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An excavator and a drilling rig prepare land Wednesday in NorthWest Crossing for the development’s next expansion, called the Discovery Park area.
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

Work is underway to prepare land for the next big expansion of NorthWest Crossing, referred to as the Discovery Park area, with a proposed 175 housing lots, a 34-acre park and a 3-acre pond.

Heavy equipment has started to remove loose dirt in a former pumice mine on the property, said David Ford, general manager for NorthWest Crossing developer West Bend Property Co.

He said about 565,000 cubic yards will be removed and replaced, and about 200,000 yards of additional fill will be brought in to bring the land to the required elevation. He expects the work, which began Aug. 19, to take between six and seven months.

When complete, he said, the 98-acre area west of Mt. Washington Drive will be ready for building roads and laying out home lots.

The plan is to develop 172 single-family housing lots in the Discovery Park area, pending approval by the city. Three additional lots, including a nearly 5-acre parcel, are planned for multifamily housing.

“We’ll determine what we’ll do with those lots at the time the land is developed, depending on market conditions,” he said. “It gives us some flexibility to respond to the market.”

Ford said 15 acres of the 34-acre park will be improved, with a manicured landscape and paved trails, and the rest will be left natural. The improved section of the park is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2014.

“The goal is we would have our first phase of lots available in the Discovery Park area by spring or summer 2014, with homes available for sale spring of 2015,” Ford said.

In the existing NorthWest Crossing area, he said, builders are finishing up the lastresidential area, composed of 60 lots, on the east side of Mt. Washington Drive. Ford expects construction to be done by next month. He said a couple of parcels of commercially zoned land near Westside Church are also undeveloped.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818,