be publishing a discussion draft relatively soon in the September time frame. We're expecting that project to go to the planning commission in November or December. Given that it's a large policy, you know, it could spend a couple of months in planning commission, as planning commission does work sessions as well, and deliberates on the proposal. And the expectation is that it would come to city council, probably spring to early summer of next year.
107 Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. And I will add my comment to councilor Kanal that I think that this presentation was fantastic and extremely useful.
108 Thank you so much. We appreciate that. Thank you. Appreciate the discussion and your feedback. Thank you.
109 I'm going to ask diego to read the next item. Although I don't probably don't want us to start the presentation in councilor Until councilor Morillo gets back, which I assume is going to be soon.
110 Item three climate friendly active transportation.
111 By way of introduction, I should say that I asked PBOT a while ago, knowing that our goal as a city is to improve bicycle mode share, and knowing that mode share actually has gone down in the past decade, or 7 or 8 years. What? What should we know about the reasons for that? What are thoughts about how to reverse that trend? And PBOT wanted to put that in sort of the overall context of our active transportation goals. So I think that we'll hear something that might go a little bit beyond, but it's still focused on bicycling. So go ahead.
112 Good morning, chair and committee members. I'm priya paul dca for public works. And thank you for inviting the Portland bureau of transportation to discuss cycling in Portland in general, and to highlight the intersection of how cycling can make significant contribution in supporting the city's climate goals. More broadly, the city of Portland is a national leader in advancing cycling policy, and it offers an authoritarian voice on matters related to the necessity, function and growth of cycling enterprise in the urban frame. Portland's work and focus on bike transportation is rooted in a foundation that was established almost half a century ago, and that has made bicycling part of the city's brand. We have been, and remain the most advanced large city, large us city when it comes to bicycle use and recognize there's a direct connection between meeting a specific and city wide climate and safety goals, and increasing access to and the use of cycling as a mobility option. Before the PBOT team shares our presentation, I'd like to acknowledge an issue regarding the transportation safety infrastructure that has been a topic of conversation for the past several weeks, and that might be your minds this morning, as has been communicated by city leadership specifically, jordan PBOT was made aware of an acute of acute access and safety challenges in several locations in northwest Portland. They worked in partnership with other city bureaus like the Portland water bureau, sorry, the Portland police bureau, and Portland solutions to identify a solution that will allow for safe access for all system users, whether they are pedestrians, cyclists or motorists. While we know that there will be community conversations about the future of the proposed interventions, I'd like to underscore that exploring these solutions does not diminish diminish the city's commitment to vision zero, and it does not change the city or pbot's values or commitment to advance cycling and developing a greenway network that is safe and comfortable for all ages and abilities. While I completely understand the appetite potential appetite for a discussion where diverters and the benefits and burdens of their use may be present, my hope is that we would be able to allow PBOT staff the opportunity to share their presentation and to focus the conversation as originally planned. That said, should questions arise, I will support the team and address your concerns and we have staff present from the other bureaus as well. And with that, I'll pass it on to kristen hull.
113 Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, chairs and committee members, for having us this morning. I am PBOT manager for planning and project delivery. And in that stat, I get to talk a lot about our approach to climate and our approach to cycling. Before we talk about cycling specifically, I'd like to back up and put pbot's work around cycling in a broader context. Cycling really comes. Our commitment to cycling comes down to creating a livable city. Places with more biking, walking and transit have safer transportation systems, lower greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and more right of way space for people and activation. Cycling is also very effective at providing mobility for vibrant urban places, requiring less speed, less space, and ease of movement that make living in a city more enjoyable. Can you go to that one? Thank you. Helping more people choose biking, walking and transit supports our climate goals and is an important part of reducing the 40% of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the transportation sector. Our our approach to addressing climate change is, at its core, about reducing vehicle miles traveled while shifting both to cleaner fuels and vehicles. While our climate approaches include both of these strategies, modal shift is our primary long term goal because of its co-benefits for safety and creating a vibrant, livable city. Next slide. Our transportation system plan, which you just heard a little bit about, has a strong policy basis for encouraging people to choose biking, walking and transit. This slide shows our current 2023 commute mode share and our goal in our transportation system plan. We have a long ways to go to get from our current 50% drive alone share for commute to our 30% goal, and it will take strong investments in biking, walking, and transit to get there. Our transportation system is joint joined at the hip with our land use system. The corridors and center strategy, which you just heard a bit about, is about creating a city of short trips. Those short trips can then better be served by biking, walking, and transit. Next slide please. And that allows each of us as portlanders to choose the right tool for the job, to choose walking for our shortest trips, to choose biking for our medium length trips, and to use transit for our longer trips with e-bikes and shared electric micromobility becoming more available, the assumptions about how long someone might go on an e-bike or shared micromobility will vary, but the general relationships hold. With that, I'm going to hand it over to roger to focus on one piece of that mode shift, which is about how PBOT is supporting cycling through infrastructure investments and people based programs. We'll talk more about the trends in cycling and what our city can do to regain momentum, and supporting more people choosing cycling as a mode to move around our city.
