Cascade Highlands Neighborhood Association

Cascade Highlands Neighborhood Association

Neighborhood Profile

Cascade Highlands, one of the larger Vancouver neighborhood associations with a total population of approximately 3,500, is located between SE McGillivray and SE Mill Plain, and between SE Blairmont/Parkcrest and SE 164th Ave. It was recognized as the City of Vancouver's 51st neighborhood association on December 20th, 1999.

The area is a mix of large commercial enterprises, restaurants and fast-food places, smaller businesses, a church, Homestead Park (located at 1800 SE 159th Place), two bank branches, one credit union branch, a multi-screen movie theater, a large health and fitness club, a grocery store, four inline retail shopping malls, roughly a half-dozen drive-through and sit-down restaurants, some auto repair/care, two mobile home parks, two assisted living facilities, 1050 units of multi-family apartments, and 750 single-family homes (mostly owner-occupied).

SE 164th and SE Mill Plain are two extremely busy and heavily traveled thoroughfares. Southeast Blairmont fronts Mountain View High School which, although not technically within our boundaries, affects the tenor and ambience of a significant portion of the neighborhood. It's noteworthy that from many places within this association, one can view both the dramatic Mount St. Helens and the spectacular Mount Hood.

Residents can readily hear PDX airplane activity, train horn warnings at crossings just north of the Columbia River, and the subtle but ever-present drone of traffic along the area's arterial routes.

Cascade Highlands Neighborhood children attend Mill Plain or Crestline Elementary Schools, Wy'East or Shahala Middle Schools, and Mountain View High School.

CHNA is 375 acres in area, located in the middle of the area historically referred to as Mill Plain, a relatively flat and formerly treeless area. That means that our 'soil' is composed of sand and gravel-sized deposits, along with larger and sometimes huge rocks left from the glacial outbursts from the ancient Lake Missoula, which swirled around Camas' Prune Hill some 10,000 years ago.

Before about 1900 (but after the first settlements were established) the whole section was set aside as school land. Later, the area was sold off as "Mill Plain Homestead Lots," most of which were around 20 acres each.

The area just east of what is now SE Blairmont Drive was developed in 1979 with Phases 2 and 3 of the Cascade Highlands subdivision. Next came Mountain View High School (1981), and Morningside (which is just north of McGillivray, a block or more east of Briarwood Drive, in 1984-86). Then the various apartments on Parkcrest Drive, Homestead Place (1988), Homestead Acres (1989), and Fisher's Mill Apartments (1991). The last of the commercially-zoned land between SE 160th and 164th Avenues in the northeastern portion of the association's boundary was developed in 2006.

About our association

History

Cascade Highlands was recognized as the City of Vancouver's 51st neighborhood association on December 20th, 1999.

Association Activities

CHNA is an active association sporting a dedicated executive board which has been highly successful in obtaining many grants from the city to improve the appearance, the safety, and the livability for neighbors living in the area. 

Projects initiated and/or organized, and completed by CHNA include:
1. participation in the original traffic calming pilot project on 160th Ave. which was a first for involving neighborhoods at that level
2. conception, organization, completion of a 3-year five-phase project to paint one mile of public fence along 164th, 160th, Village Loop, 15th Street, and McGillivray Boulevard
3. streetlight installation on the north section of Parkcrest (between 15th and Mill Plain)
4. the awarding of a traffic calming/ADA ramp grant on Blairmont Drive
5. organization of more than a dozen yearly neighborhood cleanups which include donating food/money to FISH of Orchards and 'dead' small engines (from lawn mowers, etc.) to Mtn. View High School's small engine repair classes
6. organizing of multiple neighborhood-wide garage sales (on odd-numbered years) involving 40+ CHNA families each (who formally participated; many more also had independent garage sales that day)
7. organizing nine or more tree-planting projects in conjunction with Friends of Trees (more than 350 trees planted so far)
8. the installation and maintenance of lights in the 15th St. pass-through
9. the installation of a 'distance around our park' sign in Homestead Park
10. installation of a bench for bus riders at the corner of Parkcrest and McGillivray
11. artistic painting of bus shelter at corner of McGillivray and SE 164th Ave.
12. awarding of 2 street lights from a NAP grant on Mill Plain (which was used to leverage a state grant to get streetlights all along the developed section of Mill Plain between 155th and 160th)
13. awarding of a pedestrian refuge bulbouts, crosswalk and ADA ramps at 17th St. and Blairmont through NTSA
14. awarding of two separate phases of traffic calming on Parkcrest - phase I Mc Gillivray to 15th, phase II 15th to Mill Plain
15. the awarding of a matching grant for foliage restoration on 160th Ave.
16. awarding of a NAP grant to pay for trees to be planted in the Parkcrest parking strips as part of the traffic calming project there
17. the moving of the north entrance to Mtn. View H.S. further north to facilitate a safer crossing of that busy street by students
18. the painting of the west side of the fence along 164th
19. the awarding of a tree-planting grant to offset the cost of trees in parking strips
20. the awarding of partial funding of a traffic calming grant on 160th Ave (REET)
21. the awarding of three separate grants to install ADA ramps on Parkcrest (from Sunpark at the north to McGillivray at the south).
22. the on-going project of painting house numbers on the curbs
23. the installation of 4-way stop signs at Village Loop and SE 160th Ave.
24. the installation and maintenance of two neighborhood garbage cans, one in Homestead Park (used primarily for dog poop), and one at the west end of the 15th St. passthrough (used primarily to prevent litter amongst that well-used corridor)
25. the design, publishing, distribution, collection, collation, and dissemination of information from two N.A.-wide surveys

CHNA Contact Information

Chair: Jean Kent (Tel: 896-7291; Email: jeaken@pacifier.com)
Co-Chair: Gary Bohman (Tel: 254-2009; Email: pegarma@aol.com
Secretary-Treasurer: Maureen Humbert; (Email: mwhumbert@comcast.net)
Newsletter Editor: Erika Johnson (Tel: 260-9140; Email: erikalovesnature@hotmail.com)
Website Coordinator: Rich Humbert (Email: richumbert@comcast.net)

Neighborhood Liaison: Natasha Ramras (Tel. 360-487-8484)

Neighborhood Police Officer: Cpl. Jim Burgara (Tel. 360-487-7540 or 360-772-2567 [cell]; Email: jim.burgara@cityofvancouver.us)

Email us
jeaken@pacifier.com

Helpful Local Government Links

City of Vancouver
Vancouver City Services
Vancouver City Services Phone Directory
Mountain View High School
Vancouver Police - East Precinct
Vancouver Office of Neighborhoods
Vancouver City Events Calendar
Vancouver City Public Meetings