Council delays decision on ‘Made In Oregon’ sign’s fate

UPDATE • Condemnation issue goes back to City Hall next week with funding clarification

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Mar 31, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (34 Reader comments)

Possible wording changes to the “Made In Oregon” sign on Portland’s White Stag Building are the focus of a high-spirited land-use dispute. The City Council still weighing a plan to acquire the sign.

Tribune File Photo

After hearing about an hour of testimony Wednesday morning, the Portland City Council delayed for at least a week a vote on the ordinance that would allow the city to purchase the historic Made in Oregon sign.

The ordinance, introduced by Commissioner Randy Leonard and cosponsored by Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Nick Fish, would bring the sign into the city’s ownership in order retain its message and prevent it from potentially reading “University of Oregon” instead. The university leases the renovated White Stag Building underneath the sign for its satellite Portland campus.

The council will hear the issue again Wednesday, April 8, this time with an amendment clarifying that the $500,000 or so in funds to purchase the sign would not come from tax-increment funds or ratepayer fees, such as from water, sewer and solid waste bills.

When pressed about exactly where the funds would come from, Leonard said: “fees, rental properties.”

Leonard said he’d have more details on the funding next week.

Even with the amendment, city Commissioners Dan Saltzman and Amanda Fritz spoke adamantly against the ordinance and said they would not support it because they thought it was a “frivolous” and “unnecessary” use of the city’s eminent domain.

Condemnation is “one of the strongest powers at government’s disposal,” Saltzman said. “It should be used judiciously, only for things like public safety and rights of way for transportation.”

Adams wasn’t at Wednesday morning’s meeting. He was attending a conference in Washington, D.C.

The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission will hear a permit request on Monday, April 6, from Southeast Portland’s Ramsay Signs Inc., which owns the iconic neon sign at the west end of the Burnside Bridge.

The permit requests a change in the sign’s wording but would change nothing else. The colors of the sign will stay the same; the stag, “Old Town” script and outline of the state of Oregon will remain; and the reindeer’s red nose will still light up every holiday season, the day after Thanksgiving, just like it has since 1959.

A ‘positive relationship’

Eighteen people testified at Wednesday’s council hearing, both in support and opposition to the condemnation effort.

Among them were Jan Oliver, special assistant to the University of Oregon vice president, who spoke on behalf of University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer.

She said the debate surrounding the sign has suffered from poor communication until this point, and called the proposed ordinance a “poor strategy.” But she said she’s happy to sit down with city officials and discuss options. She and Leonard are set to meet Thursday morning to discuss the issue.

COURTESY OF RANDY LEONARD • This is Randy Leonard's proposed change for the Made in Oregon sign.

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