There’s a small story in this week’s news section that I’m pretty excited about—a property owner along the Willamette in SE Portland (near OMSI) is balking at a city requirement to build a continuation of the Eastbank Esplanade-Springwater Corridor trail when they redevelop the site. The property owner’s going to fight this one to the end—I could see a state court fight over the city’s ability to require a property owner to give up their land and build a public trail.

Right now, the Eastbank and Springwater don’t connect—there are a few properties, like the one in question, that stand between the end of the Eastbank and the beginning of the Springwater.

It’s an area you aren’t likely to be familiar with, unless you bike or walk on either path, and have to wind your way through industrial SE Portland to get from one to another. So, courtesy the news team’s A/V club (read: our intern and his camera), here’s a shot of Portland’s bikey map, zoomed in on the area we’re talking about.

The two purple lines that don't meet are the paths in question; The property owner, SK Northwest, is hoping to redevelop a site right in the middle of that triangle between the paths and the river.

I can see both sides of this story quite clearly: SK Northwest's owner—who uses the existing paths, he says—doesn't feel that he should be required to give up part of his land and build a public path at his expense. Plus, he says he's worried that pedestrians and bikers (who use the path like "a highway," he points out) might get hurt on his property, where his staff will be doing personal watercraft repair.

But hey—the city's goal to connect these paths and make the city's bike and walking network more complete is also something I can get on board with.

We'll be sure to keep following this story as it progresses. You know, so the Oregonian has plenty of fodder for a round-up report eventually—like they did this week on the Mississippi Lofts saga, a story we've been covering for months.