Next Up at City Council, 7/23/08

A short Agenda for the Portland City Council tomorrow morning, and no meeting Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. Citizen Communications slots continue to be taken by advocates for people experiencing homelessness, and by those opposing the decision to end the lease of Peterson’s convenience store downtown.

Then nineteen contracts on the Consent Agenda. There are four with TriMet, including:

*1048 Authorize Intergovernmental Agreement with the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon to provide funding for transit improvements along SE Hawthorne Blvd (Ordinance)

The ordinance says it’s for TriMet to give the City $57,000 towards $3.496 million in completed transit-oriented street improvements on Hawthorne. It’s not clear in the ordinance whether this represents the entire sharing of costs. I also wonder whether SE residents are pleased with results of the investment.

The Regular Agenda starts with the vote on the Interstate Avenue rezoning project. The main controversy at the hearing last week was whether to allow “Height Opportunity” areas with bonus height allowed in return for Design Review. Opponents voiced concern about the late introduction of this concept by the Design Commission, resulting in code that leaves open the option for developers to request both increased height and an adjustment to the allowed intensity of building on sites. I wish someone had proposed prohibiting other variances in applications for increased height, which would have provided more certainty that the neighborhood will get what the process agreed should be built.

The other Regular Agenda item that intrigues me is:

1060 Accept bid of Bernhardt Industries, Inc. for the Lents Park Improvements project for $755,000 (Purchasing Report – Bid No. 108695)

It’s good to see money being spent on providing urban parks services in East Portland. I wonder how the improvements being funded would be impacted if the City decides to allow the Portland Beavers to move to an upgraded baseball stadium in Lents Park, as is being discussed.