Vance Open Space Plan Engagement

Multnomah County, OR | 2024

The Vance Properties is a 90-acre brownfield site owned by Multnomah County in the Rockwood neighborhood of Gresham, Oregon. In 2019-2022, Cascadia Partners led a consultant team to develop a conceptual design framework and implementation plan called the Vance Vision Plan. This plan identified County facility needs and potential community benefits on this generational development opportunity, such as affordable housing, regional parks and recreation space, community space, and an employment corridor.

Cascadia Partners was hired again in 2024 to lead an engagement strategy for the parks and recreation space designated in the Vance Vision Plan with Greenworks as the design lead. Irene Kim at Cascadia Partners developed and implemented an engagement strategy that centers the voices of marginalized residents in one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the region. Cascadia Partners teamed with Verde, a local community-based organization, to help implement and advise a transparent and inclusive process.

During the Vance Vision Plan process, Cascadia Partners recruited and compensated a diverse group of community leaders representing the Rockwood neighborhood, including the African American, African, Latinx, Burmese, Vietnamese, Muslim, Slavic, and immigrant/refugee communities to advise the project and implement targeted outreach to the community, including youth. As trusted civic leaders in Gresham, these same community leaders were engaged again to support outreach for the Vance Open Space Plan.

Cascadia Partners completed the first of a two-phased engagement strategy for the Vance Open Space Plan that allows residents to weigh in on concept alternatives and a preferred design for the 40 acre park and recreation space. Engagement tactics include interactive open houses, a survey, youth focus group, pop-up events, and outreach and communications materials.