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.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Good morning.
It is 2:01 PM on Tuesday, October 13th.
I am calling to order today's meeting of the City Life Committee.
Uh, could you please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
Yes, thank you.
Zimmerman?
Eric Zimmerman
Here.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Avalos?
Unidentified speaker
Ryan?
Dan Ryan
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Morillo?
Angelita Morillo
Here.
Unidentified speaker
Pirtle-Guiney?
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Here.
And Kevin, could we please get the statement of conduct?
Kevin
Welcome to the meeting of the City Life Committee.
To testify before this committee in person or virtually, you must sign up in advance on the committee agenda at www.portland.gov/council/agenda/city-life-committee or by calling 311.
Information on engaging with the committee can be found at this link.
Registration for virtual testimony closes 1 hour prior to the meeting.
In-person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.
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.
Anyone who fails to leave once ejected is subject to arrest for trespass.
Additionally, the committee may take a short recess and reconvene virtually.
Your testimony should address the matter being considered.
When testifying, state your name for the record.
If you're a lobbyist, identify the organization you represent.
Virtual testifiers should unmute themselves when the clerk calls your name.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Colleagues, we have—.
Candace Avalos
Chair, apologies, I'm late.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Wendy, did you get that, that Councilor Avalos is now with us as well?
Unidentified speaker
Yes, thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Perfect, thank you.
Welcome, Councilor.
Colleagues, we have— we'll start today with public input on City Life topics, as we always do.
We will then have a presentation on Advance Portland.
Then we're going to, after a break, have a conversation about the city policy around privatizing publicly owned land.
We actually have a system that the city runs through to make those decisions, and some of our colleagues have expressed some concerns with the process as it currently works.
So we will learn a little bit more about that.
And then we have an item before us today where we do have a bureau that is looking to dispose of some currently city-owned land, and we will take that up as the last item on our agenda.
Uh, yeah, I'll cover the rest of that later.
Why don't we jump right in?
Wendy, could you please read our first item?
Unidentified speaker
Item number 1, document number 2026-359, public input on City Life Committee topics.
We have 2 individuals who have signed We have 2 speakers signed up.
The first is Lisa Jackson-Spotted Duck, and the next is Ghalib El.
Welcome.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for joining us.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Galib Ben Imhotep El
Sorry, a little unprepared this time.
Greetings, beloved committee members.
I am Galib Ben Imhotep El, and my domicile is in District 4.
What I offer today has much more to do with just my district and everything to do with city life.
I will speak frankly.
There's a part of Portland that's dying.
That part is close to its heart, so close that it may as well be.
Thank you.
The dying part of Portland, it's right down the street.
I call it my front porch, and it's so dirty that it needs to be cleaned with a street sweeper.
Well, the PBOT street sweepers just aren't adequate.
They were never designed for the type of dis-ease that creates the death of a body.
Tourists come to Portland and get smacked in the face with it.
My first trip to downtown involved a sight that is now so common to me that I actually laugh at how flabbergasted I was to see what I saw, which I will not detail.
Chinatown and Old Town are vital parts of downtown and deserve attention that they don't receive.
They may be parts of District 4, but they represent so much of Portland that all districts, along with the city life suffer in direct proportion to their atrophy.
Most of the parking occurs where the homeless have a tendency to amass, making for an awkward situation.
It's pretty rough asking a tourist to pay upwards of $50 sometimes when they're watching a guy perform acts that just are best done in private.
The solution isn't as simple as a snap of the fingers.
It takes commitment.
Engagement and involvement with sincerity.
There are hotspots where you will find the most downtrodden souls that I have seen wandering this earth.
The narrative of those locations needs rescripting.
The face of these hotspots needs a makeover.
They're close.
Eric Zimmerman
They're growing.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Galib Ben Imhotep El
They're not sustainable.
Please commit to the refinement of these blighted areas.
Portland will progress and prosper.
And thank you, and I love you all unconditionally.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you for being here.
Dan Ryan
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
And Lisa is joining us online.
Lisa, you can go ahead and unmute and begin your comments.
Lisa.
Everyone, um, I just wanted to just come in and, um, express myself as I, I, I don't even know where to start.
There's so much going on.
However, I feel like I needed to come speak to y'all for the school system, um, the— and I understand this is the city, but we're talking about, um, the Portland City Life, right?
And so I just want to make it really, really real and clear that, um, the equity of this life is built around the school systems too.
And I feel like that, that part is, is missing, um, in, in your, in your puzzle.
That's, you know, that, that all this is working together.
Um, the reason why I say that is if some of you board members actually sit in on some of these right-sizing conversations that is happening in your community, Yeah.
Um, the infrastructure of your little communities is going to be affected.
Now, if you think about Chicago and their school closure, they never— even in their city, in the surrounding areas— they never recovered yet.
And so that should be really alarming to, to your city because those are your schools, right?
Um, I love advocating and coming and expressing the, the deep concern about your school system and all the levels.
I was just at the county last week expressing myself to chop from the top because, um, what people don't realize is, you know, that's all everyone's tax dollars.
That's everyone's.
Everyone should have a say in their school system, whether it's a county or a city.
I feel like that key piece where we're forgetting is we need to really advocate for our generations to come.
Thank you.
We need to— I love how some of you think, because we need to think about 10, 20 years down the line, not 5.
Um, and if we shut down these school systems, that's really going to affect the infrastructure of your city drastically.
There's families that want to leave, there's teachers that aren't coming back, um, and those are taxpaying people that are Portlanders for life that are thinking of leaving your city.
And especially with, um, with the St. Johns area that I know that, you know, Dan was speaking on.
So that's real.
Um, if you actually think about what is going on with your school system, I feel like for the city council thing, you guys should start trying to find some way as a city council to help support your school systems because that is city life that will affect it drastically.
Um, like I said, the infrastructure.
Thank you.
Um, your taxpaying people.
Um, these are your Portland families that really need your support.
And, um, I just wanted to come voice my, my, you know, my thoughts on that and, and make it real that these are people's lives that are in your city.
So I appreciate y'all for your time, and, um, thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you very much.
We appreciate you coming here.
We appreciate you advocating for the community.
Unidentified speaker
That concludes public input.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Wendy.
Could you call our next agenda item?
Unidentified speaker
Item number 2, document number 2026-360, Advance Portland Economic Development Strategy.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Great, thank you.
And colleagues, there is not an action item for us to take on today related to this agenda item, but it's a, an important response to some of the other conversations that we have had.
Advance Portland is the city's economic development strategy, which was passed by a former city commission group of folks up here and has been guiding Prosper Portland's work.
And Prosper Portland has shared that they have some updates to that work and that plan is also going to be coming to an end over the next 2 years, I believe, 2 years.
So we'll have an opportunity to talk over the next year about what that next iteration is for economic development in our city.
So today I've asked Prosper and our DCA, DCA Oliveira, to share with us where Advance Portland has been and what some of the changes are that Prosper is looking at for the next few years, and then create a little bit of space for us to talk about both what that looks like, what this next 2-year period looks like, and also how Council might be involved in setting our next economic development strategy moving forward, which is something that many of our colleagues have, have asked about over the last year or so.
So I will turn it over, DCA Oliveira, to you and to Prosper Portland's Executive Director Cornell Wesley.
Unidentified speaker
Great.
Donny Oliveira
Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon, council committee.
Donny Oliveira, for the record.
I'm the Deputy Administrator for Community and Economic Development.
So, councilors, today we are here to provide you an update on Advance Portland, the city's 5-year economic development strategy.
But most importantly, I want to just share that this is the city's plan.
While it informs Prosper Portland's work plans and its strategic initiatives, the truth is, is that this is a plan that's built and dependent on bureaus as the chair acknowledged, it was adopted in 2023, and it continues to inform our work plans related to economic development and focusing on 4 objectives: inclusive economic growth and innovation, equitable wealth creation, vibrant commercial districts, and connections to high-quality jobs and future-ready sectors.
While today's presentation will cover highlights from the first 3 years, we're really thinking about what comes next, how we meet the current objectives, refine our, our goals, and ensure that we are meeting the moment for the City of Portland through this plan.
As the chair also acknowledged, we look forward to working with council on the next iteration of this plan.
But first, we are here to give you a highlight, which leads to my last point.
I hope everyone takes the moment to read the Advance Portland plan.
We're not covering every detail today because we want to get into the discussion, but it's still rich and invaluable in terms of shaping how we're seeing economic development for the city.
Thank you.
And with that, I'm pleased to turn it over to Cornell Wesley, who's executive director at Prosper, and Eric Knoll, policy manager as well.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Team?
Cornell Wesley
Thank you.
Chair Pirtle-Guiney, Vice Chair Zimmerman, and members of the City Life Committee.
For the record, once again, I am Cornell Wesley, and I proudly serve as Prosper Portland's executive director.
Since starting a— since starting at Prosper Portland a little over a year ago, I've been really impressed by what my colleagues have accomplished over the last 3 years in implementing Advance Portland.
And I want to take a moment to publicly recognize Prosper Portland staff for that work, and more importantly, thank them for their dedication to advancing these goals.
I'm also joined here by Eric Knoll, Prosper Portland's policy manager, who is available to help answer questions about the Advance Portland update.
Now, on April 26th, 2023, City Council adopted Advance Portland.
A call to action for inclusive economic growth.
At its core, Advance Portland is a citywide economic development strategy focused on advancing inclusive economic growth, competitiveness, and climate action.
But this is important.
Advance Portland is not just a Prosper Portland strategy.
It is a collaborative citywide strategy that was built through deep community engagement and is being implemented through robust partnerships across the city.
Including Prosper Portland, the business community, and community organizations.
This body of work began with a comprehensive assessment of Portland's economy, looking at both where we had real strengths and where we were falling behind.
On the strength side, we saw growth and diversification across several key industry sectors.
Those became our target sectors or target clusters for growth.
They include: Construction.
Green cities, athletic and outdoor, metals and machinery, food and beverage manufacturing, and software media.
We also saw strong employment in knowledge occupations and growth in highly educated talent compared to the rest of the nation.
But the assessment also made clear that we had some significant challenges to address.
Portland's employment growth.
Business growth, and median household income were all lagging in the region, even as home prices increased faster than 35 of the 40 largest metro areas.
And those challenges have only become more important to address as we've seen population decline for the first time in 40 years, putting pressure on Portland's economic future.
That includes the following.
Housing affordability, an uneven recovery in the central city and commercial districts, an imbalance in our tax value proposition, challenges in scaling businesses, and perceptions among investors and business leaders that Portland is falling behind peer cities.
I encourage the committee and the public to visit advanceportland.com to learn more about the work that went into co-creating this strategy.
Including the hundreds of individuals, businesses, government partners, and others who brought their experience and expertise to the table.
That work ultimately led us to the 4 objectives that have guided our work over the last 3 years, and that's where I'll turn next.
Next slide.
So as mentioned, much work went into creating this strategy.
The robust partnership with community, businesses, and government partners gave us a strong framework to build from.
I want to briefly walk you through those 4 objectives, give you a few examples of the initiatives, and then turn to where we're going in the final 2 years of the strategy.
Now, as I mentioned on the last slide, the assessment identified both the strengths and the challenges, challenges of the Portland economy.
From that assessment, the strategy identified opportunities where we could align our resources and partnerships to actually propel Portland's economic growth.
That led to the following 4 objectives.
Objective 1, propel inclusive economic growth and innovation.
This objective is centered on growing the sectors where Portland has a competitive advantage and where we see an opportunity for additional investment and job creation.
Again, those were some of the things I called out earlier around our traded sectors.
Objective 2, equitable wealth creation.
This objective is focused on creating more pathways to wealth through inclusive partnerships, particularly for Portlanders and communities that have historically been underserved.
