On December 14th, Montavilla businesses along NE Glisan Street are again hosting a special holiday event full of activities, discounts, and unique offerings. The Saturday Winter Wassail event spans the day during each location’s operating hours, with a street-wide celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. People should check the shops’ social media or the event page for specific extended hours and updates.
Some event highlights include Wreath Making Classes at Citrine Bloom, Wine Tasting at Replicant, and dried citrus ornament making at Sparrow Salon from 5 to 8 p.m. Event organizers describe it as a business celebration of the season when customers can feel comfortable walking NE Glisan with the added light from the storefronts open into the evening.
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On December 9th, the Montavilla Neighborhood Association (MNA) voted unanimously to sign the Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) for the Oak Street Village shelter site at 333 SE 82nd Avenue. The Multnomah County-owned property will open to temporary residents in early 2025, and formalizing a community agreement is a significant step toward launching this shelter. The 32-page non-binding document covers the signers’ shared commitment to adhere to their agreed responsibilities and follow set communication standards to resolve conflicts.
The GNA signers include the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the City of Portland, shelter services providers Straightway Services, the Montavilla East Tabor Business Association, and the MNA. Each party has distinct responsibilities and roles in the agreement, and the GNA can update through its duration with the consent of the signers. The MNA sees the Community Advisory Committee formed by the GNA as a critical part of the document’s strength. That committee meets monthly with members from each signing party and village residents to review operations in a collaborative problem-solving format. This continual engagement ensures the parties maintain strong lines of communication and identify opportunities for collaboration between the village participants and the Community.
The GNA establishes an Engagement Zone bordered by the west side of SE 80th Avenue, the east side of 83rd Avenue, the north side of SE Ash Street, and the south side of SE Stark Street. The City will grant high-priority services within the defined area, and the site operator commits to regularly engaging with people in the zone to limit community impacts around Oak Street Village. The prioritized city services include the removal of unsanctioned campsites or abandoned vehicles, emergency calls, non-emergency calls, and cleaning services. The City has to adhere to its policies regarding each service but agrees to rank occurrences higher in the Engagement Zone.
Zone map from GNA (Engagement Zone – Red, Good Neighbor Zone – Blue)
The GNA states that the service provider will initially favor referrals into Oak Street Village from Montavilla’s unsheltered population, potentially reducing the number of persistent unsanctioned campsites in the neighborhood. This site prioritizes individuals living in vehicles who want to keep their car while moving into sleeping pods. Oak Street Village supports people making that transition by offering onsite parking for one personal vehicle per resident. This somewhat unique shelter feature generated many questions from neighbors during community engagement meetings. The GNA includes Straightway Services’ written policies, which outline the provider’s prohibition of onsite vehicle repair, prolonged idling, sleeping in a vehicle, or extensive property storage in the cars. The cars must fit within the marked parking stalls, blocking the storage of recreational vehicles or other oversized trucks. Owners of parked cars leaking fluids must use drip pans and properly dispose of hazardous materials to prevent runoff contamination of the stormwater system.
The agreement also covers future site placement, limiting Multnomah County’s expansion of the JOHS Community Sheltering Strategy within the Good Neighbor Zone. The Good Neighbor Zone surrounding the Engagement Zone is bordered by SE 75th Avenue, SE 88th Avenue, E Burnside Street, and SE Yamhill Street. It also has an extension from E Burnside Street up NE 80th Avenue and NE 82nd Avenue to incorporate the Vestal School. This agreement and other potential sites with a similar GNA will significantly reduce the potential for more County-owned sites along Montavilla’s section of 82nd Avenue.
The GNA mandates the regular collection of metrics to track the shelter’s impact on the neighborhood. Members of the Community Advisory Committee will monitor the data, which will become publicly accessible through existing dashboards and other group communications. As the County prepares a second site at 1818 SE 82nd Avenue, this GNA will likely play an influential role in that site’s Good Neighbor Agreement. The other parties will have to sign the document, but JOHS leaders expect that will happen before the residents begin moving into the 333 SE 82nd Avenue site.
