Portland’s Franklin Street was once a tree-lined neighborhood street that housed families and neighborhood businesses. Urban renewal in the ’60s and ’70s demolished these “redlined” neighborhoods and replaced them with today’s dangerous and inhospitable arterial expressway to serve commuter traffic.

Nearly 20 years ago, the city of Portland was on the verge of further widening Franklin Street. Residents came together to stop this, and created a new vision for Franklin Street: a street integrated into the rich urban fabric of the Portland peninsula, where people could comfortably walk, bike and drive, a street lined with housing and local businesses, with neighborhood streets reconnected, and restored land for public use. Hundreds of people participated in this work over a seven-year period and in 2015 Portland adopted the Franklin Street Master Plan.

Now it’s time to finish this work.

The master plan provided the framework to realize the community’s vision; reclaiming six-plus acres of land for public use, restoring land to Lincoln Park and creating a safer, more accessible transportation system for people walking, biking, driving and taking transit. However, the 2015 plan, like the urban-renewal arterial, was still premised on the fiction of never-ending traffic growth, and failed to capitalize on opportunities for more housing, climate resiliency and economic development.

Now it’s time to update and improve this plan.

The city of Portland is beginning a 10-month process to update the 2015 plan. Today we can benefit from other communities that have reclaimed their urban arterials and highways. Advances in urban roadway design have unlocked opportunities for much needed housing, public space and economic benefits. As the people of Portland return to this work, there are four key issues we must get right:

• Housing and economic development. Housing and development for local businesses must be front and center of this final redesign study.

In 2023, local residents worked with architects and affordable housing professionals to study how much housing could be built along a redesigned Franklin Street. The analysis demonstrated that over 1,000 units of housing could easily be built on the land reclaimed from a redesigned corridor. Furthermore, it showed that in a 100% affordable housing model, land sales would generate over $15 million in property sales revenue, and $3.5 million a year in annual property taxes. Portland’s recent rezoning increases the capacity for housing.

• Traffic. Traffic along Franklin Street has been fairly stable for the last 40 years and has steadily decreased since 2019. All previous transportation planning assumed traffic will always increase, something that has never been the reality for Franklin Street. The final design of Franklin Street must be based on historical traffic data, and our community’s aspirations for a sustainable, active transportation system.

The 2015 study was flawed, in part, by design choices that consistently prioritized traffic over other users. The study chose nonessential vehicular lanes over more land for housing or public space. It ignored historic street connections that would help sort local traffic from commuter traffic, and it made design choices that will encourage unsafe behaviors for all users. The final Franklin design must create a safer street by rebalancing the needs of all users.

• Urban design. The current design of Franklin Street was created to compete with suburbia. It does not function like a city street, but more like a long highway off-ramp. It is a no-man’s land with buildings that turn their back to the street. The vast expanse of six-plus acres and the bones of the original street network present opportunities to create new neighborhoods that blend with the urban fabric that makes Portland great.

New mixed-use buildings will contribute to a vibrant streetscape where the current right of way is the widest. Innovative design solutions, such as 2-3-story street-oriented facades up against parking garages and other dead street walls, or thoughtful reuse of medians, can reknit narrower parts of the street into the urban fabric. The current Franklin Street is a scar. This work can heal that scar.

The vision and voice of the people of Portland have made all the difference in this project. Your voice will be invaluable in making sure Portland gets the Franklin Street that it deserves.

On Thursday, April 17, the city will be hosting an open house event to kick off the Reimagining Franklin Street project from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Portland Public Library. If you care about safe streets, housing and a more sustainable city, please join me to hear about past planning efforts and to share your ideas and priorities the future Franklin Street.

You can also follow on social media to learn more about citizen efforts on this project, the history of Franklin Street and other similar efforts.