July 03, 2003
City Council May Delay Decision On South Waterfront Plan
According to today's Oregonian, it seems that a "majority of the Portland City Council" is prepared to delay their decision on the South Waterfront development project, at least for a short time:
There is talk at City Hall of deferring a vote past next week on the long-discussed deal involving the city, private developers and Oregon Health & Science University. Several decision-makers have said they don't think the process should stretch beyond that time frame, however.
Commissioner Randy Leonard is ready to vote yes next Thursday. His colleagues also said they want to approve the deal but that waiting at least a few more weeks could help win public support for an agreement that was released last week in draft form.
...
Commissioners comfortable with a delay said a longer evaluation would reduce any feel of a rush job. And they say it would give them a chance to nail down commitments on details from low-income housing to "green" building standards.
"The worst situation is if the agreement gets tainted as being behind closed doors," said Commissioner Erik Sten. "Rushing it through is always a mistake. . . . We've been working on this for seven years. Another couple weeks is not going to change the economics of it. If it did, we'd be in trouble."
The article states that "[d]eloper Homer Williams and OHSU general counsel Steve Stadum both said Wednesday that waiting a few more weeks would be fine" and also relates some of the concerns both of Council members and project critics.