The future of urban renewal in Portland

Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogan visited the Action Committee of the League of Women Voters of Portland a couple of weeks ago, and made some excellent suggestions regarding the future of urban renewal districts in Portland.

1. Include assessment of the impact on taxing jurisdictions, including the City’s general fund, in criteria for creating new urban renewal areas or expanding existing ones. (This has already been started).

2. Spending should be kept to a reasonable level and should be done in a way that benefits the impacted taxing jurisdictions.

3. Use other resources besides Tax Increment Financing dollars, such as program income, to pay for basic services.

4. Require local partners, such as Multnomah County, to approve creation, expansion, and extension of urban renewal districts. Currently, only consultation is required.

I agree with these suggestions, which seem somewhat self-evident. I’m interested in exploring a further option, of the City of Portland seeking voter approval before expanding, extending, increasing the debt load, or starting new urban renewal areas (URAs). I don’t know if that would be legal by state law, but at the very least we should talk about whether there might be value in a non-binding poll of voters when the Council wants to increase the City’s indebtedness in Urban Renewal neighborhoods. The money borrowed and invested in urban renewal areas is a significant chunk of the City’s budget, not a relatively small line-item, and sometimes neighbors feel they don’t have much say in how that money is spent. If there’s a good case that can be made for packages of worthwhile projects, I believe Portlanders will support them if given adequate, clear information detailing specific costs and benefits. And if instead the URA proposal is more like Lots o’ Money for Who-knows-What, then maybe individual projects should compete for priority in the overall City budget alongside needs in non-URA neighborhoods.

Here’s the link to the future of urban renewal section on the PDC website. And one to the League of Women Voter’s memo (pdf) on the future of urban renewal areas on the Westside.

And to round out my oh-I-wish-I-had-time-to-delve-into-this-fully coverage of this crucial topic, here’s Jack Bog’s blog‘s post yesterday which includes a link to a Portland Business Alliance (PBA) position, in which I agree with the first half of their proposal. The PBA is advocating that two downtown urban renewal areas be allowed to end on schedule, instead of expanding or extending them. Jack links to a helpful summary by Andy Dworkin on City Hall Blog.

Check out the links above. They make fascinating reading.