Residents of a quiet Southwest Portland neighborhood got welcome news last week, when they found that Haines Street was all but off the table for a possible high capacity transit route.
The Haines Street transit route was one of several – including a transit tunnel under Multnomah Village and a line through the South Waterfront – that Metro and TriMet staff are suggesting to table as possible routes for a transit line between Portland and Tualatin.
A number of routes between Tigard and Tualatin are also likely to be cut off from consideration for either light rail or bus rapid transit. A decision on whether to use trains or buses in the corridor – if the project proceeds forward at all – is still years away.
The Southwest Corridor Steering Committee will vote April 7 on whether to end consideration of those routes for transit.
"We're very pleased that alternative routes are going to be seriously considered, and Haines Street is off the table," said Peter Johnson, a Haines Street resident who argued the narrow, woodsy residential street wasn't a good fit for a transit line.
But Johnson isn't fully satisfied. Still open for study is a route along Lesser Road west of Portland Community College's Sylvania Campus. It would cross Interstate 5 at Haines Street.
"I know those routes are still being considered, but I see them as being ineffective," he said. "There's too many 90-degree bends. It's a very narrow road and it won't work."
Leaders in the corridor – both staff experts and elected representatives of the cities in the area – are screening out corridors to study as part of a possible federal environmental review of a transit project.
That's what led to the suggested removal of two routes in Portland, both of which were believed to be so expensive that it'd be unrealistic to build them.
A tunnel connecting Hillsdale to Multnomah Village, then south to the Barbur Transit Center, was among those pulled from consideration for a transit line.
Speaking Tuesday morning at a meeting of ID Southwest in Multnomah Village, TriMet project manager Dave Unsworth said tunnels can cost five times as much as a transit line above the ground.
Further north, TriMet is still struggling with how to serve OHSU's Marquam Hill campus. The Portland Aerial Tram is near capacity during rush hour, so there's a need to get people to and from the hill, he said.
One idea is an elevator to connect a potential transit line on Barbur Boulevard to Marquam Hill. A transit tunnel under OHSU remains on the table, but Unsworth pointed out that a station there would be 390 feet underground – deeper than the MAX station at Washington Park.
Also likely to be taken off the table is a line along Macadam Avenue through the South Waterfront.
Unsworth's presentation wasn't just about what can't happen. Initial looks at alignments along Barbur Boulevard in Portland show that running transit on Highway 99W would force that road to be widened, Unsworth said.
"For the most part, when we're on Barbur Boulevard, we're adding a lane," he said. "As we're doing that, we need to be careful to make sure people can get across the street."
Committee discusses Tigard ballot measure
Undoubtedly some Tigard residents would have liked for the city to have been completely removed from transit study. A ballot initiative passed last week, requiring Tigard to oppose high capacity transit projects unless the voters approve them. About 10,000 of Tigard's 27,000 registered voters cast ballots; the measure passed by a 2.2 percent margin.
Metro Councilor Craig Dirksen, speaking Tuesday in Multnomah Village, said he thinks the measure means a transit line would have to be thoroughly studied before it can go to the voters of Tigard for approval.
"The measure specifically says for high capacity transit to come into the city there would have to be a vote of the people but to put a vote before the people the city would be required to provide the people with certain information – information we would gather as a result of planning process and refining process we're looking at for next two years," Dirksen said.
Many of the members of ID Southwest expressed concerns about the election, noting that Metro's messaging was too complex in the light of simple claims about the potential for transit to go down Highway 99W.
"It took a lot of explanation," said Tigard Chamber of Commerce CEO Debi Mollahan. "My encouragement to Metro is, as you're communicating ideas or plans or project descriptions, make it as simple as possible to gain support."
Downtown Tigard business owner Tom Murphy said he didn't think the vote reflected an opposition to transit as much as it reflected a sense of powerlessness among Tigard residents, "a sense that things were happening that affected them as to which their opinions did not matter," he said. "For those people, I believe that a yes vote on this measure represented a way of saying 'no, no more.' I strongly disagree with both the premise and the conclusion, but I cant disregard that there may be a substantial fraction of Tigard's population that shares that sense."
He said the measure changed his opinion of public outreach efforts.
"I've come to realize how important the messaging and the quality and persistence of communication is," he said. "We have to do better. We have to have the conversation that re-engages the people who feel disaffected. I don't know how that gets done – I'm convinced it needs to."
The committee also discussed whether similar measures could be suggested in other Southwest Corridor cities. Rep. Margaret Doherty, D-Tigard, said she'd like to see the rules for special elections be changed to encourage more voter participation.
"Purposely, it was a special election, which cost the city $55,000," she said. "Is there something through legislation that will say elections are in the primary and general, and special elections are something that really have to be special?"