Transcript
Automatically generated transcript. It may contain errors and includes testimony in languages other than English that is not individually marked up for assistive technology.
Unidentified speaker
Good morning, everyone.
Loretta Smith
Good morning.
Full house this morning.
Welcome back.
Um, I'm going to call the meeting of the Public Works Committee to order.
It's Tuesday, May the 26th, at 9:30 AM.
Diego, can you please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
Good morning.
Kanal?
Good morning.
Sameer Kanal
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Koyama Lane?
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Green?
Mitch Green
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Smith?
Loretta Smith
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Clerk?
Olivia Clark
Here.
Loretta Smith
And Claire, can you please read the statement of conduct?
Thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
Good morning and welcome to the meeting of the Public Works Committee.
To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at portland.gov/council/agenda/publicworkscommittee or by calling 311.
Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior to the meeting.
In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.
Keelan McClymont
If public testimony will be taken on an item, individuals may testify for 3 minutes unless the chair states otherwise.
Your microphone will be muted when your time is over.
The chair preserves order.
Disruptive conduct such as shouting, refusing to conclude your testimony when your time is up, or interrupting others' testimony or committee deliberations will not be allowed.
If you cause a disruption, a warning will be given.
Further disruption will result in ejection from the meeting.
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Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Your testimony should address the matter being considered.
When testifying, please state your name for the record.
If you are a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.
Rebecca Dobert
And finally, virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Claire.
All right, colleagues, we have a very, very full agenda today.
I'll just remind people we now have 3-hour-long meetings and we'll take a break sometime in the middle.
We have, um, 3 executive ordinances that we have to consider: the sewer revenue bonds, a designation and delisting of a set of heritage trees, which I'm sure you're going to know all about now that you've taken a deep dive into trees, uh, a property rights acquisition for sidewalk improvements in the Centennial neighborhood in District 1.
We also have a street name renaming ordinance from Councilor Smith.
But first, we're going to have a long-awaited presentation on the transportation system plan from our PBOT colleagues.
So Diego, can you please read the first item?
Unidentified speaker
Item 1, document number 2026-164, 2045 Transportation System Plan Update.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
As I said, this has been a long-awaited presentation.
I'm excited to hear about it.
It's been on our wish list for a long time, and we're really happy to have the PBOT staff here with us to make the presentation.
So I'm going to hand it off to Director Williams and the TSP team.
Millicent Williams
Good morning, Chair Clark and members of the Public Works Committee.
For the record, my name is Millicent Williams and I'm the director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and we are delighted to be here this morning.
Today, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is here to share its progress in updating Portland's 2045 Transportation System Plan, the 20-year guide for how we plan, prioritize, and invest in our transportation system.
We're also here to hear from you as we solidify the vision, goals, and objectives that will shape the next generation of transportation investments.
Your guidance is essential.
This document is foundational for how we invest in and manage our transportation system.
It's also a legally required plan that carries state requirements for how we prepare it and has implications for what projects can be funded and constructed.
As we consider this long-range plan, PBOT wishes to thank the City Council and particularly, particularly Chair Clark for your leadership over the past year in stabilizing PBOT resources.
Having the transportation utility fee and street damage restoration fee to address maintenance allows us the stability to plan for the future.
I also want to take a moment to recognize the contributions of the members of the 2045 TSP Community Advisory Committee including 2 who will be sharing their perspectives with us today, Cassie Wilson and Brian Romer.
The project team received over 160 applications for 30 seats.
Members were selected for geographic, demographic, and perspective diversity.
These CAC members have worked alongside PBOT throughout this process, helping to interpret community input, pressure testing ideas, and shaping the draft vision, goals, and objectives that are being shared today.
And now I'll turn it over to Kristen Hull, PBOT's Transportation Planning and Project Delivery Group Manager, to share a little more about what we'll be discussing today.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
The Transportation System Plan—.
Loretta Smith
State your name.
Unidentified speaker
Oh, thank you.
Kristen, for the record, I'm Kristen Hull and I am PBOT's Transportation Planning and Project Delivery Group Manager.
The Transportation System Plan guides how our streets function, how we prioritize investments, and how we ensure our system meets the needs of Portlanders today and 20 years from now.
It also addresses how our system aligns with state and regional transportation plans and policies.
It ensures that the way we plan our system supports city, state, regional commitments and priorities while also ensuring regulatory compliance.
It's the transportation element of our own comprehensive plan as well, ensuring our transportation and land use approaches are mutually supportive.
It's important to note that this is a major TSP update.
It's the first one that we've done since 2018.
It means we're revisiting every part of the plan, our goals and policies, our street classifications, our performance measures, and our 20-year project list.
In this TSP update, we are extending the planning horizon to 2045 and incorporating new state requirements, Including the climate-friendly and equitable communities update to the transportation planning rules.
And as someone who's been doing planning in this region for a long time now, having this new set of state regulations is really influencing and changing the way we do our TSP update and the way we look at TPR compliance, the transportation planning rule compliance.
We've engaged thousands of Portlanders so far through surveys, community events, and targeted outreach to underrepresented community members.
We asked people to reflect on their best transportation experiences and their 3 wishes for the future.
Those wishes directly informed the draft vision, goals, and objectives that we'll be sharing with you today.
Today, we'll walk through the TSP update process, how we develop our financially constrained major project list, and our community-informed draft vision, goals, and objectives.
But most importantly, this is our first opportunity to hear your values and priorities as council members.
We wanna understand how council's priorities are reflected or not reflected in the draft vision.
Are there places where we should sharpen our focus, things we should emphasize or expand upon?
Your input at this stage will help shape the overarching framework informing the next steps of the TSP.
We'd also like to offer to come back for additional feedback as we shape that very important 20-year project list.
I'm going to hand it over to 2 of our very knowledgeable senior planners, Francesca Jones and Shane Valley, to present on the TSP.
Tiffany Koyama Lane
Thank you, Councilor Avalos.
Unidentified speaker
Eric Hesse, the supervising planner overseeing this work, is joining us remotely today and is here if we get any really hard questions.
So with that, I'm gonna hand it to Francesca.
Hi there, thank you so much.
I'm Francesca Jones.
I use she/her pronouns.
I'm a senior city planner at the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and I'm the project manager for our 2045 Transportation System Plan update.
Today we'll provide an overview of the 2045 Transportation System Plan, spending some time discussing how we develop the constrained major capital projects list.
And then we'll talk a bit about the work we're accomplishing so far in partnership with Portlanders, resulting in a draft vision, goals, and objectives for the future of Portland's transportation system, which is what we're here to get your feedback on today.
So the TSP, the Transportation System Plan, is the 20-year plan to guide our transportation projects, programs, policies, and investments in Portland.
It guides how and what we do in 2 key ways.
One, our goals, policies, and classifications guide the maintenance, development, prioritization, and implementation of our transportation system, including the ways we manage our streets to function to their classifications.
And 2, it has our list of projects that best advance our goals and policies and fit into a financial forecast that would accommodate our population and employment 20 years into the future.
The 2045 TSP update is considered a major TSP update, as Kristen said, which means that we're updating all of these things as we are extending the horizon year to 2045.
The last time we adopted a major TSP update was in 2018 for our 2035 TSP.
We're required by the state of Oregon to have a transportation system plan that supports statewide planning goals, and through the state's transportation planning rules.
They tell us what needs to be in our TSP.
And then Metro, doing an additional level of planning with our region in mind, also makes rules that our Transportation System Plan has to be consistent with.
We also have to be consistent with our own City Comprehensive Plan and working through public and political engagement process to update and maintain the Transportation System Plan.
This is altogether how we make sure the transportation serves and supports our land use and the goals of our state, our city, and our region.
The whole premise of all of this is to make sure we plan out how we're going to use the land we've got in order to meet the needs of future generations, knowing that if we don't plan well, inequities get exacerbated and carbon emissions and safety get worse.
The state just updated the transportation planning rules in 2022 in a process known as Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities rulemaking, or maybe you've just heard it called CFEC for short.
The rulemaking primarily focuses on Oregon's 8 most populated areas, requiring changes in transportation planning to ensure Oregonians have more transportation options to reduce single vehicle single occupancy vehicle reliance.
The purpose of the CFEC rulemaking was to better align the state's transportation planning with its long-term climate pollution goal.
The rulemaking authority is the Land Conservation and Development Commission, and through the Department of Land Conservation and Development, or DLCD, they added a number of requirements to transportation system plans that we've accounted for in our scope of work.
The most important new requirement is that jurisdictions have to show project lists that will result in no net new vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, per capita of household-based trips generated in the horizon year— so the year 2045— if there are applicable capacity-expanding projects in our project list.
And that's a pretty big thing.
So it's worth noting that this is because the state knows that it will result in greater safety and equity.
It's necessary to help keep our important freight goods and services moving, and there's less wear and tear on our transportation assets.
It's better for human and environmental health and supports disaster and emergency resilience response.
Since the beginning of last year, we've worked on several work tasks, including the iterative process with community to develop the draft vision, goals, and objectives you'll hear about in just a bit.
And we're beginning now to step into the project prioritization part of our work plan.
And beginning January 2027, we plan to embark on the path to state acknowledgment of our plan.
At the end of the legislative process.
That includes the Planning Commission and City Council, which we'll explain more in the next steps.
This simplifies where we've been, where we are, and where we're going.
And we'd also welcome the invitation to return for your engagement in the project prioritization phase.
Before we begin the legislative process.
And now I'll talk through how we're required to develop the major capital projects list and constrain it to what we're projecting to optimistically afford over the next 20 years.
And I'll start by talking through developing the candidate pool of projects and then how we take them through project prioritization.
To develop our candidate pool of projects that will go through the project prioritization process, we first start with projects yet to be done from the 2035 TSP.
We add the major projects, major capital projects from plans adopted since the last TSP, and any new projects that arise from the needs analysis process.
Essentially, there's a new inventory process requirement to tell us how complete our network is for different modes.
So we'll take this, this data, layer it on top of the projects we already have in our TSP and all the projects identified and planned since the last TSP, and that's going to help us figure out if we need to tweak any existing project descriptions or scope to capture any additional needs, or if we might need to make new candidate projects to meet needs that the inventory process illustrated.
We'll also check it against the projects updated in the most regional— most recent Regional Transportation Plan, or RTP, which is the 2023 RTP.
And that is to ensure consistency with project scopes and costs and then we put it through the project prioritization process shown here as a MLITA filter.
We sort the whole list of candidates through the project evaluation criteria reflecting the goals and vision we developed for our transportation system.
And once we've figured out what we can optimistically, reasonably try to afford in the next 20 years, we put that through a filter.
Thank you.
20 years, we'll be able to take all the projects and prioritize, prioritize them so that we know what financially fits on our constrained list and what needs to go on our unconstrained list— our important projects identified that would extend us beyond the reasonably expected funding projection.
Reasonably expected does not mean all of these funds are currently secured or guaranteed.
But it does help us look out over this planning horizon to go after the grants, for example, and get the funds we need to secure and commit them so that they can be programmed in our capital improvement program, or CIP.
So at this point, we have a candidate pool of projects, and the next step, step 3 on this slide, is to evaluate and screen them.
We evaluate individual projects for their consistency with our TSP goals using criteria that meet statewide requirements.
This will create a robust body of information about our projects that will power the second step, which is the art of balancing and packaging up the right combination of projects that perform best overall for our performance measures.
And we'll have to constrain this list by our amount of projected funding based on their readiness for implementation will categorize them as fitting into 1 to 10 years or 11 to 20 years.
The unconstrained lists are important projects that take us beyond our 20-year optimistically projected funding.
This finance— financially constrained part of the list is what matters for a few different reasons that I'll go over next.
It's important to note that capital improvement projects being identified in the TSP doesn't mean that they are necessarily fully funded and will move directly into construction.
I want to reiterate that projects need to be in our TSP's financially constrained list before they can be included in the regional transportation plan, which is required for access to regional or federal funding.
If we receive state or federal grants, those projects must also be on the constrained list so that they can be added to the STIP or NTIP.
And being— which is the Oregon Statewide Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program.
And our TSP also includes program-based investments that deliver smaller projects more quickly, and those are reflected in the TSP's overall financial strategy as well.
And now newly established in the state rules, the city is only allowed to develop, fund, and construct non-operations and maintenance capital improvement projects and programs using local funds such as gas taxes if they're on our financially constrained projects list.
Thank you.
Projects are only eligible to receive Transportation System Development Charges, or TSDC, funding for construction if they are listed as eligible projects on our TSP's constrained major capital projects list.
So I like to summarize this as, in order to get and spend external money And in order to spend our own local money on non-operations and maintenance projects, they're required to be on RTSP's financially constrained project list.
And now I'll turn it over to my colleague Shane Valley to tell you more about the vision goals and objectives.
Shane Valley
Good morning, my name is Shane Valley.
I am a senior planner with the Transportation System Plan Update team.
Yeah, I'm here this morning to talk with you about the vision goals and objectives, the draft vision goals and objectives for the Transportation System Plan update for 2045.
The vision goals and objectives are the beating heart, the heart and soul, the engine of the Transportation System Plan.
And if you'll allow me one more analogy, the vision is kind of like our North Star, establishing the kinds of experiences that we want people in Portland to have when they're using their transportation system and moving about Portland.
The goals you can think of as a map of the terrain and texture of where we are and how we get from where we are to where we wanna go.
They're an expression of the values that we have for our transportation system, and they're the lens through which we make decisions about our transportation system, including the investments that Francesca was speaking about.
And then finally, the objectives you can think of as the turn-by-turn instructions on your handheld GPS device on your phone.
They tell us precisely how we get from where we are to where we want to go.
So this is a really important package of things, and they really set the ground for everything that flows out of the transportation system plan.
They inform the policies, which are these little bits and pieces that help PBOT and the city make decisions every day.
They shape the project evaluation criteria that Francesca spoke about, which is— the criteria that we filter all of the wonderful ideas for ways of making Portland better through down to the things that are the— we think are going to be the most beneficial to invest in in the next 20 years within that, those confines Francesca was speaking about.
And last but not least, our work's not done after the Transportation System Plan is adopted, hopefully sometime next year.