114 Great. Thank you kristin. For the record, my name is roger geller. I'm the city's bicycle coordinator and I'm going to talk about bicycling. And this is a it's a rich topic. It's full of data, detail, opinion and values. And we really don't have a lot of time this morning. So I'm going to be very quick, and I hope that we can go into more detail in response to your questions and if so desired, can return one of the questions that councilor Novick asked was, what is the connection between our climate goals and bicycle transportation? And it's quite a bit. There is a direct line between the goals, targets and policy suggestions in our initial climate action plan and now our 2035 comprehensive plan. In 2009, the climate plan introduced the idea of the Green transportation hierarchy that really flipped on its head the approach that transportation agencies would take to planning for means of transportation. Most transportation agencies plan for driving first, and then perhaps transit, and then perhaps walking, and then perhaps biking. And the Green transportation hierarchy is an idea that had been around for really decades, and it was embraced by the climate action plan, and it suggested that we first prioritize walking, then biking, then transit, and then other means of transportation, and really put single occupancy vehicles at the bottom of the hierarchy. The 2010 Portland bicycle plan adopted that transportation hierarchy and identified and also reinforced the idea that biking should be 25% of commute trips. And that's all in service to 30% of trips by automobile. And then those policies were officially adopted in 2016 into our 2035 comprehensive plan. Our policies also include a statement that we are to create conditions that make bicycling more attractive than driving for trips of three miles or less, and it sort of acknowledged that in some ways, bicycling is in competition with driving, and that significant change is needed. If we truly are going to bring bicycling or driving down to only 30% of trips. So Portland has been known as a great city for bicycling, really going back to the early 1990s. And we still are. And we really adopted a strategy of build it and they will come. The idea being that the only thing that was holding people back from wide scale bicycling was the absence of a good quality network. So we built this is what our bikeway looked like in 1994. The Green lines are what we now today call neighborhood greenways. The magenta lines are off street pathways, and then the blue lines are some form of bike Lane. By 2015, this is what our bicycling network looked like. And then this is more or less what it looks like today. We've built a little bit more since 2024, and our investments have really paid off. And I'll demonstrate that this map shows the circle. The red circle is just a four mile radius from the Burnside bridge. The black lines show the bikeway network as it existed in the year 2000, and the colors represent the proportion of people in each of the census tracts that were bicycle commuting to work. In 2000, it was only it was still less than 2% double than what most American cities had, but still quite low. But, you know, after another decade and a half or so of continuous investment, bicycle use had grown quite a bit. At this point in time, it was over 7%. And even though the highest use areas were close in to the central city, you can see on the outskirts, both in east Portland and in southwest, that some of the census tracts were showing levels of bicycling activity, that in Portland was showing a decade and a half sooner. So the growth was happening, albeit slower, in those outer areas. This map just shows that in this part of town, the part of town that is a dark where the bike use was 4.5% or greater, almost 60% of Portland commuters lived in this area and bike use. There was about 10% transit, about 13% driving was about 53%. So we made a lot of inroads in this area. We hear a lot about amsterdam and copenhagen. That brown area basically represents the total land area of a city like amsterdam or copenhagen. So you can fit copenhagen or amsterdam basically into inner southeast and northeast Portland. This kind of these kind of results allowed us to make the statement that between 2000 and 2014, bicycling was the means of transportation that did the most to limit automobile commuting among portlanders, portlanders. So what do I mean by this? Well, between 2000 and 2014, the number of Portland commuters grew 20%. It was about 55,000. Increase in the number of portlanders who were commuting to work. And if in 2014, people got to work the same way they did in 2000, this is how those trips, those additional 55,000 trips would have been apportioned. There would have been 41,000 more cars on the road, mostly from drive alone commuting, some more carpooling, and there would have been about 13,000 of those trips would have been using transit, walking, working from home or biking. But because of our efforts over that time, what really happened was this instead of there being 40,000 more cars on the road during the commute hours, there were only 15,040 thousand people were doing other things. And you can see the role that bicycling played in that it really absorbed the plurality of those trips. So 18,000 more people were bicycle commuting in 2014 than were in the year 2000. So what that really allows us to say, and that trend has held. So we can make this statement that since 2000, bicycling basically remains the means of transportation that has done the most to limit automobile commuting among portlanders. I'm going to show you some really wonky slides, because that's kind of what I do. We can come back to these, but these are just kind of showing the growth relative to 2000 of the means of transportation. And that big red line is the total commuters in total resident Portland commuters. And you can see tremendous growth in the number of people commuting corresponds with the growth in our population. That really kicked off after 2013. The blue line is bicycling, the red line is transit, the Green line is walking. Those are kind of our three modes that we really are working to promote. And you can see pre-pandemic, things were starting to already drop off. So as councilor Novick mentioned, there has been a decline in biking and it was not just related to the pandemic. This is something that was already happening