Friends of Marine Drive Contest City Survey and Plan for Marine Drive

I didn't catch up on Council over the weekend or last night, and mostly there wasn't much to say it seemed. But some comment in a late add to Council agenda on the Marine Drive purchases* deserves more attention.

Marine Drive hardly exists, and it already has a "Friends of Marine Drive" group advocating for it, like it's some wildlife, park, or historic property! I suppose it is imperiled in a way.

from "Friends of Marine Drive" last night at Council

They write to Council:

[In] November 2019 an alignment for Marine Drive was surveyed that is not consistent with the Council's June 10, 2019 motion....[the] surveyed alignment for Marine Drive swings outside of the Urban Growth Boundary to the east (red shading) and was the previous alignment in the Transportation Systems Plan that takes Marine Drive along Wallace Marine Park.

The context for this is a proposal and request from 2017 for a different alignment, which seemed to have been formally accepted at Council in 2019. The detail map above shows segments #4 and #5 on the proposed alignment.

Connection at #4 is being disputed now (diagram from 2017)

If the City intends to push through a segment outside the UGB, it will be interesting that they might employ an argument on "rural roads" used by SRC opponenents.

On the other hand, there are good reasons to prefer the connection to Cameo Street at Fifth Avenue, and if it is simpler because it is inside the UGB, all the better.

This also may be evidence that the LUBA decision did cause the City to revert the boundaries of the UGB to the pre-SRC state. This has not been addressed explicitly by the City so far as I know.

There will be more to say, especially as the City's Marine Drive concept has entailed some kind of connection across Wallace Road at Second Street. There are multiple moving parts here.

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* Each lot and owner is its own Agenda item:

1. one
2. two
3. three