Tanner Basin

Frequently cleared by fire, oak savannas are a dwindling prairie habitat in the Pacific Northwest known for their tall grasses, towering Oak trees, and abundant wildlife. One of the best places to learn more about this ecosystem is the deck of a four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot contemporary home in West Linn's Savanna Oaks neighborhood.

Formerly known as Tanner Basin, Savanna Oaks stretches across the back end of a 400-foot-tall butte that splits the city of West Linn in half. It features a mixture of three- to five-bedroom houses built within the past 30 years that often borrow elements from earlier design styles. While there are a lot of Millennial mansions with multiple rooflines and large, arched entranceways in this neighborhood, you'll also come across houses that incorporate the floor-to-ceiling windows and wood shingled exterior walls of a mid-century modern house, the timber and plaster façades of a Tudor-style house, or the white plaster walls and circular windows of a Mediterranean-style house. These houses sit atop 6,000 to 8,000-square-foot lots on sidewalk-lined streets that offer plenty of room for a well-manicured front lawn, a fenced backyard with many trees, and, if you're lucky, a view of the surrounding countryside. Three-bedroom houses in this neighborhood fetch $700,000 to $1 million, while those with four or more bedrooms range in price from $1 million to $1.6 million.

Besides these houses, Savanna Oaks' main selling point is that it's served by the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, which Niche.com named the second-best school district in Oregon. Neighborhood children will start their K-12 academic careers at Sunset, Trillium Creek, or Willamette Primary Schools, all three of which ranked among Oregon's 15 best public elementary schools. Students at Sunset and Trillium Creek will move on to Rosemont Ridge Middle School, the state's fifth-best middle school, according to Niche.com, while those at Willamette will move on to Athey Creek Middle School, the 11th-best middle school in the state. Both middle schools send their students to West Linn High School, which received an A+ on Niche.com and was ranked the state's fourth-best high school.

There's also the White Oak Savanna Nature Preserve, which protects 20 acres of the Willamette Valley's remaining oak savanna habitat at the neighborhood's southern end. Researchers with the Trust for Public Land estimate only eight percent of the Willamette Valley's pre-settlement oak savanna habitat exists today. That's why the nonprofit teamed up with neighborhood residents and various state and local agencies to create the nature preserve in 2009. Members of the Tanner Basin Neighborhood Association, which continues to play a role in keeping this fragile ecosystem alive, recognized this accomplishment by changing their name and the neighborhood's name to Savanna Oaks that same year.

But this preserve isn't the only place in the neighborhood where you can escape to nature. Douglas Park offers visitors a basketball court, a small playground, and an open field shaded by fir and oak trees at the center of the neighborhood. Tanner Creek Park, which received a design award from the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation in 2006, offers residents a world-class skate park, pickleball and tennis courts, a small playground, and a water feature play area that's a favorite among neighborhood children in the summer. This park at the neighborhood's southern boundary also has a walking trail that takes you through a small wetlands area on Tanner Creek that the city parks department has been working to restore by having goats eat any invasive plants.

Tanner Creek Park also sits across the street from the Cascade Summit Towne Square, a 95,000-square-foot shopping center anchored by a Safeway and a few other stores. This shopping center is also home to the Sushi Kuni and Cocktail Bar, which draws guests from far and wide with its Omakase sushi platters and Sake flights, the San Blas Mexican Restaurant's traditional Mexican fare, a Killer Burger franchise, and the Spectator Pizza and Pub. Those looking for more options should head down to the Willamette Marketplace at the neighborhood's southern end, where you can dine on pork chops, coconut shrimp, flat iron steak, and pork-stuffed risotto cakes at the Avanti Restaurant and Bar. This restaurant shares a parking lot with Momiji Sushi and McMenamin's West Linn Pub, both of which received rave reviews on Google. The combination of restaurants, parks, and some of the best schools in Oregon that you'll find in Savanna Oaks makes this southern West Linn neighborhood a great place to call home.

Written By

Mac Mclean

Photography Contributed By

Elizabeth James

Video By

Taylor Gilbert