Peyton James (center) presents to Banks High School students.
In March, PCD’s Associate Planner Peyton James along with Max Bondar of David Weekly Homes, had the opportunity to meet with the Leadership Class at Banks High School in partnership with teacher David Midkiff and a representative from the Banks Historical Society. Peyton and Max shared their work on Sunset View at West Banks, a master planned community recently approved in Banks, Oregon, and invited students to share their thoughts and ideas on how to represent the history and culture of Banks through the street naming process for the new community.
Students learned about the Planning phase of the community and engaged in a question-and-answer session with Peyton and Max. They learned about the history of Banks, including history of the Tualatin people, flora and fauna native to the area, and the Chinook names for the plants and animals. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde provided a letter about the Indigenous history of the Willamette area for the group to reference during this exercise. Students worked together to come up with a list of possible names for the streets for Sunset View at West Banks that represented the history and culture of Banks. These names included the Chinook word for wolf, Lilu Lane. Turner Blvd was suggested as an homage to the first store in Banks. The suggestion of Strawberry Blvd was inspired by Japanese farmers who made Banks one of the top strawberry producers at that time.
Pacific Community Design was proud to be a part of this conversation in partnership with the students at Banks High School. We believe that by working cooperatively within our community we can help create the communities that allow people to live, work, and thrive. We appreciate the opportunity to join David Weekly Homes, the Banks Historical Society, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Banks High School to share, learn, and collaborate.