SW Trails February 2014 Minutes

Monthly Meeting Minutes
February 25, 2014
The Watershed Building in Hillsdale
6388 SW Capitol Hwy
Portland OR 97239
DRAFT
Attendance: Don Baack, Barbara Bowers, Sharon Fekety, Lee Buhler, Chris Mays, Dianne Mays, Keith Wymer, Dave Manville, Glenn Bridger, Katurah Pennington, Barbara Stedman, Virginia Hendrickson, Doug Rogers, Marypat Hensel, Michael Kisor, Joan Hamilton, Tim Hamilton, Robert Burgee, Nancy Burgee.

Don read an email from Leah Treat, PBOT director thanking SW Trails for its work.

The meeting was called to order at 6:59 pm

After introductions the agenda was approved with the addition of a discussion from Sharon on an organization that wants to put a link on the SW Trails website.

Minutes: Glenn made a motion to approve the January 2014 minutes with spelling changes. Dave seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Walks:

Sharon said Dave lead the walk in March. Lee will lead in April Dave said we will walk on two new sidewalks. He said the walk is seven miles long but, if people want they can take the bus back to shorten it. Sharon said there were four people on last months hike in the snow.

Membership:

Barbara said four people renewed.

Barbara said her daughter in law suggested Geo-caching to bring in younger people. Glenn said he knows someone who knows how to it and it will appeal to younger people. Barbara S. said she did in in Pendlton park. Dave said he did it but did not think it would fit our mission statement as well. He suggested posting links to the ones that are near SW Trails. He said he worries about it as they need to hide them off the trail and that may cause damage. Katureh suggested we connect with them to explain our situation and see if anything they could do to fit what we do.

Hayhurst Safe-Route to School:

Barbara S. said they have been looking into ways to increase safety on routes to Hayhurst School. She said 50^th is paved and it could be striped to create an extended shoulder. She said it would remove some parking but create a much safer walking space. Glenn said it would be good to have something written and Barbara handed something she was working on. Glenn said that should go to the neighborhood first. Doug said the principle at Hayhurst is very involved with Safe-Routes-To-Schools. He suggested ways we could approach the Neighborhood Association. He said it was important to have the Neighborhood Association, School and SW Trails work together on this project. Doug said there is a lot of the city that does not have sidewalks as well. Barbara S. pointed out the extended sidewalk project at Maplewood School has worked well. Marypat said Arnold Creek has the same situation on Stevenson and is a bad situation. Barbara motion made a motion that SW Trails supports concept of extended shoulder 50^th Vermont to Iowa. Lee seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously. DB note, Barbara could you draft a letter of support please, address to neighborhood and school principal and PTA.

Don said the Bureau of Environmental Services will be doing some work on SW Stevenson and he would like them to do the same thing there as was done on Maplewood Road. Don said we were happy to help Arnold Creek Neighborhood Association on this if they would like. DB note, MaryPat could you draft a letter of support to send to ACNA?

Grant:

Barbara S. said she submitted a grant to the Bureau of Environmental Services for $10,000. It is for a bridge across Fanno creek near the Beaverton-Hillsdale highway. Don said it is an existing route used to get to Robert Grey. The school district said the route was not acceptable. In fact, a school principle fell and broke her arm on the route. Keith said he walked it and it is extremely slippery and needs gravel right away. Don said we would organize a work party to do a temporary fix. Barbara S. said we would learn on Monday whether the grant will go to the next stage. Don thanked Barbara for doing the grant. Don said he heard there was a lot of money to pull culverts out of creeks. Glenn said it was mainly for creeks with fish. DB note, we did not get the go ahead on the grant.

Annual Meeting:

Doug made a motion to move the remainder of the annual meeting to next month to complete the financial report. Katureh seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

SW Corridor Plan:

Don said they are working to narrow the options for rapid transit. Glenn said they would have a presentation at the next Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. Don said there would be a Metro meeting on March 12^th at Wilson High 6pm to discuss the plan.

