Gateway proposal gets good news and bad: city approval, little cash

Opportunity Gateway's volunteer-detailed plan does get $421,000 to start work on the regional hub

Thursday, February 24, 2000

By Kara Briggs of The Oregonian staff

The Portland City Council gave its resounding approval Wednesday to Opportunity Gateway, the plan for turning the 650-acre Gateway Business District into a regional center, but warned residents that the city won't have money to help the plan become a reality.

Opportunity Gateway -- which hundreds of people who live near the aging suburban shopping center helped envision -- guides redevelopment using design review, landscape requirements and transportation planning. By 2030, the plan will turn Gateway into a regional hub, second in size and scope only to downtown Portland.

Mayor Vera Katz commended the neighborhoods for not burying their heads in the sand when it comes to urban growth and redevelopment.

"You recognized that because of your location you will change, whether we do anything or not," Katz said. "The community recognizes the fact you have to manage your own change."

The Gateway Business District, as defined in the plan, stretches from Interstate 84 two miles south to Portland Adventist Hospital, and from Interstate 205 west to roughly 105th Avenue. Both the Eastside MAX and the new Airport MAX pass through it. It has 350,000 residents within a five-mile radius, and most commuters from the eastern suburbs have to pass through it one way or another.

Usually when the City Council hears a neighborhood present its plan, city staffers make the pitch. In Gateway's case, volunteers prepared statements, and one after another they explained different aspects of the complex plan.

It was similar to the way residents of several neighborhood associations, spearheaded by Hazelwood leaders, took charge of the planning process 18 months ago. They produced a plan that includes safer streets, better sidewalks, civic centers, taller buildings and a lot of little parks.

"This presentation is one of the most intelligent and cohesive efforts by a neighborhood to plan its future," Commissioner Charlie Hales said.

But he warned that the city doesn't have a mechanism for raising the millions of dollars that it will take to prepare every neighborhood for the future. The discussion of money was prompted by a request, which the council ultimately approved, to give Gateway $421,000 to start its work.

Dick Cooley, chairman of the Opportunity Gateway committee, said he would like to use the money to buy land for a city park.

Commissioner Erik Sten warned that the money wasn't enough to buy a park or do much else on the scale that would affect Gateway. Commissioner Jim Francesconi, who is in charge of the Parks Bureau, said the money might go farther in a smaller district such as Hollywood, where the city also approved $100,000 to help fix storefronts and improve a public plaza.

Francesconi and Sten said that the neighborhoods need an urban renewal district in Gateway to make the changes they are seeking. Urban renewal districts dedicate property taxes from a district to pay for public improvements there.

Members of the Opportunity Gateway committee in recent weeks have begun exploring urban renewal as one option. Previously, residents hoped that all the changes could be financed by private business owners as they redevelop their land. But increasingly the costs of sizable road improvements and land purchases for parks have made Cooley and some others look at the option, which is being used in nearby Lents.

"I think we have some indication that today's urban renewal is different from past urban renewal," said Bonny McKnight, who lives in Parkrose and serves on the Gateway committee. She and Cooley think that when more Gateway landowners learn about the potential of the plan, they will be open to urban renewal.

But Katz predicted that urban renewal would be a tough sell in Gateway. "I am particularly not interested in going into a neighborhood and fighting every inch of the way," she said.

And she said the city must find ways to support its growth financially, particularly at a regional center such as Gateway that will play a key part in the city's future.

Cooley agreed that Gateway is important to the whole city, not just the east side. "We really believe a successful Gateway is the most important part that Portland can play in 2040 planning," he said.

You can reach Kara Briggs at 503-294-5936 or karabriggs@news.oregonian.com.

Copyright 1999, Oregon Live ®