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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 4:03 PM
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A look at Portland Metro's development future city by city

sorry about all the posts, the big O had an incredible section in this weeks Sunday edition. I'm posting all the stories for each city in this one thread.

Beaverton looks beyond 'burb role

AS THE WESTSIDE CITY BECOMES AN URBAN CENTER OF ITS OWN, LEADERS SEE MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR A RENAISSANCE THROUGH REDEVELOPMENT
Saturday, April 21, 2007
DAVID R. ANDERSON
The Oregonian

BEAVERTON -- From his third-floor office in City Hall, Mayor Rob Drake can't help but see blocks and blocks begging for redevelopment.

In one direction, a garbage hauler fills land that city leaders would like to recast as a new light-rail station and gateway to the city. In another direction, the former Greenwood Inn's rubble fills prime land just off busy Oregon 217. A third shows a horseradish plant's former home.

In the jargon of economic development experts, the city is rich with "opportunity sites."

Beaverton is an inner-ring city, an older suburb close to an urban center that is largely built out. But Drake is convinced the city is nearing a renaissance.

It's difficult to know what Beaverton will look like in 20 years, but several planned developments offer clues to the city's future shape.

Developers of the Round at Beaverton Central have started construction on a fifth building, with the eight-building project along the MAX light-rail line scheduled for completion next year. And city officials are soon to start choosing a developer for the adjacent Westgate Theatre property, where they hope to build more multistory buildings with housing and offices above ground-floor retail and parking garages.

"The Round is sort of a precursor," Drake said. "I think you'll see a domino effect."

The Peterkort family has proposed $1 billion in high-density offices, retail stores and apartments along Southwest Barnes Road, stretching north and west from U.S. 26 and Oregon 217.

But those expecting dramatic and sudden change are likely to be disappointed.

"It's going to be incremental," Drake said. "If money was no object, it would be block-by-block."

However, City Councilor Bruce Dalrymple says city leaders should think bigger. He points to Bellevue, Wash., as a potential model for Beaverton's future. Once a suburban bedroom community to Seattle, it has literally grown up, with 20- to 30-story office buildings.

Dalrymple says Beaverton hasn't decided what it wants to be. He says the city set its sights too low with only five-story buildings at the Round, for example.

"We need to set a vision for the future, otherwise it's not going to be any different from today," he said. "There's a lot more that could be done, in my mind."

Like Bellevue, Beaverton has become its own city with an identity distinct from Portland, said Jonathan Schlueter, executive director of the Westside Economic Alliance. It's not a bedroom community, as more Portland-area residents commute to jobs in Washington County than commute out of the county, according to WorkSource Oregon.

Also, the county is growing at a rate of more than 1,000 residents a month, Schlueter said. But that could reveal one of Beaverton's weaknesses as it tries to reinvent itself: transportation.

The city is the nexus of major transportation routes. It is served by U.S. 26, Oregon 217 and westside light rail. Next year, a commuter rail line should connect with cities as far south as Wilsonville. But anyone who has tried to drive through the city at rush hour knows getting around is tough and only going to get worse.

Drake acknowledges that Beaverton lacks the street grid that has served Portland so well. And no one seems to have an easy solution.

Some see the car dealerships -- with their vast parking lots -- that stretch along Southwest Canyon Road as another obstacle to redevelopment.

After a bad experience two decades ago, the city's charter prohibits urban renewal districts. But Drake said he wouldn't rule out reconsidering the zones that can divert increased property taxes from climbing assessed values into local improvements such as parking garages or street projects.

But where some see challenges, many view opportunities.

The former Frito-Lay plant, vacated two years ago, was recently leased by a property owner who is considering adding an even larger building next door. Talk is swirling about redevelopment on the Greenwood Inn site, about 17 acres just off Oregon 217.

Also, one of the few areas with essentially vacant fields available for development is the Peterkort family properties along Southwest Barnes Road.

Unlike Hillsboro, any future growth in Beaverton is likely to be residential. Beaverton has little room to add commercial or industrial land. Redevelopment will key the city's growth. For example, blocks with older single-family houses between Southwest Farmington Road and Fifth Street, which have been converted to businesses, could be torn down and built up.

The landlocked city's economic development staff is focusing on growing businesses that are already in town, said Rob Pochert, the city's economic development program manager. One exception is the city's high-tech business incubator, which is now full.

Other initiatives include a private consultant working on a downtown parking strategy for Beaverton and Hillsboro.

Those efforts will all help. But Lorraine Clarno, president of the Beaverton Area Chamber of Commerce, agrees with Dalrymple that community members need to step back and figure out what they want the city to be.

"Small, baby steps are being made," she said. "I think we're getting smarter and a little more focused in our strategies."

With those efforts and a strong economy, Beaverton could further shape its identity.

