Woodburn became one of Oregon‘s fastest-growing cities, both in population and housing production, on its own. To sustain that momentum, the city needed some help.

Last week at Woodburn City Hall, Gov. Tina Kotek took part in a ceremonial signing of six laws that involve housing, including one that allows the city a one-time urban growth boundary expansion and gives it enough land to continue that growth for years.

“What’s great about this day and why we’re celebrating is these new laws will have a positive impact on the lives of everyday Oregonians,” Kotek said. “They’re about our seniors who deserve to age in the communities they have called home for decades.

“These bills are about young families who want to live near schools and safe neighborhoods where their kids can grow up.”

House Bill 4035, which Kotek signed into law March 31, makes it easier for cities with a population greater than 25,000 to make a one-time urban growth boundary expansion of up to 150 acres. An amendment to the bill will allow Woodburn to add 120 acres in its northwest corner inside the urban growth boundary. There, approximately 600 new homes will be built, including 30 percent designated as affordable housing.

Woodburn added 2,181 housing units between 2021 and 2025. The city is Oregon’s third-fastest-growing by population.

Before HB 4035 passed, city leaders projected Woodburn would run out of developable residential land in the next few years.

Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, said legislators saw how much development has occurred in Woodburn in recent years during a tour of the city in 2025.

“It is very clear that this is a community that doesn’t see checking off housing as just checking off the box,” Marsh said. “It is a community that sees housing as an avenue for really supporting families.

“Woodburn was the inspiration for legislation that was passed in the short session, and Woodburn will continue to be a model for cities across the state.”

Other new laws encourage development of affordable housing for seniors by allowing cities to designate land for individuals 55 and older, establish an affordable housing preservation program, expand self-certification of housing, prohibit private equity firms from purchasing single-family homes unless listed for sale to the public, and authorize a state fund for mixed-income housing.

Kotek set a goal of 36,000 new housing units produced in Oregon each year shortly after being sworn into office in 2024.

Approximately 50,000 new homes have been built in Oregon since she became governor, she said.

In 2025, new home permits were up by 5 percent in Oregon while they were down 3 percent in the entire United States, she added.

“We know that too many Oregonians are faced with an impossible choice,” Kotek said. “For some, that choice pushes them out of their house.

“We know that affordability is a relentless contributor to the issue of homelessness. And housing affordability is directly related to housing supply.”

That growth has led to strains on the capacity of cities’ aging infrastructure like water, sewer, roads and stormwater. Many of those cities don’t have the money to make those improvements.

Kotek called on the federal government to help pay for those kinds of projects.

“It is a major issue,” she said. “We have very aging systems here for water and sewer. So, they need upgrades anyway, but if we’re going to put more homes on those lines, they also need more help.

“If there is one thing the Trump administration could actually help us with is more financing for upgrading our public works systems — our water and sewer systems.”

Kotek also pointed out infrastructure investments made in the 2026 legislative session. Silverton got $5 million for its planned water treatment facility. St. Paul got $2 million for its water system.

Woodburn accomplished its previous growth without using the provisions of the new laws designed to encourage housing growth. Now it has the help to continue.

Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, applauded city leaders for making development possible at its current scale.

“They’re amazing,” said Thatcher, the sponsor of the original bill. “I’m proud to be associated with them in whatever way I happen to be. It’s a privilege to represent Woodburn. They’re go-getters.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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In 1971, Grace Rye moved with her husband, Jack, to a home about half a mile outside of Monmouth when he took a job as an administrator at Western Oregon University.

Rye, 92, and now a widow, discovered in February that the city was proposing to swap 90 acres of land within its urban growth boundary with a 75-acre parcel that nearly borders her country home. The prospect of hundreds of new houses and apartments rising nearby doesn’t appeal to Rye.

“It’s not a good idea,” she said.

Numerous people who live in and around Monmouth voiced their displeasure of the proposed land swap to the city council during its regular meeting on April 7. Nevertheless, the council voted 4-2 to approve the proposal and adopt a legislative amendment. Councilors John Oberst, Carol McKiel, Jon Carey and Christopher Lopez voted yes, and Roxanne Beltz and Jason Ridgeway voted no.

