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Growth in the Portland-metro area often is a heated topic. As the deadline approaches for the Metro Council to determine whether to expand the urban growth boundary, opposing sides may be as far apart as ever.

The council is considering seven possible expansion areas 鈥� a total of 3,457 acres 鈥� to meet needs housing and employment needs for the next 20 years. Some land-use activists want the council to postpone expansion for at least four years. But local home builders believe a delay would create a housing shortage in the metro area in the near future.

The state requires the Metro Council to review the UGB every five years. The council deferred a decision last year when officials plodded through the process to designate urban and rural reserves; now it must make a decision by October.

Metro staffers earlier this year studied 9,800 acres around the tri-county area for potential UGB expansion. A report released earlier this month by Metro Chief Operating Officer Dan Cooper recommended that 3,767 acres 鈥� 3,457 for housing and 310 for industrial employment 鈥� be considered. Most of the areas are in Washington County, and a few are in Clackamas County.

Metro spokesman Ken Ray said all seven areas are being evaluated by the council.

鈥淎nything could happen,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut from the discussions so far it seems unlikely that they would all be brought in.鈥�

Jason Miner, executive director of land-use advocacy group 1000 Friends of Oregon, says the council should pass on the expansion altogether and resume the conversation in four years, when Metro is next required to examine the UGB.

鈥淲e have a limited pool of resources to provide access to the places that are already in the UGB,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hy spread those resources even thinner when we haven’t even reached the population growth for right now that Metro had projected?

鈥淲ith the information we have right now there is no reason we couldn’t wait for the next discussion.鈥�

Miner believes Metro should wait to expand the UGB because of the uncertainty of the economy and recent stagnation of population growth. Moreover, he said, the housing being built these days is urban infill, and a UGB expansion wouldn’t help accommodate that.

鈥淗ousing developments on the urban fringe aren’t working right now,鈥� he said. 鈥淢arket demand is for close-in neighborhoods.鈥�

Renaissance Homes, owned by Randy Sebastian, formerly built about 450 homes a year in new developments in the suburbs. But since the most recent downturn, the company has focused almost exclusively on infill projects in established Portland neighborhoods.

鈥淚 want to build 150 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified) homes a year in the great neighborhoods of Portland,鈥� Sebastian said. 鈥淭hat’s a big strategy for us right now.鈥�

Nevertheless, home builders believe the UGB expansion decision must be made based on long-term projections.

鈥淚t takes five years, minimum, to get new land to a point that’s developable, and that’s if everything works out just right,鈥� said Dave Nielsen, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. 鈥淲e are going to have a developable lot shortage in the next two to four years, so we need to have land working through that process.鈥�

Nielsen said he likes the areas that Metro has decided to consider because they are all close to areas and jurisdictions already developed, so provision of services wouldn’t be as challenging as in the past. In these areas, housing demands could be met in a much shorter timeframe than previously, he said.

鈥�1000 Friends (of Oregon officials) never change their argument,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey aren’t a land-use advocacy group; they’re an anti-growth group.

鈥淲e need to respond to growth needs every five years. It’s been nine years since we have and now they want us to push it out another four.鈥�

The Metro Council presently is preparing to engage the public to receive comments.