A Bolder Vision for the Tacoma Light Rail Station Area

Preface for non-Portlanders: The 7.3-mile Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail will connect Downtown Portland with the southern suburb of Milwaukie. Construction began last summer, with an opening slated for 2015. It is the region’s sixth light rail project in the modern era. The line will have two stations in Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood, home of Yours Truly. A station at SE Tacoma Street will be the southernmost in the neighborhood, and also the southernmost in the City of Portland. Portland’s light rail lines are also called MAX, for Metropolitan Area eXpress.

The coming of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail to Sellwood brings the opportunity to revitalize, and perhaps completely redefine, an underutilized portion of the neighborhood: the McLoughlin Boulevard (Highway 99E) corridor between Westmoreland Park and the Springwater Trail. The current prescription - a park-and-ride lot and continued commercial zoning - does not do justice to the possibilities for this favorable location in close-in Portland. Worse, it will force MAX riders to walk a quarter mile through a no-man’s land to access the station. I think we can do better, in the form of transit-oriented development that (a) revitalizes and adds value to an underperforming section of Sellwood, (b) supports the billion-dollar investment of the PMLR, (c) fits our regional goals of saving farmland and open space while promoting infill development, and (d) creates a safer, more comfortable experience when accessing the station.



No eyes on this station

When the PMLR opens in 2015, MAX trains will stop at what is now a weedy expanse wedged between McLoughlin Boulevard, the Union Pacific Railroad and Johnson Creek.

Looking northwest onto the station site from the Springwater Trail. Union Pacific Railroad at right. Photo: greatsaw (Panoramio)

While the proposed park-and-ride lot and creek enhancements will spruce things up a bit, the site will still be isolated from surrounding neighborhoods and largely devoid of activity. Two driveways (one from Tacoma, another from northbound McLoughlin) and a trail connection to the Springwater Corridor will provide access to the station. For someone getting off the train and walking, any of these three egress routes will entail walking at least a quarter mile through a sparsely-populated expanse of warehouses, overpasses and wooded floodplain. A weird walk during the day, this experience could be downright scary at night or early morning, even with new lighting. That’s not to say I buy into the fear-mongering of light rail opponents, who believe the line will bring all manner of crime and thuggery. Rather, it’s a simple principle of urban design: People feel more comfortable - and less crime happens - when there are “eyes on the street” - people in buildings, people walking, people sitting outside on benches or at café tables. A parking lot between a strip club and a railroad does not fill this prescription.

An opportunity squandered

I expected TriMet’s station area planning process in 2009-10 to bring forth bold proposals for transit-oriented development (I kick myself for not taking part). After all, this is 7.77 acres of vacant land on a major highway and future transit line, five miles from downtown Portland. Instead, the project team proposed a park-and-ride structure and stream mitigation. Having a park-and-ride here is not unreasonable (it will certainly attract plenty of cars from Sellwood and Ardenwald), but to dismiss the possibility of true redevelopment is short-sighted. During the public process, a small retail use such as a coffee shop was discussed, but later determined unfeasible. Any redevelopment would be limited to surrounding private parcels, such as the Pendleton Woolen Mills warehouse to the south. Later in the planning process, due to reduced federal funding, the project team reduced the proposed 800-stall parking structure to a 320-stall surface parking lot. But it will have nice trees.

The apathy embodied by this proposal blows my mind. Especially when (hopefully) hundreds of transit riders will be passing through this station area daily, along with tens of thousands of cars driving by on McLoughlin. ODOT’s most traffic recent count is 42,300 vehicles in both directions at the county line on an average day in 2010. This is a well-trafficked site, as they say in the biz.

I understand there are development constraints at the site. The area north of the station is in a floodplain and most certainly was inundated in 1996. Retailers don’t like one-way streets (which McLoughlin essentially is in this section, due to a jersey barrier and no left turns). And who wants to be next to the West Coast’s main line railroad? Well, I can name at least one other place with the same issues: Portland’s Pearl District. Different type of location, yes, but one that proves that development constraints can be overcome with impressive results.

Fabric store or Wal-Mart: Both better than nothing

Not surprisingly, Oregon Worsted, the current owner of the station site, has come forward with a development proposal - albeit somewhat ambiguous - for a 60,000 to 100,000 square foot retail store with structured parking, some of which TriMet would lease as the park-and-ride. I think this is a step in the right direction, though there are fears that it could be the dreaded Wal-Mart that Sellwood residents fought off ten years ago. But I think even a Wal-Mart - many of which are open 24 hours - would be a better presence for transit riders than a lifeless parking lot. The last I heard, Oregon Worsted would move its Mill End Store to the new building, but there is also interest from “two or three grocers.” I would say any of these options is better than nothing. There would also be economic benefits, as project architect Peter Stark pointed out in a June 2011 article in The Oregonian: "The original plan was a parking garage that generated no revenue and no jobs,” but with the retail proposal “you have a private owner paying property taxes, payroll taxes and it appreciates in value."

Let’s reach for the stars

Why stop there? If you ask me, we should reinvent the entire vicinity of the Tacoma MAX station. The area bounded by SE Nehalem Street on the north, the Springwater Corridor trail on the south, SE 23rd Avenue on the west and the Union Pacific Railroad on the east, is tired, struggling, and underutilized. Yes, there are jobs here, from the hands-on work at Arjay Sheet Metal (one of Portland’s industry clusters), to the hopefully hands-off work at the “A-crop.” Yes, there are also some homes and apartments west of McLoughlin, many in sad shape, with all due respect to the owners and inhabitants of Sellwood’s last bastion of affordability. But the area could be so much more.

How could this area look and function, say, 20 years from now? Here’s my vision:

• In addition to all of the light rail and access features now planned by TriMet, the station area parcel has a multi-use building containing a 24-hour diner, coffee shop and small grocery store, all on the ground floor and facing northward toward the station and westward to McLoughlin. Several floors of office tenants are above, and structured parking is tucked behind, facing the railroad.

• A second building is constructed at the northeast corner of the lot, by the traffic light on the Tacoma overpass. It contains a small tavern, and provides a presence on this formerly deserted corner, with several floors of offices or apartments above, parking tucked underneath (which the grade facilitates), and open space along Johnson Creek.

• The Pendleton Woolen Mills warehouse is redeveloped into a mixed-use building with ground floor retail, mid-floor offices and upper floor apartments or condos. Tenants enjoy direct access to the Springwater Corridor and the adjacent MAX station.

• The Les Schwab lot (north of the Tacoma overpass, west of McLoughlin) is redeveloped with a commercial building closest to the highway, and townhomes to the west. The townhomes have frontage not just on the “lower” Tacoma Street, but also on the overpass, providing eyes on this popular walking route to the MAX station. The drainage basin at the west end of the lot is preserved and enhanced into a small nature park. The ground floor tenant of the commercial building is Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply, which was booted from the lot in 2011.

• Other properties to the west of McLoughlin gradually redevelop in response to careful upzoning, and with adherence to specially-tailored design guidelines developed through a master plan. Properties along McLoughlin itself are more commercially-oriented and have taller buildings; properties on streets to the west are mostly residential, with buildings heights that step down to the single-family neighborhoods to the west.

• Johnson Creek west of McLoughlin is a pleasant greenway, with preserved and enhanced riparian woodland for wildlife, as well as a pervious-surface walking path on the east/south bank between SE Umatilla Street and the Springwater Corridor.

• McLoughlin is a boulevard not just in name, with streetscape enhancements from SE Nehalem Street to the Springwater Corridor. The utilitarian jersey barrier is replaced with a landscaped median with trees. Sidewalks are widened to twelve feet, including street trees, bioswales and other plantings to provide a safer, more pleasant walking experience. A signalized pedestrian crossing is established at SE Umatilla Street, opening another walking route to the station. Standard-issue highway lights are replaced with a more attractive variety. A gateway feature welcomes motorists to the City of Portland.

Central City mixed-use development, Surrey, BC. Photo: author

Sound far-fetched? I don’t think so. This is a great location in a great neighborhood in a great city - a city that has transformed railyards into the Pearl District, and brownfields into South Waterfront. After a recent visit to Vancouver, BC and its suburbs, I am amazed at what that region has been able to accomplish near its transit stations. In Surrey, BC, on a chunk of land not much larger than this one, sits a single building containing a shopping mall, brew pub, grocery store, public plaza with scheduled events, university branch campus, and structured parking, all within 500 feet of a rapid transit station. Elsewhere along their speedy transit line, called SkyTrain, are impressive transit-oriented developments that reach skyward, mix uses, create vibrant settings, and reduce the need to drive and consume fossil fuels.

While 300-foot tall towers may not be appropriate in Sellwood, and we are not ruled by Canadian planning laws, I think we could do something just as impressive in the Tacoma station area. We could create an entirely new, vibrant district with amazing transportation access, while preserving the heritage and building stock of historic neighborhoods to the west and east. We could create new jobs, new homes and new opportunities in an environmentally-friendly manner. We could make the walk to Tacoma station something to look forward to (coffee, pastry, magazine) rather than dread (shadows, hidden pursesnatcher). The grand vision I described would require major effort - years of master planning, rezoning, design guidelines, land assembly, public-private partnerships, government funding, and better economic conditions than we have right now. But I think that getting even just 10% of what I’m calling for would be better than the uninspiring surface parking lot currently proposed.