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City planners are seeking public comments on plans to demolish a historic building and reservoirs in Portland’s Washington Park.

Bureau of Development Services staffers issued a last week, for the first of two land use review applications that Portland Water Bureau officials submitted in December. The applications are for a $76 million project to build a new underground reservoir in place of the park’s existing open-air reservoirs.

A copy of the first application is posted on the PWB website. Comments sent to city planner Hillary Adam by March 9 will be included in the official record, and a staff report will be presented at a Historic Landmarks Commission public hearing scheduled for March 23 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 2500A, 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave.

A second public hearing before the Portland City Council is scheduled for April 23 at 2 p.m. at Portland City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave.

With the PWB’s first land use application, officials are seeking the City Council’s OK to demolish the historic Weir Building and remove portions of two reservoir basins to make way for the proposed Washington Park Reservoir Improvements Project.

Project plans call for a fountain consisting of a series of tiered pools and a nature area atop a planned 15-million-gallon underground drinking water reservoir in the footprint of one of the existing reservoirs. Washington Park’s other reservoir would be decommissioned and a lowland habitat area and reflecting pool would replace it.

PWB officials plan this spring to submit a second land use review application for construction of the new covered reservoir, reflecting pools, lowland habitat area and walkways as well as rehabilitation of historic structures nearby.

Officials announced last year that they plan to proceed with the project after receiving a mandate from the Oregon Health Authority to follow a federal regulation that outlaws the use of uncovered reservoirs to store finished drinking water. The rule is intended to reduce the risk of exposure to contaminants.

Hoffman Construction crews are scheduled to start work on the project on July 1, 2016 and wrap up in late 2020.

Public comments on the initial land use review application for the project can be emailed before March 9 to [email protected], faxed to 503-823-5630, or mailed to Hillary Adam, Land Use Services, Bureau of Development Services, RE: LU 14-249689, 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave., Suite 4500, Portland, OR 97201.

Comments submitted after March 9 can be faxed to 503-823-5630, or mailed to the Historic Landmarks Commission at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave., Suite 4500, Portland, OR 97201.