1. Purpose/Intent

The Transportation System Plan (TSP) and its accompanying regulations have been developed to meet State and regional mandates. The State Transportation Planning Rule (TPR) and Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) require local jurisdictions to adopt transportation system plans. This it Portland’s first transportation plan; it updates the City’s Comprehensive Plan and includes a number of other mandated elements.

•  Comprehensive Plan policies, including street classification maps

•  20-year list of major transportation improvements within Portland

•  List of regional and local refinement plans and studies that affect Portland

•  Modal and management plans for motor vehicles; pedestrians; bicycles; freight; air, water, rail and pipeline; transportation demand management; and transportation system management

•  Financial plan

•  Performance measures and benchmarks

•  Implementation measures including street standards and city code amendments

The TSP was developed around five themes:

•  Support the Region 2040 Growth Concept

•  Transportation choices for everyone

•  Environmental sustainability

•  Stewardship of Portland’s transportation system

•  A comprehensive and unifying approach to transportation

Specifically, the Plan and accompanying regulations attempt to accomplish the following:

Growth management

•  Support growth in the Central City and other centers, along main streets, and in industrial and employment areas

•  Support transit-oriented development

•  Help protect existing neighborhoods from transportation impacts

•  Provide a multimodal transportation system that supports the compact growth pattern described in the Region 2040 Growth Concept

Economic development

•  Improve mobility and access to existing and development employment centers and industrial sanctuaries, including Columbia South Shore

•  Support redevelopment of underutilized land

•  Incorporate regionally-significant transportation projects identified in the RTP

•  Incorporate multimodal transportation projects in the City’s urban renewal areas including Gateway, Lents, Interstate, and the Central City

Urban Design

•  Incorporate a new street classification – Street Design – that responds to existing and planned land uses and reinforces the desired character of each street

Housing and Neighborhoods

•  Include district policies that address neighborhood livability and safety

•  Include transportation projects that area intended to reduce traffic infiltration and improve bicycle and pedestrian connectivity within neighborhoods and to nearby shopping, education, and activity centers

•  Include transportation projects that support new residential development in undeveloped areas and in areas that are infilling or redeveloping

Environment

•  Incorporate Green Streets (as developed by Metro) concepts into street design standards and project development

•  Minimize street widths to reduce impervious surfaces

•  Support ESA fish species recovery and including performance measures and benchmarks for culvert removals

•  Support sustainable infrastructure activities and strategies

•  Build the City street system to minimize air pollution

Transportation

•  Encourage development of a balanced, affordable and efficient transportation system

•  Provide accessibility to all planned land uses

•  Provide safe and efficient movement of people and goods while preserving, enhancing, ore reclaiming neighborhood livability

•  Minimize the impact of inter-regional trips on City neighborhoods, commercial areas, and the City’s street system

•  Reduce reliance on the automobile and per capita miles traveled

•  Maintain the infrastructure in good condition

Open space

•  Classify Off-Street Paths in parks, cemeteries, and golf courses where these paths serve a transportation function

•  Support development of recreational trails that provide a transportation function, including the Greenway trail.

For a more in-depth analysis of how the regulations support the City’s Comprehensive Plan, please refer to the legal findings contained within the adopting Ordinance.

2. Applicability

The revisions to Title 16, 17, and 33 apply throughout the City. Approximately 90 percent of the revisions update terminology and have no impact on content.

The regulations seek to respond to State and regional mandates and implement transportation policy contained in the TSP by:

•  Implementing requirements for street and pedestrian/bicycle connectivity on large sites developing or redeveloping, consistent with RTP standards

•  Implementing requirements for “street-like” features in parking lots over 3 acres in size

The regulations clarify or revise regulations that have been confusing or unclear by:

•  Eliminating the minimum transit setbacks requirements

•  Clarifying the maximum transit setback requirements

•  Eliminating the need for transportation policy analysis in all land use reviews except Comprehensive Plan Map amendments

The regulations remove barriers to transit-oriented development by:

•  Eliminating off-street parking requirements for development within 500 feet of major transit routes

•  Prohibiting drive-through facilities in the CX (outside the Central City) and EX zones

•  Allowing up to 5 percent of required parking to be striped for motorcycle parking

Public benefits will include the development of more intense, pedestrian and transit-oriented development that supports the use of alternatives to the automobile. Improved connectivity standards will provide increased accessibility to shopping, education, and recreation opportunities. The benefit to specific property owners will be a reduction in site area required for transit setbacks and parking areas for development adjacent to or near transit streets.

See sections 5 and 6 for a more complete discussion of reviews, costs, and benefits.

3.  Alternatives and regulatory coordination:

A number of tools, both regulatory and non-regulatory, are proposed in the Transportation System Plan (TSP). Proposed regulations are intended to provide certainty to developers and the public about the type of development that can occur in the City and to clarify transit-related regulations that have proved problematic to implement.

The proposed regulations are consistent with relevant local, regional and state regulations (see legal findings included with the recommended ordinance for greater detail). The RTP and TPR require some mandates to be implemented in the form of code provisions.

No new land use reviews are included in the code revisions. The requirement for a transportation impact analysis proposed for Title 17 is being moved from its current location in Title 33 where it applies to land divisions and from the Implementation section of the Transportation Element. It is being moved to Title 17 for clarity and to avoid having it in two locations. The amendment represents no change from current practice. New approval criteria for park-and-ride facilities are being added to Title 33 because of the unique characteristics of this use. Park and ride facilities are currently regulated as conditional uses in the OS and R zones (as basic utilities) and they will continue to be regulated as conditional uses. The approval criteria are crafted from existing policy.

