The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to authorize up to $41 million in revenue bonds to pay for construction of a new CityFleet maintenance facility, plus an additional $1.9 million for estimated financing and bond issuance costs.

The project will include a garage, an office, a parts area, electric vehicle charging stations and other related infrastructure. The total cost estimate is $57 million. Other funding includes approximately $14.6 million of Portland Clean Energy Fund grant money and approximately $2 million of fleet division cash resources.

The bond issuance process typically takes about 12 weeks, with a sale anticipated in March 2026 and closing in April 2026, according to a staff report by the city’s finance committee. Repayment is planned over 20 years at 5 percent interest.

The new facility’s annual costs, including debt service and operations/maintenance, will be approximately $7 million from 2026 through 2046. Costs will be covered through rates included in interagency agreements, which are paid by bureaus based on their expected use of project amenities, the ordinance states.

CityFleet has the largest municipal fleet in the state. A “path to net zero” calls for the fleet’s carbon emissions to drop to zero by 2050. To support this goal, CityFleet must have a primary maintenance garage able to handle electrical needs in terms of both capacity and efficiency. CityFleet’s existing facility, Kerby Garage, at 2929 N. Kerby Ave., is unable to support an electrification transition because of its outdated electrical system, small size and inefficient physical layout. Kerby Garage has a leaking roof, inadequate electrical and fire safety protection, and no capacity for EV expansion. Plus, it isn’t compliant with modern seismic and energy codes. The city estimates that even after a renovation that could cost $43 million, the building would fail to meet modern operational and safety standards, according to the city’s Bureau of Fleet and Facilities.

The new maintenance facility – to be called the Cutter Garage – will be at property on Swan Island, at 6800 N. Cutter Circle. The Cutter Garage will be operated under a 23-year lease, with options for two 10-year lease extensions. The facility is owned by Elm Realty Partners.

The Cutter Garage will be able to serve more than 2,400 vehicles used by more than a dozen city bureaus, accommodate the city’s growing electric vehicle fleet, and provide safe working conditions for 50 vehicle and equipment mechanics. Features will include safe and modern workspaces, multiple bays per worker, and a modern electrical system and EV charging infrastructure. The project team plans to seek a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver rating for the building.

The project team includes architect LRS Architects and construction manager/general contractor JE Dunn Construction.

The project is expected to enter the bidding phase in late November, with subcontractor selections and guaranteed maximum price recommendations targeted for mid-January, according to city spokesperson Alison Perkins.

The city expects permitting to take place in March 2026, and then construction to start the following month. The project is scheduled to be completed by spring 2027.

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The city of Portland, in slow and lurching fashion, is beginning to make a move toward increasing affordable housing.

A first City Council hearing of a framework plan for how to spend $258 million in bonds approved by voters is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 11. A second hearing would be held Oct. 18, with a vote possible that day.

If the plan is approved by the City Council, the Portland Housing Bureau plans to open transactions on bond deals on Oct. 20.

“We’re close,” Housing Director Kurt Creager said.

Mayor Ted Wheeler had asked the Housing Bureau to hold off on spending from the voter-approved bond until a plan was in place.

Part of the plan is a $50 million to $80 million budget for a “turnkey projects” pilot program, Creager said. Developers would use their own lines of credit and working capital to build projects and then sell them to the Housing Bureau.

Creager said the program could serve as a “backup plan” for developers who are encountering a market with more supply than it has had in recent years.

“They could get their profit and overhead covered, and a reasonable developer’s fee, without coming up with more money to please their bank in a softening market,” Creager said.

The program needs to be well funded to work, he added.

“I don’t think it should be less than $50 million, because it’s not worth people’s time and money,” he said.

As the Housing Bureau prepares for an influx of funds, private-sector nonprofit developers are finding a tougher time financing deals. Tax-credit equity markets have cooled since President Donald Trump’s election, and interest rates have ticked up.

The combination of more expensive loans and less equity has dented the ability of nonprofit developers to finance projects.

“We along with the entire industry have tried to figure out how to make up that gap,” said Cynthia Parker, president and CEO of BRIDGE Housing.

Nonprofit developers use a syndicator of tax credits – the National Affordable Housing Trust – that is owned by BRIDGE Housing and others. The tax credits are typically combined with bank financing. In July, BRIDGE purchased the Ramona, a 138-unit affordable apartment complex in the north Pearl District. Construction of The Abigail, a 155-unit mixed-income project with 128 affordable apartments, finished last year.

BRIDGE has other affordable projects under way in Hillsboro, the North Macadam neighborhood and the Eliot neighborhood.

The Housing Bureau’s bond money looms as an injection of funds into the affordable market.

Creager said the bureau has a “moral and ethical obligation” to build or preserve 1,300 affordable units with the bond dollars as promised. Portland voters approved the bond measure in November; property taxes increased as a result.

The bond funding should arrive at a good time, because the multifamily market is widely expected to slow, Creager said.

“We recognize that markets are dynamic and we have about four more years to put this money into service,” he said. “We’ll be liquid at the right time when the market recalibrates, instead of adding more froth to an already overheated market.”

While the Housing Bureau waits for the influx of bond money, it has made some opportunistic purchases.

In February, the bureau bought the Ellington Apartments in Northeast Portland for $47 million. The purchase preserved 260 units, including 44 affordable ones.

The City Council recently approved a $3.72 million purchase of a parcel at 3000 S.E. Powell Blvd. for affordable housing development. The property across the street from Cleveland High School is now the Safari Club, a strip club.

The site will be home to 100 to 300 affordable apartments, and could be used as an emergency shelter during development, Mayor Ted Wheeler said via Twitter.

The wide range of the number of units is due to different possible configurations for the site, Creager said. At maximum density, the Powell property could have up to 300 multifamily units, but the Housing Bureau is considering building townhouses along the southern edge of the property. That would help blend in with the neighboring homes, Creager said.

The Housing Bureau has been looking for a location to build affordable homes; if it goes this route, it may bifurcate the site, he said.

“It might be an appropriate place for it,” he said. “We’re not sure that maximum density is necessary. It sort of depends on the soil condition we find too.”

The townhomes could be three-level, no-lot dwellings sold to low- and moderate-income households at or below 80 percent of area median income, Creager said.

The lot was used at one time for dumping, and there’s a small landfill that must be excavated and disposed of properly, he said.

On Sept. 30, the $3.72 million purchase and sale agreement will close and the city of Portland will take possession of the property. It’s expected to serve as a women’s and children’s shelter until development of affordable housing on the site can take place.

“Until we have an entitled project for development, we’ll probably keep the building in some active use,” Creager said. “Because it’s across from the high school, it’s probably most suited for families or women. The best possible outcome would probably be utilization as a shelter for 12 to 24 months.”

Construction on the site will likely begin in 2019, Creager said.

The Housing Bureau has also acquired a site at Southeast 60th Avenue and Stark Street, north of Mount Tabor.

The property at 511 S.E. 60th Ave. is a YMCA child development center. The YMCA will be able to continue operations in a nearby church during construction at the site, Creager said.

The Housing Bureau aims to build 40 to 50 affordable units, along with a replacement YMCA facility and shared parking.

Portland paid $1.2 million for the property, known as the Mount Tabor Annex. The YMCA’s existing lease means the organization has possession of the property until Oct. 22, 2019, for use as a child-care facility.

A developer will be chosen by the housing commissioner after an open, competitive process, Creager said.

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Over the first two weeks of the 2016-17 academic year, administrators at Roosevelt High School reportedly dealt with only one disciplinary incident. Usually, staffers address many, many more, according to Vice Principal Daniel Malone, who thinks he knows what’s behind such a sudden and significant behavioral shift.

“This is a different kind of space,” he said. “Maybe they’re asking themselves, ‘Does this feel like a place to work or a place to play?’”

Crews scrambled night and day to turn over the first construction phase of the $92 million renovation and modernization effort at Roosevelt – one of four large projects funded by the 2012 Portland Public Schools bond. As the second phase gets out of the gate, Roosevelt is very much still a construction site, but district officials maintain that’s not a bad thing.

Visible changes

In August, Roosevelt students returned to a completely different facility. Gone are the dark and dingy pink-tiled restrooms, and “vermin,” to use Malone’s term.

New construction created a two-court main gymnasium, an auxiliary gym, a weight room, 33 general education classrooms, plus several career-technical classrooms for industrial arts/construction courses, a STEM/robotics laboratory and a writing/digital media publishing center. The new facilities will house three new community program spaces.