pre-pandemic. That bicycle use was starting to level off and was even starting to decline a little bit. And then you can see with the pandemic that we introduce that black line. That's the growth in working at home. So you can see how working from home really skyrocketed during the pandemic at the expense of transit. Walking and biking and even driving dropped off quite a bit during that time period. So, you know, stagnation. So as I mentioned, we our approach had always been build it and they will come. That worked for a long time until it no longer worked. And so what we've kind of come to the conclusion that having a really great bikeway network is essential and foundational, but it's not in and of itself, sufficient. I'm going to show just a couple of slides here that show the change in portland's bicycling mode split. So here's the city of Portland. This is showing mode split from 2010 through 2023. You can see those peak lines. In 2014 2015 it began to drop. The pandemic hit, it really dropped and it started to grow. So we saw a significant decline. Portland is not alone in this. These are some of the cities and counties in the us that have really invested significantly in bicycling. I call them the bike striving nacto cities, and they were all showing great growth in biking before the pandemic, and they had all started to decline before the pandemic. So this is not a unique Portland phenomenon. This is really a national phenomenon. And you can also see that Portland is kind of heads and shoulders above, above these cities, which are arranged by population size. So how do we regain momentum? Well, you know, we continue to build and we continue to promote. That's part of the answer. Even the world's best cycling cities continue to build bikeways. Copenhagen, amsterdam, paris, london, they all are still building and improving. So there's no need to stop that. And we have continued to build. What this map shows is our current network as it exists. The darker lines are the bikeways that we've either built or improved since 2016. So you can see we've had a lot of focus in the central city, in north Portland and east Portland and in southwest. So the darker lines are what we've built in the last ten years. And then we also have quite a bit funded. And those orange lines are showing what we have funded. So this network is arguably the best bikeway network for any us large us city. And it also operates in a generally low speed environment. And I think that elevates these. The biking works well in Portland, in part because of our efforts on safety, vision zero. Slowing speeds down, creating safer conditions is key to having a good bicycling environment. We also have a two decades of history developing programs to increase bike ridership. These are very popular programs that you see listed here. Many of these programs are able to continue through a PCEF strategic program allocation, and there's opportunities for additional investment to grow ridership. These are designed to encourage increased biking. And yet all these efforts, you know, despite our efforts, they as I mentioned, they are no longer sufficient to maintain and elevate bike use. So what do we do? Well, I think, first of all, is the idea that decreasing automobile use is an urgent necessity. And that's what our city's climate emergency work plan says. It says that we are living in a climate emergency, and let's act as if we are. I think about this stuff a lot. And as bike coordinator, it's what my position, my role. And in November of 2024, I provided a draft of what I call a bicycle transportation strategic implementation plan, the focus being to immediately elevate bicycle use. And that really builds upon our inherent strengths and creates an environment in which people will choose to ride a bicycle. Because bicycling is a choice. That, and really what our challenge is, is to determine how do we get portlanders to choose to ride a bicycle rather than drive a car? Other world class cities have used both policy carrots and policy sticks to facilitate that individual decision making. We do a lot of the same carrots that other cities do build an excellent bikeway network, have lots of high quality bike parking, have good land use that supports short trips, and the sticks, of course, are high gas prices expensive and limited car parking, indirect driving routes, high taxes on purchasing cars. You know, these kind of strong economic cues that help people choose how they're going to go from point a to b, but with the exception of pricing parking, we really don't have available to us these types of policy sticks that are proven effective in other world class cities. So we really need to focus on other things to encourage people to choose bicycling. And I think it starts with really building on our strengths. And again, this bikeway network that we have, the land use that we have, we really do have excellent plans and policies. We have a very good staff that builds some of the best facilities in the world. We annually have multiple study groups coming to Portland to learn from us. How do we build things? What do we do? We have advocates, as we've seen many, many examples of over the years, passionate advocates that want to work with us to improve conditions for bicycling. We have a very strong tradition of political leadership. We've made the most advances when we've had strong leadership from city council. And then people tell us and we see this again in survey after survey. People want to and know that they can bike here. So the plan that I suggest, you know, as a what we're discussing is really it hinges on creating opportunities for people to ride and to identify and communicate compelling reasons for people to ride. And it really requires that we be confident in what we're trying to do, to believe that we have a very good product, and that we talk about why it's important for Portland to shift away from driving and to go to other modes. And one of the key elements of this is we need to elevate the visibility of bicycling to get people thinking about bicycling again. And opportunities to ride creates that kind of physical visibility on the street. And of course, we do a lot of this. You know, we have all these things that we do that are opportunities to ride 3 to 5 Sunday parkways a year, a dozen or so neighborhood rides. What we really need to do is amp this up quite a bit and have, you know, ride opportunities around the clock and around the year. And then bike town, of course, is also an important element of this. It really contributes to all these efforts. Increase investment in bike town would provide more stations, more bikes to more people, more of the time because the ease of access to bicycles is really a key consideration when people are contemplating how to go from point a to point b, so really amping up our rides, our opportunities for rides, and then really identifying and communicating compelling reasons for people to choose to bike, bike, you know, how do we get people's attention? What messages do we deliver? How do we deliver messages? We started with this a little bit. We have a special program. 