UPDATED 6/6/11
An attempt by the Portland Development Commission (PDC) to reassess the boundaries of the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area has neighborhood residents and business owners upset, while interested outlying parties make a push to join Portland’s largest (3,744 acres encompassing 10 inner North-Northeast neighborhoods) urban renewal area.
The reassessment of the boundaries came from the PDC board’s decision to look at how well the different urban renewal programs within the city are doing as PDC celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Interstate Corridor URA is currently ten years into its 20-year lifespan. PDC announced that they had underestimated the tax increment finance dollars from the Interstate URA by almost $100 million, leading several surrounding areas to try and get in the URA.
The Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area
There are six potential expansion areas being considered by PDC. These include the Martin Luther Kind Jr. Boulevard properties (73 acres with an assessed value of $37 million), the Oregon Convention Center URA properties (186 acres with an assessed value of $98 million), the Alberta and Killingsworth properties (33 acres with an assessed value of $15 million), the properties on the south side of Lombard Street (28 acres with an assessed value of $12 million), the St. Johns Town Center properties (84 acres with an assessed value of $65 million), and the Rose Quarter properties (32 acres with an assessed value of $16 million).
“There are two main reasons PDC wanted to look at the boundaries of the Interstate URA specifically,” said Joleen Jensen-Classen, a PDC spokesperson. “With the Oregon Convention Center URA expiring soon, PDC wanted to see if it would be beneficial to include parts of it in the Interstate URA.
“Also, with the economy the way it is right now, PDC wanted to see if there is something they could do to jumpstart job growth. Considering the Interstate URA has been successful, PDC feels it might be a good tool to do this.”
In an attempt to get the opinions of a broader region, PDC and the Mayor’s Office decided to put together the North/Northeast Economic Development Initiative Community Advisory Committee (NNEDI) to collect data and guide PDC from a public perspective. The volunteer board consists of 21 members ranging from interested neighbors to various governmental representatives.
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The Interstate Max line is an early success of the ICURAC.
While this move garners a larger perspective, many residents within the current Interstate URA boundaries feel that it has taken the decision-guiding responsibilities away from the current group charged to do so, the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Advisory Committee (ICURAC). Only two of the 22-members on the ICURAC board are currently sitting on the NNEEDI Community Advisory Committee.
“We have the ICURAC to guide this URA, yet the Mayor chose to create a new committee and only put two members of ICURAC on it,” said David Chott, land use chair for the Overlook Neighborhood Association. “The representation is just too low, and it’s making the whole process seem unfair.”
Other than just limited representation, a lot of residents have complained that some members on the NNEEDI Community Advisory Committee represent firms that could potentially benefit financially from restructuring the current Interstate URA boundaries. Most notably is Larry Miller, vice president of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers’ ownership and a group of developers are finalists for the Rose Quarter redevelopment, a multi-million dollar renovation of the Memorial Coliseum and Rose Quarter properties that would consist of adding a live music venue, an athletic club, restaurants and retail space. The proposed development is called JumpTown.
The Rose Quarter is one of the possible expansion areas for the ICURA.
“Ever since this new group has come around, the people that are making the decisions are the same people that want our urban renewal dollars, not the people that went through the process of creating the URA in the first place,” said Kay Newell, ICURAC member, long-time Boise neighborhood resident and local business owner. “I agree that a lot of these areas could probably use some help, but not at the expense of proposed projects in the current boundaries.”
While several ICURAC members agree that there should probably be some expansion, no one from the group likes the idea of expanding the URA to include the Rose Quarter properties.
“I’ve heard a lot of neighbors say that they support expanding the URA to the South side of Lombard and into the St. Johns Town Center, but I haven’t heard a single person from ICURAC of the various neighborhoods within the boundary say that they support the Rose Quarter expansion,” said Chott. “The Trail Blazers have had the right to develop the Rose Quarter properties for the past 15 years, why are they deciding that right now is the right time to do it?"
“The risks seem to outweigh the benefits because we just don’t know what we would get if the Rose Quarter joined the URA. It just doesn’t seem fair that we’re struggling to get our list of projects done, yet the Blazers are trying to get someone else’s money to develop prime real estate.”
