I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Planning Commission for January 26th, 2026.

Christina, can you please call roll?

Turn our trunk.

Here.

Chair Boost.

Here.

And Commissioner Moreno.

Here.

Mitchell?

Here.

Here.

Here.

And two.

Joining us as also liaison, uh, Rachel Brady.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to item number three on the agenda, City Council update.

Uh, Councillor Verdick, we invite you to join us.

Great.

Thank you.

And I'm excited to be liaison for this next year.

And I will be attending at least one meeting a month.

But if you need me in between or have questions, please don't ever hesitate to reach out.

I'm happy to do so.

I'll be in contact with Eric quite a bit as well.

So again, if there's anything you need or any questions, any clarifications, just please reach out and let me know.

Um, my updates are not as long as Counselor Wenland's, but probably not as short as some of my colleagues.

So if you have questions, please again just let me know.

But the last two weeks, we've had um some great study sessions.

One was on the library and the need for a new library and why we need a new library.

So again, if there's any interests, if you'd like me to go more into that, I'm happy to.

If not, you know, I know you guys always have very busy uh meetings, but that was an excellent discussion.

Just basically that the existing library is the building's done.

And we need we have to get a new location because that location will not suffice for the size of a library that we need.

So when it was built in the 1980s, it was already approximately 25% under the size that was recommended at that time.

It was supposed to be around, I wanna say if I'm remembering correctly, 37,000 square feet, and it was built at like 28,000 square feet approximately.

Um now, you know, in the ideal deal world, we'd be having like a 70,000 square foot library.

We can't afford that, so that won't happen, but obviously another 28,000 square feet is not gonna suffice either for the way libraries have changed, as well as um just the general needs of the community.

So we as a city and as a community, we really need to start looking at where can this new library go?

What should it look like, what um features do we want this library to have?

Um and if none of you have been to an updated library recently, I really recommend that you go because they're very different than the traditional libraries that you see.

Um, or our library that's quite old now.

But again, the building is falling apart and the site can't grow the size of building that we need.

So we really need to be moving that location, but there are a lot of um neighborhood concerns, a lot of community concerns that we need to have some very thoughtful um discussions on.

We also had a study session on foothills, which we'll be talking about tonight, so I won't go into that.

Um we had updates on the pedestrian improvement projects that have been going on, specifically Lakeview Boulevard.

So if you haven't driven down Lakeview, I really recommend you do.

It's pretty impressive what they've done.

Uh also updates on Meadowlark Lane and Treetop Lane are some of the bigger areas.

Um, there's been some other smaller ones, but those are three of the key improvement areas that were done.

Um we had updates to the stormwater manual as well, and an economic development strategy update.

And we also discussed um home occupancy, which we're gonna be continuing that discussion at our next meeting.

And you guys are very aware of that.

So any questions or anything I can answer for you or anything else, any other topics if you ever want to, you know, me to present on, just let me know.

Thank you so much for coming.

I uh questions about the library.

Um do they have any potential locations of where the new library might go?

And then would that require like a bond measure to fund it?

Is that what it will require a bond?

Um we obviously want to get through and get the bond for South Shore Fire Station taken care of first.

So, you know, we're kind of holding off on exactly what type of bond would be needed.

We also have to determine a location before that.

Um we're still having discussions with the school district to see if by chance there would be space available on the um uh the lake grove elementary school site.

We that's just an unknown.

So we're gonna continue those discussions.

It it may or may not work.

The school first needs to look after their own needs, and then we'll see if there's any land, you know, available in it and if it's enough.

Because the last thing I think we want to do is to build another building that's too small.

That was the location that came to mind.

And when you speak of modern libraries, I think of the Tiger Library.

It's such a nice open building, great floor plan, nice amenities.

I mean, something like that in Lake Assuga would be amazing.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, a lot more kind of community spaces where people can come together, makerspaces.

Um, and I believe it's March 14th.

The library's gonna do um an event around different makerspaces and different what that means and what that could look like.

So I definitely I think that's on a Saturday.

If you can head over to the library, check it out, give your feedback.

That would be fantastic.

Because again, it's just all about seeing what's what do people want.

But makerspaces are really cool, and they can take a lot, they can be more formal, they can be informal.

I mean, it take a lot of different shapes.

And we also don't have within the library a good place for when we have authors come to speak.

I mean, could have many people between, I don't know if any of you have been there, but you're sitting between, you know, the aisles of books, and it's we can do better.

Yes, we can.

It's intimate.

Yeah.

Very that's a nice way of putting it.

But here we have like you know, beautiful city hall.

We have beautiful Lorac.

You know, even our maintenance center is so cool.

If you haven't gone over to the maintenance center, I love it.

It's one of my favorite buildings.

But then we have our our comfy cozy library.

So um, yeah, there's just a lot that can be done.

And it's I love looking at what we like to call the library of the future and what that looks like.

So a lot of opportunities there for our community.

Thank you very much, Counselor Verdick.

We look forward to having you as our liaison this year.

Thank you.

Moving on to item number four, approval of minutes from January 12th, 2026.

Are there any revisions requested to the minutes?

All right, hearing no revisions.

Uh can I I hear a motion to approve the minutes as written.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as written.

Right.

Second.

Thank you very much.

Oh, and thank you for the second.

Meeting at minutes are approved as written for January 12th, 2026.

Moving on to item number five, public comment.

Christina, do we have anyone signed up for public comment tonight?

None tonight.

All right.

Uh next is number six, commission for citizen involvement, general updates.

I did not see any attachments for announcements.

So I think we can move past that one tonight.

Which brings us to item number seven, our work session for the Foothills District Plan Update.

And Eric, you'll be leading us in that.

Or I'm sorry.

Mr.

Olsen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There we go.

Uh thank you, Chair Najak.

Um, and I guess before I get into the work session, I just wanted to pause.

Um, I just wanted to, I don't think we have an official agenda item for this, but just wanted to note that we have uh a new um sort of contracting attorney with us tonight.

Um, that we'll be working with um the planning commission and the planning department um for the next year at minimum.

So I just wanted to take a brief moment to introduce Sudani Miller.

Thank you.

And I think I said hi to almost everybody individually, but I'm Savani Miller.

I'm with Miller Nash.

Um I've been working with public entities and doing land use um since my first year practice, which was in 2017, and I am very happy to be here.

I will be, I think mostly in the background, but I will be here for hearings and anything else um that you or staff feel that I should attend.

So thank you.

Yeah, so I we really appreciate Sivani being here tonight.

Um, you know, we aren't going to have the most hearing heavy year.

You know, we have a lot of multi-year projects that were kind of beginning this year or kind of underway this year, but to the extent that we're going to be leaning on um legal support.

So you body will be that legal support for the commission.

Um with that being said, um, I'll move into the work session.

