Regional leaders gave a conditional thumbs-up Wednesday to an industrial land replenishment concept, agreeing Metro should further flesh out some details of a key part of this year's Community Investment Strategy proposal.
The Metro Policy Advisory Committee, a group of 30 elected officials, special district board members and citizen representatives, generally agreed with the idea of ensuring the region has a rolling stock of industrial sites ready for development. But committee members also had suggestions for Metro staff as it further refines the replenishment concept.
In concept, Metro would annually review the inventory of available large-lot industrial sites region-wide. Sites would be ranked in two tiers – Tier One development-ready sites, and Tier Two opportunity sites, which could move up to Tier One with some additional investment.
If a large-lot industrial site became unavailable to prospective employers, Metro would first see if another similar industrial site had become available in the region. If not, the Metro Council could fast-track an urban growth boundary expansion to make up for the lost industrial lands inventory.
There were other ideas, and concerns, about the concept at Wednesday's meeting.
Gresham City Councilor Shirley Craddick, who is running unopposed in Tuesday's election for the Metro Council seat being vacated by the term-limited Rod Park, suggested that sites should be more specifically identified based on their characteristics, such as access to a rail line, water or even sub-regionally.
If land is sold in one part of the region, she said, "it's important to find land in the same part of the region to replace that."
Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey called that a great idea. But he also expressed concerns about whether a replenishment process would be as easy as the proposal would indicate. Willey presented a scenario where a lot was purchased, and a year later, a new lot was brought into the urban growth boundary.
"Then we have an appeal process because we know everything we do in land use is getting appealed," Willey said. "Now we're four years out. So our replenishment system, even as optimistic as we all are, we put these caveats into it as to what makes it work. I still have some concerns that even in the best case scenario, we're multiple years out before we really have that land available for market."
Portland Mayor Sam Adams also had suggestions, first pressing for a funding mechanism to help Tier Two sites elevate to Tier One. He also pressed for more input from industrial brokers in identifying what sites in the region could qualify for either tier right now.
Residential target identified
The committee was also asked its opinion of how many new housing units the region should decide it needs in the current urban growth boundary review. Metro offered the committee – and will later offer the Metro Council – a broad range of guesses on how many new condominiums, apartments and homes the region will need in the next 20 years.
The low end of that range is 27,400 housing units, and the high end is 79,300 housing units. Because of changes in cities' development plans, about 32,000 potential new housing units have already been identified region-wide, meaning the region could conceivably not expand the urban growth boundary.
Still, the committee seemed to lean towards some form of expansion. Metro staff has suggested policymakers target the middle third part of that range, and decide the region needs between 47,100 and 59,100 new houses in the next 20 years.
Washington County Commissioner Andy Duyck agreed.
"Our best guess is that middle third, and unless you've got a crystal ball that says otherwise, I don't see any reason to be off of it," Duyck said.
Lake Oswego Mayor Jack Hoffman said he wanted to see the private market respond to a tighter urban growth boundary.
"I think you'll see more innovative and creative housing," he said. "I'm comfortable with the low end of the middle third."
The committee voted 13-4 to recommend the Metro Council target, at minimum, the low end of the middle third and decide the region needs just more than 47,000 new housing units by 2030. That expansion would require the region to add roughly 15,000 new housing units through an urban growth boundary expansion.
Dissenting were Adams, Willey, Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz and Clackamas County Commissioner Bob Austin.
After that vote to decide to go at least the bottom end of the middle third, committee members indicated what they were more comfortable with Metro targeting as its housing need for the coming decades. Six committee members said they wanted to see the agency say the region needs less than 47,000 housing units, below that low end of the middle third.
That group of six did not include Willey, one of the four votes against going to at least the low end of the middle third.