Council has voted this afternoon to accept a 12 lane bridge across the Columbia River, with a committee created by the CRC project sponsors' council that will look at tolling and management of the bridge—as reported on Blogtown this morning. The resolution passed despite fierce opposition from City Commissioner Amanda Fritz:

FRITZ: Stuck the knife in...not that it made any difference...

"I'm profoundly disappointed that this authorizes a 12 lane bridge, because I don't think we've answered crucial questions about why we need 12 lanes," said Fritz. "I'm concerned that we're setting up the city of Portland to widen I-5 in the growth corridor, that I have no interest in doing. I'm concerned that we're choosing the most expensive option, and that the [locally preferred option] resolution passed last July called for the smallest possible bridge, when it now turns out that the smallest possible bridge requires the most possible lanes. I'm concerned about the amounts and location of the tolling. While in principle a committee may be a good idea, it doesn't give the city of Portland any say in the outcomes or the goals in the goals articulated in the report."

"I don't think the environmental justice goals have been met," Fritz continued. "Big is not necessarily better if the goals of the project cannot be met. Giving all the power to a regional authority that will never be held accountable is really troubling."

Meanwhile, all the boys stuck together and voted yes.

Commissioner Nick Fish urged council to "take that leap of faith and accept that yes, it's not perfect, but that we have enough protections built in to get what the bridge that we might want."

"For me this is a framework that is getting sketched in in the right direction," he continued. "I think this is an example of bringing a region together around a compromise."

"There really was a lot of things we talked about in July that never happened," said Saltzman. "There was never an analysis of induced demand or greenhouse gases, but I'm not going to beat my head against the wall here."

Leonard also voted yes.

"The goals will be done as soon as we can get them done accurately," promised Adams.

The public testimony before the vote was largely against the idea.

"I think 8 lanes is a reasonable solution, 10 lanes is a stretch, and 12 lanes seems absurd to me," said Portland resident Ehren Evans. "How many potholes could the money for this bridge fix in NE Portland? How many sidewalks could it build in SE? This project will mostly benefit Vancouver, about 60/40, compared to Portland. And Vancouver doesn't share the same commitment to transit and alternative forms of transportation that we do."

"If the first decision of this committee is to support a 12 lane bridge, I have no confidence that the committee will make smart decisions from here on out," said Christopher Lowe.

Stephanie Noll from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance said that without linking tolling to a decision on the number of lanes, "our members are not confident that the goals of this project in terms of emissions reduction will be realized, in the end." "A lack of quantified goals will cause this project to disappoint," she continued.

"We're very disappointed that you're prepared to endorse a 12 lane bridge with a committee," said Jill Fuglister from the Coalition for a Livable Future. "How is this a compromise? There's still no decision on tolls, council never got greenhouse gas analysis, or induced demand analysis. Approving 1 lanes today is giving up the single best leverage you had."

FUGLISTER: "Very disappointed..."

"Our leverage is political," said Adams. "The projects with the most unified support from local jurisdictions are the ones that are going to get funded first."

The committee's makeup will include representatives from the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation, the City of Portland, the City of Vancouver, Trimet, CTran, Metro, RTC, the Port of Portland, and the Port of Vancouver. Dan Saltzman also proposed an amendment to have committee members from the air quality authority, which was approved. Commissioner Fritz proposed putting representatives from the state health department and environmental justice advocates on the committee, but the amendments died for lack of a second on council. Burrrrrrrrn!