Responding to business-related concerns, Mayor Sam Adams has postponed the first formal hearing on an ambitious city plan intended to improve the environment in and around the Portland harbor while also protecting jobs.
The City Council had been scheduled to hold a hearing on the first phase of the River Plan on Dec. 16. The plan covers the so-called North Reach section of the Willamette River that stretches from the Broadway Bridge to the Willamette’s confluence with the Columbia River.
Instead of a formal hearing on that day, the council now will receive an informational briefing on the plan. Because a formal hearing must be held before the council can vote on the plan, no action will come until early next year, at the soonest.
Bob Sallinger, conservation director for the Audubon Society of Portland, disagrees with Adams’ decision, saying the plan has been under consideration long enough.
“While consensus is always desirable, there are also times when it is necessary to make difficult decisions to move the ball forward,” says Sallinger, who represents environmental interests on the plan’s stakeholders committee.
However, T. Alan Sprott, vice president of Vigor Industrial, welcomes the delay.
“There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the plan,” says Sprott, whose 65-acre site on Swan Island is home to nearly 800 manufacturing jobs.
 
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