Agreement could head off April 12 enforcement vote
Negotiators from Metro and Troutdale are close to an agreement about that city's compliance with the region's habitat conservation program, potentially heading off an April 12 showdown at the Metro Council.
The region and city have been negotiating for years in an effort to get Troutdale in compliance with Title 13 of Metro's urban growth plan, which says property owners must make up for sensitive habitat lost in development. After the Troutdale City Council shot down a proposal in late 2011, the Metro Council took the unprecedented step of moving toward sanctioning Troutdale for its failure to comply.
With the April 12 enforcement action looming, both sides say they've agreed in principle on the key issues that were previously unresolved. The agreement was first reported by The Gresham Outlook.
"After our meeting last week… we're 90 percent there," said Troutdale City Councilor Doug Daoust, one of the city's lead negotiators on the issue. He said along with two other Troutdale councilors, Metro Councilor Shirley Craddick and staffers from the city and Metro, "we came to a resolution on how we're going to rewrite our Title 13 ordinance and have it back to Metro staff by the first part of April."
Metro chief operating officer Martha Bennett said Troutdale agreed to use "clear and objective standards for mitigation" of designated habitat that is developed. Staff sources said that those standards call for a certain amount of new trees to be planted to make up for trees lost to development; the amount, set out in model standards, is based on the assumption that some of the young replacement trees will die.
Under the agreement, property owners in Troutdale who want to develop in sensitive habitat areas would still have to plant trees to make up for those lost to development, but the number of trees will be fewer than the model standards. In turn, developers will have to monitor and report on their health, the staff sources said.
Metro agreed to work with Troutdale on applying the habitat mitigation requirements in its urban renewal area, near the outlet mall south of Interstate 84, Bennett said.
"There are a few places in Portland, and a couple of other places in the region, where we've said 'Let's not just blanket apply Title 13, and when you're ready to redevelop, we'll deal with it then,'" she said.
The main sticking point was whether Title 13 would apply to city-owned lands, including park areas in sensitive habitat zones. Ultimately, Troutdale agreed to apply Title 13 to those areas.
The enforcement action is still scheduled for April 12, but could be delayed or canceled if Troutdale gets close enough to passing an ordinance adopting the agreed-upon standards.
"I don't think we were that far off to start with," Bennett said. "It may have been more of a perception than a reality. They're rightly concerned about the costs they're passing on to small landowners."
That point was underscored by Metro Councilor Shirley Craddick, who represents the Troutdale area.
"They really see themselves as a council that values the environment," Craddick said, "but they also have this strong value around personal property rights and the landowners' ability to do what they want with their property."
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