Uh I should note we had originally intended to have um our consultants um with first 40 feet be here in person tonight, but um they've been stricken with a flu that's kind of going around, I think um a lot of different places, including their firm.

So we have uh Jason Graf joining us virtually here tonight um via Zoom.

Um Jason, do you want to go ahead and just briefly introduce yourself?

I think he's been here at a previous commission meeting, but yeah.

I have, yeah.

Thanks, Eric, for having me here and letting me be virtual.

I think you would all benefit tremendously from me being at home and not in your presence.

But um I'm glad to be here and support Eric this evening.

I think we had a great, great conversation with council.

Um so I think this update is timely and we're excited to get in front of you all tonight.

So thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Jason.

So I'll be taking um, you know, a lot of the lead with the presentation tonight, but um, you know, just if only just to save Jason's voice and and um, you know, hopefully um save some strain there.

But uh, you know, I just wanted to let you know that he's here, and I will be pausing every once in a while to see if he has anything to add to the discussion.

Um, but with that, I can begin my presentation.

All right, so as we've kind of mentioned before, we're really talking about opportunities and constraints tonight.

Um we talked about this also with city council at their recent meeting on January 6th.

Um, there's a lot to go over, but ultimately um, you know, a lot of that is quite technical.

You might have noticed there were a number of different attachments, some of them quite technical, along with um this meeting packet.

So I'm gonna do my best to provide a quite high level overview and also um provide you with a bit of a high level overview of what we heard from city council in terms of direction on some of the um sort of implications of the opportunities and constraints that we did identify for this phase of the work.

And um then we'll hopefully talk about if you have any questions and um if you have any sort of differing opinions or um direction sort of based on what we heard from them.

So we'll get to it, of course.

Good evening.

Um we're going to talk a little bit about what we we've done to date.

Again, opportunities and constraints in the Foothills District based on some pretty intensive technical work over the last several months from the consultant team and our community advisory committee and um lots of lots of folks we've engaged with and um have a discussion with you about how that information should inform um the development of our conceptual plan alternatives.

So um, and again, I should point out um we have uh actually a member of our CAC here on the commission tonight and Chair Najak.

So it's great to have you on the CAC, the community advisory committee for the project as well.

And we also have the chair of the community advisory committee here with us in the audience tonight, Randy Arthur.

So I appreciate you being here, Randy.

Good to see you.

Um so just to provide some context for for folks, and again, this might be a little bit of um review from our August work session.

Um, but the original uh plan that was adopted for this area, um, when we talk about foothills, we're talking about roughly the area um between uh State Street and the Willamette and between Trion Creek and uh roughly uh the uh sort of Whole Foods development over there on State Street.

So roughly in that area.

Um, we had originally done some planning for that effort back in 2010 or so, and it resulted in the adoption of the Foothills Framework Plan, the original version in 2012.

Um, obviously a lot has changed since then.

So we want to take a look at what has changed in the district, but also kind of lean uh quite a bit on what was done at that time because you know, when you look at things like geotechnical analysis, those things are um those things don't change within uh 14 years.

So there's there's some things that we can continue to lean on.

Uh of course, one of the things that's prompting this work is the proposed relocation of the wastewater treatment facility that currently it's called the Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plan.

Um, and it is proposed to be relocated to a site just to the west of where it's currently located, and we'll see that on some maps here in the next few slides.

So that um, as you know, we've discussed previously that does introduce um constraints and opportunities in and of itself.

Um of course, this is an area close to the Willamette River, so it does present some access and floodplain challenges, um, particularly with respect to access.

Um, you know, there is only one current entrance to the district today for vehicles.

Um, so that's something that we are hoping to address and really trying to look for where it would make sense for a second access point for the district to really promote um safety, sort of particularly due to those um floodplain constraints.

You know, I think that's something that we've um affirmed as being a high priority for this project.

And of course, um, you know, the there's this constant question of how are we going to pay for this work?

So um ultimately this will be um, you know, we are going to do this plan and make some recommendations for what would be included in terms of um not just you know the land uses but also the street um layout configurations and a number of projects that could be undertaken in the area infrastructure projects that would be included in an urban renewal plan.

So the idea would be to finance those through TIFF or tax increment financing funding through an urban renewal plan.

And generally speaking, the idea would be to sort of when the current urban renewal area in this part of the city, the East End Redevelopment Area expires, which should take place roughly at the end of 2027, early 2028.

We are planning to sort of draw lines for a new urban renewal area in Foothills and hopefully incorporate some of the properties that we still do anticipate developing in this part of the city, sort of in the downtown area as well.

So we don't necessarily see the urban renewal areas being just confined to foothills.

And you know, in a lot of ways, due to that access consideration, you know, it's important not to look at just the district itself, but think about how it connects to things adjacent to you know the Foothills district specifically.

Um the connections across State Street are going to be a challenge for this project.

So we'll talk a little bit more about that.

In terms of the process and engagement we've done to date, of course, um you saw in the meeting packet, existing conditions and technical analysis, a lot of work that we completed there that we've uh distributed for a little while now.

Um it's been made available for almost a month, but we're still kind of unveiling it publicly.

It is available in a story map as well on our website.

So that's supposed to be a little bit more friendly for public consumption, a little bit easier of a way for members of the general public to work their way through the content, although it is still a lot of content, so it does get a little bit technical, and there's a lot of information there.

Um, of course, you know, those that technical work informed the assessment of opportunities and constraints, um, again, kind of interrelated with that existing conditions piece.

Um, but of course, the you know, engagement piece is really a big part of this work as well.

Um, we did have a study session here with the planning commission talking about just that, what our public engagement strategy was proposed to be back in August.

And so moving you know into January, we've done quite a bit of work since then.

Uh we've held three meetings in a site tour, so roughly four meetings of the community advisory committee.

Um, so really diving into quite a bit of content there and getting into discussion of vision and goals, which we're hoping to transition to shortly with the planning commission as well.

Um, and we've also held one meeting of our technical advisory committee.

Um, so that's you know, more of a group of uh folks from partner agencies and other city staff that are working in departments that are going to be impacted by this work, or you know, um they're going to have opportunities as a result of this work, you might say.

Um so you know, we have folks from uh you know agencies like ODOT, Metro, the Lake Aswego Trolley Consortium agencies of that nature, as well as property owners in the districts on the TAC.

Um so we are we've done one meeting so far, really just an intro meeting and hoping to meet again with them in the next month or so.

Um we've also conducted interviews with developers about four different developer interviews thus far.

Um we did two focus groups with sort of a select group of um Lake Oswego residents, kind of mediated focus groups with a firm called THM that does that type of work polling and research, as well as nine meetings of more targeted stakeholder outreach, so with different groups, um, you know, advocacy groups and community groups within the area that can help us connect to populations that we might not typically reach out to and connect to with this type of planning work.

