The big picture of what a new North/Northeast urban renewal area will look like will be revealed tonight at Billy Webb's Elk Lodge. Whether or not the Rose Quarter will be a part of that picture won't come into view until this summer.

Tonight, the Portland Development Commission hopes to start wrapping up its plans to consolidate the neighborhood's two urban renewal districts. But an earlier request from the mayor to plug the Rose Quarter into the new SUPER renewal district is being taken off the table.

This will decouple both large scale renewal projects in the pipe for the area: the URA merger, and the redevelopment of Memorial Coliseum and Blazer's Live District.

The announcement will be made at this evening's meeting of the PDC's North/Northeast Economic Study Area.

Since last year the PDC has been working out a plan to merge the Interstate Corridor and the Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Areas into one super taxing district. The new URA would help to continue funds for local improvement projects like the Denver Avenue Street Scape Project and affordable housing projects such as Shaver Green. It might also extend out to St Johns and parts of NE Killingsworth.

PDC hopes to wrap up its recommendations to merge the urban renewal areas into one new super district by the end of May. The mayor's office, on the other hand, doesn't believe it will have a clear idea of what to do with the Rose Quarter in time.

"We're going to study the financial data (of the Rose Quarter plan)," says Skip Newberry, the Mayor's Economic Policy Adviser. "We're going to reconvene the group in late summer when we have the full financials."

Newbury says the neighborhood reaction to the idea of tapping NoPo dollars for the Blazers had gotten mixed reactions.

Last summer the Mayor personally asked that the PDC also look at including the Rose Quarter as part of the consolidation project. That request met with mild disbelief from some involved.

According to Newberry, involved activists have warmed up to the idea since then.

"We had a straw poll two meetings ago," says Newberry. "I'd say that of those that attended about 50% were in favor of the Rose Quarter. But we've heard concerns that the Trailblazers proposal might involve large public investment."

Concerns indeed. In a cash-strapped city, North Portland is in the odd position of holding the purse strings to a lot of funds.

Last year the PDC had $53 million to spend on neighborhood improvement projects in the district.

The initial outlook from the city is that a new super district could include all top priority projects, known as "The Gem List," and include new areas like the west end of Lombard Street, and still have cash to spend.

But how much would NoPo tax dough would the city want to redevelop the Rose Quarter? No answer yet.

"We've heard support for extending the area," said Joleen Jensen-Classen of the PDC. But Jensen-Classen says that until the group knows how much money the city would ask from the neighborhood, no one can make a call on the Rose Quarter. "They just don't know, 'is it a good thing, or a bad thing,' they can't say until there is a firm ask."

Until then, the PDC and the neighborhood will have push on and make their recommendation, as originally intended.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 6-8 p.m. at Billy Webb Elks Lodge located at 6 N. Tillamook Street