Newspaper May 6, 2008 Clackamas Review (OR) Matthew Graham The agency scrapped plans for a new transportation center in Milwaukie TriMet has pulled out of an agreement with the city of Milwaukie to develop the Southgate Theater site as a park-and-ride and bus layover facility, leading city councilors to question their faith in promises and agreements with the regional transit organization.
The developed site would have moved idling busses from the Milwaukie Transportation Center on 21st street in front of the Portland Waldorf School and decreased the number of people parking on neighborhood streets in the area. Councilors said the failure to move forward on the project - after regional funds were allocated for it in the early 2000s and TriMet officials committed to it - could reflect on future TriMet plans in the city, especially light rail.
'This is indicative to a promise TriMet is not going to follow through on again,' said Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard. 'When we talk about bringing light rail to our community and the safety agreements and then you're breaking agreements here - [agreements] that aren't worth the paper they're written on can't happen. They can't happen.' Councilor Greg Chaimov agreed, saying TriMet had a steep hill to climb in a short period of time to win back the support of the city.
'In a light rail project, TriMet is asking the people to put a great deal of trust in TriMet,' he said. 'You do not have that trust now. You have a very small window of time to earn that trust back.' TriMet: We're looking for other solutions The transportation center currently in use was initially set up as a temporary layover spot. That was in 1981.
The Southgate site was meant to fix that situation by maintaining bus stops downtown but moving the site at which bus drivers take breaks a few blocks north. The intent was that the transportation impact downtown would be lessened and the related affects, such as people hanging around and reportedly taunting students at the Portland Waldorf School, would be minimized.
But with lawsuits and appeals dogging the process over a five-year period, and with construction costs rising sharply in that time, the projected costs jumped from $3.1 million to more than $5 million, a cost TriMet finally said was too high. David Unsworth, TriMet's project development manager, told the City Council that in addition to being too expensive, the layover facility would not be ideal.
He said the spot would have required off-route travel, which costs time and money for the busses and can congest traffic with the busses making more turns at intersections on McLoughlin Boulevard. Unsworth said that TriMet is committed to finding another solution and is still working with city staff to do so. He also said TriMet is making improvements in the meantime. 'We are working diligently with your staff to make these decisions,' Unsworth told the council.
'We've actually, since 2004, we've actually reduced the number of busses laying over by 36 percent.' He added that TriMet will move more busses from downtown Milwaukie to stops near the new I-205 light rail line and Clackamas Town Center next year, making for a cumulative reduction of 52 percent of the busses laying over. Appeals hinder process
The project began in the fall of 2003 when TriMet submitted an application to the city. Before Milwaukie could schedule its first public hearing on the project, the STX Corporation, which claimed it had access rights to the Southgate property, filed a lawsuit. TriMet withdrew the application to sort things out with the corporation, finally settling with them.
With that out of the way, TriMet filed a new application two years after the first, in September 2005, and gained approval for the development from the Milwaukie Planning Commission. But that decision was appealed to City Council and, when the council denied the appeal, to the Land Use Board of Appeals.
Though the city finally won the LUBA appeal, the process took eight months and cost TriMet hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and lost time. Then TriMet submitted another permit, but failed to include required landscaping elements, forcing them to withdraw and resubmit again.
The last permit, filed in November 2007, failed to address stormwater concerns initially outlined in the 2003 permit process. City staff continued to work on storm water run-off mitigation with TriMet through January of this year, learning in March that TriMet would not go through with the project. Copyright © 2008 Clackamas Review, All rights reserved. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=0D10F2CADB4B24C0&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F14BC41F3E1419878
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