The approval still needs to come back before the council in the form of an ordinance for adoption, Monmouth Community Development Director Suzanne Dufner said. The land swap would then have to be approved by Polk County and the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.

When House Bill 2647, which was sponsored by Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, and Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, became law in 2025, it gave Monmouth an expedited process to swap the 90 acres southwest of the city for the 75 acres to the west of the city.

Though there are other processes for cities to expand, UGB swaps through the state legislature have become increasingly common.

Portland State University projects Monmouth to gain 3,400 new residents by 2040 and the need for 1,200 new housing units to accommodate that growth. If so, the city would add nearly one-third of its current population of 11,651, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2025 American Community Survey estimates.

The city applied strategies to allow growth, including increasing density and allowing housing downtown, Carey said.

“The city is doing a lot of things to solve the problem,” he said. “Many of those are applicable to new development. Not all, but most. The city’s been doing a lot of work. We’re still constrained by the land.”

Monmouth has fewer than a dozen developable properties within current city limits, Dufner said.

“All the easy properties to develop have been developed,” she said.

So, Monmouth looked at ways it could incorporate more land into the city.

City staffers project the swap could result in Monmouth gaining 525 to 1,050 new housing units.

The 90 acres the city will remove was owned by people not interested in selling, contains wetlands (making development difficult), and is prone to flooding because of its proximity to the south fork of Ash Creek.

The 75 acres on the west side of town, however, is mostly flat and would be easier to develop with city utilities like water, sewer and power. Also, the property owners want to sell.

Monmouth Public Works Director David Karr Jr. said the parcel that is leaving the UGB could be connected to utilities but would require infrastructure like a pump station for sewer services — something the incoming parcel won’t need.

The city held two planning commission meetings about the proposal, and the city council held a public hearing about it in February, Dufner said.

“The public participation part has been happening,” Monmouth Mayor Cec Koontz said.

But some people, including Rye, said they never received notice about the planned swap or any new development on the land.

In a staff report, the city officials say they posted signs visible from the street 10 days before the first public hearing, a mailer was sent to property owners that would be directly impacted, a notice was published in a newspaper and on the city’s website, and notices were sent to other affected public agencies like fire districts and school districts.

One person asked the people in the packed council chambers if they felt they had been heard during the public process. One person raised a hand. When he asked if they felt they had not been represented, most people in the crowd raised a hand.

“We have to acknowledge a real tension in growing communities,” Beltz said.

People also brought up potential problems including traffic and infrastructure issues, environmental concerns, the impact on Western Oregon University, the potential loss of farmland, and the city’s ability to bring in utilities like water and power.

Land use conservation group 1000 Friends of Oregon argued in a letter to the city council that the 75 acres being swapped into the urban growth boundary is not contiguous to the city limits and therefore does not comply with House Bill 2647.

John Moore, who lives on Mistletoe Road, said new development would produce multiple three-story buildings mere feet from his rural home.

“If I want to live in a city, I’d live in a city,” he said. “We like to live in the country.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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Hillsboro’s data center market ended 2025 with a 0.2 percent vacancy rate, according to a recent report, underscoring insatiable demand in the sector and constrained supply.

At year end the market had 475.4 megawatts of inventory and approximately 1 megawatt of available capacity, CBRE found. Asking rents ranged from $175 to $225 per kilowatt per month.

“Hillsboro‘s exceptionally low vacancy underscores how critical the market has become for West Coast deployments,” Haakon Weinstein, a Portland-based CBRE vice president, stated in a news release.

“Even with limited new supply last year, demand remained steady, driven by the area’s network density and access to renewable power,” Weinstein added. “With development constrained in part by the region’s urban growth boundary and power transmission limitations, availability will remain scarce, influencing both rate and land price trends.”

Hillsboro remained the seventh-largest North American data center market, led by Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Phoenix and Silicon Valley.

Locally and nationally, data center developers perhaps have run out of easy locations to build. Data center capacity under construction fell to 5,994.4 megawatts at the end of 2025, compared to 6,350.1 megawatts a year earlier.

CBRE’s report blamed “longer timelines tied to permitting, zoning approvals and securing adequate power” for the first drop in data center construction since 2020.

