Urban Renewal issues
Discussions within the City of Portland are currently underway about the creation of a new Urban Renewal Area (URA), and what areas a new URA would include. Because health of the central city is important to the Alliance, an Urban Renewal Task Force was formed to study and recommend a new downtown urban renewal district. The board approved this new URA recommendation last month.
To help aid the Alliance's decision, the task force established a framework to guide decisions on whether, where and how urban renewal should be used. The framework's purpose is to promote economic development in the selected URA and includes six main points:
- Criteria should precede the URA designation.
- Property included in the URA should have specific characteristics.
- URA-funded projects should result in specific public benefits.
- URA expenditures should be tied to specific performance metrics.
- Firm sunset dates should be established and observed.
- Overlapping taxing jurisdictions should be at the table when urban renewal areas are created and when performance metrics are established.
It is the URA Task Force's goal that future recommendations for any URA would be subject to the same framework. If you are interested in learning more about the URA process and criteria, please contact Carly Riter.
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