September 14, 2026 Tualatin City Council Work Session

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[0:00] There you go.
[0:02] I can see the red light on the back there.
[0:10] It took. Mine was really.
[0:14] Green here. Not here.
[0:18] You got it. It's working over here. Yeah. That's great.
[0:25] All right. Everybody can, like. Hold on with your power. Oh, I'm plugging up. I don't have the time. I am.
[0:34] Yeah.
[0:36] Everybody has power with me, right?
[0:40] It's the most important person. All right. We'll figure you out.
[0:46] All right.
[0:51] We're ready to go.
[0:53] Yes, sir.
[0:57] Recording in progress.
[1:00] Good evening and welcome to the September 14th, 2026 Tualatin City Council work session. First item on our agenda tonight is an update and report on the contextualized Housing Needs analysis led by Aaron and Teresa. Welcome.
[1:19] I just saw you guys a few hours ago.
[1:23] You're back.
[1:28] So thank you, mayor. I'm Aaron Engman. For the record, I'm the senior planner here at the City of Tualatin, and we have the benefit of having Matt Craigie join us in person today. So he's with Echo Northwest, and they've been assisting us with all this great quantitative data. And we have quite a bit to discuss with you today. So, um, I know we have 45 minutes to cover a lot of data and we want to leave some time for questions. So without further ado, I'll turn it over.
[2:00] Okay. Got the red, red button on. Thank you Aaron. Um, and thank you, Mayor and city Council. I thought I was going to get a few minutes to kind of relax in the audience, but we are like right into it. So we will, we will jump in. Um, thank you again for, for having me here this evening. Um, this evening we're going to be diving into a lot of data. We have about 31 slides. It's, uh, it's pretty dense stuff. Um, so I'll walk through, I have a tendency to talk faster and faster as I give presentations. So, um, feel free to tell me to slow down. Please ask questions. Um, this, uh, this, this evening we'll be getting to the quantitative analysis. We'll be doing a little bit of a look ahead into some of the other pieces that are coming with these housing projects. And then we'll give you a preview of, um, what's next. So I was here, um, was it a month ago, a month and a half ago to kick off these projects and for for everyone's benefit. This is part of the series of projects to help make policy decisions around housing here in Tualatin. So, so many acronyms in this work. Repeat them again. So there's the housing capacity analysis, the HCA, the contextualized housing needs analysis. The state came up comes up with these terms. We don't. Um, and then later on, the kind of the third piece is the house, the housing production strategy. And that's where it gets really fun because that's where the policy choices for you all on council reside. That's where, well, what do we do about this? What are some of the actions that we can take here at at the city to make housing more affordable and accessible for everyone in the community? So we're working on the HCA and the c h we're right there in the number two part of our timeline here. We talked with your planning commission about a month ago and gave them this download of quantitative data. Um, and then we'll be back. Um, later on this year. Uh, for the third part of this work, uh, where we're going to be talking about the Bli. So that's the buildable lands inventory. So remember the HCA is a little bit like the supply. The CHN is a little bit like the demand piece, right. So the the buildable lands inventory is the piece that looks at every property in Tualatin to say, is this a suitable place for new housing redevelopment for housing? So we'll be getting into all of those fun maps, um, later on this year. So today, um, yeah, today is going to be the quantitative download, uh, for the CHN. So we're going to talk about affordability as it shows up in some of those data. We're going to be talking about demographics of the community and how demographics have changed and what that means for households here within the community, and how that all fits together to form that data baseline for these very important policy conversations. Okay. We're going to start with this chart. We like this chart a lot. At echo, I believe that the first time that I came to your council, we. Presented this without some of the extra context around the side here. So. This house graphic, if you look at each of the pillars, each of the columns in the house, it's aligning household income with what you can afford in housing. So it's answering the question if you if your household makes this much money, how much housing can you either buy or rent? And so you can go from lower incomes on the left to higher incomes on the right. And these data are anchored with the area median income area in this case is is the Portland region. So all 25 cities and three counties. So the area median income is about $130,000 a year. Um, and, uh, that will, that's the kind of the fourth column over there if you're going left to right. And so if you kind of follow the, the logic here, if you're making that area median income, you can afford a little bit over $3,000 a month in rent or a home that is between 300 and 20 and about $390,000. Um, you'll see a couple arrows. Does this thing have a laser pointer? That'd be fun. Uh it does. Um, so you'll see a couple contextual pieces that we added in here. So median rent in Tualatin is about $1,800. And so your median rent is down here. So, you know, with, with these data matching this up seems, uh, relatively affordable. Your median home sale price is about $640,000. So that's like off off the chart here. So again, what we're trying to do this evening is we're trying to anchor all of these conversations in the quantitative data that we're seeing. And this is one of the main graphics that we like to use to make that connection between household income and housing cost.
[6:59] So some good news. Household income has increased in Tualatin and in Washington County. So here these data we're looking at, um, changes from about 15 years ago. The latest we always oops go forward. Um we're always trying to use the latest data set. This is 2024 is the latest data that we have. So the chart on the on the left here you're seeing incomes from 2010. And then also in that latest data year of 2024. So across the board, all of these different geographies, incomes have increased. Um, there are about a third of households in Tualatin. And this matches up with the Portland region are making over $150,000 a year. So there's a, there's a group of folks that are above that area median income. So good to good to take a look at that.
