
Construction on the three-acre Gateway Discovery Park continues despite the recent severe winter storms. It is still set to open this fall.
STAFF/2017
According to Mark Ross from Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R), three innovative community projects—the Argay Tennis Courts, Gateway Discovery Park and Luuwit View Park—are seeing brisk development despite concerns over snowy setbacks.
Argay Tennis Courts
The Argay Tennis Courts, a Parks Replacement Bond project, is about to enter the bidding process. The project is part of the city’s Prime Contractor Development Program (PCDP), which dutifully invests in MWESB (minority/women/emerging small businesses).
Construction is expected during the summertime, but a more specific schedule will be released once a contractor is procured.
The Argay community has spoken, and PP&R is preserving four of the park’s holly trees—two green and two variegated—in honor of the site’s historical geography. Additionally, three dying shade trees (Betula pendula—European white birch) will be removed, and fourteen new trees will be planted in place of the ejected holly trees. Among the new trees, visitors to the Argay Tennis Courts can expect six Green Vase zelkovas, six Douglas firs, and two Shumard red oaks.
Any trees being removed will meet their demise August 1, following bird-nesting season.
Gateway Discovery Park
With progress delayed due to the tumultuous winter snows, Gateway Discovery Park still clings to a prospective opening in fall 2017.
The park will house 3.2 acres located on the corner of Northeast Halsey Street and Northeast 106th Avenue. Some of its most attractive features include a programmed urban plaza, green space, an inclusive nature playground, a skate dot and a picnic area. The park’s aim is to afford the Hazelwood, Mill Park and Woodland Park neighborhoods public amenities that they currently lack in a concentrated effort to get kids—and adults—outdoors.
Portland Parks & Recreation is now seeking your input for events and activities that could become part of Gateway Discovery Park. Visit the project page at portlandoregon.gov/parks/66064.

In addition to a security fence around the Luuwit View Park construction site, a second fence went up around the skate park site as skateboarders began using it on weekends shortly after it was completed last fall. The 16-acre park in Argay Terrace is set to open this fall.
STAFF/2017
Luuwit View Park
Also phased by the weather delays that have stunted the construction of Gateway Discovery Park, Luuwit View Park remains on schedule. This is surprising, considering it is very difficult to perform “earthwork” in extraordinarily wet conditions.
Over the next few weeks, the picnic shelter will be assembled, and the park’s restroom building will be completed. Trees are expected to be planted along with lawns and meadows that need to be seeded once spring arrives and the climate warms up.
A quick refresher: Luuwit View Park dominates 16 acres adjacent to Shaver Elementary School on Northeast 131st Place in Northeast Portland’s Argay Terrace neighborhood between Northeast Shaver and Fremont streets. Amenities include a soccer field and a basketball court, accessible play and picnic areas, parking, multiple community gardens and a fenced off-leash dog area. There will also be foot and bike paths with sweeping views of Luuwit (Native American lingo for “Mt. St. Helens”), a glorious vista. n