Portland Mayor Sam Adams shops a new urban renewal district dubbed the 'education' zone: Portland City Hall roundup
Published: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 9:49 AM Updated: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 2:37 PM
A new proposal for a downtown Portland urban renewal district includes Lincoln High School, the Portland State University campus and Oregon Health and Science University's Marquam Plaza.
Dubbed the Education Urban Renewal Area, the new zone would give Mayor Sam Adams the opportunity to burnish his image as a schools advocate and deliver on a stalled effort to funnel more development money downtown. He has just 11 months left in office.
The push won't be easy.
Adams' earlier efforts to create a larger downtown zone -- then referred to as the Central City Urban Renewal Area -- drew criticism, particularly from Multnomah County officials who worried about the financial hit to their budgets. (Urban renewal zones route property taxes away from jurisdictions such as the county.) In March 2009, then-Chairman Ted Wheeler panned Adams' proposal to tap a new zone to help pay for a Major League Soccer renovation at what's now Jeld-Wen Field. "With all due respect, I'm new to the
