Reserves designated: it’s a wrap

Metro, counties agree on urban and rural reserve maps, though rumblings of legal hurdles are still being voiced by opponents

By Steve Law

The Forest Grove News-Times, Mar 4, 2010

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In a move that could shape development in the Portland area for a half-century, the Metro Council voted 5-2 Thursday to designate several tracts of land for urbanization between now and 2060, while putting a much broader swath of land off-limits to development during that time period.

The tri-county government agreed to tab 28,000 acres of farm and other rural land as urban reserves – eligible for inclusion inside the urban growth boundary over the next 50 years. If all that land is eventually urbanized, it would mean an 11 percent expansion of the lands inside Portland’s urban growth boundary.

During that same half-century, the local population is expected to grow well more than 50 percent.

While the urban reserves sparked the most controversy, lands named as rural reserves could have greater long-term consequences. The Metro Council agreed to put 272,000 acres into rural reserves, essentially declaring a green belt around the Portland area that’s roughly equal in size to the total area inside the urban growth boundary.

The Metro Council’s vote came after the Washington County Board of Commissioners approved the package deal Tuesday night, and county commissions for Multnomah and Clackamas counties followed suit earlier Thursday.

The decision required an unprecedented joint agreement among the four local governments. It culminates a three-year endeavor that granted farmers, developers and other affected citizens 169 separate chances to participate and provide public comment.

Though Thursday’s vote represents the final deal between Metro and the three counties, the entire package still requires approval from the state Land Conservation and Development Commission in May.

If the plan is upheld and survives court challenges, it will be the most ambitious long-term growth plan ever adopted in Oregon or anywhere else in the United States.

Metro Councilors Rod Park and Robert Liberty cast the lone nay votes on the entire package. Voting in support were Metro Council President David Bragdon and councilors Carl Hosticka, Carlotta Collette, Kathryn Harrington and Rex Burkholder.

Burkholder predicted the package would be rejected by state officials or in the courts, and he was mostly critical of the package. However, Burkholder, who is running for Metro Council President, voted with the majority in the end, surprising some of his allies in the environmental movement.

A parade of farmers and environmentalists testified Thursday that the proposal would allow development of too much high-quality farmland in Washington County. The county is known for its world-class soils, but it’s also the economic engine of the metropolitan area and the state, and there’s heavy pressure to accommodate industry and homes for the people employed there.

As Washington County Chairman Tom Brian relayed Thursday, Intel recently committed to a tax-break deal with the county in exchange for a $25 billion investment program it expects to undertake in the next 15 years in the Hillsboro area.

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