Portions of a letter from Columbia River Crossing staff drew a passionate response from Metro councilors at a Tuesday work session, meeting to discuss a vote scheduled for this Thursday's council meeting.
Columbia River Crossing staff was responding to a request from the Metro Council that the $3.6 billion project's budget include a fund and other measures to help Hayden Island residents cope with the freeway in their backyard. But the response's wording led councilors to believe the Columbia River Crossing's staff was setting the fund up for failure.
The staff proposed sending the Oregon Legislature a work plan that included the following introductory sentence:
"A Community Enhancement Fund has been proposed and is intended to go above and beyond mitigating the direct impacts of the CRC project and is also envisioned to provide additional benefits and enhancements to the adjacent communities in the vicinity of Interstate 5 and the CRC."
Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, who has been supportive of the project, warned that language like "above and beyond" could be a cue to legislators to ask that the fund be axed from the budget.
"You lost me. I didn't want to be lost. I didn't want to be left behind," she told a delegation of Columbia River Crossing administrators, including project manager Nancy Boyd and her assistant, Kris Strickler. "If I put myself in the shoes of state legislators… that's (the enhancement fund) an add on… we shouldn't be piling on this project."
Councilor Carlotta Collette backed Harrington's support for the fund, saying the proposal read as though project staff felt it was being forced to do something unnecessary.
"A community enhancement fund, I don’t think should be discretionary," Collette said. "I think it's not over and above what should be done. It is what should be done. If I was trying to get it through the legislature or anywhere else… that's not how I would have written that paragraph.
"To me, that's a 'help us say no' paragraph," she said, "not a 'help us say yes' paragraph."
The strong rebukes of the wording, and the push for specifics, were a common theme at Tuesday's work session. The council is scheduled to voteThursday on whether to authorize Metro Council President Tom Hughes to sign the Columbia River Crossing's Final Environmental Impact Statement, the final approval needed before the project is vetted by the federal government.
It's also believed to be the Metro Council's final major approval of the Columbia River Crossing project, and councilors were up front about demands for specifics from Boyd and Strickler.
Councilor Barbara Roberts pressed staff to ensure that senior citizens would have easy access to groceries once the island's Safeway is closed. The project would force the Safeway to close or relocate.
"I want to make sure people … have an easy access to be able to get to the grocery store or pharmacy or whatever they need during that period of time," Roberts said. It's not good enough for them to be dropped off at a park-and-ride lot, Roberts said, "and have three sacks of groceries trying to get back to where they came from."
One mitigation for island residents is independent of Columbia River Crossing staff – the island's Target store is expanding, adding a grocery section.
Councilor Shirley Craddick, a dietician, was concerned about the quality of food being offered at the expanded Target.
"Is this a full-service grocery? Or are they just serving chocolate candy and soda?" she asked.
The expansion, according to staff and councilors, will include fresh produce and a full-service grocery.
Lastly, councilors, particularly Craddick, pushed Columbia River Crossing staff to come back with a better answer on air quality monitoring.
The project's written response also said it would be tough to track whether an increase in airborne toxins came from Interstate 5 or another source.
"At least measure it," Craddick said. "In your comments here, it looks like it's just 'We don't know what to do with it, so why should we even measure?'"
The response also pointed out the environmental study's finding that the Columbia River Crossing is expected to cause a decrease in airborne pollution, because of decreased congestion and because of cleaner cars of the future using the bridge.
"What will you do if that doesn't happen?" Collette said. In the wake of President Obama deciding to put off stricter environmental standards, she said, what happens if, in the future, someone decides "those fuel efficiency standards ought to be rolled back, too, because it's going to be such a hardship on Detroit?"
Metro policy analyst Andy Cotugno, the agency's liaison on the project, said a reduction in driving would have to pick up the slack.
"The project does have its disposal light rail, bike-ped, tolls and demand management programs you can get more aggressive on," Cotugno said.
Still, councilors seemed wary of greenlighting the approval, just as they were a month ago, when they postponed their final sign-off to this month.
"There's a lot of 'if's here," Craddick said. "What are our abilities and opportunity to follow through with this if it doesn't come to fruition the way we want it to?"
Cotugno pointed out that the council will need to continue to lobby legislators at the state and federal level to secure funding for the project.
"If you feel like you're being sandbagged, then you're not motivated to help," he said, "and they're going to need your help."
A revised version of the letter is expected at Thursday's council meeting.