The vision goals and objectives live beyond the Transportation Plan, Transportation System Plan, and they inform the other planning work we do.
When we go out to a district or we go out to communities or we go out to a Main Street, they often have things that they would like us to work on as the city.
And we come with this sort of broadly articulated perspective of vision goals and objectives about our system so we can kind of meet in the middle, the local concerns meeting with the needs of the overall system as well.
So it's really important that we get these vision goals and objectives like right.
We wanna make sure that to arrive at them, we've deeply engaged many, many Portlanders.
And so to do that, We've kind of leaned on a new-for-us approach that is known as appreciative inquiry.
And the main thrust of that approach is encouraging people or inviting people to think of the best experiences they've had in their transportation system.
It's easy for all of us to think of things that are not working.
And in fact, there's a whole section of the transportation system plan that is about stuff that's not working.
It's called our needs analysis.
It's long, it's lovely, it's a long to-do list of things.
But to establish a North Star, to establish something we want to go towards, we need sort of a positive or affirmative declaration of values and things that are important to us.
We can't just be going away from something, we need to be going toward something.
And so this appreciative inquiry invites people to inhabit that more sort of positive space.
It asks people to think about positive times they've had in the transportation system and then think deeply about the values that those positive experiences suggest about what people find most important about their system.
And then it invites them to say, okay, if these are my values, what would it look like for me to have these values extended to parts of the transportation system that today are not in alignment with our values?
And that's more or less how we directly approached engagement.
We went out to Portlanders and we said, hey, if you had 3 things that your transportation system could do or be, what would those 3 things be?
And so we went out last year between July and October with a broadly sort of pushed out survey.
We went to community organizations, business organizations, neighborhood associations, these groups that do collective engagement, invited each one of them to write us a letter stating their collective 3 wishes.
And the format basically was, yes, tell us what you want, but also tell us why.
And that's not because, as the government, we're not in charge of gatekeeping the things that Portlanders want, but understanding why they want what they want can help us when there are inevitably conflicts.
When somebody— when you ask thousands and thousands of people of what they want their government to do, what they want their transportation system to be, We ask why because pulling back from the details helps us find a way through some of those conflicts to hopefully arrive at a vision that most of us can agree works well.
So we asked both why and— or we asked both what and why.
And as we were sort of doing the outreach, we noticed that, you know, some of these tools like online surveys, online open houses, they don't reach as deeply in all communities.
And so there was a need to do some extra work in particular parts of town.
District 1 was one area where we actually spent a lot more sort of time and attention doing tabling events at, usually at events that were sort of already established and showing up where people were already there so we could sort of hear and really evoke these wishes from them as well.
We ended up getting over 3,000 wishes.
And in addition to doing this outreach, we've been working—.
Thank you.
As I think as both Director Williams and Francesca mentioned, with the Community Advisory Committee, which is this committee that was established at the beginning of the Transportation System Plan update, and its membership draws from every corner, every district, all walks of life in Portland.
And this membership of a few dozen, basically their role has been to kind of look over our shoulder and make sure that we're speaking about things in ways that are intelligible, that the things that We're saying our vision and goals and objectives and our important— are actually resonant with real-life Portlanders, and they help us make good connections out in the community so that we can get our work in front of the people for whom it matters most.
So I talked a little bit about what those vision goals and objectives are.
They're our North Star, that map, and then the turn-by-turn directions about the work we went through to get to the actual vision goals and objectives.
And so now I'm going to share the actual So here's our vision, which I'll read aloud for everybody.
The vision: Portland's transportation system connects people to opportunity, supports a strong economy, and helps create safe, healthy, and vibrant communities.
We're building a future where everyone can get around easily, affordably, and sustainably, no matter who they are or where they live.
Our streets will be well maintained, welcoming places for people, goods, and services to move safely and efficiently.
With community partnership and transparent leadership, we're investing in a transportation system that repairs past harms, strengthens neighborhoods, and prepares Portland for a climate-resilient future, one that is equitable, joyful, and boldly Portland.
So there's our North Star.
We workshopped this with our Community Advisory Committee.
This is derived from all of that feedback that we received when we went out broadly in Portland last summer.
And so kind of buried or hidden a little bit in this are those values which we wanted to extract and say explicitly.
And so that's what our goals are.
And so when we talked with Portlanders and they started telling us the things that they wanted their transportation system to do and be, we heard that they wanted it to do 2 main things.
They wanted to provide access to the things that we all need to live happy, safe, Fulfilled lives, however an individual wants to define that.
And on the other side of the ledger, they wanted us to create, or they wanted us to acknowledge the transportation system's role in creating and supporting a vibrant city.
And these 2 main roles, there is a gentle but generative tension between the 2 of them.
On the left-hand side, in that provision of access, that treats the transportation system the way that thank you.
The way that government and the way that PBOT and sort of the technical realm has theoretically thought about the transportation system, which is a conduit, a series of tubes for moving things from A to B, people and things from A to B.
We're pretty comfortable with that definition, but Portlanders really asked us to recognize and uphold the transportation's role as a place in itself.
Depending on what part of town you're in, between 30 and 45% of the land area in Portland is made up of the streets, the transportation system.
And so the quality of public life in Portland, the way that people feel about being a Portlander and being in Portland is in large part determined by the placiness of the streets, the quality of the streets, the way that they look and feel.
If you feel seen and safe in a space, that's going to substantially shape the way that you feel in your part of town or in Portland as a whole.
So beyond these 2 core things that Portlanders want us to think about when we are evaluating our transportation system and setting forth the next steps, there's a subservient or kind of subsidiary set of considerations and values that they want us to bring to this.
So when we're providing that access, that access needs to be provided in a safe manner.
It needs to be provided in a healthy manner.
It needs to be provided with attention to the transportation system's sort of unique impacts on the climate through its greenhouse gas emissions.
The access needs to be provided resiliently so that it is there no matter when.
And ultimately, the access needs to be provided in a way that is equitable so that the system and the choices we're making about new investments are repairing past harms and making sure that we're not making missteps in the future.
On the other side of the ledger, When it comes to creating and supporting a vibrant city, Portlanders really wanted us to recognize that a core reason that transportation exists is to support an economically prosperous city.
And that economically prosperous city needs to be built atop strong foundations.
The transportation system itself is a strong foundation that is important to maintain, but it is also the host and home for many of the functions that define a modern society and enable a modern society.
I'm talking about clean drinking water, telecommunications, electricity, emergency response, Stormwater conveyance.
That's all happening in our streets.
And so recognizing the streets not just for the transportation function, but this other crucial foundational function.
And last but not least, the streets themselves can and should be great places.
Enough said about that.
So these are the goals sort of succinctly articulated, and each one of these goals are nested between 5 to 10 objectives.
Those are those turn-by-turn instructions.
And so on taking safety as an example, this is a summary of those 5 to 10, which we don't have time to get into.
But for example, if we're thinking about how do you provide access safely, 2 of the really important things we have to focus on are managing speeds on our transportation system.
We know that there's a clear connection, as an example, between high speeds and the severity of crashes that lead to deaths and serious injuries.
Another thing that's really important when we're thinking about providing access safely is that we're sort of laser-focused on eliminating deaths and serious injuries.
So I'm gonna leave you with this constellation of our goals and objectives, and Francesca's gonna come back and she's gonna speak about the next steps.
I think there'll be some time to discuss this, and she'll talk about other opportunities for you to engage with this work.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Great, I only have a couple more slides.
So this is just showing our 2045 TSP key processes ahead of us.
So right now we are with you together to talk about the vision goals and objectives, and we're also moving into this space of the work on our candidate pool of projects for project evaluation and project prioritization.
We'll be doing outreach this summer, and then when we move into the actual project prioritization part of the work, we will be having broad community engagement with a public survey this fall.
And that's an opportunity for the public to get to give us feedback to help shape the project prioritization that will carry forward for additional public engagement as part of the full 2045 TSP public review draft that we plan to have together this winter.
And then we'll have additional broad engagement and survey on that whole public review draft.
So there's iterative opportunities for community engagement in this work as we continue to build a draft that we bring to you for the legislative process in 2027.
And that starts with the proposed draft, and we will need to bring this to Planning Commission with a 30-day public notice.
They will have a hearing, and they will make a A vote for a recommendation to City Council.
City Council will receive the recommended draft then, which is Planning Commission's recommended draft, and City Council will hold a public hearing and ultimately an adoption that will then need to go to the state for their review to see, double-check our compliance.
And that brings us back to our central question for you today.
We welcome any feedback you'd like to offer to help further shape and refine the vision, goals, and objectives as we continue updating the 2045 Transportation System Plan.
We also know you probably have a lot of questions, or I hope you do, because we would We'd love to provide you with lots of— lots more information after this meeting and dive into other questions, concerns, thoughts, ideas that you have that you'd like to help shape this work with.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Well, thank you, panelists.
This has been an excellent overview of the TSP.
I'm sorry we don't have more time.
We've got about 10 minutes colleagues, um, to ask questions or make comments about your 3 wishes or any questions that you have for the panelists.
And I'm sure that, uh, you staff will make yourself available to us should we have more in-depth questions we can do offline.
But for today, um, I don't see any hands up yet, um, so I'm going to ask— first, I'm just going to make a comment.
I'm really glad that the state included climate issues And, and made some changes in this update.
I think for me the most confusing part, and even having been a member or participant at JPAC for many, many years, is just the nature of the constrained list and what that really means.
That's hard to get your head around.
Um, and I'm really anxious for when we have you back to actually review the priority list.
I think that's going to be important to all of us here.
Um, Councilor Smith.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Madam President.
Good morning.
Thank you all for presenting today.
I want to keep on that line of, um, questioning.
On pages 10 and 11, PBOT explains that the draft major capital projects list will be constrained by projected funding and that capital projects must be on the financially constrained TSP list Do you want to just give us a quick overview of the evaluation criteria we're using?
I do not.
So I guess I could answer that more generally.
We will— we have a set of evaluation criteria that are based both on state requirements and our local goals, and we'll be using that to do an evaluation.
We'll also be matching that against proposed funding sources or potential funding sources and using that to develop that constrained list.
And we have a memo that we have prepared that we'll be sharing with you after the meeting that gets into more detail on those individual evaluation criteria.
And will those projects go through MPAC and JPAC?
So we prepare RTSP locally, which you are the decision body on.
And then we propose projects in our constrained list to JPACT as part of our regional transportation plan update.
So we submit projects from RTSP through the RTP process that then is processed through JPACT.
After it's approved by council?
Eric Hesse
Correct.
Unidentified speaker
Okay.
My last question is on page 16, the draft vision says the transportation system plan should repair past harms and strengthen neighborhoods.
What specific equity metrics will PBOT use to make sure East Portland, historically Black neighborhoods, and lower-income communities actually receive priority investment?
It's a great question.
Loretta Smith
Francesca, you want to talk about that for a minute?
Unidentified speaker
Um, I have said that I would love to have Eric Hessa, my boss, Answer questions, or you could answer questions.
But if Shane would like to, I would do that.
That would feel good.
Thank you.
Eric, would you like to talk about our equity measures?
Eric Hesse
Sure, I'd be happy to.
For the record, Eric Hesse, supervising planner at PBOT, and for this work.
Thanks for the question, Councilor.
Among our evaluation criteria are going to be particular ones where we look at areas that are identified as higher concentrations concentrations of historically underserved and currently underserved communities, including where concentrations of Black Portlanders and others— they're also— that's supported also by state rules.
So they'll be making sure that we're doing that rigorously as well.
And so that's one very clear lens that will help ensure where those allocations are going.
In addition, we're also looking at where gaps and deficiencies in the current transportation system are.
And unfortunately, as we know, as we look historically where there has been underinvestment, where those are concentrated, including in District 1 and often in District 4.
And so that is another layer in which we'll be seeing where those needs, as we've discussed earlier, are identified, and those will also be prioritized for investment through this.
So I think as you'll see us coming back and indicating that, we'll really be able to look at where we still have work to do in building out the system across to bring things up to the standards that we've expected.
Hopefully that answers the question, but happy to follow up.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, thank you, Eric.
And I also want you to also include District 2.
District 2 is where the historically Black community has lived, and you need to also be taking a look at them as well.
And if there are other things that we can do to be helpful to push this along, let me know.
I know that the chair and myself are— we're invested in this, and so we want it to be great and wonderful, amazing, and outstanding.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Smith.
Millicent Williams
Councilor, if I may, I just wanted to thank you very much for that question and for your focus and advocacy.
I wanted to mention that while the Bureau has a number of tools that it uses as it considers how it's going to make its investments and where projects will be delivered, as we all know, there has been recent guidance around what we are able to do and say and how we are able to invest.
In support of communities.
And so we'll need to be thoughtful about the guidance that we've received from our Office of Equity and Human Rights and City Attorney Heidi Brown regarding the way that we invest.
It specifically calls out that we are not to technically prioritize any one over another.
However, what we do know is that there are parts of our city that have been underinvested, that have been harmed, and we can work to correct those things.
So that is what the TSP does intend to do, but I did not want to fail to mention that we will need to be mindful of that guidance to ensure that we don't find ourselves in a compromising position.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Director Williams.
Yeah.
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Unidentified speaker
Yes, and I appreciate that.
I also want to add to this that we can look at affordability.
Millicent Williams
Absolutely.
Unidentified speaker
We can look at high crash corridors.
We can also look at where fresh foods are.
And if we identify some of those things, I think we'll come up with some of the same statistics.
Millicent Williams
Absolutely.
There are a number of ways that we can look at it.
I just wanted to state for the record that we do want to make sure that while we need to see what we see and act accordingly, that there are specific things that we'll need to be mindful of.
So that we don't find ourselves in a compromising position.
Unidentified speaker
Excellent.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Green.
Dan Ryan
Thank you, Chair Clark.
3 Wishes.
Well, I've got 2 wishes and a question.
I guess first of all, thanks for the presentation.
I think early on when we did our visioning, I said I want to talk about the TSP in this committee.
I think everyone did.
And so it's really important to get that briefing.
I'm grateful for it.
If I had my druthers, West Portland, the West Portland Town Center would have much more infrastructure to make it safe to walk around.
