The record · Transcript

Council session — 2026-06-25

Transcript from the session's official auto-captions (25,913 words), shown in readable case and split into speaker turns. Speakers are AI-suggested and editor-reviewed (low confidence — auto-captions garble names); each color marks a speaker.

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Good afternoon. I am calling back to order this meeting of the Portland city council. It is 2:00 on Thursday, June 25th. Rebecca, can we please call the roll?

Good afternoon.

Kanal here.

Pirtle-guiney here.

Tiffany Koyama Lane: Ryan. Here. Koyama Lane. I'm sorry, was that councilor Koyama Lane online? No, no thank you.

Morillo here.

Novick here.

Clark here. Green here. Zimmerman. Avalos.

Present virtually.

Smith.

Here.

Dunphy here. And can we please read the rules of decorum for the chamber?

Good afternoon. Welcome to the Portland city council. To testify before council in person or virtually. You must sign up in advance on the council agenda at www.Portland.gov/council/agenda. Information on engaging with council can be found on the council clerk's web page. Individuals may testify for three minutes unless the presiding officer states. Otherwise, your microphone will be muted. When your time is over, the presiding officer preserves order disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others testimony or council 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, council may take a short recess and reconvene virtually your testimony to address the matter being considered. When testifying, state your name for the record. Your address is not necessary. If you are a lobbyist, identify your organization you represent. Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the council clerk calls your name. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So, colleagues, as we all know, yesterday we barely got through. About half of the appellants signed up testimony. We did not get to the. Other presentations or anything else. So I will just just a note for folks watching at home and for in the audience, if you are here in order to see the tnc driver resource center, that item will certainly not be heard today. We have too many things on the agenda. And additionally, if you are here for the recap package 11 item, there is a small possibility we will get to it towards the end, but almost certainly we're not going to be doing that today. So additionally, at the end of our meeting yesterday, we discussed suspending the rules to address a number of very quick must do pieces of legislation, plus the second reading from councilor Novick. With consent from this body. I'd like to move that. I'd like unanimous consent to have move items seven through ten to the front of our agenda, at which point we would then return to the lloyd center land use appeal item number five. We would hopefully open recap 11 after concluding testimony, though, as I said, there are still nearly 100 people who are officially signed up to testify. I don't know that they're all here, but they may be online. But regardless.

Of information, council president item seven is recap, and you suggested that we move that top of the agenda.

Well, that's because I'm I have item seven as the sewer and stormwater.

Because you didn't have the remember the thing got added. Oh, right.

Right. So it's eight through 11. Thank you. I apologize. I'm not good with numbers.

Okay. So you're you are asking us to approve moving agenda items eight through 11. Yes. Ahead of agenda items six and seven.

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you, council president.

I appreciate your attention to detail. Do you need a motion for that? Okay, I know I don't I don't see if there is any objection with no objection seeing none, the agenda is reordered. And can we please call item eight.

Item eight revise sewer and stormwater rates, charges and fees for fy 2020 627. Document number 2026-218.

Thank you very much, colleagues. This item did not go through a committee because this is a technical emergency fix from the water bureau. I believe water bureau staff are here to present. Here we are. One water director, ting liu is here to give us a brief or quick presentation and some technical clarifying questions about what this is. So, director, take it away.

Thank you so much. Council president and council members. For the record, my name is ting lu, public utilities director. This item is for bts rate fees revision. With that, I would like to ask council clerk please pull up the short presentation. So next slide please. So just for background, the bts and water rate ordinances were approved by council on 27th of may last month. It was recently brought to our attention that exhibit a to the sewer rate ordinance, which documents all rates, fees and charges, had an error in exhibit a, section f, the sanitary and stormwater sds rates didn't get updated to the 9% increase as what was presented to the council on may 14th. So you can see on the table that we have the track changes here. Essentially, we're updated number for the 9% increase here. With that opportunity, we also made a couple other formatting changes. Next slide please. So the section g didn't incorporate the correct reference to class average and the minimum yields per element rule e and b 4.09. So I'm showing here as a table to see the track changes to better align with the reference and classes here. The next slide shows the last formatting change we made. Essentially we removed the dollar sign to better represent how we are measuring the square foot of the stormwater fee charges, and also the column headings to better align with what is actually used for basis for calculation versus the actually a unit cost. So just using the opportunity to making sure things are clear and transparent. So thank you so much for the time here.

Thank you colleagues. Are there any technical or clarifying questions? Councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: Yeah. If in the event that we pass it, can we also post the track changes version online? Just for reference?

Of course. Yeah.

Yeah, we can follow up on that.

Thanks.

Thank you. Councilor Kanal rebecca, is there anyone signed up for public testimony on this?

There's one person signed up and casper. And casper. That concludes testimony.

Okay. Thank you very much. Sorry. And thanks for signing up. Hopefully, if you are listening and are able to submit written testimony, we'd be happy to take it. Colleagues, is there any further discussion on this item? Councilor. Pirtle-guiney.

I just want to make sure we are super clear. The written documents with the original information said that there was a 9% increase. The numbers just didn't match, and we are now updating the numbers to align with the written documents. This is not any sort of additional increase beyond what we've already discussed and debated. Can we get that just fully confirmed so that as we're having conversations with portlanders, it's clear that this is what has already been discussed.

Correct. This was presented at the council on may 14th at the work session. But unfortunately, the ordinance didn't update it to reflect the 9% change.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilor pirtle-guiney seeing no one else in the queue. Rebecca, this is a this is an emergency ordinance, colleagues that requires nine votes to pass. Can we please call the roll? We have two online for those.

Calling the vote for document number 2026-218 Kanal. I pirtle-guiney. I Ryan.

Stepped away.

Koyama Lane absent Morillo. I Novick.

Clerk I.

Green I.

Zimmerman. Absent.

Avalos I.

Smith I Dunphy. I any ordinance passes with nine I and three absent votes.

Thank you very much. Can we please move to item nine?

Item nine authorize a cable franchise fund for the bureau of planning and sustainability to support the collection of public education and government revenues and manage cable franchise work related to intergovernmental agreements with jurisdictions. Document number 2026-175.

Colleagues. Is the second reading of a non emergency ordinance. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none. Rebecca, can we please call the roll.

Kanal I.

Pirtle-guiney.

I Ryan absent Koyama Lane. Absent Morillo. I Novick. I clerk. I Green. I Zimmerman is absent.

Avalos I.

Smith I.

Dunphy.

Council. Ryan is returned I.

Councilor Ryan is an I.

Dan Ryan: And I'm an I as well.

And Dunphy is an I. The ordinance passes with ten I to absent.

Thank you very much. Can we please move to item ten?

Item ten amend city code to reflect the dissolution of mount hood cable regulatory commission. Amend code chapters 3.33 and 3.115. Document number 2026-176.

Colleagues. This is also the second reading of a nonemergency ordinance. Is there further discussion? Seeing none, would you please call the roll Kanal?

I pirtle-guiney. I Ryan I Koyama Lane absent Morillo. I Novick. I clerk. I Green. I Zimmerman absent Avalos. I Smith. I Dunphy. I the ordinance passes with ten I to absent.

Thank you very much. And can we please read item 11.

Item 11 amend city code to transfer oversight of portable sign placement in the right of way and remove registration requirements. Amend code title 32 and add code. Chapter 17.110. Document number 2026-174.

This is the second reading of a nonemergency ordinance. Council colleagues. Some discussion. Councilor Kanal.

Sameer Kanal: Yeah thank you. I just wanted to thank councilor Novick for bringing this forward. I think it's good to keep looking for little things we can do that are very easy to make. Owning a business in Portland a little less of a headache and a tad less expensive. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilor Kanal. Councilor. Novick.

Thank you. Councilor Kanal. Thank you, mr. President. I just wanted to say that in addition to the requirement for a permit for a sandwich board being silly, I would also argue that it's a form of discrimination against particularly well informed and conscientious people, because the vast majority of people either aren't aware there's a permit requirement or say, you got to be kidding me and don't follow it. But there are these earnest folks that say, okay, there's a requirement. I'm going to send in 100 bucks and wait until I get a permit. So it's that subgroup of people that would be particularly grateful, I think.

Thank you, councilor Novick councilor Green.

Steve Novick: Thank you. Thank you, councilor Novick. Once again, today we're legalizing sandwich boards. Tomorrow we're legalizing hot dog carts that will also sell vegan hot dogs. Thanks.

Thank you. Seeing no one else in the queue. Rebecca, can we please call the roll calling?

Roll on document 2026-174 Kanal. I pirtle-guiney. I Ryan. I Koyama Lane absent Morillo.

An easy yes.

Novick I.

Clark I.

Green I.

Zimmerman absent Avalos.

Y'all are making me hungry.

I Smith. I Dunphy. I ordinance passes with ten I two absent.

Okay thank you everybody in this room for your patience as we went around and sounded like pirates. Can we move back to item five, please?

It's renumbered item.

Six now. Item number six. I'm sorry.

Today's agenda. Consider appeals of the design commission's approval of a voluntary central city master plan. Review and adjustment review for the lloyd center central city master plan land use 2025-091308ccmsad. Document number 2026-217.

Okay, first, colleagues, the city attorney will make some announcements about today's hearing. So, lauren, am I right? Am I turning to you?

I can restate the announcements from yesterday, but it's a continuation, so I don't need to make them all. Although I would ask council, given that we did have a continuation, if anyone had any ex parte communication between or site visits between yesterday and today to please disclose those.

Not seeing anybody jumping in the queue. Nobody went and visited lloyd center after the day yesterday. Okay, so we left off yesterday in the middle of testimony supporting the appellants. We're going to pick that up. But just so folks in the room know what's going to go on, we're going to finish the testimony for the appellants and supporting supporters of the appellants will then have a presentation from the applicant for 30 minutes. We will then hear from supporters for the applicant at 90s each. And finally, a rebuttal from the by the appellants together for five minutes total. So can we please get back into our public testimony?

Sorry, minor correction for the appellants. It's five minutes per appellant. So it's a ten minute a total of ten minutes.

Perfect.

Thank you thank you. And I'll begin calling the remainder of the appellant testifiers. Just a quick reminder. I'll call you in groups of five. You'll have 90s. There will be a reminder chime when you have 30s remaining and one when your time is up. The first five are julie weber, stephanie janak, chris janak, jennifer meyer, adeline schaefer.

I suspect we will have some drop off.

I'll move on to sarah miller, cole doig, james haskell, conrad. Lasota.

Come on down, folks. Whoever arrives at the table, you're welcome to go first. Please introduce yourself for the record, you're welcome to share your pronouns. And you have 90s.

I'm sarah miller. My parents took me to lloyd center as a little girl. I loved it when they decided to enclose the mall. I was sad to lose the open air, but soon came to love the new version. And how crucial to now have a climate refuge. Then one day I was making precious memories with my kids, watching the ice skaters and each getting something at the t shirt shop together. Later on, my teenagers had a safe place to go meet up with their friends, a welcoming place for all people. I hope to show my grandkids what that feels like someday. Shared generational experiences. Change can happen and has happened. Development and housing alongside preservation of the already existing community hub and tourist attraction, a music venue is being constructed on the west end and the east end can be developed to let 13th to 14th street come through new ownership for the rest. Let us honor our past by moving it forward. But neither an empty lot nor the speculative plans for development follow the district approval criteria that our city has set. There are categories that are not met in the city center master plan, such as urban forum five dot ld1, which says to encourage dense development in central lloyd while preserving neighborhood character nor community two three, which says to create public spaces, art and activities that build community identity. And there's others I would list if I had time. These criteria are already true in the current infrastructure, which can be built upon, as in guideline existing buildings a six that says to reuse and restore existing buildings when feasible, it's no doubt feasible. Thank you for your service and deep consideration.

Thank you very much. Whoever wants to go.

All right. Hello, city council, my name is cole, and I'm here today to demand reevaluation of the conditions of the currently appealed master plan to demolish the lloyd center due to time restrictions. My testimony is framed primarily around highlighting how the master plan comes at odds with policy. 6ld1. Sustainability used to be a main priority of the city of Portland, yet the demolition alone will create an estimated 123 to 300 million pounds of waste. The construction industry is responsible for 37% of all carbon emissions worldwide. Will a couple bike lanes offset this waste or just provide optics? If demolition is at the core of the plan, any pledges to make sustainability a primary focus translates to blatant greenwashing. To steer due skepticism away from another project that seeks to cater to the interests of private equity firms. Do we want to be known as a city that prioritizes new construction over preservation of historic buildings, one that happened to be refurbished within the last decade to meet current energy efficiency standards in 2026? I find it hard to believe that demolish, rebuild, demolish, rebuild is an innovative approach to sustainability, energy efficiency, water conservation, water reduction and climate climate adaptation. How in this case, will the master plan satisfy? Cc 235 policy 6ld1.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, council president and council members. My name is conrad lasota and I'm a resident of district four. I play hockey, my son plays hockey, and I have many friends that make skating a big part of their life. I have, so I have a profound appreciation for the depth of community that's at an ice rink. I'm also founder and president of the Oregon rinks initiative, a local nonprofit. With our mission to increase access to ice sports in Oregon. And so with the imminent closure of the lloyd center, obviously that came to our attention. And it's really a call to action. I've had the privilege of getting to know the members of the save lloyd ice coalition in the last couple of months, and they are passionate, they're determined, and they are about to lose the heart of what brings them together. So today, I'm here in support of the appeal filed by the save lloyd ice coalition against the design commission's approval of the lloyd center redevelopment master plan, a plan that makes no provisions for preserving or replacing a beloved ice rink that's been anchored in this community for 65 years. In times like this, I think it's important to reflect on the past. And Portland has been here before. The city was once home to the largest public ice arena in the world, in the Portland hippodrome on 20th and marshall. That opened in 1914. And this would be the start of a rich Portland history and figure skating, figure skating and ice hockey. And it would also bring world accolades with figure skating competitions. And even the first u.s. Hockey team to play for the stanley cup came from Portland, Oregon. However, the hippodrome would close and Portland would be left without a community ice rink for nearly a decade until, of course, the lloyd center opened its doors, and it was also a first to be. That came a lot faster than I expected. Sorry also became the first rink, amal rink that was in a mall in the world. So I think the. Just leveraging the importance of what the rink is to our community, that we ask the city to please do something about it, to either preserve it, relocate it, or build something new. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

James haskell's online. You can go ahead, james.

