Thank you for attending our Walking Workshop!

On Saturday April 24 we had 25 enthusiastic participants from all over Oak Grove walking with us on either the McLoughlin Boulevard Tour or the Oak Grove Boulevard Tour. We learned more about current problems and concerns, and discussed ideas for solutions and visions for the future.

A summary of the workshop will be emailed and posted on the website within a couple of weeks.

The completion of this workshop marks the end of our first public outreach phase. We are now going to use all information we’ve gathered from community leaders, businesses and engaged citizens, as a basis for our planning and design recommendations for Oak Grove.

We will be presenting our draft proposals at the May 26 Oak Lodge Community Council meeting at Rose Villa’s Fellowship Hall.  An open house from 6-7pm will be followed by a formal presentation at the meeting, which starts at 7pm.

Thanks also to the Oak Grove Fire Station for letting us use their building, to Urban Green for providing delicious refreshments, and to our note-taking volunteers  Holly, Sadie and Jackie, first-year students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University.

Check back soon, and email us at info@foothillplanning.com with any questions or ideas.

Kathryn, Nathan, Adam, Alicia, Carley and Åsa, Foothill Planning

Participants gather at the fire station before the tours.

Oak Grove Boulevard Tour participants discuss intersection at River Road.

McLoughlin Boulevard Tour group talks ideas for pedestrian improvements on McLoughlin.

Two Oak Grove Boulevard Tour groups brainstorm ideas for the entrance to Oak Grove's downtown.

After the tour observations were recorded on maps back at the fire station.

Participants had a chance to exchange ideas with the other tour groups. Here McLoughlin Boulevard.

More mapping and discussions after the walking tours.

Refreshments!

Our project in The Oregonian

The Oregonian just featured a piece on all the upcoming changes along McLoughlin Boulevard. The article mentioned our project and announced our Walking Workshop on Saturday April 24. From the article:

The PSU students, all majoring in urban and regional planning and working under the name Foothill Planning Associates, are hosting a walking workshop Saturday, April 24. The goal is to learn from participants about community assets, concerns and ideas for Oak Lodge’s future. The group will use information from the workshop to develop preliminary recommendation for “a more viable and sustainable community,” said Alicia Crain, group spokeswoman.

“The Oak Lodge Community Council can then take those ideas to the county and say, here’s the direction we want to go,” Crain said. “It’s really an opportunity to focus on the historic Oak Lodge business district and decide in a collaborative way how that area can and should evolve.”

Tomorrow, Saturday April 24: Walk Oak Grove with us!

Some of you business owners may have met us out on Oak Grove Boulevard or McLoughlin, where we’ve been chatting to businesses and dropping off surveys. If you’re a community leader, we may have interviewed you. As an engaged Oak Grove resident, you may have met us at community events and meetings.

Now it’s time for our first big event, namely the Community Walking Workshop! The Oak Grove community is invited to provide insight into community assets, concerns and ideas for the future.

This event is more active than your typical sit-down-meeting. Starting from the Oak Grove Fire Station, we’ll split up in small groups and walk the area, focusing on the Oak Grove Boulevard business district, McLoughlin and connections with the proposed MAX station at Park Avenue.

Afterwards, we’ll gather back at the fire station for refreshments and a recap of what we experienced.

Email us at info@foothillplanning.com with any questions or concerns, and we hope to see you at the Oak Grove Fire Station on Saturday April 24 at noon!

Click here to download a Walking Workshop Poster for printing.

Foothill learns about MAP guiding principles

Foothill attended the McLoughlin Area Plan (MAP) Open House on April 10 at Rex Putnam High School.  It was an especially useful community meeting, as the MAP outreach efforts to date were summarized into guiding principles in the areas of Economic Vitality, Transportation, Social, Design, Environment and Administrative.  There was lively discussion among approximately 50 residents.  This information offers Foothill a tremendous opportunity to build off of MAP’s robust public outreach effort that has reached hundreds of area residents.  Foothill was also able to advertise our April 24th Walking Workshop at the event.

“Investigating the past, enriching the future”

That’s the slogan of the Oak Lodge History Detectives. On April 8, in search of more good ideas for our project, Foothill attended “Mapping Old Oak Grove Businesses & Special Places” , a community mapping event organized by The Detectives. We learned more about the origin of the name of the community. From the Detectives’ website:

“The author of Oregon Geographic Names credits a member of the survey team for suggesting the name Oak Grove, based on an area they came upon for lunch — “a fine grove of oak trees in the northwest part of the tract.”

Old Oak Grove Downtown

We learned that during the era of the Trolley, “downtown Oak Grove” used to host a soda fountain, a post office, antique shops, grocery stores, butcher shops and much more.

What can the era of the Trolley Trail bring to Oak Grove Boulevard? That’s one of the questions we’re investigating in this project, with your help.

Foothill attends March 29th MAP Committee Meeting

On March 29th, Foothill attended the MAP committee meeting. Listening in at this meeting provided insight into community perspectives expressed in the Community Questionnaire. Results from this questionnaire can be found in the library on the MAP web site: www.mcloughlinareaplan.org. Foothill is excited to see how this working session shapes the community vision, values and guiding principles that will be presented to the public at the next MAP open house on April 10.