We've got communities that are largely bisected between where they live and kind of the commerce.
And if you've attempted to navigate the wild intersection system that's going on between Barber, Capitol Highway, and kind of the freeway there, it's, It's pretty daunting.
Um, so I'm sure that's on the list, and I just wanted to put a plug in that, um, I know my constituents would really love some attention there.
Um, I think the second piece is, as we get into kind of the planning process, I really appreciate this framework, by the way, of the sort of right-of-way as conduit and then right-of-way as place.
I don't see these as in tension necessarily.
I think the art is to find where where there's connection between the two.
Love to see a lot more emphasis on bus-only BATs, sort of dedicated bus lanes, as well as grade separation.
That's expensive stuff, but if we want our system to run faster and more efficiently to provide that alternative, we need to separate the grade on our transit modes a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
And then finally, the question I have is, In the planning process, you've got the visioning stage, you've got sort of like, let's dream big, and then it gets like winnowed down based upon what is financially feasible, and that's where the dreams go to die, basically, is the way that I interpret that.
Is there a way to kind of tease out what— how things would look differently with different funding models, or if we sort of— if we knew that we could agitate for a funding model that enabled some of this more placemaking stuff, this more transit-oriented development stuff in partnership with the other jurisdictions, what we would then have a list, like how would that list change essentially is the question that I would have.
And would be very curious to see how that emerges.
'Cause we've done a lot of conversation in this committee on dozens of different alternative approaches to financing that we, We zeroed in on a couple for this work in the near term, but some of that stuff really does try to change behavior, which would then sort of suggest, well, we need a different system to provide different alternatives.
So that's sort of my question there is like, how would we then tease those alternative features out?
Unidentified speaker
I think one of the things that's helpful about this process is we'll have a financially constrained list and we'll have an unconstrained list.
And I think you can imagine that if we had additional funding, It would move what the what we could afford line down.
So if you think about a system where you have 150% list or other constraints where you've probably worked through scenarios before, if we had more money, we would simply be able to have more on our constrained list and less on our unconstrained list.
So I think having that longer list of projects will allow us to imagine what would happen if we had more funding or more funding in specific areas.
Dan Ryan
I appreciate that also, but I think that also how you fund a certain thing Might pair better with a certain type of investment.
Congestion pricing being a big example.
I mean, obviously you need the state and Metro to be there for you on that kind of a question, but that would then pair well with different types of investments.
Serena Cruz
Yeah, thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Councilor Green.
I just want to remind everybody too that the revenue enhancement that we approved is really focused on maintenance.
And not on capital projects, which we're going to probably be looking to the state for some more help in, in this arena.
Councilor Kanal.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Chair Clark.
First, thank you for the presentation.
Thank you to Chair Clark for putting this together.
This is my first in-person meeting in this committee.
I was out of town for the first one, so good way to lead it off.
Appreciate you both, and, and thank you everyone for being here.
I have 2 questions and 2 comments.
Question on slide 6.
You talk about no net new vehicle miles driven per capita by 2045.
What's the premise here in terms of expected population growth?
In other words, what's the total when it's not per capita?
Let's talk to Eric.
Eric, do you want to answer that question?
That's way too in the weeds for my level of knowledge.
Eric Hesse
I'd also want to make sure I get the number accurately, Councilor, since you asked for a very specific number.
What I will say at this point is that this is correlated to the most recent growth projection that Metro has developed in conjunction with the Regional Transportation Plan and their growth management framework.
And so it's, it's directly correlated to that, in part because this requirement is also to ensure that our transportation system plans are aligned with state rules which apply to the Regional Transportation Plan and how much growth is there.
But as we're providing the memo that we've mentioned, we can absolutely specify that specific number as well.
And I can even see if I can locate it in the next few minutes here as well.
But I want to make sure I get you the accurate answer.
Unidentified speaker
Great, thanks.
And good that it's mirroring.
I guess I'm— for future, just, it'll be helpful for me to gauge if we're looking at a doubling in population versus a 10% increase in population and the mirroring there.
That's a pretty significant difference, right?
Right, in terms of if vehicles miles driven were to stay the same.
I'd love to get to a place where we're talking about how much wear and tear we're putting on our roads and how much climate impact there is of driving, which obviously has other premises associated with it, other assumptions with relation to the impact of each mile driven.
The second question is, we've talked a lot about the constraints.
What is the total amount of money that serves as a constraint?
What is that number that I want to make sure Eric can speak to this.
Eric, do you have the financial— do you have the number in front of you of our total revenue forecast?
Eric Hesse
Yes, our, our— the draft number we've been working with right now, um, that we've been bringing through our committee work is $1.7 billion, uh, and that does include projections of federal and state grants based on historical records, and that's over the 20-year period.
We are, I will note, just also initiating in the coming months here, actually starting next month, the update to the 2028 Regional Transportation Plan.
And that is one of those areas in which that Regional Transportation Plan consistency is important between those financial assumptions.
And so as we're moving toward the legislative draft into next year, we may be updating that based on their latest guidance between Metro and the state.
That's work that'll be readied further this fall.
But again, the starting place right now is $1.7 billion.
That doesn't necessarily include values associated with some of the TIF districts, and we are engaging with Prosper and some of the community leadership committees there as well in order to understand how we might support the vision for investment in those areas as well.
Shane Valley
Great.
Unidentified speaker
And just to clarify on that, is that $1.7 billion in good question, Councilor.
Eric Hesse
That is, uh, projected out for a year of expenditure.
Unidentified speaker
Okay, so that's helpful to know.
And just as a— I know it's not entirely going to be used for this, but I'm framing this in the sense of that's about a third, even if it was, uh, accounted for inflation, that's about a third of our maintenance backlog in PBOT.
So it'll be a little I think we're talking about capital and not maintenance.
Sure, I'm just giving you— yeah, as an illustrative comparison, not as a literal, we're going to spend it on this.
In response to the conversation—.
Sorry.
Eric Hesse
To that point, we did look at the total projection over that time, and actually the way we calculated it was roughly 3/4 maintenance and 1/4 for the capital in terms of how we projected those both out.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you.
Rebecca Dobert
Thank you, Mayor.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Councilor Smith, for answering a question I wasn't even going to ask for time, but thank you.
In response to the conversation about past harms, I agree with Councilor Smith's point broadly, as well as the specific note about District 2.
The past harms, there is a concentration in District 2 that may even be more true for PBOT than other parts of the city, as I know everyone here knows.
I respect what the guidance is with relation to OEHR and the City Attorney's Office and the Mayor's Office generally, and I respect that everybody on the other side of this dais has to abide by that.
I, I do think it's important to note for the record that the council did not sign off on that executive order.
Council stated belief on this are grounded in Resolution 37492 from 2020, which is that our, our core values start with anti-racism and equity.
So I just want to get that on the record here.
And then given that Councilor Clark asked for wishes and he wrote under wishes, dare to dream of the future, which I love, I'm going to speak to that.
First wish, I want to get the basics right on standard of pavement quality, painted crosswalks, percentage of intersections which are daylighted, sidewalk consistency, and eventually reducing both the number of traffic deaths and the disparity between regions of the city.
I view all that as a core function before we start getting into the dreaming part.
But my first dream is to get to the part before the dreaming, if that makes sense.
A second piece is I want to create a better balance between road miles, which we have to maintain, and population.
And I think this has to do with the inflation conversation too.
But this has 3 parts.
One is outside the scope of PBOT and its housing density.
But the 2 that are, I would say one is reducing maintenance needs per mile traveled in terms of things like transit, which has not been mentioned yet in this conversation, and I think we need to be more involved in that conversation, even though it is ODOT that manages the bulk of it, or TriMet, I should say.
And then the related piece to that is how we concentrate it in terms of making more of our road miles not need to be maintained much at all by making them car-free, greenways, street plazas, all those types of things, which is not really related to the transfer Transportation system plan, I understand, but I think a part of how we are constraining the amount of money we have to spend on this and be able to funnel it to the places where it's maybe most beneficial.
And that leads me to the third thing, which is I really appreciate the way you framed it as access and placemaking.
I think that's a really good overarching conversation to have.
And I think I've seen a lot of other cities In particular, denser cities, which, which are theoretically more reliant on each road mile because of their density, take them offline for, uh, temporary or even long-term reasons.
There's street soccer going on in New York right now.
There are plazas being created in LA, and these are both on my brain because of the, uh, upcoming World Cup and all that, and that's why they're, they're coming.
But I think utilizing the opportunity to make the opportunity for joy more likely to be a reality of joy, I think, is a core part of it.
Sunday Parkways is a great example of that.
I know there was one last weekend.
So I think these are those sorts of things.
The activation piece, I think, is really important for people to invest their attention and energy into this as well.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Councilor Kanal.
I think it's incumbent on all of us I would like to ask the rest of us here on the dais to write out those 3 wishes and maybe send them to Director Williams.
Let them know.
I'm sorry we have to cut this short today.
We have a packed agenda, and I appreciate Councilor Koyama Lane's willingness to put her questions in writing as well.
So thank you again.
We'll have you back, I'm sure.
I would like to have you back before any lists are finalized, and we can figure out that date with Claire's help.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you all for being here today.
It was an excellent presentation.
Um, colleagues, I would like to, um, ask your indulgence to move up an item from our agenda today.
Angelita Morillo
If we—.
Loretta Smith
If it's okay with you all, no objections, I'd like to move up the item 2026-171 because we have so many people in the room who are here to testify, um, citizens from the community, um, Diego, if there's no objections, can you, um, Diego, can you please read that item for us?
Unidentified speaker
Noting there was unanimous consent to reorder the agenda.
Item 5, document number 2026-171, exempt certain code requirements under City Code Chapter 17.93, renaming city streets, and authorize the renaming of Thank you, Diego.
Loretta Smith
Many of us here were here 20 years ago.
I see familiar faces in the audience.
Nice to see you all here when we had a very long process of renaming 39th.
And since the recent allegations of abuse, Uh, Chavez's abuse of women and girls, there's been a call from the community for a swift renaming process.
And fortunately, Councilor Smith has been working with many people in the community, as some of us— others of us have, who were involved in the original renaming process.
I remember that painfully.
And, um, we're here today with an ordinance to move forward with a name change to Campesinos Boulevard.
So what I'd like to do is to hand this off to Councilor Smith to discuss the proposal.
And I know we have people in the audience who are here to speak to it.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate it.
I'm trying to get used to this left side microphone.
Before I give my opening statement, could I have Marta Guevez, Jose Romero, Reyna Lopez, And Anna Gonzalez come up to the, uh, the dais.
You all are my invited guests and folks that I've worked with.
And as Chairwoman Clark said, this, uh, it seems like déjà vu again, and I am happy that you all are still going strong.
For keeping a name in the community.
Today I am proud to introduce this ordinance to rename Northeast and Southeast Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Northeast and Southeast, uh, Caposinos Boulevard.
This ordinance responds to serious community concerns regarding credible and substantiated revelations of abuse and violence attributed to Cesar Chavez while preserving the city's recognition of La Causa, the farmworker movement, and the broader fight for workers' rights, food justice, and immigration justice.
The name Campesinos Boulevard centers the farmworkers themselves, the people whose labor feeds our communities, who organized, shaped this movement, and whose contributions deserve to be honored collectively.
Not through one individual alone.
This ordinance also provides a swift and fiscally responsible path forward.
It waives certain street renaming code requirements for this specific action.
It requires notification to impacted residents, businesses, agencies, the U.S.
Postal Service, and emergency services.
And it directs PBOT to install the new street signs.
The City of Portland can honor the labor movement, stand with the immigrant and Latinx communities, and respond to community concerns with accountability and care.
With that, I am honored to turn it over to our invited speakers: Marta Guimbez, Jose Romero, Reyna Lopez, will speak in support, and Anna Gonzalez Munoz will speak in support of this ordinance.
And Marta, I think I will start with you first, if you don't mind.
Marta Wembes
Thank you.
Buenos días.
Good morning, uh, councilors.
My name is Marta Wembes, co-chair for La Causa Committee.
I was also one of the regional leaders in the effort of renaming 39 to Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
First, I want to thank everyone who took the time to meet to speak with us.
We connected with nearly all of your offices and worked hard to keep you informed about the purpose of our effort and the growing support we continue to receive from the community.
We are here today to urge your support for the renaming of Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard so that it properly honors the campesinos that it was always meant to recognize.
Thank you.
But before I speak about the name itself, I need to say this clearly.
The process behind it was not being celebratory for many of us.
It has been painful, hostile, and at times deeply traumatic.
Many now drive down, drive down Cesar Chavez Boulevard without knowing what Latinos later endured.
We secured the recognition We were mocked, publicly insulted, and faced intimidation in our own neighborhoods simply for asking visibility and dignity in this city.
Some of us sat in these very council chambers carrying fear while still holding grace intact as we spoke.
We stayed despite fear and doubt.
The truth of Cesar Chavez, violence against women and girls have caused extraordinary pain in our community.
And for those of us who experienced the same violence in our lives, it was especially re-traumatizing.
But even though sadness, anger, and conflict— we stood together in refusing to silence our pain for the sake of nostalgia or convenience.
We refuse to protect the legacy at the expense of survivors and truth.
The ordinance before you today is about telling a fuller truth and choosing values larger than any one symbolic individual.
There has been too much indirect talk about who belongs, who is right, or who deserves recognition first.
The truth is that we need everyone, and we cannot ignore the deeper harms that can exist between organizing spaces.
As my dear friend and sister in the movement, Senator Abel Gordy, will say, no movement grows stronger by refusing self-reflection.
It always requires historical memory.
Those who fought for farmworkers' rights years ago were once the next generation themselves, building on the wisdom of those who came before them.
That it is how moments survive.
In Latino and Indigenous cultures, elders are the living memory of the community, and younger generations are not a threat to the legacy, but that is continuation.
Moments grow when people listen to understand, lead with humility, and carry forward the future that campesinos fought to create for their children.
This is why we believe campesinos deserve premacy in our city.
Not for a single figure, not mythology, but the people.
The mothers working in fields before sunrise.
The work breathing poison and dust just to reach their goals, coughing but continuing because they have no choice.
The immigrants who bend their backs in pain so others can eat.
