• CPO 1 May meeting
• Comment on Long Range Planning Draft Work Plan
• New online system provides easier access to Board of County Commissioners information
• Neighborhood Meetings
• Land Use actions
• April CPO 1 Summary

CPO 1 May meeting

Tuesday, May 11, 7-9 pm 

Join us on Zoom to hear from our State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward about the ongoing legislative session, the federal COVID packages, and how Oregon is moving forward. Then we’ll hear from Peter Leonard, Cedar Mill Library Director, with an update on library services and the experiences of running a community library in the midst of the pandemic shutdown.

Meetings are simulcast on our Facebook page, thanks to the expertise of Ian Siah, our student tech guy! They are available to watch later if the meeting time doesn’t work for you.

Comment on Long Range Planning Draft Work Plan

Comments due by May 7

Each year, the staff of Washington County Land Use & Transportation Department’s Long Range Planning division prepares a “Work Program” to describe the projects they will spend time on during the coming year. After taking input from commissioners, advisory groups including CPOs and CCI (the CPO leadership group) and the public, they assemble a grid with three “tiers.” Tasks in Tier 1 are high priority; many are multi-year so are carried forward from previous Work Plans. Tier 2 tasks are medium priority and may not get as much attention if other work, staffing issues, or other factors interfere. Tier 3 tasks are a combination of low-priority tasks, topics that have been on the “back burner” for a while or ones that are deemed to have insufficient staff to work on them. A fourth category describes tasks that staff is not recommending be included in the upcoming year’s tasks for various reasons. Most of them are topics suggested by others. 

Unfortunately, most of the projects that CCI has been asking for fall into the fourth category. These include additional work on Significant Natural Resources; a Tree Code; and a study on governance for urban unincorporated areas. In its response to the Draft, CCI included this note: “We respectfully request that these remaining issues—better SNR protections, Tree Code, Heritage Trees, Governance, and Light Pollution—be retained in Tier 3 until adequate staff time is available to address them.”

The Staff Report that goes along with the Draft narrates both the recommended items and the reasons for not including the remaining projects. Both the chart and the Staff Report are easy to read and give us a window into how the Transportation and Community Planning work is determined.

Download the document, including the Staff Report, here. 

Submit comments by 5 pm, May 7, by either email to lutplan@co.washington.or.us (Include full name, street address, company/organization affiliation (if applicable) and other relevant contact information); or U.S. Mail: addressed to Long Range Planning Section, Department of Land Use & Transportation, 155 N. First Ave., Ste. 350 MS14, Hillsboro, OR 97124. All comments received in time will be provided to the Washington County Board of Commissioners prior to adoption of the final work program. Learn more: Annual Long Range Planning Work Program.

New online system provides easier access to Board of County Commissioners information

The Washington County Board of Commissioners is now using a new online agenda management system, known as BCC iAgenda, that provides a portal on the county’s main website that allows for easier access to key information including: How to Testify; board member profiles; board public meeting calendar; agenda packets and meeting minutes; meeting updates; board meeting packet archive going back to 2010; and a Document Center with advanced search capabilities.

Neighborhood Meetings

We have received no Neighborhood Meeting notices for May. If any are received after we publish, we will send a notice to CPO members who have signed up for our list for news.

Land Use actions

J. Peterkort Company is seeking a time extension from Beaverton for a previously approved Preliminary Partition at the northwest corner of Cedar Hills Bl. and Barnes Road. Kindercare is actually part of the same lot as the remainder of the site though it only uses a small portion of the site at the northeast corner. The partition they have asked to extend the time on would create a lot just for Kindercare which would separate it from the remainder of the site (and create one additional lot and a tract for the natural resource area). 

The Hearings Officer approved Catlin Gabel’s Master Plan for the new middle school “Catlin Gabel East Campus” which will replace the Oregon College of Art & Craft. We wrote about the plan in March. 

April CPO 1 Summary

By Vicky Siah, CPO 1 Secretary

Virginia Bruce, CPO 1 Chair, began the April meeting with a recap of development news. Target will move into the building previously occupied by Bales’ Thriftway—Washington County has agreed to allow the left turn from Cornell into the parking lot on an interim basis.

Brenda Schaffer from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office presented information on a free women’s self-defense class for any woman living in Washington County. In further news, the Sheriff’s Office wants to clarify that they are unable to see crime tips on social media sites. Residents should call the Sheriff’s Office using their emergency or non-emergency lines to report tips. If a mental health problem is involved, please notify the Sheriff’s Office so they are equipped to help that individual. Common crimes in the area include internet scams, mailbox thefts, and other forms of criminal mischief. The latest “crime map” is posted on the CPO 1 Facebook page.

Registration opens for the THPRD summer session on May 1 for in-district residents and May 2 for those who reside out-of-district. A larger variety of classes will be offered, and as COVID-19 restrictions loosen, spectators are now able to observe classes and sporting events. THPRD is expanding their Multilingual Welcome Center. They are also adding walking paths, a new playground, drainage improvements, and restoration work to Somerset West Park. To assist in their efforts, THPRD is hiring part-time and seasonal employees.

Pam Treece, Washington County District 2 Commissioner, gave us updates on her issues and the various challenges facing the county. Although she voted against the WashCo Kids Group’s proposal to raise money for after-school childcare, she has begun plans to initiate a larger group with Washington County mayors so the effort can pass this year. The area is known as a “childcare desert” due to the lack of childcare accessibility; Treece aims to fix this through the “equity lens.”

Washington County will soon be receiving money from the federal relief fund. “We are preparing in a vacuum relationship to what we have and how we can spend that money,” Treece says. Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington County will come together to talk about common issues and learn from one another soon.

Washington County Land Use and Transportation (LUT) described the Filbert Street Sidewalk Project. The County will build a sidewalk on the south side from Murray to Saltzman. This will definitely affect constituents’ front yards and driveways—in addition to purchasing any needed additional right-of-way, the County will pay those experiencing disruptions a “small amount of compensation” to move or replace landscaping.

Bruce Bartlett, CPO 1 Vice Chair, gave us an overview on the OSU Extension Service. The Extension Service began bringing university expertise to communities in the 1900s, and as of today, they comprise 213 faculty, 8,900 trained volunteers, and 2,339,468 engaged student learners. OSU Extension Service is committed to making Oregon agriculture sustainable with core program areas: agriculture and natural resources, forestry and natural resources, family community and health, 4-H youth development, and sea grants. Bruce showed slides and gave details about some of the programs available to help us garden, preserve food, and protect the environment.

The meeting was recorded on our Facebook page and is available to view anytime. The chat box from the meeting had many useful links and is also posted on the page.