December 12, 2003
Fate Of Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area To Be Decided Next Week?
At its meeting next Wednesday, the Portland Development Commission is expected to decide the fate of the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area (DTWF URA).
According to yesterday's Oregonian, local officials are pushing for one final bond sale before the URA's expiration next year:
But the urban renewal financing spigot probably won't be shut off until after the city issues approximately $40 million in new renewal bonds for projects that would be heavily focused in the Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood.
Although the decision is not final, three members of the five-person council expressed reluctance during a work session Wednesday to extend the 30-year-old urban renewal district beyond its current expiration date of April 24.
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The development agency has identified approximately $60 million of new projects in the area that could still use urban renewal dollars, including a new Fire Bureau headquarters, renovation of old hotels for low-income housing and pedestrian and street improvements in Old Town-Chinatown.
Projects that are not well-advanced in planning, such as remodeling the Multnomah County Courthouse, probably will not receive money from the final $40 million bond sale.
Today's Portland Tribune, however, reports that a group of business leaders wants the DTWF URA to be extended by up to 18 months, in order to add the Burnside Transportation and Urban Design Plan ("which would improve traffic flow, boost on-street parking, and in general try to link the north and south sides of town") to the list of projects funded by the URA.
Judging by the Tribune article, that proposal doesn't appear to have too much support. For my part, while I like the Burnside plan (and have written about it here previously), the evidence on the side of a final bond sale and then expiration of the URA is far more convincing.