property looking south on
the I-205 bike path toward
NE Halsey.
(Photos © J. Maus)
The effort to build turn 35 acres of vacant land in east Portland into an off-road trails park and bike recreation to be called “Gateway Green” is moving forward nicely.
Last week I bumped into parks and neighborhood advocate extraordinaire Linda Robinson at the Metro quarterly trails meeting. Robinson, along with developer Ted Gilbert, is spearheading the Gateway Green project.
Robinson said they’ve received a small neighborhood grant to put together a “Friends of Gateway Green” organization. The grant was awarded through the parks subcommittee of the Hazelwood Neighborhood Association. According to Robinson, the funds will go toward creation of a brochure, a website and a kickoff event. Membership opportunities will also be coming soon.
In addition to this new group, an important “Kick the Dirt” event will take place at the Gateway Green site this weekend. The invite-only event will be attended by 25-30 bike trail and facilities experts from around the region. The goal of the event will be to brainstorm ideas and tell the project staff what type of bike facilities might work at the site.
A follow-up open house will be held in March or April where the ideas from Saturday’s event will be presented to the general public.
Download it (3MB, PDF)
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) currently owns the land and must sign-off on any transfer. Last year they awarded the Gateway Green project $50,000 to undertake studies required before the land can be conveyed.
Currently, the “vision” for Gateway Green includes a variety of cycling opportunities including cyclocross, a skills area, freeride/gravity routes and cross-country trails. The project would also link the site by bike/ped bridges to other publicly owned land on and around Rocky Butte and with the proposed Sullivan’s Gulch Trail.
Stay tuned for further developments on this exciting opportunity.