Last month, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the long-awaited new park in the Argay Terrace neighborhood in Parkrose. Named Luuwit View—the Klickitat Indian name and spelling for Mount St. Helens—the 16-acre park is expected to open in fall 2017.
STAFF/2016
Last month, the groundbreaking ceremony for the long awaited Luuwit View Park—formerly known as Beech Park—in east Portland’s Argay Terrace neighborhood marked a milestone some 51 years in the making. When completed in mid to late 2017, the new bow-tie shaped park—the only such design in the city’s system—located in the southwest corner of the neighborhood will serve not only Argay Terrace’s more than 6,000 residents but also surrounding neighborhoods.
Named for the Klickitat word for Mount St. Helens, Luuwit View joins the original nine-acre Argay Park located in the extreme northeast corner of the neighborhood. At nearly twice the size of Argay, the 16-acre park is going to be expansive: there will be manicured bike paths, dog walking areas, sports fields for soccer and hoops for basketball, areas designated for skateboarding and community gardens, as well as gracious water features for children during hot summer days.
First envisioned by the original Argay Terrace developers in the early 1960s, the park’s initial 10-acre parcel was purchased by Multnomah County from local farmer Albert Garre in June of 1965, with development to soon follow. The park never materialized; however, promises continued.
Promises were made by the city to encourage a vote in favor of the 1984 annexation. An additional six acres were purchased in 2000 from the Garres. Finally, the development of an official Beech Park Master Plan, a carefully crafted effort of city staff, a private consulting firm, and the input of local residents within Argay Terrace and the surrounding neighborhoods, was completed in 2008 (“Beech Park Planning begins with children” MCM June 2008). The Master Plan was the penultimate missing piece to make Beech Park a reality; the final piece was the funding (“Beech Park Master Plan unveiled” MCM October 2008). The sharp recession in the late 2000s kept that on hold. Meanwhile, the Garres continued to farm the parcel in an agreement with the city.
With funding made available through the reallocation of city development charges to play “catch-up” on similar long-promised and long-delayed east Portland projects, Commissioner Amanda Fritz matched the available budget to estimated development costs and in early 2014 determined that it was time the promise of Beech Park became a reality. A final round of reviews, public input and plan updates were made, and the design finalized only a few months ago.
“This Park will ROCK,” said Shaver Elementary second-grader Kyera in May 2008. She was one of dozens of Shaver Elementary students who drew the amenities they wanted the future park to have during a community workshop. “It’ll rock because it will have giant slides and swings and monkey bars and a tire swing and a huge pool,” she said then. Well Kyera, there’s no pool; however, it will have water features, and yes, just like you wanted in 2008, it’ll have a play area with swings and slides.
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The city’s groundbreaking event itself was a carefully orchestrated but thinly attended event that centered around Native American culture—just as the Discovery Park groundbreaking ceremony did in May—celebrating and justifying the name selected by the city staff in the last few weeks before final plan approval. The name itself is causing some issues, as its derivation has to be repeatedly explained and justified and was assigned with little neighborhood input (“Park planning process poor on public involvement” MCM January 2016). “This is happening because of advocacy, people at the neighborhood level taking ownership of their birthright,” said Mayor Charlie Hales at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Stewardship matters: that shared sense of ownership over the long run.”
From an overall neighborhood perspective and based on his career as an appraiser, consultant, and principal broker, Al Brown, a 25-year resident of Argay Terrace and the Argay Terrace Association’s land use chair, sees some less obvious but very significant benefits. “Argay Terrace rightfully takes pride in being one of the most ethnically and financially diverse neighborhoods in Portland. Beyond the obvious recreational amenities, the park is the type of public improvement which breathes new life into a community,” he said. “In 1965, my aunt and uncle pointed to this land out their window and said their kids would play in a new park there. Now it’s those kids’ kids who will finally get to see it.”
For Brown, Luuwit View Park’s very name is met with divisive unease. Brown noted that there is little Native American influence in the neighborhood and that many locals had trouble spelling the word. Even the city itself had trouble spelling the name properly, originally spelling it “Loowit.” Brown stressed that Luuwit View Park’s name may make it more difficult to locate within the neighborhood, whereas Beech Park was obvious in comparison. After all, the park was initially strategically thought of as Beech Park due to its location at the end of Northeast Beech Street. “Unfortunately, many of the names of those who spent countless hours over the decades promoting development of the park go unrecorded and lost to history, but the neighborhood owes them a debt of gratitude,” he said.
In 2008, dozens of Shaver Elementary students participated in the visioning process for the new park, which included a tour of the adjacent grounds. By now, as most of these students have graduated from high school, one hopes they return to see how much their visions for the new park came true.
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“I was on the planning committee from the beginning to the end. I attended all the public meetings and the sessions we had, and I felt the planning of this park was well organized, with much soliciting of neighbor’s opinions,” said Fred Colley, a longtime Argay resident and consistent dog-walker who has regularly utilized the park and its environs since 1990. In addition, Colley said safety and parking were two of the bigger issues during the planning stages. However, Colley does express remorse for the fateful cutting of several historical trees on the site in creating the park. “I tried to advocate to save the trees on the land. The big trees are going to go on the field, and that’s one thing I don’t particularly like.”
Luuwit will have its own parking lot with good lighting at night. Adjacent homes will have a clear view into other areas of the park.
Along with the over $1 million dollars of improvements to be made over the next two years to Argay Park (“Tennis courts get million-dollar makeover” MCM May 2016), Brown said, “It shows all of Portland the value that the government of our city sees in our neighborhood.”
One issue yet to be resolved is the potential for a wall of three-story apartments, which could be developed just 10 feet from the border of the new park under the city’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan.
The park was set to be fenced by the end of June, according to PP&R Project Manager Britta Herwig, but by press time at the end of June, it was still wide open. For more information about Luuwit View, call or email Herwig at 503-823-5476, britta.herwig@portlandoregon.gov.
Beech (now Luuwit View) Park becomes a reality next year. The concentrated effort of dozens of people over the years made it happen. The wheels of government grind very slowly, but sometimes, through persistence and neighborhood involvement, there is a victory—even if it takes five decades.
