Aloha and Reedville are unincorporated communities in Washington County, between Beaverton and Hillsboro. With 50,000 residents, Aloha and Reedville, if combined, would be the fourth largest city in the county, and the 12th largest in the state, but efforts for this area to become a city have not been successful.
Washington County, like many others around the nation, has been considering the question of how many services it is feasible to provide to densely populated, unincorporated suburban areas such as Aloha and Reedville. In 2010, the county applied for a Community Planning and Development Grant from Metro to conduct a study to attempt to answer that question.
The Community Planning and Development Grants program was created in 2006 to distribute revenue from the construction excise tax to communities inside Metro for planning projects that lead to the development of housing and employment opportunities. The first round of those grants, $6.3 million awarded in 2007, supported projects that focused on the areas added to the urban growth boundary between 2002 and 2005. These grants allowed cities and counties to create concept plans for these areas, so they could be developed to generate more jobs and increased housing options to protect farms and forestland.
The second round of grants, $3.6 million awarded in 2010, supported 17 projects that showed strong potential for the creation of on-the-ground development within five years, leveraged significant resources, demonstrated best practices, and achieved important local land use vision elements and values such as employment, transportation, housing and environmental stewardship.
The Aloha-Reedville study received a grant for $442,000. Using the grant from Metro as catalyst and match, Washington County applied for additional funding from the Office of Sustainable Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and received a $2 million grant. The project was able to successfully implement its three phases, which have resulted in improvements to the development code to streamline the application process and reduce barriers to private investments and housing types, increase collaboration among county planning, transportation, health and human services departments and the sheriff’s office and successfully engage people of color, immigrants and people with low incomes in the creation of a long-term strategy to address community needs. The Aloha-Reedville study is in the middle of its third and final phase, preparing to ask for public input on specific actions that address those needs.
According to Gordon Teifel, a community member involved in the study, local residents "feel strong ownership of the study because of our participation in creating the plan."
Fostering the future
Foster Road in southeast Portland is a busy arterial that connects the inner city with its diverse residential neighborhoods and suburbs. The neighborhoods along the Foster Corridor between SE 50th and 122ndavenues, Foster-Powell, Lents, Mt. Scott-Arleta and Powellhurst-Gilbert, grapple with a number of challenges, including lower-than-average income rates and educational attainment, lack of parks and recreational areas, numerous empty storefronts, occasional flooding by Johnson Creek, negative perceptions and a struggle to create a stronger sense of place in a changing community.
In 2010 the Portland Development Commission, on behalf of a coalition of community-based organizations and government agencies, applied for a Community Planning and Development Grant to address some of the issues affecting the Foster corridor. This project came to be known as the Foster-Lents Integration Partnership, or "FLIP," and it received a grant for $250,000.
The planning grant helped the FLIP set up a public-private partnership that supported flood management, economic development, weatherization of homes, parks and transportation improvements, and the strengthening of relationships among the local residents and between them and government agencies. The project supported increased connections among neighbors to identify issues that could bring the community together.
The grant leveraged $3.6 million in additional funds, primarily for street and sidewalk improvements in the Lents Town Center to create a friendlier environment for businesses and customers. It also facilitated the creation of the Foster Corridor Investment Strategy to help attract more businesses to the area.
The planning Grants have also helped small cities in the region. Forest Grove received $85,000 to study the redevelopment potential of its downtown area. Since 2011 members of an advisory committee, city staff and consultants have been working on the creation of a draft urban renewal plan for downtown Forest Grove. The plan’s goal is to create an environment where public agencies and the private sector can partner to make investments that will increase the number of businesses located in the downtown area.
Success in attracting more businesses to downtown will translate into an increased tax base for the city in the future. Project staff engaged in conversations with the school district and other taxing jurisdictions, business and property owners, and local residents about the impact of the proposed urban renewal plan.
Dan Riordan, senior planner with the Forest Grove Community Development Department, noted that there is some skepticism about the benefits of urban renewal in the community, but according to Tom Beck, a volunteer member of the advisory committee the Forest Grove Planning Commission: "the whole community could benefit from the urban renewal plan." Forest Grove is currently receiving public comment on the proposed plan, which is scheduled to be considered by city council later in the fall.
The grants program will continue to fund projects that can deliver positive impacts for communities in the region. On Aug. 15 the Metro Council will vote on the recommendations for the third round of grants awards. The grantees have been thoroughly vetted through a selection process that started in February.
Members of the volunteer screening committee, Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington and Metro chief operating officer Martha Bennett have all participated in the evaluation and recommendation-making process.
"Metro received a number of excellent grant proposals and the screening committee had a difficult task recommending the most promising ones. I am confident that the cities and counties receiving grants will do great work to continue creating more economic opportunity and housing in communities throughout our region," Harrington said.