Community Advocacy Updates

Stay informed on Hillsdale projects, city planning, and neighborhood issues. See what HNA is tracking, our advocacy efforts, and how you can get involved.

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Ida B. Wells Campus, Before and After the Rebuild

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October 9, 2026

Sign up now to submit written or verbal testimony in support of the HNA Appeal at City Council on October 15

HNA has filed an appeal to Portland City Council of the Land Use Hearings Officer’s approval of PPS’s Conditional Use application for the rebuild of the Ida B. Wells High School campus.

HNA Appeal

City Council will hear our appeal and supporting testimony on October 15 at 2:00pm.

Sign up to testify verbally or in writing at https://www.portland.gov/council/documents/report/lu-26-026160-cu-ad. Registration for virtual testimony closes one hour prior to the Council meeting. In person testifiers must sign up before the agenda item is heard.

HNA generally supports the approval but is asking City Council to add conditions to the approval. 

Our appeal addresses three issues: 

• Clear dedication of the PPS-owned road between Rieke Elementary and Wells HS to allow bicycles to travel on the existing paved roadway without dismounting. The alternative will force bicycles to share the 6-7 ft wide sidewalk with pedestrians. This presents safety concerns and is not in accordance with City transportation requirements, and may discourage bicycle usage in the area. This sidewalk is a segment of the Hillsdale to Lake Oswego (HILO) Trail, Urban Trails 3 and 6, and a designated Safe Route to School. PPS’s proposed easement does not allow bicycle traffic in the roadway, and will degrade current conditions, making them less safe for cyclists and pedestrians than they are now.
• Maintenance of a safe, accessible, off-street pedestrian connection at the east campus entrance along the SW Burlingame Avenue frontage. Currently, a safe route exists on PPS property. However, plans submitted to the City call for blocking this route with new landscaping and represent a degradation of current conditions. A short segment of sidewalk along Burlingame Ave or a dedicated path would provide a safe route. However, without action, students and other pedestrians will be forced to walk in the street on a blind corner of a busy single-lane street. This route is designated a Safe Route to School, and is the route for Urban Trail 3 which runs from the Willamette to the Fanno Creek Trail in Garden Home.  
• For the past 70 years, the Ida B. Wells (formerly Wilson) campus has been a critical piece of social infrastructure in the Hillsdale neighborhood. Families play, neighbors gather, and community is built on the outdoor spaces on campus. People of all ages and abilities rely on the track in our hilly area with few sidewalks. Following the rebuild, PPS plans to fence much of the property and control access through time-lock gates, largely excluding the community from the outdoor facilities. We have proposed a Good Neighbor Agreement to PPS that would guarantee access to these spaces after school hours and when not in use for officially-sanctioned activities. Our appeal rests on adopted area plans, the Hillsdale Town Center and SW Community Plans, which call for maintaining and expanding community use of outdoor spaces. We feel the project can provide a modern and secure campus while also preserving public access to outdoor facilities after school hours. We are also concerned that future school improvement projects throughout Portland will continue to erode public access to open space on school grounds. 

For details about the district’s application, the HNA appeal, and the hearing process, go to the Public Hearing Notice.

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September 15, 2026
Update on Ida B. Wells Land Use Hearing and Modernization and Action Needed

As you may know, the plans to modernize the Wells High School campus will greatly reduce public access to what is currently a significant outdoor resource for the community. Access will be restricted to the periphery and one pathway through campus that will be open after school hours; outdoor facilities, including the practice field and new courtyard, will be fenced and locked; there are no guarantees that the track will remain open to the public outside of school hours.

If you would like to see the campus remain open to the public, please email the board of Portland Public Schools as soon as possible. Read on for more information.

Recently, our School Board rep Christy Splitt strongly encouraged us to send emails to her fellow board members, letting them know of objections to the current PPS proposal for the Wells campus.  She told us that board members have not heard from our community, so assume that we approve of the plan to fence and lock the Wells campus without guaranteeing community access. 

The Hillsdale Neighborhood Association (HNA) has proposed a Good Neighbor Agreement between the community and PPS to guarantee public access after school hours and formalize communication. (HNA has also appealed the recent approval of PPS’s land use application to City Council, which will hear our appeal on October 15.)

If you are in support of a GNA, it’s time to write school board members asap. Click the link below to populate your own email with all school board member addresses.

Link to School Board Member Emails

Following this message are some points you may find helpful as you draft your letter to the school board. Whatever you write about, please flesh it out in your own words/with your own examples.

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Below is a list of reasons in support of a GNA. The second list is comprised of problems with PPS’ process and proposition. These are partial lists only, you may have items to add.