The children forced to grow up too fast Translating for their parents in hospitals, schools, and government offices, words too heavy for their age.
The ones who died working in extreme heat or cold, who never made it back home and were forgotten by the system they sustained.
The generations upon generations of Black and brown people who carry this country on tired shoulders.
And ultimately, the campesino also represents hope, esperanza.
Long after we are gone, people will still drive this boulevard.
What story will each name tell?
We are asking for the name that reflects our communities' strength, honesty, and inclusion.
Please vote for Campesinos Boulevard.
Y que vivan los campesinos.
Viva El Faro
Viva El Faro.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, thank you.
Mr. Romero.
Viva El Faro
Buenos días.
Good morning, Chair Clark, Vice Chair Smith, and fellow councilors.
My name is Jose Manuel Romero.
I am 45 years of age young.
I reside in Tigard, Oregon.
Along with Marta Guevmez, and I served as co-chair of the César Chávez Boulevard Committee back from 2007 to 2010.
Currently, we are back at that again, co-chairing the Por la Causa Committee, which endeavors to rename Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
We as a group reconvened immediately after the news broke and decided to take steps in the wrongdoing of our former icon and role model, Cesar Chavez.
But But to provide a little history going back to those years, 2007 to 2010, we struggled mightily for 3 years, for 3 years to name a street after a Latino.
Up until 2009, there were no streets that recognized or paid tribute to the contributions and presence of the Latino community in the city of Portland.
Out of more than 2,350 streets, more or less, in the city, Not one.
Not one was named after a Latino or for the Latino community.
During the street naming pursuit process in those earlier years, that was almost 20 years ago, we paid our fees on not just one but all 3 streets that were considered.
We attended association meetings that were hostile and mean-spirited people there.
We attended all the public hearings.
Thank you.
We collected over 5,000 petitions from city residents, and in the end, we got a 5-0 vote from the City Council in 2009.
We, as Martha said, we still bear the scars, the emotional and psychological scars of this long struggle.
Anyway, collectively as a group, we have chosen to rename Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
In doing so, we have chosen to focus on the wellbeing of the immigrant, migrant, and farmworker communities.
Campesinos, by the way, and farmworkers, I'll use it interchangeably as they're both synonymous.
And in the process of this, we hope we can get your support.
We are the group that has taken the leadership responsibility and obligation to do the right thing.
The survivors, deserve justice, and we stand with them 100%.
That was our first concern when we came together shortly after the news broke.
As a little background on myself, as a former farm worker in the '50s in California and in Stockton, both in California, I worked in the fields, and I know what it's like to be out there day in and day out and how much the farm workers can, you know, contribute to sustain and impact our daily lives.
As a community of past and present immigrants and campesinos, we know, we know there are no farms, no food processing plants, no packing sheds, and no other agricultural industry without campesinos.
We also know that there are no food on our tables without campesinos.
They serve essential daily roles and have been so for, have been so for over 100 years.
There is no Portland without the presence and daily contributions of immigrants and campesinos.
Campesinos and immigrants do the work other Americans will not do.
In the mid-1960s, late '68, my wife and I joined the thousands of farmworkers in support of La Causa.
We had just returned from a 28-month tour of duty with the Peace Corps in eastern Venezuela.
And since then, which is now 58 years, we have been advocates for the wellbeing of the campesino and the farmworker community.
Over the last 58 years, we've marched, we've picketed, we've boycotted grapes, head lettuce, Gallo wines.
We've demonstrated all along with farmworkers in pursuit of justice and equality.
A person behind me, my daughter Rochelle Shelley, was on the picket line with us at 3 years old, and somebody slammed the door on her hand, almost broke all her fingers.
But we're still here.
Now, as a result of recent allegations, Thank you.
And in support of respect for the survivors, we have the responsibility to address the current issue at hand.
During this last few months, when we were moving ahead, we mourned, we reflected heavily, we felt disappointed.
Some of us were angry, sad.
We felt betrayed and disrespected.
But we went into the street renaming The original one in good faith, with honesty and transparency.
But regardless of what has happened, our efforts do not diminish our desire to continue advocating for farmworkers and immigrants.
We are here because we honor their sacrifice and dedication as our ancestors have put forth to make a better life for future generations.
We honor the campesino and the campesino legacy.
Their lives, past and present, matter.
We urge you to vote in favor of the ordinance to rename the street to Campesinos Boulevard and to waive the street ordinance process.
I wouldn't, you know, my worst enemy, I would ask him to go through Code 17.3.
It was a killer, all right.
Again, thank you for your support for our position on this matter.
We value and appreciate your support.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your comments.
Ms. Reyna Lopez from PECUN, could you introduce yourself?
Reyna Lopez
Thank you so much, Chair Olivia Clark, Vice Chair Loretta Smith, and members of the committee.
For the record, my name is Reyna Lopez.
I'm the president and executive director of PECUN, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, also known as the Tree Planters and the Farm Workers of the Northwest.
PECUN has a long legacy of fighting for labor justice and for farm workers, immigrants, and Latino workers in Oregon.
Since the beginning, we have always fought for the rights of those sidelined and excluded from labor protections that many of us have come to take for granted.
PECWN itself was founded in 1985, and we were one of Oregon's first unions representing farm workers.
To this day, we continue to ensure that all workers, whether they are farm workers, immigrant workers, Latinx workers, that they are fairly represented in their workforce.
I want to thank Marta Güembes.
I want to thank José Romero and La Causa Committee.
We support Por La Causa Committee because these leaders are the movement elders in Portland that have committed their lives to fighting racism and fighting injustice in Portland, and they spearheaded the campaign to change the name to Cesar Chavez years ago.
We condemn Chavez's actions.
No leader is above accountability, no matter their contributions to the movement, not when they have used their positions to cause harm and avoid accountability.
We honor the courage and stand in solidarity with all of those who came forward to share their stories.
What Chavez has done stands against everything our movement values: equality, justice, and dignity.
As some of you might know, I'm also the first woman to lead PECOON as its president.
And we know that for many, many decades, for centuries even, women haven't always been at the forefront of these movements because they have not been given the respect and recognition that they deserve.
Though our movement has taken many strides, To support women, we still have so much work to do to achieve true gender justice, and it is only then that we will be living true to the values of the farmworker movement.
This movement is and always has been bigger than one man.
The fight for representation and equality for farmworkers goes beyond Cesar Chavez or any one person.
It was a result of decades and of efforts by thousands of farmworkers and advocates putting their bodies on the line to fight against repression and unfair labor.
Councilmember Smith.
Thank you, Mayor.
Today we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the farm labor movement.
We are celebrating the movement that has been fighting for the rights of farmworkers and ending unjust labor practices.
And this movement will continue to ensure that one day we achieve true justice for people who work tirelessly to put food on our table.
This is why today we ask you to change the name of Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesino Boulevard.
We believe this honors the contributions of migrant farmworkers while no longer upholding individuals who do harm.
In a move— in a time and a moment where Latinos are being persecuted by the federal government We cannot simply let this go back to 39th.
This erases our contributions in a way that will harm Latino communities and take back the movement decades.
We support the United Farm Workers and others in their search for truth and accountability and reconciliation.
Given the gravity of these allegations, we also commend the UFW, the Cesar Chavez Foundation, and others who are also going to be taking on decisions like you are all taking on today.
We urge communities to center healing, reconciliation, and overall the fight for workers' justice in the way that you respond in this moment.
Please support this ordinance to change the name from Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard, a name that honors Latino American heritage and the contributions of generations of migrant farmworkers and farmers.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Miss Anna Gonzalez Munoz.
Anna Gonzalez Munoz
Buenos días.
My name is Anna Gonzalez Munoz.
I'm Director of Community Defense at Latino Network.
I serve on the Reno School District Board, and I am a longtime community leader and advocate.
I was not part of the original committee that pushed and fought for the change of 39 I wish I had.
I was very busy in Salem in other ways.
I was preparing students for the Cesar Chavez Leadership Conference that took place at University of Portland and then eventually to Western Oregon University.
So my contribution was doing that.
I am here to express my support to rename the current Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
This change will reflect Portland's commitment to honoring and uplifting working people whose labor sustains our community by supplying our food every day.
As a community member, I have learned how harmful it can be to continue using a name that no longer reflects the values we strive to uplift.
Renaming the street to Campesinos Boulevard will center the contributions, dignity, and humanity of farm workers and rural workers.
It will align with the City of Portland's equity core values of mindfulness, cultural humility, and commitment to inclusion.
The term campesinos means farm workers, but it also represents the people who work the land, care for crops, and perform the labor that feeds our community.
Across Spanish-speaking communities, the term is used with deep respect and pride to recognize the backbone of rural and agricultural life.
Despite the essential role farmworkers play in Oregon, there are, there are currently few public spaces that directly honors their contribution.
And believe me, I know.
I have traveled Oregon every corner during my time at Western as an admissions counselor, and I have not seen a street named to honor farm workers in any language.
Approving Campesinos Boulevard in Portland would send a powerful message that rural and agricultural workers belong in the story of our city and our state.
It would acknowledge the sacrifice, resilience, and strength of generations of farmworkers whose labor often goes unseen.
Renaming this boulevard to Campesinos will not erase history.
It would expand it by including the people y la causa.
Portland has the opportunity to recognize the workers who have historically been overlooked while affirming that their lives, labor, and humanity deserves public recognition and respect.
I believe the name Campesinos Boulevard will be a meaningful and lasting tribute to all farm workers across Oregon.
I moved from California to Oregon in the mid-'90s, and my first jobs here were in agriculture.
I worked in canneries in Rickreall, Monmouth, and Independence.
So I've been part of that life, and for me to have this boulevard changed to Campesinos, it would be a reflection of inclusivity and acknowledging the hardworking people matter.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you very much, uh, panelists.
Thank you, Councilor Smith, for, um, organizing this.
We really appreciate your very moving testimony, and some of us know what you went through 20 years ago as well because we were here.
So thank you so much.
We have a lot of people signed up to testify today, but we appreciate your taking the lead and being here today to share history and to share your perspective.
I think we're all— I'm going to speak for the whole committee— I think we're very supportive of this, but we want to hear from the rest of the people in the audience as well.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Diego, I believe there are people signed up to testify.
Can we— I'm gonna ask the people who testify, because we have at least 3 other big agenda items, to please limit your testimony to 90 seconds if possible.
Really appreciate that.
So Diego, will you call up the first group of folks?
Unidentified speaker
Yes, thank you.
And just a reminder to our testifiers, for those in person, you'll see a timer countdown on the monitor in front of you.
For those testifying in Zoom, you'll see the timer countdown in Zoom.
You'll hear the timer chime twice, once when you have 30 seconds left, and then a second time once your time is up.
We had a couple duplicate entries and cancellations, so let's get started with Nate Wass Shull, Shelly Romero, Celedonio Sunny Montes Jr., Corey McGinnis.
Loretta Smith
Welcome everyone.
Would you like to get started?
Unidentified speaker
Please.
Nate Wazshaw
Yes, thank you.
Um, Chair Clark, Vice Chair Smith, members of the committee, thanks for having us today.
My name is Nate Wazshaw, and I support the ordinance before you today for many reasons, especially because I'm a dad.
I have 3 kids, one in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school in the Franklin High school neighborhood.
Cesar Chavez Boulevard runs through our neighborhood, and when I pass the street or drive along it, it often sparks important conversations with my kids.
We talk about history, labor organizing, and the power of ordinary people to shape the conditions of their lives by working together.
I've appreciated Cesar Chavez Boulevard through the years because as a parent, it's important to me that my kids are grateful for the food on their table, and I want them to value the labor that got it there.
I want them to understand that throughout history, working people have come together to fight for the right to a decent living, safe working conditions, and basic dignity.
And I want them to know that farmworkers are still fighting today.
I also want my kids to understand that as a society— in our society, racial privilege is real, and that privilege shows up in all kinds of big and small ways, including things like having all the streets named after people who look like you, or having none named after people who look like you.
Over the past 2 months, when we've crossed Cesar Chavez Boulevard, I've had a different conversation with my kids.
We've talked about the harm that humans can cause to each other, including the leaders and heroes who we celebrate.
And we've talked about the meaning of accountability, healing, and moving forward.
Thank you for considering this ordinance.
Thank you, Commissioner Smith, for bringing it forward.
Support Campesinos Boulevard.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Good morning, Shelly.
Reyna Lopez
Good morning.
Shelly Romero
Good morning, Portland City Councilors.
My name is Shelly Romero, and I am here taking time off from work To represent myself as I testify before you on the renaming of Southeast Chavez Boulevard.
I am a homeowner and a business owner in Southeast Portland in District 3, where I have lived for just over 30 years.
I'm here to support the renaming of Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard, and I ask you to please support the ordinance before you.
I speak for many when I say nobody wanted to be back here before you today to debate the merits of renaming Chavez Boulevard, but we feel compelled to lead our city and our community to a solution.
Those of us who worked on the original 2 attempts to change the street name endured application of an inconsistent street naming process that was extremely rigorous and painful.
And while none of you were in office at that time, we want you to know that this is the justification for why we are asking you to waive the renaming process requirements, because we already complied with them not once but twice in the 2 previous efforts that spanned over 3 years.
Over the course of several meetings in the last 2 months, we determined that we each feel a collective responsibility to lead an effort to rename the street while retaining the original intent of naming the boulevard to honor farm workers.
We want to center farm workers whose work is often taken for granted, overlooked despite the fact that we all have— expect to have access to fresh fruit and vegetables at our local supermarkets to feed ourselves and our families.
Here today, you have the opportunity to center farmworkers and farmworker families and to support this ordinance and this broad-based coalition of leaders in this effort.
Thank you very much for your consideration.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Go right ahead.
Unidentified speaker
Yes, good morning.
My name is, uh, Sonny Montes, and, um, I'm a retired educator from the Portland Public Schools, but I'm really here today to represent myself as a proud ex-farm worker of my generation, working— having worked the fields in Texas, West Texas, cotton fields in Texas.
Having worked the fields in Illinois, Indiana, California, experiencing tough times living in labor camps, some unsanitary conditions, low wages, awful treatment by some growers.
Thank you.
