![MORE THAN A GAME. With two diving catches in the outfield, the Lions showed up defensively, aiding in their victory over the Pacers. One catch was made by Atwood, and the other by McGraw. Throughout the game, the Lions knew that it wasn’t just about their victory today. “I think [playing for cancer] makes it bigger than just a game,” McGraw said. “Knowing that you have a bigger impact in this world than just who you are as one person.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/I70A1454-1-1200x800.jpg)
![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 106 Issue 1 of our news magazine, Amplifier.
Since 2016, the city of West Linn has been designing, drafting, and revising the community vision plan for the West Linn Waterfront Project. This vision plan was adopted on Nov. 18, 2025 and was signed by the mayor of West Linn, Rory Bialostosky. A key figure in the project planning team is Darren Wyss, the Principal Planner for the city of West Linn.
“The city’s role in this is to create the vision plan,” Wyss said. “Over the next couple of years, we will get everything set up, so when redevelopment does happen, we’ve got the codes in place to support it. Then it would mostly be private investments that determine how soon things get built.”
The 275-acre land runs from the Willamette River up to I-205, spanning from the Willamette Wetlands to the Oregon City Arch Bridge, and the Willamette Falls Drive roundabout at the bottom of Exit 8. Previously consisting of industrial buildings, the vision plan sets up three districts within the development: the pond district, the cultural heritage district, and the historic city hall district.
The Willamette Falls Trust, a nonprofit organization associated with the project, has organized the Tribal Leadership Committee. The tribes represented include those of the Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Tyson LaMarr, senior, is one of the Indigenous Student Union’s co-presidents.
“As someone from a tribe, I think it’s a big thing to be represented,” LaMarr said. “In the past, a lot of Native American people have been put down, off to the side. It’s good that we’re finally being recognized in a place that actually involves something greater.”
LaMarr understands the value of the falls to the tribes, especially as a connection to themselves.
“Most tribes view water as a sacred thing, and view land as something that we live in tandem with, and not something that we use,” LaMarr said.
The vision plan, delayed because of COVID-19, includes plans to improve river access, walking trails, and potential space for a “Main Street” with stores and restaurants.
“It would give West Linn a tourist boost for sure,” Wyss said.
In the vision plan, there is a great emphasis on public feedback and support. In the introduction of the final vision plan, it states that the vision plan puts the communities interests at the center of the process and incorporates their thoughts, along with the property owners interests.
Among the community feedback, as reported in the vision plan, was concern about parking, as well as causing local traffic to increase. All things are being taken into consideration by the Tribal Leadership Committee, the private land owners, as well as local community members. As the city and private contractors slowly build this vision into a reality, community feedback from West Linn students and teachers will be taken under consideration.