[7:54] Um, this is the flip side of this, which is that while incomes have increased, so have housing costs and actually housing costs have increased at a faster rate than household incomes. So, um, you can see on the right here, this is the change in home prices. Tualatin is the oh, I should have done this in Tualatin branding colors, but I didn't I apologize. So this is kind of the the red color there. Tualatin. You're kind of right there in the middle with some of your your peer cities here in the region, uh, a couple Clackamas County cities to, to the east, uh, have higher median home prices than you can see the comparison with some of the other Washington County communities. So it's, it's great when incomes are rising, but they're not keeping pace with housing costs. This this slide is is looking at the relationship between income and housing. And um, this one's a little bit to unpack here, but I really like, um, this home value to income ratio. So basically if you take your home value, if you just, you could, you could go to Zillow and kind of find your home, or you can look at your taxes and see what the real market value is. All of those are a little bit inaccurate, right? But you just kind of figure out what your house is worth and then divide by your income. You get that relationship between your income and your household. So we're looking for golf scores here. So lower is better, right? So the higher income you have, the closer it is to to your housing value, which means that that kind of relationship, you have likely a better chance of being able to afford that home. Um, so here this is taking a look at again, peer communities to Tualatin. We've got Washington County and Oregon over there on the right. And again, looking at 2010 and 2024 data. Um, you'll see that a typical measure or kind of like a healthy balance of income to housing costs is between about a three and a four. That's, that's saying that that household is not stretching their household income too much to afford their housing. And as the chart shows, you'll see that almost all communities are above that line. Actually, all communities above are above that line, except for Sherwood in 2010, which was right there at the four mark. Tualatin is now in 2024 around a six. So that just means that, again, that relationship between income and housing people is stretched. That household, uh, housing costs have risen and the, that relationship to income is really stretched across the board.
[10:45] So we talked about how Tualatin, one of the house graphic there, showed rents around $1,800 a month. That's what we're looking at here on the left side of the slide, on the right hand, right part of the slide, you're seeing a chart that's showing different types of rental units studio one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom. So again, comparatively to your peer cities, um, there are lower rents in the region, but we're going to, we're going to start thinking about, again, coming back to that relationship with what households are able to afford.
[11:22] To Alton has a comparatively younger middle age than, uh, than other geographies here in the region. Lots of families in Tualatin. I know you've got a lot of, um, fun family events or family runs. The, um, the ladybug run every, uh, pretty much every year. That's great. And I'm always impressed when we come down to the park here about how many families are right over here. Our firm actually had our annual summer picnic right across the street here. And, um, we're like, wow, there's, there's lots of families. So you see that there? Um, while that's happening, if you look on the right hand side of the chart, the share of your community that is aging is really growing. So in 2010, about 11% of the Tualatin community, um, was over the age of 60. It's now 21%. So the makeup, the demographic makeup of your community is changing. So while you still have lots of families, a younger median age, um, the, there's, there are a lot more seniors within the community.
[12:27] Looking at household composition here, you have a higher share of larger families or households that have adults living, living together. So this is just showing on the left hand side, you've got household size distribution. Um, 42% of households are three or more persons versus in Portland and Oregon wide, you've got less than 40% there. Um, so, so larger households again, I think that shows a lot of the family makeup within the community. When we presented to the planning commission, um, we had a, we had a wonderful conversation afterwards and there were a few questions around folks with disabilities and they wanted more data about folks with disabilities within the community and, and, and access to housing. Um, I mentioned to the Planning Commission and I'll mention to your council now, um, part of the Chen is this really long and dense appendix. And so there is lots of data in there. And, um, when that is ready to share with your council, there's, even more information here. Um, looking at the, the community, the demographics of the community and folks with disabilities in particular in great depth. And so, um, but I wanted to surface some of this information, given that conversation that we had with the Planning commission here. So at the top level, um, about 10% of Tualatin population has one or more disabilities. Um, and so this chart is showing kind of different disabilities across those different geographies.
[14:10] And we'll come back to that in a minute here thinking about race and ethnicity. So here we're taking a look at the race and ethnicity demographics of Tualatin. I think one data point to to point out here is if you look at the chart on the right, uh, Tualatin share of folks that are within the Hispanic community has grown rapidly since 2010. So in 2010, about 16% of the community identified as Hispanic, Latino, Latina, and now that's up to 23%. So that's a growing part of your community.
[14:48] Housing disparities by tenure. One thing that we like to do is we like to crosswalk these data. So we like to take a look at tenure in this case. So tenure is either ownership or rental and looking at race and ethnicity and saying so answering the question well, is tenure the same in different communities here in Tualatin? It is not. If you look. Let's see. Did I. Oh, no. I'm going to go back. I thought maybe I had circled that one as well, but I haven't. Let's take a look at. I know there's there's six bars here. Look at the three bars to the right here. That's 2024 data. So this these data are showing renter occupied in the maroon and the brown versus owner occupied in green. And if you look at the one, two, three, four, five, the number of fifth column there from the left, you'll see that almost 80% of the Hispanic community within Tualatin are renters versus white. non-Hispanic is 66% owner occupied. So you have a disparity there between different demographics within the community.
[15:58] Cost burdening. So here we were. Um, Aaron and I were talking with the aging task force this morning and had a really wonderful conversation around, uh, challenges of the senior community here in Tualatin around housing. And so much of it comes back to cost, right? So cost burdening is another framework that we talk about in this work. So cost burdening is talking about households burdened to afford their housing and the, the primary metric here. A cost burden metric is if a household is spending 30% or more on their housing costs. And that's not just rent or their mortgage, but those are associated costs like fees, taxes, maintenance. The one item that is not included in cost burden that usually comes up are capital expenses. So if you have to replace your roof or have some other major capital expense that's not typically included there. These are looking at kind of those ongoing monthly costs. So cost burden, that threshold is about 30% is 30% is is the metric that's used. Severely cost burdened are households that are spending 50% or more on their household income on those housing costs. So the chart on the left here is showing cost burden by tenure within Tualatin. So you'll see that again, remember that comparatively to other cities in the region. Rents in Tualatin were lower about $1,800 a month. That doesn't show the whole picture, though, because you see that renters, about 51% of renters have done my quick math correctly are cost burdened, and 27% of those renters are severely cost burdened. Overall, all households was about 35%. Are cost burden within Tualatin. As part of the conversation with the Aging task Force this morning, a question came up around owners being cost burdened and severely cost burden. We had a great discussion around that about how many folks on fixed incomes may have might have purchased their homes a long time ago, and other costs continue to like taxes and HOA fees continue to grow. So, so cost burdening happens across the board, but it's particularly acute for renters.