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The culinary training organization Stone Soup PDX recently relocated its operations from downtown Portland to the Beacon at Glisan Landing building on the corner of NE 74th Avenue and Glisan Street. Educational programs are currently underway inside the storefront space, and their publicly accessible cafe will open in March 2025, when they expect residents to move into the apartments above the shop. This location will provide people facing employment barriers with critical job skills through a 12-week program.
Stone Soup occupies three adjacent storefronts in the newly constructed NE Glisan Street building. The corner cafe will operate as a community-facing space, selling morning coffee, pastries, and cookies. Throughout the weekdays, they intend to have a more extensive menu in the cafe, offering soup and other meals prepared in the training kitchen next door or from the group’s production kitchen on SE Powell Boulevard.
The third Montavilla storefront serves as Stone Soup’s classroom. In the space, program participants receive basic instruction and engage in weekly “check-ins” with the support services coordinators who work to ensure students have the supplies needed to succeed in the program. According to Ellen Damaschino, Executive Director at the nonprofit, this can include help with transit, work-appropriate clothing, or USB cables needed to keep their phones charged. Damaschino explained that culinary skills are the central curriculum in the program. However, the instructors also teach workplace success tactics to help people find jobs and stay employed in various fields. “Some of our participants are also interested in using the skills we teach in resume building, getting to work on time, and working with others to maybe enter other fields, which is OK with us. Culinary is [just one] way for us to get people into work,” said Damaschino.
Stone Soup PDX opened in its original location on NW Everett and Broadway in 2019. They operated primarily as a cafe and training kitchen until COVID-19 forced a shift in the group’s operations. “So it slowed down a lot during the pandemic, and that is when we really kicked up the Community Meals program,” recalled Damaschino. “We make about 1,500 meals a week for the community. Those are for places like shelters, mental health facilities, and transitional housing. So exactly the places that our participants come from.” That shift allowed the organization to open a production kitchen on SE Powell Boulevard, where program participants spend their final four weeks cooking meals that volunteer drivers transport to Portland locations.
When Stone Soup backed away from serving walk-in customers downtown in favor of providing delivery meals, they expanded training operations wherever they could. However, that downtown space was not ideal for the growing program. “It was originally opened as a restaurant and a cafe, and they were making the basement downstairs into a school. So when Catholic Charities approached us about this space [on NE Glisan] that would have an externally facing cafe again, a brand new kitchen, and a classroom space, it was very enticing to take that space and jettison our old space, which wasn’t really working for us,” said Damaschino.
Classroom kitchen on NE Glisan courtesy Stone Soup PDX (Julia Granet)
The Beacon at Glisan Landing offers 41 Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) units above the ground-floor storefronts. Damaschino sees an opportunity for a symbiotic relationship with the building’s residents and the families living in the adjacent affordable housing complex. They want to create programs teaching home cooking to their neighbors and work to assist those around them with access to healthy foods. PSH program operators may also guide some residents into the program. “We mostly have a referral in program, you can join just by signing up, but we have found that it is better if people are in some kind of housing, whether it’s transitional or shelter. We have found that people who are housed have had better success in the program,” explained Damaschino.
Many students are recently houseless and need help finding employment that can secure stable housing. However, Stone Soup designed programs for anyone with employment barriers, including young people without any work experience, people who recently transitioned back into the workforce, or those looking to switch jobs but have limited resources. “We recently had a graduate in his 60s who wanted a career change. [He was] on a fixed income and felt worried about retirement. Now, he’s working at a retirement community as a chef. So that’s a success story for us,” remarked Damaschino. Program instructors segment the classes into three tiers, each lasting four weeks. All tiers currently have eight people learning culinary and workplace skills. Damaschino explained that they intend to grow the program’s 24-person capacity to 30 with this new location. The organization often has around 35 to 45 people waiting for a place in the program, providing a sustainable flow of participants.
