A huge Thank You to all the West Linn businesses for their support!

 The Celebrate West Linn Fundraiser on Saturday May 11th was huge success with over 100 in attendance and thousands of dollars raised to support the legal case against the corrupt West Linn City Council and the machinations of the City Manager on behalf of his real masters.

A huge Thanks! to all the West Linn merchants and other businesses who donated items for the auction.

Ground Zero - The Robinwood Homeowners' View

Gotta wonder what the West Linn city staff, the city manager who lives in LO, the assistant city manager who's husband works for Tigard, the planning director and planners, the new city attorney; What do they see when they look out their front widows? 

Click on any pic for a full scale slide show.

Ground Zero - An aerial flyover of the "Scenic" LO-Tigard Industrial "Campus" in the middle of the Robinwood Residential Neighborhood - Please click on any picture for a full size slide show

View from the northwest, from over Cedaroak Drive

View from the southwest, from over Mapleton

Wide view from the south, showing 'compatibility' with surrounding residential neighborhood

Closer view from the south showing clear cut debris on the cleared industrial site

1. What the West Linn council did - Recent history

In 2007 Lake Oswego teamed up with Tigard to form the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership (LOT). 

LOT is proposing a new regional Water Treatment Plant in the middle of the Robinwood R-10 residential zone to treat up to 38 million gallons per day (MGD) of Clackamas River water.  Miles of 42" and 48" pipeline will pump water from the intake structure in the Clackamas River over to Tigard, in Washington County.

At the West Linn Planning Commission hearing on Thursday, November 1st, 2012 the 7 Commissioners unanimously rejected both LOT applications, for the water treatment plant and the pipeline, citing 9 different codes that the proposal did not meet.

LOT staff appealed their stunning loss at the Planning Commission level to the West Linn council, where they were confident that the West Linn city manager, who lives in LO, could prevail and get LOT their permits.  LOT staff, without consulting their elected councilors, decided to offer a $5 million bribe to the West Linn council to buy a favorable decision on appeal.  Attorney Pam Beery tried to cloak the this as a "license" in perpetuity, for use of the right-of-way under Hwy 43. 

Bribe in hand, the 4 sycophant councilors convened for decision on Monday, February 11th to sell out the Robinwood neighborhood and the Community Development Code for a bit of ready cash to backfill the budget.

Same old secret back room corruption as back in 1967, when LO bribed their way to Clackamas County permits to build their plant in Robinwood. 

Kovash continued to hold forth using the same dismissive language in referring to West Linn citizens and the Planning Commission, but cloaking it in paternalistic concern.

Carson croaked her agreement.

Jones and Tan delivered the punchline to the cruel hoax, inexplicably reversing their supposed positions from 2 weeks earlier in nonsensical speeches.

2. West Linn City Council Takes the Bribe and Sells Us Out

The Moneybag Express again roared through West Linn city hall on Monday 2/11 and the citizens got railroaded by the gang who thinks that they are just too smart for West Linn voters and immune from public opinion.

When the LOT partners appealed their unanimous losses at the West Linn Planning Commission, the West Linn Council was supposed to decide on the appeal by Monday, 1/28.  That night, the councilors findings were tied 2 to 2, which would sustain the Planning Commission finding against LOT.  Before the matter to come to a vote, the Mayor acted out a well scripted farce, executing an end around to evade holding the actual vote.

An incredible breech of decorum and ethics.  After completely trashing both the citizens of West Linn and the Planning Commission in his deliberation, Kovash intentionally sabotaged the proceeding by 'accidentally' introducing 'new evidence' during his deliberation.  Kovash handed his true constituents at LOT two more weeks to twist arms and crank up secret back room dealings.

Here is the video on the city website:

http://westlinn.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=337

Lt. Colonel Kovash pulls the pin at 1:27:43 

The Beery law firm attorney and West Linn City Manager, who continuously stifled any West Linn citizen who tried to speak up over the last couple years, sat curiously mute as Kovash acted out his fake faux pas and then they shared a hearty guffaw at the antics enacted on behalf of their LOT masters. 