[18:33] So coming back to folks with a disability here, again, this is we're trying to show some of the disparities within the relationship between housing costs and affordability. So here this is showing that 12%. Um, so folks with a disability have more cost burdening than the general population.
[19:01] If we take a look at age of the householder with cost burdening, you can see that on both ends, folks that are younger and folks that are older are more likely to be cost burdened within Tualatin. That makes sense. Folks that are, you know, getting their first job, um, or struggling to find a job earlier in their careers. And then folks with fixed incomes have more of a challenge.
[19:29] So some just to go over some of the high level points of this evening's presentation. Um, so again, uh, households, uh, the area median income is about $130,000 a year. You have, um, you know, $640,000 is the, the median home sale price here within Tualatin. Incomes have risen. Um, but not as fast as housing costs. Um, renting in Tualatin is definitely more attainable than owning a home. But again, when you take a look at that cost burdening, it's particularly acute for renters within the community.
[20:11] Um, Tualatin is aging and seniors face housing challenges like higher cost burden rates. Again, that's a trend that we're seeing there.
[20:24] And then taking a look at, um, race and ethnicity within the community. There's a disparity between tenure, uh, particularly with the Hispanic community or predominantly more renters. Uh, and that's a growing part of your community.
[20:42] Terrific. So that's, that's the, the dive through all of the data. Happy to answer any questions there. Um, as part of this work, part of this phase of work, we're also working closely with your staff doing engagement. So like I mentioned this morning, we were with the aging task force group and had a terrific conversation, got some really great input on again, folks with fixed incomes, the need for accessible units. This is actually something I haven't talked about this evening, but we talked. Part of this work is to consider the need for accessible units. So units that might have doors that can accommodate a wheelchair or, you know, bars in a bathroom, accessible counter heights, things like that. So we talked about some of those things. Um, so we're that engagement with different communities, focus groups in Tualatin is ongoing and we'll have more information about that. There's also a historical analysis that is taking a look at patterns of housing development and exclusion in Tualatin, and we'll have more information about that as at the next meeting as well.
[21:54] These are the discussion questions that I have for your council this evening, and I put them out there. I'm also happy to answer any questions you have for us around this work as best I can here. Um, but, but we would love to hear from you about how these trends, how these data align with your understanding of what's happening in the Tualatin housing market and how different communities are facing barriers to housing within Walton. So I'll pause there, mayor, and turn it back to you. All right.
[22:27] Questions comments for Matt and Erin. Councilor Brooks.
[22:35] Thank you very much for the information. So a lot of information it's good to have. Um, I'm curious with um crossover on groups if we have any information about um people who are for instance, disabled and Hispanic or those kinds of um dual um, risk factors.
[23:00] Great question, councilor Brooks. Um, we do have all of that information and it's a matter of, like I said, yeah, like you're talking about cross walking it and to see, um, how, um, how those communities might be challenged. We've looked at that in a couple different ways. We've looked at, um, you know, tenure by race and ethnicity. Um, I can double check if there's a particular kind of relationship that you would like to explore. We can, I can see if that's in that deep appendix that I talked about. And if not, it's a matter of getting our technical team to create the pivot table to look at that relationship there.
[23:36] Well, for me, I think it would be around aging, disability, and race.
[23:41] Okay, great. Thank you.
[23:42] Thanks. And then my other question is, um, when we're doing community outreach, have we worked it out with Saint Andrews?
[23:51] I, I don't know if Saint Andrews is on our list, but we can double check. Is that a faith based.
[23:59] It's a faith based organization with. And they've done some community work and advocacy around housing, especially for our Spanish speaking community.
[24:08] Terrific.
[24:08] Um, so I think it would be a really good place to stay.
[24:12] Anthony.
[24:13] Did I say? Yeah, Saint Anthony's.
[24:14] Saint Anthony's.
[24:15] Sorry.
[24:16] Okay.
[24:16] Saint Anthony's. All right. I just got back from vacation, like, literally yesterday night.
[24:23] Terrific. We'll work with staff to to engage with them.
[24:26] Okay. Thank you very.
[24:27] Much. Thank you.
[24:29] Other comments or questions? Councilor Gonzalez.
[24:32] So thank you. Thank you very much for the information regarding the aging population. Uh, costs are going up. Um, what did you what information do you have on people wanting to downsize from a two story family home to a single level house? Mhm. Um, I know that creating a Tualatin friendly for the aging task force would be very important where, you know, good ramps, good handles, one levels and those kind of things.
[25:10] Did you get a sense for the population wanting to stay in Tualatin if Tualatin would or is becoming a more age friendly city, you know, for that population because they have different needs? S6:
[25:58] Thank you.
[25:58] Yes.
[26:00] They actually mentioned, um, a desire or need for like a 55 plus kind of kind of development, kind of like Tigard has the desire for something like that in Tualatin.
[26:17] Thank you. Thank you for all the great information. I'm curious is it is the term and the conditions that you use for disability and industry standard?
[26:27] Um, that's a good question.
[26:29] I mean, it's.
[26:30] Really.
[26:31] Explicitly focused on the aging population. And so I'm curious why you're only capturing that information. And so is it an industry standard or help me with that.
[26:42] HMM.
[26:43] Um they're not the only people with disability.
[26:46] Yes.
[26:46] Yes. Disability is why I'm trying to understand why.
[26:50] Okay.
[26:51] Thank you. Like that.
[26:52] Thank you, Councilor Hillier. Um it is the data doesn't just pertain to seniors of folks with disability within the data that we're looking at. So it is. Okay.
[27:06] So the connotation certainly comes across, or at least in my interpretation of what was being said. So thank you for setting me straight on that. And I'm curious if you think any of these data are or those data, these data are, um, impacted with the higher number of senior living and assisted living facilities that we have in our community and how you cross tabulate that.
[27:29] Mhm. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think as you're talking about, I think there is a relationship between age and disability sometimes. Yes. Um, and so I think that that could have a relationship. That's. Yeah.
