Lake Oswego begins Foothills District plan update as wastewater-plant relocation opens redevelopment options

City of Lake Oswego planning staff on June 23 briefed the Planning Commission on a formal update to the Foothills District Framework Plan that will be guided by a recently awarded Metro planning grant and a new consultant contract and is being driven in part by a potential relocation of the Trion Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The update matters because the Foothills District — roughly 107 acres bounded by Birdshill, downtown, the Willamette River and Old Town — contains a mix of industrial, commercial and residential uses and is identified in the city's Housing Production Strategy as a target for rezoning and tax-increment financing to support affordable housing development.

Eric Olsen, Long Range Planning Manager for the City of Lake Oswego, told commissioners the city secured a Metro planning and development grant of $745,000 and has awarded a consultant team led by First 40 Feet, with subconsultants that include Eco Northwest, the Booking Group and an engineering firm, to prepare the update. Olsen said the consultant contract was approved June 17. "This work will be up until the end of 2027," Olsen said, describing a schedule that includes public-involvement planning this summer, alternatives in 2026 and final framework and implementing code amendments through 2027.

Olsen said the Foothills District was the subject of an earlier, privately initiated framework plan in 2011–12 that envisioned higher-density mixed use development and an extension of a Portland streetcar, but that the streetcar was removed before adoption and that an urban renewal plan tied to about $43 million in public investments was repealed soon after it was approved. "That effort was essentially halted," Olsen said, and he said little redevelopment has occurred in the district since.

A major new factor, Olsen said, is the proposed relocation of the Trion Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The existing plant sits on about 14 acres; Olsen said the replacement facility being discussed would be on about 6 acres, potentially freeing land at the current site for future reuse after decommissioning and any required remediation. Olsen said the relocation both complicates prior circulation concepts and creates an "opportunity" to reconsider access, parks and housing on the former plant site.

Olsen outlined the project's key deliverables: a public-involvement strategy, appointment of a community advisory committee (CAC) and a technical advisory committee (TAC), an inventory and infrastructure analysis, four initial concept alternatives narrowed to two schematic alternatives, economic-feasibility review and a preferred-plan schematic that would be forwarded to City Council for adoption. He said Eco Northwest was added to the consultant team to test economic feasibility and help avoid alternatives that are not achievable.

Olsen said the city envisions using tax-increment financing, tied to a future Foothills urban renewal area, to support affordable housing in the district consistent with the Housing Production Strategy; the strategy and the RFP do not specify parcel-level locations for affordable housing. Olsen noted the city has produced about 186 affordable housing units since 2018 and said rezoning in the Foothills could be part of meeting the city's housing goals.

Commissioners pressed staff for historical documentation about the 2012 plan and its rapid repeal. "Can we go do that homework?" Planning Commission Chair Mitchell asked, requesting that staff compile records explaining why the earlier urban renewal plan was repealed and how political changes shaped adoption and reversal of the prior effort. Olsen said the record is well documented and offered to prepare further background for the commission.

Olsen also previewed the outreach schedule for the Planning Commission: a work session on the public-involvement strategy on Aug. 25, a December work session to review vision, goals and existing-conditions analysis, public events and CAC/TAC meetings through 2026, and adoption of the framework plan in late 2026 or early 2027 with code and map amendments to follow and be adopted by the end of 2027. He emphasized that the city will need to coordinate a separate urban renewal process in parallel, once staffing to manage that work is in place.

No formal action was taken by the Planning Commission at the June 23 meeting; Olsen said the RFP contract and Metro grant were already approved by City Council earlier in the process.

The commission will receive a detailed public-involvement strategy at its Aug. 25 meeting and will be asked to provide input on alternatives and implementation steps as the consultant team advances analysis and community outreach.