My name is james haskell. I'm submitting testimony in defense of the appellants for case lou 25-091308ccmsad. My comments are in reference to criterion h1 and h2. The destruction of the ice rink and the lloyd center goes against the central city. 2035 policies 3.2 and 5.ld-1 destroying the ice rink and the lloyd center along with it, shall remove the one indoor ice skating rink in Portland and make it difficult for the ice skating community to thrive. Please find a way to preserve or relocate the ice rink. The destruction of lloyd center is in violation of the central city fundamental design guidelines a2, a5, a6 and the lloyd district design guidelines a5 one and a 5-8. Removing the lloyd center from the port from Portland destroys an important theme of resiliency in changing times and does not enhance, embellish or identify this unique building. The lloyd center's multi-story design can be renovated, rehabilitated and reused. It does not need to be torn down. The infrastructure is already there. If the landowners and developers move forward with destroying the lloyd center and ice rink, they shall not see a return on investment anytime soon. Restoring and rehabilitating the lloyd center shall see immediate return on investment. The lloyd center is a feature of Portland and needs to continue being so you cannot integrate the lloyd shopping center into the lloyd district. When it no longer exists. It is impossible to follow these design guidelines without the place they were created for. Thank you councilors, for your time.

Thank you very much.

Lisa stein, paul cienfuegos. Sukumar, angela ellerby, terry parker.

Welcome. Please go ahead.

You can go ahead. Lisa.

Good afternoon. My name is lisa stein. I'm a district two resident, having lived in the beaumont-wilshire neighborhood for 40 years as a resident of northeast Portland, it has been a delight to view and visit the many architectural projects dotting our skyline, which zimmer, gonzalo frasca has designed. The bonneville power administration headquarters, the convention center, Portland international airport and soon to join the list the balmer institute at u of Portland campus, which broke ground June 12th. Sadly, I do not see the plans for the redevelopment of lloyd mall. The hallmarks I have come to expect from the zgf project innovation, inspiration and community engagement. Which begs the question what's up? Architects are given a canvas by those who are purchasing their design services. They reflect in their plans, the requests of their employers. It seems obvious to this observer that what is valued by those of us who frequent lloyd center on a weekly basis is not clearly reflected by those who have contracted to design a remodel, not to mention the fact that the original deed to the lloyd property expressly noted that an ice rink was to be at the core of any future development. As the council considers these appeals, I implore you to send the current plans back to. The design commission allows egf to create new schematics that reflect the best hopes for lloyd mall. Thank you for your time.

My name is paul cienfuegos. Here are some relevant facts that you might have forgotten or never knew. The two giant corporations that currently currently control lloyd center have been turning away numerous business owners all year who wanted to rent shop space there. Barnes and noble had no plans to close their bookstore, but the mall refused to renew their lease. The ross dress for less store had not intended to close its doors, but again, the corporate owners paid them a lot of money to get them to leave. Here are the actual words spoken by tom gilbane, managing director of urban renaissance corporation, in his talk at the pdx design collaborative last year. Talking about the ross store, which you can watch on youtube, quote, they didn't want to let that go cheaply, but we finally came to terms and got them out of the way. A lot of what we've done over the past two years has been removing encumbrances that were preventing any redevelopment from happening. That has been a big focus, unquote. Tom was talking in corporate speak. Here's my translation. Our goal was to push out the existing tenants, whether they wanted to go or not, so that we could flatten this beloved building and redevelop it in a way that erases 66 years of history and maximizes our profits. Let's be very clear. For the past year, lloyd center has not been dying. It's being actively killed by two giant absentee corporations, one of whom has repeatedly lied to the ice skating community. I keep asking myself, what would mayor zoran mamdani do in this situation? You know what he'd do? He'd deny the application, and so should you. The save lloyd website contains a detailed alternative plan concept that preserves the core portion of lloyd center, including the beloved ice rink, while allowing the extremities to be redeveloped for housing and other community priorities. I urge you to review that plan before making your decision. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

My name is terry parker. You know, it rains a lot in Portland as a long life. Portlander. I think there is a better basic design for the lloyd center area than the one presented by the current owners. To start with the former building, former jcpenney and sears building and the former woolworth's building could all be replaced with multi unit housing structures that could be directly connected to the mall, inclusive of lobby doors opening up into the existing concourses with safeway a couple of blocks away as a place to purchase groceries, the inside of the mall itself could remain a gathering space with coffee and snack shops, a nice restaurant or two, a pharmacy, a child care center and or preschool, and possibly activity centers or an arcade. For older kids, the enclosed mall could be catered to the basic daily needs for the residents of new housing and nearby offices. Since the mall would also remain accessible to the general public. Optimistic, optimistically inclusive of direct connection to the new performing arts center at the west end, additional spaces in the mall could be utilized for retail carts and incubators for small businesses. Offices could still be remained on the upper floors. This concept preserves the ice rink, the historical legacy of the lloyd center mall, and presents a style of living where most daily needs can be met within a few dry steps of housing, thereby reducing travel and congestion on city streets. With total demolition of the mall, a ten year plan and the property subdivided, a risk exists whereby individual land blocks could be sold to who knows who or what other developer might want to build on them. Finally, you wouldn't want to run a bulldozer through all of downtown Portland just because of a few empty storefronts and office spaces. Nor would you want to replace pioneer square with a grassy lawn. Thank you.

Thank you.

Tim and angela's online. You can go ahead.

Hello, everybody. I am angela ellerby. She her. I am chair of the board of the northeast coalition of neighborhoods. The northeast coalition of neighborhoods represents 28 neighborhoods and nonprofits. In district two, we have taken a vote and signed a previous appeal of the demolition of lloyd center. Most of the board members have told me the value of the lloyd center as it is now serving as a nucleus for small businesses, providing parking and the wonderful ice rink. Many of us in the new district who have grown up enjoying the mall as it grew and blossomed. Over the years, many other cities have redeveloped malls and creative ways. Some turned them into affordable housing without demolition. The board of the northeast coalition in past years was approached by other developers wanting to build up the area that's now fenced off cinema parking lot. Those developers actually had planned drawings on what they wanted to build and the place of that lot. That was years ago. Yet no development happened in this difficult 2026 economy. It has become increasingly hard for would be developers to find workers and even find materials to build with. Fast forward to today and things that were affordable five years ago are unaffordable. As I was told by a city employee. In short, we oppose the demolition of the mall and the ice rink.

Thank you very much.

Maddie garrison, natalia paramo, leanne weidlich, krista atwood, alex rios, debra, leanne. Calandrella. Slava.

Welcome, folks. Wants to jump in first.

Oh me first. Okay, I'm a leo, so I guess that means I gotta do this. I'm grateful for my chosen family that I've made here in Portland. I'm here.

To introduce yourself for the record. Sorry.

Oh, my name for the record is maddie garrison. I am someone that is a potential occupant of this building. As a someone that wants to start a creative business. And what I've seen in this center is not an abandonment. I've seen community. I've seen people make something out of nothing. I've seen resilience as someone that is a survivor of domestic violence and a mom that was affected by it. I am a creative and a leader in it, in that in that realm of things, I take her same badassery as I fight the good fight, though she could shred and surfing a lot more than me. I can only swim in the ocean. In my 12, 10 to 12 years of being on the ground fighting domestic violence, I almost lost it all to the egos I've had to manage, including my own. I should not be alive. That is actual resistance to the systems at play here. The respect I receive is due to the integrity and accountability I hold myself to. With $0.19 in my bank account on section eight. To quote jalen brunson, the job is not done yet. When you run for mayor, the job starts when you become mayor, not as you're running for mayor. So I plan on announcing my plans for how I would want to use lloyd center for our community and bringing people of the ronald reagan era into a place from surviving to thriving. Thank you for your time. Let's save lloyd center together. Also, respectfully, council president, I'm also bad at numbers, but I'm really elite when it comes to attention to detail.

Thank you. Okay.

All right, all right. Hello, councilors. My name is krista atwood. A year and a half ago, I started a weekly retro mall walking group at the lloyd center mall. Today, 30 to 200 people of all ages and abilities gather to connect, to laugh and move in what has become portland's largest community center. Our group shares the food court each week with chess players, gamers, yo yo masters, crafters, zine makers, fan clubs and community organizations. In a time when third spaces are disappearing, lloyd center provides something increasingly rare. It provides a free, accessible, climate controlled place where people can gather and build real world connections. This creative use of space has drawn national attention. People now visit from across the country and make a joy filled mall walk at the lloyd, a part of their Portland itinerary. They leave inspired by what's happening here and by the possibilities it represents, eager to bring it back home to their own communities. Yet the redevelopment plans before you leave no room for community that exists there, and it eliminates spaces for low barrier indoor gatherings for the ice rink and for the vibrant culture that has emerged. I've been invited to speak in toronto this fall at a major summit of transit leaders, planners and community advocates on what we've built at the lloyd center. People are watching Portland. We can build housing and preserve community. Let's show them what that looks like. I urge you to appeal the approval of the master plan and instead create a path for collaboration, transparency, and innovative compromise. Thank you.

Good afternoon, city council members. My name is alex guerrero rios, and I'm speaking on behalf of the appeal against the lloyd center master plan. While I recognize the need for revitalization new housing in our city, I urge you to reject the total demolition of lloyd center. The lloyd community is so rich and beautiful, full of all walks of life, coming together to skate, socialize, paint, sculpt, create, or just shop around. For decades, this space has been more than just an aging mall. It is a vital community hub, a third space home away from home and a beloved sanctuary not only to me, but to everyone who has stepped foot inside its walls. The indoor ice rink is a rare Portland institution, providing accessible recreation, community connection and a vital safe haven for the youth. Furthermore, with the rising summer temperatures, the mall currently serves as an essential indoor cooling and gathering space for the vulnerable neighbors. Demolishing the entire 20 acre site erases a core piece of our city's cultural history. We need to come together to find solutions. Instead of being in constant conflict. We don't have to choose between housing and our heritage. The city council has the power to hold developers accountable, and all we ask is that you send the master plan back to the drawing board to acquire a compromise, one that builds the necessary housing and parks while preserving and integrating the existing mall structure and its beloved ice rink and motor centers. The body and mind. The lloyd center mall is the heart and soul of the city of Portland, and therefore, it deserves to have a place to coexist and access to the future generation of people, kids and families to come. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to a vibrant, inclusive Portland.

Thank you very much.

And for the record, this is in my 32 years of living here in Portland. This is my first time public speaking. So this is how important this is to me.

Welcome to city hall. Go ahead.

Hi. Thank you council. My name is leanne weidlich. I'm a lifelong Portland resident, business owner and a single mom with a 12 year old creative kid with autism. I have fought through a housing crisis, rising cost of living just to raise my daughter in the city and the community that I grew up in. We specifically found a home in sullivan's gulch, which is walking distance to lloyd center, so my kid could have that sense of place to come of age. This is the only space that I can comfortably let a pre-teen roam on their own and gain that important independence and autonomy. It's the only indoor place that I can take my elderly father just to relax, to socialize, and just to exist in a public space without any monetary expectations. And just to note, this is a cooling shelter. Officially and unofficially, this is where we give notice to people that are in an emergency situation. But for myself, I got home yesterday, my my home was almost 90 degrees. We go to lloyd center every other day. What's happening at lloyd in recent years is inspiring and innovative. It exemplifies the values and the goals of our city's small business community. Groups have flourished. They've built a community that cannot be manufactured. My daughter is an amazing art program right now, currently involved in summer camp. These programs are more accessible, more affordable than any other resource in the community. It's now just gaining national attention from so many creative circles and niche groups. Please keep lloyd center, keep Portland community driven. Keep it a beacon of sustainability, keep it weird and keep Portland.

Thank you very much.

Welcome city council members. My name is siddharth sashikumar or ced for short, and I am testifying as an informal representative of portland's democratic socialists of America chapter, as well as Oregon state university's ydsa chapter. I want to speak on the matter from both my own perspective, as well as that of fellow civically minded working class students, despite being corvallis, because I think that true advocacy and activism is worth braving the commute as a dual pre-med and pre-law graduate student who commutes to Portland regularly to link up with family in bethany and to seek out job opportunities as a potential medical assistant, I rely on the lloyd center constantly just to study, purchase books and de-stress. To me and many of my peers, it is a vital workspace for climate and public health research and a rather better insulated place where adolescents and young adults like myself can foster small communities and congregate that are price tag being attached. Coming from a college student distrust me. It's really hard to come by these kind of places, to put it simply, to say that demolishing one point 2,000,000ft■!s of viable retail infrastructure is an active environmental violence and will destroy local morale, construction and demolition waste accounts for a staggering portion of municipal solid waste streams under Oregon statewide planning goal six, the city is legally obligated to maintain air, water and land and land resource quality, erasing the embodied carbon of this massive concrete structure, only to truck it to landfill and rebuild it from scratch directly contradicts portland's own climate. Emergency declaration is ecological malpractice as being masqueraded as progress. Several others have already pointed this out by now, but as an appellant, I contend that the design commission's intended plan violates Portland city code title 33, specifically, the central city master plan criteria regarding infrastructure capacity and neighborhood economic continuity. You cannot claim to support local culture while rubber stamping displacement of the city's working class, many of whom take the time to speak to you just today and yesterday. I urge the council to uphold this appeal, reject the current master plan and send it back for exhaustive review that prioritizes adaptive.

Sorry. Thank you very much.

Albert. Albert kaufman, rebecca morin, ali. Fakhry. Noel. Muzzy. Baz. Eppley. Janelle. Collier.

Welcome.

