The South Waterfront's in the lobster pot
Isaac Laquedem
After some weeks of musing on the Portland Development Commission's interest in putting big-box retail at the east end of the Burnside Bridge, and in the request of the South Waterfront / North Macadam developers to build condominiums the size of downtown office buildings in the contaminated floodway, it occurred to me that these two uses should be reversed. The big-box retail should go on the large flat areas between Macadam and the river, and the dense housing should go near the Burnside Bridge and the Convention Center -- sort of an East Side Pearl District in the making. Retail buildings are short and won't block the views of the river and Ross Island from the freeway and Lair Hill, and the taller condominium towers won't look out of place near the Burnside Bridge, between the downtown high-rises and those of the Lloyd District.
Then two catches came to mind. First, the North Macadam developers have their hearts and lenders set on building tall skinny towers there (even as they ask the City to stretch the definition of "tall" and widen the definition of "skinny"), not at East Downtown. Second, and more significant to the City, is that if the City revised the zoning code to straighten out this mess, it would likely owe a pile of Measure 37 money to the North Macadam landowners who bought their land only after the zoning changed to allow high-rises. As we're only just realizing, Measure 37 is sort of the lobster pot of zoning: it's cheap and easy for the city to put land into high density zoning districts, but not so easy to get it out again.
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connect with blueoregon
Jan 31, '05
I know this is off topic, but I thought I'd help spread the news about the new Pacific Northwest Portal - the new information gateway and media center for progressive Oregonians, Washingtonians, and Idahoans.
View a "newswire" for each state as well as the nation, and check out the top 4 headlines from 12 different blogs - 4 from WA, 4 from Idaho, and 4 from Oregon - including Blue Oregon!
The site also includes a directory of progressive sites in the northwest and a very comprehensive list of newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations for each NW state.
Check it out at www.nwportal.org
1:40 a.m.
Jan 31, '05
The city wouldn't have to change the zoning back on North Macadam. It could just stop subsidizing the whole thing. Make the developers pay for their own infrastructure, as many other cities do. Put a cap on the city's contribution to the tram, and refuse to have the city pay to operate it. I don't think Measure 37 would cover any of that, would it?
We're not allowing that development, we're paying for it.
11:53 a.m.
Jan 31, '05
There are two of us - the NWPortal post comes from a diff John D. Since it is such a screamingly unique moniker, I shall adjust mine to "Doty" for future posts. I'd hate to think I have fostered such a stellar rep here and now have to share it...or maybe the other John D. willbe glad to not have me tarnshing his rep right out of the gate :P
And NWPortal does seem cool. Interesting selection of reads from the various states of "Old Oregon."
4:50 p.m.
Jan 31, '05
There are three of us, then, John - you, me, and the other guy that posted the portal. I always use my full name, and try never to go off-topic.
As for development in Macadam, I'd only be interested to find out what they've done to plan for flood control. Trotting Auntie Vera and her legions of volunteers out to the seawall for emergency sandbagging just isn't going to be an option every time.
Jan 31, '05
John says, """" I'd only be interested to find out what they've done to plan for flood control."""
Late in the process they discovered, (or least that 's when they made it public) that the entire site had to be raised 4 feet to comply. All of it including every street which the city is paying for. This late revelation was treated as all others. No big deal. As was the Tram as the cost rose from 8.5 million to 40 million. Nothing was going to disrupt Queen Vera's directive. Fatal flaws be damned.