The Habitat for Humanity ReStore Material Recovery Program has a great opportunity to harvest old growth lumber from a barn in the Cully neighborhood on the corner of NE 52nd and Alberta. In its place, the City of Portland will create a new public park for the community as part of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative.

The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) has been working directly with Portland Parks and Recreation to ensure valuable materials from the barn are salvaged for reuse. As a result of this effort, BPS was able to facilitate a relationship between the selected demolition contractor and Habitat for Humanity/ReStore. This relationship will lead to a hybrid deconstruction of the barn that will maximize the benefits of mechanized equipment and hand labor. 

A contractor will be taking down large sections of the barn, and will then set them in a space where volunteers can easily and safely pull apart trusses, de-nail lumber, and load quality pieces of old-growth lumber into a donation truck. Volunteers will also take out doors, windows and fixture before they the big equipment arrives.

This is a great opportunity for neighbors and those who like to see immediate results from their hard work, and who are not afraid to get a little dirty.

Volunteers do not need to know anything about construction. Desired skills include a good sense of humor and some flexibility, as we have learned to expect the unexpected on-site! We will provide all the proper training and safety equipment, although you are welcome to bring your own work gloves and/or safety glasses.

Habitat for Humanity is looking for volunteers who are available as early as Tuesday, May 28. The more volunteers we get, the more valuable materials we can save for reuse.

Volunteers must be 16 or over.

Court-ordered community service? You must be pre-approved before volunteering

Groups are welcome!

To get involved, contact Janell Watt at 503-517-0720.

janell@pdxrestore.org

Read more about  reducing, reusing and recycling construction and demolition debris at www.recyclingnutsandbolts.com.

The Growth Scenarios Report, recently published by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, provides a starting point for the community discussion on how and where Portland will accommodate future growth. The scenarios — or alternatives — explore how different development patterns can help Portland achieve the community’s goals for a prosperous, healthy, equitable, and resilient city. 

According to Metro, Portland is expected to grow by 132,000 new households and 147,000 new jobs by 2035. Land use and investment decisions will shape how and where Portland grows over the next 25 years, which in turn will affect our ability to meet larger community goals.

Read the Growth Scenarios Report

How will we use the Growth Scenarios Report?

Where will new households and businesses develop if trends continue? Is there a form of growth that will help Portland advance prosperity, equity, health and sustainability? What investments are needed to support those choices? And how can the growth patterns help us achieve our goals?

Each of the four growth scenarios tests different hypothetical growth patterns: 

1. A “Default” pattern based on development trends over the last 15 years.
2. A dispersed network of Neighborhood Centers that helps create more complete communities throughout Portland. 
3. Growing in a more linear pattern along several key Corridors.
4. A more compact growth pattern that focuses growth in the Central City and surrounding neighborhoods.

Each alternative is evaluated using the Portland Plan Measures of Success, including access to parks, frequent transit, bike networks, natural areas and family-wage jobs; watershed health and tree canopy; and displacement risk. These metrics provide detailed analysis for community discussion about appropriate policies, housing location, urban design and public infrastructure investments throughout the city.

In particular, the performance measures provide a framework to evaluate different land use options as we update the Comprehensive Plan.

Key Findings

The analysis also highlights several opportunities and challenges:

• Choices for Prioritizing Growth ― Portland’s existing zoning allows for more than enough development capacity to accommodate the future growth forecast of 132,000 new households. This capacity creates an opportunity to make choices about where to focus or prioritize that growth.
• A Legacy Landscape ― As an already urbanized city, Portland’s existing development pattern defines many of the challenges. The forecasted growth represents roughly one-third of the total households and employment that will make up Portland in 2035, which means that two-thirds of the future built environment is already in place. This legacy development pattern will have a significant impact and moderating influence on how well future development patterns perform over the next 25 years. Large improvements in performance from land use changes will take more time. Other interventions, such as infrastructure investments, will be necessary to achieve the goals identified in the Portland Plan.
• Investment Priorities ― How and where public infrastructure investments are made will make a significant difference in how Portland performs. The performance of the different growth scenarios shows that most of the anticipated new growth should occur in a way that provides progress toward meeting the objectives. However, to meet those objectives Portland will need to invest in historically underserved areas to reduce disparities and increase equity. This two-track strategy will allow Portland to improve performance across the board by focusing growth in high-performing areas, while at the same time improving conditions in areas previously neglected.

