Before they heard from dozens of Portland area residents about the region's tolling future, Oregon transportation leaders met in a downtown hotel meeting room and gave a glimpse of the larger fight to come.

In 2017, Oregon lawmakers tasked the state's top transportation body with trying to reduce congestion on Interstates 5 and 205 in the Portland area by charging drivers for using the two clogged freeways. In their first candid discussion as a public body Thursday, some commissioners said studying tolls on sections of I-205 and I-5 may not go far enough.

Sean O'Hollaren, a Nike executive and Oregon transportation commissioner, said a less ambitious plan that includes tolling at to the Interstate Bridge isn't politically viable.

"It will get blocked by the Washington state delegation," O'Hollaren said of the state's congressional representatives, "If we don't articulate a broader more comprehensive vision now, up front."

The clock is ticking on the deadline to apply for federal government approval to toll portions of two federal freeways in the metro area. The commission is expected to discuss what it wants to do at a meeting in mid-August.

Commissioners heard from more than 40 metro residents Thursday, both proponents and opponents, who traveled from all corners of the region to weigh in on the tolling issue.

An advisory group last month recommended Oregon further study how or whether to charge drivers to use a portion of I-5 through the city's core. The recommendation would potentially stop short of tolling at the Columbia River, a move North Portland residents' say would incentivize drivers to divert into their neighborhoods at alarming rates. At the same time, tolls would begin on a section of Interstate 205 at the Abernethy Bridge in Clackamas County.

But many members of that committee pushed for tolling more lanes of freeway in the metro area and studying whether to toll other congested freeways, too.

O'Halloren and at least one other commissioner on the five-person panel apparently agree.

Bob Van Brocklin, a partner at the Portland law firm Stoel Rives and transportation commissioner, said the group needs to talk more about its strategy going forward. "If we have to scale it back after we've floated something big, that's one thing," he said. "If we go with something that is partial, and it then divides the region, including Clark County, candidly I'm leaning in the direction that Sean is," he added, citing a desire to study tolls on other highways now.

"What people are looking for here is a comprehensive fix."

That could mean tolls on I-84, I-405, Oregon 217 and U.S. 26.

Van Brocklin added that Oregon does not "have the federal partner" it's had in the past.

Tammy Baney, a Deschutes County Commissioner and the chair of the transportation board, said expanding the tolling focus beyond I-5 and I-205 shouldn't happen without first talking to legislative leaders.

It's critical the commission doesn't overstep the Legislature, she said, or "alienate anyone" on both sides of the Columbia River.

Baney did agree that the commission should be eyeing a comprehensive fix, rather than a piecemeal approach. It can be bold, but can't act alone, she said.

Bold action may mean delaying an application to the feds this year.

"Are we confined by the December deadline? For sure," she said. "Can we expand the scope and meet that deadline? No."

Either way, tolls are not likely to arrive on Portland highways anytime soon. It will be years, potentially even as long as a decade, until tolls come to the region.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen