SWTrails Group
a committee of Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. (SWNI) Inc.
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MEETINGS
SW Trails meets once a month to discuss walking/biking in southwest Portland. Everyone is welcome. If you have an idea for a trail or improvement in your neighborhood, we wouild like to hear it. Time: The meetings generally are on the last Thursday of the month at 7:00pm. However, please check with us or the Southwest Neighborhood News to make sure of the meeting time and place Location: We meet at St. Luke's Lutheran Church , 6835 SW 46th Ave. , Portland, OR 97219 St. Lukes Lutheran Church is accross 45th from the Multnomah Center and Gabriel Park and one block down California St. Click here for the Google map. |
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MINUTES
Here are the minutes from some
of our recent meetings:SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes April 22, 2010 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Katurah Pennington, Roger Averback, Virginia Hendrickson, Keith Liden, Rick Seifert, Jim Stutts, Janet Hawkins, Doug Rogers, Sharon Fekety, Phillis Towne, Simeone Goldfever, Chris Mays, Lee Buhler, Peter DeCrescenzo, Mark Lear (PDOT) Chair Don Baack called the meeting to order at 7:00pm Rick Seifert talked about the Main Street Historic Preservation application for the Hillsdale town center. They need to raise $30,000 and they have about $9,000 to go. At that point the City will add another $73,000. There was a motion to support the applications and write a letter for both Hillsdale and Multnomah. The motion passed unanimously. Mark Lear led a detailed examination of the bike boulevard now called a Neighborhood Greenway project that will go from Portland State University to Shattuck via Terwilliger, Westwood, Cheltenham, DeWitt, Sunset, between Rieke and Wilson, {a leg will also come from Terwilliger and Chestnut following Chestnut and Vermont} Vermont to Idaho, Idaho to 45th, 45 to Illinois, and Illinois to Shattuck with a leg connecting to the Red Electric Trail. He displayed maps and discussed the project starting at PSU. The plan is to remove the current bike lane on Sam Jackson as the curve is dangerous and put a bike path for both directions in Duniway Park. The route will then follow Terwilliger to Westwood to Cheltenham. It is planned to add an additional pedestrian area by converting the ditch to a swale and installing a short pathway, a raised crosswalk and an additional speed bump on Cheltenham north of the intersection. On the Terwilliger to Chestnut leg, the crosswalk at Chestnut and Terwilliger will be move down hill to the south for safety reasons They are considering fire friendly speed bumps on Terwilliger at this area Roger suggested widening the island at Terwilliger and Chestnut and better signage on Terwilliger to warn drivers of the crossing. Keith pointed out the bike lane on Terwilliger disappears a little past the Chestnut intersection and should be fixed. Mark talked about the different types of speed bumps that could be installed. Peter asked if Terwilliger could be narrowed at that point and Mark said that was a possibility. It has been cost prohibitive in the past. Mark said there is more resistance to traffic calming measures in southwest than other parts of town. This proposal also adds more speed bumps on Vermont west of Bertha. They are proposing bike lanes on both sides of Vermont as it passes by Wilson High as the road is so wide there. Don pointed out that this is also the Red Electric route and suggested a wider bicycle lane on the uphill sideline. Katurah pointed out that Oregon law gives the right-of-way to cars in a conflict between Pedestrian/bikers and cars. Mark said the law is confusing on this point and the City is working to get that law clarified. We discussed the intersection at Berta and Bertha Court. Roger said it is a hard intersection for both cars and bikes. Mark suggested some buffering with wider bike stripping and better signage. Don suggested lowering the speed limit on Bertha from 35 to 30. Mark talked about the Capital/Vermont intersection. They are considering a crosswalk versus a straight through path. Roger suggested making the bump out that was diagrammed wider to get people to use their turn signals. Mark talked about widening Vermont from 30th to 36th. Also, some parking will have to be removed. Chris suggested lowering the speed limit to 25 on that section of Vermont west of SW 30th rather than the 35 it is now. Mark said he would like to lower the speed limit. They have to work with the Oregon Department of Transportation on all speed limit changes. At on block prior to SW 45th the Grenway would turn onto Idaho to 45th, go north on 45th for a short distance where 2 speed bumps would be installed to slow the traffic then turn west onto Illinois to Shattuck. Mark said they would add nine speed bumps on Illinois. He said people tend to drive to fast because the road is so wide. We discussed an alternate route on the road parallel to Vermont and up 50th. We also discussed the need for a safe connection to the Red Electric Route a short distance to the north. Mark said there will be a meeting at the Multnomah Arts Center on May 13th do discuss the project and there is more information on the PBOT web page. To keep up to date on the PBOT efforts, see the web site at: http://tinyurl.com/y9k6r6d Look for Southwest Illinois & Southwest Vermont Streets and/or SW Terwilliger-Westwood: Don said this goes through and between many neighborhoods, South Portland, Homestead, Hillsdale, Multnomah, and Hayhurst and we should try to coordinate public participation. He suggested using the Trails Group to facilitate communication between the many interest groups and try to work out the issues. Keith said it was a good idea and could be a good way to notify people early on in the process so they are not surprised. Motion Janet Hawkins: SW Trails develop and convene a process to discuss the project and coordinate between neighborhoods. Keith seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Don said the SWNI land-use and transportation committees should be invited to participate. (This will take a little while to get organized) We discussed the traffic calming island in the Hillsdale neighborhood. Don summarized the history of the opposition to the island at Pendleton. There have been motions at the Hillsdale NA to have it removed and motions to have those motions reconsidered. Don said many people nearby were not notified of the project, then project supporters were not notified that the removal of the island was on the agenda. Hikes: Virginia is leading the May hike. Sharon will lead June and is planning a hike in South Portland. Janet Hawking suggested a walk by Cedars-Sinai, possibly in July. There were several street vacations. The first was near the base of Broadway Drive. There are stairs going to the site that are on the historic registry. The Southwest Residential League has requested the support of SWTrails in asking for the denial of the application. Motion Roger: SW Trails oppose this street vacation and support the SWRL position. Sharon seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The second street vacation was at SW 46th and Florida. Don said there was a possibility of having a good trail at that location. He said there was a lack of plans and reason for the vacation which includes loss of car, bicycle and pedestrian connectivity, street built to less than city standard, incentive of savings on street construction by building a street at a lower standard than the City of Portland requires, the additional land that will accrue to St Luke, lack of development plans against which to evaluate the proposal, this area will likely be identified as a 20 minute community which will encourage more ped and bicycle activity. We will need more not less connectivity. It was noted that St Luke has been open to discussing pedestrian linkage in the past, but no formal church approved proposal has been seen by anyone on the Trails committee. Roger wondered if the Fire Bureau would allow this vacation. Motion Keith: SW Trails oppose this vacation due to the lack of plans and reason for vacation. The motion passed unanimously. The third vacation was in the South Portland neighborhood at Macadam and Whitaker. Lee brought a letter from the South Portland Neighborhood Association and discussed the issue, and requested support from the Trails committee. OSHU would like a daycare facility mainly for their employees at that location. They would like the street vacation for a playground. Lee said Whitaker is steep at that location and does not make sense for a trail. Lee said this vacation also would trigger the “super-block” section of Portland building codes. The SPNA will support the vacation if the money that would have been required to be used to build walkways and plazas, under the super-block designation be used at the north end of the property for the same purposes. The north end of the property is Gibbs Street and the landing area for the Gibbs bridge. Motion Lee: Southwest Trails support the vacation with the conditions expressed in the letter from the South Portland Neighborhood Association. Sharon seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously with the exception of Roger who abstained. Don said Commissioner Saltzmans office has expresses support of the effort to press at the legislature for changes to the law that covers trail liability. Don said Commissioner Nick Fish will reschedule our walk. Don talked about the drinking fountain construction at the east end of the Raz-Baack crossing. We will be pouring concrete later this month. We will also be removing ivy and other invasives on the trail from the Rasmussen Apartments, 4900 SW Barbur, the bus stop and pedestrian crossing, to Terwilliger. Meeting was adjourned at: 8:55 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler Ditches to Swales trip January 27, 2009 Comments by Don Baack: After the tour, it is my conclusion that we should simply pave the first three feet of the ditch to provide an excellent walking and bicycling surface. PBOT should pay for the cost of this step up in quality. The 3 foot addition should be put in place using the normal blacktop specifications including the necessary dirt backfill to assure the edge is not broken down. Currently, BES does not depend on the 3 foot compacted gravel surface for drainage. They look to the rest of the swale to do the water filtering they seek. Properly implemented, the additional 3 feet of walking /bicycling surface will help improve a large percentage of our SW streets. One think to keep in mind, we need to prevent parking on these swales as they are very soft during wet weather. Parking cars on the new 3 foot pavement will not help our walkers or bikers either. Our thanks to BES for this tour. Lets get this going ASAP!!!!!! Attendance: Don Baack, Vern Krist, Liz Marantz, Catherine Mushel, Greg Schofsky, Roger Averbeck, Nicole Blanchard, Kathy Leech, Todd Gunther, Ed Foltyn, Mark Lear, Lee Buhler, Steve Mollinax, April Bertelsen, Peter Decrescenzo, Amin Wahab, Tom Braibish, Shannon Axtell, a neighbor from Garden Home Road? 2 ODOT, 3BES, 3PBOT rest citizens. The Portland Bureau of Environmental Services sponsored a field trip to look at the Ditches to Swales program in southwest Portland. The trip was requested and organized by the SW Trails standing committee of SW Neighbors, Inc. The Ditches to Swales program generally involves covering stormwater drainage ditches with a permeable media adjacent to a 3 ft. wide ¾ minus gravel surface. This has several big advantages to open ditches including cleaner water and a better walking surface. We drove to several spots were the program had been implemented and spots were it could be implemented. Amin Wahab of BES was the leader. The first stop was at Fortieth and Garden home road. The program had been implemented on the south side of this intersection. Todd Gunter of BES described the construction. First a perforated pipe is installed. In this case, it was about 2 feet down at the bottom of the ditch. Then, compost media is installed over the pipe. On the section going down Garden Home road the surface was planted with several species of grass. On the other sections gravel was installed. Liz wondered if the grass species selected might have a hard time keeping back invasive grass species and wondered if there were better choices. Todd said it was important to keep the media mixture correct and not too rich. Mark wondered if asphalt paving would work in this spot if there were trouble with the grass and Amin said it was a possibility. People asked Todd about using a cloth liner over the pipe. He said they did not because it could clog and did not bring much benefit. He said slowing the water was the key thing. He said they had not experienced clogging or filling with sediment with any of the installations yet. Someone asked if they had seen compaction of the fill media from walkers and Amin said not yet. On the other side of fortieth we looked at the swales with gravel. The was a mixture of gravel sizes and Don pointed out how much easier the smaller gravel was to walk on. He also pointed out that bicyclists would not be adverse to pulling of the road on smaller gravel when need be. Don suggested at least 3 feet of walkable surface with a maximum 2% grade. Don suggested using ¾ minus gravel for walking surfaces. He also suggested talking to neighbors to find out which side of the street people prefer to walk on and to emphasize that one for walking and do the walking treatments on it. The other side of the street would not have the same treatment if it is not the key walking route. April agreed and said evidence of a prior trail is another good indication of were people want to walk. However, it was noted that where there is no place to walk adjacent to the road, people walk in the street and do not leave tracks. We discussed cars parking on the swales. This causes several serious problems. First of all, it tears up the surface an media. There was a good example of this at this stop. It also makes it very hard for walkers. Don pointed out that when cars park on the newly created three foot walking surface walkers are forced to walk in the traffic lanes of the street. In fact it makes it worse for walkers than if there were no swale with walking surface. There was a discussion of who is responsible for trimming vegetation growing on the swale. April said if the vegetation originates from the adjacent property owner then that