G-203 Wayne 8-15-22 From: Don Wayne
To: Hastay.Johanna
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Fwd:Statement for today"s August 15,2022 DRC meeting
Date: Monday,August 15,2022 12:59:51 PM
On Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 12:58 PM Don Wayne <donw3839@email.,com>wrote:
Forwarded message
From: Don Wayne <donw3839ngmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 11:53 AM
Subject: Statement for today's August 15, 2022 DRC meeting
To: <planning@lakeoswego.city>
Dear Ms.Hastay
PLEASE NOTE: I did not see page 2 of the agenda for today's meeting and
assumed the agenda item for today's Public Hearing was still number 4 as a
continuation from the previous DRC meeting. So I sent my message to Evan
Fransted by mistake and had the wrong LU number on it. I sent that message at
11:53 AM before the noon deadline. Please accept this corrected message sent
to your address. The substance of my message is the same as it was when I sent
it before the noon deadline.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and assistance,
Don Wayne
From: Don E. Wayne, 1491 Koawood Dr., Lake Oswego, 97034
To: To Staff Coordinator Johanna Hastay AICP, Senior Planner, and
members of the DRC
RE: RE: DRC meeting of Monday, August 15, 2022 , Agenda number
5: PUBLIC HEARING
LU 22-0002: CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT and DEVELOPMENT
REVIEW PERMIT to construct a major public facility (LORAC). . .on the
Lake Oswego golf course site.
Hello Ms. Hastay and DRC members,
In order to be sure that I will be eligible to testify in person at a later date,
either before the DRC or the City Council, I am copying below the email I
sent to the DRC on July 18, 2022, and for the convenience of those of
you present at today's meeting who may not have seen my letter
previously.
I am following up on previous communications I had in 2018-2019, with
members of the City Council, in spoken testimony at Council meetings
and in email exchanges back and forth, relating to the proposed
development modifications of the LO Municipal Golf Course and building
of Parks and Recreation and Aquatics Centers in that location. At that
time I joined with neighbors in the neighborhood adjacent to the West
side of the golf course in registering concerns we had regarding the
impact of such development on the neighborhood, and the need for
planning in close consultation with those who would be so impacted. In
what follows I will concentrate on matters of traffic, parking, the
proposed walking path from the corner of Cloverleaf and Banyan streets,
and most importantly potential health and safety issues for residents and
other LO citizens who use the neighborhood as a site for street level
walking and other activities. This is a very "walkable" micro-
neighborhood of the city of Lake Oswego, a relatively tranquil site for
walking especially for older adults and small children who cannot
comfortably take advantage of more challenging walking areas provided
by the city's well designed and well managed Parks and Recreation
facilities. I shall site below a section of a memo I wrote to the City
Council on November 6, 2018, in which I made reference to a memo
then Mayor Studebaker and the City Council received from City Manager
Lazenby, and city department Directors Anderholm and Cross,
acknowledging that "nearby residents have expressed concern over
residential development of some of the golf course property, and those
concerns are well taken" (my emphasis: the memo was sent to the
Mayor and Council in preparation for their meeting of February 27,2018).
Our concerns at that time related to a proposal to put in residential units
on 2 acres of the golf course. That is no longer proposed, But the current
proposal is still related to two of our principal concerns at that time, the
potential impact of increased traffic and parking in the neighborhood,
and of increased double parking which is already common with dropoff
and pickup of students at Lakeridge High School, an increase in the form
of drivers who drop off and pick up passengers who use the proposed
walking path to the Recreation and Aquatics Centers. In addition to
golfers who wished to keep the 18 hole course as is, there were
neighbors like myself and my wife who were concerned with potential
traffic and parking issues, and the latter issues are still as valid with the
current planning and development projects as they were in 2018-19.
My purpose now is to amplify on written communications you have received in
the recent past from some of my other neighbors, including Meghan Wilkinson
and Mark Martin. I won't go into the issue of preserving neighborhood
character, though I do believe that is is a significant issue. One usual response to
those who are concerned about their neighborhood's character is that they are
not recognizing that new development is always a facet of"progress," and
progress involves more people moving into Lake Oswego and there is a need to
accommodate the influx of new residents and to provide desirable housing and
services for them. I get that. I also believe there are ways of planning for
development that can accommodate some degree of preservation of
neighborhood character
But there is another aspect to the question of how we go about planning for new
development, an aspect that is especially relevant in this case, that is, Health
and Safety. We have a recent example of a planned addition to the city's Parks
and Recreation services, that did not adequately consider the demographics of
the neighborhood into which the new service was placed. I refer to the Pickle
Ball court
that was situated in Old Town, a district with many older residents as well as
people with disabilities for whom the loud noise of the particular kinds of balls
and rackets used in Pickle Ball was not only annoying but potentially damaging
to their health. So I shall concentrate here on the question of health and safety in
neighborhoods like mine that will be impacted by the proposed modifications of
the golf course. I am not opposed to that development, but I am concerned that
we not have a repeat of something like what occurred to those LO residents
living adjacent to the Pickle Ball courts.