Everyone else played out their roles with faces of stone. 

Any competent land use attorney would advise that the Kovash maneuver was nowhere in the remote vicinity of sustaining an LOT LUBA appeal, especially since the 'new evidence' he revealed was in their favor.

It is however, a huge ethical breech that should see Kovash disqualified from the case and removed from the chamber.  Any councilor failing to support this would be tainted.

So this charade dragged out two more weeks, until Monday 2/11, where Jones and Tan played out their scripted epiphanies, completely reversing course and agreeing that LOT was indeed wonderful for the citzens of West Linn and in compliance with all applicable codes and plans.

Wow!

LOT money does talk, right out of the West Linn councils' mouths.
Scripted by West Linn city manager Chris Jordan and LOT lead attorney Ed Sullivan.

The cruelest joke is that West Linn will probably never see a single penny of that $5 million bribe that Chris Jordan and his sock puppets pimped us out for.  The LO City Manager has stated that they don't intend to even hold a vote on if they will approve payment of the bribe until at least Spring of 2015.

3A. What's the Problem with LOT? The Short List

Here is the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership (LOT) program:

1. Taking 38 million gallons per day from the Clackamas River.
    
2. Exporting Clackamas River water over to Tigard (and Beaverton and Hillsboro) in Washington County.

3. Developing the Stafford area with LOT water, as stated in their state water permit application and the Carollo report.  

4. Suing Mapleton homeowners' association members in West Linn to condemn their protective covenants so that LOT can build the project.  Subpoenaing Mapleton homeowners' emails, just because they can.

5. Expanding upon an old industrial use, granted by Clackamas County way back in 1966, in the middle of an existing West Linn residential neighborhood.

6. Imposing a regional industrial scale project, with massive, square, metal sided structures, that are totally out of character, in the middle of an R10 residential neighborhood.

7. Destroying the peace and quiet of the neighborhood and impacting all the businesses in the Robinwood business district with 3 years of heavy industrial construction, generating over 50,000 heavy truck trips and tens of thousands of other vehicle trips past our homes, schools and businesses.

Using the lots adjacent to Mary S Young State Park as the staging area for the Horizontal Directional Drilling operation under the river, blocking park access and disturbing the peace of our urban refuge.

8. Exposing the entire neighborhood to the severe limits to LOT liability for any damages caused by construction or operation of the plant and pipeline.  

No insurance for 'acts of god'  like earthquake of landslide, that may cause catastrophic damage from the 2 million gallon reservoir and the 48" pipeline through the neighborhood and business district.

9. Subverting our West Linn City Hall, with our own city employees bending all the rules to help LOT and hurt our West Linn citizens and businesses.

10. Cheating our city out of any proportional community benefit per our Comprehensive Plan.  This project is not consistent with the overall needs of the community, per Community Development Code 60.070. 

11. Appealing their unanimous defeat at our Planning Commission to our West Linn City Council.  

Betting (and winning) that their undue influence in City Hall buys a reversal, just like LO got on appeal on 1967.

Pursuing permits to impose their will and their project on West Linn.

Our fellow citizens on the Planning Commission voted 7-0 against this proposal TWICE, once for the plant and again for the pipeline.

Seven West Linn Neighborhood Associations voted against this proposal.


Help Save West Linn and Stop the LOT Water Project!

3B. What's the Problem? More Details...

The Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership (LOT) project has numerous problems, 
from the new intake tower in the middle of the Clackamas River 
to the huge Water Treatment Plant in a Robinwood residential neighborhood 
to the massive 48" Clean Water Pipeline to Tigard, way over in Washington County.

1 & 2. Sending Clackamas River Water to Washington County.

