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CPO meeting

Tuesday, June 11, 7 pm, Leedy Grange Hall, 835 NW Saltzman

Citizen Advocacy 101: Making Change Happen,
presented by Donna Cohen

Donna Cohen teaches Civics for Adults to inspire and guide people to civic and political engagement. She helps you understand how government works and how to translate your concerns into effective community action.

She begins with some historical context—the "Gilded Age” in America, when democracy was threatened by monopolies, and how we made some positive changes in response.

She will tell how she brought community members together to transform St. Johns from a dying community that had become a highway for large trucks into a thriving and vibrant town center. She will bring suggestions for ways to educate yourself about how things work, and how to be an effective advocate for change. ­­­­

A teacher and librarian, Donna is now focused on promulgating bi-partisan workshops for adults that fill in gaps in civic and political understanding which have caused widespread “civic illiteracy” and hasty acceptance of unchecked information. She is actively involved in various civic/political projects.

Download the PDF file with clickable links here:
Resources for `Citizen Advocacy Workshop—Washington County CPOs

May meeting recap

We began with a presentation from CPO resident MaryBeth Picirilli about the history of school funding in Oregon. Don Grotting, Maureen Wheeler, and David Williams from Beaverton School District joined us for a brainstorming session to gather suggestions for avoiding the drastic cuts proposed because of the 2019-2020 school budget shortfall.

Shortly after our meeting, the Oregon Legislature passed the Student Success Act, injecting $1 billion per year into our K-12 schools. This, along with negotiations with the teachers’ union, should improve the outlook.

Two of our Cedar Mill News interns attended the meeting and wrote up their view of school funding. Read it here.

Meetings, hearings, decisions

Beaverton approved a two-year time extension for Peterkort Lot 1 Partition, located at the northwest corner of the intersection of SW Cedar Hills Boulevard and NW Barnes Road. Lot 1 currently includes a daycare business. The partition request was set to expire on March 20. The extension was requested because the company is still working with Clean Water Services on buffer easements for the portion of the property that contains the creek and sensitive natural areas. The property is zoned for housing under Beaverton’s “Urban High Density” zoning.

Land Use Ordinances

“Ordinance Season” is well underway in Washington County. We’ll bring you more information as it becomes available, but here are a few Ordinances we’re watching now. We discussedhow Land Use Ordinances work in this September 2014 article. A county web page has information about all the 2019 Ordinances.

Ordinance 853: Open space requirements

Planning Commission Hearing June 19, 6:30 pm, and BCC hearing July 23, 6:30 pm, Public Services Building, 155 N. First, Hillsboro

This would amend the Community Development Code (CDC) to change the open space requirements for Planned Developments (PUDs) in urban unincorporated areas of the county. The ordinance says it will make “development feasible on challenging sites that may otherwise remain vacant,” by reducing open space requirements.

We are concerned that not enough open space is required now, and although more housing is needed in the county, we’re keeping an eye on this. We are suggesting that this be limited only to PUDs for low-income housing.

Ordinance 851: Updating the Transportation System Plan

Planning Commission Hearing June 5, 6:30 pm, and BCC hearing July 16, 6:30 pm, Public Services Building, 155 N. First, Hillsboro

This Ordinance proposes to amend the County Transportation System Plan to bring it in line with changes adopted by some cities, to update the Transit Element, and to amend Neighborhood Circulation Requirement6s in the CDC.

Our Code Group (a subcommittee of the CPO leadership group CCI) is disappointed that this ordinance currently focuses mostly on cities and the southwest corridor, and doesn’t include long-term plans that affect our area, including a transit line connection from Cedar Mill to Portland via Cornell Rd.; a line including service on Shackelford in North Bethany; and a direct line from the Sunset Transit Center to PCC Rock Creek. These have been suggested to staff and were brought up during the Planning Commission hearing. Please plan to attend the BCC meeting and make your comments if you are interested in seeing these issues included. You can also contact Senior Planner Steve Kelley, SteveL_Kelley@co.washington.or.us or 503-846-3764.

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