Title
First Reading of Ordinance No. 19-1006, Designating Singer Creek Park as a Park Under Oregon City Charter Chapter X
Body
RECOMMENDED ACTION (Motion):
Approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 19-1006, Designating Singer Creek Park as a Park Under Oregon City Charter Chapter X.
BACKGROUND:
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PRAC) was established in 1983 by the City Commission to advocate for recreational opportunities for Oregon City and to oversee implementation of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. To ensure recreational opportunities are preserved in Oregon City, the PRAC has undertaken the review of the charter park status of all Oregon City parks which are owned and managed by the Oregon City Parks and Recreation Department.
Oregon City owns thirty-six parks, eleven of those are identified in Section 42 of Chapter X of the City Charter making them charter parks. Seventeen more parks (Abernethy Creek Park, Jon Storm Park, Park Place Park, Filbert Run Park, Chapin Park, Wesley Lynn Park, Richard Bloom Tots’ Park, Hartke Park, Hazelwood Park, Shenandoah Park, Hillendale Park, Tyrone S. Woods Memorial Park fka Glen Oak Park, Canemah Slope Park, Straight Pioneer Cemetery, Stafford Park, Old Canemah Park, and Pioneer Community Center) were added to the charter through the provisions outlined in Section 43, which allows charter park designation through ordinance adoption. Identification in the City Charter ensures park protection by preventing the transfer, sale, vacation or major changes to charter parks without a legal vote of the people.
Of the remaining eight non-charter parks, City Commission minutes from 1975 reveal that neighbors of Singer Creek presented a petition to the City Commission requesting that the City acquire land from the Estate of Anna Harkey. This estate was less than 12 acres of natural area adjacent to Singer Creek. Two parcels containing this nearly 12 acres, were then divided so that the City could acquire...
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