The city of Portland has decided to delay any further work on the River Plan until the city’s new comprehensive plan, the Portland Plan, is completed in two years.

After both the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals and the Court of Appeals sided against the River Plan, which would have enforced new zoning and mitigation standards along the Willamette River, the city has decided to pull back on any more work.

After passing the North Reach portion of the River Plan earlier this year, the Working Waterfront Coalition, an industry group representing businesses in the Portland Harbor, immediately appealed the plan to LUBA. LUBA then sided with the industry group, asking the city to complete several tasks before the new zoning can go into effect. Businesses and property owners are concerned about losing too much developable land.

The major step needed for the city to comply is to create an Economic Opportunities Analysis. City staffers are in the middle of creating that document, but according to Chief Planner Joe Zehnder, the city wants that analysis to be incorporated into the comprehensive plan before moving forward.

Zehnder said the city wants to reopen discussions with stakeholders about the zoning and regulation in the plan in the coming months.

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In the constant battle of industry vs. government in Portland, industry has notched another victory.

Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals sided with the , an industry group that represents water dependent businesses in the Portland Harbor, on its claim that the city needs a new buildable lands inventory. The ruling comes after the state Land Use Board of Appeals halted the city’s proposed in January, further diminishing the city’s chances of new environmental zoning on the Willamette River.

The North Reach of the River Plan, which covers land along the Willamette River north of the Broadway Bridge, was passed by the city last year. It was immediately appealed by the WWC to LUBA, and eventually was remanded back to the city with the request that the city determine how much industrial land will be lost with the new zoning and how that land will be replaced.

The WWC didn’t think that was enough, so it appealed the LUBA decision to the Court of Appeals saying the city failed to address Statewide Planning goal 15, which requires various activities to be protected along the Willamette River. The goal couldn’t be met, the WWC said, unless the city conducted a buildable lands inventory. The Court of Appeals sided with the group.

While there isn’t an end in sight to the remand for the city, a buildable lands inventory could be a stepping stone to moving forward with the River Plan.

As part of the city’s , a 25 year vision, city officials plan to conduct a buildable lands inventory. The issue will first be discussed by the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission, along with a public hearing, at the Tuesday, June 28 . The meeting is at 6 p.m. at 1900 S.W. Fourth Ave., room 2500.

– Nick Bjork

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The next few months should prove crucial to the owners of waterfront property in Portland as the city and state will take action on several important topics.

The first is the , which was adopted by City Council on April 15. The plan is a comprehensive land-use plan for land along the Willamette River north of the Freemont Bridge to the Portland Harbor.

The Working Waterfront Coalition, an industry group representing 17 water dependent businesses, as well as the public companies, Schnitzer Steel and Gunderson, immediately appealed the decision to the Land Use Board of Appeals.

Basically, part of the River Plan states that most any development project that takes place along the river will have to go through an in-depth and time consuming (costly) process known as the River Review. Businesses don’t want to do this. They would rather pay into a mitigation fund as a fee in lieu of River Review. They’ve proposed a fee of 1.5 percent of the total cost of the project.

LUBA will take up the appeals during hearings starting Dec. 2 in Salem, and is expected to have a ruling in January 2011. While the final ruling will only take effect on the north portion of the River Plan, it will surely have implications on how the city approaches the Central Reach (Freemont Bridge to Ross Island Bridge) and South Reach (Ross Island Bridge to city line).

Not to be overshadowed, the Portland City Council is . While the project is focused around updating the airport master plan, if approved as is, it will also ban future development within 50 feet of the entire Columbia Slough. The Columbia Slough runs through one of Portland’s major industrial areas in Northeast Portland and would have an effect on several business located on it.

Anything that currently sits within the 50-foot zone – a loading dock or generator, for example – would be allowed to be repaired or replaced, but not improved . And if nothing is presently in that zone, nothing would be allowed.

While there are very strong, and well-founded, opinions on both sides of these two issues, waterfront property owners, or individuals looking to purchase waterfront property, should keep an eye on both.

