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The Gun Room has been on Southeast Foster Road since 1965, enduring as a firearms retailer in an area sometimes known as 鈥渇elony flats.鈥�

Now, proprietor Warren Lacasse is worried an upcoming Portland Bureau of Transportation project to narrow the street and make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists will raise rents, reduce parking and lead to further gentrification.

鈥淲e need another Hawthorne like we need more people smoking dope,鈥� Lacasse said, comparing rough-hewn Foster Road to gentrified Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

Businesses and residents near Foster Road are facing a multimillion-dollar makeover of the throughway. Advocates have pushed for safety improvements along the corridor for years, but some old-timers like Lacasse worry the project will change the neighborhood for the worse.

Around the neighborhood, fliers blasting the project have appeared, saying it will encourage 鈥渕assive high-rise condos鈥� and wipe out small businesses.

PBOT plans to remake a long stretch of Foster Road 鈥� from Powell Boulevard to 92nd Avenue. The city, neighborhood association and a business group support the changes, but some business owners are marshaling opposition.

Stretches of Foster Road will be narrowed from two lanes in each direction to one, with a center turn lane. Buffered bike lanes will be added and sidewalks widened. Several traffic islands for pedestrians will be added or improved.

Foster Road will be repaved from Southeast 82nd to 90th Avenue as part of the city’s High Crash Corridor program.

PBOT plans to request bids for a construction contract by early February, with construction to follow in the spring, agency spokesman Dylan Rivera said. Project completion is scheduled for fall 2018.

PBOT has had the project on the back burner for years as the agency sought funding. It’s moving forward now in part because of funding from a voter-approved 10-cent gas tax and a heavy-vehicle tax enacted by the City Council.

鈥淭he project has strong support from the business community and the area neighborhood associations,鈥� Rivera said.

Indeed, the Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association has pushed for safety improvements along Foster Road for two decades, said Seth Gallant, the association’s transportation co-chairman.

The changes will help make Foster 鈥渁 place people want to be, instead of a place to get through quickly,鈥� Gallant said.

More density is coming to the neighborhood in any case. 72 Foster, a four-story mixed-use project from REACH Community Development, with 101 affordable apartments and ground-floor commercial space, is under construction at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Foster Road.

Another four-story mixed-use building planned for 5045 S.E. Foster Road is in permit review. It would bring 33 apartments over ground-floor retail space.

Gallant acknowledged gentrification is a concern, but said it shouldn’t hold back the street upgrades.

鈥淚t’s always a concern that rents can go up too much and displace people, but I don’t see it as a reason not to improve things,鈥� he said.

The changes should slow traffic, which will increase visibility of businesses along Foster Road, said Allen Rowand, vice president of the Foster-Area Business Association. The streetscape project will also eliminate dangerous left-hand turns and make it easier for people to walk and bike to shops.

鈥淭he benefits of the streetscape (project) far outweigh the negative,鈥� Rowand said. 鈥淔or residents and the vast majority of businesses along Foster, it is a win.鈥�

Lacasse isn’t sold on the idea.

鈥淲e can’t afford to let these businesses run out of Portland,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here will be no places to park. The blue-collar working class that’s always been here will be forced out of their homes because they won’t be able to afford the taxes.鈥�

Rowand views many of the changes as outside the neighborhood’s control. The best answer, he said, is to adapt.

鈥淲e can try as much as possible to maintain the spirit of Foster and try to guide the neighborhood in how we look at all of this,鈥� he said.