By Laura Smith
The annual Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association board member elections took place at the May meeting. Two new members were added to help with activities and projects that will protect and enhance the livability of the Mt. Tabor neighborhood as desired by its citizens.
Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct has a volunteer organization called East Portland Involved Citizens (EPIC). EPIC presents information to citizens about law enforcement topics. Meetings are held the fourth Wednesday of every other month. The May 25th meeting’s speaker is a lieutenant who will talk about the Department of Justice settlement with the Portland Police Bureau. Meetings are from 6 -8 pm. The July 20th meeting’s topic is Motorcycle Cops. For information, contact Dave Smith at 503.823.4800 or email Dave.Smith@portlandoregon.gov.
The Mount Tabor and North Tabor Tree Teams will co-host a workshop on Selecting and Promoting Diverse Species, Saturday, June 4 from 10 am – 12 noon at Western Seminary, Bueermann Hall, Room 101, 5511 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Learn how to plant the right tree for the right place from Friends of Trees and Bureau of Environmental Services, meet neighbors, get familiar with issues and threats facing neighborhood trees, and go on a tree walk. Register to attend at: http://tinyurl.com/N-Mt-Tabor-DiverseSpecies
A proposed 28-bed memory care facility on the Courtyard at Mt. Tabor campus at 6125 SE Division is in the planning stages. Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT ) requested removal of the existing historic stone walls and trees along SE Division and SE 60th to make way for a wider sidewalk adjacent to the proposed project. The owner and MTNA want to save the historic stone walls and existing landscaping and trees, so they will propose a public works alternative review from PBOT.
MTNA is getting closer to having its website overhauled. Several website designers have made proposals which are currently under review. Watch this space for updates. Better yet, contact MTNA if you’d like to help with our website rehab and maintenance. Send us an email to contact.mtna@gmail.com and put “website” in the subject line.
MTNA representatives are continuing to meet with the Portland Water Bureau (PWB) regarding maintenance of the reservoirs. An area affected by the reservoir work is the off-leash dog park. The off-leash dog park entrance has been blacktopped recently. This is causing dog owners to be concerned about burns to dogs’ paws in hot weather, as the new blacktop absorbs more heat than the previous, aged paving. The right kind of mulch is needed to top the blacktop as a protective measure. MTNA is working with PWB to get the right surface for the off-leash dog park entrance.
Here are updates on the three comprehensive plan and zoning issues that will affect the Mt. Tabor neighborhood: 1) the amendment to change Portland Nursery’s zoning to all commercial failed to pass and instead will be zoned as previously submitted by city planners granting conditional use approval for retail nurseries in residential zoned property, 2) proposed zoning changes to the empty lot on the northeast corner SE 60th and Belmont to a higher density commercial zoning which allows four stories of construction did pass, and 3) a correction to the comprehensive plan was approved, restoring mixed use dispersed designation to Hawthorne Blvd from 50th to 51st avenues, in keeping with the PBOT traffic designation change for the upper Hawthorne area.
Mark your summer activities calendar for Movies in the Park on the grounds of Warner Pacific College. “Inside Out” will be shown on Friday, July 29.
The next meeting of the Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association will be Wednesday, June 15th at 7 pm at Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church at SE 54th and Belmont (downstairs in the dining hall), with a social time starting at 6:50 pm. For more information, please visit www.mttaborpdx.org.