BEAVERTON CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
JULY 15, 2002
CALL TO ORDER:
The Regular Meeting of the Beaverton City Council was called to order by Mayor Rob
Drake in the Forrest C. Soth Council Chambers, 4755 SW Griffith Drive, Beaverton,
Oregon on Monday, July 15, 2002, at 6:41 p.m.
ROLL CALL:
Present were Mayor Drake, Couns. Fred Ruby, Evelyn Brzezinski, Forrest Soth and
Cathy Stanton. Coun. Dennis Doyle was excused. Also present were Chief of Staff
Linda Adlard, City Attorney Mark Pilliod, Human Resources Director Sandra Miller,
Finance Director Patrick O'Claire, Community Development Director Joe Grillo,
Engineering Director Tom Ramisch, Operations/Maintenance Director Gary Brentano,
Police Chief David Bishop, Library Director Ed House, Utilities Engineer David Winship,
Police Captain Wes Ervin, Police Officer Mark Clark, Police Lieutenant Andrea Moore
and Deputy City Recorder Catherine Jansen.
CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONS:
There were none.
COUNCIL ITEMS:
Coun. Brzezinski reminded Council that the next “Picnic in the Park” would be
Wednesday, July 17, 2002, at 6:00 p.m., at Hiteon Park.
Coun. Stanton announced that on Wednesday, July 24, 2002, there would be an Open
House on the proposed Bull Run Regional Drinking Water Agency at the Tigard Water
District Building on Burnham Road in Tigard. She explained that this proposed agency
would look at water provision region wide and that the City of Portland had a Web site
providing information on this subject.
STAFF ITEMS:
There were none.
PRESENTATION:
02224
METRO Update on Periodic Review (Andy Cotugno, Planning Director; Susan McLain,
Metro Councilor)
Susan McLain, Metro Councilor, introduced Planning Director Andy Cotugno and
explained they were there to update Council on the review of the Urban Growth
Boundary (UGB).
Andy Cotugno, Metro Planning Director, explained that Metro’s Periodic Review deadline
was the end of this year and their goal was to ensure that the 20-year land supply
requirement was met. He said that Executive Officer Mike Burton’s recommendation
would be brought to the Metro Council on August 1, 2002; feedback and input would be
sought on the recommendation through a series of public hearings to be held throughout
the area.
Cotugno summarized the issues considered in the review of the UGB. Major issues
were: size of the UGB; land use; how much and where was expansion appropriate; and
tradeoffs. He reviewed in detail information concerning the expansion anticipated for
housing, industrial and commercial use as summarized in a June 17, 2002 memo he
gave to Council (in record). He spoke on the issues considered when deciding where to
expand. He stated that to address the sub-regional question for this side of the Metro
region, he thought they needed to revisit the issue of urban reserves. He thought the
urban reserves could provide the means to establish a 50-year horizon, rather than five
years, to give everyone more certainty about long-term plans. He noted that work on
Goal 5 would start again when Metro and the Tualatin Basin Group finished their review
and that would have an impact on the natural resources and the UGB.
McLain explained the three-stop process for Goal 5 and said they were finishing Step 1,
the inventory process. She noted meetings were being held this summer for public
review and testimony concerning the inventory. She explained Step 2 would involve
looking at conflicting uses; the Program Step that would address protection issues would
be late 2003.
At the request of Mayor Drake, Cotugno reviewed the history of the UGB. He explained
that the Urban Growth Boundary was adopted in 1979 and was approximately 232
thousand acres; it was a 20-year growth boundary and included a 25% market factor. A
decade later the law was changed and the market factor was disallowed. He explained
that during the ensuing years, most of the land was developed and there was minimal
expansion to the UGB. He said that as of today, only minimal expansion of the UGB
was needed; out of 200,000 new housing units, 160,000 could be accommodated within
the existing UGB. Thus, the region had a 15-year capacity in the UGB; a 20-year supply
was the requirement. In the early 90’s, he explained, the 20/40 Growth Concept was
adopted to plan growth for the next 50 years. He said that at one point they were
looking at the prospect of a 120,000-acre expansion, but there was a lot of territory that
people did not wish to urbanize in order to preserve farm land and natural resources.
He said the Growth Concept that was adopted was predicated on an 18,000 acre
expansion with a strong emphasis on more efficient use of the land, through
redevelopment, use of vacant land along light rail corridors, and getting more use out of
existing land and infrastructure. He explained that the 18,000-acre figure was
dependent on location, because the terrain would determine how much land was needed
for development. He noted the number of acres needed for expansion depended on the
mix of flat farm land versus hilly land which would be more difficult to develop. Because
the first priority was the difficult to develop land, Metro would need to look at a 20,000
acre expansion, as compared to the 18,000 acres they thought would be sufficient.
