As of December 2021, The Lake Oswego School District has informed the Rosewood NA/CPO that they are in the process of re-applying for a conditional use permit for property at 6333 Lake View Boulevard. This would move 65 buses (200+ routes per day) to the Rosewood neighborhood.
The Lake Oswego School District (LOSD) is applying to the City of Lake Oswego to obtain a conditional use permit (CUP) to construct a school bus transportation facility (Bus Barn) at 6333 Lakeview Blvd. They applied for this in 2019 and the permit was denied. See Resources below.
With your help we can win this fight again! Please submit comments.
•Summary of the Facts you can use for comments
•Comment Template Here
Comment Template (Short PDF Version)
Comment Template (Long PDF Version)
Printable/ Sharable Flyer Here
Thank you to the City of Rivergrove for passing a resolution opposing LU 22-0052!
Submit comments by NOON, Wednesday Jan 4, 2023. Email them to:
efransted@lakeoswego.city; OR planning@lakeoswego.city
You MUST include LU22-0052 (put in subject heading).
Ask for confirmation it was received.
Testify at the hearing 7PM Wednesday Jan 4, 2023. (5 minutes max)
In-person
Instructions for providing testimony here.
If you want to use slides or video, submit them to kkluge@lakeoswego.city by NOON on Wednesday Jan 4th 2023
Lake Oswego City Hall - Meeting Room
380 A Ave (3nd Floor)
Lake Oswego, OR 97034
503-635-0270
Remote:
REQUIRED pre-registration for remote testimony here and special ZOOM instructions here
The 2019 DRC decision denying the permit and its reasoning
Lake Oswego Review Articles:
Waluga Bus Barn has neighbors fuming - 2014 LO Review Article
Rosewood NA Opposition- 2019 LO Review Article
DRC Slams Door on Bus Barn - 2019 LO Review Article
LOSD Board Declines to Appeal DRC Decision - 2019 LO Review Article
Staff Report
F - 002 February Neighborhood Meeting
F - 003 Transportation Impact Study
F - 006 Geo Survey for Stormwater
F - 011 2019 DRC Decision (at end of document)
E Exhibits - Graphics/Schematics
E - 003 Existing Features Survey
Update: Prior to Hearing-
You guys are awesome! We are so proud to share this rockin’ neighborhood with you! Thank you for the amazing work you have done to help protect our neighborhood from the Bus Barn.
What happened at the Hearing? DRC video here, beginning at 35:44
The DRC hearing went late on Wednesday night. The applicant went first. We went second. We presented information that showed that the School District has lied about the Beasley site. Please review and share the slides (pdf below) that document those lies.
BOTTOM LINE: An apples to apples comparison of the two sites (without employee parking):
Area for bus operations at Beasley:
2.06+ acres. (No employee parking on site.)
Area for bus operations at Lakeview:
1.67 acres after subtracting the required landscaping and the employee parking spaces.
The Comment period has reopened. We get another bite at the apple too! Comment by NOON on Weds Jan 18
Because the school district had no rebuttal (they said they needed time to figure out a rebuttal), the DRC extended the comment period until NOON on Weds Jan 18: planning@lakeoswego.city
Email Subject Line: Public comment for LU 22-0052
Prior comment template here. But see NEW comment priorities below.
More hearing. 7 pm on Weds Jan 18
There will be another hearing at 7 pm on Weds Jan 18 again at City Hall.
Sign up to provide public testimony at the hearing here
COMMENT PRIORITIES
The electrification ruse. To help generate “pro” comments for the Bus Barn, the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network (LOSN) and the School District created a misinformation campaign that falsely connected bus electrification to the Lakeview site. The campaign convinced people that only the Lakeview site could be electrified. But the Lakeview site does NOT have a magical electrification infrastructure advantage over the Beasley site. Board Chair Grant Howell builds electrification infrastructure for a living. He submitted a declaration stating that the School District’s misinformation is patently NOT true. Even if it were true, the School District has no dedicated funding or plans for electrification. The school district doesn’t even own the school buses it uses. All the equipment is owned by the bus service provider, Student Transportation of America (STA).