Objective 3, foster a vibrant central city and, and commercial districts.
This objective recognizes the significant needs created by the pandemic and other compounding factors.
Yes.
And focuses on supporting the recovery and long-term vitality of our central city and commercial districts.
And finally, Objective 4: connect Portlanders to high-quality jobs in future-ready sectors.
This is about strengthening the connections between Portlanders, our workforce system, and the future-ready high-wage jobs that we know will be critical to our economic future.
Now, next, I will highlight a few of the key initiatives that have come out of the work.
Excuse me.
Next slide.
All right.
Advance Portland key early initiatives.
Here we are.
All right.
Now, I know there are a lot of words in this slide, so I'm going to call that out on the front end.
But trying to come up with a few highlights of the robust work that my team and our partners have accomplished was no easy task.
Now, understandably, we are all very proud of the work we have done these last 3 years.
Yes.
So I encourage you to read through the full list at your convenience, but I want to highlight a few examples because they demonstrate the strength of the partnerships behind this work.
Together with our service area partners, the city developed a single permitting authority, Portland Permitting and Development, to make the process more coordinated and easier to navigate.
Together with City Council, we approved a minor boundary amendment to the Enterprise Zone to support more than 100 new thank you.
—Quality jobs as part of the Alaska Airlines hangar expansion project.
Also, together with our community partners, we created the Office of Small Business, which in its first year served 809 unique businesses.
We also established 6 new TIF districts through a co-creation process with community, and through our partnership with Travel Portland and Oregon Film, we recruited and marketed productions that resulted in more than 3,400 quality jobs in the local economy.
And again, these are just a few examples.
What they have in common is that none of them happened through the work of one organization alone.
They reflect what we can accomplish when the city, Prosper Portland, community, and our business and government partners are working toward the same economic development strategy.
And with that, I'll turn to where we are headed next.
Next slide.
All right.
So we're providing this update to acknowledge that the conditions for our city's economic recovery have changed since the adoption of the Advance Portland strategy 3 years ago.
I think we all can agree on that.
So this before you is the matrix for the Advance Portland recalibration.
Fine-tuning Prosper Portland's work plan for the final 2 years of the strategy.
I want to be clear up front, the 4 objectives and the core elements of Advance Portland underneath this have not changed.
What's changed is the sequencing and status of the initiatives underneath the objectives, and that's what we will overview with you here.
Every initiative of Advance Portland will be sorted into this matrix before you.
Now, the columns represent the initiative status, either recovery or growth.
Recovery means it's funded and implementation ready, either currently in progress or on track for the next 2 years, reflecting the near-term needs of the city and where— what we are at, or where we are at capacity to address within existing resources.
Now, initiatives in the growth category means the item still, still needs research.
It still needs funding approval or some combination thereof, but also reflects work and initiatives that are possible to expand our economic development tools and capacity.
Now, the rows are the time horizon.
You will see now, next, which is roughly 2 years, and future, which is the next iteration of the city's economic development strategy.
For example, the new storefront support program sits in recovery/now.
It lives and it is funded.
Cascadia High-Speed Rail sits in grow for the future, real but a decade-plus out and dependent on funding and approvals that are not yet in place.
Next slide.
So we'll provide an overview of the recovery and growth initiatives on the next 2 slides.
But first, I'd like to call your attention to a new online dashboard we've launched to provide both the council and general public a sortable table to learn more and track each of these items.
Included on this slide is both a link and a QR code to access the dashboard.
Like our already published financial compendium, the dashboard is designed to provide a transparent and user-friendly interface for the work of Advance Portland.
Next slide.
So here's a summary of the recovery thank you.
So we'll move on to the recovery-focused initiatives.
Recovery, again, is everything currently in progress or already funded.
Many of these initiatives have already been implemented.
The list here reflects new or updated initiatives in Advance Portland, as well as initiatives that our agency subject matter experts have elevated in terms of importance for the final 2 years of the strategy.
The Recovery Now column is robust and represents the volume of work we are already doing within our existing resources to nimbly respond to the current economic needs in our city.
The Recovery Next column reflects initiatives in progress to continue advancing the city's post-pandemic recovery.
All of the recovery initiatives we are doing now and next these concepts also align with the mayor's Central City Roundtable strategies and Prosper Portland's CIF investment strategy.
Next slide.
All right, here we are with growth.
Now, these growth concepts represent 16 initiatives that need more research, funding, or approval before they can be implemented.
On the left side, These 4 initiatives could start in the current fiscal year with the right funding or policy decision.
In the middle, these 9 are in development and need approval, mostly over a 1 to 2 year horizon to begin implementing.
On the right, these 3 are long-range, 5 to 10 years plus or minus out, and these can be considered in the planning process for the city's next slide.
So our next steps.
Our next step is to bring this work to the Prosper Portland Board on tomorrow, October 14th.
This will provide an opportunity to share the work to date, receive board feedback, and continue aligning around the priorities and actions identified through this process.
Then on October 20th, we will convene an Advance Portland Advisory Committee.
The committee's role will be to help identify and address impediments to implement— implementation, advocate for the resources needed to advance key priorities, and provide an ongoing forum to monitor progress against the plan.
Importantly, this creates a structure for continued external engagement.
Looking ahead, We see this work as an important contribution to the city's next economic development strategy, and we look forward to continuing to engage as that strategy takes shape.
Now listen, we're committed to bringing Prosper Portland's economic development expertise, partnerships, and perspective to that process, and to co-creating a strategy that reflects the opportunities and challenges facing Portland's economy.
So thank you for your time.
And your engagement today.
We appreciate the opportunity to share this work and look forward to your questions and discussion.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you all so much for the overview and the information on where you are looking at heading next in PROSPER and for laying out that information clearly so we can understand where there might be council decision points coming that, that we should be considering.
Colleagues, I think there's 3 places here for engagement.
I'm not going to have us take them in that order, but just as you're thinking about your comments, there is what we've done so far and the overview of how we, how we came to the advanced strategy.
There's some of those changes around prioritization, what's driving those changes, and how Prosper is taking on the work for the next 2 years.
And then any thoughts you have to guide next steps after that.
There may be comments you have that are less related to Advance and more related to economic development broadly that we probably can't get into the next year or so as PROSPER plays out the rest of the Advance agenda, but that I think are important for us to lay out now before PROSPER and CEDSA and our other bodies jump into the work of thinking about where economic development is going next.
That's a topic that I know council will want to weigh in on heavily.
And as the committee looking at our economy, I think we can start that here as well.
So if anybody has questions, comments, thoughts on any of those 3 topic areas, feel free to jump in the queue.
Eric Zimmerman
I'm seeing Dan's up there.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilor Zimmerman, go right ahead.
Eric Zimmerman
Okay, I was hoping that— I had a feeling Councilor Ryan might jump in first, but I am curious, just over this last couple years, we've had some more and more of this conversation about the mix of the different types of sizes of business, right?
We have started the small business office, right?
And I think we're happy about that.
And those numbers you shared are impressive.
One thing I've kind of failed to grasp is what is the right mix in a growing city for small, medium, and large business?
And what are some assumptions that we make when we talk about that mix?
And I mean it in the terms of the wages that come with each of those sectors because of the need to have— Right.
When it comes to housing in neighborhoods, I talk about I'm a big proponent of mixed-income neighborhoods.
But also, what does it look like from an economic development agency's perspective when you're pursuing and you see some of these out-years, how we pursue, where we put our efforts to pursue small, medium, and large business to kind of create that ecosystem?
Which I guess maybe is the second question is, does the ecosystem of those 3 genres matter or—.
Yeah.
Or can you focus in on one or the other?
I haven't quite figured out that mix, but I know we've started talking about it a little bit more since you came on board.
And I'm just kind of curious on your thoughts on that to help guide our thinking too.
Cornell Wesley
Certainly.
And thank you for your question, Councilor.
Communities that get it right, they do all 3 because what they fully recognize and what COVID has revealed for us is that we did not have shock absorbers.
And how I define a shock, Shock absorber is an employer that's 400 or more, right?
And so when you have a major crisis like a pandemic, what we learned was that we had an overreliance on our small business community.
And so when they were no longer— let's use Central Business District as a case study— when they were no longer selling insert widget here because they no longer had a body that was inside the big building anymore to buy the hot dog, you see how these all things are inextricably tied.
Right.
And so our work moving forward has to be centered around continuing to accelerate growth with our small business community.
We do a really great job at launching and accelerating and incubating, but we also got to be able to create an ecosystem where they're able to expand in this— in our community while also recruiting the right companies that fit within that trade sector model.
To become shock absorbers.
So we have to grow a shock absorber while we're also trying to recruit one.
Eric Zimmerman
There's an important point there, and I don't know if the term is the traded sector or— so I'm thinking through, and I'm— what I'm really asking is I'm asking for help in my vocabulary on these topics, right?
And so so in the one hand, you could say big business, an Amazon warehouse whose many of the employees that are out there are on public services as well, and we're talking minimum wage, lots of employees, but not the kind of jobs that I think we all mean when we talk about the small, middle, and large.
Mm-hmm.
So from that sense, what changes within our strategy so that we when we talk about the organization that has 400+ employees, that we are talking about wages above a certain area instead of just saying who's the next, you know, I'm going to use somebody that doesn't exist so I don't offend anybody, who's the next Kmart?
I'm not looking for the Kmart.
That's right.
I'm looking for what is the place that's got skilled workforce, higher wages, who I think meets that desire.
And I don't, I don't know what the strategies are to incentivize or attract one over the other.
And sometimes it feels a little bit like, who took the RFP?
And I'd rather be like, no, we designed it so that we could have a headquarters.
And that's what I'm trying to understand more about.
Cornell Wesley
And that's the real point.
In my experience in previous communities, the cities, the counties, they determine what the end product looks like, either through the incentive request or the development agreement.
A simple way of saying that is we've said, We state what our livable wage is and what quality of life looks like for us.
We don't chase a Kmart if it doesn't fit in our community, right?
And so if we're defining livable wage in Portland as insert number here, that's who we look for, and we don't fall beneath that.
And we codify that in either through an incentive agreement if we get additional tools, or in a development agreement.
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Can I add something too, Councilor?
I think building on that, because the director is absolutely accurate, we also have to ensure that our land supply and our urban form is ready to capture that idea that we want, right?
We are— we have an urban growth boundary.
We have some challenging industrial land availability right now.
Our larger sites just aren't ready for those big development investments that aren't logistics centers, that aren't, you know, storage facilities, We have to prepare ourselves to have the vision, but also have the land capacity and the urban form.
That means infrastructure to be ready to receive those ideas that we want.
So there's many levers that we have to still pull to make those real.
Eric Zimmerman
Last question, and I think maybe it's just timely given what our community's reacting to in the last 9 days or so.
In these kinds of conversations with those who are either in the site or headquarters, when they think about employees that they're gonna bring forward, We used to hear a lot about the Portland way of life, the stuff that came with being sited in Portland.
And one of those things that you could always, you know, you talk to people about is their schools.
So what are the other, I'll say, fabric that are part of our story but aren't within your wheelhouse to incentivize that do have impacts?
That you would want us to know about, because our microphones go beyond these walls, for those conversations that help sell the Portland story about why it's not just a good place for the business, but it's a good place for the employees and their families who will be coming with that business, whether that's schools or parks or access to name the thing.
I'd like to know that because I'd like to be able to be an advocate in those spaces that don't necessarily fall into our bureaus.
Cornell Wesley
So I can give you a very long answer, but I'm gonna keep it succinct, and, and, and if appropriate, I can follow up with additional data.
What we have that can be measured, as opposed to quality of life, is quality of place, and that actually has, has metrics attached to it.
