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A Town Center Plaza for Cedar Mill?
By Virginia Bruce

Cedar Mill is part of the large “Unincorporated Urban Area” (UUA) of Washington County. We get our “urban services” from special districts in Washington County, and most of our needs (water, schools, streetlights etc.) are met. (See our series, Urban Needs, Rural Government, for more information.)

But one thing that’s lacking is support for community—the “sense of place” that makes the difference between a collection of houses and businesses, and a place where people get to know each other and share experiences.

The lot has stood vacant for eight years.

For many years, the county’s expectation was that cities would eventually annex all the UUAs and take the problem off their hands. “Counties don’t provide urban services,” was the standard response. Over the last couple of decades it’s become clear that most people aren’t eager to be annexed, and that cities aren’t going to bring everyone within their boundaries in our lifetimes.

The Cedar Mill Town Center Plan, conceived in the late ‘90s, called for some public spaces, but everything was left up to private developers to make it happen. Obviously, it’s hasn’t and probably never will, without some intervention.

Recently, Washington County has been looking at ways to step up and help the UUAs (including Aloha, Bethany, and Cedar Hills) to build that sense of place that makes urban life more fulfilling. The first experiment may happen at that big vacant lot at Cornell and Murray.

In 2007, Washington County began a major project to enlarge that intersection. An advisory team was formed, and one of the first items to be settled was which side of Murray would be sacrificed for the necessary widening. The consensus was to take the commercial developments on the east side, and so the two-story mixed use building at the corner, along with the Humdinger burger shop, were purchased by the county and demolished.

An early concept map for the plaza was created by Anne Miller of Beighley and Associates Landscape Architecture and Planning, in early 2014. This helped us explain the idea to the various agencies involved. It shows a sunken amphitheatre at the corner, to preserve sight distance for the intersection. The actual design for the project will depend on responses to the RFEI.

Portland is often called “foodie heaven,” and one reason is the variety of dishes offered by food carts around town. But the phenomenon has yet to take hold in Washington County. When I gazed at the empty corner, I could picture a food cart “pod,” along with space for concerts and the Cedar Mill Farmers Market. But how could that become a reality? In 2009, I approached Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District’s then head of planning, Hal Bergsma. He was intrigued, but eventually said the district wasn’t interested because of the potential cost of the project.

After the intersection work was finished in 2009, the remaining property had to be treated for contaminants left by the dry cleaner that had been located in the corner complex. Once the DEQ finally signed off on the project, the county put the .75 acre property up for auction in May, 2013. Nobody bid on it, due to limited vehicle access and other factors.

So I revived my vision of a public space for Cedar Mill. I met with County Chair Andy Duyck, who said that the county might be interested. Last fall, Chuck Richards, owner of Sunset Athletic Club, and I met with Andrew Singelakis, head of Land Use and Transportation, and Rob Massar, Deputy County Administrator, at the site. Richards is also a booster of the plaza idea. They agreed that the idea had potential, and county staff began to investigate and meet with other potential partners.

Early this year, Richards and I met with senior THPRD people and Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle. One possibility would have been for Beaverton to annex the property and work with THPRD to administer it.

At that meeting, we learned that the county had hired a consultant to explore a wide range of possibilities for the property. Chair Duyck assured us that the public plaza idea wasn’t off the table, however. “We have had several meetings with both Beaverton and THPRD about this. Regardless of whether or not we strike a deal, it is in everyone's best interest to know the potential of the property. Even a community space will need to have good ingress and egress, so we are assessing the options,” he said.

Consultant John Southgate has worked in public development for many years, and was Economic Development Manager for Hillsboro’s downtown revitalization. In private practice now, he has just finished a draft Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) that may soon be published by the county to solicit proposals for the site. It’s based on the successful effort he led to renovate Hillsboro’s Venetian Theater.

It seems likely that no public agency wants to take on the entire space, so it’s expected that some combination of commercial development, perhaps with a public space, or even a completely private operation, will be the result. Southgate says the county hasn’t ruled out a partnership between Beaverton and THPRD, but he says, “I believe this process will maximize the opportunity for creative solutions.”

The RFEI includes of a list of criteria the county (and possibly an advisory committee) will use to evaluate responses. It’s prefaced by the statement, “depending on the nature of any particular response, not all of these criteria may apply.”

The list includes the capacity of the project to: “support community aspirations for a more active, pedestrian-friendly town center; serve as a distinctive gateway into the Cedar Mill Town Center; and to support a sense of place, incorporating a variety of elements such as a plaza that could accommodate events (outdoor performances, farmers’ market, etc.)”

The county administration will evaluate and refine the RFEI in the coming weeks. The list of criteria from the draft RFEI is online here. Once the complete RFEI is published, likely in mid-June, this article will be updated with a link to the full document on the County website.

UPDATE: The RFEI is now available on the county website. Contact Stephen Roberts, Special Projects Coordinator, Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation, at 503-846-3798 or stephen_roberts@co.washington.or.us for more information or to respond to the Request.

Keep your fingers crossed. Cedar Mill may just have an exciting new town center amenity in the not-too-distant future!

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