The City of Sandy is expected to create a substantial amendment to the city’s
urban renewal plan sometime in early April, including feedback the city
received during a public forum held Wednesday, March 11.

The amendment could allow the city to secure funding to potentially acquire
the Cedar Ridge Middle School campus, including the Olin Y. Bignall Aquatic
Center, and create a new recreation hub.

Sandy City Manager Seth Atkinson noted a long and drawn out public process
is necessary to put the amendment in place, including approval by the city’s
planning commission and approval by all other taxing districts that overlap the
urban renewal area.

“We essentially need 75 percent of taxing districts to approve the
amendment,” Atkinson said. “If we don’t get 75 percent, then we won’t be
able to do it. If so, back to city council for final approval.”

Atkinson added the process to get approval from all those entities, including
tax districts such as the Oregon Trail School District (OTSD), the Sandy Fire
District (SFD), the Port of Portland and the Clackamas Education Service
District, could take up to four months. The 75 percent threshold for approval
was added by legislation enacted by the state in 2009, after the city’s last
amendment to the urban renewal plan.

SFD Chief Phil Schneider, who is the district’s representative on Sandy’s urban
renewal agency, already received confirmation from enough board members
to support the amendment.

The district, which can receive urban renewal funds for “brick and mortar”
projects, is currently in the process of getting facts and figures in anticipation
of a seismic upgrade of the main fire station in Sandy.

“We’re not going anywhere, we’re staying here,” Schneider said.

Julia Monteith, Communications Director for the OTSD, noted the school
district would be in support of the amendment, while adding that there is
“nothing different at this point” regarding the status of the pool, which is set
to cease operating by Nov. 30, 2015 or when the $400,000 budget the district
allotted for its operations ends, whichever comes first.

If the city is able to acquire the school campus, it is expected to include a fee
on its residents’ utility bill to fund the operation of the recreation center.

Urban renewal basics
Urban renewal for cities stretches back to 1957 and provides a way to finance
projects in designated areas.

The tax base for the area is “frozen” for all overlapping jurisdictions, while the
increases in taxes over that base in the subsequent years are used by the
agency.

The urban renewal plan doesn’t increase taxes, but it changes the distribution
of the collected money.

Sandy’s urban renewal agency, which administers the plan, is comprised of
the city council, a member of the SFD and a member of the Sandy Area
Chamber of Commerce. Sandy’s urban renewal plan was originally adopted in
1998, has a maximum indebtedness of $18 million and is currently projected
to go until fiscal year 2020-21.

Projects funded by Sandy’s urban renewal plan include storefront and
streetscape improvements and the new Sandy Police Department building.
Atkinson noted the storefront improvements have garnered the most
feedback, both from city residents and visitors passing through.

“I would say the facade grant program has been one of the most visible and
most talked about projects,” he said, noting the program is still ongoing.

Other projects to be considered as part of the amendment, which would
increase the maximum indebtedness of the plan, include road extensions for
362nd Avenue and Bell Street, continuation of the storefront program and
assistance to the SFD.