In support of a Good Neighbor Agreement between Hillsdale and PPS:

• Historical access—the campus has been part of the community for more than seventy years and is an important piece of our social infrastructure. 
• Large space in the middle of Hillsdale—flat and safe. 
• Limited  open spaces in Hillsdale.
• Gathering space, views = livability.
• Meeting space in case of emergency. 
• Population forecasts show the school-age population continuing to decline while the number of older residents will increase. Our community is aging and will need access to flat, walkable areas such as the Wells track. See the Willamette Week article, especially the last paragraph.
• Community support of PPS bond measures and neighbor maintenance of property far outweigh instances of grafitti or misuse. Neighbors have mowed and maintained campus—some neighbors routinely mow the property, others clean garbage and remove graffiti, groups clean and garden during Community Care Days, etc.
• Area plans adopted by City Council (Hillsdale Town Center Plan and Southwest Community Plan) call for retaining and encouraging open space and public gathering areas as well as broadening the use and enjoyment of school campuses.
• Hillsdale businesses and schools have a symbiotic relationship—interaction and financial support. Restricting access to campus could decrease traffic to Hillsdale’s small, locally owned businesses.  

Points critical of the process/current fencing plan: 

• Lack of meaningful public process/transparency/misrepresentation of actual proposal.
• Public meetings with lack of information and insufficient community outreach.
• Signs posted around the campus showing open space/no fences—misleading signs.
• Alternative options have not been explored.
• Bike and pedestrian paths and interaction needs improvement.
• Negative impact of fences on mental health and isolation vs. feeling of community; idea that fences increase safety is illusory.
• More fences don’t always mean greater safety.
• Breach of the “social contract”—taxpayers voted to pay for modernizing the campus, not cutting off public access.

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Ida B. Wells Modernization Conditional Use Hearing
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
1:30pm over Zoom only
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89705622346

Useful Documents:
Hearing Notice
Plans submitted to City Planning Department (the file is large and may take a few minutes to load)
PPS Memo with updates to previously submitted documents
Exhibits A-G
City Staff Land Use Review Response
Staff Report and Recommendations to the Hearing Officer

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July 9, 2026

The final opportunity for input on the Ida B. Wells campus rebuild is the Conditional Use hearing on July 22.

Providing testimony is easy, here’s how:

• Send an email with your comments anytime before the hearing date to HearingsOfficeClerks@portlandoregon.gov; reference case number LU 26-026160
• Attend the hearing on July 22 via Zoom; no sign-up is necessary

If you’re unsure about how to provide testimony, want to learn more about the process, or discuss possible testimony topics, HNA will hold a testimony prep workshop at 7pm on July 16 to answer questions and share information (see above).

Do you have concerns about parking? Public access? Something else? This is your last chance to have input into this project that impacts daily life in our neighborhood, paid for by your tax dollars.

What to know about testifying

• Written testimony is given the same weight as in-person testimony.
• This hearing is about the finished building and its use.
• Testimony, whether written or in-person, should be civil (keep it nice) and focussed on approval criteria.
• It’s your right to provide input—that’s what the hearing is for.
• The Wells rebuild is funded by your tax dollars, so don’t be hesitant to participate in the hearing process.
• Construction permits are a separate process. HNA is tracking issues such as construction staff parking, planning for safe student drop-off, and delivery access for businesses on the south side of Capitol Hwy.

Public comment works!

In response to neighborhood association and other public comment, PPS has already revised several aspects of the plans:

• Easements have been promised for three pedestrian and bicycle pathways
• Fence lines have been modified
• Two planned time-lock gates blocking the road through the Rieke parking lot have been replaced with one set of bollards
• The Hillsdale Farmers’ Market will be allowed to move to the south end of the parking lot during construction rather than forced to relocate entirely

Possible testimony topics:

• Loss of public use of campus spaces: The new campus will be largely off-limits to the public.

All athletic facilities will be fenced and gated, including the practice field. No guarantees have been made for public access when not in use by the school.
The plans also include a new courtyard, open to the west and adjacent to the practice field, that will not be available for public use at any hour of the day.
Public access will be limited to the periphery, with a walkway through campus that will be open only outside of school hours.

• The plans transform the Ida B. Wells campus, a long-standing community resource into a barrier that residents must navigate around rather than a space they can share and use. Should we expect the campuses of Robert Gray and Rieke to be eventually fenced off from public use as well?
• Emergency planning: The Wells practice field on SW Vermont is currently identified as a BEECN hub, where volunteers will set up emergency communications in the event of a disaster. If the practice field is fenced and locked following the rebuild, an alternative BEECN site will need to be identified.
• Bicycle access: Plans call for bicyclists to dismount for almost 1/4 mile when riding through the Rieke parking lot.
• Student parking: Student parking will not increase on the campus. Current conditions are already difficult for many neighbors, with cars parked illegally, blocking access to private property and interfering with emergency vehicle access.
• Field lighting: PPS has applied for a code exception for higher lights.
• Vehicle access through the Rieke Parking lot: The plan calls for bollards in the middle of the lot to separate the Wells and Rieke parking lots on the west side of the campus. Vehicles will be allowed to enter at either entrance, but will not be able to pass the bollards, effectively ending use of the parking lot as a vehicular through-connection between Capitol Hwy and Vermont.

