Monday, February 8th, 2010
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Acadian Ballroom
1829 NE Alberta

The Mayor and Commissioner will take public testimony from stakeholders of Last Thursday on Alberta, including residents, business people, neighborhood activists, vendors, performers, and attendees.
The Mayor & Commissioner areconsidering options for Last Thursday, including:

• Continue the event as is
• Continue the event with significant changes
• End Last Thursday on Alberta

They would like to hear your opinion on these or other options.

Please attend and bring your neighbors and co-workers with you. Your opinion is important and needs to be heard!

To help ensure equal access to City programs, services and activities, the City of Portland will reasonably modify policies/procedures and provide auxiliary aids/services to persons with disabilities.
Call 503-823-9970,
TTY 503-823-6868 with such requests.

If you are unable to attend this community meeting, consider writing about your experience with Last Thursday and sending it to the Mayor and Commissioner Fritz.

Mayor Sam Adams
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 340
Portland, Oregon 97204
Phone: (503) 823-4120
E-mail: Samadams@ci.portland.or.us

Commissioner Amanda Fritz
1221 SW 4th Avenue, Room 220
Portland, Oregon 97204
Phone: (503) 823-3008
E-mail: amanda@ci.portland.or.us

Discover why an increasing number of home builders in the Northwest are implementing green building certification programs: Earth Advantage^® New Homes, ENERGY STAR^® Homes, and LEED^® for Homes. Discover the value and benefits of sustainable building practices and learn about the future of the residential green building market.

February 10, 2010
8am-10am

Earth Advantage Institute
16280 SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd
Portland, OR 97224
Register at www.earthadvantage.org
or call Annah Henige at 503-968-7160 x10
Cost:$10

Tuesday, February 2nd at 7:00pm at the McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room

Deborah Stein from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability will be presenting the Portland Plan at the CNA general meeting on Tuesday, February 2nd at 7:00pm at the McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room.

Building on the visionPDX process the Portland Plan will identify how to ensure Portland is a thriving and sustainable city for the future, with opportunity for all.

The Portland Plan is taking a variety of issues such as education, human health, civic engagement, housing, transportation and the environment. The City is also partnering with a wide range of public agencies to ensure alignment of actions and investments.

The Portland Plan will be developed over the next 12 months. The current phase of the process is looking at baseline conditions – where are we now? To view the work plan for the Portland Plan and the other phases of the project, please visit www.pdxplan.com. You can also review the draft Portland Plan Handbook and background reports as well as take a survey online.

The City will be accepting public testimony on the background reports at three upcoming Planning Commission hearings on January 26, February 9 and March 9. However, comments on the background reports will be accepted until late 2010. The public is welcome to submit comments by mail, FAX, e-mail or online. Please visit www.pdxplan.com for more information.

For more information download the latest Portland Plan brochure.

Help shape the plan!

The Portland Plan will take a new approach to city planning by focusing our attention on the things that affect our daily lives, such as safety, neighborhood livability, quality education and affordable housing. Please take a moment to answer these questions. Your answers will help us prioritize our investments in our future.

Take the Survey

Visit the Portland Plan Website

The concordia land use meeting has been cancelled in order for everyone to attend the city wide land use group, special meeting with Sam Adams.

CITYWIDE LAND USE GROUP
(NEIGHBORHOODS PLANNING A LIVABLE PORTLAND)

SPECIAL MEETING WITH MAYOR SAM ADAMS
Thursday, January 7, 2010
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Room 2500 B; 1900 Building; 1900 SW Fourth

Neighborhood Associations and Their Planning Role

Neighborhood Associations are defined by the ground they cover. They are the physical location where various codes and regulations come together and impact the every day life of residents.

For that reason, how regulatory decisions are made and code is written is of essential importance to the many volunteers who provide the Neighborhood Association land use review service to this city.

It is important to rebuild an adequate planning role for Neighborhood Associations for short term changes, the longer term period until the Portland Plan is defined, and for the future period in which regulations will be written to implement a new Comprehensive Plan.

Tonightʼs discussion with Mayor Adams will ask for: A consistent and adequate review process for changes to City Code Title 17, Title 29, Title 33, and proposed Tree Title 11 regulations.

Restoration of the Regulatory Reform 45 day Neighborhood Association review period prior to the final draft code proposal.

A process which builds a stronger resident comment base for informing Planning Commission action on proposed code changes.

A Neighborhood Association review process to provide information and education about code changes so they can be understood and supported in the community while allowing early identification of
potential problems and concerns that prolong code adoption.

PLEASE JOIN US AS WE BEGIN WORK IN 2010.

Last year more than 700 local residents learned how to transform their yards into “urban farms,” preserve their harvest and keep chickens and bees. The overwhelming response has led to a tripling of course offerings for the 2010. The expanded roster includes classes such as cheesemaking, cooking, advanced chicken and beekeeping, innovative gardening and healthful food on a budget classes. On-line registration is available at http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/ugb.

