Questions about growth models, industrial capacity and traffic impacts might sound like the topic of a staff meeting among urban planners.
But all were part of a discussion Thursday night among Washington County residents and Metro councilors and staff at an open house in Hillsboro.
The open house didn't just have poster boards and hand-outs. Visitors were encouraged to participate in a question-and-answer session with Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, acting planning director John Williams and planner Tim O'Brien.
The forum was part of the lead-up to a vote on whether, and how, to adjust the Portland region's urban growth boundary. That vote is scheduled for this autumn.
Metro staff has recommended that the council expand the boundary both south and north of Hillsboro; the latter for industrial growth, with South Hillsboro planned as a residential community.
John Tyner, one of about 50 people to attend the open house and forum, had questions about the modeling Metro uses to make its growth projections.
"There's been a lot of talk about climate refugees," Tyner said. "Did you factor that into your estimates? I realize it'd be hard to do… but I've heard some Sunbelt states are doing some calculations on net loss."
Williams said the growth projections don't necessarily take that into account, but Metro councilors can.
"We haven't pinned a number on it," he said. But with staff giving the councilors a growth projection range, councilors could use the high-end guess to account for the possibility of climate change.
"Policymakers could say there are going to be more people moving in the 20-year time frame, and that might be a reason we look at a higher point in the forecast range," Williams said.
Aloha resident Rex Nere had questions about the impacts a South Hillsboro expansion would have on developed communities around the area.
"There's big transportation issues there," Nere said, wondering if the council should wait to bring South Hillsboro into the boundary until transportation studies are complete.
"It will take a while for things to happen," O'Brien said. "The timing's tough on these things, and you can't always wait."
Williams added that while studies are continuing on South Hillsboro and the surrounding areas, that proposed development has undergone more rigorous planning than many other parts of the region.
"What we know about South Hillsboro is the readiness there is head and shoulders above what we know about the other areas," Williams said.
But Nere disagreed, saying that the planning had stopped at 209th Avenue.
"It's going to affect streets like Blanton and Kinnaman without making future plans to widen those or correct them," he said. "It destroys the community outside the planned area."
Joe Rayhawk, a Washington County resident who is frequently involved in urban growth issues, asked whether South Hillsboro might just create more traffic problems for people commuting to Portland if more jobs don't come to Hillsboro.
The only way South Hillsboro makes sense, Rayhawk said, is "if we get a good set of jobs in the Evergreen area around the Intel site. If we build South Hillsboro and we don't get those jobs, those people will commute to Portland because that's where the jobs are," he said.
O'Brien said Hillsboro was confident it could attract new jobs to the area.
"They have been pretty successful with attracting employers here," he said.
Rayhawk also asked if Metro could just punt on this year's urban growth boundary decision because of the ongoing economic malaise.
"Can the council just say, because of the economic emergency, we won't decide right now?"
Yes, O'Brien said, if the council decides to go to the low end of the forecast range. In that case, they could say there's enough capacity in the region that a urban growth boundary expansion isn't necessary at this time.
The comments at the forum weren't submitted for the record; the Metro Council will take written comments into October for its formal deliberations on the boundary. The vote on the urban growth boundary is expected on Oct. 20, following public hearings Oct. 6 and 20.