The Lake Oswego School District approved a resolution Monday to pursue eminent domain against a church that closed on a $3.25 million property purchase directly across the street from Lakeridge High School just weeks earlier. The board declared the 1271 Overlook Drive site a public necessity, setting up a legal fight with SouthLake Church over land the congregation had spent a year searching for before buying it in July.
According to KPTV, the district plans to use the property for additional parking and educational facilities at Lakeridge High, and says the acquisition would resolve parking issues, expand programs, and save taxpayers millions. The station reports the district had offered $3.4 million for the site back in April, before SouthLake Church closed on its own purchase in July. District officials have described eminent domain as a last resort, and the school board can stop the process at any time, per the same account.
The parcel in question sits directly across from Lakeridge High at 1235 Overlook Drive, a campus built in 1970 that now educates roughly 1,200 students in grades 9 through 12, according to the Lake Oswego School District. The 1271 Overlook Drive property itself has a decades-long institutional history, having served as a meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than 50 years before its recent sale.
A Church's Long Search Meets a School's Parking Crunch
SouthLake Church, a non-denominational Christian ministry founded in 1985 that has served the Lake Oswego and West Linn communities for more than four decades, committed to selling its former campus in July 2025. The congregation then spent a year searching the area for a permanent home before landing on the Overlook Drive property last month. The district's interest in that same address stems from a persistent, well-documented problem: Lakeridge High's campus cannot accommodate its own students' cars.
Because of severe on-campus parking limitations, Lakeridge High restricts parking permits to seniors only, charging $100 annually, a policy that has pushed student vehicles onto residential streets like Treetop Lane and fueled years of neighborhood complaints, as the Lake Oswego Review reported in 2023. The district, formally known as Clackamas County School District 7J, serves about 6,800 students across 11 facilities citywide, giving context to the scale of the capital planning behind the Lakeridge push.
Bond Money and Legal Authority Behind the Push
The eminent domain resolution follows Lake Oswego voters' consideration of Measure 3-628 last November, a $245 million capital bond framed as the final phase of a three-part facility modernization program touching campuses including Lakeridge High. Oregon law gives school districts broad standing to pursue this kind of action: under Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 35, specifically ORS 35.215, public school districts are explicitly classified as condemners with authority to take private property for necessary public uses.
That authority is not unconditional. State eminent domain rules require a public entity to negotiate in good faith with a property owner before initiating formal condemnation proceedings in circuit court to determine fair market value compensation. Lake Oswego has used the tool before outside the school context — the city initiated eminent domain proceedings against business properties along Foothills Road in 2024 to secure land for water treatment facilities.
A Congregation Pushes Back
Richard Shaw said the district's move could be a major setback for the church, while stressing he wants SouthLake Church to remain part of the community rather than end up in an adversarial relationship with the school board. He said he still believes the district and the church can find a way to work together despite the legal proceedings now underway.
Thomas Hamlin offered a starker read of the process, comparing it to putting a lobster in a bucket and gradually turning up the heat. Whether that heat leads to a negotiated deal, a shared-use arrangement, or a courtroom fight over fair market value remains an open question, since the district's board retains the power to halt the eminent-domain process at any point before it runs its course.
