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On Tuesday the from Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen to Portland Development Commission planner Peter Englander. The email shows Cogen’s frustration with the PDC’s attempt to push the new into overdrive. In the email, Cogen cancels a meeting between the two organizations on the topic.

“At the last meeting you confirmed that the work to date in creating this 70 percent ‘straw dog’ proposal was the precursor to the discussion of whether and when and according to what criteria the creation of a new urban renewal area should occur,” Cogen wrote in the email. “That discussion has not yet even begun.”

Back in July the PDC went on a media campaign of sorts, pitching its newest urban renewal area – a 325-acre URA covering bits and pieces of the downtown core – as the new age of urban renewal.

In an interview with Englander, he said, “This URA isn’t about where we want it, but rather where we need it. It’s more strategically placed and has public involvement from more sources than any URA I have ever worked on.”

Englander then took time to point out the swiss cheese-like look of the new URA map, leaving out properties that could potentially see large property tax increases (Park Avenue West site) and other county owned properties.

The point is the PDC was pushing this thing like it was going to be much more generous to the public school system and the county than any URA before. I’m not saying it won’t, because nothing has been decided yet, but it doesn’t seem to be heading in the right direction.

And I’ve talked to Cogen about urban renewal, and he’s an optimistic guy. He may be skeptical, but he isn’t anti urban renewal.

Anyway, Mayor Sam Adams took it upon himself to do some damage control earlier today by tweeting, “I have asked PDC to slow down the project’s timeline because we are headed into a tough budget season that will consume much of our time. PDC did not ask me about number of future mtgs on this issue: We can have as many mtgs as useful and needed. We do not yet have a draft I am ready to propose. We will continue to meet with County & school districts to discuss their issues. In terms of gerrymandering concerns: I asked staff to offer an initial boundary that was tight so as to have less impact on City and County revenues. Past districts were not skinny/gangly but massive in size. RT should be ashamed at this BS gerry mandering anyone? .”

Another interesting point is that Englander told me he thought the URA could be approved by the end of the year if “all the stars lined up.”

Maybe this was an attempt to meet that timeline. Maybe there just hasn’t been that much constructive conversation at the meetings. I don’t know because neither the county nor the PDC have returned my phone calls over the past two days. But regardless, this is another example of the continued disconnect between the county and the city, and urban renewal seems to be at the center of it.