So trying to really spread out and branch out a little bit further than we do for some of these planning initiatives.

Um we've also talked with City Council a number of times about this, most recently on the 6th of January, their first study session of the year on opportunities and constraints.

A lot of that information we'll summarize with you all today.

So, what we've heard so far through that initial sort of round of engagement, you know, there is a strong interest in improving access and connectivity in the Foothills area, and that's you know, really consistent with I think that really clear need for for that when you look at just the site conditions.

Um we've heard that there's a desire for meaningful riverfront public space and trails, so um really wanting to activate that waterfront and connect a lot of the different trail networks that exist within Lake Aswego, and there are a lot of opportunities for that within this district.

Um there's a lot of support for mixed use redevelopment.

So really we've been looking at redevelopment in an area that's currently zoned industrial within this area, and folks have expressed support for introducing a mix of residential and essentially ground floor commercial or limited commercial within that area, so not necessarily a requirement for ground floor commercial, but there's definitely some interest in introducing commercial in that area, retail restaurants, shopping, things of that nature.

There's been concerns about limits on public access.

You know, I think there's a sense that you know, if we develop a lot of high-end residential along the waterfront, that it might be sort of privatized or at least feel privatized.

So folks want to make sure that that doesn't happen, that it still is all publicly accessible, and that the neighborhood kind of feels that way as well.

We've heard a lot of concerns also about traffic in the area, which again, because it's a little bit hard to access some of the backups that can occur on State Street near the entrance on Foothills there on Foothills Road.

Um, you know, that obviously can be difficult.

Obviously, um there's there are some big events as well in that area, including concerts in the park over the summer.

A lot of folks have experienced some congestion down there for those events, and obviously that's kind of the height of when that occurs, but we have heard that from folks.

Flooding you know, is definitely a concern down in this area.

We um have mapped out and looked at what the extent of the 1996 flood is in that area, and are thinking about ways to manage the floodplain to avoid that um from being sort of a threat for development in that area.

Um we've heard concerns about environmental impacts, um, particularly with the confluence of Tryon Creek and the Willamette.

There's really some interesting ecological uh ecological sites, I suppose.

Um, the Trion Creek itself has been seen or has been identified rather as a really important habitat for salmon and moray eels.

Um I'm sorry, lamp lamp rate eel, I'm sorry.

Um, so uh, you know, it's interesting to me.

I did not know that actually we see um salmon that are actually swimming up Tryon Creek and going up there to um, you know, to lay their eggs and do their thing.

Um so it's kind of um something that I didn't realize, you know, they're actually going through the existing culvert, making it all the way through that, and folks have actually seen salmon on the other side of that up on Tryon Creek.

So really kind of a cool um climate in terms of the actual water on Tryon Creek that we've heard makes that really valuable for salmon habitat.

Um, and of course, we've heard a lot of um concerns again about the money, so the cost of all the infrastructure that it will take to overcome these obstacles, particularly with the access topography and floodplain.

Um a lot of what we heard is also um talked about the importance of really connecting this area, the foothills area to downtown.

Um it's really not necessarily visible or you know, something that folks keep in mind when they're in the downtown part of Lake Oswego, and um I think there's a desire for sort of visual connectivity as well as you know, not just vehicular access, but pedestrian and bike access as well, and making that more seamless between downtown and the foothills area.

So, as I touched upon just a second ago, we have embedded a lot of this information into what we're calling a story map.

It's something that we're going to continue to update throughout the course of the project with information as we get it.

Um we got a huge chunk of information with this existing conditions work, so that's what's on there currently.

There are a number of opportunities for folks in the public to go and answer questions and provide their input.

So we're still not necessarily to the design phase, but we really wanted to provide that opportunity for folks to let us know what they think and let us know how they experience and interact with this part of the city.

So we're starting to get that input from folks already and through the story map, and that will stay available for quite some time throughout the through the end of February at least.

So let's talk a little bit about the existing conditions that we did find in this area and kind of what's shaping the district in terms of physical and environmental constraints.

So there is, you know, if you've been to the area, you've noticed really steep topography.

Um, you know, it is between the downtown area and the Willamette River, there is a considerable downslope, and some of those slopes are what we would identify as steep slopes and our mapping system or slopes over 25%.

So you can see those in red on the map.

And a lot of those are associated with the riparian area, but not all of them, and in general, it is a challenging place to get your head around when it comes to the topographical uh layout.

Um, so that's something that we'll have to keep in mind through all phases of the project.

Of course, Trion Creek is the upper boundary of this area, and you can see that there are sensitive lands that are delineated along that creek and in the sort of green dashed area that you can see along Trion Creek.

But there have been some discussions about improving connectivity to the north.

There's a park to the north called Trion Cove Park that could be expanded or improved upon.

So that's been in the talks of some of the parks planning, and that's something that folks have been talking about, of course, with Foothills as well.

When it comes to the street connectivity, it's worth pointing out though that you know there's a large creek there.

It is, you know, there's significant topography that gets down to the creek.

Of course, if we want to build build streets there, a bridge would be required.

So that is a real constraint.

And you know, we want to make sure to abide by the city's sensitive land regulations and delineate those with this work.

So we'll get a better understanding of exactly where that barrier exists with this.

And floodplain, of course, is a really big consideration.

You can see in the light blue line there, the 1996 flood inundation area.

If you see that in the correct way, you can see that things that were left out of the flood inundation include the existing wastewater treatment facility or at least the portions of it that were designed to be left out of a flood event, as well as the adjacent Oswego Point village condominiums.

So you know, it is possible to introduce some fill in this area and result in outcomes that would avoid flood damage for properties in this area, but you know, obviously it's not going to in its current state.

A lot of work would be required, and there will be some challenges in terms of the phasing of that work.

So, you know, if all of these properties don't all develop at once, um it will be a challenge to figure out how to successfully accomplish that.

Um that's going to be something that will continue to be a challenge for this project.

Um you can see the wetlands, of course, that um could accompany accompany both Trion Creek and areas near Tryon Cove, um, as well as resource lands that can constrain sort of where you can develop in this area.

Um, we'll be looking as I mentioned before, the relocation of that wastewater treatment facility, which you can see in the sort of upper right corner of the district, um, right sort of at the corner of the confluence of the Willamette and Trion Cove.

That is proposed to be relocated to I'm not sure.

I think I might be able to point with this.

So proposed to be relocated to this area here within that white polygon, and that will be the new site, roughly.

So, what that does though is it opens up some development land on the former site.

Um, so it's really going to be an opportunity for the city to think about how that is deconstructed, how um you know that that interfaces with the edges of Trion Cove and Trion Creek to the north, Willamette to the east, as well as you know, all the other sort of development that we are hoping will occur in this area.

Um, but um, you know, there is some opportunity, at least when it comes to balancing cut and fill to think about how that works with some of the land there.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that.

