November 17, 2015 Minutes

AGENDA ITEM

TIME (PERSON)

1.​ Introductions, review agenda, approve October meeting minutes Terry moves to approve mintues, Val seconds. Unanimous.

Ofc. Holthausen, visiting, said that the best way to prevent car prowls. Adam says may be hard to see no-right-turn sign.

6:30-6:40pm (Beth)

2. Updates from Montavilla-East Tabor Business Association with Steve Rice

Steve met Beth when she was talking about starting a North Tabor/Glisan Business Association.

As part of that effort he met with Biddy's owner, who said there were various

6:40-6:55pm (Steve)

businesses interested. But Montavilla businesses didn't show up at a North Tabor meeting, which they took as a sign that there isn’t a ton of shared identity. So they incorporated Glisan businesses east of 67th into their district and stand ready to be a peer of a future North Tabor business association.

They held a night-before-Halloween event for Glisan businesses and are looking for more ways to promote local stores.

They're trying to remain aware of four-story mixed-use apartment buildings that are "sure to come." For example, a 40-45 unit apartment building likely on the way in Montavilla in next few years. The farmers’ market lot will likely turn over 3-4 years ago when the adjacent vet clinic’s owners retire.

We're always welcome at their meetings. Their website: metba.org.

3. Elect officer positions for 2015-2016 board

Roles to be filled: chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer, land use and transportation, communications, arts, outreach, and general member. The board will also elect representatives to the Providence Good Neighbor Agreement and the SEUL board. During this time, the group discuss follow up steps needed if key roles are not filled.

Joel Meulenanas works as a pharmacist in Montavilla. His main interest is land use and transportation. He just moved to the area and would like to join the board. Terry moves to add him to board, Max seconds. Unanimous.

Keith volunteers to serve as chair.

Terry volunteers to be backup facilitator for an absent chair (but not, technically, vice chair).

Max volunteers to stand as treasurer.

Michael is hoping to step down from his secretary role and focus on project-y things like the North Tabor Promenade grant bundle and the neighborhood cleanup.

Joel is potentially interested in secretary duties.

We're without a communications director at the moment. Keith will take those duties right now.

Keith's goals as chair are to ensure that the Note continues to exist, to maintain or improve our communications and to advance the 60s bikeway/North Tabor Promenade plan.

Max's goals as treasurer are to take on some new "dry responsibilities." As arts chair, his goal for the year is to figure out how to get some interesting arts project into the North Tabor Promenade project, including maybe a parklet on 65th southwest of the juvenile detention center.

Terry moves to approve these candidates; Michael seconds. Unanimous.

6:55-7:20pm (Beth)

4. 2016 South East Uplift neighborhood small grants

Discuss ideas for submitting another grant application for the upcoming year.

EMSWCD grant – due Dec. 15, focusing on Rosemont Bluff. The long-term strategy is to get a "PIC Plus" grant worth $100k a year for up to five years if you get 1:1 matching funds. The goal is to match that with parks, PBOT and BPS funds to create a linear park with bird- and wildlife-friendly plants from the MAX station in the right-of-way along Oregon Street and up 65th and Hassalo to the bluff.

A SEUL grant can range from $300-$4000 and is spent on "community building."

Keith described a possible SEUL grant that would fund:

meetings with food and publicity

a brochure about the North Tabor Promenade

kiosk/information

gardeners association, Xerxes Society might help

Kelly at SEUL is available to review drafts of grants.

Michael​ will meet with Ted Walker to talk about the EMSWCD grant, looping in Keith, Max and Terry to ensure that it fits in with our vision for the anticipated SEUL grant.

7:20-7:30pm (Beth)

5. Land Use and Transportation Committee

Presentation and discussion about changes in residential zoning within the Comprehensive Plan that will impact North Tabor – led by Marty Stockton of the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

The city is near the end of a six-year effort to update its comprehensive plan, which affects the zoning, which affects the nature of development.

We spoke with Marty for almost an hour and a half, and opinions in the room varied widely (though opinions of sitting board members seemed to vary less).

Marty, the planner, says the city is in "desperate need" of more housing but feels the city's multilayered zoning code isn't transparent enough for people to understand: for example, those in the pocket between I-5 and Glisan may not realize their neighborhood is slated to get much denser development in order to take advantage of the super-frequent MAX stop nearby. She also explained how, until the recession, almost all new development in this area was taking place east of I-205.

Terry thinks increasing the housing supply through greater density is a moral necessity to slow the rise of housing prices. He thinks this can be accomplished through a combination of low-rise apartment buildings on main corridors and ADUs, duplexes, etc., in residential neighborhoods, and that more design flexibility in residential neighborhoods would make it possible for developers to build on existing lots without demolitions. His goal for his own home, for example, is to add another

7:30-8:30pm (Terry, Marty)

unit to it in order to raise the money to do a needed earthquake retrofit.

Kristie is upset about nice old homes being demolished near hers, whatever they are replaced by, and feels that more design restrictions are needed to nudge developers toward retrofits rather than demolitions. She thinks it's OK to have more density closer to the MAX stop than her immediate area. She also thinks more development and new population should go to East Portland or the suburbs.

Gabe is upset about new development, particularly new density, except on the corridors. On the corridors, he's OK with new density but only if it has plenty of on-site parking. He says that affordability matters to him, though it is not his top priority, and does not believe that more housing supply slows the rise of home prices.

Diane is upset about new development, in part because it often destroys plants, trees and green areas. She feels depressed and powerless about the city's willingness to give concession after concession to Providence and other developers. She does not believe that more housing supply slows the rise of home prices.

Michael is upset about rising rents, and said that although he does not love demolition he thinks it is necessary to create more housing supply. He believes that allowing lots of fancy additional housing supply for rich people are the best way to stop rich people from pricing other people out of older homes, and he believes that the best place for new homes is near good transit lines like the MAX.

Max is upset about rising rents and home purchase prices and thinks the city's desirable neighborhoods need more small units that people with middle incomes can afford to purchase. He believes that increasing housing supply, especially of smaller units, would help with this.

Adam wants to live in a small home, apartment or otherwise, where he doesn't have to own a car.

Keith's top priority is preventing displacement, and he likes the proposed plan to tentatively allow a significant upzone along the freeway north of Glisan and west of 60th on the condition that the state legislature approves inclusionary zoning.

Terry invited Kristie to work with him on a set of building design standards for the area similar to those used in Boise and being written in Richmond.

In conclusion, there seemed to be rough consensus around the basic principle of restricting demolitions and 3/4-story development to commercial corridors and to the area within a block or two of the MAX stop. There was not clear consensus about issues like parking requirements, the nature of future design standards, the parameters of inclusionary zoning, or the right level of density away from corridors.

Marty said it would be very helpful to contact BPS with feedback about what general goals and values to prioritize by Monday, Dec. 21​. Urban form issues (setbacks, height limits, etc.) should be redirected to city's ongoing infill housing (single-family zone) project and its upcoming multi-family zone next year.

Marty also explained that the city is anticipating legal challenges to its plan, which might delay implementation until 2018 or so.

City staff will release a proposed draft of their plan on Jan. 18. After this, citizen communications should go to the Planning and Sustainability Commission (and, after they vote next year, the city council) rather than to staff.

6. Wrap up

Identify future meeting agenda items:

● EMSWCD and SEUL grants

● January meeting at a local business (Dec)

● NTNA Strategic plan (Dec)

● Updating NTNA bylaws (Dec)

8:30pm

(Beth)