[Posted Saturday, May 7, 2022; updated Friday, May 20]
Following neighborhood forums with representatives from the Portland Bureau of Transportation. multiple Hillsdale community groups have mounted a petition to delay by three years the Capitol Hwy implementation of the Rose Lane Project, which will convert one lane in each direction to bus-and-turn only traffic.
Read the petition here. Visit these Hillsdale businesses if you would like to sign:
Paloma Clothing
Hillsdale UPS Store
Hoot-n-Annie Resale Boutique for Women & Children
Portland Camera Service
Cuttle Fish & Corals
Hillsdale State Farm
Hillsdale OnPoint Community Credit Union
Hillsdale Re/Max Equity Group
Gurton's Plant Shop
Hillsdale Pizzicato
The Hillsdale News has previously reported on the Rose Lane Project and the local response. Read about PBOT's Rose Lanes here, and about the community's responses here and here, and here.
The city-wide Rose Lane concept was approved by the City Council in 2020. Absent action from the council, any decisions to delay or modify the plans for the Hillsdale segment would require approval from the commissioner in charge of PBOT, Jo Ann Hardesty, and the department director, Chris Warner. Construction is expected to begin in August or September.
Objections have focussed on the potential loss of business to local merchants, both during and after construction, and increased traffic on local streets, which are often narrow, steep, windy, and lack sidewalks. Critics also contend that PBOT's own analysis shows that current levels of traffic do not contribute to bus delays and that the Rose Lane is a solution to a problem that does not exist. Now is not the time to divert traffic away from local businesses, they say, when they are still struggling to recover financially from the pandemic.
Hillsdale transportation and pedestrian advocate Don Baack presented the request to delay the project to the city council via Zoom on Wednesday, May 4. According to Baack, PBOT predicts that 320 cars per day (64% of peak-hour traffic) will choose an alternate route to avoid Capitol Hwy through Hillsdale. "This is significant for businesses in Hillsdale," he said.
Baack urged the council to delay the project until 2025, when businesses will have stabilized and post-pandemic traffic patterns, bus delays, and transit ridership can be analyzed.
The petition is sponsored by the Hillsdale Business and Professional Association, the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, SW Trails PDX, and Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.
--Valeurie Friedman
Will the Rose Lane Project help Hillsdale bloom or fade? What do you think? Let us know.