Um, but for this slide, um, I also want to point out that the rail corridor that goes through the district, it kind of for most of the district is parallel to State Street.

Um, but as you see, it's in that um sort of thick white line that comes down along State Street here and curves up and goes over the Willamette, not too far to the north.

And um, of course, we know where that crossing is on State Street.

I think you know, some of us might have gotten stuck at that crossing as well, so that's another constraint in terms of traffic.

Um, but that can also make it difficult to provide new access.

So there's really um uh you know a lot of different challenges that that could present.

There's a limited number of areas where the rail is actually at grade and would not require like a tunnel or a bridge or or some type of large infrastructure project to get over or under the rail and into the district.

Um and I've talked a little bit about the flooding, but you know, we we aren't just looking at the 1996 levels, you know.

I think we are going to look at some more um severe events, but that is obviously really critical to any successful development in this area is making sure to stay out of the floodplain and making it as resilient as possible.

In terms of infrastructure and access, I pointed out a bit of this, but there is just one current access to the district down to sort of the south of the district.

And you know, there's it's not super intuitive how you would enter from this area and get up to the sort of focus area in the industrial part of this area of foothills.

Um a lot of it is used to enter the apartments, the Oswego Point condos and apartments are located down in this area roughly.

So much of that intersection is used for this access.

Um so that will be you know an important access point.

We're not you know proposing to do anything to limit that.

Um, you know, I think there is uh we have heard some concerns that it does feel a bit private, that particular entrance.

It feels like you are entering sort of the private apartment and condominium developments, so there's potentially some work to make that feel a little bit more welcoming.

Um, however, you know, we're looking at other access points to the north as being also important alternatives to that one access point.

Uh right now, you know, we um are looking primarily at this public storage access point, which there currently is a crossing for this particular property.

There's a public storage site here along State Street.

I think it's 800 North State Street, and um it does not connect with the rest of the district currently.

Um so this would have to be you know a long-term plan where the city um, you know, we could utilize the existing sort of at grade crossing for um greater access to the district and and have you know a trail or a road down to the rest of the foothills area come down through that existing property.

Of course, the current use could not stay on that property, so that presents a complication.

Um so you know, that's what we see as the best option or the least worst option, I guess, um you could say.

Um there's some other options that we're looking at as well, though, um, that could uh occur to the north, and I'll talk a little bit about that in a future slide.

Um, but they would involve uh tunneling or bridging, likely due to the elevation of the rail at those different points, as well as if if we were to cross at the intersection of Terwilliger and State Street, um, you'd also need to have a bridge over Trion Cove.

So that would also present some environmental challenges as well as it would be quite costly, you could imagine.

Um, obviously it's the lack of access is not just uh issue for um enjoyment of the district from you know the uh a normal resident of the city, but also for emergency access for residents in the actual area, being able to avoid a potential hazardous event or you know, anything that they need to escape for emergency reasons.

So I think you know that there are a lot of concerns that would lead us to really push for that second access point.

Um and as I pointed out a little bit, the timing is going to be something we have to think about quite a bit here in the phasing of of what this all looks like.

We have current industrial uses in the area, a number of those are likely interested in redeveloping at some point in the future.

A number of those we haven't really heard much interest in redeveloping in the near future.

Of course, things change once you get a zoning designation down on paper and have a tangible plan, and once you hear commitment from city council, et cetera.

Um, but in particular, you know, for instance, this public storage site, um, you know, we have no sense that um the owner necessarily is wanting to sell that property.

I think it's a very um lucrative business, actually.

So there are a number of challenges that are you know, that again we have with um you know thinking about what that could look like from that particular property.

Um and you know, there are other businesses down in this area.

There's an existing um concrete plant where they uh make concrete and it is currently operating.

Um I think you know, there's potentially you know a desire to um redevelop that property, but it is viable currently as you may imagine.

Um, some of these industrial uses will likely require some remediation, particularly something like concrete or um even the wastewater treatment um facility infrastructure up here.

There will be um some really important work to figure out kind of what's in the soil and how much work it'll take to make a development ready.

Um that's gonna be true of this entire area.

Um so again, the timing of that is really difficult to uh sort of think about how that how that would exactly work, but we do know that the wastewater treatment uh relocation is probably going to be the first thing that we see in this area.

So that phasing at least, you know, it is a challenge, but it will be something that we consider as we show this in the future in terms of the different design alternatives and what those could look like over time.

And as I mentioned before, there are trail networks in the area, but they're complete, or I'm sorry, incomplete.

Um they are becoming more and more complete, though, actually.

The Foothills Park connection down to George Rogers Park actually is going through land use currently and should be um complete fairly soon with within the year, I believe, or something close to that.

So it presents a huge opportunity then to think about what other connections we could make, particularly when you have something like the Try and Creek State Park that really um comes and um you know, a huge uh important trail within that state park comes down to State Street and just kind of ends, kind of comes to a terminus, and there really isn't many places, there aren't many places for um pedestrians or bicyclists to go at that point.

So we're thinking about um what that could look like and how that could connect to the district too.

As I mentioned, we did talk to some developers or the consultants rather conducted some developer interviews.

So, in terms of the market for redevelopment and foothills and what's kind of shaping that today.

Um, we did hear some developer interests, but um you know there were some sensitivities to things like access, which I've talked about, floodplain and the cost of infrastructure.

So, you know, I think there's a tendency for when we talk about this as a city to say, well, we can get the developer to help pay for that particular piece of infrastructure, but then you know they have that as a of course a concern.

They would like it to be as ready as possible when they get there.

Um, I think the development community is uh is understanding that they will need to have the sufficient level of density to make their projects or pencil out.

Um you'll need to work on placemaking and amenities in that area.

There is a beautiful park, Foothills Park is is really what we call a gem of the city, but it is kind of a little bit hidden back there behind you know, some industrial areas.

You know, it's I'm not going to say that it's the you know most blighted area ever.

You know, it's it's uh there's definitely uh some viable businesses down there, but it's not the um you know exact context I think that residential uh developers would uh prefer in terms of placemaking and amenities, um, particularly the pedestrian amenities could use a lot of work.

And um, again, that phase um the concern about phasing and what that's gonna look like.

And you know, are we going to be developing, you know, if we develop first, or are we just gonna be you know developing um next to industrial buildings for a few years?

And you know, I think that's a concern that developers have as well.

So, yeah, in terms of the limits on redevelopment potential, that single access point really constrains circulation and safety, and the rail corridor makes it so that those multimodal connections are are difficult.

Um, it's difficult to get you know anything over their vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians.

Um, and in particular, the wastewater treatment facility where it's proposed to be located is actually located in the area where um the 2012 plan had previously envisioned a main road, um access road going through.

So we're gonna have to revisit obviously that configuration from the 2012 plan.