Thank you. My name is barry eppley. Good afternoon council. I'm here today as a district two voter in irvington. Neighbor, I'd like to present some context on the real estate market. In my testimony today, kkr and erg's master plan implies that the redevelopment of the lloyd center is in progress. But this is simply not true. The master plan is speculative fiction. Neither you are nor kkr has any plan to redevelop lloyd. The master plan to them is the next step to demolition and selling the lots. Unfortunately, no one wants them. Kkr and erg have not disclosed buyers or even potentially interested parties. There's evidence of low interest in already available Portland land, including vacant lots and low income housing in the lloyd district. Erg bought a downtown building for nearly $10 million in 2018, and in 2023 it was auctioned for bankruptcy and no one showed up to buy it. The lloyd cinemas parking lot, a five acre site, is approved for 20 story towers. Over ten years ago, the california developer promised, quote, the most magnificent mixed use development in Portland, end quote. With 1000 residential units in 2019, the lender foreclosed for nonpayment and no buyer has stepped forward for seven years. A low income affordable housing tower blocks from lloyd center, managed by home forward, has one of the highest vacancy rates in their portfolio. Kkr and erg have acted in bad faith. They are not phasing development and don't meaningfully engage with the community. Please send this back. Don't spend your political capital and tarnish your legacy for out of state and out of touch financial interests. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm janelle collier and I have lived in irvington since 1981, and I started going to the lloyd center pretty quickly to find things to do with my five year old daughter. And I'm here to ask you why you would demolish a perfectly good space that was recently remodeled. Your policies are clear that existing existing buildings should be reused and restored when feasible, and the lloyd center is more than just feasible. It has become a place of community and goodwill. For example, there's a magic store where you can watch magicians, a lego store that has free summer camps for underprivileged children, a comic store where you can browse to your heart's content and chat with the owner. A game store where you can sit and play the games, as well as buy them an ice rink where you can take your children and then your grandchildren for a fun afternoon. And I'm sure that there is more that I don't know about. And you can buy a big box of caramel corn as you leave to enjoy at home. You can do all this in a comfortable setting, no matter what the weather and in a safe environment. The historic lloyd center is still loved and enjoyed from the young. Like my 20 year old grandson and his friends to the very old, like my 100 year old church friend. Just ask the over 10,000 people who signed our petition or sent in written testimony, or those of us who have taken the time to come in with oral testimony. The community you have heard from are trusting you to do the right thing. Please do not sit back with fond memories of the past, but instead help us to move forward with a new vision for the future. Please help us save the lloyd.

Thank you very much for being here. In the chamber. If I could please ask. We could revert more to jazz hands or whatever. Less. Less. Less clapping. Thank you.

Hello. My name is noelle muzzy. I'm an environmental scientist and a district two resident. And today I'd like to ask the council to send back the current master plan to me. I personally oppose erg's plan because I think it's a very clear environmental injustice. We have a community space that has been slowly being rebuilt by community organizations and several small business owners who have clearly established some amazing things in the lloyd center. However, they are losing all of that because some investment group has decided that it's not making them enough money anymore. So by appealing it, you will not only be helping all of those constituents and helping build a better space where these small business owners can start making more profits and a space that serves many, many more constituents than just this investment group. But it's also in line with your own criteria and design criteria. Specifically, if you look at policy one, I believe. Let me look up the numbers again. Policy 1ld1, policy one l, d two, and a two, which are referring to housing, employment, innovation and economy in Portland. Character. If I have my notes correctly, but this lloyd center Portland is a scrappy artistic city. And so having this renovated mall that is full of small businesses and people who have found ways to make their side hustles turn them a profit, is something that your constituents will appreciate much more than some empty lot that will eventually turn into whoever buys it next. So, you know, a shake shack, a like a chili's, like someone with a lot of money who's going to buy those instead of your own local constituents in their businesses. Thank you for your time today, councilors.

Thank you very much, aly.

You can go ahead online.

Hello. Yeah, my name is ali. I'm a small business owner. I'm a lloyd center tenant. I'm a single father who has been struggling, especially since that information was spreaded about destroying the lloyd center. I mean, as a tenant in that mall, you know, a lot of things are wrong because, like, you see customers come, they're like, oh, we heard that, you know, the mall was already closed. I've been hearing this like for the past three years. So it's not motivating. So, you know, like, I know that we are very close to the doubletree hotel, the convention center, you know, and the moda center. All those places do bring a lot of people conventioneers, you know, not just locally or regionally. I've met people coming like from all over the world just for the day they stop today in Portland, tomorrow they're going elsewhere. So all, most of the time they lodge in that radius. So like they don't drive, you know, like, and then they just want to come to the mall, buy something and leave. Those are potential buyers, not like just window shoppers, but lately they come, they cannot find anything because almost everybody is gone. Please, counselors, try to do something for this mall because this is our mall. That's what we have. I mean, like, we are not looking for making like billions. For myself, I'm just trying to make a deal that will allow me to keep going on a daily basis, to allow my son to be able to pursue his soccer dream, my daughter to be able to pursue her acrobatic dreams. Please. You know, like us, that other nookie carney said it.

Thank you very much for being here today.

The actual history.

Thank you very much. Thanks for. Thanks for your testimony.

Stephanie winningham. Lisa, could I, kai kaufman, amy bennett, but graves, grace mason and melanie reyes. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Thank you.

My name is stephanie winningham, a resident of Vancouver, Washington. At the age of 30, I stepped onto the ice as a figure skater for the first time in just two and a half years. I am now preparing to compete at the us national showcase this August. I think you've heard and seen so much about what makes the ice skating community so extraordinary, and how it sets an example of what a community should be. Yet it is still something even more fierce to behold in person. But I want to remind you that this is not just a niche community of skaters and parents. Everyone starts as a public recreational skater. This is not. This is for all of Portland, an invaluable piece of infrastructure. Lloyd centers learn to skate program is the second largest in the pacific northwest, only surpassed by the nhl kraken program and is made up of approximately 80 to 90% women and girls and is still very male dominated world where city planners are turning to more gender inclusive urban planning. The loss of the ice rink will disproportionately affect women and girls. We are not against affordable housing. We are not against redevelopment. We want our community and communities like ours that make Portland the amazing place that drew my family to the pacific northwest and draws my family to cross the river 6 to 8 times a week. We want to be considered in the developmental process. Please help to retain, replace, or relocate our incredible Portland ice community. Don't just preserve a place to skate. Preserve a place where future generations will discover community, confidence and belonging just as I did.

I request more time. My name is amy bennett. I live in district four. I moved to Portland in 2011. Your names are on this project. Whether you give the city a 29 acre, three story, multi million dollar ecological superfund site and disaster that you and we taxpayers will have to pay for. Or you let ice skaters keep skating. You give us our beautiful mall. You let us keep our businesses, our families, our incomes, our homes. Before you allow kkr and you. Rg if I've said that wrong, you I mean urban renaissance group to do anything, especially demolish and claim a tax credit for this quarter. I want you to audit them financially. Have some accountants and some stockbrokers take a look at this company and their reputation. You need to reappraise with a real estate appraiser, the lloyd center, prior to demolition to see just exactly what are they destroying and just exactly how much are they trying to claim for this quarter as a tax write off? And then they will rent off the building and sell it. Lloyd center is the only district in Portland that has recovered since COVID. It could be a macy's hotel boutique. Amazing renovated rooms decorated by artists. Meow wolf type space right next to hotels. It could be an international artist, collective and destination. Point ross could be a two story concert venue for small concerts like the cellar door in dc. The blue note. It could be cocktail bars after hours, it could be a night space as well. For 21 and up people. It could be senior adaptive living on one layer and right below that, it could be inclusive community housing for adults with disabilities who are now outside the city center. I would love to see beautiful things. It's the only place.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your testimony today.

Thank you.

Thank you. I don't know what you thought till it's gone. Thank you. Put up a parking lot. Thank you. You don't know what it's got till it's gone.

Nope. Sorry. Thank you.

Give them a tax write off.

Thank you.

I'm allowed to go over time without being.

Lisa is online. You can go ahead.

Why do I need to do. But why? But what reason for the rules? What reasons are the rules? I think in the first. What reasons are the rules? Do I need to go?

Hi, lisa. You can go ahead.

Okay. Can you hear me? Okay.

We can.

All right. Hi. Hi. My name is lisa. I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. When I was 24, I moved to troutdale for my first job. However, one year later I moved to northeast Portland. I wanted to be closer to the lloyd center, which is saying a lot because I'm not a mall person. I wanted to be closer to there, specifically the ice rink. I was there when northern skate and I skated almost every day. City of Portland has a great sort of policies and goals that make this a wonderful place to live. It's got distinctive urban places, open space and recreation, and its identity and center space. The ice rink contributes directly to all these goals as well as the lloyd center. What better place to recreate, what better place to socialize than with established 65 year old community? And let's not forget the history that contribute to identity and sense of space. The ice rink may not be a profitable business or lots of money, but it is an important community resource, much like a community pool or rec center. The ice rink is what drew me in northeast Portland, and I'm sure it has on others. I was shocked when no rink was included in the master plan. Our ask is that approval of this plan be contingent on saving the core of the mall with the ice rink or rebuilding the rink. I ask, is there really nothing the city can do with the private property when so many have spoken their support for this historic building and the historic ice rink? This is saying a lot. I don't usually speak for. This is my very first civic matter. It means that much to me. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you very much.

Grace mason. You can go ahead online.

Oh, sorry. I'm trying to figure this out. Here we go. Okay. Sorry. I'm kind of shaking. It doesn't show where the time is on my thing.

It hasn't started yet.

Okay. Sorry, I can't see a timer anywhere. Okay. Good afternoon, council members. My name is grace. I'm a Portland native, a mother and a former foster youth who aged out of the system directly into homelessness. Someone earlier noted in the council that nobody went over to lloyd center after the hearing. But the truth is, is that my family and my community doesn't need a special trip. We live it every single day, and I strongly oppose the destructive master plan. As a kid, my grandmother and I would share a cinnabon treat right after the orthodontist checkups there on the third floor. Later, when I was unhoused because I aged out of foster care, that transit hub was my physical lifeline. Every day I'd walk through macy's, spray a little perfume to keep appearances up before going into my job over at wilson's leather. That mall helped me hold on to the dignity of what little dignity I had left because of the system, the systemic circumstances completely out of my control. Today, I see more unhoused youth on our streets than ever before. Lloyd center was designated, was designed in 1960 as a city within a city so that everything could be within walking distance. But developers say that renovation when sorry, when they really mean renovation, when they really mean gentrification, it will only push out the space built for all walks of life. As price out exposes in the expensive developments just displaced families. That film featured nicky william of fierce sorry, I was getting a call. A fierce advocate we lost recently and her daughter, bree williams, is my friend in running for Multnomah county commissioner for district two to fight that exact displacement. I'm last paragraph. I'm sorry. Looking at Washington square and Clackamas town center, those suburban malls are thriving. Why do wealthy neighborhoods keep up their hubs while our inner space city is demolished? We're surrounded by the moda center convention and other places and travelers from all over the world lodge in this exact radius and want a place to walk.

Thank you so much for being here today, grace. Sorry.

Natalia.

Natalia is deaf and her?

That's time for grace. Natalia, you can go ahead. Hi natalia, you can unmute. You're good to go.

Good afternoon. Can you guys hear me? Okay.

We can.

My name is natalia, and I'm here today to urge you to grant this appeal and deny approval of the lloyd center master plan. This application is not a plan for development. It's the process of the financialization of real estate playing out in real time, treating 27 acres of our city not as a community anchor, but as a short term asset to be maximized for investor exit value. Once this master plan is rubber stamped, urban renaissance group will take its speculative profits and bail. This model stands in direct, aggressive conflict with policy two ld, three of the central city plan community building, which mandates that development must foster a vibrant public realm that strengthens community identity. To see what that actually looks like, you can take a look at my daughter who says, mommy, can we go to lloyd center almost every day? And it's not just the toy store that she's after. What she's really asking for is to be around the people. It's the community gathered around that historic rink, the window shopping, seeing people who are not like her. This is probably the last place in Portland. That's a true third space, where people of all backgrounds naturally cross paths and malls across America prove that you don't need a wrecking ball to modernize their being revitalized into vibrant, vibrant civic hubs through cultural pop ups and creative market activations. And we have the opportunity for lloyd center to be the bones of that example. We can see what's going to happen here. We can practically see the gravel lot and the weeds growing. Why does our city's review process even exist, if not to enforce our standards against exactly this type of speculation, please hold this applicant true to the intent of our land use laws and deny this master plan.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Pause one second. We have the chambers have gotten muted. Thank you. We're unmuted. You can go ahead next. But graves.

Looks like you are still on mute.

You're still muted unmuted. Now we can hear you.

Okay. Wonderful. Good afternoon, city council. My name is brad graves. I'm a born and raised Portland stakeholder artist, business owner and displaced native resident of 30 plus years. I am here in absolute opposition to the optional demolition framework under case file lu25-091308ccmsad. We do not require more speculative, high density residential clearcuts. While native portlanders are actively displaced by this very type of gentrifying development, look directly across the street at the failing theater parking lot. We cannot submit this city to further economic liability by gambling on premature demolition before a concept is finalized, funded, and legally tied down. Instead, Portland must optimize a preexisting turnkey infrastructure to capture the regional market. As seattle's international district faces instability, we can conflate. To preserve the structural integrity of interior lot grids. 902 through 996 hosting our iconic ice rink to host a vibrant indoor international cultural hub, centering the asset by utilizing targeted preservation marketing to actively promote this existing third space as mandated by code. Conversely, the city's desired open air transit and bicycle networks can be strictly isolated along the underutilized Multnomah corridor while maintaining the ninth and halsey structures as mandatory parking infrastructure to comply implicitly, explicitly, with the central city to 35 plan, you must mandate a binding preservation addendum protecting our legacy cultural pinnacles anchors like the historic ice rink and its ten k addendum signatures, joe's brown century-old Portland grown legacy lloyd houses and 30 plus active businesses communities in the Portland interactive conservation group that actively prove complying independent revenue right now. Support your constituents, our culture, portland's culture and diverse presence. Preservation.

