A 205,100-square-foot industrial and manufacturing facility in Wilsonville has sold for $31 million.

The facility, located at 26440 S.W. Parkway Ave., was sold to dental equipment manufacturer DCI International of Newberg. Clackamas County property records list ESS Tech Inc. as the seller.

Newmark Real Estate, headquartered in New York, arranged the sale of the facility. Managing director Mark Hush and associate director Jack Ward represented the buyer.

With the acquisition, DCI plans to consolidate regional operations spread across multiple facilities into a single, larger manufacturing hub that will double as its new headquarters, a Newmark press release states.

“DCI’s purchase and future relocation is a great example of companies making long-term commitments to the Portland region when the right opportunity becomes available,” Hush stated in the press release. “Large industrial buildings available for purchase are exceptionally scarce, and the landscape becomes even smaller when a user needs to remain near its existing workforce. This property checked all the critical boxes — location, scale, operational efficiency and room for future expansion — making it an ideal solution for DCI’s next phase of growth.”

Located within the Parkway Woods Business Park along Interstate 5, the 24.8-acre property features warehouse and manufacturing space, office and laboratory components, several dock-high loading positions, ample parking and trailer storage.

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For Wilsonville Public Works, it’s all coming together.

Construction of a new complex will allow the city of Wilsonville to consolidate its Public Works Department. Scott Edwards Architecture designed the multibuilding campus, and general contractor Emerick Construction is building it. A ground-breaking ceremony took place Friday.

Cumming Group, the owner’s representative, is providing construction management services for the $19.7 million project. Its team will help ensure work is completed within the set schedule and budget approved by the Wilsonville City Council.

Currently, the Public Works Department shares a facility with the Police Department.

“Right now, we’re spread out all over the city, which isn’t the most efficient way to run our operations,” Public Works Director Delora Kerber said.

The new complex will sit on 7.6 acres at 28625 S.W. Boberg Road, in a central location to serve the community. Multiple structures will allow Public Works to consolidate its functions, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective service delivery. There will be adequate office space, shop space, and storage space to support future city growth.

Officials began brainstorming for a new facility in 2014 and progressed to a master plan in 2015. A conceptual and design plan followed.

“It’s so exciting that it’s come to reality,” Kerber said. “I’m so happy for the support from the city manager and the city council members and the mayor to help make this happen.”

A 24,000-square-foot administration building will have offices, meeting rooms, crew rooms for four operational divisions, staff locker rooms, a break room, a laundry room, backup server space, a public conference room, and an Emergency Coordination Center meeting space.

“From the Boberg (Road) side, it will look like a one-story building, but as you make your way around to public access, you’ll see it’s two-story,” Scott Edwards Architecture associate and project manager Brandon Dole said.

The free-span structure will have deep steel trusses, allowing nonbearing walls to be adjusted later if needed.

A 20,000-square-foot metal warehouse will have shop spaces, Dole said. There will be a wood shop, a paint booth, a water quality lab, and some office space. All Public Works crews will store their tools and some large equipment there.

A staff courtyard will sit between the administration building and the warehouse, and a second-story patio will connect to the break room. The campus will have a mix of building types.

“We’re setting them up for a future vehicle wash,” Dole said.

There will be a facility for decantation: When any material is withdrawn from a city system, the water is extracted, and the dry material is hauled away. There will also be chemical storage, a shipping container for hazardous materials, and a large stormwater swale.

“We’re probably developing … 50-60 percent of the site,” Dole said, adding that the remainder will be left in a natural state.

To ensure safety, parking at the site will be separate for large fleet vehicles, staff vehicles, and visitor vehicles.

Construction of the entire complex is expected to finish as soon as summer 2024.

“Emerick is proud to be part of the Wilsonville Public Works project,” said Jordan Fell, executive vice president of Emerick Construction. “We have a long history of building essential facilities for our communities and are excited to add Wilsonville to that list.”

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is poised to gain a larger space, contingent on approval from the city’s Development Review Board.

Grace Chapel has been forced to move several times in recent years to accommodate growth. Currently, the church occupies space in a Wilsonville office park. But church leaders eager to find a long-term home eventually found a vacant, two-story, 20,000-square-foot office building at 27501 S.W. Parkway Ave., across from the Oregon Institute of Technology campus.

