City Council - Regular Meeting

side are standing in for, where panels will be so that we can see where everything will end up. So we've really been working with the artist engineering department here, beautification, everybody on the details of where will things go, where do sprinklers, where do sprinklers sprinkle, where does the water go, and where are we going to put rocks and rain activated paint on the sidewalk. So there are a number of components to this that are really coming together nicely for this project and we really are looking forward to it. On the right there, that's a brief schematic of the circles with the lines are where the interpretive panels will be. That's on the library building side of the sidewalk. And then the smaller solid circles are where quotes from BIPOC authors are going to be placed throughout the site. And then again, in addition to the sidewalk paint that is rain activated. So alongside all of those things, between December 2024 and August of 2025, ACLO worked with the city manager's office to work on our new contract and what that might include as we come to the end of that contract phase. I think that resulted in a better understanding by everyone of the realities of increased inflation over the last five years, the pros and cons of a seven-year contract, the hard costs of the current contracted program, costs of taking care of the current collection as it ages, and city revenues projected and actual. So in summary, these bullet points talk about what the substantive changes to the contract are. So a little bit more of those details. Maintenance and conservation of the public art collection, obviously that's what we are contracted to do. And the change and update for this is that if there are specific special projects that reach a threshold of a cost level, that those costs would come out of the maintenance budget that the city holds. So that's where the Percent for Art maintenance money goes. So if maintenance or conservation is in excess of $2,000 per piece. That's where we would it needs to be approved by the city. And then we would utilize the money out of that fund to be able to work on the work on the pieces. Um, Gallery Without Walls and People's Choice. So Gallery Without Walls obviously is our signature program that we do every year. In terms of People's Choice, that would be included in our annual or biannual work plan. So if we were going to do a People's Choice, it's right now how the contract is written is that it's a foregone conclusion that we would do it annually. And so this provides the ability to do it on a biannual basis every other year and gives us the opportunity to say, well, maybe there aren't any sculptures that, you know, really help augment our collection. Or what's the long-term cost and conservation that this sculpture might provide? entail. So being proactive and mindful of the cost and fiscal responsibility of that. Additional special projects through the work plan. Again, the work plan we'll speak to. These are the things that we will do in addition to what our regular contracted items are. So we would come to you, say, like with the library project, and say, we have this project. It's going to cost X amount. This is where the funding's coming from. It would happen within this biennial time. The rest of the items, office, storage, and museum space, those were just updated as to reflecting what actually is in place at this time. Networked Wi-Fi and the accessibility to Laserfiche, since it is the city's collection, we do have access to Laserfiche to record those objects. And then contract specific marketing and promotion. It was a very, in the previous contract, it was pretty vague. And so I worked with Megan and the city manager's office too. We came up with a list of here are the contracted things that ACLO does for the city. So here are the things that can be promoted via the city.

As Nicole has mentioned, we've been in discussions with them and other representatives of the Arts Council for a couple months now. We're actually from fall of last year. And as part of our contract with them, they do submit their financial data to the city. Again, as mentioned, they're coming off of a seven-year contract, which had a 3% increase each year over a year through that life cycle of that contract. So their current contract amount as of 7-1-2025 was just over $225,000. What's being proposed as part of the update to their contract would be an annual amount of just under $272,000, with then out in year two and year three, 3% increases each year, which has been consistent with the last contract status. As Nicole mentioned, there's been language changes and some other changes to the agreement. The plan is to have that come back to the City Council at your next meeting on June 2nd for consideration and approval of all the changes that you've heard tonight.

give you a little bit more information in terms of ACLO's total budget. The city contracted services and labor equal about 68% of what our annual budget is. So that is the orange and green sections. As Megan mentioned, our current contract is just a little over $225,000. The difference between that and what we anticipated the hard costs and labor of the program was a difference of $80,000. And what the city came back to us with was a $40,000 increase. And this is just a division of our different staff folks and how much time is allocated to the city contract. So for instance, I spend roughly 80% of my time on things related to the city contract. Our public art and collections manager, that's their entire job. Our communications and development manager, about roughly half of their time. And our education program manager and curator, about 40% of their time. As Megan mentioned, we will be back on June 2nd for a vote on the contract so that you can review the changes between now and then.

Thank you both so much. Colleagues, any questions? Council Corgis.

at the risk of seeming dumb. The other 20% of your time, I'm curious, what other things are you doing besides the city? Can you explain that for us?

Sure, so the space where we have art space with our exhibitions, that is not part of our contracted duties for the city. So that, fundraising, board relationships, going out into the community and telling them about who we are and what we do, programs, things like that. That's what that other time is spent on.

Thank you.

I just kind of follow up on this. So the art space is not a part of a, what does that mean? This is the city hall space?

Correct. This is the space that's kind of considered a retail space downstairs next to the boutique. There is, by the contract, I believe, one program that the Arts Council is required to do on behalf of the city's program in that space, but otherwise it's subject to their programming.

Oh, I see. The program. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. Councillor Afghan.

Thank you so much. I understood that 3% increase year over year. Can you highlight the reasons behind 225 being adjusted to 280?

Yeah, and part of it was the slide Nicole shared with regards to what just the realities are of what their budget looks like. And the 3%, certainly over that timeframe, did not keep up with even inflation and just the challenges with regards to that. We had some money, have some money in the tourism. tourism fund, which is the primary source of funding that comes to the city to be able to pay for the services that they provide in the city's contract. And so it seems a reasonable amount to not quite give them everything that they had asked for versus, as her slide indicated, they were looking more to close the gap of about 80,000. But we felt comfortable at the time to meet them halfway. Okay.

So if we looked at CPI, which we do for other contracts, how would that land with this delta? Do we know?

We did not do that analysis, but we could get that information for you. Okay.

Thank you.

Councillor Winleth.

Well, I think it's a wonderful budget, and I think we're getting a lot of value for the amount of money that we're investing. And what people really, Nicole, I covered it a little bit, but there's a group of volunteers that, the great thing about having an art collection is that you get to look at the art collection. I mean, it's fabulous. The problem with having a bigger and bigger expanding art collection is that there's more to take care of. And we have a group of volunteers that are probably doing $100,000 at least or $200,000 worth of work in a year to maintain our art collection, which that's part of our secret sauce in Lake Oswego is the wonderful volunteers and the organization that that really thrives on bringing the arts to Lake Oswego also does the dirty work of cleaning things up and making, you know, it's not just cocktail parties and observing art. It's the down and gritty maintenance. And so I just wanted to throw that out to make sure that people knew that there's a component to this with a lot of volunteers in the arts community. And when you sit on the arts group, the volunteers that step forward, I mean, like we have retired art professors that taught for 30 or 40 years that know, I mean, The level of expertise that we have available in our community is just phenomenal. So anyway, my point is that we're getting a lot more value out of this contract than just dollars and cents. Yes. ANYWAY.

NEW SPEAKER I AGREE WITH COUNCILOR WINLAND. THE PUBLIC ART IN LAKE OSWEGO IS REALLY A LARGE PART OF OUR COMMUNITY IDENTITY AND THE ARTS COUNCIL AND THEN ALL OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE AROUND IT IS REALLY WELL LEVERAGED AND JUST A FABULOUS, YOU KNOW, NICOLE, THE TEAM YOU LEAVE, JUST DONE A FABULOUS JOB PROMOTING ART IN LAKE OSWEGO AND REALLY INGRAINING IT INTO WHO WE ARE AS A COMMUNITY AND I THINK WE GET A GREAT VALUE FOR the contractor you guys do a lot of really good a lot of good work so it's important to recognize that and uh i appreciate you know the comments too around the maintenance because that does become even space you know to put things um and people do get to look at the i'll say the only if if it is possible to the one thing where we people love all the art the one thing we hear some feedback on are the armless and headless um pieces of art in millennium park and you know it's been down there a while then maybe it is time to switch it up. No, well, we've done such a good job bringing people in. And we all get used to it, because we're like, oh, yeah, that's just the armless folks. And they're like, why are there sculptures of children with no arms in your park? And you're like, oh, yeah, then why are there heads? It's like, OK. So it's interesting. It could be something down there.

Art is to have a- It does generate, yes. To generate reactions.

And we could put it somewhere else. Maybe we spread it around. Not in the medians in Lake Grove, although. And then if they got hit, they'd already be missing their limbs.

Right. It's your opportunity to ask for money right now, more money.

We could do that with more money.

That's right. By the way. How does the, so in the 1.5% for the art, we save a little bit for maintenance, but is that maintenance for that project?

No, maintenance is for the entire collection. Okay. The 1% goes toward that particular project.

And then...

