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Grant Park Neighborhood Association Requests a Repeal of Metered Parking Throughout Washington Park

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Grant Park Neighborhood Association Requests a Repeal of Metered Parking Throughout Washington Park Sylvan-Highlands Neighborhood Association 2257 NW Raleigh St, Portland, OR 97210 503.823.4288 • [email protected] April 17, 2013 Mayor Hales [email protected] Portland City Hall 1221 SW 4th Ave. Portland, OR 97204 Dear Mayor Hales, We formally request a repeal of the ordinance permitting meters to be placed throughout Washington Park. There was no legitimate public process prior to this being presented to City Council and a decision which affects the citizens of Portland so greatly requires one. Metering changes the entire experience of the park for all and limits access to those citizens without means. We have undertaken, and are continuing to undertake, outreach to our fellow citizens through our Neighborhood Associations. We include letters from these neighborhoods with this letter and a list of letters being drafted and pending. These letters come from neighborhoods which represent more than 185,000 citizens and more will be forthcoming in the next month. We present these now, as we are aware that Portland Parks is moving quickly to implement meters. What we have discovered during the outreach process are several things: 1. Public Awareness The greater public was completely unaware of the plan by Portland Parks to meter Washington Park. Those citizens who had heard about this, had only learned of it after the fact, through articles in the Oregonian. 2. Request for Process All of the Neighborhoods request a full and transparent public process before such a change is implemented. 3. Illegitimacy of prior "Process" All of the Neighborhoods were extremely concerned that the Financial Impact and Public Involvement Statement submitted by Parks was untrue. In brief, although the statement indicates (#3 Pg 1) that "the areas of the city affected by the Council item" are Citywide/Regional, absolutely no citywide or regional discussion or public involvement was undertaken. On Pg 2, #8 yes was checked off to the question as to whether public involvement was included in the development of this Council item. Again, not true. In question #9 b. an 18 month public process was cited as having included the public via 3 neighborhoods, Sylvan Highlands, Arlington Heights and Goose Hollow. This is completely untrue. Meetings cited were regarding a land use issue (Zoo West Lot) and development of a Good Neighbor Agreement; not the development of park-wide metering. The list of meetings submitted on page 6. were not about metering. We can provide details. The Neighborhoods are unanimous in their demand for an honest, fully transparent process. The "process' presented above cannot be considered legitimate. The basis of democracy has not been represented. 4. Public Access Neighborhoods are concerned that all citizens, regardless of their financial means, have free access to our public parks. Metering will limit this access. 5. Preservation of the Parks experience Neighborhoods hold that our public parks, paid for by our taxes, should remain unmetered. To meter Washington Park, our first and oldest park, changes the entire nature of the park experience; the nature of Portland itself. In summary, a full and complete public process must be undertaken prior to permanently changing the character of Washington Park through the park-wide installation of parking meters" (or "the park-wide adoption of paid parking"). We would like to meet with you to work towards this. Sincerely, Sylvan Highlands Neighborhood Association On the behalf of Itself and the enclosed listed Neighborhoods Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association 2257 NW Raleigh Street - Portland, Oregon 97210 Voice: 503-823-4288 - [email protected] www.nwnw.org January 19, 2013 Portland Parks & Recreation Attn: Director Mike Abbaté 1120 SW Fifth Ave., Suite 1302 Portland, OR 97204 Dear Director Abbaté, The Board of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association has voted to participate in the Washington Park Transportation Management Association; Joe Angel will be our representative. There were misgivings about the decision to participate. The fact that the Transportation Management Agreement (TMA) Ordinance was drafted in secret was profoundly disappointing. Moreover, we believe that Metro and PPR staff misled the Metro and City Councils when they characterized our months of meetings about a Good Neighborhood Agreement with the Oregon Zoo and a Washington Park Master Plan as directly related to the TMA Ordinance. How could Metro and PPR staff believe we contributed to creation of an ordinance we didn’t know existed? As you know, we did not learn about the TMA Ordinance from your office, but first received through a public announcement from Metro Council, just two days prior to their vote. Our discussions over the past 18 months centered on conditional land-use permitting, a Washington Park Master plan, general parking and transportation issues in and around the park, creation of a Transportation Management Association to work out solutions, and drafting of a Good Neighbor