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Clackamas County Board of Commissioners

April 25. 2001

905 Main Street

Oregon City Or 97045

Gentlemen,

The members of the Oak Lodge Community Council (OLCC) , the recognized community planning

organization representing the Oak Lodge and Oatfield Ridge, expressed their position on the South

Corridor Alternatives Study through a vote at the April Council meeting. We oppose the Light rail

option. We feel that pursuing Light Rail 'Without significant public involvement violates the public's

trust in South Corridor's leadership Light Rail has been rejected three times in this area and during the

public involvement period, those opposed to Light Rail were not allowed to voice their concerns

because, as the Project Management team repeatedly said, "Light Rail is not an option". Another

concern groups like the OLCC have is the attitude that government baits people with one plan;

"non-Light Rail," and then switches goals later; so, why waste our time in public involvement. Time is

not a commodity we can recover, so wasted time is lost time. Additionally, the Light Rail option will

lead towards issuing bonds approved by voters in 1994. Issuing bonds 8 to 10 years after the vote for a

shorter line, and after Light Rail has been twice rejected by voters during this period will simply

disconnect voters from government. This disconnect will result in both lower voter turnouts and

increased rejection of ballot measures.

We oppose extending Light Rail south of Milwaukie on McLoughlin as suggested to the Milwaukie

City Council.

We support the HOV option.

From the Clackamas Town Center via 82nd. to Highway 224 and to Portland's CBD and McLoughlin.

We do not support the bus-way plan:

1. We do not believe this is a cost effective way to spend our limited transportation dollars.

2. Replacing one of our County's least used transit lines with a bus freeway seems like over-kill at

the least.

3. Clackamas County's match to Federal funds needs to be spent where it will be the most effective

and serves the needs of the greatest number of people.

As the transportation plans in the South Corridor move forward, our comments are as follows:

1. Any transit improvements should not preclude adding traffic lanes in the future to McLoughlin

north of Milwaukie, Highway 224 and I-205.

2. The Oak Grove area needs direct transit connections to both the Clackamas Town Center and the

Clackamas industrial areas.

3. Before the South Corridor will see a significant increase in usage of high capacity transit, Tri-Met

needs to address a method of transporting people from their neighborhoods to the high Capacity

Transit.

4. We support the improvements to the McLoughlin Corridor as outlined in the McLoughlin

Corridor Plan dated May 21, 1999 because without these improvements transit usage will remain

unchanged.

5. Transit users must be able to get to and from McLoughlin as well as safely cross it.

6. We support Tri-Met establishing an express bus from the Clackamas Town Center and the New

Hope Church parking lot to the Gateway Transit Center via I-205 when the Monterey over-pass is

completed this fall.

Thank you for considering our comments.

Dick Jones, Chair OLCC