During the planning stages of a westside light rail line, Hillsboro rezoned much of the area around the station to increase building densities. Initial planning began in 1979, with groundbreaking on the Westside MAX project coming in 1993. On September 12, 1998, the Quatama station opened along with the Westside MAX line. The area around the station was named Quatama after the former station on the Oregon Electric Railway. That train stop was near the current one and was on property owned by the Oregon Nursery Company and settled in part by Hungarians.