Agreement to lay out a course for future direction. Much to our dismay, the TMA Ordinance dictates many things we thought would be worked out collaboratively by the Transportation Management Association. There are aspects of the ordinance we find troublesome. Our principal concern is with the requirement for 1400 paid parking spaces, including approximately 400 parking spaces outside of the south end parking lots (near the Zoo). Paid parking in the north end of the park, near the Rose Garden, will almost certainly exacerbate problems with overflow parking in our neighborhood. By characterizing our past discussions as being directly related to the TMA Ordinance, Metro and PPR staff have put members of the AHNA Board in an untenable position. Because of the testimony of your staff, some neighborhood residents are under the impression that board members support paid parking throughout Washington Park, including the north end near the Rose Garden. We know, and have always represented, that paid parking at the north end of the park is highly unpopular with neighborhood residents. We do not support this aspect of the TMA Ordinance. We provide this history to document and clarify the events leading up to the creation of the Washington Park Transportation Management Association. Regardless of this history, the AHNA board voted to participate with the TMA in the interest of constructive engagement. We are hopeful that our participation in the TMA will provide valuable public input, and an opportunity for productive cooperation. Respectfully, Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association 2257 NW Raleigh Street - Portland, Oregon 97210 Voice: 503-823-4288 - [email protected] www.nwnw.org January 19, 2013 Afifa Ahmed-Shafi Public Involvement Best Practices Coordinator Office of Neighborhood Involvement 1221 SW 4th Ave, Suite 110 Portland, OR 97219 Dear Ms. Ahmed-Shafi, The Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association (AHNA) would like to bring to the attention of the Office of Neighborhood Involvement and the Public Involvement Advisory Council the egregious misrepresentation of our discussions with representatives of Metro and Portland Parks and Recreation (PPR) during their testimony to the Metro and Portland City Councils regarding the recently-adopted Washington Park Transportation Management Agreement (TMA) Ordinance. Over the past 18 months, members of the AHNA Board have met regularly with representatives of the Zoo, PPR, and their consultants to discuss improvements to the main parking lot at the Zoo and the temporary auxiliary lot installed during construction of the Zoo MAX station. During those discussions, traffic and parking issues throughout Washington Park were generally reviewed, and a range of possible solutions were discussed in broad terms. From the discussion it was generally agreed that there was a need for a revised Washington Park Master Plan, creation of a Transportation Management Association, and the possible need for paid parking in parts of the park, such as in the main and auxiliary parking lots at the Zoo, to incentivize visitors to the Zoo and adjacent attractions to use the MAX line. The product of the discussion, as far as we were aware, was to be a Good Neighbor Agreement that would lay out, in general terms, a future structure for joint efforts to resolve issues and develop a parking strategy. We believe we were deceived. An ordinance for the Metro and Portland City Councils was drafted and presented to Metro Council without ever being presented to us. This ordinance contains elements (such as park-wide paid parking) that were only discussed in very general terms and never supported by neighborhood representatives. Although we had been meeting with Metro and PPR representatives for months, discussing such issues as a Good Neighborhood Agreement with the Zoo, we were never informed that an ordinance was being drafted. We found out about the ordinance only by checking the Metro voting agenda available on the internet, just two days prior to its presentation of this ordinance to the Metro Council. After crafting an ordinance behind our backs, the same individuals presented the ordinance to the Metro and City Councils publically stating that it had been created through public meetings with our neighborhood association. This is simply not correct. This mischaracterization of our involvement with the TMA Ordinance has put members of the AHNA Board in an untenable position. Board members do not support paid parking throughout Washington Park, including near the Rose Garden, tennis courts, and Japanese Garden. This eventuality is highly unpopular with neighborhood residents (and judging from letters to the Oregonian, city residents in general). Sadly, these events have cast a pall over our relation with representatives of PPR. Regardless of these events, the AHNA Board has decided to participate on the newly-formed Transportation Management Association in the interest of constructive engagement. The Board has, however, voted to call this mischaracterization of public involvement to your attention with the hopes that you can develop guidelines to help the City Council and City bureaus accurately present what constitutes public involvement.
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