January 25, 2004

(Updated) Open Reservoirs Receive Listing In National Register Of Historic Places

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Spotted this OPB News item which prompted a search for more information. But the basics, as reported by OPB: Local activists opposed to the open reservoir replacement project, after a year's effort, have gotten both the Mt. Tabor and Washington Park reservoirs listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Over on the mailing list for Friends of the Reservoirs, there is a lengthy post on all of this from Cascade Anderson Geller, which communicates the fact of the listing, and provides some background on what can now be referred to as Reservoir Historic Districts, including (appropriately enough) some historical background on the reservoirs themselves.

Geller and other opponents of reservoir burial, of course, hope that the new historical status for the City's open reservoirs will assist their campaign to derail Commissioner Saltzman's project (technically, it's unfair to call it that, but since I've gone out of my way here to call attention to it being unfair, I'm going to call it that anyway).

According to the OPB report:

Geller says the listing will make it easier to contest the burial before the state's Land Use Board of Appeals, should the city decide to move the project forward.

That decision awaits the work of the independent review panel soon to convene to examine the open reservoir replacement project -- which, incidentally, recently selected (pdf, 49KB) its picks for its consultant and facilitator positions).

While I have an email off to a Saltzman staffer for comment on this development, I'm not particularly expectant of a response, since KGW sought comment for its report and were told his office had no comment.

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