Decades hence, future Clackamas County residents will be shaking their heads, wondering what we were thinking, who was asleep, when the LOT partners were allowed to dip their big straw into the Clackamas River and pump it to Washington County, to Tigard, to Beaverton, to Hillsboro.  At peak, LOT will pump 38 million gallons per day of water out of the Clackamas during the hottest summer days when river flow is lowest.  At least 20 million is slated for Tigard and other Washington County cities.

This is the Oregon version of Los Angeles stealing the waters of the Owens Valley in California, over a hundred years ago, to fuel their explosive growth.

3. Providing water for Stafford Development.

Almost 80% of West Linn citizens oppose Stafford urbanization, because it would put overwhelming burden on our already crowded school classrooms and our failing local roads.  West Linn has adopted city policy opposing Stafford urbanization.  In their state water permit application and in the Carollo Report used to justify the project, LOT wants to provide water for thousands of new homes in Stafford.

4. Suing West Linn homeowners to condemn their covenants.

The residents of Mapleton Avenue in Robinwood have covenants, protecting their quiet neighborhood by restricting lots to residential use.  

To build the new plant and pipeline, greedy LOT is suing these residents to condemn the deed restrictions, again threatening the senior citizens, clouding titles, lowering home values and costing these homeowners for legal defense.

5. Expanding upon an old industrial use in a residential zone - Rezoning versus CUP.

This is not another minor remodel to serve LO.
This is a new major regional infrastructure project.

It is a complete re-design and expansion of the facility, for a new use, to provide water to another city.

This new industrial use should require a zoning change to General Industrial Zoning.
As part of that process, the LOTWP should show an exhaustive alternative site analysis,
showing that no other site was feasible, especially in their own cities.

This is a gross mis-use of the CUP provisions in our code and opens the door for any entity to use residential land in West Linn for any utility that benefits another jurisdiction.

6. The scale and scope of the project and the size of structures is totally out of character with the R-10 residential zone.

All of the pretty wide angle fantasy renderings in the application, showing the trees and landscaping as they will appear decades in the future, can't hide the huge industrial scale of the Water Treatment Plant in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  Their artistic renderings presented to the Planning Commission hardly showed the buildings at all, behind the trees, as if they were applying for a permit to build an arboretum.

Huge blocky flat roofed buildings, cheap metal siding and bright intrusive security lighting are not compatible with a wooded street of mostly single story homes.

7. 3 years of heavy industrial construction in the middle of our R10 residential neighborhood and through the Robinwood business district.

12 hours a day, 7 days a week, of blasting, jack-hammering, core-drilling, excavating and pile-driving with beeping back-up alarms and diesels revving.

Periods of 24 hour a day construction, requiring only a sign off by the West Linn City Manager, who lives in Lake Oswego.

Per the application, at least 7700 heavy truck trips down Highway 43 and onto our 20 foot wide streets, just to build the water treatment plant. 
Thousands more to excavate and install the massive 48" pipeline through our neighborhood and then the Highway 43 business district.

Estimates are up to 80,000 one way heavy truck trips, with tens of thousands more for smaller vehicles. 

Imagine the untold hours of West Linn citizens lives wasted, waiting for flaggers, waiting behind convoys of heavy equipment, 48" pipe segments and grinding, double dump-trucks, so LO and Tigard don't have to inconvenience their own citizens.  What is your time worth?

8. There are severe limits to LOTWP liability for any damages caused by construction or operation of the plant and pipeline.

ORS 30.273 limits LOTWP liability for injury or death to $500,000 for a single claimant and $1 million for multiple claimants.

The liability limit for property damage is $100,000 for a single claimant and $500,000 for multiple claimants.

That's correct, $500,000 total for all property damage, in a neighborhood where that may not cover a single home!

This is nowhere close to replacement value for homes and yards washed away by a huge overflow or undermined by slow leaks and seepage.  These events are not covered by homeowners policies!

