South 35th Avenue Corridor Extension Project

The planned S 35th Avenue Extension project is intended to provide a new connection from South 10th Way in the Gee Creek Plateau to Pioneer Street to replace the only existing connection, Bertsinger Road, which is functionally obsolete.

In 2025, the City will conduct an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Red and Green Alternatives, which will culminate in City Council selecting a preferred alternative to move forward with design, permits and construction.

Background

The concept for this extension evolved from the late 2000's to resolve future transportation mobility and congestion issues in the Gee Creek Plateau subarea. The City has been collecting an additional per-lot traffic impact fee surcharge for the S 35th Avenue extension project since late 2022. The requirement of collecting these funds is that they must be spent within six years of collection for implementation of the project.

The previously-completed Gee Creek Plateau Subarea Plan indicated the 35th Avenue corridor/improvements as the primary circulation route through the subarea. An alternatives analysis has been underway since early 2023 and has included three neighborhood meetings, one-on-one stakeholder interviews and two public open houses. Based on input and suggestions from those meetings, several alignment concepts for a new corridor were developed based on objectives listed below:

• Minimize impacts to existing properties, communities, natural features, wetlands, oak habitat and fish-bearing streams.
• Preserve identified historic structures and determine additional areas of historical significance.
• Create a new connection that
  • Follows property lines where possible to avoid splitting up land parcels,
  • Maximizes multimodal connectivity, and
  • Further connects existing roads and pedestrian facilities.

At the July 25, 2024 Study Session, Council members supported moving forward with three "build" alternatives for further analysis: Red, Orange and Green. Two other evaluation criteria were also suggested: multimodal travel and transportation system connectivity.

Subsequent to that meeting, City staff and representatives of the consulting firm of PBS Engineering and Environmental conducted further analysis and held a Community meeting on September 19, 2024 (Read Summary Report [PDF]). Input was and continues to be received from the community on the three "build" alternatives. On December 5, 2024, Staff presented the updated analysis of the remaining "build" alternatives as well as recent community input (View Presentation [PDF] or Listen to Meeting Audio [begins at 57:15]). City Council selected the Red and Green Alternatives to move into the environmental impact process.

Next Steps

The Alternatives Analysis phase of the project provided for a high level assessment and did not include a detailed environmental, transportation and community impacts study. The next phase of the project will consist of an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Red and Green alternatives, which will culminate in Council selecting a preferred alternative to move forward with design, permits and construction.

Once a preferred alternative is selected, design, permitting, right-of-way and construction are expected to begin as early as 2026 and would likely continue for two or three years.