My Comments for Important Tuesday Evening Public Hearing on Foothills Redevelopment in Lake Oswego.

I have prepared my comments for the hearing on the the Foothills Redevelopment Plan before the Lake Oswego City Council on Tuesday, November 29th at 6 PM. 

The current plan includes NO affordable housing goals for this planned 3,000 unit increase in Lake Oswego's housing supply, despite the large public infrastructure investments being contemplated.  (The plan indicates that apartment development may proceed before a decision on full funding of the Streetcar occurs).

I am strongly urging affordable housing, transit, fair housing, regional, and sustainability advocates from across the Metro region to submit written testimony and or /to testify in person at this important hearing. 

My prior post, including the email address of where to submit written testimony is HERE. 

If you submit written testimony I would suggest making sure you reference that the subject of your testimony is  "November 29, 2011 City Council Consideration of the Adoption of the Foothills Area Redevelopment Framework Plan"

My Detailed Testimony

In my formal written testimony I have prepared a detailed analysis of the rental housing portion of the plan, and have included four recommended changes in the draft resolution that the City Council will use to adopt the plan.  I have also summarized this detailed document for my oral testimony at the hearing. 

How to See My Testimony In Advance

If you plan on submitting written testimony and /or testifying at the hearing, please drop me an email (housepdx@gmail.com) and I will consider sharing my testimony (in MS Word format) with you in advance. You can then decide if there are portions of it that you want to reference or include in your testimony and we can coordinate the timing of the submission of comments.  

I will post the material to my website at some point, but will be working to refine the form, but not the substance, before formal submission.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Rail-Volution Annual Meeting in Portland October 18-21.

Main page, including registration is HERE. 

Schedule is HERE; Brochure is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Get Your World On: Innovative Transportation Systems Around the World.

Earth Policy Institute piece HERE.

Beijing is one of 11 Chinese cities with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in operation.  In southern China, Guangzhou officially opened its BRT in early 2010. Already carrying more than 800,000 passengers daily, this system is expected to serve one million passengers per day by the end of the year. In addition to linking with the city’s underground Metro in three places, it will soon be paralleled throughout its entirety with a bike lane. Guangzhou will also have 5,500 bike parking spaces for those using a bike-BRT travel combination. 

 Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Boston Study of Metro Housing/Transportation Costs.

HERE.

Calculated Risk has related post HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update:Nationwide Housing/Transportation Cost Index Expands Nationwide; Includes Portland Data.

Two updates

1. I have created a two page example HERE of the H+T index applied to Portland. First page shows cost burden results using 80% of regional median income for block group, City of Lake Oswego, Multnomah County, and Portland Metro. Second page shows same geographies but cost burdens at 100% of regional median income. [For Moderate Income renters costs burdens for block group, Lake Oswego, Multnomah County were all HIGHER than region as a whole; for renters at 100% of median income, cost burdens were closer to region as a whole for housing, but still higher for housing and transportation costs].

2. In listening to the audio teleconference I noted that Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer was supposed to be on the call to announce introduction of legislation requiring multiple listing companies to provide transportation/ housing cost information for property listings. He did not appear on the call, which may signal the bill is still being discussed/revised.(My initial take is that better way to go may be to provide CLEAR incentives for location efficient mortgages so that qualified buyers will choose to live in homes with low transit/ housing costs; I believe FHA may be working on a pilot LEM project to test and further refine this concept).

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Penny Wise and Pound Fuelish is HERE; it provides details on an index used to produce values for an expanded group of 337 metro areas.

The H+T Index relies on the U.S. Census’ Selected Monthly Owner Costs (SMOC) and Gross Rent to arrive at the housing half of the equation. These Census variables include: utility expenses, mortgage payments, rent payments, condominium and other fees, real estate taxes, and premiums for home owners insurance.

