Legislative update, Week 13

Middling weather at the
Legislature

Not much to report here.

New milestones and movements are highlighted in green. (As usual, see more relevant bills or movement? Drop a note in the comments.)

Specific bike things:

• SB 533 making it legal for two-wheelers to go on red when you've waited one complete cycle and the light or controller is broken. In the House and scheduled for a vote this week.
• HB 3255 Originally requiring additional reflective clothing at night, but now with two sets of proposed amendments for a rear light instead of just a reflector at night. In Senate committee, maybe stalled. BikePortland has a detailed critique of the current version of the bill from bike law expert Ray Thomas.

Other Bike-relevant and transportation bills:

• A pod of bills about speed bumps: HB 2283 HB 2730, HB 2736 (these speed bump bills remain nulls, ready for gut-n-stuff action; see below for three that are getting stuffed)
• HB 2552 fees for studded tires (public hearing held, but no work session - it's looking pretty dead)
• HB 2620 would require ODOT to inventory ODOT land and determine if it is really needed transportation (public hearing held, but no work session - also looks dead)
• HB 2621 for expanded photo speed enforcement pilot project in Portland. It got a systematic set of amendments to shift from "photo radar unit" to "fixed photo radar system." Looks technical rather than substantive. Still in committee, maybe languishing.
• HB 2819 to require drivers over the age of 75 to take annual license exams (public hearing held, but no work session - looking very dormant)

Funding:

• HB 2281, HB 2282 - Former speed bump bills. 2281 on road usage charges passed the House and is in the Senate, and had a hearing last week. 2282 on electronic signatures passed the House and referred to Senate committee.
• HB 2274 Changes name of "Connect Oregon Fund"; also HB 2275. Both are in a holding pattern, looking inactive right now.
• HB 5040 ODOT Biennial Budget. Lots of hearings, but no recent action.
• SJR 16 broadens the list of projects eligible for the gas tax, "for infrastructure that reduces traffic burden of, or pollution from, motor vehicles on public roads." Looking dead. No recent action.
  

A few land use things of note (all of these have had hearings and look too be live bills and active, at least for the moment):

• SB 565 - Tax credit for rehab of historic properties. Shoot, this looks stuck in committee, all too dormant!
• HB 2293, formerly one of the speed bump bills, has been gutted and stuffed: now it would "expand scope of long-range transportation plan. Requires [Oregon Transportation] commission to review and update plan at least once every six years."
• HB 2564 on inclusionary zoning. Passed the House, Senate committee Public Hearing next week. BikePortland has more on it.
• HB 2633 on improving planning for disasters. Looks like it got a major watering down in amendments, from "adopting administrative rules" to "providing guidance." It's in committee now.
• SB 5502 concerning North State Hospital Campus  (Still lots of hearings)
• SB 120 as introduced expanded the definition of ways to meet "mobility standards" and included "reducing congestion in other modes of travel" - which seems ambiguous, but could as the language was adjusted have meant something like "reduce auto congestion by means of improvements in bike lanes and transit (etc)." The relevant language has been deleted in the first round of amendments, and now it looks like it maintains the usual "highway mobility targets established for a highway corridor by the Department of Transportation’s Oregon Highway Plan" and calls for a new study on the possibility of change. Passed Senate and House committee work session this week.

Carbon taxes had looked like they were going nowhere, but three of them were scheduled and kept alive in April. The first two look dormant now, though, but the third has action.

• HB 3250: Requires Environmental Quality Commission to adopt carbon cap-and-dividend program.
• HB 3252: Imposes tax on each fuel supplier and utility based on amount of carbon in carbon-based fuel that is sold by fuel supplier to consumers in this state or that is used to produce carbon-generated electricity supplied by utility to consumers in this state.
• HB 3470: Requires Environmental Quality Commission to adopt by rule statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits for years 2020 and 2050 and to adopt interim statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits consistent with 2050 limit every five years.​ This was amended and referred to committee for more work. (Interestingly, the google doesn't quickly turn up good analysis of the bill or commentary on its amendments - maybe you know more about it?)

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For all notes on the 2015 session, see here.

City Council, May 11th

It's beautiful out!

Too nice to spend time on a Council agenda that really doesn't have anything of great moment here.

So a few bullets and excerpts from the City's own summary.

There are two rounds of committee appointments.

