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Washington County officials have returned from the drawing board with a retooled urban and rural reserves proposal they hope will be approved by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission.

After approving a large majority of urban and rural reserves – which designates what land can and cannot be brought into the urban growth boundary over the next 50 years across the entire Metro region – last October, LCDC remanded Washington County‘s designations back to the county. The county was asked to retool its designations and resubmit them back to Metro and LCDC for approval.

The new proposal removes an urban reserve north of Cornelius, which was the reason for the remand in the first place. It also modifies an urban reserve north of Forest Grove to address other concerns raised by LCDC, adds to an existing urban reserve north of Oregon Route 26 and adds undesignated acreage to a parcel south of Hillsboro that was previously designated rural.

In total the proposed designations include 151,574 acres of rural reserves and 13,817 acres of urban reserves in Washington County. The new proposal increases the amount of rural reserves by 38 acres and decreases the amount of urban reserves by 67 acres.

“We believe this proposal thoroughly addresses all of the concerns raised by (LCDC) while providing certainty to farmers, businesses and working families,” said Washington County Commission Chair Andy Duyck and Metro Council President Tom Hughes in a joint statement.

A public hearing on the new urban and rural reserves proposal, hosted by both Washington County and Metro, will be held March 15 in Hillsboro.