Next Steps

With the publication of the Growth Scenarios Report, the City of Portland is kicking off Task 3: Consideration of Alternatives of Periodic Review as required by the state, which includes developing draft land use maps and project lists for the Comprehensive Plan Update — to be released during the summer. The next steps include:

• Model the effects of infrastructure investments: The scenarios in this report model the likely effects of 25 years of growth (the location of new jobs and housing), but not infrastructure investments. The next step is to add 25 years of corresponding infrastructure investments and show the resulting performance gains.

• Community mapping: In Fall/Winter 2013, community members will be engaged in a mapping exercise where they will discuss preferred approaches for managing growth and identify needed investments.

• Citywide Systems Plan and Transportation System Plan: To meet state requirements, the City must complete new fiscally constrained Citywide Systems and Transportation System Plans, which will describe the infrastructure (sewer, water, transportation) system improvements necessary to serve anticipated growth.

An addendum to this report will be prepared to evaluate a “preferred scenario” based on the community mapping exercise and the infrastructure investment plans.

For more information about the Comprehensive Plan Update and to stay informed, please visit our Get Involved page.

For more information about the Growth Scenarios Report please visit http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/62384 or contact Tom Armstrong at tom.armstrong@portlandoregon.gov. 

On May 7, the Planning and Sustainability Commission (PSC) held a hearing on the West Hayden Island (WHI) project and took verbal and written testimony from the public.  The written record was kept open until May 14 to allow the submission of additional testimony.  The minutes from the hearing have been released.

The PSC will hold a work session on May 28, 6-9 p.m., to discuss the WHI testimony and suggested amendments to the WHI plan. The PSC will hold a final work session and plans to make a recommendation for the WHI plan on Tuesday, July 9, at the meeting beginning at 12:30pm on that date.

Please check the WHI calendar for more information.

The West Quadrant Charrette is coming up soon — the second week of June. As the culminating event in the second phase of the West Quadrant Plan process, the charrette will develop design concepts and layers, test them against CC2035 Concept Plan goals and policies, and provide opportunities for stakeholder, staff and public input.

There are several times during the week for participation, and the general public is invited to attend two open houses. All events will take place at 1900 SW 4^th Avenue, Room 7A (7^th floor).

• Open House #1: Tuesday, June 11, 5 – 7 p.m., Informal review and Q&A
• Open House #2: Friday, June 14, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Formal presentation at 12 p.m.

To attend for a longer time and help develop ideas for the West End, Downtown and South Downtown areas, consider coming on Monday, June 10. There will be an opening presentation and three breakout sessions to choose from:

• Opening Presentation: 8:30 – 10:15 a.m., Review Goose Hollow, Pearl District, Old Town/Chinatown, South Waterfront concepts
• Breakout Session A: 10:15 am – 12:15 p.m., Concept development for Downtown, South Downtown and West End
• Breakout Session B: 1:15 – 2:45 p.m., Concept development for smaller areas within Downtown, South Downtown and West End
• Breakout Session C: 3 – 4:30 p.m., (Same as Session B)

Project staff will be working with other agencies, City bureaus and the West Quadrant Stakeholder Advisory Committee the rest of the week. The general public is also invited to attend Report Back and Q&A sessions at the end of the day on Wednesday, June 12 (4 – 5 p.m.) and Thursday, June 13 (4:45 – 5:15 p.m.). A week-long charrette schedule with all event details is also available for review.

But what the heck is a charrette?

A charrette is an intense period of design or planning activity. Often used to bring together multiple stakeholders during one timeframe, a successful charrette will generate many ideas and promote joint ownership of solutions.

Roughly at mid point in the process, the West Quadrant Plan team is holding the charrette to synthesize the research and ideas gathered so far with stakeholders and the public in order to move into the next phase of the planning process ― concept planning. The West Quadrant Plan will ultimately guide growth, development and investments in the western part of Portland’s Central City.

For questions or comments regarding the West Quadrant Charrette or the planning process please contact Elisa Hamblin at (503) 823-9714 or via email at elisa.hamblin@portlandoregon.gov.

Photos courtesy of Bruce Forester and Sally Painter.