So proximity to insert thing here, like airports— we have an international one, we have direct flights internationally.
You can walk in the city or you can go on hikes.
Yeah.
You can ski.
There's proximity to water.
All of these things communities have to create, but these are— pardon my French— God-given.
And so we have a measurable quality of place that turns on its head what used to be the notion of work-life balance.
That's now life-work.
And so people will choose Portland before they choose to work here.
They will choose to live here, and then the job becomes secondary.
So you're spot on.
Thank you.
What we do have is an amazing product.
We just need to sell it.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Yes, thank you, Chair, and, um, thank you so much for that presentation, Cornell and team.
Um, Councilor Zimmerman, I, I couldn't get my functions to cooperate, so it took a while, but I really enjoyed that dialogue, and I want to kind of build on that.
Um, first of all, thank you for also taking the information that led to the first draft of this, if you will.
I think it's a work in motion.
It's a work in progress and adapting it to some realities that we have today.
I appreciated that.
And I noticed it in the language of the sequencing.
So thank you for doing that, team.
When I think of your, your economic bridge builder arm for the city.
So you're the, you're the organization that the city must partner with so that we can partner better with those that want to invest in Portland, those that want to build in Portland.
And we all know that what used to be a lot of cranes in the sky when the initial findings of this report was put together are basically not there anymore.
And so we're not doing a lot of building.
Right.
And Prosper is our leader in being the broker, the steward of some of those investors on some big projects.
I'll just name a few.
You know them.
Broadway Corridor, the OMSI District.
Mm-hmm.
Montgomery Place.
There's a Montgomery project.
I still call it Montgomery Ward.
My point is, I'm trying to figure out how, Cornell, you're taking those big rocks that you're trying to move up the— that we are trying to move up the hill and how they fit into these objectives.
And further, I'd like to hear how you're thinking on how you're prioritizing those in the sequence.
Certainly.
Because our city is in desperate times, but with desperation means that it's an opportunity to really hone in on focus.
And I need to know where the focus is because we need to win somewhere.
Yeah.
So is there some thinking about those big initiatives and then your objectives and how they're coming together so we as a council, we as Prosper, more importantly, those out there that are still willing to do business in Portland can focus with us?
Can you give me some of your thinking on that?
Cornell Wesley
Absolutely.
Let me first kind of take a step back and start structurally around what PROSPER did.
One of the first things, calling out the acknowledgment that we need to get these major projects across the finish line, we had to look inward first, which has presented itself in the reforming of what used to be one department, now is Capital Access, Real Estate, and Community Development.
And that has made us more efficient in our approach and our leveraging of the existing tools.
So that's the foundation.
Now let's talk about the project.
Project number 1 is Broadway Corridor, not just because Prosper's investment, but this is an entire city investment.
Multiple bureaus, multiple interested parties.
This is the biggest transformation project, followed by OMSI, followed by reimagining our Union Station, followed by Lloyd Center, followed by Moda, followed by Albina Vision Trust, followed by the work of 1803.
That is 8 major priorities in our central in our city that are key projects that getting one, two across the finish line unlocks a lot of other opportunities.
So imagine what Moda unlocks for Albina Vision Trust, would imagine what that does for the waterfront in relation to OMSI.
All of these things are inextricably tied.
We've got to be dedicated to getting them across the finish line, starting with Broadway Corridor.
Dan Ryan
So So I appreciate that, and that's exactly what I was looking for.
So thank you.
I think I probably know I've asked this question before, and this was a very crisp answer, and I appreciate that.
So tell me more about Broadway Corridor.
Tell me what we can expect, how we can be helpful in terms of our action at City Council.
Cornell Wesley
Well, I'll answer that second part first on how you can be helpful, and it's your continued advocacy.
You continuing to be loud about the need for us to get this done.
And when appropriate, if there are additional resources that can come to bear, your vote, your affirmative vote matters.
Here's what we're doing.
We're also doing the same thing.
We are thinking creatively about tools that we did not contemplate when this project was originally, you know, designed.
And so we're looking at federal resources.
We're looking at additional partners that we can bring to bear.
Thank you.
To shave the timeline or shrink the timeline so that our citizens can see, which they are already seeing benefit of.
We have infrastructure, we have a road in, we need to produce something vertically.
And we are thinking outside of the box of what role Prosper will continue to play around bringing new financial resources to bear for that project.
And I would be happy to debrief you one-on-one if that is something you want to know more about, our actual tools and our strategy around it.
Dan Ryan
Well, I think all of us need to hear that because if we're in alignment about what is number one, Broadway corridor, I'm fine jumping into that bandwagon for sure.
I just want to have this conversation then consistently because again, we're scattering all over the place.
It feels like sometimes we're not moving one thing along to get across the finish line, as you said.
What lessons did we learn from what I would just say, the collapse of the momentum on that project back in '21, '22?
Cornell Wesley
Well, I can't speak about the lessons.
I wasn't here in '21 nor '22.
What I can say is what we have inherited and what we have responded to is the desire to think beyond what is in front of us.
And what I mean by that is we've got to be innovative.
There are a lot of— here's the cool part is there are a lot of cool tools we never pursued.
And so we have a robust pipeline of things that we think we can truly, truly pursue and get awarded to help us not only with Broadway Corridor, but how, again, I'm gonna say Union Station, because we have more bodies that go through there than any other place in the Pacific Northwest.
It's important that we reimagine what that asset can become as well.
So it's a holistic strategy, Councilor Ryan, is what I'm really trying to highlight in daylight here.
Thank you.
Is that we have to look at additional tools, and that is a part of our long-term strategy.
Dan Ryan
And I'll just say, I think we're good at holistic strategies.
I think we're weak on concrete action.
And I think that incorporating Union Station into your narrative right there was smart.
I think the whole Old Town up to Broadway corridor, you can't dismiss that.
That's right.
It's almost in the same neighborhood.
So I hope that I hope that I keep hearing more concrete language so that we can stay focused on this.
I'll just do one more question this round for now, and it's something that— well, 2 things.
One is I would like in the follow-up to identify which bureaus are your partners in the objectives that you want to move forward.
I think it helps council to know what those are, and I can assume, but I think identifying them so that we have accountability in those partnerships between the city and Prosper Portland.
It's not always going to be Donnie and the permitting team and the small business office working with— I think we need to hear who are those bureaus that have some accountability to make these dreams come true.
And I hope that you are more willing to provide that type of concrete information.
I will end with this.
And that is, it's been a pet peeve of mine for a while, so I'm going to get it out there.
When we have policy coming to the City Council and we look for Prosper as our economic development agency to provide an economic analysis, I sometimes find those to be kind of shallow and empty.
And I think it's maybe in the past has been because of capacity or who's on first, but can you tell me a little bit more about how what the methodology is like at your organization to help us make better policy decisions around the economy by providing some objective and also some clarity with data on why you're making such suggestions in that section of our policy.
Unidentified speaker
Hey, Councilor, this is Donny.
I'm going to take a stab at that one if you don't mind.
I don't mind at all.
Just to kind of— because this has been a question that's come up a few times now that we're sort of working through again.
Councilor Pirtle-Guiney, I think Pearl Ganey is familiar with this.
Uh, in the resolution that created the economic and development impact statement, uh, Prosper Portland was designated as the reviewer of the, the statement.
So the initial analysis is technically supposed to be submitted by the, the author of the, the policy, the ordinance, uh, as it's material.
Um, now Prosper staff are available if there's like some questions to help inform that, and there have been times where Prosper has leaned in to help draft those statements.
Donny Oliveira
Okay.
Unidentified speaker
In support of policies if given substantial notice.
That's the key qualifier there.
But as it's currently written, PROSPER is evaluating to ensure that the statements as drafted are answering the right questions given the scope.
So that's still a work in progress.
And we know some bureaus and some offices have a better system in place than others.
And that's not judgment, that's just where we're at in our new form of government.
But I think it's something that we need to evaluate because we do think there's an opportunity to to better inform those statements so that when Prosper's reviewing them, they're not last minute trying to fill in the gaps.
Dan Ryan
And Donny, I appreciate that.
I think that we as legislators could also be helpful in that regard.
So when we're in the committee working things out, we help influence that work.
That would, that would be really, I think, appreciated.
And I think my general thought on that is sometimes I see A short-term analysis of the impact, but it fails to go 2 to 5 years out.
So it might say this will provide X savings or revenue to the operational budget of the city, the general services.
But I think it often fails to do an economic analysis of long-term consequences or impact.
That would just be something that I've noticed of late.
So I hope that you're taking this as a way to just ponder it, and I as a legislator will try to be more active in my pursuit of getting more concrete information in that section of our impact statements.
So thank you for this dialogue.
I'll take my hand down.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor Ryan.
Councilor Avalos, go right ahead.
Candace Avalos
Thank you.
So before I ask the things I wanted to ask, I just want to comment on that little last bit of discussion.
While I agree that we should definitely have a focused strategy and stick to it, and we need to show how we're measuring our desired outcomes, I do feel concerned about if we are putting so much effort into these kind of projects or short-term visions like Broadway Corridor, then I believe that it's harder for East Portland to get what they need as far as attention and resources and strategy from Prosper.
And so I just feel like we continue to get deprioritized.
And so then, you know, that's part of what I want to talk about.
But hearing that conversation, I wanted to raise that because that brings me to yesterday.
I was actually doing some small business door knocking on Division and 122nd.
Shout out to my community organizer, Seat Lally, for getting that on my calendar, which was great timing because I got some pretty good insights.
And I think a couple of things are, one, I heard what we all hear, right?
They need help with clearing public spaces, help with vandalism and homelessness.
You know, there was a man who has a taekwondo studio and he's got a broken door and he's like, well, my insurance said they'll pay for it, but it's a high deductible and, you know, I wish I had resources.
I think that's a great point.
Right.
Stuff like that that we hear.
Also heard from a small business owner, a Chinese restaurant, who they were like, we just get a lot of homeless people that come in asking for food, and they're like, we help where we can, right?
But we need to bring in customers that pay.
And so, but one thing that also emerged when I talked to all of them, but then I was talking with the pawn shop and they said, you know, we hear a lot about how businesses don't like the medians on Division for lots of reasons.
And but it was— I think what I'm asking is, what is the relationship between Prosper's work and the infrastructure bureaus like PBOT and Water?
Because while we hear about the medians and, you know, there's all this conversation we have about, you know, why you have to trade like safety for certain things We also talked about like, how do we design our business corridors in a way that helps the owner of the small Chinese restaurant get the foot traffic that she needs, right?
So that people can actually be coming through East Portland.
Because right now all of our business corridors are not really designed in a way that people can hang and stay, right?
We have this conversation with PBOT when it comes to like the streets, like the—.
What is it?
The street painting things that they do and the plazas that they do and how East Portland has barely any.
And a lot of that is infrastructure related.
Yeah.
And so if we're talking about, you know, having an economic development strategy, one, I want us— I want to hear more clearly in your presentations, in your strategy, how East Portland is going to be elevated in your discussion, because we have a lot of emerging new small businesses that are from immigrant and BIPOC communities, so already disadvantaged communities, and they're really lacking services and support.
And I, I just want to raise that I feel continuously concerned that I don't always hear how we're talking beyond just the downtown core, the center, center east side.
But also, again, I want to know what is your relationship with planning with the city, because that is drastically affecting East Portland businesses.
And I'm curious what that looks like and how you all could improve that relationship to help design better business corridors with the infrastructure bureaus, not you know, I feel like it's just feeling isolated.
Your work is isolated.
Okay, pause there.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Any thoughts?
Cornell Wesley
So thank you for that.
Um, let me first just acknowledge how accurate you are in your assessment around infrastructure as economic development.
When you invest in streets and sidewalks, those things unlock opportunity for businesses.