Um the floodplain regulations currently as they're presented do limit the buildable area.

You do have to balance cut and fill.

Um and if you're kind of located in a lower lying area, that can be really difficult to do.

Um there's a lot of folks that are concerned that this will redevelop in a way that's isolated from the rest of the city.

And um I think we heard that a lot about the the park in particular, that folks enjoy the park, but it does feel a bit isolated.

Of course, there are some really thriving large residential communities in that area.

So I I don't want to give you the feeling that the entire place is isolated, but um, particularly at night and in these industrial areas, it can have that isolated feeling.

So, yeah, please.

Is there a distinction between access like pedestrian access versus vehicle access access that's being made, or are we just looking at access as like both?

One point being both.

I am talking about it relatively broadly right now.

I think um when we talk about access points with respect to this map, we're talking about vehicular access primarily.

Uh when we think about pedestrian or bicycle access, there are more opportunities that could be presented because there's fewer sort of infrastructure needs there.

You don't have to have quite as large of an area, or you know, I think you can also do a little bit more in terms of the design of what the um pathways can do as opposed to a road.

Um so you you might recall with the 2012 plan, there was kind of this grand they keep on referring to it as a Spanish steps like transition between the downtown area and foothills, where um I think it was close to B Avenue.

Um it was going to sort of step down and transition from downtown into this new area.

There was also a streetcar envisioned, so it was coming down to kind of a streetcar plaza at that point.

Um the location of the wastewater treatment facility does make it difficult to use that same exact kind of pedestrian entrance.

It could be easily kind of modified, I think, though, um, to do something similar.

But um, yeah, there are more opportunities for pedestrian um trail or you know, bicycle access than for vehicular access, but they're all concerns.

Okay.

And those pedestrian ones are being explored as well.

We're just looking at the vehicular ones right now.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

And you know, there's um also that sort of trail access piece as I was referring to, you know, there are a number of trails to the south of the area as well.

So we're primarily looking at that um uh between downtown and um foothills along State Street, those sort of crossing state street pedestrian connections.

Um so yeah, we've heard you know, really that that secondary access, I think again, really talking about vehicular access there would be necessary to unlock redevelopment and public access to the park in the waterfront.

Um, you know, I think we would want to think about cut and fill on the wastewater treatment facility site as well.

So um what will that look like in the context of cut and fill around it and how will that integrate?

Um, if we continue to strengthen the entire district as a riverfront destination, um we've seen that um as being amenable to long-term redevelopment potential.

Um also again the waterfront and trail connections and that mix of uses, um, potentially not just residential and commercial, but also employment and public uses.

So there's existing park and the wastewater treatment facility, those are public uses to an extent.

Um, but the idea of employment uses is something that also could be introduced down there.

There are some offices currently in the area down near the foundry building, um, down sort of in this area.

Um so there are some offices currently that are being utilized in the district.

So, really, you know, we're talking about analysis and um, you know, really wanting to not just talk about what we found, but take that information and say, you know, so what?

How does this impact what we think we should um see down in the foothills area?

How do we transition to a visioning discussion based on this information?

So we are beginning that conversation and um intend to continue that conversation with you as well starting tonight, but also we intend to continue with a uh another study or a work session rather with you in early March on March 9th.

Um so that will be the sort of more vision and goals focused work session at the Planning Commission.

Um so you know, we're continuing that sort of targeted engagement.

Um I didn't get into too much detail on that, but we're meeting with a number of different stakeholder groups and are continuing to do that as well as the broader community.

Um we will be holding an open house in February on February 26th at the adult community center, and we'll be sharing all that information with all of you, um, really trying to build on what we found in this um existing additions phase and align that with what we heard from city council.

Um so ultimately we're gonna use that to develop this vision statement and guiding principles that will be informed by not just council, not just the commission, not just the community, but but everyone.

So yeah, well, we we already did a side trip, um, but you know, we did that in November.

We were lucky um that it was actually a decent day.

It wasn't too foggy, it wasn't raining, um, wasn't really cold, but when the weather um starts to get better, there'll be a lot more opportunities for that.

Um so yeah, uh, you know, once we have that vision statement, we'll move into the sort of conceptual plan alternatives.

We'll have um both conceptual and schematic plan alternatives that will test different sort of access and circulation schemes, different types of land uses and different densities, um, as well as different um approaches to open space and the waterfront.

Um, and again, that phasing question will be really important here.

And when the city can pay for the infrastructure, when that gets in, um, and how does that time up with development that we could expect to happen in the area.

So, you know, I'm talking tonight a little bit, just a wrap-up about what we heard from council.

Um, so this is um kind of what we used at council, and I'm going to go through, use those slides, and then you'll see what we heard from council.

So that's kind of why we're doing it in this way.

So just an FYI, we we know you're not council.

So anyway, we we went to council and we asked them for a bit of direction about what these opportunities and constraints mean in terms of the alternatives that could be developed, trade-offs that could be explored for the project and outcomes that they want to see emphasized.

And then we are going to you know take that and return to city council at our next meeting and talk a little bit more about that.

And obviously, that's going to be reflected in the alternatives as well.

So we talked about access and connectivity, floodplain and environmental strategy, land use and intensity, public realm and amenities, as well as implementation and phasing.

Terms of access and connectivity, um, we asked some questions about you know how should we approach that in the area, and I won't talk too specifically about the questions, but we did get really firm direction.

Um, you know, I think some of these questions you might notice are you know, how should access and connectivity be prioritized as more redevelopment safety and integration with downtown.

It's kind of um, you know, it should be prioritized.

You know, I think there's some some obvious answers here, and we got some good sort of confirmation from council that they shared, you know, the belief that these are priorities as well.

Um so we got direction that sort of confirmed that that second uh entrance from the north is really important to the vitality of this area.

Um, you know, we got a lot of interest actually in uh exploring access from Terwilliger Boulevard, which again might be a lot more of expensive of an option, but it's something that would really make a lot of sense considering where it's located, where this district is located, um particularly considering that in this area.

If you look on the slide north of Trion Creek and Trion Cove, um, you know, the city has some parkland and Metro has been assembling some properties as well in that area.

So you know, there's you know, there could be property as well to facilitate that.

Um, so it is an opportunity that we want to keep on the table and at least keep talking about it, but there are some clear challenges there.

Um and they also confirmed that it's really important to ensure that um folks are able to walk bike and drive to this area and that it's not difficult to find.

I don't know if anybody's actually gone to the Trion Cove area up there, um, sort of near the Terwilliger Boulevard intersection of State Street, but um, there's a road called Stamford Road that if you take a right, if you're going north, you can take a ride on, and it is the tightest hairpin turn you've maybe ever done.

It's just like we um on our on our bus tour of the area, we caused a mini sort of traffic jam along State Street, just trying to sort of maneuver that turn.