The menu taught to students changes with each class and the season. “Our community meals vary in what we make. We also try to engage the participants and meet them where they’re at. In the first and second tiers, we ask what they want to learn, matching them with skills that are also going to get them jobs. Often, in the community kitchen, we’ll make lasagna or enchiladas. We always have salads, and we [make] nice soups and stews in the winter,” said Damaschino. “We tend to make meals that shelters respond to. We want to make things that kids are going to eat, and the parents are going to eat in the shelter. We want them to be nutritious and we follow the county’s guidelines, so we have a dietitian that we work with.”
As Stone Soup transitions into this new space, they hope to build the same level of community integration they developed in their years downtown. “We partner with our community. So, if we had too many onions, we would offer them to other nonprofits in the area. People were giving us food, and we were giving them food. We want to make ourselves visible and useful,” explained Damaschino. The group works to avoid food waste and shares practice meals when they have a surplus by allowing participants to take food back home to their communities.
In addition to a core group of instructors who came to the program from culinary or social services professions, Stone Soup relies on ten to 20 volunteers per week who distribute prepared meals to the customer organizations. Damaschino explained that they intend to keep growing their educational offering, filling the gaps in Portland’s food-related employment sector. “We want to see Stone Soup as the premier workforce training program. All the culinary schools are gone from the area,” remarked Damaschino. She feels Portland has a significant need for what this organization can offer the community. People can already see weekday activity in the storefront now and should expect to see the cafe open in March.
Starting this December, the Montavilla business community will launch into a month-long celebration of the Winter holidays. Businesses and organizations will offer a mix of giving opportunities while encouraging people to support their community through shopping locally. Even without spending money, people can participate through two free events offered on SE Stark Street to get into the seasonal mood with friends and neighbors.
Next Saturday, the Montavilla East Tabor Business Association (METBA) will host its Tree Lighting in the public plaza at SE 79th Avenue and Stark Street. The tree lighting ceremony will take place on December 7th from 4 to 6 p.m. Organizers will light up the Montavilla holiday tree at 5 p.m. and serve hot cocoa while supplies last. Participants can enjoy community cheer and seasonal music as they start the countdown to the new year.
A week later, on December 14th, people can gather for a free Santa picture event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Board Bard Games. The gaming shop at 7960 SE Stark Street will offer an opportunity to take a seasonal family picture with Santa. People waiting for their turn to pose with the jolly icon can partake in hot cocoa and other treats. The organizers remind people to bring their own cameras to capture the moment.
Shopping locally is essential to maintaining a strong community, and METBA wants to reward those who help keep Montavilla thriving. From December 1st through the 21st, people who eat, drink, shop, and recreate at participating businesses will earn raffle entries through completed passports. Every qualifying purchase of $5 or more from the list of locations earns a sticker to go inside a passport. Participating businesses will have passports to get people started, and collecting six stickers completes a passport. Each entry increases your odds of winning the raffle, and there is no limit to the number of passports a person can complete. To enter, drop off completed passports at Redwood at 7915 SE Stark Street or Arbor Hall at 7907 SE Stark Street by the close of business on December 21st.
Graphic courtesy METBA
As a bonus, purchases made during the Merry Montavilla Soiree on December 21st earn participants two stickers for their passports. The Soiree is a one-day event full of special offers and discounts to help last-minute shoppers and Portlanders looking for a special night out.
Many Montavilla shops are embracing the giving season with a donation drive. Participating businesses will collect Adult-sized jackets or coats, warm hats, gloves, scarves, hand warmers, and sleeping bags for Rahab’s Sisters. The organization’s beneficiaries will appreciate those new and gently used items during the cold weather. Rahab’s Sisters have a particular need for plus-size or extended-size donations. Participating locations are listed on the METBA website.
Montavilla Brew Works at 7805 SE Stark Street will host a special Giving Tuesday event on December 3rd, supporting Cultivate Initiatives. Giving Tuesday follows the busy seasonal shopping days and encourages people to support local organizations supporting positive change in their communities. Michael Kora from Montavilla Brew Works explained that his company has a long relationship with Cultivate Initiatives’ leadership, which has grown into the brewery’s expanded support of the group’s efforts. “Over the years, we’ve spearheaded a winter clothing donation drive in the neighborhood that directly supports the more marginalized people in our neighborhood and beyond. With its success during the winter season, we eventually just made it an all-year-long donation drive.”
