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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Nearly two and a half years after fire damaged portions of Woodburn High School, the Woodburn School District has reached a settlement with its insurance company that will allow it to move forward with reconstruction plans.

The district will receive a total of $9.7 million from its insurance company, Property and Casualty Coverage for Education, for damage to the school that resulted from a four-alarm fire set by three students in May 2012. With an eye toward possibly starting construction next year, the district expects to issue a request for proposals for design services “within the next few months,” Chuck Ransom, district superintendent, said.

The district originally planned to have construction on some of the school’s damaged portions begin just a few months after the fire. The Portland office of the architectural firm now known as DOWA-IBI Group and Portland-based engineering firm Nishkian Dean were hired to work on preliminary plans for the project.

But the claims process became tangled – and all work being done on the project stopped – when the district’s $11.8 million estimate turned out to be more than PACE thought it was obligated to cover.

The insurance company agreed to pay $7.1 million in damages for reconstruction. But it balked at reimbursing the district for incidental costs, including rentals of trailers used as portable classrooms since the fire and $1.5 million to install a sprinkler system in the school.

“There was some controversy over (the sprinklers) soon after the designs started coming in for the rebuild back in 2012,” Ransom said. “Initially the city said rebuilding would require sprinklers. That was disputed by the insurer, and that took a long time to resolve.”

Eventually, the issue ended up at the state level. The state sided with PACE, determining that the damaged portion of the school could be rebuilt without sprinklers by keeping the design true to original plans.

Like many of the district schools, Woodburn High School was designed in the 1970s at a time when sprinklers weren’t required in schools. That law has changed, though, as has the way that schools use space to best serve students. Rebuilding the high school following a design that was roughly four decades old wasn’t feasible for the district, nor was creating a school without sprinklers.

The district could have pressed the sprinkler issue in court, Ransom said. But that would have required starting construction without any money in hand.

“In a lawsuit, you have to go after costs actually incurred, versus having money in hand (through a settlement),” he said.

In the end, the district and PACE spent two months in mediation, finally agreeing that the district should receive $2.6 million in addition to the money it already had received.

“One of the advantages … with the settlement is that it allows us to … proceed with construction of the building,” Ransom said. “We intend to sprinkle the building; it’s the right thing to do for the community and for kids. And, it allows us some flexibility with what we can do with the design.”

The district will begin holding community sessions to brainstorm what a rebuild of the damaged portion of the school might look like. In addition, there’s a good chance it will place a bond measure on the ballot next May to try to drum up money for school expansions and improvements that would include a sprinkler system.

District officials are hoping to receive enough RFP responses to allow them to select a design firm for the high school project as well as build a pool of qualified firms to handle future work for the district, Ransom said.

“It’s not that unusual for a district to have a pool of two or three architects,” he said. “I’m not saying we wouldn’t use DOWA (for the high school project), but we would like to expand the pool.”

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The Association Building in downtown Woodburn has sat vacant for more than two decades, but the city’s urban renewal agency believes it can catalyze revitalization in the area.

On the heels of a feasibility study determining potential uses for the 10,000-square-foot building, the city has issued a request for proposals from developers. The building sits on North Front Street between a central plaza and a main commercial street, and hasn’t been occupied since the Scotts Mills earthquake in 1993. Roughly $850,000 has since been spent on stabilization and exterior improvements, Woodburn urban renewal manager Robyn Stowers said.

“This space is in the general heart of the community,” she said. “The urban renewal agency is offering incentives, including the possible donation of the property – with the addition of grants and loans – to redevelop the building.”

The feasibility study this past fall and winter found that the three most acceptable uses for the building would be as a brewpub, a community center or a business incubator. Other uses are possible, Stowers said.

Local nonprofits, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the YMCA have expressed interest, but no proposals have been submitted, she said.

The city will give a formal tour of the building July 9 from 1-4 p.m., but private tours also are available.

Proposals are due Aug. 20. For more information, call 503-980-2485 or visit .

