OPINION: Town Center plan wouldn’t work for Wilsonville

The proposed Town Center plan, with high-density multi-story housing, shops at street level, and virtually no parking, is based on a New Urbanism concept known as “woonerf” (pron. VOO’-NERF), which mixes cars, bicycles and pedestrians in a space without sidewalks, stop signs or signal lights. What could possibly go wrong?

Since the vast majority of people in and around Wilsonville use cars for transportation, this idea is simply not going to work for our city. Do City Council members really expect those with disability issues, or anyone else for that matter, to walk or ride a bicycle to the woonerf to do their daily shopping, especially during a rainy and icy Wilsonville winter, or will all the customers come from the high-rise housing?

Although “woonerf” is a Dutch word, it lends itself nicely to a simple acronym: Watch Out, Our Neighborhood Excludes Real Folks.

Let’s keep Wilsonville real, by voting NO on Measure 3-605.

Dwight Sims

Wilsonville