LOT is boring ONE THOUSAND piling foundations 60 feet deep to build the new treatment plant and a 2 million gallon water reservoir on liquifiable soils, over a slide zone, looming on a bluff above our homes.  Soil under the plant site is type F, the worst type. The geologists' reports were utterly discredited at the Planning Commission hearings.


9. Undue influence and deference of West Linn City Hall

The project has no inherent benefit to West Linn or to the Robinwood neighborhood. 

This is not a school or park or fire station or police station or part of our own local utility distribution. These facilities all have an inherent community benefit, which is why they are allowed in a residential zone under a CUP.

The West Linn Planning Director, who does not live in West Linn, found that LOT could apply for this project under our CUP process.  Ever since, the entire West Linn city staff has bent over backwards and jumped through hoops in deference to LOT, sifting through our community plans for every shred of language that might help LOT, while completely ignoring code and plan language opposing it.

The degree of collusion between the people whose salaries and benefits we pay with our tax dollars and the LO representatives is astounding and infuriating.

It took a Planning Commissioner to politely point out from the dais that
the huge 48" transmission pipeline is a Transportation project, and therefore 
LOT IS REQUIRED BY OUR CODE TO UPGRADE THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE HWY 43 CONSTRUCTION ZONE TO THE CURRENT CITY STANDARD, AS ADOPTED IN OUR CURRENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM PLAN.  

THIS IS NOT A BENEFIT, IT IS A REQUIREMENT.  IT IS NOT WITHIN THE DISCRETION OF THE PLANNING STAFF TO WAIVE THIS  REQUIREMENT.

THE WEST LINN PLANNING STAFF COMPLETELY IGNORED THIS REQUIREMENT AND HOPED NO ONE WOULD NOTICE.

WHEN PRESSED BY THE COMMISSION, THE ATTORNEY WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE REPRESENTING US, BEGRUDGINGLY ADMITTED THAT THE CITY OF WEST LINN COULD REQUIRE THIS FROM LOT.

10. The only community benefit proffered for this permit is the water inter-tie that we already have and a squishy $5 million bribe that probably won't stand up to a court challenge.

The water inter-tie and inter-governmental agreement that allows LO and West Linn to provide emergency water to each other has been is place since the 1990's and was used by LO as the community benefit for a water plant remodel at that time.  The creation of these inter-ties are a matter of public policy.

11. The last gasp for LOT was an appeal to West Linn City Council.

LOT used their moles at West Linn City Hall to convince our elected City Councillors that the LOT proposal meets our West Linn codes, lubricated by a squishy $5 million bribe that probably won't stand up to a court challenge.

4. How the LO WTP was permitted in Robinwood. A bit of history.

For almost 50 years, Lake Oswego has colonized the Robinwood Neighborhood in West Linn.

In 1966 the Robinwood Neighborhood was unincorporated Clackamas County.

The area was all platted for residential lots and mostly built up with homes.

The City of Lake Oswego threatened condemnation and bullied elderly citizens into selling their Robinwood residential lots and then got a Conditional Use Permit, granted on a shady appeal by Clackamas County, to build their Water Treatment Plant in the middle of an existing residential neighborhood. 

The Robinwood Neighborhood had it's own water company at the time, and vigorously opposed the permit, but was powerless to stop it in the face of LO's political clout.

On Monday, February 27th, 1967, the Clackamas County Planning Commission concurred with their Planning staff finding, that the Lake Oswego Water Treatment Plant did not belong in the middle of the Robinwood residential neighborhood.  

Lake Oswego appealed to Clackamas County Board of Commissioners.  That hearing before the 3 elected Commissioners was held on April 5th, 1967.  The Board agreed to take the matter under advisement. 

The minutes of April 19th Clackamas County Board of Commissioners contain NO reference to the matter.  NO public discussion.  NO public vote.

But on April 19th, the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners issued a written finding, filed with the Clerk the next day, overturning the Clackamas County Planning Commission in Lake Oswego's favor.  