property owner is responsible. Otherwise BES is responsible. The responsibility for posting vegetation on or adjacent to sidewalks is with the Bureau of Development Services, while the responsibility for posting vegetation obstructing street corners or in other areas where sight distance is a problem rests with the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Tom Jenson has been our contact for these issues. We then went to an area just east of the Garden Home Road, Multnomah Blvd intersection. Amin showed us several examples of swales done and in progress. One swale had a concrete sidewalk next to the swale which was next to the street. April said this was an ideal situation for pedestrians and she would like to see it implemented where ever possible. She also suggested spreading some fine gravel next to swales whenever possible in the construction of the swale. She said the graveled swales where a big improvement but the ideal is a concrete sidewalk. Someone asked Todd what the approximate cost for these swale construction and he said about $50.00 per foot. (2010 dollars) We then went to Hamilton street. Amin said this was a priority for them. However, they need to find funding for the project. Amin said Hamilton Street was bad for both stormwater run-off and walking. We discussed the HALO LID project in the area. Mark said the project was on hold for the time being as many neighbors had raised objections. Don suggested approaching people differently. He suggested laying out the costs clearly and then letting neighbors apply for grants to do the construction on their streets. He said clearly defining the costs and benefits would bring more acceptance of private funding. He said it would be better to get people to ask for improvements rather than pushing it down their throats. Greg Shifsky said that the main problem with the original approach to neighbors was the costs were not clearly laid out in the beginning and many people would not be able to afford the costs. Don said many people were afraid they would be in several LID and their costs would raise substantially. He suggested packages presented to citizens have some clear formulas of the costs the citizens would be expected o bear and also provide clear, concise information on funding through city measures. Also, how the costs could be deferred by property owners until the house is sold for those not currently able to afford the costs. Mark said the city has more funding for these projects now and people might be more accepting. April said HB2001 might provide some funding as well. We then drove up and down Dosch road. This street is steep and presents several challenges. The steepness makes it hard to put finer gravel on the swale as the larger gravel is more resistant to washing away. Roger said this and other steep slopes were identified in the bike master plan and it would be important to coordinate the Ditches to Swales program with the plan. We then drove to the intersection of Cheltenham and Pendleton. An island had recently been installed along with stop signs for the traffic crossing east or west. Mark said this was to slow the east-west moving cars down at that point to avoid conflict with bikers who are free-wheeling down the hill. He also pointed out some pavement reflectors recently installed on the east side of Cheltenham to designate a pedestrian and bike area and help to keep cars going north from cutting the corner and possibly hitting bicyclists or pedestrians. These were to make a lane for bikers and pedestrians on a curve. We also discussed an adjacent ditch. Amin pointed out that filling the ditch also helps to keep the road from eroding and he said he would work with Mark to get this ditch converted to a swale We then drove back to the Multnomah Arts center and concluded the meeting at 5:00pm Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler Minutes Jan 2010 SWTrails Meeting taken by Keith Liden Introductions Dan Moeller, Parks Bureau, talked about the proposed Trail 11 from Barbur to Terwilliger. The funding application to Oregon State Parks was not approved. So SWTrails has decided to build the trail this year as soon as the permits are obtained. Parks is currently working on the necessary permits. Dan thought that construction could begin in early May. Don Baack indicated that ODOT would be able to provide a pedestrian beacon with strobe lights near the Rasmussen Apts. at 4900 SW Barbur, south of Hamilton. It will come from 177th and BH Hwy in Aloha where they are putting in a 4 way signal to replace the pedestrian system now in place. The used equipment will be used on Barbur. This crossing is where the trail meets Barbur. Dan then discussed a proposed temporary Terwilliger Bicycle/Ped route closure just south of Capitol Highway to allow a Water Bureau project. The Water Bureau will be working with the Hillsdale neighborhood and nearby residents about the best solutions after the engineering details are set. Roger Averbeck discussed the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 and gave an overview of the SWNI letter. Key points included: the importance of both bike and pedestrian improvements; multi-use facilities; bringing SW up to a minimum standard; creating a SW implementation action plan (similar to East Portland); consistency with other plans; and including Dosch/Red Electric/Gabriel Park in the 80% strategy. Keith Liden and Roger Averbeck testified at the council hearing. Robert Spurlock gave an update on the Metro acquisition work for the Fanno Creek and Reed Electric Trail. Metro is working on acquisition using the 2006 bond proceeds. Fanno Creek is his primary target area, and Red Electric is a “Tier 2” priority. The city has been doing trail planning and it recognizes the need to take advantage of Metro’s negotiator to acquire the necessary property now. The issue of evening closures of trails in parks that serve a transportation function. Finally, there was some discussion of trails work be done in Tigard. April Bertelson discussed the federal stimulus project to fill sidewalk gaps in SW. She had a map showing the location of the improvements. Construction should begin in April and conclude in October. HB 2001, the gas tax increase, was next discussed as a source of increased city revenue for transportation. 16 million in 2 years for sidewalks will be part of the proposed transportation improvements. Projects are expected to begin this July. The city will work with SWTrails to identify priorities. The willingness of residents to help fund a portion of the improvements through LIDs, or similar means, was discussed. Mark Lear gave an update on the Safe Routes to School program. The city has about $350,000 per year to spand on school improvements. He discussed Mary Rieke improvements that would complement the Terwilliger bike boulevard improvements. A multi-use pathway is proposed to connect Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and Vermont. The safe routes reports for various schools is on line. Steve Evans reported on the progress made on the bike parking project in Hillsdale. A design for an area between Food Front and Baker & Spice was discussed along with a few other possible locations. Don Baack reported that SWTrails has obtained the building permit for installing the Stephens Creek Park Drinking Fountain on the Hillsdale to Lake Oswego Trail. SWtrails is paying for the fountain and received a grant from SWNI for part of the installation. If you have any 1/2 inch rebar, we could use it for the pad installation. We need to borrow a concrete mixed to mix up the 20 or so sacks of concrete to pour for the pad. This work will begin in late March. Don Baack gave a very quick summary of the BES field trip to look at storm water facilities and how they might be designed to function better for pedestrians and bicyclists. This conversation will be continued. A copy of the notes from the field trip follows. Meeting adjourned at 9:20 SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes: September 24, 2009 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Phyllis Towne, Katurah Pennington, Sharon Fekety, Lee Buhler, Brian Heitt, Sue Heitt, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Virginia Hendrickson, Steve Evans The meeting was called to order at 7:00 We had nine visitors from Japan. They are a group learning about government involvement in Portland. Don welcomed the group and each person from SW Trails introduced themselves and what neighborhood they are from. Each person from the Japanese group told us where they were from in Japan and what their specific interests were. Don summarized what SW Trails is and does. He also described the 4T trail it’s construction and the grand opening we had the previous weekend. Don displayed a board with pictures and a map of the 4T. He then talked about the SW Portland bike plan and other projects. Trail Counts: Roger Averbeck has been doing bike counts around Portland and they need more people to do counts. The object is to collect information on how facilities are being used by bicyclists and pedestrians. It will help in getting more resources towards bike and pedestrian facilities. Don suggested Himes park. Don passed out examples of count sheets. Don suggested doing on at the Y in Himes park and then another at Whitaker and Barbur. He also suggest Fairmont. Fairmont is heavily used by bikes and pedestrians but there is no data. Chris said it would be a good idea to do it ASAP due to the weather and September is bike challenge month. Phyllis talked about trail walks. She said the 4T trail opening hike went real well even though some people got a little wet with the rain. She has hike leaders for the next three months. Sharon will lead October. Pete will lead November and Lee will lead December. Don described our sidewalk inspection project. We have done two sidewalk inspection walks. Don talked about the Metro Regional Transportation Plan. Don had emailed documents about the plan to SW Trail members. Don wants to focus on the Red Electric, the Slavin connection and a few other projects. Don suggested people comment themselves. Don said there were a few signs for 4t that have not been installed. Don said we have until the end of September to comment on the Lewis and Clark Master Plan. Don said it was important to have a bike/ped connection to highway 43. There is also a proposal to put a bike/ped trail next to the current rail tracks. Don said the Bike Master Plan draft will be released and the thirty day comment period starting October 5th. Someone from PBOT will be at the next SW Trails meeting to talk about it. Don talked about the Active Transportation Projects. We submitted a proposal for the Barbur corridor and feeder routes that would run about $175 mil. The proposal was not selected as a finalist. Don suggested we get better data on costs for the next time we have a chance to submit the proposal. Don said April said we can apply for MTIFF money for planning. However, this would take a long time. Don suggested we request money for planning projects along with the four project that were selected. Therefore, as some projects are being constructed, planning for the next projects can be done to speed up the process. Steve talked about the Hillsdale bike parking project. The Hillsdale Community Foundation has $5000 for a project to help with bicycle improvements. They are looking at bike parking near the Baker and Spice area in place of some of the landscaping. They are hoping to get money for a project every year. Another idea was a portable bike rack near the farmer’s market. Don said the water fountain has been purchased and we have a quote for $1300 to install it. Don asked for volunteers for Stephen’s creek work. Don suggested giving some money to the Capitol Hill fund. Katurah made a motion to offer $100 for project Phyllis seconded the motion. Don suggested we consider doing another payment when the project gets started. The motion passed unanimously. Sharon said that they had put speed bumps in Riverview cemetery and people have crashed on them and people should be aware. Meeting adjourned at: 8:20 Next Meeting: Thursday, October 22, 2009 7:00pm St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: September 3, 2009 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Don Baack, Phyllis Towne, Lee Buhler, Jim Stutts, Amanda Mansfield, Virginia Henderson, Roger Averbeck, Sharon Feteky, Greg Raismann, Steve Evans Don called the meeting to order at 7:00 We discussed the Barbur Active Transportation Corridor grant proposal. The proposal was sent in and included many projects. The priorities were focused down to the main Barbur stem with a total cost of about $25 million. Metro selected four of the 25 submitted projects as nominations for TIGER funding, a second round stimulus funding effort. They were looking for a variety of projects both urban and rural. They will be reviewed in September by some consultants from Europe. It is uncertain when another opportunity for funding will present itself. Jim asked about the Red Electric and Don said a portion of the Red Electric in Hillsdale is funded. Lee made a motion to apply for a TGM or other grant to study the Barbur Active Transportation Corridor with the Slavin linkage to the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge and to address Freeway access southbound. Hillsdale has passed a similar motion. The motion passed unanimously. The grand opening of the Four T trail to be held on Saturday, September 19th. There is still a little work to be done on way finding signage for the trail. Don said volunteers are need to do bike counts this fall. Don suggested we do our own counts on Trail 1 at Barbur and Whitaker and Trail 3 in George Himes Park. Roger and Sharon did counts this summer and said it was a good experience. Roger said there was going to be a national bike count starting this summer and they need more volunteers. Don suggested doing a count at the Y in the trail where 3 trails come together in Himes park to see which way most people go. Don also suggested a count at Barbur and Whitaker to see where people are going as this relates to where bus stop and crosswalks should be located. Jim talked about bike parking. The Hillsdale Community Foundation was formed to improve Hillsdale livability. The first grant will be for $5000 for a project that would make Hillsdale more bike friendly. They have a RPF Due Oct 16th. Greg Reismann displayed a sketch for bike parking ideas. Greg also suggested a pathway that would run on the east side of the parking lot between Wilson and Rieke. It would connect Sunset to Vermont. This is the route of Urban Trails 3 and 6. Bike parking at the north and south ends of the Hillsdale Farmers Market along the bike and ped route were also suggested. Greg said that in other parts of town businesses are clamoring for bike parking. He said they put one in and it was hard to convince people it would be good. After it was installed people were so pleased that they had a petition to install more. Roger said it has to be a good location to be well used. Greg said quantity, quality and location are the three factors. Jim said the north side has more opportunities. Jim said it is important for the biking community should be involved. Roger said it should encompass more than Hillsdale bikers. Greg said he could help get bikers together to get feedback. Tom Maddox will discuss it at the next Hillsdale Business Assoc. meeting. Roger did a bike count at Sunset and Capitol. Many bikers used the pedestrian signal to safely cross and suggested the possibility of a grant to have signal control buttons mounted for bicyclists. Jim said many people use Hillsdale as a park and ride and maybe long term bike parking would help that problem. Greg said long term parking is another conversation. Don said TriMet has looked into bike parking in Hillsdale as well. Don said there should be a Trimet/City/Community conversation on it. There was a discussion of a bike path on Westwood. Don said he thought it was good for part and not so good on others. Greg said there where problems with the Chetlenham route at the Terwilliger end. Roger said Westwood and Terwilliger have good bike counts. Greg discussed the Westwood/Terwilliger intersection and ideas for improvements. Don talked about complaints he has received about pedestrian and bike conflicts along the Terwilliger Chart house to Capitol walking path. Walkers do not appreciate fast bikers riding on the pedestrian walking area. Don said the drinking fountain for Stephens creek has been purchased and now it needs to be installed. We have asked Randy Leonard for a waiver of monthly charges from the Water Bureau. Nick Fish is taking this matter up with the Water Bureau and Leonard in Oct. We need to find a licensed plumber who will then get a permit to install the fountain. Phyllis talked about sidewalk problems. Sharon said sidewalk problems in Willamette Park have been marked, hopefully for fixing. Phyllis walked with inspector several years ago in her neighborhood but nothing has been repaired. Phyllis said she needs a hike leader for October and Sharon said she would do it. It will be on October 10th. Pete will do November and Lee will do December if he has backup. Meeting adjourned at 8:20 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: November 20, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Virginia Hendrickson, Keith Liden, Diane Mays, Chris Mays, Steve Evans Don Baack called the meeting to order at 7:05 Phyllis talked about the October hike which went real well. Bob Miller did a great job as leader. Next month Don will lead the hike and take a look at sidewalk repairs. Don said we would break up into teams and take a look at some sidewalks between SW Iowa and SW Taylors Ferry Road from Corbett to the river. Chris reported on a trail repair in Maplewood Don asked everyone to write letter of support to Metro for funding for the Red Electric Trail. Don said about ten people testified in support of the Red Electric Trail at the Metro hearing. Don said there were several people from the Oregon Department of Transportation at the SWNI transportation meeting. Don talked to them about stripping crosswalks. The question is whether drivers respond better to zebra striped crosswalks or just painted lines at crosswalks. ODOT does not want to do zebra crosswalks. They were resistant due to the cost. PDOT tells us the difference is around $300. They talked about the planned Iowa Structure Replacement Bridge over our Tril 3 in Himes, I-5 construction where millions of yards of dirt will be moved, mostly at night, to build a temporary bridge along I-5 to temporarily re-route I-5 traffi while the Iowa Street overpass is replaced. Don suggested a meeting with representative Mary Nolan and Senator Ginny Burdick to keep them informed about our bike facilities plan. Keith said they had talked about other ways to advocate for bike facilities at the Bicycle Advisory Committee. Keith talked about the next steps for the Bicycle Facilities plan. Keith said the city is short of funds to print out a bunch of copies so he has been emailing out to people. He is trying to get a meeting with Sam Adams' chief of staff. Don said several several people who work for the City have given him complements on the Bike Plan. Chris oferred to pay to print a few of the plans if that would be helpful Keith said at the Bike Advisory committee meetings they had talked about finishing the citywide bike master plan by next June. Keith said he thought it would be hard to meet that deadline. Don and Keith talked about MTIF funding and how things are looking up a little for trails. Don talked about the liability issue. There will be a meeting on December 2nd. Glenn Bridger and John Gould from Hillsdale will be there along with Brian Russell There was a very supportive article about the liability problem in the Oregonian today, Thursday Nov 20th. . Don reported that Portland Parks had finished the Maracara Park plan and there was no provision for bike trails. Don said this is an oversight since a bike trail could be used by many people including kids riding to schools. He plans to talk to city council about it in an effort to get it put back in. Keith said it is apparent that this is the best route for a connection in that area. Don displayed a proof of the next walking map and some minor changes he had suggested. Others were invited to make any edits they thought were needed. Don said the consultants for the 4T trail had gone AWOL during the summer due to other work and were now back on the job. The signage is almost ready and then the designs just need to be approved. Don asked if bikers would appreciate a bike gutters on the stairs by the Multnomah Presbyterian Church. Diane said she did not think many people rode on 45th anyway. Keith said he did not know how many people use that route but gutters did make it easier especially people who have their bikes loaded. Don said there were other locations we should look at as well for bike gutter. Chris said it might encourage kids to ride more. Don said Parks has applied for the funding to build trails in Marquam Park. Meeting was adjourned at: 7:55 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: October 23, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Betsy Shand, Lynn and Sam Peirson, Roger Swick , Phil Hamilton, Virginia Hendrickson, Sharon Fekety, Keith Liden, Diane Mays, Chris Mays, Steve Evans, Gregg Everhart Don Baack called the meeting to order at 8:00 There were no objections to the agenda and last month’s minutes and introductions were made. Roger, Sam, Betsy and Lynn are from the South Burlingame neighborhood. They talked about a grant they were submitting to put landscaping and a bench on a small portion of property near 12th and Spring Garden. Don made a motion that SW Trails support the grant. The motion passed by acclamation. Don talked about putting a trail from the steps below the I-5 entrance ramp along the creek to Taylor’s Ferry and asked if people thought it was a good idea. People in attendance thought it was a very good idea. Gregg Everhart talked about the latest Red Electric trail plans. She displayed a map with the latest route and places to start building the trail. They are working with Metro as to what parcels of land need to be acquired. They may start at the west end of Hillsdale as that is the area most ready. Gregg talked about funding for the trail. There will be a hearing for RFF funding on Wednesday, November 30th and Gregg encouraged people to testify. The comment period will be open until the end of December. Sharon asked about the section of the Red Electric along Slavin Road. Gregg said the Iowa Street trail may be closed for two years. She said when they re-deck the Barbur bridges they might put a trail along Slavin at that point. Keith ODOT has some money for maintenance projects that could be applied on the bridges. He said it could be up to $8 mil. However, at this ODOT does not have plans to improve pedestrian or bike safety in the reconstruction. Keith said it would be on the Bike Advisory agenda and BTA is interested. Don suggested a video of the situation in rush hour traffic. Don suggested we approach ODOT saying we would like the improvements as mitigation for closing the trail. Motion: Don write a letter to ODOT Metro STIP in support of funding for Red Electric trail and bike/pedestrian improvements to three Barbur overpasses. The motion passed by acclamation. Keith talked about the bike plan. He displayed the report and map of bike improvement in SW. Keith said the Bike Advisory Committee will start up again soon. Sharon said she would also be a representative from SW Trails as well. Keith summarized the history of the project. One map showed all projects and the other immediate action projects. Don said Mark Lear asked us to come up with the one or two most important projects. The suggestions were a bike boulevard on Hewett or Montgomery, Spring Garden or 35th. Also a short length immediate need should be Terwilliger just out of town as it passes Dunaway Park. Sharon made a motion to approve the SW Bicycle Facilities Plan, Steve seconded it and it passed unanimously. Keith talked about ideas on how to promote the plan. Betsy suggested approaching each neighborhood for money. Sam said he was glad to see three projects in the South Burlingame neighborhood. Motion Don $1200 grant for maintenance of the Stephens Creek drinking fountain. The motion passed by acclamation Don said TriMet was asking for suggestions for bus route changes in SW. Phyllis talked about the hiking schedule. Don suggested we look at sidewalks on our December hike in South Portland. Phyllis will look up standards. Phyllis talked about last months hike to Washington Park. Bob Miller will lead next month hike Next month’s meeting will with be the third Thursday (November 20th) due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Meeting was adjourned at: 8:30 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes: June 26, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Lee Buhler, Rachel Kadar,Virginia Hendrickson, Sharon Fekety, Keith Liden, Diane Mays, Chris Mays, Jacek Berta The meeting was called to order at: 7:03 by Keith Liden who chaired the meeting for Don Baack who was in France We discussed our Bicycle Facilities Strategy report which is nearing completion. Keith Displayed the most current maps of proposed bike improvement projects as well as the report text and spreadsheet of improvements. The report has been organized to forty routes where improvements are needed. Keith would like to submit the plan to the Portland Office of Transportation soon and he suggested we get copies to all city commissioners and other people who could influence the implementation of the projects. One final addition to the report will be photographs. Keith said in some cases the photos would show how bad things are and in other cases show how easy it would be to fix bad spots for bicyclists. Rachel asked about the bike project and how it relates to pedestrian trails. Keith summarized our bike plan process and the history of the bike master planning process in Portland. He said there have been major improvements for bicycle travel in other parts of town and those type of improvements should be made in Southwest Portland as well. Keith said the City of Portland was awarded platinum status for bike improvements League of American Bicyclists but Southwest Portland still need a great deal of improvement. Virginia said she likes the written summary very much since it pulls everything together and is easier to follow and understand than the maps and spreadsheet. Keith talked about the next steps. He suggested a collage of photos on the cover. Virginia suggested pictures of school children on bikes. Keith said there is some money from Metro that could be applied to these projects. Keith read some corrections to the plan as it pertains to the Red Electric Trail sent to him by Gregg Everhart of Parks. Keith said he recently attended an open house for planning in the Hillsdale area. He gave the planner the portions of our work that pertains to Hillsdale. We discussed several problems and opportunities in the Hillsdale area. Keith said the open house was mainly attended by business owners. There will be another meeting on Oct. 22. Keith said there would be an open house for the North Macadam Transportation plan in South Portland on October 7th. We discussed bike improvements in South Portland One very important segment is the uphill side of Corbett from Richardson to Hamilton. This is a bad spot for bicyclists as there is not enough room between the parked cars and traffic to safely ride. Keith pointed out every I-5 cross was important and hoped that they would increase the priority of this stretch Keith said we needed to work closely with the Oregon Department of Transportation, Portland Parks and the Bureau of Environmental Services as well as the Portland Office of Transportation to the get projects done. He said it was important to make it easier to come in and out of downtown. Some of the routes are very good except for a few bottlenecks. Chris said it might be important to prioritize high visability projects as it might bring more bike riders. When people see the improvements being done and working they would be more inclined to use bicycles as a mode of transportation. Chris said that it is important to catch projects that might drop off the . He pointed out an example on Vermont were there was a project for many years and then suddenly dropped. Keith talked about problems riding out of town on Terwilliger. Right after the Terwilliger plaza there is a blind, narrow corner. Then bicyclists must make a left to continue on Terwilliger and there is very poor viability Keith said he talked to Mark Lear of PDOT about the problem and Mark agreed it would be a good project to implement as soon as possible. Keith talked about things going on in other cities. He said in NY they had taken the center stripe out and put in bike lanes. This tends to slow the cars down. Several people who had been to Europe said auto drives were much more respectful of bicyclists there. We talked about the