Downtown Beaverton is eyeing a greener, cooler future, and city officials are betting that a revived creek can help get it there. On Saturday, the city rolled out fresh renderings for “Creekside Connections,” an ambitious plan to pull Beaverton Creek out from behind parking lots and buildings and put it back at the center of neighborhood life.
The new images show a more shaded, leafy downtown with wider tree canopy, vegetated creek buffers and a network of car-free paths tying together housing, jobs, parks and transit. City staff are pitching the concept as a climate- and habitat-focused strategy to improve water quality, reconnect floodplains and take some heat off the urban core, according to the City of Beaverton.
The post also name-checks regional partners Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District, Metro and Community Partners for Affordable Housing, and links the vision to ongoing downtown redevelopment work.
Funding and timeline
For now, Creekside Connections is still in the pre-development stage. City documents show Beaverton has secured a $215,000 Department of Land Conservation and Development grant to cover conceptual design. Staff are also preparing an application to Metro’s Large-Scale Community Visions program, with applications due at the end of May, per the Urban Renewal Advisory Committee agenda.
On a parallel track, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District has lined up funding for the Beaverton Creek Trail and says construction is expected to begin in 2026. The district describes that project as a key link that will connect the Westside Trail to downtown and serve as an early piece of the broader Creekside vision.
What the plan would do
The city’s renderings outline a continuous natural corridor running through the Creekside district and Lombard West, with a restored Beaverton Creek as the spine. The concept calls for more trees, reconnected floodplains and thicker vegetated buffers along the waterway to improve stormwater treatment, habitat and overall water quality.
Officials also say the effort is designed to benefit historically marginalized and culturally specific communities. The idea is to pair creek restoration with safer, car-free walking and biking routes that connect neighborhoods to shops, restaurants and transit, per the City of Beaverton.
What’s next
According to the Urban Renewal Advisory Committee, city staff and partner agencies are expected to translate the big-picture concept into more detailed designs this summer while continuing to chase construction funding. Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District’s work on the Beaverton Creek Trail is set to function as an early on-the-ground phase and as a funding match for future grants.
Residents interested in weighing in are encouraged to keep an eye on public postings from Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District and the City of Beaverton for meeting notices and opportunities to comment as the Creekside Connections plan moves from glossy renderings toward real dirt and concrete.
