Milwaukie staff narrow 19 local entries to 10 for Metro's Community Choice grants, recommend moving large waterfront work to capital funding

City staff on the Milwaukie study-session agenda presented recommendations for how the city should prioritize 19 local ideas that advanced in Metro's Nature & Neighborhoods Community Choice process, and urged the council to move 10 projects forward into Metro's second-round development. The presentation emphasized matching requirements, realistic project scopes and coordination with regional partners.

The Community Choice program, a participatory Metro grant stream, is structured around $250,000 awards with an $85,000 city match (producing roughly $165,000 in new grant funds per award). City staff told councilors Metro expects to distribute about 15 awards countywide; 50 projects reached the countywide development list and 19 of those are within Milwaukie. "These are expected to be awarded next fall," staff said, adding that awardees would have two years to negotiate an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and three years for implementation.

Staff recommended removing several large or ill-fitting ideas from the $250,000 community-choice stream and instead seeking Metro capital program dollars in later cycles. As one example, staff recommended taking project No. 2, described in submitted materials as a continuation of Milwaukie Bay Park Phase 3, out of Community Choice because it's effectively a multi-million (staff said "multi-billion") phase and instead applying to the capital program in 2026 for a $2,000,000 request. Staff also proposed moving two Kellogg Creek-related items (projects 23 and 27) toward capital-program consideration in 2027.

For the remaining Community Choice-eligible ideas, staff proposed combining related entries where appropriate (for example, grouping several Elk Rock Island proposals into a single habitat-restoration project and prioritizing a Mentor Springs boardwalk rather than duplicative proposals). The recommended Milwaukie list of 10 projects includes habitat restoration, improved park access, boardwalks, nature-play amenities and trail-connection concepts; staff said the detailed list will be used to guide local development work and Metro-run design workshops in February.

Councilors asked how open the process is to higher-cost community preferences such as a swim dock at Milwaukie Bay Park. Staff replied the dock concept is "not closed at all," but cautioned that a typical swim dock could cost close to $1 million and would likely exceed the $250,000 Community Choice cap; staff said the city could seek additional fundraising or keep the swim-dock idea coordinated with future capital grants. "If people push for that and say, hey, go find $1,200,000 in 3 more years to build that," a decision to pursue that path would be up to the council, staff said.

Staff noted Metro will lead community development workshops and create preliminary site plans, budgets and conceptual designs with residents; the second vote will be open to anyone 11 and older across the metro region. After Metro's second-round vote and Met Council consideration, Milwaukie officials retain the option to accept or decline an awarded grant and to remove projects from the city's submission list at any time.

Next steps: staff will coordinate with Metro and partner agencies (including NCPRD and watershed councils) to refine project scopes for the February design workshops and bring any recommended changes back to council before final decisions are made on which grants to accept.