So, for instance, like for Lorac, the budget, the 1% budget went toward those pieces being located or purchased or commissioned. The half percent goes into the larger public art trust fund, and that's maintenance for the entire collection.

That is not, that half percent is not enough to maintain. No, no.

And so then you have to make choices of... what will we maintain or what will... Okay.

Or consider to continue to build facilities.

Right. Well, exactly. We don't always have, but yeah. Councilor Booth.

No, thank you. So... Yeah, I mean, art is very important and people have different view. I've been almost assaulted with the mayor last year for that piece he's talking about, Icarus. Icar, we call him like in the Greek mythology. It's important to have art that's provocative because You know, like the philosopher said, it's an anti-destiny. Art gives the form their styles. That's what art does. And that's what, you know, because we go, still, I like your idea of a blue zone. I'm so interested in the blue zone now. And that's why I have this. And art is part of the blue zone. People seeing all this art, it it's immaterial but it brings some value to people's lives and it can you know people who are in solitude going around looking for the art it it's very important and we live in a society of exclusion sometimes of solitude so and plus my student was touring today The whole art. And they're docent, and people say, how do you pay all of those folks? That's why the budget, I am shocked even to see $275,000, because you're doing a lot of things. And I hope the other schools do like our school, come and see the art and appreciate what art is about. So I'm very proud of the work you are doing. And I'm also more eager to see the end, the finishing line of the response to racism. I call it that project. When it rains, you see the stuff. I think it will be a great addition to our city. And so you're doing a wonderful work. The Mayor asked you to add more in the budget, so I think it is time to do it, because moving the piece will be a lot of money, I think, so maybe 5 percent instead of 3. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Booth. Councillor Corrigan?

I just have a question generated in my mind. You posed the question about would we consider gallery without walls every other year instead of every year, I think.

Not gallery without walls, just people's choice.

The people's choice part, okay. So anyway, so the flea jumped at my brain and said, well, gee, It was pretty cool the way you guys brought the red man out for Little Iraq. That was just so good. And I'm wondering, how many pieces do we have in inventory that aren't on display for one reason or another? Are there pieces sitting around that need conservation that we can't afford? What could you tell us about that?

So in terms of pieces that are basically in storage or collection, outdoor pieces, there's only Spirit of the Marsh and another Kosuge piece that we got from the donation from them. So those are the only two outdoor works that don't yet have homes, but we have some ideas around where those might end up. In terms of the two-dimensional collection, there are some pieces in storage, and we try and get those out to a lot of different locations like Lorac. So that's why pieces are hung in the staff areas of Lorac, as well as In City Hall here, when this building was built, it has a lot less wall space than the previous City Hall did. So you'll recall from being in the old building, there was art hung all throughout that kind of circular location within the building. So we just don't have as much wall space as we used to.

Okay, and it's probably safe to assume that those 2D pieces aren't going to require the conservation that those big outdoor sculptures do.

Correct. Yeah, that's a much lower threshold. So it might require a frame or some new matting, or maybe it needs to be totally taken apart and conserved. Maybe it does need to be cleaned. But again, that is a lower threshold.

Okay, and the reason why you're suggesting that people's choice may only be every other year is because that is where the city makes an outlay. The rest of those pieces are really just loaned by the artists, right?

Correct. Yes, the rest of Gallery Without Walls, the pieces that come in for the temporary collection, those are loaned by the artist. But the collection does include roughly about 60 pieces that the city owns all throughout the city. So that's a lot. It's a lot for a city of our size. And so then the other 30 or so, anywhere between 25 and 30, those are the ones that come in and are on loan. and then which people's choice is selected from and purchased from. So yes, that is an outlay of cash that then could go into, if we don't utilize it one year with a purchase, it could go into conservation of some of our existing pieces.

Great. That's helpful. Thanks.

Do we have a number on kind of the total or an estimate on the deferred maintenance on the collection?

Of deferred maintenance, I could find that for you. It varies year after year after what we've completed and what needs to be done still. So for instance, like with Fairy Tree, if we were going to use that as an example, we don't know what it would fully cost because we don't know if it could handle being picked up to be moved. So if it could, it would probably, we estimate somewhere between anywhere between I'd say $50,000 and $75,000 just to bring that back to what it looked like before and moved. Oh, man. Which is a big consideration.

Yeah. Which was 10 times the amount of money that it cost to do it originally, but then inflation is involved. But that was in 1967?

Oh, that's the place structure. Oh, well, that's why. We're decommissioning that.

That's the recommendation of the public art community.

It's tough, yeah, but that's, I mean.

But yeah, you look at it and you're like, well, would you invest this much? Right. But again, like the library, it has a lot of community support to it. So we have to talk about, and I think it's good to talk about, how do we honor that piece, whatever happens to it? If we do deaccession or decommission it, how can we honor the history and the significance of that piece?

I was shocked when I found out that both Councillor Winland as a child and myself as a child both played on that.

Yes.

I heard that Councillor Winland.

And we're still alive. I know. And we're still alive without any head injuries or, yes. Right. I know. Yeah, we really. Right. We got into politics. Yeah. That's what happened. Oh, my gosh.

That's crazy.

Okay.

All right. Well, thank you so much. We look forward to the contract at the next meeting. Thank you for the great update and all the good work. Thank you.

Thanks to the Arts Council and all the, everyone. I see many in the audience back there.

Come down and see our exhibition. It's great.

Oh.

Okay. All right. Next item on the agenda is a Foothills District Plan updates. We have our Long Range Planning Manager, Mr. Eric Olson.

and jason good afternoon to the both of you good to see you good afternoon mayor and counselors we're going to have a few seconds here just to set up we're going to run it off of jason's computer here enjoy a pause for technology of course don't you worry a beautiful evening happy election day everyone thanks jason i was able to drop my ballot off with rachel in the parking lot. So thank you for accommodating our democracy. Appreciate that. I'm going to set up a presentation here. Eric's going to get us going, introduce why we're here, and then I'll pick up.

Yeah, so of course you know me, but my name is Eric Olson. I'm the Long Range Planning Manager and I am the Project Manager for our work to update the Foothills District Plan. So we're here today to talk with you all about some preliminary design concepts that we've developed based on some input that we've received from you all and the broader community on the vision and guiding principles over the past few months. So really, we're here to talk to you a little bit about just a quick summary of what we've been doing for the past few months. Really, it's just been a month or so since we last talked to you, so it hasn't been too long. Then we're going to talk a little bit about what we did to refine the vision and guiding principles based on your input, as well as some of the input from the community. as well as I think hopefully this will be the meat of the conversation, talk about these draft preliminary development concepts and see sort of which ideas you like there and which ones you may not like so much or want to see continue on to our future sort of schematic design alternatives or the next iteration of development concepts that we'll be working on. So yeah, we really appreciate you being here. I'm of course joined by Jason with our project consultants at First 40 Feet. um jason graff um so i don't want to belabor that but uh yeah just to give you a quick update on recent engagement we did conduct a community advisory committee meeting last week on tuesday may 12th we gathered feedback that was kind of the initial test run really for some of these preliminary design concepts so we presented similar information to what we'll be presenting to you all to the community advisory committee last week and have just been continuing to work to refine our vision and guiding principles based on what we heard from you all. We also held a work session at the Planning Commission on April 27th. So that was relatively recent and something we didn't cover with you all at the last meeting. But yeah, not too much has transpired. It's been less than a month since we talked to you last. So I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Jason to talk a little bit in more depth about the vision and then hopefully dive into those concepts here pretty quick.

Great. Thank you, Eric. Hello, everyone. Great to see everyone on a beautiful day. We're going to walk through the vision statement. And that was an iterative process developed by the CAC. And then we had a great conversation with you all about the vision statement and guiding principles. And we followed that with the planning commission. And we came up with some refinements to address some of those comments. also presented these refinements to the citizens advisory committee, all of which were very supportive of the direction that was received from both the commission and the city council. So thank you. And the vision statement here really added some sort of additional aspiration language around, you know, the meaningful riverfront presence that really the success of downtown Lake Oswego that is continuing. This is not a start of something new, but it's a continuation of things that have started previously as an extension of that. It's really important that we continue to stress that this is an extension of downtown and a mixed-use district. There may have been some implications early on that we were more sort of neighborhood focused. We really wanted to be direct about the fact that this is really an expansion of downtown this really is the downtown plan that that access and connection from downtown to the waterfront is preeminent extremely important as well as the foothills park being that community asset that's treasured downtown on one side riverfront on the other and the integration of landscape and the environment is extremely important. We're wrapped by Tryon Creek, the Willamette River. There's this community of trees, this aspiration of expanding that tree canopy that's so important to Lagos. We go. So getting that language in here was a way to help strengthen that mission statement as well as the built environment being a tool to really accentuate connections and really advance that building of a new neighborhood expansion of downtown but in a way that really addresses the context which is this relationship to the water to the creek and to the community you live in so this is a refinement statement then that we are bringing forward as a result of that information I can pause here for a moment and happy to take any comments. I think Mayor Buck is going to kind of lead the discussion.

