King City, Oregon, began as a community for older adults in the 1960s. While the area was once an age-restricted community near Tigard, the demographics of the region are starting to change. As King City expands, leaders have to manage growth amid pushback from some residents. We check in on what’s next for the region with City Manager Mike Weston.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. King City began as a community for older adults in the 1960′s. The Washington County city still shows up on lists of best places to retire, but its leaders are hoping to attract a broader demographic. In fact, the city’s motto is an explicit invitation: “A community for all ages.” At the same time, city leaders have had the challenging job of planning for future growth amid pushback from current residents. Mike Weston is a city manager. He joins us to talk about all of this. It’s great to have you in the studio.
Mike Weston: Thanks, I appreciate it.
Miller: How did King City get its start?
Weston: King City was the idea of a gentleman named Ron Sorenson, back in the mid 60s ‒1966, actually ‒ is when it was incorporated. And it was farmland, and Mr. Sorensen and the Tualatin Development Company basically brought in 66 acres, planned it, had a golf course, clubhouse, pools – all the amenities that an HOA could use ‒ and they developed it. They were one of the first cities to put all their utilities underground. So they won like a PGE award, and all these things. It was this adult community – it was supposed to be like a 40-and-over adult community ‒ but in order to get in compliance with the housing and urban development standards, they had to be 55-and-older. So then it became 55-and-older.
Miller: And just to be clear, a city itself can’t restrict
homeownership, but a homeowner’s association can, under federal law. They can say that if you’re 50, you can’t buy a home here. You can’t live here.
Weston: I don’t know if they can do it anymore. But yes, that’s the general concept of the day was that an HOA ‒ a homeowners association ‒ could essentially establish it as 55-and-older. And so the foundation of King City was based under those guidelines and was essentially created as a 55-and-older community.
Miller: Why do you think it was successful as a community for people 55 and up?
Weston: Oh, I think it was like a perfect bedroom community. You had the golf course, you had all your shopping essentials. There was enough separation between the towns at the time. Tigard was still really small. Sherwood was small. Tualatin was small, and it was this nice bedroom community along 99W. When it was developed, it was developed as a community, not just a subdivision off on the side. So it had all the amenities that you could ever want or dream of for an adult community, and it worked well.
Miller: But now, city leaders say, no, this is “a community for all ages.” So what changed? When did the city say we don’t want to only be a retirement community?
Weston: I think they started as a city. I think you start seeing the constraints financially. In the 1980s, King City opened up to different ages, and one of the first subdivisions that came in was the Jordan Way subdivision. It’s a little bit further back from 99W, but that was the first non age-restricted subdivision that came into King City there in the 80s and 90s period. And since that time frame the city continued to expand, and now as they were probably closer to about 50/ 50. I think older adults still are a higher majority, but you can see the demographics kind of leveling out over time.
Miller: But maybe slowly over time, right? I mean, when I look at the demographics for neighboring cities, it’s pretty striking. King City is still way older in terms of median age. It’s something that’s around 60. It’s significantly, like 15-20 years older than neighboring cities. Is that just because, once you start as a retirement city, or a city known as a place for older adults, it’s hard to lose the way people think about you?
Weston: I think with King City, possibly, but I think King City draws that age group because of our housing style. You have small lots that are easily maintained, single story family houses that are one to two bedrooms. And this is the demographic of the original concept holders of King City. And so, with that comes a certain demographic when you have single story houses, they’re going to be like, hey…
Miller: … with one or two bedrooms…
Weston: …with one or two bedrooms...
Miller: …not necessarily what a family of four is looking for, in most cases, in a suburban development.
Weston: I agree with you 100%, because if you’re a family of four, you’re looking for a little bit bigger yard, you’re looking for a little bit more indoor space because in Oregon it rains eight months of the year, nine months out of the year. So you’re looking for a little more elbow room; whereas, if you’re an older adult or an older Oregonian, you want it simple. You want it easily maintained, comfortable. You want all the features and assets, you want to enjoy your time. And I think that’s what King City brings. It’s such a beautiful town, and has so many of those great amenities that adults love.
Miller: From the city manager’s perspective, how do you go about making it a place where all ages, including families, would want to live? Because you just talked about housing stock. It takes a lot of time and capital to change that over time. You can either take buildings down and build new ones, or develop undeveloped areas. All of that takes money and time, and it’s not exactly something that the public sector can do. You can maybe foster it. But how do you approach this question?
