Committee sends PBOT street plaza package to full council after presentation on permanent program

Portland’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted on Sept. 22 to send a three-part package from the Portland Bureau of Transportation to the full City Council that would make the bureau’s pilot street plaza program permanent, amend the City’s wiring rules to allow decorative overhead lighting in designated plazas, and update plaza permit fees.

The package includes a resolution to adopt a Public Street Plaza Framework; an ordinance granting exceptions to Title 17 (underground wiring district code) to allow decorative lighting across designated PBOT pedestrian plazas and in the Skidmore/Old Town and Chinatown/Japantown historic districts; and an ordinance amending the transportation fee schedule to create plaza permit fee categories and change outdoor dining fees for plazas to a square-foot basis. The committee moved each measure to full council with a recommendation to pass: resolution document number 2025-361 and ordinances document numbers 2025-362 and 2025-363.

Why it matters: PBOT told the committee the plazas started as temporary pilots — many during the COVID-19 pandemic — and have become neighborhood assets that support small businesses, events and community connections. The formal framework is intended to set expectations for…