The first day of the 2017 Congress will offer several mobile Workshops. A short description of their topics can be read below.
Innovation Quadrant (City of Portland)
8:30 am – noon (25 attendees) $59
This tour will focus on Portland’s new emerging Innovation Quadrant (IQ), which include the South Waterfront and Central Eastside Districts of the Central City. The tour will cover past and recent infrastructure projects, such as the Portland Aerial Tram, South Waterfront Greenway, and Tillikum Crossing, which are helping to support and draw investment in the IQ. The tour will also present three emerging master plan concepts for the IQ: OHSU Schnitzer Campus; Zidell Yard, and; OMSI Master Plan. Staff from the City of Portland will discuss how the city is support the creation of the IQ, and representatives from the three master plan sites will discuss the opportunities and constraints with taking their master plans from concept to reality.
Transportation, Urban Development and Cultural Change in the Jade District (City of Portland)
1:00 – 4:30 pm (25 attendees) $59
This tour will explore contrasting development areas along 82nd Avenue in SE Portland. The area around SE 82ndAve./Division St., known as the Jade District, is a multi-cultural business district. It also is the site of an expanding Portland Community College campus which represents a more urban scale, pedestrian-oriented development, compared to the surrounding auto-oriented strip commercial corridor. Development of a future high capacity transit line (bus rapid transit), transportation safety improvements, and other planning efforts in this corridor have the potential to expand this more urban pattern. We will visit the PCC campus and Jade District to compare and discuss these contrasting development patterns in the context of walkability, transit access, and cultural and neighborhood change. Transportation will be via a combination of walking and transit or passenger vans.
Willamette Falls Legacy Project (Metro)
8:30 am – noon (25 attendees) $59
Willamette Falls is the second most powerful waterfall in North America and an important Oregon historical and cultural treasure as a cultural, fishing and gathering place for Native American Tribes. Formerly also home to electrical transmission lines and a local paper mill, the site is on the cusp of being transformed into a new pedestrian Riverwalk and future mixed use development. The tour will focus on the design of the Riverwalk, and how the Riverwalk and overall Willamette Falls Legacy Project is leveraging other programs and projects such as bicycle and pedestrian-related Transportation Demand Management programs, downtown improvements, and tourism-related efforts.
Emerging Planners Group Walking Tour (OAPA Emerging Planners Group)
1:00 – 4:30 pm (25 attendees) $59
This tour will focus on some of the more recent transportation developments in the City, such as the addition of Tilikum Crossing, the OHSU aerial tram, and Nike’s biketown bike share program. It will be led by emerging transportation planning professionals in Portland and offer opportunities to interact with local transportation and technology organizations. An optional, informal happy hour will follow the tour.
Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
full day (40 attendees) $99
This mobile workshop will focus on joint use and regulation in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area and will also touch on how people access recreational opportunities in the Gorge, including via a new shuttle service implemented by the Oregon Department of Transportation. The Gorge is a scenic wonder and incredibly popular recreational destination that attracts people from across the state and around the globe. It also functions as a “working river” for competing uses such as freight movement and tribal activities and is home to several local communities.