MAX Green Line/Urban Renewal =FAIL

Not mentioned in that Lents story was that during much of that failure in Lents the MAX station was there spurring nothing.    

This story below is something.  It's got MAX Green line, Lents, Nick Chistenson (now a "reporter" for Metro), PMLR, Interstate MAX,  Kenny Asher who now works for Tigard and a merry go around of nonsense that makes one's head spin. 

" Lents Neighborhood Association President Nick Christenson says that that the existence of a MAX station hasn’t made a change in the slow pace of development in Lents—and he doesn’t expect it to."

"As for whether light rail will make a different in the future, “…the long term answer is it’s too early to tell,” he adds." 

"Back in Lents, no big on-the-ground redevelopment projects have taken shape since MAX came to town." 

In all of the failure comes nonsensical claims that one heavily subsidized mixed-use building equals success at another light rail station? 

With added foolishness about what PMLR will bring to Milwaukie. 

Can light rail make good on development hype?

By: Angela Webber in Transportation May 2, 2011 2:40 pm

Lazar Bodunov, a steel stud framer with Union Construction LLC, works at the site of the Killingsworth Station development in Northeast Portland on April 15. The long-delayed project is an example of transit-oriented development along the Interstate MAX line. (Photo by Sam Tenney/DJC)

In 2009, the then-President of the Lents Neighborhood Association told the Daily Journal of Commerce that he expected light rail to bring to his neighborhood the type of development that an urban renewal district had failed to bring for a long time.

Two years later, current Lents Neighborhood Association President Nick Christenson says that that the existence of a MAX station hasn’t made a change in the slow pace of development in Lents—and he doesn’t expect it to.

“Until we have some more available commercial spots in the town center… I don’t see what good light rail could do yet,” Christenson says.

As for whether light rail will make a different in the future, “…the long term answer is it’s too early to tell,” he adds.

Light rail is coming to a whole new set of neighborhoods with the Portland-Milwaukie light-rail project that starts construction this summer. As redevelopment plans and expectations are drafted for that project, the view along the city’s other light-rail lines raises questions of when exactly that development will happen.

Proposed projects along the planned Portland-Milwaukie light-rail line are many: the Portland Development Commission is working with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on plans for a new building and a parking structure, Oregon Health & Science University is expanding near the site of a new light-rail stop, and the new Clinton Station was identified in a PDC briefing as a “central gathering place that spurs new transit-oriented development.”

The city of Milwaukie has projects in the works in anticipation of the Portland-Milwaukie light rail opening in 2015, says Community Development Director Kenny Asher. He said city wants to have at least one mixed-use project open and ready for use when the first train takes off. This project has a much faster timeline than usual development along light rail-lines.

The vision for a half-acre site adjacent to the downtown Milwaukie light-rail station is a “modern-day interpretation of a train station,” Asher says. The building will sit on property that TriMet acquired as a staging area for the project, and might include shared office space, a coffee shop and the first bike shop in the city’s downtown, Asher says.

This rendering shows a possible design for the Clinton Street station on the upcoming Portland-Milwaukie light-rail line. The Portland Development Commission has identified Clinton Station as a project that will spur new transit-oriented development. (Rendering courtesy of Trimet)

Milwaukie also has plans for a new bike-pedestrian bridge over an existing lake that would connect a neighborhood to downtown and the light rail station. That project is an example of the city’s “looking to the (light rail) project to do things that we would have wanted to do anyway,” Asher says.

For a light-rail development “success story,” PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman points to the Killingsworth Station mixed-use project, a four-story building near the Interstate MAX line that will include 56 condominium units and 9,000 square feet of retail space.

“If you look at it as a project, it’s a success from a number of fronts. The neighborhood identified it as a priority. It’s very much in line with what you’d like to see in terms of transit-oriented development,” Uhlman says.

But Killingsworth station was a long time coming—it was announced in 2005, and just broke ground late last year after funding difficulties and a change in developers and design.

“The issue, frankly, was funding,” Uhlman says, pointing out the global economic crisis that came in the middle of the project timeline. “This is in no way indicative of a normal project.”

Projects along the Portland-Milwaukie light-rail line have projected shorter timelines.

“The first OHSU is slated to start next year and we hope to see a few additional projects come together before fall 2015,” says Jillian Detweiler, TriMet Property Development Manager.

TriMet’s long-term plan is the creation of an “Innovation Quadrant,” with light rail connecting OHSU, Portland State University, OMSI and Portland Community College boosting development, Detweiler says. “The goal is to create 30,000 new jobs in the next 25 years,”

Back in Lents, no big on-the-ground redevelopment projects have taken shape since MAX came to town. But light rail has inspired one very tangible success—the Ramona Street Fair, Christenson says.

“Light rail is a great asset,” Christenson says. “The first time we [had the Ramona Street Fair] was specifically because of the light rail opening. We put it right next to the transit station. People can come out and hop off MAX and come visit our street festival.”

Read more: http://djcoregon.com/news/2011/05/02/can-light-rail-make-good-on-development-hype-2/#ixzz2tAW4EKZW