• The Mayor gets to appoint folks to the Historic Landmarks Commission and Human Rights Advisory Commission. The new HLC Commissioner is from the giant construction company, Hoffman Construction, and they've done neat things like the rehab of the 1889 Portland Armory that transformed it into a LEED Platinum theater. That's an interesting appointment, and could bring realistic expertise on adaptive reuse. (Think north campus, State Hospital!)
• By contrast in procedure, a full Council vote is required on appointments to Community Police Review Board, Downtown Advisory Board, Housing & Urban Development Advisory Commission, Salem Planning Commission and Salem Cultural & Tourism Promotion Advisory Board. The only thing that maybe is a little interesting is a potential conflict-of-interest with the employer of the new Planning Commissioner: "I would need to recuse myself from any decisions for which a party is represented by Saalfeld Griggs." Saalfield Griggs is the home of probably Salem's pre-eminent land use attorney, and it seems like there could be a relatively high number of cases at the Planning Commission that involve Saalfield Griggs. That might be something to watch.

An expansion of no-smoking policy. From the City:

Councilors will vote on scheduling a public hearing on May 26 to take testimony on a proposed anti-smoking ordinance.

The ordinance, which will have its first reading at Monday’s meeting, would ban smoking from most city-owned properties. Those properties include parks and open spaces, city-owned parking garages, fire stations and the Vern Miller Civic Center campus to name a few examples. Conventional tobacco products, as well as electronic cigarettes and soon-to-be legal marijuana, would all be prohibited.

In fall 2014, Salem City Councilor Diana Dickey introduced a proposal to make city-owned properties smoke free. The council directed city staff to prepare a draft ordinance based on her proposal.

Several years ago, the city council rejected a plan to ban smoking in city parks.

Back to the proposed Grand Theatre Sign. I misunderstood the proposed location: It would be on High Street over the main entry to the theater and not on the corner as I had supposed. No matter. It would be a handsome marquee, and it looks like multiple downtown-related advisory boards are all endorsing it. (See here for previous discussion.)

On the High Street entry, rather than the corner

There's a proposal for a grant at Minto for the "restoration of native floodplain forest in areas that are currently Douglas fir and hybrid poplar plantations."

And more on parking fines from the City:

Tickets for overtime parking violations in downtown Salem could rise from $15 to $25. The council will consider amending city code to increase fines for all types of parking tickets, including overtime violations and improper parking methods.

If approved by council on Monday, the ordinance would go to a second reading for enactment at the May 26 council meeting.

Parking citations in fiscal 2014-15 are projected to bring in about $547,200 in revenue. If parking fines were increased and a similar number of citations were issued, about $100,000 more in annual revenue could be generated for the general fund.

Parking citation revenue doesn’t cover the cost of parking enforcement, and the proposed fine increases would only narrow the gap. The city has allocated about $931,590 to pay for parking enforcement in the 2014-15 budget.

The city based the parking fine increases by comparing Salem’s fines with Eugene, Corvallis, Medford, Beaverton and Portland. In many cases, Salem’s fines were below those charged by other cities. [italics added]

(City of Salem quotes mainly from the City FB.)

MWACT meets Thursday - also NGRAB

The Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation skipped April, but you may recall the discussion of bikes at the March meeting. MWACT resumes with a meeting tomorrow, Thursday the 7th, and they'll be talking about the State 2018-2021 funding cycle.

The minutes from the March meeting are interesting (minutes, agenda, and meeting packet here).

Lots of skepticism and complaint about bikes:

Commissioner Sam Brentano expressed skepticism related to reported statistics particularly for economic benefits attributed to bicyclists. The commissioner would like to know the actual percentage of people that commute in comparison with the revenue spent on bicycle infrastructure. He doesn't believe that the amount spent is justified....

Mitch Teal expressed concern regarding the lack of financial contribution from bicyclists....

Val Adamson commented that often bicyclists don't follow the rules....

Commissioner Craig Pope commented that he also doesn't believe the data [that Bicycle tourism contributes $400 million to Oregon's economy each year etc] is accurate....

Shifting to the May agenda, there's a map with a proposed "150%" list of projects (the expectation is a third of them don't get funding) for the "fix-it" portion of the 2018-2021 funding cycle.

The two projects actually in Salem, on Wallace Road (OR-221) and on the Marion Street Bridge, look more like extensions of existing projects rather than new, unfunded projects seeking funding.

Unfortunately there's not enough information in the summary report to parse this out.

The bridge project in particular deserves more detail, as it is has a $12 million estimate and includes work to "upgrade seismic features." The dollar amount looks too small to be a full "cascadian mega-quake" retrofit, so the superficial reading here is that it would be a partial reinforcement to a medium-sized quake standard.

It's not clear how actually useful that would be.

And in more pleasant trivia, here's something about one of the MWACT commissioners from Saturday's paper:

MWACT meets at 3:30pm on Thursday the 7th at 100 High St. SE, Suite 200 above Bar Andaluz and Table Five08.