[27:42] Okay. And I just wanted to point out that I noted that there is been a greater growth in our Bipoc populations from between 2010 and 2024. I appreciate still in, um, that there's a higher amount of our Hispanic and Latino and Latina population. However, there is a bigger increase there. So I just want to be sure that when we're having these conversations, that all parts of our community are Were included in the conversation and especially for the public outreach. Thank you.
[28:13] Okay.
[28:15] Other questions. Comments. Council president Pratt.
[28:20] Well, your first question, like, um, they they align exactly with what I expected. And I just see this, um, like there's, so there's disparities because, you know, we're working so hard to make a better community to bring these high paying jobs and then we make it less affordable for other people. So it's a big conundrum for us to deal with. And, and I'm just wondering, like the people that where you say like an $1,800 apartment, um, they can afford that, but does that leave them any room for savings because they've got a big hill to climb to ever try to have actual ownership.
[28:56] Mhm. Mhm.
[28:58] Um, it's a great question. And I think, yeah, some of the quantitative data. And again, this is so important that we go and we have conversations with folks. You know, one on one and understand the lived experience of folks within the community. But whether the quantitative data was showing is that renters are more cost burdened than homeowners. And so, yes, while you know that median rent is lower, that community is particularly squeezed with the housing cost.
[29:26] And then I know we're just starting in this process, but when we get to the end where there'll be recommendations of potential things we could do to help, like, um, you know, like incentivize having, um, home or, or building for seniors and people with disabilities to make it easier for wheelchair to get in a door.
[29:47] Within these projects just a little bit. Yeah. So because the, the housing production strategy, the HTTPs, which is the third project which staff will undertake next year, really is where you get into some of those policy decisions, those actions where you start talking about implementation at the local level, what we can do here. But there are certainly within these projects, reflections on what's happening within the community and steps that you might take. So it's not it's not completely going towards actions, but but moving in that direction.
[30:24] Okay.
[30:24] Thank you, thank you.
[30:26] Other comments, questions
[30:30] that I think you as council President Pratt said, this is totally aligns with my understanding and what we've seen over the last few years in terms of, you know, the cost of living involved in both rentals and homes. I think it did a good job capturing stuff. The thing I'm going to go back and Council President Pratt mentioned it, that it's kind of.
[30:52] Deceit, not deceiving, but saying that it has you know, it's the third lowest rent at 1800. You know, the thing I hear from residents all the time is that that $1,800 isn't cheap for people trying to get them. And then I hear multiple, you know, multiple places, especially in apartment complexes we deal with most of these folks are getting three bedroom apartments and three roommates in there. They're still barely affording it. Yeah. So that the it's kind of seeming that, yeah, the rents down there. But for most people, it's like you're saying, it's hard to achieve that and you're especially not doing it by yourself. You're bringing in roommates and other people like that. So my question long around here is that when you're looking at rentals and members of the household. Mhm.
[31:41] So if I have, you know, if it's me, my three buddies living in an apartment, is that considered for members of the household or is it really people thinking it's one house? How does that get counted? S6:
[31:55] Captured did not just thinking it's.
[31:56] It does. Yes. I mean, yes, as long as everyone's reporting that as their residence through the US census then. Yeah. Then it would be like a non. I think the term is non-familiar non-familial household. Yeah. Right.
[32:09] And again, to me, the important thing is there's a reflection of it's 3 or 4 incomes being combined just to make that rent. And it goes to your, your, your, your severely burdened. That's over 50%.
[32:20] Yeah. That's right. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. And, and I appreciate your question. It also is a terrific reflection that quantitative data that comes filtered through the census and then put into a spreadsheet only tells part of the story, right? So I really appreciate the conversation here this evening. And with the focus groups that we're working on, because really kind of hearing those stories of like 1800 bucks, like we still, we've got four people in this place and, um, you know, struggles for people to, to buy homes. One other thing that we heard this morning was, um, folks are really struggling to find entry level homes within the community. And if it is an entry level home, it would be, you know, maybe a condo that's not kind of right for their family, not, you know, kind of not meeting their needs. So, so looking forward to doing more engagement with your community and, and making sure that those data are married with a quantitative data here to tell a better story. Okay.
[33:16] Anything else?
[33:18] Well, while you're still sitting here, I know you're going to be hanging around, but you guys did a fantastic job with the aging task force today. I just want to give you kudos that you were very engaged and had them chatting. Uh, I thought you did a fantastic job today.
[33:30] Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think I've got one more slide here, which is just a preview of what's coming up next. Uh, so we will be in front of your planning commission in mid October and then back from your council here in early November. So that's where we get to take a look at the Buildable Lands inventory. Uh, it's always enjoy doing that work. Uh, it's really fun to take a look at the map and see where there is housing, see where there's more housing potential. So all of that's coming up next. There were a few other comments from previous meetings that we are still tracing down some some information for you all. One of them was around, um, the, the Ona, so the dlcd, the state's method for coming up with these allocation targets for each city. So we're working with, um, folks at Dlcd to get kind of a better encapsulation of that information for you all. There was another question, I think it was from the Planning Commission around the Bli methods. And how that has changed will be make sure to get into all of that at the next meeting. So we haven't we haven't lost those threads. So with that thank you very much. Always a pleasure to be here and to work with you all. So thank you.
[34:43] Thank you.
[34:45] Yeah.
[34:47] All right. Our next item on the agenda tonight is a riverfront park in downtown revitalization. Revitalization project coordination. This is Quinn and Kira. Welcome.
[34:58] High fives for everybody.
[35:16] Good evening Council. My name is Caroline and I am a project manager with the Parks and Recreation Department, and we would like to thank you for the opportunity to present to you on some really exciting projects this evening.
