I’m at the Portland Design Commission meeting, which has one agenda item today: A design advice meeting for 728 SW 9th Avenue, also known as the current site of the Virginia Cafe. Developer Tom Moyer of TMT Development wants to build a 31-story mixed-use high rise with ground floor retail, upper story condos, and an underground garage. The Virginia Cafe’s slated for demolition.

The developer’s team has quite the presentation ready—a 3-D model of that section of downtown, with the tower rising up in the middle, plus at least seven huge boards, each at least five feet tall, showing every possible angle of the building. I like the building—it’ll be one of the tallest ones downtown at a little over 400 feet, but it’s not trying too hard to be edgy, flashy, or make a loud statement. That’s not to say it’s bland and ugly—every side is different, making the tall gray (silver?) tower visually interesting. It almost looks like four or five towers mashed together, with a cohesive skin. I’ll try to nab a picture.

There are plenty of people who don’t like it, though, or don’t like the idea of it. This morning, we got a missive from a guy named George: I’m presuming it’s the same guy here at the meeting—a reedy man in brown corderoys, sporting a thin gray ponytail and clutching a stack of papers—who’s going from person to person in the audience, asking if they’re here for the “sham meeting.” Someone shushed him before he got to me.

He wrote:

Park Avenue residents say the area is already beset with many noisy, polluting construction projects, including Tom Moyer’s Park and Garage at Park Block 5, the Macy’s, the transit mall, and the Esquire Hotel makeovers, as well as the plans always hovering over The Galleria and the Yamhill Garage. .

Park Avenue Concern is a new neighborhood group formed in response to the proposed 420-foot tower, which would be among the four largest in the state. PAC asks: “Why another huge, ugly office tower in such a congested area? Why, when we already have here so many solid old historic structures standing vacant, many owned by Moyer and friends?” Many historic buildings appear to have been red-lined, that is, systematically left undeveloped, unmaintained, sometimes vacant, even derelict, according to PAC.

Park Avenue Concern’s entire letter is after the jump. Despite the neighborhood “outrage,” however, there’s maybe one or two people at this meeting here to speak out against the project—the other dozen people look like your typical Design Commission audience of planners and city staffers, plus the ubiquitous Lili and Irwin Mandel.

Bye, bye Virginia Cafe and anything else in the way

No public process?

“Thirty-five stories on a three-story block in a traditionally eight-story neighborhood? How can this be? The city is acting like this project is a done deal. We need a public hearing on this as a land-use issue.”

So say the neighbors of Tom Moyer's latest high-rise project, Moyer Tower, which would demolish the entire 1950's-style Zell block (bounded by SW Park, Morrison, 9th and Yamhill) along with Mercantile, Zells Jewelers, and the venerable Virginia Cafe (since 1922).

So far, the only opportunity afforded the public to comment on the project is before the Design Commission, which meets this Thursday, May 17 at 1:30 PM, 1900 SW 4th, Room 2500A.

Park Avenue residents say the area is already beset with many noisy, polluting construction projects, including Tom Moyer's Park and Garage at Park Block 5, the Macy's, the transit mall, and the Esquire Hotel makeovers, as well as the plans always hovering over The Galleria and the Yamhill Garage. .

Park Avenue Concern is a new neighborhood group formed in response to the proposed 420-foot tower, which would be among the four largest in the state. PAC asks: “Why another huge, ugly office tower in such a congested area? Why, when we already have here so many solid old historic structures standing vacant, many owned by Moyer and friends?" Many historic buildings appear to have been red-lined, that is, systematically left undeveloped, unmaintained, sometimes vacant, even derelict, according to PAC.

Also appearing to be ”red-lined” are any traffic-pedestrian considerations, such as traffic lights or even crosswalks, on any of SW Park or Ninth avenues north of Salmon. “Now, into the already hazardous Park-Taylor intersection, Moyer wants to release thousands of cars from his garages. When you total facilities existing, under construction, or planned, these now include fourteen (14) subterranean levels! That's a lot of new traffic.”

PAC also asks why has Moyer leased to a methadone clinic at his 804 SW Alder? “Is this another effort to degrade the neighborhood,” asks PAC, “so it can be rescued by the wrecking ball?” Across Alder, in the old Cornelius Hotel, Moyer rents storefront space to an arts center for the homeless. “Ironically, above them are thousands of square feet of unoccupied space that could be made into housing, and once was housing.” PAC asks Moyer and fellow developers to disclose their plans for the red-lined structures of the Park Avenue area.

PAC says that any high-impact development proposed should be able to demonstrate its necessity and compatibility with our historic neighborhood in order to qualify for the privilege of land use. PAC does not accept the notion that the size of any structure should be determined by the “bogus bulk” stratagems of FAR transfer and bonus. The 35-story Moyer Tower is, manifestly, a high-impact development proposal, to put it mildly. We understand that the proper forum for public consideration of such a project proposal is a Type III Land-Use Review.