City supports PGE power line in Forest Park
Signed agreement by city administrator would reverse unanimous vote of City Council in 2025
The city of Portland has agreed to support a Portland General Electric power line through Forest Park, a project rejected 12-0 by the City Council in May 2025.
In an agreement signed by Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee on July 2, the “city shall prepare a staff report recommending approval of the new application.”
City staff submitted comprehensive opposition to the original application, joined by the Forest Park Neighborhood Association, Forest Park Conservancy and Bird Alliance of Oregon.
The other organizations did not participate in the agreement, which does not bind the City Council.
“The Parties acknowledge that final approval of the Project rests with the Hearings Officer, subject to potential appeal to City Council, acting in their quasi-judicial capacity. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to bind the Hearings Officer, City Council, any elected official, or any decision-maker to approve the Project,” the agreement states.
This email was received five minutes ago from Drew Hanson, communications manager for PGE:
Hi Allan,
Given the urgency of the Harborton Reliability Project, PGE and the City of Portland have agreed that PGE will submit a new land use application that includes additional details and information about the project’s need to maintain reliable electric service to Portland customers, and commitments to additional environmental mitigation and restoration that broadly enhance the park. The updated application will be filed later this week and will go through the established land use review process.
So much for "good government reform." We were promised a professional City Administrator would fix City Hall's dysfunction. Instead we got the same bureaucratic arrogance with a new org chart.
The Council voted 12-0 to reject this project. Twelve to zero. Neighborhood associations, the Forest Park Conservancy, Bird Alliance of Oregon, and even city staff's own testimony opposed it. Yet now, the City Administrator secretly signs an agreement committing staff to recommend approval of essentially the same project.
The deal is as bad. And the process, which involved the City and PGE cutting the environmental intervenors out of the discussion, may be worse
This is the culture critics have complained about for years: unelected staff deciding they know better than the Council and the public, and simply working around a decision until they get the outcome they wanted all along. If a 12-0 vote isn't "policy direction," what is?
And where were the three dozen public engagement staff this city employs, whose entire job is making sure resident input matters, while this was happening? Or is "engagement" just theater we perform until staff can maneuver around the result?
The fine print about the Hearings Officer and Council retaining final say doesn't change the intent: staff has told PGE, in writing, it will advocate for a project Portlanders' elected representatives unanimously rejected. That's not a neutral process. It's bureaucracy substituting its own judgment and hoping nobody notices before the Hearings Officer signs off.
If the new form of government just means the same insular decision-making with a different name on top, the reform accomplished nothing. Portlanders deserve an on-the-record explanation from Mr. Lee for why this agreement was signed at all, and why clear City Council direction and opposition to the project was ignored.