And so they are inextricably tied together, which is why Prosper Portland, and case in point, Broadway Corridor, is a cross-bureau mandate, right?
It's a cross-bureau-led project because, you know, water, sewer, proximity to these things matter when we're trying to unlock opportunity.
So that's point one.
Secondly, I am full-stop committed to East Portland.
I likely spend a ton of time out there, and I've spoken there recently probably an innumerable amount of times.
Around what we are going to be doing specifically for our East programs that we're designing, how we're contemplating entertainment zones and hopefully working with the city to see how we can not just be within the Central Business District, but out in our neighborhoods like East Portland that have strong small business communities and bars and all sorts of cool nightlife that they, they should be leveraging and seeing accelerated growth.
We also obviously have 6 new TIF districts.
East Portland is still within the Gateway TIF District.
It is a performing one that has resources currently.
We're, as you have worked with us currently, Councilor, around the Healthy Food Initiative, that's another element that's going to be sitting right in Gateway.
And so we're 1,000% invested in coming, and it is, let me be very clear that East Portland is a priority.
Now I'm going to turn to give you more detail around the bureau components around infrastructure.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, Councilor, so great questions related to PROSPER's engagement with the other bureaus.
So first, to not bury the lead, absolutely the bureaus work with PROSPER across many projects around the city, including in East Portland.
But I also want to give a shout out to the bureaus for the work they do with small business, whether it be PBOT when they're doing infrastructure projects.
They have an advanced team that's talking about impacts to businesses.
Of course, Prosper's Office of Small Business supports that, but the bureaus also take a responsibility in working with businesses.
So let's not lose sight of that because Prosper can't do it all.
Their Office of Small Business is small but mighty, but we're not— they're not resourced to cover all the city all the time.
But then let's talk about some specific examples where the bureaus and Prosper are coordinating on these bigger ideas.
82nd Avenue is the most extreme version of that, where you have a substantial infrastructure investment so we're not only concerned about displacement of businesses during those construction timelines, but also what does it look like afterwards?
And that's where PBOT and BPS and Prosper and Housing and the utilities are all at the table discussing those issues.
So there's clear examples all the time where the bureaus are connected.
To your original point though about seeing the bureaus more emphatically in the plan and how we discuss it, absolutely.
As I alluded to when we started, this isn't just Prosper's plan.
This is the city's plan.
And the cities do show up to our advisory committee meetings.
They do show for these key catalytic projects.
But we can be better about communicating those partnerships for sure.
Candace Avalos
Thank you for your answers.
Yeah, I think that's all well and good, and I definitely appreciate the I do see enthusiasm for East Portland, and I do see the efforts that are being made.
And of course, there's more that East Portland needs.
And I think that even just in basic communicating to East Portland businesses, you know, they're not as engaged with traditional methods that you are getting in touch with businesses.
And I just say that too as there have been some examples recently where I just feel like the city is not tapping important organizations, anchor organizations like Historic Parkrose or Midway Division, Midway Alliance, to help talk to the small businesses in East Portland.
So always more work to do on that, but just wanted to reflect back what I'm hearing directly from them.
And, you know, again, where are we continuing to increase our programming and resources for Um, some grants.
Um, I think that is just continuing to be an issue, and I know we've put a lot of effort there, but we have to find, find more.
Um, because these, uh, the owner of the Chinese restaurant was just like, she's like, we're just, we're struggling.
We literally can't, uh, make ends meet.
Um, and so yeah, I appreciate your comments.
Um, I think that's all for now, but, um, looking forward to seeing how we continue to build East Portland into how you're talking about everything.
I just want to see that elevated, and I have to obviously speak up for them.
Cornell Wesley
Councilor, can you please send us the contact name of the businesses you've interacted with, and I assure you we will follow up immediately?
Candace Avalos
Sounds good, we can do that.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Uh, colleagues, I put myself in the queue.
I've got a couple of things.
The first is a question specifically related to the, um, the steps for the Advanced Portland Plan.
You had a slide where you looked at kind of the, the now and next under the recovery projects and initiatives, the one right before this.
And there's a whole lot of 3s here, and 3s are really important because 3s are how we make sure— objective 3 was a vibrant city center and neighborhood commercial districts.
So making sure that that investment is really focused in our, um, our regional centers, our neighborhood centers, as well as our city center, that helps us make sure that we are growing in a way that is intentional, that is tangible, that supports the whole city.
Those 3s are critical, and I don't want to downplay how critical they are.
They are what make Portland such a special place.
But if we don't have 1s and 2s and 4s, if we don't have investment in our economic development strategy, in equitable wealth creation, in connecting Portlanders to high-wage jobs, those 2s and 4s, then what we're doing in our 3s is creating fantastic places where people don't actually earn enough to be able to afford to live in our So where is the emphasis as we move forward over the next 2 years, the back end of Advance Portland, on the 2s and 4s, on the things that help individuals create wealth for themselves and for our community, so that the investments we're making in those 3s, in those regional centers, um, can grow organically, right?
We need to make sure those investments are getting businesses to the right places and getting the businesses we need to those places, but they aren't going to survive if we don't have folks with enough money in their wallet to spend there.
What's happening with the 2s and 4s?
Cornell Wesley
Yeah, that's a, a great call out.
So first thing is, as the— this tweak was to acknowledge the recovery elements that we're in, and understanding the conditions that were not contemplated when Advance Portland was originally created.
And so this update, I would characterize as more attuned to trying to move the needle given the limited sort of conditions we are operating in.
But you're spot on.
Like, as we begin to think about the second iteration of Advance Portland, which is where I think the greatest opportunity to work closer with this council body will be found, is focusing more on the 2s and 4s.
But we have to get out of recovery now.
Now, I— as I look at the 1s and 2s, I think some of it is likely 1 and 2 or 1 and 4, and not just a single number.
For example, business retention or recruitment task force.
Like, that's our early warning system.
That outreach lets us get ahead of a company's decision to leave, right?
Retention of existing businesses is important.
Long before we go fishing in a pond, This is the blocking and tackling work, proactive outreach to make sure they remain here.
And so those are certain things that are just not singular in their nature, that I think they share different objectives.
But I want to honor what you've called out because you're spot on.
But we also have to honor the moment we're in as we think about where we're going.
And I think, again, what I would leave you with is the second iteration or Advance Portland or whatever that new name will become.
Yeah.
It's the greatest opportunity for Prosper and many bureaus to work with this body collectively around what that new economic development strategy would be.
And I can tell you Prosper Portland is committed to doing that.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
And I want to, I guess, make a comment, not ask a question, but make a comment about that next strategy, looking beyond the last 2 years of Advance to what we develop next.
And what we have in Advance Portland with those 4 strategies is absolutely critical.
It is the work that we should be doing, and you can also fit almost anything worth doing in those 4 categories.
Mhm.
Um, one of my colleagues said earlier, where's our focus?
Mhm.
And sometimes you don't want to be too narrowly focused.
You want to make sure that you are helping everybody out, lifting our entire city.
Um, but I think we need A little bit of narrowing, a little bit of focus.
And I want to suggest that as we move forward, we look at a bottom line that is what drives the micro pieces of our economy, an individual family's wealth, the culture of our city, those pieces that make us who we are, our small businesses, our entrepreneurs, The folks who are trying to create something.
And what drives our macroeconomy?
What drives our community wealth?
What drives high wages?
What drives those— I forget what you called them, but those employers who are employing—.
Dan Ryan
Job absorbers.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
There you go.
The high number of people.
And what are we doing for those 2 groups?
And I would suggest that unless we are— unless yes.
Unless somebody we are working with is driving the culture of our community, individual wealth building, those things that that entrepreneurial work, that micro work does to help a family turn around their economic future and to help put us on the map for who we are, or unless we are working with a company that's paying— you said we state what a livable wage is— that's paying a true living wage.
And by that, what I mean, I'm just one counselor, but what I mean when I say a living wage is what does it cost to raise a family in our city without government support?
What does that cost?
What is that wage?
And if a company doesn't fall into the first category and their average wage, not anywhere but in our city, with whatever jobs they're talking about creating in our city, not for people they're bringing in with them, not for execs they're moving here, But for folks who are already living in our city and looking for their next opportunity, that average wage needs to be enough for somebody to raise a family in our city without assistance.
And I want to be clear, not because there's anything wrong with receiving assistance.
We have that for a reason, because we need everybody in our city to be getting the equivalent of a living wage.
But if we are helping a company to grow or locate here, if we are putting money into that, we need them to be putting money into us through those wages.
So unless somebody falls into one of those 2 categories, I don't know what we're doing using our public dollars to support them.
I don't.
They have every right to be here.
Mm-hmm.
We need a lot of those companies in our community.
There are plenty of businesses that can't pay a living wage that are critical to our community and our economy.
But what are we using our public dollars for?
And I just want to suggest that we narrow in on those 2 categories that help to grow our economy and make sure everyone knows who we are, and that in doing so help a family with wealth building through entrepreneurship or getting that living wage through a paycheck.
So I just put that out there as we think about the future stuff.
Thank you.
Councilor Morillo, go right ahead.
Thank you, Chair.
Angelita Morillo
Um, thank you so much for this presentation.
It's good to hear from you guys in this committee.
Um, I was just thinking about something I've heard in a few of the different, uh, business groups in District 3 that I didn't see reflected here.
Um, I think it was Kernside, uh, the one that I visited, but there were a few others that whenever I talk to small businesses and storefronts in District 3, at least, they usually talk about the cost of rent for being a business owner and how much that impacts them being able to operate.
And I don't see that addressed here.
So I'm curious about that.
And I also see that a lot of the things that we have represented here for wealth building, which is important, is homeownership and, you know, loans and revolving loans for homeownership.
But as one of 3 renters on council, The city is 50% renters, or about that.
And renters, I can confirm, shop a lot.
And so what are we doing to support both businesses as renters trying to occupy space when it's very expensive, and also to help renters in the city as part of this economic plan?
Cornell Wesley
So to your first question, I think that's where this council has really shined bright in your support of the storefront program that has been since oversubscribed.
It is evidence that there's demand there and that we need to actually innovate and think even more broadly around the use of it if we're going to continue to fund that particular case, case study, as I would characterize it.
So we're already— and I can tell you my team has already walked Central Business District and other corridors in partnership with Eco Northwest, looking at where the vacancies are and what new iteration would be.
And you're spot on around right-sizing the, the, the, the cost to actual lease.
I think it's more than just the lease.
I think it's visibility as well.
I think facade and signage is important.
Councilor Avalos called out infrastructure and urban design.
I think where a restaurant sits is important.
And so we have to be more targeted, and we have to educate our, our community that maybe this site isn't the best one based upon the widget you're selling.
Here are you and the traffic count, etc., other data components that we've already called out that really inform why you want to be in that location.
And then we come behind that with additional— whether that's tenant improvements, whether that's prepaid lease, whether that's facade improvements, those are the elements that give staying power for a business to move in and remain in our, in our, in our Central Business District or insert corridor here.
So that's point one.
As it relates to the renters, um, that's kind of not where Prosper plays.
We play a partner with PHB, uh, in terms of where cost to live reside.
As you will know that, you know, again, pointing back to Broadway Corridor, our role is more in the mix component as opposed to the affordability, but you have to have them all.
And whatever role Prosper can play in partnership with other bureaus like PHB, we're ready to do that.
Angelita Morillo
Okay, thank you.
Yeah, I think I worked in the office when we were doing the upgrades to division and everything, and there was pretty extensive outreach done to those businesses there.
And there are, unfortunately, I think I think hard choices sometimes to make between infrastructure that keeps people from dying and the preferences of whoever is operating in that corridor.
And I think for the most part, I'm gonna choose people not dying, to be frank with you.
