About Perspectives
Each week, Metro news reporter Nick Christensen poses a question to stakeholders to spark a community conversation. On Wednesdays, the question and stakeholder responses are posted to Metro news. Then, throughout the week, Nick adds readers' comments and responses to the post.
That's where you come in. What do you think the answer is? How do you agree or disagree with the responses so far? E-mail your response to this week's question to [email protected]. Be sure to include your name, the community you live in and your phone number so your response can be verified. This is a moderated conversation, and comments are expected to elevate the discussion.
This content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Metro staff or elected officials.
This week's question
What do Clackamas County's town and regional centers need to be more complete communities?
This week, we asked representatives from Clackamas County's town and regional centers what could help those centers become more complete communities. Here are the responses we received. What do you think? How can the town and regional centers in Clackamas County become more complete communities?
Stakeholder responses
Wilda Parks
CEO, North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce
There are two major items that would assist in making Clackamas Regional Center a complete community.
The Clackamas Regional Center currently offers some of the greatest diversity in shopping, services and residential offerings in the region. However, what it doesn’t currently offer and needs as part of being a complete community is connectivity from the Green Line to last-mile locations. Having the light rail stop at Clackamas Town Center, and just a short way north at Fuller Road, are huge plusses for the area. Because of this transit opportunity and the TriMet bus transfer station, hundreds, if not thousands more, arrive at Clackamas Town Center. Therein lies part of the problem.
Once arriving at Clackamas Town Center there are few options for getting out of the center of the mall. If you live close by, you could walk, if you work within a half mile you could walk. Waiting for bus transfers to take people to work or to the nearby colleges and universities is a challenge. Increased bus service, and last-mile shuttles seem to be the resolution. Costs and people power seem to be the challenges.
Additionally, pedestrian friendly walking areas to the west and north sections of the regional center, and a safe, ped and bike friendly way to cross Sunnyside Road at the Clackamas Town Center are important to the development of the regional center. The concepts in the mall planning schemes provide for a hotel, residential and mixed use development on the mall grounds, all great additions to complete communities. The urban renewal district in the area, including the mall and the Overland Park area, should assist with funding for some of the projects to complete the livability of the area. A new transit-oriented multi-family housing development has been completed, and another is moving forward. Throughout the area environmentally friendly improvements are being made.
Alice Norris
Mayor, Oregon City
Our vision is that Oregon City will return to its historic roots and once again be a "regional hub for business, commerce, transportation, innovation, tourism and livability." Thus Oregon City is moving slowly and strategically toward fulfilling its regional center designation.
Although we’ve made good progress in recruiting private partners that will transform our north end and serve as catalysts for redevelopment, we still have much work to do to become a complete community.
While we envision that the regional center will be the nucleus of activity for Oregon City and the surrounding communities, we currently have virtually no housing and no residents in the regional center area.
To become a complete community, Oregon City needs to:
- Promote quality-designed residential/mixed use infill developments that attract people, activity, services and commerce to our regional center, maintaining its distinctive character.
- Continue to strengthen the historic downtown and foster connectivity throughout the regional center that recognizes the city’s rich historic legacy while linking to the existing built environment and new construction.
- Maximize downtown parking while enhancing and promoting a pedestrian, bicycle and transit environment.
- Develop and design safe and friendly public spaces (plazas, sidewalks, walkways) that promote the interaction between citizens, the arts, and entertainment venues within the regional center
- Build a foundation that supports and promotes the extension of high capacity transit to downtown and encourages residential densities to support high-capacity transit options.
- Address larger regional transportation system deficiencies and alternative roadway design standards that compliment the regional center and promote a safe, convenient and enjoyable linkage to the Willamette and Clackamas rivers.
- Provide complete pedestrian links between retail, residential and recreational opportunities throughout our regional center and strengthen the connection between these uses and the waterfront.
- Showcase the creative energy and development potential of our authentic historic-urban downtown through programs like http://www.bluecollarcreative.org/.
- Continue to promote the accomplishments and the vision for the Oregon City regional center to the citizens of Oregon City, regional, state and federal agencies and the private sector to promote partnerships and opportunities to assist in the revitalization of the regional center.
Katie Mangle
Planning director, Milwaukie
Milwaukie's Town Center features magnificent views and direct access to the Willamette River, a historic Main Street-focused downtown, wonderful walkable neighborhoods, natural springs and creeks and many fine businesses that serve both neighbors and visitors alike. However, it also is spliced by two state highways and two freight railroad lines that make it hard to move around the center on foot or bike. Two undeveloped brownfield sites have sat vacant for two decades, an impounded lake has destroyed fish passage to a once free-flowing creek, and a sub-regional sewer treatment plant sits on the best real estate in the city. In the broad sense, the Milwaukie community has, for many years, articulated a clear vision for a vibrant downtown, restored creeks, a Riverfront Park, strengthened neighborhoods, and high quality development in the residential neighborhoods.
What the Milwaukie town center needs to become a complete community is sustained care and investment from public and private partners, neighborhood volunteers, and property owners. Many are expecting that the new light rail line will demonstrate this care and investment by enhancing the identity and character of the town center. The community has carefully developed a vision for development around the station that will draw life to the area in a way that fits with the character of the existing downtown. The trouble is, if you stand on the light rail station site today, you can smell the odor from the treatment plant, see the disinvestment from years of neglect in the south downtown, and hear the rush of traffic on McLoughlin Boulevard. Milwaukie's will become a complete community when the impacts from large regional investments like treatment plants, rail lines and highways, are less apparent than investments on local streets and individual properties in the center.
§
//