Metro is closer to responding to proposed legislation that would enact the region's 2011 urban growth boundary expansion.
The Metro Council voted 7-0 Thursday to approve a set of legislative policies and principles, both of which are guidelines for how Metro lobbies Salem on potential legislation for the coming session of the Legislature.
The topics range from brownfields to clean fuels, but no topic has brought out more conversation from the Metro Council than the UGB bill.
At this morning's hearing of the Oregon House Rural Communities Committee, Rep. John Davis, R-Wilsonville, said he initially proposed a bill that would order the Oregon Court of Appeals to rule on legal challenges to Metro's 2011 boundary expansion.
Those challenges are on hold while the appeals court considers the legality of the region's landmark urban and rural reserves plan, which was finalized in early 2011. Some have guessed Metro's late 2011 UGB expansion could be tied up in the courts until 2019.
"In these areas, there are a number of education needs, housing needs and industrial needs," Davis said at this morning's hearing at the capitol. "If Metro is supposed to analyze the UGB every five years, we have a process that started in 2010, it's now January 2014, and they're supposed to make a determination in a year, when the last determination hasn't even been finalized."
According to the legislative priorities sheet passed by the Metro Council on Thursday, the regional government hopes to "Ensure that the Legislature establishes the policy framework and process for local land use decisions and supports the authority of local governments, including Metro, to make specific decisions on local land use matters. Support legislative actions to provide LUBA, LCDC and the Oregon appellate courts with sufficient guidance and resources to ensure timely processing of land use appeals."
For the principles behind those decisions, the action passed by the council says "Management of the urban growth boundary is a complex undertaking that involves extensive analysis, public input, and a balancing of many factors. Urban growth management decisions have profound impacts not just on land at the boundary, but on communities within the boundary and on farms and other rural lands outside the boundary.
"For these reasons, the Legislature should establish the process and policy framework for local land use decisions and should support the authority of local governments, including Metro, to make specific decisions on local land use matters," the principles statement says.
Neither paragraph lays out a specific response for Metro on the bill, which has yet to be formally introduced.
"We will draft up and circulate a letter expressing our support for our past UGB decision, our shared frustration with how long the process is taking, our interest in maintaining state and local decisionmaking roles as they are and our interest and support for pursuing legislative changes that could shorten the administrative and judicial timeframes for land use decisions," Metro Council President Tom Hughes said at Thursday's council meeting. "When a bill gets introduced, staff will seek out the council's position on that legislation."
It was clear in Thursday morning's hearing that conversations are ongoing in Salem on how to get the UGB out of its legal quagmire.
Rep. Brian Clem., D-Salem, chairs the House Rural Communities Committee, and said he's been talking with Richard Whitman about the situation. Whitman is Gov. John Kitzhaber's natural resources policy director and is the former head of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.
"We're trying to find some way to disentangle, if possible, without setting bad precedent," Clem said. "We'll see if we can get something in the next few weeks."
The 2014 Legislature convenes Feb. 3 and is scheduled to adjourn by March 9.
Council's voices vary on UGB bill, but some agreement about legislative principles becomes clear (Jan. 15, 2014)
Council undecided in first briefing on expected UGB legislation (Jan. 10, 2014)
State commission unanimously approves UGB expansion (June 14, 2012)