The compact “pocket” park formerly known as Stoneridge has a new name selected to better serve the community and better reflect its surroundings.
Construction on the freshly redubbed “Las Casitas Park” is expected to begin in 2024.
The project, which has been in the works for more than three years, was a high priority for the Parks and Recreation Department.
Staff worked closely with the community in 2020, engaging with more than 750 people in its 20 outreach events to develop a redesign for the .35-acre park that includes new playground equipment, a water feature, and a formalized trail linking nearby apartments to public transit on Southwest Sagert Street.
Some thought the small park was a playground belonging to the nearby Rolling Hills apartment complex, and many had negative associations with the space.
“Naming or renaming a recreation facility serving a community matters,” Tualatin Parks Planning and Development Manager Rich Mueller read from the redesign plan. “It enhances a sense of community, and then it will instill new pride and sense of ownership of a public space that’s become associated with negative connotations.”
Las Casitas Park or Parque Las Casitas, like the plan itself, is a product of extensive community outreach, much of it conducted in Spanish.
The name, Spanish for little houses, is also a nickname for the Stoneridge neighborhood, which is comprised of mostly multi-family units.
“In the several years since the concept plan (was unveiled), the neighborhood has continued to be engaged in what they want in a space and also what they want this space to be called,” Mueller said.
Parks and Recreation tapped Bridging Language Services’ Noelia Ruiz to assist with the four-month renaming process.
Parque Las Casitas was the top vote-getter among the suggested names community members chose from during Viva Tualatin.
The neighborhood surrounding the park is multilingual, with a large number of Spanish speakers, and a smaller contingent that speaks Chuukese, native to the mid-Pacific Caroline Islands, and parts of Guam and Hawaii.
During the 2020-2021 redesign outreach campaign, the city worked with translators to ensure all neighbors had a voice.
More than 350 people participated in a renaming campaign that began with a survey that produced a field of nine contenders and concluded with a vote between the top two, Las Casitas and Friendship Park, during National Night Out 2023.
“I love the name Las Casitas,” City Councilor Maria Reyes said. “I think it will be perfect for the area, for people that live in that community.”
Councilor Bridget Brooks asked about the possibility of also renaming the neighborhood Las Casitas.
“If the community doesn’t identify (as Stoneridge) and we’re changing the name of the park, would (changing the neighborhood’s name) be something we could look at for community engagement around the neighborhood as well,” she asked.
Stoneridge Park/Las Casitas is located at 19489 SW 68th Avenue in Tualatin