And then you go sort of really um you dive deep down, um you go sort of down some uh significant topography, so you can go under a bridge under the railway.

The bridge is made of wood and it's quite old.

Um it's a uh it's quite a structure actually, but it's not necessarily something that you would think of like a modern infrastructure project being the end result, including this this rail bridge, and especially with that airpin turn.

You know, there's a lot of work that needs to be done in that area to facilitate access just more broadly.

So you know, I think uh a lot of a lot of work can be done both in the district itself as well as um areas that connect to it.

In terms of the floodplain and in the the environmental strategy, um we talked a little bit about cut and fill in this area, um talk a little bit about what the approach should be.

You know, essentially what we're doing is to um propose that we add some fill to the area where we would like to see um development sites created.

Of course, um the wastewater treatment plant site will involve some fill, but it's located sort of as the topography starts to transition up, so they're able to balance that cut and fill on their site without looking at this district-wide approach.

Um, but I think um you know what we're going to propose will be that district-wide approach.

So we're going to try to look at that on a larger scale so that each individual property within the industrial area doesn't have to figure out how to do that within their own property boundaries.

Um, you know, and I think that's one thing that could be assisted by the expansion of Foothills Park to the north.

Um, there could be some opportunities to sort of cut some of the existing elevated areas of the Trion Creek wastewater treatment plant.

Um, when you cut that, you create the ability to fill elsewhere in that district.

And so we need to look in a little bit more depth at what we could unlock, but the idea would be to balance out fill you know within the areas where we want to see development with cut um closer to the water and to create areas where flooding can inundate safely while you know raising the areas where we want it to not inundate.

So we heard from council that they want to do that.

They would like to balance cut and fill and look at that sort of district scale.

They also confirm that watershed and repairing protection is a priority, which is something that can really be bolstered with this type of approach and with creating sort of more areas for water to safely kind of spill over in the event of a flood, you can create some really healthy repairing areas as well, or if not create, then you know enhance the existing ones.

And you know, I think one other thing that I haven't talked about too much yet, um, but it would be another opportunity to think about the culvert project associated with Tryon Creek.

Um so I think you know, might want to look at a map from a previous slide here.

Um if you see Trion Creek here, kind of goes up this uh vegetated riparian corridor.

Um currently there is a culvert, um, and for a while there was a slated project that was going to be for a while led by the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services because the existing wastewater treatment plant is a city of Portland facility.

The new wastewater treatment plant is going to be a city of Lake Aswego facility.

Um be operated by the city of Lake Aswego, and because of that, the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services is no longer really involved with the project.

Um it's not because of that, but because of changes at the federal level.

Um essentially, there was a proposed culvert replacement project here that would have been conducted in concert with the Army Corps of Engineers that has not really advanced.

So it was recommended for funding a few times, but it hasn't received any funding.

So this is all to say that this very important salmon corridor, this very important sort of wildlife corridor connecting the um sort of uh mouth of Trion Creek to the rest of the watershed is in need of a champion more or less.

You know, it's something that is kind of up in the air, nobody really is championing that project and moving it forward.

So you know, there is some interest from city council to think about re-engaging with that project and thinking about what that could look like.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a culvert, but some way to allow for um wildlife, you know, particularly against salmon and eels to travel um upstream through that area, as well as you know, potentially thinking about that being a pedestrian or bicycle connection as well.

If it was designed as like a bridge or something of that nature, there really could be some interesting opportunities there.

Um, you know, uh there's a lot of different ways that that could look.

So it doesn't have to be a culvert, but essentially that sort of fish passage project and potentially a human passage project, I suppose as well, is something that um we did hear some interest in.

We did talk a little bit about what type of uses and what intensity of uses should be in this area.

Um talked about housing, what other types of uses and the extent to which parks and open space should be a part of the identity of this area.

I don't think it was really surprised to hear that we should, you know, obviously uh maintain parks as being central to the identity while introducing housing is a really key consideration.

Um, again, that waterfront uh component really um was emphasized as being important to the identity of the area.

The um, you know, the mix of uses, I think was envisioned to be a way to activate that uh waterfront itself.

So that's kind of um, you know, kind of what the land use kind of interface was envisioned to be in that conversation.

And um, yeah, I think we got some differing opinions on like the scale of development that would be appropriate there.

There's some um there's some initial appetite maybe for more density in that area, but um not just extremely dense development for it to be balanced out and for it to also feel very park-like and green.

So um a balance is what we're hearing essentially.

So I think uh it'll be really important for us to illustrate that with some massings and illustrations in the future so that folks can see what does it look like?

What does it look like from downtown if you're looking straight down A Avenue towards the Foothills district?

Um, what is the district itself look like?

Can you see the Willamette?

Can you see Mount Hood on a clear day?

You know, I think there's a lot of really amazing potential viewsheds that um we can consider with this particular location.

Um, we wouldn't want buildings to kind of get in the way of that necessarily.

So you might notice that there are some buildings that kind of block that currently, depending on where you're located.

So I think that's something we're hoping to improve and learn from.

And again, this question about the public realm and what role they should play.

Again, this is a great park for the city.

And that you know, I think we want to really leverage that investment that we've already made in the area and expand upon that.

Um, really want to orient development in the area to that park and continue to extend this the tree canopy in that park and elsewhere.

I think even in the apartments and condominiums, there's a really strong tree canopy that folks want to see extended through the district.

Implementation and phasing is a little bit of a more open-ended question, but we did get some uh direction from council really to um focus on more catalytic initial projects that might stimulate future development.

Um, talk a lot with property owners on um you know redevelopment opportunities to get a sense of what could happen when.

Um, but also, you know, a lot of this again to be determined in terms of the TIFF and financing mechanisms.

Um we you know are going to be making a lot more progress on those pieces once we know a little bit more about what the vision is for this area, and we've sort of nailed down an alternative, but um it's it's really difficult to get into these conversations without folks acting asking how it's going to be paid for.

So um, you know, we don't want to get too far along and start promising things and then realize that there's no way we can actually afford them.

So that's going to be front of mind the whole time.

And luckily we do have Eco Northwest as a subconsultant for our consultant team with first 40 feet.

Um, that is going to help us uh make sure that we can keep things reasonable and keep cost in mind.

I have been droning on here and I haven't gone to Jason for any input in quite a while.

Jason, do you have anything that you want to add for what I've gone through so far?

No, I think you've done a good job.

It's a lot to uh to work through.

And I think yeah, we're open to planning commission comments and just sort of addressing things that you all have top of mind.

So I'm happy to take a break and let others with uh some questions to reach out.

Absolutely.

I I think this is very close to the end of the presentation.

But um, Christina, if you want to put the presentation back up really quick, thanks for juggling.

Just want to confirm.

Yes, that is more or less our our last slide.

So just before we get into discussion, I would just mention uh next steps.