“Portland residents know that growing and preserving their own food is great for our personal, environmental and community health,” says Portland Mayor Sam Adams. “The Urban Growth Bounty classes are a great value. There’s always more to learn about how to grow, preserve and eat sustainably on a budget.”

Presented by the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, new partners and well-known experts are on board for the 2010 series, including Oregon Tilth, Naomi Montacre, Monique Dupre, Ivy Manning and the creative hands at Salt Fire and Time and Abby’s Kitchen. Classes for all skill levels are offered from February through November and held at locations all over the city.

For detailed Urban Growth Bounty 2010 information and registration details, visit http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/ugb or e-mail: food@ci.portland.or.us.

About the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability:
The City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) promotes integrated land use planning and development based on sustainability principles and practices. BPS also develops and implements policies and programs that provide environmental, economic and social benefits to residents, businesses and government, which strengthen Portland’s position as an international model of sustainable practices and commerce. www.portlandonline.com/bps

The Concordia Neighborhood Association, Englewood Christian Church and Trinity Lutheran School will be sponsoring a Spelling Bee for adults, ages 18 and above! This event is free to all.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 from 7-8pm
Englewood Christian Church
3515 NE Killingsworth St.

Start studying the dictionary, play Scramble on Facebook, do the daily spelling on the Scripps National Spelling Bee website, challenge a friend to pla Scrabble, dust off that Thesaurus and watch for the February issue of the Concordia Neighborhood News for more details! Spectators of all ages will be welcome!

Download the January 2010 CNA news.

By Ken Forcier

Too-tall houses are springing up in Concordia, courtesy of a Lake Oswego developer, Andre Koshuba, who has recently targeted our area for “skinny house” development. We asked him to speak in front of the CNA land use committee before he began his first project at a house on NE 32nd Ave. He showed up with a picture of the house he would build but without plans to review as requested. At the time, we took him at his word that the house would not exceed the Title 33 code height limit of 22.5 feet. Upon completion and at my prompting, the Bureau of Development Services measured and found the home to exceed the height limit. BDS personnel conducted three failed height measurements before suggesting that a raised planter be built in front of the house. Jeff Eldridge, a senior inspector, blessed the measurement from the top of that planter and issued the home its final permit. This summary judgment by BDS circumvented the code requirement that the builder ask the neighbors for an “adjustment” to allow for the excess height.

The CNA board voted to pursue a remedy against this “approved” code violation. We challenged BDS’s decision to not require an “adjustment” by appealing the decision to LUBA (Land Use Board of Appeals at state level). The purpose of the challenge is to reign in questionable decisions by staff at the Bureau of Development Services such that they once again abide by code guidelines which protect the public from development that exceeds Title 33 standards. This was done to prevent a precedent for continued breaches and further excess. The case is pending and will go before LUBA early next year.

Despite the pending LUBA case, Andre purchased another lot at 6036 NE 30th Ave., two blocks away, and has begun to construct the same too-tall structure, again with BDS’ approval. It will likely be completed and sold before the LUBA case is heard. The Bureau once again refuses to acknowledge that they have permitted construction of a building that is taller than code permits. Pending the outcome of the LUBA case they feel that they can rubber stamp another of these homes despite the fact that the plans show a house that is 24.5 feet tall when measured from the level of the first floor. Perhaps, if need be, they will again build a two foot tall planter in front and measure from that?

This series of events leads the CNA to consider another LUBA case challenging the second home. These cases require thousands of dollars from our neighborhood budget and probably as much as ten thousand dollars from the city coffers. This is on the heels of BDS having just laid off much of their staff due to budget cuts. We should expect better management and oversight of our city bureaus. Rather than applying the protections of the code as intended, Randy Leonard’s Bureau of Development Services is squandering tax dollars, potentially leading to lost jobs and promoting sub-standard development in neighborhoods throughout the city. For more detailed information, see LUBA Appeal 2009-105.

December 14, 2009

Dear Community Partner,

As you may already be aware, over the last year the Bureau of Development Services has experienced its most drastic workload and revenue decline in recent history due to a steep and sustained decline in construction activity. In response to the revenue and workload decline, the Bureau has laid off 150 employees over the last 5 months. Bureau management and staff have been implementing service level and organizational changes focused on maximizing our ability to provide customers an acceptable level of service despite reduced resources.

In order to keep our customers up to date with these changes, we have developed a communication plan to regularly communicate any significant bureau organizational and service level changes to our customers, industry stakeholders, community organizations and citizens. This communication plan includes summarizing changes into Service Level Update documents that are provided to affected customer groups. All of the Service Level Update documents are posted on the BDS web site at http://www.portlandonline.com/bds/index.cfm?c=51292. The Service Level Update PDF summarizes our communication plan.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this or our Service Level Update communication plan. I am also very interested in ideas you may have on getting this information out to our customers.

Thank you,

Ross Caron, Manager/PIO
Bureau of Development Services
City of Portland, Oregon
(503) 823-4268
ross.caron@ci.portland.or.us
www.portlandonline.com/bds