Renovation work is complete on the former auditorium building, which will now serve as the new media center / library with many new classrooms below. In just a few months, additional new facilities will open. These include the commons/cafeteria, band room, theater and “black box” theater classroom.

But the contractor, Lease Crutcher Lewis, isn’t quite ready to hand over certain areas, so the existing cafeteria wing will continue to house theater and band programs. The performing arts and commons wing, originally scheduled to open in the fall, now won’t do so until winter.

Another reason for the jockeying is tied to the 135-foot-high boom crane needed to renovate parts of the 95-year-old building. The iconic clock tower has limited options for positioning the machine, which is needed to convey materials for the renovation. The district will postpone opening areas under the crane’s swing radius – the new cafeteria and commons area, as well as the band room.

School first

With the school year under way and half of the project finished, Lease Crutcher Lewis crews are at work on the distinctive U-shaped original building.

Adding to an old building is always a challenge, PPS‘ Chief of Modernization Jerry Vincent said. Plus, with 900 high school students, teachers and staff, and upwards of 250 construction workers across 202,000 square feet, the site is rather constrained.

“It’s a very tight site,” Vincent said. “Plus there’s kids.”

The decision to keep the school occupied was a financial one, Vincent said. Acquiring portable classrooms or other swing space would have cost the district between $5 million and $6 million. The agreement is for the project to be completed in two years, but the team was under the gun to complete 65 percent of the project within one year. To finish within that demanding time frame, crews worked six days a week, with a swing-shift outfit performing work on space otherwise used for school activities. Crews even worked seven days a week in June and July.

There’s one choke point near the back of the school where builders and students cross paths. A guard stands there most hours of the day, allowing students to pass during their six-minute breaks between classes.

“It’s a school site first, and a construction site second,” Vincent said. “A key component of the project is that operations have to stay up and running for the school and safety is maintained and we do construction around that. So it’s not like they’re on our site – We’re on their site.”

Remnants of the past

Roosevelt is one of two high schools now under construction via money from the 2012 bond; the other is Franklin. Construction also is taking place at Faubion School, a K-8 facility. The fourth major bond-funded project is an update of Grant High School; it’s now being designed.

Despite the years of planning involved, old buildings like those at Roosevelt contain mysteries that keep contractors on their toes.

“When you can expose the undercarriage of your building, you start to see what your template is and if it actually matches the drawings,” Vincent said. “One of the biggest unforeseens we’ve had is all the changes over 80-plus years weren’t recorded, so we’re running into a lot of surprises in here.”

Crews have found unreinforced masonry (URM) as they go about adding shear walls and tying them in. As written into the bond language, seismic remediation is a major element of work all around the district. URM walls discovered in Roosevelt aren’t supposed to be load-bearing, but many of them appear to have been holding something up.

As crews tackle demolition, they are pulling tile and removing windows for cleaning. Lead pipes and lead fixtures are coming out by the Dumpster-full, and other environmental and health hazards are being addressed. Asbestos is a major concern, in part because it’s found in so many historic materials like magnesite, which was used in the original construction and in some cases was covered with three levels of overlays.

“It’s another of those seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time materials,” said David Mayne, communication manager for the bond program.

On a tour of the construction site, Vincent was pleased to see it being used as a school – i.e., kids studying, posters adorning the walls.

“I love to (see them) taking ownership of it,” he said.

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An advisory committee for Portland Public Schools is ranking which of its high schools most need capital improvements that would be paid for via a bond expected to go before voters in 2016, a district official said Monday.

PPS has initiated school improvement projects that were approved as part of its $482 million bond approved by voters in 2012. But only three of the district’s nine high schools are being modernized with that money. Projects at Franklin and Roosevelt high schools, still in the design phase, are slated to begin in 2015. Grant High School will be modernized starting in 2017.

The 24-person Bond Development Committee is determining which three of PPS’ other six high schools would be targeted next in a 2016 bond measure, said Jim Owens, executive director for PPS’ Office of School Modernization.

“The long-range plan is to do all nine of the high schools,” he said. “We are positioned to go forward in the fall of 2016 to get additional high schools put on. We are trying to determine what would be the criteria for the next three.”

The criteria – including building and seismic conditions, accessibility and the opportunity to leverage funding – will be weighed by the committee. Recommendations will be sent to the district’s superintendent, Carole Smith, who will then refer them to PPS’ board of directors for a decision June 23, Owens said.

