By Enid Spitz Staff Writer spitz13@up.edu
Wednesday, the Portland City Commission voted unanimously to approve UP's mitigation plan, moving the University one step closer to the development of River Campus. The plan will decrease environmental protection zones on the bluff behind Corrado Hall, where UP hopes to build a parking structure linking the university's current campus to its waterfront property purchased in 2008. In exchange for changes to the environmental zones, UP will create over 200,000 square feet of protected wilderness area along the bluff, including protected habitat for endangered White Oak trees. Had City Council rejected the mitigation plan, UP wouldn't have been able to build on the protected land without conducting an alternate site analysis for the parking structure. "Obviously, I'm very very pleased about [the vote]," Jim Kuffner, assistant vice president for financial affairs said. Now, the gateway structure will undergo a separate review before its construction. "We look forward to good things to come on that property," Kuffner said.
