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Cedar Hills Park renovation planning underway

It’s not in Cedar Mill, but it’s the closest Community Park in the area. The 2008 Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District’s Bond Measure included funding for a major redevelopment of this park. The district has been in negotiations with the Beaverton School District for some time, and has worked out an agreement that included purchase of 1.7 acres of school property and a plan to share resources with Walker Elementary School, adjacent to the park on the east.

Now that the school agreement is in place, plans are being developed for the renovated park. District Board and staff are under a lot of pressure from the sports leagues in the district to create more playing fields. As a result, MacKay + Sposito, the design firm hired to work with the district, has produced a preliminary plan that includes two large multi-purpose synthetic athletic fields with lights that would occupy a large portion of the park land.

Whether this is the plan that a majority of THPRD patrons want is another question. The district could go back to the drawing board and reduce the sports field to one large, multi-sport (soccer, baseball, lacrosse) field, and thus be able to retain more trees and provide more open space. Neighbors at the first public open house, held on August 5, seemed to prefer the one-field option. More public meetings will be held, dates TBA. Construction is slated to begin in summer 2016, with completion in winter, 2017.

Currently, the park includes a community garden, a small, outdated playground near the PetSmart store, a playing field that’s often too soggy to use, a picnic shelter, a sand volleyball court, tennis and bocce ball courts, and a grove of tall firs. There are also several large oak trees. The picnic shelter and surrounding areas with picnic tables are heavily used all summer, as groups rent the facilities for private picnics and parties.

The currently-proposed Option 2 design provides space for volleyball, bocce, and community gardens, and adds a modern playground for young children and a splash pad. Improvements to the nearby Cedar Park tennis courts could be made to offset the elimination of them at Cedar Hills. The current school playground will be redeveloped, and shared with the public outside school hours. The playing fields will be available to Walker Elementary students during school hours. A traffic circulation plan will bring some of the Walker school buses through the park from the Cedar Hills Blvd. entrance, alleviating congestion on Lynnfield Lane.

Most of the fir grove will be retained, with 122 trees needing removal. Six of oak trees will be taken down, but the largest ones will be kept.

During talks with Washington County, preliminary to drawing up the plans, the district was told that no vehicle access would be permitted from Walker Road, and access from Cedar Hills Bl. would have to be right-in/right-out. Neighbors around Lynnfield Lane are concerned that this would lead to increased traffic on their street, which would be the only other entrance to the park. At some point in the future, expansion of Cedar Hills Bl. could include a turn lane that would provide better access, and the plans are being drawn up with that in mind.

Patrons of the nearby PetSmart store currently enjoy taking their dogs for a romp in the park before or after shopping, but the store’s property owners don’t like people using their parking lot for park access. A fence will be installed on that margin of the park, blocking access.

If you use and enjoy this park, keep an eye out for the next scheduled public meeting—we will announce it here. View project documents and get updated information on the district website, where you can also submit your comments and questions by email or with a web form.

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