"Beaverton could become the downtown of the west side," Pochert said.

David R. Anderson: 503-294-5199; davidanderson@ news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ou...980.xml&coll=7
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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 4:05 PM
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Once-sleepy Wilsonville is wide awake
THE CITY'S I-5 LOCATION MAKES IT A "VORTEX" WITH A STAKE IN REGIONAL AND STATE ISSUES
Saturday, April 21, 2007
ERIC MORTENSON
The Oregonian

WILSONVILLE -- An official with another suburb approached Danielle Cowan not long ago and good-naturedly needled her about Wilsonville's emergence. What's up with Wilsonville, he wanted to know. It was always this sleepy little burg, now you hear about it every time you turn around. What's going on there?

Plenty, says Cowan, the city's public affairs director. With more to come. Partly because of its location -- longtime Mayor Charlotte Lehan often says geography is destiny -- but also because of its civic vision, Wilsonville finds itself the nexus of transportation, growth, housing and environmental issues dogging the region.

In her state of the city address earlier this year, Lehan said Wilsonville "must be located in some kind of a vortex where issues and crises with much wider impacts spin out from us and around us."

That is, Wilsonville has a stake in just about every challenge or opportunity being discussed at the state or regional level. The city population increased 18 percent from 2000 to 2005 -- three times the state's growth rate -- and Wilsonville's leaders recognized they had to get a handle on things or get swamped.

That's resulted in the city aggressively securing its own interests, whether it's building an oversized Willamette River drinking water plant, pulling out of TriMet to start its own bus service or seeking to apply its natural resource protection standards on areas outside city limits. Its neighbors occasionally grumble about Wilsonville seeming imperious, but city officials make no apology.

"We've made ourselves as self-reliant as possible," Cowan says.

A lesson in history and geography is in order. Present-day Wilsonville got its start as a ferry crossing -- Boones Ferry, to be specific. The settlement grew at a flat approach to the Willamette River. The lay of the land provided a natural funnel to the ferry crossing, and it emerged as a transportation hub for goods and people.

It remains that today. Interstate 5 followed the path of Boones Ferry Road and splits Wilsonville north to south. The city serves as the distribution center for numerous large companies such as SYSCO, Rite Aid and Hollywood Entertainment that need to ship and receive products up and down the West Coast.

"Location, location, location," says Mark Ottenad, director of the Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce. "We are, if you will, a dual gateway between the Portland metro area to the north and the Willamette Valley to the south.

But the presence of big firms such as Xerox, which employs nearly 1,600 people, has resulted in some of Wilsonville's most curious statistics: It has more workers, about 18,000, than it does residents, about 17,000. A survey indicated that perhaps 90 percent of the people who work in Wilsonville don't live there.

Those numbers feed into the crucial issues facing Wilsonville.

Because so much of its work force commutes and it is home to so many distribution centers, the city is vitally interested in the health of I-5. Wilsonville has staked out its stand on the route of a proposed connector from Oregon 99W to I-5: It must not further clog the freeway.

In turn, the city welcomes construction of the commuter rail line from Wilsonville to Beaverton, which could lessen the load on the freeway. Wilsonville also is working to ensure that its bus system will efficiently pick up workers at the train station and deliver them to their jobs.

Another project that is key to improving the city's traffic flow is completion of the $15 million Boeckman Road extension, which broke ground in 2006. The east-west route will ease pressure on Wilsonville Road.

The city recognizes the need for more housing, especially housing that is affordable to the warehouse employees and other blue-collar workers who flock to town.

"The folks who clean the motels and pump the gas, how do they live in this town?" Cowan asks.

Crucial to easing the imbalance between jobs and housing is the continued development of Villebois, which eventually could have 2,700 homes and 7,000 residents.

Wilsonville didn't incorporate until 1969 and only in the past few years has begun adding the amenities, particularly parks, that make a place whole. Lehan lauds the completion of 20-year master plans for parks and for bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Among the highlights is a proposal to build a bike and pedestrian bridge over the Willamette into Charbonneau. As envisioned, the bridge would be wide enough to handle firetrucks and ambulances if the I-5 Boone Bridge were blocked by an accident or congestion.

The city's greatest challenge in the years ahead, however, is growth itself. Cowan, the public affairs director, says there is great pressure for development to jump to the south side of the Willamette and spill into French Prairie. Officials in Wilsonville, as the city most likely to grow in that direction, have been told they could be Oregon's next big city, Cowan says.

"But that's not the vision we have," she says.

Eric Mortenson; 503-294-5917; ericmortenson@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ou...320.xml&coll=7
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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 4:06 PM
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Wheels of change are turning in Oregon City
INVESTORS STIR HOPE THAT A NEW WAVE OF URBAN PIONEERS WILL REINVIGORATE THE TOWN
Saturday, April 21, 2007
STEVE MAYES
The Oregonian

OREGON CITY -- When Mayor Alice Norris drives around Oregon City, she sees two towns, one verging on a renaissance, the other edging toward a cliff.