Just a good old fashioned, slimy back room deal, snuck out the back door.

That's how the Lake Oswego Water Treatment got built in Robinwood.

There is no reason for this industrial use to remain in the midst of our residential zone.  Granting this CUP will grandfather this misuse for another 50 years, and set the stage for further exceptions and expansions in our West Linn residential zones.

We are under no obligation to repeat Clackamas County's 1960's planning error.

5. Truth in Siting

The LOT Project Manager was quite clear.

From the very beginning, the Robinwood residential area was the only site considered for the huge new LOT water plant because "it is the cheapest." According to an LOT application, West Linn is LOT's "lowest cost option."

Land in LO and Tigard is too precious to be squandered on a site to process their own drinking water.  LO and Tigard citizens' sensibilities are too fragile to endure the 3 years of industrial construction in their midst.

Why bother wasting a single LOT tax dollar examining alternative sites when cheap and easy West Linn is right next door, with your special friends ensconced in West Linn City Hall to grease the skids and pull the levers so that your project can roll over the Robinwood neighborhood without any pretense of official opposition.

Sure, when a meeting got sticky, there were a few quick convenient lies about alternative site analysis, but those lies evaporated under close questioning, and to date, no paperwork or other evidence of any kind has surfaced.  Just like those phantom appraisals that showed no depreciation of Mapleton home values.

The pipeline engineering contractor did examine a couple dozen potential pipeline routes across the Willamette, but every single one terminated in the Robinwood neighborhood, none in LO.

There was even the laughably ridiculous assertion that there was no site in all of LO at the correct elevation for water pumping purposes, as if a $250 million engineering and construction budget couldn't fix that.

No City worthy of its name would allow this project: expansion of an old grandfathered non-conforming industrial use in the middle of a built out residential neighborhood.

6. The Carollo Report - the Tale that Wags the Dog

The Carollo Report, completed in 2007, is the blueprint for the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership (LOT) proposal for a new 38 million gallons per day(MGD) water treatment plant and transmission pipeline.

The Carollo Report (named for the corporate authors, a large national water works engineering firm) was hatched at the peak of the recent real estate bubble and is based on the assumption of endless 5% yearly growth, on the assumption that today both cities would be using 25% (compounded) more water than in 2007.

As both LO and Tigard ramped up water rates to build up cash reserves in anticipation of their big bond sales, water users acted rationally and used less, which is a long term national trend that effects all water providers budgets.  This is not the slow economy, it is structural savings as water saving fixtures and habits permeate society and was evident before the great recession.

The new water is simply not needed now or in the near future.  Tigard can continue to use Bull Run water, as they are doing today, at a fraction of  their share of the LOT project cost, and LO can live easily with their present plant which has a capacity to make 16mgd, while LO peak water usage has dropped to around 12mgd.

This project proposal is a massive boondoggle, a lead balloon, a dinosaur, that was launched by out of control bureaucrat with a checkbook left wide open because the LO and Tigard city councils can raise water / utility rates at whim.

The problems for LO and Tigard water rate payers are:
1. the proposed project cost has exploded from the $50-60 million range to now over $250 million.
2. the bond repayment presumptions were based upon huge infusions of new System Development Charge(SDC) money from that endless 5% per year building bubble.

3.  the region is awash in water treatment capacity. By the time the project is built, there will be no wholesale market for the excess capacity. There is currently at least 12mgd of unused capacity on the east side of the Willamette.  Portland is desperate for any additional revenue stream from Bull Run.  Hillsboro is proposing a new mega-plant on the Willamette in Wilsonville, in an actual industrial zone and Tualatin recently agreed to opt into that plan.