It was a really— I think it was— there is political capital that you expend as an elected official to make some of those tough choices, and I think sometimes you have to do that.
I don't feel like I fully got an answer on the renter aspect of the small businesses, So that's something I'd like to hear more later, because they just talk about how year after year they're— I mean, exactly like a tenant for housing, their rent increases year after year, and they are struggling to afford that.
And of course, many of the small businesses also talked about the houseless folks that are around their businesses, sometimes setting up camp.
But at least in District 3, the way it was talked about was a little bit different.
It wasn't just—.
Yeah.
It was an ask for, we would like— we don't want these people to just move out and not have anywhere to go, but we don't have any resources.
Like, when we call, we just know they're going to get aggressively swept.
And that's not really— that wasn't the aim of any of those businesses, right?
They actually wanted those houseless folks to have somewhere to go.
And I think that that's not— that nuance isn't talked about a lot.
Unidentified speaker
It's a really important It's piece of the puzzle.
Thank you.
Angelita Morillo
Very either or.
And the storefront support program, I think I would like more details on that as well of what is actually materially being done.
I know that in essence, you know, from reading the report and some of these things, it's money for repairs for things like broken windows.
It's sweeps, frankly, and it's sometimes lighting improvements.
Yeah.
And I love fairy lights, so I'm all here for that part of the program.
But I think the actual details of what the support looks like, I think I would like to have that more fleshed out as well.
Cornell Wesley
So yes, we'll send you information, but I think we may be talking about 2 different programs.
There's storefront support that responds to those sorts of needs.
And then the new iteration that this council just supported is around recruitment efforts for grocery store retail, as well as restaurant.
We've seen that program has been oversubscribed.
We'll send you information on both, any data you need.
Angelita Morillo
Okay, so you're talking about the one that's more of the marketing campaign versus the PMO-run one?
Cornell Wesley
More of the recruitment angle to generate interest back in our storefronts or storefront vacancy program.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Gotcha.
Unidentified speaker
Okay.
Cornell Wesley
That's how he's branded it.
Unidentified speaker
Yeah, Councilor, those— the one, the activation program is actually dollars to the business to get their business up and running.
So it's real dollars.
Angelita Morillo
Gotcha.
Okay, thanks.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Ryan?
Dan Ryan
Yeah, great dialogue.
You know, I just keep hearing from job creators, those who offer high-paying, livable jobs, that Portland isn't competitive due to unmatched regulation, Now, this has been going on a long time, but they used to forgive us based on your earlier points because our livability was just so darn beautiful and special.
So in fact, we all know that that list is becoming long of those who have left the city over the last 10 years because we reached, we reached a tipping point, if you will, of taxes and regulations and the cost of living.
Yeah.
They combined with the livability challenges, making it just too darn frustrating to make, um, make a profit and offer those high wages.
And, um, their employees being increasingly frustrated with not having some of those Portland, um, livability, uh, desires not being what they used to be.
So I just think it's important to name that because it's a reality.
And you're our economic bridge builder.
So as you're trying to bring in and sustain and build in this city with the private sector and with the government, you're that liaison.
It's how I think it was built.
Who is your audience?
Cornell Wesley
So that's a, that's an interesting question.
We have multiple audiences.
Our foundational responsibility is to our citizens first and foremost.
Portlanders is, is our foundational audience.
But back to our, a point, or our earlier point that was called out, is that, you know, and pardon my urban vernacular, but you have to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.
And what I mean by that is that we have to be concerned about our small business, case one is retaining what we have before we even discuss recruitment.
We need to stop the hemorrhaging.
We need to be more specific in where those resources are deployed to make— to right-size what we have.
Because quite candidly, what we have becomes recruitment as well.
When a business comes into your community, they shop with other businesses, and they want to know how are you treated.
And so we have to convert them into allies, into referral sources for who we also want to recruit in our community.
And then to the second point, when we talk about the shock absorbers.
Now, you raised the tax question.
Prosper is a non-taxing jurisdiction authority, so I won't add too much there.
I think our role is what is the appetite for new tools or new incentives that can mitigate any of those sorts of concerns around the tax environment while the larger body, i.e., the state and/or taxing authorities, figure out what what's feasible and applicable for where we are headed.
And so in the interim time, PROSPER's role is to continue to think creatively about tools that can minimize the impact or perceived impact from those sorts of tax levers to unlock additional impact from a recruitment perspective.
Happy to work with this body, happy to work with the county on how we ideate around that, and more to come as those conversations continue.
Eric Zimmerman
Thank you.
Dan Ryan
Well, let's stay with this a little bit longer because you're experienced.
You've done this work in another major city in the South, Birmingham.
And where will the money come from to do this work?
It's not going to be government.
And so it needs to come from the private sector.
So where's the money going to come from to move some of these big rocks and these big well, you know, any major project has different colors of money—.
Cornell Wesley
Private, public— and I imagine that that would not be any different.
The challenge is, is we don't have a depth of private capital, or rather I would characterize there's a disconnect between what they're investing in and what we want them to.
And so that's an opportunity for the leaders like yourselves, as well as Prosper Portland, to have a deeper dialogue with our CEO community to be more in line with where their hearts are and where their resources can be found and look for opportunities to partner with them.
Dan Ryan
Okay, so you said something there that the CEO community is part of your audience and you are working with them.
Cornell Wesley
1,000%.
Dan Ryan
I mean, anything I just said, you've heard then multiple times from them, correct?
Cornell Wesley
I've heard several different things from our CEO community.
Dan Ryan
So I just still would like, I just, so what I heard from you is that the money based on your life experience, both in Birmingham, is it Birmingham, right?
Cornell Wesley
A myriad of different places, but more recent Birmingham, sir.
Dan Ryan
Okay.
And that usually came, and then when Portland developed with a lot of cranes, some could say that was good.
Some could say that was bad, but it was a lot better for our general fund.
That's for sure.
So we had a lot more revenue coming into the city and the county at that time.
And how—.
What are we going to do?
What changes can we make so that we start to be seen as competitive to those private sector investors that will provide the money to do the building that you want to do, that we all want to do?
Cornell Wesley
I would double down back on my original comment.
You start with what you have.
It is important that the CEO communities, the small business owners here, see that we see them, and then we convert them to allies and referral sources before we even begin the conversation around recruiting new.
We have to be closer aligned with the philanthropic community as well.
Yeah.
As we're ideating around different concepts that other states and cities use, what we are finding in our research is that they have different sizes of tools that aren't present here.
So that becomes aspirational.
That's where we want to grow, but that doesn't happen overnight.
Unidentified speaker
And Councilor, I'm going to also offer this.
You know, as much as Cornell or myself or you all, even as leaders of the city, have communications and conversations with our business community, the business community talks to themselves.
So when other businesses might be contemplating Portland as a new site or expanding here, whatever it may be, they're not calling us first.
They're calling other CEOs.
CEOs, they're calling other business leaders and getting a read on the system.
So it's how do we change not just like the, the fundamentals but also the narrative about Portland's willingness to partner and, and grow jobs.
Dan Ryan
Do you think those people feel welcomed into these conversations?
Cornell Wesley
You know, I think this administration has done a great job in bringing them closer.
And I think obviously we have more work to do to continue those conversations.
But things like what the governor has done with her roundtable and what the mayor has done with his roundtable, these are great first steps to bring our CEO, philanthropic, and insert other industry here closer to what we want to become as a community.
And so I commend the work that is already underway.
Dan Ryan
No, I appreciate the listening.
It's, it's, I think people want to see that after the listening, there's some awareness that they were listened to and there's some concrete action.
Can you leave me with one exciting story about a business that is growing and adding more family wage jobs in our local market?
Because you've said several times, and I appreciate it, that sustaining and retaining our businesses, which is why I got the Storefront Program into this, into the city's focus.
Yeah.
Can you give us a story about a business that's growing in the central area that you said is a priority at this time?
Cornell Wesley
Yes, I'm actually going to give you a— I'm going to bring someone up here who can give you an even better story than I can.
Andrew Fitzpatrick, our Director of Economic Development, who touches this work every day.
Andrew, if you would join me and give Councilor Ryan one of our amazing wins that we've been celebrating as of recently.
Dan Ryan
I hope it's not just for me.
I hope it's for those that you were talking about, those CEOs that invest so they could get excited about some good news.
Hi, Andrew.
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Hi, Councilor Ryan.
Thanks for the question.
Andrew Fitzpatrick, Director of Economic Development at Prosper Portland.
One of the recent expansions that was a company that was already here that we just celebrated with the mayor and others was a company called OpConnect.
They developed both hard tech and software for electric vehicle charging.
They're located in the Central East Side.
They work with a local property manager developer to actually acquire a significant amount of new industrial space that will allow them to grow about 40 to 50 quality jobs right here in the Central East Side of Portland in a— what we would call a green cities industry cluster company.
So we're really bullish about this whole network of battery, mass timber, uh, clean energy companies that we have a lot of human talent in here and can grow a lot more with more jobs by attracting investment into companies like that.
So it was a great celebration, and we hope that we can do 10, 20, 100 more of those types of companies that, that will grow in Portland.
Dan Ryan
That's in District 3 then?
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Yeah, it is in District 3, yep, Central Eastside.
Dan Ryan
Can you tell me about how many jobs they look to expand and what their living wage jobs are, average salaries?
Do you know that?
Andrew Fitzpatrick
The new space they took on will enable them to hire about 40 to 50 new people.
They're actually selling a lot of their products to California and other larger markets, which again is great for us because they'll bring in new talent and investment while they sell goods and services into other markets that are larger than even we can consume.
But they've also worked with PBOT and others locally because we have a great tool with our own government spending to stimulate demand for some of these companies with sustainability technology.
Dan Ryan
And you said they're good family-wage jobs as well?
Andrew Fitzpatrick
That's right.
Dan Ryan
Okay.
And you don't have figures on what that entails?
I thought the earlier questions were asking particularly about what actually you need to make when you live in Portland.
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Well, generally when we administer things like the Enterprise Zone program, we're looking for 150% of the county's median wage, which is about $84,000.
But a lot of the state level and other jurisdictions have differing definitions.
But that's typically what we're looking for.
Dan Ryan
150% Of the county's median wage.
Okay.
That's right.
Thank you for that concrete response.
I appreciate it.
And thank you for the dialogue.
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you, Councilor.
Councilor Avalos, final questions before we move to a break?
Candace Avalos
Yes, thank you.
I just wanted to follow up and echo with what Councilor Morillo was talking about as it yes.
I think that that translates to businesses wanting much more than just for houseless folks to not be in front of their business.
That is absolutely what I hear and what I heard yesterday.
But also when we were doing the Parkrose ESD town hall, that is what came up.
They wanted the ESD obviously for, you know, reasons, and also they were concerned that ESDs have had a reputation of harming houseless folks.
And so I wonder, are there ways that Prosper is helping business owners know what other tools are available to them, because I— what I heard is they want people to get help, they just don't know what to do.
They don't know like where to direct people or what is available.
And then also, can we do more partnerships with groups like Cultivate Initiatives, which was really successful in Parkrose because they not only beautified the area, they not only had workforce for the folks that are beautifying, but the people that they're hiring are formerly houseless folks and they're connecting them to resources.
So those are the kinds of partnerships I want to see more with business corridors.
What does that look like for you all?
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Thanks for the question, Councilor.
As you know, Historic Parkrose is one of our Neighborhood Prosperity Network districts, and so we're engaged heavily with Hector and their leadership.
We help to fund some of the services that they do for their own businesses because we believe it's a great model where you're taking volunteer leaders in these neighborhoods that know their neighbors best and empowering them to come up with creative solutions on things that are everyday needs that their own neighbors and their own community members are relying on them for.