Don said there would be a process to look at the projects that have been proposed in the plan. They have added a few projects. He said one suggestion is to have an elevator to OHSU from Barbur, the design is incomplete. Don said some important access to transit projects are not included. Marypat asked if some of the projects are already funded. Don said there are 1 or 2 small projects. Marypat asked about the Newbury and Vermont Bridge Rennovation project to be done in 2014. Don said that is just to repair the deck and not to do any bike or pedestrian improvements. Don said the bridge is made of wood with a concrete deck and concrete compression members

Don said there will be a meeting February 27^th 2014 with the Mayor, Commissioner Novick and PBOT Director to discuss what transportation improvements should be made if we secured additional funding from the citizens of Portland. They will talk on how much money should be spent and what are the appropriate projects.

Don said there will be a March 29^th, 9am work party on SW Nevada Ct.

Don said the 4T patches will be ordered.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz:

Lee and Doug talked about the meeting with Commissioner Amanda Fritz. She was receptive to improvements at the west end of the trail. However, she was not as receptive to a fix at Slavin and Barbur at this time because of her concern for the safety of walkers and bicyclists on Barubr Blvd Bridge (Newbury) . Don suggested walking the west right-of-way and sending a proposal. Katureh said there was a gravel road near the proposed trail. Keith wondered about adverse possession and Glenn said you cannot claim adverse possession for a sovereign. Doug will look for a good time to look at the area. Don suggested writing her a letter to Commissioner Fritz saying we will get back to her with a proposal.

SW Trails Improvements:

Barbara B. said several people toured the entire SWTrail 40 mile system to look at the improvements to trails in southwest that need to be done. It took five days. Dave made a list. He said there were a lot of improvements needed. He said some would be easy and some would not. We will post the list on the website and present it to PBOT for inclusion in their funding package.

Don said a fence was removed near Tunnelwood, and a new one built in the same place. We still need to get a 4 to 5 foot passage through the fence. He said there was another location with a fence that is in very bad shape as the water has ruined the trail. Don said an adjacent property owner built a fence in the Coronado Right of Way. He said the City may ask them to move the fence. PBOT is still mulling the next steps. Robert said the one of the criteria for an urban trail is strong community support for the trail. Don said the Coronado right-of-way is not an urban trail and we have no plans to build an ubran trail at this time. However, the public right of way is important, and the public should be able to use the entire right of way. . Marypat said there would be a better intersection at Stevenson and this may result in a better walkway along Stevenson. Don said there will be a bridge that would cross Boone’s Ferry that trail 6 will go under and would create a much safer crossing of Boones Ferry Road. This route will provide a connection from Coronado through Tryon Creek State Park. Keith said there is also funding for a Oregon State Parks trail north from the new bridge and he will be working on that trail.

Iowa Bridge:

Don said several people went to look at the replacement Iowa bridge under I-5 and were impressed with ODOTs plans. Sharon said it has been closed for three years and it should reopen in the fall of 2014 Don said there would be a nice viewpoint, called for in the 40 mile loop plan. Don said ODOT was very accommodating and interested in what we thought. Don suggested a letter thanking ODOT

Joan made a motion to write a letter to ODOT thanking them. Lee seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.

Sharon said an Americore member who works for BES wants to partner with us and wants a links to her website. Glenn asked if it was a city website and Sharon said it was. Glenn said he approved of the idea. Other people supported the link and there were no objections. Sharon will follow up.

Treasurer’s Report:

Chris said we have a positive bank balance.

SW Trails SW Corridor Plan Project suggestions:

See Attachment A for details

Don handed out lists of the SW Corridor projects.

Don described the projects: Lee, how about I send you the list to cut and paste. Then you can add the comments as appropriate? Let me know.

Trail 1: Don said the crossing at Natio is very important. He said the trail up the hill is deteriorated and storm-water control is needed. He said the road is owned by Parks and the owner of a house has an agreement to maintain the the road but they have not been doing that. The brick walkways are in bad shape. Don suggested that we ask that brick be replaced with concrete, new steps and lighted.