The church hired CIDA Inc. to design a two-story, 13,730-square-foot expansion of the existing building. That plan now is set to receive a public hearing before the Development Review Board’s Panel B on Oct. 22.

calls for an overhaul of the existing building so that it could hold new classroom space and gain a second story. The expansion would include a new 319-seat main chapel with a two-story vaulted ceiling and a 30-foot stage. In addition, a “Kidventure” section would occupy space on both floors, as would new classrooms and offices.

In total, the 33,370-square-foot facility would largely meet the church’s stated space needs for the foreseeable future. Church leaders anticipate the project cost to be as much as $11 million.

With the Development Review Board’s approval, building permits can be obtained. That would allow general contractor Yorke & Curtis to begin demolition in the existing structure and excavation in preparation for the addition.

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The Basalt Creek Concept Plan has finally been finalized.

Wilsonville and Tualatin city councils formally adopted the plan at respective meetings on Aug. 6 and 13, pushing forward the effort to allow industrial, commercial and residential development in an 847-acre area of rural Washington County between the two cities.

The effort stretches back to 2004, when the Metro Council added the Basalt Creek Planning Area within the urban growth boundary. Seven years later, Metro entered into an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the two cities to carry out concept planning. That began in 2013, but eventually a disagreement arose over the land use designation for the central subarea. To solve the dispute, Metro, Washington County, the city of Tualatin and the city of Wilsonville earlier this year entered into another IGA allowing Metro to settle the issue.

Metro made its decision May 3, giving the cities just 120 days to adopt a resolution accepting the concept plan. A conceptual land use plan addresses the general nature of proposed land uses for a specified area. It delves into transportation, natural resources, public facilities and infrastructure strategies, among other areas. In short, the concept plan broadly oversees the ultimate layout for development. It doesn’t have to be completely engineered, but it should have details sufficient to illustrate a probable development pattern.

In general, Tualatin has long wanted to expand its housing stock, while Wilsonville has primarily sought additional industrial and commercial space. With the Basalt Creek Concept Plan, those broad wishes are generally addressed.

The planning area generally is bound by Southwest Norwood Road and Helenius Street to the north, Interstate 5 to the east, Day Road to the south and Coffee Lake Creek to the west.

The area has distinctive natural features as well as wetlands running north to south through the eastern portion. Existing land uses include agricultural, industrial and rural residential.

Washington County recently completed construction of a section of the Basalt Creek Parkway. In the future, it will connect Grahams Ferry Road and Boones Ferry Road, and extend east over Interstate 5.

For more information, visit .

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Inside the urban growth boundary in the southern Portland-metro area sits one of the largest swaths of undeveloped industrial land in the tri-county region.

Dubbed the Basalt Creek Planning Area, the 847 acres of mostly unincorporated and undeveloped land in Washington County separates the cities of Wilsonville and Tualatin. Both residential and commercial developers have long eyed possibilities there. Soon, they may be within reach.

But first, activity is under way just to the south, in the Coffee Creek Industrial Area – 258 acres of industrial zoned land in north Wilsonville. There, at least one sizable project – the 61,936-square-foot Willamette Valley Behavioral Health Facility for Universal Health Services – already is in the design stage. The clinic is just the first link in what is likely to be a long chain of development in the south metro area.

“That’s going to be our first focus area,” said Miranda Bateschell, the city of Wilsonville’s long-range planning manager. “That area has already been master-planned. We’ve passed urban renewal for it and planning for the infrastructure. I think in terms of while we’re working on our urban planning agreement on the Basalt Creek side, we’ll start to see development in Coffee Creek, and we’ll sort of see a process that extends north over time.”

The Basalt Creek planning process has taken longer to unfold following several years of disagreement between the two cities over how best to utilize a key center parcel. But now a path forward appears to be clearing.

“It is attractive,” said Ken Sandblast, planning director for Westlake Consultants, a Tigard-based firm specializing in land use planning, civil engineering and surveying. The company is guiding Universal Health Services through the state and local planning process for its Wilsonville clinic.

“To my knowledge there’s been interest in doing things there,” Sandblast said. “But they’ve been waiting to finish up the Basalt Creek planning effort. And now that that appears to have come to a conclusion, I know of some of the development that might want to occur in the Tualatin area. The market has been waiting.”

Basalt Creek planning started in 2007. And when Wilsonville and Tualatin tentatively reached agreement in late 2015 on a preference for future zoning, it looked as if both would achieve their primary aims: Wilsonville would get industrial land for commercial expansion, while Tualatin would get residential land to grow its housing stock.

The process ground to a halt a year later, however, when Tualatin proposed the 63-acre central subarea east of Grahams Ferry Road be redesignated for residential instead of employment. The Tualatin City Council approved the redesignation in February 2017, citing slope, soil and other issues.

Wilsonville, however, declined to follow suit. The city instead hired KPFF Consulting Engineers to carry out a feasibility study of the central subarea. The study, led by managing principal Matt Dolan, concluded that employment development is certainly possible there. Three possible “schemes” for such development ranged in size from 480,000 to 780,000 square feet. The central subarea, the study states, “does pose some grading challenges, which will require the use of stepped foundations and retaining walls.”

“Our role was pretty limited,” Dolan said. “It was a conceptual study intended to help the cities develop this land down the road.”

Tualatin officials were not swayed, however, so Metro was forced to step in.

A resolution of sorts came last month when Metro Chief Operating Officer Martha Bennett sided with Wilsonville and ruled the central subarea should remain designated for employment. Despite receiving “conflicting evidence,” Bennett stated in a final decision that “although the central subarea may not be a likely candidate for a large industrial facility, there is sufficient developable area on the site for multiple buildings housing smaller employment uses … such as office, flex business park, manufacturing and craft industrial.”

The Metro Council formally approved Bennett’s ruling on April 19.

Where does this now leave the two cities? For now, the Metro Council decision has basically freed up the proverbial logjam.

“At this point it was the final decision that needed to be made to get to the final proposal plan map,” Bateschell said. “The two cities are currently working together to finalize the draft of the concept plan and we’re pulling that together as we speak.”

Both cities must now adopt the pending Basalt Creek Concept Plan within 120 days of the Metro Council decision. Then they will need to adopt comprehensive plan amendments incorporating the concept plan into city code and ink an urban area planning agreement with Washington County.

“That’s the middle of August, so that’s what we’re aiming for, and right now we’re on track to get that completed,” said Aquilla Hurd-Ravich, the city of Tualatin’s community development director. “From Tualatin’s perspective, that’s when the city-initiated part would end. It would be property owner and developer-driven after that.”

Hurd-Ravich added that the city already has received inquiries about future residential development in Basalt Creek’s northeast section.

“This will represent some new opportunities for development,” she said. “We have some land available for employment within the city that from a practical sense that would probably go first, and then the area for residential development would be our next neighborhood. We are definitely excited to adopt the concept plan.”

“There was a lot of desire for resolution,” Bateschell said. “We came to an agreement, all four of the parties, that would get us a resolution so we could move forward and that’s essentially where we’re at.”

Transportation elements already are taking shape. The Basalt Creek Parkway is being constructed to connect Boones Ferry Road with Grahams Ferry Road and provide the future dividing line between the two cities. Other improvements are complete or in the works, including the Southwest 124th extension, which cleaves the Basalt Creek Planning Area in two and connects the cities of Sherwood, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

“Everyone is just happy that we’re at consensus,” Wilsonville Economic Development Manager Jordan Vance said. “The significant thing is the concept plan can now go forward.”

Sandblast is also optimistic about the future development prospects.

“Is it attractive? Yes,” he said. “And once the governmental approval process is finished, then we’ll get this going.”

Coffee Creek industrial development poised to advance

In the south metro area, growth in the Basalt Creek Planning Area remains in the conceptual stage, and development realistically won’t move ahead for several more years.

But Wilsonville city officials don’t mind; they’ve already begun accepting applications from developers looking to take advantage of the 231 developable acres in the Coffee Creek Industrial Area.

“We see Basalt Creek as a continuation of Coffee Creek in terms of being a thriving employment district,” Wilsonville Economic Development Manager Jordan Vance said. “So Coffee Creek is really the priority. Right now we’re focusing on improving some infrastructure to make development feasible, but this has been 15 years in the making.”

The first Coffee Creek project to move forward is a planned 61,936-square-foot health clinic for Universal Health Services. As proposed, the clinic will rise at the Coffee Creek Industrial Area’s northeastern corner, at the intersection of Southwest Boones Ferry Road and Day Road.

“We’ve actually processed a couple of development applications and we are working with a couple of other people,” said Miranda Bateschell, Wilsonville’s long-range planning manager.

Other possible projects in various stages include a biodigester facility for use in recycling food scraps, as well as building space to house existing firm Precision Countertops.

