Archived News
Metro, counties will get to set growth areas
Land use
The hard part will be choosing which land will have houses and which will stay rural
Friday, January 25, 2008
ERIC MORTENSON
The Oregonian
The state Land Conservation and Development Commission approved rules Thursday that allow Metro and three counties to determine which land is developed and which is farmed for the next 40 to 50 years.
The new system of designating urban and rural reserves could replace the current system of expanding the urban growth boundary every few years.
Farmers strongly supported creation of rural reserves, saying agriculture needs the certainty of a stable land base as Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties grow. Builders also backed it.
The commission, meeting in Gresham on Wednesday and Thursday, approved the concept by a 6-0 vote.
Now comes the hard part: choosing which land will be which.
Metro will establish the urban reserves, and the counties will designate the rural reserves. The designations have to be simultaneous, and everyone has to agree.
"What's worked in the past isn't working today," said Jim McCauley, a spokesman for the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Portland. "This will be critically important for this thing to work in the future."
The stakes are high for both groups.
The metro area is projected to grow by 1 million people during the next 30 years. They'll need homes, jobs, shopping, transportation systems and other infrastructure.
At the same time, Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties retain surprisingly strong agricultural roots. The three urban counties accounted for 17 percent of the state's agricultural production value in 2005 -- about $714 million.
Clackamas County ranks second and Washington County third in farm production among the state's 36 counties. Multnomah County, the state's smallest and home to Portland, ranks 14th.
Metro now is required to revise its urban growth boundary every five years and to maintain a 20-year supply of buildable land for housing, industry and commerce. Caught in a cycle of required boundary adjustments and a land inventory, there's been little chance for long-term planning, critics said.
"The current planning process has resulted in a rolling urban growth boundary that is detrimental to agriculture," said Laura Masterson of the Portland Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition. The group represents more than 40 metro-area farms that sell food locally.
Maintaining a sufficient agricultural land base to grow food "makes an invaluable contribution to the safety, security and livability of the region that no other industry does," she said.
Barry Bushue, a Gresham berry and nursery plant grower who is president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, noted how farmland and infrastructure have been lost to development.
"We sit blocks from what used to be the nation's largest processor of fruit and vegetables," Bushue said during the hearing at Gresham City Hall. "It's now covered by a TriMet station and a car park."
Eric Mortenson; 503-294-7636; ericmortenson@news.oregonian.com For environment news, go to http://blog.oregonlive.com/pdxgreen
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