In place of our monthly General Membership Meeting, in June we are co-hosting a Bike Tour of Lents with our partners at Green Lents. Think of it as Lents’ very own Pedalpalooza, if you will. It’s summer, it’s sunny and warm, and we figured our community might like to take a break from our monthly meetings inside and meet outside to explore Lents and get to know each other better! For the latest updates on the Bike Tour, follow the event Facebook page. If you are able to, we hope you will join us for the bike tour on Saturday, June 29, starting at 10 AM at the Tool Library.

Our regularly scheduled monthly meetings will resume in July.

May 28, 2019

8815 SE Woodstock Blvd.

General Membership Meeting Agenda

7:00 PM: Meeting Opening

Introductions. Recognition of time keeper and note taker. Code of conduct.

Territory acknowledgement.

7:10 PM: Announcements

Community announcements

Upcoming LNA events

7:20 PM Discussion: Traffic safety & Reducing fatal and serious crashes in Lents/East Portland

Vision Zero: Clay Veka, Vision Zero program coordinator, will give a presentation on reducing fatal and serious crashes by lowering speeds, explaining which street are owned and managed by PBOT vs. ODOT, and more. (5-10 mins.)

ODOT: Tiana Tozer, Region 1 Transportation Safety Coordinator for ODOT, will provide an overview of crash trends in the Lents Neighborhood and nearby. She will also provide information on the Outer Powell and I-205 construction, as well as current traffic safety education efforts and campaigns. (5-10 mins.)

Community members will be encouraged to ask questions, voice concerns, or make suggestions.

8:00 PM: Action items

1. Motion for the LNA to take a position in support of changing the city form of government and creating city council districts (Sabina Urdes). For the full text of the motion, read below.

2. Motion for the LNA to oppose the proposed Residential Infill Project (RIP) as recommended by the Planning & Sustainability Commission on a 5-4 vote (Edward Marihart) For the full text of the motion, read below.

3. March General Meeting minute approval

8:00 PM: Public comment

8:30 PM: Meeting Adjourned

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Proposed motion for the Lents Neighborhood Association to take a position in support of changing the city form of government and creating city council districts

“We support changing the City of Portland’s form of government to a more representative and equitable system. The Commission form of government no longer serves our city and fails to adequately represent the entire city geographically and culturally. This is why we support shifting to districted elections where city councillors would be elected from every area of the city and in which we would have city managers hired by the Mayor and Council to oversee the City’s bureaus. We affirm that it is also time to expand the size of the council to better represent our past and ongoing population growth. We also support having the Mayor’s race be city-wide as they would need to represent the whole city. Lastly, we insist on a process of robust community engagement in coming up with a districting system that works best for Portland and will pass at the ballot.” 

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Proposed motion to oppose the proposed Residential Infill Project

The Lents Neighborhood Association opposes the proposed Residential Infill Project (RIP) as recommended by the Planning & Sustainability Commission on a 5-4 vote for the following reasons:

-Additional & the most displacement would be experienced by our neighborhood and other lower income neighborhoods in East Portland

-The number of additional housing units to be built would mostly be rentals

-No off-street parking requirements as current requirements are eliminated

-No new affordable housing included 

-Home demolitions of affordable housing will increase in our neighborhood other lower income neighborhoods in East Portland

-A lot of the neighborhood is already zoned R-1 for Apartments & hundreds of additional dwelling units have already been built in the Urban Renewal area 

-It’s inequitable as it’s not allowed in the R-10 SFD zone

-This is the “cart before the horse,” as displacement is not addressed

-It will increase gentrification pressures and housing costs in our neighborhood

Proposed action plan: Send letters on our neighborhood stationary to: Planning & Sustainability Commission, the Mayor, the City Commissioners, East Portland district coalition and East Portland Action Plan.