No, Councillor Afghan. I thought you guys did an awesome job incorporating all our feedback into this statement. One thing that I didn't see was the aesthetic of what we would see from up here, down there. So I kept looking for it, but I wasn't able to find it. Can you tell me what I missed?

Well, I think It's hard to encapsulate everything in the statement. The guiding principles try to sort of expand on some of those ideas. And I think the connection is really important. That's both visual and physical. And stressing the importance of the connection, I think, is kind of that. That's really the preeminent piece. And then how we execute that, the guiding principles can really help inform that. And so we do touch on that view aspect, as you mentioned, within the guiding principles. I THINK YOU'LL SEE THAT IT DOES GET REFLECTED HERE IN OTHER PARTS. THANK YOU.

Yeah, so I had the exact same question as Councillor Afghan, and so my confusion in trying to evaluate these three really interesting choices were how, so that's a rail crossing. Would you envision, so we're talking about landing or plaza there, is that something that would go, I mean, I know this is kind of a detailed question, but would that go up over the railroad tracks, or in what way would you negotiate that crossing in order to accomplish that?

Sure. Can we get into those aspects when we get into the concepts part and focus on the vision now? Is that okay? Because I'll come directly. We can start with that question when we get into the concepts, if that's okay. Thank you, Trudy.

I think it's a good statement. It captures, I mean, part of so many things to be excited about with regards to foothills. It is kind of deciding what we hone in on. We've got a It's a test site for sustainability initiatives. It's an economic development driver. It's a neighborhood. It's a park. It's a lot, which is good. But sometimes it's good to have some focus. But the vision encapsulates everything. So that's good. Maybe the focus will come. What do you think about that?

Well, I think we could take a page from the ACLO book, which was very simple in their vision, their values, and they kept it really succinct. We joked about that, that we would have loved to have gotten the vision statement to just that, a statement. But there's a lot of Really important voices out there. So I think we're trying to roll it all in there. But simplifying is great. And we'll do that as we move along. This just gives us a place where we don't mess up. We can come back and look.

I think that's what I was like. Because you get the three, the park plaza, downtown plaza to park, and park promenade, like saying that in a vision that this is it. honestly it's the first time that this thing makes sense now it made sense when you came with the kids and we joke about them but now like i can say wow this is what we want from here to there to there this is the like we have a 3d thing can we just put it in one sentence as a vision that's it like because for me it is too big as a vision

I think we would struggle a bit to do that. I think it would actually expend quite a bit of project time and energy to go out and have that conversation again with the public. So this is trying to reflect those conversations that we did have with the public. And I will emphasize this is at least a sentence or maybe a few sentences shorter than the 2012 version of this vision statement. So just to put that in a bit of context.

We can always abridge it as we communicate it to the rest of the community moving forward. And sometimes when you look at where you land on the schematic or the preferred concept, maybe it does help to simplify the vision statement. I mean, this should be something that gets gets tweaked and turned. And I think we can use it in a way that makes it more practical and accessible to people. So we're happy to keep wordsmithing at the same time we keep moving toward the actual physical look of what that vision is.

I THINK WE WANT IT TO CONTINUE TO EVOLVE, OF COURSE, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING BIG SLASHES, I GUESS WE DON'T WANT ANYBODY TO FEEL LIKE THEIR VOICE HAS BEEN TAKEN OUT OF THE PICTURE.

I TOTALLY GET THAT. I AGREE THAT I THINK IT IS A GOOD LANDING PAD FOR THE IDEAS AND ALL THAT STUFF, BUT I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT LET ME PUT IT IN CONTEXT. Geez, John, what are you doing with foothills? One moment. Let me pull up my phone. Well, do you have a half an hour? Because let's go through some things. You know, it would be interesting, and I'm not saying that this is the direction to go, but I'm just saying where you would say that it's like we do a... The what?

Like an elevator pitch version of this?

Well, just a little bit so it is tightened down, i.e., I think all of that that you have got going in here, it sounds like it is a 300-acre project, and we are still talking about three acres? or whatever, eight, whatever.

It would be 16 developable acres, and that increases quite a bit if you look at potential development. But yeah, it's not substantial.

To me, like a vision statement would be, hey, let's have a, a community that is, when you look into the culture and cultural narratives and the frameworks and whatever, and the sustainability, be a concept like have the new timber project or whatever that they're doing in Portland. I mean, maybe this is a timber project. project where it's, I mean, if you want a really defined thing, I'm not saying that that's the concept. But what I'm saying is that you immediately get an idea of what you're trying to do down there. Here, you're kind of like recreating Earth. I mean, and the world. I mean, this is like 14 chapters of Genesis.

Yeah. So anyway. Yes. What do you think about that?

I agree with you guys, with everyone. Here's what's going through my mind. As I started reading everything here, it came across as the project description to me, as opposed to the vision. So the vision is our North Star. What all we define under it are most of the stuff here. Mixed use, waterfront, all of that stuff is the project scope. So the vision got to be our North Star.

So I agree with- So maybe we could take a stab at a HOND vision.

I hear the- Yeah, I think if there are any suggestions for things that we could remove from this, you know, I think that would be helpful. I think that's unfortunately the conversation we're going to be having here. So I think that's, you know, any direction of where we can go with that would be welcome because this is, You know, as you can probably tell, this is a reflection of what we're hearing, and we're hearing that there's a lot of ideas, right?

Well, Council Rathkin has a good framing of it, because we don't want to, it's just moving those ideas to the project description and using the vision as kind of the more honed in, clear, not kind of kitchen sink model. So that we're not, you know, nothing's being erased. We're just...

we don't want to lose anything we just want to make sure our vision is clear and our project description is clear two different things right two different things but go on great yeah any guidance on that overall vision would be helpful let's do on that for a bit yeah it's early still

The guiding principles, they're the trajectory for the North. Sorry, Rachel, you had a comment.

I was just going to say, really, I think if you look at it, the first paragraph is almost what you're saying, Allie, and then the rest is kind of detailed. So I don't think we need to be spending a lot of time. I think it's here. So let's not overthink in wordsmith.

