The corridor
Banks to McMinnville.
One stretch of country west of Portland, about an hour end to end. Everything Rootstock does happens inside it.
- Banks Washington County
- North end of the corridor.
- Forest Grove Washington County
- Population and a college town.
- Gaston Washington County
- Small, agricultural, in the middle of everything.
- Yamhill Yamhill County
- Farmland.
- Carlton Yamhill County
- Agritourism traffic that already stops.
- Newberg Yamhill County
- Highway 99W volume.
- McMinnville Yamhill County
- South end, and the county seat.
Schematic, not to scale.
Why here
Farmland on one side, population on the other.
Yamhill County brings the farmland and a steady stream of agritourism traffic that already stops, already spends, and already came out here to look at agriculture.
Washington County brings the population — enough households within a short drive to absorb a season of prepaid shares and keep a café busy on a Tuesday.
And the whole thing sits inside one drive time. A crate of surplus, a share box and a lease conversation can all move between the same people in the same week. That density is the point; expansion is not the plan.
The operating map
One system, with a clear job for every part.
Three Field Commons can hold more than one site. Groundworks is the proposed public anchor in McMinnville. The other ventures move land, food, tools, and revenue between those places instead of operating as unrelated projects.
- 01
Hands off
Long-term ground for growers, Groundworks, and other aligned operators
- 02
Hands off
Working sites, staffing, upkeep, and earned revenue
- 03
Hands off
Food for Harvest Provisions and Groundworks
- 04
Hands off
Committed demand, working capital, and planned harvests
- 05
Hands off
A café, farm stand, teaching kitchen, and conversion capacity
- 06
Hands off
Shelf-stable product, benefit events, and unrestricted support
- 07
Hands off
Stronger farm plans and better access to outside resources
The constraint
Exclusive farm use zoning shapes what can happen where.
Most of the ground in this corridor is zoned for exclusive farm use. That limits what can be built on it, who can live on it, and which commercial activities are allowed alongside farming. It is the single largest constraint on anything anyone proposes out here, and it is not going to change.
So the model is built around it rather than against it. Retail and the teaching kitchen go where retail is allowed. Farm-based activity stays farm-based and accessory to actual production. Lodging and events happen where the zoning and county rules already permit them. Nothing here depends on a variance, a rezone, or a sympathetic hearing.
If you're a planner reading this: that's deliberate, and we'd rather hear early where you think we've read the rules wrong.