Oppenlander Field in West Linn. (Jonathan House/West Linn Tidings)

After four years of back and forth negotiations and a costly court battle with the city of West Linn, the West Linn-Wilsonville School District will put Oppenlander Fields up for sale on the open market later this month.

At a meeting Friday afternoon, May 2, the West Linn-Wilsonville School Board voted unanimously to direct staff to put a request for proposals for the 10-acre property on the open market as soon as May 9.

The board also clarified how the district should use proceeds from the sale. How much the district will sell the property for is still to be seen, though the land was appraised at $7.875 million in January. According to the board’s direction, $6.5 million of proceeds from the sale will go to the district’s land bank, while $1.2 million would go to constructing two new baseball/softball fields with turf infields at Riverside High School. The remainder of the proceeds will go toward filling teacher positions recently cut due to budget restrictions in the coming school year.

Riverside currently has two grass fields.

The fate of Oppenlander Fields, a property owned by the district on Rosemont Road in West Linn and used by the West Linn community as sports fields for several decades, has hung in the balance since the spring of 2021 when the district declared the property surplus and initially put the property for sale on the open market. Community members who were distraught at the possibility of losing the fields rallied for the city and school district to come together and find a way for the city to purchase the property to maintain as a park with fields.

Those talks broke down and led to a lawsuit in 2022, which was eventually decided in favor of the district last August.

In the wake of the lawsuit, the district and city both expressed a desire to find a way for the city to purchase the fields, but remained at odds on how to do so.

On March 21, the school district sent a proposed purchase and sale agreement to the city, outlining terms for the city to purchase the property for $7.9 million by May 23. The city countered the district’s proposal with a plan of its own to purchase the property jointly with developer Icon Construction. That proposal outlined Icon building homes on 7 acres of the property and using the remaining 3 acres as a park with baseball fields.

In a statement to the Tidings, the city expressed disappointment with the board’s decision.

“The City is very disappointed in the District’s decision not to engage in creative ways to ensure that at least a portion of Oppenlander Field would be preserved for community athletics and enjoyment by West Linn school children,” the city’s statement read. “The City Council did the best they could with the funding they had, and the District’s deadline of May 23, to offer a workable solution that could suit all parties involved.”

West Linn residents approved $3.5 million for the purchase of Oppenlander in a May 2022 bond but the city stated it did not have funds beyond that to meet the district’s price of $7.9 million, which is why it wanted to partner with a developer who would contribute the rest of the money.

Though they moved to put Oppenlander on the open market, board members said it was still possible for the city to purchase the property if it signed the district’s proposed purchase and sale agreement before May 9. The city is also not exempt from entering the bidding process. West Linn Mayor Rory Bialostosky said he was hopeful the city could find a way to submit a bid. He also noted it’s possible that Icon could submit its own bid and still partner with the city.

According to the board, the city’s partnership with Icon was a non-starter for the district. Board member Kelly Sloop said selling Oppenlander to the city with Icon as a partner would show bias and present the district with more legal challenges.

Board member Kristen Wyatt said that after the lawsuit was decided last August, she and Board Chair Louis Taylor told West Linn Mayor Rory Bialostosky and City Council President Mary Baumgardner that the district would not accept the city and a developer as joint buyers of the property.

“We gave them many ideas about how to purchase the property themselves and then explore public private partnership, and that was ignored,” Wyatt said. “And so they came back with a type of offer that we had told them very clearly was a nonstarter.”

Bialostosky told the Tidings it was never made clear to the city that the district would not accept the joint proposal with a developer.

“It was not clearly conveyed to us that we could not use a developer as a partner. We were open to contracting with the school district and separately with Icon, but we still needed changes to the purchase and sale agreement for due diligence and closing timeline that any other transaction involving a developer would need,” Bialostosky said.

Bialsotosky also noted that the district’s timeline for the transaction did not allow the city to perform its own request for proposal process to explore various partnerships with different developers.

“Ten days they gave us from when they sent the PSA over to when they wanted it signed,” Bialsostosky said.

Though it is not a written policy, board members shared it was the district’s own practice to utilize a request for proposal process to ensure that all interested parties have an equal opportunity to submit a bid.

Members of the board expressed a desire to put the messy chapter behind them.

“I’m done with Oppenlander,” Taylor said.

Taylor also candidly shared his thoughts about his dealings with the city throughout this process, saying he thought city officials were at times deceitful.

“Why are we begging to sell one of the most coveted pieces of land in all of West Linn to anyone?” Taylor said. “It doesn’t matter that it’s a city. It could be someone else. I think that what’s happened is the narrative has spun out of control to make it sound as if the only people who are going to be buying this piece of property are developers. We live in a community, whether West Linn or Wilsonville, where there are many people who could write a check for that piece of property.”

Board member Dan Schumaker also expressed frustration with the the whole process.

“Four years and a lawsuit later, we’re back to square one, and I want to be clear: This has been costly, absolutely a disservice to our students and families,” Schumaker said. “What bothers me is we’re the seller. We make offers and at best we get counter offers that we and our attorneys frankly don’t love. We’re the sellers. We should not have to accept offers the terms of which we don’t like.”

He added that many of the district’s constituents live miles from Oppenlander and don’t understand why the district has spent so much time and money on trying to sell it to West Linn.

Bialostosky said that he is hopeful both the school district and the city can put this contentious chapter in the past and once again work as collaborative partners in the future.