The GPNA Issues
Grant Park Fields
Grant 10 Great Fields Proposal 06/20/2007 (PDF 520KB)
Grant Park Facilities Report - Final Draft 06/20/2007 (PDF 2.4MB)
Join the GPNA Grant Bowl discussion group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GPNA_Grant_Park/
Email Q&A between GPNA and PP&R
Grant Park Development Review Committee
November 2005
The second meeting of the Grant Bowl Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC) was held on Tuesday, November 1st. A full year has passed since the initial meeting. There are now representatives involved from the Community Associations in Grant Park, Irvington, Alameda, Hollywood, and Beaumont-Wilshire. However, representatives from Hollywood and Beaumont-Wilshire did not attend this second meeting. The specific area in Grant Park that are targetted for field improvements are the bowl (football field) itself, the soccer fields to the east of the bowl and the Hollyrood field south of Hollyrood School.
Permanent seating in the bowl area and partial permanent fencing on the south and west edges of the bowl plus metal railing along the north border are also planned subject to CAC recommendation.
Night lighting is under discussion in order to allow Grant High School the opportunity to play two additional home games in the bowl. However, lighting would also permit other sporting activities and groups to take advantage of night lighting. This has the potential for 15 night games in addition to the two already mentioned. It is not clear what additional demands could be made for night games or for other activities that are not sporting events. New lighting for the bowl is the most contentious issue, so a meeting was set for November 29th to discuss the matter further. GPNA is looking closely at the potential negative impact on the immediate neighborhood.
The primary concerns are street traffic, parking, reduced availability of the track for jogging and walking, and minimizing any negative visual impact of the park landscape.
An open house is planned for Wednesday, January 18, 2006, 4-8pm, at Grant High School. Everyone is encouraged to attend to get full details, ask questions and make comments. As soon as we know the room number, it will be posted on our website. Whether or not you plan to attend, please let us know what you think about this project. While several neighborhoods are represented on the CAC, Grant Park residents will be most affected by these proposed changes. Your input is important to us. Send your comments to grantpark@necoalition.org. This issue is on our agenda for our next GPNA meeting on Dec 6th.
October 2005
Grant Park Bowl - The second advisory meeting didn't happen, and will probably be happening the first week in November.
Lloyd Lindly was at the Alameda meeting, with much of the information the same. Extra information included: there is 2.5 million available for all of the field projects in the area. Statistics about the football program: grant high school has 1800 students, 80 are in the football program, 800-900 come to the home games, 1200-1500 go to Lincoln games, and 425 go to games at PGE park.
After the last home game, game related graffiti was found in the neighborhood. We want to include in the newsletter information about how to let parks know about problems and concerns of the park.
Pre-October 2005
In 2001 Grant High hired a new coach and in 2002 the school had their first homecoming game at Grant since 1952. But the number of games played at home will be limited without further improvements.
Friends of Grant Football, which has been putting money into the upkeep of all the sports fields, is spearheading an effort to determine whether there is community support for further improvements which include: installing Astroturf; leveling the baseball field; seating, lighting and sound for the bowl; fencing (a possible combination of permanent fencing in the existing shrubbery, and added temporary fencing during varsity games); create a women’s fast pitch field which can also be used for little league.
Focus groups have been conducted with school and facility users and there will be meetings with a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC), made up of Grant High sports faculty, members of the friends of Grant High Football, and representatives from the surrounding neighborhoods of Grant Park, Beaumont/Wilshire, Alameda, Irvington and Hollywood. The process will include discovering needs and issues for school use, neighborhood use, and non-profit use. 4,000 questionnaires were mailed to neighbors in May. The results will be available at the next CAC meeting, and a community open house is planned.
Concerns that have already been noted are: traffic and parking, the effect of lights and noise on nearby neighbors; increased late night use of the facility; increased crime; littering and vandalism. Portland Parks & Recreation and Portland Public Schools must approve the final vision plan before anything can move forward. The bowl will be discussed at the next GPNA general meeting in October.
In the 'Hood
About GPNA
Other Info
This site: GrantPark-NA.org, is maintained by the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, Portland, OR.
© Copyright 2005. All rights rerserved.