Approval Criteria

Under city code, the hearing officer can approve, deny, or approve with conditions according to approval criteria that includes livability and change of use of property. The loss of public use of open space could be considered a significant change in the use of the property. Find the relevant approval criteria under section 33.815.100, at this link: https://www.portland.gov/sites/default/files/code/815-cu_0.pdf.

A quick overview of the Wells modernization project

• Construction will begin in Fall of 2026 on a new building just to the west of the existing building on SW Vermont St.
• Students will remain in the old building during construction.
• The stadium will remain in the same location; grandstand and surfaces will be upgraded.
• The Parks-owned public swimming pool will remain in the same location.
• Tennis courts, baseball field, and practice field will be relocated.
• The number of on-site parking spaces will remain about the same.
• The cost is roughly $450 million, paid for by the bond measure approved by voters in 2025.

Go to https://bond.pps.net/current-modernizations/ida-b-wells-modernization for more information from PPS.

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March 16, 2026

Ida B. Wells High School Modernization Project – Transportation Study

February 6, 2026

Hillsdale Neighborhood Association Comments and Requests re: Ida B. Wells Modernization Plans

The Ida B. Wells modernization design team has met the many challenges of this site with a thoughtfully conceived plan that will bring SW Portland’s high school into the 21st century. HNA is grateful for PPS’s responsiveness to earlier community input on issues such as the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market, retaining parking spaces, and preserving the longstanding pedestrian paths that cross the campus.

At this time, HNA has final comments and requests for PPS and City bureaus. We see these as ways to better integrate the new campus into its surrounding community and to honor the commitment and support of voters for the school modernization bond program.

We hope PPS and the City of Portland will address these items and inform us as far as how and when HNA can continue to influence remaining decisions.

Click here to view the complete document.

Remaining opportunities for public input:

Land Use Hearing: Not scheduled at this time.

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February 4, 2026

From the Grapevine, the Farmers’ Market newsletter:

“We’re thrilled to have reached a resolution with PPS that will allow the market to remain on the south end of our current parking lot site through the duration of the project. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and we’ll continue to keep our community informed well in advance of any impact to market operations.”

October 22, 2025

An excerpt from the Grapevine, the Farmers’ Market newsletter:

“A Positive Step Forward for the Market’s Future
We have exciting news to share! Portland Public Schools (PPS) has offered the Rieke Elementary end of our current parking lot as a home for the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market for the duration of the IBW modernization project! 🎉

We just received this news yesterday (10/21), so it’s still very new, and there are many details to be worked out before any agreement is finalized. That said, this is a major, positive step forward, and we are proceeding in gratitude and good faith that we will be able to come to a mutually acceptable solution with PPS to keep the market right here in Hillsdale.

We want to extend our gratitude to our incredible community. PPS received hundreds of emails from market shoppers, neighbors, and supporters expressing how much this market means to Hillsdale. Your voices truly made a difference.

We also want to thank PPS for their hard work behind the scenes to make this option possible, coordinating with city departments and listening to the many community members who spoke up about the importance of keeping the market in our neighborhood.”

September, 2025

The Hillsdale Farmers’ Market has been at the heart of our neighborhood for more than 20 years—bringing fresh, local food, supporting small farmers and food makers, and creating a weekly gathering place that strengthens our community.

Right now, the Market faces a serious challenge due to the proposed closure of the parking lot housing the Market during Wells High School rebuild. This page provides background, updates, and ways you can get involved to help keep the Market thriving in Hillsdale. HNA and the Farmers’ Market believe that the Market can work with PPS to come to an agreement that would allow the Market to remain onsite during construction without interfering with the rebuild plans or the timeline.

The proposed closure of the Wells parking lot where the Market is located would also shut down two SW Trails walking routes.

What you can do right now

1. Send emails to these Portland Public Schools officials:

• Dr. Jon Franco, Senior Chief of Operations, jfranco@pps.net
• Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong, PPS Superintendent, karmstrong@pps.net
• Deborah Kafoury, PPS Chief of Staff, dkafoury@pps.net
• PPS Board of Directors, schoolboard@pps.net

Find a sample letter at the Farmers’ Market website here.

2. Let your friends and neighbors know that the Farmers’ Market is under threat and that they need to write emails.

3. Fill out the Farmers’ Market community survey and help us show PPS decision makers how much the market matters to Hillsdale and Southwest Portland.

Hillsdale Farmer’s Market Website

Join the Keep the Market Committee

Read the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market report below to learn more about the importance of mounting a campaign to keep the Market in place: