South Park Blocks Draft Plan

A draft master plan compiled by the Portland Parks Bureau proposes significant changes that would alter the appearance and use of  the city’s historic South Park Blocks.  After several months of under-the-radar planning by consultants and a citizen advisory committee, the public finally gets a chance to weigh in – but only online at this time.

Citizen comments offered by June 29 conceivably could affect the final plan.  A current schedule calls for a final version to be presented to the City Council for possible approval in August or September.

Details of the draft are available at the following link, which includes a link to a Surveymonkey questionnaire afterward:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2aa14af546b543d99225798af7c367ae

Planners working on the project are fond of saying the draft maintains historic characteristics of the much-loved 12-block park, but they do not describe what they believe to be historic elements in any detail.  The result of the draft plan suggests a much more cluttered landscape and potential conflicts with bicyclists. 

As it stands, the draft plan would seriously impair what some park lovers believe to be the park’s historic fabric.  These proposed changes include removing of several dozen deciduous trees, adding a removable tensile canopy over much of one block on the Portland State University campus, and planting conifers  at the park’s southern border.

More puzzling yet would be slicing off 5 percent of the parks square footage along several blocks to create bike lanes for the Green Loop bicycle route, despite the city’s well-known difficulty of blending bikes in a pedestrian space at Waterfront Park.

The “good” news is that the plan calls for keeping the park’s historic canopy of deciduous trees that have shaded the park in summer and allowed natural light in the winter. However, the plan calls for removing the center row of the five straight rows that have existed at the park since it was first planted in 1877.

Laurie Matthews, a horticulturalist working for the MIG consulting firm, said removing the center row  would allow more room for the remaining trees to reach maturity.   “We really heard strong support for maintaining the tree canopy,” she said.

Matthews also recommended blending more species into the mix with the numerous American elms, but she did not specify what those could be.    “American elms are very special.  Not many species have that special characteristic.”  She said 6 to 10 other kinds of trees might be suggested later. 

An inventory made by committee of the Downtown Neighborhood Association that wants to save the park’s historic qualities concluded that the new landscape plan would take out 68 existing trees. That amounts to just over 20 percent of the existing stock. 

The tensile canopy held up by poles at PSU essentially would be more permanent than a tent but less permanent than a building.  “Permanent structures are definitely something we were told to stay away from,” said Rachel Edmonds, an MIG project manager.  The canopy would provide protection for the farmers’ markets during rainy seasons, but such a “roof” has no precedence in the park’s history.

Although the draft plan maps are not easy to interpret, it appears that 5 feet would be removed from the west side of the blocks from Montgomery to Salmon Street to provide room for bike lanes that also would extend slightly into the current 9th Avenue right-of-way.  The five feet at the western edges of those blocks currently are paved with hexagonal pavers for pedestrians.  Matthews said those walkways “are not very useable” and that most pedestrians prefer to use the center-block routes.

Nevertheless, no portions of the park’s 100 by 200 foot blocks have ever been dedicated to vehicular access.

The draft plan also suggests closure of Madison Street within the park, creating space for a “flexible programmable plaza” in the former street right-of-way.  The tentative plan also suggests “an overhead sculpture as a place-making feature” for the plaza that would attract attention and signify the plaza as a gathering space, close to entrances of the Portland Art Museum and Oregon Historical Society.

“I think that can actually bring people to our front door,” said Andrew VanDerZanden, an OHS employee who sits on the advisory committee.  Historically, the grassy, tree-covered park provided quiet spaces for pedestrians and flexible open spaces for occasional public events.  It was never intended to be a revenue-generating asset.

If people value the park for the green open spaces it provides, this is a good time to make that appreciation known.