91视频

The Metro Council last week decided the fate of the Portland region’s urban growth boundary, which will gain a total of 1,985 acres in areas of Hillsboro, Beaverton and Tigard.

At the end of the long process, Metro councilors said they wanted to achieve a balance between maintaining a tight, urban form and adding enough land to keep pace with projected growth. The 91视频 spoke with stakeholders who had hoped for a different UGB outcome.

Wilsonville Mayor Tim Knapp

91视频: What will be the impact of Metro’s decision to not add the 316-acre 鈥淎dvance鈥� residential area to the UGB?

Tim Knapp: We have accepted that the region has designated the Coffee Creek and Basalt Creek areas (between Wilsonville and Tualatin) as important for regional growth in industrial sector, and as those pieces start to move forward we have the potential for growth in jobs and industry in that area.

As that happens, we have the potential for greater congestion on major arterials as we start to have more people commuting in. That works counter to the Metro goals of reducing vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. I think that not having more local housing options where the houses are is going to work counter to their goals.

91视频: Do you have a practical next step for Wilsonville?

Knapp: I think that the course Metro has laid out for us is that for the next round they’re asking for us to have concept plans in place 鈥� for the 500-acre parcel of combined Frog Pond and Advance to have been planned and been done in a way that is realistic, not just conceptual.

That will be a major planning effort that will take quite a few dollars and quite a bit of staff time and effort. We will need to see if we can move forward in that direction before the next UGB round comes up. The challenge of getting private-sector partners to buy into the whole thing when we can’t guarantee it’s going to be a doable project in the near term is one of the difficulties as we try to do that.

Forest Grove Mayor Pete Truax

91视频: What will be the impact of Metro’s decision to not add a 115-acre Forest Grove industrial area to the UGB?

Pete Truax: It means we have no large lots 鈥� a 100 acre or larger site 鈥� for development. That’s the most immediate reaction. It seems to me that is one of the things that (Metro) was looking at. We had this site that was one owner so it wouldn’t have to be combined or go through that process.

I guess what it means is that, were there to be a company, such as an agricultural processing plant, that might want to move to a place that has a lot of agriculture, like western Washington County, we would not be in the running as a spot for that particular plant.

91视频: What is your understanding as to why other areas were admitted, and yours wasn’t?

Truax: I think their rationale was that these areas that were admitted had gone through much more planning than the areas that did not make the cut 鈥� that they had more information. I’m not sure I buy that. But that’s their story and that’s OK.

I think that, first of all, you end up with cities that have those opportunities to do that kind of planning getting the lion’s share of the rewards while the rest of us sit on the sidelines.

Our next step is making sure that when the next expansion comes around, which we hope is in three to five years, that we have dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s as far as planning this area out 鈥� coming up with a concept plan.

Westside Economic Alliance Executive Director Jonathan Schlueter

91视频: Why do you believe that the UGB expansion should have been larger?

Jonathan Schlueter: We have limited our vision and opportunities, and we have constrained our ambitions, unfortunately, at a time when 77,000 people in this region are unemployed. We felt that Metro Council needed to be more ambitious and more opportunistic, and they chose a more cautious tact.

91视频: How does Metro’s decision impact the private sector?

Schlueter: The decision limits the types of businesses that can locate here and the locations that they will be allowed to develop here. Both of those are mistakes.

The I-5 corridor is lined by examples of businesses that were not able to locate in the Portland Metro region, but were located outside of the urban area both in Washington and in Oregon.

Businesses are locating their warehouse distribution centers in other communities. They’re shipping their products into our shelves, but the tax base and employment base that went with those businesses is no longer in the Portland metro region. We think that’s a mistake.

Tualatin Riverkeepers Advocacy and Communications Manager Brian Wegener

91视频: What do you think is the most important impact of Metro’s UGB expansion?

Brian Wegener: From our perspective, anytime you start urbanizing a landscape the streams are going to be impacted. That’s because we pave over areas, we put rooftops, and storm water that would normally be caught by trees and vegetation is going to run off the surface down a storm drain near a stream.

Storm water carries a lot of pollutants, but it also carries a lot of energy, which causes erosion in the streams. It therefore impacts the fish, bugs and the whole ecosystem.

91视频: What should have happened differently?

Wegener: Sooner or later they’re going to urbanize these areas, whether they do it now or five or 10 years from now. Our concern is that when they do that they have the regulations and policies in place that prevent storm-water runoff using low-impact development techniques, urban forestry programs, and do a very conscious level of assuring that they’re not going to increase runoff.

91视频: Is it too late, or is there a next step you’re hoping to see from Metro?

Wegener: Clearly they’re thinking about it. There was some language in the conditions for the Cooper Mountain area 鈥� but we would have liked some firmer language that said, 鈥榃e’re going to prevent runoff from happening.’

Everyone is clearly thinking about it at Metro, Clean Water Services and the cities. And (the Department of Environmental Quality) is going to be reissuing storm-water permits to Clean Water Services, and we expect there to be conditions that address this. We just want to make sure that we’re not missing any opportunities to protect our streams.