All of these things happened to, to, to my family and myself.
And I know I'm not going to have time to read the whole thing here, but what I do really want to say is, is the following.
Our original effort to rename a street in Portland to Cesar Chavez Boulevard approximately 20 years ago was a way to honor a larger labor movement that had intertwined history within the state of Oregon.
Having gone through this process 20 years ago with hearings throughout the city of Portland filled with hate, racism, and bigotry, We were constantly told that if we wanted to rename a street in honor of Cesar Chavez, we should take it to the cities such as Hillsboro or Woodburn because of their substantial Latino population.
It was hurtful to see how such a supposedly progressive city as Portland, Oregon could not want to adhere to the values that it claims to believe in.
I'm glad that we're not going through the same process as 20 years ago.
We're grateful to the coalitions that are in support of our renaming effort to Campesinos Boulevard.
I also want to recognize the overwhelming support that we have received from the mayor and the city council in our renaming effort.
In conclusion, I believe that this renaming effort is especially crucial now at a time when our immigrant communities feel the most threatened, and that as a city, our values should reflect an appreciation and commitment For a city like Portland that is presently advocating for its immigrant communities throughout through marches and protests similar to those across the country, the renaming effort proudly, proudly reflects a conviction to these values.
Thank you very much.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Mr. Montes, and please feel free to submit your written testimony to the clerk as well.
Thank you so much for being here.
Unidentified speaker
Once more for Corey McGinnis.
All right, let's move on to Serena Cruz, Tom Potter, Sophie Chirlik-Rittenbaum, Kelly Warner.
Sophie will join us online momentarily.
Loretta Smith
Welcome, distinguished guests.
We're happy to see you.
Serena Cruz
Should I go?
Okay.
Good morning, Public Works Committee Chair Clark, Vice Chair Smith, committee members Kanal, uh, Koyama Lane, and Green.
My name is Serena Cruz, and I thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on this item, and I want to express the gratitude of the committee and its leadership, uh, for Vice Chair Smith for introducing this item and her leadership on this matter.
I also want to thank the community leaders for their tremendous leadership today.
It's an honor to be here.
I come to this testimony with a personal connection that runs deep.
I was raised on stories of the farmworker movement.
My maternal grandmother marched with pride for worker rights.
When my father was young, he migrated between California's Central Valley and San Diego following the crops.
My parents instilled in me a deep pride where I came from and a lifelong commitment to farmworker rights.
The New York Times investigation confirmed what survivors have long known, have long carried in silence, that Chavez abused multiple women and girls, including children.
Dolores Doris Huerta, his co-founder, said she kept the secret for decades to protect the movement.
We owe it to her and to every survivor to act.
La Causa was never about one man.
It was about the campesinos, the workers in the fields, the families like mine who followed the harvest, the families who organized and sacrificed.
Naming this boulevard Campesinos doesn't diminish the movement.
It honors the true authors.
Finally, I want to name the moment that we are in.
At a time when Latinx and immigrant communities are being targeted by the federal government, naming a major Portland corridor Campesinos Boulevard is more than corrective.
It is a declaration.
It says Portland sees you.
Portland stands with you.
I urge you to pass this ordinance, and again, thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Serena.
Mayor Potter.
Tom Potter
Name is Tom Potter, uh, former city employee, and, uh, A resident of Portland, a glad and a proud resident of Portland.
And I think we have another opportunity today to increase our standing.
I was looking around the United States on my magic phone about other cities and have they done anything similar.
I was unable to find any.
And considering what's going on nationally in terms of the treatment of farm workers and other Latinos, I think this is a really appropriate thing for Portland to do, to rename Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos so that we recognize their effort.
I don't think there is a table, a dining table in the United States that has not had food placed on it by our farm workers.
And I think we owe them much, but we have not recognized them, and they get very little credit for the things that they do on a daily basis.
Driving down through California and Arizona, I've seen the farm workers, and on hot days I was driving by and I was thinking, wow, These folks are out there all the time doing the job, and it made me appreciate them even more knowing that in times of difficulty that they're there for us, for our country, to ensure that we have sufficient food and, um, supplies.
They're a great organization, and I think this is a very appropriate thing for the City Council to do.
Thank you.
I appreciate your attention.
I appreciate your involvement, and I would even appreciate even more your vote yes.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Okay, thank you, Mayor Potter.
Unidentified speaker
Next we have Sophie online.
Sophie, you're welcome to unmute and begin your testimony when you're ready.
Hi, my name is Sophie, and I would like to thank the other testifiers, uh, before me who all articulated what I'm going to try to say much more eloquently than I will.
To change the name from Cesar Chavez Boulevard to 39th is erasure, and it sends a clear message in this time of ethnic cleansing of Latino communities in this country that they don't matter, and the city of Portland is happy to sweep this under the rug.
I've also seen from the numerous people who commented online against this renaming that, well, clearly haven't we learned our lesson about naming streets after people?
Well, the thing is, we haven't picked an individual person.
As a sponsor of this bill and others have noted, this was named for the, the campesinos, the entirety of the people.
It is not named for one single person who we may find out later did something we disagree with.
It is named for the body of people who made up the movement.
We are not running that risk.
I also find that that argument makes— equivocates between rape, and we see the same argument when we try to rename things.
Uh, that have been named for slave— slave owners.
But oh, everybody has done something problematic.
Yes, well, there's a difference between having committed rape or other really horrible acts and, you know, things that have not aged well.
Um, I think it's important that we honor, um, the Latino organizers who worked so hard to have a street named that recognizes, uh, their history in Oregon and our— and our country.
And I trust our city council will vote yes to pass this resolution to make sure that our Latino community is represented here.
Thank you for having me.
Once more for Kelly Warner.
All right, we'll move on to Pastor Robin Wisner, Zach Brumaire, Kyle Warner, Mustafa Hussain.
Loretta Smith
Welcome.
Pardon?
Kyle Warner
Hello, councilors.
My name is Kyle Warner.
I own a home and live on Northeast Cesar Echavez Boulevard.
I oppose the renaming of Cesar Echavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
For reasons I will list below and provide in my written testimony.
To be clear, I am not opposed to removing the name Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard.
I'm also not opposed to the recognition of farm workers.
However, I do ask it be done another way, and that it be done without waiving standing city ordinances to do so.
If the City Council cares to honor farm workers, there are many opportunities and methods to do so which I would support.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Shelly Romero
Yes.
Kyle Warner
My main reason for opposition is that you're waiving 5 of your own ordinances to fast-track this process.
This is unfair, inappropriate, and not consistent with best practices for street naming.
It demonstrates bias and makes residents of 39th Avenue feel disenfranchised and discounted from the process.
For talking so much about inclusion and equity, you are not including us.
We live on the street.
In 2009, when Northeast 39th Avenue was renamed to Cesar Chavez Boulevard, the homeowners on the boulevard largely opposed the change.
The official poll conducted by the city opposed the renaming 694 to 91.
Despite the opposition, you pushed it through anyway, and I fear you will do so again now.
The majority of the written testimony online, of which there are over 80 entries, opposes this change or prefers a change back to 39th.
If the name is to be changed, every single person I've spoken to agrees with that.
It's consistent with the street naming convention for the neighborhood and entirely inoffensive.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Kyle.
Unidentified speaker
Looks like we have Mustafa online.
Mustafa, you're welcome to unmute and begin your testimony when you're ready.
Mustafa Hussein
Okay, thank you.
My name is Mustafa Hussein, and as a resident of District 3, I support swiftly renaming Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
Although a small but vocal group have opposed it in written testimony, proposing instead to turn the name into a number, I believe this would feel cold and dismissive.
Campesinos honors the Latine farm workers who make up about half of farm labor and whose labor feeds Portland.
It recognizes real people, restoring visibility to often unseen workers.
This change aligns with Portland's values of equity and anti-racism.
Street names shape who feels welcome and whose stories we honor.
Choosing Campesinos Boulevard would send a clear message that Portland values the humanity and contributions of Latina residents.
To honor those who disproportionately feed our city and respectfully act I ask you to vote yes.
Thank you.
I yield the remainder of my time.
Unidentified speaker
Once more for Pastor Robin Wisner and Zach Brumaire.
All right, we'll move on to Jerry Hansen, Irma Linda Castillo.
And Jerry will join us in just a couple seconds.
Loretta Smith
Welcome, Jerry.
Unidentified speaker
If you can hear us, you're welcome to begin your testimony when you're ready.
Yes, thank you.
Good morning, uh, members of the City Council.
I will be very Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Thank you.
I have lived at 3204 Southeast Woodward here in Portland for about 30 years.
One of my first jobs as a kid was as a farm worker.
My grandfather was a dirt farmer.
The preamble to this proposal claims that the widespread consensus across the community has coalesced around the street, Campesinos Boulevard, is wildly incorrect, I believe.
You need only look at the written testimony that shows that 97% of the respondents actually want the street name returned to its historic designation, 39th Street.
I'm deeply troubled by the committee's proposal to bypass the city code to accelerate this renaming.
Waiving the process is deeply undemocratic.
According to city code, renamings are limited to individual prominent persons.
Using a collective noun is a violation of current city code.
Furthermore, the use of an emergency waiver strips citizens of a mandatory legal protection.
It eliminates the required 45-day review for neighborhood associations and cancels the postcard survey mandated by the city code.
Please deny this emergency exemption.
Let the legal democratic process play out openly so the broad community can choose to participate in renaming this.
I'm all but certain the vast majority would choose 39th Street.
Thank you for your time.
I so appreciate that you are working on my behalf to make this city the best place to live.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Jerry.
Marta Wembes
Great.
Unidentified speaker
You can begin when you're ready.
Marta Wembes
Okay.
Angelita Morillo
Good morning, City Council members.
My name is Irma Linda Castillo, and I'm a longtime Thank you.
I'm Angelita Morillo.
I'm a proud advocate of immigrant refugee community, and I'm here to speak in support of the street name change to Campesino Boulevard.
I am the proud and grateful daughter of migrant farm workers.
Both my mother and father picketed and picked vegetables and fruits that you now enjoy on your tables.
My father came over to the Pacific Northwest as a bracero, and these were the men who were hired by the U.S. government to do agricultural work.
During his time as a bracero, often working after weeks or months, he was often not paid by the farmers, and that then led to a disproportionate amount of distress for our families.
Then in the '60s and '70s, a moment rose to protect the rights of agricultural workers, a movement by the people and not of one person.
Portland has a long, lauded history Thank you.
Portland has quickly become much more culturally and linguistically diverse, adding a depth of beauty to our city.
Changing the current name of the former Cesar Chavez to Campesino Boulevard will let many community members know they belong, they are seen, and they are valued.
And as a member of the original committee and supportive of the current one, I urge you to support the name change to Campesino Boulevard.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Irma.
Unidentified speaker
That concludes testimony.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Diego, and thank you to everyone who testified.
Um, I would entertain a motion to send the ordinance document number 2026-171 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
Unidentified speaker
So moved.
Millicent Williams
Second.
Loretta Smith
Thank you.
Uh, Councilor Smith has moved ordinance document number 2026-171 171 to the full council with recommendation to pass, and Councilor Koyama Lane has provided the second.
Is there any discussion?
Seeing none— oh, sorry, Councilor Smith.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair.
And I sit here and stand here before you to propose an important change that reflects our commitment to honoring and recognizing the contributions of our local community.
I would like to have the Cesar Chavez moved to Capucinos.
This change underscores our celebration of cultural diversity and strengthens our ties to the vibrant history of the community.
Let us embrace this opportunity to move forward together.
I look forward for your support, colleagues, on this motion, and thank you.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Chair.
So I have been hearing from many constituents and advocates about renaming of this street.
It's a big one.
I just live a couple blocks from it.
It runs through a large part of my district, District 3.
It's clearly an important topic to many people, and I think it's very important that we are being— we're listening and we're being responsive.
I know that a street name can carry a lot of things— pride, pain, history— and there are a lot of different feelings, strong feelings, and many perspectives about this process, about what it carries.
And I will say, I— my office has heard from more than 25 organizations that support renaming Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard.
Thank you.
I also specifically want to highlight how important the perspective of PCCUN has been, which supports this renaming.
It's really important feedback to me.
I want to thank PCCUN's executive director, Reyna Lopez, for her bravery and for the conversations that we've had.
And I also want to highlight comments from a recent op-ed by Martha and Jose where they said that this moment Actually demands more than just a name change.
It demands a different way of governing, one that trusts community, corrects inequity, and refuses to hide behind process when justice is clear.
You know, I'm hearing loud and clear that renaming 39th Avenue to Cesar Chavez Boulevard was the result of 3-plus years of an effort led by many Latinx leaders who are here, many of whom are here today, who faced hostility, threats, harassment, systemic barriers during their advocacy.
It wasn't easy.
And so I believe that we should support renaming without reopening a lengthy, potentially harmful process, and I plan to support.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Councilor Koyama Lane.
I just want to say that my grandmother was a farm worker, and my aunts and uncles worked in the, um, fields and then in the packing houses.
And earlier in my career, I formed a nonprofit to build farmworker housing, which is still building farmworker housing around the state.
I do not want to go through the process that we went through 20 years ago that left so many scars.
I still feel that, that the pain of that process.
So with that, I will ask if there's any other discussion.
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
I feel like in the event that we had the discussion here, we'd be redoing it at the full council, and I'm looking forward to the conversation with my colleagues at the full council.
So, uh, with that, I'll vote aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Smith?
Loretta Smith
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Clark?
Angelita Morillo
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
With 5 ayes, the motion carries, and the ordinance document number 2026 We'll move to the full council with a recommendation it be passed.
Loretta Smith
Thank you so much, colleagues, and thanks to everyone who took the time today to organize and to come in and speak with us today.
Thank you so much for your advocacy.
Really appreciate you all.
And with that, colleagues, let's take a 10-minute break.
We'll come back at 11:25.
It actually—.
Shane Valley
I think it was great.
Loretta Smith
Deep conversations in the K1 building.
Unidentified speaker
Not reconvening quite yet, but if anyone lost their cell phone, security has it up front.
If anyone has lost their cell phone, you can walk towards me.
Security has it.
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
All right, the committee is back.
And, um, let's see, where are we?