To be sure, Oregon City is beset with financial problems. It can barely afford to operate a library, pay for fire service, keep roads repaired and provide adequate police protection.

On the other hand, prominent developers are pushing ahead with large residential, commercial and retail projects that could spark a revival.

Long ago eclipsed by Portland and outshone by the high-tech prosperity that blessed Hillsboro and Beaverton, Oregon City became a middle-income bedroom community.

Despite some high hurdles, Norris thinks the town of 30,000 -- the oldest incorporated American city in the West -- will be rediscovered and reinvigorated by a wave of urban pioneers.

Like signs of spring, small signals of change can be seen around town.

A few investors have started remodeling old downtown buildings in the past two years.

A couple of top-notch restaurants opened last year, although one recently closed.

Seventh Street, which cuts through a historic neighborhood, got a makeover and sparked the renovation of commercial buildings. Hanging flower baskets line some streets. The city is opening more of its riverfront to pedestrians.

"I couldn't be happier here," said Robb Crocker, chief executive of Funnelbox Inc. The film and video production company moved from Portland to downtown Oregon City in 2005.

"Oregon City has this blue-collar stigma. You can see the paper mill from the freeway," Crocker said. Big-city clients and creative types are charmed by the old town, he said. "Everybody we have come down here is pleasantly surprised," said Crocker, who bought two downtown buildings.

"Oregon City is in the middle of transformation," said Dave Leland, the city's economic development adviser. "Whether (the residents) like it or not, it's happening."

These days, the city sprawls southward. The Portland area's lack of residential land led developers to stake claims over the past 10 years, and a wave of subdivisions continues to roll across the south end of town.

The relative abundance of land attracted the NW Natural Street of Dreams in 2004 and 2006 to the rolling hills east of town. The home show returns to the area this year.

<INSUB>Image problems </INSUB>

Oregon City evolved from a mill town into a bedroom community. The Blue Heron paper mill towers over the old downtown area, but it no longer dominates the local economy.

The city drifted for decades and went dormant during Oregon's economic doldrums in the 1980s.

While newcomers such as Crocker provide a jolt of energy, the run-down downtown remains far from vibrant.

Some people point to fragmented leadership and the lack of a plan to reverse the city's fortunes.

"Oregon City has struggled with its identity for some time. There's been some (political) turmoil at the top," said Michael Jordan, Metro's chief operating officer and a former Clackamas County commissioner.

Things shifted in 2003 with the election of Norris, an energetic civic booster, and the hiring of Larry Patterson, an experienced city manager who helped guide Bend during its meteoric growth in the 1990s.

Norris and Patterson can't take credit for all the city's recent successes -- some plans were in the works before they took over -- but they have kept a pair of major developments on track at a time when the city's finances are in shambles.

Developers Ed Darrow and Randy Tyler are finalizing plans for a residential and commercial neighborhood around Clackamette Cove, a large lagoon next to the Clackamas River. The project includes townhomes, 180 waterfront condominiums, restaurants, marinas and an office building.

CenterCal Properties, best known for its Bridgeport Village project on the Tualatin-Tigard border, hopes to build a mall on 80 acres just east of the cove. The development -- atop an old landfill -- would include housing and office buildings.

"Those projects have the power to shape and define . . . and rebrand the city," Norris said.

Norris well knows Oregon City's reputation. "Why would you want to live there? It's a dumpy mill town," said Norris, reciting some of the snippy comments she's heard.

"It's a burden we carry," Norris said.

The trash talk reached a low point last year when Happy Valley Mayor Gene Grant's off-hand comment about Oregon City -- "You couldn't make the city uglier if you tried" -- landed him in hot water.

Norris responded by baking cookies that spelled out "ugly city" and wheedled Grant into literally eating his words when he offered a public apology to Oregon City residents.

The good-natured response was intended to hammer home a serious message.

"I hope potential investors see how far we've come and how much we've changed," Norris said.

Norris is on the right track, Darrow said.

"Any place that has had image problems is not going to change overnight," Darrow said. "You kind of nibble around the edges."

Steve Mayes: 503-294-5916; stevemayes@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ou...080.xml&coll=7
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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 4:06 PM
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Lake Grove upgrade worries some residents
The proposed improvements concern those wanting the area to keep its rural identity -
Saturday, April 21, 2007
LISA GRACE LEDNICER
The Oregonian

LAKE OSWEGO Like a favored child, Lake Oswego's downtown has gotten most of the attention the past few years: colorful public art; a $25 million retail and restaurant complex; parks fronting Oswego Lake and the Willamette River; and discussions about extending the Portland streetcar into Lake Oswego and redeveloping the Foothills industrial area.