Weinstein said he expects to see more construction near major cities, where operators prize speed.

“As data centers progress, you’re going to see more data centers on the edge of population centers that have very low latency,” Weinstein added in an interview.

Despite demand, Hillsboro isn’t where growth is occurring nationally. Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, Raleigh, North Carolina and Denver-Boulder, Colorado, are all seeing strong growth, Weinstein said.

Oregon is prized for relatively cheap electricity, and a mix high in renewable energy. Undersea data cables come ashore at Pacific City, and the state is sandwiched by tech clusters in Seattle and Northern California.

More growth is expected in Eastern Oregon, where Amazon has bought up “huge swaths of land,” Weinstein said. Hillsboro could see more growth if an effort to expand its urban growth boundary is successful, he said.

Meanwhile, data centers face political opposition from some critics who blame the industry for sharp rises in utility bills and water usage. The Oregon Legislature this month approved a one-year moratorium on property tax incentives for new data centers.

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The city of Madras has received approval to bring a 196-acre site inside the urban growth boundary for future industrial use, the Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO) announced Wednesday. The OK, granted by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, enhances Madras’ potential for economic growth, according to EDCO.

The collaborative effort to gain approval featured officials representing Jefferson County, the city of Madras and EDCO as well as business leaders and community members. Private investors will now be able to purchase and develop 196 acres of industrial property, thus presenting opportunities beyond the current lease-only options on the Madras Municipal Airport property, a press release states.

The site’s strategic location is adjacent to existing industrial areas near the Madras Municipal Airport. There will be easy access to essential infrastructure for development.

The site is poised to suit a variety of future uses, including high-tech and clean-tech manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and IT infrastructure. The development of this site is anticipated to result in job creation and investment opportunities observed in nearby areas such as Prineville and Redmond, the press release states.

The city of Madras and its partners have begun planning to identify specific industry needs for development within the sites of the Large Lot Industrial Program and vacant industrial land, according to EDCO. The site will be reserved for large-scale industrial development in the long term.

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By Andrew Selsky

The Associated Press

NORTH PLAINS — Aaron Nichols walked past rows of kale growing on his farm, his knee-high, brown rubber boots speckled with some of the richest soil on Earth, and gazed with concern toward fields in the distance. Just over the horizon loomed a gigantic building of semiconductor chipmaker Intel.

For exactly 50 years, the farms and forests that ring Oregon’s metropolitan centers have been protected from urban sprawl by the nation’s first statewide law that placed growth boundaries on cities. They cannot expand beyond those borders unless they make a request and justify it. Approval by cities and counties can take months or even a few years (larger expansions also need approval by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development).

But now,  being considered in the Oregon Legislature could authorize the governor to unilaterally expand those boundaries as part of Oregon’s quest to  land for them to build their factories. The measure would also provide $200 million in grants to chipmakers.

Farmers and conservationists are deeply worried about the proposal and what it will mean for a state that cherishes its open spaces.

“One of the reasons we bought our farm right here is that we knew that for 50 years we’d be farms, and everyone around us would be farms,” Nichols said. “And now we’re not so sure. Now it’s up to one decision by the governor. And that’s a scarier place to be.”

State officials and lawmakers, on the other hand, are eager to bring more semiconductor factories to Oregon while billions of dollars of federal funding to promote the industry is available.

They were stung by Intel’s decision last year to build a massive $20 billion , and not in Oregon where suitable zoned land is scarce.

Oregon has its “Silicon Forest” – a counterpoint to California’s Silicon Valley – and has been at the center of semiconductor research and production for decades. But Oregon is competing with other states to host multibillion-dollar microchip factories, called fabs. The competition heated up after Congress passed the  providing $39 billion for companies constructing or expanding facilities that will manufacture semiconductors and those that will assemble, test and package the chips.

Dramatically expanding semiconductor design and manufacturing in Oregon would create tens of thousands of high-paying construction jobs and thousands of manufacturing and supply chain jobs, the  stated in a report this past August.

But the task force warned that Oregon needs more buildable industrial land near infrastructure, talented workers and specialized suppliers to attract and retain semiconductor businesses. The group called for “urgent legislative attention.”

