June 20, 2003
(Updated) Plans Proceed For 'Second Downtown'
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Yesterday, everyone seemed to have news about an announcement that the City will be pushing ahead with plans for the development of South Waterfront. Demonstrating how much I still seem to be out of the loop, none of the various City-related announcement lists or calendars I check on a regular basis had a single thing to say about it, so I have no idea just where or specifically when this announcement came.
But anyway, here's coverage from yesterday's Oregonian:
The city of Portland, its largest employer and its hottest developer are ready to begin building a massive riverfront extension of downtown.
The Portland Development Commission outlined an agreement Wednesday that would oblige Oregon Health & Science University, the city and investors led by Pearl District developer Homer Williams to begin transforming an isolated, industrial wasteland into a vibrant urban center.
...
"It's going to happen," Mayor Vera Katz said Wednesday. "It's a brownfield that's going to be turned into a greenfield. It's going to be looking at a jewel called Ross Island and giving us a quick connection to OHSU. It will really be another little city."
...
On Wednesday, the development commission released a summary of the agreement, which its commissioners and an advisory committee will discuss at two meetings next week. The draft contract won't be available until June 27.
The contract covers a 31-acre "central district." The city hopes development there, including public infrastructure, will spur developers to fill in the rest of the district. The city's proposal binds the three parties to make $103 million in public improvements and $440 million in private-sector projects in the first phase, completed by 2008.
...
"It's an urban environment we're going to build, but it's going to have an incredibly peaceful context," Williams said. "Ross Island's going to be your window. It's not going to be freeways and the typical urban stuff."
The article also gives an overview of many of the concerns and complaints about the development and the processes behind it, and claims that Mayor Katz is prepared to take more time for consideration "if City Council or development commission members have concerns."
There's a much briefer bit on this from KGW, and you can read more on the project from the Portland Development Commission, whose own website (as far as I've been able to determine so far) says nothing whatsoever about this week's announcement.
Update
Feel free to read Jack Bogdanski's rant about this project. Included at the end, as it turns out, is evidence that perhaps I didn't look quite hard enough at the PDC website, since he's provided a pointer (pdf) to the summary which was released on Wednesday. Either it wasn't on their What's New page the other day, or I simply glazed over and missed it.