City of Wilsonville Secures $2.3 Million in New Grant Funding

Design of the 2.93-acre park that was purchased with Local Share funding.

July 24, 2023 – A flurry of recently announced grant awards is providing an influx of more than $2.3 million in new funding to support several City of Wilsonville programs for the community’s benefit, City Manager Bryan Cosgrove announced today.

This summer, City staff in Parks and Recreation, SMART Transit, and Community Development have successfully procured highly competitive grant funding. Each award supports the continuation or establishment of a new City program or community amenity.

“Procuring competitive grant funding requires a lot of diligence and preparation to take advantage of opportunities as they become available,” Cosgrove said. “I’m pleased that our staff was prepared, and able to successfully articulate the City’s needs to secure these awards.”

Parks and Recreation: A $1.39 million Local Share grant from Metro, announced on June 29, is funding the acquisition of the City’s new 2.93-acre neighborhood park in Frog Pond West, just east of the new primary school now under construction on Boeckman Road.  Design of the park is underway in collaboration with Maier/Reed Inc., and informed by a public survey at “Let’s Talk, Wilsonville!” A park construction timeline has not yet been established. The Local Share grant program, established following Metro’s voter-approved 2019 Parks and Nature Bond, advances capital projects that connect communities to nature.

SMART Transit: South Metro Area Regional Transit, or SMART, is the beneficiary of four recent grants from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Metro. Cumulatively, these awards are providing $840,000 to advance SMART initiatives.

Metro’s Regional Travel Option grants, announced June 6, help communities reduce transportation barriers and increase the number of choices people have when commuting and traveling around greater Portland. The program is guided by the 2018 Regional Transportation Plan.

SMART’s two awards, totaling $400,000, represented a significant portion of $7 million allocated to “core and emerging partners” who demonstrate a long-standing commitment to delivering travel options:

  • SMART received a $225,000 award to support commute options programming –  including vanpools, carpools, cycling, teleworking, etc. – that helps more people commute safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
  • An additional award of $175,000 supports SMART’s Safe Routes to Schools program, providing safe, healthy options for students commuting to/from school.

SMART’s two ODOT awards, announced on April 3, provide an additional $440,000 to fund sustainability initiatives in support of SMART’s goal to operate a zero-emissions fleet completely reliant on alternatives to fossil fuel by 2028.

  • A $320,000 discretionary award funds a mobile battery back-up unit to charge SMART’s fleet of electric vehicles in the event of loss of power for an extended period. This infrastructure is regionally significant, as it allows SMART to provide assistance to other agencies in the wake of a stranded vehicle.
  • A $120,000 intercommunity award funds SMART’s analysis to determine the feasibility of deploying electric buses on longer-distance routes.

Community Development:  The City received notice of a $100,000 award from Business Oregon award in June. This grant, from the Strategic Reserve Fund (SRF) Industrial Lands Technical Assistance Program, aids the City’s work to fund technical land-use, utility, and transportation planning in the Basalt Creek Industrial Planning Area. The City's successful application was a collaboration between Economic Development and Planning staff. 

- # # # -

 

  • Printer-friendly version