PDC Budget Balancing Threatens Urban Renewal

PORTLAND-As many as 70 urban renewal projects comprising 12% of the Portland Development Commission’s budget for such activities could be put on hold under a new budget-balancing proposal by PDC staff. The proposal was discussed during a commission work session Wednesday. A public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27. A vote is tentatively scheduled for March 13.

The need for the proposal has been expected since Dec. 20. That’s when the Oregon Supreme Court decided a 1998 brought against the PDC, the city and the county by Shilo Inns, which owns property in the Airport Way Urban Renewal District. In reversing a ruling by the Oregon Tax Court, the Oregon Supreme Court decided that the PDC did, in fact, collect its funds from Shilo in violation of Measure 5, a property tax limitation measure passed in 1990.