• CPO 1 goes Zoom in May
• Neighborhood Meetings
• Slow progress on public development information
• What’s that sound?

CPO 1 goes Zoom in May

May 12, 7 pm, via *Zoom (see below for more information)

We don’t have an exact schedule yet, but we’ll have information on a sidewalk project near Bonny Slope Elementary that will improve Safe Routes to School; updates on several development proposals for the area; a presentation on the Thompson Road project; and a chance to hear from our Public Safety providers.

We were frustrated in April because the Community Participation office would not allow us to attempt a virtual meeting. Finally on April 15 Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-16 “authorizing state and local governments to take necessary measures to ensure continued operations and public participation in decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The Zoom link will be provided by the county IT department as soon as it can be scheduled.

This is the link for the Zoom meeting. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83228608010

*If you haven’t used Zoom before, the link will prompt you to download the app. It works best on a device (laptop, desktop, or phone) with video and audio capabilities. If you’re new to Zoom, we recommend clicking the link well before the meeting so you can accomplish the download and be ready to join the meeting when it begins. There’s a test function to help you get started. The County IT team has taken all the necessary steps to assure a safe online experience. Learn more about Zoom and sign up for your own free account here: https://zoom.us/

Neighborhood Meetings

Neighborhood meetings, required for certain Washington County development applications, may be held online temporarily. The temporary supplemental policy is in effect for the duration of Gov. Kate Brown’s “Stay Home. Save Lives” executive order.

“We are temporarily allowing developers to host neighborhood meetings online so that projects can move forward,” said Stephen Roberts, Director, Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation. “We are doing our part to help sustain employment and economic activity, while still providing opportunities for meaningful input from our community members.”

These meetings provide a forum for the developer, affected Community Participation Organizations (CPOs) and nearby property owners to discuss the proposal informally. County staff do not schedule or attend these meetings. The public also has an additional opportunity to submit formal comments after applications have been submitted to the County.

Garage and carport upgrade

Tuesday, May 12, 6 pm, Vo residence, 200 SW 95th Ave

This meeting will be held outside the residence to support social distancing. Mr. Vo is proposing to convert the existing garage and carport into additional living space, and add a new garage. The home was built prior to street setbacks being required, so he has to hold a neighborhood meeting before proceeding. Call him at 503-995-6111 with questions.

Lot partition for future development at 11280 NW McDaniel

Friday, May 8, 7 pm, see below for Zoom link

Property owners Anup and David Engquist are considering a proposal to partition the lot into two sections, retaining the existing house and adding a duplex unit to the other section. The property is bisected by a large wetland area, and the new unit will be accessed by a driveway leading from the south side of the property on McDaniel.

This will be a virtual online meeting. A webpage has been created for the meeting. The Zoom link is included there.

NW Laidlaw subdivision

Thursday, May 7, 6 pm, see below for Zoom link

Westlake Consultants is working with Noyes Development and the owners of several properties located  between 11835 NW Laidlaw and 11740 NW Laidlaw (both north and south of Laidlaw) in applying to the county for land use approval to subdivide these properties in two phases. The north property would be developed with 18 lots, and the south properties would have 23 lots.

Written questions may be submitted in advance to ksandblast@westlakeconsultants.com. Pre-register for the virtual Neighborhood Meeting by 1 pm on May 7 at the Westlake website here. More ways to attend are also listed on the website.

Three-parcel partition on 113th

Tuesday, May 26, 6 pm, online meeting or by phone at 971-358-1930: conference ID 131 957 954#

The meeting will be held using the Microsoft Teams Live Event feature. By entering the URL or phone number above, you will be directed to the Live Event. Access to the Live Event will begin at 5:50 pm, and the meeting will start promptly at 6 pm. You do not need a Microsoft Teams account to attend.

The applicant requests approval of a Type II review for a three-parcel partition, and an Access Management Plan approval for access to NW 113th Avenue. The preliminary plat creates three lots for detached single-family homes, with the existing home to be demolished. The site address is 2200 NW 113th Avenue.

Access to the property will be via a private street extended from NW 113th Ave. The lots range in size from 6,013 to 8,601 sf. Each detached home is expected to include at least a two-car garage, with a two-car driveway.

Touchmark new building

Thursday, June 4, 6 pm, virtual meeting

Proposed senior independent living building is located on taxlots #1S101B002000 and #1S101BC05700. Contact Kenneth Sandblast, Westlake Consultants, at 503-684-0652.
Click here for instructions to join the online meeting.

Catlin Gabel land use proposals

A neighborhood meeting was held in March to discuss their plans for the former campus of the Oregon College of Art & Craft on Barnes Rd., which they purchased last fall, and some changes to the existing campus. We requested images to help us better understand the projects, but these were not received by press time. Meeting notes are available. Contact us for a scanned copy, at info@cedarmillnews.com. We’ll follow up next month when we get more information.

Slow progress on public development information

Last month we were complaining about the problems we had with the County’s new tracking system, Public Permitting and Services Portal (PPSP), for finding development information. We feel that it’s important for members of the public to be able to learn more about projects in their neighborhood, so we were concerned when everything stopped working as expected.

Melissa De Lyser, Public Affairs and Communications Manager for LUT, says, “The problem, which has since been corrected, involved the inability of the County’s “Projects Under Review” webpage to interface with PPSP. Solving it was exacerbated by the challenges the County’s Information Technology Services (ITS) staff is facing in response to COVID-19 computing needs.”

Documents associated with developments (such as Public Notices and Notices of Decision) are not accessible to the public on the Projects Under Review webpage. However, you may be able find these documents through PPSP. To find out what’s going on at a particular location, enter the address into the search form in PPSP. You will first need to set up an account by entering your email and creating a password.

InterMap, the County’s GIS mapping tool, provides basic tax lot information for County parcels. The page that comes up after you select the tax lot used to include “permits and projects” links, but since the new system went into effect, only data collected prior to November 2019 is displayed. Permit and project information since that time is now available through PPSP.

Another page, “Comment on a Project,” has a form to allow anyone to comment on pending development projects. However it only lists projects dated from the day of the public notice mailing to the end of the comment period, even though there’s a much wider window of time in which the public may submit comments. We hope all these problems will eventually be fixed.

De Lyser says, “County staff understands that using two different web platforms to access this information is inconvenient. ITS staff is working on the problem, but COVID-19-related needs continue to take precedent.”

[NOTE: I am currently only able to access the PPSP with Microsoft Edge on my Mac. If the link times out, try a different browser.]

What’s that sound?

A neighbor noticed a loud buzzing sound after a lot was cleared of trees prior to development. He tracked the source to an installation atop a pole. The trees had been muting the noise. We were able to connect him with the staff at Land Use and Transportation, and the pole was identified as a T-Mobile cell tower. T-Mobile technicians determined that it was a noisy fan. They reconfigured the installation and the neighbors report that it’s now much quieter!

We have contacts and background to help with issues like this in many cases. If you have a question about land use or other county issues, send an email to info@cedarmillnews.com and we’ll try to help you figure out how to get information and results. No promises!