Members of the Toledo City Council convened on Monday, Aug. 18, for their second regular meeting of the month at Toledo City Hall.
Among the agenda items included an ordinance officially designating an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant parking space in front of city hall, which the council unanimously approved.
The ordinance came following concerns raised by a meeting attendee in August’s first council meeting about a lack of ADA parking in the community. The newly designated ADA compliant parking spot will be located in front of city hall, just south of the main entrance next to the sidewalk ramp.
Also discussed during the meeting was the upcoming annual Esther Borte Memorial Walk at Kemp Olson Memorial Park and RV Campground. According to Toledo Parks Board Chair Elizabeth Buell, over $2,700 has been donated toward the walk by sponsors already, with the walk still more than two weeks away on Saturday, Sept. 6, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Kemp Olson Park.
This year’s walk features multiple raffles, including one for the last known available blanket Borte quilted, made in 2006. During her life, Toledo resident Esther Borte quilted and donated many of her creations for fundraising efforts to improve Kemp Olson Park.
Entry for the walk is $30 per person, which includes raffle tickets which may be put toward the quilt. Additional raffle tickets can still be purchased during the walk, and before the walk on the City of Toledo’s website at https://tinyurl.com/3rvkseec.
Borte died in 2016, but prior to that, had been organizing the first Walk in the Park event at Kemp Olson Park to raise money for park improvements. She attended the inaugural walk just three months prior to her death at the age of 90.
Ever since then, her friends and neighbors have continued her tradition, holding the annual Esther Borte Memorial Walk in the Park in her honor. Funds go toward maintenance and improvement at the park.
Greater Toledo Heritage and Horizons proposals
Also discussed during the meeting were the proposals unveiled by the new nonprofit Greater Toledo Heritage and Horizons (GTHH) at the council’s Aug. 4 meeting.
Proposed projects are focused on both revitalization and historical preservation in both downtown Toledo and in the areas surrounding Toledo going west toward the interstate. Some of these projects included completely repaving Toledo’s historic old town area on the banks of the Cowlitz River with traditional brick paving and building a steamboat theater at Wallace Pond.
Other proposals included a Greater Toledo Civic Center on Plomondon Road which would also serve as the new senior center, and a new industrial park near Lacamas Creek.
In attendance during the Aug. 18 meeting was Toledo Planning Commission Chair Steven Berch, who was opposed to the GTHH’s proposals as he felt they were far too expensive for the city to consider funding.
“Looking at it from a purely financial standpoint, it’s a $100 million development,” Berch said.
Berch also took issue with the GTHH making their proposals without consulting with the planning commission to ensure proposals were aligned with Toledo’s 20-year comprehensive plan update, which is about to be submitted for approval, and local zoning regulations.
“We spent about a year and a half working on our growth management plans, which covers the next 20 years. It includes our urban reserves, our urban growth areas, and we took great pains, week after week, to go through our various zoning and use allocations for not only our current urban growth area but for the future urban growth areas and urban reserve taking us out to (Interstate) 5,” Berch said.
Other issues with GTHH proposals were discussed, including the fact that Lewis County currently owns the Wallace Pond property, where the GTHH wanted to build its steamboat theater.
However, according to Toledo Mayor Pro Tem Eric Hayes, county officials were considering selling the pond back to the City of Toledo in 2019 before COVID, and believes it won’t be long before it's considered again.
“It costs them a lot to maintain, a lot more than it would cost us to maintain,” Hayes said.
He, along with others on the council, supported bringing Wallace Pond back under city ownership if possible.
As for his overall thoughts on the GTHH’s proposals, while he liked some of them, Hayes felt overall they didn’t align with Toledo’s heritage or long-term goals.
“That heritage lives right here by the river, not at the hill on the way to the freeway,” Hayes said. “... The ability to walk to the services that hold this community together matters deeply. I’ve been told many of our seniors walk to the senior center.”
He acknowledged growth is happening toward I-5 and he wasn’t opposed to it, but didn’t want to move the heart of the city out of the downtown area.
“We’ve seen in other towns that by chasing to the freeway first, they hollowed out their core historic centers for years, and I believe that’s a mistake that Toledo needs to make,” Hayes added.
Larry Davidson, a member of both the GTHH and Toledo Historical Society who gave the Aug. 4 presentation, also spoke to defend the new nonprofit’s proposals.
“Our goal is not to disrupt everything that is going, and I think we said in the video, our proposal is not to change Toledo, but help it improve with vitality through growth,” Davidson said. “... What we’re really focused on is using the heritage that you talk about to enhance the city core.”
He added GTHH is focused on not just Toledo but the many residents who live just outside city limits.
However, Davidson did acknowledge that he probably should have brought the GTHH proposals to the Toledo Planning Commission first, and stated he intended on bringing them forward at an upcoming planning commission meeting.
In response to a statement made by Berch comparing the GTHH’s proposals to a land grab, Davidson also told both Berch and the Toledo City Council that was not the case.
“We don’t represent any developers,” Davidson added.
To learn more about the GTHH’s proposals, visit its website at gthh.org or email info@gthh.org.