Don said eleventh to Marquam hill road needs a sidewalk

He said there should be an extended shoulder and climbing bike lane on Fairmont to Talbot. And a sidewalk on Talbot to Patton

Red Electric:

Don said Slavin Road is the old car route and has been blocked. He said Metro there would be an estimated three thousand bike users on that part of the route if it were open. Don said we need a pedestrian/bike bridge to cross Barbur. He said The bridge at the bottom of Hillsdale is funded and will be constructed. He said there needs to be property acquisition at the west end of the RET

Don said we need a bike/pedestrian on the Newbury and Vermont bridges.

Don said we need Capital hill road bike lanes.

He said we need to improve SW chestnut to seventh.

He said there should be improvements at Capital and Terwilliger with a four foot bike lane.

Don said bike facilities along Vermont would not be a big project and there should be fire friendly speed bumps.

Don said there needs to be improvements on 19^th to Taylors Ferry. There is a bad erosion problem there.

Don said there should be improvements on SW Troy and 25th

Don suggested writing up a list of what is important and sending it to the group to edit. Don said there were items on the SW Corridor project list that do not make sense

Barbara B. said it would be good to set priories such as kids walking to schools. Joan said access to transit was important.

Michael said Bob Stacy told them that we should let them know soon on preferences for Bus rapid transit vs light-rail He said he favored the long tunnel. He said Barbur already has good transit options. He said the cost of bus rapid transit vs light-rail is similar. He said the light-rail option leaves Barbur untouched. He said it was the most expensive option but OHSU might help subsidize it. Kieth said the VA might help as well. Dave said light rail in a tunnel would be better for weather problems. Joan said the tunnel might not get as many sidewalks. Marypat said there are thirteen other partners and they might not be as well served with a tunnel.

Glenn said he strongly opposed bus rapid transit or rail on Barbur. He said it would further divide our neighborhood. He said we should be pushing to have it along the I-5 right of way.

Dave said the alignment with the tunnel would come out at the crossroads. Don said they are trying to serve PCC and there may be another tunnel.

Don said if it went down Barbur the bridges would be expensive to replace and it would take a lot of businesses along Barbur. Keith said Barbur is also an emergency route for I-5

Don suggested holding off taking a position on light-rail

The group suggested criteria for the projects and came up with the following list:

Safety Walk & Bike

Safe-Routes to School

Access to Transit

ADA/Equity

Trails Standards

Leveraged investment

Transit oriented development

Aesthetics and recreation

Don suggested writing up a draft and sending it to the group

Keith said they will be moving on the Tryon Creek project soon. Marypat said there is no safety along 35^th and there is a lot of population base there. Don said there was one section of Pomona that we are suggesting a sidewalk. Michael said there is a proposed project to put an overpass over I-5. Glenn pointed out it was on the list and Don said it is a $15 million project.

Barbara B. asked Glenn if additional right-of-way along I-5 would need to be acquired. Glenn said yes but it would be much less than what would be needed along Barbur. Don said he heard they were thinking of taking two lanes of Barbur and leaving only two for cars.

Don said he would summarize the ideas we talked about.

Don encouraged people to come to a Thursday night meeting with Mayor Hales and Commissioner Novick to discuss transportation improvements. He said we want see the urban trail network completed and southwest portion of the 2030 bike plan completed.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:53pm

Respectfully submitted

Lee Buhler

Attachment A:

SW Trails.org List by Trail for SW Investment in the SW Urban Trail System planning 2-27 -2014

This list focuses on the SW Urban Trail Network and does not include the many needed new connections and improvements to existing connections throughout SW Portland. Another list with many of those improvements will be forthcoming in the near future.

4T Trail from the Willamette River:

• Realign Trail 1 route to begin at Waterfront Trail at base of the Tram, use the Hooley Bridge to get Naito.

• New crossing of Naito at SW Whitaker with HAWK signal.