Some revisions are intended to simplify or clarify regulations that have proven problematic for staff and the public. Minimum transit setbacks are being deleted; maximum transit setbacks have been clarified and conflicting text revised.

The code revisions will not create any nonconforming uses, but some site development will be made nonconforming. Mandated requirements for “street-like features” in parking lots over 3 acres will require revisions to parking lot layout when sites redevelop. The prohibition of drive-through facilities in the CX (outside the Central City) and EX zones will create some nonconforming drive-through development. The underlying use on the site will not become nonconforming.

In some cases, the code revisions may make some sites conforming by eliminating minimum transit setbacks and eliminating off-street parking requirements near major transit routes.

4.  Stakeholder Involvement:

The following groups and individuals have been involved in the process:

•  Property owners

•  Business and industry associations

•  District associations

•  Neighborhood associations

•  Neighborhood residents

•  Advocacy groups

•  Environmental groups

Stakeholders have provided input at public meetings, through written comment and in meetings with project staff. The public involvement process started in 1995 with the formation of a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC members were selected based on: interest group representation, geographic area representation, interest in transportation issues, and familiarity with specific transportation modes. The size of the CAC varied between 10 and 16 members over the 6 ½ years of the plan development with 30 people serving in all. Most recently the make-up of the CAC has included representatives of neighborhood associations, advocacy groups, and small businesses. Sixty CAC meetings were held between 1995 and 2002.

Eight district workshops were held in September and October 1998. In June and July 1999 and in January 2000, six focus groups were held to discuss citywide and district transportation policy changes. In June 2001, 10 Neighborhood Coalition briefings were held to review progress and key elements of the TSP. In December 2001, three citywide TSP Preview workshops were held guiding participants through a series of stations describing elements of the TSP. Approximately 2000 persons, groups, associations, and businesses were notified.

Three TSP newsletters were distributed in 1995, 1998 and 1999. Two brochures were printed and distributed.

Other presentations were made to interested groups including:

•  The Columbia Corridor Association

•  Oregon Truckers Association

•  Citywide land Use and Transportation Working Group

•  Association for Portland Progress

The draft of the TSP, including regulatory changes, has been available on the PDOT web site since May 15, 2002. Notice of the Planning Commission hearings in June 2002 were mailed to approximately 2,600 persons and groups on May 9, 2002.

The TSP has also been reviewed over the past 6 ½ years by a technical advisory committee made up of agencies within the City, including PDC, Parks, BES, OPDR, and BOP and of outside agencies including Multnomah County, Metro, ODOT, the Port of Portland, Tri-Met. A subcommittee made up of OPDR, BOP, and PDOT staff reviewed code revisions and brought them back to the larger TAC group and the CAC.

5.  Implementation and Evaluation:

a. Start up costs:

There will be minor start up costs associated with producing handouts, training staff, etc.

b. Reviews that will apply and likely fees:

The TSP does not include any new reviews or fees.

c. Impact of reviews on administration:

Existing review criteria are being modified for conditional uses, conditional use master plans, and impact mitigation plans to incorporate transportation issues previously reviewed through transportation policy analysis. The elimination of the transportation policy analysis represents a significant reduction in applicant and staff time for these reviews.

d. Impact of regulations and standards on administration:

May add small amount of time to plan checks, but in general the regulations will be clearer to administer, which could lead to time savings. Several changes are intended to eliminate the need for staff time spent on adjustments, for example, adjustments to reduce parking requirements where sites that are well-served by transit.

¹ Soft costs include time, staff, etc.

² Hard costs include construction

6.  Financial Impacts and Benefits:

a.  What are the financial impacts of the regulations to developers?

The TSP and its implementing regulations do not impose any new review processes or fees. Some of the regulations remove requirements that will reduce developer’s costs, for example, eliminating required off-street parking within 500 feet of major transit routes. A few may increase developer costs slightly, for example, requiring ‘street-like’ features in parking lots over 3 acres in size. However, very few parking lots are this large. Street and pedestrian/bicycle connectivity requirements may increase the number of connections provided on site to adjacent streets or development. Both of these requirements are mandated by the TPR and the RTP.

b.  What other financial impacts do the regulations have?

The revisions and new regulations will result in a more walkable, bikable, and transit-oriented environment allowing people to access shopping, education, and recreational opportunities without reliance on an automobile.

c.  What are the benefits of the regulation to the developers?

The TSP and its implementing regulations will ultimately result in a more complete transportation system that will increase accessibility to their properties and increase property values.

d.  What are the benefits for the general public, e.g. environmental, economic, neighborhood livability, and health and safety benefits?

Transportation:

The regulations will result in more transportation choices – making development more easily accessed by walking, bicycling or taking transit. Increased connectivity will allow more opportunities for trips to be made by alternatives to the automobile and will decrease out-of-direction travel for all modes.

Environment:

The regulations will result in less impervious surface by eliminating the requirement for off-street parking in the vicinity of major transit routes. There will be less impervious surface due to prohibiting drive-through facilities in some areas.

Economic:

The regulations will eliminate the need for land devoted to off-street parking in the vicinity of major transit routes, allowing more efficient use of land and more site area available for development.

Parks, recreation and open space:

The regulations will increase connectivity, providing increased accessibility from new development to parks, recreation opportunities and open space.

Neighborhood livability

The regulations will increase connectivity within neighborhoods and between neighborhoods and nearby shopping, education, and other activities.