HAP Portsmouth Project May 2001 Evaluation 5/10/01

I am pleased to announce that the HAP Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project is headed in the right direction. After extensive and productive conversations with Denny West, HAP Executive Director, Ron Johnson, HAP Portsmouth Project Coordinator, Julie Livingston, HAP architect and William Hart, Principal of Carleton Hart Architecture who also represented Mahlum Architects, I was persuaded that all of the major players, both staff and contractors, of the Housing Authority of Portland supported the fundamental principles which are required to make this project a success for HAP and my neighborhood.

Of the twelve principles (listed below ***) only one remains in contention, the percentage of middle and high income houses that must be owner occupied. Make no mistake. There is currently serious disagreement on this important issue. However, I believe that HAP’s openness and commitment to success will eventually lead it to an understanding that home ownership is a critical component in the stability, quality of life and the quality of schools in neighborhoods like mine. I pledge to all of my neighbors that I will do everything within my power to ensure that every middle and high income house built as part of the HAP Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project will be owner occupied. The negative consequences of more than doubling the HAP population density must be offset with positive tangible compensatory efforts.

It was very reassuring to me that Denny West and Ron Johnson both understood the consequences this project will have on every person with a North Portland address. If this project is done so well that it becomes a national model then HAP gets a gold star and the quality of life and the image of North Portland as a good place to live is demonstrably enhanced. If it fails then HAP gets to wear an albatross around its neck and North Portland’s livability and image are diminished.

I agree with Denny West that the HAP Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project should proceed regardless of HUD Hope VI grant funding. Like the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant, Portland International Raceway, Metro’s Expo Center, the new Wapato Correctional Institution and other government institutions that make up our neighborhood in North Portland, the Housing Authority of Portland appears to understand that it too is just another neighbor that must incorporate this concept of belonging and being a good neighbor as part of its institutional consciousness.

Meeky Blizzard, Loretta Smith and Rebecca Thomas are the key project staff people from Blumenhauer, Wyden and Smith’s offices. They should now get together to devise a cohesive and concerted effort to persuade HUD to grant HAP the $35,000,000 kickoff funding for the $200,000,000 Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project.

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HAP Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project

Statement of Principles and Guideposts

1. A pipe shall be constructed to carry methane gas from the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant to the HAP property in the Portsmouth neighborhood.

Methane gas produced by the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant can provide a significant energy resource for heating air, water or generating electricity. The Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant uses 50% of the methane generated at the plant to make hot air, water and electricity for its own use. 20% of the methane is sold to Malarkey Roofing about half a mile down Columbia Blvd. The remaining 30% is available. Stephen Behrndt, Director of Wastewater Management for the City of Portland has expressed support for the idea.

2. A community utility structure(s) shall be constructed that will provide hot/cool air and hot water which can be distributed throughout the Portsmouth HAP property. All buildings shall be constructed or retrofitted to accommodate shared community utilities.

3. A piping system shall be constructed to carry recycled water from the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant which can be used on lawns, open spaces, trees, flowers etc.

4. The design of housing units must give a similar street level appearance so that passers by can not detect which units are low, medium or high income.

5. As much as is possible, adjacent housing units will alternate between low and medium or low and high income dwellings.

6. A maximum of 50% of the housing units may be low income. A minimum of 25% of the housing units must be medium income. A minimum of 15% of the housing units must be high income.(All income percentages and definitions can be discussed and defined more precisely at a latter date.)

7. All medium and high income units must be owner occupied.

8. All structures shall be designed to be as environmentally sound and “green” as current thinking and technology allow.

9. Every creative effort shall be made to assure that the HAP Portsmouth Neighborhood Enhancement Project shall be state of the art.

10. Underground fiber optic cables shall provide high capacity, T1/T3, Internet access to every structure on the HAP Portsmouth property.

Very high speed Internet access will be necessary to draw medium and high income buyers. Low income persons will also benefit.

11. Several fire arts (glass, ceramics, blacksmithing) and other artist studios shall be constructed. Rental priority shall be given to HAP Portsmouth residents.

These studios will enhance the overall quality of the HAP Portsmouth property and support the current neighborhood effort to locate and encourage North Portland artists.

12. A pedestrian bridge shall be built over Columbia Blvd. which would connect the HAP property to the hiking and bike trail on the Treatment Plant site which connects the Willamette and the Columbia rivers, Smith and Bybee lakes and the 40 mile loop. A shop, store, kiosk or interpretive center of some kind should be very close to the overpass on the HAP side that will attract the myriad of visitors that will be using the trail around the Treatment Plant when it is finished sometime in the Fall of 2001. “Connecting with nature” is a theme which will draw potential middle and upper income buyers.

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