Lake Oswego poised to add new neighborhood designation

Residents of the Marylhurst area seek approval to become an official city of Lake Oswego neighborhood association.

The city’s Commission for Citizen Involvement recommended the designation after the residents of the area — which contains 720 households with 1,230 residents along Highway 43 near the southern border of Lake Oswego and the Skylands and Glenmorrie neighborhoods — applied to be an official neighborhood association.. The Lake Oswego City Council will ultimately need to approve the request.

Neighborhood association status allows an elected body of residents to apply for city grant programs, better conduct emergency preparedness planning and establish a formal line of communication with the local government. Mary’s Landing, as the new neighborhood association would be called, includes the Mary’s Woods senior living community and the former Marylhurst University campus that will soon feature a new affordable housing complex.

Planning Manager Erik Olson said the proposed Mary’s Landing neighborhood is one of the few sections of Lake Oswego where a neighborhood association does not exist.

“Most people, when they think of our area, they just drive through it. They know Highway 43; they may know our historic bus stop there,” resident Carole White said. “We would like the commission (for citizen involvement) to know we are much more than that.”

She added that the area has homes, a post office, commercial entities and a local park. White also said that many people “live, work and study here.”

Local residents held a meeting at which White said attendees unanimously supported neighborhood association formation. White was surprised that around 70 people attended.

Residents held a contest to determine the name of the neighborhood and Mary’s Landing won. The name honors “the historical significance of the arrival of the twelve Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary via boat in 1859,” according to the city staff report.

City staff found that the residents had met the minimum requirements for forming a neighborhood association, which include hosting a well-publicized meeting where the neighborhood creates meeting bylaws, establishes boundaries and elects board members. Those board members must also have up-to-date addresses and contact information.