Wilsonville is using two tools to attract development to Coffee Creek, Vance said. The first is an urban renewal district, which will provide money for the infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate new development. The second is a new form-based code exclusive to Coffee Creek that gives builders and developers a shorter path to approval by laying out pre-existing building and aesthetic standards.

The form-based code may be the first such one in an industrial-zoned area in the U.S., Vance said.

“If a developer wants to take this track, there will be more certainty,” he said.

For now, the city is hoping that once development in Coffee Creek starts, it won’t stop until the area is built out.

“Now we’re really at a point where we’re ready to finance the roads,” Vance said.

Southwest Garden Acres Road, between Day Road and Clutter Road, is the city’s first capital project in this regard. It will extend roadway and utilities north of its current alignment. A few other parcels are development-ready, but many still need infrastructure improvements, access or utilities.

“To pay for that, we need development,” Vance said. “We get a lot of calls, and they say, ‘When’s the road going to be ready?’ Once we have the first few developments in, it will make a world of difference. That will help jump-start it. But it’s just challenging for us for the first few to make the financing work.”

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Multifamily units account for more than half of Wilsonville’s existing housing stock – including senior housing, according to city Planning Director Chris Neamtzu.

But change is coming to the Portland suburb.

The build-out of Villebois, 2,600 homes on 500 acres west of Interstate 5, is about 60 percent complete, Neamtzu said. Next, Wilsonville is planning for construction of 610 market-rate, single-family homes on the 173-acre western portion of an area named Frog Pond. No apartments are planned.

“This neighborhood is going to help us provide some balance in our housing portfolio,” Neamtzu said.

The city of Wilsonville is at work on a master planning process for Frog Pond, north of City Hall. City officials are moving forward, and the project is on track to be ready for developer proposals next year, Neamtzu said.

The Planning Commission will hold work sessions on Frog Pond in October and November, with a public hearing tentatively planned for December. The City Council would then consider the master plan in January.

Lots in Frog Pond’s western portion will vary in size from 5,000 square feet to more than 10,000 square feet. If the eastern and southern portions were pulled inside the urban growth boundary, the anticipated build-out would have 1,935 homes.

Frog Pond will offer “a lot of opportunity for some nice, high-end homes,” Neamtzu said.

A commercial center is also envisioned. An analysis found that the area could support 38,000 square feet of commercial development.

All of the residential construction in Wilsonville is following substantial commercial and civic projects. Wilsonville Old Town Square, developed by Gramor Development along with Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., which later acquired the property, is anchored by a 145,000-square-foot Fred Meyer store, with an additional 50,000 square feet of other retail space. McMenamins opened a pub in a former church dating back to 1911.

In 2006, Wilsonville built a 30,000-square-foot City Hall. The $11.5 million project was developed by Specht Development.

Schools are going up too. Construction has started on a new middle school, Meridian Creek, on the northeastern edge of town. It will be the city’s third middle school. Wilsonville didn’t have its own high school until 1995. A school site has also been identified as part of Frog Pond.

At Frog Pond, developers are beginning to investigate the possibilities ahead of proposals next year.

“There’s great potential,” said Don Hanson, director of planning, architecture and design at Portland-based Otak. “It’s not constrained. It’s fairly level land. Obviously, it’s well located, close to the downtown core and to schools. People can walk. And Wilsonville is always good to work with.”

Hanson said he was looking into Frog Pond for Arbor Custom Homes, a Beaverton-based developer.

Wilsonville, population 22,729, sits at the southern edge of the metro area’s urban growth boundary. The city has seen 16.5 percent population growth since 2010, according to Census Bureau data.

Frog Pond is coming on the heels of Villebois. Last year, Wilsonville gained upwards of 350 new homes – a record, Neamtzu said.

“It ebbs and flows, but Wilsonville has a long legacy of relatively consistent growth,” he said.

Villebois has a range of homes with current prices of $256,990 to $659,900. Developers including Polygon, West Hills/Arbor Custom Homes and Lennar Corp. have been building there.

Polygon managers were out of the office and could not be reached for comment. Efforts to reach a Lennar Corp. spokesman were not successful.

Construction at Villebois has slowed as developers pursue higher-end homes, Neamtzu said.

“In Villebois, the homes that are being built are at a higher price point; I’m sensing less velocity because of that,” he said. “We’ve moved into new areas where the homes are upwards of $600,000, and the market is not deep at that price point.”

