Inside the urban growth boundary in the southern Portland-metro area sits one of the largest swaths of undeveloped industrial land in the tri-county region.

Dubbed the Basalt Creek Planning Area, the 847 acres of mostly unincorporated and undeveloped land in Washington County separates the cities of Wilsonville and Tualatin. Both residential and commercial developers have long eyed possibilities there. Soon, they may be within reach.

But first, activity is under way just to the south, in the Coffee Creek Industrial Area – 258 acres of industrial zoned land in north Wilsonville. There, at least one sizable project – the 61,936-square-foot Willamette Valley Behavioral Health Facility for Universal Health Services – already is in the design stage. The clinic is just the first link in what is likely to be a long chain of development in the south metro area.

“That’s going to be our first focus area,” said Miranda Bateschell, the city of Wilsonville’s long-range planning manager. “That area has already been master-planned. We’ve passed urban renewal for it and planning for the infrastructure. I think in terms of while we’re working on our urban planning agreement on the Basalt Creek side, we’ll start to see development in Coffee Creek, and we’ll sort of see a process that extends north over time.”

The Basalt Creek planning process has taken longer to unfold following several years of disagreement between the two cities over how best to utilize a key center parcel. But now a path forward appears to be clearing.

“It is attractive,” said Ken Sandblast, planning director for Westlake Consultants, a Tigard-based firm specializing in land use planning, civil engineering and surveying. The company is guiding Universal Health Services through the state and local planning process for its Wilsonville clinic.

“To my knowledge there’s been interest in doing things there,” Sandblast said. “But they’ve been waiting to finish up the Basalt Creek planning effort. And now that that appears to have come to a conclusion, I know of some of the development that might want to occur in the Tualatin area. The market has been waiting.”

Basalt Creek planning started in 2007. And when Wilsonville and Tualatin tentatively reached agreement in late 2015 on a preference for future zoning, it looked as if both would achieve their primary aims: Wilsonville would get industrial land for commercial expansion, while Tualatin would get residential land to grow its housing stock.

The process ground to a halt a year later, however, when Tualatin proposed the 63-acre central subarea east of Grahams Ferry Road be redesignated for residential instead of employment. The Tualatin City Council approved the redesignation in February 2017, citing slope, soil and other issues.

Wilsonville, however, declined to follow suit. The city instead hired KPFF Consulting Engineers to carry out a feasibility study of the central subarea. The study, led by managing principal Matt Dolan, concluded that employment development is certainly possible there. Three possible “schemes” for such development ranged in size from 480,000 to 780,000 square feet. The central subarea, the study states, “does pose some grading challenges, which will require the use of stepped foundations and retaining walls.”

“Our role was pretty limited,” Dolan said. “It was a conceptual study intended to help the cities develop this land down the road.”

Tualatin officials were not swayed, however, so Metro was forced to step in.

A resolution of sorts came last month when Metro Chief Operating Officer Martha Bennett sided with Wilsonville and ruled the central subarea should remain designated for employment. Despite receiving “conflicting evidence,” Bennett stated in a final decision that “although the central subarea may not be a likely candidate for a large industrial facility, there is sufficient developable area on the site for multiple buildings housing smaller employment uses … such as office, flex business park, manufacturing and craft industrial.”

The Metro Council formally approved Bennett’s ruling on April 19.

Where does this now leave the two cities? For now, the Metro Council decision has basically freed up the proverbial logjam.

“At this point it was the final decision that needed to be made to get to the final proposal plan map,” Bateschell said. “The two cities are currently working together to finalize the draft of the concept plan and we’re pulling that together as we speak.”

Both cities must now adopt the pending Basalt Creek Concept Plan within 120 days of the Metro Council decision. Then they will need to adopt comprehensive plan amendments incorporating the concept plan into city code and ink an urban area planning agreement with Washington County.

“That’s the middle of August, so that’s what we’re aiming for, and right now we’re on track to get that completed,” said Aquilla Hurd-Ravich, the city of Tualatin’s community development director. “From Tualatin’s perspective, that’s when the city-initiated part would end. It would be property owner and developer-driven after that.”

Hurd-Ravich added that the city already has received inquiries about future residential development in Basalt Creek’s northeast section.

“This will represent some new opportunities for development,” she said. “We have some land available for employment within the city that from a practical sense that would probably go first, and then the area for residential development would be our next neighborhood. We are definitely excited to adopt the concept plan.”

“There was a lot of desire for resolution,” Bateschell said. “We came to an agreement, all four of the parties, that would get us a resolution so we could move forward and that’s essentially where we’re at.”

Transportation elements already are taking shape. The Basalt Creek Parkway is being constructed to connect Boones Ferry Road with Grahams Ferry Road and provide the future dividing line between the two cities. Other improvements are complete or in the works, including the Southwest 124th extension, which cleaves the Basalt Creek Planning Area in two and connects the cities of Sherwood, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

“Everyone is just happy that we’re at consensus,” Wilsonville Economic Development Manager Jordan Vance said. “The significant thing is the concept plan can now go forward.”

Sandblast is also optimistic about the future development prospects.

“Is it attractive? Yes,” he said. “And once the governmental approval process is finished, then we’ll get this going.”

Coffee Creek industrial development poised to advance

In the south metro area, growth in the Basalt Creek Planning Area remains in the conceptual stage, and development realistically won’t move ahead for several more years.

But Wilsonville city officials don’t mind; they’ve already begun accepting applications from developers looking to take advantage of the 231 developable acres in the Coffee Creek Industrial Area.

“We see Basalt Creek as a continuation of Coffee Creek in terms of being a thriving employment district,” Wilsonville Economic Development Manager Jordan Vance said. “So Coffee Creek is really the priority. Right now we’re focusing on improving some infrastructure to make development feasible, but this has been 15 years in the making.”

The first Coffee Creek project to move forward is a planned 61,936-square-foot health clinic for Universal Health Services. As proposed, the clinic will rise at the Coffee Creek Industrial Area’s northeastern corner, at the intersection of Southwest Boones Ferry Road and Day Road.

“We’ve actually processed a couple of development applications and we are working with a couple of other people,” said Miranda Bateschell, Wilsonville’s long-range planning manager.

Other possible projects in various stages include a biodigester facility for use in recycling food scraps, as well as building space to house existing firm Precision Countertops.

Wilsonville is using two tools to attract development to Coffee Creek, Vance said. The first is an urban renewal district, which will provide money for the infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate new development. The second is a new form-based code exclusive to Coffee Creek that gives builders and developers a shorter path to approval by laying out pre-existing building and aesthetic standards.

The form-based code may be the first such one in an industrial-zoned area in the U.S., Vance said.

“If a developer wants to take this track, there will be more certainty,” he said.

For now, the city is hoping that once development in Coffee Creek starts, it won’t stop until the area is built out.

“Now we’re really at a point where we’re ready to finance the roads,” Vance said.

Southwest Garden Acres Road, between Day Road and Clutter Road, is the city’s first capital project in this regard. It will extend roadway and utilities north of its current alignment. A few other parcels are development-ready, but many still need infrastructure improvements, access or utilities.

“To pay for that, we need development,” Vance said. “We get a lot of calls, and they say, ‘When’s the road going to be ready?’ Once we have the first few developments in, it will make a world of difference. That will help jump-start it. But it’s just challenging for us for the first few to make the financing work.”

The post A tale of two cities eager to grow appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.