• The Touchmark development on Miller Road and Barnes has been appealed to the Land Use Board of Appeals by Touchmark Heights (petitioner).

7:00 PM - Welcome

CPO Announcements and Discussion (neighborhood meetings and development status)

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue ReportCommunity Announcement

“It’s Your CPO” Open Mic

7:30 - Meet Our County Commissioner

Our Washington County Commissioner, Desari Strader, will visit us to introduce herself and share her thoughts on various issues facing the county, including the design of the Saltzman Road expansion and the Urbanization Forum.

8:00 - A new park at Bonny Slope Elementary School

Barry Raber and his neighbors in northern Cedar Mill were successful in their efforts to have several acres transferred from the Beaverton School District to the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District.  They will share their experiences with us--confirming that citizens can affect their communities in significant ways.

8:15 - Saltzman Road Project Update

The CPO 1 representative on the Saltzman Road Project Focus Group (PFG), John Tornblad, will give an update on the current design of the project and the issues they are dealing with, including the pedestrian crossing issue.

Virginia Bruce will present a petition requesting that the project include a light and pedestrian crossing at NW Saltzman Road and NW Dogwood Street.  The CPO will be asked to formally support the petition.  For more information about the petition, visit:

Local Control of Neighborhoods

In our April meeting, we were fortunate to have Jim Crawford, the Permit Chairman of the Homes Association of Cedar Hills (HACH - www.cedarhillshoa.org), join us in the discussion of neighborhood associations, including Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&Rs) the restrictions governing the use of real estate. These are usually enforced by a homeowners' association and are passed on to the new owners of property. For example, CC&Rs may tell you how big your house can be, how you must landscape your yard, what vehicles you can park on the street or whether you can have pets. If property is subject to CC&Rs, buyers must be notified before the sale takes place. The HACH has its own permitting process and CC&Rs that, in some cases, are more restrictive than Washington County’s (see the April CPO 1 minutes for details).  These are politically and legally enforceable because they were created when the Cedar Hills development was originally created.

Many of us were left wondering how it would be possible to institute such controls ‘after the fact’: How could neighborhood activists hope to get 100% of a community to voluntarily restrict use of their properties? 

The county is starting its Urbanization Forum which will have to grapple with the issue of more local control. Visit www.co.washington.or.us/deptmts/cao/st_cty08.htm ‘Challenges Ahead”.

View Virginia and Bruce's “Urban Needs – Rural Government” article series at cedarmill.org/news/archive/UrbanNeeds.html.

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue District Update

Barry Greenwood, firefighter from the TVF&R Canyon Road station was on hand this month to update us.  After a fire or emergency medical call, he said that often neighbors and friends will approach TVF&R asking about what happened.  By law, they cannot comment more than where victims were taken for privacy reasons.

PLEASE NOTE

 Tonight's meeting is in Room 22 and 23 of the Oncology Wing, adjacent to the Souther Area.  Enter through the same doors, go straight ahead and follow the signs.

7:00 PM - Welcome

• CPO Announcements and Discussion (neighborhood meetings and development status)
• Community Announcements
• “It’s Your CPO” Open Mic 

7:15 PM - Washington County Enhanced Sheriffs Patrol District Levy - A representative from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department will present a proposal to renew the Enhanced Sheriffs Patrol District (ESPD) levy which will be on the May 2008 ballot. This levy renewal adds no new taxes and provides residents of the unincorporated urban areas of the county enhanced sheriff protection to combat crimes such as homicide, domestic violence, crimes affecting children, identity theft and methamphetamine crimes; operate the County jail and work release center at full capacity; serve all areas of the county with special enforcement teams, prosecutors, probation and parole officers, juvenile counselors; provide victims’ assistance and emergency shelter for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

7:45 PM - Washington County Fairground Revitalization Plan - The Washington County Fairgrounds Revitalization Task Force launched a new informational Web site — www.FairgroundsRevitalization.com — about the master plan recommendation for the county’s 101-acre fairground property at NE Cornell Road and NE 34th Avenue. John Leeper will present the Fairground Revitalization Plan and is requesting our reactions and input on the subject.

8:15 PM - Community Plans and Neighborhood Associations - We will discuss the subject of the Washington County Community Plans which identify neighborhood resources but cannot be used to protect those resources/qualities.  For example, there is currently no known enforcement mechanism to prevent a property owner from simply cutting down supposedly-protected trees even though the desire for that protection is clearly set forth in the Community Plans. There is a need to "tighten up" local control for better protection of specific qualities of specific neighborhoods.  A representative of the Homes Association of Cedar Hills will join us in the discussion to share their experiences.

Generally speaking, changing or instituting an ordinance in Washington County is at least a 2 year effort. The county defines its yearly Work Plan starting in December/January in preparation for the official Ordinance Season from March to October. If you would like to change an ordinance, you need to have the changes you propose well defined and understood by Land Use planning staff before the end of the year to have a chance to get your proposal in the next year’s Work Plan.  The Work Plan is divided into tiers, 1, 2 & 3, with tier 1 being the active, ‘must do’ work and tier 2 being the 'nice to have' items.  Tier 3 is for acknowledging items but not committing to pursue them.  Be prepared for your proposal to make it to tier 3 the first year unless it is extremely compelling to the county.  This year’s Work Plan can be found at www.co.washington.or.us/deptmts/lut/planning/workprogram.htm.

I recently remarked in some correspondence that “ I am very concerned that our governance of the urban unincorporated areas of the county is weak due to the lack of a full set of ‘city services.’” This set off an interesting exchange about the condition of county management.  In general, I am very impressed by the policy making, financial discipline and execution of duties by Washington County and feel residents get a pretty good value for their taxes paid.

However, the comment about weak governance still stands because there is a disconnect between which urban services citizens collectively desire, what it actually takes to create and maintain modern urban infrastructure, and what services are currently provided to the urban unincorporated areas.  To address this disconnect (weakness), the county, led by County Commission Chairman Tom Brian and our commissioner Desire Strader, is embarking on a wide-ranging ‘Urbanization Forum’ to drive us all to face the reality of our situation.  It will include educating citizens on the issues faced, the legislative/legal restrictions that apply to possible solutions, and ultimately will lead to a variety of new ways of governing our county with unique solutions likely tailored to different areas of the county.

7:00 PM - Welcome

PLEASE NOTE - Tonight's meeting is in Room 22 and 23 of the Oncology Wing, adjacent to the Souther Area.  Turn left at the same doors and follow the signs. 

CPO Announcements and Discussion (neighborhood meetings and development status)

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue ReportCommunity Announcement

“It’s Your CPO” Open Mic

7:45 - Street-to-Stream Urban Stormwater Runoff - Within the urban growth boundary of Washington County, about 30% of the land is covered with impervious surfaces that cause runoff. With significantly less stormwater soaking into the ground, our streams suffer in the dry season.  Brian Wegener of the Tualatin Riverkeepers ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , 503-620-7507) will introduce and explain Low Impact Development (LID - www.tualatinriverkeepers.org/lid_website), an innovative stormwater management approach with a basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall where it falls using appropriate landscaping.  LID is a versatile approach that can be applied to new development, urban retrofits, and redevelopment projects.

8:20 - Connecting Green Vision for Region-Wide Parks, Trails and Natural Areas - Connecting Green was launched in June 2007 to serve as a call to action in making a region-wide network of parks, trails and natural areas a reality.  Mike Houck of the Urban Greenspaces Institute ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.urbangreenspaces.org) will join us for a presentation and discussion of the Connecting Green vision to understand the significant steps that are needed to achieve the vision.  

Janet Hogue, Options Program Coordinator for the Beaverton School District, shared a report on the District's Learning Options Program(PDF, 6 MB) on November 5, 2007.  The report contains:

·        Information on findings and recommendations from an external Option Program Communication Audit Report completed in March 2007 by Leslie Consulting & Associates. 

·        An update on the Learning Options Strategic Planning Advisory Team, which is comprised of administrators, teachers, counselors, specialists, a school board member, and six parent and/or community members.  The advisory team will make recommendations to the School Board regarding policies for the Learning Options Program and will serve for two years from fall 2007 to spring 2009.

·        LOSP Advisory Team members have been charged with addressing:

o       development of a strategic plan for the learning options including a mission/purpose statement for the program as a whole.

o       the impact on the comprehensive middle and high schools,

o       equal access for all students,

o       the options selection process,

o       physical space constraints, and

o       the equitable distribution of resources

·        Historical information on the application process to Learning Options schools

·        Student enrollment data, and

·        Recommendations from the Learning Option Executive Committee for the 2007-08 application season.  These recommendations include synchronizing the application process with middle and high school forecasting calendars and a "Second Consideration" process for placing a percentage of students outside the automated lottery.