“This is about generational change,” Democratic state Sen. Janeen Sollman, a chief sponsor of the bill, said during a recent tour of an HP campus in Corvallis. “This is the opportunity that students will have for their future in going into these types of jobs.”

Today, thanks to a former Republican governor, you can drive from many cities in Oregon and within minutes be in farm or ranch country, unlike many states where cities are surrounded by expanses of shopping centers and housing developments.

Tom McCall, who served as Oregon’s governor from 1967 to 1975, had successfully championed protections for Oregon’s beaches to ensure they remained public. In 1973, he urged lawmakers to push for a tough new land-use law.

“Sagebrush subdivisions, coastal ‘condomania’ and the ravenous rampage of suburbia here in the Willamette Valley all threaten to mock Oregon’s status as an environmental model of this nation,” McCall said in a speech before the Legislature in 1973.

The Legislature complied, passing  that established the nation’s first statewide urban growth boundary policy.

Washington state and Tennessee followed Oregon’s lead. In 1982, a ballot measure called for a repeal in Oregon. McCall, who was dying of cancer, campaigned against it. Voters upheld Oregon’s land-use system by rejecting the measure two months before McCall died.

Under Oregon’s system, an urban growth boundary designates where a city expects to grow over the next 20 years. Once land is included in a UGB, it is eligible for annexation to a city. Those UGB lines are regularly expanded. From 2016 through 2021, 35 were approved, according to the DLCD.

But the process takes time. McMinnville, in Oregon’s fabled wine country, battled for 20 years to expand its boundary, said Robert Parker, director of strategy at the University of Oregon’s Institute for Policy Research and Engagement.

Obtaining approval can take months or years, depending on the level of controversy, the DLCD’s Gordon Howard said. Appeals to the courts or a state board cause further delays.

That’s too long a wait for chipmaking companies, especially those that want to take advantage of CHIPS Act funding.

“Other states offer a more streamlined approach that is more in sync with the speed of the market,” according to Oregon’s semiconductor task force, whose members included then-Gov. Kate Brown.

Under the bill, the governor could designate up to a maximum of eight sites for UGB expansion: two that exceed 500 acres and six smaller sites. Any appeals would go straight to the Oregon Supreme Court.

The Oregon Farm Bureau, which represents 7,000 family farmers, believes the effort should instead focus on lands already within the urban growth boundary.

“The conversion of agricultural lands into paved industrial lands is a permanent destruction of our natural and working lands,” bureau Vice President Lauren Poor said. “Once it’s paved, the soil and its ability to sequester carbon, support our food system and generate income for Oregonians is gone forever.”

Washington County, where Nichol’s farm is located, produces more clover seed crop than anywhere else in the world, thanks to its unique soil and the rainy climate, said Nicole Anderson, an associate professor at Oregon State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Science.

“I hope that science and consideration of our land resources are considered when this bill is voted on,” Anderson told the Legislature’s joint committee on semiconductors on March 13.

On Friday, the ways and means committee sent the bill for a vote on the Senate floor. The Senate will consider the priority legislation this week.

“I am thrilled to see this legislation pass out of committee and look forward to seeing it through to the finish line,” said Rep. Kim Wallan, a Republican and a chief sponsor of the bill.

Parker, the land-use expert, doesn’t believe passage would mark the start of the end of Oregon’s treasured policy.

“Will there be more challenges and bumps in the road ahead? Yeah, I think so,” Parker said. “But I feel like it is so well established in the state at this point that it has the inertia to carry it through those challenges.”

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The Metro Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve four urban growth boundary expansions and open up 2,181 acres of land for future development.

The expansions will take place in the cities of Wilsonville, Beaverton, Hillsboro and King City, although Metro councilors and staffers reportedly have concerns over the latter’s ability to guide large developments through to completion. Proposals in the cities call for development of a total of 9,200 new housing units.

Wilsonville was granted a 271-acre expansion that will allow construction of at least 1,325 homes near the city’s northeastern edge, including the large Frog Pond development that has been under way for several years. Hillsboro’s 150-acre expansion near Witch Hazel Road will allow the addition of at least 850 housing units, while Beaverton’s 1,232-acre expansion near the southwest side of Cooper Mountain will allow construction of at least 3,760 housing units.