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So, what about the rest of us?

The Oregon Legislature’s “grand bargain” was a boon to the city of Hillsboro and adjoining Washington County jurisdictions. It was a necessary response to an Oregon Court of Appeals decision that put the Metro area’s entire regional planning process in limbo.

I agree with recent commentary written by attorney Jeff Bachrach that the Oregon land use system is broken, and can say so from a dual perspective. As mayor of the city of Woodburn, which in 1997 began “periodic review” for a period ending in 2020 – with no final decision in sight – I can speak to the extensive, expensive and convoluted process involved in attempting to expand an urban growth boundary. I also served as the Neighboring Cities representative on Metro’s advisory committee during its urban and rural reserves designation process. So far, these are two very similar stories with very different endings.

Washington County has a praiseworthy track record of job creation and business development – even more praiseworthy when compared with the rest of our state. The availability of industrial land is by no means the only reason for their success, but without it their continued success would be stifled. The Legislature, the governor’s office and other interested parties were able to recognize the public interest in allowing them to add quality employment land in locations that make sense.

So, what about McMinnville, Springfield, Bend, Newberg, Keizer and yes, Woodburn? We may or may not aspire to be Hillsboro. We do aspire to provide quality jobs for our residents and our neighbors and develop a solid tax base and contribute to a vigorous regional economy. We are all handcuffed by the inability to add quality employment land in locations that actual employers want. As Mr. Bachrach suggests, some of us may be at the next session of the Legislature pleading for our own miniature “grand bargains.” But, individually, we don’t have the financial and political horsepower of Metro.

So, what changes would help every city in Oregon that would like to add industrial land? First, remove the supremacy of soil type as the determinant of where growth can or can’t occur. Willamette Valley cities, in particular, could then evaluate sites with reference to adjoining uses and ease of expansion. It’s ironic that many expansion proposals would be smaller if cities could use common-sense planning without adding sites with lower soil classifications to comply with existing requirements.

Second, identify the needs of actual industries and provide for automatic or expedited approval of sites that meet these criteria. Industrial users want flat sites, decent public infrastructure, proximity to freight providers and a trained or trainable workforce. Interest wanes quickly as distance from an interchange or airport increases, or as construction costs increase. Desirable sites should be made available in time to respond to economic opportunities. Ones that are less so but might be 20 or 50 years from now can wait.

Third, the criteria that local governments must use in the process should be clear enough to actually follow. And they should be spared second-guessing by the court system when they do follow them. If Washington County was required to use Department of Agriculture criteria only in evaluating agricultural uses, why wasn’t that the rule from the beginning? If Woodburn was required to use one form of economic analysis in evaluating land needs and no other, why wasn’t that in the rules?

Finally and fundamentally, respect the process or don’t have it. A UGB expansion proposal such as Woodburn’s involves thousands of hours of work by staffers and volunteers as components are analyzed. A final proposal is reviewed and approved by a planning commission, a city council and a county commission before it even reaches the Land Conservation and Development Commission. Metro’s proposal went through yet another layer or two of local government and public involvement.

Are city and county governments entitled to make the decisions they were elected to make? Does the LCDC have the right to exercise its statutory authority without endless second-guessing by interest groups or the Court of Appeals? Or, if we’re not Hillsboro, should we not waste our time trying to grow our local and state economy?

Kathy Figley is Woodburn’s mayor. Contact her at 503-982-5228 or kathryn.figley@ci.woodburn.or.us.

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In Woodburn, a 10-foot concrete wall separates a new farmworker housing project from the adjoining neighborhood.

Emily Breidenbach, project manager for , envisioned a vinyl fence no more than perhaps 6 feet tall that would preserve trees and let flowers be planted.

No thanks, neighbors said. They want the concrete wall.

FHDC’s leaders asked for a variance, but it was denied this month by the Woodburn Planning Commission.

“I really trust our city’s decision,” Woodburn resident Deborah Higginbotham said. “I know when they proposed it years ago, (people at) the city council meetings weren’t happy about increased traffic.”