• New signage from east end of Hooley Bridge to Terwilliger Blvd. (Improvements from the Hooley Bridge to OHSU are also listed in the Trail 1 improvements.)

• Repair trail from Barbur to Terwilliger by replacing 10 steps, replacing brick walkway with 120 feet of concrete sidewalk, installing handrail on 200 feet of stairs, and installing lighting from Barbur to Terwilliger.

• From OHSU, new sidewalk from SW 11^th to Marquam Hill Road, extended shoulder with no parking on the north side of Marquam Hill Road from Gibbs to Fairmont, this will also serve as a climbing bicycle lane. (also serves Trail 1).

• Extended shoulder with no parking posted east side of Fairmount Blvd from Marquam Hill Road to 4T Trail to Council Crest (also serves Trail 1, 6).

• Sidewalk to be built on SW Talbot from SW Fairmount to SW Patton

• Zebra striping on crossings of SW Greenway, SW Fairmount and SW Sherwood Drive and SW Marquam Hill Road at the 40 mile loop crossing

Trail 1:

• Realign Trail 1 route to begin at Waterfront Trail at base of the Tram, use the Hooley Bridge to get Naito (also serves 4T above).

• New crossing of Naito at SW Whitaker with HAWK signal (also serves 4T above)

• New signage from east end of Hooley Bridge to Terwilliger Blvd (also serves 4T above)

• Repair trail from Barbur to Terwilliger by replacing 10 steps, replacing walkway with 120 feet of concrete sidewalk, install handrail on 200 feet of stairs, and installing lighting from Barbur to Terwilliger (also serves 4T above).

• From OHSU, new sidewalk from SW 11^th to Marquam Hill Road, extended shoulder with no parking on the north side of Marquam Hill Road from Gibbs to Fairmont, this will also serve as a climbing bicycle lane (also serve 4T above).

• Extended shoulder with no parking on SW Dosch from Dosch Park Lane to SW Mitchell

• Add trail through Albert Kelly Park

• Extended shoulder with no parking on SW Hamilton from 53rd to Scholls Ferry Road.

Trail 3:

• Rebuild stairs under I5 bridge (should be done by fall 2014 by ODOT).

• Zebra crossing of Terwilliger at Nebraska (will also serve Red Electric).

• Remove walking barriers on school district property on east side of drive between Wilson and Rieke

• Reroute and sign Trail through Gabriel Park to be continuous

• Zebra crossing, already approved, of SW 45th west of Gabriel Park for trail leading up through Multnomah Presbyterian Church property

• Easement and new trail in Presbyterian Church property (easement in process), improve existing trail

• Zebra crossing of Maplewood Road at SW 48th

• Reroute trail from 60th west along SW Miles Court to Olesen (Red Electric Trail Connection) to Fanno Creek Trail at Garden Home Rec Center.

Trail 4:

• Zebra striping of crossings of on ramps to SW Taylors Ferry Road near Macadam

• Handrail on stairs from Canby to Canby at SW 10th. Rebuild stairs

• Build sidewalks on west side of SW Capitol Hill Road from SW Moss to SW Troy.

Trail 5:

• Gain agreement from Lewis and Clark for route through their property to Palatine Hill Road, Ask County to adopt trail alignment along Radcliff and Riverview.

• SW Riverside and connection to Boones Ferry Road/ Terwilliger.

• Build new pedestrian and Bike Bridge over I5 and Barbur from near Markham School to SW 52nd reroute trail 5 there.

• Build a sidewalk along south side of Taylors Ferry Road from Capitol Hwy to SW 48^th.

• Build Asphalt trail connection on ROW from end of 52nd to Ash Creek Natural Area.

• Rebuild connection to SW55 from SW 53^rd to control water and improve trail surface.

• Relocate, build and sign trail from Dickinson to Huddleston, 62nd Drive, and 64th Drive, and through BES property to county line where it will run on streets to Metsger Park; or another feasible route.

Trail 6:

• Take legal action to require condos to build the trail specified in their original building permit from Cable to Montgomery, build trail and steps to Montgomery, obtain easement to build trail from Montgomery up to SW 18th and SW Jackson, build trail.