Meanwhile, as plans for Frog Pond advance, planners are grappling with how to structure infrastructure charges.

“That’s always the hardest part of these master-planned communities,” Neamtzu said. “How do you pay for the infrastructure that’s needed to serve the new urban area?”

Frog Pond was once literally that – a wetland known for its croaking frogs. A grange hall and later a road, Southwest Frog Pond Lane, cemented the name.

While city officials say Frog Pond development is needed, not everyone in the suburban community is thrilled.

Under current plans, a road would impact the property of Don and Debra Ross. The Rosses moved to Wilsonville from Medford in 2012 after eminent domain was exercised to extend Crater Lake Highway (Oregon Route 62) through their property.

At their Wilsonville property, the Rosses entertain their grandkids and raise cattle and chickens. Debra’s elderly mother lives with them.

“I don’t really want to move,” Debra Ross said. “This is déjà vu.”

Wilsonville grapples with UGB

The fate of Frog Pond’s remaining tracts will depend on how Metro handles the southern fringe of the Portland area’s urban growth boundary.

Frog Pond is divided by the metro-area’s UGB. The western portion is in; the east and south are out.

Wilsonville officials are planning for development of west Frog Pond while pushing for the two remaining tracts to be included in the UGB when Metro reconsiders it in 2018.

Wilsonville officials have tried during the past two UGB cycles to persuade Metro, the regional planning agency, to include all of Frog Pond within the UGB. Both times, in 2010 and 2015, Metro rejected the efforts. Officials have cited undeveloped land within the UGB as well as a checkered history of development in areas brought within the UGB.

The western portion of Frog Pond was added in 2002. Wilsonville and Metro continue to discuss the other tracts.

“It’s really important to have the larger geography and be able to rely on more dwelling units being constructed to help offset the costs,” Planning Director Chris Neamtzu said.

Metro is pursuing another solution: asking the Oregon Legislature for new authority to consider exceptions to UGBs outside the usual review cycles. The goal, agency spokesman Jim Middaugh said, is to give Metro a tool to consider “small, strategic exceptions.”

A Metro task force is considering recommendations for the Metro Council to review.

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After holding three combined city council meetings over the past year, the cities of Wilsonville and Tualatin have agreed on a common jurisdictional boundary that will allow further development of the Basalt Creek Concept Plan.

Some of the parameters for a future planning document are spelled out at , Wilsonville planning director Chris Neamtzu said.

“We had looked at different alternatives at each of the meetings and after three meetings reached this major milestone,” he said.

The two city councils agreed that the boundary will become the Basalt Creek Parkway, running slightly south of and parallel to Tonquin Road, according to a statement from the city of Wilsonville.

By establishing the boundary, the two cities can move forward and write a concept plan, Neamtzu said.

“That document is yet to be created, but all these land uses are tied to the boundary and allows us to focus on specific land uses to be used by each city,” he said.

Once a concept plan is written, the public will be invited to weigh in, Neamtzu said. Then each city will create its own plan.

“At some point the cities will go their own ways and will implement (individual city plans) through a master plan,” he said.

The Basalt Creek Concept Plan area covers approximately 847 acres between the southern edge of Tualatin and the northern edge of Wilsonville, where the two cities are less than a mile apart, according to the plan’s website.

The land was included by Metro within the urban growth boundary in 2004.

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The West Linn-Wilsonville School District passed a big hurdle on Aug. 17 when the Wilsonville City Council voted unanimously to annex into the city 40 acres where a new middle school will be built.

The district owns the land on Advance Road and the school has been planned for at least 10 years, said Tim Woodley, director of operations for the school district. Voters approved an $84.5 million bond issue last November to pay for the school and a few smaller projects.

“It is a major accomplishment to get it annexed,” Woodley said. “The site was just a rural county property and three or four years ago we petitioned Metro to bring it inside the UGB (urban growth boundary). We accomplish that and it sat that way while we got the bond on the ballot.”

Plans call for devoting 20 acres for the middle school and 10 acres for a future primary school. The district plans to donate the remaining 10 acres to the city for a park.

IBI Group of Portland will serve as architect for the middle school project, Woodley said. A general contractor has not been selected.

In addition to annexing the Advance Road property, the city council also approved two other ordinances, to change the zoning for the site from exclusive farm use to public facility and to amend the city’s comprehensive plan designation for the property from agricultural to public use. Second readings of all three ordinances are planned for the next city council meeting on Sept. 10.

