Forest Grove City Council Work Session on TLT, Placemaking, and Police Bond - June 22, 2026
Forest Grove City Council Work Session on TLT, Placemaking, and Police Bond - June 22, 2026
The Forest Grove City Council held a work session on June 22, 2026, covering three major topics: transient lodging tax (TLT) program updates, downtown placemaking options, and ballot language for a police facility bond. No formal action was taken, but council provided direction to staff on each item.
Transient Lodging Tax (TLT) Work Session
- Assistant City Manager Kim Ezel presented background on TLT, including legislative changes allowing up to 50% of local TLT revenue to be used outside direct tourism promotion and facilities. Forest Grove's TLT rate is 3.5% (total 14% with state and county). Revenue has been steady around $140,000 annually, but with the rate increase and expected higher collections, FY2026 revenue is projected at $180,000–$200,000. Currently, $100,000 has been collected in eight months.
- Current TLT-funded programs: Public Art ($11,000 annually), Capital Grant ($2,500 per grant, low usage), Tourism Sponsorship ($45,000, popular, with $12,000 per organization cap), and Tourism Marketing ($44,000–$45,000 contract with the Chamber of Commerce).
- Council discussed sunsetting the Capital Grant program due to lack of applications and rolling its $11,000 annual funding into the Tourism Sponsorship program. Council reached consensus to sunset the Capital Grant program and merge it with sponsorship.
- Council also discussed creating a new event series funding subset within the Tourism Sponsorship program, allowing up to $20,000 per year for a series (defined as at least three events of same type, day, time, branding, target audience, and location). Councilors raised questions about location flexibility, eligibility for athletic tournaments, and balancing funding between single events and series. Staff will return with a resolution to formalize the program changes.
Downtown Placemaking Work Session
- This was the second work session on placemaking. Staff recapped council direction from previous meetings: prioritize parking code enforcement, wayfinding signs, retain parking limits, central city lot improvements, and a 15-minute parking stall pilot. Seven options for a festival/event location were presented, narrowed from ten.
- Community outreach included meetings with Adelante, a downtown business forum (30 attendees), and the Chamber of Commerce. Stakeholders emphasized expandability, visibility, pedestrian safety, and minimizing business impacts. They expressed concerns about permanent street closures but were reassured about temporary closures for events.
- Council discussed the prioritization of locations: 21st between Main and College, College Way North, College Way South, and the central city lot with alley closure. Some councilors supported starting with a smaller area (21st between Main and College) and expanding later. The final consensus was to maintain the priority of the four locations (21st/Main/College, College Way North, College Way South, and central city lot) for event programming. Council emphasized that this is an iterative process and that next steps include creating a standardized event permit packet and traffic safety plans, and pursuing funding for infrastructure improvements.
Police Facility Bond Ballot Language Work Session
- Staff presented the ballot language for a general obligation bond not to exceed $29.5 million for a new police facility. The language is nearly identical to the May 2025 measure that failed. The proposed levy rate is lower (in the 60 cents per $1,000 assessed value) due to lower interest rates.
- Council reviewed the four required elements: caption (10 words: "General obligation bonds to replace the current police facility"), question (20 words: "Shall Forest Grove issue general obligation bonds not to exceed $29.5 million in principal amount for a new police facility?"), summary (175 words), and explanatory statement (500 words). Council reached consensus on all four elements without changes.
- Staff provided a communications update: press release issued June 10, news articles, social media, farmers market booth, station tours, National Night Out on August 4, and Barbecue with the Blue on July 18. Councilor Falconer suggested emphasizing that the cost remained the same due to construction cost increases, not lack of scaling back. Staff will send calendar invites.
Key Outcomes
- TLT: Council directed staff to sunset the Capital Grant program and roll its funding into the Tourism Sponsorship program. Staff will develop a resolution for event series funding and bring back proposals for program adjustments, including potential percentage-based allocations.
- Downtown Placemaking: Council reached consensus to prioritize the four locations (21st between Main and College, College Way North, College Way South, and central city lot with alley closure) for temporary event closures. Staff will develop a standardized event permit program, traffic safety plans, and seek funding for infrastructure improvements.
