PP&R Press Release

Portland City Council unanimously passes resolution on Mt. Tabor Central Maintenance Yard and Nursery: Press release from Portland Parks & Recreation, regarding Resolution passed by City Council.

Also posted on Linda Robinson’s Team4PortlandParks blog, with some good commentary.

Portland Mercury story, September 2007

Hall Monitor: A (costly) walk in the park, by Scott Moore • September 27, 2007

Nearly a year ago, the Portland Parks and Recreation Department sent Southeast neighbors into a seething frenzy when it entered into an agreement to potentially sell off part of Mt. Tabor Park to Warner Pacific College (a Christian school!).

When the poop hit the fan, Parks director Zari Santner backpedaled, and Parks Commissioner Dan Saltzman denied ever having approved it. The talks with the school quickly ended, but there remained lingering questions—like what to do with the land. The maintenance facility on the space, which services every park in the city, was and is crumbling, and something needs to be done to improve the area and appease the Mt. Tabor neighbors.

read more…

News story about 9/07 Resolution, from KGW

City won’t sell part of Mt. Tabor Park to college • Thursday, September 27, 2007

In the wake of a controversial plan by city leaders to sell part of Mt. Tabor Park — a plan that provoked neighbor’s anger and accusations of secret deals — officials announced Thursday that the City of Portland won’t sell the land to Warner Pacific College.

Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday calling for an update of the Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan; with the council’s approval, the public process to update the master plan for Mt. Tabor Park to include the 20-acre Central Maintenance Yard and Horticultural Service Center will move forward in January 2008.

read more…

Resolution 36539 (enacted Sept. 26, 2007)

RESOLUTION No. 36539

video of City Council hearing (RealPlayer software required)

Update the Mt. Tabor Master Plan (Resolution).

WHEREAS, Mt. Tabor Park is one of the largest and most historic of the City’s parks; was envisioned in Olmsted’s 1903 Report to the Parks Board; and was established in 1909 by Parks Superintendent Emanuel Tillman Mische, a highly-trained horticulturist and long-time landscape designer in the Olmsted firm, who also established the Mt. Tabor Park Nursery in 1914, which continues today to provide trees and other plants that have helped to build the reputation of the City of Portland, and the region, as a place of both beauty and botanical interest, and

WHEREAS, the 1999 Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan focused on the public areas of the park and excluded the nearly 20 contiguous acres of the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery, and Long Block; and

WHEREAS, the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery, and Long Block are within the original, and current, boundaries of Mt. Tabor Park, which in its entirety was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004; and

City Council presentation and testimony

Video recording of presentation to Portland City Council (RealPlayer software required) for Resolution 39539. Testimony begins just after 1:13 into the video, you may want to skip ahead.

Also available:
agenda
transcript (coming soon – ?)

September, 2007 Resolution adopted by City Council

RESOLUTION No. 36539
Update the Mt. Tabor Master Plan (Resolution).

PDF file: cityauditor-cityrecorder-councilresolutions-36539

City record, for official document requests, is available here.