Master planning work, funded via the 2012 bond, would then take place for the three chosen schools, he said. A third bond could be issued in 2020 for the remaining three high schools.

The current bond also includes money for summer improvement projects at up to 63 other schools for seven consecutive summers, Owens said. PPS will begin opening bidding this week for six summer improvement projects ($10 million in total construction value) covering 12 elementary or middle schools. Work will start June 13 and include roof replacements, seismic upgrades, ADA accessibility and science classroom construction.

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Relief is on the way for overcrowded schools in Ridgefield, Wash. On Tuesday night, Ridgefield voters approved a nearly $47 million construction bond to pay for new classrooms, traffic flow improvements and other upgrades at the four schools in the district.

The measure received 2,775 “yes” votes, or 64.84 percent – a decisive, but not overwhelming result. Passage required a supermajority of 60 percent plus one vote.

Tuesday’s result ends a streak of bond rejections from Ridgefield voters, who had previously passed just two bonds since 1991, according to district officials.

In 2008, voters rejected an $85 million bond for a new high school on a 29-acre property across the street from the existing one. Following that election, district officials worked with a team of volunteers and held frequent meetings with 26 “key stakeholders” in the community, according to Superintendent Art Edgerly. He said those conversations paved the way for the district to devise the latest proposal.

“We took a really good look at the proposed project and worked together every week to get the message out and identify the parts of the project that we felt would receive community support,” Edgerly said. “We’re very happy that it did.”

The bond will provide money for critical improvements at the campuses of South Ridge Elementary, Union Ridge Elementary, View Ridge Middle and Ridgefield High schools.

Union Ridge Elementary serves 665 students, but was designed to hold only 400. The cafeteria/gymnasium is crammed during lunchtime, when some students eat while others participate in gym class in the same space.

“Building a new high school didn’t resonate with a lot of folks, but you can see it when you go to the elementary school,” said Randy Mueller, chairman of Citizens for Ridgefield Schools, an organization that has campaigned for the bond since August. “They are stretched beyond capacity.”

The Ridgefield School Board approved a bond measure resolution Nov. 22, giving supporters two months to lobby for its approval. Citizens for Ridgefield Schools raised nearly $30,000 to aid its campaign, according to Mueller.

The district has worked with over the past year to come up with construction cost estimates. The Vancouver, Wash.-based firm will now begin the permit application and design work for the school upgrades, which are expected to be ready by fall 2014.

“Ridgefield has been one of the most engaged school districts we’ve worked with,” said Casey Wyckoff, an LSW principal. “And now is a really great time to be doing construction.”

The bond will pay for construction of 24 classrooms; five flexible spaces for cafeteria, band, choir and other activity uses; 245 parking spaces; improvements to athletic facilities and many other upgrades.

Ridgefield residents pay $2.11 per $1,000 of assessed home value for levies and bonds. With the new bond issue, they will pay $3.84 per $1,000.

District officials are hoping that the state will shoulder $2 million of the cost, according to Edgerly, but they aren’t counting on it. If that money comes through, however, it will be used to pay off a piece of the bond debt, he said.

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has found a unique way to increase inclusion of minority-owned, women-owned and emerging small business contractors. Officials simply wrote it into the contract.

“We did tell the contracting community when we were proposing this language and how we wrote the RFP … we told them we want our cake and (to) eat it too,” said Kathy Kiaunis, bond finance manager for PCC.

In 2008, voters approved a $374 million bond for renovation and development of PCC campuses. Because projects would be large and potentially complicated because of staging and on-site student management, Kiaunis said PCC wanted to use the construction manager/general contractor process.

But officials didn’t want only large contractors to benefit. So in addition to requiring that 20 percent of the CM/GC’s subs be MWESB contractors, they charged the building community to come up with some creative ideas.

“How do you guys increase the capacity of smaller general contractors to create opportunities so that at the end of the bond we have more folks who are in the community who are able to handle bigger projects and are able to grow their businesses?” Kiaunis said.

To that end, PCC recently hired a company called O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders for a $30 million project at its Southeast Portland campus. It’s a strategic partnership between – a large firm – and – an MWESB certified contractor. Those two companies have partnered with another MWESB firm, In Line Commercial Construction. Kiaunis expects the arrangement to open doors previously closed to smaller firms.

