From: 79th Avenue Neighbors
Date: May 1, 1999
Re: Neighborhood Meeting to Organize Opposition to Reconstruction and LID Plans for 79th Avenue
A neighborhood meeting will be held on Thursday, May 20, 1999, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m., at Tigard City Hall, to discuss organization of a response to the City of Tigard’s plans (1) to “reconstruct” 79th Avenue and (2) to transfer the cost of reconstruction to local property owners by creating a local improvement district (LID). If you have received this letter, the bad news is that you are on the City’s mailing list as a potential member of the proposed LID and subject to assessment for the reconstruction.
Reconstruction. The City plans to replace 79th Avenue with a 36 – 40 foot street (“35 mph centerline-type”) including bike lanes, 8-foot sidewalks and possibly a center turning lane and planters. According to the City, the principal goal of this project is to relieve traffic pressures from Hall Boulevard and 72nd Avenue. The general concept is to mirror recent improvements to Durham and Bonita Roads so as to attract traffic flows off of those streets. In other words the reconstruction is intended to encourage the use of 79th Avenue by vehicles originating outside of the 79th Avenue neighborhood. Apparently the City has no plans for speed bumps or other measures to suppress speed because those measures are inconsistent with the City’s plans to attract high-speed traffic from other roads. In fact, the City’s current plan to remove the hill on 79th Avenue will increase speeds.
The City’s plan, if implemented, will change the historic use of 79th Avenue as a neighborhood feeder to Durham and Bonita Roads to a major connector for those streets. The obvious direct “automotive” results of this change for the neighborhood users will be greatly increased traffic flow and congestion, higher average traffic speeds and longer waiting periods before entering onto Durham or Bonita Roads, particularly at rush hours. The “non-automotive” results will include increased hazards to children and pedestrians, increased traffic noise, loss of neighborhood tranquillity, large assessments against property owners (see below) and reduced property values. There already have been reports that the proposed project is making it more difficult to sell houses in the area, with or without significant price adjustments.
Local Improvement District (LID). The City believes the residents of the 79th Avenue area alone should bear a large part (at least half) of the cost for the reconstruction even though the justification for the project is to relieve traffic pressures for auto users who reside outside of the 79th Avenue area. Specifically, the City intends to form a Local Improvement District (LID) and assess an improvement levy against each affected property in the LID according to a yet undetermined formula. This assessment will be in addition to the road taxes that we all pay already.
Depending on which assessment formula the City chooses to apply within the LID, assessments may be in the range of $25,000 or more. Don’t think this is unlikely! We have enclosed a letter to the Oregonian (4/28/99) from a Tigard resident who has to pay a $30,000 assessment against his residential property that fell within an LID for road improvements around 68th Avenue. Simply put, the City intends to require property owners in and around 79th Avenue to pay for an expensive project designed to improve non-local traffic flows by re-routing non-local traffic through the 79th Avenue neighborhoods. When questioned on this apparent “disconnect”, the City offers the excuse that the 79th Avenue neighborhood will benefit from the reconstruction. That few (if any) homeowners would want, let alone want to pay for, this form of “benefit” is immaterial to the City.
The City claims that the proposed members of the LID can defeat the creation of the LID with a two-thirds vote against it (i.e., the LID passes if one-third vote in favor of it). This claim is at best disingenuous because the City is well aware that most of the homes in 79th Avenue subdivisions contain deed “servitudes” that effectively grant the City the owners’ proxy to approve the LID. The City and various developers have used this “rig the vote in advance” tactic to shift the cost of local street improvements from the developers to homeowners. It is worth noting that this practice was strongly criticized in a recent front page article in the Oregonian (copy enclosed), wherein it was reported that the city of Portland had received so many complaints about this practice that Portland placed a moratorium on its use. In addition to that moratorium, Portland is considering whether it will continue to use the LID system at all.
The City’s plan to rely on this practice for gaining “approval” of the 79th Avenue project is all the more objectionable because the City is abusing an already questionable practice, intended to improve streets for local use, to form an LID for the expressly non-local purpose of addressing traffic concerns that originate outside of the neighborhood. Put another way, but for the City’s desire to widen 79th Avenue to encourage use by out of neighborhood autos, it never would be proposing an LID for the street high assessments against the neighborhood homeowners.
You are strongly encouraged to attend the May 20 meeting to discuss organizing a neighborhood group to oppose the current structure of the City’s plan. We anticipate that such opposition may require both a political and a legal component. If you are unable to attend the meeting on May 20, we suggest that you discuss your views with a neighbor who will be attending the meeting.
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