In June of 2008, the City Council approved the expansion of the River District Urban Renewal Area (URA), the creation of a satellite URA, and $19 million to build an elementary school and community center in the satellite URA for the David Douglas School District. The expansion of the URA would increase the amount of money available for projects and would include a large portion of Old Town Chinatown in the River District URA.
Shortly after the City Council's decision, a group called Friends of Urban Renewal filed an appeal to challenge City Council's decision. Complete descriptions of the Friends of Urban Renewal arguments can be found in the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) document No. 2008-116 and No. 2008-117.
LUBA's Ruling
In January, LUBA ruled in favor of the City on all but three points. LUBA found the City:
- failed to adequately describe how the original URA is still blighted,
- failed to adequately describe buildings in the URA that are unfit and unsafe,
- failed to explain how an elementary school and community center in the satellite URA would benefit the original River District URA.
LUBA's decision, called a remand, has put the expansion of the River District URA, the satellite district, and associated projects on hold.
The Process Going Forward
Portland Development Commission (PDC) must provide the required information to the City Council, who must then vote to approve the amended information. Interested parties then have 90 days to challenge the City Council's decision, but an appeal to LUBA must be filed within three weeks of the Council's decision. LUBA is not involved in this process unless the City Council's decision is challenged again.
PDC is working to provide to the City Council the information LUBA determined was inadequate. PDC estimates that it will deliver the needed information to the City Council by mid-April.
If City Council approves the amended information and the decision is not appealed, the River District URA expansion will move forward, possibly this summer. If the decision is appealed, it may be months or years before this issue is resolved.
There is another deadline looming: the River District URA will have borrowed all the money it is allowed by law in fiscal year 2010-11. If the expansion is not approved before this happens, the URA will expire and the expansion will not happen. Projects in the original URA that have been budgeted will be completed, but many projects in the original URA along with new projects in the expanded URA will not be undertaken.
How the PDC will Address LUBA's Ruling
The main issue the PDC must address is that the River District is still blighted. Examples of existing blight include the North Pearl, where a large part is still vacant, missing roads, and its soil is contaminated and Centennial Mills, because it is structurally unsound and rests on contaminated soil. PDC will conduct a blight assessment on both the existing URA and the expansion area.
PDC says the issue regarding unfit and unsafe buildings lies with the language it used in the expansion proposal rather than the substance of its analysis. This is a minor issue and it will change the language to satisfy the LUBA remand. If PDC fails to address either of these issues then the URA expansion will be dead.
To address the satellite district, PDC must explain how a school and community center in David Douglas will benefit the River District URA. ORS 457.085(2)(j) requires that the urban renewal plan must explain, "How the building serves or benefits the urban renewal area." Explaining how residents of the River District will benefit from a school and community center ten miles away will be a challenge.
The success or failure of the satellite district will not affect the expansion of the URA, but should the expansion fail—so will the satellite district.
Confusion About Satellite District Funding
There has been some confusion over how the funding of the satellite URA affects projects within the River District. In short, it doesn't. No project in the River District URA will be cut if the satellite district is approved. If the URA expansion is approved, the City can issue an additional $325 million in debt to fund the expanded URA. If the satellite district is also approved, the City will add $19 million to that $325 million, for a total of $344 million in debt. Money for the satellite district is separate from the rest of the URA.
What Happens While LUBA's Remand is Addressed
At present, the original URA remains intact and projects that have been funded are moving forward. Until the remand is resolved, proposed projects in the expansion area such as the Resource Access Center, the acquisition of the Main Post Office property, and the Uwajimaya project are on hold. If the URA expansion is approved, then these additional projects can move forward. If it fails, then the original URA will expire in 2011 and all the projects within the expansion area will be dead.
This spring will be interesting for residents of the River District URA since these decisions will have a significant impact on the future of Old Town Chinatown, the David Douglas school district and the Pearl District.
What do you think? Should the River District URA expansion move forward or should it be allowed to expire in 2011?