Um we're going to continue to try to think about guidance from you, guidance from the commission, as well as from um you know the community, the CAC, the TAC, and all the folks that we're engaging with to develop that vision in the coming month or two.

Um, then we'll again talk about those alternatives and come back to city council on March 3rd, and we're planning to come back to the commission on March 9th to talk about what we heard and refine the vision in particular at that particular meeting.

So, with that, um, like to open it up to discussion and um hear questions or any sort of guidance or direction you might have about the information we covered.

Thanks.

Uh fantastic presentation as always.

Um what stood out to me was you opened the presentation and you ended it with urban renewal and TIFF.

And what an opportunity, like what a timing opportunity gift that the East End redevelopment district is is winding down and sort of phasing out right as this is ramping up, because certainly um there'll be a noticeable bump in revenue for schools and services as that district closes.

Um myself having worked on many uh projects in the metro area and in TIFF and URA, like probably one of the higher performing like in the whole metro region, Millennium Park Plaza, the village here, all of these things.

Um, just what an opportunity to uh, and I know it's been suggested before, but the city host like an end of the URA party, like to show the public like look at all these things that were accomplished, look what happened.

It's been 40 years since the plan uh was passed, and these are all the community benefits that I I mean, TIFF and URA are so um maybe not misunderstood, but conceptual or something.

Yeah, yeah, just not understood at all.

If you were to ask folks, well, how did we get uh all these amenities that are kind of taken for granted now?

And using that in foothills of like, and this is the mechanism, you know, this is why this should be a seamless ending one URA, opening up at the other.

This is the benefits.

Um, so what just just a comment like what an opportunity of the timing of having uh the east one come down right as the foothills stuff is starting to ramp up.

Yeah, yeah, I I agree.

It's a really great opportunity.

We um, you know, of course, there are still some developments in the East End redevelopment area that haven't come online yet that wouldn't, you know, necessarily be um contributing to the TIFF district yet.

So we're hoping to try to capture that and what we're doing in the Foothills area.

Um so you know, something like North Anchor, which we've talked about for a while, but we haven't really seen break ground yet.

We'll be um interesting to try to um time this as particularly with with that development to try to figure out if we can get that in our URA potentially.

So hopefully that works out.

Thank you, Commissioner Guinea.

Any further comments or questions for planning manager Olson?

I have a question.

Can you give some examples of some of the business groups that you have been a part of these focus groups?

I I've looked for these, like I went through all of the attachments and I didn't see uh reference to either business or economic development.

Maybe they're hidden in some of those groups.

Yeah, um apologies if that wasn't uh immediately noticeable.

We do have um several business representatives on the CAC, um, and we've been talking with representatives from the chamber as well.

But um, we have Lisa Shaw Ryan, who's a local business owner, restaurant owner um in the downtown area that's on the CAC.

Um we have Keely O'Brien, who's owns um the Lakeshore Inn over there on State Street, actually in those properties, but he's a local business owner as well that's on the CAC.

Um we have um uh Ken Sandblast is also a member of RCAC from the Chamber of Commerce as well.

I'm talking a lot with the Chamber of Commerce, but I think in particular, you know, we need to, you know, we have a lot of stakeholder engagement specific to businesses that needs to occur, specific to businesses in the district that needs to occur still.

Um we are planning to do um some sort of focus groups with those folks in that particular area.

Um but yeah, you know, I think uh we have incorporated a number of those folks into the CAC.

We have been talking to folks sort of in our expanded um engagement work um that touch on you know business ownership and and those issues, but primarily we're engaging with the chamber and and folks that um are on the CAC so far.

Okay.

I just they're not on any of the lists.

Like the the name, the the chamber of commerce is not listed.

Okay.

Well, I apologize if that wasn't clear.

Yeah, we there's so much to share here, so I you know, I try not to share every single little thing in terms of um you know the the makeup of the CAC, but you know, I I can I'd be happy to share a little bit more about that in the future.

And um, you know, I like I said, we are planning more focused groups, particularly focused towards that population and property owners in the area as well.

So we have a lot more you know, sort of targeted outreach that we're planning for that population too.

You know, we we did work with businesses obviously for the site tour as well and reached out to them and and talked to them a bit.

Um, you know, we reached out to folks as in terms of putting the CAC together.

Um, but yeah, we we have more to do on that front for sure.

Thank you.

There's also a mention of a ferry.

Can I thought that was really interesting?

Yeah, I guess I kind of brushed over that.

So yeah, you know, I guess that's another um potential sort of uh way to open up access to this area would be from the waterfront.

You know, that's there is an opportunity for folks to potentially um come to Lake Aswego by ferry.

So there's this kind of um still budding and not fully formed um effort called Frog Ferry, where there's folks with a lot of experience in the ferry business from like the Puget Sound area and um King County primarily that have started to put together this organization.

They have they know what they're doing.

They've they've thought a lot about this, where um the different sort of uh stations would be on their ferry routes.

It would go from essentially Oregon City to Vancouver.

Um, and there'd be stops in I think St.

John's, which is great for me because that's where I live.

Um there would be uh downtown a number of stops as well as um you know, Lake Oswego Foothills um park was considered uh potential stop right now.

I think they're looking to um you know add accessible ADA accessible stops if possible, but it's all still pretty theoretical.

Um I think they're still trying to do sort of like test runs and and sort of you know get people out on a theoretical boat that could run the ferry route and see what it kind of feels like for folks out there.

Um but yeah, they're they're making some progress, and I think we'd like to capitalize on that to the extent that it's possible.

Um Jason knows a lot more specifically here, so he's he's got a lot more of the frog ferry details for you.

I think you covered it pretty well.

Yeah.

Um I I covered the broad strokes at least, but you know, there's um you know, you know, uh even they've thought about the timing of like what the sort of services could look like and and how commuters could theoretically get from you know someplace like Vancouver to downtown Portland on a commute.

Um so you know, it's they they're laying the the um groundwork for something that could be really cool and it's um really interesting to think about what that could mean for folks to arrive in Lake Aswego on the dock there in Foothills Park and come up and experience Lake Asbigo um in that way and sort of connect to downtown from Foothills.

So that's that's really um it could be uh a really interesting way for the the district to be unlocked.

Thank you.

That is exciting.

Yeah, Jason, please feel free to add anything I'm missing.

I'm apologies.

Yeah, if there's any specific questions about that, I think I mean you covered it pretty well.

They've um, you know, they've they've done the route timing, they've studied the vehicle, they've looked at all of the potential landings and ways to access a variety of different points.

So Foothills Park ranks pretty high in terms of the boat dock that exists there today and the accessibility from that dock up into the park, you know, things that would need to be considered is what is the application and in terms of payment, and so there's some little bit of infrastructure that would need to go in place, and of course, with invigoration of the district and improving access from the park into downtown like a suicide, that would be a benefit as well.