Thank you.

Thank thank you very much for being here today.

Kai kaufman. Kai, you can unmute. Go ahead.

Hi there. I ready to go.

Ready to go.

Okay. Hi, my name is kai grant and I'm a socially engaged artist and founder of planet lloyd, a free community newspaper written by lloyd mall fans across the city. I've produced over ten participatory art projects at lloyd and can safely say there's no other place in the city or even the world that unites local human rights groups, social clubs, children's play spaces, art programs and art galleries, music schools, resources for trans people, bipoc communities, the unhoused and people with disabilities under one roof. This is what I lovingly call the people's lloyd and the people's. Lloyd is a living emblem of Portland themes, as per guideline, a two set forth in the plan criteria. What you're hearing in these testimonies is the very certain magic that happens when citizens gather and mingle in indoor public space. Chance encounters, cross-cultural connection, the chance to be seen and understood. And like you heard from many of the ice skaters, unexpected discoveries that can change the course of your life. The magic I'm talking about those Portland themes doesn't happen in soulless corporate plans from out of town developers council. You have the genius of thousands of artists, visionaries, and cultural workers right here in Portland at your fingertips. Please reevaluate this plan and ask us what we see in lloyd center, because we are those Portland themes, and we are the people who never got asked. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

That concludes appellant testimony.

Okay. We are now moving into the presentation from the applicant, I believe. Welcoming I believe, welcoming alison rouse, tom kilbourne, nolan lenhart and christy white.

Yeah. Good timing.

While the applicants are getting set up, I want to note for the record that the two appellant presentations went over time by 49 seconds. So we've added that to the applicant's time. So they have a total on the timer of 30 minutes 49 seconds.

Thank you very much. Welcome.

Thank you. Are we ready?

Yeah. Take it away.

Council president Dunphy, members of council. Good afternoon. My name is tom kilbourne. I'm with urban renaissance group, and we are leading the master planning effort and the redevelopment of the lloyd center mall site. We started our firm in 2006. Over the past 20 years, we have led the redevelopment or construction of a dozen office buildings in one apartment building in the city of Portland. The total investment that we and our partners have made during that time is more than $400 million. These investments have created thousands of jobs in Portland for construction workers, architects, and countless other contractors and service providers, and have also created workspaces for some of portland's leading companies. We're here today because we believe in Portland and its future. The lloyd center master plan, unanimously approved by the Portland design commission, is an expression of our belief and confidence in Portland. It represents a new beginning for the surrounding neighborhood and will be a catalyst for the revitalization revitalization of the city. This is an opportunity to replace an outdated, soon to be empty mall designed for a different era with a vibrant, mixed use neighborhood of needed housing, retail, public spaces, and live music. This plan reflects years of work and input from lloyd center, neighbors and community groups, and thousands of hours of work by professional planners, designers and city staff all committed to building something that is special for portland's future at a time when it's needed most, Portland needs more housing of all types. This plan will deliver thousands of affordable and market rate units. The lloyd neighborhood needs more active storefronts and pedestrian friendly gathering spaces. Our vision creates. Both portlanders are asking for more public open spaces. This plan creates six acres of new parks, plazas, walkways and areas for seasonal activities like farmers markets and outdoor skating. Portland needs more venues to showcase local and national artists. Construction is already underway on a new premier live music venue. Much needed housing, more retail, new public spaces and a stronger cultural economy together will create jobs and will strengthen the local economy and tax base that supports essential city services. Using very conservative assumptions about the pace of development, the low end of the estimate for economic activity that this project will bring to Portland is over $6 billion, and that's $6 billion in economic activity will translate into much needed tax revenue for the city of Portland. But before we can turn thoughtful planning into action and capture this economic activity, council must decide whether to trust the unanimous decision of the design commission or to second guess it. I urge you to reject both appeals to the master plan and endorse the integrity of the city land use process, a process that we have faithfully and voluntarily followed. A decision to reverse or amend the lloyd center master plan will be watched by many and will not change the economics of the mall, or whether it closes on August 8th. Therefore, the choice before you is this move forward now with a well considered plan that transforms an empty shopping mall into a vibrant new neighborhood, or create uncertainty and delay in an already lengthy planning process that will only make it more difficult to attract new investment into this project and into Portland. Because it's on everyone's mind and it's why we're here today. I want to speak directly to the matter of the ice rink. It is clear from the heartfelt testimony that we've heard over the last two days that the rink is a beloved feature of the mall. It's brought joy and memories to many, and it will be missed. But I want to set the record straight. We have been clear that preserving the existing ice rink was never part of our plan. Our master plan was made public in may of 2023. Are you able to? I'm asking nolan to put up the slide from. From ben's presentation. The plan was presented twice in two separate public dars, and that plan made it clear that the mall would be demolished. A key feature of our open space plan, the 12th avenue promenade runs right through the middle of the site, directly through the rink. So the suggestion that we somehow hid the fact that the rink would remain is false. It has been clear for more than three years. We have, from the beginning, envisioned ice skating as a potential use in the redevelopment. The plan can accommodate seasonal ice skating, but as we have heard from the appellants that they want year round public ice, the master plan allows for the development of a permanent indoor ice rink. A skating rink is an allowed use, just as an office building or an apartment building would be, and should a public or private entity come forward with a business plan to build and operate a new ice rink within the lloyd center neighborhood, we would welcome it. To be clear, the land use process cannot be used to mandate a new permanent ice rink be built in the lloyd center property, any more than it can be used to require a specific restaurant or a store to be built. A master plan is a vision that allows for a variety of uses, not a block by block mandate of specific buildings or stores. For the past five years, through some of portland's most challenging times, we have been proud to be the stewards of lloyd center. We have welcomed small businesses and organizations into the mall and supported them with discounted rents, with community events and enhanced security to help them succeed. And we're working closely with prosper's office of small business and the lloyd enhanced service district to help them find new homes. When the mall closes. In closing, I want to repeat, we are here because we believe in the future of this city, together with our east side neighbors like amc and albina vision trust. We want to help lead portland's comeback. We urge you to end delays, endorse the unanimous decision of the design commission, and embrace an exciting vision for portland's next great neighborhood. Thank you.

Thanks, tom.

My name is nolan lenhart. I'm director of planning and urban design for zgf architects. I've been working with a group of architects, planners, landscape architects, helping to lead the team to create the master plan over the last four years. But my the role of lloyd center in my life goes back as far as I can remember. I grew up about a mile north of here, and this was this place where my family went for shopping. It's where I had my first job. It's where I rode past on the number eight bus to middle school and high school. And I'm fortunate to be raising my family about a mile and a half north of here now. And so I still ride past on the number eight bus, but now with a lot of hope for the master plan that we've been working on. What is not changed between the peak of this mall's performance and its role today is that it is about 18 Portland city blocks, all combined into one mass that really separates the neighborhoods of sullivan's gulch and irvington from the lloyd district and the rest of the central city, severing what could be direct walking routes to the light rail station and holiday park, which is the largest park in the central city after waterfront park. And so as we began to think about the ways that the master plan could respond to the criteria in Portland zoning code, a big piece was breaking down that scale and returning walkability and orienting the future development toward Multnomah as the civic boulevard, as it's designated in the transportation system plan and toward holiday parks. Since there's such a high value in the design guidelines towards orienting to open space, we also knew that as we reconnect the grid and reconnect the walkability, there was an opportunity to bring open space through with the 20% open space that comes along with this voluntary central city master plan. There were a few comments yesterday thinking about this as a crown jewel of portland's livability. And you know, the photos here are just a taste of the ways in which I just don't think that makes any sense. This is not waterfront park. This is harbor drive. It's a relic of an era where cities were trying to privatize. They were trying to suburbanize. They were trying to be friendly to folks that would drive to a location and then stay at the center of a mall, and it turns its back on the surrounding neighborhoods. It turns its back on Multnomah, and it turns its back on holiday park. Our job was to flip that and make it a real. And frankly, the design guidelines that the city has created for the central city and the sub district are focused on the public realm. And what's inside of this building is as wonderful as parts of it are are private. They are closed after 7 p.m. And they can be they can exclude people if they want to. And what we're really creating is public realm. So I just want to take a moment to talk. You got a great briefing yesterday about what's in the plan, but in terms of the philosophy of creating it, we often produce a rendering like this that has, you know, Green dots for trees and, you know, some some water indicated here. This is necessary for people to kind of understand what it might feel like to be in a district like this. But fundamentally, the central city master plan is a little simpler like this. Somebody called it boring. And sometimes it is because it's really identifying what portions of this site are going to be buildings, what portions are going to be streets, what parts are going to be open spaces, and then how does the scale and relationship of those things to one another have an opportunity to create place? As you can see, there's not a whole bunch of detail about this is housing, this is a hotel, things like that. It really is what we call an urban design framework. We then break that framework down into layers. And so this is the street plan, which identifies when the dark blue, what we call the goalpost of new public streets connecting the old public streets that currently dead end into the site, 11th and 13th to the south, 10th and 14th to the north. So we're connecting all of the public streets that currently dead into the site to one another. So you will be able to move through through the site. We're also creating a system of secondary streets 15th, which connects to an existing signal, and then Clackamas, which would extend the the city's future desire to extend the Green loop. We have a system of open spaces that complement the very large holiday park open space, and then invite people to move through the site with all of our development sites really looking out onto open spaces, we've identified six so that they can all do slightly different jobs. And then we render those. Not to say that this is exactly how it's going to be designed. All of these buildings, all of these open spaces, are individual projects that would come through design commission and have their own design review. Once we know exactly what those projects are going to be. But it helps for us to illustrate how the scale and intention that we've assigned, the responsibility that we've assigned to all of these sites will contribute to a broader role and the ways that they contribute to the city's goals. And so I mentioned Clackamas is intended to take a neighborhood greenway, not the Green loop. 12th is also a pedestrian street between weidler and broadway. We want to continue to extend that, as used to be the case in the lloyd center 12th. You could go over the bridge and then through macy's, and before that it was meier and frank and so on to to holiday park and then to the light rail station. And so we've thought about what is that interface between the development and Clackamas and the large open space of the commons? And then what might be the ability to walk straight from irvington through this site to holiday park, which you can see in the distance of this visualization? We also assign roles and responsibilities to the building sites. And so the zoning is reflective of the heights. And for that, we were given by the city in the zoning code. And it's these boxes don't represent the shape

Type of buildings. They represent the limits. And so just as you can see in some of the surrounding areas to the south and to the west, the buildings fit within those glass boxes. But we're really talking about a high level of design framework and, and, and then we assign responsibilities in terms of orientation. And so this diagram is simply showing the ways in which the development and the district need to activate Multnomah as the civic boulevard of the lloyd center to orient toward the park and to put entrances around open spaces and consolidate the parking and loading entrances. So in the end, we have a beautiful rendering like this. This is what we hope it'll grow into. It will be the product of future developers, future architects, future landscape architects. But ultimately, we believe that the central city master plan that we've created provides the framework for this, and we're really proud of it, and we hope you'll agree. Thank you.

Thank you. My name is.

