About


The study area includes unicorporated communities including Oak Grove, Jennings Lodge and Oatfield Ridge. The area is located between the cities of Milwaukie and Gladstone and the Willamette River and I-205.

The McLoughlin Area Plan is a rare opportunity to plan strategically for the future. It is an opportunity to think strategically about how to integrate future major public investments and ensure maximum benefit to the residents and businesses within the community.

Phase I

In 2009, a group of interested residents and business people in the McLoughlin area agreed to work with the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners to develop a future vision and project plan for this large, unincorporated area of the County.

The community played a key role in establishing values and guiding principles to help guide future planning, programming, and development within the area. Part of the process was focused on defining the exact boundaries of the McLoughlin Area. The first product of this effort, the McLoughlin Area Plan Vision Framework, issued on May 20, 2010, was produced after many meetings, extensive public involvement and outreach efforts and input from large numbers of those in the area described.

Through this vision, residents expressed a strong interest in ecological, economic and social sustainability. Though residents wish to maintain the character of established neighborhoods, there are opportunities to capitalize on the area’s investment opportunities along major corridors and increase neighborhood amenities. Key areas along the McLoughlin Boulevard corridor and in other community centers such as Oak Grove need investment and attention. Through Phase One, the community identified six project types that they were interested in seeing in their community:

  • Transportation
  • Parks, Open Space, and Habitat
  • Development/Redevelopement
  • Housing Affordability
  • Economic Development Programs
  • Planning Studies, Code Enforcement and Other Programming

Phase II

Phase Two of the McLoughlin Area Plan is about focusing on the kinds of projects that will best align with community priorities and make the vision a reality. There will be plenty of opportunities for area residents and people working in the area to get involved to give feedback on the kinds of investments they would like to see, whether that means coming to a workshop or completing a survey. The goal of this project is envision a community that is robust, well-connected to surrounding areas, and yet retains flexibility to adapt to changing conditions.

History

Oak Grove was named at the suggestion of Edward W. Cornell, a member of the surveying party that platted the townsite in the 1890s. The company that was developing the property had not been able to come up with a good name for the place and Cornell suggested Oak Grove after a crew ate lunch in a stand of oak trees in the northwestern part of the tract.

According to Oregon Geographic Names, Jennings Lodge was platted as a townsite in 1905 and named after Berryman Jennings, an Oregon pioneer, one of whose children still owned Jennings’ house in 1927.

“McLoughlin Boulevard was originally US Route 99E, part of the major north-south Pacific Highway through Oregon’s Willamette Valley to California. US Route 99E had its heyday just after WWII until it was eclipsed by Interstate 5, finished in 1966. Thereafter, the Boulevard, demoted into Oregon Route 99E, declined as Portland grew.” – June Underwood, Painting Portland

McLoughlin was named after Dr. John McLoughlin, one of the most influential figures of the fur trade and settlement periods of Pacific Northwest history. Chief Factor of the Columbia District of the British Hudson’s Bay Company, he reigned as a benevolent autocrat, befriended Americans, and eventually became an American citizen at Oregon City. In 1842 he surveyed and laid out the town site of Oregon City (formerly called Willamette Falls), and was mayor of Oregon City from 1851 until his death in 1857.

Until 1964, U.S. Route 99 was the main North-South highway on the U.S. West Coast running from Calexico, California at the U.S. Mexico border to Blaine, Washington on the U.S. side of the Canada border. In 1926, it was signed as a route of the United States Numbered Highways system, and remained in use until it was replaced for the most part by Interstate 5. Large portions are now California’s State Route 99, Oregon’s Route 99 and Washington’s State Route 99.