Save Tualatin Road

Public Hearing November 10th!

The Tualatin City Council will hear our Citizen Appeal.
Please attend the hearing in-person or via Zoom.
Monday November 10th at 7:00 pm
In the news: Tualatin Life (10/14/2025)

Traffic: The latest proposal from Lam Research would open an unnecessary driveway on SW 108th Avenue just 320 feet from Tualatin Road and add hundreds more cars to Tualatin Road during rush hour. For Riverpark residents, Tualatin Road is our only option for local access. It is not reasonable to add more commuter traffic to Tualatin Road when Leveton Drive is sitting there mostly empty. We call on the City of Tualatin to plan ahead for future growth and put Leveton Drive to its highest and best use. Require Lam to use Leveton Drive, and Save Tualatin Road for local drivers who have no other option.

See Driveway Email | Traffic Email | Shorter Version

Noise: Noise pollution from Lam's Tualatin campus has plagued the nearby community for years. Lam’s rooftop air handlers are so loud, during winter, you can hear them over a mile away on Durham Road in Tigard. Tualatin residents are being kept awake at night by this equipment. For the neighbors who live across the street from Lam’s gas plant, the continuous high-pitched hiss is a constant annoyance. Manufacturing Park zoning "must not cause objectionable noise" but Lam's noise model shows that the expanded campus will be even louder than it is now. We are asking the City of Tualatin to require Lam to address off-site noise issues now, during this campus expansion.

See: Sample Email | Noise Video | Attorney Letter

Lam's site plan showing new buildings and location of an expanded entrance on SW 108th Ave.

The Community is Requesting:
• Do not open another entrance on 108th Ave
• Do not add more trafic to Tualatin Road
• Use Leveton Drive for all new Lam site trips
• Eliminate off-site noise impacts
• Enforce Tualatin's noise ordinance
• Restore peace & quiet to the neighborhoods

Citizen Appeal Filed: The Tualatin Architectural Review Board (ARB) voted to approve Lam’s TUX application without the conditions of approval that the community was requesting, so we have appealed the ARB decision to City Council. We believe that this land use decision should be revisited in light of existing noise nuisance conditions, adverse traffic congestion and safety impacts, failure to meet application criteria, failure to provide proper notice, plus new environmental noise modeling data that was released during the ARB hearing. We are raising funds to cover the legal costs of this appeal. Please consider making a donation (any amount) via Zelle to donate@tualatinroad.org.

See: ARB Packet | Application | Decision | Appeal Letter

More traffic on Tualatin Road: Lam's traffic study includes the following assumptions: That the expanded North Access point will carry 20% of all new site trips. That 10% of new site trips will use SW Tualatin Road to reach North Access. That half of these trips (5% total) will use SW 115th Avenue and SW Hazelbrook Road to access Highway 99W when exiting the site. (Lam Scoping Page 3) At full occupancy, the proposed campus expansion is estimated to generate an additional 244 AM peak hour, 233 PM peak hour, and 2036 daily trips. (Lam Scoping Letter Page 2)

Traffic Jam at the Hazelbrook Onramp: The Hazelbrook onramp to 99W will fail to meet operational standards with the addition of Lam's trips: "long delays are expected on the stop-controlled approach to OR 99W during the PM peak hour. Mitigation is not recommended because it would encourage vehicles to travel this route from SW Tualatin Road instead of using SW 124th Avenue to access OR 99W northbound." (Lam Traffic Study Letter Page 18)


More Videos
Lam Updated ite rendering.
July 2025 Updated Site Rendering
Lam site rendering showing massive new buildings.
2024 Original Proposal Rendering

Summary: Lam's original 2024 proposal would have removed the primary driveway that currently connects their main parking lots to Leveton Drive (an industrial access road). Lam proposed using Tualatin Road (an overloaded neighborhood street) as their primary employee access. This traffic change would have created a cascade of negative impacts across North Tualatin, increasing bypass traffic on Jurgens Ave and Hazelbrook Road, increasing cut-through traffic in the neighborhoods, clogging the local Hazelbrook onramp to Highway 99W, and putting in harm's way the students of Hazelbrook Middle School. Lam refused to engage with the community to find a resolution.

