Posted on 06/29/2002 3:28:59 PM PDT by Jack Black
Tram foes lose out in airspace opinion
06/26/02
JANET CHRIST
The Portland city attorney's office says that airspace over a street is part of the right of way and that the city has the right to lease the surface and air.
The opinion is the city's position on a petition filed this week by property owners along Southwest Gibbs Street. They don't like that the airspace above their street is a potential alignment for a recommended aerial tramway.
The chief deputy city attorney, Linda Meng, said an Oregon statute gives the city the right to lease the right of way, and if it is not needed for the public, it can be for a private purpose.
Examples of this use include putting utilities underground and building skybridges between buildings, she said.
But property owners by Southwest Gibbs Street have a different view and filed a petition with the city Monday. The petition was submitted as the City Council heads for a hearing today on the Marquam Hill Plan, intended to provide development guidance for OHSU and the hill community during 30 years of growth. The hearing will be at 2 p.m. in City Hall.
The petition asks the city to use its "police powers" to prevent threatened trespass by Oregon Health & Science University, which is seeking city aid to grant approval for a tramway in the airspace. It says that space belongs to the properties adjacent to Gibbs to the middle of the street, and the right-of-way dedication permitted only use of the land.
If the city does not stop the trespass, said lawyer Larry Beck in a cover letter, the owners will sue OHSU and the city.
Beck, one of the landowners and representative of about 50 people affiliated with the group No Tram to OHSU, said in the petition that airspace use must be permitted by the adjacent properties, or it will constitute a "taking" in violation of the U.S. and Oregon constitutions.
Christen White, an OHSU consulting land-use attorney, said OHSU defers to the city's legal position.
Also, the city Office of Transportation released a report last week on cable transportation system options that recommended a two-tram system including the Gibbs Street alignment that OHSU favors for a rapid connection between the hill and planned new research facilities in North Macadam.
The tram recommendation may come up today, but it is scheduled for the council's consideration July 10.
OHSU is generally satisfied with the proposed Marquam Hill Plan recommended by the city Planning Commission, White said, but will make a few requests for changes.
Altho9ugh several resident activists have said the proposed plan is improved since it went through discussion and changes by the Planning Commission, many Southwest neighborhood association representatives will tell the City Council that the process has failed to recognize residents, and the proposal fails to protect neighborhoods.
You can reach Janet Christ at 503-294-5032 or at janetchrist@news.oregonian.com.
Meanwhile the traffic gets worse and worse because it is the official policy of the "Metro" the multi-jurisdiction government that no one can quite figure out how to control, to make it painful to drive.
Oregon has it's own "Red Zone / Blue Zone" issues and they are quite stark.
This leads me to believe this system would be for the elite, not the general public.
What's the matter, gilded carriages and stretch limos keep getting snarled in traffic?
Sounds like congestion is such that the aerial tramway is the only thing that makes sense.
I agree with the city that the overhead space is part of the right-of-way. However, if these NIMBY property owners don't like it, I could be persuaded to go along with highway construction instead. Let the city use eminent domain to condemn their property, flip them a Sacagawea buck as "just compensation" -- and bring on the bulldozers.
-The Thoreau Institute Urban Growth and Transportation Studies--
has a lot of info & opinion refuting the "urban sprawl," "Lite rail/mass transit" and related items...
And more here:
-Independence Institute--"Rights" Research
Light Rail- Boon or Boondoggle? The Quest for the Holy Rail....
Yes, they are too freakin' important to use a shuttle bus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.