“This is a very important day,” said Portland Mayor Sam Adams at the May 16 Portland City Council meeting, “not just for Portland State. It’s a very important day for the future health of the city.”
“This is a very important day,” said Portland Mayor Sam Adams at the May 16 Portland City Council meeting, “not just for Portland State. It’s a very important day for the future health of the city.”
At the meeting, the City Council approved the Education Urban Renewal Area plan in a 3-1 vote. The plan is a long-term project that will expand and improve PSU as a leader of economic growth, prosperity and opportunity.
What this is really about,” said PSU President Wim Wiewel at the council meeting, “is providing access to education for Oregonians, for people of the Portland region, and it’s about economic development in the region. That’s the purpose of Portland State, and the purpose of this educational renewal area is to make it possible for Portland State to pursue that mission.”
According to PDC Senior Communications Coordinator Anne Mangan, the plan will take effect in June. Funds will begin to flow into the renewal plan during the 2013–14 fiscal year. PSU Director of Communications Scott Gallagher said the money gained through urban renewal will help to fund updates to current PSU services. He gave examples of the School of Business Administration, which is in need of updates to accommodate the growing number of enrolled students, and the Helen Gordon Childcare Center, which subsidizes childcare fees to students and faculty members with children. The PSU Business Accelerator, whose mission is to “incubate and accelerate start-up technology and science companies while creating a living laboratory for the university community,” will also gain some extra funding as it has seen a jump in enrollment and many businesses that apply for enrollment are put on a waiting list.
Multnomah County is also planning on building a new Department of County Human Services headquarters on campus. Gallagher believes that such a building will strengthen the partnership between PSU and the county and attract donors and investors, which will have positive economic effect for the university and the surrounding area.
The 144-acre renewal plan includes the majority of the PSU campus. The plan’s objectives are to create academic excellence, attract private investors, and improve and develop the area’s workforces. In order to meet these goals, it will provide up to $169 million obtained through property taxes, which will be used to create research facilities, affordable housing and private development. This will help the area adjust to the predicted growth in population that PSU is expected to experience in the next 20 years.
“We believe that, to be competitive in a global economy, the metropolitan area needs to be more innovated, more creative, more entrepreneurial than any other, and we do that by having a highly educated population,” Wiewel said. “We think it should be Oregonians and people from the Portland region themselves that have the opportunity to get the education that allows them to be productive and allows the region to attract the kind of businesses that offer high-quality jobs,” he added.
Discussions and revisions of a proposed educational urban renewal district began almost four years ago. Originally, the district covered more acreage than the current proposal area and spread not only throughout PSU but also throughout other parts of downtown Portland.
At the meeting, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogan said he was skeptical of the plan when Adams first introduced it to him nearly two years ago. Due to his doubts of the proposal, Adams and the Portland Development Commission revised the proposal, cutting it down by nearly half the size, but specifically made its priority to support PSU in meeting development and academic goals.
Still, throughout the proposal’s deliberations, many have been critical of the renewal plan, believing it not to be in the best interests of the Portland community. In a time of budget cuts and job layoffs, which money from property taxes could help prevent somewhat, some Portland Public Schools and Multnomah County representatives feel that the university urban renewal plan may not be the best choice for the city when weighed against other educational issues.
During the council vote, City of Portland Commissioner Nick Fish questioned if the renewal plan was ready to make critical investments in the community to create family-wage jobs and prosperity that will continue to benefit the area in the future. He concluded that, if so, the plan was in the best interests of the area as a whole, and subsequently voted for the plan. City of Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard had similar thoughts for the plan and also voted his support.
City of Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz was the lone voice in opposition and voted against the proposal with the statement, “I do applaud PSU for what you endeavor to accomplish as a regional state university. I believe you’re already well on your way, if not there, in delivering what we need in that regard.”
Some feel that it’s the state’s job to fund the university. However, the state wasn’t doing that,” Gallagher said. “The urban renewal plan will act as seed money, which will act as a leverage to bring in other money from investors, which will act as leverage for even more money for the university.”