31 has provided $148,000 annually to PBOT to promote bicycling, based on messages that were polling, to see what messages are really resonating with people and would provide an incentive to ride. You know, I talk, I joke about wanting sort of the level of funding to run the, you know, the bud light campaign for biking. Right? So a very professional promotional campaign that really identifies who are the messengers and delivering messages in a professional way. So the urgency to promote bicycling came from the climate action plan in 2009. It's been carried forward in the climate emergency work plan in 2022. We're fortunate that one of the key solutions in the transportation sector to greenhouse gas emissions is something that people generally want to do. People like to bike if we can create the good conditions for it. You know, ten years ago, when bicycling use peaked in Portland at 7%. The most visible elements of that peak were the 23,000 portlanders that commuted to work daily by bicycle. They created an identity for Portland, while also doing the most of any mode to minimize the potential growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Why bikes? Well, tomorrow, if so inclined, 70,000 portlanders triple that number could decide they wanted to bike. If they did, the bikeway network could accommodate them. If they did, they'd all find a place to park their bikes. If they did overnight, there would be measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Those people doing it would be a little healthier, a little happier, and they'd make Portland streets a little more friendly. It's really the only mode that can affect that type of change overnight. That's why if we wish to act as if we're living in a climate emergency, our policies direct that bicycling be a key part of that solution. And that is the end of our presentation. Thank you.
115 Thank you, councilor Avalos.
116 Thank you so much for your presentation and for all the work that you're doing to make biking and walking more viable for portlanders. I think what we've heard today is that active transportation isn't just about climate goals. It's about people's ability to move freely, affordably, and with dignity around our city and in east Portland, we have a long way to go. I hear often from my constituents who want to bike that they don't feel safe because they lack protected bike lanes, or the lanes that aren't clean or connected. I know I not a bike girly, I'm more a scooter girly and I'd be riding my scooter on Burnside or I'm sorry on division. And it is a constant fear that I have that the glass and all the junk is going to fling up into my eyes. So. And I just have paranoia about I stuff. So. But it's a constant thing that I think about when I'm driving or on my scooter, on division and also the types. I think that we've put in some good infrastructure. Right. Like those little plastic poles or, I don't know, they probably have a real name that I see on division, but they I have a couple of neighbors who are avid bikers and they're like, it's just not enough. It doesn't feel safe. The cars, you know, they get really close to you anyway, just sharing a little bit of my own experience. I also hear from neighbors who would gladly take transit but can't even get to their stops because there's no sidewalks. As we know, there's basic infrastructure needs. And just in general, I think it's important for us to talk about what it looks like for east Portland to actually shift our modes of transportation, because they just feel still really out of reach. And I want us to just keep asking ourselves, how do we ensure that these investments in active transportation prioritize these neighborhoods that have long been waiting for that kind of infrastructure? And, you know, I get it. I'm a broken record. I feel like we all always talk about how are we going to get it to the most neediest portlanders, but we have to keep putting it on the record and keep pushing ourselves to put that at the forefront, because those barriers are what are prohibiting us from making the culture shifts that we are looking for. It was really cool, though, to see the ways that, you know, all the infrastructure has shifted that culture. But again, a lot of that remains in the central city and doesn't hit the outer east side. And I think in general, if we can get it right in east Portland, where it has the greatest need and the greatest opportunity, then I think we'll we can get it right for the rest of the city. So that's why I think focusing in on what east portlanders need, because again, I have a lot of friends who are really interested in making biking part of their daily life, but just it's just difficult. I also, you know, I for me trying to take transit. Luckily I have a pretty easy line. You know, I've got the ff on division. That kind of gets me here close. But there's a lot of connectivity issues, right, with both biking and transit, because there are moments where I'm like, well, maybe I take my scooter to the max up to Burnside and then bring it in. And anyway, I would love to talk about how we can help people plan. I see that you've got some of the like the bike buddies thing. I know there are some nonprofits that offer that to. I've asked for, you know, somebody to just go with me on my bikes or my scooter. So I have confidence in what it looks like to shift between different modes. Anyway, all of that being said, I'm grateful and hopeful that we can increase east portland's infrastructure. So on that note, I'm curious if there are any bold, high visibility bike infrastructure projects that we are expecting in east Portland in the next 3 to 5 years. What those might look like.