So that's a great kind of model that we're continuing to try to expand with other types of business districts where we can build their capacity.
They can offer things like microloans, coaching, mentoring, other services, and we partner with them to build that capacity so that they can expand their impact throughout their own local areas.
Candace Avalos
And then the second part to that question is, are there ways that you are helping business owners navigate how to support or give resource to community members that are on the street?
Because I get asked that a lot.
They're like, I wish I knew where to direct or something that I could, you know, Is there a way that if you don't have that, you could create that for business owners?
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Apologies for missing that part.
Yeah, what we've tried to do with our Office of Small Business is allow them to have information when they go to meet people in person, or whoever people want to be engaged with, to help direct like sort of houseless individuals that they might be encountering to the Street Services Coordination Center or other services that the city has so that they can actually help people connect with those services.
To services and not just be moved to a new location.
So OSB has all that information, and they're really meant to be that conduit to help people get other types of services that are not just going to do something that the business owner may not want to see happen, but a solution that they can actually support as well.
Candace Avalos
Thank you.
I, I, when I do my door knocking, I walk around with your small business office lit.
I would recommend adding things like that on that okay.
Because I think that's something that needs to be readily available to folks to know who to contact and how, what kinds of partnerships the city has to help them, to help them help their community.
Because lastly, that's what I heard the most from the business owners is they were like, we want to be involved.
We want to help our community too as business owners.
And I want to see Prosper Portland create more opportunities for that.
Thanks.
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, thank you all for being here today.
Thank you for bringing the information forward and also for taking the time to hear what I think is going to be the first of many conversations about what our economic development work looks like, uh, after the next 2 years as we near the end of the advanced strategy work.
Uh, this update I think is really important for us with all of our colleagues asking about council's role in and I think it's also important to air some of the priorities that we have and the work that is happening publicly so that the couple of Portlanders who are watching our committee can see it and hopefully share that with others who are interested in the topic.
So thank you all for being here today.
Cornell Wesley
Thank you.
Andrew Fitzpatrick
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, we are going to take a 10-minute break.
We'll reconvene at 3:37 and move on to the next item on the agenda.
We will now move on to the next part of our meeting.
Unidentified speaker
Councilor Dan Ryan.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Councilors Avalos and Ryan, do we have either of you back?
Okay, we have Councilor Avalos.
Okay, I am waiting for folks in the room, so we are going to be just a minute more.
Councilor Councilor Ryan, did I—.
Oh.
Yeah, I'm here.
Candace Avalos
Perfect.
Dan Ryan
Thank you.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
And we now have Councilor Morillo in the room.
So I am going to call our meeting back to order.
And Wendy, could you please read the next item on our agenda?
Unidentified speaker
Yes, thank you.
Item number 3, document number 2026-361, discussion of city policy around privatizing publicly owned land.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Perfect, thank you.
And there we go.
So colleagues, there was a conversation in our, um, group of committee chairs who get together weekly to figure out what committees are taking on what topics about whether the items that come forward around disposing of, selling off, privatizing publicly owned land and other assets should come to a single committee or go to the committee that relates to the, the bureau whose land is a part of the item in question.
And there was a conversation about having those all come to one committee so that we could learn more about what the city's policy currently is provide some feedback about whether that is in line with the priorities of this council, and then take a more holistic approach at those items that may come to council from the administrative side.
So what we have today is a presentation on what happens now and an opportunity for us to ask some questions and start that dialogue around whether this council thinks that our current policies are, are the right ones or whether there need to be some tweaks.
And then we'll hear the first of a few land disposition items that will be coming to us over the next few months.
So I'd like to turn it over to some of the experts who work on this every day for our city to give us that presentation about what we do now and why and how we got here.
Thank you so much, all of you, for being here today with us.
Thank you.
Pauline Goble
Thank you, councilors.
My name is Pauline Goble, and I am on the real estate team of the Bureau of Fleet and Facilities.
And I'm joined here today by real estate staff from the Housing Bureau and from PBOT.
And as you stated, we're here to provide a presentation on the city real property disposition process, which is governed by Admin Rule 1302.
There we go.
Next slide.
So our agenda is to provide the background on Admin 13-02, a brief overview of the process, and then I'm going to turn it over to Dave, and he's going to describe some common drivers for real property dispositions at the city.
And then we'll wrap it up with some case studies by Dave and Tanya for recent or active sorry, there we go.
So for the background on Admin Rule 1302, so it was codified in 2015, and at that time the city had a very strong desire to have a centrally coordinated and consistent process that all the bureaus would follow, and that would also provide the public with transparency into the disposition process and allow them to provide input and comment.
So to that end, the policy also establishes a City Real Property Coordinator role, and that is to assist the bureaus with the process steps.
And that is the role that I currently serve in.
So next slide.
Oops, I keep pushing the wrong button.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Background.
All right, so the scope of Admin 13-02 requires the bureaus to place the property into a category, categories 1, 2, or 3.
And the purpose of that is then it'll guide the next steps of the policy.
So category 1 examples could be properties that are remnant properties or landlocked parcels or ones with deed restrictions.
And so those ones only go through the— are required to have the yes.
The internal notice period.
And that— the purpose of that is to allow the bureaus to have an opportunity to consider acquiring it, and then 2, to identify any city interests and conditions that need to be preserved before the property leaves the city's control.
Then for Cat 2 properties, those are ones that are in the Housing Bureau's portfolio, and those are for, of course, affordable housing projects.
And they are subject only to the internal review, internal notification process as well, but only for the purposes of allowing the city to again review the properties to identify any city interests or conditions that need to be preserved.
And then finally, we have Category 3 properties, which are— examples of those are anything else.
If it's not a Category 1 or a Category 2 property, then it's a Category 3 property.
And what is a Category 3 property?
And that includes the internal notification period so that a bureau can decide, you know, and investigate if it wants to acquire the property.
And then it can also review for city interests and can, you know, conditions that need to be preserved.
But it also includes the external notification period, which is the one that goes out to the public, a 60-day period that allows them, you know, to provide public comment and feedback.
And then, as noted on our slides, we have a new proposed category, and Dave's the expert on that.
So I'm going to turn it over to Dave McEldonney, which I'm sure you guys know from the Transportation Bureau.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thank you.
Eric Zimmerman
Welcome.
David McEldonney
Morning, councilors.
David McEldonney, Division Manager for Portland Bureau of Transportation's Real Property Services.
I was asked to discuss this one a little bit.
It's a proposed yes.
So this is the 4th category essentially.
And the genesis of this was really dealing with a lot of our transportation partners in TriMet and ODOT on their capital improvement projects where they needed to acquire land, be it something small like an ADA ramp that needed to be built and they needed a little segment of a park property or water bureau property or PBOT property to something more substantial, sidewalks or Or, you know, different infrastructure.
And we thought about this and said technically it's disposing of a piece of city property, even though it's a partial take.
And we don't want it to go through that, this full-blown process, because it's better served, you know, to go through the city administrator's authority table for delegations.
Thank you.
And I guess that's the short end of that, is we want to not delay our transportation partners' projects by putting them through a much longer, rigorous system when all of the benefits that would come out of this system are dealt with through the capital project.
And so this is for regional partners, state and federal partners who have the right of eminent domain over us.
So I'll turn it back to Pauline.
Unidentified speaker
Thanks, Dave.
Great.
Pauline Goble
Okay, so for the current process roles and responsibilities, the bureaus versus BFF, the bureaus have primary responsibility to follow the process and the policy, and they perform due diligence, obtain leadership approvals, keep the city real property coordinator informed.
They're the main point of contact for the property, any questions and requests, and they manage the ordinance process.
As far as the City Real Property Coordinator's tasks, they are of course tasked with assisting the bureaus with the policy, but also for maintaining consistency and transparency.
And so in coordination with the bureaus, the City Real Property Coordinator manages the internal and external notification process and also updates the webpage.
Next slide.
Oh, there we go.
All right, so primary property owning bureaus.
So, you know, the, the main— what we call the major land owning bureaus are of course Parks, PBOT, Water, and BES.
But there are other bureaus that own, have a portfolio on a smaller scale, and that would be BFF is one.
And our portfolio consists of downtown office buildings and then properties that serve a public safety function.
So for example, police stations.
And then BTS also has a small portfolio of properties, and that is for public safety function as well, related to critical radio communication sites.
And then fire, of course, has fire stations.
And then PHB's portfolio supports the city's affordable housing and development goals.
Dan Ryan
Next.
Councilor oops.
Pauline Goble
Then for my last slide, I think it is.
Yes.
So just a brief overview of the process.
So it begins with the internal review.
And so when a candidate, a property candidate is, you know, is identified by the bureau, they conduct an internal review and route it to a wide range of disciplines within their bureau.
And if after that review, to perform due diligence, and then after that review, if it's still clear that there are no operational or future needs for the property, then it goes to the— the Bureau takes it to the executive branch leadership for approval.
And with that approval, the notification is then provided to the City Real Property Coordinator so we can do box 2 here, which is initiate the policy.
And after that, depending on what the category of the property is, the notification process begins.
So categories 1 and 2 are going to have an internal review only, and then category 3 properties have an internal and external notification process.
And then after that, those functions are done, then they move to City Council for—.
Approval.
To be designated as surplus and for the authorization to make it for sale.
Now, 1 and 3 classifications move to City Council, but Housing Bureau properties, which we call Class 2 properties, are not subject to all of these requirements because PHB operates and has wider authority under state statute to acquire, maintain, and dispose of city or dispose of properties.
And so we have them as part of this process so that we can— so the city can take the opportunity to review these properties and obtain and retain any interests or easements or conditions that need to happen before it leaves the city, um, or the city's ownership.
So, and I think there.
All right, so now Dave's going to go ahead and briefly uh, talk about the common drivers.
David McEldonney
Thank you, Pauline.
Um, there are a variety of reasons why a bureau may decide that a property is excess to their needs and seek to have it declared a surplus property.
Some of these reasons include that the property and/or its improvements no longer serve the purpose for which it was acquired.
In the case of PHB, a sale would facilitate the development of affordable housing.
There are also times when the property was simply a remnant parcel following a capital improvement project additionally, the property may be considered an attractive nuisance that creates liability, risk, and considerable cleanup costs.
Pauline, if you advance to the next slide.
Thank you.
So we're going to start the case study there— here.
And as we move into the first case study, I want to provide you with an example of the last 2 drivers that I mentioned, which had to do with the attractive nuisance and the remnant parcels.
As a matter of fact, this particular site will appear before this committee in 2 weeks, I believe, as an agenda item.
So it's a little bit of a sneak peek for you.
The 2 PBOT parcels are located at the end of Henry Street adjacent to the east end of the Foster-Woodstock couplet in District 1.
The city had acquired multiple parcels in 1970 to construct the couplet.
And these 2 remnants sat outside on the south side of the newly created couplet, and they served no transportation use.
Next slide, please.
PBOT's property management staff, our property management team, identified these parcels as good candidates for the surplus process and that the disposition would return revenue to the Bureau.
It would greatly reduce the unnecessary cleanup costs It would return the land to the tax rolls, and it would provide land for infill development.
In reviewing the site with the manager of the impact reduction program, we learned that there had been more than 300 campsite complaints in the last year.
The city's contractor made 60 risk assessments that resulted in 24 camp removals, with total costs estimated to exceed $45,000.
Thank you.
Earlier, Pauline spoke about the internal and external bureau evaluations.
These parcels went through that same process, and it was determined that a narrow strip of land needed to be retained along the Woodstock frontage to accommodate the future widening of the sidewalk.
So that strip has now been converted into public right-of-way prior to a sale, if that were to occur.
Having received no interest from city bureaus or any of our partners, transportation partners, in that property, it was posted and public comments were received.
