City Denies Proposed Law School Housing Structure

A 78-page report detailing the outcome of the contentious hearing regarding the college’s proposed Master Plan has been posted to the website of the Portland Bureau of Development Services (thanks to Danni McLaughlin for the link!).  As pretty much everyone knows, the college wanted to expand its boundaries and build a new dorm structure to house law students.  Many neighbors objected for a number of reasons, most stemming from safety and traffic-congestion concerns (if you haven’t, read Angela Webber’s PioLog article from October to gain a better understanding).  Upon review of the college’s traffic studies, which the school hoped would alleviate neighbors’ concerns, the Hearings Officer decided after much consideration (pages 11-20 of the report) that the studies were insufficient:

The Hearings Officer finds that the underlying traffic analysis used by the College’s traffic experts lacks sufficient credibility to allow the Hearings Officer to assess the traffic impacts created in the event the law/graduate school housing is approved. The Hearings Officer found reason to question the basic traffic count estimates, trip generation estimates from the proposed law/graduate school housing, traffic generation estimates by “law school interns”, and the law/graduate school “family traffic” estimates. The Hearings Officer is not saying that the information is “wrong.” However, the Hearings Officer is saying that unexplained methodologies[...], mistakes[...], and lack of consistency of information [...] render the College’s traffic expert’s data and conclusions unreliable.

Or, if that doesn’t make sense, Phoenix Wright can help you out.

The Law School housing was only one portion of the proposed changes, most of which were approved.

Here’s the summary of the hearing (the references to “Conditions,” denoted by letters, only make sense in the context of the document, so refer to the report if you’re really, really curious):

Denial of the request to expand the boundary of the Master Plan to include the following properties:
• 425 SW Maplecrest Drive [1S1E28DA 300]
• 9919 SW Boones Ferry Road [1S1E28DA 4300]
• 10015 N/ SW Boones Ferry Road [1S1E28DA 4400]
• 10015 SW Boones Ferry Road [1S1E28DA 4500] • 10025 SW Boones Ferry Road [1S1E28DA 4600]

Denial of the request to approve law/graduate school housing on the boundary expansion land west of SW Boones Ferry Road (boundary expansion area).

Denial of the request to remove previous conditions so that lighting and public address systems can be installed at Huston Field.

Denial of a request to modify operational conditions related to Griswold Field, excepting the request to modify the noise reporting condition is Approved.

Approval of a Conditional Use Master Plan amendment and update, which incorporates the following proposed improvements:

• The development of new academic buildings, student housing and other alterations/additions/improvements as identified on Exhibit A.14 (not including requested law/graduate student housing project and lights/PA system at Huston Field).
Approval of requested modifications to conditions

•Condition Q (LUR 97-00074 CU MS): clarify TDMP reporting requirements.
•Conditions U, V, and W (LUR 97-00074 CU MS): these conditions deleted.
•Condition A.7 (LUR 97-00074 CU MS): omit students studying overseas and taking distance learning classes from calculation of enrollment.