City and regional officials are nearing a decision point on the exact route of a Portland Streetcar extension to Lake Oswego through the Macadam Corridor. Developer and condominium owner Verne Rifer is seeking to unite South Portland groups around a common position.
There are two principal routes upon which the streetcar could proceed south from its current terminus at Southwest Lowell Street: Southwest Macadam Avenue or an old railroad right of way currently used for sight-seeing by the Willamette Shore Trolley.
Transportation planners strongly favor the Willamette Shore route because it would involve very little property acquisition and would allow the car to achieve high speed traveling through areas where it does not have to co-exist with cars.
However, in places the right of way comes within a few feet of bedroom windows of houses constructed while the rail line was dormant. Residents have grudgingly learned to live with the Willamette Shore Trolley, which operates hourly on summer weekends, but serious transit service would have far greater impact.
Planners are looking at hybrid options that could wed the best of each route and still be acceptable to neighborhood interests.
Rifer told the South Portland Neighborhood Association that he is trying to unite support around a route that would go south to Southwest Boundary Street, move over to Macadam as proceed south to Carolina Street, then return to the Willamette Shore route. For any Willamette Shore route between Boundary and Carolina, "We'll fight them block by block and house by house," he said.
South Portland board member Bill Danneman raised a different objection: having the route along any part of the Willamette Shore right of way would deprive Macadam businesses of the benefits of having the streetcar stop near them. He proposed that the route continue along Macadam as far as Southwest Nevada Street. This position was ultimately adopted by a bare majority of the board.
Rifer argued against Danneman's proposal, but accepted the result. The north end was more critical, he said; a position that the line switch to Macadam before Boundary would be "dead in the water," he said.
Another South Portland board member, Jim Gardner, raised concerns that having a streetcar on Macadam would increase traffic congestion on a street that many fear will soon be overloaded. Rifer downplayed such concerns. Gardner replied, "I've heard the same (reassurances) about the streetcar downtown, and when I'm behind one, it's a lot slower."
HILLSDALE, SOUTH PORTLAND SEEK PEDESTRIAN CONNECTION
At the suggestion of Southwest Trails Committee chair Don Baack, the South Portland Neighborhood Association voted to join Hillsdale in seeking a better pedestrian connection across Southwest Boones Ferry Road.
The improvement would be "mitigation" for a pending ODOT project in which an overpass on Southwest Barbur Boulevard at Iowa Street will be replaced; the project will begin next year, take two years to complete and cost $3.5 million.
"That will mean noise and traffic impact for you, and you should decide how it should be mitigated," Baack told the South Portland board last month. However, the Boones Ferry crossing would "complete" Trail Three Hillsdale to Lake Oswego, "the best long distance walk we have in southwest," he said. Regarding any sort of mitigation from ODOT, Baack said, "You should figure out what's reasonable and ask for it rather than wait for them to make an offer."
PEDESTRIAN/BICYCLE DEMONSTRATION PROJECT PROPOSED
Southwest Trails Committee chair and pedestrian advocate Don Baack has proposed a demonstration project for potential federal funding that would address many long-unmet southwest pedestrian and bike needs.
Baack's proposal, as outlined in an e-mail to Jason Tell of the Oregon Department of Transportation, would be centered on Southwest Barbur Boulevard, but also take in parts of feeder streets such as Boones Ferry Road, Palatine Hill Road, Taylors Ferry Road, Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, and the Red Electric Trail.
The resulting system would serve the Oregon Health and Sciences University and Lewis and Clark College, among others.
Tell responded that the idea was an "interesting concept," but that the support of local jurisdictions was "critical" to its consideration. Another official, April Bertelsen, pedestrian coordinator of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said her bureau would initiate a detailed investigation of the feasibility of Baack's ideas.
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