Talk:Springwater, Oregon

Notes for expansion
As of 2005, Gresham had an ambitious plan to annex Springwater and do a 1,500 acre development project. The city's 20-year plan for annexing and developing Springwater anticipates creating 17,000 environmentally friendly jobs on 460 acres of industrial land and in 150 acres of office parks. A mix of housing, parks and a small amount of commercial development is blended in ways intended to avoid encroachment on fish habitat and preserve long-established wildlife migration corridors. The plan includes "green" development: The natural resources plan for Springwater proposes, among other things, buffers of roughly 100 feet to 200 feet to protect sensitive stream areas and calls for bioswales -- ditches that allow runoff to percolate into the ground more naturally -- to handle storm water.

Roads would be constructed with "pervious" pavement, a newfangled asphalt that water can penetrate, reducing the flooding caused by new development. Property owners with environmentally sensitive lands could be encouraged to preserve them by transferring their building rights -- and the allowable density -- to other parts of their land.

This article has this and lots more, but it's from 2005 at the first public hearing. Not sure what happened after.

Plan was approved later in 2005:

-Pete (talk) 05:38, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure why the area just south of Gresham is also called Springwater, but the place this article is about is just south of Estacada. If Gresham were to annex everything up to Springwater, including Estacada, that would be ambitious indeed! Katr67 (talk) 05:58, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Ohboy, looks like I've majorly mixedup. Sunday nights are no good for brains. I'll be doing a total selfrevert and checking out. Thanks, and sorry! (Though the annexation of the "other" Springwater probably deserves an article of its own, and 'twould be nice to know if it's presently an uninc. comm. or what. But that can wait...) -Pete (talk) 06:30, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, my first reaction to the above was "Poor Springwater!" I did some looking, but according to USGS, the only Springwater that is a locale or community or anything else is this one. I suspect the naming of the "Springwater District" (I've also seen reference to the "Springwater Hills" subdivision) is purely marketing by folks who don't know their history or geography. I'm not sure the Gresham bit needs a separate article, maybe mention the other Springwater here: "Springwater is also the name of a (proposed?) neighborhood in Gresham...", then put the bulk of the annexation info in the Gresham article. Katr67 (talk) 06:56, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ACME mapper's GNIS lookup puts the community here, south of the Clackamas River, which is in agreement with the coord given in the article. I wonder why the Johnson Creek corridor is called Springwater?  —EncMstr 06:59, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thinking about calling the reporter who's worked on all these stories tomorrow. Also thinking about sleeping...very soon. Thanks for the help guys! -Pete (talk) 07:04, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Would I lie to you? ;) Pretty much all the info from OGN is in the article, which says the name is "descriptive", i.e. someone looked around and saw there were a lot of natural springs. Looking at the Springwater Corridor map, besides my cynical theory above, the new neighborhood/area/development is probably named for the Corridor (or perhaps the rail line--how long has it been defunct? did the locals and/or developers know or care about the rail line before the rail trail was developed?). I wonder how long the name has been applied there? Has anyone ever contacted Mr. McArthur? Original Research, but I wonder if he would have any insight into the matter? Anyways, my Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer shows the old railroad grade goes past Boring and passes through Barton, stopping at Eagle Creek, and the terrain shows that it could have naturally been extended past Estacada to Springwater probably roughly parallel to Oregon Route 211/Oregon Route 224. I believe that Portland folks used to get some of their produce from the Springwater area. That's a Katr FactTM*, not sure where I saw that--maybe in the RR link I put in the Corridor article... The name Springwater is very appealing and the trail is appealing, so it makes sense that more things will be so named. I can't think of any examples right now, but there are lots of places where an appealing name is applied to all kinds of newer developments without regard to the area's former history... *Fact I pulled out of thin air or...some other place, named for a friend known to unashamedly produce "Sissy Facts"... Katr67 (talk) 14:18, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * According to the RR link (http://www.brian894x4.com/Springwaterrailroadwriteup.html) the line did extend all the way to Estacada to the Cazadero Dam, though the map doesn't show the old rail grade after Eagle Creek. Good stuff in the abandoned rail site, and I've e-mailed him before re: use of photos, but I never followed up on his friendly offer of image use (I hate copyright stuff). Katr67 (talk) 14:43, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Just wondering if the reporter could answer questions like you have above -- when the name came into use, how old the community is, etc. Your ideas for tracking that down are really good too, though. But if I"m good, I really don't have time for much wikiwork today... Oh, one thought occurs to me, maybe it would be best to make an article for Springwater, Gresham, Oregon, since this has gotten so much media coverage on its own. I think a mere section would overwhelm Gresham, Oregon, and besides we'll want to link from Johnson Creek (Willamette River) and Springwater Corridor. I don't think it matters that it's not yet annexed, there is a plan in place, it can be clarified in the lead. -Pete (talk) 16:25, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

(unindent) That works for me--see Bull Mountain, Oregon. We could almost use an Portland Metro Area annexation category... Katr67 (talk) 17:37, 31 March 2008 (UTC)