Community investments support a variety of projects: community stewardship and restoration, nature education, outdoor experiences, land acquisition, capital improvements, park amenities and more. Altogether over the last quarter century, the public – through Metro – has invested more than $100 million to support a broad range of community nature projects across the region, helping to preserve land, restore habitat, expand access and more.
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, Metro took this successful program and leveled it up with the Nature in Neighborhoods community choice grants program. This program placed community members in the lead to imagine, design and choose the parks and nature projects they wanted to see in their communities. The pilot grant cycle began in spring of 2023 and more than 100 ideas were shared by community members.
Over the rest of 2023, community members refined these ideas into designs and then projects that could be funded. In two rounds of voting, community members chose which projects to send to the Metro Council for approval. The next round of community choice grants will begin in 2025.
Since 1995, each of Metro natural areas and parks bonds have included a “local share” program that allocates funds directly to local park providers for parks and restoration projects that matter to their communities. The 2019 bond measure’s $92 million local share program includes the new bond’s focus on racial equity and meaningful community engagement and since then, the region’s park providers have been working with their communities to identify priority projects for these funds.
As of June 2024, the local share program has awarded over $30 million to nine park providers for 17 projects.
Story: Community choice grants awarded
“When our communities are given the opportunity to shape priorities in their backyards, good things happen,” said Metro Councilor Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who represents District 4. “This program created projects that are truly reflective of our communities needs and it showed what we can accomplish when community members have more opportunities to take an active role in expanding and improving public amenities around them.”
The Nature in Neighborhoods community choice grants began in the spring of 2023 with a call from Metro for community members to share park and conservation project ideas. More than 118 ideas were submitted online and at community events across Washington County. One of the goals of the community choice grants program was to make it as easy as possible for community members to participate. Throughout the process, Metro staff attended community events to gather input on the projects and, eventually, help folks vote.
A particular effort was made to attend events by and for communities of color. Historically, Black and Brown communities have been underserved or even harmed by government investments. The 2019 parks and nature bond has racial equity criteria for all of its programs, in part to undo past injustices like these.
Most of the initial ideas for projects were only a few sentences long or a simple drawing, so community members then worked with park planners and landscape architects to take these ideas and develop them into project concepts. The workshops were held at community centers and libraries in District 4.
The design workshops produced 44 parks and nature projects, which then went to a first vote. Anyone 11 years old or older in District 4 was eligible for the first vote. After that vote and another round of development, 27 projects went to a final round of voting, which was open to anyone 11 or older in greater Portland.
From: Metro Council awards 15 grants to community-designed parks and nature projects
Story: Local Share funds go to multiple projects across region
Thanks to funding from Metro’s Local Share grant program, people in an underserved area in northwest Tigard will soon have convenient access to nature. Metro Council has approved around $1.3 million in Local Share funds to partially fund a new park on Steve Street in the northwest section of the city.
The park will offer picnicking, a loop trail, community garden plots, and natural and traditional play areas. It’s expected to be open to the public by the end of 2025. The park is an example of how city and regional planning are crucial to making the most of taxpayer dollars. At the city level, it meets the goals of Tigard’s recently updated park plan, which largely focuses on ensuring that all neighborhoods have access to at least one park or natural area within walking distance.
“We wanted to ensure that we were delivering our park services equitably,” said City of Tigard project manager Carla Staedter. “So we did an analysis of the city’s existing parks and trail systems and where they were located, and then we did an analysis of which households could access those parks within a 10-minute walk.”
The city found a dozen “gap” areas that were not able to access a park or natural area within a 10-minute walk. The city noticed a trend in some of the neighborhoods, including the one this new park, temporarily called Steve Street Park, will serve. This area is more diverse, holds more multi-family homes, and has lower average incomes than Tigard residents as a whole. According to Staedter, this is why the Steve Street Park is being prioritized over other gap areas: “so that we can continue to balance the tables and provide equity.”
The project also fits well within the goals of the voter-approved 2019 Metro parks and nature bond, and specifically its Local Share program. This program allocates $92 million for greater Portland’s 27 park providers to protect and restore habitat and clean water and to build and care for parks and trails that connect people to nature close to home.
“When the Local Share funding showed up, it was clearly the perfect match for this project,” Staedter said.
From: Metro bond funds new park in Tigard