Throughout the Westside Study process, the Urban Renewal Advisory Group (URAG) will receive a variety of proposals and recommendations. All of them will be reported as they arise in the notes and materials for the meeting at which they arose. For your convenience, we will keep this page updated regularly to keep you apprised of the major policy proposals being considered by the URAG.

• The League of Women Voters of Portland has proposed a number of options for the URAG’s consideration. The League recommends end all three districts as soon as possible with a transfer of Old Town/Chinatown to River District and no increase in maximum indebtedness. Consider formation of new URA to address remaining areas of blight and only after analyzing impact on taxing jurisdictions. Future of Urban Renewal: Comments by the League of Women Voters of Portland, September 25, 2007.

• Portland City Commissioner Erik Sten has proposed the formation of an “island” addition to the River District URA to assist the David Douglas School District with its school over-crowding challenges. Commissioner Sten’s Memo to the URAG dated September 25, 2007, Re: Island Expansion of the River District within the David Douglas School District.

• The Portland Business Alliance has proposed an “accelerated debt defeasance” strategy that would close Downtown Waterfront and South Park Block URAs in anticipation of a new downtown URA. Portland Business Alliance’s Urban Renewal Analysis Task Force: Recommendations Regarding the Expansion of River District and the Future of Urban Renewal in the Central City, September 2007.

• Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen has proposed a new focus for the urban renewal tool that “treats the root human causes of urban decay not just the symptoms.” Commissioner Cogen’s Memo to the URAG dated October 23, 2007, Re: A New Conversation on Urban Renewal.