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Milwaukie moves to accept seven Metro Community Choice projects; staff warn of match and maintenance obligations
Summary
Councilors signaled consensus to notify Metro to proceed with seven recommended Community Choice projects — including Milwaukie Bay Park river access — after staff said the package represents about $1.2 million in Metro awards and requires city match and intergovernmental maintenance agreements.
Milwaukie — Milwaukie staff told the City Council on July 7 that Metro’s Community Choice participatory budgeting process recommended seven projects in Milwaukie for funding and asked the council whether to accept all of them.
Parks and green‑space coordinator Adam Moore said the Metro program had 3,100 verified participants and that Metro committed the full $3 million regional bond pool for participatory jurisdictions. Of the 22 projects recommended across the region, seven Milwaukie projects made the final list, with "river access at Milwaukie Bay Park" ranked first and other projects including Milwaukee Neighborhood Swift Roost, Spring Park habitat restoration, Kellogg Creek stormwater work at Rau Middle School, Water Tower Park NatureScape, access to Minthorn Springs, and Fernberg Wetlands.
Moore said staff’s understanding is the total award for Milwaukie projects would be about $1.2 million, with more than $1 million coming from Metro and an estimated city match obligation in the range of $513,601 (staff noted figures are preliminary and budgetary commitments will be defined in IGAs). He cautioned that nearly all projects will require interagency agreements — some with NCPRD and some with Metro and school districts — and that maintenance responsibilities and staffing will need to be clarified before construction.
Council members discussed feasibility and staffing, and several said the city could absorb capital matches from existing capital budgets while continuing to negotiate maintenance agreements with NCPRD. The parks and recreation board and staff had scored projects for feasibility and recommended moving forward; staff said Metro expects an answer by the following morning.
Council consensus was to instruct staff to tell Metro to move forward with the seven projects and to pursue Fernberg Nature Play as an alternate if other jurisdictions drop projects, with staff to return with details about match sources and maintenance plans.
What’s next: staff will notify Metro, begin preparations for necessary IGAs and maintenance discussions, and return to council when match commitments and maintenance agreements are better defined.