King City had asked for 528 acres to build a new town center. But because it would be the small city’s first large development in many years, the council encouraged city officials to apply for grants to pay for additional staff, consulting and engineering needed to make the plan happen.

“We try to get better at this every single time, but one of the clear reasons this process is different is because all of us in the region invested time, energy and compassion into defining the urban and rural reserves that that map illustrates,” Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington stated.

Metro is required by law to ensure the Portland tri-county area has enough buildable land within the UGB to accommodate 20 years of growth. Metro normally reviews the boundary every six years. The 2018 process is different from the 2004 UGB review process, which saw the Metro Council expand the boundary in the Damascus area. That decision ultimately did not lead to significant development, and Damascus ultimately voted to end city incorporation and return land use authority to Clackamas County.

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Metro believes four suburban Portland cities should be granted urban growth boundary expansions.

The regional planning agency’s chief operating officer, Martha Bennett, recommends Beaverton, Hillsboro, King City and Wilsonville be allowed to expand their growth boundaries. The changes would open 2,181 acres in the metro area to development.

The recommendation will go to the Metro Council for discussion at a work session on Tuesday. A vote is likely to follow in December.

Metro is flexing its new ability to expand the UGB outside the usual six-year cycle, after the Oregon Legislature last year changed state land use rules.

UGB expansion decisions typically result in appeals to the Land Conservation and Development Commission and district court. Metro spokesman Nick Christensen said he could not recall the previous UGB expansion decision that did not result in an appeal.

Bennett recommended boundary expansions for all four communities that requested them. (Sherwood withdrew an earlier UGB expansion proposal). All four cities demonstrated governance, infrastructure and market factors that will lead to housing development, Bennett stated.

• Beaverton would gain the most land – 1,232 acres able to accommodate an estimated 3,760 homes in the Cooper Mountain area. Bennett wrote Beaverton’s “strong track record for getting housing built in the South Cooper Mountain area is a major reason why I recommend that the council expand the UGB in the Cooper Mountain urban reserve.”

Beaverton planning officials have thoughtfully planned for the area’s topographical features and environmental assets, she wrote.

Bennett recommends the council add the entire Cooper Mountain urban reserve inside the UGB to enable the city to provide infrastructure in a coherent fashion.

Beaverton’s concept plan for the area proposed that approximately 50 percent of the housing be attached single-family or multifamily.

“We’ve always anticipated a pretty broad range of housing types to be provided within the neighborhood,” said Cheryl Twete, Beaverton’s community development director.

Beaverton will perform a study to better understand how the city can attract development of various housing types, Twete said.

City officials are “very excited” by the positive recommendation, and city leaders support all four regional boundary expansions, she said.

“We feel really confident in the value and the case that we’re making for Cooper Mountain urban reserve,” she said.

• Hillsboro’s bid to add 150 acres with 850 homes in the Witch Hazel Village South area was recommended. Hillsboro’s concept plan calls for up to 70 percent of the housing to be multifamily or attached single-family.
• King City earned a recommendation to expand into 528 acres, with 3,000 homes planned, in an area known as Beef Bend South.

Bennett wrote King City “deserved credit” for its ambition to diversify its population and housing options. King City’s concept plan for a town center with 1,000 multifamily units “may be overly optimistic at this time,” but a smaller-scale town center could work, she wrote.

• Wilsonville’s plan to add 271 acres near Advance Road in the Frog Pond area was recommended. The area would host approximately 1,325 housing units.

Wilsonville has a “strong track record getting housing built” in Villebois, Bennett wrote. With Frog Pond, Bennett wrote, “the city is ready to govern and serve this area and there is evidence that market demand is strong.”

Taken as a whole, the UGB expansions would represent opportunity for a modest addition to the Portland-metro area’s housing stock. The four expansions would add a projected 9,235 homes inside the growth boundary.

The relatively small expansion areas reflect how challenging it is to extend roads, sewer and other infrastructure into previously undeveloped areas, Christensen said.

“It’s really expensive and really difficult to build on green fields,” he said. “As long as that remains, you’re only going to see a handful of applications (with each cycle).”

Metro is pushing for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and other forms of less expensive housing.