distribution of the plan and who we should send copies to. Keith and Sharon said they have been volunteering to do bike counts and the counts had increased dramatically with 50 to 60% increases over the last year. Sharon got 400 riders in 2 hours at 2 points on Moody. Keith said there have been suggestions to put in a bike barn at the OHSU building on Moody. Chris asked how we keep the bike project going after we submit this plan and we discussed ways to keep the pressure up. Keith mentioned some open houses at Metro coming up. He said it might be possible to use STIP funding to put bike improvements on the Iowa and Nebraska Barbur Blvd overpasses. Sharon said we should make it clear that wayfinding means sinage. Virginia said the sinage in SE is very easy to follow for bicyclists and hoped we could do the same for SW. Keith said he is hoping to have a final draft next meeting. Meeting was adjourned at: 8:20 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes: June 26, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Virginia Hendrickson, Moira Green, Steve Evans, Diane Mays, Chris Mays, Bill O’Brian The meeting was called to order at: 7:00 Don had a copy of the new book from Metro: “Walk there: Fifty treks in and around Portland” Introductions: Phillis talked about last month’s hike. Don will lead next month’s hike and the August hike will be our 10th anniversary hike. Phyllis talked about several other hikes she led in the last month. Moria talked about her work at non-profit organization: Transportation Alternatives. She usually commutes to her job on the east side from her SW home via bike. Don summarized the results from the Bike Master Plan open house. He passed out copies of comments received at the open house. Most of the comments were in approval of the plan and asked that it get done as soon as possible. Don commended Keith for the great job he has done in getting this plan through. He will be honored next week as SW trails volunteer of the year for 2007-2008. Red Electric: Don recently talked to Roger Geller about the Red Electric Trail and whether some MTIF funding could be used for it and Roger said he thought it would. Don talked about the bridge at the west end of the Hillsdale town center. This bridge is an important component of the Red Electric trail as it is so hard for bikers and pedestrians to get through that area. When this portion of the Red Electric trail is completed it will bring a tremendous improvement for bikers and pedestrians. Steve made a motion that SW trails sends a letter of support for the bridge. Lee seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Maracara Park. There was to be a meeting at the park tonight but it was canceled. Don and Lee did a brief walk through with Jennifer Devlin of the Bureau of Environmental Service.. Don told her we should coordinate the bike and pedestrian trails and do them jointly. Don has written a letter to Commissioner Saltzman on his own saying the same thing. Marshall Park: July 8th there will be a meeting to start planning for Marshall Park. Don showed some of the possible routes on a map. He said the Boones ferry signal was very important. Part of next month’s hike will be in the area so people can see the situation for themselves. Presbyterian Church Easement/ Right of way liability: Don recently had breakfast with Mayor Potter and he is going to try to help out on it. Don said there will be more meetings to discuss liability. Don read a letter from Christine Leon of the Portland Office of Transportation about liability in city right of way property. Don said he hoped the city could take liability. Adjacent neighbors cannot block access on city right of ways.. Chris said he hoped city decisions would lean more to pedestrians in light of the increase of gas prices. Don agreed and said part of the problem is getting the issues clear in people minds. Don said Mark Lear of PDOT is working on the problem. Chris said the Presbyterian Church will do some building that will require a type II review. They are proposing a new walkway to come out to 45th. He suggested a crosswalk. Don suggested a letter to Sam Adam’ office. Don said the Bureau of Environmental Services will soon start repair of the stairs under the Barbur overpass above Iowa. SW Trails Tenth anniversary: Don suggested getting a t-shirt or jacket with our logo and 10th anniversary. Virgina suggested a safety vest one to emphasize safety. People liked the vest idea. April Hill park: Don showed his proposed route on the map and suggested working with Friend’s of April Hill Park. Diane, who is chair of the Parks committee for that neighborhood Diane knows the people involved and said she will see if she can get people working together. Don suggested a walk through the park with everyone who is interested.. There are many people involved. Chris said an elevated walkway would work really well for portions of the trails in that Park. The meeting was adjourned at: 7:56 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes: May 15, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Virginia Hendrickson, Keith Liden The meeting was called to order at: 7:07 Introductions Phyllis talked about last month's hike. Bob Miller did a good job as usual. There were 20 people and no dogs. The clean-up was going on the same day so there were not as many people. These monthly hikes have been going on for 10 years. Lee will lead the June hike around South Portland. Don will lead the July hike will be on the 4T trail and celebrate 10 years of SW Trails monthly hikes.. Don updated us on the 4T trail progress and displayed preliminary designs for signage for the trail. We discussed the trail improvement priorities. Don did a walk around with the new manager of planning for Parks to talk about trails. We discussed a possible ped/bike trail in Maracara Park. Keith said he could give Roger Geller the bike plan in Maracara Park to help planning for that park. Keith suggested designing the trail so that bikes go slow by using small gravel, for example. This would reduce pedestrian/bike conflicts. We discussed trail priorities in the following parks: Maracara and Marshall: (planning). April Hill Park & Albert Kelly: (route determination) and Marquam. Permits will be needed for all trails. The Red Electric Trail should be a priority as well and needs funding. Don will write up the priorities above and send them around via email. Don suggested using MTIF money to improve the bike lanes through the Hillsdale business district. He also suggested discussing this at the bike open house. Don also talked about planning in Gabriel Park and adding those to the priorities. Keith talked about the bike open house. He had the latest draft bike route map. Keith also showed the narrative and spreadsheet which will be on the web and discussed at the open house. Don suggested we add a section about bike courtesy to the plan. Phyllis suggested working on Dosh Road as soon as possible to avoid ped/bike conflicts. Lee suggested split bike/ped on the greenway trail. Don said there has been no progress on the Presbyterian church easement but Mark Lear may be interested in helping us on that. He is helping us on other projects as well. Don said the BES backhoe will be removed next week. He met with them to discuss replacing the stairs and hopefully they will be done right. Don did a walk around the trails at Robert Gray with a parent who had some suggestions. Keith attended the city-wide bike advisory committee. He had a map and list of projecs. Keith was concerned that many of the projects were too expensive. He also hoped they would add a good connection to downtown across 405. Virginia agreed this is a very bad and dangerous problem. It was agreed that Barbur would be the best bike connection to downtown. Don suggested removing the off-ramp at 4th. Keith suggested making a good connection going into downtown on 4th and a good connection going out of downtown on 5th. Don suggested talking to Trimet about a north-south bus line on the west side from Lewis and Clark to the Pearl. Meeting was adjourned at: 8:35 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler ----------------------- Minutes: April 24, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Gregg Everhart, Steve Evans, Sharon Fekety, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Roger Geller, Keith Liden, Fred Nelson, Jim Stutt, Liz Marantz, Daria Gray, Phil Hamilton, Astrid Dragoy, Arnie Panitch, Navah Epstein, Tsvi Epstein, Mark Lear, April Bertelsen, Ross Zenier, Michael Kisor Chair Don Baack called to order at: 7:05 and asked those in attendance to introduce themselves. Gregg Everhart made a presentation on Parks planning on trails. She had several maps showing trails that need work. Gregg said they are very short staffed for the work that needs to be done. To make things work better they have had meetings with groups interested in trails and came up with a framework to work on trails. They have prioritized trail work and Greg displayed a map with color coded trail projects by priority. Gregg asked people to think about the projects and let them know if an thing is missing. Don said the steps in Himes park that were removed by BES should be replaced as soon as possible by BES. Don also suggested a planning process for pedestrian and bicycle trails in Gabriel park. Don said the signage in Gabriel Park is OK. Don said a trail from Barbur to Terwilliger in from the central South Portland Neighborhood area was important due to the many people who live in the area and work at OHSU. This route coupled with the trail from the Marquam Trail to OHSU are the most important trails in the Marquam area from a transportation point of view. Don suggested moving the Marshall park existing trails project to red. Astrid asked how many projects could be moved to red and Gregg said we cannot have a much higher number of “red” projects because there were already more than can be done in one year. Gregg and Astrid said that trail work should be done in concert with restoration to be cost effective. Chris asked if people could donate money to move up a project in priority. Gregg said was not sure if that was possible. Keith asked about Maricara park and if there could be a bike trail through the park. Gregg said that is something they will be looked into and there will be a meeting about it on May 13th and interested people should attend. Phil said they will be discussing bike access and PDOT is looking into it. There may be right-of-way issues. Don said the Maplewood Neighborhood around April Hill Park is very interested in the Urban Trail 3 project going through the south end of April Hill Park. Arnie said that he hoped people would let people know when there are trail problems for the already scheduled ten-toe and senior hikes so that people would not be mislead with the printed material. Jim asked if there are projects we can start on right away. Don said we are waiting for parks to get their planning work done. Steve asked if there are easy ones that we can get started ASAP. Gregg said there will be work soon in Marquam and Woods parks. Don said we are really anxious to get started in Maricara and Marshall parks as well. Interest in having West Portland Park trails planned is increasing, consider increasing the priority. Rodger, April and Mark from PDOT discussed the bicycle master plan and bike paths. Roger thanked the committee and Keith for the work on the SW bike plan Don nominated Keith for SW trails volunteer of the year. Diane seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Roger said they have great planning in place for bike amendments but they really need money at this point. They are looking hard for money sources. They are hoping to get money from Metro (MTIP). They are trying to get Metro consider Bike boulevards as well as bike paths and let cities use the money as they see fit. They are also pursuing trail funding with the federal rails to trails program. Their list of improvements adds up to 150 million so federal funding is very important. They are also looking for funding through the safe sound and green program which would include some funding for bike transportation. Roger and April talked about the improvement project on Vermont. It will supplement the Halo LID in this area. Phil made a motion to support the letter from SWNI to ODOT in support of the Vermont improvement. project. Lee seconded the motion and it passed unanimously Tsvi said the section on Vermont from 32 to Capitol hwy is in bad shape and many people are using it so it would be nice to have it improved as soon as possible. April said this area was considered for a Halo LID and that was a part of the grant to ODOT. If both the Halo and grant are approved it would mean a much better project Arnie pointed out the signals on Chestnut and Vermont and Vermont and 30th are 22 seconds long if someone pushes the walk button but only 7 seconds if someone does not push the button. There are many orthodox Jews living in the neighborhood and they do not use technology as part of their religion on the weekend. He requested that PDOT consider having the signals at the long length all the time on weekends. Mark said they have discussed the problem and it would be looked at further. Said this is also a problem for school children who do not push the walk button. Tsvi suggested getting volunteer contributions from beyond the Halo district for the improvements on Vermont and April said that was a good idea and it has been under discussion. April said they would be applying for additional grants and asked what routes were important to SW Trails. Keith said a 3 block section on Capitol at the I-5 crossing was very important. Don said they had looked at it and is a difficult problem. Don said our top priority was the Red Electric trail and especially the bridge at the west end of Hillsdale. Roger said they were looking for additional funding for the Red Electric trail and had the possibility of increasing it to about 50 million. Diane suggested the area at the west end of Vermont. Don talked about the Barbur bridges and the Newbury structure and it is important to get those on funding plans. Mark suggested making drawings and getting letters of support to show how important this area is. Mark pointed out how important the bike route on Barbur is due to the flat grade. Gregg said we should look at transportation enhancements for money for these projects. Tvsi suggested adding the trail through Robert Grey school and over the foot bridge as a bike trail. (one problem for the north bound biker, how to cross BH Hwy safely at Bertha to