Christy white. I'm legal counsel for the applicant. And I'm got the role of responding to the legal appeal arguments. The appellants lawyer argues that the design guidelines require the city council to mandate preservation of the mall and the ice rink. That argument, under the law is unequivocally wrong. The approval criteria are found in 335, ten, 255 h. Subsection h requires findings that the plan is consistent with the lloyd district design guidelines and complies with the central city guidelines. There are at least six reasons why these guidelines cannot be used to apply to this case and force retention of the rink or the mall. First, there is not a single goal or policy in the design guidelines that even mentions an ice rink, much less requires preservation of an ice rink or the mall. Not a single one. Second, the appellants preferred interpretation of the guidelines is legally impermissible. Nobody has cited these provisions of the design guidelines, but I'll do it for you. Now. The lloyd design guidelines are crystal clear, and I quote from them directly. Quote, the district guidelines are meant to state broad design objectives and shall not shall not be construed as prescriptive standards. This means that the city cannot and must not apply the guidelines to prescribe a particular use. The central city design guidelines. Repeat this same conclusion, and I'm going to quote again. For this reason. Design guidelines are qualitative statements. It is not the city's intent to prescribe any specific design solution through the design guidelines, end quote. Appellants are asking the city council to do the very thing that the adopted guidelines expressly prohibit, and that is to apply them in a manner that mandates a specific use, an ice rink or retention of the mall. The appeal should be summarily rejected on those grounds alone. But there is more. Third in another final master plan land use decision, the city rejected these very same arguments under the very same approval criteria. That decision was the river place central city master plan. There, the opponents argued that the council was authorized to and must dictate particular uses under the design guidelines, or the cmp could not be approved under these same approval criteria h1 and h2. The city council responded definitively. Quote, council finds that the master plan process and approval criteria do not imply or express any intention to identify specific uses and their location other than open space or require specific allocations of square footage to particular uses and do not require specific building design. The master plan process does not require the applicant to identify what specific active uses will operate in the master plan area, end quote. And in that case, the guidelines specifically mentioned a grocery store as a desired element. Under those guidelines, the council continued, quote, in a related argument, the opponents contend that the subdistrict goals create mandatory obligations to develop a specific feature use, or element that's described in the policy. They're a grocery store. Council rejects the opponents interpretation. The goals and policies are not mandatory restrictions and are not applied on a site by site basis. Council then concluded that the problem with the argument is that they first prefer that the guidelines create these mandatory or specific uses, and then, quote, based on that mischaracterization. The appellants argue that because council didn't require a specific use, like a grocery store or a public private partnership with PSU, that the city is not making the required finding. Neither is correct, end quote. The opponents here are making the same argument on even more tenuous language here. No guideline identifies a specific use, like in river place, which specifically called out a grocery store instead. All our guidelines are broad objectives. None contain any reference to an ice rink, and none authorize the city to mandate a particular use. That is, the well-settled law. Guidelines are broad design objectives can't be interpreted to dictate a particular use, like an ice rink or a grocery store. Fourth, the design commission did not quote fake its way through the findings. As the appellant lawyer suggests. Please take the time to review the extraordinary work and effort that is reflected in the master plan submittal and the extensive findings of the design commission. Specifically, that's at exhibit h nine. It's a 17 page matrix that reviews each guideline under h1 and h2 offers factual, legal and design analysis that demonstrates compliance with each criteria. The city and the applicant carried their burden of proof. To reverse this careful study, the appellants have offered no contrary findings, only preferred conclusions and preferred uses with no foundation in the code, and to reverse the design commission's serious findings, this council would have to make an equally serious and lengthy effort to draft comprehensive findings, reversing both the unanimous design commission and prior city council findings on the same approval criteria. Under other master plans, those findings would have to rely on a complete disregard for the very code language that prohibits appellants preferred result. Fifth, the practical implications of this appeal illustrate why the code doesn't allow the city to dictate particular uses through a master plan. Appellants want the city to require us to build a public ice rink. As a condition of unlocking this multiphase 27 acre housing, jobs and open space development. In addition to the constitutional takings issues that presents. Imagine the result. If the city granted that request, it would be putting itself in at least the role of landlord and maybe purchaser of the site. Would the city dictate the purchase price, the lease rate of the private property? Would it decide when the rink must be built, how big it is, who must build it, how much parking must be provided, and what happens if the operator defaults? The zoning code doesn't confer confer that authority on the city under any applicable criteria, and the city should not permit any party to use the zoning code or an appeal to demand property from another for its own preferred use. Sixth, there is good news. And here I want to respond to the public testimony of the ice skaters and their families, which was genuine and important. There's no question about that. There is nothing about this master plan approval that would prohibit or preclude an ice rink. The city regulates land use by establishing zones for each property within that zone. The city establishes broad use categories, and under those use categories, a list of permitted uses. An ice rink would be an entertainment related retail sales and service use, which is allowed outright in this master plan and in the zone. In fact, the block sizes in this master plan are larger than most block sizes and would accommodate a full size ice rink. Despite this appeal, and I want to be sure this is on the record, the applicant will entertain all tenant interests in this redevelopment, including an ice rink, as it realizes the vision and promise of this important master plan. But there is a line that can't be crossed. We can't be required to sell or lease property to the appellant, or be required to build a rink through this land. Use approval. We are subject to the regulations that were in effect when we submitted this application. There was no regulation that required us to build an ice rink. There was a regulation that required us to dedicate six acres, six city blocks of our private property for public use in the form of parks and open space. I want to turn now to the arguments related to demolition. There seems to be some confusion about this. The cmp is not a demolition permit. Therefore, any arguments regarding demolition are not legally relevant in this proceeding. In other words, this may sound harsh, but we are permitted to demolish this mall with or without the cmp. No design guideline applies to demolition. Not a single design guideline is a legally permitted approval criteria for a demolition permit. Instead, the city regulates demolition under title 24 as part of the building regulations there. The city specifically lists the objective standards for demolition. Those include a demolition plan, protection of utilities, erosion control, site safety both before and after demolition. These are the same demolition standards that applied to the city's own central city master plan at the post office. The city has safely implemented these standards for buildings across the city, and lloyd mall will be no exception. The city does have special regulations for particular kinds of resources in town, including designated historic resources and residential uses. Lloyd mall is not a designated historic resource and unfortunately now has no residential uses, so those rules would not apply if the appellants are asking the city council to force a property owner like the applicant here to keep a failing commercial mall open at continual and significant economic loss in order to secure their tenancies. That argument is fatally flawed, also for several reasons. First, as we've said, there's no approval criteria that would authorize you to do that. But forcing them all to remain open or requiring an ice rink would constitute a taking of private property for here private purposes, which are supposed to be public purposes. It does it for two reasons. One, there's an exemption analysis, the dolan line of cases, which says you have to both prove that a condition of approval is directly related to an applicable approval standard, which we don't have here, and that once you find that nexus, that reasonable relationship, you have to demonstrate that what you're asking of us is proportionate to our impact on the public. Here, what we have is a significant amount of resources going to public infrastructure and again, six acres of open space, because that's what the city council has declared as the public objective. Under your cmp approval criteria. In closing, this cmp is voluntary. In 2018, the city mapped these areas within the central city that would be required to go through this process. It mapped six areas. Lloyd center is not one of those areas. That means this applicant made this significant investment to engage in this process voluntarily. Why would anyone do that and spend these kinds of resources? Well, why did they do it? We debated it, and the decision was to go for it as a partner of the city and to provide a long term vision for this site, which includes a master public infrastructure plan, which then allows the city to understand the phasing and financing of public infrastructure to be financed by the applicant, an open space plan that delivers six city blocks of open space. Importantly, the applicant could just submit a subdivision plan, break up all these blocks, create some parks if they wanted to, and would not have to comply with the cmp approval process, and would also not have to apply or provide one acre of park and urban design. Vision comes with the plan that establishes this new framework, like nolan was telling you about for partial development and how these parcels interact with both the parcels within the master plan and outside, and then a comprehensive ped bike and vehicular circulation plan that fulfills the city's objectives for multimodal access. To respond to this significant voluntary investment with an appeal is very regrettable, but to uphold such an appeal would have a far worse impact on the city's present and future economic development efforts, particularly here, where we didn't have to do it and we meet and exceed the approval criteria in some. The appeals asked the city council to preserve the ice rink and retain them all. The code simply doesn't provide the authority to do either, but the cmp and the zoning allow an ice rink in this master plan area and on this site, and on many similarly zoned sites throughout the city and metro area, we request that you deny this appeal and join us in celebrating this profoundly important investment in our city. Thank you. And we're happy to take any and all of your questions.

Thank you very much. Before we dive into questions and then move into testimony, I'm going to give us a restroom break. So it is currently 335, folks. So please be back at 345 and we will get into the queue from there. Thank you. And we're back. Thank you, everybody for your patience as we acknowledge the fact that we are all human beings. We are now at the point where just verifying. Is that the conclusion of your full presentation?

It is.

Okay. So we are going to take technical clarifying questions after public testimony. So thank you all very much for the presentation. And we're going to move now swiftly into public testimony. Thank you for the applicant.

Okay.

Our first testifier is craig stroud.

Council president, members of the Portland city council. For the record, my name is craig stroud. I'm metro's general manager of visitor venues. I'm here today on behalf of metro to express our support for the lloyd center redevelopment plan. This proposal addresses several major challenges. Portland and our regional partners are working to solve metro support centers on two areas. The first is housing and the second is is the success of our venue districts, including lloyd and the convention center. On the housing front, we are in a housing crisis and we need more housing, housing that people of all incomes can afford. We need dense housing, near transit jobs and Green spaces, walkable, bikeable neighborhoods where people want to live to build quickly. We need sites like this one already connected to infrastructure and ready for redevelopment through metro's state mandated housing production strategy, we've aligned around a simple principle when a project follows the rules and receives the required approvals, it should be allowed to move forward. That expectation applies across the region, including here in the central city. On the venue support front, the lloyd district has long been a key destination, but it has struggled to remain vibrant. Each year, more than 2 million people visit the Oregon convention center and the moda center, yet we consistently hear from visitors that there are limited nearby options, especially in the evening. Redevelopment of the lloyd center represents a major opportunity to bring activity, amenities and energy back to this district. We also recognize the importance of the ice rink as a community asset. Metro is continuing to explore long term possibilities in this front, though we do not currently have funding identified. In closing, metro is deeply invested in the success of the lloyd district as a neighbor, as a venues operator and as a partner in advancing housing. We urge the council to follow your established process and uphold the lloyd center redevelopment plan. Thank you for your time.

Thank you craig.

Okay, next up, we have thomas lauderdale, fisher, jamison, joel bravo, and bill scott. Thomas is online. You can unmute. Go ahead.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Oh, amazing. Okay. Hi, I'm thomas lauderdale. I have the band pink martini for the last 32 years. I'm live in downtown Portland. In 1982, my family moved here. I lived at 12th in tillamook, three blocks north of lloyd center, and my parents currently live at holiday park plaza. So here's an opportunity to replace a failing empty property 30 acres in all, with a dense neighborhood that brings people, housing, businesses, and energy back to the inner city. 5100 housing units, a mix of both affordable and market rate housing will be built. Storefronts, restaurants, offices, six acres of courtyards, plazas and a 2.3 acre central urban park. Monkey presents is currently building a 4000 seat music venue where nordstrom used to be. The current stewards voluntarily gave many local small businesses hugely reduced rents during the last couple of years. This is a very generous, temporary opportunity and everybody understood that. But now, instead of being thankful, a few of these businesses now feel entitled and have the nerve to expect to be permanently subsidized. It's unbelievable. In regards to the ice rink, I too have a great amount of nostalgia for its past glory, but nostalgia doesn't pay the bills. A year round ice rink would have to be run either by the city of Portland or private entity. The city of Portland owns an ice rink 20 blocks away at the veterans memorial coliseum, which it chooses not to open to the public because it's too expensive. The city won't open its own ice rink. The city cannot mandate orders to private company to keep this ice skating rink open. Open. Also, it wouldn't be legal. This master plan isn't a city of Portland project. It's a private endeavor. Portland can't keep saying that once recovery, housing investment and vibrant neighborhoods. While fighting every project that tries to deliver those things. I loved lloyd center, but it's time to move forward.

Thank you very much, fisher.

You can go ahead online.

Thank you, president Dunphy, members of the council. My name is fisher jamieson, and I'm testifying today in favor of the redevelopment. I grew up in sabin, so I have a long history with this mall. I used to do my christmas shopping there. I have been to my share of lloyd eight movies, and I can confidently say that the mall has been dead for a long time. I was excited to go back last year when I heard it was going through some kind of renaissance. But not only did I leave empty handed from that trip, I was also kind of unpleasantly surprised by how empty it still was, even with the cheap rent. When I think about the stakes of delaying the redevelopment, the other northeast Portland landmark that comes to mind is gordon's fireplace shop. When gordon's closed, I remember the optimism about the potential to reuse the space. And I also remember how historic preservation rules turned it into an empty husk that is literally falling apart onto the people walking below it. I'm particularly frustrated that I keep hearing people say things that just aren't true about this redevelopment. Replacing parking lots with transit oriented development is not bad for the environment. There isn't a viable alternative plan that's just ready to go, and this is an extremely normal master plan of development, just like the broadway corridor or the conway plan. We also know from dozens of other stalled housing developments in the city that the kind of delay and obstruction the appellants are asking for doesn't work. It just kills projects. This redevelopment matters too much to take that risk. So I hope you'll vote today to uphold the design commission's decision. Thank you.

Thank you very much, joel.

Go ahead. Online.

Hi. Yes. Thank you, president Dunphy, members of the city council. For the record, my name is joel bravo, and I'm here today to testify in support for the master plan. I'm a car free renter, and I've been extremely fortunate to find a home that is affordable in a neighborhood with easy access to jobs, shops, and recreation that don't require a car. Increasingly, and unfortunately, though, that this is not attainable for more and more portlanders due to the scarcity of our housing in desirable areas, the lloyd center master plan represents an opportunity to make a major investment in the people of Portland. The transformation of a slated to be vacant mall and parking structures into thousands of homes, many of which will be affordable thanks to the city's inclusionary zoning program. Adjacent to shops, Green spaces and multiple transit lines would create exactly the kind of thriving neighborhoods that benefit thousands. Property taxes from the development will fund further affordable housing and public goods. Trimet can accelerate its ridership recovery, and the city can meet its transit and climate goals by having thousands of people living in one of the most transit rich areas of the city and the small businesses of downtown, and the lloyd that give the city its heart and soul, can benefit from having so many people living within an easy walk, bus or train ride. Finally, the lloyd center is slated to be closed regardless of the decision made here today. And in the event that this master plan is rejected, the prospect of repurposing a closed mall for the benefit of all could be in jeopardy. You have an opportunity to make a generational investment in both the city and the people of Portland. I urge you to embrace that opportunity and approve the lloyd center master plan. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Bill scott, yasmin ibarra, mary avalon, theron schenck, david. Binning.

Welcome.

Great.

Good afternoon. My name is yasmin ibarra. I'm the political director for seiu local 49. Our union represents 15,000 essential health care and property service workers in the city, including the subcontracted janitors, security and laundry workers of the city. Our members have a long history of cleaning and securing buildings, and lloyd district, their union jobs provide fair wages, affordable benefits that allow workers to support their families. But in recent years, they've watched their coworkers get laid off as the lloyd district has struggled, leading to unprecedented vacancy and neighborhood decline. Portland needs bold investment in the lloyd center master plan delivers it. The proposal would restore vibrancy in the lloyd district, create more opportunities for workers to maintain and protect these spaces, and make Portland stronger for everyone. The lloyd district was once an economic engine for this region, and it can be. Again, we urge you to appeal, to reject the appeal and uphold the design commission's approval. Thank you.

Thank you very much, karen.

Go ahead online.

Hi, my name is sharon shank and I live in sullivan's gulch, a neighbor adjacent to lloyd center. My request is simple please deny these appeals and uphold the design commission unanimously. Appeal approval of the central city lloyd center master plan. Lloyd center is one of portland's most important redevelopment opportunities. For too long, it has separated its surrounding neighborhoods rather than connecting them. This master plan would turn a transit rich, regionally connected site into a more open, walkable and integrated urban district. Public benefits are clear better street connections, safer walking and biking, new open spaces, housing near accessible public transit, and renewed investment on this large central Portland site. These are the kind of changes our neighborhood needs. I recognize that change brings real concern, including the future of ice skating and the loss of familiar amenities. But those concerns should be addressed constructively, not by delaying a forward looking land use plan that the city is concerned about skating access. It should look seriously at veterans memorial coliseum, the nearby city owned rink, as a practical place to explore public access. These appeals should not be used to stop or delay renewal. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much, david.