Well, no, this is not wordsmithing. This is kind of conceptual. Yeah, I get it. But, I mean, it's philosophical. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I was tracking you, Rachel, on that one as I looked at it. I thought, hmm, maybe Mr. Afghan has got it right. It's that first paragraph. So thank you. the guiding principles that is sort of our trajectory that is getting more into some of the details or at least what is going to help define a great district and so these six points are really trying to touch on what we need to think about as being really important what we value in terms of reaching that mission statement and so some of the additions here then reflect those comments from you all about this being a walkable pedestrian oriented connection that that really RESONATED NOT ONLY FROM YOU ALL BUT FROM THE PLANNING COMMISSION. SO THAT WAS A DOUBLE ECHO BACK TO US TO REINFORCE THAT PIECE. THE COMPLEMENTING NATURE OF THE DISTRICT THAT IS REALLY AN EXTENSION OF DOWNTOWN, NOT A COMPETING ELEMENT, WAS ALSO REINFORCED. in that in that waterfront mixed use area and then balancing development with the natural environment so integrating those natural systems which we are trying to do try on creek is so important here we have a wastewater treatment plant that's also tapping into those resources as well in a much cleaner way and allowing us as a community to function much better so i think some of those aspects of the district are already happening in some of the early projects even before we've got a framework plan And thinking about that long-term environmental performance, not only in tree canopy, but in the way we move around through the district, I think all those are going to tap into a balance of development that really supports those natural elements that are surrounding us on all parts of the district. SO WE CAN STAY ON THESE TWO AND THEN MOVE TO THE NEXT TWO, IF THAT'S OKAY. IF IT LOOKS GREAT, THUMBS UP FROM JOE, I'LL GO TO THE NEXT ONE. OR TWO, THREE AND FOUR. THIS IDEA OF THE CONNECTION BEING IMPORTANT, THAT IT'S SUPPORTING ALL MODES, NEEDED TO BE OVER HERE AND THAT THE DESIGN OF THOSE CONNECTIONS REALLY DO ACCENTUATE. multimodal connections, but also thinking about trails and streets and public spaces all sort of working together to help make that connection. You're going to see that, I think, in the concepts which would you have looked at? And I think we picked up on on that in particular as we begin to describe what those opportunities are for future development around this grant connection. So three, I think we were hitting in spades and then for support and inclusive and economically vital community. you know affordable housing was something that planning commission certainly weighed in on felt like it was important to describe that you know a mix of housing types yes but let's think about affordability for folks living in the community so that was the addition there and then five and six integrate sustainability ecology and climate resilience know there's this is going to be a model district in a lot of respects both in how people are living and populating the district the fact that you've got an upgraded wastewater treatment plant is really huge and the infrastructure itself can help to support a good balance of development and resilience and ecology some aspects as we know from community groups who really want to push hard on green sustainable development You know, we're really tasked with making sure we don't preclude that. And so being cognizant of future opportunities that aren't fully present is something important in the district. And so we're trying to get that into the verbiage here and those guiding principles. And we're looking forward to that, creating a framework that allows for and is inclusive for really good ideas in the future is gonna be important. I think we can get there. And then planning for adaptability, I think that just coincides with the comment I just made. The initial framework is going to be setting a trajectory, a positive trajectory and not limiting us in terms of the future, both of how we get around and how we live in and amongst the natural environment. I think those are gonna come together pretty well. So changing community needs is always important to think about. And I think there's gonna be a lot of opportunity to address that, both how we use spaces today and the opportunities we'll have in the future. So thank you for that. And let's, if there aren't any more comments around that, I'm gonna jump into the development concepts. I love this view of the district. It puts your eyes and your heart right exactly where things are happening, downtown, that edge, the seam of State Street, and then just that flow down the hill to the waterfront. What we're going to look at in terms of feedback from you tonight is this idea of a grand connection. And that grand connection is kind of manifest in three different ways. And so as you look at the concepts, this isn't really like, let's pick one, one, two, or three. What's my favorite? It's really about what aspects of each concept do you really like or you see value in? What are areas that maybe you think aren't performing as well or you have questions about? And then certainly, is there something missing? Is there something overtly you're not seeing here that we need to address and think about as we move forward? And this is all high level, but it gives us a sense of where we might be going. And there's some key design moves that we hone in on before we jump into the concepts. The first is the wastewater treatment plant is going to really set the stage and kind of put a stake in the district area in terms of where it sits and it moves closer to the rail line and it's going to be fixed in an area of the district that we're learning more and more of kind of how that's going to work. And so we're able to develop the concept sort of knowing where that flag is going to be planted and how we want to react to it. in terms of development in the future, making sure we have access to that wastewater treatment plant, but also that it's able to be sort of out back and behind from the development area in a sense. the other piece is what is this opportunity for this grand connection this this link between state street which is really our sense of arrival moving through the district where the bulk of redevelopment is going to be happening and then what's that park edge like as you get into the district and so we're going to look at each one of those pieces the concepts really address those there's also access to the district so the south portal is really how do we circulate in and around the district today coming in off State Street on the southern end and then thinking in the future where that north portal might be because I don't think the north portal isn't necessarily contingent at day one but i think it's a it's something that we would aspire to over time and try to define exactly how we might execute that so thinking about these and sort of pieces and phasing is really important we've done that in the initial layouts of the concepts and then development character is also going to be a key attribute you've all talked about that if there's a great grand connection here how are those buildings orienting to that what type of views are we creating does it feel like you're being pulled into the waterfront. Does it feel like there's a sense of arrival both downtown and to the district? And where is it taking me as I traverse through the district? All those things we're trying to explore in these concepts and they all come together in the Grand Connection. And how we get there is also looking at the project objectives. So we are thinking about exactly what we've been tasked to do, identify opportunities for housing, improving access and connectivity. It's such an out back and behind district. And so I think we're gonna find some fun ways to do that. We'll get to some of the other bullets of the project objectives and move forward in terms of funding and how we move on that trajectory and the guiding principles that we just went through have also been a guide for us as well as a North Star with the vision statement. So we're thinking of all those things and we'll be able to evaluate both these three concepts and where we move into a schematic by measuring the success of each one of these against those objectives and the guiding principles so we want to use those as a way to sort of test how well things are performing so three concepts are developed here based on this idea of a grand connection park plaza creates a sense of arrival at state street and then movement through the district really centralized in the redevelopment area so sort of running that new connection through the middle of where the opportunities for future development exist and creating a signature amenity at the waterfront so imagine state street is kind of that front door you've got a great processional and then you arrive at this amazing public space as an extension of foothills park with development wrapping its edges so that was the idea for park plaza Downtown plaza says maybe let's be a little more overt about what that sense of arrival is in downtown. And so that State Street between A and B really becomes this important sort of moment to open up that space between A and B and put the river and the district at the front door, knowing we have the anchor project coming online at B, we've got great development at a and maybe this is an opportunity to be more overt about what that means to arrive on state street continuing that processional through the redevelopment area but creating larger development site opportunities on the wastewater treatment side but creating a good back up against the the existing condominium project and then still landing on a great public space at the bottom, maybe a little bit smaller at the terminus at Foothills Park. The promenade says, hey, let's really look at Avenue A and Avenue B as these important connections. Avenue A being kind of the grand connection because development is oriented to that piece. But B is also an important walk-by connection. Think double row of trees. I think someone mentioned Barcelona in an earlier conversation. Maybe that was the CAC. But that promenade then extends really this idea of canopy and tree and movement through the district in two locations. And so those are generally the three concepts. We'll walk through here. This is a motion graphic that sort of gets into the sequencing of development knowing that the wastewater treatment plant will be the first project that's built. And so you get a sense of where that is going to be located in the district. And we're looking at those points of access. There's three arrows that you see there that project right now as it's being designed is a series of terraces so it has an upper level where the administrative building is it has a middle level where you know the bulk of processing would be and then there's a lower roadway that connects to that black dot that you see by tryon creek and that's a pump station so access needs to occur in three locations to support that facility and as we pull back then and think about redevelopment of the district We want to talk about this grand connection. How do we extend then from State Street through the redevelopment area, creating these anchor amenity places, a sense of arrival at State, a park plaza space at the waterfront at Foothills Park. So State Street becomes one element of that, extends along then to the park plaza. And then the south portal then extends from basically the roundabout into that district area and extends up to where the redevelopment of the old wastewater treatment then creates development opportunities on either side of that roadway. So then the development area evolves from this south portal and extension of that roadway and it aligns with that grand connection. And then we think about those north portal connections over time. IN THOSE TWO LOCATIONS AND THEN THE WEAVING OF THOSE TRAIL CONNECTIONS, BUILDING OFF YOUR MASTER PLAN AND OTHER ELEMENTS AS A PART OF THAT CONCEPT. SO LET ME SORRY FOR BOUNCING AROUND HERE. SO THIS IS THEN THE PARK PLAZA CONCEPT. AND I'M GOING TO PAUSE AT EACH ONE OF THESE JUST TO GET YOUR SENSE AND YOUR THOUGHTS AS YOU LOOK AT EACH ONE OF THESE. THIS GIVES YOU THAT NEW STATE STREET. landing so you're coming into the district that processional through development on both sides of that street and then that plaza space terminating at foothills park

some of the more unique elements here is that the access goes sort of through the development blocks here so you might have somewhat smaller development blocks but a lot more of that sort of emphasis on the you know access itself as a connection yeah can we like councillor corrigan was asking i'm also very curious about the access yeah is it i'm in my vision i feel somewhere like a tunnel

Is it a tunnel or because it cannot be a bridge?

Well, there might be a bridge. So as we look at the grades, the State Street elevation at Avenue B, the rail line is much lower than the street level. And so getting a bridge over at Avenue B is a feasible opportunity to go over the tracks.

Not under.

Not under, but over. At A, you would need to cross at grade. So it could be steps down to the tracks and crossing, much like what we saw in the previous concept in 2012. And it was sort of oriented between A and B, they were looking at doing the steps as well. we want to look at an over-crossing as an alternative to that. There's another over-crossing that we're really interested in, and that is from Millennium Plaza, the upper plaza, over State Street and down into the district next to where the trolley building is. And that may be another opportunity to connect from a great public space and have direct access to the park and not down the ramp, down the stairs, across the train track, over to the light, across the intersection, come back and get in the district. that that really may be a signature element that we haven't really explored before, but we would like to for this option.

What's that?

Land bridges, yes. And we have some great examples. Lynn mentioned the land bridge concept where, I mean, you're walking through kind of a channel of landscaping up and over the roadway and coming into the district. So Vancouver has this. Maya Lynn is a great artist who designed a bridge crossing over SR 14 in Washington. Great example. And we'll share some of those with you. And there's a variety of different ways to create that crossing. It can also be a great gateway into downtown.

Would there ever be a way to envision just a kind of pedestrian only promenade into this district?

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's an opportunity to do that. I think you can do that even with a street there. And the street that we're showing here is two lanes, one traveling in each direction on street parking, but a much wider zone, certainly in the promenade concept, which could be translated across all three of them. But yeah, absolutely. I think there can be a pedestrian only connection, you know, through the district here.

