SMILE Board endorses Sellwood Bridge Alignment D

Vote comes at "special emergency meeting"

At an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League neighborhood association (SMILE) on Sunday, January 18, 2009, called in accordance with the SMILE bylaws and those of Southeast Uplift, the Board voted unanimously in favor of Alignment D as the preferred alternative to be forwarded to the Policy Advisory Group.

This decision was guided by previously-adopted policies of SMILE. The first is the protection of the Tacoma Main Street Plan, which has been adopted as official policy by the City of Portland. The other is the unanimously-adopted resolution at a General Meeting of the neighborhood association in September, 2007, that any replacement bridge have a two-lane configuration.

Until two weeks ago, those policies were inconsistent with Alternative E as it envisioned a four-lane configuration. After adoption by the Community Task Force of a “skinny” option for Alternative E, there was a consensus of opinion that the Board needed to weigh in on this decision, which will have long-lasting impacts on our community.

In reviewing those impacts, we considered safety, business impacts, construction costs, flexibility of construction, residential losses, community resources, historic impacts, and relative aesthetics. In all of these areas, the Board’s opinion was that Alternative D was the better option.

SMILE will continue to closely monitor the process, and provide our input as needed during this lengthy process of replacing the Sellwood Bridge.