Husen Park improvements funded

by Virginia Bruce

Conceptual plan for Husen Park improvements. The northern section of the park is steep and wooded, and connects with Jordan Park.

When area voters passed the Metro Natural Areas $220 million Bond Measure last November, Cedar Mill became one of the beneficiaries. Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) received a total of around $4 million from the $44 million set aside for local cities, counties and park districts within Metro’s jurisdiction. One of the projects that was identified during the Bond Measure campaign was to fund some improvements to Husen/Jordan Park in Cedar Mill.

The THPRD Board of Directors recently approved $550,000 dollars for these improvements, which will include a parking area at Jackie Husen Park on Reeves St., a playground, and a loop trail around Husen park. “Because the area doesn’t have many ball fields, we may create a sports field if there’s enough space in the flat area, and that would make the loop trail more of an oblong shape,” comments Steve Gulgren, THPRD Park District Superintendent of Planning and Development. “By the time we go through detailed design, permits and bidding, the earliest schedule to start construction would probably be summer of 2008.”

Jordan Park came into the district in 1988 when the Jordan family conveyed 6.57 acres to the district. Over the next few years the district added several more parcels. A diversity of wildlife lives here including flying squirrels and pileated woodpeckers. It is completely undeveloped, with only a narrow dirt trail winding it’s way down to Cedar Mill Creek.

In 2001, Carl Husen decided to memorialize his wife Jackie and her love of gardens and natural areas with the parcel he sold to the District that now constitutes Husen Park. The district will try to design the improvements so they can save the large trees on the property.

In 2002, the THPRD Board approved the Jordan/Husen Master Plan which included the improvements for Husen along with an ADA accessible trail that would run along the upper elevations of Jordan Park and eventually, with land acquisition, connect to a regional trail that would lead into Multnomah County in the Forest Heights area. Gulgren notes that, “the Metro bond measure funding currently earmarked for this project will not be able to pay for the installation of the proposed ADA accessible trail or the land acquisition needed to make the proposed connection to Forest Heights, therefore, those project elements will remain on hold for now.”

But it will be nice to have the improvements to Husen Park in place. Thanks, voters!

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Publisher/Editor:Virginia Bruce
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