If the project proceeds, as the bonds are sold (Tigard already sold their bonds without permits in place) and bond payments kick in, current  LO and Tigard water rate payers are going to experience astronomical utility bills that will make Portland bills look like chump change.Based on the report, the City of Lake Oswego proposes to increase daily water capacity from 16 up to 24 million gallons per day(MGD) when their average daily use for 2011 was only 4.7 MGD and peak daily demand was around 12 MGD for the past 3 years, since conservation measures were enacted.

Based on the report, up to 20 million gallons per day of Clackamas River water will be exported to Tigard, way over in Washington County. 

(West Linn uses 8MGD from the Clackamas on the hottest peak day)


The goal of the Carollo Report was to allow LO to vest all of their water permits on the Clackamas and become a major regional player in the water market.

To create the numbers to vest the permits, the Carollo Report presumed annual 3.5% population growth in LO and Tigard through 2040, even though LO population has actually been falling, right through the bubble.  

That still doesn't create enough usage for LO to grab all their permitted water, so they need 4 MGD of additional potential usage from West Linn now, and from Stafford triangle development in the future.  That is why LOT is so frantic to have West Linn approve a new water inter-tie agreement, when the one that we have in place is sufficient and valid.

This is not about clean water for super attractive smiling cherubs pictured on a glossy publicity piece, it is about an LO-Tigard power grab for water resources.

The LOT project requires a new intake structure in the Clackamas River which will require removing hundreds of truckloads of gravel to reshape the river bottom to direct the flow to their intake.  Their new 42" Raw Water Pipeline (RWP) will be trenched through Gladstone and then bored under the Willamette River and under Mary S Young State Park, to the two state owned lots at the northeast park entrance on Mapleton.  From there the RWP is trenched up Mapleton Avenue to the proposed plant site.
  
The new 48" Fresh Water Pipeline (FWP) will be trenched, 8-10 feet wide and as deep as necessary, up Mapleton to Hwy43 and then north, through the entire Robinwood business district, all the way to downtown LO, where it will again be bored underground to spare the LO business district any disruption.

Lake Oswego’s initial water conservation program has been very successful, achieving a 36% water consumption reduction.  To reach their ultimate goal of 50% conservation will require metering all of their customers and stopping some of their 10% water leakage loss.

The Carollo Report only estimates a .5% water savings, not 36% or 50%.  Using the Carollo charts, at 36% conservation LO will never need the additional capacity for their current water users and for build out within current boundaries.  At 50% conservation, LO will be able to develop newly annexed land in the Stafford basin without the additional water capacity.

The Carollo Report states that the proposed project is Tigard’s third best option.  The best option for Tigard is continuing to buy wholesale Bull Run water from Portland, which hasn’t raised rates as the Carollo Report predicts.

The Carollo Report includes the Stafford Triangle in the proposed service area. It is mentioned numerous times in the report and is shown on the service area map. LO expansion into Stafford is one of the justifications for the new plant and capacity increase.  The Carollo Report estimates 50% growth in the service area when the entire LO build out is calculated at 5%.

The original cost estimate of the plant has grown from $128 million to $250 million and will probably rise as new challenges are discovered, such as the liquifiable soils under the proposed treatment plant site. These additional cost will drive the water prices in L.O. and Tigard dramatically upwards, at least 4 times more in Tigard.

Summer flows on the Clackamas River are currently at the mandated minimum limit BEFORE the new LOT intake structure begins pumping.

Timothy Lake feeds the Clackamas River and relies on the snowpack between 6000 and 8000 feet.  With predicted climate change, this snowpack will melt more quickly and won’t be available in July thru October to augment river flows as it is now.  The Clackamas River watershed will be hard pressed to maintain summer demand and levels, before the new LOT withdrawals.

The real motive for the Carollo Report is that LO decided to squeeze everyone else out to maximize their water rights on the Clackamas River and needed a reverse engineered solution to justify this water grab.
  
Regarding water rights, the Carollo Report says ‘use them or lose them.’  If the LOT project is approved, West Linn and all of Clackamas County won’t be able to increase water usage for future economic development and growth.  

