Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association

Social Service Siting Update

Dec 27, 1999

On December 15, 1999, I attended a City Council hearing where the Council unanimously adopted a resolution in support of a four-part plan regarding sitings of social services. The plan is summarized as follows:

1. The Community Problem Solving Action Plan. This program is designed to help citizens in Portland and Multnomah County, neighborhood associations, providers and agencies discuss questions, issues and concerns related to existing or proposed siting of residential group homes and facilities.

2. The Neighborhood Information on Siting and Referral (NISR) Process Action Plan This plan is designed to address the issues, questions and concerns of citizens around residential group homes and facilities in neighborhoods. NISR would be a centralized, coordinated source of information, guidance, referral, and assistance to citizens, neighborhood associations, providers and agencies with inquiries about siting-related issues and concerns.

3. The Good Neighbor Certification Process Action Plan This will be a certification of the siting process used by a prospective provider, designed to verify that the process used lays the groundwork for ongoing good neighbor relations, including notification after site selection has been approved. The certification process is intended to provide guidance to neighbors and providers on what is expected during the siting process.

4. Amend Portland City Code To Include an "alternatives to incarceration/post-incarceration" Use Category. The City of Portland Bureau of Planning could develop a new land use category for "alternatives to incarceration/post-incarceration." These uses could be treated as conditional uses, and conditional use approval criteria, based on land use impacts, would need to be developed. Conditional use review provides an opportunity to allow the use when there are minimal impacts, to allow the use but impose mitigation measures to address identified concerns, or to deny the use if the concerns cannot be resolved.

These measures must now be passed as code amendments to be implemented.

The County Commissioners held a hearing the next day, eliminating the Good Neighbor Certification Process. A resolution in support of the remaining provisions were unanimously passed. The Good Neighbor Certification process can still be implemented within the City.

These provisions will be helpful in the siting process, but they are intended to help existing and planned social services fit in better in the neighborhood. They are not intended to keep a social service out of any neighborhood.

For the full text of these siting proposals, go to http://www.ci.portland.or.us/oni/ressitoct.html.