“Our population’s growing (and) our economy’s growing, so we need to make sure there’s housing for the people who live here,” he said.

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Metro is preparing to seek new authority from the Oregon Legislature to consider changes to urban growth boundaries outside of the usual six-year cycle.

The Portland-based regional planning agency has convened a task force that is examining how to structure a new process for UGB adjustments.

Metro is pitching the changes as a necessary correction to an overly rigid process for expanding growth boundaries. But any change to Oregon’s UGB system promises to be politically charged, with municipalities, homebuilders, developers and conservationists defending their interests.

Metro wants to allow up to 900 acres to be added to UGBs outside of the usual six-year cycle.

“The (Metro) Council wants the flexibility to respond to modest requests from cities,” said John Williams, Metro’s deputy director of planning and development.

Under current law, the Metro Council lacks sufficient flexibility to respond to city requests for modest residential UGB adjustments tapping into urban reserves when cities demonstrate that they can govern the area and finance infrastructure, Metro says in a task force document.

Metro is next scheduled to undergo a wholesale re-evaluation of the UGB in 2018.

The task force is wading through sticky issues, including a swap concept whereby a city could add land from outside an UGB in exchange for creating land reserves inside it. The task force, which met Sept. 21, includes representatives of Wilsonville, Forest Grove, Happy Valley, Portland, Multnomah County and the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland.

The aim of the land swap process is to remove so-called “nonperforming” areas – tracts that, for one reason or another, have resisted development – from inside the growth boundary in exchange for land with development potential.

Municipal representatives were wary of how a swap would work. In a letter to the task force, a Home Builders Association representative said there are “significant political and legal challenges toward implementing a swap.”

Some stakeholders expressed concern about the idea of Metro removing land from within growth boundaries. Sherwood Mayor Krisanna Clark wrote in a letter that Metro should have a “high bar for a UGB exchange to ensure areas being exchanged truly are not suitable for immediate development and were brought into the UGB in error.”

Williams sought to ease those concerns.

“I don’t foresee a scenario in which Metro takes back something,” he said. “It would be a collaborative conversation.”

The idea warrants careful examination, Metro Council member Carlotta Collette said.

“It’s big, and it needs some vetting,” she said.

The task force came out of the aftermath of Metro’s decision in November 2015 to not expand the Portland area’s urban growth boundary. Metro said the area has plenty of land to accommodate the growth foreseen for the next 20 years, disappointing local planners and builders who were hoping for new areas to develop.

“Obviously, I think some tweaks are necessary,” said John Ludlow, chairman of the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners. “You looked at the disappointment around the region when the report came out.”

Ludlow pointed to historic rises in housing costs in the county, saying more units are the sensible solution.

“More supply means less price – it’s a fact,” he said.

Metro vowed to undergo another UGB review in 2018, three years sooner than required by law.

Metro should proceed with the process, Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis said.

“I don’t disagree that this is going to take some time,” he said. “But if not now, when? If we stop, we’ll be back here again two years from now.”

The off-cycle UGB adjustment process could benefit cities such as Wilsonville, Happy Valley and Sherwood.

Sherwood officials are looking to bring in portions of an area known as Sherwood West. The 1,291-acre site is classified as an urban reserve.

Sherwood would likely move forward with annexation of a portion of the Sherwood West site, where land is buildable and the fewest obstacles exist, planning manager Brad Kilby said.

“We would be looking at the low-hanging fruit, where property owners have indicated they’re willing to go into the boundary, and where we’re willing to provide an orderly and efficient extension of services,” he said.

The city is moving ahead on Sherwood West even after local voters repeatedly rejected annexation requests of areas brought inside the UGB in 2002. Three times, voters have turned down growth boundary expansions.

“We have to grow,” Kilby said. “We can’t just stop planning. We have to continue to plan for growth. There’s an old adage: Cities that don’t grow, die.”

Wilsonville also could benefit. The city has sought to persuade Metro to bring portions of the Frog Pond area inside the growth boundary.

“Wilsonville was kind of the poster child of a place that met a lot of good planning criteria,” Metro Council President Tom Hughes said.

Wilsonville has been lobbying to add Frog Pond inside the UGB since before 2010, Planning Director Chris Neamtzu said.

