This fall Tigard is buying the wetland between SW Oak Street and SW 95th Avenue, about 12.82 acres along Ash Creek, so it can build a walking and biking trail through it. Most of the coverage has focused on the money, since Metro awarded less than the city asked for. The timing of the trail depends on something else. The Ash Creek Nature Link is planned to run alongside a new Clean Water Services sewer line through the same corridor. That sewer project has a published construction window, and the trail's schedule has to fit inside it.
The funding cut, and why it didn't stop the project
Metro paid for this round through the Large-Scale Community Visions program, which is funded by the 2019 Parks and Nature bond. The program supports projects that combine nature with housing, transportation, and jobs. Councilors held a work session on July 14, 2026, and formally adopted the awards on July 21. In the final resolution, $8 million went to four projects. Working Theory Farm in South Hillsboro got $3 million. Mt. Hood Community College got $2.5 million to remove the Kelly Creek dam. Bird Alliance of Oregon got $1 million for the East Portland Nature Center. Tigard got $1.5 million for "Ash Creek Nature Link: A Metzger Community Greenway."
That was much less than the city requested. Your Oregon News reported that Mayor Yi-Kang Hu wrote to the Metro Council in July asking for $3.85 million. The city had already lowered that figure from an original $6 million, and Hu warned that a $2.3 million cut would "make the project infeasible." In the same letter, Hu said the city was counting on Clean Water Services' 6,600-foot sewer project in the same area to keep costs down.
That cost-sharing is how the project survived. After the cut, city staff reworked the plan with Clean Water Services. Tigard Communications Manager Kimberlee Ables told Tigard Life that the money secured so far for the trail, $2.32 million in total, was enough to "build the heart of the project." She added, "Without the partnership with CWS, the project would not have been possible."
The trail is designed to sit next to the new pipe
The plainest description of how the two projects fit together is in Tigard's February 2026 grant-match application, which was included in a Washington County Coordinating Committee packet:
CWS will install a new high-flow, 30-inch sanitary sewer interceptor, and the City will construct a 10-foot wide, ADA accessible multi-use trail parallel to the new interceptor.
The same application says the trail would also give CWS a way in to maintain the sewer. CWS describes its own work as replacing about 6,600 feet of the Metzger Trunk sewer with a larger pipe and improving the health of Ash Creek near the new line. According to the CWS project page, the route runs along Ash Creek between Fanno Creek, the TriMet rail line and SW Greenburg Road, through Bagan Park, under Highway 217, along Ash Creek to SW Oak Street, and then on SW Hall Boulevard and SW Locust Street.
That middle stretch, under Highway 217 and along the creek to Oak Street, is where the greenway is planned.
The schedule, step by step
Lining up the city's dates with CWS's dates shows why the sewer project sets the pace.
- December 2025 through February 2026. CWS crews surveyed properties, located utilities, and drilled soil samples along the corridor as part of design.
- May 26, 2026. Tigard City Council unanimously approved Resolution 26-17, supporting the Metro grant application.
- July 14 and 21, 2026. Metro held its work session and then adopted the $1.5 million award.
- September 16, 2026. Mayor Hu put out a statement saying the city had "found a way to move the first phase forward while protecting valuable wetland habitat."
- October 2026. Ables told Tigard Life the city would start buying property "in earnest" this month.
- Through the end of 2027. CWS continues designing the sewer.
- Spring 2028 to autumn 2030. CWS builds the sewer.
- 2029. The city's target for finishing the Ash Creek project. No construction timeline for the trail itself has been released.
The city's 2029 target lands in the middle of CWS's three-year construction window. A trail built alongside a pipe can't be finished on a stretch until the pipe is in the ground there. So when the greenway opens will depend on when CWS works on the segment between Highway 217 and SW Oak Street, and CWS will keep refining that sequence through 2027. The land the city is buying this fall is the corridor both projects will share.
What the current money covers, and what still needs funding
Ables called the funded portion the "heart of the project." The city's own description lists several pieces that are still waiting on future grants.
| Piece of the project | Where it stands as of October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Buying about 12.82 acres of wetland between SW Oak Street and SW 95th Avenue | Starting this month |
| Restoring and permanently protecting that wetland | Part of the current scope |
| A 2,400-foot, ADA-accessible greenway trail | Part of the current scope, with no construction date yet |
| Boardwalks, viewing platforms, interpretive signs, secondary trail connections | Depends on future grants |
| A pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Highway 217 that eventually connects to the Fanno Creek Trail | Future phase |
The February application included a 600-foot boardwalk and signage package in the base plan. In the city's fall 2026 description, those features have moved to the list of things future grants could add. Ables told Tigard Life the city is looking at other Metro grant programs for later phases. Metro Council had recommended that in July.
Where each end of the trail comes out
The application sets the route's endpoints more precisely than most news coverage. The trail would run from the intersection of SW Oak Street and SW Hall Boulevard west to SW 95th Avenue. A separate bridge study would look at linking SW 95th Avenue across Highway 217 to SW Shady Lane, toward Bagan Park and eventually the Fanno Creek Regional Trail.
Destinations named in the application include Steve Street Park, Bagan Park, Metzger Park, and the Washington Square Transit Center. The city has also pointed to two nearby communities: Terrace Glen at 9660 SW Greenburg Road and Cogir Tigard Senior Living at 9244 SW Oak Street. City officials also told Your Oregon News they expect major redevelopment around Washington Square and along SW Hall Boulevard near the trail.
For now, the nearest bike routes are on the streets. The county's application describes enhanced bikeways on Hall Boulevard and Greenburg Road. Ash Creek has no off-street path yet.
Where to walk in the meantime
Until the greenway is built, a few nearby spots already offer the kind of walk it's meant to provide.
Metzger Park at 8400 SW Hemlock Street, near Hall Boulevard, is a seven-acre Washington County park. It has tree-covered trails, open lawn, play areas, tennis and basketball courts, and quiet natural areas. The county extended its paths into an all-weather loop, finished in June 2025, so it's usable through a wet November.
Fanno Creek Park runs from downtown Main Street to Hall Boulevard and the public library. It has more than 10 entrances, including one at City Hall, and a pedestrian crossing beacon at Hall. The City of Tigard's Fanno Creek Trail page lists the Hall Boulevard trailhead and another access point just south of the cul-de-sac at the end of SW 85th Avenue. The trail segment from 85th Avenue to the Ki-a-Kuts Bridge was substantially complete as of March 4, 2025.
The Ash Creek and Fanno Creek confluence is where CWS plans part of its restoration work. After the sewer is installed, CWS plans to replant native vegetation and repair the stream channel. In other words, the west end of the sewer project will also improve the creek where it meets the regional trail.
CWS posts progress on its project page and offers email updates. Because the sewer schedule largely determines the trail's timing, that's the update list to sign up for.
If you own a home near Hall Boulevard, SW Oak Street, or the Washington Square area and want to know how a long project like this fits into your own plans, Tracy Brophy is glad to talk it through with you. Request a Market Consultation or Free Home Valuation, and we'll go over the timeline as it stands and what's happening in your part of Tigard.