Graphic courtesy Montavilla Brew Works
Montavilla Brew Works’ Giving Tuesday event runs from 5 to 8 p.m., and donators will receive $1 off their first beverage. People should bring new or gently used warm clothing. They will also accept new underwear, socks, pet food, and hygiene products. Briel’s Barbecue popup will sell food at the event, but Kora noted the BBQ food often sells out and recommends people stop by early. This event is limited to people 21 or older, and organizers hope people will have a good time while supporting a cause they care about.
Once again, Montavilla businesses are doing what they can to celebrate the winter through giving and creating a space for people to enjoy the company of their community.
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Recently, the owners of the wedge-shaped property at 7910 SE Division Street listed the two-storefront and single residence for sale. The triangular 1966-era cement-block building follows the angle created by SE Division’s curved alignment at SE 82nd Avenue. The property sells with two long-term commercial tenants, but one of those businesses has left its store vacant for almost two years.
The westward-facing retail space leased by Cookies Rose City Dispensary closed for construction in January 2023 and has not reopened. In October 2023, crews completed repair work caused by a vehicle collision and cleaned up the chaotic parking lot that featured a smashed security car. The 9,000-square-foot property is zoned Commercial Mixed Use 2, allowing a new owner to create up to four stories of mixed-use redevelopment. The property sits across the street from Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus and is within blocks of some of the best transit connections in the city, making it an ideal location for housing.
The building, as currently configured, offers a century-old design for commercial property. The three-bedroom, 1,294-square-foot, top-floor apartment creates an opportunity for a family to live above their small business. This once common practice for storefront design changed with post-war zoning that mostly separated residential and commercial development. However, for some family-run business owners, having quick access to work from home lets people balance competing responsibilities.
The space held by the inactive Cookies Dispensary was once a corner market and later a cafe. A return of an active general-purpose storefront at that location would benefit the growing number of nearby residences looking for more options west of SE 82nd Avenue and the college students looking for a walkable off-campus excursion.
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Harrison Birds Eye View titled image courtesy JOHS
This proposed shelter at SE 82nd Avenue and Mill Street is just 15 blocks south of the site under construction. Several JOHS documents refer to the site as Harrison Village. However, County staff changed the working title for Oak Street Village during community engagement, and the Harrison Village name could be a placeholder. JOHS plans to install 38 sleeping pods and larger portable units that will house showers, bathrooms, kitchenette space, and a laundry facility for residents. Like other shelters of this type, outreach specialists refer people into this temporary housing, and residents receive case management with the support necessary to move into more stable housing.
JOHS staff anticipate that this second County-owned Montavilla shelter will begin serving unhoused community members in late 2025. Organizers ask that people RSVP for the 6 p.m. meeting that will take place within the Montavilla United Methodist Church at 232 SE 80th Avenue. Attendees will learn more about the JOHS plan for the site and have the opportunity to provide feedback about the project’s design layout. The hour-and-a-half meeting should conclude around 7:30 p.m. People interested in staying informed but unable to attend the Thursday night gathering can follow the JOHS site for details.
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Red Shed Christmas Trees will officially reopen its seasonal Montavillage location in the Vinje & Son’s parking lot near SE 78th Avenue and Washington Street on November 29th after the Thanksgiving holiday. However, shoppers looking to beat the rush can find a wide selection of Douglas, Nordmann, Grand, and Noble Fir trees by shopping early, as long as they do not mind dodging staff setting up the lot. Trees selection ranges from tabletop two-foot decorations to 15-foot tall trees, including potted live trees. Shoppers can buy wreaths, garlands, and other decorations to extend their holiday decor. Owner Lesle Janssen has once again brought in local artists and makers to sell their crafts at a gift boutique located at the southeast corner of the property.