These comments were either supportive of having the property developed or were developers who were interested in acquiring the property to develop it.
And I'll turn it back to Pauline, or actually I'll turn it over to Tanya.
Tonya Wolfersberger
All right, next slide please.
Hello, good afternoon.
My name is Tonya Wolfersberger.
I am the manager of the Development and Construction Services team at Portland Housing Bureau, and I am here to talk about Menlo Park water tank property.
We are representing kind of the next part of the process responding, which I'll go over, and this is a little bit of a preview because it's the next item on your agenda that we're going to talk about, the actual disposition of this property.
Thank you.
The Benllo Park water tank property is out in Southeast Portland, I believe in District 3.
It's off of 127th, just south of East Burnside.
And as this— as you can see from this image here, it had a water tower tank on it at the time that Water declared it surplus.
Next slide.
I mean, to 2 10,000-square-foot parcels side by side that piqued PHB's interest when the Water Bureau identified that site and issued an internal notice.
We raised our hand and expressed interest in that site because it met a few priorities that PHB had already identified, which was looking for sites for housing in East Portland, locations that were potentially part of a future CHIF district and also looking for sites that were supportive of homeownership development.
We also recognized that this parcel was adjacent to parcels that were already owned by Habitat for Humanity.
So we saw an opportunity, and that is partly why we raised our hand and expressed interest.
So that was back in 2020.
PHB and Water then worked together to go through and assess the site, conduct an appraisal, do some environmental assessments.
Water agreed to demolish the water tower and do some environmental remediation that needed to be done for some aspects of the water tower, like lead and asbestos and other things that we wanted to take care of before we made it available for development.
So in 2024, Water was able to bring that disposition to the council to authorize the transfer from water to housing.
And now today we are here to seek your approval for the transfer of the site to Habitat, which I said again will be on our next item.
So this is a little bit of like, you know, we're responding to a Category 1 notice and now we are kind of pivoting towards Category 2.
Thank you.
I love it.
David McEldonney
Is that Category 3 notice?
Probably.
Tonya Wolfersberger
Or maybe a Category 3.
Pauline Goble
Yeah, we'll see.
Tonya Wolfersberger
We're part of the process.
As an example, I'll hand it back over.
Pauline Goble
Okay, that's our presentation.
So we are available for questions and engage in discussion.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Great, thank you all so much.
Colleagues, we have a little over 20 minutes If there are questions or comments about how this works, anything that folks are wanting to know.
I think what we're going to do is start with any technical questions, and then before we get into too much discussion, I know that the council president had some comments he wanted to add as well.
But while we have folks up here, were there any questions about current process and how it works?
Councilor Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Yeah, thank you, Chair.
I'll try to make sure this is framed like a technical question since I raised my hand.
Um, this legislation you said came in 2015 when we were in the old form of government, and that makes sense, um, why there were more challenges with turf.
Um, this should radically be reformed and adopted and looked at differently, so thank you for bringing this.
Because we now have what voters really wanted, which was a city administrator who is the head of operations for the entire enterprise.
And it would allow us to be more agile, like some of the stories you just provided out in District 1 that we'll talk about soon.
So my question is, has the new form of government given you the freedom to look at changing this code?
And in what ways has it inspired you to do that?
Pauline Goble
Well, we did conduct a review last year for— with the property managing— the property managers from the different bureaus, with the City Attorney's involvement, to update it to— for certain update for, you know, the new— the form, the change in government.
And there were some other things that were in there as well.
But it has not— it's sitting with our bureau director at the moment.
So it's a process that we went through, but that was a year ago.
And so it has not changed yet.
There was— I don't think there was any substantial changes to it.
Dave was involved.
We were all— all the property managers for the major landowning bureaus and such were involved.
Thank you.
David McEldonney
Yeah, I'll just tag on to that, uh, Councilor Ryan.
Um, I think largely it was to— the changes were made to, you know, recognize the change in government and, and more the administrative changes.
Um, and then to answer your question about whether or not, um, the new form of government or the administrative, you know, has made any, any changes or No, I mean, I think substantially it's the same process today, um, other than having to go before committees like any other ordinance.
I think it's substantially the same process as before.
Uh, what I will add is, yes, this, this came online in 2015.
There was no city process before, as far as I know, in the history of the city.
Uh, we, we formed the Portland Property Managers Committee.
Angelita Morillo
There's probably 10 or 15 property managers on that committee.
Unidentified speaker
And they're all elected?
David McEldonney
2 Or 3 of us left from that, that original committee.
We came about with this, and I can't remember if it was a recommendation from the auditor's office or not, but it was our first attempt at getting this, um, some sort of process in place.
It's worked pretty well.
It can use improvement like anything else.
Dan Ryan
You don't always get it right on the first try, so we're definitely welcoming of yeah, I think my idea will be that I'm expecting it to not, not experience it like it's just a light update from 2015, but that we do a little bit more radical common sense reform on this with the new form of government, and that the DCAs overseeing the bureaus bringing this will show us that.
And I'll be looking for that as you create this legislation.
Thank you.
You know, a lot of times in the new form of government, the elected officials, we're supposed to be spending more time out in our districts and listening and getting to know what the issues are on the ground.
That's what, of course, I think all of us enjoy the most, and then trying to articulate them into legislation.
So this item of water towers is an easy one to go explore across the city.
And I was curious to learn more about the process based on one example in my district, District 2.
I'm sure you know Hayden Island is on— is District 2, and we have a privately owned water tower that was sold to a private owner from the city.
It now sits fully intact and attracts a lot of crime to that area.
It's been really hard to lease some of the spaces surrounding there.
The small businesses that I started talking to almost 2 years ago kept saying that that was an issue, and it's only become more challenging.
Thank you.
It now sits fully intact with, and it, as I said, attracts crime in the area.
But from that type of situation, how do we vet the sale and the planned use for the former city property in a way that adds value to the community rather than causing a nuisance?
Pauline Goble
So which this, this water tower is, um—.
Dan Ryan
It's on Hayden Island and, um, people are—.
Pauline Goble
So it's been in the— it's been in the last 10 years, is that right?
Dan Ryan
Absolutely.
And it just sits there.
Yeah.
And causing so much blight and it's making it challenging for the storefront community to have faith in renewing their leases and attracting new storefronts to that area.
Pauline Goble
Well, um, when the cities, um, generally when they put a property through the category It puts it out on the open market for the highest and most qualified seller— buyer.
So there's no— there would generally be no deed restrictions unless they were determined they would need to be included with the sale of a property.
I mean, they're generally free and clear.
Candace Avalos
All right.
David McEldonney
Maybe I could ask for a little more clarity, Councilor Ryan.
Did you say this was a property that was Um, from what I know, it sits fully intact.
Dan Ryan
Um, it's— we sold it to a private owner from the city when we released the, the water tower.
Um, and now it's a situation where how do we vet the sale and the planned use for that former city property in a way that will add value to the community?
So what role can the city play when it sits there and it's vacant and it continues to attract an undesirable environment to have businesses want to engage in that area.
So my point is this has a lot of nuance to it, what you're bringing to us.
Yeah.
And so it's always, what are we doing with the current problems we have and how will this legislation update, look at those properties that the city might have owned at one time, put out to the private market, now they're gone.
And I'd say most of the residents are— want the city to take responsibility for how long this has been lingering.
David McEldonney
Okay, thank you.
I'll go ahead and take that one.
Um, I'm following you now on this one.
Currently, the process is when it goes out in a Category 3 on the open market, it gets sold and whatever the buyer does with it, the buyer does with it.
What you're suggesting is something that can be incorporated in, you know, do we need to take a look?
Does this property have an attractive nuisance like an old water tower on it that, you know, won't serve anybody in the long run?
Do we need to take a look at whether or not that needs to be removed?
Yes.
There's considerable costs to that.
And I think in the past it's been an easier issue to sell it and let the new buyer deal with it.
So that doesn't mean that's not something that we can't look at.
And, you know, does it— do we need to look at what the intended use of it is?
Do we need to do an RFP of some sort?
These are all things we can entertain.
Thank you.
They may affect the price, but maybe you'll end up with a better outcome.
So we're happy to entertain that and have that in our discussions.
Dan Ryan
Okay.
And there's definitely— when I did a ride-along with permitting, they did show me a few properties, and that was one that has just been sitting and receiving so many community and so, um, I just wanted to make sure I brought that to your attention.
And it also allows us to see, as you're building this legislation, how these stories can make up hopefully some more adaptive solutions to how our city administrators can react to these challenges on the ground.
So I'll be looking at how this legislation impacts some of those stories that I'm gathering in my own district.
Thank you.
And I appreciate you taking some time to understand this is one of those problems out there that needs a solution.
Candace Avalos
Thanks.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Thanks, Councilor.
Colleagues, any other technical questions about what we heard before I let the council president offer some of his thoughts on where we might head with this?
Okay.
We may have more questions as we get into some discussion.
But I'm going to have the council president come up and join you all for just a minute.
Council president, welcome.
We're glad to have you here today.
Unidentified speaker
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Hi, team.
Candace Avalos
Well, thanks.
Unidentified speaker
I'll be pretty brief.
But, you know, there's 2 expressions that come to mind immediately.
First is buy land, it's the only thing they're not making anymore.
And the second is one that I learned back in 2014 when I bought my first house, which was you never sell Portland real estate because the land's going to keep going up.
I hope that we're gonna get back to those days.
But, you know, over a year ago, Councilor Pirtle-Guiney and I had a conversation about pocket parks.
Is there an opportunity for the city to invest in a strategy where maybe a 3-parking-space-sized piece of land could never be housing?
It could never be a useful thing, but maybe it could be an asset to the neighborhood.
I'm currently in some conversations with the Oregon Department of Transportation, and they have a 100-year vision of what they think the transportation needs might be.
And it means that there are large swaths of land in our city that are sitting vacant because of what we may need someday.
And I understand that impulse to hold onto that land.
I also understand the impulse to get rid of it when it's a problem or no longer useful.
When Councilor Avalos, Green, and I traveled to Vienna to study social housing, we had an opportunity to speak with the head of their national parliament, who's in charge, the head of the— a member of the National Parliament who is the head of their social housing.
And what she told me to do, recognizing that we were 100 years behind Vienna, was we have some, you know, we need to clean up our own house, set up our own rules, and land bank, land bank, land bank.
Her exact words.
And our friends at Metro are in the process of setting up a land bank, a region-wide land bank to focus on higher and greater uses for publicly owned land.
I absolutely heard what you all were saying about attractive nuisances.
Some of these properties have been sitting vacant in my district for a very long time with no plan, and they become attractive nuisances.
I absolutely see that, but I'm not totally clear from a policy perspective how, if a publicly owned piece of land becomes a nuisance, how private parties necessarily can make sure that it also isn't going to be a nuisance.
I think that activation and higher use is always a better use for vacant land, but not to dispose of it.
That the city should not be getting rid of the land that we have.
We can make an attractive nuisance better, but I'm not sure that a private attractive nuisance is any better than a publicly owned attractive nuisance.
I think we do need a land bank policy for the city, and we need one for the region.
We are regional players, and from my side of town, people don't care what side of 164th you live on.
You need affordable housing.
Whether it's the City of Portland or Gresham.
The example that you gave about the Woodstock couplet, I used to live right over there.
Absolutely, it is a, a, in many ways, an eyesore to what's happened in the community and a place that obviously requires additional attention.
But if that land is developable, why couldn't the city continue to own the dirt and contribute towards that development capital stack as that contribution?
Why couldn't we continue to own that to get yeah.
Whatever the ultimate development might be to be more affordable.
And, you know, further, East Portland, my section of town, is physically different.
It is a different built environment than the rest of the city.
