Clackamas County and MIG Consultants hosted a Zoom meeting on
Wednesday, Feb. 10 to present a draft of three design alternatives for the
Rhododendron Main Street Site Redevelopment Plan and share community
feedback gathered from a survey conducted in December 2020.

The presentation highlighted the community survey participants’ preference
for a redevelopment plan that includes rental housing on the site over a
design alternative featuring a larger hotel.

Jon Pheanis, the representative for MIG Consultants, presented design
alternatives for associated transit, frontage and crossing improvements for the
redevelopment site.

These elements have all received positive feedback from the community
during the outreach and planning period.

“We’re not starting from scratch, that’s not what this project is about,”
Pheanis said. He detailed MIG’s goal of supporting the community’s vision
while integrating transportation and land use planning.

“The redevelopment site’s location between the river and the highway poses
challenges due to setback requirements,” Pheanis added.

Of the three design concepts, one featured a hotel and additional retail space,
while the other two consisted of a mixture or rental housing and retail. The
survey results showed a strong preference for rental housing and a general
disapproval for the out-of-scale design of a larger structure.

Pheanis stated that Clackamas County and the Oregon Department of
Transportation had informed the consultants that zoning requirements would
limit the proposed number of housing units on the site and that development
would need to comply with a legal requirement to preserve access to the
separate lots.

“ODOT is eager to assist the redevelopment in enabling safer access for all
users,” said ODOT representative Kate Hawkins.

Hawkins stated a traffic study would be the next step for transportation
planning in the community. Hawkins added that many of the proposed
changes would be easier to implement after the department sees the
construction of a sidewalk.

“We want to work with the community here,” she said.

Brett Fischer, a representative for the owners of the private property at the
proposed development site, stated that any development planning would
make it difficult to include a location for the Park and Ride service which
currently utilizes the lots. Fischer added that access to the private property for
use by the Park and Ride was a temporary allowance until the sites were
developed.

Senior Planner for Clackamas County Scott Hoelscher stated that the next
step of the redevelopment process would entail prioritizing frontage
improvements which can only take place pending both funding and the
development of the private property at the site.

“The private property’s development is not guided by the county, although the
overall redevelopment is a community effort built by consensus we hope,”
Hoelscher said.

Hoelscher stated the county would examine the feedback and comments from
the community while continuing to access the redevelopment plan.
“It’s a community project, we want to hear from everyone,” Fischer said about
the private property owners' desire to incorporate community feedback into
their decision-making process.

$68,350 in funding to hire the MIG consulting team came from a
Transportation and Growth Management Grant – Quick Response Program
from ODOT and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.
More information about the project, including a video of the Feb. 10 meeting
and a PDF of the draft recommendations, is available online at

https://www.clackamas.us/engineering/rhododendron-main-street-
redevelopment-plan.

Scott Hoelscher can be emailed at scotthoe@clackamas.us.