The next step in the process for the still-unnamed school is for the school district to go back to the city council with a development plan.

“Then we will have more details about the design of the site,” Woodley said. “It will be a true land use action and we will probably make an application in October.”

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The cities of Wilsonville and Tigard each received recognition from the State Land Board in the 11th year of its awards program.

Wilsonville’s award was for replacement of 4.4 acres of wetlands disrupted by road construction with 17 acres of new wetlands designed so that wildlife don’t have to cross the roadway. Tigard’s award was for restoration of Derry Dell Creek through the realignment of 1,200 feet of degraded stream channel.

Wilsonville’s Wetlands Project Award was for new wetlands created via a large old peat bog to make up for the loss of 4.4 acres of wetlands because of construction of a new section of Boeckman Road, according to the State Land Board.

The new wetlands are actually three shallow wetlands with three separate planting zones to improve ecological complexity. Removal of invasive reed canary grass was “to provide better habitat for beavers, waterfowl and other birds.”

Kerry Rappold, natural resources program manager for the city of Wilsonville, said the city is cooperating with Metro, which owns nearby land, to eventually restore hundreds of acres of a large wetland complex.

“We only did 17 acres, but it is a significant piece in trying to prevent impacts on wildlife,” Rappold said. “We created wildlife passages under the road that vary in size from 18 inches circular to long, 9-foot-by-4-foot culverts.”

Wilsonville also built a 400-foot bridge over Coffee Lake Creek that spans over part of the wetlands and was offset to accommodate wildlife, he said.

Wilsonville has been working with Portland State University to monitor wildlife passages in the new wetlands areas, Rappold said, and will continue to do so.

“The good news is that (PSU) has seen no statistical difference between wildlife killed away from the road as opposed to under it,” he said. “It’s working and I’m not aware of a single roadkill.”

One day, the entire wetlands area will be returned to its natural state, Rappold said.

“It’s reaching a point that it’s almost self-sufficient,” he said. “I hope in five or 10 years that site will return to its predevelopment state.”

The city of Tigard received a Clean Water Services Award. It recognized the move of a degraded urban creek back to its original banks during sewer replacement and creation of a new bike and pedestrian connection with an elevated boardwalk linking two neighborhoods.

The project included replanting a half-acre of wetlands with native species to retain rain runoff and re-establishing a fish passage through a culvert crossing to the upper reaches of Derry Dell Creek.

Kim McMillan, project manager and assistant city engineer for the city of Tigard, said “the environmental enhancement was huge” for wildlife and people.

“We provided habitat not just for the animals, but really provided that for the neighborhood,” she said. “I see a lot of people using the site.”

The project involved filling in the old stream channel, moving the creek to its former alignment, putting in new box culverts under Walnut Street and adding a trail that includes the boardwalk to connect the Pathfinder Genesis Trail and Woodard Park, she said.

“And we have room for a future neighborhood park,” McMillan said. “We got so much bang for our buck with this one piece of property and think it was a beautiful enhancement to the neighborhood.”

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Memorial Park in Wilsonville has hosted many community activities over several decades, but now it needs some improvements, the Wilsonville City Council decided at its Monday meeting.

The council approved an update to the park’s master plan that calls for creating five overlooks to the Willamette River, a new nine-hole disc golf course, new artificial turf on two multipurpose sports fields, a bike skills course and enhancements to existing shelters and other park features.

Stan Sherer, Wilsonville’s parks director, said he and his staff have been working on the update for about a year and were guided by community involvement. The city held a series of stakeholder meetings, conducted a citywide survey, invited online comments and held three open houses for the public to give input.

“The Memorial Park is the signature park within the city and in need of some attention,” Sherer said. “We are trying to meet the demand for recreational services and still respect the integrity of our natural resources.”

According to the , the park started with 61 acres in 1961. Now it’s 126 acres, and is bordered by Wilsonville Road, Memorial Drive and the river.

Sherer said the plan is “pretty ambitious,” but it was accepted with no dissension by the city’s planning department and the council. The total cost of all park improvements comes to about $12 million, Sherer said. Work will take place gradually.

“It would be great if we could do it all at once,” he said.

The city will probably start with “high-play, low-cost” improvements like disc golf installation and movement of the dog park to allow for more active use of the park in the center and lessen impact on nearby neighborhoods, he said.

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