Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods community choice grants put community members in the lead to imagine, design and choose parks and nature projects using the principles of a participatory budgeting process. Your ideas and votes have the power to help shape the future parks and natural areas in your neighborhood.
Last year, Metro invested $2 million in projects imagined by you and your neighbors.
How it works
Nature in Neighborhood’s community choice grants give community members like you a chance to be part of every step of the process: from imagining new parks and nature projects to designing the concept to voting for your favorite projects.
First, Metro collects projet ideas from community members, both online and in community workshops. Then Metro hosts workshops to bring together community members and local park planners to develops those ideas into conceptual illustrations. Community members then vote for their favorite projects. Metro hosts another round of workshops with community members and park planners to develop this narrow slate of ideas into conceptual site plans. And then community members vote for their favorites, which are sent for approval by the Metro Council.
The grants fund community-led parks and nature projects that benefit communities of color, Indigenous communities, people with low incomes and other communities that have been ignored or harmed by governments. The projects will connect people to nature close to home, improve fish and wildlife habitat, and make our region more resilient to climate change, making a better region for everyone.
And it’s not just for adults. Kids 11-years-old and older can vote on their favorite projects.
The first round of community choice grants was for Metro Council District 4. District 4 includes all the urban areas in Washington County north of Oregon Highway 8 (Tualatin Valley Highway) and areas west of Cornelius Pass Road.
These grants are available thanks to voters choosing to invest in parks and nature when they approved Metro’s 2019 parks and nature bond measure.