The Solution already exists: Leveton Drive!

Lam's original 2024 proposal violated the Tualatin Development Code, as documented in our December & January sample letters to the City. This is Front Page News. Make sure to sign up for our updates. Next steps are public hearings. Speak out!

Tualatin Road is a busy street that runs along the north side of Lam's campus and the south side of the Riverpark neighborhoods of north Tualatin. It's heavily burdened with cut-through commuter traffic, and is the only local access route in and out of our neighborhoods. The last thing Tualatin Road needs is more traffic.

Leveton Drive is a lightly-used industrial access road that runs along the south side of Lam's campus. Leveton Drive is concrete, built to handle tractor trailers and heavy vehicle loads, and currently carries 3 entrances to the Lam campus. Leveton Drive has more than enough capacity to handle all the traffic from Lam's expansion.

Traffic counts (Vehicles per hour April/May 2024)
• Tualatin Road (PM peak at 112th Ave)   1313
• Leveton Drive (PM peak at 118th Ave)   370

Lam currently has a driveway that connects Leveton Drive straight to the parking lots on the north side of their campus, but the proposed site expansion would eliminate that driveway. This is the crux of the issue. Lam’s new site plan needs to include at least one usable driveway that connects their main parking lots directly to Leveton Drive.

For months, we have been asking Lam's planners to modify their proposal:
Use Leveton Drive not Tualatin Road.

Satellite photo showing the size of the new site in comparison with the surrounding neighborhood. Arrows showing traffic impacts on Tualatin Road and SW 115th Avenue.

Jurgens Avenue and Hazelbrook Road

To avoid the existing congestion on Tualatin Road, some drivers are already taking SW Jurgens Avenue to SW Hazelbrook Road to reach northbound 99W. A traffic signal on Tualatin Road at 115th, combined with more congestion near 124th, will increase travel times and make the Jurgens/Hazelbrook bypass even more enticing. As we know from experience, commuter traffic (aided by GPS phone navigation) will find the quickest route, even if that means speeding through a School Zone in front of Hazelbrook Middle School. If the bypass is quicker, it will become the default suggested route. Similar concerns about cut-through traffic have also been raised by the residents of David's Fox Run and Tualatin Woods.

Student Safety

Many Hazelbrook Middle School students live in the apartments west of 115th Avenue and walk to school. In the morning and afternoon during the school year, Tualatin Road, Hazelbrook Road, 115th, and Jurgens Ave carry a stream of school buses. Adding more commuters to these roads would cause longer delays and traffic backups, and increase the risk to students.

Increased Air Pollution

Research published in the journal Atmospheric Environment measured air pollution in urban and suburban areas and found that intersections with traffic signals have up to 29 times higher concentrations of particulate matter than open roads. Acceleration and breaking generate much more air pollution than free-flowing traffic. A recent study shows that brake pad dust is more toxic than exhaust emissions. Signalizing the intersection at Tualatin Road and 115th, in combination with the added traffic volume and longer traffic delays, will cause a degradation of air quality in and around Jurgens Park Senior Living, Tualatin Woods Townhomes, Hazelbrook Condominium, Woodridge Apartments, Rivercrest Meadows Apartments, and David's Fox Run. Prevailing winds from the south and southwest will carry this pollution further into Riverpark neighborhoods.

Industrial Truck Routes

Lam's neighbor to the west, Japan Aviation Electronics (JAE), currently sends truck traffic (semi tractor trailers and warehouse deliveries) away from Leveton Drive with signage instructing truck drivers to use Tualatin Road. Lam is proposing that the new entrance on Tualatin Road at 115th would be jointly used by Lam and JAE. Leveton Drive was built for heavy truck loads, and we are asking that all truck traffic use it.

Future Growth

JAE's parcel contains an abundance of open space available for future development, and Lam has proposed that the Tualatin Road entrance would be shared with JAE. Therefore, future development at JAE could cause an increase in the number of vehicles using Tualatin Road. Because of this, we are asking the City of Tualatin to consider not only the impact of the TUX project, but also consider future developments that could use this entrance. For example, if the JAE parcel were built up to a similar density that Lam is using for the TUX project, how would that impact traffic on Tualatin Road?

