Title
Second Reading of Ordinance No. 19-1003, Designating Mountain View Cemetery as a Park Under Oregon City Charter Chapter X
Body
RECOMMENDED ACTION (Motion):
City Commission approve the second reading and final adoption of Ordinance No. 19-1003, Designating Mountain View Cemetery 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, Richard Bloom Tots’ Park, Filbert Run Park, Hartke Park, Hazelwood Park, Chapin Park, Shenandoah Park, Wesley Lynn Park, Hillendale Park, Glen Oak Park, Canemah Slope Park, Pioneer Community Center, Stafford Park, Straight Pioneer Cemetery and Old Canemah Park) 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, the Mountain View Cemetery was previously designated as a charter park through the adoption of Ordinance 86-1006 which became effective on June 4, 1986. The initial ordinance identified the cemetery as being all “contiguous real property owned by the City of Oregon City abutting upon and lying southerly of Duane Street”. Ordinance 19-1003 updates Ordinance 86-1006 by adding one parcel acquired in 2017 to the charter park as well as clearly defining each of the parcels contained in the original ordinance.
The 1999 Parks Master Plan identified the Mountain View Cemetery as a partially developed special use area. Adoption of Ordinance No. 19-1003 better defines the cemetery and adds a parcel to the Mountain View Cemetery making the new parcel a park under Chapter X of the City Charter and ensure protection of the site as a park.
The Commission approved the first reading of Ordinance No. 19-1003 at the February 20, 2019 City Commission meeting, now it's back for the second reading and final adoption.