Fanno Creek Trail ‘missing link’ a long-anticipated community asset

By Terry Moore

, Jun 25, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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Frank Oulman’s June 11 opinion piece about completing the “missing link” of the Fanno Creek Trail between Beaverton’s Garden Home and Denney-Whitford area neighborhoods (“Fanno Creek trail – a bad idea at the wrong time,” The Times) offers a misunderstanding of the reality of this important community asset.

The planned 15-mile Fanno Creek regional trail will connect the Willamette and Tualatin rivers through the cities of Portland, Beaverton, Tigard, Durham and Tualatin. About half the trail has already been built. The missing half-mile link between Southwest Scholls Ferry Road and Beaverton’s new bike/pedestrian bridge just north of Denney Road will fill a major gap in the trail by providing a continuous connection between the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District’s Fanno Creek and greenway parks west of Highway 217 and its Vista Brook Park and Garden Home Recreation Center east of the highway. Completion of the missing link has been one of the park district’s highest trail priorities since 1998 when it adopted its Trails Master Plan.

The trail first appeared in the city of Beaverton’s Comprehensive Plan in the early 1980s and in its Transportation Plan in 1998. In 1997, it was classified as an important regional trail as part of Metro’s efforts to create an intercity system of off-street pedestrian and bike paths.

Washington County identified the trail in its 2002 Transportation Plan. In all these plans, the trail between Scholls Ferry and Highway 217 is described as an off-street, multiple-use trail along the north side of Fanno Creek. It was specifically not shown as the sidewalk on Allen Boulevard, which is a major truck route east of Highway 217 to Scholls Ferry.

Most important, all those plans were adopted only after extensive and inclusive public involvement showed overwhelming support for the trail section between Scholls Ferry and Highway 217 along the north side of Fanno Creek.

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