West Linn moves to adopt Metro town center boundaries; public hearing set for Dec. 9

West Linn city staff briefed the City Council on a Metro-driven requirement to adopt town center boundaries for the Bolton and Willamette neighborhoods, a step that makes those areas eligible for regional investments and for lower mobility standards.

"The city is required to adopt the town center boundaries by the end of this calendar year, so by December 31," Darren said during the presentation, summarizing the statutory timing the city must meet to maintain eligibility for Metro programs.

The presentation noted the two existing town centers appear on Metro’s 2040 growth concept map and that the city’s packet included the planning commission recommendation, the ordinance text, and Metro’s memo on the boundary-adoption rules. Staff recommended two small additions to the Bolton town center — a cluster of roughly a dozen parcels near West A and Caulfield down to Highway 43 and the remainder of a mill parking lot behind historic City Hall — and recommended adopting the Willamette town center boundary as shown on the Metro map, keeping White Oak Savannah Park inside the boundary.

Planning commission materials show the commission held a work session Aug. 20 and a public hearing in October and recommended adoption unanimously; staff said the metro memo placed no additional immediate requirements on cities beyond adopting the boundary. Darren and Mr. Williams explained that adoption is primarily a threshold that enables the city to be eligible for different pots of Metro funding aimed at urban, transit-oriented projects and lower-mobility standards.

Councilors asked about the decision criteria for adding or subtracting land, and whether including parks or other public amenities in a boundary would change their status; staff said parks are often included for mapping purposes but that inclusion does not alter a park’s use or protections. Council President Baumgartner asked whether the city had heard community concerns; staff said the only substantive public question raised to date concerned the inclusion of White Oak Savannah Park and that the city had received no broad opposition.

The council agreed there should be additional conversations about what a "town center" should mean for West Linn beyond this deadline-driven adoption and signaled a consensus to move the matter to a public hearing on Dec. 9 to meet the Metro deadline. "So to meet the Metro deadline, we will... move this forward to the adoption hearing," Mayor Bialystovsky said.

Next steps: the council scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 9 and asked staff to provide further materials explaining what town center designation would entail for community outcomes and funding opportunities.