Red Shed staff are still setting up but people can shop for trees now
All Red Shed trees come from Greg Smith’s Molalla Tree Farms, where they locally harvested them with minimal pesticides. With 200 acres of naturally grown product, Janssen values the dependable relationship with the Molalla, Oregon, grower. “I really like Greg. He puts a lot of love into his trees. He has many different fields to choose from. So when there’s a hot summer. There’s a blight. There’s this. There’s that. He still has things to choose from, so we’re always getting good trees,” said Janssen.
As with previous years, Red Shed Trees is cash only to keep their prices low and maintain a respectful salary for the seasonal staff. That saves processing fees and reduces the payment bottleneck that complicates checkout. Lesle Janssen often makes space in her tree lot for free festive activities. As in previous years, Peter McNamee Photography provided Mount Hood and Crater Lake shots on massive backdrops for people to pose against for free self-service portraits.
David Kelly and Lesle Janssen in Seasonal Boutique stand 2023
McNamee is a Montavilla resident and one of the vendors selling their works in the boutique. The pottery and soaps from Shane Reaney Studios will also return to the holiday supply booth. For those looking for a mood-setting addition to their centerpiece, Hannah Miller sells distinctive beeswax candles through her company, Waxing & Raining Handmade Goods. The boutique will also carry pocket mistletoe, felted and crocheted. Sugar pinecones are the newest addition to the holiday decorating options sold by Red Shed. Janssen described them as “huge and off the hook.” Shoppers can also purchase confections made by McTavish Shortbread for an edible treat while supplies last. These baked-to-order items are a special treat rarely available in small quantities and often sell out, but Janssen plans to have a good supply this year.
Red Shed Christmas Trees is open during setup and will remain open until they run out of stock. People can visit the lot daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an additional hour in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays. They have both standard wreaths and hard-to-find juniper wreaths. Garland is sold by the foot, up to 75 feet long, and customers needing to buy a stand or arrange delivery also have options. Red Shed is a Montavilla tradition, serving 3,000 residents each year, and they are the official supplier of the community Holiday Tree installed in the Public Plaza at SE 79th Avenue and Stark Street. The tree-lighting ceremony will take place on Saturday, December 7th, from 4 to 6 p.m. Organizers will light up the Montavilla Plaza Christmas tree at 5 p.m.
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Volunteers of America Oregon (VOA Oregon) recently announced its President and CEO, Kay Toran, will retire in the first quarter of 2025. For over 25 years, she led the 128-year-old social services and community support organization as the first Black woman to serve in that role. Toran was instrumental in VOA Oregon’s purchase of a NE Glisan and 90th Avenue property that will host a new campus and treatment center. Her quarter-century of leadership will have a lasting impact on Oregon and the Montavilla neighborhood long after she completes her work with VOA Oregon.
Toran’s career included several management positions in the State of Oregon, culminating in six years as the Director of Oregon’s Child Welfare Agency and seven years as the Director of Oregon’s Affirmative Action Office. She received the Portland State University Center for Women’s Leadership Power Lunch 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award and the CEO of the Year for Non-Profits from the Portland Business Journal. A Portland native, she graduated from the University of Portland with a BA in Sociology and Psychology. Later, Toran attended Portland State University, earning an MSW from the School of Social Work, and later joined the educational institution as an Assistant Professor of Social Work.
Looking Northwest at future NE Glisan site. Rendering by Opsis Architecture provided courtesy VOA Oregon
Kay Toran is known for leading VOA Oregon in innovative new directions that better serve the community. She has expanded programs addressing addiction recovery, reentry services, domestic and sexual violence, and early childhood education. Her efforts to create a new six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street will significantly enhance the organization’s capabilities, consolidating administrative services and some of its substance use, behavioral health, and childcare services onto a long-dormant church property.
Organization leaders and the VOA Oregon board are committed to seeing the Montavilla project continue to fruition. VOA Oregon will announce details regarding the transition to new leadership in the coming months. The organization is actively working with a recruiting partner to find a new leader whose vision for the services provider can continue the growth trajectory that Toran enabled. VOA Oregon will host a retirement celebration for Kay Toran on March 6, 2025, paying tribute to her life’s work. The celebration will recognize her advocacy for underserved populations, which focused on addiction treatment and support for women in crisis.