I think we're at revenue bonds.
Yeah, right.
So, um, Diego, would you please read the next item?
Unidentified speaker
Item 2, authorize sewer revenue bonds to finance sewer system capital improvements for an amount sufficient to produce net proceeds Thank you, Diego.
Loretta Smith
I'll repeat, this ordinance is for our consideration.
It would authorize the issuance of sewer revenue bonds to finance needed capital improvements.
As a reminder, the sale of these bonds is a common practice for local governments and public utilities to finance these critical improvements.
For infrastructure, and in this case, our sewer system.
We need to move this issuance forward to continue with improvements in our sewer system.
And I'm going to turn this over to DCA Priya Dhanapal.
She's going to walk us through the ordinance.
Unidentified speaker
Welcome.
Priya Dhanapal
Good morning, Vice President Clark and members of the Public Works Committee.
For the record, I'm Priya Dhanapal, Deputy City Administrator for Public Works.
And I'm— today I'm joined with City of Portland's Debt Manager Matt Gerarch, and we also have Portland Utilities Director Ting Lu in the audience.
Our presentation today will focus on a high-level overview of the proposed sewer revenue bond authorization ordinance, and I will also be grounding us in the infrastructure and capital investment needs it is intended to support.
Next slide, please.
This slide highlights the scale and complexity of Portland's storm and sewer system, which is foundational to protecting public health, water quality, and our environment.
Our system includes more than 3,000 miles of pipeline, including 13 miles of the Big Pipe system, nearly 100 pump stations, and additional complex stormwater infrastructure that serve the residents across Portland, as well as regional wholesale customers, including Lake Oswego, Clackamas County, Gresham, and Milwaukee.
Portland also operates 2 wastewater treatment plants, the Trian Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Columbia Boulevard, which is the largest wastewater treatment facility in Oregon.
Next slide, please.
Our sewer and stormwater system have an estimated asset replacement value of approximately $28 billion.
Much of this infrastructure is decades old, with some assets aging back to the 1800s.
Today, approximately $2.7 billion of the system assets are rated to be poor or very poor in condition.
The scale, the age, and condition of the system mean that proactive investment is not optional.
It is essential to maintaining system reliability, managing regulatory risk, and protecting the waterways that Portland depends on, including the Willamette and the Columbia Rivers.
One of the challenges with utility infrastructure is that most of it is largely invisible to the public.
Unlike roads and parks or other visible public assets that residents interact with daily.
These systems are typically underground or out of sight and often receive public attention during failure or emergencies that could result in regulatory compliance or public safety hazards such as sewer overflows, sinkholes, landslides, flooding, or even basement backups.
And even within the utility infrastructure, wastewater and stormwater systems can receive less visibility and public attention than drinking water systems.
Despite being equally critical to public health and environmental protection.
As Councilor Kanal noted in a previous council discussion, BES carries significant deferred maintenance at approximately $6.7 billion, and that's the highest among Portland's public works bureaus and nearly half of the total deferred maintenance in public works service area.
Next slide, please.
This slide reflects the scale of planned capital investment for Portlanders— for Portland's storm and sewer system over the next 5 years, which is approximately $910 million.
The Bureau is intentionally managing the pace of spending using a risk management approach while balancing affordability over time.
While $910 million over 5 years seem like a significant number, It also illustrates the scale of reinvestment gap facing the system.
BES is currently reinvesting approximately 0.65% of the total system asset value annually based on revenue capacity.
And for context, asset management literature for mature utility systems often references annual reinvestment rates in the range of approximately 1 to 2% over time.
And irrespective of reinvestment capacity, regulatory requirements and customer expectations remain unchanged.
Our systems must meet environmental and public health standards 365 days a year.
Our teams continue meeting those standards while managing aging infrastructure and constrained resources.
Proactive replacement and rehabilitation help manage— maintain reliable service, protect public health and waterways, and avoid more costly emergency failures and repairs over time.
Next slide, please.
This bond authorization would support more than 200 sewer and storm capital improvement projects over the next 18 to 24 months.
And these projects are representative of the Bureau's broader capital reinvestment strategy and reflect different types of critical investment across Portland's stormwater and wastewater system.
The Carolina Trunk Project, for example, replaces a major diameter sewer beneath the I-5 that serves as a critical backbone to the city's wastewater network.
And because of its size, location, and role in system conveyance, failure of this asset could carry significant operational, environmental, and public health risks.
And other projects focus on treatment plant upgrades and system performance at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, including resiliency during storm events.
Many of these projects are already underway and are focused on maintaining system reliability, resiliency, and regulatory compliance.
So with that overview of the system needs and capital drivers, I'll turn it over to Debt Manager Matt Gierach to walk through the financing structure, bond authorization, and debt management approach associated with this ordinance.
Matt Gierach
Hello, Public Works Committee.
For the record, I'm Matt Gierach.
Some of this will sound a little bit familiar, but I thought it's important to kind of go over this again for the record.
So as an introduction, I'm going to provide a quick overview of how the city's infrastructure, including utility systems, is funded.
Infrastructure is generally funded through current revenues, also known as pay-go funding, issuance of revenue bonds for large projects, and also grant funding when available.
Depending on the city bureau, the mix of these different sources will vary.
For sewer system assets, the city typically utilizes ratepayer revenues and sewer System revenue bonds.
The use of bond financing is a common practice for municipal utilities across the U.S. because bonds provide the ability to pay for large capital projects when immediate cash resources are not available.
Because the bond funds loans from investors are repaid over time, this approach also provides intergenerational equity as current ratepayers are not solely responsible for funding projects with a long useful life.
That benefit multiple generations.
Note that the use of revenue bonds also relies on the use of ratepayer revenues to repay bond principal and interest, uh, so keeping the mix of PAYGO funding and bonds at a healthy level is managed through BES's long-term financial planning standards.
Uh, next slide.
Uh, this slide provides additional information on utility Revenue bonds, which are the type of bonds being issued by the ordinance.
These bonds are typically viewed as one of the lowest risk bond investments from the perspective of investors and credit rating agencies because the essential service nature of water and sewer assets for livable communities and the financial separation of the ratepayer funds.
Because of this lower risk, credit ratings are generally strong, which lowers the borrowing cost.
For U.S. municipal utility bonds.
Like many large municipal utilities, the city typically sells revenue bonds to investors every 2 to 3 years to fund water and sewer capital improvement plans.
Next slide.
The city's sewer system revenue bonds have about $1.5 billion outstanding and maintain the second highest credit ratings at AA1 and AA+ for from Moody's and S&P.
Secondly, bonds are a standard one notch lower at AA2 and AA, which are considered to be high quality and very low credit risk.
BES manages its finances to reliably provide sewer and stormwater services while also remaining in a strong financial position that supports its credit ratings and bond legal covenants.
Some examples of existing legal bond covenants include meeting all debt service payments in full and on time, maintaining sewer rates to result in net income of at least 110% of debt service for all bonds, maintaining the sewer system in a good state of repair and working order, and operating the sewer system in a safe, sound, efficient, and economic manner in compliance with all environmental laws and regulations.
Loretta Smith
Next slide.
Matt Gierach
BES's 5-year capital the capital improvement plan that was previously discussed is funded through a combination of new revenue bonds and PAYGO funding.
The bureau has historically issued bonds every 2 to 3 years in order to provide continual capital funding for meeting system reinvestment needs and regulatory requirements.
As you can see on the right-hand chart, bonds are to be issued during the upcoming fiscal year, and within the 5-year forecast, bonds will be issued in fiscal years 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Thank you.
Next slide.
The 2026 bonds under today's ordinance will add about $16 million of annual debt service to the existing sewer system debt service schedule.
The bonds will be structured with level debt service, Over a 30-year period.
This structure allows the sewer system to maintain a descending debt service profile, which provides ongoing financing capacity for future bond issuances without large increases in debt service.
The bonds are supported by sewer and stormwater rates forecasted to increase annually by about 4.3% through 2036.
With the issuance of the bonds, the sewer system debt service coverage is expected to remain around 1.5 times, which is considered strong by credit rating agencies.
Next slide.
We'll conclude with a brief summary of the upcoming issuance of the '26 sewer system revenue bonds.
As mentioned by DCA Donipal, this authorization is a critical step of reducing the backlog of deferred capital renewal of the sewer system.
This is a planned borrowing that continues the city's practice of periodically issuing sewer revenue bonds every 2 to 3 years.
The bonds will provide $235 million of capital project funds and will meet all legal requirements for issuing additional bonds under the bond documents, as well as meet the bureau's planning standards that are in place to maintain strong financial metrics.
Additionally, subject to market conditions, in October when we plan to sell the bonds, the borrowing will be accompanied by a refinancing of the Series 2018A bonds, which have about $143 million outstanding.
Refunding these bonds at today's rates would generate total interest savings of about $16 million through 2038, which is equivalent to about $1.3 million annually.
As a reminder, the issuance process will take about 12 weeks when we start, And we will keep the City Council updated as we get closer to publishing the official statement and selling the bonds.
And from that, we'll open up for questions.
Loretta Smith
Thank you both for the overview.
Before I ask my colleagues for their input, I just wanted to say I'm really glad that you started out with asset management, and it's always shocking to me how far behind we are I think it would be interesting for us to see what it would take for us to catch up because we're just, you know, pardon my use of this, but we're just treading water, dirty water in this case.
But it would be very interesting to see what it would actually take to make a dent in that, what'd you call it, $6.7 billion backlog.
It's really hard to get your head around that.
I live near the Carolina.
I know.
Pipe.
It's a huge project underneath I-5.
I watch it all the time.
I drive by it all the time.
I took a tour of it, and it's a remarkable project.
What the— it's like a symphony trying to organize all pieces of that.
It's, it's amazing.
But I guess that's just one example of the kinds of things that we need to do all over the city to catch up with that $6.7 billion backlog.
So this bond sale, um, relatively looks kind of small, and I'm glad to hear that you're refunding or refinancing past issuances.
I assume that's because you're getting a better interest rate now, right?
So this is kind of almost, colleagues, a preview of, uh, asset management that we'll be getting, uh, probably in September.
I think we're scheduled to get an update on the asset management plan.
But this is just— this is a pretty major and important piece of that.
Um, so Councilor Green, you have your hand up.
Dan Ryan
Yeah, thank you, Chair Clark.
Uh, thanks for the presentation.
Um, I note that the interest rate, Matt, is 5.4%.
Feels like that's a little higher than some of the ones that we've sort of been estimating recently.
Are we—.
Matt Gierach
Are we seeing sort of an uptick in So there has been some increase in interest rates in the last week or so, but that's actually a cushioned rate.
So there's an extra 100 basis points built into that rate.
So we're looking at probably around 4.4 to 4.5% now.
Okay.
So yeah, to answer your question, that is cushioned purposefully to make sure that we're gonna be able to stay within budget.
Dan Ryan
That's great, and I think that's a really good practice.
So the Series A bonds, the 2018 Series As, what was the rate on those?
Matt Gierach
The coupon— I don't know what the all-in borrowing rate was, but the coupon rate, which is what we are refunding, is 4.5% on those.
Dan Ryan
All right.
Now, this is great.
I don't think that we have any questions I don't love the backlog, but no one loves the backlog.
Ditto everything the chair said.
I want to put a plug in.
I think this committee should do a tour of the wastewater treatment plant sometime.
Loretta Smith
We have one scheduled for the water filtration, but we don't have one for sewer.
Dan Ryan
Kind of like, you know, source to sink, kind of.
And then we can't tour everything in between, of course, but I would love to do that.
The folks who work out there do— they're unsung heroes.
Unidentified speaker
So thank you.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Green, have you been over to the Carolina Trunk?
Dan Ryan
No.
Loretta Smith
It's really complex.
If you are on I-5, you see pieces of it.
If you come down on Corbett, you see pieces of it.
On Macadam, there are pieces of it.
And I drove by there today on Macadam, and the pipe is huge.
It's an incredible project.
And if If— and it's a 90-year-old pipe, I believe, 90 years old.
And if we hadn't gotten ahead of this, the threat of leakage in all the apartments and condos that it runs under next to I-5 would be a disaster.
And I'm sure there are other disasters waiting to happen all over the city with old infrastructure, 90-year-old pipes, 100-year-old pipes.
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Unidentified speaker
I was just going to say, Councilor Green, I got to go on a field trip for a day with the Water Bureau and see a lot in our district specifically to see kind of the different, the different ways that water flows and some of the different facilities and meet different employees from water, sewer, and storm.
Loretta Smith
Sounds fun.
Well, we'll have to schedule something.
If there aren't any other comments— oh, Councilor Smith, sorry.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, thank you so much for this.
Now, the ordinance says sewer revenues, including planned sewer rate increases, are projected to be sufficient to cover the new debt.
What is the expected impact of this bond issuance on household sewer bills over the next 5 to 10 years?
Priya Dhanapal
I can speak to the combined one, but if you're asking specifically for the sewer, um, I don't know if Director Liu would want to—.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Loretta Smith
Can I just be clear that we're, we're looking at a blended rate on our utilities?
It's both water and sewer, and the sewer is the smaller Part of the increase, I believe.
Priya Dhanapal
Yes, the, the combined one would result in about $10, uh, per month.
But if, uh, Director Lu, if you have the numbers for sewer, you're welcome to share, or we can get back to Councilor Smith for sewer in particular.
Yeah, I'll, uh, this is Ting Lu, Portland Public Utilities Director, to answer the questions.
So all this debt and bond insurance already being built into the 10- year rate projections that you have seen during the work session is 5.15% for the BES, roughly $5 more for the sewer side of the rate increase.
Unidentified speaker
Okay, okay.
That's— and so are the same systems in place for low-income ratepayers?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Correct, we have.
Unidentified speaker
Okay, thank you.
I appreciate it.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
And, um, Ting Lu, thank you for that answer.
Diego, is there anybody signed up to testify on this measure?
Keelan McClymont
No one has signed up.
Loretta Smith
Okay, then I'd like to entertain a motion to send ordinance document number 2026-165 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
Uh, Councilor Kanal moves ordinance document number 2026-165 26-165 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
And Councilor Smith gave us our second.
Any other discussion?