There might have been other concerns.

Higginbotham’s neighbor Gary Kosikowski said Woodburn has too many migrant farmworkers who don’t contribute to the local tax base.

“It’s transient housing,” he said. “These people are not staying. They’re not buying houses. However, we still have to educate them.”

But Breidenbach said annual turnover for FHDC apartments is less than 2 percent.

“When families move in, they don’t move out,” she said.

Residents are generally not migratory workers, she added. They are settled in the community. At least one member of the household must have a full-time job and taxable income, she said.

Farmworker housing is a necessity in an area with an economy dependent on labor-intensive crops, Breidenbach said.

“If we didn’t have affordable housing, we’d be paying $5 for tomatoes,” she said.

Kosikowski said his problem is not with FHDC specifically.

“They seem to be doing it right,” he said. “It’s an incredibly clean site and very well maintained.”

His problem is with Woodburn’s large migrant population in general.

“You’re not going to build a tax base by building more migrant housing,” he said. “These people are not becoming American citizens. They’re not speaking English because they don’t have to speak English.”

Whichever sentiments may be in play, Woodburn building codes require a concrete wall to minimize construction noise when a building project abuts a residential neighborhood, said Jim Hendryx, Woodburn’s economic and development services director.

Aside from the wall issue, Hendryx said he hasn’t heard any negative reaction from the community about 90 additional units of farmworker housing going in near Oregon Route 214.

The FHDC started its effort amid controversy in 1990. The site was originally slated for development as Grace Village, a high-end retirement community. Through a series of financial mishaps, that project fell through.

Local organizations that serve the Hispanic community – including , and farmworkers union (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste – or Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United) – rallied around the idea of creating affordable farmworker housing.

“We were treating farmworkers and their families for all sorts of health issues at the clinic, but were not able to reach what was often the core of the problem – the wretched conditions in which they were forced to live,” said Jose Alberto Nunez, the executive director of Salud Medical Center at the time.

“To really address health, we had to address housing,” he said.

Nunez, drawing on his experience as a banker, helped secure financing for the new corporation’s first housing project. Nuevo Amanecer took in 50 farmworker families in 1994. There was some opposition from the town’s Anglo residents, especially those in the upscale Tukwila subdivision.

“A lot of people didn’t want to see Hispanic farmworkers and their families in such a prominent location in the community,” Nunez said. “Those same neighbors wanted a fence when we started the project.”

Kosikowski says he welcomes the Hispanic culture in Woodburn, adding he would like to see a Hispanic Cultural Center at Chemeketa Community College. Yet he said Woodburn’s Hispanic residents need to do more to contribute to local politics.

“If you are Hispanic and you happened to have been born here, you need to step up,” he said.

Woodburn resident Kay McEwen was born in Louisiana but grew up in Woodburn while it was still a predominantly Anglo community.

“It feels odd to re-experience what feels like segregation or barrios to me,” she said in an email. “Perhaps it doesn’t feel that way to the Hispanic population, since in Mexico they’re so homogeneous. Everybody speaks Spanish.”

This is no longer the town she knew as a child, McEwen said.

“It has been taken over by adverse possession,” she said in reference to a real estate principle where property is transferred by unorthodox means such as occupation.

“Times change,” Nunez said. “The Hispanics who originally settled Los Angeles probably didn’t like it when their city went through certain cultural changes.”

Ground was broken in June on this latest housing, with completion scheduled for next spring. Nunez is pleased with how the dream of affordable farmworker housing has become a reality.

“Sad to say we have not changed the world, but it’s good to know we helped a little bit,” he said. “The farmworkers who live and work in Woodburn are human beings, not farm implements. These housing projects have affirmed their most basic human right – to be regarded as people who deserve clean, decent, affordable housing.”

Editor’s note: While working as the editor of the Woodburn Independent in 1990, Tom Henderson served on the board of directors of Salud Medical Center and voted in favor of the clinic’s initial partnership in the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation.

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Six months have passed since an arson fire destroyed portions of Woodburn High School.

“The reconstruction process is moving right along,” said Patricia Ramirez, director of human resources and operations for Woodburn School District.

However, the building has not received any work. A start date has not been set. A contractor for the project has not even been hired.

Dave Vancil, the vice chairman of the Woodburn School Board, said his best estimate is that work could begin in March or April 2013. However, he stressed that it is an estimate – and a fairly optimistic one.

“We didn’t initially have a public adjuster looking at the building, so when the insurance company came back with its first estimates in July or August, its figures seemed way off,” Vancil said.

District officials brought in a public adjuster, an agent licensed by the state of Oregon to provide an independent assessment of damages in insurance claims involving public entities. The public adjuster discovered that the building needs an additional $300,000 of resealing as well as a number of other environmental and structural upgrades.

Vancil said board members are still digesting the 100-page report the public adjuster submitted to them last week.

“It’s a huge claim north of $8 million,” he said. “Just how far north, we do not know. It all boils down to the insurance issues.”

Three teenagers were held responsible for the fire set on May 11, 2012. They were ordered last Aug. 27 to pay restitution, serve probation and write letters apologizing to the community for the damage (originally estimated at $6 million). The teenager who set the fire also served four days in jail.

The fire started when teenagers ignited hand sanitizer on a desktop in the computer room to mimic a prank they saw on YouTube. The fire spread quickly after the teenagers tried to put it out with paper towels.

More than 60 firefighters from Woodburn, Silverton, Aurora, Canby, Tualatin, Mount Angel, Salem, Marion County and other districts hours worked to get the fire under control, but parts of the building were left uninhabitable.

The teen who started the fire said at his sentencing in August, “I’m very sorry, and I wish none of this had ever happened.”

The school’s 1,556 students were scattered to undamaged sections. District officials wanted to move students to modular units to make way for construction crews. That represents another delay in the construction project, Vancil said. The district’s insurance company did not want students to relocate to modulars.

Vancil said district officials won that argument; students will move into the modular classrooms next week.

District officials looked into possibly moving students into other buildings in the community, delaying the school year or moving to split shifts. In the end, they decided the best option was to use the space available and huddle students together in the school’s habitable portions.

The whole process has been irritating, school board member Jody Daniels said – not only for district officials and board members, but also for parents, students and the community as a whole.

“It’s been a struggle to decide what needs to be done in terms of mitigation,” Daniels said. “It’s been a frustrating process, but we might as well get it right.”

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It looks like an open-air market, except that desks, computers, telephones and filing cabinets sit where fruits and vegetables would otherwise.

James Frackowiak operates insurance offices out of the old mechanic’s garage in downtown Woodburn. The door is wide open as Frackowiak and staffers go about the business of Plan-It Financial as if they were holding a garage sale.

Frackowiak said he is doing it for love. He is in love with the Old Woodburn City Hall and the gas station next door. He bought both of them this summer and plans to fix them up for a cost ranging “somewhere between a little and a lot.”

He would rather not state an estimate until the project progresses further, he said. He acknowledged that it will be a challenge because the buildings are old and in bad shape.

“In my opinion, on a scale of 1 to 10, we’re looking at a 6 or 7 (in difficulty),” he said.

The former city hall, a masonry building on the corner of First and Lincoln streets, was constructed in 1914. It has sat dormant for most of the 36 years since Woodburn’s civic center was built four blocks away on Montgomery Street.

The old building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, but little use has been made of it. A teenage garage band squatted in the jail for about a month in the 1980s. A small restaurant occupies the fire department’s old garage.

Other than that, the main building has been largely left to time and the elements. It was owned by Maximino, Romelia, Carlos and Evangelina Sanchez of Mount Angel when Frackowiak bought it, but they didn’t use it for anything but the restaurant.

“The primary goal of buying the old city hall was restoring this beautiful old building,” Frackowiak said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s in great shape.”

