The Yamhelas Westsider Trail is back in the news. The last time I checked in on this project that would build a new 17-mile rail-trail in Yamhill County between McMinnville and Forest Grove, it was mired in controversy.
Advocates for the path ultimately lost that round in 2021 when it “became a target of far-right extremism” and anti-trail County Commissioners voted to repeal the project’s land use application. The project largely sat on the shelf until late October of this year. That’s when Mary Starrett, one of the commissioners who led the previous opposition effort, partnered with one of the other two commissioners to support a draft ordinance that would strip the project from the county’s transportation system plan. The move came as a surprise to trail supporters.
If the trail project is stripped from the TSP, it would essentially move the idea back to square one…