But I think they're they're doing the due diligence to understand the capacity for it and the timing and you know the initial funding to kick start the number of of um vehicles that they would need to start the program.

So it's it's really interesting, and it is a it's a qualified group of folks from the financing side to the operations side um and to the funding and organization.

So it's this is a great time to continue that conversation and and keep foothills as a part of that discussion.

And you know, this is this is a long-term project, but this is these are some of the kind of the fun things that we get to we get to add into the mix.

Yeah, so kiosks and things like that might be necessary, but um, I think we've identified with some fairly minimal improvements.

It could be uh an accessible boat launch, I believe.

So um, yeah, it's a great opportunity.

Thank you, Commissioner Marino.

I have one uh one question.

Um thing that we hear about uh fairly frequently on the planning commission is a focus on affordable housing.

Has that been um kind of a uh a topic of discussion for this area and how could we integrate expansion of affordable housing within the Foothills district?

Yeah, thanks for that question, uh Commissioner Bruce.

Um I'm trying to cover all the things tonight, and I miss these things.

Um actually affordable housing is something that we are obligated through our housing production strategy to incorporate into the urban renewal plan in some capacity in Foothills.

So you know, we have committed to that.

It could look a lot of uh there's a lot of different ways it could, you know, manifest within either foothills or you know, potentially utilizing financing for foothills um somewhere else.

I'm not I'm not sure what that would look like, but um, you know, there's obviously land in that area, so it is a possibility.

We've talked a bit about you know, again, the sort of um concern that the waterfront would be privatized if there's too much sort of high-end private development there too.

So we have heard some support for um affordable housing more in the the realm of like workforce housing and housing that's affordable for for folks that that work here in particular, um, and it would be you know accessible to a lot of the different businesses downtown at least.

Um so yeah, I think there are a number of different opportunities there.

Um the uh rezoning itself is actually a part of our housing production strategy.

So the introduction of more units in that area is something that we're going to hopefully be able to utilize for um our overall production in the city.

But you know, I think in particular we're going to be asked to, and we'll talk about this actually in our next um work session here at the planning commission, but we're going to be asked to deliver more units at specific income bracket ranges in the future by the state.

So there are some opportunities to do that there.

We have um somebody with a lot of knowledge about affordable housing on the CAC who's also on the planning commission.

And we also have um uh another uh individual from North Um Trell Anderson who um yeah, I didn't know if he used to be with Northwest Housing Alternatives or anyway, um, Trell with the Northwest Housing Alternatives is also extremely knowledgeable about affordable housing and the different resources that are available that could come to play.

So that's something that we've been thinking about this whole time, but um didn't come into play, I guess, in terms of existing conditions on the site.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I just have one question.

Is the wastewater treatment facility the driving force and all this other planning is is it crucial or not?

That's a good question.

You know, I think um it's it is a driving force and it's not the only force.

So I think um it it's you know, I think it's been stalled for a while, and folks, you know, a lot of different folks um have wanted to see that conversation pick back up and for you know, folks to get the ball rolling again.

Um but you know, the wastewater treatment relocation, you know, made it so that you couldn't just kind of pick up the old plan and just kind of put it back down on paper and and and run with it.

Um so you know, I think it did force us to have to do this planning effort in that we had to look at different configurations, look at you know, um different ways to access the district in particular, a different road configurations, and um you know, I think uh it's driving it to the extent that we now have this former wastewater treatment facility site that is is quite large.

It's actually opening up more land than we could have utilized for redevelopment with the previous plan.

Um, so there's more potential there now.

Um, with um it's going to be on a smaller site at the new wastewater treatment facility.

So um, yeah, I think it's a a big part of what we're doing, but it's it's not the only reason.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I I just have a comment.

Thanks, Eric.

Um, and it's a continuation of the question I had from from earlier, and it's really like this is great, like laying out the opportunities, and I think it logically flows and like what gives us a real understanding of of the opportunities and constraints that we're facing.

Um, and I would say understanding city council's uh direction to explore like a second access point, like a broad, let's call it vehicular access point.

Um but I would I would not personally I would not want to lose sight of other pedestrian access points because the to me the walkability from downtown to this is huge, like from my perspective.

And to make that as seamless as possible, I feel like that needs to be really really focused.

And that would be my only other comment because it's not appreciate that.

It's not in this one.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that's um I think we've heard that.

And I think if we're not presenting that as something we've heard, then we can be a little bit more deliberate about that.

But um, yeah, that's very much consistent with what we're hoping to do here.

And I think even with some of the vehicular access, we're thinking about ways that pedestrians could move through there through Trion Creek.

But yeah, I think the downtown connections are gonna be the most critical to success.

And I think you know, the from what we've heard from the business community to your comments, um, Commissioner Moranio, that's a huge um item of interest for folks to be able to come spend money in downtown and then just kind of stroll down to this beautiful park that we have on the waterfront there.

And um, you know, it could be a lot more seamlessly integrated than it is now.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you hear it when you're walking around the village or outside of Salt and Straw where people are like, well, I know where the lake is, but like where's the river?

Oh, it's somewhere over there.

Like, yeah, we know it's close by, but we can't see it, or we don't have a connection to it, or yeah.

What's the closest fire department to the Foothills District?

I think it's the downtown fire department, so it's right uh yeah, yeah, on on B, right?

Right over right over about B.

I'm pointing, but that's what I'm pointing at.

Yeah.

Um that would still that would remain the closest even after all of this development.

Yes, yeah, yeah, it would it would still be within approximate sort of location to that area to be able to serve it.

Yeah.

But um to that point, we are still working with um we do have our fire marshal on the technical advisory committee, and we're going to be working with him to make sure that we're not yeah, you know, getting into any bad situations in terms of fire access and making sure that everything is um you know able to be served.

Commissioners, any further comments.

Seeing none, all right.

Thank you, planning manager Olsen for the presentation and for all of the work on this.

We're excited to help this vision come to life.

Thank you.

Uh moving on to item eight, other business.

I kind of handled the other business earlier because I didn't want to have um Suvani wait, but obviously we have a new um contracting council with us, and I think that's about it.

All right.

Thank you.

Item nine is schedule review.

So our schedule for February, our first meeting in February is canceled.

So that meeting on the 9th has been canceled.

City Council is going to do their goal setting in later in February.

So we'll have to postpone our goal setting or work plan meeting here at the Planning Commission for until March.

So you can see that's currently slated for March 23rd.

But we might be able to do it a little bit earlier.

That might change.

As I said, kind of moving into vision and guiding principles.

And then on the 23rd, at least tentatively, we're hoping to have our second, maybe maybe it'll be our third discussion on a sort of goal setting based on council's 2026 goals.

Thank you very much.

With that, the planning commission meeting is adjourned.