Title image of VOA Oregon’s President and CEO Kay Toran provided courtesy of Volunteers of America Oregon
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On November 19th, TriMet publicly unveiled its new transit mobility facility in a naming ceremony that honored transit accessibility advocate Jan Campbell for her decades of service and dedication. Starting Monday, November 25th, people will begin attending the new Jan Campbell Transit Mobility Center in the Lloyd neighborhood to interview and confirm eligibility for TriMet LIFT Paratransit Service.
As with TriMet’s current Mobility Center located on NW 5th Avenue and Davis Street, this new center at 710 NE Holladay Street will perform a critical step in assessing a rider’s capabilities before receiving LIFT services. Every applicant must complete an in-person interview with a LIFT Eligibility Coordinator and engage in a physical assessment on the Transit Mobility Course. The indoor course simulates some obstacles individuals with disabilities may face when commuting on TriMet’s fixed route service.
TriMet offers the LIFT Paratransit Service to people whose physical or mental impairment might prevent them from using fixed route service. Consequentially, TriMet needs to interact with people requesting the service every three years on average to determine if they meet LIFT eligibility. This new facility features mockup bus layouts, ramps, and a variety of ground conditions. In addition to observing a person’s ability to ride standard accessible transit vehicles, evaluators observe people’s capabilities in traveling to and from bus stops or MAX stations. The course has facilities to simulate waiting at a stop or station, boarding, and exiting vehicles.
The new facility is next to the NE 7th Ave MAX station for convenient access. However, TriMet offers complementary LIFT rides to and from the Transit Mobility Center for each applicant’s eligibility appointment. This investment in new facilities is part of TriMet’s continued dedication to building an accessible transit system, and the speakers at the Tuesday afternoon naming ceremony attributed those efforts, in part, to the center’s namesake, Jan Campbell. “For nearly 40 years, she has been more than an advocate. She’s been a guiding light leading the way,” said TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. “As our Chair of the Committee on Accessible Transportation, also known as CAT, her leadership has set a high standard for accessibility and inclusion at TriMet, shaping our services to reflect values that matter – equity, dignity, opportunity for all.”
TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. hugging Jan Campbell
Desue explained to the audience at the ceremony that CAT, under Campbell’s leadership, has ensured TriMet not only meets minimum accessibility requirements but also embodies the ideas of universal design, where services are usable by people of all abilities from its inception. “Jane’s work has touched every corner of our system, from our LIFT paratransit program, which now provides thousands of essential rides every day, to accessible features on our buses and our trains, empowering riders to travel independently,” said Desue.
Jan Campbell next to a enlarged version of the plaque that will greet visitors to the center
Jan Campbell expressed her gratitude for naming this facility after her during her lifetime with a bit of humor. “Actually, I haven’t passed yet, so it’s really cool. I know we honor many people after they’ve passed, and this means so much to me.” She explained that this TriMet honor is a significant recognition of her work because public transportation is the only option for many people with disabilities and older adults. “If you don’t have transportation, you just stay at home and rely on others for everything,” said Campbell. “I used to work very closely with Mayor Vera Katz when I worked for the City and the County, I was a liaison between the government and community regarding compliance to ADA. As an older adult, Vera became very ill and acquired a disability. I saw her on the streetcar one day, and she told me that she now understood why I was always coming to City Council or to the bureau’s trying to make change. She got it,” explained Campbell.
Disability is considered the only minority group that a person can become a part of at any point in their life, whether through an accident, illness, or aging. Jan Campbell’s path to a lifetime of advocacy began in childhood. “I became disabled at a very early age from a virus that attacked my spine and paralyzed me. I was never able to enjoy many things as a child because very little was accessible and I always had to depend on others for getting around growing up. Into young adulthood, I had to rely on others for transportation and strangers to carry me up and down stairs through college,” recalled Campbell. Her experience living in a pre Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) country motivated Campbell to become a voice for societal change. She served as the Disability Project Coordinator for the City of Portland and Multnomah County for 23 years. She contributed to the founding of TriMet’s Committee on Accessibility in 1985, where she has served as chair ever since. Campbell serves on the Board of Directors for Disability Rights Oregon and is a Northwest ADA Center’s Regional Advisory Committee member.
Naming the center for Jan Campbell is a significant recognition of her contribution, but the facility is worthy of celebration on its own. “This center here will stand as a beacon of service, a place where older adults and people with disabilities can find personalized support and resources. It will be a symbol of what’s possible when advocacy, partnership, and shared purpose come together,” said Desue. TriMet is a national leader in accessible transit. For many of the thousands of Portlanders with a disability, it is an essential service, and this new facility will better meet their needs. “TriMet has given me the independence and freedom so that I can work, participate on committees and boards to put disability on their agenda, and just enjoy life like everyone else,” said Campbell.
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The Bird Alliance of Oregon recently completed its purchase of a 12.51-acre property on NE 82nd Avenue across from Leodis V. McDaniel High School. For decades, this overgrown field was known for the graffiti-covered remnants of a golf driving range built on top of a landfilled quarry. Within the next several years, it will become a new wildlife hospital and nature sanctuary for the 122-year-old organization formally known as Portland Audubon.
The organization plans to restore much of the land to its native habitat with nature trails and park space for public use. The site’s proximity to schools and connectivity to the MAX light rail and Portland’s most active bus line made it an ideal location for the Bird Alliance of Oregon to host educational programs and showcase its wildlife viewing opportunities. Portland has limited sites that offer the continuous acres needed for a wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center. The organization operates year-round, providing injured native birds and other wildlife opportunities to return to the wild. This site will support a new building expected to double the floor area of the Bird Alliance’s current Center with the capacity to treat more than 6,000 animals a year. The site’s topography is challenging for any development, and other potential buyers have failed in past attempts to transform it into a large shopping complex.
Aerial image from Portland Maps
The Rose City Sand and Gravel company excavated an 80-foot-deep hole in the center of the site during its many years in operation. Around 1972, site owners converted operations to support the H.G. LaVelle landfill. Over the next ten years, they filled the pit with construction debris, including wood products, metals, and rubble, comprising approximately 2 million cubic yards of solid waste. Landfill deposits included rubble from Interstate-205’s construction. When the landfill closed in 1982, operators covered the site with a clay cap, installing a landfill gas extraction unit and methane monitoring equipment to treat decomposing organic material. Building a substantial structure over the clay cap takes significant engineering. However, the perimeter of the former pit is stable ground and suitable for conventional construction.
Former pro-shop building and offices for golf driving range
The Bird Alliance of Oregon embraced the site’s past and actively supports the remediation of brownfield sites like this one, bringing them back to productive use. Earlier this year, the group secured a Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) grant to restore native habitat across the property. They plan to plant hundreds of native trees and create a pollinator habitat underneath and around a two-acre community solar array on the sloped land at the property’s south side. The multiple PCEF grants received by the organization will power the new structures and offset utility costs for around 200 low-income community members while strengthening the urban tree canopy.
Long unused golf driving range
The plans for this site align with the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s commitment to climate resiliency and habitat protection. These principles complement the work that started over a decade ago at the adjacent Dharma Rain Zen Center. That group purchased the nearly 14 acres to the east in 2012, restoring it to an urban greenspace with habitat for native plants and animals. They created walking trails open to the community and built several small buildings at the center of their property. Together, these two organizations and Glenhaven Park across the street will preserve a green band in the urban core that will support the surrounding community with accessible natural spaces.
With grant funding available, work could begin next year, clearing old structures. The group plans to add additional soil to the property, giving tree roots the depth needed above the clay landfill cap. Developing new structures on the site will take years and require additional funding. This location will become the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s second Portland metro area site, and they will continue to operate in Northwest Portland along with this planned new facility.
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Neighborhood news site focused on buildings and changing businesses