WHEREAS, Mt. Tabor Park is one of the largest and most historic of the City’s parks; was envisioned in Olmsted’s 1903 Report to the Parks Board; and was established in 1909 by Parks Superintendent Emanuel Tillman Mische, a highly-trained horticulturist and long-time landscape designer in the Olmsted firm, who also established the Mt. Tabor Park Nursery in 1914, which continues today to provide trees and other plants that have helped to build the reputation of the City of Portland, and the region, as a place of both beauty and botanical interest, and
WHEREAS, the 1999 Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan focused on the public areas of the park and excluded the nearly 20 contiguous acres of the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery, and Long Block; and
WHEREAS, the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery, and Long Block are within the original, and current, boundaries of Mt. Tabor Park, which in its entirety was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004; and
WHEREAS, existing working conditions at the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery and Long Block do not meet organizational or employee needs; and
WHEREAS, the more than 100 employees who work from the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard are responsible for services that provide care for the entire park system, including horticultural, turf, plant material, tree production, fleet services, construction and
trades work, and maintenance of park structures and recreation facilities; and
WHEREAS, conflicting demands between recreational opportunities, open space, and the need to provide for the Parks staff and equipment that serve the entire park system can create tension, and often compete for limited space and financial resources; and
WHEREAS, Portland’s parks belong to the citizens, and those citizens want to be actively involved in decisions that substantially change the use of park land, or dispose of park land, and further want to participate in helping to identify opportunities for broader public discussion and involvement; and
WHEREAS, Bureau Innovation Project #9, developed by Public Involvement staff throughout the City, provides a tool and a process for such decision making; and
WHEREAS, it was the intention of the Portland City Council for Portland Parks & Recreation staff to work with the community to identify a mutually supportable Public Involvement strategy dealing with the future of the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard; and
WHEREAS, community members and Portland Parks & Recreation staff mutually agree to update the Mt. Tabor Master Plan to include the important acreage in the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, Nursery, and Long Block, and in so doing, to understand and carefully take into consideration the critical needs of providing for the maintenance of the entire park system; and
WHEREAS, any changes must improve efficiency to park service delivery and be sustainable and environmentally sound; and
WHEREAS, the Mt. Tabor Joint Committee, a group composed of more than 20 community stakeholders working with Portland Parks & Recreation staff, collectively spent hundreds of hours, over more than four months, developing a Public Involvement process, aligned with the Bureau Innovation Project #9, that extends beyond the recreational possibilities for the land to include the critical nature of the maintenance and horticulture needs of the whole park system and provide safe and efficient space to deliver exceptional service.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Portland City Council supports the updating of the Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan to include the parcel commonly referred to as the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard, and including the Nursery and Long Block, in a process that follows the Public Involvement proposal brought forth by the Mt Tabor Joint Committee; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this process will:
• Be open, transparent, community-wide and inclusive – where all ideas are welcomed and considered; and
• Explore the best use of the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard and Nursery within the public domain, and under public administration consistent with the values articulated in the current Mt. Tabor Park Master Plan; and
• Consider community and Portland Parks & Recreation pros and cons for maintaining, refurbishing, enhancing, or relocating the Mt. Tabor Park Central Maintenance Yard and Nursery; and
• Conduct financial analyses in response to the needs identified during the public process; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the work will commence when funds are allocated, and be completed within 12 months of that time; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Portland City Council commit to prioritizing the necessary funds in the amount of $465,000 to complete this Master Plan Update work in the budget process.

Adopted by the Council: September 26, 2007

Commissioner Dan Saltzman
Prepared by: Karen Loper

September 13, 2007
GARY BLACKMER
Auditor of the City of Portland
By /S/ Susan Parsons
Deputy

BACKING SHEET INFORMATION
AGENDA NO. 1135-2007
ORDINANCE/RESOLUTION/COUNCIL DOCUMENT NO.
36539
COMMISSIONERS VOTED AS FOLLOWS:

(reformatted for clarity by Pete Forsyth)

YEAS: Adams, Leonard, Saltzman, Potter
NAYS: none
ABSENT: Sten

Mt. Tabor Park written up in Seattle Times

Portland’s Mount Tabor Park
Full story at Seattle Times web site

Mt. Tabor park drawing media attention from out of state

Location: Portland, Ore.

Length: Several miles of trails.

Level of difficulty: Level-to-moderate dirt, gravel and paved paths.

Setting: This beautiful city treasure of a park designed by the Olmsted Brothers suddenly rises up from the middle of a nice residential neighborhood in southeast Portland like a little volcano. Actually, that’s exactly what Mount Tabor is — a little volcanic cinder cone from the surrounding Boring Lava Field that’s been extinct for about 300,000 years. This little feature makes Portland one of only two cities in the continental U.S. (the other is Bend, Ore.) to have an extinct volcano within its boundaries. In fact, its cinders were used to help pave the park’s roads.