Summary: There was a planning meeting for the Tacoma Street Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Station and Park-and-Ride on Monday, August 3, 2009 at the SMILE Station. The Tacoma Light Rail Station and Park-and-Ride will be located just South of Tacoma Street on the East side of McLoughlin. It is planned to include a 1000-space Park-and-Ride. Design considerations include a total surface coverage area of no more than 50% of the site, being backed right up to the Multnomah County Line to the South, proper stream setback from Johnson Creek, pedestrian access, bicylist access and orientation and landscaping of the parking garage. Commercial and residential development potential of the site has been evaluated as extremely limited. It will likely be used as a light rail station and little else, much like the Sunset Transit Center in Beaverton at 217. To send your comments about the station to Trimet, for more information on the project in general, or info on the Tacoma Street Station in particular, be sure to visit the project site at http://trimet.org/pm . Make sure to sign up for email updates regarding the project to stay in the loop.
The attendance by the neighborhood was less than 10 people at the start of the meeting, but about 5 more people stumbled in during the meeting. Trimet began with a summary of what they’d heard from the public regarding the stations. There were questions about security, pedestrian access, parking garage size, connection to the Springwater Corridor, etc.
Trimet then started with a project summary, regarding the nature of the Portland-Milwaukie line, going from downtown Portland, through the South Waterfront area, past OMSI, Southward through Hosford-Abernathy and Brooklyn, South along the East side of McLoughlin and then on to the Park Avenue Station in Milwaukie.
The agenda included presentations by a Metro Public Involvement Specialist, TriMet’s Community Involvement folks, the Trimet design team, a development and land use consulting firm, and a design firm, showing some possible, early design ideas for the parking garage.
Our Metro District 6 Councillor, Robert Liberty was present, as was Carlotta Collette from District 2 (Milwaukie, Oregon City). Included with citizens at the work tables and in the room were representatives from various agencies, including Tom Armstrong from the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Department, Oregon Department of Transportation representatives, Dan Packard from Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association, elected officials and various other public employees. David Ashton of the Sellwood Bee seemed bemused that the officials outnumbered the residents at the workshop, even as more showed up later.
At five stories tall, the parking garage on the site is likely to be the most visually impactful feature. Three early design suggestions were presented by Otak, an architectural and engineering firm, under the project directive of a 1000-space structure. As structures get lower, they impact the 50% maximum coverage limitation of the site. This and fairly strict stream setbacks are a result of Johnson Creek Crossing the site. There are numerous Federal, State and local regulations protecting the riparian streamside area. One “Giant Square Box” Design and two modified designs were presented and discussed. At the table where I was sitting, Jim Friscia of SMILE, Roberty Liberty of Metro and Dan Packard of Eastmoreland were mentioning things like enhancing pedestrian access to the site, possibly adding a sidewalk to the South side of the Tacoma overpass above McLoughlin, questions about cars entering the site from the North, question about how much the parking structure, being South of the train platform would shade the platform and how to have as direct as possible a link between the station and the Springwater Corridor.
This is pretty extended design process. There will almost certainly be another meeting that doesn’ t take place in the summer months. It’ll be on the project calendar at http://trimet.org/pm/getinvolved/index.htm when it gets scheduled. The next meeting that’s most-relevant to the Sellwood area will be the September Citizen’s Advisory Committee, on Thursday, September 16th, 2009 from 6pm-8pm at St. Philip Neri Parish, in Carvlin Hall, at 2408 SE 16th Avenue in Portland. Pizza is often served, and, once the CAC representatives have served themselves a first round, there’s really no shame in having some dinner to tide you through the proceedings.