• Rock Gym at Peterkort center
• No news from Milltowner
• Thompson Crossing subdivision 
• Saltzman Retirement Community

Rock Gym at Peterkort center

The south end of the former Orchard Hardware building in the Peterkort Towne Square will become a new location for Portland Rock Gym, a rock-climbing club and training center. The new facility will include an Olympic grade 60-foot-high climbing wall. Representatives from Baysinger Partners presented plans to the Central Beaverton Neighborhood Association (NAC) in early January. 

Plans call for demolishing the former garden area and adding to the existing building. The northern end of the building, adjacent to Barnes Road, will not be part of the Rock Gym. 

The design review is expected to be complete by the end of January. Matthew Lillard of Baysinger says that it will take some time to obtain the steel needed to create the new building, so construction may not start until late 2022 with completion around fall 2023. 

Peterkort is in Beaverton so reviews and approvals of the Type 2 application will be handled by the Beaverton Planning Commission. 

No news from Milltowner

We heard that at least four new tenants are in the process of signing contracts for spaces in the center at the northeast corner of Saltzman and Cornell, but until the ink is dry, we don’t find out who they are! Insomnia Coffee, Wildwood Taphouse, and White Birch Design, as well as Sunset Athletic Club’s new facility “77 Fitness,” are expected to open later this year. 

Thompson Crossing subdivision 

The Development Application for the ten-lot subdivision proposed for a 1.3-acre site on Thompson Road, east of Saltzman, has been received by Washington County Land Use and Transportation (LUT). 

The development is controversial for several reasons, but partly because neighbors in the area were told that this stretch of Thompson would be widened and straightened during the early days of Bonny Slope West planning. The county was unable to obtain right-of-way (ROW) from the Biggi family that owns the property and so apparently that plan was scrapped. ROW on the north side was dedicated when Thompson Woods was built, but developers of this project have asked for exceptions to county standards to avoid dedicating enough land to widen the road to meet the standards.

The application hasn’t been made “public” yet but was submitted to CPO 1 for comments. CPO 1 has sent a letter to LUT. We’ll discuss it at the January 11 CPO 1 meeting. The developer representative has declined the invitation to attend.

Once the application is public it will be published on the “Comment on a Project” page on the county website where anyone may comment during the 14-day period from the date of publication. We aren’t sure when that will happen, but if you’re interested in this, plan to attend the CPO 1 meeting. The application is available to view at Cedar Mill Library, just ask at the Reference Desk.

Saltzman Retirement Community

The Development Application for the 57-unit multi-story affordable housing building proposed for the northwest corner of Dogwood and Saltzman has been submitted to LUT. The development is a partnership among Home First Development Partners and Christ United Methodist Church. 

The application is available to view at Cedar Mill Library, just ask at the Reference Desk. We will be discussing this at the January 11 CPO 1 meeting, where some of the principals will be available with more information and to take questions.