Over 200 feet of SE Mill Street east of SE 82nd Avenue will remain closed to cars during the work week starting Monday, July 7th, allowing road workers to begin street repaving. Earlier this year, crews working for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) constructed new sidewalks on SE Mill Street in this area, which previously lacked curbs and a dedicated pedestrian walkway. This project added wide sidewalks on both sides of the street, featuring tree wells for future street tree planting, creating a safer segment for the bike greenway, and a safe route to school path that runs along this street. Drivers should detour to Harrison Street until SE Mill Street reopens on Friday, July 11th.
Degraded asphalt between new sidewalks ready for grinding and repaving
Much of SE Mill Street east of this site, up to 89th Avenue, still lacks curbs and sidewalks but features mature trees lining the somewhat degraded asphalt road surface. A future extension of sidewalks along this street would require extensive stormwater engineering. It could also necessitate substantial land dedication from adjacent property owners to accommodate sidewalks on the building side of the tree line. Alternatively, engineers could narrow the street to fit sidewalks between the curb and trees, but that could create challenges for opposing traffic to pass while supporting safe passage for cyclists using this Neighborhood Greenway.
SE Mill St east of the worksite lacks curbs and sidewalks up to 89th Avenue
Paving of SE Mill east of 82nd Avenue requires a full road closure; however, pedestrians and people riding bicycles can use the new sidewalks during construction to pass through the worksite. This reworking of a relatively small section of roadway will significantly transform the street from its previous form and serve as an extension of community investments made during the SE 80th and Mill Local Improvement District. After this road reopens, paving work will continue in this area on SE 82nd Avenue between SE Mill and Harrison Streets, Starting July 14th.
Recently completed SE Mill Street’s north sidewalk open for pedestrians and cyclists during construction
Update July 7, 2025: As of Monday, crews have closed the sidewalks on both sides of SE Mill Street, in addition to the roadway. People should detour to Harrison Street, and the sidewalks may reopen to pedestrians and bicyclists later in the project timeline. The contractors working on the project have removed the old asphalt surface and are regrading the roadway with a new gravel base.
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While pursuing needed home renovations to their 1955-era house at SE 80th Avenue and Harrison Street, Ellen Flint and her husband found they would need to spend all the contingency money they had budgeted on a new sidewalk. The couple knew they would need to add that missing section of pedestrian space along their property one day. Still, they had not anticipated combining it with this current accessibility project. This needed work could have stopped before it started if not for a $12,000 padding in their budget.
The Flints moved into the corner-lot home in 2013 when most of SE 80th Avenue south of their property was a gravel road. “80th South of Harrison was still unpaved, and people would literally practice dirt bike jumps. It was a rough road there, and there was no sidewalk. It was kind of sketchy,” recalled Ellen Flint. They had a sidewalk in front of their house facing SE Harrison Street. However, 100 feet of the property just had a raised concrete curb. Their large hedge along the east side of the lot allowed just enough room for people walking to exit the sidewalk north of their home and create a worn dirt path to the corner sidewalk ramp.
Design plans for the SE 80th and Mill LID showing limited improvements around the Flint home
The street is a critical connector for families with children at Bridger School, and it would soon play a significant role in the newly created 70s Greenway for people walking or rolling. In 2018, to improve the street’s condition, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) worked with neighbors to form a Local Improvement District (LID) on SE 80th Avenue from 100 feet north of SE Grant Street to SE Market Street. It included a section of SE Mill Street from SE 80th Avenue to SE 82nd Avenue to further help families navigate to the Portland public school. Adjacent residents in a LID pool their money with the city to build the improvements, lowering the individual costs for each property. The SE 80th and Mill LID would connect to the back of Portland Community College’s Southeast campus, where the institution constructed new sidewalks a few years prior. To the Flint’s surprise, the city did not include their home in the LID, with the project focusing on adding sidewalks to the east side of SE 80th Avenue. The LID work did reshape their sidewalk corner and added Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant curb ramps.