And our— but my neighbors still need access to parks.
We still need affordable housing.
We still need active spaces where people can congregate, people can meet.
I cannot tell you how well received Mill Park and Park Lane Park have been in in the most— in the recent weeks.
But even yesterday, I was speaking with our head of PMO, the Portland Emergency Management Office, and she was saying, I don't know where people hang out in East Portland.
And we're going to have to be creative.
It doesn't mean that people in East Portland don't get to have places to congregate or activate.
It means that we are going to have to find unique solutions for common problems.
And I think that that begins if we actually have the dirt to be able to do something with.
I completely agree with Councilor I think we need to have a big rethink on this process.
Our team has been doing an amazing job for the last 11 years with the tools that the previous city council gave them in order to work with the form of government that really didn't work and the inability for, in my opinion, cross-bureau collaboration to try and find creative solutions to common problems.
This is the first chance as a city where we could have a new citywide cross-bureau policy to talk about what we do with publicly owned land.
I think we just need to have more flexibility, and I think that selling land needs to be the last thing we do, because once it's gone, it is gone.
Um, colleagues, those are my— just my initial thoughts on this.
I really would like to work on this policy next year and would be looking forward to working with all of you on trying to find ways to strengthen this to get better outcomes, because we are fundamentally a different, materially different city today in 2027 than we were when thank you, Council President.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
We appreciate your thoughts on this and being part of the conversation.
Colleagues, is there anybody else who wants to join the queue with either broader questions or thoughts on our property disposition policy?
Councilor Morillo.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
I was curious, and I think this is now hearing the presentation, I think is very separate, But this was partially talking about privatization.
So is this the same policy that we moved the tennis center from District 3 into private hands, or is that a different policy?
Pauline Goble
Move the what?
Unidentified speaker
I'm sorry.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So the tennis center is still publicly owned.
Parks still owns and holds the property, but we have contracted the gotcha.
Angelita Morillo
Okay, so this is entirely removing it?
Correct.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, I understand.
Angelita Morillo
Thank you.
Dan Ryan
Yep.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, um, colleagues, unsurprisingly, I'm going to echo a lot of what Council President said, and I, I agree wholeheartedly with Councilor Ryan that we need to be thinking about our property use.
And what we did 11 years ago was critical to make sure we had a citywide process here, that we didn't have siloed work happening in different bureaus.
And I think the next step to that is saying, okay, we're thinking citywide about what properties we need and for what purposes, and we're thinking longer term than we have previously.
And I think that's the connecting piece between what I heard from Councilor Ryan and what I heard from Councilor Zimmerman.
Thank you.
Council President Dunphy, we look now citywide at what we need, but are we looking at what we might need 20, 30 years from now?
Because it's not going to get easier for the city to come by property over the next 20 or 30 years.
I suspect that 20 to 30 years from now, we will be a denser city.
I expect that as we become denser, we will need those pocket parks, smaller open space.
Thank you.
I suspect that as we become a denser city, we will need to talk about more community centers.
I suspect that as we become a denser city, there will continue to be a push for publicly owned housing to look different, whether it's the traditional social housing model or something else, and that we will need to be land banking and perhaps holding on to or partnering with a nonprofit to hold on to the property to keep housing affordable.
And we will not have an opportunity to do any of those things if we've disposed of every piece of property that we're not currently using.
So as I look at the, the common drivers for real property disposition, some of those make a lot of sense to me.
There are times where the Housing Bureau obtains property with the intention to sell it to a developer of affordable housing.
Right.
That makes sense to me.
There are places where I think we need to be talking about public ownership there, but where we are working with a private nonprofit, that makes a lot of sense.
There are places where we need to be constructing a public improvement or amenity with a partner outside of the city, such as the work that PBOT does with ODOT and others.
That makes a lot of sense to me.
I know we're working on a property exchange that we've been doing over a long period of time between PBOT and ODOT in South Portland.
And we just need to make that— the infrastructure there work, right?
It doesn't really matter which public entity is owning it at the end of the day.
But the 3 things on the left side of the common drivers, that something no longer serves the purpose for which it was acquired, that it's currently an attractive nuisance, that improvements are no longer feasible to maintain, that to me sounds like a short-term view.
And I hope that whether through conversations that Council President Dunphy is hoping to hold or through conversations we have in this committee as more of these properties come to us, or just the conversations that you and your colleagues have within the administration, we take a really hard look when those 3 drivers are the reasons we're looking at disposing of property about whether we are selling off an asset we will never get back that we could have a use for 20, 30 years from now because we have a short-term lack of resources or lack of vision for the need at the expense of what our city might need down the road.
And I say that not because I think there has been any problem with the operation of the policy as it's developed, but because I think the policy we're operating under was developed to address immediate needs and to address, frankly, immediate revenue opportunities, which is a, a very important variable as well.
But at this point in our city's growth and progression, I worry about running out of opportunity as we privatize land to provide the public assets and resources that our community members will need.
As our city grows and changes.
And I think we need to take that into account in this policy as well.
Colleagues, anything else anyone would like to add?
Or should we move into our— what was a case study and is our next agenda item?
Okay.
Seeing no one else in the queue, thank you all for being here, for presenting this, and for hearing feedback from a few of us about Wendy, can you please call the last item on our agenda?
Thank you.
Unidentified speaker
Item number 4, document number 2026-344, authorize conveyance of city-owned real property, formerly Menlo Park Water Tower site, to Habitat for Humanity Portland Metro East, doing business as Habitat for Humanity Portland Region.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Great, thank you.
And I think we are Um, I think we're keeping Tanya up here with us and gaining a few other folks from the Housing Bureau.
Queesha Light
We thought about just letting her be up here, and she'd already done such a great job of talking.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Welcome, Director Light.
Are you kicking us off today?
Queesha Light
Yes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, go right ahead.
Queesha Light
All right, well, good afternoon, Chair and members of the City Life Committee.
I'm Queesha Light, an interim director of the Portland Housing Bureau, and of course, joining me is Tanya Wolfersberger, and she is our Development and Construction Services Manager, and Kate Piper, our Capital Projects Manager.
And as you know, today, um, we are seeking your support to transfer the Menlo property to Habitat for Humanity Portland Region to help create 22 affordable homeownership opportunities in East Portland.
Um, the project represents something important, and that is using the public assets we already have to create greater opportunities for Portland families.
It's a good example of responsible stewardship, strategic partnerships, and our commitment to expanding access to affordable housing.
Next slide.
So the ordinance before you would authorize the transfer of city-owned property to Habitat for the development of Hazelwood Square.
Habitat already owns the adjacent property, and by combining the sites, we can help double the number of affordable homes that can be developed from 11 to 22.
And so that's 11 additional families with the opportunity to achieve homeownership, build stability, and begin creating generational wealth.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Tanya and Kate to walk through the property's history, the development plans and the authorization we're requesting.
Tonya Wolfersberger
Thank you.
Next slide.
Here, I'll do this.
Hi again, Tanya Wolferberger, she/her pronouns.
I am the manager of the Development Construction Services team at the Portland Housing Bureau.
So as I kind of foreshadowed earlier, in 2020, the Housing Bureau responded to an internal notice from the Water Bureau that they had a surplus a site available, um, and, uh, known as the Menlo Park Water Tank property.
Um, Habitat, um, we recognize that Habitat owned the parcels to the south of this site.
And so, um, because meeting some priorities that we had identified within the bureau, as I stated earlier, for, um, develop— you know, prioritizing locations in East Portland and, uh, potential future TIF districts and for homeownership development we raised our hands and expressed interest to the Water Bureau that we would be interested in acquiring these 2 parcels that made up the Menlo Park water tank.
So we have been working with— we worked with water to negotiate the acquisition and disposition from them and transfer that site over to the Housing Bureau's ownership.
That came to council in 2024.
That transferred that to PHB.
And we are now looking to go through a disposition process of the site to Habitat to allow for the Hazelwood Square development.
Next slide.
So here's a rough site plan that kind of gives you an idea of— you can see in the blue dotted line is the site that the Housing Bureau currently owns, is the Menlo Park Park tank.
And, um, and then the adjacent Habitat site.
This is a site, a proposed site plan for Hazelwood Square, which you can see it kind of allows us, that allows Habitat to double the amount of homes that are available for that specific location.
So again, rough site plan.
There's a long way to go before this becomes reality, but it is conceived to have off-street parking, Shared outdoor common areas.
It's a town— homeownership townhome development, so a mix of 2, 3, and 4-bedroom homes.
It is in a great location.
It's within walking distance of several community amenities like schools, parks, transit, other services that are nearby.
Next slide.
So this is a very short and sweet presentation.
This is our request is to approve the transfer of city-owned property to Habitat, to authorize— and authorize the execution of a disposition and development agreement and any other documents that may be required to convey the property to Habitat so they can continue and pursue a large development of homeownership opportunities for this location.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Great, thank you all.
Wendy, do we have anybody signed up for public testimony?
Unidentified speaker
No, we do not.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, colleagues, any questions for our presenters or comments on this item?
Nothing.
I will just say that this is the type of project where, to me, it does make sense to do a property disposition.
Um, I appreciate the work you all have done with Habitat to expand the space.
It's very clear from the slide that you put up that their proposed development really is dependent on having this extra parcel to have the amount of open space that will allow for the type of, of living that they're hoping to create here.
So thank you for working on this one.
Councilor Ryan, go right ahead.
Dan Ryan
Yeah, I just want to say I'm 100% supportive of this.
Each situation is different, but I was a commissioner overseeing the Housing Bureau and also homeless services dotted line to the county.
And we did that along Peninsula Crossing, and it allowed us to clean up, let's just say, a nuisance in terms of for 13 years, people in St. Johns couldn't use the bike path between Willamette Park down to Columbia Park and having both the Safewest Village doing the infrastructure for Habitat Humanity allowed us to really repurpose that space.
And I just rode my bike along there a couple weeks ago and it's looking really good.
And I think the more that we can turn over such city properties to housing and having multiple bureaus come together to do the infrastructure work, is exactly the type of nimble and focused work we should be doing at this time.
So this does feel a little bit like that.
So I'm excited that you're bringing this forward.
Thanks.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Colleagues, any other feedback?
Okay, I would entertain a motion to move this to council with a do pass recommendation if folks are interested.
Unidentified speaker
So moved.
Dan Ryan
Do pass.
I move that we send this along.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Okay, I think we first heard a motion from Councilor Zimmerman, so Councilor Ryan, I'm going to take yours as a second, if that's all right.
Dan Ryan
That's great.
I'm in a delayed reaction up here.
Angelita Morillo
Perfect.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
So moved by Zimmerman, seconded by Ryan.
Wendy, could you please call the roll?
Unidentified speaker
Zimmerman.
Eric Zimmerman
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Avalos.
Candace Avalos
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Ryan.
Dan Ryan
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
Morillo.
Angelita Morillo
Aye.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Aye.
Unidentified speaker
The motion to refer is approved with 5 aye votes.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Perfect.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you, colleagues.
Our next meeting is on October 27th.
We're doing a little bit of agenda shuffling at that meeting because one of the items that was previously on our potential agenda had to be moved to a little bit later in the year, but we will hear about 2 more parcels of land that the Bureau of Transportation is interested in, um, uh, putting or in, in moving to the next step of the disposition process.
We will also have a conversation about the future of regulation in the cable and internet spaces and funding in those spaces.
Last spring, we learned about the, um, dwindling funds in our cable regulatory system, and this is a follow-up conversation about what comes next there.
So those 2 things are on the agenda, and we may be adding another item as well.
I know a few councilors have things in the works that, uh, may or may not be ready for the agenda by the time we need to set this one.
If there are no other questions or comments, I will adjourn today's meeting.
Thank you.
Thank you.