LOT and Washington County will have the permits and the massive pipeline to withdraw the available Clackamas River water, regardless of who holds senior water rights.

Despite the strident denials from LOT representatives that this project has nothing to do with Stafford, the Carollo Report shows that Stafford annexation and urban development is a major driver for this project.  LO and Tigard citizens get caught footing the huge bill.

It is apparent that the Carollo Report was written to justify 3 predetermined conclusions:

1. To immediately fully vest all of LO’s 38 MGD in water permits as permanent water rights, ahead of other potential Clackamas River water users.

2. To get Tigard and Washington county access to the Clackamas River water resource.

3. To provide a supply of water for Stafford Basin annexation and urban development.

7. Aquiescence

ac·qui·es·cence   [ak-wee-es-uhns]   noun

1.  the act or condition of acquiescing or giving tacit assent; agreement or consent by silence or without objection; compliance.

2.  Law - such neglect to take legal proceedings for such a long time as to imply the abandonment of a right.

In October 2010, the Lake Oswego-Tigard Water Partnership strode into Robinwood and commenced to treated us all as if we owed them something and it was time to pay up.

Inintialy, the countenance was all polite, but at the second meeting it was readily apparent that it was all for show.  Our role was to air our silly little concerns and then step aside and witness the juggernaut roll through.

Of course, the groundwork for the grand conspiracy had been laid years earlier.  Why, look what our intrepid planning staff found: A provision inserted in drafts of the 2008 West Linn Water Master Plan that is a perfect match, hand in glove, with the LOT expansion.  How did the drafters and approvers of the 2008 Water Master Plan know to insert such a provision before LO and Tigard had even approved their Inter-governmental Agreement to form their water partnership?

What is more surprising and disturbing is what the planning staff were incapable of finding: a single example of any provisional of any West Linn Code or Plan that has any jurisdiction whatsoever to stop any phase of the LOTWP application, or even to require any mitigation or compensation.  

It is the official opinion of the West Linn Planning staff, rendered in the Staff Report, that the citizens of West Linn are rendered moot and mute, without recourse.

Who is in charge of updating and maintaining our city codes and community plans to protect our homes, our neighborhoods, our peaceful lifestyle, our investment in this community? The West Linn Planning staff?

This is the lesson that all those new folks up on top of the hill need to learn:

The West Linn Development Code is written to protect the prerogatives and profits of predatory developers like the LOT Project Partnership, not you.

You will be next, as soon as all that new water is available for Stafford basin development.

8. Boutique Water for Sale

When large public works projects reach this point in the proceedings, 60% design, the controlling interests commission a Value Engineering Study.

A panel of wizened experts pour over the plans, questioning assumptions and solutions, to find potential efficiencies and savings in the project before the final plans are drafted and sent out to bid.

A Value Engineering Study will never happen on LOT water project, because the first thing that would get thrown out would be the the entire piping water from the Clackamas River to Tigard presumption.

Tigard ratepayers will be paying through the nose for a generation for fancy boutique Clackamas River water via LO, compared to the bargain rates they could get from the Wilsonville treatment plant, that was built for a fraction of what LOT is proposing in Robinwood.

LOT advocates will tell you that Tigard can't drink Willamette River water, based on a advisory vote taken years back when wildlife biologists were finding deformed fish in the stretch above the Falls.  Subsequent studies revealed that the deformations were caused by naturally occurring viruses, not pollution.

The Wilsonville plant has been treating Willamette River water for 10 years now, and we haven't notice a proliferation of third eyeballs amongst our neighbors to the south.  In fact, if you drink any Coke products, including Dasani, Full Throttle, Nestea and Powerade, you are probably drinking Willamette River water treated at the Wilsonville plant.

Tigard ratepayers were never asked if they wanted to pay double or triple for the LOT boutique water.   None of this would really be our concern, except that the feasibility of the entire project hinges on dumping the construction project on Robinwood.