“Both of those firms should be able to, as a result of this work, increase their bonding capacity and be able to bid then on larger jobs themselves,” she said.

Don Geddes, vice president of Walsh Construction and partner in charge of the Southeast Center project, said the partnerships with O’Neill and Inline will add another layer of complexity to the job, but the challenges will remain the same.

“The biggest challenge, and is always our challenge, is communication,” Geddes said. “If you look at the industry we’re in, it’s all about building buildings. But the reality is it’s communication, because there are so many different pieces and so many different people.”

With three companies managing different parts of construction, Geddes said they will, for instance, make sure that solutions identified in one phase are shared so that problems are addressed effectively. Walsh also will have one managing superintendent to oversee O’Neill’s and In Line’s superintendents.

Geddes acknowledged that it’s a delicate situation.

“It’s a little scary, but the reality is we’re always going to have competition and if it’s not them it’s going to be someone else,” he said. “In order to have a community that we all want to live in, everyone has to have an opportunity to get part of the package.”

Maurice Rahming, owner of , said the idea for the partnership came about one day over coffee with Bob Walsh, owner of , as they discussed ways to create opportunities for small, disadvantaged firms. Rahming said he hopes the experience will give him the opportunity to see how big companies take care of business.

“We’re able to work with them and see from the ground up how a large, professional company like Walsh works and implements the contract,” he said. “It also highlights how the CM/GC process can produce inclusion. Without spending a million dollars for the disparity study, it has done what the disparity study would hope to achieve.”

Rahming referred to a $906,000 study that the city of Portland and the Portland Development Commission commissioned in 2009 to assess the disparity between availability and utilization of MWESB contractors.

One of the study’s findings was that revenues were less for certain disadvantaged groups than for others in the Portland area; that those same companies faced greater disadvantages in seeking capital financing and insurance; and that MWESB firms faced barriers in winning public-sector contracts.

For instance, the study found that for PDC-sponsored contracts, 3.2 percent of contract dollars went to minority-owned business enterprises out of a possible 4.8 percent. Additionally, 5.9 percent went to women-owned enterprises out of a possible 7.5 percent. The disparity was less significant for PDC-owned contracts.

While PCC’s big bond projects are just now ramping up, initial efforts to include MWESB firms on smaller projects has been successful.

According to PCC, 8.3 percent of the contract dollars for the $21.9 million Willow Creek job, managed by Skanska, went to MWESB contractors. For the $39 million Sylvania job, managed by , 22 percent of contract dollars have gone to MWESB contractors. And for the $5.98 million Newberg job, managed jointly by and – an MWESB firm – 25.2 percent of contract dollars went to MWESB contractors.

PCC also recently hired , in partnership with MWESB firms and , for a $38 million project at its Rock Creek campus.

Kiaunis said an RFP for a $39 million project at the college’s Cascade campus closes on Feb. 9 and that the mandatory pre-proposal meeting drew approximately half a dozen contractors.

Rahming said the fact that large contractors are inviting the little guys to the table is a big change for the industry.

“If you look at those projects (Newberg, Rock Creek and the Southeast Center) you’ll notice there is quite a bit of inclusion, whether awarded or proposing,” Rahming said. “The general contractors are making significant opportunities for minority and women firms … they drastically changed the landscape and drastically addressed the question.”

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To bond or not to bond? That is the question behind a class action lawsuit that Oregon tenants are bringing against a Northwest property management firm.

The lawsuit challenges Vancouver, Wash.-based ‘s practice of allegedly requiring tenants to purchase nonrefundable bonds in lieu of providing security deposits.

Portland-based filed the original complaint on behalf of the plaintiff, Alexcia Batiste, who lives on a Gresham property managed by Quantum. The Multnomah County Circuit Court recently decided that the lawsuit could proceed as a class action suit, and Steve Larson, the plaintiff’s attorney, said more than 2,000 people have been charged what his firm believes is an illegal fee.

“The law is supposed to be a mechanism for both sides to state their position,” Larson said of Oregon’s landlord-tenant law. “This bond is a nonrefundable premium and it doesn’t give the tenant an opportunity to dispute anything. All of a sudden the collection agency is coming after them for whatever amount the landlord is saying is (owed).”