[35:31] And my name is Quinn Bruner and I'm the project manager for the Downtown Revitalization Project. Um, so these two projects, the Riverfront Park and the Downtown Revitalization Project, are inextricably linked. Um, and we are providing this joint update both to celebrate a pair of project milestones, as well as to highlight how we intend to work together and where we anticipate these two projects overlapping. Um, so we've got approximately 15 minutes of presentation in 12 slides, and then we're happy to answer questions afterwards.
[36:01] I just want to briefly mention that Quinn and I have been working really hard this last year to make sure these projects are truly unified. And so we are looking forward to, you know, going to the next phase with each other and seeing what all the great things that we can do with the community.
[36:21] In 2022. The $25 million Parks and Trails bond passed the six areas that the bond decided to identify to fund came out of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The six areas that the bond funds is the athletic fields, play equipment replacements, future park land acquisitions, trail connections, park upgrades like the Veterans Plaza. And last but not least, the future Riverfront Park to round out the end of the Parks and Trails bond. And so tonight on the consent agenda is the approval of the landscape architect firm that will be designing and doing community engagement for the future Riverfront Park. The work that it has been built on is the topographic survey, which we've already done to the site, some archeological surveys, and then we've done a good chunk of natural restoration done by Tom Steiger and his park maintenance team.
[37:22] Without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Berger Partnership, based out of Seattle, Washington. One of the really great, amazing things about this firm is their resume. As you can see in the top right hand corner, they've done downtown Olympia Waterfront and Meydenbauer Bay Park in Bellevue, Washington, along with Riverfront Park in the Spokane, Washington area. Um, these Berger sites, they refer to themselves as the. burger bites. And really, they challenge us to really think beyond the property line with their interview and their application to the RFP. And so we are really excited to have them on board, and they will really challenge us to think of like, what is something we want to see that we haven't thought about yet in such a constrained site? And so we are really looking forward to bringing them on and starting them off on a really good foot, along with Walker, Macy and Quinn's team.
[38:21] And.
[38:22] And so zooming out here, we are entering officially phase three of the downtown Revitalization project, which includes the creation of a downtown urban design framework as well as updated design standards. So to lead this work, as Kyra mentioned, we are bringing on Walker, Macy Walker Macy is the largest urban design and landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest, and they've worked on some really iconic projects in the region, including Downtown Bend, the Portland Japanese Garden, Pioneer Courthouse Square and the original Tualatin Commons. And so they've already been digging through their files and finding some really, really useful artifacts from the original conceptualization of our downtown. So Walker Macy's team will be led by Ken Perry, and it includes a list. I'm going to go through a list here of other folks who are involved, including JLA Public Engagement, GBD architects, Jet Planning, Walker Consultants who are doing our parking analysis, Leland Consulting Group, who's doing a real estate market analysis. And then Matt Brown, who's doing development developer consulting with us. So we've got a real all star group and among many other standout attributes, the approach of this team includes early property owner engagement and developer engagement, which we see as critical, and that they're going to not only create an exceptional design framework and design standards, but they're also going to be setting the table for future investment and redevelopment downtown. So we plan to be back here in maybe a month and a half or so with Walker Macy to introduce phase three, provide a full process overview, and Walker Macy can tell you a little bit more about about how their approach to this project. But, um, this is a kind of a sneak preview of what's to come.
[40:08] As you can see, this is the second slide where we have the same image and the same quote. So just a little inside joke. Um, since Quinn and I have been working on this project, we've unintentionally this phrase, two projects, one vision has come to be this phrase that we say each other. We even have a little hand signal, two projects, one vision. And so Quinn and I will be walking down the hallways and we'll just go high five each other and be on our way. Um, but this, this park, um, will be, along with the downtown revitalization, be one of the, Or will be the first permitted and in construction project under Walker Macy's new design standards. And so, um, this future park sits between the Tualatin River, uh, the Lake of the Commons and the downtown core and then the Tualatin Community Park. So it's really integrated into the downtown. And so, um, we will be having Berger and Walker Macy align very closely with what this vision will look like. And the image you see is actually Berger partnerships bird's eye view image that they designed for us in their proposal and in their interview section.
[41:17] Yes. And so our staff team already works very well together. And we have, uh, are planning to bring both of our consultant teams together for a workshop in the next couple of weeks to lay out how, um, how our teams are going to work together and make sure that we know who owns which decision points and how we can deliver all of these pieces in the right order so that our processes run smoothly. Um, we're going to take a few minutes today, though, just to highlight four of the big ones that Kira and I already know are going to be crucial to to choreograph. So they are our engagement strategy. We want to make sure that our outreach is unified, because I don't think the community is going to see these as two separate projects. Um, we're also focused on the materials and finishings because we want the downtown to feel like an extension of the park and the park to feel like an extension of the downtown. Um, we know that Boones Ferry Road frontage is going to be a critical connection. And we also know that Tualatin River Greenway Trail is going to be a pedestrian and bicycle artery that moves through the park and connects us through downtown. Um, a fifth item I just want to also mention is that we know that Tualatin Sherwood Railroad Crossing study is another project that's going to be have a big impact on both of these pieces of work. And so when we bring our consultant teams together in a few weeks, we're going to also talk about sequencing with that project to make sure that, um, two projects, one vision also has a third project, one vision. We're all, we're going to be working together. It's not as good as a hand gesture though. So, we'll all be working together there. Um, I think I said my piece on engagement, but we're also going to be having a shared booth at the Pumpkin Regatta, which will probably be our first, our first, um, outreach that includes our consultant teams. Um, Kira's got a cool idea. I think we're going to do a, uh, the 12th and Tigard football game.
[42:58] Yeah. The two projects, one vision Tailgater at Walton High School football versus Tigard High School football on October 30th.
[43:06] They're going to be on the road. And so, uh, we'll be doing joint focus groups and making sure that we're not talking to the same groups twice. Um, and we also are going to be building out our social media presence and do that strategically so that we're staggering our, our engagement. Um, I'll give it to you.
