Projects

Capital Facilities

Siting a new public facility or expanding/repairing an existing one can be a delicate conversation to have with a community. We all want to be good neighbors but sometimes the impacts are unavoidable. JLA helps our clients plan and construct capital facilities so that projects better fit the community and surrounding environment. We follow the "no surprises" rule: helping ensure that our clients' goals and objectives are met while providing a public voice in the process.

Rose Quarter Development Project

Portland, Oregon
Client: Portland Development Commission

Portland's Rose Quarter houses two of the city's most recognizable icons - Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Garden Arena. The Rose Quarter sits at a major junction of Portland's transit system, bridges the gap between the Pearl and Lloyd Districts, and borders the Willamette River. At the same time, Portland's premier regional event district is challenged by its geographic isolation and uncertainty over the future of Memorial Coliseum.

JLA is working with the Mayor's Office and Portland Development Commission to reshape the Coliseum's future and establish an overall Rose Quarter Development Strategy that will capture the site's potential and energize the surrounding area. The challenge is to open these conversations to the broad spectrum of community-based interests attracted to, invested in, and impacted by potential changes.

JLA is facilitating a broad-based Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) to make recommendations to the City Council. SAC deliberations are supplemented by cutting edge communication tools that open the project's doors to the entire community. JLA created and maintains the project website - RoseQuarterDevelopment.org. Interested parties were able to interact using online comment forms or Twitter to participate in a community idea brainstorm on how to use the Coliseum. Anyone was eligible to submit a Coliseum Concept to the online project marketplace. SAC meetings are streamed live and video summaries of the meeting and key presentations are posted. All this and more is available 24/7.

More traditional outreach - such as the earned media, press releases and public meetings - will encourage public involvement at key decision points. Public comment is part of each SAC meeting. Community briefings for neighborhood, business and interest groups are also planned.

JLA has blended the most effective new media tools with tried and true outreach techniques to make the process of shaping tomorrow's Rose Quarter and Memorial Coliseum open, interesting and informative - gaining community consensus along the way.

Transit Mall Sewer Repairs

Portland, Oregon
Client: Portland Bureau of Environmental Services

Digging up 16 city blocks of downtown Portland streets over 18 months to replace deteriorating sewer pipes could have been a PR headache for the Bureau of Environmental Services. Instead, the agency brought JLA on board to conduct extensive, targeted outreach to stakeholders, businesses, and property managers in and around the downtown area during this $5 million construction project. We served as the project contact for all stakeholder and community outreach - staffing a project hotline and coordinating the development and distribution of public information materials, website updates and large scale email blasts. During construction, we worked closely with area stakeholders, City of Portland Bureau of Transportation, and TriMet to provide daily traffic impacts and construction updates, often adjusting the work to avoid busy periods for downtown businesses. As a liaison between the community and the contractor, JLA helped minimize construction impacts to businesses, residents, and the general public throughout the project.

Camp Bonneville Restoration

Clark County, Washington
Client: Clark County

What to do with almost 4,000 contaminated acres of a former military base that has been given back to the community? That is the question JLA is currently helping Clark County, WA wrestle with. The Camp Bonneville restoration is a multi-year, $27 million process to clear hazardous waste and unexploded ordinance from 3,840-acres of largely undeveloped land. JLA provides meeting management support for the quarterly meetings of the Camp Bonneville Community Advisory Group. The CAG meetings provide a forum for ongoing dialogue between partnering agencies and consultants and the local neighbors, tribes, recreational interests, Camp Bonneville Veterans, and other groups with a stake in the restoration process. JLA advises on outreach strategy, messaging, agenda development, and public information materials.