For all the wear and tear on the building, it withstood the Spring Break Quake of 1992 with barely a crack, even though downtown Woodburn was practically on top of the epicenter. The quake decimated the Association Building, another masonry structure, just two blocks away.

“The seismic upgrades – if any – should be minimal from what I can see,” he said.

Frackowiak plans to move his offices from the gas station to the city hall. He said the gas station, on the corner of First and Grant streets, could be used for a coffeehouse. The building was featured in a 2007 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, “The Valley of Light.”

Woodburn City Planner Jim Hendryx said he can definitely see the allure of the old buildings, especially the city hall, after walking through them.

“There are kitchen facilities upstairs,” he said. “It’s kind of cool.”

Frackowiak added that he really likes the old jail cell in the basement and plans to keep it.

“We’re going to leave the jail cell in there because it’s a great architectural feature,” he said.

“He has a very unique vision for the old jail,” Hendryx added. “He has a big bag of plans for the building in general, along the lines of a mall.”

The building is uniquely zoned so it could accommodate a mixture of commercial, office and residential uses. Frackowiak said he is looking into all of the possibilities.

Frackowiak, working with DECA Inc. in Portland, said he expects to be able to move into the building in six months.

Residents are excited.

“We are rejoicing that someone has finally purchased the old city hall,” said Woodburn resident Kay McEwen who works with the Heritage Woodburn Neighborhood Association.

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A children’s museum in Salem may use a downtown Woodburn building, left dormant since an earthquake in 1993, to establish a second location.

Directors of have started talking about the idea with city officials. But Matthew Craigie, Woodburn’s economic development manager, said more discussion is needed.

“There’s a lot of interest in doing this, but it is very much in the exploratory phase,” he said.

The two-story Association Building on Front Street in Woodburn never recovered from the “Spring Break Quake” that struck on March 25, 1993. Damage forced Salud Medical Center, the migrant farmworker clinic that occupied the building, to relocate.

The property was condemned, and city workers gutted the 10,000-square-foot building.

“The building has been stripped down to its shell,” Craigie said.

Joanna Engle, interim director of A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village, stressed that the idea of a children’s museum in Woodburn in still in its infancy.

“This is very much still in the talking phase,” she said.

The idea came from Woodburn resident Kay McEwen, who was inspired after taking her grandchildren to OMSI and Discovery Village.

“With all the talent and skills that we have in Woodburn, we could put something together like that for the schoolkids – a kinesthetic approach to science, engineering, etc.,” she said. “I’m long on ideas and short on implementation skills.”

When the idea was brought to Discovery Village, board members decided to look into it.

“It’s not like we were looking to expand,” Engle said.

Nick Harville, business retention and expansion manager of , has helped board members evaluate project feasibility and the dollar figures involved.

The figures are formidable, Craigie said. The cost to renovate the building could be upwards of $1.5 million, he said, without accounting for the museum’s specific needs.

“It’s going to take considerable effort to bring it up to snuff,” he said.

The city has owned the property since 1996. Workers installed a new facade, but officials for 16 years have struggled to figure out what to do about the building’s interior. Finding a use for it is a high priority for city councilors, Craigie said; they are considering the possibility of paying for a remodel with urban renewal money.

Meanwhile, downtown Woodburn has gone through a kind of minor renaissance. Until 2005, a parking lot on the west side of the building had a notorious reputation for gang fights, drugs and prostitution. But then the lot was transformed into a Mexican-style plaza that attracted children and families.

Craigie said it would be an ideal location for a children’s museum.

“It would be wonderful, considering how Woodburn has a lot of young families,” he said.

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village, near the banks of the Willamette River in Salem, started in 1989 with the renovation and relocation of the Victorian house that was the early childhood home of Alfred Carlton Gilbert (1884–1961). He was born in Salem and achieved fame as the inventor of the Erector Set.

The private, nonprofit museum began as the Gilbert House, but was renamed as other renovated historic Salem buildings (including the Parrish, Rockenfield and Wilson-Durbin family homes as well as the Little Gem Grocery) were added. Interactive scientific and recreational activities are geared toward children and families.

Woodburn’s population is 58 percent Hispanic. And museum officials, McEwen said, were “looking forward to a Hispanic outreach program.”

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The , a nonprofit housing organization, is preparing to build a 40-unit affordable housing project in Woodburn.

The $6.3 million project, designed by , will be an expansion of the FHDC’s 90-unit Nuevo Amanecer housing complex, which was built in 1992. Currently, 300 families are on a waiting list for the complex, according to Karen Stegemiller, project manager for Carleton Hart.

“There is a huge shortage of affordable housing for farm workers in the area,” Stegemiller said. “This will provide a release.”

Nine buildings will be built as part of the expansion, including a community building with gathering areas and a laundry room. The units will be built without carpets to avoid the spreading of pesticides the workers may face on the job, Stegemiller said.

Construction is expected to begin at the end of this month and to finish by early 2013.

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Woodburn city staffers are not the only ones disappointed that the process to expand the city’s urban growth boundary is taking so long. Officials with the state agency that approved the plan are bummed too.

Both the city and the Department of Land Conservation and Development learned this week that a group of land-use advocacy organizations would appeal the UGB expansion proposal approved in January by the Land Conservation and Development Commission. This marks the second time in the past several years that an approved Woodburn UGB expansion proposal will go before the Oregon Court of Appeals. The process will now be extended at least throughout the rest of the year.

“We believe the commission’s order on remand faithfully responded to the directions we received from the Court of Appeals (during the first appeal), and we are sorry that even more time will pass while the parties go through the Court of Appeals for a second time,” acting DLCD Director Jerry Lidz said.

Woodburn first submitted a UGB expansion plan to the LCDC in 2005 after spending years developing it as part of its state-mandated periodic review. In 2007, the LCDC approved that plan, which called for a 979-acre expansion.

The approval was soon appealed, and in September 2010 was reversed and remanded to the LCDC by the Court of Appeals. The court directed the commission to provide a better explanation of the proposed UGB expansion’s relationship to Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals Nos. 9 (economic development) and 14 (urbanization).

The DLCD then prepared a revised order and findings, which were officially approved by the LCDC on March 16. That decision was then appealed this week by 1000 Friends of Oregon, Friends of Marion County, the Marion County Farm Bureau and some area farmers. The parties call into question the justification for the plan including 409 acres of land designated for industrial employment.

“In this case, the department and commission spent considerable effort helping Woodburn assure it has the right amount of land for new jobs and new housing development,” Lidz said. “We naturally are disappointed that this matter remains unresolved for the community, nearly five years after the commission first approved the city’s growth plan.”

According to the staff attorney for 1000 Friends of Oregon, Mary Kyle McCurdy, who is representing the appealing parties, the appeal centers only on the justification for the industrial acreage. The appeal did not cite the 383.5 net acres included for residential growth or the 24 net acres included for commercial growth.

“Marion County is in the heart of Oregon agriculture, so this is an important topic to us and we are not going to take it lightly,” McCurdy said. “Looking at the evidence put in the record, we think they are putting about twice as much industrial land in the expansion than they can justify.”

Under state law, the city can expand the UGB only enough to meet needs for 20 years. The city based its proposal on a commercial and industrial lands inventory report, but it’s not the only type of report that can be used, and none are foolproof.

Woodburn Mayor Kathy Figley in the past has said that she fully understands the important role that agriculture plays in the community. However, she has noted throughout this process that additional industrial land could help provide higher paying jobs for the aging agricultural workforce that makes up a large portion of the community.

The appealing parties filed their petition for judicial review, and must file their brief – which outlines what they are appealing – before July. The LCDC and the city would then be able to file their own brief.

According to McCurdy, there is no timeframe on when the court of appeals will hear oral arguments and when it will make a decision. But she hopes it happens sooner rather than later.

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