Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008 - (Page 20)

RECREATION PROJECT n-Win Wi FOR COLLEGE AND COMMUNITY By Eileen Mozinski Successful collaboration results in an award winning recreation facility that features sustainable elements. It was situation seemingly ripe for collaboration. A park district with funding but no land and a community college with land but no funding. At the turn of the new century, both the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District and Portland Community College found themselves facing the need to grow. The school was looking to bolster its curriculum with sports facilities and athletic areas, and the crowded park district needed to develop a recreation complex, all in a rapidly growing area of western metropolitan Portland, Oregon. Fortunately, the college held the title to a parcel of land and a solution was born. Plans for a 32-acre recreational facility —in an area already teeming with new homes and other development – were crafted. Layout design and aerial photograph of the recreation facility. The result was a multi-use recreational facility that fulfills both entities’ needs, serving a variety of segments in the community and winning awards thanks to its sustainable features. A perfect match Portland Community College, which has four campuses in the Portland area, pursued the recreational district project for its Rock Creek campus. The college leased 32 acres of its land to the Park District for 25 years, with three, five-year renewal options, all for one dollar per year. “The bottom line of the deal is the community college put up land that is actually a very valuable chunk of property,” said Mark Hadley, a project manager and registered landscape architect with WHPacific, Inc., a multi-disciplinary firm with 17 offices throughout the western United States. A kiosk provides information about sustainable features in the project. “The raw land itself is worth $500,000 to $600,000 an acre,” Hadley said. “So to put up the 32 acres was an admirable play on the college’s part. The park district could never have afforded to purchase the land and construct the project together.” On the park district’s end, the cooperative effort allowed for much quicker construction than the park district staff had thought possible. “It was a great, great partnership, and without this, it would have never happened,” said Gery Keck, the park district project manager and senior park planner. The resulting Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD)/Portland Community College Rock Creek Recreation Facility, which took a year and a half to construct, officially opened last fall. It features two synthetic turf fields that can be used for soccer, lacrosse and football; four softball/baseball fields; practice fields; tennis courts; and a jog- 20 June 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008

Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008 Contents Our Voice Editorial Board SLDT Resources Where Rubber Meets the Road Integrated Planning: The Key To Developing Sustainable Planned Communities Win-Win For College and Community Industry Spotlight: Transoft Unique Organization, Unique Opportunity New Preferred Provider Comments from the Austin Conference Welcome New Members New Knowledge Project Articles Books Going Green Business Management Risk Management Surveying and Mapping Industry News Products/Services Showcase Advertiser Index Classifieds The Last Word

Sustainable Land Development Today - June 2008

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