South Hillsboro Project

Click HERE to see the full size map from the City of Hillsboro

Have you heard about the South Hillsboro Project?  If you live anywhere close to 209th to 229th in Hillsboro, you probably have.  I recently went to a meeting on it for Realtors because I was curious about this project that has been in the works since 1998, that we've heard so much about, yet haven't seen any dirt actually move.

It's 1,400 acres between 209th on the East,  229th on the West and between TV Highway on the North and Farmington Road on the South.  It's going to have 8,000 dwellings, some 20,000+ residents (like building a Forest Grove in South Hillsboro), 286 acres of parks and 5 new schools.  This is a whole planned community from shops and restaurants to senior centers, apartments and high-end homes. 

One of the major intersections to get into South Hillsboro will be at Cornelius Pass and TV Highway.  Right now that intersection T's and comes to a stop at a field.  Well that field will one day be gone and instead be new South Hillsboro.  In order to go into new South Hillsboro, Cornelius Pass will go over the railroad tracks into that land.  Just that intersection alone has taken five years to plan!  They've had to close other railroad crossings as part of the agreement to get this one new crossing in place.  Maybe you've seen some work at that intersection?  I drove by it a few months ago (-ish, could be more, could be less, one never knows with my memory) and saw equipment there appearing to start some of the more basic work that has to be done to get that intersection in place.  Apparently getting a new crossing over a railroad track is no easy feat.

They started the concept planning in 1998 and have been working hard on the project for 16 years now.  Residents and people staying on top of it like Realtors keep hearing that it'll start soon.  Apparently the dirt work will start next year.  Now that doesn't mean that homes are going up, that just means that the dirt will start to move for infrastructure.  Course, we've heard it before, "next year", so it could be more like 2017...