Transportation costs are calculated using nine variables, most of which are derived from the 2000 U.S. Census, that are divided between neighborhood (residential density, gross density, average block size, transit connectivity index, job density, and average journey to work time) and household (household income, household size, and commuters per household) characteristics. These variables are used to predict, at a census block group level, three dependent variables – auto ownership, auto use, and public transit usage – from which transportation costs are calculated.

Portland Data:
One view of Portland metro data is available HERE; other menu choices will allow zooming into neighborhood/block groups. (The view HERE shows that average transportation/housing costs for renters is 41% of income).


Teleconference Audio
An audio of a March 23rd teleconference held with the HUD and DOT officials to recognize the the roll out of the expanded use of this index is HERE.

Note that this nationwide index differs from that used by Metro in their Urban Growth and Transportation plans'; Metro uses a one off method that can't be replicated nationally.

Starting at page 18 of the document, a series of policy suggestions are made to integrate the use of the index in federal government policies housing and transportation policies.

The combined transportation and housing index has been funded by The Brookings Urban Markets Initiative, Center for Housing Policy of the National Housing Conference, Chicago Community Trust, The Energy Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, Surdna Foundation and Wallace Global Fund.(The Rockefeller Foundation funded the expansion to 337 areas).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Tri-Met's Congressional Hearing Testimony on Sustainability in Practice References HUD Grants.

On March 10th Tri-Met General Manager Fred Hansen testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Sustainability in Practice. This hearing immediately proceeded a second panel with HUD Deputy Secretary Sims and a DOT official on sustainability provisions in the FY 2011 budget.

General Manager Hansen's testimony is HERE (file will open to page discussing HUD grants); HUD Deputy Secretary Sims Testimony is HERE.

Director Hansen had this to offer about the transit connection to HUD Livability/Sustainability Grants:

What the Administration has proposed will go a long way toward supporting the development of livable communities. One concern is that initial proposals out of HUD for their Sustainable Communities grants do not mandate a role for transit – which we know is essential for making livable communities. This may be appropriate for the regional planning grants, but not so for the community challenge grants, which appear more focused on implementation. Supporting actual project implementation that embodies the outcomes we’re striving for will be key to building sustainable communities. Transit agencies must be at the table with cities, metropolitan planning organization (MPOs) and housing developers to make this happen. The importance of this region-wide coordination is a key lesson from our experience in the Portland region.

There are numerous examples of promising projects underway in our region, which could use direct support and which might be models for other areas. For example, we are currently working with the Housing Authority of Portland to improve transit access as part of the Hillsdale Terrace redevelopment project for which they have applied to the HOPE VI program. While we recognize that the current use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to fund the initiative may dictate which recipients are eligible for grants, there is a way to ensure transit agency participation in these planning efforts, either through heavily weighted criteria for partnership or through a direct requirement that transit be at the table.

It would also seem that, although we do need to strengthen capacity-building among MPOs for integrated regional planning, these initiatives must also support technical capacity-building within transit agencies (something we have, but most do not) to be viable partners with MPOs on these planning efforts, especially those that are modeling-heavy.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update: Myron Orfield Portland Appearances, Monday and Tuesday Oct. 26th and 27th.

Update: I found a third event on Tuesday morning from 7:30AM to 9 AM, at the Monarch Hotel off of I-205. More event details for this event can be found HERE
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Coalition for Livable Future is hosting metropolitan policy guru Myron Orfield (Brookings bio is HERE) for an event on Tuesday Oct. 27th from 7 PM-8:30 PM at Portland State University Smith Center Ballroom, 3rd floor, 1825 SW Broadway.CLF website is HERE and a PSU summary of the event is HERE.

EARLIER, on MONDAY MORNING Oct 26 from 7:30 am - 9:00 am, a separate event is being held focusing on regional equity, in BEAVERTON. Address is Beaverton Community Center,12350 SW Fifth St, Room 100, MAP to location is HERE.

