2025 will be an exciting and busy year, resulting in several additions and improvements to Tualatin’s parks and trail system for all to enjoy.
These park projects can be traced back a few years when community input led to an update of the existing thirty-five-year-old Tualatin Parks Master Plan, which was then adopted by the City Council in November 2019. This updated Plan includes a list of projects throughout the city’s parks and trails system. Tualatin voters’ passage of a $25 million general obligation parks bond three years later made funds available for several of these projects.
One of the first projects to be completed by Memorial Day on May 26 will be the new Veteran’s Plaza located on the east side of the Tualatin Lake of the Commons. The Plaza will be a place to honor all military service members, their families, and the hidden heroes who provide civilian support. It is meant to be a welcoming space for reflection, events, and gatherings.
Design features at the Veteran’s Plaza include educational QR codes, a reflection pool, seating areas, basalt boulders, native plantings, and a border of Japanese cherry trees. The Plaza will also include three sculptures: Flames of Honor, Wings of Freedom, and Wings of Peace. The sculptures were created by renowned sculptor Douwe Blumberg, whose sculptures are installed at Ground Zero in New York. A special note of gratitude goes to the late Joe Lipscomb, whose vision and driving force led to this project becoming a reality.
Further to the east, a major redesign will occur this year at Las Casitas Park, which was previously called Stoneridge Park. This small pocket park, located at 19489 SW 68th Avenue, is one of Tualatin’s oldest parks. The Tualatin Parks Department engaged in 23 engagement opportunities in both English and Spanish, resulting in over 950 responses from community members about the features they wanted included. The result is a small park with a wide variety of uses. The new park design includes a play structure, swings, a water feature, picnic tables, a ½ sized basketball court, a mural, and a lawn area.
Other park projects this year include the completion in March of beam replacements for the main shelter at Tualatin Community Park, a new park called the Basalt Creek Linear Park (located near the newly-built Plambeck Gardens Apartments), renovation of the trail and stairs at Little Woodrose Nature Park, renovation of the staircase in the Victoria Woods neighborhood, and the start of construction on the Nyberg Creek Trail that will run from 65th Avenue to Sagert Street.
But that’s not all! You may have noticed a sign slightly northwest of Martinazzi Ave and Boones Ferry Road intersection that says, “Future Riverfront Park.” With the help of funding from Metro’s 2019 Parks and Nature Bond, the city recently purchased a 2.79-acre property located adjacent to a 3-acre lot the city had previously acquired. This will be the future location of a new riverfront park and trail. Planning and public engagement for the design of safe and accessible river access on this property will begin this spring. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.
Councilor Valerie Pratt
vpratt@tualatin.gov
