A so-called "grand bargain" on land use at the 2014 Legislature would be a long-term boon for the Portland region, one of its advocates said Friday.
Meanwhile, some of the beneficiaries of the bargain had varied reactions to it on Friday, mostly with some shade of neutrality.
Rep. Ben Unger, D-Hillsboro, is one of the three main proponents of the bargain, along with Reps. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and Rep. John Davis, R-Wilsonville. In an interview Friday afternoon, Unger said the bargain would designate land north of U.S. 26 near Brookwood Parkway as a rural reserve – protected from development for the next 50 years.
In exchange, it would declare final a 2011 Metro UGB decision to add land south of Hillsboro for residential development. The bargain, Unger said, would not add any new urban reserves to the area around Hillsboro to make up for the area that would be barred from development.
"It's worth trading the protection of farmland for a while, and in my opinion, it protects the two economic strengths of the region – it allows us to have land certain for developers but also provides us with the agricultural, tourism and quality of life issues that also help promote a vibrant economy in our area. It's a very Washington County solution to a real Washington County problem."
The proposal was blasted Thursday by Metro Council President Tom Hughes, who spent hours in meetings with legislators and said he thought the push was coming from five groups: Save Helvetia, 1000 Friends of Oregon, some Washington County farmers, homebuilders and the developers of South Hillsboro.
In an interview Friday, Save Helvetia advocate Cherry Amabisca said her group has not been consulted on the bargain. Until they see something in writing, she said, they are remaining neutral on the prospect of a deal.
Save Helvetia argued throughout the years-long reserves designation process that land north of U.S. 26 should be kept as a rural reserve, locking in farming for the next half century and prohibiting development.
"We're waiting to see what is unfolding in a more definite form," Amabisca said. "There's all kinds of innuendo, all kinds of things that we're hearing and since we're not at the table, whatever table that is, we have not been involved in the discussions."
Similarly, Mary Kyle McCurdy, an attorney for 1000 Friends, was coy in an interview Friday afternoon.
"We're not part of it, it's not our deal," McCurdy said. "We don't even know what it is, except what I've been reading. Despite comments by some, we haven't been part of any negotiation."
The region's designation of urban and rural reserves has been under review by the Oregon Court of Appeals for more than a year. Until the court makes its ruling on the case – which one court representative called the most complex in the court's history – it won't review Metro's 2011 UGB expansion and the state's approval of it.
Unger said the Portland region got the reserves designation 99 percent of the way to the finish line. "But we're stuck, and in fact the stuck-ed-ness is undermining all of that great work," Unger said. "If we can just get that last 1 percent unstuck, we can make this process work the first time and for a long time to come."
He dismissed Metro's argument that the Legislature shouldn't usurp local planning authority.
"We haven't had the chance to super protect some places that I think should be super protected," Unger said, referring to the land north of U.S. 26.
Unless the grand bargain passes, dirt can't turn at South Hillsboro, a planned development south of Tualatin Valley Highway and Cornelius Pass Road, until the conclusion of all legal challenges to the UGB expansion there.
Jeff Bachrach, an attorney working for the Newland Companies, one of the project's developers, said his group isn't part of a "grand bargain," and were never involved in it. He said they would never support such a plan unless Hillsboro supported it.
"Newland has not been part of any negotiations or discussions – back room or any other kind – having anything to do with the so-called grand bargain," Bachrach said in an email Friday morning. "Newland supported the first version of H.B. 4078 that simply provided for the validation of Metro's 2011 UGB decision. As I testified before Rep. (Brian) Clem's committee last week, Newland does not and has not supported any amendments to H.B. 4078. It has no interest in or position regarding anything to do with changing reserve designations. "'
A call to a Hillsboro city spokesman was not immediately returned.
Hughes blasts proposal to have Legislature intervene, cut urban reserves (Feb. 13, 2014)