Portland Botanical Gardens | Proposed

[MarkDaMan]

Not a PPR project but this could be interesting to watch...

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2024...al-gardens-lands-option-to-buy-site.html

Portland Botanical Gardens lands option to buy site
Updated: Apr. 28, 2024, 5:05 p.m.|Published: Apr. 27, 2024, 5:28 a.m.
By Dennis Peck, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

The proposed Portland Botanical Gardens has taken a major step forward, landing an option to buy a 59-acre North Portland Superfund site along the Willamette River.

The purchase and sale agreement gives the nonprofit organization, formed in 2020, a year to finalize a deal for the former site of the McCormick & Baxter creosote plant situated between Metro’s Willamette Cove property and the University of Portland’s Franz River campus.

“It’s a bright, shiny project for Portland,” said Sean Hogan, executive director of the botanical gardens group. “We hope people are as excited about it as we are.”

The botanical gardens would include pavilions, outdoor pathways, offices and research facilities, as well as public access to a stretch of Willamette River beach.

The goal, Hogan said, is to open two-thirds of the property, currently privately held, to the public free of charge.

Because the property is a Superfund site (cleanup was completed in 2005), the state Department of Environmental Quality and federal Environmental Protection Agency play a major role in vetting a potential purchaser and will require the new owner to continue to care for the property.

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