The bond is a product offered by New Jersey-based . Instead of a large security deposit, the service allows tenants to pay a considerably smaller, nonrefundable premium as a guarantee on their performance of lease obligations. If damages occur, or rent payments are missed, SureDeposit pays the landlord and then pursues the tenant for the balance.

Joel Wilson of Portland-based y, the defendant’s attorney, said the bond is not a requirement, but rather an option offered to help tenants who are unable to afford a large, lump-sum security deposit.

“The bond is a significant benefit to many tenants who can pay a relatively small premium to the bonding company, and avoid having to go out of pocket for a much larger security deposit,” Wilson wrote in an email.

He said 95 percent of tenants given the option between a security deposit and the bond have opted for the latter. And because payment for the bond premium goes to a third party in exchange for a service – and is not a fee charged by the landlord – it is not a violation of the Oregon Residential Landlord Tenant Act, according to Wilson.

In 2009, changes to the act specifically outlined when and how landlords may charge tenants nonrefundable fees. Those situations include things like bounced checks, late rent payments and tampering with fire detectors.

Jim Straub, legislative director for the , said that before those changes took place, landlords could charge tenants for numerous things – such as not mowing their yards.

“It was that sting that motivated them to get out there and do it,” Straub said. “Some landlords abused that, so that was taken away from us. Very few landlords (abused it); but the few that did, abused it greatly.”

Straub, who also owns in Eugene, said he could see why a third-party bond would be attractive to a landlord because security deposits often don’t cover total costs of damages made by a tenant. For instance, Straub said, replacing carpet in a 1,100-square-foot house can cost as much as $3,500.

“There’s been more dispute in the last few years – as oil prices have risen, landlords have seen their replacement costs double, triple, quadruple,” Straub said. “And the amount that we can ask a tenant to pay moving in to cover that risk … we’re having to increase to cover our actual costs, or risks of actual costs down the road.”

Collecting money for damages at the end of a lease, especially during the recession, has also been exceedingly difficult. He said that if a collections agency has to pursue money on his company’s behalf, he doesn’t ever expect to see it again.

“You can’t squeeze blood out of a rock,” he said. “If they don’t have the money, they don’t have the money.”

According to one national collections agency, SureDeposit has proven to be an effective tool for tracking down lost dollars. ResidentCheck/ResidentCollect reported in June 2010 a 40 percent increase in collection results for files with a SureDeposit bond.

But Larson contends that the SureDeposit service unfairly unleashes collection agencies on tenants without giving them an opportunity to dispute claims.

Wilson argues the service is a valuable option for tenants unable to afford costly security deposits.

The next step in the case is to mail out notices to the class, which Larson said, should take place by Feb. 22. Those identified then have 90 days to drop out if they wish. Larson said both sides have requested a trial date of Aug. 27, 2012.

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Portland Public Schools officials are discussing plans that will impact the district’s next bid for a construction bond. After a $548 million proposal narrowly failed in May, the district is opting for a longer, more inclusive planning process it hopes will stir up more support.

Approximately 50 people on Tuesday night attended the first meeting of the newly named Long-Range Facilities Plan Advisory Committee, which will spend the next several months holding public meetings where people can weigh in on the size and details of the next construction package.

The district’s move toward a more inclusive process may attract more support from the construction community, according to John Killin, president of the .

“I think that a more open process really helps,” he said. “Then the construction industry will know more what’s coming, and the public will also better understand what they’re voting for.”

The previous bond request was the largest pitched by a local government in Oregon history. The money would have mostly gone toward reconstruction of eight schools, as well as various improvements at the district’s 77 others.

Superintendent Carole Smith said at the meeting that months of both formal and informal meetings since the voters’ decision have led her to conclude that the community wants to be more involved in planning of the next measure.

Although their reasons for rejecting the measure were diverse, voters consistently said that the construction plans should be based on a longer-term perspective, Smith said.

“We provided them with feedback during the previous campaign, and ultimately, school systems – not only PPS, but districts around the state – need better plans for the future,” said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of the .

Approximately 30 people were invited to serve on the Long-Range Facilities Plan Advisory Committee, according to PPS spokesman Matt Shelby. The group, which will meet six more times, represents a wide range of interests and expertise, including school officials, architects, parents and nonprofit representatives.

“This time they’re coming in with a realistic long-term plan that includes real data.” Killin said. “That will help the industry and the taxpayers. And contractors are taxpayers themselves – they watch their dollars wisely.”