Ellen Flint was unsure why the city excluded her home from the LID, but she appreciated the new ADA corner curb ramps because of her mobility needs. “I’m coming up on 30 years with a variation of rheumatoid arthritis. That’s why I bought a one-level home,” explained Flint, who, on bad days, has less confidence in taking tall steps. The pedestrian connectivity added by the SE 80th and Mill LID gives her hope that she can remain in this home as the years go on. “Now I can walk to the bus, and I can walk to the grocery store, and I can walk to coffee or whatever, and stay here as long as I want to rather than have to move because I can’t function,” said Flint. However, the broken sidewalk connectivity on her property was always on her mind. “One of my priorities [when improving the house] was we need to fix the sidewalk situation.”
Cement masons finishing new SE 80th Ave sidewalk on March 5th, 2024
The Flints understood that adjacent homeowners were responsible for the sidewalk repair and installation. The LID would have also required their financial investment but with a five-year loan from the city to help pay it down over time. They are not upset about paying for the hedge removal and concrete work but felt it came at an inopportune moment. The Flints 2024 house renovations built several accessibility features for their home. They created wider hallways, allowing easier ingress and egress as they adapt to changes in mobility needs over the coming decades. “We need to be able to make it easier for us to stay here and not have an accident or be forced to sell our house and move because we can’t get into the bathroom or use the kitchen,” explained Ellen Flint.
This proactive project already had a large budget with a contingency fund for unexpected cost overruns. The project’s budget is what triggered the need for sidewalk improvements. The city code states that changes to the property that are 35 percent or greater than the assessed value of all improvements on the site will surpass the Significant Alteration threshold, and those projects have to include frontage improvements, like sidewalks. Property owners must build new infrastructure as close to city standards as possible within the existing right-of-way. For some sites, that could be curb-tight sidewalks, but in this case, there is space for a small planting strip between the existing curb and the new public walkway. The “assessed value” used in the Significant Alteration threshold calculations is less than the market value of a property. For example, a home like the Flints could have an Improvement Value of $200,000. In that case, any project with a building permit valuation over $70,000 would trigger frontage improvements.
View looking south on SE 80th Ave showing the existing sidewalk continued by the newly laid concrete.
Ellen Flint maintains a positive view of sidewalk requirements as a benefit to the community. However, she wishes the city had programs to lessen the impact on people’s finances. “I’m lucky I could pay for it,” said Flint. “I think being able to create options that don’t burden people who want to do it or who need to do it [would help].” She could see having interest-free loans for sidewalks and street repair as a way the city could help homeowners take on sidewalk installation. Regardless of how people pay for public infrastructure on their property, Flint feels investing in sidewalks is in the owner’s interest. “Anybody who’s worried about paying for [sidewalks], just take up your capitalist approach to it. They increase the value of my home. The better my neighborhood is, the more my home is worth.”
The Flints’ contractors completed home renovations and frontage improvements this summer. For the last several months, pedestrians using the Greenway have enjoyed the extended sidewalk on the west side of the street. The couple have noticed more people walking by their house and are glad they could contribute to the sidewalk connectivity in the neighborhood. With the primary work done, the Flints can now tackle the street-facing elements around the new pathway, making it even more inviting for people traveling on foot. “We’ve got this blank slate there where we can put in things like trees, and I’m really jazzed about having a little Free Library there,” said Ellen Flint. As the weather improves, look for those additions along SE 80th’s newest section of sidewalk.
Update: This article was updated to remove an inaccurate example of project cost that could trigger a frontage improvement and to replace the term “cost” with building permit valuation. Montavilla News regrets that misrepresentation.
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Wednesday, PBOT staff presented to Portland City Council the final SE 80th Ave and Mill Street Local Improvement District (LID) report. All council members hailed the project as an intergovernmental success story that created significant improvements for people using these roads and sidewalks. Below the streets, the project replaced water pipes, enlarged sewer lines, and added stormwater management to the area that lacked modern infrastructure. Council will vote next week to accept LID assessments owed by property owners and authorize deferred payments for some properties.