117 Before, before either of you answer, if I may excuse me. Councilor millicent williams, for the record, PBOT director, I wanted to offer a kind of universal response to some of the things that you've addressed, and then we can speak to the specifics about the investments that we are making in the district for which you advocate, advocate the most articulately, but recognizing that you see the whole city as you are thinking about what we need to do to move things forward in support of community, the Portland bureau of transportation has historically, at least for the past 10 to 12 years, been intentional and focused on investing not just a couple of dollars, but tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure in east Portland. Many of our capital projects, not our maintenance projects, but our capital projects, which we go out for funding from alternative sources, are focused specifically on streets of significant citywide significance. But many of those in those high crash corridor locations, which, unfortunately, are in spaces that had previously been county roads that are formerly high speed network areas. And so we have been intentional about those projects. And again, christine, roger can speak to some of those. Almost every capital project that we have right now, that and we have a couple of hundred of those have a significant protected or separated bike component to ensure that we're creating the opportunity for people to feel comfortable with accessing those project locations and those corridors using whichever mode they prefer, but prioritizing making sure that biking is an option for people. I'd also like to address the mention of the delineators. That's what they're called the plastic wands. For the record, I do not like those at all. I hate them and they do not create the safety that we need to have for folks who are wanting to make the choice to cycle safely. There has been a directive that has been put forward by our city traffic engineer. There are nine projects currently underway where we're replacing those those not diverters excuse me, those delineators with concrete separation to ensure that people can feel safe. The first major project was on nato and you'll see that happening all around the city. It is a priority for the bureau. It is a priority for me. I know that it is a number of things. There are a number of things that those wands do help to provide on a temporary basis, but I'm not focused on or we're not focused on or should not be focused on what's doing, what's temporary, but what's lasting. So I just wanted to kind of provide that overarching frame and looking forward to getting a buddy with you so you can feel safer. And then there is funding that's allocated for bike Lane sweeping, and there's also funding that's allocated to invest in e-bikes for community. And so when we saw that that was an opportunity that they were trying to encourage use of biking as an option. One of the things that we knew we needed to do was make sure that the bike lanes that we have in service are something that people can feel comfortable with using, and so they are also funding the bike Lane sweeping program to ensure that that's a hand in hand. Right now, a couple of the sweepers are out of service, but we do have that as a priority for the bureau and are able to speak to the progress that we are making in that area. So with that, yeah.
118 Thank you, director williams. Yeah. Thank you, councilor Avalos, you hit on kind of the key, some of the key areas. I'm glad to hear that. You mentioned that you're seeing strong desire to bike. That's I think that's universal. And you talk about you know, safety quality and maintenance are kind of the some potential barriers. The director kind of hit on what we're doing in terms of upping the quality of the bikeways and as well as the maintenance. And I don't know if you can see the slide that I have on the screen if you still have that available to you. But it does show. Do you see it? So those darker lines are protected bike lanes. So the ones that you see in east Portland, you know, division is that big east west line kind of at the lower end. You've got 136. You've got outer. Glisan, you've got halsey weidler in the commercial district. So slowly we are introducing protected bike lanes into east Portland as we have funding opportunities to do so. Those orange lines that are on the map show what we currently have funded, including a state project on powell. So they'll be putting in protected and wider bike lanes on powell. Stark. We have outer stark funded 122nd doesn't yet show up on the map, but we're currently in planning for protected bike lanes on 100 and 20s. So yes, we recognize that what east Portland needs, because of the nature of the roadways out there, greenways, we can do some out there. But the nature of the grid is such that you really have to have very high quality facilities on the busier streets. Those are the streets. And, you know, the it's very interesting, the sort of the history of east Portland. East Portland was the part of town where we completed the highest percentage of our planned network. First, we unfortunately did it in an era when the gold standard for bike lanes was a five foot wide bike Lane, separated by a eight inch stripe of paint. That was what we thought 20 years ago was the thing, and we did a lot of it out there, and now we're going back in and retrofitting. So and as this also shows, is that east Portland has definitely been a focus for us for the past ten years, that it's been one of the main areas where we recognize that the five foot bike Lane wasn't going to cut it, and we needed to really improve the quality of bikeway. So we have been investing and hope to continue to. So thank you.