Mayor Drake thanked him and noted this was good information for the audience.
Mayor Drake noted that a lot of the area marked for expansion on the map was
Clackamas County and it was rural and underdeveloped. He noted that costs for
urbanizing the area would be higher and asked how this would be funded.
Cotugno explained that the issue of supplying the region with job land in Washington
County vs. Clackamas County concerned impacting the farmland. Farming was an
industry in Washington County, he said, and they needed to sustain that. He noted they
also heard from the Westside Economic Alliance about the clustering of high tech, and
the need to be adjacent to one another. He said they would have to draw the line
between expansion for urban purposes vs. preservation of land for the farm economy.
He said that they only addressed the urban side of that issue. He stressed there was an
outstanding need that would not be met in Clackamas County and how much would be
met in Washington County was still an issue. He stated that full development of any
expansion area in Clackamas County was a 20-year issue though there were some
areas where it would be easy to extend the infrastructure into immediate job locations.
He said there were both short term and long-term prospects in Clackamas County and
that money was set aside through the MTIP process to develop conclusions about roads
and land use. He noted they just completed the Pleasant Valley expansion, for 1500
acres, and there were opportunities to accomplish some things there. He stressed that
this was a long-term buildup of that area.
McLain explained that people could contact John Donovan at Metro by calling 503-797-
1942. She emphasized that this was an on-going process; that communities had to be
cognizant to resources and infrastructure to ensure that infrastructure was in place when
they were ready to start building. She noted that cities would need to consider what this
meant in terms of expanding urban services and how these costs would be met. She
stated that they recognized that all communities should be full service and all
communities were working to keep their future going. She added there was no simple
answer; and input from the public, the jurisdictions, and businesses was needed to make
this a complete package.
Coun. Soth confirmed that in the memorandum from Cotugno, the headings under
industrial land deficits referred to the size of the lots and “demand” was based on the 20-
year requirement. He also confirmed that zone changes were done for the industrial
land that was being converted to commercial land and that the “refill rate” was
redevelopment and infill.
Coun. Soth asked if a person had a large lot (10,000 square feet) could he rebuild a
single-family home or would the lot have to be split.
Cotugno replied that the threshold was 20,000 square feet; any vacant lots larger than
20,000 square feet were counted as vacant land; lots smaller than 20,000 square feet
were referred to as developed land. He explained that if someone had a 10,000 square
foot lot that he wanted to split into two lots, it was considered refill of developed land.
Cotugno also explained that the zoning collectively throughout the region allowed for
higher densities than the rate that Metro assumed, which was 26.5% and was based on
current actual growth experience. He noted they were not trying to measure the
potential zoning capacity for areas already developed; they were only trying to measure
the actual rate or what could be done to make it happen at a greater rate.
Coun. Soth noted there was a great deal of concern about Goal 5 and the restrictions on
the use of private property with Title 3. He asked if there was any flexibility so that a
property owner could maximize his own use of that land.
McClain replied there were a lot of issues that would come out in the next 18 months.
She said there was a great deal of flexibility built into the process, especially in
Washington County because the cities were in an Intergovernmental Agreement with the
Tualatin Basin Group. She said they would have the opportunity to talk with property
owners as well as local jurisdictions to make sure that flexibility was there. She said the
Metro Council made an effort to ensure that there were exceptions in the Title 3
elements for properties that were completely in the sensitive area. She said that the
flexibility would be there to address these concerns.
Cotugno added that on Goal 5 they only factored in current regulations and not
speculation on future regulations that might reduce the availability of land for
development.
Coun. Stanton explained for the audience that Goal 5 sets policies for preservation of
natural resources and that Title 3 of the Metro Functional Plan covered the protection of
the streamside riparian areas.
Coun. Stanton asked if the LCDC was going to take two years to accept the subregional
need concepts in the expansion plan.
Cotugno said they hoped that LCDC would have a rule by the end of this year but the
next question would be who was going to challenge it and how long would it take to
settle the challenge. He suggested that whenever the rule was finished and available, it
should be applied. He confirmed they would not be looking at the subregional list during
this review.
McClain added that the Metro Council could not legally consider the subregional issue
now because they could only apply actual rules and codes that had been adopted and
were in effect.
Coun. Stanton confirmed that local jurisdictions determined the zoning for land that
would be included in the UGB, not Metro.
