Regarding winners and losers, over the years, the Planning Commission and City Council have angered residents about decisions to allow developments into their neighborhoods that they didn’t want. The biggest problem is that we can’t vote against a development just because we don’t like it. If it follows the land use codes, we have to allow it. I saw this in my volunteer work with the Beaverton Committee for Community Involvement. To help, I started the Land Use Subcommittee. We learned what the codes meant, took part in crafting changes for better results for our neighbors, and served as a resource to our Neighborhood Association Committees so that they would know how to present valid arguments to the Planning Commission that could be used to deny or alter aspects of a development.
Another difficulty is the complexity of the information needed by the Council to make decisions. It takes years and countless hours to learn the basics of the Budget, Land Use codes, Site Development, Public Works, Transportation, etc. Even after many years on Council, I always had more questions for staff about the specifics of Agenda Bills that the Council votes on. That is why, in my opinion, a strong council has a mix of more seasoned members who have learned a lot of this and newer members who can learn from them but also bring fresh ideas. Unfortunately, right now all 6 Councilors have only 1 to 3 full years of experience and a couple, including the current Councilor running for Position 6, didn’t come from any of the City’s Boards, Commissions, or Advisory groups so everything is new.
One of the biggest issues that we can’t completely address is our shortage of roads and sidewalks. Since I started reading our Regional Transportation Plans in 1995, we have always had only a fraction of the funds needed to address identified road capacity shortfalls. Plus, there is a huge cost to maintain all the roads once they’re built. It is no coincidence that a major complaint about Beaverton over the years has been traffic congestion. It is a problem for most of our economic region and for most of the rest of the country as well. It’s a problem still in need of a solution.
One more difficult issue is addressing homelessness and affordable housing. Because of our size, history and current budget deficits, it would be prohibitively expensive to set up a department within our City for this. Instead, we go after grant funds, use some City resources, and coordinate with the Washington County Housing Services Department and with nonprofits whose missions are to provide affordable housing and housing for the homeless. A personal example was my Leadership Beaverton Class project. Starting in 2001, we built the first Habitat for Humanity housing in Beaverton. The city donated a piece of property they owned and built some of the pipes needed. We raised the money for the units and volunteered our time under Habitat’s direction to grab hammers and nails and build it.
VOTE TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
Preparing for Disaster
This work is yet to be done to prepare for the big earthquake or any other major disaster that would cause our electric grid to go down for more than a few days.
