After months of collecting public feedback, developers of a proposed housing complex along SW Boones Ferry and SW Norwood Roads got the green light on a zoning change needed to move forward with the project.
Tualatin City Council last month unanimously approved an ordinance to rezone the 8.3-acre property at 23370 SW Boones Ferry Rd. for medium low density Residential, meaning a local developer will have a total of 9.3 acres for constructing a new development.
The property, currently owned by Horizon Community Church, sits on a parcel adjacent to the church. The change in zoning shifts its designation from institutional to medium low density residential.
Though final renderings are still in progress, the complex could include a combination of townhouses and single-story cottages situated around community gardens, playgrounds, picnic areas, walking trails and common green spaces.
The Tualatin Planning Commission, in a November 2024 meeting, supported the proposal.
“We asked some pretty wide-ranging questions from trees to traffic and everything in between and we got good answers on all of those,” said Planning Commission Chair Bill Beers.
Local Developer Ken Allen began eyeing the site after an Atlanta-based developer withdrew its proposal to build a 278-unit, multi-story apartment complex in the face of ongoing community opposition. That project sought to remove height restrictions for building and convert the site to high density residential.
“We are pleased with the City Council’s approval of the plan map amendment and as well the support we received from the Planning Commission. From the beginning, I have been committed to developing this site to help Tualatin meet its middle housing needs while addressing neighbors’ concerns,” said Ken Allen in a written statement following the meeting.
Two members of the Horizon community spoke in favor of the zoning change and Allen’s proposed project at the December 2024 Council meeting. No one spoke in opposition.
Allen and land planning consultant Ken Sandblast hosted a half-dozen public meetings over 15 months to design their project in tandem with the community.
The meetings, which began in August 2023, created a conversation in which the developers drafted multiple potential designs for the property based on community input, then presented plans and continued revising to community feedback.
“Every issue you could think of came up, and we just continued to address it,” Allen told City Council members about the process. “We’re not a typical developer. We back way up and address the site itself, the earth, the trees, the ecology.”
Trees and traffic were at the forefront of both Council and community concerns, specifically preserving the large stand of mature trees along Southwest Norwood Road and the potential impact on traffic of adding about 100 new residences on the property.
Allen’s Norwoodhousing.com site currently shows four potential plans situated around a central green spacing and calling for additional tree planting within the preserved grove.
Though Allen brought arborist Todd Prager into the design process early on to prioritize sustaining the trees along Norwood Road in the design and building process, bringing utilities into the future development could also potentially impact them.
“It’s going to be dependent on this body and our work for those trees to remain there,” Council Cyndy Hillier said, referring to the Council’s role in approving or denying subsequent plans that will be subject to its review as future phases of the project progress.
