The Astoria City Council has approved a memorandum of understanding with the Friends of Heritage Square, the latest step in the potential redevelopment of a vacant downtown block.

Friends of Heritage Square wants to create a public gathering space — complete with an amphitheater, plaza, pavilion and parking lot — at the site, which stretches from the Garden of Surging Waves to the corner of 12th and Duane streets. The idea revives some of the original hopes for the block when it was acquired by the city two decades ago.

Heritage Square

Astoria hopes to redevelop Heritage Square downtown.

The push to turn the lot into a public space is a shift from recent efforts by the city to redevelop Heritage Square, which centered around the city’s housing needs. A proposed workforce housing project failed in 2022 amid public backlash. The city had previously considered a multiuse project with the potential for a new library and housing.

Over the past few years, the City Council has expressed openness to creating a community space in partnership with the Friends of Heritage Square. In December, the council reached a consensus to form a work group to codify the partnership in a memorandum of understanding.

The resulting agreement, approved by the City Council on Monday night, lays out the responsibilities of both parties: the city will work with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to mitigate environmental issues associated with the site, gather community input and seek the services of a professional facilitator and landscape designer.

Friends of Heritage Square, according to the terms of the agreement, will participate in the public process to advance a future vision and master plan of Heritage Square and continue fundraising for the development of the site.

City Councilor Elisabeth Adams, who represents downtown, participated in the work group and described herself as a liaison between the council and the Friends of Heritage Square.

“City Manager (Scott) Spence has created, with their representative, an MOU that I think is a good start to this going forward with our relationship as well as our public engagement process,” Adams said.

City Councilor Tom Brownson, who presided over the meeting in Mayor Sean Fitzpatrick’s absence, also expressed support for the agreement.

“I’m really glad we’re at this point, and that we’ve got an agreement that looks really workable and moves this forward and gets the public further involved in a really robust process,” Brownson said.