Moving Forward Milwaukie: Opportunity Site Planning

City of Milwaukie Oregon Official Website

Several underutilized sites in Downtown and Central Milwaukie present opportunities to catalyze development in our commercial areas. The City is partnering with development professionals and property owners to envision and analyze the possibilities for development. As a result, public policies can be designed to encourage the type of development the community desires.

Objective: Create site development plans which will inform private and public actions to support the most effective development of key sites across the city.

The site development plan is a full package of detailed evaluations and design concepts prepared by professional consultants designed to stimulate development of a site. These plans serve two functions:

First, they kick start the development process by performing the analysis needed to determine the most effective use of the site, the required level of private and public investment, and by facilitating initial public engagement to gain community support.
Second, site development plans will enable public investments and policies to be reconfigured in alignment with the desired development scenarios. The development plans will inform an evaluation of any potential conflicts or deficiencies with the City’s comprehensive plan, code, or public infrastructure.

See the bottom of the page for supporting documents, including the market study and one-sheets about each site.

Process: How the site development plans will be created

The process of creating site development plan will be comprehensive and engage many different groups and stakeholders.

	Step of the planning process	Timeline
1	Gain insights from potential developers. The consultant team collected information about each site from a group of developers, various members of the public, and the property owners themselves, through a Developer Roundtable.	September 2013
2	Involve property owners, stakeholders and City Council. The project team will facilitate conversations with various stakeholders to identify their short- and long-term needs, their vision for the site, and input on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to redevelopment.	September 2013
3	Prepare a market study and analyze the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of each site. Formally known as a SWOT analysis, this step will identify the features of the site - such as accessibility, infrastructure, or adjacent land uses - which either constrain or strengthen its prospects for redevelopment.	October 2013
4	Engage the public in visioning workshops. The project team will collect community ideas for opportunity site development at two workshops: October 28, 2013: Downtown Milwaukie Opportunity Sites Workshop October 29, 2013: Central Milwaukie Opportunity Sites Workshop	October 2013
5	Estimate realistic construction costs. Guided by professional contractors with extensive experience, the project team will estimate the costs of different construction costs on a per square foot basis to be used for analysis in future steps.	October 2013
6	Create building prototypes. Using advanced modeling software (Envision Tomorrow), the project team will identify a range of building prototypes - the basic physical forms and configurations of the building - that are financially viable for each site.	October 2013 - January 2014
7	Evaluate the City's zoning code and transportation infrastructure. In light of the potential building prototypes identified, the project team will determine if the City's code/regulations will conflict with the desired development and whether the City's existing transportation infrastructure can sufficiently support it.	December 2013
8	Create draft site development plans and gather additional public input. Based on the results of technical evaluations, including a financial profitability analysis, and initial public input, draft site development plans will be created. A second round of public input will seek to refine these plans and explore the implications of each plan on City policy. December 3, 2013, City Council Worksession January 21, 2014, City Council Worksession February 18, 2014, City Council Worksession February 20, 2014, City Council Study Session March 6, 2014: Public Workshop - Review Draft Opportunity Site Concepts	November 2013 - March 2014
9	Finalize site development plans and present to City Council. Draft plans will be revised and refined following feedback from the public and policymakers, and one final site development plan will be presented to City Council to adopt as the City's preferred plan for each site.	March - April 2014

Opportunity site information
Click the links below for draft development concepts and pro formas.

Site Name	Project Area	Location	Description
Texaco Block	Downtown	10700 Main St	Publicly-owned former Texaco gas station, current surface parking lot, across from City Hall
Triangle Site	Downtown	21st and Adams St	Publicly-owned future light rail station building site
Cash Spot Site	Downtown	11100 SE McLoughlin Blvd	Publicly-owned property in a highly visible location on McLoughlin Blvd, near LRT station and future Adams St Connector
Monroe Block Site	Downtown	2036 SE Monroe St & 10951 SE 21st Ave	Key location on 21st Ave, currently occupied by several buildings and surface parking.
Graham Building	Downtown	11049 SE Main St	Multi-tenant retail building in the center of Main St., currently underutilized
Murphy Site	Central Milwaukie	10505 SE 31st Ave	Former Murphy Plywood facility, at nexus of Highway 224, Harrison St and 32nd Ave
McFarland Site	Central Milwaukie	37th and Monroe	Large vacant site adjacent to Milwaukie Marketplace

How sites were selected

Sites were chosen for their potential to contribute to the economic revitalization of the surrounding area. In total, a site development plan will be created for seven properties - five properties within Downtown and two in Central Milwaukie.

Three downtown sites and two Central Milwaukie sites were selected at the launch of the project for their known potential to catalyze development activity. Two additional downtown sites were selected through an application process, which was open to all downtown property owners. A selection panel composed of a City Councilor, City staff, Metro staff, and the consultant team was convened to review the applications. The five criteria for selection were: