The Portland City Council will revisit a proposed moratorium that could temporarily block the development of a controversial music hall downtown for a second time, now scheduled for August.
The moratorium would have delayed the development of a roughly 3,300-person capacity music hall, which is being spearheaded by a local developer Mile Marker Investments and concert promotion giant Live Nation.
In April, city councilors said they wanted more time to study parking and infrastructure questions associated with the project, and hit pause on the proposed moratorium.
And then on Monday night, the city council was forced to postpone action on the proposed moratorium again. The city's audio and video system was not working properly, and the dozens of people who showed up to give public comment on the proposed moratorium could not hear in the city hall overflow rooms or online.
"This is one of the largest turnouts in my five years on council that I have ever seen for an issue," City Councilor April Fournier said Monday evening. "And so the idea that the people watching home, the people in [room] 209, the people in the hallway can't hear everything that everyone is going to share about why they believe either this moratorium should go forward or not, that causes me a lot of concern. Because I think accessibility and transparency is critical to all of the work that we do, but right now we have closed door that no one else can hear the discussion that's happening."
Philips also noted that the city council won't have a public video or audio recording of the debate once the meeting ended.
City councilors agreed to postpone public comment and debate on the proposed music hall moratorium until Aug. 11.
In a memo to city councilors earlier this summer, municipal planning staff said they did not believe a moratorium to block the Live Nation project over parking concerns was justified. They cited the fact that cities around the country — including Portland — are eliminating minimum parking standards to encourage more walkable communities. And they pointed to a recent inventory of parking garages close to the site of the proposed music hall, which showed unused capacity.
In August, city councilors will likely weigh those arguments, and comments from local arts operators who oppose the project. They are especially wary of Live Nation, which is the subject of an anti-trust lawsuit and investigation from the U.S. Justice Department.
On Monday night, the city council did approve a settlement agreement with Federated Companies, the Florida developer that has been locked in a 15-year court battle over land in Portland's Bayside neighborhood. The city will buy back the land at issue for $15 million.
