🌲🌲🌲🌲 Woods… or a Parking Lot? _______🌲

As we feared, on November 6, FPG filed its application seeking to reduce the size of the property and significantly reduce the number of the trees on the site.

Now it’s official: Besides selling the existing parking lot east of SE 14th, the Florida-based company also intends to:

This is exactly the kind of scenario Friends of Moreland Woods has been working for two years to avoid — and every neighborhood survey we’ve taken is strongly opposed to it.

This week, we requested another meeting with FPG, where we will ask the company once again to consider other less drastic options, including designing a parking lot that (if one must be constructed at all) would require no trees to be removed.

We will continue to advocate for the Woods. In the meantime, you can help:

1. Come to the SMILE general meeting on Wednesday, December 4, at 7:30 p.m., where FOMW will provide an update on our meeting with FPG and circulate materials of support.
2. Attend the Portland City Council meeting on Thursday, December 5, at 3:00 p.m., where you’ll have a chance to advocate for additional protection of city trees. The current tree code has many deficiencies, including exemptions for all industrial and commercial-zoned properties, which Council will be considering proposals to improve.
3. Call or email your commissioners in advance of the 12/5 meeting, letting them know how you feel about preserving mature neighborhood trees. Be polite; leave a message with staff or a voicemail expressing your support for extending the “big tree amendment” and removing exemptions for commercial and industrial properties. Here’s how to reach them:

Cut and paste the full list: Amanda.Fritz@portlandoregon.gov, joann@portlandoregon.gov, Chloe@portlandoregon.gov, nick@portlandoregon.gov, MayorWheeler@portlandoregon.gov