North Gateway Redevelopment Advisory Board

NGRAB also meets on Thursday, and on the agenda is a visit from the Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates. The main proposal for a Winter/Maple Street bike boulevard alignment is intended to connect with Salem Industrial Drive and the Kroc Center, so NGRAB should be interested.

Also on the agenda is a more detailed look at the RTSP and projects in or near the neighborhood.

Finally there is an update on community response to the Portland Road project. I don't think there's anything really surprising in it - though it's interesting to note that residents rank sidewalks and bike lanes a little higher than do employees or employers, who most likely drive to their destinations.

The North Gateway Redevelopment Advisory Board meets Thursday the 7th at 8:00 AM in the Center 50+, Classroom A, 2615 Portland Road NE.  

SK Education Foundation Shares Details on Starkey-McCully Block Renovation

You might recall the debate over some Urban Renewal funding for the historic Starkey-McCully block that the Salem Keizer Education Foundation recently purchased.

Though the Foundation withdrew the request for Urban Renewal funding, the project is moving ahead.

And here is what looks like some unambiguously terrific news.

Unclog the storefront!
Key removals and restored details in yellow

Later this month the Historic Landmarks Commission will deliberate on a proposal to restore the windows and storefront system that had been partially boarded and bricked up.

Starkey-McCully block, detail, 1964
University of Oregon (Elizabeth Walton Potter)

I sure hope this is as uncomplicated and straight-forward as it looks!

The Public Hearing will be on Thursday, May 21st.

Maybe there will be more to say when the Staff Report comes out, but I hope it's a slam-dunk and that there is nothing more to say.

Also on that Hearing agenda will be the proposed sign for the Grand Theatre.

(See here for a brief discussion.)

Hey, it's Bike Month!

And it looks like the Bike Club is really getting into it this year!

They're highlighting the fact that Salem doesn't have any bicycle-friendly-businesses this year. (Though SAIF was an honorable mention a couple years back.)

Bicycle Friendly Businesses in Salem

The Novice Rides kick off this month on the 9th, and in addition to Ankeny, they are adding a second starting point at EZ Orchards on the 24th.

Novice Rides

The Club is also participating in the ride-logging National Bike Challenge. The goal is for 400 people riding.

Bike Boulevards and other Bits in the News

It was a great way to start National Bike Month to see bike boulevards on the front page!

But is there already at Council a current and subtext of bike as symbol in the culture wars?

At the meeting Monday, some city councilors cautioned that the bicycle infrastructure proposed in the report should not come at the expense of other services to the community.

"As much as I'd like to have bicycle infrastructure today, that's at a sacrifice of having enough police, firefighters, whatever else," said Councilor Daniel Benjamin of Ward 6.

Fernandez responded by saying general funds, which pay for police and firefighters in Salem, historically have not been used by the city for cycling infrastructure.

"I don't think council would ever be asked to sacrifice general funding for bike boulevards," Fernandez said. "We have a tradition of not using general funds for these projects."

If Councilors are positioning bike transport as parasitical on police and fire departments rather than as a cheap way to relieve congestion and improve healthy living - well, we've lost the framing.

It's bike month

We have to get to a place where we do start thinking in terms of human capacity for all road users rather than vehicular capacity solely for car users. We need fewer cars on the road and more people using the roads!

Architecture Notes: Grant Neighborhood Houses and AIA Salem Awards

The Grant Neighborhood Association meets next week, and on the agenda is last week's publication of the Historic Houses Handbook.

Houses of Grant Neighborhood

First off, it must be noted this is a pamphlet about houses and housing types. It's not a neighborhood history or any number of other things. So to wish for more detail on other matters is in a way also to wish the pamphlet were about something else. I get that. (I want the pamphlet to be two or three times as long!)

But one of the themes to this blog is that a form of atomic analysis that breaks things down into component parts and doesn't look enough at pattern and relation and system really hinders the ways we can think about urban form. Travel by auto erases too much space and makes it difficult to think about connections between things. As a commenter pointed out the other day, talk about transportation systems also entails talk about land use. If stores, homes, and schools are too far apart, even the best bike boulevards, bike paths, and cycletracks won't attract meaningful numbers of people to use them. Here, talk about housing forms and development patterns also should entail talk about other kinds of infrastructure and system.

Some of the most interesting history is the effect our waterways have had on development. The introductory material talks about the flood of 1890 and about needing to drain marshy land in some of the Grant neighborhood in the 20th century - but then there's this interpolated section of boilerplate about the State Capitol, which isn't in the Grant neighborhood!