Harmony/North Clackamas: next meeting 4/23
 

From the landscape architect:

The next public meeting will be on Apr. 23 which will show progress to date. I'm not sure exactly what the agenda or format or what time the meeting will be yet. It was really good for your cause that so many disc golfers came to the last meeting. Hope to see you there again. [Emphasis mine.]


So let's make sure we all turn up at the next meeting too, looking dapper and respectable as ever. ;)


(By the way, "so many disc golfers" was four of us. Think of how impressed they'll be if 20 DGers show up.)

I'll be down at Whistlers that night. Dang it! I'll see if someone else can be there from the Stumptown BOD.

Bob

I'll be there. That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the "so many disc golfers" quote.

Please, please, PLEASE come to this meeting if only for a little while people!

What he said. If it's similar in format to the last meeting, you don't have to be there for two hours; it was just "drop in and chat with the planners, and give your feedback." But they're making note of which constituencies are dropping by.

Where exactly is the meeting held? anyone have an address? I would definitely show for a park that close to my house.

All meetings are at the OIT gym on Harmony Road. The details on the public input process are here: http://harmonyvision.org/public_involvement.html

Read the other Harmony threads in the "New Courses" forum (565, 742, and 887) for background.

I guess I could go in Bob's place, since we live near there and all. :)

Everyone should go!

If you look at the website, it does say 6 - 8. :)

BUMP.

Let's get some turnout tomorrow night; this may be the last public meeting before they start making real decisions.

Stumptowners: did anyone at last week's meeting seem interested?

It was brought up and several were going to see if they could go. My wife is going in my place since I will be at Whistlers.

Bob

Will anyone else be attending besides myself, Adam and Bob's wife?

My friend Duane is coming. What about Flash?

Anyone? C'mon, guys, you don't have to live in Milwaukie to make your voices heard. Duane is coming from Washington County.

As much I wish that I am able to come to the meeting to show the support for disc golfers to have the course develop in Harmony area, but it is hard for me since I live in Rockaway Beach. However, I grew up in SE Portland most of my life, and I do know the area in Milwauikee as I have drove through many times so I know it is perfect area for disc golf course. I have send couple emails to Michelle Healy, Senior Planner of NCPRD/Clackmas County Parks, and she was very nice enough to response back to my emails. So, I am really hoping that they decide to include the disc golf course in the planning. Like the movie, "Field of Dream"(I hope that I got the title right), If they build it, we,the disc golfers, will come!!

Thanks for writing to Michelle. If everyone here did, it'd make a difference! As for the meeting, we'll grant you a Tillamook County pass. :)

They may well have an additional set of feedback forms after tonight's meeting; be sure to fill those out too. (Honestly, it's possible that tonight's meeting will be exactly the same as the last one, but we still need to show up in as great a number as possible.)

Meeting wasn't too much different than last time. They had a "near" and "far" future park layout (maps should be on the website soon). The near future had disc golf in the NW area of the park and the far future included adding an "East" course. From what we heard the general attitude towards DG was positive. Having people fill out the comments and showing up certainly helped the cause (thank you to all).

This isn't a done deal but it appears that there is enough support to have enough area to install a 9 hole course right off. Any opposition is going to come from the environmental group who has been volunteering the last 8 or 9 years to restore native species to the park and would prefer no recreational improvements (not just DG) to the park beyond preservation and education (my words, not theirs). Fortunately the Parks & Rec people want to have more people using the park and disc golf just so happens to be a cost effective and low impact way of doing this.

IMO, once they see how many people will actually use the course they will be a lot more open to expanding it around the areas they are trying to preserve. Anything is subject to change but it's looking nothing but positive at this point.

As always, use the comment forms on the website and provide your input.

:cheers:

Pardon my rant... :angry:

WHY is it so freakin' hard to get disc golfers to show up to these meetings? We had four of us there again (Antonia, we saw you on the sign up sheet but didn't know who you were!), which is something... and the only reason they're considering disc golf in this park AT ALL is because a few of us HAVE been attending these meetings. E-mailed comments are nice, but when people take the time to actually show up, it demonstrates a certain level of commitment. Apparently we have demonstrated the level of commitment that warrants them proposing to give us about 5 acres out of this 100-acre park. What might we have if more of us bothered to attend?

Several of the habitat-preservation volunteers -- who will be the ones most strenuously opposing a disc golf course -- always show up to these meetings. And they get singled out by the M.C. and get a round of applause. Meanwhile, out of all the disc golfers in Portland, the best we can do is FOUR? There was a work party at McIver last weekend, and 18 people showed up; is it that a public workshop isn't as much "fun"? (Don't tell me it's because they're usually at 6:00 on a weekday; Tuesday Twos claims to have 46 active players.) There were only about 30 public participants, total, at last night's meeting; if 18 disc golfers had come, we'd have been by far the largest consituency there, and they couldn't ignore that.

If this course ever gets in the ground, a lot more than four people are going to come and play there. Public workshops aren't "sexy," they're not much fun, but they're absolutely necessary. Why is there even a local disc golf club if they're not actively organizing people to help make new courses a reality? Do they only wait until the Parks Department says for sure, "yes, we want a course," so they can show up for the work-party-slash-barbecue?

(Rant off, for now...)


There are no more public meetings scheduled at this point. The next step is going to be to provide even more feedback to the planners. We need to ask for MORE land... not only because it would make for a better course, but because there are many people out there who don't want to see us in the park at all, and we need to counterbalance that. Once new PDFs have been posted on the "Harmony Vision" Web site, I'll start a new thread.

By the way, Justin, I wouldn't necessarily say "the general attitude towards DG was positive." We've gotten a good response from the planners and landscape architects -- who recognize that one of the goals is to get more people moving through the park during all seasons -- but they told me that the public reaction to disc golf has been very mixed. (Granted, a lot of the public has no idea what DG even is; they might hear "golf" and think we want to do clear-cutting of 400-yard fairways.)

My comment needed clarification then. I was referring to what Michelle had said reactions were regarding DG being looked at by the decision makers in the Parks & Rec department, which she said was positive. It should go without saying that the average constituent is either indifferent or against disc golf due to lack of awareness/understanding or a preference to see no improvements to the park at all.

Gotcha. Yes, that's my take on it as well.