1). Health and Safety
I am a senior citizen and like many other seniors in this neighborhood I walk the
streets daily. I see elderly people, some with leashed dogs, some with canes,
some with walkers, even at times someone in a wheelchair being pushed by a
caregiver. At the same time, the demographic of this neighborhood has changed
in recent years and there are younger families with small children. So in the
rectangular loop that borders the West side of the Municipal Golf Course, north
of the Lakeridge High School athletic fields, a rectangle formed by Cloverleaf-
Banyan-Koawood-Marjorie, when the weather permits we see kids on bikes,
razor scooters, skateboards, and smaller children spilling from front lawns onto
the street in their running games. Often people are walking on these streets in
intergenerational family groups including elderly grandparents and small
children. It is part of what makes this neighborhood a community and not just
an aggregate of nuclear families. Now I realize that is a reference to
neighborhood character. But it also relates to health and safety issues, especially
because of the potential impact of more traffic and more parked cars narrowing
the dimensions of the streets.
2) Traffic and Parking
Increasing traffic, and narrowing of the passageway on the streets by excessive
automobile parking, will constitute hazards for people who walk those streets.
Lakeridge High School's new parking regulations regarding use of their parking
lots, has led to increased parking by students on neighborhood streets.
Moreover, despite the fact that the city has installed No Parking signs on one
side of the street, students are often parking on both sides. Since there is little
enforcement of the No Parking restriction, for understandable reasons because
LO officers for those functions are overburdened, there are days when cars are
parked on both sides of the street. Some users of the new P and R and Aquatic
Centers will find parking on these streets convenient, especially if there is a
pathway to the facilities, Excessive speed is another factor. Some students are in
a hurry to and from school, and often exceed the speed limit in their arrivals and
departures. Similarly,parents who are busy and need to get to jobs or to another
activity after dropping off their children at school, may drive faster than is safe
for pedestrians and pre-school children in the neighborhood. Current drop off
and pick up for LO High School when in session, will be exacerbated by drop
off and pick up for family members who will be able to walk along the
proposed pathway from the Cloverleaf/Banyan intersection to the P & R and
Aquatic Centers. and this will further contribute to the situation in which cars
double park along those streets. Such
double parking creates a safety hazard for school buses and first response
vehicles (Fire trucks and engines, Ambulances, Police Vehicles, emergency
utilities vehicles, etc.). I have spoken with two regular school bus drivers for the
LO School District, and they have told me that the double parked cars dropping
off or waiting for students often obstruct buses from being able to turn from
Marjorie on to Cloverleaf, or from Cloverleaf on to Banyan. They were the
people whose experience alerted me to the potential hazards of such
obstructions when first responders could be rushing to an emergency at Lake
Ridge High School or to aid local residents in emergencies on the North side of
the high school.
3) The Fernwood Drive, Greentree Road corridors and the Cloverleaf/
Marjorie and Cloverleaf/Banyan intersections
When the traffic study was done consideration was given to"major and minor
arterial streets" (Stafford Rd, Rosemont Rd. McVey Ave.),to a"major collector"
(South Shore Blvd),to "neighborhood collectors" (Overlook Dr., SW Bergis,rd.,
Tree Top Ln), and to some"local access"streets(Atherton Dr.., Sunny Hill Dr.,
Meadowlark Ln),but not to Fernwood which runs all the way from South Shore Blvd.
up to Marjorie which intersects with Cloverleaf People coming from the West on
South Shore will seek to avoid the heavier traffic flow on the corridor from State St.
up Mcvey to Stafford Rd., and they will take Fernwood up to Tree Top Ln to
Overlook, or Fernwood to Cloverleaf Some of those people will either park on the
streets near the Cloverleaf/Banyan intersection, or they will drop off and pick up
family members or friends who want to avoid the parking congestion at the
designated parking lots along Stafford Rd. (The lot adjacent to the Aquatic and P and
R Centers, or the lot on the other side of Stafford, adjacent to Azalea Park). Despite
not being classified and categorized in the official traffic study, Fernwood road is
already now a"collector"road that residents use daily,but it will become more
congested with vehicles transporting people to the drop off point for the pathway to
the pool and rec center. Similarly, Greentree,which was not mentioned in the traffic
study, is now a kind of"minor collector" for residents' cars coming from the
intersection of McVey and South Shore, and will be further impacted by drivers
coming from McVey and wishing to avoid the Stafford/Overlook congestion by
reaching the proposed pathway at the Cloverleaf/Banyan intersection.
In short, a pathway from Cloverleaf to the Recreation and Aquatics Centers will
generate significant increase in traffic flows on Fernwood Dr. and Greentree Rd.,,
and the impact will culminate at the intersections of Cloverleaf/Marjorie or
Cloverleaf/Banyon.
To conclude I want to remind you again,that in preparation for a meeting of the City
Council of February 27,2018,Mayor Studebaker and the Councilors received a
memo from City Manager Scott Lazendby, Parks and Recreation Director Ivan
Anderholm, and Finance Director, Shawn Cross, in which these three high-ranking
city officials described our concerns relating to traffic,parking, and consequent
health and safety issues as concerns that"are well taken."
Thank you for your attention and consideration,
Don Wayne