119 Yeah, thank you for that context. I think one other uncomfortable truth that we face out in east Portland is just the larger culture around how people feel about bikes, how people feel about safety infrastructure. I mean, it's even my own best friend who I love, and I always have to be like these. You know, the way that we change these streets is good for the health of the community. I get that's frustrating. You can't turn left anymore. Right? So there's I think it's important to note the difference in culture and the politics of biking and infrastructure in east Portland, and that therefore, the ways that you design that infrastructure have to adapt to that. Right. Because we do need a little bit extra security because, you know, people are just zooming on division and councilor Dunphy always says this. And I think it's really important that east Portland wasn't designed to stay in. It was designed to get through. And so because of that, people are not looking to linger right there. Like I'm getting on division, I'm getting 120 big, you know, streets that they feel they're just there to it's their only purpose is to get through it, not to linger. Whereas when I lived in like the kerns neighborhood, for example, that was much more designed in a you're here to stay, you're going to go to the little boutique, you're going to go on your bike. Right. So I think just it's important to note the political differences and therefore how that infrastructure needs to look different for us in east Portland. But again, thank you for your work, and I look forward to collaborating on how to talk to the community about what would best make them feel safe, because I think that's the last layer that in general, east portlanders have a lot of resentment towards PBOT because they feel like things get put in without their without discussion. And even if it's good and even if you would have just had that conversation, they would have been on board. But because you didn't, they're immediately against it. So consider again the culture of east portlanders and how they really need to feel bought in. And then they will, you know, be more open to the infrastructure that the people need in order to feel safe riding on their streets. So thank.
120 You, councilor. I will share that. I've spoken to the team about our approach around outreach and engagement across the city broadly, but that we need to be thoughtful and intentional about the differences in the ways that communities engage based on cultural, historical, racial, gender differences. And so there's a real thoughtfulness that goes into how we have those conversations. One of the things that we are really intentional around is I say, I bet you we could get that done. If we go, we need to go slower, faster. And then the harder thing will be easier. We need to make sure we're building trust with community on the things that they say they want to see, and then introducing new things and explaining the full complement of reasons why change is necessary. It's not just because we want to see a bike Lane somewhere, but it's also because the growth in certain parts of town suggests that we need to do something different, and we have to change the infrastructure to address that. There were streets of significance citywide or regional or neighborhood significance that 50 years ago, 30 years ago had ten houses on them. Now they have those ten houses plus some infill plus some multi-unit dwellings. And everything about that corridor has to change to accommodate for that growth. And so we're looking at the needs to make those changes, incorporating that into how we can support on the surface level, those changes with community and hearing those voices and being really thoughtful about what that means and how we can implement makes a big difference. And so we are we're listening with wide open ears, and our eyes are focused particularly on how we can do that. Well.
121 And can I ask if two of my colleagues might be able to, at least two might be able to stay for an extra ten minutes? Yeah. Thank you. A couple of reasons for that. One is that I've got a question for this panel, and so does councilor Kanal. Another is that somehow there was a slip communication councilor Green came here expecting to have an opportunity to make a brief statement on the diverters in northwest. I'd like to give him a chance to do that. I originally was going to ask a couple of questions myself about the diverters in northwest, but I feel less worried about that issue based on other conversations I've had in between. So with that preface, mr. Geller, I notice that in one of your slides, you made a reference to a $37 million, five year plan that you developed last fall. We don't have time to go into that in depth, but if you could quickly give the highlights on that. And I'd also I mean, when we have time, I'd like to have a longer presentation on that. But if you could just sort of give a thumbnail sketch of like what those investments might consist of.
122 Absolutely. And keep in mind, of course, this is my thinking. And, you know, there's no. You know, big plans are what stir our imaginations. So the idea is that, you know, as actually, as councilor Avalos mentioned, you know, she's looking for somebody who can ride with her friends. She thinks that her friends, I think, would benefit by having somebody say, hey, let's go for a ride. I'll show you how to do this. So part of that is just really paying for a lot of people to be ride leaders. And, you know, we talk about the school bike busses where people are at a regularly scheduled place every time and then they ride to their school. This would be like neighborhood bike busses where we hire people to ride to show people around. So if you meet at this park or at this intersection at 11 a.m. Every Wednesday, there's a ride, there's another one at 1 p.m. And you do that citywide and you really holding people's hands. That's the idea of bike buddies on steroids. Right now. Bike buddies is being done with a limited amount of funding. And, you know, there's few rides offered. So the idea is to really basically employ a lot of people to ride people around town and be ambassadors for biking, go out and make really develop relationships in the community. And then the other one is, as I alluded to, you know, the bud light campaign for bicycling, right? So I want to really promote bicycling. I want to find the messages that resonate with people and encourage people to choose bicycling. I want to elevate bicycling, elevate its visibility, bring it back into people's consciousness. And then some of that is also infrastructure investments. You know, that are impactful and meaningful and give us the opportunity as city officials to talk about why we're doing this, why it is important to elevate walking, biking and transit and reduce. Drive alone trips. So, you know, a real large effort, $40 million over multiple years. But in the scheme of things, especially when it comes to transportation funding, not a ton of money. I think director williams might disagree. The $40 million is not a ton of money, but in the in the grand scheme of things. Thank you. That's that's it in a nutshell.
