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Geotechnical experts tell council site can be engineered; residents dispute historic hazard claims
Summary
The city's geotechnical consultant summarized multi‑year borings and testing and concluded the buildable portions of the Operations Complex site are suitable when founded on basalt and engineered fill. Several residents and former councilors argued historic landslide susceptibility and questioned prior site disclosures and indemnity language.
The council heard an extended technical summary from the city's geotechnical consultant and a string of public comments challenging the site's history.
Najib Kalas of Columbia West described historical investigations dating to the 1960s and explained field work the firm completed in 2022–2025: borings, inclinometer records, test pits, seismic refraction and laboratory testing. Kalas said major structures are designed to bear on structural fill and basalt bedrock, that slopes for the access road will be internally reinforced, and that "the site is considered suitable for the proposed development." He added that seismic (pseudo‑static) safety factors are lower than static factors but meet minimum code (typically 1.1 pseudo‑static and 1.3 static) and that higher factors can be required at increased cost.
Public commenters and some former council members disputed the sufficiency of historical records and raised ODOT's internal memo that recommended caution when selling the property. Terry Cummings said maps categorize the parcel in the highest landslide‑susceptibility tier and urged the council not to locate emergency facilities there. Staff responded that ODOT's memo reflected limited in‑situ investigation and that the city commissioned on‑site, licensed geotechnical studies before advancing design.
Councilors pressed the consultant about safety factors and the scope of borings; Kalas said the report modeled three representative cross sections and assessed stability under static and seismic loads. Councilors thanked the geotechnical team for arriving on short notice and said the technical record helps inform their policy choices.
