Lake Oswego to refer Stevens Meadows ballot measure to voters

After the city of Lake Oswego completed polling showing that local residents have some interest in allowing Clackamas County to encroach upon the protected Stevens Meadows park property to bolster safety on Stafford Road, the City Council voted Tuesday, July 16 to refer the issue to voters.

The council voted unanimously to put forth the ballot measure in the November election. If approved, the measure would amend City Charter Chapter X — which voters passed in 2021 to prevent development at city-owned parks — solely to allow the project at Stevens Meadows.

Though the 20.5-acre park is located just outside Lake Oswego city limits, it is owned by the city government.. Clackamas County needs about 9,000 square feet of park land for a project that would add a roundabout at Childs Road, realign an intersection at Johnson Road and Stafford Road, build a southbound left-turn lane at Johnson Road and add a bike lane along Stafford Road.

“We’re not challenging Chapter X,” Council President Massene Mboup said at the meeting. “Our intention is to build something to make this place safe. That’s what we are trying to do. We want to do it in the most legitimate way and legal way.”

“My position has been: this is a safety issue and we shouldn’t compromise on safety. My position is that, if there is a safety issue, it is our job to make sure that safety issue is mitigated,” Councilor Ali Afghan added.

The council chose to refer the ballot measure to avoid scenarios where the county would scrap the project or where the two sides would be embroiled in a complicated eminent domain legal process. However, the city wanted to gauge community support before doing so.

According to polling conducted with the help of consultant DHM Research, which polled 400 Lake Oswego residents (with quotas for aspects like age, gender and ethnicity), just under half of respondents supported the measure initially and that number increased to 76% once they learned more about it.

“Overall voters I would say are open to this issue and there is a strong level of positive feelings in the electorate and there is a healthy level of support existing in the community,” a DHM consultant said at the meeting.

The 0.4 acres the city would remove from protection at Stevens Meadows amounts to about 2% of the park property, according to the resolution the council approved. According to the city staff report, the county projects the road improvements will decrease crashes by 85% at the Stafford Road and Childs Road intersection.

“The road improvements, which will be paid for and constructed by the County, will reduce crashes, ease traffic congestion, and create bike lanes and safer pedestrian paths,” the city staff report reads.