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Three creeks run through Beaverton, though folks may be challenged to find one of them. The city’s daunting highways and expansive parking lots have cut off residents from the waters that once fed a thriving agricultural community.

But the city, TVA Architects Inc. and Mayer/Reed have collaborated on a new plan to use Beaverton’s hidden water resources to update its city center.

鈥淲hen you look at Beaverton, it’s both a community and a corridor,鈥� said Gary Brentano, Beaverton’s business services development director. 鈥淚t is a way to get somewhere else. This plan is a series of steps taken over a number of years to create opportunities that will break down that wall of automobile traffic.鈥�

When Carol Mayer-Reed and her team began looking at a plan for Beaverton’s central city, she was struck by Beaverton’s waterways, which have been rerouted underground in pipes. When the waterways do surface, pedestrians can’t access them.

鈥淏eaverton’s creeks are a forgotten resource,鈥� Mayer-Reed said. 鈥淭hey are easier to find on a map than on the ground. Right now, they are a degraded, polluted resource. But with improvements to water quality and access to pedestrians, water could be a strong element in Beaverton’s redevelopment.鈥�

Beaverton’s three major creeks 鈥� Beaverton Creek, Wessenger Creek and Hall Creek 鈥� converge at a point near Beaverton Transit Center. Over the years, the water has been polluted by runoff from the city’s numerous parking lots. Also, a lack of natural floodplains results in Beaverton Creek sometimes flooding city streets.

Under the plan, Beaverton Creek would act as a central spine connecting a series of greenspaces, walking paths and bicycle trails through Beaverton’s central city. Besides inserting some needed natural features in Beaverton’s core, the new greenspaces would help reduce flooding on roads.

There is one potentially large challenge to see the plan through, according to Tim Wybenga, senior associate with TVA Architects. Property owners may not be willing to give up their land for use as greenspace.

鈥淭he biggest part of this plan will be working with adjacent property owners,鈥� Wybenga said. 鈥淎t this level of planning, we’re not really getting down to individual property solutions or ownerships. But an improved creek system will potentially increase property values and take away the liability of flooding.鈥�

Perhaps the most ambitious part of the plan would be creation of a canal district. Creek water presently trapped in underground pipes would be released and made accessible through walkways and bridges, creating a smaller version of Venice, Italy, between Southwest Lombard Street, 117th Avenue and Farmington Road.

鈥淚t looks like a leap,鈥� Mayer-Reed said. 鈥淏ut it’s not very hard to do as a feat of engineering. Allowing that water to move through the city and activating it on both sides with lighting, pedestrian furnishings and retail could create a thriving mixed-use area in the central city.鈥�

鈥淭he pipes currently act as bottlenecks in the event of a flood,鈥� Wybenga said. 鈥淭he canal district would have the benefit of taking away that heavier flow of water and making something enjoyable where people can interact with the river.鈥�

But is there enough water in Beaverton’s three creeks to sustain a year-round system of canals? That question will be answered in a future hydrology study. But Brentano said Beaverton could take a lesson from Tualatin Commons, where a man-made lake and water features were constructed at a formal pet food factory site.

鈥淲e haven’t yet considered the issue of stream flows in the summer to support these amenities,鈥� Brentano said. 鈥淏ut at the (Tualatin) Commons they use wells that provide groundwater to augment the lake at times when there is little rainfall.鈥�

North of the canal district, Confluence Park would be incorporated into Beaverton’s existing downtown near Canyon Road, Lombard Avenue and Center Street. The park would be more urban than the other greenspaces and would include interactive water features, similar to Portland’s Lovejoy Fountain.

But first the city needs to figure out a way to slow down or build over the constant flow of traffic along Beaverton’s major thoroughfares. Between Canyon Road and Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, nearly 70,000 cars zip through Beaverton each day.

鈥淏eaverton’s existing roads don’t speak easily to pedestrian amenities or bicycles,鈥� Brentano said. 鈥淭hat’s not going to be an easy problem to address. We need to recreate a city born of other uses than the automobile.鈥�

鈥淐anyon Road needs its own study to understand the capacity of traffic it has to bear,鈥� Mayer-Reed said. 鈥淭he existing arterials are very busy and difficult to cross due to the speed of traffic. There are so many barriers to the implementation of bike and pedestrian trails.鈥�

The city will now begin a Request for Proposals process to find technical assistance from landscape architecture and engineering firms to see what can be done to make the creek plan a reality.

鈥淲e have an enormous amount of information to work with,鈥� Brentano said. 鈥淣ow we have to see how those concepts apply to the city’s broader redevelopment efforts, and to what extent they will drive development. The next steps are critical.鈥