Our Rose City Park neighborhood is lucky to have a tremendous inventory of beautiful trees.  Over 5700 street trees alone, in fact!

The table above is from a recent report completed by volunteers led by our Environmental Committee Chair David Gates, the Rose City Park Street Tree Inventory.  If you have an interest in our neighborhood “forest,” I highly recommend checking it out. In addition, there is a street tree inventory map and even an interactive map where you can look up the trees on your block.

At our January General Meeting (Jan 24 2017 at 7pm), we will have a presentation with more information from this report’s findings as well as info on how you can get involved with the Friends of Trees planting event for Rose City Park this coming March.

From Friends of Trees:

Wishing you had some more fall color at your home? Have you considered adding a tree or two to your yard or parking strip? Trees have many benefits including providing sidewalk shade, slowing traffic, reducing storm water runoff, cleaning the air, and making us feel better in general…to name a few. Planting a tree on the south or west side of a house or yard can block afternoon sun and provide significant cooling to the area. Planting an evergreen conifer can create a quick green screen or block an imposing streetlight from your bedroom window.

Friends of Trees is now taking orders for yard and street trees for the annual Rose City Park tree planting taking place next March. Interested households can get a tree planted at their home for only $35 a tree. To sign up and see a list of trees for your home, go to the Friends of Trees website to make an account. When you sign up early, you get the greatest selection of trees to choose from.

Sign up today at www.FriendsofTrees.org/plant. You can also reach your local Friends of Trees neighborhood coordinator volunteer Jesse S. at RoseCityPark@plantitportland.org with any questions or concerns.

Are you a local business owner in Rose City Park?  

Let your neighbors know more about your offerings in our local newsletter. Published 4 times at year and reaching nearly 4000 households, you won’t find a better deal in town.

Regular Ads are just $35 per issue. VIEW RATE SHEET

***Current Limited Time Promotion*** (must book by Nov 10th!)

You can have an ad placement in each of our next 4 issues for just $100.

RESERVE YOUR PROMO-PRICED AD SPACE WITH THIS FORM

The Rose City Park Neighborhood Association is always interested in bringing on more Community Partners as well. Click here to learn more about our Community Partners program, a great way to support your local community and be recognized as a neighborhood supporter.  Current and former Rose City Park Community Partners include Laurelwood Brewing Co, the German-American Society of Portland, Oregon, the German-American Women’s Relief Society of Portland, Arch Bishop Howard/St. Rose School, Fire on the Mountain, Portland General Electric, Portland Family Dentistry, Stewart Sokol & Gray LLC, and Tuff Shed.

1. Correction!! Board Meeting Date

The RCPNA Board Meeting Scheduled for Tues Nov. 15th (not Nov. 1st).  At the Oct. 25th General Membership meeting Chairwoman Tamara DeRidder mistakenly announced the wrong date for the Board’s November meeting.  The adopted schedule identifies Tues. Nov. 15th as the next Board meeting date.

2. Residential Infill Project Update

Residential Infill Project scheduled for Portland City Council starting at 2:00 pm Thurs. Nov. 9th and 16th. The Concept Report to the City Council was recently published by Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) after they processed comments from the initial proposal in June. On Oct. 20th our Land Use & Transportation Committee (LU & TC) reviewed the new Concept Report and has made recommendations to be heard at the Nov. 15th Board meeting.  These Board recommendations are to be forwarded to the City Council for their Nov. 16th hearing.

Key Changes in the Concept Report and LU & TC recommendations include:

• “Concept 1. Limit the size of houses while maintaining flexibility.”  Support & recommend a 3,000 square foot house size limit.
• “Concept 2. Lower the house roof line.” Support & recommend using the average of the ground’s high and low points for bottom point of measurement.
• “Concept 4. Allow more housing types in select areas and limit their scale to the size of the house allowed.”  Support & recommend allowing “Single residential dwelling” to this list.
• “Concept 5. Establish a Housing Opportunity Overlay Zone in select areas.”  Support subject to reducing overlay from 1/4 mile (5-block area) to 1,000 feet (3-block area) as a “pilot program”.  This overlay is proposed to extend from centers, corridors with frequent bus service, and high capacity transit.
• “Concept 7 <new section>. Provide flexibility for retaining existing houses.” Support with the deletion of ‘parking exemptions’ as an incentive for higher density.
• “Concept 8. Rezone historically narrow lots to R2.5 in select areas.”  Support subject to limit area to the amended Overlay area of 1,000 foot (3 block area)
• “Concept 9. Citywide improvements to the R2.5 zone.” Support retaining primary structure and single dwelling construction.
• “Concept 10. Revise parking rules for houses on narrow lots.” Oppose.  Support retaining off-street parking requirements.

The LU & TC Transmittal Memorandum on this topic provides further details & compares responses to the Board August recommendations.

3. 2045 Comprehensive Plan 
Portland Early Implementation Package for the 2045 Comprehensive Plan final City Council hearing Nov. 17th at 2:00 pm.  Revised recommendations, based on previous testimony, are to be published prior to this hearing. This package impacts RCPNA with proposed rezoning of 60th Ave. Station area properties, Transportation Systems Plan proposes a bikeway on NE Sandy Blvd.(impacts parking and travel lanes), and fails to address the need for ‘adequate parking'< See Letter>.  The letter by Chairwoman Tamara DeRidder on the latter was supported by the LU & TC Oct. 20th and is being forwarded to the Nov. 15th Board meeting.

4. November 10th Deadline for Articles and Discount Ad Space
Due to the holiday season we have moved the deadline for our January RCPNA Newsletter up to Nov. 10th. Have something you want to write about for the neighborhood? We want to hear from you!! Please contact our Newsletter Editor Suzanne at editor@rcpna.com for more information.

Also our Annual Advertising Discount will be ending on Nov 10th as well. This is card-sized adds in each of our four newsletters from only $100 (a great deal!).  Interested? Please contact our Local Business Committee Chairwoman Deborah Field at deborah@paperjampdx.com

The Rose City Food Park  (5235 NE Sandy Blvd) is  having a fun evening of trick-or-treating this Halloween, Oct 31th from 4pm-7pm.

Costumes encouraged!

More change planned for Sandy at 50th Ave. Right across the street from the large Taco Time development, the Rheinlander German restaurant will be closing and the iconic building will be torn down in early 2017.  The Hollywood Star reports on the plans for the property, which include a two-story building that will house a branch of The Portland Clinic.

You can count this website editor among those who will miss the character of the Rheinlander building and restaurant. If you enjoy classic German fare, be sure to get your last sauerbraten and schnitzel before they close at the end of the year.