During peak times, traffic accessing the Fubonn Shopping Center at 2850 SE 82nd Avenue can snarl the signalized intersection leading to its parking lot. Until recently, this was the only vehicle access to the 7.49-acre property. Over the last four years, the retail complex owners have looked for solutions to improve access for shoppers traveling to the popular destination by car, bike, and on foot. Those efforts have focused on adding another commercial driveway to the back of the property leading onto SE 85th Avenue. Concerns about letting commercial traffic onto a primarily residential street and bike route without consistent sidewalks have delayed those plans. However, infrastructure changes to SE 85th Avenue underway make eastern site access more appealing, and the community located east of SE 82nd Avenue will gain new sidewalks with easy access to a local grocery store and shops.

Contractors completed construction on a secondary driveway in April, creating access to the east side of Fubonn Shopping Center from SE 85th Avenue. Designers located the new entrance on the northeastern corner of the expansive shopping complex. Crews removed a tree and heavy vegetation that blocked the rear approach to the property. Up to this point, people accessing the site from the east could only walk onto the property via a hard-to-find pedestrian entrance. Visiting Fubonn from SE 85th Avenue was made more difficult for pedestrians because of the lack of sidewalks in the area. That will change in the coming year thanks to the Jade and Montavilla Multimodal Improvements Project, which will create sidewalks from SE Division Street to SE Powell Boulevard along SE 85th Avenue, with roadway repaving between SE Clinton and Brooklyn Streets. Crews working on this project anticipate starting work in spring and will also add new sidewalks on SE Clinton Street from SE 84th to 87th Avenues.

The improved street infrastructure will assist people in safely driving, walking, or rolling to their destinations. The new eastern entrance at Fubonn will likely be a key destination for area residents and people trying to avoid congestion along SE 82nd Avenue. Several community members have expressed excitement for the calmer entrance to the local destination. “We’re really happy that we can now access all of the shopping and restaurants inside of Fubonn without having to walk along 82nd,” explained area resident Stephen Udycz. He acknowledges that some of his neighbors are apprehensive about increased traffic on the residential street but expects that sidewalks and a redirected bicycle Greenway will address those worries. In listening to community concerns, engineers of this project examined alternative Fubonn site access from the north streets that dead-end against the property. However, those streets are insufficient for through traffic and sit above grade to the parking lot surface, meaning roadcrews would need to build ramps or regrade the street for entry from the north of the property. Those costly and disruptive changes make alternative secondary access points unfeasible, leaving only the SE 85th Avenue option viable.

Crews constructed Fubonn’s new eastern entrance under temporary approval to help maintain business access during planned construction along its SE 82nd Avenue frontage. The 82nd Avenue Critical Fixes: Major Maintenance Project includes signal reconstruction at SE Woodward Street and 82nd Avenue with corner reconstruction featuring Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant curb ramps. Crews will also install a traffic separator and median island south of the intersection to create predictable left turns and plant trees mid-street, cooling the temperature along the roadway. In preparation for this work, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) removed sidewalk-planted street trees that the city says would not survive construction planned in the work zone. A month ago, workers fell six trees along Fubonn’s frontage, clearing the way for sidewalk repair and other planned road work. This construction will likely impact access to the shopping center at several points during the project, requiring the new alternate access from SE 85th Avenue to keep the shopping center operational.

The owners of Fubonn intend to make the SE 85th Avenue driveway permanent with the city’s approval. Traffic Engineers with Mackenzie Inc. conducted road usage studies and concluded that the added traffic volume from a new entrance would be under the threshold for a local access street. The city’s planned relocation of the Neighborhood Greenway from SE 85th Avenue to SE 87th Avenue in this area should also lessen traffic’s impact from the site’s new entrance. The scheduled addition of continuous sidewalks on SE 85th from SE Division Street to SE Powell Boulevard will help insulate pedestrians from increased traffic traveling to the Fubonn shopping center and allow residents not traveling by car to have more ways to move east-west in an area during business hours. Preliminary proposals for eastern access to the property will also help facilitate foot traffic. Those plans show a new pedestrian pathway from the yet-to-be-created sidewalk that lets people walk a marked and protected pathway to the eastern entrance of the building through the parking lot.

The Fubonn Shopping Center has long needed a second entrance based on its size and site orientation. Its front entrance is often crowded with cars trying to find a parking space, while the back lot remains underutilized. It also should connect the residents east of the center with a walkable resource for fresh food and other services. Residents along SE 82nd Avenue could see sidewalk construction in the coming months, and visitors to Fubonn can now use the new vehicular entrance during shopping center hours. Drivers should use caution in the area as pedestrians and cyclists must share the road until cement masons create new sidewalks and safety infrastructure.

Article and photos by

Jacob Loeb