By: Andrew Theen
Portland's elected leaders did everything in their power to move the city's most famous homeless camp to a vacant Central Eastside industrial lot more than three years ago.
The city spent about $1.1 million to purchase the land, clean it up, and buy mobile showers to place on the oddly shaped site to make it more habitable.
Then the state Land Use Board of Appeals blocked the move in August 2016, saying an industrial area was no place for a mass shelter.
But while Right 2 Dream Too eventually landed at a temporary site near the Moda Center, the series of city decisions weren’t without consequences for East Side Plating, which has called the rapidly changing neighborhood east of the Willamette River home for 72 years. The business finds itself with an uncertain future as the city has planned a sale of the property once slated for the homeless camp and waffles on promises made years ago to preserve access to East Side Plating’s loading docks.
“I do not understand why people don’t do what they say,” Gary Rehnberg, East Side Plating’s president, said in an interview.
His property is boxed in by Oregon 99E on its east side, but for years the business had no problems with its monthly chemical deliveries. Then Portland tried to move the homeless camp to the area.
“No one necessarily wants to have a homeless camp erected next to their facility,” Rehnberg said. He opposed the plan, but Rehnberg said he didn’t envision what would happen next.
Rehnberg feels like the city is reneging on assurances in 2015 and 2016 that he could still back up a tanker truck down what used to be a public road abutting the south side of his building. Since the city abandoned the road, a process known as a “street vacation,” it has no protections and could be eliminated by a future owner of the property.
Portland has appeared poised to sell off the Central Eastside land – and recoup much of, it not all, of its misspent funds -- despite concerns from a city watchdog and East Side Plating.
Timeline
Feb 19, 2014: City Council approves deal to sell a Pearl District parking lot to developers Homer Williams and Dike Dame, directs $846,000 from the deal to help buy Right 2 Dream Too a permanent home.
April 30, 2015: Commissioner Amanda Fritz announces Portland will move homeless community to an industrial property in the Central Eastside.
August 25, 2015: Portland City Council buys property for $254,044 from Oregon Department of Transportation
December 15, 2015: Portland Planning and Sustainability Commissioned opposes city’s plan to vacate Southeast Harrison Street to make site more palatable to the homeless camp. Commission cites East Side Plating’s presence, use of existing right of way.
February 18, 2016: Portland vacates the road, citing an emergency that keeping street would “harm the public welfare. Council records state city will “work in good faith” to accommodate East Side Plating, cites the company’s right of way use. City also says it can maintain “beneficial use” of property while providing access to East Side Plating.
February 7, 1018: Council declares property “surplus,” plans to sell it.
Rehnberg said he offered to pay $40,000 for an easement – a legal right giving him access to cross or use a portion of the city’s land-- but he said the city didn’t respond to that offer. “I have a higher expectation in my government,” he added.
Without that access, East Side Plating would have to change how it orders and receives chemicals. The company, which serves customers in the advanced manufacturing industry in the metro area and beyond, makes metal products last longer and be more reliable.
Rehnberg also would potentially have to spend money to build a new emergency exit for the dozen employees who work there.
Rehnberg said he hasn’t priced out what all those changes may mean for his bottom line. “I wish this wasn’t happening to me,” he said, “but I don’t want to be whining.”
Kyle Chisek, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s director of bureau relations, said the proposed sale has been put on hold as the mayor’s office tries to sort out what promises were made by then-Mayor Charlie Hales’ administration.
“What I do want to do is get that timeline and sequence of events,” Chisek said.
Margie Sollinger, Portland’s independent ombudsman, said she has already done that work for the mayor’s office, and her investigation shows the city did promise to “preserve the exact access” for East Side Plating.
“The City should honor its promise and support a local, family-owned business,” she said in an email. “At this point it isn’t clear that it will, and I am concerned the City’s decision is being influenced by East Side Plating’s earlier opposition to relocating R2D2 at this property.”
Portland had declared in council documents that it would preserve access. It also pledged to “work in good faith” with East Side Plating.
But in February 2018, Portland declared the property surplus and sped forward with plans to sell the land, with no indication Rehnberg would be accommodated.
The city has not been charging the company for accessing its back door in the years since it vacated the street, and officials say East Side Plating didn’t start asking about an easement until it learned that a developer was interested in buying the land. Rehnberg disputes that, saying he started discussing an easement with the city in August 2016.
When asked how an easement or other arrangement to grant the company access would affect the land’s property in a prospective sale, Chisek said it would “diminish the value.”
What happens next is unclear.
Rehnberg said he does not want to pursue legal action against the city, adding that the thought makes his stomach churn.
But he said he understands why the city would try to sell off the land to the highest bidder after the R2D2 saga.
“I’d want them to take a higher offer,” he said.
But for his business, it’s all a big distraction and brings uncertainty to how he’ll operate in the future.
And all for a homeless camp that never came.