then go westbound. If one does not cross, one is riding against the traffic.) Don talked about a trail system on the Robert Gray campus that will need graveling as soon as Portland Schools approves the project, which should be soon. Daria talked about the trail on Boones Ferry and the suggestion that the trail go under the overpass. She is opposed to the idea due to the environmental sensitivity of the area. She is the property owner adjacent to the site on the east side. She is worried that people and dogs will go off the path to the environmental area. She is hopeful we can think of something else. It was pointed out that PDOT does not want an at grade crossing at this corner, and that crossing under Boones Ferry is the only way we will be able to get a trail through the area. There was a discussion of a problem on a segment of stairs at SW 25th and Seymour. The route is well used and a neighbor had installed stairs on his property for people to use many years ago. However, he recently told SW trails he was removing the stairs due to his concern for liability. SW trails offered to rebuild the stairs on the public right-of-way a few feet away. He was receptive to the idea and even served refreshments to the work crew building the stairs. A few days after the stairs we built he suddenly changed his mind and complained to the city. He now is against any improvement and wants to keep all people off the public right-of-way. He told Mark Lear he is thinking about asking that the street right of way be vacated. April said she strongly supports SW trails. She wants to work out a procedure to follow in these instances so these problems do not reoccur. Mark talked about the issue said the city brings a lot of regulations when they get involvement. He said there had been discussion on the procedure to follow in allowing SW Trails to build trails in the past but it had not been formalized and now we should do that. The first thing he said will be instituted is that PDOT will provide SW Trails with stair steps and maintain an inventory of steps so we no longer will need to do so. The inventory of predrilled steps will be ordered immediately. We will no longer have to use creosoted rail-road ties. Mark pointed out that the connection at 25th and Seymour was important for many reasons including the safe routes to school program. Mark talked about the Safe Routes to School program and schools in SW such as Rieke elementary. He passed a map around showing some plans around various schools Arnie talked about the Ten Toes Express and Senor Strolls walks. Arnie will do the his Lair Hill/South Auditorium hike on August 6th. Keith said we do not yet have a date for the bike open house but he wants to start publicizing the map and spreadsheet by putting it on the web and the SWNI new. Keith and Don suggested June 18th for the open house. Don asked Keith to talk to Roger Geller to see if they would be willing to put a colored map in as an insert to the SWNI News, and we expect him to provide the snacks and coffee. Don talked about the easement negotiations at the Multnomah Presbyterian Church and he hopes there will be more progress Phil said there was an open house planning session for Maricara park. The next planning session will be May 13th at 7pm and will include a walk through the park. Meet at the west side of the park. Don said he thinks BES should replace the steps they destroyed on the 40 mile loop and Urban Trail 3. We do not want to leave the steps in the unsatisfactory condition they are in today for 4 years til the state is done with working on the bridge. Don said the next hike would be from Hillsdale towards Lake Oswego and led by Bob Miller. Don said there was a cub scouts hike on the 12th that went well. Don said Kirk Morganson has laid out a trail concept in Arnold Creek. Don discussed the SW Trails action plan and some additions were suggested. Don will send the list out for other considerations. Don said there is funding for the Marshall Park bridge. Meeting was adjourned at 9:26pm Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: March 20, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Sharon Fekety, Steve Evans, Keith Liden, Kate McClullen, Bill O’Brian, Vern Krist, Michael Kiser. The meeting was called to order at: 7:03pm Introductions Kate McCullen a volunteer from AmeriCorps talked about invasive plants. Two plants there are very concerned about are Garlic Mustard and Hogweed. Garlic mustard has been a big problem in other areas and it has just arrived in Multnomah County. Hikers can spread this plant by transporting the seeds on their shoes. She handed out several brochures on the plants. She asked anyone who sees garlic mustard while hiking to let them know so they can remove it. Don asked about Japanese Knotwood and identified a patch of it. Knotweed is very hard to control and must be done with a licensed crew and chemicals. They will hold a workshop for homeowners in May on noxious weeds. Vern asked about what plants to put on bare ground and Kate gave some suggestions of native plants. Don talked about the stairs constructed at 25th and Seymour. The stairs were orginally constructing by and adjacent neighbor on his property and not in the public right-of -way. The neighbor was concerned about his liability and asked that the stairs be moved a few feet to the public right-of-way. A SW trails crew built new stairs in the public right of way after discussion with the adjacent homeowner. Would anyone who was there when the stairs were discussed please contact Don Baack. However, the neighbor then complained to the city about the new stairs. Don has been talking to PDOT about the steps and they are going to help us with this project. Mark Lear at PDOT has been especially helpful. We may have to re-do the stairs and add a hand-rail. Anyone willing to contribute to the handrail should send a check made out to SWNI with a note saying SWTrails Stairs to Don Baack, 6495 SW Burlingame Place, Portland, OR 97239. Please indicate if you want a receipt for a tax deductible donation. The issue of whether the community desires to retain the pedestrian connection at SW 25th and SW Seymour will be addressed at the May 7th Hillsdale NA meeting, as well as the next SWTrails meeting on April 24th. Plan to attend both of these meetings to express your support of keeping the connection. Don talked about the trails around Robert Gray school. Don met with people from school maintenance about the trails and they have been receptive to working with us to complete the trails around the school. This will help to keep people with dogs from using the school grounds and create safer routes to school for childern. We have supplied PPS with a map of where the trails are to be located, and with ORS documents on liabilitly. We still need to agree on trail standards for the trails around the area. There was a discussion of a map Keith had prepared for the bike project. We also discussed funding for the bike projects. Don suggested several possible sources for funding. Keith talked about the map and the spreadsheet with proposed priorities and specific comments. He had highlighted some routes he thought would make good first priorities for the city. He choose routes spread out around SW and routes that might also serve walkers as well. Bill said the connection to downtown is very important. Keith agreed and pointed out several suggested improvement that would help the connection to downtown. Don pointed out that one of the sections may be funded by the Safe and Sound Streets program. Keith suggested one more open house to get public input on our current recommendation. Don suggested breaking up the priorities into separate maps for the open house because there is too much information on one map for people to quickly grasp. Don talked about a possible route in the outer SW near PCC. He also suggested a route in the Collins View neighborhood through the Riverview cemetery. Don proposed moving the route on Custer to priority one and making some changes in the route. Don suggested adding a route on Naito or adding a bike track to Naito. (This means the bikes are on the same level as the sidewalk but walkers and bikers share a very wide sidewalk, and are separated by a line or similar designation.) We discussed the area north of Kelly to the old Greyhound bus barn. Michael asked about Garden Home Road and Keith said his suggestion was to add a shoulder first and then a bike lane. See photo below from Helsinki.  Phyllis gave the hike report. Chris and Diane did a great job for the March hike. Lee will lead the April hike, hopefully through areas with trilliums in bloom. Bob Miller will lead the May hike. Don said he will lead a cub scout hike on April 12th. Don reminded everyone to send a email to city commissioners about the bridge in over Tryon Creek and under Boones Ferry Road at the intersection of Boones Fy and Arnold. Don said there will be a meeting on trails in Maracara Park on April 8th. Phil and Keith will be attending for SWTrails. Don talked about the destruction of Urban Trail 3 and 40 mile loop at the east end of Himes Park under the Iowa street overpass on I-5 by the Oregon Department of Transportation. He will send out an email about who to contact. Don meet with Fred Miller and a representative from the Multnomah Presbyterian Church about the easement to try to work out a compromise. He is hopeful Meeting was adjourned at 8:46pm Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE Minutes: February
28,
2008 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Phyllis Towne, Laura Foster, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Keith Liden, Bill Obrien, Don Mc’Taggert, Michael Wolf, Frankie Anderson, Daryl Anderson, Kina Voelz, Simone Goldfeather, Phil Hamilton, Dale Sherborne The meeting was called to order at: 7:02 Keith read some comments from Julia Harris about the bike project. Laura Foster talked about her book and trails in SW. SW trails map was a big help to her. She will have a new book in the fall: “Portland City Walks” She talked about the Safe Routes to Schools program and wondered why kids did not use staircases more. Metro got a grant from Kaiser to do a book of 50 Portland area walks. Michael Wolf a graduate student at PSU gave a presentation about a proposed bike route along Highway 26. He has written a grant proposal to build the trail. The west hills are a challenge to bikers that has not been addressed. There is already a good bike path from Sylvan to Beaverton. The proposed route would connect this path to downtown. It is about 1 ½ miles long. There is one challenging spot of about 1000 ft that would require retaining walls and a cantilevered trail. There is one other difficult spot and the connection to Canyon road into Goose Hollow might be difficult. He estimate a bike shed of 43000 people. Using bike count data on Barbur he estimates about 1100 bike users per day on the Hwy 26 route. Don said there should be a bike storage shed at the zoo. Michael estimated a budget of just under $3 million to construct the project. Bill asked about tie-ins to other path networks and Michael said it would. Keith said the bike shed could even be larger since it feels into the Beaverton area which is very flat and well connected. Keith also said the general rate of increase of biking should be factored in. Keena asked about the experience of riding so close to such a major freeway and Michael said it was better than you would think do to being separated by the ravine. Keith said the big advantage of this route is its directness. Phyllis
talked about
the March which will be lead by Chris and Diane Mays. The hike will
start at Wilson High and go to the Wilcox estates and back 2 ½
hours. Lee Buhler will lead April and hopefully Bob Miller will do
May. She said Phil and Katurah are doing well and so is Myra. If anyone
has dry firewood that they would be willing to donate to the
Penningtons, please contact Don Baack. Don said we should work out our priorities for the MTIP process in March. Keith suggest the Capital Hwy project first and then the Red electric. Don suggested the Barbur bridges should be the third priority. Don said PDOT has been doing some preliminary design work on the Hoot-Owl corner. We agreed our priorities will be Capitol Highway, Red Electric and Barbur. We agreed Don would write a letter to Zari Satner asking about the progress on the Red Electric trail project, especially the status of land acquisition in Hillsdale. Dale
grew up in
Portland and was in the scout program. His son is now in the scouts
and he suggested the scouts could help SW Trails in building and
maintaining trails. Don asked what we could do and Dale suggested
SW Trails could coordinate the scouts on trails projects and let them
know what needs to be done. Dale suggested the scouts would probably
most like to work on trails in their neighborhood. Don suggested
starting on one project and see how it goes. Diane suggested
publishing our projects so that they could come and participate if
they wanted. Don talked about the bridge in Marshall Park that has failed. Don went to the Marshall Park neighborhood association meeting. He felt the bridge could be made for less money than they were estimating $130,000, and that the design needs to be done in a way to encourage volunteers in constructing the bridge. Don
said April at PDOT
looked at our sketch of the bike lanes over the Newbury bridge on
Barbur, and they (PDOT engineers) felt there should be bike
lanes on both
sides of the bridge. The problem with that may be the structure
which supports Capitol Hwy. Don
said the Safe
Routes to School got a grant to construct a trail on 19th
between Spring Garden
and I-5. He said we should ask for bike lanes when they do that
construction. Kieth said he would follow up on that. Don is looking for a designer for the 4T trail interpretive and way finding signs. He and Bruce Murray are working on the way-finding signs. Meeting adjourned at 9:05 Next meeting: Thursday, March
20,
