Next Up at City Council, March 7, 2007

There are two Time Certain items on Wednesday morning’s Portland City Council Agenda: 9:30 a.m. (usually more like 9:40 or so) – Portland Citizen Disability Advisory Committee work plan for 2007; and 10:15 a.m. – Peak Oil Task Force Report. You’ll find a bunch of other interesting information on the Office of Sustainable Development site, if you’re looking for some useful surfing this weekend. The Peak Oil item includes a resolution sponsored by everyone except Commissioner Adams, “Establish a goal to reduce oil and natural gas use in Portland by 50 percent in 25 years and take related actions to implement recommendations of the Peak Oil Task Force.” The recommendations are accessible in the report linked from the page above, if you’re young enough to be able to read the small print.

The “News & Issues & Proposed Policy” page linked on the front of PortlandOnLine is, as usual, silent about the items on next week’s agenda. Neither the Disability Program site nor the Portland Citizen Disability Advisory Committee page indicates what their item concerns.

Prior to the Time Certain items, the slate of Citizen Communications is full, with five people signed up to give City Council three minutes of their time. Topics include the Police, Walk Safe umbrellas, Children’s Rights, pornography on Sandy Boulevard, and repaving Sherwood Place. We live in such a rich and interesting city.

More federal money is coming our way for streetcars:
*218 Accept a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the amount of $72,168 for the Portland Streetcar Loop Project (Ordinance)*219 Accept a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the amount of $496,000 for development of Portland Streetcar (Ordinance). The asterisk denotes an emergency ordinance. Best to take money from the feds before they change their minds and send it to Halliburton in Iraq.

An emergency ordinance I don’t like to see: *220 Authorize the Portland Office of Transportation to acquire certain permanent and temporary easements necessary for construction of the street and traffic calming improvements in the SE 152nd Avenue Local Improvement District through the exercise of the City Eminent Domain Authority (Ordinance; C-10017). This translates to someone’s private property being condemned for street improvements. Although I learned on the Planning Commission that there are tax advantages to condemnation versus willing seller, and therefore sometimes property owners would rather have their land taken by eminent domain, I don’t like to see condemnation ordinances.

There are only three items after the Time Certain topics on the Regular Agenda for Wednesday morning, and nothing Wednesday afternoon/evening or Thursday. The three hearings on Wednesday are:
226 Consent to transfer of Alberta Sanitary Service Inc. residential solid waste and recycling collection franchise to Portland Disposal and Recycling Service, Inc. (Second Reading Agenda 196). Does anyone care?
*227 Authorize contract with Walker Macy to provide planning, design and construction administration services for improvements to Waterfront Park (Master Plan, pdf), Ankeny Plaza & Streetscape Improvements (Ordinance), and
228 Authorize Park System Development Charge grants for funding capacity to increase improvements to City botanic gardens (Second Reading Agenda 197).
This last item is a bit odd, since it allocates Systems Development Charge (SDC) money for “capacity expanding capital projects have been requested from each of the five botanic gardens within the City’s Park System: Hoyt Arboretum, Japanese Garden, Portland Classical Chinese Garden, Leach Botanic Garden, and Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.” It seems odd to me because I thought SDC money isn’t supposed to be used to support existing parks. I will do additional research and report on the topic of Parks SDCs when I know more.