Milwaukie plays for time on light rail

City asks for more time to consider alternatives to planned rail route

By Patrick Sherman

The Clackamas Review, Jul 18, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (16 Reader comments)

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In their 1970 hit for Capitol Records, the Chairmen of the Board pleaded, “Give me just a little more time.” Now, with a $2 million, year-long study of light rail service to Milwaukie about to get underway, Mayor Jim Bernard performed the same tune for a live audience: the South Corridor Phase II Steering Committee.

The committee, of which Bernard himself is a member, was set to vote July 9 on a recommended route for light rail through downtown Milwaukie – whether the study should only consider the existing Union Pacific right-of-way, or should also examine alternative routes, such as McLoughlin Boulevard or Main Street.

“At the steering committee meeting last Monday, we decided to give Milwaukie until August to analyze the Main Street option,” said Metro Councilor Brian Newman, who chairs the committee. “They decided that there was no practical option along McLoughlin Boulevard, but people want a second option: possibly on Main Street or a couplet on Main Street and 21st Street.”

To help the public visualize the proposed routes, a pair of meetings will be held in the Milwaukie High School commons, starting tonight.

“The focus of the first meeting is to have people put their design ideas on paper, so we’ll have things to do that: aerial maps, along with sections of track, light rail stations, stoplights,” said Karen Withrow, a senior public affairs coordinator with Metro. “We think it will be a lot of fun, actually.

“People have said that they have ideas, so we want to be able to capture that.”

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