2008 SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: January 24, 2008 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Debby Taylor, Steve Evans, Keith Liden, Chris Mays, Phil Hamilton, Vern Krist, Nick Corrado The meeting was called to order at: 7:02 The agenda was accepted with the addition of a discussion of a citywide trails committee proposal. Keith talked about the bike boulevard project and map. Keith has talked to several people at PDOT about the project. Keith had prepared a detailed spreadsheet of the proposed routes with various criteria and comments for each route. Keith pointed out that some routes don’t need anything but signage whereas others will need more work. He suggested prioritizing routes as follows: routes that are relatively level with existing bike facilities with some gaps that needed improvement would come first. Then bike boulevards and then the steep routes that bring only the most hardy cyclists. Chris said he thought this prioritization was good and would improve PR on the project since it would be acceptable to most people. Also, it could be combined with the Safe Routes to School program. Don talked further about the Safe Routes to School and some specific bike routes that would work with that program. Don said PDOT was about to apply for a grant from the state and would like our feedback. PDOT had identified two choices for this money: Two crosswalks on Barbur between Lane and Hooker or bike improvements on Vermont From 30th to 36th. SWNI would like an opinion from SW Trails on this grant. Don pointed out that funding for the Gibbs pedestrian bridge included a crosswalk on Barbur and Whitaker and on Naito and Barbur. Apparently the people from PDOT who suggested the crosswalks between Lane and Hooker were not aware of that. Phil said three crosswalks on Barbur between Lane and Hooker were too many. Don said the intersection of Capital Vermont and 30th (Hool Owl Corner) needed improvement. He also mentioned two other crossings that badly needed crosswalks: Richardson at Macadam and Barbur at Luradel. After discussion the following was agreed to by consensus: SW trails priorities are 1: bike improvements on Vermont only if the intersection at 30th, Vermont and Capitol Highway (The Hoot Owl Corner including converting to a pocket park) could be fixed at the same time. 2: Signaled Crosswalks at Richardson and Macadam and at Barbur and Luradel. The Barbur at Luradel crossing has been a high priority on Barbur for years, and has many more bus boardings than any of the spots along Barbur in South Portland. There is a large Muslim population in this area that has received little attention in the way of improvements to the transportation system that they use. We discussed the bike map and spreadsheet again. Keith had prioritized the routes in one column and Don asked everyone to look at the #3 priorities carefully to see if they should be moved up. Keith said one of the big problems with cycling in SW is the connection to downtown. You can get close to downtown and then everything falls apart. There was discussion about the importance of the Red Electric, at least to SW 33rd. Steve said he liked having Barbur as a priority. See bridge discussion below. Don asked everyone to look at the spreadsheet thinking about where they like to bike and walk and see if we missed anything. Vern suggested adding a cost/complexity column and Don suggested adding a Safe Routes to School column. Steve said we should identify routes that would include pedestrian improvements. In most cases it makes sense to do bike and pedestrian improvements at the same time. It was decided to add the pedestrian improvements comments on the first and second priority projects, we can do the third priority projects at a later date. Lee told the group about the city trails committee advisory group proposal. Several people from other trail advocacy groups in Portland had come together to propose a citywide trails advisory group. Lee went to a preliminary meeting on the proposal. Don read a proposed letter the group had made to send to City Council asking for the advisory committee. Lee read a list of advantages to forming such a committee that the group had made. Keith said, based on his experience with the Bicycle Advisory committee he thought it was a good idea. Phil said he thought it might drag us down since we are doing so much more than other groups. Vern said it is hard enough to know the trails in SW let alone the whole city. Nick said he did not see a downside to this proposal. It may help and if it doesn't we do not have anything to loose. Chris said it might help in that the active trail advocates such as Don could work together to influence city hall. Don said he is happy to go along with this proposal but he suggested that the size should be limited to 12 since larger groups are harder to work with. Don also suggested our first priority should be a citywide plan. After discussion it was agreed by consensus that SW Trails would support a committee to do a city wide trails plan with support from Parks, PDOT and Planning. After the master plan is completed then consider an on-going advisory committee. Don will send out an invitation to ask our SW residents help Phil and Katurah Pennington with firewood. Pete will lead next walk. Don had found a source material for steps for trails. Don asked if anyone could store the material and Vern said he could. Don will send out an invite for people to work on the material and hauling them to Vern's site. Don had sent out a preliminary drawing he had made for the Newberry structure that will be built on Barbur Blvd. (See below) This would be part of the Red Electric trail system and would allow a good route for bikes. This is difficult terrain due to steep slopes and this proposal would be much easier for bicyclists. The proposal was enthusiastically supported by the group. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler  December 28th 2007 Meeting began at 7pm with introductions. 9 people present. Max Rompa is interested in finding a trail project for an eagle scout project. Bike Boulevards: The open house was very well attended, 41 signed in and several more came without signing in so we estimate we had 50 visitors. Many stayed to talk til past time to shut down the affair. We reviewed the comments given at the December 6th open house. Several related to safety of existing bike routes such as Capitol Highway from Barbur to Terwilliger both directions. Boones Ferry Road for its entire distance in the City of Portland was cited as being very dangerous and in need of bike lanes and reduction in vehicle speeds. We noted all the concerns on one map. We will try to have a revised map posted on the SWNI web site by mid January. We decided to put a modest sized grid on the maps so we can address improvements and easily find them. Keith will put together a draft spread sheet on which we can note improvements needed on selected streets and easily reference them on the map by grid location. We talked about but did not reach conclusions about priorities and how they would be set. We will discuss this next month. Don reported on a December 21st meeting with Sam Adams about the Safe and Sound streets proposal. One of the things discussed at that meeting Sam indicated that the bike and ped plans for SW Portland put forward by staff are placeholders for the bike and ped improvements to be accomplished, and that we will be able to determine what projects should be selected and the timing of projects. Also discussed at that meeting was the need to address vegetation management along our SW streets to improve ped, bike and car safety. Sam indicated he was willing to talk about that. Mark Lear, also present at the meeting mentioned that SW had tried to address this issue in the past and not been able to solve the bureaucracy maze of the city to get the issue addressed in a comprehensive manner. Motion: "Moved that SWTrails Group join the SWNI Transportation Committee in asking that SWNI write a letter to Sam Adams and Randy Leonard requesting a joint SW and City of Portland comprehensive effort to establish a clear process for removing the roadside and trail side vegetation within the right of way where it is causing danger or inconvenience for pedestrians bikers, and autos." Passed by consensus. Summary of the history of this effort in SW Portland. During the time when Lillie Fitzpatric was chair of the Transportation Committee, she and I rode around with the person responsible for posting overgrowth on sidewalks to understand what their process was. It was unclear at that time who had responsibility for posting brush obstructing pedestrian/car views which poses dangerous situations. We met with Mark lear and a group he pulled together and never got an answer until months later when it became apparent it was a person in PDOT working in the traffic section. When contacted about certain plantings, he indicated he could not post it for a technical reason, even though to any lay person the subject plantings were causing a problem. There was also confusion about who was to contact PDOT, and if anything ever was posted. To the best of my knowledge, PDOT has never posted anything in SW Portland. In short, nothing was accomplished by our efforts at that time. I5 structure update, ODOT does not want to meet with us to discuss the project. Preferring to hold a hearing at some future date when everything is cast in concrete. Tribune will have an article out soon. Motion: The SWTrails Group request SWNI to write a letter to ODOT and Sam Adams and Dan Saltzman requesting a meeting with ODOT to discuss the Iowa Structure changes during the planning stage so we can understand what is being considered and provide input, including our interest in keeping the ped trail open during weekends and evenings. We also want to discuss mitigation alternatives in the event the trail is not kept open. " Passed by consensus. Presbyterian Church is willing to talk about what kind of an easement they can live with. Will meet with them soon. 4T - Funding was secured for first part of the project. Motion: "Don Baack is authorized to enter into contracts on behalf of SWTrails to manage the 4T project. He will report back to the committee with monthly progress reports." Passed by consensus. Next walk will be the 4T Meet 9am at Hillsdale Oak, SW Sunset and SW Capitol Hwy in the Wilson HS entrance. We will bus downtown, do our loop from there, bus back. Plan on 4 hours, hopefully it will take less. Bring .85 for over 65 ticket and 1.75 for 2 zone adult ticket. If it takes too long, we may have to buy 2 tickets. No dogs on this walk, sorry. Kids welcome. call Phyllis Towne 223 3723 for details. Work Party SW 25th on east side of MJCC north of Vermont. Park on Idaho or Nebraska near 25th, on December 29, 9 to noon if it takes that long. Bring shovel, wheelbarrow, gloves. Rain or shine. Adjourned at 8:30 Don Baack ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
----------------------- Minutes: November 20, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Arnie Panitch, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Keith Liden, Virginia Henderson, Phyllis Towne, Michael Kisor, Vern Krist, Don Shields, Greg Raisman The meeting was called to order at 6:57 Don handed out color SW recommended City bikeways maps and displayed a large map. Our thanks to Matt for doing the work on the maps, and to Greg for bringing them before he went for his TV show! Phyllis talked about last months hike. There were 22 people and 1 dog Everyone made it. Next month Don will lead the hike which will follow the 4T trail route. Don said several people will be testifying tomorrow on the 4T trail. We are asking for $45,000. Portland Oregon Visitors association (POVA) is very interested in the 4T trail. Keith talked about the new bike maps They were just completed today. The map showed bike pathways, bike lanes, bike boulevards and uphill shoulders. All the bike routes were prioritized by year of completion. Keith said the bike boulevards were most important and would be completed first. Don suggested several areas for new construction: One being an addition at Custer to 4th & 5th under Terwilliger bridge. (new construction #1) Don said Bertha from Vermont to BH hwy is a problem area. The road needs to be widened. Don suggested a bike only signal activated left turn at Bertha Ct. Another alternative is the gully to just to the north. Arnie asked about the salmon colored (problem) areas on the map and Keith explained why they were put in. He hopes to have a list describing each problem area and what the problems are. Don suggested adding circling the area at the Bertha Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy as a problem area. Diane pointed out that the greens on the map were hard to distinguish. Don said Bertha from 19th to 33rd should be changed to purple. (It is a road and part of the Red Electric trail.) Don suggested new construction 19th to Bertha (new construction #3) This is the Red Electric Route. Don read a letter from Jason Tell from ODOT about adding bike lanes to the Barbur bridges. He said they will not be scheduled for rehabilitation for many years because they are in relatively good shape. Don said he will write a reply. Don said ODOT had cleared Slavin Road because they were doing borings in preparation for the Iowa St I-5 repair. Don will invite ODOT ped/bike person to do walk around on Slavin Road. Keith talked about the December 6th bike route open house. Publicity for the open house includes a front page article in the SWNI news Keith has contacted the BTA and others for further publicity. Michael pointed out that a portion of Vermont was labeled “unknown” Don suggested moving Hamilton form 53rd to Scholls Ferry in completion to 0 to 5 years.