Phase One is done.
With a unanimous vote of steering committee members, the Southwest Corridor plan took a huge step forward Monday, formalizing one part of the region's land use vision.
The vote included approval of a study of high capacity transit in the southwest part of the region, a wedge stretching from downtown Portland out to Beaverton, Tigard and Tualatin.
But the Southwest Corridor plan is more than a transit study – the recommendations approved by the steering committee include dozens of suggested road, trail, park and transit improvements that complement the zoning in all of the Southwest Corridor cities, including Durham, Sherwood, Lake Oswego, King City and the aforementioned Tualatin, Beaverton, Tigard and Portland.
"We've found a project in the land use plans of these communities," said Portland Mayor Charlie Hales.
The plan, said Metro Councilor Craig Dirksen, "will address growth that has happened, and will continue to happen, in a way that preserves our community character."
His Metro Council colleague, Bob Stacey, lauded the cities and partner agencies for working with communities to identify their needs.
The plan, Stacey said, "goes beyond where to put a particular public transit facility and into true community building… I'm happy to join in on the moment of decision."
Staffers and policymakers guiding the Southwest Corridor project used existing community planning concepts for the Southwest Corridor to decide how to prioritize transportation and parks projects. For more than a year, community members have had their say in what the Southwest Corridor plan should look like.
"We view this Southwest Corridor planning process as a real opportunity to think about long term improvements we need in our neighborhood," said Marianne Fitzgerald, president of the Southwest Neighborhoods Inc. Executive Committee.
And there's more work to be done, emphasized Washington County Commissioner Roy Rogers.
"This is a first step," Rogers said. "There's a lot more refinement to go, a lot of work yet to do."
Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle emphasized the importance of making those hundreds of projects, from park planning to construction of sidewalks, a reality.
"Don't develop something that, 15 years later, nothing's changed," Doyle said. "I hope the technical folks remember that we have to get things in place that we can accomplish and do."
While some of those changes will be noticed in communities across the southwest region, much of the attention inevitably will be on the transit study, an environmental review of a potential high capacity transit line from downtown Portland to Tigard or Tualatin.
The committee approved studying whether a transit line should use buses or trains if it is built, whether it should go under OHSU or around Marquam Hill on Barbur Boulevard and other routing options for the length of the corridor. The study will also look at whether transit should be built at all.
A draft environmental impact statement – an in-depth study of how transit would affect the region – could be done by 2017.
Two residents spoke out at Monday's meeting against the committee's decision. Tualatin resident Kathy Newcomb said the project should involve rapid transit, and should have connected to Sherwood.
And Tigard resident Andy Bergman questioned the need for transit improvements in the area at all, saying buses in the area are seldom used.
"I look at some of the buses going down 99 (Highway 99W) and other than certain timeframes – early in the morning, maybe in the evening – most of the buses are empty," he said.
TriMet reported 2,730 daily riders on the 94 Pacific Highway/Sherwood line, and another 2,940 daily riders on the 76 Beaverton/Tualatin line, in 2012.
Bergman also opposed one specific part of the transit study.
"I'm against any type of high capacity train coming down Hall Boulevard into communities that are well established," he said. "They don't want it. They don’t need it."
If a transit project is to be funded, it'll rely on support of communities across the corridor, support that will have to last for several years.
"Can we maintain this agreement through a tortuously long federal process – which is a competition, that even if we get our act together we still might lose?" Hales asked the committee. "These things aren't inevitable. The lightning only strikes when everybody gets together at the local level, maintains that consensus and competes successfully for federal funds."