You can see the public comments here. The “pro” comments are first (all about electrification). Comments in opposition are second, beginning at Exhibit G-200.
Please express your shock and dismay that the school district would create a misinformation campaign to support their wrongful cause. Especially concerning is how someone at Lakeridge High School asked the sustainability students on the Green Team to write letters in support of the bus barn and led the students to believe that the only way to achieve school bus electrification is to move the bus barn to Lakeview. We find it also very concerning that folks writing to support the relocation were very enthusiastic to dump the Bus Barn on us. They do not have to experience the burden of it.
School District gets a re-do. Please object to the fact that the applicant gets a re-do on the hearing. Because the School District didn’t have anything for the rebuttal, the DRC extended (continued) the hearing for them.
Corrections? Omissions? If you forgot anything the first time around or need to make corrections (like we do), this is your chance to do that.
School District now says they can look outside the City for property. The School District did a 180. Since the DRC seems to be asking us to solve the School District’s problem, feel free to help locate properties that have the requisite 5+ acres and that don’t burden a residential neighborhood.
The real reason. As many of you noted in your comments, this is really about moving a nuisance from a more affluent neighborhood to a less affluent one–a neighborhood that doesn’t get to vote for City Council or Mayor. The elected officials are not accountable to us. Our Waluga neighbors have already documented that a Bus Barn cannot be made to be compatible with residential uses and they have told the City Council and the School District that they want it moved. (We don’t blame them!) They made the case that the bus barn is not compatible with residential uses.
ODOT says there is a problem. Don’t let the City sweep the ODOT report under the rug. ODOT has no authority to compel any Lake Oswego land use decision. But its report about the problems at the LBF/McEwan intersection is evidence that (1) there is a problem with the intersection; and (2) there is a problem with the Traffic Study (done by the School District’s traffic consultant). The ODOT report + your on-the-ground evidence destroys the Traffic Study’s credibility. The traffic study is a sham.
Primary ingress/egress to our neighborhood. Many of you commented about Pilkington Road impacts. Awesome! Please consider clarifying that Pilkington Road impacts will happen because the buses will block our neighborhood’s main ingress/egress. The only other way in and out of Rosewood is via Pilkington.
City’s response to hazards. Express outrage about the city’s response to hazards, Staff Report at 39:
As to pedestrian safety, the Staff Reports says that pedestrians can just share the road with “all the new buses.”
As to side-by-side large vehicles on Lakeview, the Staff Report says that large vehicles can simply pull over to let the other pass.
(Even if this were a real solution, how can large vehicles pull over for another vehicle when they are supposedly sharing the road with pedestrians? So we have two large vehicles and a pedestrian sharing the road.)
Please do not submit more comment saying what you already said. Feel free to correct information. Address the priorities above. Add anything new that is relevant to the Bus Barn situation.
This neighborhood meeting with Tony Vandenburg, Project Manager for Lake Oswego School District (LOSD) was to discuss LOSD’s permit application to operate their bus depot to operate 250+ buses per day at 6333 Lakeview Boulevard, near River Grove Elementary School. The goal of the meeting was to solicit community feedback as part of LOSD's pre-application process.
LOSD's current bus depot plans show little difference from the 2019 plan.
Comments and concerns from the community centered on public safety risks, school route safety risks, and the need for extensive and costly neighborhood improvements which LOSD is not planning to undertake.
Full notes from the meeting can be downloaded here.
2022 The school district's pre-application for a permit
Pre-application (number PA 21-0121)
2019 The school district's application was unanimously denied by the Lake Oswego Development Review Commission. Application LU18-0063
2019 Article: Development Review Commission slams door on bus barn.
"Incompatibility of the site for the proposed use results in 5-0 vote striking down the school district's permit application."