Land Use gets Tangled in Transportation


Thursday’s Oregonian featured two stories about transportation getting tangled up in land use decisions.

First, Sam Adams has proposed a moratorium on large commercial development on Hayden Island to protect the river crossing. City Council needs to give 45 days notice before taking such a vote and Sam collected a resolution of support for starting the notice period from the Columbia River Crossing Task Force. Sam got a similar resolution from JPACT on Thursday.

Of course, this would also have the effect of stalling development of a Wal-Mart, Sam’s favorite employer, on the island.

The front page describes the legal battle between the City of Portland and SK Northwest over a greenway trail connecting the Eastbank Esplanade with the Springwater Trail. The applicability of a local case that went all the way to the Supreme Court (Dolan v. Tigard) is being debated.

This story was originally broken by BikePortland.org, which got no love or credit in the Oregonian story.


3 responses to “Land Use gets Tangled in Transportation”

  1. Buried on the back page of the Oregonian story on Hayden Island was the most recent options narrowing from the Columbia River Crossing. Most of those options put a new bridge right through the WalMart site. Seems reasonable to put the brakes on over there…as long as one is forced to use an Interstate freeway in order to have a drink at Shennanigans on Hayden Island.

  2. The map on the front page of The Oregonian shows the proposed riverfront trail connection cutting directly through and separating about one quarter of each of the two private properties in dispute. That is nothing less than a taking by the City of Portland. The US Supreme Court case mentioned in The Oregonian story involved the City of Tigard also wanting to take private property for a creek trail, and also would not approve a building permit without the taking. The court ruled in favor of the property owner. If the City of Portland and/or bicyclists want a route that cuts through private property, then the City needs to be required to buy the property. Following any purchase, user bicyclists should be directly taxed for the price tag.

  3. Terry, the folks over at bikeportland.org, who are following this more closely, say the line on the map is not accurate, it’s closer to the river.

    No question the Dolan case is going to get sited here, but there seems to be a question about the degree of ‘nexus’ between the required easement and the builing project. We’ll see how it plays out.

    I have been told that Sam Adams offered to just buy the trail land from the owner, and he refused. I don’t know if that would suggest that if the City loses the appeal they might consider emminent domain.

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