Skip to main contentWW has obtained a copy of a three-page information sheet detailing a new urban-renewal district proposed by Portland Mayor Sam Adams at his State of the City speech last Friday.
The information sheet (PDF) includes a map of the proposed 31-year, 130-acre district centered around Portland State University.
Unlike a much larger and highly gerrymandered new district previously floated by Adams, the newly proposed "Innovation District" would have somewhat regular boundaries. It would stretch from I-405 east to Southwest 1st Avenue, and from Southwest Jefferson Street south to Southwest Lincoln Street, with a dog leg taking in two blocks south of the I-405 loop.
The proposal contains lots of verbiage about how "Portland must competitively grow our knowledge-based economy." All well and good, but Adams' proposal is likely to raise concerns about new urban-renewal schemes from others such as Multnomah County and Portland Public Schools. Both lose property-tax revenue with tax-increment financing.
The information sheet includes estimated financial impacts for those government bodies, including $4.1 million in lost revenue for the county and $4.6 million in losses to the school district.
WWeek 2015