McLain added that the 20/40 Growth Concept included design types that would need to
be considered. Metro only asks that if a city requested zoning changes, they go through
Metro’s map amendment process. She stated that the amendment process was done
on a regular basis and was an easy process.
Coun. Stanton also confirmed that Metro could not decide how any jurisdiction would
spend its capital improvement funds in terms of building infrastructure and providing
services.
Coun. Stanton said from comments made earlier she got the impression that Metro
would decide the zoning on the expansion areas and which areas would get funding for
infrastructure.
McClain apologized for the confusion; everyone would need to work together to figure
out the solutions. She noted it was important to look at timing of projects on a region-
wide basis to help build the 20/40 Growth Concept, which would provide complete full-
service communities. She offered Metro’s help in getting everyone working together to
ensure that budget dollars were available for the needed projects. She added that she
was referring to MPAC, JPAC, and MSTIP funds, not individual city funds being used for
other jurisdictions.
Coun. Stanton confirmed that the Beaverton School District was working through Metro’s
special needs process to bring land into the UGB to meet the District’s needs.
Mayor Drake noted that this was an on going effort at this time and many agencies were
involved. He explained they had been meeting monthly on this issue and he had been
part of the process. He noted the discussions included State Representatives Haas and
Ringo, and One Thousand Friends. He noted the process was moving slower than the
School District would like, but they have been able to build a stronger understanding of
this issue and a willingness to listen and be part of the process.
McClain added that the District had done an excellent job in re-evaluating how they used
the land, how to get the most out of what they have and how much was needed for
particular facilities.
Mayor Drake thanked them for the presentation.
Mayor Drake noted there were some Boy Scouts in the audience and asked them to
identify their troop and school.
Nick Baker announced they were from Troop 547 and from Aloha and Mountain View
High Schools.
02225
Library Annual Report
Library Director Ed House gave highlights of the Library Annual Report. He
acknowledged the Library staff, noting they had worked very hard this past year and
morale was high. He recognized June Bass, the Volunteer Coordinator, who
coordinated the 140 volunteers at the Library. He noted the volunteers were doing this
out of the goodness of their heart and have contributed 11,403 hours of volunteer time; a
69 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. He reported the following statistics for
the Library:
-Oregon was the third highest state in the nation in circulation per capita. Oregon users
check out more books than all other states other than Indiana and Ohio.
-Per capita circulation for the Beaverton City Library was 15.2 which was significantly
higher than the national average and higher than Ohio (12.76) which leads the nation.
-Total circulation was 1,621,725 items; a 9.9 percent increase over last year.
-38 percent of the items checked out went through the self-check machines.
-The door count for this fiscal year was 768,371 individuals, which was up 12.5 percent
from the previous year; an average of 2,164 people per day come into the Library.
-The technical services department added 32,772 items to the collection. The Library
now has 302,000 items in its collection, which was a 40 percent from last year.
-147,843 reference questions from the public were answered.
-Children’s program attendance was up 39 percent; there were over 25,270 youth
coming to children’s programs.
-The young adult division increased from 350 youths last year to 725 so far this year.
He noted that Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS) had a new
automated telephoning service for calling patrons to advise them that their item was in or
overdue, which would save thousands of dollars in postage each year. West Slope
Library had a fire six weeks ago and was now closed temporarily for repairs. He
reported that the City of Beaverton had been working cooperatively with them until they
are able to reopen. He reported on the variety of programs for the adults and that the
Library’s internet stations were very successful. He noted that there was a lot going on
and they could not have done it without the help of the “New Friends of the Beaverton
City Library” and the “Beaverton Library Foundation”.
House noted his concerns that if they continued to grow as they had been, more staffing
and volunteers would be needed. He explained that to mitigate the staffing need,
libraries were starting to use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, where
computer chips were put on the items checked out and the chip was read by radio
frequency. When a book was returned, he explained, it would go onto a belt and
through a reader to be automatically checked in (without having to have a staff person
process it through) and then onto a cart or a bin for shelving. He noted this would save
a lot of staff time, which could be used for other jobs. He noted more information would
be coming in the near future on how to handle the growth that was expected.
House reported that in November WCCLS would go out for an operation levy to
supplement the current funds received from the County and to replace funds from their
contingency that was spent down over the last few years. He explained that the 73% of
the Library’s funding comes through WCCLS; not all of that money was at a stake but if
part of that revenue stream was lost, services that have been provided this past year
would have to be curtailed. He stressed it was very important that this funding continue
and be enhanced for future growth.
Coun. Stanton asked who wrote the Gates Grant application.
House explained that it was a team effort between the Library, Finance, and ISD staff.
He noted they were happy with the results.