The Patton Apartments is another successful project in the ICURA.
The Interstate URA has been quite successful so far. The first $30 million went to designing and building the Max Light Rail that runs along Interstate. There have also been several matching grants awarded to surrounding businesses for storefront improvements and other monies dedicated to park improvements. But, there are still projects that neighbors in the Interstate URA would like to get done.
“People see the money, not the list of improvements that still need to be done,” Chott said. “We have two vacant lots in the Overlook neighborhood alone that something needs to be done with. Lets focus on these before giving the money away.”
Nothing has been decided yet on the future of the Interstate Corridor URA. The NNEEDI Community Advisory Committee is being asked to put together a recommendation that will then become part of PDC’s recommendation. Once PDC presents its recommendation, they will present it to City Council, who will make the final decision. The NNEEDI Community Advisory Committee is planning on making its recommendation sometime at the end of this month.
This vacant lot at N. Killingsworth and N. Interstate is targeted for development.
Ultimately it is up to City Council, so those that are upset should vocalize it to their neighborhood association and contact every council members,” said Chott.
For more information on the Interstate Corridor URA, please click here.
For more information on the North/North East Economic Development Initiative, please click here.
UPDATE 6/6/11: "Potential expansion of Portland’s largest URA criticized"
by Nick Bjork, DJC
UPDATE 3/7/11: "PDC takes Rose Quarter properties off table for URA expansion"
by Nick Bjork, DJC
If the Interstate Corridor URA was shut down today, all of its resources would flow into the general funds of the City, county and school district; hence it is more accurate to characterize URA funds as belonging to all Portland citizens, not just to residents and businesses within an URA. Through City Council we have agreed to focus those resources within the URA and listen to advice from the Citizens Advisory Committee, of which I was a long time member, but the City is not bound by that advice.
Key measures for where and how to invest URA resources are how much matching private funds can a pubic investment leverage...the more the merrier; and how much growth in property value can be expected from that public/private investment. I expect a Rose Quarter re-development scores well on both counts.
Thanks for your comment Lenny. Part of determining a URA is how much blight is in a given area. The definition of blight can be subjective, but I'm not sure that an area such as the Rose Quarter can be described as blighted. The topic of blight was one of the concerns of the Friends of Urban Renewal in their lawsuit against the expansion of the River District URA. The concern was that URA dollars were being used for pet projects rather than their intended use of reviving blighted areas of the city.
Also, it is not at all certain that public investment in a sports facility yields a greater economic benefit to the city. The proposal to build a minor league baseball stadium in Lents brought to light economic studies that concluded that money spent on sports facilities did not result in greater economic activity versus investing in other forms of economic development, such as revitalizing business districts.
Another question I have is about the tax increment financing. The Rose Quarter structures reside on City-owned land and the Memorial Coliseum is owned by the city. Do the Blazers, who manage the Rose Quarter, pay property taxes on the buildings? What property taxes are paid on the area and by whom, especially if the land is city-owned? How will the Rose Quarter contribute to paying off the debt?
For TIF to work an area must increase in property value so that the increase in property taxes can be used to pay off the debt. But if the area doesn't pay property taxes because it's city-owned then TIF doesn't really work. Clarity on exactly how and how much the Rose Quarter will contribute to paying off the debt is crucial.
The area of expansion for the Rose Quarter does not include the Memoorial Coliseum or the Rose Quarter building itself... The inlcuded area is the property surrounding the two buildings. No the city doesn't pay taxes on property it owns and yes the blazers pay property taxes on the Rose Quarter building. Redeveloping the RQ area would increase property values dramatically since most of the area under considseration is bare land right now. THe definitiion of Blight is covered under the ORS 457 for the rules regarding Urban Renewal in Oregon municipalities. Its easy to understand most of the definitions. The study for baseball in Lents was not of a centrally located downtown area and is like comparing apples to oranges as far as its impact in perspective to RQ. The development at the RQ (if it happens) will not just be the MC but the surrounding area as well, including mixed-use, high density employment and retail to name a few. ALL of this development would be paying property taxes. Last year the blazers paid more than $85k in porperty taxes at the RQ (check portlandmaps)....