Oregon City work session: commissioners map approach to McLaughlin Promenade encroachments and future charter-park designation

The City Commission and staff spent an extended work session reviewing 11 properties along the McLaughlin Promenade, seeking ways to reconcile decades of informal encroachments — decks, stairs, fences, garden landscaping and occasional parking pads — with a desire to preserve the promenade as public parkland and to consider future charter-park status.

Staff summarized prior outreach and a property tour. Of the properties considered, four owners had executed encroachment documents, six had engaged with staff to varying degrees, and several owners had not responded despite repeated contact attempts. Staff recapped options used previously: an encroachment license agreement (allowing private improvements to remain but stating the city could remove them), recorded instruments, or vacating small strips of public land in limited circumstances such as to adjust lot lines around building foundations.

The commission discussed three practical goals: (1) clarify liability and maintenance expectations for property owners and the city; (2) avoid unintended triggers that would force a public vote on minor adjustments if the city pursues charter-park designation; and (3) reduce neighborhood confusion by using signage and clearer, recorded acknowledgments where appropriate.

City legal and planning staff and commissioners debated whether a signed encroachment license is materially different from a plainly written city letter acknowledging an existing encroachment. Commissioners who supported a recorded acknowledgement or a signed license argued it creates a clear, documented “line in the sand” for 2025 conditions, including restrictions on future expansion. Commissioners favoring a simpler approach noted a change in Oregon recreational-immunity law due on Jan. 1 (as discussed by staff), which reduces the city’s liability concerns and could make a plain notice letter sufficient in many cases.

Specific property-level outcomes from the tour and discussion included: asking some owners to remove movable furniture, fireplace pits and small rock walls; encouraging owners who had not responded to contact staff and comply with right-of-way permit requirements for structural items; pursuing limited lot-line adjustments for one property’s stairs/foundation; and preparing letters that expressly acknowledge existing encroachments and state the city’s rights (for example, that the city can require removal or maintenance in the future). Commissioners also asked staff to prepare aerial maps, parcel surveys and a consolidated report to bring to a regular meeting for final direction.

On the broader question of making the McLaughlin Promenade a charter park, commissioners and legal staff discussed drafting a proposed ordinance that would: list specific existing encroachments to be acknowledged as exceptions, prohibit new permanent additions without a vote if required by the charter, and require removal if a structure is destroyed or altered in a way that triggers the charter’s prohibition on new permanent non-park structures. Staff recommended attaching photographs and recorded acknowledgements where available when the ordinance comes back for decision.

No final vote or ordinance was adopted at the work session. Commissioners asked staff to draft clear letters and, where owners agree, execute recognizable encroachment or license documents and to return with a proposed charter-park ordinance and maps for a future regular meeting.