Noise Pollution

Lam currently generates continuous noise pollution from two identified sources: (1) The nitrogen gas plant near the north side of campus, and (2) the rooftop air handling equipment on Building D. The nitrogen plant makes a high-frequency hissing sound that is clearly audible across Tualatin Road and deep into the neighborhoods. During winter, when prevailing winds are from the south, multiple noise signatures from Lam's rooftop air handlers are clearly audible downwind in the neighborhoods during day and night, both outside and inside homes more than 1500 feet from the source. This equipment runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and the off-site noise impacts are invasive, disruptive, and well-documented. Lam's new proposal shows 10 new exhaust stacks atop a new manufacturing building.

Public Funds

Lam Research is a multibillion-dollar microchip company that received $22 million in taxpayer-funded CHIPS Act grant funds to help pay for this expansion. We believe that any project that receives taxpayer funds should be held to a higher standard and not harm the community. A guiding principle listed on Lam's website is to “Act with purpose for a better world”. For those of us who live near Lam's campus in Tualatin, the current TUX project site plan is not in alignment with this principle.

Community Communications

Documents

City Website Links

Lam Building G

Original Novellus Development

Key Quotes

“Janet said there is no access to Tualatin Road, currently only a fire access is provided on Tualatin Road. Jennifer said we looked at opening that but it’s faster to go down Leveton Drive and up 124th Avenue.”
Neighborhood Meeting (8/16/2022)

About the TSP Community Advisory Committee: “In that meeting it seemed like there were a lot of us that were from the south part of Tualatin, maybe a little bit from the east side and a little bit, but we didn't get a lot from like Jurgens Park area, so maybe if we get more information from that area. In fact, there were about 15 or 20 of us in that meeting and not one of us were part of that area that I think we should also equitably look what the needs are in that area.”
City Councilor Maria Reyes at Council Work Session (7/10/2024 YouTube)

“A couple of the other issues that come up, one is the functional class of the road, and this goes back to before my time with Tualatin, but in the previous Transportation System Plan from 2012-14 there was a lot of objection to traffic on Tualatin Road so it was designated as a major collector and Leveton was designated as an arterial, with the intention that that would be like the major route for traffic and that's where traffic should be going to. Unfortunately what that ended up doing, and that doesn't actually match the traffic volumes, usually the higher volume road is the arterial the lower volume road is the collector. What that does with the access, our code is, access needs to be taken off the lower classification road, and so that would push more access to Tualatin Road, but looking at the practicality of it we're wanting to keep the three accesses on Leveton in order to keep that there.”
Tualatin Traffic Engineer Mike McCarthy (11/19/2024 YouTube)

“Such permitted uses must not cause objectionable noise, smoke, odor, dust, noxious gases, vibration, glare, heat, fire hazard or other wastes emanating from the property. … The purpose is also to protect existing and future sites for such uses by … limiting uses to those that are of a nature so as to not conflict with other industrial uses or surrounding residential areas.”
TDC Chapter 62: Manufacturing Park (MP) Zone: Purpose

“No additional access points are proposed on Tualatin Road. The existing driveway shared with JAE will be utilized for limited on-site access, but will not connect to Leveton Drive, and will be de-emphasized for use as a public access.”
Novellus Land Use Applicattion (1/22/2001)

“The applicant has indicated, in the narrative, that there will NOT be any additional access points on SW Tualatin Road. The applicant, however, will keep the joint access easement over a portion of the JAE property, to the west, for an access point to the newly created north parcel 2. The submitted plans indicate that there will be multiple ingress and egress routes over the proposed newly created lots. These routes also include connectivity through the various parking facilities within the proposed development.”
Novellus Land Use Applicattion (1/22/2001)

“The existing East Access on SW Leveton Drive is proposed to be limited to truck access. To accommodate the additional office trips, two (2) new driveways are proposed on SW 108th Avenue with direct access to the expanded parking area. The North Access is proposed to be aligned opposite the north driveway serving Olympic Controls. The South Access is proposed approximately 445 feet south of the North Access.“
Buliding G Traffic Study Page 3 (8/12/2022)