- Police Facility Bond: Council approved the ballot language (caption, question, summary, explanatory statement) without changes. Staff will bring a resolution to the July 13, 2026 council meeting for final approval. Communications efforts continue with community engagement events.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, great. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. That's World Cup World Cup work session. No worries. I like it. I am great. Okay, I'm going to call it. Did I? I'm sorry. I just had a question for Council Falcon. But you're starting to meet, so I can talk to you later. Okay. I would like to call to order this work session of the Forest Grove State Council. No public comment will be taken, and the council will take no formal action. Our first work session for the night is on transient lodging tax, TLT. And I'm going to turn it over to our assistant city manager, Kim Ezel. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight we're going to be talking about the transient lodging tax, similar to how we were talking about the building improvement grant program a couple of months ago. This is part of just annual reviews of what we're putting some of our dedicated revenue sources towards, and if there's any changes that council would like to see in our programs, it's also an opportunity for staff to bring forward recommendations to the council. Talk a little bit about the purpose for tonight, Vision 2040 connections, some background information on what TLT is, as well as some legislative changes. We'll talk about our revenue source as well as the program and expenses, so where the money comes in, where the money goes out, some case studies from some uh neighboring jurisdictions, and we'll have time for discussion. So purpose of tonight's work session, like I decided uh just described, deliver some background information on the TLT update council and legislative uh changes, review both review uh revenue and expense projections and discuss current programming and possible changes. TLT connects up with a lot of key Vision 2040 plans, um, specifically around the economy, but as well as community connection. So we talk a lot about strengthening partnerships with local small businesses, incentive programs to help retain business, encourage and attract more events, increase wayfinding, update the tourism strategic plan, uh, develop mural and public arts and cultural district uh pursue grants to support all of this work, and then with community connection, explore opportunities to create a central community gathering space and develop a festival street or pedestrian mall in downtown Forest Grove. And you'll notice that a lot of these will be repeated in the next work session around placemaking. So these conversations are really great to be having at the same night because they dovetail really um nicely into one another. Uh a little bit of background about TLT. Um it was established primarily to fund, and this will come up quite a few times during the presentation. Two things uh tourism promotion and tourism related facilities. Uh some uh cities had already created uh TLT, but the state of Oregon began regulating TLT in 2003 and established a neat statewide TLT, which is currently one and a half percent, um, and that funds the travel organ. Washington County established the TLT in 1972, which is currently at 9%. It funds a variety of uh tourism related facilities, um, as well as an equal portion going or an equal portion going to the general fund, and that is available to Washington County cities through the Explore to Walton Valley grants program uh is also helping to fund um a portion of the Hillsborough Hops uh ballpark expansion. In local history, uh Forest Grove established a TLT in 2017 on the advice of an ad hoc committee. It was uh first created at two and a half percent. Uh between 2017 and 2025, many modifications have been made to the program elements, similar to the conversation we're having this evening. And then in November 2025, a uh TLT increase from 2.5% to 3.5% was done to help fund Vision 2040 action items related to tourism. And I would be remiss if I didn't talk about what when we say this percentage, what that is. So it's when folks pay for a hotel room, they pay an additional tax on top of that. So right now that total tax for somebody who is coming into a hotel room in Forest Grove is 14%. That's the state um percentage plus the um county percentage plus the city of Forest Grove percentage. So you expect to have a little bit 14 and a half, I think, percent on top. There has been have been a few legislative changes. So I mentioned that the state uh began regulating TLT. Part of that regulation was requiring that 70% of collected TLT revenue be used specifically for tourism promotion and tourism related facilities. Uh, there's been some pushback from some cities that um, especially in the coastal communities that because they have so much tourism, they want to be able to use more of that funding in order to support infrastructure that supports the tourism. So things like better street maintenance, cleanup, um, law enforcement, those kinds of things. So in the uh most recent legislative session, it says 60% up there, but that is the typo. This state amended the law to allow up to 50% of local TLT revenue to be used outside of direct tourism promotion and tourism related facilities.
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