From Metro, description of event and panel participants:

Regional Equity: Making sure that all neighborhoods thrive

The Metro Council is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion with Myron Orfield, a nationally recognized expert in the field of metropolitan equity issues and the director of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. Professor Orfield will be in the Portland metro region on Oct. 26 and 27 for a series of panel discussions around meeting the Metro’s goal of ensuring equal distribution of the benefits and burdens of regional growth. Orfield will present an evaluation of how the Metro region is addressing issues of equity and how we can continue to improve. Local elected officials and community leaders will join Orfield and respond to his evaluations and recommendations.

Panelists include: Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka; Beaverton Mayor Dennis Doyle; Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten; Ellen Johnson, Oregon Legal Aid Services; Rus Dondero, Pacific University.

Sponsors: Metro, Washington County, Portland State University, Coalition for a Livable Future and 1,000 Friends of Oregon.

PS--If anyone knows of other appearances beyond these two, please add them as comments below.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New AARP and National Housing Trust Report Puts Portand Near Top in At Risk Preservation Units Near Transit.

A new report says that Portland is near the top of metro areas with the percent of expiring units near transit. A link to the page with various sections of the report is below, the FULL report can be downloaded HERE.

Some report findings and page references:

• Page 10 says : ...in three metropolitan areas (San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Seattle), more than 60 percent of potentially threatened housing [housing with contracts expiring within 3 years] is within 1/2 mile of transit, and more than 50 percent is within 1/4 mile.
• Page 28 shows metro area % of units within 1/2 mile of transit.
• Page 29 shows metro area % of units within 1/4 mile of transit.
• Page 30 says (questionably!): Portland’s streetcar investment has brought more than $3.5 billion in investment and was part of the plan to create the Pearl District with 30 percent affordable housing.
• Page 43 begins the section with policy recommendations
• Page 58 has a summary for Portland metro area.
• Page 68 has a transit summary for Portland metro area

Report Discussion Opportunity:
From Housing Policy.org

On Wednesday, November 4 at 2:30 p.m. EDT, the HousingPolicy.org Forum will host a "Live at the Forum" event to discuss a new report from the AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the National Housing Trust and Reconnecting America, Preserving Affordability and Access in Livable Communities. Report authors Rodney Harrell, Allison Brooks, and Todd Nedwick will answer your questions after they provide an overview of the report. Click HERE to learn more about how you can communicate directly with these experts on the Forum!

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update: Rail˜Volution 2009 Coming Up in Boston: Link to 2008 Presentations and Mark Your 2010 Calendar for Portland Hosting.

Update: Appears that Alaska Air has round trip flights to Boston around that time for less than $300. I'm just saying....

The 2009 Rail˜Volution transit conference is coming up in Boston (Many years ago, I did presentation on FHA MF financing for projects near light rail when conference was held in Portland).

Seems likely with new Administration interest in intersection between housing and transportation will grow.

Rail˜Volution website with details on Boston conference is HERE.

Noticed that they have 2008 presentations posted HERE.
(Likely during or after this conference 2009 presentation will be at same web address, substituting 2009 for 2008 in the URL).

Mark your Calendar:
2010 scheduled conference dates for Portland are October 19-21, 2010.

Questions:
Anyone going to Boston conference?

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Update 2: Merkley Joins Dodd in Intro of Livable Communities Act.

Update 2: Bill text is NOW available HERE.

Update 1: Bill number is S. 1619, but text not yet available at Thomas. Will add a link once bill text is available.


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In order for HUD to pay for planned sustainable housing programs (including transit oriented development) as proposed in the FY 2010 budget, Congressional/Presidential approval of such a program needs to occur via authorizing language.

Senator Dodd has introduced a bill that would accomplish this, along with Senator Merkley as one of several co-sponsors.

Press Release is HERE (I don't yet see a bill number but when I find it I will update this post). News story is HERE.

HUD-DOT Transit and Green Building Kumbaya.

Press release from HUD HERE.

Testimony from Donovan HERE.