City councilors, staff, an HOA president and multiple members of the public shared snow cones at the tail end of the new Nyberg Creek Trail on Saturday, June 20. The trail project, five years in the making, wrapped “ahead of schedule” this June, and Tualatin City Councilor Valerie Pratt commemorated the trail’s grand opening with a ribbon cutting and ceremonial speech.
“We envisioned a trail alignment right here along the south side of the wetlands,” Pratt said. “Because of our community’s overwhelming support for the 2022 Parks and Trails Bond, we were able to fully fund this $1.6 million project. You invested in our city, and today we get to deliver on that promise, ahead of schedule.”
Tualatin’s $25 million Parks and Trails Bond was passed by voters in November of 2022 and is slated to fund various trail and nature projects. The Nyberg Creek Trail cost the city $1.6 of the $4.5 million designated to new trail connections and links 0.7 miles of land bordering the Nyberg Creek Wetland.
“This lets the Orchard Hill people connect right to the hospital,” Pratt told Tualatin Life. “This is the most densely populated part of the city, all the apartments in here and the Las Casitas neighborhood, right up the hill over here, so that gives them a way to wrap around and a place to go that’s not on the road.”
The trail starts at 65th Avenue and runs between the marshy meadow of the wetland and the back end of the Rolling Hills Apartments and ends at Sagert Street in front of the Orchard Hills Condos. While the finished trail provides substantial connectivity for nearby residents, it represents only the first phase of the entire trail system, which was first included in the city’s 2018 Parks and Rec Master Plan.
“Phase two, that we’re not on yet, that’s gonna be where we go under I-5, and then people from here can go all the way to Freddy’s (Fred Meyer),” Pratt said.
The second phase of the Nyberg Creek Trail is depicted in the master plan, branching off before Sagert Street, running underneath I-5, past the Tualatin Commons Park and ending around Fred Meyer.
The city does not currently have an estimate for the second phase of the trail, and Tualatin Parks and Rec Project Manager Kira Hein told Tualatin Life in March that there were no plans yet to pursue funding options.
In her grand opening speech, Pratt credited Parks and Advisory Committee member Beth Dittman with initially emphasizing the utility of the creekside trail in 2021.
“I have to thank Beth Dittman for really helping to bring it to fruition and making it a priority on the list, too,” Pratt said.
Dittman told Tualatin Life that she remembered talking with city officials about the possibilities of the Parks Bond and pitching the Nyberg Trail to persuade Tualatin voters.
“When we were trying to sell the Parks Bond, I was like, ‘Imagine if your fun run could make a big circle. Vote for the Parks Bond,” Dittman said. “And they got excited about that.”
While the big circle’s completion is still unknown, Tualatin city officials celebrated the wrap on phase one with snow cones and a scavenger hunt on the new trail.
“While phase two of this project is still a conceptual segment and currently unfunded, we are actively pursuing it as part of our long-term vision,” Pratt said. “Phase two will give us a truly seamless regional trail connection, allowing our community to walk or bike from the east side of the highway to the west side without ever having to battle traffic.”
Pratt told Tualatin Life that the complete Nyberg Trail Project was similar to other efforts associated with the city’s recent moves to prioritize downtown Tualatin’s walkability and emphasis on its natural amenities.
“We’re working on our downtown revitalization,” Pratt said. “And that’s a lot of what’s coming up, like highlighting our natural features. We’ve got the wetlands. We’ve got the river. So why are we hiding all that?