123 Thank you.
124 Councilor Kanal.
125 Can I actually let councilor Greene go first? Is that all? Okay.
126 Sure. Councilor greene and we've got an extra seat.
127 I appreciate you working me in here. For the.
128 Record, my name is Mitch greene, and I'm a Portland city councilor for district four. I want to thank the co-chairs, Novick and Morillo, for recognizing me today. And I don't have time to go into this broader document. I'll just start by saying, I appreciate what I heard earlier, that there's been some responsiveness from the administration in relation to some of the community conversations. That's a good thing. But I, you know, want to be crystal clear. I'm not beating up on any bureaus here, but council has a duty for some measure of oversight. And I think a conversation with the relevant committee is, is what I've been calling soft oversight. And that's where it starts. And so I just want to briefly over provide an overview of the issue that folks in the community are worried about with respect to these diverters in my district, on August 1st, I received an email from Portland solutions director skyler knapp informing me that decisions were made to remove some traffic safety diverters for purposes of public safety. I thought that was alarming. So, you know, and so did some members of the transportation community. So on August 11th, in response to those community protests, the city administrator released a memo explaining the justification for that decision. And by August 12th, the bicycle advisory committee convened, discussed that situation. And the city administrator's memo heard public testimony with unanimous opposition to the decision, and collectively drafted a resolution with the hopes that I would deliver that resolution to the city. City administrator and the relevant committees. I think I've distributed a copy of that resolution. I'm not going to take the time to read all of it, but it lays out what it envisions and understands. The city's nexus of active transportation, bicycle, pedestrian infrastructure, policies to be what our values are and resolves three things it says now, therefore be resolved by the city Portland bicycle advisory committee to advise the city that they they oppose the removal, of course, of the traffic diverters in question, and that these do not remove those diverse efforts in 20th and johnson and 15th, johnson and 14th that provide safe and comfortable operating conditions that fit with the broader presentation that you heard earlier and really the nut of it. And I think it's relevant, what we're hearing from the administration is a desire to engage in a transparent and data driven conversation about whether this was the right course of action. I heard from that bicycle advisory committee willingness to work towards a solution, and I think they were concerned that the solution was made with meetings that were pretty exclusive, and there are deep questions remaining about, was this necessary from a public safety standpoint, such as, you know, if a dump truck can get through with a diverter present, so can a police car. So those are the sorts of things that I hope the committee takes up. I'll just close by saying specific questions as we engage with the administration. I'd like you to consider is what is substantive community engagement look like? Is it problem solvers meetings or is it meetings before a council of committee or some sort of citizen advisory committee? What is the accordance with our adopted policies and codes? Vision zero, the 2035 comp plan. Section nine a on safety, the northwest in motion plan. The city's broad sustainability climate goals, a demonstration of evidence based policy making. So does the dca of public safety think that there is a reason why they can't conduct law enforcement? There's lots of law enforcement capacity because of those diverters. Okay. If so, demonstrate that. Make the case. Lay the cards on the table. Happy to be proven wrong on this. And I think I think the community is as well. And then a question of those trade offs. You know, one, public safety cost is another benefit maybe to pedestrian safety. So those are discussions that warrant public engagement. And then lastly I think a consideration with our code. So Portland city code section 16 .10. 100 through 200 establishes city council as the road authority. But we delegate specific authority to the city administrator to implement our adopted codes, resolutions, directives and such. And so that's a discussion that needs to happen at some point. I appreciate that. There's been a pause. I think we have space to have that discussion. And so I'll just close by saying again, I think the city has shown its willingness to respond to community, outpouring of questions and concerns. I have faith in our bureaus. I have faith in our council to have that conversation. And, you know, we can do this the Portland way. Thank you.
