npGREENWAY Core Group Meeting
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
7:04 AM
npGREENWAY
friends of the north portland greenway trail
Meeting Date: Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Meeting Start: 6:45AM
Meeting End: 7:45AM
Location: Madrona Hill Café
Attendees: Pam Arden, Curt Schneider, Adam Robins, Jason Starman, Lenny Anderson, Paul Maresh, Scott Mizée, _______________, ___________________
Guests: Shelly Oylear
Absent with our regrets: Francie Royce, Joe Adamski, Mary Jaron Kelly
1. Review and formally approve Jan 15 Notes--old business follow up on past decisions (All)
2. City wide trail committee report. Letter was signed at last meeting and to be sent. (Francie... not available, others know status?)
3. Brochures are being destributed. Begin list of where and how many have been dispersed. Locations to be listed on web site. (All)
4. Willamette Cove progress/status | Report from Jan 18th Rep Kotek Meeting RE: Willamette Cove (Pam/Curt others?)
5. Waud Bluff progress/status (Scott/Lenny others?)
6. Report from Connecting Green Marketing Meeting (Scott)
7. Report from Meeting with Sally Edmunds | Shannon Buonno (Curt/Scott/Paul)
8. Report from Jan 23rd Regional Trails Meeting at Metro (Pam/Lenny/Curt)
9. Update on npgreenway.org website (Jason)
10. Update on status of npGREENWAY phone number and voice mail box (Scott)
11. Planning Walk/Bike Ride events for this spring and summer (All)
12. Progress on npGREENWAY and Willamette Greenway Trail timeline (Paul Mauresh)
13. Shelly Oylear has replied that she will attend. Shelly is works for a local transportation planning firm and is the past Chair of the University Park N.A. She may have a project she would like to speak to us about.
14. Other new business
15. Schedule March Meeting
1. Sallie Edmonds E-mail Concerns If we have time and resources, let's make it clear and put them into the unelected and elected powers that be to make things happen
Paul was concerned about paragraph:
Principle #2: Where the land is being preserved for river-dependent industrial uses, a greenway trail along the riverfront is generally not feasible at this time. While River Renaissance envisions the integration of trails with a variety of land uses along the riverfront, current security issues, and the levels and types of river-dependent uses in much of the North Reach, preclude realizing that vision until a time when security and safety can be resolved in a way that benefits both property owners and potential trail users.
I think we need to respond to this letter and ask probing questions. Paul agrees that there needs to be pressure applied to public officials. Paul took a class this last week on easements and was surprised that recent case law is shifting more and more towards property owner rights. Shelly suggested that all of the language discussed above is a fallout of the SK Northwest debacle.
Lenny Says we need letters from all of our allies and post them on our website. This is an election year, lines are being drawn. Lenny to provide copies of letters from industrial parties and we need to compile all letters from Neighborhood Associations. Lenny says he knows a woman that has been biking for 12 years every day on the Cement Road.
Send letters to Mayor Potter; Sam Adams; Dan Saltzman; Rex Burkholder, City Council, Don Hansen, David Bragdon
Ask Jonathon Maus to put on bikeportland.org and on Shift list
Idea for npGREENWAY Cement Road Event: when Circus Train is parked there in November, we need to bring everyone down there and organize a public tour.
We need to stress to officials that the preferred alignment is along Cement Road and Maintain the River Level route along the alignment that is shown in North Portland Willamette Greenway Trail Feasibility Plan….
2. City Wide Trail Meeting Report… we submitted letter… it was to be circulated for another limited period of time and then send it… City needs to have a focused effort on a multi-use trails network. We were told that it is budget time and to get our ideas in now. There would be a committee to discuss these issues… there is already a freight committee… should be a defacto advocacy group with the trail network…
3. Report from Jan 18th Rep Kotek Meeting Pam said one of most effective meetings she's ever been at. People came up and shook hands because they had never been in the same room, but been on phone for years… There is another one of these scheduled for March. She was able to bring in people that we've never been able
State DEQ, Port, EPA, people who had never showed up at a public meeting. Some people were saying they are ready to move on stuff if they could get guarantees on this this and this…. It was really quite amazing to have everyone put their issues on the table and then have everyone respond to them. The real issue is separating the upland contamination issues from the river., which Lenny says no chance of addressing in his lifetime.
If you separate those (uplands from river) then you can go forward with the trail.
The whole meeting pertained to Willamette Cove. Afterwards, Paul realized there was no movement on Waud Bluff trail People would ask… if we build the trail, where does it get you? Well it gets you to the UofP… Lenny thinks we need to start brainstorming ways we can get around the bluff...
4. Waud Bluff Trail Update There is a new civil engineer working on that right now and will spend this year. Lenny is dealing with George Voisivoi… parks manager for waud bluff trail… He was PM for 3 bridges as well… George is having conversations with ODOT, because the consultant is now wanting more money than they originally asked for. Sewer project is going forward and they have allowed for a temporary easement path along the coast guard fence… He thought maybe he could use that 11 feet for construction access. The sewer project staging area is going to maintain a 20' distance from the railroad track. Have to get some machinery in there to drive piles to build the bridge. George and Patty is the Project Engineer for the sewer for the Force Main. Good news is it has a project manager who knows how to get stuff built. Alta is on board and Civil Engineer. Spoke about crosswalk and connecting to existing city sidewalk network… would it be a curb extension, refuge… needs to be worked out with UPNA, UP, PDOT, etc… Construction in 2009…. Mel Huie introduced Civil Engineer to Pam and he said he would be spending the year getting the entitlement issues worked out from the railroad. We had a letter from John Trumbell, the former head of UP and he said they were ok with that. Now all the background legwork needs to go forward… We need to keep this in mind when we look at public access over railroad to the north.
5. Regional Trails Meeting… basically reported about connecting green..
6. Shelley spoke about the possibility of UP engineering projects. We just need to write up a project scope and exptected deliverables. This would be their final year long project for students. They need to decide on the topic and get going this spring so they have all of next year to complete their study.
Pam mentioned a few other issues regarding Great Blue Heron Week and the need for volunteers to captain the clean up teams during the North Portland / Penninsula Crossing Trail clean up day later this spring. Pam: Please forward the information to me so I can send out to our large list. -Scott