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Rick Peters has a vision. The president of the Oregon Veterans Foundation nonprofit organization has targeted an area near Wilsonville to site a new facility where virtually all of veterans’ needs could be met.

But while the city of Wilsonville believes Peters’ plan is well intentioned, it also believes the project is impractical. The land where Peters wants to build the Oregon Veterans Center is outside the city’s urban growth boundary. And even though municipalities around the region still have time to fight for UGB expansions, Wilsonville officials say they won’t go to the mat for Peters’ project because they don’t want to foot the bill for the accompanying roads, sewer system and other services.

Peters has spent five years developing the plan for a privately run center where veterans and their families could find everything from health care to social opportunities in one location.

But he needed a site for the center. Then he met Bob Osky, a Vietnam-era veteran and a Portland-area developer who owns 37 acres and is part-owner of another 14 acres of contiguous land bordering Wilsonville’s city limits to the south and Interstate 5 to the west.

“The location is perfect,” Peters said. “There are 340,000 veterans in the state of Oregon, and half of them live in the Portland-metro area.”

Osky, who has owned the property for almost 25 years, said Peters’ proposal – which would include a nursing home, a clinic, a museum and outdoor sports areas – is the first that piqued his interest. State veterans groups also are on board.

“Rick’s center would definitely be a first of its kind,” said Tom Mann, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “We think it’s a great idea if he can pull it off.”

Armed with that support, Peters approached the city of Wilsonville. The desired property is designated as urban reserve, but Peters hoped the city would help get it moved into the urban growth boundary.

“Just like meeting (Osky) with the land, the timing was perfect because Metro has until the end of the year to include land into the urban growth boundary,” Peters said. Regional government Metro is required by state law to look at UGB expansion every five years, and it must issue a decision by the end of the year. Metro staffers are taking requests from municipalities for possible expansions.

The problem, according to Michael Bowers, community development director for Wilsonville, is that a proper assessment has not been performed to determine the cost to get public facilities to the site. According to basic studies, the estimated cost to provide basic roads, a sewer trunk line and water is nearly $36 million, he said.

“The problem with the superficial analysis that has already been done is that it’s just a guesstimate,” Bowers said. “If we find one or two things different in an actual analysis, that number can shoot from $30 million to $130 million.”

One of the sticking points, for example, is storm water. The site sits on one of the highest points near the Willamette River, so mitigating storm water could be an extensive challenge, Bowers said.

Wilsonville city officials also say the current urban growth boundary already has a surplus of undeveloped land.

“The city can’t just go around annexing unincorporated plots of land all willy-nilly,” said Mark Ottenad, public information coordinator for Wilsonville.

Still, Peters is determined to push his project forward.

“It’s not that the city doesn’t want it; it’s just not a priority to them,” he said. “But it’s a priority to the veterans of this state.

“They say it’s not in their plans. Well, put it in the plans.”

Bowers agrees that the project would benefit veterans. But the city can’t justify accommodating Peters’ request right now, he said.

“I’m a veteran,” Bowers said. “The vision is beautiful and veterans really do need consolidated services.

“But to ask the city to assess the site, get it put in the UGB and then provide the service to it, is just unreasonable at this time.”

The city is not optimistic that the project will move forward, especially during the current UGB expansion cycle, but Wilsonville City Council is still willing to listen.

“Peters is going to bring his idea back to council in early September,” Wilsonville Mayor Tim Knapp said. “But it’s not prudent to think that we are going to spend tens of millions of dollars of tax payers’ money in an economy like this.”