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After two years of planning, public meetings and stakeholder input, the Portland City Council gave its formal approval to the , which eventually will be incorporated into an overall Comprehensive Plan that the city will use to guide development over the next 20 years.

After a two-hour discussion and unanimous approval of a resolution adopting the plan last week, senior city planner Troy Doss said none of the provisions of the plan can go into effect until the overall Comprehensive Plan is adopted by the city and then by the state. That means the earliest 聽the Southeast Quadrant Plan would be implemented would be next summer.

The city will use the Comprehensive plan to guide its development for the next 20 years.

The Southeast Quadrant Plan addresses 鈥渢he unique concerns鈥� of the city’s industrial Central Eastside (CES), home to more than 1,100 businesses and 18,000 jobs, more than any other district outside the city’s central core, as well as 1,000 households, according to the city.

Patrick Quinton, executive director of the Portland Development Commission, told city commissioners that work on the plan has been ongoing for years and is 鈥渙ne of the deepest job areas鈥� in the state.

鈥淯nless you figure out a way for new commercial and industrial space to develop, job growth will be flat,鈥� Quinton said. 鈥淭here are lots of opportunities but we need incentives for them to occur. Changes are needed to meet demand and opportunity for job creation.鈥�

According to the Southeast Quadrant Plan’s executive summary, stakeholders were concerned primarily with protecting industrial land and providing transportation options and parking solutions.

The Southeast Quadrant Plan will encourage job growth by expanding employment opportunity areas (EOS), allowing changes to city code to allow shared parking, the addition of traffic signals, increased bike infrastructure and green space as well as address other transportation issues.

The plan received vocal support from many in the audience at the City Council meeting, including Debbie Kitchin of the Central Eastside Industrial Council.

鈥淭he key issue is affordable space and concentration on continued planning,鈥� she said.

But Micah Meskel, conservation assistant at the Audubon Society of Portland, said he is concerned about a 鈥渢ipping point鈥� for industrial use.

鈥淲e fear that in five years, when the city reassesses industrial uses being met, it will regret decisions in the Southeast Quadrant Plan and the burden will fall on open space and natural areas, and that golf courses and open space will go to industries,鈥� he said.

Rinderd Schutten testified that he currently manufactures accessories for iPads in his basement, but will need new space next year.

鈥淵ou have an opportunity to show how urban manufacturing can work,鈥� Schutten said. 鈥淢aybe in a few years we will do it right and be an example for the rest of the county.鈥�

The Southeast Quadrant Plan is designed to increase opportunities around the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Clinton Station areas by changing the zoning to commercial mixed-use, high density employment, according to Doss.

The Central East Side is the only area of the city that showed job growth during the recent recession, Tyler Bump, an economist with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, said during his testimony to the City Council.

鈥淭here is a big demand for office space for industry, but we won’t be able to meet the demand with current zoning,鈥� he said.

Even as Mayor Charlie Hales touted the plan as a 鈥済reat example鈥� of grass roots planning, he stressed the need for Portland to avoid mistakes made by cities like San Francisco.

鈥淲e are trying to make the supply side, and trying to freeze the Central Eastside is not going to work, just like attempts to freeze the housing market in San Francisco didn’t work,鈥� Hales said.

The Southeast Quadrant Plan is the last of three plans to be approved by the City Council that will become part of the city’s overall Comprehensive Plan, which will be used to shape how Portland develops during the next two decades.

The first of the three plans, the North/Northeast Quadrant plan covering the Lloyd District and the Lower Albina neighborhood, was adopted in October of last year. The second plan, the West Quadrant Plan covering Downtown, West End, Goose Hollow, Pearl District, Old Town Chinatown, South Waterfront and South Downtown/University subdistricts, was approved in March.