Key considerations will include a 10-year student enrollment forecast, analyses of the facilities and their ability to support Portland’s shifting population, and issues related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, seismic safety and energy use.

“The Portland staff is on the right track, and ultimately, it’s good for construction because hopefully our members will compete for the projects,” Salsgiver said. “But even more than that, education is fundamental to economic success, and that is fundamental to our industry’s success. And we’re supporting that chain.”

The committee is charged with updating the district’s facilities plan by May 2012. The plan, although not a bond measure, will provide the groundwork for the district’s next proposal, PPS Chief Operating Officer C.J. Sylvester said on Tuesday.

After the committee submits its recommendations, they will be open to public comment. The school board is expected to adopt the updated facilities plan in June 2012. The next bond measure could go before voters as early as November 2012.

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A school district in Southwest Washington is aiming to build a new high school and will enlist the help of an architect in the next two months. Woodland Public Schools will go out for a bond to fund design and construction of a new high school next year.

The Woodland Public Schools school board approved a recommendation last week to propose to fund a $47.5 million new high school and $2 million in upgrades for other schools through a proposed bond measure. After $11 million in expected state funding assistance, the bond amount is expected to be $39.9 million.

The district will present the bond request to voters in April 2012. By Jan. 5, 2012, the district will select an architect to start working on the design of the high school. The building is slated to be 130,000 square feet and have capacity to hold 1,100 to 1,200 students, though it will only hold 850 to 900 when it opens. It would replace a school that currently is too small, where many students take classes in portable classrooms. The new school will be built on a site that was purchased with bond funds in 2005. In spring 2008, voters rejected a similar bond to build a new high school.

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The bond-funded projects at Portland Community College‘s Sylvania campus will eventually include new storage buildings, a new child development center, and 160,000 square feet of renovations spread among most existing buildings. Money for the work is coming from a 2008 bond that provided $374 million for construction at seven of the college’s campuses.

However, at Sylvania, where $52 million will be spent, project manager Gary Sutton said less than 10 percent of work is completed. The team is aiming, tentatively, to finish work in 2015. But first a feasible schedule must be developed for work at a crowded campus full of diverse interests.

The bond’s public involvement program manager, Gina Whitehill-Baziuk, is pushing hard to encourage all affected parties – people who teach, work or learn at the campus – to participate in planning.

“There is a strong commitment to shareholder engagement this time,” said Whitehill-Baziuk, who added that “thorough” conversations would take place.

For the construction team, that means a lot of waiting.

“Frankly I didn’t foresee so much involvement with outside stakeholders,” Sutton said.

He said that stakeholder involvement has been the largest challenge in getting work off the ground. Construction can’t move ahead until stakeholders determine where offices should be located and what they should include.

Even then, the team can’t plan for construction without a schedule, which presents its own challenges when most of the work is renovations. So the project team is looking for “swing space” – some extra, unused space where classes or offices can be relocated during construction. The college doesn’t want to reduce the number of classes during the renovation process, said Linda Gerber, president of PCC’s Sylvania campus.

The campus doesn’t have a lot of space, however, and it’s becoming even more crowded. Since the bond was passed in 2008, the student body at Sylvania has increased by 27 percent – an unanticipated jump, Gerber said. The student body already is the size that officials had expected it to reach when bond work wrapped up.

“We thought we were fully subscribed (in 2008). Now there are students in every cranny (of the campus),” Gerber said. “We know that we’re going to need to create swing space. We’re working to determine where.”

One option would be to complete the 10,000-square-foot child development center early on, so it could be used as temporary space while renovations take place elsewhere. However, an extensive visioning and involvement process could hold up construction, Sutton said.

Other options for swing space include temporary portable classrooms, or a planned new storage facility serving as classroom space temporarily.

For now, the team is trying to be “opportunistic” with the projects that can move forward, Sutton said. That means moving in to renovate a space when there is a break in classes or a lull in activity. This past summer, for example, when fewer students were on campus, contractor Howard S. Wright renovated a floor of the campus’ social sciences building.

Other completed projects include replacement of an inefficient boiler and a dehumidification effort at the campus’ pool. A road connection on “G Street” completed a ring around campus, and some renovations are moving at a “slow” pace, GBD Architects principal Kyle Andersen said.

“It takes some inertia to get going,” he said. “Once it starts, it will be steady.”

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