CPO News December 2023
- December CPO 1 meeting: Crosswalks and other pedestrian safety improvements in the UUA
- Fire prompts questions about landlord responsibility
- Future of the CPO/CCI system
- Neighborhood Meetings
December CPO 1 meeting: Crosswalks and other pedestrian safety improvements in the UUA
Tuesday, December 12, 7-9 pm, hybrid via zoom and at Cedar Grove East Community Room, 13400 NW Cornell
After the Land Acknowledgement and updates from our service providers, we’ll share any development information we have received and provide time for announcements from CPO members.
WCSO Deputy Huey will join us to provide an update on the department’s public information including scanner feeds.
At around 7:45: Neighbors have been concerned about some needed crosswalks in Cedar Mill and around the Urban Unincorporated Areas. We’ll hear from them, and from Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation’s Shelley Oylear, Traffic Analyst, and Sherri Grey, Program Coordinator for the Urban Road Maintenance District Advisory Committee (URMDAC), about crosswalk location requirements, installation, and how residents can have input. We hope to have URMDAC members share information on how they make decisions for approving projects and allocating funds.
Here’s the 2023 spreadsheet of projects considered with the rankings used by the Committee, and this is the evaluation criteria. Note that the four top-ranked projects would use 200% of available funding! Funding for these projects has dropped over the years.
Following that presentation, Tabitha Alkire, WCSO Public Affairs, will explain why WCSO has temporarily stopped providing information to the public via Broadcastify, an application that allows the public to get information on police activity. She will also give us an overview of WCSO Public Affairs operations. (This was postponed from the October meeting.)
You now have the choice of meeting online via zoom, or in person in the East Community Room at Cedar Grove Apartments at the corner of Murray and Cornell. If you are driving, please either park on the street or in the southeast corner of the Safeway lot. If you can’t attend the meeting, it is recorded and available on YouTube for viewing later. Visit our YouTube channel and subscribe! Our Facebook Group is a good place to discuss current issues and get timely updates.
Fire prompts questions about landlord responsibility
A fire on November 27 in a unit of Commons at Timbercreek, 12300 block of NW Barnes, damaged five units and displaced eight people. No injuries were reported.
Our post on Facebook brought out many comments about past and current problems at the complex. We began asking service providers and the county about how landlords are held accountable for tenant activity and the safety of residents, but by press time had no good answers, except that Washington County has no oversight outside of building code violations. We think it’s a good future topic for the CPO and we’ll continue to look into it.
Future of the CPO/CCI system: BCC to hear latest OEICE proposal one of these days…
We aren’t exactly sure when the Board of County Commissioners will have a presentation from the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement on their plans for the future of the county’s only volunteer-led advisory and public engagement organization. Originally scheduled for September, the presentation has been repeatedly postponed. We are told that the current tentative January BCC Work Session presentation will depend on whether the County Counsel has had time to study the founding documents (Resolution & Order 86-58 and Policy 2 of the CFP and R&O 80-108) as cited on the county CPO page.
The Community Participation Organizations (CPOs) and the Committee for Community Involvement (CCI) have been active since the early 1980s helping neighbors understand and have a say in land use, roads, and development. It was managed by Oregon State University (OSU) Extension for many years, and then taken over by Washington County in 2016 after OSU decided to drop the program.
In 2020, OEICE was empowered to handle all manner of county interactions with its constituents including the CPO/CCI system. OEICE’s focus has been on racial equity and serving historically under-represented communities, so our Land Use focus has been challenging for them to manage. Additionally, several OEICE staff have left the department and a search for replacements is underway. This leaves even more of the work up to the volunteers.
BCC Work Session meetings are open for the public to watch but no comments are allowed. However, if you want to let them know your thoughts, you can send a message to Commissioners using this form.
Neighborhood Meetings
Lee Street Partition
Thursday, December 7, 6:30 pm, Cedar Mill Library Community Room
A Neighborhood Meeting will be held to present plans for the proposed two-lot partition of the property located at 10225 NW Lee Street. The owner only proposes to build one additional house on the property but because the land is zoned to accommodate three parcels, he has to demonstrate that an additional house could be built. Prior to applying to Washington County, the developer wants to discuss the proposal with neighbors.
Sunset Town Center Residential/Retail Development
Monday, December 4, 7 pm, online
The proposed development includes a four-story mixed-use apartment building, 3,000 sq. ft commercial building, and a public plaza on the property between the Sunset Transit Center and NW Barnes Rd.
Drive-Thru Coffee & Kirkland Car Wash
Monday, December 4, 7 pm, online
The proposed development is a drive-thru coffee shop and automated Kirkland Premier Car Wash on the corner of W Stark St and NW Barnes Rd (across Barnes from the entrance to Timberland)
Past Neighborhood Meetings
8-lot subdivision for Noyes Development
A meeting was held on November 20 to discuss a proposal to subdivide a 1.75-acre property at 11455 NW Kearney into eight lots for residential development. The presentation is posted here.
