Following four years of work, the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners is moving forward with an ambitious vision to revamp the Sunrise Corridor — a constrained residential and industrial area that sits primarily along Highway 212 and Highway 224 near Happy Valley and the Clackamas River.

The board is set to approve a community vision as well as a refinement plan for the unincorporated area, which consists of 5 square miles and is home to more than 7,600 residents and 700 businesses.

Some of the issues with the corridor, according to the vision document, include overly long blocks, underdeveloped and underutilized land, land use issues causing residential and industrial facilities to sit in close proximity, commercial areas that are isolated, insufficient open space and parks, and a lack of pedestrian-and bike-friendly infrastructure.

Further, the county’s refinement plan notes that the marked growth in Happy Valley has led to development within the Rock Creek Employment area and along Southeast 172nd Avenue and there are currently unacceptable levels of congestion.

“Highways 212 and 224 are not able to handle the current demand and have documented multimodal safety issues,” the refinement plan reads.

“This corridor and Highway 212 right now is essentially trying to be all things to all people and it’s not serving anyone well,” said staffer Jamie Stasny said at the board meeting Tuesday, April 30, adding that the corridor resides within an important freight route. “It’s a really dangerous place with a lot of crashes with a lot of injuries and unfortunately worse.”

Some improvements listed in the community vision include:

• enhancing the Southeast 82nd Drive corridor so it has better sidewalks and crossings, refurbished buildings and increased transit service
• Filling the gap in an I-205 multi-use path that runs from Vancouver to Gladstone
• Providing sidewalk infill, bicycle networks and transit connections
• Conducting safety and street improvements to improve freight access
• Adding amenities like shelters, maps and bicycle parking to make accessing transit more convenient and comfortable, as well as supporting the increase of TriMet routes in the area

Further, the refinement plan would realign a portion of Highway 212 to the north and implement many other transportation enhancements between Southeast 122nd Avenue and Southeast 172nd Avenue. The overarching goal is to make Highway 212 a complete street.

“If the Sunrise Gateway Corridor Refinement Plan is implemented it will create a safe and resilient transportation network for all by improving 6 intersections and adding safe crossings, reducing congestion to save over 3,000 hours of travel time each day, creating mode options and supporting access to transit by adding 7 new miles of sidewalks, 5 new miles of bike lanes and improving bus stops. Implementation of the plan will unlock 16 acres of land for development and will enable the creation of 14,000 permanent jobs and 17,000 new homes in Happy Valley,” a county staff report reads.

What about the cost?

Funding is a major question. The county said the project would cost roughly $848-948 million, although the idea is for it to progress in stages. The plan identified a variety of potential funding sources at the federal and state level such as the Highway Safety Improvement Program, Infrastructure for Rebuilding America and the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. The county is also planning to forge a community coalition to help with implementation and will hire a consultant to facilitate this process.

“This is the fun part in a way: creating the vision. The real hard work starts when we all lean in together to implement the vision,” Stasny said.

Rep. Hoa Nguyen, D-District 48, proposed a bill this legislative session that would have allocated $30,000,000 toward this project. A legislative communications person also said that funding for the corridor will be considered as part of a broader capital construction package this session.

Commissioner Ben West said at the meeting that the project feels a little daunting, but is exciting and he is supportive of it. Chair Craig Roberts said it’s important that the county is prepared for federal and state funding opportunities that may arise.