• Install extended shoulders with no parking or sidewalk on SW Montgomery from SW Vista to about SW 15th. This will be trail until the Jackson connection is built.

• Install zebra crossing of SW Broadway at SW Gerald, Sidewalk along east/south of SW Broadway from Gerald to SW Sherwood Drive.

• Clarify legal issues on dedicated right of way from Fairmount to Hessler, build trail.

• Extended Shoulder with no parking or sidewalk on SW Cheltenham Ct from SW Westwood Drive to SW Cheltenham Drive

• Sidewalk along SW Dewitt south side from Cheltenham Ct to Library.

• Trail 6 is also the Hillsdale to Lake Oswego Regional Pedestrian Trail from SW Sunset in Hillsdale to the Willamette Greenway Trail in Lake Oswego.

• On school property, between Wilson and Rieke, remove center stakes on walkway as planned for neighborhood greenway. (Same as Trail 3)

• On Capitol Hill Road, build sidewalk from SW 17th to SW 19th.

• Pave pathway on all of SW 19th from Capitol Hill Road to Moss, set no parking signs where there is not room for trail and parking.

• Pave pathway on SW 19th from Dolph to Taylor’s Ferry Road mark for no parking as necessary.

• Sidewalk on Taylor’s Ferry Road from 19th to SW 18th Place

• Sidewalk on SW 18^th Place from Taylor’s Ferry Road to the entrance to Marshall Park and SW Collins Ct. to connect to the Folley Balmer Nat Area Trail.

• Build (responsibility of Oregon State Parks) a new trail on Oregon State Parks and Metro lands connecting to a new underpass culvert/bridge of SW Boone’s Ferry Road along Tryon Creek, currently being designed by BES.

• Build new sidewalk on Boone’s Ferry Road from new underpass to the entrance to Tryon Creek State Park to the south. (part of the Boone’s Ferry Road Culvert/Bridge project.)

• Develop agreement with Oregon State Parks, Lake Oswego for signing of the Hillsdale to Lake Oswego Trail.

Trail 7:

• Oregon Zoo freeway off-ramp, ODOT to install a new rapid flashing beacon for highway 26 exit from the freeway, install zebra striping, and also zebra striping on 2nd off ramp crossing. (Some of these improvements are in process)

• ODOT Zebra crossing of on ramp on south side of highway 26. (In Process)

• ODOT to remove old slide blocking shoulder along eastbound on ramp. (May be in process)

• Extended shoulder with no parking on east side of Dosch from Patton to Bridlemile Lane (this will also be a climbing bicycle lane)Zebra crossing with Beacon at Bridlemile Lane.

• Zebra crossing of SW Hamilton at SW 36^th

• Sidewalk from SW 36 to SW Hamilton Ct.

• Extended shoulder from SW 45^th from BH Hwy N to SW Julia

• Build new steps south from SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy to Fairvale Court.

• New zebra crossing installed at crossing of Vermont at SW Idaho. (Promised as part of neighborhood greenway)

• Move sign at SW Barbur and SW Capitol Hwy SE corner

• Pave trail on SW 49^th from SW Comus to SW Pomona

• Sidewalk on SW Pomona from SW 49th to SW 51^st

Red Electric Trail: (AKA Trail 2)

• Zebra crossing of SW Corbett at SW Seymour

• New paved ped bike facility from the existing end of Slavin Road to Barbur at south end of Newbury structure.

• New bridge across Iowa Street Gully beside existing Newbury Structure

• New bike & pedestrian trail under south end of Newbury Barbur bridge abutment up to Parkhill Drive and to Barbur southbound.

• Pedestrian connection to existing pedestrian trail in Himes Park.

• New trail along the old Red Electric rail alignment from SW 33rd and SW Bertha to Olsen Road.

• The connection between SW 33rd and the city limits at Alpenrose will require several land parcels to be acquired.

• End of list…..