91ÊÓƵ

I took the 4 bus along Division Street out to Portland Community College‘s Southeast Center on 82nd Avenue on Monday, hoping to learn more about planning efforts for the Powell-Division Transit and Development Project.

The ride gave me a taste of why this 16-mile, two-way stretch between downtown Portland and downtown Gresham is such a high-priority transit corridor for TriMet, Metro and local communities.

Leaving downtown, the still unnamed Portland-Milwaukie transit bridge will become a critical link connecting the Central City with employment and education opportunities along the corridor, including PCC and Mount Hood Community College.

Getting off the bus at 82nd, the opportunities and challenges of the project became evident. PCC’s growth at its Southeast campus bears mentioning, as does the heavy traffic through that intersection. Safety is a critical issue: 82nd Avenue is one of several intersections along the corridor susceptible to crashes, according to Metro.

The 22-member Steering Committee for the project features a mix of neighborhood and community leaders, state and local elected officials and agency heads. They include Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick, Gresham City Councilor Lori Stegmann, Multnomah County Commissioner Diane McKeel, Metro Councilor Bob Stacey and TriMet GM Neil McFarlane.

Committee members represent a broad range of interests and objectives ranging from prevention of displacement to improvement of economic development opportunities. They spent the first two-hour meeting setting goals for what is expected to be a yearlong process. Ultimately, they will create a transit plan for the corridor.

“The process will demonstrate how transit can inform the kind of community and economic development we would like to see,” said Brian Monberg, Metro’s project manager.

Opportunities include creating a project able to leverage state and federal funding, he said.

Possible outcomes include a high-capacity transit corridor that would be served by either light rail or bus rapid transit, which typically has dedicated lanes, carries more passengers and has fewer stops than regular bus transit.

The final project will consider input given by the community, as well as city and regional planning efforts, Monberg said.

“We’ve been working to develop these goals in ways that will be measurable, in terms of choices that we’ve been making over time,” he said.

The committee is expected to meet next in June. For more information, visit .