“That’s a long time to wait for 280 acres to come into an urban growth boundary,” he said.

The push came out of discussions of the Metropolitan Mayors Consortium, a group of Portland-area mayors. After several UGB decisions adverse for development, most notably last year’s decision to add nothing, growth advocates are encouraged.

“It’s incredible that the Metro Council has been highly responsive to the more recent concerns,” Neamtzu said.

An unresolved question is how much land would fulfill the task force’s goal of adding “modest” tracts of land inside growth boundaries. It has to be large enough to be worth developing, but not so vast that it undermines the more in-depth six year growth-boundary reviews, task force members said.

“Something like 500 acres a year we think is a reasonable number,” said Jeff Smith, vice president and treasurer of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland and president of J.T. Smith Cos. in Lake Oswego, a homebuilder and developer.

A draft task force document pegs the limit for off-cycle regional growth boundary expansions at 900 gross acres.

The six-year UGB cycle means builders miss economic windows, Smith said. “It’s just too long of a cycle,” he said. ���� six years, prices change so much it’s not even funny.”

Rural reserves would remain off-limits to development through at least 2060.

Time is growing short for Metro to prepare a push for legislation in the 2017 Legislature, which will convene on Feb. 1.

“We’re beginning to knock against the time where we have to decide what we’re going to carry forward to the 2017 Legislature,” Hughes said.

Ultimately, the Metro Council will decide what to lobby for in the Legislature.

Hughes said regardless of what Metro decides this fall, the agency will go forward with the scheduled UGB review in 2018.

Task force members are also aware that whatever they come up with must be palatable to the Oregon communities far removed from the Portland-metro area.

Forest Grove Mayor Pete Truax put it this way: “What works for Metro has to work for Bend, and for Astoria and for East Jesus, Oregon.”

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Multifamily units account for more than half of Wilsonville’s existing housing stock – including senior housing, according to city Planning Director Chris Neamtzu.

But change is coming to the Portland suburb.

The build-out of Villebois, 2,600 homes on 500 acres west of Interstate 5, is about 60 percent complete, Neamtzu said. Next, Wilsonville is planning for construction of 610 market-rate, single-family homes on the 173-acre western portion of an area named Frog Pond. No apartments are planned.

“This neighborhood is going to help us provide some balance in our housing portfolio,” Neamtzu said.

The city of Wilsonville is at work on a master planning process for Frog Pond, north of City Hall. City officials are moving forward, and the project is on track to be ready for developer proposals next year, Neamtzu said.

The Planning Commission will hold work sessions on Frog Pond in October and November, with a public hearing tentatively planned for December. The City Council would then consider the master plan in January.

Lots in Frog Pond’s western portion will vary in size from 5,000 square feet to more than 10,000 square feet. If the eastern and southern portions were pulled inside the urban growth boundary, the anticipated build-out would have 1,935 homes.

Frog Pond will offer “a lot of opportunity for some nice, high-end homes,” Neamtzu said.

A commercial center is also envisioned. An analysis found that the area could support 38,000 square feet of commercial development.

All of the residential construction in Wilsonville is following substantial commercial and civic projects. Wilsonville Old Town Square, developed by Gramor Development along with Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., which later acquired the property, is anchored by a 145,000-square-foot Fred Meyer store, with an additional 50,000 square feet of other retail space. McMenamins opened a pub in a former church dating back to 1911.

In 2006, Wilsonville built a 30,000-square-foot City Hall. The $11.5 million project was developed by Specht Development.

Schools are going up too. Construction has started on a new middle school, Meridian Creek, on the northeastern edge of town. It will be the city’s third middle school. Wilsonville didn’t have its own high school until 1995. A school site has also been identified as part of Frog Pond.

At Frog Pond, developers are beginning to investigate the possibilities ahead of proposals next year.

“There’s great potential,” said Don Hanson, director of planning, architecture and design at Portland-based Otak. “It’s not constrained. It’s fairly level land. Obviously, it’s well located, close to the downtown core and to schools. People can walk. And Wilsonville is always good to work with.”

Hanson said he was looking into Frog Pond for Arbor Custom Homes, a Beaverton-based developer.

