If Marshall Glickman's ongoing effort to
take over the management of Civic Stadium were a baseball
game, Glickman's team would be way ahead. His lineup is
stacked with power hitters ranging from Mayor Vera Katz
to lumber king Peter Stott. Glickman's opponents, a ragtag
collection of neighborhood activists, East County hoteliers
and Major League Baseball boosters, have fallen behind with
each succeeding inning.
But in recent weeks, Glickman's opponents introduced
a stealth cleanup hitter--Harold Schnitzer, one of the
city's biggest landowners and wealthiest men.
The effect of Schnitzer's bat was in evidence at a Feb.
9 City Council hearing concerning innocuous-sounding changes
to rules governing the city's open-space zones. The changes
really amounted to a free pass for Glickman, but Schnitzer
packed the chambers with an army of neighbors, lawyers
and a high-powered lobbyist.
Schnitzer sat quietly on the bench for much of the early
part of the contest. His company, Harsch Investment Properties,
was the only private entity represented in the preliminary
talks about a good-neighbor agreement between PFE and
the Goose Hollow Foothills League and Northwest District
Association.
But after the first draft of the Good Neighbor Agreement
appeared in November it became clear, says Harsch Senior
Vice President Doug Hardesty, Schnitzer's point-man on
Civic Stadium, that Glickman's deal with the city was
a loser for local residents--and landowners. "The only
people who have to agree to the Good Neighbor Agreement
are the city and Portland Family Entertainment [Glickman's
company]," Hardesty says. "The neighbors have no say."
Specifically, Hardesty says, the agreement allowed PFE
to host unlimited events attracting an audience of 12,500
or fewer to the stadium and failed to impose any enforceable
regulations on traffic, parking or other issues that he
believes will directly affect residents.
Harsch owns several buildings in the stadium vicinity,
housing about 800 renters in all. And what's bad for renters
is bad for the company's bottom line.
A toothless good-neighbor agreement, Hardesty says, would
have "severe economic impact." A recent renovation of
Multnomah Athletic Club, for instance, disrupted the neighborhood
and caused the loss of numerous tenants, Hardesty says.
When Harsch and neighborhood leaders raised objections
to the first draft agreement, the city produced two others
in rapid succession in December, neither much of an improvement.
Hardesty says it was a notice of a change in zoning that
the city mailed out two days before Christmas that altered
the rules of the game. "The process was changed by the
way the city handled zoning," he says. "Normally in a
project this big, the process is more open."
Billed as a change to the city's open-space zoning, the
notice did not mention that the changes were driven by
Glickman's desire to clear the way for the stadium renovation.
But opponents complained that it would remove the need
for a conditional-use permit on the renovation, thereby
eliminating neighbors' leverage to protect their quality
of life.
In January, Harsch stepped up to the plate, hiring politically
savvy Pac/West Communications, to make neighborhood residents
aware of what might happen to their relative tranquility.
Pac/West mailed out two graphics-heavy flyers (see left)
to thousands of area residents, warning that "City Hall
is set to steamroll over our livability" and "they want
to turn our neighborhoods into a three-ring circus."
The point, Hardesty says, that most residents had no
clue what was in the Good Neighbor Agreement. Now they
have the benefit of money, lawyers, Pac/West's strategic
skills and lobbyist John DiLorenzo, whom Harsch hired
to deal with the City Council.
At last week's Council meeting, Commissioner Jim Francesconi
complained that Pac/West's flyers were misleading. Clearly,
though, they were a big reason for the large turnout.
In the end, faced with the neighbors' objections and
a spirited protest by Commissioner Erik Sten that the
changes were too hurried, the council agreed to several
amendments to its proposal, many of them offered by Harsch's
attorney, Tim Ramis.
Though Glickman's timetable remains on track, Hardesty
is optimistic that the neighbors will have the last turn
at bat.
Harsch and neighborhood leaders have asked the city to
strengthen the fifth draft of the Good Neighbor Agreement,
which they hope will carry the weight of city ordinances.
Their proposals include a system of parking permits and
fines; the construction of additional parking structures;
and a cap on the number of paid events.
Harsch, through DiLorenzo, is also badgering the city
for more information about how a revamped Civic Stadium
would affect the neighborhood. On Jan. 20, citing Oregon
public-records law, DiLorenzo requested the city's entire
file on Civic Stadium. As of press time, the city had
not yet complied, prompting DiLorenzo to quip, "They have
this process on a fast track, and they have relegated
us to the slow boat."
--Nick Budnick contributed to this article.
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Willamette Week | originally
published February 16,
2000