Well, you know, if you create that festival type street, then it serves other purposes, you know, from time to time. And it just seems like we crowd all of the people love like downtown right now. They love to be out walking and biking, but it gets so crowded between pedestrians and bikes all crammed onto these little sidewalks and it just creates too much kind of that enjoyment is almost ruined by then cars trying to get into the lot, you know, and It seems like an area that's just kind of free of that, where it could be people more free to mingle around each other and and kind of walk throughout and then more opportunities for some of the some of the economic drivers, I think of like pop up markets and things like that where people want to see this kind of that type of activity. We've obviously been hearing a lot about different versions of that and whatnot, but it could facilitate that a little bit.

I'd like to also add that the curly Q is just an awesome feature that is integrated into all three of these concepts, I mean that. The sloping topography between the rail line and foothills road is a unique condition in itself in 2012 that was envisioned as a redevelopment area, because there was a new street running between the rail line and. and the development area but that has all changed with the wastewater treatment facility and so that really interesting zigzag curly q across that space between the rail line and the redevelopment area really is going to continue to exist that's going to be kind of this awesome transition zone through that area and then into the curlicue that continued, we'd love to see that arc just continue. So the things that you're seeing, the grand connection are really in addition, but it keeps that sort of core element, which frankly is a part of the historical nature of the redevelopment of the entire district, because that was the old rail line that arced around from State Street down to the foundry. So it's just a beautiful piece of reinterpreting the use of that space and that connection. I mean, they graded it so they could get a train down there, and now it's just a perfect trail path. So that'll be in there as well. And I think it's a good asset to keep.

Can I ask a question on the general three concepts? Is it going to yield roughly the same amount of developable land

It's really a matter of development intensity. I mean, the land is there. For instance, in the concept you're looking at now where the road runs down the middle of the redevelopment area, that creates smaller development blocks. So you're likely to get a smaller development yield because your infrastructure is running through the middle. So it creates sites that aren't as ideal for certain types of building footprints, if that makes sense. and those blocks are about the half the size of you know first edition blocks which are buildings alleyway buildings and so this encompasses about half that area and you all know kind of the character and size of development within sort of that that narrow of an area so this would probably have be a little more restrictive just along that main street. Now, the redevelopment of the wastewater treatment area is a little more open and would be more flexible and allow for a variety of different building types, but it is a little narrower in this concept. i think the the third promenade concept actually was that the one that has the biggest uh blocks that we um came up with for development yeah let me just just put all three of them up here you can see park plaza on the left that road running through the middle that creates smaller block sizes the downtown plaza and promenade creates larger block areas more more in line with what you have in in first edition in downtown because you can see what the promenade could yield potentially the most in terms of development but there's a couple of things that play into that because the depth of the the concrete batch plant means you have opportunities for taller buildings that aren't sort of hitting sight lines of the downtown and so there's some opportunities for increased density in areas even in the narrower blocks for instance where you could do parking underneath the roadway i mean there's some strategic things that filling that hole with levels of parking is a really cost savings measure way to to put development on top of that. So you capture the ability to get a couple of floors of parking that would typically be unseen because you need that fill anyway, not only to get out of the floodplain, but to create sort of terrace development through the district.

So I think- Well, the reason why I'm asking that question is because I think it's great to look at the concepts of how you want to set it up, but I think you have to ask the question initially of what are you trying to accomplish from a, I don't know if it's a volume standpoint. I mean, do we want to try to design the space for 2,000 people, 1,500 people? 3,000 people, I mean, from that standpoint. And then it gets into the affordability part, because if you start having more public spaces, it's less developed space. And that's just going to drive the price up. And that takes out of your affordability. So I think some of those concepts, you have pretty much flat in the models that you show there, everything's flat versus three-dimensional. So I don't know whether you go, you know, if we could go more than four stories or whatever, or six, because you do have that space. So, I mean, from that standpoint, I mean, those are, to me, baseline philosophical things that we have to figure out as a community is the density down there. I mean, do we want it more just park-like with fewer residencies? I mean, to have it more park-like or do we want it to be really dense? And the reason why I'm saying that, I was just on a trip and I mean, Europe is very dense. I mean, and you go down narrow little roads and it's beautiful, it's wonderful. And then they have the big plazas in Barcelona. I mean, they have the wide plaza with the trees and whatever. And it's absolutely fabulous. But they also have millions of people in that city that walk up and down. And I mean, it's made for that. I mean, if we put, you know, we have these plazas, we can only put 500 people down there. That's pretty pricey parkland. I mean, versus having it where you can put 3000 people down there. Those are just kind of the things that I don't know what, and then obviously having somebody to build all this stuff too.

And you're absolutely right. So there are basic thresholds that the development yield needs to be at a certain level to balance the cost of the infrastructure. And if those are imbalanced, then you're not going to likely have a development scenario. So that's one thing. And so we'll certainly calibrate each of these concepts around that, what the potential development yield is. I think there's a variety of different ways to get that yield. But to your point, yes, that is part of the metrics in determining what your ultimate plan moving forward is. To your point, do we wanna balance the cost of public space with less housing because we value the public space? That's one attribute. Still understanding that you need a critical amount of development to make the infrastructure cost balance. We're always gonna be there. We're not gonna put forward a plan that doesn't doesn't at least equalize or do better on the development side versus the cost of infrastructure. But it's kind of the quality of space. What is that experience for you as you move between downtown and the waterfront? That's really important. How important is each end of that experience? What can we accomplish on State Street, for instance, to maybe make that feel like arrival in the downtown space? So there's gonna be things that help guide that. But to your point, yes, we do wanna try to balance development with infrastructure cost and we'll work toward that.

Thank you, Councilor Afghan.

So we're talking concepts, so no judgment, right?

Sure, it's very important to keep in mind that these are conceptual. So there's a lot of calibration that needs to come later.

So few things. As you were talking, you started distinguishing between downtown and the waterfront. And our north star was we want to expand the downtown. So if that's the case, then option three or the park promenade is what caught my attention. That means we can't say we expanded the downtown but visually not have that in place. meaning you have to see it in order to believe it. And if that's the case, if you're driving down from A Avenue and you can see the downtown expanded, then that's the option for me. The same thing with B Avenue. You're coming down, you see the downtown expanded as opposed to building here, building there. There's a dead end, so you have to turn in order to see the rest of the downtown. So that was one. And I also like the multi-entry into that area. Whether it's pedestrian or bikes or cars, multi-entry is best, especially with the events we're having there. And most likely, we will have more events. So again, from my perspective, what we see is important as well as what ends up being built there. So whether our alleys are going to be small like Europe or wide and every place we look at our street, it's like, what do we see? Because this is the only opportunity we get. And a comment for the city manager is that the wastewater treatment project manager and this project manager have to be best friends forever because we can't have a foothills district that has a wastewater treatment that it's either has odor or noise or this or that. So the whole thing got to come together nicely.

I appreciate that. You know, This view or what this connection is, is experience coming from multiple directions. And part of it is, is where are you creating that moment where now you're orienting yourself, you've got downtown on one side of you, and now you have the opportunity when you look the other direction, which today we know is looking at a sea of sort of low-hung commercial buildings or tree-lined, literally fully obscured, the view. In each one of these scenarios, we're creating an opportunity to open that space. And the location of that, whether it's here or here or here, that's the moment where you're really going to experience this vastness, something allowing you to orient over here. And so I think it can be accomplished in the middle between A and B. It could be accomplished the way you are seeing it is extend the A avenue corridor, extend the B avenue corridor. I think We're going to have the opportunity to do that in each of the alternatives, because that's the goal, is to create that opening and that moment. There's a lot of things obscuring the view. Even if we were to take the buildings down at State Street, you've got a tree line along the bluff. You have the transformer units. All these things are sort of in the way. There's not going to be like a true view to the water, but that connection will be so clear and logical to you. There'll be a moment. of arrival at State Street and a decision that you'll be able to make that can take you to the water. And so I think that's what, as we look at all the things that are impacting how we do that, that'll be the moment for us. Like, is this the right connection? Is it orienting me to this place? And does it feel connected to the core of downtown?

Is it expanding the downtown or are we separating? Those are the type of dialogue we have to have.

I appreciate that. Yep. Looking forward to that. Yes. Yeah. I think unfortunately there's like some very real physical barriers there. So we have to think about what, what we can do to actually integrate the fabric. And, you know, I think, we were thinking that the plaza, you know, would be a good, at least a visual at the eye level downtown that would draw you to at least that connection, if not the entire district. But to the extent that we can do that, you know, that would be a way to frame it potentially.

