HILLSBORO – So much for apathy toward a relatively tame capacity ordinance.
About 60 people came to a 3 ½ hour hearing Thursday night, more than two dozen of whom took the opportunity to tell the Metro Council how they feel about urban growth, urban planning and the future of employment growth in the Portland region.
And as much as Council President Carlotta Collette reminded people that most of the focus of Thursday’s testimony wouldn’t be on the council’s docket for months, speakers concentrated on one primary topic – how Metro manages the urban edge.
In one camp were business interests, chambers of commerce and Washington County cities, asking for Metro to err on the side of growth as they tried to attract large employers to the Tualatin Valley. They were followed by grassroots preservationists, fresh off a moral victory in shooting down a controversial urban reserve designation near Cornelius.
“We’re volunteers. We don’t get paid to do this. Sometimes I wonder why we do this,” said Dave Vanasche, a member of the Washington County Farm Bureau. “Farmers need more land. We don’t have a 20-year farmable supply.”
Vanasche walked the council through vacant parcels within the urban growth boundary across the Tualatin Valley, and highlighted industrial sites for sale or lease. His point was that the council should think twice before adding large industrial sites to the boundary, as Metro staff has recommended.
The council won’t be voting on the industrial expansion until spring at the earliest.
Of course, showing off parcels within the boundary that are still being farmed runs contrary to the arguments the Farm Bureau has been making for the last three years, as they insinuated that an urban reserve designation on farmland would be a death knell for farmers.
Farm Bureau member Larry Duyck, known for rhetorically asking elected boards to convert residential land back to farmland, acknowledged the apparent contradiction in his presentation. But, he said, while farming may continue on fields in the urban growth boundary, investment in farming infrastructure stops on those parcels.
Former Washington County Chair Linda Peters discounted arguments that land was needed for jobs, saying the claims have had the “same air of conviction, confidence, expertise and urgency” for decades.
“‘If we don’t add more land, we lose something very important around here.’ Sometimes it’s jobs, sometimes it’s other things,” she said of the arguments in favor of boundary expansion. “I would be much more persuaded by all of that if I didn’t have the perspective I now have.”
Another speaker, John Weigant, said people will naturally move to the most attractive place, which artificially bumps the Portland region’s unemployment rate, since it is the most attractive place.
“Many people will come here even when jobs aren’t available because of our attractiveness,” he said, explaining this would cause a spiral of job growth and immigration. “Let’s be conservative on our growth plans. Stay on the right track, you’re doing a good job, and please be conservative in your expansions. You can’t create the growth these people want you to create.”
Hillsboro activist Tom Black followed Weigant.
“When I came here, I was transformed,” he said. “People do move here regardless of jobs. We live in a sacred place. Once we build over it, we don’t have it to regain it today.”
Earlier in the evening, Hillsboro-area elected officials and business leaders implored the council to support industrial expansion, even though the council won’t be reviewing the boundary this year.
“The employment land, we believe, is critical,” said Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey. “We must have that land in order to maintain our competitive edge.”
Representatives from the Greater Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce, Intel, Portland Business Alliance and the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties also spoke in favor of a more broad industrial expansion.
Westside Economic Alliance Executive Director Jonathan Schlueter was one of the few speakers to talk directly about something actually in this year’s capacity ordinance – designation of regionally significant employment lands across Metro’s three-county area. He questioned the likelihood of some of those zones, including West Hayden Island and areas near Portland Airport like Cascade Station, ever becoming industrial sites.
“We have to do a better job of putting people to work,” Schlueter said. “This is an opportunity to capture the jobs and growth of our region over the next 20 years.”
The council will hold two more hearings, 5 p.m. Dec. 9 and 2 p.m. 16, both at the Metro Regional Center.