Public participation

"Design and traffic worries aired at Tacoma Street MAX Station meeting"

Another round of talks about the Tacoma Street MAX Light Rail Station got underway on Tuesday evening, October 13th, at the new Ardenwald Elementary School cafeteria. Some fifty people and a dozen representatives from governmental agencies were present.

In the meeting, a procession of presenters pitched the proposed design for the station, and tried to soothe the worries of neighbors about the increase in traffic congestion caused by the size of the planned light rail facility, to be sited just south of S.E. Tacoma Street on the east side of McLoughlin Boulevard.

Claudia Steinberg, TriMet Community Affairs, introduced the staff members present at the meeting, and dutifully kept the meeting on task.

Harriet Cherry, Pivot Architecture’s design team manager, didn’t immediately address the fact that the parking garage is slated for 1,000 parking spots, or that the design she was showing was five stories in height, providing six levels of parking.

Instead, Cherry led a discussion regarding how the box-like structure might be oriented on the property. The suggested alternative was to build it on an angle, to improve sight lines between the light rail platform and S.E. McLoughlin Boulevard.

When questioned about the size and capacity of the structure, Cherry confirmed the specifications.

“At the SMILE meeting a few weeks ago, we saw designs, including shorter options,” a neighbor commented. “Now, you’re only showing the square, taller option; your group has chosen the tallest one, without regard to our input.”

“This is correct,” Cherry responded. “There was a mix of reactions to the designs we showed then. We had to move the platform a little closer to accommodate Johnson Creek. At this time, we’re showing the five-story design in this location. There are a lot of wishes and hopes, not all can be accommodated.”

Neighbors also questioned other aspects of the proposed design, including vehicle traffic patterns around the station, as well as bicycle access to the station from the Springwater Corridor Trail.


The second half of the meeting was led by Alan Snook, a vehicle traffic analysis with DKS Associates.

“Who’s here to beat up the traffic guy?” Snook asked jovially — and about a third of the hands in the room went up.

Making use of a 22-page PowerPoint, Snook detailed the “two-lane connector street”, Johnson Creek Boulevard, from west of S.E. McLoughlin to S.E. Harney Street.

Neighbors questioned Snook about both the premise of his study and the suggestions his group had developed.

After the meeting, we asked Snook to summarize his study and findings.

“We were asked to look at the potential impacts of locating a park-and-ride facility for the MAX light rail line at Tacoma Street,” Snook said. “We’re trying to determine what the impacts are, along the corridor and at the intersection. We’re also looking at how we can make those impacts, address those impacts, and address solutions to those impacts, to make the community more livable.”

We asked if the station would create more traffic on Johnson Creek Boulevard, and on Tacoma Street at the west side of the McLoughlin interchange.

“In the future, there’ll always be more traffic, whether there is a light rail project or not,” Snook responded. “Whether or not there’s more traffic depends on the solutions we’re looking at.

“We need to talk with the community more, because there are definite concerns about potential solutions that can be implemented. There’s not a clean answer for the question.”

A follow-up meeting was scheduled for October 26 at the same location, about the time that this print issue of THE BEE was going to press.