So maybe options, maybe second option and third option can be combined with the plaza and access or visual access.

I think as we explore some of those crossings and what's really viable, what isn't, you know, a lot of people have already questioned, can you really make State Street kind of a pleasant place to be with all these cars pushing through? So I think those are going to weigh in, you know, as factors too. And absolutely.

Yeah, that interface is going to be really important though. And I think that's something that we're starting to try to incorporate into these concepts and acknowledge.

I don't know if you've been to Independence, Oregon before, but it's one of, I mean, this project here has the opportunity for your downtown to really be oriented to the Willamette River in a way that no other city on the Willamette River can do. And the only community so far that's done it fairly well is Independence. because their main street, much like your state street, is sitting at the edge of this space between their core downtown and the waterfront. have a glorious park there. There's buildings on one side, storefronts. The highway runs through there, but it's not four lanes, it's two lanes. And it is a sense of arrival, and that park is the front door to the downtown. And it feels like an extension of Independence to the waterfront. And they've added some additional development. They've got a hotel and townhomes and that activity on either side of that great public space. And I think this is that in my mind this is a similar opportunity for us like if we're to think of state street as this sense of arrival then you know let's push hard to try and actually do that and make it uh they have done a very impressive job there they've done a very nice job counselor corgan

Yeah, I'm interested in what you might be able to tell us about these three options. It's not clear to me what the experience of someone walking along between the buildings and the river would be like. I think a lot of us were really inspired by the way the Vancouver waterfront was done, sort of the accessibility to the water. What are the variations and theme here on that for people letting people be close to the water. I mean, I don't know if you have problems with seawalls or all these other things and other environmental considerations. I don't know. What can you tell us?

Yeah, I mean, this is different from Vancouver in that Vancouver, the development is is separating the downtown from the waterfront. This is a scenario that turns that on its side and says, OK, we're not creating a wall. We're actually creating a direct connection to the waterfront that is extending the downtown forward, which is awesome. And I think that's really where you want to be. You want to create that something perpendicular to your downtown on the waterway, because that's what's going to accentuate that experience. if you're able to activate development on both sides. So the Park Plaza concept, where new development is sitting up on either side of that development, that creates a lot of activity. It creates a great space. And the connection has a lot of logic. And so I think that's a good benefit. B gives you a little bit more flexibility in how you execute that, i.e. there's larger development blocks on one side of the road versus the other. So that gives you more flexibility in the types of buildings than development you might do. The promenade, if it has any fatal flaw, is that it's not double-sided on those grand connections between the downtown and the waterfront. Because on one side, you have the wastewater treatment plant, which we can screen and do some things. On the other side, we have the back side of the condominium project. I mean, the promenade is going to be so grand and tree-lined that I think the experience is going to feel lovely, much like it is today when you're on the Curly Q. But I think it doesn't have the energy on both sides of that connection that the other two concepts offer. And so that's an important consideration, because if you're trying to create great eyes on the street and something that feels like a vibrant place, it's really good to have buildings on both sides of that connections.

So I'm still kind of confused. If I'm walking down there on my bike, how close can I get to the water?

I mean, it will continue to be along the park. So, I mean, that would be a part of the Foothills Park northward expansion. So we're not scoped to think about exactly what the park sort of design and layout would look at with this project. But if you think about just the sort of need for cut and fill and what the topography of that corner would be of sort of Triant Cove and the Willamette right there, you know that's currently um raised up out of the floodplain you know the wastewater treatment plan needs to be up and you know safe from flood risk there would be opportunities to lower some of the adjacent uh slopes so that we could um you know have more basically area for um cuts and you know more area for stormwater or you know for a flood plain to be um you know that water to be ABSORBED OR CONTAINED FOR THOSE EVENTS, BUT THERE IS POTENTIAL, THOUGH, AT LEAST FOR THAT, THERE TO BE SOME SORT OF EARTHWORK IN THAT AREA THAT WOULD LOWER IT, BUT YOU'D STILL WANT THOSE BUILDINGS TO BE UP AND OUT OF THE FLOOD PLAIN. SO IT IS CREATING SOMEWHAT OF A STEEP SCENARIO THERE, SO IT WOULDN'T It wouldn't be the flattest area for folks to sort of experience the water. And I think the existing park facilities are well suited for that. But that's certainly something that I think would be a really fundamental part of any future Foothills Park northward expansion. But that doesn't mean that that's not something we need to think about now and how these buildings could be laid out. That's something that needs to be coordinated as with the wastewater treatment plant.

In each scenario is making a more direct connected way to walk and bike from state street to to the waterfront and it's taking you right to foothills park and the plaza concept it takes you to a grand space right at the edge of foothills park plaza downtown plaza could do something similar but at a smaller scale and the promenade just kind of continues that tree line walkway all the way through right into to the park so there's real sort of obvious continuity in that scene being just glorious. So I think you'll find that it's a positive experience coming down. There's going to be some topography change for sure. If you want to keep it easy, you want to be on the curlicue, because that's going to give you a little more tempered way to get up and down. Some of these streets are going to hit a little bit steeper thresholds than we would anticipate from an accessibility threshold. And that may just be the nature of working in steeper slopes like we have here. in some instances, development for the wastewater treatment plant. The old wastewater treatment plant, which we'll leave, is up in a higher bluff area itself. So imagine those buildings are going to be up a little higher than even the park down below. And so there's some accessibility experiences there. So kind of terracing down. We'll try to minimize those slopes as much as possible.

That's great. Yeah, that helps.

Yeah, I like the, you know, You know, I bring up the idea of that kind of Festival Street pedestrian promenade, because then it kind of creates some of that plaza space just all throughout. So you're always in that plaza space. And it's like a kind of a combination of that park promenade, if one of those promenades were just a wide kind of you know, a wide pedestrian promenade and the other dedicated to more multimodal, you know, because you have to be able to access the space too. I mean, let me be realistic about that. And I do like that it kind of, trying to find a way to weave so that there's no lost space, you know, that there's no or there's no, you know, off to the side space and keeping in mind that the city, of course, will then control that old wastewater treatment plant site. So I can see that being an integral kind of part to whatever gets developed down there. you know, we have currently less control over the rest of the over the rest of that development. But but that being the site that's right on the water itself is a key, you know, could be a key site, whatever that use ends up being and tying that also into a promenade i think the kind of i guess that's what i like about it it's bringing people down through through the district i think the concept i like the least is the downtown plaza just because it kind of starts so heavy at the top you know the others kind of draw you still have that that um important you know visual at the top like counselor afghan said but it makes you want to Want to go through so we have that experience when people could start in in the downtown set the expanded downtown You know their experience from downtown all the way down through to the park, which is in itself is a great gathering PLACE TOO AND COULD BE EXPANDED AGAIN WITH THAT AROUND THE SITE THAT WE CONTROL. MAYBE IT'S A PARK PLAZA. NO, PARK PLAZA IS A PLAZA PROMENADE.

Perfect. One thing I just wanted to, I guess, ask maybe a pointed question about, you know, I think one of the elements that's common amongst these three concepts is that there is sort of treatment of the wastewater treatment plant sort of as like a back of house access road. Foothills Road does become somewhat of an access road and is de-emphasized, I think, in comparison to this, what we're calling the Grand Connection, you know, to sort of YOU KNOW, AGAIN, PROMOTE THE, YOU KNOW, WHAT WOULD LIKELY BE A MORE DESIRABLE PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCE. AND, YOU KNOW, THE SORT OF PRESENCE OF, LIKE, WASTE TRUCKS ALONE IS SOMETHING THAT WE'RE TRYING TO BE COGNIZANT OF. SO THE TRUCKS KIND OF COMING TO AND FROM THAT FACILITY WITH YOU KNOW WHAT IN LARGE TRUCKS THAT NEED TO BE A CRITICAL PART OF THEIR OPERATIONS THERE. THAT'S SOMETHING WE WANT TO THINK ABOUT. OBVIOUSLY THERE'S A CROSSING THERE THAT NEEDS TO BE MANAGED BUT WE DIDN'T SEE THAT AS BEING TOO COMPATIBLE WITH MUCH PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITY I SUPPOSE. Guess you know I just wanted to ask about you know, you know Do you see that as being something that we should maintain moving forward or do you see? Maybe with this park promenade that maybe we should try to activate that more at least on one side to have options You know for folks to traverse the area Again, this could be you know mere buck in your comments, you know if we did think about shutting down the sort of grand connection if you will that could be the sort of the outlet for vehicles and other things that could function in the event that the other sort of pedestrian-oriented area was shut down. So they could have sort of differing functions, but it might be a challenge to make them both successful pedestrian axes, if you will. So I guess, yeah, I think that we might want to prioritize one. And I guess I'm just, you know, I guess it's an open question. It's more of a statement, I suppose. But, you know, I guess that's one element of the park promenade that I GUESS THERE COULD BE ISSUES WITH ACTIVATING THAT SORT OF NORTHERLY ACCESS ON FOOTHILLS ROAD IF WE DO HAVE THIS OTHER SORT OF PROMINENT ACCESS THAT'S EVEN MORE DIRECT. UNLESS THOSE TRUCKS GO OUT THE BACK. WELL, YEAH, THAT IS A FUTURE POSSIBILITY, OF COURSE.

