From our Land Use & Transportation Chair, Terry Dublinski-Milton:
The North Tabor Neighborhood Association will be submitting our second letter of comment on the comprehensive plan for Portland’s development over the next generation next Tuesday. Here is a draft of the letter we will be discussing and voting on. Public comments are welcomed, encouraged and we look forward to seeing interested residents next Tuesday!
Not sure if this would go in a comprehensive plan, but the 50s bikeway where it crosses Burnside at 53rd is creating traffic snarls. Cars are turning northward from Burnside at 55th by The Tannery Bar, but that street doesn’t have the width to handle so much traffic. The city should take away parking on one side of that block between Burnside and Couch to ease traffic flow.
NE 52nd has also been affected by the new 50s bikeway and more cars are also using 52nd and running stop signs at NE 52nd and Davis. This makes the neighborhood more dangerous even as 53rd has slowed and become less so.
Thank you for the feedback, and I will send this information off to the project manager. There are a few issues that have come to my attention like this and we could get some mitigation measures, or at least counts done to see the after effects.
Yes. I am confident that is a traffic engineer sat at Burnside and 55th for a while, especially at heavy traffic times in the evening when folks are parking for The Tannery Bar and Tabor Tavern, they’d see the issue that has developed with a dark, narrow street with lots of traffic now.
I have already recieved a response from PBOT, and they will look into this. The project manager is planning on coming to our April 21 meeting to discuss the follow traffic counts, issues…..he forwarded this and a couple other suggestions to a traffic engineer.
Great. I’m afraid the best solution may be eliminating parking on one side of the street, which won’t be popular with The Tanner and Tabor Tavern businesses, but it will make the area safer for all involved.
I like many of the ideas presented in the letter. One thing about the comp plan updates I don’t understand is the gap in mixed-use zoning on Glisan between 61st and 65th avenues. Couldn’t that gap be closed so that new developments that occur there have the ability to include storefronts? Having single-family homes in that stretch seems like a waste of land. Part of the problem I feel for the 60th and Glisan commercial node is the lack of a continuous storefront area to provide more of a “place to be” there.
Thank for you input Joe. I received an e-mail from the city stating that this change has already been made at request of several of the property owners on this stretch of NE Glisan. It does not show up on the map ap as changes will all be incorporated into the final draft at one time. They also added a missing block on North Burnside between 57th and 58th.