Wilsonville, population 22,729, sits at the southern edge of the metro area’s urban growth boundary. The city has seen 16.5 percent population growth since 2010, according to Census Bureau data.

Frog Pond is coming on the heels of Villebois. Last year, Wilsonville gained upwards of 350 new homes – a record, Neamtzu said.

“It ebbs and flows, but Wilsonville has a long legacy of relatively consistent growth,” he said.

Villebois has a range of homes with current prices of $256,990 to $659,900. Developers including Polygon, West Hills/Arbor Custom Homes and Lennar Corp. have been building there.

Polygon managers were out of the office and could not be reached for comment. Efforts to reach a Lennar Corp. spokesman were not successful.

Construction at Villebois has slowed as developers pursue higher-end homes, Neamtzu said.

���� Villebois, the homes that are being built are at a higher price point; I’m sensing less velocity because of that,” he said. “We’ve moved into new areas where the homes are upwards of $600,000, and the market is not deep at that price point.”

Meanwhile, as plans for Frog Pond advance, planners are grappling with how to structure infrastructure charges.

“That’s always the hardest part of these master-planned communities,” Neamtzu said. “How do you pay for the infrastructure that’s needed to serve the new urban area?”

Frog Pond was once literally that – a wetland known for its croaking frogs. A grange hall and later a road, Southwest Frog Pond Lane, cemented the name.

While city officials say Frog Pond development is needed, not everyone in the suburban community is thrilled.

Under current plans, a road would impact the property of Don and Debra Ross. The Rosses moved to Wilsonville from Medford in 2012 after eminent domain was exercised to extend Crater Lake Highway (Oregon Route 62) through their property.

At their Wilsonville property, the Rosses entertain their grandkids and raise cattle and chickens. Debra’s elderly mother lives with them.

“I don’t really want to move,” Debra Ross said. “This is déjà vu.”

Wilsonville grapples with UGB

The fate of Frog Pond’s remaining tracts will depend on how Metro handles the southern fringe of the Portland area’s urban growth boundary.

Frog Pond is divided by the metro-area’s UGB. The western portion is in; the east and south are out.

Wilsonville officials are planning for development of west Frog Pond while pushing for the two remaining tracts to be included in the UGB when Metro reconsiders it in 2018.

Wilsonville officials have tried during the past two UGB cycles to persuade Metro, the regional planning agency, to include all of Frog Pond within the UGB. Both times, in 2010 and 2015, Metro rejected the efforts. Officials have cited undeveloped land within the UGB as well as a checkered history of development in areas brought within the UGB.

The western portion of Frog Pond was added in 2002. Wilsonville and Metro continue to discuss the other tracts.

“It’s really important to have the larger geography and be able to rely on more dwelling units being constructed to help offset the costs,” Planning Director Chris Neamtzu said.

Metro is pursuing another solution: asking the Oregon Legislature for new authority to consider exceptions to UGBs outside the usual review cycles. The goal, agency spokesman Jim Middaugh said, is to give Metro a tool to consider “small, strategic exceptions.”

A Metro task force is considering recommendations for the Metro Council to review.

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For the first time, the metro area’s urban growth boundary will not move outward, following a unanimous vote by Metro councilors on Thursday. They took several factors into account when making the decision to keep in place the boundary that separates farmland from land available for urban development.

The council felt that despite previous UGB expansions, most development was happening in the same sections of the metro area.

“Our challenges in the Portland-metro area aren’t about land supply,” said Jim Middaugh, Metro’s communications director. “They’re about land readiness.”

The decision also took into account the state’s history, including preservation of as much farmland as possible.

���� Oregon we have a long tradition of trying to protect the land that nurtures us,” Middaugh said. “The decision that the Metro Council made reflects that heritage and tradition in Oregon.”

By law, the Metro Council has to assure that enough land is available to provide for 20 years of growth population. The council is required to look into that every six years. With understanding that the recession has significantly affected development plans, the council made a commitment to review the situation again in three years.

“We’re coming out of a recession and we’ve seen such a boom in the multifamily market in the Portland region,” Middaugh said. “We don’t know whether that’s going to continue or not, whether that’s the result of a hangover from the recession or not.”

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