(Dark purple on the map.) This will then make it on the same time schedule as TSDC funding and possible MTIP funding. It is also a possible Halo LID. Don suggested building a short segment from 10th to 12th next to I-405. (new construction #2) Lee suggested marking the planned greenway trail along South Waterfront on the map. Keith suggested adding a route from Jefferson to the Zoo next to but separated from the Sunset highway. Vern pointed out there was already a gravel road on the South side. Don suggest new construction at Ralston adding a one lane bike lane from Barbur to Terwilliger (new construction #4) Don said that 35th to Stephenson should be dark blue (0 to 5 years). There was a discussion about adding mountain bike trails. Chris said if people came to the open house and suggested those routes we should put the on the map. Don suggested a sign-up sheet for mountain bike routes at the open house to form a sub-committee to add mountain bike routes. Michael suggested a route near 64th and Dolph just south of Garden Home Rd. Don suggested a new bike path connecting to Lewis and Clark College from Macadam to Terwilliger (new construction #5) Don suggested extending green dots (pathway) in Gabriel Park to 45th Don said he got a new email from the Multnomah Presbyterian church saying they are willing to have the trail but they do not want to take on any liability. This is the position they have held all along. We are not 27 months into this give and take with PDOT and the church. It is getting pretty old. Don suggested adding a grid to the map with alphabetical along the top and numerical on the side so people could better identify changes at the open house. Vern suggested adding a route near 58th and Vermont where there is an existing gravel path. Michael said on Dolph and 49th there could be stairs with bike gutter. (new construction #6) Don proposed a widened the sidewalk to include bike as well as pedestrians on Taylors Ferry from Macadam to LaView Don suggested adding a route from the beaver statue on the greenway trail to the Richardson crossing on Macadam and including a crosswalk there and then up to Corbett Ave. (New construction #7) Don suggested 3 maps for open house by completion years to make it more clear. Greg suggested 2 maps, 1-5 on one, longer than 5 on the other. Greg suggested other ways to be consistent with other bike maps. There was a discussion of paying for the room rental and refreshments for the open house, SWTrails has maintained all along that should be paid by PDOT since we are all volunteers. We are working on city business. Greg maintained it was a SWTrails event. Don basically said if PDOT could not pay, we can stop right here. DB later—We need to get a firm commitment from PDOT about all future out of pocket expenses for the bike blvd effort. I thought we had this from the beginning. Our position is that PDOT pays out of pocket costs. My message to PDOT is that there are no free rides, or free open houses. What we are doing is saving PDOT huge amounts of time and process as volunteers. The least they can do is cover the out of pocket costs. Don read the preliminary budget from the Safe roads program. Don read Hillsdale/SW Trails response to Metro hearing on transportation funding. Don said he walked around Hillsdale Park with Terry Davis of Portland Parks to look at trails there. We do not have agreement at this time on what should be done. The objective is to identify the routes and specify the standards the trails should be constructed to. We can then construct the trails. Don said there would be a new sidewalks along 19th at Capitol Hill School if a grant application is accepted. In addition, NO PARKING WITHIN 8 FEET OF FENCE signs will be posted to keep cars away from the fence and give folks a place to walk. ¾ minus gravel will be placed along there to make a better walking surface. SWTrails and SR2S will look at parking along 19th to see what we can do to make a place for kids to walk. There will be 2 work parties at Nebraska and 25th. One Saturday December 1st and one Saturday December 15h. Both are from 8:30 to Noon Bring wheelbarrows, gloves, The annual Hillsdale Thanksgiving walk will start at 9:00 am at SW Capitol Hwy and SW Sunset by the Oak tree. We will make a loop walk going over the Raz-Baack crossing at one point, look at a new green street, have a snack and return to Wilson Meeting adjourned at 8:40 SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE
Minutes: October 25, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Lee Buhler, Greg Raisman (PDOT), Sharon Fekety. Emily Coffey, Patrick Coffey, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Steve Evans, Mark Yelton (PDOT), Michael Kisor, Phil Hamilton The meeting was called to order at 7:00 Mark handed out a preliminary SW Recommended City Bikeways map and there was discussion on changes and additions. Don suggested adding a project between 10th and 11th near the freeway. It would involve building a short trail segment. Steve suggested prioritizing routes and Mark said that was in place but not on the maps at this time. Later maps will reflect priorities. Don suggested another route near Bancroft and some others along the proposed Red Electric trail route. Greg described bike boulevards for those new to the process. Michael suggested an addition in Bridlemile. Lee suggested adding the Slavin road route. Patrick suggested widening an area on Vermont. Don said this is under consideration. Patrick suggested a route cutting through the Alpenrose Dairy. Don said we should keep it under consideration since there might be money to acquire property. Greg said we should consider all routes. Steve said we kind of had two tiers, one for existing routes and routes that would need to be constructed. Don said a route on 19th was not on the map purposely because there was a very dangerous intersection at the bottom of the hill. Don suggested a route near Fred Meyer. Don said the open house for the bike project would be December 5th at the Multnomah Center. Don asked Mark to categorize routes for the next meeting Don said a planning process will start in Maracara Park in February. Phil talked about how the state was involved in the planning process. Don said there will be a walk around in Hillsdale Park on November 20th with Parks. Don said Gregg Everhart of Portland Parks called him to tell him they were applying for grants for trails in the Marquam area. Don talked about bike paths on the Barbur bridges and the possible trail/bike route on Slavin Road. Don has talked to many people about it including a representative Governor Kulongouski's office, ODOT, PDOT and Metro. Don also talked to Senator Ginny Burdick and Representative Mary Nolan about it. ODOT estimates it will cost 12 to 14 million to put bike paths on both sides on both bridges. Greg pointed out that a bike bill from the 1970s said when bridges are built they must include bike paths. Steve talked about Safe Routes to School program. Steve and Don did a walk near Reike and looked at some routes. The biggest concern was the Sunset/Capital intersection. Greg said the engineer on the Safe Routes to School project was very good. Phyllis said last month's hike was very well attended with about 20 people and 4 dogs. Everyone had a good time. Oliver will lead the next hike which will be the south end of trail 6 in November. Don said he and Jim Thayer have been working on routes for the 4T trail and will be able to submit it to city council soon. The next meeting was changed from the usual Thursday since that is Thanksgiving. It will be on Tuesday, November 20th There will be several open houses on the Safe and Sound Streets project. Don met with someone from PDOT to discuss speed reductions on streets around Hillsdale and he agreed with several as well as a crosswalk at Chestnut and Berta. Greg said talked about Google street views and this a good tool for trails and bike routes. The meeting adjourned at 7:55 Respectfully submitted Lee Buhler The next meeting will be Tuesday, November 20th 7:00pm, St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes Sept 27, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Garlene Logan from Hubbard, Lee Buhler, Greg Raisman, Keith Liden, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Terry Davis , Phil Pennington, Greg Hawley, Nick Corinado, Steve Evans, Bruce Murray, Michael Kisor Before the meeting there was discussion the process for bike routes. People thought it would be good to continue to sort things out at this meeting the 10/25 meeting and then have an open house after that The meeting was called to order at 6:55 Don proposed installing an adult/child/pet drinking fountain at the east end of the Stephens Creek trail at Betha and Chestnut. Water meter is already there. The idea of using SW Trails money for this drinking fountain and $1,000 toward one near the NE Corner of Capitol Hwy and Bertha Court by the new watershed building was approved by consensus. Keith talked about the bike boulevard project. We are working on developing a map of possible routes that would be a part of the City Master Bike Plan. There were 6 rides and all have been well attended. There was also a booth at the Hillsdale farmer’s market. Keith made a map from feedback from the rides. Some streets would make good bike boulevard, other a need bike path and then others will need a separated bike path. Steve said he had been looking at the routes and had made a map as well. Keith talked about Gabriel park. It would be good to put a bike path there because the surrounding roads are bad for bikes. There is a similar situation in Maracara park. Don said the city was considering spending 2007 System Development Charge funding for part of the cost of improving SW Vermont from 30th to the city limits on Vermont and they may put in bike lanes and sidewalk on one side. He talked about a separate proposal, a Halo LID, were people who live closer to streets pay more for improvements, but those living nearby also help with the costs. Other streets are Marquim Hill, Hamilton and SW 35th by Jackson MS . Keith said there has been development on Dosch some new retaining walls have been put in and this is a good place to look for improvements. Don mentioned a third iniative to covert ditches to trails and swales that may help some of Dosch sites. Work continues on these. Keith, Chris, Diane, Steve and Sharon will look at the maps and narrow them down to one map. There was a discussion on how to prioritize routes. Keith suggested a meeting this weekend. . It was agreed to make copies of the map for those who cannot make it and a Sunday meeting. Don talked about the Barbur bridges. The decks will need to be rebuilt soon, before ODOT starts work on the repairs to the I-5 Iowa St bridge, the one over Trail 3 in Himes Park. The freeway will also need to be repaired at the Iowa structure. This will be a good time to put in bike amenities. Don and others will meet with Chris Warner, Govenors asst for transporation about these problems on October 15th 5:00 at Aboy Electric and he invited everyone to attend. Don also has a meeting with Ginny Burdick, our state senator, about this. Once these bridges are fixed for bikes and peds, the Red Electric will be much easier to complete Victor von Salsa sent an email suggesting the bridge in Albert Kelly park be moved. Moving the bridge would make more of a loop in the park. Don suggested walking the park with interested people. Don said they are still working on the easement at the Multnomah Presbyterian church. There is still a conflict with the church and the city. Don talked about the Marquim hill trails and how it has progressed. Greg said it was his understanding that it was in the permit process. Don asked Greg to help getting the trail 3 and tral 4 signs installed. Parks has had the signs for several years. Apparently they are made and not put up. Pat said they had more to do than they could possibly do. There was a discussion on how to work with Parks to get approval for more trail work. The is great confusion on who in Parks is responsible for approving trails in different areas. Greg took a list of some trails we are interested and said he would try to find who we need to talk to for each one. Don said it was frustrating because we have people who are willing to work on trails but no trails we can work on due to lack of approval from Parks. Don said the work orders for signs for trail #7 from BH Hwy north to Dosch have been completed by SWTrails and submitte to PDOT. We still need to do work orders for the signs from Fairmount to the Zoo, and from PCC to the city limits to the south. Safe routes to school: Don talked to Reike principle about bike racks. Work party on the 27th for safe routes to school on 25th and Nebraska. We need volunteers to help direct a large group of Americore folks. 8:30 to 1:30 is the time. Don said there has been discussion about traffic around the watershed building and pedestrian travel on Capital hwy during construction. Plans were to close Capitol Hwy to peds, but that was changed, now peds will be on the street separated by Jersey Barriers from the narrow car/bus lane. The October hike will be on trail # 6 from Hillsdale to 18th & Jeff and people will ride the bus back. It will be led by Oliver Massingale. Don said the Safe and Sound Streets program should be asked for funding to improve key segments of our Urban Trail system. . Motion by Phil to ask Safe and Sound Street program to budget 50K for SW urban trails. Second Keith. The motion passed unanimously. Letter to suggest additional funds be provided for trails in other parts of the city. Greg suggested a letter from SW Trails bike blvd markings on Vermont. Rodger Geller PDOT. Keith motion: request PDOT put bike blvd markings on Vermont from Terwilliger to Berta immediately as a demonstration project. Chris second. The motion passed unanimously. Keith will draft letter. Garlene talked about working on trail in her neighborhood near Hubbard, Aurora, and Canby. She said there was opposition from some farmers in the area. There are also concerns about safety and people are worried about vandalism. She said trails would be a safe way for kids to go school. The trail could high-light historical aspects of the area. She said they do not have an organized structure yet. Don suggested they form a 501c non-profit or join another organization that has one. Garlene thought they might be able to do that with the Camber of Commerce. Greg suggested businesses might get involved because it may have tourist potential. Don suggested a conceptual maps and how they connect with other trails and getting involved with the safe routes to school programs. Don suggested talking to state parks. Phil said vandalism went way down at Bonneville Power substation when they put a trail right by it. Nick pointed out that people do not carry in beer. Chris suggested getting involved with the bike tours of the wineries. Don suggested walks to show people what it would be like. Nick talked about an old route in Spain (Camino de Santiago) that over 100000 people walk on every year. Don suggested a web site and said signs made a big difference by making people aware of trails. Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 Respectfully submitted: Lee Buhler SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes:July 26, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Chris Mays, Steve Evans, Lee Buhler, Vern Krist, Tsvi Epstein, Phil Hamilton The meeting was called to order at 7:03 Introductions: Lee talked about concerts in Willamette Park. Phil said he will have 160 volunteers at Tryon Creek State Park. Chris said that someone burned down s playground structure St Johns Fisher. One person has been arrested. We are hoping walkers through that area will improve situation by having more eyes on the area. Don said that Sam Adams is looking into options to improve arterials in Portland and the funding to do that. Don said SW has 45% of all substandard roads in Portland and we should start thinking about bike/pedestrian improvements that could be a part of the eventual improvements. He gave several examples of streets with bad sidewalks. Sam's office will have an advisory committee and Don said we need to nominate someone to the advisory committee. By consensus we choose Don. Don talked about the bridges on Barbur and lack of walking or bike lanes. Don called ODOT about the situating. He was told the Barbur bridges are failing and will need to be fixed soon but there are no plans for bike/pedestrian lanes. They said there was no money. Also, a bridge on I-5 and while that work is done a lot of I-5 traffic will use Barbur. Therefore, ODOT is planning to fix the Barbur bridges before the I-5 work starts.. Chris talked about the bike rides. There have been 3 rodes and one had 21 riders. Chris said there are a lot of steep hills and it is hard to find ways around many of them. He said there were many different capabilities of riders and suggested we identify in some way the strenuous routes. Steve said gravel roads were also an issue. Chris said they had to cross busy streets several times and drivers were courteous about letting people cross. We discussed several specific routes. Vern asked about the purpose of the rides and Chris explained the objectives and said the priority was bike blvds. Connections with existing bike lanes. Tsvi said he does not feel SW has safe bike routes. He said there are some good routes but they often lead to some very bad routes.. He gave many examples. Vern said Vermont is an easy fix. Steve said there are a lot of good bide routes that the locals know but are not generally known and this process will be very helpful to people in identifying those routes. Don talked about the Red Electric trail and how it would solve many of these problems. He said Metro has some funding for the Red Electric trail Don talked about the good progress on the Stephen's creek walkway. The forms are in place and all that is left is to attach some of the stringers and add the top decking. He estimates it will take another 80 man hours to complete. The last delivery of material occurred yesterday.. Pete will lead next walk possibly to Lewis and Clark. Don said Speed bumps are now on Vermont from Berta to Terwilliger Vern asked about trails on either side of tram and there was a discussion of those trial We decided not to have an August trails meeting Steve asked about the Lake Oswego to Portland planning progress and we discussed the bus/streetcar options and costs The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 Next Meeting: Thursday, September 27 7:00pm Hopefully we will have representatives from the Portland Office of Transportation to update us on progress on the Gibbs St. Pedestrian bridge. St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Don Baack6495 SW Burlingame PlacePortland, OR 97239-7001503-246-2088 Baack@pacifier.com SWTrails Web Site http://explorepdx.com/swtrails.htmlHillsdale Neighborhood Web Site http://explorepdx.com/hna.html SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes:June 28, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Phyllis Towne, Lee Buhler, Liz Marantz, Sharon Fekety, Steve Evans, Greg Raisman, Michael Kizor The meeting was called to order at 7:05 Introductions: Sharon talked about the LOPAC meeting and she felt the process was stacked towards a streetcar. Metro estimates there will be 4000 bike users per day on the Lake Oswego to Portland trail. Don suggested putting light rail to Lake Oswego via the Milwaukie line. Then constructing the trail and increased bus service on Macadam and Terwilliger. Phillis said we had 15 people on last hike despite rain and no one got lost. It was the most difficult hike due to crossing logs etc. Lee will be leading next walk ,July 14th, which will go from Hillsdale to Butterfly Park via Himes Park. Don said we got permits for Stephens Creek and he as been busy buying materials. There was a deadline to spend some of the grant money. The forms for the Stephen's Creek walkway have been built. Leonard Gard will prepare permits for trails in the Lakeman Orkney, OHSU and the property between Barbur and Teriwilliger. Don suggests SW Trails build two of the trails. Bike Boulevards: The bike rides to evaluate bike routes will start this month. Everyone needs to get all routes to Greg as soon as possible to put them on the map. Don will ask Keith to email the criteria we developed earlier to Greg to put on the back of the ride maps.. Hopefully we will have a map with the routes on one side and the criteria on the other for people to look at during the rides. The schedule of rides has been published in the SWNI News. Don said there are now speed bumps on Chestnut and a portion of Vermont. Greg suggested the Chestnut/Vermont route be the first SW bike Boulevard. Greg said there is bike parking being installed on Belmont. Don has talked to the school district about installing bike racks (hopefully covered) for the Hillsdale Sunday farmer's market. 4T Trail Jim Thayer and Don walked some possible routes for the 4T trail and they hope to complete the report, have the public process of review and then go to council and ask for money soon. There may be a preliminary walk soon with interested groups. There will be a meeting at Maplewood school tomorrow on safe routes to school. Don and Greg will attend. Maplewood school has a small grant of $1000 to start the project. Greg said they wanted to get all schools included in a plan for safe routes to school. It will be a 5 year plan. Don said there was a possibility that Maplewood the street might be improved the ditches to swales program that may also make a good safe route to Maplewood school. Stephens Creek walkway: Forms were made at Don's house and the new Senior Housing “Watershed� building. Don and someone from parks cleared Hawthorne were walkway will go. We may have a layout work party on this weekend, and probably will work a few hours on July 4th . We will be using a laser level to set grade. Trudy Raz has been instrumental in getting funding for walkway. Phyllis and Lee will work on celebration for walkway,after it is completed.. Thanks to Noah's bagels for all the bagels. In the near future We need to move the concrete footings down the hill and into place. We hope to have four people per footing and use straps tied to the footing. We will ask NET teams if they are interested in helping as practice in moving inanimate heavy objects. Five people have been interviewed for manager of soft surface trails at Parks. There over 100 miles of soft surface trails. Red Electric: Sam Adams is thinking about alternative funding ideas for street maintenance and a few safety improvements, it may mean an assessment of $4.00 tax per household for transportation and we maybe able to use some of the money for urgent improvements of the Red Electric Trail, if we can make the case for it. . Sharon will help July 8th at Hillsdale Sunday Farmers Market. The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 Next Meeting: Thursday, July 26, 7:00pm St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Don Baack6495 SW Burlingame PlacePortland, OR 97239-7001503-246-2088 Baack@pacifier.com SWTrails Web Site http://explorepdx.com/swtrails.htmlHillsdale Neighborhood Web Site http://explorepdx.com/hna.html SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes:May 24, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Phyllis Towne, Lee Buhler, Keith Liden, Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Greg Raisman, Liz Marantz, Michael Kiaser, Phil Hamilton The meeting was called to order at 7:10 Introductions: Phyllis said two sidewalks have been repaired in her area. Phil updated on work in Tryon Creek state park and talked about the Banks to Vernonia trail. Chris reported on possible trail at St John Fisher church. They will look at the route after the meeting. Greg will be traveling to Europe and going on several bike rides and taking a look some cities that have really good bike facilities. Bike Boulevards: Keith has been working on getting bike rides scheduled. He as worked up a publicity blurb. He is hoping to do the rides in August. Don suggested a story board at the farmers market. Greg also suggested Multnomah Village and Diane said the last Friday affairs would be good. Keith asked if one ride per neighborhood was enough. There will be a schedule of rides for the June 15 SWNI news deadline. Greg talked about smart card bike lockers in San Francisco. The Red Electric Trail: Don talked about the Red Electric hearing at city hall. Don said it was approved with an amendment to improve an intersection in Hillsdale and the Slavin Road route. Next step to get it on transportation system plan Lee nominated was nominated to be the SWTrails Volunteer of year Don said there was a new design for the footings for the Stephens Creek walkway. The building permit should be granted soon and work can start sometime shortly after July 1 Phyllis talked about last month's SWTrails hike. Pete led the hike and there were 21 people and 3 dogs. The hike went through Lewis and Clark College and then down to the Willamette river. Don will lead next month's hike which will go from Hillsdale to Lake Oswego and cross the Stephen's Creek area were the walkway will be constructed. Lee will lead the July hike. Greg suggested contacting the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition Multnomah Presbyterian Church easement. Don said the City and the church are still working on liability issues. He said the city has asked the church to take liability for the parking lot where the trail crosses. Don said the church is very enthusiastic about the trail and he is hopeful something will be worked out soon. Bike boulevard on Vermont: Don and Greg talked about this project. Petitions were send out and enough people signed them to allow speed bumps to be put on Vermont as well as a few other improvements Don said that Pam Peck at Metro had gotten funding to to a book on hikes in the tri-county metro region. Don said work will start soon on the 4T trail and he thought a possible source of funding would be SDC funds. LOPAC: Don said the Lake Oswego to Portland Advisory Committee had narrowed the options to bus with some improvements and a streetcar. The streetcar option would be much more expensive and make the trail much more complicated. If the streetcar option becomes the option it may cost 150 million for the trail alone since the trail will have to cross over highway 43 several times. The meeting was adjourned at 7:58 Next Meeting: Thursday, June 28 7:00pm St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Don Baack6495 SW Burlingame PlacePortland, OR 97239-7001503-246-2088 Baack@pacifier.com SWTrails Web Site http://explorepdx.com/swtrails.htmlHillsdale Neighborhood Web Site http://explorepdx.com/hna.html SW TRAILS GROUP COMMITTEE ----------------------- Minutes: April 26, 2007 St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Attendance: Don Baack, Phil Pennington, Katurah Pennington, Greg Raisman, Mark Yelton, Phil Hamilton Lee Buhler, Carolyn Rundorff, David Auker, Steve Evans, Ann Peacock, Keith Liden. Chris Mays, Diane Mays, Gregg Everhart, Michael Kiaser, John Lynn Matt Ralph The meeting was called to order at: 7:00 Announcements Don Property owner at 45th causing problems. Speed bump meeting Stephens. Bike routes: Greg summarized progress and displayed the current proposed bike route map. Greg hopes to have the first open house in June. He said at some point it will come up for a vote at City Council and at least some funding looks good.. David suggested a new route on Illinois St.. The group worked on the map and removed some routes and added some. Keith handed out his suggestions on preparing the bike recommendations. Greg suggested adding a separated bike way category. Steve suggested prioritizing routes. Keith said it might depend on which ones were least expensive to implement. Chris said it would be hard to prioritize routes before our rides. Lee suggested adding a route on Landing Drive. Don said there were a lot of miles and Keith wondered if there are some routes we do not need to ride. Don suggested the ride leader prepare the routes and then set a time and people could come to the ride or ride it on their own. Keith suggested a preliminary ride schedule for the next meeting. Map is on SWNI web site. (www.swni.org) Don suggested one ride by May 15th. David suggested improving existing routes that are dangerous. Greg reminded us to consider end of trip destinations. Lynn from PTA talked about safer routes to schools on Capitol Hill elementary school. A preliminary report has been developed. She showed a map of the draft and a handout detailing the plan. She said they had a walk to school with the police and are planning more. She talked about the modifications needed for the implementation of the plan. One part of the plan suggested 17th be with angle parking one way street. Greg said that one way streets sometimes speed cars up. Lynn said they were going to add ballards to help slow traffic. Don suggested a parallel street that has much less traffic. There was a discussion on how buses get in and out. Carolyn asked about staff parking and Lynn says that has to be worked out. Don reminded Lynn that 3/4 minus gravel is the best. Don pointed out a wet section of path that should be graveled. Gregg Everhart talked about the Red Electric Trail. She showed the map made in 2005. She summarized the history of the project and some suggested changes on Capital Hwy since the report was submitted. Gregg said there is a tight steep switchback for bikes from George Himes Park to SW Iowa and Don suggested using the proposed Slavin route. Gregg said the plan would go to city council on May 16th. Don said they are still trying to work our the liability details on the easement at the Multnomah Presbyterian Church property. Don said there may be some trail disruption when a tower is replaced on Council Crest. Motion Don: Keep trail at Council Crest open during tower replacement work. Second: Keith The motion passed unanimously. Motion Michael: Keep the restrooms at Council Crest open during tower replacement work. Second: Carolyn The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at: 9:02 Next Meeting: Thursday, June 28th 7:00pm St. Luke's Lutheran Church 6835 SW 46th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 Don Baack6495 SW Burlingame PlacePortland, OR 97239-7001503-246-2088 Baack@pacifier.com SWTrails Web Site http://explorepdx.com/swtrails.htmlHillsdale Neighborhood Web Site http://explorepdx.com/hna.html |