[43:25] Just quickly too. Uh, we recognize that Boones Ferry road is, it's kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge. You know, as you know, there's 2000 users that use Boones Ferry Road. And so we are having burger partnership take a look at that frontage and work with Walker Macy as they're working on the Streetscaping, and they'll conquer and complement one another to really create a seamless transition between the river, the park, Boones Ferry, downtown, etc.. Um, so that's just one of the other, the other areas that we'll be combining efforts on.
[43:58] Yeah, I think we've pretty much set our piece here. You're, you're all familiar with the, um, with the trail connection, but figuring out how we know it's going to go. I don't think this laser pointer is going to work very well, but, um, whether that, when it comes out of the park, whether it hugs Boones Ferry Road and then connects down over to the library or whether it goes up through the white lot kind of by g-man's. And then over on the other side of the library, there's a few different configurations that are still kind of an open question here that we need to decide. And so we're going to do that work early and collaboratively. So, um, this will, um, there will inevitably be even more realms where we are collaborating on these projects together, and we are excited to work together and to expand our project team. So thank you for your time and we are happy to answer any other questions you may have.
[44:48] Questions for Quinn and or Kira. Um.
[44:53] I just want to thank you for, um, all the public outreach you're going to do because our parks department in particular has been so great at doing that. And, you know, if we want an end result, that's what the community wants. That's how we need to go about doing it. So thank you.
[45:11] Questions? Comments. Councilor Brooks.
[45:17] Sorry, I have too many things. Thank you very much for the presentation. I am very excited about the collaborative, um, spirit that you both bring to this project. It's one of the most exciting projects that we've seen in our city and, um, I just trust both of you as new but good leaders in our city. So I just really appreciate your work. Um, my other thing is when you're doing the community engagement, um, if there's little things that can really easily copy and paste to our social media and things like that, um, if you would just give us a heads up when you're doing it, and that way we can help invite the community members that look at our pages if that would be.
[46:08] Absolutely.
[46:09] Okay. Thank you.
[46:12] Anything else?
[46:14] I appreciate the enthusiasm. We're all looking forward to seeing these two projects tied together and, um, inform how the community go forward because you as a council member, you're going to we are constantly being asked about the riverfront park. So people are very, very interested. So go forward and do great things.
[46:33] Thank you.
[46:34] Thank you.
[46:38] All right. So that brings us to agenda item three, Council meeting, agenda review communications and round table.
[46:51] Uh, do we have any questions or concerns with items on the consent agenda tonight? S1:
[47:15] All right. Uh.
[47:17] So with that, we'll go ahead and start our round table. We'll start off with our city manager, Sherilyn.
[47:26] Get my life together here.
[47:30] Uh, manager's report. There we are.
[47:34] So a few things. Let's see. Um, our emergency management fair on Saturday went really well. It wasn't ours. The although we were there um about, I don't know, 200 people perhaps came out and it was a steady stream all day. Uh, so that's great. I appreciate all the cert of course, and, uh, the, the folks that um, tabled and, um, brought their collective wisdom to the emergency management fair upcoming on the 19th, which is this Saturday. Right. Um, the Tarleton Cup. So the model sailboat regatta that's sponsored by the Csio, the, um, commercial community involvement organization. It's from 1 to 4 at the Commons. We will have a, a table there and will be represented as well. Um, there's some follow up on the railroad crossing at Boones Ferry that I just wanted to give you an update on. Uh, so Odot, as reported by Mike McCarthy, our city engineer, um, Odot met with the railroad last week and they will be coming back to make some corrections on the crossing at Boones Ferry. Um, they are waiting on a date and they will let us know when that date is. Um, they will be, um, Odot will be providing traffic control and flagging. So there will be, it won't be a closure. Um, there this time it won't be a full closure. So, um, we're anxiously looking forward to that being corrected, especially southbound, um, which feels a little bit like you're going over a cliff. Um, a few things from the departments, from the city manager's office. The National Community Survey closed with about 303 responses about aspects of livability in Tualatin. We will be in front of you on October 26th with that data, and I'm excited to get that in front of us and get that preliminary data and start going through it. Um, our ribbon cutting. I sent an email to you. The ribbon cutting for the micro turbine, um, end pipe project is October 12th before the city Council meeting at 430 out on site. We've got a lot of cool things planned for that. Uh, that ribbon cutting, including Congresswoman Andrea Salinas will be here and, um, PGE and Energy Trust of Oregon and the other folks that supported the project financially, uh, from Parks and Rec. Um, summer's been a good time to work on some small drainage projects with the dry weather and dry soils. Our parks team worked on two small improvements one at Brown's Ferry Park and one on the Chieftain Dakota Greenway in locations that are historically wet and flooded. The Pole Center. We welcomed our. We have a meal program intern. She's going to be working with Sarah Shepherd. Our program, our. Our pole center manager on meal program data collection, as well as developing nutrition related programing. Um, and that is eligible, I believe, for the grant that we got from Washington County. And we needed some of that nutritional information. Um, for that, for that grant. Pumpkin regattas. Planning is in full swing. This year's event, of course, is October 18th, preceded by pumpkins and pints. And the pumpkin weigh off on Saturday the 17th at Stickman. Um, the Tualatin Arts Advisory Committee and Parks Advisory Committees held a joint meeting in August, um, at the community park main picnic shelter with, um, they worked with the original artist of that mural to touch it up and refresh it. So that was, that was exciting. Maybe Councilor Brooks reported on that, I can't remember. Yes you did.
[51:46] Uh, T Park and Park Advisory Committee held a meeting on September 8th where they discussed a desire to undertake some community engagement around finding a suitable location in the park system for recreational fishing. Um, they heard an update on the newly updated street tree planting list, and then shared updates on the riverfront park and core projects like you heard today. They also heard an update from a member of the Tualatin E-bike Safety Coalition.
