We have been watching the new $6 million condo being built within feet of the Sellwood bridge, and have wondered just what they are thinking. First off, it seemed that a living room that overlooks the on ramp to one of south Portlands major bridges doesn’t seem attractive. And then there is the whole bridge rebuilding thing that has been talked about for many years. Turns out the owner, who apparently lives in Arizona didn’t know that the bridge may be torn down and that a new one would be built somewhere close? Oh, and now is upset nobody mentioned it? The issues with the Sellwood have been very public for a few years, and don’t seem much like a secret. Seems a little out of touch to me.

“I question why they even permitted me to build in the first place,” says Wasson, who lives in Arizona. “Nobody mentioned it.”
Ummm. Sorry, I guess it slipped my mind.

The county owns none of the property around the bridge’s east side; the county had no money for the land when the bridge was built in the early 1920s. Over the years, the area became crowded with development, from office buildings to condominiums.
The governments does not always have the authority to control what happens the boundaries the roadway right of ways, nor would it do any good for them to advise private developers what they should do. Developers continue to encroach on public roadways as long as there is an immediate profit. We see it every day as more and more properties are being built that crowd our roadways leaving little room for bike and pedistrian travel and no room for expansion. Then the public is left with overpaying these owners for “unfairly” taking their property when increasing traffic demands require expanded space.

I did go down under the Sellwood to take a look at the office building at 380 S.E. Spokane St., nicknamed the “troll building” because it sits right under the bridge. The building, which has several concrete bridge columns running through its offices.
I’m thinking, that when the Sellwood is torn down, that space is going to have issues.