Portland Botanical Gardens Makes a Play for Riverfront Property

Community groups that seek public access to the land are dismayed.

The McCormick & Baxter property. (Allison Barr)
By Nigel Jaquiss

On April 25, the Portland Botanical Gardens, a fledgling nonprofit, announced it had signed a purchase agreement for the McCormick & Baxter property, a 41-acre stretch of Willamette riverfront that taxpayers spent $70 million to clean up two decades ago.

The group signed the deal, first reported by The Oregonian, at an undisclosed price with Charlie McCormick, the former CEO of the creosoting company that polluted the land.

Community groups, including Willamette Riverkeeper and the Portland Harbor Community Coalition, which have been working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to allow public access to the land (“Action Park,” WW, April 10), say they are dismayed by the agreement. They hope DEQ, which retains the right to approve or deny any transaction because of the massive public expenditure for the cleanup, will look out for the public’s interest.

“We need to mobilize,” says Cassie Cohen of the community coalition.

The botanical gardens group now has a year to conduct due diligence and raise money—although neither is a guarantee that DEQ will approve the transaction.

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