[52:16] Um, the Tualatin Sherwood Road Rail Study Virtual Open House is open as of today through the end of September. And so members of the public are invited to review materials. There's a there's a lot of materials on on that website and then provide feedback and opinions about the draft alternatives. Um, there is a link on the project web page. And it's also when you go to our project web page, the most popular searches, it's right there. So you can just click on to it. Um, we have sent invitations to the CIOs, the community involvement organizations, as well as advisory committee liaisons, and have posted yard signs around the study intersection. Finally, I attended a Metro meeting for Metro city managers that was hosted by Metro. And a couple of things I just wanted to pull out from that meeting. Um, they are you may know this. They are looking at a potential 2027 parks and nature levy, um, a renewal of the nine cent levy that currently is in place. Um they had looked at um increasing it but there um so a replacement levy, but their polling data is such that they're going to go for just a renewal of the existing $0.09 they would like to visit our council. And so I'll set that up, um, to have them come and present information about that at some, at some point. Also the future vision engagement. I know that many of you have been involved in the future vision work that they've been doing. There's a summit of Vision Summit on October 8th from 1230 to 430 at the convention Center, where they'll pull together all of the stuff that they've been working on. It sounds like it will be a really good opportunity to hear, hear the work. And I think they're looking out to 2048 or 2050. is this. Is this future vision? Vision works. That's my report.
[54:24] All right.
[54:25] I'll switch gears a little bit and I'll start to the right. Counselor. Seiko.
[54:30] Thank you. Um, on September 2nd we had the CAC. We we the majority of the meeting was an update from Mike McCarthy. And the majority of that update included, uh, the 12th and Sherwood railroad crossing study. So it was, uh, why we didn't go into a lot of, um, opinions that folks had was more informational. It was, it was interesting to kind of see people's, you know, reaction, initial reactions to the, to the railroad crossing study. And I think it was clear that people need some time to digest because it's a lot of information. As Carolyn mentioned, when you go on to the virtual open house, I just really encourage everyone to have folks go on there and really digest all that information because as we learned that information, I was left really wanting to hear what other folks have to say about the options that are in front of us. So I had down here to invite people to go to the virtual open house. That'll be live through September 27th. Um, and in that meeting, we also heard from two, two recommendations from committee members as well. Um, which had some great discussion. Um, and then I did just want to remind folks as I was driving here today and I went the wrong way out of my driveway that Martin is closed. So I had to go all the way around. But Martin has closed at Blake. Um, so just if you're going down, Martin, just know that you might want to look for a different route. Um, and I did hear from you mentioned the, the, the boat regatta. Um, I did hear from some folks that the city is doing a great job promoting that event. So I just want to say thank you to the city for promoting that event and really looking forward to it.
[56:19] Thank you. Okay. On August the 28th, I attended. I was the alternate. So just listening on the Mac meeting. Um, they did approve an IGA for the cable TV franchise agreement with Comcast, and there'll be more information brought to the council, and the city manager and staff have that. So coming to an agenda near you soon. And on the ninth we had an architectural review board meeting where the applicant requested, um, it was kind of a renewal of an application that had expired and to construct a 452,795 square foot industrial building, basically in the space where the golf place used to be. And so, um, actually the renderings were just beautiful. The people were very thoughtful. They could have built bigger. They could have done a variety of things differently. And they thought about specifically about the topography of what's going on and what can be seen from sea pole as well as pole. I never seem to say that. Right, I apologize. And 124th and I think it's going to be just a beautiful addition. I prefer the green, I guess, if you will. But I do think this is going to be a great addition to what we have in the community to add to our repertoire, if you will, and they're just great people to work with. So I think it's really exciting to be able to partner with them in our community. So there you go.
[57:47] Councilor Reyes.
[57:49] No official meeting in the last couple of weeks. Thank you.
[57:52] Councilor Gonzalez.
[57:55] I attended the August 28th, the Mac meeting, and we did vote in support of it. So more information to come. So thank you for that. And that's all I have to report.
[58:03] Councilor Brooks.
[58:06] Thank you. Mayor. Um, on the second I attended the League of Oregon Cities Women's Caucus meeting. Right now, there is openings for applications for leadership. If anyone is interested in being on the Women's Caucus board. Um, I hope that some people may have had a chance to see the We Talk series that the lock put on. I know that there was a lot of work that we put into it, and it went over all of those, um, items that we're looking at for priorities for to 2027 legislative priorities. Um, and then outside of our meetings, but kind of connected with the arts committee. Um, I attended the Walton Valley creates workshop. Um, FYI, the power of you building an authoritative brand at fly tie in Beaverton and just getting to know more of the local artists and creatives in our region as we try to have more art culture here in the community. Um, and then I was out of town in Utah for the rest of the time. Um, and I will say that, um, just thinking about the, I was in Park City a lot in the amount of people that were riding e-bikes and how much they were utilized was pretty amazing to see when the trails and everything is thought out thoroughly and how people were able to get around all over the place on their e-bikes and bicycles. So it was pretty exciting to see what other communities did. And there's also a lot of box wraps in Utah.
[59:56] I forgot to mention before, Councilor Brooks, you're up for the pledge tonight.
[1:00:00] Okay.
[1:00:00] Can I ask a question?
[1:00:01] Sure.
[1:00:02] Uh, for the LLC meeting, did they tell you what five priorities were highlighted? Did they mention it at that meeting, or was that.
[1:00:10] They went through all of the priorities and that was done by the, um. Oh, I forget the guy's name, but one of the employees at the LLC.
[1:00:20] Yeah. Were there any that we have priorities like remember we submitted priorities. So, um, we're kept her.
[1:00:29] All of the priorities were captured. It wasn't a lot of cities haven't voted yet.
[1:00:33] Oh I.
[1:00:33] See. And so it was informational so that people understood more about the topics that they're considering.
[1:00:40] Thank you, I appreciate it.
[1:00:40] Yeah, sure.
[1:00:42] Council President Pratt.