Go ahead online. David binnig.

Yeah.

You can go ahead.

Can you hear me?

We can.

I apologize, I'm biking my kid to swim class right now. Oops.

Oh, david, we lost your video. But you're you can unmute. I'll go ahead and call some more folks while we're working on david bradley robalino. Skyler cruz, robin bogicevic, madison moskowitz, robin. You can go ahead online.

Hi, everyone.

My name is robin bogicevic, and I'm testifying in support of redeveloping the lloyd center mall. I lived in Portland my whole life and I currently live in slabtown, which was a neighborhood also developed with a master plan. I want to preface this by saying there's clearly demand for a publicly accessible ice rink and lower rent for small businesses. These are both things that are good and things that Portland should have. However, I question if keeping lloyd center as it is, will live up to the community's expectations. Over the last few years, lloyd has become a center for small business. Why? Well, the building is getting torn down, so rents were lowered the instant this building has to stand up on its own financially. Someone has to pay for upkeep and energy costs of 18 city blocks, of abandoned parking and empty anchor stores. Rents will go back up and lloyd will return to its previous mostly empty state. While the lloyd is directly next to mass transit, the vast amount of parking available induces driving. Additionally, the size of lloyd cuts off neighborhoods from the north from being accessible by public transit. I've personally had medical appointments for gender affirming care located to the north of lloyd center late at night after the mall's closure, where the only way I can access them is to take the max and walk around the perimeter of the entire mall. I don't know if any of you have spent much time on the outskirts of the lloyd center at night, but it's generally not a very pedestrian accessible area. This area is ripe for dense development. Imagine the community of thousands of people that could live in the space taken by lloyd. Our communities deserve better than 18 blocks of a mall that can't stand on its own. Additionally, I would encourage the city to seek development of a community center on site. We need to think bigger and imagine a better future for our city. Thank you, city councilors.

Thank you very much.

Madison. Go ahead online.

Thank you, council president Dunphy. Councilors, my name is madison moskowitz, and I'm testifying on behalf of reach community development in support of the applicants for the lloyd center master plan. I'm a born and raised portlander and current resident of d2, less than a mile from lloyd. I think we all agree that we believe in portland's future, but denying the master plan would tie us to the past and deny portlanders dynamic growth, new third spaces, and more affordable homes. I grew up taking ice skating lessons at lloyd. I shop for middle school dance dresses and I have shopped at lloyd this year. I share so many folks nostalgia about what lloyd meant then and means now, but it's 27 acres and one of the best served transit sites in our whole state. That is, thousands of unused parking stalls, a concrete heat sink and a mostly vacant building. And better things are possible if you deny the or if you approve the appeals. Today, you're denying a community benefit plan that ensures lloyd can hold more housing. And I think it's important to consider the perspectives of folks who aren't able to testify on this matter today. The future residents who will benefit from living in Green.

Sustainable.

Dense neighborhoods within lloyd. And I think it's important to consider their perspective, even though they may not be testifying here today for existing small businesses at lloyd reach has a commercial space for rent on mlk and san rafael street in northeast, less than a mile away that we're trying to rent. And I'd be eager to talk to folks about the many commercial space spaces we have for rent throughout the city. Please reject the appeals. Excited for what's next for lloyd? Thank you.

Thank you very much.

David binnig.

Thank you.

You can go ahead.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Sorry about the confusion. Thank you councilors. I know everyone who's been here today wants the best for this project. So thanks to to. All of you today and yesterday too. I wanted to speak just to one specific point. The appeal from the state law says we should weigh the, quote, embodied carbon of the existing mall in determining whether to preserve it. Some of you, I think, certainly councilor Green should recognize that as a version of the sunk cost fallacy. That's. For example, if your car keeps breaking down, you decide you need to keep fixing it because you already spent so much on the last repair. It's definitely true that the large concrete structures like lloyd center mall involved a lot of carbon emissions to produce them. But those emissions that went into building, modifying, remodeling the existing center happened years, decades ago. We can't unmake them. We can't redeem them by anything we do now. So our current choices, including choices. About emissions, about climate, have to be made. Looking forward, comparing future scenarios. As folks have talked a lot about, we could try to put this on a path to thousands of homes a block away from the max station. We could decide to maintain a structured parking parking spaces there, but either way, we need to do an analysis of the future impacts both on construction and transportation. Whether the original structure was made of concrete or glass or bamboo doesn't have any relevance to those forward looking decisions. This is important for reasons that go beyond lloyd center. Nolan earlier mentioned harbor drive. I think of other concrete structures I'd like to see removed from Portland, the market bridge, I-5 on the east side, and. The idea that we need to preserve them permanently because of the cost of producing them would be a mistake there as here. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Samuel freeman stiller, shawn gillen, mike quinn, cassidy bolger, joel stenberg.

Welcome.

Hey, thanks for having me. Good afternoon. Council. My name is joel stenberg. Thanks for taking the time to carry out this process, for listening, for engaging with the community, and for your commitment to making our city better, and specifically today, making our neighborhood better. I'm a small business owner in lloyd. We opened our first coffee shop in 2019. My wife and I have invested our time, our energy and a great deal of hope in the neighborhood. We chose to build our business here because we believed in what lloyd was and what lloyd could become. As some might know, owning a small business is incredibly rewarding, but it's also very difficult. Every day is a balancing act. Employee management, cost analysis, keeping prices affordable for our customers, and doing everything possible to create a welcoming place where people want to gather. Personally, I think we're doing a pretty good job of that. But the one thing we simply can't create on our own, and I wish, I wish, I wish I could, is creating foot traffic that every neighborhood business depends on. For years now, lloyd has struggled with long stretches of inactivity and far fewer people on the streets than a neighborhood like this should. Have. Even the strongest businesses can't thrive without an active neighborhood. What gives me confidence in this master plan is that it wasn't rushed. It was shaped through a thoughtful, deliberate process with countless opportunities for neighbors, business owners like myself and community members to participate, ask questions, and help shape the outcome. For those of us whose livelihood depends on the people walking through our doors, we need lloyd to simply not sustainable. We need a new path forward. And I believe this master plan is that path. Thank you.

Very much, samuel.

Go ahead online.

Thank you.

Samuel, we've we've lost your audio. You can go ahead. We can hear you now.

Okay. Sweet. Thank you so much. Yeah. My name is samuel freeman. I am a construction industry professional, and I am here also in support of the applicant, just with the lloyd center itself being demolished and also with the new builds going on, is just the right path forward. There is so much good housing, so many good union jobs that can go on and that will just lead not only the lives of the people doing the jobs, their union jobs that pay well, but also additionally, the people who do get to live there later on as well. So making me base can be surrounded around there. The distance to the max stations. It will bring in so many other people, youth over to the Portland area. And this is the optimal time for that. I see, and I have no use for the rest of my time. Thank you so much for your guys's time.

Thank you very much.

Mike quinn. Go ahead online.

Hello, council president Dunphy and council members. My name is mike quinn, owner of mark. He presents concert company serving Portland and the northwest. Since 1983, we have partnered with aeg concerts to develop a new 4000 capacity music venue on the site of the former nordstrom building at lloyd center. We're investing in the future of this site because we believe in the vision that urban renaissance group has put forward. When we evaluated opportunities for a new music venue, we looked for a location with a future. The lloyd center master plan provided that confidence. It shows a clear vision for transforming an aging mall into a vibrant, mixed use neighborhood with. Housing six city blocks of public space, retail, entertainment and activity throughout the day and evening. That vision is a major reason we chose to invest there. The music venue represents just one piece of that future vision, and we feel works best as a part of a larger neighborhood transformation. We have been impressed working with tom kilbourne and his group. They are dedicated, serious and experts at just this type of urban transformation. The lloyd district in Portland will be better off and smart to let urg invest in Portland and do their thing at lloyd center. As a Portland native and irvington resident, I implore you to uphold the design commission's. Comprehensive unanimous approval and allow this important work to move forward. Portland needs this. Thank you.

Thank you very much, mike cassidy.

Go ahead online.

Hello, council. Thank you for having me. My name is cassidy bolger. I am the board president of Oregon smart growth. I'm a district two resident, and I spent four years working in the lloyd on multifamily housing in the district. During that time, I was a member of the lloyd community association and spent over two years as the land use chair. So I'm very familiar and committed to the success of the lloyd. The lloyd center site represents a once in a generation opportunity to correct a major mistake in urban fabric that you've heard about today the inward facing. Superblock design of the mall interrupted portland's historic street grid and prevented this part of the city from developing into one of the true urban, dense neighborhoods that we love and have throughout the rest of the city. Instead, it became an automobile oriented retail destination that was built for another era. That model has failed. The mall is nearly empty and no longer economically viable and scheduled to close. Regardless of what happens with this appeal, the city of Portland has already made the necessary public investments for success in this neighborhood. We have built the max system. We have built the streetcar, the bike infrastructure, the convention center, hotels. And entertainment destinations. The foundation for amazing neighborhood is already in place. The current owners are now prepared to make the private investment necessary at their own risk, to transform this site and make it possible to deliver the housing and economic activity Portland desperately needs. We must begin this work. We must allow it to move forward for the benefit of the entire city. I respectfully ask you to deny the appeal. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Steve cole, wade rogers, bruce wood, emily mandic, ziggy lopez. Pinsky. Steve, you can go ahead online.

Thanks. Hi, my name is steven cole and I'm president of the irvington community association. The ica supports the master plan of lloyd mall parcels. Currently, the mall sits largely empty while taking up a considerable portion of land in an area which is already well served by mass transit. It's acting as an economic drag on the broadway weidler business corridor and the blocks between the mall and the corridor. Those blocks have been losing businesses and are at the lowest point I've seen them in 22 years I've lived here. The ica believes that the redevelopment will add much needed housing while increasing density, adding public space which is lacking in this quadrant of the city, as well as additional retail and entertainment, which will act as a. Catalyst to revitalize the aforementioned underperforming adjacent blocks and business corridor. We believe a reinvigorated lloyd area could help turn this section of Portland into a city gem, a tourist destination. Given the council's rhetoric about the need for housing and some of the draconian measures which are being proposed, it would certainly be incongruent to reject this master plan, which will add the needed housing. While we would like to see some north facing retail in the new buildings, that's an issue which can be addressed later as new buildings are submitted for review. In regard to the concern about the land sitting empty for a long period of time, the ica would certainly prefer to see development occur sooner rather than later. However, again, that's an issue which is separate from the approval. The design master plan is currently presented. Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Wade rogers. Go ahead online.

Thank you. Good morning council or good afternoon now, council president Dunphy, vice president Clark and members of the council. For the record, my name is wade rogers and I'm an analyst with stockbridge capital group. Stockbridge is a real. Estate investment firm with deep ties to the Portland real estate market. We are the owners of lloyd retail center, directly connected to the lloyd mall. And I'm here today to voice stockbridge's support for the design commission's unanimous approval of the lloyd center master plan, and to urge the council to reject these appeals. This project is exactly what Portland should be encouraging. The lloyd center master plan is the product of years of work with neighbors, stakeholders, city staff and design commission. It turns an obsolete mall into a real neighborhood with housing, open space, retail and gathering places that will serve the city for generations. Today's hearing is about more than. One project. It's about whether people who want to build housing in Portland can trust the city in the process. When an applicant follows the rules, does the outreach and gets unanimous approval from the city's own decision makers, that should mean something. The lloyd center, the center master plan, is an incredible opportunity to bring new life to a critical part of the central city. Approving it sends a clear message that Portland welcomes thoughtful investment, is serious about building vibrant urban neighborhoods. I respectfully ask you to reject the appeal and support the future of lloyd center. Thank you.

You can go ahead at the testimony table.

My name is bruce wood. I have 38 years of experience. Developing commercial real estate in this area. I am currently leading three projects under construction in cleveland, ohio, with a combined cost of more than $400 million. I am also one of the owners of the mountain view ice arena. Since purchasing the rink in 2006, I have remained committed to keeping it open and supporting ice sports in this region. Despite strong support from the figure skaters, the hockey players, the coaches and the public. We struggle each year to break even, even with the cost basis. That is a fraction of other facilities in the region. Private ice facilities, including those owned by nhl teams, require public funding or. Subsidies to remain financially viable. Real estate projects are complex and carry significant risk. Developers have many reasons to abandon a project and pursue opportunities with fewer obstacles, greater certainty and stronger appeal to capital. While every project begins with a vision determining how will be built, who will use it and what it will cost requires millions of dollars, thousands of hours, and dozens of consultants. If costs are too high or conditions too restrictive, the project will not move forward. The lloyd center redevelopment will require tens of millions of dollars of capital. Capital like water, follows the path of least resistance. In. Recent years, detroit and cleveland have attracted billions of dollars in downtown investment. In cleveland, for example, my most recent project, we submitted the initial concept in June. We filed construction drawings in August, and we broke ground in October, five months from from concept to where we broke ground. That's portland's competition for capital.

Thank you very much, emily.

Go ahead. Online.

Good afternoon, council president Dunphy and members of council. For the record, my name is emily mandich, and I'm the vice president and regional manager. With American assets trust. We own and operate 14 city blocks with a mix of class a, office, retail and multi-family. And lloyd, I'm here to ask you to reject this appeal and uphold the design commission's unanimous approval of the lloyd center master plan. From a personal note, I grew up in a neighborhood adjacent to lloyd and still live in that same neighborhood. Lloyd center was a part of my childhood. I took ice skating lessons there. I spent countless weekends roaming the mall in middle school. My first job was there and multiple ones thereafter. My mom worked in water tower where the connecting skybridge was to the mall. The memories are endless, so I don't take this lightly, but weight center has exceeded its useful life and did so several years ago. It's time for a new beginning. I also come before you as someone who works in commercial real estate. Development does not happen without certainty. It depends on a clear, reliable process for someone applying for a permit or design review, knows the rules and can trust and approval actually means something. If a project can do all of that and still face delays or conditions that go beyond approval criteria, as erg has experienced, it sends an alarming message to any investor in Portland. The opportunity this project brings to the neighborhood, particularly for much needed multifamily housing, are significant and should not be jeopardized by avoidable obstacles. I respectfully urge you to uphold the design commissioner's decision, deny this appeal, and allow the master plan to move forward and to prove. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, ziggy.