Will the clerk please call the roll?
Tom Potter
Aye.
Marta Wembes
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Millicent Williams
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Aye.
With 5 ayes, the motion carries.
And the ordinance document number 2026-165 will move to the full council with a recommendation that it be passed.
Loretta Smith
Excellent.
Thank you so much for being here today.
And Diego, would you please read the next item?
Unidentified speaker
Item 3, document number 2026-166, approve the designation of 12 trees as city heritage trees and remove the city heritage Great.
Loretta Smith
We have Parks and Rec here to tell us about the Heritage Tree Program and the proposal before us, which would be to add some trees on the list and remove some other trees.
I'm looking forward to learning about this.
So shall I hand this off to DCA Donna Paul to begin with?
Priya Dhanapal
Thank you, Chair Clark and councilors.
For the record, I'm Priya Dhanapal, Deputy Administrator for Public Works.
Portland Parks and Recreation's Tree Heritage Program protects trees formally recognized by council for their unique characteristics, and these trees can be significant because of their size, age, historic association, or horticultural significance.
And because of these— because of their importance, the heritage trees receive the highest level of tree protection in the city.
They must be preserved.
Any work on the tree must be approved by permit, and there, there are penalties for removal, damage, or injury.
These designations help preserve the most important elements of Portland's urban forest and community history.
And today we are presenting an ordinance that would designate 12 additional heritage trees and remove the designation from 14 trees that have already been removed due to decline, failure, or public safety concerns.
Next slide, please.
Today's presentation will include a brief overview of the Heritage Tree Program, including the types of trees that may qualify for designation and the history of the program and the many people involved in supporting it.
We will also walk through the nomination process and the specific recommendations before committee today.
And with that, I'm pleased to turn it over to Interim Director of Portland Parks and Recreation, Sonia Szymanski.
Unidentified speaker
Okay, good morning.
Sonia Szymanski, Portland Parks and Recreation.
We're happy to close you out with this lighter fare.
As you heard from DCA Donna Paul, heritage trees are very special trees in our city, and since the early '90s, City Council has been formally recognizing and designating them.
They are interesting, they are awe-inspiring, and along with the outsized benefits they provide— cultural, social, economic, ecological, and environmental, they are part of our city's story.
After they're designated by you, heritage trees get the special plaque that you probably are familiar with.
They go into the database and they begin enjoying the protections that DCA Donna Paul described.
Next slide.
The Heritage Tree Program is administered by the Urban Forestry Division of Portland Parks and Recreation.
Administration of the program includes, as DCA mentioned, coordinating volunteers, managing nominations, performing maintenance on heritage trees that are located either on city property or in the right-of-way, communication and liaising with property owners, and working closely with city tree inspectors who are now in Portland Permitting and Development to monitor work on or around those trees to keep them safe.
The program depends on collaboration across workgroups, across bureaus, and with the community, which includes volunteers, the Urban Forestry Commission, which you'll be hearing more about Thursday, property owners, city staff across the city, community members, and you.
Next slide.
Listings and delistings are approved typically annually by ordinance.
Per city code, the proposal is formally recommended to you by the Urban Forestry Commission following a lot of work, mostly by city staff and with volunteers.
Next slide.
And this cool graphic shows you that process in action looks like.
So first, nominations are accepted year-round, anytime by email, mail, online form.
Or presumably phone call or visit, with each annual cycle ending May 1st.
Staff then collect the information, verify everything is complete, including where applicable property owner consent, and screen out ineligible trees.
Next, we have trained heritage tree volunteers who evaluate the nominations using a rubric we've developed which determines whether the trees meet our designation criteria and program goals.
And I should mention that my colleague Jeff Ramsey is here from the Urban Forestry team to tell you anything you want to know about the program when I wrap up.
Next, evaluations are returned to Urban Forestry where staff compile a shortlist based on recommendations.
We do our own site visits to verify conditions, make sure trees have room to grow, make sure they're going to remain compatible with other infrastructure, and make sure that we've got accurate ownership records.
For historically significant trees, we screen references to ensure credibility and alignment with program goals.
And out of all of this, we get an even shorter list of nominations which go through a series of internal stage gates.
They are reviewed and approved by park managers, urban forestry managers, PP&D tree inspectors, and then a final list is shared with the urban— excuse me, city forester for review and sign-off, from where it advances to the Urban Forestry Commission and now to you.
Priscilla, I skipped an animation step, I think.
So after all of that, that brings us to today where we have a list of nominees presented by the Urban Forestry Commission to you for your consideration.
Lastly, and subsequent to today, City Council will be asked to officially designate the new trees via ordinance as well as to delist.
This is a complex process, but we think it checks all the boxes for review and consideration before things come to you.
Next slide, please.
Okay.
Okay, we have a list of trees to be designated followed by a list of trees to be delisted.
Then we'll look at a couple of maps and that will conclude our presentation.
This year we're recommending 12 trees for designation.
They are impressive and they are gems in their neighborhoods.
They also advance our goals to ensure every neighborhood has a heritage tree and that our heritage stories represent every community.
I'm going to call out a few, I think 3 notable trees on this list.
First, we have Yellow Buckeye, which will bring the first heritage tree to Woodlawn.
We have an Eastern White Oak, not an Oregon White Oak, in Laurelhurst Park that's tall and expansive and is an unusual species in our city.
And finally, we have— maybe you You can see it out the window, giant sequoia in Lownsdale Square Park, which is just a block from here.
I understand it has a very unusual form for the species and that it's got interestingly different heritage story than what we already have in the program.
It was planted in the early part of the 20th century, and you can see it in site photos taken in the 1930s and '40s.
We know that Lownsdale is a high-profile and longstanding civic space hosting many decades of protests, rallies, celebrations, memorials, and public dialogue.
This tree meets, and I think exceeds, the heritage tree requirements of significance to Portland's history and our program goal of representing diverse heritage stories.
Next slide.
Our Our request today also recommends removal of designation for these 14 trees due to either severe decline, death, or risk to public safety.
These trees were removed over the last 2 years.
You may remember, and I would say most notably, Heritage Tree Number 1, an American elm, was removed in 2024 due to severe storm damage and decline.
Trees located in the right-of-way are removed by the city, and trees located on private property are removed by the property owner.
You might also notice that this list drops off the end of the slide.
It's longer than the proposed new tree designations.
By design, there are very many— excuse me, there are many very mature trees in this program.
Which means that they are going to get to the end of their life at one point.
And because of the timeline of establishment and development of this program, we have a large number of trees getting older each year.
At the same time, and also by design, it is getting harder to become a heritage tree.
Trees recommended must meet very high standards.
Before they moved to the Urban Forestry Commission and to you.
As this program has evolved in the last 33 years, standards have been refined to ensure heritage trees can live long lives in the program, and we have therefore a narrower chute for proposed new trees to come through.
Next slide.
As I mentioned, we have a couple maps to Just to close us out, this is a map of trees proposed for designation in green and proposed for delisting in red.
You probably noticed there are no trees on either side of that in District 1, but I will note that we have been making progress expanding this program to that district in recent years, and I'll speak a bit more in the next slide, which we can move to.
Thank you, Priscilla.
The, um, Following slide has the map.
The Heritage Tree Program began in the '90s as basically a catalog of Portland's biggest trees, which limited it to older— by definition, it was limited in that way to older neighborhoods that were the first to be replanted after settlers created Stumptown.
And you know that the development pattern of the city moved out from the river.
Over the past next slide.
The lightest dots on this map, which are light yellow, are trees designated during the earliest years of the program, and you'll see that they are clustered around downtown Clustered Portland.
Downtown and in older East Side neighborhoods.
Darker dots, which are pink and purple, represent trees designated more recently.
Since 2015, you'll see purple dots on the map have considerably expanded the reach of the program, including many more east of 82nd Avenue.
With volunteers who we've enlisted to help us expand the program and our own efforts, we excited to partner with community that's going to continue pushing our heritage tree inventory east and continue telling the diverse and interesting story of our city and all of its history.
Next slide.
Procedurally, we are here before you today with a recommended list to add and remove, and we ask for your approval and look forward to seeing this item at full council.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, thank you team, thank you Sonia.
Uh, I'm going to start off with a question.
Um, when you look at the, uh, list of decommissioned trees, there's at least 7 in District 4, and I'm just wondering if I can surmise from that that they are like some of the oldest trees.
Is that— I know we have down where I live a lot of old trees.
Is that a good guess?
That's for you, Jeff.
Unidentified speaker
Go ahead.
Loretta Smith
There's quite a few in D4 that are being taken off the list.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, I think that's just a— it's a function of the program's earliest trees designated.
A lot of them are in District 4 just because there are a lot of big trees in District 4, and a lot of the focus of the program was on those interior neighborhoods.
Loretta Smith
Oh, am I safe in guessing that they're just old?
Is that why they're being taken off the list, or?
Unidentified speaker
Oh yeah.
So City Council's role with the Heritage Tree Program is that they— you have the authority to list or delist trees.
And when they die or when they are in severe decline, we come to you to delist those.
So every tree on that list has either died or is in very severe decline and was approved for removal by Council.
That's really the only circumstance that leads to trees being delisted.
Otherwise, they stay on the list and they keep their plaque and they keep supporting their neighborhoods.
Loretta Smith
So it's death, is the death of the tree is the primary delisting?
Eventually, yes.
So, well, I would—.
Unidentified speaker
It's a lifetime appointment.
Loretta Smith
Lifetime appointment.
I appreciate that.
I'd love to get a list of those trees and ride my bike around the city.
Around D4 and just see where, where the dead trees are.
I'm just kind of curious now.
Unidentified speaker
Well, unfortunately, when these— when these trees are very big, so when they do show signs of severe decline, they're removed fairly quickly, especially when they're publicly owned, because they can be a real hazard.
And so we would, you know, public safety is a central tenet of this program.
And so we do remove trees when they present a hazard to the public.
Loretta Smith
I hear you on that.
I noticed there were 2 really big trees taken down in Willamette Park, and the trunks were distributed around the park as, I guess, you know, things for kids to climb on.
Um, but I was kind of shocked when I— they were huge trees— and shocked when I saw them come down.
I just wonder if they're on the list.
I'd love to see the list of those decommissioned trees.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, we can do that, definitely.
Loretta Smith
I don't— maybe Mitch would like to see those too.
Priya Dhanapal
I don't know.
Loretta Smith
Councilor Smith, did you have a hand up, or is that legacy?
It's a legacy.
Unidentified speaker
Oh.
Loretta Smith
Okay, any questions, comments from our new tree expert?
Councilor Koyama Lane.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Chair.
I love this presentation, easy to follow.
I love the review process tree.
And it's just great to see the way that community's been engaged.
Thank you so much to the volunteers, property owners, community, staff, and especially the Urban Forestry Commission for volunteering your time and serving.
Um, I trust you all, and thank you for explaining this process.
Loretta Smith
Nice.
Uh, seeing no other comments, thank you, team.
Appreciate the understanding of the Heritage Tree Program.
Um, so I would— is that another noise?
I would like to entertain a motion to send the ordinance document number 2NE26- 2026-166 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
Matt Gierach
So moved.
Unidentified speaker
Second.
Loretta Smith
Okay, Councilor Mitch Green moves Ordinance Document Number 2026-166 to the full council with a recommendation to pass, and it was seconded by Councilor Koyama Lane.
Without any other discussion, seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Shelly Romero
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Aye.
Green?
Mitch Green
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Smith?
Loretta Smith
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Clark?
Olivia Clark
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
With 5 ayes, the motion carries and the ordinance document number 2026-166 moves to City Council with the recommendation it be passed.
Thank you, team.
Loretta Smith
Appreciate it.
Great presentation.
We're going to take a little commercial break here while, um, Councilor Koyama Lane makes a statement.
Eric Hesse
Yes.
Unidentified speaker
Yes, thank you so much.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
I will be quick.
Unidentified speaker
We are the Public Works Committee up here, and I just wanted to share, uh, our City Attorney Robert Taylor asked us to explain here that on May 13th, 2026, in a meeting of our full council, we cured any violation that could have resulted from a recent Socialist in Office— Socialist— SIOC, Socialist in Office yes.
Rebecca Dobert
Town hall.
Unidentified speaker
And we talked about what we talked about at that committee.
There were 3 people, 3 members of the Public Works Committee that were present.
We did not have any deep discussion or deliberation, but we did cure any chance that there could be a violation by talking about it and then also submitting the transcript officially in the record.
So we were asked to just Make a similar acknowledgement here at this meeting.
And the grievance has been addressed according to City Attorney Taylor.
And also we're just being abundantly cautious whenever the 3 of us are in spaces and we are speaking, just as last week Chair Clark, Councilor Green, and I were at a 350 PDX conversation.
We actually had a statement read in the beginning saying that We technically are a quorum of the Public Works Committee, so we will not be able to deliberate and/or, you know, have discussion and add on to each other.
And to expect that we will continue to do that— transparency is very important.
And thank you so much.
Loretta Smith
Thank you for that, Councilor Koyama Lane.
Let's move on.
Um, Diego, can you please read— I think the next one is the last item.
Unidentified speaker
Item 4, document number 2026- 26-167, authorize the Bureau of Transportation to acquire certain permanent and temporary property rights necessary for the construction of the 174th sidewalk infill Kelly to Francis Streets Southeast project through the exercise of the city's eminent domain authority.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, Diego.
I think we're gonna start to get used to this.
Colleagues, PBOT is back with another property rights ordinance.
This time it's for a sidewalk improvement in the Centennial neighborhood in District 1.
Because there's some questions last time about how the city uses eminent domain for capital projects, I've asked PBOT to just give us a really quick overview of the eminent domain today before getting to the sidewalk infill ordinance.
Thank you all for being here, and we'll turn it over to DCA Dana Paul.
Priya Dhanapal
Thank you, Chair Clark and members of the Public Works Committee.
I'm Priyatanapal, Deputy City Administrator for Public Works.
Today's ordinance supports a sidewalk infill project on Southeast 174th Avenue between Kelly and Francis Streets, and it improves safe walking routes and ADA-accessible connections in District 1.
To deliver public works projects like this, the city sometimes needs limited property rights from adjacent owners.