I don't think we're going to have trucks coming and going 24-7. So from my perspective, we want it all. So you guys are the experts and see what you can do.

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, that urban design principle is that, you know, if you have this size of a space, it might be hard to activate, you know, those two kind of disparate areas, I suppose. So I guess that's one, that's something that we're struggling with that in addition to the sort of access needs of the wastewater treatment plant.

The multi-use area that we have already agreed, so

Yeah, and it's kind of, you know, as a smaller area, too, it's, I mean, there's the larger development sites of the promenade are appealing, but then the kind of single, you know, it's not that big, it's, you know, of a space like kind of concentrated, there's a lot of appeal there, too, like just having one draw, like in our, you know, instead of like, well, that's when you get you know, naturally it can't all be super vibrant, right?

So you can't- A hierarchy maybe of the different roads or something.

Right, you know, it kind of, it gets, and there is something about the plaza where it is that you see that prominent, that, that grand um entry and and and extension framed as we've talked about then it kind of ending along the water i mean there's something really appealing to that too because that is that natural you know it seems like in scale with what we're talking about here um kind of a walk through a neighborhood you know if you will to this complementary um use to the current extension of the current downtown along the water is something very appealing about that as opposed to like too many well do i go down this road or that road

Yeah, there's a lot of clarity in the Park Plaza in that direct connection and the fact that it embraces the Foothills Park and State Street is really important. And if you think about, okay, what does it mean to extend the downtown to the waterfront? Well, there's a certain DNA to the downtown and it's a series of blocks of buildings fronting those streets and A really does that. in a very overt way and creeps that connection, not aligned with kind of the view corridors along A and B, but it creates its own, a new corridor that is emblematic of the kind of the block structure of the traditional downtown and those buildings and oriented to that space as a logic and continuity of what you already experienced today in downtown. So that makes some sense. The plaza too allows that development. I guess in downtown plaza and Park Promenade you see the development kind of is becoming the Vancouver wall a little bit separation of the park space from the rest of downtown whereas that first option really says this central seam is taking you to these this great public space at the end and it's filling in that area kind of like the blocks that you have in your downtown. i may i'm maybe convincing myself on one of these options sorry park plaza council say one two or three elements of one two or three john just tell me which pieces to put together because we can i think we can do that this is supposed to mix and match it's like a mr potato head you can pick your pieces and create your own puzzle out of it yeah um i

I think these are great. They give you a lot to think about and kind of just doing what we're doing, which is kind of talking about what are the different scenarios? What do we want to see? And I would say I lean, you know, again, if I had to choose one right now, I kind of lean towards the Park Plaza just because I like that just central going down and it gives you a destination at the bottom. But I also think the mayor made a really good point. I wouldn't want cars on that. I'd want that to be more of a pedestrian street. And then if you could keep the cars on the sides somehow. And I'm not sure if there's space to do that or how that would work. But keeping traffic when you look at Park Promenade to the Northern Promenade, if that's your cars more there, which pushes it up against the wastewater treatment, To me, that's just a little bit nicer. Not saying that you don't have people that can walk there, but you don't have that nice kind of pedestrian feel. And that may mean that that pathway or the street on Park Closet, maybe it's not as wide because you have to make up for some space. But I also think, Jeff, you made a really good point, is the vibrancy that you feel when you have things on both sides. And so that would be my concern with the park promenade is that you kind of lose that energy because it's all focused on one side. That's right. I like that. But at the same time, on that prominent one, it's like I think we lose something. And what I probably want to see is that you have some connections between the two prominence where you have those pedestrian streets that maybe are between. So you have kind of that more that European alley kind of feel. So I would say if we did something like that, I'd want to see that. And I also like I'm not sure if because of the grade, if that makes more sense. You know, is it that I don't exactly know what that grade would be on the Park Plaza when you go down. It's like, are we going to lose the feel that we're hoping for because it's too steep? Because I think as soon as you start adding steps in there, I think you start losing that feel. So that would be just, those are just kind of the different things going through my head. But I do like ending with a plaza at the end. I'm not sure how much we can leverage of some of the existing foothills if we're kind of expanding the park a little bit. Because I think Councilor Wendland brought up a really good point. If we do want to leverage buildability in those spaces. But I do think coming and having some again, plaza of some sort. And again, whether that means we kind of tap into the existing and move the park further north, you know, where the floodplains and stuff might be a little, you know, where you want to park there versus build. Yeah. But I do like having that destination of however we make that look and the size of it. I think we can kind of figure out based, again, we don't know any, there's so much we don't know that it's like, yeah, we can sit here and talk about all this, what we like and don't like, but until we start getting the grades, until we start seeing everything, it's... we're just kind of to me talking really high level what are the generally what we're liking um one thing i do think is really important and i don't think we have any issue because of the grade trait how it goes down but as you come down a i think everyone loves the view of kind of the mountains so not so much as you look down but as you look straight across and i think we've got you know plenty of space that we can build up and maybe we even look at you know Do we, how high, you know, does six stories make sense? What makes sense down there before you start, you know, blocking that view? But I think we do need to look at leveraging the height in that area. I'd be a little careful going over about six stories or so because then you start as a pedestrian, it starts feeling overwhelming. And I think you have to look at your, you know, the spacing between your, you know, how wide is that pedestrian street? But I think you see, you see in Paris, you see in Rome, you know, you can get five or six stories and still keep a very pedestrian great feel. And so we need to look at that and say, okay, Is our zoning right in that area matching what we can do so we maximize our density and help increase the type of housing that we can have down there and so forth?

Everyone will have great cabs. That would be a selling point. I love it.

Just to, I guess, follow up a little bit on what you were saying, you know, I think, and what you were saying, Councillor Wendland, earlier, you know, with the Park Plaza or with, you know, maybe some of the concepts that might result in smaller blocks can, you know, if there are concerns about the amount of development that could be placed on those blocks, you know, that is something that could be mitigated by height and a more thorough sort of look at sort of massing and density in that area. So that's something that, you know, I think is gonna be a part of our next sort of refinement phase as we move forward, making sure that these things are something that a developer would feasibly wanna construct in the future.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the big picture is that you can have all these dreams of what you really want it to do, but until somebody is willing to invest, it's kind of like you're just dreaming and nothing's gonna get done. And so that's where we need your expertise. And if you divide in a park plaza, look with smaller buildings, what exactly does that building look like? I mean, can you only put 40 units in there instead of 60 for the same cost? Well, guess what? The 40 units are going to be a third higher. Is that the right math? Whatever. But those are the trade-offs that you have. And I like the idea. One thing, like Barcelona and a lot of European, they must have had somewhat like Washington DC, where there's like a height limit. I really like that where it's all consistent and so when you're looking everything is the same height and you can get some of that spacing conceptually from a visual standpoint. It looks calmer, it looks consistent and they can pack, oh my gosh, and then they have the little narrow sort of walkways in between, it's a good vibe and a good feeling. Instead of having 15 different projects at different and everything else, it looks so choppy. Right, right, right. Yeah.

I also like the land bridge. I think that's pretty cool.

The what? The land bridge. The land bridge, the crossing of State Street. Yeah. Yeah.

Especially the idea of like from Millennium Park. I mean, that's a pretty ambitious, but I'm like, how cool would that be? And make that so easy for people to really transition from our core down.

Yeah. Have a big wide one.

Yeah, it'd be really fun to, yeah. We're already seeing people, I mean, just rampant jaywalking in that area, as you might imagine. But, you know, that's something that we highlighted in our bus tour early on in the CAC. You know, we took people there first and crossed that road and, you know, had people experience that because it's, it can be a little intimidating, I think, regardless of if it's possible. You know, I think, you know, the feel of it can make people either want to go back or not really go again, right? And so I think that's something that we want to make it more inviting. Have, okay, have we provided the feedback you need?