Go ahead online.

Yes. Hello. My name is zygmunt lopacinski. I go by ziggy. I'm the general manager of crowne plaza, Portland, Oregon. For over 22 years I've worked in the lloyd district and currently or just past president board of the lloyd community association. I urge you to reject these appeals, uphold the design commission's unanimous approval of lloyd master plan. Beloit center. One of the most important is lloyd area is one of the most. Portland important urban districts were home to major employers, several hotels, the Oregon convention center and excellent transit service. Yet over the past two decades, I have watched the neighborhood struggle. We have seen more vacancies, more empty lots and fewer reasons for people to spend time in the neighborhood at the center of our neighborhood city mall that is nearly empty, no longer economically viable, and scheduled to close later this summer. The question before the council is not whether the site will change. It is whether we move forward with a thoughtful, community supported plan that helps turn this neighborhood around. The lloyd community association supports this master plan because it reflects years of planning, public engagement and collaboration with the neighborhood associations like ours. As someone who works in the hospitality industry, I know how important vibrant neighborhoods are to attract visitors who then support local businesses. Lloyd needs a catalytic catalytic pro project, and this is exactly the master plan creates this kind of activity, investment and sense of place that will bring people back into the heart of our city, creating the momentum our city needs. Portland needs more housing, more investments, more success stories. The lloyd center.

Thank.

You so much for being here today. Sorry. Thank you very much.

Anselm frisco. Kristen lieber, julie. Gustafson, gustafson, sam. Rodriguez, david. Weston, owen. Ron kelly.

Welcome, folks, and whoever wants to go first, please feel free.

Got to the table first.

Okay.

Mic check. President Dunphy, vice president. Clerk. Council. Thank you. My name is anselm fusco. I am I've met some of you in my context as a board member of Oregon smart growth. I build a multifamily apartment buildings here in Portland. And in the context of today's conversation. Most importantly, I live at 24th and not and lloyd center is in my neighborhood. I'm here to ask that you reject the appeals in front of you and allow the project to move forward. Allow the master plan to move forward. I don't have time to talk about all the reasons. I'm confident the master plan will make this my neighborhood better. I also don't have time to talk about how cities around the country are working very hard and changing their rules and their procedures to make it more difficult for nimbyism and groups with special interests to exercise the heckler's veto. We're not going to talk about those things. What I am going to do is talk about the fact that all you have to do is look at Washington right now in Washington, d.c. Not state. And see what happens when expertise, experience, and careful consideration are replaced by political considerations and personal preferences. I am urging you to take into full account and not second guess the thousands of hours put in by staff and the unanimous approval by the design commission. And I'm urging you not to signal to the people who live and work here. To the people who are thinking about moving here, to the people who are thinking about investing here, I'm urging you not to signal to them that expertise and process don't matter in Portland, and that other considerations and the will of the council, ultimately, are the things that carry the day. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, council president Dunphy, vice president Clark, and members of council. My name is julie gustafson, and I'm the treasurer of the northeast broadway business association, which represents small businesses along locally owned businesses along northeast broadway and weidler. I am also president of a homeowners association, representing 86 units and some commercial space on northeast broadway, just four blocks from the mall in the site in question. I have a lifelong connection with this mall. I grew up in the neighborhood. I remember the open air days. I remember the thriving 1990s. And I am personally very excited to see this next phase in my neighborhood that I love. Neva supports this project because our district needs investment activity and new customers. For years, the lloyd district and surrounding commercial corridors have experienced declining foot traffic and prolonged vacancies. The lloyd center master plan creates an opportunity to reverse that trend. It will bring new housing, new residents and new economic activity to one of the most transit accessible locations in the city. For small businesses, foot traffic matters for residents, connectivity matters reconnecting the street grid through the lloyd center property will allow pedestrians to move more easily between neighboring commercial corridors such as broadway and weidler. We now have an opportunity to reverse the cycle of decline in our area while creating a more walkable community. Portland desperately needs stronger commercial corridors and more housing in the central city. This redevelopment project delivers on both fronts. While we recognize the concerns by those affected by the mall's closure, we cannot let them stand in the way of a redevelopment project that will benefit the broader community. For these reasons, we respectfully ask you to affirm the design commission's decision. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, president Dunphy and council. My name is sam rodriguez. I'm a senior managing director with mill creek residential, where multifamily residential developer in town. But until recently, for eight years, I was a member of the Portland design review commission. During my time on the commission, I. I, as part of the commission, reviewed and voted on numerous master plans and major development proposals throughout the city. I understand the rigor and the design of the design review process. The level of analysis involved, the responsibility commissioners have to apply the city's regulations thoughtfully and consistently, consistently being important. Lloyd center master plan received unanimous approval from the design review commission. That is significant. The commission is composed of volunteer professionals with expertise in architecture, urban design, planning, landscaping, architecture and development that you approve that you've vetted. These are individuals appointed to provide the city with independent technical expertise and to ensure that projects meet portland's design and planning objectives. After a thorough design thorough review, the commission unanimously concluded that this master plan satisfies these objectives. While reasonable people may disagree on aspects of any project, overturning a unanimous approval by the city, does designed designated body of experts should not be taken lightly. I would also encourage you to consider the broader message of supporting this appeal of that. Supporting this appeal would send to the investment and development community. Portland is already competing for scarce investment. Capital ran out of time, but you get the gist. Please don't overturn this appeal. Thank you.

Thank you very much, kristin.

Go ahead online.

Hi, council. My name is kristen leber. I'm the executive director of lloyd eco district. We are a nonprofit with a 15 year history in lloyd. We're located inside of lloyd center right now, and we spend 100% of our time caring and advocating for people and space in this one square mile. We love the mall. We love the affordable rents and the creative use and the small businesses who we work side by side with. We've been grateful for our time there, for you and lloyd center's partnership, and for support of the neighborhood and for the cheap rent on borrowed time. That was communicated well. But borrowed time is not a plan. Our work is in sustainability, and we take a very big view of that word. We ask what will help lloyd become a healthier, better neighborhood for future generations? And right now we see the harm this aging, car heavy, largely underused building is causing us. We see the stagnation around it. We see how hard it is to make the neighborhood feel alive when the biggest building in the middle of it is not fully working. We support making this a better place for the people already here, and welcoming thousands of new residents into our neighborhood that is close to everything and has excellent public transit. It should be the Green transit forward, walkable, livable neighborhood that we've worked toward. So the appellants are naming real values. We've seen the joy the ice rink brings. We've seen the creativity that business incubation brings. I encourage the city and the appellants to pursue those goals, regardless of the future of lloyd center. They're worthy and they matter, but they. Those public goods can't depend on private development. Please reject the appeals and help lloyd step forward. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

David westin. Go ahead online.

Thank you.

Council president and members of council for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is david westin. I'm the general manager of the doubletree by hilton in the lloyd district. Our hotel is located next door to lloyd center mall and has been a fixture in the neighborhood since the 1960s, almost as long as the mall itself. The lloyd district is home to the Oregon convention center and several hotels. Visitors from all over the world open their wallets in our city, bringing tremendous tax revenues. But at lloyd center, they see a nearly empty mall. All that is no longer economically viable. And all that is closing in just over a month. Economic vitality matters. So this neighborhood in this city can't afford to hold on to a decaying building coming to work every day in this neighborhood, I see the challenges we face, the business that's been lost in my hotel and around us, and how that adversely impacts our city's revenues. I worry about the 120 team members who work here, and how they will get enough hours to support their families. These are real people whose livelihoods depend in large part on how well we, as a city, execute a vision for the future. So I'm optimistic about the lloyd center mall redevelopment and all the value it will bring to our city and our neighborhood. Portland needs this redevelopment for housing, for open space, for tax revenues and opportunities for portlanders. I ask that you reject the appeals and affirm the design commission decision. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Owen. Go ahead online.

Good afternoon, members of city council. My name is owen ron kelly, and I'm executive director of go lloyd, a transportation management association based in the lloyd neighborhood. I go, lloyd, we promote economic vitality by working with employers and community partners to reduce reliance on single occupancy vehicles and support walking, biking and transit. Our work helps make the lloyd neighborhood more accessible, connected and resilient. And I'm here today to ask you to deny this appeal and uphold the design commission's unanimous decision to approve the lloyd center master plan. Lloyd center was built in a different era. Today, it's nearly empty, no longer economically sustainable and scheduled to close. The answer is not whether it will change, it's what comes next. This master plan transforms an underutilized superblock into a walkable, transit oriented development with housing, jobs and local businesses and public gathering spaces. It builds on one of lloyd's greatest strengths its exceptional access to transit and active transportation infrastructure. This kind of project strengthens our local economy, supports business and creates jobs, and brings new life and investment into a neighborhood. We ask you to affirm the design commission's decision, reject the appeal, and allow this project to move forward. Because the future of lloyd shouldn't be defined by what it used to be, but what it has the opportunity to become. Thank you for your. Thank you for your time today.

Thank you very much.

Maxwell flint, keith. Jones, aaron. Follow, becky hawkins, mary. Nolan. Langdon. Herrick, sarah. Badiali. Maxwell. You can go ahead.

Thank you. In light of the situation, I know a third option through industrial development bonds, lloyd center can be saved because the city could, if they choose, by lloyd center from them and finance it through the sale of industrial development bonds. One more thing bring in walmart into lloyd center would make lloyd center more profitable than anything they have planned. And I do thank you for that. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, keith jones, you can go ahead online.

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, council president Dunphy and councilors. My name is keith jones, and I serve as the executive director of the lloyd enhanced service district. I'm here today in support of the lloyd center master plan and urge you to uphold the design commission's approval. For generations, lloyd center has been the heart of lloyd district, along with the moda center and Oregon convention center. It helped to define this neighborhood and brought millions of visitors to lloyd. Since the pandemic, the mall has struggled, and while a small community of local businesses have taken root there, it no longer brings enough visitors to sustain the site. Lloyd center now needs to be reimagined for the next generation. The lloyd dsd has been working with prosper portland's office of small business, to help retain some of the small businesses that have taken root at lloyd center and keep them in the district. This master plan creates an opportunity not only for much needed housing, but also for the attraction and retention of local businesses, restaurants and neighborhood serving retail. Visitors come to lloyd every day for conventions, concerts, sporting events and meetings, yet there are still too few opportunities for them to experience the local businesses and character that makes Portland unique. This redevelopment can help change that. Having been a resident of lloyd district for more than ten years, I've seen both the challenges and the tremendous potential of this neighborhood. That potential is one of the reasons I accepted this role at the esd. The project represents an opportunity to help realize that potential through a thoughtful plan that brings new residents, new businesses, new public spaces, a new music venue, and more importantly, new energy. Lloyd. This project is crucial to the future of the neighborhood and the city of Portland. On behalf of lloyd enhanced service district, I respectfully urge you to uphold the lloyd center master plan. Thank you.

Thank you very much, aaron.

Go ahead online.

Thank you, president Dunphy, vice president Clark, and members of the council. My name is aaron. I live in sullivan's gulch adjacent to lloyd, and I also work in the lloyd district. I walk, bike and take transit through the neighborhood regularly. And I'm speaking today in support of upholding their approval of the master plan. When I look at lloyd today, I don't see the highest and best use of the land. I see an aging, inward facing superblock surrounded by vast parking areas. But I also see one of portland's greatest opportunities to create more homes, local businesses and public spaces, and one of the most transit connected parts of our city. I feel very fortunate to live in this part of the city. I want Portland to remain a place where people like me can move to a new neighborhood, make friends, pursue creative interests, build careers, build a life, giving people more housing opportunities in neighborhoods like lloyd is part of making that possible. Today's hearing includes the voices of people who use lloyd center. Today, I and yesterday's as well. I hope we also remember the people who could one day live here, work here, and become part of this community, delaying or blocking this master plan also delays the opportunity for future portlanders to enjoy the kind of neighborhood that I feel privileged to call home. I appreciate what lloyd center has meant to the city, but I see the master plan as a flexible framework that allows this neighborhood to evolve over time instead of remaining stagnant, a stagnant superblock. I believe that it's a stronger foundation for lloyd's future. I respectfully urge you to uphold the design commission's approval and allow the lloyd center master plan to move forward. Thank you.

Thank you very much, becky.

Go ahead online.

No. There we go. Thanks. My name is becky hawkins. I moved to Portland 12 years ago because some of my fellow artists quipped that Portland was the last city in America where a cartoonist could buy a house. Even in 2012, that was no longer true. So I would just like to reiterate that I understand the need for low commercial rents and places where creative people can do creative things. I have worked in the nonprofit arts sector since I moved here, so I also understand that there are things that are very important and things that make Portland what it is that don't make a lot of money. And I think, you know, philosophically, I'm very aligned with a lot of the people on the appellant side. I think we have it was interesting, you know, we heard hours and hours of. I think that dense housing is good, but we need the place for kids to go, and we need a place for people to gather for free. And now I'm here saying, I understand that we need a place for kids to go and a place for people to gather, but we need dense housing. I, my partner, always says to think about what everybody's needs are and communicate from there. So I would like everyone to just sit with that. We need lower commercial rents because you aren't, you know, you can say that it will be a vibrant neighborhood if there are lots of stores. But you know, the people also make the place vibrant. So we do you know, we need low commercial rents. We need you know, I think you got it. Thanks.

Thank you very much.

That concludes applicant testimony.

Okay. So this concludes public testimony. Please note there will not be another opportunity to testify orally in the written record is now closed. Colleagues, it is 438. We have a little bit of administrative business because we have to reschedule. We have to open and reschedule the recap time certain item. So I'm going to give us the next 12 minutes to be able to ask some of the questions of the applicant and the appellant appellants. And we will be, however, for everybody in the room, we will not be making any decisions today. We will be having further council debate because obviously the full council is not currently right here, and we will be having further discussion of this on July 8th. So before we leave today. But in the interim, I wanted to let councilors ask a couple of clarifying questions. Please.