Now, city officials are turning their attention to Lake Grove, where a humbler series of shops lie along Boones Ferry Road and modest homes cluster on rural lots without sidewalks. There are plans to turn the old Safeco Insurance building on Kruse Way into a community fitness center and to redevelop traffic-clogged Boones Ferry Road into a gentler street with a landscaped median, plazas, a transit center and public art.

Independently of the city, the Lake Grove Presbyterian Church plans to build the city's first affordable housing for low-income seniors on land near the church.

Although the community center and the street upgrade are still in the planning stages, a significant portion of city services already has been committed to the area: The parks and recreation department will move into the Safeco building, now called the West End Building, in May. City councilors must decide whether to move the library and adult community center from the First Addition neighborhood downtown to the West End Building, or leave them where they are.

All the activity has made many Lake Grove residents determined to retain the area's identity as a rural enclave between the glitzy Lakeview Village downtown and Bridgeport Village farther to the west.

Erin O'Rourke-Meadors, who lives in the area and sits on a committee overseeing the design of the community center, said residents are upset about spillover traffic from Bridgeport Village and are nervous about how Lake Grove will change.

"You hear a real fear from people that they don't want Lake Grove to become downtown Lake Oswego or Bridgeport Village," she said. "They want there to be some isolation, some distinctiveness."

Lake Grove is unlikely to become another Bridgeport Village or Lakeview Village anytime soon, partly because of the area's geography. Unlike downtown, which was developed around a grid system and had a clearly established commercial area with large lots, Lake Grove's commercial area is about one block deep, said city councilor John Turchi.

Lake Grove's early beginnings as farm-to-market roads eventually developed into a bustling commercial center, "making for an interesting problem," Turchi said. "It's harder to make it function effectively."

Lake Grove, a mix of grocery stores, attorneys' offices, houses and fast-food restaurants, started as an independent settlement on Oswego Lake. Its residents, eager to hook up to a city sewer and water system, voted to merge with the neighboring city of Oswego in 1960, and the new city became Lake Oswego.

City officials have been concerned for years about parity between downtown and Lake Grove, said former assistant city manager Chris Jordan. More than a decade ago, city officials bought property in the area for the possible siting of a police station if one was needed. More recently, the city has begun sponsoring summer concerts at Westlake Park and opened two of the city's most recent four parks on the west side of town.

"There's been a movement to spread out activities as much as possible," said Jordan, who became West Linn's city manager in 2005 but still lives in Lake Oswego. "There's always been a sense that we need to look to that part of town."

All the focus on Lake Grove doesn't guarantee that proposals for the area will proceed as planned. A recently formed citizens group called "Ask Lake Oswegans" has filed a petition that could force the sale of the West End Building, which city officials bought last April for $20 million. The petition says city officials must ask voters to approve any major property buys, retroactive to the Safeco purchase. If voters approve the initiative, a vote on the Safeco purchase would have to be put before residents at the next available election. If residents reject it, the building would have to be sold within six months.

O'Rourke-Meadors acknowledges that the pace and intensity of the proposals for Lake Grove concern residents but that development pressures will force that side of town to adapt.

"What it comes down to is, is the citizenry willing to invest dollars to enhance livability?" she said. "Because change is coming."

Lisa Grace Lednicer: 503-294-5117; lisalednicer@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/ou...050.xml&coll=7
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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 8:29 PM
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I would so love to see Beaverton pull their heads out of their butts and start acting more like Bellevue.

Actually having their downtown become a retail and residential hub might be a great idea. And thinking taller than 5 stories would be a great idea too.
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Old Posted Apr 24, 2007, 11:50 PM
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^ Amen, brother!
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Old Posted Apr 25, 2007, 12:10 AM
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there weren't any pics, were there?
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Old Posted Apr 25, 2007, 4:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife View Post
I would so love to see Beaverton pull their heads out of their butts and start acting more like Bellevue.

Actually having their downtown become a retail and residential hub might be a great idea. And thinking taller than 5 stories would be a great idea too.
Thinking 5 stories would be a damn good start, tho. Also, actually developing a PLAN would be the most effective. Rezoning land for higher densities, fix the abysmal transit they have, ban parking lots, would all help a lot.

As would a Hall Blvd MAX line from Beaverton Transit Center to LO. Traffic just sucks in that town, and the commuter rail is only going to bring people in from Wilsonville & Salem.
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Old Posted Apr 25, 2007, 11:58 PM
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Can't say that I'm in love with the built environment of Vancouver, BC--it looks good from a distance at least--but one thing that impressed me is the dense downtown corridors of its suburbs. Burnaby, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Surrey and the others all have downtowns with high rises. I hope the same happens here.
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