“With the proposed building, other site changes including additional parking along SW 108th Avenue, two (2) new driveways on SW 108th Avenue, and limiting the East Access on SW Leveton Drive to trucks are proposed. With the closure of the East Access to passenger vehicle traffic, existing site trips that currently utilize this driveway are anticipated to reroute to the proposed driveways on SW 108th Avenue to access the expanded parking area. Figure 11 presents the East Access trip reroutes for the AM and PM peak hours.“
Buliding G Traffic Study Page 11 (8/12/2022)

“The site currently provides access to staff via three full-movement driveways on SW Leveton Drive. A fire access is provided on SW Tualatin Road opposite SW 115th Avenue and a construction access is provided on SW 108th Avenue approximately 300 feet south of SW Tualatin Road. Both of these driveways are gated.“
Buliding G Traffic Study Page 13 (8/12/2022)

“With the proposed office building, the East Access on SW Leveton Drive will be limited to truck use. Two (2) new full-movement driveways are proposed on SW 108th Avenue. The North Access will be provided opposite the northern access to Olympus Controls. The South Access will be provided approximately 445 feet south of the North Access. Trucks will navigate to the new office building by entering the East Access on SW Leveton Drive and exiting the proposed South Access on SW 108th Avenue. All new office staff are anticipated to access the site via the two (2) proposed driveways on SW 108th Avenue where an additional approximately 500 new parking spaces will be provided.“
Buliding G Traffic Study Page 13 (8/12/2022)

“The additional parking added with the project will primarily be served by opening the North Access on SW 108th Avenue and the existing West Access on SW Leveton Drive.”
Lam TUX Traffic Study Scoping Letter Page 2 (6/25/2025)

“At full occupancy of both Phases, the proposed campus expansion is estimated to generate an additional 244 AM peak hour, 233 PM peak hour, and 2036 daily trips.”
Lam Traffic Study, 10/2024 Page 1

“The west access to SW Leveton Drive at the southwest corner of the site will be relocated to the east and repurposed as a truck access for deliveries to the existing and proposed buildings.”
Lam Traffic Study, 10/2024 Page 2

“SW Hazelbrook Road/OR 99W – long delays are expected on the stop-controlled approach to OR 99W during the PM peak hour. Mitigation is not recommended because it would encourage vehicles to travel this route from SW Tualatin Road instead of using SW 124th Avenue to access OR 99W northbound.”
Lam Traffic Study, 10/2024 Page 17

“As shown in Table 7, queues at some intersections along OR 99W appear to be longer than available storage lengths. These intersections are built out to their full capacity, and little can be done to mitigate these queues.”
Lam Traffic Study, 10/2024 Page 23

Save Tualatin Road

In order to preserve the livability of our neighborhoods and to protect our quality of life, we the people, who live, work, and play near Tualatin Road, including renters, owners, and employees, requested the following.

  1. Remove Lam’s proposed entrance on SW Tualatin Road at SW 115th Avenue. (met)
  2. Add to Lam's proposed site plan a usable driveway that connects Lam's main parking lots directly to Leveton Drive. (met)
  3. Remove from Tualatin's Transportation System Plan (TSP) the proposed traffic signal at SW 115th Ave and SW Tualatin Road. (met)
  4. Preserve and extend Lam's berm along SW Tualatin Road. (met)
  5. Do not open another employee entrance on 108th Ave.
  6. Do not add more trafic to Tualatin Road.
  7. Require that Lam and JAE use SW Leveton Drive for all non-emergency vehicle access.
  8. Establish a tractor trailer and warehouse delivery entrance on SW Leveton Drive for JAE.
  9. Eliminate noise pollution and offsite sound impacts from Lam’s operations.
  10. Eliminate light pollution and light trespass from Lam and JAE campuses across Tualatin Road.
  11. Remove Lam's unsightly No Trespassing signs posted along Tualatin Road.
  12. Establish 24-hour onsite emergency contacts for Lam and JAE.

What can you do right now?