The Portland Bureau of Transportation is facing pushback on a planned bike lane project in the Goose Hollow area. According to KOIN News, some residents of the 214-unit Tiller Terrace apartments on the corner of SW Alder and 17th are concerned about how changes planned by PBOT will impact their ability to park cars near the entrance to the building.
Here’s more from a story by KOIN on Tuesday night:
Miriam D’Arco lives in Tiller Terrace, caring for her 92-year old mother who has late-stage Alzheimer’s… She said she relies heavily on the ability to park a car in front of her apartment, in an area that she said is already tough to find parking. “If they’re going to limit parking even more, that’s a problem,” she said.
Later in the story KOIN reported that D’Arco, “said she feels displaced,” by the project and that removing the parking spots is tantamount to denying her access.
The project has been in the works since 2019. This specific phase was on hold while Tiller Terrace was being built. Sections of the bike lane have already been built and the plans to build them predate the existence of the apartments (the building opened in summer of 2024). PBOT’s plan (see below) is to build a two-way bike lane on the south side of Alder between SW 16th and 17th. It’s the last phase of a neighborhood greenway project that connects Northwest and Southwest and is slated for construction this summer. The two-way bike lane is necessary because the southbound route crosses Burnside on SW 16th, but SW 16th is one-way only at Alder, so the route needs to jog over to 17th to continue south.
To make room for the bike lane, PBOT’s plan is to re-allocate space currently used as free parking for 8-9 private cars. There would still be on-street parking on the north side of the street.
PBOT sent a letter to 2,500 addresses in the immediate area in January 2025 warning them that parking removal on Alder was coming. “This change will require removing parking on one side of SW Alder Street between SW 16th and 17th avenues,” the letter reads.
When asked about the concerns by KOIN reporters, PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera acknowledged the shortage of parking in the Goose Hollow area. “That’s why we need to get more people biking and walking, as much as possible. And that’s what a project like this is part of,” he said.
A meeting is scheduled for this evening between PBOT staff and tenants of the building. KOIN said it was organized by Tiller Terrace management. I’ll reach out to PBOT tomorrow and will post updates here.
Thanks for reading.
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I’m having a hard tome figuring out what PBOT is trying to connect here. It sems like a lot of work to connect across Burnside on a 2-way bike path that ends a block later, at Couch. I don’t see a lot of value for the southbound travel from 16th being able to head west on Alder. It looks like it would only connect to 17th to continue south, and that is only a few blocks long. Would it be simpler to extend the 2-way on 16th to Morrison? What am I missing?
Very sad to see people fighting the revitalization of central and downtown Portland.
I’m curious if there’s any reserved (“handicap”) parking? Is that a thing for on-street parking?
If not, could it be?
Should the city just implement a parking permit system in central city?
If she needs a handicap space in front of the building she can have PBOT reserve one. Otherwise it sounds like she prefers the convenience of being able to park in front when the spaces aren’t already taken up.
If the city wants to reduce on-site parking, they should expect more pushback when they want to take away the on-street parking that people in low parking buildings consequently depend on.
People, even low income people, have cars, and they need to park them somewhere.
This should surprise no one.
Of course there’s no blame on the property management company for not disclosing to incoming tenants that the on street parking is going away.
If I were to move downtown it would be because of how walkable/bikeable/transitable it is. I wonder why someone who could feel being displaced if their public parking spot was removed would move to an area with such poor parking. I don’t know all the mechanisms of the cost of this unit/building etc. On one hand I can’t help but feel this is car-brained mentality. On the other, I wonder if there’s more to the story/situation than this article paints.