The post Looming Portland waterfront land-use decisions appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

The next few months should prove crucial to the owners of waterfront property in Portland as the city and state will take action on several important topics.

The first is the , which was adopted by City Council on April 15. The plan is a comprehensive land-use plan for land along the Willamette River north of the Freemont Bridge to the Portland Harbor.

The Working Waterfront Coalition, an industry group representing 17 water dependent businesses, as well as the public companies, Schnitzer Steel and Gunderson, immediately appealed the decision to the Land Use Board of Appeals.

Basically, part of the River Plan states that most any development project that takes place along the river will have to go through an in-depth and time consuming (costly) process known as the River Review. Businesses don’t want to do this. They would rather pay into a mitigation fund as a fee in lieu of River Review. They’ve proposed a fee of 1.5 percent of the total cost of the project.

LUBA will take up the appeals during hearings starting Dec. 2 in Salem, and is expected to have a ruling in January 2011. While the final ruling will only take effect on the north portion of the River Plan, it will surely have implications on how the city approaches the Central Reach (Freemont Bridge to Ross Island Bridge) and South Reach (Ross Island Bridge to city line).

Not to be overshadowed, the Portland City Council is . While the project is focused around updating the airport master plan, if approved as is, it will also ban future development within 50 feet of the entire Columbia Slough. The Columbia Slough runs through one of Portland’s major industrial areas in Northeast Portland and would have an effect on several business located on it.

Anything that currently sits within the 50-foot zone – a loading dock or generator, for example – would be allowed to be repaired or replaced, but not improved . And if nothing is presently in that zone, nothing would be allowed.

While there are very strong, and well-founded, opinions on both sides of these two issues, waterfront property owners, or individuals looking to purchase waterfront property, should keep an eye on both.

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When Portland City Council adopted the North Reach portion of the River Plan in April, environmentalists cheered and industry groups hissed. But the council’s recent efforts to create a development agreement for the first potential development within the North Reach zone have both sides upset.

Siltronic, a silicon wafer chip manufacturer, wants to develop the final 38 undeveloped acres of the company’s 80-acre waterfront site. On Thursday, the council heard the first reading of an ordinance that would allow the company to develop the land while bypassing what opponents have called a lengthy and costly River Review process. In return, Siltronic would grant the city a seven-acre conservation easement that the city would use as a special habitat area to connect wildlife from Forest Park to the Willamette River.

The fact that Siltronic, one of the largest employers along the riverfront, can’t develop its remaining land without bypassing the River Plan exposes one of its flaws, according to Ann Gardner, an opponent of the plan.

“This agreement proves our point that there is something fundamentally wrong with the River Plan,” said Gardner, executive director of the Working Waterfront Coalition, an industry group opposed to the River Plan.

The River Plan, meant to accommodate an economically prosperous waterfront and preserve the natural habitat of the Willamette River, is a city-driven review process that must be gone through before development can occur along the river.

Siltronic presently has two chip manufacturing plants on the site. While potential development opportunities on the site have been discussed over the past three years, Siltronic spokesman Tom Fahey said there are no active projects in the works.

“This is all about certainty,” Fahey said. “When a development opportunity comes up, we don’t want to be bogged down by this process if we don’t have to.

“I think the city is OK with this because we are in a different place from most of the companies along the river. We aren’t river dependent.”

Mayor Sam Adams agrees that certainty is a valid reason to create the development agreement.

During the first reading of the ordinance, Adams said the agreement and the conservation easement would assure creation of a full habitat corridor on one of the city’s key restoration sites. The agreement also would give Siltronic certainty while it pursues development opportunities, he said.

Bob Sallinger, conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland, supported the River Plan when it was adopted by the city in April. However, based on what he has seen with the Siltronic situation, he worries the plan will lose its teeth because the city will allow itself to be “intimidated by industry.”

“This deal has been done entirely behind closed doors and is setting terrible precedent,” he said. “This agreement has bypassed the public process until now, and the city has accommodated it.”

Sallinger’s concern is that the city will negate the River Plan process every time an economically viable development is proposed along the waterfront. Sallinger believes the precedent will hurt the restoration of the river in the long run.

“If one of these development agreements is done correctly, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “But it needs to be done in a thoughtful way where all of the stakeholders are allowed to take part in the conversation.”

City Council is poised to vote on the development agreement at its Wednesday meeting. If approved, the agreement would go into effect on July 1 and would mean that any development on the property thereafter would not be subject to the River Plan process.

“I think the (councillors) need to ask themselves if this plan is going to leave the river healthier than when they found it,” Sallinger said. “This is going to be their legacy, and if they aren’t going to implement the plan the way it is meant to, I would rather see them go back to the old greenway code.”

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Portland’s plan to improve the waterfront on the northern, industrial stretch of the Willamette River has drawn mixed reviews, with harbor companies saying it could cramp commerce and environmentalists saying it could help the river.

These two groups often have been the loudest voices in debates over the city’s River Plan, but some nearby residents also are divided.

Residents and others can join the discussion Wednesday night, when Mayor Sam Adams and City Commissioner Amanda Fritz hold a town hall-style forum on the River Plan’s North Reach phase, in council chambers at City Hall. City Council is scheduled to discuss the matter on Jan. 28.

City officials want the plan to improve harbor commerce, recreational access to the waterfront and the river’s natural habitat, and accomplish other goals. The city Planning Commission approved the North Reach phase in June.

Mary Anne Elliott, who lives near the St. Johns Bridge on the east side of the Willamette, supports the plan’s controversial new fees for waterfront development projects to help improve river health.

Elliott, the owner of a used-home-furnishings store, said her business isn’t directly linked to harbor commerce, and that she can understand those companies’ concerns. But to her, protecting the environment is paramount.

“I don’t want to live in a city where the river can catch on fire,” she said.

John Jolliffe, meanwhile, bristled at the plan’s call for waterfront landowners to vegetate up to 15 percent of their property, or pay a fee in lieu of that work, when they do a development.

“I think some of these urban planners get a little bit too blue sky,” said Jolliffe, whose home on North Willamette Boulevard overlooks the Swan Island Industrial Park, where, in 1954, he began his first full-time job. “They’re not realistic.”

IF YOU GO

What:Town hall-style forum on the River Plan’s North Reach phase
When: Wednesday, 6:45 p.m.
Where: ., Council chambers
Contact: Mayor Sam Adams’ office, 503 823 4120

The River Plan is slated to be implemented in three phases. The first, North Reach, covers a roughly 11-mile stretch of the Willamette, from its confluence with the Columbia River to the Fremont Bridge. According to the Audubon Society of Portland, it’s “one of the most degraded stretches of river in the United States.”

Those involved in waterfront commerce have been the plan’s most vocal opponents. Many of those companies have said the plan would drive up expansion costs, scare off investors and make them get new permits, delaying construction plans.

Ann Gardner, spokeswoman for the Working Waterfront Coalition, an advocacy group that represents roughly 30 harbor companies, said there are nine state and federal agencies overseeing their projects, and the city’s goal of seeking “an expanded role” in that oversight would cause delays.

Altogether, the proposed changes could make projects there “financially infeasible,” Gardner said.

Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, said the plan would protect the river’s natural habitat and expand recreational access, but also would support the harbor industry.

He said it would create an “industrial sanctuary” of protective zoning, and greater flexibility in complying with environmental regulations. A recent city summary of the plan says it also would “provide more streamlined permitting” for cargo conveyors, rail lines, utility lines and some other industrial activity.

However, Sallinger said the waterfront industry has caused several delays in advancing the plan, which is roughly 10 years in the making. According to Sallinger, city officials have spent “a tremendous amount of time” responding to their concerns.

“Indefinite delay can become a tactic,” he said.

Nevertheless, some people in the area empathize with both sides.

Darci Leveque, 21, a lifelong St. Johns resident, said the economy is so bad that some companies might not be able to afford extra fees. However, Leveque said she is “leaning more toward the environmental side.”

“We have some of the prettiest land in the world, as far as I’m concerned, and we don’t take care of it the way we should,” she said.

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