Sumner Association of Neighbors (SAN)

Meeting minutes of the June 15, 2010 meeting of the Sumner Association of Neighbors (SAN):

Guest speaker: Eric Zajac of the PPD. Confirmed that patrol officers were here last time. Said it was a quiet month in Sumner, with a notable exception fo one resident robbed at 3AM in his driveway, by two armed men who mistakenly thought he had a pot growing operation.

Zajac also discussed city budget cuts, meaning fewer walk-in hours at police precincts, but not patrol cuts. He said crime is down nationwide but Forbes cited Portland as the nation’s third lowest crime city.

Guest speakers: Debbie Bischoff, senior planner with Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and Bill Barber, neighborhood planner with Central Northeast Neighbors.

Debbie and Bill covered a lot of ground. Big picture: Debbie said there hasn’t been planning done for this part of Portland for 20-30 years. She added it was on her top 5 list for planning in this part of town. It would include things like signal timing, sidewalks, and crosswalks. She said she’d advocate again for this part of the city to get a planning update. For example, the Eastside MAX planning done in 2009 — which describes the SAN lot as a possible park — has been stalled. Two completed examples are the Cully/Concordia plan and the East Portland Action Plan.

Here are more highlights:

• Equity and 20-minute neighborhoods are the themes of the in-progress city master planning process.
• Speedbumps – Cost $2500 apiece, and currently the city has no matching funds available to match funds raised by neighborhood residents. However, when bike boulevards are planned, that is also an opportunity to get things like speedbumps and crosswalks installed. Full self-funding could be an option, but the city Bureau of Transportation would need to be contacted, so they can do traffic impact surveys.
• Prescott and Sandy – NE Sandy Blvd used to be ODOT but now city responsibility.
• Planning – There are two statuses for planning: The existing zoning and the ‘comp plan’ which covers future usage. Urban renewal areas, funded through the city’s Portland Development Commission (PDC), cover only 15% of the city. It’s the biggest tool (ie source of funding) for improvements.
• Sidewalks – Anythign designated as a ‘local’ street — and that includes most residential streets in Sumner — would require a “local improvement district” to add sidewalk. Basically, residents would agree to tax themselves to build and pay off the sidewalk construction over time. Like speedbumps, the city has no funds to match neighborhood sidewalk funding — except in urban renewal districts such as Gateway.
• Truck traffic – Some complaints about commercial traffic on NE 89th and about specific Columbia River Crossing options that could leave the I-205 (Glenn Jackson) bridge un-tolled & thereby increase traffic on neighborhood streets. Debbie suggested we ask for traffic mitigation or at least for a traffic volume check.
• City transportation contact info:
• Complaint line: 503-823-SAFE
• PBOT speedbump guy Will Stevens, and freight planner Bob Hilyard: 503-823-4000

Old Business
Two items:

• SAN barbecue for Neighbors Night Out – Date confirmed: Tuesday, August 3 at 6PM in CNN parking lot.
• SAN garage sale set for Saturday, August 21. Sign up sheets were passed around.

New Business
Maywood Park city councilor (and Sumner resident) Jim Akers provided a few updates about the BMX bike area off NE Skidmore and NE 92nd:

• A mama coyote and two pups were sighted in the area, so keep your pets in at night if possible.
• ODOT and The Grotto have blocked off part of the property, due to insurance liability. No tresspass orders are being enforced by state police, Multnomah County Sheriff’s and Portland Police, so don’t go over there.