Tualatin slams Metro reserves outcome

All 3,900 acres of the Stafford area are banked for future urban growth

By Steve Law

The Times, Mar 11, 2010 (2 Reader comments)

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“Remarkable.”

“Monumental.”

“Historic.”

It’s rare for local governments in the Portland area to garner such accolades, but that’s what occurred when Metro and the three area counties reached a grand compromise Feb. 25 on what rural lands in the region are eligible for urbanization over the next half-century, and what lands must be protected.

When the Metro Council and Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas county commissioners designated 28,000 acres of urban reserves – potential additions inside the urban growth boundary – and 271,000 acres of rural reserves – farms, forests and environmentally sensitive lands off-limits to most development – it was the most far-reaching land preservation and development plan ever adopted for an American city or metro area. By any measure, it was a Herculean task.

But now, after three years of meetings and 169 chances for public comment, the whole package faces scrutiny from state land-use regulators and the Oregon Court of Appeals. And some say the whole thing might get upended.

“I do fear that the decision will not survive that process,” Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder said before voting to approve the package Feb. 25. The whole region may be in for a “hamster wheel of litigation and appeal,” said Burkholder, one of three candidates to be the next Metro Council president.

Tualatin will likely be one of the entities appealing at least part of the decision.

Tualatin not happy

The impact of the reserves process could eventually be very visible to residents of Tualatin, Lake Oswego and West Linn. All 3,900 acres of the Stafford area, now serving as a green buffer of rolling hills and forested areas between the towns, is among lands banked for future urban growth.

For now, officials are quick to note that a developed Stafford won’t become reality unless one of the three surrounding cities agrees to provide necessary services such as sewer connections, drinking water and smooth roadways.

And any attempt to bring the area into the urban growth boundary could be tied up for years in legal challenges. That’s what happened a decade ago, when cities fought Metro’s attempt to slate the area for development.

At a work session Monday, the Tualatin City Council discussed the next steps in combating the designation of the Stafford area as urban. Councilors and city staff had been vocal, along with the cities of Lake Oswego and West Linn, that they did not want to see Stafford urbanized. It happened anyway.

“On the Clackamas County side, everything we asked for, we didn’t get; and everything we didn’t ask for, we got,” said Mayor Lou Ogden.

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