Yeah, pretty good. i mean the deeper dive on building heights um will come i think as we merge in kind of a preferred concept because that allows us to dig into the meat of the infrastructure better understand grades and slopes and things of that nature but i i again i think there's enough in each one of these concepts that kind of pull together distribute and allow the things that what you like from each one can be attributed and combined into something that is distinct for the district, and I think in particular, the promenade, the connections along Avenue A and Avenue B, maintaining that continuity and the strength of that as a walk-by connection should be universal to where we land. I think we're gonna get there. The exploration of height and all that's gonna be an interesting one, because that's where the pitchforks are gonna come out in pretty high. high manner, but we expect that. But if we can get the basic framework together, I mean, what does it mean to have that sense of arrival and then move through the space and then land at something great at the edge of the park? I think that that idea will resonate with people and we can work through the details of the things that happen on the edges, both from a financial standpoint, John, but also from a visual standpoint. So this is exciting. I love this kind of work. Thank you so much for having us here.

Thank you. It's fun seeing that now to get to see the concepts. I know that the CAC enjoyed going through this process as well and also provided good feedback. It's nice to go from the

the conceptual you know when this is still conceptual but you know from the framing down to this is a cool step yeah thank you yeah thank you very much thank you for being in the cac i think it's really helpful i appreciate that you're doing that and i think it's really important having leaders as a part of that process is awesome thank you thanks jason go quickly to next steps i have a just a few notes before we go i guess first of all i would just mention um

WE ARE UNDERTAKING ANOTHER, AS YOU'RE ALL AWARE, UNDERTAKING ANOTHER LARGE PROCESS TO LOOK AT AREAS WHERE WE COULD POTENTIALLY ADD RESIDENTIAL DENSITY TO EXISTING EITHER MIXED USE OR COMMERCIAL AREAS OF THE CITY. SO THAT'S SOMETHING WHERE WE WILL BE THINKING ABOUT FOOTHILLS AS WELL WITHIN THAT LARGER CONTEXT AND THAT WILL BE A PART OF THAT LARGER DISCUSSION. SO WE'LL BE ABLE TO HAVE THAT DISCUSSION FAIRLY CLEAR EYED, NOT JUST WITHIN THE BUBBLE OF FOOTHILLS BUT THINKING ABOUT IT CITYWIDE FAIRLY SOON HERE. And another thing I would mention is if you have any additional comments on any of these concepts that you didn't get to explain or go into detail on today, I'm going to follow up via email and would encourage you to send any written comments my way and I'll be sure to distribute those prior to the next meeting. BE HAPPY TO TAKE THOSE OFF LINE. I WILL FOLLOW UP WITH YOU ON ALL OF THAT. OTHER THINGS TO BE MINDFUL OF COMING UP HERE, ON JUNE 8TH WE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THE SAME CONCEPTS WITH THE PLANNING COMMISSION AT A WORK SESSION. PRETTY SOON HERE. WE ARE WORKING TO SOLIDIFY SOME OF THESE DATES AND WE ARE SOLIDIFYING THEM AS OF A COUPLE OF HOURS AGO. CHAMBER OF CONVERSE MEETING IS HAPPENING SOMETIME EITHER IN LATE JUNE OR EARLY JULY. WE'RE GOING TO MEET AS A TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE IN MID JUNE. JUNE 17TH IS ACTUALLY THE DATE THAT WE FIRMED UP FOR THAT. AND WE ARE ALSO HOPING TO PLAN OUR NEXT OPEN HOUSE OR COMMUNITY EVENT FOR EITHER EARLY JULY OR LATE JUNE AS WELL. SO TRYING TO PIN DOWN A VENUE AND HAVE SOME GOOD LEADS THERE, HOPING TO BE ABLE TO SHARE SOME NEWS ON THAT WITHIN THE WEEK OR SO. Awesome, Eric. Thank you very much, Jason.

Thank you. Can I ask one question real quick? When you're meeting with the chamber, they're going to be asking what opportunities would be business-wise. Have we come up with new concepts from 15, 20, 25 years ago? We'd rezone things so you'd have to have certain types of businesses and all that stuff. Have we updated that now to what's happening, what the norms would be as far as how much business we would want down there versus residential?

It's a residential focus. I think there's a long enough distance between State Street and the waterfront to create, for instance, edge-to-edge retail along that new development would be competing with the downtown and likely couldn't be absorbed even with the new development there. The real opportunity is how can we strengthen the commercial businesses on State Street, like enhance that, maybe add a little bit more to that to really help create that destination. And then look at the opportunity, for instance, if the Park Plaza concept were to be a reality from a development perspective, that public space would be coveted from a developer. and an active ground floor would be, you know, the types of businesses that want to be oriented or close to that plaza would be big. But I think in terms of the amount of retail we might expect here, I think the original plan said I can't remember. They said maybe up to 75,000 square feet of retail. We're at 10, 15, maybe 25. It's really about at those endpoints where we have an opportunity to create some type of active storefront, either oriented to the water or oriented to the downtown and strengthening the downtown as that sense of arrival. But in between is probably not feasible or advisable. Let's focus on housing.

We wouldn't want to require it, at least, right?

Right, yeah.

good question all right thank you very much thank you gentlemen okay information from council does anyone have anything to report what have you all been up to i went to the market last saturday and there was yes and the mayor was there there's a The Arbor contest. It was an art contest for the Arbor. It was wonderful, not only wonderful, because two of my students were prize winners. And the mayor gave them the thing. Last year, we were there. It was smaller. You remember, I gave the things. The mayor wasn't there, I think. It was the mayor. but this time the mayor was there there were thousands of people it was really the draw factor yeah because the mayor was there and also honestly I love that I love that the city is you know like having everybody now it's not only the adults but the kids because i work with children so the city you know the implication is young kids kindergarten to the adults so i was very happy saturday so The kids were very... And Sunday, I played football and scored three goals, if you want to know. That's a hat trick, yeah.

For the right team?

Yeah, for the... No, no, for the men's league. Yeah, I'm good. Did the other team show up, though? No, they... Just kidding.

It was against the kids in the art contest. Yeah, that's right.

All I know is Chris is not playing anymore, so...

That's really what's going on.

Assistant Chief is not playing anymore, I think. The league needs you back.

Yeah, I think, Mr. Mayor, one thing that was part of the consent agenda that we have all been supporting is the boards and commissions interviews and selections, which took a lot of coordination by our staff as well as so many different interviews. That was a big task, but I think we all contributed and we made it successful. So thank you for making those recommendations that got approved tonight.

Thank you all. And yeah, special thanks to Laurel for doing all the behind the scenes coordination and to our DEI advisory board members who helped us out as well and the chairs and committee members who sat on those interviews. It's always a lot of work. Good job. and everyone who applied. It's a good group of people. Everyone did a great job with their applications and interviews. Yeah, for sure. It's just really, it's great to have so many folks engaged in what's going on in the community. We had a sustainability advisory board here last night talking a little bit about foothills and some kind of new energy concepts they're looking into down there. talking about their work plan in the year ahead. It was overall a productive meeting. And I want to recognize, too, on this election day, you know, just, again, the good work of the city communications team, especially, and the fire department and leading this effort around and our community members who have also both internally within the city and then our community members leading the bond on the South Shore Fire Station. They've done a great job. No doubt, I think we'll have some great success in the results tonight, but it's thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people over a long period of time, including, you know, Council Corrigan. Thank you for serving on that task force. And again, the community members and our team here at the city put out lots of good communications through all of our channels to really get information out. And people were talking about this, and I feel like really well informed the decision they're making. Okay. Well, we are now going to convene an executive session, and I will ask Ms. Totoyan to please read the statutory basis for this session.

The Lake Oswego City Council will now meet in executive session under ORS 192.660-2-D to conduct deliberations with persons designated by the governing body to carry on labor negotiations and subsection F to consider information or records that are exempt by law from public inspection. Pursuant to ORS 192.660-4, representatives of the news media are excluded from this executive session. No final decisions will be made in executive session. Following that, the City Council will meet in Executive Session under ORAS 192.660-2-H to consult with an attorney concerning the legal rights and duties of a public body with regard to current litigation or litigation likely to be filed, and Subsection F to consider records that are exempt by law from public inspection. Representatives of the news media and designated staff shall be allowed to attend the Executive Session. All other members of the audience are asked to leave the room. REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NEWS MEDIA ARE SPECIFICALLY DIRECTED NOT TO REPORT ON ANY OF THE DELIBERATIONS DURING EXECUTIVE SESSION, EXCEPT TO STATE THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF THE SESSION IS PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED. NO FINAL DECISIONS WILL BE MADE IN EXECUTIVE SESSION. AT THE END OF THE EXECUTIVE SESSION, WE WILL ADJOURN THE MEETING.

THANKS, MS. ATOYAN. OKAY, THIS WILL CONCLUDE THE BROADCAST PORTION OF THE EVENING. WE ARE GOING TO RECESS AND WE WILL RECONVENE IN THE SIDE ROOM.