To also allow the appellants opportunity for rebuttal.

Absolutely. Okay.

And that part two. So we have a lot to do still. But I want to ask some some technical clarifying questions from councilors. So I'll start with councilor Smith.

Loretta Smith: Thank you.

Oh.

I think before we get to those questions, let's conclude the order of the procedure from the hearing. Allow rebuttal from both the party, both the appellants, and then we can do the question. Sorry.

This is a very prescribed process, and I appreciate everybody's patience with us on this. So then we will now move to the rebuttals for the appellants.

And so just for just for the record, so that it's clear that while we hear the record is not closed, we're continuing the hearing. We're hearing from the parties. And we'll get back to your earlier statement.

Yeah, yeah, I undo what I said and only listen to lauren. Thank you. We welcome up the appellants for five minutes each.

Thank you. Jeff kleinman, for save lloyd, ice coalition and jennifer gilmore. Robinson is with me on behalf of the coalition. In these five minutes, I want to hit some scattered points and respond to certain issues that were raised. First of all. The preservation of the rink, as we have said, is in absolutely no way incompatible with the housing objectives here, which we do not oppose. And as the last witness, I believe, yesterday testified, he failed to testify as to his expertise, but he's very familiar with engineering structures and the central portion of the mall, which covers the rink, can be saved, and the rest of the mall can be redeveloped and serve all the purposes in question. Mr. Gilbane testified this afternoon that everybody should have known that there would be no preservation of the rink, and I would say, well, but for your repeated statements to them that it would be preserved. So we'll leave that at that. There have been statement legal statements made in writing and stated in so many words today as well, that basically the design commission and this council lack the jurisdiction to consider the issues raised by the appellants. And if that's the case, what the heck are we doing here? The fact of the matter is that there is a structure in the city code for review of projects such as this. There are goals and policies and guidelines that must be considered. And when they're not duly considered, then appellants have a right to proceed and ask the appropriate review bodies to make the appropriate decisions based on the criteria. With that in mind, although counsel for the applicant insisted that the guidelines are meaningless, I want to point out that, first of all, we have separately asserted arguments under five mandatory goals and policies that are not guidelines. They're stated in our appeal document, and then you have the guidelines themselves, which must be successfully addressed, whether they're mandatory or not. And that's just not happened in this case. In terms of the evidence that's been presented to you in the form of lovely graphics about the project going forward, there is nothing mandatory about those. Those are just examples of what could happen. The market is very difficult, as we all know, for even filling affordable housing, much less market rate housing here, and it may not recover for quite a while. You have a developer that holds 90, not a developer, you have an investor, kkr, that holds 90% of the ownership of this project that picked up the site out of bankruptcy for 10% of fair market value, and they will get around to selling off pieces over the years as the market justifies purchases. Pardon me, by several different acquirers. This is going to be a 27 acre eyesore for years to come. And that's why the appropriate resources that are already there, we're not asking for new things. Contrary to the river place decision that has been described to you, these are existing uses which fall within your approval criteria. We're not saying you've got to go, you know, make room for something. This is here. And we'd ask you to recognize that and to protect that. And it is something that is what the city needs. It's an attractant rather than the the repellent that a 27 acre vacant lot would be in the center of the lloyd district. So with respect to the music venue that's been discussed, that's not part of the master plan that's already been approved on the nordstrom site. And that's terrific. But it's not a concern as to this case. It's going forward. It's it's just great. So as I said, we have cited criteria that apply and must be applied and they have not been. Thank you for your consideration. I guess we'll be having questions later. Or if you want to ask them now.

We will.

We have a second appellant. We have to also hear from and then we will open it to questions.

Thank you.

So much. The last few minutes that we have here. You bet. Welcome back.

Hello again. Thank you. We have some pdfs a couple graphics. There's there's one and two pdfs. And if we could. Yeah. So this. I'm matt henderson again. I'm with save lloyd campaign. We just want to address some of the mischaracterizations about the save lloyd campaign movement. For one, we feel like there are all sorts of options for the site that involve keeping a meaningful portion of the mall intact. What is on the screen currently is the urban renaissance group conceptual site plan originally presented, and I would point out that the the yellow square in the middle is, is where, roughly where the ice rink is in the mall. And so it was very easy for me to look at this and imagine, oh, okay. So they are planning on maybe keeping the ice rink. I think it was, it was very much implied to say, to say the least that tom gilbane promised that, you know, we'd be keeping the historic ice rink. Can we go to so oh, about this. So the Green space is essentially where the currently accessible part of the mall is. So the mall gets extracted, it's turned into the Green space. That's the required percentage. And then all the yellow developments are new developments. And those are the parcels that they're going to sell off as the market allows. Can we go to pdf number two? Pdf number two is going to be our our attempts to envision two potential alternative plans that involve this adaptive reuse concept. The top one is where the currently accessible part of the mall is retained. And it actually includes a little bit more of a portion of it, which is the part towards holiday park, because that's the macy's building. And macy's is current a huge structure that could easily, you could imagine, could easily be cleared away and make room for more housing. In addition to sears and marshalls, which are anchor tenant stores, that could easily be to give way to new housing and mixed use development, as well as some of the parking garages that nolan linhart pointed out. Do shroud the mall in this kind of concrete, you know, less appealing look from the exterior. Our point's pretty straightforward. It's that adaptive reuse is a concept that is widely embraced the world over. It works. There's there's many great examples of it. Our our group would be shocked to imagine that zgf architects, nolan lainhart and their team didn't first consider that very prospect and then being a client of private equity out of new york, kkr, we have to imagine that. Well, they're just looking to build up and just maximize the profit on this site. And our argument with the save lloyd campaign is there is some sort of middle ground to be met here. There is an alternative plan that clearly exists. This mall is very functional infrastructure. You heard from countless members of the public. You heard from the ice skate coalition that this still serves the community in immaculate ways. And why not? Why not figure out a way, as our elected representatives, to act as a convener about this? Like, what are your options here? You're going to fully empower the elites and power brokers of Portland, not to refer to them derogatorily, but it's a very clear distinction that we're witnessing. And and you can completely ignore what the public has attested to, or you can you can take some form of action about this and encourage some way of finding some compromise here. Save lloyd campaign has done a lot of outreach. We met with metro, we met with some of our city council members. We wish we could have met with all of you. We had a lot of catch up to do and a lot of bases to cover. But what we arrived at is we would love to see a public private partnership of some kind. We would love to see metro come on board as even though metro testified for the applicants today, none of this none of this is set in stone. Their framework. It's a land use framework. They said themselves they're open to any possibilities, you know, of purchase and and even a newly rebuilt ice rink. We're here saying there is a wonderful functional ice rink already there. There is a wonderful functioning complex that is an incredible conduit to holding this community in all sorts of different use cases that you all have heard from the public about. And that has to mean something. And I will also agree with jeffrey kleinman, slick's lawyer, save save lloyd ice's lawyer, that. This is part of the public process we are participating in. And we paid money for these appeals. So thank you for hearing them. I'm probably coming up on my time.

But 40s over already.

I'm so sorry I didn't hear the bell. I really appreciated not hearing the bell. Okay, so we'll look forward to. Do we get to receive some questions from you? Did I hear.

Some questions? Will primarily be on July 8th, but we're going to get a couple today. Thank you, thank you. Okay. Thank you. So the appellants did run a little over. Do we is that anything do we need to offer? Okay. Christie's nodding her head so it sounds fine.

Okay. I'm just checking to make sure they didn't object, but yeah, I think that that's okay.

Perfect. Now I'm going to get into the queue to ask a couple of questions, but again, we'll get the bulk of our further council discussion on July 8th. But. Councilor Smith.

Loretta Smith: Yes, I did have a question of the appellant that was just giving the presentation. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. And I was looking at your renderings. Did did those renderings go through any kind of design review at the city that you just put up?

Mine. None whatsoever. Okay. Yeah, we, we just overlaid some of our simple concepts on top of ergs plan. And I would would have liked to have pointed out that if you got rid of marshalls and sears and you hemmed in the east wing of the mall just a little bit, you could still achieve one of their celebrated new thruways to, you know, create a new eye road.

I'm just trying to do apples to apples because they have a plan that went through design review. Yeah. Okay. So it is not apples to apples. We're not sure if that is possible. What you said that could be done. Done. And thank thank you for your comments. And I want to talk to to your lawyer. Did did you all ever look to identify other spaces to have the ice rink? Because I didn't know we had an ice rink at, at the coliseum.

So. Councilor. Yes, actually, we've had a multitude of, of conversations actually, we submitted that in our written materials that detail some of the entities that we've reached out to, including veterans memorial coliseum. We've had conversations with both winterhawks who own the two ice rinks, 17 miles away and seven miles away, and then mountain view, which is separate ownership. We've talked to folks at metro prosper Portland. We've talked to folks at the expo center about the possibility of an inter rink, and all of those are included in in our written.

And I'm sorry and I apologize for that. I didn't see that, but I did you also include the fred meyer building. It's in my district in district one in the kohl's building, out on 102nd in glisan. Was that ever considered as well?

So thank you for raising that question. We've been in discussions with prosper Portland and they've identified some sites. I believe the site you're referring to is one that we actually not me personally, but a member of our team spoke with this about it just this morning about a possibility. So there are a there are a few different potential options. That's one, the expo center potentially. So so we're absolutely exploring other options. And the process over four months have been trying to build that kind of momentum and connection. Getting that assistance has been very, very slow.

And we just actually passed a budget last week. And in that budget, there's like $500,000 per entity for new businesses from prosper Portland. And so I just wanted to throw that out there to you, because I didn't know if you knew about that. We just passed the budget. So I don't know if you've had that conversation with prosper, but I wanted to tell you that because I, I too, have a fond memories of my earlier years at at the lloyd center. And I get it, and I understand, but I also want to make sure that we're we're, we're paying attention to everything that's apples to apples. So. So thank you so much for your comments. I just have one question of ben nelson from from the applicant, not the applicant, but from our p, p and d department. Ben, there you are.

Good afternoon counselor.

I have a question because there was some conversation about the cc m p. Either requiring or not requiring the the ice rink to stay where it is. So can you clarify that for me?

So I think I think you're referring to the testimony that you heard today that said that there's no specific requirements in the cc mp approval approval criteria to have an ice rink, correct? Yeah. That's not explicitly spelled out anywhere. I think where the appellants are tying their arguments are to interpretations of specific policies and to interpretations of guidelines that apply, respectively, to criteria h1 and h2.

And is there a provision in in the design that requires the applicant to actually identify a place, a a ice rink for the ice for the save lloyd ice folks.

There's no requirement in the approval criteria, and there is no specific plan proposed that identifies a location for ice rink.

Okay, that's what I needed to know. And I just have. Mr. President, I just have one question. Could the attorney for the applicant come up? Thank you so much for your comments. Is the owner planning to keep a ice rink in the new plans?

Well, maybe I'm not the right person to answer that question, but I'll give it a shot. The the tom cobid is here and can answer that question. But what I do know from representing him is that he fully intends to enter any negotiations freely and willingly with an ice skate operator who wants to locate in the lloyd center. It is an allowed use. It would be accommodated in the master plan and we will enter those negotiations in good faith. The line that we're drawing is because the approval criteria cannot require us to do that, that we can't be mandated to actually include the rink. There's so many conversations that have to happen before then.

And you noted that that, well, someone on the other side about the music arena, it is not associated with your.

No, it's it's on the block, but it's outside the master plan area.

Okay, okay.

It's on. It's on the corner of the larger super bowl.

So anything that you do, it has to, it has to kind of go in concert with what they're doing.

Yes. So part of the design review that you were speaking to before was very rigorous with regards to what we're doing and what the context of the site already is. So when monkey came through with the music venue and they had to respond to the balance of the site, and we had to respond to them in terms of design.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate your your comments. I think we're at 459. Sure. I apologize for that, but I needed to get some clarification. Thank you all so much.

And councilor Kanal has one quick question. And then we're going to continue this item. So councilor Kanal, sorry to everybody who's been waiting for us to talk about this. I know we don't have time. I have one of my several questions and it's for lauren king legally, can we remand this item back to the design commission without making a decision on the appeals?

The zoning code does not contemplate remanding to the design commission. That is, that is not an option in the zoning code.

Miss rosen, thank you very much. So this item will be carried over to a time certain on July 8th, 2026 at 10:00 am. At that time, don't leave quite yet. At that time, council will discuss the appeal staff, the appellants and the applicant should plan to be present on that date. In the event council has questions for the parties. Can we please, rebecca, move to item to open item number seven.

Item number seven amend city code and improve land use regulations through the regulatory improvement code. Amendment package 11 amend code titles 32 and 33. Document number 2026-189.

Colleagues. This item was set as a time certain for today, and I am continuing this item to a time and date certain of July 8th, 2026 at or after 11:00 a with that we 0000. What did I do?

Finish the recap item, but I just want to make sure we're clear on the record about what's happening to the record of the land use item.

Okay.

So sorry.

Item seven is moved is continued to July 8th, 2026 at 11 a.m.

Perfect. That's the recap.

Okay, that is for recap. Yes. Okay. And lauren, what.

Can we.

Do to close this.

Out back to the land use item?

Yes.

I don't know if the council clerk needs to call it really quickly, just to make sure.

Document 2026-217. Consider appeals of the design commission's approval of a voluntary central city master plan review and adjustment review for the lloyd center central city master plan lu25-091308ccmsad.

Okay, so the item is continued to a date and time. Certain of July 8th at.

At 10 a.m.

At 10 a.m. The oral record is closed and the written record is closed for any additional testimony or evidence. The applicant and the appellants are encouraged to return on July 8th. Should council have additional questions for those parties as well as staff?

Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Anything else for the good of the order. Now, with that, we are adjourned. Thank you everybody.