The District is moving to an open market sale of Oppenlander, likely to a developer, as their 5/9 deadline has come and gone … with no City response. #FAIL
I spent the last two days at a hotel overlooking “The Falls” in Sioux Falls, SD (a beautiful city). My 7th floor room looked out over the Big Sioux Falls River and a massive project to transform an abandoned steel manufacturing facility into a park. It was so inspiring. The Sioux Falls public spoke and expressed a desire to
• Keep a naturalized landscape
• Keep redevelopment and art at the park edges
• Add more trails, trees, plants, play spaces, education, food, art
• Don’t over commercialize, lose park history, or use too much concrete.
Their plan overlays with what we wanted for Oppenlander (with the addition of sports and the inherent social, team, and leadership development). It was good to see their success.
Now that the School District’s full-price “let’s sell the 50 years of community engagement to high-density developers” deadline has passed without the City finding a way forward, four years of Friends of Oppenlander being excluded from a seat at the negotiating table to help the parties conclude the preservation of Oppenlander, high-density housing with no park being Oppenlander’s likely demise, and the District taking away a critical resource from half of the children they purport to serve, I am deflated, sad, frustrated, and so sorry we could not close on the desire West Linn to Save Oppenlander.
I want to thank you all for your persistence, engagement, and support – this has truly been a community effort. At the same time as I express my sadness, I feel the need to apologize for not being able to (so far) find a way to achieve our mission to Save Oppenlander.
So What’s Next for Oppenlander?
The District is aggressively committed to selling Oppenlander to the highest bidder as soon as possible without any concern for what comes of property, or the children and families of the future.
We had some success … our efforts, built off of all of your persistent engagement, forced the District into assuring that the first $6.5M of sales proceeds will be going into land banking for future schools (Oppenlander is land banking property), instead of being frittered away on short term operating expenses.
The City is wavering on using the 2022 Bond Measure for a new public/private partnership. Friends of Oppenlander will keep the pressure on the City to use those citizen-authorized funds (by a 2:1 margin) to preserve as much of Oppenlander as possible.
Friends of Oppenlander will engage any new developer (ICON or someone else) to try to save as much of Oppenlander as possible.
Friends of Oppenlander PAC has formally and informally endorsed new School Board candidates and is encouraging you to vote in the current May election (see below). We cannot reward the failure to prioritize students and families.
As we persist, albeit without the advantage of the City’s first right of refusal, we pledge to keep you informed and hope you will continue your engagement, interest, and support.
Please click the green button to sign up for Oppenlander updates.
WITH YOUR HELP WE ARE STILL TRYING SAVE OPPENLANDER! Preserve and extend Oppenlander’s 40+ year legacy of community park, senior baseball fields, add a new playground and restrooms. We propose some development without, losing the entire park or all of the trees.
