By Laura Smith
The Bureau of Planning and Sustainability is undergoing the Environmental Overlay Zone Map Correction Project. Environmental overlay zones, or e-zones, and the regulations that accompany them, are a tool used by the City to help protect important natural resources in our neighborhoods. Examples include rivers, streams, wetlands, floodplains, forests and woodlands, unique habitats (like large meadows, oak groves and other features in the city) providing habitat and respite for wildlife.
The goal of the Environmental Overlay Zone Map Correction Project is to produce accurate and consistent mapping throughout the city. Visit the website to find out more, portlandoregon.gov/bps/e-zone, and use the interactive map to see e-zones in our neighborhood.
The house at 5631 SE Belmont (locally remembered as the “Christmas house”) has been purchased by a Portland resident via auction, outbidding developers who wanted to tear the house down. Restoration has begun, and work is being done to obtain historic designation for the house.
Would you like to volunteer time to help organize and plan the 2019 joint neighborhood cleanup with Mt. Tabor and North Tabor Neighborhood Associations? Activities related to the cleanup include reserving the middle school parking lot, making arrangements with hauling and recycling companies, setting prices, soliciting volunteers, publicity, gathering supplies for the day of the cleanup, post-cleanup paperwork and reimbursements.
An MTNA neighborhood cleanup committee will be created at the September 19 meeting of the MTNA. Attend and volunteer at the meeting or email MTNA at contact.mtna@gmail.com.
The next meeting of the MTNA is Wednesday, September 19 at 7 pm at Mt Tabor Presbyterian Church at SE 54th and Belmont, with social time and homemade cookies starting 6:50 pm. For information, visit mttaborpdx.org.
