Willamette Cove Master Plan Community Engagement
Portland, OR · 2024
Client: Metro, Parks and Nature
Location: Portland, OR
Year: 2023–2026
CP Role: Lead consultant
Practice Area: Visioning + Long-Range Planning
Team: Irene Kim, Principal-in-Charge; Angélica Martínez Sulvarán, Project Manager; Sara Goldstein, Engagement Coordinator; Ayano Healy
The Challenge
Metro was master planning Willamette Cove, a nature park site it owns on the Willamette River in North Portland. The site carries cultural and historical significance, including intergenerational trauma for Indigenous, Black, and other communities of color, so engagement had to be trauma-informed and run alongside Metro's separate consultation with Tribal governments.
Our Approach
As prime consultant, we co-led engagement with Shilo George of Łush Kumtux Tumtum Consulting, an Indigenous facilitator, with Knot Studio as design lead. Building on Metro's 2021 engagement framework, we held partnership interviews, in-person and virtual workshops, low-barrier activities, surveys, and an open house, with multilingual materials, and coordinated throughout with Metro's Tribal and Indigenous community liaisons. We brought diverse groups together rather than meeting each separately, using trauma-informed practice, targeted universalism, and Indigenous ways of knowing.
Outcome
Community input from two rounds of engagement shaped the design alternatives and the final plan. The Metro Council adopted the Willamette Cove master plan on March 5, 2026: trails, a river overlook, a beach, and other river access, and habitat for salmon and lamprey. The park will be built once the site's cleanup, expected to finish by 2032, is complete.
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