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty introduced the report as the head of The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), thanking Commissioner Mingus Mapps for his support from the Water Bureau and Bureau of Environmental Services (BES). The project’s inception predates both Commissioner’s time on the Council. However, staff at their bureaus invested years and considerable effort to transform this part of the neighborhood.
City staff first identified the need for road improvements in this area during the mayoral administration of Fred Peterson in the 1950s. Securing funding for these updates took decades to source, partially due to the project’s scope. Construction required cooperation from three city bureaus and funding support from Portland Public Schools. Commissioner Hardesty recognized the substantial contribution of the late Commissioner Nick Fish, who was instrumental in selling the idea of performing all upgrades simultaneously, saving ratepayers the costs incurred by performing each project independently.
The Local Improvement District Administrator with PBOT, Andrew Aebi, explained why the community benefited from this combined infrastructure project. “This really was a triple win not just for PBOT and BES but also for the water Bureau as well. We didn’t have stormwater facilities in this area. We had an undersized sanitary sewer pipe with sewage occasionally backing up into people’s basements, and we also had an undersized galvanized water main in the area that was not big enough or of the proper pipe type.”
The PBOT presentation included a short video outlining the previous conditions of SE 80th and Mill Streets. As the primary path to school, this street failed to provide the access that Portlander’s expect. Families walking to Bridger Elementary often arrived with wet shoes due to vast pools of muddy water flooding the street. The curb-less roads allowed parked cars to occupy the entirety of the street’s edge, forcing pedestrians to mix with traffic. Conditions for residents and students required a solution more significant than anyone property owner could take on alone.
When property owners agree to share infrastructure improvements costs, they can form a Local Improvement District (LID). They are most commonly used to improve unpaved streets but can include a variety of infrastructure enhancements above or below ground. The City manages the design and construction of the project and finances the work for up to 20 years, with the first payment due after the project is complete.
The SE 80th Avene and Mill Street LDI cost Portland $3,811,886. A large portion is paid for by the City, including money from PBOT’s System Development Charge and General Transportation Revenue, with other funding from the Bureau of Environmental Services. Property owners in the LID will pay the remaining $1,385,378.35. PBOT will offer owners of single-family residences a five-year loan, allowing them to pay down their portion of the LID obligation over time.
The SE 80th Ave and Mill Street LID improvements are transformative for the area. A dark and muddy street is now a clean and walkable space where children can commute to school without soaked footwear. Thanks to the improved road surface, bikes will soon use the new 70s Greenway on this section of SE 80th Avenue. Contributions from property owners, three City bureaus, and years of work from City staff has created infrastructure that all of Portland can now enjoy.
By
Jacob Loeb
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Work is well underway for the street and sidewalk improvements that are part of the SE 80th Avenue & Mill Street LID project. This project will stretch along SE 80th Avenue from 100 feet north of SE Grant Street to SE Market Street. The project will create sidewalks with modern pedestrian friendly intersections. Road improvements will eliminate gravel roads on a long neglected stretch of SE 80th. SE Mill Street from SE 80th Avenue to SE 82nd Avenue will also be receiving the same improvements as SE 80th in this project.
SE Mill Street from SE 80th Avenue to SE 82nd
This work is an essential link for the Jade and Montavilla Multimodal Improvements Project. It will connect pedestrians and bicyclists to the SE PCC campus through a new Greenway that uses SE 80th for much of its path. The Greenway will also run right alongside Bridger School, adding to the useful orientation along SE 80th. Now more of the vulnerable travelers to PCC and Bridger can commute back away from SE 82nd Ave. Residents on these improved roads should also be excited for upgraded access to their homes.
SE 80th now splits around a cluster of trees, outside BridgerSE Mill Street from SE 82nd to SE 80th Avenue
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