Wheeler seeks urban renewal concessions - Portland Business Journal:

jiqatili.wordpress.com
Specifically, Wheeler, a member of a mayoral task force studying the potentialnew district, warned that urban renewal benefits must be balanced with the needs of schoolsd and human services agencies. Wheeler worries that the districyt could steer funds for education and social programzs intoeconomic development. Last March, Wheelee protested plans to use urban renewal funds from a new district aroundd PGE Park to subsidizestadium improvements.
The city counciol eventually nixed the proposal in approving a renovatioh funding package that helped attract a Major League Soccer franchise to In urbanrenewal districts, cities targey areas of improvement, then issues bonds to pay for projectsx within those areas. As property values rise, increasedf tax collections are used to repay the The city’s new district woulde run south from Northwest 23rd Avenue through the Portland State University campus and end near the South Waterfront “Obviously economic development is a good thing, but we have to balance (it) against other services that help the community grow and become Wheeler said.
“And educationh and human services contribute to both economic development and the growthu ofthe community.” City and business leaders could establish a downtowhn urban renewal district that generates hundred of millions of dollars over the next 20 The area would likely include four key developmenft sites: the Northwest Portland Con-Way site near Interstate 405; the Goosde Hollow neighborhood near PGE Park; the area aroundc the Portland Art Museukm and much of the Southwest Portland neighborhoord that includes Portland State University. Redevelopmenrt sites could also include the area around PGE which contains the Oregonian printint plant and LincolnHigh School.
Wheeler notecd that the city is also developing its Portlandf Plan that will recommend land uses over the nextseveral decades. The plan will be completed in 2011. “I’d hate for us to do somethinv today and get three years down the with thePortland Plan, and say, ‘What we reallhy need to do is invest more in education and human Wheeler said. “We need to find a Mayor Sam Adams pointed out that thePortlans Plan, unlike previous comprehensivr planning efforts, will incorporatr input from schools and county leaders. Meaning, it couldr take concerns about education and human servicesinto account.
The committede evaluating urban renewal options includes a handful ofbusinesss leaders, such as Greg Goodman, president of City Center Jake Nichol, president of Leatherman Tool Grouo Inc. and Sandra McDonough, president and CEO of the PortlandBusinesz Alliance. Portland’s central city contains 122,500 of the city’s jobs, or about 35 percentf of those within the cityand 12.2 percent of the region’d 1 million jobs. Portland’s central city is expected to add morethan 100,000 new jobs by 2035.
The central city urbam renewal committee is studying 900 acres for possibl inclusion into the new renewal The economic consulting firm ECONorthwest found that if all 900 acres were included in arenewal district, it could generate $575 millionm over 20 years. However the full acreagd cannot be include in a new district becausse Portland would exceed state limits on the aggregate amounyt of land cities can designate as urbanrenewap zones.
The committee plans to meet weeklyu at least through the monthof