The City of
Milwaukie utilizes a Transportation
System Plan (TSP ) which identifies and
prioritizes improvements within the various transportation types: Pedestrian, Bicycle, Public Transit, Street
Networks, Neighborhood Traffic Management, and Downtown Parking. In 2007, the city did a complete overhaul of
their TSP , but to remain consistent with
Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan, the plan is due for an update.
Although there are no major policy changes,
there are smaller changes that need to be done.
One requirement is to extend the forecast from the current 2030 to the
year 2035; other changes involve removing the completed projects from the lists
and change some wording.
Because the
City Council wants the TSP to reflect the
community’s priorities, the city Planning Department is collecting comments on
the proposed changes. There are three
aspects upon which they are specifically focusing: confirming project priorities, ranking the
top projects, and identifying other needs.
Updates to the plan can be found at:
Each of the
modal systems is divided into separate chapters with each chapter addressing specific
goals, needs and recommendations within each system. The recommendations include a master plan
highlighting the list of projects. Each
project is designated as a high, medium, or low priority and includes a brief
description and a cost estimate of the project.
Projects are also classified by type: capital, service enhancement,
policy, or operational.
A public
meeting will be held on June 3, 2013
from 6:30 to 8:30 at Milwaukie Christian Church and anyone interested
in attending is invited to come add input and ideas. The city has until December 31, 2013 to make required changes.
When I
reviewed the information I received at a recent Open House, I was impressed by
the amount of projects the city has listed.
The packet of changes I received was minor compared to the 2” thick binder
that held the entire 2007 TSP . When I began to focus on the proposed
changes, one of the first things that I noticed was the bulk of text to be
added involved adding the complete street name, such as ‘Boulevard’ after
‘McLoughlin’ and ‘Street’ after ‘Monroe’.
There are only two new projects proposed, a trail in Kronberg
Park
The city
has completed twelve of the 126 capital projects that they had listed, one high
priority, seven medium priority and three low priority. The final project was not rated and was
regarding light rail. Considering the
10.5% completion rate over 5.5 years, I question whether this is the city’s
“to-do” list, or if it is just a listing of transportation areas that can be
addressed if the need arises in the future.
Although I like to believe it’s the former, and all these projects will
be accomplished before 2035, I don’t think that’s the case considering only one
high priority item has been completed since the last revision, and none of the
documentation I have reviewed includes a projected timeline for project
completions. With the recent turnover of
personnel in the Milwaukie Planning Department, I am interested in seeing if
some of the priority ratings will be revised.
Reviewed by Chad
Tucker
Very interesting! I agree that some additional high priority items should get crossed off "the list." Are there sanctions or consequences that come from Metro if cities do not meet their TSP goals? I hope intrinsic motivation plays a part in the process, but I'm guessing other sanctions and rules are also necessary.
ReplyDelete