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Clackamas commissioners back $25 million federal BUILD ask for Sunrise Corridor project
Summary
The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners authorized a letter of support for a $25 million U.S. Department of Transportation BUILD grant to reconfigure the Rock Creek junction on the Sunrise Gateway Corridor, with county and city local matches and a memorandum of understanding planned with ODOT.
Dan Johnson, director of the county Department of Transportation and Development, asked the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 17 to authorize a letter supporting a $25,000,000 BUILD grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Sunrise Rock Creek Junction reconfiguration, part of the Sunrise Gateway Corridor project. The county would partner with the City of Happy Valley and ODOT; Johnson said the estimated local contributions are $4–5 million from the county and about $1.25 million from Happy Valley.
The request drew technical and policy questions from commissioners on how the BUILD program is administered and what the county’s role would be. Commissioner West asked whether the grant application goes through the U.S. Department of Transportation and how past applications were handled; Johnson described BUILD as a national competitive grant with staff‑level evaluation. Commissioner Savas requested a friendly amendment to include language noting that “at ultimate build out, Sunrise Corridor will … open up” thousands of acres of land, and Johnson said staff would add the requested verbiage to the letter.
Johnson described the project as primarily an ODOT facility and said the county and city are negotiating a memorandum of understanding to clarify roles and responsibilities. He told the board the Sunrise Community Corridor Visioning Plan and public engagement work had already vettted the junction reconfiguration as a Stage 2 project.
Commissioner Helm moved to approve the letter of support, Commissioner West seconded and the clerk polled the board. The motion passed unanimously on the recorded poll (4–0). The board’s authorization allows the chair to sign the letter and for staff to finalize the amended language and the MOU with partners.
The next procedural steps are for county staff to finalize the letter, coordinate the memorandum of understanding with ODOT and Happy Valley, and include the amended build‑out language requested by a commissioner. No federal funding has been awarded yet; the letter is intended to accompany the county’s BUILD grant application.
