Vision coming together for Grand Ronde’s tumwata village in Oregon City

Three years after the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde shared their initial vision for the 23-acre property above Willamette Falls that is now called tumwata village, tribal leaders say plans remain on track.

“It’s still on target,” Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryl Kennedy said from the tumwata site in Oregon City in early June.

With a goal of restoring tribal and public access to Willamette Falls, a culturally significant spot for the Grand Ronde and other Native American tribes from around the region, the CTGR purchased the land once home to the Blue Heron Paper Mill in 2019.

Two years later, the tribal group shared its vision for the site: public and tribal gathering spaces, a riverwalk leading to the falls, a commercial corridor with shops and restaurants and native habitat areas.

Tribal engineer and planning manager Ryan Webb said after releasing the initial vision plan in 2021, the tribes have further refined their ideas and in early 2023 finished what they called Vision 2.0.

“The guiding principles that tribal council set forth with the original vision document have transpired through to Vision 2.0. Vision 2.0 is just a lot more detailed as to what goes where,” Webb said.

With demolition of old paper mill facilities nearly halfway complete, Vision 2.0 is guiding Webb and the team planning out tumwata village.

Webb said the tribes have shared Vision 2.0 with local jurisdictions like Oregon City, Clackamas County and Metro and noted the official land use process through Oregon City will begin later this month.

CTGR is in the middle of the fourth round of demolition at the site, currently tearing down the former mill’s administration building. As the design of tumwata continues and the land-use process goes forward, Webb said demolition of the mill’s remaining buildings will continue as well.

Webb expects to see maybe four more phases of demolition in the next couple of years.

He noted, however, that the buildings torn down so far were the easiest to demolish. The structures that are still standing will be more challenging to take down due to poor structural integrity, proximity to the river and hazardous materials like lead paint and asbestos.

“The next half of demolition will take a bit longer because of those complexities,” Webb said.

The tribal engineer also mentioned that the tribes are currently designing the first phase of infrastructure and utilities, which will cover the corner of 99E and Water Avenue to Fourth Street and Main Street.

Webb hopes that by this time next year, that first phase of infrastructure construction will be underway.

“It’s exciting to have conversations around new construction,” Webb said. “We’re hoping that as we bring back the historic street grid that was here, we can allow public access back to the site.”

According to Webb, Oregon City, Clackamas County, Metro and surrounding neighborhood associations have been supportive of the designs they’ve seen and heard so far from CTGR.