On Tuesday, May 11, a group of neighbors and community members met with Senior Real Estate Manager Brian Hunter and architect Eric Koch for the Walgreens drive-thru development. Neighbors raised concerns and made suggestions as to how to make the design more appropriate for our neighborhood and community. Of particular concern were pollution from idling cars, increased traffic in an already impacted area, pedestrian and bike safety at the Belmont Library/SE Yamhill/Walgreens intersection, pollution from lights and noise at the drive-thru, the over-sized parking lot and site improvements. Many of us were hopeful about the opportunity to collaborate with the Walgreens design/development team to create something special at this site--a project that addresses Walgreens' bottom line and customer relations while enhancing the pedestrian/bike/transit friendliness of our neighborhood. Neighbors also wanted to know why Walgreens chose this site and why they were proposing a drive-thru at all at this particular store.
Brian was able to confirm that the proposed gas station at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Belmont is off the table and will not be part of this development proposal. We also learned that Walgreens does not expect any increase in revenue from this project and that they had not looked specifically at this store's demographics for appropriateness of the project from a social or economic standpoint. Brian and Eric were not able to address any of our specific concerns directly as it was apparent that neither of them is in the position to make any decisions about their ability to stray from the current design. There were a number of instances in which Brian mentioned having to run suggestions by others in his corporation for approval.
I recently received an email from Brian stating that he has spoken to his corporation regarding our concerns and that he hopes to increase the project's budget to address some of those concerns though he did not mention specifics. He said he would get back to me by the end of the week. In the mean time we have learned that Walgreens has submitted to the City of Portland an application for an adjustment to the Planning Code. So it seems the attempt by Walgreens is to placate us while they push forward with their original design and they do not intend to work collaboratively with the community.
Since Walgreens has shown us that they intend to move forward with a design to which we are opposed, and they have told us one thing and done another, it's time to fight back. It's not just that we are opposed to the drive-thru, it's that we are opposed to the top-down corporate model that ignores the individuality of our community.
Because they need an adjustment to the Planning Code, the City of Portland will issue a public notice (expected to be published by the end of May based on standard timeline) giving concerned residents 21 days to comment directly to the city. We will post the public notice on this blog as soon as it is made available. We invite all concerned residents to reply to the notice when it comes out. This is our chance to remind the City of Portland that Sunnyside residents are deeply involved in neighborhood matters.
Additionally, it's time to start the PR, yard sign, and press campaign. More info will be posted here soon.
Additional steps on our response to this project will be further considered at the Sunnyside Land-Use meeting, June 13. Please come share your thoughts and ideas.
-- Holly Cook
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