Next Up at City Council, May 2-3, 2007

Goodness, May already. First up on the Portland City Council’s Wednesday, May 2 Agenda are four Citizen Comminications, one on the Water Bureau and three regarding pedestrian safety on 122nd. I hope the three outer Eastsiders get some action in response.

Woo hoo! On the Consent Agenda, 474 Accept a $100,000 Land & Water Conservation Fund grant from Oregon Parks & Recreation to rehabilitate the pool in Pier Park (Ordinance). When they say, “Accept”, what they mean is that Parks staff and community volunteers worked together to write and interview for the grant, probably beating out many other competing applications from Parks departments and citizens all over Oregon. Portland Parks & Recreation and the Portland Parks Foundation are very, very good at this. Good to see another one in the win column.

There are two Housing issues on the regular agenda: 453 TIME CERTAIN: 9:30 AM – Make Portland a more livable city for all by bringing community resources together to increase homeownership and homeownership awareness among City of Portland employees, retirees, people of color, and families with school age children (Resolution introduced by Mayor Potter and Commissioner Sten) and
480 Authorize contract with Dignity Village to manage transitional housing campground at Sunderland Yard (Ordinance introduced by Commissioners Adams and Sten)

Ooh, the Second Reading of 482 Authorize revenue bonds to finance costs of the Portland Mall Revitalization Project, the one which Dan Saltzman questioned last week. Betcha all questions will have been answered behind the scenes to the satisfaction of all, otherwise likely it wouldn’t be back on the Agenda for a vote so soon.

There’s a bunch of other stuff on Wednesday morning, including a report on the Combined Sewer Overflow project. It’s always worth clicking on the Agenda link at the top of the page and skmming it over for yourself, as depending on how tired I am when I write this item, sometimes things excite me more than others. All the activities and worrying about the election this week have left me not particularly alert for this one.

Wednesday afternoon, 489 TIME CERTAIN: 2:30 PM – Direct Portland Parks and Recreation to adopt new sponsorship and naming policies – our old new friend is back. Comments still being taken until Monday evening – details/review here. Then the “Sit-Lie ordinance” legislation, 490 TIME CERTAIN: 3:00 PM – Establish a Street Access for Everyone Oversight Committee (Resolution introduced by Mayor Potter) and
491 TIME CERTAIN: 3:00 PM – Replace Code Section Obstructions As Nuisances with new Section Sidewalk Obstructions (Ordinance introduced by Mayor Potter; replace Code Section 14A.50.030). I check Mercury Blogtown, Rocket Poetry, and Loaded Orygun (see Favorite Links, left sidebar) for coverage of this issue.

Thursday afternoon, May 3 starts with a presentation on sustainability in Belfast, Ireland. That’s followed by the continuation of last Thursday’s Measure 37 claim of William Lobdell, which wasn’t finished because the applicant arrived late having not received the Staff Report on time.

The final item on Thursday: 494 TIME CERTAIN: 3:15 PM – Appeal of Elias Bitrous and George Bitrous, applicant, against the Hearings Officer’s decision to deny a proposal to divide a 7.5 acre site into a 21 lot subdivision located at 7615 SE 162nd Avenue (Hearing; LU 06-106436 LDS EN M). It’s good to see the Hearings Officers denying proposals that don’t meet the code and approval criteria. Often, changes are made in the application at or before the Council hearing, enabling the project to move forward.