So before discussing the project itself, we wanted to briefly explain what that means in practice, what protections exist for property owners, and why the council will continue to see similar ordinances as they have done in the past and as the city advances sidewalk infill, Safe Routes to School, accessibility, and other safety projects moving forward.
Uh, these ordinances can sound technical and the processes highly regulated and legally rigorous, but in practice they are a routine and disciplined part of delivering basic public works infrastructure.
We wanted to briefly demystify the process before turning to the project specifics.
Next slide, please.
Uh, this slide summarizes the common ways property rights are needed for transportation capital projects, and in most cases the city is not acquiring large portions of property.
The projects more commonly require narrow easements or short-term construction access.
Permanent easements are used when a public improvement such as a sidewalk, ADA ramp, or a stormwater facility extends slightly beyond the existing right-of-way.
Typically, only a narrow strip of land is involved.
The property owner retains the ownership of the land while the easement allows the city to construct and maintain the specific improvements over time.
Temporary construction easements are short-term, typically lasting up to 2 years, 2 to 3 years-ish, and though the actual work within the easement often takes only weeks or months, these temporary easements expire once construction is complete.
They provide our crews limited access needed to safely complete works adjacent to the public right-of-way, such as tying a new sidewalk to an existing driveway.
In both cases, the city is required by law to offer just compensation.
If a property owner disagrees with the city's opinion of just compensation, that is addressed through dialogue, and typically it results in a settlement.
The goal of the process is to clearly identify the rights needed, notify affected property owners, provide just compensation, and follow the required legal safeguards.
In a vast majority of the cases, the easements are acquired through negotiation, and formal condemnation is rare, and it requires additional legal steps beyond the ordinance, and it's pursued only as a last resort when good faith negotiation has not produced agreement.
And with that context, I'll turn it over to David MacAldonney, Manager of PBOT's Real Property Services Division, to walk through the process in more detail and explain how it applies to the Southeast 174th project.
Over to you, David.
Loretta Smith
Welcome, David.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, DCA.
Yes, David McEldanny with PBOT.
Um, I'll go to the next slide.
I wanted to, um, actually let me get something off my screen here really quickly.
Loretta Smith
There.
Unidentified speaker
I wanted to cover a few, uh, common eminent domain terms that you may have heard.
The first is just compensation, and that describes the fair market value of the property rights or any damages associated with the remainder properties due to the city's project.
Eminent domain is the authority that the council conveys for these projects and allows a government agency to acquire private property rights.
This is governed by local, state, and federal laws, and there's notification periods and a lot of guardrails for government agencies as they go through eminent domain.
On the other hand, condemnation is the process that a government agency would go through if negotiations were unsuccessful.
Um, and, or sometimes they're, they're not even possible because you might have probate issues, or you may have bankruptcy issues, or you cannot find a property owner, things like that.
Um, go to the next slide.
Right, I'm going to try to go to the next slide here.
Viva El Faro
There we go.
Unidentified speaker
Uh, requirements for eminent domain.
Um, Eminent domain has to have a public benefit.
So when you look at the ordinances that will follow here today or other times in the future, you'll notice that we talk about the necessity and the purpose of that project, and that that ordinance that council would pass is presumptive evidence of the public necessity.
And the next 2, federal funding and non-federally funded projects, Regardless of whichever one it is, both of those require Council to adopt the ordinance prior to the initiation of negotiations.
And I'll move on from there.
And the next step in the process is kind of the exploration where project managers such as Abra sitting here They will hold public meetings in the early phases of the project to engage the community, refine the scope and design of the project.
From there, designers will identify the needs of the project and the easements associated with those needs, and surveyors will go out and survey the property rights and write the legal descriptions and exhibit maps that you would see attached to the ordinance package.
From there, after these private property rights have been identified, the right-of-way project manager, such as Heather here, would send out a general information notice to the property owners via certified mail describing what the project is and what the needed property rights are.
From there, PBOT files an ordinance with council that outlines the necessity and purpose for this, the needed property rights, and that they are planned and located in a manner which will be most compatible with the greatest public good and least private injury.
I think that bears repeating— the greatest public good and least private injury.
PBOT sends notices to the property owner notifying them of the time, date, and place the council hearing.
Um, one of the other things I wanted to mention earlier, and I, I forgot because I didn't have my notes section up on the terms, is the, uh, Uniform Act.
And I've heard this specific council, um, having concerns on the, you know, the past harms that have occurred in Portland, or around the country for that matter.
That Uniform Act was adopted in 1970 by the federal government, and it protects property owners and ensures consistency.
And most of the items that we look at here in the city when we think about those past harms are things that all occurred before that.
I also want to let you know that as a requirement for onboarding for my staff, I have every staff member watch an OPB special, Local Colors.
So they really have an understanding whether they grew up here or they came from Florida or New York or wherever it's from.
They have a good understanding of the history of Portland.
So I would be remiss if I didn't mention that.
To continue on with the process, we have an appraisal phase that occurs next.
And property owners will receive notifications in case they want to spruce up their property or anything else.
If they want to accompany the appraiser, they have that opportunity.
PBOT uses the appraisal to inform just compensation, and that then property owners receive an offer benefit packet from us via certified mail or in person, and that starts the actual negotiation process.
Um, well, federal law only requires 30 days of a negotiation period.
Oregon law requires 40 days, so that is our minimum amount that we would ever have.
However, if a project's schedule is conducive to it, we prefer not to do anything that fast.
We will extend it out and make sure that we have the proper amount of time to negotiate with property owners if they want to get their own appraiser appraisal, they have that time.
Uh, we try not to rush that, um, if it's, if it's possible.
And then if the parties can't reach a settlement, we typically offer mediation as another, um, form of, uh, resolution.
Um, and then I just wanted to give you some statistics.
I've been here 20 years at PBOT, as the first as the right-of-way acquisition supervisor and now as The division manager.
I've been keeping stats for a while.
In the last 15 years, we've acquired more than 2,500 easements through successful negotiation.
Only 2 of those files actually ended up at, um, at mediation, and we have had zero trials to acquire property.
And with that, I'm going to leave you with some quotes from the Uniform Act that I mentioned earlier.
And I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have before we proceed on to the, uh, presentation for the project.
Loretta Smith
Thank you, David.
Do I see a legacy hand up there?
That's a great overview.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
We don't have any questions.
You want to proceed with the, um, particular project we're looking at today?
Yes, let's proceed with the 174th.
Abra McNair
Okay, I'll just go.
That's great.
Loretta Smith
Okay, thanks.
Just realized that we are bumping up against our timeline.
We only have about 15 minutes left.
Okay, we're good.
Abra McNair
All right, um, well, good afternoon, councilors.
My name is Abra McNair.
I'm a project manager with the Capital Delivery Group at PBOT, and I'm joined with— by Heather here today.
Um, yeah, so I'm here to present on— I'll do a little overview of the 174th Avenue sidewalk infill project.
You bump back one more That's great.
Oh, you can go to the next one too.
Okay, so just a project area overview of where this project is taking place.
It's on 174th Avenue between Southeast Kelly and Francis Streets.
It's in the Centennial School District and in the Centennial neighborhood.
It's— the corridor here on 174th is fairly busy, 8,000 vehicles Per day.
And 85% or more of drivers, or 85% of drivers are going 35 or 34 miles per hour or less.
That's the prevailing speed in that corridor.
There's 3 nearby schools that this kind of serves as a, they're either adjacent to Southeast 174th Avenue or have crossing points to access them.
That's the middle school, high school in Centennial, and Powell Butte Elementary School.
And there's also Lynchwood Park and a community garden that's just south of that park there as well.
This is in between Division Street and Powell Boulevard.
Yep, that's— next slide, please.
And the background of this project, how it came to be.
In 2017, the PBOT Safe Routes to School program did a lot of engagement and outreach with Schools and school districts to create their infrastructure plan.
And this was ahead of the Fixing Our Streets funding becoming available and funding being designated to the Safe Routes to School program.
Also advocacy from the Centennial School District and Powell Butte Elementary specifically.
The goals of this project are to create safe and comfortable walk and bike connections to Powell Butte Elementary, improve crossings and access to those other 2 schools, the middle school, the high school, and improve pedestrian connections for the neighborhood streets that connect into 174th.
So if you live off 174th, you'll be able to walk and connect to those schools or other facilities.
Thanks.
Next slide.
The design elements of this project are to have a— it's a 10-foot-wide concrete sidewalk, or it could also be called a multi-use path because there are facilities, like it's wide enough that there can be facilities and marketplaces for walking and biking.
It's on the west side of 174th, which is in the public or the Portland city boundaries.
There'll be a 3-foot furnishing zone with street trees and then 3 new marked crossings, one at Haig Drive, one right in between Powell Butte Elementary and the high school, which connects to a path that goes through the fields there, and another at the south end at Marie Street.
And those help connect to those other schools.
And then there are also new stormwater facilities up at the northern end of that project.
And there's an existing sidewalk that is in front of Powell Butte Elementary at this point.
We're gonna keep that existing sidewalk in place.
And in order to maintain that consistent bike access, we'd put buffered bike lanes in that section.
This project was funded by, in part, by an ODOT Safe Routes to School infrastructure grant.
And we applied for that grant back in 2022, were awarded the funds in 2023.
And the local match for this project came from previously dedicated funds for safety and infrastructure projects to specifically access East Portland schools.
So that's on PBOT's end.
So it's about a $2.3 million budget with construction planned in 2027.
And outreach and engagement that's happened on this project, it's been presented in various ways with other PBOT projects in front of the Centennial Neighborhood Association, East Portland Chamber of Commerce.
We've tabled at different events like the East County Community Resiliency Fair.
There's been— we've been on a Centennial Safe Routes to School walk and have done a couple of events at Powell Butte Elementary and have worked And had meetings specifically with the Powell Butte Elementary leadership, Centennial Transportation staff, and their school district staff.
So I've had specific meetings talking about design and sharing and getting feedback there with those.
And I should mention also that Powell Butte and Centennial both worked with us specifically on the grant application for this project.
And for all property owners, especially those directly impacted by by this project.
We have received letters as far back from 2024, other specific letters like with design layouts in 2025.
And then we've also done door knocks and have connected with people directly.
Like if they hadn't reached out to us after receiving the letters, I've had phone calls and emails talking about specifics of things that would happen in front of or on someone's property.
And coming up in the future, we'll have those property owner negotiations like Dave mentioned and neighborhood school and communications and events.
Like this Friday, I'm going to the Centennial Bike Fair at Parklane Elementary.
Like we're just continuing to share about the project with people living in the area, email newsletters, lawn signs, and direct mail to folks.
Yeah, and that's my wrap-up on that presentation.
I'll pass it to—.
Councilor Smith.
Heather, and also just want to put a plug for the expertise and incredible work that our right-of-way team does and how grateful I am to get to work with them.
It's a really cool team.
Loretta Smith
Thanks, Deborah.
Unidentified speaker
Hi, I'm Heather Byers, right-of-way agent with PBOT.
I'll try to go through this quickly.
So we're seeking authority to begin negotiations and make offers of just compensation for the easements required for this project.
If we're unable to reach an agreement, we may proceed with condemnation, but as Dave outlined, that's a last resort.
We strive to get an agreement with owners.
We need easements from 15 properties, including 6 permanent and 15 temporary easements.
Permanent easements will allow us to build ADA-compliant sidewalks, signal infrastructure, safe pedestrian spaces, and temporary easements provide that room for construction Thank you, Councilor Smith.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilor Smith.
So today's public comment hearing is on the proposed eminent domain ordinance for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
The proposed eminent domain ordinance would allow the city to acquire property for transit purposes.
The proposed eminent domain ordinance would allow the city to acquire property for transit purposes.
Diagram of where the easements are occurring.
So you can see that they're located along the frontages of these properties.
The red indicates permanent and yellow indicates temporary.
So this is just to show you— I know we send out like the legals and exhibits that aren't, you know, don't have an aerial image.
So this is to show you the impact.
This is the largest easement on this project and And the yellow is the temporary, just to give you a good image of kind of what these easements look like and that they're along the front edges of these properties.
That's all I have.
So if you have any questions, we're happy to answer.
Loretta Smith
Well, thank you for the presentation.
I think one of my takeaways on this is that that's a lot of work that goes into not a very big project.
I mean, maybe on a big project, you know, you're talking about From your perspective, it's a big project, but it's so much detail and so many property owners and so many little teeny pieces of property.
And then there's the stormwater complication and the ADA piece, and it adds up to $2 million something.
It's kind of amazing when, you know, people on the street just think, oh, just lay down some concrete.
It's not that easy.
And it gives us a much better appreciation, I think, of why it takes It takes so long in some cases to get sidewalks built.
It's an arduous process.
Just, this is very helpful in understanding that, I think.
Colleagues, does anybody have any questions or comments?
That's a legacy hand.
Okay.
Well, thank you so much for the background on eminent domain and this project.
I don't mean to cut you short, but it's very helpful to see all the work that went into it.
What it costs just to build a, a small strip of sidewalk.
Much needed, I must say, and how long it takes.
Um, so Diego, I— is there anybody signed up to testify on this?
Keelan McClymont
No one has signed up.
Loretta Smith
Okay, colleagues, no other questions, comments?
Then I'd like to entertain a motion to send ordinance document number 2026-167 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
Unidentified speaker
So moved.
Second.
Loretta Smith
Um, Councilor Kanal moves Ordinance Document Number 2026-167 to the full council with a recommendation to pass.
It was seconded by Councilor Smith.
Seeing no discussion, will the clerk please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
Aye.
Aye.
Tom Potter
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Smith.
Aye.
Clark.
Abra McNair
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
With 5 ayes, the motion carries, and the Ordinance Document Number 2026-167 Terrific.
Loretta Smith
Thank you all for hanging out with us.
Thank you.
Appreciate your work.
Um, so colleagues, wow, look at— we have 3 minutes left.
Anybody want to talk about anything?
Um, just so we all know, our next meeting is June the 9th, and at that meeting we're going to get an update on the Rose Quarter Improvement Project, and then we're finalizing other agenda items.
So, um, without further ado, I will adjourn the meeting of the Public Works Committee.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.