Weston: It’s a challenge I think, and I want to give a shout out to one of my former mayors, Mayor Fender, who worked really hard to bridge that gap for our community, in creating a Fourth of July Parade. We had this Fourth of July parade, and we still do. This year is a little off, but hopefully next year we can get back on track. But we do a great Fourth of July festival down at our King City Community Park. And it really brings all the community together, both the older populations from the historical King City, as well as the newer areas. And I’m really hoping to expand on that through our parks programs, so hopefully in the near future we get to see the expansion of parks and rec in King City.
With the expansion that’s coming, we’re adding more parks, we’re adding more trails. We’re adding more great amenities that will bring those youth folks out, and those younger families to King City. And with that, I think the demographic levels out, and also builds cohesion amongst community members.
Miller: It’s interesting that you’re leading with parks, because maybe this is an unfair characterization, but I do wonder if some of the people who sought out King City in the past, if there’s a “get off my lawn,” thinking, or else, I’m in a place where I don’t even need to say that because there aren’t kids to go onto my lawn. But a park is a place where I guess it’s everybody’s lawn…
Weston: Right. And I think that’s an amazing feature. King City really only has one park that’s municipally owned. There are other parks throughout King City that are owned and maintained by the HOA’s, and if it’s owned and maintained by the HOA, then it is, like you mentioned…
Miller: They have their rules…
Weston: They have their rules…
Miller: It’s more like a golf course in a sense, than a place where anybody can do what they want and kick their balls and have their picnics
Weston: Precisely. And that’s what the King City Community Park has really become. And it’s a fascinating little park. It’s tucked away along the Tualatin River and has some beautiful amenities.
Miller: I mentioned there are also some challenges recently that folks may have seen coverage of. Earlier this spring, a majority of the city council ‒ three council members and the mayor ‒ were all kicked out of office in a series of very narrow recall votes, like 50.2% or 51%.
The issue, which we don’t need to get into in depth here, was an urban growth expansion that some residents were unhappy with. I’m curious what you think this says about how to do growth in a city like King City in a way that doesn’t alienate people who are already there?
Weston: Growth is a difficult topic altogether. It’s not one that is easily surmountable. When you have a population that’s established, they’re set, they don’t like change. You know, people just don’t typically like change. And trying to understand that change is inevitable, but also trying to make sure that we insulate those populations to the best of our ability and make sure that they aren’t the bearer of the brunt of those impacts. And for that purpose, I believe that the council ‒ the consultants, our engineers, our environmental scientists ‒ they all did a phenomenal job developing a plan that limited those impacts and reduced those burdens on our marginalized populations or senior populations, and really did a phenomenal job of trying to create balance and cohesion.
One of the problems that we’ve seen is neighborhoods will divide along lines and our whole goal was to bring them together, give them a sense of place, a cultural identity for King City. And that’s what it was focused on.
I think the one and only tie up in this whole thing ‒ we planned 530 acres ‒ but the one tie up was a road. And I think it’s just a lot of misunderstandings. You know, people were like, “Well, why don’t you just go up to the arterial?” Well, if you go up to the arterial and you put the traffic down the arterial, then you have to condemn properties along Beef Bend. And we didn’t feel that that was socially and economically acceptable. So we looked at ways that we could mitigate those impacts and that created some controversy, if you will, and that’s what everyone hung their hat on. And that’s why you get that split, the 50-50.
Miller: What is your vision of what King City will be like in 10 years?
Weston: Well, I think my vision is a place to gather, a place to come ‒ very similar to areas in Villebois or Reed’s Crossing or Northwest Crossing out in Bend ‒ where you have this cultural center where the community could come and enjoy events like a farmer’s market, street fair, commercial restaurants, recreation, and a livable, sustainable and comfortable communities, very similar to what we’ve done in the past. And when you go to King City, if you go to King City for Halloween, or you go to King City for Fourth of July, it is a great community. Just all in all, the community is so beautiful and wonderful and we really have a lot of great things going for us. And I know it’s easy to get caught up in the melee or the fray every now and then, but when you look at King City as a whole, it’s a phenomenal place to live.
Miller: Mike Weston. Thanks very much.
Weston: Thank you very much.
Miller: Mike Weston is a city manager for King City.
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