Lake Oswego council amends and approves restructured community grants, reduces sustainability network award

Lake Oswego City Council on Oct. 21 adopted an amended resolution (25-48) that restructures several city grant programs into three main buckets and approves a set of fall awards and holdbacks for spring.

Deputy City Manager Madison Thasing, who presented the proposal to the council, described the new structure as consolidating historic-preservation, municipal and neighborhood enhancements into neighborhood funding, social-services grants ($30,000) for 501(c)(3) nonprofits serving Lake Oswego residents, and council-goal grants ($75,000) open to community groups, businesses and individuals. She said the application has been expanded to a more detailed five-page form and now uses a consistent rubric and rolling application cycle. “The city doesn't need to be involved in every grant,” Thasing said, explaining the intent to enable community-led projects and clearer expectations for funding and reporting.

Councilors debated whether the program should fund improvements on private property. Several members said they prefer to avoid funding maintenance or improvements on private land unless the proposal includes meaningful public access or other public benefits. Legal and staff advisers said the proposed criteria are intentionally flexible so the committee can prioritize projects that deliver public benefits while avoiding routine private maintenance.

After discussion, Mayor Buck moved an amendment to the subcommittee recommendations to reduce the Lake Oswego Sustainability Network award from the committee’s recommended amount to $7,500 (to cut mailer costs) and to add Friends of Springbrook Park ($4,325) and Lakewood Center for the Arts ($5,000) to the awarded list. The council tabled the item briefly while staff prepared an amended resolution, then reopened deliberations and voted to amend the resolution and to adopt the amended resolution; both votes were unanimous, recorded 6-0.

Staff said the fall round funds include three social-service awards (Children's Center; Friends of Lusher Farm; Clackamas Women’s Services) with roughly $9,014 reserved for spring grants; the revised council-goals awards total $63,556.70 with a spring reserve. Thasing said future refinements will include a sponsorship mechanism for recurring organizations and clearer language about private-property investments to reduce ambiguous precedent-setting.

The council asked staff to return in the spring with proposed language clarifying private-property exclusions, sponsorship alternatives for organizations that receive repeated awards, and recommendations intended to avoid duplicative outreach campaigns between the city and community groups. Thasing also said awards will be reimbursed rather than paid up front and staff will provide more follow-up engagement for select grantees to ensure alignment with city goals.

The amended resolution (25-48) passed on final vote, 6-0.