Coun. Stanton noted the Library received a $16,000 Gates Foundation Grant and
complimented the library staff.
RECESS:
Mayor Drake called for a brief a recess at 8:05 p.m.
RECONVENED:
Mayor Drake reconvened the meeting at 8:15 p.m.
02226
Photo Radar Speed Pilot Project Results
David Bishop, Chief of Police, explained that last year Council approved expanding the
use of photo radar to five non-residential streets that had a history of excessive
speeding, accidents, and citizens complaints: Western Avenue, Hall Boulevard, Allen
Boulevard, Farmington Road and Hart Road. He noted that Council direction then was
to implement the program and come back with an update. He noted staff was now
asking that Council expand the deployment of photo radar. He introduced Captain Wes
Ervin, Lieutenant Andrea Moore, and Officer Mark Clark.
Wes Ervin, Police Captain explained that the primary concern of the Police Department
and the City was to ensure the safe, smooth flow of traffic throughout the City. He noted
that speeding vehicles were a major factor in accidents and had a negative impact on
community livability. He stated that photo radar was one of the most viable tools they
had to positively modify driving behaviors, that it had been used effectively on
neighborhood streets and last year the program was expanded to include collectors and
arterials. He added that the expansion was written into State statutes. He explained
staff first established criteria to identify problematic streets and establish the expansion
area. Per Council instruction the following street criteria was set: excessive speeding;
high accident risks; high volume of citizen complaints; mixture of automobile, pedestrian,
bicycle and truck traffic; special circumstances, such as construction or events; streets
frequently used by emergency vehicles responding on calls. Based on this criterion,
staff proposed the following locations: Hall Boulevard, Allen Boulevard, Farmington
Road, Western Avenue, and Hart Road. He said they were successful in all of the
locations but Hart Road; Hart had no safe locations to operate the equipment without
jeopardizing the public. He reported the following results: uniformed officers were freed
up for other patrol duties; 22% of the citations by the photo radar team written were in
the expanded area; reductions in violations occurred. He noted that there was some
difficulty in gathering the statistics and that the numbers obtained were from pre- and
post-studies using hand-held radar. He said staff was in the process of acquiring
technology to improve statistic gathering. He said that the overall effectiveness of the
program could be seen and the lessons learned were: better evaluation was needed; not
all locations were practical; technical problems reduced the number of citations written;
process technology issues created some problems that have been mitigated.
Ervin then focused on the proposed future direction for this program. He said their goals
were to increase neighborhood livability; reduce speeding; reduce risk factors that
contribute to accidents and positively modify driving behavior.
Erwin said they would continue to follow the spirit of the State statutes and the desire of
the Council to: ensure the largest portion of the time (2/3rd of the time) they would have
the photo radar in neighborhoods and school zones; the remainder of the time they
would address specific speed impact areas; closely follow the State statute; and agree
on the definitions of the areas. He repeated the recommended deployment criteria:
excessive speeding; accident risks from traffic data; citizen complaints; mixture of traffic
use; Special circumstances. He noted they would continue to work with the Traffic
Engineering Department for assistance and to identify areas of concern. He explained
that with new equipment and technology the Department could do its own data collection
to measure deployment effectiveness. Ervin noted that staff was requesting Council
approval on deployment percentages (40% neighborhoods, 25% school zones, 35%
expanded area) and on the criterion for Speed Impact Areas. If approved, he added,
they could formalize the mission for photo radar with a clear definition of Speed Impact
Areas and they could deploy photo radar in the future and expand the locations within
the scope of this criteria.
Bishop noted that last month the Police Department held a Town Hall Meeting and traffic
control was the top concern of citizens. He said that photo radar rated high with citizens.
Coun. Brzezinski asked how long the program had been running.
Linda Adlard, Chief of Staff replied it was about 1 ½ years.
Coun. Brzezinski confirmed that the data was based on approximately 15 months. She
asked if in the last six months, staff was following the deployment percentages currently
being recommended: 40% neighborhoods, 25% schools zones and 35% expanded area.
Ervin confirmed that was correct.
Coun. Brzezinski asked about the 22% of the citations that were issued in the expanded
area. She noted that if the department was spending 35% of its time in the expanded
area, then fewer citations were being issued.
Ervin replied that was correct.
Coun. Brzezinski asked if there were citizen complaints concerning those five streets.
Bishop said there were no complaints on these five streets. He said the staff was very
honest with the community on what was being done and he felt that was the key to their
success.
Coun. Brzezinski noted that when staff brought this to Council, a data table was provided
that showed each potential location and various statistics. She said she wanted to see a
“before and after” for that same table.
Bishop replied that could be done again.