[1:00:44] Well, on August 26th, I went to the ribbon cutting. Councilor Hillier was there with me and the mayor was gone. So I got to give the little speech for Tualatin, which was really fun, except the thing exploding behind me. But but it was a really great event. And there were a lot of people there and a lot of appreciation. This is a huge project for our state, so it's kind of awesome. It's in Tualatin. Um, then we had the, um, CAC meeting with the downtown revitalization and, um, Mike McCarthy. I think he deserves kudos because he did a great job of explaining complex transportation issues to the group. And I was watching the room and they really seemed to understand and catch on to what he was saying. Um, then the third, I had my Clackamas County Coordinating Committee meeting and we met in Happy Valley and I'm sure jealous of their, um, city building, but they, um, we had a presentation from Grace Kernochan and she's the co-chair of the Transportation Vision workshop. And they're the people looking at all the different revenue sources and items that will go to, um, legislature for consideration. And they're, they're doing a really in-depth job and a great job of that. They're the same issues did come up though. Like we want our whatever revenue source that comes up, we want our $0.20 on the dollar. And, um, the total, there's just a lack of trust between electeds and Odot and our community. And that got brought up. And we were encouraged to wait till the new permanent director comes on and hopefully things will change then, um, what did I put Tigard High School? Oh, the Historical Society Fundraiser Council and the mayor was the presenter. And they wisely pulled Loyce Martinezi as a, um, off to help with the answers to the trivia questions. So.
[1:02:45] But that was a lot of fun. And people dressed up from different decades. And the mayor looked great in his Don Johnson like suit.
[1:02:55] And then, um, I did go to the cert, um, emergency preparedness fair, and there were quite a few people and I learned a valuable lesson of how to turn off my natural gas valve if there were an emergency, so I felt like it was very productive. That's it.
[1:03:13] Uh, as council President Pratt said, I attended the 12th Historical Society auction. It was a fantastic event. Uh, I talked to Ross Baker. They're still trying to count up how much money they raised this year. Uh, but they were very enthused that they hit the grant match or the matching, um, funds when we did the paddle raise within 30s. So it was pretty good. You know, I attribute it to the MC, of course, uh, also attended the preparedness fair. Uh, fantastic booths, lots of information, uh, appreciated TV for giving out the little firefighter helmets and stuff like that. So a lot of those on the kids, uh, and, um, I heard, yeah, about 200 people attended, so good attendance and it wasn't hotter than heck like it was last year. So it was great weather for that. Uh, today I attended, as mentioned, the aging task force, uh, meeting, uh, big today. They were a focus group, as was mentioned before by Matt. Erin. Uh, they had a series of questions for the group. Um, and they had some great answers and great, great dialog. And I know Aaron took it all down. So did Matt, uh, to incorporate it into, uh, this report and, you know, the impacts of housing on aging. And one of the big things that came out, Matt alluded to was that if someone does want to sell their house, they have to have a place to go to, especially if they want to stay into Walton and there is no place, uh, Maki is fully rented out. Uh, so they are desiring, uh, single floor housing. That's, you know, semi Ada compliant, all that good stuff and doesn't exist. And so there is a need out there for that kind of thing, especially with the growing aging population here in Walton. Uh, had the local government transportation meeting. What that is, is all the folks that are representing cities and the governor's subcommittees on transportation. We all huddle together, gave updates. Uh, most of the committees are now in their last two meetings where they're finally finalizing the memos that will be given up to the main committee and then go to the governor. Uh, I've got my meeting tomorrow, uh, at Odot and next week on the freight memo. Um, and freight is basically coming down to no surprise, the pavement and bridges are falling apart. Trucks can't get over them, or trucks have to reroute. Congestion is slowing down trucks, which costs increased costs for deliveries. And then connect. Oregon has been, uh, left to wither a bit. So the money that's allocated for, uh, ports, air and rail has diminished. So, uh, we're working on that draft to get it to the governor in time. And finally today that wrapped up today before coming here with the chair Harrington's meeting. She had a presentation with the sheriff on the jail and community corrections expansion project. This is a project that this commission wants to get done before we transition to a new commission. Uh, what they're looking at is the ability to increase the capacity in both the jail and community corrections. Right now, the jail has a total capacity of 572 beds. 12 years ago, a study said they needed 1100. So we're way behind. The jail is 28 years old and has not been increased or anything since then. Community corrections has 215 beds, but only 167 are funded. So they're working. How are we going to do, uh, to expand our capacity if everything goes well? A new jail is seven years away. Um, based on the planning process, uh, fun facts here is. Washington County is only one of four counties in the state of Oregon that has a community corrections department. So, you know, most of the counties don't have it. Uh, and this is what gets me in your last year of a prison sentence. The state releases you to the county jail for that, last year for transitional training, all that kind of stuff. So for those counties that don't have community corrections, what they do with those prisoners who are going to make that transition out of prison, into the jail and into the community. Uh, they're hoping they're going to go through their plan right now is to have six phases and have the jail up and running by 2032. It's that far away. Uh, DLR Group has been selected as the consultants who are working on this project. The courthouse has secured planning dollars for the expansion. Uh, but one of the questions I had was, okay, if we need a bigger courthouse that's kind of located near the jail, where is that going to be? Because can we basically blow up the old courthouse and rebuild. Come to find out, you cannot. Courthouse is a historic building. It has to stay. So how where are we going to build this courthouse to meet the future need? That's kind of located to, you know, close to the jail. So prisoner transport can easily be done. And finally, the county. This county commission is also on their work plan, but to get it done by the end of the year to put on the May 2027 ballot. The enhanced Sheriff Patrol levy. And that's only for unincorporated Washington County. Uh, they're looking to put that on the ballot by May 27th. Again, that only that does not impact cities, but they want to get it done and not hand it over to the new commission. They want to have the ability to get this done quickly and efficiently and not have if, you know, we're seeing a new county commission having to play catch up for the next few months because of some new faces on the commission. Yes.
[1:08:47] Does everyone vote on that or just the people in unincorporated Washington?
[1:08:51] Just unincorporated Washtenaw County.
[1:08:52] Okay. Thanks.
[1:08:54] And with that, that's all I have. So it's about quarter to. We'll go ahead and close this work session. We'll reconvene for the City Council meeting at 7:00.