129 Thank you, councilor. I mean, one thing that I was glad to hear the other day is that even if the diverters are removed, they can pretty easily be replaced. So I've asked commander hughes if the police will sort of keep track of are there actual improvements in public safety as they see public safety if the diverters are removed? And I would ask PBOT director williams, do you think it will be possible to at all monitor what the impact on bike usage will be if the diverters are removed, like what the negative impact would be.
130 We are intending to monitor over the course of the next, however long the period is, but we have a focused six months period. I will note that we are moving the. The proposal is not to remove the diverters but to move the diverters, creating a vision clearance at the intersection and with some other enhancements to the intersection that would create safety in ways that aren't currently in place. But we could and has been even mentioned in communication from the city administrator. When, when and if we see that there are conditions that have not changed in such a way that would warrant not having the diverter there, we would be able to put that back.
131 Thank you, councilor Canal.
132 Thank you, chair Novick. I want to recognize we're over time. So I'm going to frame a lot of this as statements. And I'd love to follow up with you. I really do apologize, but I do want to get through everything. And I don't think we're going to have time for q&a, I apologize. First, thank you for the presentation. Thank you to roger for coming to the bicycle advisory committee meeting. And being there for what, you know, was was definitely a crowd that disagreed with PBOT on on this course of action. I think I appreciated that, and I think the, the people that were there did too. And thank you to kristen hall for talking about transit. It it is stunning to me that how often I think, does PBOT even know that transit is a part of anything because you do it, but you don't talk about it nearly as much and you're very effective at it. So I really appreciate talking about it, and I'd love to have a presentation on it, because public transit is, for me, the core part of our long term climate friendly transportation strategy. I think partially because of that's where I think the opportunity is, not because it's more or less important than bikes or pedestrian transit. I also would love to have a conversation about the impact of work from home. I think that was a really a little, little sliver that we saw on the map that expanded when you showed what would have happened if you hadn't intervened versus when you did. And it's really important to talk about that, because remote work has a positive impact on our climate friendly transportation strategy progress. And we need to have a city wide strategy that prioritizes remote work instead of trying to undermine it. I would also love to get some information on comparable cities goals for biking, walking, transit, driving alone, and to see where seattle, new york, and san francisco specifically are at on this. And I picked those three because seattle is a nearby neighbor. They have been expanding their transit. New york has obviously the best transit system, although san francisco might try to compete with it in the country and all that. My biggest comment here is that I think there is a, a, a concern that I have, which is that the work of an infrastructure bureau is being described as if it's a communications exercise, a pr exercise. We have heard, and there's acknowledgment that people like to bike if we can create the good conditions for it. That's a quote that there's a strong desire to bike, and that's a quote. I don't think the concern here is convincing people that bikes are good. I think it's convincing people that bikes are fast and safe and affordable and all of those things, and that is an infrastructure concern. I if the question before me as a budget voter is will we fund a bud light campaign? The answer is I will smash the no button as hard as I possibly can. If the question is, will you build concrete diverters as you want to? I will smash the yes button as hard as I can for it. And the best example of that is Sunday parkways being used as an example. What makes Sunday parkways so appealing to people? There are no cars driving on the road. During those the roads are closed. That is the key distinction that I think has been missed in all of this. I wonder if a greenway is a sufficient definition for what we're trying to achieve here, because part of the issue is we still don't have the visibility because there are cars parked all the way up to the intersections, and we don't daylight our intersections. And that's the one good thing about the plan for those diverters, I'd love to add a concrete barrier there to prevent people from parking in that that parking the closest to the intersection spot. But broadly speaking, we're talking about needing to identify the line of business and keep that first and foremost infrastructure. And so I'll end with a rhetorical question, which is, even if we were going to do pr, what message does it send to bicyclist that we are stepping away from our vision zero commitment when we remove diverters on northwest 20th and everett without a public process and without fiscal responsibility, either due to the cost of both building them and then removing them. And I, I understand the distinction between removing and moving, but they are removing in the context of opening the Lane to two way traffic for cars. And I think that that is profoundly undermining whatever pr benefits there might be.
133 First of all, I have to say that I violently disagree with councilor Canals comments about an advertising strategy. I think that, as mr. Geller pointed out, 70,000 people could decide tomorrow they could start bicycling. And with the existing infrastructure. And I think that delivering targeted messages that point out that they can do that safely would be useful.
134 How many of those 70,000 would be in collisions with cars if they started biking today?
135 Well, I actually don't think that's true. However, we can debate this in the future. Our next meeting is Thursday, September 11th. The updated urban forest plan is returning to the committee for our consideration. We'll also have amendments to the Portland Gresham urban services boundary. As you recall, Gresham invaded us last year. We fought back. We actually ended up taking some Gresham territory. We now actually have an agreement to settle what the boundary is going to be. And with that, this meeting of the climate resilience and land use committee is adjourned. Thank you.