Planning items: 

Bloom Annexation:  At the August 27 Planning Commission meeting, it was voted to grant a continuance for Case No. 18-026 ANN, Bloom Annexation. Per code and ODOT requirements, any territory proposed to be added to the City limits must provide Transportation Planning Rule (TPR) findings prior to approval.  Therefore, after discussion with City attorney, it was recommended that a continuance be approved to allow the applicant time to obtain the required analysis. The applicants have submitted a request to waive the 120-day rule in order to provide additional time to conduct the necessary assessment to be submitted to the City of Sandy for review.

Sandy Community Campus Street Vacation: At the August 27, 2018 Planning Commission meeting it was voted to forward Case No. 18-029 VAR, Sandy Community Campus Street Vacation, to the September 17, 2018 City Council hearing with a recommendation of approval.

Zion Meadows:  We have received another retention tree removal request for Zion Meadows (Lot 8). There are many issues in Zion Meadows related to tree protection and mitigation due to a flawed subdivision approval and inconsistencies in our code.  We are learning from our mistakes and working on solutions to better meet the intent of the tree retention standards.

Sandyplace Apartments:  Final order on the east retaining wall for this project has been completed and was issued on September 5^th.

Schilling property:  A special variance request to not connect to public utilities for development of this recently annexed property on Orient Drive has been submitted (utility lines currently end approx. 2400 feet east of the property)

O’Reilly Auto Parts:  Final order for design review for the interior facelift was completed and issued on August 24th.

Jiffy Lube:  Final order was issued regarding their new trash/recycling enclosure was issued on August 9th.

Other large reviews being conducted:

• US Metal Works: The new site just SW of the existing US Metal Works facility has begun construction on their PC approved (18-005) building plans which include three separate structures. Two of the structures (to be located within the northern part of the property) will be used as internal storage for their existing facility and a third building (located within the southern portion of the site) be associated with the school bus parking fronting facility
• TSC, Inc.: This project on the Benson property was brought before Planning Commission at meeting on July 30.  Final order completed and issued to TSC on August 15.

Internal projects:

• Pleasant Street Master Plan: Staff has received an updated Alt Avenue redesign from AECOM based on Council’s suggestions and will be soliciting feedback from Alt Avenue stakeholders (CCB and Leathers) soon.  The completion date of the master plan is unknown at this time due to department workload.  To recap – the goals of the realignment are:
  • Improve the safety of Alt Ave./Proctor Blvd. intersection
  • Improve pedestrian accessibility along Alt Ave
  • Create a visually appealing entryway to Pleasant Street.
• PetSafe Dog Park Grant: Sadly, the City of Sandy was not one of the 5 communities awarded the PetSafe Bark for Your Park  There were a total of 120 applicants this time around, but there will be more opportunities in the future.
• Code updates: We are doing some light housekeeping – modifications to five development code chapters will go to Planning Commission at their September 24^th

Economic Development items:

Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):

• Promotional City images, Round 2: This photo shoot is complete, and the images are being processed and uploaded to our contractor’s server as I type this.  We did about the same amount of shooting this time around and got another great round of promotional images for the City, including Sandy River Park, the interior of the Museum, the exterior of the PD, several different businesses around town and some great shots of our city buses.  We also captured most of the City parks system (stellar pics from the Sandy Bluff Dog Park – you’re welcome Sarah Richardson!) and we were even able to get some portraits of the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce staff as a courtesy to that fine organization.We also got some fantastic portraits of our Transit Department staff.  Bonus points to Ms. Howell for using this resource to its absolute fullest!  Nicely done, ma’am, and you should see these posted to the website very soon.
• Joe’s Donuts: We have a request for bids going out shortly for Stage 2 of this project – a small bit of new concrete and street furniture being funded entirely by the Urban Renewal Agency.
• Next Adventure: Construction continues….

Econ Devl – Internal Projects:

• Downtown maintenance:
  • AntFarm Downtown Maintenance contract: If there are areas of downtown that you would like to see them focus on, shoot me an email and let me know.
  • Sandy Community Campus demolitions: …are complete.  The pool annex building and that horrid play structure behind the pool are gone.  Repair work to the boiler stack is also complete.  Next steps will be to have our AntFarm crew do a little weeding, add some ground cover is spots and start talking about how to set up the new picnic area where the annex used to be.Next step at SCC: We have scheduled environmental testing at the front building of Cedar Ridge for the third week of September.  This is the first step towards the demolition of this building, which should happen towards the end of the year.
• Clackamas County Tourism’s Community Partnership Program grant projects:
  • Jonsrud Viewpoint: Auto-turn report is complete.  N8 Excavation has agreed to do the curb shaving portion of this project.  We will meet with them within the next couple of weeks to discuss the suggested changes.  We will also be adding some signage from ClackCo Tourism and directional signage.
  • Meinig Park Entry Arch: On hold for now.

Econ Devl – Conferences/training:

• Nothing this month.